Tag Archives: Cooking

January 25, 2023 · 10:00 am

With extra maple syrup

Bloganuary: What’s your favorite meal to cook and/or eat?

I think we’ve already established how I feel about cooking dinner.

That being said, I do have some favorite meals:

  1. Lubia Polo: This is a Persian dish I’ve tried to replicate without much success. I spent an afternoon watching my mother-in-law prepare it, writing down her every move, asking her questions. I’ve attempted my sister-in-law’s version as well. And again, something’s missing. There’s some magical Tahmaseb ingredient that the rest of us simply don’t possess.
  2. Kashke Bademjan: This is another Persian dish, but I’ve only eaten it at restaurants. It’s an eggplant/garlicky concoction that also serves as an appetizer. I love it. I hope to grow some eggplants this year and try making this dish myself.
  3. Breakfast for Dinner: Pancakes, in particular, but all breakfast foods are invited. There is nothing like breakfast for dinner after an especially rough day.

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January 18, 2023 · 10:00 am

I, for one, plan on welcoming our dinner-cooking robot overlords

Bloganuary: What chore do you find the most challenging?

It’s not that I find cooking dinner exceptionally challenging. I’m just disappointed that, despite the fact it’s 2023, we haven’t found a way for AI to do it for us. Where’s my Star Trek replicator that will make me some tea, Earl Grey, hot? I ask you!

I can turn the lights on and off by myself. Thank you very much, Alexa. But why must I cook dinner?

Every.

Single.

Night.

And it isn’t even the prep time or the cleanup. It’s that it goes by so quickly. You do all this work and all this cleaning. For what? Five or so minutes of eating?

Granted, I may be doing the eating part of dinner wrong. I realize that I don’t need to inhale my food like I’m in the dining facility, and a drill sergeant is clocking my every bite.

Sometimes you really can’t take the Army out of the girl.

It’s why I prefer to bake. The same amount of work, but the results hang around for much longer.

With that in mind, I think I’ll go make some cookies.

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December 28, 2014 · 12:03 pm

Weekly writing check-in: the one at the end of December

cakeA quiet holiday week. To the left, you can observe one of my accomplishments. Seriously, that it turned out is some sort of Christmas miracle.

That I successfully sliced the cake in half to create two layers is an actual Christmas miracle.

So in between the baking and cleaning and wrapping and movie watching, I did manage 5,000 words.

Cake and words. Not a bad way to end 2014.

See you in the New Year! I’ll have a bit of news then, too.

Writing Work:

  • Writing ~ 5,017 words

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

 

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July 3, 2012 · 9:35 am

Of clothes shopping and BLTs

So yesterday after work, I headed to the mall with my fashion consultant (AKA Kyra) to buy some summer clothes. Somehow every pair of capri pants I own has disintegrated or mysteriously vanished. And dude, it’s nearly 100 degrees outside. I CANNOT wear jeans, even lightweight ones.

So, off to the mall it is! I only shop at one store there, so this cuts down on the angst and decision-making. I figure if they don’t have what I want, it doesn’t exist. Upon entering the store, I went immediately for the earth tones, Kyra gravitated toward color. She wove her way through the displays, selecting outfits for me.

I know what you’re thinking: You shop with your nine-year-old? Here’s the thing: She’s really good at it.

We lugged our armfuls of fashions into the dressing room, where, amazingly, everything fit. I know. I saved the Kyra-selected outfit for last. Once I had it on, she spent about five minutes adjusting the drape, and so on.

Me: You’re really good at this.
Kyra:  Well, you know, I’m probably going to be a fashion designer.

This, of course, is when she’s not being a scientist, a veterinarian, or painting all her pets’ portraits.

Then she tried to get me to pose, hand on hip, the other arm just so, head tilted at a particular angle. No matter what I tried, it didn’t work.

Me: I’m not a very good pose(u)r.

Note: Only I found that funny.

So, not only did everything fit, it was all on sale, and I bought the lot. I’m set for summer. And we did it all in forty minutes. At home, I made BLTs for dinner. Kyra took her first bite and let out a Mmmmm most people reserve for Godiva chocolate.

Kyra: Mama, you may be plain when it comes to clothes, but you’re awesome at cooking.

Yes, when it comes to toasting bread, I know no rival.

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October 17, 2011 · 9:07 am

That’s how we (chocolate) roll

So, yesterday, Andrew and I made a trial run of the chocolate roll he needed to bake for the food unit in German class. Why does he need to bring in a chocolate roll for German class? I. Don’t. Know. It’s right up there with edible Australia. I’ve stopped questioning these things.

Of course, I’ve never made a chocolate roll. This does not shock my foodie friends. However, I do own a jelly roll pan*. Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am about this fact.

Plus! I showed Andrew how to separate eggs. Yes! I know how to do this! Don’t worry. This is the extent of my mad cooking skillz because I clearly have never baked anything in said jelly roll pan. We discovered it didn’t fit in the oven. And yes, we’d already poured the batter into the pan when we made this discovery.

I made a mad dash to Target and returned with a pan that would fit into our oven. We went for it and simply re-poured the batter.

It seemed to work. The whipped cream was easy. The rolling part? Not so much. I did discover that Smitten Kitchen has an excellent post on the whole rolling thing (which I found by searching on “broken chocolate roll”). Her recipe almost matches the one we used that came from the German cookbook in Andrew’s class.

Amazingly, our roll is almost roll-like.

I think we’re set for tonight.

*suspect that edible Australia is the reason behind the jelly roll pan purchase.

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December 15, 2008 · 12:05 pm

The secret ingredient revealed

So this weekend-yesterday, actually-I baked banana bread and chocolate chip cookies. From scratch! I know. I’ll wait while the rest of you pick yourself up off the floor.

Actually, I like baking, as long as it’s not too complicated. Meals I’m pretty meh about. I mean, all that work, and it’s gone within thirty minutes, except for the mess. With baking, you can enjoy your efforts for at least twenty four hours or so, give or take.

Also, I cleared the clutter reorganized the kitchen, which makes it nice to bake in these days.

Miss B was all excited to help me bake cookies. Ever since I baked oatmeal raisin cookies with Andrew (a recipe from his Family and Consumer Science class), she wanted to bake her own cookies.

I was telling her something my mom told me about baking chocolate chip cookies-because cookies, along with 80s pop music, is cross-generational. Instead of butter, use shortening for better texture.

Miss B: What’s shortening?
Me: It’s fat.

A bit later, Bob wandered through and Miss B exclaimed:

Daddy! I know the secret to Mommy’s cookies and I’m not telling anyone at school. It’s a secret recipe and it’s FAT!

Now, doesn’t that sound appealing? I suppose I should be relieved she’s not telling her entire school that the secret ingredient is fat.

Here’s my whole point to this baking and cooking thing: why go all Martha Stuart when you can make your offspring ecstatically happy with a bag of Nestlé’s toll house morsels?

And fat. Don’t want to forget the secret ingredient.

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