When Life turns your Lemons into Limes (and vice versa)

So I am notorious for ruining food. I just- cannot store certain foods for optimal shelf life. Take for instance, lemons. Limes. Flat leaf Italian Parsley. Oranges, bananas. Garlic, Onions, Shallots- you get the picture. So I am always reading up on how to store things properly. Somehow in spite of this I seem to have epic fails every time  I buy fresh produce. Take two weeks ago. I bought lemons, limes, potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic. And I was determined not to let anything spoil or go to waste. So, I put everything in my pantry (the bottom cupboard wedged between my fridge and my oven. The other day I went to grab a lemon and one of them had literally turned green. A powdery green film was covering one and a half lemons and spreading. I have had a lot of lemons grow bad on me but never quite like this. There was also some excess moisture in the grocery bag I left it in. So I pulled them all out of the cupboard and rinsed the green powder off the remaining lemons. Then today I pulled out my limes to go with the Carona that will accompany the wings that C is making tonight-- and my limes were turning yellow!

What did I do wrong guys? Was the cupboard a bad idea? Do you think the heat from the oven caused moisture in my tiny cupboard?

Please share your best food keeping secrets!
Thanks and have a great three day weekend!

Date with My Inner Baker

Who's been paying attention enough to know how late this blog post is- by a show of hands? Oh, what's that? No one? good then I don't have to feel guilty about it! I saved it thinking I would do all these wonderful editing things to it to make it amazing...but I didn't. So here you go! Enjoy!

Okay I have finally decided to do it. Bake my first and hopefully not my last loaf of bread! This mixer, flour, yeast and etc? Yeah. We went on a date today. It all started several months ago, really. I was searching recipes for various things through all-encompassing Google, when I kept coming across all these amazing food blogs. Just one such blog was A Year In Bread- amazing stuff really. I had been toying around with the idea of making my own bread and cheese (heavily influenced by my recent readings of "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, and Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Being somewhat of a flower child that grew up in the northwest it was like a refresher for things I was better versed at in middle/high school. What I loved most, though was the idea of making EVERYTHING from scratch. Cheese, Bread, Pasta Sauce. Am I showing how much the city has influenced me over the years? I feel like I'm not supposed to be so amazed at this concept, but I blame the supermarket and those behind it all pulling the strings- let me just cut myself off from this tangent- Anywho, I was on A Year in Bread,  (and Wild Yeast, The Yumarama Bread Blog and etc subsequently) and I got the yearning to be in my kitchen making sandwiches from scratch with fresh loaves and just pulled cheese.... Yes I am very domestic. 

So while at the grocery store picking up eggs this week I saw the yeast just sitting there calling my name. And I answered! I threw it and the Red Mill's Unbromated Organic Unbleached Flour (perfect for baking bread by hand or machine!) along with some sugar and left feeling very satisfied with myself. Then the panic set in. What am I thinking? I don't even have the perfect Chicago pans that are recommended? I don't own any tea towels! ETC ETC OMG! 

But I already had it all arranged so neatly on my counter...so I woke up this morning and popped right over to AYIB and saw Susan's Farmhouse White, perfect for beginner's. "It was meant to be!" I gasped to myself.

Here's the basic Recipe lifted but edited to include my commentary from AYIB: her pictures are omitted in place of my notes and adjustments and also my own pics. To see Susan's pics and helpful background history/info etc click the link above!

Making the Pasta into a Meal

This is just a picture I found  when I googled "simple meals."

The title of this blog sucks. I'm tired and full.

So Chaley is always asking me to make simple meals. For instance, she will have a craving for-whatever- and will ask me to make it. And I will- but with additions. Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo you say? But let’s turn it up a notch! Roasted Garlic! Cajun Chicken! Sun Dried Tomatoes! Steamed Broccoli in a little chicken broth and lemon! Tomato Paste!

This is sadly never what she really wants (simple classic chicken and broccoli alfredo) but rather, my version of a better more improved meal. I love to look through several recipes seeing what people have done to improve on classic dishes that we grew up on and combine a little of the old with a little of the new. Something even better that she didn't even know she wanted! Only- usually it’s just not what she wanted (hanging my head). But not tonight! Tonight, I resolved to make a simple Alfredo. (But I kept the roasted garlic-I mean come on! Roasted Garlic??? Anyway-) I combined Tyler Florence’s Fettucine Alfredo and an Alfredo Sauce from allrecipes.com. Really, I mainly stuck with Tyler Florence’s recipe and added the nutmeg from the allrecipes version.

Hand Rolled Pasta, Anyone?

So you know how I got that amazing book last week? (Yes you do, the Urban Pantry book I splurged on!) Well I have been absolutely obsessed with this book. There's a section stocking the pantry that goes over making your own bread, pasta and pie/tart shells etc. So this past Sunday, when we were out spending too much on groceries at Garden of Eden which I love but which is way too expensive and just a bit too gourmet (as in not a lot of real life options when you need them and where is the white bread?-) due to the oncoming blizzard that was dropping heaps of snow into our chilly little faces, I picked up some semolina. Why not right? At that point we were already paying $100 for NOTHING -excuse my bitterness, ahem, so I went ahead and splurged on the smallish Bob's Red Mill semolina flour they had.

And today, while sitting around looking for writing jobs and generally feeling sorry for myself -(Chaley went back to work today, boo!) I decided to make pasta! My mommie got me this super cute french rolling pin for Christmas and I was dying to try it out!

Literally all I needed was 2 cups of A/P flour, (I used Bob Mill's Unbleached White Flour because I am obsessed with it? And him possibly?) 1 Cup of the semolina flour and 5 eggs. I mean, how could I not make this pasta?