Tea, Soup, and Catching up

Hi All!

For the new followers YAY! Thanks for joining this crazy ride :)

Anonymous - Your request for honeymoon pics has been heard and being worked on. I have to get the laptop they are saved on up and running so I can pull them off.

So it's been a busy time. I've been working on the spring cleaning that I mentioned in my last blog, and have been moving away from electronic cleaning up of clutter to the more demanding, (sorely needed) task of the physical cleaning.

With a break for Valentines Weekend (I can't believe it's been almost 4 weeks since I posted something! Yikes!) Which was memorable, for good and bad. We started off that Friday night with a dinner out at a local place (not a big chain like Olive Garden), tried some new drinks, tried some new food, got some new sparklies for my Pandora bracelet. Then for the second year in a row we went to All Fired Up! and painted some pottery! I chose a large plate, and Hubby made a second storage bowl for us.

These shots are from before they were glazed and fired. Sadly when my husband went to pick them up, the piece next to his had exploded and embedded chunks of pottery into his incredible piece of art! BOO!!! At least they were kind enough to give us a gift certificate to cover the cost of painting another of the same.

Mine made it through unscathed: My mental image of Yggdrasil (very simplified). 

We also got a really cool version of Monopoly since Hubby loves that game, and has many fond memories of playing with his father. It's a vintage version, in a real wooden box (not fake wood painting to look like wood) with the original colors and playing pieces. Unfortunately, neither of us felt very well that weekend, so playing got put off until last week.

Hubby also "adopted" two Red Pandas for me!! Best Valentines Gift. EVER.

We also made a trip to my favorite tea shop, and was able to introduce a friend to their delicious selection of teas! One of my favorite things to do, is to bake goodies to go with tea, and have friends over. Yes, I still love having tea parties, I never out grew that, my friends are just a wee bit different now. They actually CAN drink the tea :-) I find that the most enjoyable times spent catching up with old friends, are generally over a glass of a good drink.

Spring Cleaning

I figured the best place to start is the room we use most. Those that know us, know we LOVE to cook and bake. Of course it also helped that we were in the process of moving the washing machine and dryer out of the kitchen to be put in a newly created laundry room.

I can't find what I did with the old pictures of the kitchen, but with everything in the kitchen, you really couldn't fit more than one person in there very well unless they are REALLY skinny, like supermodel skinny. We love to cook, we love to eat...we are not those people!

Any way, since we had someone out to run new drain, water line, and gas line for the dryer I used that opportunity to really get to cleaning in the kitchen. I started off with my favorite cleaner, Murphy's Oil Soap. It pulls the grime from fingers, cooking, whatever, off quickly and easily. So, here's my list of what get's cleaned when Spring Cleaning in the kitchen comes around.

• Wipe off cupboard doors and handles, inside and out
• Remove all contents from cupboard, wipe off shelves
• Wash all dishes removed from cupboards, wipe off containers and check contents, especially herbs and spices. Toss any that have lost what it means to be flavorful
• Repeat  above three steps with drawers
• EVERYTHING on the counter tops are cleaned, and moved so the counter itself gets scrubbed down
• Scrub the stove, including the front of the oven, and inside. Soak the grates and scrub them clean. It's amazing how dirty they get. 
• Remove all magnets, pictures, papers etc from the fridge, and scrub it down too. For this I like Windex, or rubbing alcohol. Don't forget the top (like I did and just realized it!)
• Move the movables, like the stove and fridge, so you can clean under and behind them.
• Scrub down the walls and base boards, paying special attention to messy areas like the stove, and by the trash can. 
• Finally, time to scrub down the floor
• When dry, put everything back!

The floor after moving the stove...YUCK!

This is where the stove was, and that counter was turned 90 degrees to make an L with the stove .
That left just enough room for the fridge door to open

The stove has now been moved to where the dryer was

See how shiny my floor got after scrubbing over it with  Murphy's Oil Soap?! It Sparkles!!

Then we pulled the washer out....Yes, that really is all the counter space we have.

Grimy Nasty stove front

Even more hideous behind the knobs

Again, Murphy's Oil Soap to the rescue! Amazing Difference!

Finally, all done, everything scrubbed. We will some day be putting a dishwasher in that empty spot, and expanding the countertop all the way to the wall!!!

So, now that I have this wonderfully opened up kitchen, and actually have to take more than half a step to get to anything, and it's all nice and clean....TIME TO COOK!!!

I'd been craving some stuffed cabbage, but didn't want to take the time to make all those little yummy rolls of goodness. So I made soup. It was a hit! 

What I did:

1 medium - large onion, diced

Celery - enough that when diced is equal to the same amount of onion ( I think I used 4 stalks)

Carrot - roughly half as much as you have of onion, so I used 2 large carrots

1 stick butter

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground sausage (I used plain not spicy or sage)

One head cabbage, diced into bite sized pieces

1 packet Lipton soup (I used the lot of a noodle chicken noodle)

1 large can diced tomatoes

about a gallon of water (that's about 16 cups, or 128 oz)

Beef bouillon to make the water into broth (although next time I might just buy broth)

Salt, garlic, oregano, basil, and sugar (to counter the sour from the tomatoes) to taste

The onion, celery, and carrot mixture is called Mirepoix, and is the BEST start to any soup. 

I started off by sauteing the mirepoix with the stick of butter in my stock pot, until the onion were soft, but not translucent. While this was going, I browned and drained the beef and sausage, then added to the stock pot, along with water, and bouillon until I had a good flavor. Then I dumped in the cabbage, soup packet, and tomatoes, and let everything simmer for about an hour so the cabbage was tender. 

I wasn't too happy with the flavor at this point, so I added in a few generous pinches of coarse salt, as well as a generous sprinkle of granulated garlic. Let it simmer more, and it was getting there but not quite. 

So when tasting, I try to keep in mind that the flavors need to balance. If it's too salty, I need to a little sour or sweet. If it's too sour, I need to add a little bitter or sweet, if it's too sweet, then add sour or salty. See how that works? In this case, the tomatoes had made it a bit too sour for my tastes, so I sprinkled in a little sugar. That really helped mellow out the tomato, but it was still there. After added some oregano, and basil, (which adds a little bitter along with their own distinct flavors), and letting it simmer for a while, it was spot on! Served over some freshly cooked rice and YUM!

Remodeling

Now...those big appliances that got moved out of the kitchen....they got switched around to our hall closet, turned laundry room. We are still working on finishing up the walls in that area, but over the weekend, we were able to build a raised floor to set the machines on, and I LOVE how it looks! I was just a tad bit too busy helping hubby build the frame, and then attaching the boards to the frame to remember to stop and take pictures! 

Had to grab a shot before the washer went in.

Well, that's most of what's happened in the past month. Thanks for sticking with my during my long breaks! Hope to try experimenting with more cooking this week, and get a few more recipes up. Take care all!

Spring cleaning, and memories of Scotland

It's that time of year when people generally start to contemplate spring cleaning. In today's terms, that can also mean cleaning out old files from the computer. I was sitting here going through some pics from (ahem) a little over three years ago on some of my old flash drives. I love randomly finding these little bits of our past, because I almost always end up pouring through every picture I can find, remembering the memories behind the pictures, and sometimes feelings (just a wee bit) nostalgic.

I think some of my favorite spring cleaning finds have always been pictures. Sometimes I find a receipts that jar a memory loose from the cobweb entrenched recesses of my mind, or a small trinket picked up somewhere. This is also why I generally take forever doing spring cleaning, it seems like every other thing I find stops me and drags me only semi-unwillingly down memory lane.

Today I found some old pictures of when we first moved in to our home, my first car, our early years dating, and a fondly remembered pet. I proceeded to spend time thinking about how we started pulling down the fake wood paneling in our house, the first month without living room furniture, and the cleaning!

It was rather disconcerting when we first moved in, because my husband (then boyfriend) and I moved in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but he left that night to go to his mom's house about 4 hours away for the holiday. I spent that first Thanksgiving in the house cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen top to bottom. I remember being so frustrated that he couldn't have stayed home that year, and annoyed with work for not allowing us to take time off during the holidays so that I could go with him. But at least when I was done, I worked out all that irritation, and had a nicely cleaned, and sanitized kitchen. I'm glad too, because that year we hosted Christmas together!

One of the pictures I found was from our honeymoon just last October. It's of a petrol station we stopped at on our way from Balloch Loch Lomond area and the Oak Tree Inn, along A82 in Glencoe. Right across from the Police Station. They had this hot food cart there, like we normally see at fairs, and cultural festivals, and the lady there was REALLY animated. We had been on the road for a few hours at that point, and since we were headed to Inverness, had a few more hours to go. I'd say we took the scenic route, but really, I think every route there was the scenic route.

When we stopped to fill up, we decided to get a bite to eat to last us until we made it to Inverness. I ordered a basket of chips (or fries) and while hubby and I stood around eating, these three construction workers come up and order lunch. One of them ordered black pudding. Me being curious I asked what black pudding was. I got the most incredulous look from the lady running the food stand immediately followed by "What do ya mean what'tis blaack pouddin'? Are ya tellin' meh ya've ne'er had any?" (Sorry approximation of her brogue...imagine Braveheart but thicker) She also seemed like she spoke REALLY fast. So when I told her no, we've never had it before, she looked so amazed, like how can you live so long without having it?! look on her face. I think about a split second later she said "Och, tats Ookay, I'll gi'e ya's a wee sample" Well, while she was cooking it, she started talking to the construction workers telling them that they should be sure to come back next week since there would be a sale on something. They informed her that they'd love to but couldn't because this was their last day on the job there and they were going home. Still in the midst of cooking, she rattled off "Och, tats a'right, you'll just ha'e to coome back wi'out yer clothes on". Begin awkward silence, while she's still oblivious and cooking. The construction guys are looking at each other like they were asking how to respond to that, while hubby and I looked at each other, and I was thinking WOW they speak their mind up here! All of a sudden this lady froze and turned around to look at the five of us "I didna mean that! I meant in yer regular clothes!" I think her eyes were about to pop out of her head she had them open so wide. Everyone laughed and the moment passed. She then started going on about how the schools are teaching foreign languages, but not Scots Gàidhlig. After a few minutes the food was ready, and she presented us with our 'wee sample' which ended up being a full serving for both of us to split. It was good, a bit try, kind of unique, I can't really relate it to anything else I've ever had. I would happily eat it again, even though the other name for it is Blood Pudding because it's made with pigs blood.

I really had such a wonderful time in Scotland, I really hope I get to go back again someday, and hopefully for a longer period of time. I can always dream that hubby's job sends him over there for a month or two, and we're at a point that I can go with him. Oh well, back to cleaning,

Anyways, what are some of your favorite finds when you do a good spring cleaning?