2015 Wrap Up, Plus 4 Recipes

It seems like the thing I do most often with this blog is completely drop it for long periods of time.  This is, what, the fourth time I've just completely abandoned it?  At least it didn't take me three years to get back to it this time.

Anyway.

2015 was pretty awful.  We definitely had good times - lots of them, in fact - but also some pretty huge bad times, too.  Between us, my husband and I lost three Grandmas, leaving our son with only one set of Great Grandparents.  This necessitated two drop-everything-and-go-to-Spokane trips for me.  Randy and I both had some pretty serious health issues (although thankfully not long lasting).  In addition, he worked a lot of really long hours over the spring and summer, although with the downturn this year that's a little more like a good thing than a bad thing.

I'm really looking forward to a nice, normal year in 2016.  Good health, happiness, and low stress all around!  Oh, and a Powerball win would be nice, while I'm wishing for things.

I didn't get on just to whine, though.  I do have four recipes to share to close out 2015 and get 2016 started.

1.  German Red Cabbage  This is not really a new recipe for me, I've made it a couple times in the past, but I like it a lot and wanted to share it.  I fussed over this recipe the first time I made it, but have since taken a "throw it all in the pot and clean the kitchen" approach, which seems to work just as well.  This is a nice side dish for meat (I serve it with pork chops), and is very flavorful.  It's also pretty good for you, as proven by this nifty Self.com chart thing.  (Note, the serving size on that site is for one leaf, which has to be the most useless but still vaguely correct unit they could come up with).  Two things to remember about cabbage, though:  not everyone enjoys it (this is apparently a genetic thing), and it will make your house smell like poverty while it's cooking.

2.  Banana Bread Muffins   This was technically a new recipe for me, but it's basically "make banana bread batter, pour into muffin tins", so I won't waste much space on it.

3.  Turkey Soup with Sweet Potatoes  My husband requested soup from the leftover turkey, so I found this.  I tried to keep the ratios of things about correct, but didn't have green beans so I used the rest of the celery from Thanksgiving and threw in some frozen mixed vegetables instead.  I also left out the pasta.  I was a little worried that the sweet potatoes wouldn't cook, but I cut them into about 1/4 inch cubes, and they seemed fine.  Not amazing, but a decent use for leftovers.

4. Herb Roasted Pork Loin  This was a new experience for me, because I very rarely cook large pieces of meat in the oven.  I liked how this turned out, but somehow it took almost twice as long to cook through as the recipe said it would.  I did put a few carrots and potatoes in the bottom of the pan, but I wouldn't have thought that would do it.  I think now that I should have turned the meat over part way through, but I'm not sure that would have helped.  The sauce is very good, though, if you like sweet and salty.  I've made it since to serve with stir fry.

So, there you go.  A blog post only 8 months late.  I think the next one will be about craft projects I did in 2015, then I'll try to update once a week with either a recipe or craft.  I like having a blog, although I am clearly the world's least consistent blogger.

Muffins, muffins everywhere

Well, I've gotten pretty far behind on updating, although I've done alright on the cooking new food front. My husband has been sick in a pretty serious way, although he is getting better now, so hopefully the rhythm of the house will go back to normal. (Edit: Aaaaand, now our son is sick...)

Recipe 7:  Blueberry Muffins Two Ways

I made these at the same time, so I'm going to count them as one recipe now, although I might come back and count them separately if I come up short at the end of the year.

Recipe 7.1:  Blueberry and Banana Whole Wheat Muffins

I like baking with whole wheat because it feels healthier and more satisfying. These muffins, however, did end up a bit heavy and mealy, which can be the downside of whole wheat. They were also bit bland. I'm not sure whether to blame that on the lack of additional sugar, or the complete lack of salt. They were fine, but more "mature", I guess, and tasted like health food. They also started to mold after only a few days on the counter.

Oh, final caveat: this recipe fit just fine in 12 muffin cups. If I had spread the batter between 18 cups as recommended, I think they would have been disappointingly small.

Recipe 7.2: Blueberry Applesauce Whole Wheat Muffins

These turned out much better. They were both sweeter (not surprising, since they have 3/4 cup sugar), and lighter. They had more of the springy, cake-like texture I want in a muffin. While I think the other recipe will be left on the shelf, this will probably make it into the pre-planned breakfast rotation.