blue artichoke

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope everyone has had a gluttonous holiday season; I sure have. I ate (and made) some good food and received lots of excellent goodies. I also bought a vehicle. It's a sweet dump truck tricked out with a wood chipper, sunroof, remote entry and gravel crusher. I'm thinking of adding a cherry-picker basket, but I'm still shopping around for the best deal. It might be out of my price range at the moment. The fuel economy isn't so great, but man, this vehicle is spacious!

Gentleman Caller hasn't seen it yet because he had to cut his Christmas vacation short to return to work. Me, I'm still on vacation, roaring around the mountains of east Tennessee in my new ride.

Getting to Know All About You: What was the best gift you gave or received this year?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I happen to like bad weather. Sure, the sun is nice and everything, but I need variety, which is why I did not appreciate my time spent living in Colorado. Of course, I finally move out of there and lo and behold, it starts snowing like mad. Two blizzards in one week??? Crazy!!!

Anyway, today, New Year's Eve's Eve, it snowed in Boston. Yay! And in honour of such an occurence I made soup for lunch. Avgolemeno soup, actually, which is a Greek soup my mom makes. Avgolemeno means egg-lemon, so it's fairly self-explanatory.

My sister and I called it "Kissy Soup" because of the kissing sounds one is supposed to make while cooking. Supposedly it is done to keep the eggs from curdling as the lemons are added and then the hot broth added to the egg mixture. Either way, it's fun... bring the kids into the kitchen for a few minutes and everyone can stand around making kissing sounds. Alternatively, bring in a spouse or whomever your seeing (or an exceptionally good friend), and make out a little while cooking.

That's the way the recipe goes! I'm not making it up!

It's easy, but perhaps a little time-consuming. I'll also say that it's an acquired taste. But when you're looking for a soup and want something "different," give it a try. Oh, and you could very well have all the ingredients handy.

Oh, and it cures all your ailments. A bit like chicken noodle soup, it makes you feel good. Well, it does for me, but that could just be years of my mom making avgolemeno soup instead of chicken noodle.

Avgolemeno Soup (Greek Kissy Soup)

8 cups chicken broth (pareve bouillon cubes if you want it to be kosher, remember, or vegetable broth)
1 ½ cups rice
5 eggs
½ cup lemon juice – (3 large squeezed lemons, strained)
dash of water
Pepper to taste (I use quite a bit)

Bring broth & water to boil, add rice, boil 20 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Beat eggs, dash of water in a large bowl.

Next, add lemon juice to eggs, slowly a little at a time, constantly beating lemon-egg mixture; kiss the air (or whoever is in the kitchen) as you add in the lemon juice to keep the soup from curdling.

Then, very slowly add hot broth to egg mixture. As you add broth to egg mixture also kiss to prevent curdling. Add about ¼ - ½ c of broth to eggs at a time, until the egg mixture is very warm. Return warm egg-broth mixture to cooking pot and stir into broth & rice in pot.

Let rest for about 5-10 minutes off the heat before serving, this allows the soup to thicken slightly. If you should need to re-heat soup, start heating on low, and be patient. Keep a constant eye on it, but it does reheat nicely. Do not microwave.

Getting to Know All About You: Any plans for New Year's Eve?

Posted by Red Momo, aka the Kosher Gentile at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday was a day for wrapping up loose ends. I threw out the yucky cookies, the rest of the oozy cranberry jellies, and also the bottoms of the crème de menthe bars that weren’t looky enough to give away. These bars sounded neat: a bottom layer of chocolate-graham-nut, topped with a sugary crème de menthe layer, topped by a chocolate layer. This was the recipe that I made my own powdered sugar for, and it wasn’t as genius as I proclaimed. It had an odd texture. The best layer was the top layer, because I used Andes crème de menthe chips. The problem was that the chocolate layer hardened too much to cut through without sending cracks through the rest of the layer. There were a few pieces that looked good enough to give away on cookie platters, the rest we’d have to eat. We have so many failed goodies right now that we’d be huge if we ate them all, so I kept the top hard mint-chocolate layer and threw the rest away. Trim the fat, cut my losses. There have been more failed recipe attempts this holiday baking season than ever before. Maybe I’ve lost the Christmas spirit.

I’m making a few snack mixes (three) to give away as presents. I made the first two this morning. One is a berry-nut mix, the other is a harvest apple mix. Both are of my own creation. The berry-nut mix is totally awesome; the harvest apple had a few setbacks. I now know why trail mixes never call for corn or bran flakes cereals; they just get soggy and clumpy. You need the crosshatch, double layer of Chex or Crispex to withstand the coating and the baking. I never appreciated this fine cereal engineering. Now I add it to my list of great underappreciated inventions, along with armrests. Anyway, I picked out the pretzels and nuts and remade the cereal part this morning. And I made three batches of Chex Mix. It just isn’t Christmas without Chex Mix.

So, there’s the throwing away of food, the snack mixes, and finally, the Fifth Gingerbread of Christmas. This has a super flavor, but is still lacking a bit in texture. The flavor was so great because I ran out of powdered ginger, about ½ t. shy of a tablespoon, so I added in a bit of ginger juice from a jar of grated ginger I have in the fridge. Wow! What a difference. This leant a sharp, bright ginger flavor, in a good way. This recipe won’t win the Snackdown, but I’ll add this trick to whichever one does win, just to boost the flavor a bit. So, that was the baking part of the day. There’s more.

I got a new fridge! Finally, no more biweekly shifting food from freezer to cooler on the porch, then quickly back again as the temperature outside warms up. This fridge is sweet. It’s not a new one, but is bigger, roomier and brighter than the old one. And it keeps a steady temperature and doesn’t leak water all over everything inside. The only drawback is that it’s louder. I haven’t had a dishwasher for years, but every time I walk into the living room, I think the dishwasher is running. Then I remember that GC is the dishwasher, and it’s the loud fridge and I smile, because I have a new fridge.

And, finally, I test drove two cars yesterday: Mazda 6 and a Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata wasn’t on my original list, but I liked the look, and because it’s sort of an off-brand, I can get lots of bells-and-whistles for the same price as a base package in the other cars I looked at. Tempting, and it sure throws a wrench in my car buying research. I also really liked the Mazda 6. It’s really comfortable and is a bit more hip and fun than, say, another Camry, which is totally practical and reliable. I’ve spent hours today printing out specs and reviews; I don’t know when I’ll have time to read them, but I feel better with data at my fingertips.

So, holiday baking officially comes to a close. Cookies have been made, arranged on trays and distributed; snack mixes have been made and will be given away on Christmas; and the Chex Mix will be munched until it’s gone. I’ll be a-travelin’ for a while, so merry holidays!

Getting to Know All About You: What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a day for wrapping up loose ends. I threw out the yucky cookies, the rest of the oozy cranberry jellies, and also the bottoms of the crème de menthe bars that weren’t looky enough to give away. These bars sounded neat: a bottom layer of chocolate-graham-nut, topped with a sugary crème de menthe layer, topped by a chocolate layer. This was the recipe that I made my own powdered sugar for, and it wasn’t as genius as I proclaimed. It had an odd texture. The best layer was the top layer, because I used Andes crème de menthe chips. The problem was that the chocolate layer hardened too much to cut through without sending cracks through the rest of the layer. There were a few pieces that looked good enough to give away on cookie platters, the rest we’d have to eat. We have so many failed goodies right now that we’d be huge if we ate them all, so I kept the top hard mint-chocolate layer and threw the rest away. Trim the fat, cut my losses. There have been more failed recipe attempts this holiday baking season than ever before. Maybe I’ve lost the Christmas spirit.

I’m making a few snack mixes (three) to give away as presents. I made the first two this morning. One is a berry-nut mix, the other is a harvest apple mix. Both are of my own creation. The berry-nut mix is totally awesome; the harvest apple had a few setbacks. I now know why trail mixes never call for corn or bran flakes cereals; they just get soggy and clumpy. You need the crosshatch, double layer of Chex or Crispex to withstand the coating and the baking. I never appreciated this fine cereal engineering. Now I add it to my list of great underappreciated inventions, along with armrests. Anyway, I picked out the pretzels and nuts and remade the cereal part this morning. And I made three batches of Chex Mix. It just isn’t Christmas without Chex Mix.

So, there’s the throwing away of food, the snack mixes, and finally, the Fifth Gingerbread of Christmas. This has a super flavor, but is still lacking a bit in texture. The flavor was so great because I ran out of powdered ginger, about ½ t. shy of a tablespoon, so I added in a bit of ginger juice from a jar of grated ginger I have in the fridge. Wow! What a difference. This leant a sharp, bright ginger flavor, in a good way. This recipe won’t win the Snackdown, but I’ll add this trick to whichever one does win, just to boost the flavor a bit. So, that was the baking part of the day. There’s more.

I got a new fridge! Finally, no more biweekly shifting food from freezer to cooler on the porch, then quickly back again as the temperature outside warms up. This fridge is sweet. It’s not a new one, but is bigger, roomier and brighter than the old one. And it keeps a steady temperature and doesn’t leak water all over everything inside. The only drawback is that it’s louder. I haven’t had a dishwasher for years, but every time I walk into the living room, I think the dishwasher is running. Then I remember that GC is the dishwasher, and it’s the loud fridge and I smile, because I have a new fridge.

And, finally, I test drove two cars yesterday: Mazda 6 and a Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata wasn’t on my original list, but I liked the look, and because it’s sort of an off-brand, I can get lots of bells-and-whistles for the same price as a base package in the other cars I looked at. Tempting, and it sure throws a wrench in my car buying research. I also really liked the Mazda 6. It’s really comfortable and is a bit more hip and fun than, say, another Camry, which is totally practical and reliable. I’ve spent hours today printing out specs and reviews; I don’t know when I’ll have time to read them, but I feel better with data at my fingertips.

So, holiday baking officially comes to a close. Cookies have been made, arranged on trays and distributed; snack mixes have been made and will be given away on Christmas; and the Chex Mix will be munched until it’s gone. I’ll be a-travelin’ for a while, so merry holidays!

Getting to Know All About You: What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

No holiday baking yesterday. I was too grumpy to muster up the Christmas spirit. I’m through shopping, but I still had errands to run and cars to test-drive. I headed out in a genial mood and decided to swing into Petco for a little holiday treat for Fat Larry. He likes those feathers on a stick that look and sound like birds flying about the room. I found a few other treats for Fat Larry’s friends, but as I was browsing, a jerkface with a Doberman came into the store. I am terrified of Dobermans, with good reason. I’ve been attacked by two at separate times in my life. The first was as a youngster; the dog bit my face and I had stitches. I’ll show you my scar sometime. The second time was in college and the dog bit a big gash in my ankle, leaving only emotional scars. This was a dog I had to live with for several weeks, and it terrorized me every single day. It got to the point where someone had to walk me from the gate to the front door, beating the dog with a stick on the way. I don’t advocate animal cruelty, but it was satisfying to see a bloodthirsty snarling dog get a beat down every day. Anyway, given my poor track record with Dobermans, I avoid them. Actually, I stand rooted, hands to the chest, frozen in terror, until I’m able to move again, at which time I cower behind anyone nearby, or cross the street or turn around and walk around the block. So this Doberman bounds up to me and I backpedaled to the safety of a display of cat towers. Thwarted, the Doberman found a chirpy poodle dressed in a sweater to terrorize. The staff had to get some treats to console the shaking poodle and distract the Doberman. The jerkface was unconcerned. Meanwhile, I tried to pay for Fat Larry’s treats and leave, but the Doberman began patrolling the check out. I hid. When the Doberman started sniffing bags of dog food, I crept back into line. The Doberman came back; I dropped my treats and bolted out of the store, mowing down a few people on the way. I had to sit in my car and shake for a while until I was ready to console myself with French fries. By this time, it was raining and I decided to put off test-driving cars. My nerves were already shot, and it’s scary enough to drive an unfamiliar car with a stranger watching you without adding in the slippery roads and idiot drivers who don’t use headlights or turn signals. Stupid jerkface and Doberman ruined my day.

I wrote the above entry right after I got home from the Doberman encounter. Later last night, while still reliving the terror, I thought it interesting that my response, after composing myself, was to get French fries. It’s natural that I would turn to food when stressed out; indeed, it’s biological. Stress lowers serotonin levels, the brain chemical that makes us feel happy. Raising the blood sugar level by eating sugar and refined carbohydrates temporarily causes the level of serotonin in the brain to rise, and puts us in a better mood, temporarily. Now, with a glycemic index of 75, fries raise blood sugar faster than almost any other food, except for a fistful of sugar. Fries are strips of the starchiest potatoes covered on all sides with fat. That’s a recipe for happiness, except that the serotonin levels drop and create cravings for other sugary and carby foods. If you stop yourself at the fries, you’ll be grumpy again in a few hours. If you give in to the cravings, you’ll be happy a bit longer, then grumpy later. I’m a bit disappointed that I went straight for the fries; I like to think myself evolved past base biological urges, just like I think that when it comes to death, an exception will be made for me. That Doberman set me back on a biological self-destruct cycle! It and it's owner should be punched in the face.

Getting to Know All About You: What do you do to cure a bad mood?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday's baking went much better than Monday’s. The failed cookie dough that I refrigerated overnight baked up into normal-looking cookies, though still a bit moist in a sticky sort of way, not an underbaked sort of way. Weird. But the best part of the day was that I learned how to make my own powdered/icing/confectioners’ sugar! I swear I bought a bag of icing sugar a few months ago when all I really needed was a tiny bit of what I already had in a nice canister, carefully labeled “Powdered Sugar” on the shelf over the fridge. Was it a box or a bag of icing sugar I bought? I wish I could remember, because one of the recipes I planned to make today needed 2 ½ cups of icing sugar, and I had only ~1 ½ c. in my carefully labeled canister. Doh! Where could the extra bag-box be? I looked in the cupboard in the wall (There’s an odd 3-4’ door in the top half of the wall in the living room; behind the door is a nook, with shelves. In here I keep my overflow supply of icing sugar). None. Dang. I already ran out to the grocery store once today because I ran out of molasses and cinnamon. I looked in my book o’ cooking substitutions and it suggested 1 cup of icing sugar is well represented by 1 cup of granulated sugar plus 1 T. of cornstarch, blended until powdery. Genius! It was still quite granular, but powdery enough to do in a pinch.

I also made the fifth of the Ten Gingerbreads of Christmas. This one included lots of spices and cocoa. It’s good. Really good, but not as good as the First Gingerbread of Christmas and in a different way than the understudy (the Fourth Gingerbread of Christmas). It’s difficult to describe in words. It’s nod your head as you chew good, but not stab the hand of the one who tries to take the last piece good. Does that help?

In the midst of all the baking and chewing, my landlord came by to take another gander at the ol’ fridge to verify my report of continued dripping water and steady freezer temperature. We took out all the food in the freezer, took out the false bottom and back, used a hair dryer to melt the sheet of ice that probably shouldn’t be there, nodded and agreed that something was indeed wrong and put it all back together again. I thumped the side of the fridge for good measure. We’ll go through this routine again, probably this afternoon.

Getting to Know All About You: Seen any good movies lately?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

As you all know, I love throwing things away. This includes shoddy recipes, but does not include food. I have already found two rubbish recipes this baking season. The first one I found several days ago. The weather got unseasonably warm and melted all the snow, along with the frozen food in the cooler on the front porch. I had a 3# bag of cranberries, all ready for holiday baking, that turned to mush and leaked bright red cranberry juice all over everything. I threw away a lot of food, but couldn’t bear to throw away such a bounty of cranberries. I had a recipe that called for 3# of cranberries and thought myself quite clever. The recipe was for cranberry jellies, a candy that sounded festive enough for Christmas. It was grueling. After simmering the cranberries with spices, I was supposed to pass them through a fine sieve. Impossible. I passed them through my food mill first, then through a fine sieve. That took about two hours and gave me Popeye muscles on my right arm. After that was easy; I spread them in a pan and put them in the fridge to firm up. I turned them out onto the counter, cut them into tiny cubes and shook them with some coarse sanding sugar until they were coated. They looked very pretty. Then I tasted one. Pow! Tart! I sprinkled a bit more sugar and put them in nice layers between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container while I decided what to do with them. I thought they’d be good mixed into a banana or pumpkin bread. I decided on a pumpkin bread so as to not confuse the ongoing Banana Bread Snackdown. When I opened the container today, they had exuded more cranberry juice and were seeping little lumps of gooey jelly. Argh! I stirred ~2/3 of those suckers into the bread batter. I made two loaves; I was that confident the bread would be good, or at least palatable. The jellies promptly sunk to the bottom of the pan and stuck to it. One loaf broke apart, with a few of the jellies clinging to the bread, but most jointed to the loaf pan in a crispy crust. The other loaf came out of the pan in one piece. Great things often come from mistakes; this is not a great thing. It tastes pretty good, but the jellied texture at the bottom of the loaf might be a bit unsettling. GC might take the good loaf to work to share with his colleagues. That’s right. I ain’t skairt to share my stinkers. I still have more of those little cranberry jellies left. I hate to throw away food; I’ll have to find some way to use up the rest.

So, that was the first rubbish recipe. The second was a cookie recipe. Date-Pumpkin Cookies. I have lots of dates still in the big tub ‘o dates I bought at Sam’s at Thanksgiving and I have fresh pureed pumpkin that I need to use, so this recipe had lots going for it. These are not cookies. The batter spread out a lot, so I ended up with an interconnected grid of cookies that were so thin and crumbly that it was nigh impossible to remove them to a cooling rack. They sunk between the grates of the rack and crumbled to pieces. What on earth can I do with these? I can’t give them away; they look like I put them in a bag and whacked them against the counter. I suppose I could mail them to someone and blame the post office for excessive roughness, except that I just gave away the ruse. I’m thinking about crumbling some up in a bowl of milk for breakfast, but what will I do with the other 7-½ dozen cookies? Actually I made up only 2/3 of the batter, then decided to try refrigerating the rest; maybe if the batter is cold when it goes in the oven, it won’t spread out as much and will have a more durable texture.

Anyway, those are two recipes I won’t be making again. Not a great start to holiday baking season. Hopefully today’s baking endeavors will go better.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had some dried manicotti shells in the cupboard, so I decided to go Italian last night. I made a filling with ricotta, cottage cheese, a shredded Italian cheese blend (Parmesan, mozzarella, Asiago) and spinach. I made the smoky marinara sauce called for in the recipe, using canned smoked tomatoes, and topped it all off with some more cheese. It was fairly easy to make, and I could do it early in the day and leave it in the fridge until I was ready to cook it. I also made a loaf of Italian pesto bread in my bread machine (using some of my frozen pesto!), and served that with some garlic-onion butter. Oh, yes, a good dinner indeed.

Four-Cheese Stuffed Shells with Smoky Marinara Recipe from Cooking Light, March 2003

This dish goes straight from the freezer to oven - no thawing required. The fire-roasted tomatoes in the marinara sauce give the dish a subtle smoky flavor. You can also easily vary the filling by adding basil or oregano and a different cheese. (We tried fontina instead of mozzarella and threw in some arugula for a peppery bite.) Make some garlic bread and a green salad and dinner's on.

I halved recipe to make just one pan; we are but two diners here, and had plenty of leftovers. I also halved the marinara recipe, but used the full measures of garlic, vinegar, s/p, and dried basil, parsley and oregano. I substituted one package manicotti for the pasta shells; several were ripped or torn, but I had just enough filling to fill the whole ones, and laid the bits of the broken shells over top of stuffed shells. I also used a shredded cheese blend of Asiago, Parmesan and mozzarella, and dried chives and parsley.

1 pound jumbo shell pasta (40 shells)
Cooking spray
1 (12-ounce) carton 1% low-fat cottage cheese
1 (15-ounce) carton ricotta cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Asiago cheese
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
6 cups Smoky Marinara
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Coat 2 (13 x 9-inch) baking dishes with cooking spray; set aside.

Place cottage cheese and ricotta cheese in a food processor; process until smooth. Combine cottage cheese mixture, Asiago, and next 6 ingredients (Asiago through spinach).

Spoon or pipe 1 tablespoon cheese mixture into each shell. Arrange half of stuffed shells, seam sides up, in one prepared dish. Pour 3 cups Smoky Marinara over stuffed shells. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella. Repeat procedure with remaining stuffed shells, Smoky Marinara, and mozzarella in remaining prepared dish.

Cover with foil. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

To freeze unbaked casserole: Prepare through Step 5. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing to remove as much air as possible. Wrap with heavy-duty foil. Store in freezer for up to 2 months.

To prepare frozen unbaked casserole: Preheat oven to 375º. Remove foil; reserve foil. Remove plastic wrap; discard wrap. Cover frozen casserole with reserved foil; bake at 375º for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the shells are thoroughly heated.

Yield: 2 casseroles, 5 servings per dish (serving size: about 4 stuffed shells and about 1/2 cup smoky marinara)

CALORIES 470 (30% from fat); FAT 15.7g (satfat 8.8g, monofat 4.7g, polyfat 0.9g); PROTEIN 28.3g; CARBOHYDRATE 52.7g; FIBER 5.3g; CHOLESTEROL 47mg; IRON 3.8mg; SODIUM 916mg; CALCIUM 508mg;
Cooking Light, MARCH 2003

Smoky Marinara

Look for fire-roasted tomatoes (we used Muir Glen) in the organic section or with the canned tomatoes in your supermarket.

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 (28-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano; sauté 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Yield: 6 cups (serving size: 1/2 cup)

CALORIES 55 (20% from fat); FAT 1.2g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 2.3g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 49mg; SODIUM 350mg; FIBER 2.3g; IRON 0.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 9g

Cooking Light, MARCH 2003

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In your comments, you guys reminded me of how much I too love breakfast for dinner, so tonight I'm doing it! We're going to have banana pancakes with peanut butter syrup and strawberry jam (weird, I know. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Hope it doesn't suck); eggs and soy sausage links. And gingerbread for dessert, as always. I made the Fourth Gingerbread of Christmas. This one is really good, but isn't quite as light and spongy as the First Gingerbread of Christmas. This latest is the understudy, if for some reason the First Gingerbread is unable to perform.

The year is drawing to a close, and at the risk of sounding like your dad, you're running out of time to check your credit report. Six or seven years ago, my identity was stolen, I guess. Someone changed the birth date associated with my social security number and took out several credit cards. I found out only when I was denied cell phone service for my very first cell phone. It took me a full year to sort it out; the whole ordeal was very frustrating. Now I vigilantly check my credit report every four months, through AnnualCreditReport (they allow one free credit report per year for each of the three reporting agencies, or three free reports per year). If you haven't checked your credit report at all this year, check all three. Do it now! Seriously. For the last six years or so, there has been at least one credit card reported that doesn't belong to me every time I check my credit report. This stuff lingers. I nip it in the bud by disputing the account right away, before too much damage is done, and it is usually easily cleared up. I checked my credit report today and, finally, no unusual or fraudulent accounts! Hooray! GC's credit report was clean, as always.

Your credit report is free; if you want to know your credit score, you'll have to pay. I don't bother with that. Credit scores are tricky, because they measure how well you can get yourself in debt and then how fast you can get yourself out. I'm sure I have a bad credit score, not because I'm a credit risk, but because I've never been in debt or taken out a loan. Anyway, you don't need to waste your money paying for your credit score.

By the way, the Thai food last night was OK. I had tofu ghung (veggies in a garlic sauce). It was good enough, and I'd order it again if I had to eat Thai, but I'm in no hurry to go back. In fact, I forgot my leftovers on the table, but I did manage to bring back the fishy-oyster smell with me. It was in my clothes and my hair. I had to change my clothes as soon as I got home, but kept getting whiffs from my hair. Yuck.

Getting to Know All About You: Shower in the morning or at night?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I did it! It's been hanging over me for a few days, but I finally finished my pre-holiday kitchen deep cleaning. Last night I got on a roll; I emptied out all of the cupboards and vacuumed out all the spilled food, spices and bits of packaging, then put everything back in an orderly manner. I wasn't unorganized before, but maybe a bit sloppy. My cupboards are ready for a photo shoot. I also cleaned the sink, the drainboard, and all the gunk that builds up behind the sink in the little groove between the sink and the wall. It glitters. It might not as valuable as a diamond, but I'd much prefer a sparklingly clean sink. Besides, blood, torture, slavery, terrorism, artificial valuation and snootiness are rarely associated with clean sinks. How'd you get me onto my diamond rant?

GC and I are going out for Thai food tonight. Not typically a fan of Thai food, I read an article about this restaurant that mentioned a dish that sounded appealing. I'm going to try it out to see if it tastes appealing too. Thai food, this is your chance for redemption.

Getting to Know All About You: What's your favorite ethnic cuisine?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

New York City recently banned the use of trans fats in restaurants. Trans fatty acids are naturally occurring unsaturated fats found in small quantities in meat and dairy products from ruminant animals. Everyone but vegans and vegetarians know how delicious meat and dairy products are, but why limit our trans fatty food intake to natural sources? Food scientists developed a way to make industrial trans fat, as a byproduct of partial hydrogenation of plant oils. This type of trans fat has no health benefits, and is thought to appreciably raise the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and slightly lower the levels of good cholesterol (HDL). We die a little bit inside with every bite of Little Debbie. Trans fat is used in food products to increase shelf life and decrease refrigeration requirement. It is used primarily in fast food, snack food, fried food and commercially baked goods. So, trans fat is bad for you, and so are the products that use trans fat. Instead of banning junk food, legislators in NYC have banned the use of trans fat, in what seems to me a gross overstepping of government bounds. I know that I benefit from many government regulations, like clean water, food labels and a regulated meat packing industry, but I still think these regulations are outside the proper realm of government. Why not just declare a Punch Trans Fat in the Face Day, and allow all New Yorkers to line up in Times Square or Central Park and punch mounds of shortening in the face? It seems just as effective, and less invasive and paternalistic.

I suspect that few people in NYC have been passing on the chicken-finger-and-fries platter because of the trans fat used in the frying oil; now, after the ban, they can crunch fried foods with abandon. No trans fat! Why, it's downright healthy now! While New Yorkers may have a few fewer heart attacks, I predict they'll get fatter. And probably still have lots of heart attacks. Have you ever been to New York City? Just navigating the sidewalks and avoiding distracted and harried moms who jam their baby carriages into your ankles is enough to raise your blood pressure. The only way I can understand how those people avoid hurling baby strollers into traffic is that they bottle up their rage, which increases blood pressure, which increases their chances of having a heart attack. NYC legislators would do more good if they outlawed baby strollers. Anyway, watch out, Chicago. You're next.

What will this mean for kosher Jewish delis and bakeries? Kosher establishments will be hit hardest by this new legislation, as they rely on margarine and shortening to stay on God's good side. This will make for an interesting showdown between religious law and municipal law.

Another piece of legislation, overshadowed a bit by the trans fat ban, requires NYC restaurants to provide caloric information for the food on its menu. This bill is a little bit confusing, because it applies only to restaurants with standardized menus that already provide this information to the public, such as fast food restaurants. From what I understand, many fast food restaurants provide caloric information on their websites or on pamphlets tucked away in dark corners of the bathrooms. Now they must provide this information on their menus. This puzzles me, because most fast-food restaurants don't have menus, but a huge board above the cash registers. That is, unless fast-food chains in NYC are classier than here in the Midwest. This bill is stupid, and will end up harming more than helping. Not only does it discourage restaurants from providing nutritional information, but it punishes those restaurants already making a good-faith effort to provide nutritional information so the consumer can make informed decisions. I suspect that many chains will pull down nutritional information on their websites and remove pamphlets before this legislation takes effect. This law will make us dumber.

In slightly-less politically-charged news, I made what is perhaps the worst gingerbread. This was the third of the Ten Gingerbreads of Christmas, and what little I could scrape off the parchment paper-lined pan tasted pretty good, but looked terrible. It was flat, sunken in the middle, greasy on the bottom and stuck to the parchment paper. I peeled off the bottom half of the gingerbread with the paper. How can something so oily be so sticky? This is the gingerbread to put out for the Grinch. I've got to step up the gingerbread-testing. Only 11 days until Christmas and 7 gingerbreads to go!

Getting to Know All About You: If you could make up any law, what would it be?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I usually make up each week's menu on Saturday or Sunday, and shop for what I need on Monday. Last weekend was cold, so I picked cold-weather food for the week. I didn't plan a big menu, because we were still working on eating all the leftovers on the porch, but I did plan the Wandering Gullet menu. Cold weather calls for hearty eastern European fare; unfortunately yesterday was quite warm. No matter. We had pierogies and turkey Polish sausage. I intended to make a Polish salad, but I didn't have the honey to make the dressing. We'll have the salad tonight. Anyway, the pierogies were just okay. I enjoyed making the dough and filling the pierogies. The filling was quite salty, so I omitted the salt in the boiling water and in the onion topping, and it actually turned out quite bland! I made the pierogies earlier in the week and froze them; I popped them, still frozen, into rapidly boiling water to heat them. I didn't turn down the heat, and I guess the boiling water was too rough because some split open and lost their filling. I think most things are better homemade, but in this case, I think I'll buy frozen pierogies in the future. They're quite good, always turn out well, and aren't time-consuming at all. My recipe made rather a lot of pierogies, so I'll try livening up the leftover with some salt and see how those turn out. (My recipe is from Gourmet, April 2004. The Epicurious site is down right now; I'll try to add a link to the recipe later.)

I didn't get around to cleaning the kitchen last weekend as I had planned. More pressing things came up, like reading the awesome cookbook GC's boss lent me and finishing Christmas shopping. I hate the mall. And it is doubleplusungood at this time of the year. I'm done with all the shopping (yay!); all that is left is the holiday baking, and that's the part I love.

Getting to Know All About You: What's your holiday shopping plan? Early or last-minute?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As holiday baking season approaches, I like to do a thorough cleaning of my kitchen. I'm not saying it's dirty, because it isn't, but the dark recesses and nether regions could be cleaner. I started the pre-holiday baking cleaning spree today by cleaning out the freezer, which wasn't difficult because most of our freezer food is outside on the porch in a cooler. I wiped down the inside and outside of the freezer and fridge. I didn't really spend a whole lot of time on this because we're getting a new fridge soon. I also wiped down the oven front, bottom and sides, cleaned out the junk that had fallen through the burners and washed those metal things under the burner coils. That was enough for today. Tomorrow I plan to wipe out the cupboards and drawers, and while I'm in the spice drawer, weed out all the old spices that need to be replaced.

Getting to Know All About You: Do you follow a house cleaning schedule, or clean as needed?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ah, yes, Red Momo, that is the age old question. Did you know that the world's oldest profession isn't prostitution, but cooking? Makes sense. And those cave women, I'm sure, sat around the fire grumbling about sifting the flour they've just gathered and milled.

The answer is to read the recipe carefully. If it says, for example, 1 c. sifted flour, it is important to sift the flour, then measure it. This is because flour gets packed in tight when sitting in the bag or in a container on the shelf. 1 c. unsifted flour is a significantly more flour than 1 c. sifted flour.

But, when the recipe says, for example, 1 c. flour, sifted, you can use your discretion. Sifting the flour with the leavening agents and the spices makes sure they are evenly distributed. I'm not sure how important this is, because all of the mixing will surely distribute those small amounts of powder. The amount of flour or the distribution of leavening agents and spices aren't really the issue here, it's the resulting texture. Sifting aerates the flour and makes for a lighter texture. If this is important to you for that particular recipe, sift! If not, skip the sifting. For this particular recipe, I'd sift. One reason why I liked this gingerbread was it's light, spongy texture.

I made the second of the Ten Gingerbreads of Christmas last night. This recipe didn't ask me to sift anything, though it did ask me to stir spices into the molasses and add baking soda to coffee, which seemed a bit unorthodox. This gingerbread was really good, but not nearly as good as the first. Why? The texture was a bit heavy (no sifting!) and the flavor was borderline too molasses-ish. The first was light and spicy; this was dark and heavy.
Scorecard: First Gingerbread 1-0-0.

Gingerbread is so versatile. It's great for dessert with a scoop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but it's also great for breakfast, with a little bit of butter. Yum.

Getting to Know All About You: What's your typical breakfast? What's your favorite breakfast?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I know, I know, I've already done China as part of this Wandering Gullet series, but I have many Chinese recipes to try out and the Kosher Gentile's recent post on Chinese food got me in the mood. I had part of a pork loin in the freezer/cooler on the porch and some linguine noodles from my treasure box, so I made Pork Lo Mien and bought some vegetable egg rolls. This recipe is a far cry from authentic Chinese food; it is an Americanized version of Chinese food, dumbed down for the average home cook. It contains no pig tails, chicken feet, duck tongues, preserved geese, dried fish, bean curd, duck intestines, snails or duck blood, but only Western culture-friendly ingredients like soy sauce, sugar snap peas, red onions, watercress and pork loin. That said, it still didn't pass muster. It was fine. That's it. I ate what was on my plate, but I didn't go back for seconds and I won't eat the leftovers. So, the recipe will not be posted here. It just isn't good enough; you guys deserve better.

Getting to Know All About You: What's the grossest thing you've ever eaten?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I didn't leave the house yesterday, except for some scavenging forays into the coolers on the porch. I baked. I made some awesome trail mix. If you guys like dates and live near a Sam's Club, they have a 3# bucket of pitted dates for something like $9 (not $9 exactly, but something like it). I bought one of these tubs before Thanksgiving, because I'm a big fan of dates, both raw and in baked goods, and I used some in this trail mix (recipe below). I also made some pumpkin muffins, using some of the pumpkin I roasted for Wandering Gullet Argentina. Now that the freezer is shot, I'm trying to use up all those bits and pieces of things I've frozen for a later use. The muffins were really good; I think I'll make some pumpkin bread with the rest of the pumpkin for GC to take into work on Monday.

Today I set up our first taller-than-knee-high Christmas tree. It's fake, white and pre-strung with Christmas lights, two of which didn't work, so I spent some quality time testing bulbs. Fat Larry seems to be unperturbed by the tree in the living room, so GC and I might decorate the tree tomorrow.

I did leave the house today, strapping on my two-year-old snow boots for the second time ever. Not much could get me out in the snow; I went to see a celebrity crush. My celebrity crushes aren't the typical A-list pretty-boy heartthrobs that grace magazine covers, but tend to be the people I'd like to hang out with (and some are celebrities only in my own mind). Tonight I saw Mike Shank, from American Movie. He was just as I expected. I asked a couple of questions in the Q&A session, but was too embarrassed to talk to him afterwards. How do I tell someone that I want to carry him around in my pocket? I'm kicking myself for forgetting to take my camera. I even left my brand new camera phone at home. Arrgh!

Getting to Know All About You?: Who are your celebrity (or celebrity to you) crushes?

Chunky Date, Coconut, And Almond Granola

Recipe from Bon Appétit, October 2006; originally published October 1992

I tend to not like oatmeal-based granola, so I subbed 3 c. corn chex for the oats, used whole almonds and slightly increased the amounts of coconut and cashews, and the butter and honey. For easier coating, I mixed the brown sugar and spices into the butter/honey mixture, then stirred that into the cereal mixture. Super good.

2 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup whole almonds, halved
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup (packed) pitted dates, each cut crosswise into thirds

Preheat oven to 300°F. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Melt butter with honey in heavy small saucepan over low heat. Pour over granola mixture and toss well. Spread out mixture on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add dates; mix to separate any clumps. Continue to bake until granola is golden brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes longer. Cool.

Do ahead: Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Makes about 6 cups.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Happy December!

We got quite a bit of snow dumped on us last night. Before the big snow, Gentleman Caller and I went outside to play in the sleet. We ran and slid down the street and had a hop-down-the-sidewalk-backwards contest (I won the first time; GC the next). We took Fat Larry outside; he ran around for approximately 1 minute, then high-tailed it to the porch and yowled at the front door. Not a SnowCat, that one. I took him out again today (he wanted to go) and dropped him in a big snowdrift, taller than he is. He scrambled back to the front door. He'd never survive a night on his own in the wild.

So, back to last night, after our romp in the sleet, I made some gingerbread. It seemed the right thing to do. I noticed that I have 10 recipes for gingerbread, so this begins the Gingerbread Snackdown, aka The Ten Gingerbreads of Christmas! 'Tis the season. And though this is only the first recipe, it's tops! The molasses flavor, which I find overpowering in many gingerbreads, was subtle and took a backseat to the spices. And the texture was so light and spongy and moist. Oh, yes, M.F.K. Fisher's mom knew how to make a good gingerbread. You can't go wrong with this one, but, mind you, a better one may be forthcoming:

Gingerbread

Recipe of M.F.K. Fisher’s mother. I thought it kind of strange to stir baking soda into molasses, but whatever. I did it. And it was awesome.

1-¼ c. flour, plus extra for pan
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1 t. ground cloves
½ t. salt
¼ c. butter, plus extra for pan
¼ c. sugar
¾ t. soda
½ c. molasses
1 egg, lightly beaten

Sift together first 6.

In a separate bowl, combine butter and sugar until well mixed.

Beat ½ t. of the soda into the molasses and mix well. Add to the butter and sugar. Add remaining ¼ t. of soda to ¾ c. boiling water and stir. Alternately with the sifted dry ingredients, add the water to the butter mixture. Fold in the beaten egg and pour into a greased and floured 8” square pan. This mixture will seem much too thin to make a cake but do not increase flour.

Bake in a preheated 325 oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Eat as is or top with whipped cream, ice cream or wine sauce.

Bonus: if you don't have a real Christmas tree, gingerbread will make your house smell like Christmas. Guaranteed.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)