Unintentional Hiatus

Well, I'm back.  After an unintentional and rather long hiatus.  Since we last spoke, I've done a lot of cooking, had a vacation (or rather 'stay-cation'), celebrated Easter and bought my very first vehicle (only took me 29 years!)!  I've also fallen off of every wagon I had diligently managed to pull myself onto in the last 8 months or so.  Might as well get the uglies out of the way first.  

#1(and definitely the most important that I commit myself back to ASAP): Smoking.  

I was smoke-free for just over 6 months when a (mostly) unforeseen nervous breakdown (of sorts) danced me back into the grip of cigarettes.  It was a complete effort at temporary self-medication, and combined with my naturally addictive/hedonistic mentality, it quickly got hold.  

#2: Exercise.  

I had taken a break from my more strenuous routine to baby a knee injury that I didn't want to push until it caused any permanent damage.  It's been almost 2 months now since I have taken part in anything more strenuous than walks and crunches.  I do have a plan to get back I track (I just haven't started it yet.).

#3: The Veganism.  

Having been in "vacation mode" for the past few weeks, I have been indulging in way too many products of the animal persuasion.  I made a bunch of vegan dishes for Easter (3-bean salad, couscous taboulleh, honey mustard potato salad, cupcakes), but still scarfed down a hot dog, hamburger, chicken leg and big ass pork rib, while enjoying said salads.

But vacation's over now, as is the "breakdown," and the knee has healed up nicely.  No more excuses!  The veganism and exercise are going to be the easiest.  Step 1 is to go to the grocery store, as I am woefully low on fruit and veg.  Step 2 is to make my ass get out of bed every morning for an 8-lap walk/jog (gotta work myself back up to a jog/jog), and to do the new yoga DVD I bought each evening.  The yoga DVD is actually one I've owned for years on VHS.  As Blake broke my trusty ol' VCR a few months back, I was forced to make the upgrade.  It's a pretty fast-paced video which I've always really liked.  A previous yoga DVD I had bought was way too much laying on your back, reeeeeally slow-paced stuff, which had virtually no cardio benefits.  This one keeps it moving and really gets the pulse rate up while being good for limberness and all the other yoga benefits (plus it should be easy on the knees.). And then there's the smoking.  Oh, the smoking.  Sweet, treacherous smoking.  They ain't kiddin' when they say it's more addictive than heroin.  Not sure about my course of action on that one just yet.  Trying to wean myself back down to only a few a day right now.  Might try the gum or something.  Again, not quite sure yet.  

So for awhile this blog is going to be something of a "daily accountability journal."  I'm going to start logging my current weight as of each morning, total calories consumed for the day (I want to keep it at about 1,200), animal products consumed, exercise performed, and number of cigarettes smoked.  Fun, fun!! Oh, I should probably also mention that my goal weight is 135, I AM planning on eating the occasional egg, I want to work my way back up to jogging all 8 laps each morning, and eventually smoke 0 cigarettes a day for the rest of my life (just so you have a gauge as to how close I'm getting to my goals each day.).  

Back here tomorrow to start the nitty-gritty! Pics of my new ride coming soon! :)

Back to the Grind

First day back at work after a 4-day weekend.  Short post tonight 'cause I'm tired.  We went to the Bayou City Arts Festival on Saturday.  We got some more of the metal monsters we've been collecting for the past two years.  One in the form of a bottle stopper--

One in the form of a bottle holder--

We also got a cute print for the kitchen--

And a matching one for the bathroom--

Sunday we went and bought some flowers for the backyard, which I got planted yesterday (finished up some of them today).  Geraniums for the kitchen window and planters by the back door--

Impatiens for one hanging basket and a plant stand--

Moss roses for the rest of the hanging baskets--

And I got my sage and parsley transplanted to their new home--

Not much else going on right now.  I think I have the flu or just the most vicious allergies ever.  Time to settle down with my new favorite thing--a gin and tonic!

Oh! And maybe some watermelon (I gotta finish this damn thing!)!

'Night!! 

So much Nigella!

I got my two new Nigella cookbooks in the mail today, "How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking" and "Nigella Fresh: Delicious Flavors on Your Plate Year Round."  In honor of my double-Nigella day, you get one too, in the form of two more of my Nigella veganizations! :)  First up Rice and Peas (or Coconut Rice and Peas, as I refer to it).  I followed this recipe almost exactly (the original recipe will follow).  I just used black-eyed peas instead of the gungo peas, a jalapeno instead of a red chile, and when given the choice between chicken or vegetable broth, I of course opted for the vegetable (I used some of this batch that I had made earlier in the week.).

I also didn't have any fresh thyme, so I just left it out (I'm not a huge fan of thyme anyway).  So, to get started I sauteed 1 chopped onion in 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil along with the diced jalapeno and 2 cloves of minced garlic.

I cooked over medium heat until everything was pretty well softened, then added the 2 cups of uncooked rice (letting it brown in the oil for a second or two), 14 oz. can of coconut milk, 2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth and 14 oz. can of drained and rinsed black-eyed peas.

Bring everything to a boil, cover, reduce the heat and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes (this was longer than the original recipe called for).  Taste for salt and serve.  It was really tasty and different.  The coconut milk gives it an unusual flavor, but not like you'd expect.  It's really just a subtle background flavor.

Here's Nigella's version (verbatim of course) that I got from the Food Network's website:


Rice and Peas


--"Although this Caribbean staple is called Rice and Peas it is, in fact, rice and beans.  Traditionally gungo peas- also called gunga peas, Congo peas, no-eye peas or, most familiarly, pigeon peas- are used but don't make it a sticking point.  I've often used black-eyed peas, and once or twice cranberry or kidney beans.  The truth is, as the song almost has it, any bean will do."--


1 (14 oz.) can gungo peas or black-eyed
1 tablespoon vegetable or peanut oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chile, seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 (14 oz.) can coconut milk
2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
Salt to taste


Drain and rinse the gungo peas, and heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan that has a lid.  Fry the onion for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and again, letting it soften and brown a little.  Then add the chopped chile and garlic, and give everything a good stir around.  Now stir in the rice, making sure it is all slicked with oil, then pour in the coconut milk and chicken or vegetable broth and stir in the drained gungo peas.  Bring to a bubble, clamp on the lid, and turn down the heat to very low and let it cook gently for 15 minutes.

Check the rice is cooked through and the liquid is absorbed - give the rice another 5 minutes if it needs it.  Sprinkle with the freshly chopped thyme and season with salt if desired, forking it through.

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Next up is Petits Pois a la Francaise (or peas cooked in the French fashion), another recipe from "How to Eat".  Again very simple and I deviated from the original only slightly.  I used Earth Balance in place of the butter, I used Iceberg lettuce instead of Romaine, regular onions instead of green onions, and I added fresh basil at the end.

I served mine alongside garlic mashed potatoes.  I know it looks like a bit of a pauper's dinner, but it was pretty yummy.

Petits Pois a la Francaise

--"For the lettuce, I use part of a head of romaine, if I'm shopping specially for it, but otherwise I'm happy to make do with whatever I've got at hand.  I use fresh peas when I'm in the mood to shell them and when they're available; otherwise, I use a package of frozen young peas.  Don't bother to buy fresh peas ready shelled; there's no advantage here over frozen.  If you are using frozen peas, you won't have to cook them for so long.  I tend to thaw them first and cook them for about 10 minutes.  I like using chicken stock in place of the water, but this is not classic."--

3 tablespoons butter

3 1/3 pounds peas, in the pod, of 3 cups frozen young peas

1 small lettuce or 8-10 leaves of a larger lettuce, shredded roughly

6 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the peas, lettuce and scallions.  Let everything become glossy and buttery and then add 1/4 cup of boiling water, season with the salt and pepper, and add the sugar; remember that the liquid will boil down, so the seasoning will taste more acute in the finished dish.  You can always add more salt or sugar later, anyway.  And you may need to add more water if you're using fresh peas.  Put a lid on the pan and stew gently for about 20 minutes.  The peas should be tender and the juices scarce but thick.  Taste for seasoning.  Let cool, put in the fridge--for a couple of days at most--and reheat on the stove when you want to eat them.  You may need to add a little butter and water when you reheat. 

When serving, I like sometimes to strike an unorthodox note by sprinkling them with some freshly chopped mint.  Basil is wonderful, too--to me it always smells of summer.  Chopped parsley is always good.

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On another food note, my latest kick is topping salad with roasted potatoes in lieu of croutons.  Frigging delicious!  Last time I used roasted sweet potatoes over romaine lettuce with a honey mustard dressing.  Really, really good.  You should try it!! :)





Slut's Spaghetti

About this dish Nigella says (copied from her website): 

--"Well, how could I resist this translation of pasta alla puttanesca, 'whore's pasta' as it usually is described in English? The general consensus seems to be that this is the sort of dish cooked by slatterns who don't go to market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of jars and tins. I hold my hands up to that. Or maybe one should just attribute the name gamely to the fiery tang and robust saltiness of the dish? But, anyhow,what better recipe to start off this section devoted to the fruits of the larder. Please fire up the sauce if you want, but do know that even though the first mouthful might seem not quite hot enough, the heat builds as you eat. I sometimes go a little cross-cultural in my chilli-case and use hot red pickled jalapenos from a jar found on the Tex-Mex shelves of the supermarket. And while you're there, do look out for the tiny French nonpareil (or nonpareilles) capers: they may be smaller but they pack more of a pungent punch than the larger capers."--

This one was super easy to veganize; I simply left out the anchovies it calls for at the beginning of the recipe.  For my version I just gathered together the following: 1 can (14.5 oz) whole tomatoes, non-pareil capers, pitted kalamata olives, garlic, parsley, olive oil and crushed red pepper flakes.  

I got the spaghetti boiling (about 3 servings worth/6 oz.) because the sauce doesn't take long to cook.  Heat 3 tbsp. of olive oil over medium heat in a good-sized frying pan.  Add 2 cloves minced garlic and probably about 1/4 teaspoon of the crushed red chili flakes.  Cook just until the garlic starts to gets the tiniest bit golden, then add your can of tomatoes (with the juice) and crush them up with your spoon.

Rinse out the tomato can with about 1/4 cup of water and add it to the pan along with about 10 whole olives and 2 tbsp. of the capers.  Let it simmer away over medium-high heat until slightly reduced.

Toss it with drained spaghetti and top with a handful of chopped fresh parsley.  Voila!

This recipe (as I said earlier) is almost exactly the same as Nigella's.  If you wanted the 100% completely authentic version, just add 6-8 chopped anchovies to the oil at the beginning before adding the garlic.  Cook them until they virtually melt away, then follow as above.  It's really yummy, but very flavorful.  I didn't even bother trying to feed it to Blake (he hates olives anyway).

Okay, so I've still got Coconut Rice & Peas and Petits Pois a la Francaise to come, so stay tuned!

Oh, this is off subject, but a dove decided to make its nest in an empty hanging basket in my backyard.  Thought it was kind of cute, so I snapped a couple shots the other day.  Crazy bird! :)

 

Slow Saturday

The middle of the month is always slow, but this is bordering on ridiculous.  Especially for a Saturday.  I've fielded quite a few phone calls so far, but the only person to step into the office at this point is the mailman.  Because of this, I spent a bit of the morning taking pictures of food.  I have neither the equipment nor the skills for any super artsy or high quality photography, but snapping shots of food (and flowers in this case) makes me happy.  We went grocery shopping last night, so I had lots of inspiration!

And witness the evolution of some beautiful tulips I bought the other day!:

I noticed this morning that a single stem had somehow gotten irrepairably bent, so I found a small bottle and now his new home is in the kitchen windowsill next to the Christmas cactus.

More Nigella recipes coming soon; promise!

Fairy Cakes!

Oh!  And a Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Getting to the point though, it's high time I started posting some of the Nigella experiments I've been going on about.  I've been aware of Nigella Lawson for some time, mostly from her appearances on the Today Show, but I fell in love with her this past Christmas.  I stumbled across a blog called "Rachel Eats" (www.racheleats.wordpress.com) while googling red cabbage recipes.  I loved the blog and as I read more and more of her entries, she kept talking about Nigella, featuring her recipes, etc.  So I ordered Nigella's first cookbook ("How to Eat") and started watching her videos on youtube.

I was mesmerized.  Then, as my obsessions often do, it tapered off a bit.  Now it's back with a vengeance thanks mainly to the Cooking Channel and the Food Network, as between them they regularly air 3 different Nigella shows. As I watched the shows, I realized that there were actually a lot of her recipes that could fairly simply be veganized; outside of recipes which center around a large cut of meat at least.  But a bunch of her side dishes can actually be meals in themselves, so that's what I started focusing on.  Plus desserts.  Vegan desserts are really easy and usually turn out pretty close to their non-vegan counterparts (Usually. Blake still can't find a homemade vegan brownie that suits him). So, for my first installment, I thought we'd start with dessert!

These little cakes are meant to be made using a full-size muffin tin, but as I'm still counting my calories, I decided to use a mini version.  The cakes came out to almost exactly 100 calories and 3 grams of fat each (including icing, using my version, that is). It's kind of a lot, as they are quite small, but they're perfect for when I just need a tidbit that satisfies my sweet tooth.  Plus they are, frankly, the cutest things I have ever seen.  I think that they are technically meant for children, but they made me happy just looking at them, and it still makes me happy looking at the pictures (though the cakes themselves have been gone for sometime now).  And Blake liked them, so I know they were a success!

My version varies in the ingredients as well as the form of preparation.  I also cut the recipe in half (yielding exactly 1 dozen mini cupcakes.  The original yields 1 dozen regular sized cupcakes.).  In the original recipe (which will follow at the end of this post), she blends the ingredients directly in a food processor.  As my version was going to make such a small amount of batter, I went ahead and just blended everything together in a bowl with a wooden spoon.

For my version, I simply blended 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance margarine in the bowl with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until it was smooth.  I sifted in 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and the tiniest pinch of salt, and omitted the eggs altogether; didn't even use a substitute.  I used about 3 or 4 tablespoons of almond milk which is more than the original recipe, but I had to compensate for the lack of moisture from leaving out the eggs.  I blended everything together with a spoon until it was smooth and the consistency you would expect of cake batter. The amount of batter seems like it well never make enough cakes, but it worked out exactly; you just have to be cautious about how much you fill them at first.  You can always go back and top off any that look skimpy. Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray (or using muffin liners), fill each about half full, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.  Different ovens cook at different speeds, so just start checking them around ten minutes.  They bake incredibly quickly!

When they were done I let them cool in the pan on a rack for a few minutes before taking them out of the pan to continue cooling on the rack.  Then I set about making the icing.  Ridiculously simple.  I just mixed together 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of the almond milk and a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional of course; you could use vanilla or nothing at all) until it was a good dribbling consistency.  I colored it with 2 drops of red food coloring (I love a pink cupcake!).  I spooned the icing over each cake when they were cooled but while they were still on the rack.  The icing is fairly runny, so I put some paper towels underneath to catch any wayward icing.

Traditionally you top each with a maraschino cherry.  As instructed in the original recipe for mini cakes, I cut the maraschinos in half. Blake's not a cherry-on-a-cupcake fan, so I topped four with cherries to satisfy me, and the rest with star-shaped sprinkles for him. I have never seen cuter cupcakes in my life!

They were so cute, so tasty and so easy that I've decided to make a batch of them for Easter.  I'll probably make them full sized and I even thought about making some of them jam-filled.  I'm going to tint the icing several different pastel colors.  I think they'll be a hit!

Here's the original recipe, verbatim, from "How to Eat" by Nigella Lawson:

Fairy Cakes

--I haven't got a heart of stone; I do realize that children sometimes like making children's food.  If we're going to have tea with friends who have children the same age as ours, we sometimes make a batch of these British-traditional, simply iced, and cherry-topped cupcakes in the morning to take with us.  They go down well with the nostalgia-minded parents; the children just pick off or lick off the icing.

   I use a processor, but if you want to make the fairy cakes by hand, cream the butter and sugar, then add the beaten eggs and flour in alternate tablespoons.  Use milk to bind, as usual, and you won't need the extra baking powder.--

1 cup all-purpose flour

pinch salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft

1/2 cup superfine sugar or vanilla sugar

2 eggs

1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, if not using vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with paper liners.  Put all the cake ingredients except the milk in the processor and pulse furiously.  Then pour in the milk and process again till you have a smooth, flowing cake batter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden around the edges, and cool on a wire rack.

When properly cool, make the icing.  You can make an ordinary glace icing--that's to say 2 cups of confectioners' sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons of milk--or you can make thicker, stiffer royal icing, whipped up from 3 cups confectioners' sugar, 2 egg whites, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice.  Dye as you wish--we run through the full gamut of pink ranging from ballet pink through Pepto-Bismol to all-out Barbie, depending on the intensity of our mood and heavy-handedness with the bottle of coloring.

When the icing is still wet, let your child place a maraschino cherry in the center of each.  You can make double the amount in mini-fairy cakes if you prefer (and then, when topping them, remember to slice each cherry in half); just use a mini-muffin pan.

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*sigh* I love her. :)

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Weekend of Indulgence(s)

And as much as I enjoyed it, I'm glad to get back to normal.  Less guilt.  Blake's mom left for Dallas on Friday afternoon, so we'll have the house to ourselves for the next week or so.  With all of the deprivation going on around here, it was starting to grate on me.  So Saturday evening after work I decided we deserved a treat.  We live literally next door to a Carrabba's (plus we had a gift certificate burning a hole in our pockets) so we traipsed on over around 6 o'clock, trying to beat the Saturday night rush.  Everything was so good.  Blake wanted the fried mozzarella appetizer but I wanted the calamari, so we agreed on the antipasti plate which had both (plus bruschetta!).  I've discovered in my old age that I can now handle having a drink or two without then having to get totally smashed, so I had a pomegranate martini.  Terribly foofy I know, but it was really good (I came home that night and made one myself, and I actually liked the homemade one better; less sweet).  Caesar salad and veal piccata to follow, and tiramisu to go.  It was so satisfying that I felt the need for a smoke, so I had one on the walk home (aaahhhhh, so many revisited vices at once!). 

Went back to my vegan regimen on Sunday, and now I feel I probably need to get back to my regular exercise regimen.  I pushed a Jillian Michaels-induced knee injury for about a month longer than I should have, and as a result, for the last 3 weeks or so, I've had to kind of give it a rest.  I dropped my calorie intake to 1,200 a day in an attempt to balance out the lack of exercise, but my knee doesn't hurt anymore, so I'm probably going to start it up again.  I think I'm only going to do it 3 days a week for awhile to see how my knee reacts.  I've actually pretty steadily kept losing weight without the strenuous exercise, so I'm just going to keep the calories at 1,200 and see how it goes.

I have very happily been veganizing a bunch of Nigella Lawson recipes over the last week, and I'm going to start posting them soon.  Making another one tonight- Mexican lasagna.  Stay tuned!