Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Big day!
Today we went to the zoo with Aunt Lynnie, who was visiting from NY
and we got chickens! 3 Rhode Island Reds....5 months old....now we just enjoy and wait for eggs!
and we got chickens! 3 Rhode Island Reds....5 months old....now we just enjoy and wait for eggs!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Hanging pot-rack
Haim made me a hanging pot rack this weekend. He found his inspiration on flickr, made his own improvements and here is the finished result!
It's a great space saver, and also a really nice break for my back and soon-to-be-growing tummy...I was getting pretty sick of moving all of the the piled up pots and pans from under the counter every time I wanted to cook something.....which is ALL THE TIME! Maybe I can eve get Haim to do a quick tute for this...
It's a great space saver, and also a really nice break for my back and soon-to-be-growing tummy...I was getting pretty sick of moving all of the the piled up pots and pans from under the counter every time I wanted to cook something.....which is ALL THE TIME! Maybe I can eve get Haim to do a quick tute for this...
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Scrap soup and composting
Haim has always loved to cook with chicken soup powder. It is how him mom taught him to enhance many foods' flavor, and it does work....none the less, his preferred brand has plenty of junk and MSG...and I don't really like the idea of having it in our food...which otherwise is pretty much all very healthy and home made (with the exception of butterscotch chips, which I'm working on).
When we moved into our new house the first 2 things we did were order our recycling bin from the city and get our compost pile started. Both of these were pretty simple...the order required about 10 seconds on the city website and the compost required choosing a location, raking some leaves up and starting to save our non-meat kitchen scraps to dump daily on the pile. Of course, composting can (and probably should) be a bit more complex, but that was a good basic start...over the next couple of weeks, Haim built a better bin, covered and turned the compost, ect, and is now hunting our local curb sides for an appropriate barrel so that we can have easily turned compost. (On a side note, we have had A LOT of really great curbside trash finds since moving in... great scrap wood for his construction projects and even the makings of a solar box)
I guess one of the points of this wordy ramble is that it's not at all hard to start doing little things that can make a big difference. I was shocked how much food waste we would otherwise have been filling our land fill with...and I'm only cooking for 3! Equally shocking was how good the curbside trash pickings in the area were....easily saving us $200+ that we would have otherwise spent at Home Depot!
Lastly, as I was tossing things into the compost bag, I realized I was tossing a lot of scraps that would be a great base for soup stock...carrot tops and peelings, potato eyes, onion peelings (but not the papery ones), funky bits of tomato, ect...so I started saving all of my soup-type raw veggie scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer. On Friday mornings, when I'm in the kitchen for most of the morning anyway, if I have a full freezer bag I put the contents in a pot, cover it with water, and boil away...maybe adding a bay leaf and some extra garlic cloves. After a while...maybe 40-50 minutes I strain out the veggies and return the scrap stock back to the pot, where I reduce it until it is very concentrated. I let it cool and place it in a small jar in the freezer...when Haim wants his powdered stock, I can direct him to a healthy homemade and free alternative (considering that it is primarily made from refuse). I soak the jar in some hot water to loosen the frozen liquid a bit, and we scoop a spoonful into whatever is being cooked.
These little things don't really make a lot of extra work for us, but do contribute to our household economy, healthy eating, and cut down on the trash we are contributing to our landfills!
When we moved into our new house the first 2 things we did were order our recycling bin from the city and get our compost pile started. Both of these were pretty simple...the order required about 10 seconds on the city website and the compost required choosing a location, raking some leaves up and starting to save our non-meat kitchen scraps to dump daily on the pile. Of course, composting can (and probably should) be a bit more complex, but that was a good basic start...over the next couple of weeks, Haim built a better bin, covered and turned the compost, ect, and is now hunting our local curb sides for an appropriate barrel so that we can have easily turned compost. (On a side note, we have had A LOT of really great curbside trash finds since moving in... great scrap wood for his construction projects and even the makings of a solar box)
I guess one of the points of this wordy ramble is that it's not at all hard to start doing little things that can make a big difference. I was shocked how much food waste we would otherwise have been filling our land fill with...and I'm only cooking for 3! Equally shocking was how good the curbside trash pickings in the area were....easily saving us $200+ that we would have otherwise spent at Home Depot!
Lastly, as I was tossing things into the compost bag, I realized I was tossing a lot of scraps that would be a great base for soup stock...carrot tops and peelings, potato eyes, onion peelings (but not the papery ones), funky bits of tomato, ect...so I started saving all of my soup-type raw veggie scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer. On Friday mornings, when I'm in the kitchen for most of the morning anyway, if I have a full freezer bag I put the contents in a pot, cover it with water, and boil away...maybe adding a bay leaf and some extra garlic cloves. After a while...maybe 40-50 minutes I strain out the veggies and return the scrap stock back to the pot, where I reduce it until it is very concentrated. I let it cool and place it in a small jar in the freezer...when Haim wants his powdered stock, I can direct him to a healthy homemade and free alternative (considering that it is primarily made from refuse). I soak the jar in some hot water to loosen the frozen liquid a bit, and we scoop a spoonful into whatever is being cooked.
These little things don't really make a lot of extra work for us, but do contribute to our household economy, healthy eating, and cut down on the trash we are contributing to our landfills!
Passover...Sweet Success
This is my still-life left-over passover photo...
The highlight of the evening was this train set, bought for Frank in Morocco, which finally arrived along with some spices and carpets...Maya was fascinated by it, as she had never seen a running toy train before, and every else enjoyed the irony of sharing a passover table with GW Bush and Osama bin Laden...especially as Maya kept calling Osama "Obama"!
The highlight of the evening was this train set, bought for Frank in Morocco, which finally arrived along with some spices and carpets...Maya was fascinated by it, as she had never seen a running toy train before, and every else enjoyed the irony of sharing a passover table with GW Bush and Osama bin Laden...especially as Maya kept calling Osama "Obama"!
Lastly, while I was resting yesterday I saw a simple recipe on Martha Stewart for Toffee Chocolate Matzah...I thought it would be fun and simple for Maya and I to do together, so I made some with her....and thank goodness, because the Matzah Baklava was a bit of a flop! I also added roasted, unsalted cashews to on top of chocolate and it was delicious.
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