One doesn’t notice how strange one’s house smells until one walks outside and then comes back in a few minutes later. This is how I realized that my entire house currently smells strongly of weird cauliflower stench. Bet you wish you were here.
See, I got excited when I saw that Bountiful Baskets was offering cases of cauliflower – 22 pounds for just $14.50. I snatched it up because I’m tired of paying over $3 for one small head. I figured it would be great to have this on hand to easily make Cheesy Cauliflower Hashbrowns. This morning, we picked up our basket along with a case of tomatoes (that are sadly very green), two packs of tortillas, a pack of bread, and yep – a case of beautiful, large heads of cauliflower! They were nearly twice the size of those I’ve seen at the store lately – and the cost of these broke down to just over $1.60 each. Great savings!
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to prepping the cauliflower for the freezer – so I just decided to dive in and do it before I got busy with other work. I soon had a nice system going to blanch all the cauliflower: wash, cut, blanch, rinse, repeat. The process is just like blanching and freezing broccoli, so head over there to read those instructions if you find yourself with plenty of cauliflower or broccoli.
My long counter-top was soon covered with blanched cauliflower. I nibbled as I went, because why not?
After it cooled, I bagged it up in freezer bags and stuffed it into a freezer. Then I left to drop off two of my kids at church to work on a project. I arrived back home, walked in, and almost gagged. There is a heavy hovering stench of cauliflower in my home. I guess this means I should probably bake something chocolate to knock that out. I mean, this smell cannot be what greets people when they come here.
In other, better smelling food related news, we were so thrilled when our little friend Abigail handed this to Malachi at church on Sunday:
She and her family have been working through Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve. You guys, we did this with our kids beginning when our son Justus was 3 years old. He’s almost 16 now!!! I can’t even believe this. Watching Abigail’s family work through the curriculum makes me so happy and brings back so many memories. (Back when Justus learned the letter M, he made mini-muffins to take to Madge and Mabrey Miller. These dear ones have both passed away now, so not only did Abigail’s Monster Cookies for Malachi bless us and bring back memories of our kids learning and serving when they were little – they also reminded us of the dear Millers who were such a blessing to our family.)
So in summary, Abigail’s cookies made me cry. This is a very good thing. Memories are so sweet. (As were her cookies. Malachi shared with his brothers and they enjoyed them very much!)
Now can I show you my favorite meal from last week? I baked a spaghetti squash, which I would eat any day over actual spaghetti noodles. (The boys still choose wheat noodles while Matt and I finish off an entire spaghetti squash by ourselves.) The squash with tasty meat sauce, green beans, and salad was so crazy delicious. I need to make this more often.
Since I was already baking squash that day, I baked the acorn and butternut squash I had sitting around. I then proceeded to turn those into pumpkin pies. (Don’t tell the pies that they are actually squash pies.)
A nasty sinus infection has now made its way through every member of our family (except for Asa who is living at a dorm and apparently not exposed to germs – ha!). My homemade Orange Julius made with homemade buttermilk and freshly squeezed oranges has been so refreshing and filling.
Dare I ask?? What does your house smell like right now??