Rise and Shine!

Breakfast, I am worthless without it. So, as a nice start to my morning, I whipped up a mix of all the odds and ends in the fridge (still avoiding the grocery store, my barometer is how many servings of fruits and veggies exist in the fridge, if it gets to less than a day's worth, then I MUST go, ugh) and came up with this lovely lil concoction.

Egg Taco:
Remember those leftover egg whites, add them to 2 whole eggs and blend well in a bowl
handfull of remaining scallions ( always a must in my fridge, if you chop them up when you get home from the store, they last much longer)
shredded cheddar, nice handfull, mostly for flavor, but helps the egg stay in place in the tortilla, and who doesn't love cheese?
2 whole wheat tortillas

fry egg with the slightest bit of butter
throw scallions on top

micro the shredded cheddar on the tortillas, makes the cheese all melty and the tortillas pliable
divide the now omelet in 1/2 with the spatula and fold into the tortillas like tacos

Berry Good Smoothie:
1 c frozen berries, Trader Joe's has a great mix that I always have on hand in my freezer
3/4 c pomegranate seeds
1/4 c cranberries, fresh
1 c plain yogurt
1 c almond milk

blend, baby, blend!


quick, easy, and if not so quick for you, portable.

Happy Friday Y'all

An evening for earrings

Tonight's quick little piece is not as inventive as I thought that it was going to turn out to be, given the amount of time that I allowed myself to conduct this portion of my life, not much, I can't say I did that bad, but I could do better.

Silver and amber glass post earrings.

One of the lucky lady friends will be inheriting these. Hmmm, now for the who?

A Lil Italian on a Rainy Wednesday

Yup, that should do the trick. Major carb craving, plus cold, wet night ='s PASTA! My god I love a good dish of noodles with anything on top. This evening was just that, as I asked the nightly question of my fridge, "anything in there?"

So, here's this evening's off the cuff creation:

Pasta a la Fridge Scraps:
I had,
3/4 c cauliflower roughly chopped
1 onion, halved and then sliced in thin 1/2 ringlets
7 crimini mushrooms, sliced thinly
2 eggs
a dab of parm chs

handfull of a mix of whole wheat and regular dry pasta

thank god for olive oil in large quantities
SALT!!
and a dash of crushed red pepper, which, by the way, really does not go bad, EVER. I think this stuff predates Spencer and I.

Boil pasta, salt water, trust me, this really does make a difference.

Open that really nice bottle of christmas wine that you got from your lovely co-worker, thanks Kirsten!
pour liberally, you are making Italian-ish tonight after all.

Do all your chopping and whatnot

get a large skillet nice and hot, add a tablespoon of liquid gold
throw in all the veggies at once

get em nice an golden to caramelized brown, you want those good bits of char in there, that means flavor.

strain your pasta, remember, save the water, this will come in handy for soup later on, promise.

crack and separate your eggs, white in tupperware, for a nice egg white breakfast treat, yolks in a large bowl, so you can stir in pasta in about 2 min.

add a little olive oil to that bowl with the yolks, whisk together

grab 2 servings worth of pasta, you know what this looks like to you, everyone's different, it's ok.

quickly toss it around to evenly coat, if you leave it alone too long, you will cook the egg in one solid, gross, lump, even coating people.

Pile high in 2 bowls, divide up the veggies and toss that parm on top!

dig in while it's hot. Have the remaining bottle over dinner, if the other person dining with you is lucky you will share.

Look Tere, I made JEWELRY!

Motivation, time, energy, space and materials. The stars have aligned and I started , finished and DELIVERED my first piece of real jewelry in 2012! It's exciting. Happy (belated) Birthday Shaun.

Earrings:
Silver
Copper
Glass Beads
Found Objects
Love

Stir Fry - Quick and Easy

Long day of Dr's appointments left me with a rumbly tummy and little motivation to make a big effort cooking but I was motivated to eat healthy so I pulled all of the veggies out of the fridge and whipped up a quick stir fry.

Stir Fry:
Chop all veggies and tofu to about the same size so cooking time will be even, I shoot for 1 x 1 cubes
cauliflower 1 1/2 c green bits included
4 carrots
1 bell pepper
1 onion
mushrooms 1 c
1 pkg extra firm tofu

Steam Rice, 2 c - I used a wild rice mix, but it's really whatever you prefer

Sauce:
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs chili pepper paste
1 tsp plum sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce

Pour 2 tbs veg or peanut oil in large skillet, layer in all your veggies, harder/ denser ones on the bottom so they all cook evenly. Pour in 3 tbs hot water when everything starts to sizzle and then cover with another large pan or lid, let steam out for 5-7 min. Make your sauce on the side in a bowl, and when 5-7 min are up, pull off the lid and let the steam cook off for 1 min, then pour sauce over evenly and stir 1-2 good times, don't over stir.

Serve over your steamed rice. Good for 4 hungry adults.

Soup for a Solitary Sunday

Trying to maintain the sense of balance in the house by cleaning out things that have been too long neglected and having to go in for an emergency work session has left me no choice but to create something quick and that does not require babysitting. Intro soup. A quick dish created with leftovers and already hands on goods left bubbling on it's very own for a few hours until I am good and ready to eat it.

Split peas and carrot soup:
4 c vegetable stock - (I make mine at home, rather than buying, it's cheaper and I think better for you, but that's just me. I save all the bits one would throw away from veggies when cutting up to make pretty or consume. Carrot tops and peelings, celery butts, onion and garlic skins. Save up until you have about 6 cups, if you don's cook regularly, you can freeze as you go, with a gallon ziplock freezer bag. It all cooks down the same. Add 6-8 C of water and 1 tbs salt, bay leaf and peppercorns and let simmer away on a sunday morning while reading or cleaning. Save the stock for up to 10 days in fridge or 6 mo frozen in cup size take out containers.)
4 c water
6 carrots sliced in circles
1 onion
1 bag split peas
1/3 c diced up ( leftover ) ham bits
1 clove garlic
1 tbs (leftover) bacon grease
2 tbs veg stock paste
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp worchester sauce
bay leaf

lat all simmer on the stove for about 2 hours until good and melded flavors.

enjoy with crusty bread or crackers

Fake Crimmus Pancakes

I will constantly be posting recipes for pancakes on this site, because I have yet to make the perfect pancake. Most of my concoctions consist of floppy and half hazardous looking pasty white creatures that are barely fit for the family dog, if this applies. So, I will try and try again. This morning, I was stricken with the pancake bug. I NEEDED to make them and nothing was getting in my way, except the lack of a main ingredient in the fridge, milk. NO WORRIES, I got this. Soy Milk Nog to the rescue! Good idea in theory, bad execution. So, the bad pancakes were remedied with plenty of jams. Next time pancake, I will get this. (don't get your hopes up folks, it's been years and the only hope I have of making half decent flap jacks is a big yellow box of "home-made" help.)

Pancake Fail 1/7/12 -
2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 c silk soy nog
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs butter

beat wet and dry in separate bowls, combine wet into dry, beat gently, not too much, or you will make them rubbery, or if you are me, they will always be rubbery and I am stacking the evidence up to a magnetic forcefield of anti pancake waves, or the like. Pan fry with butter, always butter unless you hate yourself, then, do whatever you want. They are ready to flip when the still battery side is producing bubbles at a rather rapid rate. You are on your own for the other side, but let's hope for you and whomever else will be ingesting them that golden brown is where you find the undersides when you peak.

Good luck and gods speed.