The Pig and I

This week I wasted: 1 carrot a bit of seaweed salad

So I have you sauces, but I didn't give you the chicken. That was rude of me, wasn't it? I think y'all have figured out that I'm kind of a lazy procrastinator, so it's probably not much of a surprise to you. Well, I'm a lazy procrastinator on a normal day; during a period of time where I'm recovering from a kidney infection as I prepare for midterms, I don't even have a proper label for how sloth-like I really do become. Regardless, here's the chicken. This recipe is listed as a kebab recipe, and that's really how it should be. But y'all should know I didn't actually MAKE this properly. I was lazy and tired and so I just grilled the chicken before cutting it up, and I certainly didn't skewer it. But the concept is the same, and y'all will do it properly so each little succulent bit of chicken (and how often do I call chicken succulent?) is individually spiced and seared. Right? Well, maybe you won't. So I'll put down bot...

Here's another dip/sauce for you. I love this one at least as much as the last, though for completely different reasons. This sauce is perfect for dipping kebabs in (the main reason I'm giving it to you now), and also for kofta and all sorts of other yumminess. Sometimes I use it just for dipping bread in, or to slather on crusty bread with parsley to make garlic bread. It's an awesome, multipurpose dip. It's also really, really easy to make. Hope you enjoy! 1 head garlic 1-2 teaspoons (okay, I actually use a little more) lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt (again, I actually use more) 1/4+ vegetable oil Peel the garlic and put it in a small food processor, with the salt. Pulse until it's paste-like, but still slightly granular. Add in the lemon and pulse again. Then add small amounts of oil and pulse as though you were making mayonnaise (some people do add egg, or potato, but I prefer it made without), until it's light and has the level of garlic strength in its...

This is one of my favourite dips. It's very, very easy to make and tastes great. I prefer to eat it at room temperature, but you can eat it cold as well. Generally, I take some pita or other flat bread, get a good glob of this on it, then top it with some sabzi (I use a mix of mint, scallion and parsley, usually) and sometimes with a little chunk of feta as well. It's wonderfully delicious and simple. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup yogurt (I either use Greek or Arabic yogurt, depending on where I was shopping that week) 1 large shallot, minced finely (you may use more if you're into heavy shallot flavour) 2 teaspoons lemon juice (optional) salt and pepper to taste Mix together and let sit at least one hour so the flavours can meld. Serves 2-8. I still can't find my camera, as an aside. It's somewhere in my car, and hopefully sometime soon I'll figure out exactly where.

This week was pretty standard for getting through things. Lot of pasta, lot of rice (we are now down to three litres of white rice), last of the lentils (though I bought more, as you'll see next Saturday). Also, some more of the rice noodles (another package!), and a bit more tea. I think I'm almost out of yeast, which is bad. I have plenty of flour though, which is good. And, when I believed I was nearly out of molasses, I actually looked to see if I had some before buying more (I did). So some storage was avoided as well. I'm also nearly out of chick peas, so I got some more of those. I guess I use more of those than any other bean. It used to be black beans, but I haven't really been eating those lately for some strange reason. Perhaps I'll start eating those again, or finishing out some of the beans I'm close to being through. We shall see. How are things going for your pantry staples? Are you building up a large food storage supply; trying, as I am, to pa...

This probably isn't going to surprise you all a ton, particularly given how much shopping I did last week. Have I ever, in the history of Saturday Spending, spent such a huge amount in one month, let alone one week, on groceries? I don't think I have, but perhaps y'all know better than I do. Anyway, I didn't even set foot in a grocery store this week. Next week I'm quite sure I will be spending some on food, since I'm nearly out of chick peas, and I very, very badly want to make kofta, garlic sauce, and perhaps some more pita. Well, hopefully this week, anyway. I'm a bit behind in my reading still for this semester (and today is GRE-taking day so that's about all that's on my mind), so it's possible I won't make it but still highly doubtful that I can ignore my cravings for another week. How was y'all's week in grocery land?

I'm a little sad this Friday. There was a little waste, which always makes me a bit sad, but this week in particular I wasted something that shocked even me. This week I wasted: 6 figs Very, very, very bad Allie.

This recipe is adapted from the cherry clafouti recipe I found in Joy of Cooking (but I'm not doing the quotes thing like I normally do because I just remember how it goes in my head). I had a billion plums sitting in the fridge that were decent, but not ideal for eating out of hand. Or maybe I just got spoiled while I was on vacation eating fruit as it came off trees (literally) and now grocery story fruit isn't all that impressive to me. 4 eggs 3/4 - 1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar 1 cup milk 2-3 tablespoons vanilla (I use a lot; you use less if you like) 2 teaspoons salt 3/4 cup pastry or all-purpose flour 1 pound or so of plums, cut in half and pitted but not peeled Whisk eggs with sugar until frothy. Add milk and vanilla and beat until smooth, then add the salt and flour and whisk until it's mostly not lumpy anymore. Put the plums, cut side up, in a large Pyrex pie plate so that they're all touching each other and form a solid layer of plum on the bottom (or...

As I was going through the freezer to see what food is available, I noticed there was about a half a roasted sweet potato languishing in some tupperware. Now, I say "languishing" because it'd been more than a month since I'd last eaten sweet potato. Or at least since I last remember eating sweet potato. But there it was, chillin' out, "looking" at me like it was saying, "Hey lady. You used to love sweet potatoes. What'd I do wrong to make you break things off with me so suddenly?" And I was ashamed to admit that it had, in fact, done nothing wrong. I'm just inattentive (tell you something you didn't already know, right?) and absent-minded and sometimes in the pursuit of new adventures, I just forget my old faithfuls. I also found most of a container of ricotta in there from when I last made lasagna. It seemed to me that while the sweet potato lends itself graciously to myriad uses, I might like to elevate it beyond its humble b...

So this week was pretty simple in terms of storage use. There is absolutely no way I'll be more appreciably close to finishing the food storage by the end of my lease, but I still think I'm making phenomenal progress. We've used up, this week: more rice (I think I'm now close to finishing up the white rice and brown rice, and I don't know if I'll keep more than a little bit of standard white rice in the house anymore, as everyone here is pretty much on board with whole grain rices now) more pasta more flours all the frozen pumpkin piles of tea bonito kombu more trumpet mushrooms 1 package rice noodles

A lot of groceries were purchased this week. A lot. I noticed several things were missing from the kitchen, and that I had used up a lot of other things. So you'll probably see the largest amount of grocery shopping on this post that you've ever seen from me. Also, we had a dinner party and so there's some extra stuff you're not used to seeing me buy from that as well. And the cheese binge. I'm on a big cheese binge Kroger : $2.82 - parmesan cheese (OMG we are having Brazilian cheese breads soon!) $2.10 - salad $1.39 - non-stick spray $3.29 - feta $1.09 - saltines $2.49 - eggs $2.89 - onions (3 pounds) $2.19 - regular sharp cheddar $2.14 - milk $3.69 - sausage $3.99 - watermelon $0.34 - garlic $2.89 - vermont cheddar $2.28 - almond milk $2.99 - orange juice $2.88 - peanut butter $3.25 - mayonnaise $1.49 - sweetened condensed milk $2.49 - kalamata olives $4.99 - A1 $2.58 - canned artichoke hearts $3.19 - canned palm hearts $3.19 - bread flou...

This week was not so good. But it's been a while since that's happened, so while I'll strive to be better, I am also not going to worry too much about this small loss. This week I wasted: 2 cups dashi 1/3 roma tomato.

As much as we all love cabbage, today I'm stepping away from it for a very simple peach topping. These are delicious over pancakes, spooned over a simple pound cake or eaten with gems. You all are so creative I bet you could give me another billion uses for this simple recipe. I believe my original intention was actually to make a small batch (one jar's worth) of peach jam but then something happened in my brain and we got this instead. Hope you enjoy! 5 peaches, pitted and sliced somewhat thickly (1/2 inch thick slices is roughly what I did) 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/4 cup vanilla sugar (or you could use regular sugar and a touch of extract, or just regular sugar) pinch salt 1 tablespoon butter 1/8 cup chopped crystallised ginger Mix together peaches, lemon, sugar and salt and let sit on the counter for an hour or two. Slide it all into a skillet and cook over low heat until the peaches are soft, about 10-15 minutes. Add butter and ginger and cook another 10-15 minu...

I had a head of red cabbage, and some sausage in the house. Needless to say, my interest with the cabbage was lying in stewing, since I wasn't about to ferment it (especially when I've already got kraut in the house). I had 4 or 5 people over that day, so it seemed like the most efficient way to use up ALL the cabbage, instead of just a bit of it at a time (like I normally do with the grilled cheese sandwiches). So here it is. I really enjoyed this dish, particularly given just how little work it took for me to make it, and will definitely make it again. Hope you enjoy! 3 tablespoons butter 1 large head cabbage, chopped 1 tablespoon onion juice (I was out of onions that day) 1 cup chopped celery 2 teaspoons nigella seed (black caraway) 1 teaspoon dill seeds 1 beer 4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped 1 tablespoon lemon juice salt to taste Melt butter in a large frying pan over low heat. Add in all the other ingredients and let it simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Serves 5...

Alright, so here's a pretty big update. I've been entertaining a fair bit, and cooking nearly everyday. Coupled with my negligence in going to the store until I absolutely have to, this has been the perfect recipe for using up a lot of stuff. So much so, that I am down to only having two bins of food in my closet. Can you believe it? That means half the bins are gone and I actually have space in my closet for things not food related! Since I don't know exactly what I've used, I will simply tell you approximately what's left: 30 pound of pasta 15 pounds beans max most of the dried mushrooms (I've actually started working those into my food recently, though) maybe 4 pounds white rice 1 pound maybe of red rice 1 1/2 pounds medium rice 1 pound brown rice 1 pound barley 1 pound bulghur 1 pound whole wheat berries 1/2 pound lentils roughly 5 pounds of tea (yeah, seriously, I've used up that much tea that that's all I have left) I've used u...

Okay, so here's my most recent shopping trip. Y'all will be plenty surprised to see cocktail onions and banana peppers missing from the list. I'm making a lot of progress through the storage, as you'll see tomorrow, and that of course will result in some changes being made to the way I shop, as things wander on out of the house and actually do need to be replaced. So let's all be on the lookout for that. Kroger: $1.09 - saltines $2.39 - jumbo shells $1.47 - cabbage $7.69 - beer $0.88 - carrots $0.00 - butter (coupon) $2.55 - onions $3.18 - 5 pounds potatoes $1.30 - canned tomatoes $2.00 - milk (I buy those little 8 ounce milks, since no one in my house actually drinks milk so it's not worth it to buy a whole carton) $4.56 - 2 pound ground beef $2.99 - matzot total: 30.10

This week I wasted: NOTHING!!!

I feel like I should apologise to you guys for having been away so long. But I've already made that apology so many times I assume at this point y'all know I'm just a little flaky from time to time, and we'll leave it at that. And now when I disappear again for some odd reason, y'all won't be surprised in the least.  This particular disappearance was a pretty interesting one. I wrapped up my math degree, which is pretty exciting. Then I went on a two week road trip vacation. My main stops (where I've not lived before) were in Omaha, to visit my friend and adopted brother D, and just outside Dickson, TN, where I visited my friend C. I had an outstanding time, filled with nature, picking fruits from trees, cooking, baking (without internet to remind me how to do things I'd forgotten) and eating lots of foods I didn't make as well. I had the most incredible fish and chips (and fried pickles) I've ever eaten in Omaha at the Dundee Dell (where...