Soured on the Kitchen

Somehow, I had two lemon halves, plus a wedge, in the fridge. I knew about one of the halves, but when I went digging for it, I suddenly realized I had a second. That was kind of embarrassing, because it meant I’d cut open a whole new lemon when I needed a half and had a half ready to go.

A close up of two half lemons and a lemon wedge in a plastic container. To their left is a baggie of carrots.

This is kind of the story of my kitchen functioning right now. It’s low. Very low. Some of it is the recuperating I’ve previously mentioned and some is the fact that occasionally I sleep for more than 10 hours in a night. Unfortunately, some is just a complete lack of want to do things in the kitchen.

Bill and I both get this way sometimes.… Continue reading →

Today Feels Like a Cooking Day

It’s been grey out. Grey and wet. I know that’s what I was promised it would be when I moved here, but somehow knowing that wasn’t the same as experiencing it. It’s gotten me down.

Bill and I still haven’t found the sunrise alarm clock we normally wake up to. It’s making mornings a lot harder. On the other hand, though, he found a very cool bulb which fits into our normal lamps that seems to be helping. I try to sit under it for 20+ minutes a morning.

What isn’t helping is the completely terrible photo lighting in my kitchen. We actually have really big, beautiful windows and a nice view. It’s great for being in, when there’s even half decent amounts of natural light.… Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Suggestions and Other Links.

Just a quick post today; I’m dealing with household chaos. But I wanted to recommend icing your turkey breast down if you’re going to roast a whole turkey this year.

If you haven’t already made pumpkin pie for the holiday, consider this deep dish deliciousness with a hint of rum! I used to make it or a variant on it every year.

You got my dream holiday beers, but did you go over to Kitchenista Diaries to see the things I recommend? There’s a lot move variety there, and more things that are easy to get.

Do you want to go to a castle to write your NaNoWriMo novel next year? Well, maybe you should go enter to win! My friend Deb told me about this, and I am charmed as hell.… Continue reading →

No One Got Sick at Our Thanksgiving! Win!

Thanksgiving at our house turned out far, far better than it had any right to be. We’re a very lucky couple.

As we have the last two years, we decided to throw open our Thanksgiving to anyone who didn’t have any place else to go (or didn’t want to go the where they did have, I suppose). The net effect of this is that we never quite know how many people we’re going to have until Black Friday. This year, we were settled for a good long time on two guests, so I ordered a turkey that was a little big for four people, just in case one or two more people decided to join us at the last minute.

A bit more than one or two more guests later, I decided to go looking for a bigger turkey.… Continue reading →

Turkey Enchiladas

One of the things that prompted the start of this blog, back in 2010, was the fact that Bill and I bought a CSA share. Basically, we realized we’d occasionally get more food than we knew how to handle, as well as the occasional food item we couldn’t even identify.

What we didn’t know, that first year, was that our farmer had spent some time in our home state of New Mexico and so also had a taste for some of the foods we grew up on. So, we were delighted to see (and smell!) some Anaheim peppers in one of our boxes way back then.

The truth is that we’re always thrilled to see Anaheims in the box. Even now, into our third year with Tomato Mountain, the things that are so like New Mexico green chiles make us smile.… Continue reading →