book review & a naked quiche

Oh peoples. I've been wanting to post something here all week but I've had nothing. Well, nothing that I wanted to 'put out there for all the world to see.' What I've had is lots of me whining about my back. Still. Hope to have news from the doc by the end of the week.

So anyway, I don't want to be a whiner or complainer. Let's move on, shall we?

I'm limited for options but there's always food, right? And for some reason I seem to post lots about that.

This month I read The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook. Excellent read. It's chock full of practical tips and easy recipes that call for basic ingredients, many of which most cooks with a stocked pantry would have on hand. I checked it out at my local library so I wanted to test at least one recipe before I had to return it.

Now let me back up just a bit here. This week it's a "living out of the pantry & freezer" week. With the holiday upon us next week, we'll be visiting family, which translates to "I won't be cooking" so I'm using that as an excuse to clean out the cabinets. And you know what? We've been eating just fine. I think it's safe to even go a step farther and say that we've been eating good. If I hadn't announced to the family that we were cleaning out the cabinets, they'd never know that that is what I'm doing.

Ok, so back to tonight's recipe. The book mentioned above had a recipe for Naked Quiche. (Don't you just love that name? I do.) A 'naked quiche' is a crustless quiche. Rather than having to make a crust or buy one, you sprinkle bread crumbs in the bottom of a buttered pie plate! Can't get much easier than that. So, I took their recipe and customized it with ingredients that I had on hand. In lieu of spinach and green onions I used an onion sliced into rings, mushrooms and zucchini which I sliced this summer when they were fresh from the garden and stuck them in the freezer. Instead of 2 c. of shredded swiss cheese I used about 1/4 c. of shredded cheddar and I cubed the last 6 slices of swiss cheese I had from the deli counter.

As I type this, the quiche is cooling, or resting, on the counter. It smells lovely. Toast with butter and jam on the side. Chocolate pudding for dessert.

Go check your library's on-line catalog for this book. You can thank me later.

Oh, and another reason that it will be good to have a cleaned out freezer? Lawman got a deer this morning. First one ever. So my freezer will soon be stocked with venison steaks, ground meat and summer sausage. I've never cooked with venison before so please, if you have suggestions or hints, send them straight to me. I'm gonna need help folks. This is new territory for me.

And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I am so thankful for each and every one of you that visits here. This world of blogging is like none other. I can't explain it but you all have a special place in my heart. See ya all back here in December. (Can you believe it's almost the end of the year?)

the comfort of quiet

All is quiet. I'm home alone. I can't remember the last time I've had the better portion of a day at home by myself.

Some people don't like the quiet. I happen to enjoy it. Always have. Now even more so because it doesn't happen all that often.

As a child I would spend a lot of time by myself. My siblings are all much older than me so I grew up like an only child. I learned how to entertain myself -- time outside, imaginary friends, reading a book.

Today, I'll be entertaining myself. Baking and books. I'm still down in the back so I can't tackle any major jobs around the house. I find time in the kitchen to be very pleasurable. Especially when I'm not on a schedule and I can just putter. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are cooling on the counter. Bread will be next. I might even make a batch of pizza dough for the freezer to use later this week. Mixing up taco seasoning. Preparing a chicken for roasting tomorrow; season it with spices to marinate in the fridge. Throw in some college football, a quick nap and starting a new book. A perfect day for me.

varied veggies

Parents everywhere struggle with getting kids to eat vegetables. Or so it would seem. I even know parents who won't eat a vegetable that isn't a potato or corn. If that's the case, its no wonder the kids aren't eager to eat vegetables.


Fortunately vegetables have never been a battle ground in our home. As babies the girls' favorite baby food veggies were spinach, squash and sweet potatoes. Not what I would consider standard fare. Standard would be more along the lines of green beans, peas and corn. I should count myself as one of the lucky ones since eating vegetables has never really been an issue. The biggest frustration, as far as vegetables are concerned, was the period of time that our oldest would not eat salad. Now she eats it but must have Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing to go with it.


Not sure why but for some reason this morning my mind wandered to the variety of vegetables that our family eats during a weeks time. Both girls have mentioned before that it is their opinion that our family eats far more vegetables than that of their friends. I also read this over the past week which caused me to pay mind to how many servings of fruits and vegetables our family eats.


So, as my mind wandered this morning, I made a mental list of the vegetables that have graced our dinner plates thus far this week.

• Sweet Potatoes


• Green Beans


• Cabbage, mushrooms, onions, garlic, green peppers (in a Chop Suey recipe)


• Hominy


• and Butternut Squash to be served in the next day or two

Are you eating your vegetables? Do your kids?

batch cooking | pork roast

Last weekend it was batch cooking with roast chicken. This weekend it was pork roast.

I got a great buy on pork roast a couple of weeks ago --$0.89/lb. I purchased a 6# roast for just over $5. I cooked it in the crockpot on Saturday using my 3 Packets and a Roast recipe. For Saturday night dinner and Sunday lunch we had it shredded and served on buns with bbq sauce, dill pickles and a side of sweet potato oven fries. I had lots of meat left. Lawman shredded it and it filled a 2 qt. dish.

Right now our dinner is simmering on the stove ~ posole. I put it together this evening when I got home from work. Essentially it's a dump and stir recipe since the meat was already cooked. I'll serve it with corn muffins.

I've still got plenty of meat left. I'll package it up for the freezer, probably in 2 cup portions. It can be used in pork fried rice, enchiladas and maybe even tacos or oven-baked nachos.

Posole

2 cans hominey, with liquid

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 can RoTel tomatoes

1 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. oregano

2# pork, cooked and diced

Place all ingredients in stock pot. Bring just to a boiling point and then reduce heat to simmer. If it's too thick, add water or chicken broth to thin it out. This will also allow you to stretch it and get a couple more servings out of it. Garnish with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and a dollop of sour cream. This is even better the 2nd day.

it's been decided

....that my weekend activities shall be confined to the couch.

It all began with an achey back Thursday morning which progressively got worse throughout the day. By last night it was all I could do to find a comfortable position.

This morning I couldn't get out of bed. Literally. I needed a doctor and that's huge considering I've seen my general physician one time in the last year. Lawman knew it was serious. We waited until 8:00 to call the physician who fortunately could see me at 8:45. Getting me in/out of the vehicle was not an easy task.

It was the usual litany of questions when I arrived. What had I done? The thing is that I didn't think I had done anything. Although this little project is probably the cause of my sore back.

Doctor asked if I could tolerate a pain medication. I didn't know because I had never taken it. He couldn't believe it...hadn't I had surgery? Um, no. The only hospitalization I've experienced has been for childbirth. He prescribed 2 meds, both were new to me.

While at the doctor's office, I told him I needed to move, change positions. He said that was fine, go ahead. I stood up, found a comfortable position and stayed there. And while doing so experienced 2 serious spasms that had me on the way to my knees. After seeing that he immediately called the nurse in to administer a shot -- pain meds. Sweet.

Lawman has been a huge help today. Since I was already with him, I told him I'd ride to the pharmacy with him and would he mind going by the library and picking up a book that was on hold for me? A girl has to keep her priorities straight, right? Bless his heart, he did it.

When we got home he took on the role of nurse...administered my meds, got me drinks, blankets, made chicken noodle soup, got my cell phone, books, etc. He even agreed to watch an English t.v. series with me that I rented on Netflix (which we both are hooked on now). He even called in reinforcements for dinner, the ever popular pizza delivery guy. A real treat in this house!

Now here's the real kicker. I'm supposed to attend a birthday party tonight. For me. Our mortician friend offered to pick me up. He'd bring the cot and the hearse! Not quite the kind of arrival I want to make just yet.

Roast Chicken

I got a great deal on whole chickens a couple of weeks ago --68 cents/pound. And, I'd been hanging onto a recipe for Roast Sticky Chicken that I wanted to try. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.


I did the prep work Saturday morning and popped the bird in the oven on Sunday afternoon. I also stuck potatoes in to bake too. I rounded out the meal with green beans. The meal was fabulous plus the fact that it was pretty much hands off once I got it in the oven made it even better for me. It was even requested that I make it more often. That always makes me smile.

Now here's the really good part. I shredded the remaining meat after dinner and I have enough for a 2nd meal. I'll be making this tomorrow night and substituting chicken for the beef. Not only that but this morning I put the carcass in the crockpot with 2 onions, several stalks of celery and a few cups of water. When I got home this evening I had homemade chicken stock ready and waiting.

So for the price of one bird, about $3.00, I got 2 meals and 6 cups of stock. A good deal in my book.

For me, this is my ideal cooking method on nights when I have more time ~ expend the energy on the front end for great returns and time savings on another night.

bath redo

At this point, either we are committed or we need to be committed. Why did we think we wanted to start this project?

We've lived in this house for 8 years. We've never done anything with our master bath other than talking about doing something with it. No more.

Say good-bye to the 1980's style wallpaper. It started coming off today and it wasn't easy. The only area we completed is the small area above the shower. This is going to be a looonnng process.

Once the paper is all off, I'm eliminating the popcorn. That awful popcorn texture on the ceiling. I hate that stuff -- it's too hard to keep clean. You try to remove a cobweb and you get a face full of popcorn.

Then there's flooring. We want tile. Several people have told us how easy it is to "do it yourself." I suppose we'll try that.

Then it's time for new light fixtures, new drawer/door hardware, new towels, new accessories. Oh, and did I mention we'd really like to have a new tub/shower unit too? And add in a big shower head.

Have I forgotten anything? Can you see where this is going? And why it may take months to complete?

$$Cha-Ching $$!