cookbook clean up 36 and 37 - another one bites the dust untested

I tried to consolidate all my cookbooks into one area in the house and give The Mister an area for his bread books - both the ones he's stolen from me and his own.  I underestimated space before I started and so they don't all fit on the bookshelf but maybe that's incentive to be a bit more ruthless with my cookbook cleanups.

The area behind the books stacked vertically does not have cookbooks in it, but some stuff that for now I don't have another place to put.  But by gathering them all together I discovered some books that I completely forgot about and am excited to get to.  I have not been cooking much interesting food lately but reading through cookbooks isn't appealing either.  Is ANYTHING appealing these days???

Anyhoo, say goodbye to - 

 Which just isn't sparking any interest, so goodbye.

We'll also say goodbye to this one, which I think I have already gotten rid of?  Or misplaced? Not sure.  But if I find it still here, it's on its way too.

 

 

 

Back on the bookshelf - 16 Donated -21

Pimento cheese

 The Mister and I were trying to figure out something for Sunday dinner and he discovered a ham hock in the freezer that I'd bought this summer for pea soup and since Winter showed up and kicked the door in to announce its arrival, I thought pea soup for dinner sounded good and moved on to looking for my moms recipe in the big old green binder.

The binder long ago abandoned being organized in any sort of sensible way, so instead I just flipped the pages, commenting on recipes that we haven't had for a while, or haven't even tried yet.  Honestly, some of this stuff is from the beginning time of my blog - 2004 for God sake!!!! - and we STILL haven't tried it?  

AnyHOO, I before I found the pea soup recipe I found 2 pimento cheese recipes and so The Mister and I started reminiscing about pimento cheese and the probably 4 times we've ever had it.  Next thing I knew The Mister was in the kitchen yelling that we had all the ingredients and how much cheese should he grate.

I didn't note where the recipe came from but it looked it was from Bon Apetit or Gourmet (RIP).

Basically for half a recipe you want 2 cups shredded cheddar, 1/2 cup finely chopped pimento, 1/4 cup (or more) mayo, and season with celery salt.

Ideally we should have used the finer cheese grater for a smoother texture but honestly it doesn't really matter.  It's SO good on bread, chips, toast, sandwiches, crackers, a spoon......yum.

book club 28 - the humanity project by jean thompson

 2022-28

 

Instant Pot HK Beef Curry

 I was rooting through the freezer and I found some stew meat.  I made a mental note (HA!) to keep that in mind to use up soon.  A couple of days later I realized that the little butternut squash and sweet potato I had bought on a whim a few weeks ago were still sitting on the counter.  I needed to use those up!  But how?  Ooooh, maybe a curry!  With coconut milk.  Over rice!

I decided last weekend to make a veg curry for dinner and then remember the beef.  Might as well use that too.  I started googling and soon came up with a potential winner curry to make in the instant pot so that the beef would be tender without me having to cook it on the stove all day.

By 4:30 I was pretty darn tired after tacking some extra cleaning jobs in addition to our usual weekend clean and my knees were so sore from getting up and down off chairs, being on the floor to clean out cupboards.  It was a bit depressing.  I started loosely following the curry recipe with The Mister backseat cooking over my shoulder.  The kids were apparently starving like the hadn't just eaten a snack 20 minutes earlier, so when the rice was done, it was chaos in the kitchen.  I was so focused on trying to get them sorted out and stop the complaining from both of them that I completely forgot the last few steps of the recipe - adding the coconut milk (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO), a bit of sugar, thickening the sauce...... 

 

In the end, it was delicious, and we all enjoyed it - The Boy even had seconds!  But I will make this again and add more curry - The Mister made me stop at 1 1/2 TB - and the rest of the ingredients.  What an idea!   I also realize as I write this that I didn't add the squash or sweet potato, which started this whole dang thing.  Jeez.

Recipe - Instant Pot HK Beef Curry

book club 27 - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

 2022-27

 

book club 26 - Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom

 2022-26

 

oatmeal raisin bars

 I am at a point lately where I am so mentally and physically exhausted that even making cookies seems like too much work, so I've been looking for bar recipes instead.  Just chuck it all in the oven at once and be done with it.

I decided to try to find an oatmeal raisin bar because I had some raisins and craisins to use up, and it had been a while since I'd made oatmeal raisin.  I soon realized WHY it had been a while when both kids started complaining about me using raisins and could I not swap them out for....oh, I don't know....maybe CHOCOLATE instead???

No.  No I could not.  

 

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart and these were so, so good.  Soft and chewy and comforting and delicious.  And ignored by most of my family, those weirdos.  I found these are best eaten within a few days as even in an airtight container they dry out quickly.

I am hyping myself up to make actual cookies today - I'm still a few hours away from it actually happening, so there's still time for me to wimp out but we'll see.

Happy Sunday.

book club 25 - The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

 2022-25

 

a bunch of stuff we've eaten

 

I may or may not have recently had a birthday, and got some BEAUTIFUL flowers from my BFF.

I made Hambāgu but only followed the recipe loosely - used pork, didn't measure anything, no wine, lots more broth - and it was delicious.

We did not bad using up the zucchini from the garden.  We air fried these zucchini sticks - of course air fried is never as good as FRIED, but they were good.

 Also made some VERY delicious zucchini muffins that disappeared quite quickly. 

AND this very good loaf pan zucchini lasagne (although in our opinion, this is best fresh, not as leftovers)

We also made KFC Fried Chicken Rice but The Boy ate so much of the chicken that we really didn't have enough leftover for the recipe but we made it work.  So good.

I tried cooking a whole chicken in our air fryer and it was game changing - truly.  If you've been around a while you might know that I hate cooking "whole" things like chickens, turkeys and roasts because I'm afraid I will over or worse - under-cook them and ruin everything.  Cooking the chicken in the air fryer somehow made the process seem easier and it was a damn good chicken too.

We managed - barely - to get through all the peaches we bought, and we made 2 peach desserts - peach melba tart and peach crisp.

 

Best dessert lately was definitely these chocolate chip cookie bars.  Delicious!

book club 24 - Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger

 2022-24

 

tukey curry - with zucchini!

 Everything has zucchini in it right now.  

coconut turkey curry in a hurry

2 restaurants in Penticton

 We went to Penticton for the first time since 2019 and it was nice to be back.  It was a quick trip and we didn't get to do all our usual/favorite stuff but we did eat at 2 new to us places

The Badlands - an outdoor patio area behind Bad Tattoo with drinks from Bad Tattoo and food from Twisted Chopsticks food truck.  It was UNBELIEVABLY HOT that night and by the time we had walked there we were all feeling pretty gross.  We chose a table in the shade rather than one in the sun under the misters.  There was no winning either way.  We had a bit of a wait for our food but it was worth it.  The menu was much more extensive than listed on the website above and we all enjoyed our food.

The Brother in Law wanted to eat at Bad Tattoo so we walked back down the next night but there was a huge line.   We walked down the block to a new restaurant since we've been there last - Neighbourhood Brewing.  After a short wait they had a table outside for us (in the shade - yay).  We were surprised but happy to find the menu was all Tex-Mex style food.  They bring out each item as it's ready, and I was disappointed in the size vs price of the first few plates that came out, but that seemed to change with other menu items.  Everyone was pretty happy with their choices and I think The Mister had the best meal - the birria taco.  So good!

book club 23 - The Kingmakers Daughter by Philippa Gregory

 2022-23

 

garden 2022

 Here is a big photo dump of the garden from the last month.  We planted everything in May/June and then really just let it do whatever it wanted.

We did a few herbs, zucchini, carrots, tomatos, bell peppers, lettuce, sunflowers..........I think that's it.  The rhubarb came in early again this year, and the raspberries have been struggling the last few years.  Maybe they need new dirt?

Everything got overgrown and tangled together

SO many zucchini flowers.  When we lived in Calgary I would buy these from the farmers market.  I did not pick any from our plants this year, I wanted them all to grow into zukes, which thank God they did not since we have too many anyway.  Next year I will pick some.

This area is full of flowers, plants, herbs and the rhubarb.  The bees came in full force this summer so we let everything go wild to keep them happy and coming back.  It looks messy but it's nicer in real life.

The carrots are still very wee, but I don't think we thinned them enough and I don't think they are getting enough sun because they are covered by the squash plants.

zuke bread

 There is a garden post coming up next, but here is the first recipe we made with our first zucchini from the garden.  It's a good basic bread, and is SO  good toasted.

 

 Zucchini bread

book club 22 - The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

 2022-22

 

favorites

 September.  2022.  What?????

I know I sound boring and sad but not much is going on over here.  Kid stuff, work.  Everyone caught a summer cold last month, and I'm still dealing with mine.  The summer and year in general has gone too fast and now we are only a few days away from back to school (YAY!)

We watched Lightyear last night and we all loved it!  It's cute and funny and good.

The Mister and I have been watching more shows than movies but I picked this one last week because I read about it and I was so glad I did.  Truly a really, really good movie.

Yes, I am an old lady with a huge crush on Chris Evans.  This was a good and surprisingly funny movie.

We raced through the 3 seasons in a couple of weeks - that's fast for us - and so while I was a bit tired of the show midway through season 3, I'm excited for season 4.

SUUUUUUUUUPER pissed The Wilds got cancelled.

_______________________________________________________________

Caselot sale at Gourmet Greens!

Peaches and apples, corn and tomatos

We ate some corn and froze some corn, and eat peaches and apples at every meal, and best of all made brushetta

__________________________________________________________________

I think this is my favorite book I've read so far this year, and I didn't realize until I was nearly finished it that this is the same author of one of my favorite books of last year.

I went to value village the other night - 

 Their fiction section seems to be getting smaller every time I go there, but I found some (hopefully) good ones.  I also picked up 2 for The Mister, so we were able to take advantage of the buy 4 get one free deal.