Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cupboard Soup

Today, I worked from home, which was luxurious. Partly, because it was rainy and grey and I didn't want to go anywhere anyways. But also because I could take a break in the middle of the day and make awesome soup for lunch (and, of course, for leftovers).

Here's the soup, it was basically made out of things that existed in my fridge and cupboard:

-1 onion, sliced, and slowly browned
-about 8oz sausage (left over)
-a whole mess of chopped celery and carrots (maybe a cup or so total? originally intended for dipping in hummus)
-2c beef broth (made of beef bouillon cubes because they're smaller than cans)
-a can of crushed tomatoes (originally intended for chana masala
-lentils (because I love lentils)
-some water
-a glug of leftover red wine
-garlic
-all the rest of my delicious rosemary
-red pepper flakes
-salt/pepper


Basically, brown the onion, toss in the celery and carrots and garlic, and then the sausage and red pepper flakes. Brown it all up together.

Dump in the tomatoes, broth, wine and about half a cup of lentils (or, whatever you have). Simmer for a while, to cook the lentils, adding water if you think it needs some. At the end, add some salt and pepper to taste (won't need much salt, with the sausage and broth).

Mmmmmmmmmm.... perfect rainy day food! (picture 5!)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Winter is Coming!!


Today it was rainy, and windy, and brrr. It was pretty exciting, let me tell you, because that NEVER happens around here. The birds this morning seemed somewhat less excited about it. I liked how they were evenly spaced, yet also huddled together. (Day 4 picture).

Monday, October 12, 2009

Ode to Oatmeal

Today's picture is an up-close and personal view of my breakfast. You know you were dying to see THAT.

Anyhow, I love oatmeal. Love it. Its hearty, and good for you, delicious, and there are almost endless varieties. My most common incarnation is oatmeal with frozen fruit in it. I know, I know, you're thinking frozen fruit sounds gross. Turns out, when its all microwaved, its not such a big deal, and its certainly cheaper and easier than keeping tons of fresh berries on hand (although, for just eating, nothing, NOTHING beats fresh raspberries).

Basically, toss some oatmeal in a bowl with twice as much water. Throw on some frozen blueberries and cinnamon, and pop the entire thing in the microwave. Bring it out, top with honey, nuts, more cinnamon, whatever. If you need to take breakfast to work, put dry oatmeal and toppings in a tupperware, fill with water when you get there and microwave! You can even get creative- some of my favorite combos are lemon zest and raspberries, half a banana & a spoonful of peanut butter, chopped apples and cinnamon and walnuts, peaches and almond extract and chopped almonds, and just normal oatmeal with a little brown sugar and vanilla. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...


(for my budget shoppers- don't buy in to the pre-packaging mania... first of all, be nice to the planet, you have no need for all those individual packets. Second, if you buy the big containers for less money you can get way more servings... bought on sale you're down to something like 25 cents a serving- can't beat that!)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Rosemary, 3 ways

Ok, my day 2 picture is of this fresh rosemary I got at a friends house yesterday (I killed my one small rosemary plant. Theirs is 3 feet tall and grows in the yard. yep.)

Anyhow, it has featured prominently in my day. Its incarnations have been:

- Rosemary scramble (egg whites, broccoli, cheese, and, of course, rosemary)

- Rosemary tea - this is supposed to be anti-inflammatory among other things. Being myself, obviously I looked it up, and it turns out that rosemary oil actually IS anti-inflammatory and antinocioceptive (reduces pain sensitivity). who knew! also, I really liked it, it was refreshing.

- Herb bread. I made bread using this recipe, and threw a bunch of herbs in, which was awesome. We ate it with this Pasta e Fagioli, also awesome (and no picture was taken or it would totally be my post).

The 365 Days Project

Well, for some reason I'm in an internet meme-y kind of mood. It all started when one food blog I was reading talked about spending only $30 for food for a week (including groceries, coffee, etc). All these people were posting their menus, and I thought, $30, I could do $30 with my hand tied behind my back (only one hand because I need the other hand to cook)! But I was only thinking about when I cook, which as we all know, is cheap when you actually prefer to survive on garbanzo beans. Unfortunately I have a conference, and a dinner with a friend from out of town, and $30 won't cut it this week (which I realize defies the entire point, but whatever). Anyways, that will come soon.

Then I got all pumped up about 101 things in 1001 days, where you decide on 101 things to accomplish over roughly the next 2.75 years. Sounds productive. Also sounds like something I should work on listing out when I'm not flailing around in piles of busy-ness like I am right now. So that MAY come too (if I actually feel like putting it on the blog, which will likely only happen if I include a section on things I want to learn to cook).

SO. Here we are. I've settled on the 365 days challenge, where you take a picture a day for 365 days. I'm sure I'm way out of date on this, but it will still be fun! I actually take an inordinate amount of pictures (like, haha, look at this baking disaster or haha, look at this hilarious sign), so theoretically this won't be hard. We shall see. Despite what I'm about to post, I promise that all of the pictures won't be of Charlotte. I'll also put up normal stuff as well (I have ANOTHER wheatberry incarnation up my sleeve, but am almost afraid to put it up after the last two, so I'm waiting).

I am starting yesterday, because this is just too cute. Today's is upcoming.

Charlotte, with her cat grass. You can't see, but it exactly matches her eyes...

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