Thursday Thrifting

We headed north today, to the Value Village on Natural Bridge and the one on N. Lindbergh. I didn't photograph them, but we got a pile of books including a beautiful version of Brideshead Revisited and Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, plus some collection edited by Dave Eggers. Woo hoo!

I am very excited by this very attractive vintage gold pepper mill/salt shaker combo. I've blown through several pepper mills in the last few years, so it's always nice to find an attractive (and cheap) one.

This jar isn't particularly attractive with the tulips, but I like the lid and the wire and wood handle. I'm seeing it full of little treats.

I have lots of wandering jew plant cuttings that will shortly need new permanent homes so I'm in the market for planters. A goofy owl and a not-vintage footed thingie will work.

This has been the year of buying wooden pieces and I just keep finding more. At this point, I'm thinking about using all the wood platters and bowls as displays for all my baked goods at Rock N Roll Craft Show. At least I won't have to worry about breakage during transportation!
And what the heck is monkeypod? Most of the things I've bought recently all say they are made of it, either made in Hawaii or the Phillipines.

The pineapple is monkeypod and the other is made in Sweden, so I have no idea what kind of wood it is.

And then, a teeny tiny pair of screw-on seahorse earrings. Years and years ago I had an erotic dream about little seahorse and I've never looked at them the same way.

It's wonderful to be here/It's certainly a thrill - TinyMontgomery Kitchen, Meatless Monday Gypsy Soup, and Clay

On Tuesday evening the Boy and I went to see Nick Lowe and Wilco at the newly re-opened Peabody Opera House. It has been restored and renovated to a shiny lustre and it was good to be back in a place I had seen so many great shows in the past. Unfortunately, halfway through Wilco's set I realized I had a splitting headache triggered, no doubt, by the exuberant stage lighting. A migraine developed and has stuck with me all week. It's Saturday night and the migraine is mostly gone, but some pain is still lingering. At least I'm not forced to wear sunglasses in the house at all times as I was until yesterday. At any rate, the headache impeded my computer activities, and really, just about all of my activities.

So I've gotten behind in posting here, and I neglected to take photos of some of last week's meals. I did, however, get photos of Monday's meatless Gypsy Soup. I first had this soup many years ago when a co-worker recommended the recipe from the first (I think) Moosewood Cookbook. It's a highly customizable recipe; I basically use the recipe as a map and go from there with with I happen to have in the house. Also, I always make more than the recipe calls for. This time I used half golden nugget squash and half sweet potato as the base, green and red bell pepper, and all but about two cups of cooked chickpeas from a 1 pound bag of dried beans I cooked in the pressure cooker. It's a really hearty, comforting soup, a little sweet and a lot savory.

Tonight I oven barbecued chicken breasts, roasted cauliflower and made very garlicky, very crispy potato wedges. Apparently the secret is pre-cooking prior to the baking, and the coating of seasoned corn starch because these little dudes (I used new potatoes, quartered) were beautifully crispy.

I am really excited about this year's Rock N Roll Craft Show on the weekend after Thanksgiving. The last couple of years I have deejayed for a part of the show; two years ago I also had items in the show, but last year the crafty vibe was not with me and music was my only contribution. As I sat with my laptop and playlist watching the shoppers last year, I was also studying the table with two ladies selling various baked sweets across the room from me. The notion of doing something like that myself stuck with me but I kept putting off approaching the organizers because I just didn't feel like the possible rejection. Finally, just before the deadline for artists applying for the 2011 show was up, I sent the email to put forward the idea. Much to my delight (and nervousness), they approved the idea. And thus, TinyMontgomery Kitchen was born.

I have been squirreling away bunches of recipes so I will have a wide variety to choose from when it comes time to actually make all this stuff. I plan on having some savory snacks (crackers, snack mixes, veg pies), and lots of sweets including cute things on sticks (convenient for eating and shopping!), cookies and bars for sale. I am so excited about this venture! I am so anxious about this venture! I really can't wait, though.

I've managed to make some more clay pieces that are now awaiting their first firing. In addition to more faux bois, I'm attempting little bird and little house pendants, and also some doughnuts for bracelets. Way, way back, possibly the grade school years, I made a lot of macrame jewelry with waxed thread and small beads. Seems that variations on that have come back around again. I always loved the look of the basic knots so I want to explore a more minimalist look with it.

The migraine is almost gone. Surely tomorrow I will wake up without it. But I've been saying that for days now...

You'd kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never ever stop

I threatened to make pizza for a couple days but it didn't happen until today. This one was a thinner crust version, topped with "country" sausage from Schnucks (I always suppose this is their version of breakfast sausage, but this stuff is very spicy and full of red pepper flakes), mushrooms, red bell pepper and sweet onion. It was a good pizza.

Even though the weather hasn't been terribly cool yet, I've been craving cold weather food like soups. I found some chicken leg quarters on sale, which seemed like as good an excuse as any to make chicken noodle soup.

We will sink and be quiet as mice/While the cat is away and do what we want/Do what we want - Smoky, spicy and thrift.

On Sunday all I wanted to do was go outside and start a fire. I didn't even have any intent to cook over it. I was chilly, it was nice outside and I hadn't had a fire in the firepit in days. Since everything had been rained on in the last week, it took a stupid long time to get a decent fire going. So long that by the time it was burning well, it was time to make dinner, so I thawed out some chicken thighs, sliced up a couple potatoes and wrapped them in foil, and made a salad. Earlier in the day I had made  cowboy candy (sweet/sour [but mostly sweet] sliced jalapenos) and was left with nearly a quart of the leftover liquid that the jalapenos were cooked in. It seemed like a good finish for grilled meat so I brushed it on the chicken once it was nice and golden. It left us with a glazed, grilled chicken that was slightly sweet and quite spicy. I can't wait to brush it on other stuff. For that matter, I can't wait to try the cowboy candy. Unfortunately, it's supposed to sit for a month before eating.

Today, circumstances allowed the Boy and I to do a bit of thrift shopping (after a lovely lunch at Spaghetteria Mamma Mia). First stop was the Goodwill Outlet, which was teeming with people, even on a Tuesday afternoon. Right away I found some greenware (unpainted bisque pottery). What I didn't buy was a greenware mushroom ashtray. So yeah, you should go get that.)

As I am constantly in search of interesting wood pieces, I couldn't turn down a peanut, two apples, and two, um, well, I don't know what they're supposed to be. Acorn squashes?

I can't imagine what this little wooden table was meant to be used for, but I love it.

To keep with the wood theme (and it's part of thrift store mojo to go with a theme when a theme presents itself) I had to have this large-ish jewelry box, even though it brought the overall weight of our purchase up quite a bit. It was still under $10, but still.

And then, a pink melamine gravy boat!

And finally, at the last minute I found this really thick and soft (and handmade, I think) leather bag. Lot of pockets and compartments, it holds my laptop, and it has a strange dimensional applique that appears to be an abstract rendition of lady parts. Yes, you read that right.

Then it was on to St. Vincent de Paul's. Another wooden bowl - hooray!

A lighted magnifying glass and an otherwise unremarkable if not for its wooden handle serving spoon.

 

 I wish I knew more about porcelain and china. This plate is gorgeous and has an art nouveau design. I'm not sure, however, how old this plate is. It was made in Japan, the colors are beautiful (though the silver trim is rubbing off) and it is so thin and fragile feeling, I'm afraid I will break it in half just touching it. The moth/butterfly design is just so beautiful.

Finally, from both locations, the Boy's books.

And my books.

The BH&G books are from 1958, 1963 and 1968. Score! I'm pretty sure I had the Joys of Jello book when I was a kid.

Dinner tonight was born of necessity; basically finding something easy to thaw in the freezer - beef smoked sausage sliced and browned with a bit of honey mustard; steamed broccoli; and steamed potatoes with a little butter.

Friday Night Spicy Peanut Noodles

 

 I was roaming around Target this afternoon when it struck me that I needed spicy peanut noodles, and pronto. Since they had them, I bought a package of whole wheat thin spaghetti. I've steered clear of the whole wheat stuff for some time; last time I bought it (which was, admittedly, a few years ago) it wasn't good. Way too heavy and with too much texture. Obviously the manufacturing process has been quite refined as it was hard to even tell these were different than regular pasta.

I always wing the sauce and this time it went as follows: Big glob of peanut butter, a splash of white wine vinegar, a couple splashes of low-sodium soy sauce, a couple shakes of fish sauce, a big squirt of sriracha, a few glugs of chili-garlic sauce, a shake of cayenne, and some warm water to thin it all out. I wanted a couple of extra things this time round, so I thawed a cup of frozen peas and sliced the green part of two scallions. For extra protein, I wanted to add tofu, but I didn't want it to be soft and white. To that end I heated some canola oil in a frying pan and let it get quite hot while I sliced a block of firm tofu into several slabs. I let the pieces fry for some time, turning frequently, until both sides of each piece were browned and crisp. Once they cooled, I sliced them up and added to the noodle and sauce mixture.

Peanutty goodness.

Meatless Monday - Cheese broccoli soup and baquettes

Have you seen Pinterest? It's a different kind of social networking site, one in which you "pin" photos onto your "boards" and share them with your followers. Your boards can be any category you like, but the most popular seem to be food/recipes, clothing, and cute animals. I have come across a lot of really great sounding recipes and sometimes they must be made pronto (you might remember the homemade Butterfingers...). Since it was Meatless Monday today when I came across the cheese broccoli soup recipe that someone pinned it sounded like just the ticket. And I remembered coming across a recipe recently for 30 minute baguettes so I put that on the menu too.

The soup is seriously the best cheese broccoli soup I've ever had. I did make a couple of changes - I used all milk and no half-and-half, and I used 8 oz. of sharp cheddar and about 4 oz. of 2% Velveeta. I also didn't add the cardamom because I was too lazy to poke around in my cabinet to find it, and I didn't add any hot sauce because it just seemed to taste too good without it.

Sunday - Jewelry, Beef, Pie

And here is my first batch of jewelry made with my first round of ceramics. I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out. I still have a pile of beads, but I can't decide what to do with them yet. Now I need to make more. Must. Make. More.

Dinner tonight was rare roast beef, smashed potatoes and salad. I used a liquid steak marinade stuff on the roast and I think it left it a little too soy-y. For some reason, the flavor was more overpowering on a roast than on a steak. Lesson learned. Still, it was rare beef, which is never a bad thing.

I also made little apple pies today with empanada rounds. Because I didn't want them to bake too long, I precooked the apples (two Jonagolds made eight little pies) with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I let them simmer for quite some time, probably around 45-50 minutes. The little pies then baked about 15 minutes, till they were light golden brown.

Last but not least, a gratuitous shot of Boomer being really cute.

Every time i see your face/It reminds me of the places we used to go/But all I got is a photograph/And I realize you're not coming back anymore

Even though I am occasionally annoyed by various posted mobile phone photos because of the "vintage" effects and what not, perhaps I was mostly jealous that I had a simple phone with a very simple camera. Now I have a not so simple phone and access to a great deal of camera apps with a wide range of photographic effects. Thanks to Jim Varvaris for introducing me to Vignette, a free demo. (There is also a pay version, but for now I'm sticking to the free until I understand it more and figure out what the pay version can do better.)

I'm playing around with lots of effects, though I've barely scratched the surface. You know I love tilt-shift more than anything, but the Vignette's aptitude for it leave a bit to be desired. I need to figure out how to use it to its best advantage. Lots of trial and error in my future.

This last one is my favorite. I love transforming the backyard to a tiny tableau!