Random Blogging: Category Food

Yet another harvest

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:07:00 -0800

These things are coming faster than I can cook with them.

They make good seasoning for soups and anything I throw into the oven. Good for garnish and wonderful for salads. Right now there is the bundle pictured that will be for dinner tonight an my salad for lunch and now I have not had to buy onions in weeks and probably will not have to buy them for the rest of the winter.

Then I will keep them going for greens until I get my first batch of scallions in the spring (When i get to buying bulbs for planting outdoors)

This was a total savings!

And yes those are twist ties from the toys. I hate those things when I have to take them off the toys but they sure come in handy when you save them.

IT CAME!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:48:00 -0800

My Package Came !

See what I got!

I ordered from a place called Gourmet Seed International, LLC

SO far i am very impressed. Great shipping, fast, good prices with decent selection of interesting plants.

I spent $38.18 (with shipping included)

i got the following...

(one packet of each)

Lettuce Taglio a Foglia Liscia

Lettuce Green salad bowl

Rampion

Cress-american land

Dandelion zxdio

Chicory da taglio bionda foglie

zucchini tonda piazenza

carrot parmex persian market

tomato italian cherry

radish spring fling mix

radish white breakfast

north holland blood red onion

spinach mustard komatsuna tokisan

Catalogna chicory brindisina

sword lettuce yu mai tsai

I know these all sound odd but these are going to be the new things i try in our recipe.

I will be planting most of these today if i can find enough soil and containers :) Then placing them under the cheap grow lights that i have found to work very well i will see if i can ge a fresh veggie crop.

but here is what i have invested this year

electricity (probably will be less than 10$ for the entire winter)

then the $38.18 for the seeds. I will have to price out any yields i get from this.

I am so excited! Can't you tell?

Random blogging, for real!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:08:00 -0800

So is inspiration of my name as the randomblogging.com writer i have now decided to add total randomness! I really have never thought of it, i was stuck in one groove at a time, first moneysaving, recycling, then crafting and sewing, then gardening, but what about interestingly random, interesting people?!
I think this will be fun. It will introduce some new things to look at. It will not be a complete random since it has to have something interesting to my readers in it. Not some teen girl's blog chatting on how much her daily life consists of texting her friends and not being able to do it while chewing (actual contents in one of the blogs i found) But interesting to me in the sense of something worthwhile. SO here it goes.

While doing this i stumbled upon THIS
to help me.. it is a random word generator.
It will be my guide.

One of my first words is Ricer (kinda odd)
but with the help of google search and blindfolded clicking i came upon
a blog on blogspot called Cook almost anything
i did not know that ricer is something other than an interesting car description.
It is a hand tool or table tool used for pressing puree.
on this site i found a recipe using the ricer with potatoes. I shall give it a try tonight but not using a ricer but using the potatoes with what i have on hand (standard multi sized grater.)

..

But warning. DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE HUNGRY! not only do the pictures make your mouth water but the recipes are wonderful too! i found a roasted garlic and white bean soup that will soon cure my winter comfort needs.

Easy indoor gardening!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:12:00 -0800

Now do not get discouraged when you see all the expensive things that they want you to buy when you search for indoor gardening or growing your vegetables indoors.

Please do not buy one thing for growing until you read what i write!

First. i will show you from time to time what exactly i have done in my indoor veggie production and so on but i will tell you what i have done so far when i give you all the info..

here is the list of the only things you will need

-pots free if you have them or you can use yogurt cups, butter containers or other plastic things you would toss out that you can puncture holes in the bottom for drainage

-soil (free if you have good, light garden soil, but you might want to pour boiling water over it to kill bacteria, pests, eggs and other things.) but since i have clay spoil in my gardens i buy a bag of it for less than 7$ for what i need.

-all purpose fertalizer 1-10$ (depending on amount and brand, i use store brand small bos for 3$ and it lasts for months)

-tin foil 1-2$

-area that is room temperature free from cold drafts

-cheap shop spot light ( i got mine at home depot for 5$)

-30-60 watt comparison compact flourescent bulb ( this must be a daylight comparison bulb!!! this gives a decent spectrum for growing) 5-10$

-vegetable seeds and other things. (the next list will tell you about the things you should grow and why, plus where is the best sources i have found)

VEGGIES TO GROW

Take into consideration:

-amount of space and light you have. If it is a big rooting veggie or something that you need to plant a lot of then forget it! People do try tomatoes and so on but it is really not cost effective because of the heat and light you need. I have found some foods that need little light and take very little space.

-amount of time these veggies take .. most things will say how long it takes to harvest so keep in mind there are fast growing things that have a harvest time of less than 50 days (ideal for indoor growing and cost effectiveness)

thing of general cost savings.- first can you find the seeds and stuff for free or less than the cost of the already grown item?

shipping adds cost when buying seeds online! so add than in on how much you want to spend

you might need to try new things. There are somethings that you might be able to grow real fast and cheap, but they are not the typical thing you would buy in the store to eat ( or in the store at all) but keep an open mind and just find different ways to make these things until you find a recipe you like.

HERE ARE MY FAVS. !

-onions

I grow these for flavoring for the most part. You do not grow them for the bulbs but the greens. so, first you start with the cheepest source of where you can get these. TRY YOUR FRIDGE OR PANTRY! chances are you are like me and every now and then you have an onion that sprouted in your kitchen. So plant this bulb and harvest the greens for anything you want.. these are best cooked tho. Chances are too that by the spring you will have offshoots of these bulbs and you can grow them like green onions or for the flower to get the seeds from.

second choice is to get them in your grocery store. Buy green onions and when you use the gree onion you plant the root end that you cut off, harvest the greens from the new growths or the entire onion and then repeat the cutting and regrowing process

third you can buy a bag of pearl onions (these are more expensive) but it is worth it.. Plant as you would green onion bulbs but harvest for just the greens.

fourth you can buy the seeds and sets. i found that no one will ship to michigan in december when it comes to ther onion set, but i can get the seeds.

all in all when doing seeds remember it takes a long time to get useable indoor crop.

-chives

great for seasoning and you can gety these cheep in seed form but they take forever to grow, you can get these from your garden if you already planted some.

-Lettuces

Look for looseleaf producers. Head lettuce takes too long and it is cheaper to buy that in head form

so look for cool weather crops. gourmet, and oriental lettuces are good too. There is a asian lettuce called sword lettuce that says is grows real fast so i am trying it this time

Others i am trying

-spinaces

-radish

-gourmet greens

and more, but i will update later on what i get.

Things i would loive to introduce.

Weeds!

(I know this sounds sick and i do need to tell everyone to take special procautions when trying some of these because there are certain things that are poisionous and not good for you so when experimenting in these make sure you follow proper safety precautions. know what is harmful and do investigation before use)

weeds such as dandeliions can be eaten for greens or cooked, wilted and so on. But we all know these plants to be easy growing and fast growing (due to the observation of the pesky things in out lawns) but remember that these could be beneficial to you!

you can get these from your yard if you have them, remember you do not use any that have been sprayed with anything or are contaminated with anything bad like bacterias from manures and so on.

but there are places you can buy hybrid dandellon seeds for cheap. these plants are heavy on the yummy greens provoiding you with lots of yummies in small compact plants. :)

but keep your mind open and experiment on things you might not have tried before.

Here is DAY 1 for me

I have potting soil left over and some pots laying around so i was covered with those. using a sturdy box i covered the inside with tin foil top help my plants get more light and not lean to the light source. I clipped on my light and filled the box with pots and trays that had the following:

1 large onion from my fridge that was old and close to sprouting

1 potato that had sprouted oin my pantry (put in a large plastic dixie cup for now)

chive plants from my herb garden. they had already died back from the cold and now will think it is spring now that they are inside.

gourmet pearl onions that i found in a mesh bag at the store. I found the ones that looked like they were sprouting so i asked for a discount on them since no one else was going to buy them.

some sprouting garlic. I took the bulb apart and planted the individual cloves.

some salad mix seeds that were left over from the summer.

One venus fly trap (just because it was lying around and i needed to get it more sun.

This just filled up the box so i stopped for the day.

I then hopped online and searched for unusual things finding the site

Gourtmetseed.com

This has lots of cool seeds. decent prices and decent shipping!

so i ordered a lot from there... and will keep you posted on how it all is. Keep in mind i did not get paid to review them and i paid for the seeds myself so i will express my real opinion about this company and product (score one for the consumer)

I basically kept my grocery cart to the seeds that had the quickest grow time. You can't find this stuff through BURPEE seeds!!!

But keep in mind i am trying to grow a lot, and fast!

as soon as i get my order i will have to do some work

I have a green house fram to bring in for the basement. The cover is wrecked so now it makes a great plant shelf for this project.

then i will rig the shop lights with the compact daylight bulbs to the shelving while covering the sides and back of the shelving with tin foil.

I have to also keep in mind tha the basement where i am doing this is kind of cold. I will be going the extra mile and insulating problem areas and sealing hiles and cracks with spray foam insulation (needs to be done anyways)

but this area will still be too chilly to grow tomatoes, peppers and other things like that. I then have to think that my other things will grow a little slower because of the cold.

well that is that for the day., Keep poste for more!

DATE NIGHT!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:48:00 -0700

Once in a while my husband and I like to get out of the house, find a sitter for the night, and go have a nice evening alone together. It is nice to recharge the relationship. my favorite reasons for having the date night other than the recharge are:

To recreate the nostalgia of when we met and dated the first time

to remember we are a couple in love and that the kids do not totally control us at all times

And my favorite reason of all is to redo our dates and do things we did not do last time we dated. :)

so with that in mind we did a simple dinner and a movie.I know it does not seem like much but when we were younger we did not have much money at 18 and 19 years old. I was fresh out of high school and he was in a housing transition form one city to the next, plus he was looking for a different job than the one that he had. I had always ( on the side of frugal) asked for just a movie and if we got hungry we would just do a small snack at a fast food place.

So now we are taking it slow. It has been years since the two of us went out to dinner and movie in the Lansing area. We decided to go to the movie Superbad at the NCG Eastwood. Then through my husband's lack of planning we did not have a place picked out to eat at.

We drove through the eastwood center. Looking. All we had seen were bars and pubs. ICK not very romantic for the casual couple. We were not in the mood for Chinese and we wanted a steak. Well i hate going to applebees, chile's and TGI fridays because they were always too noisy and crowded. So we thought we would go somewhere that we have not tried in a while. We went to Red lobster. I have been misled about the way our dining experience would be. I liked our waitress. she was decent,. Polite, prompt with our food, appetizer check so no complaint with the server we had, but there are a lot of things that made it such a terrible experience.

First thing. The place was hideous! I have been to red lobsters in the past but this one was awful. There is no atmosphere. nothing! just a few trinkets made by a mass producer on the wall, poorly matched wood and scheme.. ICK! Music that you can not hear through the poor sound system. When my husband and i go to a place like Fridays or something we at least get something interesting to look at even tho those places are loud and cramped and cluttered to the highest degree. But here there was nothing. At all the other places we would have paid a total of 30 $ for food on average. at red lobster we paid 60$ at least we could have had some enchanting mood lighting for that price. Bad business.

Anyways, we get the appetizer and it was suppose to look like this.

But what we got were clam strips that were like rubber! the stuffed mushrooms were not stuffed they were mushrooms with toppings poured on them and then covered in oily cheese. and the scallops were wrapped in bacon but the flavor was not melded very well like they should have been sauteed, but were frozen and put in the oven.

then onto the main dish. We ordered

Look at that New York strip. and those full shrimp. they fill the plate! Well in reality the New York strip while cooked very nicely was drenched in so much salt and seasoning that i could barely taste the fact it was meat and not a bit-o-jerky sitting on my plate. I was up all night long drinking water like i had ingested a whole bottle of salt. And the shrimp did not fill the plate. They were no different in size and taste than what i would get at the local bar in our small town that comes in one of those red plastic baskets. And i got a side of cottage cheese that tasted like lemon juice. Could be a way to make it so it does not spoil? could be something they placed it by? i could not eat one bite.

*sigh* Not my husband's fault. Just the fault of the restaurant that lost its way.

Now the other dining issue was not the resteraunt's fault. and i do not know whose fault it is. I have two kids myself but i do not take them to places like that until they are older especially on a Saturday night when it is prime date night. I felt bad for the mother because she could not control the high pitched screaming of her little girl and the little 4 or 5 year old boy running around the table but that was not my cup of tea for the night that i had found a sitter for my two. And i know it would have been like that no matter what restaurant we went to. There would be some crying kid or what-knot. Now that people are giving up the smoking sections could there be one for people who are anti kids for when they eat.

"party of two for non screaming?"

But then when we left i felt more like i had just finished a chore eating there. 2 waters, 2 steaks and shrimp and an appetizer 64$

Now onto the movie

SUPER BAD

I loved it! Chicago tribune says three stars and then gave some stupid long winded review about plot and the science of the characters and so on. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Whatever happened to watching a movie that was good and liking it. Now everyone listens to reviews and abides by the ratings. STOP IT! if you want to see it then go see it. Who cares about what others want to make you think. I do have to say that taking kids to this one would be frowned upon and a lot of the crowd that was there should have not been there because of age but still it was a good chuckle movie. Nice catch lines and room for a sequel. So i would at least recommend you to give it a try if you do not mind very strong language and sexual content.

As for the theater. Very nice as usual. Rather clean, busy, good atmosphere. decent seating. decent service and so on. I just hate the location because when movies get out the traffic is congested with the shopping area. but all in all a decent night out.

Heck we did not have the kids for a few hours. I would ave even enjoyed a nap :) Just kidding!

But a few tips for the guys. ALWAYS have planned out the night. Always order for the lady (unless instructed otherwise) Alwauy make a fuss with opening doors and car doors. Always make her feel like she is center of attention even with watching the movie. And for the younger guys who are dating the girl for the first time. NEVER go on a date with a certain expectation. Let her call the shots. (just something i would have advised my own boys )

Interesting food stuff

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:36:00 -0700

I found this website and she has very interesting ideas on it. I think i am going to snag and try the idea of takign a meatloaf and kinda frosting it with a ketchup and mashed potato mix, but add in some spices and other goodies in the mix.

But there are other ideas where she took the waffle iron to a new lever in doing a crab cake in it and then a turkey cake. I could actually go for the crabcake in an iron.

Must try!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:54:00 -0700

I am always looking to make a vegetable more exciting. I am not very talented in vegetable carving but when I found the most funny and disturbing thing that can grace your veggie platter I thought "Problem solved!" Great conversational piece !

Yummy? Or just pretty

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:35:00 -0700

Feta with watermelon? I am not too sure about it. I have seen people do watermelon salsa with it but I am totally hesitant to waste Greek salad potential over something I have not tried before. But for this recipe I think the presentation is the pretty thing. What if you were to substitute the cheese with blueberries. How cute would that be? All just for presentation.

Beer Cupcakes??!!

krista@randomblogging.com (krista) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:27:00 -0700

Ok so my husband is Wanting me to try something I came across. How nifty is this?

Beer Cupcakes

Does anyone have anymore beer recipies? I am specifically looking for guiness and I will keep everyone posted in this subject on weather we try any of this. I am thinking this would be good for the superbowl.