Modern WenchCooking, Baking, Gardening, Parenting, Pregnancy, Photos, and Humor. Enough?

My family eats a lot of beef. This is because I live with my parents at the moment, and they are really into beef. I think, if it was healthy, they would both be content to eat beef for all 21 meals of the week.

As a result I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to prepare beef, and I am always altering old standby recipes to be something new and fresh and different.

Pioneer Woman’s pot roast is one of the most delicious things I have ever cooked. It’s simple, it’s delicious, it’s beautiful, and it’s really tough to improve upon. It’s also impossible to mess up! As long as you cook your meat for long enough, you will have a perfect pot roast every time.

It is such a well liked recipe that I was requested to make it 3 times in less than 2 weeks. I cook 4 days of the week, here. My mom takes the weekends, and Fridays we order out. So out of 8 meals I cooked, 3 were PW’s pot roast. When I opened the fridge on Monday and saw yet another chuck roast in the meat drawer, I groaned. More … Read the rest

I shed a tear when I walked away from the man that bought my car for his wife. I loved that car. Still do. It was cute and young and fun… Three things I used to be and sometimes feel that I’m just not anymore.

As a 20-something it was perfect. My sister and I drove from Pennsylvania to Minnesota and back in that car, with the top down the whole way. Oh, the sunburn.

That car contributed to the air of coolness that surrounded me when my husband first decided he was interested in dating me.

In our early years together we spent countless nights driving around with the top down. He’d drive so I could watch the stars. We’d be covered in ashes when we got home, because smoking in a convertible is a messy affair. Once, on a day trip to the northern rural parts of our county, we were driving down a road that was intersected by a creek. We saw a sign that said “Creek Ahead” and thought, “Nah. They can’t mean in the road.” They did. There was a creek crossing right over the road. We took off our shoes and walked out, to … Read the rest

This marinade is delicious with vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, seafood… Everything! That makes it perfect for skewers, which is how I’ve used it here.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Prepare your meat and/or vegetables.

Pour marinade over the meat or vegetables.

Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes. 3 hours would be ideal.

Cook in some way.

If you’re making skewers like I did, grill your beef skewers for about 7 minutes over medium heat, chicken for 10 minutes.

Boil the marinade for 5 minutes or so and use as a sauce. Be careful, though, as this marinade boils quickly and boils over even faster!… Read the rest

The Sesame Street Cookbook was first published in 1971 by the Children’s Television Workshop. The copy I have was published in 1978, the year of my birth. It was illustrated by Robert Dennis and written by Pat Tornborg. While the book is adorable, teaching lessons about utensils, tools, and cleaning, as well as cooking, most of the recipes are downright awful (sorry Mr. Tornborg!). My husband came away from his reading nauseous, though he admittedly has a weak stomach. Shall we take a tour of the book?

Here Bert and Ernie show you what all of the tools are called.

I gagged a little when I read “popcorn pudding.” Don’t feel bad if you did too, it’s a natural reaction.

The kitchen vocabulary list is great for a child. Sesame Street really knows how to educate!

Safety tips and general cooking advice. Always gather your ingredients before you start! That’s the best piece of advice I or Sesame Street or your grandmom will ever give you.

Could this be grosser? I think not.

A basic tossed salad. Sure, why not have a recipe for that?

Remember how much Oscar loved sardines? I thought it was so gross that my dad … Read the rest

I was inspired by Susi’s post about this cookbook stand. I have long suffered the always-closing-cookbook, but had just never thought about the possibility of there being a solution to that problem.

When my husband was a child, he would visit his maternal grandmother often. I wish I could have met her. I came along too late in my husband’s life, and she left this world too soon. I have bits and pieces of her; a coat, a necklace, a brass lighter, a few German words in my vocabulary, a mother-in-law who cooks like a champ. What I have the most of is the stories.

Almost every story involves the kitchen. She was an amazing cook. She made a salad dressing so good that children would show up and beg for her salad. I think one of the most amazing things she had was an immense trust in her grandchildren. She must have believed them to be smart and capable people, even at the young age of 5. Why? Because one of the things she would have them do is pit cherries. With a paring knife. Can you believe that? A paring knife!

I wouldn’t trust myself to use … Read the rest

Last week our square foot garden was in its prime. With everything looking good, I thought I should snap some pictures. Above is a head of “EZ Serve” lettuce, which is a compact variety of romaine.

Our arugula is growing so well. It’s really sad that we planted it in the wrong season, and as such it is way too spicy. I mean, it could not be any spicier. One leaf will burn your mouth off. It’s terrible.

This is the endive. It’s delicious, and almost all gone now. What is left will be made into salads this week, as next weekend we’ll be tearing out whatever is left.

Our plan is to remove a whole heap of the soil and start amending it. We’ll take out about 1/3 of the clay soil that is in there, and mix it with a bail of peat moss and 1/3 of the compost we’ve been making since March. Then we’ll have a nice fresh bed to plant our salad greens in, and we plan to keep a rotation going in this box throughout the winter, since it is the closest one to the house.

Our basil is finally growing, but there is … Read the rest