so you buy some fancy citrus, and it's crazy tangy

when winter hits, it's hard to resist unusual citrus fruit at the store. visually appealing, and often so small-- meaning that even if it's a ridiculous price for a pound of them, one or two pieces won't set you back much.

if you do buy the fancy citrus, you will occaisionally get fruit that's more tart than you want to fill a bowl. my advice: peanut butter stuffed pretzels are the perfect companion to small citrus sections in that case. the saltiness of the pretzels complements your reaction to the citrus tang.

what it is about the smell of eggs and cheese in the oven?

the chopped ham was on crazy discount at sun mart, but after i bought it, i wasn't sure what i would want to do with it. it was a toss-up between split pea soup or this potato casserole, and i chose the option that didn't require buying anything else.

i peeled and chopped two potatoes into coin shapes (and wanted a mandolin slicer for the first time in my life) and set them aside.

in a large mixing bowl, i stirred three eggs and a splash of milk, and then stirred in a handful of shredded cheddar and the rest of a jar of blue cheese (just the cheese, no oil), and the package of chopped ham. then i tossed the potatoes into the bowl to coat. then into a casserole dish, with a handful of shredded parmesan over the top. 425 degree oven until it looked and smelled so good i couldn't stand it, about 45 minutes.

this recipe has great potential for using up scraps from the fridge. with a tossed salad, it makes a nice brunch.

ali baba, you're my gyro

i hadn't gone to ali baba's in forever, but i picked up a gyro plate yesterday... and then got caught in post-game traffic on the way home, and was tortured by how good this smelled all the way there.

orange and yellow shredded carrots

organic to boot! these are showing up in some produce sections around town. i threw these in with the baked chicken and potatoes below, but they'd make an interesting variation on the old shredded carrot and raisin salad that you see around the holidays. might make it almost edible!

well, that was fun (and a dollar) while it lasted

hy-vee had stocked these day-old stuffed chicken breasts for a dollar apiece, as i wrote about here and here, but now they're up to $2 ea. which is still pretty cheap, but it's no longer in guaranteed weekend rotation.

these are the "santa fe" style. here, i baked four in a casserole dish, along with some chunks of potatoes, shredded and carrots and chopped onions-- i covered those with salsa and cheddar cheese. 350 degrees for 45-60 min.

sshhh... halloween brownies will be served in a thanksgiving context

there are sales on candy after halloween... and there are also sales on cookie dough. these were $1.50 a package, which was less than half-price.

expiration date: 12/14/2008. the packaging says halloween but the brownies themselves are regular brownies with caramel-swirled chocolate chips. so i bought a couple packages to have on hand in case there's a last-minute, thanksgiving-themed opportunity later this month. the day before thanksgiving at the office will do...

bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, stuffed with cheese and jalapenos

again for a dollar at the 70th & pioneers hy-vee.

i baked these with some of the last produce from last weekend's farmers' market. the chicken went into a casserole dish with some danvers carrots and some brussels sprouts, and a dash of chicken broth. baked at 375 for about an hour, covered for the first half-hour.

falling back an hour, taking out the farmers' market

so i couldn't go to the farmers' market this morning, since there was no farmers' market.

but i could get a half-price day-old le quartier pastry at the mill, because the bakery was finally getting a weekend off-- since there was no farmers' market. and there won't be another one until the spring season.

also, election season is over on tuesday. don't forget to pay a visit to the polling booth while you can.

bacon-wrapped, ham-and-cheese-stuffed chicken breast

hy-vee had several packages of these "grillers" on sale for a dollar per piece yesterday. i'm guessing they were left over from the husker home game afternoon the day before. a good meat counter in this town would have a barbecue-friendly blowout on such a saturday.

bacon-wrapped, and stuffed with ham and cheese, the chicken breasts were impossible to not buy for a dollar apiece. i bought three, and wish i had bought more.

i didn't even grill them! driving away from the store, i figured it would be more convenient to stick them in a casserole dish and simply bake instead. i didn't have to worry about the chicken drying out with the extra fat all around and inside of it. and any further preparation would be overkill. so i preheated the oven to 350 as soon as i got in the door, and thereafter baked the dish while i went about the next half hour to 45 minutes of my day.

here's one with some broccoli from the last farmers' market, also on sunday. i washed and trimmed the stalks of broccoli, and then took a carrot peeler to the toughness of the stalk. i tossed that with some italian dressing and baked, covered, for about ten minutes.

the new hy-vee at 50th & o st.

is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

which means that, no matter what time of week one has a craving for prepared edamame, it can be had. along with some other complementary snacks.

(several other groceries in lincoln are 24/7, of course, but this one has already come in handy [by virtue of location] two sundays in a row... the only two sundays it's been open.)

i've tried the rice crackers out of the bulk section in other hy-vee locations, and ran into staleness. the bulk rice crackers at this newly-opened location are crisp and spicy. buy them while that holds true!

also, park on the east side of the building. there's a second, smaller entry/exit over there; parking is much easier there than anywhere near the main entry.