I resurrected my Sourdough starter, of which I had dried some and kept in the fridge for the last year or so. The good news is that the yeast is alive, so after three days of feeding I now mixed up have a doughball to start proofing. Here’s hoping the right bacteria survived as well.
I read somewhere recently about farting on a flour+water mix - the expelled bacteria will produce a sourdough starter. But I’m afraid to try.
Somebody posted on Facebook that cooking in the time of Coronavirus is turning us all into “Chopped” chefs. – “You have spaghetti, cocoa powder, chicken thighs, and broccoli – Go!”
In this spirit, Pepper Mill whipped up something using potatoes, spinach, onions, and cheese a couple of days ago. We made stir fry yesterday. We had leftover expensive buttermilk from the Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day, so I made buttermilk pancakes yesterday. I suggested we could take the leftover Irish Soda Bread, top it with leftover pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese, and melt it together to make Irish Soda Pizza. But then Pepper Mill finished the Soda Bread (possibly to prevent this culinary abomination). We’ll probably have relatively normal pizza tonight, but tomorrow it will probably be home-made Fake Indian Food.
Dinner – it’s not just a meal, it’s an adventure!
I’ve got a couple dozen flour and corn tortillas from the local taqueria in the freezer, so when it gets down to the nitty, everything but soup becomes a burrito or a taco!
We found a freezer bag of tomatillos in the freezer, had onions and jalapeños, bought cilantro, and made a tomatillo salsa, mmmmmmmm.
I’m going to finally attempt trying (and making) chocolate hummus.
We have an abundance of chicken-chicken-CHICKEN in the freezer. COTU#1 and COTU#2 have been known to gripe long and loud about “Chicken AGAIN?”
To accommodate Mr VOW’s next-to-zero sodium diet, I made a no-sodium BBQ sauce. It was difficult to find a recipe that (1) didn’t have any amount of liquid smoke–bleah, and (2) didn’t start with "two cups of no-salt ketchup.
I came up with something, and it tasted pretty doggone good!
B/S chicken thighs and the newly-created BBQ sauce are in the InstaPot. If I don’t blow up the kitchen, it should be pretty good!
~VOW
(Note: COTU#1 and COTU#2 are the grandkids. COTU=Center of the Universe)
Uttered today chez moi: “When the psyllium husk powder for the cats gets here, can I have 4 teaspoons to make this New York Times gluten-free bread recipe?”
I had the foresight to grab a chunk of Gruyere on my last trip out, so I dug into my pile of potatoes and made a fine Gratin Savoyard tonight.
We shall pray for you, my child. Just keep that away from decent people. I mean, have you ever tasted the stuff? And survived? Only fast reactions saved me, but the squirrel I hit when spoon-flinging it was not so lucky. Oh well. We have more squirrels.
I’m living off of my stash, which includes a few tins of Spam. So, it was Spam day.
I thought I remembered reading on the dope that Spam sauteed in olive oil comes out like Foie Gras. I’ve never had that, but why let that stop me from living like French royalty? I heated up the olive oil and fried slices of various thicknesses. Thin enough and it takes on a bacon-y or jerky texture, and it really isn’t bad. My biggest problem wasn’t that I was eating a whole can of hot Spam, but that the oil splattered all over at what seemed the necessary temperature.
For that reason, I am open to a new application for Spam. Also, I remembered after the whole thing was over that it is actually braunschweiger that is supposed to taste like Foie Gras when fried in olive oil, and that using Spam had been a fool’s errand.
Chocolate… hummus? I’m sorry, but while each of those words is perfectly clear by itself, when you put them together all I hear is static, with a faint undertone of unspeakable eldritch chanting.
I’ve tried “dessert humus” and it kind of weirded me out. It was a Madagascar vanilla humus.
I made the chocolate hummus, but I
I liked it more without the chocolate (cocoa) so I left it out. It’s sweetened with maple syrup. It’s quite good.
It’s better without the vanilla (words I’ve probably never said before).
Why would you want to sweeten hummus!?
We’ve got the freezer part of the fridge and a small (think under-counter size) freezer, and I just inventoried both. Apart from some rather sad-looking brats, there was nothing weird or ancient to be found. Mostly chicken and pork, some shrimp and fish, one meatloaf, and lots of frozen veggies. I’ve had lots of luck finding fresh produce locally, and I’ve overloaded the fridge, so we’re working that supply down.
Last night, I made a really tasty broccoli/cauliflower/carrot gratin - it came out lots better than I’d expected (compared to a previous recipe that was nasty.) So it’s now in rotation. I’ve got a head of cabbage that I’d like to use to make stuffed cabbage, but unless I find some ground beef today, it’ll have to be prepared as a side dish tonight or tomorrow. Any suggestions?
I have to say, I’m enjoying meals at home - I hadn’t realized exactly how often we ate out till recently. It’s been a challenge finding new variations on old themes.
Yeah. I like chocolate, I like vanilla, I like garlic.
I’ve never considered mixing either of the first two with the last, and I don’t think I’m missing out on anything.
I wouldn’t object to trying chocolate hummus … but while I have all the ingredients in my house, I wouldn’t make it with my valuable supplies. Even in good times I am averse to food waste, and since I really really don’t want to throw out supplies right now, I wouldn’t risk making something that I might decide tasted horrible.
But I am fairly adventurous with seasoning. The other day I made something that tasted both delicious and original; I was very pleased. I made a vegetable medley of onions, zucchini and a mix of green, red, and yellow peppers sautéed in olive oil with a bit of salt. I added some chopped broccoli, string beans and shiitake mushrooms to the sautéed mix along with the soaking water from the mushrooms and let the broccoli and string beans steam a bit. Added a can of drained black beans.
The adventurous part was: I seasoned the vegetables with a huge amount of tarragon and a generous sprinkle of sumac.
Mixed together with freshly cooked quinoa, the result was beautiful, nutritious, and not only tasty, but different.
I wonder if that’s the only time sumac and tarragon have been put together in a dish.
We get the Times so we have access to the recipes, and we got the supplements they do in February full of recipes. Last year it was no recipe recipes, this year one pot. We’ve made lots of things from them. They are easy, but I’m not sure how inexperienced cooks would do with them, since they don’t give a lot of explicit directions.
Since we cook every night anyhow, not much change for us. We inventory the freezer every Thursday before we shop on Friday so things don’t get lost, which does not mean that things don’t stay there for a long, long time.