Sally's Kitchen & Stuff

New blog is up...

I've been planning this for a while - I'm not exactly MOVING this blog elsewhere, but I'm starting a new one on casual games.

Come take a look - it's pretty snazzy. minutegamer.wordpress.com

This site will still be updated, and I'll have some pretty good recipes coming up. Soon. I have this AWESOME slow cooker Shepherd's Pie recipe that's being fine tuned, and some slow-cooked BBQ ribs too that even children will love. But that will come later. For now, take a look at my new site!

Warm Potato Salad

Best, and simplest, potato salad ever. Serves 6. (So if you think the bacon is unhealthy, you're really only eating half a strip per person. This tastes good fresh and warm or leftover from the fridge.

Chances are, you already have all the ingredients on hand. Also, there's no need to peel the potatoes.

Ingredients
2 lbs red potatoes (Think "a big bowl"), quartered and steamed
2 hard-boiled eggs, minced
3 strips of bacon
2 TBSP Mayo
a small handful of parsley, minced
Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions
Fry the bacon to a crisp in a large pan, and crush to make bits. To the pan drippings (with the heat turned down low) add the cooked potatoes and toss to coat. Leave the potatoes in there and turn off the heat, and let sit for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and toss while everything is still in the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.

So far, so good - my decision to Cloth Diaper my baby

When I first decided to cloth diaper, everybody thought I was nuts. Well, everyone in the real world, anyway. The online people seem to dig it. It's the IT thing to do. It's good for environment. All that.

Well, all that is different when you're actually faced with washing a bucket full of diapers.

And guess what? It's not that bad. Actually, I like it now (we started off on disposables) much better than when we threw them all away. Here are some things I often heard, and my answers to them.

Everyone I know uses disposable diapers! If we've been using them for so long, how bad can they be for the environment? What are the most thrown away item? Newspapers. Second? Drink containers. Third? Disposable diapers. How bad are they? The answer is very, very bad.

The average child is diapered for 2.5 years. That's about 6000 diapers. To make 6000 diapers. That amounts to 750lbs of wood, 50lbs of chlorine, and 125lbs of petroleum feedstocks. Using the chlorine to bleach the diapers produces dioxin. (What is dioxin?)

And when it's all thrown in the garbage, you end up with 6000 disposable diapers in the landfill that takes up to 500 years to decompose. If you use a diaper disposal system like a diaper genie, you're adding 6000 little plastic baggies to that equation.

Don't they get stinky? Not nearly as much as disposables. When we had disposables, and end up always with at least a few dirty diapers in the house. What's more, they have  perfumes in them that actually made them smell worse. Now that I rinse them out every time (more on that later), the place doesn't smell like poo AT ALL.

Besides, what kind of argument is that? All diapers contain poo so they are all a bit stinky. The difference is how much stinkier cloth ones are. The answer? Not at all. They smell less.

Isn't it a lot more work? Nope. I don't have to go out and buy diapers when we run out, we just do one extra load when we do our weekly laundry. It's no big deal. I rinse them out every time I use one (you don't HAVE to, but I don't like the thought of poo sitting around for a week in the house) but that doesn't take any longer than me wrapping a sposie up and taking them to the trash outside.

Once you get used to it, putting on a prefold takes no longer than fluffing a disposable out. And if you're really feeling iffy about all the liner/diaper/cover that you have to fuss with, you can always get yourself some pocket diapers.

Disposables hold in more pee so the baby stays dry longer. Technically, this is true. But it doesn't absorb as quickly, and it doesn't grab onto solid waste. Do you breastfeed your baby? Do you notice that sometimes s/he experiences a "blow-out" where everything just kinda goes right out the back? Well, cotton grabs onto the waste, and it stays in the diaper. Disposables do not. My baby hasn't had a blowout since he's been in a cloth diaper.

Disposables are also more prone to leaks. When I put him in a disposable for the night thinking that he'll sleep longer because he'll stay dry longer, 1 time out of, say, 4, he would leak in his sleep. Then he'd be wet, and cold, and screaming in the middle of the night.

Sure, disposables are bad for the environment, but what about the water and detergent used in washing your cotton diapers? Isn't that bad for the environment? That's the silliest, and most often heard, argument from the disposable diaper makers and users. If we follow that logic, it'd be better for us adults to use disposable clothing because then we wouldn't have to waste water washing them! Or we should use plastic knives/forks and paper plates all the time to save water in washing them out!

I've heard that using vinyl pants and cotton diapers give babies diaper rash. Not true. Diaper rash occurs when there is chafing (often caused by wetness) between your diaper and the baby. What do you think is more likely to chafe the baby? Wet cotton flannel, or paper and plastic?

Disposable users also tend to (wrongly) believe that you won't change the baby when he starts complaining about the wetness. In reality, you shouldn't leave the baby in a diaper - any diaper - for more than 3 hours during the day. During the night, baby is less active and so is his/her bowels and bladder. Since people leave babies in diapers for longer periods of time, there are more reports of diaper rash. Diaper rash was a very rare thing in 1950 when everyone used cloth diapers.

Today's diaper covers are made of layers of polyester laminate and weaves that keeps them dry on the outside but can still breathe.

Aren't they expensive? I mean, for all the money spent on water and electricity in washing them? Cloth diapering is the MOST affordable option for diapering your baby. There is a one time investment, and depending on your options - making them, buying them, getting them second hand - it can be quite affordable even with the initial amount of the diapers themselves. For example, if you buy prefolds, they're only $3 a diaper. $108 would net you the 36 recommended amount. Covers, expensive ones, are around $10 each but you only need 3-4. That's $148. Even with accessories and such, it'll be around $200 altogether for the cheapest option, and that will last you the entire 2.5 years!

It costs $17 in water to launder your baby's diapers for the entire 2.5 years period. Electricity? Depends on the appliance. Averaging not much more than the water. I live in an apartment so we're using a laundromat. That's $2 a load, 2 loads a week. $4 a week. A package of 36 diapers costs $12 at the grocery store. That'll last 6 days.

Even if you go the pockets diaper route, that's still only around $700-1000 spread over 2.5 years. Versus $2000 for disposables.

Having a baby? Or already have a baby and using disposables? Are you ready to make the leap? I've handpicked a list of products that would make this easier, or you could just go down to your local cloth diaper store.

Do you AP?

Early in my pregnancy I drowned myself in books. Lots and lots of them. Lots and lots more of them. I loitered in libraries, bookstores, brought home stacks of parenting books and devoured them all. My belly became a resting place for heavy bible-like parenting books. After 7 months of this, I realized one thing: I want to practice attachment parenting.

Of course, pretty much the minute he was born I was inundated with advice from all sides - the woman who planned my baby shower; my sister-in-law; my momma; my aunt (who has no children of her own). Pretty much all they've told me are against what I want to do - my aunt looked appalled when I told her I was breastfeeding, even worse when I told her we were co-sleeping. My sister-in-law told me that I don't have to pick him up every time he cries. My momma (Stu's mama) told me that sometimes it's ok to let him cry.

He's now almost four months old. He's happy and alert most of the time. When he's happy he's really happy, and when he needs something, you BETCHA he's loud and angry - you can hear him down the hall. I wear him in a sling during his daytime naps and when he gets crabby during the day. He's breastfed, we co-sleep (that's how I get any sleep at all - he wakes up every hour after his first 4 hour stretch) and he's cloth diapered at home. He's very strong for his "age" - he has perfect head control and he can sit up assisted only by his own arms.

And egad, is he LOUD.

Crockpot Pot Roast

This is so easy anybody can make it. When we dug into it the meat was falling right off - great cooking method for cheaper, tougher cuts of meat!

Ingredients
1 beef pot roast (chuck or round), about 2 lbs
1 CAN cream of celery soup
1/3 CUP chicken broth
1/4 CUP Italian style breadcrumbs
2 CUPS frozen vegetables (I used mixed cauliflower and broccoli)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Half a head of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 TBSP clean tasting oil (like peanut or corn oil, but not olive oil)
1 Egg
2 TBSP flour

Instructions
Sprinkle salt and pepper liberally on roast and brown all sides in a pan with some oil.
Set aside. Brown the vegetables in the pan a bit, scraping up the browned bits at the bottom to salvage the flavor left in the pan from the browning beef.

In a mixing bowl, combine egg, flour, chicken broth, cream of celery soup and mix well. (I used a whisk to break up the flour bits.) Tranfer vegetables to the crockpot, lay the roast on top, and stuff pieces of garlic into the cracks where the fat separate the meat. Pour the sauce of celery soup on top, making sure that it coats the entire surface of the meat. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the very top, as evenly as possible.

Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Leftovers make wonderful Italian beef sandwiches.

Crockpot Chicken "Bake"

Since Curtis was born, my life has been a really long feeding session. So in order to avoid a fire in my kitchen, I've been cooking mostly with the slowcooker.

Ingredients
1 Whole chicken, innards removed
8 medium size carrots
2 onions, chopped
1/4 Cup BBQ sauce
1 TBSP brown sugar
1 TSP salt
Pepper to taste

3 TBSP flour

Instructions
Mix BBQ sauce, brown sugar, salt, and pepper together. Rub all over the chicken, and pour whatever is left over inside the chicken cavity. Place some carrots and some about half an onion inside the chicken, and leave the rest sitting at the bottom of the crockpot to elevate the chicken away from the bottom. Cook on low for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, lift chicken out and remove the skin and bones. Skim most of the fat from the liquid at the bottom of the pot and add flour. Whisk to break up the lumps. Turn the heat up to high and close the lid. Let it cook for 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and stir the chicken pieces back in. Serve over rice or noodles.

Welcome to motherhood, Sally...

On October 27th, 6:01 am, I became officially a new mom. :) That explains my absence - I took two weeks off at work, and when I came in today I came with baby in tow. It's been a busy yet strangely boring two weeks. After we settled into the routine, I find myself with not much to do in his nap times (which ranges from 2 - 4 hours) in the day, and talking to myself. That's when I knew I had to go back to work at least a day a week to retain my sanity. Geez, how did women two generations ago do this?

Needless to say, I haven't had much energy to cook (running off to calm a crying infant in the middle of cooking can be quite dangerous, so I'd rather just nuke meals or reheat things in the oven) but I will try as much as I can to keep this blog up to date as soon as I can. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures. :)

Weekend project: Make some candy for halloween

I made a batch of cream caramels over the weekend that was so delicious that by the time sunday night rolled around they were half gone. :( Now I' have to make another full batch for passing out at halloween.

Here's a link to the recipe - it's not mine. Upon review and a few tests, it's a very versatile recipe - cook it to a softball and you can coat cheesecakes, brownies, or cookie bars with it. Cook it to a sauce and dribble over waffles. Cook it to a hardball and they will set into yummy pieces of caramel.

Of course, I'm not going to leave you guys on your own. Here's what I learned from making caramel all Saturday:

• Use a pot. I know, it says "a large saucepan." Two cups of cream boiling away in a saucepan would overspill by the time 10 minutes have passed in the boiling session.
• Do not skip ANY steps in a candy recipe. If it says to slowly pour in the second cup of cream after the first ingredients started boiling, DO IT.
• To test for doneness, have a few cups of room temperature water ready. Drop half a teaspoon full of the candy mixture in, and then pour the water out. That's when you find out if you have a softball or hardball.
• If a recipe calls for a candy thermometer and gives you precise temperatures, don't even think about eyeballing it. Candy making is like baking: it's more about science than food.
• It is OK to use salted butter. It'd crank up the sodium content, but it does add a little something to the final product. Ever had salt-water-taffee? Mmmm.
• Don't try to play with "making" chocolate until you have learned how to temper store-bought chocolate.
• Don't leave the stuff on BOIL. Make sure it "just" boils, as like just above a simmer. Make sure your element temperature is below medium or the sugar will burn. You might find that electric works much better than gas in this project.
• When you pour your candy to set, butter your pan and then line it in wax paper. Otherwise you'd never get the stuff out. I learned this the hard way on my first batch.

Good luck! And it can take up to two hours for your candy to form a hardball, but MAN is it worth it. Everyone's going to get caramel sauce and hard caramels for christmas this year.

Gasless Chilli

Guaranteed to NOT give you gas, unlike most bean and meat chillis. This recipe will make enough for the biggest pot in your house. The meats will put you back $15. It's a $20 chlli that doesn't skimp in the beef department. On top of the chilli powder, you can also add a bunch of miscellaneous spices to taste - anything that would work on beef for you would work in it. Cumin, coriander, oregano, basil, thyme - go nuts. There is no "authentic" way to make chilli. There are only myriad of creative ways. So if you don't have a certain ingredient, you can skip it or substitute it with something you think might work.

Another thing. Canned beans are usually high in sodium because of the factory cooking process. So to save on it (and we don't need extra salt anyway - this is a sweet chilli), rinse the beans in a colander.

It will taste best if you start cooking it in the morning, let it simmer half the afternoon, cooled on the stove, then reheated for dinner.

Ingredients
2 pounds "marinating" steak, cubed (with plenty of fat running through it)
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 onions, chopped
1 Can diced tomatoes
1 Can tomato paste
1 bottle of dark ale
1 TBSP molasses
1/4 Cup sugar
2 squares of baker's chocolate or 2 TBSP cocoa
3 TBSP chilli powder
1 TBSP cayenne pepper
1 TBSP instant coffee
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can mexican red beans, drained
2 cans red kidney beans, drained
2 cans of beef broth
1/4 cup flour
Salt to taste

Instructions
In a large pot, brown first the steak, then the groud beef a handful at a time. Don't overcrowd the bottom of the pot. You will need to do this in batches. When the meat is browned, reserve the meat in a bowl and cook the onions in the bot (scraping up browned bits) until soft. Add the meat back into the pan, and add tomatoes, tomato paste, the beer, molasses, chocolate, and bring to a boil. Add all the beans and the rest of the dry seasoning including the sugar, turn down to a simmer.

In a large bowl, whisk flour and beef broth together, then add to the pot in a drizzle while stirring. When it's all combined, put a lid on it and let it simmer for two and a half hours.

I served this with rice on the bottom and shredded cheddar on top - it was a hit. You can also serve it with spaghetti, crackers, bread, or any combination of the above.

Cook pork to well-done? *blah*

We had Stu's mom over for dinner last Saturday, and I made pork chops. Upon putting her knife into it, she asked me if it was cooked enough. The pork chops that she know of doesn't bounce back when she cuts into it - it should be solid. I showed her that there's no hint of pink juice coming out as she cuts into it, therefore, it is done.

Heck, even if you cook pork to medium, it's still ok.

You know how people are always paranoid about cooking pork until it's perfectly white even near the bone, dry as a hunk of rock, and over 160F? You don't have to do that anymore. Most people don't realize this, namely, my boyfriend, his mother, and pretty much all of our relatives. First of all, the first thing I do with pork is throw it in the freezer when it gets home. Freezing effectively kills all the parasites that MIGHT be in the middle of the meat, which, by the way, are most likely not there in the first place.

There are approximately 12 cases of trichinellosis per year in the U.S. Most of that from eating undercooked game meats. Since we eradicated the practice of feeding raw meats to pigs, the whole practice of cooking pork until it dries out is completely outdated. So, what do you do? Treat pork as you would beef. Bacteria lives on the outside of the meat, so as long as the outside is seared, you're fine. If you're paranoid about parasites, freeze it. If you don't want to freeze it, invest in a meat thermometer and cook it to 140F.