![[sticky entry]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png)
Sticky: intro entry; and Snowflake Challenge: Day 4
Jan. 4th, 2019 18:22Edited 29 January 2019: I'm co-opting this as a sticky intro post. ( details )
Happy Star Trek Day!
Sep. 8th, 2021 20:52I just finished my Voyager rewatch (apparently about 3 weeks before all Trek leaves US Netflix forever, boo). Some of the grad students (… wow that’s weird to say) reminded me of the date today and now I’m watching Paramount’s big celebrationadvertising promo. I continue to be so glad that Wil Wheaton exists.
On Monday I made this Big-Flavor Broccoli recipe. The only substitution I made was to use a tablespoon or so of capers instead of anchovies. It was super tasty and I got to use my cast-iron pan again. Crispy out of the oven was best; the leftovers were not quite as good. I had it with from-a-box mac and cheese (not pictured).
Last night I made soup using this recipe for guidance on proportions & spices (I used mostly different veggies): Seriously Good Vegetable Soup. My version has the rest of the broccoli, the rest of the cabbage, a can of diced tomatoes plus 1.5 fresh tomatoes, five small potatoes, half a jalepeño, half a green pepper, half a red onion, half a cup or so of scallions, some garlic .. I think that's it. Super tasty, but as usual, I now have far too much soup. Two servings are in the freezer already and I am far beyond out of soup-serving-sized freezer tubs. I should really start eating up more of the frozen soup I've accumulated over the last year before I buy too many more veggies.
I'm going to take two basically free bingo squares, I guess - "made a meat-free dish" and "made a substitution." I almost always substitute something and I don't cook with meat too much, but gotta claim those squares sometime.
What's left from my grocery bag from two weeks ago? A red onion, five potatoes, lots of ginger, two limes, most of the garlic. Two bananas and one ginger are in the freezer, and I ate up the berries, starfruit, avocadoes, and three bananas with lunches & breakfasts. The scallion ends are starting to regrow nicely on the windowsill. Maybe I'll try roasting and freezing some of the garlic. The rest of the ginger will probably go in the freezer too.
I did make the hot toddy version of ginger tea last night, but no photo - it wasn't very photogenic. But I suppose I will count that for my "made a beverage" square. I tasted the tea before I added the toddy ingredients and it wasn't very strong, so I might try the recipe again before I freeze the rest of the ginger and steep it for a bit longer this time.
Yesterday I also mixed up batter for Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies, baked them this morning. I've made the recipe a few times before, so I'm not counting it for the challenge. They're gluten-free (made with cassava flour) and vegan and super yummy. I made a double recipe, and I've already eaten at least 4 of them.
Last night I made soup using this recipe for guidance on proportions & spices (I used mostly different veggies): Seriously Good Vegetable Soup. My version has the rest of the broccoli, the rest of the cabbage, a can of diced tomatoes plus 1.5 fresh tomatoes, five small potatoes, half a jalepeño, half a green pepper, half a red onion, half a cup or so of scallions, some garlic .. I think that's it. Super tasty, but as usual, I now have far too much soup. Two servings are in the freezer already and I am far beyond out of soup-serving-sized freezer tubs. I should really start eating up more of the frozen soup I've accumulated over the last year before I buy too many more veggies.
I'm going to take two basically free bingo squares, I guess - "made a meat-free dish" and "made a substitution." I almost always substitute something and I don't cook with meat too much, but gotta claim those squares sometime.
What's left from my grocery bag from two weeks ago? A red onion, five potatoes, lots of ginger, two limes, most of the garlic. Two bananas and one ginger are in the freezer, and I ate up the berries, starfruit, avocadoes, and three bananas with lunches & breakfasts. The scallion ends are starting to regrow nicely on the windowsill. Maybe I'll try roasting and freezing some of the garlic. The rest of the ginger will probably go in the freezer too.
I did make the hot toddy version of ginger tea last night, but no photo - it wasn't very photogenic. But I suppose I will count that for my "made a beverage" square. I tasted the tea before I added the toddy ingredients and it wasn't very strong, so I might try the recipe again before I freeze the rest of the ginger and steep it for a bit longer this time.
Yesterday I also mixed up batter for Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies, baked them this morning. I've made the recipe a few times before, so I'm not counting it for the challenge. They're gluten-free (made with cassava flour) and vegan and super yummy. I made a double recipe, and I've already eaten at least 4 of them.
DEL.ICIO.US
Feb. 8th, 2021 13:34PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: DEL.ICIO.US IS BACK UP!
But who knows for how long, so go export your bookmarks. I had nearly 3000 saved from 2006-2012 that I thought were lost forever. *tear* But now I can revisit some of my pre-AO3 fandoms, see how many of those stories still actually exist and/or are good, and add them to my AO3 bookmarks!
But who knows for how long, so go export your bookmarks. I had nearly 3000 saved from 2006-2012 that I thought were lost forever. *tear* But now I can revisit some of my pre-AO3 fandoms, see how many of those stories still actually exist and/or are good, and add them to my AO3 bookmarks!
Okonomiyaki
Feb. 7th, 2021 11:21On Thursday I make Okonomiyaki (cabbage pancakes). It used up most, but not all, of the half-cabbage that was in my grocery bag. They were not bad, and I might make them again if I need to use up cabbage, but I don't think I would buy cabbage on purpose just to make these.
Since I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them all in one sitting, I split the batter into thirds before adding eggs, and then added eggs and fried them up in three batches, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The second two batches worked much better (much less crumbly in the pan), so even if you want to fry it all at once, I'd recommend mixing the pre-egg batter at least a few hours in advance. I also switched from frying 1/4 cup at a time to 1/2 cup at a time (which yielded 2 big pancakes each time -- so a full recipe would make about 6 medium-sized pancakes). The tan sauce on top is greek yogurt with some soy sauce mixed in.
I'm counting it for used a new cooking method or tool because I used a new mandoline-type slicer on most of the cabbage. It sort of worked but I still had to use a knife to shred a bunch of it.
I also:
+ made chimichurri sauce because my watercress froze in the fridge, but I haven't used it yet; might make something with chicken.
+ made pickles, reusing the brine from the last jar I bought
+ started an attempt to regrow scallions on the windowsill.
Tonight in the snow I tackle the broccoli.
Since I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them all in one sitting, I split the batter into thirds before adding eggs, and then added eggs and fried them up in three batches, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The second two batches worked much better (much less crumbly in the pan), so even if you want to fry it all at once, I'd recommend mixing the pre-egg batter at least a few hours in advance. I also switched from frying 1/4 cup at a time to 1/2 cup at a time (which yielded 2 big pancakes each time -- so a full recipe would make about 6 medium-sized pancakes). The tan sauce on top is greek yogurt with some soy sauce mixed in.
I'm counting it for used a new cooking method or tool because I used a new mandoline-type slicer on most of the cabbage. It sort of worked but I still had to use a knife to shred a bunch of it.
I also:
+ made chimichurri sauce because my watercress froze in the fridge, but I haven't used it yet; might make something with chicken.
+ made pickles, reusing the brine from the last jar I bought
+ started an attempt to regrow scallions on the windowsill.
Tonight in the snow I tackle the broccoli.
Nopales enchiladas
Jan. 30th, 2021 12:14I ordered another big bag of groceries from the bagel shop! So I'm committed to doing a lot of cooking and/or preserving over the next week or so!
This week, the bags included small potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, limes, garlic, jalapeños, blackberries, bananas, nopales, starfruit, broccoli, watercress, green onions, cabbage, avocados, and red onions. I also thought there would be leeks, but my bag didn't have any, unless one of the bundles I'm calling green onions is really tiny leeks. But that is okay because I'll have enough trouble using all this as it is.
I had never cooked nopales (cactus pads) before, so I decided to use them first while they were still fresh. And I had been kinda wanting to make enchiladas anyway. So I added a package of corn tortillas to my order and looked up a recipe for enchiladas nopales.
How to clean nopales. It was not hard, but they do start to leak slime (like aloe) so lots of rinses are necessary.
Nopales Enchiladas recipe.
Changes I made:
- I didn't measure the potatoes or nopales, I probably used a bit less than called for
- No squash, but I chopped up about half of a red pepper and half a jalapeño that were left from my last grocery trip plus one of the tomatoes
- Mozzarella instead of cheddar because it's what I had
- I didn't have any enchilada sauce so I made my own (with the variant of using one of those tiny cans of tomato sauce as part of the 2 cups of liquid)
- I also mixed up some salsa using two tomatoes, an avocado, half a jalapeño, the rest of the onion from the recipe, and one of the limes.
The tortillas wanted to split instead of roll, so that part of it was kind of a mess, but they turned out all right! Would make again, also would consider buying nopales again and maybe even putting them in salad or stir-fry. They taste kind of like green peppers with just a little extra tartness, and the texture once cooked is similar.
This is again kind of a cheat for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
cookbook_challenge, because these are all new recipes I just found. But I promise I looked in all my recipe books first and not one of them had a recipe using nopales, so I'm counting it -- for made a sauce from scratch.
This week, the bags included small potatoes, tomatoes, ginger, limes, garlic, jalapeños, blackberries, bananas, nopales, starfruit, broccoli, watercress, green onions, cabbage, avocados, and red onions. I also thought there would be leeks, but my bag didn't have any, unless one of the bundles I'm calling green onions is really tiny leeks. But that is okay because I'll have enough trouble using all this as it is.
I had never cooked nopales (cactus pads) before, so I decided to use them first while they were still fresh. And I had been kinda wanting to make enchiladas anyway. So I added a package of corn tortillas to my order and looked up a recipe for enchiladas nopales.
How to clean nopales. It was not hard, but they do start to leak slime (like aloe) so lots of rinses are necessary.
Nopales Enchiladas recipe.
Changes I made:
- I didn't measure the potatoes or nopales, I probably used a bit less than called for
- No squash, but I chopped up about half of a red pepper and half a jalapeño that were left from my last grocery trip plus one of the tomatoes
- Mozzarella instead of cheddar because it's what I had
- I didn't have any enchilada sauce so I made my own (with the variant of using one of those tiny cans of tomato sauce as part of the 2 cups of liquid)
- I also mixed up some salsa using two tomatoes, an avocado, half a jalapeño, the rest of the onion from the recipe, and one of the limes.
The tortillas wanted to split instead of roll, so that part of it was kind of a mess, but they turned out all right! Would make again, also would consider buying nopales again and maybe even putting them in salad or stir-fry. They taste kind of like green peppers with just a little extra tartness, and the texture once cooked is similar.
This is again kind of a cheat for
cookbook_challenge, because these are all new recipes I just found. But I promise I looked in all my recipe books first and not one of them had a recipe using nopales, so I'm counting it -- for made a sauce from scratch.Still procrastinating, still not going to count this towards Snowflake, but here is an OTP meme I stole from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
corvidology:
Choose 5 OTPs without looking at the questions first, then tag 5 more people.
I will also provide the blank questions under a separate cut .... And I secondcorvidology's suggestion to definitely pick your ships before you look at the questions!
Not tagging anyone, everyone should feel free to do it.
5 OTPs picked at random before reading the questions: (I didn't think very hard about these, they are the just first ones that popped into my head.)
1) Crowley/Aziraphale
2) Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus (a new one, and I'm not sure I'm 100% behind it for OTP status yet)
3) Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
4) Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
5) Dean Winchester/Castiel (not really an OTP, I just tossed it on for fun)
Dang, now I sort of wish I'd fit Jaime/Brienne on there. Oh well. Here goes.
( my answers )
( blank questions )
corvidology:Choose 5 OTPs without looking at the questions first, then tag 5 more people.
I will also provide the blank questions under a separate cut .... And I second
corvidology's suggestion to definitely pick your ships before you look at the questions!Not tagging anyone, everyone should feel free to do it.
5 OTPs picked at random before reading the questions: (I didn't think very hard about these, they are the just first ones that popped into my head.)
1) Crowley/Aziraphale
2) Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus (a new one, and I'm not sure I'm 100% behind it for OTP status yet)
3) Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
4) Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
5) Dean Winchester/Castiel (not really an OTP, I just tossed it on for fun)
Dang, now I sort of wish I'd fit Jaime/Brienne on there. Oh well. Here goes.
( my answers )
( blank questions )
I have a subscription to Zipongo through work, and last fall in a bout of procrastination I bookmarked a bunch of recipes that sounded good. Zipongo, in turn, stole this recipe from EatingWell, as they do for most of their recipes, so I'm linking to that publicly available version: Chicken & Spinach Soup with Fresh Pesto.
I needed to use up some spinach, and I had some lettuce-and-squash-seed pesto in the freezer from a batch I made last fall, so it seemed like a good time to try this recipe. It was *very* easy, mostly because I already had the pesto. I used red pepper instead of carrots, and didn't have any marjoram, so substituted some basil, sage, and thyme instead. It came out fine -- it mostly tastes like my weird pesto, lol. I probably won't make it again, at least not directly from this recipe, but it's so simple that I'm sure I'll do something similar one day. And I've got three more servings left in the fridge.
I'm counting this for the "used a new spice" bingo square, because the basil I used as a partial marjoram substitute was a Christmas gift that had been home-grown and home-dried by my cousins.
I needed to use up some spinach, and I had some lettuce-and-squash-seed pesto in the freezer from a batch I made last fall, so it seemed like a good time to try this recipe. It was *very* easy, mostly because I already had the pesto. I used red pepper instead of carrots, and didn't have any marjoram, so substituted some basil, sage, and thyme instead. It came out fine -- it mostly tastes like my weird pesto, lol. I probably won't make it again, at least not directly from this recipe, but it's so simple that I'm sure I'll do something similar one day. And I've got three more servings left in the fridge.
I'm counting this for the "used a new spice" bingo square, because the basil I used as a partial marjoram substitute was a Christmas gift that had been home-grown and home-dried by my cousins.
Eep, has it really been two weeks since I last checked my reading list? Oops. Well, I'm caught up now!
My first class on Thursday was fine. I have a lot of preparing to do over the weekend to make sure next week is also fine! And a job application due Sunday that I am either going to ignore, or send in something that is not terribly good ...
Officially giving up on snowflake this year. Oh well. Maybe next time. But still keeping up with YWA!
My first class on Thursday was fine. I have a lot of preparing to do over the weekend to make sure next week is also fine! And a job application due Sunday that I am either going to ignore, or send in something that is not terribly good ...
Officially giving up on snowflake this year. Oh well. Maybe next time. But still keeping up with YWA!
I'm asking those who love the outdoors to post a picture on your page. A picture that you took. Just a pic. No description (but yes alt text!). The goal is to regain peace and harmony without negativity. Please copy the text, put a picture on your page, and let's look at these beautiful pictures.
Hi, this is a cooking blog now.
Maybe. I'm going to try to post more about cooking, usingcookbook_challenge to help push me. Here's my cookbook bingo square, get yours here.
Yesterday I made Pumpkin & Black Bean Baked Rice. It is slightly outside of the spirit of the challenge, because it appeared in WaPo yesterday morning, but I did bookmark it, and I did make it after I bookmarked it, so I'm counting it -- for "used something frozen," I guess.
I was excited to try this because it let me use the cast-iron pan that I brought back from Mom's house last week. I'd previously only done eggs in it, so this was a diversion from this guideline of the first things to cook in a cast-iron pan, but oh well.
( recipe copied here due to paywall )
It turned out .. okay? A little tasteless, despite all the spices and jalapeño; the raw onion was overpowering in the salsa; and it came out just a little watery, so I probably could have left it in for a few more minutes. Some of that might be the fault of some of my substitutions, probably the minute rice and/or the frozen squash, which essentially disintegrated once I stirred everything together in my bowl. But it was inoffensive, so I won't mind eating the leftovers for 3 more meals. Not sure I'd make it again, but it was fun to make once, especially to try out a stove-to-oven dish in my cast iron pan.
Maybe. I'm going to try to post more about cooking, using
cookbook_challenge to help push me. Here's my cookbook bingo square, get yours here.Yesterday I made Pumpkin & Black Bean Baked Rice. It is slightly outside of the spirit of the challenge, because it appeared in WaPo yesterday morning, but I did bookmark it, and I did make it after I bookmarked it, so I'm counting it -- for "used something frozen," I guess.
I was excited to try this because it let me use the cast-iron pan that I brought back from Mom's house last week. I'd previously only done eggs in it, so this was a diversion from this guideline of the first things to cook in a cast-iron pan, but oh well.
( recipe copied here due to paywall )
It turned out .. okay? A little tasteless, despite all the spices and jalapeño; the raw onion was overpowering in the salsa; and it came out just a little watery, so I probably could have left it in for a few more minutes. Some of that might be the fault of some of my substitutions, probably the minute rice and/or the frozen squash, which essentially disintegrated once I stirred everything together in my bowl. But it was inoffensive, so I won't mind eating the leftovers for 3 more meals. Not sure I'd make it again, but it was fun to make once, especially to try out a stove-to-oven dish in my cast iron pan.
Checking in
Jan. 18th, 2021 17:44Well, I have fallen VERY behind in my goal to complete Snowflake this year, and looking at the recent challenges, they seem ... challenging (go figure), so I am probably going to fail there. I've had way too many other computer-based activities taking up both my eyespace and brainspace.
I had an anxiety dream last night where instead of being on zoom, students showed up to my house for the first class session, so I had to hold class partially on zoom and partially around the kitchen table, and I was super unprepared, and no one was wearing masks, and then the students formed a mob, trashed my house, stole my wallet, and I couldn't find my cat.
uuuuggggghhh why did I want to do this again?
And I've had article revisions due, and a job application I was supposed to work on today but instead I spent all afternoon organizing a bunch of recipe bookmarks in Evernote so they're searchable.
I could replace my Snowflake goal withcookbook_challenge, but that requires cooking, and I've been super bad about ordering delivery since I got back from my extended quarantine holiday last week (2 months in pod with family). I need to get back into the regular-cooking mode that I established last summer/fall. I'm considering ordering another giant veggie bag next week so I'll be forced into it.
But I've been keeping up with YWA! So that's something.
I'm going to skim two articles, maybe attempt cooking, and maybe try to catch up on my reading list and comments tonight.
I had an anxiety dream last night where instead of being on zoom, students showed up to my house for the first class session, so I had to hold class partially on zoom and partially around the kitchen table, and I was super unprepared, and no one was wearing masks, and then the students formed a mob, trashed my house, stole my wallet, and I couldn't find my cat.
uuuuggggghhh why did I want to do this again?
And I've had article revisions due, and a job application I was supposed to work on today but instead I spent all afternoon organizing a bunch of recipe bookmarks in Evernote so they're searchable.
I could replace my Snowflake goal with
cookbook_challenge, but that requires cooking, and I've been super bad about ordering delivery since I got back from my extended quarantine holiday last week (2 months in pod with family). I need to get back into the regular-cooking mode that I established last summer/fall. I'm considering ordering another giant veggie bag next week so I'll be forced into it.But I've been keeping up with YWA! So that's something.
I'm going to skim two articles, maybe attempt cooking, and maybe try to catch up on my reading list and comments tonight.
