Ever since I had a cold last week that had me with almost no appetite, I’ve been having trouble getting back to normal.

I drank about 6 liters of water yesterday, and I still feel dehydrated.

And I keep being ravenously hungry and then getting full on small portions - and then being ravenously hungry again.

This is relevant because I was going to make soup yesterday, but I only got as far as deciding that I’d try roasting again and putting the sweet potatoes, garlic, and apples in the oven before I gave up and made myself an omlet.

So here’s the thing. I shall be making sweet potato and apple soup tonight. To eat tonight and tomorrow, but with no other leftovers. And then next week, I shall be making pumpkin soup. I want this soup and the pumpkin soup to be very different soups.

So I have three roasted sweet potatoes, a roasted pod of garlic, 3 small roasted apples, and a whole bunch of not roasted apples.

First question is whether I put them in a stock base or a cream sauce base.

Cumin or not to cumin?

I think the pumpkin soup next week should have lentils in it. And maybe tamarind. That’ll make it different. I’ll have to buy lentils.

Comments suggested:

You could make next week’s soup a thai mulligatawny, with thai green curry paste, a cinnamon stick, lemongrass, minced ginger and garlic, red lentils, and then, added at the very end, some coconut milk and lemon or lime juice and fresh cilantro.

1 part lentils to 3 parts pumpkin

Tags: apples, potatoes, winter squash

It’s the end of the season, and I have an abundance of food.

food I have
Not frozen meat
8 or so assorted pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken
leftover filet mignon (with sauteed peppers and mushrooms on the side)
bacon (this usually is just assumed, but I thought I’d throw it on the list today)

Frozen Meat *means should be used soonish
ground beef
hamburger patties
meatballs
taco seasoned ground beef
london broil marinated for stir fry*
chicken breast
diced roast pork* (only 1 meal’s worth)
chicken backs for stock

sorely tempting meat on sale this week
ground beef $1.69/lb
skinless boneless chicken breast $1.99/lb

bread
tortillas
I have a bread machine!!!
1/2 pound of bread leftover from a loaf

Produce
10 peaches of dubious virtue (these are the least ripe ones from the $5 of peach seconds I got at the farmers’ market and put up and sugared and put in the back of the fridge to ferment. Now my container is full, and I need to think up something different for these last few)
10 pounds of potatoes
5 bell peppers
2 zucchinis
3 long skinny eggplants
carrots
jalepeno peppers
2 apples
garlic (whole and peeled)

Dairy
sour cream
cheddar cheese
2% milk
heavy cream
and end of a blue cheese that should be finished soonish
cream cheese

OMG food!
I looked through all my cookbooks for stuff for peaches and potatoes (separately)

One of my favorite cookbooks, Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen, had a recipe for a frittata that not only included potatoes, but also bell peppers and day old bread! Score. I had that last night, but I put all the stuff on the list, anyway, just so I could brag about finding the perfect recipe. I wonder how well the potato frittata will reheat? I’ll find out eventually, I guess.

Cooking With the Seasons had an exceptionally tasty-looking peach dessert, but I’ll need people over to try that. Hint. Hint.
ETA: I lied. The recipe is in Winterthur’s Cullinary Collection, which also has an interesting recipe for a pie with dates and sesame seeds that I might like to have help trying to create some moot.

Otherwise, it looks like I’ll make a coriander and peach chutney/salsa thing and find a good meat to put it with… my choice would be lamb, but it’s looking like chicken is the available option.

I have separated the chicken into meat, crunchy bits, and refuse. I can’t quite bring myself to toss the crunchy bits. They are so tasty - there must be a way to use them without the hideous gluttony of a meal of chicken skin. Crumb topping for casserole?

I’d been planning to put the filet mignon with peppers and mushrooms either in tortillas or over rice all mexican-y with maybe the zucchini and perhaps a can of beans. I think the starch shall, instead, be diced potatoes. Lots of diced potatoes. And I could probably grill down at least one additional bell pepper. I might be able to put away five or six lunches from that dinner.

Ummmm… eggplant. That could go with potatoes in a curry. With jarred tomatoes (from [redacted]’s mother!). And… ummm… lots of jalepenos. Yeah.

So what else is urgent? I should have a bell pepper left, unless it self destructs before I get to it. More potatoes. Some pork for a small dish. Beef for a stir fry. Wherewithal to make hella tasty mashed potatoes to feed a large army. Bother - peaches still, I can’t imagine the chicken using up more than half what I have. Oh, and cooked chicken. Right.

So I need salad greens. I think a chicken, peach, grilled onion salad with stilton would be kinda tasty. Maybe some toasted almonds in that. But way too early to buy the greens yet.

roasted pork with potatoes and carrots and gravy. *yawn* Boring, but it’ll still be tasty.

And then I thaw the meat for stir fry again and make it right quick. Probably by this time I will need to buy more bell peppers. There can be potatoes in stir fry. Totally.

Ooh, and the Better Homes and Gardens has a recipe for bread machine potato bread that starts from a real potato.

Yeah. That should feed me into next month. And I think I’lll still need brilliant ideas to eat everything.

And I have a hankering to make lots of bread… only no room to eat it.

ARGH! I forgot about the three pounds of dates I bought to stuff for an SCA event and never got around to doing anything with… and the container of feta cheese and the bag of walnuts. Is anyone throwing a party any time soon who wants to join me in making a tasty little finger desserts?

Meanwhile, I am feeling both antisocial and lonely… and not quite sure what to do with that.

Tags: beef, bread, chicken, dates, egg, peaches, potatoes

Okay - anyone reading this:

Feel free to come over for dinner tonight

No, really.

I am making more food than I can eat, and I’m going to have leftovers running out my ears without a little help.

Menu

Spinach salad with gorgonzola and toasted nuts

Roasted lamb
Potato salad
sauteed snow peas

probably no dessert

Since the lamb roast is a cut portion of the whole, I don’t know its weight and I have no idea when it will be done - anytime from 5pm to 8pm (that’s why there is salad) - but I have movies and media stuff.

Just absolutely let me know if you are coming by commenting here.

Tags: lamb, potatoes, spinach

It’s too hot to cook. That’s my excuse for why it will take four days to make Shepherd’s Pie.

Day 1: Have the roast that provided the leftovers
Day 2: Brown the flour for gravy. Decide that it is too fucking hot to cook.
Day 3: Buy milk for mashed potatoes. Make gravy and add diced roast, carrots, and peas. Decide that it is too fucking hot to keep cooking.
Day 4 (tomorrow): Make mashed potatoes. Hollow out bell peppers, pour in meat mixture, add a layer of shredded smoked cheddar, top with potatoes. Decide that it’s too fucking hot to actually bake the stuffed peppers
Day 5: Invite someone over and eat the stuffed peppers because I don’t actually have a container deep enough to hold the peppers for freezing

Five. Five days to make sheperd’s pie. Well, six if I boil the potatoes and decide that it’s too hot to mash them.

Tags: peppers, potatoes

I went to the farmers’ market this weekend, and ended up buying a bit much, so I’ll try to work it into recipes

***DONE
Bought:
5 very ripe tomatoes
4 small zucchini

Meal 1: Pasta primavera
the tomatoes, zucchini, fresh garlic, and fresh basil
with white wine and olive oil

***
Bought:
Cauliflower
Mushrooms

Meal 2:
I want to make cauliflower and peas in a curry sauce… but I think I want an English curry instead of an Indian one… and recipe recommendations?

***
Bought:
large purple eggplant

Meal 3: Eggplant curry
with an Indian recipe… tomatoes and stuff. I’ll need to buy cilantro for it because I’ve already used up all I have been growing.

***
Bought:
4 white potatoes

Leftovers from dinner out for my father’s birthday:
roast prime rib

Meal 4: Hash
Cut into cubes and cook with onions and a bit of gravy

***
Bought:
1 small purple and white striped eggplant
2 bell peppers

Meal 5: No idea… how about some Stir Fry? I have pork, beef, and chicken… or I could get some fresh tofu around the block.

***
So… guessing by how ripe things are and by how long they’ll last, I think the meals need to go -
1, 3, 2, 5, 4

And, luckily, I only have an option for 5-10 hours of overtime this week, so I should have time and energy to cook.

Anyone want to opt in on a meal?

Tags: brassicae, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes

It has been cold, and I have been getting home kinda late, so I haven’t been doing as much cooking lately… but I was finally home for a weekend and went to the produce stand… and now I am not sure I will get around to cooking all my food before it goes bad.

So here’s the thing — I am listing a bunch of ingredients, and you and I will think of fun way to put them together.

Ingredients
Vegetables/Green matter:
Cauliflower (1 head)
Broccoli (1 stalk)
Red bell peppers (2)
Potatoes (3 lbs)
Cilantro (1 bunch)
Romaine Lettuce (the inside half of 1 head)
Roma tomatoes (20?)

Unfrozen Meat:
Turkey andouille (1 1/2 left)

Frozen Meat:
“rabbit”
random beef (ground and in steaks)

And I have a good selection of legumes.

Ideas
Dish 1: Aloo Gobi — nope. This was a new dish for me, but now I’ve made it several times and it is no longer as exciting… might still make is as a good use for lots of potatoes and cauliflower.

Dish 2: Red beans & Rice w/ andouille — maybe. I cringe a little because my momma always made red beans and rice with a piece of pork or some ham hock… but it’s a possibility.

Dish 3: Creole Chicken or Shrimp — I’d have to buy the meat product, but it would use up all those lovely tomatoes in one go.

On my stove right now I have a pot of chili cooking. That was to use up a collection of miscellaneous beef leftovers. I used the same mix I have always used (and strongly recommend because all the spices come in individual packets instead of all mixed together)… but it seemed like a lot of salt as it went in… apparently I have stopped cooking with as much salt as I used to. This is odd. So I have already used two potatoes to soak up the saltiness — yesterday’s dinner was potatoes boiled in chili. :)

In other food news — I have only one bagel left in my freezer — Woe!

ETA:Okay, the “rabbit” is strange and exciting, but it’s frozen and will keep. What about the pretty, sexy veggies?

Tags: andouille, brassicae, potatoes, rabbit, tomatoes