No Pity, Please

Well, it finally happened. A couple days after my last post, the folks with the Wi-Fi we’ve been snagging in our neighborhood, locked their Wi-Fi. And since I live about 25 minutes from the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot, I haven’t been too eager to make the trek just to write about my cooking, knitting or gardening. The garden is pretty much closed for the winter, so no news there anyway.

On the other hand, my cooking adventures have become more like an episode of “Iron Chef’ with loads of unexpected ingredients all the time. Seems even the very capable Hubby can’t sell much when there aren’t many customers. No pity, please. I’ve always bragged that I could whip up practically anything from just the ingredients in my fridge and pantry. So with the checkbook being squeezed for life’s other expenses I told my hubby I wasn’t going grocery shopping for a whole month! I had a couple containers of milk and a couple pounds of butter in the fridge as well as two 5 lb bags of apples my mother-in-law had given us a week before. I was set. Well, as you might suspect, I didn’t quite last a month before we needed more milk, some eggs, a block of cheese, a head of lettuce, two onions and some apples (I’m a firm believer in the ‘an apple a day..." mantra). But honestly, I haven’t purchase anything else. I think if I wouldn’t have told Hubby about the “no shopping thing” he might not have noticed (besides that weird pasta dish I made from canned salmon, tomatoes, zucchini and red peppers - it was gross). We’ve had spaghetti with meatballs, halibut with rice pilaf, chicken fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, home made apple turnovers and an apple tart, homemade tortillas, raisin muffins, homemade hot chocolate (see recipe below), really delicious chocolate banana bars,

apple pancakes, soups (of course lonies), chile verde, Spanish rice, lots of beans, a pot roast, mashed potatoes, warm potato salad, potato pancakes, several different kinds of cheesey and artisan breads

and even some freebies - Baskin Robbins ice cream (thanks to my dad for the “pint for a pint” coupon) and a free medium fries from the coupon for McDonalds thanks to Monopoly last month!

When I started this blog, my BFF mentioned I should inventory my pantry as a testament to the variety of foods I constantly stock. But who wants to read about ingredients, when you can read about the yummy food which they create?! Needless to say my pantry and fridge are gradually getting emptied (BFF said she’d come clean the fridge when it’s even emptier – woohoo!). But the month isn’t over yet. I’m already making my grocery shopping list (and checking it twice). And, man, am I eager to get to Winco for some real grocery shopping. I know the economy isn’t going to turn around just yet, so don’t worry I won’t be going wild or anything. However, I’ve gotten a little wiser about what I really need – no canned salmon!

Homemade Hot Cocoa

1 mug milk

1 small handful of chocolate chips

Gently heat a mugs worth of milk on the stove. As it heats up, add a small handful of chocolate chips (maybe 10-20, depending how chocolaty you like it).  Stir rapidly with a whisk until the chips are melted. Pour into a mug and enjoy! It's even better if you can find the new "gourmet" chocolate chips.

The Take-Over

There has been so much going on since the week of the wedding cake. But actually my neglecting the blog is mostly due to the fact that we have discovered that we can stream movies from Netflix (I know horrible excuse). Don’t worry, I have lots of pics of recent goodies from the kitchen and even an update on two of my knitting projects.First, the fun little cookies that June Bug and I made last week.

In case you didn’t know, my favorite thing to make is bread. I bake it about once a week in the summer (in the evening only after I can open the windows) and probably twice or more per week as soon as the weather gets the least bit chilly. I love the warmth the oven brings to the house and that intoxicating smell wafting out too. I admit, the bread machine is my tool of choice 90% of the time since June Bug came along (doughy hands can't help blow runny noses, or help with other dainty tasks). However, I do prefer the shape of the any loaf pan but the one in my machine, so I always do the final rise in a regular pan, or in rolls. Then, it’s all I can do to wait until my bread is cool enough to slice through without crushing it. No matter what time of day-morning, noon or night, after dinner, before dinner, after dessert- if there’s fresh bread coming from the oven, I have to have a slice. Slathered with butter and usually a tiny sprinkling of salt (I buy unsalted butter, but I think the better excuse is I’m also a pretzel lover at heart, probably from my childhood of having pretzels packed in my lunch box just about every day and nibbling those tiny granules off first - I love the cruchiness!). Anyway, last week I made this rye bread.

It’s a light rye, with only a ¼ rye flour, the rest (1/4) whole wheat, and ½ white bread flour. I had to crush the dill seeds, celery seeds and poppy seeds in a mortar and pestle before adding to the dough. It’s got the classic caraway too.

My BFF left for a 3-week visit to London, her hometown, yesterday (miss you already) and after she gave me some pastrami she couldn’t finish before she left, I made myself a Reuben. I am a devote Reuben fan, so with tons of pastrami left over and the Rye on its last slice, I had to make another loaf of Rye. Turns out Hubby likes Reubens now too, so we had them for dinner last night. Then mom came over today and I had to split one with her! I immediately stashed the rest of the pastrami in the freezer before I had a heart attack! Don’t worry it’ll be there for another rainy day. And the sauerkraut in the fridge-I think that stuff lasts forever, right?

Bread isn’t the only thing that gets my oven turned on. Pizza is usually on the dinner menu at least twice a month. Homemade dough, rarely with red sauce and never any pepperoni (Hubby's choice). Here’s the latest. Some final tomatoes from garden with homemade basil-arugula pesto dressing as the sauce - yum!

 

Oh, there was also some pumpkin from the garden. What a cinch to puree with my handy-dandy food mill (sorry, there will be a whole nerdy blog on this new favorite kitchen gadget of mine, but not tonight). 

The puree made its way into some really good Browned-Butter Sage Pumpkin Loaves from Martha Stewart and also some Pumpkin Praline Waffles and Pumpkin Pancakes, both from King Arthur Flour cookbooks. Who says Pumpkins have to be carved into Jack-O-Lanterns? I grow mine to eat!!

The garden is mostly in winter mode with just a few greens and some carrots (for Lilly to pull and snack on later). However, after three plantings and many raids by aphids and their buddies, the ants, I was finally the proud recipient of these four little beauties. 

Next year, I think I will once again just buy those 5/$1 corns at the store (ten years ago when I planted corn it was the same story of four baby corns)!

Speaking of aphids. After the corn got raided by aphids, they invaded my broccoli and then my Russian Kale and as of today, my turnip greens. Ahhhh they're taking over. I was so angry I just pulled it all up today. Summer's over anyway, so I can't be that mad. I managed to salvage a few turnips greens for a Barley, White Bean, and Kale soup (using the Turnips greens instead of Kale) only to later find in my soup way too many floating "bugs". I washed those greens three times leaving the leaves in the water the last time for nearly a half-hour. Don't aphids ever drown? I've now read a bit more online about defending my turf and hopefully next year I'll beat them.

On the knitting front, I’ve seamed up the little romper for Leslie’s baby, but it has now been so long since I worked on it, I can’t find the pattern – bummer. I’ll keep looking. Good thing the pattern is for a 1-year-old. She’s almost 3 months already!

My shrug is coming along okay, but 33 rnds of 242 stitches is exactly why I never knit scarves! 

I’m about halfway through those rounds, so getting a bit more excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I think I still have time to stream a movie :)