eG Foodblog: rsincere - DIY cooking school/cooking therapy in WI

[RSincere]

Can I ask what the green sauce is, in the small ramekin next to the onion?

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Three inches of fresh ginger, five cloves of garlic, two serrano chiles (seeded and ribs removed), four tablespoons of water, ground to a paste in the blender.

[jgarner53]

the Walmart peppers smell strangely like gasoline or kerosene

That's just really quite frightening.

Enjoying the blog so far, and congratulations on discovering cooking! The great thing is that there are always new things to learn, new toys to buy (is that a scale I see in the background?), and new things to try.

[SobaAddict70]

It might have been too thin because of the amount of broth called for in the recipe. Perhaps cutting down on the volume of liquid next time?

Any ideas, folks?

btw, Malt-O-Meal sounds weirdly familiar to me. Kind of like in the Philippines. I shall have to ask my cousins who have better memories than I.

Soba

[snowangel]

Malt O Meal is, IMHO, more similar to cream of wheat than to oatmeal. It may be a midwestern thing?

[TheFoodTutor]

Malt O Meal is, IMHO, more similar to cream of wheat than to oatmeal.  It may be a midwestern thing?

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It must be. I'm from Ohio, and I know what Malt O Meal is. I'll have to check the stores here in Georgia to see if they carry it, because I haven't had it in years. My mother used to make Malt O Meal muffins, which have a texture similar to cornbread. I can only imagine how tasty they'd be if they were chocolate, too.

I'm glad you're blogging, Rachel, and ditto what everyone's said about showing anything that doesn't turn out exactly as planned.

I would have probably added a little corn starch slurry, to make a thicker sauce if you wanted, since corn starch thickens so quickly, and it makes the sauce really glossy. But really, your finished product doesn't look bad at all. It's great that you're experimenting with curries, too. That's pretty adventurous for someone new to cooking. Great stuff!

[saskanuck]

I'm very interested to read your blog, Rachel.

Show us your successes, as well as the ones that don't turn out so well, because we've all been there for sure.

I've never heard of Malt-o-Meal, and what's wrong with Coke for your morning libation? It's no worse than a cup of coffee with a bunch of cream and 3 or 4 teaspoons of sugar in it like some people drink it.

I'm looking forward to your next installment and curious to see what your son eats. I have 2 sons, ages 7 and 10, and the younger one is the picky guy, while my older son now eats almost anything.

[RSincere]

At about 3:00, I had a glass of diet Sprite and a small handful of Skittles from an open bag I found in a drawer. Skittles are chewy fruit-flavored candies.

Daniel and I have to run to Walmart because we are out of soymilk. Then I'm going to make us some burgers out of the 1/2 lb. ground round left over from the meatballs. We were out of bread, so I made a loaf this afternoon. I'll show you a picture of it so you can laugh.

soba addict, I thought that 5 cups was a lot of broth. I'm going to read the recipe again to see if I did something wrong, but I'm pretty sure I followed it exactly. I had about a quart of soupy curry sauce left after Jason took the leftover meatballs to work. I wasn't about to throw it away, so I froze it in a Rubbermaid container. Anyone have any ideas what I can do with it?

jgarner, yes, that is a digital scale. The funny thing is that I bought that several years ago for my guinea pigs' weekly weigh-ins. I do wash it after I use it for the pigs but now I also use it for food.

TheFoodTutor, there is a recipe for bars or muffins on the side of the Malt-o-Meal box. I'm always meaning to try it.

I got addicted to curries a few weeks ago, and Monica Bhide is to blame. I've had a lot of fun with her Everything Indian Cookbook, and I've been trying all sorts of recipes. I'd really, really like to try Thai food, but whenever I look at a Thai cookbook at the bookstore, I always see tons of recipes using lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. I don't know where to get those. There might be a place in Madison, but I don't know.

[torakris]

Rachel,

This looks like lots of fun! I can't wait to hear more....

I also am a huge Madhur Jaffrey fan. hers were some of the first cookbooks I used when I started cooking.

[suzilightning]

yaaaaayyyyy...

someone who gets us. we are here to serve(reference librarian speaking now). can't wait for the rest of the week. hope you are doing better (physically and psychologically) and cooking IS therapy. hope your family realize how lucky they are.

i also work on menus, what's on sale and what's in my freezer ususally from my my day off to my next day off - planning for leftovers for lunches and some dinners for the two of us. course when john is away.... pb& j and some horrible food tonight

keep on cookin'

Our library is really small. The good thing is that they are connected to Madison libraries through interlibrary loan, so I am able to order cookbooks that I want to borrow, and a Madison library usually has what I want, and they send it to our library.

[bloviatrix]

I had about a quart of soupy curry sauce left after Jason took the leftover meatballs to work.  I wasn't about to throw it away, so I froze it in a Rubbermaid container.  Anyone have any ideas what I can do with it?

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Why not further reduce the sauce and stew a chicken cut in 1/8s in it?

[RSincere]

Here's the bread. The shadows artfully hide the fact that it's high on the right side and low on the left side. The weird dimple is where I popped a bubble before putting it in the oven. I couldn't resist. I use the bread machine to knead the dough and for the first rise. Then I attempt to shape it, let it rise again, and cook it in the oven. I know about putting it in a rectangle and rolling it up, but one side always ends up higher than the other.

Daniel gets the burger and banana on the left; I get the burger and yogurt. If it were lunch, I'd probably have cheese and lettuce and pickles and mayonnaise and fried onions, but at dinnertime I don't care, ketchup and mustard is fine with me. I made the burgers from the 1/2 lb of ground round left over from the meatballs, seasoned with Penzey's 4/S (their answer to Lawry's Seasoned Salt).

I made them too thick--when I bit into mine, I realized it was cooked rare, even though I thought I cooked the life out of it. I love my burger rare, but I knew Daniel would freak out. And he did. I had to scrape the ketchup off of his and re-cook the life out of it, making sure to press out all the "blood" so that it would be nice and dry. But I had to make sure it didn't develop a crust, because the one time I seared a burger for him he informed me that his "taste bugs" don't like crust. He's really squeamish about meat. It's my fault, because he spent his formative years hearing me tell his daycare providers to be sure he didn't get any meat, because we're vegetarians. I didn't start eating meat until he was 6. It hasn't been an easy transition for him, and two years later the only meat he eats is hamburgers and chicken patties (but only the ones from Sysco that his school uses at hot lunch).

How long does it take a frozen chicken to thaw in the refrigerator?

Edited October 12, 2004 by RSincere (log)

[RSincere]

Had another glass of diet Sprite, and a Blue Bunny Star Bar. That's reduced fat vanilla ice cream on a stick with chocolate flavored coating. It's 9:40, time for meds and bed.

I have lab and doc appointments tomorrow morning until 11:00, and lunch needs a lot of prep work, so I'm really hoping I get it done before too late. Jason leaves for work at 2:00, and I want to give him plenty of time to eat and digest before running off. I am making a chickpea and vegetable tagine with couscous. I had hoped to get a lot of the vegetables chopped tonight but I managed to run out of time. Daniel needed help with his art assignment. I did get the chickpeas cooked, though. Good night!

[JennyUptown]

I feel for you with a picky eater in the house...that was me, but to a lesser extent because my parents aren't all that adventurous.

[Susan in FL]

Welcome! I enjoy all the food blogs, but whichever one is going on at the time is my favorite. So, right now, yours is my favorite.

I do enjoy reading something I can identify with. Thanks for doing this, and I hope you enjoy the week as much as we will.

[Tepee]

Welcome!  I enjoy all the food blogs, but whichever one is going on at the time is my favorite.  So, right now, yours is my favorite.

I do enjoy reading something I can identify with.  Thanks for doing this, and I hope you enjoy the week as much as we will.

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Ditto on the above...except I like to read ALL about Food.

In my fridge, a whole chicken would take overnight to thaw. Bite-sized cut pieces take 6 hours.

[bloviatrix]

If you're afraid it won't thaw in time, throw the chicken in a pot of cold water and put it back in the fridge. It will help speed up the process.

[RSincere]

A quick breakfast. I have about 30 minutes to eat this and to change my clothes before dropping Daniel off at school and going straight to the clinic. I really hate being rushed when eating; I'm a slooooowwww eater. I think it's backlash from my teenage years working at McDonald's where we learned to suck down a whole value meal in a 10-minute break. That had to be healthy.

Duh, forgot to say what it was. Homemade bread with whipped cinnamon/brown sugar cream cheese, plus diet Coke, of course. The bread on the right side is cut lopsided because I always get my loaf all skewed up when I slice it. So that slice was cut that way to even out the loaf. I was going to ditch that piece and cut another full piece so that it would look better, but then decided to stay authentic to how my bread slices usually look!

Edited October 13, 2004 by RSincere (log)

[s'kat]

Rachel, I've enjoyed your posts, and your kitchenly quests for some time now, so it's a bonus to discover that you are doing the new food blog!

And have no shame in your lopsided pieces of bread, it's such little quirks that are the great equalizer in the kitchen.

[RSincere]

I'm a dolt. I was supposed to fast this morning. As you can see above, I didn't! I had to reschedule, so that freed up about an hour more for me at home. I took 45 minutes to prepare some of the ingredients for the tagine. I chunked up two sweet potatoes (or yams, I can't tell the difference), a butternut squash, four parsnips, 23 baby carrots, and got out the canned tomatoes, the chickpeas I cooked last night, and a bay leaf.

I could chop the four cups of onions and the 3 garlic cloves I also need, but I don't want to go to my next appointment smelling like an onion, so that's going to have to wait.

The thing that really gets me is that the CIA cookbook ("Gourmet Meals in Minutes") puts the whole preparation time for this recipe at 45 minutes. That includes sweating the onions and garlic, bringing the whole thing to a boil, and simmering 30 minutes. What does that leave, 5 minutes to cut up all those vegetables? As you can see, I took 45 minutes and I still have some prep work to do yet. I know I'm slow with a knife, but come on!

I'm also concerned that the vegetables won't be soft after 30 minutes of simmering. I made a stew once that I simmered for 2-1/2 hours--no joke--it took that long for the carrot slices to get soft. I have no idea what happened there.

[lamb]

I could chop the four cups of onions and the 3 garlic cloves I also need, but I don't want to go to my next appointment smelling like an onion, so that's going to have to wait.

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Rachel,

I use this to chop, since I am a little challenged when it comes to using a knife I have, no matter how much I've tried to be careful, cut my fingers (or a nail) too many times. So, I use this Chopper

It's only a 3 cup, and I know you neeed 4 cups of onions, but it's pretty speedy and you can do it in two batches. I have a smaller Black and Decker one too.

Good luck - and I've eaten breakfast before blood tests too. Ugh - had to reschedule.

[Carrot Top]

That was a beautiful loaf of bread, Rachel.

[little ms foodie]

Good morning Rachel!

In our fridge a chicken takes 2 days to thaw (in the meat drawer). I have to always plan way in advance!

With regard to prep time, are they maybe starting some of the cooking process while still chopping other things? I know I generally read thru the recipe then decide what needs to be done and started sauteeing, sweating, etc. and what I can be doing while things are cooking.... just a thought!

looking forward to your tagine!

[Susan in FL]

Rachel, I love that CIA Gourmet Meals in Minutes book. It's one of my newest cookbooks.

I looked at the recipe you're using, and it seems to me the vegetables will be soft enough after coming to a boil first and then simmering 30 minutes. They would suit our tastes, anyway, as we like most vegetables al dente. I'm looking forward to hearing how you like the dish!

(I, too, take my time with chopping, etc. )

[RSincere]

Lunch prep is not going well.

We shall see how it turns out.

[Carrot Top]

Dramatic intrigue enters the blog....