Lately I’m too lazy to take any real pictures. It’s so much easier to use my phone when the picture it takes are half decent. I just have to decide on my favorite filter now and stick with it.
We had a good weekend. I cleaned like a crazy person yesterday before having people over. I Read the rest of this entry »
Chase made this is art class this week. I love it. The dragon face makes me smile. So, I hung it near the door so we see it when we walk in the house. If only I had half a brain I would have taken her downtown today for the Chinese New Year Celebration. Read the rest of this entry »
I can’ believe how smoothly things went this year compared to last. I don’t know what I did wrong last year or if I just needed to run through it once to get all the swearing out of my system before I could really figure it out. This year it just went together. I used the same recipe and amazingly nothing fell apart.
We had a lot of fun this year. We used up all the candy! Last year we had tons left over. Next year I want to try Necco wafers for shingles. I love the way that looks and I might be able to convince my kids that it’s a good idea.
They both ate their weight in candy today and Avery doubled her efforts by eating her wait in icing as well. How they’re not both sick with tummy aches is a mystery to me. I guess they’ve been slowly building up to it with the advent calendar.
I used this template though I let Chase do most of the cutting so it was kind of loose. I found that using a serrated knife worked really well to smooth out parts of the baked cookies that were too bumpy to fit together. I particularly like this recipe because it tastes good and makes enough for a good sized house and several cookies.
I love how much Chase can do now. Last year she just stuck stuff into the icing. This year she had plans, measured and executed her vision.
Later and we have enough gingerbread dough for a whole village of houses chilling in the fridge. We went to the candy stand at Belvedere Square last week but this year I didn’t micromanage the candy selection and so I’m not sure that what we picked it exactly right for a gingerbread house. Read the rest of this entry »
Was delicious! This is my first experience with a silicone pan. Let’s assume for a moment that silicone pans don’t leach anything terrible while you’re baking in it (I’m afraid to look it up). That being the case, it was fun and easy to bake with. The cake released perfectly though I did still spray the pan before putting the batter in because I was worried. I think I’ll skip this step next time and see if it still comes out just as nicely. Read the rest of this entry »
I made this yesterday and it was yummy. It’s a nice change from the quick tomato sauce that I’ve been making from The Silver Palate. It was quick to throw together, tasty, satisfying and everyone ate it. Even those of us who don’t “do” tomato sauce if you can believe it.
I don’t know what I going to do with the leftovers. I was thinking about maybe adding a little ricotta and turning it into a casserole so I can pop it into the freezer for next week. It’s that or chip away at it by the bowlful which is also a very real possibility.
This is the third or fourth recipe that I’ve made form Ina Garten’s most recent book How Easy Was That? They’ve all been straight forward and solid. I’ve borrowed it twice now from the library. I may have to invest.
What are you cooking?
Like as in I made it through Thursday without going to Chipotle. I’m feeling a little inspired by the July/August issue of Everyday Food (thanks dearie for letting me borrow your brand new issue.) There’s a nice recipe in there for rice salad. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly (shocking) but I improvised a little and followed some general guidelines. A little spicy, a little salty, a little sour, a little sweet. I didn’t have any jalapenos so I put some red pepper flakes in the dressing, I subbed red wine for rice vinegar and I added some blanched, chopped green beans.
My kids wouldn’t eat it but they did eat the component parts and Avery ate some chicken and declared it tasty so I’m thrilled. It was realyl tasty. I served it along side some random chicken parts that I found in the freezer. That’s the kind of well thought out menu we’ve been enjoying this week. At least it’s nice to have summer’s bounty to fall back on. As of last night we were one melon down and one to go and two days until the next market day. On Saturday somebody remind me that we don’t need to eat a whole watermelon every. single. week.
There are a bunch of recipes in this issue that I want to try. Including the BLT soup which is like gazpacho with bacon crumbled on top. Sounds like a can’t miss to me. We’re under heat advisory but I’m still making soups. I make this soup whenever I don’t make it all the way through the corn. I also want to try the baked fried chicken and macaroni salad that calls for a hardboiled egg in the dressing. Oh, and there’s a two page spread on sangrias.
Happy Friday before I forget. Here’s a little bit of pretty for you. Chase likes to pick flowers at the grocery store to make our kitchen smell bootiful. Who would begrudge that?
Rice Salad (From Everyday Food July/August 2011 p.14)
1 c long-grain white rice
3 med carrots grated
1 mild green chile (like anaheim), seeded and chopped
1/2 c chopped fresh parsley
1/4 small red onion, diced
1 T rice vinegar
1 t sugar
Cook rice and transfer to a large bowl. Add carrots, chile. parsley, onions, vinegar and sugar. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.
I bet that if you go back through the archives you’ll find 10 posts about cookie time. But this is it. The definitive chocolate chip cookie. I finally went to the source. You know who knows about cookies? 10 year olds (though I could be a year or two off on that… she’s pretty mature and I kind of still think of myself as not far off of 10 so it’s hard to say). Awesome 10 year old neighbors that are handy in the kitchen and can write out a recipe too. You have one of those, right?
Honestly, I liked my chocolate chip cookie recipe but it had orange zest in it and it was too flat for Ben’s liking. We all agree though that these are the best true chocolate chippers. You can find the original recipe here but the version that I was given calls for 2 2/3 cups of chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of toffee bits so that’s what I used and it’s a delicious variation. I’m telling you that girl knows what she’s talking about. Best cookies ever! (From Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids by Jill O’Connor)
Also, I had no idea that there was so much gas station bathroom lore out there. You guys are awesome.
Being picky about mayo is inconvenient. Wanting a specific brand in a specific size (read: not in Costco-esque restaurant quantity) means always making a special trip to buy it, running out or settling for second best. So I started making it. It’s not hard but here’s what I learned.
One batch is about enough to last us a summer week which is about how long you can store it for. I’d have to tinker with cutting back the recipe for the winter but in the summer we’re always making potato salad, BLT’s and just generally seem to go through it faster.
I like storing it in a jar like the one in the picture. It’s convenient, the glass is easy to clean and I feel like there’s less of a hurdle to everyone getting with the program of homemade mayo. It’s very much like using a regular old jar from the store.
Your oil (and probably your eggs too) should be at room temp when you start. I used to store canola oil in the fridge because we never use it. I tried to make mayo once using cold oil… I figured this one out the hard way.
I use Julia Child’s recipe from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. 2 egg yolks + 1 whole egg, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of dijon mustard, salt and pepper. You whiz all of that together in the food processor and then slowly stream in a scant 2 cups of canola oil with the machine running. Once it starts to emulsify you can pour faster or hand it over to your assistant to finish up. If you don’t like to see the flecks of black pepper in your mayo use white but it doesn’t bother me. Then jar it up, pat yourself on the back and use it just as you would use your store-bought mayo.
Yay for me. So it turns out if fits fine. I was forgetting that I initially tried to squeeze it on her over the t shirt she was wearing. So it’s fine but still the pattern runs incredible small because Avery is wee and she fits into the size 3 that I cut out. By way of comparison, she can’t hold up a pair of RTW shorts in 24 months. Read the rest of this entry »