To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Whywhywhy, when I check my traffic stats, is there a referral site called "www.gaygalls.net"?  Who's coming here from a weird place like that?  Go to the Google, freaks, where you all belong! And now, we breathe.  Ommmm... My class reunion was this weekend, and while there isn't much to say about it in relation to food, there certainly are things to say about it.  I mean to tackle that in a soonerratherthanlater post. But today, let's recap the challenge I set for myself roughly one week ago.  I decided to make a conscious effort to use those oft-looked over foodstuff items in my inventory, namely quinoa, arborio rice, pinto beans, rice paper, and barley. And here, at the week's end, things stand as thus: First up was the barley.  That bag should be gone after today, when I make up a batch of Beef Barley soup for the testers at the Winery (indeed, what wine goes with a Beef Barley?  I'm putting my money on a Pinot). Then, in what could be calle

Mondays, in our house, are the worstworstworst days of the week.  The two older kids go from school to cross country practice to home...and then the middle and youngest kids go to soccer.  Brent has bowling league on Monday nights, which culminates in total chaos at Chez Nelson. Meals are quick and easy for Brent to make because I do not get home from school until around 5...with soccer practice starting at 5:30.  Yeaaaaaaaaah. So, a quick recap: Last night - spaghetti and salad. Tonight was even worse, if that's possible.  Usually, Tuesdays are carefree, but I had a meeting at school and didn't get home until 6:00...and the two older kids were at an away cross country meet. Brent let Elliot choose dinner, and Monkey Boy chose Asian Buffet.  I know, I know.  As for myself, I admit - I had a McDonalds Hamburger Happy Meal.  May I burn in hell forever. Tomorrow, though, we are back on track.  Vietnamese Spring Rolls!

In between costing out the two events I did for the Winery, reading my Economics homework, watching soccer games...all of it today, mind...I tackled my Inventory Clean-out Challenge. On the chopping block today - that half-bag of pearl barley that had been hanging out since I used a bit for a Beef-Barley soup awhile back.  My plan: a Mushroom Barley Risotto , idea courtesy of Epicurious, tweaks therein courtesy of the Test Kitchen Staff here at Be Food. Imagine my dismay, then, when I find not a half-bag of barley in my pantry...but a full bag!  Merlin's beard!  Barley like rabbits?  Wildly reproducing barley?  No.  I had just miscalculated the amount of barley the first time around. At any rate, after that shock and a half, I proceeded on with the recipe.  Strangely, the Epicurious recipe DOES NOT call for any wine in the risotto.  Um.  No.  Not cool.  So, that was just one change I made.  I left out the bay leaf and parsley, although I did go with fresh thyme near the end

Raise your hand if you've seen the movie The Princess Bride. For those of you who didn't raise your hand, you have two options: a.) Stop reading and go rent/stream it right now.  Don't ask why - just do it. b.) Beat yourself senseless with your iPod/cell phone/Kindle charging cord. Back to you cool kids who've seen it.   Remember the creepy Count Rugen who was fascinated by torture, etc. etc?  And how calmly he tells Westley "I've just sucked one year of your life away"?  And his heebie-jeebie goatee and velvet doublet and skirt ensemble?  And his magnificently poetic death at the hands of Inigo Montoya? Yeah, I feel like I've been hanging out with him lately...except he's sucked one week of my life away.  It has been a week since I last posted!  A week!  And I just don't know where it went. Anyway, I came up with a challenge idea tonight for myself.  Since, I don't know, a long time now, I've kept an excel spreadsheet of inv

Usually, when the kiddos ask for something, food-wise, I jump to oblige.  I dunno, I guess I feel like they're making a connection...and it's food. I've made granola before, but not in a long while.  It's not terribly healthy (or as much as the word likes to conjure up) nor cost-effective.  But Elliot in particular has been asking/suggesting...so what's a mom to do? I've had great luck with this Megan's Granola recipe at allrecipes.com...but necessity is the mother of invention...and Walmart is mother of my grocery shopping headache. I could not find the oat bran nor wheat germ.  So I substituted this: I threw a cup and a half into my food processor, pulsed it a few times until I had a coarse grind. I left out the half-cup of sunflower seeds. In addition to the 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon, I also added 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.  Because I kind of like to add nutmeg to everything. I also added a half-cup of peanut butter into the pan to be boile

First of all, pats on the back.  I visited my local farmer's market this morning, and took advantage of pie pumpkins at $1.50 each.  I figured I'd get a jumpstart on my fall food preparations. Today, I baked all of those pumpkins, pureed them, and froze 21 cups' worth...which will become sundry baked items sometime between now and Christmas (starting with a batch of pumpkin pancakes tomorrow, methinks). So, yeah, kudos to me.  And kudos to you!  For whatever amazing things you might have done today as well. I had every intention of making gazpacho this morning, and before I knew, it was nearly time to take Monkey Boy to his soccer game.  No time for gazpacho...or was there? Enter the 15-minute Gazpacho Challenge!  All photographs taken by Kirby Nelson, 12. Me, my hands, my knives, my Ninja. We need to leave the house by 10:15 to be at the soccer fields by 10:30.  I have 15 minutes. The Culinary Arts

Tonight's Winery Burger was one that, personally, I was very excited about.  Because A.) it was a departure from the normal beef and cheese and b.) I'd taken the original recipe and tweaked and tested it enough...it was actually MINE. Ground chicken, grated Granny Smith, diced celery, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper and breadcrumbs...all yummed up into 1/2 lb patties.  Then, the awesomesauce relish - a cup of whole cranberries, a whole, cored Granny Smith apple, and a whole navel orange (keep the peel on). Now, I've learned with these Wine & Burger nights I do at the Winery...always grill a tester.  For time's sake, for taste's sake, etc.  So I did that.  I oiled my grill and preheated it before I threw the burger on. About 8 to 9 minutes per side, and voila! a nicely dressed chicken-apple burger AKA Thanksgiving on a Bun.  With the cranberry relish, and the recommended Tassel Ridge wine (2012 Brianna) , I thought I'd knocked one out of the Burger B

See how important punctuation is?  Suppose I'd done the blog entry title the way I should have... Sweet Potato Leaves! Quite a difference.  Though, of course, not as much as "Let's eat Grandma" versus "Let's eat, Grandma." Or my favorite. "Woman, without her, man is nothing." versus "Woman without her man, is nothing." Anyway.  Focus. A few weeks ago, while I was on a break from school, the fam and I traveled to Kansas City for a little two-day getaway.  While there, Brent took us to the City Market in downtown KC, and there were numerous stalls that sold all kinds of crazy things...but one item I kept seeing over and over again were sweet potato leaves.  For sale.  For eating.  Weird, right? As it turns out, no.  Not to African and Asian people, anyway.  And after checking out sweet potato leaf nutritional data at  nutritiondata.self.com , it shouldn't be weird to us either.  We should be getting in on that action,

A short post tonight before I sleep, dear readers. So you know the way the wind is blowing these days, here are the two books I'm reading at present: Found here at amazon.com. And this one's found here . Yep.  This is what I want to know more about these days.  Winds of change.

According to the stat-check here at Blogger, I had more Canadian readers in the last 24 hours than American ones. So, to my northerly neighbors, thanks and good day, eh?! (I admit to being terribly ignorant in the ways of Canadian culture.  I've been shaped by Bob & Doug McKenzie and a guy I went to college who would tell us he was "going to get his salad cut," i.e. the barber.) And now, onto the real content of today's blog post.  This past weekend was Labor Day here in America....a holiday that celebrates people working.  And many Americans usually celebrate this holiday by...not working.  This usually just applies to government workers (schools, banks, courthouses, post offices, etc.) and some benevolent corporations and small businesses; however, most employees of service-related industries (foodservice, retail, etc.) ARE working (ironically) to serve those workers who have the day off. Then, there are people like me.  I happened to have the day (most

Remember those picture-calendars from our elementary school days?  Above the name of the month would be some kind of icon that represented that month, i.e. a Christmas tree for December (although now it might be referred to as a holiday tree), a heart for February, a shamrock for March, etc. For September, there was always a big apple, right?  To symbolize the beginning of the new school year. That's the context of today's post.  To me, September will forever be associated with apples.  Yesterday, for breakfast, I took a perfectly good box of dry, premade pancake mix and added: 2 packets of long-neglected apple cider mix 1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg Number of eggs called for on the box Amount of milk called for on the box In this house, one does not make just a batch of pancake batter...one doubles it and freezes any leftover flapjacks for later in the week.  Thus, the amounts listed above reflect a doubling. Served hot off the griddle with some yummy, GMO-free, organic a