Bacon Wrapped New Year

When we invited LV's family to come over for brunch the day after Christmas, I thought I would make mini quiches and a ham and I don't know what else. They declined the offer, but I still wanted to try making mini quiches. So I made them on New Year's Eve (and added way too much salt). Luckily, one of the recipes I found online said that they freeze really well. The three of us weren't about to eat two dozen of these before midnight.

Mini quiches seemed appropriate because I wanted to try wrapping bacon around anything, and bacon and eggs go well together, right? So, I just had to decide what I was going to wrap the bacon around (after I found which store had bacon on sale). Apples became my answer. (Again, I have a lot of time to ponder life's mysteries...) Apples are cheap and they would give it that sweet-salty combo. And if that didn't work well enough, then there would always be mozzarella sticks... wrapped in bacon.

The heartburn was pretty extraordinary. But bacon wrapped goodies are still tasty the next day during your Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon.

Chicken Dinner

The last of the gigantic chicken cutlets. This time with asparagus and really good homemade biscuits. (I thought the biscuits were going to be burnt because I waited too long to get back to the oven to pull them out. Nope. Turns out I probably never cooked them long enough before.)

Oven Fried Chicken

This is my second attempt at a mega family pack of drumstick and thighs. The breading was really blah. I should go back to crackers with seasoning I add instead of boxed up seasoned bread crumbs.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Taking a rest from the adventurous side of the kitchen...

Christmas

I've seen that commercial for Pillsbury cinnamon rolls a million times. When I saw they were two for $5, I had to get them. I think I was the only one who was excited, though.

Last night I made the crust. Even though I've seen on a dozen TV shows that you should use something to weigh down the crust, I skipped that step. And didn't bake the crust long enough. And so even though I thought the quiche was delicious (I had been up since 6 (there's more of that broccoli from last night, too)), Scrappy had a hard time cutting it.

Having conquered first big cuts of beef and then big cuts of chicken, I felt ready to move on to a new challenge. Giant cuts of ham were on sale for the holiday, so we bought a shank portion the size of my head. I scored it, made a glaze, and overall was pretty happy with my first attempt at a ham. I think we'll still be eating it in February.

Christmas Eve

We had a lot to do on Christmas Eve. I'm kind of surprised there were so many stores open... The main goal for me was to get two batches of chocolate cookies made for part of a gift set. LV was able to pick up a cookie dough scooper for me the day before. I *love* the scooper. Love it.

Scrappy would be with her mom on Christmas, so we tried to make a bigger deal about Christmas Eve dinner than we have in the past. This is another gigantic chicken cutlet with broccoli and homemade biscuits.

Then Scrappy and LV made sugar cookies using the Jiffy mix. LV and I had the same thought when we first tasted the finished product: This tasted like a corn muffin... I guess now we know that the fastest sugar cookies are definitely not the best sugar cookies.

And then we waited for Santa.

Let's Eat

After having such an easy time preparing the potatoes to add to the pot pie (it's easy to leave things to cook and preheat long enough when there's a baby around to distract you...), I decided to make my own mashed potatoes to go with the pot roast. I liked to think of them as "rustic" with all their lumps and skins, but later it occurred to me that maybe LV and Scrappy thought that was the most disgusting thing in the world and would have much preferred the kind made from flakes. Oh well. I thought it was really good.

Pot Roast

Thinking my parents were coming to visit for Christmas, I bought this pot roast. Then my mom announced they would not make it. So I baked up the meat before it could go bad.

The Dubbies

LV started a little magazine, Art Department Weekly, which he affectionately calls "A-D-Dubs." As part of a year-end special, he wanted to hand out awards--the Dubbies. His fellow Art Departmenteers thought they would be receiving actual trophies. This pressured him into thinking he needed something real to give them--not just a copy of the issue with their names printed in it. So he asked me to make star-shaped cookies. He had also expressed disappointment in there potentially being no gingerbread cookies this year (I think the recipe is a bit labor-intensive). But here we are: dozens of star-shaped gingerbread cookies for the Art Department. (There are a bunch more gingy children and bears off camera. This recipe produces a lot of dough when you roll it out right...)

Grilled Pork

The usual grilled pork with pasta and frozen vegetables... I didn't mean to shoot it like this, but I think it adds some flare to the meal.

Fajitas

Looking in the fridge and cabinets, I didn't have a whole lot to work with. A couple green peppers and a few tortillas. So, the baby and I set out to get some fajita seasoning. The cashier looked at me like I was kind of crazy. "This is it?" Yeah, that's dinner. With a lot of cookies after.

Chocolate Cake Cookie Bites

After we ran out of brownies, I wanted more. In my head, though, I was picturing something more like chocolate wafers--thin and crispy. Way back in 2007, Scrappy and I tried to make Oreos. I thought I would take that recipe (box of cake mix minus essential liquids), make better cookies, and then maybe make a peanut butter frosting. I ended up with a crying baby and my hands coated in super-sticky dough.

Rather than fight to roll out 100 tiny balls of dough (I don't remember it being such a pain the last time), I tried first dropping the dough in rounded teaspoons (but it stuck to the spoon) and then using a cookie press (but it wouldn't break away and the baby started crying again, so I just made one long ribbon on a cookie sheet to deal with later).

They ended up being really tasty.

Chicken Pot Pie

In my head, the leftover chicken (that gigantic cutlet) was set to become chicken pot pie. I just wasn't sure how I was going to make the crust with so little butter and shortening left. There were still more cookies to make... Besides that, I never find the Better Homes & Gardens recipe to be all that filling. With all kinds of time on my hands to ponder life's mysteries (I can't say feeding and playing with a newborn requires as much brain power as it does hands), I had plenty of opportunity to decide how to make the most of this pot pie.

This is the new and improved chicken pot pie, which now included four potatoes and a biscuit crust.

Class Party

I said LV was going to make the brownies for Scrappy's class, but I ended up making them. With two boxes, I thought we'd have so many more leftover. There were only a few. I guess I cut them too generously. ("Neurotically" might be a better word to describe my attempt at perfect symmetry.)

Leftover Shredded Pork

I like when LV asks if there's anything I need him to pick up on his way home. Today I needed tortillas; I had an idea for that leftover shredded pork.

There was a box of frozen chopped spinach in the freezer (again, from early in the pregnancy when I wanted to have lots of this kind of stuff on hand) which I thought could make for a good filing. "Good" in the way that it's not beans and we didn't have any rice. Then I made a sauce. Something like "ketchup + ground cumin + something runny + something else that's tasty." And when LV got home, I wrapped up the pork in flour tortillas and toasted it in the oven. They were okay.

Green Squash!

I know you're supposed to buy in-season locally-grown fruits and vegetables, but I was excited to see something in the produce section that didn't look so yucky. I don't know where it came from or how big a carbon footprint it cost, but that green squash was tasty.

Chicken Cutlets

In the meat department at the new grocery store, I spotted this bulging square shape labeled "chicken cutlets." It weighed four pounds and was priced at four dollars. LV asked, "What is that?" I didn't know, but looked really fresh.

Turns out, the butcher sliced the meat off a pterodactyl's chest and squeezed it into this little Styrofoam tray. I took one (the size a whole chicken) and put it in a casserole dish. I took the other and clipped it in half, putting both pieces in the freezer. Then I looked up a few recipes for baking a turkey and similar creatures in order to figure out how best to prepare this massive piece of chicken.

I ended up seasoning the chicken, covering the dish with foil, baking it according to turkey temperatures, and basting it every 30 minutes. Then I let it sit under the foil to continue cooking internally (I do tend to have a problem with undercooked chicken when it's not super-thin cut).

Dinner was a hunk of chicken on a plate with some of the juices. (I forget what bland treat I paired it with--the main event was the chicken.) LV thought it was the best thing ever.

Shredded Pork

Continuing in my adventures with "family size" packs of meat, I cooked up this giant hunk of pork for a long time at a low temperature. It ended up looking so small... I decided that if I shredded it, it would mean more bites and seem more filling. Mmm self-deception.

Cupcake Party

I feel like I ate LV's birthday cake all by myself, so I made a motion to make cupcakes for the "let's cut a cake for Scrappy" non-party birthday celebration. I added food coloring to the tub of vanilla frosting and told LV, "You know everyone is going to ask what flavor the purple are." He shook his head. Then Scrappy saw the tray and told her dad I made strawberry cupcakes. He laughed.

Now What

If Tuesday was the bottom of the barrel, I don't know what today was. I had some ground beef, I had the sour cream left from the coffee cake recipe, and that was about it. So, in a skillet, I combined ground beef, sour cream, ketchup, and some other stuff (the ketchup was a last minute addition when I realized I had no other tomato products and that Scrappy would probably want more flavor than the paprika, salt, pepper, etc.). Only my serving was plated with hot sauce and more sour cream. I also ate later so they could make whatever comments they wanted without me around. (Not that the apartment is so large I couldn't hear them if they had...)

The Bottom of the Barrel

I actually got to eat this meal while it was hot... Looking around the cabinets, I found a can of yams I didn't use last Thanksgiving. That seemed good enough; grilled chicken and stove top yams. Done.

Lentil Burger

There's nothing quite like pairing bad-for-you-white bread with a helping of I-think-this-is-good-for-me lentils. LV would never eat this. I made it for lunch.

Birthday Cake

We bought a bunch of cake mixes. The first set--yellow cake with vanilla frosting--was for LV's birthday. I tried to even out the cake to look less homemade by shaving off the top where it bubbles up like a big mushroom, but homemade looks homemade.

Something Different with the Pork

I bought a bag of onions a while ago. On this day I remembered to use them. I didn't have much time, though, so, in order to pair them with the grilled pork, I put the onions and some other tasty stuff in a frying pan. When LV saw the pork go into the frying pan, he became enthusiastic about dinner. "I like what I'm seeing!"

Burgers!

Again, the lack of interest in publishing this photo is rather apparent in a the lack of focus... However, I do take my burgers seriously.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Crunchy peanut butter is what I always say we should buy. But at the beginning of November, I bought the twin pack of creamy. I knew I was going to make peanut butter cookies. When I asked LV which were better--the soft peanut butter cookie base or the crunchier chocolate base (from last year)--he said they couldn't be compared. I think I liked the chocolate base's texture more, but mmm... Peanut butter.

Fettuccine

I haven't made one LV's favorite dishes in a while. This wasn't such a spectacular-looking rendition, but, using the leftover battered chicken, it tasted really good. I totally forgot to add the cheese to the sauce (I'm still learning to cook while distracted by conversations with one child and crying from another), so I just through it into the pot at the end. I'm not sure it made much of a difference considering my alfredo sauce is never satiny like the cook book says it should be.

Chicken and Peppers

Mmm... Battered chicken, fresh vegetables and *not* pasta. Somehow this was a very different dinner for us.

Wings (It must be Sunday)

The supermarket we've been going to sells gigantic packs of wings from what must be gigantic chickens. We used to buy one pack and use all of it on one Sunday. This is the third serving from one of the gigantic packs.

Grilled Pork and Yellow Rice

I'm getting really tired of pasta. Luckily yellow rice packets have been on sale lately.

Chicken, Pasta, and Pumpkin Turtle Pie

There was a story in Good Housekeeping or on the Today Show about what you can stock in your pantry to make meals more adventurous. It inspired me to put those bottles of lemon juice and capers to use.

There was also an ad for Philly cream cheese and Jell-O pudding and other products that go into making Thanksgiving desserts. I had to make this pie. It's one of those Cool Whip creations that you simply refrigerate (and then decide to not take to your sister-in-law's dinner).

Pumpkin Turtle Pie

I don't remember making this pie on Thanksgiving... I believe I made it on the 25th or 24th, but added the caramel and pecan topping on the 26th. (And then decided I didn't want to share.)

Time to Eat

When LV saw this on the counter, he wanted to eat it that night. Luckily, he didn't. Thanksgiving morning, I fired up the oven to warm the coffee cake. The house didn't really fill with the scent of cinnamon, but that was some good cake.

Pumpkin Pie

The past two years, I think I've made the pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. This year I decided to make the pie when I had the time (as determined by the baby). I think it turned out well. The crust could have been flakier.

Lots To Do...

I used the letters on the refrigerator to help me keep track of what I planned to make.

No, not really. We have an odd assortment of letters left after so many years which makes spelling words a real challenge. The week before I tried to make a shopping list. That's difficult with one "r."

More Lamb

All the meats I bought were "family size." I was able to divide up each pack, freeze some right away, and not have to wonder how fresh things were when I cooked with them several days later. This lamb didn't get any better. Especially when there was no stuffing/breading or chutney to help counter it's cheapness. (And that's macaroni because we're down to the last box of pasta in the cabinet and that's what was there: elbows. I bought it this summer, thinking I would make pasta salad. Not so much...)

Coffee Cake

For some reason, there's one Thanksgiving that stands out in my memory as a really good Thanksgiving. (My guess is the economy was really good that year.) It was a Thanksgiving that started with the house smelling like cinnamon because my mom made the coffee cake that I think her mom used to make. I actually don't remember that coffee cake tasting so great, but it was a really great start to a fun day.

So, I was inspired (to say the least) to make the coffee cake I saw in Good Housekeeping. Of course, I changed it up a little, using almonds instead of pecans because that's what was in the cabinet, but the rest was all the same. Including sour cream, which I believe was the part of my mom's recipe that I thought was strange way back in the day.

Burgers

You know I'm not really thinking of ever updating my blog again when I take just one lousy picture of what I made... (I think I had also wanted McDonald's for dinner, but LV said he likes my burgers better. And for some reason I was bitter about that.)

Wings

Buffalo wings for Football Sunday. Who doesn't love a routine?

Adventures in Lamb

When I saw this picture, I couldn't remember what it was or what I had been thinking. Then I saw the finished picture.

Oh... Lamb. Because it was super cheap... All these weeks later, I have to say, this was a pretty gross dinner. Mostly because the meat tasted awful and had a really rough texture. My lazy way of creating a breading, my peach-ginger chutney? Those were really good. But not good enough to compensate for starting with icky-tasting meat.