Cooking like Crazy

Crazy woman cooking.

I just got in the mood yesterday to cook. But without tons of stuff in the house, I was cooking from the staples in the cupboard. That resulted in "survivalist soup" which actually turned out beautifully. (a large handful of mixed dried veggies, a handful of brown rice, a TBS of vegetarian 'beef' flavoured bullion, and 3 - 4 cups of water, plus the last bits of olive oil in the bottle and a half TSP or so of kosher-style salt)

I also made black eyed peas and some white rice.

And I had a salad for breakfast. With the last bit of left over coffee from the day before (yech, but I was out of beans).

Boyfriend gave me an old copy of The Joy of Cooking (possibly his dad's copy), and I decided to bake something from that - Egg Bread (challah). It turned out nicely, but I wish I'd added a bit more sugar, because I like my Challah sweet. But it was a good first effort, and I'll definitely try it again. Unfortunately I don't think I ought to feed it to the 8 year old, as the egg wash alone will probably give him an allergic reaction, never mind the three eggs *in* the bread.

Later in the day I got to the local market, where I cannot bring myself to purchase my staples. The curse of knowing the prices of most everything I buy at the big ol' grocery store. Food prices are rising though, that's for sure. It's a bit scary what I've read about stagnation of wages compared with the rise in prices for fuels, food, etc.

Later on I'll (hopefully) post about the lemon poppyseed muffins I baked this morning.

The Author as Headless Fatty

Oh, I've been working through some body issues lately. That's been fun.

Decided to track my food intake using an online program, while also limiting myself to 2000 calories a day (which, yes, for my body type/size/weight is below my BMR - which means if I just lay around all day my body would need more calories to work properly and maintain my weight).

And I've been weighing myself every day (yes, I've lost some). But, because I started to do crazy things with food (after only 4 days I start to look at things in the good and bad categories, or suddenly I'm "not hungry", even though I haven't had a thing to eat for 8 hours...bad habits die hard), I am not weighing again until the weekend.

But I've been going to yoga and moving more and that feels good. I'm working up to more exercise slowly, slowly, because I tend to overdo and hurt myself. I really am looking forward to working out over the holidays. I give myself permission to obsess about exercise then, if only it keeps me from becoming all sullen and depressed.

Anyhow, I was feeling all sassy this morning and took a few pictures of myself, one of which was a total "headless fatty" picture. And I looked and looked at those pictures of my fat self and felt all panicky. OMG I'M FAT!!!

Duh.

Deep Breath, Lady. You'll be fine.

[Several deep breaths later]

Yep, as I've been saying here, I'm fat. Obese by the standards of my doctors. I'm a round, curvy, voluptous and fat woman. And I'd better get used to it.

Not that I'm not looking forward to being differently curvy by next year (more muscle tone, yay!), but I am never going to be skinny (for me) again. I just don't see it in the cards.

And learning to accept the Fat me will be/is the first challenge to accepting the less fat me later on.

I'll post my headless fatty picture later on, if it seems like a good idea.

You'll likely also be subjected to my rant about fat and the world of the Y(MCA), because I've been noticing some stuff. Like Fat people get treated funny when they exercise. Not all the time, not always, but DAMN, I'm inflexible AND fat, not inflexible BECAUSE of my fat.

I'd love a yoga class with some fat women in it. Even some thin women with big breasts so I'd have a companion in misery when doing poses face first. How do you modify for boobs?!?

Kate Harding, have you got any fat positive yoga contacts in Madison? Help a sister out.

Oatmeal Gingerbread

I've been eating oatmeal nearly everyday for the past few weeks. When I make too much, I put the leftovers in the fridge, and yesterday I found a couple of cups of oatmeal (one scottish, one old-fashioned rolled), and decided to bake something this morning. Although summer isn't over yet (it's supposed to be in the 90s today). I made this recipe up thinking of fall...

Oatmeal Gingerbread

2 Cups prepared oatmeal
1/2-3/4 C milk
2 eggs
2 Tbs Molasses
2 Tbs Oil
2 Cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 Cup white sugar
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. kosher salt
Powdered ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, to taste

Preheat oven to 350º F, grease a large loaf or small baking pan.

Mix the oatmeal and 1/2 C of milk in a mixing bowl, getting out any lumps.
Beat eggs into the oatmeal.
Add and molasses and oil , mixing well.

In separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add spices to taste (I added a little bit of ancho chili powder to provide a kick).

Mix dry ingredients well and then add to wet ingredients and mix only until incorporated. If the batter is too stiff, add the additional 1/4 C milk.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, cool on rack.

This was really tasty! The molasses flavour isn't overwhelming, and the cake itself is very moist. Yum.

Note: my oatmeal had raisins in it, which added some texture, flavour and sweetness. You could add 1/3-1/2 Cup raisins if you like.

[EDIT: I had a piece with still-hot homemade apple sauce and a bit of cream drizzled over the top. Heaven.]

Yummmmmm

Last night bf and I visited some friends of his, and came bearing Polish delights:

A bag of potato and cheese pierogi (I helped make them back in December)
A fresh kielbasa link
Some Polish soup in a jar
A jar of tasty carrot/cabbage salad (d'oh, forgot the name)
Tiny egg noodles
Can of obscene yet delicious Bacon and Pork loaf (think Spam with bacon in it, resting in a bed of downy white lard)

Before dinner I got to follow around a SUPER CUTE 3 year old girl and play My Little Pony with her, as well as admire her collection of Spiderman stuff.

After dinner we hung out and watched a Porcupine Tree concert DVD (bf and I saw them play last year the night after they finished a 2 day taping for said DVD), which was great! Porcupine Tree MUST come to WI on their next tour. They put on a great show.

I was falling asleep by the time we took off at 10:30, but a few minutes in the brisk night air woke me up. And I wanted a hamburger. I sold it as a pre-menstrual iron thing, and I feel fairly confident about that, but the dinner was actually quite light. I was hungry. [/rationalization]

Couldn't bring myself to eat at McDonalds, so we stopped at Woody's and picked up a few things. Some ground sirloin, buns, crumbled gorgonzola cheese and some fancy 'natural' french fries... I mixed some seasoned salt and about 1/3 C of the gorgonzola in with the sirloin, then cooked it on relatively low heat while the fries were in the oven. Everything turned out really well, the gorgonzola that didn't dissolve into the pan (note to self, put a layer of cheese *inside* the patty next time) was melted into delicious little pockets in the meat.

We ended up staying up until after 2am watching the final three episodes of Torchwood (BBC Doctor Who spinoff). The last two episodes scared the crap out of me, especially the last one.

I really can't wait to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special!

More incredibly boring weekend tales can be told, personally very enjoyable moments in my life but not very interesting. Depression and zombification still present, but not winning. I feel better right now than when I posted last.

Chicken Livers and Okra

First I need to apologize: I forgot my camera at home so there is no pictoral to join this food post. :( But I'll do my best to impart a good picture of last night's feast of fried food.

I grabbed Palmer at his house and we head out for Mad Towne Chicken. I'd originally planned a really nutritious dinner at home, some fish, broccoli and carrots, and rice noodles with a ginger garlic teriayki sauce. But as we finalized our plans he said something about being in the mood for fried chicken, and it was quickly decided, we'd head to MadTowne Chicken and watch last week's Doctor Who while we ate.

The shop is a small storefront sandwiched in between a liquor store and a check cashing place. The fried stuff menu has stuff you might expect, chicken, catfish, fries, but they also offer up okra, chicken livers and gizzards too, and they have hot dogs, polish sausage, sandwiches and other delights. I had to have some fried okra and chicken livers, so we got an order of each. I ordered the small livers ($2.19) which came with fries. It was a pretty huge order. Together we couldn't finish it. Palmer got chicken and fries (comes with a soda, I picked out a Peach Faygo, just for the experience).

We took our fragrant, greasy, paper bags back to his house, singing songs of the dinner to come. Palmer sang a song about my not getting any fried okra, and his getting it all, to which I added some lovely parts about my setting his hair on fire, there by squelching his evil plans.

Our drive was well under ten minutes, but we both needed to taste a piece of okra and a french fry or two on the way. The okra was hot, really nicely done with a crispy batter. The fries are pretty standard fare, but provided a perfect foil for the other fried goodies.

We got home and fixed ourselves heaping plates of fries, chicken, livers and okra. A big puddle of Louisiana Habanero hotsauce and ketchup completed the dinner.

Yum! Although it might seem strange, a fried chicken liver is a wonderful taste sensation (I'm looking for a link to a foodie's post on fried foie gras, but cannot locate it at the moment). The crispy batter surrounds a really rich, creamy inside. They were rather dark in appearance, and at first I thought they'd been fried too long. As I ate I I decided that they just weren't very heavily battered. The liver itself wasn't greasy or overcooked, just perfect. The liver flavour was not overpowering (as with beef liver). But they are rich and to my mind best eaten as an appetizer or a side, not a meal.

The okra, as I mentioned, was hot and crispy. They were perfectly done, not mushy, and tasted fresh as opposed to over done. The lightness of the batter was nice too, so you mostly got okra instead of breading. The chicken was good. I have to admit I focused on everything else and so didn't eat any chicken until it was fairly cool. I think it would have been even better hot. The coating was crispy and not too salty. I picked those bones clean!

I stuffed myself, ate way too much hotsauce, and between the two of us we used up all the napkins we'd grabbed and a few paper towels. It was a great dinner. Not the kind of thing I could eat often, though.

---

The first time I had fried chicken livers was at The Praline Connection in New Orleans. They were delicious, served with gravy and grits. I was in heaven. I had them again a few years later at my grandmother's house in Alabama. My uncle cooked some up when he was frying chicken, and they were so good. I don't deep fry, myself, but if I did, chicken livers would be on the menu.

I've been thinking about making a southern breakfast like my grandmother used to. She'd make eggs with cheese, grits, and fry up patty sausage, red hot links (spicy sausage with bright red food colouring), bacon and baloney. This would be accompanied by a cup of coffee and a pile of toasted white bread with margarine and grape jelly (or her homemade pear preserves when she had them around). Like any good grandmother, she'd tell me to eat more, and would appear hurt if you only took one plateful of food.

I think if I could have a chance to go back to spend time with her, it would be a morning where she and I talked after breakfast, the weather channel on in the background and the ceiling fan pushing the hot air around the room that still smelled of breakfast cooking. Oh, and the part before that, when I actually got to eat.

Feeling nostalgic, missing Big Mamma (she died two and half years ago), and wishing I had plans to visit New Orleans again.

In progress

Comic arteest Lynda Barry had a great thing in one of her (old, pre-Ernie Pook) books about eating out of a can over the sink with a REALLY NICE SPOON. I relate to that, definitely. This weekend's eating can be boiled down to a pan of crispy rice squares and lukewarm coffee. I've got all of these random food-related things I'd like to write about here, my new French Press coffee maker, for one.

The coffee is so good - I can taste so many differences from my single-cup cone filter set up. Less bitter cup, but oddly less-strong, too. Maybe I just use too much coffee for the other method?

The coffee I'm using is mostly odds and ends from previous bags. A little Alterra Delta Mud, some Alterra Luna Negra, and the new stuff, a 'mud' blend from local brewers Dancing Grounds.

Template is in progress, as is my final word on what autonym will be.