Penguin Girl

NYC has had a cold weather snap for the past few days… and it’s supposed to go back up next week. *sigh*

I am in love with giada’s spicy mocha but I make it differently: one packet hot chocolate + a bit of instant coffee + a dash of cinnamon and chile powder.

I am also slowly discovering which brands of gf products I like, or at least which product lines within the brand I prefer for ready-made items. It’s interesting the vast difference among products, and at times frustrating. Fairway Brooklyn appears to have the most extensive gf section I’ve recently visited (It’s been too cold for me to double check a few other stores), but Fairway UWS doesn’t have the same selection (but I’ll use market research as an excuse to stop by it and Knitty City). I love love love Ener-G Crisp Pretzels but find their Tapioca Bread (and bagels) to be … drumroll … cardboard. Note that I am the girl that likes plain ricecakes and loved matzoh before it made me sick.

It takes a lot for me to call a bread-type product devoid of taste or flavor.

So what am I to do with the remainder of the loaf?

Tonight I made “breadsticks” by spraying a baking sheet with olive oil, laying a few slices down, dousing them heavily with olive oil, sprinkling with garlic salt and italian seasoning, flipping them, repeating the process and sprinkling the top with grated parmesan* and slicing them. I put them in a 375 oven for the 12 minutes or so it took for our pastas to cook. They ended up pretty tasty and went well with my pasta. E wasn’t too large a fan, but that meant more for me. I find that a Pecan Bread– brand I forget, but its available at whole foods and shoprite– retains moisture and doesn’t crumble while taking it out of the package and has a nice flavor all its own. If I remember to buy eggs I’ll try baking some more. I can’t find that orgran breadmix except at fairway brooklyn. :(

* Fairway Brooklyn also has wedges of real KOSHER ITALIAN Parmigiano-Reggiano (don’t hold me to it but I’m 99% sure cholov y’israel) but I haven’t yet gotten over the sticker shock (over $20 for a little wedge), but I will save some money and one day try it. I must admit that I miss good cheeses and am happy to be finding more and more kosher options available in the city. The health food store near E’s office has a very large selection and we’ll slowly try them.

Slowly I am able to cook again as deadlines are met and responsibilities spread out to a more manageable level once more. I didn’t cook very much this week as these three weeks (last week and the next two) are when everything comes due. I did, however, cook a little from my recent cookbook purchases.

For Shabbat, from Flavors of Korea: Delicious Vegetarian Cusine, I made Kongnamul Bap or Bean Sprout Rice… mostly. I had a can of stir fry vegetables which I used instead of fresh bean sprouts. Of course I’d rather fresh local ingredients, but sometimes you have to use what you have on hand. I also substituted brown rice as I need to cook up the pantry in preparation of the new cabinets (no I do not know when they are coming). The Sesame-Onion sauce was made without green onions as I had none. In any case, E and I enjoyed it and I will make it again.

From The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen I made Cheddar Corn Bread. This turned out yummy. I will probably put in more cheese next time as I couldn’t really tell this had cheese in it. I also finally broke out one of the silicone pans I was given years ago since my kitchen is now “mostly-new”. I refused to use them until we fixed the kitchen. They’re kinda fun and I didn’t notice any difference using them over a traditional pan. It did feel a bit weird putting plastic into the oven. I also need to do more research given all I’ve heard [especially recently] about carcinogens and plastic (I have sworn for years that water stored in plastic tastes weird but that is writing for another day).

Tonight we ate stuffed grape leaves. My FIL has been after us to purchase a certain brand of canned stuffed grape leaves available at our local supermarket. He’s been raving about them. I decided to turn them into a full meal by sautéing diced chink’n strips with some garlic, onion, and turmeric and then adding in some tomato sauce. I placed the stuffed grape leaves in the sauce to warm them slightly. This was a pleasant surprise. It saddens me greatly that I grew up with grape leaves in my back yard and I don’t think we ever thought to cook with them. I will attempt to make my own some day. I think this would be a very pleasant shabbat lunch. It does make me miss pita, but I’ll find something by this summer. Yes, I am thinking toward summer already, I don’t mind winter but we missed Autumn this year so I’d like it to be summer so we can try again.