Domesticity: Part 2.

Continuing with my cooking adventures... tonight I experienced a couple of firsts: we ate my first attempt at a 'freezer meal', and I cut up a whole chicken for the first time ever.


The 'freezer meal' we had for dinner tonight was a pan of beef enchiladas I made about a month ago. When I first made it, I had simply made too big of a batch of enchiladas to cook at one time in our tiny oven. Oh yeah... I probably haven't mentioned it before, but we don't actually have an oven. Our kitchen just literally did not have an oven when we moved into our house, and we still haven't gotten around to really finding one that will fit/work with the existing gas and lack of adequate electricity as well as space. So my mom bought me a small countertop convection oven for my birthday last year, and that's what we use. For two people, it's usually more than sufficient (except when I make way too many enchiladas). So I froze the extra enchiladas and we ate them for dinner tonight, about a month later... and I am happy to report that they came out quite tasty. I must do this more often for nights like this when it gets too late to cook a real meal.


The chicken situation was... interesting. I've always been much too intimidated by the thought of butchering a whole chicken to even try. (Plus, like I said, we don't actually have a real oven so I've never been sure if my kitchen could even actually handle cooking an entire chicken at one time.) During my last big grocery shopping trip, I bought a 5+ lb whole chicken marked down for quick sale to a little more than $2. I couldn't pass up a deal like that, so I bought it and stuck it in the freezer, thinking I would one day summon the confidence to tackle that bird. And tonight was the night. I came across a yummy sounding recipe for Tandoori baked chicken and thought this chicken would be perfect. So, I sharpened my knife (a scary task in itself), rolled up my sleeves, and found a very helpful Pampered Chef video tutorial on YouTube. I felt a lot like Amy Adams in Julie and Julia. And once I started, I actually enjoyed it. It was so satisfying that I wondered if I should be worried about latent maniacal tendencies. The chicken pieces were then put into a mixture of Greek yogurt and exotic spices to marinate overnight, which tomorrow night will hopefully become a somewhat edible version of Indian Tandoori-baked chicken, whipped up by the whitest girl you know.

Domesticity.

If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to incorporate a little more substance into my blogs recently, so it's not just my occasional accounts of ridiculous things that happen in our house or an excuse to post the latest adorable photos of Nora. 

My goal is to make this blog a fair reflection of myself, meaning there will always be a lot of stories about the everyday stuff involving me, my family and Nora, but there are a few things I've realized I don't usually mention that are actually fairly significant components of who I am. A couple of these things are crafting and making every effort to always be clever and creative with new projects, and cooking. I've introduced the crafting element and hope to be able to incorporate it more into my regular blogging. As for cooking, I don't think I've afforded it the attention I feel it deserves, for as much as I cook out of pure enjoyment as well as frugality. So here we go.

I come from a cooking family. My family is German-Hungarian, and my grandmother loves and LIVES to cook. And we all appreciate that very much, as we all love and live to eat. My grandmother was a cook for Sac State for many years; my mom has been a cook for the school district at different schools (we always joked that she was following my brother as he got older and changed schools) for several years too. (Who knows... maybe she'll continue the pattern and soon make her way to Sac State to follow in my grandmother's footsteps and cook for my brother yet again.) I have not always been a good cook, and I don't claim to be one now either. All I know is that I used to be a terrible cook and as a teenager, feared for my poor future children's eating habits as I would be incapable of cooking anything more than microwave burritos; today, I have been cooking and trying out recipes for several years now and am able to make a decent meal nearly every night for Nick and I (and Nora too, even though her meals usually only consist of some form of pureed vegetable, but still cooking, right?).

I really truly enjoy cooking - I find it both relaxing and rejuvenating to come home from work and create a meal. I like that we save a lot of money by eating in. I like that I feel confident enough now to try new things, whether it's a recipe I came across online or something I've invented all on my own. There are a couple of things that make cooking every night a much more manageable and efficient endeavor for a mom who works full-time away from home: keeping it simple, and planning meals in advance. Both of these end up saving us a lot of money in the end, since I avoid anything too complicated that involves hard-to-find or expensive ingredients, and I purchase all of these ingredients ahead of time when I do my weekend grocery shopping with meals already planned out - that way I know exactly what I need (and most importantly what I DON'T need) when I do my shopping and can therefore find better deals and shop the sales. Planning and shopping ahead also help me avoid last-minute shopping (where I would normally end up spending much more because I'm more rushed, making one quick stop, and willing to pay top-dollar if necessary in order to buy what I need and save time), or even worse, getting off work at 5pm and realizing I have no dinner plan and no energy to go shopping and still make a meal, resulting in us eating out and wasting money on a less-than-healthy dinner.

So enough preaching on the benefits of home-cooking and budget-friendly menu planning for now - here's a recipe. It's my own invention and very simple with inexpensive ingredients - I made it for dinner last night for the first time. (FYI, for my own creations such as this one, measurements are always approximate... use your own judgement and adjust to fit your taste.)

:: Spicy Italian Sausage Fettucini ::

Ingredients:

1 lb - ground Italian sausage (I used Target's Archer Farms brand, but also like Johnsonville)

12 oz - packaged fettucini noodles

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 green onions, chopped

3 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 cup - chopped fresh or frozen spinach

6 oz / 1 small can of tomato sauce

1 tsp - dried rosemary

1 tsp - dried red pepper flakes

salt & pepper

1 cup - Italian cheese (I used Target's Market Pantry blend of shredded mozzarella, asiago, romano)

1/4 cup - grated parmesan cheese

1) Break up the sausage and brown in a large pan over medium-low heat, stirring as it cooks. Fill another large pot with water and add 1/2 tsp salt and about 1 tsp of olive oil, and heat to boiling.

2) Once the sausage is mostly cooked through after about 10 minutes, add the garlic, green onions, rosemary, and red pepper flakes; season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook together for about 3 minutes or until garlic and onions are golden (but not brown, since garlic will get bitter if over-cooked).

3) Add pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook according to package directions while sausage mixture is cooking.

4) Add tomatoes, spinach, and tomato sauce to the sausage mixture and stir well to combine. Cover and cook over low heat for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

5) Drain the pasta and return to large pot; pour sausage/sauce mixture over pasta and add the cheese, stirring to coat pasta with the sauce and melt the cheese. Serve hot and top with extra cheese if desired. (I also made fresh bread from frozen bread dough - a sourdough baguette or garlic bread would also be really yummy.)

Best Superbowl Ever & A Finished Project (finally)

So obviously Sunday was the Superbowl, and it was hands-down my favorite one ever. This was for two reasons:

(1) The Packers, and much more specifically, former California Golden Bear, Mr. Aaron Rodgers, took home the win. GO PACK GO, and GO BEARS.

(2) I got to watch the game with this girl:

Tonight I was also very pleased to finally finish my wall organizer project that I started a week or two ago... I rather enjoy how it turned out, and am looking forward to having a central place in the kitchen to sort all of our bills, outgoing mail, coupons, and miscellaneous notes.

I also really like that I purchased absolutely nothing to make this; I used cardboard, a scrap piece of plywood, and some odds and ends of fabric and ribbon that I already had. Hooray for crafting!

Saturday Morning Thoughts

Nick is working, Nora is taking a nap (...or at least in her crib, supposedly trying to fall asleep judging by the ongoing moans and quiet humming I've been hearing over the monitor for the last ten minutes...). How should I spend my precious time?

...try to finish my newest DIY wall organizer project I started last week with the goal of finishing it in a couple of days so I could actually use it to sort the bills we have before (1) they're due or (2) they get lost in the shuffle of the rest of the mail and miscellaneous papers on the counter and don't get paid on time?

(...this is my idea for a wall organizer I created to hang in the kitchen in an effort to keep track of bills, incoming and outgoing mail, coupons, etc. This is the drawing I had made to be able to make a pattern; I'll post the finished project whenever I get around to finishing it.)

...throw on some jeans and a sweatshirt and take advantage of the nice weather this morning to do some light yardwork and prune those ugly rose bushes like I've been meaning to do for the last few weeks?

...start packing up all of Nora's stuff for her first overnighter with her two Omas tonight, since it will take forever to round up everything she could possibly need for 18+ hours away from home?

...do some cleaning - ok, in reality just sweep the floors - and gather up all of the dog fur that could potentially be enough to create two additional Dundies that might just end up being perfectly well-behaved replacement dogs for our misbehaving real dog?

...or just stay in my pajamas, drink my coffee, ignore the dog fur, and watch HGTV dreaming that I will one day be as motivated as these people to really get something done on a Saturday morning. 

Done and done.

A Cinderella Story

A warning: if you're expecting a love story, a rag-to-riches story, or a story about making your dreams come true, you're reading the wrong blog. When I say Cinderella story, I mean this is a getting-locked-in-the-bedroom kind of story.

This past weekend, my sister came to visit, just to visit and hang out. I loved getting to see her and spending time with her for a couple of days when there wasn't much else going on, since most times when she's in town it's for a family get-together or for the holidays, etc, etc. This time we just got to hang out (partly because I was sick and not up to doing a whole lot else) and she was gracious enough to babysit for us on Saturday night while Nick and I blew off his ex-work party in SF (yes, they were nice enough to still invite us and we totally ditched it...) and instead went to eat the most delicious sandwiches with french fries on them (that I've been craving since I first became pregnant almost a year and a half ago) and have a beer at this place, then headed over and had coffee and dessert at my much-missed before-work coffee spot in North Beach, Caffe Greco. It turned out to be a very nice and much overdue date night. 

The next day, we slept in (my sister stayed the night at our house after babysitting the night before), made breakfast, and relaxed a little before Kristie started getting ready to head home. She stayed in our guest room/office. Nick hopped in the shower, I was sitting in the living room feeding Nora lunch, and Kristie was getting dressed in the guest room. I then heard a bit of a struggle and jiggling of the door knob, and a muffled, "I'm stuck!" Our doors, which apparently haven't been replaced or had the door knobs replaced since the house was built in 1950, aren't the most reliable for how do you say, passing in and out of rooms easily. This door was stuck. Really stuck. The doorknob didn't appear to be locked on the inside according to Kristie, but the bolt was stuck in the out position and was not budging. Nick and I  dismantled the doorknob as much as we could, with a less-than-skillful combination of hammering, prying, unscrewing, and aggressive jiggling. More than a few broken pieces of metal fell out onto the floor and we did manage to get the door knob itself out, but could still not move the actual piece keeping the door shut. We finally gave up and my sister, who is luckily about the same size as me, was able to toss her bags and herself out the window onto the side of the house (good thing we only have a one-story house). I then crawled through the window into the bedroom and with the help of a screwdriver, was able to finally get the door open. I was relieved to get the door open, but less than happy to see that we'll still need to replace the broken door knob, part of the door jamb, and probably the door.

This is what I get for saying that I've been in a 'home improvement kind of mood' lately.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk. You remember the story, right? Well, if you give me a sick day, I'll want to clean my entire house.


I've had a pretty bad sore throat the last couple of days and felt borderline sick (which by this morning had evolved into confirmed sick), so Thursday afternoon my boss told me if I was feeling sick on Friday to just stay home and take a sick day. I woke up feeling pretty crappy, so I decided to take his advice and stay home.


Before Nick left for the office, he noticed me wiping off the counter after making some tea, and asked me, "You're not going to clean all day, are you?" I looked at him with a bit of the stink-eye and defensively said, "No, why? I'm just wiping off the counter..."


"Because every time you're sick and stay home from work you spend the day cleaning the house." Well... he's right. I usually do. I keep busy taking care of Nora, but then as soon as she goes down for a nap, I feel so lazy and useless just sitting on the couch and watching TV or reading a magazine or whatever else I should be doing to 'take it easy' and rest up on my day of rest. Well of course since Nick pointed this out, I decided to prove him wrong and NOT spend the day cleaning this time. I tried anyway.


Nora inevitably got tired mid-morning, and was ready for a nap. I put her down for her nap and walked out of her room. Once I walked out of her room, I noticed the plant in the hallway was looking a little thirsty... sooo, I watered it. Ok, I over-watered it. I didn't realize this, however, until a few minutes later when I was sitting on the couch attempting to not do anything and I heard a soft tap---tap---tap. I ignored it for a minute. Then I got curious. I got up and walked around a little, and noticed it was coming from the hallway; from the plant specifically. The excess water had gotten to the bottom of the pot and was pooling around the bottom of the plant on the shelf, dripping down from the top shelf, down to the middle shelf, then down to the bottom shelf and onto the floor. So I got a few paper towels and started mopping up my mess - I moved the plant, moved the little shelf out of the corner, and discovered - GASP - look how much dust is in this corner! I used the wet paper towels and quickly wiped up the dust on the floor and in the corner of the walls... and wiped the baseboards. Here is where I trapped myself: I realized how dirty the baseboards were and how easily they wiped clean with a wet paper towel. Naturally, I immediately looked to the other wall and noticed that they were also pretty dusty. How had I not noticed this before?


And that is how I ended up spending half of my sick day cleaning all of the baseboards in my house.

Holidaaaay.... Celebraaaate....

...by cleaning.


Oh yes. It needs to be done. I think I have a pretty good idea of how I'll be spending my day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day - cleaning the house which SOOOOO needs to be done, and finally, FINALLY taking down the Christmas lights. I could say that they're 'civil rights' trees, but I would be lying. We all know they're Christmas trees, made of Christmas lights. Which also reminds me - we still have our Christmas tree sitting naked and probably quite thirsty on our back patio. I can't look at it once all the lights and ornaments are off, and both me and the tree know that its time is up. The Christmas season has come and gone, and there's really just no reason anymore to have a tree indoors. So, out it goes, and I look away and fight back tears, feeling sad and guilty, as if I'm abandoning a greyhound after its glory days of racing have come and gone. The only thing worse than banishing it out to the back patio is cutting it up into pieces small enough that will fit in the green can... I just can't do it. I'm insane, I realize this - it's just a dead tree - but I'm still making Nick do it (plus we don't actually have a real saw to cut it up, so I have no idea how this will even be done). 

I love Christmas way more than any human being probably should, so there's always a bit of a mourning period for me when all of the Christmas stuff comes down - luckily I took down all of the indoor decorations a couple of weeks ago, so the only things left are the outside lights and our sad tree. I'll still need consolation once all of this is done though, so I think I'll have to round out the day by making a small trip to Crossroads for a little retail therapy and maybe some sushi tomorrow night.