Lollygagging in Lisa's Larder- Jan and Feb

Well as I stated at the end of December, we had feasted enough through the holidays that we needed some diet food. Thus, it has taken me 2 months to accumulate enough photo-worthy food items to make a post.  We have eaten a lot of food from the pantry during the last 2 months, watched the desserts, ate less and actually have lost a few pounds. We have eaten great food….just stuff that I thought no-one would be interested in seeing. So here is what we did make that just might fit the photo-worthy criteria. 

Venison-

Since venison has virtually no fat we are mixing it with beef or pork. You might remember that we purchased half a pig from our doctor who also has a farm.  Some of the cuts in our package are ground pork, which mixes great with the ground venison.  So we have made quite a few dishes these past 2 months using a combo of those meats. Some of the dishes are venison strips/loins, such as this

Venison stir-fry….we do a lot of stir-fry in the summer with lots of veggies and since we had some leftover veggies from other meals we put it into this stir-fry and mixed in some leftover pasta

Venison/pork patties in gravy….

this was a delicious easy meal.  I made up some meat patties and cooked them in the iron skillet. When they were about done I made a gravy with my homemade powdered soup mix and served it over some garlic spinach fettuccini noodles.

Mulligan…….

I can’t remember if this is just beef or if it is beef mixed with venison.  Either way Dad’s mulligan is always good on a winter day with a salad and a loaf of bread. 

Breakfast sausage……

Mixed the venison with a package of ground pork and cooked up this batch of sausage and portioned it out for the freezer. I then get one out at a time for breakfast.  All I can say is my iron better be up when they recheck it since I have started eating all this meat.

Blackberry-Applesauce-Rhubarb Muffins

I still have some frozen eggs in the freezer, which I have been trying to use up. (The girls egg production never decreased this winter as sometimes is common so we decided that we do not need to freeze eggs when we have an abundance)  So in my effort to use up some of the frozen eggs I sought out recipes that would help me out. I came across this muffin recipe which used 3 eggs. Bingo- made muffins for a nice treat. They are delicious and since they are muffins and freeze well we get to portion out this treat.

Ham and scalloped potatoes

I love the recipes from “The Pioneer Woman Cooks”.  Sometimes they are involved and might take a bit more time but in general they are delicious.  We had leftover spiral ham from Christmas that we needed to use up so I used her recipe and made this.  It is definitely a keeper. 

Veggie lasagna

Lasagnas are a big casserole for just 2 people so I always make it and freeze portions in wax paper. Then we get to enjoy it for months but only have to do the labor once. This one I have made before and believe I showed the pictures in a previous post but here it is again.  From the garden it has butternut squash, onions and roasted tomatoes. This time of year I had to buy the spinach.  Always delicious.

Homemade pasta

Since I had quilt guild on Valentines Day we postponed the celebration to Sunday.  We celebrated by making ravioli. We started late afternoon with making dough and popping the cork on a bottle of wine. It really is not hard, but is lots of fun and you get into a rhythm cranking them out. You end up with about 100 ravioli from a batch of dough.  We used 2 different fillings- ricotta spinach and ground venison and pork.  When we ran out of filling but still had dough left we put on the attachment to cut fettuccini. We hung lengths of plain fettuccini and then we made some “birds nests”.  All leftovers went into the freezer. When Patrick took some of the leftovers to lunch one day he was informed by his staff that he was “spoiled”.  He informed them that he fully participated in the production of these gems and no he was not spoiled; just fortunate to be married to a “foodie”.    Nonetheless, they all voted that they should have homemade ravioli for their next staff meeting birthday celebration.  If that happens I am coming to their staff meeting to eat lunch!!!!!

Plains peanuts

Mom and Dad have a friend from Plains Georgia who provides them with peanuts.  When they came at Christmas they delivered a 5-pound bag of raw peanuts.  We roasted them in the oven using three different varieties of spices.  I don’t know that they really retained the spice mix but they are nicely roasted and packed away in jars for snacking.  Unfortunate that Dad’s diverticulosis prevents him from eating many; fortunate for us that we are the recipients of them. 

Seed Starting

Let the 2013 garden season begin!  We started a large variety of tomatoes and peppers in addition to kale, celery, tomatillos and basil.  All other seeds will be direct planted into the garden soil.  To date, about 2/3 of the seeds have sprouted under the grow lights and they have only been there for 5 days. 

Guest Room Mirror

Well after one year we have finally sanded down Mom and Dad's old mirror, re-stained it and put a coat of polyurethane on it.  We got it hung up this afternoon.  The thing weights 35 pounds so off to Lowe's we went in search of a hook that would prevent it from crashing down one day. We feel confident with the  wire and hook picture system rated at 50 pounds. We are happy with the results and it is now safe on the wall and out of Pat's shop.........room for another project. :)

Repurpose, Recycle Renew

Seems like I've spent a lot of time in the wood shop the last couple of weeks and I guess the proof is in the projects and the shop vac; I had to empty the thing yesterday before I could suck up the sawdust from todays project.  Another project I finished today was to use/repurpose some boards I salvaged about 15 years ago when we put the addition over the garage at the old house.  I probably would have thrown it on the trash pile if not for Lisa's dad seeing the possibilities in it. The boards came from the roof of the the old garage and had survived 50+ years and at least three layers of roofing shingles and countless nails. They looked warn and splintery  and all nasty. Dad saw it another way and built a beautiful table for their kitchen area, leaving all of the nail holes and saw scars which only add to the beauty while covering it with several coats of marine spar varnish.

While we've been in the house for just over a year, we haven't really put much on the walls once we moved the furniture in. Frankly, we've wanted to find the "right" pieces that go with our new style  so its been going slow. after finishing the clock and gate Lisa suggested that I make a mirror for the entryway, using the wood we've saved for so long. I liked the idea and began messing around with the wood. After some consultation with my brother Mike who had recently built a similar mirror for his house. I started cutting. One thing about these boards, they are D-R-Y and splinter easily.  As you'll see from the pictures, I kept the nail holes and saw marks which I think give it character. Several coats of the marine spar varnish  and it's done.  Lowes cut the mirror to fit and Lisa and I hung it on the wall.

Winter Garden Work

Today, the winter portion of this title refers more to the calendar than to the outside temperature. Despite the huge snow fall in the Northeast, we are gliding through winter with temps in the high 50"s. This gave us the opportunity to get out in the garden and complete another stage in our preparation for spring and planting our garden.

The latest addition to our garden is the completion of two raised beds. We plan to do the rest over the next couple of months so we don't over extend the check book. Each bed is 12 feet long and three feet wide made of 2X8's. We don't use pressure treated lumber as we are wary of the chemicals used to preserve them leaching into the ground and ending up in our food. We'll replace them every couple of years rather than risk it.

We have 6 other raised beds of the same size that need to be "boarded" up as well as a large space at the bottom of the garden that will house more  beds as well. A more permanent fence will have to wait. However, we will have to add a strand of wire across the top with some stuff hanging from it to dissuade the deer from visiting our garden. We saw 8 just outside the garden this morning. Of course, they'll be gone by the time deer season comes around again this fall.

Finally, we added a little bit of class to our gate. We had some metal leaves used as decoration in making wrought iron fences that we painted and attached to the front of the gate.