Snow Lanterns

We've been making snow lanterns at our place. We read about them in a Tasha Tudor book and had to try it for ourselves. The hard part is waiting for there to be enough snow and then waiting for it to get dark to put the candles in them! You just build little igloos out of snowballs, leaving an opening, and then put a small candle inside. Love it!

Nigella* has nothing on Nigel

If you read my blog, you know that I'm constantly struggling with staying within my food budget. Well, I've given up. I've turned over all cooking and shopping duties to my husband, Nigel.

Why I didn't do this years ago, I don't know.

He is an awesome cook and can make a dollar stretch like nobody's business. It's also nice to just turn to him and say, "Hey, what's for dinner?" And unlike me (where the answer is usually, "Whatever you can find under the couch cushions" or "Shake the toaster, that's dinner"), he actually makes something!

Also, my cooking experiences often turn out like this recent episode:

I was making rice krispy treats (simple, right?) and I was melting the marshmallows and butter over the stove. I was stirring and stirring and there was still this lump of marshmallow that would just not melt! What was the deal? It's never taken this long. I pulled out the spatula I was using to stir in order to turn up the heat and that's when I noticed that the rubber/plastic/silicone part of the spatula was missing! That wasn't a clump of marshmallow -- it was melted spatula!

I had always had those heat resistant spatulas -- but I guess this one wasn't! Gross! I had to dump it in the trash, clean the pot and start all over again.

Is it any wonder I've given up on cooking?

*Referring to Nigella Lawson, the "Barefoot Contessa." I like watching her cooking show just because her voice is so soothing (it's more relaxing than yoga!).

Yummy Bread Pudding

Last night at book club one of the ladies brought the yummiest dessert. It's a bread pudding made with croissants -- genius!!! Here's the recipe:

BREAD PUDDING

In a 9x13 pan layer 8 buttered croissants sliced open face up. Sprinkle white chocolate chips and layer again.

In a bowl mix:
8 Large eggs
1 Cup Sugar
3 Cups Heavy Cream
2 tsp. Vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Pour over bread and smash down using a spoon making sure all gets soaked. Let Stand for 30 Minutes.

Bake at 350 for 1hr 30 min in a larger pan water bath (half full) -- covered with foil. Take foil off the last 7 or 8 minutes.

Sauce:
1 Cube Real butter
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1 tsp. Vanilla Bean Paste

Dissolve and Melt in Microwave. Do not boil.

Add any desired fruit last.

We did not have it with any fruit, but it was so, so, so, so good. She said that you can get vanilla bean paste at those fancy gourmet kitchen stores.

By the way, this month we're reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I am loving it and it's one of those books that you can't put down. I can't wait to find out what was in that pie (Don't tell me!).

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publishing of the book "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I first read this book in high school and absolutely fell in love with it. In fact, I started a "Boo Radley Fan Club" (our logo was a bloody pair of scissors) and even dressed up as Mayella Ewell for my 10th grade yearbook photo.

This was way before the band "The Boo Radleys" was around -- I must admit that once they came on the scene, it took the wind out of my sails (people would think I was a fan of the group, not the book).

Recently, I read the book again for my book club. It was just as great as I remembered it. For our book club discussion, we watched the movie. The movie is almost as good as the book. Who cannot love Gregory Peck as Atticus?

Anyway, happy anniversary!

Freecycle Follies

If you don't know what Freecycle is, it's a Web group where people in a certain area post items that they want to give away or items that they would like to get (and everything must be free). Most people just check the posts on the Freecycle Web page, but I somehow signed up to get all the postings e-mailed to me. This is becoming a pain because every day I get about 200 e-mails from people who are either trying to get rid of stuff, want stuff, received stuff, or are waiting for people to pick stuff up. The bad thing is, the Web site no longer recognizes me as a "freecycler," so I can't change my settings!

Anyway, the fun part is that while I'm wasting precious minutes of my day deleting all the e-mails, I come across some very amusing ones. Granted, they're not amusing in what they're trying to give away (it's always baby clothes or furniture or non-working computers), but what's amusing is how it shows up on the truncated subject line of my e-mail list.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Wanted: Electric Hair

Offer: Bag of various boys

Taken: Slightly used woman

Too much of a veg for veggies

So I got my second basket of produce on Saturday afternoon and I made the mistake of not putting it away in the fridge fast enough (give me a break, my bananas from last week's basket just barely got ripe!). Anyway, I went to put them in the fridge Sunday morning and the strawberries and Swiss chard were already moldy! Snapdragon!

I'm not good with produce. I end up throwing most of it away because I don't eat it fast enough or it never gets ripe or I picked a bad one to begin with.

I give up.

Vegging Out

On a friend's recommendation, I tried out this produce co-op . It costs $16.50 a basket (plus a one-time $3.00 sign-up charge) and this is what I got:

1 bag cherries
10 bananas
1 bag grapes
1 cantaloupe
11 peaches
17 small plums
4 tomatoes
3 avocados
2 stalks broccoli
1 bag baby carrots
1 large head romaine lettuce
1 small bag green beans

I can't get my kids to stop eating the grapes and cherries (I'm finding cherry pits all over the house). The bananas and avocados still need to ripen, so it'll be a while before we can eat those. The cantaloupe was delicious (we ate it as part of our Father's Day breakfast). The broccoli was great (I used it in our Father's Day chicken divan recipe). The romaine lettuce, baby carrots and tomatoes are good (used in our Father's Day salad). We're looking forward to using the green beans (along with potatoes and onions) in a German recipe that Nigel is famous for.

So here's my predicament: the peaches and plums aren't even close to being ripe (and they don't ripen if you just let them sit out -- they'll get softer, but not sweeter). So I'm going to have to cook them to use them up. I know that I can make a good peach cobbler, but what should I do with the plums? Any ideas?

"Running" a 5K

A few days ago I "ran" a 5K.

You'll notice that the word "ran" is in quotes because let's be honest, there's very little running going on when I'm doing it. It's more like a slow, agonizing jog or a very fast walk.

And this was a very BIG race with actual numbers on our chests and timers on our shoes. Very high tech. The best part is that I finished in about 6 1/2 minutes UNDER my goal time and I saw lots of my friends in the race (mostly I saw them as they were all PASSING me by).

Nigel and the kids were there to cheer me on and it was a lot of fun. We've decided that next time we'll ALL run/jog/walk together as a family.

The last time I did one was in 1985. I thought this would hold me for another 25 years, but it was so much fun, I can't wait to do another.

You can take the girl out of food storage, but you can't take food storage out of the girl

So it's finally June and I can go back to the grocery store!

A few days ago I had my first shopping outing and I was envisioning a shopping cart overflowing with delicious easy-to-prepare items.

Not quite.

After hitting the much-missed produce section, my mind was a complete blank on what to buy! I realized that most of what I buy I don't really need and left the store with only two bags.

Even yesterday, I made sloppy Joes with freeze-dried chicken chunks, canned sauce, freeze-dried mozzarella cheese and some hamburger buns that were left over from a neighborhood barbecue.

Oh well.

Final Analysis Revisited

I can't believe I forgot the two most important things I learned in my "living off my food storage for the month of May" experiment:

-- Even though making a bed out of #10 cans seems like a good way of storing your supplies in a small space, GETTING at them is a whole other story. After a few days of getting all the stuffed animals off the bed, moving the mattress (is there anything harder to maneuver than a mattress?), tackling the bed board, then trying to remember where that specific can is (even though I had made a map beforehand, it was still horrible), I decided it was easier just to go hungry.

-- Make sure to include some snacks in your food storage plan (cookies, crackers, fruit snacks, etc.). Making dinner takes a LOT longer when everything's from scratch (including grinding your own flour) and your kids will eventually sneak into your pantry and eat your entire supply of chocolate chips if you don't have some quick snacks on hand.