| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 07:23:32 AM
We are expecting a cold front, with temps in the 30's, and drizzly rain in the forecast. I'm thinking this weather calls for a bakeover, now that I have my handy budget mix!!!!
Additionally, we are seriously broke this week  , so I'm making a "use up the stuff you have" Bakeover:
Tonight it's: potato, apple, bacon, rosemary and Gruyere Cheese (with onion,garlic,s&P).
Does anyone serve anything else with their bakeovers, like soup, or do you just make it a one-dish meal?
I can't wait. I'm hungry already, and it's only 10:30!!!!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian. |
| 17 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Hideaway Farmgirl |
Posted - Nov 06 2007 : 06:30:07 AM
Glad your bakeover was a success, Jonni! And who says you screwed it up? You just put your own extra spin (or flip) into the recipe!
Thanks for noting the ingredients for us, I like the combination, and will try it out soon.
P.S. Don't you just love when our DH's compliment the meal?
Jo
"Wish I had time to work with herbs all day!" |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 06 2007 : 05:46:43 AM
Well, it turned out wonderfully, even IF I forgot to grate the cheese on the veges after sauteeing, because dh and I were listening to music, and talking about today's election. If I'm making it up myself, I can do almost anything, but put a recipe with INSTRUCTIONS in front of me, and I choke!!!! Anyway, when I realized I left off the cheese, I flipped it over onto a round pizza stone, put the cheese on top and put it back in the oven for about 7 minutes.
Oh my gosh this turned out soooo good, even if NOT as pretty as the ones in the magazine. Next time, right?
2 golden delic. apples, peeled, chopped
1/2 onion
5 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (like for an au gratin)
1 lg. clove garlic
as much rosemary as you like
sauteed veggies in butter, sprinkled a little nutmeg, s & cracked pepper
used the last of the gruyere cheese, and some muenster that needed to go, also.
Nice bottle of Reisling and it was the "dinner of the world" as my husband called it, and that I should make it again. He termed it a "welsh pizza"
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 4:18:30 PM
This is really true, Tuxedo Cat. We should hold a contest for the most creative "use it or lose it" dinner! I love these kinds of things, and lemme tell you, it smells SOOOO good cooking!!!!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| tuxedo cat |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 3:01:57 PM
My aunt taught me that this kind of meal is called Must Goes (all of the stuff in the fridge that must go). LOL It is really all of the left overs, but sounds a lot more fun.
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| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 1:38:12 PM
Hey, Chandra, sent you an email via the forum!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| MasterGardener |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 1:13:38 PM
"Off-topic" here, Romantic Homes (Nov 2007) has a story about a family that has returned to Cornwall...interesting.
Another "off-topic" is...while I was taking Master Gardener classes, our class took a field trip to a local organic farm. I met the couple who owns it, made friends with the woman...I've helped them process their free-range chickens for sale, learned to milk goats, helped in their vegetable gardens, suggested corn gluten-meal as an organic alternative fertilizr/pre-emergent, which they immediately implemented and have used ever since. They also use cardboard and leaves they gather from various friends & neighbors for weed control. I am a member of their CSA and buy eggs, produce, tilapia, chicken, last year a turkey, & I also buy goat's milk, which I make kefir with. So, other than learning to milk a cow as a teen, that's the extent of my "farmgirl" experience. My grandparents still had their farm when I was really young & I remember going with my granddad to the tractor store for tires...the awe I felt standing inside one of the wheels...I love those memories. When they sold the farm in Kansas, moved to Colorado, Grandpa grew strawberries and gladiolas...that's about all I remember. I could go on...but I know it's something to be discussed, perhaps in some other forum, or email.
In GB, when we lived in "the compound" as you call it, it was across the road from a huge walled dairy farm...does this sound like someplace you're familiar with?
DH played bass & acoustic guitar with a band in college, now only plays an acoustic for relaxation. Do I dare to venture a guess that your DH plays drums? Or is it guitar? Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser...
ttfn
Chandra
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:16 |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 11:50:38 AM
Hey Jo, I think it's called Voyeurism....I do it too!!!
I think what I miss most about England, besides the countryside, and the dairyfarm, is the sweet/salty popcorn at the cinema! No butter, just sugar or salt, or "mixed". YUMMO!
The Shellseekers is such a lovely story. I remember reading that the first summer I was there, and when I returned home, the oddest thing: Sting had just come out with a song called "Fields of Gold" and the second I heard it, I started crying because it was like he was painting Cornwall for me, and I was SOOO homesick for it....sure enough, that's what the song is about!
Essex is a nice place--suburban, and still homey. Similar to me as Sussex and Surrey, though I would imagine with the military base, it probably felt very much like home in many ways. At least, that's the way it's been described to me by other military kids and diplomatic kids. The "compound" is so much like stateside, that you don't feel so removed, except for when you LEAVE the compound!
I would agree (about creative expression in food). Since I stopped dancing, I floundered around a bit, trying to find something that allowed me to "create" and ultimately express...cooking does that. And, I love a variety of cooking--my husband says that he married me for my cream sauce, which is a good base for country cooking, and for french cooking, too. I can find beauty in anything that relates to food, as long as it tastes good!!! The best part of food for me is sharing. I love to cook for groups of people, and, I've found that I do it well. Food, wine, friends, eating until you can't move, listening to music (or listening to my husband and his friends playing their instruments after dinner) is so much a part of my life now, that I can't imagine life WITHOUT the joy of food and community.
MJ's methodology speaks to me about community--something that has been reinforced in full over the weekend. We all came together in a little burg in southern Boone County, called Rabbit Hash, to help out a friend. Two solid days of food (pulled pork barbecue, sweets, ham beans and cornbread and more) and music (from bluegrass to blues, and back again) and people--dancing, singing, eating, hugging. What more could you ask for? Like I said before, it's a wonder I don't weigh a million pounds!!!!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| Hideaway Farmgirl |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 11:27:53 AM
OK girls, keep talkin' amongst yourselves!
I'm enjoying "listening" to your conversation so much...is lurking the online equivalent of eavesdropping?
Jo
"Wish I had time to work with herbs all day!" |
| MasterGardener |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 09:45:21 AM
Well now see, that's truly a cultured lifestyle...on a whole different level. I remember you've mentioned the classical dance training before...WOW! Mine was nothing as glamorous. Dad was Air Force & I've lived in Taiwan (love Asian food too; carry my own chopsticks & people look @ me funny, but I love to use them) & then for a while in West Sussex, England. I was enrolled in the military's public school in Upper Heyford, took the bus to and from our quarters in W. Sussex (military housing in a British neighborhood) I've had about 35 addresses in my lifetime, lived many places in the US and only Taiwan & GB overseas.
Now, you mention Cornwall...oh my...my favorite author is Rosamunde Pilcher and my fav book is "The Shell Seekers" set in Cornwall. Again, the texture of her words, the substance speaks to me in a way too few others ever has. Wish she still wrote; her son's work doesn't even come close.
Meals are a means of expressing myself. On one of the "foodie" shows, some guy said something along the lines of feeding someone is the most meaningful thing you can do for them & that isn't the quote, but it's the jist of it. That's how I feel when I prepare food for myself or others.
I have dreamed of and in many ways accomplished my desire to have a "well-equipped" kitchen and preparing meals that reflect my love of those cultures I've experienced. I'm not a chef and don't desire those attributes, but to be accomplished in my cooking choices, that's what makes me joyful.
I loved the Napa-Sonoma Valley and wine tasting, cheeses & so on. But, I am still my farming grandparents grandaugher; I love the basics...real, hearty meals from the garden and the "pen". I think that's why MJ's book spoke to me. Those same values.
Would love to hear more of your story...
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:16 |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 09:24:20 AM
Ironic!
I attribute my "culture" to my fine arts education, and, after boarding school, living abroad at an early age. I lived in London proper, and Trevalga, Cornwall (near Tintagel and Boscastle) for 3 years, from 18-21. I lived in NYC off and on from the time I was 14-17. I was a classically trained dancer, and when not dancing in London, worked on a friend's dairy farm from mid autumn to spring, then back to London. In London I ate anything and everything--buttered toast for a week to charred stag at Michael Cain's restaurant. Dating diplomat's sons, and wealthy brit boys certainly helped increase my palate :) In Cornwall, I ate fresh from the farm--my friend made all her own yogurt, cheese, hearty peasant bread and granola. It was nothing for me to spend a day, milking, and eat handmade cheddar, some apples and bread for lunch. I was most healthy, there, I think, both in body and mind, and learned that a meal isn't a "set" design of 3 veges/starch items + a meat on your plate. A meal can be anything, and it should fill your body AND your soul.
In NYC we all just lived on ethnic foods because it was cheap. We lived 5 to an apartment, and would "pool" our funds together to get food. Indian, Ethiopian, Thai, Portugese, Sicillian, Korean, Russian you name it, I've had it! Our neighborhood was a mix of old Irish, and Puerto Rican, so there was plenty of "mix" there, too.
What about you? Where did you learn your love of food? Were you studying abroad in the UK?
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian. |
| MasterGardener |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 09:09:07 AM
Girl, I live in UK too, for a year in middle-school. Because I was much younger, I was less able to interact in the culture, but I loved all of it. I learned to eat Indian Cuisine, fish & chips, loved London's Hyde Park on Sunday when all the artisans sold their art, so much more...it's some wonderful memories for me. I love the bubble gum in GB...it's sweeter.
Please tell us more...maybe we can connect in "Across the Fence"
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:16 |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 08:58:30 AM
That's really kind of you, Chandra. I never really knew how much living in England and NYC when I was younger, would shape the way I think (about and eat) food. I really do look forward to meals, because I feel it's the closest connection we have to our earth, and I cherish every second of it, down to the presentation on the plate. A good bottle of wine, or port afterward in place of dessert, and you've got it made. I should have gone to culinary school, and still might, but I want to cook for love, not money! It's a wonder I don't weigh a million pounds!!!!
I've not seen Applegate farms bacon here, but I do buy another brand of natural and uncured bacon, that is thicksliced, applewood-smoked with cinnamon on the edge and MAN is it good! I'll have to check around our specialty markets for the Applegate products.
The onion soup sounds SOOOOO wonderful, especially with the "grey" view outside my window. Great use of the cheese, too! Right now, in the fridge, we have a really great piece of parmesan for pesto and grating, and the gruyere, and some dilled havarti, and an english cheddar with scallions. Friday night, we had apples, the english cheddar and baguette for dinner. We were both pooped from the work week, and it fit the bill quite nicely!
Sounds like we do have similar tastes in the way we cook and live, Chandra. I truly appreciate your kindred spirit!
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian. |
| amyartgirl |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 08:51:24 AM
Your's Jonni sounds just delightful (esp. with the cheese)...I hope to make a "true" Bakeover. I made a different versionbecause of what I had on hand...I used pastry dough and some potatoes and frozen peas...and I put it into a 400 degree oven for 45 min. Very basic, but it worked. out ok.
http://artfulheart.blogspot.com
http://farmgirltales.blogspot.com |
| MasterGardener |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 08:30:40 AM
Jonni, I really like the words you use to describe how you live...the substance,if that makes sense. It sounds as though we have similar, (oh I don't know the word to use w/o sounding uppity) but the same taste or style, or perhaps it's how we perceive things. Anyway, I like it.
I keep several types of cheese, mostly goat(chevre), feta, parmesan, & asiago; my gruyere has about reached it's "time" also, so french onion soup is the plan, with a really dense artisan sourdough to top it and grate the cheese over, then bake 'til the cheese bubbles & browns a bit.
Have you ever tasted Applegate Farms' Uncured Sunday bacon? I am hooked! I don't use bacon often, but when I do...this is the one!
We get red potatoes and sweet potatoes growing out of the compost almost every year & I love gathering them for use in green beans w/ bacon to go with a garlic/onion roast chicken w/wild rice on the side.
Tonight is Fettuccini Alfredo...DH has requested several times, so keepin' him happy!
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:16 |
| ivmeer |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 08:17:21 AM
That sounds beautiful, with some nicely balanced flavors.
I'd definitely pair it with a salad or some bitter green vegetable like rapini or chard. |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 08:12:18 AM
I always have cheese in the house--several different kinds. It's sort of an addiction, I guess, with me.
I have to use up the Gruyere, though, as it's nearing it's "time". The potatoes are from our garden, the rosemary on the window sill, and the bacon in the fridge from the weekend. 2 apples left over from a pie making spree from last week, purchased from the apple orchard in the lower part of our county. Much cheaper that way, and I know "who" grew them!
I'll let you know how it turns out--I'm not so great about writing things down, so I'll make a mental note
"She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian. |
| MasterGardener |
Posted - Nov 05 2007 : 07:42:41 AM
Wow Jonni, my "seriously broke" menu's don't sound aaaanyything like that...YUMMMMMM!!!! I'd be thinking about a salad, but with what ingredients to be the perfect accompaniment to your delicious sounding dish???
I'd love to know how it turned out, & what quantities you used if you'd post the recipe Jonni..yowza that sounds so good!
Chandra
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:16 |
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