A Dang Hippie

A few tips from this morning's cooking. Now, I hate waste. We recycle everything and compost our vegetable trash. I feel like I am becoming a dang hippie, but really I am just trying to do my part. And it works.

We have to take out the one trash can maybe once every three weeks! My garden used NO fertilizer this year, just compost and grew like crazy, even in the drought. Anyhoo, on the weekend we eat leftovers from the week, and usually, if there are any vegetables or fruits that didn't get used, I will try to use them up, versus letting them go bad and throwing them away.

This morning we had five apples. So I peeled, cored and chopped them. Sauteed in a little olive oil (butter would be richer, but I didn't have any) I put half in my pancake batter. The other half I mixed with a little brown sugar and threw back in the pan and then served it on top of the pancakes with a little honey.

Other observations:
Soymilk makes a fluffier pancake that regular milk. I even used chocolate soymilk today. No it didn't affect the taste at all.

My girlfriend gave me a mortar and pestle for my b-day a year or two ago, and everyone always makes fun of me claiming it a rather decadent kitchen tool. Well, I actually use it alot. This morning I wanted to use some dark brown sugar in the pancakes and the apples, but of course it was hard as a rock. Mortar fixed that in a second. Thank you mortar, and you too pestle.

As a segue, a good tip if you need a "mash" or "paste" but have neither mortar/pestle, blender or cuisinart, I used to put items to be squished in a ziploc and either smash it with the bottom of a beer bottle or wine bottle, or step on it. Take to remove air bubbles though as you will explode food all over.

A final tip with my "end of the week vegetables" is that you can always make a soup. I just look at what I have to use and then type it in google with "recipe" and something will come up. Who knew there were zucchini and apple soups? Now I do! Eat half and freeze the other half for a night when you are too tired to cook.