Yum in Tum

My First Escargots

2012-01-29T11:02:00.000-06:00

This is one of my most clearly defined, early food memories. I was about five or six years old, and we had gone to dinner at some fancy-type restaurant for a business dinner with my father's colleagues. I sat next to a man who, by my memory, was not that much larger than me. He was short, I remember, and quite round. He had dark hair and a sort of reddish complexion, and eyes I never saw. I don't remember his name, though I do remember talking to him quite a bit. I do remember, however, that he was blind, and that he was very willing to answer all my questions about being blind. Until it came time to start thinking about dinner, which he was very much interested in.

He told me he was planning to order, for his first course, the escargots. I didn't know what they were, and so I asked. I remember how severely my nose wrinkled up when he told me they were snails, and moreover, that snails are quite delicious. I didn't believe him for a moment, and so I quizzed him at length about them. The man told me the thing that most influenced my love of food, which was that even when things sound gross, there's a reason people eat them and so one might do best to try these foods before judging them. It was a longer, expanded version of "don't knock it until you try it," but it got through to me somehow. After all of this, probably because he had been so honest with me about all the particulars of his blindness, I trusted this man. And so I too ordered escargots.

I remember the dish arriving and being placed in front of me. The strange bowl, with little cups in it. The heady smell of garlic, wine and butter. And because of the little cups (and the shells), I remember not having the first clue how to proceed. So I asked the man. I figured since he got me into this, he could explain the ways of escargots to me. And so he did. He instructed me on how to get the little gems out with my small fork, reminded me to swish them more in the liquid to give them more flavour, and he also told me to chew my food slowly. At that point in my life I was a good chewer (I'm a much faster eater now that I'm grown, though I suppose that happens to all adults) and so that last bit of information wasn't especially needed. It was a good reminder though, and one I give myself every time I think of this man while I'm eating.

I pried out a snail, and I dipped and pressed it into the sauce before putting it in my mouth, as instructed. And then I chewed. The burst of flavour and happiness in my mouth was immediate. I could feel the slightly rubbery give of the snail's flesh, and taste its relatively mild flavour. The sauce was an explosion of fattiness and wonder, and as I chewed the sauce pushed itself into the recesses of the snail, making sure each time my teeth clamped was a new and wondrous experience. I was in heaven.

This snail, that I was so hesitant to put in my mouth... this bug in my mouth... was one of the most incredible things I had experienced. It remains, to this day, one of the most incredible things I've experienced. I ate them all. Every single one. The man and I sat, in silence, eating our snails. There was a table full of other people there with us, but to me, only the man, the snails, and I existed. Nothing else. When we finished our snails, the man asked me what I thought about them. I'm sure he regretted that decision, since I was a much more chatty kid than I am as an adult (unbelievable, huh?). I told him at length about my impressions of the snails, and he told me about other sauces they sometimes come in. We talked about nothing but snails. It was wonderful, that sense of adventure, exploration, fellowship, communication, newness and wonder. It is the experience with food I look for every time I eat. And though only one in a thousand meals gives me this exact feeling, I cannot stop looking for it. I was addicted to food in that moment, and it's the reason I continue to be addicted o food.

It's strange sometimes to think that this man whose eyes I never saw (because of his glasses), whose name I still don't know, gave me one of the most influential moments of my life. It changed my life, and all my views on food. That change still exists today for me. Sometimes I will be looking at a menu, or an ingredient in the store, and my first, archetypal American response is, "Ew. That's gross." Every time that happens, the escargots and the man come to my mind, and I can hear his gentle rebuke about judging a food before I've tried it. And in those moments, even when I'd rather order something familiar, or even just something that seems a little less weird, I go with the escargots. They're not usually actually escargots, but I never eat the weird food without remembering the actual escargots.

And so, this man, whom I met once, changed my life forever. He is the reason I maintain this blog. He is the reason I eat with such abandon. He is the reason I try things I have no interest in trying. He is the reason I seek that bliss with every bite I put in my mouth. I don't know who he is, but I am thankful to him, every day of my life, for the incredible and inexpressible (though I'm trying) gift he gave me and the way it shaped my thinking.

Is there someone who does or did exist in your life who gave you a gift like this, or who influenced you in such a remarkable way? I'd love to hear y'all's experiences too.

Saturday Spending

2012-01-28T10:51:00.000-06:00

We barely bought anything this week, which is good. Although the cheese is mostly gone... I've realised I still have some stuff in my freezer that I'd like to get through at some point, so I've been focusing again on food storage this week. This is good, although since, as you know, I'm mainly down to base staples, there's mostly me making a lot of stuff I've made before and Ross eating it all. It's nice to have a garbage disposal built into a husband. Sometimes, when we have a lot of leftovers I just line them up on the counter and ask him to make sure they've all been eaten before the day is concluded. Invariably, they ARE all eaten. It's impressive. But, I digress. On to the spending.

Fiesta:

$2.09 - milk
$0.25 - onion
$3.25 - orange juice

total: $5.59

Not a bad week at all.

I'm considering, to sporadically replace the Sunday Storage posts, doing Sunday Stories. I don't think I'll do this weekly, since my work load with school is a little too high for me to definitively commit to writing out a story each week. But perhaps sometimes. The basic premise of this idea is that on certain Sundays, the post will not be a recipe but instead will be a story about food that I remember, and that influenced my food thinking. Thoughts on this idea?

Food Waste Friday

2012-01-27T10:51:00.001-06:00

This was a great week in the waste world. Nothing was wasted!

Saturday Spending

2012-01-21T13:53:00.000-06:00

This was definitely a spendy week. I hadn't been to Phoenicia in a while, and as typically happens when I go after a long spell without, I bought a bunch of stuff that there was really no need for me to buy. Such as a little cheese extravaganza. I also didn't get the two spices I meant to while I was there, malbeb and mastic. I guess I'll get those another time.

Phoenicia:

$3.69 - Pickled cubeb peppers
$2.00 - margoram
$2.49 - fava beans
$1.89 - dried apples
$2.50 - dried mango
$2.29 - semolina
$2.69 - sundried tomatoes
$2.75 - star anise
$6.49 - labneh
$4.20 - kasseri cheese (1/2 pound)
$8.66 - bulgarian feta (1 3/4 pound)
$1.21 - yali pears
$2.19 - eggs

subtotal: $43.05

Whole Foods:

$1.72 - cardamom pods
$4.99 - goat brei (this was awesome, btw)
$3.64 - parrano

subtotal: 10.35

HEB:

$1.99 - beets w/ tops
$0.98 - red bell peppers
$0.83 - red onions
$1.78 - mushrooms
$4.98 - feta (yeah, I know; nearly 3 pounds of feta this week)
$3.48 - spring mix
$2.50 - pepperoni
$2.98 - orange juice

subtotal: $19.52

total: $72.92

Food Waste Friday

2012-01-20T13:52:00.000-06:00

This week was pretty good. There was a little bit of salad that went to waste, so not a perfect week. How'd y'all do on your food waste this week?

Stuffed Hubbard Squash

2012-01-17T08:40:00.000-06:00

I made this ages ago, but I wasn't posting at that time. So I thought I'd give y'all the recipe today. Admittedly, this is kind of a strange recipe. Strange in that hubbard squashes are usually gigantic. I happened to find a small one though that was roughly the size of one of those pie pumpkins. If you can't find a small one, use a large one and scale up the filling, or simply stuff a different squash with the same filling quantities I've got listed here. This filling will be delicious irrespective of what type of squash it goes into. Hope you enjoy!

1 small hubbard squash (or other), approximately the size of a pie pumpkin

1/2 cup each: diced onion, diced celery
1 diced carrot
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can each: black beans, corn
salt to taste

2-3 cups fresh baby spinach
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup basil flowers (or just use basil leaves)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or roast the seeds of this squash and use them)

Heat oven to 400F. Cut squash in half, scooping seeds and strings (reserve these for other uses) out. Lightly salt (and oil, if you like) cut side of squash. Put squash halves in a roasting pan so they fit snugly and fill the bottom of the pan with water so it goes about half way up the squashes. Roast for 50-60 minutes.

Heat oil in medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add remainder of first group of ingredients and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and continue to fry until garlic is lightly browned, 1-2 minutes. Add corn and beans group and cook another 2 minutes, then add spinach group and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until spinach is lightly wilted and well incorporated into the rest. Stuff squashes and return them to the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops of the filling look slightly dried but not too dry. Sprinkle with basil flowers and seeds, then serve. Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side.

Sunday Storage

2012-01-15T07:47:00.000-06:00

So here's something interesting. Outside of my tea (of which I am down to about 5 pounds), dried mushrooms and kelp (okay, there're a few pounds of beans in here too), every single food item in the house fits... IN THE PANTRY. Yes, in the pantry. Like a normal person. So, given that I don't really have much to say about the pantry anymore, as I'm not trying to find ways to use up the pantry storage of excess, I think we're discontinuing Sunday Storage.

I feel a little sad about this.

Mostly, I feel a little sad that these out of control amounts of food, well... aren't, anymore.

However, whenever we live somewhere that's not housing two people in 652 square feet of space, I'll probably stockpile too much again. And then we can start the Sunday Storage posts again.

I think that is all on this matter.

Saturday Spending

2012-01-14T15:38:00.073-06:00

You all will be a bit surprised by this, but all that time I wasn't posting I was thinking about y'all enough to save my receipts. So this post is going to be a bit of a long one, since there're simply too many receipts for me to combine them (and they won't be in chronological order). I'm not even really sure how we did on spending, though I suppose we're about to find out.

Kroger (12/14/11):

$1.84 - 2 pounds spaghetti noodles
$10.92 - 5 pound bone in ham
$1.64 - flour
$15.08 - 4 pound chuck roast (for chili)
$0.99 - pepper
$6.79 - sugar (I want to say this was a 20 pound bag)
$5.93 - 9 cans canned tomatoes
$4.00 - cheeses
$4.69 - oatmeal
$1.24 - tomatillos
$0.26 - jalepenos
$0.66 - poblanos
$0.57 - anaheims
$1.36 - wax peppers
$0.80 - banana peppers
$0.07 - habeneros
$0.07 - serranos
$1.99 - macadamia nuts
$2.50 - butter
$1.79 - soy sauce
$1.15 - tomatoes, canned
$2.17 - fresh tomatoes
$3.83 - cherries
$2.50 - salsa

subtotal: $72.84
total: $72.84

Phoenicia (11/30/11):

$18.99 - 3 litres olive oil

subtotal: $18.99
total: $91.83

Fiesta (12/07/11):

$2.53 - eggs, 18

subtotal: $2.53
total: $94.36

Fiesta (01/01/12)

$2.99 - flour
$2.19 - eggs
$2.78 - tomatoes
$2.49 - cheddar
$10.86 - 4 pound bottom roast (chili again)
$0.21 - jalapeno
$1.00 - bell pepper
$0.98 - tomatillo
$0.74 - poblano
$2.36 - 4 cans pinto beans (I totally forgot to make beans in preparation of this)
$1.18 - tomato sauce
$0.89 - sour cream
$1.49 - 5 bulbs garlic
$0.04 - serrano peppers
$0.10 - habaneros
$0.69 - hominy

subtotal: $30.99
total: $125.35

Kroger (12/28/11):

$3.49 - string cheese
$2.99 - blueberries

subtotal: $6.48
total: $131.83

HEB (12/05/11):

$4.38 - cheese
$4.38 - more cheese
$3.96 - pork and venison sausage
$3.59 - whole wheat flour
$3.59 - bread flour

subtotal: $19.90
total: $151.73

Fiesta (1/9/12):

$2.09 - milk
$1.39 - whipping cream
$3.99 - cheese
$2.29 - more cheese
$3.29 - salt pork
$0.50 - cucumber
$0.55 - zucchini
$2.00 - apples
$1.21 - brussels sprouts
$3.49 - peanut butter
$3.49 - more cheese
$3.29 - bread flour
$1.39 - canned chili (I was a little afraid to see if Ross was really going to cut up hot dogs and put them in this, but let's not discuss it further)
$1.55 - spaghetti squash
$1.17 - 3 avocados
$0.33 - red onion
$0.33 - roma tomato
$0.63 - sweet potato
$0.99 - celery
$1.01 - eggplant

subtotal: $34.98
total: $186.71

Ah. I'm glad to see it's not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I don't trust this as being the be-all, end-all of my shopping though, because I know there's no way I haven't told you guys about my grocery shopping in nearly 2 months and that's all the bread flour we needed. So I'd say let's add in another $10 for bread flour that was purchased without me receiving the receipts, and let's go ahead and add in another $25 in groceries that didn't get accounted for as well. I think that's probably a little on the high end, but I'd rather estimate high than low. So that adds another $35 to our total, for a grand total of $221.71. All in all, that's really not too bad at all. It's still a little higher than I'd like to see, but we've been good regarding food waste and I don't feel like the pantry is terribly overstuffed so I think we're okay there too. How's this been going for y'all?

Food Waste Friday

2012-01-13T17:00:00.000-06:00

This was a pretty good week in terms of waste. I'd made some corn gems and three of them didn't get eaten, but we simply fed them to Frank the Possum, who is our outside neighbour. He never seems to mind these occasional free meals from us, and we chuck whatever we're giving him to right outside his burrow so he just has to poke out his head to grab it.

Vanilla Apple Crepes

2012-01-11T09:16:00.000-06:00

I don't know why I wake up so early sometimes, but I do. And this time I woke up thinking about apples. But what to do with these apples? Crepes seemed like a pleasant way to enjoy them, and to start off our day (interestingly enough, Ross generally eats something for breakfast while I sometimes forget to eat until well into the afternoon). Crepes are so easy, even though it seems like they're not. You just blend some stuff, let it sit, then cook it. No special pans, no nothing. The syrup I already had made, since I enjoy it in my coffee and in my tea (mostly tea, but whatever). So here's a simple, easy breakfast (or dessert; it's an easy dessert too) that's good for enjoying but not bad on your morning routine or time usage. Hope you enjoy!

Vanilla-Cardamom Syrup:

1/2 cup each: sugar (vanilla sugar optional), water
5 cardamom pods, smashed enough to open
1/4 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Put all ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer for 10-20 minutes. Let sit another hour, then strain. I always reserve the spent vanilla pod and toss it in a large jar of vodka so it can contribute to my continued never-ending supply of vanilla extract.

Crepes:

3/8 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or vanilla sugar)
1 egg
pinch salt (sometimes I omit this)

Blend all the ingredients for about 10 seconds, then put the blender jar in the fridge for an hour or so. Lightly butter a hot skillet (or don't; most of the time I don't even bother oiling the crepe pan) and pour out about a quarter cup of batter. Swirl to coat the pan and let cook approximately one minute, or until the edges start to curl slightly. Flip and cook another 30-60 seconds. Makes 4-6 crepes.

Apple Filling:

2 small granny smith apples, cored and sliced thinly (you may peel them if you prefer them peeled also)
2-3 tablespoons vanilla cardamom syrup
2 tablespoons butter
pinch salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

Heat butter over medium heat, then cook the apples with the lemon and salt until they are soft but still firm. Add the syrup (as much or as little as you like) and sugar, and cook until the apples are completely soft. Stuff in crepes. Enjoy.

Potato Celery Hash

2012-01-10T17:03:00.000-06:00

This was a fun recipe. I honestly wasn't sure how I'd feel about this, given the massive amount of celery in it, but it turned out really well. I think I mostly look at celery as a peripheral ingredient (unless of course, I'm stuffing it with peanut butter or cream cheese), but celery is a pretty amazing vegetable to use as a main part of whatever's being made. Hope you enjoy!

1 head celery, sliced into 1" long pieces
2 pounds purple fingerling potatoes, cut into 1" long pieces
1/2 small onion, diced
4 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon sumac
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put the potatoes in salted water and bring to a boil. Boil until al dente, then drain. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter. When butter is melted and slightly browned, add all other ingredients and cook until slightly creamy and with celery cooked through (so it's soft but still crispy on the outside). Serves two.

Celery Risotto

2012-01-09T15:38:00.000-06:00

Wow, so it's been a while hasn't it? I'm back. Again. :) Strangely enough, I've cooked very little food that y'all haven't seen before. But that's okay. Here's something new for you, and I'll try to do some other stuff soon as well. Oh, and here's a link for the pictures I've put up this far, for those of you who wanted to see wedding photos. I'll be putting up more photos as I get to them, as well.

This recipe came out of my hatred for food waste. When I was putting together all the food for the wedding, I totally forgot to put the celery in with the lamb, which resulted in me having four huge heads of celery to use up. This risotto was one of them (also a potato hash). What I strangely enough did not use any of the celery for was a celery soup. Weird. Not sure why, but there it is. Of all the things that happened with that celery, this was my favourite and I've found that when there's a lot of celery languishing in the fridge, my first thought is now risotto. So I'm calling this recipe a keeper, as I've already made it two or three times in the last month and a half. Initially I was doing this the traditional way, with some wine and parmesan, etc. This has wound up becoming a vegan dish though, as I have been making it during times I didn't have meat broth, wine and/or cheese in the house, but y'all are welcome to put the animal products back in. Generally when I make it, that's the entirety of the meal - I'm not cooking anything else at that point. When I take this recipe camping, I'll end up making scallops to go with it, I'm sure. But it's flexible. As always, if you don't have something on the list, leave it out. If there's something you'd like to see added, add it (then tell me how it went, please!). Otherwise, I hope y'all enjoy, and it's nice to be posting again!

1 small onion, sliced into half moons (you could use a big shallot instead, or two small ones)
1 large head celery, sliced (leave the leaves in)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 pound (roughly) medium grain rice (I'm loving Calrose for this the best these days)
1/2 tablespoon Aleppo pepper (or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne)

2 tablespoons lemon juice
32 ounces vegetable broth
water as needed
1 cup white wine (optional; I only did it with this the first time)

Set the lemon juice, broth and wine if you're using it to simmer in a small saucepan. Heat olive oil in a ten-inch skillet over medium heat, then add the onions, celery, lemon juice, salt and pepper and let them cook for approximately ten minutes, until most of the onion is translucent and there's some browning in some of the tips of the onion slices as well as in the celery leaves. Add the rice (and more oil if needed) and fry for two minutes (you may remove and set aside the veggies if you like, adding them back in later, but I'm a bit lazy on this), then add Aleppo pepper or cayenne. Add the simmering broth mixture, one ladle-full at a time, stirring constantly, until the risotto has some bite to it but is fully cooked. Serve immediately. Serves 2-4.

Wedding Food Shopping

2011-11-22T11:58:00.000-06:00

Well, as you know I didn't do the Saturday spending, because pretty much the only food I've been buying has been for the wedding. But I did save the receipts so y'all could see what was purchased. Normally I separate everything out by store, but I'm feeling lazy and have a lot of other stuff to do to get ready for Thanksgiving, so I'm just combining them into one long list.

$8.69 - chickpeas
$18.00 - pita (108 loaves that I didn't have time to make)
$13.08 - 17 pounds onions
$8.99 - 10 pounds basamati rice
$5.29 - 8 ounces shelled pistachios
$4.99 - 1 pound raw almonds
$6.59 - 1 pound shelled walnuts
$6.89 - 10-can arabic pickles
$8.49 - 4 pounds nabulsi olives
$4.58 - 2 28-ounce cans tomato puree
$27.16 - 8 kilos dolma (yeah, I was too busy to make these)
$17.99 - 2 kilos kalamata olives
$3.99 - ras el hanout
$4.78 - fillo dough (2 pounds)
$6.87 - 1 1/2 pounds peeled whole garlic
$17.98 - 2 kilos tzatziki (this was more efficient than me making the mast-o-khiar from scratch)
$140.42 - 34.51 pounds lamb shank
$1.79 - lemon juice
$28.66 - 6 pounds bulgarian feta
$4.09 - 5 pounds tomatoes
$2.45 - 5 bunches scallions
$3.96 - 4 bunches celery
$3.49 - 5 pounds carrots
$5.46 - 3 pounds cucumbers
$5.85 - 15 bunches parsley

I didn't notice this until I was typing it up, but it appears they didn't charge me for the 3 containers of mint. I think they're about $2 each, so next time I'm at Phoenicia, I'll mention it to them and have them add it in on that purchase. So let's call that an extra $6.

total: $366.53

My budget for the wedding food was $300, so I went a little over. But in the grand scheme of things, it's really not too bad at all. The wedding, including the judge and license cost a total of $658.53. I'd hoped to do it for a total of $500, but I can't really complain at all about going over by less than $200, particularly given that it was for the entirety of the wedding costs. So there you go!

Wedding Food and Details

2011-11-17T10:44:00.002-06:00

So I've mentioned to y'all that I'm doing the catering for my wedding, but I haven't actually said anything else about it. I thought I might do that, since I don't have time right now to type up new recipes. Mainly because as I'm making them up, I scrawl little notes to myself, most of which are barely legible (on a good day I usually need help reading my writing; perhaps I ought to have become a doctor), and have so little detail that I have to extrapolate from pretty limited data what I actually did.

Anyway, I thought y'all might like to know what I'm up to for the wedding food. As well as the shortcuts I'm taking to make this manageable while I'm in the middle of crunch time in my semester. So here it is:

The Menu:

Braised lamb shanks and vegetables (onions, carrots and celery) (meat)
Dill rice (vegan)
Tabouleh (vegan)
Dolma (vegan)
Hummus (vegan)
Pita (vegan)
Pickles, olives and feta (vegan/vegetarian)
Mast-o-khiar (vegetatian)
Toum (vegan)
Baklava (vegetarian)
Wedding cake (vegetarian)

And, I think there's something else I've forgotten about. But I'll let you know if that's true once I'm home looking at the list.

And, the shortcuts:

Y'all will be surprised to hear this, but I bought the dolma. There're a few companies that sell really good canned dolma, and since it'll take so very, very long to make enough dolma for 60 people, I decided in the end to just go ahead and buy them. Likewise, I'm buying the mast-of-khiar. My friend who's hosting the reception/party is making my wedding cake, which is incredibly sweet of her (especially since we all know what a headache making wedding cakes is!). And instead of boiling the beans for the hummus, I instead purchased a 10-can of beans and will use that to save a few hours of cooking time. Lastly, I'm buying the pita from a bakery instead of making it all. Once again, making pita for 60 is just not something I feel like dealing with.

Already, I've made the toum (though I think I might make more, since I've only got a pint and that seems insufficient). I've also already made everything I need for the baklava, so all I have to do is assemble and bake it tomorrow. I haven't yet purchased the lamb or the vegetative matter needed for the tabouleh (or the feta), but everything else is already basically prepped and ready to go.

So tomorrow, S, the host of the reception/party, and I (and whomever else is on hand to do work with/for us) will be prepping the lamb in massive roasting pans and setting it up to relax in the fridge overnight. We'll also assemble the baklava, and make the tabouleh. This, honestly, is the part I think will be the worst. Tabouleh takes a while to make when you're making small portions of it; making it for 60 people might be a little taxing. And of course we'll make the hummus as well.

Saturday (the wedding day), I'll go over to her house early and we'll make the rice (and leave it in a warmer). We'll also take the trays of lamb and toss them in the oven before heading to the wedding so it'll be cooked when we get back from the ceremony. At that point, we'll put all the food out and move on to the celebrating.

And, for those who want to know, here's the basic structure of how the wedding is going to work:

We're having the ceremony in a park, using picnic blankets for people to sit on instead of chairs (I've heard that some people will be bringing camping chairs so they can sit in them, but that's got nothing to do w/ me so I only know a little about that). It'll be a fairly nontraditional ceremony, though there will be a few traditional elements. We aren't having any attendants, and I'll be getting a ring but he will not be. R isn't Jewish, so we're using a JoP instead of a rabbi. He'll break the glass and I'll walk around him seven times, but outside of that it'll be totally nonreligious. A good friend of mine, who's probably the most talented henna artist I've ever encountered is doing my henna today so it'll be perfect on Saturday. We're hoping for a very short ceremony, since neither one of us enjoy dealing with long weddings. Our guests have expressed preemptive appreciation for not forcing them to sit through a long, formal affair. I'm not actually even wearing a wedding dress. I'll be wearing a summer dress if the weather is as nice as it's supposed to be. If it's very cold, I'll probably wear jeans. I'm sure he'll be wearing jeans regardless of the weather. So, very, very short and casual. The ceremony will be filmed (by friends), and we're intending to put the film up on youtube so people from out of town who can't make it will still be able to see how it all went.

From there, we'll head over to the party and put out the food. We're having a big bowl of disposable cameras for people to use and put back in the bowl, and skipping a formal photographer. We both think the pictures we'll get doing it this way will be more fun, although one of his friends is bringing his own camera to do what I'm assuming will be slightly more traditional photos. There will be a first dance, to "In My Life" (Beatles) since R says it's probably the only time he'll ever get to dance with me (I am so not into dancing, but you can't really deny a guy a dance on his wedding day). My friend K will be handling all musical issues past that, since my plan was to put an iPod on shuffle and let it handle itself. Y'all know how I am - the only part I really care about it is the food and everything else is just stuff that doesn't matter to me. So people will be able to dance if they wish. The food will be buffet-style instead of plated, and we've asked people to bring beer, wine, and/or liquor instead of wedding gifts. A wedding just isn't a wedding without food and booze, but booze for 60 is way outside my budget so we're leaving it to the guests to handle that. I was told someone was bringing mead, and I'm scared since I find mead entirely irresistible but I turn into a wild woman when I drink it. I'm not really sure how the cake cutting will be happening, but I'm sure someone will decide and tell me while we're there.

And, I think that's basically all the information. Y'all probably won't hear from me again until after Thanksgiving unless I manage to get those recipes typed up. We'll be in Austin for the holiday, so between the wedding, school/work and holiday travel, I'm having trouble imagining that I'll get it together enough to post anything before that Monday following the holiday. I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday!

*For those of you in Houston or the surrounding areas who're looking for cake bakers, henna artists, etc., please feel free to send me a message if you need their details. I'd be happy to pass their information along to you, or yours to them!

Saturday Spending

2011-11-12T22:58:00.000-06:00

This week we only spent $3.29, for bread flour. Otherwise, pretty quiet week in terms of groceries.

However, I did spend some on the wedding food. I'm still trying to figure out where I put the receipt for what I've gotten so far, but you guys know how I am with finding things I've lost.

(sorry for this one being late too)

Food Waste Friday

2011-11-11T22:57:00.000-06:00

This week was good. We wasted nothing!!

(sorry about the lateness of this)

Easy Fruit Tart

2011-11-07T19:19:00.000-06:00

I keep thinking I'd already posted this, but it turns out I hadn't. So, while I ought to have taken pictures (now that I found my camera!), I didn't because I thought y'all knew this one. This is one of the easiest desserts on the planet to make, and it's beautiful to look at and tastes wonderful. Hope you enjoy!

1 sheet puff pastry
2 fairly ripe pears, 1 apple, 2 peaches, etc; cored and sliced thinly
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
1 beaten egg (optional)

Put puff pastry sheet on a baking sheet. Score with a one inch border, then dock the inside of the border (that means poke a bunch of holes with a fork). Arrange the fruit slices in concentric squares, not letting the fruit leave the scored border. Sprinkle with sugar and lemon, if using. Chill in fridge while your oven heats to 400F. Apply egg wash to the border, if desired. Bake 15 minutes. Cool on a rack, then transfer to a plate. Serves 8.

Sunday Storage

2011-11-06T09:57:00.000-06:00

So, more of the same these last two weeks. Piles of pasta, rice and beans. And loads of canned tomatoes. I'd also run out of tuna, but of course I bought more. I haven't made a bit of a dent in the mushrooms or in the kelp or in the bonito. I think I keep forgetting about them, but I'll get them started eventually, huh?

Saturday Spending

2011-11-05T19:18:00.000-05:00

Alright, so you're getting two weeks worth of shopping today, instead of just one. Though I've still spent far too much on food the last two weeks as well. After Thanksgiving is done (I'm doing my own catering for the wedding and also have some stuff to cook for the holiday, so my food costs will be up until after that's all said and done), I believe I'll be setting a $100/month grocery budget. If I need to scale it up a touch (or down), then I will, but for now I'd like to go w/ $100/month and see how we do. So that's settled now.

Fiesta:

$0.66 - tomatoes
$1.09 - acorn squash
$0.96 - snow peas
$1.69 - mushrooms

subtotal: $4.40

Walmart:

$2.41 - onions (3.25 lbs)
$2.48 - eggs
$5.16 - 2 pounds butter (this is for the wedding baklava, as there'll be two trays of it)
$3.26 - ham
$1.48 - salad mix (yes, I know)
$2.18 - spinach
$2.32 - shredded cheese
$3.97 - potatoes
$0.92 - tortillas (yes, I know)
$2.92 - chili powder
$2.08 - cocktail onions (y'all knew these would surface again, didn't you?)
$1.36 - 2 cans diced potatoes (I like these for hash browns)
$1.36 - 2 cans diced tomatoes (really, how is it possible we use so very many of these)
$6.00 - coffee (yes, I know)
$1.82 - non-stick spray
$1.24 - large can crushed tomatoes (chili days are coming... can you tell?)

subtotal: $40.96

Kroger: (this is the bad one)

$3.99 - sausage
$4.80 - pork chops (three massive ones)
$3.78 - milk
$2.98 - orange juice
$6.70 - pears (nearly 7 pounds, for use in baking pear tarts as thank you gifts for some professors)
$1.36 - celery
$5.99 - walnuts (need these for the baklava also)
$2.99 - salad mix (yep... I fail at this right now)
$2.50 - 3 lbs tangerines
$1.78 - 2 cans cream of celery soup (I like this for tuna casserole, which I like on days I don't have time to cook)
$3.99 - sesame oil
$0.79 - tomatoes
$4.98 - watermelon, 1 large
$3.98 - loads of Peruvian potatoes
$2.18 - 2 packages saltine crackers (did y'all know about that weird ranch dressing mix saltine thing? Lord they're good)
$5.87 - 12 cans of various tomatoes
$1.69 - banana peppers (shocker)
$7.98 - 4 pounds cheeses (colby and cheddar)
$3.99 - hotdogs (wow, I forgot I bought these; they're in the freezer)
$0.71 - cucumbers
$8.38 - mahi mahi (half a fish; I couldn't resist)
$3.98 - brown sugar; two packages
$3.99 - pizza cheese
$1.09 - 2 packages salad dressing mix for the crackers
$3.19 - bread flour
$2.98 - 2 cans anchovies
$8.78 - 2 pounds puff pastry (for the pears)
$2.29 - white sugar
$8.99 - shrimps (I think we must've been entertaining this day)
$5.00 - 2 pounds butter (yeah, I know. I really do go through a lot of butter)
$3.78 - 6 cans tuna in whater
$3.88 - whole pumpkin
$6.99 - 8 pound bag valencia oranges

subtotal: $136.35

Golden Grain (this is a Russian grocer by my house):

$5.35 - various chocolates
$4.07 - salami
$3.99 - cheese
$2.99 - cookies
$5.60 - I don't remember
$1.26 - fresh halva

subtotal: 23.26

also, there was another bag of flour somewhere in here, but I don't know where the receipt is for it. Generally this is $3.19, though.

total: $208.16

That's pretty much insane and unacceptable. Although we do entertain about once a week, there is absolutely no reason for us to be spending more than $150/month tops. So, this must be fixed. But now y'all know, since I don't like to hide my nonsense from you. :)

Food Waste Friday

2011-11-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

Oops. I missed last week entirely, haven't I? Sorry about that. I've been crazy the last few days (couple weeks), with the semester and also with working stuff out for my wedding which is on the 19th (are y'all surprised?). I'm doing the food, so that's kind of been something I've been paying more attention to (and my homework, of course. Y'all know how I'm always doing that).

Anyway, for this week and last week, I'm pleased to say I had absolutely no food waste (see? Even when I don't remember to post, I do remember to keep track of what's happening). Tomorrow, I'll put in my receipts for the last two weeks.

Also, I found my camera. In my gym bag. Did I tell you that already? So pictures of the food should be forthcoming once I get that in the works again (the cooking of things you haven't seen yet, I mean).

Black Eyed Peas with Bacon

2011-10-24T16:35:00.000-05:00

So it turns out my camera ISN'T in another state. It was in my gym bag. How it got in there, I have no idea. But it does tell all of us just how long it's been since I was last at the gym. Not that any of that helps us today, since I made this food and ate it all before I knew that I wanted to give you pictures. Well, not that I wanted to. But that I could. And such. Y'all know what I'm saying.

So anyway. Black eyed peas. Evidently, I had about 5 pounds of them. Huh. Didn't know. I unearthed this little treasure trove when the last bin of non-mushrooms got emptied out. Well... do y'all remember me buying so many? Because I really don't. But I like them, so it works out in the end. This is how we've been making them. It's quite nice and requires nearly no effort from me (so little effort that I threw this together after getting home from work at almost 3am). For all my vegan and vegetarian friends, just use a bit of oil in place of the bacon and it's perfect for you. Hope you enjoy!

1 can cooked black eyed peas (I'm cooking mine from dry, but the amounts are about the same)
3 pieces bacon, cut up
1/2 small red onion, sliced
2-3 tablespoons pickle juice (or other brine, or even lemon juice)
1 tablespoon harissa
1 tablespoon or so tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
pinch garlic powder

1 3/4 cups water
salt
1 cup rice

Cook your rice. Y'all know how to do this, I'm sure, without me telling you yet again. Put the bacon in a frying pan and fry it. When it's nearly done (I like mine to be a bit soft so it's almost like those long simmered bean yummies with the bacon and salt pork in them), add in the onions, the harissa, garlic, tomato paste, salt, pepper and pickle juice and cook for a few minutes more. Add in the beans and cook a bit more, then add in your rice when it's done and toss to combine well. Serves 2.

Sunday Storage

2011-10-23T16:51:00.003-05:00

This week was pretty straightforward. From the stores, came:

tea
more rice (we're almost out of white rice!)
more canned goods, mainly tomatoes
pasta
fruitcake (there are only two bites left, which will be gone by the time y'all see this)
sesame oil
most of the olive oil (it doesn't help, probably, that I use olive oil as lotion. Or maybe it does help - depends on your perspective I suppose)

And something else went into storage (though it's in the freezer):

Pumpkin. I had a big pumpkin, which was cut and roasted. The seeds also were seasoned and roasted, and the strings from the inside, along with some of the pulp, went into making pumpkin butter (mostly this got canned, but I left some in a jar in the fridge for R). The remainder of the pumpkin simply got pureed and then portioned and put into bags. I'll be buying one more pumpkin, which I will peel and cube, then freeze the cubes raw so I can cook them in any fashion I wish throughout the year. I'm hoping that two pumpkins will suffice for the year, but if not then I suppose we just won't get anymore pumpkin until they're growing and in the stores again.

Also, it turns out that we've gone through so much rice, pasta and beans that I have eliminated the last of the massive storage containers. There's still the big bin of seaweed and mushrooms, and there's still the extra spices bin, but that mostly contains extra spices and chocolate chips of assorted types now. So this is good. There's enough pasta remaining that I've got probably 10 pounds max in a little drawer of the closet instead of all in the pantry, and also there're still roughly 6-8 pounds of beans sitting in a little drawer as well. But all the big bins are gone.

This is pretty exciting to me. I wanted to be done with massive amounts of storage by November, and while it's technically not done, it's so close that I'm counting it as something that will basically be accomplished. Once this month closes, I'll probably have a month's worth of food in storage instead of the year+ I used to maintain, and that's really just fine for me until I know what's going to happen after I finish grad school.

Saturday Spending

2011-10-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

This week was good, in terms of spending. It appears that no longer will the days of needing nothing really apply to me, since we go through roughly 5 pounds of flour a week (okay, that's a lie. 5 pounds of bread flour; I bake other things that need all-purpose as well, but we don't go through that flour as quickly). As I only buy my bread flour in 5 pound increments, that means a new bag each week is needed. On the upside, since I've started saving a piece of each batch of dough to make the next one with (and can I just say how much I love seeing a bowl of dough sitting on the counter every day, waiting for me to bake it? I love it a lot), I no longer need yeast for our daily bread. This is fabulous, and I enjoy it intensely.

Anyway, here's what was purchased this week:

HEB:

$2.97 - orange juice
$3.59 - bread flour
$2.18 - milk (ew)

total: $8.74

Food Waste Friday

2011-10-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

This was a great week. I wasted:

NOTHING!!!

Anasazi Beans and Andouille

2011-10-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Here's the last of the andouille. I think I recently posted something pretty similar, though it was with black beans. This one is along the same lines, but was a little less work (if you can imagine). Hope you enjoy!

2 cups cooked anasazi beans
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cayenne (use less if you're sensitive to spicy foods)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
15-ounce can tomato sauce
3 1/2 ounces (1/4 package) andouille, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon each: lemon juice, pickle juice

Heat oil in a 10" skillet and add onions and salt and pepper. Fry lightly, and when the onions are beginning to brown a bit, throw in the sausage and fry again for about 5 minutes. Add in remaining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes or however long it takes for everyone to get home for dinner. Serve over rice. Serves 2.