My mom came to visit recently to help us settle into our new digs here on the East Coast. It's fall, and there are many lovely leaves and fall-ish things going on around here, including fun autumnal things such as apples, pumpkins and squash. We took a trek out to the country to Weber's Farm (ok, it was really not the country. It was two miles off the main freeway essentially) to partake of these fall delights. It was not a pumpkin patch like the one I was expecting (and spoiled by) but it was a country store with yummy things to eat, so I was ok with that. We did not buy a pumpkin, but we did buy a lot of produce (among other things) for not too much money. I think we came home with:
*7 apple cider doughnuts. We started with a dozen. Mom and I each had one, Cookie Monster had three. Three doughnuts in one sitting! I wish I had Cookie Monster's metabolism.
*pumpkin butter
*an enormous bunch of kale
*a butternut and acorn squash
*green pepper
*yellow summer squash
*spinach
*a cauliflower the size of Rhode Island.
See? I put my hand next to it for scale.
Instead of wrestling with our bamboo steamer, I just steamed about 2/3 of the cauliflower by slowly cooking in a saute pan with some chicken stock. My final intention for it was to make a puree; it almost has a mashed potato consistency.
Cookie Monster and Mom were having some sort of meat dish for dinner, so I cooked up my own veggies. But you better believe I had some of the crusty bread we got!
I also sauteed the cauliflower greens. I had never tried it before and figured: what the hell? I cooked them in the same way--steamed with a bit of chicken stock until it evaporated, then browned with olive oil, garlic, S&P. Since these are much tougher than the cauliflower, I did them first.
Cookie Monster got some St. Andre brie cheese and spread it on a baguette, then toasted lightly in the toaster oven. The cheese melts and takes on almost a buttery consistency; it's awesome.
Here are the finished cauliflower greens, garnished with a bit of parmesan cheese.
After the cauliflower was quite tender, I pureed it with a bit of "butter" (this stuff) and S&P. Since I overcooked the it a little, the puree was a brownish color. But no worries. It tasted great! Garnished with some parmesan cheese and a bit of leftover gravy, it was delightful!
Hello there. I know I've been a major slacker lately, but there's a damn good reason: Chez Stadium made a big move. Cookie Monster and I packed up all our worldly shit into two large metal boxes and paid an obscene amount of money for them to be moved, quite literally, all the way across the country. We're now East Coasters. My new kitchen is ... interesting. It's fairly good sized in terms of square feet of space. But counter space is at a premium, and so is drawer space and cupboard storage. So half of my kitchen is still in a large cardboard box. Awesome! I have been doing some cooking lately, including my most recent roasting of a chicken, and then subsequent making of chicken stock. It pretty much looked exactly like this. And this. Except with no counter space and no place to put stuff, I have only one onion in my kitchen. Onions are also at a premium. So I did not add the usual amount of onion, garlic and other vegetables to the stock. Meh. I'm over it.That was the biggest undertaking in New Chez Stadium thus far. I also made some brownies, from a box!, since I have about a half-cup's worth of flour and no cocoa powder. It was a miracle that I could actually find my baking pan!I think I'll round up my camera and post some pics of the New Chez Stadium sometime soon. Until then, pets, I'll leave you with this, one of my favorite jokes of all time. Because I'm a sucker for puns. And I'm a nerd. I'm not ashamed.What did one earthquake say to the other?
It's not my fault!
Instead of wrestling with our bamboo steamer, I just steamed about 2/3 of the cauliflower by slowly cooking in a saute pan with some chicken stock. My final intention for it was to make a puree; it almost has a mashed potato consistency.
Cookie Monster and Mom were having some sort of meat dish for dinner, so I cooked up my own veggies. But you better believe I had some of the crusty bread we got!
I also sauteed the cauliflower greens. I had never tried it before and figured: what the hell? I cooked them in the same way--steamed with a bit of chicken stock until it evaporated, then browned with olive oil, garlic, S&P. Since these are much tougher than the cauliflower, I did them first.
Cookie Monster got some St. Andre brie cheese and spread it on a baguette, then toasted lightly in the toaster oven. The cheese melts and takes on almost a buttery consistency; it's awesome.
Here are the finished cauliflower greens, garnished with a bit of parmesan cheese.
After the cauliflower was quite tender, I pureed it with a bit of "butter" (this stuff) and S&P. Since I overcooked the it a little, the puree was a brownish color. But no worries. It tasted great! Garnished with some parmesan cheese and a bit of leftover gravy, it was delightful!
