The countdown to the end of our summer vacation has officially begun. One week from tomorrow we will load the cars and drive away, turning our backs on another summer. I wonder if the kids understand all that goes into making this happen.
I've been sending things back home with Jim the last two weeks to lessen the load for the final trip home. Even though we can walk to the little mom & pop grocery in less than 10 minutes, I'm avoiding little trips to pick up this or that. If we don't have the ingredients, we either won't make it or we'll substitute something else.
I'm hoping to kick as many of the condiments as possible. Half empty containers of ketchup, mustard, relish and nayonaisse take up so much space in a cooler. I'm also working on using as many of the half full containers of grains, beans and flours that I can because these too will take up precious space on the ride home.
The ride home is much different than the ride up . On the ride up everyone is giddy with anticipation and the jam packed car just lends to the happy hysteria. On the way home, everyone is a bit bummed out and being crowded in just makes everyone cranky. I'm the crankiest of them all.
This morning brought cooler weather and with it I decided to do a little baking. I tried the Oatmeal Coconut Cereal recipe from The More With Less Cookbook. Initially I was dissapointed , it looked like a crumbly mess, but everyone raved about the taste. Its nice to have another cereal recipe in my repertiore.
I discovered some frozen currants in the freezer and used the 8 Minute Awesome Strawberry Jam recipe to make currant jam. I then used the currant jam in the Raspberry Fig Bar recipe from The Garden of Vegan.
I wanted to make some kind of wrap tonight so, in the interest of using up a bit more flour, I made Navajo Fry Bread. It is one of the quickest and easiest bread recipes that I can think of. We stuffed these with a mashed bean salad, using some of the aforementioned condiments. I think cooking like this is so empowering. At the very least, it should stave off Alzheimer's for a while.
I'm putting some beans in the slow cooker tonight so I can start the whole process over again tomorrow.
2 comments:
Sorry to hear your fun summer is already drawing to a close. I totally agree about transporting bits and pieces of leftover food. Sounds like you are finding tasty creative ways to use them up!
thanks for the links!
very creative!
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