Donabe surprise!

It was a total surprise when I set up my BBQ to find it had a side burner. Of course I never took the cover off the BBQ not even when it was moved to my place last year.  

I've been researching getting a butane stove to use with my donabe pot. The little stoves are easy to find in my area because all the big Asian grocery stores carry them. But I really didn't want to add another specialty gadget to my very tiny kitchen space. I really want to practice using the donabe pot before investing in a new camping stove. Now I have no excuse! 

Busy Busy Week

First off, my blog got hacked and some scammer added a link to their website. I don't add links so please know that's not me. I did remove what I could but I'm sure they're like cockroaches and will show up again!

I finally got some big things check off on my to-do list this week! 

1) It was time sensitive to get the front yard weeded before the ground gets too dry to easily pull the weeds out. I filled two big recycling bins!  Yes, I was a little sore after that.

2) For over a year I've had a huge gas bbq that needed to be set up. I've always liked cooking outside so I'm not sure why I waited so long!  What I didn't know was that my bbq has a side burner that is perfect for my donabe pot! That discovery made me very happy!

3) Since I was out in my small backyard patio, I bit the bullet and set up my portable gazebo. There are two very leafy trees that over hang into my patio, dropping a healthy amount of leaves. An auction lot came up several months ago with a full size hexagon gazebo so I picked it up.  It wasn't an easy task getting all those poles (there are a lot) to line up and not fall over during assembly, plus I'm about 3" too short. Going up and down a ladder was a work out!

Now why the photo.

I ran out of soy sauce, major drama for any Asian kitchen. I stopped off at Ranch 99 and of course had to walk through the produce section. Regular napa cabbages are just too big for one person so when I saw these mini ones I just had to pick them up!  I've been studying up on Asian pickle making and trying to figure out how to make enough just for one person. 

The sugar peas looked good and of course a bag of bok choy.  Nice to have an assortment of greens in the house again!

Majot Goal Reached

Another goal was reached at the thrift store!  The major reason I started volunteering at the Happy Dragon was help get the prices lowered. They were way too high in the housewares even if you weren't a reseller. Customers complained all the time about it. There was a shake up in the backroom and new volunteers were put in charge. They totally understand the chain reaction to having a fast sell through rate. 

Happy to report there hasn't been a complaint about prices in two months!

Being able to sell fast means we can take all the donations that come in. We have more room on the floor to put things out. We don't have to turn away donors who get upset.  

I'm also processing out the cheap fashion clothes so we only have the good stuff going out on the floor. 

Now why the photo.   

I've been looking for some larger shallow bowls. I hate it when all dressing or sauce ends up at the bottom of my other bowls. These came in and only tagged at $1.50 each. Major score!

Sprouted Onion Tops

Having been gone for over a month, I had a few onions "mature".  I had read you can just trim the greens as needed. I did trim these onions once before so it was true, it will still keep grown. 

When I got home, I had over a foot of green onion tops. I made "the good stuff", ginger and onion minced together. There isn't much left the of the onion bulb so I'll be planting it out in the garden. I don't think it will continue to grow but thought I'd give it a try. 

Lesson learned, don't throw out sprouted onions!

Monday Meal Prep.

I know meal prepping has been a thing for a while. My dad wasn't a fan of leftovers but coming from a large family, there usually wasn't anything left anyways. The whole cooking process is my thing and hobby. 

But you can teach an old dog new tricks. I've been making lasagna a lot lately because I want to get the gluten free recipe down before the boys come for the holidays. So either I eat lasagna for every meal for a week (did that with the first one I made) or portion it out and freeze. Since I was on the road for a month, that turned out to be the best idea. 

Monday is my meal prep day. Made a turkey lasagna (not sure I like it) and ice cream brownies - more on why I made those later.  

So what's the photo all about? A month ago I picked up several kitchen items at an auction. I have a tiny kitchen so this small Cuisinart (cost $1) doesn't take up a lot of space and it's easy to move around. I made a batch of the "good stuff" (ginger and green onion), which only took minutes to make in a food processor. 

Cooking for one, a head of cabbage is a lot to deal with so planning ahead is required. I plan to make salads and some pickled Asian sides dishes. 

I made a simple peanut salad dressing from a recipe I found online from Love and Lemons. I had just picked up her cookbook this past weekend so I recognized the name. It's a very basic recipe, but it was good. Using the Cuisinart I didn't have grate the garlic as the recipe called for. I thought it was odd to grate the garlic instead of crushing. I guess saying "grate" instead of "crushed" just sounds more refined. It whipped up in seconds but I did add a little too make garlic. Could be why you have to grated so you don't going over board. :) 

I've tried a few other recipes from Love and Lemons and decided it won't get a spot in my book case. Just not my cup of tea. 

Crafting Fate - Just in Case

one of those "just in case"

It's been absolutely perfect weather here in Carmel. Very sunny and warm but that nice ocean breeze keeps thing comfortable. 

I've been practicing my watercolor brush stokes on the deck in the backyard. Can't tell how peaceful it is with only the sounds of the ocean. I'm trying really hard to make a straight tiny pine tree. I hope to paint all my holiday cards this year but so far they all lean to right. I did bring down all the supplies I thought I would need. I went through more watercolor paper than I thought. Carmel doesn't have any art supply stores so I had to make the drive to Michael's. 

I didn't bring any of my paper cutters with me on this trip because I prepped everything ahead of time. I'm practicing on small squares so cutting the paper down to size was going to be a challenge. Then I remembered I had this binder paper cutter in my car. It came from an auction junk lot and it fell out of the box. It's been floating around in my car for months. It's not the best cutter but it does cut straighter than I could with scissors. It was one of those " glad I kept it just in case" moments! 

Fernandez Farms - Hollister

Fernandez Farms -Hollister

At the farmers market in Carmel there's a dried fruit vendor from Hollister I really like. What I like about their dried fruit is they don't use a lot of sulfur, which is used as a preservative. Using too much gives  the fruit a slimy chemical after taste IMO. 

The other thing I really like are these mini kebabs thingy. I first got them during the holidays while the kids were in town.  I only purchased them ($25.00 a box)  because all the money goes into a scholarship fund for a graduating high school senior. I know it's a labor intensive and as Julia Child would say "a lot of hands touched it". Well to my surprise all the adults loved them! Nice little snack if you just want a little bit of something sweet. 

                           Apricot, Cherry, Pear and Peach.

Halibut Ceviche

My big splurge (food wise) today was hiking up to the farmer's market in town. I went for two things, the dried fruit medley and shrimp with salsa. 

Fish guy as I call him always has fresh salmon and that's how we got to know him. He also makes a very nice salsa over shrimp. Today he had halibut ceviche. I thought I would give it a try. I did ask for an extra scoop of salsa and it was a huge scoop. 

It was good (very fresh) but I would still like my halibut with a nice butter almond crust. :) 

Many, many years ago I use to dive for halibut, really I was the under water pack mule. I didn't like the idea of carrying around dead fish. Felt like I was baiting myself for the bigger predators in the ocean.  Local halibut can get quite large, not as big as in Alaska but still very impressive.  And of course my blog name is in honor of those flatfish!

More Cookbooks

How many cookbooks does one person need? Yes, I stopped by the church book sale again! What I'm looking for are cookbooks that talk about "at the staff table" meals. This is food made for the staff when they all sit down and eat together. It sounded interesting because they use what's available but not enough to serve customers - leftovers. So I stopped by to see if anything new came in. 

I'm an Alice Waters fan so picked up her book "The Art of Simple Food". The Season" book caught my eye because in the small print it said "Nik Sharma of "A Brown Table". Guessing it was about Indian cooking (my stomach isn't a fan) I looked through the recipes and it looked interesting. Who ever owned this book dog ear almost all the pages so much so it looks like an origami project! I think it would have been better if they marked the recipes they didn't like. :)  It's an interesting read (he's a blogger) on his journey into cooking. Now I just have to see if his any of his recipes make my family list.

I did stop by the Yellow Brick Road thrift store to check out their books. The "Gourmet" cookbook there was $18.00! You can get it for 50% on Monday and Wednesday but still at $9.00 it's still high. My copy from the church book sale costed $5 and was in better condition. Pays to shop around!