Saturday, December 27, 2008

Let her eat cake

I like to make things, especially my own food. I believe that it is quickly becoming a lost art. Also making my own food is a lot cheaper than eating out all the time, and in these times frugality is the new black.

As anyone who reads this knows I can, freeze or otherwise preserve food during the summer and fall, with varying degrees of success. Part of this is because I am new to this skill, but the other part is because I try to preserve things in small quantities. For example my friend who cans tomatoes, does so in 1 litre jars, my tomatoes are canned in 500 ml jars. I tend not to need a litre of canned tomatoes. This need to make things smaller extends to most of my food.

Most recipes are far too much for one person, thus I am usually on the look for good recipes that are for 1 or 2 people. I have found some cookbooks that I regularly use and through trial and error (usually a lot of error) I have modified a number of my favorite recipes. Most meal type recipes tend to make 4 servings. In general I find that these are the easiest recipes to half. Yes there are some recipes that I make the entire amount, chili is one, but this is because I freeze the unused portions and later have them for lunch at work.

However I find making a couple of cookies or one portion of cake, or even just a bit of bread to be much more difficult. I have found that you cannot just half baking recipes. The few times I have done this have not been pretty or tasty. So when I want a cookie or two, or some cake I usually go to the baker and buy something. Really this can get expensive and while individual cookies are easy enough to get, but 1 piece of cake can present some problems. Yes I could go to Safeway, but then what do I do with the plastic clam shell. As to making a normal sized cake, again it is only me and I do not like having the leftovers in the house. Far too tempting.

However I have found a cookbook that is looking promising. Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. I am not sure how things will turn out, but perhaps there is cake in my future. I'll let you know the results.

Friday, December 26, 2008

It's Snowing Again...

Again, I am such a bad blogger.

As I type it is once again snowing outside of my apartment. Yes it is picturesque, beautiful, serene, Christmasy if you will. But I am tired of it. I know I should not complain, I am Canadian and snow is a part of being Canadian. Furthermore, I do not have to shovel it anymore. I am sure most Canadian kids, and some adults, would agree that the person driving the snow plow dumping even more snow on the driveway is not the favorite. Thankfully I no longer have to shovel snow. I live in an apartment and this is taken care of strata.

Forecasts indicate that this will continue with the possibility of rain for a day or two, changing again to snow. In other words it is gonna get ugly. Thankfully, I have the next week off, and of course I have enough food to last me many months, let alone a week. There is entertainment, I do have the Internet, cable, books, and a thousand other things. But...I live alone, well not alone, there is George and Sweetie Pie, but they tend to sleep a lot, as cats do. I may be starting to feel some cabin fever. It has only been a few days, but I am missing just being around other people. Of course if you talk to me after having company for a week, I am sure my thoughts and feelings will be quite different.