Week 1: The CT To Do tasks: Ta Da!

Our assignments for the first week were:

Breath
Rummage through your food storage and dispose of:

1. Food that is officially expired, according to the date on the package.
2. Food that may or may not have gone bad, but you're not going to risk eating it and finding out.
3. Food that you know in your heart you're never going to eat, regardless of whether you ought to want to.

Before we left for our vacation, I emptied the fridge. All that remained upon my return was the pantry, the freezer and my designated food cupboards upstairs. It's difficult to clear out the pantry as the husband is in charge of putting out the garbage and he tends to get grumpy when he sees meat leaving uneaten. I'm going to have to face the wrath or sneak it out, somehow. The pantry is pretty good. I have too many packages of Jello--I took them off my Mother's hands when we cleaned out her pantry--but it's reasonable, other than that.

That leaves the two cupboards upstairs. I elected to clean the top one. I try to keep just what I need on a daily basis in here: everything else is supposed to be in the basement. Unless it's been opened. Then it needs to find a home.

I managed to get rid of several boxes of various crumbs. No, really. There were graham crackers, vanilla wafers, chocolate wafers and, yes, pre-crushed and boxed cornflake crumbs. I also tossed a box of rancid triscuits.

I am stymied by this however.


(Yes, that box once held a Walkman. Some of its contents likely date from that era.)

They are "spice" mixes. I've seven, count them, seven packets of chili spice mix. There's also one package of Yorkshire pudding mix my daughter got from her grandmother for Christmas. They never expire, as far as I can tell.

But I know I haven't used anything from this box in over a year: maybe two....or three (or ten).

It just seems like "too much waste" to throw them all out, whoosh, just like that. But they need a better container and I really cannot justifying buying something.

Oh Woe.

But, except for a few matters, (I'm not going to touch the whole spice buying, storage, and retrieval issues) I am done. And I confess, I read Wende's Week 1 post just before we left, so I knew this was coming. I took photos of the cupboards, therefore, before we left on vacation.


(You can see how trying to find the olive oil or the butter in a split second while the egg newly cracked by my budding children-chefs begins to stick to the beat-up non-stick frying pan could be a bit of a challenge.)

(Sorry about the blur.)

And, now, it's all clean and (mostly) organized. I should have laid paper, but the task was daunting enough without fussing with all that.


(Yay, no more stuck eggs!)

Bones
Give your refrigerator, stove, and most important one or two cooking appliances a good wipe. If there's something that needs to be fixed on any of them, this is the time to do it.

Blech. The oven needs a wipe.

Baking Porn

These are the most wonderful Raspberry muffins, ever. Of course, I'm not terribly experienced in the ways of raspberry muffins, but when I was forced to borrow i Tablespoon of baking powder from my neighbour, I was happy to send her back two of these in return. I sent them over with Aurelia who reported back that Mrs. D said she'd never had a Raspberry muffin before. Never? She has twice as many bushes as we do: does it all become jam?

Anyway, here they are.



The recipe is from this blog. I made a few modifications, as noted.

Beat together:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. yogurt-- I didn't have any plain, so I used 7% M. F. sour cream, instead.
  
• 2-3 T. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1 t. vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix or sift together:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour --I used 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat, as I usually do.
  
• 1 T. baking powder
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1-2 t. lemon zest
• 1 t. salt

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until thoroughly moistened. Then fold in:

• 2 c. raspberries (frozen is fine, just don’t thaw them too much before mixing them in, or you’ll end up with bright pink muffins)

Pour into 12 large muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

This made quite a stiff batter, and required fourteen muffin cups: not twelve.

I actually used a real lemon. I thought it was time to introduce Aurelia to the concept of "zest." (I didn't know anything about it until my twenties.) And I knew she'd have fun working with the zester. She did--but she asked me, "Why is it called zest?" I had no good answer.

Raspberry-Banana Loaf



I wondered how this Raspberry Banana Bread would turn out. The reviews on the web site were mixed. First, I reduced the bananas to two. Unfortunately, mine weren't as ripe as I like them to be. The resulting dough was much too stiff to fold raspberries, so at the last minute I quickly mixed in two tablespoons of apple sauce and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. That helped immensely. I also made a sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg crust. It took only 50 minutes in the oven.

The recipe is from here. As I won't make it again and don't recommend it, I won't cut and paste. However, my son, who is an extraordinarily picky eater, pronounced it "not bad."

Nonetheless, I'm anxiously waiting for more berries to ripen so I can try a Raspberry-Orange Loaf/Muffins and the Zesty Raspberry Loaf mentioned above.

Oh dear. This diet may be well and truly lost. I just found a recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Bundt cake. And it is Aurelia's ninth birthday on Tuesday.

Heart: Week 1.

For your culinary late night reading: this site is amazing.

http://bakingbites.com/

I can't wait to try the Zesty Raspberry Loaf. I just wish I'd seen it before I baked the Banana_Raspberry loaf currently in the oven. If it works out, I'll let you know.

PS: It seems I love to bake more than I love to cook. But perhaps it is only that baking is a novelty, while cooking happens every day.

A Day of Good Eatin'

My "diet" is a portion controlled plan based on 1600 calories per day. I've made up a chart based on old Weight Watcher's food diaries from the 80's. I try and ensure I eat everything on my chart.



Just for fun, I took pictures of everything I ate on Wednesday. I love eating this way.

Breakfast.
(That's a one-egg omelette. Honest.)



Lunch.
(The wrap unwrapped).



Snack the First
(More about this incredible book, later).



Dinner.
(with milk)



Snack the second.
(That's 1/2 cup of blueberries hiding under that yogurt. And those are raspberries from our very own bushes.)



That's all the boxes ticked but one portion of a "grain." Since I went over by one portion in that category by eating a home made Lemon-Raspberry muffin on Tuesday, I figured all was good. A pint of water accompanied me to bed.

Muffins for Mella*

As I was reading Mella's post about menu planning, it struck me that a good home-made muffin is the work horse of the single gal's food life. Or, rather, it could be; if one likes muffins and doesn't mind baking.

It's a wonderful "on-the-go" quick breakfast food. A glass of OJ, a slice of honest cheddar, and a bran muffin and you've eaten "the most important meal." It's the proper pick-me-up at 4:00. Eat a properly proportioned muffin and you save money and add to your daily total fiber intake. What could be better? I love muffins. I'd forgotten how much, really. I make muffins every week: but they are strictly for my husband's snacks and lunches. When I'm out of losing mode and in maintaining mode, I'd like to reintroduce muffins back into my diet.

Especially these. They are from Jane Brody's "Good Food Book." It's one of those tomes you buy when you are a single person and realise you don't know anything about food or how to cook it. It has chapters on food like "Wheat and other Grains of Truth" and "Full o' Beans? You Bet" with helpful illustrations identifying various legumes. In the "Helpful Hints" section we have an introduction entitled "Cooking From Scratch Effectively" and for the unititiated, "How to Equip Your Kitchen."

With sub chapters called "Milling, The Rape of the Wheat Berry" you get a sense of the "slant" of this cookbook. Nonetheless, it was my Bible of sorts. It's in rough shape. I have lost the front cover and all publishing and copyright information. It has split in two in a most unfortunate way: the top half of pages 385 to 388 belong to one half of the book and their bottoms to the other. I hold it together with an elastic.



I actually have two favourite bran muffin recipes from this book. One makes the best muffins in the entire world. The other makes more: but you can store the batter in the fridge (though it takes up a lot of room. That wasn't a problem when I was single, but it is now, unfortunately) and bake them as you see fit.


I wish I could make a batch of either for you and post a picture but I don't make these anymore for chiefly four reasons.
1. My husband does not like raisins. They are part of what make these so good.
2. I don't like dealing with molasses.
3. These are quite moist and wonderful. The husband prefers his muffins dry.
4. See the above storage problem.

Nonetheless, I offer these with my best wishes for healthy nourishment.


Best-Of-Bran Muffins
This recipe makes 24.

3 cups shredded Bran cereal. (e.g., All Bran, 100% Bran, etc.)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup raisins
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs, lightly beaten.
2 cups buttermilk**
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, if desired.

1. In a large bowl, combine cereal, egg, oil and raisins, and pour the boiling water over them. Set the mixture aside to cool slightly.

2. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, the buttermilk, and molasses. Add this to the partly cooled cereal mixture.

3. In another small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the cereal mixture, stirring just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Cover the batter with plastic wrap, wax paper, or a damp towel and let stand for 15 minutes, preferably for 1 hour.

4. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 24 muffin cups and divide the batter among them, filling each cup about 3/4s full. Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the muffins from the oven, and, when they are slightly cooled, take them out of the tin and place them on a rack to cool completely.


Refrigerator Bran Muffins

This batter will keep for three weeks , tightly covered, in the fridge. This recipe makes enough batter for about 3 dozen muffins, but if you have the refrigerator space, Brody advises, "you could easily increase it."

3 cups whole-bran cereal (e.g., All-Bran or Bran Buds.)
1 cup boiling water
2 cups buttermilk**
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour, preferably stone ground
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, if desired
1/2 cup raisins or other chopped dried fruit (optional). (Note: I have used chopped dried apricots.)

1. In a medium bowl, soak the cereal in the boiling water. Set the cereal aside to cool, and then stir in the buttermilk.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter or margarine and the sugar until they are well blended. Beat in the eggs, and then mix in the bran-buttermilk mixture.

3. Sift or stir together the all purpose and the whole wheat flours, baking soda, and salt. Add this mixture to the bran mixture, stirring the ingredients just enough to combine them. Add the raisins or other dried fruit if desired.

4. Either refrigerate the batter in a tightly closed container for later use, or divide it among 36 well greased small muffin cups, about 2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches, or 24 large muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3rds full.

5. Bake the muffins in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes. Remove them to a rack to cool down to warm (they are best when eaten that way).


** prepare buttermilk by mixing 1 cup of skim milk (it must be skim or non-fat. I make this with 1/3 cup skim milk powder and 1 cup water) with 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar. Let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before using.

*actually, these are muffins for everyone. And I don't even know if Mella likes muffins. But, I do like alliteration.

Week 1: The Questionaire

So, here we are: finally able to spend an hour or so catching up. I'm afraid I've really nothing to say about fish.

Is there a chef/cook, real or fictional, whom you admire? If so, what's the appeal of this person?

I had a great deal to say about absolutely nothing to this question, but I seem to have lost it all when trying to post. Short answer: I see nothing, I know nothing, I say nothing.

Is there a chef/cook, real or fictional, whom you find annoying? If so, what's the offense by this person?

I'm sure there are some who are annoying. I've no idea.

Personal history

What's your earliest memory of cooking--or assisting with cooking--yourself?

Making brownies. I must have been about ten. I turned on a burner --who knows why--and a glass plate holding pieces of Baker's chocolate exploded all over the kitchen floor. I got my mother up out of bed to help me cope and she took a spatula (around here, I actually call it the "fry pan flipper" to distinguish it from a bona fide spatula which is a thing you use to get the last bit of mayonnaise out of the jar or to definitively remove the very last of the batter from the sides of the bowl.) and beat the pieces into the floor. We lived in a trailer. The burn marks were still on the floor when we moved from the trailer.

What do you consider to be comfort food?

Kraft Dinner.
My grandmother's apple pie. (And no one else's.)

What piece of cooking advice would you never take again?

oooh, interesting. If I'd ever been given any advice, I'm sure there is some I'd never take again.

What do you enjoy about cooking?

I love creating something. I really enjoy eating, too.

What do you dislike about cooking?

Dull knives.
It takes time.
My kids don't like complex flavours though I have decided to more or less ignore that and just make sure they come to the table really hungry.

What is cooking anyway?

What animal best summarizes your current cooking and/or eating habits?

Currently? I am eating extremely well.

A monkey, maybe? though I've no idea why. Perhaps because almost every time see one, it's eating something. Though, for the record, I don't eat nits.

Goals

What is bothering you about your current eating/cooking habits?

Since I have changed my diet to something sensible and I'm eating more fruits and veggies than I ever thought possible (and fewer starchy carbs) there really isn't anything bothering me. Lunch used to alternate between frozen battered fish prepared in the oven with some sort of frozen potato (not fries, I never could justify that--but tater tots made too many appearances) and Kraft Dinner. From that we graduated to frozen battered chicken and genuine potatoes (cut into eigths and brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic. Roasted with the chicken at 400 degrees, the kids actually asked for them) and Kraft Dinner. I make wraps for myself for lunch now. Today I made the rest of the family grilled cheese. (Wich, zooza, doesn't involve the grill, neither Anglo nor American. It simply refers to a pan fried a cheese sandwich. Oh, so good but so full of fat it's off-limits at the moment.) Kraft Dinner has been banned from the house for about a month, now, as has the chicken. I have no idea what I've been feeding the kids.

What do you want to be able to say about your eating/cooking habits at the end of eight weeks?

That I've become a bit more courageous.
That I'm not afraid of batch cooking and making meals ahead of time for those nights when I just can't cook.
I'd like to make more cookies and pies and dessert type things for the family...but not until I've switched from losing mode to maintaining mode.

Home.

We're back!

In short, it was hot, hazy and absolutely wonderful.

I am swamped for the next few days unpacking, setting the living room to rights, getting ourselves ready for a new school year--and catching up on CT, too, of course.

Here, though, are a few pictures to encourage deep restorative breaths.