Sunday, 7 December 2014
We’re easing into the holiday hubbub. Made a double batch of bourbon balls today. Not sure how many other flavors of sweets we’ll get to….
It’s not quite relevant, but I got a new flavor of spam today courtesy of gmail—the flavor? in Vietnamese. Yeah, I’m liable to click on that!
Monday, 1 December 2014
The turkey-day leftovers were all but gone last evening, necessitating a groc-run today. We needed coffee, so we hit TJs…and discovered that their year-end holiday goodies are now on the shelves. JCB hypothesized that this recipe was created to make use of leftover bits in a candy factory. I think they’ve used everything but peppermint candy canes.
Friday, 28 November 2014
Pecan pie is similar to candy in a crust, yet, sheeze’o, I’m still loving the tiny slivers I allow myself.
Friday, 28 November 2014
Our cleanup crew (thanks, everyone—I was part of the production crew) processed the volume of plates, glassware, pots, and more that you’d expect a dinner for eleven to produce. The dish-drainer was filled and emptied numerous times. The glassware must be the least-preferred type of dirties, and were the last processed, awaiting me when I came down to fire up the coffee pot.
I had coffee with leftover pie. Tough life!
Monday, 24 November 2014
I cannot remember the first time I ate pomegranate seeds. I certainly read about the fruit long before I saw it, and more references were of the tree than the fruit. I like the sweet-sour-ish taste very much, although I’m still a novice at the seed-pulp separation process.
Friday, 21 November 2014
S-l-o-w-l-y, I’m beginning the prep for the coming Feast. These bread cubes (once organic loaves from the groc store) are mostly dried out. I’ll reload them in the bread bags tomorrow I suspect, ready for becoming dressing in a few days.
Saturday, 1 November 2014
I saw this and knew I had a goooo-gle session in my future. What the heck is rye flour riddled? What’s the riddled part? Turns out it refers to sieving, but I can’t tell what level of fine/coarse it produces. It’s a Russian term, as near as I can tell….
Bonus photo; already forgot what kind these are….
Friday, 17 October 2014
I remember Mom’s explanation of the meaning of the phrase “composed salad.” I just couldn’t fathom the word composed in that context; of course, we were a tossed salad family—sometimes slaw, so our table didn’t have composed salads (and we rarely ate out).
Glazed pecans, crunchy bacon, blue cheese, grape tomato halves—what a tasty version/composition/ of iceberg. Although is it really a composed salad?
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Often, I think up at least a partial menu before I go shopping. Sometimes I have no focus/creativity/ideas.
Today, I was in the latter situation.
I saw the stalks of Brussel-ees were marked down…and thought: gee, temps below normal…I should do an autumnal oven meal.
Sausage, Brussels and cauliflower, a few button mushrooms, some simple stuffing (cornbread, from a box), and a pound of tofu turned into hoisin-slathered “steaks.”
Perked us both up, although we both have vestiges of jet lag dogging us.
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Late yesterday, I got whammied by a bad cold. Sniff, blow; repeat. I managed to get plenty of sleep, thankfully, but I spent the day an energy-less lump.
The Great and Wonderful Guru went out for supplies, and discovered the nearby street was a forest of vendors, mostly of used clothing, heavily attended by locals, along with a few tourists. He came back with a fine grocery assortment, including a Bob’s Red Mill soup mixture, an Italian version called zuppa di farro. It has split green peas, lentils, and farro. I found a deep pot (kitchen has a good assortment of tools), loaded it with water and some of the soup mixture, and set it to boil. I figured 50 mins of simmering, and that was about right.
Farro is a type of wheat (Triticum spp.), and WikiPee notes botanical and common names do not always match up. The ones in this soup mixture are longer like “regular” wheat, not stubby like barley. This soup mixture would have been customary to ancient Romans, and peoples of the Levant.
By day’s end, I felt on the mend—fingers crossed.