The healthy mac-and-cheese experiment, take one

Remember when I asked about healthy/healthier mac-and-cheese recipes? I finally got around to trying one, last week when we were on a “make a shit-ton of food to freeze” kick.

I opted for this recipe, and made the following tweaks:

I used caulflower instead of squash, and I didn’t measure it; I basically used a small head of cauliflower. Instead of buy both peccorino Romano and Parmiagano-Romano, I just used Parmiagano-Romano. And of course I ditched the panko crumbs and parsley, because that does not a creamy mac-and-cheese make.

The result: a rather bland mac-and-cheese that tasted of cauliflower. It’s not bad, it’s just not…not at all what I wanted.

We had some shredded medium cheddar in the fridge from a previous meal, and I tried adding a bit of that to the individual servings…and it was much better. I was hesitant to use cheddar in the recipe because it normally doesn’t cook/heat well (it’s so oily), but now I’m re-thinking that. It shouldn’t take a lot of cheddar (especially if I went for the extra-sharp kind) to bump up the recipe flavor.

I’m also pondering this recipe, which is similar to the first but uses cheddar and jack cheeses. I’ve also seen one that tosses in half a cup of gorgonzola, which sounds heavenly. (I do like a spot of gorgonzola with my pasta, Gromit!)

The experiments shall continue!

Happy Saturday!

Goals for Today

• food shopping/refill water bottles/buy cat litter - actually, Ken did it. I love him.
• go for a bike ride and a short run - nope. Felt oogy this afternoon. Tomorrow.
• scrub the cat puke off the bedroom carpet - not yet. It's not like it's going anywhere.
• enter receipts in Quicken/tidy home office desk - guess we're looking at tomorrow.
• curl up and watch a movie with Ken - watched the latest Doctor Who, and introduced Ken to the glory that is Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock.

• finish editorial revisions on short story and send - done!
• 1 hour freelance copyediting job
• finish reading through half-finished collaborative novel (or at least 4-5 chapters today, leaving 4-5 chapters for tomorrow) – tomorrow
• watch final videos for online workshop and do any homework (no homework!) - will probably do this tomorrow
• answer a ton of work email
• various online stuff (promo “Catalyst” on website, write blog posts about groovy news, etc.)

I feel like the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey: “What is a 'weekend'?”!

This is why I should not be allowed on the Internet

As I’ve mentioned, this month (since we’re home the entire month) our big project is to swap offices. My sweet little study downstairs, full of fiction books and an original built-in desk, just isn’t big enough when I add the publishing portion of my job into the mix. Upstairs, half of the large office was Ken’s office and half was our home office—which was really my home office, since I deal with the bills and paperwork and whatnot.

The project is going well so far. Ken’s completely cleaned out of the upstairs office (with things he doesn’t need immediately, and all the history and travel books, packed up and stored in the sewing room), and I’ve moved the home office stuff to his former side and moved all my writing stuff to the former home office side. I haven’t moved all the fiction books up yet because the shelves upstairs have open sides, which are fine for big books, but paperbacks fall through. Ken’s going to get some thin plywood, cut it up, and stain it. I’ve gone through most of the fiction and weeded out a fair amount, which will make it easier to fit everything in upstairs.

writing books, ego shelves, and magazines to be moved

Then we’ll tackle the downstairs office: strip the wood and stain it, paint the walls a dark red called Luscious, and hang the medieval-tapestry Roman blinds I found at a charity shop for $7 each (there were three, and Morgana grabbed the third). It’ll be the study I always wanted…but I’m glad we’re getting it done. It’ll really change the energy of the first floor and inspire us to work on more!

Meanwhile, I’m slowly arranging things upstairs. It’s slow because I want to get things right the first time, and I want to find a mix between efficiency and a good workspace, and the details and things I love to make the space inspiring and beautiful. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time/energy/money to have taken everything out (the desk is an enormous U-shaped one), stripped wood, painted, etc. And as much as I love this wallpaper, it wouldn’t work as a border above the picture rail (the sizing and half drop simply don’t fit). So I have to be creative with the rest of the décor.

It doesn’t help that I’ve been going through the archives of the Catty-Corner Cottage blog…. The woman decorates almost exactly how I’d like to, but she’s so utterly and immensely artistic that I don’t know if I could ever do a fraction of what she does. It’s inspiring, yes, but also frustrating!

What’s been happening is this: Ken will come upstairs to find me sitting in one of the two office chairs (because the comfy writing chair will have been taken over by a cat*), staring around the room. Thinking. Plotting. Pondering. Dreaming.

Just now, I found myself staring at the big filing cabinet. The house files are in the top two drawers, and they’ll be moving over to the smaller two-drawer filing cabinet next to me, so I can take over the full four-drawer cabinet for writing stuff (the two bottom drawers are bursting at the seams). It’s simply an ugly grey filing cabinet. Atop it are boxes of manuscript files, atop those are my bodhrán and a mask of my face, and in front of the boxes are a water dispenser and pretty metal tree tea light holder from which is dangling an Amy Brown faerie my friend Thomasina gave me for Yule. The bodhrán will probably have to move, because I don’t think it’ll say in place when open and close the filing cabinet. But anyway. My point sit that it’s an ugly grey filing cabinet, and I’m sitting here thinking, Hey, maybe I can spray paint it! But what color?** And then maybe I could stencil it! Or take all those magnets I’ve collected and finally cover them with something pretty, and…***

And when, exactly, am I suppose to be getting writing done?  ;-)

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*Although right now Grimoire has crawled into my writing office chair and fallen asleep, which is probably good because I need to write, so I can just grab my laptop and move over to the comfy chair once I finish this.

**The bulletin board that’s part of the desk next to it is a teal color, but I don’t want that as the primary color in here. So it’ll have to be something that doesn’t clash. Maybe the plummy purple from the comfy writing chair? Do they make spray paint in plummy purple? This is why I should not be allowed on the Internet!!!

***And get prettier handles for it, natch. 

Food, glorious food!

I’m finally starting to feel better from cold #2 (which came on the heels of cold #1, thanks to Ken bringing it home with him), which means food other than mac-and-cheese (albeit organic whole wheat mac-and-cheese) is sounding appealing to me. Plus we did a major shopping today because we’re hosting Boxing Day brunch for Ken’s brother and sister-in-law and their three boys and Ken’s mom.

I don’t enjoy cooking, but I enjoy eating, and it’s nice to be interested in something more than mac-and-cheese and fresh meals from Trader Joe’s and Fresh & Easy. I did make a huge vat of split pea soup last week; a good chunk of that is in the freezer (along with the vat of red sauce I made) and I even gave a goodly amount to our tenant.

Here’s what’s on tap for the next few days:

Tonight’s dinner will be Mongolian-type stir-fry with veggies, tofu, and noodles. I actually bought most of the ingredients last week but we’ve been way to tired to cook them, so I’m glad they’re still good.

Tonight I’ll also be throwing a mess of onions in the slow cooker to caramelize overnight, in preparation for a near-future slow cooker French onion soup. I’ve got the cheese to shred (a gruyere/cheddar mix), and an adorable tiny whole wheat loaf from TJ’s to go with it.

At some point there’ll also be a vat of sloppy joes in the slow cooker, some of which we’ll freeze. Freezer’s getting full…!

We’ve got a great two-bean soup with sausage (we use a chicken-herb sausage from TJ’s) and kale recipe that’ll happen soon, too. Now that the weather’s turned cold (and is so pleasantly overcast and sometimes even rainy!) I want hearty soups and stews, and soups in particular are a great way to load up on healthy veggies!

For brunch, we’re having a make-your-own-breakfast-burrito bar (TJ’s whole wheat olive oil wraps, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheddar-gruyere and feta cheeses, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, green onion, green pepper, salsa, sour cream…I feel like I'm forgetting something), scones (Ken’s mom’s bringing those) with clotted cream and lemon curd and jam, fruit salad (via Ken’s sister-in-law), and various drinks (coffee, tea, bloody marys, mimosas).

Right now, though, it’s time to stop thinking about food, continue sipping my Duchess Grey tea, and get back to work!

A serene and overcast Saturday

So far today, I’ve…

• woken up early with a start to realize the lawn guys are here and I have to unlock the back gate. So much for getting a full 8 hours!
• made my usual egg-over-medium and brown rice for breakfast
• assembled a huge vat of spagetti sauce
• done dishes
• bought tickets to Def Leppard at the Santa Barbara Bowl (GA! Wooh!)

And on tap for the rest of the day…

• bootcamp
• shower
• grocery and pharmacy runs
• finish a short story
• read at least 100 pages of the novel I’m editing (preferably 150 or even 200)
• vaccuum TV room
• tidy dining room
• host Girls’ Night! We’re going to eat spaghetti and watch Thor.
• maybe relax in the hot tub before bed?

It’s a serene, overcast Saturday, and I’m going to enjoy the fuck out of it!