Hmmmm, bacon

I recently looked at my budget on Mint.com (which I signed up for long ago and then completely forgot about, even though I do get weekly e-mails from them - OK, let's be honest, I'm just really lazy about financial matters). Anyways, I realized that I have been spending way too much on eating out. So since I had Friday off and had time to plan and get organized for a visit to the grocery store, I came up with some really good ideas of food to eat. For instance, last night we had filet mignon topped with blue cheese and walnut butter, along with baked buttercup squash and cheddar garlic mashed potatoes. Add some lovely merlot, and you've got yourself a meal my friend.

But what I'm really proud of, and what this post is all about, is this delicious salad I made, topped with warm bacon dressing:



Honestly, I never knew that salad could be so scrumptious. Granted the bacon dressing probably kills any nutritional value of the salad whatsoever, but I have to tell you it is a delightful taste explosion and I loved it.

Spinach Salad w/Warm Bacon Dressing

Spinach
Blue cheese
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
Grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
Almonds
6 slices bacon
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1. So the salad is basically some spinach topped with the blue cheese, sliced eggs, tomatoes and almonds.
   
2. To make the dressing, I cut up the bacon into small pieces first. You could cook whole then crumble. Anyhow, cook the bacon to your desired doneness. Remove from pan, reserving the bacon grease (see this where you know the recipe is going to take a turn for the un-healthy).
3. Cook the onion in the reserved bacon grease until tender. Stir in the bacon, sugar and salt. Keep stirring until the dressing thickens a bit, then spoon over the salad.

Deliciousness!

There's probably enough dressing there for 5-6 salads, depending on how much you like bacon. We had for dinner on Friday night, but had enough left over dressing to have it for lunch again on Saturday. I just stuck the dressing in the fridge Friday night and then put it in the microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds the next day, and it tasted just as delectable.

I thought these would be the awesomest socks in the universe

[And then the mustard ended up right next to the bright green, and it ended up looking kind of, I don't know, "pukey." I mean, overall I still really like the socks and think that they are pretty neat, but they could have been a whole heck of a lot better if I had had the foresight to think about how the colors were going to line up. Such is life.]

May I present to you, the Socks of Kidness. They are a birthday present for my dear friend who unfortunately has a birthday four days before Christmas. I always like to make sure I give her separate birthday and Christmas presents, and she specifically requested a pair of my hand knit socks for her birthday this year.

When I saw the skein of Noro Kureyon sock yarn (colorway 164) I figured it could easily be made into the best pair of socks ever. The colors were perfect for my earthy, fun-loving pal. I had read up about the nifty striping effects you can create with Noro. I carefully wound the big skein into two separate balls, and then cast on for the pattern on my teensy, tiny size one needles. I alternated four rows of the pattern from each ball. I loved the zig-zag effect immediately, although I gotta tell you, I'm not much of a fan of lace (counting is hard!) either. The socks did go surprisingly well, although I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have to rip it out once (or maybe like five times, whatever).

The colors were looking pretty good at first. Manly, almost (the one that starts with the gray and mustard is the first sock). The boyfriend thought they were really neat and wanted a pair for himself. That is of course, until they went into the bright green. Then the bright green melded with the mustard, and the socks started to look kind of, um, unfortunate. The second sock doesn't even look like it came from the same bunch of yarn because it's mostly teal and green. I really like the teal and green combo but it is the complete opposite of the first sock. The second sock also unfortunately had the pleasure of the green/mustard combo too.

Oh well, I love them just the same. They are quirky and unique. I hope my friend will see them that way too.

Sorry, we have no bananas

I am a fan of banana bread, and we happened to have 3 bananas sitting on our counter just asking to be made into banana bread (aka, we had 3 bananas that neither of us had eaten and that had started turning brown). My tried and true banana bread recipe is actually a vegan recipe and is quite delicious. I've probably made it a dozen times over the last four years. It also fools me into thinking it's somewhat good for me because it contains wheat germ.

Today I decided to try something new and made some Chocolate Banana Bread courtesy of AllRecipes.com. I just ate a piece as dessert for dinner, and I must say it might beat out my tried and true recipe for the best banana bread ever. It's pretty heavy on the chocolate taste, and therefore kind of rich, so I can't picture myself making it all the time, but it will definitely be added into the banana bread rotation.

Chocolate Banana Bread
NOTE: The recipe on All Recipes makes 2 loaves. I halved the recipe, and used half white sugar and half brown sugar. Otherwise the recipe is unchanged.


1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup lite sour cream
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

Acorn Squash Soup w/Pasta

Fall is not entirely upon us, at least not yet. With temperatures in the upper 70's today, I found myself wishing the weather was a little cooler. I want it to be cool and crisp and sunny, not it's-so-hot-I'm-constantly-sweating sunny. I want to curl up with a warm cup of coffee and a good book. I want steaming hot, warm-you-on-the-inside soup.

So today I decided if fall won't come to me, I'll come to fall. Soup was in order, and lucky for me I had two acorn squashes handy from the farm share. This recipe turned out to be quick and easy, especially with being able to use the handy-dandy immersion blender. I would highly recommend this recipe if you've got some winter squash you don't quite know what to do with.

Acorn Squash Soup w/ Pasta



8 ounces pasta
2 acorn squash (medium size), split, seeded and quartered
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
3 cans (13 1/4 oz size) chicken broth

Topping
1 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tbsp sugar

1. Cook squash in one inch of water in covered saucepan for 15 minutes, or until tender. Cool. Scrape out pulp and put back in pot with water.
2. Add margarine, onion, carrots, sugar, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until vegetables are tender.
3. Add 3 cups of the broth and puree all in a blender or food processor (or even better, use your immersion blender). Return to the pot and add remaining broth, bring to a boil and add uncooked pasta.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until pasta is done.
   
5. Before serving, blend sour cream or yogurt and sugar in a separate bowl. Put dollop on top of each bowl of soup. Serve hot.

I heart vegetables

The other day I was checking my bank balance and I became confused when I saw a check for $250 on my statement. These days I never, ever write checks. Pretty much the only checks I write are to Steven for my “rent” (aka, my share of Steven’s mortgage), and that is definitely more than $250 a month. Then I remembered that I had the brilliant idea, like every other young yuppie in Madison, to join a CSA, and that the check I had sent off the farm at the beginning of March had been cashed. Yes, I am the proud owner of a half-share in a farm located in Belmont, WI.

I knew that I wanted to join a CSA this summer, but I also know Steven and me, and we have a tendency to get busy and let our produce go bad. From what I’ve read about farm shares, I knew a full share was going to be way, way too much produce for the two of us. I did a lot of research about what my options were. Living in Madison makes this an incredibly easy thing to do. All I had to do was go to the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC) and find the list of farms participating. I knew that I definitely wanted a farm that had half-shares, and that would also have a convenient location for us to pick up the goods. I narrowed my choices down to one or two farms and decided that Two Onions Farms was my best bet. So every other week from June to November, Steven and I will be swinging by Atlas Deli on Whitney Way to pick up our share.

I cannot wait to have a bunch of awesome, locally grown produce to use in my kitchen. No more staring at the disgusting selection of produce available at the Pick ‘n Save, not knowing where the hell it came from (my best guess is probably somewhere I don’t want to know the details about). Instead I know that it will come from Belmont, from people who care.

Last summer I also built myself a little garden bed in the backyard to grow some of my own vegetables. It had a less than stellar turn out, but I blame that on the fact that I bought my plants way before I was ready to put them in the ground and I seriously stunted my peppers by doing so. My two tomato plants did wonderfully, and my basil plant also did very well. This summer I think I’m going to grow my herbs in containers on the deck and reserve the garden bed for tomatoes, peppers, radishes, carrots, and salad greens. I have to build some sort of contraption to keep the birds away from my salad greens because they definitely had a field day with those last year. I’m hoping that I learn from my mistakes this time around, and therefore this year will have the awesomest vegetable garden on the street. This will probably be pretty easy, since I think it’s the only vegetable garden on the street.

My other produce/garden related goal for the summer is to get a compost bin going. I have no excuse not to. I just need to figure out what will work best for me and Steven.

Seriously, Spring and Summer? Get here as fast as you can! Love, Julia.