Sunday, January 30, 2011

2011 Week 4 Eating


Sunday - I made a HUGE chicken pot pie with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, lots of veggies and homemade stock for the sauce. It was COTC (clean out the cupboard) for the pastry, I had a box of Robin Hood which I used to make the top. It was delicious! And it also was served 2 lunches.
And I also made these cinnamon cream cheese breakfast bars for during the week. They were very good, but run rather expensive since they use refrigerated rolls. I might try making them with phyllo pastry in future.

Monday - leftover chicken pot pie.

Tuesday - pigs' hocks with Brussel sprouts and boiled potatoes. They were a little dry as I had cooked them on Sunday thinking to reduce the time.

Wednesday - spaghetti and sauce. DH has been stocking up on sauce when it is on sale.

Thursday - Again, COTC, made Spanakopita from Kevin's Closet Cooking. Since finding this recipe I haven't used another one. The phyllo pastry was in the freezer, the spinach and feta were bought for this and we had leftover tzatziki to serve with it.

Friday - ordered chicken kickers and pizza from Dominos.

Saturday - made a big lamb curry using up whatever we had which meant carrots and potatoes with homemade chicken stock. Served over rice and with naan bread from freezer.

2011 Week 3 Eating

So the plans for this week were:

Sunday - boneless rib roast (bought yesterday on special for $11 and cut into 3 portions for 2 of us) with broccoli and potatoes. The gravy was made from homemade beef stock that had been frozen in an icecube tray so was very easy to take some out to use.
I also made a raspberry banana cake using previously frozen bananas and raspberries from the freezer.
It made 2 loaves so we froze one. It was definitely a keeper!

Monday - chicken thighs (from freezeer stockpile) in oven with roast potatoes and corn with (feeling lazy) VH strong garlic sauce from a jar. Was terrible no flavour at all.

Tuesday - DH away on business. Dinner out with a GF.

Wednesday - DH only home after 9PM fried egg sandwiches.

Thursday - Take out fish and chips.

Friday - was supposed to be soup night but decided to use more of the freezer stockpile and had homemade pizza. Only purchase required was green peppers and mushrooms everything else was in freezer.

Saturday - steak

New Blogs This Week



Cow patty Surprise

http://www.cathyhasantsypants.com/

The Spotted Canary

Greens and Chocolate

Saturday, January 29, 2011

365 Decluttering - Week 4

This was a very productive week, not sure I can exactly outline each day's decluttering items, as it was a very hectic week workwise.
However, one of the charities that pick up in the area called last week-end and said they would be picking up on January 28 so this is what we put out.





Thursday Jan 27 - we went quickly through our closets and managed to pile this up for tomorrow's charity pick up.


Sunday - I worked on the kitchen drawer. I emptied everything out and then scrubbed the cutlery tray.


Items to go!



The rest of the week was mostly paper - 2010 bills, statements etc. were cleared out.

Saturday Jan 29 - more paper work weed through and DH's business files set up.

A very satisfying week of decluttering!

Saturday Shoes - Arachova Greece

More cheerful boots.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Wednesday's Words - Typo

At work this week someone wrote "To ensure that persons do not loose out when we win the $50 million, I am asking that you agree to enter the pool for a month. For the month of January each person is ask to contribute $3."

In the Toronto Star under the comments:
when ford meets blair.......the ladder will find out who is his boss.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

365 Decluttering - Week 3

So far so good, it is nice getting everything sorted and cleaned. Because, of course, when you start emptying stuff you then end up cleaning it out.

Perfect example on Sunday I decided to go through my bowl of match books from various places. This meant emptying it out, taking photos of the interesting ones, washing the bowl. Now I need to see if there is any value to some of these.

Sunday - match books - found several cards etc that didn't belong in there. Garbage.
Also found some old pens and stuff in my camera bag that were broken.
A box in my box collection that didn't mean anything to me and also was way too big for my collection criteria - charity pile.
Sorted through the stuff on shelf as you come in the door, various keys were collected and put in 1 place - the sewing machine drawer. Will need to find a use for these.
Found an old timer in the drawer - charity.
Wanted to make a cake that used molasses, however it ended up being thrown out as it expired in 2007!
Have another bread recipe that requires orange peel so when we finished our oranges I took the peel and chopped it in blender and it is now in the freezer for whenever we need it!


Monday - 2 books received as a gift that I know I will never read. Likely given to a friend who will like them.

Tuesday - put on white shirt for work and decided I didn't like the fit. Charity.

Wednesday - straps that are supposed to keep your fitted sheets on the bed. Charity.

Thursday - incense???? Why did I have this in the kitchen?

Friday - 3 months of old cable magazine and 1 2010 calendar. Recycle.

Saturday - monthly 2010 house bills entered on spreadsheet and shredded.

New Blogs This Week

Thrift Chicks
Love her title and page
Jenn from You Know...That Blog

JennyMac is one seriously funny lady!

And a couple of ladies from Ontario!

Vintage Gal

The Summer Porch

This has tons of blogging tips

Saturday Shoes

I broke down and bought myself a pair of boots the other day and HAD to buy this bag to carry them home in.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Wednesday's Words - No Words

There are no words to describe what I watched yesterday as one of Toronto's finest was laid to rest.












Monday, January 17, 2011

Monday's Child - Athens Greece

The dogs in Athens are so well behaved and wander the streets. They are gentle and sleep wherever they want. The city takes care of them, ensuring they have checkups.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Some new blogs this week

Mennonite Girls Can Cook has some great recipes especially soups.

http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com/ has a soup called itlaian One Night Stand soup!

A blog by a woman licing life as if it was 1957.


Tender Crumb was found when I was googling whether I could make bread pudding from cake.

and I will definitely be trying her apple cake recipe! And these muffins!

365 Decluttering - Week 2

Sunday
While looking for something else, came across old digital camera that I thought we had already gotten rid of. Found a 2GB card in it and added it to our others.

DH went through some old CDs with obsolete software that went into the garbage.

Two shirts into the charity pile.

Decided to go through the fridge and cupboards to take stock (see this related post).
Combined the 2 open maple syrups into the favoured container and discarded the other container.
Threw out the jar of tahini as it had no expiration date and I have no idea how long its been there.
Also thrown out was a jar of Coleman's mustard - not the dry kind, I am ashamed to admit that the best by date was 2002!

Also found was a pastry mix - will be used for chicken pot pie shortly.
A biryani mix - which will also be used soon.
One old baking powder tin went into the garbage as there was a new unopened one. As well as the sticky sesame jar. OH and I found a new sesame jar unopened with expiry date of late 2010, will hang on to it for now.

Need to find a use for some of the cereal we bought because it was on special that we don't really like.
Emptied opened box into container.
Used the box as a temporary home for all the loose hot chocolates there were there. When I go to the Dollar store I will get a basket to hold these loose items.

Found a jar of kalbi jiim that can be used to make Korean spare ribs using this recipe. I just won't be making the sauce from scratch this time.

Why do we have a fajita kit when we normally make them from scratch? Use this up shortly.

There is also a jar of marmalade that I wanted to make cranberry muffins with orange marmalade glaze from http://www.eatathome.com/. And/or perhaps these orange marmalade cranberry sweet rolls. Or perhaps vegan-recipe-damp-orange-cake-with-marmalade-glaze or even chocolate-cranberry-orange-marmalade-cookies from a new blog  In the Kitchen with Polly I just found.

Put the opened bag of noodles into the correct container.

I have a container from a gift of scotch that my husband received from a neighbour as a thank you for being his computer tech support throughout the year that I want to use for storage but not sure for what as I already have one I use for spaghetti.


Next large job to tackle is spice organization!

Monday - Wore my black turtleneck to work and now it is in the charity pile. It reminded me of an an article I read about turtlenecks being one of the worst things to wear so it is gone!

Tuesday - found my new winter coat, purple!! Old coat immediately into charity pile.

Wednesday - found 2 little purses/bags I bought in Greece and brought them in for 2 coworkers.

Thursday - randomly found an orange shirt I don't like. Gone.

Friday - sorted through the vitamin collection, combined and discarded some.
Took the juice container and the measuring container from the hand blender and will put in the basement to see if I miss them.

Saturday - Phoned friend's daughter that is moving into her own place at end of month and offered some kitchen stuff. She will be getting 2 small round Pyrex dishes that i never use which were taking up room on top shelf of cupboard.
I aslo decided I did not need 2 thermos warmers. I got rid of the green one as it was marked inside. I love using these for gravy for a large crowd, so much more sensible than a gravy boat!

Pondering
2 year collection of Photoshop magazines  - keep/sell/give away?? Just checked out their website and it really has everything one would need on it, tutorials etc. Also looked on Ebay and saw lots of back issues for sale with no takers.

Sunday Skies - Kona Hawaii

Taken from the deck of our condo in Kona on the Big Island.


Saturday, January 15, 2011

2011 - Week 2 Eating

On Sunday I looked through the freezer for something for dinner. Normally I'm an old-fashioned type and love to do a roast on a Sunday. We thought we'd have steaks but didn't have any potatoes or crusty bread in the house. DH suggested going out to get them but I said, no there is so much stuff here let's just make do.
So again, we had sausages with pita and tzatziki, making use of our stockpile again.
Once this pile goes down a bit I'll be more creative and interesting.

While freezer diving I found 2 packages of oxtails for soup. They were frozen but I put some olive oil in a pan and browned them with some garlic, onion and a carrot. When they unfroze I separated them and continued the browning process. Then I added water, salt, pepper, bay leaves, thyme, sundried tomatoes (because I had a jar from a gift in the fridge) and let it simmer away. Barley and carrots were added to finish the dish.

DH decided to make some popcorn from a free sample of microwave popcorn we had gotten. Another good reason for decluttering... it stunk up the house and was uneatable as well as having a July 2010 best by date. Have I mentioned how much I HATE microwave popcorn anywhere near me? It is the most grotesque smelling!

Monday - leftover pea soup as DH decided.
Tuesday - Steak sandwiches using up leftover frozen steak.

Wednesday - Takeout fish and chips  from Olde Yorke - was soooo good. I took the photo only after I was half way through it.

Thursday - DH away on business and I went out for drinks and nibbles with 2 friends.

Friday - Ox tail soup and biscuits. DH had been in Montreal on business and didn't arrive home until 9 pm so soup was perfect.
I also started out to make aloo gobi to use up the cauliflower but added too much liquid so instead made a curry potato and cauliflower soup for during the week.

Saturday - Since it is a cold snowy day I'll make my tried and true favourite shepherd's pie made with lamb. I use Emeril's recipe with ground lamb and homemade lamb stock. I also add some nutmeg for an interesting twist.
Again using up some stuff already in freezer - the lamb and the stock..


Some new blogs/sites



These are some new blogs/sites I found recently. I find them either from other blogger links or when reading Comments and clicking on interesting commenters.

Peachy Chic is a shop with DIY jewelry and ready made pieces. They also carry purses.
I'm not a quilter but I have friends that are.Fabric Worm carries some amazing fabrics.
Jen at Fortysomething has a blog called Food and Whine.
Domestically Speaking has a fun blog.
Honey, We're Home has a closet makeover.
Steamy Kitchen isn't a new blog to me but I did think her recipe for egg rolls today looked really good!
Tales of Fruit and Cake tells a hysterical story about being locked in.

Hop on over to Ikea hacker to vote for the best hacker idea.

Saturday Shoes - Istanbul

So cute!


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Wendesday's Words - Typos



Some typos encountered this week.

On a news banner on CBC: Supervivor

While reading a blog: Idol threat when it should have read idle threat.

In Sunday's Toronto Star article on regifting. The sentence read  "Share: If you can’t bear to regift you can’t still put the presents to good use." It should have read '...you CAN still put...".

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Thirsty Tuesday - Anacortes, WA

Anacortes is on Fidalgo island in the state of Washington. Anacortes is known for the Washington State Ferries dock and terminal serving Lopez Island, Shaw Island, Orcas Island, and San Juan Island, as well as Victoria, British Columbia (via Sidney, British Columbia) on Vancouver Island.
The name "Anacortes" is a consolidation of the name Anna Curtis, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman.
These photos were taken at The Brown Lantern serving Anacortes since 1933.



Sunday, January 9, 2011

2011 Week 1 Eating Review

One of the things I would like to get under control this year is our food budget. It's not really about the money but rather the waste. As well my freezer is stuffed and we really need to use up this stuff and get better control over meal planning and incorporate more vegetables into our diet.

I think I do a pretty good job with making soup stocks so there isn't any waste there. I keep baggies in the freezer labelled beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, ham, vegetable and pork. Leftover bones are place in them and leftover vegetables are added as well. I throw in baked potatoes, onions, peppers, tomatoes and any other leftovers.
When full I put them into the stock pot add water, bay leaves and appropriate other herbs. I leave them simmering and then strain and end up with amazing stock.
This week I saw a commercial for Knorr's Stock Exchange and suggested to DH to add to grocery list. He responded why not make our own? DUH!
Then today, when I was looking for something for dinner I found in the freezer exactly that! I had made beef cubes using an ice cube tray a while ago. Note to self - buy some ice cube trays at dollar store.

So this week:
Sunday - leftovers as I had cooked a primb rib for New year's Day.

Monday - leftovers again.

Tuesday - neither of us remembers...

Wednesday - was supposed to be Chinese style green beans with ground pork like this recipe which is more or less the same as mine. Mine doesn't have any sugar or sherry. Will post mine one day soon.
But instead we ordered chicken from Swiss Chalet.

Thursday - used up some pita and Italian sausages from freezer to go along with the tzatziki that was in the fridge. Check out this post.

Friday - made pea soup from some ham stock that was in the fridge and some cheddar biscuits using my tried and true recipe from the CopyKat site. These are a knockoff on the Red Lobster biscuits that everyone loves. We decided that Friday night would be soup night going forward.

Saturday - home made pizza. Had everything in freezer, fridge and cupboard.
Also felt guily about not eating the ground pork so made it into a meat loaf with apples and sage.