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.

I've been going through my grandma's recipe box recently, which is cram packed full of mostly handwritten recipes for cookies and cakes (with the occasional main dish thrown in for good measure). Today, I came across this list of ingredients written on the back of a ticket for the 24 July 1969 Pioneer Day Celebration Ball Game between Idaho Falls and Ogden:

10 oz Butter or margarine
1.5 lbs sugar
6 large eggs
1 lb 4 oz flour
1 oz baking powder
3/4 Tbsp salt
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp vanilla

There are no instructions and no indication what this is supposed to be making. Anyone have any ideas? I may just have to try mixing it up and see what comes out... although I do wonder if there might be a particular method that would work better.

The other amusing thing I've come across are the number of recipes that make 150 servings or more. My grandma was a lunch lady at school back in a day when they actually made everything from scratch.

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.

Sorry for posting two in a row like this, but I wanted to get this one out before I forgot!

We ended up having a rather late lunch today, followed by that fun hike up to a Geocache and the visit to Snoqualmie Falls, so when we got home we decided we didn't need a really big dinner and we also didn't want to have to go back out to get any ingredients. I glanced around in the fridge and grabbed some leftover cooked barley, a couple of oranges, some chevre and some other bits and pieces and came up with this.

( Recipe and photo behind the cut. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Bah! I need to give up on this insane desire to actually update on everything I've done. Because then I don't get around to actually doing it because it would take too long and more time passes and then I think "Wow, now I have even MORE stuff to talk about" so of course it would take even longer to write up an update and, well, never mind.

Donated blood today. It's amazing how different the experience is nowadays... and every time I donate blood now, I get even happier that I decided to start seeing an ND. I used to get refused about every other time due to low blood pressure or low iron and the times I was able to donate, I would nearly pass out. Now, there's no trouble at all... in fact, I get done and can pretty much hop right up and could very likely just walk out of there (except I fully realize that's a VERY bad idea -- plus I'd miss out on the yummy Cougar Mountain cookies they have at our local blood center). So, anyway, blood donated! They shouldn't bug me for another month and a half or so, at which point they'll start pestering me to make an appointment for two weeks later when I'm eligible -- it's what I get for being a "rare blood" donor (I'm O+, but I'm also CMV negative).

Other than that, the only really exciting thing going on is that we made "Dinner in a Pumpkin" for dinner last night. Yum! I ended up creating my own recipe because all the ones I found inevitably called for Cream of Something-or-Other soup. Blech. Ours turned out to be a bit more of a soup, and was incredibly good... plus when it's reheated, it's a lot more like a thick stew. Also, on a whim, I tossed in some curry powder and it turned out wonderfully!

( Dinner in a Pumpkin recipe behind the cut. )

I mentioned on treacle_a's LJ that I would post my recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Brownie Bites. They're essentially the recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with a slight variation that came about when I realized the only butter in the house was in the freezer... and in the process of trying to thaw it in the microwave, I overshot and it melted a bit, which led to a much more batter-like consistency.

Anyway, here they are: ( Chocolate Chip Brownie Bites )

It makes wonderfully chewy brownie bites, although if you're still having some willpower problems, they may not be the best thing to keep around the house. I still haven't tried freezing them, so I have no idea how well they'll hold up (rackham likes them too, so they haven't been sticking around long enough to go bad). I really like the idea of using mini chocolate chips in things though... you can use considerably fewer and still get a nice even distribution of chocolaty goodness (I'm probably going to try tossing some in with my fairly low point banana-oatmeal muffins, the next time I make them).

I figured I'd hop on the bandwagon of recipe sharing again this year...

First up, is the biggie. For the last two years, we've brined our turkey... and it has definitely been the best turkey we've ever eaten. This year, we're hauling a turkey with us over to my dad's place (we'll cook it there, but I wanted to get a free range turkey and it's not the sort of thing he'd buy... and he wouldn't bother with brining, either :-p) and hopefully he'll like it as much as we do.

Brined Roast Turkey by Alton Brown from Good Eats (the link takes you to the recipe on Food Network's website).

Another yearly favorite of ours is Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, which I posted about on my LJ four years ago (it's down at the bottom of the entry). It's a relatively fluffly pumpkin pie, with a scrumptious gingersnap crust. I've made it in the past with Ener-G Egg Replacer (for anyone who might have an egg allergy) and it still turned out pretty well, it just takes longer to set up.

rackham's favorite is Eggnog Pie, which contains no actual eggnog (I think it got the name because it sort of, kind of tastes somewhat like eggnog -- I'm not terribly fond of it, but he loves it).

( Egg Nog Pie recipe under the cut. )

A few years ago, we also added Fresh Cranberry Compote (links to the Food Network website) to the menu, after seeing Emeril preparing it on a Food Network Thanksgiving special. It's super easy and VERY good. Way, way better than that gelatinous cranberry mass carved into the shape of a can (but then, it would be hard to not be better).

When I have my way (which, sadly, I won't this year... my dad is making what he calls "Yams" -- meaning canned sweet potatoes smothered in marshmallows. Blech), we will buy whole sweet potatoes and simply bake them like a regular potato... then serve them with maple spice butter on the side. For maple spice butter, you just whip some softened butter (NOT margarine) with a mixer, toss in some cinnamon to taste and drizzle in some real maple syrup (NOT maple-like syrup... go for the genuine article), to taste, while mixing. It should be sweet and buttery and is oh, so good on baked sweet potatoes.

And for suggestions on what to do with those leftovers, rackham always makes Turkey Quiche (links to a previous entry on my LJ). It's fantastic! A pie shell made from leftover dressing, blind baked to be a bit crispy, then a quiche with leftover turkey... served with leftover gravy and cranberry compote. Mmmmmmmm.... almost better than the original meal!

And with that, we're about ready to hit the road (after my PT appointment)! Hopefully things will be clear and there won't be a lot of traffic, since it's about a five hour drive to my dad's in the best of times.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And safe travels to everyone who is heading somewhere for the holiday!

I was rewatching the Good Eats episode "Major Pepper" the other day and decided it was time to give Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops a try... so, yesterday, I fired up the slow cooker and oooooo... was it good. Even though it calls for quite a bit of pepper, it cooks long enough to mellow the heat a bit, so you get the pepper flavor without as much of the bite. I had originally thought I would end up pushing the dried apple slices (and I highly recommend finding some NOT treated with sulfur) to the edge of my plate, but they'd absorbed the flavors from the pork chops really well and were quite tasty!

( Recipe under the cut )

In other news, Yakima Fruit Market up in Bothell has fresh local strawberries!! Not at all like the stuff you find in regular grocery stores... these are the sort you'd pick off a plant in your backyard: generally small, not perfectly shaped and oh. so. sweet!

I also picked up some apricots to dry... considering taradaktyl and her family have gotten MUCH more use out of our dehydrator than we ever have, I think it's about time we start using the thing!

I realized I forgot to post the recipe in the last post, so here it is...

( One Can Plus Five Soup )

I've been going through my recipe collection lately, getting things ready to take with me for Thanksgiving next week (we're heading over to my dad's place on the other side of the state), and figured I'd share some of our family recipes.

( Turkey Quiche -- the absolute best use for Thanksgiving leftovers )

A few years back babyotto had been invited over to an American friend's house for Thanksgiving and was asking for a good recipe for something to take for the dinner. I sent her my favorite holiday recipe, ( Pumpkin Chiffon Pie (which was, much to her surprise, a dessert -- it had never even occurred to me that you could use pumpkin for anything else, though I've since developed a taste for it in other dishes). )