Not my best idea

Deliberately clean one thing (a room, drawer, shelf, etc.) for a month - it doesn't sound like a lofty goal, but I completely underestimated my hatred of cleaning. While I knew my aversion to chasing after dust bunnies was strong, I apparently didn't know its depths. (On the bright side, I gained a bit of personal insight this month.)

Despite my lack of enthusiasm I believe I cleaned at least one thing each day, but at times it seemed as if I was just attempting to keep the clutter from taking over. I had grandiose visions of cleaning out the office, mopping the floors each week, finally unpacking a couple of boxes that have sat on a shelf for the past 2.5 years. Unfortunately February looked more like a cycle of cleaning bathrooms, washing dishes, taking out the recycling, etc... and I still have a stack of insurance papers sitting on the piano (which needs a good dusting) from a meeting two weeks ago. Even though it wasn't that great of a month goal-wise, I think I'll return to this goal again later in the year...perhaps when I don't have so much school work to tie up my evenings and weekends.

Moving on to March's goal - write a letter (snail-mail style) to one person every day. The count so far:
3/1 - Tiffany
3/2 - Good News Cards from school to 4 students

Dinner for a month - Week 4

1/23 Poultry Pasta Primavera - This was a passable dish. The flavor was decent, but the best part was the vegetables. We had a great red pepper and some very nice broccoli that really made the dish work. I wish I had taken a picture of it, because it was one of the most attractive dishes I made this month.

1/24 Dressed up Lima Beans - James hates lima beans, but the recipe noted that some of the most admit lima bean haters had changed their minds after eating them "dressed up." James must be the exception to this; he noted that they were "Meh." I thought they were OK, but I think I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to lima beans - just slather them with butter and a dash of salt and its good to go.

1/25 Dinner at church

1/26 Cauliflower-broccoli pizza crust - This is a "must make" for anyone who has seen the recipe on pinterest. I changed it just a bit by adding a bit of broccoli and it was really enjoyable. Don't expect to pick up a piece of the pizza and eat it like normal; this is a crust that needs a fork. However, the flavor makes up for the eating style. ( I firmly believe that pizza was meant to be eating with one's hands...perhaps that it why I enjoy a thin crust and not deep dish.)

1/27 Dinner out

1/28 Bake apples - I used another recipe off pinterest for this one at Tiffany's request. It was a bit labor intensive, but other than that it was an extremely easy recipe. The flavor was good, but I think I would like more crust than just the little lattice top (which I found quite a challenge to make). James would say I need to practice this a bit...perhaps because he always wants me to make more pies.

1/29 Seasame Scallion dressing - A nice dressing for salad, but different salad items would be a good idea than the ones we used. I threw a tossed salad together, but it didn't pair as nicely with the dressing as well as I would have liked. I might try this dressing as a marinade for grilled chicken sometime.

1/30 Spicy Cajun Shrimp and Apple Tarts - The shrimp (or "shrimps" as Mom would say) had a great flavor - just enough spice with a splash of buttery lemon. We served it with rice, but the recipe recommended it with crusty french bread for cleaning up the sauce. This would be something fun to serve for a big summer family gathering. The apple tarts were just thrown together to use up some apple mash (which I made to extract the juice from an apple for the seasame scallion dressing the day before) and a little leftover pie crust. They were fine, but I didn't bother to write down what I had done.

1/31 Spicy honey glazed chicken - This recipe would be ideal of grilling, but we used the griddle on the stove (with great results). My only complaint was that the sauce never truly carmelized, which would definitely happen on our grill. It starts with a great rub, and is followed with a honey-vinegar glaze. The author of the recipe noted that leftovers of this make a great chicken salad the following day. James said this was his favorite recipe from the this month.

For February the challenge has changed - instead of cooking, it's cleaning. My goal is to clean one thing at home each day. This could be one drawer, one room, or one set of laundry or dishes. I have a tendency to put cleaning off until the weekend and then find a good chunk of my weekend taken up by cleaning; so I thought I'd see if the Danny Tanner method (I seem to remember that Full House character cleaning something every day) would work for me.

Dinner for a month - Weeks 2 and 3

1/9 Chicken Kiev with roasted cauliflower, bacon, and pepperjack cheese - I liked this one a lot, but James found the cauliflower a bit "weird".

1/10 Cornmeal raspberry pancakes and spiced hot chocolate - The pancakes were wonderful, but the spiced hot chocolate wasn't too appealing. Due to not having the specific ingredients on hand, the substitutes left the recipe with a lot to be desired. I would be willing to try it again, if I had vanilla bean on hand and the correct chilies.

1/11 Dinner at church

1/12 Pretzel crusted pork tenderloin and grated potato pancakes - The tenderloin was alright, but nothing like the pretzel crusted pork chop I had a my gourmet dinner club that I was attempting to "channel" with the dinner. I do intend to make the potato pancakes again, perhaps with an Irish inspired meal around St. Patrick's day.

1/13 Baked Onions - This was a Paula D. recipe and it was alright. It had the flavor of french onion soup, but the salt content was a little overpowering. I'd make it again with some minor adjustments.

1/14 French omelet with mushrooms and mozzarella filling - I definitely prefer a regular 'ol omelet to the french. Something about the consistency - a bit runnier - did not sit well with my stomach.

1/15 Pickle roll appetizers - We tried this simple appetizer recipe for small group last Sunday mainly because the children of our leaders love pickles. These were nothing special, but they were incredibly easy to make and the kids loved them.

1/16 Ham hock soup with homegrown black beans and Fruit Platz (made with cherries from our trees) - It was fun to cook a meal using ingredients from this year's garden and both recipes turned out well. The soup had a nice flavor, and an interested purple tint due to the beans. Also, the fruit platz (an old Russian Mennonite recipe) turned out well and the texture held up decently during multiple reheatings over the next couple of days.

1/17 Creamy Cesar dressing and black cows - We had quite a few left overs that we decided to clean up with a side salad and black cows (cola floats). We didn't have any anchovy paste for the dressing, but I liked the flavor without it just fine.

1/18 Dinner at church

1/19 Lemon rosemary chicken with potatoes - This was an incredibly easy recipe, which turned out great. The chicken was very moist and flavorful, and James even loved the lemon-rosemary flavor with the potatoes.

1/20 Lemon "Puppy" Chow - This was a hit at small group, but I don't ever plan on making it again. The chocolate version is much better. However, if you like lemon bars, you might enjoy this easy treat.

1/21 Baked cheese sticks - Think Wisconsin Cheese sticks, but slightly healthier (baked; not fried). A nice marinara sauce would have been good with these.

1/22 Baked cavetelli and roasted green beans - The cavetelli had to be substituted for macaroni, but the recipe didn't take too much of a hit with the substitution. Overall the pasta was decent, but nothing too unfamiliar. The green beans however are worth making! These beans were mixed with onions, tossed with garlic, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, and then baked at 400 degrees for 15 min. (stirring around the 10 min. mark). If you're looking for a different and easy side dish, I'd give this a try.

Dinner for a month - Week 1

I was hoping to have more photo documentation of the new recipes we've tried this week, but some of them were much more appetizing (photo-wise) than others.

1/1 Imitation Mimi's Cafe Carrot Bread with Raisins and Almonds and wassail (though it was an old recipe!)- Very moist, but a bit too dense.


1/2 Taco Lasagna - This needed a layer of rice and a topping of broken chips to be enjoyable.
1/3 Imitation Pf Chang's Orange Peel Chicken - The breading on the chicken did not hold up during the "toss in sauce" stage, but it had a nice flavor.

1/4 - Dinner at church

1/5 - Crumb Topped Cauliflower (to go with a roast James made) - A great flavor (onion, lemon, and a bit of parsley in the crumb topping), but the topping didn't "stick" very well with the cauliflower; so the textures didn't mix that well. A decent side dish that will make it to the table again.

1/6 - French Vinaigrette Dressing - This was used on a nice salad with cauliflower, carrots, and mushrooms. We needed something easy and "new" while we finished off the week's leftovers.

1/7 - Gourmet Dinner Club Night - I was assigned something I've made before, but in my defense it was a new recipe for stuffed mushrooms. They were OK; I wasn't wild about the addition of parsley to the recipe, though I did enjoy the dusting of paprika on top. I most likely will go back to my original recipe.

1/8 - Mushroom Pasta and Hot Fudge Pudding - The pasta was very similar to stroganoff, though I was hoping for more of an Alfredo taste. The pudding (from a new copy of an old cookbook my mom had from 1957) had a nice consistency and flavor, but I would have enjoyed it more had we coupled it with a dish of ice cream.

An attempt

New Year's resolutions never last with me, but I thought I would come up with a smaller goal and build upon that. Not too long ago I watched a movie about a girl who cooks through the Julia C. cookbook in a year (I think it was Julie&Julia or something like that) and decided that I would try cooking a new meal every day - not for a year, but for a smaller, more manageable bit of time. So my attempt at a New Year's resolution is to make a new recipe for every dinner for a month (barring the nights we eat at a friend's, with extended family, or out).

Any one else care to join me?

Projects for break

1. finalize dates for trip, contact family friends in Europe, begin making plans for the European trip (thanks for the feedback)
2. make coaster sets
3. re-purpose a pair of jeans into skinny jeans
4. make a tube scarf from fabric found in my (very tiny) fabric stash
5. clean "casket room" and turn it into an office (perhaps paint it?)/turn current office into "spare bedroom"
6. work on roman shades for dinning room

To me this sounds like a relaxing time, but lately anything outside of my job sounds like a relaxing time...

Need a little help here

Calling all cousins! (Too bad there isn't a cousin beacon like the batman signal.)

James and I are planning on attending my host-sister's wedding near Stuttgart this coming summer and are looking for a little European travel advice. By the way we're planning on traversing through three countries - Germany, Switzerland, and France - if all works out and we're able to make a couple of connections with family friends. We're starting to check travel sites and are wondering about car rental vs. rail passes. I love public transportation, but enjoy the freedom of hopping in a car and heading out without worrying about schedules (which seems very American of me for some reason...). Yet there are pros and cons of both. Just curious if anyone has an opinion or advice to share.