tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71852944224408553082024-02-18T20:21:18.403-08:00Just Me EatingIt's all about me and my food.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-28929213208370844252015-01-06T19:18:00.003-08:002015-01-06T20:39:26.251-08:00Mujaddarah When You Can't EvenAlmost a year since my last post? Really? Wow. Time flies when you're.. well, when shit happens. Can we agree 2014 never happened? Cooking-wise, the last fiscal quarter sure didn't happen; from Thanksgiving till New Year's I pretty much lived on cereal and pumpkin pie. My New Year's pseudo-resolution is to get an effing grip and get back to making Food-with-a-capital-F.
But, as my Inner Brat Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-38906966347335495512014-02-08T20:45:00.002-08:002014-02-13T14:56:51.115-08:00Dangerous KnowledgeThere is some things a person should not be able to make at home at 8pm on a Saturday night. This is one of them. I am not responsible for what you do with this recipe. Especially if you drop a couple of these in a mug of hot milk with some extra sugar. I know NOTHING.
Photo courtesy of Hannah
Honey Jack Bittersweet Truffles
Ingredients
8 oz (1/2 lb) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-6873783995868392782014-01-04T16:20:00.002-08:002014-01-04T16:21:07.465-08:00Wow, that was a year! Also, ginger.Whelp, as you can see, the Year of Beans & Rice project didn't go quite as planned. I did have an excuse: A week after my last post, I subbed for a bass player in a local band, which led to playing bass in another band, which led to A BOYFRIEND! And we're even still together, almost ten months later. Who knew that leaving my couch could have such extensive repercussions?
Between that, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-91662591993580204822013-02-15T15:23:00.001-08:002015-01-06T20:40:02.223-08:00Müceddere: Rice Pilaf with Onions and StuffCan't believe February is halfway over already. I'd best get something posted! I hope two posts per month doesn't turn out to be an overly optimistic goal. That would be embarrassing.
Mmmmm... Müceddere!
This recipe is a newcomer to my bean-and-rice repertoire. I've not cooked much Middle Eastern cuisine, and I've been pleased to discover some very tasty offerings, especially lentil dishes. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-71527183998991587042013-01-25T14:32:00.003-08:002015-01-06T20:40:28.031-08:00Red Beans and RiceThis is the one that started it all, the very first beans and rice recipe I ever made.
I didn't grow up eating beans and rice, unless you count the Taco Bell that opened up between my house and the high school in the mid 1970s. I'm sure that was my first encounter with refried beans, since the closest thing we had to Mexican food at home was the Ortega box dinner with the hard taco shells and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-12363092375676103622013-01-21T11:38:00.001-08:002015-01-06T20:40:56.025-08:00A Year of Beans and Rice: IntroHowdy, y'alls! It's been awhile, I know. If it's any consolation, I think of you often but I have a hard time putting virtual pen to paper. Believe me, it's not you, it's me. But I'm sure you've heard that line before.
ENNY-hooze, I eat a lot of beans and rice. They're cheap, it's easy to keep the main ingredients on hand, and I can usually get the meal on the table in less than 45 minutes if I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-84804749544311211032012-08-29T15:36:00.001-07:002012-12-21T07:05:18.451-08:00Project Weeknight: Kinda-Brazilianish Beans & RiceSince I stopped posting regularly I've had a devil of a time keeping up with new recipes I've tried, what I've liked, changes I made, and so on. I tried a new dish tonight that worked out so well that my son declared that it's going into the regular dinner rotation. I can't let this one get away!
It came to me via my friend Matt's blog* (where he linked to this recipe.) It's one of those dishes Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-62812792415424768142012-07-20T09:14:00.002-07:002015-01-06T20:41:49.053-08:00Hold on to your hats: It's a mini-rant!ATTENTION! I hereby decree that
If it calls for a can of 'cream of whatever' soup, it's not a recipe.
There, I said it. Been holding that one in for awhile.
This is pilfered from Linda @ Salty Seattle. She said "cake mix", but that's not nearly as bad as canned soup recipes. Not that they aren't tasty (I grew up on them and look how great I turned out!) but the nutrition is dismal enough to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-3748071901169562602012-04-27T11:44:00.002-07:002012-04-27T11:47:13.699-07:00GRAVY!I don't go to IKEA very often (it's over an hour away, and somehow it costs me $500 each time) but I freaking love the meatballs, so I've taken to buying a couple bags of them when I visit. First time I did I also picked up a pouch of their gravy mix... and lost it. So I have these meatballs cooking away, AND NO GRAVY! What to do?
Why, search the interwebs, of course.
It's taken a few Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-12771622833821079752012-01-26T13:46:00.000-08:002012-07-20T09:15:23.542-07:00Mean-spirited observation of the daySo, does it really take a whole day to cook a couple of boneless chicken breasts in a can of "soup" and a block of cream cheese? In my universe, with the laws of physics as I understand them, it takes maybe 30-40 minutes, max. Sorry, but boiling that... amazing concoction for eight hours doesn't auto-magically turn it into "scratch" cooking. Your cat may have kittens in the oven, but it don't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-24746412830546011672012-01-15T21:53:00.000-08:002012-02-02T11:56:19.001-08:00Bestest Leftover SoupI keep forgetting to tell y'all about this: I discovered some while back that if you have, say, two cups of leftover Riso alla Pitoca and a quart or so of chicken stock, you can have a pretty damned amazing chicken and rice soup in a matter of moments. Who knew?
I'm sure it would work just as well with the Risotto di Zucca, or with any risotto, I suppose.
So there's your first tip of the year, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-34316416911510658962011-11-21T18:28:00.000-08:002011-11-21T18:39:10.654-08:00Quick drawTraffic on the way home. Walk in the door twenty minutes late. Drop the purse on the counter, turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Hack a head of cauliflower into submission, drop on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, slide in the almost-preheated oven. Set timer for 15 minutes. Open a caffeine-free diet soda and check email.Wander back into the kitchen. Fill a saucepan Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-70955460821963889572011-06-09T14:38:00.000-07:002011-06-09T15:01:46.947-07:00Baby stepsI recently reached a milestone: I pulled out the bread machine and made a loaf of sandwich bread. This had been my husband's task, and I hadn't touched the machine since last August, when he got too ill to do it.Apropos of nothing, it called to me the other day. The recipe was still stuck to the side of the fridge with my Dan Quayle magnet (long story), and there was enough whole wheat flour and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-73308560080574734662011-06-03T08:44:00.000-07:002011-06-03T09:31:21.873-07:00Blinded me with scienceIt's so freaking hard to figure out if a health or nutritional study currently being trumpeted by the media is worth paying any attention to. I pretty much have given up, and have decided to just stick to "real food" as much as I can -- making meals from building blocks as basic as I can manage. And overall I feel pretty good about what I shove in my face, and my son's, but I've always been a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-16154688733468786272011-05-20T13:28:00.000-07:002011-05-20T14:05:07.367-07:00ToxicOK, I finally figured out how to break my Diet Coke habit. Say hello to my not-so-little friend:For the last week or so I've been filling this bad boy, all 64 oz of him, up to the brim at the 7-Eleven... until today. Today I quit. Yeah, just like that.The habit started when my husband was diagnosed with malignant (metastatic) melanoma, just about 11 months ago. The ritual carried me through the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-23737396012708083572011-05-13T10:50:00.000-07:002011-05-13T11:04:54.174-07:00Doing The MathSo, yeah, I've been using the Costco weight loss shakes to wean myself off fast food lunches. It's been working pretty well, but I've been nagged by the sense that I've been drinking nothing more than YooHoo with a fancy label. Today I finally crunched the numbers. Guess what? Turns out that about 1.7 of the 6.5 oz YooHoo drink boxes (plus 2T of protein powder) come pretty damned close to the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-49417032173188709642011-04-14T14:06:00.000-07:002011-04-14T14:48:10.698-07:00Where is that saddle, anyway?Is it still blogging if I only post every five months?Not even going to bore you with what's been going on around here, but overall it has been OK. Not easy, but OK. And I am thrilled with OK.I did drop a few pounds (depending on what day it is) and I manage to put something resembling food on the table most days. I've succeeded in cutting my fast food consumption way down (except for the Diet Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-84011392828411159212010-11-22T12:40:00.001-08:002011-05-11T12:10:18.282-07:00Surviving Catastrophic Life ChangesI'm sure most of you (if there are any of you left) already know that things went downhill fast and Hubby passed away near the end of September. It's impossible to believe it was almost two months ago. I'm not going to whine about how much it sucks (lots) or how hard it is (very) 'cause I already have other outlets for that. Here, I can write about other things, like, say, food.So let's do Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-23064473279851763152010-08-12T11:39:00.000-07:002010-08-12T14:43:54.648-07:00Where it's atHi, I'm back! Here's how I spent the last six weeks, in three acts:Act I: Hubby gets cancer diagnosis. Ahhhh! Run around hysterically, rend garments, ululate a little (in private, of course). Tests are run, no one knows WTF is going on. Fall into depths of despair. Screw 2012 -- world will certainly end before that.Act II: Information dribbles in. Puzzle pieces sssllllowly drift into place. Aha! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-30856949079374723442010-06-29T13:47:00.000-07:002010-06-29T14:03:20.751-07:00As the world turns...Funny how life sometimes take an abrupt left turn as you were leaning right, isn't it? Here we are, cruising along nicely after our wedding last November, and out of nowhere my husband finds out he has a fairly serious illness. So instead of beating ourselves up over those extra twenty ten pounds, we get to figure out how to deal with nastiness like tests and scans and treatments and specialists Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-62587774492577009202010-06-03T15:36:00.000-07:002012-12-21T07:05:53.344-08:00Why I >heart< the interwebs(Like the new banner? That's what happens when I'm stuck at my desk with a paint program on my computer and no real work to do.)
How did I ever manage to cook before the interwebs were invented? I constantly scour my favorite food blogs and websites for recipes. I keep track of them in a blog that I use as a virtual shoebox. I write them up here so I can find them when I lose the scribbled-up Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-82693735711785042602010-06-02T13:39:00.000-07:002010-06-02T14:17:49.014-07:00What to eatI'm so predictable, aren't I? You knew that if you just waited a few days I'd calm down, and I have.Even though I am no longer completely freaked out, the message from the book did stick with me and I'm making good strides at incorporating some changes. (Could that sentence be any more non-committal?)Seriously, in the last week or so I've struck most of the sugar, cheese, butter, and meat from myUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-21301730168325327402010-05-25T14:31:00.000-07:002010-05-27T13:27:10.036-07:00Desperately seeking rightYou can relax -- I haven't yet succumbed to the temptation of Shakeology. I haven't gone to Weight Watchers, either. Why? Well, I've had a few interesting experiences that have forced me to reconsider my course of action.In other words, right now I'm conflicted as hell.A few weeks back I started acupuncture to (hopefully) treat a jaw problem. Part of this treatment plan is a nutritional Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-2075810412626055022010-04-30T21:20:00.000-07:002011-05-11T12:09:54.719-07:00Donkey on the edgeI can't believe I'm actually considering this...After whining profusely about by weight and swearing up and down (well, OK, here) that I was not going to do any more diet gimmicks, I am, uh, considering a diet gimmick.Why? One word: Desperation.Since I wrote that post almost five months ago, I'm even heavier. I've had to buy larger pants, the first time I've ever worn this size. I'm afraid to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7185294422440855308.post-72596558632617764482010-04-28T09:35:00.000-07:002010-04-28T10:31:32.536-07:00Killer 'quilesI often go on these random blogwalks that land me in the most unexpected places. A most recent one landed me on this recipe for Chilaquiles, which I learned is a Mexican comfort food, a way to use up stale tortillas, and often eaten for breakfast. Kind of like French toast (aka pain perdu) without the syrup.I am always looking for an excuse to eat corn tortillas so I had to give it a try. I knew Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0