Week 13: Oktoberfest

Recipes to Go: 507 389
Weeks to Go: 52 39

Recipes Made this Week
Nut-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
Asparagus Crepes
Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cakes
Sweet Milk Dinner Rolls
Hearty Sausage Sandwich
Sauerbraten
Red Cabbage with Apple
Crumb-Coated Spaetzle
Black Forest Cake

Since I missed two recipes last week, I spent most of Sunday morning and afternoon baking. It ended up being a bread-filled day. I cooked the rolls since they were already ready. They were very sweet, which is surprising because there no sugar in them. Just the milk, which I guess should tell me how sweet milk really is. They were pretty amazing, and I just found two tucked away the other day, two weeks after making them and no mold. They were rock hard, of course, but still good. So apparently they are hardy, too.

I made the yummy breakfast I had planned for Saturday with the Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins. I must say, I'm liking rhubarb more and more. It's just so unique, but tasty. I think it will become a freezer staple for me. I only put nuts on half of these so the G man could enjoy them, too. We ended up eating all the nut-topped one quite fast, but I still managed to be able to enjoy them all week for breakfast.

With the muffins, we had asparagus crepes. They were delicious, but had very complex flavors, thus G did not fully appreciate them like Johnny and I did. I haven't had something this delightfully complicated in a long time. Simple, but wonderful. So I guess you don't have to be complicated to be complex. At least in the culinary world.

The last thing I made was this beautiful coffee cake. I've never braided dough before, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. This was even more complicated than that since I had to "jelly roll" each of the strands of the braid before braiding them. It would have been easier to see if I had used the nuts, but I didn't for G's sake. They did end up quite yummy. Needless to say, we had good breakfasts this week.

Monday night, I made this Stromboli Sandwich. It was another night that I ate way too much and had a stomach ache, but it was a Thanksgiving-stomach ache where I could not complain about the pain since it was caused by joy. This was a hearty sandwich. We didn't need anything else and didn't even finish it. It tasted a little like stroganoff, with three kinds of cheese. G enjoyed it as well, and the leftovers for lunch.

Tuesday was my anniversary. We spent the day together, shipping G off to our friends' house. As payment for their sacrifice, we sent G with the other loaf of coffee cake. It was the least we could do. I came home from seminary to freshly made waffles and yummy syrup. We ate lunch out and got dinner on the way home, so I didn't cook anything that day.

Wednesday, I used the leftover bread to make Ham and Broccoli Bake, which I had made before, but this time I used broccoli instead of peas. It was still delicious. Johnny liked it more, I liked it less, but that's because I love peas and Johnny doesn't.

Thursday was Oktoberfest. As Helen pointed out in the comments, we used to have Foreign Food Fridays in my college apartment. They were awesome. I remember them all. And after our great time at Oktoberfest last year, I decided to do something I haven't before, make a meal as it was designed in the cookbook. There are several groups of recipes in the back of the book that are set up as meals, and there happens to be a meal with a German theme. I didn't have time to marinate the sauerbraten for two days, but I did start early in the day, so it got a lot of time. Plus, instead of marinating in a bag, I marinated it in a bowl so it was completely submerged, speeding up the process slightly. I also made the cake in the afternoon, so it would have time to set in the fridge. The sauerbraten baked for 4 hours, so come actual dinner time, I only had to make two recipes. It actually worked out quite nicely.

Johnny told me to remind him occasionally how much he loves cabbage. This was delicious. The apples gave just the right touch. And I was lucky to have Johnny there because I almost forgot to put in the bacon. It would have still be good, of course, but missing a big taste vitamin. Bacon is one of the three basic taste vitamins along with cheese and chocolate.

The Spaetzle was just as delicious as I remembered from when Helen used to make it. I could eat spaetzle with every meal. It's not very photogenic, but don't hold it against it. It's easy enough to make, too, just takes a little work to mash it through the colander into the pot to bake. Worth it.

The Black Forest Cake is my new favorite. It could be the best thing I've ever made. (I think I say that every week, but this time I'm serious.) You know by now I don't really like cake, but I think I might have to amend that to say I don't like cake-mix cakes that taste like cake-mix. (There are some people that have a talent for deliciously disguising cake-mix. I am not one of those people.) But that doesn't matter because this was more like brownies, plus pie, plus cheesecake. Could there be a more yummy combination? It was divine. I normally am not extremely tempted by desserts, but this one was like a siren. Seriously. It was like the cake was a women in a slinky black dress with red underwears and I was a man. I didn't stand a chance. I might have to use my own seductive powers more carefully after this. That's powerful stuff.

Didn't make anything over the weekend because we went to D.C. Which was fabulous. We will definitely be going back, and hopefully soon.

Week 12: Prematurity

Recipes to Go: 507 398

Weeks to Go: 52 40

Recipes Made This Week

Spicy Shrimp

Garden-Fresh Fettuccine

Creamy Lime Sherbet

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Hazelnut Pear Tart

Raspberry Coconut Bars

Pacific Rim Salmon

Mixed Bean Salad

Before this week started, Johnny had a conversation with me which reminded me that I have let this experiment overwhelm me too much in the last few weeks. I did sign up for this, I knew what I was getting into, for the most part. And despite having specific goals I wanted to achieve, it was primarily, a bit of fun. So with that in mind, I rethought some of the philosophies and practicalities I have been employing thus far. I decided to start earlier to prepare dinner, so that when things went crazy at 4:30, as they always do, I could be almost done, or already have dinner in the oven. Who doesn't want to just be able to stick something from fridge to oven?
So afternoon snack time has become dinner-prep time. Result? = a little too much gusto on my part. I ended up slightly over preparing this week.

Monday was the beginning of a cold front that lasted all week. We had zero prepared foods in the house, which meant there was literally nothing for Johnny to take for lunch except three hard-boiled eggs. In this sad state of affairs (brought on mostly because I hadn't be able to go shopping on Saturday), I did the shopping and made beet curry for dinner. Not in the book, sadly, because it was good and lasted all week, but it used up a delicious beet I bought from the farmer's market and warmed us all up.

So Tuesday was really my first day to cook. Luckily so because we were having the missionaries over for dinner and one of them had really set the bar high for me by talking up my cooking to her companion. So the preparation began. We were having Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and a corn salad I made for a funeral and didn't get to taste. A repeat, but I meant it as a surprise since the missionaries loved the leftovers the first time. I also wanted to make Lime Sherbet for to celebrate G's 1/2 birthday. I personally love 1/2 birthdays, but this one is special because it means he gets to go into the nursery class at church instead of wrecking small havoc hanging around with me. I'm sure lots of people will be sad he isn't around, but he will definitely be happier, consequently, I will, too.

Well, that was the plan. Starting a little after 2, I got the ice cream going, made the corn salad and got started on the chicken. It was about 4 o'clock when the missionaries called. Everything was in the fridge ready to go into the oven. But as it turns out, we weren't feeding the missionaries on Tuesday, we were feeding them on Thursday and they were calling to ask if we could have dinner at a specific time and with one more person. (Both of which I said yes to, of course, since dinner was pretty much already done.) Story: I usually feed the missionaries once a month, and always on a Tuesday. When I got the schedule for September, it was full with only one day left, the 30th. So I took it and made a mental note to put it in my calendar when I got home. Only I forgot, so I planned on Tuesday and prematurely made dinner.

But after all that prepping, I didn't really have any time or energy left to make an entirely new large meal, so we had leftover curry that night. We did, however, get to eat yummy sherbet. And yummy it was. Authentic lime flavor, none of that artificial stuff, which is to be expected when you use lime zest and fresh squeezed lime juice. G liked it, despite what his face says.
Then came Wednesday. I started chopping vegetables for the two dishes around 3, while the shrimp was defrosting. I had all the cans I was using for the week set out on the counter already, which sped things up as well. So while the timing of the fettuccine was a little tricky, it all came out nicely and at the same time.

The Spicy Shrimp was very spicy. I didn't skimp on the Louisiana hot sauce. Luckily Johnny loves that stuff. I love shrimp and it was very refreshing to have a different protein source for a change.

The fettuccine was surprisingly spicy as well. I put in just the tiniest amount of red pepper flakes as per the recipe instructions and it really made a difference. This made a huge amount of pasta. I'm always surprised because the pasta itself never seems like that much, but it goes a long way. I didn't even get to put in all the veggies it called for because I didn't have fresh tomatoes and my pan didn't have enough room. This is definitely a harvest overload type of recipe--throw in whatever's growing and it will be delicious.

So when Thursday came, you would think it would be easy-breezy, but I decided we make the pear tart. I also decided after reading the recipe before hand, something I don't do often enough, to make the bean salad for Friday's diner a day in advance so it could fully refrigerate. That was easy enough. And the tart was less complicated than I would have thought. It turned out all right.

And the enchiladas look like any enchiladas, this was the forth leftover, or something like that.The recipe made 20, so we ate them with pleasure all weekend.

Also on Thursday, I decided to make a treat for Seminary since we weren't sure if we were having a Game Night or not. So I made the Raspberry Coconut Bars. But since I used strawberry preserves instead of raspberry, I guess they were technically Strawberry Coconut Bars, but regardless of what you call them, they were wonderful. Remember how I said I didn't love bars, just chocolate. I might take that back. These were simple, easy and yummy. The teenagers agreed. Also, we discovered the secret to drizzling chocolate is momentum. Also, don't put vanilla chips in the microwave for too long, they burn very quickly.

So on Friday, half of dinner was done, but as it turned out, we didn't eat dinner at home on Friday, we were out with the youth, cooking hot dogs and stuff. Okay, confession, we did eat leftovers before we left because, they're hot dogs. They're pretty gross. And even though every once in awhile the idea of a hot dog is appealing to be, usually halfway through I wonder why and vow to never eat one again. These ones weren't as bad as some I've had because they were properly burned before eating. That's the only way to get the idea of leftover meat parts out of my mouth when eating one. So all my preparation was again in vain, since the salad now had two days to marinate.

But unlike the corn salad which has avocado in it and thus suffered somewhat from excessive fridge exposure, the bean salad did not. It might have made it more yummy. Here's another salad like the Tim Salad we used to make. Delicious. And all that marinating got G to eat celery and green peppers. It was like a Christmas miracle without all the snow and stuff.

So we didn't get to eat it on Friday, and Saturday morning was a little rushed getting shopping in before General Conference, so breakfast was neglected. Don't worry, I made up for in on Sunday, but I did make salmon to go with the bean salad. Remember way back when I bought the salmon and I said it was too fishy, well it was a little fishy with this recipe, but in a good way, if that's possible. It must have just been the tomato sauce that first time because the last two times have been delicious. This one was supposed to be grilled, and we still haven't bought a proper grill yet, so I pan grilled it, with a lid on, so I half grilled, half steamed it. The marinade was lovely and the fishy flaky and light. A very light, summer meal. Too bad it was very cold outside.

Does it seam as though something is missing on this plate? Well, I was supposed to make dinner rolls to go with this meal, but it was so cold outside and consequently inside, that the dough wouldn't rise. I had to take it downstairs and put it on top of our receiver that controls our whole television set up. It gets very warm when on and it had been on all day thanks to conference, so that worked really well, actually, but it was time for bed by the time the dough had doubled. So there was something else that got postponed until Sunday.

So my original ten recipe plan dwindled down to 8, despite my uber preparedness. Prematurity strikes again, I supposed. But on the bright side, I squeezed the two recipes into next week, so I haven't really lost any ground.

Plumbing Problems

We started having problems back in late July/early August when our bathtub faucet was having a hard time redirecting the water to the shower. We decided rather than try to hunt down the part, we'd just replace the old hardware with some updates since ours was pretty sad looking.

So we went hunting for some fixtures. Found a nice, simple set, and let it sit around the house for about 2 weeks acclimating to the new surroundings. When we finally got into the plumbing access and turned off the water, that's when things got interesting. Labor Day weekend at Johnny's sister's house was the first time in a week that G had been able to take a bath. And it would be another 3 before he could again.

He got pretty dirty.

It was almost like we were living in West Virginia. (I told him to make his best coal miner face.)

I wasn't surprised by this, or necessarily put out. This is an old house, after all and old plumbing doesn't always behave for updates, but when water started coming through the ceiling, I put my foot down. We called in a plumber from the ward, but it was still another week before a temporary solution was in place. We needed one simple part from Lowe's or Home Depot, both of which let us down and made us realize that the "easiest" solution would be to start over and just replace most of the plumbing.

So after all this headache, we are still living with a temporary solution, waiting to take back the new fixtures (one handle was stripped and doesn't seal) and redo the pipes until after our anniversary and the Stake temple trip the following weekend.

Week 11: Two for One

Recipes to Go: 507 406

Weeks to Go: 52 41

Recipes Made This Week

Fruited Feta Spread

Turkey Muffuletta

Apple Peach Cobbler

Sesame Chicken Wings

Chow Mein Chicken Salad

Ham and Broccoli Bake

Peanut Butter Cookies

Very Berry-licious Smoothies

The reason this is two-for-one week is that I have launched another blog. But don't worry, you don't have to add another feed if you don't want to. It is just to document this goal and so will be nothing but repeat posts of the food weeks I post here. But if you want to remember something and don't want to have to scroll through all my archives, (sorry I don't use tags) then you can pop over to the other blog to find it faster. Plus, since this blog isn't public it'll be easier for people I'm not related to who are interested to find the new one. The address is tarastasteofhome.blogspot.com and the link is on the left. Now, onto the food . . .

I had a few things that were going bad this week, so I used the opportunity to make some really yummy food. Starting with the lunch meat from last week. I had my eye on the turkey muffuletta recipe for awhile, but it never quite worked out until now.

I had some questions about the ingredients, but everything tasted amazing together. It had a very Spanish taste, and definitely filled us up, with leftovers for lunch.

To use up some of the leftover ice cream that didn't get fried last week, I made Apple Peach Cobbler. It also helped that I had two peaches on the brink of death and an apple left from the Farmer's Market. Johnny loved this dessert.

I did too because it came together really fast and was really delicious. It was perfect with the ice cream, too. We got to eat it right out of the pipping hot pan thanks to that frozen dessert.

For lunch that day (so I guess this should have come first, oops) I made the Fruited Feta Spread to use the leftover Feta cheese, grapes and pimentos that had been in the fridge almost too long.

This spread was extremely addictive. The Captain remembered it after he woke up from his nap and wouldn't stop crying until I gave it to him.

That's the first time that has happened. Also, I think this is the first time I've ever enjoyed pimentos. There was an awesome savory/sweet duality to this dish. And it lasted for quite a few days. Yeah for easy lunches.

Riding the high from my last few successes, I decided to try my hand at chicken wings. I had purchased chicken wings awhile back, but I have little enough experience eating them, that I hadn't tried making any yet. But I had purchased sesame seeds last week for the bread, so I had nothing to buy for this recipe. It wasn't nearly as much work as I thought it would be. And other than my really crappy tongs destroying the breading, they were delicious. How the smell do you get perfectly coated anything? I have never been successful at this, ever. Luckily the wings were still good.

I thought why not pair sesame with sesame and chicken with chicken, so I made the Chow Mein Chicken Salad to go with the wings. This is the best salad I've made yet. I'm sure that's partially because I pan-grilled the chicken in butter to cook it. The dressing was so good. The Captain was actually eating lettuce because of it. He normally picks around that. There were no leftovers from this dinner because I couldn't bear to stop eating this salad. I will be making this again.

Because I had to cut out the center of the loaf for the muffuletta on Monday (which is brilliant, by the way, everything fit so nicely) I had this leftover bread that was too yummy to throw away. Luckily, I planned for that so I made the Ham and Broccoli Bake with the leftovers. Unfortunately, I didn't plan on not having any frozen broccoli (I swear there was some in the freezer when I went shopping). But it was ham, and peas go well with ham, and I had plenty of frozen peas, so that was a quick substitution that for all I know is much better than the original. I like broccoli well enough, but peas are my favorite. They aren't Johnny's first choice, but he agreed that this was a well above average meal.

I had pretty much made all my recipes for the week on Wednesday, and because they were so good, we didn't have many leftovers. This meant that I had to make burritos and plain pasta and macaroni and cheese this week. It was strange to fall back on old habits for a few days. It made me even more grateful for this goal since it has certainly livened up the kitchen.

Anyway, for Game Night I made Peanut Butter cookies. They were a good twist on the classic. The cloves and nutmeg and ginger added to them made them taste more spicy and autumn-esque since we get those flavors in most winter desserts.

I halved the recipe and still ended up with 3 1/3 dozen cookies and only 2 people at Game Night. Plus because of the peanut butter, I couldn't give them to G, so they have been tempting me all weekend. Which is bad since Fast Sunday was today.

For Saturday morning breakfast, I was very glad I had planned on a fast and easy shake since we had to go into the city early in the morning. This shake was awesome and fruit filled and with no extra sugar, not overly sweet and very filling.

Oh, and it was easy to put together because I have an awesome blender so I didn't have to slice anything, just take the tops of the strawberries and blend.

Week 10: Excessive Desserts

Recipes to Go: 507 414

Weeks to Go: 52 42

Recipes Made This Week

Egg Scramble

Noodle Pudding

Five-Topping Bread

Country-Style Vanilla Ice Cream

Chicken Mushroom Melts

Pot o' Gold Cookies

Nutmeg Blueberry Muffins

Fried Ice Cream

Butter Pecan Sauce

Most of the recipes I made this week were dessert recipes. This was partially by accident.

One of my friends in our ward had her baby on Sunday. This was a little unexpected as she wasn't due until the 20th. I'm her visiting teacher, and I had planned on making something to take over to her, but I hadn't planned it with this week's menu. So when I got the news Sunday, I looked through the plan for the week and all I saw were desserts and appetizers. So I decided to make the Noodle Pudding for her to freeze, and take over half of our dinner that night, which was the Egg Scramble. I felt a little pressure to do this because a) neither one of their families are local, though they aren't far away, so I didn't know if anyone would be there to help her, and b) I didn't know if anyone else in the ward knew, so I didn't think anyone else would be there to help, either.

So poor Johnny came home to me in full panic mode on Monday evening. I wanted enough time to be able to help her get stuff done that night and give them dinner at a reasonable hour. So, of course, the elements combined against me and everything started going wrong. The noodles turned to mush in the two minutes I had my back turned, so I had to have Johnny stop by Walmart on his way home to pick up more. And when I called him the first 3 times he didn't answer. Meanwhile, the Captain is vying for attention and being generally underfoot. Needless to say, I wasn't very pleasant for awhile. Luckily, Johnny is awesome, took the Captain downstairs and refused to be offended by my meanness.

Finally, I got the food ready, put Johnny in charge of getting our half ready, loaded everything in the car and promised not to be too late. When I got to their house I saw cars there, which was reassuring. So I just stopped by, dropped everything off, and went home to this:

and it was yummy. Nice and fluffy, and G liked it. He even liked the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Since I had already done the hard work for dinner on Tuesday and simply had to put the Noodle Pudding in the oven, I took some time to make some bread. This loaf turned out so well, I think, because I used fast-active yeast instead of the regular stuff. This wasn't on purpose, I didn't have any of the regular stuff left, but it was lucky because it took the alloted time to double, and if I had used the regular yeast it might not have. I will keep this in mind in the future, especially in the winter when I don't have too many warm places to let dough rest.

Johnny said this bread tasted like bagels, and I agree. It was really delicious and didn't even need bread pans to cook in. I am a bit curious as to how it would taste without the five toppings. Luckily for me, the store bread here leaves everything to be desired (oh, how I miss Grandma Sycamore!), which means I could end up making bread often. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again, nothing smells better than baking bread.

I also made the Country-style vanilla ice cream on Tuesday. This is because I needed to have it to fry later in the week. I found it oddly satisfying to use 3 recipes for just one dessert.

I felt really bad when I cooked the Noodle Pudding that night because it turns out it's not a main dish, but rather a dessert. It was really rich and really sweet.

In fact we still have leftovers in the fridge I'm struggling to get through. So I felt really guilty that I had given this away as a dinner. Which just means that I will have to make another dinner to take over.

So, after being disappointed by the Noodle Pudding and the lack of actual food during the week, it was a wonderful surprise to have the Chicken Mushroom Melts. They were very filling, and so simple. I remember thinking, this is what I love about the Taste of Home recipes I made at the beginning of the experiment--they are simple, use a few ingredients that are usually in my pantry, but they taste delicious. That's exactly this recipe. Of course, Johnny didn't like it as much as me because he doesn't have a love affair with mushrooms like I do, but he still thought it was decent.

This picture is horrible, I realize now, but they are gone, so I can't reshoot.

For Game Night I made Pot o' Gold cookies because I didn't think I'd get to make all the St. Patrick's Day recipes on St. Patrick's Day. But instead of using green frosting, I made it orangy-red like the leaves that have started to change. I love the fall, and I'm really excited for all the leaves to turn colors. Those of you in higher altitudes are probably almost done with leaf changing, while I have to another month to go. I took this picture with the token brown cookie so it would like there is more diversity in my baking.

Actually, I've been lucky that I haven't burned a batch of cookies in this oven, yet. Knock on wood. These cookies tasted like Pecan Sandies, which are okay, but not my favorite. Unfortunately, no one came to Game Night, so I was forced to give these away to my Visiting Teachers. The last thing I needed in the house this week was more sweet things.

The nutmeg blueberry muffins were super yummy. Nothing beats fresh blueberries. And even though I put the sugar and nutmeg on the top after they were done instead of before they baked, it was still really good.

I'm not sure I would have ever paired nutmeg with blueberries, but it was delicious. And they were breakfast for me the whole week, and they were still good on Friday.

We finally got to make Fried Ice Cream on Saturday.

It was good, but super rich and we had to eat noodle pudding for dinner, so it was just too much. Too much sugar. I think I finished and ate lunch meat, which I then realized was almost going bad, which meant we had to use it the next week . . .

Weekend Recovery

Whenever we have a hard weekend like this last one, it takes setting apart Monday as a G day to make recovery from that not take the rest of the week. So today, I didn't get to do laundry, or chores, or stuff I wanted to, really. I just had to cater to G a little bit, but mostly just spend lots of time with him.

So, naturally we were outside most of the day since G has always loved it out there, and he has recently become an avid amateur bird watcher. So while we were out there this morning, a helicopter flew by.

This is not a picture of the actual helicopter, and sorry, I don't know what type it was for those crazy pilots in the family. Now we don't get a lot of helicopters in our area. Jets, sure since they like to use the mountains near us for pilot training in the summertime, but helicopters I haven't seen in months. This one flew by at tree height, and I didn't see news or medical insignia on it. Then it circled back so we got to see it again. It was really cool. G was ecstatic. We went out in front to see if we could find it again, but there were too many blasted trees in the way.

Then, as if that wasn't cool enough, the birds went crazy flying everywhere before and after it flew by, and then there was a group of about 20 hawks in the sky a few minutes after it left. It must have increased the natural updraft near our house. We see hawks and eagles just about every day,

but I have never in my life seen this many together at once. It was quite a sight. And no, I didn't take this picture either. The Kodak moments in my life usually pass by without a camera in hand. But at least I can blog about them, and steal other people's pictures.

July's Dress

As a birthday present to me, I decided to make July's dress in time for my birthday, as opposed to the last 3 days of the month.

Because I loved June's dress so much, I decided to make the same pattern, but the other incarnation for this dress at Johnny's request. Luckily, I had some pretty seersucker that was also screaming for a sundress.

I had to add some length to the midriff band since it was too snug in the Diabetes Dress. This time it was perfect. Still had the same problem with the straps, though. And Johnny made sure that I had the stripes going in the right direction on the bodice and the midriff band. I think he's picking up some sewing knowledge as well.

Things I Learned Making This Dress:

• While I did appreciate the instructions for this pattern the first time through, for this version they left out an important step, which luckily I have enough experience to catch. So while I love the back of this dress,it would have had some raw edges, or some hastily sewn under seams rather than being nicely tucked into the lining.
• I need some more practice understitching. Like basting, it's a step I usually skip that I decided to do this time. I think it does help, but I'm really bad at it, which means the point of the V in the bodice is not as awesome as it was originally.

First Time I:

• Made such small straps, and if I ever have to do that again, I want one of those tools that will basically do it for you, cause I broke a seam ripper doing it by hand.