Soup and Post on the Light Side

Here is a cooking post.  At least, I’m going to call it a cooking post, but perhaps I am stepping up in class.  No matter. It is Tired Tuesday, I fixed something for dinner that did NOT involve the telephone and a credit card, and I’m going to write about it.

First I poured myself a small glass of Chardonnay, because I wanted to cook with wine.

I had an open box of chicken broth in the refrigerator (I drank one mug of it recently when my stomach was bothering me) (you see, I DON’T write a blog post about every little ache and pain, although it sometimes feels that way).  I also had some leftover brown rice.  I put them both in a pot on the stove and turned on the burner.  I went to the freezer and pulled out broccoli and spinach, which I also added to the pot.

Then I went out the the living room, sat on the couch and looked a Facebook.  I feel that is an important part of the recipe.  After a while I went back out the the kitchen and added garlic powder, parsley, basil and oregano to the pot.  When it started boiling, I lowered the heat and let it simmer for a while.

Steven and I ate the soup with bread and butter.  Steven said it was very good, not too heavy, just what his stomach needed.  I hope this modest little post is just what my blog needed.  As for me, I may have another small glass of Chardonnay.  Happy Tuesday, everyone.

 

Fake Poo and Leftovers on Scattered Saturday

It is time I made my Scattered Saturday post for the week.  Or some sort of Saturday post.  Because, you know, it is Saturday (even if my WordPress page says differently; I can’t fix these technological glitches).  Only I am tired and would prefer to get on with my couch-sitting, crocheting, watching television portion of the day.  What a bum!  In my defense, I did a few things today.

I went running around with my friend, Kim.  We were seeking props for He Laughed Himself to Death, the murder mystery at Morning Star Methodist Church April 1.  We had some good luck. I was a little disappointed in the quality of fake poo we found, but I was pleased with the flies in ice cubes and the joy buzzers.  Oh dear, I hope I haven’t given too much away.  I do like my audience to be surprised.

Returning to Ilion, we had a nice lunch at Sorrento’s, just to give a shout-out to a local business. I have leftovers I can enjoy later.  Yum.  Later on, I went running (actual running, not just running around like earlier).  I pretty much knew I would not make a Running Commentary post.  I did not think I was setting a very good example, for one reason.  For another reason, most people do not want to hear about my sports bras (please do NOT tell me “TMI,” I HATE that expression!).  Around six, Kim picked me up again, and we went to a tasting of Coyote Moon Winery at Valley Wine and Liquors in Herkimer.  Then we met Steven at work and brought him to the tasting.

I heated up leftovers for supper when Steven and I got home (not the ones from today’s lunch).  I thought that was better than some other plans I had, one of which involved the telephone and a credit card.  The food tasted good, it was easy to fix, and we got that little frisson of virtue that the leftovers did not go to waste.

That brings us up to date.  It was a fun day, although I’m afraid this is kind of a dull post.  But what are you going to do on a Saturday? I hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Monday Menu Meanderings

I really, really want to finish my blog post before my dear husband Steven arrives home from work.  Alas, I did not write anything while at work today.  I worked on anacrostic puzzles in a puzzle book I really should have left at home.  In my defense, I LOVE anacrostic puzzles!  And doing puzzles is good for your brain.  Surely my brain needs all the help it can get.

The sad thing is, I’m really supposed to be figuring something out for dinner, not typing in a blog post.  I’m hungry.  Steven will be hungry. There is food in the house, but I fear it requires work.  Unless we just heat up the beef soup I made yesterday.  Ah, I know, a few words about the soup will serve for today’s blog post.

We recently purchased a lovely roast that was on sale.  I can’t remember what cut it was, but it was substantial.  It went into the freezer to  await cooking.  Then last Sunday (that is, a week ago yesterday), I discovered the few carrots I had left had gotten kind of… not crunchy.  I thought they were still good, they just didn’t look as if they would be good raw, which is pretty much the only way I like carrots.  However, one does what one must, in this case, cook the damn carrots.

A day or two later, I put the carrots in the crock pot with the beef, half an onion, Worcestershire sauce and water.  I had to add water, because the beef had not thawed in the refrigerator.  How delightful it was to arrive home that evening to the smell of roasting beef.  It made a fine supper.  I even ate some of the carrots.

Steven saved all the drippings, which were considerable due to the water I had added.  I said I would use it to make beef soup, which I did on Sunday. There really wasn’t much to that recipe.  I chopped two potatoes and put them on the boil.  Then I put the liquid, onions and carrots in a pot on the stove.  I chopped up a goodly amount of the beef to add.  When it was boiling, I added some frozen green beans for good measure.  When the potatoes were done, they went into the pot too.

We ate it with slices of Heidelberg French Peasant bread, my new favorite (edging out sourdough).  It was a fine dinner for a cold day such as Sunday.  Today is a cold day too.  I wonder how Steven will feel about leftovers.

In any case, this concludes my blog post.  Can we consider it a Monday Mental Meanderings or should I start a new feature: Menu Monday?  Any thoughts?

 

Leftovers Remembered

Yesterday I wrote a silly post regarding my bowl of cereal supper.  However, I had actually eaten my supper earlier: a bowl of leftovers.  I will now do a cooking post telling the origin of my leftover Pseudo Alfredo Sauce.

I began the recipe as I begin most of my recipes, by crushing up some garlic and setting it to breathe for 15 minutes.  While it sat, I chopped half an onion and put it to cook in olive oil, covering it so it could also kind of steam.  Then I chopped and added a green pepper and two red peppers.  Red peppers are my current obsession.  I added the garlic after 15 minutes.

After the onions and peppers had softened, I added a brick of neufchatel, or low-fat cream cheese, to be less fancy.  I added it whole and broke it up with a fork.  I found a can of evaporated milk and dumped a little in, then a little more, guesstimating amounts.  I don’t think I even used half the can, which was cool, because Steven likes to put evaporated milk in his coffee.

I had to stir the sauce fairly constantly because of the milk and cheese, so I got to see if a watched pot really doesn’t boil (of course it does) while I boiled the water for the pasta.  It was garlic basil linguine from The Pasta Shoppe of Utica, NY, a Christmas gift from my sister Cheryl.  At almost the last minute, I remembered I had some fresh mushrooms to add to the sauce.  Luckily, mushrooms cook quickly.

It was quite the delicious dinner.  The leftovers were delicious too.  Perhaps not as quirky as raisin bran with extra raisins, but I see that it made for a longer blog post.  A better blog post?  You, dear reader, are the judge of that.