Failure: Roasted Green Tomatoes

This soup was an utter failure. 

I roasted a bunch of green tomatoes, thinking I could salvage them from the fall garden. I'd make roasted green tomato soup like this one from Fresh Bites Daily and maybe a salsa verde sauce. In went the roasted green tomatoes and poblanos and garlic. Added some cream. Cooked and pureed and made a general mess of the place. Here's what it looked like with some basil:

Not too shabby looking and...it tasted like crap. Bitter and vaguely metallic, maybe even a tad caustic. That's when I found this post from Jolene George of The Oregonian. Check it out for some guidelines about using them before you launch Operation: Strip Garden Bare like I did. 

One of the main things about roasting these buggers is don't use the small ones. And what had I used? In my strange zeal to extract as much as possible out of our garden, oh yes, I'd used the small ones.

Now it lives in our compost bucket, we know better, and we had a frozen pizza and brownies for dinner.

And it's good for me to be reminded that failures are things we can learn and grow from. 

Chipmunk Love?

It's kinda like "Muskrat Love" without the unseemly overtones. (That scene from Arrested Development still makes me laugh my patootie off.

In all seriousness, it was an eventful morning. I attended the initial meeting for getting food stamps (Quest/FoodShare...call it what you want...food stamps is easier to remember) and job training. After I got back, I puttered in my balcony garden. I was just wrapping up to come inside, hit the potty, and eat something when Barty chased a trapped chipmunk into my tiny kitchen. After trying to coax the poor dear into a tea box from the recycling bag nearby to get it back outside (and not getting bitten in the bargain), I locked B. in the bathroom (nearest spot w/ a closing door...thanks, open floor plan! ;)) and scurried back, only to discover that Miss Saffy had taken care of the situation. Pretty sure she broke its back in her jaws, but maybe it was only in shock. Dunno. I took it outside and deposited it in one of the protected flower beds. Oof. That's enough excitement of that particular nature of excitement for today.

Going to plant some more stuff that chipmunks—and mosquitoes, and other critters—don't like to try to avoid another episode.

Real Kitchens

I was going to take a photo of my maddeningly cluttered kitchen counter top for this snapshot/post, but I gave up. This speaks to a larger issue in my life. I've tired of putting things away (laundry, dishes) and documenting every bloody thing with images, videos, and text (that is, blogging, as we know it). Those activities, in and of themselves, are not cumbersome or annoying or time-consuming; when it comes to messing around with putting away schtuff or taking time to find the perfect filter or light for an image, you've lost me. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but words are, and always have been, powerful. I'm going back to getting words on the page. Period.

Close your eyes. Imagine what a real (amateur/"self-taught") cook's kitchen, with very limited counter space, looks like. You're there.

Lake Trout in the Desert: Steenbock's on Orchard

Steenbock's on Orchard, one of Food Fight's Lilliputian (not so much) empire, is okay. Just okay. It's a nice, if a bit sterile (all see-through glass/plastic panels), dining environment, but T. and I were greatly disappointed with our food.

Plus, I'm still not thrilled about Food Fight's refusal to forfeit its Wisconsin Restaurant Association membership during the protests, even though the WRA contributed to the Walker administration. To employ a very bad pun, it put a bad taste in my mouth.

To the food! I had the lake trout piccata. Lake trout, itself, is already a very oily fish (and packed with omega-3s like DHA and EPA!), so I'm not sure why you'd go the piccata route. Une petite leçon about piccata: The word piccata is the Italian feminine version of piccato, which means "larded." That's right, larded. So it’s food that’s been sliced and sautéed and then served with a sauce of lemon, butter, and spices.

Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money

This is an oldie that was clamoring to be released from the drafts folder so it could be a real post (like Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy!).

Today's brekkie choice: Coconut Bliss' Mocha Maca Crunch with fresh blueberries. It's soothing the sore throat that persists despite my best efforts to heal it. 

In a moment, I'll head out for my neck adjustment with the extraordinary Ann Metzler of Zelm Chiropractic in McFarland. Being rear-ended two weeks ago did a number on my neck, so I'm trying to re-align it. If you need or want a chiropractor, I highly recommend Ms. Ann. She works at Zelm Chiropractic and is always up on new research and alternative methods of healing. They have offices in McFarland and Stoughton.

Queen Pee

My official title these days is the Queen of Cat Pee Clean-up. Saffron's on a pee spree. My arsenal in this human-feline battle is Nature's Miracle Advanced formula enzymatic cleaner. It works on floors, furniture, bedding, and in laundry. I've done so much of the latter recently that I'm considering attaching laundress to my list of personal skills. If only I could make money from cat pee. I'd be extraordinarily wealthy. Mine also came with a tiny black light to detect the elusive spots.

To repel kittehs from urinating on stuff, citrus is also supposed to help. A few other things to try:

• check with your vet if there's a health issue causing urination outside of the box
• completely clean and replenish the litterboxes
• make sure the kit kats like the litter you're using
• try different kinds of litterboxes (e.g., covered, uncovered, large, small)
• experiment w/ alternate locations (Sometimes cats feel trapped or want them in two separate rooms. I simply moved my two litterboxes apart in the same room, and that seemed to do the trick.)

Sinful Chicken Skin

KBC

Chicken skin bao

Sue Collins

Elise and I tried Sujeo, one of Tory Miller's new offerings. The name signifies the traditional Korean placement of the chopsticks and spoon, but the menu isn't exclusively Korean. It bills itself as pan-Asian.

We indulged in not just the chicken skin bao (buns), but also the KBC (Korean Broasted Chicken). Yes, we are gluttons. I had the Sue Collins with vodka instead of gin because the Rica's palate abhors gin. The bao were heavenly, but really, how can you go wrong with chicken skin? Add some marinated cucumbers, Kewpie mayonnaise*, and sweet chili sauce, and resistance is futile. While I usually find boa too doughy and undercooked, these were somehow lighter. The KBC was delicious, and the kimchi cucumbers were crisp and refreshing.

*Smoother and creamier than regular mayonnaise, Kewpie mayo replaces distilled vinegar the rice variety. First introduced to Japan in 1925, it's insanely popular there.

Mash-up

This is a mash-up from last year: Halloween, Thanksgiving, an autumn visit home, and a handful of other get-togethers. (I forgot to post it when it was originally written.)

Max Fischer from Rushmore and Maggie the Cat from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

At home over Thanksgiving

Lombardino's with Laura

I'm still playing catch-up from fall. These pics are from a dinner at Lombardino's with Ms. L. For my taste, the tricolore salad would've been better without the bleu cheese, but that makes sense because it's not my favorite. It was grand, however, to have more exotic greens: radicchio, frisée, and escarole.

tricolore salad

Autumn Visit Home

In the fall, I visited home, and we went to a hoedown at one of the local apple orchards. We also hiked at Perrot State Park and got hopelessly lost. (They changed the route of our favorite, the Ridge Trail.)

Happy Birthday to Me!

at Lombardino's

For my birthday, I went out for Indian at the Taj with Crystal and Jason, had dinner at Lombardino's with Jim and Mike, and had a swanky deluxe pedicare at AniU Salon and Spa (thanks, Laura!). I completely indulged myself at the Taj, and ordered the orechiette with Fraboni's sausage and rapini, and I must say that the pedicure has been the longest lasting one I've ever had.

My pedicure

Laura's pedicure