Food Inventory Management!

We’ve run into some problems in the kitchen. Don’t worry, there wasn’t a fire (actually, there was – but we confined it to a small metal pot). What I mean is, we’ve had poor food inventory management – a result of poor planning!

When we got married, we decided it was a great idea to plan each week’s breakfasts, lunches, and dinners ahead of time so we could make sure we had all the materials we needed for the week. Last week, when we ran out of lunch food on Wednesday and never had the right ingredients to make dinner, we realized we had yet to fully implement this “plan ahead” method – and indeed forgot about it altogether!

So we planned out a food schedule for the week yesterday:

• Monday: Calzones
• Tuesday: Curry (test run)
• Wednesday: Brian’s not home; caesar salad for Cat
• Thursday: Chicken Caesar burgers (with leftover salad dressing), guests for dinner
• Friday: Curry (full run), guests for dinner

So, hopefully, we can remember to plan ahead every weekend and hit the grocery store before the week begins! If not, we’ll return to pantry pillaging…

21 & 23

Brian and I knew we were soul mates when we figured out that our birthdays are 1 day apart, and that our mothers share the same birthday.

…that statement is a bit of a lie, given that I don’t know what/who “soul mates” are. But, the bit about the birthday coincidences is true. And we just enjoyed our collective birthday weekend. [By 'enjoyed', I really mean we had a mini-honeymoon, a party, and lots of great times with loved ones.]

This mini-honeymoon I mention came upon us by accident. It all started last Friday, when Brian and I spent the day at home; he at work on his precious MacBookPro, and me doing some homework, some movie watching, some baking, etc. For once, we hadn’t made plans that night so by 5pm Brian was logged off and we had the entire night to ourselves! We celebrated by making some delicious pizza (with WholeFoods dough, $2.50 a pop).

You know how we like our food : ). After watching a horrible movie which I won’t even grace with a name, we said goodnight to the day. Then on Saturday, things really got going. Again, we had managed to escape without making plans with anyone, which is a real treat. (We love people. But we’re newlyweds, alright?) As this was the day before Brian’s birthday, we counted it as part of our birthday weekend and therefore did only fun things (along with a few chores). A walk through downtown, Brian’s first trip to Frank’s for a jackelope (antelope venison, rabbit, and pork in a bun!), and just lots of quality time together filled our day. I think this is also the day I tried a new bread recipe, from Sur La Table’s Art and Soul of Baking cookbook, my current obsession.

That became this…

Anyway, back to the birthday story. For Brian, Sunday morning arrived with the smell of pancakes. I had fulfilled my duty as an Updegrove by waking up early to make heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes. We do this on every birthday and holiday, and this was no exception.

After eating his heart, some round pancakes became pacmen.

I won’t bore you with details of the rest of our busy day, but will fast-forward to the real excitement: dinner at Jeffrey’s with my parents and their good friend John. Actually, the excitement arrived when we opened our menus to find them personalized for Brian! Anyone notice the mistake? Don’t worry, we had it corrected.

And here, besides a delicious dinner and far too much chocolate dessert, my parents gifted us with a SodaStream carbonator.

Brian is a very happy 23 year old.

And since Monday, I’ve been a thrilled 21 year old. Thanks to my wonderful hus’, who took me to the Driskill bakery for brunch (can you say chocolate scone?) and organized a happy-hour at Clive Bar with friends! Here are a few, and yes those children were present at the bar:

After these four days of goodness, Tuesday (and its hurricane-induced weather) was a rough transition. But, I’m still 21!

Our First Tradition

Soon after getting married, we decided to enact a weekly tradition. The idea didn’t require very much cultivating, since it combines some of our favorite things: Saturdays, breakfast, and time together. Our tradition is to spend Saturday mornings baking delicious breakfast foods together. Afterward, we clean the house and go grocery shopping… but that’s less of a tradition, more of a necessity.

So far, we haven’t had to repeat any breakfast foods. We’ve had scones, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, croissants, waffles, french toast, eggs… and they’ve all been wonderful. Frequently, we’re full by the time we sit down at the table, due to the necessary batter licking. But we’re always happily stuffed. We even found a way to heat our syrup without adding to the heat in the kitchen… by setting the glass bottle outside our front door for a few minutes! We’re geniuses, really.

Yums!

This past week after our vacation, I had the week off from work. So I practiced some old and new recipes, making a slew of yummy foods! Here is a sampling (taken with my new iPhone)

Fried Rice in the makings:

Complete table with dumplings and fried rice:


French toast on Homemade Bread:

Brian grilling sausage and veggies for shish kebabs:

Shish Kebab, with jalepeno poppers on their way:

-Cat

Top Chef

This is where I publicly boast about my first successful pie crust and quiche. Yes, I’m shameless. But, Brian helped, so it’s a mutual boasting attempt.

Anyway, Kerin (top chef, top mom, top home school teacher, etc) taught me to make this sausage/salsa quiche last week, and we did it ourselves yesterday. My dad enjoys these cooking attempts… when we make them at his house. Which we did. So he ate about half the pie.

If you think you can do better, take a look at the recipe here.

PS Yes, that’s probably a huge flour stain on my shirt.