Sunday Wrapup

[neadods]

Little Free Library
I used to swap the books out every week, but then I came back from having ignored the thing for 3 weeks over the Christmas break and all but 6 books were gone. (It holds about 35.) Also, some books stayed a week and then were taken on day 10. So I'm going for slow churn now rather than fast turnover.

GIVEN: A couple of Lee Child novels

LEFT & RETURNED: Under the Tuscan Sun, 102 Minutes (then left again)

LEFT: La Vera Cucina cookbook, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sudoku, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Wishbones, The World According to Clarkson, Time to Run

House Renovation
After complaints of not enough seats in the living room during the 12th night get-together, I've moved a large armchair from the library to the living room and given it a slipcover to make it match. It makes the living room a tad cramped, but it certainly did a lot to declutter the library!

Also, I got new silverware (another complaint, as the former new silverware was unbalanced and kept falling off plates) and new wire racks to put it in.

52 Organizing Missions
How to Have More Personal Time
3 Things to Immediately Strike Off Your To-Do List

52 Weight Loss Missions
Observe Your Behavior in a Log, Blog, or Journal
Keep a Food Diary

... I realize this looks like a lot, but I'm actually knocking off all the really easy ones to accomplish up front, which is probably cheating.

New Recipe
By the way, I've taken a good look at the Cook's Illustrated Science of Cooking book and realized that at least half the chapters I either already know the lesson, aren't interested in any of the recipes, or do not eat that food. So I'm taking it off the resolutions list. I do intend to try a new recipe every week... although I'm kinda goldbricking by having tried a new nuke-a-food instead of actually cooking something this week. Eh, I tried two recipes last week.

Oh, and I'm still looking for a baked bean recipe.


7 items donated/trashed
Still haven't done that. Am doubtless going to have to do a whole lot some week to make up for it. Unfortunately, considering the clutter around here, that's not going to be hard.

Other Accomplishments
- Attended going out of business sale of local yarn store
- Clinic shift
- Negotiated Stratford vacation w/M and got B&B accommodations. (We're going up the last week in August, with a return just before Labor Day.)
- Caught up 4 out of 11 Elementary episodes for article (I know there are 12 episodes, but I'm not rewatching the pedophile/child murder one again for any reason, essays be damned)

Today I'm going to contact the people running 221BCon to see if I can get on a couple of the panels. There's one Elementary that I seriously need to grab quotes from, and I also need to wrap up the 2012 financial records and put them away. There's other paperwork I'd like to do, but I also just started reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookshop and there's some question of whether I'll be able to put it down.

Comments

Baked Beans Recipe

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

Slow-Baked Beans With Kale

2 or 3 bunches kale, stemmed and washed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 2/3 cups white beans (3/4 pound) or dried lima beans, picked over and soaked for at least four hours and drained
1 6-ounce can tomato paste, dissolved in 1 cup water
3 cups additional water
A bouquet garni consisting of 4 parsley sprigs, 2 thyme sprigs and a bay leaf
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
Salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs

• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt generously and add the kale. Blanch for two minutes and transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain, squeeze out water and cut into ribbons. Set aside. (I blanch the kale to extract some of the bitterness, but you can skip this step if you wish).

• Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a large ovenproof casserole. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about five minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add the dissolved tomato paste, and bring to a simmer.

• Add the drained beans, the remaining water, the spices, salt and pepper. Stir in the kale, bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven. Bake three hours until the beans are tender and creamy. Taste and adjust salt.

• Mix together the remaining olive oil and the breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the bread- crumbs over the beans, and continue to bake another 30 minutes to an hour until lightly browned.



Note: Make sure that the beans come to a simmer on top of the stove before placing them in the oven. Do not use old beans, which will not soften no matter how long you simmer them. If the beans do not soften in the oven after a couple of hours, raise the heat to 300 degrees. If you live at a high altitude, raise the oven temperature and let the beans bake for longer.

Yield: Serves six.

Advance preparation: You can make this recipe through Step 3 and store it in the refrigerator up to four days ahead of serving. Top with the bread crumbs, and reheat in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes until the beans are bubbling and the bread crumbs lightly browned.

Nutritional information per serving (six servings): 370 calories; 8 grams fat (1 gram saturated fat); 0 milligrams cholesterol; 58 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 191 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 19 grams protein

Re: Baked Beans Recipe

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Glanced at that too fast and misread it as "Slow Baked Beans with Kate"....

Oops!

Re: Baked Beans Recipe

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cooking show. Or a horror movie.

Re: Baked Beans Recipe

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Something Hannibal Lecter would enjoy for dinner?

Re: Baked Beans Recipe

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ooo, with green veg even! Thank you!