of course ....

this time of year, my thoughts turn towards food. yesterday (?) i cooked off some chicken. i had chicken quarters leftover from a recipe. i don't like chicken quarters ... or more specifically, i don't like to prep them (all that fat and skin!).

so, i poached them, and pulled off the wee amount of meat. i saved the broth.

the broth, i used tonight for a vegetable soup. hey, what's veggie soup w/o a meat base? (that's kinda like a veggie burger w/o bacon.)

veggies? what i had ... celery, carrot, stewed tomatoes, frozen cauliflower, frozen lima beans, onion, chopped green cabbage, etc ... lots of misc. veggies. and it was delicious =)

i had a hearty bowl of soup with the bread i made last night. now, talk about homemade .....

meat loaf, pt.2

so, sometimes when i make something, i kinda get on a kick and want to try variations. since my first meat loaf was of the 'gourmet' variety, i wanted to make one more 'traditional'.

i went online searching recipes, and found paula dean's old-fashioned meat loaf via the food network website.


making two was an accident. apparently, when i was chopping the onion and green pepper, i thought i was measuring with the 1/2 cup, but was actually measuring with the 1 cup. oops.


that required another quick visit to the grocery store to buy another pound of meat.


but, a happy accident it was ... nothing wrong with leftovers!


jackie also made some delicious butter beans she'd bought at the farmer's market. i didn't take notes on her recipe, but she did cook the beans in bacon fat, and used this lonesome slice to add in later (lucky it didn't get eaten before then).


and mashed yukon golds with parmesan and garlic! wow! now that's a solid southern dinner .....

i think my meat loaf phase is over ... for now. though, i haven't tried it yet with ground turkey.

pesto meat loaf recipe

bring on fall and all the yummy foods of the colder months! i have been trying to conjure fall for awhile, with chili, enchiladas, bean soups, bread making, etc.

my most recent venture was into the wide world of meatloaf.


pesto meat loaf

2 pounds lean ground pork, s&p to taste, if desired
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 cup fine bread crumbs
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup finely chopped, loosely packed fresh basil
1/2 cup finely chopped, loosely packed parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
fresh tomato sauce (recipe below)

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. put the pork in a mixing bowl. add salt and pepper.
3. heat the oil in a small skillet. add the garlic and cook, stirring, until it is wilted. add to the pork.
4. add the bread crumbs, pine nuts, basil, parsley, parmesan cheese and egg. blend well.
5. put the mixture into a standard six-cup loaf pan. pack it down and smooth over the top. place in the oven and bake about one hour or until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees. remove from the oven and let the meat loaf stand about 15 minutes before slicing and serving with the tomato sauce.

yield: six to eight servings.


fresh tomato sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
2 cups peeled, chopped fresh tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
s&p to taste, if desired
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1. heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions and garlic. cook, stirring, until they are wilted.
2. add the tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. cover and simmer about 10 minutes. stir in the butter and basil.

yield: about 1 1/2 cups

this recipe was given to me by a friend that knows how much i love food (thanks winnie!). she had clipped it from a newspaper years ago. i have lost my copy twice now, so i figured i should post it here incase my page gets lost again.

this was my first meat loaf. holy crap, it was the bomb! sadly, i won't be making this again 'til next summer or early fall, as you have to have a ton of basil ... either from the farmer's market or someone's garden. see that big bunch above? that was from winnie's garden. that was enough basil to make a dozen loafs or an amazing batch of pesto. sadly, i did not have the energy to make pesto. for some reason, i always start this cooking thing too late at night.

quarantine

what possibly could stuart do to end up in a freezer quart bag?! well, whatever it is ... he's staying there 'til laundry day ....

short holiday

... but so worth it! some very dear friends, ms. chak-a-khan and the hippie, invited me to join them on a portion of their vacation. jackie rented a beach house on the north carolina coast.


the drive down was much better than i anticipated (i don't like to drive. i'd much rather have a driver. no, i am not 70 yrs. old. i just don't like to drive). i drove down on sunday, and the traffic was light (for an interstate that connects both coasts), and the smaller highway was 4 lanes altogether.

i had wavered on the trip because of the time to get there and back, and the amount of time i could spend there.

i have this little "rule" ... don't spend more time getting to and from a place than you spend at the place .....

even if i had spent less time there than travel time, it still would had been worth the trip.

i was SO relaxed!

who can pass up on this?!








the last photo is of dinner preparation. jackie is (of course) a southern fried cook. at somepoint (whether there or not) we've had a discussion about this. she is southern. i am not. i was born and raised in the south, but i was not raised by a southern woman. that makes all the difference. seriously.

the food! holy crap, the food! when at the beach, it is only proper to eat beach critters, ie: shrimp, crab, grouper, tuna, ham/egg/cheese sandwiches (?) ....!

here's my thing. i am not a great cook. i am better than i use to be. and when i go somewhere i love, at the very least i can bring the "food" back home with me. when i came back from mexico, i was eating lots of mexican fare and avocados. and now, returning from the beach, i want the same foods i had there (sandwiches, seafood, quiche). the joke is, whatever i eat on sunday, it will be cooked again (by me, solo ... or with 'tech support') by tuesday. sigh. it's true.






last pictures? from the beach .... what's down time w/o knitting?! i was able to finish a sock, and mostly finish a blanket started ages ago. and stuart? he likes being wherever i am.

man, i had an excellent 2 days. 2 days. wow. i wish i could go back and finish up the week there, but i cannot. damn.

in the kitchen!

apparently, i can bake. and perhaps the measure is a certain recipe vs. the results. perhaps some recipes have a bit of leeway ....

and perhaps, i used the most fool proof recipe on the face of the earth!


but, it worked. i was amazed that it worked. my dough was quite gooey. it never made into a proper "ball". i even plopped it into my stock pot seam side down. so, lots of things working against this loaf.

but still, it worked.

and it was delicious. fresh from the oven, i went over to a friend's house, where we spent the afternoon in great company, filling ourselves on bread, butter, and wine.

and the weather couldn't had been better ... it was all drizzle and rain, and cool blustery breezes .....

perhaps fall is coming? and perhaps, next week, or so, the news will be all about the indian summer (as if it doesn't happen every year!).

communication

my parents crack me up. they send each other little messages based on how the toys on their bed are arranged.




... notice how goofy (dad) is falling off the bed .... hmmm .....

(yawn)

i am tired! so tired. and wired. and i hate that combo. it happens sometimes ... when i've had a(n) (extra) long day (a polite way of saying today 'sucked ass').

i need to get into bed so tomorrow doesn't suck as well. (yawn ... again)

police convention

just another day in the neighborhood. when i first noticed, they had a guy cuffed across the street. but then, they uncuffed and walked with him back to the house next door. i guess it's "shoot first, ask questions later" ?

of course, this brings on all kinds of onlookers. including myself. but, i have a very clear view from my upstairs apartment, right next door to the house that's always involved with the action.

wonder what was going on to bring out 5 cars including k-9? ... must be a slow day .....

overdue art

when i was in the domenican republic last december, on my next to last day i was in santo domingo. i spent the day wandering around, looking for my souvenier. funny thing was, my souvenier was the first thing i had spotted when i got to my hotel earlier ... but across the street.

on the other side of the street was an artist with a tiny tiny studio space. he had lots of drawings and paintings, some on display outside, most in stacks inside.

after wandering around the city all day, i went back to him to negotiate for the painting i loved. i think we worked something out to please us both.



i've had this since december. people ask me "what is it?" ... hmmm ... to me, it's two robots riding unicycles. to me, it's the experience of an artist doing his thing every day, in a small small space, hoping tourists will like his work. and to me, it's a bookmark in my life.

leanne was instrumental in me getting this up on the wall. the canvas had been removed from the stretcher to get it home. i had no idea it was a standard size (16x20") until leanne said, "i bet that's ____". and she was right. we bought a cheap canvas at a craft store, stripped off the cheapie stuff and used the frame to stretch mine over it.

and today, i put the hardware on the back to hang. it's up, above my desk.