May 12, 2008
Makes Fat Cells Self-Destruct!
That was a headline I read on a magazine at the grocery store. It was advertising some antioxident supplement. In case you are wondering, this sort of thing does not work. And even if it did... would you want your fat cells self-destructing? What then? It sounds like the urban legend about what happens if you eat a lot of pop rocks and drink a Coke.
In other news, I've discovered that people like it when blog content changes a lot. Almost no matter what it changes to. Think about it: you check in on your favorite blogs. New content: you experience a little rush of excitement! No new content: there's a let down, a moment of sadness as you realize that you're stuck reading the comments. If you check in on a blog enough and there's no change, you stop checking as often. I find I actively get annoyed when there's no change in my favorite blogs, especially the ones that are more like professional bloggers, not just friends of mine (whom I tend to have more sympathy for when life prevents posting.) I also really like it when people post links to other people's blog entries, or to various medical studies, or whatever. Mary has done that a lot lately. It gives me more things to read without having to look for them.
In conclusion, I've decided to post more often, even if it's just stupid stuff. At least you can't be sad that I'm not posting. It also cuts down on the number of friends and family inquiring as to whether or not I might be dead.
Posted by april at 4:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
May 11, 2008
More Stuffed Stuff!
I do love to stuff stuff.
Today's lunch:
Stuffed Yellow Squash:
Hollow out a yellow squash (I use a measuring spoon to do this.) Mix the innards of the squash with 50 g grape tomatoes, halved or quartered, and 2 tablespoons fat free sour cream, plus garlic powder, cumin, and chili powder. Put the mixture right back into the hollowed out squash, and top with little driplets of Smoked Chipoltle Tabasco. Then microwave for just a minute. If I'd thought of it before I put it into COM, I'd have used some fat free mozzarella on top, but too late now. Top with a teaspoon of olive oil. And that's just one of the dishes.
Ginger Mango Stuffed Napa:
Take a leaf of napa cabbage. Put it on a plate. Take 140 g frozen mango chunks, 20 g fresh diced ginger, and a dash of cinnamon. Microwave. Put the mixture into the napa leaf, and add a few hazelnuts and 30 g avocado.
The giant "side" dish is going to be broccoli with eggwhites steamed in lemon juice with garlic and olive oil.
I don't really feel the need to have entree, side dishes, dessert, etc. I just like to put together dishes and serve them. Some are big, some are little, some are stuffed. All are fun. I'd like to do a chef's tasting menu, with little course after little course coming out, each one set down in front of the eater as the previous empty plate is whisked away. Anybody want to come over?
Posted by april at 10:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts It's Made Of
[Warning: this entry gets really silly at the end. If you can't handle it, go read Dr. Stacey.]
I happened to be on the phone with Danny California while I was cooking dinner last night.
"What do you think about putting together lemon (both juice and peel, diced) with fresh ginger, two kinds of squash, and shiitake mushrooms?"
He was all for it. Of course he is the king of mushroom obsession (the kind you eat, just to clarify) and he does a lot of sorta Asian fushion stir-fry type of dishes. I put the dish together in a little pot and served it over eggwhites (but you could serve it over pasta or rice or nothing) and it turned out great. MR added a dash of garlic powder, and I'll probably use fresh garlic next time I make it. I also thought it would be great to make with shrimp or scallops. The trick is to juice the lemon, put the juice in the bottom of the pot with just a bit of water, and then dice up the peel and the ginger very finely and stir them around for awhile before adding the veggies. Some people have allergies to uncooked shiitakes, so be sure to cook those well.
I've been cooking with a lot of fresh ginger this weekend. Yesterday I made a fairly classic broccoli dish with garlic, ginger, and low sodium soy sauce. Today with lunch I'm going to use some frozen mangoes and spike them up with ginger and do something to them... haven't decided what as of yet.
One of the things I love most about cooking is that you can create tastes that are so radically different from the taste of each ingredient alone. I like to blend just a few strong ingredients, not a list of twenty, but high quality, fresh stuff, and then let them talk to each other and decide what they're going to taste like.
I called Danny back after our conversation because I wanted to tell him, in more detail, how much I appreciate the work he did on the Scranton campaign. It was his first union campaign, and he passed every test with flying colors. The most important thing, I've figured out after watching numerous organizers crack up, freak out, and burn out or run screaming out the door, is the ability to hold it together under pressure. It doesn't matter how you manage to hold it together, you just have to do it. Some of us do it by reaching out to our co-workers for support. Some of us need more space and time alone when it's crunch time. Some of us stop eating, some of us eat too much. Most of us drink an extra glass of wine and feel pretty good if we cut ourselves off at that. Doesn't matter how or why you do it, only that you do it. He did it. Both of my young organizers, Danny and little Lisa, held together beautifully under pressure. There were so many moments when I was quietly very proud of them, and since the campaign I've taken time to congratulate both on their personal victories. It's funny because they both have such good instincts that it never occured to them to screw up the way most organizers would under the same circumstances. So I had to point out to them how they could have screwed up and didn't. "You don't have adequate information to understand how good you are," I said to Danny. Funny how I can make a compliment sound a bit condescending... didn't mean to, but it's true. Until you've trained a bunch of people, you don't know all the ways that people can fail.
I know I wouldn't be able to keep doing the work I do if it weren't for my co-workers. Edward, Susie, and now little Lisa and Danny C. They make it all bearable. Hmmmm... is that how you spell that word? It looks funny, like it involves a bear. The furry, growling eat you for supper kind of bear. Points to ponder. I'm sure MR's mom will know.
Point being, without my co-workers, I'd be like fresh ginger without garlic, lemon, and soy sauce. There. Now it's a blog about food. There you go. I wonder which one would be which. Danny is definitely the mushrooms, since he eats so many mushrooms that they probably make up a large percentage of his body by now. I think Susie is ginger: unusual, spicy, interesting, versitile, and something you have to have with your sushi. Edward: as much as he hates them, I'd have to say he's like eggwhites: pure protein, no fat, no frills, the thing that has made me stronger than I ever though I could be. Little Lisa could be the lemon: full of sunshine and a wonderful addition to just about any recipe, but with just a bit of a bite. She's beautiful and sweet, but she's no shrinking violet.
MR is a nut. Cause he has so much unsaturated fat.
I think I would like to be Nancy's Organic Cottage Cheese. Half protein, half carb, lots of calcium for building strong unions, and just a bit of a kick from the live cultures. Ridiculously expensive, recently liberated from Vermont, and healthy enough to eat every day. Low fat in it's natural state, but if you add a teaspoon of flax oil, you get quite the perfect dish. And don't forget to top with Texas Pete!
If you were a food, what would you be?
Posted by april at 6:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
May 7, 2008
First of Spring Recipes: Stuffed Napa Cabbage Leaves!
Anyone who has been reading for awhile knows that I simply adore stuffing vegetables. Another big theme with me is turning a CR-unfriendly food into a CR friendly food. Napa cabbage leaves, which are tough enough to be stuffed, are a great substitute for bread, and can even pretend to be pizza crusts. I've used them to make appetizers for parties before, since you can stuff them with quite a lot of food and still have a finger food that doesn't require fork and knife to eat.
Today, on a beautiful spring day, I'm stuffing napa cabbage leaves with a fun mixture that I made with Quorn, but that would also be quite delicious with chicken or tofu. I am marinating Quorn tenders and diced yellow squash in a sauce of cider vinegar, chili powder, garlic powder, a tiny drop of sucralose (you could use a tiny bit of Splenda) and fresh ground pepper, plus a bit of generic Louisiana hot sauce.
That's four leaves, set out in a little flower pattern on our pretty dishes courtesy of the parents of MR. On the side, I served a mixture of diced cucumber, green zucchini, and fresh flat leaf Italian parsley marinated in red wine vinegar with garlic and fresh squeezed lemon juice.
It's so nice to be home for a little while and to be able to cook again. We're finally having wonderful weather here, a little too warm for MR but I love it. I actually took a day off yesterday (gasp!) and though I did end up doing some work from home, I mostly relaxed. Took a two mile walk along the river (we have a lovely bike/pedestrian path). Scrubbed the kitchen floor. Today I'm going back to work but taking Pilates class first, and hopefully not working too late. Tomorrow and Thursday I think I think I think I am going to take off. Wow.
I even read a book yesterday. The Starvation Experiment, about Ancel Keys' experiment during WWII. More about that tomorrow. Brief preview: we are not starving. Those guys were starving.
Posted by april at 6:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)