no one of consequence.

OK. Now I haven’t done this one before, as much as both Lee and I enjoy it for a reason. There will be folks who will swear that allowing A Damn Yankee to make the sacred Chicken Fried Steak is an abomination not to be tolerated. Let alone a Yankee in Canada. However, this matches my memories of Texas, and I have been coached by bona-fide Southerners on the proper production, so I will impart this recipe at long last. It will be long, don’t hurt me… this one is as much about the process as anything else. So take the jump and hang on… (more…)

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Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion and whip em round till they’ve started to soften. Peel the sausages… just slash the skins and peel em off. Break em up into chunks and cook until they lose all the pink. Add the garlic and let that go while you open the can of tomato, then add the chicken broth and the tomato, keeping out of steam burn range. Unless you want a good facial. Dump in the drained beans and seasonings, then give er a good stir. Simmer for 1-2 hours.

When you are ready to eat, turn it up to a slow boil then add the pasta and cook for however long the box says or until you cant stand not tasting whats making that fantastic smell anymore. Taste the soup and re-season if needed, it should thicken on its own once the pasta is in. Serve with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top and a nice crusty bread.

For a freeze ahead dinner, only simmer for about an hour, and do not add the pasta. Divide into meal sized portions and freeze. To finish, defrost and slowly bring up to a boil, then add pasta and cook as directed.

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Sue me. Im a traditionalist.

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We tried this once before, but I was unhappy with the results.

That particular recipe called for potatoes. Now I understand the use of potatoes in a pureed vegetable soup. Potatoes give a soup like this body, and richness. However, the recipe itself was rather flawed in that it called for the potatoes to be cooked in the soup base. This both caused the entire soup base to taste heavily of potato starch, and destroyed my hand-blender when I (despite misgivings) tried to puree the soup in the time period described… when the potatoes in fact were still way too hard to blend up. End result: many unblended potatoes and one perplexed husband saying “I broke your thingie”.

It was edible, after a wild rummage through the cupboards and fridge in search of ingredients for a major doctor-up. But that doctoring happily led to the recipe below, which I am quite satisfied with.

This time I think I’ve gotten what I was looking for.

(more…)

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This will make my third bento box set.

No, I’ve not gone wapanese. really. These things are ridiculously practical really. They let me use up the leftovers, keep eating healthier, since I tend to pack a respectable amount of veggies and avoid fast food.

AND I use almost NO disposable packaging. I even have a Sigg bottle for my desk that I refill from the filtered water cooler, so Im not using PET bottles either.

Lee says I need a new hobby.

(So dont tell him I need the matching spork for this set still.)

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So thursday was my first payday. A work-wardrobe revamp is entirely neccesary, so today there was Shopping.

Three pair of paints, four tops for around $265. Further expansion will have to happen slowly, and will involve first replacing most if not all of my blazers, which are in varying shades of “worn”. Unfortunately, short jackets seem to be in style this year. Short tops do NOT work on my body type, so im thinking there must be Thrifting.

Also, a 16 oz travel mug, which is needed for my desk, a new wok (stainless, not carbon, but already a vast improvement over the non-stick disaster) and a nice, huge Baker’s Secret cookie sheet to replace the cheap one we finally had to dispose of. Eventually I want to try silipat, but I dont know if I trust the psychotic stove enough with that.

On order is a big old bento-box set in this pattern for my lunches and dinners (depending on the shift), and I want a 1 liter Sigg bottle so I can tote water and not be blowing cash on cans of coke or PET bottles at mall-prices. Next pay probably. Unless someone wants to buy me one? *bats eyelashes*… no? *sigh* yeah, I know, my cute days are long over.

In other news im officially smoking again, my face is still aching on and off thanks to the joys of dry-socket, we’ve torn down and replastered the worst of the bedroom walls, and thanks to Lee’s refusal to let me quit, have joined a new Horde guild in WoW with my main, the orc warlock.

Well, not really a *new* guild… we’re in Old Timer’s Guild. Yep, the big old pan-game guild from hell that never dies! *laugh* After all these years. I figured they’d dry up and blow away years ago, but apparently they’re over 3000 members now, and have chapters in practically every MMO on the market.

Now to get in a little game time, since Lee’s itching…

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So today as most of you know was Thanksgiving in the States. Refusing to be cheated out of my late November nomfest, I made a full dinner. Canadian T-day was a whole month ago, and besides, I didnt get a turkey dinner then, Lee had been kidnapped to the cottage up north.

Sassy_Fae and Etherlad joined us for dinner, in part because the Fae had in the past mentioned wanting to see how it’s done, and in part because we hadnt seen them in far too long. Dave from upstairs joined us for a while, but I didnt invite him to stay, partially because of the severe lack of eating space in our apartment. Much chattering and feed and playtime with the thoroughly overfed and currently exhausted cat.

Turkey was nummy, and worth the crazy. Y’all know Ive been ranting about my seasoning crap. I apologise now. Because I managed to actually replicate it, with only one batch being pitched. (Powdered ginger is some powerful stuff.) See, most of the flavor in the stuffing I use comes from that powder, i’ve never before gotten it right without it.

Tonight’s stuffing was the comfort food I crave… the smell, the flavors taking me back to Grandfa’s kitchen in November (one of the few days he reigned supreme). Every time I do a turkey I hear his voice telling me to do it “till it looks like this, tastes like that, feels just SO…” Today that feeling was stronger than usual as I showed the Fae and Dave how to “do it like this, then do this like so…”

It’s a happy memory, of being helpful, of being a part of things. I was proud when I got it just right. It’s still important to get it just right. It’s just one of those things I’ll never be happy about unless I do get it just right.

So the cooking happens.

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Hrmm. *checks last post* Ok, so that job interview didnt happen. Turns out they wanted 12 hour shifts. *shudder* Im too old to put up with being bitched at for twelve hours a day. Also, bad depressive episode. Fun fun. So lots of movies and vegetating on the sofa waiting for my brain to re-engage.

Finally starting to feel on track again. Today we finally hung the guitar rack Lee mostly built and I mostly designed. Why today? Because I was trying to vacuum today and moving the damn floor racks yet again did not appeal. We didnt finish it the way we intended, and it’s just raw pine. But it doesnt look bad at all, it gets the guitars away from the heater, and steals back a bit of floorspace.

Of course we have ended up with more guitars than we had planned for, since Lee’s partner G cant be trusted to not sell his guitars to buy new guitars. (I dont think he really has anywhere to keep them at the moment, which is why the mando joined us.) So they live here, and mine still hangs from a screw at the other end of the sofa, and the big bad heavy bass still has to live in the bedroom.

Also, today I made three bean soup again, and to go with it I made an attempt at sodabread. Im not terribly thrilled with how it worked out, but then I didnt have real buttermilk, and evil me swapped white bread flour for whole wheat. Tastes right if mild, but the texture was chewier rather than crumbly and the crust is some serious crunchy. I’ve bagged it with a damp cloth to see if i can mellow it. Looks purdy though:

So I feel like something was accomplished, despite everything. Little things like that always help rebalance my brainmeats.

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Oh noooooes.

Gristedes is no longer on Amazon.com. The makes me sad, because I had counted on them for making the rare occasional purchase of Items I *NEED* that I cant get up here. Last time it was good pepperoni, Sabrett’s hot dogs and Bell’s Seasoning mix. For a huge premium of course.

Their replacement is something called Netgrocer, which wont cross border ship. Gristedes has their own web storefront now, so I *can* still get it. Again, at an insane premium due to the dry ice shipping and all.

Now Im getting low on my Bells. I cant do poultry right without it, it’s a staple in my kitchen, as it was in my Grandfa’s. I usually only go through one box in a year, but I *will* have my own American thanksgiving and I need it for that.

Anyone wanna send me a couple boxes? I’ll pay back in Coffee Crisp, Smarties or Aero bars!!!

(Big puppy-eyed do-a-fellow-foodie-a-solid look at Bronxelf as the most likely candidate to assist…)

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Well, since we were gifted with a pizza stone, it was time to give it a shot. So I mashed up a batch from a recipie I had on hand (snatched from god-only knows where) with WHAT I had on hand (All Purpose Flour. Meh.) and decided to make Calzone.

NY style Calzone, unlike the few things I’ve run across up here that are labeled calzone, which have sauce inside them (?!?!?!) and just mozzerella. Nonono. To me, that’s just stuffed pizza. Not a bad thing, but not calzone. Good thick calzone, bigger then both fists together, that oozes ricotta all over the damn place when you cut it to dip in in the sauce which is served on the side.

Not a huge fan of calzone, but it’s just been so *long*, I had the urge. Worked out well enough. Enough to satisfy the crave. I had some oozage onto the pizza stone, and the crust is *close* but not quite right. It came up a good bit crunchier than a NY Style pizza dough should be, but that may be from having the stone too low in the oven.

However, it seems that my super psychotic stove has a silver lining. It gets HOT. I kicked it up to max hot, and almost burned the suckers in ten minutes, (after a solid hour pre-heat). That’s got to be hotter than 500. 550 or maybe even 600. Which for pizza making is TEH SHINAY, since real NY pizza is supposed to cook at around 700-800.

Few things I’d do differently.

• Pizza Stone belongs at a higher rack level than the bottomest.
• I dont think the dough proofed enough. The sponge wasnt nearly as foamy as I’d have liked when put it in play.
• Screw even a brief kneading after the rise. With All Purpose Flour I need all the gluten lovin I can get. Next time I try this Im getting the bread flour and doing it right.
• Make Lee do the kneading. My wrists hurt. And get him to teach me how to toss the dang things.

There’s another recipie Im thinking I want to try over at www.pizzamaking.com, where some serious pizza people hang out. But right now I’ve got another ball of dough in the fridge, and I’ll have to use that up first. It’s actually continuing to rise in there. Which is probably a good thing. The Serious Pizza People talk about letting a dough slow rise in the fridge for four days…

Still, if I wasnt stuffed from all that cheese, I’d probably try tossing that last ball out and seeing how it goes with a normal pizza…

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