Weekend update, January 6, 2013

"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful"

Mae West

Such a week of surplus! So many discoveries, curiosities, queries and (best of all) prezzies! Look what Josie the wonder dog found on the front porch this week:

She's waiting very eagerly for someone with thumbs to
open this interesting boxful of new smells.
Really. She's quite excited.

And......GUESS WHAT IT WAS!?!?
My first ever real live grown-up type cast iron skillet, that's what!!!!




 Josie is resting, having exhausted herself

with demostrations of wild excitement.

So, I have a genuine cast iron skillet. What am I gonna do about that?
 How about a weekend lunch of salmon and cornnbread?
OKAY!
About the salmon-  I remain a pescinovitiate. (It's a real word. You know that it must be because you just read it on the internet.) No, not really. I made up that word months ago when I first realized how little I knew about cooking any fish that didn't come breaded and frozen.
So, for the last 6 months or so, I've been kinda hooked, trying to catch on to this fishy business- from buying it to cooking it to figuring out what to do with the leftovers-
And there are at least two,maybe three important things I've learned already:
-I think maybe sometimes I haven't liked fish because I started with cheap fish.
-I think maybe sometimes fish is dry and tasteless and it's the fault of the cook (that would be me)  and not the fault of the fish.
-Fish (and this is really interesting) is a meat that continues to cook after it's been removed from heat.
To initiate the new skillet,  I used a nice but not too pricey piece of fish from Costco, and the orange and ginger salmon recipe)




just landed in the pan....                     off the heat here...            minutes later, cooked through

There happened to be a superabundance of both corn on the cob and green stuff in the fridge (the fresh leafy good for you green stuff, not the good food gone wild green stuff), so it was spoon bread and greens sharing the plate.

Welcome to the family, little skillet.
We're going to be great friends.
(thanks D peeps!)

The department of shared surplus also offers these items of interest:

My friend Linda this week sent me question about substituting ground turkey for ground beef that has prompted for me all kinds of food nerd type internet inquiry. I promise you research results and some ideas of how to use those results on Wednesday, okay Linda?

And, I had cause this weekend to stir up one of my very few original kitchen inventions, developed years ago when our eldest child moved away to become a hungry university student and made once or twice a year since.  And I'd tell you what these little wonder bars are called, but somehow I ran out of imagination before I invented that part.

Here's how they work:

In the hugest, biggest bowl you have, stir together some rice krispies, some quick cooking oats, and a cereal called "uncle sam's". (Uncle Sam's is a cereal made of teeny wheatflakes and flaxseed) then add any good for you thing you can lay your pantry on.

Sliced almonds, walnuts, more flaxseed, dried fruit, unsweetened coconut... the list is limited only by appetite and imagination.

This batch was a combo of rice krispies, uncle sam's, oatmeal, dried cranberries, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, and coconut.

 Once everything's stirred together, melt some marshmallows with some butter or coconut oil and pour it on, then stir and stir and stir again. This batch swallowed 3 bags of marshmallows before it all stuck together!

Yes, you are basically making a rice krispie treat the size of Manhattan.

And sometimes that's a sort of a problem.

This batch, quite to my surprise, grew this big: 

 

 Honestly, I considered placing something in the photo to give you a concept of relative scale, but it would've entailed, well.....



 Too much mixing,melting,stirring,lifting.
The puny little arms...they're out of power.

Here's the happy problem: about twice as many magic marshmallow muesli bars as I need. (Hey wait! Did I just find a name for these things?)

Wanna help out? As in, want a box of them mailed to you? Yay!

Because (and this is me getting very excited indeed) today I was thinking that if only I had people  with whom I could share the surplus, once a month or so I could try out some of those cookie recipes I've been curious about. (I mean people besides my children, who are very good at making me feel loved and important, but not so very good at lying about how much they'd like yet another box of sweets.)

So, if you'd like a box of treats, there are 3 ways to let me know:

 -the comments section of this or Wednesday's post

 -a message on the brand new menumuse facebook page that (I hope) I established today for this very purpose.

-an email to menumuse12@gmail.com

I'll pop the extra treats in the freezer till Friday, when I will fairly and impartially pick....well...the recipient. Because whether or not you consider yourself a winner rather depends on whether or not you like the treats, doesn't it?

here they are, come and get 'em...

Surpluses. Kind of a crazy week to be thinking about that,isn't it?

Because it's just after Christmas, and everything's.... spent.

And maybe today it really does feel like everything. All your money, all your time, all your energy, all your everything, just...spent.

But I hope that as you move through the days of this week you realize the vast power you still hold.

Because you still have the power to give something away, even though you may not feel that you have anything left at all. 

That smile, those words spoken kindly, that act of nurturing, that gratitude, that wordless hug, that courage, that love.

 The world is in deep need of those things.

I hope that you notice yourself this week, freely giving the world what it so desperately needs.

And I hope that it comes right back at cha.