BeeZee

Strawberry/whole wheat/oat muffins. The new silicone pan is awesome!

Forgot to post, but in April, I believe, we had a message on the home phone from Shoprite...since I used the loyalty card for our purchase, an item that was recalled was tracked back. I was pretty happy that the system worked...and that said item was still in the freezer.

Took a long walk and wanted a light dinner, chopped up half of an English cuke, some feta leftover in the fridge, pouch of tuna. Squirt of lemon juice, grind of black pepper, fresh dill (well, actually freezer stock, I found that fresh dill keeps OK). Leftovers will be for lunch tomorrow. Might add some capers.

When I worked for a furniture company we told people to use Lestoil, which you can get at Home Depot.

Grilled for “planned overs”...DH cooked a large piece of beef for himself, boneless skinless chicken breasts for my dinner and 2 future meals. Corn on the cob, basic salad. @BKEats reminded me that I had some golden beets in the fridge, sliced them around a half inch thick and cooked in a foil pan with a little oil, ginger powder, curry powder, salt, drizzle of honey (those will be for tomorrow’s dinner). Tiny fingerling potatoes cooked in foil, ate half and the other half will be for tomorrow.

When I lived in a condominium, I painted my bathroom vanity cabinets. It is amazing what a change if color and some new handles/knobs will do, small cost for a big change. The challange with painting kitchen cabinets is thorough degreasing before application to ensure the paint looks good, and lasts.

After reading @andiesenji’s comment about reinforced silicone baking pans, I bought a muffin pan online. I make muffins often enough, and I am curious to see how it works with a recipe I currently make which requires paper liners. I had a silicone baking pan many years ago and hated it, in part due to the lack of structure.

Defrosted/reheated leftover eggplant parm casserole, since temps are trending higher seemed like a good idea to have it on a cooler day.

Last trip to supermarket I took a peek at the cheese case and spotted a small cut of baked lemon ricotta...I've been wanting to try it but couldn't justify a purchase of a large chonk since I'm the only one eating it, and it wasn't cheap. Had some on a Lundberg rice cake (wanted a plain/neutral base) with a drizzle of honey. I think it would be tasty on oat cake type crackers, or I had contemplated using a graham cracker as a vehicle. Glad I finally got to try it, I found it pleasant but not likely to repeat at that price.

I was so happy to have some different fruit at the supermarket, on sale, even better...bought a pint of blueberries (not from the bogs of NJ, but pretty good) and some cherries, which I knew would be mediocre this soon in the season, but I needed some variety from all of the pineapple and apples we have been eating. I am not sure if our small local farmers market will start up again in June, haven’t seen any notices yet.

Went to the grocery store, so fresh seafood was in order. Dry sea scallops cooked in a pan with butter/oil and diced shallot. Deglazed the pan with a little stock. Couscous and spinach.

I have a small Pier One gift card I never used. I thought about it last year when there were inklings, but I didn’t really find anything I wanted to buy...so no big loss. I only get multi-tasking gift cards (Amazon, Target) or our local bank does stored value gift cards that can be used just like a debit card, any store. A lot of restaurants were selling gift cards to raise money during the pandemic, but I wondered how many of them might not survive long enough for redemption.

Some cooking fatigue...had homemade spinach soup which I had made earlier in the day (liquified creamed spinach, yum), shrimp/seafoid burgers from the freezer (TJ’s) and frozen white/yellow corn mix.

They are in the bread, I posted a photo in the lunch thread showing a sandwich using this bread.

It cooled off today so I finally got around to using my two bags of spinach to make spinach soup. I generally followed a recipe from the Pioneer Woman, but used a bit less milk and roux. Its basically creamed spinach soup, which isn’t a bad thing.

Dinner last night was baked cod fillet...I had planned to do panko crumbs on top and DH asked if I would try making crust out of Triscuits. I seasoned the fish, spread a little whole grain mustard on top, drizzled some avocado oil. I had crushed the crackers and mixed with some coconut oil, put them on top, and baked at 400 for around 10-12 minutes, then another 10 minutes at 425 since I had something else I had to put in the oven at the higher temp. Triscuits definitely bring the crunch!

Toastie with Trader Joe’s “Lucky 7” bread and jarlsberg cheese.

Not quite overnight oats/muesli. I use TJ's multigrain hot cereal, it has great texture. Equal parts cereal and vanilla oat milk (+ a little water), some ground flax meal, cinnamon and nutmeg. Squirt of agave syrup. Sliced toasted almonds. It sat in the fridge for about 2 hours so it had softened a bit but still had "chew".

Yellow summer squash and carrot...made ribbons with a Y peeler, put in a container with some olive oil and sherry vinegar, S&P. Marinate overnight...softer and silky like noodles, still a little crunch.

Lucky 7 seed and grain batard...very tasty. "Artisan style". I like inclusions in my bread, this has 7: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, millet, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, oats. Had some for breakfast with jarlsberg cheese also purchased at TJ's.

Grilled a ton of vegetables last night and made my standby ratatoiulle warm salad, grilled some tuna steaks, and wild rice blend on the side. Will probably take the leftover veg, add some small pasta and chicken and turn it in to cold pasta salad.

Ventured to my local Trader Joe's this morning, hadn't been in a couple of months (last visit to a TJ's was in 2nd week of March, smaller store near my office). Got there around 10:30 and the line (6 feet spacing) was around 120 yards long (eyeballing by golf reference). Took about a half hour to get inside, one in/one out and they cleaned a cart for you to take in. The aisles were not marked for one way traffic but with the decreased number of shoppers it wasn't really a problem. Stock seemed pretty good across the board, only a few holes. Some refrig/dairy items were short date, but that's almost normal for them. They had meat in the refrig case and I bought fresh turkey tenderloin and frozen Argentine shrimp. Got some frozen veg mixes, some dairy items, pantry and canned goods, couple of fresh produce items, bottle of wine. Pretty satisfactory experience all in all. Glad I waited until the panic buying had abated.

The shears I have look very similar (except with neon green grip), but are a cheaper knock off version...bought in 2016 and not available any longer.

Cinnamon graham crackers. I haven't had them in a really long time, but they are so comforting...simple, reminds me of after school snacking. Just sweet enough.

I have one that has been sitting on a shelf above my kitchen counter to remind me to replace it. It was a victim of scraping a bit too harshly around the inside of the Cuisinart with the blade still in place. I'm leaning towards a one piece molded design, there are tons of them on Amazon which I am starting to sift through. On an unrelated note, but relevant to this topic...I LOVE my kitchen shears. When I have to trim up some boneless chicken breasts, they are quick and effective. I can even roughly butterfly them if they are too thick by using the tip of the shears to carefully snip at the meat. The pair that I bought come apart for cleaning and came with a magnetic "holster" so they live on the side of the fridge.