Archive for the ‘What’s for Dinner?’ Category
Good evening, Dear Readers:
My sincerest apologies for taking so long. One thing leads to another, then it’s the holidays, and the blog just gets postponed. I’ll try to keep up on this during the new year.
BRRRRRR!!!!! Seems like the whole world is frozen, at least north of the equator! Australia, however, is having record heat, so they’re sort of learning what Texas is like in the summer. Nevertheless, if you are in need of something warm and tasty, please have some Yeast Free Hot Chocolate and remember to bring your pets and critters INSIDE, or somehow keep them from freezing. Not safe for man or beast anywhere!
If you’re wondering how Christmas went, well, it went much better. Hang on, I have a few other things to tell you about first.
Remember the new cupcake shop down in the tunnel, New Addictions? Bad news—they’ve closed for good. I get to my office via an entry that passes right by that place, and I figured, like a lot of places, they would be closed during the week of Thanksgiving. While several eateries in the tunnel were open, most were closed and I just thought they were going to do the same thing.
And when we returned after the Black Friday weekend, the gate was down, and all the fixtures were gone. All that’s left is the name painted on the wall. What a shame—they nearly always had at least one person in there contemplating a cupcake. A click on their website says that they have closed both locations. I sent them an email expressing my condolences, but I haven’t heard back—and there’s a good chance I won’t.
What happened? Who knows. But I’m sure the Fraziers are up to something else, and it’s likely very tasty, too. I hope they do well in whatever they do next; they’re really nice people.
Also, the HeatCageKitchen garden is doing great–I have harvested three tomatoes before the freeze came, and the little orbs are ripening on the breakfast bar. Garlic is shooting up, and while the Meyer lemon plant just grows green leaves, the sage is coming up, the rosemary is enjoying all this, green onions are growing up straight, the strawberry plant is nice and green (no berries), the aloe vera is fine, and I’ve got flat-leaf parsley shoots popping through the soil. No lettuce yet, but I might try radishes soon. I’ve been inundated with seed catalogs after ONE order from Territorial Seed a month or so ago, where I got the garlic.
If you’re someone who watched the cartoon The Jetsons many years ago, or have seen it in reruns, you were likely treated to visions of a 21st century kitchen. Well, it’s what they thought would be “the kitchen of the future,” with lots of buttons everywhere. We have that, with touchpads on everything from microwaves to iPhones, but I don’t think we’re at the point of taking protein pills instead of having food for dinner. The Wall Street Journal did an article recently on the futuristic kitchen we were promised. And while it’s great that we can invent such things, well, the comments indicate that simple is better.
Do you really need a circuit board and touch panel on your refrigerator or built into your dishwasher? Me either. Turn on and run, OK?
Speaking of fun in the kitchen, another WSJ article told me about something I’ve never heard of, called the Bimby. There is also a video, but you have to sign in to see it. Also, this magic machine is NOT, repeat, NOT currently available in the US, and apparently not anytime soon, either. It is available in Canada under the name Thermomix, and one of the commenters says that their power is the same as ours, 110v.
Spinach and cod? Oh, that’s right up there with eggplant lasagna. You have it, OK?
Well, it’s interesting, but not as much fun as the YouTube videos of cats riding the Roomba. More robots at work in our homes, while the cat just sees it as catering to his natural superiority. But seriously, you can kind of do the same thing with a food processor and a toaster oven, or maybe a Vitamix (which I don’t have.)
Now back to Christmas.
As I mentioned last time, Thanksgiving dinner was a gluten-free disaster, thanks in part to my enthusiasm and my guest’s gift of some pretty potent Sangria. However, because the guest knows I’m a good cook, he agreed to give me another chance at Christmas; he was not disappointed this time. He did bring wine, and I had some, but there was no intoxication before dinner, nor after. I did bake the raspberry pistachio cake he hinted at, and he took the whole thing home in a disposable pan.
About a week before, I got an email from The Barefoot Contessa Blog, and one recipe she mentioned was Green Beans Gremolata, so I decided to include that.
I did turkey again, but of course was unable to obtain a turkey breast on the Sunday before Christmas. There was no way I was going to mess with another whole turkey, let alone a 22 pound beast, so I got turkey thighs, which I prefer anyway. They’re kind of down-market for a holiday dinner, but again, no huge beasts for me this time. I went to Ina’s last book, How Easy Is That? and made Herb Roasted Turkey on page 128, just with turkey thighs. Oh, yeah. . . .
Herb Roasted Turkey Thighs
Also in How Easy Is That? I came across Celery and Parmesan Salad on page 62. Pretty darn good!
Celery Parmesan Salad. Must be tasted to be believed.
I also made some more of the Tuscan Chickpea Mash from Foolproof, (page 42) a second cousin to hummus (but with no sesame paste in it.) I made that as an appetizer, and it’s one I really like, but he said, “Meh.” He did try it and said it was good, but just wasn’t interested.
Tuscan Chickpea Mash with cut celery, a nice appetizer.
Because I was baking him a cake the night before, I also decided to use up the rest of the buttermilk and made him some cornbread. It’s an old Martha Stewart recipe from her big green compendium on page 107, and I’ve never had anyone turn it down. Yes, the cake and the cornbread both were NOT, repeat, NOT, gluten free, and no, I didn’t eat it, just made it. (Oh, and Miss Gluten Free was in the grocery buying white flour right before Christmas.)
He doesn’t care, like a lot of folks, so I made him what he likes, which is everything you see here.
No, it’s not gluten free, except for the pie. I emailed this pic to him the night before so he would know I was serious about doing dinner right this time.
I wanted to also make Nigella Lawson’s addictive white bean mash with lemon and garlic, but I just didn’t have the time, even though it doesn’t take too long. Next time, maybe. That steamed chocolate pudding was untouched, and it’s in the pantry for another day.
Dessert was something I wasn’t going to mess with: pecan pie. I was in Erma’s Nutrition Center the Saturday before and decided to go the bought route. I called him to ask what he’d like: pecan, key lime, or pumpkin, which is what they had that day. He said pecan, so I got one.
The Gluten Free Pecan Pie even a manly man could enjoy!
Gluten Free Nation (formerly known as Gluten Free Houston) makes these cute little 5-inch pies that are great. I’ve had blueberry, apple and a few others. This was my first time with pecan, and the pie did not disappoint. A little whipped cream and we had a perfect gluten free dessert. One day I’m gonna visit their store on a Saturday, and maybe I’ll write a whole blog post, too. I’ve met the owner, Randi Markowitz, who herself has celiac disease and created the company to help out folks everywhere who just want to avoid gluten.
After he chowed down on a slice, I told him it was gluten free. He was surprised, and he really liked the pie; but I guess the clue was that I ate a piece, too. No complaints on anything, and he went home happy with a bag full of glutinous munchies, which he later said he enjoyed.
He also claims there are still stains on his kitchen ceiling from when I was cooking in his kitchen. No true. Nothing I made ever exploded in his kitchen.
Mission accomplished. He spent some time with his kitty cat, we caught up on some stuff, and for a little while, all was right with the world. He promised that next time he’d bring some free-range eggs from his bud’s chicken coop to see what I could do with that. Oh, I’ve got just the thing from Giada de Laurentiis–a frittata!
Next up. . .getting over the holidays.
Happy Dining!
Hello, Dear Readers:
Here’s hoping all of you are recovered from not only Thanksgiving but the god-awful day known as “Black Friday.” I had to work, and at least it was cold.
Yesterday I worked in the garden for the winter growing season, and it looks a lot better. Yes, I still have that huge pineapple plant (top left), and I’m gonna pass it along to SOMEBODY who has room for it
Looks pretty good! Cross your fingers. . . .
I’ve planted three pots of garlic, two of a lettuce mix, and parsley, which was nearly gone and has come back to life with some water and a bigger pot. Let’s hope the mint plant resurrects too, as it normally does. I forgot to take closeups, but there are three little green tomatoes on my scraggly tomato plants (top right.) There is a freeze planned this weekend, so they may not happen unless I bring them in.
Now onto what you’ve been waiting for. Yes, I still have two posts sitting in draft, but I thought you’d enjoy reading about how a food blogger does Thanksgiving for a friend–and messes it up royally.
BTW, the duck dinner was scotched, but that’s another story I don’t want to discuss here.
Last year I decided that I would go straight to one of my favorite Thanksgiving things, Leftover Turkey Chowder, or “The Soup of Enlightenment.” I invited the ex-boyfriend who is now “very good friend” for Turkey Day and promised him a dinner he’d never forget.
Trust me, he hasn’t yet. But it is partially his own fault.
When he told me that he was likely going to have hot dogs from the gas station, I couldn’t see that happening, and I insisted on making him something delish. This dinner guest is the son of Big Joel, who passed away in September, and has been busy taking care of his late father’s affairs and recently cleared out his father’s house. He is well aware that I’m a very good cook (usually) and accepted my invitation.
I had to do something nice for him, you know? Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what happened.
As it has happened before, I ended up buying a full sized turkey of 8 pounds the night before. Darnit. Well, it was one of those HEB Naturals, you know, the kind fed a vegetarian diet and no hormones or antibiotics. It was the smallest one I could find, and even a turkey breast “roast” was more expensive.
I got it all thawed, and on the hook for dealing with it. While looking up the Cranberry Ginger Relish recipe, I saw on Martha Stewart’s website about a trick called “spatchcocking.” I’ve heard the term for many years but never bothered to learn what it was. I clicked and decided that’s what I would do.
I will also tell you that I made six batches of that cranberry ginger relish, two of them with SomerSweet for me and my dinner companion, and handed off four batches for the duck roaster folks. They were given two containers full of Cranberry Ginger Relish, and I have not heard a word from them since. We’ll not discuss that here.
I also baked a loaf of Rosemary Bread (with rosemary from the HeatCageKitchen Garden) from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking. Turned some of that into little squares and made something of a stuffing with it for the Enlightenment dumplings. I like it, but. . .let’s get back on track.
The 8-pound spatchcocked turkey took about 90 minutes to cook, simply by cutting out the backbone and letting it lie flat in the roasting pan over a bed of onions using the method I used last year for The Tuscan Turkey, with some of Suzanne Somers’ now-discontinued Tuscan Sea Salt Rub and a stick of butter. Although the pop-up timer worked well, I stuck and instant-read thermometer into the thigh to make sure. When it went past 200F, I knew we were good. This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:
Looks a bit strange, being flat, but it cooks a lot faster
Then I got to work on some other things when I heard a knock on the door.
Before he arrived, I tidied up a little too, including mopping floors and making the bathroom look extra nice. Mostly everything was done–I made Yeast Free Brownies for dessert, too. However, when it came to the soup. . .
See, I’ve known this guy for more than 10 years, and one thing he does have is manners. And he brought a nice bottle of Red Guitar Sangria, an import from Spain that was darn good. From the first glass until I finally stopped, with about one fifth of the bottle left. Seriously.
Close friends know I don’t drink much, or often. At least this time, I didn’t have a hangover.
I tossed in four tablespoons of gluten-free flour, the yellowish kind from Bob’s Red Mill. The same stuff I use for Babycakes’ Waffles. Yeah, and I did a Rachel Ray–I “eyeballed” four tablespoons, using my fingers. So by the time it was done, and I was quite. . .juiced, I didn’t realize it tasted, well, not the way I intended. I should have put more half-and-half in it, or less of the flour. Oh, boy. . . .
He didn’t care for it, but I did give him half of the roast turkey, which he later told me was “delectable.” When I had the second bowl of the gluten free stuff, I realized it was a) kinda coagulated and b) tasted not quite right. He did mention that he did not like the soup, but was very polite about it. I gave him four slices of the rosemary bread to make sandwiches with, as well as some of the brownies to take home.
I emailed him later and told him that he was right, that the soup wasn’t good at all. He wrote back and said although I made some great food for him previously, including dinner about a month ago. . .this was the worst food he’d ever had! He didn’t like that rosemary bread, either, calling it “inedible.”
Darnit.
He also offered me a cookbook from the 1950’s; um, probably not, but I do have lots of other good books to cook from. He’s a bit afraid I went overboard with the “bizarre ingredients,” but I guess it was too much gluten free. He also said he told a friend that he should have brought over a loaf of whole wheat bread and a jar of Duke Mayo! They had a laugh at my expense, and I promised not to do that to him again.
Amazingly, he did remember a cake I made for him ten years ago. My Aussie friends had sent me a copy of Donna Hay magazine, a well-known chef Down Under who does simple and delicious food. Her cookbooks are widely available here in the US (with American measurements), and one of these days I’m going to get around to getting them, darnit! The magazine is also available here in the US in bookstores, although out of sync with the calendar in order to keep in sync with the seasons. (It’s currently summer Down Under.) Big and glossy, you’ll see some interesting ideas, like the one he mentioned–a pistachio raspberry cake I made for him one time, and I will have to make him again to make up for the bungled Soup of Enlightenment.
Maybe if I can pull it off, I’ll make it correctly this time, with <gulp> real flour, just for him. Cake too. See, he hasn’t gotten the wind of why gluten-free is a good thing. Not my mission to “convert” him, but I do my best with it.
Remember, a holiday is not a good day for experimenting on your friends! Even the good ones.
Happy Dining!
Good evening, Dear Readers:
Sorry I haven’t written in a while; it’s been busy. Lots to tell, so let’s get started!
Ok, foodies, I have big news—Hostess Twinkies return next week! Along with Hostess Cupcakes (upgraded with dark chocolate) as well as a few other of your favorite Hostess goodies. The new Hostess, LLC, is rolling them out as we speak, and they are due to be in stores on Monday the 15th. Can you believe it?
You didn’t buy a bunch of them on eBay, did you? Well, soon you’ll be able to replace them with fresh ones.
Remember the joke about how Twinkies had a shelf life of “forever?” They really didn’t, but the new Hostess company is working on extending the freshness period. Originally, Twinkies had a shelf life of about 30 days. Are you ready for this? They’re going to deliver some of them frozen, so that stores can stamp their own freshness date on them, and extend the freshness date to 45 days, or longer.
Oh, YEAH!!! Just take some into your fallout shelter, and you can stay there a lot longer.
The new company is also going to start investigating different ways to make a Twinkie, including whole wheat , low-calorie, and yes. . .gluten free. That’s what it says in today’s Wall Street Journal. Woo hoo!
Friend of this blog MK says, “so now when the zombie apocalypse comes, you can be gluten free.” What a guy. The new versions of Twinkies may be available as early as later in the year.
Rest assured I’ll be on the case and report back to you on this important development.
In other news, I discovered a new taste to love. Cold-smoked salmon.
Sunday I did some shopping while in town, and I didn’t plan on getting hungry. Oh, well, I did. While in the area of a number of my favorite eateries (and the location of many more), I ended up having lunch at. . .IKEA. Yes, that Swedish bastion of the flat-pack and Allen wrenches, derided by many (and even parodied in season 10 of British comedy show Red Dwarf, an episode called Lemons.) I needed a couple of things and decided to have lunch while I was there in the café on the second floor. It’s simple Swedish (and some American) food, for the most part, and no, I didn’t have the meatballs. (That was only an issue in Europe, anyway.) Normally, I would have the open-faced shrimp sandwich on multi-grain bread. Topped with a hard-boiled egg, a mayo dressing and a sprig of dill, it’s one of my occasional indulgences that I have in IKEA, and occasionally, one of their interesting chocolate desserts.
Until now. Now I’m gluten-free. No bread. No cake. Now what?
I could get that sandwich and eat just the top of it. But, eat the filling without the bread? Well, that’s half the enjoyment of the sandwich. No, I would have to find another thing to eat, maybe the chicken salad. I didn’t make it that far. The gentleman in front of me went smoked salmon and dill dressing, and I decided to be brave and try something new. I got the one next to it, smoked salmon with a pile of lime-marinated tiny-diced veggies, sitting right next to what he picked up. Called Najad Salmon, this is how it was served:
If you’re not familiar with this kind of thing, it’s a preserved salmon using salt and herbs that’s very thinly sliced crosswise with a flexible thin blade. Honest, I’ve seen Martha Stewart make this kind of thing on one of her early shows, but I’ve never had it before. Just not something that’s part of traditional New Orleans cuisine, you understand. So, I decided to be brave and try something new.
Salmon preserved in this manner is softer than you may be used to. Between the herbs and the salt, it softens the flesh and infuses lots of flavor into it, taking out the “fishy” taste that salmon has when cooked, in the same manner that ceviche does to shrimp. Being from New Orleans, I would have never known what this was without seeing Martha Stewart making it on her show and adding it to one of her many cookbooks. Still, being more familiar with baked/poached/fried salmon and the stuff in a can, this kind of thing just isn’t something that would normally cross my path were it not for Houston being such a diverse and international city. With an IKEA cafe’ right in the middle.
So, you likely have at least once in your life asked someone, what does (whatever they were eating) taste like? You may have heard the old yarn, “Tastes just like chicken.” (In some cases, the individual may have a sarcastic streak.) Well, this cold-smoked doesn’t taste like chicken. . .but it does taste like thinly sliced deli ham. No kidding, that’s what it tasted like to me. Ham, sliced. Go figure. It was salty, a bit sticky and quite delicious.
Guess what? It’s my new gluten free favorite at IKEA! (I hope.)
I did try to roll up the salmon, burrito-style, around the tiny diced veggies and eat it that way. Nothin’ doin’, the salmon was too soft. Ended up being like scrambled eggs at that point, but it was very tasty. Of course, if I had a tortilla, it might have worked, but it wouldn’t have been gluten-free, either.
According to the nutrition information on IKEA’s website, it has less than 300 calories. Not bad!
I added a side salad from the salad bar, which consists of iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, croutons and sliced black olives. Added a bit of olive oil and what looked like balsamic vinegar and I was in business. Skipped dessert this time, and went on with my afternoon.
After I’d paid for the other things I went in for, I headed over to Trader Joe’s, where I proceeded to have another DUH moment while looking for almond flour. It’s considerably less expensive there, so I bought extra. I went to where I thought I picked it up last time, where all the bagged nuts are, and just could not find it. Looked around where I was standing, too—nothing. So I asked someone. . .and it was right where I was standing earlier, at knee level on me.
DUH!
Maybe I should have stayed home. Well, at least I have more almond flour to make some delicious Wheat Belly Biscuits with. Sometime.
Now and again, it’s good to take a chance and find something new. You might even find a new favorite.
Don’t forget:
THE TWINKIES ARE COMING!! THE TWINKIES ARE COMING!!! GET READY!!!
Happy Dining!
Happy Sunday, Fellow Foodies!
I hope you didn’t think I abandoned any of you. No, I’m back in the world of employment, for a while, anyway, and have been having long days and obstacles. While I don’t want to bore anyone with details, I will say that it could end up meaning I may be cooking in a new kitchen at some point. We’ll see. I have a lot to do, and cooking on Sunday has worked for me for the last couple of weeks.
I sewed yesterday, and completed two simple garments (one with several buttonholes) and yet another bag. Hey–you gotta be stylish downtown, OK? The Lunch Purse will be in my briefcase and be used on the occasions when I step out to lunch and need to be stylish but don’t need my whole purse, just my wallet and cell phone.
I made it into Trader Joe’s again last Sunday, except this was the store on S. Shepherd in Houston, not the one in the elegant Woodlands part of Houston. This store in town has a little less stock, I think, but the cashier told me that they do that to slowly introduce the brand into a new market. Kind of silly, since most people in that part of town know what Trader Joe’s is, just like they do in The Woodlands, since many people in Houston have either traveled to the west coast or moved from there. Since the TJ store in The Woodlands has been there longer, they have more stuff. Well, OK. they had those trimmed fennel bulbs, but I still didn’t get any.
I now work downtown and have access to the somewhat famous Houston Downtown Tunnel, and have been walking for 30 minutes every day down there. It’s basically several miles of food court as well as some shops, doctor’s offices and other services thrown in. Love it, and there are three Seattle’s Best Coffee shops down there. THREE!
My bud Eddie says that when he worked downtown he spent a lot of time down in the tunnel. I plan to explore the branches of the tunnel when I figure out how to get back to where I need to be. I also want to take trips on the free Greenlink bus, but that’s an after-work thing.
Seattle’s Best Coffee disappeared from the rest of Houston a couple of years ago when Borders closed up, except for a couple of freestanding stores inside the 610 loop and the tunnel. Note: it’s not safe to crack jokes to police officers in Seattle’s Best at 7:45 in the morning.
Now for the news: recent article in the esteemed Wall Street Journal discussed something that has become one of my favorites recently, hummus. Not just any hummus, but this recipe from Real Simple a few years ago, and I’ve been making it ever since. I think I’ve written about it before, but the difference is that I halve the amount of lemon juice, because what they suggest absolutely screams lemon. Yuck–kills the taste of the sesame and chickpeas. But no, this article discusses the, um, spreading in popularity of this staple of Middle Eastern countries.
Oh, I feel the puns coming. Look out. . . .
Hmmm. . .red pepper hummus, which has a big dollop of pureed red bell pepper right on top. They have snack sizes with pretzels, too, and differently flavored types, which aren’t exactly Middle Eastern, as pointed out in this second WSJ article, because slightly weird comedian Stephen Colbert complained about it. Remember that this is the same comedian who a) got a treadmill named after him that ended up on the International Space Station, and had astronaut Sunni Williams announce it on his show, and b) tried to get a Washington, DC toilet named after him.
BTW, chickpeas are also called garbanzo beans, a term I actually like better. Dunno why. So I’m going to quit using the former term and use the latter one. Garbanzo.
So because hummus is spreading in popularity, the Sabra company is looking to spread out their growing operations to get more garbanzos to make the hummus with, including contacting tobacco farmers. Cool! I’m not a fan of cigarettes, (I’ve never smoked) and it could help farmers make the switch if they want to (their choice, of course.) One farmer didn’t know what they were and at 71, actually tasted garbanzos for the first time–and liked them. We’re on the right track.
Anyway, the focus of the article is the Sabra company which is gaining in popularity after handing out samples all over the US. I like that recipe I gave you, and will eat it with celery or in a small bowl with a spoon, but I thought I might check out Sabra in my weekly visit to the League City SuperTarget. Found it! Right with the fancy salad ingredients and fresh herbs. I pick up the container, and looked at what they used to make it.
First ingredient: soybean oil.
DAMMIT!!!
You wanna try it, you’re on your own. I do NOT DO SOYBEAN OIL.
Anyway. . .garbanzos are a bit of a pain to deal with dry, so I suggest buying the canned grocery store brand and rinsing them yourself in a colander, removing any loose skins you might find if you want to. Today I went to my local HEB and bought two more cans. I can’t put my hands on my grocery receipt, but I think they’re 69 cents a can; Target is about 82 cents for their Market Pantry brand.
The most expensive part of hummus is going to be the tahini, or sesame paste, which is available in most larger grocery stores in the international section, since it’s primarily a Middle Eastern staple. (It settles like natural peanut butter so be sure to stir it really well before you refrigerate it, or just empty it in to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix it really well and then store it. Ditto for natural peanut butter.) However, you don’t use very much at one time, the garbanzos are the bulk of the recipe, and hummus is a magnificent sesame flavoring that blends well. Admittedly, I used to have a recipe for hummus made with peanut butter, but I think that was in a book I don’t have anymore. That’s OK. Unless you live on a ranch in the middle of Oklahoma, you can likely find it locally, somewhere. (And I’m sure the lovely Mrs. Drummond knows where to get it in Oklahoma, too.)
So what else have I been up to? Well. . .as I did last weekend, I cooked up a storm and will be re-running the dishwasher soon as I finish telling you, then ironing for the week. In addition to roasting some turkey thighs and two packts of thick pork chops that were on sale at SuperTarget today, I made a batch of my favorite Yeast Free Brownies and a gluten-free, yeast free breakfast quiche by literally throwing a few things together. Without cream or milk, I was somewhat limited in what I could use for a binder for the eggs, so I tried guar gum.
Don’t do it. Just made lumps and a messed-up texture. No, this week I threw in some almond milk, and it seems to be fine. So the basics were this: grease a pie pan with coconut oil, and toss in some of those ground golden flaxseeds to make a bit of a crust:
Last week I added some leftover cilantro and the end of some celery, and put some of this interesting sandwich spread in it:
Someone gave me the sandwich spread in a holiday basket, and I didn’t know what the heck to do with it, so I used it last week. Olives, sun dried tomatoes, olive oil, and some other stuff. All natural, no sugar or chemical ingredients, and yes, gluten free. It doesn’t say that on the label, but if you read it, you see what’s in it, so yeah, it’s gluten free. I put it all together and it looked like this:
Mixed up 10 eggs with the ill-advised guar gum, and baked it for, um, I don’t know how long. I just watched it and when it was done, took it out. That was it.
This week, I wanted to make it again, and went shopping. I got more eggs and stuff, and went looking for that Mezetta sandwich spread.
Now go find more.
I’ve seen this stuff for years and never paid any attention to it. Never did find it. After thinking about how to try and make this week’s similar, I got some sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, a bag of frozen chopped broccoli and put that together. Gotta be good, right?
Yes, I have one of those curvy knives like Nigella Lawson. And unlike Nigella Lawson, right after I took that picture, the cutting board slipped and four tomatoes went on the floor. AAAAHHH!!!! But I still had plenty.
This time I mixed a dozen eggs with some almond milk and a couple of shakes of Chipotle Tabasco in it. they’ve baked up a lot better than the ones with guar gum in them, so I’ll let you know how it came out later. Looks good:
Last week’s was pretty good, but it needed salt. Let’s see what this one tastes like.
No, the cat food is just on the stove for my convenience. It only goes into Jezebel’s food bowl, not mine. However, I once implied to my mother that I was eating cat food. . .”with crackers late at night, it’s pretty good!” She believed it for half a nanosecond.
It’s all about getting ready to head out the door by 6:56 to catch either the 6:55 or 7:03 am bus into downtown. This helps a lot. I’ll keep looking for good recipes that don’t involve milk or cream to blend with the eggs, too.
How about a peek inside the fridge of the Heatcagekitchen?
No kidding, that’s seven sealed jars of lettuce I set up this evening, or two prepped heads of iceberg lettuce. I love it!! (And strawberries on sale at HEB, too.) I’m tellin’ ya, the salad-in-the-jar thing works like a charm. The Ball jars are about $2.50 at Cost Plus World Market, but you can get them anywhere. I’m loving my nightly salad, y’all, and done correctly, the lettuce really does stay fresh and crisp all week. You will not regret this, as long as you get all the air out the jars. (Check my previous post for instructions.)
And to complete your Sunday night, here’s a completely unrelated picture of a neighborhood kitty cat I caught a couple of pictures of this morning:
“Hey. . .how yoo doin’?”
He was someone’s inside kitty, until someone moved away and left him and two brothers locked in a unit. When they were found, they were set loose and lived outside for a while. Two have been adopted, but this guy has been a freelancer, getting fed by a few folks and enjoying life on the lam. He’s not feral, but I can’t take him in, since I’ve got one step kitty and he needs fixin’. And shots. (And a bath!) Out of my range right now. We call him Jojo, but we don’t actually know what his name is. He’s friendly til you do something he doesn’t like. Otherwise he’s pretty happy.
Well, folks, the dishwasher has finished its first go round, and I need to empty, refill, and re-start it before I go iron something to wear to town tomorrow.
I’ll try to post again soon and not wait too long.
Happy Dining!
Happy Sunday, fellow Foodies:
Boy, have I been busy today! I’ve been baking, I’ve been cooking, I’ve been washing. We had some good rain last night, and even had gravel-sized hail for a little while. I thought my neighbor’s lovable pug wanted to come in and get at the cat food again. Hoping for lots of basil so I can pack my freezer with pesto this year. Supposed to rain all week, so I’ll be extra careful on the short drive to and from the park and ride.
The dishwasher is running for the second time today, and while I put out garbage yesterday morning, I also had to put it out again a little while ago. I sewed most of the day yesterday, as well as made a pot of chili. I finished some handmade gifts and a little repair work, and will finish that shirt and suit next weekend. But before I tell you about today’s cooking spree, let me tell you about something fishy I read in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. . . .
The European Seafood Exposition was recently held in Belgium, and, if I read it correctly, it is to current trends in seafood is what the Houston Metro Cooking & Entertaining Show is to food and cooking. I think. (I went in 2011 and had a blast; nearly everything I sampled was either chocolate, garlic or olive oil.) Fish wasn’t exactly on the menu at this conference, but other forms of “aquatic cuisine” were available. Craig Harrison of Britain’s Big Prawn Company have been trying to win the Prix d’Elite with all sorts of, um, temptations. Creations like Fresh Seaweed in Sea Water, Black Pudding with Squid Ink and spreadable algae were available to tempt (or test the strength of) the taste buds of judges in Belgium. Oh, and one piece de resistance from last year’s contest was called simply, Jelly Shots, consisting of alcoholic seafood jelly shots with a jumbo shrimp floating in a mojito jelly. Um, what? “Mr Harrison claims that British night-clubbers fell for the drink hook, line and sinker. ‘Unfortunately, it didn’t sway the judges.'”
NOOOOOO. You think????? Maybe it was the alcohol the night clubbers had BEFORE the Jelly Shots, which the judges didn’t have the benefit of?
Then there is the “oceanic greenery” they want to start calling “sea veg.” In other words, seaweed. And now, because “French beaches are strewn with it,” Christine Le Tennier of SAS Globe Export is harvesting and promoting “gourmet algae.”
Algae is what develops in your swimming pool when you forget to put the chlorine in it. “Gourmet algae” is like like “clean dirt.” You can have it.
Now look–I love shrimp, crab, crawfish, regular fish, and the occasional scallop as much as the next seafood fan. But I can sum this article up for you in one word.
EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW.
Reminded of the songs my brother has frequently written (or re-written) about my cooking, I sent him the column. Let’s see what comes back.
So, my goal is not to have to cook at all this week, except maybe for some breakfast, and I’ll think about that soon, too. My toaster oven has been baking nearly all day, and I have completed, since 8:00 am, the following:
- 1 loaf “Stout Bread” from The Joy of Gluten Free Sugar Free Baking, a gift for a friend
- 1 recipe Lemon Poppy Tea Cake from Babycakes, also a gift for the same friend
- 1 recipe Yeast Free Brownies (sweetened with Somersweet)
- 6 roasted chicken thighs (in the freezer since last July)
- 1 large Meatloaf from The Wheat Belly Cookbook with ground chicken instead of ground beef (otherwise made to spec)
- 1 packet of thin steaks
Not included is a pot of chili made yesterday and a small spaghetti squash I roasted yesterday, all for lunch and dinner this week. Glad I finished the last of the Spicy Shrimp Marinara, too.
I’m thinking baked eggs and some kind of meat with it. I’ll think about it some more. Since the yeast-free diet is coming soon, I’ll have to think carefully, since so many things are verboten, like cheese, butter and milk.
Oh, and in order to make that meatloaf, I had to go out and get a few things: one carrot, some celery, and. . .tomato juice, which I have never bought in my life. But I do it, ’cause I don’t mess with the recipes the first time I make them. I didn’t go to my my HEB, or even Kroger. No, I went to our neighborhood Food Town. . .and if you are in Houston, you know what that is–local, and basic, No almond milk, gluten free anything or sugar snap peas, but lots of biscuits, pizza and ice cream. It’s close, so I went. I didn’t take a picture, but they had something called Tastykake Dreamies, which look suspiciously like. . . Twinkies! No, I didn’t buy any, even though they were not expensive. But with all the hoopla surrounding the end and the new beginning of Twinkies, obviously it wasn’t long before someone got the idea to replicate them while they were away. Let’s see what happens when Twinkies begin to populate grocery and convenience store shelves again. Holy Shish Kebab.
Well, that’s the capitalist free market system, isn’t it? Give the customer what they want, customers vote with their dollars, and the best one will win. If the Dreamies taste as good, or better, than original Twinkies, then they’ll be the favored brand. If not, they will be bought once, and if they are found to be inferior, then, nobody will buy them and wait for the Twinkies. If the new Twinkies are bad, then the market is open for someone else to “build a better Twinkie.” It’s that simple.
Yes, in America, we take our junk food VERY seriously the way the French take their wine and escargot seriously. That’s what makes us a great country!!
Anyway. . . .
I had planned to utilize a crock pot today, but I never got around to it, so that’s one less thing to wash up. That’s OK, I’ve gone through some soap this weekend!
I started doing the weekly cooking/ironing on Sunday back when I was a student at Tulane and worked 40 hours a week. THEN I went to work for Tulane while I was a student, and made a salary, had regular employee health insurance, paid holidays, and eventually, an employee tuition waiver. I had to take Sundays for setting up for the week, because I didn’t have time to get all that done in the morning, especially if I got home at 10:00 or 11:00 pm at night, which I did frequently. If I went to bed late one night, I didn’t get to catch up until Saturday. (Nobody seemed to understand that for a long time.)
Even though I’d mostly kept it up while I was unemployed, I still did some cooking during the week. Now, this may not work with large families, or even couples–but for me it works like a charm. If you’re thinking about how to make it work for you, a crock pot would work wonders, IMHO–but you gotta do what works for you. Freezer meals may be what you come up with, and a lot of people do it that way–either on the weekend or making “one extra” of something and stashing it in the freezer.
In any case, I highly recommend “cooking ahead,” especially if you are of the busy sort. If it’s just you and a spouse and y’all aren’t picky, well. . .but if you’ve got a schedule of any kind and not much time to cook, carving out a few hours and/or putting out that crock pot is essential.
And let’s face it–how nice is it to come home, take your shoes off, get comfy and heat up a home-cooked dinner? Yeah, I Know, you can just buy frozen dinners . . .well, if you want to. Me, I’m gonna keep pushing the limits of my kitchen and having home cooked dinners ’til I can’t cook anymore. (Remember that Julia Child cooked after the age of 90, although she wasn’t make Boueof Bourignon anymore.)
Now onto the wardrobe setup for the week with our rainy, somewhat chilly Houston weather this week.
Happy Dining!
