punkerdoo

We are spending some much time prepping to do things worth writing about that I haven’t had time to write about it. So a short summary would be:

Monday

• Ate lunch at The Grit
• Picked up our Total Pork Program Meat CSA from MoonShine at Farm255
• Dinner was a noodle stir-fry using the purple broccoli I bought through Athens Locally Grown

Tuesday

• Lunch at Just Pho and More. Darren had a Green Tea Bobo
• Picked up our Veggie CSA from Roots Farm
• Bought a Scooter

Wednesday

• Made biscuit with berries (yummy ones from out CSA)
• Watched the USA beat Algeria to advance in the World Cup! Scored in stoppage time. Booyah!
• Received our Amazon order containing Darren’s special gloves for dumping the tanks in the RV
• Got the oil changed and the car washed at University Car Wash
• Wrapped the Twin’s 1st Birthday Gifts

What’s that? The third item on Tuesday? You noticed that….. Uh Yeah, we bought an Adly La Vita Scooter from Recycle here in Athens.  It is arriving on Monday and we with any luck we will be taking it with us on our trip.  I am so excited.  I have been wanting a scooter for a very long time.  Now seemed a good time for us to do it.  Not only is it going to be useful for getting from campgrounds to track, but around the track as well.  Also I am very much interested in lowering our fuel consumption.  I am going to smile every time I drive past a BP station knowing that is one less dollar that I will be giving them or their kind.

Yesterday was a day of preparing for our upcoming trip to Utah.  Since we do not shop at Wal-Mart, we headed of to Target.  My sister always finds great things there.  We needed things like paper plates and citronella candles.  I am not really happy about using disposal  plates, but I have been seeing commercials for a recycled plate from Solo.  I thought that would be something Target would have in stock.  Nope.  The other day while reading Cook’s Illustrated I realized that I have not replaced our Tupperware since the world learned of BPA.  I saw another commercial for storage tubs, which have lids that attached to the bottom for organizing and stacking.  Perfect item for Target, right?  Nope.  They did have citronella candles and a camping chair (but I even hate the color). So in the end, I came home and ordered everything on Amazon.

Before heading home though, we wanted to get some lunch.  We have never eaten at The Globe (drank, but not eaten) and the afternoon World Cup match of Camaroon vs. Denmark was about to start.  So we stopped in for a sandwiches and a couple of pints.  It was fun to watch the match out and we ended up staying for the whole thing.

At home I put up what we did get and ordered what we didn’t.  The I started making dinner.  I decided to make a pizza with the chanterelles and found a recipe for a Chanterelle, Radicchio and Pancetta Pizza.  I was slightly afraid that I might be smothering the mushrooms or at least not showcasing them very well.  They really stood up to the cheese and bread and were the centerpiece of the final product.  I saved a few mushrooms for my eggs this morning, so I think I will end this post here and go make them.

Yesterday was Tuesday. And what do we do on Tuesdays? Yes that’s right! Pick up our veggie CSA from Roots Farm.  When we arrived the veggies were on display in their usual tantalizing manner and we quickly scan the list of what was included in this week’s half-share.  First on the list, berries!  Oh they looked so good.  My mind started racing with all of the things I could do with those berries.  I suggest to Darren that we put the berries in the bag last so that they would not get squashed by the squash and we proceed to load up our bag with potatoes, all sorts of squash and cukes, beets, etc.  We get back in the car and head back home.  As we turn into our neighborhood Darren says, “Did we forget the berries?” Ughhhhhh!

For lunch, I took the leftover squash stuffing from yesterday and tried to create something that resembled the Cuban Sandwich from Cali-n-Tito’s  It was not exactly that same (for starters Kroger did not have and Cuban bread, so I had to use Italian), but it was good.  I took the bread and grated some Chihuahua cheese on it, piled on the stuffing and then a couple of fried eggs.  I could eat one of those right now.

In the afternoon, Darren started on some lingering household projects.  The bus has not been started in sometime and we have been without our Home Theater PC, since we got our living room shelves from Ikea.  While, talking to him out by the bus, I shot a photo of our cherries on our little cherry tree.  It is such a young tree.  I am surprised to see fruit on it.

I knew, for dinner, I wanted to use those long stringless beans we picked up at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday.  We had some unused tofu in the fridge and with a quick googling I found this recipe.  It was very simple to make and very tasty.  It is one of those recipes that I want to commit to memory, so when I am at the market and see really great beans, I can pick up everything I need.

Here is where I think my blogging failed last time, I am started to get back into a routine.  I don’t think anyone wants to hear how I swept and mopped the floors.  I did do some light cooking with some of the things we purchased at the Athens Farmers’ Market on Saturday.  For lunch I wanted to use the last of the country french bread from Miche.  By this time it had started to go a little stale, so I thought I would use it in a Panzanella.  Alton Brown’s LBT Panzanella calls for frying up some bacon and then tossing the bread around in the rendered fat. I thought, uhm, OK.  So I got out the bacon that we picked up from BPH.  This is the first time we have bought bacon from them and it is very good.  During lunch we watched the Italy v. Paraguay World Cup Match (1-1)

For dinner, I defrosted some ground pork from our MoonShine Meat CSA.  I brown the pork and sauteed some veggies and deglazed the pan with a little vermouth. I then sweated some New Zealand Spinach that we got from Athens Locally Grown and tossed in some toasted pine nuts.  What I ended up with was a delicious stuffing for the enormous Patty Pan squash that we picked up at the market. Quite Tasty.  After dinner, Darren worked on the home theater computer and I did some more trip planning.

I purchased this book for our upcoming trip to Utah.  I am hoping that it will make all the driving that we have to do a little more interesting. I also purchased this campy US Sticker Map.  I can’t wait to begin filling in all the states that we will be visiting.

Not to much to report on yesterday.  I was pretty excited when the UPS man brought my “I’m Tired off Animal Cruelty” bracelet.  This is my second bracelet, my first wore out and snapped.  Five dollars of the purchase price goes to Best Friends, a great animal rescue organization. I later learned that it should not get soapy, so I being ore careful with this one.  I have also just found out that they are making “I’m Tired of Puppy Mills” bracelet, with the money from those going to Last Chance for Animals.  Definitely getting that one next pay period.

I am still waging the war to get to my fresh locally grown produce before the bacteria do. I had one enormous sweet potato left and found a recipe for a stew on Epicurious.  The recipe was Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew with Chilies and Polenta Triangles from Bon Apetit magazine.  I had never tasted and Sweet Potato stew and the chilies part of the title made me a little nervous, but I followed the recipe (mostly) and it came out great.  The only liquid in the recipe was orange juice and I thought it would be too sweet or syrupy, but it wasn’t.  Maybe thinned by the liquid from the veggies?

Getting really limited on choices from my fridge, a fact of which I am extremely proud.  I thought I might use some of my Rancho Gordo beans for tonight’s dinner.  I am so pleased that I heard about Ranch Gordo, they sell and promote the use of heirloom beans.  They carry so many wonderful kinds of beans that are new to me. I have a blast seeing what I can find out about how to prepare them. Last night I started soaking my Yellow Indian Woman beans with no idea of what I was going to do with them.  Guess that we have to wait from tomorrow’s post.

I guess I am a post short, even with the day off. I told myself when I started this blog that I would not feel guilty about not posting. I always am giving myself a guilt trip and knew if I started doing that with this blog, I would eventually abandon it. In fact, I have given up posting for a few short periods, but always came back (so far) It’s called perfectionism and it’s a disease. The idea that if I am not doing something perfectly (i.e. posting every single day) than it is a disappointment and should be avoided. Anyway, I am fighting it and here’s is my imperfect post a day late.

So on Sunday I made Denver omelets and roasted potatoes. I used the new technique on the potatoes and they were wonderful. Nothing special about the omelete except for the locally grown veggies and the Vermont Cheddar. If you currently buy big brand cheddar, stop it, you are cheating yourself. Go out and find some cheddar that was made on purpose. For drinks Darren made My Psychosis, a drink of his own authoring including but not limited to Rhum, Sparkling wine, Orange juice, and Amaretto.

After the Steelers, plundered and pillaged the Vikings. Darren fired up the grill and cooked the other rib-eye that he purchased on Friday. This time the steak had been salted and resting in the fridge for two days. A concept I learned from my new Zuni cookbook. It made all the difference, not only did we get the added flavor from the grill, but IMHO the steak was more tender. I had bought a pound of unshelled butter beans and two ears of corn from Athens Locally Grown. During the football game we shelled the beans, taking the advice of a grower at Athens Farmer’s Market and shelling while watching sports. I made succotash, a scrumptious dish that did not reveal itself to me, save through Yosemite Sam, until I moved to the south. I also baked an enormous sweet potato which Darren and I split. Isn’t that steak perfectly cooked? Darren rawks da grill.

Tonight I wanted to use the kale that we got from ALG. In the past I have made a sausage, kale & bean pasta. Since we had lunch at Inoko Sushi Express, we were right next door to Kroger and decided to shop there. I think today I crossed a threshold. I could not bring myself to purchase any type of pork at Kroger. I even tried to rationalize Boar’s Head, but even they don’t make any promises about the way they raise the pork and I have learned if the aren’t bragging about it, they aren’t doing it. So I got some veggie Italian sausages and they were not bad. I will happily substitute them for any weeknight meal or when in a bind.

Fairly uneventful Friday around here I am afraid.  The Picture Man did receive  it’s order of 4,000 PolyBags, but within the mundane box of office supplies lie a gift so special, so wonderful it required special bright orange labels declaring “Hardware Enclosed”.  This gift was given to us, the humble servants of ThePicture Man by none other than our shipping supply vendor, ULine.  The gift? Why it’s Hall & Oates Home for Christmas CD.  Although I did notice they very purposefully did not refer to themselves as Hall & Oates on the cover, but rather Daryl Hall and John Oates. That would be completely different, wouldn’t it?

Lunch today was Grown-up Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Oven Frites.  The sandwiches were ham & brie, topped with roasted red peppers & dijon mustard pressed between two halves of a mini-ciabatta. We can count on Earth Fare always having these mini-ciabatta loaves.  They make great pressed-grilled sandwiches.  I loved the concept of the grown-up grilled cheese.  (To be honest, it doesn’t have to be the grown up version. I simply love grilled cheese sandwiches.)  My pan was too hot and I made them darker than I would have liked.  Also, for the next go, I want to try a stronger cheese.  The brie got lost.  The original recipe suggestion was Teleme first and then brie.  I have never had Teleme, so that could have made all the difference.

During lunch, we watched an ancient episode of Good Eats.  Alton’s mixing of food preparation and ultimate geek-a-tude, never ceases to entertain and inspire.  In this episode Alton explored steaks. First visiting a cattleman, who is raising grass-fed cows in Colorado and then an accomplished butcher who explained beef primals.  Alton then tutored us in the proper way to cook a rib-eye in a cast iron skillet.  Anyway, all of this made us agree that we should try his method tonight.  Darren is already accomplished at preparing steaks on the grill, but whenever we find ourselves without charcoal, wood or nice weather it would be nice to be able to prepare a proper steak indoors.  Darren purchased a cowboy-cut rib-eye from Earth Fare and we gave his method a try.  The steak turned out great, although our cooking times were a bit shorter than in the show. Electric Stove, bone-in cowboy-cut, smaller steak, etc.

I also made “Really Crisp Roasted Potatoes” from the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated (the subscription, a gift from my mother-in-law) This recipe is so good that I will probably will make this my go-to roasted potato recipe. The idea is to parboil the potatoes then rough them up by tossing them with oil & salt.  This scratches the surface, thus increasing the surface area that can become crispy.  Now that I am typing this Cook’s Illustrated has its own version of geek-a-tude happening.  Guess that’s the type of cooking I enjoy most.

P.S. My dog worries

For lunch we had Baby Bok Choy and Shiitake Mu Shu wraps.  It was to be a mu shu-style filling served in a wrap.  I really enjoyed the flavors of this recipe, but next time I think I will make an extra effort to seek out mu shu wraps, instead of using your run-of-the-mill whole wheat wraps.  I also concocted an asian flavor potato salad as a side.  Darren made an Asian vinaigrette with ginger and soy sauce and I drizzled it over warm potatoes.  The taste was great, but it was brown in color and not visually appealing.

After work we went to pick up our veggies at Athens Locally Grown.  Some of the fun things we bought were a pound of edamame for freezing, butter beans, walking onions, broccoli, butter head lettuce, and aji dulce peppers. I have not posted about the impounding and destruction of 110 gallons of raw milk, that was initiated at last week’s pick-up. While I do feel very strongly about the rights that are being infringed upon, I am not informed enough about the subject to feel that I could give it the representation that it deserves. A situation that I will be rectifying. It was nice to get a chance to speak to Eric about his recent trials.  He appears to be feeling some relief that the initial confrontation has passed, but did talk of battles still to be waged. This is his accounting of what went down and the video of the milk being destroyed.

The last time we ate at Taste of India, I vowed to start cooking more Indian foods.  Tonight for dinner I made Chana Masala, a chick pea and mushroom dish loaded with all the typical Indian peppers and spices.  I am still a recovering bland-food-o-holic and thought it was a bit spicy, even though I did not put in the whole serrano.  Also I think that  cooked out too much of the moisture, it should have been a bit saucier.  Darren seemed exceeding pleased and praised the dish to a fault (I think I need to start upping my spice quotient ) Well, it is a learning experience I will keep trying.

Today I celebrated completing 15,000 trips around the Earth’s axis.  That’s correct I am 15,000 days old.  Don’t bother doing the math, that sums to a good many years. Using this groovy tool, you too can find interesting dates that relate to your birthday.  I will admit I didn’t bother to find out the exact time of my birth, but to my mind getting it within 24 hours was precise enough.  There are other interesting date calculating tools there as well.

How did I celebrate this momentous occasion you ask?  Mostly by eating out,  Darren did fetch muffins from Starbucks this morning.  Mine was a Pumpkin Cream-cheese and it was exceptionally tasty. I should have taken a pic.  For lunch we ate at Clocked, a retro burger joint.  It was nice enough to eat outside, which is a nice change of pace considering the amount of rainy stormy flooding weather we have been having.  I ordered the Friendship Burger because I thought the title sounded nice.  Upon retrospect I think it is named that because you are supposed to share it with a friend. Oh and they have Tater-Tots as a side.

This evening we went to Trappeze Pub.  The plan was to have a couple of beers and the cheese plate.  They were out of the cheeses that we most wanted to try, but we stuck with the plan and ordered the Wasabi Chevre, Stilton, and Percorino Tuscano.  The plate was nicely appointed with crostinis, nuts and fruits.  Nice, but not worth $11.00.  Once we started eating we found that we probably should have gone ahead and ordered dinner.  Darren got the Chimay Carbonade and I had the Cheddar soup, both were excellent. My favortie beer of the evening was Brouwerij de Koningshoeven La Trappe Isid’or, a wonderful trappist ale.  While checking my spelling of the beer’s name I learned that this ale was produced to celebrate the brewery’s 125th anniversary, making it apropos to drink on my Day Birthday.

Last Saturday, during our weekly trip to the Athens Farmers Market, we picked up some Scallopini Squash. Initially, we saw them as yellow patty pans.  I have cooked with patty pans only once in the past, and these squash were so interesting we picked some up to give them a try.

I regret not paying attention to the name of farm when buying veggies at the market.  I have resigned myself not to make that mistake next weekend, because all of the growers are so friendly and  helpful I think they should get some recognition.  They grower at the table where I picked up the squash suggested using them in a stir-fry and that was my intention.  However, our schedule has been so hectic lately that I have not done my reqular menu planning and shopping.  Since I am so limited to ingredients, I couldn’t find a stir-fry recipe that I felt would work. Then I remembered making 101 Cookbooks gratin recipe.

The original recipe dresses sliced squash and potatoes with oregano and parsley, mixes in Gruyere cheese, and tops it with fresh breadcrumbs for baking.   This year our oregano has been going crazy, so this would be a good way to use up some of it.  I substituted canned breadcrumbs for fresh and Irish Cheddar for the Gruyere, neither of which improved the recipe (I was using what I had on hand).  The resulting plate was not very attractive thanks to the breadcrumbs, but the taste was good enough that I will probably reheat it for lunch today.  I am also putting it on the menu for next week, because squashis abundant at the market and I think I can do better.