Archive for October, 2009

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Tinned Fish Casserole

October 29th, 2009, posted in Food & Drink

Ever had one of those days when you wished you hadn’t picked up the phone? I just did. I received some bad news, news I’d been expecting for about 6 months, but hoped wouldn’t come. There is a reason I call myself an optimistic pessimist. I hope for the best, but I always expect the worst, and over the past five years…well, it’s hard not to be pessimistic. Sometimes I wish I could just turn the clock back and start over.

So when you’ve had an ultra shitty day and end up deciding you don’t want to leave home because of it…but you’re trying to figure out what to do for dinner because really, the same cannelloni starts to pale after three days of eating it… turn to Granny’s recipes. Her tuna casserole that is.

Actually, what I make barely resembles her old recipe, but the bones are the same, I’ve just modified it over the years with whatever is available in the fridge, freezer and cupboard.

Regardless, it comfort food to the nines and on a shitty rainy day, after some shitty self-confidence crushing news, well, tuna/salmon casserole sounds good to me.

About 6 cups cooked rice
2 cans of tuna
2 cans of salmon
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
Equivalent of the above cream of mushroom soup can filled with milk
1 onion, chopped (or a bunch of green onions chopped)
About 4 good sized carrots, chopped
About 4 celery stalks, chopped
Whatever other veg you feel like putting in (peas work really well, my favourite actually, just didn’t have any today, green beans work well too. Corn or broccoli, not so much, they do something funny to the flavour balance.)
Fresh ground pepper
Maybe a dollop of dijon mustard
Perhaps some hot paprika

Mash up the canned fish in a bowl and add the veggies. Mix them up fairly well, then mix in the cooked rice.

In another bowl, mix the mushroom soup, milk, mustard, pepper, and paprika together.

Pour the soup mixture over the fish mixture and mix it with a spoon until relatively well combined. Smooth out the top and grate some parmesan over the top if you feel so inclined and have some in the fridge. I actually used a knob of asiago that I had tonight.

Shove it in a 375F oven for about an hour covered, and then remove the cover for 30 minutes until brown and crusty on top. It’s forgiving so you can cover or not, cook longer or shorter. Nothing really does any damage to it.

It’s not heavily spiced, but you can do that if you want, go nuts, add dill, parsley, thyme, any of those works well. It’s not all that exciting, but paired with a salad or as a side dish it is nice and comforting in a 1940′s kind of way. And it is fabulous warmed up for lunches.

So, when life seems shitty, wrap yourself into some of Granny’s comfort food and try to find a bright spot on the horizon.

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AppTrap

October 27th, 2009, posted in Mac Stuff

OK, I love this little application. Not only is it totally useful, but it’s free.

If you come from the world of PC’s you know what it is to uninstall a program. Or should I say, you know what a pain it is to uninstall a program.

You know the drill… “Should I use the uninstaller with the program, or should I remove using Task Manager” Regardless, you’ll be left with some crap files hanging around and bits and bobs int he registry that slowly but inexorably lead to the eventual proverbial plugging of pipelines. And eventually, you’ll be so frustrated you don’t have a choice but to reformat…and kiss a day or two goodbye in the process.

Yes, everyone will tell you that on a Mac all you need to do is grab the application and drag it to the trash bin and voila, it’s all gone. Well…. not really…. it still leaves preference files and a few odds and sods lying around. Not as much, and they are easier to find, but they are still left in the library.

So what to do…..

Meet AppTrap.

A handy dandy, and did I mention that it’s free, program that will quietly sit in the background until needed. When you decide that your application of choice is no longer needed, simply drag and drop it into the trash bin and AppTrap will do the rest. It will leap into action (assuming you set it up to do so int he PrefPane) and find all associated files (i.e. the one or two other preference files associated with your application – be very jealous PC users!) and ask if you’d like to trash them also.

Say yes, and the program and all it’s remnants are totally and completely historical entities on your Mac.

Easy Peasy.

Oh, and there is another (also free) option out there. It’s called AppCleaner. Also a spectacular little application, although it works a little differently.

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Muffin Mistake

October 27th, 2009, posted in Food & Drink

I tried another batch of muffins today and screwed up when i was reading my scribbles and revisions…and in doing so, I think I actually nailed them!

I had changed my recipe to half buttermilk and half sour cream…but I messed up and added too much buttermilk… so then I just tossed in a couple more tablespoons of flour to sop it up…and they worked perfectly!

Moist, chewy, fairly dense, mild tasting…. yes, I think I finally have my cottage cheese muffin recipe perfected at long last.

Cottage Cheese Muffins

3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
about 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese finely grated
3 or 4 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese (I used a lightly aged orange cheddar, not something I usually buy though) (Note: might need less as the oil might weigh them down a bit, play with it and the cheese you are using)
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tablespoons white sugar

Mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl, mix the dry stuff in another.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and blend with a spatula until barely moistened through. DON’T OVERMIX!

Pile into 6 jumbo muffin cups and bake at 375F until done. My oven is temperamental so it takes about 25 minutes. Set the timer for 15 minutes and check them, they are done when they are a lovely golden brown on top (probably about 20 minutes).

Turn out of the muffin tin and allow to cool.

YUM!

That’s it, that’s the last recipe modification. I’m happy with them and they compared pretty favourably with the ones from the bakery. And amazingly, they are so good that I’m actually not sick of them.

Took about 20 batches, but here they are finally!

___________

Recap -

Muffins …. Round…I Lost Track

The Continuing Sage of the Search for the Perfect Cottage Cheese Muffin

Damn F$$#@!!ng Muffins!

Muffin Mania – In Other Words, Round Four

Muffins – Round 3

Muffin Mission Round 2

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Not so fast….

October 27th, 2009, posted in That's Life

We decided last night to forgo the floors. Only because we can’t find anything we like more than what we have. None of the vinyl flooring is white enough to stand up to the glossy white of the cupboards and it ends up looking like what it is….plastic. I found a nice cork flooring, but it would add significant height and also isn’t white enough. In both cases the floorings are too pink or too yellow. To replace the tile would require a jackhammer to remove it. Our floor below the tile is concrete which means that the tile is as good as welded onto it…. to put down new tile we would be looking at about $5 per square foot to remove it, another $5-$10 per square foot to buy new tile, and another $5 per square foot to lay it. For that cost, we can fill the 20 chips in the existing floor and go back to loving it.

I found a couple of backsplash tile ideas that I like. One is a small pebble sheet that would look fabulous cut in a 6″ wave running above the granite. Unfortunately, we’d be doing it ourselves if we go that route….Brian basically said “have fun with that” so we have a plan B. A gunmetal grey 4″ square tile in a single row topped with a 2″ stainless steel thickness of mini tiles. It would tie in with the new appliances and pull the kitchen together nicely. So I think we will go that route. It’s funky and industrial.

Unfortunately the sink and faucet are backordered! So this won’t start as soon as we thought.

Gives me time to mull over that bathroom that I hate so much…..

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A New Kitchen

October 26th, 2009, posted in That's Life

About six years ago I decided I hated our bathroom faucet.

That started a bit of a snowball effect and we ended up ripping out our carpet and putting in wood laminate floors, crown moulding, casing in the windows and closets.

We painted the place full of colour.

We put a sound system in the bedroom, bought a cool new platform storage bed and a gorgeous computer cabinet to replace the desk.

We bought a new washer/dryer and reclaimed storage space in the laundry closet.

This weekend we were shocked when a friend of ours (who is a General Contractor) said he could do our kitchen. Brian has never had the time to do anything for us and usually just tells us how to do it and sends us on our way to do it ourselves (like the flooring and the crown moulding). But suddenly he’s offered to do our kitchen! And we are jumping on it!

So over the weekend we chose a new fridge and stove and range hood, picked out a sink and new faucet and chose a hardwired filtered hot & cool water on demand system for under the sink. That will free up space on the counter (and get rid of our thermal pot) and in the fridge (bye bye Brita). We picked out granite counter tops. I’m off today to take a look at a place he recommended for backsplash tiles and potentially to find some flooring.

We are going to be without a kitchen for two weeks…but I am very excited.

And six years later…I still hate my bathroom faucet!

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