So, let's get to it. Friday was our pizza night. I like that we always know that Friday night is pizza night. It is one less night I have to worry about figuring out a meal. I had really looked forward to making a Shaved Asparagus pizza. All week, I had been thinking about it. Friday came and we went out to the farm (where there is usually a bucket on the counter with bundles of asparagus) and found that the asparagus is done for the season. Boo. I will have to put it on my list for next spring. I will look forward to that. I ended up just throwing cheese, kalamata olives, mushrooms and onions on my pizza. It was delicious. We watched Labyrinth with it. I don't know why I've never seen that movie, but it was great. Although, I was falling asleep through the last part of it.
Pizza! (day 60)
Day Sixty-one--Saturday. It was a weird day. I woke up dreaming about biscuits and sausage gravy. I had to make some. My grandmother used to make this all the time and it was just as good as I remembered it. I just made quick and easy drop biscuits and Aidan inhaled them. I do have to say they are really good with the fresh jam I just made. We ended up eating breakfast really late and it held us until late afternoon. At that point everyone just snacked on leftover pizza. Dinner time rolled around and no one was hungry. Around 8 pm Tim got up and made quick eggs in the basket. We had just enough maple oatmeal bread left for each of us to have one egg in the basket. I'm sure you all know what those are. You make a little circle in the middle of the bread and drop an egg in the middle and cook it up that way. Tim and the boys all love "dippy" eggs where the yolks are still runny and then they use the bread to dip in the yolk. Personally, dippy eggs make me gag. I have to have the yolk cooked all the way through. Tim calls them hockey pucks by the time mine are done. So, that was what our dinner was on Saturday night. I didn't even take any pictures. Bad me. I was busy reading The Little House on the Prairie Cookbook. I had no time for picture taking.
This brings us to Sunday. Day sixty-two. Remember how I talked about how I check the weather and plan meals accordingly. That way I'm careful not to have the oven running on days that it's really hot. Well, Sunday was a fail. I don't know what I was thinking. I spent all day in the kitchen and it was HOT. Early in the morning I went out and got the food shopping done for the week. I was happy because I only spent 80 dollars for groceries this week. Part of that is because I didn't really buy any produce because our farmer's market finally starts up this week. I'll do my produce shopping in the square this week. When I got home, I immediately got started on baked beans. Last year for my birthday, my mother-in-law got me this beautiful bean crock from Sturbridge, MA. It's been in my hutch all year looking pretty. I was kind of scared of using it and having it break in the oven. Plus, I really didn't know how to use the crock. There isn't much on the internet about cooking beans in a crock. Early last week I had decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at it. I soaked my beans overnight on Saturday and while reading The Little House cookbook, I found the recipe that was used way back when. I had everything I needed except the salt pork. After some digging around at Wegmans I found that. Bean making is a lot of steps. It can be messy too. First, I cooked the beans in water for 5 minutes and then put in a teaspoon of baking soda. I'm not sure of the science of this and why it said to do it, but it made a huge mess. It bubbled all over my stove and turned the bean water this weird yellow color. I'll have to google later and find out why. After that was done, the beans simmered in that yellow water for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, I drained off the gross water and covered the beans with fresh water and then added the hunk of salt pork. This cooked for about 30 minutes. After the final boil, I added them to the bean crock. I put the piece of salt pork down at the bottom and then added the beans. The beans were super soft by this point. On top of the beans, I threw a chopped onion and then drizzled about a 1/4 cup of molasses. Then it cooked in my oven for 4 hours. At 350 degrees. Hot.
While the beans were cooking, I made coleslaw. That wasn't too difficult. I chopped the cabbage up nice and fine and then grated a couple of carrots. I made the dressing (which for future reference...I think I can make half the dressing.) Coleslaw is done and gelling in the fridge. Now it's time to take a break.
Beans in the crock
On the break, I cleaned out more of the basement. Nice break. After the break, I came upstairs and made the dough for hot dog rolls. This is the first time I've made hot dog rolls. I am pretty much a pro at hamburger buns now, but hot dogs...that's a whole new ball game. The recipe made for a nice fluffy bun. I just wasn't sure how to shape them. I rolled them out into rectangles and then rolled them up into little logs. I made them a wee bit too long. They rose nicely though and made for some pretty good buns. Next time, I won't make them as long as there were. Although, I will say that our hot dogs pretty much went the entire length of the bun.
I only had one more thing to make at this point. Whew. In honor of Father's Day, I made Tim a pineapple upside down cake. I've never made one before. I have a new cookbook. A new favorite cookbook. I'll talk more about that later, but in this cookbook there is a recipe for said upside down cake made in a cast iron skillet. Once the hot dog buns were in the oven baking, I started on the cake. It was crazy easy to make. Buns came out of oven and cake went in. I did have to cook the cake for twice the time it said I would but I think that's because I only had an 8 inch skillet, not a 10 inch one. That's ok, because good things come to those who wait, right?
While the cake was baking, we were enjoying dinner. We invited Nancy over for dinner again because she had been working really hard cleaning out her garages and looked like she needed some good food. Plus, it's fun to cook for others and share. We were going to eat outside on the patio but it was so oppressively hot that we opted for indoor dining.
Hot dogs, beans and coleslaw
It looks like a simple enough dinner. Looks can be deceiving. Everything on that plate was homemade. The hot dogs came from happy cows just out of our valley. The verdict: The buns were good, just a little too long. The hot dogs were as good as ever. The coleslaw was delicious even though it was a little too runny. The beans, oh the beans. They were divine. They had such great flavor. I had a couple of little bowls of molasses on the table if people wanted to drizzle a little on their beans (because that's the way the Ingalls did it). They were a little mushy and not individual beans. That was ok though because the flavor made up for the texture. Everyone loved them, even Aidan. All of this plus fresh southern sweet tea. I even made Connor a pitcher of sweet tea with stevia in it. I was skeptical but it turned out pretty good. I might wean myself off the sugar tea. Although, I don't really make it all that often. Only when it's really hot out. Thankfully, we don't have too many scorchers here.
About an hour after dinner, we enjoyed this:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Again, this was my first time making it. It was fun to make. It was delicious. 'Nuf said.
So, that sums up our weekend. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to regular daily posting. It will help when I have my laptop back too.
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