Waking up to no gas or hot water. Making grapefruit juice.

Yesterday, Jon got up at 6:30am, and went out to go put the water on for coffee.  I heard a sad 'uh-oh', and practically fell out of bed trying to get to the kitchen.  The gas was out.  The first things that came to my mind were- explosions!  We're all gonna die!  *Sniffing air and smelling nothing* Either we are going to catch on fire or the gas company cut us off for no reason...So I checked the hot water, and there wasn't any.  We pulled out the stove, closed off the gas line, and used Jon's camp stove to make coffee so we could make it through this.  We didn't explode lighting the camp stove, so at that point, my wrath turned to the gas company.  Long story short, it wasn't their fault, they didn't do it, and someone else had turned off both of our lines in the basement.  I can only shake my head.  After spending all day on the phone, running to Jon's parents' to try to make bread but then realizing I should be at the apartment in case a service person came, and still experiencing a cold shower an hour after the gas got turned back on, I still manged to make corned beef with vegetables and a chocolate zucchini cake for dinner.  Oh yeah.

Chocolate zucchini cake is one of the best things in the world.  The shredded zucchini is so invisible that you can trick anyone into eating it.  *evil laughter*

So now that I have the proper tools to cook with again, and a bright, fresh new day, I am making bread and grapefruit juice.  The bread, recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, is on its second rise.  I'm thinking of steaming it in a Dutch oven.  We'll see how that goes.

The grapefruit juice is beautiful.

Start off with some nice, ripe grapefruits, USA grown!

Set up a strainer.  You don't want to be drinking seeds, and this catches all the big pulp pieces.

Use a citrus juicer.  I like this one, because it is heavy, doesn't tip over, and the outside is blue.

Put a funnel in your desired juice container.

Be careful cutting your grapefruit in half, especially once you get started and your hands are covered in pulp.  It would probably be a good idea to rise off before using a knife.

And...juice!  It doesn't seem like much, but- no added water, sugar, 'natural flavors'- only grapefruit juice goodness!  Completely worth the 10 minutes it took me, while also watching youtube videos.

-Still haven't found a home for the angora kits.  Anyone out there want one?  They are adorable, I swear!  They are just too much to handle in 3's.  I let them out this morning to run around, and I made the mistake of leaving the room.  I hear a crash, and one is on top of the cage, another is wedged in behind it, and one is keeping a lookout.  I set things right, and leave the room again.  Five minutes later, one is on the guest bed, which is very high up for them, one is on top of a trunk, and the other is again keeping lookout.  They are like toddlers, not puppies, because puppies don't climb like they do!!!

I'm going to go be bad and eat some more chips for lunch.

Ginger carrot soup and a mushroom and spinach quiche with potato crust

Alright, I admit it.  Some days, I spend all morning looking up recipes, and spend all afternoon making dinner.  But its for a good cause!  Don't tell Jon that I'm not working on his sweater today ;)

I made orange juice today, too!  One bag of oranges made about half a large jar of juice.  I'm saving the pulp for muffins.  I would candy the rinds, but they have fungicide on them =(  I have a bag of grapefruit waiting for next time.

Tonight for dinner, I am making ginger carrot soup and a mushroom and spinach quiche with potato crust.  Sounds fancy, but is really easy!  The quiche looks absolutely beautiful, and the broth of the soup is AMAZING.  Like, restaurant quality.  Woo!  I substituted organic whole milk for the soy milk in the soup.  The quiche is taking forever to set, though, so next time I might use a higher temp. to begin with, then bring it down to finish setting up.  One more egg might help, too.  

I actually had ginger on hand from when I preserved it in some vodka in the fridge.  Now I have ginger extract, and the ginger tastes just fine in the soup.  No alcohol taste.  I did use a mid-grade vodka that doesn't leave a horrible taste in things.  Great for vanilla, too!

Jon's sweater IS coming along...slowly!  Here is what I have done so far, about one skein, next to my new favorite tea: Tazo Focus.  It has black tea, lemon balm, chicory, cocoa peels, roasted yerba mate, rose petals, citrus essence oil, rosemary, and 'natural flavor'.  LOVE the cocoa!