Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Thursday, May 27
Fennelicious
Used fresh fennel for the first time yesterday. I was reading for good salad ideas in one of my favorite "here's how to do everything" books - A New Way to Cook, and found a nice crunchy asian salad/slaw thing. I monkeyed with it a bit, and here's what I ended up with:
Crunchy Viet Salad
1 fennel bulb, sliced & laid out to dry slightly
1 hothouse cucumber, ditto
1 handful flat leaf parsley
handful chopped peanuts
Dressing
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 small red onion, sliced or chopped
little bit of sugar or honey
1 diced thai chile
1 knob grated fresh ginger
splash fish sauce
glug toasted sesame oil
salt & pepper
Combine dressing ingredients and let marinate for at least an hour. Then combine with salad and eat immediately or let the whole thing marinade for up to a few days. You might want to add the peanuts right before eating in either case so they don't get soggy.
Time posted: 10:05 [permalink]
Monday, May 24
Girl problems
Does every woman in the world go through this, or am I exceedingly neurotic?
I'm having a Bridget Jones type of few months, where I obsess about everything, maniacally watch what I eat, feel slothy and bloated and depressingly jiggly all the time (which if you know me you know that's bullshit - its all in my demented mind).... and it doesn't change! After 'dieting' for weeks, nothing is any different, which of course makes everything seem worse.
I am rational enough at some level to realize that the obsession IS the problem - it builds up stress and probably works against me at a neurological and cellular level to make sure that my questionable 'goals' are not reached. That and being in a training down-cycle is another double-hit: not working out as much as usual means I really truly can't eat what I want, and I lose the built-in stress relief of the exercise itself. Jeezus, who knows what kind of whacko compulsions I would have if I didn't funnel this energy into exercise/food/exercise/food/morefood/lessexercise/foodfoodfood/hagendaaz/moreexercise.
So anyway, its Pilates for lunch today instead of Relish. Johnny, I'll have to come see you soon, I promise!
Time posted: 08:39 [permalink]
Sunday, May 23
Gmail, Gmail, get yer' Gmail!
So I hear that Gmail accounts are a hot commodity in the last month or so, since only select users of Blogger and a few other sites are being offered accounts. Once you have a "true" account, you can invite 2 friends to join. And thusly, people have been selling these invites on Ebay.
Geek.com Geek News - Gmail invites auctioned on eBay
Not to be outdone for a chance to give someone the newest coolest email account around (and make a few bucks), I put one of mine up for sale as well. Gotta love the free market....
Time posted: 16:16 [permalink]
Friday, May 21
Spring slump
I have been cooking at about the same rate as usual, but the last few weeks I haven't done a lot that's new. Stir fries, a few of my soup standbys, burgers, blah blah....
I do have a new warm weather breakfast of choice, however. This one is so healthy it will make your eyes roll...
Cool Spring Sludge
1 cup Brown Cow cream top yogurt (plain!)
handful of wheat germ or muesli/granola
1 T flax oil (Udo's is slightly less obnoxious than most)
1 cup berries
Combine & stuff tangy mass down yer gullet while co-workers are already glazed over from their Krispy Kreme sugar crash. Say "no thanks" when they offer you one, you disgustingly saintly thing, you.
Time posted: 11:50 [permalink]
Tuesday, May 18
Love of the Pav'
As Nigella would surely agree, all creatures love a good Pavlova:
Bear eating dessert
Time posted: 14:54 [permalink]
Monday, May 17
Cravings
(No, not for pickles and ice cream!)
The last few weeks I've been on a bit of a peanut bender. Dry roasted, salted, butter'ed.... especially the peanut butter. I've taken to eating the stuff right out of the jar, which is great if you are starting with good PB in the first place (Wild Oats this time around). Just stay away from unsalted nut butters. They are pure evil, I tell you.
Also, I've started to put half and half in my coffee again, but I miss using whole cream! A switch back might be in order....
Will probably be cooking dinner tonight for 4-5 people, so I will post details on that when I can.
Time posted: 11:46 [permalink]
Thursday, May 13
Making veg the right way.... finally
Its been quite some time since I've had good, fresh, spring veg in my fridge. And usually when I have had it I've killed it by stir frying too long, or braising (again, too long). Not this time. I had a pound each of sugar snap peas and baby asparagus, both from the beloved B Riley.
I pulled out the largest pot I had (about 8 quart), and started a full load of water to boil. Added a tablespoon of salt, and set about trimming the peas.
Once they were ready, the water was, too. I made a bowl of ice water, and dropped the peas in their bubble bath. 1 minute later, into the ice water. Perfect!
Then I trimmed up the asparagus, and cut them in half so I have half "stems" and half tops. I've learned from making lots of collards that if you just start the stems first, everything will be done at the same time, and just right. I was reading the life with a knife blog today and saw a note about doing this to asparagus and figured it was a good idea. I would definitely overcook the tops if I put the whole stalk in at once.
So in go the stalks (yes, into the pea water). 2 minutes later, in go the tops. 2 minutes later, again into the ice water. Too long! Once they have chilled and I can play with them I realize that I should have done 2min/1min or even 1min/1min. They are tasty, but floppy with little to no bite. Oh well.
Both of them get a dressing of melted butter and salt, and the peas get shredded mint while the asparagus get a little lemon pepper. I was out of fresh lemons - the horror!
The butter coagulates in about the same amount of time it takes to coat all the pieces, leaving things looking a bit questionable, but each salad will be warmed before consumption, so its all good.
And the peas are DAMN GOOD. I'm happy.
Time posted: 19:46 [permalink]
Tuesday, May 11
Veggies Kids Hate
Yum, Brussels Sprouts! Yay for Cabbage! Its been "common knowledge" for awhile that eating leafy greens can fight cancer, but finally part of the WHY has been uncovered:
Chemical in cooked veg kills tumor cells, courtesy of the Guardian.
Time posted: 10:06 [permalink]
Monday, May 10
Factoid of the Day
"For the cost of implementing Kyoto in just one year, we could permanently provide clean drinking water and sanitation to everyone on the planet. Of course it is unlikely that Emmerich will cast Brad Pitt as a sewage engineer in Kenya for his next glamorous movie. Nor are there many good plotlines to be made from tales of a government which invests in malarial vaccines, or of a global conference called to remove trade barriers. But these are real options that policy-makers face every time they spend a dollar with the intention of easing human suffering."
(italics mine)
- from an article about the movie "The Day After Tomorrow", in today's Telegraph.
Time posted: 08:29 [permalink]
RAH-RAH FOR SUGAR!
Well, I think I just received very conclusive results from my experiment with food that I am NOT carb-intolerant. Why? Because I ate nary a few of the buggers for two straight weeks, and while I felt slightly less poofy, I lost not one ounce of weight. Apparently, if I am one of those people who starts crazy preparing for the next famine when I eat sugar, I should drop at least a few (or more) pounds when I stop eating it abruptly. I may very well be one of the "lucky" ones, as the LC gurus say, in that I can absorb the stuff just OK in day to day life. (So I suppose it makes sense in light of the fact that I lived from the ages of 21-26 on a diet consisting primarily of dry cereal, pancakes, and pan-fried potatoes. Yes, for real.)
So, hoorah, and bring on the fruit!
Time posted: 07:23 [permalink]
Friday, May 7
THE TRENCHES, REPORT FROM, A
It has been about 11 days now that I have not eaten anything but fat, protein, and non-starchy veggies. No corn, no grains, no beans, and certainly no sugar (including fruit). I've been eating a damn lot of nuts, cheese, and eggs.
How do I feel? Well, about the same. I am less bloated than usual, which was to be expected, and "feel" a little lighter, which is probably tied to the non-bloat. Everything else is either a minor effect or completely in my head. For example, I think that I'm a little more alert at work. I have had one minor headache, possibly from my brain running out of carbs. But overall.... really not a world-altering change.
That's a good thing. Why? Because it means that I am not overly carb-sensitive. If I was, then eliminating all carbs from my diet that affect blood sugar would have made me feel a lot different. It did not, so I am free to start adding them back in (carefully, I imagine). Its definitely not like I was eating a lot of sugar before, anyway. I already had a damn healthy diet, with moderation all around - good fats, bad fats, enough protein, and almost no packaged/refined foods.
But I miss fruit the most, and also the little touches of sweetness that make things better. A little in my coffee, a touch to make a smoothie drinkable instead of tasting like protein-powder sludge, etc. So I will bring fruit back first, in lapping waves, not in a tidal burst.
Time posted: 09:41 [permalink]
Tuesday, May 4
PEOPLE RULE
Do you jive with the Wild Oats mantra of 'fuck frankenfoods'? Hate GMO with a passion?
Think GMO is great and a lifesaver (the golden rice in Africa preventing blindness in children, for example)?
Don't really give a shit either way, as long as your tomatoes aren't friggin' 5 bucks a pound?
Read up.... the inherent problems with GMO has caused some scientists to do what humans do best - figure something else out.
Time posted: 13:30 [permalink]
Monday, May 3
VEG, VEG, VEG
Where do you buy your produce? Whole Foods? Farmer's Market (store)? Smiths? Do you often say to yourself, "organic - who cares?!". Just curious. I recently "found" a new place to buy tons of cheap veg, and they are better quality than any place OTHER than Whole Foods or the co-op.
B Riley Fresh Herbs, a mere 5 minutes from where I work on Copper just east of Juan Tabo. They have been a well-known supplier of herbs to many local groceries, but I had no freakin' clue that they also sell a full line of dried herbs, dried goods like pasta & beans & chiles, and a huge list of actual produce. I visited the store the first time about 2 weeks ago, and since then I've been back twice, each time leaving with a bushel of various green things for about $20.
Oh, and did I mention the dried chiles? More kinds than Mark Miller mentions in his Salsa book, and that's a ton. The last time I was in unfortunately they did not have fresh thai chiles, but that's how the fresh stuff is - you just buy the best of what they have that week and its always great.
So of course for pre-lunch I had a horse-grain-bucket-sized salad, primarily mixed baby greens with some green bell peppers and sliced almonds, and a basic viniagrette. It should be about another 10 minutes before that settles and I'll be ready for lunch.
Time posted: 12:32 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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