use real butter

out of the box
I made pumpkin bread with cranberries and walnuts last night. It’s actually from a mix – but this mix is a Trader Joe’s brand which came in a care package from bodacious babes Erin and Caroline in Seattle. It’s really good, although a tad fluffy for a quick bread. Highly recommended.

comfort dinner
I made meatloaf tonight with kale and mashies. And even though the title of this here blog is one of the prime directives, I do try to make healthy meals so we might live long enough to enjoy our retirement savings. The meatloaf was made with ground turkey and the sauce is not ketchup but a mix of red currant jelly and chili sauce. That’s not necessarily healthier, but I think it tastes better than ketchup. The mashies are baked russets with skin on, green onions, canola margarine, and nonfat plain yogurt. The kale is half stir-fried half steamed.

Happy New Year, all!

I had a major kitchen day, in which I spent nearly 10 hours cooking all sorts of goodies to celebrate the new year properly. I made Chinese hot pot with tons of traditional ingredients like tofu, fish balls, pork meatballs, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, preserved mustard greens, napa cabbage, bean thread noodles, water chestnuts. I also prepared a batch of potstickers from scratch, and stir fried bok choy with mushrooms and water chestnuts.

But that’s just the savory stuff. I also made some sweets. My leftover boozie drinks from last night were poured into the ice tray and I made Jeremy a sort of granita version of a lava flow in the afternoon.

refreshing!

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: peanut butter honey drop cookies (for dogs)

I have been reunited with tofu, because I love it and because it’s been a while. Cold silken tofu cubes with chopped green onions, chopped preserved mustard root, sesame oil, soy sauce, and some shredded dried pork.

memories of home, feels like someone should be screaming at me to study more

tiny bite

Today is my baby puppy’s eighth birthday! We began the morning with me working on the diss and Kaweah working on her beauty sleep. But come lunch time, I decided to make her something special since Jeremy is getting home late tonight. I found a recipe for some doggie treats (selected for the sole reason that it was the only one I had all ingredients for in the house). I literally whipped up the dough in 5 minutes. Now, I cook All The Time, and Kaweah usually sleeps nearby or hangs around in case I drop something edible. But this time, she was sitting right next to me, licking her chops and looking at me expectantly. How did she know?

**Jump for more butter**