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1203 days ago
I realize I've been slack on the entries lately, but that's because I've been trying to move my blog to a different site that I can do more with. This has led to much frustration on my part and instead of making progress on making the new site I would usually get angry and shut off my computer. It's hard to get anywhere when the computer is turned off. Anyways, I think I've got things sorted out now, so here's the new website: http://jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/ More entries will follow shortly....
1206 days ago
Anyone who has ever grown zucchini will know that once they get started, there’s no stopping them. They will grow a foot overnight. Where just yesterday you had 1 zucchini, today there will be 5. People will start avoiding you so that you can’t pawn off your extra zucchini on them. It gets to the point where you have to start leaving them anonymously on neighbour’s doorsteps just to get rid of them. That being said, there is a lot that you can do with zucchini and in the winter I resent having to pay for them at the grocery store when just months earlier I could have built a house out of zucchini. When your neighbours figure out who’s responsible for the zucchinis and start throwing them back at your house there’s nothing you can do but head into the kitchen are start figuring out some new ways to use this abundant vegetable. Should you ever find yourself in this position, here are some suggestions that I’ve attempted in the past week, or will be attempting ...
1216 days ago
My brother, sister in law and nephew have been visiting for the week so I’ve been fairly busy, but still cooking. Or maybe lazy, but still cooking would be more accurate, I’m not really ever that busy, am I? Potato, pot-ah-to. We decided to have an Asian inspired dinner one night, the Quiggies were invited too. Everyone got in on the cooking for this meal. Appetizers were pork and shrimp dumplings from the Quiggies and cold rolls courtesy of me because Dad likes those. I had debated making sushi because I hadn’t done that in a while, but you can’t get good ingredients for that here. There’s definitely no sashimi grade fish in my grocery store, so cold rolls it was they never disappoint. Main dishes included spicy shrimp stir fry, chicken chow mein, ginger beans, bbq ribs and honey and soy glazed chicken wings. My mom, sister in law and I started chopping up all the veggies and organizing each dish so that it would be ready to go when we wanted to cook it. ...
1226 days ago
I've been playing around with ice cream making lately. I was motivated to do this on a particularly hot day when I remembered making homemade ice cream many moons ago, (around 4380 moons if you want a number, our ice cream machine hasn’t been used in at least a decade and I’m gauging even more than that). I remember it tasting completely different from anything I'd ever had from the store. It was creamier, richer and it had depth. We used to keep fresh made ice cream (while it lasted) in an old margarine container and I would sneak spoonfuls of it from the freezer when no one else was around. Unfortunately, the ice cream maker seemed to be a novelty item that quickly fell into disuse in my house. The freezing tub took up too much space in the freezer and the whole thing was eventually packed into its box, not to be opened again until years later. It was never thrown out though and survived the move to a new house. Up until a couple weeks ago it remained in its first ...
1232 days ago
I decided to make foccacia tonight. I had been thinking about it for a while and when I was at the Farmer’s market on Tuesday I got some feta and roasted red pepper spread that I thought would be a suitable topping. The recipe I found was for the bread machine. It was a garlic foccacia, and that sounded good to me except I decided to substitute one cup of whole wheat flour for one of the cups of white flour. This usually isn’t that big of a deal. However, I have a reoccurring problem with our bread machine- All of the recipes I find for bread machines generally conclude with “add ingredients as per manufacturer’s instructions”. That’s all well and good for someone who still has the manufacturer’s instructions or for someone who read them at some point, but neither of those describe my current situation. This means that every time I use the bread machine I wonder if things are going to turn out the way I want them to. In general, they haven’t and I’m beginning ...
