My Thankful Duh Moment!

The hubs and I spend a LOT of money on broth - like way more than we should. When it comes down to it, we don't eat that much chicken that I have enough to use the carcasses (Hmmmm I love that word) to make broth out of. So we end up buying broth in boxes and cans anytime we find them on sale.

Then, about a year ago, I had an A-Ha moment! I had a weekend where I was making, God knows what, and had so much veggie waste it was ridiculous. And let's be honest, since our yard is not really conducive to easy composting, it all goes down the garbage disposal. I figured there had to be something I could do with all of this waste - which it's veggies, so it's not really waste!

So I got out a big storage bag and put in the ends of broccoli, carrots, some mushroom stems, celery heart and leaves and onion ends that were otherwise going to be trashed and tossed the bag of the veggie bits and pieces in my freezer. Slowly but surely, I filled the baggie up when I prepped veggies with the ends and stems and stalks and pieces of what I was using. And before you know it, I had two whole bags of veggie bits and pieces.

Frozen bag of veggies boiled - carrots, broccoli, asparagus, celery, onion, mushrooms

I then took all of those veggie pieces and placed them in a big stock pot, covered with copious amounts of water, added in some fresh onion, garlic cloves, peppercorns, a pinch of salt and some bay leaves and let it boil for a good hour or two. When it was done I was left with this - the most wonderful, glorious, flavorful, rich and cheap/free vegetable broth I've ever had!!

I tossed the soaked mushy veggies at this point and let the broth cool. I then froze the broth in to one cup measurements and froze them. Once they were frozen, I popped them out of the containers and wrapped in parchment paper and stored them stacked in a freezer bag. Now when I need broth, I go to the chest freezer, grab one or two cups out and defrost and voila! Free broth, on hand, all the time!

I highly recommend doing this, if you aren't a composting family. It gives those ends and odd pieces of veggies one last hope before just tossing and gives you a great result in the end. I think this past year alone we've probably saved about 50+ bucks on broth - and I"m not lying when I say that!

Look at that rich, hearty broth that would have otherwise gone down the drain - literally!

It's so easy - just keep a bag going in your freezer of veggie pieces - add anything - I've done tomatoes, onions that were about to go that I salvaged what I could, carrots, celery, spinach on its last leg, mushrooms, you name it. It's always turned out so hearty and rich!

If you try it, let me know how it works for you in your house!

Why I'm Slow in Posting

So I'm so slow and lazy in posting because I've found a very bad addiction...

Restaurant City on Facebook... Even Bashful finds himself a little addicted to the Restaurant City!

I have been cooking like crazy though!

How The Hubs Eats...

When the Wife is Away...

I went out of town to visit my mom recently and left the hubs a menu plan, got the things he would need - one night was BLTs.

He was so impressed with his incredible BLT Skills, he took a picture - or 10 - so I would blog about it.

I love this man so much - he's so adorable.

Here you go babe - your BLT Special.

UPDATE: The Hubs comment when I read him this and showed him the picture : "BLOG"

It's a Carrot Revolution!

Apparently Feb. 3rd was National Carrot Day - and I missed it!
But I came across this video on the Say Yes to Carrots Website.

Dear lord - I can't stop laughing, it's awesome!

Adventures in Canadian Eating, Take 1

So Hubby and I went up to Canada the other week for a nice long vacation. We started in New Brunswick - so that's where this post will start.

In NB, visiting our good friends, we went to the city market on Saturday. There were so many delicious sights and smells and flavors it was so sad we did that first and not on our way back to the states - we would have come home with much more!

Here's the market!





While there, we bought some fresh garlic. We have a friend whose family goes up to Canada to work on a garlic farm each summer - they get free room and board in exchange for their labor and they get a ton of garlic to take home and they always bring us a few bulbs. Each year we use one and then we plant the others in our garden to harvest in the late summer. So while confronted with this great local garlic that smelled divine... we had to buy some of our own. We spent the rest of the trip drying it out in the back window of the car, and it made us crave Italian food the whole trip!


While at the market, I saw a sign for dulse.

I grabbed the hubs and we spoke with the vendor who let us sample some. It's a sea vegetable, like seaweed or kelp that is dried on the rocks. It's got a VERY strong fishy/oceany/sea flavor. Being from the coast out here, I didn't think it would bother me but I couldn't stand it, it was so chewy, tough and strong. Hubs however, loved the dulse so he had to buy a bag to bring home with him.

I let Adam enjoy his dulse while I picked out a great local strawberry and basil vinegar that is just out of this world delicious!

Aside from the excitement, the neatest thing was waiting in line to buy our vinegar, we were behind a French Family (Ok maybe they were from Quebec) but they spoke all in French and they ordered du jambon... oooo du jambon - hubs and I were in heaven with the French - Jambon is one of our favorite French words. For those non Francais speakers - Jambon is Ham.

What Have/Would/Could you Eat??

I saw this on my friend Carrie's Blog at Carriessweetlife.com and thought it was interesting and thought I'd give it a post / try on my blog.

How the Omnivore’s 100 Works:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (I can't do that in blogger, so I'll just put a NO)
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding NO
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar NO
37. Clotted Cream Tea NO
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail NO
41. Curried goat NO
42. Whole insects (Giant Water Bug, to be specific) NO
43. Phaal NO
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more NO- I wouldn't waste the $$ on this one!
46. Fugu NO - have you seen the simpson's 3 eyed fish episode -that's how I feel about puffer fish - I don't want to die!
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV NO - I don't like beer
59. Poutine - I can say yes to this cause we had it for the 1st time last week! OH MY GOD how do we American's not eat this??? It's the most delicious thing!
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian NO
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - is it sad I've had, still eat and love them all??
68. Haggis - I would only try this because of my affinity for the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe NO
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill NO
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang Souchong - No becuase i don't like smoky things and that would get me on this one.
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse NO I don't know if I could bring myself to do this one.
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake No - unless i didn't know what it was I was eating.

I'm surprised by how many things I've tried on here and would still try if given the chance!

Name that Cereal

http://food.aol.com/play-with-your-food/breakfast-cereal-id-quiz

Can you beat my 18 out of 20??

One of those I missed was a cereal I never eat. The other was a bad picture I"m calling it just like it is and it could have been either the one I chose or the right answer.

What's in your fridge?

I'm totally addicted to this new site

http://www.fridgewatcher.com/

It's pictures people post of what is in their fridget! Awesome!

It's fun to look at the pictures and determine what meal you could make out of all of that stuff.

How Green is Your Shopping Trip?

So for a while, Adam and I have been using our giant blue Ikea bags for our trips to Stop & Shop each week. We love them, two fit in the cart tightly and we fill them up with our groceries. And it's only one trip each in the house with the groceries.

Our stores have the self scan wands you take with you to scan as you shop, so we never have to double pack things. So it's so easy to use reusable bags with our store's shopping ways.

Recently though, I was getting really fed up with the number of plastic bags we use in the produce department. Since the bulk of our grocery bill each week is produce, it was a LOT of plastic bags. Granted we do take them to be recycled, but still, why use it to begin with?

So I was going to buy some fancy eco-bags for produce online from etsy.com and then found one that looked surprisingly similar to something we already had in the house - zippered lingerie bags!

So to dress them up a bit, I stitched a little greet ribbon loop on them - it's totally useless but just makes it look cuter.

So now we use the bags that are meant for my bras and delicates in the laundry for our produce - don't worry I had like 15 of them in the house and I kept some for laundry and some for grocery.

You know what, they are great! the produce can breathe in the bags. They are compact to take to the market. They can be washed in the sink or washer, heck probably even the top rack on the dishwasher!

We're really loving it - and with the zippers - everything is sealed in there nicely with no spills of produce in the cart or drawers at home.

Seriously, try it! You'll thank me!

Food Porn

If you like pictures of pretty food - guess what, there's now a site just for you.

It's called Food Porn Daily.

It's a picture a day of the most delictable food of the day - mmmm mouthwatering goodness!

Anatomy of a Gummy Bear

I found this on Serious Eats today and I just laughed so hard, as Gummy Bears are one of our favorite treats!

It's from http://www.moistproduction.com/

How do you loose the tip of your knife??

So tonight, while making dinner, the oddest thing happened.

So here's the scene.

I'm at the sink cleaning fiddleheads, potatoes are boiling on the stove, roast is simmering in the crockpot. The colander with the cleaned fiddleheads is balanced on the edge of the sink. Bashful comes up from the basement and rubs between my legs and scares the crud out of me. I jump, jolt my arm, knock the colader in to the other side of the sink. The cleaned large knife sitting tip side down in the in the draining basket in the sink falls out on to the floor, spinning, and lands tip side stuck in to the hard wood floors. It stays there for a split second then falls over to the floor.

I bend down to pick it up and notice the tip of the knife is gone - i mean it's a flat tip now, no point. I bend down and get down on all fours scouring the floor for the tip of the knife and can't find it - i dont want the cats to get it after all. Then I notice and see that it is physically now stuck in our hardwood floors. Totally burried in the hardwood.

Adam comes in from the garden and i tell him we need to go get a new knife, and tell him the whole story and he just laughed so hard. I kept telling him there was no way i could make this shit up - and that's the truth!

Time for a new knife!

How do you loaf?

Are you a square loafer or a round loafer?

I mean meatloaf of course!

I've never, ever in my life had a round free formed meat loaf.

Growing up in my household, meatloaf was always made in a rectangle loaf pan. But in my husband's house it was always round, free formed in a pie plate or round baking dish.

A few weeks ago we made a comfort food dinner for saturday night, meatloaf and mac and cheese - well my comfort meal, not hubbys. He doesn't love mac and cheese.

Adam decided to be the musher for the meatloaf and because he offered to get his hands raw meet messy I told him to just do what he wanted with it.

So almost an hour later and 350 degrees we got this...

And you know what, I have to tell you, it was much jucier, had a nicer texture and was just all around better - less crumbly, more dense.

And the Mac & Cheese, in my book - fabulous as always - it's already on the blog here.

I guess I'm a round loafer convert now!

Eggs - I love you so!

So, back to funny food finds...
check out this video from Japan - Cracks my shit up - really - honestly - teary-eyed laughter will ensue!

Delicious Images

I decided - since I've always loved quirky signs - I would start posting some of the funny things I find out in the big world and on the web that relate to food. Today - I think this gets a good first picture post!





Welcome to Delicious Images!

Found on thekitchn.com ( my new favorite site by the way)