Back To Normal-ish

After a weekend of family and sunshine, it's time to get back to normal... sort of. My mom and grandparents were here to visit over the long weekend. Having Mom and grandma Dee here was great because that let me off the hook for cooking for a crowd all weekend.

Just try and keep my mom and grandma out of the kitchen. Not going to happen.

Of course I helped out a little, but they did the bulk of the cooking and kitchen cleanup. That gave me a chance to sit back, drink some coffee and enjoy the company of my dear grandparents that we see but 2 or 3 times a year.

Speaking of grandparents, mine rock. Sometimes I wonder where I get my tiny frame and no filter mouth, then I hear my grandmother chime in on some rather inappropriate dinner conversation and a smile appears on my face. Last Friday when they arrived, we were still planting the garden and we all decided to take a break and have some lunch. As all nine of us were piled around my kitchen island, we started talking about unfortunate last names. As the guys and I were running through the classics (Dickmann, Asse, etc.) Grandma pipes up and says "I used to know this family by the name of..." then she whispers in my ear "F-u-c-k-s, but it was pronounced Fukes." Of course my kitchen erupted in laughter... Gotta love Grandma!

leaving for Birthday lunch with Uncle B

Mae goes back to school today. She hasn't been in 2 weeks and I plan to ease her in with just mornings for now at least until the PICC is out. The PICC line is going well and we haven't missed a dose of the antibiotic yet, even the 1Am infusion (right now) isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Gives me a chance to blog in quiet at least. Mae lost another tooth yesterday morning, but she at least washed her hands before pulling it out this time. Her ankle is feeling much better and she's getting around fine again but it's still a tad red and warm to the touch yet. She goes back to the doctor tomorrow for a dressing change on the PICC, some blood work and she'll also have the stitches in her ankle removed. The one noticeable difference I have seen in her since we've been home besides her energy level, is her appetite. I'm not sure if it's the medication she's on or if her body is trying to gain back the couple of pounds she lost while in the hospital, either way, it's nice to see her eating well again. The other morning for breakfast, we had to cut her off at 4 pieces of french toast, several pieces of bacon and a pile of fresh fruit!

This was a gift basket Mae received from my cousins K&P. When their little boy (R) was born (almost 3 months premature) last year, they spent a lot of time on the inside of a hospital so they sent this sweet gift to Mae complete with the little tiara clip for her hair to cheer her up. Thanks K&P! I also want to thank everyone who helped us out in the last 2 weeks, sent cards and brought over meals and treats. It means the world to us to have such great friends and family in our lives.

Foggy, Rainy and Cold

Last Friday was beautiful! The sun was shining, the ice was melting. We spent all day outside. Binny played in the mud and I cleaned up the front yard. I picked up all of the branches that had fallen over the winter and raked up all of the dog poop dead leaves and grass.

My living room picture window was embarrassingly filthy so I took advantage of the nice weather and washed all of the windows that I could reach off the step ladder. It felt good to be outside.

The smell of the air was intoxicating and I mean the fresh spring smell, not the pig farm across the road. I almost believed it to be true. Could it be? Is winter over? Ha! Those hopes were dashed the very next day. Saturday was rainy and cool, then Sunday. Sunday was terrible. it rained all morning, then that ever fun freezing rain turn everything into an icicle thing, then a few inches of snow and high winds. During the wind storm Sunday afternoon one of the skylights from our shed blew off and landed in the yard leaving a gaping hole in our shed.

My freshly raked front yard? Full of fallen branches. So much for Spring cleaning.

I do have to admit that the ice was pretty.

Today is rainy and foggy. I haven't climbed out of my sweat pants yet (and don't plan to) and have an annoying headache thing going on, but I'm making soup. I found a recipe for Wild Rice soup on a great food blog, Chomping the Big Apple. I omitted the chicken pieces but used some organic chicken stock that I had in the freezer. I also used regular wild rice, not the mix so I increased the cooking time to almost an hour. I love soup on a rainy day.

*Update* I tried the soup. Wonderful, but next time I think I will add bacon.

Not Diet Food

Yesterday we decided to have my in-laws over to play with the kids and join us for dinner. Bad idea? Well, my in-laws are very nice people who love nothing more than to spend hours (grandma at least) playing with their grandchildren while I prepare a big family dinner. In their defense, they don't know any better and think that nothing bad can come out of my kitchen. Suckers! Now, usually I can produce an edible, health-conscious meal, but not this time, when apparently my MIL is on a diet. That would have been nice if I had remembered, because she did tell me about a week ago, but me being all skinny and stuff never worries about such silly things like a diet.

Anyway, I have a crapload (technical term for freezer full) of beef and thought I would try something new. And who better to try new recipes on than my in-laws? I scoured my cookbooks and the web and decided on a beef braise. It looked rich and hearty, and the kind of meal they would enjoy if they weren't trying to lose weight.

I had never made a braise before, but I know I can make a mean stew, so this couldn't be much different except that the recipe called for an entire bottle of red wine and required 3 hours on the stove plus prep and searing. Fine, I've got wine and a kitchen timer, but I think when my in-laws arrived at 2:30 for dinner (I told them 6:00 btw) they were maybe a little shocked to see me just starting to cook something that would take all damn day. Feeling rushed, I turned up the heat to medium instead of just medium-low and by the end of cooking (which by the way still took 3 solid hours) had developed a nice burn chunk at the bottom of my dutch oven. Shhhh, I didn't tell anyone, but removed the braise from the pot and transferred it to a clean unburned dish and blamed attributed the smoky flavor to the bacon. Actually it wasn't that bad, the wine made a deliciously thick sauce and the meat was oh-so tender yet not falling apart. I served the whole thing with roasted mushrooms and pearl onions, popovers, and boiled parsley potatoes. And for dessert, I was planning to make a chocolate cake, but while Mae and I were out and about in the morning we decided to stop and pick up a DQ ice cream cake (my in-laws' fave) with extra frosting because we all know that's the best part aside from the fudgy-crunch layer.

And, apparently today is MIL's weigh-in day. Oopsies. Maybe next time I should stick with a trusty low-fat, veggie-overload chicken dish... or maybe this was just a lesson in moderation.

My Favorite Salad

It's been a long time since I posted a recipe, and since the space that usually contains my brain has been replaced with snot; I can't come up with anything better to write today. So here goes a no fail recipe.

I must have taken the photo before dousing the salad with the dressing, oops.

Spinach, strawberries, feta cheese and walnuts with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I have no idea how many calories are in this yummy concoction, but it is quite healthy. I love this salad for lunch or a slightly smaller portion to accompany an entree.
Enjoy!

Granny Lu's Cranberry bread recipe

For Cousin Kathy,

I don't know if I ever thanked you properly for the recipe cards you sent to me (a while back). So officially, I would like to say thank you for sending a piece of our family's history to me, to continue these cooking/baking traditions with my children. I was quite young, but I do remember Granny Lu's big holiday meals. My brothers and I marveled over her relish trays. Black olives on our fingers and baby pickled corn.

She once made us chocolate chip pancakes at the cottage too, a looooong time ago. Now that I'm being all nostalgic, I found this photo from a summer vacation at the lake cottage with Granny Lu and Granny B. I was 4.

Cranberry bread

2 c. sifted flour

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. orange zest

1/2 c. orange juice

1/2 c. water

1 egg

2 Tbsp. veg. oil

1 c. raw cranberries

(I also added 1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg- not in the original recipe)

Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 50 min to an hour. Done when toothpick comes out clean.

Walnuts would be great in this, but my family gives me the stink eye when nuts show up in food.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies recipe

These cookies are so adorable but I haven't made them in a few years because they do take some skill, but if you have a good rolling pin and cold dough, they'll be fine. They are a simple butter cookie that doesn't expand a whole lot, (no leveners) so as soon as the edges turn golden, pull 'em out and take them off the tray. Easy.

Recipe from a Gold Medal (flour) Holiday Cookies mini magazine I picked up in line at the grocery store way back in 2000 which was 4 houses ago, I can't believe I still have it.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/4 cups butter (if using unsalted add 1/4 teaspoon salt)

1 egg

3 cups flour (gold Medal of course)

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1. Beat powdered sugar, butter and egg. Add flour and mix until it looks like a thick dough. Divide dough in half. mix cocoa powder in half. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

2. Roll half of each dough into same size rectanlgles and trim to fit together (white on bootom). Roll up into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours up to 24 hours.

before the cookies go in the oven

3. Heat oven to 400 deg. Unwrap and cut rolls into 1/4 inch slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Immediately move the cookies to a rack to cool.

Crunchy, buttery and chocolatey. What could be better with a cup of Irish coffee?

Binny's getting married

This was the conversation Binny and I shared the other day while baking Christmas cookies.

Binny: I'm gonna marry Daddy when I get older.

Me: Oh really?

Binny: Uh-huh

Me: Well, Daddy's already married to mommy

Binny: Oh, can I marry uncle Tommy or Uncle Ben?

Me: I suppose, they'll probably still be available by then. What about uncle Keith?"

Binny: No, he only lives in a compartment, that's not enough room for me.

Grapefruit Drink Recipes

The other night I was out having dinner with a friend, when I tried for the first time ever, a grapefruitini. All I can say to that is "Where have you been all these years?" Seriously that was the best drink EVER! I only slurped down one but could have drank every drop of grapefruit juice and vodka in the bar.


This is a grapefruitini recipe I found online

1 oz. vodka
2 oz. red grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. lemon juice
DIRECTIONS:
Pour ingredients into shaker. Add ice. Shake and serve.

This will definatley be my Christmas drink this year.
I have made other drinks using Absolute Ruby Red Grapefruit vodka. Fantastic- holy crap! This stuff actually tastes like grapefruit. Best part- my hubby hates grapefruit- more for me right?

This was the grapefruit drink I made last year (I saw it on Martha Stewart's show)
Ingredients
Serves 1
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 ounce Charbay (I think they actually used Absolut on the show) ruby red grapefruit vodka
2 ounces Champagne
1 ounce cranberry juice
1 ounce black currant juice
Directions
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, dissolve sugar into 1 1/2 cups water. Add cranberries and simmer for 5 minutes, or until softened. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain, discard liquid, and place cranberries on a tray in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Chill vodka, Champagne, and juices, then mix in a champagne glass. Garnish with skewer of 4 or 5 frozen candied cranberries. Reserve the rest for another drink.

Really, it was a lot of work for just a drink, and a little strong with both vodka and champagne. Oh, and you can't drink the thing with the wooden skewer in it. Seriously, you'll poke your eye out, or worse-the skewer up the nose.- Yowza!

The Ruby Red Vodka goes really well with just cranberry juice too.

Cheers!

I cooked all day and all I got was a belly ache

My kitchen is finally lit again (hooray!) and I celebrated by cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner for 7 completely from scratch- no tube biscuits, boxed stuffing or canned cranberry sauce. Being a lazy perfectionist, I wouldn't have it any other way, but I must say I am exhausted and don't wish to peel another potato until next year. The fam. seemed to enjoy my over-rated meal. By the time I sat down to eat, my mother and father-in-law had already finished one plateful and were going for a second. Good sign.

The one dish that I really didn't want to make was the hit of the table. No it wasn't snotty green beans (yuck x2) it was the sweet potatoes swimming in butter and brown sugar topped with caramelized marshmallows. I was planning to make the sweet potatoes with apples and craisins but I was outnumbered by a bunch who is just counting the days until diabetes sets it. The turkey was excellent too if I dare toot my own horn. I tried a new bird technique this year. I coated the turkey in salt (2 cups) and refrigerated for 2 days prior to Thanksgiving then washed the bird and did the usual seasoning and sage rub and cooked the whole business in an oven bag. Holy crap, that was the juiciest most flavorful turkey I have ever tasted. I will definitely be doing that again next year. Thank You Martha Stewart.

Hope all of you had a great holiday and didn't get trampled while shopping today. Yikes! I ventured out to hit a few sales and soon realized that I had made a horrible mistake. I should have thrown in the towel when only 5 minutes into the first store we had to find the nearest bathroom. Then the fighting- oh the fighting, and I'm not talking about the women hovering over the bargain bin, no no, it was my children.

I really wanted to find a bedding set because I knew that I would be able to find a great deal today. I found what I wanted but it happened to be perched up on the highest shelf of the completely crowded Boston Store. I wanted to just climb up and get it myself, but my oldest accused my of being unsafe (who me?) so I wandered around the packed store in search of someone to get it down for me. Luckily all of the employees were wearing ridiculous reindeer antlers, making them easier to spot. the woman threw down my huge comforter set and off I went now carrying this heavy over-sized bag, dragging 2 bored children behind me. I then found some bed pillows at a great price so I grabbed those with my one free hand, children now on their own and still fighting. Then I thought, I can still carry something in mouth, so I better see if I can find some matching throw pillows while I'm already in holiday shopping hell. Found the pillows, filled the trunk, and headed home.

Next year if I decide to do this again, I will be hiring a sitter.

Anyone else shop today?

Oh, and what do you think of my pink ceiling? It matches my dishes (Desert Rose- my grandmother's pattern) that I have used to decorate my kitchen. It's only paint and I can always change it, but for now I think it's pretty and unexpected.

*Updated with snow photos* Can I take back the nice things I said about my house?

Yesterday I decided I would paint my kitchen in time for Thanksgiving. Now that we have proper ventilation through our range downdraft vent, the walls won't get all greasy and gross. Except for the fact that I have a Saint Bernard in my house house, so my walls are always covered in some sort of drool-hair slime that can only be cleaned off with a Magic Eraser. So I perused our paint department in the basement to discover that I only had about a half gallon of the kitchen color left so... Off to Menard's with me and my "I promise I don't have to go potty before we leave, I just went" children. We get all the way back to the paint counter and Mae says "I think I need to go potty now." NOW, she decides to go. It always seems to be an emergency with her, so I drop off my paint request and run all the way back to the front of the store to the bathroom. Thank god we know our way around Menard's.

So I buy the paint, return home and start painting. I start painting the ceiling and realize that we still have that hideous fluorescent light fixture hanging above our island. I refer to the offensive light as The Big Buzzer because it emits this horrible buzzing sound- duh? So I say in my sweetest, dumbed-down housewife voice " Honey, will you take down that fixture and put something else up, please?" I should have known better. Let the complaining begin. Hubby now-"It's not that simple, I can't just hang a new light there, there probably isn't even a box, and if there is, how old is it, and what idiot do-it-your- selfer put it in? You know, this whole first floor needs to be rewired, and I've got so many other projects going on right now." But he loves me and knows that he's spent a whole week and a half on a project in his work van that has gotten nowhere, so he grabs his tools to start the investigation.

He removed the Big Buzzer and was right, the old crusty wires were just hanging out of the ceiling from some mystery box hidden way up in a buried ceiling (oh my) with even more unidentified wires hanging out of that, just out of arms reach. So instead of new lighting for Thanksgiving, I have swiss cheese ceiling and now no light in my kitchen, save the puny light over the sink and the newly positioned lamp on the corner table.



Being the smart electrician that he is, he will conquer this project and give me a beautifully lit Thanksgiving table...I hope. Remolding is his way of being romantic and sweet. Works for me. Like Red Green says " If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." Luckily mine is both!

And now totally unrelated to my kitchen

It snowed this morning! The girls were thrilled. Mae played in the snow for a few minutes while we waited for the bus.

They don't make em like they used to

Back in early September on Labor Day weekend we had family here for the weekend. 7 in the house total all weekend, so of course my refrigerator takes a crap Saturday night after a big family dinner. At first I thought that it wasn't staying cold because one of the adults kids left it hanging open, but soon realized that our refrigerator was gone- never to work again. This wasn't an avacado green fridge from decades past, or the old style handle on the big heavy door fridges. My fridge was only eight years old and wasn't even used heavily for all of that time. I don't get it.

So Sunday on Labor Day weekend we had to go shopping for a fridge, all 7 of us. Meanwhile, we happened to be storing a spare fridge in our barn from a displaced hippie I know. Convenient, no? I opened the fridge and realized that we might all die if I put our food in it, so I washed it out with bleach water, plugged it in and left on the back patio. We sure know how to entertain for family. So on Sunday we bought a new fridge (bend over for the price) it works great and is much bigger, but how long until this new, expensive appliance becomes just a piece of un-fixable junk?


My washer and dryer have been in terrible shape for the last 4 years. The washer hops across the floor during the spin cycle and drags along with it some sticky brown grease that has been leaking from underside for even longer. The dryer door button has been broken for about 2 years and now needs to be bungeed on, otherwise the door flies open and it turns off. Lots of half-dried clothes here. And those are the 2 appliances that keep hanging on. We were planning to proactively buy a new washer and dryer but we frivolously spent our money on replacement fridge. Shame on us, the consumer for asking for major household appliances to last longer than 8 years. Hell, I know quite a few people who still have the old inefficiant models, but at least they work.




Well... I'm off to do laundry and chase my washer around the laundry room

Why Does My House Smell Like A Fart?

Oh, that's why.

We pillaged the garden one last time before the frost destroys even the hardiest vegetables. Now the big question is, What the hell am I going to do with 24 stalks of Brussel Sprouts? I pawned a few off on some unsuspecting family members yesterday, but that still leaves me with a pile in a laundry basket stinking up the back porch. I may pickle some, but we don't make mixed drinks and I already canned way too much relish type stuff over the summer, and really are pickled brussel sprouts any good? I don't know. Maybe I'll just do the standard Blanch and freeze and we'll eat them all winter. My kids actually like them. Well, that's not entirely true, they'll eat pretty much anything if it's covered in cheese.

The real question should be, Why do I have an over abundance of the stinky, stalky vegetable? Well, I bought 2- 6 packs of starter plants from the garden center this spring, because last year just 6 wasn't quite enough. Each plant was actually 2 plants stuck together and I pulled them apart so that I would only have 12 plants not 24. That would have been a somewhat reasonable amount for us, but that was not to be. My Mom happened to be here the weekend of planting and couldn't let me throw perfectly good plants on to the compost pile, so she gathered the discards and planted them alongside the 12 I planted. So now I have all these extra sprouts and not a clue what to do with them.

How hated would I be if I gave them out for trick-or-treat? Guaranteed egging?

Spiced Apple Rings

Last weekend we picked 2 big bags of apples from my in-laws' overflowing apple trees. Monday I made applesauce which was really simple- apples, water, cinnamon sticks, couple grates of nutmeg and just let it go on the stove for half an hour. Yesterday I made spiced apple rings, super easy and a total jumpstart to fall-winter spices.

Recipe for Apple Rings:

1/2 cup red hot candies

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups water

cinnamon stick

10 whole cloves

5-6 apples peeled, cored and sliced in rings

Put everything but the apples in a large skillet. Cook and stir until all of the candy and sugar is disolved, then add apples and cook just until soft. I canned mine, but they last quite a while in the fridge too.

I use this to peel, core and slice my apples. You gotta be nuts to do it by hand!