Monday, February 21, 2011

Domestic Goddess I Am Not.

I learned two things in the kitchen today.

The first is that if you add spaghetti squash from last night into the pancake mix (along with a banana that came home in a lunchbox too squished to appeal to anyone, and half a bowl of creme of wheat from the day before) you have the BEST pancakes you have ever made! Hands down! I have started making pancakes out of pretty much anything that needs using up. The kids have taken to putting the remains of anything they haven't finished into the fridge "for later". A few days ago it was waffles with the last of the yogurt, sour creme, and I made sure that none of the old syrup was wasted (it was the good stuff) by rinsing the bottle out and dumping the water into the mix. Rice has become a pancake staple, as have whatever fruit gets half eaten... I used zucchini awhile back. It is truly amazing what can be hidden in such a simple meal! I suppose I should give them a title but really, everything sounds unappetizing. When I was growing up, we used to call Slurpees that were all the flavours mixed together "Swampwater," so perhaps they should be dubbed... Swampcakes. Mmmmm... YUMMY!

Not my pancakes, I forgot to take pictures.

The second thing I have learned is that there is no way in our house to weigh a turkey. The turkey my mother brought over for Christmas dinner was cooked by my mother. In my oven, yes, mostly, but I wasn't actually part of cooking it. I DO know that it takes hours and hours, which is why my father used to disappear into the kitchen (his escape room) to "tend to the turkey" whenever he cooked a special meal. We seriously wouldn't see him all day! I have only cooked one turkey in my life. My first Christmas living far away from home. The entire crew that my father lives with (the stepwitch, and her offspring) made the treck over because I promised to put them up in a hotel with a swimming pool. The lure of the Empress got them there. They ended up having to stay in a lovely place (not the Empress because I didn't make reservations) with a swimming pool, and dinner was served close to midnight. I made poached pears though, they were beautiful.

the Empress Hotel

Anyhow, today I made a turkey. I had to, there was one in my freezer that we had been given for Christmas. Strangely, everyone (everyone) gave us food when we moved into this house. Bags, baskets, containers, tins... and we are not even through half of it. So tonight, feeling domestic, and slightly less intimidated than usual, I braved the turkey that was taking up the entire freezer. I read online 20 minutes per pound. Per pound? OK, where on the bird does it tell me the weight? WHY would it not tell you the weight ON the bird when one measly pound means the difference of a raw or over cooked bird??? Well... not to fear, both Dylan and I compared the weight of the bird to the weight of our smallest child, and both figured on twenty pounds. Maybe fifteen. It was a very complex system. Lift the turkey... lift the child... lift the turkey... lift the child. So I only had to check it thirty-five times before it was done. No sweat.

Child= nearly 40 lbs.


Turkey= 15ish lbs. (maybe)


As it turns out, I cook a mean turkey.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your blog. Love it. I am hooked.

andrea of ffft said...

LOL... cheers!

Unknown said...

Sounds like I need to enlist you in some help. I have been trying to perfect waffles a la cooked quinoa. I think, if done properly, they would be delicious and a perfect start to the day (although I actually wish we could have pancakes for dinner) by getting a good dose of the unparalleled health benefits of quinoa. I, sadly, don't believe that my children are quite as adventurous in their culinary tastes as your children are, but they do know that what they see me scooping out of the rice cooker is "grain of the gods" so maybe I can work on them with quinoa "swampwaffles."

Pauline said...

Pancakes are my go-to meal when I'm cooking just for myself and I, uncreatively, never thought to put anything IN them...on them maybe but...this is blowing my mind ;)

andrea of ffft said...

LOL... that's funny, I am no good at being creative about what to put ON them... I leave that to the boys, and they are pretty creative. But only when we run out of syrup. Nutella and fruit is a nice choice :)

The squash (and pretty much any fruit or veggie it seems) gives it such a nice and moist texture... as long as they are already cooked. I actually didn't like pancakes much, but these days I am learning that they don't have to be as dry as I used to make them.

Susan said...

I've used every type of fruit, but not squash yet. Hmmm, maybe we'll have to have pancakes this weekend.

craftylittlemonkey said...

We do this with eggs, throw in whatever's left over. Rice, veggies, salmon, potatoes, anything but sweet stuff. Try it sometime, it's way easier than pancakes I think!

I don't recognize that hotel, is it new? It's enormous!

andrea of ffft said...

Monkey- the hotel is the Empress in Victoria... way back when I first left home and crossed the pond to the island. We had a lot of friends who worked there and so it seemed obvious that we would put the fam up there when they came, but as it turned out, there were no rooms available. Their hotel was just lovely, but my stepwitch has ideas of what she considers worthy. It was fitting that they all had to sit in my tiny living room until midnight waiting for the turkey to cook. Mwahahahaaaaaa!

I'm going to try the eggs! Thanks!

craftylittlemonkey said...

Swamp omelette, swampolette, swamolette, swomelette? Something like that...