What do you do...

when the cat decides that 5:54 a.m. is a great time to get up...on a Saturday morning? If you're me, you give up and get up and wander into the kitchen to see what sorts of messes can be made.

I started with this. Okay, I really started by making a pot of coffee because for me there is nothing like coffee on the weekends. I love that I get to keep refilling my cup and I can easily finish a whole pot throughout the day. To me it says 'nesting'. Then I raided the refrigerator and pantry and filled the kitchen counter with ingredients. By 6:30 I was cooking!

By 10 a.m. the squash above had been roasted and put in the freezer. A batch of Creamy Mushroom and Wild Rice soup had been made with both fresh mushrooms and dried shitake, and 4 jars were headed to the freezer for upcoming lunches. I even ate a bowl for my breakfast because, well, I could. I know, I've been making lots of different mushroom soups, but the mushrooms were on sale for $1.00 each so I stocked up. I'll share the recipe if you would like it, but it's from a cookbook so I wasn't comfortable posting it here. By the way, this is one cream soup that can be frozen because it's made with soy milk and doesn't separate like cow's milk does. If you aren't familiar with Asian markets, I suggest you go visit one and prowl the aisles. Everything is so cheap there, much cheaper than shopping your local grocery store. The shitake was outrageously expensive at Meijer, but a huge bag was just a couple dollars at A Dong Market. My pantry is full of foods from the Asian and Indian Markets.

I had a whole batch of confetti meatballs ready for the freezer. These are made with ground turkey and a broccoli slaw mix. The recipe comes from the back of the bag.

 

Mann's Confetti Meatballs

 

Number of Servings: 6

Ingredients:12 oz Mann's Broccoli Cole Slaw
12 oz lean ground beef or ground turkey

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
5 tsp grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp dry Italian seasoning

2 tsp garlic salt
2 eggs

 

Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place bag of Mann's Broccoli Cole Slaw in microwave oven. Microwave onhigh for 4 min. (let Broccoli Cole Slaw cool before adding it to other ingredients). In a large bowl add all of the above indredients and mix until well combined. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Use a standrd ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup to make 12 meatballs and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and serve. 

Next time I'll use fresh garlic rather than the dried garlic powder it called for, but still, these are delicious. The broccoli slaw was also on sale for $1 and now that I know how to use it in a recipe that's not loaded with calories...

Just after 10, the only thing left on the counter was this cup of coffee. I gave the cat a nice pat on the head and said, "thanks, that was a productive morning." He said, "my pleasure" with a little more smugness and pleasure to his voice than I would have liked, and then rubbed himself all over my legs in that catty, curvy, rubby way that cats do. I actually don't like it that he thinks I should get up so early on the weekend.

See these tools down below? Yeah, they're my favorite kitchen tools that I never want to live without. B gave me the scale about a year ago and I don't how know I lived without one for so long. I use it constantly when I'm cooking. It comes in real handy when weighing vegetables or converting metric to whatever it is we use here in the states. I use the kitchen shears for everything from cutting bones to mincing herbs. This time I used it to cut the broccoli slaw into smaller pieces and to cut up the rehydrated mushrooms so they were bite sized. And then there's the potato masher. I don't have a hand-held blender and with this masher, I don't really need one. It's perfect for mashing up soups and potatoes and squash and...oh, ever so handy.

And that, my friends, was only my Saturday morning. Do you have a favorite kitchen utensil I should know about?

Added: If I didn't exactly follow the recipe, changed amounts, substituted ingredients, etc., does that make the recipe my own and can I post it here? I'll reference the original recipe, but I didn't make it like the book said to.