Vicky Learns to Cook

Things change when you slow down. We are forced to stop and look around, to stop running 100 miles an hour trying to fit in everything we want to do. Or maybe that's just me? One of my enablers was Kroger click list. I ordered groceries Friday night and picked them up Saturday morning. Easy peasy. Then the pandemic happened. At first I ordered my groceries Wednesday for Monday night. Then they offered click list for free. Then there were no schedules. So I opted to have them delivered, then Instacart went on strike. No groceries, no note, nothing. When I have no idea where or when my food is coming, it sets me into a panic apparently. I'm sure some of you can relate. Enter Fresh Approach. This is my local grocery store. It has tons of fruits, veggies, a huge meat counter, deli, and seafood. I even found legs of lamb. It's not as big on packaged foods. Which would be obvious if we read the name of the store again...ohhh right.               ...

Croissants, take two! This is the dough being rolled out. Here are the various places I put the croissants to rise... There are so many. I sure hope they're good this time! Just egg washed and set the oven. Excited! For dinner, son wanted Messy Mikes (which is really sloppy joes). I didnt have a bottle of ketchup but what I did find was a bunch of ketchup packets. Turned out just fine and in fact he ate a lot of it! Croissants are in. I feel kind of nervous, 2 days work riding on it. Come on, pastry! 15 mins later... Well, here they are! woo hoo! Yeah baby. This is what I was after. So excited. :D ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ On the gardening front, my potato and my onion seeds are peeking out. :) I'll get a pic tomorrow because you can barely see green. Here are some guidelines in case you want to try seeding for garden plants: Purchase your seeds from a trusted source.  Pot with see...

Nearly every post is someone baking, from cinnamon rolls to meatballs to banana bread. I love it because people are starting to get what I love about baking. It's a huge stress reliever for me, especially with my formerly fast paced life. You really have to focus on what you're doing because baking is chemistry. It's exact. And I'm always happy to taste what I've made. :) It brings a sense of accomplishment for me, as well. If I can pull off these croissants, for example, it will feel so good.  (Still working on that. I have the pre-ferment, also known as a poolish, in the fridge so it wont grow too fast for baking tomorrow). I think its cool when others also try something new, and they feel that sense of accomplishment too. I did something I haven't done in months today, I finished reading a book. :) I missed that rush of getting to the end of the story. This one was called The Car  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Car_(novel) . I'm watching a m...

I've been poking around my favorite food blog, Pioneer Woman. I find it interesting that I like "cowboy food" more often than I like "cowgirl food". :) I am a fan, and I love a lot of her recipes. But I've seen an overwhelming percentage of the food she makes, I like what I assume her hubby likes, thus called Cowboy Food. Hers is good, but I'm just not a big kale fan.I tend to like more old fashioned food, for lack of a better description. I took a class online today. Because of the rain, the Tai Chi class we had had to be inside. So I quickly moved stuff around and we did the class using Zoom. It's a pretty cool tool, if you haven't tried it. Not perfect, there are some delays, but it beats not going to class. :) We have a good time trying to figure it out! All day long I've been making croissants. If it turns out great, I only made 16, plus with the leftover dough, I made long twists with black sesame seeds on them. Crossing my fing...

It's not all working and waiting around to go outside and garden. Sometimes it's serious concern about my job. Of the two options I could've been handed, I got the better option. I didn't choose, but at least we will be okay, financially. (Hubby and I work for the same company). Sorry I have to be vague here. With that scare behind me, I grabbed my son and we went out to build a raised bed for the back yard. This was all cedar with boards and notched pillars. The only screws were for the top  of the posts, there were decorative little squares that had to be screwed in. Son and I worked hard at it for a couple of hours and got it done. We had swelled hands and muddy feet by the time we got done but it looks really cool. Something like this: Looking around I realized that the creeping virginia really took over last year or two, and i needed to remove it if I was going to get enough sun to grow vegetables. So I started with pruning shears and had to supplement ...

I'm fine. Everything's fine. Totally forgot makeup in this picture. But I swear I wore it Wednesday. Day 14 of quarantine! We had "Takeout Thursday" and got food from our beloved Col's restaurant in Royal Oak. They had a kitchen fire last year and just have come back to us a few months ago. I'd been craving spinach pie for a while now, but the RenCen food court coney island hasn't had it for months. So when Hubby chose Col's I thought, Self, you should get some spinach pie. And so I did. Today was clean up the gardens day. And I got totally distracted by a mum that I needed to plant and walkways in the garden that needed cleaning off. And the sage plant that I discovered had new leaves on it. What? This is why I only got 1/3 of the front garden done. Hyacinths and crocus are coming up!! Woot! Before I knew it,  dinner time came around. I had stuff for hamburgers, corn on the cob, cole slaw, tomatoes, cucumbers... but the chips ...

Glued my thumb down. The blister from my sugar pulling week at school is now starting to peel, but i'm afraid it's gonna turn into a bad situation if it snags something. So good ole superglue to the rescue. No you can't see pics of my thumb its gross. Sorry. Seed planting day was today! My whole plan was to look at the seeds I had already, plant a few of each, and see what comes up. Here is what I found: Cherry Tomato, Milkweed, Caraway, Cinnamon Basil, Nebula Carrot (purple), Beefsteak Tomato, Rosemary, Onion, Dill, Thyme, Amarillo Carrot, Sage, San Marzano Tomato, Lemon, Iceberg lettuce, Butter Lettuce, Orange Carrot, Black Lentils, Spanish Lentils. Verde Lentils, Petit Lentils, Maroon Lentils, Acorn Squash. Oh and I cut a chunk of potato with some big eyes and planted that too. It's not much to look at yet, I know. But it was pretty cool. I got to go outside (so the dirt would not be all over my house) and said hi to the neighbor. Thai thursday ...

The Pastry class final exam was long with a lot of questions, but I am hopeful that I did really good.  It was strange, taking the test at home. Because my test was 530-730pm, I just had hubby get the kids pizza and I had leftover goulash. So what now? My original thought was I would dive in to making croissants and breads and things. I probably will do that, yes. It takes a few days to get that going, so I need to plan it out. And I'm getting some possible cake orders coming in for late spring/summer. So I might also do some practice cakes. But the gardening bug is niggling at me. I was going to wait and buy plants, but now I think I'm going to sow seeds in my mini seed tray over the next few days. Originally it was going to be hard to do while I took my classes and was not home much, but since that's been remedied for me, I think I can do it. I just bought a raised bed for the backyard. I was looking at a greenhouse, too. The greenhouse would've bought ...

We are watching "Gifted" right now. I love it as much as I thought I would. :) I so, so recommend it! Last day of being able to go pretty much anywhere. I don't like it anymore than you do. But I know I can't control it. After reading this article:  https://www .harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/how-to-cope-life-is-crazy.htm I like this quote:  If you decide to take your focus off the problem, you create headspace for solutions to present themselves. There is more therapy speak that ultimately leads you to going to therapy if needed. Okay. But the biggest takeaway I see is that if you take the time to journal how you're feeling, it slows you down enough to get to the real feelings. If we only talk to our friends, they can spin us into being a victim and we never get out of the cycle. Friends are great but they can enable us. I'm guilty of it. I'm certainly guilty of just going to see my friends so I can get sympathy, not wanting solutions. :) A...

It's Sunday. And boy did I sleep in. I read 1/3 of a book that my son recommended, in bed. I haven't done that in a long time. Today was pick up day for my groceries at Kroger. They are some of the nicest people, very helpful. And I feel bad for them, having to do so many substitutions just to make sure we get what we need. Both times, during this pandemic, the only things they were out of were extras like potato chips or cookies. We got everything else we asked for, if not exactly what we asked for. They are doing a great job! I got a letter too, from Imperfect foods, explaining that they are doing their best to get us our orders while protecting us as best they can. What good things have you seen today? Today's meal was a modified Turkey Milanese (used ground instead of loins, but I wouldn't recommend it, fell too much apart), mac and cheese, zucchini coins, and sweet potato mash. It was okay but I' m really looking forward to tomorrow's meal. I ...

The playgrounds and the malls both closed today in our county. It's okay, I'm treating this how we act when we are up north. Life is a bit slower. My son and I did play games all day, but they were video games. We couldn't do that up north! I'm thinking right about now, if I didnt cook, or didnt know how to cook, door dash and grub hub are getting mighty expensive. And you can only eat so much macaroni and cheese, frozen chicken nuggets, and tater tots. Fish seems to be easiest to get, since we are in Lent right now. So in the spirit of sharing, how about I share how easy making dinner can be, and talk about what i made? Could help somebody. On the menu: Dilled Salmon with garlic dill sauce Broccoli Buttered Tortellini Dinner rolls Dilled Salmon Frozen salmon, pre cut Dill mix from Pampered Chef or Dill weed & Garlic powder Lemon, halved 2 Tbsp Olive oil Salt Frozen Salmon is removed from the packaging and thawed in the microwave  on a plate...

We always talked about the millenials and how they had their noses in their phones all the time. But now we can see, if you took away everything but the phones and computers, you find that people become lonely. They use the technology to sing songs together and help each other with kids' homework or sign petitions to help those in the medical field to get more masks and other coverings. Even our teams put together a group online event to share pictures of our pets and kids as new "coworkers" as we work from home, to boost morale. I'm heartened by this. We aren't so self focused lately, and our true humanity is showing. More and more activities are closing off for me. It's at the point now where work, grocery pickup, and meals/desserts are the only things I must do. My class that was to start week after next was canceled and they gave me my money back (yes I know I'm lucky). And the sword show my brother and I were talking about is now most likely ...

One of the things I hadn't considered until I started wandering around in the news, was that there are a bunch of movies that were due to be released in March that are being delayed. One that caught my attention was "The Roads Not Taken." Link:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9411866/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Sally Potter, who wrote this story, contemplated what it might be like seeing cinema as a window into our reality. It's based on the life of her younger brother, who had early onset dementia. Her thought for this movie was what if instead of the brain going backward in time, if we lived out our roads not taken. It seems like a really great story, and I can't wait to see it. This is Sally's interview. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-51960825/how-real-life-influenced-the-roads-not-taken On another note, in the quest to keep the boy from being bored, I taught him to cut and squeeze lemons for lemonade. I may never hear the words "I'...

It's almost been a week since I've been at work, doing my regular activities. Seems like so much longer. Tomorrow is Thai Thursday. The story goes that some of my coworkers who've been there longer than I, starting getting Thai food  down in Detroit by the Ren Cen. Eventually, co-worker and cube neighbor came along and started a trend, wearing Ties on Thai Thursday. During the warm months, I wore a dress, while the others wore ties (mostly men). I wanted to do my share of dressing up too, make it special, but neither Rob nor I had any ties. Anyway, I got an email from the ring leader saying that he was going to use Grub Hub to still get Thai food every Thursday, even when he is having to work from home. Side note he was out for surgery at the end of last year and beginning of this year, so he is probably super sick of being home. So I'm going to join in, and support my local Thai place on Thursdays. And also , I decided that on Thursdays, I will wear makeup...

I can't say that having a crown put on is the highlight of my day, but it certainly took half of it! What's cool is the tech involved. After having my tooth ground down, the dentist used a wand that took thousands of pictures, and created a computer model of my teeth. Then he 3D printed a crown that was purple, and darn if it didnt fit nearly perfectly. Amazed. He then baked it, making it white, and after gluing it on, I was ready to go. What would normally take weeks, now can be done in half a day. Pretty cool right? Want to know more? Check this out:  https://all3dp.com/2/dental-3d-printing-all-you-need-to-know/ I'm a little sore, so we made softer foods for lunch and dinner. I had mashed potatoes with cheese for lunch, but by dinner I was able to eat spaghetti bolognese, artichokes in lemon butter, sugar carrots, and garlic knots. Id' made the artichokes yesterday by: Cutting down the stem, cutting off the top of leaves (because of the barbs) and boiled t...

How are you doing? I am doing pretty well; I'm one of the lucky ones. I have food, toilet paper, can work from home. My kids are older so they can go off to another room as I work. I could have it so much worse. It's a strange new normal here. All my activities were canceled - all the martial arts, the cooking classes, the church gatherings and services, the lunch dates with friends (since there wont be restaurants open). So far I've instilled a new cleaning chore cycle, we are eating dinners at the table every night, I'm working at my kitchen table, and walking away from it when i'm done for the day. I got a sad call from my dentist. who is retired as of last week. He wanted to touch base since i've been going to him for years. Hes such a nice man, I cant feel too bad that he wants to go enjoy life now. Pretty good timing, to be honest, getting out of the field. My thoughts, usually scattered and worried about doing well in school, testing for a bel...

Sunday. Church was online. Just as I was settling in to convert old recipes to online, Son asked if he could go get a donut at Tim Hortons. Sigh. I didn't want him to go to a restaurant. So I made donuts.  However by the time they were in the oven he was already eating cereal. No one said making homemade was fast! We all got bored and drove out to Port Huron with the intention of walking around by the water. Stopping at the gas station, the one pump next to us was out of service, and the one we had seemed to be out too. You could hear hubby clunking it, trying to get gas out of it. The prices were so low, but heck there was no gas. It went down to 32 degrees by the time we got there....wind, cold, and I ended up having a coughing fit. Teeth chattering. This was not better than watching old The Office shows. Boo. So, Daughter and I went back to the car with the dog and waited for the boys. We stopped at another park as we drove around, but it was a No Dogs Allowed park. ...

Taco night! Son is happy. Thanks to the generosity of the neighbors, we had tortillas to make "tacos" and nachos tonight. Years ago I looked up the spices used to make taco bell meat, and have since been making it up as I go. The biggest portion is Paprika, followed by chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper. Add some corn starch and water and mix with the meat as it cooks. I had sour cream, yellow bell peppers, guacamole, cheddar cheese, and bean chips. And since today was Pi day (3/14) I made my daughter an apple pie from the weary apples we got last week. She was thrilled when she came home. :) We are out of mango popsicles, but hopefully when I go pick up my groceries tomorrow morning, they will be part of the order (sometimes they are out of stock, as you can imagine they will be probably out of some of what i asked for). Crossing my fingers! Stay safe and healthy! Vicky

A lot of things were shut down in the past few days, due to the CORON-19 virus. I don't have to tell you that, but what I do want to tell you is what that meant for me. Being a hard-core extrovert, and having to give up nearly all my human interaction, is a little scary. Rather than go crazy with my hubby and two teens, cat, dog, bearded dragon and geckos in the house for weeks, I decided to cope by doing a few things, including blogging what I make for meals. You dont have to read it. But what I'm hoping this can do for you is to give you some humor, some validation (since you're likely going through something too right about now), and if you're forced to stay home and away from people, and you rarely cook, what are you going to do about meals? Maybe you can use some of my ideas. Here is my situation. I've been working toward a pastry chef certificate. This means I had to take sanitation, cookery, and baking classes along with some fancy food decorating stuf...