I’m noticing a trend here at HeyLucy. Weekends seem to be full of good cooking lately. I’ve been stocking my freezer pretty regularly now, and since the weather really turned this weekend, it’s a comforting feeling to know that now on those chilly evenings when I get home from work I can pop something really delicious in the oven and have a nice warm dinner. Saturday night Mr. Heylucy and I made albondigas soup, and doubled the amount of meatballs so we could stick a bunch in the freezer. I love soup season! Hopefully Mr. Heylucy will start chopping wood and we can sit by the fire and eat soup. That is one of my favorite things about cold weather.

I also did a little baking this morning. Since starting my healthy eating plan earlier this year, I haven’t done much baking, but I thought it was time for a treat, so I made some bread pudding with a loaf of brioche. I thought I’d savor the last of the summer berries, and added fresh blueberries and strawberries. Oh my, it was so delicious and decadant.

Here it is before baking:

And after baking (I wish I had smell-o-vision for you):

It was crispy on the top and custardy underneath, and even though I thought I was a little stingy with the berries while I was making it, there really were plenty, since they sort of melted into it everywhere. Yum.

I worked on some things for the shop too, but didn’t finish as much as I would have liked. Still, there are a few things listed and more well underway. I finished my second book, but didn’t have time to take pictures, so it won’t be there before tomorrow night. I really hope to have a few more pincushions with matching needlebooks added by the end of the week, as well as three little chicks. Meanwhile, I tidied up a sock monkey I made ages ago and added some finishing touches to her outfit, so she is looking for a good home:

And I really like this cushion cover I made. I’d like to make more of these, with different animals and colors:

The bunny is stenciled and quilted. I love toile, but I think it might not be quite as stylish as it once was, so I think this gives it a nice little modern twist. The gardening scenes in this particular pattern made me think of Peter Rabbit. I hope I didn’t give these two gardeners nightmares by superimposing a giant bunny on them. He’s coming to eat their cabbages!

 

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As usual, I did some cooking this weekend. First of all I decided to enjoy some tomatoes while they’re still at their peak, and made a classic insalate caprese.

Using a variety of heirloom cherry tomatoes might not be completely authentic, but it was delicious.

Then I continued my Italian theme with an even more inauthentic lasagna. Following Melissa’s suggestion in a comment on my post about freezer meals, I decided to make a couple small pans for the freezer, as well as the one I baked last night. The ingredients were a little trailer park-ish (I went to Fresh & Easy for the cheese, and they were all out of ricotta, so I used cottage cheese, and the sauce was from a can), but I have to say, and Mr. HeyLucy can confirm, that it was one delicious pan of lasagna.

Look at that drippy, yummy mess! There are three layers, each with a layer of noodles in between. I started by smearing a little marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish and topping it with noodles. The bottom is Italian sausage and extra lean ground beef, cooked with some chopped onion and a small can of tomato sauce, topped with a light layer of mozzarella. The middle layer is low-fat cottage cheese mixed with lots of fresh chopped basil and a tablespoon or so of dried oregano and topped with marinara sauce. The top layer is thinly sliced zucchini and spinach, topped with a thin layer of alfredo sauce. Add another sheet of noodles, top with marinara sauce and a sprinking of mozzarella, and bake until bubble-y and golden, and don’t worry about cleaning the oven until tomorrow if you want to be just like me. I left the zucchini out of the frozen pans, because I wasn’t sure how it would freeze. Have you ever seen frozen zucchini? I don’t think I have. There must be a reason for that.

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In
my never ending quest for more organization and efficiency, I’ve been changing
up my meal planning lately. One thing I’m trying to do is plan things that will
last for several meals, like Chicken Taco Stew,
or make things on the weekend that I can freeze and quickly cook later in the
week. Since I typically don’t get home until well after 7:00 p.m., if I want to
eat something somewhat healthy, it has to be fast and easy.

My long commute
also seems to make me really hungry, and I have been known to eat things like
cookies and milk for dinner. That’s not a good habit. One of my current
favorites for the freezer is gyoza (or potstickers, or dumplings, depending on
the version). Reading this, what I make
is definitely the Japanese version, which makes sense, since my recipe is
originally from a Japanese friend I had in college. I wish I still had the handwritten copy she
gave me; I remember she drew the exact size of the garlic clove and piece of
ginger to be used.

I’m also finding that assembling a whole bunch of these on a Sunday evening is a nice, soothing activity for ending the weekend. So,
here is what I do:

Chicken
Gyoza

Makes
about 3 ½ dozen

Napa
cabbage (1/2 a large, or 1 small)

1
lb. Ground chicken (this recipe is easily adaptable, feel free to use pork or
turkey, if you’d like, I’ve made it with those meats as well)

2
green onions (scallions), finely minced

1
large clove of garlic, finely minced

2
T finely minced ginger

A
splash of soy sauce-around 2 tablespoons

A
package square or round wonton skins/wrappers

Chop
up the cabbage and steam. When it’s done cooking, squeeze out as much water as
possible and chop it up a little more. Mix together all the ingredients except
the wonton skins, of course. Set up your work area to make your gyoza: have a
small bowl of water and a baking dish or cookie sheet lined with parchment
paper. Pick up a wonton skin, place a teaspoonful of the chicken mixture in the
middle, wet a finger in the bowl of water and moisten two adjacent sides of the
wrapper (or half the circumference if using round ones). Fold the wrapper in
half diagonally and seal the edges. Bunch the edges up a bit and place the
finished gyoza in the dish on the parchment paper. Repeat until you have no more
filling and/or wonton skins. I have yet to come out perfectly even, but it’s
usually pretty close. Extra wonton skins can be lightly fried and used in a
Chinese style salad. Here’s my pan, ready to go in the freezer:

At
this point, you can put your dish in the freezer, and when the gyoza are frozen
solid you can put them in a plastic Ziploc bag, and store them back in the
freezer. You can also cook them without freezing. Frozen or fresh, I cook them
the same way. Heat a little canola oil in a wok or sauté pan. Toss in a few
gyoza and let them brown on a couple sides. Once they’re looking nice and
crispy, add about a quarter cup of water and cover. Let the gyoza steam for a
few minutes, shaking the pan every now and then so they don’t stick.

I
usually make myself 4 or 5 or 6 (depending on how hungry I am), and do a quick
stir-fry of mixed vegetables and maybe a little brown rice for a satisfying but
reasonably healthy meal.

Do
you have some good, healthy, fast and easy freezer meals that you rely on?

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Do you recognize this face?


It’s been in the 90s and Winston just looks so hot, poor little guy. He was constantly jumping in Sally’s wading pool to cool his tootsies. Mr. Heylucy, who is easily over-heated himself, couldn’t take it anymore and decided Winston needed a haircut. I had given it a half-hearted attempt a few weeks ago, but when Winston ran off at the sound of the clippers, I gave up. Mr. Heylucy was not so easily deterred, and locked the two of them in the bathroom for well over an hour. When they emerged I barely recognized my dog.


We have also determined that we can cross "Professional Dog Grooming" off our list of possible career paths.

Once Winston recovered from the trauma of the experience, I think he was quite happy with his cooler coiffure. I like to think that he posed for the above photo as a tribute to Nell. Please come home Nell!

One last look at the hack job:


This one is mostly just to show off that he’s shaking my hand. It might also be to show off my cute sandals. He looks so funny, I keep doing double-takes. It feels like we have a whole different dog. But he seems to be cooler and more comfortable, so that’s the important thing. Oh, and I cleaned up all the fur from the bathroom floor-it filled, to the top, a big paper grocery bag. That’s a lot of fur.

Other than cleaning up dog fur I was really lazy this weekend. I think it was just one of those times when you need to do nothing. It was a rough week. We’ve been invaded by ants, the cats managed to pull one of my curtain brackets out of the wall with their craziness, I took some Advil liquigels on an empty stomach and ended up doubled over in pain for an entire day, I had to spend a day last weekend with my mother-in-law, and I spattered mud all over my white jeans while filling the chicken waterer as I rushed off for work one morning. Life is hard sometimes. So I stayed in my pajamas until Saturday afternoon. Then I was so worn out from showering and getting dressed that I had to take a nap. We did have to eat, however, so I made some good food.

This is my luxurious fruit salad:

I’ve been making my standard fruit salad several times a week, but I decided to treat myself this weekend, and added a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of brown sugar, instead of my usual orange juice and mint. So delicious! I could practically eat creme fraiche right out of the tub. I’m going to miss all that summer fruit when it’s gone.

Then I made the best caesar salad ever, thanks to Jamie:

Several of you suggested Caesar salad when I asked for anchovy ideas, and the very next week, what did Jamie make on Jamie at Home? His proper Caesar salad. There’s nothing healthy about this one, but it’s so very delicious, and I think the anchovies are essential this time around, so don’t leave them out! Trust me.

I didn’t use my whole loaf of ciabatta for the salad, so I enjoyed it as a snack:

I love olive oil with fresh ground pepper, sea salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes for dipping bread.

I think I really like taking pictures of food.

I hope to get over my laziness this week, and do some sewing and other things. The requested t-shirt tutorial is on my to-do list, and I hope to catch up on e-mail. Don’t forget to join in the Project Runway discussion, if you are so inclined. I’m hoping this season will start to get more interesting this week, or at least that I’ll be able to tell all the designers apart by the end of the show.

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I’m sorry about leaving pictures of myself at the top for so long! Let’s replace them with a picture of Lucy, shall we? Is it just me, or is she just one photogenic cat? I think she likes having her picture taken. As soon as I get the camera out, she’s right there, sticking her face in it. Note to self: clean the cat nose prints off the lens before taking any more pictures.

Recently my Tivo recorded an episode of Jamie Oliver, and darn it if I don’t have a new cooking crush. That particular episode was all about strawberries, and I definitely want to make rice pudding with fresh strawberry jam and meringues, but when I was browsing through his latest cookbook, this recipe caught my eye:

Potatoes, stuffed with bacon, sage and garlic. Genius! Doesn’t it look delicious? I thought the picture of the raw potatoes was so pretty, but wondered why they chose to show the uncooked version, rather than the finished version. Well, duh. Because as delicious as it was, I don’t know that you could possibly take an attractive picture. This is the best I could do:

Not exactly appetizing, but I promise, these little gems were tasty. The only criticism I have is that each potato includes an anchovy filet in each little bacon bundle. Jamie says not to let it worry you, it’s just to add a nice richness. Honestly, they tasted a little too fishy for me, and I’m leaving them out next time. Also, what can I do with half a can of anchovies? Suggestions are welcome. I might just give them to the chickens, though.

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I haven’t had a lot of time lately to take pictures, so I decided to make the most of my lazy Saturday and take a few. I also ate some very delicious food, so I combined the two activities and took artful pictures of what I ate. My kitchen table sits in a corner where there are two large windows, so the light is quite nice there. I know I’m probably a little weird, but hopefully you will appreciate at least one of these elements of my day-pretty pictures and/or pretty food.

I started the day with my usual yogurt and berries, but I had a treat of fresh raspberries instead of frozen blueberries. Mr. HeyLucy can be very thoughtful and generous, and likes to bring me ‘treats’ when he goes to the grocery store. I’ve been trying for months to get him to understand that four pints of ice cream and a giant box of chocolate chip cookies are not treats that I want every week. It finally, finally clicked, and this week he brought me a big box of fresh raspberries, and a package of fish (tandoori tuna, or something exotic like that). Go Mr. HeyLucy! Good job :o)


I tried Agave Nectar for the first time, instead of my usual honey. It was quite tasty.

Later I had a snack of figs and goat cheese, drizzled with honey. A couple summers ago I discovered that fresh figs are one of my favorite fruits, while spending a lazy afternoon at a friend’s house by her pool. Her neighbor had a fig tree, and had given her a huge box. I couldn’t stop eating them. I think fig season is fairly short, and I don’t know if you can get figs everywhere, but if you see them, try them! I love how they are sort of ugly on the outside, but slice them open and they’re all pink and lovely on the inside.


I love fig season! It also coincides with peony season, which is another of my favorites. I’ve had a bunch on my desk at work every week for the past month. I bought another bunch for home on Friday. They’re just starting to open, so I’ll be taking pictures of them over the next few days as they get bigger.


One last meal:


Chicken potstickers and ponzu sauce for dipping, and a bowl of edamame. The frozen potstickers from Trader Joe’s are a staple in our freezer, and I like ponzu sauce so much more than just plain soy sauce.


The bottle is quite pretty too. But that doesn’t mean I never use soy sauce. In fact, I just bought a little sauce pot to fill with soy sauce and keep by the stove. It’s much prettier than the plain Kikkoman bottle with the red lid I was using, and a bargain at only $5 at the Japanese market.   


Are you hungry yet?

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