Busy, busy, busy

Boy, I have been busy. And lazy, as I haven't posted since after Thanksgiving. Oh well, today I am using the leftover chicken bones from a roasted chicken we had last night to make chicken stock. I didn't quite have everything for a mirepoix (the trinity of onions, celery and carrots), so I peeled some garlic cloves, threw in some baby carrots and seasoned the bones with onion powder. Cut some thyme from the garden, added some peppercorns and salt and covered it all with cold water. I should have about 4 quarts of broth when done. I used Alton Brown's recipe from FoodTV as my guide. http://tinyurl.com/dm2jt. The house smells wonderful!!

I am at my best when I can throw things together with abandon! I read in an article once that Ina Garten said she was an "assembler". That is me! I know what flavors work together, then I just mix and match. I did that with a bread pudding the other night and it was great! If I have to follow a recipe to a T, then I am not so good. I think that is why I don't bake. All of those precise measurements.

I will post the bread pudding recipe. It was so good and you could probably use the basic recipe to make both savory and sweet bread puddings.

Holiday budgeting

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I took last week off to relax.

I found this today online, and thought it was helpful.
http://www.realsimple.com//realsimple/web/pdf/1204/giftbudget.pdf

However, I think the guidelines for the holiday budget are kind of wacky! 1.5 % of pretax income? We never spend that kind of money and don't expect anyone to spend that on us!

Never forget that the retailers try very hard to make you feel or want to consume, it is in their best interest if you give big ticket items. Not necessarily your best interest.

The best thing we did in our family is to decide to give small presents. It took so much pressure off as we are limited to $10 a person for the cousins, their spouses, & my siblings and their spouses. That means that 7 gifts are small and fun. Same goes for parents, etc. While not $10 gifts, we have been getting smaller gifts for them.

It just makes for a more enjoyable holiday when not stressed about how much is enough. I had gotten to a point where I dreaded buying for Christmas and this has really helped. Take the extra money you would spend, and give it to the less fortunate. To me, that is the best way to celebrate Christ's birth, and the way that will bring joy this season.

Thanksgiving Timeline

Thanksgiving is next week, so if you are doing a big gathering (or even a small one), here is a timeline that looks interesting from Real Simple.

http://tinyurl.com/wdqej

Expert help from the Container Store

Here is a cool link:

http://www.containerstore.com/experthelp/recipes/index.jhtml

Container Store has an expert help menu that has everything from homemade holiday recipes to ways to wrap presents like a pro. I love info, so I am going to bookmark this page.

Speaking of the container store, I could buy shoe boxes until the cows come home. They have changed their styling, they are narrower now, so more fit on shelves. I may indulge and buy a case of shoe boxes! The organizing never stops in this house!!

Addicted to panda cam

I am addicted and every day must check out the baby panda.

http://www.zooatlanta.com/animals_panda_cam.htm

Dang my sister for causing this addiction. However, I have passed it onto many friends. You have to check frequently, because pandas (like dogs) sleep an awful lot. Sometimes you will catch the mommy panda holding the baby girl and licking her. It is so darn cute!!!

Speaking of dogs sleeping, here are the girls in typical fashion.

Item of the Week - Litehouse Sesame Ginger Dressing

I bought a huge bottle of this the other day.

http://www.litehousefoods.com/product_details.asp?pid=34

It is perfect as a dipping sauce for potstickers, a dressing for chinese coleslaw or as a stir-fry marinade. I make a huge batch of healthy fried rice (very little oil) using the Kirkland Stir-Fry veggies, brown rice and some egg. We added some of this dressing and it turned out great.

Suds away

No antibacterial soap for me! Studies have shown that not only does it destroy good bacteria, but washing your hands correctly is more important. I think it is a way for manufacturers to charge more.

Interesting article from ABC news about washing hands.
http://tinyurl.com/y2bnrg

My beloved Costco only carries antibacterial soap, so I don't buy soap from them. I did find some Ivory liquid soap, which was half the price per ounce of other soaps. Interestingly, it was on the top shelf of the Kroger. You know you find the best prices either on the top or bottom shelves of grocery stores. They put the more expensive brands in the middle. I will find the info and post it.
http://www.ivory.com/YourIvoryProducts_LiquidHandCleanser.htm

While this smells good and does the job, my hands get super dry in the winter. I bought some Dr. Bronner's almond liquid soap and used 3 capfuls in some foaming pumps I had. The 16 oz. cost me around $7.50 and should last quite a while. Disregard the interesting packaging and it is a great product.

I may add some olive oil to the foaming soap and see how that works.

Making bath salts

Don't ask me why, but not working has allowed me to tap into all the creative sides of me. Right now I am making my own bath salts. My feeling is - how hard can it be? I am trying to do it with dried rosemary (from my garden) and dried lavendar, but am not sure how strong the fragrance will be. I may need to buy some essential oils to add as the herbs may not cut it.

Costco has a huge bag of Epsom salts for around $3. That rocks as it will be cheap for me to make. If you know me, don't be surprised if you get some from me for Christmas once I perfect my recipe. I will keep you all posted on my success or failure.

Giving it all away!

I love reading and gathering information. So I thought I would share it with you. Of course, once I give away all my secrets, I may lose my ability to impress others with my wealth of knowledge. :-)

Real Simple's - 25 Ways to Get Ahead for the Holidays
http://tinyurl.com/vvzp7

I especially love the idea of giving olive oil, etc. as a hostess gift. Crate & Barrel's price is no longer $10, now $12.95, but the packaging is so very hip. I am finding that I am more drawn to modern design than ever before.

They also have some other interesting items such as the Fig Balsamic Drizzle. That sounds yummy!
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/oil-vinegar-dressings/gourmet-foods/1

I sometimes watch Take Home Chef and the other day he made mini-cheesecakes with strawberry sauce and drizzled a 12 year old balsamic on top. Like wine, age makes balsamic vinegar mellow, in this case, it is less tart and more sweet. YUM!

Belated anniversary dinner - Shitake Mushroom Risotto

We finally celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. As in the previous year, we were going to celebrate by staying in downtown Winnipeg after going up for Canadian Thanksgiving (Oct. 13). However, with my husband's new job and travel schedule, we weren't able to go.

We finally decided to celebrate Saturday night. We opened a bottle of wine from our honeymoon trip to Napa. It was a 1999 Markham Zinfandel. So amazing! The years had really softened the tannins. We put it in a decanter and let it breathe for about an hour before drinking.

We tried the frozen New Zealand lamb shanks from Costco. They had a mint-rosemary demi-glace. While the serving size said each lamb shank serves two, I find that hard to believe. You just need to realize that this is a splurge dish, as the calories and fat are not low.

Speaking of splurge, I made risotto. Here is my basic recipe.

1. Rehydrate 1 cup shitake mushrooms with 1 cup boiling water. Let sit for 25 minutes.
2. Saute 1 cup onion in 1-2 Tbsp. each of unsalted butter and olive oil (Kirkland extra-virgin). Sprinkle some kosher salt on the onions to draw out the water as they cook. Once they are translucent, add 1 cup arborio rice, saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add 1 can (15 oz + 1 oz water) chicken broth, but add one cup at a time. Cook over medium-low stirring constantly until broth is absorbed. Then add the second cup, doing the same. Your muscles should feel all the stirring. Next time I may try a pressure cooker, no stirring involved!
4. After mushrooms are hydrated, remove with a slotted spoon and saute in a little EVO. Save the leftover mushroom broth, and add that as your 3 cup of liquid for the risottto. My husband doesn't like the mushy texture of mushrooms, so I browned them and salted them a little to draw out more water. Then I chopped them up.
5. Towards the end of cooking, I added the mushrooms and a cube of frozen parsley/olive oil. (read my posts about freezing herbs in oil for cooking). Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. The rice should be al dente, with just a bite to it.

Risotto is comfort food at it's finest, rich and creamy! We served the risotto as our primo piatto, and the lamb as our secondo piatto.

For dessert, I was going to have pane e cioccolata (who knew there was a movie by this name), but instead, we dipped the dark chocolate in Cool Whip. You know my love for Cool Whip!

I was going to grill the bread and melt dark chocolate on it. Had I been thinking, I would have bought some wanton wrappers and Nutella (2-pack at Costco) and tried baked ravioli. The fried are fabulous, but the house smells like frying afterwards. If you ever want to make a dessert to impress, and don't mind frying, this is a good one.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32984,00.html

Item of the Week - D'allasandro Dried Sliced Shitake Mushrooms

This is my item of the week. A 1-lb bag of shitake mushrooms for $9.99. Great to keep and use in such recipes as mushroom risotto (refer to my post about my anniversary dinner).

I was also reading on Epicurious where someone grinds the mushrooms into a powder to use in sauces and rice dishes to add an earthy flavor. There is a recipe on the back of the bag for a Chinese chicken and mushroom dish, I may try that too.

Fabulous dinner

I love shrimp! My husband doesn't love it, so when he is not home, I try to have it. I tried this the other night using a large pack of grape tomatoes I brought home from Costco. It was fabulous!! Everything the recipe calls for I bought from Costco - feta, shrimp, tomatoes. The only thing I didn't buy there was the parsley. I had chopped up some I had mixed with basil and olive oil and froze them so I had it in the freezer.

http://tinyurl.com/t2dme

Make sure you have a good loaf of crusty bread to sop up the juices or serve over couscous. YUM!

Rumor has it

that a Costco is opening right across the street from me! So not only will I have a SuperTarget & Chik-fil-a, I will also have a Costco not more than 2 minutes from me! My husband is very, very scared. :-)

Item of the Week - Kirkland Signature Cibo Naturals Pesto

Sorry I have slacked in posting last week!

Here is my item of the week. A huge jar of pesto, for around $8.00. No one can eat that much (or should) pesto by the end of October, so freeze it! Yes, you can make your own, but no one except me seems to do that. Speaking of, I need to cut back my basil, mix with olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. I may also make some arugula pesto as ours has gone crazy and it probably too strong for salads.

Back to the pesto, let it come to room temperature and pour into ice cube trays. Freeze until hard, then pop them out and put into a freezer bag. This way you can put a cube or two into pasta, or into minestrone soup, etc. Economical and a better way to use pesto since it has a ton of fat and calories. Yes, it is all good things, olive oil, basil, pine nuts and parmesan, but a little goes a long way.

When looking for pesto, always look that basil and pine nuts are used. Once we bought one that used almonds, not pine nuts (they are expensive) and I think it had parsley. The tiny jar was $4 bucks, so I think it was a rip off. It tasted so yucky that I threw it away!

Item of the Week - Cedarlane Burritos

These were on demo the other day. Really good and amazing nutritional stats. I did make the mistake of telling hubby that they had soy cheese and he made a face. I think he needs to taste them to see how good they are. A box of 8 is $8.95, so it comes to about $1.19 a burrito. Much better than ordering a pizza!

Each burrito has 260 calories, 1 gram of fat (that rocks!), 7 grams of fiber, 490 mg of sodium (20%) and 13 grams of protein. I buy the 3 pack of AvoClassic guacamole and put a little on the burrito. These are very filling and I don't care if he eats 2 of them as they are really healthy.

http://www.cedarlanefoods.com/

What price for great skin?

This from a NYTimes article about expensive night creams:

"But dermatologists say that many night creams do not offer much value, especially given the substantial investment required for so many of them. Is glopping something onto your face really any better than allowing your skin to breathe while you rest?"

Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/fashion/21skin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I have been using the eye cream from KS by Borghese (Costco private brand) and really like it. Plus, it is $19.99 for 2 jars! I may invest in the rest of the line and tell you what I think. I used to work in the cosmetic industry for years, so I do know a little about this kind of product.

Here is the link to the Costco page online:
http://tinyurl.com/fvm38

Item of the week - Ling Ling Potstickers

YUM! We love these. 5 potstickers have 260 calories, 7 grams of fat, no trans fats, 2 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein. Use less oil than they recommend, we just use about 1 Tbsp. to coat the pan.

We often serve this for dinner with the sesame noodles below. I don't keep sesame seeds on hand, so I omit those, use chunky peanut butter and only half the amount of hot sauce as that is plenty hot with just one tablespoon! I don't use bean sprouts either and add some minced ginger as that is what she did on that episode. I chop scallions and freeze them so I always have some on hand.

Hot and Cold Sesame Noodles
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
Recipe Summary

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

User Rating: 4 stars

1/2 pound spaghetti

1/4 cup Tamari dark soy

1/4 rounded cup smooth peanut butter, softened in microwave 15 seconds on high

2 tablespoons cider or rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, eyeball it

2 tablespoons hot sauce

2 cups shredded cabbage and carrot mix, available in produce department

1 cup bean sprouts or pea shoots, any variety, available in produce department

3 scallions, chopped on an angle

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Cook pasta to al dente, with a bite to it, then cold shock it to stop the cooking process by running it under cold water in colander. Drain the pasta very well.

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together soy, peanut butter, vinegar, oil, sesame oil, and hot sauce. Add noodles and veggies and toss to combine the noodles and coat them evenly with sauce. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds throughout the salad and serve.

Episode#: TM1F29Copyright © 2006 Television

Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

As always, items in red are bought at Costco.

Post from Katie

My friend Katie tried to post this under comments, but it wouldn't work. So here it is. They did make them for us and they were good!

Laurie-nothing about a crock pot but it is about
chicken! Something that is super yummy and easy to
cook and super cheap- is chicken quarters. My parents
cook it once a week or so. It takes about 45 min. but
on the grill. You just have to keep turning them so
they don't burn. Sometimes the store doesn't have
them on display but you can ask for them. I think
that I have made these for you guys before? Keep them
in mind though. They have white and dark meat for
people with different preferences."
Talk to you later!

Food pantry etiquette

I volunteer at a food pantry in my city. If you don't support your food pantry, seriously consider it. They are there to serve the underprivileged, but to also support families who have been laid off and need temporary help.

Here are some pointers from my experience:

1. Get to know the clients in your area - our food pantry serves a client base that is 75% Hispanic, so items that are in demand are tortillas, bagged pinto beans, canned corn, etc. Pumpkin, cranberry sauce and stuffing are not really wanted. A simple way to check is to call the pantry to get a list or see what they need at any given time. We have refrigerators at our facility, so we can take eggs and meat, check with your local one.

2. Think of things other than canned goods - for instance, small bags of flour, sugar, cooking oil, toilet paper & diapers are all HOT items. We can never seem to keep them in stock.

3. I know that many of us shop in bulk, hence the name of my blog! However, for food pantry needs, smaller is better. Meaning, don't donate a 10 lb. bag of sugar, buy 10 1lb. bags. First, that gives more clients the opportunity to have a certain item. Second, each client gets a certain amount in pounds, so a huge bag of sugar means that they get less food that week. Buy items that can be easily broken into individual items (such as a 12 pack of chicken noodle soup or 12 pack of tuna).

4. Don't donate junk - I can't tell you how many cans we get that are expired or other gross things. Donations should not be a way for you to clean out your pantry and get rid of stuff that you don't want. While this is a minority of the food we receive, it is frustrating for a volunteer to have to monitor. Why would I want to give a mother expired food to give to her children?

On the same note, I have volunteered during Katrina relief and at the Angel Tree project and have seen clothes, etc. donated that are filthy and not able to be worn. Why would anyone donate items such as that? We simply threw them into the trash. Do everyone a favor and throw away your own garbage, only donate gently used items or new items.

Dinner last night

Note to self - don't put vegetables in until the end. It was really good, but all my veggies fell apart. Let me play with the recipe some more before posting. I think the chicken and seasonings need to be cooked first.