Category Archives: Food

More Garden Photos

On Sunday, I called my father and he accused me of only calling out of “an overdeveloped sense of obligation.” This was a load of crap, of course. I called him out of a perfectly tuned sense of obligation. Eventually, we both agreed we could maybe call one another more often.

Then he asked for garden photos and I said he clearly wasn’t reading my blog. To which he admitted, but then pointed out I could be more aggressive about sharing. So, I’ll do that. And I’ll put up a few more photos, because I love him and I think he’d enjoy them. Also, because I enjoy sharing them.

This isn’t my usual view walking in, as I tend to enter from the southwest, not the east.… Continue reading →

Lasagne of Desperation

I made lasagne today. I kind of winged it, but mostly followed the recipe for Italian-American lasagne. from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. And, the photos I took (and will take) today will, largely, show back up in that post, which is sadly lacking in fun photos. However, you probably want to know what constitutes “Lasagne of Desperation.”

No problem! I’ll explain. First, your fridge needs to look at least a bit like this:

Then you have to be about ready to scream because you’ve never been a good cook when comes to greens that aren’t kale, spinach, and swiss chard.

Then you reach into the above fridge and grab whatever greens that aren’t the above that come readily to hand. You do this because you almost forgot you were going to make a veggie lasagne.… Continue reading →

Gardening 2014

I’ve started a bit of gardening again. Previously, I’ve done kind of a lot of container gardening, but I’ve been pretty clear that it’s more for the joy I find in growing things than any sort of self-sufficiency. This is pretty good, because sometimes I only get three tiny tomatoes.

But I’ve taken to gardening on a larger scale. Sort of. I got a plot in a community garden near-ish my home. And then I promptly agreed to share it with a new friend, John. John promptly filled his half of the plot with tomatoes, peppers and basil.

My half of the plot promptly got a couple of mustard greens. And the sage cut back dramatically. But it still basically looks like this:

My friend Toni has sent me some seeds, as a gift.… Continue reading →

First attempt at smoked almonds.

I think smoked almonds are my favorite “healthful snack.” They’re high on the list if they aren’t number one. Their major drawback, as far as I’m concerned, is that they can be too salty and not smokey enough.

So, when Bill got me a smoker for Christmas, almonds were one of the first things I wanted to try out. I didn’t consider whether raw almonds are cheaper (though I assume they should be since there’s less processing to be done), or anything similar.

Monday, I tried them out. Like almost any kitchen(-related) appliance, the smoker came with directions and recipes. The smoked nuts recipe was nearly useless. It said to smoke them for an hour. No suggestion on kind of flavor. If I wanted them salted, I could either shake them with salt after, or soak them in salted water “a few minutes.”… Continue reading →

Things we made this weekend & I forgot to take pictures of.

I make myself really busy sometimes. So much so that I forget how nice it is to just be at home. Which means that, when I finally am home, I end up doing one or both of two things. Most likely, I stop and do a lot of quiet hanging out with Bill and a lot of reading. Or I cook a lot.

This weekend was a long one for Bill, and a quiet one. We ran just a few errands, had a very nice meal out, learned about a bocce ball league, had a guest over, and I read a lot. And then I cooked everything. We also played a bunch of games.

It wasn’t really intentional to cook everything. It happened because it was a really nice weekend and because we had a lot of time and because we ran errands.… Continue reading →