Holiday leftovers don’t last long in our homes. Especially the Very Tasty Turkey Salad. (Chicken works well, too.) The trick is starting with a well-seasoned turkey. Stacey’s husband is from the island of Puerto Rico and taught us to make “pavochon,” a turkey seasoned Puerto Rican style that consists of ground garlic cloves, Sazón spices, salt, and extra virgin olive oil. Grind those ingredients with a mortar and pestle, cut slits in the bird and rub the seasoning under the skin, atop the skin and inside the cuts. Let that sit for a day or two before slow roasting the bird in a self-basting turkey oven bag. The key here is LOW and SLOW.

Take leftover pieces of the bird and rip them apart or chop. To taste, add a bit at a time of the following: Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, chopped scallions, a sliced hard-cooked egg or two, diced tomatoes, pepper and salt. There are no rules with Turkey Salad; get creative!

What are you doing with your leftovers? Please share your ideas with other readers!

How Stacey Got the Shot: On the dining room table with natural light and foam core set up to bounce light onto the subject and fill in shadows. ISO 100, focal length 50mm, f/4, 1/100 second exposure.

So my boyfriend and I have somewhat of an addiction to mac ‘n cheese. As in, no matter where we are, if it’s on the menu, we’re eating it. We recently got turned on to S’MAC. They’re entire menu is mac ‘n cheese! He had the Cheeseburger, I had the Napoletana. I won. And we won with our wine to go along with it.

One early morning, which isn’t something that happens very often for us (we’re still stuck in vacation mode), we got out asses out of bed and walked a mile and a half to Egg. The menu had my jaw at the floor. We ordered the duck hash and grits and eggs with homemade pork sausage. Boyfriend wasn’t a huge fan, but I love grapefruit so I also had the caramelized grapefruit with mint. A great way for us to start our day… As we walked back home and went back to sleep.

Oh, and Kelis is back at it. Listen to her new track here.

I drew this at work today while stuff was being slow.

It’s admidst work notes. It did not take 2 hours. If it had taken 2 hours I would have shot myself.

Well, I would have wanted to. I don’t keep guns at work.

I don’t have a gun.

What on earth is a "

One of the cups can be used from both ends. This fellow looks like some sort of face cream tube. I supposed i could have gave it a test drive to find out ^^;

The hole warming device was interesting. Rolling head cup" Then you stick the warming device in yer cup.

Sweet side" If i remove the plastic sheet, it could possibly pass as a thermal detonator for my stormtrooper gear. Before i continue however, i have to disappoint you by letting you know that this review does not come with a test drive ^^;

You press the metal piece inside and the tube heats up within seconds. When its ready you can then start your eroge or get out the latest issue of megami and go do your thing. Read on to learn more about the product which has contributed to the declining birth rate in japan ^^;

Products. This is a " Bitter side"

^^; ? Unfortunately i had no intention of giving these cups a test drive so the.

And this is the "

Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world’s largest egg-laying breed hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa.

Driven by consumer demand, the egg industry will continue to exploit, abuse, and kill day-old animals as long as doing so remains profitable. Empowered consumers can put their ethics on the table by choosing kindness over cruelty at each meal by adopting an animal-friendly vegan diet.

oh and: Egg-laying hens are kept without water and food for 14 days at a time to force their bodies into another egg-laying cycle

Rice with seasonings

Scrambled egg

Shrimp

Sausage

Eggplant

Fried potato

Shiitake nimono

Shrimp : peel shell off, heat the skillet and add olive oil with shrimp. add salt, pepper and Basil

Eggplant : heat the skillet, add oil and eggplant. when it is cooked, add Japanese soy sauce with sugar, sake

Fried potato : this slice potato and boil, heat the skillet and add olive oil, boiled potato, fry it for a while and add oregano, salt, pepper and garlic powder

Shiitake nimono : boil Katsuo-dashi and Japanese soy sauce, put shiitake in it

This is Today’s Obento!

Rice with seasonings

Chicken nugget

Satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato)

Stir fry thin sliced pork with asparagus

Egg Omelet with Kiriboshidaikon

Stir fry thin sliced pork with asparagus : heat the skillet and put oil in it, stir thin sliced pork with boiled asparagus, add Oyster sauce and Japanese soy sauce

Egg omelet : beat eggs and pour into skillet, while it is cooking, add kiriboshidaikon across the middle of the eggs, then roll it up

This is Today’s Obento!

Rice with seasonings

Yakisoba

Egg Omelet with Asparagus

Pork sausage

Stir fry beef with green beans

Zucchini

Yakisoba : cut vegetables(carrot, cabbage, green onion), fry that with sesame oil, add Yakisoba noodles and Yakisoba sauce, salt and pepper

Stir fry beef with green beans : fry thin beef and green beans, add Japanese soy sauce and sugar, sake

Egg omelet : beat eggs and pour into skillet, while it is cooking, add boiled asparagus across the middle of the eggs, then roll it up

This is Today’s Obento!

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups eggnog
• 1/3 cup oil (or melted butter, cooled)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 regular muffin cups or 6 jumbo.
2. Place flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggnog, oil, egg, vanilla extract, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix or your muffins won’t rise properly. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over each. Bake in preheated over at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Recipe

I swear I want to stop negativity in this blog. I hope this is the last one

The previous title I wrote was: The miserable happy moment because of this

After work, dinner and finally time to enjoy the happiest moment of my day: a nice bowl of ripped kabocha! As I take the picture, I thought: this is really a miserable life! Who else would consider this as the happiest moment of a day?

This year I realized two things: The source of happiness and unhappiness

• Happiness: being with the family. Just being with them brings me immense happiness, nothing is comparable to that.
• Unhappiness: compare to others. This is a double edge knife. Sometimes it makes me feel good about myself, other times it makes me feel anger and anxiety. But both times it makes me feel bad anyway because the fact of feeling something from comparing to others makes me despise myself. I need to change that, I try hard but still not getting there!

Q: What’s your source of happiness and unhappiness?

————————————————————————————————————————————-

After the glorious 8 hours sleep (despite the 3 hours long nap) I was ready for a yummy savory breakfast.

Poached egg + babybel (my first time trying it)

1/2 cup steamed broccoli + 1/2 cup cooked oats

mixed

End product! YUMMY~~~

tried another Kusmi TEA

sorry, it’s still not right… lack of flavor?

work companion: chocolates, ginger mints and tea!

Went to school and lunch with people from our program. Can you guess where my negativity came from?

Came home, back to work

opened another new bag of Lupicia tea: Ginger & Lemon Myrtle

paired with another honeycrisp and almonds. This flavor is my favorite so far (I still have 9-10 to try), so light but so intense in term of ginger flavor! I had two big pots!

Dinner was simple: sauteed bok choy with baby corns and Kimchi.

served with porridge.

Oh…. forgot to mention. Today is Star’s 33 birthday! I feel bad not celebrating with him. ALL because I’m doing this permanent head damage (Ph.D) thing!

Terribly sorry for this negative and boring post! I just needed to vent out!

Q1: How are you celebrating Thanksgiving?

Q2: What’s the best part of Thanksgiving?

I’m not celebrating but I’d love to hear from your happy moments in  this Thanksgiving!

I woke up this morning craving everything and decided on scrambled egg with tomato ketchup and a slice of toast with blackberry jam, perfect and satisfied those cravings.

I needed a bright colourful breakfast plate after waking up to a dull, dreary day.

For lunch, I took a falafel burger to work, to add to this salad I bought in the canteen.

Today’s exercise  Badminton.  It’s been a while since my Mum and I played, what with my neck and then being busy at work. We really enjoyed whizzing around the court pretending to be the “Williams Sisters” (I know that’s tennis but I don’t know any famous Badminton players)

When we got home I had a quick snack of sliced apple with peanut butter and then made dinner for me and Mum.

I talked my Mum into trying tofu.  I know there’s no way my Dad would try it being the meat lover he is (remember the steak) so I thought as he’s out, this would be a great time to convert her. So I marinated the tofu in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and chilli powder and then pan fried.

I used Simply Life’s pesto recipe to go with the tofu.  How can something so simple taste so good, I recommend everyone to try this if you like basil, nuts and cheese (and who doesn’t )

And added it to some tofu pieces served with sweet potato and broccoli.  I’m pleased to say she enjoyed it very much and hopefully will be joining me in “Veggie for a Day” at least once a week.

I saved some tofu for tomorrows packed lunch.  I love it when I can make a meal on an evening and use the leftovers for my work lunches.  Sometimes I plan it that way too.  Do you make more so you have leftovers for another day?

Home sick again today, same as yesterday.  My boss is not so happy considering its the days prior to thanksgiving and she really needs me there but the doctor instructed me to stay home as it could be the flu, most likely the swine flu.

So for lunch I made tamagoyaki!  Tamagoyaki is a japanese omelet made with eggs, sugar, soy sauce and, in my case, sake.  Todays recipe came from JustBento which I use often for quick and easy japanese bento recipies.  The blog also includes lots of how-to pictures and cooking instructions.

I probably should of paired it with rice but my protein craving got the better of me and the food has been ingested before this post even made it to publishing.

I have had several months of doing other things, including an art fair where I sold some photographs (yay!), and over two months of illness in our house (we are still coughing!).  I hope to concentrate more on working with watercolors again.  This is something I did two weeks ago.

A very dear friend of mine has been in the hospital for a very long time, and was recently moved to a nursing home.  At one time in his life, he was an illustrator for egg cartons (I was a child at the time, but I believe that is what he did).  To honor him (and because we haven’t been able to visit him due to our horrible colds and flu), I did this painting of an egg on a watercolor card.  I attached a small mat board to the card (just in case anyone wanted to frame it!).  Inside I wrote – “You’re a good egg!  I’m sorry you have been feeling so rotten!”  He and his family were delighted with the card, as I hoped they would be.  Which made me feel good!

1 lb ground beef

4 cup chopped Hakusai (chinese cabbage)

2 carrots

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

chop carrots very finely

mix carrots, hakusai and bread crumbs with milk

mix it with ground beef, egg

heat the skillet and put oil in it, fry meat on that

fry it medium heat for 3-4 minutes

turn it over and use the lid, fry for 5-6 minutes

when juice is clear colour, it is cooked.

serve it on the plate, add steak sauce or ketchup…etc

I hope you enjoy!

click please

This is a great quick recipe, perfect for those times when you’re being careful with your money or don’t feel like shopping, but need to satisfy a craving for something a little sweet. I give recipes like this the name “magic” because they can be made with a wide variety of ingredients (Magical Options) and they come out a little different every time, depending on what you have in the kitchen…. they’re a nice dessert, a great snack, a quick breakfast and a super gift for friends and neighbours… enjoy!

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

2-3 Cups Muffin mix and a few Magical Options (see below)

Wet ingredients:

1 C water, 1-2 T cooking oil (or melted margaine or butter) and an extra cup of water

Mix your wet and dry ingredients separately, then make a ‘well’ in the middle of the dry. Add the wet mix to the well, stir it through to coat the dry mix; keep adding water a little at a time until the mixture is moistened all the way through, but not too stiff to stir. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease your muffin tins well. Fill to 3/4 full of muffin batter, bake for 20-28 minutes or until they spring back to the touch and smell just right.

Magical Options (pick a nice combination from below and use your imagination!):

1/2 cup shredded coconut 1/2 C raisins or currants, chopped dates, dried cranberries, papaya, apricots…

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, almonds, walnut or pecans

1 tsp. powdered ginger 1 tsp. cinnamon powder

1 plain chocolate bar, chopped (or 1/2 C chocolate chips, or 2-4 T. cocoa

1 small apple, chopped or 1/2 C blueberries, strawberries

Muffin Mix

1) Store bought mix: you can find cake or muffin mix on sale and add “Magical” stuff from your kitchen

2) Homemade mix: 3 cups flour (or 2 Cups flour and 1 cup oats) 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 C of sugar, or more or less to taste

Suggestions

Fruit Filling: Fill each muffin tin half-way and add 1/2 tsp jam, jelly or soft fruit in the middle. Fill the cups 3/4 full with the muffin batter and bake!

Time Savers:

1) Keep half of the batter in a clean jar in the fridge to make fresh muffins quickly anytime; the batter will keep for 4-7 days.

2) Make a big batch of dry muffin mix and keep it in the freezer – When you’re ready to make muffins, shale out what you need into a big bowl, add your wet ingredients and magical options and bake.

Sweet combinations:

“Fruity” explosion: Add chopped apple and a few raisins and berries to the dry mix; put a spoonful of jam in the middle of 2 layers of batter.

Ambrosia: Add coconut, ginger, cinnamon, almonds and orange essence, diced orange rind or mashed banana.

Gourmet ideas: You can blend a whole orange with the seeds removed into the wet mix, add some chocolate chips or cocoa to the dry and make a nice chocolate orange muffin!) How about lemon, poppy seed and cornmeal?

Savory Combinations: Leave out the sugar and add one or a combination of: Shredded cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes, cooked beans, diced carrot, fried minced onion, celery

Add herbs and spices – chili powder, oregano, rosemary, parsley , olive oil

Rough Times Bacon ‘n’ Egg Muffin: (you’ll never want to stop at a fast food place for breakfast once you’ve tasted these! ) Put a small piece of cooked bacon (vegetarians can use soy bacon), a bit of grated cheese and a spoonful of stirred raw egg in the middle of each muffin, fill the muffin cup with no-sugar batter (you can add a few herbs too!) and add a little grated cheese on top. Bake as usual.

Tip: Don’t have a muffin tin? Well, use a cake pan, a frying pan with a heatproof handle, small tart or other baking dishes – or get to the second hand store and find a nice muffin tin… it’s still probably cheaper than buying those store-bought muffins.

Much Love, Gramma Willi

Good Clean Food for Everyone!

Folk artist Kang Yongguo carves a portrait of President Obama on an eggshell in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

On yesterday’s post was a good comment made by Jeff(or Jon or whatever name he used this time ) about the processed foods I eat, saying that aren’t I being a hypocrite with how I present myself? I say: No. I do eat processed food. And I love it. And I can, because the processed food I choose doesn’t conflict at all with my all-natural ingredient diet. A mint Newman-O is just as processed as a mint Oreo, but I’ll gladly chow down on the former whereas I won’t touch the latter. Of course, I completely expect some people to think this is absurd and not see a distinction, but I very much do and that is what shapes what I eat. I definitely think Jeff’s comment was a good one as it gave me the opportunity to share this all about me. And I was touched by how many of you replied in defence of this distinction I make It reminded me of how I have some of the best readers in the world. Oh, and while I’m publically responding to comments–Food Makes Fun Fuel is a blog written by a guy. Rare in blogworld, I know, but true.

That’s not to say I never eat raw foods, though, like this apple I grabbed before class:

Apple

Then again, this was pretty nasty and old and by the time I finished I wished I had something more processed. Thankfully, coffee washed it down and I picked up a new bar to try later that I’d been eyeing. In class we got yet another end-of-semester paper. If I didn’t use Google Tasks and Google Calender to keep track of things like this, I’d be very frightened right now. But I’m not. That apple, as bad as it was, held me over well through class and blog reading, to the point where I was making a lunch to eat in Greek History. It came in two parts.

Broccoli And 2 Eggs Scrambled With 2 Lightlife Sausage Links

2% Chobani With Raspberry Chocolate Jam

For the “main course” I scrambeled 2 eggs with the last 2 of my new, favorite processed not-meat and microwaved that until most of the liquid was set–so good! I loved the spicy sausage in the egg with a little salt. For “dessert”, I sweetened the 2% Chobani a little and topped it with jam; the 2% are really hard to find but they’re soo good. Full fats a bit too much, but plain’s a bit… plain :-/ This is a great compromise. This meal had over 40g of protein. I don’t really track that for the most part, but sometimes I like to check for kicks and giggles, and that impressed me.

Class 1 was dull. Class 2 was duller. I had to take the escalator with my teacher. She’s nice but that’s always a bit awkward. She also smokes everyday before class so that was a bit nauseating to be in close-quarters with. After class I wasn’t quite ready to go back to my dorm and finish up some work, so I didn’t

Blue State Coffee At The Book Store

I know I’m not alone in loving book stores and coffee on really rainy days. Last year, one of my classes was a good mile down Comm Ave in Boston from where I had been picked up normally, so on nasty weather days I just went to Barnes And Nobles and waited for a ride to come to me. I also got a message while I was moseying saying my dinner plans were not. Not ideal, but much better than learning this at 6. Eventually, I hobbled back to my dorm. I got a bit peckish and broke out that new bar I mentioned.

Chocolate Chip Trail Mix Odwalla

I like the idea of trail mix, but I don’t like how clumsy it is. I like bars. So I had good hopes for this. In the end, it was good, but didn’t blow me away; it reminded me of a Clif mountain mix Mojo, except with an oat base instead of soy protein, and a little less nuts. Since I get plenty of oats on a regular basis, I think I prefer the Mojo because of the protein. Otherwise, this was decent. Speaking of getting enough oats…

Pumpkin Oats With Vanilla Almond Butter And Vanilla Powder

I wasn’t feeling like anything extravagant, per say, so instead I kept it pretty vanilla. Vanilla, in my book, is quite tasty I think I listened to all my Bing Crosby Christmas songs at least once while catching up on television. I watched 2 episodes and I still have a good 10 left. I guess I slipped on that last week. I have to say I was a bit happy when dinner was called off; it was pouring last night and I was happy to be in PJ’s a bit early. It also let me have a go at this cornucopia:

Acorn Squash With Macarroni And Cheese With Tuna

Yum! It tasted as delicious as it looks. It’s amazing what you can make with canned tuna and a single serve mac n’ cheese packet. I had a lovely tofu dinner planned but this salty mess stole my mind and the show. The acorn squash was perfect steamed in the microwave in a bowl of shallow water for 5 minutes and let rest.

I loved Heroes last night for some reason. It totally dragged me back in to the season where it lost me. I think I’m a bigger fan of Claire’s story line at the time than anyone else’s. Afterwards I had a snack.

Peanut Butter Yogurt With Strawberry Jam And Chocolate Chips

I wasn’t sure if the strawberry, peanut butter, and chocolate chip would work in sync. What was I worried about? This was delicious. I just love the crunch of whole chocolate chips, and the strawberry was a nice sweetness to the sweet-but-not-too-sweet yogurt. Because I foresee questions on this, peanut butter yogurt is 6oz plain greek yogurt with 2 tablespoons Byrd Mill peanut flour(PB2 also works for this) and vanilla liquid stevia. It has a slightly nutty flavor and packs a protein punch. I think The Big Bang Theory was also great last night–what a good ball comedy. To the Jay Leno show, I finished the night with this.

Pumpkin Oatmeal With Mighty Maple And Chocolate Chips, 3/4 Cup Silk Nog

I like to think I have some restraint around Silk Nog. Mighty Maple and chocolate chips, on the other hand… I need to remember to pack that today because it’s clearly one of my favorite nut butters and yet we don’t have one at home! Shame. While watching Leno, I came to the conclusion that, while Lady Gaga is fun to run to, she’s a scary scary person to watch perform. Not Adam Lambert scary, but still. Now I could definitely picture him opening for her.

This morning I hit the snooze twice and felt totally rejuvenated after my morning routine. Seriously, why didn’t I feel this good yesterday morning? I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I grabbed this bar knowing it would make my workout that much more amazing.

Amazing Grass Whole Food Energy Bar

It must have worked because my running felt so strong. Seriously, where was this energy yesterday? I planned for 10 miles, and ended up doing 13.1 in 1:51:02. I easily could have done the 15 I wanted except for time restraints; I can’t wait until next semester when, no matter which schedule I end up with, that won’t be an issue Monday, Wednesday, or Friday! Even more shockingly, I wasn’t feeling very “sweet” for breakfast. All I wanted was something spicy!

Oats With An Egg, Morningstar Breakfast Patty, And The Heat Is On PB

Pumpkin Pie Yogurt

I decided to do oats that Green Dog Wine would be proud of These set my mouth on fire with The Heat Is On. And the processed breakfast patty was the perfect protein touch to compliment it all Lol. I jest, because if you can’t make fun of yourself, who can you make fun of? The yogurt was more of a thing of convenience, as in, it’s convenient that I don’t have to take home 2 tubs of yogurt because I dumped what was left of them in there with some pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and liquid vanilla stevia.

I’m currently employing the throw-everything-on-the-bed method again for when I go home today!! Ok, that might be a tad more exciting if I didn’t have to go home this past weekend for the party, but still it’s pretty fun when it’s for 5 days. Later on I have a nut butter review to share with all of you  :-)

My recent experiment on my crafting journey is to decorate eggs. I kind of realised that I should have gotten my hands on this long time ago, given that I love eating eggs so much, you can imagine how many perfect egg shells I have had wasted in the past many years which could have been used wisely in this sort of craftsmanship

Thanks for the "Great Book of Egg Decoration". When I borrowed the book at the library desk, the lady said I was half a year ahead of everybody. Well, I know it’s the Christmas coming, not Easter, but maybe I am half a year behind of everybody, who knows….When I had an idea, I just got to do it, doesn’t really care whether it is the time.

The book is so inspiring. When I firstly read it, I was thinking "Oh my God, how am I going to do this? It looks so complicated……" But when I really looked into it, I found it probably the best of all time egg decoration books that I could ever use.

The tools are very basic. If you can be creative enough, it almost costs no extra money. The patterns look so beautiful and full of variations but are only composed by some fundamental strokes. I guess to most of the people, they, probably just like me, won’t believe that they can do it until they really try it out.

So this afternoon, I skipped my nap and did a couple of eggs. The strokes look not very even and certainly need more practise, but the outcome was exciting enough to encourage me keep going ahead. Now I am so looking forward to try a dozen more with different patterns, colours…. and now I had just realised how much fun I have missed out before today.

I am picturing myself in the position of blowing 2-3 eggs everyday and working on a basket of emptied chicken egg shells, like an old European lady wearing magnified glasses working on tiny little strokes. But by the way, the egg decoration ideas from this book are really different from traditional Eastern European egg decoration in Slavic culture, like Ukraine, Poland, Croatian or Czech. If they didn’t look better, I would say they at least just look equivalently stunning!

I always feel a little bit hesitate to have salad in the cold days. I am kind of avoiding those cold greens, which makes my stomach really uncomfortable after eating. Yet after several days of trial, I fall in love with them. Inspired by Maggie , I decide to say YES to salad, even its is snowing outside!

My salads are warm, light, and veggie-ful. Hope my dear readers could try them out to fulfill your veggie-cravings.

Warm Salad Course One: Baked Kale, Mushroom and Eggo Salad

Ingredients:

it’s all there in the names!

Mix kale leaves, sliced mushroom with pinch salt; have an egg on it before sending them to the oven. Yes egg, not cheese this time ( you all know that I’m a big cheese eater! haha) You would love when the flavor of egg immersed in the kales!

Bake them about 15 min at 350 degree oven, easy dinner!

the top kale leaves are crisp like those kale chips, and bottom kale leaves are still leafy green! I love this combination of crunchy and juicy from the same kale leaves!

in-between two salad course, I would like to show off a coffee (instant coffee! can’t believe it!)

yeah, I was amazed when I got this beautiful pattern and take a pic of it right away. never imaging a sophisticated swirl will come from a instant coffee!! The dark bubbles melted away pretty quickly.  To be honest, I like this “taster’s choice” from Nescafé – my favorite way ? mix 1tsp of them, 1 tsp of chocolate powder, makes it a nice sweet treat for the day.

Alright, now comes our 2nd course of warm salad:

Endive and Red Pepper, with Acorn-Tofu Creamy Sauce:

wash the greens and red pepper, lightly salt them, and microwave the bow for 45 second. That’s the key for making the warm salad without losing the fresh color of the greens!

The creamy white sauce (which I had marketed for thousand times i guess? hehe ) . This time is a bit different because I add in some nature sweetness from Acorn. It should be more yellow-ish than it appears here:

I use : 1 small baked Acorn, mashed, 1/3 cup of silky Tofu, 2 tsp of shredded cheese, lemon and pepper to taste.  Puree all of them till smooth texture.  if you like ranch for your salad, this might be a great healthy alternative

Enjoy my dear friends!

btw, I had think about doing a 7-day challenge about posting everything I send to my stomach . Though I see lots of blogger friends doing that, it’s still a bit scary to me…I mean, posting everything I eat, means making a big confession of some of my guilty pleasures. well, but I guess it’s really fun to find the truth of your diet and see what’s right and wrong. My dear friends, have you done that before? How do you feel? Do you think that’s a good idea or I’ll get “traumatized” after that?

I’ll try to start the week after, because, this week is thanksgiving! I probably will scare myself to death seeing myself eating sooooo much food ! hahaha

Have a good night, my friends!

Made this sandwich on Sunday. Wanted to share it with the world and see what people think I should have to soak up the Saturday evening expressiveness next week. Let me know.

It begins with soya bread (it’s all we had left), brown sauce (currently Branston’s squeezy, although normally it would be none other than Daddies) and lots of juicy, yet slightly crispy back bacon.

The begining. For some reason Soya Bread... with 3 rashes per sarnie of beautiful back bacon.

Then some fried mushrooms (this time friend in the bacon fat and olive oil rather than tasy butter).

The mushrooms gave a tangy flavour and an extra texture.

Then I added a fried egg to each (one broke… shame, the other broke as I pushed the sandwich down (double shame).

Looks like hell, tastes like heaven.

Added salt and pepper and closed up and messily devoured with a can of Coke. Delicious and messy. Even a sandwich should have a reason. This one filled a hole. Operation complete.

The Finished Article.

Heh. This is an older amusing one that wasn’t covered in my post about past W(aL)D insanity.

This one isn’t really completely in the W(aL)D category, as it’s a legitimate complaint… but still, it’s ridiculous enough to share. Below is the my initial email regarding the incident, and I actually broke my “no calls” rule to talk to a regional manager who was not amused.

You can see what she had to say as it all played out in a thread at PittsburghBeat.com.

At any rate, it pays to make problems like this known.

Enjoy!

-mE.
.seitilibasid gninrael fo nuf ekam ot ynnuf ton yllaer s’tI

Forwarded Message —-
From: Eric Carroll <me@myaddre.ss>
To: dnstech@wendys.com; dnsadmin@wendys.com
Sent: Mon, January 26, 2009 11:45:04 AM
Subject: Wendy’s in Dormont (Pittsburgh, PA) – W. LIBERTY #5

Hello,

I’d like to share with you a review of my experience at a local Wendy’s (W. LIBERTY #5 according to the Wendy’s store locator), also posted on UrbanSpoon.com. I don’t have very many “bad” reviews up, but this Wendy’s location has gone slow and messed up my order countless times.

I’d like to know how Wendy’s as a corporation feels about restaurants like this, and what (if any) measures are taken by corporate to see that this kind of thing doesn’t go on.

The full text of my review can be viewed here: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1346715/restaurant/Far-South-South-Hills/Wendys-Old-Fashioned-Hamburgers-Dormont-Pittsburgh

But I will also post it here for your consideration:

“Dave Thomas would be ashamed…” by ERiC AiXeLsyD (63 reviews)

January 26, 2009 – Doesn’t like it – Seriously. I know I”ve said these words before about McDonald’s… I get that it’s only fast food, it’s cheap, and that I shouldn’t expect much… but holy cow, is this consistently one of the slowest “fast food” restaurants that I’ve ever been to. Of course, like an idiot, I keep going back hoping that it might someday be an actual convenience. Let me share with you my latest adventure…

Sunday morning, my wife & I were on our way out to my Mom’s house in the ‘Burbs… so we thought we’d get a quick bite to eat. It was nearing the 11:00am mark, so I knew we were going to hit the breakfast/lunch changeover. We skipped the McDormontonald’s because the drive-thru line looked like rush hour in the Liberty tubes. Thankfully, Wendy’s appeared to be a ghost town. There was hardly anyone inside, and there was one car ahead of us in the drive-thru but they were all the way up at the window.

As we pulled up to the speaker to place our order, I asked if they were serving breakfast or lunch, & was informed that they were serving both. So, I ordered the breakfast chicken sandwich combo, and the wife ordered the #2 bacon panini combo.

After receiving the order in what would be considered a long wait in a normal fast food environment but translated to remarkably quick at this location, I pulled into a nearby spot to inspect the goods. (Sadly, a must any more.)We discovered that my order was fine, but the wife had received a sausage panini instead of the ordered bacon panini. I checked the receipt to see if I had mis-ordered the # of the combo. Nope. The receipt clearly stated BACON in that nifty dot-matrix receipt font.

My wife’s not a big fan of sausage patties, and she was reluctantly leaning toward just eating it because time was of the essence. I know I like to eat what I ordered & paid for, so I went inside to get what I thought would be a simple swap-out.

Oh my, was I wrong.

My first encounter was with the young girl at the cash register. I politely stated that we had just gone through the drive-thru and that I wanted to exchange the sausage panini that we had received for the bacon one that we ordered.

I was told that breakfast was over & that hey couldn’t make a bacon one. After a slight pause of disbelief and bewilderment, I told her that I had just been handed the sandwich less that a minute ago through the drive-thru window… and it had been made just seconds before that.

She then yelled for her manager, and I stepped aside so she could help the next customer.

Now, while never working at a fast food establishment, I do understand that changeover time is changeover time… something to do with eggs on the cooking surface and kitchen setup and all sorts of things that are surely beyond my comprehension as the average fast food consumer.

After a wait the manager (coincidentally the very same person who handed me the order through the drive-thru window) came over and I again explained my situation… and he looked at me. Yes. Just stared blankly at me. For an awkwardly long time. I actually started to wonder if he understood English & was capable of hearing. Compelled to break the silence, I even showed him the receipt that clearly said BACON. All caps. No confusion!

Again, I was met with “we’re serving lunch now, we can’t make that”. OK. I understand. I get that. The point now is what can you do for me?

I asked if I could get something else as compensation, and/or get my money back. (I think I was growing visibly frustrated by this point.)

I called the wife, explained to her the complexity of the situation, and she decided upon a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger. So, I asked for one of those… and waited… and waited… While a guy who had gone in line in front of me had ordered during my exchange with the manager was waiting too.

After a while he exclaimed with multiple expletives that it was a ridiculously long wait, and how it was un-f’n-believable that a fast food restaurant with 3 people in it and a packed kitchen could go so slow.

I could hardly contain my laughter as I was also driven to the limits of my patience.

After what was surely sufficient time to cook & assemble 20 Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers, I received that, AND my money back for the sausage panini (which was now in the trash right behind the counter). So, I guess I got a free cheeseburger, hash browns & a drink.

I never did get any kind of apology, or admittance that they had messed up the order. (Which bewilders me that one can read bacon off of a screen and put down sausage… but I’m certainly not above making mistakes… so I can’t fault anyone for that.)

I just find it amazing that they weren’t apologizing from the start and presenting a solution instead of waiting for me to come up with one.

You’d think they’d have a “keep the customer happy” policy in place. Don’t they teach you any of this when you go to school to be a manager at Wendy’s?Take mom n’ pop shops… if they screw up an order or take too long, they’d give you a discount or a free drink or a coupon for next time… and they’re certainly taking more of a profit hit than a chain that would do the same thing.

At any rate, don’t go to Wendy’s in Dormont if you’re in a hurry, or if you actually want what you ordered.

I like Wendy’s. I grew up eating at the one in Murrysville, I frequent the one in Canonsburg for lunch. You have decent food for a cheap price, and I generally feel that the quality is better than that of other fast food chains.

I’d love to be able to eat peacefully and grab a quick bite to eat at the Wendy’s closest to where I live.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my experience, and I look forward to your reply.

Thank you for your time, and listening to my story.

-Eric Carroll

me@myaddre.ss

I first encountered chawanmushi in a Japanese restaurant a few years back. Breaking into its soft surface and discovering the choice morsels hidden beneath is at once a surprising and delightful experience. I’ve since learned that chawanmushi is considered an appetizer. The only one, I think, that is eaten with a spoon. This is a dish that stimulates the palate, one that gets you ready for the main course. In Japan, it is customarily served chilled in the summer, hot in winter.

Traditional chawanmushi includes seasonal ingredients: gingko nuts and shiitake mushrooms that become plentiful towards fall, maybe some chicken or even grilled unagi (eel). A variation could also be made using squid, prawns, or scallops. The most important ingredient of course, is the star of this dish—farm fresh eggs.

.

Chawanmushi

3 large eggs

3 Tbsps. light soy sauce

1 tsp. sake (may be skipped if you don’t have sake)

2 cups fish stock or dashi stock

1/2 tsp. rock salt

3 fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped (stems removed)

4 pieces large shrimp, (shelled & de-veined)

1 fillet of cream dory fish or other white deboned fish, cut into 4 pieces

1 small piece carrot, cut into flower shapes

spring onion leaves, sliced diagonally, for garnish

Break the eggs into a large bowl. Stir to mix egg yolk and white, but do not beat. Good chawanmushi, as with any custard, must be silky, with no froth. In another bowl, combine soy sauce, sake, fish stock, and salt. Slowly stir in the eggs into this mixture, so as to avoid forming bubbles.

You can also strain the egg mixture into another bowl to make sure the liquid is smooth.

Distribute the pieces of fish, shrimps, carrots, and shiitakes among the 4 cups. Pour in the egg mixture, filling each cup up to 1/2 inch from the rim.

Place slices of spring onion leaves on top for garnish.

Put the lids on or cover the cups tightly with cling wrap or aluminum foil.

Boil water in a saucepan large enough to contain the cups, with the water reaching a little over halfway of the sides of the cups. When the water reaches a brisk boil, turn the heat to low and place the cups into the water. Cover the pan and let simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, check the chawanmushi by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the custard. When the toothpick comes out clean, the chawanmushi is done.

Remove cups from the pan, uncover, and serve.

Egg omlette, egg bhurji,egg curry,omlette korma,egg gravy

Egg is the easiest and tastiest dish…

so lets start from the most simple form of cooking eggs.First comes Bull’s eye…

Bull’s eye :

Ingredients :

eggs – 1

salt – as per taste(if you are not sure about how much salt u would like, try adding a pinch.same goes for pepper and cumin too)

Pepper – as per taste (ground coarsely)

Cumin – as per taste(ground coarsely)

oil – 1 tspn

Procedure :

Heat oil in a pan…a flat pan preferably….a dosa tava is best if u know what it means.

Once oil is heated break the egg genlty and drop it on the pan…Make sure that the egg doesn’t break when u drop it.

Mix the salt,pepper and cumin in a bowl and sprinkle the contents on the egg.

Then if u like it you can cook the other side too, or you can just remove the egg and place it in a plate and serve…

This recipe is for people who don’t like to cook and are in situations that require them  to cook something ….

Next comes a recipe which is actually for beginners in cooking who are actually slightly inclined towards cooking

Egg Omlette (Indian style) :

Ingredients :

Egg – 2

Onion – 1 (Finely chopped)

Green chillies- 1(Finely chopped)

Garlic – 1 (Finely grated) – optional

Coriander leaves – As per taste – (Finely Chopped) – optional

salt – As per taste(Always go easy on the salt, if  salt becomes less to ur taste at the last u can sprinkle a pinch of salt)

pepper- As per taste

tumeric powder- 1 tspn

milk – 2 tspn

Procedure :

Place the finely chopped onion in a bowl

Add the finely chopped green chilies

Add the finely chopped coriander

Add the grated garlic -(Don’t use more than 1 garlic)

Add milk

Add salt,pepper powder,turmeric powder

Break the eggs

Start beating the mixture with a fork or a egg beater….(Atleast a hundred counts)

Beating is the most  important thing.

You can also put the mixture in the mixie and pulse it 4 times.(best )

Heat the pan

Add oil

Once oil is heated, add the mixture and cover the pan with a lid.

once cooked on one side..turn the egg to the next side and remove once cooked.

Serve hot…

Placed in the middle of two pieces of toast and a tomato sauce dip…omlette makes a good breakfast.

You sure will love it.

Cheese Omlette :

Ingredients :

Eggs – 2 nos

Cheese – mozzarella grated – 3 tbspn

Salt – to taste

Mushroom – 2 slices(very thin) cut from a single mushroom – optional

Tomatoes  – 2 slices(thin) cut – optional

Procedure :

Break the eggs in a bowl and beat(refer the procedure from omlette recipe above) well

Add salt and grated cheese.

mix the salt and cheese well into the egg

heat oil in a pan

Add the mixture

Arrange the tomatoes and mushroom pieces

once cooked, turn the eggs to the other side and cook.

Serve hot once cooked…..yummy

My favourite comfort foood.

A cheese omlette after a tired day makes life worth living.

And will soon join you with other egg recipes like egg gravy and egg korma…