I said that I would be putting up new posts on Sundays to mention how well I did on our weekly budget, but didn't get around to it for this, the first week! In all honesty, I just didn't have time. Between a Halloween party Saturday night (leading to a late Sunday morning), brunch with friends to recover, homework, finally starting a few wedding thank-you cards (a grand total of four got done), helping Shane bottle beer, and the final performance of "Annie" (which means helping to strike the set/pit afterward) I was rather overwhelmed. My brother came over for dinner (and to make caramel apples) and I was so exhausted that I could barely hold a conversation. In fact, I'm still exhausted.
This evening Shane wanted to go hang out at J&L's house, but my inclination was more to stay in, turn off the lights so we didn't get trick-or-treaters (no candy in the house--the doorbell rang a bunch anyway) and either watch shows we've been neglecting or read. Also, snuggle with my pets who've been very much ignored. The fact that the dog got into the recycling last night to chew up some cardboard shows me that she's not going to stand for an absent mommy any longer.
So my grocery bills for the last week (we ended up making several trips to the store) totaled around $50. I can't find the receipt from HG Market, and that might have actually been last week that I'm thinking of.... But the gist of it is that this past week was a complete success as far as budgeting. Woo-hoo! Go me!
We did most of this week's shopping tonight. We still need milk, chicken and sausage, but that's it. We've got our meals planned out and a couple of backup plans in case things suddenly get very crazy, as things tend to do.
Excuse me, it's bed time.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Hold onto your hats
I realize that this won't be exciting for anyone else, but I just found out that you can can rhubarb. Oh my gosh! Can I say how much easier that will make food storage next year? Less freezer space taken up with rhubarb! And I can easily put away more of it! *Does a little happy dance* Plus, if it's canned I'm far more likely to use it for non-baking purposes, such as rhubarb sauce to go over pancakes. I'll have so much more leeway, both in terms of space and in how I can use it. Since Shane loves rhubarb (he and his brother eat the incredibly sour stalks raw) I think I'll try some of the other rhubarb uses on that site, such as rhubarb juice. As much as I love rhubarb, I totally under-utilize it. I tend to only make a couple of things with it (gingered rhubarb crumble, rhubarb coffee cake, rhubarb pie) so if I'm able to store more of it next year, I'll definitely have to get more creative. I do have a bunch of rhubarb recipes which I've never tried.... I know my mother-in-law tried making rhubarb wine this summer, although I'm not sure how well it worked. (She's going to open the bottles at Thanksgiving, I think.) If that turned out well, I see no reason why I couldn't make some.
In fact, this is making me hungry for rhubarb. I should probably pull some out this weekend and make something with it. If I have time. Four more shows! I'll be sad to be done with "Annie", but it will be nice to have my weekends back.
I've fallen down on keeping track of our food spending over the past couple of months. For one thing, do we count the honeymoon or not? Do I count non-human-food/non-food purchases at the store, like dog food and toilet paper? I think I need to write out a new list of standards for myself (what counts, what doesn't) and start posting it here once a week so that I'm more accountable. So from now on, I'll make a Sunday post around that and say how well I did at staying under budget.
The construction in my building this week is awful. They're tarring the new section of roof and even though it's "low tar, non-toxic" (according to the website they set up) it's been giving us headaches, making us feel sick, and my throat feels like it's been scraped raw. It also smells like they set up the ventilation to put all of the fumes into the library, because no other part of the building smells as bad. I think this is worth complaining about.
In fact, this is making me hungry for rhubarb. I should probably pull some out this weekend and make something with it. If I have time. Four more shows! I'll be sad to be done with "Annie", but it will be nice to have my weekends back.
I've fallen down on keeping track of our food spending over the past couple of months. For one thing, do we count the honeymoon or not? Do I count non-human-food/non-food purchases at the store, like dog food and toilet paper? I think I need to write out a new list of standards for myself (what counts, what doesn't) and start posting it here once a week so that I'm more accountable. So from now on, I'll make a Sunday post around that and say how well I did at staying under budget.
The construction in my building this week is awful. They're tarring the new section of roof and even though it's "low tar, non-toxic" (according to the website they set up) it's been giving us headaches, making us feel sick, and my throat feels like it's been scraped raw. It also smells like they set up the ventilation to put all of the fumes into the library, because no other part of the building smells as bad. I think this is worth complaining about.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Lessons from the marriage trenches
Since we got married, I've noticed that Shane and I are both making a concerted effort to be even kinder to and more appreciative of each other. Something about the knowledge that, for better or worse, we really will be seeing each other pretty much every day for the rest of our lives might have something to do with it. And people are wrong--marriage isn't just like living together. Even knowing that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, everything now seems more pertinent. If I'm being grouchy and mean it's not just to the guy I live with, it's to my husband. That title somehow makes it seem more important.
Anyway, Shane's ego is still quite bruised from being unemployed for the second time this year (and no good prospects in sight) so I've been extra careful to let him know when I appreciate something he's done. Last night, it was chicken stock. He had to run to the store (Halloween costume stuff) and I needed chicken stock for the soup. When I got home last night, there was chicken stock sitting on the counter. Organic chicken stock. I don't blame you if you don't understand why that's relevant. You see, Shane doesn't really care about organic or not organic. For him, at the moment, price is everything. If it was just for himself, he'd grab the cheapest stock he could have found. But because he knows it matters to me, he sprang for the organic stuff. So I ran back and gave him a big kiss and a hug to say thank you.
Now if only I can get him to use the reusable bags rather than plastic....
Last lesson: I should probably not use the phrase "I'd do almost anything to get out of _______ chore." It's always a bad sign when the devilish answer is, "Anything?"
Anyway, Shane's ego is still quite bruised from being unemployed for the second time this year (and no good prospects in sight) so I've been extra careful to let him know when I appreciate something he's done. Last night, it was chicken stock. He had to run to the store (Halloween costume stuff) and I needed chicken stock for the soup. When I got home last night, there was chicken stock sitting on the counter. Organic chicken stock. I don't blame you if you don't understand why that's relevant. You see, Shane doesn't really care about organic or not organic. For him, at the moment, price is everything. If it was just for himself, he'd grab the cheapest stock he could have found. But because he knows it matters to me, he sprang for the organic stuff. So I ran back and gave him a big kiss and a hug to say thank you.
Now if only I can get him to use the reusable bags rather than plastic....
Last lesson: I should probably not use the phrase "I'd do almost anything to get out of _______ chore." It's always a bad sign when the devilish answer is, "Anything?"
Pumpkin soup
We bought a couple of large pumpkins for a pumpkin carving party a few weeks ago, but I'm not actually a fan of carving pumpkins (I'm more at risk of carving myself up than any fruit) so I decided that I would turn ours into food. Since I bought the pumpkin at $.59/pound, I think it's a pretty good deal.
I spent a decent amount of time Sunday morning carving and roasting it. (And by a decent amount of time I mean it spread over hours, but the actual time involved was minimal because once it was in the oven I could go do other things.) For weeks, Shane has been hoping to make a pumpkin spice beer of his own. As a wedding gift, one of our friends (who knows how much Shane has enjoyed making beer) gave us a gift certificate to the local supply store so Shane got the other ingredients pretty much for free. The recipe called for 6-10 pounds of pumpkin, but the one I'd bought was roughly 25 pounds so that was easy enough. We spent several hours together working on this, and even I (who doesn't like the taste of beer) am looking forward to tasting this in a few weeks.
I also roasted the seeds that night. I wanted something sweeter rather than the usual spice (especially since we didn't have a lot of the spices on hand!) so I just mixed in some butter, honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I burnt them a little, but it was my first time ever roasting pumpkin seeds so I cut myself some slack.
The rest of the flesh went two places: either into the freezer for future use (like cream cheese pumpkin bread!) and some of it went directly into the pot for last night's dinner. (And today's lunch! Yum.) I've never tried pumpkin soup before, but I really like the recipe I found. In addition to the good taste, it was super easy, making it a keeper. I didn't use a sugar pumpkin, substituted whole milk for cream, and thyme for sage (we're out, darn it!) but it was overall a great recipe. The only other change I made was to add one whole onion. Shane can't stand the texture of pureed soups ("It's like eating baby food!"), so I sweated some onions while I was blending the rest (the only reason I used the stand blender instead of an immersion blender) so that it would have some nice chunks in it. Shane said that it helped. Lastly, don't scrimp on the sour cream. It really adds a lot.
Trying to get in shape again after being sick for so long (my cough is finally starting to go away after four weeks!) sucks, by the way. I'm sore everywhere.
I spent a decent amount of time Sunday morning carving and roasting it. (And by a decent amount of time I mean it spread over hours, but the actual time involved was minimal because once it was in the oven I could go do other things.) For weeks, Shane has been hoping to make a pumpkin spice beer of his own. As a wedding gift, one of our friends (who knows how much Shane has enjoyed making beer) gave us a gift certificate to the local supply store so Shane got the other ingredients pretty much for free. The recipe called for 6-10 pounds of pumpkin, but the one I'd bought was roughly 25 pounds so that was easy enough. We spent several hours together working on this, and even I (who doesn't like the taste of beer) am looking forward to tasting this in a few weeks.
I also roasted the seeds that night. I wanted something sweeter rather than the usual spice (especially since we didn't have a lot of the spices on hand!) so I just mixed in some butter, honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I burnt them a little, but it was my first time ever roasting pumpkin seeds so I cut myself some slack.
The rest of the flesh went two places: either into the freezer for future use (like cream cheese pumpkin bread!) and some of it went directly into the pot for last night's dinner. (And today's lunch! Yum.) I've never tried pumpkin soup before, but I really like the recipe I found. In addition to the good taste, it was super easy, making it a keeper. I didn't use a sugar pumpkin, substituted whole milk for cream, and thyme for sage (we're out, darn it!) but it was overall a great recipe. The only other change I made was to add one whole onion. Shane can't stand the texture of pureed soups ("It's like eating baby food!"), so I sweated some onions while I was blending the rest (the only reason I used the stand blender instead of an immersion blender) so that it would have some nice chunks in it. Shane said that it helped. Lastly, don't scrimp on the sour cream. It really adds a lot.
Trying to get in shape again after being sick for so long (my cough is finally starting to go away after four weeks!) sucks, by the way. I'm sore everywhere.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Fruit tree season
Apples and pears are in the stores year-round here, but they're really only what I'd consider edible in the autumn. It makes sense, since that's their natural time to ripen. Apple cider, apple pie, and pear muffins are nearly as ubiquitously autumn-y as pumpkins and root vegetables. Combine them with the cool weather and they're perfect for baking! Warm up your house, your body, your soul....
I have a confession to make: I'm am absurdly, ridiculously, insanely jealous of everyone who lives in a climate that will support fruit trees. It's my one complaint about living in Alaska. I love it here, but at this time of year the fruit trees beckon. There is at least one heritage variety that will survive down to -40. I know this because Shane's mom has one. It's never produced more than a few apples each year, but I think it's still fairly young so I'm hopeful that one day it will start producing. And I think I read that Calypso Farms have an apple tree or two, but I've never seen apples at the farmer's market so I don't think they do very well here, if you can get them to grow in the first place.
Oh, I know we can get apples from Washington in the grocery store. After all, it seems to be the apple capital of the US, and it's still regional if not local. But it's just not the same! I want the pleasure of going into my own yard and picking apples, pears, or plums to cook and bake with. Mmm, the things I could do with my own fruit trees! *Heavy sigh*
Not that I've had any time for baking this week, anyway. With "Annie" rehearsals going on every night, it's been a fun and exhausting week. It's striking to me how relevant the themes of the show still are. Tough economic times, people who have everything connected to politicians, and then people with absolutely nothing. People living on the streets because they can't make a living. "7 million people in this city and I can't sell one lousy apple!" And just when you think you can't feel sorrier for them, their shanty town gets raided and destroyed by the police. It's been how long since the Great Depression, and we still don't have a better method of dealing with our homeless but to run them off into other areas and decide that their problems are not ours, that in fact they are the problem. It happens every year all over the country. One of the saddest stories I've heard was about a church in the Seattle area last year who had agreed to let the homeless camp in their parking lot (the tent city had been moved many times before) but the neighborhood rebelled and it was decided that the church couldn't do that because of safety concerns. Of course, they only meant the concerns of the wealthy homeowners, not the safety of the homeless. And the poor church community had their hands tried while trying to do some good.
In the play, I even find the character of Miss Hannigan sympathetic. The poor woman is stuck in a job she hates and isn't suited for because she gets a steady paycheck, housing, and a pension. How many people are currently stuck in that situation? (And yes, I do know that our current economic situation isn't even close to the Great Depression. But there are a lot of similarities which can be pointed to, and none of them are good. Even the fact that we can make comparisons to the Great Depression is a sign of how bad things are.) I do not attempt to excuse or condone Miss Hannigan's abuse of the children, but I think her character is so much more than simply a villain. The way she comes on to Bundles and the police officer, it's obvious that she's lonely. And really, besides her brother, those are the only two men she really meets. She lives where she works, and it's got to be pretty isolating. I end up feeling sorry for her.
The Daily News-Miner ran an article the other day about the local food bank. They've added some interactive online giving methods in the hopes of attracting young people to donate. I hope it works. Just like everywhere, donations are down while need is up. And as always, I encourage everyone (all two of my readers) to donate to their local food banks whenever possible. Even five dollars here and there can make a huge difference. If you don't have any money to give, there's always the website freerice. Every correct answer to a question donates 10 grains of rice. It's fun not only to see what level you can get to, but how many grains of rice you can donate.
I have a confession to make: I'm am absurdly, ridiculously, insanely jealous of everyone who lives in a climate that will support fruit trees. It's my one complaint about living in Alaska. I love it here, but at this time of year the fruit trees beckon. There is at least one heritage variety that will survive down to -40. I know this because Shane's mom has one. It's never produced more than a few apples each year, but I think it's still fairly young so I'm hopeful that one day it will start producing. And I think I read that Calypso Farms have an apple tree or two, but I've never seen apples at the farmer's market so I don't think they do very well here, if you can get them to grow in the first place.
Oh, I know we can get apples from Washington in the grocery store. After all, it seems to be the apple capital of the US, and it's still regional if not local. But it's just not the same! I want the pleasure of going into my own yard and picking apples, pears, or plums to cook and bake with. Mmm, the things I could do with my own fruit trees! *Heavy sigh*
Not that I've had any time for baking this week, anyway. With "Annie" rehearsals going on every night, it's been a fun and exhausting week. It's striking to me how relevant the themes of the show still are. Tough economic times, people who have everything connected to politicians, and then people with absolutely nothing. People living on the streets because they can't make a living. "7 million people in this city and I can't sell one lousy apple!" And just when you think you can't feel sorrier for them, their shanty town gets raided and destroyed by the police. It's been how long since the Great Depression, and we still don't have a better method of dealing with our homeless but to run them off into other areas and decide that their problems are not ours, that in fact they are the problem. It happens every year all over the country. One of the saddest stories I've heard was about a church in the Seattle area last year who had agreed to let the homeless camp in their parking lot (the tent city had been moved many times before) but the neighborhood rebelled and it was decided that the church couldn't do that because of safety concerns. Of course, they only meant the concerns of the wealthy homeowners, not the safety of the homeless. And the poor church community had their hands tried while trying to do some good.
In the play, I even find the character of Miss Hannigan sympathetic. The poor woman is stuck in a job she hates and isn't suited for because she gets a steady paycheck, housing, and a pension. How many people are currently stuck in that situation? (And yes, I do know that our current economic situation isn't even close to the Great Depression. But there are a lot of similarities which can be pointed to, and none of them are good. Even the fact that we can make comparisons to the Great Depression is a sign of how bad things are.) I do not attempt to excuse or condone Miss Hannigan's abuse of the children, but I think her character is so much more than simply a villain. The way she comes on to Bundles and the police officer, it's obvious that she's lonely. And really, besides her brother, those are the only two men she really meets. She lives where she works, and it's got to be pretty isolating. I end up feeling sorry for her.
The Daily News-Miner ran an article the other day about the local food bank. They've added some interactive online giving methods in the hopes of attracting young people to donate. I hope it works. Just like everywhere, donations are down while need is up. And as always, I encourage everyone (all two of my readers) to donate to their local food banks whenever possible. Even five dollars here and there can make a huge difference. If you don't have any money to give, there's always the website freerice. Every correct answer to a question donates 10 grains of rice. It's fun not only to see what level you can get to, but how many grains of rice you can donate.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
So what's your disaster story?
It's been one of those weeks, you know? We found out that over the weekend that the ceiling was leaking in the library. Luckily, my boss came in over the weekend and found it, but we still lost some books.
My coworker has been having car trouble this week, and she lives out in North Pole so between the distance and the snow, today was the first day she was able to find a ride and get to work. Not that it's been bad, but that's the way this week seems to be going for everybody. Another friend of mine had the heat go out in her cabin.
Our disaster came this morning. There were some fairly mundane, relatively trivial things at first. The dog is mad at me because I've been gone so much this week with the rehearsals for "Annie". So she peed in the living room and, for good measure, got into the recycling. Nothing too big. My wonderful, amazing husband woke up before me and not only started cleaning them up but he made me breakfast. <3 So while he took care of that, I went into the garage to feed the pets and found out that the boiler was gushing hot water into the garage. This was not a leak, this was a major problem. I called Shane out there, and we grabbed a large (empty) tote that had been used for liquor at our wedding to contain the still flowing water, and I called the landlord. Then I went upstairs to notify the neighbors. The song "It's a Hard-Knock Life" kept repeating itself in my head.
All in all, though, it could have been worse. The water obviously hadn't been flowing for too long so water damage was minimal, and I was only five minutes late to work. I heard from the landlord later in the morning, and it turns out that a pressure valve had gone off. He said this is either because the city upped the water pressure, or because the water somehow got too hot. Either way, I'm glad it was easy to fix. He's still trying to figure out what the cause was, though, to make sure it doesn't happen again. And thank goodness we keep the pet food in the garage! No cars are actually in the garage right now, so who knows how long it would have taken for someone to notice otherwise?
I cannot stress enough how thankful I am that Shane woke up early this morning and made my breakfast. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing man I'm married to. But enough gushing.
Things like this make me realize how little I know about home repair and maintenance. It's not that I don't want to learn, or that I think I'd be bad at it. On the contrary, I've done quite well with the projects I've helped with and I would love to learn more! But I think things like home repair are one of the last bastions of socially accepted misogyny. Why does no one ever teach girls and women how to do these things ourselves? Even my progressive, forward-thinking father didn't really think of showing me how to do this stuff. (Although he was excellent about including me in projects--like building a retaining wall in the backyard. I did roughly 1/3 of the work on that and I'm still proud of it.) I think it was just easier to do himself than to show me. Except for painting, which I'm quite good at.
I'm determined that when Shane and I have a home of our own, I'm going to be included in all of the repair/restoration/improvement projects. One of the areas Shane is least comfortable in is plumbing, so I'd like to learn about that. (Especially since plumbers are so expensive!) This is an extension of the reason I like growing some of our own food--that is, I like knowing that I'm capable. I like doing things myself. There's so much more satisfaction and pride in knowing that you've done something yourself, and in showing it off, rather than in paying someone else to do it. Plus, if you do it yourself you have much more incentive to get it right so you know the quality of the work that went into it.
How does one learn about household plumbing?
My coworker has been having car trouble this week, and she lives out in North Pole so between the distance and the snow, today was the first day she was able to find a ride and get to work. Not that it's been bad, but that's the way this week seems to be going for everybody. Another friend of mine had the heat go out in her cabin.
Our disaster came this morning. There were some fairly mundane, relatively trivial things at first. The dog is mad at me because I've been gone so much this week with the rehearsals for "Annie". So she peed in the living room and, for good measure, got into the recycling. Nothing too big. My wonderful, amazing husband woke up before me and not only started cleaning them up but he made me breakfast. <3 So while he took care of that, I went into the garage to feed the pets and found out that the boiler was gushing hot water into the garage. This was not a leak, this was a major problem. I called Shane out there, and we grabbed a large (empty) tote that had been used for liquor at our wedding to contain the still flowing water, and I called the landlord. Then I went upstairs to notify the neighbors. The song "It's a Hard-Knock Life" kept repeating itself in my head.
All in all, though, it could have been worse. The water obviously hadn't been flowing for too long so water damage was minimal, and I was only five minutes late to work. I heard from the landlord later in the morning, and it turns out that a pressure valve had gone off. He said this is either because the city upped the water pressure, or because the water somehow got too hot. Either way, I'm glad it was easy to fix. He's still trying to figure out what the cause was, though, to make sure it doesn't happen again. And thank goodness we keep the pet food in the garage! No cars are actually in the garage right now, so who knows how long it would have taken for someone to notice otherwise?
I cannot stress enough how thankful I am that Shane woke up early this morning and made my breakfast. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing man I'm married to. But enough gushing.
Things like this make me realize how little I know about home repair and maintenance. It's not that I don't want to learn, or that I think I'd be bad at it. On the contrary, I've done quite well with the projects I've helped with and I would love to learn more! But I think things like home repair are one of the last bastions of socially accepted misogyny. Why does no one ever teach girls and women how to do these things ourselves? Even my progressive, forward-thinking father didn't really think of showing me how to do this stuff. (Although he was excellent about including me in projects--like building a retaining wall in the backyard. I did roughly 1/3 of the work on that and I'm still proud of it.) I think it was just easier to do himself than to show me. Except for painting, which I'm quite good at.
I'm determined that when Shane and I have a home of our own, I'm going to be included in all of the repair/restoration/improvement projects. One of the areas Shane is least comfortable in is plumbing, so I'd like to learn about that. (Especially since plumbers are so expensive!) This is an extension of the reason I like growing some of our own food--that is, I like knowing that I'm capable. I like doing things myself. There's so much more satisfaction and pride in knowing that you've done something yourself, and in showing it off, rather than in paying someone else to do it. Plus, if you do it yourself you have much more incentive to get it right so you know the quality of the work that went into it.
How does one learn about household plumbing?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
This could possibly be a very boring post. If it is, let me know.
I realized that I've been talking about us eating the stuff in our freezers, but haven't said what kinds of things we've been eating. Of course, anyone who has read my blog can tell that we have things like moose meat, salmon, halibut, zucchini, and blueberries frozen. But what do we do with all that stuff?
Well, first of all, the only meat we've bought since we got home (all from HG Market) is 1 whole chicken breast (split into two meals), some bacon (on sale) and eggs. Whenever we need a change from moose, we've made fish. We haven't repeated a recipe once yet, and won't for quite a while.
Salmon chowder--I already put the recipe for that one up. The only things we had to buy were the milk and bacon.
Lasagna--made with ground moose meat, my home-canned tomato sauce, cheeses we had leftover from before our honeymoon (mozzarella and parmesan), and lasagna noodles from our supply. I haven't been able to find those in bulk yet, and we don't have any way to roll them out ourselves, but they were on sale a while ago so Shane bought five boxes!
Moose fajitas--made with moose steak, onions, and bell peppers. We had to buy the veggies and tortillas.
Pork tenderloin--Shane used Alton Brown's marinade, and included one of my peppers grown at work. We paired it with a salad (HG lettuce, farmer's market cabbage, cherry tomatoes from work, and apples) and homemade bread.
Egg drop soup--This is where half the chicken breast went. Usually Shane puts in green onions, but we substituted my chives and it worked out very well. He also doesn't usually put in celery, but he didn't want to pick it out of the freezer pack I made of carrots and celery so he left it in and it, too, worked well. Even after being frozen the local celery packs a bunch of taste! We of course paired it with homemade bread, because that's the best way to serve almost anything. :)
Chicken pot pie--this is where the other half of the chicken breast went, and that was the only ingredient we had to buy specifically for this meal. I use butter in my pie crusts, so it's something we always have on hand. Shane didn't like the turnips I added, "They just don't seem to go with it...", but I did.
Heavenly hamburger--this is a recipe of my mom's, sort of like a goulash. I used ground moose, of course, and made it partly because we had all of the ingredients already in the house.
Zucchini pancakes--I've linked to that recipe before, but here it is again. Topped with birch syrup, they're amazing. I liked them better when I cooked them in bacon fat, though. Because what isn't better cooked in or with bacon?
Smoothies--made with our frozen berries (I'm running out of frozen cherries!) and my homemade yogurt, a little bit of honey, yum! Perfect quick weekday breakfast. I let the berries thaw overnight in the blender, and it's also a little quicker in the mornings. I just have to put the blender on the base and go.
Moose roast--Shane likes to cook it in canned cream of mushroom soup and surround it with veggies.
Chili rubbed salmon with homemade bread and salad.
Halibut (pan roasted in butter and garlic) with the same sides.
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup--I cheated and bought everything, including the bread! It was one of those crazy nights.
Things we're planning to make soon:
Pumpkin soup
Stromboli
Chicken soup
Salmon with homemade bread and roast root vegetables.
Clam chowder (we also have frozen clams, dug up by Shane's mom)
Moose stroganoff
Moose tacos
Moose stew
Butternut squash soup (Shane gives it a big "yuk!" but I love it! He can make himself a sandwich.)
And before it gets too cold to grill, more moose burgers!
There are so many more recipes that I can't think of at the moment, both what we've made and what we're going to make. I've been writing them down at home when I think of them so that we have a reference when one of us asks, "What are we going to make for dinner this week?" That makes it so simple to create a shopping list, too, because we can easily inventory what we have vs. what we need. And we've been really good about eating all of the leftovers before making something new so that there's no wasted food.
I didn't realize how many fantastic recipes we have to call on until I started writing it all out!
Well, first of all, the only meat we've bought since we got home (all from HG Market) is 1 whole chicken breast (split into two meals), some bacon (on sale) and eggs. Whenever we need a change from moose, we've made fish. We haven't repeated a recipe once yet, and won't for quite a while.
Salmon chowder--I already put the recipe for that one up. The only things we had to buy were the milk and bacon.
Lasagna--made with ground moose meat, my home-canned tomato sauce, cheeses we had leftover from before our honeymoon (mozzarella and parmesan), and lasagna noodles from our supply. I haven't been able to find those in bulk yet, and we don't have any way to roll them out ourselves, but they were on sale a while ago so Shane bought five boxes!
Moose fajitas--made with moose steak, onions, and bell peppers. We had to buy the veggies and tortillas.
Pork tenderloin--Shane used Alton Brown's marinade, and included one of my peppers grown at work. We paired it with a salad (HG lettuce, farmer's market cabbage, cherry tomatoes from work, and apples) and homemade bread.
Egg drop soup--This is where half the chicken breast went. Usually Shane puts in green onions, but we substituted my chives and it worked out very well. He also doesn't usually put in celery, but he didn't want to pick it out of the freezer pack I made of carrots and celery so he left it in and it, too, worked well. Even after being frozen the local celery packs a bunch of taste! We of course paired it with homemade bread, because that's the best way to serve almost anything. :)
Chicken pot pie--this is where the other half of the chicken breast went, and that was the only ingredient we had to buy specifically for this meal. I use butter in my pie crusts, so it's something we always have on hand. Shane didn't like the turnips I added, "They just don't seem to go with it...", but I did.
Heavenly hamburger--this is a recipe of my mom's, sort of like a goulash. I used ground moose, of course, and made it partly because we had all of the ingredients already in the house.
Zucchini pancakes--I've linked to that recipe before, but here it is again. Topped with birch syrup, they're amazing. I liked them better when I cooked them in bacon fat, though. Because what isn't better cooked in or with bacon?
Smoothies--made with our frozen berries (I'm running out of frozen cherries!) and my homemade yogurt, a little bit of honey, yum! Perfect quick weekday breakfast. I let the berries thaw overnight in the blender, and it's also a little quicker in the mornings. I just have to put the blender on the base and go.
Moose roast--Shane likes to cook it in canned cream of mushroom soup and surround it with veggies.
Chili rubbed salmon with homemade bread and salad.
Halibut (pan roasted in butter and garlic) with the same sides.
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup--I cheated and bought everything, including the bread! It was one of those crazy nights.
Things we're planning to make soon:
Pumpkin soup
Stromboli
Chicken soup
Salmon with homemade bread and roast root vegetables.
Clam chowder (we also have frozen clams, dug up by Shane's mom)
Moose stroganoff
Moose tacos
Moose stew
Butternut squash soup (Shane gives it a big "yuk!" but I love it! He can make himself a sandwich.)
And before it gets too cold to grill, more moose burgers!
There are so many more recipes that I can't think of at the moment, both what we've made and what we're going to make. I've been writing them down at home when I think of them so that we have a reference when one of us asks, "What are we going to make for dinner this week?" That makes it so simple to create a shopping list, too, because we can easily inventory what we have vs. what we need. And we've been really good about eating all of the leftovers before making something new so that there's no wasted food.
I didn't realize how many fantastic recipes we have to call on until I started writing it all out!
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