Lunch time all the time

So I'm trying something new, which is to make all my lunches for the work week at once, something that would save me tons of time prepping (and save me from forgetting the night before and rushing madly the morning of) but I've largely refrained from doing so because Im really scared of the monotony that would create. Eating the same thing over and over 5 days in a row doesn't sound very appealing, but what the heck, I cant judge something without trying it.

So this is what I made, a sort of chili I guess you would call it.

 For the meat base, I used a meatloaf I never got around to cooking, mixture of ground turkey and ground beef with minced broccoli and cauliflower and spices, I'm not sure which I put in there. Sliced an onion, a red pepper, a zucchini (thanks Amy!!), added green and yellow string beans, some carrots, cubed sweet potato and added some chopped fresh tomatoes as well as the last of last year's canned tomato sauce I made, and finally a mix of beans (red, white kidney beans, some chickpeas and I think some split peas as well). Added oregano, paprika, dried chili, chili powder, and jalapeno hot sauce. Shoved all that in the crockpot for a few hours on high. The result is exactly like chili, or maybe a tomato stew. So now I have lunch for the whole week (and a couple bowls that we ate for supper as well). Although I'm loving the result, I know that by Wednesday I'm going to start dreading lunch time haha so I think what I will do is make two recipes every week, freeze the individual portions and mix and match.

Do you have large scale crockpot recipes that are easily freezable and microwavable you would suggest?

this week

Mr T enjoying a meat bagel sandwich. They were great!

We'll definitely do them again. Every other week or so, I imagine. Highly recommend if you are allergic to gluten or are grain-free or whatever. Recipe here.

Cabbage on the grill - delicious! This was made right after bacon, and I drizzled over a little extra bacon fat to cook it. So good.

The bases for these blueberry tarts! Instead of coconut flour I used 1 scant cup ground pecans, and instead of arrowroot powder I used 1/4 c white rice flour.

Aren't they pretty!? Even with an ugly cookie sheet under them! Next time I will omit the salt in the blueberry mixture though. Really unecessary.

This week's menu. I am stuck about Sunday lunch. Any ideas? Cheap and yummy please. Make-in-advance okay.

Also, no picture for this, but I hosted an ice cream party/workshop this week with a couple of friends. It was fun. Making ice cream from coconut bars is so dead easy. We did straight vanilla, then carob & cinnamon. Delish. I have been very into adding extra coconut oil when making an egg-free ice cream, whether with dairy or coconut milk, but we're out now, and it was really fine. It was a fun day and was a very perfect sort of party to have near the end of the summer.

A bunch of random pictures

So I took a real silly video of me making brunch last week but I cant seem to make it into a nice smooth running little movie, so that's on hold till I can figure it out. In the meantime, here is a bunch of random pictures I collected and meant to post individually, but you now get them in a nice big bunch!

Summer is for salads, I feel, because slow cooking roasts in the oven for hours doesn't make me a happy girl.

Broc, cauliflower, bacon, hardboiled egg with a cheesy dressing

Simple cucumber and tomatoes with some herbs and a bit of vinegar and oil. I live on this stuff.

Black cracked pepper Triscuits are a bit of an obsession lately, with a tuna salad that's got a bit of whatever's in the fridge. Pictured here with green onion, corn, carrots, red pepper, and tomato.

 

FARMER'S MARKET! I am so friggin thankful to live where I do. The stuff I pick up is grown 10 minutes away from my home, and since my mother grew up on such farm in the same area, everyone knows each other. The stand I go to most often is Mr. Poirier's, right on the main road in Mercier. The experience of buying from them is incredible. Apart from actually knowing these people, they treat everyone like family, and Ive heard them try to explain to an American the layout of their fields with extreme broken English and broken French from both sides, it was beautiful. And Mr. Poirier sometimes sneaks an ear or two extra of corn in my bag, with a wink. It feels more like a social occasion than shopping.

Them tomatoes had no chance.



Some corn I roasted from them. I thought the yellow looked like jewels or something.

 

Went to the Echoes of a Proud Nation Powwow at Kahnawake, and let me tell you, the first thing I did when I walked in, as I do every year, is make a straight bee-line to the food stands. In particular, the smoked sausage stand where this guy makes his own sausages of meat he's hunted (a mix of rabbit, deer, and moose). They are beyond delicious.

Grills them right in front of you and you can get it with sautéed onions and hot sauce. I dream about these all year long.

Buffalo burgers. EVERYONE MUST EAT THESE.

Indian tacos are frybread topped with chili and regular taco toppings, and corn soup is, well, just that. Both staples of Mohawk cuisine. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of friends that make these year round and are willing to feed me so I focus on those once-a-year treats. Thing to note: strawberry juice is a huge thing culturally wise, they even have a whole festival dedicated to strawberries! Now how's that for celebrating Nature's juiciest and sweetest candy?

 Here's a few shots of the dancers and drummers for your viewing pleasure:

Families were braiding each other's hair, helping each other with their regalia. It was awesome to see.

Little bear clan warrior.

 

 

Notice the children hanging around the drums. They have an open policy where children are always invited and encouraged to sit around their drumming circle, they're very superstitious about that drum. Special treatment, the way they talk about it, people cannot under any circumstance touch that drum or the beating sticks. But children are the exception. Its actually considered good energy for an innocent child to touch a drum in wonderment.


Tried out these muffin egg things. Onion red pepper for Jeff, zucchini, carrot, red pepper, and some other stuff I cant quite recall in mine. Result, we hated them. Theyre good on the spot, but cold and/or reheated egg? Yuck.

 

 

 Plus they left an awful mess to clean, even though I very carefully greased every individual cup. Unpleasant.

 

 

This also happened. -_-


 

 

So that about sums up the last couple of months. Soon, oh so very soon (September soon), it will be canning time! I'm actually excited about this, which makes me... I don't know what it makes me. I specifically scheduled my vacation at work during harvest so I would have time to can and freeze all this delicious produce. So excited!

Days Off

Have you guys ever felt like your days off/weekends are the times when you really can let your culinary creativity loose?  That is exactly how I feel whenever I have my days off (because I don’t get Saturday & Sunday off like Jeff does, I’m alone in the house, which is even better in a way because I can make seafood and other tasty things Jeff doesn’t care for). And as the official leftover user of my household (I married a very, very picky man, but I guess I knew that when I tied the knot lol), sometimes I need to pull something out of nowhere to make that chicken I’ve been eating for 3 days straight enticing. So when I get up at whatever time I want, and don’t come home after a couple of hours of angry, hot traffic, is when I really feel magic happening. And this is my magical process:

Oh, I have to use this or throw it out, so let’s start with that. And oh, look what I found, that’ll be tasty with it. And this, and this, and because I feel adventurous today, I’m going to add this, this, and this. On second thought, take out this, keep it for supper.

Yes, I talk out loud, to myself, and sometimes I address my dogs, because they have great advice. For some reason, everything looks good to them. 

I’ve said it before, and I think it’s a sentiment we all share here amongst Geeks, I really try to focus on using what’s available to me in my fridge, and more particularly, what’s about to be thrown out. I’m pretty good with planning (back on top, adjust, and rock n roll) my groceries according to my bi-weekly meals, so I get that extra thrill when I’m able to pull something off that uses everything up, no waste. Feels good to know that I’ve used my food budget wisely and efficiently, yknow? So here is a couple of snapshots of what I’ve eaten for the past couple days, and I apologize for the shitty picture quality, I full on admit that I didn’t take the time to properly snapshot anything. But trust me, it was tasty!

 

Grilled cheese made with 1/4 avocado, maybe 3 oz turkey breast, goat cheese, hot sauce, dijon mustard, on multi grain.  

 



My lunch - salmon baked with garlic and lemon, steamed broc, and a cuke-apple salad with Italian vinaigrette



 

BBQ TIME! Weve got a couple of honey bbq chops for the monsieur, rosemary garlic for me, potatoes, mushrooms and asparagus... HEAVEN! Im also grilling un citron in the back, once you grill a lemon, the taste and juice completely ransforms. I used it over my chop, asparagus, and shrooms.

 



This btw, is my fave method for shrooms, if you have two grills on your bbq. You position your grilled lemon face down so that it comes directly over the package of mushroom when you close the top. You put the mushrooms on top of some garlic and o.o., and voila! The heat causes the lemon to drip its wonderful juice right into the package, and the garlic sizzles it from beneath. CEST BON!



 

I made flavored water with lemon, mint and cucumber. I was worried about wasting the cucumber just to flavor water, but I ate them after the jug was done, so everything was fine in the end.

 

My yard's dandelions and wild strawberry blossoms! Gonna make me some lemonade and salad with these!

 

First lilac blossom! I love these trees so much, they remind me of my father's house, his back door neighbor had a HUGE tree of these that loomed down into our yard and I would sit directly under it when the petals and blossoms fell, and it was like a rainfall of the softest nicest smelling rain ever.

 

What do you guys like to cook/bake most on your days off?

Celebrating the Ordinary

I havent posted in awhile because I havent made anything note worthy in a while, said no content person, ever. Well, balls to that. I decided to just show yall a middle of the week supper time over at my place in 4 pictures, like a lightning exposure to Wednesday meal time at the Deer-Piskopos-Hebert household (try saying that 10 times fast). Ready?

This playing.

This cooking.

Chili lime pork chop with red onion and yellow pepper.

3 tbsp o.o., 1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 lime juiced, 1 tsp chilli powder, .5 tsp paprika/onion powder, 3 minced garlic cloves, and if you like it extra kick-me-in-the-mouth, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Marinade chops for 4-6 hours 

These burning.

Tasteyyy

we love cabbage

Ambrose actually has been the instigator of my cabbage love from beginning to end. I know you're supposed to expand your kids' horizons and get them into veggies and whatnot, and we do try to do that, but in reality it's been him who's pushed me a few ways. PURPLE CABBAGE is one of them! Yes, he ate that entire plate, minus those scraps, I did not help him for the picture! He squeals for it cutely whenever he sees it at the store. So I now have purple cabbage in my life. Look at it! It's gorgeous! Like stained glass!

My favourite ways to eat cabbage are simple and twofold: one, red cabbage simmered with a bit of water in a cast iron skillet, then fried with bacon fat (and meat if you're feeling festive!), and apple pieces, and a bit of red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper, OH GOSH, I got that recipe from The Catholic Cookbook - some saint day, heaven help us but I can't recall which. Anyway, the second way is roasted. Oh be still my heart. So simple. See it done here.

So what you see above is roasted, Ambrose has it straight, with oil, salt, pepper & garlic powder; I cut out the triangle-shaped cores from those wedges, leaving the lovely long strips (like paleo noodles!). Mine is served with Jamie Oliver's cowboy meatballs, leftover and having been frozen from our last party (but without cheese or breadcrumbs). Basically omnomnomnomnomnomnom.

Purple cabbage is definitely one of God's most beautiful works of art as far as I'm concerned right now.

Flat Iron Steak and Mango Salsa Fajitas

So I've survived my first week as a grad student, and it's a disrguntling reality that there are serious challenges being a Foodie and a grad student at the same time.

Because, like, no. I refuse to subsist on store-bought zaatar, or MacDo, or coffee and cigarettes for breakfast.

You see, between grub and graduate readings, I will take the grub any time. 

I always knew there was lots of planning ahead, but I didn't realize how strategic that planning ahead had to be. Last weekend, I cut up veggies (onions, peppers, kale) in small baggies for use in breakfast casseroles over the week. Sadly, many of them went bad before the week was over. I was super frustrated. Matt tells me organic produce will go bad more quickly, esp if cut up--true? I don't know.

I haven't yet studied my whole first week. I was coming home exhausted, wanting to cook and enjoy my food, but by the time I was done, I was done for the night. I did have some veggie soup frozen, some meat prepared, etc--but even when you don't have meals planned, it can still take upwards an hour to get your dinner together!

Are you pretty strapped for time too? Like using leftovers for yummy creations? 

ME TOO.

Matt was driving home from St. Louis last night and suggested we get Chipotle's, which is this (supposedly) natural burrito house and watch a movie. I'm kind of addicted to their margaritas, so I declined for fear I would pass out  So dinner last night was flat iron steaks, sauteed bok choy, and mango salsa. Flat iron steaks here are relatively cheap-- $8-10 in meat can feed two adults very comfortably, and still leave extra for leftovers. He came back this afternoon to help me set up my printer and hang more curtains ... yes I know ... <3! , and with those leftovers, I made us fajitas with the leftover steak, mango salasa, shredded pepperjack cheese, and hot sauce. O-lé.

St. Nicholas Day!!

My giddiness about St. Nicholas Day grows a little every year:

- My giddiness about Christmas seems to grow every year, so there is a corresponding increase in general December joy (during which we celebrate Tony's birthday, our anniversary, and five friends' birthdays in addition to Christmas),
- My list of recipes grows a little in the passing months, so each time St Nicholas day rolls around I'm a little better prepared,
- Our relationship with Eastern Orthodoxy grows a little more deep, loving, conflicted, alienated, and infatuated all the time, bit by bit, so I just LOVE having a saint recognized by both East and West to make a fuss over, and take the day to meditate on ecumenism (this article has been a really wonderful read, and I am now totally into dropping the filioque in the name of fraternal love!),
- Tony's parents are from Turkey, like St. Nicholas, so I can cook Turkish food and feel that I am honouring the feast while imparting heritage to Ambrose,
- St. Nicholas slapped Arius (see "The First Council of Nicaea", 4th paragraph), and every year there are a few people I wish I could slap but didn't, so I enjoy the triumph vicariously,
- I enjoy being defiant of cultural norms I think are ridiculous, so I get satisfaction from sticking it to the man and refusing the Coco-Cola commercialism Santa nonsense, intensified to the point of hysterical giddiness when we told my mom this week (for the 5th time at least since I got pregnant with Ambrose) that we are NOT doing Santa with him, and she was so appalled that she got really quiet and sombre (if you know my mom you know this is Rare And Serious) - it was delightfully absurd - so being really emphatic and over-the-top about St. Nicholas gives Ambrose a firm base from which to make sense of the Santa phenomenon,

and so many more. Really.

Anyways I have dough prepared for St Nicholas cookies, like last year (this year I halved the recipe, using one egg yolk and about half the white for the cookie dough, and beating the rest of the white with the other icing ingredients - we want to keep the sugar intake a little more moderate), and I am also making some Turkish food for supper: Turkish rice (which is first fried in butter before cooking, sort of like risotto, but unlike risotto, once the water is added you let it cook undisturbed), spinach & yogurt salad, possibly something with beets, and St Nicholas Stew, inspired a few Turkish recipes (here, for example). It's simmering now and smells SO GOOD.

You'll notice it has heart - aside from what I learned about the health benefits of organ meats in April, I just think there's something really honest and important about eating whole animals. If you didn't grow up eating whole animals, it's okay to have a bit of ick factor, but that can and does wear off if you apply yourself. It's so important to have integrity and align ourselves with God's sustainable patterns he set forth in nature. Chickens don't just have breasts. Cows don't just have limb and belly muscles. And so on. It's really an exercise in humility, gratitude, and eco-awareness to continue to try cooking with new organs and "weird bits". We should constantly be open to challenge and examination, willing to look our inconsistencies in the eye and wither prune away the whole (that is, become vegetarian) or else surrender totally (eat tongue and heart), especially at this time of year. But if you really can't handle it today, substitute an equivalent weight of non-organ meat.

As another note, I chose pork deliberately though it's not really a part of Turkish cooking, to emphasize the freedom we enjoy in Christ.

Anyway, enough of my preaching. Onward!

St. Nicholas Stew
In the morning, or as late as lunch-ish, or the night before if you're a working girl and want to put it in the crock pot in the morning-
Place in a bowl:
1 pork heart, cubed (about 1 lb)
2 lb pork leg or other stewing cut, trimmed and cubed, bone on
[note: these can be tricky to cube neatly, so if sinews are holding bits together, or it gets slippery, just cut it up as best you can and separate it once cooked]
about 1/4 c apple cider vinegar
a few glugs oil
1-2 tsp or whatever, some good shakes, of each: salt, pepper, granulated garlic (or equivalent), cinnamon, oregano, cumin, and coriander (be generous with the salt and garlic)
Massage it all together and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Plop the mixture into a big pot, cover with water, add two sliced onions and two handfuls dried apricots, and bring to a boil. Reduce and let simmer a long time. I'm leaving mine for 4 hours or something. In the meantime, browse some other Turkish recipes to prepare. At least, do rice! When you judge it to be done, strain out the meat and bones, let that cool a bit, then break apart the meat into smaller pieces as needed, and cut away the bones. I'll probably cut up the apricots a bit then too. Bon appetit! And happy St. Nicholas Day!!

Update: It was delicious! The meat breaks apart very easily, you don't even need utensils, so just break away the bones and any really big hunks of gristle or sinews that remain. Enjoy!

Calf tongue tacos

They were delicious!

MEAT

I bought a lot of meat today, some of which I don't know how to cook... yet.

Like tongue. It was offered to me once in a sandwich and I just couldn't do it.

Makin' out with the calf tongue (being married is cool because you can blog pictures like this, where you look deranged, and you don't have to worry about being pretty).

The beautiful and wise Katie, who was invited to join us here at LG given her writing flair and culinary likemindedness, but who cannot join us at this time, kindly lent me this book. You may have heard of the author over at Kitchen Stewardship regarding discussions about soaking and phytic acid. So far I'm enjoying it a lot - it's researchy but also very narrative in style in the first part, which makes it easier to go through.

See? She made me. Tongue and liver. Right there on the list.

So far, I agree! I have been really into reading about postpartum depression in particular since starting doula work - but so much of this info is great for everybody! In addition to buying all this meat, I'm doubling my omega-3 supplement and am starting Tony on it too. I also bought folic acid and zinc - maybe I went a little nuts? But oh, this pharmacy has such sales!!

So stay tuned for me, cooking liver and tongue! If I find I have the courage to share!