11.30.08
Not On This Week’s Menu
This week’s menu planning is a bit awkward. We went out and bought a range (stove) yesterday (the first big, new appliance or furniture we’ve ever bought), which is exciting, but I don’t know exactly when it’s going to be delivered. This means I might be able to use the stovetop or oven every day, but I need to be prepared in case it doesn’t get here until Friday. We have a fridge now, so I can stock up a bit more on various ingredients, but I also can’t spend a huge amount on groceries, as buying said fridge (second-hand) and stove has left our bank balance lower than it was, to say the least. Not an emergency, but not time to fill the freezer, either.
So here I am, trying to be all responsible and find meal ideas that don’t rely entirely on convenience foods. I’ve found a few good websites for recipes, which are probably old news to most of you, but I haven’t used them before- Kraft Canada lets you create a ‘recipe box’ of stuff you like or want to try; so does AllRecipes.com. The latter has a big section of slow cooker recipes, many of them submitted by real people (ie not professional cooks). I’ve found a few I’d like to try…
…and then there’s this one, for Slow Cooked Squirrel. I just don’t see this one coming up on the menu around here. Not that there’s anything WRONG with it, of course, but it struck me as being really funny that not only is there a recipe for Slow Cooked Squirrel, but that it’s one of the Top 20 Slow-Cooker Recipes on the site.
Has anyone tried squirrel, either slow cooked or otherwise? Is it really that good? Any thoughts from those who accuse squirrels of being rats with furry coats and good PR? Tell meeeeee.
11.27.08
One Down, Six To Go
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been… well, shoot, I’ve never actually been to confession before, but that’s how it goes in the movies…
I’m sure most of us have been guilty at one time or another of most (if not all) of the “Seven Deadly Sins.” I’m not going to share exactly where I fall in that range these days, but I WILL confess to one that’s highly relevant to this site: gluttony. Oooh, that sounds disgusting, doesn’t it? Sad, but true- while our American neighbours are stuffing themselves silly on turkey and sweet potatoes (talk about gluttony!), I’ve been enjoying an epic feast of scallops.
Mmmmm… scallops. Sweet, tender, buttery scallops. The truly gluttonous part of tonight’s meal was that I didn’t have to share with anyone. AJ’s at work, and even if he was home, he wouldn’t have wanted them, anyway, the big crazy-head! I had a $4 package of frozen bay scallops stashed in the teeny-weenie freezer of the mini-fridge, and I broke that sucker out tonight- you know, to make more room. *ahem*
So we have the scallops, thawed in cold water. We have 4 tablespoons of melted butter, and we have a ziploc sandwich bag with 5 or 6 crushed Ritz crackers in it (not having any bread crumbs handy, I improvised). Preheat the toaster oven to 375 degrees, put the scallops in a wee baking pan, drizzle 1/2 of the butter on ‘em, top with cracker crumbs and the rest of the butter, and bake for about 15 minutes.
To be quite honest, they probably didn’t even need the crumbs. Next time I might just do the butter, and then squirt some lemon juice on those suckers while they’re still hot from the oven.
Yes, I ate them all. I offered to let Simon have some, but he took one look and said, “Nooooooo!” His loss!
I’m too full of seafoody goodness now. It’ll serve me right if I get food poisoning or something, but I will regret nothing. NOTHING!
Gift Giving Advice from 1924
I just unpacked a great book I’ve had for several years, part of my collection of old… stuff. The New Book of Etiquette by Lillian Eichler isn’t new anymore, but it’s a lot of fun to read if you enjoy seeing how much things have changed in the last 80+ years.
I’m going to post ideas/tips/excerpts from this book on here every once in a while. Most of it’s not advice I’ll be following, but it should be fun.
*****
Christmas is less than a month away (apologies to anyone who hadn’t realized that yet). I’m done shopping for the family in Ontario (I took care of that while we lived there so I wouldn’t have to worry about mailing presents), but I’ve hardly started for AJ and the boys. In the spirit of giving, I’d like to share a few of Ms. Eichler’s thoughts on “Gifts At Christmas Time”
-”For the woman who likes pretty things for her room, we suggest a handsome perfume bottle, a make-up box, a painted glass powder jar… Make your gift suit the person for whom it is intended, add a bit of holly to carry the Christmas spirit, and send it so that it arrives on Christmas morning.”
[Good advice, but I'm pretty sure Canada Post doesn't deliver on holidays...]
- “Little travelling clocks, bridge sets, tennis rackets, gloves, fitted bags, books, collar boxes, work baskets, powder jars, boudoir dolls, writing sets- all these make fine Christmas gifts…. A backgammon game will not excite the little cousin who goes to business and has no time to learn the game; nor will a book of poetry especially delight the flippant young debutante.”
-”Men are fussy about gifts, as about almost everything else! They like to choose their own ties and gloves. But they appreciate, at Christmas time or birthday time, a handy cigar-lighter, a good book, a pair of cuff links, sensible bedroom slippers.”
There you have it, folks- your gift-giving needs all wrapped up, as it were. Boudoir dolls, collar boxes and powder jars. You can thank me on boxing day, after the flippant young debutante in your life expresses relief at not receiving another book of poetry.
Do you think we’ve lost something in our gift-giving now that we can get so much of what we want cheaply and easily? How often do we find ourselves giving someone another sweater, another dustcatcher for the mantel, another book that he/she doesn’t have, but could easily get for him/herself? It seems to me that people actually enjoyed giving and receiving gifts more when the items were scarcer but more special, and when love and thought went into the giving of one or two items rather than the stress and desperation we so often put into getting the right (excessive) number of gifts for the kids, spending the right amount on friends and family, and chasing down every new, unnecessary whatever that the advertisers decide we need to give someone to prove that we really love them.
I’m just sayin’.
11.26.08
Come inside, have a nice cuppa tea!
I needed a good cup of tea this morning. Not just a cup of tea- a good cup of tea. There’s a difference. If I’m out and about and I want a good one, I go to Tim Horton’s for a Steeped Tea (which I initially thought was just a marketing thing- isn’t all tea steeped?- but it really is better). Since I wasn’t going anywhere this morning, I had to make my own pot.
Here’s how I do it when I need good tea; please feel free to add your own tips in the comments!
- Start with the right pot. I like a heavy-ish ceramic pot, which holds heat nicely, but right now I’ve got a glass one. This one’s nice because it has an infuser for loose teas, but I don’t have any of those at the moment.
- The water you use is surprisingly important. It took me a few days at this house before I figured out that my tea tasted terrible because of the tap water. It’s safe to drink, but it doesn’t taste great. I’m using filtered water now, and it’s making a huge difference. Water temperature is important, too, at both ends of the kettle. The water should be cold (or at least not hot) going into the kettle, and at a rolling boil coming out*. Why cold water? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because hot water out of the tap carries more foreign particles from the pipes… just take my word for it, OK?
- Obviously your choice of tea is very important, and totally up to you. Loose teas steep beautifully, if you have an infuser and don’t mind measuring. If I’m using tea bags (as I was this morning), it has to be Tetley Orange Pekoe for me. Don’t like Red Rose or Mother whatserface’s. That’s just personal preference. You generally get what you pay for with tea, though, and I’ve never found a good generic one.
- keep the pot warm while your tea is steeping. This is what tea cozies are for**- they’re not just for lookin’ all cute and grandma’s-kitcheny. I don’t have one, so I wrap a dish towel around the pot and drape another one over the top. This keeps the heat in the pot, soing its job, instead of escaping out into the air. Keep the pot warm after you’ve poured your first cup, too- re-heated tea isn’t good.
-Take the bags out when your tea is as strong as you like it- if you leave them in, they’ll continue steeping, and the tea will get too strong.
- as for what you put in your tea, that’s up to you. Put your milk and sugar (if that’s what you’re using) in the cup before you pour the tea; again, I have no idea why this makes a difference, but I think it does.
So there you have it- my technique for a great pot of tea. Not every pot has to be great, of course, but it sure is nice when your 3-year old has you up at 5:40 a.m…. again…
* This applies to black teas, like Orange Pekoe; green tea needs water that’s a little cooler, or it’ll burn and not taste as good as it should.
**as for toilet paper cozies, like the crocheted ones you can get at church bazaars… I have no idea what thet’s for, unless people are just embarrassed about the fact that they need toilet paper.
11.25.08
Catching Up (long entry… sorry!)
It’s amazing how hard it is to go a week without internet access. No e-mail, no favourite blogs, no messenger… talk about feeling cut off from the world! That said, having a week without those distractions following a move to a new house meant I got a lot more unpacking done than I might have otherwise.
Here’s where we stand right now: I’ve got almost all of the boxes that were upstairs unpacked. The boxes that are in the basement have all been opened, though there’s a lot of stuff down there that still needs to be unpacked- or not, depending on whether we need it or not. I’m just as happy to have fewer things around at this point; We’re not used to having free space in our home, and I’m in no rush to fill it up.
The big problem right now on the home-ec front is the fact that this house, which we’re renting, didn’t come with appliances. Does that seem odd to anyone else, or have we just been lucky in the past? We were fortunate enough to get a washer and dryer from AJ’s sister, and we already had a microwave and slow cooker, but right now we’ve got a toaster oven instead of a stove/oven and a mini-fridge keeping the bare necessities of perishables cold- milk, cheese, butter, apple juice, lunch meat and yogurt. AJ found a used fridge, but we need to borrow a truck (and some strong arms) to pick it up… I guess we’ll be stove shopping on his next day off. This is making meal planning and grocery shopping rather difficult at the moment!
Housekeeping is actually going pretty well so far- a clean slate is always nice, even if it’s covered in boxes. I’ve managed to not let the dishes pile up for a whole week now- definitely a record for me. Actually, I don’t even mind doing them right now, because we have a nice window above the sink I can look out of; a few days ago I saw a doe (a deer- a female deer!) wander across the front lawn, cross the street and disappear into the woods. So exciting! We’ve got hardwood and laminate flooring through most of the house, and I’ve been sweeping several times a day. Not having a booster seat for Isaac (9 mos) to use to sit at the table means he eats his meals off the floor (in a bowl, people, in a bowl), which leaves crumbs, scraps and bits of food everywhere. Come to think of it, Ike leaves a trail of destruction pretty much everywhere he goes these days…
We have one rug, donated to us by AJ’s aunt and uncle. It seems that our vacuum cleaner (along with our dish rack, cooking pots and other minor things) has gone missing. I didn’t really want to buy a new one just for a few square metres of space, so I was quite excited when I found a small upright vacuum cleaner in the basement… but it didn’t work. The power went on, but it wasn’t sucking anything up. So:
Step 1: Empty the canister. Eeeeew! I didn’t look too closely at the contents, but if I’d had a camera, I totally would’ve taken pictures to post here. Still nuthin’.
Step 2: cleaning the filter. This thing was so clogged I could hardly tell it was supposed to have ridges. I banged it into the trash, picked the solidified crud out of the crevices with a pancil crayon (proper tool use not being a strength of mine) and washed it under warm running water. That sucker (or not, as the case may be) had to dry for 24 hours befor I could test again, but then: still nuthin’.
Step 3:the rolly bar thinger. You know, the bit with the bristles. I got the scissors and cut layers of hair and miscellaneous fibres off of there, and then tried again. The rolly bar thing turned freely, but I wasn’t feeling a whole lot of suckin’ going on down at the bottom.
Step 4: Disassemble! Not entirely, of course, but I pulled the hose out, separated the top and bottom bits, and generally poked and prodded and looked for blockages. I didn’t find anything, but when I put it all back together- SUCCESS! Now I have a vacuum cleaner that totally sucks, instead of one that… totally… sucks… you know what I mean.
I think we’re caught up, now.
TODAY:
-clean bathrooms (toilets, bathtub, sinks, counters, floors, mirrors)
- walk to post office with the boys- it’s cold, but a nice, clear day here today. I need to buy stamps for Christmas cards and get a little package sent to AJ’s parents.
- Stop at grocery store* and get what I need to make supper tonight- I’m going to try to make chicken soup in the slow-cooker, which means I need to get to the store before lunchtime.
- start debt assessment for budget planning. Painful, but necessary. We’re not as far in debt as a lot of people are, but there are credit cards to pay off, the car, and money owed to family members for various things. I’ll probably think of more, too, dammit. Taxes, student loans… Aaaargh!
* The grocery store here in town is fine for little things, but a thorough shopping trip (especially if produce is involved) requires a 30 minute drive. Obviously careful meal planning and grocery list making will be important so I don’t have to go too often!
11.13.08
New Beginnings, Introductions, and Stuff
Hey there!
Welcome to my adventure in Home Economics. Did you take home-ec in high school? I didn’t. Come to think of it, I don’t even know if it was offered at my school by the time I got there… we all had to take it in junior high, but it was only a half-semester course, the other half being woodshop. I vaguely remember making a lasagna with a small group… and sewing a book cover…
What I’m getting at here is that I managed to get through school and be released into this wide, wacky world with next to no knowledge about anything to do with managing house and home. My mom is great- she’s a good cook, she kept our house clean and (usually) tidy, she raised me and my brother and looked after other people’s kids, too. Still, I grew up hating housework, and I just didn’t pick up much in the way of cooking skills, either. As for kids… I love mine, but take all others on an individual basis.
Oh, and MONEY- the economics within the home economics. The hubby and I haven’t had a lot to work with in the past, being both employed in retail, and then with the addition of two beautiful boys, plus various cars that cost more in repair bills than they did in monthly payments. We’ve never gone hungry, we’ve never missed a rent payment, but it’s been close a few times. Now that hubby’s starting a new job, one that actually pays decent money, there’s actually going to be money to manage.
We’re moving for that job. Hubby’s already there; the kids and I will be joining him in just a few days. For the first time, we’re going to have a house to ourselves; we’re renting a sweet little bungalow with a view of the water, and I’m going to do the best I can with it, dammit!
A new start means new goals- that’s the point of New Year’s resolutions, right? I’m gonna think on that, and I’ll post those next time. Food, kids, house, finances, marriage, self… so much to think about! I’m going to be learning by trial and error (especially with the cooking, God help us!), but we’ll get there…
