Eclectic Edibles

Thanksgiving Meals and Side Dishes From Renaissance Cuisine

Posted on November 18, 2008 by shwankie

In honor of Thanksgiving, Renaissance Cuisine, in partnership with The Frenchman’s Corner, is offering a special menu to help you celebrate.

All orders must be placed by 3:00 p.m. on November 22nd. Order may be picked up at The Frenchman’s Corner on Wednesday, November 25th, between 3:00 and 5:00 PM. Orders can be placed at The Frenchman’s Corner, or by email Chef Shawn at: Chef at shwankie dot net.

A Thanksgiving Feast

Price: $25.00/person.

Roasted turkey breast with Shawn’s cornbread fig-and-chestnut dressing, roasted cranberries, curried sweet potatoes, and garlic green beans.

Thanksgiving Side Dishes for Your Dinner

$15, serves 4.

Cornbread Fig & Chestnut Dressing.

Homemade cornbread is mixed with hand-roasted chestnuts, white wine, orange and lemon zest, homemade vegetable stock, butter, dried figs and cranberries, and a secret blend of spices. This is Shawn’s most requested holiday dish, and hands down her most overall requested recipe.

Curried sweet potatoes

Creamy sweet potatoes are whipped with a light blend of curry, Garham Masala, cinnamon, nutmeg, and local honey, then baked with a homemade granola crust..

Apple and onion hash

Red and green apples are cooked in cider with rosemary, garlic, and pepper with red and yellow onions to make this deep, richly flavored side dish.

Please note that quantities are limited.

(sorry for the weird formatting. My word processing program doesn’t get along well with MT’s formatting)

Filed under: Festivals and Events, Food, Frenchman's Corner, Personal Chef, business, celebration, cooking, family cooking, ready to go meals, seasonal, side dishes | No Comments »

Greenies & Frenchmen

Posted on November 17, 2008 by shwankie

The Winter Preview at The Frenchman’s Corner went well, and I owe folks a recipe for my Strawberry Garlic Chili sauce to put over lime & salsa marinaded chicken. That should go up tomorrow afternoon, so swing back by if you’re waiting for it. There’s a lot of interest in the ready-to-go meals, and I am actually a bit worried that the Thanksgiving side dish orders may get away from me! If you are in the area and didn’t get an invite to this special event, just stop in and say hello to the staff at the store and ask to be put on their mailing list. You’ll get an invite for the next event.

I’m meeting more and more Green Folks in the area, from foodies to environmentalists. Some of those Green Folk are becoming good friends, like Dave over at Revolutionary Gardens, and his wife M. I’ve been following his blog, and his progress on his compost bins. Admittedly, there’s a bit of a personal interest, since we’re saving our compost for them (recycling and composting has cut down on our trash so much it’s a bit mortifying how much we use when we can’t recylce & compost). And since M has said Dave can build a bread oven when the compost bins are finished, UC is watching just as avidly. Someday, the two of them are going to get together over pizza and beer and finish the bins off (hint, hint). Until then, though, Dave is offering plans and kits to make your own compost bins. Check them out!

This week’s meal plan is dead simple, and we’re doing a “Pantry Challenge.” I’ll post more on that tomorrow, too. See, all kinds of reasons to swing back to the blog and waste some time at work!

Until then, Eat well. Play hard.

Filed under: Festivals and Events, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Gardening, Personal Chef, business, cooking, local, ready to go meals | No Comments »

Short and Sweet. Okay, just short.

Posted on November 14, 2008 by shwankie

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Time to bust out the cider and wine, chuck in real cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, and other yummy things, and mull the heck out of it with friends. It’s also time to start holiday baking, and this year it’s also been time to can. Oh, the canning. Our friends MJ & Dave combined with us to can over 100 jars of apple butter. Let me reiterate: ONE HUNDRED JARS OF APPLE BUTTER.

It took two days. I think it is going to be worth it.

In other news, I’m starting a monthly newsletter. The link to get you signed up is supposed to be in the upper part of the middle colum of this page, but unfortunately it’s not working. Keep looking, and when I get it fixed I’ll make sure it’s blogged.

There isn’t going to be a “Weekly Frugal” this week. Long story, but the short version is I am simply too busy with work. There are some things in the works that I’ll post about when I can. I am still publishing on AC, so feel free to swing by there and take a look. There’s some new stuff up, and you can also sign up for my RSS feed. (see the sidebar).

And, that’s the update for now.

Filed under: Food, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Personal Chef, Preservation, Vegetarian, Whole, articles & writings, cooking, food porn, fruit, seasonal, sustainable | No Comments »

11.5.08 Weekly Frugal & Festivals

Posted on November 5, 2008 by shwankie

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I was watching the election when I should have been blogging.

**Before I get to the menu for the week, I want to do some shameless promotion. I’m writing for Associated Content now, and getting paid for it. Please click through and read (or just click through and give me page hits, I’m easy to please) when you can. It’s all work safe. Thanks!!**

We headed to the Heritage Apple Festival and the Persimmon Festival at Edible Landscaping with our friends, Dave & MJ and Erin and Adam. We had a great time, but it probably would have been a better time if two of the four of us hadn’t been just starting to come down with something. I am really looking forward to next year, when I hopefully don’t feel like collapsing on my face. That said, it was still a lot of fun, and we got a great deal on apples (which we’ll be canning as sauce and apple butter this weekend sometime).

I am so excited because we only spent $25 on groceries for the week (and $5 of that was in rare breed eating apples). This is when our stocking up starts coming into play, and those high summer grocery bills begin to be totally worth it!

This week (starting yesterday):

Dinners

Sunday: Butternut squash soup with homemade onion rolls. We put up squash from one of our favorite farms, Roundabout, and this was the first use of it. The soup was delightful and rich, perfect with UC’s NY Style onion rolls!

Monday: Homemade whole wheat pasta and sauce, with a side of sauteed zucchini. We will be making fresh pasta tonight, and pairing it with our homemade vodka sauce. The tomatoes are from linguisas we got for $1/lb (organic & local). We’ll be adding TVP to the sauce after it’s done to add protein. All told, a super-cheap, healthy meal.

Tuesday: Scalloped veggies. We need to use up some leftover cheeses (Amish butter, morbier, and aged gouda), so I’ll mix those with some standard cheddar and make a nice sauce. That’ll get dumped over some fresh veggies, then baked with a topping of whole wheat and anadama bread crumbs & TVP from homemade bread (we save and dry the ends). it’s a great meal.

Wednesday: Chicken soup and sides. We’re hosting a movie & dinner night, and I’m making homemade chicken soup out of some local, organically-raised hens we got for $1/lb. They were older laying hens, so they’re perfect for stocks and soups. I’ll be popping in some carrots, and hopefully some homemade noodles (leftover from Monday night’s dinner). Folks bring sides if they want dinner.

Thursday: Pork chops with pickled beet tops and roasted beets. I’ll do the pork chops in one of my favorite spice rubs from The Frenchman’s Corner and pan-sear them. When we were putting up food for the winter, we got a ton of beets with the tops on. We wanted to do something with the tops, since they’re so healthful and tasty, and had initially thought about just cooking them down to can. Then, UC found a recipe for yeast fermented pickled chard. We used the beet tops in place of chard, and tonight we’ll pop a jar and try the results!

Friday: Undecided. Now that the markets are closed, we’ll be heading to some farms & stores directly on Fridays, so as of this week we’ll start our meal planning on Friday afternoon.

Lunches:

tuna salad on onion rolls (this was TASTY today), leftovers, pb&J on homemade bread, soup, and wraps from leftover 100% grass-fed London Broil (Pannill’s Gate) I pulled out of the freezer (along with local lettuces and tomatoes).

Snacks:

pb&J, cheese, smoothies, yogurt & granola, fruit (including some rare local apples!), roasted nuts, sliced tomatoes, carrots, chips & salsa.

Breakfasts

Eggs in a “nest” with toast (the nest is sautee’d spinach and garlic with balsamic dressing), porridge (wheat berry and pearl barley), cereal (got the Good Stuff with no HFCS on sale), and hopefully some homemade english muffin sandwhiches (UC is supposed to make the english muffins this week, but we’ll see if we have time).

Filed under: Fall & winter, Festivals and Events, Food, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Groceries, Personal Chef, Whole, articles & writings, breakfasts, cooking, family cooking, farms, greens, local, organic, pastas, seasonal, sustainable | 1 Comment »

Fermented Pickled Beet Tops

Posted on October 29, 2008 by shwankie

Per request

Let me start by saying this recipe is new to us. We had a lot of beet tops from my trip to Roundabout, and I’d thought we’d just pickle them. UC popped online and came up with this fermented pickle recipe using yeast, and you know how he feels about his yeast. It needs to sit for several more days before it’s “done” enough to try, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Here’s the recipe, and we just subbed beet tops for chard.

Happy fermenting…er, pickling…er, whatever.

Filed under: Food, Frugal, Preservation, Raw, Recipes, Vegetarian, Whole, cooking, garlic, greens, lacto-ovum vegetarian, local, organic, seasonal, sustainable, vegetables | 1 Comment »

Everything. All At Once.

Posted on October 29, 2008 by shwankie

I realize this is later than I usually post, but courtesy of Comcast, we’ve been without steady Internet service for several days. Apparently, this was “scheduled” maintainence, but they neglected to tell anyone about it. Obviously, I’ve insisted on a credit for those days.

Where to start? Since I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off at meetings, mixers, preparing for the Halloween Party, winterizing the apartment, and heaven’s knows what else, I’m just going to write as it occurs to me. Hopefully, you’re feeling generous and can forgive the lack of chronology or coherence.

Chamber of Commerce Mixer at The Frenchman’s Corner. This was a great networking opportunity, and Marc and Jeff outdid themselves sponsoring the event. I made enough good contacts that I am seriously looking at joining the Chamber, something I was pretty hesitant about initially. CoCs tend to be expensive and fairly pointless for my type of business in many areas. They just aren’t designed to promote what I do, and since I can really only hand 3 or so clients at a time, the fees aren’t usually worth the limited leads. In this case, however, I think the Chamber has a lot to offer. It’ll help me promote my cooking classes and ready-to-go meals, even if it doesn’t get me any PC leads (which it may or may not). Thanks to everyone there for answering my questions, and listening to me gush about food!

Pannill’s Gate Farm. Early Friday morning, I drove out to my favorite grass-fed beef producer to pick up meat for the ready-to-go meals. What started out as a pick-and-dash trip ended up being a bit over an hour of wonderful conversation with Patty, Scott, and their children (the kids didn’t have school that day). We got to talk about farming, food, other things I am forgetting right now, and Scott showed me his winter pastures and talked about over all operations. I love this farm, and I love Patty & Scott’s philosophies on farming and food. Their flavorful beef is pretty darn good, too.

I also got to see Goggle the Wayward Calf. Apparently, Goggle’s mom never really bonded with him (Patty said Goggle was born on a windy, rainy night and it’s likely the cow just didn’t catch his scent), and they’ve been bottle feeding him ever since. Fortunately, they were moving him later that day to a great 4-H home they’d found for him. As Patty said, hand-feeding a calf means that some day you’re going to have a full-grown cow trying to come onto your porch for dinner. On the way out, I was waylaid a bit by Click (I hope I got that right), one of the cows that occasionally wanders freely over the farm when it manages to avoid being herded inside on of the pasture fences. She wasn’t interested in moving, and when she did it was in the wrong direction. Eventually we got it figured out, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it.

Roundabout Farm. Wednesday I headed out to Roundabout to grab some cold-storage produce. Megan and I chatted a bit while we sorted through squash, beets, and potatoes. Some ridiculous amount of produce later, I hauled everything back to the house and tossed it into our backroom, which we’ve made into cold storage. More on that later.

Last day of the Market. It was the last day of the markets, and we headed to C-ville to pick up some things we’d ordered. The Nelkes had slaughtered some hens, and we were lucky enough to get some to bring home. They’ll be headed for the stock pot. I also picked up my kombucha starter, which I fed on Saturday. This coming Saturday, I’ll have kombucha to drink! We picked up some other things, as well, but these were the major items. It rained, so a lot of producers weren’t there. We’ll miss the market, but it gives us something to look forward to next year.

Ready-To-Go-Meals from The Frenchman’s Corner. My meals officially started two weeks ago, and it’s going really well. Three entrees each week so far, and we’re hoping to add chicken soon. This week I am not expecting may orders given my pickup is the same day as Halloween, but that does leave me more time to get ready for the party. We’re also looking at doing Thanksgiving meals for one or two people, with a pickup on Wednesday. If you want on the mailing list, just email me and I’ll give you the information!

Writing for AC. I am now officially a contributing writer at Associated Content. You can see my RSS Feed button at the top of the page in the next column. I’ve been paid for every article thus far, which makes me very happy. Many of the articles are on food, food production, food politics, and health. Feel free to click over to any of the articles–the more you click, the more I get paid. Yes, shameless promotion. It’s my blog, so I figure I can do that.

Canning. MJ & Dave spent the day canning tomatoes with us on Sunday, and we put up another bushel. Thus far, UC and I have something loike 26 quarts of tomatoes (diced and stewed), 7 quarts aubergine (pickled eggplant), 4 pints pickled green tomatoes, 4 pints hot-packed green tomato slices, 8 quarts fermented beet tops, and some tomato sauce. We still have apples to do.

There has been some other stuff, not food or PC related, as well: birthday parties, election stuff, and the like. But, that’s for another blog.

This Week in Frugal is not happening this week. We’re throwing a Halloween party, so meals are essentially a couple of soups and some frozen leftovers. Thank goodness for the chest freezer!

Filed under: Fall & winter, Food, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Meat, Personal Chef, articles & writings, business, cooking, family cooking, farms, local, organic, ready to go meals, sustainable | 2 Comments »

Frugal Weekly 10.20.08, Still No Camera

Posted on October 20, 2008 by shwankie

I know, you miss my food pics. So do I. Unfortunately, Things have had to come before New Gadgets, and so still no camera. You’ll just have to sift through the archives for your fix.

This past weekend, some friends got together with us at our place and canned 3/4 of a bushel of tomatoes, yeilding 24 quarts. Next Sunday, we’ll finish off the remaining 2 bushels (they weren’t ripe yet this week to can), and that should be enough tomatoes for a good, long while. Thank goodness for their pressure cooker! In the meantime, I’ll be canning pickled eggplant and green tomatoes, and giving some jalepenos to M & D (hey, can you guys email me–my email program seems to have lost your addresses) for their pickling pleasure. I’ll also be heading to Roundabout Farms to pick up our cold-storage goods, and I’m really excited to get beets with the dirt still clinging. I do hope I can borrow a camera for the day, so I can post some pics here.

This week in food and cooking, our menu:

Sunday: Herb-seared pork chops, served with balsamic-roasted butternut squash and peppered peas & green beans. This is one of my favorite ways to do butternut squash because it turns out so creamy and rich.

Monday: Tofu & chickpea saag over brown rice. This is one of my DH’s obsessions right now. He’s chosen a few dishes he’d like to get good at making, and since he loves saag this is on the list. Expect to see this on my meal plans a lot for while. Fortunately, it’s tasty. And, cheap, nutritious, and filling.

Tuesday: Roasted chicken with mixed veggies & biscuits. I’ll be brining the chicken overnight tonight, and popping it in the oven tomorrow before I head to weight training. DH will be home to watch it and hopefully making the biscuits, and we can eat after I get home and shower.

Wednesday: Salmon patties with winter squash and apple-onion hash. I serve my salmon patties with dill yogurt sauce, and the winter squash will be steamed. The apple-onion hash is pretty peppery, which compliments everything nicely.

Thursday: Crock-pot chuck steak with potatoes & carrots. My grass-fed farmer feels the latest animal has too strong a flavor, so gave me a chuck steak to try out for critiquing. Since this is one of my very heavy training days, and since both DH and I train together at 6:45 p.m., this is a great night for us to crockpot. I’ll treat it like a potroast.

Friday: Creamy roasted root veggies soup with salad and homemade ciabatta. I cooked up turnips & sweet potaotes as a side dish to my black bean burgers on Saturday. I’ll be using the leftovers, along with some beets, carrots, and mushrooms to make a creamy, rich soup.

Saturday: Friend Alex’s birthday party (Happy Birthday, hon!), so dinner at her mom’s.

Breakfasts:

Porridge (wheat berry & rye), home made “egg mcmuffins,” fermented oats & wheat flakes.

I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet, but according to my pricebook, we should be in undre $100 for the two of us this week. We’re trying, yet again, to up UC’s calorie intake. I never believed stuffing 4,000 calories into someone would 1) be necessary or 2) be this difficult. Since he can’t really have it in simple carbs and sugars, that leaves proteins and complex carbs. Grass fed beef and veggies just doesn’t have the kind of calorie count. His stomach isnt’ big enough to hold as much food as it would take to stop him losing weight with a healthy diet and nothing else. So, back to the Uber-Smoothies twice a day.

Uber Smoothies (600-700 calories each)

-2/3 c. yogurt of your choice

-2 scoops whey protein

-1 raw egg

-1/2 cup milk

-1 banana

-Additions (endless combinations): peanut butter (organic, of course), almond butter, vanilla, honey, malt, instant coffee, other fruits, oatmeal, almond extract, fruit juices, nutella, and the kitchen sink)

Put into blender, or put into very large glass and use stick blender. Whip until frothy. Stick in freezer for a while if desired (about 15 minutes). Drink.

Obviously, at 5′ and 110 lbs, I can’t go anywhere near this stuff. Just breathing the air around it while I blend it probably adds more calories than I work off in my hardest training sessions. UC, however, can down two, and just about break even on his calories for the day. Maybe. What I wouldn’t do for his metabolism (though, I have no desire to be 6′6″ tall).

Look for another “Consumer Education” blog next week. I am still waffling on the topic, largely because I have too much to say and not enough focus or time to do it in. So, if you’ve got requests, let me know.

In the meantime, eat well.

Filed under: Fall & winter, Food, Frugal, Groceries, Meat, Recipes, Vegetarian, breakfasts, cooking, cooking light, crock pot, family cooking, fish, local, mushrooms, organic, quick-and-easy, seasonal, soups and stews, sustainable | 2 Comments »

Weekly Frugal 10.13.08

Posted on October 14, 2008 by shwankie

I am sorry for the delay in posting. There’s been some behind-the-scenes things going on here, some good, some not so much.

For the bad, I’ll just say family issues that required me to drive to MI last week. They’re resolved for the moment, but did bring up some new questions that will need to be answered soon. I don’t mean to be cryptic, I am just too tired to talk about it much. But, I am back now, after 1400+ miles of driving, and I can’t express how happy I am to be home. I missed VA. It has truly become my home, and coming back to it–especially now, when it’s hills and valleys are shining with colors breathtaking to behold–was a weight off my shoulders.

Now for the good. First, it looks like I may have a camera again by next week. Yay! No more dreary, food-pornless pages! Second, and somewhat more exciting, is that the ready-to-go meals for The Frenchman’s Corner start this Friday. Orders are due by tomorrow, so if you want more info, just email me.

And, onto the week in cooking frugal. I suppose no week is ever normal, but this one will be starting a day late since I wasn’t here. UC worked overtime last weekend, which also meant no regular market stop. He did go to a closer market, so there is still local stuff on the menu; but, the selection just isn’t as wide.

Dinners

Monday: B-b-q chicken breast, roasted beets, and whipped cauliflower. DH put this together as a welcome home dinner, and it was fabulous. The beets (roasted and tossed with salt and balsamic vinegar) and cauliflower (whipped with a bit of Cotswold cheese) were local, but the chicken was not (long story, but it involves him having an irrational fear of the chest freezer).

Tuesday: Bison London Broil, spaghetti squash, and fried green tomatoes. There was a farm tour weekend before last, and we picked up some bison. Since it’s a bit pricey and DH needs far more than at each sitting than the average adult male, this will probably be more of a treat for us than a regular thing, but we wanted to try it. Mostly, I got to decide if I’d like to offer it for my clients and upcoming ready-to-eat meals for the gourmet store. The squash was from the market, and the green tomatoes are from the Grandparent’s garden for free. I got a whole half bushel, and will be pickling most of them this weekend.

Wednesday. Ground beef and heart Indian-spiced chili with roasted cornbread muffins. Heart is really nutritious and inexpensive, so we’re giving it a try in my most-requested dish next to my stroganoff. The beef and heart are both from our local farm, grass-fed, so nice and low-fat. The beans are dried, the tomatoes from the bushel I got for canning, the onions from our local onions stash, and the stock will be stuff I made and froze a while back. I’ll make the corn muffins from scratch with fresh leftover corn from UC’s dinner this weekend. It’s a hearty meal that costs so very little, and feeds us leftovers for days (well, usually. Once in a while UC eats the entire pot in a sitting or two.).

Thursday. BLTs. This is a busy night for us, as we both go to the “oh my god I am going to die and I am not sure my legs work anymore and I burned like 800 calories in an hour” spin class in the evening. We love Dave, our instructor, and make it a point to go even though it’s at a really inconvenient time. So, we always do quick meals on Thursdays. And likght ones, so we don’t vomit in class (which is embarrasing, and also pretty much kills the workout). Bread will be UC’s anadama, with some of the last tomatoes of the season sliced on top of organic greens and nothing-special-about-it bacon. We need to buy some more local bacon this week.

Friday. Cabbage soup. UC and I grew up on this stuff, and we love it. We have a head of cabbage to use that won’t store well in our cold storage area, so this will be served with more anadama for a hearty meal. And, it can be made in the crock pot; so, it’ll be cooking while I am This day will be the first day of my ready-to-go meals, and DH is going to be my assistant (hey, he was looking for a second job anyway….); so, we need a meal that cooks itself.

Saturday. Black bean burgers with whatever we pick up from the market in terms of veggies. Probably more beets, which are yummy with some sea salt and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Breakfasts

Lacto-fermented oats. Rye & wheat berry porridge. Eggs with canadian bacon on anadama toast. Sliced tomatoes and eggs on toasted ciabatta.

Lunches

Leftovers. We plan our meals pretty specifically so we have leftovers for us both.

Snacks

Fruit. Cheese. Nuts. Smoothies. PB&J sandwiches.GORP. Raw veggies (carrots, radishes, celery, tomatoes). Roasted garbanzo beans. Baba Ganoush dip. Pickles. Yogurt w/granola.

This is a pretty frugal week. I’ll need to run to the store and get bacon, fruit, and possibly a few other things; but, we should come in at or under budget.

Later this week (probably Sunday?) we’ll be canning tomatoes (stewed & juiced, I think), I believe in concert with Dave and Mindy. UC and I will also be picking green tomatoes to can, hopefully pickling some cabbage in our crocks (as well as putting some wrapped heads into cold storage), roasting & shucking more chestnuts, and roasting & canning eggplant (in paste form–think baba ganoush). Next week, apples!

Filed under: Food, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Meat, Personal Chef, Vegetarian, breakfasts, cheese, cooking, cooking light, crock pot, family cooking, local, organic, quick-and-easy, seasonal, side dishes, soups and stews, sustainable, vegetables | 1 Comment »

No Cohesion

Posted on October 1, 2008 by shwankie

It will come as no surprise to my readers that I love to make my own weird food and beverages, and that I occasionally want strange things to cook in. What I am really saying is I’ve had some random things on my “wish list” for a while, and have no good way to hook them into a cohesive post. They’re still worth mentioning, but I don’t want to dedicate a whole post to any one of them.

And, I’m busy right now. We had to essentially move our entire kitchen out of our apartment for a day, and now we’re trying to put it all back together while cleaning every surface and dish. I’ve also been busy working on the Meals To Go project. More on that as soon as i can, but for now, it’s hush-hush. Just know that I am not sitting around on my bum doing nothing.

So, what things do I want to the point of obsession?

-Keft D’uca crystals. I made kefir for a while, and it was alright; but, this looks amazing and I think we’d drink more of it. Unfortunately, they’re out right now.

-Fil Mjolk Dairy Starter Culture (sorry, can’t do the umlat). I’ve heard some rave reviews about this, and given how much I tend to like things in this vein, I think it would be an amazing addition to the household.

-Kombucha Mushroom Starter Kit. I had kombucha a while ago and liked it, but it’s almost $5/bottle for 12 oz. This would pay for itself in two batches.

-Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 slow cooker. I like this one because it has the different inserts, and that would allow me to make so many things I can’t do with just my 4-quart. I could make a lot less steel cut oats, for example, with the 2-quart insert. Or, a whole chicken with the 6 quart.

Filed under: Food, Frenchman's Corner, Frugal, Preservation, Raw, Vegetarian, Whole, cooking, crock pot, lacto-ovum vegetarian, mushrooms, organic, sustainable | No Comments »

365Crockpotting

Posted on September 23, 2008 by shwankie

Tonight we’re having Indian Chicken and Palak Tofu from the website A Year of Crockpotting. I was turned onto this site by a forum I belong to, and have spent more time perusing it than I have doing much work lately. It’s fantastic. I use the crock pot year round, but many of these recipes are new, innovative, and even a bit shocking! As it turns out, not everything in a crockpot has to be soup or stew.

Tonight’s meals were amazing. I made the Palak Tofu on the stove top simply because I only have one crock, but I am pretty sure after tonight we’ll be springing for a second. If you have time, scoot on over to the site and have a look around. Let me know what you think! I think she’s amazing.

Filed under: Food, Frugal, Recipes, Vegetarian, cooking, crock pot, family cooking, greens, quick-and-easy | 2 Comments »