Home again, home again

Mr. Aitch and I were out of town for several days.

Without internet service.

I’m not complaining as it’s nice to unplug.

My brother’s birthday is October 26 and mine is the 27th so our family decided to get together at his Lake Chautauqua (New York) cottage to celebrate.  He lives in New Hampshire and my sister lives in Ohio so it’s a great meeting place, both geographically and scenically.

We ate prime rib, baked potatoes and roasted asparagus.  And dessert was vanilla cheesecake with a chocolate ganache topping.

Here we are getting ready to blow out the Happy Birthday candles my sister provided.

It was a wonderful celebration…

…but it’s nice to be home again.

And in case you are wondering, the nursery rhyme is:

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun,
Home again, home again, market is done.

What’s for dinner?

what-s-for-dinner-clipart

When the kids were still living at home, I planned our weekly meals based on who had to go where and when each evening.   Piano lessons, drum lessons, band practice (for Mr. Aitch and the kids), soccer practice, orthodontist appointments, meetings, teaching, you name it.  Something was happening practically every weeknight so I had to be organized.  I made 30-minute meals long before Rachael Ray coined the phrase.

I went to the market every Sunday morning right after church while my kids were in CCD (Sunday School for the non-Catholics).  I still go then even though I don’t have to.  It’s just a habit.

The newspaper ads helped me decide our meals as I mostly bought whatever was on sale.  Ribs were on sale this week so that’s what we had Sunday evening but I didn’t think much about the rest of the week.

dinner plate

Like tonight.

I have no idea what to have.

What are you fixing for dinner tonight?

What did you have last night?

Any ideas for tomorrow?

 

 

Snobs

Mr. Aitch and I are snobs.

Bread snobs.

bread-and-rolls-2

We can barely eat mass-produced bread from the store.  Most of it feels gummy and tastes, well, tasteless.

The texture of bread is known as the crumb and it can be open or close.  Open has a lot of texture and close doesn’t.  Most store-bought mass-produced breads have a close crumb. IMHO that equates to the gumminess.  That’s all I know about bread baking but it’s enough for me to know.

bread-and-rolls-1

In my experience most store-bought mass-produced bread is full of preservatives which can be good as the bread doesn’t mold as quickly.  Locally baked breads from our local bakers tend not to use preservatives in their bread.  Their bread has more texture like what my grandmother used to bake.  One problem is that it molds quickly.  Unrefrigerated and you’ve got maybe 2-3 days before it gets fuzzy.

We don’t eat a like of sliced bread in our house so the solution we came up with involves frozen bread dough.  Yes, it still has preservative in it but we get the texture we like and can have freshly baked bread and rolls every day or two.

Our oven stays off during the summer.  It’s the Mr. Aitch Law in our house.  So how do we get freshly baked bread and rolls?

The gas grill.

bread-and-rolls-3

We only bake enough that the two of us can eat within a few days.

Rolls

Since we grill almost every day, it’s not a problem to do bread, or rolls, or hamburger buns, or pepperoni rolls, or cinnamon rolls when we need/want them.

bread

The smell of freshly baked bread just makes me hungry.  🙂

 

More for you

I’ve tried.

I’ve really tried.

I’ve tried it on toast.  No thank you.

I’ve tried it on ice cream.  Didn’t work out for me.  Just how does one get this to hot fudge consistency?

I’ve eaten it right out of the jar.

I add hazelnut flavored creamer to my hot chocolate but I don’t like this.

I wanted to like it.

But I just don’t.

Maybe I’m not eating it right.

So now there’s more for you to enjoy. What’s your favorite way to eat this stuff?  Do tell…

nutella