Winter Cooking

Well, the baby has (sometimes) been sleeping longer, and I've been spending most of my extra time in the kitchen. This past week's menu included waffles with ground flax seed mixed into the wet ingredients. I added it mostly to pretend that the waffles had some nutritional value, but it had an excellent side benefit- since flax seed (and water) is a substitute for egg, it made the waffles have a nice, light, "eggy" texture that was fun. I had a hard time remembering to take them out on time, though, so most of the leftovers will be a little dark by the time we toast them up.

I also made (Molly Weasley's- thanks K!) onion soup. Where has onion soup been all my life? The blurb in the cookbook said it "has long been a favorite recipe of the poor"- I generally consider myself well-versed in recipes of the poor, and onion soup had never even occurred to me! I made a few errors in the recipe- one of them being accidentally doubling it- so I was a little nervous how it would turn out, since I'd never made it. When I tasted it, I actually thought- "Oh! It tastes like onion soup mix!" How I never realized there was an actual onion soup behind onion soup mix gives me a good laugh.

I made hot dog rolls yesterday with my favorite "roll" recipe. I usually use all water, instead of milk, and sometimes olive oil instead of butter. Also, oatmeal instead of potato flakes. Fresh sauteed onions are better, per some of the comments, though last night I just added a few flakes- I didn't want too much onion flavor. I think I might be spoiled for life.

In an update to the pizza crust saga- in the latest efforts, I used our usual recipe, but heated our oven as hot as it would go (550- who knew?), made the pizzas as thin as I could, and poked them all over with a fork to try and prevent bubbles. I popped the ones that formed anyway- use a fork, NOT your hand in an oven mitt! I burned myself a few times from the steam. I pre-cooked the crusts and brought them to our church group to top and cook there, and was very pleased with the results. A, I bet they would have frozen great- but what to freeze them in? I suppose I could make them a little smaller and maybe they would fit in a gallon bag? And L, I'm gonna give your recipe a go, too, before I give up!

Tonight we're having beans with sage, and hopefully spinach artichoke dip. Tomorrow we're having mac & cheese and the rest of the hot dogs. We'll probably have chicken pot pie this weekend- and something else. Then, shopping day! Who knew I could write so much about food?

I think I hear the baby waking up- we're going to the big library to get some sleep books on how to get your baby to take longer naps! She can roll over now- sometimes. And, she gets really mad when she can't. Poor kiddo!