Sunday, December 21, 2008

Snowy Sunday...

I've fallen a bit behind on everything lately.  My head has been killing me and it's still snowing outside.  Luckily it didn't explode into a full on migraine, but the dull pain behind my eyes was still there, burning into my skull.  Alas...

Just because my head was hurting didn't mean that I wanted to skimp on eating well.  (Far too often I get in the cycle of feeling not well and then not eating anything and then have it get worse.  Ugh!)  So, I recreated an old favorite from the Thornton family household.  I made a HAMBURGER PIE!  We got the recipe from one of those ochre-colored plastic cubes that were like recipe file-folders.  I imagine that they had a different idea what appetizing looked like, because most of the pictures didn't look very good.  However, nonetheless we used to make the hamburger pie and it seemed to be a crowd-pleaser.  In my version, I cut in pie dough in the mashed potato pie topping.  I lightly baked the pie dough so that it had a little bit of crunch.  I also formed the potato mixture into little flattened discs to cook all the way through and make it look pretty.

When it's cold and snowy out, I don't leave the house.  I try to avoid it at all costs.  So, much of the "nature" that I witness is either on the television or out of the window.  In the back alley, I watch the house sparrows.  I love them and their cute little fat bodies.  After I researched them for a sculpture I made, I started to see the differences in the sexes.  This is a pair that I see together often.  I call them, "The Lovers."

Beki sent along another box of Christmas present goodies!  I got another AMAZING scarf.  I've always wanted one like this.  Dark red and black.  It's beautiful and so soft.  She also sent along some knives and a peeler.  They're gorgeous and very sharp!  To keep them sharp, she also sent along a sharpener.  The cheese cutter looks like some kind of alien ritual blade.  I like them all very much.  

For breakfast this morning I made musubi.  I tend to try and make things that bring back good memories.  The power of smell and taste is a powerful trigger to memory.  Musubi reminds me of Hawaii and the wonderful time I had there.  I begged Renee (one of the other vendors at the bead show who is SO supremely nice) for the secret to making good musubi.  She said, "It's so easy!  Spam, soy sauce, and brown sugar.  Bam!  Done!"  I marinated the slices of spam in the mixture and then fried them up.  Afterwards, I reduced down the remainder brown sugar and soy sauce mixture and made a sauce to glaze the slices in.  It was YUMMY!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a recipe from my childhood I also call hamburger pie - I have no idea what the original name was. You make the 'crust' from hamburger (doctored up like a simple meatloaf), the middle from a tomato juice/rice mixture, and the top from cheese. Very tasty!

Anonymous said...

I love that you cook for yourself and I love the fact that you made spam musubi today. I probably haven't eaten spam since the last time I was in Hawaii when we got married there years ago, but I grew up eating spam, and yeah, it does give me warm fuzzy memories of Hawaii as well. Hmmm...never heard of hamburger pie though...

Anonymous said...

Yum! Spam musubi and hamburger pie! Your hamburger pie recipe sounds good too, Lynn.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Lynn! That recipe sounds yummy too. Our recipe from yonder year ago included cheese too.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Jenna! Maybe my next recipe will be musubi pie! Ha ha ha! You know the great thing about making big meals and only cooking for two is that there are always leftovers. So it's easier just to cook once and have three meals ready. I love leftovers and can doctor them up like a real champ. So, alternating leftovers and doctoring them up makes it seem like I've cooked all these different meals when I've only really spent very little time. It's a real time saver.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Sheila! Remember our hamburger pies? You know, I really want to get a lot of the old cook books. Like that one from the officer's wives and the one with all of grandma's recipes.

It's like a modern spell book or prayer book. Each generation adds to it. I think I'd add my recipe for Mush and Blood Orange Marmalade. Maybe pork tenderloin with apples and onions?