When I made our Chinese takeout meal, I bought a package of egg roll wrappers, but dang, if there aren’t a million of them. So I waited for an idea to come. Butternut squash and sage ravioli! A lazy woman’s delight of feeling home made without the need to roll pasta. Ahem, yes. More please.
Logan George, our neighbor of three, with THE coolest name in the hood, had a wee baby brother! I made cupcakes and bought cool baby things. You are loved, little Max.
My sesame chicken disappointment is dearly departed, peeps. I asked, and the interwebs provided, though I did not deep fry. The best we’ve ever had.
Meal in Reverse: Apple and fennel pizza with hot honey (poured from Grandma’s pot!!) for dessert. Mushroom and fennel pizza for the main. Salad not pictured. Delicious, of course. What a delight to see the smile when I boxed it for leftovers.
And a note to former Portlanders living in Colorado Springs who also happen to be fans of Mama Lil’s. They have GIANT jars at Costco. Saints preserve us…
Not really. We eat, work out, sleep, read, watch home shows and DVDs, and walk the dog. Though it would not seem so from the photos sometimes. Connecticut Style Lobster Roll from Bob’s Lobstah Trap. Very tasty. Greg got his gronked (I think?) which basically means huge and actually quite unnecessary. It’s a bountiful bit as it is, and we struggled to finish.
I made Chinese food, takeout style, with crab cheese wontons (baked not fried), scallion pancakes, which were just like Stickers in Portland (YAY!!), and sesame chicken. The chicken the least like takeout, so I will be searching the interwebs for another recipe. It was fun to have the sensation of our favorite Lucky Dragon without out the takeout styrofoam or being in a restaurant.
I can’t tell you how much I am gunning to get vaccinated, so we can get back to our old ways of eating out once or twice a week. Betting you’re feeling the same.
Not cheese queso, made with butternut squash and macadamia nuts and tasty flavors like smoked paprika, garlic, and roasted jalapenos. It hits the craving jackpot when there is nary a wedge of cheese in the casa. Yup, yup.
The near usual state of my desk. Shit piles up quickly, peeps.
Walking in a winter wonderland….
Some sort of beef salad, with macadamias. I don’t remember much else.
Greg made me the perfect egg. He’s wonderful like that!
Peach cake, made with a recipe from Carpathia – scratch your Romanian cookbook itch.
practically perfect blueberry muffin
For a whole lot of years, I made Greg bouillabaisse for his birthday, but as it is with life, some things fall way, and I hadn’t done it in a while, Pittsburgh, maybe? Then, yesterday, after forgetting to plan a meal the night before, rummaged through the freezer and saw a seafood medley practically begging for bouillabaisse. So here it is, and what a fabulous treat it was. Damn.
And here we are, on our honeymoon (June 20, 1993 to be exact), the very first time we were wowed by bouillabaisse. We were in Nice, France – it’s so nice! There’s so much going on here besides the amazing food. Greg is beardless; my hair is short; I’m wearing earrings and a floral pattern; neither of us has a single grey hair and we probably weigh 25 pounds less than today! How wild the march of time…
Juniper builds her brain power with a snack hiding puzzle.
More snow!
Mud flats. Yuck.
The Way to Rainy Mountain – what a dream of a book…
When I was little, my mom made the best peach cobbler, the perfect balance of sweet, tender batter and canned peachy delight. I tried a lot of different recipes on my own without much satisfaction until I realized I should just ask her for the recipe (duh!). It’s pretty spectacular with peaches, of course, but I had some pie cherries in need of eating and tried it with them. So very good! How silly, too, that the simplest solution is often the most overlooked. I need more reminders of that. Just ask!
I made sesame crackers with the leftover almond milk meal. They are fantastic!!
The eggs are a Yvette Van Boven recipe that I riffed on, but are basically baked in cream, with the addition of curry (which looked so cool) and ham. They reminded me of the breakfast bowls Greg and I so love, minus the English muffins. To continue on the breakfast theme, have you ever baked oatmeal, then sprinkled the sugar over the top before broiling it? It’s a bit like creme brulee and a winner, especially the crispy bits topped with butter.
The cake is Delta Caramel, and it looks lousy, truth be told, but WOW, does it taste great. If you are a newby, like me, to the recipe, it calls for the icing to be drizzled over while warm, but there’s no way you’re going to fill that gap with something warm and oozy. Next time I’m waiting for it to cool a bit. Yessir. And in the Huh? category, Delta Caramel Cakes are in the top ten for a funeral. How about that?
More snow! We are finally getting our winter on here. Boy howdy, yes!!
It’s a gorgeous and not freezing day here. To steal a line from religious folk I’ve seen on the T.V. – Can I get an Amen?! I feel 100% grateful to have not lost power during that wretched stretch of sub-zero temperatures. What a nightmare to hear of friends shivering at 40 degrees indoors. Hoping they are feeling some much needed warmth!
And speaking of cold places, last weekend I made my first ever batch of runzas. They are a solidly Russian / Eastern European delight of ground beef, cabbage (which turned so blue!), onion, and cheese (sharp cheddar in our case). I also added caraway seeds, because when in Rome, right? They’re like the best hot pocket you can imagine, and can be done a million ways, just roll out the dough and fill them with whatever you fancy. Or, for the lazy or otherwise overwhelmed, head over to the Runza restaurant site, and they’ll ship some to you!
As we were enjoying them, I thought on my Grandma Tess’s father Gyorgy. He emigrated from Jenkovce, Slovakia (Austria at the time) in 1900 on the S.S. Pisa, at the ripe age of 18, with a whopping $2.50 in his pocket (about $70 today). He was a coal miner in and around Springfield, Illinois for the rest of his life and, rather sadly, died of black lung. I imagined him feasting on a runza, this simple all-in one in its own container, while down in the mine; the delicious, fortifying comfort of home.
In a further nod to the Taposik side of my family, when I was little, my Grandma Tess had this Bissel sweeper. I have many a memory of its delightful back and forth whir. I hadn’t thought about it in some time when I saw the Fuller model Greg is using pictured in the Vermont Country Store catalog. My mind got to clicking as I thought on Juniper’s wild riot of dog hair all over the hard woods. Would it work? It was surely worth a try. So I bought it. Wowie!! It’s pretty dreamy and way better than dragging out the noisy vacuum. So thanks Grandma, for the memories and the help! I love you.
Hello almost February! How that is upon us, as I often feel time is crawling around baby sloth-like, I don’t know. We are still largely sequestered and not really minding. The most exciting event in our personal lives has got to be the re-opening of the library. I filled my biggest basket and caught up with my favorite librarian, a delightful return to normalcy, despite the mask wearing and distance.
Another January, another cleanse – we’ve been 99% gluten, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, and sugar-free. The sugar being the most difficult part. I’ve made a ton of almond milk and used the leftover meal to make the blue corn bread, which was quite tasty, especially with a little butter and honey.
Juniper waits patiently for lunch.
I wish the image properly displayed the intensity of light at the moment – a brilliant beam from on high!
It is prime puzzle season, and this one of Mont Saint Michel, is one of the most difficult we’ve ever tackled, so much sky and similar textures!
We had two wonderful snow storms earlier in the week, bringing about five inches to our area, though hardly making a dent in the wretched drought figures, so I keep my prayers aloft for yet more.
Juniper, peppercorn, and bay leaf brine for chicken, which made for a marvelous lunch. I made a fabulous Bavarian coleslaw (up yonder with the sausage and mashed potatoes), which won high praise from yours truly and though he thought it was good, did not taste like childhood for my dearest man, so I rectified it with one he loved. We do our best.
