Happy 5th Anniversary
to me.

Well, missed it by a few days, which is odd, in its way, to miss such a milestone.

Maybe with Obama firmly in charge, one of my original impulses to blog has lessened (but we must never ever drop the ball again. Not ever, else they will creep back in with their evil ways.)

The blogosphere has changed, consolidating around Facebook and/or My Space, so that individual blogs seem almost beside the point.

I'm not doing as much artwork as I was 5 years ago -- or it seems different -- or it's not painting -- or something.

I haven't been knitting in awhile -- 2 sweaters I started still need to be sewn together.

Mostly have been cooking and watching the market and my savings collapse, sometimes at the same time.

For example, am making my famous chicken leg 'n' thigh soup (roast 2 or 3 of 'em for about an hour at 375, then strip the good meat, dump bones and skin and weird meat, add rosemary, salt, pepper, a couple of carrots, celery, a half bay leaf into your favorite microwave bowl, cover with water and pan fat, nuke at 60 percent for about 45 minutes. There you have it -- strain and separate out the stock so you can refrigerate and skim the fat off -- but save it for sauteing).

And, of course, still scripting and doing artwork for my never-ending game, Darkdevil County. Next installment is nearly ready. I mean it this time.

Labels: AGS, art, computers, cooking, Darkdevil County, GOP incompetence, obama, robots

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:27 PM | | | Link |

 
Monday Is National Banana Bread Day
So says Laura here. I didn't know of such a thing.

Baked the banana/pumpkin bread again today, using the standard recipe, slightly revised.

Here it is again, how I made it today. I even have a name:

PUMPKIN PIE BREAD

DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN!

1/2 can of pumpkin pulp
2 mashed bananas
2 eggs

Beat all these together until smooth. Add:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 (or less) tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix it in good. Add:

2 cups of whole wheat flour.

Beat until smooth, but don't over beat it.

Turn on the oven NOW, set to 350 degrees. Stir in:

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of the mulberries you picked last summer and froze

(Obviously, the last ingredient is dependent on your wise planning. If you had instead lazed around in the sun, you can leave it out or substitute raisins.)

Pour into buttered pan, bake for about an hour, maybe a bit more depending on the size of pan, temperature of ingredients, etc. The last time I baked this I turned the oven up to 375 for the last 10 minutes, and I wish I had this time too.

This makes a very very moist batter. The first time I made it, everything was room temperature, and it still took a bit more than an hour at 350. This last time, I think there was more batter (bananas were bigger), and the pumpkin was the other half of the can that had been stored in the fridge. And the mulberries were still frozen.

Since it smelled heavenly and I made it early this am and I was hungry, I took it out a little too soon -- was very moist, though it has since firmed up -- the first slice (I couldn't wait) was a bit like a firm pumpkin pie pudding, wonderful, but hard to slice.

Needless to say, this is an extremely healthy bread, with an enormous amount of Vitamin A, one of those vitamins you probably shouldn't overdo, so be aware.

If you don't have cloves, nutmeg will do fine. My little jar of ground cloves has to be 20 years old and probably came from my mother's house, but it was still potent. I thought I had a tin of something called "pumpkin pie spice," but I may have been mistaken, or my old boyfriend stole it (along with my Led Zeppelin record).

Instead of a half can of pumpkin, the next time I bake I may use 1/3 can and see what happens. Maybe add a half of an apple too.

It is relaxing on the shelf right now, ready to be eaten tomorrow. Banana bread is always better the next day, assuming it makes it that far.

So maybe Tuesday should be declared National Banana Bread Leftover Day, and become a national (rather than industry-sponsored) holiday.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:49 PM | | | Link |

 
Microwave Beef Stew
It's cooling now so I can refrigerate part, freeze part of it, so thought I'd jot down the recipe before I forgot.

Put about a tablespoon of chicken fat (ah ha! another reason to make your own chicken soup) skimmed from the top of the latest batch of chicken leg soup into a big frying pan. If I didn't have the chicken fat I probably would have used regular oil.

Dredged about a half pound of cut up stew beef (whatever is cheapest and leanest at the store) in about a cup or so of flour to which I'd added salt and pepper. Threw the meat and all the remaining flour from the bowl into the pan and started browning it.

When brown but not burned (had to open the window so my stupidly placed smoke detector wouldn't go off), covered it with water and started it simmering.

Forgot to add an onion when I browned the meat, so quickly sliced an onion into the bubbling pan.

Realized I better get the rest of the vegetables chopped up and into my favorite microwave bowl:

One mutantly large carrot from the sale rack, sliced
About 1 1/2 cups chopped celery and tops
1/4 big red pepper, chopped

Transfered the stuff in the pan to the bowl, added a big pinch of rosemary (my favorite spice), more salt and pepper, water up to nearly the edge of the bowl. Microwaved at 60 percent power for 45 minutes.

At this point, the beef was still a bit tough and it tasted weak, needing something.

Added 1 chopped Roma tomato (the cheap ones)
1 peeled and sliced turnip.
About 1/2 small bay leaf.

Reduced power to 40 percent, cooked for another 30 minutes.

As I said on Twitter, it is so good I thought I'd faint.

Will freeze half, refrigerate half, mostly so I don't eat it all in one sitting. Someone told me that turnips don't freeze well, so may fish them out for the refrigerated, dinner tonight part.

It's not too cold today, but will mash up some potatoes (from the 10 pounds for 1.79 bag I just bought) nice and fluffy, make a pit in the middle, and deposit the stew.

You will notice there is no high fructose corn syrup or MSG or "gravy master" anywhere in sight. If I can do this anyone can.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:30 AM | | | Link |

 
I Am a Good Cook
I have no idea how it happened. Poverty has asked me to step up to the plate (the dinner plate, that is) and I have accepted the challenge.

Latest creation is a meatless stew with tomatoes, lentils, eggplant, peppers, and macaroni. You laugh at the last ingredient, and you may. You may prefer to substitute brown rice, or something equally healthy.

This is how the stew happened:

Since my goal is to survive this recession without succumbing to malnutrition, have been buying stuff from the "seen better days" rack at the grocery store. I say "grocery store" since it's not a supermarket -- the tiny rack of junk food is never on sale. No one in their right mind buys a 12 oz bag of potato chips for 4.69 US. But you can get several pounds of mixed red and green peppers for 69 cents, bananas just aching to be made into banana bread for 29 cents, etc.

I'm really not fond of peppers, but for the right price I'll become fond. An eggplant was mixed into the pack this time. The store often assembles quite interesting mixtures of stuff that you ordinarily wouldn't buy at the going price (e.g., 2.69/pound for peppers).

So, chopped the mushiest of the peppers and half an eggplant (in case it didn't work out I had a backup) and an onion up and threw it in the frying pan with a little oil (regular, cheap oil. Who can afford olive oil? My mother's trick was to use regular oil then just a few drops of the lush stuff to fake us out if she was cooking something vaguely Italian. This was before we were aware that olive oil is supposedly better for you so you should spend several bucks a day consuming it.)

But I digress.

While it was sauteing, threw a half a cup of lentils and the nearly half can of tomatoes (left over from the last batch of chili) into my favorite big microwave bowl, added a cup of the chicken stock and enough water to bring it up to a 4 or 5 to one ratio. I nuked it for about 10 minutes on high, then realized I should probably throw in some salt and pepper and spice (rosemary -- about a half tsp).

By this point the stuff in the pan was looking good -- not completely cooked, but the onions were transparent. Needed something, so tossed some oregano and red pepper flakes in the pan and stirred it around. Contemplated putting in some garlic (it's been very cheap at market lately), but since I'm really not too big a fan, decided against.

Transferred it all to the big microwave bowl, and started nuking it again for about 10 minutes.

Once again, decided it needed something, so threw in what remained in the bag (maybe a half cup, a little more?) of dry macaroni and cut up into chunks a Roma tomato (which was on sale this week for 49 cents a pound).

I'd never just put dried macaroni into something before -- always boiled it separately. But why, after all? Why?

Reduced the microwaving to 60 percent and set for 15 minutes (judging it from how long the lentils would take to be edible). Added more salt and pepper too.

When done, was perfect. Made several quarts -- nice and thick. The macaroni overcooked a bit, but contributed to the thick stewyness.

Served it up in my favorite soup bowl and added a few spoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. This sounds like a luxury, but is cheaper than the horrible Kraft stuff -- and has no fake-out fillers and rodent fur either.

Nearly became hysterical when the horrible Kraft stuff rose in price to 4.99 for an 8 oz. shaker but knew of no reasonable alternative, since the supermarket only sold Kraft or else imported Parmesan for $13.99 US a pound.

The refrigerated section of the grocery store I go to has parm (and Romano too) already grated for 5.99 a pound, sold in convenient half-pound containers. Yummy, sharp, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth. Can't believe I've lived my whole life not knowing what actual Parmesan cheese -- even cheap stuff -- tastes like. You will never ever go back. You will never ever leave a neighborhood that doesn't contain a store that sells it.

Trying to add up how much I spent on the whole thing -- 15 cents for the lentils. Another 15 for the macaroni. 50 cents for the canned tomatoes -- my big splurge. 10 cents for the fresh tomato. Chicken stock -- had been made with cheap chicken legs, so maybe 20 cents worth. 30 cents for the vegetables. Cheese is optional, but tasty.

OK, maybe $1.50 in ingredients (spices do, after all, cost something). Made a good 2 quarts of dense stew that can be watered down more and morph into all kinds of good stuff. Would be excellent with Italian sausage and a cup of cooked beans.

Has been a successful weekend -- the banana/pumpkin bread with sunflower seeds and mulberries is about the best I've made so far -- a good thing, since I'd bought the cans of pumpkin several years ago when they were 3/a buck and forgot about.

It basically follows my general banana bread recipe: a couple of mashed bananas, a cup or so of mashed up other stuff (apple, carrot, etc.) 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup sugar). Added 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 cinnamon, and reduced the whole wheat flour to 1 3/4 cups, keeping in mind the sweet potato experiment of several weeks ago. Will try to remember exactly what I did and post it some other day.

That's all for now. I should go put the leftovers in the fridge.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 12:56 PM | | | Link |

 
Flour Tortillas
No, this isn't a metaphor for anything Presidential or otherwise. Decided to make from scratch, since I have a whole pot of chili and nothing in the house to sop it up with. Used the excellent recipe I found here, but here are my lazy-person notes.

Basic ingredients are:

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached instead)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup lukewarm milk (2% is fine)

Online recipe has you combine flour and baking powder and sift into bowl (which I forgot to do), then combine the salt, oil and lukewarm milk (which I translated into zapped in microwave for about 20 seconds) and add it to flour. Think I'd rather add the flour to the wet ingredients -- think I may have added too much flour, or it's too dry or cold or whatever makes stuff not absorb.

Recipe has you knead the dough for a few minutes then let it rest for 15, then divide into 8 little balls and let it rest for another 20. This sounds like a whole lot of resting, but is probably wise, since it in theory makes it easier to roll it out into 7 or 8 inch rounds. Plus you can check email and find the big frying pan that might be in the basement while you wait.

I think you can maybe squeeze out another dough ball or 2 from this recipe in exchange for slightly smaller tortillas that may possibly be easier to roll.

The biggest problem I had was trying to figure out how hot the pan should be. Once you roll each ball out as thin as you can (I didn't use a Mexican style rolling stick, just the usual rolling pin), you throw it in a good heavy unoiled, ungreased, dry frying pan (or griddle, or other fancy cooking surface) and let it cook for about a half minute (NO MORE, honestly!) till you see blisters and puffs on the surface facing you. Then you peek underneath and see that, yes, it DOES look exactly like a store-bought flour tortilla! You flip it to the other side with your fingers.

This is where I had problems with my pan -- by this point it had got too hot, so even tho it was unoiled, the smoke detector kept wanting to go off.

Solved the problem by turning the gas flame off as soon as the first side was cooked prettily, then letting the other side get brown as pan was cooling down. Good compromise, and kept me from throwing smoke detector out into the snow.

Finally, it would be great to have one of those plastic tortilla cozies like they give you at a restaurant. If you don't keep them moist and warm as they come off the grill, they will be closer to matzohs than tortillas. So you keep them piled up and cover them, then wrap them in foil or plastic when all are done. In theory you can freeze or refrigerate them.

If, instead of chili, you put cucumbers and yogurt and onions and gyros meat on one, there is no way anyone could tell you it's not pita bread.

So is it worth the work? Sure -- why not? I can't imagine doing it everyday, like many families do. The rolling out is the time consuming part and the need to stand there cooking until it's all done instead of sitting down with friends and/or family, assuming you have some available. Pancakes and waffles have this problem as well.

I suggest beer or wine to wash away the solitude. And the only witness who knows that you consumed half an entire batch in one sitting and now you feel a little sick is you.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:08 PM | | | Link |

 
Really Good Beef Stew
After the beef and barley fiasco of last week, decided not to put barley in the stew this time. The cheapest cut of beef at Dominicks today was London broil -- basically a huge undifferentiated chunk of flesh. Cut half of it up into chunks -- maybe a little more than a pound. It was really lean.

Put a little oil in a frying pan and browned a whole medium size onion, sliced up. Dredged the meat chunks in a mix of flour, salt and pepper, and browned it with the onion. Some of the bits of onion got a little, uh, over brown, but since nothing set off the smoke detector, I wasn't worried.

With it all in the pan, I put in the remains of the box of beef stock I bought for the barley fiasco -- maybe a cup, or a little more, was left. Boiled and scraped the good stuff from the pan, threw in the rest of the dredging mix, and stirred until it started to thicken.

Transferred the whole mess at this point to my favorite pyrex bowl so I could put it in the microwave. Added a half a big can of tomatoes, including most of the juice from the can, realized I was out of carrots, so started it cooking at 50 percent power, and ran off to the store.

When I got back (about a half hour later) sliced up 2 and a half carrots (ate a half, since I was hungry) and about a cup of celery (mostly the ugly parts near the bottom), added some more salt and a little more pepper, and put it on 40 percent power for 50 minutes. I may have added a little more water, stirred it a few times, etc.

That's it. Really really good. Microwaved a few red potatos, smashed them up, and ate the stew on top of them. I am now completely stuffed, and have at least 3 more meals left. And I know it'll be better tomorrow.

A note: I've never liked to put potatos in the stew directly because they tend to absorb all the smells in the refrigerator, which in the case of my refrigerator are always grim, so I cook them separately. Turnips can usually stand up for themselves, but sometimes are a little watery. With a microwave is easy enough to zap some of these and add them as needed.

Will try it with paprika next time and call it goulash.

Here endeth today's cooking lesson.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:34 PM | | | Link |

 
Mrs. Maleska's Homemade Egg Noodles
When I was growing up outside NYC, Mrs. Maleska lived next door to us with husband, 2 young sons and a daughter about my age. She was one of the young moms in the neighborhood -- wore lipstick and had a decent haircut and shoes and listened to rock and roll on the kitchen radio. If I remember, Mr. Maleska was a civil engineer.

When I was no more than seven or eight, she showed me how to make egg noodles from scratch. It was so easy and casual, I immediately made up a batch at home for my grandma, and have made them ever since.

She didn't have any complicated equipment -- just a formica countertop (I seem to remember it being kind of old and a reddish color), a rolling pin, and a knife. I'm sure having a pasta machine would be great, but then you'd have to clean it and find someplace to set it up and store it (and if you're me, you'd be using it to print up etchings or linoleum blocks).

This is all you have to do:

Measure a cup of flour, stir in a half tsp of salt, then invert the cup measure onto the counter. Take away a little of the flour (a few spoonfuls) to add later if needed. Also have ready a small quantity of water that may or may not be used.

You can do it in a bowl if you prefer. I remember Mrs. Maleska doing on the counter top, so that's how I do it.

Make an indentation in the mound of flour, break an egg into it. Break the yoke and start pushing the flour toward the center. It will become a crummy looking mess, but be patient. It's very sensitive to humidity, dryness, etc., which is why I suggested reserving a little flour and water on the side, to be added judiciously to help create the dough.

Work it in your hands like a ball of silly putty (did I mention you should have washed your hands really well first?) back and forth, kneading it until all the ingredients are gone and the ball is fairly compact and smooth. You can let it rest at this point while you clean up a bit, if you want.

Pat the ball as flat as you can, then flour the rolling pin a little, and the counter too, and roll the dough as thin as you can, in all directions, flipping it over from time to time. You may find it easier to roll it in sections. Don't get crazy if you can't get it as thin as the noodles you buy at the store. These are homemade noodles and should look the part.

Cut the dough into thin strips with an ordinary sharp knife. An easy way to do it is to roll the dough up and cut through the roll, then unravel the strips.

You don't have to dry the noodles before cooking them, but if you want, you can dry them by spreading them out on the counter or a rack for an hour or so. When they're bone-dry, just stick them in a jar or plastic bag. You can probably freeze them too, but I never have.

To cook, drop into a pot of boiling water just like store-bought noodles, and make sure it stays at a rolling boil. They may be heavier than you're used to, so dig them off the bottom if they want to stay down there. How long it takes to cook them depends on how thick (not wide) they are -- maybe 10 minutes, maybe longer.

That's it. Since you went to all the work, you deserve to eat them with real butter, or put them in real, from scratch chicken soup.

You have been asking for my chicken soup secret and I will tell you just a hint today: think onion.

Here endeth today's cooking lesson.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:44 PM | | | Link |

 
Microwave Lentil Soup
By popular demand.

I seem to have developed a second (or third, or maybe fourth) career as a cookbook author. After having been a non-cook for most of my life ("living" on takeout and "Healthy" Choice, for example), in this past year have started cooking actual food, not for any health benefits, per se, but because 1) I got sick and tired of the bland and same flavoring and texture of everything that comes in a box and 2) when one of these 10 oz portions of crap rose over 4 bucks a box.

Gasoline pricing!

In the city we do have a fair number of alternatives to Jewel and Dominicks (the gold Cadillac of grocery stores). My favorite is Village Market Place on Dempster in Skokie. Everything is fresh and restocked constantly. Many of the prices are about half what you pay at Dominicks. Crops seem to rotate in and out along with the seasons -- watermelon gives way to apples (incredibly fresh right now and like 79 cents a pound).

They also package up interesting assortments of somewhat overripe fruits and vegetables for 69 cents a generously sized package of assorted stuff. Great for same day cooking, especially (sometimes you'll find something a little more than overripe tucked at the bottom).

And they have stuff you can't get anywhere else except for a lot of money, like cactus pears, which were going for 49 cents a pound last week.

The store is human-scaled (it used to be the Women's Workout World where I used to be a member), they apparently have more checkers than anywhere else, and I HAVE NEVER HAD TO STAND IN LINE. Not even on Friday afternoon before the Sabbath starts (this is a very Jewish community).

Anyway, I could go on and on about it, but the bottom line is that they don't have much of a frozen food or packaged food section (except for imports), so I'm not tempted to backslide into old habits.

All of this is long way around posting a simple recipe. Note: it's completely vegetarian and completely fat-free, unless you stir in a couple of good sized dollops of Greek-style yogurt for each serving, which I do.

MICROWAVE LENTIL SOUP

-- wash, sort bag of lentils in cold water, put in Pyrex bowl big enough for it to expand at least three times and contain vegetables too

-- add about 5-6 cups of water

-- slice and add the following:
-- 1 largish onion
-- 2 medium-large carrots
-- 3 or 4 stalks of celery -- use the part near the bottom of a bunch -- just slice across all of them -- plus the tops

-- add spices (I don't measure, but this is about right):
-- 1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
-- 1 bay leaf
-- 1/4 tsp oregano
-- 1/4 tsp rosemary
-- 1/4 tsp basil -- would be great with fresh basil, but I didn't have any
-- at least 1 tsp salt or more (I like salt)
-- 1/4 tsp black pepper

-- stir it all up, cook in microwave at 70 percent power for 30 minutes. I didn't cover it, since I don't have a good cover for my bowl

-- when timer is up, stir, fix seasoning, add more water if necessary (I had to add another 1 1/2 cups today)

-- cook in microwave another 20 minutes at 70 percent power.

This gives you a consistency that's mostly puree with about 30 percent lentils that still have some bite -- perfect.

As I said before, I like to stir in some yogurt into each serving (but store it plain).

Plus, of course, more salt and pepper (since, as my doctor would attest if I could afford a doctor, I like salt).

I then divide it up into Ziploc bags (when it's cooled) and stick in freezer or fridge.

This is how slow food becomes fast food.

I plan to use this base and add in other stuff over the coming days -- eggplant, sausage, maybe pumpkin -- found a recipe for pumpkin soup with lentils that sounds really good.

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:37 PM | | | Link |

 
The Banana Bread Recipe
Have been asked for it so many times, so here goes:

DO NOT PREHEAT THE OVEN!!

2 or 3 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
2 cups flour (regular or whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar (more or less)

Beat the eggs in a big bowl until frothy. Add the banana. If you're a purist, you should sift the dry ingredients together before adding, but I never do and it turns out just fine. Have just started using whole wheat flour instead of regular unbleached flour and I like the results better -- seems heartier, and sticks by you.

OK. Now for the suggested additions:

An unmeasured amount of pretty much anything in the icebox or on the shelf.

For example:

walnuts
sunflower seeds
chopped apple, peach, pear, etc.
grated carrot
leftover cooked zucchini
nearly rotten tomato
frozen mulberries from my tree
some peanut butter
cinnamon
honey
molasses
dates
raisins
etc.

You can do up to about a cup, maybe a bit more, of any combination of the above. The bananas are quite bland without adding sugar. I've used less sugar and pretended it was a sandwich bread. Tastes good with tuna/egg salad.

OK. NOW set the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the batter into a well-greased loaf pan. Bake for between 50 minutes and an hour. Is done if a knife comes out clean.

You will notice immediately that this is a NON-FAT recipe. I am not lying. Since I keep my sticks of butter wrapped up in the freezer, I have to soften enough in a tiny bowl in the microwave to grease the pan. If there's extra, I add it to the batter.

That's it!

UPDATE: I would have posted this an hour ago except the transformer behind my house blew up and the entire block went dark. Thank you, remnants of Gustav! And thank you, Blogger autosave!

Labels: cooking

- posted by Cynthia @ 7:29 PM | | | Link |