Twelve of 12 - August 2012

Another twelfth has come and gone!  I did something a little different this time - I kept a document open using the Notes app on my phone and made note of the times I took my pictures, along with my thoughts on them at the time.

7:30 - Out of bed, pump and drink water. Chat with husband while he attempts to feed baby who does not really want her bottle. She's not done sleeping! Neither was I; went back to sleep at about 8:30. When you go to bed at about two in the morning, a 7:30 is a little bit early to start the day!

Noon - Woke up. The living room looks like a hurricane hit it. What happened??? My husband was feeding baby. I pumped and drank water.

1:00 - Time for breakfast! Ham and eggs on a sandwich thin and another glass of water. This is one of those reusable Cosco cups they sell at Joann.  I think they hold either 20 or 24 ounces of water.

2:00 - Tummy time for Kelly, another glass of water for me.

3:30 - Pumping, the new Ikea catalog (finally!!!), and more water.  It's funny - last month there were a couple of weeks where I was sure everyone in America had gotten an Ikea catalog but me.  Turns out, my husband just went a really long time without checking the mail.  I'm sure our mailman hates us.

5:00 - This is what happens when the husband makes me watch the Olympics all afternoon. Well played, McDonald's. I am having another water in addition to the sweet tea with this though, so at least that is healthy!

6:30 - Making hair bows! While I love all the bows I made during my last hair bow making session, most of my "BFBs" (big effing bows) were a little too big for my wee babe's head.  I reworked the measurements and made some smaller ones that are more to scale for her head.  They're still big - just not as big.  I'm still working on my drinks from last photo at this point.

8:30 - The Olympic closing ceremony, pumping, and more water. The first photo with the closing ceremony graphic took almost an hour to catch, when my husband finally decided to inform me that the TV did have a freeze screen function.  Duh.

8:15 - Favorite hairbow today. Oh, and another glass of water.

9:30 - True story: Bubba was running in the house (definitely against the rules, btw) and totally faceplanted against the arm of the couch hard enough to knock him backwards onto his behind. When my husband asked him what the heck he was doing, the boy informed his father that "the couch got in my way."  He was incredibly pleased when I wanted to photograph his "ouch."  (We don't have owies or booboos in our house.)

10:00 - Dinner! Tonight was leftover night.  I had chicken and leek stroganoff. Exciting! Actually, I know it doesn't look like much but it's incredibly good.  The recipe is out of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook.  I had more water too.

10:45 - Cleaning up my mess a bit. This is my box o' floss. You guessed it - I'm also having another glass of water!

I was wondering how many glasses of water I had in a day, so I figured this would be a good way to keep track.  I counted ten of those large glasses of ice water, and one 32 ounce iced tea.  I guess no one can accuse me of not being hydrated!  Good thing too, since the high tomorrow is supposed to be 115 degrees, a whole two degrees cooler than today.  Woo flipping hoo.

My Favorite Cookbook

I love cookbooks. I used to be very careful and selective about buying them, because otherwise I would have had about a hundred, I'm sure. Then, for a while I quit buying them altogether because I thought I had too many.

Well, then I met Laurel. Laurel blogs at Orange and Salt and she owns more cookbooks than anyone I've ever met. I was inspired! I started to give myself permission to buy cookbooks again. I'm still careful and selective, but I've definitely grown my collection a lot in the past year. I started by getting rid of all the books I never used and knew I'd never used. (Sorry Mollie Katzen, but Vegetable Heaven is just not for me.) Those went to Goodwill. I started to add in books that interested me. For instance, I've got a nice selection of Junior League cookbooks now. Those ladies put together a great cookbook! I also have a great collection of vintage cookbooks. They are equal parts useful and gross. I LOVE THEM.

I have, at last count, almost sixty cookbooks. I love all of my cookbooks, but my number one, most favorite, most loved, literally falling apart at the seams book?

Betty Crocker's New Cookbook - Everything You Need To Know To Cook, 1996 edition. I know. Don't laugh.

It's great to have cookbooks with fancy recipes that you can use to wow your friends. It's great to have cookbooks that help you to explore new cuisines. It's great to have cookbooks that encourage you to get out of your comfort zones. Those are all great. The thing is, sometimes you just need a reliable recipe for plain old white cake, you know? This book covers all the basics, plus has handy info and charts on what temperature meat should be and times for turkeys and all that jazz. I love it.

My book is the 1996 edition, which means I was relying on it long before I got the internet. I've thought about replacing it, since like I said it's literally falling apart, but I'm attached to it. You can find both the old and current editions on Amazon, and I've seen it in used bookstores as well. You know, if you want a copy for yourself.

And, just in case you do need a reliable recipe for plain old white cake...

Silver White Cake

from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook: Everything You Need To Know To Cook, 1996 ed.

Prep: 10 min; Bake: 45; Cool: 10 min

Makes 16 servings

This cake will become a Fourth of July dessert when filled and topped with Triple Berry Filling (page 90). Frost sides with 1 1/2 cups Sweetened Whipped Cream (page 89) for a red, white, and blue punch.

2 1/4 cups all purpose or 2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1 1/4 cups milk

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

5 large egg whites

Mocha Frosting (page 86) or Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting (page 85), if desired

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of rectangular pan, 13 x 9 x 2 inches, 2 round pans, 9 x 1 1/2 inches, or 3 round pans, 8 x 1 1/2 inches, with shortening. Lightly flour.

2. Beat all ingredients except egg whites and Mocha frosting in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Beat in egg whites on high speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).

4. Bake rectangle 40-45 minutes, 9-inch rounds 30-35 minutes, 8-inch rounds 23-28 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack. Cool rounds ten minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely.

5. Frost rectangle or fill and frost layers with Mocha Frosting.

*Do not use self rising flour in this recipe.

1 serving: Calories 235 (Calories from Fat 80); Fat 9g (Saturated 3g); Cholesterol 2mg; Sodium 270mg; Carbohydrate 36g (Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 3g.

I think I've made this cake about a dozen times - it's really good and dense but not too sweet. Personally, I like to fill it with fresh strawberries sliced in half and topped with a chocolate ganache. Then I frost the whole thing with sweetened whipped cream. It's SO good!

Now, if you're looking for a good cookbook when you want to try something new but not too crazy or hard, you know I still love my boy Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution book. I've probably made more things out of that book than any other, and have loved almost everything we tried.

I am linking this post to Muffy Martini's Favorite Cookbook blog hop. Be sure to check out some of the other great cookbooks posted there!

Meal Plan Monday!

I know you've seen it on other parts of the Interwebs - blog posts written on Monday that have a list (usually with links to recipes if you're lucky!) detailing what the blogger is feeding their family for the week. Generally, I'm not that organized. HOWEVER, I did just make myself that schnazzy Household Organization Notebook, and it does have a nice tab for menu planning. Therefore, I can now do Meal Plan Monday post because the pages I printed start on Monday. This means I have to have my plan done before then so I should be able to blog about it. Before, I just sort of started my week whenever I decided to get around to meal planning, and that was if I even did it.

You all know how much I like to fall back on "winging it," right?

Will this be a regular thing? I dunno. Nothing ever is around here for long. One thing about having been blogging for as long as I have, it's easy to go back and see how my interests have shifted and changed in the past six years. I do love this about journaling!

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday - Chicken Soft Tacos with Mexican Rice

I found some pre-cooked shredded chicken in the freezer when I was cleaning it out in preparation for meal planning/grocery shopping, so I decided to use it up! I will heat this with a little chicken stock, some seasonings (I have homemade taco seasoning in the pantry and it's GOOD), maybe a little onion and cilantro... mmm. I'm going to make a whole mess of tortillas in the early part of the day. Some will get frozen for later use and some will be made into tacos for dinner.

The rice is easy - Soften a half cup of onions with a tablespoon olive oil in a heavy pot. Toss in a cup of long grain white rice and cook until toasted, stirring constantly. Puree a can (or jar, in my case) of tomatoes in a blender. Add water or chicken broth to make 2 1/2 cups. Pour into rice, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Ta da!

A little rice, some chicken in a tortilla with a little lettuce and cheese, and there is dinner.

Tuesday - Beef, Mushroom, & Green Bean Stir-Fry over Rice Noodles.

This recipe was clipped from a magazine. I'll let you know how it is!

Wednesday - Chicken Linguine

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It says it's a Weight Watchers recipe, and since I'm trying to get the skinnies, as Mrs. Monologues says, I figured what the heck.

Thursday - Curry-Spiced Shrimp and Rice

This was also clipped from a magazine. Can I just get a WOO HOO for free magazine subscriptions???

Friday - Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas with Tortillas and Mexican Rice

Confession: Monday's meal was actually supposed to me Sunday's, which would have fallen on last week's meal plan. Unfortunately, Sunday saw us up early for a birthday party, after which no one had any energy and long naps may or may not have been taken. Making of tortillas, which is an important component of tacos, may have been forgotten because of those factors.

This means that Monday's tortilla-less dinner (Grilled Chicken with Asparagus Risotto, from here, made by my sweet husband while I slept) may have had to be eaten on Sunday. Sunday's dinner had to get pushed to Monday which means that I had two "rice and tortilla" dinners scheduled in the same week. ACK.

I'd never make it as a Taco Tuesday, Fish Friday, Meatloaf Monday kind of person, obviously. I need some variety!!! That being said though, I was thinking I should try to have Fridays be Slow Cooker days since I have knitting club at 6pm those days and I hate feeling rushed. I found this pork carnitas recipe on Pinterest (sounding like a broken record here) and it sounded like a winner. This won't be as tasty as real pork carnitas, I'm sure, but it should be okay for tacos.

Saturday - Italian Sausage and Spinach Marinara over Orecchiette

The only reason I'm using orecchiette for this is because when I served it to the boy last week he ate a TON of it. I guess he liked the shape. He kept calling them "pasta chips." If it gets him to eat, I'll take it!

The marinara sauce recipe was clipped from a magazine. It had a basic marinara recipe and then a bunch of stuff you could add to it for five different meals. True; the one I picked did happen to be served over orecchiette, but I feel like most pasta is interchangeable.

Sunday - Chipotle Plum Glazed Pork Tenderloin with quinoa and broccoli

A few months ago I found plums on sale really cheap so I bought a bunch of them to make jam. I ended up with a Chipotle Plum jam that was smoky and reminiscent of the chili-covered Mexican candies we used to eat when I was a kid. I don't know if I'm down with putting this on toast, but it's FANTASTIC on a pork roast. I just dump the little 4 oz jar onto my tenderloin, smoosh it around with a silicone basting brush, and pop it into the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

I'll serve this with a side of quinoa and some steamed broccoli. That rounds out the week!

I want to make some bread to stick in the freezer in addition to the tortillas I want to stash in there. I keep thinking about grilled cheese sandwiches for some reason lately, and for that I need bread! I read that I can just bake them until they're mostly done, then freeze them so I won't have to worry about the yeast not wanting to work like I would if I froze unbaked dough. Then, when I want a fresh loaf all I have to do is pull one out and pop it into the oven to brown.

I've been making bread using the Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day method for a couple of years now, but I think I'm getting a little tired of the slightly sourdough taste. Don't get me wrong - it's really good bread, but I am ready for something new. There's a recipe for a honey white bread by Ina Garten I want to try, as well as a whole wheat one that Jaimee Rose posted. Good stuff!

I also have plans to make up a bunch of Whole Wheat Waffles this week. They freeze beautifully, and since my waffle iron makes little square waffles, it's super easy to pull them out as I need them and just pop them into the toaster for breakfast. Take that, Eggo!

Needless to say, getting back on the bandwagon for healthy eating with drastically reduced commercially processed food is going to mean more time in the kitchen this week.

DIY Chocolate Syrup

Have you ever read the ingredient list on a bottle of Hershey's syrup? Have a look:

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP; CORN SYRUP; WATER; COCOA; SUGAR; CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE); SALT; MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES; XANTHAN GUM; POLYSORBATE 60; VANILLIN, ARTIFICIAL FLA VOR

Yuck, right? I mean, we all know that high fructose corn syrup is bad, and here it's the first ingredient listed. That means there is more of that by weight in there than anything else. It also has preservatives, artificial flavors, fake vanilla, and some other chemicals that I don't know what the heck they are.

I don't want to eat that, and I definitely don't want to feed it to my kid. The problem? My husband luuurrrrrvvvees the stuff. He can't stay away. Sometimes we'd compromise by substituting the Midnight Moo syrup they sell at Trader Joe's. Here's the ingredient list on that:

Organic Sugar, Water, Organic Cocoa, Organic Non-Fat Dry Milk, Organic Vanilla, Xanthan Gum, Soy Lecithin, Citric Acid.

Better, but there are still a few funky things in there. Soy lecithin? Yeah. Also, let's not talk about the fact that this stuff is almost $4 a bottle, comes in plastic, and that the nearest Trader Joe's isn't really all that convenient to where we live. There had to be a better way.

Thankfully the good Lord saw fit to give his children the gift of the Internet, where you can find recipes for homemade anything, just about! I did a quick Google search, found a recipe, and made a few modifications. I present to you: homemade chocolate syrup.

I bought this glass oil bottle for $3 at the Walmarts to hold it. Much better than a plastic squeeze bottle! Now, my husband can pull it out of the fridge, remove the stopper, and microwave it for a few seconds to get it to flow out of the bottle more easily. You can't (well, you probably shouldn't anyway) do that with a plastic bottle!

Five ingredients, y'all. That's it. Okay, well six if you count water.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup filtered water

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups powdered cocoa (hopefully by now you've switched to the good stuff)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I used RealSalt)

2 tablespoons light corn syrup (this is NOT the same as HFCS)

Directions:

Combine water and sugar in a large pot over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Once it boils, whisk in the cocoa, salt, corn syrup, and vanilla. (When you add the vanilla it gets super rumbly and you'll feel like a mad scientist!) Continue to boil, whisking constantly for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and continue to whisk until the bubbling completely dies down.

Allow to cool for a few minutes, then decant into containers using a funnel.

Don't be a big dummy like me. Make sure you have enough jars ready and watch what you're doing so you don't overflow because you overfilled the funnel. Whoops! I put what didn't fit into my decanting bottle into canning jars and I'll just store those in the fridge. This stuff is so good - super rich and not overly sweet. I'm definitely making this kind from now on!

DIY Microwave Popcorn

One of the things I don't buy at the grocery store anymore is microwave popcorn. Not only is it expensive when you stop to think about what you're really getting, but it turns out, the chemicals used in the flavorings are probably really bad for you. I know - shocker, right?

So what's a popcorn lover to do? Well, you could do what i did, and go buy a big jar of popcorn kernels and just cook them on the stove in a heavy saucepan. The problem with that though is that I never could remember how much popcorn and oil to put in the pan, or when I was supposed to shake it.

Hey, on the rare occasions we did get popcorn, we grew up with Jiffy Pop!

Thankfully, I've learned a new way to make popcorn that is quick and easy. You just need some popcorn, a large paper lunch bag, and a measuring cup.

Cute helper optional. :)

Scoop half a cup of kernels into the paper bag. You can use 1/4 cup if you're only in the mood for a little bit.

Fold the top of the bag over twice.

Stick it in the microwave. It will start out like this...

...and end up laying down like this. The bag may scorch a little, but it's okay. I've done this a bunch and (knock on wood) I haven't set a bag on fire yet! (Full disclaimer - the first time I tried this I scorched the popcorn but it was mostly because I wasn't paying attention. Whoops!)

Pop it like you would a bag of regular microwave popcorn. Set the microwave for three minutes, but stop it when there are more than a couple of seconds between pops.

Now all you have to do is roll down the top of the bag and enjoy! This is lovely, air popped plain corn, but if you want you could always dump it into a bowl and drizzle it with melted butter and salt. If you leave off the toppings however, you've just made a pretty filling, low fat, high fiber snack.

You've also saved a substantial amount of money over commercial microwave popcorn. A jar of Orville Redenbacher's Original Popping Corn contains about 42 three-cup servings and retails for about $6 , or .14 a serving. In comparison, a box of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Microwaveable Popcorn contains six 2-serving bags and retails for about $4, or .35 a serving. Even if you factor in the price of the bags (usually a buck or two for 100), that's about double the price!

Best of all? After we're done with our snack I can either recycle or compost the bag, as no oils were used. Kick butt.

Apples and Cinnamon

Poor apples. Ever since the whole Garden of Eden thing* they've suffered from bad PR. Sure, they've got that whole "apple a day" thing going for them. Unfortunately, now we know that if you are going to have an apple a day, it had better be organic. Apples are the most pesticide contaminated produce that you can buy.

Of course, if you are lucky, someone you know will have an apple tree in their back yard and they will be begging their friends and neighbors to take some off their hands. Apple trees aren't very common in the desert where I live, but sometimes you get lucky. We went to a friend's house for a Father's Day barbecue last Sunday. His mom had brought over a bag of apples from her backyard tree and invited anyone who was interested to come over and pick some.

No way I'm passing up an opportunity to pick free, homegrown, organic apples!!! Bubba and I made arrangements to be there the following afternoon and I picked my own apples for the first time in my life. Bubba even helped. I was glad because he wanted nothing to do with picking peaches a few weeks ago. It's funny, because you tend to think of picking apples as something you do in September, not June. They were ready though. You'd pull one down and two more would fall and hit you in the head.

We took home twelve pounds of apples. I ate one in the car and it was fantastic - halfway between sweet and sour with the perfect amount of crunch. I hate mushy apples!

Today, I started peeling, coring, and chopping some of those apples. Yup - I do it by hand. No fancy unitaskers here.

After I had prepared enough for one batch of jam, I realized I had barely made a dent in the bag! I actually ended up making about three batches of jam and still have about half of the apples left. The website on which I found the recipe had a glitch in it's code or something, because I swear to you the line in the ingredients graphic that said White Sugar was NOT THERE when I made the first batch. I thought it was strange, because jam normally calls for a LOT of sugar. Also, the recipe tells you to stir in the sugars, plural. I looked at the list and all I could see was brown sugar. I looked it over again and again and there was nothing else, so I figured maybe it was a typo. The finished jam was tart, but not bad.

Well, then I lost my internet connection. Sometimes this happens on my laptop and the only way to get it back is to reboot. Thank goodness for Google Chrome and how it remembers the last tabs you had open! When I checked the recipe to start my second batch, darned if that line for the white sugar hadn't reappeared! I ended up dumping the first batch of jam back into the pot, adding the missing sugar, bringing it back to a boil and then re-canning and processing it. It tastes fine and is just a little darker than the other batches. Still, I won't be selling those jars. I'll make a notation on the label so I know those are just for us to have at home. :)

This stuff tastes just like apple pie filling! My husband commented that if I were to put some into a little folded over pie crust, it would be like having homemade Hostess pies at home. I plan to have some on fresh baked bread tomorrow while cranking the AC and pretending it's fall already.

I have eleven 8oz jars ($5) and six 4oz jars ($3) available for sale, if anyone is interested! Just let me know.

*yes, I know that the fruit Eve tasted was probably more likely to have been a pomegranate, but popular legend blames the apple even though the fruit in question was never actually named.

Photo Blog Challenge - What's in YOUR fridge?

Laurel at Orange and Salt challenged her readers today to post a photo of the inside of their refrigerators - no running out to buy fancy things to impress people, no cleaning it out first, no rearranging to make things pretty. Just grab your camera and snap a photo. Since I make no secret of the fact that a big part of the reason why I blog and read blogs is to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies curiosity about how others live, I knew I had to hop on this one.

I present to you, dear reader, my fridge:

There is no light in my fridge. There is one in the freezer, however, and that makes us opposite of most of America! HA! Here are the details:

1. Blue Moon. We don't drink beer, but we had company recently so we bought a six-pack.

2. Heavy cream.

3. Organic whole milk. We still give the boy whole milk because he has a skinny butt and is going through that toddler picky eating phase, so he can use all the calories he can get!

4. Organic 1% milk. I can't drink whole milk. It's so nasty! I feel like my mouth is coated with scum after drinking whole milk. GAG.

5. Some Cafe Mocha milk thing that my husband bought. Yuck.

6. Tahini

7. Lemon halves that probably need to be tossed, actually.

8. Organic vanilla yogurt. I use this to make waffles for the boy.

9. A half finished bottle of Pediasure. He has to get some nutrients somewhere!

10. A box with a pie crust from making quiche when I felt lazy.

11. Organic eggs. You gotta have eggs!

12. Tortillas. Storebought. Shameful.

13. YoToddler Yogurt. One of the few things the boy will readily eat on a regular basis. It has baby cereal mixed in for extra calories and nutrients.

14. Leftover Chicken and Leek Stroganoff.

15. The cheese basket. This contains mozzarella, Gruyère, Parmigiano Reggiano, and some extra sharp cheddar slices. There is also a little package of fresh basil in there that needs to be tossed.

16. Amazing Grass Chocolate Green Super Food. I love this stuff! I blend it with a cup of milk, a banana, and a couple of small handfuls of ice for breakfast.

17. Arugula and spinach from my garden, waiting to be made into a salad for lunch.

18. Artisan bread dough.

19. Cherry tomatoes for that salad. I don't eat them, but my husband does. I like cherry tomatoes because I can pick them out and they don't leave slime on my lettuce.

20. Extra arugula. I picked too much.

21. Homemade butter.

22. Leeks.

23. Maseca flour

24. Self-Rising flour

25. Bread flour

26. Whole wheat pastry flour. Yup. I have a flour drawer!

27. Zucchini from the garden. I'm going to make some of Jaimee Rose's zucchini bread later today I think.

28. Lemons. Dr. Oz said you should keep them in the fridge. Who knew?

29. Parsley

30. Cilantro

31. Bell pepper. It's looking kinda sad.

32. Butter. I'm running low. That's my last box!

33. Dried cherries and cranberries. I use these for baking and they're lovely in salads that have bleu cheese of some sort. Mmm...Gorgonzola!

34. Walnuts.

35. Flax Seeds. It's better to buy them whole and grind them right before you use them.

36. Dried buttermilk powder. I never use a whole container of buttermilk when I need some for a recipe and so it goes to waste. I hate waste. I read about this stuff on Bake and Destroy and am forever in Natalie's debt because of it.

37. Patak's mild curry paste

38. Ajinomoto brand Gyoza dipping sauce. I've tried lots of kinds, but after my own homemade dipping sauce, this is the best.

39. San J Organic Reduced Sodium Tamari. Low sodium and gluten free. I adore this soy sauce.

40. Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce. Cook some shrimp in this and have a happy, happy mouth. It's amazing.

41. Organic ketchup. I don't eat that stuff. GAG ketchup.

42. Instant dashi granules.

43. Hoisin sauce

44. Thai chili garlic paste

45. Horseradish mustard. This is another husband thing, because I don't like mustard either.

46. Sake. I keep a teeny bottle like this on hand for cooking. Most of the bottle has been used on this.

47. Homemade applesauce.

48. Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips.

49. Ghirardelli white chocolate chips.

50. Yeast

51. Prickly Pear jelly.

52. Homemade strawberry-blackberry jam

53. Two bottles of salad dressing. Yet another condiment I won't eat.

54. Mayonnaise. Of course, the only one I will eat is the one that is the worst for me. This is why I'm a fat kid, folks.

55. Trader Joe's Midnight Moo. This is a husband thing. I told him if he did buy chocolate syrup, I'd prefer he picked one that was organic and made without high fructose corn syrup.

56. Smucker's Caramel sauce. Yeah. I know. I don't even remember WHY I bought this. Maybe I'll make it into ice cream just to use it up. Maybe I'll toss it since it's been in there for a while.

57. Two jars of salsa. Yet another husband thing because SURPRISE! I don't like salsa.

58. A jar of relish. I don't like that either.

59. Bacon fat. You know I like that. :)

So, there are the entire contents of my refrigerator! Now that I've shown you mine, I think you should show me yours. If you do a blog post, I'd love if you could link it in the comments so I can go check it out.

Push, Push, Push

If you follow me on Twitter, or have me as a friend on Facebook, you've probably heard me complain about the weed situation here at Casa de Fehling. I'm not sure what's going on, but not only do we have one of the few lawns with green grass (as opposed to dry, dead, yellow grass like we had when we moved in), we also have a LOT more weeds than anyone else.

I have pulled and pulled and pulled, but I just can't keep up with them. I've gotten blisters and callouses from the stupid weeds. I've gotten sunburned while pulling weeds. It's just insane how many there were, and how quickly they get tall!

I know a lot of people would just say to go grab a bottle of RoundUp and be done with it. I would never buy that stuff though because A) it's totally NOT environmentally friendly, B) I don't want to kill the grass too, and that stuff will, and most importantly C) Monsanto makes it, and I would like to avoid giving them money whenever possible. They way they're in everything means they do get money from us. It can't be helped. But to just fork it over directly by buying RoundUp? No way.

If you've watched Food Inc, King Corn, or read anything by Michael Pollan, you know what I'm talking about.

I had this notion that I would pull up the weeds by hand because if I got rid of them at the root they wouldn't come back. Well, I was only partly right. There were less in the areas where I had worked, but those suckers definitely came back. Also, they grew so fast that even if I spent hours weeding one area of the yard, they would grow in the other areas to where I couldn't keep up. We seriously had weeds that were as tall as the boy!

Finally, we decided to give up and just mow them down. So what if they grew back? We would just mow them down again. Forget those stupid weeds. There are two lawnmowers in our garage that our landlord left for us to use. No sweat.

Well, the first problem was that one had a broken wheel. The plastic had broken off so you can't reattach it. Also, it doesn't have the grass catcher bag in the back, so it was not going to be of any use to us. The second one had all of it's wheels and the grass catcher. It was low on oil, but a quick trip to Lowe's could remedy that.

Unfortunately, it also had gas in the tank, and the gas is old. We looked up the manual online and it said the only way to empty the gas tank was to let the mower run until it was out of gas. Um... if the gas won't burn, then how on Earth is the motor going to run??? Then again, it could just be that the lawnmower doesn't work. Either way, it wouldn't start so it wasn't doing us any good either.

Finally, we decided to just go buy a stupid lawnmower. The weeds were threatening to take over! You may think we're crazy, but we opted to get a push mower.

Yup, I was mowing the lawn in a dress and Crocs. I promise I only wear those shoes when working in the yard!

It's not as hard to use one of these as people make it seem. Our yard isn't gigantic, so between my husband and myself we were able to knock it out. Besides, a push mower has advantages over your typical gasoline powered mower -

*It's cheaper. We only paid $99 for this at Lowe's, compared to almost three hundred dollars for a regular one.

*It's greener. You're not using any gas (expensive!) or oil, which means you are not depleting those natural resources to mow your lawn. Also, you're not adding to air pollution with it.

*It's more convenient. You never have to worry about being out of gas, or having to transport and store gasoline.

*It smells better. You won't find yourself behind your mower inhaling junk as it belches toxic fumes in your direction. All you'll smell is clean, freshly cut grass.

*It's a good workout. It's not super hard to push, but you do have to go over most areas more than once. Between the pushing and the walking, it's a decent way to get in your exercise for the day.

*It's easier to start. No more yanking a cord and saying bad words because you didn't do it just right. Just push.

So, if you're in the market for a new lawnmower, or if you just are looking for ways to live a little bit more environmentally friendly, this may be an option you want to check out. It's definitely easier than having to worry about accidentally mowing a power cord like with an electric one.

I, for one, am just happy to be able to walk across the yard without having to wade through a sea of tickly weeds!!!

Twelve of 12 - March 2011

The first thing I see in the morning is the disaster area we like to call Bubba's room.

To make myself feel better, I went out into the back yard to get a shot of all the weeds I've pulled already. See the tall weeds over to the left of the photo, and then again in the back right of the shot. My whole yard was covered in them!

The wildflower seeds we tossed into this pot have begun to sprout.

I began working on some Easter decor by changing out the words on one of my chalkboards.

Breakfast of champions! Amazing Grass chocolate powder pureed with a cup of milk, a banana, and a handful of ice. YUM. My sides are a fish oil pill, a calcium tablet with vitamin d, two cinnamon capsules for my triglycerides, and of course, mah Zoloft.

Someone was a grouchy pill all morning.
The best was to adjust his attitude is to change the background. Time for a road trip! I put on my new kicks. I got them an the Nordstrom shoe clearance. They didn't have my size in store, but they were able to find a pair in Colorado and shipped them to me for free. I like how they're comfortable but classic and not sloppy looking at all.

We hit a couple of Goodwills while we were out. We found another Ralph Lauren polo for the boy, two more bowls for my china set, a large wooden bowl that I loved, a vintage cookbook, a Junior League cookbook for the San Francisco area, A Clockwork Orange, and Crime and Punishment.
After that, we headed to Ikea. We got another tall bookshelf for the boy's room and some more hangers for his shirts. They have miniature wooden ones there that totally match the ones in our closets.

After we got our bookshelf home, we headed out to Lowes. I found a lampshade for my milkglass Goodwill lamp at the entry which I plan to cover in fabric. We also picked up several bags of compost to mix into the herb garden bed. I finally bought a peppermint plant. I had the hardest time finding a plant or seeds! I'll be keeping that one in a pot because I know better. Lowes had seed packets Buy One Get One Free. I picked up some tomato seeds and a little greenhouse kit so we'll see how that goes. I also got some oregano and thyme to plant in terra cotta pots. In the raised bed we'll have the tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, and onions. Finally, in another section of the curbed edge we're planting pumpkins. How much fun will that be come fall?

We made Chicken and Leek Stroganoff in the green baby for dinner. SO GOOD.

Leila relaxed under the side table. She was pretty much done for the night!

Actually, so am I.

Driving Miss M

Here's the thing about cooking - it's sort of like driving a car.

Okay, hear me out! Think back to when you first learned how to drive. It was kind of scary and intimidating because there were so many things that you needed to learn and remember. Not only did you have to learn how to operate this large piece of machinery, but you also had to remember all of the laws regarding driving and pay attention to what other people around you were doing. You had to remember to check your mirrors, slow down before turning, use your blinkers, and check your blind spot before changing lanes. You were probably nervous and a bit clumsy when you first started out.

But here's the thing. It turned out, that the more you drove, the easier it became. Things like slowing to turn a corner became so ingrained that you didn't even have to think of the steps anymore. Indeed, driving probably ended up being such a natural thing to do that you barely think about it as you do it.

It didn't happen by magic. It happened with time and practice. Therefore, I say that learning to cook is like learning to drive.

You hear people tell you all the time, Oh, I'm not a good cook. But the thing is, they're probably not a good cook because they don't cook. At least, they don't cook often enough that they can give themselves the opportunity to grow. Imagine that the only driving you've ever done in your life, since you were sixteen, was to take a couple of side roads to the grocery store that's a few blocks away once or twice a month. Would you have ever gotten to be a good driver? Probably not!

I haven't gone to the grocery store in over a week, and the last three times I went I was bad and went with no meal plan. I just bought stuff that looked good and maybe things for one or two random meals. As a result, my home is now full of random food, the kind of stuff that languishes in your cupboards, forgotten, until the day you go to clean them out and you throw have to throw it out because it expired. I have issues with eating "old" food, and I definitely have issues with wasting money, so tonight I decided I'm going to start fixing things based around what is in the cabinets and freezer to try and clear some things out.

This means I can't go buy a bunch of stuff off a list to make a specific recipe. This means I need to be creative. Would I be able to do that if I was rocking Taco Tuesday (ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning and hard store-bought shells) and Spaghetti Friday (a jar of Ragu dumped over some noodles) every week? Maybe, but I'm guessing not. Because I have spent so much time practicing cooking and forcing myself out of my comfort zones (remember your first time getting on a Freeway? I do!) I now have enough knowledge and understanding of flavors that I can fly by the seat of my pants every so often and be okay.

This was what I made just using what I had on hand:

First of all, for someone who has "given up" canned tomatoes, I sure have a heck of a lot of them in my cupboards! I wonder how that happened? I had four small chicken tenderloins in the freezer, and half a bag of frozen baby peas. I always have onions and garlic, and there were three carrots in the crisper. Digging through the pantry allowed me to find a large can of tomato sauce in addition to a jar of mushrooms and a box of farfalle. Pasta usually calls for some Parmesan cheese in my world, so I rooted around in the fridge until I found the small piece of Parmigiano Reggiano left over from making the Soupe au Pistou the other night.

Sounds like dinner to me!

I cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, seasoned them lightly with salt and pepper, and browned them in my French oven with a little olive oil. I removed them from the pot, added a teensy bit more olive oil, then cooked the onions, garlic, and carrots for about ten minutes, until the carrots started to soften a bit. Then into the pot went a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, the same size can of tomato sauce, and a can of water. I also drained the mushrooms and tossed those in as well. I made sure the pan deglazed so that I could get all the browned bits (sometimes called fond) from the bottom.

Those are pure flavor, baby.

No, I don't know where I got that. Probably Pioneer Woman. Anyway, I brought that to a boil, reduced the heat, tossed the chicken back into the pot along with a few herbs and spices, and we were good to go! I let it simmer for about 45 minutes. While that was cooking I made the pasta in a separate pot, keeping some of the cooking water to use for thinning out my sauce as needed. About ten minutes before it was done I tossed in the frozen peas. A little sauce on a bowl of pasta, sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and dinner was served!

Now, was this a gourmet dish? No. Could it be served in a fancy restaurant? Probably not. Was it good? Heck yeah it was! And I'll tell you what - even though it was a bit more work than cracking open a jar of pasta sauce and dumping it on some spaghetti noodles, it was worth it because it tasted so much better and was definitely a lot more healthy for my family.

So, if you think that you're not a "good cook," I challenge you to forget about all that and just start cooking already. You'll find that the more you do it, the better you'll get at instinctively knowing what flavors will work together and which combinations to avoid. Nobody is born being good at anything - we all have to learn and practice our crafts.

P.S. I use the learning to drive analogy a LOT. It really applies to everything; sewing, cooking, baking, playing an instrument, your new job, etc. Think about it! :)

Recipe Eighteen - Asian Style Steamed Salmon

It's been a while since I made anything out of my Food Revolution cookbook. I stopped trying out new recipes with only four left on my list of ones that I wanted to try. That's pretty much a shame, so I got on the wagon again with the recipe for Asian-Style Steamed Salmon on page 250.

Luckily, I found a piece of ginger stashed in the freezer, because the one in the fridge looked like this:

Um... yeah. Guess it's been there for a while! I have to remember to put them in the freezer when I don't use them right away!

I served this with a simple rice pilaf. I think my piece of salmon was bigger than the one used in the recipe because I had to steam it for twice as long as the directions stated. Since my mom hates all seafood except tuna fish on saltines, and my husband isn't much of a fan of salmon, I've probably cooked salmon less than a dozen times in my whole life. Even better, this is the first time I've ever bought salmon that had the skin on. I've never ordered it in a restaurant and had it served that way either, so I honestly had no clue if you were supposed to eat the skin.

I know.

So, because I have no pride, I took to Twitter where my tweeps told me that no, I should not in fact eat that skin. Good to know!

This was also the first time I've had broccolini. First of all, I had the hardest time even finding any! I looked everywhere. Even Whole Foods let me down. I finally tracked some down at Trader Joe's. It said it was baby broccoli on the package and I figured it was close enough. For all the trouble it gave me in locating it, I ended up not liking it very much. It was bitter. I don't know if it was a bad bunch, or if it was from cooking it too long, or what, but I didn't like it.

The dressing for this is what made it taste good. Unseasoned salmon steamed over plain water isn't very tasty at all! Pour a bit of the dressing on it however, and it's a whole new meal. The rice was a good accompaniment as it soaked up additional dressing.

Would I make this again? Probably not, as I have issues with fish smell. I know it's good for me, but the thought that my house and my clothes and my body smell like fish is hard to shake. If you don't have those issues, however, it is a tasty dish and well worth the effort!

Cheesy Alphabet Crackers

When Rachel over at Quirky Momma asked me to do a guest post on how to make cheesy crackers, I said sure! I'm kind of excited because I've never been asked to do a guest post before, and I'm kind of a dork like that. You know. You should definitely check out her blog to get some fun ideas of things to do with your kids. That's where I found the idea for the baby buckle toy.

If you read back in my archives for even a little bit, you will quickly learn that I'm trying to cut out all the processed junk in my family's lives. This doesn't mean that I'm cutting out all junk Per Se, it just means that if I want to have those types of snacks in the house, I'm going to have to make them from scratch. This means that I won't end up having to worry about high fructose corn syrup or preservatives in our food, which is a very good thing.

I happen to have a boy and a husband who both love to have snacky-chow around the house. I didn't want to have them constantly eating sweets, which are my forte, so it was time to branch out into salty snacks. Enter the Cheesy Cracker. They're the perfect size for little fingers to grab by the handful and they're so much better than anything I ever bought at the grocery store.

To make them you will need:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (188 grams)

2 cups extra sharp cheddar, grated (about six ounces)

1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano

a stick of butter at room temperature

and just an eighth of a teaspoon of this. It doesn't make them spicy at all, it just adds depth of flavor.

Place all of your ingredients into a large bowl, along with a few grinds of black pepper. It's best to grate the cheese yourself because the pre-grated stuff they sell at the grocery store is coated in cornstarch and that will throw off the consistency of your final product. I also like to grate my own parmesan because it's way better quality and tastes better than the pre-grated kind. Just for goodness sakes, don't ever use the powdered stuff in the green can. Gag.

I used a pastry blender to start to bring everything together.

Once it started to clean the sides of the bowl, I switched to my hand and made sure it was mixed well.

Separate into two halves, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. If you want to be like me, you can forget about it completely (whoops!) and leave it overnight too, it's okay. Just let them sit on the counter for about half an hour before you attempt to roll them.

These are my alphabet cookie cutters. I found mine at HomeGoods, but you can get these on Amazon as well. Each letter is about an inch tall.

Roll out your cracker dough to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick.

These cutters are really tiny, so there is a bit of a learning curve to them. If you dip them in flour before each cut, it helps. Also, if a cracker gets stuck inside the cutter, just hold it about 1/4 inch above your cookie sheet and gently poke it loose with a toothpick.

You can use a thin, flexible metal spatula to lift the ones that stay put from your rolling surface.

Place your crackers either on a parchment lined baking sheet or one lined with a Silpat. Be sure to leave a little bit of room between them because they will puff slightly while baking. Bake at 325 degrees F for eleven minutes and then allow to cool completely on the pan before removing.

These are always a big hit with my 21 month old. He couldn't wait to get his hands on them!

He likes to hold them up and tell me what the letter is before eating it. Smartypants.

If that's not a testimonial, I don't know what is.

Okay, confession time - I usually only have enough patience to do one pan worth of alphabet crackers before I find myself wanting to say bad words. For the remaining dough, I simply take a pizza cutter (or in this case, a fondant cutter/embosser) and cut the dough into plain squares before baking. They taste just as good and take a fraction of the time that the letters do.

I store them in these Burken jars from Ikea and it keeps them fresh for quite a while!