kengr

I've had some tuna steaks in the freezer for a while. Finally thawed one out and cooked it.

Oh my. I used a simple recipe off the web, took the thawed steak, rinsed it off, then pa=tted it dry with paper towels.

Put some ovile oil in a non stick skillet and set it on medium high. When the poil started smoking I put in the steak.

Recipe said to cook it for 6-9 minutes, turning once. I flipped it after 3 min, and it was a bit blacker than I liked, so I turned the heat down some and cooked it another three minutes.

When I checked it with a fork it flaked some. So I took it off plated it, and cut into it to check, It was still a bit pink in the middle, which was what the recipe said was right.

Added some salt and pepper waited a couple minutes and tried a pice.

Can you say foodgasm? Like the subject says. Oh my...

Next one I'll try marinating first.

Due to food boxes plus my buying habits for "just in case" food, I have a fair amount of canned goods for an apartment dweller.

I was sorting thru the box that had soups in it checking to see what was past "pull date".

Note: for camnned goods the dates are "best by", not "Oh god, throw it it!" dates.

A certain friend who shall remain nameless annoyed the heck out of Fay and me when she posted about having been given several boxes of canned stufgf by someone who was moving and said she'd thrown most of it out because of the dates on the cans. At the time both Fay and I were kinda tight on money, and we'd *cheerfully have taken those "expired" cans....

Anyway, in the process of digging thru the soups, I found a can of tomato soup that had some dark stuff around the rim of the lid (not a good sign unless you've spilled something on it). Worse, I could see that the lid was bulging noticeably.

That one went straight into the dumpster (and buried under something so it'd be unlikely to get grabbed by something dumpster diving).

The next day while shuffling stuff in the "should be used soon" box around, I noticed another can that looked like it had a slight bulge. I checked it against yet another can. On the other can, if I poressed hard on the lid, nothing happened. On the suspcious one, a slight push caused the lid to indent a bit.

Yipe. Another one for the dumpster.

Everything else checked out ok. But tis is a reminder to actually check your stockpiles and make sure you rotate things.

Other bad signs. If you open a can that wasn't "vacuum packed" and there's a his, that preetty much means *something* generated gas in there. Not a good sign unless it's a can of pop.

and don't forget, clean the can opener after you throw out the can!

Saturday was Produce day. I went to the food pantry for the regular Saturday produce distribution.

Had to turn down a lot of things as I already had them. The red lettuce in the garden had looked more than ready to harvest and when Fay did so on friday it pretty much *doubled* the amount of lettuce I had. Which was way too much to start with. I did grab a few leaves of swiss chard to go with the red chard I already had. Wound up with more broccoli (I can always find a use for broccoli).

Got some apples and an orange, some juice and several other things.

Fay had been going to go with me, but her alarm didn't go off. Oh well, that meant I could go by bike and take less than half an hour round trip instead of a couple of hours.

Still had to wait over an hour at the pantry though. They "start" at 10, but at 9 there are usually half a dozen folks in line. I got there early enough to be #5.

Afte I got home, I rested a bit then Fay and I went to check out two of the farmer's markets I've mentioned. Rossi Farms is nice, but their prices may be a bit high. I got some purple potato fingerlings, some green and yellow beans, and they threw in 3 zuccinnis (green, yellow and striped) for free.

They've got some jams that looked interesting, but I need to see if the Moppethill Farms booth at Saturday market can take those senior produce checks. If they can, I'll stick with them.

We also swung by the Ron Spada Farms booth (and it was a literal *booth*. Most fireworks stands are bigger!). They had various berries and other fruit. I note that their cherries were almost as cheap as the ones I got thursday.

Didn't get anything there.

Walking between the two "markets we passed a 7-11 and I suddenly remembered what day it was. So Fay and I each got a free slurpee.

We took the 21 bus home so I could stop at the hardware store and replace the sprinkler that had disappeared from our garden plot. Yeah, the other day somebody cut one of the hoses and used it to siphon gas from someone's car. They also broke another sprinkler (still usable, as it was just the "frame" that got busted). And for whatever reason, they seem to have taken our sprinkler.

$7 poorer I have a new one. And it comes back inside with me after use.

If I'm feeling ambitious I may make a run to the storage locker and/or Saturday Market (it's open on Sundays too) later.




stats
total distance: 3.03 miles
max speed: 15.5 mph
avg speed: 6.8
moving time 26 min

The other day, Fay noticed a post that mentioned a plant we'd seen in our garden plot. And pulled as a weed.

https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/placom43.html
http://wellnessmama.com/4638/plantain-herb-profile/

Turns out that plantain (no relation to the banana-like fruit of the same name) is a useful herb and an edible plant.

I went ouyt and did some gardening tyhis morning and mentioned it to Marty. After looking it over, I found a couple in a section of her plot she hadn't gotten around to weeding yet.

She let me have them and will keep an eye out for more.

I'm gonna try some in a salad tonight. Since Fay will bee over, she can try some too.

And I''ll have to get back to Marty, because she may want some for the herbal properties, from what she was saying.

Folks, it really dooes pay to check out the plants growing in your garden *before* you pull them as weeds.

I've been grabbing dandelion greens since last year, but now I'll be adding plantain to my "list".

Also, unlike dandelion, they are rooted fairly shallow, so I'll be able to transplant them to their own corner of the plot.

Decided to ride the bike to the Saturday produce poickup at the food box place.

It was less than 15 min each way (as opposed to 45 or so minutes by bus). Got there at quarter to 9. Had 4 people in line ahead of me. Note that they don't actually start running people thru until 10.

I brought a book, so I was pok. Next time I'll remember to bring a hat. My bike helmetis ok when riding the bike but not so hot when sitting around.

Got some good stuff. Pineapple juice, a cantaloupe, some green onion, mushrooms, green beans and a grapefruit. Got some apples carrots and spuds too.

Oh yeah, got some salad greens. And a bag of black rice from the "we need to get rid of thios stuff" box at the end of the line. I grabbed some one before and it was ok. I figure I can use it to make some interesting variations on my usual rice dishes.

I did *not* take any of the chopped jalapenos or the whole ones. :-)

Gonna be able to make a few nice salads, and (since I bough eggs for a recipe last week) gonna have some killer omelets.

bike stats
2.8 miles round trip,
max: 13.5 mph
avg: 6.1 mph

Well, this year, for the first time in ages, I had the spare cash to take advantage of a deal. They had a buy one, get one free on turkey breasts. So I managed to score a couple of 8+ lb turkey breasts for $29 and change.

One's in the oven now. The other is still in the freezer. When it gets out, I'll make gravy from the drippings and the "mix" that was packed with it.

While it's "resting", I can make the mashed potatoes (gonna cheat and use the instant, but with rreal butter & milk), the stuffing (Stove Top) and start steaming some brussels sprouts. I can also reheat the butterflake rollls I picked up.

Got a deal on those too. If you buy the fresh ones the normal way, it's $2.99 a lb. Which gets spendy if you like them as much as I do. But the Albertsons *also* sells them on the stalk. For $3.99 a stalk. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard slicing them off the stalk with a big knife. From one stalk I got arounf 5 lbs of them.

I've been nibbling on "appetizers" since breakfast. mostly sliced bits of cheese (cheddar & pepperjack) and slices of summer sausage on townhouse crackers. Also got lots of black olives, and I can break out the sweet pickles later.

I bought two kinds of stuffing. I'll be making the cornbread tonight. I also have a double box of the "regular" turkey stuiffing. I'll make one of those when the cornbread stuffing runs out. The other will get saved for Christmas.

I've got eggnog that I haven't opened yet, and for dessert I have pumpkin pie and mince pie. Mince pies are *spendy*. Winco didn't have any and Albertsons (where I got it) sells them for $9.99. But I gotta have my mince pie when it's in season.

Got Cool Whip to go with the pumpkin pie. Oh yeah, it was odd about the pumpkin pie. Seems the had the *big* 3+ lb ones for $7.99 at winco. But they also had 1.5 lb ones for $2.98. Gee..

So I bought too of the 1.5 pounders.

I've got desserts set for a week or so with those pies. :-)

Probably be having stuffing with stuff for a while as well.

But I'm *really* looking forward to all the turkey sandwiches I'll be having. (but those won't be until Friday or even Saturday, today the turkey gets eaten with the trimmings).

Some of you may have noticed I don't mention cranberry sauce. While I don't hate it or anything, I'm not that into it.

I *am* drinking Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale as a "holiday punch" substitute.

Have to think about Christmas. I'll have the second turkey breast, but I an also considering a ham. Leftover ham for sandwiches is good. Though I could do a beef roast...

Been able to harvest the radishes for the last week or so. Doing it for the leaves as much as the actual root.

I have tried some raw in a sandwhich (sort of like lettuce or spinach), but the odd texture is a factor. Steamed or bioled (as part of my daily batch of ramen works better. Heck, the last time I got store bought radishes, the leaves weren't the typical slimy mess so I washed them off and used them in stuff. But fresh from my own garden is better.

Someone got a bunch of plants from the food bank and Marty oversaw the split between the folks who have garden plots. Our share was three red lettuce, and three of some sort of Italian "dandelion thing (Fay looked at the tag, I didn't).

We got those planted in the garden last night. They went in the area where I'd planted some old radish & carrot seeds. All of two carrots coming up, and a handful of radishes. On the other hand, the section where I switch to new radish seeds has had top be thinned twice (no usable root, but some nice leaves).

Also did some weeding as part of picking spots for the new plants. In the process I got around to doing something I'd been intending to do for a while. There were a bunch of wild dandelions sprouting, and I harvested them. Had the leaves in the batch of ramen I'm eating now. Hey, they're edible and they made the mistake of growing in my plot. :-)

Also harvested the red garlic that was a leftover from when my plot was Marty's. Some of one stalk got chopped up (like a skinny scallion) and went it the ramen too.

What I'd originally thought was grass in the section of the plot turned out to be volunteer garlic. It seems to have seeded itself *way* too well last year. I'm just letting those grow this year. They're pretty thick on the ground, but from previous experience, they likely won't be harvestable this year. Next year (or late this year, I'll thin them out some and use the tops in food. Then next year I'll have a bunch that are usable, I hope. Then ones I harvested this year were leftover from last year).

Oh yeah, a few years back I got some broccoli starts. They went to seed because I waied too long (the heads were *tiny* and I'd been hoping they'd get bigger, A couple years ago, I'd planted some of the gazillion seed pods I'd gotten from those. Seems like a few of the seeds sprouted this year. I'got six or eight volunteer broccoli too. They were one of the reasons the lettuce and Italian dandelion are planted with odd spacing.

I don't expect big heads, given last year. But I'll get a fair amount of usable *leaves* from them. Ptretty typical given that they were probably some sort of hybrid and didn't breed true.

Also scored some goodies at the store yesterday. I was handing in my monthly set of prescriptions, and I wandered through the meat department. They had some marked down packages of "pub burgers". Normally $5 for two patties, but the two packages I spotted (the large "shreds" of cheddar in the patties had caught my attention) had $2 off stickers on them. I decided that while it was a bit spendy even then, I'd grab them.

Wasn't until I opened a package to fry one up that I realized it wasn't just cheddar mixed in but *bacon* as well. Oh my. Delicious. And quite worth the $1.50 each.

Heck, I may keep an eye out for them because they're worth it as an occasional luxury even at full price!

While reading Customers Suck, I came across this post Mysty’s List

Besides being insanely funny it had an *amazing food idea: meatloaf cupcakes...

Ganked from seawasp

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of.

"I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, and fondue sets languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards."

Note: I actually use the double boiler as a pair of pots. Haven't used it as an actual double boiler in years. BTW, try *finding* a double boiler outside a specialty store anymore. And I have two stove top woks I haven't used in a few years.

I also have a milkshake mixer that I use occasionally in the summer to make a sort of smoothie involving diet Squirt and sherbet. :-)

And I need to replace the electric skillet one of these days.

Stupid cooking time guide was *way* off. ook a nap, got up way before earliest time turkey should be ready.

Checked it and the thingie had popped up. And the thermometer showed the stuffing was well past the required temp too.

Texted Fay and started getting other things ready. Turned off oven, but had to leave turkey in roasting pan in oven due to lack of apace while preparing everything else.

Fay got here but had bad headache, so I wound up doing the rest of the prep and cooking.

Goofed on last item. Made the last package of turkey dressing instead of first package of cornbread dressing.

Turkey was somewhat dry, but tolerable. Green beans were ok, but need a boit something besides the bacon. Have to think on that before Christmas.

Fay had servings of stuff but had to lie down. I turned out living room lights and left just the light over the stove on. That gives me enough light to use the computer or read, without making it hard for her.

When she wakes up, I'll offer her some pie, and put together a package of leftovers for her to take home. We can eat more leftovers and watch more stuff on TV (Including the rest of Alice's Restaurant) tomorrow when she should be feeling better.

Much re-arranging of fridge so I can get leftovers into it.

Also decided to start playing the extensive Xmas music collection (at low volume). It's sort of after Thanksgiving, and I *do* need to go thru all of it to find anything the new media server will choke on.