Saturday in the kitchen with Diane

This is in grave danger of turning into a food blog (in fact, technorati has me rated that way, apparently). But still, that seems to be what today is all about.

The original plan was to go grocery shopping early this morning. I did go out early, but detoured to the Starbucks across the street from the store, to read, work on a study and generally relax. Good thing, too, as I've not really sat down since I left there.

Grocery shopping...I'm getting better at finding things in this new store. This is the place I go for produce and the things Aldi doesn't carry. Lazy this weekend, I made just the one trip.

Home to put things away, then trim a chuck roast destined to become a slow-cooked italian stew. There was rather an unfortunate amount of fat on the thing; it probably would have been better cooked whole on a rack so it could run off. Oh well...chopped carrots, potatoes and onions as well. Mixed up the wet stuff, threw everything in the slow cooker. It won't be done until around 6:30 or 7:00.

Actually, that's a good thing, as it's half after three and I've not had lunch.

Somewhere in there I took out some Rhodes whole grain dinner rolls to thaw and rise. They take just as long as the stew to make. Even though it's convenient to have them mixed, formed and frozen, I could probably make them almost as quickly from scratch.

On to the next project - scrambled egg muffins. More chopping of green pepper, onion and part of a small ham steak.

Mix the chopped stuff with twelve eggs, some grated cheese and your choice of seasoning. Pour by 1/3 cups into twelve greased muffin cups. Bake about 20 - 25 minutes at 350 degrees. You have no idea how good the kitchen smells right now. The plan is to cool, then wrap and freeze them.

While out at Starbucks, I watched a couple of episodes of The French Chef on the Kindle. These were both on crepes, which I've made (and frozen) successfully in the past. One more thing to put on the "things to make and freeze" list. Making the filling is a great way to use up leftovers.

Plan to put my feet up for a while now. Hopefully, I'll be able to get up again later...still the cleaning to do. I'd like to get most of it done today, while the weather is still rather crappy. It should get better during the week, and I'd like to be able to spend some time tidying up the patio and finally setting out the furniture. The parking lot at the garden center was jammed this morning - everyone is gearing up for summer.