Fat and Crafty.com

Just bits that are on my mind relating to cooking and crafting, enjoy.

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A schedule change left me out of the house tonight at the last minute. “I’ll toss something in the crockpot on my way out” I promised my family, since I’ve been bad about meal planning lately.

Sure enough, I stopped home after my coffee morning and got ready for work then  as I was headed out, I went to put the pork in the crock for pulled pork.  Plopped the pork in, covered it turned it to medium, then went looking for the cord.

Which was fused to the back of the toaster over. Not stuck under, or tangled with. Fused.

F*ck!  Pork went back in the fridge and it will be cooked tonight for dinner. I’m now shopping for a new crockpot. Or  a multicooker

No I don’t need 3 crocks in a buffet server. Yes I want it, but I don’t entertain much anymore.

From Blog Photos

I’m leaning towards this to go model of the Hamilton Beach

From Blog Photos

or a Fagor Multicooker

From Blog Photos

(Pressure cooker steamer and rice cooker in one.)

Or maybe both? I’m not sure. Very frustrating though.

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No Cooks challenge?

You’ll note there was no cooks challenge reveal this month. The recipe chosen didn’t fit within the household allergies. It was Indian Dosas Vegan Style, and more information can be found here.

It’s hard to find someone who’s schedule i mesh closely enough with that I can cook for. I didnt realize  that until this challenge. Next months challenge is in the works already.

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I’m working away on Leah’s socks still. I have one done, and have to recast on the second one. A few weeks ago at Aron’s birthday drinking bash I discovered why one should not drink and knit. I also am working on something out of  some homespun that Leah gave me and casting on Riverbanks from Knitty.

Thats all the scraps you get today

I’ve opened a twitter account for my foodie sort of things. Keeping up with other foodie twitter accounts and posting about what I’m working on.

Follow if you want: FatandCraftyJo

Lets be upfront here. I’m frustrated because of an online twitter conversation going between a few members of the Seattle Food Community.

The thought is that farmers need to be paid more money for the goods they provide at the market. Two folks were “twittering” that farmers should get between $25-$30 per chicken. Another person responded that folks can’t always afford that and I jumped in to agree.

See I feed the family for about $500-600 a month. Groceries every two weeks are $250, and then we end up filling in extra milk and odds and ends to the tune of about $100 a month. Too feed us and accommodate our assorted allergies**, and budget I split my shopping between Cash and Carry and Safeway. It used to be Central Market until it got too expensive. I support local food when I can, I shop around the edges, I cook from scratch 99% of the time. (We have a couple of convenience items that we keep on hand for emergencies. ) I shop at farmers market, Pike Place Market, and local fruit stands as i can/need.

Is it the local farmers problem? Not at all. Are we poor? I don’t think so, I think we sit pretty middle class. With two students, 2 children, 1 person working retail and another in education none of us are rolling in cash either.

Yet $25 a chicken is out of my reach. That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the assumption that everyone can pay that, and if they can’t or don’t they are paying for with their health. Truth is organic is not necessarily nutritionally superior And the attitude is condescending.

This ties back to my fair trade conversation on Seattlejo.com. I wonder, do you consider every transaction you make and the financial repercussions. Does your barista get a fair wage? Does the teacher at your local school? Where do you draw your line? Is it just because farming is an exploited industry no matter if its a small farm here or a farm in a 3rd world country?

I don’t know the answer. I do know that I do the best that I can and hope the farmer will understand when I pass by the $25 chickens and $25 a lb pork. They are fun to buy for hobby cooking, but it just doesn’t work when I’m working to feed the family off the budget.

**Allergies?
Beans, Soy, Milkfat, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant. plus a strong fish aversion

Pizza.

That was what Aron wanted when I asked about his birthday dinner. “You probably don’t think it’s special enough”He said, almost apologetically.

See in my house, for your birthday, I make most anything you want. Dinner and dessert. One year Jasmine had a beige teenagers dinner of french fries and fried shrimp. I don’t remember if there was  a vegetable to be had that night. But she loved it.

Back to Aron and the Pizza.

“Can I make it special? What kind of Pizza do you want?”

“Hmmm lets try fancy cheese”

Cheese it was.  We decided that Pecirino would be  the biggie, and that I’d get a mozzarella too.  I got up Saturday morning and wandered back down to Big John’s PFI ,  with a little information from my previous visit  boosting my confidence.

From Blog Photos

The cheese line was quiet today and I studied the choices.
The rules at Big John’s are
-Form one line,
-everything in 1lb plus quantities, unless its over $20 a lb, then you can get half a lb.

From Blog Photos

I studied the cheeses reflected on the price list and sent a confirming text message “Pecirino right?” “Yes, and Romano” Ahh another cheese in the mix.

I ordered a medium aged pecirino, one pound worth. One pound of smoked mozzarella, two pounds skim mozzarella (they were out of whole milk), and 1/2 a lb of Romano.

See the other thing I learned about PFI is that if you order a pound, they may hold up a chunk and say “Is this enough?” sometimes that chunk is half a lb or 3/4 of a lb. I added 2 lbs of cornichons to the order, simply for my snacking pleasure.
(Cornichons are tiny little dill pickles, they run $8 a lb on the bar at whole foods, but at PFI they were 2.75 a lb. What a deal)

I reached the check out and the total was…. $40. Next step was Delaurenti. Aron had asked for both sausage and pepperoni, and neither had to be special. While the sausage was not, I did opt to go for Pepperoni sticks from Delaurneti. Thick sticks that when sliced gave uneven rounds of pepperoni flavor. That’s another $10 there. Add in the sausage and the sauce and you reach our total of $60

From Blog Photos

I shredded cheese, made dough, cooked sausage, then precooked the crusts a bit and added toppings. 4 cheeses two meats and swath of tomato sauce graced each pizza crust, then into a 450 degree oven.

The crust crisped and cooked, the cheeses melted, aromas of pizza filled the kitchen. (With a little bit of smoke too) The birthday boy got served first.

“So is this special pizza?”
He agreed, happily having a pizza and a half.

Big John’s PFI can be found at

1001 6th Ave S
Seattle, WA 98134-1305
(206) 682-2022

De Laurenti can be found at
1435 1st Ave
Seattle, WA 98101-2083
(206) 622-0141