Vicky Learns to Cook

I've been thinking about the "new normal" when we return to being able to leave the house for more than groceries. And I've decided a couple of things. I get real joy out of gardening. There is something almost necessary about going outside and soaking up the sun, digging in the dirt, and watching your "babies" grow into real plants that produce food. Eating your own carrots that you grew from seed is one of the best things I can remember doing. As fussy as it can be to grow from seed, weed nearly every day, hack away at vines that don't quit, and constantly clean up dog poo, I love love love being out there just puttering around. It's very peaceful. So my decision is to always make this a part of my life, as much as I can. Maybe I'll get into canning this year with a real canner. Or start dehydrating. The other thing is that I need a few hours a week to read, alone, and soak up a new story. I love stories where there is travel and food i...

In an effort to help my mom decide if what we thought was a weed was indeed a weed, we discovered this little gem. Exploding weeds. Yes! I'm serious! Bittercress Sadly Mom doesnt have these, but these weeds are called bittercress. Here is a video. They look like a bunch of bugs abandoning ship, but they are really seeds from the plant. https://youtu.be/rAuUJrzaJJY What mom had was what we think is bedstraw. It kind of looks like rosemary but it has these clingy hoods that attach to other plants and grows really fast, choking out the competition.  It has a sticky residue too, so you can get irritated skin when you touch it. Not much redeeming about it. I got outside for a bit and ended up picking at the clematis a little, getting rid of deadwood.  Then headed inside after saying hello to the neighbors. Day two of the sourdough starter, and I saw some liquid pooling and a bit of bubbling, so I think we are on the right track. I messed up tho, because you're suppose...

Last night I was dreaming about making purple pop rocks, and was very excited about it. I could not wait to wake up and talk about it in my blog, in my dream! By the time I was awake, I had no idea why I was so excited. And when I pictured the purple pop rocks they were purple nerds. I looked it up of course. Turns out you can make pop rocks, there is a recipe, but there is not a complete recipe for nerds candy out there. Just some flavor formulas that are partially complete. Weird. It's almost like my brain knew that. And this would be the first vivid dream I've had since isolation, in case you're wondering. Today was seedling transplant day. The tomatoes were just about climbing out of their seed beds, so I planted them in their own cozy cow pots. I couldn't figure out where to put the pots, since they were biodegradable and had holes in the bottom. Luckily I'd been saving hubby's water jugs, so I cut them in half and used the normally useless bottom...

Whole wheat bread take two! After I took and posted pics of the pretty fluffy whole wheat bread yesterday, when we tried cutting in to it, it turned out it was doughy in the center. Even cooking it another 30 mins did nothing to cook the center, and we threw it out. What a sad thing to do. Today I was determined not to end in failure. I looked up what are ways to tell that the bread is done, because just looking at it, with a new bread recipe you have no idea what it's meant to look like. This is one of the ways listed, but clearly that did not work. There is the hollow sound tap, but not being practiced at this, I'm not sure what it should sound like. And then there is finally temperature. This one is helpful especially to a novice bread baker. The rule of thumb is, for regular breads, you look for about 190F. And for egg rich breads, like challah, you look for 200F. I can do this!  I made it again, this time in the mixer with the dough hook. (Only because my bread m...

It's possible that I won't be able to take Artisan Breads class anytime soon, so rather than let it get to me, I'm gonna just start making the breads I think my teacher would've taught. I found a syllabus online for a breads class (not my school, but just to get an idea) and these are some ideas I got: Whole wheat Sour dough Rye bread Sweet breads quick breads unleavened breads Gluten free grain free stale bread uses So my mission is to make 2 per week, since we would have made at least that in class, if not 4 or 5 per week. Today I picked a honey whole wheat bread recipe that I found on the internet. It had 5 stars, so you can't go wrong with that, right? The recipe I found was for two loaves. Since we don't need that much at any one time with all the other kinds of bread we have, I cut the recipe in half. Check this out: Honey Wheat Dough before rising I wanted to put oats on top but then people would think it's an oat bread. I ...

Have any of you ever owned skinny jeans? You know the ones that are made with so much elastic or spandex that you end up with itchy restless legs by the end of the day? And yet, you end up pulling up your pants every 15 minutes? Why? Who invented these torturous pants?! These are for sure not for me. I need new jeans. One thing I have to watch is just ordering stuff online all the time to fix my problems, but hear me out on this: Before the isolation, I typically had two ways of dressing; business casual for work, which was 5 days a week, and then either martial arts pants or jeans or sweats/yoga pants on the weekends. And my only jeans were those awful skinny jeans. Now that there is no reason to wear business casual, I'm left with a weekends worth of clothes for the week. The entire 7 day week. See the problem? For the foreseeable future, my job will be done from home. The new normal, at some point in the future - Summer? Fall? - will probably be something more lik...

Feeling like a real pioneer today. I ordered a large pork loin and cut 2/3 of it into chops, then left the last third for a pork roast (below). Roast Chops I ended up freezing it all. I wrapped it first in saran wrap, and then put them into freezer bags. Since I had 10 chops, I put them in packs of 4, 4, and 2. So what is the best way to eat pork chops? Any way you can that will make them not dry out! Buttermilk Fried Chops: You can tenderize them by soaking them in buttermilk for 1 1/2 hours. If you don't have any, you can add a tsp of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk. Then you can dredge them seasoned flour (flour with salt and pepper and any other spices you want to try), back to the buttermilk, then crushed crackers. Add oil to a pan and heat it to 375F. Only do a couple at a time and give them 4 minutes per side. Remove the chops to paper towel lined plate and serve. Brined Chops: Another option is to brine the pork chops. Get a large container. ...

I tried to get away from facebook for a bit. Not LEAVE it, just ya know, go into another room for a while? So much blaming, doom, and gloom... I needed a break. I thought to myself, hey lets go see the top 10 funny mommy blogs. I dunno. Maybe it's me. I can be judgemental. But I'm looking for a specific, safe feeling blog that I can relate to. This was depressing. Actual Mom Blog pic ********judgement zone! ********************** You see, if you're looking at me and telling me you're funny, then you're not funny. If you are singing, I'm out. If you're interviewing celebrities, I cant relate. If the first three words involve wine or R-Rated... meh. If you use too many "pie in the sky" describing words like beautiful and proud and witty... I'm out. Who actually thinks this all the time? If you talk about your tendency to insult, cuss and complain, duh, I'm not here for that. If you say you will not put me to sleep, I ...

There was a day 39, I just filled my day so much that I didn't have time to blog. I'm sure you're fine with the break, right? Yesterday: I went online to get my dog some nail clippers. He was doing the ice skating, four legs criss crossing routine as he headed across the kitchen floor, so I knew I couldn't wait til the groomers were back. I had to cut his nails myself. So, flashback to my son being a baby, I was cutting his tiny nails with an impossibly small nail clipper, and I clipped his skin on one of them. Total trauma for me and him. We both cried. You can imagine I didn't want to repeat THAT experience!! I went in to the Petco store, not because I didnt want to wait in my car. It was the dragon's fault, really. He needed crickets. And the only way to order them online was to have 250 crickets sent to my house. Uh.... no. I'm not harboring that many crickets! By going in, I could get 30 larges and 30 mediums, throw the crickets in the tanks, a...

The dog finally ate his last treat and it was time to make more. This recipe was really easy, so I tried it out. Otie approves. 2 c whole wheat flour 1 c peanut butter 1 c milk 1 Tbsp baking powder. Thats it. Just mix them together, scoop using the smallest scoop, flatten and bake 20 mins at 350F. Once they are done cut them into quarters. I put 1/3 of them into a plastic container and the other 2/3 into bags in the freezer. Mostly because they will mold before we get through them all :) For dinner I tried a recipe Ive been wanting to try. It's a potato leek gratin. I didnt even have a gratin pan, but I used a square brownie pan, which was the right volume, if not the right shape (round or oval). Its a thick layer of thinly sliced yellow potatoes, a layer of leeks cooked in butter, a layer of bechamel sauce (cream sauce with nutmeg and bay), and then a layer of cheese. Traditionally is made with gruyere but I had cheddar and gouda. Figuring it neede...

Since it was nice out today, after Zoom Tai Chi, I took the potato outside and planted him in a different pot. I left him outside since its nice tonight. Then I decided that today was a good day to put the soil in my raised bed. I looked for some newspaper to put down, so the weeds wouldnt come up so soon. But I didnt have any. What we did have was my old recipes pasted on old papers that were drawings on the opposite side. It looks weird but I bet it works. I put in 3 bags in each side but it only filled up half way. So I'll need to get some more at some point. It can wait a couple weeks. I'm exhausted. I got all the creeping virginia cut down, too, and pruned my trees in the backyard (the ones I could reach!) Even if we don't get to go plant shopping this year, I'm having fun trying out different veggies from scraps. Today I planted a clove of garlic and put romain stems in water. Here's hoping! Tonight for dinner I made spaghetti, but becau...

I'm going to put A guide to scrap growing here, below, in case you're thinking of ways to garden on the cheap, too. Basil cuttings                                     Here's what I have so far: Lettuce, Bok Choy, Cabbage:  Place leftover leaves in a bowl with a little bit of water in them. Put in the sunlight. Mist leaves a couple times a week. After 2 weeks, roots appear and new leaves grow. Plant in soil. Celery: Cut off the bottom of celery and lay in a bowl with a little bit of water in the bottom. Keep the bowl in sunlight for a week. Leaves begin thickening and growing along the base. Plant in soil. Potatoes:   You need peelings that have eyes on them. Cut those peelings into two inch pieces, ensuring that there are at least two or three eyes on each piece. Allow them to dry out overnight and then simply plant them about four inches deep in your soil. Sw...

It's a sign of the times. Last week, I had discovered the secret of finding the Kroger  clicklist schedules, which is to stay up til midnight and  schedule the pick up as the schedule comes out. You can always modify as you realize that you forgot something. So today, it was time to get the food. Copyright:  (c) Peanutroaster | Dreamstime.com                                                       When I got there every Clicklist spot was taken. I pulled into a parking spot next to them and waited about a half hour. When one guy left, a new guy came in and  immediately took his spot. I stared daggers at his car. So I called in and asked what to do. They said they would come to my car any way, just tell them my car type and color. And sure enough they did. The whole process took a little over an hour. By the time I left ev...

I bought some dirt, but it won't be ready until tomorrow. Turns out since Home Depot is essential, we were allowed to buy the dirt for my raised bed and go get the bags tomorrow some time. If all that's true, I get to go play in the dirt tomorrow! Well ya know, just dump the dirt into the cedar raised bed I got. It's not like we get to plant yet. But every step brings hope. My seedlings are now 4 inches tall and waiting patiently for their real grow light instead of the incandescent bulb they have now. Well, the potato is getting impatient. A few things happened today. My friend's boyfriend who was on a ventilator with COVID was taken off it and is out of ICU. You dont realize youre holding your breath until you hear that kind of news. Thankful. Sadly they are both still sick. I'll keep praying. Also my daughter's high school just said starting Monday they have scheduled school again with grading and everything. She's not thrilled but I'm glad ...