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[tavernkeep-fenne]

From the official Horizon Cookbook:

Mesa Bread!

I made a small mistake that may have made the outcome a little different but that's okay, they're still yummy!

[tavernkeep-fenne]

I got a larger shelf for a whopping $12 at Walmart, and now can prep and freeze more meals to basically just reheat and eat.

I'm using the instant pot's slow cook setting for some of it since the chicken comes out tender and easy to shred, and the large skillet to cook the large amounts of taco meat, and a sauce pot to cook any sauces I want to store separate from the meat.

I've also got basic rice in two forms. Flat frozen jasmine and cube frozen white rice. They're portioned and easy to grab and use.

The stocking up also uses quick ingredients like taco seasoning packets and canned veggies.

Really not a fan of the amount of single use plastic I am using but I'm going to use even more during recovery. It's currently necessary and practical.

I don't care to use so much single use plastic but I need to prepare food for use during my recovery since I'll be down a hand for 2 months. I have gotten some souper cubes to freeze more liquidy things in, which I didn't have for the top row of foods

[tavernkeep-fenne]

I don't care to use so much single use plastic but I need to prepare food for use during my recovery since I'll be down a hand for 2 months. I have gotten some souper cubes to freeze more liquidy things in, which I didn't have for the top row of foods

[tavernkeep-fenne]

I made tortillas

They're flour tortillas

I didn't use a recipe but I did make use of my tortilla press that I usually use to make thin burgers, and they turned out okay. Not great, but not awful

[tavernkeep-fenne]

Not So Great News

My wrist has been noticeably messed up since February and last week I was able to see an ortho about it, where it was determined I will need surgery.

Now, two things: 1) It is the wrist of my dominant hand. I have next to no coordination with my other hand, so this will be extremely limiting. 2) I will spare the details and just say I expect my hand/wrist to be pretty useless for up to six months. 3 months for the primary recovery, then more for rebuilding of strength and all that.

The great news about this is how bad I've been at keeping up this blog. I keep forgetting to document and blog, and also tumblr likes to tell me no when a wall of text is interspersed with pics. I don't know why, I doubt staff knows why either.

The original point of this blog was low-spoon meals. I'll definitely be doing low-spoon while I'm recovering from surgery. A lot of this will be done by meal prepping on high-spoon days and freezing that prep for when I need it later. I'm planning that for next week, after I have fully recovered from the emotional shock. I'll just say that my bones are incorrect and it's a genetic issue, not an injury. I've been headed for this road for a very long time and it could very well explain some pain I've had for 20 years. Mind you, I'm only 33.

Anyway! I have no choice but to look at low-spoon easy-prep so I can't accidentally slide in something that I think is easy but y'all do not. And given how limited my activities will be, there will be more focus on blogging, and hopefully blogging better.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

Used a mini waffle maker to cook eggs to freeze and reheat later for sandwiches. I know, they don't look appealing but they're filling and easy to make. I made enough for the week, but took this pic when I was cooking the third one.

Standard cupcake liners are the perfect size to separate them before stuffing them into a freezer bag to toss in the freezer.

Next week I'll make the effort to mix stuff into them like cheese, peppers, and of course seasoning. (I forgot to even salt these. Whoops!)

To reheat, just wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave. I have no idea for how long just yet.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

If you struggle to make food bc cutting everything takes so long, consider a food chopper.

I made a salad in about 5 minutes, and ate it right out of the container the cut food goes into.

I'm still figuring out what things do and don't do well with it but that's okay!

Mine came with two claws to pull everything out of the top grid, and a brush for cleaning out other parts. The lid comes apart to more easily fit in the dishwasher, and all the parts are top-rack dishwasher friendly for this one.

Mine is the $40 Fullstar one, and it was worth every penny.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

Great news! My witchy auntie ordered me a copy of the Horizon cookbook for my bday and it got here today! I'm so excited. I get to sit and type up all the recipes and it gets to take as long as it takes and I don't have to worry about it being overdue.

(Why am I typing them up? My father in law gave me a computer that I decided to put in the kitchen, and I'm going to keep the recipes as local files on there. I can't really write them for my recipe box right now bc of a wrist injury, but typing them is much less painful)

[tavernkeep-fenne]

A really unfortunate update as my symptoms evolved, which I chose not to share:

I think I actually had covid last week. The newer variants look a lot like a cold, which is the level at which a lot of virus settle to spread themselves. It doesn't do a virus much good to kill all its hosts.

Anyway, there were a lot of sinus symptoms but felt like no illness I've had before, and I didn't bother testing bc it's as easy as avoiding people in most cases.

Where did I get it? Probably when we ate out for my birthday last Monday.

I'll let the library know I had a suspiciously covid-like virus when I return the cookbook so they can do what they need to do. To be fair, I thought it was just a migraine when I picked it up bc my migraine pain typically starts in my sinuses.

What does this mean to this blog? It means cooking will be a little late. I might copy down a bunch of the recipes before I return the book or I might just order a copy of it because I don't know if I can copy the recipes down that fast lol

[tavernkeep-fenne]

I requested this cookbook for my local library bc I wanted to look through the recipes before committing to a purchase, and I've learned it's a journal by Milduf as he goes around collecting recipes from each of the tribes. His entries are very entertaining and I definitely couldn't help but wonder how he managed to go from one side of the map to the other

I definitely plan to make things once I'm sure I won't have a rebound migraine. I'm feeling way too drained today, but am hoping to feel better by Monday.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

So, Plauntie... How do you make mead again?

Sterilize the fermentation vessel. An empty milk jug works well. Fill mostly with hot water, dump a tablespoon or so of bleach in there, put cap on, shake well, dump bleach out, rinse out thoroughly with more hot water.

I use ratio of 1/5 honey to water. So, for every cup of honey you use, use five of water.

Boil up the water, dump the honey in, bring back to a boil, take off the heat.

When it cools down to about blood temperature, dump a packet of wine yeast in there and stir it up.

Pour into sterilized jug. Stretch a balloon over the top, and put a pinhole in it. That’ll let CO2 out and not let contaminants in.

Let ferment somewhere warm for several weeks. . Once it settles out and the liquid is clear with a layer of yeast residue on the bottom, siphon off into bottles and there ya go.

Feel free to experiment with spices or juices or whatever the hell you feel like throwing in there!

[tavernkeep-fenne]

i like the convenience of cup noodles in terms of being able to make lunch using nothing but the hot water dispenser at work, but i hate the amount of trash. but whenever i look up diy cup noodles it's all fancy recipes for healthy alternatives to cup noodles, which i do not give a shit about. so i finally cracked a brick of ramen into quarters and shoved it in a mason jar, then poured 180F water in there to see if it would work. it seemed like it should but so many websites were telling me to parboil my noods that i was starting to doubt myself.

it worked! my only note is that i shook the sealed jar at the end to disperse the flavor packet and in retrospect i should also have done that at the beginning. i could probably do this with better bouillon and some tasty spices if i wanted. also there is room in there for frozen veggies. but mostly this an easy way to convert a 30¢ ramen packet to a 52¢ cup noodle without any extra trash.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

We're going mostly vegetarian bc we want to eat less fast food. I want to stop stressing over the prices of meat, and stop worrying about if it's properly cooked.

We'll use up what's in the freezer then I'll restock with frozen veggies and veggies meals. No point in wasting food.

It's not an ethics thing, it's literally a dietary lifestyle thing. Neither of us is so attached to eating meat that it's a big deal, and we're also not saying "never again!" So the occasional trip to Freddy's for a smash burger isn't a thing to feel guilty about. Less fast food. Not no fast food.

[tavernkeep-fenne]

Beef stew

I browned the stew meat, set it to rest 30 minutes, washed, cut, and soaked small red potatoes, made beef broth from bouillon, used it to deglaze the pot, added tomato paste and seasonings, meat, potatoes and some more water, then pressure cooked it for about 45 minutes. Added mashed potato flakes to thicken the broth afterwards

The veggies are canned, and added after to warm them but also cool the stew, instead of while cooking because I didn't want them to fall apart.

I would have added corn and carrots but I forgot to buy carrots and my last can of corn is reserved for later.

Not a single thing was measured and I'm lucky it turned out absolutely delicious

[tavernkeep-fenne]

𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝐹𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦, 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒

[tavernkeep-fenne]

Marry Me pasta made with the sauce from the most vague Marry Me Chicken recipe I've ever seen but it is so good