Good Idea #35: Salted Caramel Spread

I love that Design Sponge shared this deliciously easy recipe for Confiture Caramel au Beurre Salé (Salted Caramel Spread) from photographer and pastry chef Kathrin Koschitzki.  I can't wait to try it for myself and to start giving it out as gifts whenever the occasion is right.  So simple!

Click here for the full d*s post and recipe!

Good Idea #34: Grilled Peaches

If you've never grilled a peach before, you have to try it.  Grilled peaches are just the simplest and most delicious summer treat.  The process is as easy as you could hope.  Just halve your peaches, remove the pit and throw them on a warm grill or grill pan.  It's best to choose peaches that are nice and firm because they will become softer as they warm.  If they start to get too soft on one side just flip them over for a bit so that they cook through on the other side.  This time I tried brushing them with a little olive oil and sprinkling them with some black pepper.  I'm curious to try other spices in the future.  Maybe some ground basil or thyme or a little cayenne pepper.  A different spice on every peach!  Grilled peaches make for a great appetizer, side dish or dessert.  The possibilities are endless!

Good Idea #30: Real Simple Couponing

As I've mentioned, husband and I are saving up to buy a house in the very near future.  One of the ways we're saving is by taking some time out to clip coupons for our everyday shopping.  If you use coupons, however, you may be able to sympathize with how frustrating I find it.  How do you walk through the grocery store, push the cart, juggle all those little scraps of paper, keep track of your shopping list and have any idea whether you're actually getting a good deal on something all at the same time.  Here are a couple of tips that work for me:

The first is a little on the OCD side, but it is really helpful for me.  You know when stores put things on terrible sales just to trick you into buying them?  Or they raise the price then put the item on sale for the same price it was last week?  Or when you buy a certain brand just because you have a coupon for it and it turns out another brand would still have been cheaper?  I have a really bad memory for numbers and I can never remember what I paid for tomatoes last time I bought them so I keep track of the prices I pay for the items I buy on a regular basis.  After each time I go shopping I come home and record how much I spent on cereal, soup, vegetables, pasta sauce, etc in a simple excel spreadsheet.  I also record where I bought it, what brand it was, whether it was on sale and whether I used a coupon.  I take this list with me when I go shopping and if I'm wondering if that sale on bagels is really any good I can look back at what I've spent on them in the past.  Maybe I will realize that $.10 off really isn't all that special or that bagels are that price at another store even when they're not on sale and I'll wait until another week to buy them.  Or I might realize that this is the best price I've ever found bagels for so I might buy several bags and put them in the freezer to save for the future.  Taking a few extra minutes to do this each time I go shopping has definitely saved us a good handful of change and relieves a lot of shopping anxiety for me.

Speaking of shopping anxiety, how are you supposed to keep track of all those coupons?  And even if you know what coupons you have, how do you juggle them with your shopping list and the calculator you're using to check the unit price of everything you buy (OCD, I know)?  Then you put your coupons down in the cart and they slip right through the slots and end up all over the grocery store floor.  Sometimes I think I will pay the money I'm saving with coupons just to not have to deal with this mess.  Then I found this little item:

This coupon wallet (I have the green one) from Real Simple is a brilliant little lifesaver.  It is cute and well-made and small enough to keep in your purse or in the glove box in the car.  It has file pockets for your coupons with changeable labels and it has pockets for your lists or store loyalty cards and even a place for your pen.  Best of all, the strap folds back and it will attach right to your cart - so no more juggling!  One tip:  don't try to attach it to the handle of the shopping cart like the picture on the tag indicates, it doesn't work.  However, it attaches beautifully to the child seat.  Brilliant!

Happy Shopping!

Good Idea #28: Preserving Vegetables and Herbs

I was planning on doing a little spring cleaning today, beginning with my kitchen, but I am easily distracted.  I don't know if I opened my refrigerator or if I was thinking about what to make for dinner tonight but somehow it occurred to me that there were several things in there that were most likely not going to make it until we get to eating them.  So instead of cleaning I spent the afternoon making sure I don't have a whole bunch of food going to waste.  Here's what I did:

Asparagus:   Asparagus is an easy one.  It can be frozen if you really want to hang on to it for a while - do it the same way I freeze celery (keep reading) - but I have never had asparagus go bad on me.  The trick is to remember that asparagus is a flower.  It's simple, trim the ends (just a little - you don't need to trim off as much as you will before eating), put it in a glass with a little water in the bottom and keep it in the fridge.  If you're keeping it for a while, changing the water now and then doesn't hurt and it will last for weeks.  I promise.

Cilantro:  You know how cilantro comes in those giant bundles even though it is such a potent spice?  I never have enough uses for it before it wilts.  I got a curious about whether I could freeze it for later use and started doing some research.  First, I discovered that storing cilantro in water, the same way as with the asparagus above helps extend its life in the refrigerator.  So I did that with the small portion I might envision using in the near future, but what about the rest?  The general consensus seems to be that cilantro is the most difficult herb to freeze because it wilts, turns black, and most importantly loses all of its flavor after a relatively short time in the freezer.  However, apparently it can be done so I gave it a shot.  I combined a few different suggestions and started out by blanching the leaves, then separating them and letting them dry on paper towels.  I froze the leaves in small batches spread out on plates so that they didn't all stick together (this only takes about ten minutes or so for each batch).  Then I put all the leaves together, wrapped them in a damp paper towel and stored them in a freezer bag with as much of the air squeezed out (carefully) as possible.  Frozen cilantro won't work for garnish, and maybe not even for my favorite fresh pico de gallo (keep reading), but with a little luck it will be good in a cooked dish.  Any recipe suggestions out there?

Celery:  I always buy celery because it's an inexpensive snack but it just ends up sitting in the fridge waiting to be cut up.  I went to do just that today, only to discover that the celery was all floppy.  In doing a bit of research, I discovered that celery, too, can be stored standing in water, just like asparagus and cilantro (as can other leafy herbs, such as basil).  I also found rave reviews for wrapping celery stalks in tin foil for extending life.  However, now that my celery has already expired, what to do?  Similarly to the cilantro, I cut the celery into pieces that would fit into freezer bags and blanched them.  I did the leaves, too, since I can use those in making broth for soups.  I dried the pieces on paper towels and froze them spread out on plates for just about 15 minutes or so.  Then I packed them up in freezer bags and stowed them away.  They won't make good snacks, but these will be great for any kind of cooking for several months.

A word about blanching:  I had never done this before, but it is incredibly simple.  Blanching is simply cooking something in boiling water for a short period of time and then placing it immediately in cold water for an equally short period of time.  Use a mesh strainer or similar contraption to transfer easily from hot to cold.  This kills bacteria in the food and in the case of freezing vegetable and herbs, helps preserve color.  It seems that the time for blanching is determined by the consistency of the item.  For something fragile and leafy, place in hot water for one minute and then cold for one minute.  For something sturdy like asparagus, do three minutes in each.  For celery (right in between) do two minutes in each.  It's that easy.

Peppers and Tomatoes:  I could have frozen the peppers and tomatoes I had lying around, too.  Tomatoes can simply be thrown in freezer bags whole, halved, or quarters and put in the freezer.  Peppers can be seeded, sliced, blanched and frozen the same way as above.

However, I decided to use some of that cilantro and make a big batch of pico de gallo to freeze instead.  This is almost easier then blanching vegetables.  Just throw together whatever tomatoes, peppers, and onions you happen to have lying around.  If I'm going out of my way I might pick up some nice looking heirloom tomatoes for taste and looks, but tonight I just had a few regular old vine tomatoes and it's really not much different.  I find that three small tomatoes, one large pepper and about half of a smallish onion is a pretty good ratio for a small batch, but alter it to what you have an what you like best. Just chop everything up then add cilantro to taste.  I like to add a little fresh garlic if I have it, or some garlic powder; it gives it a little something extra.  And that's all there is to it.  I'll be freezing the pico de gallo in freezer bags instead of in a storage container to try to keep as much air out of it as possible.  We'll see how it tastes in a few weeks!

For more info on freezing veggies and herbs check out these links:

Kalyn's Kitchen's posts on Freezing Fresh Herbs

This Summary of How to Freeze Vegetables

The National Center for Home Food Preservation's guide to freezing food

Good Idea #25: Happy Birthday Birthday Cake

Today is my Birthday!  How fitting that Apartment Therapy just featured this awesome birthday cake mold today from Generate.  Such a good idea.  The only thing that would have been better is if I could have gotten it in time to make myself a cake for today!  Here's what I did instead:

Husband and I began the morning early with breakfast at Black Sheep Bakery, a local (mostly) vegan bakery that is just a couple blocks from our apartment.  I was planning on trying the vegan biscuits and gravy (the gravy is vegan, too) but they were out of gravy.  So we went ahead and got some very non-vegan egg, cheese and bacon on our vegan biscuits.  All parts, vegan and non-vegan, were a delicious and filling beginning to the morning.

Husband headed off to work for the day and after washing down my breakfast with some coffee and delicious chocolate-covered macaroons (a birthday gift from husband) I got a rare chance to chat with my very busy east-coast best friend, Marcie.  It is always wonderful to hear from her!  Her lovely little daughter's birthday is today, too, so I know I will always have a chance to chat with them on March 10th!

I also got to talk to my whole family today.  My sister, Nana and parents all called to say hello and wish me a good day.  I got to do a little writing, too, before Husband came home to make me a birthday dinner.  After dinner I made myself a batch of cupcakes.  Yum.  And finally I got to take a little time to sit down and share my day with you.  Happy Birthday to me!

Good Idea #22: Best Potatoes Ever

Here's another irresistible and incredibly easy dinner idea.   These are the best baked mashed potatoes I have ever had, let alone made myself.  The trick is loading up on the bad stuff.  The recipe actually called for whipped cream (as in, real cream that has been whipped, not sugary stuff from a can).  I didn't have any cream so I used almost an entire small tub of sour cream and it worked great.  Then add in a ton of Parmesan cheese.  For the amount above (about 6 good sized potatoes) I used about 3/4 cup.  Of course a little butter, salt and pepper to taste is always welcome.  The cheese and cream make the potatoes amazingly light and fluffy.  Then you just butter a dish and coat it with bread crumbs, plop the mashed potatoes in and stick them in the oven until they brown up on top.  I would have browned these longer, but I misjudged how long it would take and started the rest of my meal too soon.  Next time I'll make sure they have at least a good 30 minutes on about 400 degrees to get good and crispy.  Paired with a grilled steak (my cast-iron grill pan is a good idea in itself) and some steamed asparagus this meal was about as delicious as they come.

A note for budget-conscious carnivores:  we save money around here by splitting one fat steak and loading up on delicious and more reasonably priced potatoes.  Eat your steak and keep your money, too.  Yum.

 

Good Idea #18: A Secret Ingredient

Before today I had never, ever heard of adding cinnamon to beef stew.  But I heard it this morning on a morning show cooking segment and I thought I might as well give it a try for dinner tonight.  Well.  Let me tell you.  If you didn't know about this little secret already you simply must try it.  Also, this dish happens to be super healthy.  Bonus.

I didn't have all the ingredients that were used in the TV segment so I had to improvise a little.  We're on a budget around here so we use what we have.  Click below to keep reading and see what I did.

Holiday Recap

I may be a bit late on this, but I just couldn't wait until next Christmas to share all these holiday memories and ideas.  So here is what my Christmas and New Year season looked like, along with a few good ideas to stash away in your stocking until next year:

Leavenworth, WA 

 

Our Christmas season began with an early-December trip to Leavenworth for the annual Lighting Festival.  The residents of this little Bavarian village nestled in the mountains of central Washington deck the whole town in lights, line the streets with fire pits and open the doors of shops full of candy, clothing, home good and novelties to Christmas shoppers. 

If you're in the Northwest during the holidays, Leavenworth is a fun and festive way to get in the spirit. 
To learn more about Leavenworth, visit www.leavenworth.org

Holidays Around Here

This year we went for simplicity in our holiday decorating, focusing on natural elements and neutral colors.  I went a little green, re-purposing paper bags from holiday shopping as wrapping and chose the rest of my wrapping paper selection to match.  My favorite new addition to my wrap collection this year was heavy weight black and brown paper from Ikea.

These holiday penguins were hand-made by my very talented mother.  She sent them to us along with the hand-made Christmas trees that you can see above the gifts in the first picture the first winter we lived in Oregon.  They have made an appearance ever year and will continue to for many many more.

This leather Zuny reindeer is one of my most prized Christmas decorations.  It is actually a memo clip (the head is attached to the body by a magnet) and the movable head makes it all the more adorable.  Zuny has an amazing line of leather animal home accessories that are beautiful, sometimes useful and will brighten up any home.  Go to http://www.zuny.info/

Keep reading to see more of my natural Christmas scheme and more holiday adventures!

Good Idea #10: New Year's Resolutions

I mentioned before Thanksgiving that I wanted to Take Advantage of the Holidays this year and I think I've done a pretty good job.  At Thanksgiving I kept track of the things that I am thankful for, at Christmas I gave, although there is always more we can give, and now at the start of the new year I'm making some resolutions.

1. Watch less television.  We don't even have cable, and I still manage to watch hours of TV on some days.  Now mind you, this isn't the sitting-around-staring-at-Judge Judy-doing-a-whole-lot-of-nothing kind of TV watching we're talking about here, but it's not much better.  I think I've just become accustomed to the sound of voices in the house, especially when I'm home alone.  The problem is, whether it's The Today Show, reruns of I Dream of Jeannie or the news, it can be distracting.  Especially when your daily chores are things like laundry, dishes and vacuuming it's easy to procrastinate when Matt Lauer is talking about dog wardrobes for winter.  So this year I'll be leaving the TV for movie nights and other such special occasions and, I hope, getting a whole lot more done.

2. Save more money.  I hope that in the near future I will be able to quit barista-dom once and for all in the interest of focusing on writing, school and family.  However, choosing to enter the world of the starving artist takes a little practice.  Living off one salary will be a little bit tight, and if we want to continue saving for a house it will have to be even tighter.  So with my new found time from watching less TV, I will plan our budget more carefully, clip coupons and hunt for bargains.  Save more money now, worry less later.

3. Read more.  For someone with a degree-and-a-half in English (yeah, that's right), my Goodreads list is pretty pathetic.  To make matters works, Portland has pretty much the worlds best bookstore and I've had very little opportunity to take advantage of it.  But, in the interest of resolution #2, I'll start by reading all the unread books I've collected over the past few years and go from there.

4. Write more.  I want to be a writer, so I should probably be writing... right?  Yeah, probably.  I've been saying for a while now that the key to writing is to do it every day.  Well, what better time than the new year to start sticking to it.

5. Be more conscious of what I eat.  This isn't a weight-loss kind of thing, but rather a health kind of thing.  When your second resolution is save more money, eating nothing but pasta and potatoes sounds like a pretty good idea.  Fresh vegetables, lean chicken and fish, not so much.  But there must be some kind of balance and I aim to find it.

6. Exercise more.  When you pull a muscle reaching for something on the top shelf, you should probably be taking advantage of those yoga dvds you have lying around.  Just saying.

7. Leave the house every day.  I have this problem where I REALLY like being at home.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to like to be at home; the home should be a sacred space.  But leaving the house at least once encourages things like exercising and socializing... and putting on real clothes. I think these are good things to aspire to.

8. Learn more about design.  I've always had an interest in design, but for some reason it has never occurred to me that I could do anything with it other than redecorate my bedroom.  This year, I plan to make a full-blown hobby out of it and if it takes me nowhere else, at least I will have the most awesome house in town.

9. and 10.  I don't want to jinx it.  All I'm saying is, if I stick to these resolutions 2011 will be a very good year.

Good Idea #9: Design Sponge

I just discovered a great website. Since Grace Bonney began her blog in 2004, Design Sponge has squeezed out much more than just design advice. Along with several contributors, Bonney supplies readers with everything from recipes to gift ideas to diy projects to current trends and even a brilliant guest blog. It's really everything a blogger could hope to aspire to and is an awesome inspiration for so many parts of life.

Check out Design Sponge now at:

www.designspongeonline.com

Good Idea #6: Real Simple Side Dish

Real Simple Magazine definitely got this one right (not that they don't usually).  I added this dish to my Thanksgiving feast, but it is easy and delicious for any holiday or any other day:

Honeyed Carrots and Oranges:
(serves 8)

2 lbs very small carrots or sliced large carrots
1 orange cut into chunks (with skin on)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp (kosher) salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Toss carrots and oranges in honey, olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet.  Roast 30-35 minutes, turning once.

How easy is that?

Check out www.realsimple.com for more good (awesome) ideas.

Good Idea #5: Brining the Turkey

This was only my second year cooking a full thanksgiving dinner but I decided this year I was ready to step outside my Thanksgiving box.  Brining is something that neither my nor my husband's family has done so I had to rely on tv and internet advice along with my instincts.  But I gave it a try and I couldn't be happier that I did.  Brining makes the turkey moist, juicy and flavorful.  It also makes it cook a bit faster and my bird came out so beautifully browned that I can't help but think the brining made it prettier, too.  So here are my brining tips:

1. Get a big bucket.  I thought of using a stock pot, but mine wasn't quite big enough.  It also would  have been a hassle to have to clean before making mashed potatoes.  My brilliant husband took a trip to the grocery store and asked around and ended up with a large food-safe bucket from the bakery that they get their frosting in.  It had a cover and a handle and was just the right size. And it was free.  I couldn't ask for more.

2. The whole point of brining is the salt.  2 cups of salt sounds really disgusting, but the salt helps the turkey retain water, keeping it moist and juicy.  The recipe I used was 1/2 cup of salt per 6 cups of water.  My large bucket with the turkey in it held about 24 ounces of water, so I used 2 cups of salt.  One recipe I read suggested using kosher salt.  I didn't want to deplete my kosher salt supply, so I used 1 cup of kosher and one cup of regular table salt.  I'm sure it would have worked out fine either way.

3.  Flavor the brine.  While it seems that the salt is the only real necessity here, the brining time is obviously an opportunity to add some additional flavoring.  I added 1 cup of sugar to balance the saltiness, generous amounts of the spices that I put in stuffing:  Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Ginger, Thyme and Pepper plus Celery salt and 3 bay leaves. I'm sure any spices you normally use on Thanksgiving would do the trick.

4.  Brine away.  The salt, sugar and whatever spices you are using in water on the stove.  I found I needed a good sized pot to get this all to dissolve fully.  Remove the neck and giblets from your thawed turkey, put him in the bucket and fill most of the way with cold water.  Pour the salt mixture over the top and refrigerate at least overnight, up to 24 hours.  Before you cook the turkey, rinse it thoroughly and dry it as you usually would.

5.  Watch your turkey, it might cook a little faster than normal. 

6.  Don't stuff the turkey (with stuffing).  For one, the stuffing would be reeeally salty.  Even if you're into that, because the turkey cooks fast, you run the risk of not cooking the stuffing thoroughly.  Gross.  Instead, I stuffed my turkey with pieces of onion, apple, celery, spices and bay leaves which I kept and used later with the turkey carcass to make the broth for turkey soup.  Yum.

7.  If you use the drippings from the turkey to make your gravy, be careful.  While the turkey doesn't come out salty, the drippings are very salty.  Definitely don't add any salt to your gravy, use unsalted butter if you are making a roux, and if you want it even less salty, use primarily another source of flavor, such as water from boiling the neck and giblets, which have not been brined, so that you can add only the amount of drippings that you want for the saltiness that you desire.  Side note - if you do end up making that turkey soup, you won't need to add any salt to that either.  And it will be gooood.

8.  Eat your delicious, juicy turkey dinner!

Good Idea #4: A Thanksgiving Recipe

 I suppose if you've been doing Thanksgiving for a while you probably have a system in place.  But for me, at least, every year I say "What goes in the stuffing?" "How long does the turkey take?" "How do I make gravy?" So this year I made a Thanksgiving recipe.  I wrote down everything I did, all the tips that I used and all the mother's advice I got on one sheet of paper and I'm putting it in my recipe box for next year.  Next Thanksgiving, I will not only use it as a guide, but add to it with new side dish ideas, new tips that I use, and new things that work.  So in years to come, in theory, Thanksgiving will keep getting better and better.

Good Idea #1: Start a List of Good Ideas

You watch morning talk shows. You read magazines, self help books. You listen to public radio and have dinner with friends.  You have random strokes of genius throughout your day.  You think "that is a good idea!" And then... you forget it.  You wonder how many ideas have come and gone, never to be thought of again.

Of course I am describing myself here... but maybe I am describing you, too.  If I am, here's an idea.  Keep a notebook or just a piece of paper, handy where ever ideas tend to strike you most.  In your magazine rack (or in my case in the stack of magazines piled haphazardly on the coffee table/bookshelf/floor), next to the bed, in your purse, in your wallet, on the table nearest to where you usually watch TV, in the car (for use at stop lights only).  Whenever a good idea comes to you, write it down.

If you keep several of these lists, it might be helpful to compile them all in one place for easy review... a master notebook, a manuscript for you future Book of Genius, or say, a blog where you can share all your awesome ideas with friends, family and other loyal readers (ahem).  But at the very least, even if you never do anything with your lists and they eventually become unreadable due to wear inside your wallet, are lost at the bottom of your purse, or are destroyed by a curious house cat, the very act of writing your good ideas down will help you to remember them and just maybe put them to good use.