April, 2011

  1. Too much cooking…and sprouts

    April 28, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    We like many people have tightened our belts quite a bit and aren’t eating out as much–or really at all. I hadn’t noticed that we ate out or ordered in so much because we really didn’t that often–maybe once a week ordered in/grabbed something from a local sandwich shop and went out once on the weekend. (not counting our post grocery smoothie stop or 3x weekly coffee trips)

    After cutting back, I have noticed though and I feel burned out. The lack of menus and cooking with what is on hand seems simple enough and no one has complained. Except me. I dread dinner. I hate it. Sure, there is plenty on hand to eat-more than ever before with the stockpile. I just am not motivated by anything other than the revelation that nothing will save me from fixing dinner. So, the clock turns, I go in the kitchen I select from the abundance of food and serve it day after day. Please tell me someone else gets tired of cooking!

    We did make the Chocolate Caramel Covered Matzoh over the weekend. We also made Peep Pops. (ok girl child did the heavy lifting when it came to peep pops–but I made the prettiest one I swear!)

    I made the ham ball (or in this case egg) to go with a post on BlogHer last week: Hamming it Up. You should go read it! I tell an embarrassing but funny story about a ham disaster and share a Ham Ball recipe that I shared here years ago–but this time it has A PICTURE. What? You know you want to see a picture of a 50s cream cheese “frosted” ham ball. Go look and sparkle. It’s worth it–I swear!

    My Women in the Kitchen post was also syndicated on BlogHer. (YAY!) Go give it some love and a sparkle or two.

    In other news, girl child broke out her sprout kit over the weekend and we now have a ton of lentil sprouts, some other kind of sprout, and “salad mix” sprouts. Do you have any good ideas for using sprouts?

    Category retro food, Vegetables | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. Easter Cake

    April 18, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    My mother must have made Easter dessert before she got the lamb pan. Or maybe not. She might have decided the sugar overload from the Easter Baskets was sufficient. The Wilton Lamb Pan became a fixture at some point in the early 80s at our house. My mother would prepare a cake and bake it carefully in the lamb pan, decorate it with coconut and jelly beans and a bit of coconut she dyed green for the grass. I have no doubt these were cakewrecks. It seems to me that I might have even been creeped out by them as a child. I know the lamb pan was once in my possession but I don’t think it is any longer.

    I was amused when 15-yo girl picked this Easter Cake out of a “Microwave Cooking-Holidays and Parties from Litton” cookbook. While missing the lamb pan, it does have the signature coconut and jelly beans. Of course, the reason for no lamb shape: the recipe is cooked in the microwave.  Ack!

    I wonder if this cookbook came with my mother’s first microwave. It is dated 1981-so maybe. Oh, wait, I must have picked it up somewhere since Wanda L. Blackburn is inscribed in the cover.

    I shall not proliferate the recipe. Suffice to say-cake mix-prepared as directed, microwaved 1 layer at a time. Frosted with “creamy frosting” made from butter and powdered sugar with a splash of vanilla and half and half. Please don’t try it at home. Microwaved cakes are just wrong. (unless you are desperate and PMSing and make a single serve chocolate one.)

    If you want to know how to dye coconut; it is easy enough. mix a few drops of food coloring and 1/2 a teaspoon of water in a container or plastic bag-add a cup of coconut and shake.

    Category Desserts, retro food | Tags: | 1 Comment

  3. Travel, Worry, and Mother’s Hearts

    April 18, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    (a brief mommy blog moment among food blogging)

    My children travel all over the world with their father. (Yes, all over. Yes, they are very fortunate to have those experiences.) They bring back new views, tales of adventure, boredom, and bathrooms. I half joke that my children would fare better if you drop them off at an airport unaccompanied than if you leave them at a suburban shopping mall.

    When I tell people where my children plan to spend spring break, part of summer vacation, part of winter break, or an exotic destination they have seen, will see, want to see–I am inevitably asked “Aren’t you worried?,” “Don’t you worry?,” “Why do you let them go?”

    I generally claim that where they plan to go is safe. Yes, I have checked the state dept travel site. “But…” people will say–generally followed by a low likelihood scenario. (most often involving youngest-she could get eaten by a lion, hippo, get lost, be kidnapped, etc.) I roll my eyes. Yes, it could happen and the fact that they always choose youngest says as much about her daring personality, as it does about her age and size.

    The truth is: I worry. A phrase that I heard when I was a young mother is that having children means deciding to forever have your heart walk outside your body. (Elizabeth Stone) But, that level doesn’t change because of distance. Whether the children are two minutes away or two days away–bad things can happen. Good things too.

    I love the United States. I would love to believe that the safest place for them in the world is home, school, the roads they walk, the places they like to spend time. I know this isn’t true though. Children get hurt and sometimes die in all of those places across the country. I can send my kids off into the world, wrapped in all the glowing strings of love a mother can surround her child with and hope that protects them. In the end though, I know that youngest getting eaten by a lion really is a low probability event when compared to statistics about the dangers truly surrounding children.

    So, don’t worry when my children head off on their adventures overseas–keep them and all children in your heart when they head to the book store, to school, the library, lunch with a friend, to ride home from school–whether by foot, bus, train, or in a parent’s car. Don’t forget to wrap your love around children at home as well–we can’t and shouldn’t bubble wrap our children.

    Instead, we let our hearts walk around outside our body as parents and that is dangerous in and of itself– a chance of heartbreak but such indescribable joy as well.

    Category retro food | Tags: | 3 Comments

  4. My First Tuna Casserole (Or Food Waste Free Tuna Casserole)

    April 13, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    It seems unreal that I made my first Tuna Casserole tonight — but I think that is the case. I remember my ex making them. I know my older sister made them. My mother would NEVER make one. I don’t think I ever did before tonight.

    Extreme Coupon Denise (man, every time I think that I want an action figure of Denise with her coupon-ing gear) has brought home tuna (and we had tuna in the house from some “Tarrant is in the mood for tuna salad (once) so let’s buy the cheaper option of 8 cans of solid white tuna.” Tarrant thoughts from before the launch of Extreme Coupon Denise (so that tuna is not Denise’s doing at all). The Denise tuna was free or better than free or whatever. I don’t get it. If you want to understand it–there is a whole series over here about extreme couponing. We also have a lot of pasta for the same reason.

    So I have been threatening tuna casserole for a few weeks. Mama doesn’t eat tuna casserole. Denise doesn’t eat tuna casserole Tarrant doesn’t eat tuna casserole. My children don’t even like the WORD casserole.

    I put it on the menu for the week thinking Friday, but realized today was better. Tomorrow is trash day and so I don’t get shamed for food waste–I decided I could hide all sorts of odds and ends in a casserole. Right? Right!

    I then set about making it knowing really nothing of the making of tuna casserole other than remembered snippets of this and that. So here is what went into my tuna casserole.

    First-I cooked 1/2 a bag of egg noodles in the microwave pasta boat thing I mocked at Christmas. Yeah, it is handy.

    While that was cooking I grabbed odds and ends out of the fridge:

    1/2 ear corn on the cob
    leftover pico de gallo (about 3/4 cup)
    7 mushrooms
    3/4 red bell pepper
    1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
    1 container minus 1 spoon of Santa Fe Philadelphia Cooking Creme
    4 boiled fingerling yukon potatoes
    end of a package of shredded cheddar (probably 2/3 cup)

    I chopped the mushrooms, bell pepper and potatoes. I cut the corn off the cob. I mixed all of that together except the shredded cheese. I drained the now cooked pasta and two of the cans of tuna. Mixed with vegetables/Philadelphia Cooking Creme blend. Then tossed the shredded cheddar on top. Baked at 350 until cheese melted/heated through.

    Mama asked for seconds. I liked it. Denise said it was ok. Seems like a win. I forgot to serve the dilled green beans with it though darn it.

    Category Casseroles, Fish | Tags: | 7 Comments

Older Entries