What I Cooked

We were out of town at the beginning of the week. We came home with either food poisoning or a stomach virus, so we subsisted on Gatorade, ginger ale, and canned soup for a few days. Not a lot of cooking going on. Things are back to normal now, thankfully!

Thursday: A favorite quick and easy dinner--quinoa with kale and tahini sauce. We love this, and I try to keep the ingredients for the sauce on hand. As long as I have some kind of fresh greens, I can have this on the table in about 20 minutes. Plus it's an oil-free Lenten dish.



Friday: Tempeh hash with potatoes and cabbage.

Saturday: Enchilada bake served with lettuce, tomato, sour cream.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Books I Read in June

The Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This book is set in a future, dystopic, post-apocalyptic (in the literary sense) Thailand. I find this sort of fiction fascinating. It tends to reflect pretty accurately the fears in society at the time it is written. Naturally, the book is very grim. In this world, food is very limited, and calories are currency. Genetic engineering has run amuck, and the wind-up girl is person who is the result of it. She's considered sub-human. For me the setting was the most intriguing part about this book. I was very interested in learning about the world the author imagined, but the characters and plot didn't hold my interest as much.

Promises to Keep by Jane Green
This book is about a pair of sisters. One of the sisters has cancer. I don't recall too much about it, except that it was a tear-jerker, as you might expect. Also, one of the sisters is a vegan chef, and most of the chapters include recipes, which was an odd device for this particular book, I think. I didn't end up trying any of them, but several of them sounded delicious, so maybe I should get the book again to try some of them for Lent. 

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Children of the Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
I read both of these planning to write about them as part of the 100 Children's books series. I'm going to get back to that as soon as I catch up with the books I read posts, so I'll discuss these then.

I may have read more books in June, but I don't have a record of it. Then again, this may have been it. The Wind-Up Girl was a slow read, and June was a very busy month. At any rate, this concludes the second catch-up edition of Books I Read.

18. Knit some more dishcloths--Check

Since I took a break from blogging, I had sort of forgotten my 33 before 33 list. I have accomplished a few of the things on the list, but several of the goals are definitely out of reach at this point. I only have 2 more months! I have knitted several new dishcloths, though, and I have another on the needles right now. This was definitely one of the simpler items on the list. I really enjoy knitting them, and James and I like using them, so I'm trying to build up a good supply. Since we favor them, they tend to wear out.

This is the pattern I've been using for the dishcloths.  I usually put the stripe off center. I've it made it in variegated yarn without the stripe, too. I've learned that I prefer darker colored yarn, like the one above, as the light colored ones show stains quickly. This is currently my favorite pattern and color combination.  I like knitting dishcloths because they're a very portable knitting project, and they're quick and satisfying.

Be There and Make a Square

A friend from college is getting married this summer. He is Jewish, and he and his bride will get married under a chuppah. Evidently it's currently popular to involve friends and relatives in the creation of the chuppah as a visible way to represent their love and support as a couple begins their married life.

They sent out these squares and requested that we decorate them and send them back.  The bride's mother will then turn them into a quilt. I'm really curious to see the results when it's all assembled.  I had fun designing the square and then embroidering it during travel and down time in December.

I chose to embroider the square with a comet because that is our college mascot. J + J are the initials of the happy couple, and that's their wedding date.  SFC are my initials.  The color scheme is a bit of a nod to our school as well.

I learned a fair amount about Judaism from this friend, who I dated for quite a while. That was actually an important part of my path to the Orthodox Church. It led me to realize how much ritual speaks to me, and to acknowledge the importance of having guidance on how to lead a Godly life, even for such simple things as choosing what we eat. I'm really grateful for that experience, and wish many years to the engaged couple.

Getting My House in Order: Refrigerator

So, as I mentioned, the ice storm last week gave me plenty of time to get some projects done around the house. The biggest accomplishment was cleaning out the refrigerator, which probably hadn't been done since some time in the summer. It was sorely in need of cleaning and organization, as you can see:

It was a pretty straight-forward project, but it took me a whole afternoon to get it done.  I pulled everything out of the refrigerator one shelf at a time, sorting things as I went.  Then I cleaned off each shelf in the sink before pulling out the next shelf.  Once I had cleaned all the shelves and drawers, I wiped out the interior, dried and reinstalled the shelves, and returned the keepers.  Then I repeated the whole process with the door. My dish washer was about 2/3rds full, and I filled it with the newly emptied containers and ran it immediately. That was handy for banishing odors from a few things which were spoiled.
 
As I was sorting, I paid a lot of attention to the things that I had let go to waste. I wanted to better organize things and establish a system to make sure we eat what we buy and don't let things turn into science experiments. The main trouble spots I identified were: leftover odds and ends, an insane number of lemon and lime slices, a surplus of homemade salad dressings, and fresh herbs.

The solutions I've come up with for these problem areas are:

1. I designated the top shelf for leftover odds and ends that need to be used up.  We don't usually have a problem with leftover meals going to waste. It's things like half a can of re-fried beans, leftover toppings and sauces, and way too many slices of lemons and limes in tiny containers that make their way to the back of the fridge to die. Hopefully having all these things corralled in one place will help us use things up, and will prevent us from slicing a new lemon when there's half of one already cut.  I'm trying to monitor the shelf and utilize the contents in meals or put things in the freezer before they've been hanging around too long.

2. I'm trying to make only enough dressing for the salad I've made that night. I realized that when I make too much, we just don't end up using it.

3.When I buy fresh herbs, I'm going to try freezing half the bunch in ice cube trays immediately after I've bought it. I almost never use a whole bunch of cilantro or parsley, so it turns to green goo in the produce drawer. Yuck.

So here is the after, almost one week later. The contents have rotated a fair amount. So far the new system is working well, although a week isn't really enough to know if it's standing the test of time.

I'm really pleased with the result. I haven't decided the best use for the top right hand section of the door, though. It has a really flimsy shelf, so I need to make sure I don't put anything heavy there. Right now it has essential oil and ginger for sushi. Also, I can't believe how soon I'll be finding a new use for the eggs/dairy section! Lent is quickly approaching. I'll probably put packed lunches there then. Right now I have that with the breads, just to distinguish it from other leftovers. 

What do methods do you find helpful for managing the refrigerator?