back in the saddle again!

It's been sooooooo long since I've really cooked much of anything, and getting back into the kitchen yesterday was AWESOME! I made a couple of wonderful meals for Dan and I, and also cooked up a TON of chickpeas in the Crock Pot, deciding at the last minute to turn half of them into hummus. Yum! Hot beans really do blend up creamier, don't they?

Anyhow, here's the rest of the food I made!

First, while cleaning out the fridge, I discovered a half package of corn tortillas . . . from before Christmas! I figured I better do something with them ASAP, before they dried out too much and/or got moldy. Homemade baked tortilla chips it was!

What better to serve them with, than a little homemade guacamole?

Even though lunch yesterday didn't require much actual "cooking" on my part, it was absolutely delicious!

Having a stash of homemade tamales in the freezer for low-effort meals is awesome! Even though they take an hour plus in the steamer, it frees me up to get other stuff done around the house. Woo!

I had been talking with my friend Christine on Saturday, and somehow, we both got on to the subject of how much we both love olive bread. I had to take care of that craving ASAP!

I used the "Olive Oil Dough" from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and made a deeeeeelicious loaf of olive bread:

Yes, I did add butter at the table, too! :)

To go with the bread? Some wild rice soup!

I follow this recipe from Eating Well, with a few modifications -- I use veggie broth and omit the turkey, increase the celery and carrots to 1 full cup, increase the mushrooms to 3 cups, and cook up 3/4 cup regular dry wild rice to add to the soup. It's sooooooooo good!

Dessert was something special, too!


I. Love. Pie. (Blueberries were from the summer, still in my freezer!) YUM.

food; bummer; kids say the darndest . . .

First, the tabouli that I made to take to the work potluck on Sunday night:


After I made the tabouli, I got all excited about massive amounts of guacamole. I made a big batch of baked chips from the leftover tortillas I had hanging around:


And then I cut open the avocado to make the guacamole:

MAJOR bummer. There was not a salvageable part of this ginormous avocado. Worse even was that when I tried to scoop out a tiny bite from the top that wasn't all gross, the flesh tasted starchy and disgusting. In the future, I will stick with the Haas and Fuerte avocadoes that I have had mostly successes with. (Just so disappointing! Sometimes, I guess things are too good to be true, right?)

Last, a story from work:

One of the little girls in my class was being pushed around by one of the older boys yesterday afternoon. I said to her, "the next time he does that, turn around and say to him, "stop pushing me! I don't like that!" Use a strong voice." She replied, "Like a pirate?"

Tee hee. Kids say the darndest things.

a blogging adventure, pumpkin part deux, chippies, and mystery soup!

A mish-mosh sort of post coming up . . .

I met Crystal & Ryan at Kitchen Window yesterday, for some serious browsing and shopping! (Crystal, I had fun hanging out with you again, and Ryan, it was great to finally meet you!) We spent, oh, almost two hours in the store, mostly drooling over high-end kitchen equipment and ingredients. This visit was prompted by Crystal mentioning to me the last time we got together that she needed a new apron . . . I suggested we visit the "apron shrine" at KW for the best selection. She chose a cute pattern -- go over to her blog and pressure her to post a picture of it! :) Also, they brought me a present!

This decorative gourd was grown by a family member of Ryan's, and is now adding some fall flair to my windowsill. Thanks, guys!

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I realize I never told you what I did with the rest of the pumpkin puree that I had left from the apple orchard pie pumpkin. Well, the chocolate brownie cake molded (booo! You'd think by now I'd learn to put baked goods in the fridge,) and I finished the apple pie, so . . . I forewent a creative option and simply made a crustless pumpkin pie. Mmmmmmmmm.......

I like the crustless version for a variety of reasons, the two most important ones being major calorie savings per slice, and ease of preparaton (no fussing with pastry!)

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I finally got around to turning the big package of tortillas I had hiding out in the back of my fridge into homemade baked chips!

The "recipe" will be in the cookbook. (The Readers Digest version: oil, cut, salt, bake 'till crispy, cool, crunch.)

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This meal is not the most appetizing-looking meal I've enjoyed this week, but I had to take a picture of it to remind myself to tell you about Mystery Soup!

What is Mystery Soup, you ask? Well, it's two (or more) kinds of leftover soup combined to make a new, mysterious, irreplicable, soup fantasy! Why Mystery Soup, you ask? Well, sometimes I find myself with just a few tablespoons or up to half a cup of leftover soup -- not enough to stand alone, but enough when combined with something else to make part of a meal! Waste not, want not. (I do not feed Mystery Soup to others, although Michelle has expressed interest in coming over sometime for Mystery Soup . . . !!)