Outpost 505

Photo by The She-Creature
This photo reasonably approximates the state of our fridge right now, except with no eggs or cream cheese and a lot more beer and condiments, plus bags of carrots and onions from the garden tucked away in the crisper. No leftovers, save a half cup of cooked wheat berries. Replace [...]

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Photo by sysadmnling
We’re leaving for vacation on Wednesday, so I harvested aggressively on Saturday to minimize the inevitable waste from a week-or-so of neglect. This resulted in nine pounds of tomatoes, six plus pounds of potatoes, a beautiful orange pepper, and a giant bag of kale, among other things that were tossed in the [...]

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I am so very disappointed that my photos from tonight’s dinner didn’t turn out.  Janet, among others, has been on me for months to improve my use of our DSLR, and tonight’s photos illustrate her point – I have a great deal to learn and, perhaps more importantly, remember.
Since I have no usable photos, I’ll [...]

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First, I am officially throwing in the towel on no-knead bread.  If the last attempt was a mess, the loaf I made tonight was an all-out disaster.  The dough stuck to the mixing bowl.  It stuck to the floured silpat mat and did its best to ooze off all sides of the mat, resulting in [...]

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So last night I was reminded of one thing I really, really hate about the Midwest: the late summer/early fall allergies.  Last night’s allergy attack was the worst I can recall having since high school, when there were mornings where I woke up and had to stumble blindly to the bathroom for a warm washcloth [...]

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I’ll be honest with you: it is difficult to remain disciplined in your healthy eating when you encounter something like this:

That’s a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, made for us by my boss, and served with chocolate and also vanilla ice cream at a small party in our honor.  I tried to be virtuous.  I [...]

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We were both starving after work, so while Shane was hassled by a door-to-door salesperson about our choice in internet providers, I popped a BBQ chicken pizza from Trader Joe’s into the freezer and boiled a couple of ears of corn from the market.  I don’t recall when I first learned that [...]

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I brought home another five pounds of tomatoes from the garden on Sunday.  The Romas were set aside for roasting and for last night’s goulash, but the rest went into a small but fantastic batch of pasta sauce:

They simmered and sweat away in our big stock pot until the juice rendered out, then I ran [...]

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I’m not exaggerating when I say that I planned my entire day around this meal.  See, I’d planned on making this for dinner on Sunday night – a dish that requires 3 hours in the oven is just not feasible for the average worknight, but is totally doable on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  When Shane [...]

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So you know about the No-Knead Bread, right?  You know the one everyone’s been talking about since 2006?  Stephen made it.  Megan made it and has a whole photo set to prove it.  Laurie made an incredible-looking loaf.  Shana said it’s the only bread she makes.  The photos of Carrie’s bread are amazing.  Rex’s [...]

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