Penguin Girl

I have never *ever* been able to open a container of yoghurt without it burping and spitting at me (or away from me if I am smart enough to remember to turn it that way). I now open it in a plastic bag or the sink. and it does this. every. single. time.

am i the only one?

This article saddened me greatly last week. I hate when I toss spoiled food. No, I do not have a compost bin in the apartment. I would love one, but that might push E too far. I the woods (where I grew up) and many of the freedoms that granted me which I didn’t realize at the time.

I track our finances pretty closely and can state that as compared to this time last year, somehow I’ve reduced our grocery spending. I’m not sure how I accomplished this feat considering prices of everything have gone up and I’m eating completely gluten free now. Part of me believes it is because I’m planning meals better to reuse leftovers and I’m not tossing as much as I did last year. Why did I toss a lot? Our refrigerator did not seal well. The new refrigerator keeps things fresher for much longer. I used to have to throw out milk that was opened on Saturday by the following Wednesday. That’s terrible and pained me greatly. Now E often finishes it the folowing Saturday if I hadn’t used it up throughout this week.

Nu (so), How can you test your fridge sealing? Take a dollar bill and close the door on it. If you can pull it out you need to replace the door sealing. I’ve tried proving this to a certain family member and she doesn’t seem to want to replace hers. She also stuffs her fridge full. I’m not sure if that is good or bad if every space inch of space is filled. I don’t think so, but I have not yet researched this. I just can’t figure out why. But she and I have been disagreeing about this practice for many years. Sure I often don’t have ingredients I might need… but I find it leads to creativity. :)

This week, I wanted to try to use up some items in the fridge before they met our garbage chute. I had a partial can of sliced beets and some pineapple chunks about to become biology experiments (I’m allergic to penicillin so I don’t care for those sorts of experiments). Thanks to some googling I made Beet, Pineapple and Tofu “risotto”. I didn’t really make risotto but made it with some (white) rice we had on hand. It was very very good even if it was pink.

(link via boing boing)

This week wasn’t a very inspiring or adventurous week for cooking. My sinuses decided that all I should do this week is sleep.

When we visited with my mother last Sunday, as per a conversation, she gifted me with a bunch of local asparagus and rhubarb. I’m not very familiar with Rhubarb as most of my experience has found it frozen in bags at the store and paired with strawberries. I made a cranberry rhubarb chutney of sorts to serve with leftover chicken my inlaws gave us before they left for two weeks in Israel. It turned out ok and I’m looking for something to do with the remaining three stalks.

I was looking forward to the fresh asparagus as I knew my mother would pick me a beautiful bunch even though she doesn’t like it herself. Half of her selection were tender and pencil thin while the second half was much thicker. E begged me to fry some any way I wanted with a suggestion of “tempura style”. It was an adventure as I don’t have much frying-and-battering experience. I should have watched a recent episode of Good Eats and learned one way to batter, I think my first attempt at an egg and rice flour mixture went pretty well. I didn’t burn myself or the asparagus, and we both ate up all I made.

For shabbat lunch I made a quinoa and asparagus salad. This was a simple dish that I served room temperature and also didn’t leave any leftovers. I believe there is a typo in the recipe as i do 2c water to 1c quinoa (making 3c quinoa) so chef-beware.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be scouring the web to decide what to do with the remaining rhubarb and dreaming of tomorrow’s breakfast of grilled asparagus and egg. Yum!

I’ve slowly been filling in the back pieces since I took this photo. Seriously, if I don’t write it down chances are I can’t remember the next day. Since E and I are both culinary creatures of habit, we could end up eating rice and tofu every day of the week.

The rest of this week looked like this:

Tuesday: pasta w/lemon butter & broccoli
Wednesday: fish & chips
Thursday: rice & tuna quiche
Friday: souped up tomato soup w/cheese quesadillas (recipe below)
tonight: pasta leftovers

On Friday I found myself “free at last” and I ran into Manhattan for some eggs (not quite efficient, but I get some exercise out of it, the train is going there ANYWAY, some knitting time, and I get to support a local farmer). BUT that was about all I wanted to be carrying in the rain and wind with a broken umbrella.

Oh no! The cupboards were bare and I was cold and tired! I had chickpeas, tomato soup, some grape tomatoes that are trying to impersonate raisins, some carrots, a shallot, and some corn burrito shells leftover from Monday along with assorted cheeses in the fridge.

I figured grilled cheese with tomato soup would be a wonderful dinner given the dismal weather, and here’s how I turned it into a satisfying gluten free meal with leftovers!

souped up tomato soup with cheese quesadillas
serves 2, gf & dairy
Needs:
1 shallot
olive oil
handful of grape tomatoes
box of tomato soup (such as Pacific Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato)
single serving box of vegetable broth (such as pacific vegetable broth)
1 10oz can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 carrot
red pepper flakes (optional)

Do:
Heat oil in pot on very low & chop shallot fine. Add to pan and allow to slowly caramelize/brown– mostly– idea is for them to soften and not burn. While shallot browns, slice carrot fine, chopping in half lengthwise if it is thick. Add and allow to soften — perhaps 5 minutes, can raise flame if desired (or impatient). Add halved tomatoes. After about 3 more minutes, stir in vegetable broth and bring to boil. Add tomato soup & chick peas and reduce flame and simmer.

While soup is simmering heat griddle for quesadillas. I made these with random cheeses in the fridge, one was goat cheese, one was shredded mozzarella, one a shredded mozzarella-cheddar blend, and the last a poorly “shredded” (i actually tried to slice it thin) monterey jack with tomato and olive.

Serve. I sprinkled mine with red pepper flakes to help combat the joint pain from the rainy weather.

I proclaim this experiment a success. I took things that probably wouldn’t have adequately fed one of us and turned it into a highly satisfying meal for two, in fact there were leftovers!

Wait, how did I take those photos if I’m shomer shabbat? I completed dinner early, plated it, took the photos, and then bentsch licht (lit shabbos candles). Kinda weird, but with sunset so late and a full work day before it, we’re hungry and I generally bentsch a bit early. This week I lit about fifteen minutes before shabbos /really/ started (but it still ends at the same time). ;)

We went shopping tonight and I have found my new popcorn weakness. Microwave popcorn no less (hey we all have to have a vice of some sort). Natural Buttery Salt & Cracked Pepper in a mini bag, which is perfect as that way I don’t eat the entire bag myself and E doesn’t like it so there’s more for me.

Have a great week!

Ingredients:
- Box of plain cereal (i.e. Cheerios or Rice Chex)
- Fingers
- Bowl (optional)
- braid wool rug (optional, though full of memories, best for those under age seven adults and older children seem to have a problem with this ingredient)

Process:
- Open box & bag inside finding an adult to assist if necessary.
- If desired pour into bowl.
- Otherwise scoop out handfuls and enjoy. Pick out of rug if using. Rug method not recommended if you have young puppies.

Huh? I have never put milk in this type of cereal, I find it absolutely disgusting. Perhaps it’s because I drank Isomil until age six (pre-Lactaid milk era) and according to my parents I had a good reason to not put *that* on cereal. The only cereal I’d put milk in was grape nuts (and even that I have to do real quick b/c the smell grosses me out and it took me until I was 17 to be able to attempt this), which then was microwaved turning it into a hot cereal. For me the perfect cereal is a plain un-sugary (as much as possible with corn syrup in everything these days) finger food.

[yes this was pre-drafted and a scheduled post. it was slightly edited after intial post. it may be edited further for clarity in the future. it may not be … as a reminder to myself of edit first, post second. quality over quantity!]

With pesach so late in spring, I have even less desire than normal to prepare heavy “traditional” meals (translation: lots of meat and potato. YUCK). I’ve spent the past week pouring over cookbooks and making samples and triple checking the list of kitniyot (seriously, if we ate them, our diet wouldn’t change much for those eight days, and I greatly miss popcorn).

The largest challenge is keeping us fed while we’re at the office for the “middle days” (Tues - Fri). That Wednesday will be my challenge as I must give a coherent final presentation on the Project that evening.

I have a plan. We’re just back from the stores to attempt to make the plan a reality. Though we just realized we forgot about eating /this/ week. Certain items seem more over priced than years past ($10 for rainbow cookies?) and I’m having a difficult time finding butter [added: this shouldn’t surprise me as most people eat MEAT all week, I did purchase 2 sticks]. But other items seem easier to find and less expensive. I’m really happy I bought my matzoh when I did as I’ve not seen ANY since. Tonight our ShopRite had Be’er Mayim Ginger Ale shelved with the actual soft drinks (this is my favourite brand of ginger ale and more so over pesach)!

Additional time will be spent at the Green Markets this week to pick up last minute items, and if I get my writing act together, I’ll post a few bonus pieces this week and next to make up for a weekend yontif.

In the you learn something new every day.. we feel dumb. Tapioca is not rice or a rice derivative. wiki proof. We found some “tapioca flour” kosher l’pesach. I shall experiment.