Hmmmm.................

I love when I read something that makes us look like good parents.  You know, like I've got it under control. Like I know what I'm doing.  In fact I may be a little smug about it. To myself anyway.

Like this article that discusses the fact that in a recent study, kids that ate margarine regularly had IQs that were lower by about 4 points than kids who ate butter.

Man, do we have this one in the bag.... Have you been paying attention? All we eat is real butter. And it's even organic.... I NEVER NEVER buy margarine..

I have saved my child 4 precious IQ points without even really trying.

A second after high fiving myself over this I rememembered that the main reason I only buy real butter is because my mom fed us margairne  my entire growing up.......

We're Jammin' -Strawberry Freezer Jam and a Surprise Jam!

This past week on my day off, we headed out to our favorite fruit picking spot-Burnaps Farm Market.  This palce is really beautiful and so much fun.

I was all excited to go and pick strawberries so that I could make some jam this week. Alas, when we got there it was 5 min to 1pm, and picking stops at 1-Who knew? If you pick the berries, they are $2 a quart but if you buy them they are $4. I was momentarily flummoxed... I wanted 8 quarts and I didn't really want to spend $32... Then, there, on a table in the front I saw "Berries for Jamming $15" That was 8 QUARTS FOR $15!!! So I ended up spending $1 LESS than if I picked them myself. These berries are RIPE!!! And we've been eating them all week long too-They are just fine for that. They are just very very ripe!

So we're Jammin'

First we made Freezer Jam. Now I've never made Freezer jam berfore. Freezing jam seems like, I don't know, cheating....at jam..

 A long time ago they didn't have freezers...

Then I reminded myself that a long time ago they didn't have running water or heat and I pretty well like those things. Just try the damn jam...

I wish I could say that I used some old time freezer jam recipe, but I didn't. I used the recipe on the Ball Freezer Jam Pectin

Small aside, does anyone else love the new ball pectin in jars so you just measure out what you want?... It's cheaper in this large size too... LOVE IT!!

My girl did a lot of the work!!!

The thing about freezer jam that is differnt from canned jam, in that you don't cook the jam. It's just fresh strawberries, sugar and pectin... This results in really really fresh tasting jam. Like summer sunshine jam...

Now I understand Freezer Jam.

Very Proud of Our Jam!

Tonight I mixed it up a little. I planned on canning my jam so today I used my cuisinart (BEST MACHINE EVER that my mom picked up from her friend's Garage Sale for $15. I woudl pay full price for this machine in a heartbeat..) Anyway, I used my cuisinard to puree many cups of strawberries so I could make and can some jam in jars.

And I had a neat idea. I was thinking about how when things grow at the same time, they very often work together well.. So I was thinking. Mint. Strawberry mint would be nice... But maybe another time.

LAVENDER.

Strawberry Lavender Jam!!!!

I used a basic low sugar recipe and added lavender during the cooking. I took the stems out before canning. A few flower petals are in there though. Just a few.

This jam is really sophisticated. You can really taste the lavender. It's just so fabulous. Though I need to find something to put it on. This is not peanutbutter and jelly jam. This is jam for people who like to eat flowers. It tastes like you would imagine it smells. It's delicate and wonderful...

Genesee Countrty Village & Museum Agricultural Fair here I come!!

Here is an awesome Jam tutorial if you need one! It's really complete though may make jam look more complicated than it really it. This is all you need to know though!

My husband also got into the act with the berries today and made grilled pork chops with a balsamic strawberry/blueberry compote. Yum!..

And yes, those are snow peas....

They are still growing...

I think tomorrow I may pick some to freeze for a winter stir fry.

Where I Decide Not To Forage For Food

Yesterday we went pumpkin and apple picking. While there, I noticed a large tree that had many many shiny gorgeous chestnuts surrounding it's base.

Sweet Chestnuts

I love roasted chestnuts. I love them plain and with roasted Brussels Sprouts. I love them in stew. I love them with a glass of red wine. Love them! I picked some up off the ground. My daughter told me to drop them because she didn't want them in the car.

I didn't listen to her and hid them from her in my pockets.

A while later as we continued to drive I was musing on my luck at finding the nuts and that I was going to roast them for dinner.

My daughter, upon hearing this, asked if I brought some chestnuts with us. When I answered "Yes" she freaked out. She cried and told me to throw them out the window. She told me I shouldn't eat them. That I couldn't eat them. I laughed at her (nicely)  because I roast them all the time. She got really irate. It was pretty crazy because she loves picking plants and eating them. This year especially, she has been all in my herb garden learning their names and which ones are edible. (don't worry, she knows exactly which ones are and which ones she can try and aside from a brief period when all she wanted to do was cut and carry chives around with her, all has been fine. Trust me, you don't want to travel around with a child who smells like onions.)

But she was so irate that I told her I would look them up on the computer when I got home.

And when I got home, I found out the chestnuts were Horse Chestnuts. Toxic to humans Horse Chestnuts......That look a lot like the Sweet Chestnuts that I love. 

Horse Chestnuts

From Poisonous Plants Website: "Horse chestnut poisoning is rarely fatal, but typically causes vomiting, loss of coordination, stupor, and occasionally, paralysis." Most poisonings occur from people roasting and eating the fruit in the mistaken belief that they are the same as sweet chestnuts. They aren’t!

I don't know how she knew I should not eat them or really, what made her feel that way. Did she have a hunch? Was her intuition kicking in while I blatantly ignored mine in the face of free food???? (God, I AM a glutton.....)

I told her I was wrong and she was right and that we should not and would not be eating those nuts. 

At any rate, this all became a very very good lesson about NOT just eating something if you aren't sure what it is/where it came from. And even if you are sure, you need to be really sure. (And possibly, just buy all your nuts at the store.)

However, I think I may be the one who learned this lesson....

Prizewinning Pound Cake

I told you it was good. 

And I guess I was right because this weekend, I entered my favorite pound cake at the Agricultural Society Fair & Exposition at the Genesee Country Village & Museum and I took home the BLUE RIBBON for it!!

I entered the 21st century pound cake category because to enter the 19th century category you need to cook your entry in a cast iron stove, or over a fire or in a fireplace oven. I just didn't have access to that!

However, I did add a healthy dose of rosewater in place of the vanilla to give it a 19th century flair. What probably helped me win it though, was the rose cake pan that I borrowed from my MIL as well as the blue willow plate that I served it on.

I'll be perfectly honest, there were only 4 cakes in the pound cake category. Still, I've never won anything with my cooking or baking so I was pretty tickled.

I was also a judge-I judged flavored vinegar (all were fantastic) and 2 kids categories-cut & rolled sugar cookies and a 19th century craft. The craft was a woven (on a loom) scarf. It was the only entry in the category. But it was done by a CHILD and it was GORGEOUS. I'm SO taking a weaving class at the museum sometime.

We had a lot of fun.

We pet baby cows

I love looking at all the different heirloom produce displayed. 

 

We saw a horse powered threshing machine. I've read about this and have never seen it before so this was neat

 We visited my pioneer Deanna, the mid-wife over at Keiffer's Place. Check out that Prussian Blue door behind her! It's a color original to the house! Isn't that wild! (also check out her 19th century hair!) While we were there we also met an exchange student from Finland who was here through the Rotary Club-Just like my friend Mari 20 years ago!

I'd also really like to spin and dye my own yard, however, I doubt that I would like anyone enough to give away something I knit with this kind of yarn so perhaps not.... 

My girl had a blast in the children's hands-on exhibit in the Mackay Homestead.

And she visited the Romulus Female Seminary twice because she had so much fun at the desk. 

The only indoor toilet in the village. Look closely at this because it cracks me up. There are 2 seats here!!! Really?? Were people really sitting here together at one time??? Who would want to do that?

 They had these crazy dancers that my daughter loved. They wore bells and a lot of flair. They also did a lot of audience participation dances... I did one that we had to do all kinds of hand claps and another where we had to bang sticks together. (notice I'm not posting those pictures). This round I sat out and took pictures while my lucky husband got to dance in the circle. 

Food Prices Got You Down? Check Out Your Local Farm Stands

Today I stopped by a farm stand on the way to my parents house and purchased

1 4-lb Butternut Squash-$.50
1 4.5 lb Cabbage $.50
4lbs of Apples $2.00
2 Zucchini $.50

I spent $3.50 on food that would have cost the following at Wegmans.

4 lb Butternut Squash $4
4.5 lb cabbage-$3.11
4 lbs Apples $4
2 zucchini $1.98

$13.09 or a little less than 75% more for food that is avaliable locally, now. In fact, the cabbage was from the farmer's tractor-He had just picked them. That's a huge difference. Last week I got some Delicata squash from this farmer for $.50 each-At Wegmans it's much much more.

Now I'm not anti-Wegmans or anything. Certainly I love shopping at their clean, have-ANYTHING-I-need stores and everyone needs to make a buck in the transaction, I'm not against that. But never forget for a minute that you pay a premium for that kind of atmosphere and service. If you have the opportunity, stop by that farm stand you pass all the time and see what they have to offer. This ones happens to be right on my way to my parent's house but I would drive out of my way a little if I had to for prices like this.

Certainly not all stands have this great a deal but you need to check it out. There is a stand near my home where the woman charges $2 each for her zucchini. Yes, I'm proud of my zucchini too and probably wouldn't sell it for less than $2 either, however, that is why I don't sell my zucchini.  I prefer to give them away (and I'm so stingy I won't even give it to someone unless I'm pretty sure they are going to use it and appreciate it.)

And as you'll notice in the example above, I actually bought zucchini today as my own zucchini was pretty stinky this year and I didn't have enough to even give away to deserving friends!

** Note-The squash is so big that I'll be able to use it for 2 meals. Tomorrow I'm making this and then later in the week I may make some butternut squash soup. Tomorrow's side dish will use:

1/2 squash-$0.25
1 apple- $0.17
2 onions from my garden $.05 (because I started them from those tiny onion sets)
A little olive oil (which I'm not going to figure out the cost of)
salt & pepper
$0.47 for a side dish for 3 people-That's $0.16 per person.  Did you think you could feed anyone, anything for $0.16????

This assumes you have olive oil (which I always do) and salt & pepper, And ok, I grew the onions but they really don't cost much so if you didn't grow anything then you could still get off cheaply (Think $.20 per person!) if you try!

Where Rachel Ray Has No Soul and I Cook Indian Food

My husband and I are good cooks. What I mean to say is that we like to cook and like different foods and like to make nice things, because really, anyone can be a good cook.  All you need to do is follow the recipe.

Provided you've picked out a good recipe.

And therein lies the challenge.

The other night I was talking to Toni Lynn about food and cooking and I was explaining how the recipes in my favorite Italian cook have something special. They have a depth of flavor that you just don't get from Rachel Ray's 30 minute races to the table. And don't stone me or anything, we've made some Rachel Ray recipes, they were good, but they lacked soul. Her recipes are one dimensional ways to feed your family real food in a reasonable time frame. I get it. It's not all bad.
 

BTW, am I the only one who wants to slap Rachel Ray until she falls down? Seriously, I'd like to stick one of her annoying SAMMIES in her big mouth every time she utters the phrase EVOO.   My husband recently read an article to me from her magazine. It was some dumb ass thing about cooking new foods from around the world with an Americanized twist and how "don't worry, they'll taste as familiar to you as pizza and fried chicken"

OMG, How sad is that? Cooking foods from around the world that taste just like they came from your own country. Does anyone really want to do that???? Do they? Speak up if you do. Especially if I know you because I'll feed you what I made for dinner this weekend to knock some sense into you.


Maybe this sounds like a bit of food snobbery on my part and maybe it is. Hell I eat plain food and junk food and nothing special too. I just don't WRITE about it. If I write about something it's because I like it or care about it. It makes me think. Americanized French food? That is what Rachel Ray thinks about?


I'm also willing to admit that if someone were to pay me bags of money to wax cutsey about SAMMIES, I'd probably do it. There's no crime in it. I just don't have to like it when I see it.

And now that we've covered my hatred of Rachel Ray we can move on.

Back in June one of my husband's students who happens to be Indian, brought him a small cooler full of Indian food that her mother had cooked for him. This stuff was amazing. I mean I've had Indian food before,  restaurant cooking, this was home cooked, southern Indian fare.

There was this rice. And it intrigued me. I mean it came with the Star anise and cinnamon  sticks whole in the dish. It was aromatic and tasted like, well, I can't even describe it. There were just all of these layers of flavor in this one rice dish. That someone made in their kitchen...

There were 3 different kinds of rice actually and I've been pondering that rice all summer (and we've been mostly grilling and eating easy meals with our schedule and the heat-See what I mean...nothing to write about.)

This weekend, with a little time to spare,  (because I'm actually a pretty sucky cook when I rush) I made Indian food, Chicken Tikka Masala (my favorite Indian main meal) and this Indian Style rice with Cashews and Raisins. OMG... Seriously. Coconut milk in the rice cooking broth! The best rice I've ever had IN MY LIFE. It was yellow from the turmeric and sweet from the golden raisins and spicy all at the same time. The chicken had  a mixture of cinnamon and cumin in the marinade.  The flavor in these dishes was so RICH.   Today I made, Rajma chawal (red bean curry) to go with the remainder of the rice for my lunch tomorrow.


These dishes were like a wake-up call to my senses and I liked it! It's been a while since my own cooking has spoken to my soul like that.

(Well except for that lobster popcorn but I fear that boarders on gluttony.)

Lobster Popcorn

Just a little warning. You may think I'm a complete genius after reading this or you may think I'm completely disgusting.

This past weekend we had lobsters for dinner.

One of the things I love about having lobster is having a nice baked potato with it so that I can use some of the butter I'm dipping my lobster into, on the potato and it tastes all nice and lobstery.

However, the night of the lobsters we also had plans to watch my very favoritest show, Supernatural (Season 4, please don't say anything if you've watched up through Season 5. I can only watch one show at a time and since the last season of LOST was a complete disappointment, I'm hoping for the best. And seriously, Jared Padalecki, need I say more???) Anyway, the plan was to watch it with popcorn so I skipped the baked potato.

However, I melted EXTRA butter for the lobster and then I took that butter and heated it up for the popcorn and OMG, LOBSTER POPCORN. Could you die?!?!? I should probably be arrested it was so good.

Keep in mind that if you'll be sharing the popcorn (as I did) you'll probably want to only share it with someone who likes you a lot. Not only because it's so good but because you could easily be grossed out by eating someone else's lobster butter.

Just don't think about it too much.

Homemade Mayonaise

You might notice that a lot of my definition of a Good Life involves food.

This either means I have food issues or I'm a sensual person. We're just gonna go with that second one Ok?

I like real food. I eat real butter, half & half in my regular coffee and I'm not afraid of eggs. I also eat real mayonnaise.  Usually Hellmans, sometimes Wegman's if I'm feeling cheap.

We didn't do the grocery shopping today because we went to Honeoye Falls instead.

This evening I found myself musing about what to bring for lunch tomorrow. All I came up with is egg salad. Fortunately I like egg salad. Then I remembered I used all the mayo on potato salad for a family picnic yesterday (See, we really DO need to go shopping.)

This gave me a good excuse to make my own mayonnaise which I have been wanting to do for some time.

I used this recipe.   I used 3/4 cup Canola Oil and 1/4 Cup of Olive Oil because I like the taste and think it's good for me. I didn't use a hand blender I used a food processor and it came out fine.

It's delicious!!! Really delicious and I can't wait to make potato salad or something else with this.  I don't know how much it cost to make because I really didn't figure out the cost of the oils but I am betting it's cheaper than a similar amount of Hellmans. I also made it with stuff I already had which eliminated a trip to the store tonight or to buy lunch tomorrow. (I'm really trying to avoid too many lunches out-I find myself getting lazy on work days lately if I don't feel like making a lunch, we've been really busy and it's just been easier to purchase something.)

Spring Herb Dressing & Garlic Scapes

Today I noticed that my garlic had scapes! (The green things on the left). I have been wanting to make my favorite herb dressing for a week now (nothing has been stopping me, I've just been lazy busy.)

The recipe I use is from The Horn of The Moon Cookbook. Jen used to make it when I would visit her in college. I never forgot the title of the book and could never find it. When I finally did I bought it just for this recipe. I bought it used. On Amazon it is $74 new.(out of print)  Used it was $3.99.

Herb Dressing-I called it Spring herb dressing because I used fresh herbs. Yes, that picture is actually my herbs!

1 C. Sunflower Oil-I usually use olive oil for salad dressing because I like the taste and usually just make a simple vinegarette where that matters, but this is SO flavorful I think you can skip that. Olive oil is expensive. I used canola oil.

2 Large Garlic Cloves (I used 3 scapes)
1/2 C Fresh Parsley
2 tsp dried dill. I have this growing in the garden so I used fresh.
1 tsp dried chives. Fresh also. This cookbook was written in 1987 a time when I don't think I ever saw a fresh herb at my house. I think it was the time period. The fresh are better but it is nice to know that you could make this in the dead of winter....
Dash of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed (I skipped this today)
1/3 C Cider Vingar. I had plain white today. It was fine.
1/4 tsp salt.

Blend it all together in the blender!

We used this on zucchini that we then grilled this evening for a side dish. This was after I planted 5 zucchini plants in the garden. That  is more zucchini than ANYONE needs. I just had some space. And some leftover plants.  I can't bear to see possible food go to waste. I guess I'll just send people home with zucchini when they visit this summer. Having zucchini tonight was just plain dumb. We also also had snow peas that I picked today stir fried with a cut up garlic scape. Don't worry, scapes are milder than garlic. I do have garlic breath right now though.

Adventures in Rhubarb

On my other blog, for the museum, I am doing a series on what is known as "Six Weeks Of Want" back in the 19th century. As part of this, I am cooking foods that would have been eaten at this time of year, when food was really still very scarce.

Rhubarb is the very first vegetable that would have been avaliable  at this time of year around here and is growing in many gardens.  I have 2 of my own plants but they are small and did not yield much this year. So when I stopped at Wegmans today I asked for Rhubarb.

They. Did. Not. Have. It.

Seriously, there are grapes from Chile and all sorts of stuff from Mexico, but no Rhubarb from down the street. (Small aside,Wegman's does do a bang up job with local produce in the summer.)

I guess people aren't using Rhubarb much which is a shame. And I'll admit I've never cooked with it either. I've been looking forward to it since I planted it last year though. But  it's a shame that a food that we once thought of as a staple, and even a treat, because Rhubarb can't really be eaten without sugar, something that we looked forward to, has been relegated to an old fashioned obscure vegetable. And what about this whole eating local movement-Here is a pretty prolific, indestructible, perennial plant that produces earlier than any other and we ignore it. I think it's kind of sad.

We (me and my dad, see post below)  stopped at a local place, Apple Annie's because I thought they might have some. The owner, introduced me to his son who was my age (not for like a date or anything....) by telling me his son was a 4th generation farmer. (Come to think of it, perhaps he was trying to get his son a date, I probably look like a woman who would be impressed by this.)  Anyway, he didn't have any cut yet so he went out back, and chopped a HUGE amount of Rhubarb for me. And charged me $2 for all of it. When I protested he asked if I had been there before (which I have) and would I be back (I will) and he went on to tell me that he likes to treat his customers like family. (hmm...This is getting more and more fishy the more I think of it-Perhaps he wanted me to join HIS family.....) He even sold me 2 more Rhubarb plants. He took a long time to cut the Rhubarb (Probably to give his son time to ask me out, which he did not do) but I did have a very nice chat with him about the 400 tomato seedlings he is growing.  The whole time my dad was waiting in the car for me. I felt like I was 14 years old.... With my dad there, and the farmer's son awkwardly hitting on me..... (kidding...)

All kidding aside, it was a really nice visit. The farmers were really friendly. And generous with the Rhubarb and I will  be going back. I'm glad Wegmans didn't have it because it really was worth a side trip.

I love stuff like huge bunches of Rhubarb and Friendly Farmers....

I'll post some links to my other blog when I actually create something out of this bounty!

Leek Gratin

Leeks. I love leeks.

I planted some last year and have been enjoying them since the fall. I bought one $3 pack of seedlings at the garden center and have enjoyed over 75 of them, at least. At Wegmans they are pretty expensive so I think that the leeks have given me the  biggest return on investment for all of my veggies.

Alas it is almost May and I have to clear out the garden to make way for new veggies. And since, I rotate my crops each year, I need to make way in the leek garden for something else. We've been eating a lot of leeks. Not just as ingredients, as side dishes. Yes, we probably all do have stinky breath right now.

My favorite side dish is crazy easy.  I got it from an old episode of Rebecca's Garden, which used to air on HGTV.

Leek Gratin
3-4 large leeks (Mine were considerably smaller than the picture so I used more.)
1 8oz containger heavy cream
2/3 cup Gruyere Cheese (I used plain old swiss this past weekend and it was fine.  Gruyere is just really nice Swiss cheese anyway.)
Salt & Pepper
Sprig or 2 of Thyme ( I have an herb garden, if you do not, skip this. Don't buy thyme just for this)

Cut the leeks into 3 inch pieces and slice lengthwise. Keep Leeks in half moon shape and lay cut side down in a 9-inch pie plate. Cover bottom of the plate with leeks. Pour heavy cream over the top and add a pinch of salt & pepper & thyme sprigs. Bake at 350 for 30 min  (45 if the leeks are really huge) min. After 30 minutes sprinkle with cheese and bake 15 minutes more.  This is SO DELICIOUS. The leeks are nice a sweet and the cheese and cream are warm and gooey. It is rich though.  You don't need a lot even though you'll want to eat a lot.

This makes enough for 4 people but you might need something extra like asparagus to balance the richness.

I just thought of something. One thing I've never mentioned before is the fact that we don't usually have a starchy side dish with our dinner. (As much as I love them.)  We usually have a main entree and then a vegetable side, sometimes 2 if it's a rich one like the above mentioned leek, but usually just one.  We cook good meals from scratch almost every night.  I'm convinced we can do this more easily because of the fact that we only make 2 things. Sometimes if there are leftover vegetables from the night before they get heated up, but mostly we eat only one side. 

Both my husband and I are from homes where dinner was a main entree, starch side dish and a vegetable. Sometimes my mom puts 2 or 3 sides on the table. At first when we tried to lower the amount of  rice/potato/pasta on the plates, our plates felt weird, like they were missing something. Now it's just normal for us and is so much more simple than trying to cook 3 things at once. 

We eat the same amount as before, just less starch. Since I tend to eat too much of any starch at the expense of my vegetable, this forces me (my husband does not  need forcing ever) to eat enough vegetables. It is more expensive to eat this way, as asparagus is more costly than rice, but it's a cost  that I am willing to pay. 

It's gotten dicey lately as my daughter has gotten more picky and often I'm making broccoli as a 3rd side a few times a week because it's her favorite, but that is a post for another day.

The Last Word On Roast Chicken

My husband is a very good cook. And most evenings he cooks dinner for us. He spends a lot of time flipping through various cooking magazines, making grocery lists and meal plans for the week (I know!!!)  Most of the time I'm all on board with this.

Except for Roast Chicken.

We can't seem to agree on a Roast Chicken recipe. Ok, I don't actually have my own recipe. I just sit around complaining about the different ways that he makes his. He prefers a high temperature roast but I think that makes the house smell and I don't like the finished product and am constantly worried that it is undercooked. It skeeves me out. Sometimes he makes an Asian style bird that calls for boiling it before roasting but that is really complicated and messy. Mostly I steer him to something else when he's talking about making a whole chicken.

Pretty much lately we've resorted to Wegman's rotisserie chicken

A while back we had a roast chicken at Jeannine's house that I loved  so I stalked her on her home and cell phones today trying to get this magic recipe. Unfortunately I was unable to locate her before I had to work on the bird. I did know that she roasts hers for a longer time on lower heat.

That in mind I found THIS RECIPE!!!

OMG... I'm done. I've found the prefect roast chicken recipe. It was so easy and the chicken was tender and literally falling off the bone.  It roasted for 5 hours today and it was cold and rainy out. What a wonderful smell wafting through the house. It's not ideal for a work night if someone is not home during the day but it went together so fast that it would be the perfect centerpiece of a nice Sunday meal that you didn't have to slave over all day long. It says to keep the rub on overnight which would have probably been really great but I only had 45 minutes before it needed to cook. It was fine. I also cut the amount of salt down from 4 tsps to 2 tsp and it was still salty, next time I might go less.

I think you could probably use any kind of seasoning you like as long as you stick with the cooking time/temp. Jeannine told me she pierces the skin and pours wine over the bird. Next time I may try that with some rosemary and garlic.

And my husband? He agreed that it was absolutely delicious!

Blue Plate Special-Meatloaf for Dinner

I don't eat meat loaf. It's not a foodie bias mind you. Well maybe it is. See, my mother used to make terrible meatloaf when I was a child (Served with a brown mushroom gravy. She also makes bad meatballs. I think the act of forming ground beef into something other than hamburgers (which she does really well) is just something she never mastered) She also does not read my blog....

But meatloaf. Just the word makes me think of a hard slab of dense meat "product" (This is from my mom's  use of breadcrumbs rather than bread soaked in milk, my MIL makes awesome meatballs and she swears by the bread/milk combo.)

So I don't know what possessed me to make meatloaf for dinner. Well yes I do, last week we made (ok, my husband made) linguine with clam sauce from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, cookbook and it was delicious. (She's not a real pioneer like me of course, but her husband IS a cattle rancher while mine is a History teacher who makes clam sauce..... I guess she wins that round... Oh well. She's got a blog, it's great.) I don't think she makes her own butter though....

Today was rainy and cold and when we got back from pre-school the last thing I wanted to do was go to Wegmans. Unfortunately we had NOTHING in the refrigerator. Nothing except the ingredients to Pioneer Woman's Meatloaf. (I think half the people in America could probably make this meat loaf right now.)

Why not, I though, give Meatloaf another try.

Meatloaf
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 cup milk
6 bread slices
2 pound ground beef
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon Lawry's season salt
Fresh ground black pepper
4 eggs, beaten
8 -12 thin bacon slices

Tomato Gravy:
1 1/2 cups ketchup
6 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Hot Sauce, to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour the milk over the bread and let it soak in for several minutes.

Then, combine the ground beef, milk soaked bread, Parmesan cheese, salt, seasoned salt, and black pepper in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the beaten eggs. With clean hands, mix the ingredients until combined.Form into a loaf on a broiler pan. Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking underneath.

To make the tomato gravy, pour the ketchup in a small mixing bowl, and add the brown sugar, dry mustard, and Tabasco. Stir until combined.

Pour one third of the tomato gravy over the meatloaf. Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another third of the gravy over top. Bake another 45 minutes.

I did not make a lot of changes to this recipe but I did not have Lawry's Season Salt so I just skipped it. I also did not have bread so I used whole wheat hot dog rolls from the freezer (I told you we had nothing in the fridge). I added some sauteed green onions and garlic to the meat mixture & I also made 2 meat loaves instead of one big one and it cooked for about an hour and 15 minutes. The next time I may half the recipe as it makes a LARGE amount of meatloaf. One was sufficient to feed my family (there are only 3 of us) but I like leftovers so it was ok.

My family LOVED LOVED LOVED this meatloaf. I liked it too. Meat wrapped in bacon, how can you go wrong. I was a little surprised by how much we all liked it. I think my daughter ate 3 pieces.  I've officially revised my stance on meatloaf.

I would have really liked it with mashed potatoes, but like I said, nothing in the fridge.... So for side dishes we had that giant turnip cubed and roasted in olive oil  with a side of Braised Leeks with Lemon and broccoli leftover from last night's dinner.

I really need to go grocery shopping tomorrow because I don't think I can pull another meal like that out of thin air!

You Should Invite Me To Dinner

Because if you do I will bring,

Chocolate Caramel Frozen Parfaits

These were so so very good this weekend! I brought them to Kristin and Michael's house for dessert on Saturday night.They turned out exactly like the picture and tasted like frozen chocolate mousse.

I even made the homemade chocolate sauce and real whipped cream as an accompaniment.

However, foodie over zealousness prevails in this recipe as well. There are not that many ingredients in the recipe, and yet.... and yet, it uses so many bowls....At one point it says "melt x in a small saucepan" and  then it goes on to say, "In another small saucepan, heat up x"  What? How many small saucepans do they think I have. The answer, is that I have 1!! Just like I have only 1 bowl to my kitchenaid stand mixer yet the recipe has you mix up the custard for 10 min and then "in another bowl" beat the whipped cream...Those extra bowls are like $40, I don't think so.....

Overall, except for all of the dishwashing, it was a pretty easy and impressive dessert.

Indian Night

This weekend we had Indian night.

At one time, my husband dated an Indian girl and as a result, developed a great love of Indian food & culture. In fact, on one of our first dates he took me to my first Indian restaurant. He ate the entire meal with his hands while I shot sidelong glances at the other diners, none of whom were using their digits like utensils. The whole thing was a little bizarre. Luckily, the waitress was suitably impressed enough for me to figure out that this was completely acceptable. Knowing my penchant for authenticity you would think I would have been more impressed by this than I was.  I was just happy when they came around with hot towels at the end of the meal....

But I digress.

Saturday, my husband took our daughter to the Indian market where they came back with a myriad of Indian fare from homemade samosas to Indian snack food, Indian beer, mango juice and mango ice cream for dessert. They also bought incense, henna tattoos and bindis (sparkly ones!) for our foreheads. We made black gram lentil curry (from a package) and Beef Vindaloo, from scratch!  The beef was crazy good and not too spicy, even my daughter liked it. It was served over rice with a side of chapati bread, which one could use to scoop up the food with. I still opted for a fork....

We let our daughter wear the Sari that we have. She looked so cute all wrapped up! I actually wore the skirt of the sari with a tee shirt and Indian scarf. We both wore the bindis but apparently I put them too high on our foreheads (I think perhaps a slavic woman's 3rd eye may be located higher up.) We also listened to Bollywood faves on Pandora as a musical accompaniment!

Scrambled Eggs

Yup, this post is really about scrambled eggs. I didn't use that title as a pithy little intro about my biological clock or anything like that. I'm really talking about chicken eggs....

I make really great scrambled eggs. Jen thinks I make the best scrambled eggs ever and lets me make them whenever we see each other. Or perhaps it's that fact that I'm critical about the scrambled egg endeavors of others and she just doesn't  want to be bothered with my bitching.

Ok, I know there are other things in the world that one might want to brag about. Harder more complicated things to cook.  This might seem like a pretty small accomplishment, almost not worth mentioning. Scrambled eggs. But a lot of people get them wrong.

I'm not one of them.

There are a few key things that you must and must not do and I am going to share these with you today.

Scramble your eggs with a little water. I mean like a teaspoon per egg (not like the one in your silverware drawer, like a real teaspoon-you don't need to measure this-just be aware of this. Of course if you have no clue what a real teaspoon of water looks like you may want to check it out.) Now just mix it all up. Don't beat the hell out of them. You don't need to totally incorporate your white into your yoke. Gently is your key word here. Use a fork. Don't be a spaz.

Melt some butter. Ok this is important. I use a stainless steel pan so I need to do this. Otherwise the eggs stick like crazy in it. But even if you use non-stick, MELT SOME DAMN BUTTER IN IT. And I mean REAL butter. Forget the non-stick spray. That is why your eggs suck.

I'm going to take a small aside and talk about butter for a minute. Most of you know I love butter. You know what-Life is way to short to use crappy margarine. Really people. Butter is not going to kill you. Neither is real cream in your coffee for that matter. It's the other crap you eat that might kill you, but butter won't be the culprit. Trust me, my father had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass and eats margarine and those flavored fat free coffee creamers.  That didn't help him....It won't help you. Enjoy your life a little more. Eat some butter.

So back to your pan with some melted butter. Use enough so your eggs don't stick. I use about med high heat. Pour the eggs in and let them set for 20-30 seconds. I like a heat resistant spatula for this next part.  Gently fold the eggs over on themselves. Keep folding. Don't get all crazy and stir them around. You'll end up breaking them apart too much like that. Again, gentle.....

Ok here is the CRUCIAL step. Just BEFORE you feel the eggs are done. Like you think "These eggs are almost done." At that point take the eggs OFF the heat. Then fold them over again. The eggs will finish cooking in the pan. You won't be eating runny eggs. I promise. If you wait until the eggs are done then you will over cook them. They will be hard and dry and you'll have to eat them with burnt toast with margarine and coffee with fake cream in it.... (and I do know so many of my  friends use this creamer, don't worry. I still love you. I can even find pleasure in it myself sometimes...I just prefer the real thing.)

Now another step for the more advanced. If you want cheese in your eggs, you NEVER, EVER, EVER mix the cheese into the eggs when you scramble them up. Put the cheese into the eggs at the time that you take the eggs off the heat. Just fold it all in. There is no way that your cheese needs to cook for as long as your eggs do. Additionally, some cheeses will give off a lot of water and you'll end up with a runny mess if you add the cheese and eggs to the pan from the beginning. Just don't do it. You might as well start from scratch if you do.

Add salt and pepper after the eggs are done. Not before they are cooked.

If you want to add veggies, cook them up before you add the eggs, unless we are talking spinach and then add that with some feta cheese at the cheese time mentioned above.

It's all really about the butter and the heat, use them both well.

Happy Eating!

December 14th-Pittsford Farms Dairy Eggnog

One of the reasons that I love Christmas is because of eggnog. And not just any eggnog. This is the very best eggnog in the world.

IN. THE. WORLD.

It's from a local dairy but at this time of year they sell it at Wegmans. I'm so very sorry for you if you do not  live near me because this is life experience you really should have. It's creamy and made with REAL ingredients & real spices. (and look at the darn label. Isn't it cute?) I just cannot express to you my love for this beverage. There is nothing fake in this product and they are also nice enough not to include the nutritional breakdown anywhere on the package.

And the cost, well it's pretty expensive. This little qt size bottle is $5.49. You can get 1/2 gallon for $9.99. I never do get a half gallon at a time though because I would feel waaaaaaay decadent and I really don't need to consume a 1/2 gallon of eggnog each week from Thanksgiving to New Years. And yes, I do buy it every week.

You might think it's funny that a frugal girl like myself would even consider purchasing this item but I  use it as coffee creamer and it  beats paying $5 for a Starbucks Eggnog Latte that I also love so much. (And please don't even try and tell me that your fake eggnog non-dairy creamer even comes close to this perfection of dairy delight. It doesn't and you are fooling yourself.  Don't even get me started on non-dairy creamer, it won't be pretty.) In  case you are wondering what I drink in my coffee when it's not The Eggnog Christmas Season, I drink half and half. I KNOW, GASP, it's not even fat-free! 

I tend to splurge on quality rather than quantity. $5.49 may be expensive for Eggnog (or coffee creamer) but think of all of the way's you've probably wasted $5.49 before.  I get my magazines at the library for $0.25 because I can't bear to spend $5 on one, $20 a gallon for eggnog is not a big deal for me. It's all in your priorities. And mine include real food and eggnog.

I have an ice cream maker and I have been pondering taking this and trying it out in there, but I feel that might just be a little too decadent even for an eggnog lover like myself.  I might quickly make the leap from lover to junkie and I'm still looking to be able to zip my pants in the new year.

(Again, thanking God that I am not not lactose intolerant.)

Theres a Whole Lotta Chopping Going On

Around here...


We've got a pretty delicious Thanksgiving meal planned this year. However, it seems that it has a lot of pieces. Vegetable pieces that is. So my Dad picked up my daughter this morning so I could spend the day chopping. Tomorrow we can start the actual cooking, but today I'm just working on getting the food to the point where we can cook it. On my list of things to chop-Shallots, Leeks, Garlic, Butternut Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Mushrooms, Bread (which I need to first bake for stuffing), herbs & bacon.

I really like this kind of meal prep when I have the time. If I do it this way, then the cooking goes much easier for us. Tomorrow I will bake desserts and assemble the side dishes that I can. By Thanksgiving much of the work will be done and we can just pop the stuff in the oven. My husband is completely in charge of the turkey, although I just made a pancetta sage butter for the outside of it. My fridge is filled with lots of butter and enough heavy cream to give anyone a heart attack.

Today I've got a fall scented candle burning and Christmas music (uugh, I KNOW) playing and I'm in a Zen chopping mode. I'm thinking of my family who will eat this food and thinking of it all as an act of love. I'm not at all bothered by the fact that I'm spending days on this meal that will be consumed in 30 minutes. That's the complaint of so many a woman who has slaved over something all day long only to see it completely devoured isn't it. I think if I was rushing to get it done and had to produce it in one day then that IS how I would feel. This way I get to enjoy the process of it without that feeling.

Pioneer Dinner Party

Last year, when I was a pioneer who died of Malaria, they gave me a reciept (recipe) book of all of the items that I was to cook that weekend. While I did not get to all of them, (Squirrel) I cooked many of them and had wanted to have a dinner party so my friends could share them with us. The foods were very much fall inspired so I waited the entire year to have this dinner. I sent everyone receipts to make and they all did fabulously!

When people arrived I made them churn butter for the meal. This took them an hour taking turns (I think I made my own in about 30 min) They were, however, drinking wine, so perhaps that slowed the process a little as churning usually requires two hands.....

Dinner was:

-Green Tomato & Jalapeno Jam over cream cheese on crackers-we didn't actually eat this as pioneers but I recently made it and thought it was a rather frugal way to make use of green tomatoes. A few guests complained that I didn't make my own crackers. It was yummy though and we'll be serving it for Thanksgiving while people have drinks.

-Pumpkin Apple Soup

-Artisan Bread with Homemade Butter (see above!)

-Sauteed Apples and Onions

-Carrots with brown sugar and herbs

-My fingerling potatoes with leeks-Not part of the original meal, but you can't get much more pioneer than growing your own side dish right?

-Rotisserie Pork Roast-This was neat at the museum-I took a pork roast and tied it between 2 sticks. Then strung it next to the fire and twirled it ALL DAY LONG. It acted like a rotisserie and the taste of this pork roast was really really great. We used the grill rotisserie last night and it worked well.

-Apple Ketchup-This is a rather appley/spicy condiment. I made a full batch and sent guest home with a jar.

-Laura Ingalls's Gingerbread Cake. Also, not on the original menu. Someone else made a dessert for the dance that I didn't get to attend. I don't recall ever hearing about it. When Deanna and Bridget visited me in the infirmary during the dance I was in the final stages of Yellow Fever and no one wanted to mention food....

All in all, everyone thought that the pioneers ate really well. What they didn't actually experience. (as we all cooked pieces of this meal) is that a meal like this takes all day long to make as well as many journeys to the well for water. And I'm just talking about the main part, not including the appetizer, soup or dessert, which would not have been a usual part of the meal. The soup would have been it's own meal.

I'm fascinated by the way in which people used to live but I know I tend to romanticize pioneer life sometimes. Mostly because I get a real thrill doing things by hand. But really, I do those things in my heated or cooled house, on my own time, and not as a means to survival. In practice it was much different.

When I was at the museum they gave me Women's Diaries of The Westward Journey which I read by candlelight next to the fireplace with a shawl on. (Yeah, how jazzed was I at that point?!?!?) It was an amazing glimpse into the lives of those women, much of which was filled with struggle and heartbreak. One woman loses her husband to Cholera (and she also notes that she's been wearing the same dress for 6 weeks while tending to all the sick on the wagon train) and she turns around and marries a bachelor who is heading west as well. I mean, like the next day! Not because she loved him of course, but because she was halfway to her destination, could not go home and could not set up a homestead alone. Good Lord.....

Real pioneers spent most of their lives just surviving and rather isolated. How far can you go when you need to haul water and cook all day just to meet your basic dietary requirements. And while you are inside doing this your husband works tirelessly on crops, hunting and providing food and firewood.

If you happened to live before the time when textile mills appeared, things were much much worse for you. A family had to spend part of every day in the production of their own fabric if they wanted any clothes at all.

And now that I've made you all grateful that you live in this day and age, go get some more coffee and get back to work in your nice heated offices!!!

Sunday Soup

Tonight, for my Sunday Soup I made my Mushroom Barley Soup. I've made this so many times that I don't really use a recipe for this, but you can see mine if you click on the link.

I really like this soup. I have a more complicated, more expensive Porcini Mushroom Barley soup with Prosciutto that I like to make if I am feeling decadent. But they didn't have any Porcinis today at Wegmans so I decided to use my old standby. It's simple, approachable. No fuss. Anyone would eat this. I like it in the fall and winter and this is one of those soups that really is better the next day. It's not fancy, but it's good.

I also made a crustless quiche with a little bacon, cheese, my last zucchini and some tomatoes that have actually been ripening on my windowsill & a little garlic.