The Days and Nights of Tiny Montgomery

Tom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Coconut Soup) and Chunky Tomato Tortellini

2012-02-11T09:49:00.001-06:00

I have a hankering for the scents and flavors of Thai soup; the sweet, salty, and sour flavor of Tom Kha Gai full of creamy coconut milk, rich chicken broth redolent with lemongrass, kaffir lime, galanga, and fish sauce. To that delicious base, add tender chicken, sliced mushrooms, some chopped tomatoes, and a few slices of sweet red and spicy hot peppers. To make it a meal, I mix in a big dollop of fragrant jasmine rice. Tom Kha Gai is the Thai equivalent of chicken noodle soup - comforting, nourishing, and guaranteed to make you feel good.

I had toyed with the idea of a loaded potato soup this week (I promise it will be coming up soon!), but what looked good at the market demanded otherwise. To that end, my vegetarian option this week will be a Chunky Tomato Tortellini soup. I will start with a tomato base, full of garlicky goodness, and load it with chopped, fresh tomatoes and plump filled pasta. A hint a parmesan cheese and basil will round everything out. This soup practically demands a grilled cheese sandwich alongside!

This week's bread selection is small rustic boules again, crusty and dense (and excellent for making little cheese paninis)!

Soup is priced as follows (as always you can mix and match!):

1 quart/$8 2 quarts/$15 3 quarts/$22 4 quarts/$28

Bread $3.50

To order, email me: cattmkitchen@gmail.com
or clp772@gmail.com. Delivery/pickup will be towards the end of the week. You can also message me on Facebook!

A variation of Tom Kha Gai I've made recently, just to give you an idea.

It's Almost Valentine's Day and You're Going to Need Some Dessert

2012-02-09T18:34:00.000-06:00

Since I have been out of an office job situation I've become somewhat oblivious when it comes to dates; I just rarely know the date. So when I realized that Valentine's Day was just a few days away and I hadn't planned anything to offer, I hustled to think of something special. Valentine's Day is all about desserts, right? So with that in mind, I'm making two kinds of cupcakes - 1) red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and 2) chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Irish cream frosting and a chocolate ganache center.

(Neither of these are my cupcakes/photos, but they are reasonable facsimiles!)

I'm taking orders immediately for delivery/pickup on Monday evening (2/13) or Tuesday (2/14).

6 cupcakes (mix and match) - $10
(Larger quantities are available and priced accordingly!)

Email me to order or for further information: cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com

Chili! Meaty and Vegetariany!

2012-02-05T16:52:00.000-06:00

Though we are still well above what you might think temperatures should be in February, it is going to be a little colder in the coming days. Not that I really need an excuse, but colder weather makes me think of chili! I love chili, particularly Midwestern chili, full of beans and tomatoes. I know some Texans get all heated up when they hear of their beloved dish being perverted by any vegetable/legume other than peppers, but this isn't Texas, and I like our chili just the way we do it.

My chili is meaty (featuring a combination of ground beef and a touch of pork), full of beans, in a tomato-y base. Of course, there are onions and garlic galore, sweet and hot peppers, lots of warm spices like cumin and coriander, plus my own secret ingredients (if I tell you, then you wouldn't need me, would you?). Because I care about my vegetarian friends, I shall also be making a batch of meatless chili, with essentially the same ingredients, switching out the meat for a soy-based product, and the addition of some extra vegetables.

Because they go so well with chili, I'm making corn muffins again this week!

You know the drill:

Chili is priced as follows (you can mix and match!):

1 quart/$8 2 quarts/$15 3 quarts/$22 4 quarts/$28

Corn muffins 6/$3.50

To order, email me: cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com. Delivery/pickup will be towards the end of the week. You can also message me on Facebook or you can text me if you have my number!

Two Soups!

2012-01-29T15:55:00.001-06:00

Indecision has gotten the better of me, so I am making two completely different soups this week rather than a regular and a vegetarian version of the same soup. I'm doing this earlier in the week this time, with the intention of all orders being delivered by Friday at the very latest, so I would like to get all orders in by Tuesday night (1/31/12). You know you want some soup for lunch this week! Without any further ado...

First soup up is a minestrone style vegetable, starting with a rich beef stock and shredded beef. I will load the stock up with all kinds of vegetables (I'll get what looks best when I'm shopping), tomatoes, tiny pasta shells, and a healthy helping of beans. It's a fiber-rich soup, full of vitamins, and it's hearty and filling.

Next up is a lovely cream of mushroom, all vegetarian. A variety of mushrooms will swim in a thyme-scented vegetable broth, along with onions and garlic. This soup will be thickened with a buttery roux and finished with cream and a generous splash of sherry.

To accompany both soups, I'm making corn muffins in the sweeter, Northern style.

Soup is priced as follows (you can mix and match!):

1 quart/$8 2 quarts/$15 3 quarts/$22

Corn muffins 6/$3.50

To order, email me: cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com. You can message me on Facebook or you can text me if you have my number!

Tiny Montgomery Kitchen

2012-01-25T15:47:00.000-06:00

While I love making soup (something about stirring a big simmering pot full of good things), I am also available to make any of the items I've posted about earlier. This includes many different kinds of cookies (and what has become my specialty, gooey butter cookies), deep dish pizzas, baked pasta, and spinach feta pie in phyllo. These are all excellent items for Superbowl parties (hint hint!).

Please check previous blog entries for pricing and specifics if you are interested. Also, you can always email me (cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com) if you have a custom request.

Soup, Week 2: Tomato Lentil Chorizo!

2012-01-24T13:59:00.000-06:00

Thanks to everyone who ordered soup last week! The feedback was good and I had some fun stirring those big pots of soup so we're going to do it again this week.

This weeks's soup is Tomato Lentil and Chorizo. The idea for this soup came to me during a westward trip down I64. I'm not sure how that's relevant, but it's a true story. I love lentils in every incarnation, and a combination of tomatoes, lentils, and spicy chorizo just seemed perfect for these chilly days. A rich tomato broth will hold brown lentils, caramelized onions, garlic, smokey spices, mild peppers, potatoes, and fresh chorizo sausage. This will be a hearty, stick to your ribs soup, with a bit of spice! I am also happy to do a vegetarian version.

As an accompaniment, I will make plain white bread boules with just a hint of cornmeal for an extra bit of crunchiness.

Soup is priced as follows:

1 quart/$8 2 quarts/$15 3 quarts/$22

Bread Loaves $3.50

I am taking orders starting immediately (Tuesday) until late Thursday night. I can make deliveries starting mid-day Friday, January 27 and/or Saturday, January 28. You can also arrange to pick up orders at our house starting on Friday. We might arrange pickup points, etc. if there is a central location that might serve several customers at once. We don't want to go too far out of the inner ring suburbs, but we'll go where we need to!

I can't wait to make soup for you!

To order, email me: cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com. Or heck, you can message me on Facebook. You can text me if you have my number!

Ready for Delivery!

2012-01-20T15:50:00.002-06:00

Tuscan White Bean and Chicken soup chilling in the fridge.

Olive and walnut loaves

Is It Soup Yet? YES IT IS!

2012-01-17T19:05:00.001-06:00

The ginormous box of quart sized deli containers arrived today which can only mean one thing: that it is time to fill ginormous pots with lots of lovely soup! Here's what I need you to know:

The Soup of the Week is Tuscan Chicken and White Bean. I will roast chicken with lots of rosemary, thyme and garlic, in order to make a fully flavorful broth. Chunks of chicken will join plenty of plump white beans, and lots of good for you and just plain good vegetables like dark leafy greens (chard, kale, etc.), carrots, onions, and celery. Thick and rich and satisfying on a cold January day! It will freeze like a charm if you have leftovers or are just not ready to eat it right away.

If I receive enough requests (at least five quarts), I can accomodate a vegetarian version as well, obviously leaving out the chicken and using a vegetable broth base. I will advise regarding the status!

1 quart/$8 2 quarts/$15 3 quarts/$22

To accompany the soup, I'm baking small rosemary and walnuts boules (small rustic bread loaf) (plain boule available upon request) for an additional $3.50 each.

I am taking orders starting immediately (Tuesday evening) until late Thursday night/early Friday morning. We will be making deliveries on Saturday, January 21 or you can pick up at our house starting on Friday evening. We might arrange pickup points, etc. if there is a central location that might serve several customers at once. We don't want to go too far out of the inner ring suburbs, but we'll go where we need to!

I can't wait to make soup for you!

To order, email me: cattmkitchen@gmail.com or clp772@gmail.com. Or heck, you can message me on Facebook. You can text me if you have my number! I want your orders for soup and I'll take 'em however you want to send 'em!

For some reason, this song has been in my head all day...there I go there I go there I go...

Survey!

2012-01-10T16:48:00.001-06:00

Hey, I made a survey! It would be super cool of you to spend a moment taking it! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6XHSK9K

Meatless Monday - Baked eggs and fresh bread

2012-01-09T21:43:00.002-06:00

It's Meatless Monday and we've been a little lax about following it over the holidays. I've been eyeing photos and recipes of various baked eggs so today seemed like the perfect opportunity. Particularly, I was very interested in eggs basically oven-poached in a bed of tomatoes, herbs, and feta cheese. To sop of the delicious runny yolks I thought I would make a loaf of bread.

I used two parts white flour to one part whole wheat and let the dough have its second rise in a bamboo basket to get that nice circular design.

Before the breaking of the yolks...

...and after the breaking of the yolks.

Spinach and Bananas

2011-12-28T16:51:00.000-06:00

Whew, Christmas is over, along with most of 2011. Aren't you tired? Wouldn't you like me to cook for you? A reminder that deep dish cornmeal crust pizzas, baked pasta, and various sweets are still available (see below). And now, a couple more items on offer.

9"x13" pan of spinach pie (spanikopita), made with phyllo, butter, olive oil, feta cheese, and spinach - $25

Banana bread loaf w/ walnuts - $10
Banana bread loaf w/ walnuts and bourbon-soaked dried fruit - $14

Thank you from Tiny Montgomery Kitchen

2011-12-23T09:20:00.000-06:00

Big thanks to everyone who has ordered from me these last couple of weeks! This thing might actually work out! I can still take requests, but because I need to cook and bake for my own family these next couple of days, I can't fulfill any orders until Wednesday, December 28.

If you need something tasty for New Year's Eve, let me know soon; I can help!

Happy holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Solstice/Happy Hanukkah/have a nice weekend!

I did it all for the cookies.

2011-12-20T16:11:00.003-06:00

Pretty, buttery shortbread.

Peanut butter!

Oatmeal!

Chocolate chip!

cakeCakeCAKE!!!!!

2011-12-12T16:33:00.000-06:00

In addition to the items in my previous post, I am also currently offering a couple more sweets options.

8"x8" gooey butter cake - $10
-Available in original all vanilla/all chocolate/vanilla base with chocolate top/chocolate base with vanilla top/all lime/all lemon/all pumpkin

One dozen cake pops - $14
-choose between two flavors per dozen (chocolate, vanilla, chocolate curry, chocolate peanut butter, lemon, pumpkin, chocolate mint, vanilla mint, chai spice), then pick either choco or vanilla coating for each flavor.

Email me to order! clp772@gmail.com

Open for Business!

2011-12-09T17:11:00.001-06:00

OK, here goes nothing! Or is that everything? It's my dream to cook for a living and so begins my first step in that direction. I'm excited and nervous and very hopeful that I will actually have some customers!

First offerings for the weeks of December 13 through December 23. Taking orders this weekend for delivery/pick up starting 12/13/11.

Email me for info/orders: clp772@gmail.com

Savories

8-inch deep dish cornmeal crust pizza
-Sweet or hot Italian sausage, sweet onion, mushroom, and mozzarella with a slightly spicy tomato sauce: $16/($14.50 w/o sausage)

10-inch deep dish cornmeal crust pizza
-Sweet or hot Italian sausage, sweet onion, mushroom, and mozzarella with a slightly spicy tomato sauce: $20/($18.50 w/o sausage)

Pizzas will be frozen, unbaked. (Special topping requests can most likely be accommodated - just ask!)

9"x12" pan of ziti with sweet or hot Italian sausage, marinara, and topped with a blend of cheeses, ready for baking: $22

Sweets

1/2 pound of salted caramel chocolate pretzel bark: $8

1 doz. caramel or peanut butter swirl brownies: $12

Cookies (gooey butter, peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal, snickerdoodles): $10/doz., $25/3 doz.

Pick up can be arranged, as can delivery for an additional $2-3 (in the City/inner ring suburbs).

Email me for info/orders: clp772@gmail.com

Well you can tell everybody down in ol' Frisco/Tell 'em Tiny Montgomery says hello - Cookies Cookies Who Wants Cookies?.

2011-12-03T21:13:00.001-06:00

"This cookie is making love to my tongue."

Apparently, this is a direct quote from a customer at the St. Louis Curio Shoppe after taking a bite of one of my gooey butter cookies. I don't suppose a cook can ask for much more than that.

Add last weekend's three-day, snack-selling extravaganza at the Rock n Roll Craft Show to this weekend's 48 dozen gooey butter cookies in 11 different flavors and I'm feeling pretty good about this selling food for a [semi] living thing. Of course, I know it won't be as easy as all that but it's a start!

So, until I formulate what else I'm doing (and there will be soup for sale, I promise!), I will be offering cookies for sale at $10/doz or $25/3 dozen. Email me at: clp772@gmail.com to discuss types of cookies available, and for more information in general. If you have anything else in mind that you don't want to cook/bake yourself, just let me know and we'll figure something out!

L to R: peanut butter, lime, chocolate caramel

Christmas Balls

2011-12-01T09:54:00.001-06:00

I read about a way to paint clear glass ornament bulbs using nail polish and water and thought I'd try it out. I think the results are interesting and a pretty ribbon should make a nice ornament. However, I do not advise doing this in an enclosed space. A couple hours of leaning over several open bottles of nail polish left me feeling a little out of it. I wish I could use that as an excuse for the less than stellar photos, but I have to blame my mobile camera and our dark house.

Happy Birthday to Me: Road Trip to Elephant Rocks and Incidental Thrift

2011-10-28T19:52:00.002-06:00

At a certain point, I received all the tangible, physical birthday presents I can conjure up wanting. So when presented with the question, "What do you want for your birthday?" from the Boy, I really couldn't come up with anything. (I'm not addressing the issue of the problem I always have when faced with that question, which is an inability to decide on The One Perfect Thing That Will Make My Life Perfect Gift. *sigh*). I already knew he was taking the day off from work, as was I, so the idea of a day of adventure was really appealing. I flip flopped on what I wanted to do with the day, really not deciding on anything until Tuesday morning. The weather was predicted to be unseasonably warm and sunny so that screamed "road trip" to me. To where? Elephant Rocks!

It's an easy drive, particularly on a beautiful day, and we spotted an antique mall and flea market we would visit on our way back. I hadn't been to Elephant Rocks since I was a very small child and I remembered nothing of it. I'm sorry that I let so many years pass because it's a lovely place and those rocks are incredible.

The views were amazing on such a clear, crisp day. Yeah, I tilt-shifted some of them.

Tilt-shifted:

Not tilt-shifted:

The horribly hot and dry summer has put most of the moss in these parts into a sort of dormant stage. Still, I found a nice shaggy patch. It looks like a Muppet taking a nap.

Some more moss.

Here we are looking out the window of the ruins of the old train building where they would service the train cars.

It was super windy that day, tempering the nearly 80F temperature, but wreaking havoc on our hair.

We stopped at a flea market on the way back toward Farmington and it was essentially people selling out of their storage units. I didn't have a lot of hope, but I got a few really good things. One was this planter. I don't think it's very old, but I do really love it.

A wooden hamburger press, painted with birds.

And these gardening magazines from the mid-50s. The whopping total for all this stuff? Three measly dollars.

After lunch of pizza and salad at a funny little place across from the town hall, we hit the road again. We couldn't figure out how to get to the antique mall we saw on our way south, but happened upon a bigger (and most likely better) place during out search. It was huge, sprawling and packed with stuff.

First, the things I actually bought. I have no idea how those sorts of illustrations came to be placed on beer stein salt and pepper shakers.

Next I found these kitten shakers. The kittens' faces were so full of ennui and despair, I knew I had to have them.

Then there were things I didn't want (in almost all of the cases), but found amusing/horrifying/interesting. Like a giant-headed naked chalk baby.

Or this little shelf of horrors.

Or this frightening chalk dog.

This snazzy stereo.

An adorable chick pitcher and a really sweet bird one.

Is it true?

This dizzy little wall-eyed cat.

These furred dogs so evil they wouldn't even photograph properly.

A cute little deer shaker, glued to a piece of wood. Don't ask me!

And the one thing I really wanted but resisted buying because I just don't have the room for it. You don't see a lot of Frankoma pottery here in town; I love this set. If I go back and it's still there, it's mine.

On our way home, we stopped for dinner-making supplies and cake because I often like to cook my own birthday dinner. Really, it was a perfect day.

Happy birthday to you, I went to the zoo, I saw a fat monkey and I knew it was you

2011-10-25T21:51:00.003-06:00

I've been negligent in posting, so let's call this a wrap of the days surrounding my birthday. Well, the days before my birthday anyway.

Sunday dinner was pork sirloin chops, baked delicata squash, and sauteed spinach. The chops were sprinkled with a spice mix and cooked on the Foreman grill and I baked the squash with butter, a teeny bit of brown sugar, salt, and pepper. I love when winter squash time rolls around.

Meatless Monday rolled around and I didn't have any ideas for what I wanted to make for dinner. I contemplated aloo gobi, but just didn't feel inspired to go through all the rigamarole required. Then I decided on egg salad, cauliflower, and since I had already been soaking basmati rice in case I made Indian food, a rice pilaf. Yes, it was somewhat monochromatic, but it tasted good.

Is it odd that I was perfectly fine with cooking my own birthday dinner? And not just fine, but preferred, and I wanted steak. I cooked these sirloins in a hot, buttered iron skillet. With the leftover butter and spices in the pan after the steaks were removed, I added the cooked carrots (boiled with plenty of salt and stevia to flavor them) and rolled them around in the butter, collecting the spices that had fallen off the steak. Two russet potatoes sliced into thin slices became crispy baked fries. Simple and just what I wanted.

And then, cake. I love the standard bakery birthday cake recipe. There really is nothing like that absurdly sweet icing.

Apollo likes it too!

Thursday Thrifting

2011-10-13T16:29:00.002-06:00

We headed north today, to the Value Village on Natural Bridge and the one on N. Lindbergh. I didn't photograph them, but we got a pile of books including a beautiful version of Brideshead Revisited and Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, plus some collection edited by Dave Eggers. Woo hoo!

I am very excited by this very attractive vintage gold pepper mill/salt shaker combo. I've blown through several pepper mills in the last few years, so it's always nice to find an attractive (and cheap) one.

This jar isn't particularly attractive with the tulips, but I like the lid and the wire and wood handle. I'm seeing it full of little treats.

I have lots of wandering jew plant cuttings that will shortly need new permanent homes so I'm in the market for planters. A goofy owl and a not-vintage footed thingie will work.

This has been the year of buying wooden pieces and I just keep finding more. At this point, I'm thinking about using all the wood platters and bowls as displays for all my baked goods at Rock N Roll Craft Show. At least I won't have to worry about breakage during transportation!
And what the heck is monkeypod? Most of the things I've bought recently all say they are made of it, either made in Hawaii or the Phillipines.

The pineapple is monkeypod and the other is made in Sweden, so I have no idea what kind of wood it is.

And then, a teeny tiny pair of screw-on seahorse earrings. Years and years ago I had an erotic dream about little seahorse and I've never looked at them the same way.

It's wonderful to be here/It's certainly a thrill - TinyMontgomery Kitchen, Meatless Monday Gypsy Soup, and Clay

2011-10-08T23:53:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday evening the Boy and I went to see Nick Lowe and Wilco at the newly re-opened Peabody Opera House. It has been restored and renovated to a shiny lustre and it was good to be back in a place I had seen so many great shows in the past. Unfortunately, halfway through Wilco's set I realized I had a splitting headache triggered, no doubt, by the exuberant stage lighting. A migraine developed and has stuck with me all week. It's Saturday night and the migraine is mostly gone, but some pain is still lingering. At least I'm not forced to wear sunglasses in the house at all times as I was until yesterday. At any rate, the headache impeded my computer activities, and really, just about all of my activities.

So I've gotten behind in posting here, and I neglected to take photos of some of last week's meals. I did, however, get photos of Monday's meatless Gypsy Soup. I first had this soup many years ago when a co-worker recommended the recipe from the first (I think) Moosewood Cookbook. It's a highly customizable recipe; I basically use the recipe as a map and go from there with with I happen to have in the house. Also, I always make more than the recipe calls for. This time I used half golden nugget squash and half sweet potato as the base, green and red bell pepper, and all but about two cups of cooked chickpeas from a 1 pound bag of dried beans I cooked in the pressure cooker. It's a really hearty, comforting soup, a little sweet and a lot savory.

Tonight I oven barbecued chicken breasts, roasted cauliflower and made very garlicky, very crispy potato wedges. Apparently the secret is pre-cooking prior to the baking, and the coating of seasoned corn starch because these little dudes (I used new potatoes, quartered) were beautifully crispy.

I am really excited about this year's Rock N Roll Craft Show on the weekend after Thanksgiving. The last couple of years I have deejayed for a part of the show; two years ago I also had items in the show, but last year the crafty vibe was not with me and music was my only contribution. As I sat with my laptop and playlist watching the shoppers last year, I was also studying the table with two ladies selling various baked sweets across the room from me. The notion of doing something like that myself stuck with me but I kept putting off approaching the organizers because I just didn't feel like the possible rejection. Finally, just before the deadline for artists applying for the 2011 show was up, I sent the email to put forward the idea. Much to my delight (and nervousness), they approved the idea. And thus, TinyMontgomery Kitchen was born.

I have been squirreling away bunches of recipes so I will have a wide variety to choose from when it comes time to actually make all this stuff. I plan on having some savory snacks (crackers, snack mixes, veg pies), and lots of sweets including cute things on sticks (convenient for eating and shopping!), cookies and bars for sale. I am so excited about this venture! I am so anxious about this venture! I really can't wait, though.

I've managed to make some more clay pieces that are now awaiting their first firing. In addition to more faux bois, I'm attempting little bird and little house pendants, and also some doughnuts for bracelets. Way, way back, possibly the grade school years, I made a lot of macrame jewelry with waxed thread and small beads. Seems that variations on that have come back around again. I always loved the look of the basic knots so I want to explore a more minimalist look with it.

The migraine is almost gone. Surely tomorrow I will wake up without it. But I've been saying that for days now...

You'd kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never ever stop

2011-10-02T20:52:00.001-06:00

I threatened to make pizza for a couple days but it didn't happen until today. This one was a thinner crust version, topped with "country" sausage from Schnucks (I always suppose this is their version of breakfast sausage, but this stuff is very spicy and full of red pepper flakes), mushrooms, red bell pepper and sweet onion. It was a good pizza.

Even though the weather hasn't been terribly cool yet, I've been craving cold weather food like soups. I found some chicken leg quarters on sale, which seemed like as good an excuse as any to make chicken noodle soup.

We will sink and be quiet as mice/While the cat is away and do what we want/Do what we want - Smoky, spicy and thrift.

2011-09-27T23:00:00.000-06:00

On Sunday all I wanted to do was go outside and start a fire. I didn't even have any intent to cook over it. I was chilly, it was nice outside and I hadn't had a fire in the firepit in days. Since everything had been rained on in the last week, it took a stupid long time to get a decent fire going. So long that by the time it was burning well, it was time to make dinner, so I thawed out some chicken thighs, sliced up a couple potatoes and wrapped them in foil, and made a salad. Earlier in the day I had made cowboy candy (sweet/sour [but mostly sweet] sliced jalapenos) and was left with nearly a quart of the leftover liquid that the jalapenos were cooked in. It seemed like a good finish for grilled meat so I brushed it on the chicken once it was nice and golden. It left us with a glazed, grilled chicken that was slightly sweet and quite spicy. I can't wait to brush it on other stuff. For that matter, I can't wait to try the cowboy candy. Unfortunately, it's supposed to sit for a month before eating.

Today, circumstances allowed the Boy and I to do a bit of thrift shopping (after a lovely lunch at Spaghetteria Mamma Mia). First stop was the Goodwill Outlet, which was teeming with people, even on a Tuesday afternoon. Right away I found some greenware (unpainted bisque pottery). What I didn't buy was a greenware mushroom ashtray. So yeah, you should go get that.)

As I am constantly in search of interesting wood pieces, I couldn't turn down a peanut, two apples, and two, um, well, I don't know what they're supposed to be. Acorn squashes?

I can't imagine what this little wooden table was meant to be used for, but I love it.

To keep with the wood theme (and it's part of thrift store mojo to go with a theme when a theme presents itself) I had to have this large-ish jewelry box, even though it brought the overall weight of our purchase up quite a bit. It was still under $10, but still.

And then, a pink melamine gravy boat!

And finally, at the last minute I found this really thick and soft (and handmade, I think) leather bag. Lot of pockets and compartments, it holds my laptop, and it has a strange dimensional applique that appears to be an abstract rendition of lady parts. Yes, you read that right.

Then it was on to St. Vincent de Paul's. Another wooden bowl - hooray!

A lighted magnifying glass and an otherwise unremarkable if not for its wooden handle serving spoon.

I wish I knew more about porcelain and china. This plate is gorgeous and has an art nouveau design. I'm not sure, however, how old this plate is. It was made in Japan, the colors are beautiful (though the silver trim is rubbing off) and it is so thin and fragile feeling, I'm afraid I will break it in half just touching it. The moth/butterfly design is just so beautiful.

Finally, from both locations, the Boy's books.

And my books.

The BH&G books are from 1958, 1963 and 1968. Score! I'm pretty sure I had the Joys of Jello book when I was a kid.

Dinner tonight was born of necessity; basically finding something easy to thaw in the freezer - beef smoked sausage sliced and browned with a bit of honey mustard; steamed broccoli; and steamed potatoes with a little butter.

Friday Night Spicy Peanut Noodles

2011-09-23T22:00:00.003-06:00

I was roaming around Target this afternoon when it struck me that I needed spicy peanut noodles, and pronto. Since they had them, I bought a package of whole wheat thin spaghetti. I've steered clear of the whole wheat stuff for some time; last time I bought it (which was, admittedly, a few years ago) it wasn't good. Way too heavy and with too much texture. Obviously the manufacturing process has been quite refined as it was hard to even tell these were different than regular pasta.

I always wing the sauce and this time it went as follows: Big glob of peanut butter, a splash of white wine vinegar, a couple splashes of low-sodium soy sauce, a couple shakes of fish sauce, a big squirt of sriracha, a few glugs of chili-garlic sauce, a shake of cayenne, and some warm water to thin it all out. I wanted a couple of extra things this time round, so I thawed a cup of frozen peas and sliced the green part of two scallions. For extra protein, I wanted to add tofu, but I didn't want it to be soft and white. To that end I heated some canola oil in a frying pan and let it get quite hot while I sliced a block of firm tofu into several slabs. I let the pieces fry for some time, turning frequently, until both sides of each piece were browned and crisp. Once they cooled, I sliced them up and added to the noodle and sauce mixture.

Peanutty goodness.

Meatless Monday - Cheese broccoli soup and baquettes

2011-09-19T20:52:00.003-06:00

Have you seen Pinterest? It's a different kind of social networking site, one in which you "pin" photos onto your "boards" and share them with your followers. Your boards can be any category you like, but the most popular seem to be food/recipes, clothing, and cute animals. I have come across a lot of really great sounding recipes and sometimes they must be made pronto (you might remember the homemade Butterfingers...). Since it was Meatless Monday today when I came across the cheese broccoli soup recipe that someone pinned it sounded like just the ticket. And I remembered coming across a recipe recently for 30 minute baguettes so I put that on the menu too.

The soup is seriously the best cheese broccoli soup I've ever had. I did make a couple of changes - I used all milk and no half-and-half, and I used 8 oz. of sharp cheddar and about 4 oz. of 2% Velveeta. I also didn't add the cardamom because I was too lazy to poke around in my cabinet to find it, and I didn't add any hot sauce because it just seemed to taste too good without it.

Sunday - Jewelry, Beef, Pie

2011-09-18T20:49:00.000-06:00

And here is my first batch of jewelry made with my first round of ceramics. I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out. I still have a pile of beads, but I can't decide what to do with them yet. Now I need to make more. Must. Make. More.

Dinner tonight was rare roast beef, smashed potatoes and salad. I used a liquid steak marinade stuff on the roast and I think it left it a little too soy-y. For some reason, the flavor was more overpowering on a roast than on a steak. Lesson learned. Still, it was rare beef, which is never a bad thing.

I also made little apple pies today with empanada rounds. Because I didn't want them to bake too long, I precooked the apples (two Jonagolds made eight little pies) with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I let them simmer for quite some time, probably around 45-50 minutes. The little pies then baked about 15 minutes, till they were light golden brown.

Last but not least, a gratuitous shot of Boomer being really cute.

Every time i see your face/It reminds me of the places we used to go/But all I got is a photograph/And I realize you're not coming back anymore

2011-09-18T11:15:00.004-06:00

Even though I am occasionally annoyed by various posted mobile phone photos because of the "vintage" effects and what not, perhaps I was mostly jealous that I had a simple phone with a very simple camera. Now I have a not so simple phone and access to a great deal of camera apps with a wide range of photographic effects. Thanks to Jim Varvaris for introducing me to Vignette, a free demo. (There is also a pay version, but for now I'm sticking to the free until I understand it more and figure out what the pay version can do better.)

I'm playing around with lots of effects, though I've barely scratched the surface. You know I love tilt-shift more than anything, but the Vignette's aptitude for it leave a bit to be desired. I need to figure out how to use it to its best advantage. Lots of trial and error in my future.

This last one is my favorite. I love transforming the backyard to a tiny tableau!

Thursday Thriftin'

2011-09-15T16:13:00.000-06:00

After the deluge of yesterday's rain left me with little to do at work today, I was home well before lunch time. As the Boy was off work entirely, we decided to trek to Fenton to the far flung Value Village, with a stop off at Target to check out the dregs of the Missoni collection. And it was the dregs. No adult clothes were left other than a few lingerie items, there were some kid clothes, a few comforter sets, some plates and a few hair accessories. Some of it was cute, some not so much. I'll be checking the clearance racks for the odd item in the coming weeks.

I have a little superstition regarding my thrift store excursions that I will confess to. It's bad luck, as far as I'm concerned, to get a shopping cart when I first get in a thrift store. That guarantees that I won't find a thing to put into the cart. So I don't get a cart until my hands are too full. It does mean an annoying walk back through the store nearly every time, but I just can't risk it any other way. It's silly, but pretty much my only superstition.

Today was a pretty good thrifting day, though mostly for new-ish rather than vintage items. Shoes for me, shirts for the Boy.

I finally found a pair of Danskos that work for me! And for $3!

OK, these surely aren't sexy, but they are super comfortable, I like the overall style and they are slides which I love - easy on, easy off.

Two shirts that will fit the giant Boy, at 50% off!

I have no idea what this dish was originally for, but it looks like it came off of a spaceship, so of course I love it.

An assortment of things including a vintage eyeglass case (dig that print!), wooden S&P shakers, cute mug, and a vintage flour sifter. I can't believe that I don't have one of those already.

Funny little Lefton ceramic kitchen plaques.

Painted wooden bowl of an indeterminate ethnic origin.

Some magazines and a sewing book I got a couple weeks ago from St. Vincent de Paul. Not shown is another Better Homes & Gardens from 1974 with, basically, an article on upcycling!

Meatless Monday - Pasta and Salad

2011-09-12T21:08:00.002-06:00

Today was a breakthrough day regarding my learning curve and my new mobile. After being directed to Lifehacker (thanks, Marie!) for help, things began to come clear and once I downloaded a new app for my home pages, I was well on my way to having a slightly more than basic understanding of how to make my way around my own damn phone. What a relief!

Anticipating Meatless Monday this morning and not having any ideas for what to have, I consulted the Boy about dinner. He responded, "pasta with veggies." Easy enough. I sauteed a yellow squash, half a green pepper, a zucchini and three fat cloves of garlic in olive oil, then added cooked farfalle noodles and some parmesan cheese. Easy peasy and good and the Boy declared it a success.

I may be paranoid, but no android/Roasted Pork

2011-09-11T10:47:00.002-06:00

In the last several weeks, my mobile had started doing odd things, nothing rendering it unusable, but making it rather annoying and sometimes cumbersome to get a text sent or a call made. Then a few days ago, with the battery almost completely drained, I discovered that someone in the household had stepped on the business end of the charger, rendering it useless and leaving me phoneless for a couple of days. I don't really use my phone that much for anything terribly important except for a few daily work calls, but still I felt disconnected. I immediately ordered a replacement charger online, but that was going to take a few days to arrive, of course. And while I was at it, I made the plunge and ordered a new Android phone. Buttons and keyboards are so early 2011.

Whenever I order something I'm eager to get online I am an online tracking idiot. I mean, I check the status every 30 minutes if I happen to be at home by the computer. It drives me crazy, but I can't stop. All the info I had received said I would get the phone delivered via USPS Priority Mail on Saturday. It didn't arrive with the regular mail delivery (though the charger for the old phone did), so I was obsessively checking the mailbox and online for updates. At one point in the afternoon I ran upstairs for approximately 8 minutes. When I got back downstairs I had an email update that a delivery attempt had been made and that a notification was left for me. Of course I rushed outside to find NOTHING. No package, no notice. And the time listed on the "delivery attempt" email was when I was still sitting on the couch.

I was outraged, of course, and called the USPS 800 number to complain, ranting and raving but reserving the curse words because, well, that lady on the phone didn't have anything to do with the lazy son of a bitch mail carrier who didn't really come to my house but said they did. I apologize to the Boy, however, for the rather brusque and salty phone call he got from me. Then, in a frenzy, I decided to get in my car and drive around the neighborhood looking for mail trucks to flag down. Just a couple blocks from home I spotted my first one, parked and marched over to the carrier. On my way I noticed that is was our regular carrier, Johnnie and I thought for sure he wasn't responsible as he would have known I was home (the goddamned front door was WIDE OPEN, for one thing...) and he would have left the package (it didn't require a signature, I should add). When I asked him, just in case, he mentioned the small package he had left for me that morning but that he hadn't been by again. OK, let's review that last sentence. Johnnie knew exactly who I was, where I lived, and what he had left in my mailbox that day. Already, that seemed pretty extraordinary to me. At this point I felt my anger diffusing a little bit, but still, I wanted my package!

Unprompted by me, Johnnie said he was on his way back to the station (the PO on Manchester at Vandeventer) and that I could follow him and he would go in and look for my package while I waited. What? Huh? What? Seriously, I think my head started spinning at this offer. Holy shades of Mayberry, Batman! I stammered and thanked him profusely and ran to get into my car, of course, and gave chase. By the time we were halfway there, I was feeling a little ashamed by my escalated upset, but ecstatic I was going to get my new phone! Johnnie pulled into the station via the back way and I awkwardly parked across the alley, feeling rather sheepish. He popped inside and came out less than a minute later with my package (which is when I again cursed the lazy a-hole who didn't attempt to deliver it and just took it back to the station). I love my mailman!

Now, do I love my Android phone? Not so much, yet. My smart phone makes me feel a little stupid. Hopefully I will catch on soon enough.

Since it was nice and cool yesterday, and I had found a nice piece pork butt on sale the other day, I fired up the oven for a roast. I found a recipe that suggested coating the roast with Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar and then baking for four to five hours at a low temperature. The weather was cooperating, so I did it and it turned out quite nice. Part of the recipe was also pouring in some apple cider which I didn't have. Considering the sweetness of the sugar already in there, I poured in a bit of apple cider vinegar instead. To go along with it I made some buttered egg noodles as we'd had enough potatoes in the previous days. And to use up some bits and bobs I sauteed a chopped up tomato and several white mushrooms in a skillet until soft then added some thawed whole green beans and cooked until everything was done through. I thickened the roast's pan juices for a quick gravy and spooned that over the meat and noodles.

I think I shall add barbecue sauce to the leftover pork for sandwiches tonight. Then I need coleslaw, right?

With Six You Get...Deconstructed Potstickers?

2011-09-08T14:35:00.002-06:00

OK, it's a big stretch to reference the movie "With Six You Get Eggroll" in a post about potstickers but it popped into my head. I love Doris Day and even more I adore how so many movies in the 1960s had an almost obligatory nightclub scene with groovy kids doing groovy dances to groovy music. In this one we get the Grass Roots!

But on to the real purpose of this post, food; specifically my take on making an appetizer into a meal. I crave potstickers; I love everything about them from the chewy/crunchy/soft outside to the juicy little ball of highly seasoned pork on the inside to the perfect umami flavor of the dipping sauce. However, I have seldom had any sort of luck making filled pastas. My little packets, though they might have the right flavors, rarely survive boiling or whatever cooking method I inflict on them. I think I just don't enjoy that sort of labor-intensive preparation so I get sloppy on my sealing methods. I have never attempted potstickers, knowing I had no patience for the careful pleating of the dough around the filling, particularly important since the dumplings have a somewhat complicated cooking process.

So, when wandering around the grocery store the other day, I came upon packages of ground pork on sale. I immediately thought of potstickers and just as immediately dismissed the idea. In the past I've made ground pork kebabs or meatballs with Asian seasoning combinations so I figured I would do something like that again. Upon further wandering, though, it suddenly occurred to me I could deconstruct the dumplings and make instead a pasta dish. I made a beeline back to the produce section to grab a package of wonton wrappers and started getting really excited (I told you, I LOVE potstickers!)

To start, I mixed about a pound of ground pork with about an inch or so of finely grated fresh ginger, two cloves of garlic, some soy sauce, pepper and two or three sliced green onions. I formed smallish meatballs and put them in a splash of hot oil to brown. In the meantime, I heated another frying pan with a bit of canola oil. I took the package of wonton wrappers and sliced the stack into approximately 1/2 inch strips. It's a little tiresome to separate all those layers of thin pasta, but it helps to get them [mostly] separated when putting them into the pan. By the time I got all the piles of strips into the pan, the bottom layer had browned and crisped up nicely. Keep the heat high and rotate the pasta, making sure to get some browning on most of the noodles. Once I got the noodles browned how I wanted them I added about 1/3 cup of water mixed with a bit of chicken bullion to the noodles and let them simmer until the liquid was cooked up.

To make the signature potsticker sauce I mixed up soy sauce, a bit of water, rice vinegar, a splash of sesame oil and garlic powder (I wanted the flavor not the heft of minced garlic). After tasting, having used up all the rice vinegar I had, I added a splash of lime juice for a bit more tartness. That ended up leaving things a bit too tart so I added about a teaspoon of brown sugar to mellow it all out.

At this point I added the noodles to the pan with the meatballs, poured the sauce over all and sprinkled on another thinly sliced green onion. I let it all simmer together for a few more minutes, until the noodles had soaked up a bit of the sauce.

I will definitely be making this again. The photos kind of suck because I was too eager to eat!

Homemade Butterfingers? Why yes, thank you!

2011-09-06T13:30:00.001-06:00

The lair of consumerism and bad-for-you-but-so-good recipes that is Pinterest offered me something yesterday I could not deny: a recipe for homemade Butterfinger candy bars. Not only that, but a recipe that had only three ingredients, which are candy corn (yes, you read that right), peanut butter and chocolate (the original recipe called for chocolate candy coating).

Specifically you need 16 ounces of candy corn, 16 ounces of peanut butter and at least 12 ounces of chocolate for coating. Start by melting the candy corn in the microwave (1 minute first and then in 15 second intervals until completely melted), add the peanut butter and mix thoroughly. Push the mixture (it will be stiff) into a parchment lined pan (I used a pan that's around 11x7) and let it cool. I made the mistake of putting mine into the refrigerator and that definitely made it too stiff to cut, so just let it cool to room temperature. When cool, cut into the size bars you'd like for your finished product.

The bars are supposed to then be dipped into chocolate and set on wax paper to harden. As you can see in the photo (besides the fact that I had to take a bite before I took the photo - oops!), the chocolate portion of the candy bar didn't work out as it should have, though the taste is the same. Because I was too lazy to use a double boil method and used the microwave to melt my chocolate instead, it seized up and wouldn't liquefy. I ended up having to add a little butter and some heavy cream, but still had to just sort of ice the top of the bars. This is a case where the recipe's called for chocolate coating would have been fool proof. Still, while these look a little messy, they taste great.

While you don't get the crispiness of a Butterfinger (which is actually my least favorite part of a Butterfinger), you do get that flaky, layered thing they have. Don't ask me how the combination of candy corn and peanut butter gets your there, but it does!

Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good/When the weather breaks, mama, you got to move

2011-09-04T22:13:00.001-06:00

I woke up Sunday to beautiful, cool weather, and even overcast skies. After weeks of relentless sun and heat and humidity, it was like being reborn. As we were driving around doing errands, I remarked to the Boy that it was a whole new world. A prettier, happier world that doesn't try to kill you with bright, burning sun!

As soon as I knew the weather would finally be turning on Sunday, I started plotting to get the Boy to sit outside with me around the firepit. It really didn't take much plotting, just the promise of alcohol and food. He's easy. And he looks pretty relaxed.

And yes, Foxy Brown's back end is shaved. She's been biting and chewing and her fur is so thick back there, plus she had gotten some matted hunks, that I wanted to just get it off her. Sadly we discovered that she has a nasty case of fleas and she's still mad at us for the whole shaving/flea spraying ordeal.

Our appetizer was crusty bread dipped in a bowl of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Simple and delicious.

Though I suppose we should have enjoyed the quiet of the outdoors (such as that is in the City - what was with the firecrackers on Labor Day weekend???), we had music to entertain and possibly annoy the neighbors. The hipster boys a couple of houses over spent most of their day outside, but soon after we turned on music, they all retreated indoors. Related? My J. C. Chasez to Interpol segue too much for you boys? The sound system was comprised of my laptop and my Virgin Boomtube. I love that thing.

I marinated boneless, skinless chicken thighs in teriyaki sauce (low sodium soy sauce, water, brown sugar, crystallized ginger, garlic and siracha), and skewered mushrooms, zucchini and onion on bamboo sticks. And even though it didn't go with the theme, I was craving macaroni and cheese, which I made using our old family recipe (which means with Velveeta, milk and butter).

I'm still smelling smoke, but it's worth it

Too hot to write/Too cool to care about writing today

2011-09-03T20:02:00.003-06:00

Without getting terribly descriptive, here's our "lobster" (you know, that surimi stuff) salad hoagies and Caesar salad (I forgot to link to the dressing recipe last time - I followed this fairly strictly [for a change]).

Tonight I (again) waited till the last minute to decide what was for dinner and had the Boy go on a search mission in the freezer for some sort of protein. He came up with some boneless skinless chicken breasts, and he had brought home some fresh asparagus, so I thought a stirfry with kung pao sauce over rice noodles sounded like a delicious idea. I was right!

Later, there shall be strawberry scented cake with a creamy vanilla-y frosting. And coffee. It's my Friday night and I don't want to sleep it away!

Almost Meatless Monday - Pizza Pizza and Caesar Salad

2011-09-01T18:04:00.003-06:00

I found a fab new pizza pan whilst shopping on Monday (new and everything - not from a thrift store!) so of course a big (because that pan is BIG) cheese pizza immediately went on the menu for dinner. I had a serious craving for a real Caesar salad and bought the ingredients I would need (namely a tin of anchovies, hence the "almost" meatless nomenclature) to make a big garlicky salad to go with the pizza. It's amazing to me how completely the anchovies simply morph into a salty, savory addition to the dressing, without really adding a hint of fishy taste.

I was going to be lazy and buy jarred pizza sauce, but I completely forgot and had to make a quick batch from scratch. To do it I simply opened a can of tomato sauce and added chopped garlic (I used dehydrated), a glug of olive oil, dried thyme, dried oregano, salt, pepper and about a teaspoon and a half of red pepper flakes. I let the sauce simmer on a very low heat for probably a couple of hours, though it really could have used more to reduce further. It worked but it was a bit thinner than I would have liked. I was also surprised at the heat the relatively small amount of red pepper flakes imparted into the sauce. Generally I'm not a fan of the flakes, because I dislike the crunch of the seeds, but in this sauce, they were fine. I made a very simple crust out of a packet of fast-rising yeast, about two cups of flour, a splash of olive oil and some salt and water. I let it rise for rather longer than usual (well over an hour) and it ended up being a nice, elastic dough.

I meant to add some fresh basil chiffonade, but I completely forgot. That is a regret, but the pizza was good nonetheless.

Pan-Fried Chicken and Something-a-Roni and Plants

2011-08-28T15:19:00.001-06:00

I put off making dinner last night up until the very moment before the Boy became frantic. He likes a more uniform meal schedule and sometimes I challenge him that way. But sometimes I just can't force cooking inspiration, particularly with something so variable as chicken breasts.

Lacking any other inspiration, I seasoned the breasts and put them in a hot skillet and cooked them till crispy and done. After I took it out the pan, I made a teeny bit of cream gravy with the drippings. I had a hankering for my version of Rice-a-Roni which means browning broken up spaghetti noodles and rice with onions, and then adding bullion (I used beef because that's what I had) and simmering until the rice is done. Easy, cheap and so much tastier than the boxed stuff. We also still had leftovers of the stewed okra so that became the other side dish.

Today I had plans to try to make pretty wearable things out of my ceramic pieces. So far, I have not been inspired in that direction. Instead, I went outside (in the lovely weather) and potted and re-potted a bunch of plants I had hanging around. I don't know where I'm going to put them all once the weather changes, particularly since the kittens will be hard to thwart and they surely do like chewing on plants. Perhaps I should plant a pot of cat grass for them.

Thrifty thrifting

2011-08-26T16:43:00.001-06:00

The Goodwill Outlet on Market, just off Vandeventer, is one bustling place. At 1:30 on a Friday afternoon the joint was packed. I noticed that a good number of the patrons were wearing rubber gloves which is a seriously good idea as I've washed my hands a couple of times and they still feel kind of grotty. I was hoping that maybe the store was providing the gloves, but it didn't seem that way.

After poking around in many of the bins, here's what we got. First a vintage green plaid plate. I just really like that pattern; it looks like rubbery wallpaper.

A big blue-striped crock. I don't think this is a vintage one, but it's not terribly new either.

I have some other little shallow bowls in this pattern. Not sure what this was for though it perhaps was a little crock and is missing its lid.

This tote bag isn't vintage, but I figured I could add it to my arsenal of reusable shopping bags. It's a cute print, as far as Hawaiian prints go.

A little enamel bin and lid.

A quilted-on-the-inside flannel shirt for the Boy, in his size!

The Boy kept digging and kept finding these funny little dime books. Lurid covers and titles!

How to make puppets from anything.

Coronet Magazine from 1965!

Sports books and short stories.

Hawaiian plate lunch...er...dinner

2011-08-24T20:18:00.000-06:00

As is often the case, today's dinner inspiration came courtesy of my daily Allrecipes.com email and a recipe for shoyu chicken. Shoyu chicken is the Hawaiian version of teriyaki, basically, and it generally uses chicken thighs. I've written about my previous foray into a plate lunch after having it served from a Portland food truck (though really that post is more about getting a new Macbook...) but I see that I didn't write at all about the recipes. So I shall fix that here.

For my version of shoyu chicken I used skinless, boneless breasts (I don't generally buy them, but they were on sale) and marinated them in the following mixture.

Shoyu Sauce

1/4 cup of something I bought called "medium soy sauce" - it's quite sweet and molasses-y so no need to add extra sugar
2 T regular soy sauce
1 big, fat clove of garlic, smushed in a garlic press
2 t siracha
Black pepper
Two slices of crystallized ginger, finely chopped (I didn't have fresh and this works particularly well considering the sweetness already in the recipe)

I marinated the chicken for an hour or so, then grilled it on the indoor grill (waaaaaay too hot for the firepit today!). In the meantime, I boiled the marinade for a couple minutes so I could use it as a sauce. I basted the chicken halfway through cooking, and then dunked them in the sauce after they were done cooking.

Earlier I prepared the macaroni salad so there would be time for the flavors to marry and mellow; the onion can be somewhat harsh if eaten right away. The basic recipe is very simple and I got the basis here. I only added grated carrot to mine, to best match what I had in Portland. And I most definitely didn't use two cups of mayonnaise.

To finish this carbolicious plate, I made plain white rice, which I drizzled with the shoyu sauce. And because we needed some vegetable other than that bit of grated carrot, I made a salad of tomato, cucumber and rice vinegar with a teeny splash of oil.

Mai e `a! Aloha!

Meatless Monday - Vegan steak fail, okra win

2011-08-22T21:39:00.002-06:00

I've had a bag of VegeUSA dried vegan "steaks" for months but I've been a bit afraid to attempt them. I'm good with TVP in small chunks or pieces. Once it gets bigger, it's a little iffy. To prepare these things, I had to soak them in water first, then wring them out (ick), and then marinate before cooking. I made a mixture of soy, siracha, garlic, vegetable broth, peper and a bit of oil and let them soak it up for 45 minutes or so. When I got ready to cook them, I heated the indoor grill and let them cook until they had nice grill marks on their fake beefy sides.

I also had a grocery bag full of fresh, home grown okra courtesy of our generous friend Thomas. While I had intended to make a dish that involved chick pea flour and deep frying with it, I just didn't feel like the mess, the smell or the calories of all that oil. Hopefully fresh okra will be around long enough till it's cooler outside and frying isn't so oppressive. At any rate, I decided to go the stewing route with the okra. I have very little okra experience as I refused to eat it until a few years ago and only started cooking it in the last year or so.

I started with heating some canola oil and adding a chopped medium onion, then the sliced okra (I know you can eat the stem part, but I cut them off), then three chopped medium tomatoes, including all the juice. To make it more stew-y, I poured in about half a cup or so of tomato juice and about an equal amount of water, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then I decided to add about a cup of frozen corn kernals, as well. At one point I thought I had over-salted so I mixed in about a tablespoon of sugar, which sort of mellowed everything out in a nice way. I let this simmer for about 30-35 minutes, wherein it thickened up nicely. I guess that sticky okra goo is good for something! To serve under the okra, I made some quick cooking grits, then stirred in a bit of butter and some grated cheese (I happened to have some Mexican shredded mix so I used that).

Then came the tasting. The "steaks" were strangely (authentically?) stringy, like a cheap piece of beef. The flavor wasn't great, which was my fault for not highly seasoning the marinade. While the Boy ate his up, I could not deal with the weird texture, which was also a little slimy, for good measure. Foxy Brown got the remainder of one of my slices and I'm not sure of the fate of the other. I suspect the Boy put it in the refrigerator whereas I would have put it straight into the trash. Lesson learned!

Firepit Cooking: Don't tell me this isn't barbecue

2011-08-22T17:34:00.002-06:00

Even though it was rather hot yesterday, I couldn't get the idea of barbecued pork steaks out of my head. Since the propane grill is non-functioning at the moment, that left the firepit unless I wanted to turn on the oven. And I didn't want to turn on the oven. Firepit it was. Since I'm too much of a cheapskate, at present anyway, to spring for real firewood, I burned some of the many sticks in the yard the first time around. I was a little afraid I wouldn't have enough large pieces to get some significant heat and fire this time around, but I did manage it. I'm sure wood fire cooking purists would be absolutely horrified that I am just scrounging whatever sticks I find and using them to cook food. I suppose that there is a mixture of elm from next door, mimosa, maple and my mystery tree that is some sort of ornamental cherry (maybe, I've never been able to identify it).

Whatever the wood is I've been using in the firepit, it really does make food taste good. Since I was using so many smaller pieces of wood, I had a lot of embers really quickly so I placed separate foil pouches of potatoes and broccoli down in them to get cooking. I got a little thrill from seeing the packets swell up with steam; then I knew it was all cooking! Very exciting! (Yes, cooking vegetables gets me excited. What about it?) When it was time to cook the pork steaks, I gathered up my biggest pieces of wood and added one to the fire. I liked the idea of cooking the meat over actual flames and kept the fire stoked until the steaks were nearly done. After I basted them with sauce, I let the fire die out so the sauce would caramelize gently and slowly.

The potatoes and broccoli were both seasoned with canola oil, salt and pepper. I added garlic to potato packet and after the broccoli was done I splashed on a little lemon juice and dusted with parmesan cheese.

Bacon and eggs

2011-08-20T22:04:00.003-06:00

Bacon and eggs go together like...bacon and eggs. Pasta alla carbonara is one of my favorite ways to eat bacon and eggs when it's not breakfast time and it's a completely simple and very delicious dish. All you need is hot pasta (and I will say it again: PASTA BOAT!), beaten egg, grated cheese and bacon (or pancetta, of course). To Friday night's dish I also added some chopped parsley and basil (swiped from Deb's garden - thanks, Deb!) and the basil added a really nice level of flavor. A touch of cream can be really good added to carbonar, but I didn't have any and I didn't really miss it.

Feeling somewhat lackadaisical about dinner Saturday night and having neglected to get anything else out of the freezer, I turned to bacon and eggs again. This time in a spinach salad with a fried egg on top. Spinach, tomato, leftover potatoes crisped in bacon grease (!), bacon, and croutons tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with a crispy edged fried egg (in bacon grease!).

I feel a bit like the dog in that treat commercial, "It's bacon!"

Finally, actual finished ceramics!

2011-08-20T21:13:00.002-06:00

After many starts and stops, wrong glazes, blazing hot weather and the shop forgetting about my stuff, I FINALLY have my first batch of clay work done done done! I obviously have some things to learn and work on (namely, thickness of glazes and larger holes in pendants and beads), but overall, I'm really happy with the results. The mystery of glazes is that these two colors were supposed to be a very green green, and a blackish dark red. I got a gorgeous turquoise instead and something that very much approaches a wood color which absolutely supports the faux bois work.

I've definitely learned from mistakes and I will definitely get some more low-fire glazes to go with the pounds of low-fire clay I still have courtesy of my friend Karen Lynn Miller (check her stuff out here). I only wish I could buy smaller quantities of glaze rather than the big pints as it is rather expensive and it's really nearly impossible to know what you're going to get after firing. For example, as far as I could tell, the glaze that turned brown here wasn't necessarily supposed to have a matte finish. But there you go!

Now, to actually make jewelry out of this stuff!

Boomer decided to help me.

And help some more.

And still a bit more.

She wants you to look at this faux bois bowl.

The beads, which still need the firing wires taken out of them.

Lotsa meat/notso meaty.

2011-08-18T20:13:00.001-06:00

I was wandering around the grocery store yesterday, hungry. That can be dangerous but it just resulted in a stop at the salad bar and a decision to make burgers for dinner. It did mean beef two nights in a row, but what the hell.

I found a more expensive ground beef on sale and bought it, despite a little doubt. I'm not keen on the very lean beef; to my mind, the flavor is often lacking. And it did turn out that my initial feelings were right, but it was still a burger and it tasted good, just not as good as it could have been.

As usual, I sauteed some onions and got them slightly caramelized before adding the beef. I had also bought a basting/marinade sauce and coated each patty with that before cooking which I assumed would take care of the salt (it didn't, really). I cooked them to medium and then topped with a slice of Swiss cheese, the onions and a teeny bit of my newly beloved sweet salad peppers and mayonnaise. A side salad and some baked beans (I confess to using canned beans straight from the can) rounded out the plate.

Tonight it was finally time for Meatless Monday since we've been quite meatful all week up to now. A tray of fried tofu, one of snow peas and a bag of bean sprouts from Jay International later, in combination with some sliced onion, chopped mushrooms, rice noodles and bottled kung pao sauce later and we had big bowls of stir fry. Yum.

And now it is time for my hot fudge concrete, with extra malt, from Ted Drewe's!

Let me stand next to your fire

2011-08-16T20:45:00.001-06:00

I've had a huge stack of bricks in the yard for years. A while back I decided to dissemble the brick patio in the backyard as it had shifted and humps and dips had formed so that it wasn't exactly pleasant to walk on. I certainly didn't want to get rid of the bricks, so I just stacked them up at the bottom of the yard for future use. I've been thinking about building (and I use that term loosely) a firepit with some of the bricks and today, with its lovely temperature, seemed like the day. Since I was just placing and stacking bricks, not using any kind of mortar or anything, this was a pretty quick job. I started with some concrete blocks and surrounded them with bricks, adding a second layer on the inside for a sort of insulation. (I have no idea what I'm really doing, officially, but I figure I can't do much harm burning some sticks in my yard.) In the inside bottom, I poured a half a bag of river pebbles I happened to have, just to give some separation between fire and the ground. It seemed like a good idea.

We have three trees in our yard so there is no shortage of dried sticks and wood to burn. I started the fire with some tightly rolled newspaper, piling on some larger pieces of wood and kindling on top. Soon enough I had a pretty good fire going.

I love fire. I love playing in fires. I love poking at fires. I love burning things. Is this a bad combination? Time will tell, I suppose. Although I intended to eventually cook on this fire, initially I just wanted to kick back and enjoy it. I had attempted, just by eyeing it, to match the width of the pit with the grill grates that I had. Not so much, but it still works for the time being.

Foxy Brown is somewhat skeptical about the fire.

On the menu for the inaugural firepit meal was steak, fish and foil-packet potatoes. I threw the potatoes into the embers and covered them with a fairly flat chunk of ember for a time.

Then it was time to amp up the flames for the meat cooking. I put the monkfish in a small cast iron skillet with oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and covered it with foil.

After letting both of these things cook for a bit, I added the steak and did add a little wood to get the flames going a bit more.

I also pulled the potatoes out of the embers before they could burn.

I couldn't be more pleased with the food results. The steak was unbelievably delicious, cooked quickly and licked by the flames and infused with the smoke. The fish absorbed a bit of smoky flavor, which was a wonderful counterpoint to the lemon. The potatoes were nicely steamed and had a bit of smoke too.

I can't wait to cook over the fire again soon. I will have to get a bigger grate and some bigger chunks of wood to grill something that needs a slower, gentler cooking. Also, this is as close to campfire cooking as I'm ever going to get with the Boy in tow. And that's okay.

Sunday night - Chicken and green bean red Thai curry

2011-08-07T19:02:00.001-06:00

I love green beans with red curry a.k.a. pad prik khing, so it seemed to make sense to combine them with chicken and coconut milk for a full blown Thai coconut curry.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 T vegetable oil (I use canola)
1/2 large onion, slice
1/2 inch of ginger, minced
1 heaping T red curry paste
1 can coconut milk (I used the 'lite' version this time, but I prefer the regular)
12 oz. frozen whole green beans, thawed (of course you could use fresh)
1 t salt
2 t sugar

Heat the oil in a wok till hot, add the chicken and stir fry until done. Remove from pan, leaving the oil. Add the onion and ginger and saute for a few minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the curry paste and cook for a few minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and stir till the paste is incorporated into the liquid, then add the chicken back into the pan. Add the salt and sugar, then cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes or so until the beans and onions are tender. Serve over rice (I used brown).

1 heaping T red thai curry paste

Thrift on the East Side

2011-08-06T17:06:00.001-06:00

Today seemed like a perfect day to head to Belleville to check out some of their many thrift stores. I was home from work early, the Boy was off, and the weather wasn't too hideous. Results were pretty good, overall. Suffice it to say the Boy got a pile of books not pictured here.

First up, a older, but still functional salad spinner. Since a conversation on FB, salad spinners have seemed even more precious. And this one cost 12.5 cents.

I've always wanted a little hot water pot, but have never gotten around to buying one. For $1.50 this prettily colored one became mind.

One of the more practical things I've been looking for during thrifting is a springform pan. I haven't come across one in weeks and weeks and now today I find two - one big, one small! Cheesecake is back on the menu!

This little dish has a chip, but the blue and red color scheme was so pretty, I don't care about that dang old chip.

My quest for wooden items continues and today was a banner day. First, this shallow (and quite large) salad bowl with matching wooden salad fork and spoon. I can't wait to make a big salad in this. It seems perfect for a Caesar.

And then, from Haiti, this cool serving dish. I don't know that this one is vintage, but it's lovely.

Five skeins of what is labeled as "rug yarn." It's 75/25 rayon/cotton though it feels a little itchier than that to the hand.

I think I'm going to experiment with putting a plant of some kind under this cheese keeper glass.

I'm not sure what the intended purpose of this dish is. It is oven proof and has a lovely mod floral bird motif. I love the bright colors.

This teeny (about 2 inches) spaniel figurine might be used for a snowglobe. Allison?

These two scotties are just kind of weird. Sort of the Easter island heads of dog statuary.

And finally, a prettily embroidered linen table runner.

Eggs Florentine Pie

2011-08-04T19:47:00.000-06:00

I saw the recipe for this eggs florentine puff pastry pie on the BBC Good Food website a few weeks ago. With the temperatures in the upper 90s at dinner time, there was no way I was going to turn the over on to make it, but I kept thinking about it. With a much more temperate day facing us, I began to think I could risk turning on the oven and proceeded.

It's a simple recipe, but even though I added garlic and chopped onion, it was still a little bland (a common problem with Brit recipes, I find), but still a nice change of pace. It's just a sheet of puff pastry, pre-baked for 10 minutes or so, then topped with spinach sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onion, then mixed with ricotta cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Back in the oven for about 15 minutes and it's done. To serve, I chopped up a tomato and some green onion to scatter on top.

While at the grocery store, I found a package of 8 or 9 very ripe bananas for 69 cents. Sold! Banana bread. At this point, I was giddy with the idea that it wasn't 98F and I was making bakng plans with abandon. I found a good looking recipe (I added walnuts) on Allrecipes.com and knocked out a loaf.

While I had the oven on, and since, annoyingly, the two sheets of puff pastry in a box come in the same wrapper (so dumb!), I had to use them both up. Then it must be palmiers, the absolute easiest cookie in the world. Roll out a sheet of puff pastry atop 1/3 cup or so of sugar, sprinkle the top side with more sugar, roll up each long side till they meet in the middle, then slice approximately 3/8 inch pieces and place them cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake until the sugar is caramelized and the cookie is slightly browned. So simple and so very delicious.

The Boy Gets a Thrift Store Feeling

2011-08-04T15:34:00.001-06:00

In an unprecedented move today, the Boy announced that he had a Thrift Store Feeling about St. Vincent de Paul. Thrift Store Feelings must always be obeyed so into the car we hopped. His instincts are good.

I'm slowly building a collection of wooden pieces, both mid-century and otherwise. Leaf motifs are very common, but this specimen is special because it's BIG. It's 22 inches long! I'm thinking it will be very good for a holiday cookie tray, perhaps a chip and dip sort of thing too.

My love of gold and black glassware is well documented here, so of course I could not pass up these teeny round VIP glasses. They're only about 2 inches high.

Two 6 inch Aztec melmac bowls in gorgeous colors.

This little darling was abandoned up at the cash register and I snagged it before anyone else could grab it. How many vintage choppers do I have now?

I don't know why I'm crazy for vintage utensils, but I am and I use them all happily. For some reason, the composition of this photo reminded me of Grant Wood's American Gothic.

I almost walked right past this platter/bowl, as the colors are rather dark and I didn't notice right away that it was glazed pottery. That would have been a serious loss as this wonderful thing is marked '1959' and is 18 inches long. I can't wait to serve something in it!

The Boy's thrift store goals are nearly always books and he did all right. I didn't photograph most of his, but here's some of the loot. These editions were just too good to pass up.

And these! The decorating book is from 1965 and the children's sewing book from '66. If Allison Walker Rabbitt is reading this, that sewing book is for her!

I adore decorating books from the '50s and '60s. I'm not sure I could live with these designs, but I certainly love looking at them. Some favorites from the pages:

I particularly love the green and blue room, above. Because I married a giant, my dream of long low mid-century furniture will remain a dream. It's just not scaled to his size. But I can enjoy photos.

A few weeks ago I neglected to document a couple of thrifting finds. I love this tiered platter. It's plastic "crystal" and the top tier lifts off, revealing an extra little section for special treats.

I seem to be amassing a collection of funny little planters.

Now, to make some banana bread. Yes, the weather has finally broken.

EDIT: Catching up with some other thrift purchases...another set of black and gold glasses (and in three again; what's up with that?).

A couple of silk scarves, in an orange theme...

A pair of grey vintage sandals. I figure since roughly 1/3 of my wardrobe is grey, I should be able to make some use of these.

Four meals, including Meatless Monday

2011-08-03T15:31:00.003-06:00

One day recently it must not have been suffocatingly hot in our house because I came home with a package of smoked chicken thighs and somehow zeroed in on chili as the thing to do with them. Yeah, I don't get it either, and I did it. I was searching around the web for recipes using smoked chicken and I happened upon someone mentioning chili and it seemed like a good idea. So, straight to the kitchen to put a pound of dried red beans in the pressure cooker, of course.

To start the chili, I sauteed an onion, a couple of little hot chile peppers I snagged off a plant at work, half of a green pepper I had in the refrigerator, and a zucchini (because it's my chili and if I want to put a zucchini in it, I will!). Once that stuff was all nice and softened, I added a large can of crushed tomatoes, a little bit of tomato juice, a heaping tablespoon (or more) of cumin and an equal amount of chili powder. Once the beans were done, I dumped them in the pot and left the whole mess to cook for a couple hours.

It was way too hot for chili, really, but it kind of worked.

Monday was hot. (Yes, I'm a broken record - I HATE this weather and I can't wait for it to pass.) I couldn't think of anything except a salad to have for Meatless Monday, but the idea for a taco salad didn't pop into my head until late in the day. Luckily, I had most everything on hand though I had to get the Boy to pick up some corn chips. A very easy, tasty and filling salad. I used romaine lettuce, a big ripe tomato (finally able to buy some decent ones!), a handful of frozen corn (it was thawed well before serving time), a can of black beans (drained and rinsed), some crispy fried onions, a few bite-sized chunks of pepperjack cheese, corn chips for crunch and Catalina dressing (or whatever the red stuff is called).

I found my favorite little boneless beef shortribs on sale again (almost a pound and half for around $3 - I love grocery store bargains!) and I wanted to make them very simply, seasoned and grilled. It was too hot for the outdoor grill, so I fired up the electric gizmo, threw some of my favorite steak seasoning on the little fellows and cooked them up to a nice medium rare (with a half pound or so left over for another meal, as you will see). In the meantime, I steamed some potatoes (in the fabulous Pasta Boat!) and put together another salad.

To use up the leftover beef (and to completely avoid any sort of heated cooking) I made another salad, this time with spinach, carrots, another big ripe tomato, slices of the beef, a little shaved asiago cheese, croutons and honey mustard dressing. I love a steak salad so much.

Carne asada calabacitas

2011-07-30T17:40:00.003-06:00

On Thursday it didn't seem quite as miserably hot as usual so the idea of putting something to cook in the slow cooker seemed like a good idea. I found some stew meat at the grocery store and I started thinking of some sort of Mexican inspired carne asada, with vegetables; a thick stew with vegetables and served with tortillas.

I didn't want to do any real prep work, so I pretty much threw everything into the cooker, turned it on high and waited. I started with the beef, a can of tomatoes with green chilis, about a cup of tomato juice, a few tablespoons of cumin, another couple of chili powder, a yellow squash, a zucchini, about half of a large sweet onion, two cloves of garlic and salt and pepper. After about four hours it was smelling awfully good, but even the slow cooker was putting out a heat I could feel from across the room. Ugh. I pointed a fan at it, turned it to low, and kept my ass out of the kitchen, for the most part.

It turned out well, though if it hadn't been so hot outside, I would have baked this dish in order to reduce and thicken the sauce. It was delicious scooped into flour tortillas, but a little messy. With a thicker sauce, that wouldn't have been an issue. Alongside I simply added some corn kernels to a drained and rinsed can of black beans and tossed them with a bit of vinaigrette.

Did you carry out those threats I heard /Or were you only playing macho?/And the stains on her Versace scarf/Were they really just gazpacho? - Meatless Monday's gazpacho and cheese panini

2011-07-26T17:20:00.002-06:00

It's too hot for nearly, well, anything, but Sunday night's cool down did bring the temperature down in the house a bit, making it almost comfortable all day Monday. Comfortable enough that I was willing to chop and stir for gazpacho, and even added cheesy paninis to the Meatless Monday menu. Unlike my usual litany of ingredients and methods, I will actually detail the recipe like a normal person (and will my blog every get famous if I don't recount the recipes with exact ingredients and measurements?).

Let me state right now that I have no garden and no current access to fresh tomatoes so there are none in this recipe (which is sacrilege to 'real' gazpacho, I know), but this was a very good batch, so take that for what it is. I looked at a few recipes and took the parts I liked and came up with this one.

Gazpacho

2 stalks celery, thinly chopped
1/2 large (or 1 whole small) green pepper, chopped
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/3 large sweet onion, finely chopped
1 large fatty clove of garlic (I used a press for mine)
About a quarter cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 12oz can fire roasted tomatoes, with juice
4-6 cups tomato juice
Salt and pepper to taste (you probably won't need much salt due to the tomatoes and tomato juice)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Several dashes of hot sauce (I used Extra Hot Valentina)
2 tsp. sugar

Stir all ingredients together and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

For the paninis I had a lovely flat-ish sesame seed loaf which I cut in half lengthwise and spread each side with a teeny bit of mayo. I had grated cheeses so I used half sharp cheddar and half of a pizza blend. I only had a teeny amount of those delicious sweet salad peppers left (how have I lived so long without Mt. Olive's Sweet Salad Peppers???), but I stuck them on too. Ten minutes or so in the panini press and they were crispy and gooey and a perfect accompaniment to the chilled soup.

It all also seemed to work as an aphrodisiac, an added bonus, since nothing else has worked in this weather!

Dinner via assemblage

2011-07-22T21:41:00.003-06:00

Today, the culmination of several days of 96+ temperatures, was too hot to even contemplate chopping vegetables for salad. The most I could fathom doing was putting things on a platter and maybe slicing some bread. So, at the grocery store today I bought things that required no preparation, no heat, no fuss. Thus it was a platter of meats, cheeses, bread and some other bits and bobs like sundried tomatoes, olives, sugar snap peas, and sweet/hot banana peppers. I forgot to take a photo before we started eating, so here's one mid-way through.

Sesame peanut noodles and spicy cucumber salad

2011-07-21T20:00:00.002-06:00

To continue the theme of cold meals, I couldn't get my mind off of cold peanut noodles today. Perhaps I have an unnatural love of peanut butter, but PB&J sandwiches, satay sauce, peanut butter cups, peanut butter cookies and peanut noodles are some of my favorite foods.

Since I had that grilled chicken frozen from the weekend, I decided that I would slice some up and add it to the noodles for a little added protein. For the noodles I cooked about eight ounces of vermicelli in my trusty Pasta Boat, drained it, and rinsed and soaked it in cool water. In the meantime I mixed up a sauce of about half a cup of crunchy peanut butter, a quarter cup of smooth peanut butter, about a quarter cup of hot water, a nice slosh of seasoned rice vinegar, a good glug of toasted sesame oil, some shakes of soy sauce, around a quarter cup of sweet chili garlic sauce, and about a tablespoon of siracha. Because I like oniony goodness, I also sliced up the green parts of about four scallions and added them to the noodles and chicken. I tossed it all with the sauce and let it chill for about three hours.

For the cucumber salad I peeled (with one of my very favorite kitchen utensils - my bird peeler - a Christmas gift from my sister Carol) and thinly sliced the cucumber and dressed it with seasoned rice vinegar, a bit of sweet chili garlic sauce and a packet of sweetener as it seemed a little salty from the vinegar and I didn't want to add more real sugar. They were nice and tart, a little spicy and very garlicky.

Now to think about what happens tomorrow night...

It's too hot to live, way too hot to cook - Meatless Monday white bean salad/chicken salad

2011-07-21T17:35:00.000-06:00

Do I need to say anything about the temperatures we've been experiencing here? It's hellish and miserable and it's making me angry (because I want to speak to someone about it!), but there's nothing to be done, is there? Cooking anything that requires standing in front of a burner or a grill is out of the question, but I am also not satisfied with salad greens for dinner. As it was Meatless Monday, I thought some kind of bean salad would be good and filling. I cooked a half pound of navy beans in the pressure cooker and rinsed and cooled them once they were finished cooking.

For the salad I chopped a tomato and a little bundle of parsley, added a spoonful of capers and probably a quarter cup of black empeltre olives, chopped. I got a big jar of these beauties at Marshall's for a mere $4.99, a total bargain even if they have to be pitted. Then I started feeling ambitious, even with the heat. I had the majority of a bag of frozen mixed pepper strips so I sauteed those and a quarter of a big sweet onion in a little olive oil until softened and added it to the rest of the ingredients. I already had a bottle of homemade balsamic vinaigrette which I sloshed on and mixed around. The salad went into the refrigerator for a bit of chilling and when I served it I dusted it with some parmesan cheese. If I do say so myself, it was a delicious cold, meatless meal on a hot day.

On Tuesday night we were kindly treated to a delicious and oh-so-decadent Italian meal at Bill Gianino's in South County by my sister Carol and brother in law John. We were celebrating the presence of my niece Kate, her husband Saksiri, and the star of the show, my adorable great-niece Sophie. Steve had tortellini and I had the ravioli proscuitto which was amazingly good (beef ravioli that was flavored with a lot of basil - yum - in a garlicky cream sauce full of broccoli, proscuitto and mushrooms). Really, I think this place pretty much trumps all the joints on the Hill as far as St. Louis Italian food goes. Delish!

Last night I decided to open a can of chicken and make chicken salad for sandwiches. I've never really eaten much canned chicken and now that I've had it a couple times, I have to make some apologies to Jessica Simpson. Seriously, I now I completely understand her "is it fish or chicken what I'm eating?" dilemma. Canned chicken tastes a hell of a lot like water packed tuna. At any rate, I added some celery, a bit of onion powder and a spoonful of mayonnaise (sadly, Duke's light mayo is not anywhere near the sublime heights of their regular stuff) and piled the resulting salad up on a couple of cheesy onion rolls. For a salad I took the easy way out and ripped open a bad of salad greens, dumped on the leftover white bean salad and drizzled with a little more vinaigrette.

Next up: Cold sesame peanut noodles and spicy cucumber salad.

If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen {as much as possible} - Crock pot pork/Grilled chicken Caesar salad

2011-07-17T20:20:00.001-06:00

If you live in St. Louis, you know it's been hot. Really really fucking hot. And humid, as usual. Aside from a window unit in our bedroom, we are air conditioned splendor-less. Mostly we can deal with it, but when there are sequential days of mid-90s and beyond, it gets rather uncomfortable. We are now preparing for five or six more days of uncomfortable. I am dreading it, truly.

In this kind of heat, cooking becomes fairly unattractive. Last week I had a hankering for roast pork with the peach and jalapeno jam I made a couple weeks ago. I found a nice boneless rolled pork roast, sprinkled it with salt, pepper and garlic, and stuck it in the crock pot for a few hours. When it was basically completely cooked, I poured a little of the jam over it and let it cook for about an hour more. Although the jam wasn't as spicy as I would have liked, it did add a nice flavor to the pork. Steamed new potatoes and salad were nearly heatless sides.

The next day it was still hot, but I managed to make a batch of pesto (effectively bringing about the end of my 15+ year old mini Cuisinart processor) and shredded the leftover pork and added barbecue sauce. I had bought a loaf of Marconi bread and used it for open-faced sandwiches with penne pasta, pesto and chopped tomatoes.

I couldn't imagine cooking anything today in the heat (or in this week's upcoming misery) so when we were grocery shopping I was trying to think of cool things to prepare and eat. Caesar salad sounded good for tonight, but I wanted some kind of protein. A big package of skinless, boneless chicken thighs solved that issue. I seasoned them simply and cooked the lot on the indoor grill, freezing two-thirds for later in the week. A grilled chicken Caesar salad hit the spot.

For dessert this past week I've been making s'mores. Easy, gooey and so good. Tonight's messy specimen:

Not Quite Meatless Monday and Chicken Thighs

2011-07-12T20:33:00.002-06:00

I feel a bit of a failure, missing out on two Meatless Mondays in a row. I succumbed to barbeque on the Fourth of July and yesterday the lure of another Nicoise salad overcame me. Plus I could prepare the components in advance, meaning I didn't have to do any meaningful cooking in the oppressive heat of yesterday afternoon and evening. And, well, I fucking love Nicoise salad. This time I opted for canned tuna and I think it was better than the fresh grilled stuff. I have fairly recently become a convert to the olive oil packed tuna and it was perfect for the salad. Water-packed tuna just seems so very bland and boring now.

Tonight I decided to marinate some chicken thighs in white wine vinegar, some oil, garlic and a little pile of herbs from my garden - rosemary, oregano and basil. Some corn on the cob, shucked and put right on the grill (I have no idea why people bother with the process of pulling the husks back, removing the silk and putting the husks back on) to get a bit of char on it. Some asparagus sauteed with a bit of mushroom (I would have used a lot of mushroom but my container had mostly gone slimy) finished it off.

It was an actual pleasure to grill outside once the rain came and went. Nothing like being outside and not instantly sweating, for a change.

Odds and Sods...

2011-07-12T14:40:00.000-06:00

Last week I finally took my very first batch of real clay (you know, the actual mud stuff) items to the pottery store (Baked Goods) to be bisque fired. I was rather nervous, not knowing if I had made things the "right" way so that they wouldn't get ruined in the firing process. (I'm so uninformed about clay, really, that I don't even know what that would mean!) Apparently, I mostly did it right as everything except for one teeny bowl came back unscathed; and I assume the little bowl just got dropped or something. I was giddy looking over my two little containers of stuff. It was no longer just shaped mud - it was ceramic! The pieces were bright white and they tinkled like china when clinked together.

I only managed to get a photo of the egg carton full of mostly plain beads prior to adding glaze. I was so eager to start glazing the pendants and larger pieces, I totally forgot to photograph them. Here they are with the requisite layers of glaze.

Unlike paints and some other glazes, the pottery glazes I want to use look completely, well, boring and awful before firing. The muddy grey pieces will hopefully look like this; the pale green stuff in the upper left corner will look like this; and the red will be completely different and be blue like this. At least, that's the plan. Apparently with ceramics and pottery, you can never be 100% sure what you are going to get post-firing. It's exciting and a little nerve-wracking at the same time. Hopefully the layers of glaze have not obscured the texture in all of these pieces, most of which are faux-bois.

Regardless of how they turn out, I have Karen Lynn Miller, friend and fellow artist (and proprietor of Binx Ceramics), to thank for giving me a huge chunk of clay to try out and for being patient with my many many questions about the process. I have looked longingly at finished pottery pieces for years, wanting to work within the medium but being a bit afraid to try it out. Karen pushed me right in and I'm very grateful to her. It just feels right working with the stuff. I can't wait to do more.

While I was out on Gravois picking up my bisque, I saw that the Eckert's store was open and ran in to get some peaches and other produce. Since it has been hot as hell, I intended to do something with the peaches rather than save them for eating (and thus, letting them rot). I decided on a sweet/savory peach and jalapeno jam which I think will be lovely on grilled pork and chicken, particularly in the colder months when a blast of sweet spicy peaches will be so welcome and fresh tasting. I'm a little afraid my jalapenos weren't hot enough, though. I suppose I will eventually find out. I canned these the "right" way so the seven jars I got are good for the next decade or so.

I was very much dreading work today as the temperature was predicted to reach nearly 100F again. I survived it, and it was sweaty and very hot, but it wasn't completely miserable. What amused me is that the tropical hibiscus plants seem to be having a jolly old time in the heat and humidity. Last week I nearly lost a bunch due to [someone else's] negligent watering, but they've all sprung back and are producing flowers like crazy. I couldn't resist pulling out my mobile cam and recording some of them, even though it meant standing still in the sun a bit longer.

This is possibly the most beautiful hibiscus flower I've ever seen. Triple-petaled in a lovely soft pink.

The triple peach is a close runner up.

The yellow ones are so pretty they seem to be ascending to heaven on sunbeams!

Another gorgeous peach version.

And finally, this is the prettiest echinacea variety I've ever seen.

Goes and shows up with/More bowls and more/Cups and the riot for the/Last hot meal erupts - Vegetable Tostadas

2011-07-07T21:24:00.001-06:00

Maybe because it's summer and there are actual ripe tomatoes around, I keep craving things piled on corn tortillas. Today at the grocery store I saw mushrooms on sale and immediately jumped to a vegetable tostada night. I know mushrooms don't seem to immediately scream "Mexican food!" but I thought that they would add a nice texture to the dish.

First task when I got home was to put about half a pound of pinto beans into the pressure cooker. Have I said how much I love my pressure cooker? Even if I use it for nothing but beans and brown rice, it is still beloved and invaluable. I do have to confess that I have no idea how long I cooked them; at one point I had been upstairs showering and on my way back down I suddenly smelled beans and rushed to turn off the fire. Luckily they were just right, particularly for my purposes.

I also bought a packet of Mrs. Wages All-Natural Salsa mix, intended to be mixed with chopped fresh tomato or canned petite diced tomato in juice. I opted to use canned tomatoes, just to see if it was any good (and to save my fresh tomatoes in case it was not). Surprisingly it was pretty good. I'd never seen Mrs. Wages anything until a couple weeks ago but there seems to be a pretty big line of stuff. I also smashed up an avocado with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders.

For the vegetable mixture I heated olive oil in my wok pan [The wok's another beloved kitchen tool I've had for 15 years. My sister Carol gave it to us as a shower gift and after about 10 years it was seasoned well. Now it is perfect and I use it several times a week. Couldn't live without it.] and added Vidalia onion, banana peppers, summer squash (thanks again, Allison!), mushrooms, chili powder and cumin and cooked it all until the vegetables were tender, but not squishy.

To assemble I spread some beans (which I had smashed and added a bit of water to when reheating) on the tostada, then the vegetable mixture, salsa, lettuce and tomato, sour cream and guacamole. I totally forgot about getting the cheese out, but we really didn't miss it.

Tacos and tostadas seem way more rich and caloric than they really are, and you get a ton of fresh vegetables in every serving. Almost virtuous!

Yo, I rearrange your wholesome change/Complicate your vision and make the world look strange - Chicken pesto pasta and fudge

2011-07-05T21:28:00.000-06:00

After waiting it out for a couple days it was finally time for pesto and pasta today. I got a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store the other day so I cut up the white meat from one breast and threw it in a bowl. When the pasta was cooked (thank you once again Pasta Boat!), I drained it and then dumped it into the bowl to heat up the chicken and then added a big ass glob of my pesto and mixed it all around. I loooooooove the smell of pesto hitting hot pasta - the garlic and basil just become so aromatic. The Boy declared, "I could eat pesto every day!"

I got a chocolate craving today and I needed to stop myself from eating a whole can of sweetened condensed milk. I had also caught a glimpse of a spare bag of chocolate chips so...fudge! And since I had some almonds around, I chopped a handful up to add to the fudge. Then I took some moody photos of it.

There'll be no sorrows left to drown/Early in the morning in your evening gown - Elvis and salads and pesto.

2011-07-03T20:47:00.000-06:00

A week of ridiculously, dangerously hot weather culminated in an incredible Elvis Costello show at the Pageant. I'll let Christian Schaeffer of the RFT tell you all about it. I love Elvis and I've seen him many times, but this was absolutely one of the very best performances. I even managed to get myself right down front and center, within just a few feet from the man himself. I'm sure my exuberance, and my unwillingness to give up my spot once I claimed it, pissed off a few people, but I like to think that I do a pretty decent job of keeping Mr. Costello front and center on the airwaves here in St. Louis via my radio show, so tough shit, people!

Anyways, to get back to food, let's start with the most recent first. I bought a nice package of chunks of albacore tuna at Trader Joe's the other day and all I have been thinking of is Nicoise salad, but just hadn't had the opportunity to make one until tonight.

What a perfect combination of ingredients. A perfectly boiled egg, lovely steamed and creamy red potatoes, thin blanched green beans, grilled tuna, tomato wedges and black olives, on a bed of spinach, all drizzled with a garlicky Dijon vinaigrette. Gosh, I already want another one. It was perfect for a warm day.

Earlier today I finally made pesto out of the basil I plundered from Allison's garden the other day. She left town and forgot to harvest the ripe stuff so she gave me permission to gather a few things. The banana peppers were delicious in a beef mixture for tostadas, and I will be eating the yellow squash soon. But today, it was pesto. I bougtht a bag of almonds in the shell weeks ago but had been too lazy to crack them until now. I don't love pesto made with pignoli so I usually use walnuts, but I was thinking that the creamy richness of almonds might be very good. I toasted them a bit in a hot pan first, then used about a palmful of nuts with maybe a cup and a half of basil leaves (loosely packed). Lots of garlic, some parmesan cheese and a generous amount of olive oil results in this emerald green dish of goodness.

I have to think about how I want to use it though it probably won't be till Tuesday. I think it will be good to let it sit and meld all the flavors even more. I like how the skins on the almonds made the little reddish brown flecks in it. Festive!

Last night we had a very late dinner after Steve got home from work. Considering how incredibly hot it was, I wanted to make a big salad. I had bought strawberries and blueberries for salad, and a roasted chicken so it seemed like a natural combination. I thinly sliced some Vidalia onion, added iceberg lettuce (I purposely wanted iceberg for its crunch and water content) and spinach, then chunks of strawberry, a handful of blueberries and some shredded white meat chicken. I wanted a poppyseed dressing and I really like the bottled kind mixed with a bit of vinegar to cut the sweetness. Oh, and I threw in some croutons for more crunch.

I apologize for the crappy photos. I'm out of batteries for my digital camera (and keep forgetting to buy more) and I have to make do with my mobile's cam.

I'm a CopyCat - Swordfish with Fennel

2011-06-28T22:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my niece Stephanie posted a photo of her dinner of swordfish with a topping that included fennel. I love swordfish, but it's not always readily available, and it is often out of my budget. As I was driving down 64 anyway today, on my way home from visiting my mom, I popped in to Trader Joe's as they always have frozen swordfish steaks and they are not too dear. Not cheap either, sadly, but they do seem to be fresh and of good quality.

To copy Steph, I also grabbed some fennel for the very first time. Until today, I had neither cooked it nor even tasted it, though I knew it to be licorice-flavored. I chopped up a bulb and tasted a raw piece and I do not think I shall be eating it raw. Way too strong a licorice flavor for my tastes. Anyway, I sauteed an onion and a fat clove of garlic in olive oil, then added the chopped fennel, a chopped tomato, some fresh basil chiffonade, a palmful of chopped kalamata olives and a big spoonful of capers, plus salt and pepper.

Cooked with all these other ingredients, the fennel completely mellowed out and was only left with a very faint licorice flavor (a good thing in my book). It was a lovely topping for a nice dense piece of fish.

I totally cheated with the side vegetables and used a frozen mix, but it was a pretty good one, with lots of asparagus.

Chicken Wing Sunday and Meatless Monday

2011-06-27T20:51:00.000-06:00

At the end of a long day that included me overdosing on caffeine and aimless chatter, I wanted something comforting. Chicken wings comfort me. Especially grilled wings slathered in sticky sweet spicy barbecue sauce. Add to that a creamy mashed sweet potato and a pile of scalloped corn first sauteed in a bit of bacon grease. Yes, those things were comforting.

For Meatless Monday I wanted the meal to center around asparagus and cremini mushrooms. I was originally thinking of a panini of some sort as I had found a loaf of pumpernickel on sale. However, once I got home I found a bag of mushroom tortellini and that became an option. Offering the Boy the choice, he of course picked the pasta. (He informed me a couple weeks ago that he would always pick the pasta, almost no matter the choice. Crazy.) So the option being pasta, I sauteed the sliced mushrooms, asparagus, and onion in olive oil until all the items were cooked through. Then I added some evaporated milk (didn't happen to have half and half or cream on hand) and parmesan cheese and let the liquid reduce until I was ready to add the cooked tortellini to the pan.

In the meantime I finely chopped a fat clove of garlic, diced a whole, medium tomato and made a chiffonade out of little stack of fresh basil leaves. I had already thinly sliced some pumpernickel, brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and garlic and then put it under the broiler until crisp. Put both components together for pumpernickel bruschetta. Mmmmmmm, hello raw garlic. Guess you're staying overnight, garlic breath.

Shrimp stir-fry with sweet chili sauce

2011-06-24T21:46:00.000-06:00

Stir-fry dishes and soups are the best way to use up odds and ends in the refrigerator and freezer and since it's too hot for soup...

If I had my little way I'd eat peaches everyday/Sun soakin' bulges in the shade - Peach summer cake

2011-06-24T18:44:00.000-06:00

I'm kind of a dolt. I bought some ripe peaches yesterday and wanted to make a cake or a cobbler or something with them but I could decide what. I did a bunch of web searches and finally settled on a recipe I found on Chowhound (a site that I generally dislike, but I'll get to that in a minute), here. I made the batter, added the fruit, washed the dishes, baked the cake and took it out of the oven. It wasn't until I was walking out of the kitchen after it was done that it dawned on me I had made the EXACT same recipe as the summer strawberry cake. I mean exactly. Both of them even said they were adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. D'oh! I must say that the Smitten Kitchen blog made the recipe seem more prissy and fussy than it really is which is possibly why I didn't recognize it as the same on Chowhound immediately. Regardless of the source of the recipe (and I firmly expect to someday stumble across the original Martha recipe and not recognize it yet again), I think I will like the peach version better.

As for Chowhound, I really don't know that much about it, except that the recipes I've stumbled across are always in (or linked in) the forum boards portion of the website. I'm not sure that there are recipes elsewhere or not. The forums are full of chatty discourse among people who clearly spend a LOT of time there with one another. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, but it reminds me of nothing less than the blathering on adult sex chat sites. (If you have read back in the archives of this blog, you might know that I once spent a fair amount of time on one of those. Take my word for it, there's a lot less sex being chatted than you might imagine.) I suppose that all internet forums about anything eventually descend into the morass of a couple queen bees and king rats holding court with their minions kissing their asses at every opportunity. And you can guess that I want nothing to do with that nonsense. I get the same squicky feeling when I happen upon one of the myriad crafty/cooky/decoratory blogs run by a housewife with 2+ adorable children and hundreds of followers (and no less than five badges proclaiming them part of this or that network or best of the ladyblogs or 'click here to kiss my ass') who exclaim that every word the blogger has written is pure manna from the gods. "Oh my GOD, your cupcakes with multicolored spinkles are the CUTEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN! You are so inspiring!" Oh, fuck me.

And then he stood in the check-out line/Approximately 3 hours/"This is cold w ar!" shouted a clerk/"This is Russian hell!" shouted a jerk - Bacon and egg cupcakes

2011-06-23T20:40:00.000-06:00

"Cupcakes" is a bit of a misnomer in this recipe as there is no batter and nothing remotely sweet. They aren't even made in cupcake papers, though they are supposed to be baked in a jumbo muffin tin. So, Bacon and Egg Muffins would be a better name, I think, though that is still not quite hitting it.

A friend posted these on Facebook the other day and they were irresistible as I love all the components (only three of them, actually) and I will take any excuse to eat eggs at any time of the day. The Boy isn't big on breakfasts that deviate from his decades long juice-cereal-banana-whilst-reading-the-paper routine so these beauties had to be for dinner.

Unfortunately, in the thrill of buying bacon and biscuits I totally forgot that I don't own a jumbo muffin pan to bake these in so I had to improvise with rings of heavy duty foil on a cookie sheet. There was a teeny bit of egg leakage, but otherwise it worked fine.

Make these; they are delicious.

Dunk my heart in a vat of lard/it's getting all crispy and it's gettin' all hard/Deep fried love, come on give me the grease -

2011-06-22T19:28:00.000-06:00

There are things I have purposefully not learned to make, mostly because I don't want it to be [relatively] easy to produce things I probably shouldn't eat very often anyway. Another barrier down today as I took the leap and made chicken fried steak. It's not a difficult dish; more just a pain in the ass to get things timed correctly.

I took round steak out of the freezer with no clear plan, so I did an ingredients search on Allrecipes.com and all I could see were various recipes for chicken fried steak. And so it was written. And so it was. (This was the basic recipe I used, for Steak Fingers.) Of course, there had to be mashed potatoes (and I will cop to making the instant variety because the Boy prefers them), and milk gravy. For good measure, I threw in a salad made from arugula, Boston lettuce, tomato and fried onions.

White chalk, written on red brick/Our love, told in a heart/It's there, drawn in the playground/Love, kiss, hate or adore - Smoked sausage and lentils

2011-06-21T19:28:00.000-06:00

I had to get dinner together in a hurry today as the Boy was planning on heading out early to see Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Fox. First I got a little steak out of the freezer, but soon enough that didn't seem like a good idea and I thought of the beef smoked sausage still in the freezer and of the lentils in the pantry. I love lentils. When I was vegetarian I ate what seemed like a ton of lentils; they are delicious and filling and super easy and quick to cook. Today's had dried minced onions (to lazy to slice up a fresh onion), sliced carrots, garlic, beef bullion, salt and pepper and some time to cook. Oh, and sliced beef smoked sausage as well.

And a salad, as usual.

Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream/I think I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree - Deconstructed hummus, strawberry salad and strawberry pie

2011-06-20T21:45:00.000-06:00

I went to the grocery store today with no clear idea of dinner for a meatless Monday. I saw some great looking strawberries, though, and was put in mind of a big green salad juicy with strawberries and nuts and cheese. But what else? I bought a poblano pepper with thoughts of roasting it over the gas flame, and some Vidalia onions for caramelizing. Beyond that, I didn't have a clue.

I ended up making a salad of lettuce from my friend Allison's garden, arugula and a red frisee, along with lots of strawberries, walnuts, french fried onions and gorgonzola cheese. As I'm currently obsessed with honey mustard dressing, that's what I used. It all worked together quite well.

I started caramelizing onions early in the afternoon (and unfortunately got a little more brown on them than I would have liked), roasted the pepper and got it all peeled and seeded. I thought I would add garbanzo beans and make a sort of deconstructed hummus. I splashed in a bit more olive oil, some garlic, the juice from a lemon and a spoonful of tahini. It turned out surprisingly good. The beans themselves got rather creamy inside and the onions were pleasantly sweet with a bit of crunch.

Since I had those strawberries, I needed to make a dessert, even though I had told myself that desserts should be verboten for a while. I told myself, but apparently I wasn't listening as I found myself preparing pie. I didn't want to cook anything so I bought a graham cracker crust, instant pudding and whipped topping. I made the pudding as directed for pie (which only means less milk than usual) and put 2/3 of it in the bottom of the pie crust. Then I diced up about 2/3 of a pound of strawberries, dashed in a couple packets of sweetener (I know it was a little late to cut sugar, but it's something) and then mixed with about 3/4 of the whipped topping. After spreading that evenly on top of the pudding, I used the rest of the plain whipped topping to cover the pie. It came out of the pan a little messy, but the flavor combinations were good.

Dancing screaming itching squealing fevered/Feeling hot hot hot - G&W jalapeno bratwurst

2011-06-18T21:38:00.000-06:00

Sometimes simple is all right and last night I certainly didn't feel like any complicated cooking maneuvers. I've been thinking about the jalapeno brats I bought at G&W Sausage and it seemed like a good idea to thaw them out. I waited too long to start cooking so I was pressed to think of a quick side dish and pasta salad seemed a good idea. Keeping it as simple as possible, I prepared about 8 oz. of large shells in my beloved Pasta Boat, adding a handful each of frozen snap peas and sliced bell pepper in the last 3 minutes of cooking. After draining and rinsing the pasta in cold water (and doing it a second time to cool it all down) I simply splashed in some honey mustard dressing and a bit of grated cheddar. It was serviceable, if a bit boring.

I grilled the bratwurst and they looked absolutely lovely after browning. Sadly, the hotness of these brats was just too much for me. All I could taste was hot and very little brat flavor. I think, in general, I do not like hot sausages; I am not a fan of andouille either. The Boy thought they were tops though and he usually turns nose up a bit at the mention of jalapenos. But, I will be sticking with the garlicky, paprika-y Hungarian brats as far as G&W is concerned.

Friday I Have Thrifting on My Mind

2011-06-17T18:09:00.000-06:00

I was home early from work, the Boy was off work, the rain had stopped. We had a couple of errands to take care of and then it seemed natural to run to St. Vincent de Paul for a bit of rummaging through the thrift.

They have this fabulous bin at the front of the store full of purses for 25 cents each. I'm crazy for thrift store purses, particularly at a price which barely computes as costing anything at all. I'm even more crazy lately for '70s/'80s clutches.

All of the wall art is currently 50% off, which made this photograph of Union Station marked at $3 a serious bargain.

How about a Lefton crazy eyed cat planter?

If you doubt the crazy eyes...

Once I knew the origins/make of this planter. Now I cannot recall. Can anyone help me?

I recently coveted the wooden vessel collection of some anonymous online entity. I am on my way to acquiring my own. I love this rustic bowl (and the MCM spreader in it).

Boomer likes the bowl too. Fits her perfectly.

Foxy Brown thought Boomer might be a tasty meal.

Take a chance with me/Poured out in wine/Chance to run away/Take a breath - Greek chicken and tabouli

2011-06-16T21:08:00.000-06:00

I've had a gorgeous bouquet of mint decorating the kitchen table all week (thanks, Rene!) just waiting for me to make some tabouli. Today was the day, finally. It's a pretty simple recipe: cracked wheat soaked in hot water; chopped cucumber, tomato, green onion, parsley and mint; and a dressing made of fresh lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper. It's a fresh, light salad perfect for summer.

To go with the tabouli I thought grilled chicken would be good. I marinated a couple of bone-in breasts (I do not particularly like boneless chicken breasts - too tasteless) in more fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. Even only marinating for a couple of hours put a lot of flavor into the finished chicken; it was charmingly lemon and herb infused.

And because I had to inject some trash into the meal, there were tater tots. So sue me.

Pad Thai!

2011-06-14T20:08:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what put it into my mind to make pad thai, but I had leftover pork, some deep fried tofu chunks, and some frozen shrimp. Plus I had purchased some rice noodles at Jay's the day before so I was in pretty good shape, ingredient wise.

I did an internet search for recipes and perused a few, thus learning the basic ingredients and cooking techniques for the dish (which, frankly, I should intimately know judging from the stack of takeout containers from King and I, each having held pad thai). First and foremost, most recipes gave instruction on getting the sauce made and waiting standby for use. While I should have had tamarind paste, I substituted white wine vinegar (I will definitely get some tamarind paste for the future), added an equal amount of fish sauce (pppppeeeeee U!), a hunk of palm sugar, some rooster sauce and lime juice. One recipe (at least) suggested heating the suace on the stove, and boy did that help the fish sauce to disperse its delightfully fetid odor throughout the house. In the meantime I cooked my noodles (I hadn't bought exactly the right noodles for pad thai, but the rice vermicelli worked fine) and rinsed and drained them.

All the recipes declared a smoking hot wok necessary and the strips of tofu I tossed in the pan (with some oil) sizzled accordingly. Then, slices of leftover pork and a few shrimp were added along with a bit of the fish sauce mixture and a handful of snow peas. Once that liquid was almost absorbed I added two beaten eggs to the wok, after moving the meat aside. I let the eggs scramble thoroughly before stirring them in and adding the noodles and the rest of the sauce. I incorporated the meat and sauce throughout the noodles and kept the heat high. At nearly the end of cooking I added a big handful of bean sprouts and chopped garlic chives. After dishing the pad thai out, I garnished each of our servings with a generous sprinkle of crushed peanuts.

It wasn't King and I, but it was a reasonable facsimile and the Boy was very pleased.

Meatless Monday - Tofu red curry

2011-06-13T22:00:00.000-06:00

It was another beautiful day with much lower temperatures so when I came across cheap pickling cucumbers at Jay International today, I thought I'd do another batch of dill pickles the proper way, with the water bath processing and all. They seem to have worked fine, but next I want to pickle some other vegetables, like green beans or okra.

Since it was Monday, I got the ingredients for a nice vegetarian Thai red curry. That spicy, coconut milk sauce is my favorite curry flavor of all the curries. In today's I put fried tofu puffs, onions, orange bell pepper, baby bok choy, green beans and some bean sprouts. So good over rice.

Weekend Wrap Up

2011-06-13T13:49:00.000-06:00

After a week of impossible, horrible, soul-crushing hot weather a magical thunderstorm rolled in Friday night and brought delightfully cool temperatures with it. On Friday night, in the midst of the storm, it was time for bed and the Boy did not feel like doing his nightly duty of taking Foxy Brown for a short walk, so I volunteered for the job. It's always a risk taking her out during a storm since she is very afraid of thunder and lightning, but I knew she had to pee so I took the chance. I hesitated slightly as I had spent the evening in just a shirt and underpants (in my defense, the shirt is long and pretty much covers my ass) and didn't feel like putting on anything else. Considering it was 11:30pm and pouring down rain, I took the chance. What do I care if someone sees my underwear clad tush? Foxy trotted along, unwilling to stop, so I did get soaked but the lower temperature was invigorating. I was cold and loving it so many days of heat and sweat.

Saturday wasn't exactly cool, but there was a good amount of cloud cover and it never got much above the mid-80s. I spent the afternoon running around, buying pottery glaze and vegetables. For a late dinner, I warmed up the leftover grilled chicken thighs, roasted some gorgeous little Yukon gold potatoes and made a salad of cucumber, tomato and onion with my version of Hendrickson's dressing. If you see Southern Illinois tomatoes for sale, buy some! They smell and taste like actual tomatoes!

I also bought some pickling cucumbers and made two jars of a quick, improvised spicy-sweet dill pickle. I used equal parts white vinegar and water, sugar, turmeric, cayenne pepper, garlic, black mustard seeds, salt and a little bit of fresh dill. I took a little taste today -- they were not quite ready -- and they seemed like they were well on their way to goodness. I will work on the recipe and actually can another batch rather than just make a refrigerator version.

Sunday dawned wonderfully cool and all I could think of was baking. My friend Rene had posted a recipe for a summer strawberry cake several days ago and while it was tempting there was no way I was turning on the oven in our no-central-air house. So today was the day! While I was at it, and buying strawberries, I wanted to make more strawberry preserves and can them properly. And while making my grocery list in the morning, I finally remembered to add heavy cream so I could make a batch of butter. As long as I was making butter, and the oven was going to be on, I decided to make a loaf of bread, baked in the Dutch oven to give it a nice crust.

The strawberry cake is a fairly easy recipe, apparently adapted from one by Martha Stewart. This version appeared on the blog Smitten Kitchen. Make a batter, cover it with halved strawberries, sprinkle with sugar, bake. The cake, before baking:

And the cake when done:

While the cake was baking (it takes an hour at a low heat to get the strawberries all gooey), I started the preserves. Two pounds of strawberries, hulled and cut into chunks were tossed in a heavy large saucepan with 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice and four cups of sugar. Slowly bring it to a boil and then let it go for about 10-15 minutes. Between the smell of the cake baking and the aroma of the preserves, my stomach was growling in anticipation of strawberry goodness. The berries cooking:

In the canner (okay, really just a large pot with a round rack in the bottom, waiting for the water to boil:

And all sealed and ready for the pantry shelf:

At the Memorial Day barbecue thrown by my sister Carol, my nephew Chris brought a container of 40% heavy cream to make into butter. I've been wanting to do that for ages, but I never seemed to remember when I was at the grocery store. It seemed to take a lot of shaking effort on his part and I lost a little interest...at least until I remembered again on Sunday to buy the stuff. I let the cream sit out for about an hour or so in the warm kitchen before I poured it all into a jar and started shaking. For the first few minutes (really, probably less than five minutes) it sloshed around like you'd expect but then suddenly I couldn't really feel the liquid jostling around so I stopped to take a peek. And there was butter!

It really kind of was like magic! I shook it a bit more after this stage, just to make sure I had collected all the fat out of the liquid. The next step involves draining and rinsing the butter. You have to get rid of all the milky liquid to avoid the butter going rancid quickly. I rinsed it in the jar a few times with cold tap water, but then attempted to get the butter into a [way too small] piece of cheesecloth. That was kind of a disaster because at this point in the butter's life, it is still rather soft (particularly in warm weather) and it kind of sticks to the cheesecloth. After that somewhat failed experiment I opted to squoosh the butter into a ceramic dish and repeatedly stir in and then drain off cold tap water. At some point in the process, I stirred in some kosher salt (I like butter to be a bit salty), but that's up to your own personal tastes.

Try this at least once. It's really delicious.

As long as I was making butter and turning the oven on, it seemed to follow that I should make a loaf of bread. Expert bakers will be appalled at my bread making methods. Generally I measure nothing and today was no exception. Here's my bread recipe: Put some warm water in a big bowl to proof the yeast (along with a little glug of sugar for the yeast to eat) and then dump some flour in after the yeast proofs. I happened to have a glob of very melted butter handy so I put that in along with perhaps a teaspoon of salt and some more water. Mix it up, turn out onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes. Like this:

Put a little oil in a bowl, plop the dough in and let it rise till it's about doubled. Punch it down and knead again for a few minutes, then back into the bowl for a second rise. About 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, put a heavy Dutch oven (including the lid) into a hot (400F) oven to heat up. When you're ready to bake the loaf, gather up the ball of dough, toss a palmful of corn meal into the pot and set the dough atop the corn meal. Whether this does anything or not, I'm not sure, but I generally run a bit of water on the inside part of the lid (be very careful as it's really hot and will steam up) precisely to put some steam into the pot to help the bread. Now I will confess that I'm not sure exactly what this does, but I know it's supposed to be a good thing.

Bake for about 30 minutes or so (I swear I'm not being obtuse - I really don't remember how long - somehow I just know when it's done...). About 10 minutes or so before the bread should be done, take the lid off the pot and let the bread get a nice golden brown. Again, be very careful as things are very hot! This method makes a nice crusty loaf.

And it goes really well with freshly made butter (add some strawberry preserves and you have my breakfast).

My friend Rene also inspired the evening's cocktail as she offered bunches of mint. I didn't want to drink rum so I made vodka-based mojitos, but I think they suffered a bit without the rum flavor. At any rate, they were refreshing.

Dinner was grilled pork boneless country ribs and buttered noodles with leftover tomato and cucumber salad.

And of course strawberry cake for dessert.

Now I'm contemplating making more pickles and two different Asian-inspired dishes for dinner...

Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper/Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)/Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mitts - Taco Thursday

2011-06-09T20:29:00.000-06:00

It's still too hot to live, particularly without central air, but we can't eat takeaway every night. Tacos seemed like a good idea - minimal cooking and lots of vegetables, easy peasy. Still, I nearly burned up just cooking the ground beef. Tomorrow I'm going to have to think of something cold to eat maybe.

The Boy bought extra large hard taco shells (yeah yeah, not authentic, but I love the crunch...perhaps we should do tostadas instead) and held a lot of filling. Yay!

I suppose I've set it up that we can only have tacos on days of the week that start with a "t"...

Eat beef, eat beef it's a mighty good food/It's a grade A meal when I'm in the mood - Sirloin with caramelized pears and gorgonzola, Indian-spiced okra

2011-06-07T20:38:00.000-06:00

Beef! Finally, beef! I went to the grocery store today on my way home from work and encountered a lovely sirloin steak, my favorite cut. Inspired by my great-niece Kyrie, who had posted a photo of her porterhouse steak with pear and bleu cheese, I bought a nice ripe red pear and some gorgonzola (I prefer the salty tang of gorgonzola to the moldier taste of bleu). When I was strolling through the produce department I spied the fresh okra and remembered this recipe.

The okra was very good, though, like most of the commenters on the recipe, I should have doubled the spices. The flavors were rather subtle, but they worked really well with the okra. I didn't realize that okra was a vegetable eaten in India; they call it bhindi. I like that name better. The only way I veered from the recipe as written is that I added about a half cup of water to pan about 10 minutes before the bhindis were done.

For the steak, I seasoned and grilled as usual. In the meantime I sliced the pear and caramelized it in a pan with a little butter. I added a little pink salt and some pepper just to make sure it was properly savory. Once the steak was done I piled a some pear on each serving and sprinkled with the crumbled gorgonzola. The combination of steak and pepper and sweet pear and cheese was very delicious.

Alongside I also steamed a couple of potatoes and chopped them up with a bit of butter, salt and pepper.

Meatless Monday - I didn't succumb to the lure of beef

2011-06-06T21:33:00.000-06:00

Even though various friends and family on Facebook kept discussing cuts of beef today, sorely tempting me to the dark side, an afternoon spent with my hands in real clay for the first time didn't really leave me much time to plan anything complicated for dinner anyway. So I went simple. Jarred marinara with peas over penne rigate and a spinach salad with the leftover grilled vegetables from yesterday.

I'm thinking there shall be beef tomorrow.

Grilled cod and vegetables

2011-06-05T21:06:00.001-06:00

I managed to avoid cooking most of the weekend, but Sunday night is Sunday dinner so I had to think of something that wouldn't kill me with heat in the midst of all this horribly hot weather. So, cooking on the grill was the only option, of course.

Cod, seasoned with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper, was cooked on thick foil over direct flames. It was okay but there was a slightly bitter taste that I couldn't identify. I sprinkled them with some fresh dill just before serving but it didn't really have any flavor. Alongside, in the grill basket, I seared eggplant slices, zucchini, onion and asparagus. They were all seasoned with oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and this peppery mustard blend (another of the superb Durkee grill seasonings). And finally, corn on the cob, husked and set directly on the grill to cook.

Sometimes junk is the only answer

2011-06-02T19:42:00.000-06:00

I usually have a very clear idea of what I want to make for dinner, but sometimes I am completely adrift and all sorts of things cross my mind. Add to it an offer from the Boy to do a grocery store run on his way home and then I'm somewhat forced to make any requests before he leaves work.

Today's first idea was sausages (little breakfast ones from G&W) and some kind of potatoes and salad. Then suddenly tater tots got into my head (and honestly, I don't know why; I didn't grow up with them and I'm not a huge fan) and I was thinking of sausages and a tater tots casserole thing, complete with a can of some Campbell's cream soup. Then I was reminded on Facebook by my niece, Kate, of chili cheese tater tots and then I knew: Totchos! Yes, nachos made with tots instead of chips. Not a healthy meal, but a mighty tasty one.

I baked the tots first, according to directions. Meanwhile I heated a can of chili, and also melted a hunk of Velveeta with some salsa. I poured the chili over the tots, then the melted cheese, and topped it off when some shredded lettuce and chopped tomato (see, not completely unhealthy!).

Tomorrow, perhaps a salad...

Your face just won't leave me alone/Pictures of matchstick men and you/Images of matchstick men and you/Alls I ever see is them and you - Dinner from Target

2011-06-01T21:12:00.000-06:00

Last fall we bought a new mattress set (embarrassingly enough, the first one I'd ever purchased; I'd slept on a rather ancient hand-me-down for years and years). Since mattresses are now so big, none of our old sheets fit and I had to get a couple new sets. Because the weather was getting cooler (and I was feeling budget-conscious) I bought cotton jersey sheet sets. And they were a revelation; soft and stretchy and so comfy, like getting a warm hug from the bed. Then the nighttime temperature topped out in the 80s last night and suddenly those sheets felt like a cloying, suffocating straitjacket.

Unable to bear the idea of sleeping on those hideous sheets again (I will love you again in the fall, sheets, I promise!), I headed to Target to get some nice, regular cotton replacement sheets. Sheets successfully found, I headed over to the grocery department, just because. I suddenly got a huge craving for tuna melts and got a big can of tuna for dinner. A loaf of bread, some microwave brown rice, and a can of baked beans later and dinner at Target was done. Except then I passed a display of some microwave molten caramel cakes. Then dinner at Target was done.

So the verdict: tuna melts were good, brown rice was a little weird, I always love canned baked beans, and the microwave cakes were sweet but really rather bland (what did I expect for two bucks?).

Thrifting

2011-05-29T15:39:00.002-06:00

I got the Boy to dash out to the new Goodwill Outlet with me this afternoon and it was...interesting. I suppose it's worth checking out regularly to find the occasional item. It is certainly close by (in the old Famous-Barr warehouse just off Vandeventer).

I'm a sucker for a little vintage suitcase. This cream-colored Starline was irresistible.

The Boy found this book for me.

I wish I knew the original intention of this bunny, but I'm thinking toothbrushes. And how could I resist a teeny Show-Me cream pitcher?

A Lake Tahoe commemorative cup and saucer? Why yes, I think I will.

A set of little gold-painted saucers.

More gold saucers.

A silly little porcelain ring holder.

And finally, an old nightstand to put in the foyer for the Boy to collect all the ~~junk~~ CDs he brings home. A bargain at $4.

Sausage!

2011-05-25T20:23:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure why I've never been to G&W Sausage, but since there was a Groupon and I finally went today. I was hot and thirsty from a ridiculously humid and too-warm day at work, but I really wanted some sausages. When I got there, the parking lot was surprisingly full. The place was hopping, with a substantial line and it did seem that it took a good deal of time to deal with each customer. I wasn't terribly troubled by that, since I needed to look around and decide what I wanted to get anyway. Finally it was my turn and I scored whom I had already deemed to be the best employee choice (a tall guy my age-ish). I chose my first item (2 lbs. of the above pictured Hungarian bratwurst) and while the gentleman was packaging those luscious orange sausages up, he asked me a question that I didn't quite understand. He gestured behind me and I turned to see another customer drinking a can of Busch beer (I thought I had glimpsed another person holding a beer but it didn't seem likely so I dismissed the thought!) So he asked me again, "Would you like a beer?" Well, hell yes, sir, I would love a beer! The guy next in line took one too and we toasted our good fortune. I almost left the store with my can, but luckily I realized that's kind of illegal.

So, grilled sausages, cottage fries and salad for dinner.

More pizza...

2011-05-24T15:49:00.000-06:00

I wasn't completely satisfied with Sunday's attempt at a Pi-style deep dish pizza, so I tried again on Monday. I used half cornmeal/half flour for the crust and I think this time it was too much cornmeal so I will need to do more adjusting in the future. Or perhaps I should use olive oil to grease the pan...

At any rate, this edition was filled with Italian sausage, sauteed with onion and yellow peppers. I used a combination of mozzarella, a pizza cheese mix and some Monterey jack. I only had crushed tomatoes at hand so I did miss the chunkier texture I had in the first pizza, though the flavor was essentially the same.

An inside view:

Further experimentation is needed and will be done, but considering that hot weather is arriving, it may be saved for the fall as this non-central ac house doesn't do so well with baking in the summer.

I fell in love/With the pizza girl/Now I eat pizza everyday, oh - Attemping my own Pi

2011-05-22T21:54:00.000-06:00

Last night the Boy and I planned a rare night out - a movie and dinner out. The original plan was to go to an early movie and a late dinner, but the crowds ahead of us to see Bridesmaids changed things around. It wasn't even 7p and we had tickets to a 10p showing. Since we were in the CWE, it was one nice walk down Euclid to Pi for some pizza. And what delicious pizza it was. The hallmark of Pi, as far as I'm concerned, is their use of corn meal in their crust. It makes for a lighter, crunchier texture than standard pizza crust. So I felt a challenge at hand; I would try to replicate a Pi-style deep dish pizza. I didn't plan this out terribly well as I didn't acquire any specialty toppings, but I knew I had a variety of vegetables to use, if not any meat.

I made the crust using the special pizza yeast, basically following the directions on the packet except replacing about 1/2 cup of the flour with corn meal. I used a springform pan to shape and bake and it seemed to go together (with mushrooms, onions and spinach) and at least look the way I wanted. For the sauce, which tops the pizza (for those unfamiliar with Pi or Chicago-style deep dish), I just used a can of diced tomatoes in juice and added three cloves of garlic, a bit of sugar and some salt and cooked for about 15 minutes at a high heat in order to concentrate some of the liquid. The verdict is that, while the pizza tasted good, I still didn't have enough corn meal in my crust. Part two tomorrow night? I must buy a new springform, however, as I broke my vintage model tonight.

For a starter I dug up an old favorite I used to call the Fruit Bits Salad - lettuce, slivered onion, walnuts, cheese (supposed to be gorgonzola but I forgot to buy that so I cut some tiny cubes of parmesan), and dried fruit bits. For the dressing I like to cut bottled poppyseed dressing with red wine vinegar (let's say an 8 to 1 ratio), which cuts some of the sweetness of the dressing and the fruit.

Imma do the things that i wanna do/I ain't got a thing to prove to you/I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans - Collards, green beans and chili

2011-05-16T09:46:00.000-06:00

On Friday nights, the Boy is usually working late and we have dinner when he gets home at 9:30 or so. Sometimes I am quite sure of what I'm making and spend the evening working on it, timing things to get done just so. Or I pick something that is relatively easy, do all the pre-prep work, and start the cooking process just before he gets home. Last Friday I started poking around in the freezer around 4:00 with absolutely no idea what I might make. The things I found that piqued my interest were a package of ham for seasoning, some green beans and a bag of collard greens. So it was going to be a pot of ham, green beans and potatoes, and a batch of collards with onions and turkey bacon. The green beans were easy - dump the beans in a pot, dice up a big potato and add that, dump in the ham, add water, onion powder, salt and pepper, cover and cook for a couple of hours (the idea is NOT to have crisp, green beans here; this is slow cooked food). For the collards I heated some oil, and sauteed chopped onion and turkey bacon, added the greens, some seasonings and water just to the top of the greens. For good measure and a little spice, I also included about a 1/4 cup of my hot pepper vinegar. After the couple hours of cooking it mellowed to a nice little heat that was more flavor than burn.

As expected, the Boy rejected the collard greens outright. I had also thawed a couple of Italian sausages which I grilled and basted with some honey mustard. It was rather an odd Friday night dinner, but I enjoyed it.

I waited till rather late on Sunday to make a decision about dinner. A call to the Boy got me a request for "something warming." It had been a rainy, gloomy and cold (particularly for May) day and a big pot of something hot was a great idea. Chili seemed like an even better idea. Because I was too lazy to probe too far into the freezer, a stumble across a package of boneless beef short ribs became the meat basis for the chili. I think I've said before that every pot of chili I make is an adventure; they rarely taste exactly the same twice, and I'm okay with that. This time I had a bag of dried red beans which I cooked in the pressure cooker (seriously, if you cook beans, a pressure cooker is an absolute must - it takes less than 45 minutes to cook a pound of beans - no soaking, no pre-boil). Chopped onion (most of a large specimen), three cloves of garlic and the cubed short ribs were sauteed in some canola oil. Once the meat was done, I added two heaping teaspoons of cumin and about four tablespoons of chili powder and let that simmer a bit. I happened to have the remains of a small can of tomato paste in the refrigerator and in addition to that I used a big can of crushed tomatoes. I drained the beans and added them to the pot, seasoned with salt, pepper and several dashes of Valentina Extra Hot Sauce. To offset the acid of the tomatoes, I find a little bit of sugar (perhaps two tablespoons) works well to meld all the flavors together. Oh, and because I had an open bag, I popped in about a cup and a half of frozen corn.

It only got to cook for about an hour, and it was very good, but I suspect the next time we eat it (probably tomorrow) it will be even better.

Been down one time/been down two times/never going back again - The I've been a blogging slacker catch up post

2011-05-13T19:10:00.000-06:00

Yesterday when I finally had a moment to write and I wasn't bone tired and brain dead (and the kittens weren't restricting my movements by being sweet little snugglebunnies), stupid Blogger was not working. What the heck was that about? So, I'm a little backed up on the food chronicling front.

As I've noted before, the Boy rarely asks for anything specific for me to cook, so when he does, I'm pretty quick to agree. The other day he vaguely requested "fish" so I got some salmon. I thought I wanted to make it on my new indoor grill, in the open position. My favorite way to eat salmon is with a teriyaki sauce and I had a bottle of some glaze/marinade and I was feeling lazy; a perfect combination. I wanted to try my hand (again) at some sort of fried rice (mine usually goes somewhat mushy), but again I had forgotten to buy white rice (I STILL don't have any - what's wrong with me?) and had to use brown. I cooked a batch in the pressure cooker (my favorite way to cook brown rice anyway), then let it cool a teeny bit; it would have been better to completely cool it, but there was no time. I sauteed some onion, chopped carrots, and some thawed frozen peas, then added the rice, some 'medium sweet' soy sauce and regular soy sauce. It was a bit of all right.

I can't even remember what we had for Meatless Monday, other than it was definitely meatless. Seriously, I cannot remember what we ate.

As usual on Tuesday, I guiltily crave a big chunk o' meat. And since it was horrifically warm outside, pork steaks and corn on the grill were just the ticket. I didn't marinate this go round, for lack of time, and possibly I noticed a bit of difference. Marinating in ale was better, for sure and I'll do it when I have time in the future. I had a big ass sweet potato so I stuck that in the microwave for 12 minutes and mashed it all up with some butter and pepper to go alongside.

Wednesday was another scorcher of a day. A day in which I worked outside till my skin was tingling and red. Have I mentioned the giant fever blister on my lip procured last week when I neglected to wear SPF lip balm for a mere two days? Anything I've eaten for the last seven or eight days has been tempered by this bastard. I'm sure it would have gone away faster had I not been in the sun every day since, but what's a working girl to do? At any rate, I was tired and cranky on Wednesday and didn't feel like cooking, nor eating anything hot. I believe that it was still 84F at 10pm that day. Ugh. Since the Boy had to go to the grocery store on his way home from work anyway, I had him pick up a chunk of cheese, some shrimp and a baguette. Add a salad (with still more home grown arugula!) and we had a lovely summer dinner. Plus I got to use my new (to me) 70s apple-shaped cutting board. Gotta get vintage whenever you can.

Finally yesterday I was somewhat uninspired, and it had been another hot day. I had various ideas for dinner, but most of them required a shopping trip and that was out of the question as I wasn't going anywhere (which also means that Thai coconut red curry is on the menu as soon as I buy some coconut milk). Some talk on Facebook of pancakes and johnny cakes had me thinking of using the new grill as a griddle, so corn cakes with whole corn became the basis for dinner. I thawed some turkey burgers, crumbled them up and cooked the meat with cumin and chili powder, then added onion, poblano pepper and a big orange bell pepper and let it all cook together. It didn't look quite right at that point so I stirred in a bit of tomato paste and some water and let it simmer. It ended up rather tasty and the corn cakes were especially yum. The photo, however, has the lurid orange hue of a vintage 60s recipe booklet.

How, can he tell her he loves her/He, would just give his heart gladly - Steak and yellow rice

2011-05-05T21:31:00.001-06:00

I didn't make any preparations for a Cinco de Mayo dinner (honestly, I didn't even think of it all day), but after I got a piece of sirloin out of the freezer to thaw, I eventually came around to making a yellow rice with corn and alcaparrado (pretty much my favorite briny product of all time). In the midst of making a salad, I came across a big poblano pepper that looked ripe for the grilling (along with some sweet onion).

I love yellow rice and I was a little distressed that I only had risotto rice, but I decided to use it anyway, albeit without the risotto-making process. I heated some olive oil and added a little chunk of achiote and cooked it a bit until it mostly dissolved and turned the oil bright orange yellow. I added the rice and thoroughly coated it with the oil, then chucked in some frozen corn before adding water about two fingers above the surface of the rice (a trick learned from Daisy Martinez) along with some salt. I turned the heat to medium low, put on the lid and left it alone for about 15 minutes. At that point it was almost done; I added a couple of heaping spoonfuls of alcaparrado, put the lid back on and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so.

The steak was simple, as usual; I sprinkled it with Durkee beef seasoning and stuck in in the new grill. Sadly I overcooked it a bit, but it still tasted nice. Just not as nice as it could have, though the addition of grilled poblano and onion on top was a nice touch.

Meatless Monday - White pizza and pork steaks

2011-05-02T21:49:00.000-06:00

I knew several days ago what I wanted for Meatless Monday this week; a repeat of the ricotta and roasted tomato pizza we had a few weeks ago. I strongly encourage you to, if you have any inclination to cook at all, make this pizza. It's incredibly simple (remember, you can use a pre-made crust, or a refrigerated Pillsbury crust, a box mix or whatever kind you'd like and is easiest for you) and seriously delicious. All you have to do is thickly slice a couple, three, roma tomatoes and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350F, drizzle the slices with olive oil and sprinkle with sea or kosher salt, reduce the oven temp to 300F and roast for 45 minutes to an hour. You want some browning/caramelization on the slices. In the meantime, prepare your crust (even if that just means popping open a can), spread about a tablespoon and a half of olive oil around the crust, then top with about 2/3 of a container of ricotta (I guiltily used the whole milk variety because the richness tastes so damn good), spread evenly across the crust. Top with 8 oz. or so of mozzarella or a pizza cheese blend. I also sprinkled with a bit of an Italian herb blend, for a little extra flavor. Bake at 425F until the top is slightly browned and bubbly. Really, do this. And oh yes, for a little extra ooomph, after baking I scattered some rocket leaves on top. I'm still getting a little thrill from growing this stuff from seed. My food gardening exploits are usually big fails, so it's exciting to be eating stuff I grew!

Last night was all about monster pork steaks. I marinated them for hours in coriander ale along with spicy steak seasoning. I'm not completely certain you can really taste the difference when pork steaks are marinated, but they did seem to cook better on the grill. Alongside I sauteed then steamed some onion, broccoli and carrots with a little garlic and soy sauce.

A very meaty Sunday, necessitating today's meatless Monday.

Kokedama or string gardens or just plain cute

2011-05-02T21:16:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure where I came across the idea for kokedama or string gardens today, but there is was, in my head, eating away at my resolve to just stay home on such an icky, gloomy day. I researched materials for making them the official, traditional way, then decided to go an easier route that seemed to work for people just as well. I gathered: smallish plants, sphagnum moss, sheet moss, and a couple of different types of twine. Oh, and kittens to "help."

I started by taking the plant out of its pot and shaping the soil and roots into a more spherical shape. The sphagnum moss was looser than I expected, so I had to sort of chuck it on the ball of soil and quickly wrap some of the twine around it to secure it in place.

Then, I shaped large pieces of the sheet moss around the ball, and secured with more wrapping of the twine. Once it seemed tight and secure, I knotted it and that's all there was to it.

I think that if you don't like the idea of the visible twine, you can use cotton thread that matches the moss. The finished products:

Oregano, that is going to hang outside.

Irish moss, also hanging outside.

And the two houseplants that shall be kept on saucers.

The oregano and rosemary, hanging outside.

I have high hopes for these pretty little green objects. I hope they flourish.

What I want/I want now/And it's a whole lot more/Than anyhow - Panini, tuna casserole and tiny pies!

2011-05-01T15:49:00.000-06:00

Here we go with another catch up post...

A couple weeks ago my George Foreman grill, which I have loved and used thoroughly for a few years, just up and quit on me. I have relied on that grill for cooking steaks, chops, fish and more, particularly in the colder months so I had to have a replacement. I did a little amount of research and decided to look for a new grill that would be a little more versatile so I settled on a panini-maker style and found a GE model for a reasonable price. So far so good, though I've only made a couple of different sandwiches on it so far. But it does have temp control and it also opens flat to be used as a griddle or an open grill, so I'm happy.

The Boy actually requested a panini the other day (actually a Cuban sandwich, which has still to be provided - stars must align for the right ingredients to be about for a Cuban sandwich), so I finally made him one with leftover grilled chicken, tomatoes, and provolone cheese. Oh and pumpernickel bread seemed like just the ticket. Some corn on the cob on sale inspired me to make a roasted corn and tomato salad. I didn't want to fire up the grill just for the corn but the gas burners on the stove did a mighty fine job. Once the roasted corn was cool I cut it off the cob, mixed in some halved grape tomatoes, chopped onion, and drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The corn was almost obscenely sweet; actually a bit too sweet for salad, but good.

Yesterday evening I didn't have any ideas for dinner, but was willing to make anything the Boy requested. I think he kind of hates when I ask, though I figure if I keep doing it, he will eventually get used to it and actually have a list of things he'd like me to make again. I was thinking of an evening spent in the kitchen whipping up whatever it was he wanted and what did he come up with? Tuna casserole. I have no objection to tuna casserole, but it's something I'd think of more when I'm in a hurry or out of fresh ingredients. But hey, I asked and he answered, so I felt obligated. I couldn't go the traditional route, as I don't generally have any canned cream of mushroom soup (or any other canned soup for that matter) on hand. Instead, I made a bechamel and added a quarter cup or so of grated parmesan to sub for the soup. I mixed cooked egg noodles, sweet peas, canned tuna and the sauce, and put in a baking dish, topping it with French fried onions, a little more parmesan and some jack cheese. A quick turn under the broiler in the toaster oven (have I gushed how much I LOVE my vintage $4 toaster oven?) and it was ready. I added a salad and we had a dinner that made the Boy and me happy.

Yesterday there was a rummage sale in a school just around the corner and we ran over as soon as I got home from work and supervised the mowing of the front yard (the Boy doesn't always notice growing things that are decidedly not grass). At one half hour from closing, I suspect that most stuff was sold and gone, but we managed to find a few things: four tiny pie tins, a teeny roaster (it would barely fit a whole chicken but it might work for two game hens), an apple shaped cutting board with a '60s tile inset, and a few books, including a book of Spanish fairy tales.

Since I had tiny pie pans, I had to make tiny pies, right? I happened to have a refrigerated pie crust left over from Easter quiche and today I found a container of blackberries for only a dollar, so that decided two of the pies. I love the flavor of blackberries but I cannot abide the seeds, so the Boy gets those. I also got an apple to make the other two for me. To both fruits I added lemon zest, a bit of lemon juice, nutmeg and a bit of corn starch for thickening. For the blueberry I used white sugar and for the apple I added cinnamon and brown sugar. I didn't have enough pastry to make top crusts, so I very lazily cut strips from the leftover dough to make lattice tops. They are terribly sloppy and certainly not uniform, but I never claimed that presentation is my thing. Hopefully they taste good.

We were talking/about the love we all could share/when we find it/To try our best to hold it there/with our love - Tacos and grilled chicken

2011-04-29T20:01:00.000-06:00

I don't have a lot to say about these last two meals, really. Earlier this week I had no idea what I wanted to make for dinner and I started thinking about what was in the freezer, in the pantry, and in the refrigerator. I realized I could make tacos, albeit with French lentils rather than any other beans. So, I browned some ground beef with chili powder. When it was cooked, I added about a tablespoon of masa and little bit of water to make a thick sauce around the meat. Because I was feeling lazy, even about assembling the tacos, I mixed the cooked lentils into the beef. We had soft flour tortillas, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream, grated sharp cheddar, and homemade salsa verde. They were pretty satisfying.

On another day, I didn't have an overt cravings, but the Boy was headed to the grocery store so I looked up the Schnucks add online and saw that whole chickens, cut up, were on sale for a very charming 99 cents a pound. As it was finally a nice day, weatherwise, it had to be grilled chicken, and unlike usual, I wanted it slathered in barbecue sauce. The Boy has an aversion to getting his hands messy while eating, but sometimes I just make him deal with it. I also made a quick potato salad (steamed red potatoes, diced onion, celery, mayo, salt and pepper) and grilled some corn on the cob. Really, there's nothing like barbecued chicken. Sticky and delicious.

I know you respect me/You won't reject me/And the arrow of our love is straight and true - grilled steak, peanut sauce roasted potatoes

2011-04-26T21:28:00.000-06:00

It was such a fleeting instance that I can't even remember what put me in mind of spicy peanut sauce today, but suddenly I knew that it would make an appearance at dinner, somehow. Since it was, finally, a nice day with warm temperatures plus no rain, I wanted to cook something on the grill. After rooting around in the freezer, I pulled out a piece of sirloin. Mmmmm...beef! I usually want some kind of potatoes with steak so I started thinking about how I could incorporate peanut sauce into a potato dish. A quick Google of "potatoes and peanut sauce" didn't really return any results that were relevant (most of the recipes seemed to be made with sweet potatoes) except for a link to a blog entry about a Thai salad. It involved many more ingredients than I wanted or needed, but it did inspire me a little. First I made a little bed of greens (hydroponic lettuce and rocket/arugula from my own container gardens - woo hoo, I love using stuff I've grown!), then topped the greens with potatoes that I had cubed, tossed with a little canola oil and steak seasoning and then roasted at 425F for a short while. After that I drizzled on peanut sauce that I had made from a couple tablespoons of chunky peanut butter, rice vinegar, sesame oil, siracha, garlic and some hot water (until it got to the desired consistency).

The steak was simple and the corn even more so. I sprinkled the steak with grill seasoning (I love all those litle jars of grill seasoning mixes, but the steak seasoning is really, really good) and threw it on he grill. I like my corn on the cob as simple as possible, so I just husk them and but the naked cobs right on the grill. I like the bit of charring that gets on the corn. It turns sweet corn so delicious with this mixed taste of traditionally cooked corn on the cobb with an almost popcorn taste.

I'm so glad the rain has finally stopped, though I fear it shall be back tomororw. At any rate, it was nice to see some blue sky today. Perhaps there will be more grilling tomorrow.

No more will I shop around, baby/I know I've got the best thing in town, baby

2011-04-24T16:34:00.000-06:00

I am a victim of my whims and cravings. I know that I should make a menu plan each week, shop for that plan and do my cooking accordingly. Well, lady magazines tell me I should do that, though I'm not quite clear on the reasons. Budgetary? Time maintenance? Whatever. I've tried it and I can't do it. Because I will see a photo, or read about a friend's menu, I see some irresistible ingredient at the grocery store, or a host of other happenstance circumstances and suddenly there is something I must have for dinner/lunch/dessert. My method may result in the occasional evening where I'm completely stumped as to what to make for dinner, but I'm not giving up my capricious ways.

The other day, the Scottish Correspondent was talking about a pub he might be visiting so I looked up their menu. A soup listed as Spanish chorizo tomato caught my fancy, as did a description of what pretty much seemed like cheese fries. As it was a chilly, damp day, soup seemed like a good idea and I was pretty sure I had a package of Spanish chorizo in the refrigerator.

Of course, I have no idea of the actual ingredients of this pub's soup, but I used the idea as a starting point. I heated a tablespoon or so of olive oil and sauteed half of a sweet onion, three stalks of celery, three carrots, a green pepper and a zucchini (because I had one). After the vegetables softened, I added two small chorizo sausages, halved lengthwise and sliced. For the tomato portion I used one big can of crushed tomatoes and about three cups of tomato juice. To season the soup I used salt and pepper, a touch of oregano, a teaspoon or so of chili powder, and about a tablespoon of paprika. I let is simmer for a couple hours and it turned out quite nice. I got lazy regarding the potato portion of the meal. I had some frozen french fries which I baked and topped with melted Velveeta and chopped fresh tomatoes. It worked.

For Easter, circumstances prevented us from attending an anticipated brunch, so I was compelled to make an Easter lunch when I could. I knew I would be time-challenged, so I tried to think of things that would be quick to make. I gave Steve the choice of deviled eggs or quiche and he (surprising me) picked quiche. I can roll with it so quiche it would be. I must confess that the accompanying au gratin potatoes were made from a box. They were cheap, easy and, honestly, they tasted really good. My homemade au gratins are always lacking something and they either are a bit too done or not done enough. So I compromised. In addition, I prepared asparagus amandine by steaming the spears, browning some crushed almonds in a pan before adding some butter, the steamed asparagus, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper. After tasting I thought it needed something else so a sprinkle of parmesan did the trick. Finally, with the help of Jiffy baking mix, I whipped up a batch of cheddar-chive biscuits (2 cups of mix, 2/3 cups milk, a handful of garlic chives and 1/2 cup of grated sharp cheddar). Oh, and the quiche was made with ham, green onion, sundried tomatoes, spinach, Swiss and jack cheeses.

And then there was the cake. I got a sudden craving for coconut cake yesterday, harkening back to my many childhood Easters when my mom would always make a beautiful lamb-shaped cake covered in coconut, lying on a bed of dyed green coconut "grass." Sort of like this, though Mom's always looked way better. I used a "golden vanilla" cake mix (whatever that is) and made an icing recipe I found on Allrecipes.com - two cups of sour cream, two cups of sugar, one and a half cups of coconut. Stir together then fold in 8 oz. of Cool Whip). I was a little dubious about the frosting, but it actually ended up tasting quite nice with the cake (that turned out nearly as white as an actual white cake mix and has a texture leaning towards angel food cake). I bought some purple Peep chicks and jelly beans to decorate and here's what I ended up with. It looks like a child decorated it, but it tastes good. (This is a rather moody photo of a silly cake, I know.)

A few days ago I had a hankering for chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. Which, in retrospect was a bit of a crazy excursion considering the kittens can be very interested in what I'm doing at the kitchen table. And noodle making was no exception. They watched and occasionally tried to participate. I get impatient when I make noodles, though, and I tend to pile them all up for the drying up portion of the recipe. Soooooo, when it came time to put them into the soup, they were kind of stuck together in places, so the noodles weren't exactly uniform when I added them to the soup. I used stock that I had made from the last beer[soda] can chicken, and a couple of leg quarters for the meat. Chicken noodle is a pretty simple soup - onion, carrots, celery, garlic, chicken, noodles, lots of pepper. It really turned out, with the amount of noodles, more of a chicken and noodle dish than an actual chicken soup, but it was still tasty and quite hearty.

While I was poking around in the freezer looking for chicken parts, I found the tail end of a pork butt from a package of pork steaks so I popped that chunk of meat into the slow cooker after rubbing it with a spice mix. Hours later I shredded the meat and added some barbecue sauce and let it cook a little bit longer.

OK, I think I'm all caught up. Now I have to think about what's for dinner...

Ca plane pour moi moi moi moi moi - Croque monsieur

2011-04-20T21:09:00.000-06:00

Because I am highly suggestible, I could think of nothing except croque monsieur sandwiches since Steph posted a photo of one she had in Paris. Yesterday circumstances (being dead tired) prevented me from making them, but today nothing could stop me. Technically this is probably a croque madame provencal, which means it has an egg on top and tomatoes inside.

First thing to make was a bechamel sauce: melt butter, cook some flour, add milk. Once the sauce was thickened, I added Dijon mustard, a little worcestershire sauce, some grated cheddar and salt and pepper. To assemble the sandwiches themselves: spread one slice of bread with mustard, then add some ham, Swiss (or emantthaler or gruyere), tomato slices (but only if they are very ripe) and top with a couple of spoons of the sauce. top with the second slice of bread and butter both sides lightly. I then toasted mine in the toaster oven, turning the sandwiches over once. Once the bread is nice and toasty, spread more bechamel on top of each sandwich in a fairly thick layer and put under the broiler. In the meantime, fry up a sunny side up egg for each sandwich you are making. Once the bechamel is bubbling and browning, remove the sandwiches from heat. Top it with an egg and you are done!

A croque monsieur is a seriously satisfying sandwich. Yum.