Busy Night

Today we got our butts up and went to mass then coffee and a bagel for a light lunch for me.  I tried smoked salmon with spring onion cream cheese that was very, very good, albeit a bit strong flavoured!  We headed to the store to figure out dinner and on a whim I told G that if he could see if they had beef tongue I would cook it for dinner (we had been wanting to try it).  Lucky for him they had some in the back, so we picked up some of that and some horseradish at the next store, and away we went with plans for beef tongue sandwiches for dinner.


Well, we ate the beef tongue, sans the sandwich.  As soon as it came out of the water (now broth) we started picking at it and it was like the best roast beef you could imagine.  Amazing!  I know it's a bit different, but if you are feeling brave, it is out of this world yummy!  

This is my grandmama's rolling pin that is seasoned perfectly.  G said we needed to name her so from here on out she's known as Mary (named after my great grandmother whose biscuit recipe keeps my husband happy!)

Now I couldn't let that beef broth go to waste, so after putting up the beef for tomorrow's sandwiches I let the broth continue to boil to condense a bit.  Then I pulled out some carrots, chopped them and added them to the broth (I had onions and garlic already in there having used them to flavor the beef).  I threw in some spices (lots of black pepper), Then I had some old egg noodles we bought some time last year before we quit using them for chicken noodle soup, and threw them in as well.  Then I sprinkled in some flour while whisking away with the other hand, and finished it off with a bit of cut up beef.  We just ate that a bit ago and it was really good.  Garret says he loves our kitchen because we take things that we would have thrown out before and make meals.  

While the beef had been cooking I took a half pint of heavy cream, poured it in a mason jar and had G shake the dickens out of it until it turned to butter.  He had been wanting to do it for a while, and thought it would be a fun thing to occupy our time.  I ended up with enough for our butter bell, and the milk from making it (true buttermilk, but you cannot use it the same as "buttermilk") is in the fridge to use in pancakes later.  

Whipped Cream Stage

I also had a half gallon of milk that had expired but not gone bad yet.  It was starting to sour a tiny bit, so I made use of that, added some vinegar and made a double batch of my great grandmother's buttermilk biscuits.  I had two loaves of bread rising and figured I would kill time and prep for future meals all at the same time.  I ended up with 22 biscuits (23, but we ate one with the fresh butter).  I wrapped sets of 4 of them in a couple layers of saran wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil (this was taught to me by my wedding cake baker and it has never failed me).  Now we have 16 biscuits in handy amounts waiting for days that we want biscuits and gravy or simply some with butter and jam.  That left some for tomorrow and Tuesday.  

All this cooking raised the house temp to 65 even thought it's set to 58!  We're drinking tea, and I'm getting ready to make a spice cake (3/4 of it will go into the freezer for other days).  I'm thinking of putting on a Jane Austen film and calling it a night.  But who knows, it's only 11 and I have onions I could caramelize for the beef sandwiches....


*EDIT* Just realized spice cake calls for yogurt, which we do not have on hand, so am thinking we will be picking that up tomorrow along with the oranges we need for kumquat marmalade!