/end brooding

So... I think I have had enough brooding time. It is what it is, we've gone through this before, and thankfully we've been working to get ourselves in a position to handle the Big Things that life throws you, and for the immediate future, we should be able to keep things all balanced. Thankfully we're both smart enough people that we did a regular loan when we bought our house, and we've never let investments seem like real money.

But I have noticed the trend in my life that layoffs ALWAYS happen right around the time of some family gathering. ALWAYS. This time around, it was my nephew's birthday.

And of course... I had to bring some food.

Reuben roll ups... basically the same filling as my Reuben dip - cream cheese, a little mayo, Thousand Island dressing and some rinsed/drained sauerkraut, smeared on lavash and rolled up, then cut into little pinwheels.



... and Asian Cucumber Salad, which takes about ten minutes to make if you have a slicing blade for a food processor. I did use more sugar than the recipe suggested (I was also making a much larger batch than the recipe suggests, so I don't know if that is why it was less sweet than I'd have liked to start off with) but it was good. I have another Asian-style cuke salad I've made before that is not far off from this one, but I think this one is a winner since I don't need to simmer any vinegar, which makes the whole house smell pickled for a day.



Party was fun... kids parties usually are... my nephew is *very* into all things Star Wars right now. How things change, and how they stay the same.

The funniest bit... while opening presents, my nephew was trying his best to be a good boy like mom teaches him, but at one point he opened a gift that was clothes, he pulled out a plain, gray t-shirt and said "A plain tee shirt. I've always wanted one."

Yes, the room broke out into hysterics. You can't help it. And I was a bit jealous because I don't think I could crack jokes that good at 6.

If you ever see a 7-foot tall comedian who is Ukrainian but was raised in America in on the comedy circuit, or the *really* funny pro basketball player, in 20 years, that'll be my nephew.

Party was around lunchtime, so I had to throw something together for dinner. I totally forgot about the brats I had, and it was raining cats and dogs, so I didn't really want to grill.

Frozen pizza, to the rescue!!

My pizza.... I always like to add something veggie to mine. In this case, some chopped spinach and a little extra cheese.



I actually found out tonight, after seventymillionzillion years of cooking for my husband, that he doesn't like veggies added to frozen pizza because "they don't get cooked enough." To me, the beauty of putting your own veggies on a pizza is that they remain kinda crisp... so I think he's a bit of a nutbag and I'm right.

In any case.... his plain pizza..... with a little extra cheese since the automatical pizza making machines always seem to miss some spots...



One key to super-thin crust frozen pizzas, I have learned, is to start them in a cold or not fully heated oven, and check at about ten minutes after they go in or just wait for the smoke alarm to tell you they are done (old family joke... every time the smoke alarms started going you tried to be the first person to yell "Pizza's done!" because 7 times out of 10, it meant the pizza was indeed done. Those other 3 times, it just meant some other dinner was done).




So... tomorrow starts my first week as a doomed woman at work. I do have to say... the layoff is atypical of the way Big Parent Company has done them in the past... some people we let go as of Wednesday, some as of Friday, and some of us there for another month. This lead to a LOT of confusion with people who were still glad to see others around on Thursday, thinking it was done. I spent half of my Friday going "Well... nope... I'm just here for another month...."

In any case, I have work to get done before then. What makes me saddest is the actual documentation itself... we'd just started to get things into shape where I was cleaning up Horrible Documentation Sins of Times Past and were getting actual software changes documented into the software release that the docs went out with.... that's all out the window. And it hurts to see that. There are always going to be things like errors that slip past... but intentionally doing sub-par docs is just a bad way to do things.

But, also on the horizon... they're doing a two-day workshop for outplacement, and for the first time, I tend to take advantage. I'm more than happy for any pointers on my resume or portfolio, and at the very least, it is two days, paid, away from the misery that is the office at this point, with a free lunch. Sign me up for the dried-out chicken sandwich, please.

24 degrees outside? Break out the summer shorts!

The dangerous cold has lifted... time to get on with life.

For me (and the rest of the people in the area) that apparently means going to the store.

Saturday was shopping day. The day started with a trip to Sam's Club. And apparently everyone was in as big of a need for toilet paper and coffee as me, since EVERYONE seemed to be at the store when I was there. I shoulda gone on Friday night.

I don't enjoy trips to Sam's Club. They didn't always used to be so bad, but as more people have gotten memberships over the years, the place is becoming as bad as Wally World. Unattended kids running around, people swarming for free samples (seriously... do you need to form a crowd three people deep for quesadilla samples?)... heck, there was almost a riot at the place with the roasted chickens by the meat... I thought some lady was going to clothesline me so she could grab the chicken I had in my hands. Ugh.

After that, the produce mart and regular grocery store were a cakewalk.

Actually, the product mart was even more fun than that.

I don't know if the deli dudes at Eurofresh read my blog or if there are just more people shopping there that are interested in what major stores seem to consider "nasty bits", but they've been hitting it off the charts lately. Since I first found veal bones there they have been excellent at usually having some out with the rest of the meat, as well as other bones for soups and stocks. I knew I needed to get my freezer chicken stock supply restored, and figured I'd just buy some wings or something and use those.

No need!

Apparently, they now sell dirt cheap packages of chicken necks and backs. Oh yeah.

When all was said and done, my meat haul when I returned from the stores....



And NOT pictures is the cooked chicken and ribs I picked up at Sam's club. Chicken will be used probably tomorrow for dinner, and the ribs are in the freezer, waiting for Superbowl Sunday.

In all the meat pictured above is two packages of the chicken necks/backs, two packages of ground beef, two packages of ground turkey (good sale), a package of turkey culets, a flank steak, mild Italian sausage, two packages of chicken wings (also for Superbowl Sunday).... and apparently other stuff, since there are more packages there than I am recalling right now. Oh yeah.. a package of country ribs. 'N stuff.

The country ribs, flank steak and sausage were for Sunday dinner.

But before that.... see anything missing?



Ah. The Final De-Christmasization of the House. Christmas tree is put away. Just as much fun as the day it first goes up.

So... um... yeah... by the time all the shopping/putting away and cleaning was done, it was late.

We ordered pizza.

Hey, a girl needs a night off sometimes.

But tomorrow was another day... the hubby went over to his folks for awhile, so I was left alone in the house. Blew threw some stuff on the Tivo and I was kinda bored. So I decided that I needed to make another big batch of Soup.

Cook More 2009: Soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup soup!

(sung along to the Monty Python "Spam!" song)

Cheddar Chicken Chowder

I've actually made this before... long ago, the hubby and I were both home, snowed in from work, and I whipped some of this up for lunch. As I recall, I didn't exactly follow the recipe then, and I didn't follow it exactly this time.

Starting off, I only had some green pepper... not red....



See that lovely brown stuff on the bottom???



Foodies call it "fond". Anne Burell calls it "crud". I just call it "yummy stuff". You don't ever want to waste that yummy stuff on the bottom of pot. It's not icky, burned on stuff. It's goodness. Tasty, tasty, goodness.

A little bit of chicken stock and some scraping the bottom of the pan and it'll come off... making your food tasty, and your pot easier to clean....



Anyway.... I know I have cooked, shredded chicken in my freezer somewhere, but apparently it's playing hide and seek. I made several trips between the kitchen and the basement freezers, looking for it, with no luck.

And since the homemade chicken stock has not been done yet, time to go for the good boxed stuff...



Seriously... if you're going to use a stock/broth you get from the grocery store... ONLY by Kitchen Basics. I've sworn by the stuff for a long time, and I stocked up my mom's pantry with some for the week since I figured she'd be on a broth-type diet after her recent incident. After having weak chicken broth at the hospital for a few days, she was amazed at how good this stuff was.

On to the recipe.... ok... no frozen corn on hand but I think a couple cans of canned corn....



Make that one can of corn, one can of creamed corn. And apparently some pimentos that I was planning on using over the holiday to make some pimento chees that I never got around to.

In ya'll go!



Oh... and that went in with the LOG of frozen cooked turkey that I was able to find. The ever-ellusive chicken is still in the freezer, somewhere.

I have to say... this stuff was as good as the first time I made it.



Mmmmm.....



Even forgetting the crumbled bacon on top (I did use some bacon fat to cook the veg) this was darned tasty. Creamy, cheesy, and it works well with turkey.

Dinner was a snap tonight... Italian Sunday Gravy again.



This is kinda the point where you start to skim some of the fat off the surface. Big old grease slicks are not pretty, but this is still some tasty stuff.

This time I did not cut back on the garlic, and since I didn't use spicy sausage (only mild... haven't found a brand of spicy sausage that I like) I added probably a heaping half tablespoon of red pepper flakes, and wowsa... all the difference in the world. It doesn't make it "burn the mouth" spicy... just gives it a nice, overall spice and flavor. Red pepper flakes are kinda like garlic... kinda overpowering when "raw" or added without much cooking, but when you let them cook for a long time, they do some really nice things.

And with that... the weekend is over... on to the workweek. Ugh. At least with MLK Day tomorrow there is no school traffic, which adds a little less frustration to the day.

But there is a bright spot... hopefully tomorrow I'll get my copy of Polish Heritage Cookery... someone in the hubby's family needs to make pierogi from scratch, and I've decided that is me. I know his dad's mother was always the great cook of the family and she used to do all this stuff... someone else needs to bring it back. I *WILL* be doing some type of homemade pierogi for Easter.

Weekend Update

Been a busy weekend around these parts. And the weather hasn't helped.

We were expecting a big snow to start coming through on Friday night, and in anticipation of that, I made a quick stop at the store on Thursday night to get provisions to do some frozen pizzas for dinner on Friday (my weekly "no cook" night). I already suspected I was coming down with a cold thanks to our petri dish of an office, and by Friday morning when I made it through the first round of snow and got to work, all I wanted was for it to be 5pm so I could go home and crash in bed for the night.

No such luck.

I'd talked to my mom on Thursday night and she mentioned she was feeling a bit... um... blocked up. What she kinda failed to mention was that she was kinda in pain from it. When she got up on Friday she was in a lot of pain, so she called in to work and went to see the doctor, and her doc did a CAT scan on her right away (his office is at a diagnostic facility). She went to go fill a prescription and while doing that, the doc called and said it was likely that she had an infection in her colon due to diverticulitis. He suggested maybe going over to the hospital that afternoon to have it checked out, and she did, and they ended up admitting her to the hospital and putting her on IV antibiotics and fluids.

I left work as early as I could, met the hubby at the house, and we headed to the hospital. Met my bro & sis in law & the kids there and visited with mom for a bit. She was not doing well, but glad she was at least there and hopeful to get better.

The roads were terrible on our way home, we picked up some McD's because it was on the way home. We didn't get home until pretty late.

We'd planned to go by on Saturday afternoon, but when I called my mom, my bro & fam were just leaving and she said she hadn't slept the night before and just wanted to try and get some sleep. I liked that plan so much, I decided to crash myself. I slept on and off for the entire afternoon and into the evening, and when my mom called she said not to bother to come by since the predicted snow went way longer than expected and roads were a mess. Hubby confirmed they were a mess when he came back from the hot dog stand down the block with a chili dog and some of their awesome chicken rice soup for me.

We did go to visit mom today (after I made a quick run thru the grocery store to stock up on some stuff for her, then we went to her house to clean up a bit, let the dog out, play with the dog, and pack some more clothes for her) and I'm happy to say that she was doing and looking MUCH better, finally getting at least liquid food, and should hopefully be going home tomorrow.

Hey... lady,... is there a point to this?

Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Blame the rambling on the cold brain.

So....

Cook More, 2009: Week 2 - The Dinner Edition

Tonight is a night I'd usually just not cook. Too tired, my brain is mush, if I tried to handle one of my serious knives I'd likely lose a hunk of skin. But I am lucky enough to have a pretty well-stocked freezer.

A recent blog post by Michael Ruhlman talked about a Mark Bittman NYT article talking about the "new" gourmet pantry, and Michael Ruhlam went a little farther to talk about things people keep in their freezers.

I'm a huge fan of the freezer, because on a night like tonight, nothing is more wonderful.

I made fried eggplant on New Year's Eve, and when I'm gonna fry eggplant, I make it a point to make more than I know I'll use, since it freezes wonderfully for the purpose of making a quick eggplant parm later down the line. I knew before we even left the house that I was sick of eating out and I wanted some nice, home food. I pulled the eggplant out of the freezer before we left, and while doing the shopping for my mom I did pick up a loaf of french bread, but I also almost always have a demi-baguette in the freezer.

First up.... Cheesy Garlic Bread. Yum!

I almost always have fresh garlic on hand, and I am still in butter-overload mode in the fridge. Didn't follow the recipe exactly, I melted all my butter while cooking the garlic since I didn't start with room temp butter.



Bring on the bread.....



I actually split the loaf into quarters... I baked off half of the loaf tonight, and stuck the rest in the freezer. When one taketh from the freezer, one should replace-ith what one taketh....

Mmmm... in it's garlic, cheesy glory....



On to the eggplant....



Layers of sauce, parm, romano and mozzerella go in between each little layer of eggplant....



Ready to go into the oven.....



I actually just threw it in the oven while the garlic bread was doing it's magic, but I've been known to (OK, I usually) throw it in the mircowave to heat it through.



Mmm.... eggplanty goodness.

Thank you, freezer, from keeping me from more french fries tonight.

Weekend Update....

First things first... that new "Leverage" show in TNT... very good if you're into the whole crime/caper thing. We were entertained.

Been busy in Casa De Hausfrau. Did all my stuff for the Christmas party this weekend... Spinach Cheese swirls (very good and ridiculously easy), Smoked Salmon stuffed potatoes (also good, although I have a LOT of cream cheese left over, perhaps I should have listened to the recipe and not doubled the filling) and Louisiana Shrimp dip (if you're lemon-phobic like the hubby, I'd seriously cut back on the lemon... I used half and it ws good when I make it, but the volume on the lemon got turned up while it was in the fridge for two days). My sister in law has had better luck with the Dev... I mean Martha Stewart recipes than me of late, and she made some utterly awesome crab cakes. All she had to do at party time was throw them in the oven and then add the toppings and they were seriously good.

Today was all about the approaching beast, Christmas. My first duty this morning was to go to the nearest Toys R Us (which is not so near) and get some stuff to donate and stick in their Toys for Tots bin. I was... um... rather emotional on Friday and happened to read one of the local "how bad some people have it" articles that always come out at this time of year, where a particular young girl just wanted a weekend where they could get away to a nice, downtown hotel for a weekend, after having suffered layoffs and an evictions due to a landlord who let a mortgage lapse. But what stuck with me in the article was when they asked her younger brothers what they wanted for Christmas, all they said was "we like Batman."

Proverbial knife, meet my heart.

The hubby is a huge comic book geek and has turned me into a pretty big Batman fan. And I also understood the point of the little girl... sometimes it's just nice to be somewhere else that is not your own four walls of a home for awhile. I grew up in a household that did not have a lot of money... there was an unfortunate time where we did have to do the government cheese thing and I am so thankful and appreciative that my dad managed to get us from that point to put two kids through college and set up a pretty nice life for my mom... but no matter how things may have been, I never remember a bad Christmas. I don't want any kid to have a bad Christmas. I don't want any parent to worry about thinking that their kid may have a bad Christmas. The hubby and I have been through our share of crap with job losses but have made it do to the love and support of those around us.... time to give back. I didn't get anything that will likely "make" someone's Christmas... a couple of Barbie dolls and a couple of Batman toys... but my hope is that it will keep some kids and parents from ever having to file the memory of a bad Christmas.

After that... it was the grocery stopping with some extra stops that were Christmas related, then home to get the tree up. I spent an hour trying to find the lightsockets that are missing their lights with no luck, and I just gave up and started the rest of the decorating.

Got most of it done by dinner time. Dinner was simple... steaks, baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. Then I finished the tree, then we watched Leverage, then I started on Christmas cards. Then I stopped Christmas cards to write this.

And so ends another weekend.

It's 9:30pm, and I don't have to go to work tomorrow....

Let the happy Furlough Feeling begin!

I must admit, it actually made for a nice weekend, knowing I didn't have to slam everything into two days.

So, of course, I slammed everything into two days.

Saturday is was cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Only thing I did not get around to doing was vacuuming the carpet. No biggie. Might do that tomorrow.

No cooking. I ended up running to pick up some Jimmy John's. The parking lot was a madhouse because the Little Caesar's a couple doors down was having it's opening weekend. And it was crowded. And I was confused. Why... in a town where there is at least fair-to-good pizza on most every corner... would people be standing in line for that stuff? Back, years ago, when that stuff was the big 2-for-1 deal it was what we ALWAYS got for pizza parties at school because you got a lot for the money. But it was all always gross. Ick.

Today was shopping day. I was thinking of putting it off until Monday, but figured the store would at least be staffed for crowds today. It was oddly uncrowded. There were a lot of people at the stores last week, so I don't know if people were stocking up then, but it was just oddly un-crowded for a Sunday before the holiday.

I did end up having to go back to one store a second time... the chocolate/pumpkin tart has a crust made from chocolate wafer cookies. I looked at three places and could not find them. Got home, and after the groceries were all put away I hit the 'net... turns out that a lot of stores now put them by the ice cream cones & stuff. Sigh. I hate it when stores do that. And I also wonder WHY, in this digital age, they don't have some gizmo for the people who work at the stores where they can do a simple search on some wireless device and tell you were to find something rather than staring at you blankly when you ask a question.

Kinda fizzled out after that.... relaxed, watched some TV, made crab & scrambled eggs for dinner. Used green onions rather than chives, and it was still good. But man... that recipe just calls for good crab. I've tried it with lesser-than-lump crab and it's just not as good.

Going to head out tomorrow morning and try to get a little Christmas shopping done. Afternoon will be coming home and doing some cooking and cleaning out the freezers. Wooo. Dinner plan is bagel dogs since we have about a zillion and a half hotdogs in the freezer. Ooops. My bad. And come to think of it, I might pull out another 4 hot dogs and do a double batch of bagels, as long as I'll be doing it anyway.

Crab legs

One of the things they usually have at the POG (plain ole grocery store) in my land-locked area is snow crab legs. Sometimes, they have them on sale. I am happy those sometimes.

I bought a couple pounds today while doing my shopping. They're usually still frozen, which is fine. Thousands of miles from crab countyr + frozen = crab will still be "fresh" when you defrost it.

I just put them in the fridge wile I carried on with the day (which also involved going to the produce mart, Home Depot and Sams Club). When it was time to start dinner, I threw a couple of potatoes in the oven, melted some butter, and added some garlic confit to the butter. And added more garlic because it wasn't garlicky enough. And ended up with a mixture of about half garlic and half butter, which is probably better for my waistline, anyway.

Made some salads, threw the crab legs in a dish with some damp paper towels, covered with some cling wrap, and nuked it for five minutes while we ate out salads. Oh, I also roasted some asparagus, too. Gotta have your veggies, kids.

We sat at our coffee table (our kitchen table is pretty much used to hold mail - sad but true) and worked on cracking crab legs and enjoying dinner while watching the Simpson's Treehouse of Horror (which was brilliant, by the way).

A nice, easy night. Very little thought involved, just bringing things up to temperature. I think I only spent about 20 minutes working in the kitchen. My kinda easy night.

I think our bathroom is just about as done as it's gonna get. Yesterday, we headed to return the mirrored door, and then went to Home Depot where we found a louvered (which we both hate, BUT) painted white door and decided that not having to paint won over louvered, so we bought it. Hubby hung it, but the handle it came with was crap, so I went and bought a new one today. Hubby spent the morning cursing the former homeowner and the crap caulk job on the tub (seriously... this guy worked for a home building company - one of our neighbors did tell us that - but he must have been an accountant or something non-handy because everything he did to this house was done wrong and badly) and de-mildewing the area that needed the caulk. Let it dry for a couple hours and he did get it caulked... we've got our fingers crossed that it'll be OK by the time we take showers tomorrow morning.

I also washed our shower curtain.... and it shrunk in the dryer. Um, go me.

But, it looks like the bathroom is mainly done. I am happy.

Unseasonable warmth.....

For the second year in a row, Chicago is going through a weekend of unseasonable warmth.

I only know this because the Chicago Marathon didn't go off so well last year when temps hit the high 80s. And did they over-prepare to not have things go down that badly again.

Saturday was cleaning day while the hubby and his brother finally laid the tile for the un-tiled space in the bathroom. Woo hoo! Only one emergency trip to Menards needed to be made (when the hubby did not measure the thickness of the cement board, even though I asked him before he went for the initial trip). While hubby was gone, the brother in law actually sat downstairs with me and watched cooking shows. I know he does cook sometimes (quite fond of chili recipes) and he mentioned he liked Alton Brown, so I whipped out his first cookbook and brother-in-law flipped through it and asked to borrow it. Then he asked about making his own chicken stock (man.... I think I picked the wrong brother!) and I told him it was easy and how to do it. Other than that, I stayed close to home... cleaned up. Wooo. I did also get some Halloween decorations up.

Did run to Bed, Bath & Beyond.... needed to get a melon baller to make some mini potato skins for the nephew's birthday party this weekend. Also wanted to check out the options for a new shower caddy and a couple of other things when we get the bathroom ready. I'm really, really hoping we can get the primer on the bathroom walls on Friday night and then throw up the paint on Sunday, and spend next weekend getting the new vanity in. Once we get to painted walls and a working sink in there again, I will be a MUCH happier hausfrau.

Saturday night brother in law called a couple times since he didn't believe me about chicken stock... I had suggested if he was starting from raw chicken to start with wings, but he went to the regular store and could only find legs/thighs as the only chopped up meat with bones. I think he thinks I'm a lair, he said today that his broth just never tasted very good (I thought they were going to wait until today to have soup, I was prepared to raid my freezer for the stock I made last week, I felt so bad!).

Today, the brother in law was supposed to come over so they could do the grout. He called while he & the family were out for breakfast and said they were all going to come by. No problem. Played with my nephews (it's cool with them that I have a Barbie collection because I also have a couple of very fun Nerf guns, and my 3 year old nephew is a surprisingly good shot) and visited with the sis-in-law while the hubby laid down the grout.

When they left, I went to Target to get some things, and then to the grocery store to get at least some of the shopping for the week done. They had steaks on sale, and I figured with the warm weather, some grilled steaks would make a great meal.

Made salads, made myself some chive sour cream and a little thyme/chive/rosemary compound butter, prepped potatoes for the microwave and took out some frozen cauliflower.

We usually eat around 7pm. Not a problem in the summer, when the days are long and the light sticks around. I looked out the sliding doors at about 6:20 and saw dusk already coming. Crap.

Got out there, fired up the grill and threw the steaks on, started the potatoes in the microwave, prepped some salads. I still ended up grilling in the dark (man, we need a better light out on our deck) but dinner came together, eventually.

Kitchen is now cleaned, there is a nice, cool breeze coming through the sliding door, second of three loads of laundry is in the dryer, and I'm chilling with a dark chocolate raspberry frappachino thing right now. Life would be great if I didn't have to go to work tomorrow.....

The Veal Stock-Off

So.... I really wanted to know if there was a difference between the veal stock from the French Laundry Cookbook and Michael Ruhlman's veal stock.

Sorry, FLC. Ruhlman's will likely be my veal stock from here out.

I like the French Laundry stock. It was great flavor, and for my tastes maybe a smidge better, but in the end, I am a lazy person and Ruhlman's was easier.

Sue me.

I roasted a chicken tonight so I have some lovely chicken bones that will get dumped into a crock pot to make chicken stock (again.... LAZY) and I'll also do some caramelized onions in the crockpot, and that will all be combined to make some french onion soup. Mmmmmm.

Busy weekend in Casa de Hausfrau. Party on Satuday (we stopped for food at Steak and Shake after the party) and brunch this morning with the in-laws for father-in-law's birthday. The economy must be in the crapper (or Cubs fans were just not fit to travel outside their homes after a night of over-indulgence to dull the pain) because the place was EMPTY. But the food was great. Crawfish etoufee over scrambled eggs is a yummy thing.

Came home, then I headed out again to try and match the friggin' tile upstairs. I may have found something close, but they won't have the sample for me until tomorrow so I can put it next to our tile to see. I think we decided (after an argument with me insisting that we are NOT going to throw down horribly mismatched tile "becayse the vanity will cover it" - we would at least need to do something like some border tiles and then maybe do some smaller tiles or whatever) before the hubby finally stated that rather than do that, he'd just re-do the whole floor. I can deal with that also. He doesn't believe me that laying tile is NOT that hard. My dad knew some tile guys while we were growing up, and calculate in re-doing bathrooms and then re-redoing them AGAIN after floods... I've seen it done a lot. And I watched. And I asked questions.

Hopefully the work week should be quiet. Thought we were going to have to deal with a software release tomorrow that was going to be a big deal, but it looks like it shouldn't be too bad. Wooo.

Night off?

Usually, Friday night is my "night off" from all hausfrau-ish duties. We get takeout and I'm freed from the kitchen for the night.

Tonight, we got Chinese food.

I always forget, with Chinese food, we usually eat off our regular plates (not the plastic ones) and the counter always looks like a disaster area with the leaky containers and all the drips and globs as we dish out our food. And then putting all the leftovers away, yadda yadda yadda.

So the dishwasher is going right now, and the counters have been wiped down. For the second time tonight.

When I got home, I got started on making some regular guac and some Roquamole for a party we're going to tomorrow. A double batch of Roquamole plus the regular guac used up 14 avocados (only 1 bad one in the bunch I bought). An hour total to make both the dips and get cleaned up.

I've also had some of Michael Ruhlman's version of veal stock going over the past few days. Few days? Yes. I know, I could just easily start this and leave it in the oven overnight or while I'm at work and then deal with it and get the process done in a day... but I have a very unnatural fear that unattended cooking will start my house on fire. Whenever I leave something in the crock pot while I'm at work, I have to check the suburban paper's website a zillion and a half times during the day to make sure there are no reports of townhome-engulfing fires in our complex. Leave a gas stove on overnight? We'd be dead by morning. I'm as sure of this as my hubby is sure if he stepped one foot in Australia, he'd instantly be bit by one of the zillion poisonous creatures there and die. You don't question this kind of belief.

So, I just broke down the cooking of veal stock over the course of the week... get home from work, simmer a couple hours, then throw the pot in the downstairs fridge to pick it up again the next day. Right now, I have my initial veal stock and the remouillage sittin' in the downstairs fridge, waiting until Sunday when I'll actually have the time to reduce them down.

We've got the party tomorrow afternoon, and on Sunday morning we're going out to brunch with the in-lae family for father-in-law's birthday. Actually a decent brunch, so that is good at least. Undecided if I want to try and get some grocery shopping done quickly tomorrow, or just wait until Sunday afternoon. In any case, Sunday dinner is probably going to be something easy and simple like roast chicken. I could also use the chicken bones... my homemade chicken stock, um, stocks, are low. (Although another cooking project this week was to use up some duck bones I had in the freezer, so I now have 9 cups of duck stock I also need to deal with).

Does anyone really ever get everything done that they want to get done on a weekend?

I sure as heck don't.

Yesterday, I hoped to get up, go take my truck for an oil change, go get the elliptical I wanted, stop at another tile place to try to find the mystery matching tile for our tile, and go to the grocery stores.

Yeah.

Woke up later than I wanted, oil change didn't happen. Waited for the hubby to get ready so we could go to get the father-in-law's Suburban so we could load up the elliptical. Went to the store, and they were out of stock. And the people who walked into the store just before us were headed to get the last one at a nearby store. I was not pleased.

Hubby didn't want to go to the tile store.

On the way home, he did make an unexpected to me stop at Menards. For the bathroom re-do, we need a new door for the linen closet. Actually good thinking to get it while we had the truck. Went to look at the doors and since they had nothing that came finished, I figured it'd be best/easiest to just get a mirrored door so we don't need to add to the to-do list. Besides, it is kinda nice to have a full length mirror SOMEWHERE. Aaaaannnd then found out the hubby didn't bother to measure the door. I was pretty sure we needed a 24-inch bifold door. He thought 30. We went home and measured. It was 24. Back to Menards.

Got the door, got some ceiling paint since the stuff we had dried out. Wooo.

Hubby dropped the goods and me at home, and said he was bringing the truck back and would be back "in a few minutes". I nuked a Lean Cuisine (the Tortilla Crusted Fish is not nearly as gross or disappointing as some of their other fish entrees I've had) and gobbled it up. Thought about making a menu plan and list, but I figured the hubby would be back quick enough where I could sort through that stuff while I was doing the shopping.

I waited.

And waited.

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnd waited.

I do not know why I have yet to figure out that even when the hubby KNOWS I have errands to run and he says he'll be back "in a few minutes" it means at least an hour. And it's not because his parents won't let him escape that quickly.... it's because he then decideds to spent an hour or an hour and a half running his own errands. I wouldn't mind if he told me he'd be doing it and didn't leave me waiting like an idiot. Oh, and I would also be less annoyed if he didn't take the keys to his Camaro so I could use that, or not park the Cougar in right in front of his Camaro.

I was pretty fuming by the time he finally got home. I basically brushed by him and was gone.

I made it as far as the store parking lot, muttering many bad words, before I turned the car around and headed home. I was too pissed off to do the shopping.

Came home and the brother in law was over helping to yank out the vanity upstairs (holy crap! Actual WORK on the bathroom? Wasn't expecting the hubby to get any of that done this weekend) and when the hubby asked why I was back, I muttered something about being too pissed off and he could have TOLD me he'd be gone that long and I pouted on the couch.

Hubby must have figured out I was peeved, since he tried to be nice after that. Apparently being cranky makes me tired, since I crashed out on the couch and he didn't wake me until 7pm. He even went out and picked up White Castles for dinner.

Today I wanted to get going at a reasonable hour to head to yet another tile store and then get the shopping done. Didn't wake early, no tile store. But I did hit the grocery store, Trader Joes, Whole Foods (who knew that crab is actually cheaper there than at the regular store??) and two produce marts. Also did a stroll through Half Priced Books and picked up "Julie & Julia" and hit GFS to get some "I don't care if I leave them somewhere" serving bowls since I plan on making some guac for a party this weekend.

Since I picked up veal bones at BOTH the produce marts, I roasted those so I can have a go at Michael Ruhlman's veal stock. Since it's supposed to cook for a massive 10 hours I don't know when the heck I will finish it, but I at least have it started.

Made Gordon Ramsey's crabmeat & eggs & chives for dinner with some roasted potatoes and asparagus. Yummy.

Laundry load number 3 is in the washer. Kitchen is cleaned. Dishes are done.

Still don't have tile for the bathroom.

Don't have my elliptical.

Didn't get my oil changed.

But, I am enjoying Julie & Julia so far.

So how did you use the veal stock anyway??

Bordelaise sauce!!

Bordelaise!!

I made it to pour over some steaks and mushrooms for dinner.

I may not want to marry it, but I'd surely have a nooner with it, if it ever asked.

Carrots, shallots, mushrooms, garlic, thyme and parsley.




Pour on the red wine. The FL cookbook suggests a Cab. I don't drink Cab. I had none on hand. I used Merlot.



Simmer, simmer, simmer, until, the wine has almost reduced....



Then dump in a cup of veal stock.....




The cook until it's a nice sauce-like consistency. Strain off the solids, and pour liberally all over someone and lick it off. It's also pretty good on beef.

Now.... the hubby usually puts steak on his ketchup. I understand some of the appeal of it... tomato, vinegar, spices, it's not the world's worst thing.

Bordelaise is kinda like a combo of ketchup and steak sauce on crack. Nekkid. Running while the cameras from COPS are fixed on it. It's good. Damn good.

Hubby did not partake. His loss. And my gain. I've re-commited to my diet efforts, so it looks like it's a boring week of Lean Cuisine lunches ahead for me. One of them is their meatloaf and potatoes.

I think I may have a nooner with it this week, actually, I hope to take the remainder of sauce and pour it all over my lame, poor little Lean Cuisine. Sorry, Chef Keller. I know it wasn't your intention, but it sure as hell cannot suck.

Wanted to go buy a new excercise bike this weekend, and I did go look, but I found no options that I really liked. Then I decided an elliptical might be more what I am looking for in a piece of excercise equipment. Did some research and came to a decision. Then meausred to make sure I could fit the box into the truck.... I cannot. Would it have been easy for the hubby to call his dad right then, take ten minutes to pick up his Suburband and drive me to Dick's Sporting Goods to pick it up in a grand total of about 30 minutes of activity? Sure. Is that what happened? No. Hubby spent yesterday afternoon, last night, and this morning and afternoon dealing with a rather nasty trojan on his PC. He seemed to think running his anti-virus software for, oh, the SIXTH time would really do the trick. Heck, we could have gotten my flippin' elliptical WHILE any of of the zillion things he tried was chugging away. (Yeah. I'm slightly peeved. Thanks for doing something for ME, hubby. Grumble).

Hubby continued to work on his PC, then went to his folks house to wash his car, then came home, then finally let ME do some stuff to his PC and the problem was fixed in about a half hour.

Don't know when we're getting the elliptical. I would hope this week, but I suspect the hubby will continue his streak of working late, and I suspect even more that if he doesn't he'll make up some cranky excuse to not have to do it. What-ev-ah. If I don't have it by Saturday, we're going for it on Saturday. And if it no longer on the crazy super-sale they're having (they had no date posted for when the sale ended) he's going to suck it up and pay the damned difference.

Weekend at Casa de Hausfrau

Happy stove!!

That is chili in the crockpot, and veal stock reducing in my other pan. Yay!

The chili was for dinner tonight. Hey, it's football season! Gotta have chili!!! The veal stock is the correctly executed brown veal stock from the French Laundry cookbook. I remembered the tomato paste this time... and boy was this a different animal. Much more complex. The other one I made seemed more like a really good chicken broth (which is kinda how hubby described it). This one has a bit more body and I can really see doing some nice pan sauce for beef with this one in the near future.

It was a Sunday for staying in... rainy and many flooded out streets around here. The Chicago area actually got more rain on Saturday than any other one day total. I know those down in the gulf coast are dealing with an entirely different thing, but this meant some headaches to us.



We got off pretty easy. A little leaking in the basement, no more than usual and not as bad as we have had to deal with at other times in the past. Some others we know... not so lucky.

My cousin (who is married to the hubby's ex-college roommate - it's a long story about how their hookup happened, but we had no involvement in setting them up, but they are great together) lives right next to a creek, and their basement was getting water. Looked like it was going to threaten her hubby's comic book collection, but he managed to get everything up higher just before more water came in. My brother in law and sister in law didn't get anything in their basement, but my sis in law went to check on her parent's house (they were out of town) and they got some water in their basement due to a water-filled window well. The hubby's aunt got some water in her basement, also due to a water-filled window well. When we ventured out yesterday, we turned in to a parking-lot-turned-lake and I was thankful we were in the truck and NOT either the Cougar or Camero or we'd have gotten water in the car.

The other big thing happening 'round these parts is some house desconstruction. Yes, we are FINALLY getting to the upstairs bathroom. It seriously needs a non-hidiously colored coat of paint, and we wanted to put in an new vanity (other one is all covered with paint from previous owner's attempts to paint..... I don't think they knew what painters tape was even though the dude worked for a house builder), and some new fixtures. Now, if I have a fixer upper task I like to approach it kinda like meal planning for the week... figure out a menu/what needs to be done, make a shopping list, do the shopping, then start when you think you have everything. The hubby? Nope. Jump in and start the deconstruction and..... oh. Uh-oh.

The uh-oh right now is that we have a 36 inch vanity crammed into the space for the sink/vanity. And the sink top is also 36 inches. They don't make off-the-shelf vanity tops that are 36 inches, they're all designed to have some overhang. No biggie... we came from Vegas with money, were all ready to go about just getting some countertop granite put there... then looked under the sink. From what I can guess, the upstairs bath was designed to offere the upgrade option of his & hers sinks (removing the stupid ass linen closet) that the original owner did not go for. The connections to the water line don't come from the back wall, they come outta the right wall. PROBLEM. You basically have to cut out a section of vanity and slide it in so you can connect to the water lines. And, well, biggest problem is that all the off-the-shelf vanities have drawers on that side. No 36 inch vanities that are just doors or whatever.

So, even though I was all happy that the hubby said "do what you want!" with the bathroom, it is not going to be that. We suspect they tiled around the vanity but there is some extra tile in the basement (or, seriously, we could just go Menards and say "point us to the cheapest 12 inch tile, and it would be this stuff) so we may just pull out the vanity, lay down a little more tile, and put in a 30 inch vanity. Yeah, there will be a gap and some exposed pipe... but we don't have many options right now. :( Stupid builders. Stupid first owner, for not going for the his & hers sinks! I'd frigging love that, but that is a task beyond what we're willing to do on our own. I understand the hubby's point.... it's not like we're going to be here forever, we're just trying to fix this place up a bit. Seriously... when we moved here... if they'd have done something as simple as painting the living/dining area white (rather than the ugly blue-grey that it was) we'd have thought this place was outta our price range. It was UGLY before we threw up some paint, and I never saw paint make such a difference.

So, no dream bathroom in my future. But as long as the horrid blue is gone, I'll be happier.

And, we've had a fly in the house pretty much since we got back from Vegas. And I FINALLY just killed it. I am Queen of the World right now.

Bye-bye, weekend......

I hate this moment, when you know the weekend is over and you have to go to work the next day.

Sigh.

Dinner tonight was a steak for the hubby, some fish for me. Fish was looking/tasting good until I added capers to the sauce. I bought these capers a couple weeks back at the farmer's market. Waaaay too salty for my tastes. I had them soaking in water earlier today, trying to get some of the salt out, but bleh. They just ruined it. Live and learn. And must stop at Trader Joe's to get some of their capers. I have much love for their capers.

Did some steamed potatoes as a side... chopped yukon golds, rinse them, thwap into a steamer bag and nuke. I love those steamer bags... although "carbon footprint guilt" has got me using a proper plastic microwave steamer for my veggies most nights. When they came out of the microwave, tossed them with some butter and parsley. Yum.

Got my meals planned for the week... a new dish for me tomorrow - ravioli with chopped cherry tomatoes, zucchini and bacon (which comes highly recommended, but I already suspect the hubby with not like it). Also going to do a pork stir-fry this week, possible "chicken something or other" and some reubens (they had homemade corned beef on sale at the produce/deli mart today, I couldn't resist).

Been dabbling with playing around at learning some basic blackjack lately. I'd like to get brave enough to pony up to a table next time we're in Vegas. I'm usually a "machine only" person.... I just have very litter tolerance for other people's stupidity. Me + on vacation + idiot at table.... I just see that turning into a scene where I end up going off on someone and casino security becoming involved. On our first two trips to Vegas (Luxor and the Monte Carlo) I was able to walk up to the video blackjack machines they had and use them as my own personal cash machines. That was nice. But I have a couple of games loaded on to my Palm that I usually play at lunch... and is my luck just BAD. Even on the one that prompts me when I make a "bad" play.... it's not even a "breaking even" thing, I'd be happy with that.... I just suck. I started out with $500 and I'm already $500 in the hole. This cannot bode well.

And on Sunday, she rested.....

Not really.

But I didn't have to leave the house and do anything. And for a weekend day, I consider puttering around the kitchen and doing a couple loads of laundry pretty close to resting.

Yesterday was busy, and expensive. Our DVD/VCR combo died on Friday night. When you can hear the thing trying to spin the DVD, it's not good. I knew it was coming and had already been researching our options. On Saturday, I was going to Costco anyway, so the big decision was whether to get the $90 basic one, or the $300 with all the bells and whistles that can also copy things to DVD.

We got the fancy-schmancy one. Or, I should say, I got the fancy-schmancy one, because this weekend was the comic book convention and the man was consumed with all thinks geek this weekend.

After braving Costco yesterday, I also hit Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma (when Crate and Barrel didn't have any biscuit cutters), Staples, the regular grocery store and the produce mart.

One very interesting find at Costco - Maple Leaf Farms roasted half duck. We both love duck, and I make it every New Year's Day, but man, it can be fickle. I was overjoyed at the two pack of these things... all you gotta do is throw them in the oven for 15 minutes and you are rewarded with some nicely done roast duck. It couldn't have been any easier. I might even try to get back to Costco to pick up some for the freezer, just in case these don't make it as a "regular" item.

This morning, it was up early and I made a run to McD's for breakfast. It is usually a tradition of the hubby to eat McD's for breakfast one day during the comic book convention (actually, it's how we "met" the first time before we met for real... a week before we hooked up, he was getting his McMuffin fix during the comic book convention, and I was the one who rang up his order). Pulled into McDs, and there were a bunch of fire engines in the lot. Um, ok?

Don't know what was going on, but the place was crawling with firemen that were obviously doing something, but they were still operating for business.

And, it's a sad day when you're in a fast food place ordering coffee and you have the following conversation...

McDs Dude: How many creams and sugars do you want for your coffee?
Me: Just make it light and sweet.
McDs Dude: Um.... how many creams and sugars do you want for your coffee?

Seriously?? If I was going to be that much of a control freak about it, I'd have just answered the question telling you how many creams and sugars I wanted.

I did make some pickled cherries this afternoon to go along with the duck. They're from the French Laundry Cookbook and are actually served with foie gras in the recipe, but they are also awesome paired with duck. The sweet/vinegar really goes nicely with the richness of duck. Also found two containers of peeled garlic cloves in the fridge in addition to the one I bought yesterday, so I made a load of garlic confit. I know I can use some of it this week.

As far as cooking plans for this week, tomorrow with be the steak/flounder I planned to make yesterday, before the hubby announced he wanted Chinese food. I picked up Gordon Ramsay's "Fast Food" at Costco, and there is a pork chop recipe and a chicken recipe I want to have a go at this week. And that will take us through to the holiday. I do also have to get cooking done for the 4th... the brother-in-law's house is on the opening corner of the parade route, so they usually have people over. Last year they tried a proper brunch-type setup, but between the parade and everyone coming and going, it didn't work so well. So, this year, it's just bagels & coffee cakes and munchie type foods. I'm going to do some mini-quiches and a version of Ina Garten's Easy Cheese Danishes (and I'm also going to do some apricot ones).

Garden is doing well. I actually had to tie down some of the tomato plant branches during the week, they're just going nutbusters. A couple of good sized, but still green, tomatoes on my patio tomato plant, dozens of green tomatoes on the cherry tomato plant, and lots of little green tomatoes on the other two. Yay!

And... while out watering the plants today, I was turning off the house and looked down in to the window well that is right over there... hey, that looks like a frog down there. Holy crap, that is a frog down there! I ran back inside about as quickly as I could. Worked up the courage to go out again in a couple minutes and looked again.... yep. Froggie was likely jumping and didn't figure it was there or didn't figure it was as deep as it is, and you could tell he couldnt' get out. The hubby was "oh, he can get out". I was all "I don't think he can, and I don't want to deal with a DEAD frog in our window well." He ended up putting a long pole down there so Froggie could climb out. Don't know if it's worked. Too chicken to go out there and look or even look thru the basement window. Yeah, I'm a girl. I do not like frogs.

When you're a Hausfrau, the weekend is never relaxing.

So, after last weekend with places to go all weekend, I was looking forward to this weekend.

Yeah.

Woke up early on Saturday and it was Mission Clean! for the day. Cleaned, organized, put things in order. I swear, my husband sheds hair like a bleepin' dog. I dared to tackle the carpeted stairs... which were covered with SO much of my hubby's hair it was ridiculous. He's been talking about wanting to get a dog, and he's not on the same wavelength as me with getting a non-shedding dog like a poodle, so he was informed that there was no WAY we'd be getting a dog without getting a maid service for me. I couldn't do his hair and dog hair.

Our cruddy vacuum is not good on the stairs and the hubby busted the little broom vac I'd been using, so it was a struggle with the vacuum falling in to me several times to get the stairs done. But it got done. As did the rest of the cleaning & straightening up.

We ordered a pizza for dinner, watched Cops, and I feel asleep on the couch for a few minutes. Woo! What a Saturday night.

Today was grocery shopping and other fun errands, which also involved going to find another tomato cage. Went to one nursery, and they only had these huge tomato plant structure things that were much more than I needed. Walked around, and what do I find?

Chocolate mint. Two different bleepin' kinds.

Yeah. I bought it. And also had to get a pot to put it in. Sigh.

Went to another garden place and found my tomato cage. Got home, got that around my plant, did a salmon filet for me and a strip steak for the hubby for dinner, and did a few hours of work for Old Company. Woo.

And right now I am so dead tired, I'll be lucky if I wake up at all tomorrow.

Changes are a coming........

Come the new year, I'm going full force on the diet front again.

I've done Weight Watchers in the past, and I lost 30 pounds doing it. Unfortunately I've put those pounds back on and my own "self" efforts have at least kept me at the same weight, but not helped take any off.

So, come the new year, after I have a replacement for my now-dead Palm that I use for tracking (I'm not a joiner-type-person, I did my original WW stint doing online only and there are some great tools to use on a Palm that do the same thing while feeding no money to a huge corporate machine) I'm starting over. And it'll be interesting this time, since I'm also commited to go "eat out" every day for lunch since my current employer has a rule about no eating at your desk.

As an additional tool, I'm going to be posting about some of the diet efforts. For now, I imagine it's going to be general rules about HOW you can eat out and still loose weight. Take that, Morgan Spurlock!!

In other Hausfrau news......

We got more snow this weekend. Great. Fantastic. It was coming down so hard on Saturday that I didn't make it to my work's holiday party.

Today was brunch for my mother in law's birthday. It's a place we've been to eat many, many times, and we do brunch there pretty frequently. Pappadeauxs. Yeah, it's a chain, but it's always good. At least when they're not out of oysters.

We went over to the in-laws for awhile after, just to hang out. Then it was home again to our sadly plowed driveway (the plow service for the townhouse association always does a HORRIBLE job on our little section) and I headed out to hit the grocery stores. Wooo.

The reorganized my regular store and everything is in a different place. That makes for worlds of not fun.

Got home, chilled a little, didn't make dinner since I'm still full from brunch. I did also make up some of Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies for the hubby to take to work this week for some work party. Man, those things are awesome. I usually make them without nuts, but otherwise follow the recipe. Provided you have the half-sheet pan, a HUGE bowl to mix it all up in, totally foil line your pan to make them easier to deal with and don't mind getting chocolate and butter all over yourself in the process, it's super easy. And lord, people gush over them.

Which brings me to another rambling point that hit my brain as I was looking over the Food Network reviews of the recipe to recall what changes I make (use less coffee) -- what the hell is with people who "won't tell" someone else's recipe?? I understand if it's some award-winning, passed-down family recipe... but why wouldn't you pass on some massively available recipe in hopes it will inspire someone else? Someone mentioned that they passed off the recipe as "their own".... well, it's not! Why not tell people? When I make a recipe like that, I'm always more than happy to gush about how great a recipe was or how easy it was to make, since that love will be passed on to others. Why wouldn't you want to spread that love???