Holy Guacamole!

My landlord recently had a party in which one of the attendees gave her avocados from her yard. Unfortunately my landlord can't eat them. So she gave them to me.

Behold: the most giant avocado I've ever had:

It weighed in at 1 pound, 3.5 ounces.  I was super excited about cutting this giant fruit open.

Slightly disappointing, to see how big that pit was.  I thought it would be much smaller, meaning much more avocado yummyness.

The thing was huge!  All by itself, the pit weighed nearly 5 ounces.

As of right now it is still sitting on my counter.  I'm debating planting it.

Mmm. Guacamole!  Just under 2 cups, all from one avocado.  It took much restraint, but I managed to get the container in the fridge after only two chip dips to check for flavor.  Then I made peanut butter ice cream.  Now I'm thinking I'll head back into the kitchen to make some strawberry frozen yogurt.

Onion Bacon Bread

So really, there was no bacon.  But I have a nearly full jar of bacon grease in the fridge just begging to being used.  And I figured, if the recipe called for butter or margarine, bacon fat would work just fine.  Turns out I was almost right.  The bread ball was a little on the dry side, and I ended up adding a bit more water to help pull it all together.  Here is what came out of the machine when it gave the "all done" beep:

This was actually the first loaf that didn't over rise.

Nice even texture on the inside, and the loaf didn't try to collapse from the sides when I cut it up.

Mmmm, bread.  Here is my recipe:

Onion bread:
1 cup water (plus a bit on the side to add in if necessary)
2 T bacon grease (room temperature)
1 T onion flakes
1 t sugar
1 T paprika (next time I will leave this out)
1 1/2 t salt
3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 1/4 t yeast

Throw it all in the bread machine, put on white, 1 1/2 lb loaf, medium crust, and let it go.  I checked after it had been running for 5 minutes to see if it needed more water or flour, and it needed about 1 t more water.  I think using dried onion flakes and the paprika made for a drier dough.  Next time I'll skip the paprika though, it didn't add a noticeable flavor.  Neither did the bacon grease, but it did smell nice.  Garlic powder on the other hand might be an improvement.

Little Kid Dinner

One day at Costco, my inner 9 year-old was really loud.  It lead to the purchase of Yummy Dino Buddies, or chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs.  They cook up crispy and tasty on my small stoneware pan.

One day at Target, Doug's inner 9 year-old was really loud.  He found Toy Story Macaroni and Cheese (kinda hard to make out the shapes, but it was Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Buzz's Spaceship, and Aliens):

Together they make a fantastic Little Kid Dinner:

Stoneware and Coffee

Really, these two have little to do with each other.  Except for maybe they make me reminisce my kitchen in Colorado and the availability of dark coffee.

I was very excited about shipping my belongings from Seattle to Hawaii.  Even more so for the kitchen stuff.  In college when I'd get money for gifts or manage to save a bit, I splurged on kitchen things.  Some of my favorites were my stoneware pans.

Yesterday I found out that the two bigger pieces don't fit.  My oven is too small.  I wondered about the bar pan a few weeks ago when I got it unpacked.  Last night I thought oven fries would make an excellent side dish.  Good thing I checked on the size situation before I started cutting potatoes.  Sure, I have a regular cookie sheet, but oven fries are just better off of stone.  So is bread and pizza.

And since I'm already in the mood for pouting over my oven's inability to use my stoneware, may as well continue on with my desire for decent coffee.  When I first arrived in Hawaii, I thought the Kona coffee was pretty cool.  Something different, something neat.  Then the novelty wore off.  And I noticed that for the most part, "Kona" coffee is typically a blend, with only 10% of the beans actually being Kona.  And it is mass produced.  So who knows how long ago it was actually made and ground before it made it to the shelf.  That, and the fact that I can never get it to brew as dark as I would like, make me miss the coffee roasters in my college town.  Too bad neither of the companies I shopped the most ship.

Just Go With It

I was trying to come up with something quick to make for dinner, and thought sliced sausage with some pasta would do it. Not really sure what I was thinking when I thought I could cut raw sausage into slices, but obviously, it did not work. Instead of stopping though, I decided just to go with it, and squeezed out the sausage from the casings.

Casings are pretty sorry looking things once you take out the good stuff.  I have no idea what these are made of, but I don't think they are animal parts.  Slimy little things that are best tossed in the trash.

The sausage once it had been freed.  Kinda squeezed out like toothpaste.

My homemade sauce, straight from the freezer.  Back when I made the giant pot, I had 3 of these for the freezer.  I am now down to one.

And: Dinner!  Used two Italian sausages, about 20 ounces of homemade sauce, a bit of oregano and basil, and half a box of bow tie pasta.  Turned out great!  Add some green beans, and call it a meal.  We also added parmesan cheese, but that's because everything is better with cheese.

On a side note: I made this again, but added zucchini and mushrooms.  Also, I cooked the sausages whole and then sliced.  Verdict: Adding veggies is good, but the sausage is better when removed from its casing.  Left in slices it was too chunky, and the seasonings that are in the sausage were too concentrated in the bites with meat instead of being spread around in the whole dish.  Next time I will look for it sold in bulk, and skip the casing altogether.

An Ice Cream Experiment

As it turns out, Doug has a really hard time with ice cream.  Especially when I make it myself, and use all the heavy whipping cream and whole milk I feel like.  If it were only the whole milk, he might be okay, but that makes for a less-creamy ice cream.  So I needed to find an alternative.  Turns out he's just fine with soy, but soymilk by itself is rather thin and makes "ice cream" that is more like an ice cube.  Some internet searching and experimenting came up with this:

Vegan Peanut Butter Ice Cream
1 (14oz) carton of silken tofu
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups vanilla soymilk

Blended all together, refrigerated for 1 hour.  Then put into ice cream maker just like any other ice cream mix.

The measurements are approximations.  I actually only know the measurements of the sugar and the tofu.  The soymilk was poured from the carton until I had the right consistency, and the peanut butter was a little more than half a jar.

Turned out decent.  Not the ice cube soymilk makes on its own.  The tofu made for a thick almost milkshake like base, but that froze into a creamier treat.  Peanut butter did wonders to cover up that soy flavor some people hate.  In fact, I almost poured some of the base into a cup to have as a milkshake, but decided that I should use it all for the frozen treat.  To make sure no one developed vegan super powers, I added plain M&Ms, reducing the concoction to vegetarian status.

Junk Omeletts

I'm not really sure where this came from in my life.  I remember it as something my brother brought home from boy scout camp, but maybe it is something we ate before then.  It was definitely something we ate afterwards, and not only when camping.

I think the idea is that you use whatever leftovers you have from the night before, mix in some eggs, cook it all together and... Junk Omelettes!  Now I'm not really sure I've done it the right way.  Camping as a family of 5 (or 4) generally left no leftovers.  Add to that one begging family dog, and anything leftover went to her.  So a junk omelette to me has always been chopped up veggies, meat if its in the fridge, and eggs.

First, the chopped up veggies.  Some baby shallots with the green tops chopped too, and bell pepper:

Saute the veggies a bit in your fat of choice.  I used a bit of the bacon fat leftover from cooking up bacon for another meal but you could use butter or olive oil or skip it altogether if you have a nonstick pan.  Be careful not to cook the veggies too long, leave them a bit crispy since they will cook a little longer with the eggs.

Next, add the eggs.  I seasoned mine with some celery salt.  I only used 3 since it was only Doug and I eating.  He usually wants 2, 1 egg is enough for me.  Mix up the eggs in a bowl, add some milk if you've got it (not necessary, but it does make the eggs fluffier).

Hopefully your heat isn't too high (I rarely use heat over 4 on my stove, unless I'm boiling water).  This will let the eggs cook slowly instead of burning to the bottom.  Eggs cooking too quickly also seems to kill their fluffiness.

Since I only used about a teaspoon of fat for the veggies my eggs were way to healthy to be considered a proper Sunday breakfast.  A problem easily fixed though: add some cheese!  Sharp cheddar is my favorite.  If you are trying to be healthy, a little sharp cheddar goes much further in flavor than mild or medium, so a smaller amount is more satisfying.  Or skip the cheese altogether.  Just expect it to be offered if you are invited for breakfast.

And there you have it.  A junk omelette.  Doug put his in a tortilla with leftover refried beans.  I skipped the tortilla, but still had the beans on the side.  You are limited to additions by what you have in your fridge and what you think sounds good.  In addition to what I used for this meal, I've used bacon (in those rare instances when only one or two pieces remained), spam, onions, mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes.  I thought the spinach and tomato left too much moisture, but it all comes down to personal preference with this.  As a general rule though, make sure meat is cooked all the way through before adding anything else to the pan. Veggies go in second (or first if you skipped meat) and are cooked only slightly unless you want soggy, overcooked bits of veg.  I cook my eggs all the way, I think leaving any part of the egg runny is disgusting.  But that is me and my fear of salmonella (and partly a texture thing).