Delicious Bass

Delicious Cod!

2005-07-12T18:52:00.000-04:00

To be followed by delicious bass when I get the recipe worked out. IE when bass is on sale.
This is a recipe my mom made when I was younger although she hasn't made it in about 15 years. It tasted just like it did when I was 10 when I made it the other night though.

Heat oven to 375*.
Mix 1/2c melted butter, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 clove garlic minced, 1/2 tsp rosemary, 1/2 tsp basil and 1/4 tsp tarragon.
Place cod or light white fish in a nonstick pan, cover with above solution. Bake 10-12 minutes for every inch thick the filet is at the thickest point. Basically until flakey. Garnish with chinese mushrooms and green onions about 1-2 minutes before fish is done, if desired. It really doesn't need this.

Next time I'll try adding a little more soy sauce because soy sauce is delicious.

Weekend experiments

2005-05-30T20:11:00.000-04:00

The flexibility of weekends allows me more time on my food preparation. Since the closest to working I got to on Saturday and Sunday was cleaning my apartment and working out, you could say my time was flexible. If not packed full of hobbies and such. Anyway, I made some new/varied dishes that I thought might be good to share.

Spaghetti and Sausage
This time I sauteed garlic, onion (1/2) and a red pepper in olive oil while cooking the sausage. The sausage was cooked in a frying pan with about half an inch of water and the other half of the onion on medium heat. When it was cooked through I sliced it up and added it to the veggie mix. Then I added some tomato and pesto sauce. The rest is pretty standard. I don't know if it turned out much differently than it would have had I made sauce from scratch with onion, garlic, peppers and pesto but if you have limited fresh ingredients like I did this is quite tasty.

Salsa Chicken
A sale on chicken a few weeks ago may or may not have been related to the freakishly huge chicken breasts in stock. At any rate, I got a few pounds of chicken at half price. I really should've cut the chicken breasts in half before I froze them because I only ate half of it last night but now I have leftovers. Anyway, my chip to salsa ratio was less than one so I dumped the rest on top of the chicken breast and cooked it for 1 hour at 325*. For the last five minutes I added some chopped cheddar to the top. I ate this with some salad and fresh green beans but I think I'll eat the second half with some rice and mixed veggies. I recommend this if you get bored with chicken like I do.

Steps to a healthier me

2005-05-26T08:39:00.000-04:00

I went to mypyramid.com to see what the government had to say about my caloric intake. I eat pretty well, minimizing snacking and whatnot, so the biggest change that I would have to make there would be to eat more whole grains, probably less grains in general, and more fruits and veggies. However, they calculated my caloric intake at 2200 calories a day. This is for a 24 year old female who does moderate to vigorous activity for at least 30 minutes a day. Moderate activity includes walking faster than a snail so even when I don't work out I do enough other activity to count under these guidelines.

This just confirms my suspicions that my metabolism is messed up. I run several times a week for at least 2 miles each time and by my best estimates I'm only eating 1500-1700 calories a day. I should be shedding my spare tire (spare bike tire, I know it isn't big) easily. I sleep 6-10 hours a day, more toward the 8-10 range on the weekend, but I'm still tired frequently, which is the other reason I suspect my metabolism.

Anyway, I'm going to try to stick to the amounts of each type of food they suggest, you can conveniently print out charts for yourself, and I'm going to try to work out more. I'm also going to switch my vitamins back to a normal one a day when I'm done with this bottle because the energy boosting ones are crap. I think I'll also see my doctor at some point. Well, a new doctor. My current PCP thinks I'm a hypochondriac and dodges my calls. I was just looking for a referral to see an eye doctor. If I don't need one in this system they should have said that. It's not that I'm worried about my health, except a bit with the irregular heart beat thing that sometimes happens that this doctor also ignored, without listening to my heart, but if this chart is accurate and I'm eating 67% of the total calories it recommends and just managing not to gain weight, perhaps something else is wrong.

Bottom line, check out the pyramid and see what it says for you if you're curious or looking to improve your health. Eating right also prevents cancer. Sorry, I had to add that.

fantastic link

2005-03-21T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is a great site. I've found some great recipes here, including one for a spinach/marscapone-stuffed salmon that I made two Easters ago. Hey! It's almost Easter again. Alas, I made corned beef and cabbage so I don't think I'll shell out for salmon on my own. Last year I had my prelims the day after Easter so there wasn't any cooking going on then. I like to cook though, so maybe I'll find something less expensive to make this weekend.

hummme, hummyou, hummthem, hummus

2005-03-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

Put the pita bread in the oven at a warming temperature for 10-20 minutes until it starts to rise and brown on the edges.

Sprinkle cumin in a line across a plate.
Add the hummus to the plate.
Pour A LOT of olive oil on top of the hummus.
Sprinkle a line of paprika across the plate perpendicular to the (covered) line of cumin.
Stick tomatoes, pickles, olives or peppers around the edge of the plate or as a garnish on top.

Scoop some hummus up with the pita, chew, pop in the pickle or olive, finish chewing.
Keep a poker face until you're done eating so no one else catches on. :-)

Pounds and pounds of cheese

2005-03-07T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is something I made with Sanjay and Matt for a dinner party that ended with me drinking tequila straight to stop the sobering up. It did not work. The food was delicious though. I may post on the hummus we ate that night as well, since it was amazing. But first, CHEESY lasagna.

Chop up some peppers, two or more colors creates a nice aesthetic. I recommend yellow and green. Two to four peppers should do it.

Mix half the sauce (a plain marinara or something with a bit of wine flavoring) with the chopped peppers and half the sauce with some pesto, about a cup of pesto to a can of sauce was what we used. It all depends on the size of your lasanga, a 1:2 ratio of pesto to sauce sounds about right.

Put a layer of pesto sauce on the bottom of the pan followed by ricotta and noodles. Put a layer of pepper sauce on top of the noodles, followed by ricotta and more noodles. Put these noodles perpendicular to the other layer, this requires cutting them in half to two thirds.

Repeat this process to the top.

Add a crap load of mozzarella and parmesan. This is to taste, really, but you've already added a lot of ricotta so why stop now.

Bake at about 350* for 45-60 minutes or until the sauce and cheese start to bubble and the edges of the top noodles are crispy.

I realize these are crappy instructions, but we really just winged it. I think we used 2 cans of sauce, a pound of noodles, a pound or two of ricotta, 3-4 peppers, a cup of pesto, a cup of parmesan and two cups of mozzarella. Like a said, pounds of cheese.

This meal is best when served with a nice potato vodka and while watching Three Men and a Baby and pointing out how all the heroin should totally be coke.

Fiesta!

2005-03-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

You can file this under mexican dishes, if by mexican you mean that interpreted by an American of Irish-Polish heritage who has been to neither spain nor any country in south/central america. In other words, you may see this at taco bell soon.

Veggies
Cook some corn niblets. If this part is hard for you, consider jumping to garnish.

Sides
Spanish rice and black beans are great together. If you find black beans and rice packaged together, I prefer Vigo, that'll work. Or you could use Lipton spanish rice and a can of black beans, which is what I did tonight. (Add the beans when the rice is done.) Or you could make it all from scratch. Show off.

Meat
Bake chicken, 25-30 minutes at 350* works for me but as long as it runs clear and isn't burnt you're fine. I wasn't ever taught the proper temperatures for cooking meat. Before baking coat the chicken breast in olive oil, dribbling it on is fine. Then add a generous amount of chili powder, some black pepper and ground onion. I'm betting that adding chopped onion and tomatoes and peppers to this will make it even better but I'm poor and can't always have fresh vegetables for cooking. What else are spices for?

Garnish
Some tostitos/doritos/fritos are nice as a side or rice and beans scoop.

Vanilla Crapple

2005-02-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

This will be the first of hopefully many alcoholic drinks that I have invented or had a hand in inventing. It's quite simple and really delicious; oddly the cranberry juice and vodka smooth each other out and complement each other. Yes, I know that the Cape Cod/Vodka Cranberry already exists but the cranapple/vanilla flavors make it SO much better.

You need:
Cranapple juice
Vanilla Stoli, or whatever vanilla vodka you prefer

Mix to your taste/tolerance.

Megrolls

2005-02-19T22:25:00.000-05:00

These egg rolls are a favorite amongst my friends, especially Joe. They're relatively easy to make but it does take a while to do everything, about an hour depending on how fast you are and if there's someone to help you. The recipe makes 12 egg rolls.

Ingredients
2 cups bean sprouts
2oz mushrooms (or chicken, pork or shrimp)
2oz scallions
2oz carrots
2oz bamboo shoots
2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus oil for deep frying
1 tbsp soy sauce
12 egg rolls
1 egg, beaten or corn starch paste for sealing rolls

Chop all vegetables into thin strips.
Heat vegetable oil (2 tbsp) in a wok, add vegetables and cook for about 2 minutes. Season with salt (rice wine optional) and cook 2 minutes further. Let mixture cool.
Place approximately 2 tbsp of the mixture in each egg roll wrapper toward one edge. Fold in the sides and roll each one up brushing the joints with the egg.
Prepare and deep-fry egg rolls 2-3 at a time for 4-5 minutes or until golden. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Adapted from Step-By-Step Chinese, Hsiung and Lee, 2001.

Welcome!

2005-02-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

As the blurb says I'd like this blog to be a place to talk about food and share great recipes. If you're interested in posting simply provide your name and email and I'll hook you up with the password.

The former copy editor in me asks that when you provide a published recipe please mention the name of the book or link where you obtained it. If you find recipes in an antique bureau or hutch and share them all disputes are to be settled between you and the soup nazi in some other forum. The scientist in me asks that if you're providing specific dieting advice that you also provide some type of link to verify the healthiness of that plan (ie no atkins, no soup diet, etc). Suggestions along the lines of 'yogurt is good for you' or 'x has trans fats in it, avoid' are fine as they are. Other than that as long as talking about cooking doesn't cause you to leave behind established social norms, I can't think of other rules.

Clearly as much information regarding preparation time, calories per serving, complementary wines, etc that you can provide is fine although really the information necessary to repeat the recipe is the only requirement.