Where does the time go?

Too long to mention it all, but here's a few highlights. Knitting has come to a complete standstill. Gardening has sped up like a freight train and cooking had been a chore - until three weeks ago. Let me explain. I visited my aunt recently and she lent me a book I'd seen in the Sac Bee, Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. It was the first book on her shelf and it called to me the minute I set eyes on it. It's almost as if it knew it'd have a fabulous home with me. Now my aunt warned me that she hadn't attempted the recipe since the starter alone needed about 5 days to feed and nourish. But, I still didn't start right away. I wanted to read the whole recipe, again and again. (It's just my way). Well, that took about two weeks. (Remember that night time ritual I picked up from my mother-in-law?) Hubby was getting antsy and my tummy was starting to grumble too. Ok, I was finally ready. Mix 2 1/2 lbs of white bread flour and a 2 1/2 lbs whole wheat flour into a 5 lb mix of ... 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat flour, big whoop. Then grab a single handful put it in a small glass bowl add a little water, stir, cover with a cloth and come back tomorrow. Boring.

And that's how it began. More later don't worry. (my sis is clamoring that I've been in the computer "all night")

Did I mention that I downloaded a fun little app for June Bug to "make" donuts. She loves it. Well, what do you think happened next? We had to make some "real" donuts. Actually, I've never made them. Nope just never really wanted to. Sure I WANTED to, but I also didn't want to have to buy bigger jeans! No worries, Hubby was going somewhere the next day where he could take all the "un-eatens". Thank goodness!

I still ate 6. Oh well they were small.

Thanks Barbie!

Tonight I had a real hankering for some chocolate. Hubby even offered to go to the store for me, but I declined since I knew his motives were less noble than they seemed (I'll let you guess).

I searched the cupboards and found those loyal chocolate chips but cookies would take too long. I needed something now! Fortunately a splendid idea came from the mouth of June bug! "You can have my barbie snacks", she said so sweetly. It sounded nice, but chocolate was the real craving and nothing else would do. Then the lightbulb went on. As a child (and also as an adult) I loved those chocolate dipped gummi bears--brilliant!

A little melting, stirring, dipping and dropping, then a little waiting--brilliant. Thanks Barbie!

How far can you stretch a turkey?

When I had internet at my house it was so easy to just sit down, type my thoughts and post! Now there’s no motivation – except for my faithful three followers lol. It’s been so long that there is was too much to fit into one post. I’ve got stories to tell about a $6 turkey and then there’s the new knitting project that I have worked on for 12 ½ hours.

The $6 turkey doesn't seem as exciting as when I had all the thoughts about the post at the time. Oh, well. Basically, Save-Mart had a coupon where you bought $20 worth of groceries and got any turkey under 14 lbs for only $6. Well spending $20 bucks at the grocery store is easy for me. So, I picked it up, drove home and dreamt of the the creations I'd make. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving so making that classic dinner, wasn't my goal. I'm really not as big of a fan of a whole roast turkey anyway (a whole fried turkey is a whole other story - yummo). In a whole roast turkey the breasts are dried out by the time the rest is cooked and then if you don't have a crowd to feed, you've got a whole lot of roast turkey meat that has to be used as "roast turkey meat". Come on, there's way more exciting things I can think of to do with all that meat rather than roasting it all in one shot. And besides the process for me is the exciting part.  If I roast the whole thing now there's no more fun in the days and weeks or months that follow!

Well it took almost five days to completely thaw in the fridge. Good thing I wasn't in a hurry! The gizzards were actually still frozen but they thawed quickly enough once I yanked 'em out. 

So, first, I removed all the "good" meat - like you would a whole chicken. Two breasts and two thighs.

Then I took off the whole wings and roasted them with the carcass, neck and drumsticks. You can't dry out drumsticks, right? Hubby and June bug ate the drumsticks for dinner and I nibbled on a wing. I made some stuffing too. If there's anything I like about a traditional "turkey dinner" it's stuffing. I could eat it morning noon and night - and I have. This occasion was no different. My recipe made two loaf pans worth and after a whole week of eating for a few lunches, a few dinners and I think one midnight snack, I think there was still some left. It went in the freezer for later (Oo that's right, now I know what I'm having for lunch today!!). Hubby likes stuffing too, but could care less about it after the first day - so it's all mine :)

Back to the turkey. Two days later it was time to make the stock. In went the roasted carcass, neck and bones that remained after dinner two nights before as well as the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, peppercorns and some leeks tops left over from the oxtail soup I'd made earlier that week. 

After two hours of simmering, I carefully lifted out the the meatier bones, let them cool a bit then removed the final bits of meat.

When the stock was done about 1 1/2 hours later, the meat went back in. Now I had almost two gallons of rich roasted  Turkey stock with some still sorta-flavorful meat (that's why I removed it before the stock was done).

Half the Turkey stock got made into Turkey soup with dumplings the next day - after the addition of some chopped fresh carrots and celery. The other half went into the freezer for a rainy day.

As for those two breasts and two thighs above. One half breast got ground into ground "lean" turkey -8 oz. Its other half and the other breast was sliced thin into 6 - 4 oz. pallairds. The two thighs were made into ground "not-so-lean" turkey - two 6 oz portions. All were frozen. BTW, the food processor works great for making "ground" meat. Chop into 1 inch cubes and pulse until it's ground to your liking - no meat grinder required. I've got pictures but they are on my camera at home - sorry.

Needless to say, there will be many more meals ahead from that $6 turkey. :)

Finishing touches

Hubby and I started dating when I was 19 and he was 18. I hated that I was older and when I found out his age I even tried to break up with him over it. Well, you know who won. We met at the Honda dealership where we both worked. He sold cars and I was a receptionist. He was tall and handsome and after he asked me out for about three months (and shaved off that silly mustache) I finally said okay. He lived with his parents, but made a bunch of money, so in my eyes he was rich, and just about spent it all on me! What was not to like about him? Why am I telling you all this? Isn’t this a blog about knitting and cooking and gardening? Bear with me a bit longer. One of our favorite ways to hang out was to go shopping. He looked good in anything (remember tall and handsome) – especially a suit. I recall one occasion at Off 5th where he purchased his “legendary” Hugo Boss suit, strutting out when he tried it on (giggle, giggle). He looked amazing! Sure, it had a European cut, which his broad shoulders filled out perfectly, but that waist of his was still slimmer than those slim Europeans! Of course, he was fit back then (weren’t we all?), so all his suits had to be taken in. (Really, I’m gonna get to the point of this story.) I adore a man in uniform – and isn’t a suit basically just a uniform? Okay, fast forward 13 years. That fabulous Hugo Boss suit no longer fits (it’s not that he got taller, lol). Having fun afternoons of shopping and spending silly amounts of money are long over. However, he still needs something to where to our meetings. I think June Bug was barely born the last time he got a brand new suit. So, tomorrow we are going to mall (big family outing, lol). I doubt the suit he chooses will need to be taken in. Maybe he’s finally grown into the man he was meant to be, who I love. :)

The real reason you’re here.

Cookies that June bug and I made yesterday. 

Neon food coloring is way cool! Not natural, but it’s not like we eat it every day. I forgot I had it until it fell out of the cupboard at me the other day.

And the first loaf of “white” bread I’ve made in a while. Even all those delicious whole grains get a little boring. Couldn’t just make it all plain though, I threw in some herbs, garlic and minced onion – yum!

And finally the knitting. Before my last post, I got into a major knitting groove. I finished the baby romper for Leslie’s baby. 

I’ve only made one attempt to give it to her, so better try a bit harder, since she might see this post and wonder if she’ll ever get it!

Then, what next? It’s funny how when I finish a knitting project, I immediately want to start another one. However, those finishing touches are what really slow me down! I’m not alone. Many knitters hate the finishing part of knitting. All the weaving in of ends and seaming things up – we just want to knit! And, knitting is something to just pick up to de-stress for me, so if there’s nothing there to pick up and knit, then what, chocolate, bread, chips? So many calories!

So, right after I finished the romper, I grabbed my shrug and I actually finished the last 14 of the 15 rows in record time (remember there were over 250 stitches in each row). I realized I was going to be about 3 ½ rows short and I didn’t want to purchase another ball of yarn, but I really wasn’t sure if it would be okay, so I procrastinated – a bunch. But, I was determined to finish. I’d come all this way, I’d hate for it to sit in my knitting drawers with all those other abandoned projects! So, I brought my project with me everywhere: to my moms, to my sisters, to watch TV, to the coffee shop. I even weaved in all the ends and seamed the arms together so that the second I was done knitting, I could be done with the project and just put it on! However, it sat (right next to me), unfinished for the last two weeks. Last Friday I visited my grandmother, who, in her heyday used to make all my grandpa’s socks! She’s actually quite proud that I’ve taken such a liking to knitting. I showed her my nearly finished shrug (yes, it was right in the car with me) and that purple shirt that’s been about half done for about 6 months (yes, it’s been in my knitting bag sitting underneath the shrug all along). She loved them. She realizes that she’s likely not going to be making all the little doll clothes she used to make for my sister and my cousins and I, so she gave me a bunch of knitting books. Oo, fresh inspiration! I tried to start a project for one of June Bug’s dolls, but couldn’t get the gage right, probably because the shrug was calling out to me to be finished! So, tonight I sat down and about 15 minutes later, it was done. 

I tried it on, spun around and yes, wondered, what next?

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 :)

The Cake part II

With only two hits to the snooze button, it was 5:42 AM when I stumbled into the kitchen. I left the windows open to my house thinking the cakes could “keep cool” as they traveled in and out of the fridge as I frosted them the next morning. But, being early fall, this proved to be a horrible idea. At 66 degrees in my house, there was no way the icing was ever going to reach it’s “initial volume” as the recipe promises it will after letting it warm to room temperature. They probably never guessed that someone's room would be 66 degrees! So, with very clumpy icing (remember all that fanfare I promised, yeah, not happening with over 2 lbs of butter in it in a cold room). So, I turned on the heat (for the first time this season, pee-u) and the oven just to get things cookin’. Fortunately I picked the sheet cake to fill and frost first, so no one was really going to see the clumpy frosting. Besides I had to do a crumb coat – that would use up all the flop icing, right? Well, a lot of it. I decided I better whip up a fresh batch to do the final coat. When that one behaved about the same, I started to panic that everyone would think I lied about this “beautiful” icing. I stopped the mixer and proceeded with crumb coating on the 14 and 10 inch cakes. About 40 minutes later when I was about to run out of icing, I flipped back on that mixer and hoped for the best. It’s finally about 70 on the thermostat and with periodic openig and closing of the oven door, my kitchen must be at least 75. Hah, the frosting is finally looking like the regal stuff I know it can be! Hallelujah!

I had told Hubby the night before that I wanted to be in the car and ready to go at 9:00 AM, since I said I would deliver the cake at 10:30. Well, I think we both knew that was never going to happen, when he was still in bed at 9:05 and the cakes were barely iced. I decided I would stack the three layers before I left the house (you’ll see why this could prove fatal for the cake in a moment) and attach the gardenias when we got there. Hubby couldn’t believe that was plan after he proceeded to shake vigorously the car of mine that needs new struts! He thought for sure we would get a cake-filled trunk by just the end of our driveway! So fortunately I had picked up a long dowel from the hardware store the day before after reading of some who had used one to protect the cake from sliding over. I ran up to my make-up bag and got the only pencil sharpener I knew I could easily locate (the dowel was the perfect diameter). After making a nice sharp point and cutting it to size with my bread knife, I shoved that dowel straight down through the three cakes and their cardboard dividers. Wait don’t forget the other cake! Almost did. Alright it’s finally 11:11 AM and we are leaving the house.

The first 15 minutes was about the most nerve-wracking of the next 78-minute drive to Elk Grove. You see, we live at the bottom of a 2.5 mile steep, bumpy, barely-paved road and then about 400 feet down an even bumpier dirt road. So at the top of that hill, we both hopped out of the car to check on everything (lots of hopping in this blog!). All there--and in one piece, phew. The rest of the ride proved pretty uneventful except that even with all the pulling over to let cars pass, we still beat Google maps estimated drive time to the location by 2 minutes. Who does those calculations anyway?!

When we arrived I quickly stuck the gardenias in the cake 

and fixed a few cracks it had suffered on the way down – nothing major. The we stashed it in the fridge

where it got it's first completed photo and we hopped in the car and went to my mother-in-laws to get ourselves ready. The worst critic was Hubby who wondered why it was not smooth and how it didn’t look very professional. (Remember this isn't fondant). Well, what can I say, I cried. But after his mom saw the picture, he put him in his place. lol

Shortly before the wedding they put the cake on the cake table with all the decoration. I really didn’t think it looked so bad now and Hubby finally agreed. Just before the wedding I heard that the bride had just seen the cake. She loved it! I knew this is all that mattered and I could now relax.

After they cut the cake,

the bride and groom wrangled me over and told everyone that I made it “from scratch”.  I got lots of compliments, not on the look (which is fine with me), but on the taste. I even had two pieces myself, why not, I think I earned an extra slice. Good thing for that extra sheet cake (I put the sole "handmade"gardenia on it.)

I’m pretty sure my mother-in law took the last four pieces home after the wedding and Hubby said to her, “You’d better since she won’t be doing that again!” What does he know! Anyone need a cake?