I did not cook anything yesterday, but cleaned my oven and stove. I can see through the window into the oven again! People were still eating the roast, soup, and bread, so I did not feel bad. Made Brian the tuna sandwich on french bread with hard boiled eggs, etc. for lunch. Anyway, now I can do some catch up writing.

I did not host the Thanksgiving dinner this year, but did prepare the spinach dip, bread for that and dinner rolls (first crack at the Joy of Cooking French bread recipe), cranberries (from the Farmer's Market, cooked briefly with brown sugar and maple syrup), and candied yams. The yams are baked first, not too done, and then sliced and sauteed for 45 minutes or so in butter, brown sugar, a little water, salt and a very small amount of vanilla flavoring. Attention intensive, which is probably for the best so one doesn't make them very often. Once or twice a year is enough.

I left town for four days after Thanksgiving, and made a fair amount of food for the guys to eat while I was gone. On Wednesday there was a Thai chicken curry for dinner, with some leftovers for the next day. We ate that with eggrolls that Brooke and I made this summer and froze for just such occasions. The curry is pretty much exactly as directed on the jar of red paste, but I substitute half the fish sauce with soy. I also add a big glop of peanut butter and some unsalted peanuts. It's chicken, onion, green beans, spinach added at the end. I usually put in potatoes too, but forgot them that day.

I did three or four quarts of turkey stock with legs and wings, roasted first with the veggies. I usually make a turkey soup after Thanksgiving with the carcass, but figured we could snag some turkey at Steven's for this year's batch. I also pulled together a big vat of chili and another of spaghetti sauce, so they could just cook up a couple of pounds of pasta and switch off while I was away. Brooke chopped and sauteed a bunch of carrots, celery and onion in butter and olive oil on Thanksgiving just before we went to dinner. We did bring home turkey, but I had no cooking left in me that evening - only packing and drinking beer. Brooke did a brilliant job of making the soup on Friday evening after I was gone, to rave reviews from Brian and Ben. She hid a little for me to try when I got home, and it was great.

I spent a lot of time in my step-mother's kitchen in Indiana, but most of it was sitting down. Wonderful! There was a huge ham dinner at my sister's on Saturday that I didn't cook anything at all for. Wonderful! I did stand close to Jane while she made deviled eggs so I could try to write down what and how much of what she was putting in them. Results still pending.

After I returned home last week I made a Martha Stewart meatloaf recipe and set my oven to come on to have it ready right when Brian came home on Wednesday while I was teaching. Potatoes next to it. It was still nice and warm when I zipped home between students and rehearsal, and came out very well. I'll use that oven feature often in the future.

Once that was gone we dove into the crazy hell of an Advent musician weekend - all rehearsal, concerts, masses - no cooking.

I certainly haven't kept up with this very well, but will try, try again. Today was the tail end of a snowstorm, complete with shoveling driveways and wishing cars ran better in the cold. We started the day with a big pot of Del Sol coffee and some aging peanut butter bars. Brian took two liverwurst sandwiches with mustard, mayo, pepper jack, spinach and yellow and red peppers to work, and probably had to survive without Shin cups - he's fresh out. About 1pm I started a kettle of cabbage soup with the big half of an organic white cabbage from the co-op, a couple of tablespoons of "Better than Boullion" chicken stuff, three quarts of water and the rest of the mirepoix Brooke put together for me on Thanksgiving - I guess anything stays good in a butter stasis. At about 4pm some potatoes went in, and at Ben's urging a browned polish sausage sliced thin. Delicous at 6pm with French bread right out of the oven... I did the Joy of Cooking bread recipe for the second time this afternoon. Yummy, good for more than a day, but not really French bread since it has milk and butter as well as the standard ingredients. Ah, well.

Yesterday, with the storm looming, seemed a good time for the Frugal Gourmet's Polish pot roast idea. I browned a four pounder in my cast iron Dutch oven, and then added chopped onion, chopped dill pickle, peppercorns, dried mushrooms and some white wine and beef broth. Put it in the oven about 10:30 at 300 degrees. Added a bunch of small russets to the top of the pot at 3:45 or so, and put a covered casserole dish with half a big buttered butternut squash next to it. Went on a snowy two hour driving expidition to get everyone home that included a detour to Kiev foods for a bag of potato pirogies and half a pound of Hungarian salami. Home again, removed the potatoes and roast from the oven, threw some freshly sliced cabbage in a pan with water, chicken stuff, and a bit of milk, and thickened the remaining pot liquids with Wondra, cooked a bit and blended (including the onions, pickles, mushrooms, etc.) with some sour cream for gravy. So supper was pot roast, potatoes and gravy, cabbage, squash and a quick spinach salad with prefab vinaigrette, dried cranberries and feta. Hoo-ya!

Monday, Monday (try to hear the music)

I made coffee yesterday, and a smoothie. We baked a delicious Heggie's (the best frozen) pizza in a 500 degree oven on the unglazed clay tiles that live on the bottom rack, and it was perfect. Mixed some Manhattans for me and Bill to sip during the Colbert Christmas Special. They were too big.

Today, shockingly, I made a smoothie. The recipe for that does not vary. Ben's lunch-in-the-car today was an omelete with two slices of thick-cut smoked bacon from Stasny's, and shredded cheddar.

I read and remembered too many pasta ideas this afternoon, and ended up with quite the mutant, but a happy one. At 4pm I realized we'd probably like some garlic bread with the pasta, so I added a little extra yeast to my day-to-day french bread routine (4.5 t Safe-T yeast, 2 t salt, 2 c water, 5-6 c flour, let the Kitchen Aide do most of the work), andwe set it in a 100 or so degree oven to rise. Then sliced up half a pound of Shitake mushrooms from the Asian market on the egg slicer, and trimmed and quartered an equal sized pile of brussels sprouts (use 'em or lose 'em). Put a half cup or so of red lentils to soak. Then I zipped off to the Mississippi Market on my way to pick up Ben, and grabbed three chicken breasts, some more baby spinach, and a tube of pesto.

Back home a bit after 5pm, I shaped two small and one larger french loaves, then broiled the chicken smothered in lemon juice, olive oil and chili powder. Set the water for pasta, some weird shape like cut up lasagne noodles. I sauteed garlic (also chopped in the egg slicer) and the sprouts in olive oil, adding white wine for moisture as needed. Added a few pine nuts to brown, then the Shitakes, then the lentils. Had Ben get the pasta in the pot. Pulled the chicken, and set the oven to heat the rest of the way to 425. Added cream to heat in the center of the sautee mixture, then mixed in with salt, pepper and parmesean. Ben added the pasta to the pan while I threw in big handfulls of spinach, and then we did a lot of tasting and adding of cream, cheese, salt, etc., until it was ok. Quickly through the bread onto the tiles, and had one of the smaller ones ready by the time the table was set. Quickly buttered and garlic-ed, and there we were! Chicken ened up on the side instead of in the pasta.

Almost bedtime, after a lovely brass/wind recital jury evening with Ben (he played like a hero), and I thought best to make Brian's lunch for tomorrow before crawling in so I could lie around a few minutes longer in the morning. A third of the larger loaf of French bread, with mustard, Miracle Whip, braunschweiger, the last sweet red pepper from the Farmers' Market, lovely speckled red and green lettuce from same Market, a decent tomato from Target, and pepper jack cheese. Tightly wrapped, weighing about a pound, ready for it's turn amongst the Shin Cups in Programmer land tomorrow.

A little leftover Manhattan now, and bed.

Not so much

Ben said I should keep the commentary to a dull roar and just write about what I cook. I'll try.

Yesterday's roast was OK, not awesome. I'll need to grill Jane about what step I missed, since Grandma Fry is resting up for the Resurrection. The brussels sprouts were a stunning success, though. Sauteed with thick-cut bacon and garlic and caraway, deglazed with white wine and a little sour cream stirred in at the end. A combination of advice from Bill and a cabbage recipe I've often used. Brian said he dreamed about them last night. I thought I hated brussels sprouts until yesterday. The baked potatoes were not needed and mostly leftover.

Today I've prepared (but not necessarily eaten): A Shin Cup, coffee, a smoothie, Ruben sandwiches and a spinach salad. I'm guessing I'll make a large Manhattan before the day is through, to soothe the agony of massive French Agnus Dei vocal and brain failure at the St. Cecilia's mass.

Ben continues to work on the baked pasta with Italian Sausage and the red lentil soup leftover in the fridge since before yesterday.

Dunno if that was less commentary.

A lot of things

I've been cooking the past two months more than I have in a couple of years. My long-term temporary day job ended along with September, and my college sophomore son is suddenly at home again after a year in the wilds of Indiana. If, over time, you read much about what I cook, you'll probably find it hilarious that he has lost about 25 pounds since returning from said wilds. The end of the job, the beginning of fall, and a financial desire to avoid eating out as we are wont to do in our household has fed my obsession with feeding, and I thought it might be fun to write about it a bit.

Today I managed to get my blender, my chopper and my food processor dirty making macaroni and cheese. I tried putting the Gruyere in the chopper, but it was the wrong texture and kept getting caught. So it went to the food processor. Then I tried putting the rock hard leftover french bread in the food processor, but it was of course the wrong texture and needed the blender. So there are three large dirty implements on the counter while I take some time at the computer. My favorite mac and cheese is a Martha Stewart recipe, unless one is in dire need of the less than 10 minute Kraft variety, which dirties few kitchen implements.

Ben and I have been hungry for Ruben sandwiches for a week or so, and I finally made them for lunch today after his long morning of trombone rehearsal and lesson. Rye bread, corned beef, sauerkraut with caraway, provolone and French dressing. Food of the gods. Teutonic ones, no doubt.

I was reading my range manual a couple of weeks ago to figure out how to make it heat up before my alarm rings in the morning so I could move my french bread dough from the fridge to the oven between snooze alarms... and realized I'd never really used the meat settings for the convection oven as directed for anything in particular. So I've had it in mind to cook a roast with the proper settings, and this freezing cold day seemed like a good time. It's a chuck roast, which probably should be cooked in a pot instead, but I'm doing the great-Grandma Fry/step-mother Jane/northern rural Indiana version, which includes at least one can of cream-of-something soup on top and a rack. I went for cream-of-celery, and did things my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother would not ever consider... like adding dry white wine and chopped garlic to the soup. And coating the roast in fresh black pepper and chili powder. But it's still Camp-BELL's cream-of-something on top... and I bet we'll like it just fine. In fact, it's starting to smell pretty good.

I'm trying to get healthier by adding things to my diet instead of taking them away for a change. I went on a weird diet a couple of years ago that made me feel pretty great and lose a fair amount of weight in a short time. For the time being, I'm trying to eat the things that one "had" to eat every day on that diet, and not freak out too much about taking things away as a preliminary step to goodness and lite. Thus the smoothie - unsweetened cranberry juice, plain yogurt, flaxseed meal, flaxseed oil, whey protein powder, organic frozen blueberries and a dose of liquid iron supplement. Sounds scary? It's actually really good - the cranberry juice and the blueberries are strong enough to mask anything else that might not be absolutely delicious.

I make two really good sandwiches every day for Brian to take to work. My friend Trish therefore calls Brian "Spoiled Rotten Brian," but I finally pointed out to her that he spends less money on food out if I do that, so it benefits the whole household. Today it was braunschweiger, which I hate, with mayo, mustard, pepper jack, lettuce, and most of a hot red banana pepper. He also takes "Shin Cups" from the Asian market, which I think he eats for breakfast and mid-afternoon.

Trish gave me a delicious breakfast today that I did NOT cook - Mississippi Market Sunrise muffins, apple and cheese, and wonderful coffee. We have to put her cat in another room for these breakfasts because he REALLY wants the muffins and the half-and-half.

Now it's time for me to go and cook the other things for the Indiana-Cream-of-Something roast supper... potatoes need to go in the oven, a spinach salad needs to come together, and I need to figure out how to bravely prepare some dreaded brussels sprouts.