Random Lunacy

A week or so ago, I posted this on FB: "On Saturday, I made drop biscuits to go with our leftover beef and barley soup... this evening, I made sausage gravy to go with our leftover biscuits. It's the Circle of Dinner."

And I really love being able to do things like that... leftovers from one meal that work well as an addition to the next. In that case, it was even better than that, because the beef and barley soup happened due to having enough extra beef to make the soup, leftover from what was needed for a previous meal.

A few days ago, I realized we had a couple of bunches of kale in the fridge that really needed to be used... so I went looking for a new way to cook them and happened upon this recipe out at the Weight Watchers website (which currently kinda sucks when it comes to linking to recipes, so I've included it here under the cut): ( Potato-Kale Soup. )

Before I pulled out the immersion blender, I decided to give it a taste and... well, it was really bland. I had rackham give it a try and we debated what we could add to give it some pop. We put a few tablespoons of the soup into a couple of ramekins and tried adding spice blends, finally settling on hot curry. And it was pretty good! Not the best thing ever, but if I end up with a bunch of kale and some potatoes I need to use, I'd probably do it again.

And then last night, I got to do one of my favorite things... I used it to make something else entirely. I cooked up some carrots and cauliflower, added some chopped up raw chicken breast and a little more curry, then dumped the leftover "Soup" in with it and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Oh my word, it was *perfect*. I would totally make that soup again, only not as a soup... but as a base for curries. I'm actually wondering how well it would freeze, so I'd have a quick and nearly ready-made dinner on hand.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

So, I don't post for months and now I get all chatty. :-p

We picked up a rotisserie chicken from Costco the other day, which meant we had the makings for several meals: drumsticks or drumsticks and thighs the first night along with Costco's quinoa salad, curried chicken salad the next night (sometimes I do a gorgonzola chicken salad instead) with leftovers for lunch the next day and possibly the day after and then I strip the carcass (saving any remaining meat for soup later) and toss it in the crockpot with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, peppercorns and a bay leaf... cover it with water and let it simmer all day (or all night, depending on when it gets started). Usually there's enough to make soup that night and have leftover stock to go in the freezer for later. Costco rotisserie chicken is the BEST.

Tonight's soup turned out so well, I decided I'd better write it down before I forgot what I'd put in it... because I definitely want to try that one again! Still not sure what to call it, but for now it shall be known as:

( Spicy Chicken Corn Soup )

This particular combination came about because we had cobs of corn from our produce delivery that needed to be used... and, of course, I also needed to use up the garlic scapes, so they were added in place of garlic. It was VERY zesty and if I was making it to share with other people, I'd probably add less of the Southwest Seasoning next time. It might also have been good with a bit of cilantro at the end, but we didn't have any on hand.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Spongecake. I think. It's very tasty, but the texture isn't as smooth as a regular cake. I don't think it would work very well with frosting, but suspect it would be fantastic with a glaze of some sort (lemon or pineapple, in particular) or perhaps just with some berries on it or both.

( Method to my mixture. )

( And here's the finished product. )

Final verdict: I would definitely make this one again!

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

One nice side effect of having my brother-in-law come over to help with the couch on Saturday was that it actually occurred to us that we should invite him over for Easter dinner on Sunday (his wife is currently out of town, so he's on his own for the moment). Of course, it was only later that we realized we had absolutely no plans in place for what wanted to cook for said dinner! We did a bit of brainstorming while driving home late Saturday night after returning the rental truck, stopped by a grocery store to pick up a couple of things for side dishes and decided to pretty much wing it on the main dish, using stuff we already had at home.

( Moroccan-style lamb. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

For dinner tonight, I started up one of our favorite recipes, Potato and Canadian Bacon Slow Cooker Chowder, before heading out for the day. It worked really well, since we still had some potatoes, leeks and carrots from last week's produce delivery, plus I was able to throw in the last of the the British Bacon we bought a month or so ago (it's been in the freezer). I subbed in a coconut based milk substitute for the cow milk dairy this time and I really liked how it turned out (I usually use hempmilk, but I had the coconut stuff open already) Yummy food that uses up things from the fridge... yay!

And to go with it, I whipped up some Hoecakes using Alton Brown's recipe. Another old stand-by, because they're very easy and quick and we usually have the ingredients on hand. ( Plus, they're yummy too! )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

I found my copy of this recipe recently (as dictated to me by my grandma) and I was going to title it "My Grandma's Banana Pudding" but I'm pretty sure it's the same recipe everyone's grandmas used (since I think it originally came from the back of a Nilla Wafers box).

2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour

Mix flour and sugar together and add

2 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp butter
dash salt

Mix and cook in a double-boiler until it thickens.

Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

Line the bottom of a bowl with sliced banana rounds and pour on the pudding. Top with Nilla Wafers and chill before serving.

And now I really want to make some.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Has anyone ever made sweetened condensed milk before? I just tried it using this recipe and it came out looking more like frosting than what I would expect from sweetened condensed milk. Is this normal? And if not, does anyone have a better recipe they could recommend?

Thanks!!!

Crossposted from my LiveJournal.

My mom and step-dad were in town over the weekend (my step-dad, a physical therapist, was attending a training seminar in the Seattle area). My mom and I ended up spending most of the weekend making trips to Trader Joe's (a prime shopping spot for my mom when she's in town) and watching episodes of the new Doctor Who... it was just like old times! (She's the one who got me hooked on the original series when I was 10.) Sadly, we didn't make it up to where we'd experience the hotness that is Jack, but that just means we've got a lot to look forward to the next time she comes to visit.

My folks wound up having to leave about four hours earlier than they'd planned (step-dad even left the seminar early), due to the rockslide over Snoqualmie Pass... meaning they had to first drive down to Portland and then over to the other side of the state. Right now *the* main East/West route in the state of Washington is still completely closed down and has been since early Sunday morning... last I heard, they thought they might have one lane in each direction open late tomorrow... and they're hoping to have more lanes open by Thanksgiving (this may seriously curtail our plans for that weekend, because I'm not keen on the idea of getting stranded on the other side of the Pass). All the other passes are getting seriously overloaded with traffic, and some are closing down due to snow. It's going to be a nasty year for holiday travel.

(Note to our Governor: BTW, some people don't respond too well to blackmail. Just thought you should know.)

In other news, I will be so incredibly happy when this election is finally over... no more stupid campaign ads! There's one in particular that sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it... and makes me want to hunt down the people responsible and hurt them. The reason is completely separate of the campaign item, and has everything to do with the structure of the ad's "plot."

( Behind a cut because it's stupid and it's just me rambling on about an annoying commercial )

Sunday night, I ended up tuning into "Category 7: The End of the World" a bit late... missing about the first 40 minutes, where I'm guessing we probably got one or two extreme weather effects and a whole lot of interpersonal relationship backstory (if it followed the disaster movie formula at all). I often find that the best way to watch these sorts of movies is with a DVR and a pause button... then you can fast forward through the boring bits and just watch the parts where things get torn apart or it starts to hail fireballs or whatever. But maybe that's just me. :-p

Anyway, it's shaping up to be a lovely cheesy disaster movie: mostly mediocre acting, some bad dialogue, fairly bad special effects, bad science and bad plotting. What's not to love? Oh, and on the even more hugely plus side, there's Schanke from Forever Knight and Krycek from The X-Files!!! I hadn't seen either John Kapelos or Nicholas Lea in anything for quite awhile. Oh, and can someone please tell me when Randy Quaid, a man who used to be a fairly decent actor, suddenly became the king of the B-grade disaster movie?

I did have to wonder, just a bit, about the wisdom of airing this mini-series now... right after so many people have gone through some fairly horrific and very REAL natural disasters. I know that there's almost always something going on in the world that would fit that description, but it still seems like they might have been better off waiting at least until the next sweeps period to give it a teensy bit more of a time buffer. I dunno, it just seems a tad bit tacky.

We made our first ever batch of croutons yesterday, a la Alton Brown. They were particularly good in Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup.

Tomorrow is A Feast For Crows Day!! Fan-girlish Squee!!! And I get it before rackham because he's still uselessly plodding through reading the latest Robert Jordan book.

And finally, I've recently discovered the yumminess that is Trader Joe's Chocolate Soymilk. That stuff is the best thing since sliced Great Harvest Dakota Bread!