10 posts tagged “cooking”
I've developed a new fondness for naan. Well it's not completely new. We found a naan bread recipe last year, that calls for garlic of course, and used it to make pizza doughs. We would make up the dough, and roll them into balls that would wind up making a pizza about 8inches or so across, and froze them. When we wanted pizza I just had to remember to take them out in the afternoon and let them thaw. Then roll them out. This way Lee and I could make our own customized pizza, and I can make a simple one for the kids.
We were at friends a while back and we had some hamburgers. She had run out of buns accidentally but found some flatbread style buns she had bought at the store in her freezer. They made the best hamburger buns ever! They are much stronger than regular buns, as they don't fall apart after soaking in the condiments. You don't really need to toast them. And they're quite tasty!
The whole thing tasted new and different.
So now I'm using that naan recipe above to make flat bread once a week or so. Turns out my oldest loves it.
She doesn't like sandwiches really, as she prefers her ingredients to be separate and not touch each other. (She will eat peanut butter and grill cheese - but you can't take peanuts to school anymore). So I usually slice up a half of a wrap and put that, ham slices, and cheese slices into a container for her lunch. She can then roll up little sandwiches on her own.
But she likes the naan bread, so now I can cut them into little wedges and put them in too, then she makes her own little sandwiches. (I actually don't add garlic for her - will have to make 2 batches next week, one for us, one for them)
So this works out great. I can use them for hamburgers, or my own breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas and kids lunches! Woooo
My youngest has turned a corner. She still argues and says No a lot, but for whatever reason (maybe shes no longer constipated?) she has been in a much better mood the past 2 days.
I took her to preschool and she didn't really argue, took her jacket off and ran in to play with toys yelling "Come on Mommy". I talked to the ladies there a minute, and she was still playing with the toy cars, not even looking for me, so I snuck out.
It's put me in a MUCH better mood today.
I feel energized, proactive, and I might even clean and do laundry today.
I turned on the furnace for the first time this morning. It's getting cold overnight, but still very warm during the day.
I turned it on so I could clean out the system. You know that burnt dusty smell every fall when you first turn it on. All the windows are open and the fans are on, and I'm shivering away in the office.
But at least it'll be ready for when we do want to use it and wont stink up the house.
I'm debating between canning some of the garden veggies, and blending them up with garlic and spices and freezing them in ice cube trays.
I do that with chicken broth. Cause then you can retrieve a single cube (or two) and toss them into recipes or just sit them in a metal bowl and put them in a little hot water in the sink to melt them. It helps them to keep longer too.
I have a baggie of frozen beet mush cubes in the freezer. I toss a couple cubes into spaghetti sauce and soups. Lots of vitamins that way. You can also toss them into mashed potatoes and make them a bright pink!! heh.
Anyway, off to attempt to be domestic today.
The tomatoes are ripening faster and faster, and now I have to come up with tomato recipes to use them up. I don't think we'll be able to eat them all, and I'll definitely can a lot of it for the winter.
The upside down tomatoes just didn't do as good. Either we didn't give them enough time upright to grow, or the buckets are too constraining for the roots... But they are growing some, and we can get some cherry tomatoes off them. Not enough unfortunately. I probably won't do that again next year.
I had planted some peas in buckets as well. Not a lot in each. My plan was to plant them every 2 weeks. Well they grew nicely, then just kind a piddled out and died. I didn't get to harvest any off them unfortunately. Shame. My oldest LOVES those.
But I did make an awesome 'Garden Veggie Pizza' the other night:
Quite tasty!! I might put the tomato a little closer next time so I can fit just a little more in, and use more basil leaves. But this is the first year I planet basil so it's not very big yet. The Mint on the other hand... is HUGE. I am going to have to harvest that and dry it soon so it doesn't go all to waste.
I manage to pull some veggies out of the garden each day. I have lots of onions, and they aren't too huge, but they are packed with flavor. The squash is starting to get big, and we have a couple melon plants in there this year that are producing nicely. The zucchini is massive again... always manages to grow well. I will get a picture of one next to something, so you can see the size.
I also tried to do a beet mash... but it kind of came out more like baby food. Tasty however, blended with sour cream and garlic and some seasoning. I froze it into cubes and will use it to mix with other things.
I might mix it with mash potatoes, make bright pink potatoes. heh
It's definitely helped cut the food bill however. Last night I made a baked pasta... some chicken, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic and cheddar, mixed with some bow tie pasta and baked with a small rue with chicken broth... OMG! I had put lemon juice in with the chicken while it cooked and I think that made a big difference. Lee would like me to make it tonight again... I think I will, considering I was ready to lick my bowl last night. heh
All for now.
Ta-ta
What's your favorite ingredient to cook with?
I was going to post last night, but I had this blocking my view of my keyboard.
Its hard to see around this tub. But he's such a suck up, and a cute cat, he's hard to resist.
So I posted the other day about having to give my measurements to my friend for the bridesmaid dresses. She phoned back on monday because the lady at the store wanted to double check my waist measurement, thinking it wasn't right. I guess the ratio between that and my boobs was ... odd. So i went and redid it, since I have a measuring tape for that sort of stuff... and sure enough, my waist was about 2 1/2 inches less than my original measurement. Maybe I was bloated...
The dress style is simple enough that I can have it taken in, if by some miracle I lose weight between now and Mid-May.
But the whole thing depressed the crap outta me. I think she could tell too as we were talking on the phone. I know that my weight would never bother her, because she's such a good person at heart. But it bothers me.
So much that I ate the box of Lindor chocolates that I bought for Lee for valentines. It was just a small, heart shaped one, with 5 of those nommy nommy chocolate balls in them. But I still ate them all. However, i did very well at dinner, and restrained myself from seconds of anything. I can always go get him another one...
Normally, I flip-flop between not caring what 'society' deems my weight and image should be... and being depressed about being overweight. Usually my sloth-ness wins out however.
A few things to add to my random 25 facts about me, that would describe me as a person would be:
- I don't wear makeup more than once every 3 to 5 months
- I have a 4 year old eyeliner pencil.
- I haven't worn earrings in years
- The only reason I own a hair dryer is to dry the kids hair.
- My last one died in grade 9.
- I have straight hair so I brush it out and let it dry like that, or twist into a clip
So I'm not too concerned that society influences women to wear lots of makeup and buy tons and tons of overpriced 'beauty' products, which I beleive cause poor skin more than anything. The girls I know with the worst complexion also wear the MOST foundation and powder etc...
Anyhoo, going off topic here.
But still. The kids were ROUGH on my figure and with me working in front of a computer for the past 12 years, it's been hard to lose it. Plus its the middle of a crap-tacular winter. And the weather is probably making me drepressed, so I'm trying to remember my Vitamin D in the morning.
I have walked a few times this week to my oldest's school, but it's also been getting down to -10 degrees again.
Im trying to remember to eat more in the mornings so I eat less at dinner. I dont always get to it.
Quite nommy. I just ate 3.
Thanks MJ! We'll be doing those again. Next time without the cups.
So. That is my current situation...
wheeee.
Here's to hoping that next week I can report that I've lost either a pound or an inch! lol.
Barbecuing in the dead of a Canadian Winter.
But as I went out one evening to start the barbecue I realized that it's a treacherous sport. These photos were taken from our front doorway, so you can see how close the barbecue is. The first large snowfall we had to dig out the barbecue and dust it off in order to find it... and the propane tank. Then the snow is constantly trampled, and then it warms up and freezes and warms up and freeze, so you have a nice thick crust of mushy ice or slick hardened snow in the area right before the barbecue.
So you have to put down your food and utensils on the side, if it's cleaned off, and get your footing before lighting it. And you need to make sure you have footing before attempting to open the barbecue to check on your food. Last thing you need is to loose footing, because I know I flail and then grab for the nearest object to steady myself. And i don't feel like grilling my hands. ;)
Oh, then on the windy days you have to try and light it with matches because your hubby's cousin lost the barbecue flicker when he borrowed it to light up a joint... er... smoke outside one night.
Here we are, making pizza dough.
The suckiest part of this losing weight resolution is trying to make dinners that are not boring as fuck.
It's not like we ate bad before. We incorporated a lot of veggies into our dinners. Some nights we didn't have starch. Just a protein and veggies. But all healthy food is bland. Well, most of it anyway.
I look on AllRecipes.Com for a lot of my recipes.
Some of the 'healthy' recipes look ok... but i don't live in a major center where I can get some of the ingredients. And it's winter, where on earth am I suppose to get raspberries??? I dont have time to go get 4 or 5 different small ingredients every day for some of the recipes. I like 'exotic' foods, but please, some of us have lives and budgets.
Which is also why I stopped watching a few cooking shows on tv, but that's another post.
Ooh! You live in Toronto and have markets full of foods from every european country one street. Goodie for you...
Ok, I think I have that out of my system.
I have to make do with what I have... which will be lots of chicken legs (cheaper than chicken breasts), a whole lamb in small brown wrapped packages (not exactly the meat with the least amount of fat - but so friggen tasty), a good variety of veggies, lots of rice... And several asian sauces I love, which I bet are not low in fat.
I'm not doing any Atkins kind of thing. Nooooo thank-you.
I should get back to work tho. I need to fill in as many hours as I can before month end... The business is picking up, but it got real slow over Christmas week. January should be busy again. We're almost to the point of taking home small wages. So I need to help out where I can, and I'd rather not listen to Lee whine about how I need to get more hours in...
My rant for the week..
For whatever reason, when I get really really bored, I tend to cook, or bake. I will find something that might take a whole day to make, and make it.
This weekend we made bread, using an old recipe from an old 'Joy of Cooking' cook book. Then we made naan bread. Actually we made the dough, then formed the balls, then froze them. We like to use this bread for pizza crusts. I would buy it already made from the local store, but we figured we would try to make it ourselves. Now we just need to thaw the dough balls and flatten them and throw whatever we want on them.
Yesterday I finally made Cherry Pie, using freshly picked local cherries and blue berries! It turned out very good. I didn't use as much sugar as it asked for, and used real cane sugar that we can get from the local Nutters food store, instead of refined sugar.
For dinner we made our own spaghetti sauce and Lee made meatballs! nom nom nom. They are best with real chopped up bacon pieces in them, then baked in some of the already prepared sauce. Wow!!! We had that for dinner, many beers, and watched Pitch Black, then Riddick: Dark Fury, then Chronicles of Riddick.
Was a good weekend :)
I'm bored, if you haven't figured that out yet. I should probably do some work, but I really really really do not want to work for this company any more. Plus I do not want to start a project or mini-project and have to bail out when I tell them I am done working for them. I would prefer to leave once I get something completed, like a new build for the testers, or the table structure for a new feature, so that it's easier for someone to pick up....
But i've lost ALL motivation
Once she gets back she can start contacting these places that want web pages and I can start working on them, and hopefully soon get paid!!! Once that starts, i can actually officially quit. Well, I will be taking a 2 week 'vacation' and when that's over, I will probably just tell my boss/fatherinlaw that I am employed by CompanyX now and he can contact them for contract work. :D
The next 2 weeks are gonna be crucial!! But at the moment, I am in a holding pattern and it's driving me nuts. Which is why i started cooking dinner at 2pm.
Spaghetti sauce!!
I thawed and cooked up the ground beef, with some chopped bacon and garlic, then tossed it in a large can of tomato sauce (100 fl oz) with chopped veggies, and Worcestershire sauce. It'll all simmer till about 6 pm or later, when it will be scrumptious!
It helps to keep busy some days.
