Raleigh, fully charged

 

This little cat thinks he's died and gone to cat heaven. We generally don't have a big turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, just whenever we're hungry for it.

Jambalaya, 2nd batch

 

The first one was good, this one was much better:

ingredents
a bit of bacon, sliced thin & cubed
4 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp tabasco sauce
2 cups uncooked rice
4 cups chicken broth
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1/2 pkg butterball turkey keilbasa, sliced
1/2 pkg andouille sausage, sliced
1/2 lb cooked deli ham, cubed
1 bunch scallions, chopped

In large stock pot, melt a little of the butter, fry the bacon medium-crisp, add the rest of the butter, stir to melt.

Add onion & pepper, over medium heat cook, stirring occasionally, till tender. Stir in spices. Add rice, stir to coat evenly. Pour in broth. Heat to rolling boil, stirring to prevent sticking. Reduce heat to low simmer, cover with tight-fitting lid, simmer 20 minutes, till rice is tender.

Add tomato paste, stirring vigorously till blended. Stir in sausages, ham, scallions.

It's done.

Jambalaya

 

This is my recipe, cooked today, assembled from bits and pieces of other recipes. It works for me and mine.

3 chicken legs & thighs - I buy a 10# bag and divide into 3 or 4 leg portions, freeze in baggies till I need a portion
1 tablespoon salt
4 celery stalks
1 turnip
1 onion - I don't use much celery or turnip except to make soup stock, so I buy when it's on sale, chop it fine and freeze in baggies, noting the amount (i.e. "four stalks celery," "1/2 large turnip," and the date I froze it, on the baggie with felt-tip marker (sharpie).

Day 1:
In a large stockpot, barely cover the chicken with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes or "until done" which to me means until I can smell a "chicken soup" odor from another room. Remove chicken to a plate and let cool. Add salt, onion, celery & turnip to the broth, cover & simmer on low heat for several hours. When chicken cools enough to handle, remove skin (I give it to the cats), remove meat from bones, chop meat into bite-sized pieces and refrigerate, and return bones to the stockpot, to simmer (covered, so the broth doesn't evaporate) for the rest of the day. An hour or two before bedtime, strain the solids out of the broth and discard them (I give this to the dog - the bones have simmered down to something soft and harmless and the onion & turnip help discourage fleas & other parasites), let broth cool. Before retiring for the night set the pot of broth in the refrigerator to finish cooling.

The next day skim off and discard the layer of fat that's formed on top. If you didn't put the chicken skin back in the pot with the bones it should be a fairly thin layer.

Makes about 8 cups (1/2 gallon) broth. My jambalaya uses 4 cups broth, so I end up freezing 4 cups (just put it in a gallon ziplock bag and lay flat till it's frozen, then you can store it upright or whatever) and then next time I can skip the "Day 1" step. Just remember, if you're using frozen broth, to thaw it before you start frying onions. It's so much more convenient to have liquid broth on hand than to stop everything to thaw a chunk of ice.

4 slices bacon, chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 bell pepper, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon dill seed (optional, and I may leave it out next time)
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce (tabasco, etc) - adjust to taste
2 cups uncooked rice
4 cups chicken broth (use what you made yesterday, or buy some at the store)
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 lb breakfast sausage, crumbled & fried (or you can use italian/polish/andoullie/bratwurst, etc, fried and sliced into 1/2 to 1 inch portions -- I just use whatever I have on hand)

Day 2:
Fry the bacon till moderately crisp, add butter, stirring to melt. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper and fry till tender. Add spices. Add rice, stir to coat with oil. Add broth. Stir in tomato paste, stir till blended. Heat to boiling, stirring to keep from sticking, reduce heat, cover & simmer 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in sausage and chicken.

It's done.

Tuesday update

the elements

This morning it snode.




Snowed hard and fast for about an hour, maybe less. Then the sno all went away, I dunno, evaporated maybe. It didn't feel warm enough to melt it. Then, when the snow was all gone, it sleeted. Millions of icy ball bearings. Those went away too. Thursday and Friday nights are supposed to be in the single digits. I want to lodge a complaint.

knittage

I've decided to quit torturing myself with this wonderfully dense but irritatingly nit-picky heel, which I may have un-vented, because I've never seen anyone else mention doing a heel this way.



This way: slip one knit one across, turn and slip one purl one across. Every row. Wonderfully dense, but I've said that, and irritatingly nit-picky, but I've said that too. It takes twice as long (well, duh!) and I tend to drop stitches. On the next pair maybe I'll remember I don't want to do this anymore. Pretty, though, innit?

food

Tonight I made a carrot cake from this recipe. I've never made a carrot cake before, but I had all these leftover carrots from the bag I bought for beef stew, th'Mr does not eat carrots, and I don't eat that many. I was hungry for something sweet. All I changed (of the recipe) is I used Splenda instead of sugar, and since I ran out of vanilla I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla (that's all I had left) and a teaspoon of almond extract (also all I had left). Didn't frost it either, as I had no cream cheese. It's delish. Carrots are good for you. Maybe I'll make us a carrot cake every week and we'll be so proud of how healthy we're eating.



The Ultimate Chopper my folks sent me a few years ago is indispensable. I'd never grate eleventeen carrots by hand. That's probably why I've never made a carrot cake before.

Today I cleaned the house, in small doses. I took direction from this wikihow and attacked one small thing at a time, beginning with what was bugging me most. I'm not going to tell you what all I did, but I will mention that I windexed windows in three rooms and even got out the furniture polish. I can see a lot left to do, but it already looks better (to me).