Cooking cooking

I'm on an eggplant kick this week.  Too bad I know about 2 ways to prepare it.  No matter.  Fried it is!

Seriously, though, I have really hard time motivating to cook for one.  It's not that I don't still enjoy cooking, I just like cooking for someone, better than I like cooking.

I had Dave over for dinner Monday, and maybe went a little nuts.  But that's ok, it was appreciated.  :-)

Last night I cooked dinner with Michael at his place, and that was fun, if somewhat of a comedy of errors in the way that only Michael and I know how to do!  And, in theory at least, Michael knows how to make fried eggplant now too.

Cooking for myself, I have a tendency to do large batches, and eat the same thing for a week at a time.  Which is easy, but I'm not convinced that I'm eating enough of a variety to actually be as healthy as I'd like my eating to be.

Anybody who's on their own have any ideas for me?

Making, fixing, cooking, doing.

This hippy is happiest when kept busy.  I'm not always that good at prioritizing what I NEED to do over what I WANT to do, fun often wins out over responsibility until the last possible minute, but I'm getting stuff done.

One of the things I've been trying to do, since I need to do some serious downsizing in the next few months, has been to pare down the things I've accumulated in the kitchen.  Dry goods that I rarely use, but somehow have 3 tubs of, spices that I have duplicates of, more frozen fruit than I could eat in a month, that kind of stuff.

My close friend, and fellow hippy, Mikey has been enjoying the fruits of this quite a bit, sometimes literally. Like right now, I'm making a berry topping for when have breakfast for dinner on Friday.  He's gotten most of my duplicate spices, and we've cooked a couple of meals from stuff I just happened to have laying around.

Tonight, after painting a bit, and taking the orange cat for a walk in the park, I used some leftover blackberries that I froze after a trip to Trader Joe's last month, and the last of the dried jalapenos that Carl didn't want, even though they were his, and made Blackberry Jalapeno Sauce.

Yesterday, I made raisin bark with some millet that needed to be used, leftover semi-sweet chips from a batch of my Miracle Max's Death Pills, and a little bit of cayenne and most of the Himalayan Pink Salt I had laying around.

Tomorrow there will likely be no cooking because I have plans for a bike ride with my mom, but you never know!

Hippy Kitchen Magic

So, forever ago, I started writing a cookbook.  No one was particularly encouraging about it, and I understand some of it.  My mom didn't want to help me taste test desserts, she was trying to eat healthy.  No one wanted to try pasta dishes because everyone was eating low carb.

Well, I've got a friend who wants to learn to cook, and another friend who can't believe the way that I cook ahead for a week of breakfasts at a time, so I think it's time I pulled this project back off the back burner.  It's actually a two-fold project, probably going to end up as two cookbooks, but I feel like I may as well work on the recipes together because I can't just eat cake and biscuits, and even if I could I like a lot of variety in my food.

So one of the books is going to be super easy recipes made, in part from boxes mixes and ready to go items,  for people who don't like to cook for hours and the other is going to be single serve and easy to freeze make ahead goodies so simplify packing lunches and breakfast on the go.  If you have an idea you'd like to see me try, let me know, I plan on crediting where the suggestions came from.

Happy cooking!

Wish me luck!

(I'm not such a) Tough Mudder!

So, yesterday I participated in the Philadelphia Tough Mudder!  (Go, ME!)

And I have to admit, I use the phrase participate very loosely.  I only made it 1 mile!  I had to pack it in really early because of my knee.  I twisted it on Thursday, climbing this:

So it's not like I'm just a total wimp.

All in all, it was a good experience.  I learned a lot.  I had fun.  I spent some time with dear friends (who spent much more time with each other, because they actually finished).

I had a lot of trouble with my asthma in the humidity yesterday, which is new for me, and I think related to the pneumonia I had over the winter.

I made the first obstacle with no trouble, but by the time I got to the second one, my knee was already starting to protest the uneven ground and I couldn't adjust my brace because of all the mud on it.  So, rather than risking a serious injury, or preventing the boys from finishing, I bowed out gracefully and waited for them to finish.

They had a blast and now we all know the things we need to be better prepared for to do it next year.

I also noticed that I was, by far, the heaviest girl I saw all day who was a participant.  In a way, I'm proud of that, of the fact that despite my size, I tried anyway.  But mostly, I'm sad.  I'm sad that more bigger girls don't just get out there and try.  And closer to my heart, I'm sad that I let someone I should have been able to trust, affect me, my health and my self-worth in as negative a way as I have in the last few years.

But every day is new day, and a new chance to make a change, and change I will!  I'm already less lonely and more social than I've been in ages.  I'm spending time with more people who are better influences on me and I'm already seeing the positive impact on my health. (and my waistline!)  I'm eating better and keeping up around the house.  I'm getting art projects finished.

And most importantly, I'm really, truly happy for the first time in a long while!

Canning!

So, we tackled a couple of small home canning projects the other day.  We made 3 half pints of pickled garlic, 2 of which were promised to friends in exchange for sharing the recipes they create with it and we made 8 half pints of Blueberry Lemon Jam.

Highlights:

• It takes way longer than I ever thought possible to peel an entire pound of garlic.
• We ended up with an extra jar's worth of garlic and brine.  I could have processed an extra jar, I guess, but - jackpot!  I don't have to peel any garlic for the tomato sauce I'm making tomorrow.
• I couldn't find my zester, so the lemon peel bits in the jam are a bit big, but it's delicious anyway.
• Even after the jam cooked over, all over the stove, we still ended up with extra!  More than I could fit in the water bath pot, in fact.

The jam I would totally make again, but I wish I knew why my jellies seem to randomly cook over?  I think I may be hurrying them to a boil, but I'm not sure.  So far, I've made 3 batches of jelly.  2 cooked over, one didn't and I don't know what I did different.

The garlic needs to sit, at least until tonight before I can open it to taste.  I may not have the patience for pickles, it's making me crazy waiting.  And I'm dying to see what Liam and Lisa come up with for it.  They're both excellent cooks and the only people I can trust to remember my food allergies without having to interrogate them for their ingredient list.

As for what we're making next?  The list of what I want to make includes pretty much then entire Ball Blue Book, as well as their whole website and a bunch of stuff on Serious Eats.  So, pretty much everything!

Anybody want to narrow it down for me?

Herb Cubes

One of my favorite Hippy Tricks!

I love to cook with fresh herbs, I love to grow herbs.  However, I have terrible luck growing them indoors and it's worse in the winter!  So I buy them when I need them.  But at $2 or more a bunch, I hate to just use the little I need and then... what?  They don't last that long.  Especially once you've started chopping and tearing them to pieces.

So, this.  Chop your herbs finely (or not, depending on your preference) and portion them out in an ice cube tray.  Top them off with water and freeze.  Yes, they don't hold up that well in terms of appearance, but any juices and oils that they lose just end up in the water.

Once they're frozen solid, you can liberate your ice cube tray by just transferring them to a zipper bag.  Don't forget to label though!  You don't want a freeze full of unidentified green stuff in baggies.

This is also a great trick to help the cooking impaired in your house!  Premeasure the spices/seasonings for their favorite dished into ice cube trays, and notate how many cubes they need to add to the pot!  Perfect every time!