Category: minutiae

So, this broccoli recipe? Oh, it’s so good. I hate myself SO HARD for loving it. Karen F. is a family friend originally from the Midwest. She brought this to a Thanksgiving dinner probably eight or so years ago, and the family fell in love with it. Well, not fell in love. Fell into a horrible relationship where the broccoli beats us up, but we’re so screwed up that we let it happen.

Ee. That was a bad analogy. Love-hate relationship. That’s better. Dysfunctional. Anyway, Sara mentioned it on her blog, so I figured I had to get it up macht schnell.

Oh, Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous this year. (It was fabulous last year, too, but in a different way- we had duck… mmmmm. I digress.) My aunt and uncle came and visited from back east. Hi there, Peg and Ted! Aunt Peggy brought a recipe for this incredible soup from The Inn at Little Washington. Oh, it was amazing. We ate the leftovers at Thanksgiving II last night, and Sara said, “I would totally just drink this through a straw.” I have a copy of the recipe; I’ll post that later.

If I had patience, I’d make creamed onions all the time. Er, and if I was skinny. Yum! But peeling all those little onions is annoying. I wonder if it can be made successfully using frozen ones. (Insert rant here from my mom, saying that the frozen ones suck and have bad texture.) (Insert counter-rant from my brother, saying they’re easier and he can’t tell the difference.)

What else… oh, Ryan made tasty cranberry relish and mincemeat pie. And of course, there was also Indian Pudding for dessert. I stole the cookbook with the recipe in it, so I’ll post that later, too.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, rutabagas! All wonderful!

I still have a curry recipe to post! Yipes!

Well, I’ve still got one more curry recipe to post. I’ll do that later, although I’ll probably fuss with the times so that this appears above it. I’m not very helpful.

On Thursday night, I went with Ryan and the ‘rents to see Jon perform. It was a good show. Hookslide and The House Jacks. Good times.

Friday was spent making curries. Whee! Actually, these weren’t very hard. A little time consuming, but not bad. So on Saturday morning, I packed them and a bunch of cookies and headed over to Lydia’s, where I spent the day. We ate, drank, and made merry with anime and video games. I felt very stupid playing a taiko drumming game– even though I am a musician, I can’t say I have many skillz in rhythm. I’m sort of hopelessly white. I also felt stupid, although less so, playing Katamari Damacy. I kept forgetting what the controls were. But I still made a couple wee stars. That’s a bizarre game. We watched a fairly new anime showing in Japan called Yakitate!! It’s about a young man with really warm hands who wants to create Japan’s national bread. No, really.

On Sunday, I went over to Jon and Ryan’s and played video games that don’t make me feel inept. Well, game. I dearly love the Ratchet & Clank series, and can’t wait for Jon to get the third. Ryan made tons of cookies, I made tortillas that turned out disturbingly like matzoh (next time, more salt and rolled thicker), and Jon made yummy nachos (using the joy-sucking America’s Test Kitchen method).

I went to the grocery store last night to buy ingredients for my part of Thanksgiving. I was assigned two things- Crescent Rolls and Heart-Attack Broccoli. I thought about making buttermilk biscuits instead, but the Crescent Rolls are traditional. (And also used to be almost the only thing I would eat at Thanksgiving- Crescent Rolls and cranberry sauce.) I ended up sepnding $25, which seems rather ridiculous. Okay, a fifth of that was unnecessary, but two pounds of butter for five dollars? That’s a good price! Five dollars each on butter, broccoli, Velveeta (I know, shut up), and Ritz Crackers (what did I just say?). The Crescent Rolls were on sale, and I bought some little containers of the right size for one-person leftovers. I have a lot of Gladware and such that’s not really the right size in which to freeze lunch-sized portions.

I think that’s it. D&D tonight.

Matar Dal

Yellow Split-Pea Curry

1/2 lb. yellow split-peas (about 1 cup)

2 1/2 cups water

1 1/4 tsp salt

Big pinch of ground turmeric

1 1/4 tsp ground cumin

2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Pinch of garlic powder

Pinch of sugar

2-4 Tbsp vegetable oil or ghee

Pinch of cumin seeds

2 red or green chiles

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

3/4 tsp freshly grated ginger

1 bay leaf

1/2 lb. slab of bacon or chicken livers, chopped

2 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

Pinch of monosodium glutamate (optional, can you even find this?)

Pinch of seasoned salt (I used Old Bay)

Pinch of paprika

Wash spilt peas and soak in water for 20 minutes. Boil spilt peas in their soaking water. Add salt and turmeric. Boil for 2 minutes, removing scum. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat. Add ground cumin, lemon juice, coriander, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and sugar to the pot.

Heat vegetable oil or ghee in a large saucepan and cook cumin seeds, chiles, onions, ginger, bay leaf, and bacon or chicken livers for 3-4 minutes. (Or, cook bacon alone until almost crisp, then add other ingredients and cook them.) Add tomato paste, MSG, and seasoned salt. Stirring, add the boiled peas mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and mix well. Cook slowly for 15-30 minutes, adding water if mixture looks too thick.

I used to be a big Red Dwarf fan. I still enjoy watching it, but I’m not insane like I used to be. (I changed, moved obsessions elsewhere.) I was really very surprised in a recent Economist by seeing a picture of the character Arnold J. Rimmer used to illustrate a story about holograms. Seemed a weird choice, but the Economist does sometimes use pictures that don’t always make a whole lot of sense.

I’m out of salt. Isn’t that weird? Last night, I was making chicken soup, and I kept having to improvise with Old Bay, Tabasco, and chili powder. I was thinking, “Oh, thank heavens I brined this chicken, or else it’d be über bland.”

Oh, man. When our D&D session last night hit about 11:30pm, the Cranky Pants were on. My apologies to everyone in our group. I was a big, big jerk. So tired. I was just so… not into the game.

Cooper did some hard-core dying last night. He got negative levels from wraiths and the like until he was undead. So Mynnyd, my character, shot him full of arrows until he died again. And then we found a cleric and got him raisied. We owe a LOT of money to the temple of Duran. This was in the battle where I got no negative levels, made all my fortitude and will saves, and only lost, like, eight hit points. I did get my comeuppance later, though. We ran into some ichor-dripping mummy zombie things. Mynnyd got hit a few times, failed his saves, and ended up losing six points of constitution. Ee. Seventy-one hit points gone in a VERY short amount of time. I did, however, forget about my dwarf’s +2 to saves against poison, which meant I would have made the first save that knocked me down by five constitution points. I think our DM (Jer) is deciding whether I can retroactively not lose those points. The last DM, Cam, wouldn’t have let me, I don’t think.

Stupid undead. Anyway.

I brought some of my carbonnade for dinner last night. It spilled a little in the car. ANNOYING.

I set my VCR last night but forgot to turn my Tivo to standby, so I didn’t tape House. ANNOYING.

I’m making soup tonight.

So, check it out. I made flour tortillas and they didn’t suck! They were a little salty- I made a half recipe, but used the full recipe’s amount of salt. And maybe I didn’t roll them quite thin enough- they were a little more like naan than my not-naan was. But I’d totally make them again.

So, I went out to dinner last night down in Mountain View, and I wasn’t blown away. We went to Frankie, Johnny, and Luigi, Too! and I have to say, meh. I got veal parmesan, and it was only random. It came with a side of spaghetti in a watery and uninspiring sauce (that had bell peppers in it- ugh to me) and boiled spinach (not my favorite, but could have been cooked in a tastier way). Some people got garlic bread with their meals, and I tried it- weird metallic/chemically aftertaste. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, so maybe I just picked wrong, but I? I would not go there again.

Because it cannot be said enough: these cookies rock. Man, I just love them. Slightly overcooked and with an extra dash of salt… wow. They’re so good! I know I’m a freak for liking my chocolate chip cookies thin and crispy, but if that means I can keep these to myself, so much the better.

Flour Tortillas

San Jose Mercury News – Stacy Diaz

4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp baking powder

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups warm water

Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Pour in the vegetable oil and mix ingredients by hand. Add the water a little at a time until the mixture turns into a soft dough. Add more water if necessary. The dough should not be sticky – if it is, balance things out with a little flour.

Turn out dough onto a flour-dusted surface and knead for 2-4 minutes. Form dough into a ball, cover it with a towel, and place the bowl upside-down over it. Let dough rest for 15-20 minutes (it will not rise). Meanwhile, heat an ungreased griddle over medium-high heat.

Pull off golf-ball-sized pieces of dough and pat each one into a 5-inch circle. Dust counter with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Work from center, using a back-and-forth motion, turning dough a quarter of a turn after each roll and flipping dough at least once. Continue to roll out the dough until quite thin and about 7 to 8 inches in diameter.

Place tortilla on the hot griddle (and begin rolling out the next one). After about 20-25 seconds, bubbles will rise on the tortilla’s surface. (The first one is kind of a test to see if your griddle is hot enough or too hot- kind of like crepes.) Flip and cook the other side for another 20-25 seconds. It should have dark brown speckles on it. Remove from pan and continue with remaining tortillas.

Gr, Tim Goodman’s latest article doesn’t sound too promising for House. But he says Hugh Laurie is very good, and really, that’s the only reason I was planning on watching it.

Holy crap, Arrested Development is funny. I mean, I really enjoyed it last year, and I bought the DVDs (although I haven’t had time to watch them yet, unfortunatley), but the two episodes so far this season have had me laughing out loud with tears in the corners of my eyes.

Kenny wanted me to explain why Veronica Mars is worth my time. I am not good at explaining things. The main character is likeable and the Twin Peaks-ish mystery is intriguing. The voiceovers are much less annoying than on Desperate Housewives (which I also watch and enjoy, but don’t think is quite as good a show). I also find the mystery more intriguing. Plus, Kenny, Veronica dressed up as a Japanese schoolgirl in the episode “The Wrath of Con.” She wore the cute tie and everything. Which should be a reason for you to watch, if only for that particular episode. I’d recommend the recaps over at Television Without Pity, if you want to learn more.

I have a recipe half-copied, saved in draft. It will get finished! I started it on Saturday, so it will be showing up below this post, when I get done with it.

So yeah, that’s now up. 🙂

We got a dishwasher at work. Yay for me not washing stuff by hand anymore. However… I cannot get the damned thing to work. Seriously. I don’t know what my brain damage is that I can’t figure out this thing. It fills up with water, and then it stops. I’ve tried, like, eight times. I’ve read the manual, visited the website. Asko dishwashers? I wouldn’t waste my money.

Beef Carbonnade

Cook’s Illustrated

3 1/2 lbs top blade steaks (or boneless chuck roast), 1-inch thick, trimmed of gristle and fat and cut into 1-inch pieces

Salt and pepper

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 lbs yellow onions (about 3 medium), halved and sliced about 1/4-inch thick

1 Tbsp tomato paste

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

3 Tbsp AP flour

3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

3/4 cup low-sodium beef broth

1 12-oz bottle or can of beer

4 sprigs fresh thyme, tied together with kitchen twine

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300. Dry beef thoroughly with paper towels and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high until almost smoking. Add about a third of the beef to the pot, and cook without moving pieces for 2-3 minutes. Flip pieces over with tongs and coook for another 2-3 minutes. Transfer the browned beef to a bowl, and repeat with the other two-thirds of the beef, adding more oil if necessary.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pot and lower the heat to medium-low. Add onions, tomato paste, and some salt. Scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon or spatula to loosen the fond. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have released some moisture, and raise the heat to medium. Continue to cook until onions are lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir until onions are evenly coated and flour is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in broths, scraping the bottom of the pot, then add beer, thyme, bay, vinegar, and the beef (with any accumulated juices). Add salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Cover partially, then place pot in oven. Cook until fork inserted into beef meets little resistance, about 2 hours.

Discard bay and thyme. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve over buttered noodles or mashed potatoes.