I was quite busy this past weekend and now I'm exhausted! Unfortunately, the work week has begun and I can't relax just yet. I know today is Valentine's Day, but I made our Valentine's Day dinner yesterday since I had more time to prep and cook. Beyond the v-day preparations, I also did other things in the kitchen. I basically slaved in the kitchen all weekend.
On Saturday, I had set up my sewing machine in the kitchen and spent a good chunk of time hemming 3 pairs of my hubby's pants. They were already pinned to where they need to be shortened so I needed to measure how much to cut, finish the raw edge and blind stitch the hem. Of course, there was ironing involved in between. It was rather time consuming, but in the end, I'm glad it was done by me rather than to pay 20 bux per pant to get someone else to do it.
I also spent a good chunk of Saturday washing, prepping and blanching food to be frozen. Broccoli and cauliflower were on sale so I got two heads of each. We only eat about half a head each time, so I needed to blanch and freeze all the cauliflower and 1.5 heads of broccoli. I started doing them on Saturday, but didn't finish until Sunday.
On Sunday, I made a version of buckeye balls, which are chocolate-covered peanut butter balls. You can find the recipe here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/bourbon-blinders/
I used oreo cookie crumbs rather than graham cracker crumbs. The result was that it was more chocolaty than peanut buttery. I think I will try it next time without the cookie crumbs at all. I'll probably leave out the alcohol as well since I can't taste it at all. My hubby has kept these in the freezer because he likes his chocolate covered peanut butter candies (like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) in the freezer.
For our entree, I made these:
http://www.theppk.com/2010/11/doublebatch-chickpea-cutlets/
I highly recommend this recipe. It turned out delicious! I would, however, lessen the amount of soy sauce called for.next time. This is probably because I used seasoned bread crumbs rather than plain bread crumbs because I didn't have any plain bread crumbs. I'll have to keep this in mind for next time.
While the hubby worked on the mashed potatoes, I also made an easy gravy. Melt some butter, or heat up some oil in the fry pan and add some flour. Just a tablespoon or two of each, depending on how much gravy you want to make. Cook the flour for a few minutes to get the flour taste out. Then add vegetable broth and mix together. Add a little at a time to get the consistency you want. Remember that this will thicken a little more as it cools. I like to use unsalted vegetable broth, so if your gravy needs salting, add some salt or soy sauce to taste. You can also add other flavorings such as oyster sauce or BBQ sauce. Just remember not to add too much. You can always add more but you can't take away.
I had also made a batch of veggie soup out of leftover veggies, but we didn't get a chance to have some. I make a batch of leftover veggie soup almost every week now. Sometimes I'll drain the liquids for freezing and sometimes I don't. Either way, after it's cooked in the crock pot for a number of hours, I'll take my immersion blender and puree the whole thing. I don't add salt until I'm ready to blend so I can freeze the veggie stock unsalted. To make your soup creamy, you can always add milk or cream and/or a good melting cheese like finely grated parmesan.
Sorry, I didn't take pictures. The meal turned out beautifully and it was really delicious! So I had a little bit of everything for lunch today as leftovers. Yum!
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