This would make a great brunch dish for a group because you can prepare all the components and then assemble the servings on a big platter or tray.
We sliced the sausage on a diagonal and piled on lots of it. (This was another item Penny bought because the TJ's Crew was offering samples. She found it tasted just like the sausage on your pancake or French toast plate when they mingle with the maple syrup poured on the main course.)
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Imagine my smile as I walked into Trader Joe's on Boylston and saw this adorable little guy sitting in the upstairs corner of the entryway where Poppy usually waits with Ed as I shop.
I only had to pick up a couple of things so he and his person were still there when I returned. While I loaded my backpack, I learned his name is Max. I asked if I could take his photo to show Poppy that she's not the only TJ's dog.
Hope I run into you in the waiting area again, Max! Maybe someday you and Poppy will share the space.
Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.
Thanks to everyone who Hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.
Imagine my smile as I walked into Trader Joe's on Boylston and saw this adorable little guy sitting in the upstairs corner of the entryway where Poppy usually waits with Ed as I shop.
I only had to pick up a couple of things so he and his person were still there when I returned. While I loaded my backpack, I learned his name is Max. I asked if I could take his photo to show Poppy that she's not the only TJ's dog.
Hope I run into you in the waiting area again, Max! Maybe someday you and Poppy will share the space.
Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.
Thanks to everyone who Hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.
Cooking meals on a daily basis can be daunting or it can be relaxing depending on your approach. I recently discovered the book The Kitchen Ecosystem. Author Eugenia Bone helped me see why it might be easier for longtime cooks to prepare daily meals while the same task could be stressful for the occasional cook.
Having Stuff on Hand
One crisper drawer in my refrigerator is devoted to my cooking basics: celery, carrots, parsley, cabbage, lemons, and apples. With the stocks in my freezer and the onions and garlic in my pantry, I have the beginning of many soups, stews, braises, and salads.
The Kitchen Ecosystem is arranged by 40 common ingredients. For each one, the author provides recipes for dishes that star that ingredient and follows with ideas on what you can make to add to your pantry with not only the leftovers, but also the scraps. (e.g., Who knew that apple peel stock could be handy to have when you need a bit more pectin in a jelly or jam?)
Preserving foods by fermenting, canning, and freezing are part of the author's repertoire. But even if you're not ready to make your own sauerkraut or can chicken, you can make stocks to freeze and prepare a dish that will let you turn the leftovers into a sequence of meals.
Tired of Leftovers?
If you or your family quickly tire of the same food after a day or two, think about preparing a basic version of something and then creating variations on a theme. I do this all the time with chicken soup. I’ll make a big pot of simple chicken soup and then serve it at future meals with different starches like rice, pasta, noodles, dumplings, barley, grains, cubes, etc. In the photo above, I used polenta cubes.
Whenever I have leftover, falling apart, tender meat from a pot roast or braised lamb shanks, I’ll shred the meat and turn it and the braising liquid into a chili by adding beans, chilies, and seasoning then simmering until the flavors blend.
Repurpose
When I make chicken soup, I use enough chicken to have extra poached chicken. This can become the curried chicken salad you see above. That's a cool, crisp, spicy change of pace.
Every few weeks, I make a big batch of homemade dog food for my Westie Poppy. The recipe I use calls for a wide assortment of vegetables and there’s always half a cauliflower, half a cabbage, and a few other things left when I’m done. These become a soup for the human members of the family. One version is the cabbage and kielbasa soup shown below.
If you shy away from buying a whole head of broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower because you’ll only eat part of it and waste the rest, consider soup on day two. It can be vegetarian or you can add meat or sausage to the mix. You might even consider making the soup on one burner while you’re cooking the meal that will have cauliflower as a side dish on the others. Most soups taste better on day two when the flavors have had an opportunity to harmonize.
The Boston Public Library has a copy of The Kitchen Ecosystem that you might want to borrow to start thinking about cooking on a continuum. The book is also available in an ebook format.
Cooking meals on a daily basis can be daunting or it can be relaxing depending on your approach. I recently discovered the book The Kitchen Ecosystem. Author Eugenia Bone helped me see why it might be easier for longtime cooks to prepare daily meals while the same task could be stressful for the occasional cook.
Having Stuff on Hand
One crisper drawer in my refrigerator is devoted to my cooking basics: celery, carrots, parsley, cabbage, lemons, and apples. With the stocks in my freezer and the onions and garlic in my pantry, I have the beginning of many soups, stews, braises, and salads.
The Kitchen Ecosystem is arranged by 40 common ingredients. For each one, the author provides recipes for dishes that star that ingredient and follows with ideas on what you can make to add to your pantry with not only the leftovers, but also the scraps. (e.g., Who knew that apple peel stock could be handy to have when you need a bit more pectin in a jelly or jam?)
Preserving foods by fermenting, canning, and freezing are part of the author's repertoire. But even if you're not ready to make your own sauerkraut or can chicken, you can make stocks to freeze and prepare a dish that will let you turn the leftovers into a sequence of meals.
Tired of Leftovers?
If you or your family quickly tire of the same food after a day or two, think about preparing a basic version of something and then creating variations on a theme. I do this all the time with chicken soup. I’ll make a big pot of simple chicken soup and then serve it at future meals with different starches like rice, pasta, noodles, dumplings, barley, grains, cubes, etc. In the photo above, I used polenta cubes.
Whenever I have leftover, falling apart, tender meat from a pot roast or braised lamb shanks, I’ll shred the meat and turn it and the braising liquid into a chili by adding beans, chilies, and seasoning then simmering until the flavors blend.
Repurpose
When I make chicken soup, I use enough chicken to have extra poached chicken. This can become the curried chicken salad you see above. That's a cool, crisp, spicy change of pace.
Every few weeks, I make a big batch of homemade dog food for my Westie Poppy. The recipe I use calls for a wide assortment of vegetables and there’s always half a cauliflower, half a cabbage, and a few other things left when I’m done. These become a soup for the human members of the family. One version is the cabbage and kielbasa soup shown below.
If you shy away from buying a whole head of broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower because you’ll only eat part of it and waste the rest, consider soup on day two. It can be vegetarian or you can add meat or sausage to the mix. You might even consider making the soup on one burner while you’re cooking the meal that will have cauliflower as a side dish on the others. Most soups taste better on day two when the flavors have had an opportunity to harmonize.
The Boston Public Library has a copy of The Kitchen Ecosystem that you might want to borrow to start thinking about cooking on a continuum. The book is also available in an ebook format.
With Valentine's Day coming, it's time to take down those wilting, drooping, browning decorations that went up in November and December. Boston should have an official year-end holiday "Un-decorating Day" or weekend where everyone takes a look at their winter accessories and decides if they still look good and can stay or if some adjustment or removal is needed.
Walking around, we found different takes on decorating the front of buildings. These folks decided to go with the next holiday and added a splash of Valentine Glam to their doorway.
In some cases, the decorating theme was "Winter" rather than "Christmas" and this planter was maintained so it still looks good and is still a very welcome sight on our daily strolls.
On the other hand, this garland has stayed too long at the party. This photo was taken in late January and suggests that perhaps the date for "Un-decorating Day" should be the first weekend in February.
Traditionally, The Beacon Hill Civic Association has held their "Undecorating Weekend – Pancake Breakfast" in January. That's great for some fading decorations. But, many of the wreaths, planters, and window boxes with less traditional themes are in great shape and continue to add a splash of bright to the dull streetscape. Those should stay around a bit longer.
This year we've had Roses in December and snowdrops and green shoots popping up in January. This weekend would be our normal time to start looking for those first signs of spring. So in our minds this is also a weekend to take a look at your winter decor and decide if it is still a happy addition to your home or if it's time to take it away and think about the next season. In case you're wondering, the Spring Equinox is March 20, 2016.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
With Valentine's Day coming, it's time to take down those wilting, drooping, browning decorations that went up in November and December. Boston should have an official year-end holiday "Un-decorating Day" or weekend where everyone takes a look at their winter accessories and decides if they still look good and can stay or if some adjustment or removal is needed.
Walking around, we found different takes on decorating the front of buildings. These folks decided to go with the next holiday and added a splash of Valentine Glam to their doorway.
In some cases, the decorating theme was "Winter" rather than "Christmas" and this planter was maintained so it still looks good and is still a very welcome sight on our daily strolls.
On the other hand, this garland has stayed too long at the party. This photo was taken in late January and suggests that perhaps the date for "Un-decorating Day" should be the first weekend in February.
Traditionally, The Beacon Hill Civic Association has held their "Undecorating Weekend – Pancake Breakfast" in January. That's great for some fading decorations. But, many of the wreaths, planters, and window boxes with less traditional themes are in great shape and continue to add a splash of bright to the dull streetscape. Those should stay around a bit longer.
This year we've had Roses in December and snowdrops and green shoots popping up in January. This weekend would be our normal time to start looking for those first signs of spring. So in our minds this is also a weekend to take a look at your winter decor and decide if it is still a happy addition to your home or if it's time to take it away and think about the next season. In case you're wondering, the Spring Equinox is March 20, 2016.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Faced with the upcoming election season, we decide to invest in a call blocker for our landline. We've only had it for a short time but are already enjoying the benefits. No more nightly call from a number that comes up as Quincy and is reported to be spam when we do a reverse number look-up over on WhitePages.com.
The evening after we installed the call blocker that call came in. We hit the "Block Now" button and haven't seen that particular spammer on our incoming call list again.
No more calls for the business that keeps printing our phone number instead of their own on everything from company directories to business cards. We had a list of the numbers that kept calling us looking for them and entered those manually into the call blocker. While we do feel sorry for the people trying to reach the business when their call is disconnected, we've pleaded with staff members from the company for years to stop giving our number as theirs.
We also used the shortcuts provided in the device's users manual to block all withheld, private, unknown, international, out-of-the-area, international calls with 00 prefixes, and unavailable callers. Most of our friends and family reach us via text or our cell phones so we don't expect that to shut out many legitimate calls.
The equipment comes with 200 "known spam" numbers blocked. Obviously, we are benefiting from that because we've entered only 14 numbers (as of this post) and are already amazed at how few spam and robocalls we're receiving.
We did our research and found hundreds of positive reviews and a strong customer service support system for CPR Call Blocker V202. We ordered ours from Amazon and had free delivery with our Amazon Prime membership.
Both of us keep remarking on how nice it is to be free of those spam, marketing, and political calls. As the candidates begin to call, we'll just block their numbers as they arrive.
We still have our special answering machine message that we told you about in our post "Sick of Political and Polling Phone Calls?" And, we've added our land line numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry. While we still believe that we should all have a right to an "opt in" rather than an "opt out" choice for all calls, this is certainly a step forward for this household.
Watch for updates on this post as we get more use out of this call blocker.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.
helped me see why it might be easier for longtime cooks to prepare daily meals while the same task could be stressful for the occasional cook.
that you might want to borrow to start thinking about cooking on a continuum. The book is also available in 
. 
. We ordered ours from Amazon and had free delivery with our 
.