Tuesday Things

1. When I got home from the gym last night, I had an unshakable desire to bake some bread. So I did, and miracle of miracles, it actually rose! Not like my previous attempt during the winter. I’m thinking that putting the starter in the sunshine to prove may have had something to do with it.

2. Then I ate Nutella straight out of the jar. True story: I only discovered the existence of the glory that is Nutella when I went backpacking in Europe when I was 20. Why was this beautiful thing not a part of my life before then?! Mom, I’m looking at you!

3. Speaking of Mom, I found myself dancing around the kitchen, snapping and singing along to Michael Buble just like she does. I actually thought I was my mother for a moment, like an out-of-body experience, it was weird. I kept on cooking anyway.

4. For dinner I made a recipe out of Dish magazine that looked and sounded amazing in theory, but in practice it was little more than aromatic yogurt-covered chicken with cashews thrown in for fun. And I totally followed the recipe this time, so it’s not my fault that it wasn’t great. But it really makes me wonder about recipes in magazines – how many are actually trialled? Is that the way the chicken is supposed to taste? Who decides that a recipe is actually good?

5. I need a Dutch Oven. Not that kind of Dutch Oven – ew, get your mind out of the gutter! – but the cast-iron enamel-coated kind. I need a Dutch Oven like I need my coffee in the morning. Desperate need. I keep seeing mouth-watering recipes that use Dutch Ovens over on the Pioneer Woman Cooks, like this one for Pork Roast, and I’m just dying to make them. But the Le Creuset Fairy hasn’t yet seen fit to visit my house.

6. We watched a show called ‘Wild Mongolia’ on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night and our cat Spice loved it. She watched every minute of it. Her favourite scenes were the ones with the little meerkat-like rodents running around and popping out of their burrows, she went batsh!t crazy for them – jumped right up on the TV stand and tried to catch them, and even tried looking behind the TV for them. I don’t know who the show was more entertaining for – us or the cat.

Look - sheep!!

What are those funny sheep doing?

They have camels too?!

7. Behold the Ugli Fruit of New Zealand. It’s kind of a cross between a grapefruit and a very juice orange.  I was absolutely astounded by it and had to buy one just to see what it tasted like.

It's seriously ugli, but not really all that ugly.  Confusion abounds!

8. I have eaten asparagus pizza four times in the past two weeks. I may start sprouting asparagus shoots soon.  Have I mentioned that Jonno makes some killer pizza crust??

9. As part of Apple-Gate 2011, I made applesauce like Mom used to make after a trip to the orchard and cooked up some filling for a future apple crumble. However there is still a bowl full of apples occupying my counter, and I’ve already made two apple cakes, so I need a new vehicle through which to dispose of my extraneous apples. HALP!!!

10. When making the aforementioned applesauce, I did not skin my apples. Big. Mistake. I spent probably an hour trying to fish the skins out of the cooked-down applesauce and used at least three different utensils in my efforts. There is no best way to fish out the skins, the only way to eliminate them before they become part of the applesauce. Like, seriously guys, why did no one tell me this? Mom?

11. I’ve been appealing to Mommy lots recently, and in a little over a month, I get to see her for the first time since I got married!! And Daddy and Seester too! Jonno and I are skiving off to spend four weeks in the States, including Christmas. Christmas in the cold again, woo hoo!!!! It’s been three years of warm Christmases so far, and I really can’t get into it. My body won’t let me feel like it’s Christmas unless it’s frickin freezing outside and you have to bake copious amounts of diet-unfriendly foods in order to keep warm.

12.  I wish my kitchen wasn't so freakin yellow.  It causes all of my photos that are taken at night to turn out with a yellowish tinge, and I'm not fancy enough to own a lightbox setup, or even a DSLR camera for that matter.  It's just me and my iPhone, making yellow pictures!

If you've made it to the end of this post, thank you for your patience!  Sometimes I just like to ramble and show off my kitties and asparagus pizza.