Posts Tagged ‘brokey’
Brokey: Preparing for Unexpected Guests
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Our social schedule has been busy, what with bocce, birthday parties, more birthday parties and the unscheduled drop-in.
Piles of shoes don’t get put away,
lots of dishes in the sink,
a diaper bag plundering.
I did tell you that we love to drop in on each other, didn’t I?
I used to think that only happened on television — Dylan stops over just as I’m making out with Brandon! Bummer! — but the small town we live in celebrates it. Hooray! A drop-in!
And if it’s not welcome, you just say, “It’s not a good time.”
No harm, no foul.
Your community most likely has different guidelines.
Your friends would be pissed.
But here, here, we embrace the delight with an unexpected guest.
(And more often than not we’re ready for them.)
- Sparkling water (could be club soda).
- Iced tea in the fridge.
- An emergency container filled with dark chocolate, dried fruit, almonds and shortbread cookies.
(My emergency guest container has been filled over time.) - Oranges in the fridge.
- A mint plant.
- A willingness to set aside my to-do list.
My brokey unexpected guest preparation checklist
The last one is the most important to me.
My friends are big gifts.
I’m always thrilled when gifts arrive on the porch.
Mix the above items to serve iced tea with mint.
Serve cool orange slices with bubbly water and shortbread cookies.
Make chocolate bark by melting the dark chocolate and stirring in dried blueberries and almonds.
Nom.
By the way, the brokey part of that is that I’ve collected these items over time. I tend to already have oranges in my fruit drawer and almonds are a family pantry staple.
But you may be asking, “So what do I do now? Unexpected guests are downstairs and by their very nature, I have not prepared anything to serve them.”
Pleasantly enough, that info is coming tomorrow.
In the meantime, she asks me to draw animals, and then she colors them in.
Brokey cream cheese appetizers.
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
What? I didn’t tell you that I’m continuing my brokey series? Well, I am. For at least two more weeks. So there.
So people are coming over and you’re out of money.
You will need to feed and libate them (libate? can that be a verb please?) but you don’t have cash.
Here are two recipe ideas that are significantly cheaper than prepared foods. Please use store-brand cream cheese. It’s fine here because it’s mixed in with plenty of other ingredients and the texture doesn’t matter too much.
Brokey Stuffed Mushroom Recipe
Ingredients
12 whole mushrooms that you have wiped clean
1 tablespoon vegetable/olive oil
3 cloves worth of minced garlic
1 8 oz. package cream cheese that’s been left out for an hour or two
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Directions
Heat oven to 350° fahrenheit.
Chop tough ends of stems off of mushrooms. Break off stems of mushrooms. Chop remaining pieces of stems into tiny tiny pieces.
Over medium-high heat, heat oil in a large skillet. Add chopped mushroom stems. Frizzle them up until stems are dry and cooked add minced garlic. Cool.
Stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, salt and cayenne. The resulting glop should be very thick.
Using either a filled baggie with a corner cut off or a tiny spoon, fill each mushroom cap with as much stuffing as it can take. Line up the stuffed mushroom caps on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat, parchment paper or a light oil layer.
Bake the mushrooms for 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are hot and start to get a little liquidy.
Jelly Cream Cheese Dip
Ingredients
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
1 jar peach or cherry jam
1/4 cup tiny sliced green onions (on the diagonal)
Your choice of cheap crackers
Directions
Find a mold. It can be a coffee cup, a tiny brioche pan or even just a cereal bowl. Line the mold with plastic wrap. Press the cream cheese into the plastic-lined mold.
Unmold onto a chilled plate. (Aren’t chilled plates fancy? And lo, no cost to you!) Pour the jam over the unmolded cream cheese and sprinkle with the green onions.
Serve with your fave crackers.
(I’m particularly fond of the Ritz, but I know those can be, er, ritzy.)
Brokey. Kitchen Cleaning.
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
Fewer things are more annoying than running out of cleaning supplies when you have no money for replenishing. Like window cleaner? Egads. We’ve been eating beans for two weeks and now I’m supposed to buy window cleaner?
That’s why I like cleaning products that do double duty. Vinegar can keep your windows streak-free AND make a delightful salad dressing. Baking soda can clean your oven AND help that beer bread rise.
My other favorite part about making your own cleaning products?
They’re much less toxic. There’s just something askew about having to bag the items that you use to CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN separate from the items you use to PREPARE FOOD IN YOUR KITCHEN.
(All-caps worthy indeed.)
Let’s make some window cleaner first, shall we?
Brokey window cleaner recipe
1/4-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 cups water
spray bottle
Measure the ingredients into a spray bottle and give it a shake. Use just like you would the blue stuff you get from the big stores.
Don’t forget the soap here. The soap helps to reduce the waxy residue from all those other window cleaners.
Helen Jane’s brokey oven cleaner recipe
2 cups of baking soda (You may possibly need more depending on the girth of your oven.)
1/2 cup water
Liquid dishwashing detergent (just a squirt or two)
This is an overnight project so prepare accordingly.
Remove the oven racks from the oven. Dip your fingers in the water and sprinkle the water all over the bottom of the oven. Now pretend it’s snowing in the oven, that you are the snow fairy of the oven and sprinkle the baking soda over the bottom of the oven.
Sprinkle the rest of the water over your snow scene and let the whole mess sit overnight.
In the magical morning, you can wipe up the baking soda to find that the worst of the grime has loosened.
After you’ve wiped up the grime, squirt some dish soap on a sponge and wipe up the rest of the funk.
Just as obnoxious a task as with oven cleaner, just now it’as 100% less toxic for you, pets, houseplants and babies!