Fri June 7 2019

No breakfast

Lunch: 2 toast and cheese sandwiches

Snack: some walnuts, an apple, and one stick of a Kit Kat bar

Dinner: I had the remaining leftover chicken stew (no crackers)

Thurs June 6 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese tortilla roll ups

Snack: smoothie 

2nd snack: we had a mini party at bell choir rehearsal because it was our last meeting until fall. I had some fruit, a dark chocolate and almond cluster, and a small piece of white cake with a bit of frosting. 

Dinner: 2 bowls of chicken and rice stew

Wed June 5 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese roll up tortillas 

Dinner: leftover crock pot baked beans with Parmesan and a few crackers 

Tues June 4 2019

Breakfast: smoothie -- with yogurt, but still no ice.

Lunch: 2 ham & cheese roll-up tortillas

Dinner: we decided to try out this cauliflower-crust pizza. It was pretty good!

Carrot Cake Jam (Conserves)

I had some carrots left over from when we assembled the freezer meals. Next time, I'll just use them all in the meals, especially because we're not including potatoes, but this time we didn't. I didn't want them to go bad, and they were taking up space in my refrigerator (it's not a full-size fridge), so I found something to do with them!

I found this recipe for Carrot Cake Jam over at the Ball site, and it sounded great! BUT then I read the comments and saw that they recommended this variation from Wicked Good Kitchen instead, so I decided to make that one instead.

I only changed a few things in the recipe:

• Instead of using a fresh apple, I used a jar of apple slices that were soaking in honey mead.
• I didn't have any molasses (nor maple syrup!), so I did what she talks about in the text of her post and used 3 cups of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar instead.
• I also took her suggestion and substituted 1/4 cup of chopped raisins for the coconut (I don't like coconut).
• And I took her suggestion (which she says was actually Ball's suggestion) to turn the jam into a conserve and added 1/4 cup of chopped pecans.

Here's a pic from when I first assembled the ingredients:

that's my potato masher making another appearance!

I also used my immersion blender to chop everything up because I didn't want big chunks of pineapple in the finished product.

those big chunks are the pecans!

Mon June 3 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Snack: apple

Dinner: rotisserie chicken from Costco. I did have 2 pieces of toast afterward, with butter and just a *little* bit of the spiced cherry jelly. :-) 

Zesty Orange Grilling Sauce

I was looking for a recipe for an orange barbecue sauce to use up the last of my orange pulp. The vast majority of the recipes started with ketchup and prepared yellow mustard, plus a few spices, and a little bit of orange to add some flavor. That's all well & good, but I had a quart of orange pulp! (And Lord knows we've got plenty of marmalade....)

Then I found this recipe by Ball for a "Zesty Peach Barbecue Sauce", which (it turns out) isn't really a barbecue sauce like I think of it -- I'm from the Midwest, so to me, BBQ sauce is a tomato-based smoky sauce. This is what I think of as a grilling sauce, which is a sauce you put onto meat before grilling it (which BBQ sauce can be used as, of course).

Not surprisingly, I modified the recipe a little bit

• I used orange pulp instead of peaches
• I left out the bell pepper entirely because I'm allergic to bell peppers
• I substituted ground cayenne pepper for the hot pepper flakes
• I didn't have any dry mustard powder, but I did have whole brown mustard seeds, so Bri helped me out by using my Sauer Stick and a glass bowl as a mortar & pestle to grind them up a bit
• I added 2 tsp of Jamaican allspice 

Other than those minor modifications, I followed the recipe exactly -- well, almost: I cooked it for 15 minutes instead of 25. Also, I did do the optional "if desired" suggestion of using my immersion blender to smooth out the sauce. 

Before cooking

We now have a quart of zesty orange grilling sauce. Bri says it should be good on pork chops!

Yum!

Sun June 2 2019

Breakfast: Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit from McDonald

Snack: an apple

Dinner: 2 bowls of Sausage & Kale soup with a few saltine crackers 

Sat June 1 2019

Breakfast smoothie 

Lunch 2 cheese roll up tortillas 

Dinner smoothie (we got distracted and didn't cook dinner, so I just had a smoothie)

Asian Spice Orange Sauce

Today I also made Asian Spice Orange Sauce. I made it like a jelly, so it can be used like that if you want, but it can also be used as a stir-fry sauce, or a glaze for chicken or duck. (I created this recipe by modifying a few different duck sauce recipes I found online.)

Here's my recipe:

• 2.5 cups orange pulp and rind
• 3/4 c rice vinegar
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 1/4 c sake
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder (except I didn't have mustard powder, so I substituted horseradish powder instead)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (except I didn't have flakes, so I substituted ground cayenne pepper)
• 3 Tbsp pectin (dissolved in 1/4 c water)

Combine all ingredients (except pectin) in a tall pot. 

Heat on high until mixture comes to a rolling boil, then turn heat to low and let it simmer until the fluid is translucent, approx 10 minutes. Add the dissolved pectin, stir to combine, and turn heat to medium. Bring it to a hard rolling boil and boil hard for one minute. Check for gel set. 

Pour hot liquid into hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

I have just under a quart of orange pulp left. What should I make with it??

Tonight's Dinner - Crock Pot Baked Beans

Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep, and as my mind was wandering, I suddenly decided that for dinner tonight I wanted beans and weenies. The only trouble was, I didn't have any cans of baked beans! What to do?

I googled how to make baked beans in the crock pot. OMG. There are sooooo many recipes for "crock pot baked beans" that START WITH A CAN OF BAKED BEANS! WTF??

Anyway, I kept searching and finally found one that started with actual dried beans.

So I got out of bed (I wasn't sleeping, anyway) and put a pound of beans in the (unplugged) crock pot crock along with 6 cups of water to soak overnight. The recipe calls for "navy, pinto, or great northern beans". I didn't have anything quite so clear-cut, just some "mixed beans", but I figured what the heck.

A bean's a bean, right?

I also took a pound of bacon out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

This morning, when I got out of bed, I followed the rest of the recipe, pretty much to the letter. 

Before cooking

The only difference was that I had no molasses, so I used maple syrup instead. (ADDENDUM: I tasted it about an hour before serving & decided to add a spoonful of Marmite for umami. It’s possible that if I had used molasses, I wouldn’t have needed to do that. Could have used Worcestershire sauce instead, if I had been out of Marmite. Let your taste decide.)

Anyway, I let them cook all day -- the house smelled wonderful! -- and resisted the urge to stir them until I was ready to serve them. 

After cooking all day

When Bri got home from work, we decided not to make weenies, after all. She had her baked beans on two pieces of toast, while I had mine topped with Parmesan cheese and with crumbled saltines.

They were SO GOOD! This recipe is definitely going to be repeated!