Bacon Blitz on Bad Days, Plus Curried Chicken



Food Mood: I like food.  A lot
Reno Ridiculouso: utterly stalled. No windows.  No doors in.  No tyvek.  Husband working in the crawl space.
Insulation Complete!  Vapour Barrier Complete!  At least in the crawl space.

Husband and I sat up late on the front porch last night drinking rye whiskey (yeah, I’m hardcore like that.  When there’s no beer and wine is too much of a commitment) and talking about my side projects and how I can help a group from a nearby city who’s struggling with keeping their space in use.  It’s a big project and I’m kinda freakin’ out about if I have the time to help them.  It’s exciting but overwhelming.

Anyhoooo... I sleep in a little bit,but it’s the end of daylight savings time.  Score!  I get up and still only   I wake to the sound of Little Girl’s barking bloody cough ( five days and counting) and Husband bashing around in the “studio kitchen”.  I thought about getting up and making poached eggs on the hot plate but quickly decide that boiling the water would take forever (10 minutes on average) and cleaning the dishes up after would suck and I want to go for a run.  So, English muffins and cream cheese it is.
7:45 am (although it’s really almost 9 if you discount the daylight savings, but let’s ignore that and feel good about this moment, shall we?)

Up I jump, looking for my running clothes and head downstairs.  Wait a minute.  What fresh hell is this??!  Husband is making bacon. By itself daunting with no water in the kitchen and no way to clean up.  However making it worse is the fact that he is suuuuper tired and overwhelmed and , if I had to guess, not thinking straight.  As I stand by watching he kindly if taciturnly hands me a cup of tea (yeah, he loves me!) and sets to the bacon.  He then proceeds to do the following

1    1.   Put bacon on grease plate thing with holes and go to put it in the toaster oven.  Decides that it will splatter too much and decides to cover it with paper towel.   I gently point out that this will inevitably set on fire.  He changes his mind
2   2.    Next he puts it on a plate and goes to put it in the microwave. Midreach he changes his mind
3       3.   He gets out a frying pan and puts in on the hot plate.  Changes his mind again,returns half of bacon (why half?) to the plate heading back towards the microwave. In a stupefied state he opens the cupboard door, puts the bacon in there, closes it, shakes his head, goes back and takes it out. 

This.  This is a very delicate moment my friends.  Husband is a tad touchy these days and obviously wants to make a nice breakfast.  This is a task that he has regularly done for years not just for me but for our masses of guests who have been perfectly happy with his repas year after year (otherwise why do they keep coming back? Oh. Right.  It’s free and in a major city. Yes.)

I digress.  A touchy moment to start the day on in month seven of reno ridiculouso.   When ten or so minutes have passed and he’s getting nowhere, I gently say “Were you going to cook the bacon?  I mean... I don’t need it but I do need to eat something before I run”.  Thank heavens he takes it well, commits to the microwave on the bacon cooking front and I get my sandwich. 
As I head out for my run all I can think of is how those 10 strips of bacon have cost us the washing of a frying pan, metal pan and plate before the day has even begun.  All to be washed IN OUR BATHROOM SINK. Sigh.

Thankfully, I have a plan for dinner, Crockpot (surprise!) Butter Chicken with Yesterdays Basmati Rice and the corner Middle Eastern restaurants caramelized cauliflower.
Yes, I do know how to caramelize cauliflower.  But remember, we can’t run the crockpot and the toaster oven without blowing a breaker so cut a girl some slack, alright! Thanks.  

Butter Chicken
People who are doing this properly should totally sautee the chicken and onions in advance.  I just can’t, too much, so I’m not
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion diced
1 cup coconut milk
1 can tomato paste
some canned tomatoes well drained if you feel like it 
2 teaspoons garam masala,
1 teaspoon curry powder
Some salt
¼ teaspoon ginger powder
Put in crockpot, mix together all the saucy stuff a good bit this time before putting the chicken in.
Cook it up
Sometimes I add some frozen peas at the end to add another veg
Sometimes I add some plain yogourt for more tang


Hello! Thanks for stopping by to check out my recipes and commiserate with my (our) misery. Misery loves company! I live in Toronto with my husband and little girl. We have spent a year (yep, that's right, renovating our home) About seven months into this crazy renovation I thought to myself, this has got to be funny or it will be pathetic! And so, I have chosen for funny! This is my collection of mostly crockpot (although sometimes not) recipes paired with the days (weeks, months) that inspired them. Please share your best reno stories and crockpot recipes too.

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