Saturday, December 4, 2010

Food Again


Allow me to apologize.  I know many of you enjoy coming here to drool over my descriptions and pictures of the wonderful produce, meats and other local products we buy at the farmers' markets, and the delicious dishes Miss Chef whips up at home.

I have neglected you.

Not only did this blog turn into "I ♥ Cute Kitteh" for awhile, but I let Thanksgiving pass on by without a single photo of our food.  However, there is good reason for that--Miss Chef went to visit her family and took the camera with her.  Which meant not only no camera, but no Miss Chef in the kitchen! 

I must say I acquitted myself ably with the bit of turkey I prepared, but mostly because Miss Chef set me up--she broke down the 19-pound bird and left me with the brine for the breast and leg quarter we were roasting.  Mom made the pies (as I notice Rosie already told you), and we collaborated on the gravy.

Then we schlepped it all over to our friends' home and had a wonderful time eating, drinking and talking.

However, I will not leave you completely adrift, for we have spent a bit of time in the kitchen here and there.  For example, instead of busting down the doors at Best Buy, Mom and I dedicated our post-turkey weekend to taking care of the half bushel of apples remaining from Miss Chef's and my anniversary trip a month earlier!  Thanks to lots of help from both my parents, a day and a half of labor resulted in a ready platoon of fall goodness in glass. 



From left to right, you're looking at apple pie filling, some weird stuff I made from leftovers of apple pie filling, and the infantry of applesauce.  Nine quarts of applesauce, to be exact.  That's a lot of applesauce.  So much that today, a week later, it's still sitting on the counter as we ponder where exactly to store it all!

Thankfully, Miss Chef came safely back to me at the end of the weekend, and we all tried to settle back into our "normal" routines.  Back in my cubicle one afternoon, I got a call from Miss Chef at home.  "You know you're pushing it, calling at 4:30 at month-end," I grumbled into the phone.  But I quickly forgave her, because she was calling to ask me to pick up an ingredient for the potato soup she was making.

Here's the last bowlful, which I enjoyed tonight, after freezing my extremities walking Rosie in an icy-cold rain.


I enjoyed it with a glass of sweet, local and unpasteurized apple cider.  After we'd bought two quarts at the farmers' market, Miss Chef remembered she could freeze it, so back we went to buy two more!

Speaking of farmers' markets, I somewhat guiltily showed up today at our super-local Matthews Farmers' Market for the volunteer thank-you "lunch."  I put lunch in quotes because it was served at 10:30.  And I say guiltily because I've hardly been to the market since August.

Chef Adam came through for the market once again, serving up a hot potato-chili bar with all the fixin's.  Most unfortunately, Miss Chef was volunteering at the school, so was unable to join me.  Sadly, she wasn't the only one with prior commitments, and the turnout was small.


Can you tell how cold it was?  Apparently there were a few snowflakes spotted earlier during the market!  So we ate our chili quickly!  Even though the crowd was sparse and our fingers frozen, the sincere thanks from both the market coordinator and the farmers kept us warm enough...at least for a little bit.

Oh, and how's this for the most awesome Christmas present?  Jenifer Mullis of Laughing Owl Farms brought each volunteer a dozen fresh eggs in thanks. I've already cracked one open; the yolk was a beautiful bright orange.

I say "was" because I quickly mixed it into cookie dough!


Yeeeah, snickerdoodles!!  Miss Chef's are the best, but I thought I'd give her a hand this year, and get a jump on the holiday baking.  I was in the mood.

Anticipation...


Ah, but here's where Miss Chef's brilliance shows itself.  I only baked about 10 cookies tonight.  The rest?  Formed, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and...


Into the freezer.  Anytime we want fresh, warm cookies, it only takes about 12 minutes.  Pop a half-dozen in the hot oven after you pull dinner out, and you couldn't ask for a better dessert.

Or, um, we could, y'know, bake them off in a couple of weeks as Christmas gifts.  If we wanted. ;-)

12 comments:

  1. Those preserves look just so tasty! I love apples, and this year I tried making apple butter for the second time. (The first time will not be spoken of...) It worked, to my relief, and I have steadily eaten my way through all 8 jars ever since - with peanut butter on crispy corn cakes for breakfast on about 57 consecutive days. I am a woman who loves her routines!

    Freezing the snickerdoodles is a very tantalizing and dangerous idea. Warm cookies for dessert every day? Yum!

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  2. I was not hungry. Now I am very hungry! Could I say anything better about this post?! And I agree with Miriam... time to mix some, bake some, freeze some cookies!

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  3. There you go again making me hungry. Not sure if it was the soup, or the chili or the cookies, but me thinks it's time to at least make some toast now. :) If I lived closer I'd be at your house a lot!!! :)

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  4. Another idea I'm going to have to steal from you! Freezing cookie dough! You girls sure know how to eat well.

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  5. Yep. Me, too. HUNGRY! Nothing of interest in the kitchen, guess I'd better go shopping. I'm in the midst of farmland but have yet to find the farmer's market, or even a place to buy farm fresh eggs. All I can do is come here, then drool on my keyboard.

    Sigh.

    Nancy in Iowa

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  6. You know whenever you put FOOD in the title, I come running. Would love to sit down to apple cider, potato soup, and snickerdoodles.

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  7. I wrote you a letter for my blog post today...

    http://eternallizdom.blogspot.com/2010/12/traders-point-creamery-dear-flartus.html

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  8. For the record, I was okay with I heart Cute Kitteh. ;)

    Glad you had a good Thanksgiving... and looks like you've been extremely productive. Holy moly on those apples.

    Thank you, thank you very much. I am now starving after looking at that potato soup and your snickerdoodles. :D

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  9. Hey Sugar Bean,

    We loved the pix of kitteh in all her smokey glory. We too have been spending lots of time in the kitchen. Doncha just love the heart of the home? My next adventure will be canning; if I can keep our winter garden going.

    Ta Ta For Now,
    Mal

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  10. FABULOUS post! The applesauce and pie filling were beautiful. I didn't get around to canning any of our abundance of apples, though. Sure wish I would have. I ended up cutting up most of them for the freezer, and then we ate the rest for after dinner desserts, as in apple crumble, apple crisps, apple turnovers, and apple crepes. Now we onlyhave about 4 gallon size bags left....and a few gallons on our hips. lol!

    It sure looked cold at the market. Wow! Brrr! What folks will endure to enjoy a tasty meal, eh? :D

    I'm glad you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and have moved on to making Snickerdoodles...mmmmmm!
    I've not had any for years. What a brilliant idea to freeze them, too.

    I should try that, because whenever I try to bake cookies and plan on freezing them after the fact, they are all gobbled up by my 3 kidlets. If I freeze them before baking, maybe I'll actually be able to save some for later. Yay!

    Wonderful pictures, too, by the way.

    The one with the black dish and white dish rimmed in black was so Yin and Yang-ish.
    Artsy Fartsy cookie Foto! hehe!

    ~Lisa

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  11. Canned apples AND snickerdoodles-- YUM, two of my favorites.
    Enjoy, jj

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  12. PS Thanks for your terrific comment on my "perfect moment" post. Your special moment, feeling content and KNOWING it at the time is awesome. Thanks for sharing it with us.
    xo jj

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