NFTNIF Episode 11

NFTNIF - Episode 11

Well I have been in a cooking frenzy since the last report.

Pizza – used store-bought dough, made my sauce from; 1 small can tomato paste – mixed with a can of water. Add oil, pepper, garlic and onion powder, pepper, italian seasoning and salt. Spread half of this over the dough for the crust, top with chopped black olives, pineapple pieces, sliced tomato and fresh grated mozzarella and grated parmesan. Bake and eat! Delicious!

Old fashioned apple butter – wash & section 40 apples, removing the core, seeds and any insect habitats/inhabitants. Grate in food processor. Place into slow cooker with ½ cup brown sugar, juice from half a lime and a whole lemon, 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon chili powder. Cook (stirring occasionally) on high for 6 hours, on low for 26 hours. Cool, put into containers. Since I did not add a lot of sugar and cooked it for so long, this apple butter is brown, very rich and slightly tart. I gave some to the neighbor (Donna) who let us pick the apples.

Stewed apples – clean and slice apples, cook with brown sugar, cinnamon, a dab of balsamic vinegar, stir occasionally. Delicious over pancakes, ice cream or in a pie. Donna got some too.

Lasagne stuffing – chop 1 bunch red swiss chard, 1 bunch of spinach. Peel and chop ½ of a bulb of garlic (about 10-12 buds), fry in canola oil. When garlic starts to turn golden, add the chopped greens, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, a couple splashes of soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, italian seasoning. Chop 14 crimini mushrooms and add once greens are reduced to about half of their original volume. Dice a medium onion small, then add after mushrooms are reduced to about half THEIR original size. Stir fry until greens, onion and mushrooms are cooked. Set aside and allow to cool. Add 1 lb ricotta cheese and stir.

Lasagne noodles – 1 cup of flour, 1 large egg, very small amounts of oil and water. Blend until dough coheres into a ball. Roll out dough into thin, lasagne size strips, dust with flour and spread to dry. Repeat until you have enough noodles for your dish. When you are ready to make the lasagne, brush off the dusting of flour, cook the pasta strips in boiling water until slightly tender then drain. Using the pasta sauce from Episode 10, construct lasagne: cover bottom of baking pan with a layer of sauce, lay down strips, slightly overlapping until they cover the sauce. Cover the strips with another layer of sauce. Add a layer of stuffing, then cover with sauce. Repeat until stuffing is used up, or pan is almost full to the top. The last layers should be – in ascending order, sauce, pasta strips, sauce. Cover with grated mozzarella and parmesan, bake in oven at 400 until cheese topping is bubbly and beginning to brown (25-30 mins). Remove, let cool, cut and serve!

I won't bore you with reports of breakfast (breakfast potatoes with onion), lunches (whatever is handy) – just the highlights. I found the recipe for pumpkin log, and will make that after Halloween (when we can sacrifice one of our ornamental pumpkins to the cause of cuisine); this will be spread with apple butter, rolled and topped with cream cheese whipped with powdered sugar. If you have never had pumpkin log, it's totally amazing. Recipe to be made available in the report on me making it in November.

The neighbors have fresh reasons for feeling unhappy about us besides the shaggy lawn, which is, after all, only something they have to look at, not actually deal with. All of the trees on our property are starting to shed their leaves, and the tree in the front yard has leaves falling continuously - raining - covering our yard, obscuring pavement and shaggy lawn, now blowing across the street to the pristine lawn there. That lawn used to look like a golf course, now it is dotted with autumnal leaves – all from our yard. Happily that family seems to be out of town – I dread their return. Will they lend us a rake?

Of course, we have no rake and it's not in our budget at this time. See what happens when poor people from California move into the neighborhood? Luckily we are otherwise blameless neighbors – we are quiet, do not have visitors, do not bother others; only we are not properly programmed for lawns and yards. It never ceases to amaze me when I see our neighbors riding their riding mowers twice a week, using leaf blowers; investing astonishing amounts of time, labor, gasoline and all to maintain a smooth green living carpet. What could Americans accomplish if they did not have this obsession with their lawns? Where did lawns come from anyway? Who started this colossal waste of time? Can anyone break this frantic cycle?

Our entire Halloween decore consists of 1 white pumpkin, 1 orange pumpkin the same size that is laced and veined with ropy greenery, and the orange squash given to us shortly after we moved in by the kids next door; the squash they said “This one is for Ralph!” I already intend on sacrificing the pumpkins to haute cuisine after Halloween – and the neighbor with the kids decorated their yard to the teeth so we don't feel so bad. Actually we are the middle of the continuum formed by ourselves and our neighbors on each side – the kids' house is a nightmare on Maple; our house a tasteful exercise in minimalism, and Donna has done nothing at all for Halloween, although our leaves are contributing to a slight air of fall festivity (until she breaks out her formidable armament of lawn care machinery).

Every morning is silvered by frost now – and it is later each day that the sun unsheathes all those blades of grass. The full moon shone into our basement bedroom like a police spotlight last night. The nights are terribly cold and the days, if sunny become very pleasant; if cloudy then they are also cold and windy.

My beard has finally grown long enough that it no longer looks like simple negligence – but it is far from the full mountain-man face fur I am hoping for. It went through a SECOND phase of curling around enough to stab my face – like needles, jabbing into my lips and other facial skin one does not even think of until it is suddenly pierced by the curling hairs. I have to say it brought tears to my eyes more than once. I came within an ace of shaving it all off, but I noticed that my face is slightly warmer under the beard.

That's all for NFTNIF, Episode 11. Drop me a line or comment if you like – especially anyone who tries a recipe. Much Love from Idaho Falls!