Category Archives: kitchen stories

Portion Sizes

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Readers, I know that Blog Basics state “Nobody cares what you had for lunch!” but I’m going to chance it. Due to a rude awakening (99% blocked carotid artery, et. al.), I’m getting serious about keeping my blood pressure down. Task one: monitor the aforementioned blood pressure.

Petunia bought me a home monitor, and I’ve been faithfully using it since I came home from the hospital. Now that I have the numbers and I’ve learned a little about what those numbers mean, I want to move to the next step: do something to keep those numbers low.

In the meantime, I’m paying attention to my eating habits. By using the USDA’s DASH diet, I hope to keep the BP numbers below that mystical threshold. So far, I’m meeting my goal of eating 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The tough part: what makes a serving? Well, I did find some guidelines. I think I can handle this.

Fruits and veggies will be easy for the foreseeable future: it’s Farmers’ Market season! My favorite market, the one that spans the entire downtown of my small city, is starting soon. Time to get out the cloth bags! Vegetable vendors, here I come!

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Signs that the O.K. Chorale has been — well —

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I think I’ll address this in the form of a top ten list. Here you go, readers:

The Top Ten Ways Daisy can Tell She Hasn’t Blogged Recently. 

10. Several friends have changed their Facebook profile pictures and I didn’t notice.

9. Plurk updates have gone down in quantity.

8. The laptop didn’t need charging.

7. I’ve known the final Jeopardy answer twice and haven’t bragged about it here.

6. I’ve had more posts on my employer’s national blog than on my own.

5. The latest ER visit had me saying “I hope the doctor on duty isn’t the crabby one.”

4. I’ve spent more time with my new blood pressure monitor than with my laptop.

3. Amigo asked if I’d blogged the latest captioning errors on MeTV’s series “Emergency.”

2. My coworker’s parents, regular readers, asked her to check on me.

1. I started getting emails saying “You haven’t blogged. Are you okay?”

In conclusion, my friends and family, it’s been rough around the O.K. Chorale. I was started to feel stronger and walk a little less lopsidedly (that is SO a word), and my back started giving me spasms so agonizing that we went to the E.R. (see #5). I’m healing, but I’m low on energy. I’m back at work full time, but not doing much else (see #6). I come home, throw my herbal heating pack in the microwave, and sit down to watch Emergency with Amigo (see #3). Supper has been a throw-it-in-the oven affair. Thank goodness for the nearby meat market that sells ready to eat lasagna, among other things!

I’m not kidding when I say I’ve rearranged the desk in my “office” to make room for a new tech toy (see #4). Petunia checked the reviews and made a few calls and found us a portable electronic blood pressure monitor. So far, the results are good – BP results, that is.

For now, I’m going to adjourn and watch Final Jeopardy. The category tonight is The Academy Awards. I don’t stand a chance.

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Cooking the Old Fashioned, Newfangled Way

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I subscribe to the feed for a cooking blog called How to Cook Like Your Grandmother. The trend in kitchens has been swinging in this direction for a while, away from mixes and pre-made frozen foods, back into cooking from scratch. Once in a while, when I’m just not capable of cooking (for whatever reason) we’ll go back to the old frozen pizza. Most of the time, though, we make the effort to put something good on the table and into our bodies.

Chuck was exhausted from a weekend of travel. Amigo was happy and tired from a weekend of travel. I was a little better off, but not much, just ten days out from a very scary and exhausting hospital experience. I’m still scrubbing off the bandage marks.

To put supper on the table, Chuck went out to do a whirlwind grocery shopping trip. Bunny food, a few other necessities, and a fully cooked rotisserie chicken were on his list. Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Chorale, I grabbed some frozen corn (frozen last summer when it was fresh), a small container of frozen red and green peppers, and tossed all of this into the steamer to cook. Somehow, even as wrecked as we felt, we put a decent meal on for supper.

Afterwards, I took a few minutes to be inspired by How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, a post still sitting in my inbox. . Tired, but not willing to quit quite yet, I took the bones from the chicken, the veggie water from the steamer, and a couple pieces of onion and I made a chicken broth. I had to be in the kitchen making lunch for tomorrow, so I rationalized I might as well get a broth simmering while I worked.

It was worth it. The broth looked thick and tasty, I got my lunch packed and a couple of options onto Amigo’s shelf in the refrigerator, and then diced up a little lettuce and tomato for the next night’s tacos.

When I’m tired and running almost on empty, sometimes I make the best use of my time. When everything is said and done, I can relax and go to bed knowing I’ve put in a good effort to feed the family and we didn’t even need to resort to frozen pizza – yet.

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Comfort Food away from home

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When I came home from the hospital in January, Amigo asked me, “How was the hospital food?” I told him I’d been pleasantly surprised at the decent food choices and quality.

This time, I wasn’t expecting to be in the hospital. I certainly hadn’t expected to be laid out, on flat bed rest (no more than 30% raised at the head), and my right leg immobilized straight ahead. I needed comfort – and the hospital menu had some standard comfort foods.

Oatmeal. I had oatmeal for breakfast with a fresh fruit cup of diced cantaloupe and grapes. I managed to eat the fruit cup, but I needed to be fed (spoon fed!) the oatmeal and the cranberry juice given with a straw. All in all, it was still comfort food.

I was sitting up by lunch, so I had soup and salad. Chicken noodle soup, in fact, satisfied my comfort food craving perfectly. The salad was spinach with hard boiled eggs, bacon bits and a citrus dressing. This salad was tasty enough that I thought about making it myself when the spinach is ripe in June.

I’ll take that as a collection of very good signs. I was hungry, I fed myself. I enjoyed the meal. I thought ahead, ahead to going home, and ahead to the future.

Gardening, I’m told, means believing in a future, and I was looking to the future, That’s a comfort in more ways than one.

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Pinterest Fail at the O.K. Chorale

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I tried. In fact, I tried twice. The first time, I didn’t document the attempt. Instead, I invited my dear creative cook husband “Chuck” to try it.

Bunny Buns on Pinterest

Bunny Buns on Pinterest

After all, how hard could they be? This time, I documented the action.

They have ears.

They have ears.

They have tails (sort of).

They have tails (sort of).

After baking, they looked like this. Warning: Put down any beverages you might be drinking. Swallow. Okay, now you may look.

Baked "bunnies"

Baked “bunnies”

Chuck thought they looked more like Pikachu. Amigo thought they were fine.

I have a little more frozen dough left. There may be a Next Time. I’ll share — but only if they look good.

 

 

 

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Decisions, decisions.

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  • Should I make a single batch of banana bread or a double?
  • Double, of course. We have enough bananas. Do you even need to ask?

 

  • It’s raining outside. Can I accomplish any garden tasks in the rain?
  • No, silly. Get the laundry done and play in the kitchen, instead. Did I hear someone say banana bread?

 

  •  Big headline in the newspaper about a state level politician reaching his tipping point. What’s the book I’m currently reading?
  • The Tipping Point, of course. It’s on my table in the den.

 

  • “Mom, you have banana bread in the oven. Why are you making bread in the bread machine?”
  • Why not? That wasn’t a good enough answer, apparently. The real answer came from Chuck: “It’s raining outside, so Mom can’t work in the garden. She needs to use her energy in the kitchen instead.” ‘Tis true. Very true.

 

  • I had a message from the Clinic That Shall Not Be Named with a subject line How Are you Doing? and the name of my family doc listed as “from”. How am I doing?
  • Well, Clinic, I was misled for a moment and thought someone actually cared to follow up with me. But when a message is extremely generic and is signed “The Clinic Physicians”? Somehow, I don’t feel obligated to answer.
  • So, Daisy, what was this generic message from the Clinic That Shall Not Be Named?
  • Here’s the actual text:

Thank you for your recent visit. Because we care about you, please take a moment to tell us how you are doing. If you were prescribed any medications, please let us know how they are working or if you have any financial issues affording them.

Do you have any other questions since your last visit?

Thank you for your time.

 

  • How tacky can this clinic get?
  • Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.

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Return of the Pantry Raid

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The Pantry Raid is a simple technique for creating a meal without running out to the store. It means raiding the refrigerator and the pantry for a few things that together might just make a meal. Let’s see how the Daisy Reality Show explains a pantry raid to the bumbling assistant director.

Daisy: Let’s see. Leftover rice, but not quite enough. I’ll add to that.

Assistant: Add what?

Daisy: Go in the back hallway, please, and pick out two cans of kidney beans. If I don’t have two, get kidney beans and something else.

Assistant (doubtful): Beans? Oooohkay.

Daisy: Trust me. She digs into the produce drawer and finds two peppers, one green and one red, about 1/4 of each left. Oh, and grab a small onion while you’re there, please!

Assistant: I haven’t figured out how any of this can actually feed a family.

Daisy: Watch me. The end result will resemble red beans and rice – a good meatless meal on its own, or one with a little meat added. She dices the peppers and the onion, throwing the onion’s peeling into the compost bucket beside the sink. 

Assistant: Rice, beans, onion, peppers – now what?

Daisy: Well, that would be enough if I had a bigger batch of rice. Since I don’t, I’ll make a small pan of quinoa to stretch it. The flavors will mesh nicely.

Assistant: What’s quinoa?

Daisy: Never mind. Just watch. This is a classic pantry raid. I’m throwing together the last of the peppers, an onion, and sauteing them in a pan. When they’re soft, I’ll add the cans of beans. When that has heated through, I’ll add the leftover rice and the quinoa I just cooked. Sprinkle a little dried red chili pepper and garlic salt, and we have a tasty main course or side. Excuse me, I need to reach the meat drawer.

Assistant: Meat? I thought you said meatless.

Daisy: It can be meatless, but I happen to have a few andouille sausages left after last week’s jambalaya. They’ll be perfect either diced and added to the mix or served on the side in hot dog buns.

Assistant: What did you call this?

Daisy: A Pantry Raid. The first word has an R in it. It’s not the kind of thing your frat house fantasized about doing to the girls’ dorm. Pantry. Food storage.

Assistant (blushes): Oh. I get it.

Daisy: Next lesson? Planned-overs.

So we leave the family members at the O.K. Chorale with their tasty meal, courtesy of a creative cook and a pantry raid. We’ll return to the Daisy Reality Show some other time – maybe after the family eats. Or maybe after the director gets tired of her bumbling assistant and hires someone new. 

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Spring Fever – again? Or still?

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It had to happen. The local rag had a big feature on Garden Tips. Most are tips and tricks I’ve already used or at least read about, such as using eggshells in the soil to contribute to tomato plant growth, or planting marigolds to discourage wild bunnies and mosquitoes. I’ve saved my eggshells a few times, and I finally decided it was just as good to compost the shells with the rest of the kitchen waste. The whole mix will eventually become one with the soil.

And then I began a project of cleaning my inbox(es). I’d saved an email containing this link, hoping that Chuck might build one for our backyard.

Not just for Strawberries!

Not just for Strawberries!

My strawberries, if they made it through the winter, are growing in an old wicker hamper. This looks a lot nicer. Or it could house herbs – parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and who knows what else?

As if we didn’t have enough locavore motivation already, the California drought will push produce prices sky high next winter if not sooner. 2014 might be the summer we give in and buy a second freezer. A freezer full of fruits and veggies bought fresh would certainly beat overpriced, poor quality, imported-from-the-coast foods.

Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Chorale, I feel the need to do something – anything. My to-do list for tomorrow has one pre-garden task on it: bring in the rest of the pots for starting seeds before it snows again and puts them out of reach! 

So, readers, join me. What kind of happenings are causing spring fever for you? Comment, please. I’m getting lonely for comments.

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Planned Overs

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Chuck had the week off and spent much of it in the kitchen. He goes back to work next week on a normal workweek schedule. As normal, that is, as normal can be in an NFL market not represented in the Big Bowl in the Jersey Snow.
Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Chorale, Amigo and I will be tasked with cooking our own meals. I will still have limitations to what I can do in terms of lifting and bending, so we’re thinking and planning ahead.

Tip number one: Chuck is making extras. When we make leftovers on purpose, it’s called planned=overs. Amigo and I will be able to slip a leftover into the microwave and call it Lunch.

Tip number two: Chuck and Amigo will make a trip to the corner meat market six blocks from home. Their task: bring home chicken pot pie and/or pre-made lasagna. If anything else jumps off the shelf or out of the freezer section, I could be in a positive frame of mind toward anything that Amigo can cook. I’m willing to offer help, as long as he handles the bending and lifting.

Tip number three: Chuck and I picked up several pantry basics such as beans in many colors, soup mixes (not cans), and chili fixins. If the pantry is full, a pantry raid supper is a simple plan.

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What is Comfort Food?

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Amigo likes the term “Comfort Food.” If I announce what’s for supper and he chimes in “Comfort Food!” I take it as a compliment. From him, it means something he likes, something easy to eat, something not fancy, a simple dish with simple tastes.

Chuck, on the other hand, watches cooking shows – way too many cooking shows. He claims that the top chefs highly dislike the term Comfort Food because – because, well, what does that make the other foods? Discomfort foods? Something not comfortable?

Sometimes the best way to define a term is to show examples. Comfort food includes:

  • baked mac & cheese
  • meatloaf
  • leftovers – including, but not limited to, turkey soup made from Thanksgiving leftovers
  • something that’s simmered long enough to make the house smell good (crock pots included)
  • brunch dishes such as skillets and omelets
  • soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
  • variations on BLT sandwiches

Another trait: Comfort Food requires some effort. Microwave meals do not qualify. A frozen pizza doesn’t count as true Comfort Food, but a homemade pizza more than counts. Here are a few suggestions that take a little effort and time:

  • homemade seafood chowder made from scratch on stove top
  • mashed potatoes – real mashed potatoes, not dried potato flakes
  • lettuce salad with grated carrots, cheeses, and a Tablespoon of bacon dressing
  • winter squash – one butternut squash from the pantry, the last stored there from September – baked and mashed with a little butter and brown sugar
  • chili – stovetop or in the crock pot
  • spaghetti and meat sauce with grated Parmesan on top

Locally grown, locally purchased, or the local variation of a classic comfort food dish

  • chili with macaroni or spaghetti (It’s a Green Bay tradition; don’t judge me)
  • Chicken Booyah (ya, I spelled dat rite, too)
  • eggnog ice cream (I made this a few weeks ago with the last of the eggnog)
  • sourdough bread – in the bread machine, but made from homegrown starter
  • nachos, homemade with home grown jalapeno peppers

So, readers, what do you think? Offer up a menu or a requirement, a necessity that makes a food fit the Comfort Category.

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