This and That and Kitchen Stuff

Ack!  Not exactly a few days later.  Well, in my defense, I've been busy!  My big Bernina 830 sewing machine was in need of a spa treatment and the best technician lives in Montana.  He does come over to the Spokane area once a week to pick up machines at several designated drop-off points so we had taken Moby Stitch (the great white Bernina!) up earlier and we picked it up last week.  That's a day out of town, but there is a Trader Joe's up there which is, of course, a mandatory stop.  :-)

We've had Daniel over each Sunday night through Monday dinnertime since the beginning of August until this week as Ann had to be back to work at school, prepping for the new year.  He's so easy to have, but still it seemed like the days went differently when he was here as we visited and found things to do.  School started last week on Wednesday so he's back to learning.  Fifth grade this year!  Where does the time go?

Last Monday it finally worked out for Dan to have my birthday party and Ann and family showed up with pizza to share dinner and cake with me. Such a fun, wonderful time we had!  

Since my machine was back, I have ventured into my sewing room and have started a new round of bibs.  I had only two left in my gift pile and they were both for girls.  I've embroidered five new ones and cut out about twenty blanks to work on next.  

But enough on this stuff.  I mentioned in my last post that I'd do a kitchen post, so here goes.  

In May when we were at Costco I stopped to look at a Ninja Foodi Flip Air Fryer they had for sale.  I have friends who love their smaller air fryers but I didn't have a space for one, either on my counter or in my pantry, and I draw the line at storing kitchen items in the garage! The foodie is made to flip up and take up a smaller amount of counter space when not being used.  As I pondered the display, Dan picked one up and put it in the cart. "Happy Mother's Day!" he said.  Okay!

It took a bit of figuring to decide where to put it in my crazily designed kitchen but I finally put it in the corner where my mixer has lived and moved the mixer next to the frig.  It works, and somehow it seems I have even more room in that corner than I did before.  And we love our Foodi!  I've always loved the Mexi-fries at Taco Time and now I can make my own.  Score!  And the Foodi is more than an air fryer, it is a convection oven, a toaster and can broil, too.  It has a much bigger capacity than the usual air fryer and so is great for families.  I made little pizzas last week using ciabatta bread from Costco and they were so good using the air broil feature on low.  And it's perfect for reheating things like pizza or crispy casseroles so they aren't soggy the second time around.  

In its down position, otherwise up against the side wall

Yummy ciabatta bread pizzas!

And in other kitchen news, we are awash with zucchini!  Awash I say!  Last year we could hardly get any to grow and this year Dan brings up four or five (or more!) a day.  I'm working hard to be a good zucchini steward and use it all, so varied recipes have been used.  One winner was a chocolate cupcake recipe found in the August Costco magazine.  Oh my!  As I've told all my friends, it received rave reviews from everyone who ate it (I made it into a cake).  The zucchini chips featured in the article are good, too!

This cake from the Six Sisters is also a winner. And last week I found this recipe for zucchini onion pie.  I did change it a little; I caramelized the onions instead of adding them raw.  We loved it! Of course we've already had multiple dinners using my old stand-by summer squash skillet. Zucchini bread?  Of course!  

And thus ends this summer's zucchini themed post!  ♥

Ponderings

First let me say that my oven is clean again!  I did it last night in case the baking bug bit again today (it didn't).  It's shiny and beautiful once more. Which makes me ponder why, in the twenty-one years I've owned this stove, I've only used the self-clean three times and two of those were in the past month.  And don't kid yourself that it was shiny clean all those years!  

Ponder Two: Kathy and Hallie both commented on my last post about family recipes and asked if we had any.  None. I think I've mentioned this before, but my mom's dad came from Norway in 1906 when he was twenty years old.  I don't think recipes were something he would have brought with him.  (Smile)  He married Grandma in 1920 when he was thirty-four and she was twenty. Very common for male immigrants as they worked to establish themselves before beginning a family. Grandma was half Russian (mother) and half German (father).  So why were there no recipes in mom's collection from Great-Grandma or Grandma? I think they were both instinctive cooks and didn't bother with recipes.

Ponder Three: Christmas traditions.  I grew up with very few.  The Christmas tree was about the only Christmas decoration we had with the exception of displaying Christmas cards as they came in.  (Back in the fifties and sixties, everyone pretty much sent cards, even people right in town that you were likely to see on your way to get the mail.)  I'm sure the fact that both my parents grew up during the depression had a lot to do with the lack of Christmas traditions in their young lives, and carried over into my young life. 

But we all know Christmas traditions are alive and well at my house.  So where did it all come from? I'll tell you.  From my long-time pal Kathy's house. Buddies since kindergarten, I was often in her house during all seasons, but at Christmastime, her house was positively magical.  A huge tree, covered with amazing handcrafted ornaments. Christmas cookies and candies.  The list goes on. I loved every glimpse of it and when I got my own home, began to do the same. 

Enough of the pondering. No photos today because how do you take a picture of pondering? A furrowed brow?  A quizzical pucker?  Nah! ♥

And the Snow Came Softly Down

The view at dusk this evening

They had forecast snow for today and they were right.  I woke up to hear my phone signal a text and found one from Ann saying too much ice, no school today. Apparently there was black ice everywhere.  Dan said he had trouble even in the gravel while getting the paper when he got up. And it was starting to snow.  A day to spend in the kitchen for certain as the snow continued to fall. At first I thought I would begin on my Christmas cookie baking, but then I remembered a recipe I've been wanting to try.

A little back story:  When my brother and I were kids, as in grade school, my mom, who was not a baker, would very occasionally make a sweet roll she called orange kuchen rolls. Oh, were they ever good! For whatever reason, she only made them during a short season of a year or two. They had a crunchy topping of butter, sugar and grated orange peel and the bottoms were gooey with the same ingredients.  

When we were cleaning out my parents' house, one of the things I searched for was that recipe. As I looked, John came in and asked if I'd found a recipe for "those orange rolls Mom made when we were little." He'd never forgotten them, either!  I never did find it.  I searched the internet and came up empty.  I looked through her old cookbooks. Nothing.  And then one day this past year, I was looking through her Electric Bread cookbook which I had kept and spotted a picture that looked like those orange rolls I remembered. The recipe was called Orange Kisses, and from the description, sounded like it came from the same era Mom made hers.  

Today was the day.  I texted John and told him my plan to try and began.  I did use my Zojirushi bread machine to make the dough and then finished up in the oven.  I seemed to remember that Mom made hers in an angel food cake pan, so I dug out mine and used it.  That was mistake number two.

Mistake number one you ask?  Well, I've used the same brand of yeast for ever and a day.  It's Saf-Instant Red and it's great stuff.  I opened a new package about the time the virus became known and everyone was buying up all the flour and yeast in the land.  And a strange thing happened the first time I used it.  My bread rose twice as high. What? So I tried again, with the same results.  High is nice, too high, not so much. As a result, since then I've used half the amount of yeast a recipe calls for.  Until today.  Um hum, I used the full amount and my dough was very soft and puffy.  

Back to the pan.  The  butter and sugar/orange peel mix leaked out the bottom of the pan, all over the oven I just cleaned a few weeks ago. 

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!  Running the self-clean program again!  

Meanwhile, the rolls.  The verdict?  I think I've found the right recipe! I'm so excited! I just ate one, and despite the "fluffiness" of it, the taste seemed to be what I remembered, with the crunchy top and the gooey bottom.  Bruder Bear will be thrilled!

I made supper in the crockpot, potatoes, carrots and hamburger in white sauce, but I just may eat my way through these rolls instead.  Oh, and about the yeast.  I think it's been a gift to me that it's, for some reason, double strength, because it has been impossible to find these last ten months.  I've made all our bread and I still have so much yeast left. I'm thankful. ♥

Everything Is Just Peachy

Literally!  A week or so ago an old buddy of Dan's called to ask if he would come look at his tamarack trees which he grows for seed.  Some of them seemed to be in distress.  So last Friday, a week ago, Dan headed down to check things out.  He mentioned that Rich said he'd send back some peaches for me.  Yes!  Years ago I got all my peaches from Rich and they were just the best. Each August for the last few years I've thought I would get down to his orchard and get some, but alas, it never seemed to happen.

When Dan got home, he asked me to come look in his truck.  He opened the back door and there sat four huge boxes of peaches!  Four!  And a gunny sack with twenty-two ears of corn!  Oh my goodness! I called Ann and asked if she'd like some of each and she was happy to say yes.  

Saturday morning right after breakfast I went to work on a peach pie.  It's my absolute favorite.  The peaches were gorgeous and huge.  I hopped into the shower and by the time I was out, Ann and Keaton had arrived to claim their bounty.  We worked it out and I was thrilled when she agreed to take two boxes and a bunch of the corn.   She went home to begin canning and I began to freeze some.  By the time Tuesday was over, we'd totalled up twenty-one quarts canned (Ann), twenty-two containers frozen (me), two peach pies (me), many eaten out of hand (both houses), and twenty jars of jam (me).   

Here are a couple of pictures of our bounty.

And the corn?  It was absolutely the best I've ever tasted.  We had it three nights in a row and Ann's family had it two nights.  So sweet and delicious.  Mmmm...  ♥

 

Potatoes

Huh?  Potatoes?  

Well, anyone in my family can tell you that I love potatoes.  In fact, one of my mottos is that I never met a potato I didn't like.  I'm even briefly mentioned in an old video of a dinner my brother's family was having when he speared a baby red one from the serving bowl, said, "This one's for you, sister," and popped it into his mouth.  Yeah, I'm famous like that.  :-)

Recently I was cruising the produce department at one of our local supermarkets and spied a small bag of potatoes.  Intrigued, I looked more closely and discovered this:

The potatoes are grown and packaged by The Little Potato Company.  They have several bags to choose from and I chose the Terrific Trio which has tiny red, yellow and blue potatoes.  Yup, blue ones.  I've always loved the tiny reds, so I just had to buy the bag and see what was up.  Well, I'll tell you:  much yummy-ness! Boiled, with just butter and a sprinkling of dried basil, and I was in heaven.  And Dan loves them, too!

Here's a peek inside the bag which holds three pounds:

The family that started this company is Dutch and in Europe they're called creamer potatoes.  You can buy bags of just the red or yellow, but those blue ones make me smile.  And yes, they taste just like the other ones.  

Potatoes get a bad rap nutritionally, but really, they are quite good for us.  It's all the stuff we do to them that add the fat and calories.  Here's the nutritional stats from the bag:

See, look at all the potassium and fiber. And carbs are just eight percent. My poor potatoes get a bad rap!  ♥

Potato Salad

I love me some potato salad. Always have.  I don't make it often because if it's in the frig I have a hard time not grabbing a spoon and having "a little taste." Often. And of course, making potato salad can be labor intensive.  Boiling eggs, cooling said eggs, and then peeling and chopping them.  And then there's the potatoes themselves:  washing, peeling, cutting into chunks, boiling, cooling and then dicing them.  And making the dressing. . .  

I'm still loving my Instant Pot and was thrilled to note a recipe for potato salad on one of my favorite sites, Pressure Cooking Today (link on sidebar).  I checked it out and was amazed to see that the potatoes and eggs are cooked together in the Instant Pot!  Could this possibly work?  I am pleased to report that it does, indeed.  And works in wondrous ways!  I made the potato salad I took to my parents over Mother's Day weekend using the recipe, and I would say it was the best potato salad I've ever made.  

Cooking the potatoes for salad takes careful attention or the potatoes overcook and you end up with mashed potato salad.  Using the Instant Pot and dicing the potatoes before cooking produces perfectly cooked potatoes.  Truly!  And the eggs?  You nested them down in the potatoes and they cook to perfection and better yet, peel to perfection!  It's all like magic!  I made another salad last week and it was just as perfect.  

So, if you have an Instant Pot, or even a stovetop pressure cooker, give this recipe a try.  I'm sorry I have no picture because . . . we ate all the salad!  :-)  But there's one if you go to the recipe.  ♥

Now Appearing on the Breakfast Table...

For some strange reason, my favorite meal to fix is breakfast!  And this from someone who definitely isn't a morning person.  Poached eggs and hashbrowns, waffles and bacon, egg on toast, scones, coffee cake, and muffins.  The list goes on and on.  Of course I don't make these things every morning due to time constraints, but when I do have the time, I enjoy whipping up something tasty.  I even do eggs Benedict, thanks to my sister-in-law, Karen.  She makes them every time we visit and I love them and have copied her. Yum!

I had some overripe bananas a few weeks ago, but not enough for banana bread, so I tried some banana muffins for the first time.  They turned out well, so yesterday when I had more bananas, I made another batch.  

It's just a basic muffin recipe with the addition of bananas and chopped pecans.  And speaking of chopped pecans, I absolutely love this knife:

Its flat bottom and non-pointy tip make it easy to chop whole nuts in a flash.  The Pioneer Woman uses one often on her show and I was intrigued, so I ordered one from Williams-Sonoma when they had a tempting pre-Christmas sale.  It also works beautifully for thinly slicing both cooked and raw meats because its blade is very thin.  

Let's hear it for breakfast--the most important meal of the day!  ♥

Ahh, Soup, How I Love You!

Lest you think this is an ode to Campbells, let me assure you that it is not.  It's an ode to homemade soup.  In this case, a little number I concocted using dried beans.  

Is it not gorgeous?  At four o'clock this afternoon, my bag of navy beans was still sealed.  (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my pressure cooker?  Well, I do!) My recipe starts out with some basics from Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass, and then is customized by moi.  I have appropriated her name for it though:  Pasta E Fagioli. And I have to tell you, as we were eating it tonight, I heard myself say, "It has such depth of flavor." And, "The flavor lingers in the mouth." And then I said, "I don't think I've ever said those phrases before! Hmmm..."  After more than forty-three years of being the head cook, most things I make don't knock my socks off anymore, but this little number will be repeated!  ♥

Just the Right Tools

Back when we were first married, living in our little 8' x 35' trailer, we had, obviously, very little space for possessions.  A couple of pans, a small set of dishes, a cookie sheet, and a hand mixer were all we needed in the kitchen, my sewing machine fit behind the rocking chair in its case when not in use, and Dan had a few tools in a little storage area attached to the front porch. Then we moved into a duplex, had a couple of babies, and of necessity, slowly began to acquire.  Mostly baby things. And more dishes.  We were still far from floating in money, however, so there was no splurging on luxury items, or even useful items of higher price.

Fast forward to now, and we're blessed with a number of very nice tools--in the sewing room, in the workshop, and in the kitchen.  And that's where we'll drop anchor today.

I have a strange love of kitchen items.  I know women who are incensed if they receive a kitchen item for a present, but I love it!  And I even love pots and pans. One such pan came into my possession in Boise a number of years ago. We were headed for some shopping in the Town Square Mall and entered through the back door of The Bon (now Macy's).  The back door leads right into the kitchen shop and there, on display, was a pan for poaching eggs.  It was gor-jeous!!  And, it was a very reasonable price. Sold!  

So shiny and beautiful!

I had attempted to poach eggs in a pan of boiling water, but I'm not a fan of stringy eggs.  I also had an insert that sat in a skillet, but it was awkward to remove the eggs.  This pan, however, makes egg removal a cinch. Just lift each individual cup...

Yup, I broke two putting them in the cups--first time ever!

...and plop them on the plate (or in this case, some hash browns).

Easy peasy.

Mash the eggs and mix, add some more pepper, and enjoy!

Having the right tool makes sweet work of fixing a quick and yummy breakfast!  ♥

The Shingles and Me

I got the shingles for Christmas last year, and even though it rhymes with jingles, let me assure you there's nothing festive about them.  Oh, they are rather red, but again, nothing festive.  So when I went to the doctor for the second time (the first one was young and inexperienced and didn't recognize what I had), in addition to saying, "Shingles!  You've got shingles," she mentioned my blood pressure was high.  I said it was probably due to the fact that, until that moment, I didn't know what was wrong with my arm and suspected some horrible, dread disease, possibly resulting in my arm falling off.  Anyway, a follow-up appointment was scheduled for me to check out the situation.

I dutifully took myself to the doctor (a new one recommended by the lovely lady doc who had recognized my shingles) and he said, yup, it looks high.  I said I didn't want to take a bunch of meds and amazingly enough, he agreed to let me try without, concentrating on diet and exercise.  He also mentioned the DASH diet which gave me a starting point.

I went home, researched DASH and ordered several books from Amazon.  By this time it was early January and the exercise issue was a real dilemma.  There was snow outside, and ice, and it wasn't looking good for walks which was his recommendation.  As I was talking about all this to Ann, she mentioned that my old NordicTrack was languishing in her basement because, as she put it, she had a two-year-old.  The whole family brought it over that night and left it for me.  My exercise issue was solved.  (Of course, I had to use it myself, but thanks be to God, I have used it five days a week since then.  We're talkin' real miracle here, folks.)

I got my DASH books and set about reading them.  Of course, one main course of action is to limit salt intake, but another is to eat a lot of grains, fruits, and veggies. And not in chip form!!!  When you start limiting foods based on sodium content, it's amazing what gets tossed from your diet.  I began to try many new foods and cooking methods.  A new row of spices showed up on my shelf.  Good thing I enjoy cooking!  It has actually been, for the most part, fun, and I look at it as a challenge. Some good stuff has resulted and even Dan says he enjoys it.  

Oh, a couple of points I've almost forgotten to mention: it worked!  After two follow-up visits to the doc, he turned me loose, saying it was a pleasure to work with someone who actually did the right thing.  And second, a totally unexpected benefit has been my new shape.  I had long tried to lose some pounds, with no luck.  The combination of my new diet and the NordicTrack knocked off twenty pounds and tightened quite a few of this old girl's muscles (formerly known as dimpled flab).  Who knew?!?  

I have tossed almost all my old clothes and purchased new ones and it's actually been fun!  And it's helped me to keep motivated.    I have to confess, I'm still not a lover of exercise, but I force myself to the family room each morning and get on and go.  I tell Dan I feel like an alcoholic, but instead of a drink, I'm just one missed morning away from going back to my old ways.  I also confess to slipping a few chips into my mouth on occasion, but I guilt up pretty fast and swear off for at least a week or so.  

On the food front, one of my favorite new lunches is a huge salad.  In my old days, a salad was just a way to add croutons, olives, cheese, and yummy salad dressing. After reading labels, it turned out that wasn't such a good idea.  Right now my current fav is:  a huge bowl of spring mix greens, strawberries, blueberries, a little reduced fat feta cheese, sliced chicken breast (home cooked on my George Foreman), and sliced almonds.  I make my dressing using olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sugar.  It's yummy!

I have to say, getting the shingles was a blessing.  And outside of not knowing for a few days what I had, it wasn't awful like you hear on the ads on TV.  I have some residual scarring, more like polka dots, but I can't complain.  Dan says the scars are on muscle, not flab.  ♥