Parmesan Garlic Popcorn

A couple of months ago, I posted that I had no idea how to make popcorn.  It was true.  I grew up with an electric popper, something like this, and then we graduated to microwave popcorn sometime in my teens.  However, microwave popcorn isn't exactly food, and while there are home-made microwavy alternatives, I wanted to do it right, on the stovetop.


I was worried that my pots wouldn't work for it, but that's what The Google* is for.   I actually searched out my particular brand and style of pot, with the word "popcorn," and found enough reviews with folks raving about how awesome these pots were for making popcorn to make me feel comfortable. 

Buying Club 2011 - The Goods - Week 13

I skipped two weeks.  Not of getting food, but of telling you what I got.  I didn't get anything revolutionary.


This week I got spinach and spring mix from Rineer Family Farms in Lancaster County.  Huge carrots and red onions from Landisdale Farm in Lebanon County.  And 'shrooms from Mother Earth Organic in Chester County.  I'm just not feeling squash these days and there's not a lot of veg left out there. 

And bacon from Forrest Acres Farm in Lancaster (no website) and milk... I clicked the wrong button for the second week in a row and got tiny milk - from Maplehofe Dairy in Lancaster County and FreshaPeel Hummus which I think is here in the city. 

I got a ton of tofu from Fresh Tofu in Allentown.

And a giant ass can of Jersey Fresh tomatoes.  I put a shot glass next to it for scale.  That's 6.5 pounds of tomatoes.  I'm making sauce. 

I got chickpeas and jalepeno jelly and dried tomatoes and catnip (!) from Margerum's.

So, of course, since we were having leftovers for dinner, we tried out the catnip. 

It was a hit.  Even the little one, who's far too skittish for action photos, got into it.

Oniony Brisket

My friend Laura was here last week, and she said, "I like that your blog is sort of vegetarian, even though it isn't."  And so I cooked meat.  There is another picture of meat here (nearly the same as above) but no process pics of raw meat, so read on at your own risk.


We were pawing through the food list for the buying club a few weeks ago, and looking at meat and I was like, "Oh, I could order a brisket."


I've never ordered a brisket before.   I've never cooked a brisket before.  The closest I've come to such a thing was several years ago, at a friend's mom's house for "Latkefest," which is in the fall and thus likely coincides with a holiday, eating her brisket and then repeating the recipe over and again out loud to prove I had learned it.  When I got back home, all I could remember was to use an onion soup mix packet.  So years passed.

Feta Vinaigrette

We're dangerously close to a year since I started Saturday's Mouse.  This might be where I get all introspective and goofy.  I haven't posted as much this month as I have in the past, and it's not for any reason other than I haven't had food to share with you.  We eat, but when it's me taking weird bits of leftovers out of the freezer and recompiling them into new meals, it's not going to do you any good if I tell you about it.  You most likely don't have a pint of pre-existing enchilada sauce in the freezer, and you probably don't have one lonely jar of onion soup left over to cook the brisket in (yeah, I cooked brisket).  


Also, I quit drinking coffee for no good reason other than I could, and I typically write this in the mornings.  


I'll get it together soon.  Until then, more salad dressing.  This one isn't even mine.  I got it from David Lebovitz and he got it from The Joy of Cooking.  So creamy, so good, and of course, super easy.  My version is adapted slightly for increased tanginess.  I like tanginess. 

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

I played with a lot of different names for this, but the reality is, it's honey mustard dressing.  It's not thick, creamy, guilt-laden dressing though.  It's light and made of food, and it's tangy and sweet and zesty and everything you need to brighten up a lazy salad (mine is just lettuce and onion).  It's fat-free, if that's your game.  Phrases like "Light honey mustard salad dressing," and "Fat-free honey mustard salad dressing" sound like they refer to a dressing with something missing.  This one isn't missing anything. 

This is the go-to dressing at Saturday's Mouse HQ.  I make a few others, but they're more complicated than three ingredients in a jar.  Two minutes from plain lettuce to salad. 

Measuring and Stealing ideas

When I'm making dinner and writing about it, and I tell you to add a quarter cup of this or a half cup of that or 2 oz of cheese, it's because either I threw it into the bowl and then thought, "Oh, I need to figure out how much that is so I can tell people," or it's because I thought ahead and measured out the amount of stuff I wanted to use, just for the purpose of writing it down here.  Everything I make, other than bread and the few other baked goods that originate in my kitchen, is by feel or guess, or smell.  I don't measure, in real life.*


Measurement is why I'm not much into baking.  Bread seems forgiving.  Sometimes you need to add more flour, but my cakes don't turn out and I'm just not that precise.  I'm a cook, not a baker.   

Buying Club 2011 - The Goods - Week 10

This is a weird week.  I ordered the wrong stuff.  Horray for the freezer. 

Sausage and Peppers and Potatoes

I didn't know what to call this, it just doesn't sound like me.


We were ordering food from the buying club a few weeks ago and Sous Chef Brian was all, "I could go for some sausage," and I was all, "Ew."  And then he was all, "If there was a sausage you'd eat, what kind would it be?" And I stared at the list of foods on the website and I said, hesitantly, "When I was a kid, I liked kielbasa."

Kale Salad with Strawberries and Candied Walnuts

I'm not over kale salad yet.   

I'm worried that kale season might be over, as it wasn't offered in my buying club this go-round and typically there are two producers offering kale.  


What will I do this winter?

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I've been lax about making bread.  November - January is so busy anyway, I haven't been making the time.  I very intentionally don't order bread through my buying club, because I'm planning on making it myself, and then I don't and everything is on a tortilla.   Just the other day I went to the supermarket for fruit and a couple of staples and I was drawn in by the bread and bought some sandwich rolls, since I knew I wasn't going to make them this week.  

Well, it's a new year. Let's make some bread.  Not just bread, either, let's make some sweet and warm and cinnamony bread. 

This recipe makes three loaves, which I think is perfect because you get one to freeze, one to give away and one for right now.   If you don't have three loaf pans, do cut down the recipe. 

Happy New Year!

Good morning.  Today is about Sodastream seltzer with whatever fruit we have on hand in it.  Also, hiding from Mummers.