Soft apples now Apple Walnut Cake; Salvage fishy cooking oil

Waste Not: Apple-Walnut Bundt Cake.  This cake recipe was the perfect match for my too-soft-to-eat apples. Not having any apple juice on hand, I used a combo of sherry vinegar and water instead. Also subbed out chopped dates for the raisins in the recipe. The pic is somewhat dark; I was in the process of drizzling the glaze atop the cake here.

Because I believe cake is not cake without icing (and glaze doesn't count!), I enjoyed my cake with a vanilla sauce. Hubby likes it with or without. Really, really enjoying reading Nella Lasts' Peace: The Post-War Diaries of Housewife, 49. I love reading diaries dating around the Great Depression...those folks have so much to teach me about being FRUGAL and conscientious about every purchase. I've learned how Nella "saved" her cooking oil that'd been tainted by burned fish: pour the boiling oil into water. The oil congeals and the burned bits fall to the bottom. Repeat if needed. If times are ever so dire that supplies are hard to come by, I'll have another trick up my sleeve!

So, that about does it for my Independence Challenge for today. Love, LOVE that the "Eat The Food" part of this challenge is making me think about using up things that have been around too long. I added a couple of barbecue sauce packets to the homemade bean soup we ate for supper. My folks can't seem to refuse those little condiment packets which they never use, as a result my fridge is cluttered with little packets. Time to use them!!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake; Want Not: 'Bug Out Kit'

Eat The Food: Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Broke into the last of my bargain bin almond paste for this recipe. Froze the half not used for another day. That stuff is soo expensive, I can only hope to find it on bargain again.

Plant Something: Hubby's many planted somethings are starting to get a bit spindly. He's never started this big a variety of seeds before, so he went out and bought him a rack just for this purpose! Sure do wish him luck...I think he's having fun with it so far.

Want Not: My in-progress Bug Out Kit. When our loved one suffered a medical emergency a couple of weeks ago, we packed and loaded up PDQ. The incident did make me realize the value of having a quick-grab kit that'd always be ready to go at a moment's notice. Still adding to this work in progress. As we're campers, I'm including things like matches/magnesium fire starter. Hope to toss in a mini-fishing kit, but I understand that in a pinch a safety pin will do for a hook. Also hope to find a mini-sewing kit to add. I'm sure makeup and conditioner wouldn't fit Hubby's idea of emergency preparedness! :)

I'm still having great fun with the Independence Challenge. Anyone else have a Bug Out Kit? Any suggestions for what I might include in mine?

Enviable green living in Berea's Eco-Village; Meatless Monday Hold That Line Hummus

We interrupted these students' breakfast, but they couldn't have been more gracious and anxious to share their experiences of living in the Sens Demonstration House. The residents of the house meet weekly to discuss their power usage and other ways to stay green and sustainable. These young women were in agreement that living in Sens House didn't take much additional effort, but mentioned composting food waste specifically as one way their lives differ from that of most students.

Soo jealous of the young folks who live in Sens House at the Eco-Village. Four Berea College students live in this solar-powered residence. Other residents from the eco-village help to tend these garden beds and share in the produce year-round.

Aquaponics at Berea's Eco-Village.

Totally missed this pic when sharing my Berea funky finds yesterday. LOVE this window--captured in the Kentucky Artisan Center.

Of course, I couldn't post without including some FOOD. And, YES, I am totally ashamed to share this picture with its Styrofoam containers. I have yet to figure out how to stay A+ green when traveling and staying in a hotel. *sigh*

   We had such fun in Berea, Kentucky, but my fav place to sightsee was their Eco-Village. This place pretty much blew my socks off!


   So, that pretty much does it for the vacay pics. Back to normal and I didn't even forget to post about Meatless Monday this week. Actually made an Eggplant Parmigiana for lunch but since the pic didn't turn out, Loved the ranch-flavored Hold That Line Hummus I made a couple of days ago. What's on your table this Meatless Monday?

Fat Tuesday calls for King Arthur's Carrot Cake

No King's Cake for me this Mardi Gras! This Fat Tuesday calls for a Carrot Cake from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. Oh, MY, this tastes soo good! At least there are some slow carbs to balance out the sweet stuff, as this cake is made with whole wheat flour, grated carrots, pineapple, coconut and pecans. The cream cheese frosting is sprinkled with candied ginger--something in my pantry I've been needing to use up. (Couldn't find exact recipe online...similar recipe may be found here. Just sub out whole wheat for the all-purpose flour and sprinkle frosted cake with 1/2 cup of candied ginger. I used pecans and pineapple, not raisins and walnuts.)

We had BIG salads for supper, followed up by Carrot Cake. What's on the menu for your Fat Tuesday??

Eating Coconut Cake fits in with this Independence Challenge

Baked this Three Day Coconut Cake before The China Study got me interested in eating less animal protein/eggs/dairy. I've some ideas on how to make this cake a tad healthier but maybe even tastier for the next time I make it. Meantime, Hubby and I have to finish eating the hunk of it that I just took out of the freezer, so there's no worry about me fulfilling my "Waste Not" challenge for today! ;)

Just learned of an intriguing challenge over on The Good Life Down Under. Chatelaine's Key's Independence Challenge calls for daily advances--and weekly accountability--in each of these categories:

• Plant something:
• Harvest something:
• Preserve something:
• Waste not:
• Want Not:
• Eat the Food:
• Build community food systems:
• Skill up: 

   With such a challenge, even if I were to fail miserably in some categories, an increased focus on moving forward in each category would doubtless lead to great successes as well, don'cha'know. Viva la Independence Challenge! What do you think? Doable?

Making over flopped Amish Friendship Bread; Free garden seeds at TreeHugger

My Cranberry Walnut Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce is a riff on Charlie Trotter's Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding with Vanilla Anglaise. Actually riffed on his Cinnamon-Cranberry Bread Pudding recipe but couldn't find the recipe online, and you know I am too LAZY to type it up myself! I used 3/4 cup of dried cranberries and 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts with the last of the Amish Friendship Bread that was in the freezer. I'd screwed up one batch of the Amish bread by forgetting to add oil, but the bread pudding recipe made DRY AS TOAST friendship bread into something moist and yummy! (My vanilla sauce recipe is much simpler than Charlie's: Put 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp. vanilla extract into a small pan, add 1 cup sugar with 3 tablespoons flour whisked into it. Cook and stir 'til the sauce thickens and coats the spoon.)

Hey, check this out over at TreeHugger's site: "5 Ways to Get Free Seeds for Your Garden." Okay, time for me to get off the computer and do some seriously mindless activity for awhile. Such a BUSY day...my brain could use a rest! *wink* What mindless activity is in store for you tonight?

Make Over: Pimiento Cheese to Cheesy Baked Onions

Did Hubby REALLY put all that roasted garlic on his hotdog? Oh, yes, he did. Ugh!

Hubby finds my fondness for Cincinnati chili just as gross!

Just to prove hotdogs aren't all we eat--this pork loin came off the grill tonight. We'll eat it mañana, and of course, the leftovers from that meal will likely go into another three or so minimal-meat meals.

Made Blackberry Farms Pimiento Cheese recipe again. First time I used vinegar 'cause I didn't have any pickle juice on hand and we LOVED the stuff. Well, guess what? I don't like the pickle juice version as well. So, using the pimiento cheese and a bit of olive oil, I made Cheesy Baked Onions for Hubby, who is more of a pickle lover than I am.

Cheesy Baked Onions

Any leftovers being transformed over at your place?

You're either getting better--or you're not

"I challenge everyone to

consider the direction and the value of your days–

because like it or not, those days are going by and

either you're getting better at something, 

getting stronger and more experienced…

or you're not."

Steve Richert, Living Vertical

Trying to improve upon the original Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake (which we like but always room for improvement, eh?), I subbed blueberry pie filling for the cherry filling and added grated orange rind for my Blueberry Swirl Coffee Cake. Less sweet than a regular "cake," this is perfect for breakfast. Mighty fine for after dinner dessert too!

Roasted a chicken yesterday...
will get at least four meals out of this bad boy.

On surfing the top ten adventure blogs (link shared yesterday), I came across the quote above and absolutely fell in love with it. I figure "you're either getting better or you're not" applies to just about everything, including recipes. Never had a problem motivating myself to tinker with recipes. Wish I could say the same when it comes to motivating myself to exercise!
   Any tinkering going on over at your place lately?

Had planned to make chicken pot pie using some of the chicken leftover from the roasted chicken, but since we had Grandbaby today, I didn't have time to make a pie crust. So, we had Chicken Pot Pasta instead. ;)

Boomerang stuff interferes with my journey to minimalism

How am I supposed to become a minimalist when DD keeps bringing back stuff that we'd given to her? When DD went off to university, we furnished her condo with stuff collected over the years. These rainbow glasses I'd bought at an auction for only $7 bucks (in a box full of other stuff!) no longer fit in DD's life now that her home includes rambunctious kids. (We later came across a set of these at an antique store for $20 per glass.) Though I love these as much as she still does, I know I won't use them, so they've gotta go. *sigh*

As she was growing up, each year on DD's birthday we included a "good gift," something she could use later in life. For instance, we got her a couple of crystal lamps for her second birthday. Even though she hasn't kept all those gifts she received through the years, she's commented to me that she wished we still did that. Yet another birthday "good gift," this key caddy sat at DD's back door until Grandbaby's high chair recently claimed its floor space.

I'd been wanting a new fireplace tool caddy for ages (though it never made the priority list), so froggy turned the trick!

DD doesn't always bring me cluttering stuff; she brought me this turnip last week. Where she works, people often bring in produce to share. Determined not to let it go to waste, I peeled the turnip right away and cooked it in my small slow cooker with a little sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Oh, happy day--my seed order arrived yesterday. I'm still finding it hard to believe that Hubby (chief gardener around here) agreed to add starting all these seeds to his to-do list!

To brighten up this gray winter day, I'm looking for adventure, so this is where I'm headed next: Top 10 Adventure Blogs. Where are you headed next?

Chocolate chip cookies I can't eat; Buffalo Garbanzo Dip I can

Have to give up caffeine for awhile, so these Lazarus Chocolate Chip Cookies made with dark chocolate are off limits to me. No need for Hubby to suffer!

Cookie dough in the freezer now--yea!

Subbed out garbanzo beans for the chicken in my meatless version of Add A Pinch's recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip, which we both love. Thanks, Add A Pinch!

Aren't you proud of me? I finally found a way to disguise my last bag of those won't-buy-again mock "meat crumbles." They actually tasted good hidden under the Buffalo Garbanzo Dip on my taco. Honest! 

Hope everyone had a fabulous Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!!

Wish I hads and had nots

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Carl Sagan

Wish I had not been wishing there were more hours in the day. Woke up this morn at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep. Ugh! Blame it on the decongestant I'm now on. Guess the bright side is my loss of appetite. I cooked a soup at lunch (a riff on La Cuoca Ciccia's Chard Chick Pea Stew recipe), so I ate a protein bar for supper. As you can see from his plate of Venison Stir Fry, Hubby had something better in mind.

Wish I had bought this motion-sensing nite lite years ago for night trips to the mud/laundry room. Now I don't have to turn on the multi-bulb ceiling fluorescent light when all I need to do is put one little thing in the washer. Btw, LOVING my new camera (Sony Cyber-shot; sure beats the TWO that I tried and then returned. Wish I had bought this one first!

Wish I had tried growing mung bean sprouts long before now. Soo easy--some of these are destined for our salads at lunch today. Not sure if the leaves should be discarded. Anyone know? Guess I'll find out soon enough!

Hope your wish I hads and wish I had nots grow fewer and fewer every day...and I wish the same for me!

Finally can breathe again -- party time!

We went with a carefree tapas-style celebration. Pictured here is Hubby's Garlic Thyme Chicken, alongside some hard cooked eggs with a smoked salmon topping that I made. (Combine 4 ounces of smoked salmon with 1/2 cup mayonnaise, then pipe over hard-cooked eggs.) Sorry, no artsy shots this time around. Hiding behind the chicken are a corkscrew and my mom's medicine box!

FINALLY got to celebrate Christmas with my family! On Christmas eve, Mom had a mild heart attack, but following a heart stent procedure and three grueling nights in CCU, all is good with the mumsy. (I slept in a recliner at her bedside during those nights. Don't know how folks without an advocate get proper care when unable to fend for themselves. Wasn't until the second time I had to go retrieve a nurse that I realized the nurse call buttons on the hospital bed were non-functioning. *sigh*)
   When Mom got home, we had plenty to celebrate! She went from being in the hospital one night to throwing a party the next! Of course, her darling children (*wink*) brought all the food, so our matriarch just got to sit and look pretty while being pampered and fed.

As you can see, taking pics was an afterthought. By the time I thought to take a pic, here's what was left of my Vegetable Empanadas: eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes, cooked down and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper, then baked in a puff pastry crust.

After spending too many days/nights at the hospital with Mom, it was soo good to be home. For some reason, I had the need to "reclaim" my space, so I scrubbed a floor and decluttered some things on my first day home. Still goaling toward becoming more of a minimalist. These books didn't make the cut--donated them to the library yesterday.  Felt downright cathartic to downsize.

These were some of the keepers.

   Sadly, I learned something yucky about myself: I am a fair-weather friend to green and frugal. In those stressful days spent with mom at the hospital, I forgot my water bottle one day, so drank out of a Styrofoam glass; another day, I ate pop tarts out of the vending machine even tho' I had Clif bars in my bag. When I finally got to stay home, I tossed a few perfectly good foods because I knew they'd go bad before I got to use them...didn't even think about freezing them to use later. Oh, the shame of it! ;)
   No worries, I will cut myself some slack due to the circumstances, but our little family crisis makes clear that it does take time and clear thinking for me to be frugal and green.
   Hope your holidays weren't half so stressful. Around here we now celebrate a new lease on life for my mom's heart.

True to form, I've gotta end with food. For our family's belated Christmas celebration, my "little" brother made bruschetta! (My little 'brudder' is 6'3"!)

Loved baby brother's pâté bruschetta!

   Wishing you and yours a VERY Happy New Year!!

Catching up: Smoky Ketchup, Meatless Tuesday, Consignment shopping

Made this Smoky Ketchup the other day to eat with some fried oysters. After this shot, my camera battery petered out, so I don't have any proof that we ate oysters, mashed sweet potatoes and sautéed kale. ;)

Didn't manage to eat meatless on Monday, but made up for it on Tuesday. Made our spaghetti with Morningstar Farms mock meat crumbles. Hubby's not crazy about them, so I won't buy them again...once we use up what I've already bought. Hubby didn't complain too much about them this time. I've learned not to add them to the sauce until we plate our food. And of course, a little wine always helps anything to wash down. ;)

Went consignment shopping today to find a highchair for Grandbaby to use when at our house. We did end up finding one to suit our needs, at much less than retail prices. According to Living Greener, buying used "reduces the need to manufacture new materials, meaning less energy is consumed and less water is wasted in the process." Gotta love that!

Must end with this gratuitous pic of the pizza we ate last Friday. My fav E.B.A. pizza is from a locally owned and operated joint, 54 Pizza Express. Though there are lots of reasons to buy local, YUMMY FOOD is my favorite reason to keep going local. BTW, EBA is "everything but anchovies." YUM!

Soo excited that tomorrow is Friday. Maybe another EBA pizza is in my future? One can always hope!
   We have some out of town friends who have a family tradition of inviting friends over for pizza on Fridays. I LOVE that! Another friend makes enough chili for a crowd almost every Friday night during the cooler months. Before I became protective of my Friday nights--preferring to stay in--we ate many a bowl of his Friday night chili.
   Any similar food traditions going on in your neck of the woods?

Meatless Monday: Firecracker Corn, Southern Cafe Stewed Apples

Ken Hom's Firecracker Corn, only I added green pepper

Almost forgot it was "Meatless Monday"! So, I went with deviled eggs, canned pork-n-beans, Firecracker Corn and Southern Café Stewed Apples. This is my favorite cooked apple recipe. It's best with Granny Smith's, but these are galas.
   I accidentally bought some non-organic apples, and since apples top the list of foods--the Dirty Dozen--with the highest pesticide residue, I decided to peel and cook these instead of eating them raw as we usually would. Usually when I cook apples, I'll leave the peel on, but that was out this time.
   Anyway, the corn and beans from lunch found their way into my soup, which turned out might fine! Hubby ate leftover spaghetti with Italian sausage tonight. Clearly, I am going to have to work harder on preparing something much more spectacular for our meatless main meal, so Hubby will be less likely to resort to eating meat for his dinner.
   Ah, well, there's always next time!!

Southern Café Stewed Apples, from Two for the Road by Jane and Michael Stern

Leftover veggies from lunch made their way into my supper! (Btw, this is not my soup bowl...Love my tiny Crockpot!

   For curiosity's sake, care to tell me what you'd have done with leftover corn and baked beans?

Hubby's outdone himself lately: Triggerfish with Spicy Lemon Caper Sauce, Cajun Meatloaf, Smoked Pork Loin

Hubby cooked this Triggerfish with Spicy Lemon Caper Sauce from the first recipe that came up when he Googled "trigger fish." Luckily, he came across an excellent recipe on a blog that hasn't been updated in years...this is one of the BEST fish dishes we've EVER had!! I think Hubby's plate here also has some mackerel on it. The fish was gifted to us by a friend when who went deep sea fishing on his Florida vacation--$75 for the two hour ride out to the deep, two hours fishing, two hours back. That's the cheapest price I've ever heard of for deep sea fishing. Wonder if the oil spill is still affecting Florida tourism?

I may be the chief cook and bottle washer around here, but as I've said, Hubby can hold his own. Moreover, he is the Chief Grill Cook and Chief Fish Cook in this family, and I probably have a pound or two to show for his expertise in these areas! ;)

Back in the day when I bought and cooked as much beef as the average American, I came across Paul Pruddhome's Cajun Meatloaf recipe. We promptly fell in love with it...even me, despite my lifelong aversion to meatloaf. Since I learned of beef's high carbon footprint, the only beef I eat anymore are Hebrew National Beef Franks and the occasional burger. These days, Hubby makes Pruddhome's recipe with his ground venison and likes it just as well. (I'll have to take his word for that. I don't much like venison, so I've never tried his venison meatloaf!)

Hubby's most recent Smoked Pork Loin. I got nervous when I saw how he'd slashed this loin, thinking it would let the juices run out, but instead the slashes just let the smoke flavor in as he roasted this bad boy "low and slow" in his Big Green Egg. Smokey...Juicy...YUM!!

   I'm not crazy about the time change, but maybe I'll find more time for the computer now that it gets dark so soon. *SIGH* I miss the daylight already!! And for some freaky reason, I've awakened at 4:30 the last two mornings. UGH!! Hope you're adjusting to the time change in a more reasonable way than I have?!! 

Not buying it: Ice Cream Sauce

Homemade Chocolate Sauce. Hot Caramel Sauce in container on right.

Chocolate sauce cooking. Being out of cocoa (looking for organic), I used some chocolate baking squares. I was even in a hurry and didn't bother to make sure every last little chocolate fleck melded. Tasted just as good! Oh, goodie!

Caramel sauce at full rolling boil.

Caramel sauce that's boiled awhile and arrived at the desired golden color.

Hubby had the sundae above on a Chewy Chunky Blondie out of the freezer. Here's the one I ate yesterday on top of a couple of Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. (Freshly baked from dough that'd been balled and frozen.) Oh, yeah!!

These relatively inexpensive sauces are soo very easy to make that even lazy ole me will decide to make them in a heartbeat. No more commercial sauces with their scary ingredients!
Chocolate Sauce
1/4 lb. butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cocoa (or two chocolate baking squares)
Combine all ingredients; bring to a boil, stirring constantly until completely blended. Thickens as it cools. (Sorry, unknown origin of this recipe.)
Hot Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until color is golden, skimming off foam as you go. Makes about 2 1/2 cups. Recipe from Babi's Bed and Breakfast, Iowa, as seen in Specialties of the House Cookbook by Julia M. Pitkin. Sauce will separate upon refrigeration. Just reheat to serve.
   Hope you're having a fabulous weekend. It's soo gorgeous outside here in western Kentucky--what am I doing on the computer!?! Whassup for you after you finish surfing the computer today? Something memorable, I hope!!