Friday, December 30, 2011

Two Takes on the Gingerbread Man

My daughter's gingy, with cute little Santa hat.
 99¢ kits at Trader Joe's. So fun! They're about 10 inches tall, so look substantial enough to hop off the pan and run away.
My son's gingy, with fangs.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Menu in progress

Bone-in ham
Sweet potatoes
Pear + feta salad
Some nice toothy wheat bread, sliced
Dessert: port + Cherry pie + ice cream
Chocolate cream pie

Sound good, Matt?

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Post-meal update:
This was ultra-easy to make, and everything was fabulous. (Hey, it's my blog. I can brag to the 4 of you that read it, right?) If you need a reliable, easy holiday menu, you can't go wrong with this. The potatoes got great reviews from everyone, including mini-marshmallow snobs. 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Are you a freegan?

One thing I love about my work (when wearing the graphic design hat) is coming across niche info. For example, I hit on an article tonight that discussed the existence of the Oxford English Dictionary's "rejected words" vault. This word is apparently among them:

Freegan 


Someone who rejects consumerism - usually by eating discarded food

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/295635#ixzz1gZtmzIVS


I never would have thought this, but I am probably closer to being vegan than freegan. Interesting idea, though.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Kitchen Refuge

My son was standing in the kitchen the other day sticking his tongue out and making horrible faces. I asked him what he was doing. He said, "The elf can't see me in here."

Back story:
We have an "Elf on the Shelf" who was hanging out in the dining room that day. My son had been making faces at his sister who informed him the elf was watching. He sought refuge in the kitchen where he could express himself without risk of being reported to Santa.

The kitchen really is the soul of the house!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Week 108—Salmon are swimming

Mon – Spaghetti, bread, and edemame 
Tues – Steelhead, broiled, with roasted fingerling potatoes and edemame (popular lately!)
Weds – Chicken enchiladas w/tomatillo sauce and corn soup (Simply Mexican)
Thurs – Potroast something with large chunk of beef recently purchased (crock pot?)
Fri – Personal pita pizzas with feta, toms, etc and couscous
Alts – breakfast; Cuban rice and eggs
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So many culinary things happening right now, so little time to write. Child joyfully shooting edemame across the dining room tonight will wake to find St Nick Pez dispenser full of soybeans in his shoes. Cannot wait. And yes, I think I'm a day late on the whole St Nick's day, but the kids don't care.

Happy cooking.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Pie. Yum.

I wonder if it tasted good? This one was bakesale bound. I love making pie.

My mom considers pie about the easiest dessert to make, and we had them (usually apple) relatively often growing up. Like store-bought jam or jelly, I was probably in high school before I tasted a store-bought pie. Exception to that being Bishop's chocolate cream pie with chocolate swirls on top, which I thought was the height of pie-dom. I still like that stuff.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Pies! Chickens! Chicken pot pie?

Between a sick kid and needing foil pie pans, I've found myself a day late and just barely in time to bake  2 pies I volunteered to bring to my kid's preschool fundraiser winter bazaar. So, I'll be baking pies tonight. One apple, one cherry-strawberry. No idea how the latter will combine, but couldn't find canned un-gooped cherries, so decided to try a strawberry variation. Whatever. It's pie. Can't go too far wrong.

I saw my first "12 Days of Cookies" recipe in my inbox today. Shortbread dipped in chocolate. I've made shortbread before, but the photo just makes this look so appetizing. Getting me in the holiday cooking-baking mood.

Pies for tonight. Visions of shortbreads can dance through my head later....

p.s. we had a chicken in our house over Thanksgiving. Confusing? Here's a photo to illustrate. She was NOT consumed, but rather returned to my son's preschool the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, minus a feather or two. Yes, she does have a bald neck. Has for years, apparently.