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Category: Food

Chicken stock and swine flesh

I think I might be back to eating food like normal. Woo!

And since I have more energy, I am getting back into the swing of cooking.

This morning I threw together some ingredients that were starting to worry me (roast chicken leftovers, tail end of a jar of salsa) with a rice mix and cooked then thoroughly. Then I tossed in a can of kidney beans and a can of corn. Those were all packed up into containers for lunches.

Yesterday, I started a pot of chicken stock. This morning I finished it and strained it into containers.

Tonight (or tomorrow morning), I shall cut the pork loin in my fridge into 2 roasts and a pile of chunks. Then it and some of the stock will either go toward goulash or carnitas. I have all of the ingredients for both except for the (optional) orange for the zest in the carnitas recipe.

Maybe soon I’ll go buy some vegetables. Hmmm – I should check the few remaining vegetables in my fridge for whether they need to go in the compost pile or whether they’ll still be good for eating.

Shopping List
orange(s)
lettuce
tomato(es), if tasty smelling
limes
bread
milk

Health and Food

So I pushed the recovery on the injured knee and let myself get worn out. And when I am tired, my immune system crashes. So I have a cold.

I’m having the weirdest relationship with food right now. It just doesn’t taste like much, or I have to put a lot of work into tasting it.

And the stuff I am making at home, mostly seems to make me actively uninterested.

Part of it is that I’m worried without a reliable sense of smell that just cooking is becoming a high risk activity – especially as food sits around longer when I’m not interested in eating it.

But even when I make something safe (like a whole tube of Pillsbury cinnamon buns because I’d just finished reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley and was craving cinnamon rolls as big as my head like you would not believe), it still hardly registers as having eaten food – I just feel vaguely starving and uninterested in eating.

I am going out to eat more because I can trust that food to be food.

And I am craving fancier food because then not only do I know the food is good, but the atmosphere is also soothing.

And yet right after I eat, it still feels as though I haven’t. And I don’t know if that because I’m still hungry because it was over 24 hours since the last time I ate or just that I’m not registering my innards correctly.

So I’m pretty much trying to make sure I keep track of time, but that’s never been the easiest thing for me to do, either.

I just want to be back on kilter.

Death Bi Chocolate?

I do not have a baking talent… or really much of any talent for desserts.

So, dear friendslist, is it a plausible goal to produce something chocolatey and tasty (but not necessarily gourmet) for the Death Bi Chocolate people by Monday noon?

Especially considering that I recently re-injured my knee with the grotty cartilage?

Ingredients should cost no more than $15 and be light enough to be hopped across the street. Preparation should be able to mostly take place sitting down.

Are there any recipes that fit these requirements? (even if I don’t make something for the event, it’ll still be great to know if such recipes exist)

I know this isn’t the best year to try my hand at participating, but it has come to my attention that this year it will be held somewhere more local than it used to be, so I’d love to see the event do well.

Plus – chocolate!

Wisdom from the comments: Epicurious Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Orgasms, Whacky Cake, French Chocolate Candy, and these fancy shaped brownies:

Fancy shaped brownies are very easy. You will need:

brownie ingredients
a sheet of parchment paper
a half sheet pan
a spatula
cookie cutters

Line the half sheet pan with the parchment paper.
Spread the brownie batter over the parchment-lined pan. Bake till set. Let cool.

Cut in shapes with the cookie cutters. Place on a serving plate. Eat the scraps.

If desired, microwave butterscotch chips or white chocolate till they melt and drizzle over the cutouts. Lick the drips off your fingers.

food list

I had people over at my house this weekend, so now I have a weird set of food to figure out.

Produce
collard greens (possibly getting too old)
4 apples
potatoes
1 pomegranate
jalepeno peppers
lemons
1 aging lime
grape tomatoes
4 winter Roma tomatoes
innards of a roasted acorn squash

dairy
whole milk
tzatziki sauce
onion dip
sour cream (unopened, so that’ll keep)
scallion cream cheese
1/2 a round of goat cheese brie

meat
2 packages chicken breasts
chicken/duck stock
2 dozen eggs (they were cute little pullet eggs)

bread
homemade pita chips of awesome
leftover potato chips
peppermint oreos
crackers

miscellaneous
hummus
eggplant dip of awesome
tasty herbed mayonnaise
half an opened can of tahini
2 containers of indian stuff I can’t identify

Can I turn this stuff into food?
– So the eggplant dip – there’s a lot pint of it. It was a whole eggplant, roasted, and then pureed with spices. I don’t think I want to eat it as dip. So I have some cubes of roasted lamb in the freezer. And I was thinking egg noodles with that… but now I’m thinking mashed potatoes and shepherd’s pie. Possibly there should be mushrooms in that dish.

– Chicken breasts. With pomegranate? And lemon? If I roast chicken breasts with pomegranate in my white casserole dishes, will they stain? Is there anything else from this list that can go in that dish? Yes to a jalepeno pepper. No to tomatoes. Maybes to the apples, the acorn squash, and the collard greens.

– Hummus and/or tahini. Given that I will not be frying up falafel, what else is hummus good for? Right – pita chips.

– apples and goat cheese… salad?

– pesto risotto (using the stock!) with roasted grape tomatoes. I’d need to buy parmesan cheese.

– chicken raft