And back to the grindstone

After having a wonderful two weeks off from work, and still not having time to do the random things like clean house and post here, I’m back at work. It was a hard morning!

Even though I didn’t get to clean the house much, the littlest man and I did make a ton of cookies. We made some No-Bake cookies that actually turned out well for the first time in a couple of years (I don’t know what I did differently!) and some Triple Chocolate Chip cookies that apparently everyone else but the three of us liked. We also made Ginger cookies, mmmmm, that were still moist after a few weeks in the cookie jar. And Sugar cookies that were pretty ’effing good.

The sugar cookies lasted just half a day when we took them to the family down in Houston. These were last minute because, apparently, Santa can’t eat ANY of the other cookies we’d made. Thus, I wanted a fast cookie for which I had all the ingredients, that I didn’t have to put in the fridge to rest, and that I didn’t have to roll out. I found the answer on Hillbilly Housewife. I made changes, including using real butter, unrefined sugar, and more vanilla. I also changed to lemon flavor because, well, I love lemon and I had it.

Drop Sugar Cookies

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 –2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon organic lemon flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-1/2 cups flour

In a medium sized bowl (I used my stand mixer) cream together the butter and sugar, until it is smooth and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, vanilla and lemon flavor, mixing well. Add in the salt, baking powder and flour. Mix it all until the dough is smooth. Drop the mixture by small spoonfuls onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet (I also used my Silpat mat). Bake at 375° for about 8 to 10 minutes.

I don’t know that I’ll be baking cookies for a while, I need to lose weight!

I hope everyone one had a wonderful holiday season

Pumpkins Galore

Please note: I wrote this and then for some reason didn't publish it?

My kitchen table has been taken over by pumpkins. It annoys Shinerman, but all I see is the yummy goodness I'm going to make. Can you say BPA-free Pumpkin Pie?

We've been going to the Coppell Farmer's Market for a while. They have a couple of organic produce vendors and it's all local. Except for the Wild Alaskan Salmon people, which they said is fished by a local family, but I think is a little out of place. The fish was fished by locals not Salmon People. sigh...I'm tired.

We've gotten most of our produce from there since we stopped getting the organic co-op. Oh, I didn't tell you about that? After our friends with whom we were splitting a share decided to stop, the delivery spot we went to dwindled and it was no longer cost-effective. Then we couldn't get a delivery close by on the weekend, yada, yada.

We also have been getting our meat and eggs there, it really has been great. This last weekend was bring the weekly email and get a free pumpkin promotion. So of course I did! And here is how we came to have a table-full o'pumpkins:

Me:Hey, I brought my email for my free pumpkin, can I just pick one out?

Market Man: Sure(he waves towards them) you want more? Take more.

Me: looking as if I don't believe him

Market Man: You want 3 take 3. You can have 10 if you want, we gotta get rid of 'em.

Say the above in an old Jewish Man's cadence; I don't know if he was or not, but that's how it sounds when I replay it in my head.

I took 3 'cause that's all I could carry and went and enlisted Shinerman and the Man. We got 9 total; I felt 10 would be too selfish. Add that to the two we already had and we had a table full!

We've now pureed several and started pumpkin wine out of a few, as well.

Thinking of you...

Dear Green Across Texas blog,

I know it's been a while since I've written. It's not you - it's me. I've thought about you often in my absence and so much has happened. I'll catch you up with some pictures...

picked blackberries - made wine - made freezer jam...yummm

homemade chicken stock

organic produce at the Coppell Farmer's Market

fancy composting system designed by Shinerman

best winery ever

local produce - cheese - bread - wine + Michael Pollan = best snack ever

love this wine

took the Man to the beach

foraged food from the backyard

started Pre-K

festivals (this one is Oktoberfest)

cooking with the Man

So you see, I've been gathering pictures for you the whole time I've been gone.

What about you? Have you done anything along these lines? I'd love to hear about it!

My grand experiment

For a little over a year now we've been getting our produce from an organic produce co-op. This whole time we've been splitting it with another couple. Recently, they decided to no longer get their portion and instead see how they fare at the Cupboard (GREAT local store). Oh by the way, the Cupboard has fresh LOCAL pastured chicken eggs. yummy!!

I decided that, rather than trying to find someone to share the co-op produce with, we would see how we do with a full share. There have been a couple of times that we've run out of things. With the last shared delivery we had to go to the farmers market to get some food for the next week!

I'm really hoping this will work, but if it doesn't I think we'll look into getting a half share of a CSA. I'll have to do some research when the time comes for that, though.

But the thing is, we don't eat at home every night. Usually at least one night a week I go out with friends and Shinerman goes out another night. On those nights we either eat leftovers or, more often than not, go get sandwiches at a local sandwich shop. And then even on nights when we are all home, it seems I always forget to take something out or get home too late to start dinner.

This week, I got home late on Monday, Tuesday we had dinner at the in-laws for an early Father's Day, and tonight is Shinerman's night at the bar. That leaves just 9 days left to eat all the food! And of course the key is also to be able to do something with it before it goes bad. Bright spot? Two mangoes that will be frozen soon to be made into mango daiquiris, Shinerman's idea and a great one right?! I cannot wait.

I started tomorrow's dinner already - sirloin tip roast in the crock pot. But, I've got to do some serious meal planning. I'll be using this website, supercook.com. You enter in all the ingredients you have in the kitchen. It sounds like that would take a while, but it doesn't. They suggest things as you go and that helps remind you of things you have. The system consolidates recipes from different websites based on the ingredients you have in the kitchen.

My usual process is to write a list of everything in the fridge, freezer, and the cabinet and then troll the cookbooks and websites for something to make. I think the supercook site will seriously save me some time.

I'm off to do some meal planning...

Breakfast for Dinner

Tonight the littlest man asked for pancakes for dinner. I did this randomly last week and the look on his face was priceless. He was so excited. So when he asked for it tonight, I figured I can get dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow out of the way. I essentially use the buttermilk pancake recipe out of the Joy of Cooking. I love this book, I got it for the first Christmas after Shinerman and I were married from my mother-in-law. I use it so much that I rarely put it away.

I usually put vanilla extract in there, but we had some orange sections I needed to get rid of, so I decided to use those instead. It turned out well, just a hint of orange in the after taste. I think that next time I would add in some orange zest and see how that goes. When I have blueberries I add those in at the stove. If you sprinkle them on after you pour the batter in the pan, you avoid any crushing or juiciness in the batter - plus you get to decide how many you want!

The littlest man helped, of course. He's gotten much better at measuring, he doesn't fling the measuring cup up out of the canister as if it's empty, thus spilling {insert ingredient here} all over the counter. He's also able to name the ingredients, including the baking powder and baking soda.

You can use regular milk for this recipe, but I highly recommend trying the buttermilk. If you use regular milk, skip the baking soda.

Orange Pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tbl sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 tbl butter, melted

2 large eggs

3-4 tbl fresh squeezed orange juice

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients together. To make sure the butter doesn't seize when you mix it in with the cold milk, mix in a little bit of milk in with the melted butter. This will make sure they are closer to the same temperature. Pour wet ingredients into dry, whisking until just combined - as Alton Brown says, lumps are ok!

I heat a comal (a small flat round griddle) on med-low heat sprayed with a bit of olive oil, then use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter onto the pan. Cook until the top of the pancake has a few popped bubbles and then flip to cook the other side.

These are so yummy that I only have a few left over each time, the littlest man has been known to gobble down 4-5 in one sitting. I always want to have enough left over so that I can freeze some for breakfast, but usually it's only a couple left to freeze. You have a couple of options to freeze any leftover pancakes. I usually stack them, separated with wax paper and put them in a bag in the freezer. Or you can put them on a cookie sheet in your freezer, then when they are frozen just put them in a bag. You won't have any sticking together with either of these methods. I guess using wax paper creates more waste, though...