Teal

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Teal
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Teal's Modest Adventures

Food & Drink > Recipes > Home Ec
 

Home Ec


I was cleaning out a kitchen cupboard and found a box of bran muffin mix, so I made it. I didn’t have the “right” size loaf pan, so maybe the batter was spread too thin. Anyway, I tried a piece and it was dry and sort of hard and chewy. I have a convection oven and probably should have shortened the baking time. I threw it out because I am saving my calories for better stuff. I hesitate to get another pan just for that occasion when I buy something impulsively and then let it sit in the cupboard for a number of years, until I am “in the mood”.

I am an intuitively good cook but despite my aptitude, I find the process most often tedious and b-o-r-i-n-g which is why I say no to recipes with lots of ingredients that call for dicing and slicing and parboiling, and sautéing before mixing – “prep time half an hour” oh so doesn’t work for me. I would rather be doing almost anything else – playing the piano, ballet stretches, writing on the computer, blogging, soaking in a hot tub … long lunches with my international female buddy set about whom I have written. Staring into space is also better.

Before marrying Ed, I should have negotiated dinners out several times a week. Of course, that would have been a deal breaker. He is not heavy but you’d think he would be, because he believes in food in a way that rivals Christian Evangelism. It is what it is.

A few days ago I bought some ground turkey to make turkey loaf. With Ed on a limited meat diet, he is eating lots of turkey which he prefers to chicken. Me, not so much. Often I’ll cook turkey parts for him and make something else for myself. With salt and fat.

Anyway, the effort of mixing up the loaf with egg and chopped onion, peppers, zucchini (which I omitted this time), and low sugar ketchup (are they kidding? Fuggedabbatit) and mustard and worcestershire, so daunted me that I didn’t do it right away. I kept putting it off but finally did it yesterday, dreading the moment I opened the turkey packages, anticipating a foul odor. But no smell, so I put everything together, and baked it. I made enough for about four meals and froze all but one, which we will have tonight.

Also, I have found a way to make tedious tasks more bearable. I listen to NPR Fresh Air on my iPod. It makes kitchen clean up and end-of-day chores go quickly. Lately, we have been enduring an ant invasion (teeny, tiny almost transparent ants) so I have had to protect my night time water by using a travel mug with snap top lid. This can’t last much longer because the weather is changing.

I sprayed the perimeters of the house, but they’re getting in anyway. Ed thinks it is useful to chase a Palmetto bug with a poison spray and that drives me crazy. I then have to mop up wherever he has been because my fear is the kitties will get it on their paws and lick it off. I put the fear of ME into him last time he did it. I’ll have to spray behind the refrigerator and stove too. In the morning, dead bugs. Good.

And here’s a tip for cleaning dirty bakeware … fill pan with hot, soapy water and add a dryer sheet, let sit for a half hour, or overnight for a really tough pan, and everything will off scrub off easily.

xx, Teal

posted on Nov 23, 2015 7:11 AM ()

Comments:

I love to cook because I have the same attitude toward food as Ed does,
but despise the clean up. I have an electric smoker for turkey breasts.
but of course you could smoke a whole bird and there is no cold turkey
taste after it is smoked. Thanks for the tip about the dryer sheet.
comment by elderjane on Nov 24, 2015 2:02 AM ()
A dryer sheet? Never heard of that, I'll have to try it. My friend's wife makes ground turkey everything instead of beef, but I haven't tried anything in that direction. I can stand only plain turkey, sliced. Or smoked -- like smoked turkey franks from Ballpark which are great. No fat, and only 45 calories each.
comment by drmaus on Nov 23, 2015 1:07 PM ()
I'll try Ballpark. I just bought (for myself, because the sodium content is high) Jennie-O's Italian turkey sausage, but it is 160 per large link and the taste was just ok, not great. I need a live-in cook.
reply by tealstar on Nov 24, 2015 6:35 AM ()

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