Potatoes O'Burnt

Posted from 08/23

Welcome back! Or welcome for the first time. Either way välkommen. So what's been happening? Well Tony and I have been enjoying ourselves mostly. We play Pokémon GO! so we took an adventure down to the Neenah, Wisconsin area to a park that's hopping with activity. It was a good day to decompress and think about our week to come. On our way home we made sure to pick up groceries. That's right, folks! No last minute ideas about what to eat, we've got this week all settled. We made it a fairly easy week too. Fast fixing food I like to call it. It's that mix between cooking and boxed meals. The hope is that it will cut down on food preparation time for a little while so that I can throw myself more into getting the house clean the way we want because it's still a far way off. You'd think it would make life easier.

You'd think.

Monday's (8/22) meal should have been simple. Breaded and baked haddock fillets, seasoned baked fries for me, and Potatoes o' Brian for Tony. The fish got done way too early (that timing business again) so by the time the potatoes were done... and I mean DONE... the fish was luke warm at best.
Tony had reheated haddock and potatoes o' burnt. He assured me the “char” was really great and I assured him that I'm not going to burn it on purpose in the future even if his assurances made me want to test him on it. I'm not a wicked woman so he dodged a bullet on that one!

The fries I threw in a little later for myself and grazed on through the night. It worked out well for me since I had of course, another headache. We aren't talking migraine levels here, but we are talking a bleh day. I managed some dishes and to not make the house worse. Generally the day was a flop.

I'm really not going to complain about it though. That's just how the day went, it wasn't great but I can't bring myself to see it as a failure. It can be recorded as a misadventure 100%, but a failure? No. If burned potatoes constitutes a failure, boy oh boy have I got my life together! A little thing like that?

Pish, friends. Pish.

So I have a bad habit I'd like to address.

I forget to thaw meat ahead of time.

You can plan all the meals you want but if you're using a type of ground meat for your meal and forget to thaw it, you'd better figure out a new plan real quick. Today (8/23) was another day that I managed to forget the meat. I could have just kept it in the fridge for the day and a half we've had it but I'm so in the habit of not being able to cook meals that I automatically put meats in the freezer. Ah, well. Another piece of our lives that needs adjusting.
Throughout this process my mother has been so amazingly helpful. Today she came to the rescue in the form of brats. My original plan had been to make Tony a boxed meal you add ground beef to and he'd have some for dinner and the rest for his work lunch. Now it was looking like a meal with all carbs. Not ideal for someone with a physical job like his. Well my mother being the wonderful woman she is had already set aside 4 bratwurst for him just because she thought he might like them. With 2 for work and 2 for dinner with the meatless dish I made, he's all fed and ready to go.

Appreciate your mother, folks.

Accept Your Success

Hey guys! I haven't posted in about a week. I've been pretty busy. By pretty busy I mean I've been enjoying what I feel has been the start of Fall. I've been working on a project for Halloween and have been compiling that for a future post, so look for my Halloween DIY post later this month! For now, please enjoy this short post about chronic illness.

Posted from 08/18

Homemaking. Home. Making. We take the word for granted. I cannot express the change in how I feel about my home. While Tony and I would like to own a home, it makes whatever place we are able to live in so much better. After the past few weeks, I've come to appreciate how much better our home feels. It no longer feels just like the place we come to to pass out. It feels like a real home. Everything I do here helps to improve the feel of our home. I really am making this place ours. Even on the days I struggle most, I can still feel satisfaction in our (slowly) improving home.

And struggle I do. “The struggle is real, bruh.” I suffer from chronic migraines so everything is always extra fun. Last year I FINALLY had a care provider listen and was implanted with an IUD which has so drastically reduced my migraine days. I used to have a migraine every day for 2 weeks straight out of the month, and have now reduced to maybe 10 migraines a month. Still not wonderful considering there are some magical unicorns in life that have never experienced a single migraine. But we do what we can, because I'm more like a narwhal in life; unique enough some people think they don't exist, but legit an actual living creature if not commonly seen. Note* I don't have a horn and also don't stab people.

Bubbles watches over me when I'm sick

My chronic migraines are no joke when it comes to being a functioning human being/narwhal. I spent the last day and a half with an on/off migraine with the “off” being a downgrade of a bad headache. I took that time as a green light and did what I could. I did a few dishes but I have to tell you the pile in and around our sink has reached near catastrophic proportions. I've taken a before picture but I will not be showing it until I have a satisfactory after picture. So that's what I did in 2 days. I managed to wash a few dishes and cooked a single meal. The meal I cooked was a boxed meal but I'll take it as a success.

Sometimes the successes we accept for ourselves are failures for other people, but who cares? They don't live here anyway.

French Toast

Posted from 08/16

It's a day off for Tony which means I'm spending it with him. I kept it easy but new. A new recipe and something everyone should know? I went with french toast. I didn't use a recipe, I used an even better source; my mother.
This is the exact “recipe” I used.

Use thick cut bread. If the store doesn't have Texas Toast, go to the deli and buy an uncut loaf of farmer's bread.

Whisk up “like 3 eggs” with a little milk, throw in some cinnamon and some sugar. How much? Uh... like “some cinnamon and maybe a tablespoon of sugar”. Soak the bread both sides and fry them. Repeat the egg mixture until you're done.

So basically, I winged it. The summary of my mother's recipe is to wing it. And you know what? It worked really well. So well in fact, I forgot to take a nice picture and snapped this doozey as soon as I remembered.

It went down easily as far as cooking goes. I fried up some thick cut bacon and did the “holy crap hot bacon grease” dance that normal people do when they're getting fragged by it. Tony's laughter from a safe distance during that time kept the beat I suppose.

I can tell you now why I never see my mother sit down and eat. I know why she eats in the kitchen. If you want hot food, you can't sit down and eat. You eat while you cook because if you don't, you either won't get any of the food, or the food you set aside for yourself is stone cold by the time you get to it.

Kitchen warriors, I salute you. I would raise my spatula in salute, but I need to go wash it.

Purple Potatoes!

Posted from 08/14

Let's talk more about appreciation for growing your own food. Why? Because I want to and you're my blog hostage. Blogstage?.. Ignore that.
Really though, today I went straight for using food from my garden. Those awesomesauce purple potatoes. If you'd like to learn a little more about purple potatoes you can Here.

The basics of purple potatoes for those of us who don't click links, is that they aren't really any different than any other potato. They can be used like a red or a white, best for roasting and frying but can be used for mashing. Then there's some stuff about color and antioxidants, but let's be real, I grew them because they're pretty.

I mean really, look at these beasts. Glorious! I did have a little trouble peeling these due to their size. They're similar in size to a red potato, so I used my handy dandy thumb claw and stabbed in to the potato to keep a grip and not peel my fingers. I came across this little cutie while peeling.

Looks like a little animal face!

So this is the bunch all peeled. When they're sliced, they're absolutely beautiful, I mean as far as produce goes. I suggest using them in a better way than me. Today I'm mashing, but these would be stunning sliced in scalloped potatoes or frying into chips.

Now I've made mashed potatoes from scratch before so I think I've got this covered. However, if you live in Basictown like me, there are a few things to note.

• Peel and wash your potatoes (peeling optional). Cut them to be all about the same size
• Start your potatoes in COLD water. This will prevent the outside from quickly cooking and turning to mush while the inside is still uncooked
• SALT your water. Just do it. I promise. I'll skip the science of starches, just know your potatoes will soak up the salt and you really really want that
• Bring them to a boil and then drop down to a simmer. Cook until you can stab them with a fork and they fall apart
• If possible use room temperature butter and milk. Again, the starch thing.

Fun fact! While peeling the potatoes won't stain your fingers, it will change the color of the water you're boiling. That's a pretty blue but I have yellow lights on my stove so it looks Rio Olympic pool green, but still awesome.

I've cheated and thrown in some frozen chicken breasts into the stove while I'm doing this. Can we all stop and not beat ourselves up for this, though? Most people don't raise their own chickens. If you do, wonderful! That's great! Maybe one day I can too if I have the desire to. We're about honesty here, so I have no problem admitting I'd rather watch Master Chef and Hotel Hell than go feed or wrangle chickens. Sorry, Gordon! The chicken I should note, I threw in a small roaster while frozen, covered them liberally with chicken seasoning and cooked for an hour. Tasty and simple like I like it. Not a ticket to win competitions, but super satisfying. I asked if Tony wanted a side like corn or green beans and he opted for no, so we had chicken and home grown, homemade mashed purple potatoes for dinner.

Today's enterprises succeeded.

Easy Day, Small Wins

Posted from 8/13
It's been 3 days and we have subsisted on leftovers and a day where we went out. I got caught up in the nothing zone for Tony's day off and the next day I got caught in it again. We discussed what exactly we're doing. I have been feeling like I can't really set that kind of working schedule in the house if this isn't permanent or at least extended. We decided this is extended so now I'm able to get into the swing of it. Part of our conversation included such lovely phrases as
“That's a really open ended question.” “LIFE is an open ended question, motherf****!!”
“I love our life. It's a great life if not slightly weird”

So far today has been a short but good day. I have drive because we know what I'm doing. I got up, made Tony some hot spaghetti and used my passata and mixed in some herbs and spices to make a homemade sauce. I enjoyed it, Tony seemed to enjoy it and then in our special way we buried it under parmesan cheese.

Now it seems like something so small but let's cover the fact that after dinner I washed the dishes we used immediately. It's a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. It didn't decrease the amount of other dishes I still have to wash, but it made sure the pile didn't get bigger, they were super fast to clean and it made me feel better about myself. As far as improving our lives goes, this tiny step is an undeniable win.

After the dishes, I headed out to the garden. I was a weeding machine. Why? Because my potatoes finally wilted down and it was time to harvest! Not only did I get a little pile of potatoes, I harvested a nice slicing cucumber, a new pile of romas, and my first little eggplant. My eggplant is a Fairytale dwarf variety, so it's a little one.

I cannot explain the amount of effort that can get put in to working in a garden. It is rewarding, it is back breaking, it is dirty, fun, sometimes a huge pain in the ass and then at the end of it all, you get a meal. Sometimes the meal you prepare can be underwhelming because of your (or my) personal culinary shortcomings and even when that happens, it's still a good meal because you know the work that went into your food. There's a whole new appreciation if you grow your own food.

Off to the Races

Posted from 8/10

Hello friends, let's take some time and talk about TIMING because dear God is that a pain.
Tony unsuspectingly had to pick up a little over time which means SURPRISE MEAL PREPARATION! Hooray?
So it seems I'm channeling Tony's cravings because I said “tuna casserole” and he lit up and exclaimed his recent craving for fish. (Well tell me, fool and then I'll know! Lol) So let's get a recipe!

“Mom, can I have your recipe for tuna noodle casserole?”

“Well, um, you use..”

“No no, just the recipe.”
“I don't have one.”

0.o …. “erm, what?”

“I do it from memory the way my mother taught me.”

Sweet! That's alright with me, but I'm writing that business down. I'm sorry, I just can't remember that sort of thing yet.

I'm missing just a couple of ingredients so I plan to wake up at a set alarm time the next day and go briefly shopping. My round trip took maybe 20 minutes... but when you wake up and hour late? Let's just say I have no need for a gym membership today. Booking it in the kitchen is something I hate, but the alternative is Tony trying to explain to his boss the reason he's late is that his ladyfriend couldn't get the *expletive* tuna noodle casserole in the oven on time. 

Time. Running out of time. 

Everything's home now, put the water on to boil. 

No clean pots, not one. Maybe I should have allowed a little time for dishes? Clean the pot, start the water. Sweet, okay. Maybe I should wash a casserole dish and the pasta strainer while I'm at it! No problem. 

Tick tock.
Drain the tuna, drain the peas. So I have this new fangled can opener. It's the kind that breaks the glue seal and produces no sharp edges which is really nice... except when you need to drain what was in the can. I can't press it in! What do I do? I dorked around with the lid for a while but ultimately I ended up pressing it out with my fingers. Peas were easier.
Cat. One of the cats has caught wind of what I'm draining. Cue the caterwauling and the tripping me up. No really, thank you tiny friend, I needed to trip repeatedly in the hot kitchen today. And thank you for the crying, you've attracted the other cat who, as I found out today, isn't actually interested in tuna, she just wanted to know what was happening.
Noodles are done! Drain those things and GO! Crap, I forgot the cans of tuna and peas directly in the sink. Time to balance the hot cook pot with one hand and fish those puppies out with the other.
Throw it back in the pot, mix in the cream of chicken.

Dear river of cats around my feet (there are only two but gee golly it feels like more when they're around your feet), to satiate your nom propelled curiosity, I make this offering of a cream of chicken lid.
Mix all that crap up, go dump it in the casserole.

Turns out, neither are interested in cream of chicken (divas!) and I've stepped just over the lid and it has now plastered to the inside of my pant leg and is glazing itself to my ankle. Can't stop! I have an alarm in my pocket that has been going off for 2 minutes and that casserole WILL GO IN!!
So it's in, I run to the base of the stairs and wake Tony. Wake Tony, yell frantically up the stairs to Tony, whatever.
Relax, calm down. You just made it in with enough time for it to cook and be out with 20 minutes eating time...
You forgot the foil on top. Yank it out, throw on the foil, shove it back in. Beautiful. Still good. Now just panic for a while for no good reason. Also, go clean your leg, you animal.
Food! It's food. Finally. Phew.

I scoop up a wad because, let's face it, that's how tuna noodle casserole comes out, and give it to Tony and this fool is smiling like he's never seen food before.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“I just really love you”
Ah, tuna noodle casserole, the food of love.

So let's talk about that timing thing. I'm so horrendously terrible at it. Meal planning is so completely not my thing (yet). So usually here I am with an “Oh I know!” plan dejour and am missing the ingredients to fulfill it. I am usually missing the proper cookware not because I don't have it, but because I haven't washed it. I cannot explain the level of loathing I have for washing dishes. I really have to pump myself up for it, or be driven to it out of necessity through either needing them, or needing them not to start molding. Gross.

Planning meals means planning more than the food, it means planning your other chores, augmenting your day, and making sure you stay on schedule. Sure, you're home, but timing matters here just as much as a job outside the home. So maybe, if you're absolute garbage staying on schedule at home, you can see that at least once in a while, if you bust ass, you can still nail it - even with a furry river around your feet.

Kitchen Battle Draw

Posted from 08/08

Welcome to a new work week. Not mine. Tony's. As far as ideas go for what to make for dinner, he only really suggests something when he's craving it. I didn't particularly feel like being an adventurous cook today so I went with something easy for me from (partial) scratch. Baked mac and cheese. Indeed, that gooey delicious with a crunchy top meal that generally appeases everyone. I've made it before, no big deal, right? Apparently I was over confident. In fact, I'm still totally not sure what went wrong.
See here's the deal, the kind I've made before I keep a simple recipe for – but now it's on an old phone instead of in a recipe box like a normal human would have. So I decided to look up one on the internet. I picked one that seemed fairly familiar from a reputable food site I've used in the past.
This one starts with a rue. Butter, flour, whisking, warm milk. Add shredded cheese (I buy block and just shred it myself) whisk until smooth. Except it never got smooth. It's... odd. Kinda chunky. I mean it TASTES fine, but where is my smooth creamy cheesey goodness? This is WISCONSIN. How did I mess up mac and cheese? I just have no idea.
I suppose that's that point of an adventure. It isn't always going to go right.
I also added a little extra seasoning it didn't call for in the recipe. A little onion salt mostly and then Italian bread crumbs. The result? 

The crumbs didn't really brown the way I liked but thank GOD for them! Bland bland bland. My goodness it wasn't this bland before. If not for the bread crumbs, it would mostly just taste like noodles. While the cheese didn't get creamy the way I wanted, the mouth feel was not a problem. The cheese I added on top was great. Really between the bread crumbs and the cheese on top, they were the only positives. It was filling at least and Tony's verdict was “more of the top stuff, please” which to be fair, is what people say when it comes out right, right?

So what I thought was easy was an adventure, so now we'll see how my adventurous project turns out. I received my grandmother's food mill, and I have a stash of romas ready to go so I'm currently cooking the ever living hell out of them. I'm going with the long and low method. I enjoy rich tomato flavors much more than the fresh off the vine flavor. I know I already oopsied, because I started with enough water for 10 pounds and I realized after they'd already started to break down into it so I'm adding more time on to evaporate the water.

Furthermore, everyone should know I have a very bad time of not touching things. I can't help it. It says to just let them cook, so of course I keep poking at the tomatoes. There's about half an hour left on the timer so you know I'm antsy. I'm twitchy and antsy and “sweet mother of monkey milk” I need to learn to walk away from food! I'm quite certain it comes from my insecurity in cooking, and who the heck knows if that'll ever go away?

So it looks like I was pretty successful! With that small amount of tomatoes I used, I managed to mill out 8 oz of passata! Now I've got myself one small can's worth of tomato sauce that I can flavor how I will.

It's funny how today turned out like that. The “easy” mac and cheese went boringly south while my attempt at something way out of my comfort zone went so well even after making a mistake at the beginning.