A new Post after 5 Months!

So about the time my son started walking, I stopped blogging.  It is not a coincidence.  I have practically not sat down for about 5 months.  Also, when you're actually Doing home/garden projects...there is little time to Blog about them.  Things have been crazy.  But things are settling down.  Yay!

In the Yard:  

Well since my last post was May, the vegetable garden has gone dormant after a pretty weak harvest season.  I think since all but a third of the garden was brand new, the soil was just not right for a good crop.  We are in major composting mode now.  Our tomatoes were a disaster; I've heard they were all over the region.  We got mild temperatures until pretty late in the season, and so they never had a good chance to set good fruit.  Plus, mine had some issues with a disease that made the flowers break off the plant before they could fruit.  hmm.  Next year, Steve has promised that we can try raised beds and bring in some outside soil to mix with the compost we've been making.
It's frozen and snowy right now, but in a month or so I will be starting to flip through garden magazines and planning for 2011 harvest!  Excited!  This year, Owen will be able to eat more out of the garden.  We have discovered that cherry tomatoes are a definite weakness for him.  He will do anything for them.  I call them "candy".  haha...

 In the House:

The Bathroom Renovation took place over the summer.  I'm glad we did it.  It was not fun; it was expensive; it was inconvenient; it was messy; it was a bit stressful.  But I'm really glad we did it.

 Again, the before picture:
 
 

  Not a bad space...but had plumbing and mold problems that needed to be fixed.


Here's the midway picture:

You can see that there used to be a window in the tub area.  It was probably removed because of mold issues.  I can only guess.  And perhaps to create some privacy?  *smile*

Here's the after picture:

We swapped positions of the sink and toilet.  Makes much more sense to have the toilet by the tub.  Now, the door doesn't open into someone trying to use the toilet (lol...we are a family, afterall...)  Plus, it's nice to be able to sit on the closed toilet while Owen happily plays in his bath.


In the Kitchen:

Over the past 5 months, I've been meaning to post a hundred different recipes!  Lately, I've been making "The Cake of the Week"  Here are the last three weeks of cakes:


Week 1:  Fresh Banana Cake

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/reviews/Fresh-Banana-Layer-Cake-14502

I made this super light and yummy cake for our three year anniversary.  The cake was like a lighter, cakeier banana bread and the cream cheese frosting wasn't too sweet at all!  I actually cut the recipe in half and made only 2 layers instead of 3.  However, I made the cake layers the day before and stored them at room temperature, wrapped in plastic.  And of course, the next day..the layers were as moist as ever, but the little banana fragments turned an unappealing black.
Steve and I actually drank beer with this cake.  Sound kind of weird, but the Hefeweizen complimented the cake perfectly!  It cut the sweetness of the cake, and the cake brought out a VERY distinct grapefruit flavor in the brew.  It was an almost tropical combination perfect for a cold November weekday night. 



Week 2:  Gingerbread

Sorry, no picture!  We ate it too fast. 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap)

2/3 cup hot water

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Gingerbread-106379#ixzz16sdgjWWY

Again, I cut this recipe in half and baked in a glass pie dish.  We had just gotten home from visiting family in Puyallup.  The drive over the snowy mountain pass (with a 16 month old...) was exhausting.  This was the perfect thing served with (yes, with) French Onion Soup.
I am a purist when it comes to gingerbread and feel that it should not be served with a frosting.  Perhaps a tiny bit of whipped cream...but that's it! 


Week 3:  Vanilla Bean Cake with Chocolate Satin Frosting

Doesn't this cake look like a giant chocolate glazed donut?  Again, we ate half the cake before I got around to taking a photo.  Sorry.

2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, kept at room temperature for 30 minutes

1 vanilla bean, halved and seeds scraped out 

3/4 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a baking pan.  This is amazingly versatile, so use whatever pan you have.  I used a bundt pan. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. 

Measure out the milk and add the vanilla bean seeds to the milk.  Set aside.  

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer (fitted with paddle if using a standing mixer) at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, and beat until thoroughly incorporated, about 5 minutes. Mix in flour mixture in 4 batches alternately with vanilla milk at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until batter is just smooth, then spread evenly in pan.

Bake cake in middle of oven until it begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes (cake will be pale in color, not golden brown like a cake-mix cake). Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Satin Frosting:  

This is from the JOY of Cooking.  The BEST place to find a recipe using ingredients that you already have on hand.  I only had unsweetened chocolate...and no heavy cream.  I spent a long time looking for a frosting that called for unsweetened chocolate.  This one is PERFECT!  I would make this, again, to keep in the fridge and used as an ice cream topping.  YUM!

Break into 1/2-ounce pieces:  

6 oz unsweetened chocolate

Bring to a boil in a small saucepan:  

1 cup evaporated milk

Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, without stirring.  Cover and let stand for exactly 10 minutes.

Scrape into a food processor or blender and add:

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used salted)

1 tsp vanilla (I used almond)

Process until the mixture is perfectly smooth, 1 minute or more.  Transfer to a bowl.  If necessary, let stand for a few minutes, until thickened to the desired spreading consistency.  This keeps, refrigerated, for about 3 weeks.   

Already can't wait to make next week's cake!!  (I must be housebound)

In The Yard:


I started calling my vegetable garden, "Year One".  I do this to cover for any newbie mistakes I'm making and to explain away a lack of plan in the design of the beds. 

Since my last post a few weeks ago (when we planted potatoes), we've expanded the beds again to make room for tomatoes and peppers.  I've also planted string beans and about ten billion sunflowers.  My goal is to make up for a sorry looking garden by covering the area with the fun blooms.  I also think my baby will get a kick out of them. 

Also under construction is our sprinkler system.  Steve has been spending the last few weekends designing and installing a drip irrigation system to water the beds on the north and west sides of the house.  I love that now I just turn the faucet on, set the hose timer for an hour or so..and walk away!  Set it and forget it.  I love it! 
In progress, we are setting up the back yard sprinkler system to include a drip irrigation to water the vegetable garden area.  We're waiting on a technician to come an replace a manifold in the control box. 

On the harvesting front:  We've enjoyed a small crop of broccoli rabe (and when I say "we", I mean "Me".  Steve hates broccoli with a passion). We're also enjoying an occasional lettuce harvest.  Next year, I will plan on planting more lettuce, in succession.

In the House: 

Other than re-arranging our living room furniture...not a lot to report yet. 
But here are a few pictures of the birds nests that keep making their home in the shed that Steve is building on Mom and Dad's property. 

In the Kitchen:

Seeing those birds nests reminded me of a childhood favorite.  My dad used to make what he called "Birds Nest".  As far as I know, I have never seen this recipe anywhere besides in my parents kitchen...so perhaps this is a Bruce C original? 
This is the kind of unrefined breakfast dish that I tend to make more often late at night, after a long day.  It's filling and satisfying and best enjoyed while curled up on the couch with a cat or two.


Birds Nest


First, soft-boil a couple of eggs.  I am notoriously bad at soft-boiling eggs...forgetting to take them off the heat before the yolks set too hard.  You will notice that one of the following photos includes white eggs....yes, I made this dish two times because I accidentally got distracted and hard-cooked the eggs.  A perfectly soft boiled egg is what MAKES this dish.  It is severely disappointing to eat this with hard-cooked eggs.  You have been warned. 

Next, place two shredded wheat biscuits in a bowl. 

Now for the weird part:  butter the shredded wheat and sprinkle with salt and coarsely cracked pepper. 

And for the even weirder part:  Ladle a bit of the egg water onto the wheat.  Not so much that they are completely soaked.  Just enough to soften the wheat and melt the butter...but leaving some of the shredded wheat still crunchy.  No one tops my Dad at this technique.  He is master.  

Now, crack the soft-boiled eggs onto the shredded wheat. 

Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper and enjoy!

Ahhhhhh......for me, this is the ultimate comfort food.   

Hard drive is kaput...boo!

Hi Everyone!

Just writing a short note to say that my regular schedule of posting will resume just as soon as the new hard drive Steve ordered is installed. We backed everything, so it isn't such a big deal....more like a silly inconvience since I am writing this blog post from my cell phone.
Technology is crazy.

Llama Poo!

In the Yard:

Yesterday, my Grandpa Bob gave me six varieties of potatoes!

1-Russet Burbank
2-All Blue
3-Dark Red-Norland
4-Yukon Gold
5-Cal Red
6-Red Pontiac

On the way back home (Baby Owen and I had walked over to visit Bob), we met up with a realtor friend of ours in town who happily offered us as much llama and horse poo we could want for our compost pile and veggie garden!  I realize that not everyone gets as excited as me about compost......but for me, this was like winning the lottery!!  I practically skipped home and called Dad to borrow his truck. 
Today, my wonderful husband stripped an area of the lawn for our new potato patch and dug two trenches about 6ft long each. 
Here's what we (I mean, "he" with my supervision because I was watching Owen AND Terry's pug, Marcel...) did:


Firstly, a sprinkler head needed to be replaced.  Also, we needed to figure out where the water line ran so we didn't hit it with our shovels.  Marcel is helping. 

Here, you can see where the pipe is.  We decided this was going to be a gravel path between two vegetable garden beds. 

Here's the stripped sod and the beginnings of the tilling.  Notice the pick ax?  Yeah...this soil is sooo extremely ROCKY.  Blech!

Check out this rock!  It's kind of redish (basalt?...Melinda?) 

Next came the llama poo!! 

Her name is Mama Llama Ding Dong.  Isn't she CUTE?!  Here's a cool llama fact:  Llamas pick one corner of their pasture to poop in.  It is very convenient. 

Finished trenches! 

After planting and labeling our potatoes with extra shingles from our residing project, we have our very own potato "graveyard"!! 

In the House:

Okay, here's PROOF that we've been busy.  This is the shed that Steve is building on Mom and Dad's property: 

Looking East....

Looking West....Bob is posing. 

View from the inside....

Isn't Steve talented?!

In the Kitchen:

First of all, I have to mention the cookbook Mom got for me!!!  She drove four hours to the West Side, waited in line for five hours and got to meet Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond!  If you haven't been before, I strongly recommend her website/blog:  www.thepioneerwoman.com.  She was the biggest inspiration for me to start my own home and garden blog.  She's just adorable...and her food is making it truly hard for me to loose my babyweight.  Lol...

Mom even got it signed for me!!  AWWWWW!!

Instead of providing a recipe this week, I thought I'd post my Kitchen Essentials grocery list.  These are the ingredients that I try to keep always in the house.  From this list, I could throw together tons of quick meals.  The "Top Ten" list is adapted from one of my favorite 'go-to' cookbooks:  'What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House to Eat', (Arthur Schwartz).  This book got me through a few broke in college years...five years, actually. 


Top Ten:

1. Spaghetti or Macaroni
2. Milk (fresh) *I also keep a box of dry milk powder in the pantry to add to baked goods...it adds creaminess and protein to pancakes!
3. Eggs
4. Onions/Garlic/Carrots (aromatics)
5. Tuna
6. Olive oil (and butter!)
7. Vinegar (balsamic, rice, white, apple cider...whatever you like)
8. Flour
9. Cheese (of some kind...I usually keep cheddar, feta, parm, cream cheese, and mozzarella)
10. Rice (*basmati, brown, wild rice pilafs...)

Other Pantry/Fridge Staples (my own additions):

1. Herbs, Spices, Extracts: my dry herb essentials are basil, cinnamon, curry, rosemary, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, and mrs dash no salt season mix. I have more, but those are the ones I use most often, besides salt and pepper.
2. Cream of mushroom/chicken soup...don't know how I get on without it. Weird.
3. Honey, Jams, preserves...to use on everything from toast to chicken breasts as a glaze.
4. leavening: baking powder, baking soda, dry yeast
5. Maple Syrup: for pancakes, glazes, baking and beyond!
6. Mustard: not my fav...but I have a small jar in the fridge for my sister (who cannot exist without it...) and a small container of dry mustard for my mother-in-law's 'Chicken Diablo'. Umm...YUM!!!!!!!
7. Condiments: prob goes without saying...most people have tons in their fridge; they last forEVER. My essentials are: ketchup, soy sauce, salad dressings, mayo (I make my own), chocolate sauce, and pickled jalapenos (a carryover from pregnancy!).
8. Sugar: also probably goes without saying...lol.
9. Canned or boxed chicken broth (or bouillon cubes) I use in sauces, rice, soup, casseroles, EVERYTHING. I am lost without it!
10. Apples...I try to buy organic galas or braeburns.  And they last for months in the fridge. Even old bruised apples make GREAT applesauce to go with pork or breakfast oatmeal...or sauteed in butter and cinnamon/sugar for over pancakes!!
11. Bacon: to use as a flavoring in soups and meats
12. Bananas
13. Tortillas
14. Nuts (kept in freezer)
15. Canned beans/dry lentils: for soups or on salads
16 Oatmeal (I buy in bulk..)
17. Chocolate..in any form.
18. Popcorn kernels
19. Potatoes
20. Canned tomatoes (I am going to try and can them myself next summer!)

**Then, I just buy whatever meat is on sale and in-season produce...and build menus around that and what I have on hand.

Anyways...the main thing is to have fun with cooking. As soon as I start getting bored or resent the monotony, I try experimenting...other than that, I pretty much stick to simple, cheap weekday meals.
Anyone have suggestions for additional pantry staples?

Project 'Rock' and Chicken Stock

In the Yard:  

When we purchased our house almost three years ago, we were happy with the tidy (albeit boring) back yard.  River rocks flank the east, south, and western edges of the lawn and I originally thought I'd do some planting and give the yard a little more privacy and character.  I know anything yard related is 'easier said than done' but the truth under the rocks wasn't apparent until I started planting a few small shrubs.  The landscaper's paper is falling apart, allowing for weeds and grass to grow through AND the soil under the rocks and paper is a terrible kind of clay/rocky/subsoil that nothing will grow in! 
In addition, the edging (wooden slats) was rotting and housing ant nests, so we had to remove it last year.  ugg...
Anyways...I've decided to remove all the rocks.  

This is the south facing side of the house.  I plan to remove all the rocks and amend the soil enough to grow peppers and tomatoes. 


This is definately one of those projects that is going to look a LOT worse before it starts looking a little better.  Here's what I've got started.  That shed in the back is our old one that I'm considering covering with some kind of vine.  We still need it (along with the new shed)...but it's ugly. 

In the House:

Again, because we are building a shed at my parent's house...not much is going on inside the house. 
This section is getting a little break.  *smile*




In the Kitchen:

This is a follow-up to my Roast Chicken post.  I love making Chicken Stock because is so darn easy and rewarding. 
Remember those chickens I made last week?

I took the meat off the bones and stuck them in a pot with about 5 cups of water.

My chicken stock includes: 
2 onions
2 carrots
1 celery stalk with leaves (we didn't have any this time)
1 bay leaf
10 peppercorns
2-3 whole cloves
1 tsp dried thyme
4 or 5 cloves of garlic (I usually do whole...but all I had was pre-minced)
1 or 2 tsp salt

Rough chop the onions and carrots...no need to peel or skin onions...the onion skin is what give the stock great color!

Throw everything on top of chicken and simmer for at least 3 hours...

That's what it looks like after a few hours.  Kind of like a witch's brew...

Pour through a colander and discard the solids and keep the remaining stock in a large bowl.  Yes.  This is my salad spinner bowl.  It's the largest one I own.  I thought about getting a bigger bowl...but I would have no place to put it.  Seriously.  Have you seen the size of my kitchen?

It is tiny.  I'm not complaining...I get TONS accomplished in this kitchen.  But I make a few sacrifices:  Fridge is in laundry room (just a few steps away...), we don't own a microwave, and I am very discriminating about what kitchen tools I put in here.  If my salad spinner bowl can serve a more than one function...then I don't need another large bowl to store.    

ANYWAYS.....I let the stock cool overnight in my fridge and then skim off the fat before storing in freezer containers. 

Hurrah!  I have chicken stock....that will last us approx. a week or two.  I can't help it.  I put it in everything. 

Special Edition: Blackberry Jam Cake

I was going to add this to my last post, but it slipped my mind.  I don't know how anyone could forget this mammoth cake...but I did.  :)

I made this cake at my mom's house for Easter dinner.  This is a very rich cake...eight people could barely finish half!  Make this for a crowd.
A few other notes:  It doesn't taste like blackberry jam, rather, a moist spice cake.  Other reviewers of the recipe online said they spread blackberry jam in the layers.  Sounds good...but I ran out of time.  In fact, I used (gasp!) canned vanilla frosting because making a homemade penuche frosting seemed out of the question.  The kitchen was CRAZY while we made, along with the cake,...beef roast, homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, hot cross buns, green beans, and steamed carrots and apples for the baby.  :)
It was a very "pioneer" dinner.  And very appropriate while the guys (and Mom!) were out framing a rather large shed on the property.  
Recipe follows image. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Georgias-Tennessee-Jam-Cake/Detail.aspx

If you don't feel like going to the link (or it doesn't work), here's the recipe detail:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 8 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups seedless blackberry jam
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped black walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each one is blended in. Dissolve the baking soda in the water; stir into the batter along with the blackberry jam. Combine the flour, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; stir into the batter by hand, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the black walnuts and raisins if using. Divide the batter equally between the three pans, and spread in an even layer.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pans until cool enough to handle, then invert the cakes over a wire rack and remove pans to cool completely.

Blooms and Birds

Hi There,

So my "Sunday Night Post" is turning into a "Whenever-I-get-a-few-moments" Post.  The way it is with a baby.   Also, I noticed that I haven't been giving my posts any titles.  It seems a little hokey to do so...like titling a phone conversation.  Not sure why I feel that way about it.  I don't usually title emails, either.  Anyways, I'm not promising any kind of consistency when it comes to this blog.  *aka:  YAY for not writing cohesive college term papers anymore!



In the Yard: 

I'm starting to see a few more blooms around our yard.  Some of them have been recently installed by myself...I just can't help it;  I need to see some color! However, we haven't started up the lawn mower quite yet.  And we all know that the smell of freshly cut grass is one of the hallmarks of spring....we'll get there.   

Here is my "Spring" front porch color:

The pot on the left includes - Heuchera 'Lime Marmalade', various pansies (which I'll pull out when the summer heat makes them look scraggly.), and some purple Alyssum 'Easter Bonnet Violet'.
 *  I picked out the Lime Heuchera because I thought it looked like fresh lettuce...very spring!

The pot on the right includes a few hand-me-down succulents from my parents.  Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum) that I accidentally tried to kill by leaving in a plastic bag on the back patio all last summer without watering.  I was busy having a baby... Anyways, a few survived and I threw in a pot sometime last fall.  The rest is some kind of sedum that Dad gave me.  I'm hoping to yank out the invasive sedum (find another location) as the Hens and Chicks recover and cover the whole pot surface.  I've always wanted a pot packed tight with H&Cs as a patio table centerpiece.

My bulbs seem to be behind those in the neighborhood.  Finally, some color!
PS-Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can put in this western exposure bed when the tulips expire?  I had a couple of scraggly (yes, that is the 2nd time I've used that word today...) roses that got powdery mildew so I yanked them out.  I'm not a huge fan of roses.  I mean, the flowers are nice, but the plants are kind of homely.  Hope I didn't offend anyone.  *smile*

In the House:

Because our bathroom project is on hold for a couple of weeks while Steve builds a shed on my parent's property, I was kind of at a loss as to what to put in this section.  I've decided to include my few and far between crafty projects.  Despite my upbringing, I'm a little lacking in the "crafty" department.  However, when I got pregnant, I decided to cross stitch something for my growing belly.  This is not the first cross stitch project I've started, but I'm happy to say it is the first one I've actually FINISHED!  It only took me over a year....  It just needs to be ironed and framed.

In the Kitchen:

Chicken Roasting Day

I roast chickens at least two at a time for a number of reasons.  Firstly, I have a strong aversion to dealing with raw meat.  For someone who is in the kitchen as much as me...I realize this is weird.  I'm working on it.  I worry about sanitation, too...and usually spend the day bleaching the entire kitchen.  That's actually the main reason for cooking more than one chicken at a time.  It saves me from cleaning more than once.
Another reason for multiple chicken processing is the smell.  There is nothing like the homey smell of a chicken roasting...but my method creates that... PLUS some smoke and a chickeny smell that permeates everything for at least 3 days.  The next morning, it's not so pleasant. 
I buy whole fryers on sale and then try to roast them before they get stuck in the freezer and stay there for months on end.  It's MUCH easier to pull out a bag of fully roasted chicken pieces to add to a weeknight meal than it is to remember to defrost a chicken and cook it up.  I usually don't think that far ahead.
And the LAST reason for multiple roasting is to produce multiple carcasses to make chicken stock.  I LOVE making and using homemade stock!  That will be next week's "In the Kitchen". 



Okay!  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Then, I melt one stick of butter per two birds.  I use salted butter here because I think roast chicken is ruined most often by not adding enough salt!  You know those pre-roasted chickens at the grocery store?  They're good, right?  ...they're salty!  Even with salted butter, these will be nowhere near as salty, just GOOD.  Promise.   

Pat dry two fryer chickens.  This is critical for crispy skin!  If you have the time, it's even better to stick them in the fridge and dry them out over night!  Notice how one is bigger than the other?  hmmph.  That's what I get for buying them in a two-pack at Costco.  Oh well....

Preparedness is key to this recipe!  Pre-mix 1 tsp freshly ground pepper with 2 tsp salt.  (Remember, this is for two chickens.) 

After massaging both the chickens with the salt-pepper mixture, place on their sides on a V-rack in a roasting pan. Then pour the melted butter over all surfaces of the chicken.  It will seem like a lot of the butter just drips down into the pan.  I know many recipes call for rubbing "softened" butter all over the chickens...but I NEVER have "softened" butter.  Plus, the birds will be basted halfway through cooking AND the drippings make the absolute best pan gravy. 

Roast for 25 minutes on one side, then flip the chickens onto their other side, baste with drippings, and roast for another 25 minutes.  Then flip over so the breast side is down and roast for another 30-40 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 170 when inserted into the thickest part of the thigh.  Breast side down?!  For us, I'd rather have moist chicken breasts than a pretty presentation.  I usually just take the meat off the bone anyways....

Look how crispy and succulent!!  YUM!

When the chickens are cool, I remove the skin, take the meat off the bones and store in freezer bags.  I stick the bones in a pot and get ready to make stock!  (Next week's post)
We had Chicken Caesar Salads for dinner that night.  If I am careful, we can stretch the shredded chicken to last five or six meals. (or about three meals for two people per bird).  Any way to save on our grocery bill helps!