I HAVE RETURNED

HEY Y'ALL!

I was so excited when Meg decided to restart this. I really have missed updating the blawg with all the things I am trying to cook, and lately, BAKE :'( I am still no good at it.
Since the last time we were here I have let a MAN! move in with me. We are actually boyfriends/partners/civil union lovers and sometimes he likes my cooking. Due to that I have acquired a lot more fun cooking accessories that I can't wait to share with you.  And as Meg mentioned... WE HAVE iPhones! Thank god because flipping through those old posts gave me a headache. And we have a meow-meow named Harvey Milk Pantsuit Chamberlain-Howard and he is a little angel-baby from heaven.

Things that haven't changed: I am still at my job, I am still terribly broke, and I am still a professional squirrel. (taking food & produce from the office and using it as my main source of cooking ingredients)

Any who, since it is summer there is an OVER-ABBUNDANCE of tomatoes; cherry, grape, baby-roma, etc. I wish I could get some heirloom up in this bitch, but eh. Thus far I have made tomato sauces, sun-dried LOADS of tomatoes in the oven, and had a lot of salads. Any fun whack-a-do tomato ideas would be great. Every other day I come home with this many:

Unfortunately, Keeton doesn't love a lot of tomato applications but he does like the sun-dried tomatoes so I'll keep making boat loads of them for the time being. (Gross side note, my normal drunk snack of white bread, mayo, & Bac-Os has been upgraded with the addition of sun-dried tomates! roll tide)

Recently someone came by with just like two bushels of assorted apples? I couldn't really give a shit less about apples (and it now seems I could have just juiced them) but I made a totally decent apple crumble and some BEAUTIFUL apple-butter. I can't believe it was so easy!

You honestly just peel, core, cut the apples, throw them into the crock-pot with brown sugar, white sugar, and pie spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, clove) and cook for ten hours on low. Add vanilla and cook for two more hours. Use immersion blender to blitz it up and BAM it'll stay good for two weeks in the fridge. I am not putting measurements because I did not know how many pounds of apples I had, and because of that mine butter is rather spicy. HOWEVER, all that means is I have to put a slice of sharp Irish cheddar (or whatever cheese you want) on my apple-buttered-toast. It makes me really happy.

A few more catch up items...

• LABOR DAY WEEKEND! Hopefully some cookouts and grilling and drinking, hopefully. 
• My mother sent me a sourdough starter from Alaska (?) that I have let do its thing and now is chilling in the fridge. Not quite worthy of a photo yet but I want to make some damn bread (OR THE PACKET SUGGESTED WAFFLES) for my damn apple butter. 
• THATS IT. Can't wait to get back in the swing of things with little fixins!!!