Sunday Kitchen. Lazy Weekend Edition.

[hippywife]

Not much to report this weekend. We went to an English Pub for dinner last night for some really yummy fish and chips. I spent most of yesterday half-heartedly muddling through chores and reading.

Today, I finished the chores I started yesterday and read some more. Good books keep finding their way into my path and I'm helpless to resist. LOL

I did however manage to make Tollhouse Cookies sans chocolate chips, with chopped pecans and a wee touch of cinnamon and cloves. Dinner was bison meatloaf, yogurt mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts.

And because the hubband needs his breakfast sweets for the week, I made two braided cheese danish, one with apples and dried cranberries and the other with lemon curd. I only took a pic of the one I braided properly. :rofl:



Quite enjoying Ken Burns' National Parks on PBS tonight, too.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. :hi:

[AwakeAtLast]

1. That looks heavenly!

I love lemon in just about anything. Glad you had a good weekend!

:hi:

[hippywife]

6. Thanx, AAL.

The little bite I tasted last night was delicious. Hope you had a great weekend, too.

[ginnyinWI]

2. apple butter and carob brownies.

Not together--but that's what I've made lately.

The apple butter started out as a crockpot filled to the top with quartered and cored apples (remember all my apple trees) mixed with sugar and spice and allowed to cook for oh, I think it was about 18 hours altogether. By the time it cooled and I put it through the food mill to get the peels out, there wasn't much pulp left to discard at all. Yummy, too! I put one jam jar full in the fridge and froze six more amounts in small plastic containers. That will last us a good while. :9

Carob brownies because I've had this container of carob powder in the cupboard since last winter when daughter was here and figured I'd use it up, even though my husband really doesn't like carob. So I made the brownies and put walnuts in and a cup full of chocolate chips on top to make it more appealing to him. If he takes them to work they'll taste better--everything tastes better when you use it as a treat at work. :9 :9

I'm about on my last nerve with my cucumbers! Two plants--only two--and I've gotten 30 or more gourmet seedless, burpless cukes from them. They get to be about a foot long, although they are skinny, at a little over an inch in diameter. I've made vinegar-marinated, sour cream cukes, and jars and jars of sweet pickles. We've had them on every salad and I've foisted them off on relatives and friends. Yesterday I brought in six more from the garden,and there are at least six more growing out there! A memorable crop! Next year I'll plant just ONE of these prolific little buggers. They are delicious. :9 :9 :9

[grasswire]

4. what's the variety, do you know?

I luv cucumbers.

[ginnyinWI]

13. yes--I saved the tag

it's on this page--look for the "burpless" cucumber: http://chefjeffsgarden.com/PlantsAtAGlanceVEGGIES.html#BURPLESS

On the back of the tag it says, in small letters, "prolific bearer"--they were telling the truth!

[hippywife]

7. Yum!

I love apple butter. Yours sounds wonderful. I make mine pretty much the same way but I also use some fresh squeezed OK in the crockpot and lay the orange peels on top of the apples while they cook, just for a little added zing. It does sound like those will keep you for awhile, although, if that taste that good, they may not. :rofl:

We had the same problem with cukes this year. We planted maybe four vines of pickling cukes and had quite a few volunteers. I gave so many away at work, in addition to jars of pickles. Oy!

Hope the hubs eats up those brownies. I don't think I'd have even mentioned the carob to him. LOL

[buzzycrumbhunger]

10. Excess cukes?

My son just told me a surefire ant repellant is cucumber juice--any concentration at all--which you simply squirt or drizzle a trail to keep them at bay. Wish I'd known that before the carpenter ants messed up my laundry room or to keep any ants out of the cat food when I put them out on the lanai for a lazy afternoon. Since I'm not into our growing season yet (FL--ugh, I will never get used to this), I'm stuck with store-bought, but once I can produce a good crop I will be testing this for sure. It would be especially nice for use in the kitchen when we get the occasional influx.

[grasswire]

12. are you kiddin' me??!

I've tried everything on the ants. Baby powder, dilute bleach solution, vinegar, black pepper, mint leaves, curry powder....I think they are laughing at me. I even put down a bead of anti-itch cream to see if they would cross it. Ha!

[grasswire]

3. hmmmmm HW

Is that a Danish dough of the fold, chill, roll, fold, chill, roll variety?? Do tell.

BTW, I knew you were taking it "easy" cuz' I saw you posting in the lounge! I almost asked what the heck you were doing there with all that weekend baking to do. Ha!

Dinner here was chicken breast marinated in lime juice, garlic, salt then pan grilled and finished off with a jar of capers browned in the drippings. Served that with toasted couscous made with chickpeas and chicken broth. In another pan, sauteed fresh-picked zucchini slices and onion. On the side, sliced tomatoes of various kinds with a little vinaigrette drizzled over. Oh, and pineapple upside down cake left over.

Every bite is gone. Even the border collie had a lick, on his kibble.

Tomorrow the weather is changing dramatically. After two months of sunny warm weather, it will be in the 60s with rain and showers this week. So I think my morning task will be to scour the garden for some things. It may be the last day before things begin to deteriorate. There are still lots of raspberries, and some summer squash, and carrots, and what must be thousands of tomatoes that haven't even started to ripen yet. I've been eating the orange cherry ones as fast as I can. Half a pound a day, perhaps. They are soooooo delicious. There are bush green beans, but they are large and overdue -- good in soup, perhaps. Many rows of grapes, but I haven't figured out what to do with them exactly without a big production.

I think fried green tomatoes will be on the menu in the next couple of days.

[hippywife]

8. No it wasn't.

I wish it were and it was supposed to be, but I just didn't feel up to it this weekend. I used the crust recipe for these individual danish:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Apple-Danish/Detail.aspx

As you can see by the picture, someone else did the same thing I did. It wasn't as good as it would have been had I gone to all the trouble of making the proper crust but it worked fine and tasted good.

You dinner sounds so wonderful! Especially the touch with the capers. I do love them, especially the way you used them.

Weather has changed dramatically here, too. Very cold and windy out this morning. I hope you are able to glean as much as you want/need from the garden. If it's warm enough in the house, the green tomatoes with ripen in a few days, but you could still can them for use later even if they are green.

Not sure what to do with the grapes besides making juice, jam or jelly except to eat them. :9 But I know you'll figure out something wonderful.

:hi:

[grasswire]

11. I'm relieved, HW

Because if you had said you had an easy day while making traditional Danish pastry, I would have been truly humbled. I have to admit that I have never made real Danish and am intimidated by the thought. I've made a lot of European pastries, but never that.

[hippywife]

14. Honestly,

it's not hard at all. It's merely time consuming. I hve no doubt at all that you could do it easily.

[Callalily]

5. Oh yummy . . . that

Danish looks great. Would go very well with the cuppa coffee I'm drinking right now.

Glad to hear that someone else makes Tollhouse cookies without the chocolate chips. Your variation sounds heavenly.

[hippywife]

9. Sometimes

a person just isn't in the mood for chocolate. LOL

Bring your cuppa over and have a slice. :hi: