Little projects.

What a wonderful Saturday it has been! I woke up this morning very excited to start off my day as I had a few little projects. One of them was to pack care packages for the victims of the recent tornado in Macon county. We had about 40 ceramic dishes and extra cutlery as a result of Mr. J and I combining our households. Mr. J helped me pack them securely in newspaper whilst I rummaged our pantry and filled up a box with canned goods and other items which is readily edible without requiring too much appliances.



But of course, I can't let a care package go out without something sweet can I? I made a double batch of chocolate macademia brownies from scratch and they were scrumptious, not chewy, not cakey, just super moist and chocolatey.



I still had a pack of turkey carcass from Thanksgiving and decided to make a batch of turkey stock to freeze. This was super easy, all you need is a stock pot filled with water, drop in the carcass, 2 bay leaves, 3-4 carrots [I used baby carrots as I was out of regular], celery [I used celery top as I had tonnes from processing celery sticks for us as it’s one of our favorite snacks at work or when we come home], and 3 large onions quartered. Let it simmer for a couple of hours and season with salt if needed, let cool and strain. You’ll have a supply of very flavorful stock. This can be used for a quick dinner like noodle soup, turkey & wild rice soup, wat tan hor, the ideas are limitless!



On the way downtown to deliver the packages. We pass the river by our house and spot a lonesome angler, his passion for fishing certainly beats the cool winds!



It certainly does feel odd to see this view of Downtown Nashville as it reminds us of a workday! We try to stay away from downtown during the weekends and explore the rest of Nashville.



The is the famous Broadway, where all the Country & Western bars are at and where everyone is talented! My dad thoroughly enjoyed his visit here with Mr. J.



Just one of the beautiful historic churches downtown.



Our next 'project'. Our house is only 1 1/2 years old but we decided after this winter to replace all the windows with higer end energy efficient windows. Incidently, they were having the Home Expo at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds so we mosied on over to check it out. Mr. J buying tickets. $10 per person.



We walked what seems like endless hours and talked to at least 10 vendors, we have appointments with 5 of them to come out to give us an estimate but from what we've found out, this is going to cost us about $4k-$5k! Geez, you'd think windows were cheap! Anyways, I think in the long run, this will help with saving on heating & cooling expenses. We didn't take any pictures of the booths as I wasn't sure if we could. Can you tell I am a new blogger??? I think with time, I will not care too much and just snap away!

Having not had breakfast, we were starving and we were relieved to see food stalls, we decided to go healthy and have a baked potato. Mr. J gave me this "are you kidding me???" look when I told him to wait and let me snap a picture. I gave up and went to wash my hands, when I got back, he was chomping away.



This is what's left!



Next was to get groceries.



We had tonnes done just in time for a 4pm dinner at Jim & Nick’s BBQ which is Jonathan’s favorite place to go. They have killer barbeque and cheese muffins… mmm with honey butter, it is simply divine! That’s usually what I fill up on and never really have room for my actual entrée. Hence Mr. J usually restricts the amount brought out. He has such discipline! Again, I am such a novice as only when the bill was paid, I slapped my forehead and realised I didn't take any pictures! Next time folks!

When we got back, I started my next project, to make yong tau foo for a few of my dinners next week. I usually make something during the weekend just so I can come home to a hot meal which isn't Lean Cuisine [for my Malaysian friends, these are frozen dinners, they're good but nothing like home cooked!].

Since I didn't have a chance to go to the Asian store, I made do with what I had so it was american eggplant, tofu, serrano pepper and fish paste [I used frozen filets, seasoned with white pepper, a little corn flour and mince this into a paste in the food processor, drizzle salted water when mincing until it becomes a smooth, glossy paste]. My mother had told me to 'slap' the mince several times into the bowl for some culinary reason. This was the result!



Mr. J split his sides laughing and told me that I definitely need to be on Iron Chef. *rolls eyes*

All prepped and ready to be stuffed!



All fried up with sauce made, I like to keep them separate until before serving. As usual, this isn't Mr. J's cup of tea because he doesn't do eggplant or tofu. He did like it when I made some using button mushrooms but none today.



There it is folks, it's 9.45pm now and we're relaxing and watching tv, probably call it an early night since it's church at 9 tomorrow!

Good night, hope your Saturday was as enjoyable as ours was.