Valentine's day recap

For those who actually want to know.
I had told Jon that I was keeping my expectations low, as the Help admitted he didn't have a romantic bone in his body. Also the day before and day of I kept bugging, without response, the Help about what I should wear, because if we were going somewhere nice I wanted to dress the part. Day of, I find he hadn't reserved a table anywhere and just figured we'd go somewhere. *sigh. Because of the snow and the angry parking fights, I encouraged him to metro it over to my place.
He arrived a little late, 20 minutes past his ETA, which made me worried. When he did arrive he had in a plastic bag a pink teddy bear and a valentine's heart box. I eyed that with suspicion/ contempt. I am not a pink stuffed animal kind of girl. I was never a stuffed animal kind of girl. The box was a Russell Stover chocolate box, an inferior candy that I will eat if it's free and in the office and I don't feel like going out of the building for something better, like a Reeses Cup. And the box was falling apart.
I opened the box, no chocolate. Instead, the paper cups were filled with shallots and bubble gum. The kind of cheap .99 gum I love. I am addicted to bubble gum, especially the kind that gets hard quick and is nothing but sugar. The bear was just a container for brown rice. Yay. He knows me! He loves me!
Since my roommate was in and about and I really didn't have anything prepared we hopped on the metro to go back out to Maryland. We went to Tiffin, an Indian restaurant out in Langley Park that I used to go to when I worked and lived in Maryland. It wasn't full and we later stopped by the nearby former House of Spices (now some Halal market) to grab some black cardamon.
A good Valentines' Day.

Well that's depressing

Yes, many of you who actually know me, know I have a small vein of distrust against the government, yeah the same one that writes my paycheck. There is also a small, but not as strong distrust of large corporations. Mainly because no matter how big, corporations legally can't shoot you. I would say they can't take away your property or rights, but with lawyers, anything is possible, except the shooting. Maybe.
So I was poking around on the blogosphere and saw this diagram of large food corporations and their relationship to organics. Then I picked up my box of Truvia, the natural no calorie funny tasting sweetner, and it's made by Cargill.
I like the idea of small businesses and small farms, or mid-sized farms, and my food coming from them. Maybe I'll come to the day where I buy my chicken from small producers. But I'm not there yet.

What not to do on a hot day

Engage in marathon cooking and decide not to use the AC.
Yesterday I made the following:
Lamb Stew
Rice- 2.5 weeks worth of lunches
Scallion Soup
mini key lime pies
Orange Ice Cream
Chicken Pate
Salmon in soy sauce

I am trying, and failing, to use up the stuff in my freezers. I want to turn the saved ingredients into lunchable food. I have a lot of frozen fruit which I've just been throwing into glasses of ice tea or lemonade in lieu of ice cubes. I thought I had a recipe calling for bread crumbs, nope. I was hoping to rid myself of the bread crumbs and crossant crumbs. There might be a soup recipe for that.....
Also what not to do... stand for hours in flip flops. My feet and legs were dog tired last night after trying to make tons of food. I did not make as I didn't have the energy or will to make heart-attack lamb stew (I feel my heart seize up when I take my first bite), make it up as I go along ginger lamb curry, and lets see what happens when you mix coconut milk-freeze dried lemongrass and chicken breast.

Dried peas are a NO

I tried them and I hate them.
I was hoping to be able to have something shelf stable and wean myself off frozen peas and freeing up freezer space. Nope.
Black beans, I'm fine with. Navy beans, in a soup are good. Peas on their own, crap. Total and complete crap. Patoohey!

One woman mission

If there is anyone who ministers to whiny bloggers with the cold or flu (I got no clue as to what I have), fyi, I need help.

Got a quick call from Mom this morning. In passing she mention this woman she knows, and whose name is familiar to me, who dropped off a few loaves of bread for her and some hot dog buns for my sister. We talked about this. It was this woman's mission, give bread away. That's it, bread. Hot dog buns, hamburger buns, white bread, bready bread, bread and give it away. If you know enough people willing to take the charity, and you've got enough bread, you've got yourself a mission. What idea. Picking one little thing you can do, and going out into the world and doing it. And it is so small it doesn't require government aid, nor a large organization or even a church structure (though I suspect church ties do play a part).
A radio program I listen to occasionally does a 'giving hour' where callers call in and tell their tales of giving. The easy ones are leaving a huge tip to an IHOP waitress, like $100 tip. The trickier ones are anonymously leaving money to families they know are experiencing hardship, because there are so many things that can go wrong in the execution of the giving and the interpretation of the receiving.
Bread. Well if you know the people and you know they'll take the bread, that sounds like a pretty decent mission.

Vegan Friday Ruined by Unmarked Soup

I figured that I'd have more of the crappy hated vegan pumpkin soup. Let us note that the crappy pumpkin soup is crappy because it has a vegetable broth base and not a chicken stock base. Also, not too keen on pumpkin in large doses.
So today I had cream of wheat with soy milk, romaine lettuce salad and, I thought, crappy pumpkin soup. No. I'm enjoying butternut squash, apple and bacon soup. I thought I ate all that soup months ago. When I made the crappy pumpkin soup I didn't bother labeling it, because it's orange and soupy. What else in the freezer could be orange and soupy? Butternut. Who knew.
Though this violates the fast, it is an honest mistake. The soup was left over in the office fridge from yesterday because I was eating leftover vegetarian chili B. had made and thought that was punishment enough. B.'s chili wasn't bad, but not what I was yearning for that day. So until I ate it and discovered it didn't suck, I thought I was eating vegan soup.
Now for those whom I've pawned off my pumpkin soup on, please remember that either you're a neighbor's 1 year old and it doesn't matter how it tastes or I added chicken stock for you.

Now I'm cooking

This weekend I have been cooking. Dang-you Mexican Fruit Stand. Curses to a limited fridge and freezer space!
As of Monday 3:24 PM I have completed cooking and making the following:
Steamed Rockfish in some Chinese broth
Chicken Broth
Rice
Ziti in meat sauce
Goat and Parmesan Cheese Souffles
Banana Cake muffins
Chicken Curry
Chicken in Onion Gravy
Capon (leftover) in mushroom sauce
Capon (left over) in ginger sauce
Capon (leftover) cooked in a lemon, thyme and onion sauce/gravy
Garlicy Bulgar wheat
Leek and garlic soup &
Chicken noodle soup

When I am done resting at the computer I will cook a base for the lemongrass & mushroom tofu, sans tofu. 'Cause frying the tofu takes too much effort. I may roast the peppers and a few tomatoes for something, maybe soup when I find more containers.... I'm running out of containers. I've got to figure out what to do with some of the pears I bought, maybe throw them in a scone batch.
The problem with the Mexican Fruit stand.... dirt cheap food that will self destruct in 2-3 days if you don't cook or eat them.
In the next couple of days the rest of the bananas are going to go kablewy.

Old Spice

I need to toss my spices. Some are old. Old enough to be in school old. However I bought some spices in bulk and they don't get used fast enough to justify buying more and tossing the big bag of.. chili powder. And really, I tasted the chili powder, it's still hot. The cloves are still clovevy. I did finally toss the baking powder after it ruined the yellow cake. Seems aged baking powder okay with chocolate cake. However with yellow cake, it turns it into a hard brick. So I bought a new can of powder. Now my scones are fluffy-ish. Scones should be like bricks. Oh well.

Wheat Scones with raisins

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of plain white flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
raisins- as many as you want
1 tablespoon or less of sugar
3 tablespoons (or so) of butter
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Mix all the flours, the powder, salt and sugar together. Maybe throw in the raisins. You know, throw in the raisins whenever you feel like it, or at least before your throw the mix in the oven. With a grater, grate in a little butter. Mix. Grate some more. The original recipe said until it looks like course meal. This is another good time to throw in the raisins.
In another bowl, mix the egg and milk. Then slowly mix in the milk mix into the flour mix. Add and stir, add some more and stir. Do this till you have a big moist glob and start wondering to yourself if you've just made a big glob of whole wheat glue, with raisins.
On cookie sheet with parchment paper or something to prevent sticking, place little balls of whole wheat raisin gloop. Throw in oven for 14 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot with marmalade and butter and tea.

Sweet tooth

Somewhere in my freezer are some wonderful cupcakes BL made over the holiday weekend.
As well are the mini chocolate truffle cakes and mini key lime pies. None of those lovely handmade treats are anywhere near my desk as I finish off lunch.
I do have granola, but I'm not wanting granola and the sweetened fruit that they contain. I want seriously bad for you, send you into diabetic shock, sweets from my freezer.
-wimper-
I'll fish a banana chip and some pineapple out of the granola. That should hold me over.

The importantance of labels

I'm trying to clear out my freezer. As a way to save money I'm trying to use up what I have, and discover what the heck is on the back shelf. I've already thrown out chicken and a really thick but brown lamb chop.
I have found little bits of meat and bone and fat I know I set aside for stock. Problem is I didn't label these random bits and have no f-ing clue what animal they came from. I can only eliminate goat. Maybe after defrosting, I can discern if it is chicken. I have bought ham hocks to flavor peas and beans. So there is a chance something could be pork. Huge chance something maybe lamb, and a possible chance of beef.
Today as part of my soup making I'm going to do something with chicken dated 6/23. No year. I'll smell it as I defrost it in the microwave and then I'll boil it. If the smell is off it is going into the trash. If I die anytime soon, you'll know why.

Random recipies- Creamy mushroom

The thing I love about cooking is that if you make certain things long enough you can start making up stuff. Today was mushroom soup. Yesterday as pumpkin soup. Not a big fan of pumpkin. Don't ask me why I cooked it.

Anyway, loosely, very loosely based on a Martha Stewart recipe-

Take butter- heat
Saute chopped onion in butter
Slowly add dustings of flour
Add a little veggie stock to keep moist as you dust with flour
Keep adding stock and flour dust till you get a nice thick sauce.
Add thyme
Add 2 sprigs of parsley
Add bay leaf
Add more thyme
In the non-stick IKEA pan heat butter
Add chopped mushrooms
Add salt and a wee bit of lemon juice
Then dump mushrooms in the floury - stocky stuff
Repeat the cooking of the mushrooms until you've cooked up a whole package worth of mushrooms
Add salt to taste
Add brandy to taste
Add sherry to taste
Add a little bit more sherry
Slowly add half-and-half to mix whilst slowly stirring.
Take off heat.
Eat/ Put in containers to freeze.

What we need in an emergency is booze

Reading some blogs on emergency food preparation and storage. I went to a website with a food storage planner. I have a goal of using my basement as place for food storage and I hope one beautiful day to have 4-6 months of supplies. I already have what seems to be a year's supply of TP (thank you Costco). I just bought a 20 lb bag of brown rice, that should last me 4-5 months.
Reading the food storage planner they say, store what you use. So I began listing the items I would store. First item that came to mind. White wine. Second item. Red wine. These were followed (in order) by port and other wines, vodka, water, rice, tomatoes, oil, sweeteners (sugar, fake sugar, maple syrup, and honey), flour, salt, tea, nuts, dried fruit, grains, pasta, beans, onions, and dried mushrooms. Vodka, I must say has other uses besides drinking. It makes a lovey cleaning agent. I have cheap wino vodka, and that stuff is only good for cleaning things with, certainly not drinking. And I do cook with wine and I'm constantly running out of it.
There are no spices on my list because I have some pretty old spices so it is pointless to buy them in bulk. I can never seem to keep garlic. Another challenge is shelf stable food. I'm gonna have to learn canning.

The Great Pudding Failure of 2008

The mistake was using 2% milk. I thought I was being clever. I thought I was being smart by not using cream and using a lighter dairy product. Well, I was very, very wrong.
I've made chocolate pudding twice. Both times I got wonderful yummy pudding that went well with the Dutchess of Duke Street series I was watching. I mean how can you watch a character whos life's ambition is to be the best cook in all of England. Say that with a cockney accent. So I imagined myself as an Edwardian working-class English woman making up the best pudding fit for the Prince of Wales. And viola, great pudding.
I tried my hand at vanilla pudding. The recipe was different and said cream was optional. I think that was my mistake. So I wisked and stirred for what seemed like forever. I wisked for about an hour it seemed when I gave up and added more cornstarch. I wisked over medium heat some more. It still did not really thicken. It tasted like pudding but it didn't have the texture of pudding. I finally gave up and threw in a bit of gelatin left over from the mango sorbet I made. Now I have a freak pudding/panna cotta monster in my fridge.

That fish recipe

There was a dish I made but sadly failed to print it out, save it, bookmark it, and now it is in my crap-shoot memory. Based on past failure and last night's success, this is what I think it is:

Salmon or Steelhead trout & Honey

Salmon/Trout skin on
Orange juice and/or pink grapefruit juice
Honey
Ginger

Mix lots of honey, grated ginger, and the juice together and marinade the fish for about 1/2 hour. Then take fish cook on stove in pan. Butter was used, but I'm kinda doubtful it was needed as I just wound up pouring the marinade in the pan and it cooked in that. Cook skin side first then later flip over. Don't over cook, leave slightly uncooked. Remove fish and reduce liquid by 1/3. Pour reduction on to fish.

I am the Queen of difficult diners

A review is in. And the main diner who concerned me, did not get sick. Yay! Actually she sent me a very nice email thanking me for dinner and remarking that she could not remember the last time she was eating the same thing everyone else ate.
Once I found a recipe (thank you o great internets) for the main course that was limited to the limited list of approved foods, I was good. The dessert was the result of an experiment I did a week earlier, looking to see what happens when you do certain things to fruit. I'm sad gelatin was off the list there are things I could have done with fruit juices and fruit. No matter. She liked it and since Roland commented here recently, I'll take it that the food didn't kill him either.