Week 11 of Dark Days and the end of week 2 of my bronchitis. I’m sure hoping it lets up in week 3 because it’s really slowing me down! My kids think it’s great that I’m lying on the floor playing with them but in actuality, I’m just lying on the floor. It’s ironic that I got my first viral illness in 28 years the week after starting my anti-viral tincture. It should be ready just around the time I get better.
I haven’t been very good about taking pictures. Or really anything. We’ve had a lot of breakfast for dinner because it’s quick and comforting and it let daddy do some of the cooking this week.
Did you know you can make an omelet faster than a piece of toast? I bet my husband and won.
Chili con carne made with our Cascade Range Beef stew meat and home canned red chile sauce. Served with a smiling bowl of kale because it’s Seattle style. Corn muffins from freshly ground dent corn grown in Dufur, OR, home clabbered buttermilk and backyard eggs. Freshly juiced beet/carrot/apple. The beets and carrots are Nash’s and the apple is from Tonnamaker’s.
Friday night’s dessert of quick and easy chocolate snacking cake. This recipe hearkens from the Great Depression I. It amazingly contains no eggs or dairy (although I couldn’t resist replacing the vinegar and water with buttermilk since surely that was what it was replacing. After all, this is merely a recession and we do have milk. Even made from scratch this cake was so simple that my 3 year old made it. All I did was measure everything into little bowls for him and then go lie on the floor. He was so proud!
Another batch of English muffins for quick breakfast sammies. If you have some fried bacon or ham in the freezer these take just minutes to toast and scramble eggs for in the morning. I’m still working on perfecting this recipe. I’ve moved from lots of nooks & crannies and white flour to 100% whole wheat which was a little denser. I still have a few more techniques to try that just may get all those nooks and crannies back while still using my whole wheat flour.
Whole wheat pizzas with fresh mozzarella from Met Market, Muir Glen (derp!) tomato sauce and the sausage we ground and mixed up a few weeks back for the kids – Munschli based white sauce from Mt. Pleasant, Skeeter’s potatoes, garlic and rosemary from the garden for ours.
A husband-made scrambler of backyard eggs, Skeeter’s potatoes, Akyla Farm bacon and Beecher’s extra sharp cheddar.
And does Toshi’s Teriyaki count as local? They’re right on 45th. 
Happy Dark Days everyone!
11 responses so far ↓
1 kitsapFG // Feb 1, 2010 at 9:04 am
My husband has had a bad case of bronchitis this year too. I hope you get over it soon and can eventually get off that floor! LOL!
The meals look delicious. Chocolate cake must have been transmitting telephathically because I made a chocolate cake this weekend too. I almost did my “emergency chocolate cake” which is similar to your depression era cake recipe – so simple and made from ingredients right at hand. I opted instead to make something a little more traditional because it was a rainy afternoon and I really did not have anything more pressing to do anyways.
2 The Mom // Feb 1, 2010 at 9:11 am
Great work for a sick woman. When you get that WW english muffin perfected, please post it. I should try to do the same myself. That cake looks yummy.
3 Myrnie // Feb 1, 2010 at 10:20 am
Looks great
My husband makes all our egg dishes, too 
How did you grind your corn? I have a grain grinder, but it only makes flour. Do you think a blender would work to make corn meal?
4 julia // Feb 1, 2010 at 11:32 am
Want that easy peasy cake recipe!
Feel better! So sorry you’ve been sick. Big frowny face.
5 Brook // Feb 1, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Sorry you’re not feeling well. I remembered seeing this link on Cheeseslave’s blog about vitamin D for bronchitis.
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/10/28/real-food-cures-vitamin-d-for-bronchitis-and-iodine-for-moles/
Feel better!
6 admin // Feb 1, 2010 at 10:57 pm
KFG – How did he finally kick it? I’ve been doing everything (except remembering to take the supplement that I was out of 2 weeks prior to getting sick), elderberry, honey, channeling Jack LaLane…
Mom, I will for sure. That and the pizza crust I am engineering right now because the family is loving having english muffins around. They are sweeter than bread and no crusts for the kids to complain about!
Myrnia, I don’t think it would. Corn is really hard. I have a family grain mill (http://www.sustainableeats.com/2009/02/02/the-grain-mill/) from everything kitchens. You can grind wheat or corn and set it from crack to flour. I’ve had it for a year and still love it.
Julia, I’ll post – it’s from The Sweet Kitchen and just has a few ingredients with some weird technique that was unncessary so I’ll adapt to make it simpler. I used whole ground spelt but whole wheat pastry flour would work just as well. Those chocolate cakes hide the extra bran & germ perfectly! MWAH HA HA.
Brook, thank you! I’ve been taking 1 T of fermented cod liver oil a day but I just took an extra 2 1/2 (bleh!). We’ll see now if I feel much improved by tomorrow. Crossing fingers…
7 kitsapFG // Feb 2, 2010 at 12:32 am
I regret to tell you that my husband is still barking like a seal from this bronchitis. He woke me up again last night and if I were not so annoyed at the lack of sleep… I truly would have felt miserable for him. Really I would have.
8 admin // Feb 2, 2010 at 12:38 am
Oh crum! I’ll let you know how my Vit D experiment goes (per Brook’s link.) I’m keeping the house awake here too and sympathy, if there ever was any, has long since eroded. Not to keep you tied up on my blog but how long has he had it?
9 Dark Days 09/10 :: Week #11 Recap (PNW) « (not so) Urban Hennery // Feb 2, 2010 at 2:01 am
[...] bronchitis isn’t slowing Annette down (even though she says it is). She managed yet another impressive array of Sustainable Eats this week, including omelettes, chile con carne with corn muffins, whole-wheat [...]
10 admin // Feb 3, 2010 at 1:32 am
For julia:
Cake
1 1/2 cups AP flour (I used spelt)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
6 T oil (I used sunflower)
1 c buttermilk
1 t vanilla
Bake 350 F in floured 9×9 pan, sift dry ingredients, mix wet and then combine them barely. Bake 30 min. This is not rich at all so you may want to add chocolate chips.
Frosting:
1/4 cup room temp butter
2 cups conf sugar
2-3 T milk or water
1 1/2 T cocoa powder
1 t vanilla
This is not fancy or rich but it’s cheap, easy and quick just like a snack-n-cake.
11 Nate @ House of Annie // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:57 am
Excellent meals!
Since you are using homegrown ingredients in your dishes, would you like to enter this post in our Grow Your Own roundup this month? Full Details at
http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2010/02/announcing-grow-your-own-39.html
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