Mire poix

Recently I happened upon Redoux, a very cute blog.  A post that caught my eye was for mire poix - a chopped veggie blend you use in cooking as a seasoning base for all kinds of wonderful things.  She does a great job explaining it - go here.  Since I had these at the bottom of my veggie drawer I thought I would give it a try!

These veggies I need to use up since I'll be leaving the house shortly to do grocery shopping.  I hate wasting food, but this will be delicious made into mire poix.  

 I chopped two bell peppers

 almost an entire bunch of celery

 several carrots - I think I had 4 good sized ones

Two onions - I saved these for last as they were so potent!  

 I gave it a stir in a large plastic bowl. 

 Then I scooped it into ziploc bags in 1 cup portions.

And put all the little bags into one big gallon size one.  Then promptly misspelled my label. It occurred to me that mire poix is the same, basically, as the celery and onion I saute and add to my dressing each Thanksgiving.  Something tells me I'm going to love using these little bags of veggies.

Gina

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Compost Cookies

Ever have leftover cereal?  We do.  Into a large resealable cereal container it goes until it gets full and becomes a  smorgasbord of cereal that gets eaten before I will buy another box.  We have two of these now and the boys are started to campaign for "new" cereal.  So, I decided to make compost cookies.

 Compost Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 T corn syrup

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cup flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

2 t. salt

1 1/2 c. crushed cereal

1 1/2 c. chopped nuts, dried fruit, or choc chips - mix it up!

Cream the butter and sugar - add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Sift the dry ingredients together and gradually add them into the creamed mixture.  Stir in your combo of crazy mix-in's.

You can freeze cookie dough wrapped up in the liner of the cereal box.  (Always save those - you already paid for them!)  Wet your hands to smooth out the dough into a shape you can wrap neatly.

Make little packets of a third or so of the dough.  Then freeze them. Just slice and bake at 375 for 12 minutes when ready to eat.

 Lately my pictures have been kinda lame.  But these cookies are not - buttery and somewhat crewycrunchy, depending on the mix in's, or "compost", you use.  Warm from the oven they got a big thumbs up at my house!

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Baking supply ready for the holidays

I pulled out my baking basket yesterday to make a few batches of cookies to freeze and thought I'd better get it cleaned up and see what I needed for holiday baking.  I think a basket like this is a great idea if you love to bake - it keeps you from having to fish around in your dark pantry for those little bottles and boxes.

I got this stackable basket from Wally World.  It was just the right size.  I don't put my spices in there, like cinnamon and such, since they live in the spice cabinet.  And the containers of sugar and flour are way too big.  But for the cocoa, baking powder, salt, etc., it's perfect.

I also put in a recycled container to hold the little bottles of extract. 

I'm starting to re-purpose things like that more often.

Did you know that every cereal box comes with a freebie?  Wax paper!  You can use it for storing cookie dough in the freezer.  I have also used them in place of pricey gallon size zip loc bags to marinate meat and store half cut heads of lettuce.  Something else I started doing was to mark with a sharpie on the tops of things as to when they needed to be replaced. 

The basket gets stored on the same shelf as the flour and such. I just pull the whole thing out when I want to bake.  Looks like I need to add flour and sugar to my grocery list!  What about you - got any holiday baking tips to share?

Gina

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Fair day 2011

I visited my mother in Brenham yesterday for the first time in many months. We had a nice visit and a really good surprise at the women's building:

 A blue ribbon and a Grand Champion ribbon for the "Little Red House" quilt!

 She was teary eyed for a minute or two - she really didn't expect that, but it had to feel gratifying for her.

She puts a lot of time and effort into these quilts so it's no small thing if she gives you one as a gift. 

This is the appliqued  one she entered and I can't remember the name of it.  

The flowers are more hot lipstick pink than my camera suggests and the entire thing is hand-quilted.

 

We wandered over to the livestock pens to gaze at the pretty cow ladies.  The one above is a Charolais - the type my grandmother used to raise in Azle, Texas.

 

 A tiger-striped cow.  Don't think I've ever seen one.

 

Most of them barely paid any attention to us, but one rushed the gate and almost startled my mother off her feet!  I bet she gets tired of hearing me chime "No Fally-Downie!".

Rows of cow butts. Hmmm... "How about hamburgers for lunch?"
Ha ha  Just my weird sense of humor...
 A fun day in Brenham and I'm so glad she got the ribbon she did!

Gina

Milky Way Cake

The Girl made a fairly simple request for her birthday dinner last night:  Enchiladas.  Oh, and she also wanted salad with avocados and chocolate cake with ice cream.  And I found that to be an open invitation to make a cake recipe I'd clipped from a Houston Chronicle a while back.  

It was a really easy recipe and made the house smell insanely good.  The "frosting" is oozing and gooey, made of butter, confectioner's sugar, and Milky Way bars.

 Mine was lumpier and oozier but tasted divine.  I used some leftover whipping cream to thin it instead of milk.  I'm sure it was thousand calorie frosting!  And the cake itself was caramel flavored, with a pound cake consistency.  Perfect to slice and send half it it back to college with The Girl.

Needless to say it was a big hit.  And so were the enchiladas!  We had such a nice visit with her, even though it was short.   Can she already be 20?  Doesn't seem possible.  Happy Birthday, Chloe Erin!

Gina

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Sweet Glazed Snack Mix

It doesn't feel like Fall around here, and I can't make my old favorite Crispix Mix when it's still air conditioner weather. But I did find a recipe for a sweet version that'll do until I can make the salty savory one. 

Sweet Glazed Snack Mix

4 cups Crispix cereal
2 cups honey nut O's cereal
1 cup mini pretzels 
1/2 walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup syrup
1 T. butter
1 t. vanilla or maple extract

In a large bowl, combine the cereals, pretzels, and nuts.  In a glass measuring cup or bowl, microwave the syrup and butter about 45 seconds til butter is melted.  Stir in the extract.  Pour this over the cereal and toss to coat.  Pour into a baking pan sprayed with Pam.  Bake at 250 for 45 minutes, stirring every 15.  Cool.  Store in airtight container. 

It smelled pretty darn good just out of the oven!  When cooled I made a big bag of it for The Girl to take back to her apartment for study food and set the rest out on the kitchen counter.

Bubbie found it and gave it his seal of approval. You could change it up by making it with Cinnamon Chex, and using pecans or almonds instead of walnuts.   Yum!  It was a great afternoon snack.

Gina

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The musical fruit

Have you noticed the price of canned bans has gone way up?  My family loves them and that's a good thing, but I found that it's always cheaper  to make my own beans in the crock pot and freeze them for later use.

 

I had a coupon recently for these Rubbermaid containers and they were on sale at Walgreen's.  I love that they are cheap, seal well, and allow you to see what you are storing easily.  Each one held the equivalent of a can of beans.

I started off Tuesday by making a 1 pound package of pintos that equaled about 4 cans of cooked beans.  I just put them in the crock, covered with water, and set it on low.  No soaking required. It took about 6 hours or so.  And I left seasoning out so I could use them in recipes.  Four cans worth cost me 98 cents, or a little less than 25 cents each.  Not bad.

On Wednesday I cooked black beans - 99 cents for a 1 pound bag.  So, as cheap as pintos, but canned black beans are more expensive than canned pintos.  Why is that?  I added a few bits of leftover bbq ribs to season these and used the same cooking method.  Once they had cooled, into the freezer they went.

I see Taco Soup in my future.  And Jamaican Rice and Beans,  And Layered Tex Mex Enchiladas. 

I also bought Great Northern beans from Target, which actually rang up as 98 cents.  This will make an awesome Italian soup.  I have several great recipes that call for cooked white beans so I think I will set up the crock tomorrow before I leave for work.  Frugal and great to have in the freezer.

 

Gina

Scout's room

I was determined to make a space for Scout where he could concentrate and have some privacy; and soon after the school year started so he could get off on the right foot.

It started with painting over the Naturally Calm paint with a light Khaki color.  I had to custom mix this as the original paint I bought was too light.

The lighting in my kitchen during the day is so artificial - sorry about that.  I love this little green gadget - it helps you pour the paint into the tray without gunking up the can so you can re-seal it.  Genius!  I used a pad painter to edge out the room, then a textured roller pad to complete.  It took me all of 3 hours, including replacing light and plug covers, moving furniture back in place, and vacuuming.

 It's not fancy, just functional.  He really didn't care about the color of anything, so I picked khaki, navy, and light blue.  I bought the linens at Wally World, the curtain at Penney's, a bedrest at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I want to add a tailored dust ruffle to the bed, and the matching panels for the window.  The bed is on elevators to get some storage underneath. On the shelves he arranged some childhood stuff.

 

This desk belonged to his Nana. The bulletin board is as plain as can be so I might have to spruce that up a bit. And he wants to take some of his current photography and frame it for the walls making a gallery.  I bought an inexpensive desk chair and a wastepaper can.  I'm telling you, it's not fancy stuff.

The lamp was a Goodwill find and I got a blue shade for $5.  I was planning on getting him an alarm clock that you can recharge your iPod in.  Then he lost the iPod.  It hasn't been such a great week for Scout.

The memo board I made a year or so ago seems really small here, but so is the bookcase. It's taking both boys time to adjust to being alone.  And the start of the school year is always stressful.  I don't know about you , but I am ready for Fall to happen.  Now, how long until Thanksgiving Break? 

Gina