This is from 2 weeks ago that didn’t post properly. Geez.
We did a lot of baking yesterday. I had a bagful of persimmons (the Fuyu variety, which are firm and can be eaten like an apple) but they were starting to get softer. I also had some apples that were getting a bit wrinkly. I cut up the apples and the firm persimmons and made a crumble, with oatmeal and cinnamon on top. Had some last night with vanilla ice cream on top (Dreyer’s Grand, locally made — AKA Edy’s Grand in other parts of the country).
With the softer persimmons, I pureed them and made a batch of muffins (now in the freezer) — used a banana bread recipe, added raisins and grated some orange peel into the batter — yum. Then I made a cake with the rest of the batter, using a “Prune Spice Cake” recipe from my gma’s old cookbook. I wrapped that and may take it to the fire station tomorrow. Otherwise we’ll just eat it.
I cooked up dried black beans and boiled a bunch of potatoes, cooking ahead for the week (for black bean tostadas, salade nicoise). I also pulled some of our own green beans out of the freezer and rinsed them, tossing them in a vinaigrette with shallots. The potatoes, shallots and garlic were from the farmers’ market, courtesy of Foster Daughter. I’m talking about 3-4 varieties of thin-skinned potatoes — some purple, some yellow, some red, some white, boiled with a couple of cloves of garlic. Smelled so good!
Mr Husband wanted to cook dinner, which generally means slabs of dead animal flesh, and he got a bit fancy on us and whipped up a mango-papaya salsa to go on top of the grilled flank steak. None of that was local or organic but at least I didn’t have to cook it. However, he pooped out on side dishes, so I quickly “smashed” some of the boiled potatoes in a fry pan with some butter, salt, pepper and my dried sage, and put the marinated green beans on the table. That and the crumble dessert fed 7 of us last night. Good stuff. Leftover steak and potatoes made a good breakfast for the rest of the crew this morning.
Daughter #2 made cookies for the week, I hung out laundry, finished my scrap-yarn afghan that I’ve been crocheting (it’s a large granny square and very groovy indeed). Then I went back to work on the bed-socks/booties that Daughter #4 wanted that didn’t get finished before Christmas. These are hideously purple and green, her color picks, and then her sisters and assorted boyfriends chimed in and now everyone wants a pair. I said they could have the yarn choices I already have in the basket or bring me their own yarn/colors. If they bring the yarn, no problem.
I also spent a little time working on the practice sock I’m knitting (w/ tutorial from about.com) to learn how to make socks. May I just say, four needle are a lot to handle at any one time. And that’s all I’m sayin. I’m just sayin.
Last of all, Compact-wise, I took a bike ride around the neighborhood and over to the nursery to check out prices of lemon trees and other bare roots — I eschewed the bareroots at Costco, and instead will sell one of my children to pay for a lemon tree at the local nursery.
If I can get that much for a used kid.