RSincere

Spaghetttti, I was wondering if anyone would comment on my bunny wabbit salt and pepper shakers. My mom gave them to me because I've often had pet bunnies running around the house. I just took a half hour and read through the whole blog. It's really amazing to me that so many people wanted to read it, and so many people responded. Some people even sent me PMs. You all have been so helpful and I want to thank you! The night before I was to start my blog, I had trouble sleeping because I was so nervous. I thought my blog would kind of sit at the bottom of the page and bore everybody. After seeing all the foods that eGulleters eat and cook on a daily basis, things I've never heard of or could never find up here--it was intimidating! Kind of felt like Sandra Lee watching Mario Batali wrap liver chunks in caul fat! The hell?! You all have encouraged me to cook a lot more in the past week than I would have normally. Normally, the amount of recipes I did in this past week would have been stretched out over two weeks. There would have been at least two days where we would have scrounged for lunch as well as for dinner. Now I have lots of soup and stew in the freezer, and that's what we're eating for the rest of the week, because I'm out of recipes...maybe I'll dig up the pantry challenge! And not to get hokey--but I spent this past week focusing on something other than what's wrong with me and focusing on something positive that can potentially turn out right. And I do thank you all for your support and acceptance. Enough of the Sally Field dorkiness. You guys rock. I'm out!

Thank you, Susan! I get that a lot. Here's the finished torte: And here's my last food entry for this blog. The torte is wonderful, a little weepy when I cut it, anyone know what that's about?

I do something similar, quite often. I'm planning on making stir fry with rice, or anything with rice...I'll have the stir fry or other item nearly finished when I realize I haven't even started the rice. So the stir fry sits and congeals while we drum our fingers on the table...

Jason tries to do that too. "You can't use that milk! It expired a week ago!" Me: "Smell it. Does it smell sour?" Him: "No." Me: "Is it chunky?" Him: "No." Me: "Hand it over, I'm using it."

The torte is in the oven. I hope it sets up--the custard filling isn't as firm as I remembered it from the Colonial Inn. It's more like pudding the way I made it. Maybe 30 minutes in the oven will firm it up. Having dinner--leftover mashed potatoes and gravy, and a glass of diet Sprite.

Thank you, Kathy! I will report back. This is my first custard AND my first meringue. What is wrong with me?!

Okay. An oven thermometer is officially on the list! I'm not too sure how much longer we're going to be living here, but when we move to an apartment I'm sure the stove will leave something to be desired so the thermometer will come in handy. I guess I forgot to mention that I put two lemon quarters and several sprigs of thyme from my patio in the cavity. I saw that on Food Network. And then the black specks on top are more thyme leaves that got a little burnt. I put salt, pepper, butter, and extra virgin olive oil on the chicken. I put the salt and pepper first, then when I put the butter on I ended up moving the salt and pepper all over the place and I couldn't get it redistributed, so after the butter and oil I put more Penzey's 4/S on it. I've seen spatchcocking on Martha Stewart, I do want to try that! But I didn't want to end my blog with me coated in chicken juice and swearing and flinging chicken bits all over the kitchen, which is what seems to happen whenever I have to cut raw chicken. Reese, the cupcake recipe was from Nestle but we never did find the special Halloween morsels. We just used mini choc. chips in the cupcakes, and used special sprinkles and Haloween decorations on top that we found at Walmart. QUESTION! I do want to make that poppyseed torte. I need 3 cups of whole milk for the custard. I only have 2-1/3 cups. I have heavy cream. Can I mix heavy cream and water for that last 2/3 cup? Or use straight cream? Any ideas?

Hmmm. That took over an hour. I put the cast iron skillet in right when I turned the oven on, so it preheated with the oven. I even gave it a few extra minutes. This stove was new with the house a year ago. It could be off, but actually I tend to burn stuff before the recipe suggested time is up. When I was messing with the raw chicken, I stuck my hand inside and pulled out a little slush. So maybe it was too cold inside the chicken? This picture is from the first time I took it out of the oven when the thermometer read 165 at the thigh joint. As you can see, the wing tips flopped free the second I put the chicken into the pan. Guess I didn't tuck them tight enough. I thought my cheesecloth came undone, but it didn't. After letting the chicken rest and working on the pan gravy, I glanced over and saw the lovely pool of dark red liquid accumulating under the chicken. I knew that that wasn't supposed to happen, so I cut into the thigh where the thermometer was. Red. So got out a baking sheet, and back in the oven for another 10 min. or so. This time, I didn't goof around and said screw letting it rest, I cut right into the other thigh, the juices were clear so I took it out. To be honest, some of the dark meat is a little bit pink but honestly, I don't care. Here's my plate. Trust me, there was a lot more drama than I'm letting on here, so I didn't even care if my meal looked purty. It's good! I really have to watch my tendency to oversalt things. Too many years of not salting at all and I'm having a hard time finding the balance. Lots of cleanup to look forward to! Nap first.

Hmmmm. Bittman recipe called "Foolproof" says a 3-4 lb. chicken should take 30 minutes with his method--heating a cast iron pan in oven to 450, dumping the chicken in the pan, done. My chicken is 4 lb. and it's been 30 min. and the spot between the leg and the body of the chicken is at 86 degrees. The chicken is also not brown. Maybe my Pyrex digital thermometer (the kind that beeps when it reaches your temperature) is broken? Also, had the legs tied together with a strip of wet cheesecloth but they didn't hold.

Thank you! Off to cook. The chicken looks very naked right now. I don't have any fresh herbs--except my thyme outside might still be good, going to check--so I'm doing butter, salt, and pepper. Preheating a cast iron skillet in the oven and dumping the chicken right into it!

I hope someone's reading this... If I smear the chicken with butter, and put it in a 450 degree oven, will the butter burn? I'm following a Bittman recipe but he doesn't have you put anything on the chicken, and I thought butter would be good.

The clerk put my case first without my even asking her to, so I got out of there in record time! Didn't you know S comes before A on the alphabet? Thank you, spaghetttti and Judith! Judith, I knew that you meant Daniel. I do think your theory is correct about him thinking Germany is full of germs! His theory was that germs were everywhere (he showed me his fingers as proof, I don't want to know what germs he thought he was harboring there and why) so they must come from a country and have their own language. Either way, we washed our hands well before making the cupcakes. I felt the chicken, and it's squishy! So we're having roast chicken today after all. I'll probably make mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and we'll have the leftover beets. I have a bunch of beet greens from the beets--the greens look beautiful. I tried making them once and they were really bitter and gross. I will try again. Usually I just give them to the guinea pigs.

I don't have much time this morning, so having a bowl of 75% less sugar Coco Puffs and my diet Coke. I forgot that I have to go to court this morning! Stupid parking ticket I got last December, thought I paid it but missed some $10 fee, license plate got suspended, I didn't realize it, got caught driving! You know what's worse? I've worked with every judge in this county and in the neighboring counties as their court reporter, many times. I used to be the district court reporter, so I've worked for them all in this district--so even though I wouldn't care enough to switch judges, it would be pointless. It's just going to be embarrassing sitting there in traffic court, though. Kind of makes me mad, because other than this, my only ticket was when I was 18 and got caught doing 9 over the speed limit. I'm 30 now and hadn't gotten a ticket since then. Well, we'll see how long it takes. I'm still hoping to roast that chicken. I've sat through many a traffic intake on the other side of the bar as the court reporter, and it all depends on how many people contest their ticket.

Thanks, ms foodie and Karen! Daniel's thrilled to be on the Internet. So, dinner. I had a couple bites of cold leftover beets, and Daniel had a piece of whole wheat bread with peanut butter. We weren't hungry. Maybe we spoiled dinner by sharing that cupcake! Ooops!

I'm with you. I do my major shopping every other week at a store about an hour away. If I forget to get something in Madison, I might not be able to find it here. Also, I have to plan meals so that we eat the most perishable vegetables first. By week two, we're eating a lot of onions, potatoes, carrots, and leftovers.

Daniel's having fun decorating. His hands weren't strong enough for the pastry bag, so I'm ashamed to admit that those messy squiggles of frosting were done by yours truly. And we made one extra test cupcake we're going to split in half and share to make sure they're good! Daniel says, "This cupcake has a job--a job to get smushed up into our stomachs." They are pumpkin spice cupcakes made with a box of spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, some mini chocolate chips, and the usual eggs, oil etc.

Oh, duh! I went through a "Once a Month Cooking" kick when Daniel was first born, and that's what I did then. I never even thought of Ziplocs. I just picked up some Gladware for $2. We have tons of soups and stews in the freezer, and that's probably what we're going to eat for the rest of the week, because I've made all the recipes I shopped for two Fridays ago. Daniel's cupcakes are in the oven. He did everything except portion the batter into the liners. I did that so that they'd all be even. When they're cool, Daniel's going to decorate them himself, and I'll post a pic. I don't think that roast chicken is going to happen tomorrow. It's been sitting in a cooler full of water for 8 hours now, and it's still hard as a rock. Not sure if the poppyseed torte will happen tonight either. We'll see how things go.

Thank you! I've got a question. Is rum sweet? If I had to make one criticism of that chicken dish, it's that it was a touch too sweet. I think the reasons are: 1. I used Gala apples (the recipe didn't specify) 2. Lots of sauteed onions 3. Apple Beachcomber rum is sweet?

Just had a small handful of puppy chow. Jason is going to take the rest to work to share with the nurses in the break room, I think. Nap time, then I'm going to attempt a poppyseed torte. I think that might be a Wisconsin thing? Tonight, I'm going to make spice pumpkin cupcakes with Daniel, and he's going to decorate them. He turns 8 on the 20th so he's taking a treat to school tomorrow.

That's an awesome cookbook! I just looked at it at the Barnes and Noble the other day. If you notice, it's written by people in the Madison area. I'm saving up for it, that's the next must-have. The link worked for me.

Susan, that sounds good. If I ever find pancetta, I will try it! I only recently found proscuitto. Chicken Calvados, basmati rice with toasted walnuts, roasted beets sliced and tossed with melted butter. The theme of the day was butter! I put some in the rice and on the beets, and used clarified butter to saute the sliced chicken. Then added sliced mushrooms, sliced onions, and 2 diced Gala apples, and a little fresh garlic and ginger. After that cooked down I deglazed with Beachcomber apple rum that I bought in a tiny bottle for $1.00 because I couldn't find Calvados and didn't want to buy a huge bottle of apple vodka to use up. Then I added cream, and it's done. I seasoned everything with Penzey's 4/S. I can't drink alcohol for fear of seizures and other stuff, but I love to cook with it. I was afraid that the (probably) rotgut rum would ruin the dish, but it's very good. This is the first time I have cooked a savory dish with fruit in it. I haven't even had pork with apples before. The beets were a first for me too, haven't had those since the canned beets as a kid. They were awesome! I ate most of the beets, and then mixed everything else up on my plate. It ain't pretty but it tastes awesome.

Exactly. That's the way we handle leftovers because I make recipes that serve 4. Otherwise, he'd just take Hot Pockets to work or something. Same boring breakfast--two pieces of bread (almost to the end of the loaf), the last of the cinnamon/sugar cream cheese, and a diet Coke. I'm going to throw on some jeans and run to the store for the ingredients I need for lunch.

Daniel had a mini cheese pizza and the last banana. We buy about 4-5 bananas at a time, and Daniel has to have one every day. I don't like them, they give me a stomachache. Jason won't eat bananas because he heard somewhere that if you eat a banana, it changes your body chemistry and attracts mosquitos to you. No amount of eye-rolling on my part will change his mind. Tomorrow's menu: Chicken Calvados, a recipe from The Audubon Inn in Mayville, WI; beets baked in foil and served with butter from How to Cook Everything, and rice with toasted walnuts. Would basmati rice be okay here? Do I just cook the rice and then stir the walnuts in at the end? Any suggestions? Besides basmati, I have arborio, jasmine, and converted, but I don't like the flavor of the converted rice.

It's 7:45, I haven't eaten yet but I'm not really hungry. Here's the simmering soup. Ingredients are on the prior post. I am very comfortable making soups. The kind of soup I make is so forgiving. If I have to turn the heat to low on the onions while I mess around with the peppers, it's no big deal. If I forget to add the potatoes until later and have to simmer it an extra 15 minutes, that's fine too. I like very thick soups with a lot of stuff. I make a big pot of soup at least every other week, and then freeze half of it. There are days and sometimes weeks when I am unable to cook, and Jason's forte in the kitchen is thawing things I previously cooked. That is also how I use up vegetables that are looking a little sad. My only problem right now is that I am out of food storage containers, and I'm not sure what to do with this when it cools off! I guess I can just put it in the fridge in the pot (after setting the pot in ice water), and since I have to go to Walmart tomorrow to get beets anyway, maybe I can find some kind of large (cheap) Gladware.

I'm definitely getting out the Febreze. These guys actually stunk up the van worse than the time I had to jam in 27 dogs! Here are the ingredients: chorizo, diced onion celery cumin seed garlic chicken broth canned plum tomatoes potatoes red peppers tomato paste bay leaf parsley oregano corn kernels cilantro I tasted the andouille. It's good, but I thought it was supposed to be HOT. It's has a very, very mild heat. Nap time first, then soup time.