pretense soup

Potage aux Pommes de Terre et Poireaux

2009-08-19T23:09:00.003-05:00

A la Julia Child, avec Bruschetta a la Alton Brown.

Ingredients

For soup:

1 leek
1 onion (small)
3 large potatoes (5 c. potatoes)
3 c. water
2 bouillon cubes
salt and pepper
1/4 c. Marsala
2 tsp olive oil
about 1/2 c. milk (skim)
cheese (we used Jarlsberg)

For bruschetta:

1 small loaf French bread
a few T. olive oil
shallot salt

Methodology

Wash and cut up all the veg. Cut them fairly small.
Saute the onion and leek in olive oil until they start to brown, then deglaze the pan with Marsala. When this is done and the water is hot, add the leek and onion mixture and the potatoes.
Cover pot and let it cook for about 10 min, until the potatoes are tender.
Puree some of the soup with a blender or immersion blender.
Cut the bread into small slices on the bias and stick under the broiler. Make sure the rack is close to the top, otherwise this will take forever.
When the bread has started to brown, flip it and go another 1-1.5 minutes.
Remove from oven, brush bread with olive oil, sprinkle with shallot salt.
Serving suggestion: put cheese on top of soup, then put a bruschetta on top. Mmm.

Notes

Quite successful and simple. The onions plus the shallot salt was very nice. Although I overcooked the bruschetta a little (they got a bit overly brown) they were still very tasty.

How to Quiche

2009-08-17T22:40:00.004-05:00

So. The other week my pal L. dragged me to the film Julie & Julia and I wound up tracking down the original blog The Julie/Julia Project. I can't claim to be that impressed by Ms. Powell's writing - she has some odd quirks which irritate me, although she does have a unique and interesting way of writing about food that doesn't just involve writing down her recipes. A week later I am still dreaming about food (this afternoon, for example, I dreamed of avocados. Weird.) and craving quiche. Mushroom quiche, specifically, until I tracked down this recipe online and decided that mushroom and leek quiche would be the thing.

No, I don't own a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I should probably amend that someday. But my goal for the year is to master Indian cooking, not French, so maybe next year.

Quiche aux Champignons et Poireaux

Ingredients

Two leeks (white/white-green parts only - see note)
6-7 biggish crimini mushrooms
Pinch salt
1 1/2 T. butter
A few T. Marsala wine
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. skim milk (this - more than the vegetarianism or anything - is heresy to Ms. Child. And I apologize.)
~1/4 c. grated Jarlesberg cheese (I hated this until very recently - like our date night to a local Scandinavian restaurant last Friday. Apparently it is no longer nasty-strong. When did that happen?)
A crust of some sort

Methodology

Pre-bake the crust. If you are me and using a pre-made pie crust, don't fuck it up, by which I mean, put it far enough up the sides of the pan that it won't shrink back when you bake it.
Saute the leeks and mushrooms in butter. Add a splash of Marsala to deglaze the pan. When leeks and mushrooms are tender, put them into the pie crust.
Whisk together the milk and eggs, add a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of cheese. Pour it into the crust. Here is an important tip: if the crust has shrunk, don't add so much milk that it overflows the crust and goes back into the pie pan behind it.
Sprinkle the top with cheese.
Put it in an oven preheated to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes (though our oven runs hot, it actually took this long to start getting brown on top.

Notes

I always wonder how much of the leek to cut up, so I go to about two inches below the beginning of the first leaf, where it's green-white. Cut off the roots, then slit the leek down the center as far as this point and make a second slit perpendicular to the first. Then slice up the leek to the end of the slit and put the pieces in a colander or bowl. Wash now, because leeks are like the Catholic School girls of the vegetable universe - very dirty.
Was that a poor simile? I've never actually met a Catholic School girl.
Maybe I've met one. And she does have a pretty kinky sex life, but she wasn't at Catholic School for long.
The quiche was excellent. Next time I'll use port instead of Marsala because it will have a slightly stronger taste. Also more salt.
This page is about to get all sorts of weird Google hits. Oh dear.

Portobello Pepper Wraps

2009-08-13T19:17:00.005-05:00

From this recipe on Epicurious, with some alterations.

Ingredients

2 T. olive oil
3 medium sized portbello mushrooms, washed, caps and stems sliced thinly
1 medium sized onion, minced
1 14 1/2-ounce can stewed tomatoes (originally called for "Mexican style", evidently this doesn't exist or doesn't exist at our supermarket.)
3-4 burrito-size flour tortillas (we used smaller whole wheat ones)
about 2 oz. crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (we used Montchevre)
1 large green bell pepper, roughly chopped
fresh spinach leaves, about 2 cups

Methodology

Heat olive oil in a large pan or wok over medium-high to high heat until it sizzles. Drop in the mushrooms and the onion and saute for about 10 min. until tender.
Open the stewed tomatoes and add them (see note below). Add the bell pepper and cook for about 10 more minutes, until some of the juice has cooked off. Season with salt and pepper.
Drain pinto beans and heat in a pan with cinnamon and other spices (we used Penzy's Turkish seasoning because it is awesome.)
Heat a tortilla in a pan until pliable, about 15 seconds per side. Put in some spinach and goat cheese, add beans and veg. Roll up. You may overfill them, we did.

Notes

We didn't drain the tomatoes, but I would suggest draining out about 1/4 - 1/2 the juice.
Because "Mexican style" was non-existent, we went with store-brand "stewed tomatoes". They were fine.
Bryan seasoned his with pan-fried pepperoni. He said it added crunch and salt. I felt they were delicious without. But then I would say that.
We had a definite problem with over-filling the burritos. You probably do want large size ones. But go with whole wheat.

Bagels

2009-05-04T13:43:00.007-05:00

After a recent article on Slate about making staples f rom scratch, I decided to make some bagels.

Bryan: When did bagels turn into staples?
Em: I like bagels.
Bryan: I like bagels too. That's not my point.

I used this recipe, as recommended in the article. It was pretty easy, despite the number of instructions.
Ingredients

3 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
2 pkgs dry yeast (about 4.5 tsp? Check your yeast container)
3 T. sugar (I used brown)
1 T. salt
1 1/2 c. hot water (between 120-130 degrees F.)
3 Quarts water
1 1/2 T. sugar
cornmeal

As you can see, I skipped the egg glaze, because I don't have any eggs in the house. The ingredients are in three colours because the recipe has three parts. Clever, innit?
Methodology

Put 3 c. flour and the other dry ingredients (from the part in RED) in a bowl and mix. Add the hot water (also in red) and stir. Add the last half cup of flour a little at a time. Eventually the dough will get thick and heavy and you won't be able to stir it with a spoon anymore, so turn it out onto a floured counter and knead it for about ten minutes, until it is firm and solid as pinched, adding flour as necessary.
When the dough is ready, put it in an oiled bowl and cover it. I stuck it in a humid microwave. Leave it to rise for about an hour, until it is doubled.
Bring three quarts of water to a boil and add the sugar (this is the orange part). Reduce the water to a very slow simmer.
Punch the dough down and divide it into 10 pieces. Make each into a ball (see picture on left). Let them stand for a few minutes to relax, then flatten and make a hole (I cut an "x" in the center with a knife, then opened it up and squished the edges a little). Cover and leave the bagels to rise about 10 min. - this is called a half proofing, I think.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease baking sheets (probably two of them) and sprinkle with corn meal.
Drop bagels 2-3 at a time into the simmering water. I used a stir fry spatula for this, since I don't have any deep frying baskets or nonsense. They will sink and rise again in a few seconds (or if you left them too long, they will not sink). Flip them about 30 seconds after they rise again and let them simmer another 30 seconds (total 1 min.) Scoop out and drain on paper towel, then put on the cookie sheet.
If you're doing an egg glaze, do it now.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until brown. When the tops are brown (about 12 min in), you can flip them. A long chopstick is ideal for transferring bagels to a cooling rack.

Notes

*That was pretty easy, and the bagels are delicious.
*Difficult to tell when whole wheat bagels are browned, since they are, um, already brown.
*I don't really have any changes to the recipe. Seriously delicious after a long run. Eat them with cream cheese. Mmm.

Cornbread Muffins

2009-04-20T22:37:00.002-05:00

Cornbread. We originally made this for Thanksgiving, then I misplaced the recipe. This past weekend, B decided he really wanted more cornbread, so after considerable googling I found it again. From Epicurious, with very few adaptations.

Ingredients

1 c. flour
1 c. cornmeal (I used half white and half yellow)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a finely grated Colby/Monterrey Jack mix)
3/4 c. buttermilk
2 eggs
3 T. honey
1/4 c. melted margarine

Methodology

Preheat oven to 425.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Add in cheese.
Mix buttermilk, eggs, margarine, honey in another bowl.
Add wet into dry and stir to combine. Don't over-stir.
Measure in 1/4 cupfuls into a (greased) muffin pan. Bake ~10 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Notes

Maybe cook 9 minutes instead? It was a little overdone. I guess 8 minutes and then let it sit and finish with residual heat, that would be ideal.
Otherwise, very tasty; not too dry, quite dense. Goes well with chili.
Needs a trifle more salt, maybe more honey? B says he remembers them being sweeter last time.
Makes 12 muffins.

Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-04-16T13:52:00.003-05:00

Well this was delicious, but a little too liquid. It dripped down all the cupcakes it was applied to. But it was very tasty, and after I was done frosting the cupcakes, I put some on some matzo, and that was good too.

Ingredients

1/4 c. margarine
8 oz. cream cheese (I used fat free, I think this was a mistake on my part)
3 1/3 c. powdered sugar
1 T. rum
1 tsp white chocolate Godiva

Methodology

Mix margarine and cream cheese.
Add sugar slowly. If you want it less sweet, add less sugar.
Add the liquor.
If it is too soft, try refrigerating it.

Notes

This goes on chocolate cupcakes, of course.

I refrigerated this and it didn't actually help, I think because I used fat free cream cheese and margarine instead of butter. Even after having been in the freezer overnight, it is still not going to go in a piping bag. But it is delicious, I cannot help but stick my fingers in. Which brings up another point - do not drive under the influence of this frosting. I kept adding rum, trying to get a bit of a "kick", and finally added the Godiva for that (it was Meyer's rum, so pretty high quality stuff). And then all of a sudden it was almost too much.

Almost is the operative word here, I guess.

I can't think of any really good ways to fix it when your frosting is too runny. Maybe cornstarch, if I'd had any (I didn't) would have thickened it. Anyway it worked pretty well if you didn't mind getting frosting all over your fingers. So the moral of the story is that if you want decent frosting, don't try to skimp on calories.

Book Review: One Perfect Day

2009-03-30T23:07:00.006-05:00

One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead

A survey conducted by the wedding website The Knot in 2008 found that the average wedding cost about $28,000. With something like 2.3 million weddings in America each year, this amounts to an absurd amount of cash changing hands - $160 billion annually as of 2006 (when Mead was writing). Each year, more articles on the attendant craziness and "bridezilla" culture appear - brides who spend $5,000 on a Vera Wang wedding gown, who ask their bridesmaids to get botox, plastic surgery, or worse. And each year, the rate of divorce seems to go up.

How did we get here? What prompts this sort of behavior and why is it culturally acceptable? In fact, in a world where women make as much as men and are as likely to keep working afterwards, where we enjoy the ability to live with our significant others before marriage, why get married at all?

These are the questions that Rebecca Mead sets out to answer in One Perfect Day. And what she finds is very interesting to anyone who has been to a wedding or had thoughts of getting married herself.

The story Mead puts together is one of a fairly secular public with no particular institutions to turn to for guidance in putting together a wedding - with the exception of the bridal industry. Where traditional practices have been rejected for disallowing the sort of personalization that those about to be married demand for their ceremonies, the "traditionalesque" has sprung up to replace it, replete with bits of ceremony stripped from other religions, or even from TV shows or films that sound good. Huge industries have sprung up to allow the bride to find exactly the right meringue, which is then sewn for her by four hundred Chinese laborers making $0.50 per hour, or to remind her that her invitations match her shoes.

If family and culture dictate tradition, Mead says, traditionalesque is dictated by industry and driven by profit. Even the idea of a diamond engagement ring is a relatively new one, developed by the DeBeers company in 1938.

So does this hollowing of tradition lead inevitably to the hollowing of a culturally significant turning point in a person's life? Not necessarily. Mead attends numerous weddings over the course of the book, some of which seem especially poignant (for example, a wedding by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas) and some of which seem perfunctory or disappointing (including a tiny wedding in a church in Hebron, WI). In a world with no set bodies to prescribe what is meaningful, meaning is where you make it.

The one complaint I have about this book is that gay weddings and the question of "Why marry?" are addressed only in the epilogue. She does have some poignant things to say about the former (for example, addressing the way that every gay marriage seems like a triumph), but though she raises the latter, even asking a handful of brides, she never offers a good explanation. Perhaps, like the rest of a wedding, the reason must be created by the couple to suit themselves.

Rye Bread

2009-03-14T01:14:00.003-05:00

From this recipe.

Ingredients

4 1/2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 c. warm water
2/3 c. molasses
5 c. bread flour
2 c. rye flour
2 T. wheat gluten
1 T. salt
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. cocoa powder

Methodology

Mix yeast, water, and molasses. You can pour molasses easier if you rub the cup with a little oil first. Also, make sure the measuring cup is big enough for all the liquid or it will get everywhere and be yuck.
Put yeast/water/molasses mixture in a bowl (I used glass) and add salt, oil, cocoa powder, 2 c. rye flour, 2 c. regular flour, and the wheat gluten. Mix it up, it will look like cookie batter.
Add more flour, a cup at a time, until it is all added. Towards the end it will look like there's extra flour, so just knead it in, then turn the stuff out and knead for about five more minutes, until it looks like bread dough. You know.
Microwave some water for a few minutes, then stick the bread in an oiled bowl, cover it with cling film, and stick it in the microwave. Go edit something for 90 minutes or so.
When it has risen, punch it down, divide it in half, and put each half in a loaf pan. Put the pans (covered) back in the microwave to rise another 45 minutes.
After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. At the 45 minute mark, it should be ready to go. Slash the top of the bread with your knife and stick it in the oven.
Bake 40-50 minutes, until it sounds hollow when you tap it.

Notes
*Awesome crust.
*If your oven heats unevenly at all you may want to be very careful in judging them both baked at the same time.
*I think I would like to put some toasted seeds (like sunflower seeds) on top of the next one or perhaps oatmeal. Maybe make it with raisins. Something sweet. Anyway this went well with some cherry jam.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

2009-03-11T21:50:00.002-05:00

Aren't they pretty?

The white filling is leftover almond-chocolate chip filling from hamentashen we made earlier in the week. You can use whatever jam you want, though (the red ones are cherry). Don't overfill them, or the jam will run out when it boils in the oven.

Ingredients

3/4 c. butter (room temperature)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
jam or other filling

Methodology

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, and salt together. Add almond extract.
Add flour slowly until dough forms. If it's too soft, put it in the fridge for 10-20 min.
Roll into 1" balls and put on a greased cookie sheet. Push your thumb into them, then fill the indentation with jam or what have you.
Bake 8-12 min. Bryan's oven runs cool, so they probably could have gone even longer, but I was getting impatient.

Notes
The original recipe (found here) suggests there will be 36 cookies. In reality, this made a lot more. Also they are delicious.

If I were doing them to be super artsy, I'd use loads of colors of jams. I don't even usually like cookies that are not chocolate based, but these are great.

Potato Gnocchi

2008-12-23T12:11:00.002-06:00

From Italian Cooking for Dummies.

Ingredients

4 potatoes (1 large, 3 small)
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. flour (you will probably use more)
salt and pepper

Methodology

1. Cook potatoes in microwave. Scoop insides out of skin and mash with a fork.

2. Add eggs and salt and pepper. Mix. Add flour until you have dough. This will eventually require that you knead the dough with your hands, so be sure the counter is clean.

3. Roll out into 1.5" diameter log, cut into 1" pieces.

4. Run over the tines of a fork and drop into boiling water for about 3 minutes. Scoop out about one minute after they begin to float to the top.

5. Serve with pesto.

Notes

*Easy easy easy. The longest part was waiting for the potatoes to cook in the microwave.

*0/7 on the disaster scale.

Three-Bean Rainbow Chili

2008-11-03T12:29:00.003-06:00

For all your chili needs. Based on this recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 zucchini, sliced
3 large jalapeño chilies, seeded, diced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
5 cups water
1 26.5-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
1 15-ounce cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
1 15-oz can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup bulgur (cracked wheat), rinsed
8 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tsp. salt

Methodology

1. Cut up the vegetables or make some other people do that. Put the olive oil, carrots, onions, jalapeno and bell peppers, and zucchini in the pot and sauté over medium-high heat until tender, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Add the spices, then the rest of the ingredients. Stir, then cover and let it boil until the bulgar is cooked, about 20 minutes.

3. Serve with cheddar cheese and/or bread.

Notes

*The original recipe said that it made 6 servings, so to feed 6 people B and I decided to multiply it by 1.5. Now it makes about 27 15 10-12 servings. If you want to cut it back down, I'd suggest cutting the black and kidney beans to one can each and taking away the smaller can of tomatoes.

*Be careful when you serve it, since it will be quite hot. Try not to burn yourself or others, it is a little embarrassing to have your cooking experiments end in injury.

*The dish was well-received by all. 0/7 on the disaster index!

Em oi! #187 & 188

2008-09-29T13:34:00.003-05:00

Compared to next week's comics, #188 is not so exciting. I'm fond of #187 though.

Em oi! #185 & #186

2008-09-22T15:42:00.004-05:00

Got a bit hung up on other stuff this weekend and these, consequently, were not posted.

I suppose I have no additional commentary on them, except that the longer I look at 186, the less satisfied with the art I am.

Random Vegetable Curry

2008-09-22T09:35:00.002-05:00

Does that sound like kind of an apathetic title? Because this is kind of an apathetic recipe. Luckily it was delicious.

Ingredients

1/2 eggplant, chopped
1/2 sweet potato, chopped
1 large zucchini
1 1/4 blocks baked tofu, chopped
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin nuoc cot dua (coconut cream or coconut milk)
1 T. red Thai curry paste
1 T. brown sugar
1-2 T. soy sauce
1 handful spinach

Methodology

1. Put veg in pot with a little oil. Add coconut milk and let it simmer.

2. Add curry paste and brown sugar. After a while, add in the tofu and the chickpeas. Cover and let everything boil until the sweet potato is tender.

3. Add the soy sauce (to taste). Throw in a handful of spinach at the end and let it wilt.

4. That's it.

Notes

*This came out well. Good with toasted pita.

*About 250 calories if serving 6, if 8 about 192.

*Needs more curry paste.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-09-22T09:21:00.002-05:00

From here, with some changes.

Ingredients

1 1/4 c. white whole wheat flour
1 c. quick oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. margarine
1/2 c. + 2 T (6 oz) low fat plain yoghurt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
1/2 c. + 1 T. dried cranberries
1/2 c. + 1 T. chocolate chips

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Mix flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Mix brown sugar, margarine, yoghurt, vanilla, and the egg in another bowl. Stir the wet into the dry until all combined, adding a little extra flour if necessary.

4. Add the chips and cranberries. Drop in heaping teaspoons two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until brown.

Notes

*Makes about 30. I forgot to count before I got into them, but I think it's about 30. With my changes, it works out to about 104.5 calories/cookie.

*Very fluffy and cake-like. I was worried that they weren't good, but then my taste-testers ate about 8 of them between the two of them, so I figure they're okay. Next time maybe I'll use actual butter and just leave out the yoghurt, see if that makes them a little crisper. Also regular oats instead of quick oats.

Em oi! #184

2008-09-15T14:10:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Vung Tau was like. Amirite, Ly?

Another script found while moving.

Em oi! #183

2008-09-13T19:55:00.003-05:00

This raises the question of "Should I ask?", which I guess I'm not entirely comfortable with.

This was a panel from a script I found while moving. It was never drawn, since it had too many people in the panels to look clean.

The Remarkable Ice Cream Cake

2008-09-09T10:12:00.002-05:00

So I have this idea that major life changes should be rewarded with cake. It seems like a good way to let people know that you approve of their choices - in this case, quitting an awful job.
This recipe has a lot of parts and takes a while to put together, but it's not actually very difficult. It's vegan because the friend I baked it for is vegan, but it doesn't have to be.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 1/3 c. flour (I use white-whole wheat)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (or a bit more)
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. pureed pumpkin
2 T. oil (like vegetable oil or canola oil)
1/2 c. molasses
1/2 c. hot water.

Ice cream:
1 quart vanilla soy ice cream (I used "It's So Delicious" brand because it was on sale)
1 package candied ginger (you can get this at an Asian food store, esp. around Chinese New Year)

Compote:
1/2 c. frozen berries
2 T. orange marmalade
2 T. grand marnier
1 T. brown sugar

Crust:
4 sheets cinnamon graham crackers
1 T. oil
1-2 T. brown sugar

Methodology

1. Cake: Preheat oven to 350*. Combine wet ingredients (pumpkin, sugar, molasses, oil, water) and dry ingredients (everything else) in seperate bowls. Mix dry into wet. Put in an oiled bread pan and bake ~35-40 minutes (I recommend checking after about 25).

2. Ice Cream: take the ice cream out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter. Open the package of ginger and chop it up in the food processor (or cut it by hand) into bite-sized pieces (think small, like raisins). By the time you finish, the ice cream should be softening but not soupy. Scoop it out into a large bowl, then add in the ginger and mix. This may take a bit of muscle to combine it well, but it shouldn't take too long. If it's really difficult, wait a few minutes until the ice cream is softer. When combined, scoop the ice cream back into the carton, cover, and return to freezer.

3. Compote: In a small sauce pan over low heat, put the berries, the marmalade, the grand marnier, and the brown sugar. You may want to add a little water, but not more than a tablespoon or two. Keep an eye on this, stirring occasionally, until the berries are melted, then turn up the heat to medium and let it simmer until you have something a bit less stiff than jam but more stiff than, oh, strawberry soup or something. This is called a reduction, incidentally. If you have corn startch, you can add that as a thickening agent (maybe a teaspoon?) when you turn the heat up, but I'd go slowly with that. When the berries are reduced, turn off the burner, put them in a container, and stick it in the fridge to cool. Incidentally, you may want to use your spoon to break up some of the larger berries to create a more uniform sauce.

4. When the cake is done, turn it out of the pan to cool. After about 30 minutes, wrap it in foil and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Wash the pan.

5. So everything is cool. Line the pan with cling film, leaving the pieces long so plenty hangs over (later on, you will wrap these pieces across the top of the cake). Take the ice cream out of the freezer and (when it is soft enough) spread a layer about an inch thick on the bottom of the pan and a little ways up the sides.

6. The cake is sort of wedge shaped, since the bread pan is a flat-bottomed, gradually widening V-shap (like this: \____/). Cut the cake in half and put the bottom half in the pan (by this I mean the same part which was touching the bottom of the pan when the cake was baking.

7. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of grand marnier on the cake, then spread the layer with berries. You should have just enough to go across. You could also use raspberry jam or something here.

8. Put another thin layer of ice cream over the berries.

9. Put the last piece of cake on. I had to cut mine somewhat thinner to make everything fit in the pan. You can drizzle this with liquor if you want, then cover with ice cream. Put the whole thing in the freezer.

10. In a dish, crush up the graham crackers. Add the oil and sugar, mixing until you get something like a graham cracker crust. Spread this across the bottom of the cake. Cover the whole pan with cling film and return to freezer for about an hour.

11. To serve, unwrap the cling film. Put a plate on the bottom of the pan and invert, then remove the pan and cling film. You can add frosting on top now, if you wish.

Notes

*If you are not vegan, you can use regular ice cream, change the flavours around, etc. This was ginger + gingerbread because my friend really likes gingerbread. If I were making it for myself, it would probably be coffee+chocolate+rum with orange/raspberry in the middle, something like that.

*0/7. There were no problems at all, and I've been asked for the recipe a number of times already.

Em oi! #182

2008-09-08T10:14:00.002-05:00

I love cookies.

I love boys who bring me cookies.

I know that's not really very deep, but that's the sum total of my thoughts on this.

Em oi! #181

2008-09-08T09:45:00.004-05:00

As promised, the comic. (This one is Saturday's).

So I was going to write a formal review of Brideshead, Revisited, but this pretty much covers it.

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

2008-08-30T20:37:00.003-05:00

The original recipe was this one, though I'm not sure if that's the original site I downloaded it from.

My best friend and I messed with the recipe a bit, as you can see.

Ingredients

1/3 cup peanut butter
2 ripe bananas (overripe is fine)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp soy milk
1 1/2 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 T. honey
2 ½ cups quick cooking or rolled oatmeal
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
dash cinnamon (optional)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. chocolate chips

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash bananas in a bowl. Measure 1/3 c. (6 T.) of (smooth) peanut butter into a bowl and stick it in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Combine it with the bananas and add in the vanilla, sugar, honey, and soy milk.

3. Mix in the dry ingredients (oats, baking powder, flour, salt, cinnamon, and mix-ins).

4. Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto greased cookie sheets; they don't spread, so you can put them pretty close together. Bake ~13 minutes.

Notes

*May have needed more salt, but I ran a half marathon this morning, so I'm not really one to judge.

*Maybe more peanut butter next time? Also probably won't do walnuts again. I'm just not big on nuts in cookies, except possibly brownies.

*Batch made 34; a test batch I made last week made 17, so I'm fairly confident in this number.

*0/7 disaster rating. Without raisins or walnuts, and using just brown sugar instead of sugar and honey, these have about 70 calories/cookie. I'm not sure how that changes with the extra stuff.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2008-08-10T15:52:00.002-05:00

I haven't felt much like cooking recently, but I had some extra pumpkin in the fridge I needed to do something with.

Ingredients

1/2 jumbo yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
about 2 T garlic or other oil
1/2 cube bouillion
about 1/3 c. frozen corn
1 15-oz. tin of pumpkin, less one cup
1.5 c. water
1/2 c. skim milk
2 T. curry powder
1 T. garam masala
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
a sprinkle of cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste
1 T + 1 tsp brown sugar

Methodology

1. Drizzle oil in a pot and throw in the garlic until it sizzles. Add onion and corn. After a bit of cooking, add bouillion cube, sugar, and spices. After a few minutes more, add about a cup of water.

2. Add the pumpkin. Mix, then taste and reseason if needed. Add another half cup of water and half a cup of milk. You can add more milk or water if you want a thinner soup.

3. Serve with bread (I used rye) and (white, sharp) cheddar on top, if desired.

Notes

*Makes about enough for 3. If I'd had the blender, I'd've purreed some carrots and put those in, too.

*1/7 on the disaster index. Careful when it boils.

Banana Bread Recipe, perfected

2008-07-20T11:34:00.003-05:00

A few changes to this recipe to make it better. Yes.

Ingredients

1.5c white whole wheat flour
1tsp baking soda
1.5tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/2c brown sugar
3 very ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1/3c. buttermilk
6 oz low fat plain yoghurt
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 c. chocolate chips, or until it looks right

Changes are bolded. Mix dry and wet as before, combine and bake at 350 for ~1 hr. If veganizing (which I haven't tried), I would replace the buttermilk with soy milk + vinegar and add plain or vanilla soy yoghurt or about 1/4 c. soy margarine. I will have to try this sometime.

Eggplant Rolls

2008-07-18T08:14:00.004-05:00

Some recipes on here start out as “I was hungry”. Some start out as “I was bored”, or “I was tired”, or “I needed to use up a bunch of vegetables”. This one started out as a sort of combination of all of these, and turned out to be something amazing. Don’t be put off by the lengthy prep procedure; it wasn’t really very hard, and the results were worth it. Inspired by this recipe.

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant
1 clove garlic
1/2 zucchini
1/2 onion
1/2 tin diced tomatoes (~14 oz)
1 large crimini mushroom
1/2 package frozen chopped spinach
1 piece baked tofu (optional)
2 T. feta cheese (I used fat-free feta)
Salsa, to taste (optional)

Methodology

1. Slice eggplant into “steaks” the long way, about half an inch thick. Lay them out on a plate and salt them on both sides with sea salt, then let them sit for a while (about twenty minutes?)

2. Chop other ingredients. Heat wok with oil of choice (I use garlic oil), add garlic and sauté a little. Add onion and mushroom, wait a few minutes, then add zucchini. Season with paprika, basil, salt, and pepper.

3. After that starts to look cooked (or dry, I guess), add spinach, tofu, and tomatoes. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally.

4. Heat up a frying pan with a little oil in it. Wash off the eggplant “steaks” and blot them dry, then put in the pan. Drizzle with a little oil, season with paprika, salt, and pepper. After about 3-4 minutes, flip them and let them cook on the other side. They will become sort of pliable and soft, but they should not become mush.

5. When all the eggplant is cooked, mix the feta into the sauce. Put one piece of eggplant on a plate and top with about 1/4 cup sauce, then use your fingers or a spoon to roll it up. This is something of a delicate operation if you are really hungry.

6. Top with salsa or pasta sauce.

Notes

*Makes about enough for three people if they are not too hungry, or two if they are (which is to say, if they’re me).

*This took about 45 minutes start-to-finish, including a little time-out to clean up after a cat, yell at him, sulk, and deal with him sulking.

*Fantastic and delicious. 0/7 on the disaster index.

*Next time I will try adding either rice or chickpeas, for more texture/carbs/protein.

Lazy Brownies with Rum Glaze

2008-07-14T21:30:00.006-05:00

What do you do when you don't want to go to the store, but you are craving fudgy brownies like woah? Improvise.

This is based on my mother's parve mayonnaise brownies recipe.

Ingredients

Brownies

1 1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. cocoa powder (unsweetened, non-dutched)
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
pinch of salt
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. mayonnaise
1 small container (~6 oz.) low fat plain yoghurt
1/4 c. mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
1/4 c. dried cranberries and raisins

Glaze

1/3 c. rum
2/3 c. powdered/icing sugar (approx.)
1 tsp. vanilla
a sprinkle of cardamum

Methodology

1. Preheat the oven to 350*.

2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cocoa, and spices.

3. Add in mayo, water, and yoghurt. You may need to add more water to bring it to the right consistancy.

4. Add chips, cranberries, and raisins. Put in a greased 9x13 pan and bake for ~30 minutes.

5. Mix glaze ingrediants while brownies cool. Cut brownies, then drizzle glaze over with a fork. Eat.

Notes

*Not quite what I expected, but rich and fudgy. Also, rum + running is maybe not my greatest idea ever. Or perhaps it is. Mmm.

*Could have plumped raisins first with hot water. Hm.

*Had to call Daniel to ask him how long mayo keeps for. Apparently a long time.

*2/7 on the disaster index.

ETA: These keep well in the fridge, becomng even more fudgy. I recommend serving them with whipped cream and fresh raspberries. Going to try freezing them to see how that works.

Cauliflower Curry

2008-07-10T08:22:00.003-05:00

I've been feeling kind of off my game lately. In a rut, so to speak. So I thought I'd try something much different - caulflower curry, or gobi aloo (I think this is its Hindi name). This recipe is based on a number of recipes I looked up, primarily this one. That said, if you're asking where the potato which crept in came from, the answer is I'm really not sure. A lot of the other recipes (though not all of them) called for varying amounts of potato.

Ingredients

1 medium sized cauliflower, cut into florets
~1/2 T. garlic powder
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp coriander (dry, not fresh)
1/2 tsp cumin
salt to taste
1/2 tin diced tomatoes (large-size tin, about 14 oz.)
1 T. garam masala
1 tsp. curry powder
oil
1 tsp. brown sugar
2/3 c. rice and 1 1/3 c. water

Methodology

0. Start rice.

1. Cut up cauliflower and blanch in salted water - just drop it in for a minute or two until it is a little tender. Drain.

2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir-fry the cauliflower until it starts to brown. Remove and set aside.

3. Heat half a tablespoon or so of oil in the wok and add the garlic powder, then add the onion and sauté until transparent. Add the spices except for salt, garam marsala, and curry powder, then add the tomatoes and cook for a while. The original recipe said "until the oil separates", but I just waited until it looked kind of sauce-like, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the potatoes, the cauliflower, the garam marsala, some salt, the curry powder, and the brown sugar. And keep an eye on the rice or it will burn.

5. Add about half a cup of water and cover until the potatoes are done, about 5-10 minutes. Check periodically and add more water if necessary to prevent burning.

6. Readjust spices. Serve over rice.

Notes

*A really labour-intensive recipe, and the results were...not what I'd hoped for. I had some cauliflower dumplings (I think this is what they were referred to as) at an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago, and this was not the same. That said, it was edible, and certainly not the worst thing I've ever made for myself. It seems to be growing ever-spicier in the fridge, which is kind of neat.

*5/7 on the disaster index.

*Might have been better with bread, if I'd gotten my act together and made some rotis or something instead of the rice.

Hangover Chip Muffins

2008-06-29T10:25:00.005-05:00

A variation on this recipe. They do not cure a hangover, but they made me feel better about having one.

Ingredients

2 c. flour (I used "white whole wheat")
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 T. cocoa powder
1 egg
1 really overripe banana, frozen, thawed, and mashed
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 T. margarine, melted
1 1/2 c. (skim) milk
1/4 c. mini chocolate chips

Follow the rest of the recipe as given in previous entry. Makes 12 muffins, about 137.25 calories/muffin, give or take.

*Note: it's July, and these get bread mold pretty quick if you're not careful. Put them in the fridge or the freezer if you don't eat all of them the first day.

Book Review: Lex Luthor, Man of Steel

2008-06-28T17:29:00.002-05:00

This one's almost too short to bother cross-posting it from GoodReads.com. Still.

If you've ever delved into the Superman comics at all, you've come across Lex Luthor, the billionaire who makes it his business to make life difficult for Our Hero. The back story between him and Clark Kent is pretty compelling stuff - friendship and betrayal in rural Kansas. But this isn't that story.

Brian Azzarello has interrogated Lex and come back with six issues of reasons to hate the Big Nietzschian Joke. There's nothing not to like here - the storytelling is tight, the art is gorgeous and wonderfully consistent, and the story itself is perfect for Lex: rational on the surface, but with a depth of sadism to keep the sympathy at bay. Lex is always restrained and gentlemanly, but always ready to go for the jugular when you turn your head just right. He's always brutal, never losing himself in mawkish nostalgia. Best of all is the dichotomy between what he claims in his narration and the often brutal truths of his actions.

If you're looking for a good, quick read, or something which can show a neophyte how good comics can be, this is one for you.

Lex Luthor, Man of Steel, by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo. 5 stars out of 7.

Balsamic Chocolate Drops

2008-06-23T21:44:00.003-05:00

Originally from Habeas Brulee, via FatFree Vegan.

Ingredients

1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
5 T. margarine
1/2 c. + 1 T. cocoa powder (not dutched)
1/2 c. dark brown sugar (packed)
1/3 c. nonfat plain yoghurt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. mini chocolate chips
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 T. cinnamon and sugar mixture

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add chips. Set aside.

3. In a sauce pan over low heat, melt the margarine. When it is done, turn off and add the sugar and the cocoa. Mix. Add the yoghurt, vanilla, and vinegar.

4. Add dry into wet. Don't overmix. Also if you are clever, wait a few extra minutes for the wet to cool enough that it won't melt the chocolate chips. Oops.

5. Drop tablespoons of dough about an inch apart on greased cookie sheets and flatten down gently. Mix the cinnamon and sugar and the sea salt and sprinkle on top. Bake about 10-11 minutes, switching the sheets halfway through.

Notes

*Makes 24 cookies, about 79 calories each.

*Honestly...this isn't what I was expecting. I ate 4 of them trying to decide if I like them, so I won't say they're bad, but they're quite savory and serious chocolate without being sweet. Actually, I think they're very much a Claire sort of cookie - she likes the savory, while I am the one with a sweet tooth.

Anyway, definitely more of a "nibble at during tea time, paired with some strawberries" than "dunk in your milk after school" cookie. Sophisticated, I think is what I mean. And also these strawberries are delicious. Mm.

*2.5/7 on the disaster index. Easy come, easy go.

*Daniel's assessment was that they are not undersweetened but a bit too dry. He recommends using low fat yoghurt instead of nonfat. I will try this.

"Coup D'Etat" review

2008-06-15T11:06:00.002-05:00

I'm going to pretend that writing reviews of comic books is a perfectly acceptable way to spend a Sunday morning when I don't feel like doing anything else. Because obviously I spent the earlier part of the morning reading said comic books, so it must be okay. Right?

There's a lot going on here which is worthy of comment.

First of all, it's worth noting that this isn't just an Authority comic. It's sort of pan-universe (Wildstorm universe, if you care), so there's an Authority one, a "Sleeper" one, a "WildC.A.T.s Version 3.0", and one "Stormwatch: Team Achilles". I'm unfamiliar with Sleeper and Wildcats and I have only passing familiarity with Stormwatch (I read it up to the point where it spun off the Authority). So my opinion is coloured by that. You probably need some familiarity with the Authority to understand what's going on here.

As a bit of background, Stormwatch was originally a comic created by a bloke named Jim Lee, who eventually handed his pen off to Warren Ellis. Ellis took over, killed off half the main characters and instituted a number of his own, and eventually spun the best of them off into the Authority, killing off most of the remainder of Stormwatch in the meantime.

I cannot for the life of me summarize this. A bloke named Tao manipulates the US Government into blowing up an alien ship, the fallout from which destroys Florida. In return, the Authority takes over the US Government, killing the President as a "peace offering" to members of the alien race (called "The Vigil"). And then, instead of holding elections, they decide to build a better world.

In some ways, this seems clear-cut enough: the government gets a lot of people killed needlessly, so get a better government. Patrick Kent (the US President, a poorly veiled Bush[1]) is a jerk, so why not get rid of him? I'm sure no liberal could claim they'd never had this fantasy. And yet the Authority's manipulation of the general public and the Vigil (to whom they show a doctored up tape) makes them no better than those they've deposed, especially when they seem to easily defeat the Vigil when they begin their (inevitable retaliatory) attack. Instead of either drawing a clear line between good and evil, or showing both sides as equally noble and the issue as gray, Morrison, Brubaker, et al, paint everyone as corrupt, which makes the whole thing less amusing.

Additionally, I can't help but feel that taking over the US is almost too small of a task for the Authority, who at one point killed god and who have previously taken on the governments of Russia, China, and Indonesia without instituting themselves as a junta. What makes the US more important than everyone else? There's lingering tensions from the old Stormwatch days, sure (the US doesn't like superheros much), but that hardly seems to make it more important than anyone else.

Partially because of how the comic industry works, there seems to be a lot of time spent doing BIG story arcs which bring various characters together and examine their interactions. Unfortunately, these rarely develop any of the ideas to the point which the reader would like, focusing on quantity over quality. Coup D'Etat is ultimately the same: an intriguing premise, a lot of waffling in the middle, and ultimately a let-down. When Midnighter says, "Well, now what?" at the end, I'm not really temped to rush out and get the next one in the series to keep reading.

Positives: a little Midnigher/Apollo snarkage (a very little), plus Apollo gets a few lines to prove he's more than a handsome, brainless blond. A fair amount of Jack (being kind of broody, another throwback to Stormwatch). The art in 3 of the 4 books is good (Portacio, I'm looking at you. What the hell happened?)

Negatives: Plot too small for the characters. Art in the last one is terrible. A lot of the panels and dialog boxes are laid out in a way suggesting the person who laid them out had never read a comic before. Definitely in need of a tighter editorial process.

--
[1] Poorly veiled enough that using the word "veiled" seems rather ironic, honestly

Inscruitable Oriental Spice Morning Muffins

2008-06-14T10:27:00.004-05:00

Based on an old recipe of my mother's. These are fantastic. Delicious, easy, and fast. I made them for breaky following a 12-mile run and they did not take an arm-chewingly long time to bake.

Ingredients

2 c. flour (I used "white whole wheat")
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp each cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger
1 egg
1 really overripe banana, frozen, thawed, and mashed
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 T. margarine, melted
1 1/2 c. (skim) milk
1/4 c. each chopped dates and raisins
dark chocolate chips to taste (I used a tablespoon or two - all I had left)

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Nuke some water in a dish for 40 seconds, then add dates and raisins. Make sure they are covered (with water) and leave to soak.

2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, spices). Add chocolate chips.

3. Mix wet ingredients (including sugar). Drain raisins and dates and add.

4. Mix dry into wet. Don't overmix.

5. Spoon into greased muffin tins, about 1/4 c. per tin. Bake ~20 minutes (mine went 18). Makes 12 puffy delicious muffins.

Notes

*0/7. Serve with butter and jam. Mmm.

*By my estimation, about 140 calories per muffin, depending on your margarine and the amount of chocolate chips you use. Compare that to ~400 calories/muffin when you buy them at the store. I win.

Warm Cabbage and Eggplant Salad

2008-06-12T09:09:00.002-05:00

It seems disingenuous to claim that this recipe is somehow the same as this recipe, except in the sense of "based on" like Lifetime TV Movies are "based on" true events. So let's use the term "inspired by".

Ingredients

1/2 head napa cabbage (bai cai)
1/2 eggplant
1/2 onion
1/2 of a 28 oz. tin diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
basil, oregano, chili powder
2/3 c. rice
1 1/3 c. water
2-3 clove garlic
a drizzle of garlic oil
1/2 cube bouillon

Methodology

1. Put rice, water, one clove of garlic and bouillon in a pot over low and leave it to simmer.

2. Put a drizzle of garlic oil in the bottom of a pot, then add onion, eggplant, and cabbage. Stir until it begins to be tender. (Keep an eye on the rice). Add garlic and cook another few minutes, then pour in the tomatoes. Cover and simmer for several more minutes, then add spices, plus salt and pepper to taste.

3. When everything is done, mix rice in.

Notes

*I didn't know how this would come out well at all. It was delicious, low cal, and made enough to serve 4 or 5. Hurrah.

*0/7.

Cabbage rolls

2008-06-12T08:39:00.005-05:00

Recipe from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen.

Ingredients

1/3 napa cabbage
5 baby carrots
2 sheets nori seaweed (sushi type)
2 oz. baked tofu
1 T. soy sauce
1/2 T. black vinegar
wasabi paste, to taste
sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. If you are starting with a head of cabbage, cut it in half, then cut one half into thirds. Take two of the thirds (2/6 or 1/3 of the entire cabbage) and put them in your steamer (it's helpful if you don't cut the bottoms off, so they're still connected). Cut the carrots into strips and add them to the steamer. Steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Put in refrigerator for 10 minutes or so. Cut tofu into long strips.

2. Get your equipment ready, by covering the sushi rolling mat with plastic wrap, etc. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, and wasabi in a small bowl and set aside (for dipping later).

3. Put down a piece of nori and cover with the leaves of cabbage in a single layer, leaving about an inch free at one end. You will probably want to blot the cabbage with a paper towel before you put it down, as napa (bai cai) holds a lot of water. At the end towards you, about two inches in, make a row of carrot slices and baked tofu.

4. Roll the sushi tightly. If it doesn't seal, dip your fingers in water and moisten the end. Cut into sushi, as wide as you prefer your sushi to be.

Notes

*Tasted mostly like cabbage, but very good anyway. Next time perhaps I will try stir-frying or roasting the vegetables.

*Too much wasabi may give you stomach trouble. But it is delicious.

*1/7. Very easy, minimal clean up.

Rhubarb Berry Pie

2008-05-28T22:36:00.002-05:00

A colleague gave me some fresh rhubarb, a plant I'd neither cooked with or tasted before. So what to do? Make pie!

Recipe from here.

Ingredients

2 deep dish pie crusts (we used Marie Calander's, because they were the only vegetarian ones at the store. If you're veg, make sure you read labels and don't buy the ones with lard in them.)
3 c. rhubarb, chopped (just the stalks; you don't need to peel them)
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 c. flour
2 c. mixed frozen berries (you can thaw them in the microwave)
a little milk (for brushing)

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 425*. Put one pie tin on a baking sheet (if you want; this is really unnecessary and done to make putting it in the oven easier). Put the other out to thaw.

2. Mix rhubarb, sugar, spices, and flour. Thaw the berries in the microwave, cut up any really big ones, and mix them in until everything looks like pie mix (no loose flour, etc.).

3. Fill pie crust. Flatten the other pie crust and use it to cover the first; pinch edges and poke some holes in the top. Brush top with milk, sprinkle with sugar, and put in in oven for 1 hour. After ~30 minutes, take it out and cover the edges with tin foil.

Notes

*Delicious. 0/7.

Korean Vegetable Stir Fry with Pasta

2008-05-25T12:50:00.004-05:00

A lot of the recipes I post here are things I've come up with knocking around in the kitchen with veggies to use up. This one is not only not mine, but almost entirely unaltered (well, a few changes, but not many). I'm posting it here mostly to help myself keep track of it, since it was delicious.

Original from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, found here.

Ingredients

1/4 box (2 servings) whole wheat pasta
2 oz. baked Thai-style tofu (it comes pre-made with peanut sauce on it) cut into bite-sized pieces.
1 T. dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons water
~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 yellow summer squash and 1/2 zucchini, halved and sliced into half moons.
1/2 onion, chopped
handful matchstick carrots
one bok choy, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang
3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon brown
~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Methodology

1. Start water boiling and cook the pasta. I broke it in half before I cooked it. Whatever, it's pasta. When it's done, drain and set aside.

2. Mix the red ingredients and set them in a dish with the tofu. When you're done chopping the veg, cook the tofu in a large pan until brown on one side, then flip. Add in most of the sauce. After a few more minutes, remove and set aside (you can put it with the pasta); not all of the sauce had boiled away yet.

3. Add the squash, onion, zucchini, and carrots to the pan and cook for a few minutes, until they start to soften. Add the rest of the veg plus the garlic and about 1/4 c. water and cook until everything is starting to soften and the bok choy is wilting a little. Mix the green ingredients and pour over the veg, then add in the pasta and the tofu and mix it all together, stirring until everything is heated.

4. Eat while reading The Corpse in the Koryo[1] by James Church. Get small flecks of gochujang paste on the pages. Feel this is somehow appropriate.

Notes

*Needs more tofu. I only used the one piece because it was left over from the week's salads, and everything else was frozen. The baked tofu came out quite nicely, though I think regular tofu would also have been fine.

*0/7 on the disaster scale. Delicious. Also not bad for the clean-up, despite the number of dishes used - the longer veg cook time gave me time to do the dishes mid-project.

*Excellent pre-race fuel.

*[1]: Fact for the day: the word Korea comes from the name Koryo, which in turn comes from Goryeo (Goguryeo), which was the most powerful of the 3 kingdoms which ruled the area we now call Korea in the 5th century CE. Koreans call their land Chosen, the land of morning calm. (How nice does that sound? I want to visit Korea now.)

*I picked up the gochujang paste at a little Korean grocery store (on South Park street). It was fairly cheap ($4.99 for a big tub) and it keeps forever; plus, I hadn't realized until I bought it that I'd been missing the taste. 很好吃！I totally recommend hanging around Asian groceries anyway, because they tend to be family-run (and so need support), and the food is often much cheaper than at big chain stores, plus it's not just Asian food that they sell. Also they sometimes have really neat stuff (this one had radish kim chi, so I bought some of that). So let me end this by encouraging you to check out your local Asian grocery store. Yay.

Of Brownies and Bribes

2008-05-24T07:50:00.002-05:00

The first rule is, when you don't know how to do something, get a book from the library.

The second rule is, when that doesn't work, bribe one of your brothers until he does it.

This bribe took the form of brownies. I made them from a box because I'd heard that you could do this. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit to having tried it, and more embarrassed that it worked.

Ingredients

a box of brownie mix. I used Betty Crocker because it was the cheapest and lowest calorie. I never make brownies from mixes, so I don't really have a preferred brand or anything.
about 12 oz diet Coke
a pan, greased

Methodology

1. Preheat the oven as directed on the box.

2. Put the mix in a bowl. Add coke until it is mixed to the right consistency. Do not add eggs, oil, or water.

3. Put the brownies in a pan and bake according to the instructions on the box. This went so fast my oven didn't preheat completely, so it took about 30 minutes as opposed to the 25 the box suggested, so keep an eye on it.

Notes

*These are sweet, and not very brownie-like. They taste a lot like vegan chocolate pudding cake (a delicious treat which, if you have vegan friends and you have not tried it, I suggest you force them to make it for you, since they are obviously holding out on you). The sweetness may be a problem for some people. However, it doesn't taste like nutrisweet (or whatever Diet Coke is sweetened with these days), which is a plus.

*The caloric content is equal to whatever the unmade mix was, since Diet Coke has no calories to add. Mine was 1 brownie = 100 calories. This was great to know, because I ate about 5.

*Did I mention I was really hungry after aikido for some reason?

*My youngest brother, for whom the bribe was prepared, seemed to like it, though he only ate two. I served it with whipped cream - maybe better with vanilla ice cream or frozen yoghurt?

*Anyway, 1/7 on the disaster index, losing a point for not actually being brownies. I wouldn't, for example, bring them to a pot luck if I were trying to maintain my reputation. But delicious to have at home.

Sushi Weekend

2008-05-21T22:01:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday, with Claire in Minnesota, my brothers and I decided to have a night in. So I decided to try making sushi.

Recipes adapted from sushiday.com, a fantastic site for all your sushi needs.

Ingredients

2 c. Japanese sushi rice
2 c. water
8 T. rice vinegar
7 T (minus 1 tsp.) sugar
6 sheets sushi nori
1/2 avocado
1/2 cucumber, cut into strips
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
some neufchatel or cream cheese
mung bean sprouts
matchstick carrots
Sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. Cook the rice in the water. Mix the vinegar and sugar and microwave or heat on the stove until the sugar is dissolved. When rice is cooked, spread it in pans (we used pie plates) to cool and pour the vinegar/sugar mixture over it. You can stick it in the fridge if you want.

2. Put the nori on the rolling mat and place a little more than 1/2 c. of rice on the nori. Spread it out in a thin layer, leaving about a 1" strip of seaweed uncovered at the far end. At the end near you, place your selected fillings on the rice - combinations include pepper and cream cheese; avocado and cucumber; avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese; cucumber and cream cheese; mung bean sprout and carrot...you get the idea.

3. Roll the sushi away from you using the mat. Cut it into pieces. Eat it with soy sauce and wasabi.

Notes

*Mung bean sprout and carrot was the least successful combination. But they all got eaten. In fact, all the sushi was eaten, though my feeling was that this was just enough sushi for 3 people.

*This looks intimidating, but it's actually really easy.

*1/7 on the disaster scale (points docked for the absurd amount of leftovers I had to deal with afterwards - not leftover sushi, just leftover avocado, pepper, cucumber, and what have you. I am a little nonplussed about that.)

Vegetable and White Bean Soup, or As You Like It

2008-05-16T12:16:00.003-05:00

A typical sort of end-of-the-week soup.

Ingredients

1 head broccoli, chopped into florets, stem peeled and chopped
1 summer squash, halved and chopped
1/2 sweet potato, chopped
a handful of baby carrots, chopped
1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
4 mushrooms (crimini), halved and sliced or quartered
1 15-oz. tin canellini beans, drained and rinsed
2.25 bouillon cubes
~4 c. water
1.5 tsp garam marsala
about 1 tsp chopped garlic
chili powder and cayenne pepper, salt and pepper

Methodology

1. Put water in a pot with bouillon and some garlic. Bring water to a boil and put in sweet potato, broccoli, and carrots. Let them boil until somewhat tender and add beans, mushrooms, bell pepper, and squash.

2. Add seasoning and taste. When sweet potatoes are cooked, the whole thing is pretty much done. Serve with toast.

Notes

*Eating this directly after a 6-mile run, I was so hungry I burned my tongue. The soup was good, but nothing fantastic - certainly not really anything to blog about. But today, eating the leftovers for lunch, I find that it has become a fantastic, spicy dish. The beans start to disintegrate and thicken the broth. So I recommend making this a day ahead. Also it uses a minimal number of pots and there's not much clean-up. Hurrah.

*Can probably be done with whatever veg you have lying around - I'd recommend bak choi, maybe some spinach. Tomatoes might be nice, too. I didn't have any.

*3/7 on the disaster scale.

Sweet "Asian" Salad Dressing Mk. II

2008-05-13T08:44:00.002-05:00

A variation of this. It actually seems dumb to call this Asian Salad Dressing because I've never really had salad in Asia (exception: Thai papaya salad). Though I did frequent one restaurant which occasionally made stir-fried lettuce. Hm.

Ingredients

1 T. soy sauce
1/2 T. kecap manis
2 T. rice vinegar
a few blobs of Sri Racha sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
a sprinkling of dried ginger

Methodology

1. Put ingredients in a jar. Cap jar and shake. Serve over salad.

Chinese Peanut Noodles with Gingered Vegetables

2008-05-12T22:21:00.002-05:00

I've had China on my mind lately. (Claire pointed out that I always have China on my mind, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've had Chinese food on my mind.) This recipe isn't really Chinese, or at least it's not like anything I had in China, but it is delicious. Get your mates to help you cut stuff up, because it takes forever.

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce:

1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 to 3 tbsp stock
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp chili oil

Noodles recipe:

1 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
8 ounces broccoli, tops cut into florets, stems peeled, cut into
thin strips
a bunch of small carrots cut into matchsticks
1/2 onion
1/2 medium zucchini
1/ medium size summer squash
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
10 ounces Chinese tofu
~ 8 oz. buckwheat noodles (soba, e.g.)
1 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts

Tofu marinade

1 T. soy sauce
2 T. water
1/2 T. garlic oil

Methodology

1. Make tofu marinade in shallow dish. Blot tofu dry, slice into 1/2" thick "steaks" and put in marinade. Set aside. Make peanut sauce and set aside. Put water on to boil. Chop veggies.

2. Cook the tofu until brown, then flip and brown the other side. Set aside, retaining marinade. Put the ginger in the wok with about 1 T. of sesame oil. After a few minutes, add the broccoli and carrots and stir fry until almost cooked. Add the other veg, the cooking wine, and the tofu marinade. When cooked, add the tofu and stir until everything is warm. Cook pasta.

3. Drain pasta and put in a bowl. Mix in the peanut sauce, then put the veg on top. Top with peanuts.

Notes

*There wasn't really enough ginger in this, despite the fact that I cut up too much. Maybe it needs to be sliced smaller? I guess I chopped it kind of roughly. But the peanut sauce was extremely delicious and made up for the lack of ginger.

*It could use more chili oil or maybe some hot pepper. Something to give it a little more of a kick.

*2/7. Also it used a lot of dishes. Oh man.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2008-05-05T20:58:00.005-05:00

Good for the vegetarians, too...bless them... (Gordon Ramsay)

I came home from work an hour later than usual. The cats were in a strop, and I'd missed my afternoon snack, so I was about ready to kill something with my bare hands for sustenance. Plus it was a lovely day out, and a very primal part of my brain was insisting that I should go out for a jog right the hell now.

What can you make in a hurry which is also very delicious? Broccoli soup! Recipe from Gordan Ramsey[1].

Ingredients

2 small heads of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 small baby bok choy, chopped
water
seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder)

Methodology

1. Boil water. Put in broccoli and bok choy, season, and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

2. When tender, put in the blender or cuisinart with a cup or two of the water you boiled it in and blend until smooth. Add more seasonings (about 1-2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/2 T garlic powder, a bit of cumin).

3. Serve with a little cheese grated on top - I used Irish Kerrygold "Dubliner" cheese, but cheddar would also be nice.

Notes

1. Gordon Ramsey has recently been in the news (well, on food blogs) because he has a new cookbook (he's been on some chat shows of late), and a show on Fox where he yells at stupid people. I haven't watched the show, but I'm in favour of yelling at stupid people. So apparently he used to have a show in the UK called "Gordon Ramsay Makes it Simple", which involved less yelling and more being adorable (see here). Anyway, I found the video of the soup on YouTube and had to try it.

2. It worked well, was super fast (I was out the door for my run by 19:00) and quite delicious. Serve with bread. 0/7.

3. Here's another Ramsay article, in case you are interested in him like I apparently am.

ETA:

4. Do not put curry powder in this dish, no matter how cool you happen to think curried broccoli soup might be. It's not a good idea.

Thai-style Ichiro's Rice

2008-05-01T23:10:00.002-05:00

Who was Ichiro? My hypotheses aside, the rice dish that bears his name is an excellent way to use up leftover rice. And since I wanted curry, I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients

6 oz. tofu, marinated and cooked
1 baby bok choy
1 sweet potato
1/2 summer squash
2 dried crimini mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
a trickle of oil
1 tin coconut milk (I used "lowfat organic", but I recommend the one that says "nuoc cot dua" or "coconut cream" for maximum goodness)
4 tsp. red Thai curry paste
about 1 T. brown sugar
about 1 T. of the marinade from the tofu (see above)
leftover brown rice, about 3/4 c. (or however much you have)
a sprinkling of ginger and cumin

Methodology

1. Heat garlic and mushrooms in a deep pan with oil (maybe a tablespoon or two, not much). When they sizzle, add the curry paste and the coconut milk. Heat until it boils, then add the veggies. Cover, stirring occasionally.

2. When the sweet potato is cooked, add in the brown sugar, the rice, and a bit of the marinade. You may also want to add some salt. Cut the "steaks" of tofu into bite-sized pieces and add those, too.

3. When everything is warm, taste and add a sprinkling of ginger and cumin. You may want to add more sugar or salt as well. It's done! Enjoy!

Notes

*I recommend serving with Sri Racha sauce and sweet chili sauce on top. If you use the lowfat coconut milk, this has very few calories. Actually, it probably doesn't have that many even if you use coconut cream. So go all out.

*0/7. This was delicious, and an excellent way to use some vegetables.

Thai-style Tofu Marinade

2008-05-01T18:19:00.002-05:00

Recipe adapted from the Chicago Sun-Times, so probably not the most Thai thing ever.

Ingredients
(quantities approximate for some stuff)

1/4 c. warm water
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. dark soy sauce
1/2 T. brown sugar
~1/2 tsp. Sri Racha sauce
~1/2 tsp. cumin
~1/2 tsp. corriander
~1 clove garlic, chopped
~1 tsp. lemon juice

Methodology

1. Mix everything together.

2. Cut tofu into "steaks" approximately 1/2" thick and put in marinade. Leave in the refrigerator until time to cook.

3. Cook and use in whatever dish. I recommend browning them over high heat in a not-too-oily pan.

Notes

*I liked the tone the sesame oil gave it. Needs to be stronger. 3/7.

Cold Sesame Noodles with Kimchi

2008-04-28T19:54:00.002-05:00

There are no two ways about it, my friend: kimchi is delicious. I bought some at the co-op the other day (they had vegetarian kimchi, so it didn't have nuoc mam [fish sauce] in it, which makes it more delicious) and I was trying to think of ways to use it. Then I remembered I wanted to make this recipe I found on Serious Eats.

Ingredients

1 "bundle" soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
1 1/2 cups kimchi
1 tablespoon kimchi juice from the jar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons toasted black sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Methodology

1. Boil water. While that's going on, mix the sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Measure out the kimchi and slice it up if it isn't already sliced; add kimchi and juice and mix.

2. Cook pasta as directed, about 4-5 minutes. Drain and run briefly under cold water, then add to bowl. Add the sesame oil and mix.

3. Eat! I topped it with Thai sweet chili sauce.

Notes

*Delicious. This is definitely a great batch of kimchi. Very easy to make, too, and pretty low calorie. The pasta is 210, the kimchi is about 100 total, so figure about 200 per serving. Serves 2.

*0/7 on the disaster index. The only difficult part was opening the jar of kimchi.

Book Review: To the Edge

2008-04-27T08:30:00.004-05:00

A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance, by Kirk Johnson

Following his brother's death, NY Times reporter Kirk Johnson decided to become a runner. But he wasn't interested in doing any old race - he had his heart set on running the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race across Death Valley, widely regarded as the most difficult footrace in the world. This book chronicles his descent into ultrarunning and (simultaneously) gonzo journalism.

In a normal newspaper story, the reporter remains at a distance from his subject - there is no "I", and so the tone is (perceived as) objective, rather than subjective, or at least that is what they strive for. In gonzo journalism, the journalist inserts the "I" and truly becomes "one of those crazies" (as he says), which is what happens here. While this gives a more interesting look at Mr. Johnson's struggle to go from a non-runner to an elite athlete over the course of a year, it also skews the perspective one gets of the race. Other participants wander in and out, never fully characterized beyond their most recognizable qualities - this one had cancer, these ones are twins, this one is an amputee.

The lack of distance is obviously something Mr. Johnson is neither used to nor comfortable with; he spends a significant portion of the book returning, like a good Times reporter, to the history of the race and that of Death Valley. The information is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, and the book would have done better had he simply surrendered, Hunter S. Thompson-like, to the pull of the race.

This "distant lack of distance" works to his disadvantage in another way: Mr. Johnson is never entirely successful in exploring his reasons for beginning the Badwater journey. Just as he has no explanation for his brother's suicide, he seems to have no reasons for whatever drove him to commit this much time and energy to so strange a quest; the few he comes up with (to be closer to his brother, primarily) are never closely examined, and cannot be, because his brother is never really fleshed out as a character.

The story, while interesting, had the potential to be truly moving - a tale of self-discovery and healing. But instead of the reader feeling the sentiments, we're left with the sense that the author pointed at a photo and said, "This was very moving". Nice try, but we remain unaffected. Whether this is a quality of Mr. Johnson's writing or simply a fact of trying to deal with a difficult subject, I cannot say. The book is worth a look if you're interested in running and its history.

Veggies and Tofu in Brown Sauce （红烧豆腐蔬菜）

2008-04-25T08:23:00.003-05:00

How do you tell someone you don't want to go on a date with them because they write awful poetry? What do you make for dinner after karate when you're really tired and out of sorts? When do these rhetorical questions become ridiculous?

I call this "brown sauce" because that's how it's always translated, but a closer translation is "red baked tofu and vegetables". Based on this recipe.

Ingredients

Tofu marinade

1/2 block tofu, cubed
1 T. garlic oil
1 T. soy sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar
about 1/2 tsp sri racha sauce

Vegetables etc.

1/2 sweet potato
1 summer squash
5 mushrooms
1 baby bok choy
3/4 c. brown rice
2 c. water
a few cloves of garlic

Red Sauce

3 T. dark soy sauce
1 T. kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
1/4 c. water
1/2 cube bouillon
1 T. vermouth
1/2 tsp. sri racha sauce

Methodology

1. Cut up tofu and put in marinade. Cut veggies into similar sized pieces.

2. Start the rice. You can dribble in a little of the tofu marinade for flavour if you want. Heat a wok over high heat with a small amount of oil in it and drop the tofu in. Leave it to brown on one side, then flip and brown the other. You can put some of the marinade on here, too, and let it reduce, or just throw the rest away. When the tofu is done, remove it to a plate.

3. Put a bit more oil in the wok and turn the heat down slightly. Add the garlic, then the mushrooms. When they start to brown, add the bok choi, the sweet potato, and the squash. Stir fry it for a few minutes, then add about 1 c. water and cover; the water will boil, cooking the potatoes. This is especially useful if your pan is small.

4. When the sweet potatoes (the veg needing the longest time) are almost done and the water has boiled off, add the tofu and the sauce. Stir everything together and cook a while longer to let the sauce reduce some. Serve over rice.

Notes

*Good and healthy, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but while I wasn't displeased there also was nothing to make me sit up and take notice. Chinese dishes tend to use only one or two vegetables, which is frustrating for a vegetarian but tends to bring out more of the "essence" of those vegetables, as opposed to "a bunch of vegetables in a bowl".

*3.5/7. Middle of the road.

Pictures forthcoming.

Three Grain Passover Stew

2008-04-20T21:20:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, Daniel, Claire, Sean, and I headed back to my parents' house for Seder. It was a nice meal, and then afterwards we all got food poisoning. Or possibly I got food poisoning, Daniel got the flu, Claire had a hangover, and Sean had...a migraine? Food poisoning? Who knows.

My illness began first (perhaps because I have this dumb, souped-up metabolism), and luckily this meant that I felt better first too, so by evening (and following a five mile run) I was ready to eat something. The only problem is Passover.

Luckily, I have my own take on how to keep kosher[1], and this recipe works well. It was meant to be kind of a "stash killer", using up a bunch of partial vegetables in the fridge, but I went down to the co-op and bought a whole bunch of other veggies, so that was not totally a success.

Three Grain Passover Stew

Ingredients

1/2 onion
3 large mushrooms
1/2 green bell pepper
4-5 baby carrots
1/2 sweet potato
1/3 c. lentils
1/3 c. brown rice
1/3 c. red quinoa
1/2 cube bouillon
1 tin tomatoes (diced, 15 oz.)
~ 3 c. water

Methodology

1. Chop vegetables and throw into a medium sized pot over high heat with about a tablespoon of oil (I use garlic oil). Throw in some garlic as well, and season with chili powder and paprika, salt and pepper.

2. After a bit, put in the lentils, rice, and quinoa, the bouillion, two cups of water, and the tin of tomatoes. Stir everything together and cover. Let it boil over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water as necessary.

3. When cooked, put in a little more water and about half a teaspoon of garam marsala. Serve with buttered matzo.

Notes

1. I used to keep a really rigid sort of kashrut during Pesach, down to even high-fructose corn syrup, and all it did was give me an obnoxious superiority complex. Honestly, if you are vegetarian and do not care for eggs, Pesach can be really difficult, especially when you are running a lot (32 miles last week).

In Vietnam I ate one meal per day and kept Sephardic kosher, which-- I don't know. Generally my family keeps Sephardic kosher despite being Ashkenazim, which I think is okay. Lentils and rice are therefore acceptable in this soup, provided you feel vaguely guilty about eating them.

Anyway, my personal rules for Pesach, in case you were curious, are:

No bread, muffins, cookies, etc.
None of the five grains (wheat, oats, barley, spelt, rye).
Avoid as best I can corn and corn syrup. Other kitnyot like beans, rice, and lentils are okay. Peanuts are also okay.
Try to eat enough calories, because I will be really miserable if I don't.

Regardless of your interpretation of the rules, this recipe is Sephardic kosher and parve (depending on your bouillon, I guess).

2. This came out really full of tomatoes. It was wonderful. Be careful putting the carrots into the pot, as they roll and may try to escape from the cutting board in the wrong direction.

3. 1/7 on the disaster scale. \o/

Polenta and veggies, take II

2008-04-18T08:55:00.002-05:00

Last time I tried this, the recipe came out so salty it was nearly inedible, so you'll probably understand when I say it took me a while to get back to the idea. But last Sunday, feeling exhausted after a long run the previous day, I wanted something delicious and easy, so I tried them again, this time with more success.

Ingredients

(for polenta)

1 c. yellow corn meal
1 tsp. salt
a handful of raw spinach, about 1/2 c.
3 c. water

(for sauce)

1/2 zucchini
1/2 summer squash
a few florets of broccoli
3-4 mushrooms, to taste
1/2 small onion
1/2 to 1 tin diced tomatoes
a few cloves of garlic
oregano, basil, chili powder, paprika

Methodology

1. Boil water, add salt. Pour in polenta, stirring constantly. There will probably be lumps. I'm sure there's a way to deal with this, but I just resign myself to it. When polenta has cooked into pudding (this is very quick), add in the spinach and stir until it's wilted. Divide into 12 muffin tins (or fewer if you want thicker cakes). Put in the fridge for about an hour.

2. Chop veggies. Put some oil in the bottom of a pot and add the garlic, then put in the onion and mushroom. Season. After a few minutes, throw in the squash, zucchini, and broccoli. When that starts looking cooked, add the tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Split a polenta cake in half and warm it in the microwave. Spoon sauce over it and top with grated cheese (if desired). Eat.

Notes

*Very easy and ridiculously healthy - each polenta cake is about 40 calories, and the sauce is not much more. In fact, the main fat in this meal comes from the cheese.

*The polenta cakes keep well in the fridge for about a week, and are good with salad (I put vinegar and salsa on my salad, then leave it in the fridge at work until lunch, so it marinates), or with bottled pasta sauce if you are not feeling up to making sauce.

*You can actually make this "sauce" with any collection of veggies plus tomatoes. Experiment, it's fun. For a different twist, use whole tinned tomatoes (cut in half if you want).

*2/7 (if only I could get the lumps out of the polenta...)

Moroccan Stew

2008-04-05T11:18:00.004-05:00

I found this on Runner's World's website. Since I had eggplant and zucchini to use up, it looked like a good bet. That said, I wouldn't call it an unqualified success; if you go look at the page I've linked to, you'll see that whoever wrote it has no idea how much stuff should actually go in - 3 cups of onion, 4 cups of zucchini? Serves 6? How much do these people eat?

On closer inspection, the photograph at the top of the article is obviously not the dish described. Maybe that should have been a warning sign, but what the hell - Runner's World is not exactly known as a source for gourmet recipes.

So I made some alterations, and then some more alterations. I'll write the ingredients list with the amount of stuff I cut up; see the notes section for more information.

Ingredients

1 biggish onion, chopped
2 T. garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
9-10 baby carrots, chopped
1 large sweet potato, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped (I used 1/2 Japanese eggplant, 1/2 traditional aubergine)
3/4 zucchini, chopped
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas
1/2 cup raisins (I used a "raisins and cherries" mix)

Methodology

1. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a biggish pan and throw the onion in. Bring it to a boil, then add garlic and spices. Mix. Add the rest of the veggies, the tomatoes, and the chickpeas. Add the raisins.

2. Mix well and add about 1 c. water. Cover and let cook until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Serve with bread.

Notes

*Initially, this tasted like a big bowl of vegetables, and not a particularly inspiring one. There's no salt in the recipe, which makes it kind of bland. I would have said 5-6/7 on the disaster scale.

*After a couple of days in the fridge, however, this had somehow morphed and become a super delicious stew. With a pinch of salt on top and heated in the microwave, it made a great lunch at work, and probably it will be lunch today as well. 2/7.

*I have to admit that even my biggest pot wasn't big enough for the quantity of veggies I cut up. If I were doing it again, I'd use only 1/2 eggplant total, plus about 1 zucchini and a small onion. It might be worth using a smaller sweet potato, too. The spices were a good mix, but I'd add more salt earlier on. And less water; better just to keep an inch at the bottom and keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

*I'd almost recommend making this a day ahead of time.

Book Review: No Country for Old Men

2008-04-04T22:23:00.004-05:00

A literary critic (of whom I am not fond) by the name of Harold Bloom referred to Cormac McCarthy as one of the four living (and still working) American novelists who write "the Style of our age", saying they have composed canonical works. So with this ringing in my ears, and the film version still playing through my mind, I decided to read the book.

Cormac McCarthy writes about the west, but not the vaguely-homoerotic wild west that we all know and love. This is West Texas, where there's antelope and dust and drugs and a bunch of stuff that's been around forever and not a whole lot else. The men are tough and taciturn; they don't use apostrophes or quotation marks, they're slow to anger and quick to strike once roused. They love their wives with a slow, steady passion. Their wives, on the other hand, are strong, steely women who do well by their menfolk (of course they're called "menfolk".) They may carry weapons, but in the end they're not too important, mostly functioning as reasons for the men to do the things they do.

The book's central thesis (or, I suppose, one of them; books are relatively poor places for straightforward philosophy) is this: you make choices as you go through life. There are rules and other, smaller choices you make which propel you along. And then eventually there's an accounting.

In some ways, it's similar to the "alternative universe" trope beloved by science fiction writers, except here the "what if" part of the universe doesn't matter. Only what happened is actually relevant. People live their lives thinking every day is a fresh start, that they can somehow divorce themselves from their pasts, but in a certain sense the past is the only thing that exists. Your past defines you, just as the past of the country defines what America is today.

This is not, as it happens, a philosophy I particularly buy into. But that's neither here nor there.

What surprises me is how McCarthy drags us through nearly 300 pages looking over the shoulders of Llewelyn Moss, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, and Anton Chigurh without ever really letting us into their lives. The way he uses and discards them makes it difficult to get attached, and none of them are especially likable (though I'll admit they each of them have their own particular charms). The plot, revolving around a drug deal gone bad and a big case of stolen money, is interesting but never really tied up - it's mostly a MacGuffin to keep the characters on the move, which is disappointing; you'd think that if you spent as long as CM must have writing a book this full of ideas, you'd have taken a few minutes to fix that.

The book was engrossing, true; I spent more than one lunch hour buried within its occasionally agrammatical pages. But though I liked it, I remain unconvinced that McCarthy is as good a writer as Bloom seems to think. The word I'm searching for, I believe, is "overrated". It's much like Bloom himself in that regard.

If you were curious, by the way, I kept a count: Chigurh kills at least 14 people ("on screen"; there's some implication that he kills others along the way).

Book review: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

2008-04-04T21:25:00.007-05:00

Dean Karnazes is a runner, specifically one of a small group of elite athletes called ultramarathoners - people who run more than 26.2 miles at a go, but typically at least 50 kilometers and often more than 100 miles without rest.

As a runner myself, I tend to get my share of odd looks when I mention I spent my weekend running eight or nine miles. But this guy gets looks on a whole different level. For me, on any given day I can run five miles without too much trouble. He can run a marathon.

This book is his attempt to answer questions that everyone asks him: Why do you run? How do you do it?

The trouble is, these questions aren't easily answered, even for someone as well educated as Mr. Karnazes, who has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about them. His best moment comes early on, when he quips, "Addictions are never neatly defined." The rest of the book spends a lot of time trying, then, to describe a particular feeling that (much as it pains me to admit, being a writer) is fairly indescribable: the painful, euphoric sensation that you get when you run really far, pushing your limits, if not the limits of what a human being can accomplish. The "how" gets glossed over as well, because the answer is one that people who don't run will never really believe: you get to be a long distance runner by putting on your shoes and running every day.

Despite the fact that his answers are essentially, "Lots of reasons" and "You wouldn't really believe me anyway", the book has a lot of promise. It misses out on being a truly moving memoir - it's more a recitation of events, without any real characterization or narrative arc - but it's damn interesting and more than a little inspiring, which is pretty good. Three and a half out of five stars. You can find his blog here. The book can be found on amazon.com here.

Curried Kidney Beans (rajma)

2008-04-02T08:52:00.004-05:00

Via the Veg Lounge. Because kidney beans are good for you.

Ingredients

1 tin red kidney beans, drained and washed
about 1 medium onion, chopped
3 T. garlic, chopped
1/2 tin whole tomatoes, chopped
salt, cayenne pepper, garam masala

Methodology

1. Put some oil in the bottom of a pan and add the onions and garlic. After they have cooked for a few minutes, add about 1 tsp. garam masala and a sprinkling of salt and cayenne pepper.

2. Add the tomatoes and about 1/4 c. water and cook for about 5 minutes. When it starts looking sauce-like, add the kidney beans and cook for about 5 more minutes, until it looks cohesive and not like an assemblage of ingredients. Add about 1 tsp. more of garam masala, 1/2 tsp. cayenne, 1 tsp. salt.

3. Eat. Goes well with bread or brown rice.

Notes

*Warm and tasty. Fairly low calorie, too - kidney beans are 100 calories per half cup.

*That's it. Really easy. It's a nice pretty purple/red colour, too.

Pointer

2008-03-28T11:07:00.001-05:00

If you happen to be exceedingly curious as to who I am, I wrote up a little FAQ and then buried it in the mists of time so I don't have to keep staring at it. It can be found here.

The Prostitute and the Porn Star

2008-03-27T23:40:00.003-05:00

The other week, when the former governor of New York was busy getting busted for hiring a prostitute, a bunch of sex-positive liberals came crawling out of the woodwork to point out that maybe prostitution should be legal.

The point was endlessly discussed in blogs, on news sites, even in the New York Times. And then Andrew Sullivan said (as quoted in The Marginal Revolution,

We live in a country where it's legal to pay two people to have sex and film them and sell the film; it just isn't legal to pay two people to have sex and simply watch them. That's what I call absurd.

Good sex-positive liberal that I am, I looked at this and frowned to myself and said, "Huh, that is weird." And I sent the quote to some of my friends, who all said approximately the same thing I had said; I assume that you, reading the quote now, are also saying to yourself, "Gosh, that's odd," or words to that effect[1].

Of course the question which sprang immediately to my mind was, "Why is it weird?" What is it about this situation which strikes us all as bizarre?

Americans, of course, are capitalists, which means that we have a strong attachment to the idea of property and privacy. Having money allows us to purchase things, for example a house or the use of a hotel room, and because we own this place and no one else does, we are entitled to the use of it without being disturbed[2].

In public places, we enjoy what I believe has been called a diminished expectation of privacy, which is to say that some things - quite a number of things - which we do in private without consequence are not entirely or at all legal when moved into the public sphere. I can walk around my apartment naked, but if I were to walk down State Street in the same state of dishabille, I would quickly be taken into police custody. This is based on public decency, which is of course a social construct, but one we must obey[3].

So we have one category of things, like nudity and (non-prostitute-involving) sex, which are legal in private and illegal in public. We have another category of things (like murder or rape) which are equally illegal in both public and private. But is there anything which is illegal in private, yet becomes legal when done publicly?

I thought about this for a long time, and nothing came to mind. This is, then, where the paradoxical feeling springs from, in the prostitute vs porn star debate: both of them are the same in private, but one is later publicized - and it's legal, whereas the one which remains private is illegal. So this brings me to my second question, which is, "What's the difference?" There's some rational behind this law (or there should be), but what is it?

The two acts seem virtually identical, especially when phrased the way they've been set out above. In fact, if you were to pay the two prostitutes to have sex and film it, and then later show that film to people, that would still be illegal. Even when we make the two acts exactly the same, then, they're still different. What's going on here?

If the acts are the same, maybe those doing the acting are what's different. The prostitute and the porn star. That there is a difference is intuitive, but when I considered what they actually do a little more closely, it started to fall apart. To wit, both accept money and have sex with people, either those paying them or those designated by those paying them. Both may actually enjoy their jobs or not, but will certainly give all pretense of enjoyment to those employing them. Both may turn up on film from time to time. But there is a difference.

Intent is a huge part of our legal system. For example, if I shoot a man in Memphis just to watch him die, that's murder. And if I shot him while I thought he was asleep, but he had in fact died of a massive stroke a few minutes earlier, that's attempted murder. Whether or not I actually killed him is less important than the fact that I meant to kill him. Similarly, if you get angry at your cheating husband and run him over with your car, that's murder. If you fall asleep at the wheel and run into a highway divider, killing your cheating husband in the process, that's unintentional homicide or a dumb accident or any number of things - but it's not murder, because it clearly wasn't the intent of the driver (you) to kill the passenger (your husband).

Similarly, when you hire a couple of porn stars to have sex on camera, you are hiring them for the purpose of making a film. You could be hiring them to read Hamlet naked on tape, or you could be hiring them to ride bicycles fully clothed, or any number of things; it's all legally the same. This can't be stopped for the same reason we can't stop Hollywood from making films staring Paris Hilton: canceling a film, or excising part of it, or whatever, on the basis of things like taste or decency is censorship, and therefore something which falls squarely under our first amendment rights.

On the other hand, when you hire a prostitute or two, you are hiring them for sex, by definition. If you were hiring them to play Go with you or something, they wouldn't be prostitutes, they would be something like the companions who visit old people. The intent is crucial - whether or not you or the film's director or anyone ever gets off on the proceedings is immaterial.

It's outside of my scope to say whether or not the laws themselves are just, or the acts which they govern are morally acceptable, but this does raise an interesting question: if an aging man hires a prostitute but, being unable to perform, sits down fully clothed to play a game of Go with her, also fully clothed, can he still be arrested for prostitution? Offhand, I'd say yes, because the intent was there, but the defense would almost certainly argue that the man just wanted a Go partner; that's the problem with intent, it's so difficult to prove what someone actually intends to do. But I can just imagine the bad headlines.

--

[1] If you don't think it's odd, you're excused. This probably won't be of interest to you.

[2] For more on how this leads to the downfall of society, see Karl Marx's The German Ideology. For more on how this is normal and even beneficial, see John Locke's Second Treatise on Government or Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Marx, of course, goes on to talk about how ownership causes the stratification of society, the oppression of the poor, and so forth. You don't have to accept this little communist critique for my purposes, you just have to agree that Americans think privacy is very important.

[3] In France, public decency dictates other things, like it's okay to be topless on public beaches, where in America this is not the case. It's just something we make up to make our lives easier, and Americans have made it up in a particular way. I'm not saying if it's right or wrong; that's not really the point.

Szechwan Eggplant and Tofu

2008-03-27T12:09:00.005-05:00

I had some eggplant leftover from my earlier experiment with vegetable casserole, and the tofu needed to be used before it went bad or something, so I dug up this recipe for 四川茄子豆腐. It was marvelous; I wound up using a motley assortment of eggplants, which gave it some lovely different textures. Beyond that, I made only a few modifications to the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 12 oz package firm tofu (Chinese)
1 T. soy sauce (dark) [for tofu marinade]
2 T. water [for tofu marinade]
1/2 T. garlic oil [for tofu marinade]
about 4-5 c. chopped eggplants
1 c. water plus vegetable bouillon
2 T. chopped garlic
ginger, about 1/2 tsp.
1 T. vegetarian stir-fry sauce (oyster sauce)
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. black vinegar (黑醋, can be found at Asian grocery stores)
1 tsp garlic oil
1 tsp kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce, found at Asian grocery stores)
1 tsp Sri Racha sauce or similar hot sauce
about 1/2 tin tomatoes, diced
3/4 c. brown rice
1 1/2 c. water

Methodology

I was a little confused by the original recipe, mostly because I was rushing and not reading closely. I will try to make this clear-ish.

0. Put the rice and 2x as much water (so 3/4 c. rice + 1.5 c. water, or 1 c. rice + 2 c. water, etc.) in a pan and turn it on. Cover. It will cook on its own, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil dry - if the pan is quite wide compared to the volume of rice, you may need to add more. Don't let it boil over, either, it makes a mess.

1. Mix the soy sauce, water, and oil labeled "for tofu marinade" in a flat-ish dish. Pat the tofu dry and slice it into about 6-7 slices 1/2" thick (little tofu steaks). Dip each steak into the marinade and flip over, then put into an oiled wok[note 1] over medium heat. Do not touch them again right away - wait a couple of minutes until they are browned, then flip and cook the other side. When done, take them out and cut into about 8-10 pieces per steak. Set aside.

2. Wash and chop the eggplants [note 2]. Put in the wok with a little oil. After about a minute, add in 1 cup of water and the bouillon, then cover and leave it to cook. When it's about half done, add the garlic and the ginger, then re-cover.

3. Meanwhile, mix the stir-fry sauce, the soy sauce, the kecap manis, the oil, the Sri Racha sauce, and the vinegars. I threw everything into the same container that the tomatoes happened to be in, on the basis that vinegar is good for tomatoes [note 3] and the law of diminishing returns in dishes.

4. When the eggplant is done, add the tomatoes, the sauce mixture, and the tofu. Stir and heat until everything is warm. Serve over rice. Yay.

Notes

1. You really don't need much oil for this. Maybe a tablespoon.

2. I used 1/2 a regular aubergine, 3 small Thai eggplants, and 1/2 of a Japanese eggplant (see photo.) It came out to be about 4-5 cups of purple and green goodness; I love the different textures between the varieties.

3. I had about 1/3 tin of diced tomatoes left from the casserole, which I supplemented with about 3 whole tinned tomatoes (Asian Midway didn't have diced tinned).

4. This had an awesome flavour and I had no problems at all during the cooking process. 0/7 on the disaster scale!

5. The 1 tsp of hot sauce wasn't quite spicy enough for me (I'm a fire eater after all my time in Asia) but if I were making it for guests who are not quite so keen on the spicy, it would be a good amount for them - flavourful, but not overwhelming.

Vegetable Casserole

2008-03-25T08:23:00.003-05:00

A strategy for using up vegetables. Based on a Giada De Laurentis recipe found here.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato
1 quarter green bell pepper
2 carrots or about 10 baby carrots
1/2 eggplant
about 1/4 of a cabbage
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 white onion
1 large zucchini
salt, pepper, and basil
1/2 tin diced tomatoes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Wash and chop potato, carrots, pepper, eggplant, and cabbage into 1/2 inch pieces. Place them in a casserole about 2 inches deep and 13x9 and toss with salt, pepper, basil, and 2 T olive oil. Make an even layer.

2. Slice onion into thin rings and layer over the top of potatoes etc.

3. Slice zucchini into 1/4" thick rounds and make a layer on top of the onion. You may not need the whole zucchini.

4. Spoon tomatoes onto the layer of zucchini.

5. Mix bread crumbs (see notes below) and Parmesan, add a little basil, and spread on top of the dish. Drizzle with 1 T. olive oil. Put in the oven with the top off for about 40 minutes, until veggies are cooked and the cheese and bread crumbs are browned.

Notes

*You can make bread crumbs easily using very stale bread and the largest holes on a box cheese grater.

*The eggplant came out well, but I thought the sweet potatoes and carrots were underdone. Still, Dan and Claire really liked it, which was nice. If I hadn't been cooking this directly after a run, I probably would have cooked it for longer, maybe letting it go the first 10 or 15 minutes with the lid on so the topping didn't overbrown with the added cooking time.

*3/7 on the disaster scale. Not bad; could have been better.

*What not to do: run 3.75 miles at a very brisk pace and then drink tequila. Wow.

Mango Sticky Rice

2008-03-23T09:57:00.002-05:00

Cleaning out the files. Here's a recipe from 22 March 2007.

Called Khao Niaow Ma Muang in Thai, this could be seen as a variant of rice pudding. Regardless, it makes a nice warm dessert with fruit, which means it's healthy and you don't have to feel bad about eating it. =] Hurrah.

Stuff you need:

1-2 mangos, ripe
1-2 cups rice. You're going to want "sticky rice", which is more glutinous; risotto rice would work, also possibly sushi rice. You should look around.
1-2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tin coconut milk (actually you want "coconut cream" but it's about the same)
1 cup water
spices, including salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom

Procedure:

1. Peel the mangos, or if you have a fucking imperialist vegetable peeler that doesn't work for left handed people, make your roommate do it. Cut the mangos off the pits, then slice them into smallish bits.

2. Measure rice into pot. Add water and coconut milk in a 1:.5 ratio, so 1 cup of rice would get 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2 cups would get 1 and 1, and so on. Turn it on over low.

3. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, brown sugar to taste. Keep stirring so it doesn't burn. When it starts to bubble and thicken, add the mangos.

4. Keep cooking, stirring a lot. This will cook up very quickly, so be careful; also, be ready to add more coconut milk/water as needed if it starts running out of liquid.

5. Eat! Yum.

Notes:

Possible variations: You could add...sliced roasted almonds, raisins, pineapple instead of mango, papaya instead of mango, possibly cantaloupe melon instead of mango, grass jelly (uh, I don't know how to explain what this is. It's...green?)...Bananas might also be nice.

I'd recommend that you use powdered cardamom instead of the whole type if this is possible. Whole cardamom is really nice in theory, but in practice I always wind up biting down on the pods, which is gross. Also, you could add chili powder if you were into it - I think that would be good, and surprising.

Hmm, now I'm thinking of a dessert with cocoa powder and chillies...

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2008-03-22T12:09:00.010-05:00

People who know me, or who read this blog a lot, know that I have a weird thing about eggs. It's not that I'm worried about the cholesterol or calories (at 70 calories per egg they're actually pretty healthy), I just don't like to keep them around. I have this weird sense that if I leave them unattended for too long, they will start to explode and fry themselves on the counter...

What I did have was overripe bananas, so I decided to make banana bread. But what to do without eggs?

Turns out it's not that hard. Recipe based on one from Dan and Claire.

Ingredients

1.5c whole wheat flour
1tsp baking soda
1.5tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/2c brown sugar
2 very ripe bananas
1tsp vanilla
1 T. margarine
1/3c. + 1/4c. + 1 T (about 11 T. total, or a little less than 3/4 c.) buttermilk
1/4 c. nonfat yoghurt (fat free, maybe?)
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 c. chocolate chips, or until it looks right

Methodology

0. Preheat oven to 350°.

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, chips). Set aside.

2. Mix wet ingredients (buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, margarine, yoghurt). Add bananas; mash with a fork.

3. Add wet into dry (mostly because the bowl the dry was in was much larger). Mix together and don't overstir.

4. Put into a greased bread pan (5"x9" is standard, I think). It will be quite full. Bake for about 1 hr, until a tester comes out clean. Turn out of pan to cool.

Notes

*Very easy. The baking time seemed a bit lengthy (read, I don't like to wait), but it came out almost exactly at 1 hour, done perfectly.

*Part of this was a bribe for Sean for helping me wrestle a chair up into my apartment. He liked it (the bread, not the chair).

*Fantastic and easy; 0/7 on the Lupton Disaster Scale.

*Make sure you check out today's comic!

Idiot Wind Cabbage Rolls

2008-03-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

I've had a weird day. It began with running a 10k, and then went on with grocery shopping, a nap, drawing a comic, eating some carrots, taking care of Dan and Claire's apartment, reading The Name of the Rose. The sort of day where, despite being fairly busy, I didn't really get much done.

I didn't eat that much, either; my main meal was the frozen yoghurt and hot fudge sundae I had directly after the race, and I only ate half of that. But despite that and the race, I wasn't very hungry. Also it was refrigerator clean out day chez Emily, which meant that finding a recipe which might use up some of the tail ends of vegetables I had lying around would be ideal.

Cabbage rolls are a German/Eastern European variation on an old idea echoed in nearly every culture: goi cuon, cha gio, 包子, 饺子, egg rolls, pot stickers, samosas, sambucas, dolmades, dolmadakia. Call them what you want, the idea is the same: take something and roll it up in something else, then eat it.

This recipe came from reading about 50 other recipes for various stuff, but it wasn't taken from anywhere in specific, so I'll claim credit for making it up.

Ingredients

1 large baking potato
3-4 baby carrots
3 mushrooms (Crimini or similar)
1 small onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
oil
bouillon + water, about 6 oz.
1/2 zucchini
one head of cabbage (green)
1 T. margarine
2 T. milk
1/4 c. tomato sauce (from a bottle)
a grating of parmesan cheese

Methodology

I have to admit, these are pretty labour-intensive.

1. Wash and cook the potato. I tried to boil it, but that takes forever, so to hell with that. Poke it full of holes and stick it in the microwave for 5 minutes.

2. Dice the onion, mushroom, carrots, and zucchini. Think small. Put some oil and garlic in a pan, when it sizzles, add the onion. After a few minutes add the carrot, then the mushroom and zucchini. Season with chili powder, paprika, basil, salt, pepper. Wait a few minutes until they start looking kind of dry (like the oil is used up) and add the bouillon powder and water. Cover the pan and walk away.

3. Wait, don't go too far! In a couple minutes, all the liquid will have cooked off, leaving you with cooked veg (very tasty). Turn the heat off.

4. Mash the potato in a bowl with the margarine and milk. You can peel it if you want, I guess. But why?

5. Mix the vegetables in and add more seasoning: cayenne pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, salt, pepper.

6. Take the cabbage and peel off the outer couple of leaves and discard them. Then take the next one and remove it gently, then cut off the rib as much as you can. You'll wind up with a pac man shape. Wash the leaf. Put about a quarter to a half cup of the potato mixture in it and roll it up like a spring roll - tuck the bottom, tuck in the sides, roll. This will take some finegaling to get right, but there is a definite way the cabbage wants to roll (it's sort of naturally bowl-shaped) so figure it out and go with it. If it rips, try putting another little piece of cabbage over the hole. You may want to stick a toothpick through it when you're done. And they may wind up kind of triangular - see photo.

7. Make these until you are out of the potato mixture. Squish them into a steamer basket and put them over some hot water in a wok with a lid. They will cook in about 5-10 minutes; watch to make sure you haven't accidentally turned on the wrong burner (oops) and that the wok hasn't run out of water.

8. Top with about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and a garnish of parmesan. I suggest serving with a salad made from sauteed broccoli, mixed greens, and this awesome salad dressing.

Notes

*These take so long to make, but I wasn't that hungry. Also, they're really good for you, can easily be made vegan, and two of them plus tomato sauce will run you about 100 calories. What more could you ask for?

*They are super tasty.

*Seriously, don't do turn on the wrong burners. I think the teflon on that pot is ruined.

*Recipe makes about 9 cabbage rolls. Results may vary depending on the size of your potato etc.

Sweet Asian Salad Dressing

2008-03-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

I impress myself sometimes with how clever I am.

Ingredients

1 T. kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
2 T. rice vinegar
1/4 t. soy sauce
about 1/4 t. ginger
1 clove garlic, diced

Methodology

1. Put ingredients in a jar.

2. Mix.

3. Serve over salad.

Notes

*What's not to like?

Curried Sweet Potatos, aka Low Cal Comfort Food

2008-03-15T10:06:00.002-05:00

This is kind of a stupid recipe - it seems almost too easy to be worth blogging. But I was thinking to myself, what if there's someone out there missing out on this delicious treat?

The problem with most comfort food is that it's really intensely caloric. Polenta, for example, runs about 90 calories/3 T. That means if you eat half a cup of it, you're eating 240 - and that's before putting butter and cheese and whatever else in it. Other types of comfort food, like mac and cheese, latkes, French toast, and fried chicken (I don't eat this last one, but I remember my grandmother making it when I was young, so it could be a CF) fall into the "don't ask, you won't like the answer" category.

What we need, obviously, is something that can be prepared quickly after a hard day, which is tasty, filling, and relatively low calorie and healthy (something fried chicken would never, ever be described as).

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, washed and poked full of holes
1.5 T. margarine or butter, softened
1 tsp brown sugar, not packed
about 1/2 - 3/4 tsp Indian curry paste

Methodology

1. Put the sweet potato in the microwave for 5 minutes.

2. Mix the margarine, brown sugar, and curry in a small bowl until well combined. You may want to taste and add more curry or brown sugar, depending on how you feel. I've found these proportions work pretty well, though.

3. When potato is cooked (you can tell by sticking a butter knife or similar into it - if you feel something crunchy, it's not done yet), take it out and split it open. Put margarine mixture on (I usually don't use all of it), add salt to taste. Enjoy!

Notes

*Lame, right? But good. Depending on the caloric content of your margarine and curry and the size of your sweet potato, this runs about 250 calories. It's perfect for when you have just come home from karate and are starving, maybe because your sensei made you run burnout heats and then do like 100 push ups and sit ups. And it's equally perfect for lazy Saturday mornings when your whole body is kind of tired and you're beginning to think getting out of bed at all was kind of a mistake. Not that I've been in either of those situations recently. *cough*

*If you are still here reading, here is a link to a WikiHow article about how to celebrate the Ides of March. Sweet potatoes aren't on there, but I'm not of Italian descent, so I don't care that much.

*0/7 on the disaster scale. Fantastic!

Ribollita

2008-03-13T08:51:00.004-05:00

I took the recipe from Dan and Claire and modified it.

Ingredients

olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 T. crushed garlic
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 10oz package frozen spinach (thaw in microwave)
1 15oz can cannellini beans
4c vegetable stock (bouillon)
1c water
basil, oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper
bread
2/3 c. orzo

Methodology

1. Chop onion. Put in pot along with olive oil and garlic. Add spices. When it turns translucent, add the tomatoes, the spinach, and the beans. Add the water and bouillon and bring to a boil.

2. Add the orzo and cook until tender.

3. Meanwhile, put bread in oven until it is stale. Drizzle with olive oil if you like.

4. Put a piece of bread in the bowl and pour soup over the top. Serve with Parmesan cheese (and, if you're me, Sri Racha sauce).

Notes

*I've been really into "one pot" meals this winter. Especially with my workout schedule, it's nice to be able to make something and then have leftovers to eat all weekend, preventing me from chewing off my arms or whatever in the time between practice and dinner. But here is the problem: when you put pasta in liquid, it absorbs the liquid.

*This is kind of obvious, because that's how pasta cooks. But as I've noted before, this doesn't stop when the cooking is done.

*So I made the soup on Monday, and then Tuesday after Karate I found that it was no longer soup but vegetable and bean stew with orzo.

*Still delicious though. Needed more spice.

*3/7 on the disaster index. Makes about 9 servings. I recommend it with focaccia, but any type of bread is probably good.

Polenta with Grilled Veggies and Canollini Bean Humus

2008-02-24T14:35:00.004-06:00

Polenta recipe from Mario Batali, found here.

Ingredients

Polenta
4 c. water
2 T. salt
1 c. yellow corn meal

Grilled Veggies

3 zucchini, sliced
1 smallish eggplant, sliced
1.5 green peppers, sliced

Canollini Bean Humus

1 tin canollini beans, drained
2 T. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
salt, pepper, paprika

Methodology

1. Put water in a pot with salt. Bring to a boil. Stir in the corn meal. Keep stirring, lowering heat until corn meal is thick. Ladle into greased muffin tins, a little more than 1/4 c. polenta/tin. It makes 12 very full or probably more if you're not lazy. See note.

2. Put polenta tins in fridge. Wait. When cool, remove from fridge.

3. Slice veggies and put on grill. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put polenta cakes on grill also.

4. Put beans, oil, and garlic in food processor and hit go. Add spices.

5. Serve ensemble.

Notes

*On Polenta: This cooking methodology is problematic on two accounts. One is that I think 2 tablespoons of salt is too much - I would recommend maybe half or a quarter of that. The other is that "put corn meal in pot and mix with a spoon" doesn't really convey a) how lumpy the stupid corn meal is and b) how it's kind of scary when it boils and spits hot grits at you.

Cooking this might be much easier to deal with if you are not sick and your brain makes sense of complex inputs like the boiling of a pot and is capable of looking at a recipe and saying, "Two tablespoons seems like too much!", so feel free to disregard this advice. Warning. Thing.

*One polenta cake = ~40 calories, assuming you made them all the same and not, you know, some really huge and some quite small. I don't know. Maybe you don't understand the idea of dividing things equally. I'm not judging.

*This was really good, but it would have been better if the polenta hadn't been so salty. Seriously, don't make this recipe like this.

*5/7 on the disaster index.

Pumpkin Bread

2008-02-21T08:57:00.004-06:00

From a recipe on the Culinary Institute of America website.

I don't bake much in the way of bread, even quick breads like this. For some reason in my family bread is a guy thing. There's no particular reason for me to think this, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I needed to use up some eggs, so I went looking for something that might require them.

Ingredients

2.5 c whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp double-acting baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries, plumped (to plump cover with boiling water and rest for at least 15 minutes and drain)
1/2 c. chocolate chips
1 cup tinned pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs or egg replacer stuff, whatever.
1/4 cup margarine, melted
1/4 c. buttermilk
probably some water

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Pour water over cranberries and set aside. Grease one 8.5 x 4.5" bread pan and one 12 cup muffin tin pan, or two bread pans or whatever you have.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

3. In another bowl, mix cranberries, chocolate chips, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and margarine. Mix well.

4. Add wet to dry (or dry to wet, it doesn't matter) all at once and mix together. Add buttermilk and water at this point to make it fairly batter-like. Don't overmix.

5. Put about half the batter in the muffin tins and half in the bread pan, or divide it between the two bread pans, (or eat it, I don't know. Careful about the eggs though). It will make about 2 loaves of bread or one loaf and 12 muffins.

6. Bake for 15 minutes (muffins)/50 minutes (loaf). Turn out of tins onto a clean towel and let cool. Think of someone you can pawn muffins off on, because that's a lot of muffins.

Notes

*I followed the recipe pretty precisely this time, because I was curious as to what the CIA had come up with. Conclusions: it's not quite as good, texture-wise, as the banana bread recipe my father typically makes. Next time I will try futzing with that one. It is good, though. It needed more curry powder and maybe less cranberries. I don't know. Depends on how you like cranberries. It has a nice colour, though.

*A deeper/narrower loaf pan might be nice, too.

*3/7 on the disaster scale. I brought Dan and Claire a bunch of muffins, and Daniel ate half of them right away, so they were delicious. Just not quite what I was trying for.

*I keep having these "let's make X to use up Y" things, and I inevitably wind up with something else to use up. It's kind of weird. Now I have half a tin of pumpkin to use up.

*About 130 calories/slice if you assume 20 slices (=10/loaf). If you make half of it into muffins, I can't really tell you, and I'm tired of thinking about this.

Punk Rock Muffins

2008-02-18T19:02:00.002-06:00

These are based on a recipe from Dan and Claire. "Based" is maybe the wrong word though.

Ingredients

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs (okay, I used that stuff you buy in a carton which is only egg whites, so it wound up being slightly less than 2 eggs' worth. Make of that what you will.)
1 c. fat free yoghurt
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. melted margarine
1 T. buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c. frozen raspberries, chopped
1/4 c. chocolate chips

Methodology

0. Preheat the oven to 400* F.

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a bowl.

2. Mix the eggs, yoghurt, buttermilk, sugar, butter, and vanilla in another bowl.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Do not over-mix. Stir in berries and chips.

4. Put in muffin tins, put tins in oven. Bake approximately 17 minutes, or until a toothpick/knife/whatever is clean. Makes about 18 muffins.

Notes

*I have this really bad short attention span and I think following recipes is kind of boring. Someday this is going to get me into trouble. Today was not that day.

*I call these punk rock muffins because 1) you could pretty much put whatever you want in them and 2) with the chopped up raspberries, they look a little like they're bleeding.

*I theorize these have about 150 calories/muffin, but I could be wrong. I put in the wrong number for how many calories in chocolate chips when I did the math. So approximate. But it's okay.

*They are quite delicious. 2/7 on the disaster scale, only because I was a bit worried about the eggs.

The Top 15 Best Breakup Songs Ever

2008-02-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

According to me, in a vaguely chronological order.

"You Oughta Know", Alanis Morissette. We were about thirteen when this album came out, so none of us had actually gone through it, but it was fun to sing. At the time I also had long curly hair like she did. I must have listened to Jagged Little Pill a million times.
"There Goes My Ex-Girlfriend", Aerosmith. I listened to this a bunch when I broke up with my first high school boyfriend, who had played it for me as a song he used to get over his previous girlfriend. I was really into irony in high school. (I don't know why I make it sound like this is something old about me. I'm still into irony.)
"Gone Daddy Gone", the Violent Femmes. Suggested by Claire. Amusingly, the Aerosmith boyfriend also got me into the Violent Femmes. This was the only good thing he did.
"It Ain't Me, Babe", Bob Dylan. The next boyfriend was really into Dylan and the Beatles and stuff. I don't remember if I found it especially poignant when we broke up, but I thought I'd put it on there. My Dylan phase lasted from high school until, oh, now. I saw him in concert in 2001, too.
"Kissing a Fool", George Michael/Michael Bublé. A couple years ago there was an homage to old Rock Hudson/Doris Day films starring Ewan McGregor and David Hyde Pierce as the kind of sexually ambiguous male leads and Renée Zellweger as Doris Day. It was called "Down with Love" - perhaps you remember it? I recall that it had fabulous costumes, was charmingly funny, and that the heroine let me down by totally caving in the last 10 minutes. Seriously, it would have been a much better film if she'd walked. But the inability to walk out on Ewan McGregor is a constant in many womens' lives, so I suppose it doesn't do to judge. Anyway, this song was in it. Apparently George Michael wrote it, but the Bublé version is the one I fell for.
"Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover", Paul Simon. Suggested by Chandra. This song has perennially fascinated me, as some of these don't seem to be ways at all ("Make a new plan, Stan?") and there are definitely less than fifty listed. I just thought I'd throw that out there. Also it's entirely targeted towards men, which in retrospect is obnoxious. Perhaps this was a poor selection.
"I Will Survive", Diana Ross/CAKE. Do I need to explain why this song is here? I thought not. Though I should note that I prefer the CAKE version.
"Why Bother?", Weezer. I used to listen to this song over and over while running when I broke up with my last boyfriend. Rivers Cuomo will save your mortal soul.
"Early in the Morning", Buddy Holly. I went through a Buddy Holly kick in 2006, right before I left the country for a while. Nothing else to say about this, moving on.
"Go Your Own Way", Fleetwood Mac. A kind of theme of my time in 'Nam.
"Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)", Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. One of the radio stations I listen to played this perpetually for about a month, and it was in my head all the time after my commutes.
"Breakin' Up", Rilo Kiley. Daniel gave me this song. On a drive from St. Paul, he pointed out that it has the lyrics, "Are we breaking up/Is there trouble between you and I?/Did my heart break enough/did it break enough this time?", which might help explain why it is an awesome song.
"Thanks for the Memories", Fallout Boy. Emo. But it has a catchy tune and an amusing music video with monkeys, so why not? I'm no music snob.
"Kiss You Off", Scissor Sisters. I love the Scissor Sisters. This narrowly beat out "I Can't Decide", which is one of my favorite songs ever but slightly less relevant to the topic. Contains the lyrics, "Kiss you off of my lips/I don't need another tube of that dimestore lipstick/cuz I guess I'm gonna buy me a brand new shade of man".
"Before He Cheats", Carrie Underwood. Okay, I get it, violence is bad, and the fact that violence towards men is accepted and towards women is not is a big fat double standard. This is still one of the most entertaining songs in the top 40 of late.

And, all right, five non-traditional love songs that have amused me lately:

"I Will Follow You into the Dark", Death Cab for Cutie. What other song begins with "Love of mine, someday you will die"? It's like an opera.
"Stuttering", Ben's Brother. I don't know, I feel like this sometimes when it comes to love, i.e., kind of slow and incapable.
"You and Me", Little Brazil. Suggested by Daniel. Begins, "You and me/fit together so awkwardly", which reminds me of most of my previous relationships.
"Rebel, Rebel", David Bowie. I saw him do this live. Favorite lyric: "You like me and I like it all". Exactly what I'm looking for in a mate: nondiscriminatory. Actually I was going to put "Cracked Actor" ("Forget that I'm fifty 'cause you just got paid") on here, but I'm in a good mood today.
"Get it On", T. Rex. I am fascinated by T. Rex because they have albums with titles like "My People Were Fair and Had Sky in their Hair...But Now they're Content to Wear Stars on their Brows" and "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow", which is basically as emo as saying "I'ma cut my wrists and listen to Dashboard Confessionals", but they're still considered a glam/punk band (punk bands in the 60s and 70s tended to have albums titled things like "SPEW" and "A RIGHT COCKUP". Okay, I am making those up, but it could be possible). Even the combo of glam and punk seems odd. And yet. But what is with these lyrics? Even if you say okay to "You've got the teeth of the Hydra upon you", you're still in pretty deep waters with, "You're built like a car/You've got a/hubcap diamond star halo/You're built like a car/ oh yeah". What does that even mean?

Well that was fun and somewhat embarrassing. Great! Feel free to comment with songs I missed.

Honorable mention goes to: "Already Gone" by the Eagles. It's a damn catchy song, which is too bad, because "I really hate the fucking Eagles, man", is the only thing I can think when I think about them. Also "No Love Today" by Chris Smither.

Singapore Noodles

2008-02-13T09:18:00.004-06:00

Singapore Noodles is a dish I first encountered at a Chinese restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. It was one of a few vegetarian dishes there (Asia in general is pretty big on meats), and it was delicious.
Yesterday, having some bok choy left over from my foray into stir fry, I decided to recreate it. Recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

1/2 c. veg broth (1/2 c. hot water and bouillon)
3 (heaping) T. veg stir fry sauce
2 T. ketchap mantis (a type of sweet Indonesian soy sauce. It cost about $3 for a huge bottle of it at the local Asian grocery and it's delicious, sweet and salty. I highly recommend picking some up.)
2 T. soy sauce *(I use really dark stuff.)
1 T. chili sauce (like SriRacha or similar) to taste
4-5 baby carrots, cut in matchsticks
1 head bok choy, chopped
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
a couple T. garlic oil
a couple cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 lb thin rice noodles
1/2 block extra firm tofu (Chinese tofu)
chili powder
some spinach (optional. I just had this lying around and I figured why not)

Methodology

1. Mix broth, stir fry sauce, ketchap mantis, soy sauce, and chili sauce in a bowl. Set aside. Chop veg and tofu; put the tofu in a container and toss it with, oh, a little soy sauce and some salt and pepper.

2. Put a little oil in the wok and stir fry the tofu. Dust it with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Remove from wok and set aside.

3. Put a little more oil in the wok and add the garlic, then put in the carrots and mushrooms. After a few minutes, add the bok choy and spinach. Let that cook a few minutes, then add the broth mixture. Bring it to a boil and add the noodles.

4. Depending on the size of your wok and stuff, you may have to add about a cup more water in order to cook the noodles. Putting a lid on the pan helps too. When they are cooked, add the tofu back in and mush everything around until it is hot again. (I do not mean literally mush the tofu; obviously you do not want crumbs of tofu, or perhaps you do in which case disregard this advice.)

5. Eat! Yay.

Notes
*So, was it Singapore Noodles like you had in 'Nam?

No.

*Was it good?

Yes. Would eat again. (Which I will have to, since it made about 400 pounds of leftovers).

*Time?

About 25-30 minutes, with me working at top speed, so it fit kind of uncomfortably into the short period post-karate and pre-gnawing own arm off. It was tough, though. Thirty minute meals be damned, I want my dinner in 7 or fewer.

*Improvements?

Cook the noodles separately, since they're not fresh, thus reducing the total liquid in the dish. Use baby bok choy (also called choy sum) as it is more tender and needs less chopping. Put in some onions (did not have any). A couple of the recipes Google is bringing me use curry powder, which doesn't mesh with what I recall, but sounds interesting anyway.

*Disaster scale?

3/7. Delicious but problematic, especially with the cooking of the noodles.

Veg Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

2008-02-10T19:59:00.001-06:00

I am so excited to have cooked this, it is fantastic. I cannot even tell you.

Ingredients

Rice

1 c. brown rice
2 c. water

Veggies
(all amounts approximate)

1/2 white onion, chopped
a handful of baby carrots
3 leaves of bok choy, chopped
3 mushrooms, sliced
1 sweet potato, chopped
1/2 head of broccoli, broken up into florets
1/2 block of tofu, cubed

one recipe of peanut sauce

Methodology

There are two fantastic things about this dish. One is the timing.

1. Put water and rice in a pot over high heat. You can throw in some spices if you want - cumin, turmeric, coriander. Cover. Chop up the veg.

2. Put some oil and garlic in a pan and start the vegetables cooking in a wok or deepish frying pan (make sure it has a lid). I recommend throwing in the carrots, onions, and tofu and letting it brown a bit, then adding everything else. Put in about a cup of water and put the lid on to let it steam.

3. Make the peanut sauce at this point. Keep an eye on the rice, it is probably nearing completion.

4. The veg should be done around the time you finish the sauce Pour the sauce over the veg. Serve over rice.

Notes

*This recipe is so awesome. I was SO hungry after jiu jitsu, too. Wow.

*1/7. \o/ I win at life.

Peanut Sauce

2008-02-10T19:51:00.000-06:00

This is almost too easy.

Ingredients

2 T. peanut butter (I used chunky reduced fat Skippy, because that is what I have around. I buy it for nostalgia I guess. You could use real, grown up peanut butter and it would be fine. You do not need to use nostalgia peanut butter.)
about 1.5 T vegetarian stir fry sauce (non-oyster oyster sauce)
about 1.5 T soy sauce (I use Pearl River dark soy sauce, it coats the bottle and almost eats through it.)
3/4 to 1 c. hot water
1 heaping tsp. brown sugar
hot sauce, to taste

Methodology

1. Put peanut butter, stir fry sauce, and soy sauce in a bowl. Add about half the water and mix until it dissolves. Add the rest of the water. Add the sugar and hot sauce. Adjust soy and stir fry sauce to taste. Put over veggies.

Notes

*1/7 on the disaster scale. I am fantastic.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones

2008-02-10T10:05:00.000-06:00

What a weird day. So I made scones.

Ironically, though this started out as a project to use up some eggs, I wound up using this recipe as a base, and it has no eggs in it. It's really easy, though, and doesn't take long to make.

Ingredients

2 c. white/all purpose flour
1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 T. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
8 T (one stick) butter, cold
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
about 1/2 c. skim milk, give or take
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips

Methodology

1. Preheat the oven to 375*. Mix the dry ingredients and sugar. Cut the butter into little pieces and mix that in, then cut it in with a butter knife approximately until your arm is tired. Add the buttermilk and mix, then add the chips and cranberries and mis those in. Do not overmix.

2. You should have a messy, kind of lumpy-looking dough with a fair amount of loose flour. Add a little of the skim milk if it's really dry. Turn it out onto a clean, floured surface, like a counter or baking pan. Knead it a couple of times and it will start to come together; you may need to add more milk. Knead it approximately until you think you've overkneaded it.

3. Pat the dough into a circle about seven inches in diameter and cut it in half. Cut each half into six triangles. Place on an oiled baking sheet, making sure they do not touch. Brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Serve hot with vanilla frozen yoghurt or whipped cream, or eat for breakfast with butter and jam..

Notes

*The dough will look weird lumpy and you'll think you've screwed it up; you haven't.

*These could perhaps use a bit less baking powder, though.

*There are nearly endless variations that can be done on this, with various types of textures and mix-ins.

*Using buttermillk instead of milk produces a lighter scone.

*1/7 on the disaster scale. Yay.

Fake Calzones

2008-02-09T18:33:00.000-06:00

An attempt to use up some leftovers. Kind of weirdly fusion-y.

Ingredients

about 1/4 recipe of chapati bread
1/2 zucchini, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
a handful of spinach
2 mushrooms, sliced (I used "Baby Bella", which I think are crimini)
a few cloves of garlic, diced
paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper, oregano, basil
2 T. tomato sauce
cheese (I used Pepper Jack and Mozzarella)

Methodology

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add the garlic. Saute the veg and spices until cooked. Remove from pan.

2. Roll out the bread into a biggish circle. Put tomato sauce in the center, add some spinach and some of the veg. Put cheese on top. Fold it over and seal the edges.

3. Cook the calzone in a pan until brown on all sides, being careful not to rip it.

Notes

*The edges were still a little more mushy than you might like, but the dough doesn't have any eggs in it so it's not a huge deal.

*Pretty delicious, all in all. About a 3/7 on the disaster index.

Apple Brown Betty

2008-02-06T22:18:00.000-06:00

Oh man; if you do a google you'll find that everyone and her brother has a recipe for Apple Brown Betty, and all of them are different. This was my attempt to 1) use some stale cake and 2) split the difference on a bunch of conflicting recipes.

Ingredients

Approximately 1/2 of a cinnamon sponge cake, slightly stale, cut into 1/4" cubes
1.5 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c. brown sugar
rind of 1 lemon
2.5 lbs apples (suggest Granny Smith and McIntosh)
8 T. apple juice or cider
1.25 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice, salt
about 2 T. butter

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Peel, core, and slice apples. Combine sugar and nutmeg and set aside about 2 T.

2. Mix spices and cake. Put a layer of cake at the bottom of a casserole pan, then a layer of apples, then pour about 4 T. of apple juice over. Put another layer of cake and sugar, another layer of apples, more juice. End with cake and sugar, then sprinkle the reserved 2 T of sugar on top.

3. If you are paying attention, dot the top with butter. Otherwise just put the lid on the casserole (or cover with foil) and put in the oven for about 45 minutes.

4. After 45 minutes, take lid off (dot top with butter now if you forgot earlier) and let it bake until brown, about another 15 minutes depending on how long you spend gaping at it with the oven open.

5. Serve with vanilla frozen yoghurt or whipped cream.

Notes

*Though the top layer was a bit dry, the other layers were extremely delicious. Next time I will cut some margarine in with a pastry cutter to help this problem. Perhaps even make a more apple crisp-like topping.

*About a 3 of 7 on the disaster index.

*Well received, though.

Quinoa Squash Stew

2008-02-04T12:47:00.000-06:00

From Epicurious, somewhat.

Ingredients

Stew
2 tablespoons olive oil or margarine
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
\1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup water
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups 1-inch cubes peeled butternut squash
2 cups cubed peeled carrots

Quinoa
1 cup quinoa (a grain, available at the grocery store) 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil or 2 T. margarine, etc.
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped peeled carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups water

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
a few T. fresh basil, chopped

Methodology

1. Quinoa: put garlic, spices, and oil in a biggish pot. Add onion and carrot and saute until it begins to brown. Add quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Stew: Put garlic and oil in. Add spices. Add onions and carrot and saute briefly. Add squash, tomatoes, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until cooked, about 15 minutes.

3. Mix about half the cilantro and basil into the stew. Serve stew over quinoa and sprinkle with more herbs.

Notes

*Healthy, tasty, and looks pretty on a plate. Win on three levels. For best effect, I'd use a green plate.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Cilantro Pesto

2008-01-27T09:14:00.000-06:00

Quite possibly my greatest invention ever. Based (loosely) on this recipe on Epicurious.

Ingredients

Vegetables
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped
3 small red potatoes, washed and chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 parsnips, peeled and chopped, with the woody core cut out
a handful or two of baby carrots
about 2 T. oil (olive or garlic or what have you), salt and pepper

Pesto

fresh basil (about 4-5 large leaves)
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 c. olive oil (actually a little less, more like 1/4 + 1/8)
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted
Cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper

Methodology

1. Toss vegetables with about 2 T. of oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange on a cookie sheet in a single layer and put in a 500* oven. Stir occasionally.

2. Put pine nuts, herbs, Parmesan, olive oil, and spices in a blender and blend them into a thick green paste. Add more salt and pepper as needed.

3. When cooked, toss vegetables with about 1/2 the pesto (you can freeze the rest). Serve with more Parmesan by the side.

Notes

*This was awesome.

*Don't use a pan with high sides, it insulates too well and the veg will not cook fast enough.

*If you had kosher salt, that would be nice to toss the veg with to roast.

*Don't put potato peelings or paper towels down the garbage disposal.

*Disaster index: 2/7

Cinnamon Cake with Grand Marnier Whipped Cream and Raspberry Compote

2008-01-26T13:55:00.000-06:00

Made up by me, based on this recipe at Epicurious. Very loosely based.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 T. molasses
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. Grand Marnier
cream of tarter

Whipped cream

1 pint whipping cream
3 T. confectioners' sugar
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 T. Grand Marnier
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Compote

about 1/2 bag frozen raspberries (it is January in Wisconsin, what do you want?)
1.5 T. brown sugar
~1 T. lemon juice

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350*, grease cake pan. Sift flour, baking powder, and cinnamon together. Whip egg whites with cream of tarter until foamy, then add sugar slowly. Try to make peaks. Fail miserably.

2. Add egg yolks. Mix (by hand). Fold in flour mixture. Add vanilla. Put cake in oven. Bake for ~30 minutes.

3. Drizzle 1 tsp of Grand Marnier on the bottom of the cake; turn cake out of pan and drizzle another tsp of GM on the top. Let it cool.

4. Make the compote. Put fruit, sugar, and lemon juice in a small sauce pan over low heat, stir until it turns into sauce, about 5 or 6 minutes. Taste and add more sugar if you want.

5. Make the whipped cream. Put cream, sugar, vanilla, and GM in container and whip until stiff.
6. Serve a slice of cake with whipped cream and sauce. Since it's a sponge cake, it's especially effective if you put some sauce on the plate, then plate the cake, then whipped cream and more sauce. Eat.

Notes

*This was well-received. Part birthday present, part "thanks for playing Queer Eye with my apartment".

*The cake is about 150 calories/slice for 12 slices. I didn't work out the whipped cream and raspberries, but I'd put the finished product at about 250, which isn't bad.

*Would have been better had I gotten the egg whites to whip. Also next time I will put in a little pumpkin pie spice I think. But in terms of stuff I was really worried about all afternoon that came out well? This cake. Yes.

*Disaster index: 3/7.

Em oi! #115: Pick-up Artist

2008-01-24T08:56:00.001-06:00

In case you cannot see it at the site today. I am getting errors for some reason, although it is uploaded.

This actually sort of happened.

Moroccan Chickpea Soup (Harira)

2008-01-24T08:28:00.002-06:00

Based on this recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

2 15 oz tins chickpeas, drained
1 (28 oz) tin diced tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
3 T. garlic oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed or what have you
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin, plus a bit
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 cups vegetable broth or bouillon and water
1 cup lentils
1/2 c. orzo
1 lemon

Methodology

1. Chop onion and garlic and put in a pot with the oil. You can use butter or olive oil if you want, I've just been using garlic oil because it has fewer calories. Also it's delicious.

2. Add spices and stir, wait for a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes, cilantro, chickpeas, lentils, broth or bouillon/water. Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer until lentils are cooked (about 30 minutes).

3. When lentils are (almost) tender, add orzo and cook for another 10 minutes or so until everything is done. Serve with lemon and bread (we had rye/pumpernickel swirl, which was good).

Notes

*Wow, what awesome soup. Seriously. Daniel suggests adding raisins, which I could get behind. Alternatively, dates. Also, spinach is a possibility.

*Makes 6 (large) servings, about 270 calories a piece. Plus loads of protein, which is good for you.

Squash and Black Bean Chili

2008-01-11T09:24:00.000-06:00

Based on a recipe from Epicurious. Dan has also blogged about this here, making this our first joint cooking project to also be a joint blogging project.

Ingredients

2.5 c. white onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
4 c. butternut squash, peeled and chopped
3 15 oz. tins black beans, drained and washed
1 14.5 oz tin diced tomatoes
spices: cumin, turmeric, Cayenne pepper, paprika, oregano
3 c. bai cai (Napa cabbage), chopped
approx. 2.5 c. water and vegetable bullion

Methodology

1. Heat the oil in a large pot and add the garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is golden. Add the squash and stir.

2. After about 2 minutes, season it with the spices (you can use chili powder if you have any; we didn't). Add the beans, the tomatoes, the bullion and the water. Cover and bring to a boil, then take the lid off and simmer until the squash is cooked, about 20 minutes.

3. Add the cabbage and cook a few more minutes until it is done. Season with salt and pepper to taste; also Sri Racha Sauce, plain yoghurt, cheddar cheese, etc.

Notes

*This made a ton. The original recipe said "serves 4", but I think it could easily have been dinner for 6.

*~~I haven't worked out the calories yet, but it's pretty good for you. I'll get on that soon though.~~ Right. Okay, if you assume 10 servings, it's about 220 calories per serving (before the addition of yoghurt/sour cream/cheese/what have you). I'm going with about 1 cup = 1 serving. But that's a rough estimate.

*I would add a tin of Great Northern beans and maybe a tin of kidney beans instead of all black beans, just to make it more interesting. I'm not sure I would keep the cabbage in; unlike Daniel, I'm not convinced it added anything. Also I was really hungry when I was cooking this and didn't spice it enough, so we had to do that after. Oops. This would be really good with a piece of rye bread or maybe fresh Irish soda bread.

*Hey Dan, we should bake some Irish soda bread.

*2/7 on the disaster index.

Spinach and Chickpea Rice Pilaf

2008-01-02T22:46:00.000-06:00

This is sort of a deconstructed spanakopita-type thing; Daniel and I tried hard to make it taste kind of Greek-by-way-of-the-Middle-East, and I think it worked. Anyway, it was delicious, and since I made up the recipe I get to blog it. (Dan can blog it too if he wants, I don't care. I'm making things up. Okay.)

ingredients

2 tin chickpeas (approx 32 oz)

1 onion

garlic

1.5 c. brown rice and 3 c. water or so

some veg bullion (we used one packet, really not worthwhile)

feta

2 boxes frozen spinach (20 oz or possibly grams, I forget)

1.5 T olive oil

lemon juice, cumin, fennel, dill, coriander, nutmeg, pepper, salt, thyme, basil, etc.

methodology

1. chop onion and saute in pan with garlic and olive oil plus cumin, fennel, dill, coriander, thyme, nutmeg, salt, pepper [&c...]. Put rice, bullion, and water in another pan and cook until it is done.

2. Melt spinach in microwave, squeeze out, and add to onion mixture (be careful, it will be quite hot; do not burn yourself). Add in chickpeas. When rice is done, mix it in and adjust the seasoning to taste. Squeeze half a lemon over it, sprinkle with feta, serve.

notes

*If you had dry (soaked) chickpeas you could stick them in the pan with the rice and cook it all together, but since ours were pre-cooked and we had limited pot space, we figured why bother.

*This was super awesome and approximately 250 calories per serving. Actually that's a very generous estimate.

*This makes a lot. Easily enough for five people. We were two people. I cannot scale recipes for love or money. Apparently.

*Scores a perfect 0/7 on the disaster scale.

*No more notes; I'm going to bed. Make sure you read the comic.

2007: in case you were wondering

2008-01-01T08:51:00.001-06:00

Year-end total: 224,200 words, including two complete drafts of an 80,000 (ish) word novel and almost 40,000 words of another novel, plus various sundries (a couple of short stories, part of a play, some blog entries, some freelance writing, at least one poem, and some travel essays). Not included in the count are the 25 or so recipes I posted here.

I also drew 107 comics (with 105 of those seeing publication on the online).

In case you're having trouble reading it, the black bars are words per day (counted in the blue numbers on the right), the yellow counts the total words to date (counted in the black numbers on the left), and the blue line is a moving average (I think 15 days, but maybe 30, I'm not sure, and Quattro just froze again, so I can't tell you).

I'm not really an optimist, and the best I can say is probably things won't get much worse this coming year. But Happy New Year anyway.

Dal and Carrot Stew

2007-12-30T18:28:00.000-06:00

Based on the recipe from Dan and Claire's Cooking Disaster Index. See guys, I tried to follow a recipe (tried really hard).

Ingredients

3/4 c. lentils (brown)
4 packets bullion and 2.5 c. water
2 carrots (chopped)
2 onions (chopped)
1 tin tomatoes (the small size)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tsp. oil
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. turmeric
Salt (to taste)
1 tsp. cayenne pepper

Methodology

1. As in the other recipe, put the lentils, carrots, onions, garlic, and tomatoes in a pot and add 3 packets of bullion and 1.5 c. water (I'm assuming you're using powdered bullion. If you're not, just make 1.5 c. of stock and put that in). Bring it to a boil, then turn it down and let it simmer for a while. Perhaps now would be a good time to make some chapati.

2. Heat the oil and the spices in another pan for about a minute. Add salt. Put aside.

3. When the lentils are cooked, turn off the burner. Put half the soup in a bowl and blend it (I use an immersion blender, which works well for getting the chunks out without destroying the texture of the lentils).

4. Add the blended soup back into the main pot. Put in the oil and spices, another packet of bullion, and another cup of water. Mix. Put it back on the heat and warm it up if needed. Enjoy!

Notes

*Also super easy. I did it this way because I have only two pots (a small one and a big one) which made it difficult to do both this and the chapati simultaneously (I needed the wok to cook the bread). But it came out really well.

*If you make 5 servings, only 90 calories/serving. Wow!

*This and the chapati get 1/7 on the disaster scale. I'm awesome (and so are Dan and Claire, who came up with the original. Thanks, guys!)

Chapati bread

2007-12-30T18:17:00.000-06:00

Based on the recipe here and the methodology here.

Ingredients

1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. oil (I used garlic oil I picked up at the Asian grocery store)
about 1/2 c. hot water, as needed

Methodology

1. Put the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center; put the oil and about 1/4 c. of water in the well and mix it, adding more water as needed until you get dough. Put a little oil in the bowl and put the bread in, then cover it and leave it sit for about 30-40 min.

2. Cut into 4 pieces and roll out with a floured rolling pin until fairly thin. Rub both sides with oil.

3. Put a bit of oil in a wok or on a grill and wipe it around, then heat the wok and put the bread in. Wait until it is brown on one side, then turn it. It will puff up. Yay. When done, eat or put in a warm oven (wrapped in foil) until you're ready to eat it.

Notes

*With garlic oil (approximately 10 calories/tablespoon), the bread has about 125 calories/piece.

*This was super easy to make and delicious. Takes a bit longer to cook than you'd think, but you don't need to hover over it.

Ginger Fudge

2007-12-24T15:14:00.000-06:00

In which I set nothing on fire.

Ok, yes. I made up this recipe based on the last fudge experiment which I admit did not turn out quite right - the top layer didn't set up quite and the bottom layer was a bit hard. So back to the drawing board.

Ingredients

2 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tin (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (I used Ong Tho because I was at an Asian food store undergoing a fit of nostalgia while I was buying it. I think this is less sweet than the typical American stuff. Also in Vietnam they sell low fat Ong Tho, which would have been great here, but they didn't have any at the store.)
1/2 c. marshmallow fluff (I feel dirty just typing that, but you need some corn syrup and I didn't want to actually own corn syrup so this has it in it. Does that make sense? Probably not. Sorry.)
1 box (~ 200g) candied ginger (you can find this at an Asian grocery store, which is why I happened to be there. It will be easier to find around Chinese New Year/Tet, so in late January-mid February, because dried fruits are very popular at that time of year; if you were feeling really daring and could find it, candied lotus root would also be good to add in to the mix.)
1/4 c. skim milk (approx.)
1 tsp. vanilla
a pinch of salt
spices to taste: cinnamon, Cayenne pepper, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, etc.

Methodology

1. If, like me, you have little strips of ginger, chop them into reasonable sized pieces. Put in a bowl and set aside. Cover 2 round 9" cake pans (or whatever) with tin foil and spray the tin foil with cooking spray.

2. Put the condensed milk and the chips in a pan over low heat. As they melt, stir in the marshmallow, the skim milk, the vanilla, the spices. Still stirring, bring it to a boil.

3. When it boils, turn off the heat and stop stirring. Count to 20 or something until it has stopped boiling and then stir in the ginger. Divide the mixture into the two pans, smooth the top, and put it in the fridge for two hours.

4. Cut and enjoy, or put back in the fridge to worry about.

Notes

*Initially I was too scared to estimate the number of calories. Then I figured out if I cut it into 40 pieces, it would be 130 calories/pc. Not too bad. But then when I cut it, I actually cut it into about 120 pieces, at about 50 calories per piece. The advantage and disadvantage of using a round pan is that at the edges the pieces are a bit smaller, so this is an average. Also when you're transferring the fudge to a container it's very tempting to eat the small bits from the edges.

*I will totally someday soon stop with this baking binge. At least from New Year's to Lupercalia, I promise. As it is, this is getting kind of dire. I've started stalking people primarily because if they're home I can give them baked goods to get rid of them.

*Most of the fudge is destined for Claire's family in St. Paul, as are the cupcakes I'm going to make tomorrow. Next year I'm going to find a boyfriend who celebrates this damn holiday so I'm not left up to my own devices for this long. Goddamn.

*The fudge came out pretty good - not too firm, but with a certain tensile strength. Next time I'm going to use an actual candy thermometer and it will be better.

Sweet Potato and Thai Eggplant Curry

2007-12-22T21:08:00.000-06:00

I am a clever enough monkey to recognize that baking when I'm bored + everyone out of town for the hols is not a good combination, so I restrained myself and made curry instead.

I know, right?

Ingredients

4 Thai eggplants
about 2 sweet potatoes
1 block firm (Chinese) tofu (about 8 oz)
red curry paste
1 tin coconut cream*
salt/pepper/etc.
oil and garlic

Methodology

1. Chop veg and tofu into appealing-sized pieces. Heat oil and garlic in wok.

2. Add tofu to pan. Toss a little to coat in oil, then let it sit. This is apparently the key to browning the damn stuff; this guy B. showed me the technique the other day. I have been cooking tofu for years and my, let's call it "short attention span" has apparently been working against me. Who knew?

3. Add coconut cream and curry paste (to taste, at least a couple of tablespoons). As it begins to boil, dump in the veg.

4. Cover it and let it cook, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are cooked. Depending on the curry paste you may need to add salt, pepper, and a tablespoon or so of (brown) sugar.

5. Serve over rice.

Notes

I had this great green curry with Thai eggplants, snake beans, and basil in Laos and I've been trying to recreate it. Making it with a) red curry and b) sweet potatoes isn't exactly the way to do that, but it was good nevertheless. Next time I will wait a bit before adding the eggplants (like when the sweet potatoes are about halfway done) because they got a bit mushy.

2/7 on the disaster index.

*It's called "nuoc cot dua" in Vietnamese. I was shopping at an Asian import store. But seriously, it's better than coconut milk I think. This is the stuff you need.

Curried Tofu with Sweet Potatoes

2007-12-19T09:17:00.000-06:00

An experiment in failures of communication when buying groceries.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes, washed, peeled, chopped
1 block tofu, drained and cut into pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 T. curry paste, (Indian curry paste not Thai)
salt and pepper
2 c. brown rice
5 c. water
some oil and garlic

Methodology

1. Put rice and 4 cups of water in a pot and start that. Do all the chopping.

2. Heat oil and garlic in pan (I use a wok, because that's what I own.) Add the onion and let it cook for a bit, then add in the tofu. After that starts to brown, add the sweet potato and curry paste. Mix. Add one cup of water and cover.

3. Wait, stirring occasionally, until everything is cooked. Add salt and pepper as desired.

4. Eat.

Notes

We bought way too much stuff and actually cut up 4 sweet potatoes and a large onion, so the quantities are approximate. If I'd put in about a tablespoon of brown sugar it would have been better...also might be worth adding a jigger of soy sauce. Still, pretty good. I'd guess with rice it's about 300 calories/serving, though I haven't actually worked that out. Makes a lot -- enough for 3 people with stuff left over.

Disaster index: 3

Fudge

2007-12-19T09:03:00.000-06:00

So, life is awful and you're having anxiety attacks all week. What to do?

Make fudge.

Ingredients

1 bag (12 oz) dark/semi-sweet chocolate chips
about 1 cup grated semi-sweet chocolate
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
2 T milk
2 tsp. vanilla
the zest of an orange
a couple tablespoons of Grand Marnier
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. almonds
Cayenne pepper

Methodology

1. Melt chocolate chips over low heat with 2/3 c. condensed milk, 1 T milk, and 1 tsp vanilla. Add the orange zest and liquor. When everything is melted, add the walnuts and remove from heat.

2. Spread on the bottom of a 9" pie pan that you've covered in foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

3. Melt the other chocolate with the rest of the condensed milk. Add the rest of the milk and vanilla. Add almonds and Cayenne pepper to taste.

4. Spread on top of the previous layer of chocolate.

5. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Notes

This was a project Claire and I got into while Daniel was studying for an exam. Because neither of us follows directions well, this didn't come out anything like the way the recipe was. I've tried to reproduce what we actually did as opposed to what it said to do. It was edible though. Actually quite delicious. But it would have been better if we hadn't done pepper on top and orange on the bottom and instead done, oh, cinnamon and pepper, or something like that.

Disaster index: 4 on a scale of 0-7.

Brownies

2007-12-15T23:31:00.000-06:00

Grand Marnier Brownies with Hard Ganache
(based on another of my mother's recipes)

ingredients
brownies

3/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 c. cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c. water
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. + 2 T Grand Marnier
1/2 T vanilla
1/2 c. chocolate chips
a pinch of cinnamon

ganache

chocolate chips
cream
Grand Marnier and/or rum

methodology
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Sift dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt) together. Putting the brown sugar through a seive may take a while, but try to get the lumps out.

2. Mix in water and mayonnaise.

3. Mix in Grand Marnier, vanilla, and chips. Add a pinch of cinnamon if you want.

4. Bake in a 9" x 13" pan for 30 minutes. Or in a round 9" cake pan if you're me and that's all you have.

5. Melt the chocolate chips with the cream as in a standard chocolate ganache (most use about 1/2 c. cream and 8 oz chips, but that will be probably more than you want. Remember not to heat it too hot or the chocolate will burn and it will all go to hell). Add some Grand Marnier. Drizzle over cooled brownies. Yay.

Notes

These were fairly successful, both on the giving-baked-goods-to-guys-I-like front and the taking-to-a-karate-party front. They would have been better if I'd used the zest of an orange to emphasize the Grand Marnier.

I've somehow gotten a reputation amongst the karate people as a bit of a baker. Next semester I'll have to come up with something else, lest they think I'm falling down on the job.

Hundred Dollar Chocolate Cake Cupcakes with Rum Frosting

2007-12-09T11:12:00.000-06:00

There's a long story about why this is called "Hundred Dollar Chocolate Cake", but the party I took them to was successful enough that I have a headache now, so I'm not going to type it here. It's similar to this legend about Neiman-Marcus's cookies.

What's more interesting for me, oddly enough, is that this is a WWII era recipe, using mayonnaise instead of eggs because eggs were being rationed. I've never actually tried the recipe with eggs and oil instead of mayo, but I have tried it with canola mayonnaise (vegan stuff without eggs in it) and it came out fine, so this is a recipe that can be veganized pretty easily

Let's see. The goal here was to produce cupcakes for a friend's holiday party. The cake recipe is pretty standard in my family, so I didn't change it much, in a "Why mess with success?" way. The frosting was kind of a trial run though.

Ingredients

Cake
2 c (cake) flour
1 c. (brown) sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
4 T cocoa powder
1 c. cold water
1 c. mayonnaise (I used "light" because I don't eat the stuff and wanted to give the remainder to Daniel later on. It doesn't make a difference though.)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 T cinnamon[1]

Frosting
2.66 c. icing sugar (powdered sugar)
5 T margarine
1 t. vanilla
6 T rum (I recommend a fairly top-shelf rum, because you can taste it.)

Methodology
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and cocoa. If you're using brown sugar (as I was), bear in mind that it's rather difficult to force it through a strainer, so the best you're going to manage is probably to break up the lumps.
2. Beat in the water, mayonnaise, and vanilla. Drop about two tablespoon-fulls per muffin cup (a soup spoon "tablespoon", not a measuring spoon) and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool.
3. Sift powdered sugar into bowl. Add margarine, vanilla, and rum. Mix into paste. Add more sugar and more rum until it reaches the desired consistency.
4. Frost cupcakes and add sprinkles, because who doesn't love sprinkles? Do not lick out the bowl and drive.

Notes
*Makes 18 cupcakes, approximately 80 calories each (frosted, approximately 130).

*As one of the people I forced cupcakes upon pointed out, these came out a little weird. The cake was good, the frosting was good, but they weren't really what people expected. Several people wanted to lick the frosting off and leave the cupcake (they didn't, though). But everyone seemed to enjoy them, including the people I was sort of pitifully trying to impress, and I was pretty intoxicated at that point anyway, so it was okay.

*If the liquor stores had been open when I baked the cookies (around 7h00, because of a 4.5 hour karate workshop taking up the middle chunk of my Saturday), I would have bought the rum and put some in the cupcakes, which might have made them go together better.

*So in total, 4.5/7 on the disaster index. It might be less if I didn't have a headache, but there you go.

[1]Cinnamon is my one addition to the recipe. Omit for a more standard cake.

Happy Jewmas!

2007-12-06T08:55:00.001-06:00

The comic site seems to be down, so here's today's comic. Hannukah started Tuesday night. (If you're curious, you can also spell it "Channakah". There isn't one correct spelling, because it's not an English word. My favorite spelling has been the slightly more Semitic-looking "Khannikah", but I could get into the Hispanic-inspired "Jannikah" too...)
I think that's it for comments for now.

Tofu and BaiCai Stir Fry

2007-12-02T17:22:00.000-06:00

An unexpected afternoon left to my own devices on a miserable gray day, when my attempts to go for a run have failed and the thought of doing the shopping I'd been planning seems repugnant?

Why not get up to some nonsense in the kitchen? And, while I'm at it, why not cook dinner without curry in it for once?

Napa cabbage is called baicai (白菜) in Chinese, and I like it much more than regular cabbage. I once came across a six foot tall baicai carved out of marble, and I almost bought it and had it shipped home to my parents for the fun of imagining them looking at it and saying to themselves, "What the hell is our daughter getting up to in China?"

This dish might be called "朝豆腐和白菜" in Chinese (Chao Doufu he baicai). Or possibly "烹" (peng) instead of "朝" (chao). It might also be referred to as Vegetarian Singapore Noodles.

Ingredients
1/2 package (4 oz) tofu
1/2 T Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
2 T mushroom stir fry sauce
1 T garlic oil or similar
2 T rice vinegar
2 T dark soy sauce
1 lb napa cabbage (bai cai)
garlic, ginger, chili powder, salt, pepper
4 oz. rice vermicelli

Methodology

1. Mix the chili sauce, mushroom sauce, garlic oil, vinegar, and soy sauce in a bowl. Cut tofu into pieces and mix it in. Cover and leave in fridge for a while. Take a nap, eat some toast~~, agonize over your novel~~. Eventually, wander back and hack the cabbage into bits.

2. Put some oil in the wok and heat it, along with some garlic, powdered ginger (or fresh ginger), and chili powder. Take the tofu out using a slotted spoon and put it in the wok (you probably want to keep the heat on medium). Reserve the marinade.

3. When tofu is sufficiently cooked, put it in a bowl and add more oil to the wok, then dump in the cabbage. Be careful, because if you washed the cabbage (and I hope you did) water will cling to the leaves, and water + hot oil = bad stuff. Cook the cabbage until it's wilted, adding salt and pepper, chili powder, etc. to taste.

4. Reintegrate the tofu and cook it along with the cabbage and the extra marinade. Bring some water to a boil and cook the noodles for three or four minutes (until tender), then drain.

5. Remove about 2 servings of tofu-and-baicai, then add the noodles to the remainder. You could just cook a whole bunch of noodles and mix it all, but I wanted to be able to have rice with the leftovers if I took a fancy for it. When everything reaches the same temperature, take it off and eat it.

Makes about three or four servings, about 300-350 calories per serving, depending on size and noodle choice.

Notes

*I was in a hurry and should have put in more ginger. Still, quite good. Pulling the noodles apart was a problem; I got bits of dry rice noodle everywhere. If you finish cooking them much before the stir fry is done, you can put them in cold water to keep them from turning into rice gloop.

*The amount of marinade that I wound up with was enough for probably twice as much tofu (which is how much I figured I'd be cooking when I started making it, appropriately enough). I feel like you shouldn't finish up swimming in marinade, so probably reduce the amounts by a half, except for the mushroom sauce.

*The recipe is very adaptable, and if you have pickled ginger/kimchi/roasted garlic lying around you might want to toss it in to see what happens. Experimentation is of course the great thing about cooking, and the great thing about living on your own is that your mother is never going to walk in and ask you in that certain tone why the kitchen is covered with hot sauce.

At least I am glad no one is going to ask me that. I'm going to go scrub some things down.

Aztec Cookies

2007-12-01T17:13:00.000-06:00

Background
Every year I get this thing I call "Christmas Cookie Rage", defined as the anger you feel when someone guilt trips you into eating one of their cookies which, while pretty, are inevitably lacking in every department except caloric value. This year, I decided to upset the pattern by baking my own cookies (despite not celebrating Christmas and all that). To that end, I polled my friends as to what kind of cookie they wanted.

The answer was fairly unanimous: chocolate chip. Daniel and Claire expressed a clear preference for small, chewy cookies, which I agree with; it is a truth universally acknowledged that if you eat four or five smaller cookies, you're doing a better job of sticking to your diet than if you eat like one really big one. As for the chewy versus crispy problem, I'm equally comfortable with both, though I have a slight preference for crispy (I enjoy a chocolate chip shortbread or biscotti, but I can tell which way the wind is blowing.) The major issue that remained to be addressed was that of sugar: Dan and Claire both prefer something less sweet, while I eat sugar directly from the container[1].

What we needed was a chocolate chip cookie that was both sweet and had a bit of a kick to it.

Ah-ha, sez I.

A couple years ago, I was really into the Aztecs. I studied their myths, knew about their gods, even taught myself Nahuatl. So when I needed chocolate with a kick, I knew exactly where to look.

I used this recipe as a starting point (found by googling for "the best cookies ever"), but as you'll see, the finished product is not really related.

Ingredients

1/2 c. margarine
2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2.5 tsp ginger
2.5 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
a sprinkling of black pepper and cardamom

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Grease cookie sheets.

2. Mix the wet ingredients (margarine, brown sugar, eggs) with a mixer (I broke out the immersion blender again because it is the greatest thing ever). Add the vanilla.

3. Add in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, spices). I added one cup of flour, then the spices, then the other cup, because I was worried about the spices not getting distributed enough if the batter was too thick, but the batter wasn't too thick.

4. Add the chocolate chips.

5. Make tablespoon-sized cookies on baking sheets about an inch apart and bake for about 6 minutes in the middle of the oven. Let them cool about 2 minutes on the sheet before you remove them to a rack or whatever.

Makes about 41 cookies, at a scant 88 calories/cookie.

Notes

It's hard to balance the spices on this, because everything is less spicy after baking. The batter was almost too spicy, but the cookies are less so. I am taking some over to Dan and Claire tonight and we will see what they think I am pretty happy with the recipe though.

[1] Okay maybe not, because that's kind of gross.

Curried Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

2007-11-25T21:54:00.000-06:00

Based on this recipe from epicurious.com.

With Claire away and a major math test a day away, Daniel was beginning to wander around with a shuffling, broken gait, wearing sweaters and staring for long moments at random items in the supermarket. And so, soup to the rescue!

Ingredients

1.5 c. tinned pumpkin (120)
2 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks (640)
4 c. water with vegetable bullion or vegetable broth
1 c. skim milk (90)
seasonings, including sweet curry powder, red Thai curry paste, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. (100)

Methodology

1. Put sweet potatoes in a pot with water and vegetable bullion and bring to a boil. Add curry powder and stir occasionally until the potatoes are cooked.

2. Spoon potatoes and 1 cup of broth into a blender and blend until smooth.

3. Return blended potatoes to pot. Add milk and pumpkin and stir. Season to taste.

Makes approximately 10 servings (I think. Big servings), approximately 100 calories per serving. I recommend serving them with whole wheat pita bread; yoghurt is also a possibility, as is Parmesan cheese (Claire's innovation).

Notes

Something about the sweet potatoes and pumpkin means that it doesn't take spices very well; I added a lot of pepper before it started tasting spicy, and even then it was the sort of spicy that creeps up on you instead of being spicy all at once, which is nice for luring the faint of heart.

Normally when I make curry I add sugar, because I love things which are both sweet and spicy, but the sweet potatoes are sweet enough already that you don't need it.

I think the best part of this recipe is the way you can tweak it. For a more Thai flavour, add coconut milk instead of skim and leave out the curry powder (just use the paste). For a more Indian flavour, you can add butter and leave out the curry paste; you could even mix in some dal if you had some, that would be nice.

2/7 on the disaster index, mostly because of my own nervousness about spicing it. A liberal hand seems to be necessary. So go forth and curry (and don't forget to check out Em oi! while you're at it.)

Gingerbread Cake part two: The Pumpkin Variation

2007-11-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

As before (in this post), with ingredients as follows:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup mild molasses mixed with 1 cup hot water

(I've highlighted the changes).

Methodology remains the same:
1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Mix wet ingredients (sugar, egg, margarine, pumpkin) in bowl with electric mixer/immersion blender type of frog.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, salt. Be careful if you don't want flour all over the kitchen (why you would object to this I cannot think.)

3. Alternate between adding molasses and flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Pour into a greased 9" baking pan (I used a round one with 2 inch sides I think). Bake in the middle of the oven until the knife comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. You can then turn it out of the pan without much fuss.

Notes
This can totally be thrown together, Iron Chef style, in 30 minutes if you are really pressed for time. Since clean up takes about 15 minutes, figure about an hour and a quarter start to finish (I'm typing this up at the 52 minute mark). Today I had exactly 2.5 hours (from the time I left work to the time I have to leave for aikido) to devote to this project, and that included shopping time. It looks like I'm going to make it (er, touch wood or something).

With the pumpkin, the cake has 2510 calories per cake, or 168 calories per slice for 15 slices, so not too shabby. I compensated for the added liquid by adding an extra quarter cup of flour (the making of the cake was not assisted by the death of my quarter cup measure halfway through the process, grr.)

I don't expect the cake to come out especially pumpkin-y; to accomplish that I should have probably dropped the amount of molasses or something (it tends to be quite strong). Still, it should make a nice offering for tomorrow. We'll see how the audience reacts. Last week's preliminary test went well, but I feel like tomorrow's crowd is much tougher, especially as it includes both of my younger brothers...

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who happens to be out there, and don't forget to check out the Thanksgiving Em oi!

ETA: Audience reaction gave this one full marks. Total success.

Gingerbread Cake (part 1)

2007-11-21T09:46:00.000-06:00

Based on a recipe from epicurious.com which I will hunt down and link to later.
ETA: here it is.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 banana, mushed up (approx 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup) plus 1/8 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup mild molasses mixed with 1 cup hot water

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Mix wet ingredients (sugar, egg, margarine, banana) in bowl with electric mixer/immersion blender type of frog.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, salt. Be careful if you don't want flour all over the kitchen (why you would object to this I cannot think.)

3. Alternate between adding molasses and flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Pour into a greased 9" baking pan (I used a round one with 2 inch sides I think). Bake in the middle of the oven until the knife comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. You can then turn it out of the pan without much fuss.

Recommend serving with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes

Cake has 2242 calories. If 10 pieces, 224.2 cal/piece. 15 pieces = 150 calories/slice.

It's not terribly sweet, but very dark and moist, so it makes a nice finish for people who don't have an all-consuming need to eat SUGAR all the time (er, and I liked it too.) Plus gingerbread feels healthier than chocolate.

Next time, I'm going to try it with pumpkin. Will keep you updated.

Curried Lentil and Spinach Stew

2007-11-18T18:36:00.000-06:00

Based (very loosely) off this recipe from epicurious.com.

Ingredients:
2 tsp margarine
1 T garlic
1 onion
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
2.5 c. water
2 packets bullion
2 c. spinach (approx.)
1 c. lentils
1 tin chickpeas (approx. 2.5 cups)
1/2 T. brown sugar

Methodology:

1. Chop the onion thinly. Saute margarine and garlic in pan, add onion and mix until starting to look cooked. Add curry and pepper.
2. Add water and bullion and spinach. When the spinach is wilted and the water is beginning to simmer, add the chickpeas and lentils.
3. Cook until lentils are done, adding more water as necessary. Add brown sugar, salt, peper, etc.

Makes 5 1 cup servings, approximately 145.5 calories/serving.

Notes:

This was really good. Also it takes a while, and was probably the wrong recipe to choose after a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu work out that left me feeling like I'd been hit with rolling pins for 2 hours. I am covered with bruises, and I was ready to eat my own arm off by the time the cooking was done.

I threw in some mushrooms (the sad remains of pasta sauce experiments from last week) and used half red onion, half yellow. I also used spinach instead of Swiss Chard or Kale because I was bumming around the market after practice (looking, I'm sure, like I'd just been mugged in a back alley) and I didn't want to muck around trying to decide wtf Swiss Chard is.) It turned out well. 2/7 on the disaster index, only because of my own idiocy in choosing it tonight instead of some other, less hungry time. I suggest serving with pita or whole wheat bread.

Greek Salad Pita Sandwiches

2007-11-16T20:26:00.000-06:00

Adapted from this recipe I found on Epicurious.com:

Ingredients:
1.5 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1.25 c. tomatoes (chopped or canned. Let's face it, this is Wisconsin in winter, canned is the only thing that's not going to taste of cardboard.)
1.25 c. diced cucumbers (this was accidental. I chopped too much.)
1 c. chopped red onion (equally accidental.)
1 c. chopped green pepper
1/2 c. Italian parsley. Or whatever parsley. It's parsley, who cares.
1/2 c. feta (I used reduced fat feta, which I didn't know existed. Yay.)

Methodology:
1. mix olive oil and vinegar.
2. add the veggies. mix. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. put in a pita bread and serve.

Notes:
*There was a debate (in my head) as to what kind of pita bread to get: flat is more authentic, but more calorie-heavy. Eventually I went with the pre-cut whole wheat pitas, which are 80 calories/half.

*The raw onion was really strong, and probably my least favorite thing about this. For tomorrow I'm gonna try stir frying it with some garlic before I stuff the pitas, which should help a little with the eye-watering quality it has now.

*As made above, makes about 5.5 cups. I assume 1 c = 1 serving, so a serving (with pita) is about 200 calories. It's really hard to fit that much in half a pita, though, so you could experiment with stuffing them less and having 2. That would be daring.

*If I had fresh mint and/or basil, I'd put those in.

Disaster rating: 4/7; edible, but I'm not incredibly eager to try it again. Lots of leftovers though.

ETA (17 Nov 07): stir fried leftovers with garlic. Much improved.

Thai-style Cabbage Noodles (annotated)

2007-11-15T17:42:00.000-06:00

Another recipe from my days in Asia:

Thai-style Cabbage Noodles - a fusion cuisine experiment

Cabbage noodles are notable for being incredibly simple to make - basically you saute some cabbage, add it to noodles, salt and pepper it, and you're done. So what happens when we needlessly complicate the procedure by making instead a pad thai type dish with cabbage? Deliciousness.

[Cabbage noodles are a Hungarian recipe, for the record, and it has already been modified to be vegan (Hungarians traditionally put some sort of meat in it, I believe, but the friend I got it from was a vegan, so that's how I learned to make it. Also, I don't eat meat, so it's kind of a moot point. --E]

Stuff you need:
2 tomatoes
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
some mushrooms [I tended to use dried shitakes, since they are better than almost anything in the world. Straw mushrooms would also be good. --E]
a chili pepper or two [I have a heavy hand with the peppers. For the record. --E]
pad thai sauce or mushroom sauce or oyster sauce or hoysin sauce - mushroom/oyster is more authentic and harder to find/less vegetarian. I used pad thai sauce. [At the time I was looking for these things, I had spent the day trying to explain to a woman in a marketplace in Vietnamese that I wanted sauce from Thailand for noodles, which was of course confusing. These things can all be found at an Asian grocery in the US, and you don't have to speak Vietnamese/Chinese/Thai/whatever to get them. --E]
soy sauce mmmmm [At the time I wrote many of these recipes, I was living in a very warm climate, which means that I tended to put a lot of salt on my food, since I craved it like nothing else. You should be careful before you follow suit in more temperate climes. --E]
salt
about a quarter of a cabbage - more or less to taste [Either regular green or "napa" (白菜) will work. I believe I originally used a green cabbage. --E]
rice noodles [Medium to thin is best. --E]
1 cup of water

Methodology

1. Cut up the veggies, heat up some oil in a pan and drop in the garlic, the mushrooms, and the pepper. Let it saute until it smells delicious. Do not look away, they will burn. The Thai way of dealing with garlic is basically to smack it with the knife and then cut it up still in the wrapper and fry it also still in the wrapper, producing something a bit crunchier than normal. I kind of like it, and it saves the hassle of peeling garlic, but you can totally do it however you want.

2. Add in the onion and the cabbage. Cook them until the cabbage begins to wilt and take up less space. Add the tomatoes.

3. When everything is looking pretty good, or when you are tired of wrestling with the damn bottle of pad thai sauce (that stuff is worse than ketchup, to get it to come out) add about a tablespoon of pad thai sauce and about two tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix it in. Add salt if you want. You could also add brown sugar or chili paste if you had/wanted those things.

4. Add the rice noodles and dump in the water. It will bubble around for a while - keep it on medium-high heat and stir a lot. When you can cut the noodles with the edge of the spatula, it's done (alternatively, when they are not crunchy to taste). Add additional stuff (salt/chili/pepper/soy sauce/pad thai sauce/sugar) as you want. Serve.

Spicy Lentils and Tomatoes

2007-11-11T18:22:00.000-06:00

Ho-hum. Not a fortnight after coming out against the combination of lentils and tomatoes, I find myself cooking them. But as this isn't lentil stew, I think I can let it slide. In fact, I'd call this a faux lentil curry.

Ingredients:
1 c. brown lentils
1 (small) tin (2.5 c, I think) diced tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1.25 c. mushrooms, chopped
margarine
garlic
spices (salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin, turmeric, hot pepper)

Method:
1. Put 1 c. lentils in a pan with 2 c. water and a bit of curry powder. Turn on and let it cook.

2. In a wok or other large pan, melt the margerine and the garlic. Add the mushrooms and onion and saute, adding spices until the veg are carmelized. You can add some juice from the tomatoes to deglaze the pan. When it's done, turn it off and wait for the lentils. They probably won't take long.

3. Add the lentils to the onions and mushrooms. Mix. Add the tomatoes. Cook until everything is warm. Season with curry, cumin, turmeric, etc. Serve with hot sauce and parmesan cheese.

Serves ~4, 100 calories/serving. Also has lots of protein. Yay.

Comments:
It's good. I wanted something filling and low-calorie after my day of weird eating (I went home, so wound up grazing a lot. How do you count the calories in one piece of broccoli?) Still, it's not quite curry. If I were a better person, I would make up my own curry powder instead of using the stuff that I bought pre-mixed, and I would use butter instead of margarine. Also I would probably add a bit of brown sugar. Still, I like it.

Lentil Stew

2007-11-04T18:22:00.000-06:00

I tried the lentil stew again, with a slightly different recipe:

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
1 small onion
1/2 large green bell pepper
1/2 c. brown rice
1/2 c. lentils
1/3 c. orzo
garlic
~1/2 T. margarine
1 packet vegetable bullion
spices to taste (suggested: salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, chili powder)

The methodology is about the same as this version: put garlic and margerine in pan, add veg and bullion powder, add rice and lentils with 2 c. water and cook, add orzo, spice, eat. The major differences are that I put on hot sauce and cheddar cheese instead of parmesan and served it with whole wheat toast.

People are of two minds about tomatoes in lentil soup, with Dan and Claire coming down on the for side and myself on the against. I'd have added turmeric if I had any, though. Also possibly curry powder or its constituents (garam marsala, cinnamon, etc).

Yay. Makes about 6 servings, 150 calories each.

Khoai Lang voi sot ca ri cua Em

2007-10-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

From the archives, another Vietnam-composed recipe. This makes a biiig pot of stew, and I have no idea how many calories. Add coconut milk (nuoc cot dua) in addition to water for a creamier product.

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic
3 onions (note: all quantities are "to taste" - I certainly don't have a scale or anything, I just cup up as much as looks right. That said, the recipe as I made it serves at least 8, I think.)
4 yams, small-ish. Mine were kinda ropey. I dunno.
3 potatos, medium-sized.
2 carrots
6 bananas (very small - probably about 1.5 or 2 regular bananas)
peanuts
chili pepper

1. cut everything up into edible-sized pieces. Heat oil. Add garlic and chilli pepper. [if you have something like dried shitakes, you might add them now too. mm, that would be good.]
2. When garlic smells enticing, add onions and stir a while, until they begin to look cooked.
3. Add potatos and yams and carrots. Wait a few moments. Add bananas and peanuts.
4. Put in about 3 inches of water and cover it [add coconut milk at this point if you want]. Walk away and leave it cook, stirring about every 5-7 minutes or so to keep it from burning. When the veg is cooked, turn down the heat and add curry powder, paprika, cinnamon, salt, etc until it is spicy enough for whatever purposes you may have.
5. Serve with more peanuts on top, with soy sauce optional. Mmm, soy sauce.

That's it. It's really easy, probably requires about 40 minutes cooking time on a regular stove (ours is a small dragon and doesn't hold with that "cooking time" nonsense. This cooked in about 15 minutes total.

You may want to add more root vegetables if you can find them - turnips, parsnips, whatever. Or plantains. That might be fun. I think it might be nice with apple too, but apples here are expensive and not really great.