Tag Archives: food

CSA Update!

In all honesty, I don’t think it would be very hard for me to become a vegetarian.  While I do eat meat, I think giving it up would be easier for me than say, giving up wine. Haha!  That being said, we do eat meat and no one else in the house wants to give it up, so at the very least, I wanted to find an option that made me feel less icky about it. We’ve all seen and heard the articles about how animals are treated, so I’m not going there, but it’s always in the back of my mind and because of that we try to buy organically, but not all the time.  Well, I decided that wasn’t enough, and decided to join a CSA for meat.  If you’re going to eat meat, then grass-fed and organic seems to be the best option. I like knowing where my food is coming from and in turn we also help our local farming community, which seems like a plus.  Also, farm fresh eggs!

Everything has tasted so good.  We’ve had ribs, steaks, brats (different flavors) and burgers and we’re looking forward to chicken in July!

The eggs are also fantastic!  They’re creamier, the colors are also fun, and I like seeing the chickens just out and about when I go pick up from the farm. This is how it should be!!

On that note, it’s been a heck of a technology week, so… over and out!

Buy happy food!

Instant Pot Magic

Okay, so I finally did it… I bought an Instant Pot.  I’m sure you’ve heard of it, unless you’ve been living under a bridge, in which case you should maybe rethink your life choices because I can think of much better places to reside.  Anyhoo, I decided for it’s maiden voyage that we would make mac ‘n cheese because it’s something everyone loves and it seemed simple enough. I apologize in advance for not taking more pictures… if you are ever at our house during mealtimes, you’ll understand why it’s sometimes very difficult to take photos between the distractions of cats and children.

Bottom line, it’s so easy to use and I love all of the settings and how big it is.  Now… is it actually quicker?  Usually, if only by a few minutes.  The one thing you have to take into account is that while it may only take a few minutes to cook something, you have to add in 10-15 minutes for it to actually reach pressure before it starts cooking and then another 10 minutes I think for the pressure to naturally release (NR).  This recipe called for Quick Release (QR) and I was not prepared…  I had to quickly get a towel to cover up a 3 foot steam geyser of a combination of water and butter (which the noodles had been cooking in).  It was messy to say the least.  All in all, though, it took about 15-20 minutes tops to make and it made a huge amount and was super tasty.

I’ve also done hardboiled eggs and they came out almost perfectly… I think I could have done a minute less.  I’m excited to try a whole chicken and I also love that I now have a second slow cooker, because you can use this for that as well!  I can’t wait to try the saute feature and I’m going to try my hand at yogurt soon too, so I’ll share how that turns out. Did I mention it’s easy to clean too?  I think even easier to clean than our rice cooker, so we may get rid of that eventually.

I’m really excited about this kitchen gadget.

 

**The above link is an Amazon Affiliate link, so if you use it, I do get a little kick-back**

Time for sun!

The weekend was cold and blustery, but we did venture out on Saturday for a bad movie day with friends, and then again on Sunday for some shopping. First, however, Josh decided to suprise me with breakfast again!

I admit, I was clueless at first when I started seeing some of the ingredients, but then when he pulled out the deep fryer – I knew. Monte Cristos! Josh decided instead of normal lunch Monte Cristos, to turn them into real breakfast sandwiches, so they were done with eggs, ham, and cheese. Most impressive of all was how he managed to run all of the stations he had set up at one time. 😉

 

I just tried to stay out of the way, flip bacon as needed and play with Ziggy. Who knew that plastic eggs could offer a cat hours of enjoyment?

Oh yeah, and because Josh wasn’t sure the sandwiches were enough, I threw together what we had in the cupboards and made a pear cobbler sort of thing that I baked in the oven. Nothing too impressive, but I can see how good it could be with fresh pears and perhaps a few other additions.

After stuffing ourselves completely, we headed out towards Target, and then made a quick detour. Twice a month or more, we drive past an antique store and finally decided to stop there as well as another antique store. I am now lusting after several vintage purses and a variety of other random items. We didn’t leave empty-handed, though! We found a Strawberry Shortcake glass to add to our collection of 80s cartoon glasses as well as this cute set of encylopedias from 1952 for Mothers and a 1930s Psychology book as well as a 1937 copy of Gone with the Wind.

 

Things that made me happy this weekend

*Taking a much needed break from schoolwork to have an indoor picnic with Josh and play Bananagrams,

 

finally test out the new surround sound. What better way then James Bond?

We also got to use the cedar planks that Josh got as a gift on the grill with some yummy salmon. We used a maple glaze, which was excellent. I have cookbooks, I just haven’t had as much time as I’d like to use them.

  

*Josh made Uzi’s day by letting him get some fresh air outside.

*Josh cooking me a suprise for breakfast.

 

*Waiting patiently for breakfast with Ziggy.

*Josh added a few shelves to the pantry, and I reorganized. I now want to organize everything and get started on Spring cleaning, partially because who knows what we’ll find throughout the house… like these potatoes we forgot we had in the pantry. Left alone much longer they might have fulfilled their evil plans of taking over the world.

 

There’s always something…

So close to having the new speakers and everything hooked up only to get to the last speaker and realize we don’t have enough wire, and we don’t have the right connector for the subwoofer into the receiver. Looks like we’ll be finishing up tomorrow since neither of us feel like driving half an hour to find a store that has what we need. Otherwise it’s schoolwork and all of those other little things that should be done.

We did our usual Sunday breakfast, and now I can’t believe the day is soon to be over. We’re going to watch “Appaloosa” tonight – I’ve been in the mood to watch westerns lately, so we figured we’d give it a try since we both generally like Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris.

How about some yummy breakfast photos? :p

(I love our Hello Kitty Toaster!)