This week I was alone. All alone. Here are few important facts about what normally happens to me when I'm alone:
- I decide to remodel something in my house
- This project takes over my life
- Thus I tend to not cook and instead eat only what is on hand. (Now it's not that I don't like to cook for me. I love to cook for me. However, when no one else is here I loose track of time- no kids to feed and put to bed so no need stop what I'm doing. It's the me equivalent of "5 more minutes mom" except my sandbox is a room of dust and paint.)
But this time, as LK was making his yearly pilgrimage to the Apple Developer's conference and the boys were away at Grannie Camp- I told myself I'd do it right and cook for me. And I did. Well.... I mean... I made one dessert and one entree for the 4 days I was alone, but baby steps right? As for what I ate the rest of the week ... it's really best that we don't go into that.
Strawberry Pretzel Salad, pg 34
Don't let the word "salad" fool you. No greens here. It's more of a jello salad but with sweet cream cheese goodness added in for good measure. I made this to take over to the house of Geo's friend, Sophie, when we went for a little swim. It was the perfect summer dish to go with their organic burgers and salad Sophie's mom grew in the garden. Wonderful people. I tried to find the smallest bag of pretzels I could which ended up being butter snaps which are not as salty real pretzels- I think saltier would have been even better. And here's a question for you- it says "2 cups crushed pretzels." This always confuses me. Do they mean cups of crushed pretzels or two cups of pretzels then crushed? See what I'm asking? Is this just me or do you find yourself over-analyzing that kind of stuff too? I used two cups and then crushed but that didn't seem like enough so I crushed up a few handfuls (no idea exactly how much) until the bottom of the 9x13 was at least lightly covered. And yes, I did decide that strawberries made it a worthy breakfast food the next day. After all there's eggs and milk in the chocolate cake, right Bill?
Fast Canadian Bacon Asparagus Fettucini, pg 91
Since I was cooking for me and only me, this one called out to me so I went with it. I used thin spaghetti because I had it on hand and added some mushies I had that I needed to use. I also went the fresh asparagus (she gives the option between fresh and frozen and fresh was totally spot on). When I was in St Louis for Dr_EAM's match day I had some asparagus that was charbroiled a bit and it was very very yummy so I thought I'd try something like that with this. So after the veggies were cooked and before adding the cream, I stuck everything under the broiler for a bit. It got a little brown and didn't take away from the taste but it didn't really add anything either; and given that I didn't start cooking until 9pm the added time wasn't necessarily worth it. She's right that the "fast" part is the cooking time if you have it all chopped up- which I didn't. So, while it's not fast like Lean Cuisine, man it sure tastes better.
And hey! Check out who's in town! Tanya!!! I've been linking to her ebay page before, but look- she has a website too: heylookicancook.com, what a great domain name. And, if you're in my area and have been thinking about getting one of her cookbooks (and you should) let me know and while she's here we can work something out to help save on shipping.
Happy eating.
5 comments:
Hmm. When I'm alone, I definitely don't repaint or do anything productive. Now I know the reason your house looks so amazing!
I think it's two cups of already crushed pretzels. Now, then, if it had said, "two cups of pretzels, crushed" well that's a different argument entirely. I've heard of strawberry pretzel salad and always thought it sounded odd. But the way you described it sounded great so now I may have to try it.
Yes Gena about 1/2 way through this project it hit me that I so could have gone to a spa for the week. Oh well if I'd done that my bedroom would still be chocolate brown and free of a large black paint spill on the beige carpet. Good times.
you are better than me. When I am home alone I eat canned beans topped with a fried egg and tabasco sauce.
So honored you're including my book in your blog! I love the fact that I'm getting to peek at what somebody else thiks when they try the recipes. Our little honmetown publication, Searcy Living, has a food section where I provide a recipe from the book every issue. I have people stop me frequently and tell me about trying one of the recipes. TOO FUN!!! Thanks Kate! And BTW... you are still as beautiful as you were when I first met you in 1995. Love you!
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