And a healthy dose of feline insanity
Sometimes I go a little crazy at the grocery store and pick up a fruit or vegetable that I have no idea what to do with. Admittedly, I’ve been doing this so long that there aren’t many produce items left that I’m not familiar with, but I recently came across one: Jicama.
Crouton is a barrel of contradictions. When she sits nicely like a cat should, she crosses her paws like a lady might. But when it’s hot outside or she’s gotten comfortable, we’re much more likely to see this unlady-like pose:
As indicated by my last (somewhat brief) post, David and I spent a week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, celebrating our one-year anniversary. We left Crouton at home, cared for by our neighbor’s teenage daughter. We came home really late Saturday night (or is that really early Sunday morning) and walked into the house, noticing errant cat toys on the living room floor. We stared.
“Did she actually try to PLAY with Crouton?” David asked. Sure seemed like it. That’s probably something we should have included on the instructions sheet — play with cat at your own risk.
As far as we know, the 14-year-old only walked away with minor scratches. And that night we came home, Crouton actually showed affection. The type of affection only reserved for when she actually thought we had abandoned her, and what would she do if she couldn’t get her dry food refilled at any time she desired? (We really need to cut back on that.)
Pepper pot soup.
Fresh mangos and papaya.
Jamaican stewed chicken.
Steamed crawfish.
Straight-from-the-sea snapper.
Jerk pork.
Jerk burgers.
Jerk everything.
Appleton rum.
Appleton run cream.
Blue mountain coffee.
Appleton run cream in blue mountain coffee.
Heaven in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Back Sunday. Don’t worry, crouton is holding down the fort in Maryland.
A few weeks ago, one of my best friends came to visit. While I tend to take over the kitchen at all times (Because I’m selfish like that), Lauren made an appetizer for us that was so easy and so delicious that I definitely wanted to share it.
Without a doubt, Zucchini is my absolute favorite vegetables. I don’t know if it’s because it’s one of the few veggies I can prepare over and over without my husband complaining or if it’s just how I love that it’s so adaptable to nearly any recipe.
tried to grow zucchini in my garden last year, and only ended up with about 4 actual vegetables. A marked difference, for sure, from what I’ve heard about gardeners ditching their excess zukes on neighbors’ doorsteps when the crop became overwhelming. Though I had planned to try again this year, the Lowes store where I was picking up my plants for the season didn’t have any zucchini, so I branched out to grow Swiss chard and Spinach in its place.
And while I’m all for eating seasonally, I just cannot go all winter without a zucchini. So while I skip over them while they’re spindly and pathetic, I’ve managed to find some decent ones in the stores lately.
Zucchini Fritters
Makes 6 fritters
2 medium-sized zucchini
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Old Bay
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil, for frying
Using a box grater, grate the zucchini. Wrap the grated zucchini up in a paper towel and wring the excess water out (there will be a lot of it!)
Put the zucchini in a medium-sized bowl. Add the egg, flour, baking powder, Old Bay, and salt and pepper and combine thoroughly.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. Let it get really hot! Make a small patty, just slightly smaller than the palm of your hand, and drop it in the oil. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes (until browned) and then use a spatula to flip. If the fritter is getting brown too quickly, turn down the heat.
Remove the fritters from the oil and lay on a paper towel.
To make a sauce, mix a dollop of sour cream, fresh lemon juice, dried dill, and salt and pepper. Serve with the fritters.
This recipe is one that my mom and sister have both been making for years, and the general idea first came from a Byerly’s cookbook. When I was searching for a healthy, delicious recipe to feature in this week’s newsletter, I emailed my sister to ask for it. Neither of us were able to find the recipe verbatim online (that tells you how old it is!), so I just took the general concept and ran with it! And while the raspberry vinaigrette is quite a bit more Pepto Bismal-pink that I remember it being, the meal as a whole was just as beautiful as it’s always been.
When it comes to baked good in my life, I nearly always have a dilemma. See, I love a cookie, piece of cake, or brownie as much as the next person, but there’s always that nagging voice of health in the back of my head. It’s that little irritating nugget that whispers in my ear, “Kelseyyyyy … why are you eating that?” So I shut it up by just not generally keeping the correct ingredients in my pantry to make baked goods.
But then the craving hits, and I don’t know what to do.
We’re finally past the disaster that was last week, and this weekend definitely made up for it. One of my very best friends from college recently moved back to the East Coast after a year-long stint in Chicago. I did manage to make it out there over Labor Day weekend last year to visit here, but New Jersey is definitely easier to handle than Chicago is! She came down to visit on Saturday, just for the night, and we had a relaxing and fun evening cooking dinner together.
This week has been a bear. We’ve dealt with illnesses, doing taxes, more illnesses, a lot of driving to places we didn’t really feel like going, and just general displeasure in our household. So it’s Friday, and I look back on the week and I see that I only actually cooked two times. Pretty miserable week, if you ask me. But this beef and mushroom stew? No, that’s not miserable. That’s quite homey, actually.
