A defrost tray

 So we got this beautiful large freezer this year. It was wonderful except for the fact I never decide what I want to eat until like lunch and then the food does not always defrost in time for dinner. My husband was reading I believe amazing gadgets to have on the Chive. I honestly have no clue and he bugged the crap out of me how we needed it. So I gave in and bought it. I honest did not believe it would work. 

 So I set it on the tray 

 This is about 15 minutes later 

within 30 minutes.

I could not believe it. So if you want you own try click my link and buy it :D 

1 X Gourmet Trends Quick & EZ Defrosting Tray

The best part of this time saving tray is it was $14.06, and well worth it.

Rice Balls with a simple brown sauce

I love Asian food and I even love doing my own take. I kept hearing about the rice balls deep fried the you dip them in sauce. Well one day I had nothing to cook and Mr. Man and Hulk were completely losing it so I could not get out and shop. I savaged my cabinets and found some staple items, baby Bok Choy, onions and garlic. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best on this one.

First the rice balls. It was not as tasty as I truly wanted and it really needed something. 

You need cooked rice, eggs, panko, and some seasoning. 

I did salt, pepper, and grated garlic with ginger but you could not taste it. 

I mixed the eggs separately to make sure the yolk and whites was mixed really well then added it to the rice. After words I heated my deep fryer and made little rice balls. Cook until golden brown and heated through. 

Now it is time to get saucy. 

I started with a stir fry oil and sautéed my onions and garlic. Then I added about 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, a dash maybe 2 of fish sauce and a tablespoon of chicken base stock. I cooked it then chopped up the small amount of bok choy I found in the fridge. 

Place the rice balls in the bowl the pour a small amount of sauce over it. The sauce was amazing but I feel like we really needed more flavor in the rice. Maybe sometime soon we will be posting an update.  But these were still delicious and worth the share. 

Brown Sugar

One day a long while back I ran out of brown sugar and was in the middle of a recipe. So I did ever ones favorite thing and pulled up pintrest and looked for a substitute. Time went on and I learn a few things about my sons eating habits and what we were doing wrong. Process food makes the kids completely insane so I started trying to figure out affordable ways to still feed him things without depriving him of anything. Apparently some of the treats I find unnecessary  are a crucial part of childhood. I do not get it but what ever thats why I can be super mom right? Well brown sugar is very important to some baked goods. MY quest began and I started hunting for raw brown sugar and not finding what I wanted. I did get the brilliant plan of making my own. I can go to our local Amish market and buy bulk raw cane sugar less than $10 for a 5 pound bag. That is so cheap it is scary. That I used molasses and sugar.  It really is that simple.

The more molasses the darker and stronger the sugar. For this I used white sugar. This way you can see the color change. 

I poured the molasses first then slowly added sugar until it was the color I wanted. 

The beautiful brown sugar. It taste great the kids like it in the oatmeal. 

Amazon trade in

Both my husband and I were in college this past year so we have this decent size collection of textbooks and sure enough it is sell back time. You know you paid a few hundred for the text and they offer you $10. Okay it is not always that bad but sometimes you get worse luck than that and they tell you that they are not buying it back. Honestly that sucks when you really need the cash. Well we have been eyeing a wagon for sometime now. I am thinking everyone should have one with 3 kids or if they go to markets it is handy to carry stuff. We have not had the cash for one  but we had a few textbooks that we needed to sell and you know what was great Amazon bought them. I earned $150 from textbooks the school did not want. You are not always going to make the cash but it does not hurt to try right? So here we are waiting on our wagon and I can not begin to explain how excited we are to have bought a wagon with textbooks.

Justin's fresh made sausage

I debated on trying to write about making sausages but I just do not have the same passion as my husband. For two reasons 1) I do not like the way raw meat feels 2) I am not a huge friend of meat. It may help if I explained I was a strict vegetarian for over 6 years. Please enjoy his work....


I started making sausage a few months ago as something to try.  I figured as a man in my 30's I should have some kind of skill and at this point I only had talking.  Also I figured I have a beard, long hair and tattoos sausage making seems like something I should know.  My wife had recently purchased a KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Empire Red, along with the attachments for sausage making ( KitchenAid KN12AP Stand-Mixer Attachment Pack with Food Grinder, Sausage Stuffer, and Citrus Juicer )  After that I watched a 5 minute youtube video on how to do and then bought 2 books.  ( The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sausage Making ; Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques for Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home )                                                                   

I started by buying a 9.5 lbs pork shoulder and cut it up into 2 inch pieces, turns out you should have a sharp knife for that.  From there I seasoned it, keeping it simple and with a theme.  I started by doing a sweet Italian.  It is your typical salt, pepper, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and some applewood smoked salt.  I may have thrown some other stuff in there, but lingering brain injuries from a car accident prevent that.  The biggest thing I have learned is do not be afraid to season, 9 lbs of pork is a lot of meat.

From there I get to my favorite part, that is grinding the meat.  It is pretty easy and really no need to go into too much detail.  Put meat in the hole and watch ground meat come out of the spout.  Once it is ground I take a small amount and cook it to test the seasoning.  The first time I did a second grind, but to be honest I am lazy, so I stopped doing that.  I have no idea of it really makes a difference.  One thing to look out for is the grinder getting clogged with collective tissue.  Sounds yummy, just stop and clear it out.

This is hardest, but not cheesy sitcom hard.  You know where the guy tries and just makes a mess.  I use natural pork casing, that I buy from my local deli, best place in town to get subs, meat, and casing.  The stuff is gross and like holding a glob of snot.  You will need to rinse it out and to get the salt off of it.  Work the casing onto the stuffer, leaving a little at the end,  DO NOT TIE IT OFF, trust me.

From here put the ground meat into the chute and into the casing.  It will take a little bit to get it to come out at a comfortable speed.  Make sure to fill the casing so you do not leave any air pockets, and just keep going until all of your meat is stuffed.

I few notes to help with the process.  Keep the pork cold between steps, I put in in the fridge for at least 30 minutes between steps.  Also the longer the meat is in the casing the more the flavor will become pronounced.  The most important thing to remember is I am just some random guy on the internet that could have no idea of what I am talking about.

Painting

I have been going crazy the last few days painting. Peg dolls everywhere!! I am not even joking. I sat down on my couch and spread paint out everywhere. All of this started over a Christmas idea. I want to have all homemade toys. I have these tiny little things too which made a few cute characters but the best part has to be I sold a set and my kids was so thrilled to see me painting. I was surprised my husband did not make an elf comment ( I am sure its coming at some point.)

The cat decided she was going to help. I was asked to sell two sets which inspired reviving my old etsy account. ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/skuczma) Check it out and pass the word along. 

Market fresh salsa

I think it is closer to pico de gallo than salsa but in America the two mean almost the same thing.  When we were at the market I bought a huge collection of beautiful tomatoes and jalapeños. We even found red snapper and I knew what was for dinner.  The spanish in me will never go away but because it is May in New York and spring has not made it yet I had to do some minor adjusting in my seasoning but you can not even tell. It was fresh and amazing.

Ingredients:
6 medium tomatoes
1 jalapeños
1/2 an onion
3 tablespoon dried cilantro
juice of 2 lemons
Cumin salt seasoning to taste ( I know whats that right? My own salt blend that I will write about later)

I finely diced everything but you need to be careful with the jalapeños. If you feel more comfortable with rubber gloves by all means use them. My husband could share an interesting story thanks to the oils in jalapeños. I use the seasoned salt to taste. Let it rest because that is when the flavors come out. Enjoy!!

Our first visit to the public market

Going green and local has been a hard choice. I was always use to "oh I need tomato sauce let me run to the store" so giving that up was hard. Learning how to prep and make everything was easy but mainly because I cooked for a living. My husband and I have made huge expensive decisions like buying a KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Empire Red  with KitchenAid KPRA Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers andKitchenAid KN12AP Stand-Mixer Attachment Pack with Food Grinder, Sausage Stuffer, and Citrus Juicer. Crazy right? but that is not the best part. I can make fresh  pasta and orange juice or even better sausages. I know I am just rambling and maybe starting to make you wonder why am I reading this but there is a point. I am now making this stuff at home. Which leads to our going local!! My husband took me to the public market.

Goats getting pet by my baby.

I did not get a ton of pictures we were doing great and then the foodie in my got excited and the photographer was forgotten. My kids were thrilled and the best part I got what would have cost me $100 in the grocery store if not more for like $50 and it went straight to my farmers.

Over time I will write more on this even get pictures of the fresh produce but for now this will have to do.