Let the baking orgy begin!

I made three pounds of spiced nuts tonight. There will be six more pounds made, at least, by the time Christmas rolls around.



I combined two recipes, one from Smitten Kitten, and one from America's Test Kitchen, and made three pounds of almonds at once. I chose to make almonds, because even though I like pecans, not everyone does.

So, here is my finagled recipe for...

Sweet and salty rum spiced nuts

1/3 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg white
1 tablespoon dark rum (can be substituted with water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound whole raw almonds, unsalted

Preheat oven to 300, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Mix the ingredients from the brown sugar to the allspice in a medium bowl, breaking up any clumps

Beat the egg white, run and vanilla together in a large bowl with a whisk until frothy.

Add the almonds to the egg white mixture and toss until coated. Dump the sugar mixture into the almonds and mix until evenly coated. Spread the nuts on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on the baking sheet, breaking apart any nuts that are stuck together as they cool.

Yum.

Belated Thanksgiving post

Sorry it took so long to get up the Thanksgiving post!

Thanksgiving was mellow this year. I didn't have the kids. I made dinner for my mom, my brother, his wife, and her parents. It was fairly simple.

My mom got chorizo that she didn't end up using for stuffing. I put some of it in my stuffing, but there was enough left over to make spur of the moment chorizo stuffed mushrooms. They were delish.



I made an herbed butter to put under the skin of the turkey.



The rest of the dinner was pretty basic. I made a gravy with the neck, since the turkey had no giblets. (!! I know!) I made fresh cranberry sauce. I also made fresh whipped cream with fruit for dessert. The guests brought the other sides.

Another week down

This week was rough. I worked seven days straight. Five more to go before I get a day off. Even though I got out at noon today, I was pretty exhausted. After a nap, I decided I wanted to cook for the week even though I worked all weekend. I made artichokes with melted butter and tortellini with peas and bacon in cream sauce for tonight's dinner. Tomorrow we will be having sausage and swiss chard lasagna. I also roasted a chicken with a lemon in it for Wednesday.

I am really liking having the dinners made during the week. I decided I needed to make smaller dinners, though. The 11 x 9 casseroles are way too much for the kids and me. Although the kids and I were fine eating shepherd's pie for three days, I still ended up having some left over.

I divided the lasagna into three loaf pans (which is how I used to make lasagna for two way back in the day). I froze two and put one in the fridge for tomorrow. I plan to make some of the same casseroles again - the kids liked the shepherd's pie and the chicken lemon artichoke pasta a lot. But, I will be most likely dividing those into smaller pans, too.

Even though I was tired today, it is so much better the whole week to have dinners made. And,I just don't like driving through or eating out at cheap places, and we can't really afford it. I also don't like most premade foods.

Yawn. Alarm set. Time for bed.

Quote for the day

Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather it is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past.

-Joan Borysenko

Catching up

I have been really busy with the single mom thing and the medical school rotations thing, but I have been keeping up with feeding the family. Just not keeping up with blogging about it.

I also just realized that the name of this blog is more than just about my cooking. My life is getting to the point that it's almost healthy now. I'm still working on it. I still have doubts. For example, I know that Picky, and perhaps members of his family, are reading this blog and my other blog. That is probably one of the reasons I haven't been posting that often on either.

I know he read this post because he showed up at Z's birthday party with my kitchen knife, of all things. Leave it to Picky to blemish a party day with some petty nonsense. But, I was happy to see the knife. I have to think in the Almost Healthy mindset. Instead of being worried that his family knows how I feel about their treatment of me, I should be comfortable in the fact that I never treated them badly; I bent over backwards to cook them amazing food and cater to them. It is ridiculous that I feel any sort of angst over admitting out loud that I was treated absolutely atrociously. How does that make me the bad person? If Papa Picky (Picky's father) refuses to ever come to my house again, that means I will never get bullied by him again. I shouldn't feel bad; I should rejoice.

Maybe if I complain on here about his keeping the patio table my former mother in law gave me after saying he was just going to keep it until he got a dining room table will lead to him showing up randomly with my patio table. Here's to hoping for a shred of decency. Or, he can sit outside at his new place at one of the two patio tables with seating for ten and eat take out by himself. I can still be happy that it's not my problem any more.

Anyway, had to get that off my chest. Here is some proof that I have been living, not just ruminating about what Picky's family thinks of me:

S loves talking about Mexican food for some reason, but it seems like whenever I make it, he only eats a little bit. He loves talking about tacos. In fact, he is dressing up like a taco this Halloween. I'm not kidding. Well, I made these shrimp tacos the other night, since Z has trouble chewing the steak in the steak ones I love to make. They were a huge hit.



Here is a favorite breakfast for Z. He asked for it on his birthday. It's nothing fancy, but it reminds me of my childhood. I love it that he loves it. Bananas, peanut butter, and honey:



The weather is getting beautiful. The kids and I love to eat outside, and now that Picky isn't here to object, we get to do it whenever we want. It's wonderful, even if we have to push some cheap folding tables together. I made this cajun catfish with browned butter the other night, and it was scrummy:



I was so proud of myself last Sunday. I posted on Facebook that I deserved a mother of the year award. I made baked French toast for breakfast, folded three loads of laundry, put together my new vacuum / steamer and vacuumed the house, took the kids out for a picnic lunch in a park, and we played ball there and went on a nature walk, made THREE dinners from scratch - one for that night and two for the week, and built a fort with Z. Picky blew it off saying I thought I was mother of the year for just cooking and doing laundry, but I am confident that I did more in one day as a parent than he could pull off in a month. Two months if it was football season, or if a new video game just came out. And, I got the added bonus of not having to do anything but heat up dinner all week, and we had delicious, homemade food.

Here was the most popular meal from the week - chicken and pasta with artichoke, peas and lemon:



And finally, even though I said I wasn't going to talk about Picky any more, I was pretty perturbed that he complained that I wrote about "hating his family" on my food blog. I didn't say I hated them. I said I was upset at how I was treated surrounding food, especially considering the fabulous meals (and endless creme brulee!) I made for them without complaining. Just scroll through the posts on here and check it out. But, since I already vented about it on this post, I might as well finish it off with a laugh. I was in the ER this week to admit a patient, and I saw someone's snack sitting in one of the employee areas. I will most likely never get to cook for Papa Picky again, but if I do get the honor, I think I will hook him up with something like the spread I saw in the ER:



I questioned putting this up, but then I realized he has always treated me with barely concealed hostility, almost since the day he met me. I can continue to cower and be afraid, and listen to his family members telling me how it's my fault and I deserved to be cursed at and treated like dirt on the bottom of his shoe, or I can be Almost Healthy about it and have a good laugh.

Farinata!!

I have a new favorite recipe. I saw a food show a while ago. I can't remember the name of the show, or even what channel it was on. I tried to search for the exact recipe, but wasn't able to find it. But, I was able to find another recipe for the same dish, and it was phenom. And cheap. And simple. And almost healthy!

It is a garbanzo (chick pea) flour flatbread. I have seen it described as a "pancake", even though it is entirely savory. It was so easy to make, has very few ingredients, and was soooo delicious. It has a complex, unique texture and flavor, which is amazing considering how simple it is. Garbanzo flour is a specialty ingredient, but it isn't that hard to find if you have access to a health food store. And, it was $3.00 a pound, so it's hard to complain.

I used this recipe. I heated the water before adding it, since every other recipe I found says to do so. I opted to add the onion and rosemary. I also grated some Parmesan-Reggiano on top because I seem to remember the dude in the show doing it. And, why not? Everything is better with cheese.

Oh. wow. I ate it, I ate some more, I ate leftovers for breakfast, and I am making it again tonight so I can have it for breakfast for the rest of the week. I told the kids we will be eating it for every meal for the rest of our lives, so get used to it.

Here is the lousy photo of my farinata:

Pickiness abounds

So, I was talking about food near someone today who started making "yuck" faces- one of my pet peeves. Don't yuck my yum, people. The really funny thing is, she immediately started arguing about how she doesn't like most seafood, but she "isn't picky". She won't eat anything with a shell - crustacean or bivalve. And most fish is "too fishy". Seafood is usually a good litmus test to me as to whether someone is a picky eater. Then she proceeds to say she doesn't eat any cheese unless it's melted. (?!!!) She hates goat cheese, only likes cow cheese, but will eat feta (which she kept arguing with me wasn't goat cheese. It is. It is sheep cheese, too.) She will eat watermelon but not cantaloupe or honeydew. She won't eat any "gamey" meat, like lamb, goat, rabbit, venison, etc.

And she kept defending that she wasn't a picky eater. Right. Whatever, everyone is entitled to her food issues. Just have a little insight into the fact that you have them, and these aren't inherently gross foods.