Peeling Tomatoes

I grew a pretty fruitful tomato plant this year, so I've already had to make several small batches of tomato sauce.  I'm still too chicken to can it though.  I don't think I need to with only one super fruitful tomato plant.  We're using up the sauce fast enough that I'm not running out of room in the freezer, so I think I'm ok.

Tomatoes are not my thing so I don't particularly care for a chunky sauce.  So that means pealing the tomatoes.  Do I ever remember how to do this from year to year?  Absolutely not.  I'm tired of searching for directions on how to do this so I'm posting them here.

These directions are basically from alrecipes, but I'll break it down on here as well.

1. Get a big pot of water boiling.

2.  Make a big bowl of icy ice cube a riffic water right next to the stove.

3. While you are waiting for your water to boil.  Cut an "X" into the bottom of your tomato, just through the skin.  This year I grew some funky shaped heirloom tomatoes.  Some of them looked like 2 mutant tomatoes growing together.  For those freaky guys I cut an "x" on each section of the mutated fruits. I've also found it helpful to cut out the stemy core thingie at this point.

4. Once the water is boiling, turn it down to simmer and place the tomatoes in the pot with a slotted spoon.  Try not to over crowd them.

5. Let them bob and weave in the water for about 30 seconds.

6.  Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and plunge them in the ice bath.

7.  After the tomatoes have cooled enough to the touch, the nasty skins should peel right off.

Warning: Do NOT attempt to do this with apples.  Mom...I'm looking at you.

I'm back...with oatmeal goodness.

My little hiatus went a bit longer than I anticipated.  We had a family friend have some medical issues that threw me for a loop.  He spent most of August in the hospital, but, thankfully he is home and on the mend.

Blockette is enjoying the third grade.  For some reason, this year, more than others, I'm finding that I'm missing her.  Don't get me wrong.  It's not that I didn't miss her in years past, while she was at school.  I think this summer we were busier than normal, so we didn't have a chance to get sick of spending all day, every day with each other.

My illustrious career as a crossing guard has been interesting this year as well.  School starts later in the day this year, so at the end of the day the parents are antsy to get home or something.  I've had more than my share of near misses, and school hasn't even been in session for a full month yet.

I've also been having issues with my knees.  Basically, my knee caps aren't tracking correctly and they pop out when I try to do little things like walking.  Let me tell you, this is not a fun ailment to have when your job is basically walking for 45 min twice a day.  I've been extremely cranky and that makes me not want to blog, or clean or do anything except eat chocolate covered almonds.  But, I'm working on strengthening the muscles around my knee, and finally found a knee brace that isn't so huge that it could pass for a skirt.  I can actually get stuff done again. So a blogging we will go...

Let's talk about breakfast.

Like many people, I don't have a lot of time for a fancy breakfast.  When I get up I water the plants, make Mr. Blocko and Blockette's lunch, eat and then head out the door to work.  A few years ago I used to just eat a bowl of cereal, then started having digestive issues so  I switched to Yogurt and granola.  Not only did it not change the digestive issues, but the sugar levels in the yogurt and granola left me feeling shaky and twitchy.  My Dr said dairy was the cause of my digestive problems, so I should limit the amount of milk products I consume in a day.  I went to just eating toast.  This was all fine and dandy until last spring when I got a bike and rode to work.  That toast just didn't give me enough fuel.

Then I tried almond milk.  It wasn't so bad, so I started having regular cereal again.  However, I found that I didn't feel satisfied from that either.  I was toying with the idea of eating hot oatmeal, but at the time it was nearing summer.  The idea of eating something hot didn't appeal to me one bit.

But oatmeal doesn't have to be eaten hot.  Did you know you can eat it cold as well?

source

I had no idea!

And get this...I don't even cook it.  Not at all!

Cold Overnight Oatmeal - serves 1
1/2 c oatmeal (I like quick cooking, but old fashioned works as well)
1/2 c milk (I use unsweetened almond milk as I'm trying to keep the AM sugars in check)
1/2-1 T semi sweet chocolate chips

Before you go to bed at night, combine all the ingredients in a container, making sure all the oats are covered by the milk.  I like the small round ziploc brand containers, but a bowl with plastic wrap will do the trick as well. Stick that bad boy in the fridge and in the morning, just add a splash or two of milk to get the consistency of your preference.  That's it.  You can really add anything you like, but for me, just a pinch of chocolate chips gives me the hint of sweetness I crave, without going overboard. The chocolate chips soften up in the milk overnight as well.  They still have a little bit of bite to them, but they aren't rock hard like you think they might be from sitting in the fridge.

Summer Hiatus

Hey everyone! 

 I've decided to take a little break from blogging until Blockette starts up school.  

Look for me to return in about a month!

via

Thanks to you all for visiting my blog...see you back here mid August!

Sausage and Bean Soup with Ditalini

Just a quick post about today's recipe.  This soup hales from The Italian Dish.

 It was super tasty!  A big hit with the whole family.

This was one of those dishes where I did all the prep work before heading to work, including pureeing half the beans with a splash of stock.  Since Blockette and I aren't big fans of chunks of tomatoes, I pureed half of those too.  I left some of the tomatoes whole because Mrblocko likes them.

Doing the prep work ahead of time meant I could just toss the ingredients in the pot and let it simmer away while I helped Blockette with homework and just generally chilled out.  I love it when all you have to do is wait and the food just does it's thing.

Look how puffy those noodles got!  They took on so much stock when they were cooking they look like they are going to explode.  Strangely, they didn't taste over cooked.  I'm not quite sure how that worked.

I will definitely make this recipe again.

Sausage and Bean Soup adapted from Italian Dish
1 c dried cannellini or cellini beans (this is about 1 1/2 c cooked) or 1 15-ounce can of any beans you like, drained - I used dried northern beans that had already been precooked
1 pound ground sausage, turkey or pork (I used Italian pork sausage)
1/2 medium onion, diced (I used 2 small onions)
1/2 medium carrot, diced (I used 1 large carrot)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
6 to 8 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
1 cup ditalini pasta, or any small pasta
grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese  (I didn't have any so I omitted it)

If using dried beans, place them in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain. (I highly recommend precooking beans before using them in this soup.  Not only will it cut down on prep time, but it will ensure that you don't have any dreaded "crunchy" beans.")

At this point I pureed half the beans and tomatoes.




In a large pot, brown sausage. Remove from pot. If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot. Add onion, carrot and olive oil and saute 5 min til soft. Add garlic and saute about a minute more. Add tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the beans and sausage. cover pot. Cook for 45-60 min over low heat, at a gentle simmer.

 If the beans are not soft enough, cover the pot again and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft. This is where having precooked beans saves you a bunch of time.  I checked my soup at 45 min, then added the pasta. Cool til the pasta is tender. This will depend on your cut of pasta.  Mine took a little less than 15 min to get fat and poofy.  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste. If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more chicken broth.

I'm sure you could do the simmering in a crock pot minus the noodles.  I haven't tried it, but I imagine 4-6 hrs on low should do it.  If I was making this in the crock pot I'd cook the noodles separately and add them in just before serving, just to ensure the noodles didn't get over cooked.

Five Cross Stitch Bookmarks

I made these five bookmarks for various teachers at the end of the school year. 

They were a big hit with the recipients.  Now all I have to do is figure out what to make for an end of the year gift next year as Blockette will have some of the same teachers she had last year.  Luckily I have LOTS of time to solve that dilemma.

Cinnamon Quinoa Oat Bars

I like to buy a big bag of quinoa and cook the whole thing up.  Then I freeze it in 1 1/2 -2 cup portions.  I made something with quinoa the other day that called for an odd amount of quinoa so I was left with a heaping cup or so of cooked quinoa.  I didn't want to stick it back in the freezer as it was such an unusual amount so I looked around and found this recipe for Cinnamon Quinoa Bake from PopSugar.

One of the people in the comments stated that they replaced part of the quinoa with oats.  So i measured out my quinoa and filled up the remaining cup and 1/4 cup or so with old fashioned oats. 

I really liked the texture that the oats added to the bars.  I think 100% quinoa might have resulted in a bar that was a bit too moist as well.  The oats seemed to absorb some of the extra moisture from the quinoa, which in my opinion, was a good thing.

I thought the bars tasted the best slightly warm, but they were pretty darn good cold as well.  I wasn't sure how they would keep so I stored them in the fridge to be on the safe side.  The fridge also seemed to help the bars set up a bit better.  They were a little on the loose and crumbly side while they were warm.

The first bite of these bars are a bit of a shock.  I'm so used to quinoa in savory dishes that when I first tasted the quinoa in the bars my brain was like "Uh what on earth is this?  Quinoa is supposed to be savory."  Once you can get your mind synched up with your taste buds, it's hard to stop at one bar. 


 Cinnamon Quinoa Oat Bars adapted from PopSugar (Yields 9 bars)
1 1/4 c cooked and cooled quinoa
1 1/4 c old fashioned oats
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 c  milk
1/3 c maple syrup
2 t vanilla
1 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place quinoa in large bowl. Line 8x8" pan with lightly greased parchment.(I recommend this as I skipped this step and the pan was a pain to clean up.) In small bowl, whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add maple syrup. Add egg mix to quinoa.  Pour into prepared dish.  Spread to even out.  Bake 20-25 min til set and golden. Using parchment, remove bars from pan as soon as possible so it doesn’t steam. (As I skipped the parchment step I couldn't do this.  This may have been why my bars were moist and didn't set up until they were placed in the fridge overnight.) Cool and cut into squares.

Sesame Oil Hummus

I'm not the biggest fan of tahini. Whenever I've tried to make hummus the tahini always makes it taste funky.  I've tried a few different brands all with no luck.

Of course when I saw this recipe for hummus that used sesame oil instead of tahini at Are You Hungry?, I whipped up a batch right away.

Thing is, I don't really like it.

I'm thinking that I don't like a strong taste of sesame.  Sure sesame seed bagels are great, and give me a sesame seed bun over a plain one please!  I even like sesame seeds in my granola.  I guess I can have too much of a "good" thing.

At least Mrblocko liked this dip so it didn't have to go directly into the garbage can.  Funny thing is he would rather not eat anything with sesame seeds on it.  Guess we are opposites like that.


No Tahini Hummus from Are You Hungry?
2 cups chickpeas or garbanzo beans (if using canned drain, rinsed and towel dry)
3 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
4 - 5 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. garlic, crushed or minced
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. smoked sweet paprika
3 Tbsp. sesame oil

In a food processor, blend chickpeas, lemon/lime juice, and 4 T olive oil. Add garlic,spices, and sesame oil. Blend to a smooth paste.  If  too dry, add more olive oil a little at a time until dip is desired texture. Serve chilled.