List Day Six: Master Grocery List

Not everything every trip, but all of these on a regular basis (generally when they are on sale):

Boneless, skinless chicken breast
Skin on salmon fillets
Cod fillets
Boneless pork chops
Ground turkey
Ground pork
Eggs

Not my actual refrigerator.
Much too neat.

Lots and lots of fresh mushrooms, of all types (typically 4 - 8 oz containers per week)
Broccoli crowns
Baby carrots
Onions
Sweet potatoes
Squash of some sort, in season
Green peppers (or red or orange or yellow, dependent on sales)
Lemons and/or limes
Potatoes (about once every six weeks)

Apples, always apples (I eat one a day during the week, and use them in my breakfast hash as well)
Mandarin oranges or tangerines (in season)
Cantaloupe or pineapple (in season)

Canned diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
Canned mushrooms
Canned peaches, pineapple or mandarin oranges (when fresh is not in season or expensive)

That's the ongoing grocery list. It looks like a lot, but honestly, only about 1/3 of these things are on the actual list from week to week. The meat purchases depend on what is currently in the freezer, and are heavily dependent on what is on sale. Still, most of these things are in the house at any given time.

There are, of course, the oddball and pantry items that are always around. Almond flour, apple cider, five or six types of vinegar, two different types of olive oil. The kitchen is pretty heavily skewed toward Whole30 compliant items - in  other words, to cooking from scratch and avoiding added sugar and preservatives.

Whatever, it works for me.

Cook all the things

It feels as if almost all I've done over the first few days of vacation is sleep, cook and clean up after cooking.

Right now, two pounds of meatballs are simmering in sauce in the slow cooker, destined for dinner tonight, as well as a whole lot of freezer containers earmarked as future lunches.

A huge grocery order arrived yesterday, consisting of stock ups on staples plus some recipe-specific items, like turkey thighs (slow cooker turkey and wild rice soup). Then there is the quarter ham for Christmas dinner (not to mention leftovers of that ham for soup, and possibly a Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole by America's Test Kitchen). Ricotta cheese for lasagna (freeze pieces for lunch). Pepperoni for homemade pizza (the crust recipe makes two crusts, and it freezes well).

A good portion of this afternoon passed by with my nose in some cookbooks. Actually, most in Cook's Illustrated's Cover and Bake, an older book that was already ten years old when I bought it two years ago. But like all Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) recipes, they stand the test of time. I've a list of seven or eight dishes to try.

As a result, I put an invitation out on Facebook for an impromptu dinner party for sometime next week. We're working on setting a date. It will be semi-pot luck style: I'll provide the main and dessert, while guests are free to bring sides, rolls, wine and appetizers. They are well aware that my intent is to try new recipes (and there will be plenty of meatballs in the freezer if it doesn't work out). The dessert will be an easy, rustic apple pie (guest to provide ice cream).

With that, I need to go have dinner. The original plan was to have the meatballs over polenta, but I'm too hungry to wait while it cooks. Though when it comes down to it, given how slowly the electric stove brings water to a boil, it may not be any quicker to make pasta.

Sweet Tooth

The scent of warm shortbread and melted chocolate is drifting up to where I sit at the computer in the loft. Sometimes, having an open loft is a good thing.

Once completely cooled and cut, the toffee bars are destined for the cookie trays we make up for the students who work in our office. We can't pay as much as other departments, but we make sure our students are well fed.

I've spent much of the afternoon browsing through cookie books. We Energies (formerly Wisconsin Energy) publishes an annual "cookie book" that is extremely popular locally. To my delight, they have digitized the books going back to 1932.

While the more recent books show off the cookies in full color pictures, it is the 1960 edition, set in an old typeface with old fashioned line drawings that I grew up with. My mom must have decided to do a bunch of baking for my second Christmas. The Spritz and Mexican Wedding Cakes are favorites, though the Checkerboard Cookies are fun (when the pieces don't fall apart on you).

The motivation for the hunt is a cookie exchange I'm in next weekend. Originally, I'd planned to bring Lethal Layers, but in order to get the quantity needed for the swap, I'd need to make three pans. Since downsizing to a galley kitchen, I've given away the second 9 x 13 pan I once had. Naturally, I'm too lazy to borrow additional pans from friends.

Hence, the hunt.

The winner seems to be Wintermint Wafers. They are from the 2014 book (page 18, if you are interested). Who doesn't like chocolate and mint together? In a strange twist, I do have peppermint extract in the cupboard; what I do not have is enough cocoa. Eh, there is time to get some.

The cookies will most likely need to be mixed up Thursday, for rolling, baking and chocolate-dunking on Saturday. I've a social thing on Friday night or I'd do it then. Since the dough needs to chill, then the cookies cool completely before dunking, it would be rough to get through the entire baking process on Saturday.

What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

Food and rest

Day one of vacation is in the books, and it has been all about basic needs.

When I got home from work last night, I was utterly exhausted. Up too late several of the previous nights, and out the door even earlier in the morning than usual. That, plus the knowledge that the end of the workday signaled the start of a week of free time, signaled my body to just.let.go.

Even that tired, my body insists on waking itself up at the usual time. Who needs an alarm clock? My initial plans for the day included being at the eye doctor when they opened at 8 a.m. to pick up contact lenses and chose/order new glasses, but after checking email and reading the paper online, I made the executive decision to go back to bed. It's the time of year when sitting at the desk in the loft in the early morning in pajamas is a bit chilly, but not cold enough to grab the robe. So much easier to just get under the still warm covers again.

"Late" is relative: I was up again just before eight. Time to start vacation with a special breakfast.

Dutch baby pancakes (or pancake, singular, as it makes one really big one) are super simple to make, and provide a lot of filling options. The basic recipe:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put 2 TBS of butter in an 8 or 9 inch pie plate and put it in the oven for the butter to melt.

While that happens, mix the following:
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs (milk and eggs should ideally be at room temp - who has the patience to wait?)
a dash or two of salt
a bit (I used about half a teaspoon) of sugar

Once all that is well mixed, add 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, mixing just until the lumps are out.

Carefully take the hot pie plate with the melted butter out of the oven. Swirl the butter around so it covers the bottom of the plate AND the sides. Pour the batter in, then put the pan back in the oven.

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR DURING BAKING.

The batter slides itself up the sides of the pie plate, but doesn't run over the edge. It just sort of continues to grow vertically, until it curls over itself towards the center of the dish. Turn on your oven light to check through the window close to the end of the cooking time - you want this risen part to be golden to brownish.

When you take the pan out of the oven, the pancake should slide right out onto a platter. The sides will collapse a bit.

Now comes the fun part. You can fill the center with all sorts of goodies. My recipe actually uses bacon bits in the batter, then has you fill the finished pancake with apples sauteed in butter and maple syrup. Sprinkling with powdered sugar is pretty traditional. You could also fill it with jam, rather than fresh fruit. How about sliced up breakfast sausage sauteed in maple syrup? Whatever floats your boat.

Me? Too lazy to do the apples, I stuck a spoonful of Nutella in the center to melt. Heaven.

Then off to chores. Laundry, garbage gathering, unload/load the dishwasher, do the hand wash dishes. Somewhere in there stop to watch some NCIS and read a bit. Do the every-so-often bleaching (porcelain sink, both sides, other - ahem - porcelain).

About three o'clock realize you've not eaten since breakfast. Decide to try a new-to-me, but probably familiar to moms everywhere dish: Cheesy chicken, rice and broccoli. Saute half an onion. Add a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in small chunks. Brown it a bit. Add minced garlic. Push all to side of pan, add a little more olive oil and a cup of (brown, in tonight's case) rice. Saute the rice until it starts to look translucent. Add appropriate amount of chicken broth for the amount of rice. Stir, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and walk away. Ten minutes before the rice should be done, add three cups or so of frozen broccoli.

When the rice is done and the broccoli hot, remove the pan from heat and stir in a cup or so of cheddar cheese. Put another half cup on top of the dish, put the cover on and let it sit a minute or so. Remove cover and enjoy.

In the process of making dinner, I discovered two horrifying facts: 1) there were only two onions left in the pantry, and 2) there is no mild or medium cheddar cheese in the refrigerator, only aged, sharp vermont white cheddar. The casserole tasted fine with the sharp cheese (which I love), but aesthetically it would have looked nicer with cheddar colored cheddar (beige rice, beige chicken, beige cheese and little islands of green - not exactly haute cuisine)

Now, upstairs to peruse the open enrollment materials (short story, premiums up 6%, maximum out of pocket limit up 140%) and plan for the rest of the week. I'm trying out the bullet journal system, and while I've been using it for over a month, I think I have a few ideas that will make it work better for me.

That is pretty much it for the first day...one hopes the next eight will be about more than sleep and food.

A great weekend for soup

The weekend is almost here, thank heaven. This morning's 5 a.m. temperature was 55 degrees; it's dropped to 52 now. A strong north east wind is actually helping us stay warmer than we would otherwise be, as the waters of Lake Michigan are still fairly warm (59 degrees right now, in fact; we'd be warmer swimming, I guess).

All this to say it is perfect sleeping weather. An open window, a couple of quilts to snuggle under, and off to dreamland. There's nothing like spending an extra half hour after you wake up, cozy in that warm little nest you've made of the quilts, knowing how chilly it is outside of it.

While I placed a Peapod order last night, I deliberately left apples (which I desperately need; I'm completely out, and I always have apples in the house) off the list, in hopes that I can stop at a local orchard tonight after work. I'm not much for the pick-them-yourself thing unless I get a discounted price for doing the work, but this place has a great store.

Lots of soup-related things on the grocery list. The plan is to make several types of soup, including Pumpkin Soup with Basil, Mushroom Barley and Chicken with Wild Rice. Two of those soups are actually quasi-vegetarian, containing no non-vegetable protein. The barley has a little bit, but not enough to counter the carbs.

While I'm not averse to eating a vegetarian meal, the combination of carbs-fat-protein is the magic for diabetics. Cheese, whether melted on the soup or in a couple of slices on the side, is a quick way to add protein, but it also adds a fair amount of fat. Oddly enough, turkey pepperoni is low in fat, high in protein and (if you get the uncured type made by Applewood), low in sodium. It's also pretty tasty.

The only barrier to the festival of soup making is the availability of wild rice. Peapod simply does not carry it. They have lots of blends - primarily brown rice with some short thin spaghetti and a tablespoon or so of real wild rice - but no plain packages of wild rice itself. Frustrating, since wild rice is very much a Wisconsin staple - the Menomonee Indians were known as the "wild rice people", as the rice was such an important part of their culture.

Eh, I can probably get it at an actual supermarket, or I can wait until the week I'm off and pick it up on a trip to The Elegant Farmer, which is a haven for Wisconsin product. I'll certainly have enough other soup to sip on.

So that's the weekend plan: put away the grocery order and fool around in the kitchen. What are your plans?

Zuppa Toscana

As much as I lament the changes in service philosophy at Olive Garden, I still love their Zuppa Toscana. Mr. Google was able to provide a recipe for a knock-off of this delightful soup, which I threw together yesterday.

Here's the basic recipe; notes on my changes come after.

Zuppa Toscana

1 pound Italian sausage, removed from casings
2 russet potatoes, cut in half lengthwise and then cut into 1/4" slices
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups kale, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1 quart (4 cups) water
1 cup heavy cream

Brown sausage in soup pot, crumbling into small pieces as it browns. Add chicken broth and water to pot; stir.

Add onions, potatoes and garlic. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Taste; add salt and pepper to taste.

Turn heat to low. Add kale and cream, heat through and serve.

Serves 4 - 6

Use whatever spiciness level of sausage floats your boat, Rather than removing the sausage from the casings if you have links, you can slice it thinly (less work), but I find the sausage is better distributed through the soup if it's loose. You may want to put a bit of olive oil in your pot to keep the sausage from sticking (I did). If you leave the potato skins on (I did), it makes a more rustic soup (less work). You can use chopped, frozen kale (I did; less work) instead of fresh. Since it's going into a liquid, it doesn't make any difference in texture or taste to make the substitution. You also aren't left with the rest of a bunch of kale to incorporate into other recipes before it gets all slimy in the refrigerator (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything).

Finally, I ended up using four cups of chicken broth and two cups of water, rather than two and four. Stock-in-a-box, which is what I had, comes 4 cups to a box. I had no immediate use for the two cups that would have been left over had I followed the recipe proportions. In the end, I'm not sure it made much difference in the final flavor. Oh - and absolutely use real heavy cream, not milk. There isn't that much of it when divided amongst the portions, and you cannot duplicate the creamy richness using milk.

It does taste very much like the soup they serve at Olive Garden. My only regret is that I didn't have any crusty bread on hand to go along with it.

The rather quick preparation means this can be made even on a weeknight. It's going into the regular fall-winter-early spring soup rotation at my house.

Tradition

It is an annual tradition with no set date, celebrated only by me (at least that I know of). There are no special decorations, no themed songs, no requirement for special clothing or trips to relatives' homes.

The tradition?

The annual eating of the liverwurst sandwich.

Calves' or pigs' livers, meat (around here, generally pork), fat, bacon and spices all smashed up together into a wonderful, sliceable paste. Admittedly high in fat and sodium, a typical serving has more vitamin B12 and A than you need in a day (without turning you orange the way carrots might). Add in the 8 grams of protein and a quarter of the daily iron requirement, and it's a bit of a nutritional powerhouse.

Provided you don't eat it every day.

I'll admit it may be an acquired taste, but it's something I grew up with, a bit of a nod to my dad's German heritage, much like enjoying anchovies runs through my mom's Sicilian blood. Just goes to show that if you don't tell a kid something tastes "icky", they will try just about anything.

Onion and mustard are the usual condiments on a sandwich; I prefer mine plain. In an odd twist of fate, the bread I had on hand was Italian, rather than the more traditional rye. Still, it was a mighty fine sandwich.

Now that tradition has been observed for this year, I'm thinking that I should eat liverwurst more often, in spite of its artery-clogging properties. It's only a matter of time before the FDA bans it because of the high fat content (26% of your daily fat, but 30% of your daily saturated fat in each delicious serving). One would hope that Milwaukee, with a proud German heritage, would hold out against such a heinous act, but big government has ways of enforcing their will.

Should that ever be the case, I fully expect to run a pork product black market out of my condo. Just so you know.

What a tart

A real tomato.

Tomato tart, that is.

I finally got around to making the tomato tart whose ingredients have been hanging around for over a week. It's pretty simple, but the end result looks fancy and tastes divine. It's about time I shared the recipe, isn't it?

Tomato Tart

1 pie crust for 9" pie pan or fancy tart pan with a removable bottom - you can make your own, use a mix or use the unfoldy-type ones, or keep it really simple and use a pre-made, unbaked kind - whatever floats your boat (note: you can use puff pastry, but pie crust works better)

About one cup of shredded swiss cheese (do yourself a favor: buy a block and shred your own for much better taste)

One small to medium onion, diced fairly small, or cut in half and sliced thinly, your choice

One or two tablespoons of butter

Quarter cup of dry white wine - optional

One pint or so of cherry tomatoes, or twice as many grape tomatoes, or the awesome campari tomatoes, or regular old on- or off-the-vine tomatoes

About a teaspoon each of sage, thyme and oregano

Salt and pepper

The ingredient list is a bit floaty; trust me, you can't mess this up.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Put a tablespoon or so of butter in a nonstick pan. Throw in the sliced or diced onion and cook over a low heat until they are caramelized. Toss in a half teaspoon of brown sugar to help the process along if you must.When they are almost done, you can put in a quarter cup of white wine and cook until it evaporates, but that's up to you, as the tart tastes just as great without it. Let the onions cool (throw them in the fridge for a while).

2. When the onions are cool, lay them in the pie crust, covering the bottom. Layer the grated cheese on top. Now for the fun part...

3. The goal is to cover the cheese with the tomatoes. If you happen to have both red and yellow cherry tomatoes, you can cut them in half and lay them cut side up in a fun pattern. Or you can just use the red ones. If your cherry tomatoes are on the small side (or you are lazy like me), you can leave them whole. If you only have standard size tomatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick and lay them out, cutting the slices as needed to cover all the cheese. Really, the only way to mess up this step is to layer the tomatoes on too thickly.

4. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the thyme, sage and oregano. Add a shot of salt, and more of pepper.

5. Bake at 350 for an hour or so, watching during the last 10-15 minutes in case you need to cover the edges of the pie crust to keep it from getting too dark.

Serve either hot or at room temperature.


I still want to try making these in the little individual, fluted edge ceramic pie plates I have, for a fun course for a dinner party. The first time I made the tart was for an opener for a dinner; I set it down, went to the kitchen to stir the stew, and by the time I came back, the tart was gone. It's that good. It's a great change from salad or sauce once the tomato crop starts coming in.

Sorry about not having a picture...I may have cut into it the second it came out of the oven. Leftovers (assuming there are any) should be refrigerated and gently reheated in the toaster oven or oven for about five - seven minutes at 250 for optimal taste. I've even taken it in my lunch, and eaten the leftovers at room temp.

So happy we are heading into fresh tomato season.

The day after

Quiet holiday, which suits me just fine. Reading, sewing, cooking, eating.

That chicken recipe I mentioned in the last post? Oh my gosh, is it good. I'll admit, when I slid the pan into the oven - the twelve inch cast iron pan with the foil-covered chicken, topped with an eight inch cast iron pan, and, for good measure, the enamel-over-cast-iron lid to the french oven for extra weight - I wondered if it would really work.

Silly me. Dark, crispy but not dry skin. Moist, flavorful meat. I'll make this again in a heartbeat.

Though next time, I'm not going to mess around with spatchcocking a whole chicken. This would work equally as well - with considerably less work - with bone-in parts.

Potatoes baked in the oven with the chicken, to be joined by steamed green beans and carrots. A glass of chardonnay and cheddar for afters.

Leftovers of all for the weekend.

The sewing?

Working on the embroidery portions of the t-shirt quilt. this eventually will be the center of the quilt. Each t-shirt was also embroidered with the location of the various family holidays, along with the year if it wasn't already on the shirt. As of today, those are all done and I've started assembling the top into component rows. The pieced sections of the quilt are primarily blues, with some whites and a bit of grey for variety. Each t-shirt section has a tiny narrow flange of orange around it (classic blue jeans have orange stitching - the idea is that the backdrop to the shirts reminds you of jeans), thus the colors for this embroidery.

Quiet day today, too. Sewing, watching the first Hobbit movie while the pork I'd rubbed and thrown in the refrigerator to marinate Wednesday night slow roasted in the crock pot. Took it out about half an hour ago; it was difficult to get it out of the pot as it was falling to pieces. One of tomorrow's jobs is to do a quick rearranging of the freezer so I can parcel the pork out and freeze it for lunches, dinners and nibbling.

Honestly, while my"fun" list for this couple weeks has some running around on it, being home is very soothing. I'm making progress on the quilt, doing some organizing, reading, napping and generally enjoying the slower pace. There are still lots of things I need to do, but the important stuff is mostly done, leaving me time to do the homey fun stuff - sewing, spending an afternoon going through the pile of quilt magazines, sorting through the linen closet for donations, ditto for the bedroom closet. A quieter pace, a much quieter mind.

It's been unseasonably warm this past week; next week,however, it will be unseasonably cold, with highs south of twenty degrees for most of the week. I'm pretty sure I can arrange it so I don't have to leave the house at all that week...and that will be a good thing.

On Christmas Eve

Not quite the picture you expected, given the post title, huh? The "Christmas Eve" portion of the day hasn't really begun for me just yet. By ten o'clock this morning, I'd been to the gas station ($2.23 a gallon; the station that had it for $2.19 wasn't open at five to six this morning), spent about two and a half hours at Panera having breakfast, journaling and organizing my thoughts, and gone to the bank to pay the property taxes.

Next up, printing out the recipes for the bounty in the refrigerator, some time in the studio, lunch and some more time in the studio. Then the fun began.

The picture is the chicken I mentioned in the prior post. The marinade smelled divine. As for cutting out the backbone, well, let's just say I need better cooking shears.

So that is done and marinating. The chicken bits - the packet of miscellaneous parts from inside the chicken plus the removed backbone - are simmering in a pot of water along with some aromatics in hopes of getting a nice, healthy broth. The turkey thighs are in the oven, roasting away for eventual use in soup.

Naturally, the kitchen smells like Lysol. Had to disinfect that counter, you know.

I'm taking a short break before mixing up the pizza crust dough. It only rises once, for 1 1/2 to two hours; I'm sure that in my little kitchen, with the oven's residual heat, it will take less time.

Once the dough is rising, I can start celebrating. A glass of wine, a fire, reading the Christmas account and the various prophecies that go along with it. Reflecting on the audacity of God's plan - to provide a way for us to be free of His justified wrath against sin by entering humanity Himself, a tiny baby at the mercy of His creation. As always, He surprised everyone, not coming as a conquering King, but as a servant and sacrifice.

God rest ye, merry gentlemen
Let nothing ye dismay.
Remember, Christ, our Savior
Was born on Christmas day.
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
O tidings of comfort and joy.

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same.
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
O tidings of comfort and joy.

"Fear not then," said the Angel,
"Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Savior
Of a pure virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan's power and might.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy.
O tidings of comfort and joy.

Merry Christmas

Day Five - Attack of the killer groceries

Alternatively, this is why you never grocery shop (or in my case, put together an on-line order) when you are hungry.

But first, a dinner picture.

Yum.

Click to make bigger. Home made chicken with wild rice soup, home made (and sliced and frozen) whole wheat english muffin bread with Land o'Lakes cinnamon sugar spread and a couple of clementines. I poached the chicken breast yesterday. Cooking the wild rice today is the only thing that took any time at all; the rest of the soup comes together very quickly. Recipe here. My optional add-ins were a handful of grated carrots, a bit more onion than called for and two cans of mushrooms. After this cupful, there are still five one-cup servings left. At the moment it's all in the refrigerator. I need to figure out if there is currently room in the freezer for some of it.

The grocery order came tonight, and silly me, I rather overestimated the amount of room in my empty looking refrigerator. I managed to forget that two of the dishes I plan to make need to marinate in there - for two days, each. Sigh.

It came down to a choice tonight of either splitting a whole chicken down the backbone and making a marinade I'm unfamiliar with, or trimming a rather large pork shoulder and using up the rub mix left over from last week's contribution to the work pot luck. The pork won. It's all covered in spicy goodness, wrapped in cling wrap and awaiting its turn in the crock pot, which I think may end up being overnight the 25th to the 26th.

Meanwhile, the whole chicken...the recipe is by Sandy d'Amato, a local chef who's won a James Beard award, run several highly successful and award winning restaurants in the area and is now retired, writing a regular food column for our paper. It's not difficult, except for the fact the split chicken also needs room to marinate in the refrigerator, again for two days. That is a miscalculation on my part - I'd intended to cook it on Christmas. If I get it in the marinade by noon tomorrow, I think I can cook it for a late dinner on Christmas Day and not lose too much flavor.

I will, however, only be cooking half of the chicken, freezing the other half. The chicken they gave me is about the size of a party balloon, fat and sassy. I can only get one half of it in my largest cast iron pan, I think. Chef D'Amato must think we all have restaurant-sized pans at home, or that we buy only the tiny, expensive organic-free-range-grassfed chickens.

It should be noted that I don't generally cook like this, and certainly not this much at a time. The nice thing about vacation is the chance to do some of these things, and restock the freezer for work lunches as well as have some decent home cooked meals while I'm off.

Cooking wasn't the only thing on today's agenda. First thing this morning I had a hair appointment, including a rather substantial cut. It's gone a bit wild since my last cut about three months ago, reaching almost to the middle of my back. It just hits my shoulders now. Much healthier, quicker to dry.

Came home and picked up a bit, watched some television and took an unintentional nap. That's getting to be rather a habit.

Tomorrow morning I'm counting on people being too busy with last minute Christmas stuff to do something so mundane as pay their taxes. The bank is open until two. I'll start the morning very early at Panera, having coffee and a bagel until the bank opens. Then back home to make the marinade.

And wash more dishes.

Blue enamel pan

When my mom and her siblings were cleaning out my grandparents' home, my mother insisted on taking an old, blue enamel 9 x 13 pan, the kind that you can find at Farm & Fleet for under ten bucks.

My grandmother used to layer thinly sliced potatoes, breaded pork chops and onions in the pan. A little bit of water went into the bottom, then it was covered in foil and baked. The end result was melt-in-your-mouth chops, tender steamed potatoes and awesome onions.

Though my mom made the dish often, it never tasted right made in any other pan.

At our Christmas potluck today, my tablemates and I were discussing the fact that it's often hard to duplicate a favorite dish made by a family member, even if the recipe is written down. They always taste a bit different, due to inaccurate measurements in the recipe (how big is a "handful"?), a different pan, or simply missing the person who usually makes it.

I'd described the pan and the dish, and a coworker is also half Sicilian (her other half is Irish, while mine is German - like she said, what was the good Lord thinking?) laughed and said she'd had it growing up as well, as it's a very Sicilian dish.

That led to a conversation about anchovy bread, and sfinchuni, and other wonderful foods.

I actually have everything on hand for the pork dish. Alas, while I have a blue enamel pan (not the pan), it's sized to roast a large turkey, not four chops. Still, I can make do with a ceramic casserole dish.

But as good as it will be, it won't be quite the same.

A little strange, but it works for me

Two weeks until Christmas Eve. Time to start stocking up the pantry, both for vacation and the traditional Christmas Eve meal -

- pizza.

It sounds strange, but isn't that big a departure from the antipasti spread my grandparents put out every year when I was growing up. It's just all put on a pizza.

When my sister gave birth to my mother's only grandchild, she had just started divorce proceedings against the girl's father. My mother, in order to be sure to have access to her granddaughter "first", decreed that our family Christmas would happen Christmas Eve...morning. Well, brunch time-ish.

After the festivities, sister and niece (and later new husband and stepdaughter) would trail off to whichever relative was next on the list. My mother would take off to her brother's for the evening. I'd go to services at either five or seven p.m., depending on whether the church was offering a 5 p.m. "child friendly" service.

I'd come home to a very quiet flat.

One year, I realized after service that I'd not had dinner, and there wasn't much in the house to cook. About the only place that was open was Walgreens, where I grabbed a frozen pizza and a tape (this was a long time ago) of a movie I'd not yet seen.

Thus, a tradition was born.

It's much more upscale these days. I'm making home made pizza, complete with all natural, nitrate-free pepperoni, buffalo mozzarella and a sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano to finish it off. The local up-scale grocer with the great spirits department is starting their holiday wine sale tomorrow, so I'll pick up a nice bottle or two to go with the grub.

That leaves the movie. Any recommendations? With Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and Netflix, I should be able to get my hands on just about anything you suggest. Action movies preferred, though action movies that are more than just special effects strung together with minimal plot (Air Force One versus Transformers). Or a light holiday movie (not The Christmas Story, nor It's a Wonderful Life).

I've put together the Peapod order that includes the cheese and pepperoni, plus some supplies for the pulled pork I'm bringing for the office potluck. There should be enough fresh produce to get me through to the weekend before the holiday, when I'll stock up the last time for the week ahead. I start vacation the 19th, and don't really want to be out in the stores much between then and the holiday if I can help it. Crowds make me itch.

Do you have any offbeat traditions or holiday habits?

All set for the week ahead

Made pumpkin soup with basil yesterday - four servings left.

Cooked a small acorn squash this afternoon, enough for some with dinner tonight and a bit for a couple of lunches.

The salisbury steak is on the last simmer in the gravy, and the dinner rolls are in the oven. There's enough for four, maybe five servings of leftovers of the steak.

The prep dishes are mostly washed, and the previous three strainers full of washed dishes put away. My hands are a bit wrinkly still.

I don't plan to set foot in the kitchen, except to reheat something, until at least Wednesday.

The two packages of hamburger I used were the last of the "big" packages of stuff in the freezer, I think. The rest of the freezer is full of individually packaged (or repackaged, if I bought in bulk) chicken breast, salmon, turkey Italian sausage and a small steak or two. Well, there are a couple of turkey drumsticks, to cook up for soup. And a very small, very lonely oxtail. Operation Cook It Up is going very well.

Leftovers for lunch, especially this time of year when the leftovers tend to be warm things like salisbury steak, chili and casseroles, really makes the day. If I work it right, lunch is the larger meal of the day, and I can just zap some (home made and frozen) soup for dinner.

Tomorrow night after work I need to stop to pick up some potatoes. I discovered when I pulled out the bag I had to make the potato-gratin this afternoon that the potatoes had...mostly gone south. There weren't enough to make the full gratin, and I'm not sure they would even have made it to a half recipe. Since the leeks are already washed and chopped, I'd like to give this recipe a try. Besides, it's covered in melted Swiss cheese, one of life's biggest blessings.

At some point, I really need to start having people over again. The last time I fed anyone was during the murder mystery, and I deliberately kept the food really simple.

Laundry got done this weekend as well, though it's still waiting for me to make a trip to the basement to get it. I'm prewashing some pretty batik fabrics as well, and those need to be moved over to the dryer.

Except for the fact that zero of the much needed cleaning has yet been done this weekend, I've been pretty domestic. I even, on impulse, took fifteen minutes to clear out the cupboard above the coffeemaker, where the coffee, filters, mugs, flavorings, "company" tray and packages of instant cocoa live. Does that count as "real" cleaning?

I'm off to do some serious nothing until Once Upon a Time starts...

An actual food picture in a food post!

Ignore the 1970's harvest gold countertop; concentrate on
the 1970's comfort food.

Wow - an actual food picture! This is the 1960's or 1970's comfort food, a chicken biscuit casserole. This was Sunday's dinner, plus lunches for today and tomorrow (and would have been for Wednesday, too, if I hadn't been ravenous yesterday because I'd skipped a real lunch).

The topping, as you can see, consists of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. When I'm not in a hurry, I've made them from scratch rather than use the canned variety (the original recipe used all the available shortcuts - canned biscuits, canned peas, canned carrots, canned beans...we can do so much better today, with only a little more work).

Underneath the biscuity goodness is a creamy white sauce filled with onions, peas, carrots, green beans and (already cooked and diced - this is a great recipe for leftovers) chicken. I deviated a bit from the recipe and added few chopped up mushrooms. Prep is simple. Saute the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add half a cup of flour and cook for a bit, stirring constantly. Add 1/2 cup milk plus about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (I ended up adding more, as I put more than the called for quantities of "stuff" in, and everything got very thick in a hurry). Stir and cook until it's bubbly and thickened a bit. Add the carrots, peas, beans and chicken and stir to combine. Split the biscuits in half horizontally (I don't bother, I just leave the dish in the oven a bit longer to make sure the biscuits cook all the way through) and lay on top. Pop in a 375 degree oven for twenty minutes or until the biscuits are well browned.

I love the enamel over cast iron cookware, especially for things like this that start stove top and end in the oven. No washing a pot plus a casserole dish. If you bring the pot to the table to serve from, the food inside stays warm quite a bit longer thanks to cast iron's heat retentive properties. Considering you can't use abrasives to scrub them out, they clean up pretty easily as well.

This is also an unusual french oven. The usual shape for one this size is a smaller diameter, with higher sides. Have I mentioned I'm short? So short, in fact, that I can't see into the 6 quart stock pot when it sits on the front burner of the stove unless I stand on my toes. This particular french oven - and only the one in this volume - is available in a bigger diameter, with correspondingly lower sides. Yay for someone who understands short cooks!

Maybe more pictures if the next few nights' cooking turns out the way I hope.

Pumpkin guts and prep work

If I were keeping to my commitment to post this month on food stuff, this would be the part where I tell you about the pie pumpkin, and how it helps to bundle prep work.

Oh heck, why not. No pictures though; the kitchen counter is just a bit too messy to immortalize, and besides, I have pumpkin guts on my hands...

As I mentioned earlier, in with the groceries this week was a cute little pie, or sugar pumpkin. They are considerably different from their larger, grown-to-be-carved-not-eaten cousins. For one, aside from the much smaller size, they are sweeter, and less fibrous.

The flesh also tastes much, much better than canned pumpkin. It's worth the time to roast a few, mash the pulp and freeze it for future goodies.

Four years ago, I shared a microwave method of cooking pumpkin. Last week, I stumbled upon an easier way to deal with hard skins and slimy guts.

Poke your pumpkin 5 - 10 times around the stem area with a fork, creating holes for steam to escape. While you are taking out your frustrations on the gourd, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Put the pumpkin on a baking sheet (line with foil for no-mess cleanup of the pan - you can also use the foil to wrap up the leftover bits of skin and guts)(now if that doesn't make me sound like a serial killer...). Slide the pan into the oven and let the pumpkin roast for 45 - 60 minutes. To test if it's cooked enough, poke at it with your finger; it should yield easily.

Take it out of the oven and let cool for half an hour. At the end of that time, you may be able to just pull the stem out; whether or not it comes out, slice the gourd in half. I sliced mine in quarters, the easier to scrape out the innards, but do what you will. The seeds and fibers scrape out easily with a spoon. The flesh itself comes out just as easily. All it needs is some mashing or pureeing to the texture you need.

Since this method bypasses any need to handle slimy pumpkin guts, I may do this much more often.

There was more room in the oven, so I slid a small pan of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in as well. This is where the "bundling prep work" concept comes in. I find it much less frustrating, when making multiple dishes, to do all the prep work for all the dishes on one day, then do all the actual cooking on the next. Most things will keep a day or two in the refrigerator, if stored correctly.

The squash is destined for soup, with any leftovers used for bread. The chicken is going to be transformed into a half recipe of a favorite chicken, rice and cheese casserole. Or maybe chicken biscuit stew. Or chicken divan. Or, if I remember to pick up a couple of things at the store tomorrow, chicken with wild rice soup.

Hmm. I think I need to cook and shred a lot more chicken, to have on hand in the freezer.

31 Days- of nothing

Here it's been, almost a week since I've posted. Sorry folks, I seem to be in a dryer-than-an-all-gin-martini dry spell. Well, there are other factors going into things as well. So, I'm not sure I'll finish out the month.


At least I can share a bit about the recent grocery order. It's a bit squash-heavy: a butternut, two acorns and a pie pumpkin, to be exact. The pie pumpkin is the cutest little thing I've ever seen, not much bigger than a slightly overgrown softball. The acorns aren't much bigger.


The pie pumpkin will be roasted and the innards used for soup, and perhaps bread if there is enough left. The rest of the squash will most likely be roasted, though I may try out a soup with the butternut. I picked up some leeks as well, mostly for the soup (with either potatoes or butternut squash).


Mushrooms, grape tomatoes (for snacking on), celery, macintosh and honey crisp apples round out the produce section of the order. You can tell I didn't have a list of recipes in mind from which to shop. The honey crisps are for eating as they are. I've some vague idea of making small apple crisps as I want them from the macintosh apples, though I may just eat them as well. I go through a load of apples a month, as I have one in my lunch pretty much every day. Two three pound bags generally covers it, unless the apples are huge.


Cake mixes were on sale, so I bought a spice cake mix. I've a book of nothing but cupcake recipes, most of which begin with a cake mix that you then alter a bit. Caramel spice cupcakes, anyone? Though I didn't buy any caramels - they are only melted with some butter to use as the frosting.


Time to stock up on some staples as well. Grey poupon, country style. Grated Parmesan/Romano. Coffee. Triscuits. Milk and a small plain yogurt to act as a starter.


Missing from the order: canned mushrooms. Eh, I did remember to buy fresh.

31 Days - Spice it Up!

Um, yes...I'm writing these off the top of my head on my lunch hour (it shows in the writing, I'm sure) and scheduling them for the next day. So, no graphic unless I remember to put it in after my dinner date tonight. If you don't see a graphic, I probably had a glass of wine with dinner.


Now that you've an idea what constitutes a pantry "staple" in my mind, we'll move on to the spice cabinet.


In my case, the "cabinet" is actually one of the cabinets above the sink. On the first shelf is a two tier lazy susan, on the second a big open plastic container with duplicates.


The revolving platform is full, both top and bottom, with small and medium size jars of ....various herbs and spices. Along the side, in a double row and stacked two high, are larger containers of the most often used stuff, the bottle of liquid smoke, the Tabasco sauce and a few other things.


It's more than time to clean it all out again, especially as they say these things really only have a shelf life of a few months, if that.


Then again, that may be just a marketing ploy by the spice sellers.


Most commonly used around my place, in no particular order:


Basil
Oregano
Rosemary
Marjoram
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Cumin
Lemon pepper
Thyme
Celery seed
Onion powder
Bay leaves
Nutmeg
Mushroom powder (er, not magic mushrooms)
Cayenne pepper
Red pepper flakes
Rubbed sage
Whole cloves
Ground cloves
Ground ginger
Dry mustard
Italian seasoning


There's quite a bit more, though I can't recall exactly what off the top of my head.


It's time to do to the spice cabinet what they recommend for a clothes closet. For the next month, as I use something, I'll put it in a box on the counter. Anything not used during the month (or possibly two, as I don't cook every day - and less the things I have on hand for just one specific recipe) will be trashed, on the basis that if I'm not using them now, I probably haven't been using them, and most likely won't be using them. Make sense? We'll see how much makes the cut.

31 Days - What's in Your Pantry Version

Every place I've ever lived has had a pantry. Well, that's if you count the metal cabinet we stored foodstuff in when I lived in a duplex my senior year of college. It should count, since it was almost bigger than the kitchen itself.

Pantries are great for storing all sorts of things, most notably dishes and/or glassware, and food. (I also had a junk drawer and a "tool" drawer in my pantry at the flat, as well as a place to store the bucket and car washing stuff in the cabinet under the counter in there, but that most likely isn't the norm for pantry items).

Today I'd like to run down the things I normally keep in stock in the pantry for cooking - the food portion, not the plastic and glass storage containers, baking supplies, casserole carriers and other stuff I also have crammed in my current closet sized pantry.

More than that, I'd love to hear in the comments what you consider a "must have" in your own pantry.

Here we go:

Canned tomatoes - diced, stewed, whole, crushed, salt free, seasoned, made into paste or sauce, canned tomatoes are incredibly versatile. I get down to three cans and I panic.

Canned mushrooms - this is a matter of personal taste. There are some (strange) people out there who do not like mushrooms. For certain recipes, and when fresh ones aren't available (translation: I don't want to go to the store) canned mushrooms are a necessity.

Canned fruit - pineapple and mandarin oranges, generally speaking. The pineapple goes in my lunch on those days I've run out of apples. The oranges are used in a number of recipes and on salads, as well as for the lunch box.

Canned beans - I've never successfully used dry beans. That's in part due to forgetting to start them soaking until it is too late, but honestly, I don't mind the canned. Kidney and pinto beans are sitting there ready to go into chili. Cannelloni beans joined the line up, as a new minestrone recipe became a favorite. Considering I'm really, really picky about eating beans, this is a pretty good stock pile.

Pasta, glorious pasta - Spaghetti, angel hair, elbows, mostacioli, ditalini, all sorts of other shapes. It's not just a matter of liking cute food (that may be part of it), as the different shapes hold different sorts of sauce more efficiently. You wouldn't use angel hair pasta with a heavy meat sauce, for instance, though you would use it with just butter and Parmesan cheese as a side dish.

Rice and other grains - brown rice and basmati rice are staples at my place. Whole wheat couscous is incredibly quick cooking and can substitute for rice under stir fries and other things. I adore barley, especially in the winter months. Wild rice is great in soups.

Kashi or Fiber One - cereal is not something I eat, but these are excellent toppers for yogurt.

Graham crackers, etc. - Wheat Thins, Triscuits and sometimes saltines round out the cracker bin. The grahams are great covered in peanut butter for a snack or as part of breakfast. The others most often find themselves under a slice of cheese. When I'm feeling fancy and have a lot of soup in the freezer, oyster crackers may make a brief appearance.

Dry milk - I hate to admit it, but I simply do not drink milk. It took about ten years and many wasted half gallons to figure that out. On the other hand, I do use it in cooking quite a bit. With dry milk, I can make only as much as I need, whether it is the three tablespoons I needed the other night, or two or three cups for a white sauce.

100% apple juice boxes - again, I don't drink it (I'm diabetic; the sugar in a cup of apple juice will quickly bring my blood sugar up when I need it fast, but on a regular basis, I'd rather just eat an apple). It's nice to have on hand, though for things like Maple Brined Pork Chops.

Pretzels - these are the go-to carb item in my lunches. It's incredibly rare not to see a bag - or two - in the pantry.

Oatmeal - both quick and traditional.

Instant potato flakes - while I love to cook potatoes several different ways, I hate making mashed potatoes.

That's the regular, always-on-hand list. There are always a few oddities that were purchased for particular recipes.

Then there are all the other things - not really foods in themselves, but things that help transform basic supplies into something sublime:

Vinegars - at the moment, I think I've at least five varieties hanging out.
Oils - good quality EVOO, plus regular cooking oil and a bottle of canola oil.
Worcestershire sauce
Cocoa powder
Non-stick spray - well, not for the taste, but to help with the dishes
Bouillon cubes and/or soup base - chicken, beef, vegetable
Honey
Anchovy paste and a can of anchovies - this is certainly personal taste
Boxes of stock - not always, but if there is a good sale I'll stock (heh) up.
Real bacon bits

Hmm. Without actually looking at the cupboards, I'd say that's about it for the absolute basics, at least for me.

31 Days, more or less

Last year, if you remember, I rather loosely and lazily participated in the 31 Days October challenge by posting pictures of quilts I've made. I say lazily, since all I really had to do was upload the pictures and brain dump the things I remembered about each.

This year, I realized my initial plan (on line Bible study) simply would not happen - too much else going on. A friend said she really enjoyed when I blathered on about food (that happens much more often on my Facebook page, so if you only read here, you are spared most of that). Eh, a girl has to eat, right?

This next thirty-one days, or as many as I can manage, will be full of posts about food stuff. Not foodstuffs, which is something else entirely. No, stuff about food. This can range from new recipes to lists of the contents of my freezer at any given point in time, from pictures of dinner to a real life shot of the pans stacked in the sink awaiting the magic dish washing fairy. In other words, it will be very, very real. Some things to note:

1. My posts are indicative solely of my personal experience. Your milage, number of servings, ingredient substitutions and cooking styles may differ.

2. Unless I'm entertaining, I'm generally cooking for one. So when you see a picture of a $15 per pound steak I've made for dinner, know that the portion size is under six ounces, and I only had to make one, so don't yell at me about how what I'm cooking isn't doable for "normal" cooks (not that I'm claiming to be "normal", whatever the heck that is). Also, if you take a recipe I've posted for two servings and upsize it to feed your family of ten, don't hold me accountable for the results. Seasonings don't always get adjusted proportionately to the rest of the ingredients.

3. The goal of cooking is to get a tasty meal on the table so that it is at optimal temperature for maximum flavor. I like my meals hot, not lukewarm after I've spent ten minutes or more playing "food stylist" so I can get a good picture. Things can get a bit...messy. Deal with it.

4. All good gifts come down from our Heavenly Father, and that most especially includes food. He could have provided nourishment in the form of a simple, one-size-fits-all plant (or something like the infamous manna), but instead gave us an almost overwhelming variety of possible menu items. We have so very much to inspire our gratitude.

Not terribly well organized, not really thought out, sort of spur-of-the-moment, stream of consciousness rambling about food.

Starting tomorrow, as this post qualifies for day one.

Look at the nifty button! I made that, in about ten minutes, with my eyes already drooping and my brain halfway to dreamland. I'll get better with practice. If I ever get time to practice. Meanwhile, offer me a bit of encouragement.