Category Archives: cooking

Post about Pasta

Posted on March 1, 2023 by mohawkvalleygirl

How about a cooking post instead of my usual Tired Tuesday Post.  I make it a statement instead of a question, because I intend to do so regardless.  At first I thought not so much a cooking as a fixing post, because I didn’t cook the salad, then I remembered there was pasta involved.  That was cooked.

It was, in fact, leftover ziti, which I had cooked to go with some leftover cheesy sauce I was finishing up (maybe I should have done a cooking post on the sauce).  I cooked all the ziti left in the canister.  I was out of the tossed salad I have been bringing to work for my lunch, so I wondered if I could come up with something involving pasta.

I had a jar of marinaded artichoke hearts in the fridge, along with the rest of the rainbow peppers I had used in the cheesy sauce (yes, I totally should have led with the cheesy sauce).  I try to always have a can of black olives in my cupboard. As Gene Wilder said in Young Frankenstein,  “It! Could! Work!”

First I put the ziti in a bowl.  I chopped some rainbow peppers and added those. I also chopped the artichoke hearts, adding the marinade to be the salad dressing.  Sliced black olives completed the mixture.  It seemed a little bland when I tasted it, so I added lemon pepper and dill.  I put it in the refrigerator to let the flavors blend.

I did not taste it again till lunch time today.  It was yummy!  I look forward to lunch tomorrow.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Wussed on Blog, But Cooked with Wine

Posted on January 12, 2023 by mohawkvalleygirl

Once again I entirely wussed out on Wednesday by not making a post at all (as opposed to making a foolish post and billing it as Wuss-out Wednesday.  Why didn’t I do that?  What the hell, me?) (And for future reference,  autocorrect,  I almost never mean “he’ll”).

Where was I?  Ah yes, making a blog post.  One thing I did not wuss out on last night was cooking.  Lately I have been having restaurant leftovers, sometimes going so far as to heat them up, or frozen dinners, or not much at all for supper.  Last night I actually cooked.

I had a green pepper I had picked up last Sunday when I grocery shopped.  I had meant to do something with it then but was too lazy.  It was looking a little peaky, and I am very Waste Not, Want Not, so I chopped it up while it was still edible.  I put it in a frying pan with the last of a bottle of Baco Noir from Adirondack  Winery (just to add a little regional flair).  Yes, so etimes when I cook with wine, I put it in the food.  Full disclosure:  I also poured myself a glass from a box I just happened to have on hand.

I chopped up an onion to add and lamented that I had no fresh garlic.  When the wine had entirely boiled away, I added some oil, making the joke of what if I had mistaken the bottle of Karo syrup for olive oil?  When the pepper and onion were pretty well cooked, I added a can of diced tomatoes and some spices:  granulated garlic, basil, oregano, and parsley.

I had the mixture over ziti with grated parmesan cheese.  Yum!  And I have plenty left over.  Maybe I could use it as pizza sauce…

 

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, personal, Wuss Out Wednesday and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

If You Can’t Say Anything Lame…

Posted on February 26, 2022 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is another Late Lame Post Friday Post. I went ahead and capitalized Late, because being late on my Friday post has gotten to be a kind of a thing with me. Do I have anything of substance to say? I don’t need to! It’s Lame Post Friday! At least it was, less than six hours ago (I get up early).

I pause to sip my coffee and to say once again, Thank God for coffee!

Yum!

Last night I cooked a yummy supper involving onions. Full disclosure: this picture is from 2018. I did not take a picture last night, and I haven’t upgraded the blog to include new pictures anyways. Also, I chopped the onions smaller. But I think a picture peps up the post.

In case you’re interested, when the onions were cooked, I added leftover potatoes and a can of mushrooms. When the potatoes were hot, I whisked a couple of eggs and poured them in. I sprinkled on a little Mrs. Dash, pepper and salt before serving.

I guess this could now count as a cooking post. I don’t mean to put myself up there with real cooking blogs; I mean the people who really know what they are doing, what you would call a chef as opposed to just a cook. Am I perhaps being a trifle arrogant to think my frying pan leftovers are of interest to the blog reading public?

Hey, that sound like a philosophical question! Regular readers (if I still have any) know I love to indulge in half-baked philosophy on Lame Post Friday. I think this has turned into a half-way decent blog post. Or do I flatter myself?

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, Lame Post Friday, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Don’t Swoon: Eat Some Pie!

Posted on January 24, 2022 by mohawkvalleygirl

This will be a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post, because I am SO in a mood to swoon upon a chaise lounge, dramatically posed with the back of one wrist to my forehead. The headache that plagued me this morning faded, but I got very little of use done.

Oh, wait, one thing we did: my husband Steve and I made a chocolate pie. It was a pretty easy recipe. Yet I think to tell it will be marginally more entertaining than to continue to whine about headaches and uselessness.

Steven had a craving for pie, and his favorite is chocolate. We had a ready-made crust in the freezer. We thought we did not have any chocolate pudding, but I pointed out we have some mincemeat I recently found for 50% off at Hannaford (with an expiration date of like 2023, score!). Then Steve found a box of chocolate pudding mix in the cupboard. Awesome!

The first step was to put the crust out to thaw at room temperature for 90 minutes. So much for instant gratification! We watched a DVR’d episode of Svengoolie to help pass the time.

I loves me some Svengoolie.

After about an hour, I started making the pudding. We took turns stirring, because you are supposed to stir it constantly. Then we let it set to cool and thicken. Soon it was time to bake the crust. I had foresightedly preheated the oven while we made the pudding. It only had to bake for ten minutes, then I put it in the refrigerator to chill.

It took longer to chill than we had hoped, but eventually I was able to put the pudding in the crust and put the whole thing back in the fridge.

OK, we did not wait till it was thoroughly chilled to have a piece. It was still yummy, especially with a good dollop of Whipped Topping. Steven had a second piece a couple of hours later.

I guess this doesn’t make too bad of a blog post. Maybe I’ll have a second piece of pie myself. Or it might make a tasty breakfast. Yum!

4 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal, Wrist to Forehead Sunday and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

I’ll Give You a Pizza My Mind

Posted on January 17, 2022 by mohawkvalleygirl

How about another cooking post, because quite frankly, I ain’t got much. I did leave the house today, but only to go grocery shopping, and it was not memorable. I spent most of the afternoon knitting and watching Snapped.

I almost didn’t cook anything, because I sat on the couch feeling Too Damn Tired. However, once I got out to the kitchen and got started, it wasn’t too bad.

My plan was to make flat bread pizzas. I had purchased whole wheat tortillas for the purpose. I started by chopping up some rainbow peppers I found on sale at the grocery store. I put them in a frying pan to saute, adding some sliced fresh mushrooms.

While they fried, I peeled and crushed some garlic. After it sat for 15 minutes, breathing or whatever it’s supposed to do (I read somewhere that’s how it reaches its full cancer-fighting potential), I whirred it in the blender with some oil, basil, and oregano. I spread this mixture on the flat bread in lieu of sauce.

In addition to the peppers and mushrooms, I topped the pizzas with pepperoni, black olives, and mozzarella. I sliced the olives and grated the cheese while the garlic breathed.

I baked two pizzas at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They turned out yummy. I have not been cooking much lately, because I have been too lazy. Uh, I mean tired. I kind of miss chopping, mixing, stirring, etc. Perhaps my recipes are not the most exciting of blog posts, but at least it makes a change from whining about how I don’t have enough to say. As always, I thank you for tuning in.

4 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Saturday Soup

Posted on January 16, 2022 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh dear, I missed another Saturday post. Part of the problem was that I didn’t actually do anything. It was too cold to leave the house, so I did not go running or have any Mohawk Valley Adventures. Full disclosure: I stepped out on the porch twice, putting my weekly postcards on the box for the mailman to pick up.

I did make a pot of chicken soup, so perhaps a cooking post would work, although it wasn’t much of a recipe. I’ll give it a try.

I had a rotisserie chicken from Hannaford which I had been taking meat off for my lunch salads. My mom told me that my sister Diane made soup with the remains of her rotisserie chickens. I messaged Diane and asked her how she did it.

“Boil the crap out of it and pull the meat off, throw out the bones, and add vegetables,” were the instructions. I could do that. Kind of.

I did not have any vegetables, but I had onion and garlic (oh well I guess onion counts as a vegetable), so I added those plus some spices. I also did not have any noodles, so I cooked some ruffles. It turned out pretty tasty. Next time I hope to have a stalk of celery and perhaps a couple of carrots to add. I don’t care for cooked carrots, but Steven likes them.

In the meantime, I am over 200 words. Score! Now let’s see if I can make my Sunday post later today.

5 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Cook With Wine, Feel Cheerful

Posted on April 23, 2020 by mohawkvalleygirl

I just made a most delicious late lunch, so I am going to make a blog post about it.  Alas, I did not take any pictures while I was doing it, so this may not be a really peppy post.  Still, you can’t have everything.

Yum!

I paused to take one picture.  Yes, I was cooking with wine.  This time I did not put any in the food.  I had a red pepper that was getting old, and I was in the mood to put something together.  The therapeutic benefits of chopping vegetables is not to be discounted.

The first thing I did, as usual, was to peel and crush up some garlic, and set the timer for 15 minutes,  so it could reach its full cancer fighting potential.  Then I chopped up an onion.  I was chopping it into small pieces, so I stopped after half an onion.  So I guess I did not get the full measure of therapeutic benefits available to me.

I put the onions in a pan with oil over low heat and chopped the pepper into small pieces, adding it to the onion.  I added the garlic after 15 minutes, covered the pan, and let them all cook for a while, stirring frequently (of course I didn’t note how many times or how often; I’m not that kind of a cook nor that kind of a blogger) (did I mention you can’t have everything?).

Eventually I added a can of tomato puree. I seasoned it with basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  Towards the end I put in a can of chopped clams.  I served it over angel hair pasta with grated parmesan cheese.  Yum!

So now I have managed another blog post without much whining.  In fact, after managing the blog post, I am feeling more cheerful.  Let this be a lesson to me:  make a blog post, feel cheerful.  I will try to duplicate the phenomenon tomorrow.

 

4 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Truman Capote Was Not Invited to Dinner

Posted on January 25, 2019 by mohawkvalleygirl

How about a cooking post instead of my usual Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I make it a statement instead of a question, because I am making the post regardless.  It is a little non-sequitur-ish, though, because I made the stuff on Sunday, but Steven is heating it up as I type for tonight’s meal.

I had some Dino’s Sausage, made in Utica, NY, just to give this post a little local flavor (see what I did there?).  I put it in a frying pan and chopped up an onion to throw in with it.  Then I peeled and crushed up a few cloves of garlic, purchased at the Mohawk Valley Garlic and Herb Festival in Little Falls (more local flavor!).  I set the timer to let the garlic breathe for 15 minutes.  Just as an aside, it is a lot easier to wait for garlic to breathe than it is for wine.  Ahem, not that I drink a lot of wine.

After adding the garlic, I just kept stirring and breaking up the sausage till it was almost done.  Then I added a can of diced tomatoes and a can of mushroom pieces and stems.  I stirred in some basil, oregano and a very few hot peppers (I didn’t want to make Steven’s bald spot sweat).  I often put in a can of tomato paste at this point, but Steven thought it sounded lighter without.

We had the sauce over angel hair pasta, my favorite.  I put copious amounts of grated cheese on mine.  It was delicious.

It was just as good reheated tonight (I paused in my typing to eat midway through the second paragraph; could you tell?).  Is this blog post as good as some of the other nonsense I have been typing in lately (I reference Truman Capote:  “That’s not writing, that’s typing”)?  Only my readers can judge.  Some people say “Don’t judge,” but in this case, I don’t mind. Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Not Too Mundane, I Hope

Posted on November 9, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

Tasty Thursday does not have the same ring as Tasty Tuesday.  And yet, I just cooked and I don’t have much else to blog about today.  If only I had also concocted a special cocktail to go with dinner, we could have had Thirsty Thursday.

“Buy me a drink, Big Boy?”

Alas, I am sipping a mundane glass of Chardonnay. No matter, dinner was tasty.

We had some ground beef Steven had taken out to thaw two days ago but didn’t feel like cooking.  This morning he suggested he purchase a can of cream of mushroom soup and do something with that.  Now I have lost all cred with real cooks, but I grew up in the 1970’s; a can of cream of mushroom soup was a perfectly respectable ingredient in those days.

I put the ground beef on to cook and poured myself some Chardonnay, so I could cook with wine.  I put Worcestershire sauce on the meat and broke it up as it cooked.  When it was nearly done, I added the soup and a can of mushrooms.  Then it was time for the spices (my favorite part!): minced onion, garlic powder, and No Salt All Purpose Seasoning from the So Sweet Candy Cafe in Utica, NY (just to give the post a little local flair).  I would have added onion powder as well, but our bottle of it was completely solid.  I added it to the grocery list.  I had used the liquid from the mushrooms to get most of the soup out of the can, so the mixture looked a little thin.  I added some grated cheese to thicken it up, using that up too, so that was something else for the grocery list.

We had the stuff over some pasta I had in one of our canisters.  I don’t know what the shape is called, because I had thrown out the box.  They looked kind of like SpaghettiOs (that’s how it’s spelled, computer, I Googled it!).

It was a pretty tasty dinner, although I supposed it was kind of mundane, now that I look at what I wrote.  No matter.  It was dinner.  I cooked it, we ate it, I blogged about it.  I’m going to call that a win for Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I’ll just throw in a random picture, so I’m not too mundane.

I bet you thought I was going to use Nosferatu (you know who you are).

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Pizza with Pesto on Tasty Tuesday

Posted on October 24, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

How about a Tasty Tuesday post instead of my usual Tired or Bad Attituesday?  I just made a yummy flat bread pizza and I think I can come up with 200 or so words about it.

Steven got me some nice flat bread last week, and over the weekend I had the idea of making a flat bread pizza.   Accordingly, I went to the store on Sunday and purchased Dino’s sausage (from Utica, NY; just to give my post some local flair), fresh mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese.  I lazily picked the washed and sliced mushrooms.  It did not seem to be much difference in price between that and the whole ones. I already had black olives and pesto.  The pesto was homemade: I made it in my blender with oil, basil, garlic and whatever else I felt like throwing in at the time (I don’t remember now what that was; this stuff keeps a long time in the fridge).

I cooked all the sausage on Sunday, knowing it would be good for more than one pizza, so I was all set in that respect today.  While the oven pre-heated, I grated mozzarella.  After spraying the pizza pan with no-stick, I put the flat bread on it and spread it with pesto.  I arranged sausage and mushrooms, sliced the black olives over them, then covered the whole with cheese.  I baked it for ten minutes.

YUMMY!!!  My Sunday pizza was made with the same recipe, if you can call it that (I suppose in my blog I will call it what I like).  I’m not sure if I have shared this recipe before, but there is every chance I will share it again sometime.  Perhaps I will make some variations on the theme or maybe take pictures of the work in progress and the finished product.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, personal, Tasty Tuesday and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
→