Exceedingly Mundane

But not recipes for Spam!

A couple of random thoughts this morning:

1. I don’t understand people who leave spam on my little blog. I mean, it’s not a high traffic blog, nor does it have anything controversial or even overtly interesting on it. I’m SO grateful for Akismet though - the spam filter I installed a while back to catch all of this nasty spam. I’m constantly amazed and disgusted at the kinds of spam that Akismet catches. Ugh. At least it doesn’t get out there, but I hate seeing it all on my moderation page.

2. I’ve been trying to get back into a cooking groove. For a while now, I’ve just been making things that are easy, or things that I’ve made many times before. I’m making a concerted effort to try new things. Most of them have been winners, although some have been better than others. All of these are new to me, and all are from places online. I have tried to give credit from the website where I found the recipe, but sometimes I don’t always write it down or print it out. I have just entered several recipes on our family website, in the Recipes section. Here’s a sampling of them:

Sausage Calzones, with homemade dough - here

Pizza Pot Pie - here

Butter Honey Wheat Bread - here

Homemade Taco Sauce (here), which I used in this Skillet Taco recipe

I am going to try a new recipe today for a homemade spaghetti sauce. I’m on a kick lately to reduce sodium and cut down on the processed food I buy and use. So many additives in the canned stuff, packet mixes, etc, as well as that nasty high fructose corn syrup. I hope it turns out ok, because I sure do like using jarred spaghetti sauce, it’s so easy!

It’s a little thing, but I’ve decided to go with more glass and less plastic in my kitchen. For quite a while now, I’ve been thinking about trying to get rid of most of my Rubbermaid / Tupperware / Misc Plastic containers. I have read (or as Tim thinks, bought into the hype) that there’s stuff in the plastic that can leach into your food. Plus, plastic gets stained with tomato products like spaghetti, chili, etc. Now, I like plastic for the no-breakage option, but I’m trying really hard to be careful and not chip or break my glass containers.

I bought a couple of 3 pack Pyrex glass storage containers at Walmart to give them a try. A few days later, Tim and I were at Sam’s, and he found this. He came and got me and said, “Let’s get this for you, I think you’ll love it!”. Such a sweetie

I told him, I really don’t need that many containers, nor do I have room for them. But, I started going through my cabinets and decided I could purge some other things that I had. I had a set of stainless /coated storage containers, some ramekins, as well as all of my Rubbermaid containers. Once I cleaned all of them out, I had enough room for all of my red Pyrex glass containers.

I’ve had them a few weeks now, and I really like them. I can mix up something like chicken salad in one of the containers, then just store it in the fridge. I can scoop up leftovers from supper, then when we want to warm them up for lunch the next day, I don’t have to worry about taking them out of the plastic and putting them on something else to warm up (that’s mostly what I had read about plastic, don’t microwave in it and heat them and the contents up). I can pop them in the freezer, I can put them in the dishwasher and they come out looking brand new. I really like this set from Sam’s Club, because I have some rectangular / oblong ones in addition to different sizes of round ones. Lots of variety and lots of storage sizes. All good things

So, here’s a quick question - do you do leftovers at your house? Do you store them in plastic or glass? Do you freeze leftovers?

Have a great, happy, joyous day

I gave Tim a really good list for Christmas this year (well, 2009, still hard to believe it’s 2010), and he did a wonderful job of getting me both things I wanted from my list and surprising me. One of the practical things I asked for was an electric kettle. I have never owned a traditional kettle that you use on the stovetop to boil water. I have always used my microwave to boil water, I don’t know why. But when people are over and it’s cold and everyone wants hot chocolate, it’s hard to boil a lot of water fast for 4 or 5 cups of cocoa.

Enter my new baby! She’s a keeper. She boils water really fast (although she sounds like a freight train after a minute or two), and the water is really hot. Almost too hot. But I can boil enough for a cup of hot cocoa or cider or tea for me, or for a crowd. I know it’s not something I’ll use year round, but it is wonderful to have for the winter. And after all, we’re having a really cold winter around here, so she’s getting a good workout lately. Yep, she’s a keeper

I was surfing around a day or so ago (or maybe checking Twitter, I honestly can’t remember!), and I saw a link to this article, about washing bagged lettuce.

I normally watch The Today Show, so I didn’t see this segment on The Early Show. But, I must admit, I don’t always rewash those bags of pre-washed lettuce. I might think twice now! I try to buy heads of lettuce, or heads of romaine more precisely, and then wash them myself, run them through the salad spinner, and store in a gallon ziploc bag in my produce drawer. I have been buying some of those big plastic tubs of organic lettuce at either my grocery or at Fresh Market (our favorite spot to stop after church on Sunday and pick up food for lunch). I tend to not wash those either, but just pick out the lettuce and make a salad or whatever.

So, how about you… do you wash those pre-washed bags or tubs of lettuce again? Or do you not buy those and just buy heads of lettuce that you do wash yourself? Vote in the poll and let me know!

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Some various, random and assorted items:

I’ve finally gotten my pansies planted. And I want more, but do not want to plant them. I’m ready for perennials and evergreens, everywhere!

Had my first cup of apple cider tonight. Wish it was cooler, but I’ll take what I can get. Up soon, some hot cocoa

Spending too much time farming at Farmville on Facebook. I thought this fad would have passed by now and I would have moved onto something else, but no, still enjoying it

I need new shoes. But I HATE to go shoe shopping. Hate it, loathe it, detest it. I wish I could live my life in tennis shoes. Or flip flops. But they don’t look right with my church clothes or most of my casual clothes

You know, they say that men make the best chefs!

I actually like to cook, and I cook the vast majority of our food. Tim is great about helping out if I ask, although I try not to do that too often. He works really hard to provide us a great life and part of my job is to take care of the house and cooking (easy, huh, I know — I’ve got it made!). He does like to grill and he will always fix food for us when I’m sick or not feeling well. He makes a mean breakfast too!

The other day, he told me that he wanted to make some homemade salsa. We have a neighbor who makes some and brings it down for Tim… it is really hot and spicy and I can’t eat it. But Tim loves it! He said he wanted to try to make some, so I got him some fresh tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and onions at the store over the weekend. He left out the cilantro, as an ode to me who dislikes it intensely! The first batch was really good, we thought. And now, just a couple of days later, he’s made another batch. This time, he’s trying canned tomatoes versus fresh (which we know won’t be as good, but this time of year, a lot cheaper and a lot easier to come by). He’s still tinkering with his spices and proportions, and he hasn’t measured the first thing yet, so a hard and fast recipe is not going to happen. I’m just really enjoying tasting the results and watching him have fun in the kitchen

So, tell me, who does the cooking in your house? Vote or leave me a comment and let me know!

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I go through phases of enjoying cooking, and loving cooking, and then some days, not so much. I love to eat, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t grow up learning how to cook. My mom didn’t teach me much, so I’ve learned slowly, over the years, through trial and error. My mother-in-law has taught me to make many things, including things that my husband likes and grew up with. I’m very blessed to have married a man who is not at all picky (a lot less than me), and who is willing to try most anything. There’s things that Tim does not like to eat and flavors he’s not fond of, but he’s always willing to try something once. That makes my job so much easier, and so much more enjoyable. I like trying new dishes, and I like making his favorites - it’s a win-win thing for me.

My love of cookbooks and recipes goes hand in hand with this whole line of blog-babble! I love cookbooks and always have. I would have dozens more, except I ran out of room for them years ago. One day… one day, I’m going to have a lot more room for books and cookbooks! In the mean time, I “collect” recipes via the Internet, cooking blogs, message boards, forums and many, many favorite food and cooking websites. I print them out, I email them to myself, I bookmark them. I don’t have a great system for the ones I want to try. But, through the years, I have worked hard on a system for recipes that I have tried, and that we’ve liked.

Over a decade ago, I started using Mastercook. And when we talked about setting up our family website, the two main things I wanted were a place to share photos and a place to share recipes. The photos have migrated to other areas (mostly, Flickr and my local drive), but the recipes live on. We had an old recipe system on our website that I liked fairly well. Then… the spammers found it. And they started entering recipes that contained links to spam, and nudie pictures and drug sites and everything else unsavory under the sun. Sheesh, people, get a life! Some of us enjoy cooking and recipes, leave our recipe site alone!

So, my darling webmaster/guru husband installed a new, more secure system on our website a couple of months ago. He converted all 350+ recipes into the new system, those entered by myself, family and friends. I had to go into each recipe and edit it, but that is all done, and we’re now enjoying the new system. Our old system didn’t do photos, but the new one does, so I’ve been happily snapping photos of the food I cook, to add to our recipe database! And, having the new system has also spurred me into trying new recipes …. “so I can enter something on the new recipe system!”. Tim gets a kick out of just how much of a geek I can be on any given day!

Here’s a few pictures of the food I’ve been cooking lately:

And you can find our recipe system here. If you get a chance to visit, I hope you like what you see!

What does this look like to you?

To me, it looks like cough syrup. But, it’s not. It’s what I’ve been putting in my morning coffee for the last few weeks. I have blogged before about my love of flavored coffee creamers in the past, and we’re definitely coming up on my favorite time of year - when Coffeemate brings out their holiday flavors like gingerbread, peppermint, etc. I normally buy other flavors of Coffeemate (as many in the lowfat variety as I can) to use throughout the year. But a few months ago, I tried buying a bottle of flavored syrup at Sam’s Club, and just using fat-free half and half in my coffee. I think the syrup lasts a lot longer and I think it may be a bit cheaper to go this route. Either way, it’s always nice to change things up a bit

This is the cough syrup flavored syrup I’ve been using:

The raspberry tastes good, although I think I like the vanilla and caramel flavored syrups better. I just can’t get past the look of it! It’s a bit disconcerting to put that red syrup in my coffee, it looks just like cough syrup! And, with the red syrup and white half and half, my coffee comes out looking pink! Good thing it tastes good….

Have a wonderful day!

It’s such a little thing, but it makes me so very happy! I love, love, love the seasonal drink from the Sierra Mist people, Cranberry Splash. My memory is really bad, but it seems like it normally shows up in stores around Halloween, or at least before Thanksgiving. Yesterday, yesterday, the first day of fall, I found it in my local super Walmart!

Tim was joking, but he said “you should start stocking up now, you love that stuff so much!”. And you know, he’s right. I do!! I remember distinctly going to the grocery a week or two before Christmas last year, to stock up and buy some before it was gone out of the stores, and it was already gone. I need to start stockpiling the stuff NOW!

Hope you’re having a great day too, and some little insignificant something makes you really happy

I totally and shamelessly stole this from Dawn, when she posted hers here. Thanks Dawn, for letting me hijack your post and steal the idea to use here!

I have several things I’m “into” right now. One of my old faithfuls is Life is Good products. I just ordered some more of their t-shirts, and I would wear nothing but those every day, if I could. They are so soft and so comfortable. I’ve nearly cleaned my closet out of other t-shirts, other than my beloved Life is Good ones. And I have quite the collection now!

Recently, at TJ Maxx, a store I have “turned” Tim onto, he found me these over in the men’s section. Of course, they’re unisex and are for women as much as men They’re quite comfy, and my favorite socks at the moment:

So, how about you… do you have a favorite clothing item or product or brand that you are totally loyal too? Let’s limit it to something you’d be wearing right now. I have a sweatshirt that I could do a whole blog post about, but we’ll save that for colder days

I fix breakfast food for supper regularly at our house. Both Tim and I love breakfast food, of all kinds. He grew up having a large, homemade breakfast every morning. His mom got up before they got on the bus and fixed the works for him - homemade biscuits, eggs, bacon or sausage, grits, etc. Tim would *love* to have that every morning, but I’m just not a morning girl. So I asked him years ago if he’d compromise, and have that kind of food once or twice a week, for supper. He did, and we have breakfast food often.

I go through stages on making pancakes and waffles, in addition to the other typical breakfast fare. I’m in a waffle stage right now. However, my waffle maker is going on 14 years old, and I am thinking it might be time for a new one. If you have a waffle iron that you use and like, would you let me know the brand, and how long you’ve had it? I don’t really care if it’s round versus square, a belgian one or not, I just want one that works well, preferably easy to clean, and hopefully can store upright (when you fold it up, it has a base that will allow it to be stored vertically instead of horizontally). Mine is an Oster brand, and I’m not even sure they make them anymore. It works ok, but it is not browning as well as it used to. Plus, the no-stick is long gone. I spray the iron each time with cooking spray before pouring on the batter. Or else, I have a mess on my hands!

Oh, and since I’ve been on a roll lately, let’s do a poll too:

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I have a long standing love affair with Chinese food. I never tried Chinese food until college, but liked it then. I didn’t get to go very often - until I started dating Tim. He goes through phases now, but when we met, he really loved going to eat Chinese. He taught me to eat with chopsticks on about our third or fourth date. To this day, I always eat that kind of food with chopsticks. We always ask in restaurants if they don’t bring them out, and we have a nice set at home that we use.

It’s funny, because Tim knows how much I love Chinese. We go to restaurants, and we get take-out, and I even do some easy Chinese type dishes at home to satisfy my cravings. Tim always knows that if he asks, I will always accept his offer to go out to eat Chinese. Tim has called on the way home from work before, with my having already started or finished cooking supper and said “Do you want to go eat Chinese tonight?” The answer is always, always - Yes! I have put up supper in tupperware containers for the next night and washed a sink full of dishes from cooking, then gone out to eat Chinese, LOL!

Anyway, like most people, we always have fun opening up our fortune cookies at the end of the meal, to see what we got. We went to a Chinese buffet for lunch a couple of weeks ago, when my dad was here and Tim’s dad was in the hospital. We all opened our fortune cookie before we left, and we were dumbfounded by one of them. We still can’t figure it out. It has to be some kind of misprint. I just don’t get it. Like I told Tim, maybe it means something in Chinese, but it is totally lost in the translation. Then again, it’s probably just a crappy fortune

See if you can decipher it, and see who lucked out with the bad one!

My Dad’s says - Find release from your cares, have a good time.

Mine says - Fame and fortune are coming your way.

Tim’s says - I spent the time prepare the song, while the song is not being sung.

And for bonus points, vote in the poll!

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When I met Tim, I didn’t drink coffee or tea. When we were dating, I started drinking sweet tea (it has to have sweetener in it, I can’t drink it unsweetened). I learned to drink the occasional hot tea over the years, mostly in the winter to warm up, or if I wanted something for a sore throat. I went about nine long years before I ever ventured into the coffee world. I remember it clearly - we were on vacation in Texas and for some reason, Tim kept badgering me to try coffee. I have learned to drink it over the years - again, like tea, it has to be highly sweetened and it must have a lot of creamer in it. Tim jokingly calls it “hot cocoa” because he said it doesn’t resemble coffee by the time I’m finished with mixing stuff in it. I call it “beige” or “khaki” because it has to look a very light color and not smell much like coffee for me to be able to knock it back Tim, on the other hand, only drinks it black.

When Tim started working part-time from home, we started making more coffee on a regular basis. When he proceeded to working full-time from home, our coffeemaker went into overdrive. We make, on average, 12 cups a day, 7 days a week, in our trusty little Cuisinart coffee pot. In case you’re math-challenged, that’s 84 cups a week. Needless to say, we go through a lot of coffee! And not just any coffee. Tim is very particular about his beans. He likes them dark and rich, a very good roast. We started out with Community Coffee and he was okay with that for a while. Somewhere along the way, he decided that wasn’t what he wanted, and we progressed to other beans and brands. We settled, surprisingly enough, on a whole bean from Sam’s Club - their Marques de Pavia brand (however you spell it!). We’ve been buying beans there, faithfully, for several years. The main thing I liked about buying our coffee there, was that it was in larger quantities, which we so desperately needed. Not to mention that it was cheaper than other brands. When our Fresh Market opened a year ago, we started buying beans occasionally in there, just to try. So far, Tim has liked all of them (no flavored beans, no decaf beans, please). But, they’re pricey, 9.99 a pound.

Then, around Christmas, I started having trouble finding our whole beans at Sam’s Club. I thought, it’s Christmas, they’ll get them back in soon. We bought beans at other places and “made do.” Then weeks turned into months, and we could never find our favorite beans. We had to even go so far as to start buying Starbucks at Sam’s Club. Much more costly, and honestly, I don’t like their coffee as much. I think the beans themselves smell bitter and too strong and I was not fond of the final product either (although Tim liked it). We were both so tickled to go into our Sam’s this past weekend, and find that they were once again carrying the Marques brand of bean. They had a breakfast blend, a medium blend, a French Roast blend, and Tim’s favorite - the dark roast. I tried to talk him into trying a different one, but he was happy to go back to his old standard. We “only” bought two bags. I’m hoping we didn’t make a mistake and they stop carrying them again, or they run out. We were both so happy to find them again - we’ve both mentioned it several times to each other since shopping there that “oh, I’m so glad to have our coffee back”. Yes, we’re nerds on a much grander scale than you know!

So, how about you? Are you a coffee drinker? A tea drinker? Both? Neither? Vote in the poll and leave me a comment if you want. I’m sure none of you are as avid about your drinks as we are (don’t get me started on the obscene amount of Coke Zero we purchase, that’s a whole ‘nother post!!!)

Cheers!

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Our website, and therefore my blog, was down during Super Bowl weekend, but I wanted to go back and post a little about it. We had a really good time, as always, and a house full this year. All of Tim’s family and my dad came, which was great. My dad will turn 86 in April, so it’s really good that he’s still able to get out and about, and come visit us a bunch. We also had some friends and extended family here. All in all, I think we had about 20 people or so.

Tim and I went on Saturday to Sam’s Club and bought food for the party. Note to self - if you take Tim, expect to load up on meat. It was definitely a male-oriented, cholesterol laden, meat festival at our house on Sunday. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, smoked sausage, 3 flavors of wings (thanks Terry!), a sausage stuffed/bacon wrapped concoction (thanks Mark!) that I dubbed the Bacon-ator. We had Lil’ Smokies, a meat and cheese platter, a vegetable tray, several kinds of dips and chips, Chex Mix, potato salad, fruit, and a double decker cookie cake for dessert. I had three things that I had planned for later in the day (game time or half time), but everyone filled up at lunchtime on the food we had, then nibbled throughout the afternoon and early evening. So, I put those into the freezer and we’ll have to plan another party so we can eat that food up As it is, Tim and I have been eating leftovers all week, which has been wonderful. I got out of cooking for many days! Since we purchased everything and Tim did the grilling, I was home free for this year’s party. I think that’s definitely the way to go, at least for me! Isn’t that terrible. You’d think I’d want to cook for 20 or more people, huh?!

I took a few videos of the guys playing Madden 09 on the Wii, but I’m not going to post those. They’re funny though Here’s a couple of still photos that I took. We had enough 3-D glasses for everyone, and big kids and little kids alike had a good time playing with them and waiting for the 3D commercial

Here’s the first round of meat on the grill…. 22 burgers, some of the sausage and hot dogs. Tim filled it up a second time!

Lots of Electronic toys here: Wii playing, iPod Touch, iPhones, Nintendo DS’s…

Having fun with 3D glasses:

I’ve lost count on what consecutive party this is that we’ve had. Tim and I have been married almost 13 years, so I’d say we have had a party at least 10 of those 12 years, and maybe 11 of those. We plan to have one next year. Unless the Saints go to the Super Bowl. If Tim’s beloved Saints ever make it, we have already told everyone we will not be having a party. We’ll lock every door in the house and tell people to go away, so we won’t miss a second of the game! As it is, I don’t get to watch a lot of the pregame or game (I did finally sit down and watch some of the second half this year though, it was a really good game). I didn’t get to see Faith Hill or Jennifer Hudson sing beforehand, and I missed the halftime show, which was fine because I’m not a Springsteen fan. I did watch the 3D commercial though. Gotta have your priorities straight. Anyway, we’re already missing football season around here. Training camp can’t come soon enough!

If you visit here much, you’ve probably read a reference or two to the fact that Tim is working from home full-time. We both love it, especially me! It’s been such a blessing to have him here, and for us to be able to spend so much time together. We converted one of our spare bedrooms years ago into a computer room/scrapbook room. Since we run our own website (Hambones.org), we have several computers back there already. When he started working from home part-time, he worked some in the den and kitchen, but that is hard on your back to sit for long periods of time at a non-computer chair/desk. Then, he moved to the computer room/office and we got me a laptop to use in the den and kitchen (where I spend most of my time anyway!). We have a computer desk and chair, but the chair is probably 11 or 12 years old and not ergonomic in any way.

Tim has been having problems with his upper back and shoulders for nearly two weeks now. Yesterday, he got up and decided to go to the doctor to get it x-rayed and checked out. But, by lunchtime, he talked himself out of going, saying it was starting to feel better. He’s been using a heating pad, and we have been applying those heat patches to his back a couple of times a day. FYI - Tim is not a guy who gets sick or has physical problems. He’s as healthy as an ox. When he gets a headache, he doesn’t even like to take a Tylenol. He prefers to just “tough it out”.

Anyway, I suggested that maybe it was time to look at getting a) a new computer chair for him to sit in all day and maybe b) a new mattress for our bed. Our mattress is 9 or 10 years old - does anyone know if that’s about the lifespan of a mattress/box springs?

So, last night, we went and got Tim a new chair. He picked it out, and then when we got it home, I was told that I was going to be putting it together!

Tada - instead of Tim "Tool Time", we have Stacy Tool Time...

Concentrating (I normally stick my tongue in the side of my mouth when I concentrate!)

Posing

So, now Tim has a nice new chair to sit in all day. And at night, he works nights sometimes too, like last night. Poor thing. I’m so proud of him, he works so hard to support us and give us a comfortable, happy life

P.S. Tim said to add that he “loves a woman who can build a chair!!”