Well, the baguette was good…

Tonight was the night all inspiration was lost. After a hellish day at the office, a hellish day inside my tummy, and feeling like we were in the middle of hell in the high-90-degree weather here in El Paso, I just for the life of me couldn’t think of anything good to eat, nor did I have the inclination to think outside the box. How awful!
So I turned to the box…a box of organic whole wheat penne and generic four cheese pasta sauce, a salad, and a frozen baguette for dinner. The pasta tasted as it should. Truly organic. As organic as the recycled paper box it came in, as a matter of fact. Only the sauce (highly customized with lots of pepper flakes, thyme and salt) made the pasta edible, and I mean JUST edible. Thank god the frozen baguette, popped into the oven for 10 minutes, was nice and crispy with a very soft, doughy center.
Ohhhh I hate it when I have those nights of no inspiration! It reverberates into everything, making dinner a not so pleasant environment and making both of us cranky (although poor Christian insisted my pasta was “okay.”)
Tomorrow, at least, we head on up to the mountains, where we can cook outside on the grill and nothing we cook involves boxes. Thinking more like fresh rainbow trout en papillote (well, tin foil), grilled veggies and maybe some ‘smores. And maybe I’ll get my culinary mojo back! One can’t live on baguettes and Belly Bars forever!
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We’ll be roughing it at a cabin this weekend, one that has no wireless connectivity (EEEK!!!), but there is a little coffee house in the small village that offers wireless access. So it’s iffy I’ll be checking in, but then again, I do have to have my blog like I have to have my coffee. Straight up, first thing in the morning…

Can you guess?

Alright, for a little something different. I am introducing my first contest on this blog, and if anyone can guess what this compilation of photos is, they will win an El Paso goodie bag! I’ll fill it with local kitchen basics like tortillas, chiles, hot sauce, Mexican peanut candy and tamarind candies and send it off to you FREE! First person who guesses correctly.
Simply email me at krautundcracker@gmail.com if you have an idea.
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Yesterday we had lunch at Quizno’s downtown, which I like more than Subway, because Quizno’s bread tastes better to me, and because you can’t beat the 2 for $5 special: A bullet sandwich (turkey pesto for me) and a honey mustard chicken salad. Oh, and I also had a completely unnecessary but completely good oatmeal raisin cookie afterward. I have had an outrageous sweet tooth lately and it’s getting out of control. Even if I’m not hungry after a meal, I grab a cookie or a piece of chocolate. Ugggh!
I used to be a “savory” girl. Meaning my cravings were for things not sweet, but savory or bread-y. If you gave me a baguette fresh out of the oven, I was in heaven. Now it’s a slice of cheesecake or raspberry coffeecake. Note to self: no cookies or cakes today. Okay, maybe a frozen yogurt from Kinley’s….

The lovely bones

Last time we made ribs, I’d made the careless mistake of saving the bones and giving them to my dogs. I thought that beef ribs were safe for dogs, but when my father told me one of my dogs (they live with him since I’m in an apartment) had regurgitated a shard of bone, I realized no bone is safe.
However, being frugal is one thing I’m not careless about, and I didn’t want to see a big pile of meat, marrow and flavor go to waste, so I got out the ole Crock Pot after our rib dinner last night, and started some white bean stew with ribs bobbing up and down for flavor. I added to the Crock Pot:

1. 2 cups dried white beans
2. 4 cups water
3. Dried black Trumpet mushrooms from MarxFoods, about 1/2 cup
4. About 5 dried and crushed serrano peppers
5. 3 beef broth cubes
6. A few sprinkles of Mrs. Dash
7. 4 cloves (whole) of garlic

I set it on high for about 1 hour, then before bed (early last night, 9:15 p.m.) I put it on low. Now, with insomnia, I’m up at 4 and the beans are done. The entire apartment smells amazing, and the meat that was left on the ribs after Christian and I finished just has melted into the bean “soup” (more like a cassoulet than a soup). I look forward to serving this with toasted baguette and a simple salad tonight.
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In the meantime, back to the ribs. We have ribs about once a week, our little splurge which actually has turned out not to be so overindulgent (calorie-wise yes, pocketbook no). We buy a pack of ribs from Albertson’s, and we’ve found the cheapest ribs usually have more meat on them than the more expensive ones! Go figure. If it’s by weight, then I guess the bones weigh more than the meat. Anyway, we got a full rack for about $8, a container of orange juice, a bottle of Baby Ray Barbeque Sauce … and that’s it. The damage for our ingredients was about $13, which is what one serving would cost at a restaurant … for half a rack. And ours lasts for two meals. Although the ribs take 4 1/2 hours to cook, all you do is baste, and add it to the oven, and that’s it.
We served ours with baguette and salad, and tried very hard to be dignified, use our manners and eat slowly, but forget it. It’s ribs! We grunted, groaned, shoveled, picked, slurped and smacked. I can think of no other food where one can lose all inhibitions about decorum. Can you?

A slow hump …….. day.

😉 Sorry, couldn’t resist. It’s Wednesday, Hump Day, the middle of the work week and we’re not in the mood or in the financial position to go out to dinner or out at all, for that matter, so we’re taking it easy and making dinner here. Well, Christian is. Polish sausage with Händlmaier’s mustard I smuggled over from Germany, sauerkraut (made with lard, onions and caraway), salad and leftover baguette and Brie cheese.
It’s a gorgeous evening and I am beginning to love our tiny apartment in El Paso’s Upper Valley. The sunsets are gorgeous, and there is always a series of birds flying in formation.
I learned a lot about sauerkraut from Christian. First of all, before I met him, I thought sauerkraut was supposed to be eaten straight out of the jar or can, cold or at room temperature. Little did I know it’s supposed to simmer in its own juices, lard, onion and caraway for more than an hour. I thought that would be overkill. Not even. It’s amazing how ambrosial it tastes that way!
Here’s a few shots of this evening…my sunset view; my desktop, with origami (Bavarian flag!) boxes made by Christian; his sauerkraut; and starting up on the Polish sausage.
How do you “kraut?”