havocandmayhem.com

I've decided to combine my food & craft blogs because cooking is crafty & I'm not keeping up with 2 blogs well. So there will be menus & recipies here as well as my craft stuff. I've got comments set to allow everyone with moderation, but I never get comments & I don't know if that is beacuse I have it set wrong or I have no visitors. I'd appreciate if a visitor who could not leave a comment would email me & let me know or leave the comment if able. I'm working on a new blinkie about this blog for my sig in the various forums I frequent. I've also figured out how to make this a 3 column blog. So as soon as I get my slideshows made I'll be adding them to left side here. I got my new Wacom Graphire 4x5 tablet today. Plugged it in & it seems to be working fine. I hope to be able to do some real experimenting with it sometime this week. But I need to get a USB multi-port hub first. I have a camera, Ipod, 2 scanners, digital m...

I have made 3 meals from the menu & since there have only been 4 meals since I went shopping for it; that is pretty good. Tuesday I made spaghetti with creamy pesto & chicken because the grocery store had no leeks for the Beguine soup I had intended to make. Wednesday I made the Salmon cakes. I had intended to make this asian version with fresh ginger & edamame beans. The grocery store had no fresh ginger & the bag in my freezer I had thought was shelled edamame was in fact, peas. So I made it with ground ginger & peas. Very tasty!! I bet the original version is even better (note to self: do not grocery shop on Tuesdays, everything is restocked tuesday night) Last night I was going to make veal milanese, but it became instead veal positano, with a creamy tomato sauce. Today's baked ziti is now baked penne (note to self: a glance is insufficient when checking supplies before grocery shopping) made with the extra positano sauce added to tomato sauce and leftover d...

I have decided to plan 12 means per 14 day period this year,and actually cook at least 10 of those, putting me one up from last year. We go out to eat one weekend night & the other can be fairly random, but this way we know at least *most* ofthe ingredients are available for something. May have to run out for fresh veggies but the basics will be there. This has been working out fairly well so this year, espeically since the random meal works out to be pasta with whatever veg is avaiable or veg soup. Most of my meals have been coming from Rachel Ray's books lately, though I often end up altering them to suit me over time. This time I am using her Mini Meatball Soup Garlic Roast Chicken Veal Milanese (new, we'll see what the boys think) Salmon Cakes Bracioli with mushroom tomato gravy I've been into EveryDay Italian too Chicken Parmesan Simple Bolonese sauce (I put on several dished this time period) There there are some soups Beguine Soup - from 12 months of monestar...