Ookings of d00m

Any recommendations for ways to cook firm tofu besides stir-frying it? I'm trying to expand my non-meat repetoire, and I've burned myself out on stirfries for a little while by eating nothing but this week.

New recipe tonight: Tofu and Autumn Vegetable soup It's getting cold outside, so I long for soup.

Take squash, sweet potato, onion and tofu, and boil in stock (I used chicken, but vegetable stock would work fine.) (I might add carrots next time, too)
Add spices (I used nutmeg, cinnamon, ground ginger and sage, along with salt and pepper)
Cook until veggies are soft.
Puree with hand mixer, let cool slightly.
Stir in sour cream or yogurt (I used fat free sour cream)

The tofu makes the colour and texture a little pale and grainy, but it adds the protein I was looking for.

It is tasty and filling.

If it sounds good, come over and have some! We have lots.

Variations for me to try later - use curry flavouring, or strong ginger/chili for seasoning.

For tomorrow, crockpot beef stew with fennel and squash, because we have a lot of squash.

After that, we still have yet more squash and fennel to use up...

At persephoneplace's request, what is going into the crockpot stew:
Stewing beef, dredged in flour
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 head of fennel
3-4 white/yukon gold potatoes
seasoning (haven't done this yet - considering mild sweet paprika, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper)
generous dollop of cheap whiskey/whisky
beef stock, not quite enough to cover, since the veggies will give off a lot of liquid when slow cooked over 10-12 hours.

All the non-liquid ingredients are in the crock pot now - the rest will go in before we leave for work.

Best Buy won't fix the ipod because it's still under Apple's warranty - this means I have to send it to Apple myself, pay the $40 shipping, then take the invoice back to Best Buy who will get a cheque for $40 mailed to me. Behold the convenience of getting the extra service plan from Best Buy.

I have Warrior Port. It's not bad, but a little sweet.

I am going to try to make "God Funeral Wine" ala Neil Gaiman's Anasi Boys tonight - the flavours described are "bitter", "rosemary", and "salt" (from the tears of virgins, natch)

My proposed recipe:
1 bottle of cheap red wine
"some" inexpensive port (i.e., warrior port)
rosemary
kosher salt
angostura bitters and/or gioia bitter (weird Italian thing I picked up at the store - very bitter, but also sweet)

I'm a little worried about the entire thing ending up too sweet, which is why I'm considering leaving out the gioia, even though it's the right level of bitter. I had also considered using the orange or lime rind with the white left in, but I think the citrus flavour would kill off the rosemary. For similar reasons, I'm leaving out the cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg I'd been pondering adding. The idea is to heat the mixture so that the rosemary flavour comes out - the port should make sure that the end result is potent

I also started a green chili and ginger infused vodka. We'll see how that works out.

I need to remember that I have to make my yoghurt cheesecakes tonight.

This may be the worst spicy tuna roll I have ever eaten - mushy tuna that has obviously been frozen, and hot sauce. I can taste the hot cause, (beyond the spiciness) and can't taste the tuna. This is what happens when you buy grocery store sushi.

Dinner last night;

onion
apple
carrot
celery
sweet potato

All chopped up and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. On top of that, three chicken breasts, and extra seasoning (sage, oregano, tarragon). Bake until cooked.

It was quite tasty, for something improvised at the last second.

I'm going to try it again next week with a butterflied rabbit on top instead of jsut chicken breasts - the bunny should produce more juices, and give me enough to make a jus or gravy.

I'm mad for soup, lately. Also, I'm trying to eat less meat, and more beans/other alternate proteins.

Last week, we made a minstrone-esque bean soup, which was good.

Tonight, I made me some salsa soup; one jar of hot salsa, two cans of beans, one can of corn, a couple chipotles, and some beer (corona, in my case). Heat. Enjoy with more beer (though in my case, I discovered that the corona from the cooler at the LCBO had been put there moments before I picked it up, and was not, in fact, cold). Even better, enjoy it outside on a patio or balcony.

Strictly speaking, according to the guidelines of my nutritionist, I should have left out the corn - there's enough starch in the beans to take care o the carb part of the meal, and since I eat enough cereals at my other meals, I don't need to worry about the incomplete protein side of things. However, since this is the first time I've made this, I wanted to stay close to the recipe as it was described to me. The chipotles and beer instead of water were my changes.

The Lizard is going to be out at dinner time for the next few days, so I think that I am going to be eating a lot of bean soup in the next few days - I have lots of leftovers from both soups.

Traditionally, when neeuqdrazil goes to the opera, I spend the night eating food that's a) bad for me, and b) the she won't eat, getting drunk, and watch unsettling things that I have found on the internet.

The food component of this oipera night was, for once, not really that bad for me. It was, instead, an experiment; I tried to make "Thai meatloaf". Ground turkey with cilantro, garlic, green and white onions, chili, sesme and chili oils, eggs, dark soy sauce and a few other things, all baked together. I was worried about overdoing it; bsed on the result, I should have used more cilantro, garlic and soy sauce, and perhaps thrown in some garlic. To accomapny the odd meatloaf, I had baked sweet potatoes, and stirfried mushrooms, carrots, zucchini and garlic with a little soy sauce. I made a sauce that, again, was not quite as exotic as I had hoped. I reduced 2/3 of a bottle of wine with chili oil, chili flakes, soy sauce and ginger root, and when that had thickened, added tomato paste; the wine and tomato paste won the flavour contest; I had hoped for a tie.

On the whole, certainly not a bad experiment, but I think I need to read more Thai cookbooks before I try this again.


in other news, wine is tasty.

I've been eating pretty well this weekend.

Friday night, Lizard and I went out to one of the restaurants in our neighbourhood (we live in a very posh neighborhood, on an un-posh street). The prices were high, but not excessiuvely so. We could afford to eat there maybe once a month. The food was great, of course. They were pushing sangria as a beverage instead of wine, so I had that; there was far too much melon in it for my not-melon-liking self. I had halibut with mango salsa and cous cous. It was pretty much what you'd expect from the description, and it was tasty. After dinner, we went to the independant ice cream store around the corner, and got yummy ice cream. On the way home, a wasp or hornet lit upon my hand, and I twitched to get it off, and hurled my ice cream at the ground. I picked it up, removed the parts that had touched the ground, and ran home, holding the shattered cone together until I could get it into a bowl.

Saturday night, we made cous cous with dried fruit and nuts, with vegetable stock. Ours was tastier than the restaurants had been, though I think I put oo many dried apricots into it. With that, we tried to make shish kebabs; we bought premade chicken kebabs from the grocery store, and made our own veggie ones with yellow squash, zucchini, green peppers, and mushrooms. Since our balcony BBQ is a) illegal (you can't barbeque on a balcony here), and b) potentially unsafe (it came with the appartment, and the igniter doesn't work. Every time it wooshes when I light it, Liz nearly has a heart attack.), we tried using our indoor electric grill. It put grill marks on the food, but didn't really cook it, so we had to toss the stuff into the oven. It was edible, but didn't quite work out.

Tonight, we had pepper steak, salad, and gnocchi with fresh basil/organo/garlic /olive oil dressing. The gnocchi were so good! I love have an herb garden on the balcony; it's so nice being able to go and grab a fistful of sharp, peppery basil to throw into our food. There are several tiny jalapenos out there promising to make me happy later this summer.

New recipe from tonight;

2 chicken breasts

coat the chicken with the breading mixture, and sautee in a bit of oil, with some spears of lemongrass.

Breading:
bread crumbs
orgeano
basil
parsley
rosemary
coarse salt
ground pepper
grated parmesan cheese

Use about 1/2 the mixture on the chicken. The remainder gets turned into sauce.

when the chicken is done, remove and place ina bowl/plate and cover.

Take the lemongrass out, and set it aside; it gets used later. Depending on how cooked the lemongrass is, you may want to replace it with some fresher lemongrass.

sautee 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 a finely chopped onion in a little bit of butter.
Add some flour to the breading, and add to the onion and garlic.

Stir, cooking the flour.

Stir in, a bit at a time, chicken stock mixed with lemon juice. Keep goign until you have about 1/2 the sauce you want. Let that cook and thicken.

Once the mixture has thickened a bit, add, again a bit at a time, some skim milk to fill out the sauce.

Pull out the lemongrass, and serve over the chicken and some pasta.

I think this is the most complicated thing I've ever made up that actually worked.