Slacker

Typically I'm not one for instant soup. There are several issues I find with canned cream of blank condensed soup. The issues I find are a generalized discomfort with the idea of food additives, the other being the quality of ingredients added, and lastly the idea of my food having been dead for god knows how long is also a little weird.

However canned soup is relatively cheap, goes on sale often enough, and cooking broth ahead only works if I have room in my freezer. Until the day I have a chest freezer my ability to store stock will be heavily influenced by random 8 lbs of frozen fish, or my roommates handle of vodka. Also winter blues add a large amount of laziness and blah to dinner preparations (for example, last nights dinner was a few table spoons of organic raw peanut butter).

Tonight dinner was a little bit more of an adventure in cookery. I had a pound of ground beef, and a Bobs Redmill soup mix, frozen veggies, and a can of cream of mushroom soup.

*Disclaimer, read up on how to use a pressure cooker before making this recipe.*

Slacker's Dinner:
1 lbs ground beef (or turkey, or pork, or a mix)
1 10 3/4oz can of cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
2 TBSP flour
1 TBSP Adobo spice mix + 1 tsp
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Vegi soup mix
5 1/2 cups water
1 cup frozen peas, corn and cut green beans. (Or anything else you might have)
1/4 cup butter

In a medium sized pot combine Vegi soup mix, Adobo, and 3 cups water. Bring to a simmer, cook until the ingredients are soft. Add frozen vegetables and simmer about another 5 minutes.

Combine ground beef with about 1/4 cup cream of mushroom soup, egg, flour, and add about a teaspoon of Adobo. Mix well.

Melt butter in the pressure cooker, add the remainder of the cream of mushroom soup, and remaining water. Bring to a simmer, and add scoops of the meat mixture. Lock the pressure cooker lid, and cook at medium to high pressure for 10 minutes. Let the pressure fall off naturally.

P.S. I didn't use the broth from cooking the meatballs just because it seemed to be too fat.

Snickerdoodles are acceptable forms of resume, right?

Over the last few months a rather unsettling realization has reared its head.

I'm an adult. I've been one for 8 years. I've thought of myself as one for 12. Adults in general have to be mature enough to do what they don't want to do. Right?

So instead of working on a resume and cover letter. I made snickerdoodles for a friends birthday.

Let me be honest here. I have a job. I consider myself lucky to have it for a plethora of reasons, starting with the fact that the economy sucks and ending with the fact that I work in an antique shop, which is awesome in it of itself. On one hand, the adult in my says "you need health insurance, you need a career, you need a 401k, and a paycheck that reflects the fact that you have a bachelors" on the other hand, my dear, inner child points out that "you have never made snickerdoodles, and those would make an awesome addition to Chelsea's birthday present!"

What is a twenty-something to do?

Throw dinner in the pressure cooker, and make cookies! Resume be damned.

Feel like procrastinating? They're really not that hard to make.

SNICKERDOODLES

1 cup butter- room temp

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups white all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cups sugar

2 TBSP ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the 2 eggs. Sift in flour, cream of tartar, salt and baking soda. At this point you can chill the dough for about 10-20 minutes, however I was in a hurry, so I skipped this step, and as far as I can tell it didn't hurt the recipe.

Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Scoop a generous tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball, roll the ball o' dough int he sugar cinnamon mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, leave about 2 inches between each dough ball. Keep in mind that if the dough is room temperature you will not be able to get perfect balls out of the dough.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

The first tray that I did, I got overzealous with the amount of dough I used per cookie and I placed them too close together. End result? A tray of cookies that ran together, and double the bake time. Oh well. They still came out scrumptious.