Makeup Mega Post

Bet you thought you'd gotten rid of us for good, but alas




we creep right back in again.

This summer's brought a lot of changes in our lives. I have no job! What did I do all day? Go crazy, discover Facebook, become a Facebook addict, read a lot of great fiction, sun my legs a little in a cheap lawn chair, oh, and buy a new house!


My new workshop:

My favorite room in the house. Life with a dishwasher is just spectacular, y'all. As adventurous cooks, I estimate we did about 2 hours of dishes a week (at least!) at the old place. A dinner party took nearly a week to recover from, but not anymore. We've been having potlucks every two weeks for the last 2 months and it literally takes two loads in the dishwasher and that's all! We don't have to prerinse really either. We got a good machine on our side now. We let people eat off of real plates, drink out of real glasses! But they're forced to use plastic cutlery. Somehow we run out of silverware before dinner actually gets served, got to work on that. I plan to buy some sets with the birthday/housewarming money my generous mother-in-law has been sending me. I told Mark we should pop out some kids and we'd really be in the money! Oh Deej, you're the best.

So anyway, I'm going to highlight some of the tastiest of our exploits with brief discussion and links to recipes:

This is the pulled pork we made in April frozen and reheated in May with fresh corn and southern style green beans boiled to death with new potatoes. The pork froze really well. It tasted as good as it did the day we made it.

Neely's Grilled Corn Salad


This was really good. We grilled the corn on our grill pan indoors as we didn't want to light up the grill for just corn. The salad actually kept pretty well for a couple of days, but that's coming from me. I tend to like wilty salads because I'm gross like that.

We had the salad with some lovely burgers. Mark had his covered in our favorite cheddar.

You know, to this day, I've never had a cheeseburger and I don't really want to either.

We got the beef from our coop. It's a little pricey, but it really tastes a lot better...perhaps because I don't feel as guilty eating it knowing it was raised by honest local farmers in humane conditions. The coop now sells all kinds of meat, from filet mignon to chicken bologna, they got it. As soon as I'm gainfully employed again we're going to get some really nice steaks. Oh, that list (Things to Purchase When Gainfully Employed Again) is getting longer by the day. I mourn for our Saturdays at Whole Foods. I can't even let myself go in there anymore. However, there's something to be said for living frugally. We should have been living like this all along.

We joined a CSA this year, which has been nice if not a little bit overwhelming at times. Every Monday I take my basket to pick up our veggies. I soon realized this little basket wasn't going to cut it all by its lonesome, but it works hard for us and has many uses as you can see:


I've been trying to think of creative ways to use up all this beautiful produce and clean out my freezer. This little dish attempted to do both.
Giada's Roasted Cod with Lima Beans



I used frozen Limas and cod (not such a good idea as it turns out). The fish was a very unnerving texture and the extras I added to the Lima beans overpowered everything, namely the mint. I have no idea why I put that leaf of lettuce in there. I mean, I like it wilty sometimes, but this didn't work.

We ate it with a glorious salad alongside.

The recipe came from my friend Amanda's mom Patsy. It was just an assortment of veggies cut really small: zucchini, peppers, cukes, tomatoes, etc. The dressing was a simple vinaigrette. I topped mine with a copious amount of avocado (love of my life these days).

Whew this post is long! Almost finished though.

Being in the CSA has introduced me to some new and interesting ingredients, namely garlic scapes. I'd heard of garlic scape pesto and considered using my share to make that, but then I found this little number.
White Bean and Garlic Scape Spread

It was a little intense, so I topped it with some of the chopped veggies leftover from Patsy's salad. It was very yummy. In fact, I wish I had more of those garlic scapes. They have a lovely grassiness about them.

It was on this very night that my camera broke. I've been in mourning ever since and as a result, I've abandoned this blog. That night I served a beautiful roasted chicken which was so good I've made it a couple of times since. I've mastered the big bird, guys. Well, now that I have one of those probe thermometers that you stick in and it beeps whenever the chicken is done.

My camera didn't break entirely. The display screen is messed up which means we can still take pictures, but we just don't know what of. Hence

what was a perfectly acceptable kitten love fest looks more like photos of an illicit affair: caught red handed.

I'm hoping to get a new camera soon (when we get our gov't check--thanks Mr. Obama).
Until then, I'm determined to post crappy pictures because the food we've been making lately has just been too good not to document.

Condiments, Cookies, & Cats

We thoroughly cleaned out our fridge a couple of weeks ago. That is, we threw out the squirt bottle of caramel ice cream topping we moved from Murfreesboro with three years ago...that is to say it was a thorough cleaning. The fridge is so clean that every time I open it, I holler out, "Mark, we got a show fridge."

I like grocery lists because I think they're succinct little character sketches. I've recently seen a few folks posting pictures of their fridges in a similar sort of spirit.

When I look at this photo I realize just how much I've cut back on the recreational mustard collection I strove to cultivate. Ah me...getting old already.


Highlights include Pea Soup (to be discussed at a later date), homemade chicken broth, Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper (sweet chemicals needed for survival), several tubs of TJ's hummus/dips, and some homemade cookies and Parmesan crisps chillin' in sleeves of parchment paper.

The cookies were for my niece, Kelley, as we weren't able to attend her 11th B-day party. They were a lovely recipe from Dorie Greenspan: Coconut-Lime Shortbread.

I opted for pistachios.

& obligatory cat shots:

Xena = a Nautilus


You can't really tell in this picture, but she's hugged up to a catnip filled cat cigar. Mark kinda staged this, I think. This is his cat/squirrel, after all.

Pumpkin Ravs

These came from Lazzaroli's. They're filled with pumpkin, mascarpone, ricotta, and parmigiano reggiano. Quite amazing. Mark made a sauce of butter, garlic, (more) parm, and I grated in some fresh nutmeg and added a touch of cream at the very end. I sauteed some kale in olive oil and a little white wine with some thinly sliced onions and garlic. OMG. It was the best. The kale was an heirloom variety called Lacinato. It's also known as dinosaur kale. The texture is great, very cabbage-like. But then again, I've never met a green I didn't like.

Self-indulgent pictures of the new cat in inopportune (but cute) places:

the bread basket!

the laundry basket!

I have no shame.

I hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving.
I made this version of mac & cheese except I left out the ham and topped it with bacon. The horror! If I'm cooking for my family, I know it has to be cheesy pasta. They aren't big fans of any of our other food endeavors (wait...what other food endeavors? we only cook cheesy pasta). The mac was awesome, but not very photogenic, so I'll keep the picture to myself.

Just a reminder:
Mark & I are hosting our annual holiday party this next Saturday, December 6th. Don't forget to show up. Here's a small preview:

Corn Soup

I'm a compulsive list maker. The act of writing and organizing a list almost gives me as much satisfaction as if I'd actually completed all that was outlined in them. I'm an avid collector of lists…those found in grocery carts or in store aisles. They're little self-contained character sketches.

The other night after I posted the previous blog, I made a list of all the things we've made and documented in the last little while that I'd still like to post about and a list of things I'm excited about making for the first time and the requisite posts to follow as a result. I'm going to start with this ridiculously simple corn soup recipe…well, simple if you have one of these guys.

Corn, next to tomatoes, may be my favorite summer vegetable. All through this last little spurt of not-cooking, I've been thinking about all the corn I'm missing…how pretty soon it's going to be back to only what Kroger can afford me in the way of corn that's nothing compared to the sweetness of locally grown Peaches & Cream or Silver Queen corn that's so abundant at our Farmer's market during the summer.

When preparing corn, I eat quite a few raw chunks because of their pure and unadulterated sweetness. The cat and I love corn. She's never showed any interest in human food until one day…I brought home an armload of corn; set it on the kitchen table and she went crazy. I tried to take pictures, but she's writhes around so crazily, they never come out right using my dinky little point and shoot.

She doesn't try to eat it; rather she rubs her face against it and kind of half bites at it. It's adorable, really, but I'm pretty biased. Now every time I bring home corn, I tear off a little strip of husk for her to cart around the house for a while.


So, this corn soup is really only corn and butter and whatever garnishes you like:

Creamy Corn Soup
Lifted straight from Everyday Food

Ingredients

16 ears of yellow corn stripped from the cob
4 tablespoons of butter (cut into small pieces)
1 tablespoon of coarse salt

Garnishes:

Tortilla chips
Lime wedges
Scallions
Chives (from our garden, as seen above)
Hot sauce

1. Remove husks and silks from corn. Holding ears in a large bowl, slice off kernels (to yield about 10 cups). When slicing corn from cobs, work in a deep bowl to catch the kernels and any juices. In two batches, puree kernels and accumulated juices with a total of 2 cups water until chunky.
2. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, cook pureed corn, butter, 4 cups water, and salt until butter is melted and soup is heated through, 5 minutes.
3. Serve hot, garnished with tortilla chips, lime wedges, and sliced scallions, as desired. Or let cool, then freeze in individual servings; reheat over medium-low.

If and when I do get some corn in the near future, I've been inspired by a post over on Vegan Crunk to make a raw corn soup. I intend to puree corn with jalapeño, red pepper, cilantro, and a healthy dose of freshly Jack LeLanned lime juice, maybe an avocado to thicken it or some coconut milk…the same concept, only rawer and slightly healthier.

P.S. I've taken to reserving the naked corncobs in a big zip lock in the freezer for use in future homemade veggie stocks.