Meal challenge (and jumpstarting the blog?)

Another long hiatus, sorry.  It's...a little crazy here, with internship madness and other grad school stuff.  But, I'm hoping that now that we're actually not traveling all the time, I can set some sort of posting schedule (well, and cooking schedule, honestly) and stick to that.  I'm thinking bi-weekly to start.

The lack of posts is not totally reflective of a lack of cooking, but it's true that I haven't cooked as much as I've wanted to.  So, the other day, I decided that we'd play a game to remedy this.  I asked Mu to buy whatever ingredients he wanted, and then I would use them all (as well as anything additional we already had at home) to create a meal!  It was sort of like the mystery box challenge on MasterChef, for anyone who watches that show -- essentially, mandatory ingredients plus access to a pantry.  I went with him to the store and was allowed one additional ingredient after he picked out all of his, and then got home and cooked.  It was really fun to have this challenge -- I thought a lot about what to make, ended up adjusting some things as I went, and then ended up with a yummy meal at the end!  So, I figured I'd share it with you all as a way to get back to blogging.

Mystery box!

So, we went to Sprouts, which is sort of like Whole Foods but cheaper and less pretentious, and Mu got the following ingredients: broccoli, portobello mushrooms, peaches, walnuts, corn, roasted tomatoes (from the olive bar), greek yogurt, blue cheese, smart strips steak strips (a meat substitute), and very dark (87%) chocolate.  I added salad greens as my additional ingredient, since I wanted to use a bunch of those things in a salad.  I wasn't sure what to do with some of the ingredients, especially the corn (I never cook with corn) and the dark chocolate, and I had a variety of ideas for others (salad for sure, and maybe stir fry with the other veggies).  I also was allowed to use my recipe books, which I ended up not needing, but it was good to have the option to even skim through them.


Once we got home and I was able to look through our fridge and pantry, I chose my additional ingredients and created a plan!  Here are my recipes and instructions, with the challenge ingredients highlighted.


Portobello steaks (similar to the ones I wrote about here)
2 portobellos (this was how many Mu got, if I were doing this on my own, I'd double this recipe)

2-3 tablespoons greek yogurt

dijon mustard to taste (I used about 1 tablespoon)
1 head garlic
salt and pepper to taste
paprika to taste



First, make the sauce.  Peel and mince the garlic and combine all the ingredients except mushrooms in a bowl.  Mix well and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes so that the garlic permeates a bit.  Preheat the oven to 400.  Clean the mushrooms, then brush on both sides with the sauce.  I let them sit with the sauce on for a bit, though I don't know if that's necessary.  Cook cap-side down for 10-15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have reached a medium scrunch level. :)  That's all!


Broccoli, carrots, and smart strips saute

1-2 heads of broccoli

1-2 regular carrots, or about a dozen baby carrots (that's what I had in the house)
1 medium onion
1 head of garlic
1 hot pepper (optional)

1-2 oz roasted tomatoes

2 oz smart strips (or real meat would work, too...)

olive oil (I used a basil-infused oil to go with the Italian theme)
salt and pepper (I used lemon pepper, it worked well)
Italian seasoning, or some sage, rosemary, and thyme (or whatever you like, really)


Chop up the onion, garlic, and hot pepper.  Saute in olive oil until the onion is getting soft, 10-15 minutes.  Chop broccoli and carrots and add those to the pan.  Add spice, cover and saute until carrots and broccoli are soft.  Uncover, add smart strips and tomatoes, and cook another 5-10 minutes until all the flavors are melded.

Mushroom and veggies

Sweet salad

Salad greens (I had a 50/50 spring mix and baby spinach combo)

1 peach

1 ear sweet corn

walnuts to taste

blue cheese to taste

1-2 dark chocolate squares

olive oil and balsamic vinegar (I used a blood orange olive oil to go with the sweetness)


Fry the walnuts for about 10 minutes to give them some crisp.  Slice the peach and the cheese.  Cut the corn off the cob (if it's pretty fresh, no need to cook).  Combine the salad greens with the peach, cheese, walnuts, and corn.  Shave some chocolate on top, season with olive oil and vinegar, mix and enjoy!

The salad

All of this took me about an hour to do (not counting the thinking time) and was really super easy!  I had originally thought about doing a corn puree, but decided it was too involved and the corn would be great in the salad (and it was).  I also didn't want to have too many components on the plate.  I think it all worked pretty well, and Mu agrees!


So, a fun way to get back to blogging and to cook something new.  I think we're going to do a similar thing again soon!  As for the blog, the current plan is to post twice a week, Wednesday and (tentatively) Sunday.  Let's see how that goes!


Up next: comfort food, or Elaine's SF-upbringing-inspired version thereof.

Dusting off the old blog...

So, uh, hi.  Long time no see, right?  Yeah, the whole updating regularly thing has apparently been beyond me.  Let's give this another shot, shall we?

I think a large part of the reason I haven't updated in so long is that, despite our best intentions, we haven't been leaping through our goals by any stretch of the imagination.  Stuff has been happening, but nowhere near the pace at which we wished.  Still, there's enough for a summary!

Fitness: Well, we've tried?  The running was going reasonably well, and then Mu's knee started having issues, and since it's completely impossible apparently for me to run on my own, we've both stopped.  We have, however, been taking walks nearly every day.  We're thinking about restarting the running, maybe next week, now that his knee is feeling better again.  We also have all these ideas about swimming, but they haven't happened yet.  I'm still doing trapeze, though!  It's still fun, and I'm definitely daydreaming of doing it on a more regular basis once we're back in the Bay Area for real.

Eating: Also something of a mixed bag.  We haven't been doing so well with regular meals, and I think part of it is that the habit to have an evening snack is just too strong and feels super aversive to break.  We've started doing something called intermittent fasting, where you go for 14-20 hours (depending on how often you're doing it) without eating -- basically from after dinner until about brunch/lunch time.  I've read some research on it, and it's supposed to be good for convincing your body to burn some fat, as well as regulating metabolism to a degree.  We started doing 16 hour fasts once a week, but this week we're trying 14.5 hours twice a week instead.  I suspect getting us to cut out the evening eating will be this thing's biggest benefit, but we'll see.

Sleep: We haven't been sticking exactly to the midnight-8am schedule, but we both seem to be falling closer to that, nonetheless.  And, as of yesterday, we have Zeo headbands, which will help track our sleep and see if there are specific patterns that need changing.  I guess it's progress?


Languages/writing: Ugh.  I've made a little bit of progress in the writing thing, but not enough, and neither of us has done anything with languages.  This category is probably the biggest reason I haven't posted in so long -- it seems so sad to report that we've done so little!

Cooking: We made mushroom ravioli the other day!  Making pasta dough by hand turned out to be kind of a pain, and Mu and I had to take turns attempting to wrestle it into submission, and it still didn't turn out quite right in the end, but it was sufficiently tasty to work, and the filling was great!  Mushrooms, garlic, and parmesan are never a bad thing.  I've also made several variations of my now-signature (stolen from Anya) quinoa dish and it's always well received.

Activities: The one category where we've outdone ourselves!  Let's see, what all have we done?  Jonathan Coulton concern with Cin, Vallejo Pirate Fair, Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor, an improv show, a weird but cool acapella show, American Idiot, a number of new restaurants (Korean, Indian, Shabu shabu, and Thai, for a sample), a couple of movies (Brave and MIB-III), and  many friend outings (including an amazingly relaxing trip to Harbin Hot Springs, where we alternated between swimming, eating, reading, and sleeping).  So, no shortage of stuff, with more coming up

Oh, and to top it all off?  We got married!  On Friday the 13th!  It's only part 1 (the legal, Elaine-needs-health-insurance and tax-breaks-are-awesome, part), but it was still lovely and exciting!  We did it at City Hall with our two families, then had cocktails at O3 followed by a super tasty dinner at Kokkari (really good Greek place in SF), and then Mu and I went on a fake honeymoon to his parents' house in South Lake Tahoe for the weekend.  I'll have more pictures at some future point, but have a little sample for now. :)  In case you're wondering why we haven't changed our FB status yet, it's because we're waiting 'till after the "wedding" portion of things (we've been calling it "part 2"), which will be next year.

With our "souvenir certificate!"

Mid-ceremony

'So, as you can tell, we've been pretty busy!  We're trying to get back on track with the non-activity goals, and also enjoying our time in SF.  We only have another 3 weeks, sadness!

Trapeze and self-expectations

Three years, when I was taking trapeze for the first time, I was in somewhat better shape than I am now, but it was nevertheless hard.  I remember that the way it kind of worked was that I would learn a new trick, and on the first day of learning it, things would go pretty well.  I would do some semblance of it, make several catches, and feel pretty good.  The second time, though, the teachers would point out improvements I could make, at which point I would be completely unable to do the trick at all -- thinking about the 7 things that could be better left me unable to execute even one.  Then, after a lesson of this, my brain would integrate it all somehow, and I'd be able to to finally pull off the trick again, with somewhat better technique.  Rinse, repeat, and this is how in 10 weeks of trapeze, I learned how to approximate, in safety lines, about 2.5 tricks.  I'm a slow learner. :)

This time around, I started with a trick I "learned" last time (I put that in quotes because, as I said above, I only ever really approximated anything).  On one hand, this was a good thing -- I know I can do this because I've done it in the past, it's a fun trick, and it doesn't feel like totally starting from scratch.  On the other hand, because I remember being better at this particular trick before than I am now (and I have evidence of this on YouTube, as most of you know), there's a part of me that's thinking, "wait, how come I keep failing now?"  Today was especially bad -- last week was my first time back, so I a) had an excuse and b) did a little better because the teachers were focusing on helping me do the trick in any way possible and not on technique.  Today, I got more technique feedback, with the predictable side effect of having me lose it entirely. Ugh.  I knew this would happen, but it was still a little demoralizing. I did manage one catch, on my very last try, so I left on a good note.  It did get me thinking about expectations, though.

I know that I do this entirely to myself.  I was so anxious before I left for class this morning, butterflies in the stomach and all!  I was thinking about how I'd probably do poorly (and I did), how other people would think I was slow or not doing well (as far as I know, they didn't), and how the teachers would be disappointed because they try so hard to help and I just can't get better (as far as I know, they weren't).  When I got to class and started flying, I settled down a bit, but the drive there was sort of anxiously miserable.  On the other hand, having the experience of doing poorly was probably good -- I got to see that even though I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, the consequences were pretty minor, and that other than me, no one else had any real expectations of how I should've been doing.  The teachers are great at working with students where they are, now I just need to work with myself where I am.

So now, I'm left with the task of figuring out how not to beat up on myself.  Partially, this will be helped by getting generally more fit.  However, I think I need to actively make some cognitive changes.  I'm sure other people have this experience, where they're their own worst critics about a hobby or something else that's supposed to be fun but that they want to do better at.  How do you all deal with it?  I've learned (to some extent) to manage this with school stuff, but I feel much more competent when it comes to that than when it comes to trapeze!

Turns out that keeping up routines while travelling is hard...

So, with me being gone for 5 days, it's been a little difficult to stick to plans.  We tried, though, and did...mostly ok.  Have a summary, in yet another, slightly different format.

Fitness: Despite being across the country from one another, Mu and I both did the scheduled C25K sessions on Sunday and Tuesday.  We moved to 4 minutes of walking and 1 minute of jogging for 30 minutes, and it actually didn't feel any harder, which I think is a sign that something is working, ever so slightly.  We'll do the last workout with those times today, and then move to 3:1, most likely. 

Sleeping: Mu says his sleep schedule is still a work in progress, and mine was all over the place, with the Boston trip and all.  I'm gonna try to get back to a midnight-8am thing and see how that goes.  I was reminded at my conference, though, that performance is correlated with sleep in a 24hr period rather than nighttime sleep only, so I think as long as I keep my rise time steady, it's ok for me to get a little less sleep at night and take a nap.

Eating: My food intake was really all over the place with travel, and I'm not keeping track of my weight.  Mu says he hasn't lost any weight this week.

Language: Mu did 2 modules of the online Russian course he's taking!  I was amazed to have a little text exchange with him in Russian, it was great!  I haven't done any Italian yet.

Writing: As predicted, I haven't done any.  But, I've put blocks into my calendar for next week, so that's progress, right?

Cooking: Nothing new, with being gone.  Planning on cooking tomorrow afternoon, most likely.  Plus, I'm probably gonna go to the farmer's market with my dad on Saturday.  At 7am.  Maybe.

Activities: Not much for me, except for lots of socializing with sleep research friends.  Mu did spend time with friends and family while I was gone.  We're putting lots of interesting things into our calendars, though!  I'm pretty excited for next week.

I gotta start taking pictures of something to include in my posts, but what?  I also need to figure out some weekly features.  This blogging thing is taking effort! :)

Summer of self improvement is up and running

I realized after the very first day that detailed daily summaries were gonna get tedious for me and probably for everyone else.  I think I'll do a weekly update instead.  However, updating the blog only once a week seems like too little, so I'm going to think about what kinds of other things I can write about that would tie in to the stuff we're working on without being annoying.  I'll probably bring back the link dump, but not today. :)  For now, have a summary!


Mu's goals:
Fitness: See below
Language: Nothing this week
Dance: Mu went to a dance class taught by Bret and Melissa yesterday!  He had fun and they said he did well.  I'm hoping I can join him in the future, but the timing didn't work out this time.

Elaine's goals:
Fitness: Trapeze, weeee!  I went to my first class yesterday, and while some of it came back ("Just like riding a bike, right?"  "Um...not so much..."), it was tiring and I'm super sore this morning.  I was sore even last night, especially where I got banged up from the trick, and this morning became somewhat miserable.  But it was so much fun!  I got a 10-class card, so I get to do this all summer!
Language: Nothing yet.  Probably won't be able to do this next week, either, but maybe?
Cooking: I made quinoa, does that count?  It's not new, but my mom enjoyed it.
Writing: As predicted, nothing this week.

Mutual goals:
C25K:  We have completed the first week!  The program is 3 runs per week, and we did the 3rd yesterday, all at the 25/5 walk/jog split.  The last time was slightly better than the 1st and 2nd, so I suppose it's getting better, but it's still rough.  We're happy to be doing it together, though -- I don't think we'd motivate ourselves on our own.  Next week will be hard, since we'll be apart for 2 of the runs, and we're moving to 24/6, so it'll be slightly harder.  We'll also have to figure out where to run to be on a better surface -- asphalt and concrete are both hard on shins and joints.
Sleep: Well, we've been getting up at 8, so that's something.  I haven't been getting to bed by midnight, so I've napped a little during the day, but that seems to be working OK.  Mu has been going to bed early and waking up too early, not sure what's up there.
Food: So...sort of.  We've been eating fewer snacks...
Activities: Several friend outings, yay!  And now, I'm in the airport, waiting for my flight to Boston for the SLEEP conference, so there will be more friend socializing for me!  Mu is staying here, but he'll probably hang out with family and friends over the weekend.

Beginning a routine

Yesterday was the first full day of the summer of self-improvement, so let me try this summary format for updating and see how you all like it.

Mu's goals:
Fitness: See mutual goals below
Language: Mu has learned how to say "good morning!"
Dance: None so far, but he's taking a class soon!

Elaine's goals:
Fitness: See mutual goals
Language: Nothing at all...
Cooking: Nothing today -- my mom made tons of food for our arrival, so there's no point in making more.
Writing: Also nothing, which I think will be the case until I return from my conference next week.

Mutual goals:
C25K: Today was a "rest" day, but we walked around downtown for about 75 minutes, so we felt like we got some exercise -- nearly 4 miles of slow walking.  We've both been weirdly sore, I didn't think 5 minutes of jogging was going to affect us so much!
Sleep: Got up at 8am, as I mentioned yesterday.  It was a little rough and we both felt slow for a while, but we managed.  We both really wanted a nap, but by the time we got really sleepy, it was after 3pm (the recommended cut-off time for a daytime nap not to interfere with nighttime sleep), so we refrained.  Mu managed to go to bed on time, but I stayed up a little late.
Food: We've decided that with all the amazing summer fruit here, fruit is an exception to the "little to no snacks" rule -- we want to eat a good amount of it, and we don't always want to include it with a meal, and it's a healthier snack than most. So we had fruit throughout the day.  Our meals were also a little wonky -- we had breakfast and lunch as usual, but then we had cocktails and small munchies as an early dinner, and another small munchie as second dinner?  I don't know.  Not quite on a schedule, but at least it didn't feel like too much food.

Activities: Socialized with friends, explored a new-to-us restaurant -- Taverna Aventine. 

All in all, a decent start.  I think we'll both need to figure out how to schedule time for all the different things, but not bad so far.

Fun things to do this summer

 Two posts in one day?  Weird!  But this felt like a suitable add-on to the start of summer update, so here it is.

In addition to the self-improvement goals, there's a whole list of fun stuff we/I want to do this summer.  Some of the things, we already have plans to do, while others are more tentative, need-to-fit-this-in.  Here's a large-ish list, of which I'm not sure how much I'll actually accomplish. :)  Oh, and trapeze counts as a fun thing, but I've already listed it in the self-improvement section, since it's actually a workout.  Yay for fun workouts!

Friends to see: lots and lots!  We have definite plans with a bunch of people, but many more that we still need to contact.  Plus, I'd like to make it out to bab5 (not this week, but maybe next?) more regularly.  And we want to visit with Mu's family, and I want to spend more time with my nieces.
Concerts: Jonathan Coulton (we have tickets!  with Cin and Eric!), Alice Summerthing (conflicts with Pride, so not sure)
Movies: Footnote, Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish, First Position, Brave, MIB3
Restaurants: Kingdom of Dumpling, Tekka Japanese (possibly with Cin's husband, who also likes raw fish), Shabu Sushi, State Bird Provisions, Cafe Ethiopia, LoveJoy's Tea Room, probably many more -- I need a buddy for these, as I mentioned on Facebok a while ago.  Mu will go with me to some of them, but probably not all.
Musicals: American Idiot (have tickets for next next week), Les Miz (have tickets with David and Colleen for August)
Costume parties with Cin: Lord of the Rings, pirate, Downton Abbey
Trips: Boston (starting Friday), Seattle with Cin to visit Nik (we have tickets!), Harbin Hot Springs with lots of friends (cabin booked!), Russian River
Other activities: SF Ethnic Dance Festival, SF Pride, Great America with my older niece (I think we have a date set), Raging Waters with Mu and both nieces (need to set date), Top Chef Live (got tickets for Mom and myself), Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor, the Fashion World of John Paul Gaultier exhibit at the De Young, getting more tea (I have a groupon for Aroma Tea Shop)

So, like I said, long list!  A lot of it actually seems doable, though I'm sure more will get added as summer goes on!

Summer of self-improvement (and hopefully, a return to blogging)!

Hello!  I'm back!  Did you miss me?  Please don't answer that if the answer is "no." :)  Anyways, as I'm sure you realized, between my dissertation proposal and some trips and other craziness, I have fallen away from the blogging thing.  I've kept up somewhat with the cooking thing, though that has also varied.  But, now Mu and I are in SF for the next 2.5 months (minus 2 trips on my part), and we have goals for the summer!  Those feel sufficiently like projects that I think I can safely blog about them here.  Plus, I will hopefully be cooking again.

So, to get started, I'll tell you what our goals are.  They fall mostly into the "get in better shape" category, with a few random other things.  Mu's goals are: to learn Russian, to lose 20 lbs, and to learn ballroom dance.  Mine are: to learn Italian, to take trapeze, to improve my core strength (through maybe pilates, and also through aerial conditioning classes), and to cook at least several times a week (which will be more possible once my parents put in a small stovetop in their in-law unit, where we're staying).  Oh, and I also want to finish all the paperwork needed to get my dissertation running in the fall, as well as submit my master's data for publication.  Our mutual goals are: to run a 5K, to regularize our sleep schedules (trying for a midnight-8 approach, we'll see how it goes), and to eat more regularly and with fewer snacks (the French way).  I would theoretically also like to lose weight, but I don't do well with that as a specific goal -- I just get annoyed and give up.  I'm hoping that having more fitness-oriented goals will work better for me.  It seems likely that some of the goals won't be met by summer's end (learning languages, say, or running a full 5K), but I think we can make significant progress.

Yesterday, our first full day in SF, we started working on those goals.  We're doing a couck-to-5K (C25K) training program that's designed to take 12 weeks (nice and easy buildup, hopefully), and we started it yesterday. The program is designed for 3 workouts/week, 30 minutes each, with a mixture of running and walking.  The first week actually starts at just walking, which we are fine with, so we skipped to the 2nd week and modified it slightly based on what we felt we could manage.  We ended up alternating 5 minutes of walking with 1 minute of running for 30 minutes.  This was manageable (though next time, we need to go to a less hilly area -- we're not in good enough shape to run up hills!), so that's what we'll do for the next 2 training days and go from there.

The other thing we've started working on is sleep and meals.  Yesterday, we both did the 3 meals and no snacks thing, and it felt fine, but I'm not sure how it'll go for me specifically when I'm traveling next week.  I guess we'll see.  Last night, we also went to bed at midnight and woke up at 8 this morning.  This should've been enough sleep, but...wasn't.  But we're up and about, so hopefully we can manage.

So, that's the overview.  I think I'll try to write frequent summaries, and I'll only go into detail when the details are interesting (since bed and wake times really aren't).  I may also bring back some of the other features, like links and/or art. :)

I'm not really back yet

I'm sorry to have fallen off the face of the Earth, but this is just to say that I'm not actually back yet.  I proposed my dissertation on Friday and was planning to get back into the swing of things today, but I'm having a dental emergency, so cooking has been the last thing on my mind.  Hopefully, it'll get taken care of tomorrow, but I have no idea what state I'll be in.  So, I'll get back to cooking when I can, but really, just not sure when that'll be at this point.  Good thing we have frozen stuff.  And restaurants. :)

A summary of April (no Tuesday Tip)

Yay, it's May!  This means I no longer have to cook new recipes in order for them to count!  I still want to try and cook something new at least once a week, but it's nice to be able to repeat things.  To celebrate that, I made almost exactly this meal (also from a Tuesday) -- Korean-style potato pancakes and braised greens and mushrooms.  The only difference was which greens I used -- I had dandelion and beet greens this time.  I still haven't made anything with the beets, though.  Silliness.

Looking back on my month of cooking, I'm glad I decided to do it, even though I only made 18 different things in a 30-day month.  It still feels like a success, though.  I tried a bunch of new things, including molecular gastronomy, cheese, and lots of things with mushrooms.  I've also started menu planning regularly, which has been rather useful.  Plus, and this was the original goal, I've started getting in the habit of cooking as a default.  I think I mentioned this a couple of posts ago, but I've even started looking forward to cooking again when I don't do it for a few days!  So, despite the fact that I didn't cook anywhere close to every day in April, I feel like the goal of giving my cooking a jump start has been achieved. 

Now that I've gotten going with this cooking thing, the goal is to continue doing it on a regular basis.  3-4 days a week seems like a reasonable goal for most weeks, so that's what I'll be aiming for.  As I mentioned, I want to try to cook something new weekly, just to keep things interesting.  The next few months are gonna be a little hectic -- conference, move to SF for the summer, and another conference -- so we'll see how feasible it'll be for me to stick to this. Certainly, I won't be cooking while at conferences.  In SF, though, we'll have a kitchenette.

Anyhow, all that is in the future.  For now, I have a dissertation proposal this week, and then it's time to wrap up the semester!

Menu Monday and recipe 18 (and last day of April!)

It's a little nuts to think that April has come to a close, but here we are.  Tomorrow is May 1st, which means the end of my "month of cooking," which didn't really happen quite as planned.  But, since I'm not actually intending to stop cooking, I think that's probably OK.  I'll do an overview of the month sometime this week, but for now, I think I can safely say that, despite the fact that I didn't cook every day, April was a success.  However, going forward, I'm going to stop numbering my recipes. :)

We put our CSA subscription on hold this week because we have a ton of stuff still to use up, so this week, the goal is to cook with the wide variety of random veggies in the fridge.  The tentative plan is as follows.

Monday: Black bean chili with TVP (textured vegetable protein)
Tuesday: Potato pancakes with green garlic, braised greens on the side
Wednesday: Roasted veggies (beets, sweet potatoes, and carrots)
Thursday: Probably nothing
Friday: Depends on amount of leftovers.  Maybe I'll try those black bean burgers I mentioned before but never did make.
Saturday: I want to make dessert of some kind!  Still have that sopapilla recipe to try, and Cindy also gave me a recipe for this delicious baked glutinous rice pudding.  So maybe one of those.
Sunday: Something mushroomy.  I'm thinking of trying a balsamic mushroom recipe with spaghetti squash, since we've got another one living in the fridge.

So, for whatever reason, I've been craving chili for the last week or so. It's really not chili weather here, what with the triple digit weather, but it's what I wanted.  We had dried black beans from the CSA from a while ago, and last week, we got another baggie of beans.  Given that it's only gonna get hotter over the next several months, I figured I may as well use the beans and make chili now. 

Black bean vegetarian chili with TVP
Ingredients
2 cups black beans (I used dry beans, so I'll include the long-soak method in the recipe)
1 cup TVP
6 cups veggie broth
3 medium onions
1 head garlic
2 cans (14.5 oz each) stewed tomatoes (Italian recipe is what I use)
1 can tomato paste
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
3ish tablespoons coriander seed
3-5 tablespoons cumin
3-5 tablespoons chili powder
salt to taste

The night before, wash and sort your beans, taking out any dirt, gravel, or shriveled or discolored beans.  Put the beans in a soup pot and cover with lots of water.  Leave overnight, 8-12 hours.  When you're ready to start cooking, drain the beans, return to soup pot, and cover with about 5 cups of the veggie broth.  Bring to a boil, allow to boil vigorously for about 10 minutes, then turn down the heat so they boil steadily but not vigorously.  Partially cover the pot (this is important, it prevents the liquid from evaporating!) and allow to cook for about 25 minutes.

In the meantime, bring the remaining cup of broth to a boil and in a separate bowl, soak the TVP in it for 5-10 minutes (it's OK to leave longer until you're ready for it).

While that's all happening, chop the onions.  Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pan and add the onions.  Cook for about 7-8 minutes.  Mince the garlic and add it, along with salt and about half the spices.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes, until the onions are soft.  Add the tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, and TVP and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

When the beans are starting to be tender, uncover the pot.  Add the onion-tomato-TVP mixture and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the remainder of the spices (or more or less, as you wish) and cook until the beans are fully tender but not mushy, stirring occasionally.  Serve with cheese on top if you have it (we didn't) or whatever other garnish people like for chili.

Nice big bowl of chili!

Recipe summary
Time: Not counting pre-soaking the beans, it took about 1.5 hours, with about 45 minutes being mostly hands-off.
Serves: 8, easy.  It's quite filling.
Highlights/thoughts: I have to make sure to cook the beans for longer on their own, and to cover or partially cover the pot while doing so.  My beans turned out a little undercooked, and I think it's because too much of the liquid evaporated (and then I added tomato, which is acidic and stopped the cooking process).  They weren't so undercooked as to be unedible, and I'm glad they didn't turn out mushy instead, but still.  Oh, and I probably used about 1/3 of the beans I made and just froze the rest.  Also, the TVP isn't totally necessary, but it adds a nice meat-like texture and some extra protein.
Would I make this again?  Yes, though I'm not attached to using dried beans, or black beans.  The flavor was similar to my tortilla soup, which I make with garbanzo beans, so I might try that next time.
Nutrition Facts (per serving): I've just started using a cite recommended to me by Cindy's sister Emily, and it allows you to build custom recipes by entering ingredients from its database (or adding your own if you know the nutritional info).  I don't promise that I'll do this for every recipe, but I figure I'll include it when I bother to calculate it for myself.

Calories: 288.9

Total Fat 10.7g

  Saturated Fat 1.5g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 799.5mg

Total Carb 38.2g

  Dietary Fiber 11.8g

  Sugars 12g

Protein 13.6g

Korean BBQ is kind of like cooking (says Cindy)

Last night, after spending a fun day at the Ren Faire, Cindy and I decided to go out to Korean BBQ and eat lots of meat. Mu graciously agreed to stay home and get takeout, and since Eric didn't really want to go out either, that worked out well.  Amusingly, they also ordered Korean, but from a place with more veggie choices for Mu.  Anyhow, Cindy encouraged me to document the outing since one is kind of cooking one's own food there.  Or something.  :)  So, while obviously this doesn't count as a recipe, have a description of our lovely dinner!

Warning, if you don't like meat, you should beware -- there are lots of meat pictures ahead. :)

little plates of sides

raw meat (with the first course cooking already)

For those who haven't been to an all-you-can-eat KBBQ place, it's basically only somewhere you can go if you want to eat lots of meat.  There's a range under your table with a metal grill over it, you get plates of meat, and you cook it right in front of you.  You also get lots of veggie side dishes -- kimchi, bean sprouts, chap chae (Korean potato noodles), fresh salad, spicy cucumber, and for some reason, potato salad.  Oh, and also fish cakes, but those aren't veggie.  Oh, and there was also a steamed egg in broth thing, but that came slightly later, so it's not in the pictures of the other sides.  You can see it next to Cindy in the pictures of the cooking meat.

beef short plate (steamed egg in background on right)

Cindy and I ordered 4 different types of meat.  Usually, you only order 3 to start with, but we asked for half portions of each, because we knew full portions would be way too much. This way, we got to try an extra thing but still not feel like we were about to explode afterwards. The raw meat arrived on giant plates, and then we cooked it, one type at a time.

We started with the beef short plate, which I'd never had before because I didn't really know what it meant.  Honestly, I still don't know what it means, in terms of what cut of meat it is.  Whatever it is, it's super tasty!  It comes in thin, pretty fatty pieces of beef (Cindy says it's best not to think about the fat -- it's what makes it so delicious, so you may as well not worry about it).  Because it's so thin, it's the quickest to cook.  Also, it comes without any marinade, so it was the perfect choice for the first course -- one wants to cook it first, before the grill gets flavor from other marinades.  

Bulgogi with onions and mushrooms

already cooked short rib among the sides

spicy chicken

Cindy was mainly in charge of actually cooking the meat, since she's been to KBBQ more than I have and knows approximately what it's supposed to look like when it's done.  I did, however, cook the onions and mushrooms later on, as well as the spicy chicken.  So I contributed! :)  Anyways, we cooked and ate the short plate (alternating with salad and sides, because you really do need something to break up all the meat flavors) and then put on the bulgogi and its accompanying mushrooms and onions. Bulgogi is also thinly cut beef, though it's a little thicker and marinated.  It takes a bit longer to cook.  Cindy was afraid that we got too much liquid on the grill so the meat would steam instead of sear, but it turned out very yummy nevertheless. 

At that point, the grill was covered with remnants of sauce and meat and we didn't want to put anything new on it, so we had a little break and munched on more sides and chatted.  Eventually, a waiter came over (this place is super busy so it's hard to track someone down) and exchanged our dirty grill for a shiny new clean one, so we moved on to the next course, beef short rib.  These are smaller, thicker chunks of meat that took a little longer to cook.  They're also marinated in something slightly different.  I sadly forgot to take a picture while it was cooking, but I did get one of a bowl of short rib meat, sitting on the side while we cooked the chicken. 

The last course was spicy chicken.  I cooked this one (for no good reason other than to have something I actually contributed to).  The chicken had a really great, rather spicy marinade, so it was a good choice for the last course -- very strong flavor, so it was good not to cook anything else on the grill after it.  It was spicier than I had remembered from last time, we definitely had to alternate with more salad and water.  Very tasty, though! 

As you might imagine, it was a pretty long meal, given the amount of food.  Getting the half portions was a really good idea, since as it was, we were pretty full.  I don't feel too bad, though -- I eat KBBQ about twice a year (last time was when I visited Cin in November), so it's an infrequent splurge.  So yummy!

Cooking with Cindy (or, really, standing by while Cindy and Eric cook)

Mu and I are in LA, visiting Cindy!  Huzzah!  It's really nice to get out of town, and I'm very much looking forward to the Ren Faire tomorrow.  Yay for a mini-break before I have to get back and propose my dissertation.

Cindy suggested that we cook tonight so that I had something to post about, given the last few days.  However, by the time we arrived, Cindy and Eric had prepped all the ingredients and basically just cooked while we hung out and chatted.  Given that we had been driving for about 8.5 hours, this was perfectly fine with me.  So, I can't claim this as my recipe, since I did nothing for it, but I'll give you a brief summary of Cindy's yummy pasta.

Yummy Pasta (very technical name, I know)
Ingredients
lots of cherry tomatoes

Some (most) of the ingredients

lots of garlic (Cindy said she used about 20 cloves)
goat cheese (two medallions from Trader Joe's worked for us)
parsley (spice form is fine)
oregano (spice form is also fine)
pine nuts
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
butter (a pat)
pasta

Boil water for pasta.  Halve the cherry tomatoes and mince the garlic.  In a saute pan, heat up the butter on medium heat.  When it's hot, put in the garlic and cook for a few minutes until browned.  Add the tomatoes and saute, about 5-8 minutes.  In the meantime, cook the pasta as per package.  Toast pine nuts in a separate pan.  Add parsley and oregano, then when the pasta is cooked, add that.  Add the pine nuts and goat cheese and cook for a few more minutes to integrate.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and serve with a salad! 

Yumminess!

I don't remember exactly how long this took, plus I wasn't here for prep, but it was probably about 20 minutes total.  This served 4, with some leftover pasta.  Super easy and yummy.  Thanks for feeding us, Cindy and Eric!

Wednesday Fan Art!

It appears that this week will be even more a wash than I thought, in terms of cooking -- my dinner plans got moved to tomorrow, but I got home so late after a meeting, I just couldn't handle cooking.  So, Mu had Indian leftovers and I had meatballs from the freezer, and no cooking is happening.  So it goes.  I can't really stress about that kind of thing, I have plenty to stress about as it is.  However, I do have more fan art from Cindy!  She was, for whatever reason, very amused by part of my post about the sweet potato fries. :)

The fries all look so pleased with themselves!

So, at this point, it looks like no more cooking is happening this week.  Tomorrow is dinner with my friends, and Friday we leave for LA for the weekend.  Hopefully, I'll have a link dump post in there somewhere, and then the cooking will actually resume on Monday.

Tuesday tip (actually, a question)

So, as predicted, I didn't cook today.  Mu and I went out for Indian, and we even have leftovers, yay! Due to this, I don't have a huge amount to blog about.  I do have a question in place of the Tuesday Tip.

Does anyone know of a website or app that makes calorie tracking of homemade food actually easy?  I've tried several, and they're fine for brand names and eating out at chains, but don't work so well for, say, cooked veggies and olive oil and tofu.  Really, what I want is somewhere where I can type in "3 medium sweet potatoes, 3 tablespoons olive oil" and have something spit out a calorie and nutrient estimate at me.  There's gotta be something like that, right?  Help?

Oh, unrelated to cooking, but sort of another project: I've started biking to school!  This is probably a bad time to start biking, since it's very hot these days, especially in the afternoon, but there we are.  I'm about 2.5 miles from school, and it's taking me 20-30 minutes, which is very slow for biking.  I'm always getting passed by other, fitter bikers.  I'm hoping that it'll get easier as I do it more and I'll feel less miserable in time.  Right now, it's a little rewarding to know that I'm actually making an effort, but mostly not rewarding at all due to the heat and my unhappy muscles.  It gets better?

Menu monday and recipe 17

I'm clearly falling behind with recipes this month, but I realized early on that would happen, so I'm not too surprised or distressed.  This week will be short as far as recipes go, as well.  I'm super busy the next few days, and then on Friday, we drive to LA to go to Ren Faire with Cindy!  Weeeee!  So excited by this!  But, it does mean that I'm unlikely to cook anytime on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  Also, I need to make sure I don't have a ton of leftovers in the fridge when we leave for the weekend.  Also, Mu suggested we celebrate me being done with my first (most stressful) draft of my dissertation proposal.  And my friend Jane suggested dinner on another day.  So, this week will be less a week of recipes and more...two days.  Huh.  Well, I do intend to keep doing this past April, so I guess it's not the end of the world.  With all that, here's the plan for the next few days.

Monday: Sweet potato fries and salad (not really new)
Tuesday: Probably nothing, since Mu and I are gonna go to dinner, but I may cook something small to have lunch on Wednesday.  Oh, and I'll do fruit tupperwares again.
Wednesday: Either dinner with Jane or potato pancakes from last week, this time with green onions
Thursday: See Wednesday :)
Friday: Nothing, we'll be driving all day.  Although if we can't leave right after my lab meeting, I may cook something for the road.
Saturday: Nothing, unless Cindy wants to cook with me in the evening.
Sunday: Not sure.  Maybe soup when we get home?  We'll certainly need dinner when we get home, but will I really want to cook?  Unclear.

Yummy salad! Now if only I had bread for croutons...

So, today I spent most of the day finishing up the first draft of my proposal, which took an inordinate amount of mental energy.  After that, I really didn't want to do anything requiring a ton of effort.  Last week, we got sweet potatoes from the CSA, as well as romaine lettuce, arugula, and radishes, and I had tomato and cucumber and avocado at home...so, salad and sweet potato fries it was!  I really don't feel that I can count the salad as a recipe, since I've done it so many times and it's really not a cooked dish, but the sweet potato fries certainly count.

Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients
3 sweet potatoes (or however many you have)
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
paprika (or whatever other spice you want)

Preheat the oven to 450F.  Wash the sweet potatoes really well so that there's no dirt on the skin.  You can peel if you want, but the skin is yummy and nutritious, so you really shouldn't.  Cut off the very thin ends so that they don't burn.  Slice each potato in half, then in half again and then again.  You can cut thinner and smaller if you want -- I did, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.  In a bowl, toss the potatoes with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and spices.  Make sure the pieces are coated.  Spread them out on a baking sheet so that they're in one layer.  Bake for 15 minutes, turn each piece over, and bake for 15 more.  Cool slightly (but not too much) before serving.

Hanging out, cooling down

Recipe summary
Time: 40 minutes, 30 hands-off
Serves: 3 as a main dish (with salad)
Highlights/thoughts: I'm not a frequent sweet potato eater, and I'm really not sure why.  These were easy and delicious and filling, and went surprisingly well with my green salad.  Yum.
Would I make this again? Yes!  I expect to get more sweet potatoes from the CSA in the coming weeks, and I think this is the perfect thing to do with them. 

Cooking, recipe 16

This will be a short post, because I'm busy finishing my dissertation proposal, and we've had a very long day.  I did cook, though, so I wanted to post about it.  Oh, and it's becoming clear that the link dump won't be so regular after all.  Oops.  Maybe I'll be better about it when my schedule slows down.

The turmeric made it pretty!

So, today I made saag paneer, finally!  I used this recipe, which I found ages ago and hadn't gotten around to trying.  I won't re-write it here, but I'll tell you the changes I made.  I had less spinach than it called for, and what I should've done is adjusted accordingly, but I...kinda forgot.  So, what we got was less spinach and more onion, but it still tasted yummy.  I also didn't grind my own spices, nor did I have everything she suggests.  Instead, I made a mix of red pepper flakes, ground cumin, ground coriander, tumeric, and garam masala.  It seemed to work.  The paneer worked really well.  It got a nice brown layer after I fried it a bit, and it retained both moisture and texture.  I will definitely make it again and try other recipes with it.  It has been pointed out to me that paneer is essentially cottage cheese (which I don't much like), but the difference is that the former is made from whole milk and the latter from buttermilk, which is quite a difference in flavor.  So, I suppose you can make saag paneer with cottage cheese, but I don't think I would. :)

As for this recipe, I would like to try it again, this time with more spinach!  It was quite quick and easy, and somehow very rewarding to have made something Indian-ish.  Oh, and my version serves about 4.

Adventures in cheesemaking (recipe 15)!

A little satchel of paneer!

Today was paneer day.  The recipe was simple enough: take half a gallon of whole milk, bring to a gentle boil, gradually stir in acid (lime juice in my case) until the whey separates from the curds, run through a cheesecloth and was the curds, let them drain for a while (30ish minutes), press them with something heavy-ish for about 2 hours, then cut into cubes!  Tada!  The recipe I followed is here, though I've seen other very similar ones.

So, even though I was intimidated, I figured it would be pretty straightforward after I read the recipe.  Yeah.  About that...the directions are, in fact, straightforward, but the process turned out less so.  The milk wouldn't boil for a while.  And then it wouldn't boil some more.  And then it still wouldn't boil.  And suddenly, in the span of about 30 seconds, it went from not boiling to overflowing all over the entire stove.  Huh.  I cooled it down, we cleaned up the stove a bit, and when we tried to bring it back up to a boil, it did the same thing again.  Note to self: if making paneer, do so in a bigger pot.

Well, that was exciting...

Eventually, though I was able to add the lime juice (it took me about 5 tablespoons, not 2-3 that the recipe suggested), and it was pretty neat how suddenly, the milk really did separate into curds and whey.  I had the cheese drain (hanging from the paper towel rack above our kitchen sink) for probably about 20 minutes, since Mu and I were running late for dinner with friends, and we put it between two cutting boards with a pot on top.  When we got home, it was drained but still moist, and tasted relatively neutral, with slightly sweet undertones.  Yum!  So, I suppose the whole thing was a success overall, but dude.  Silly milk.

Poor pot

Recipe summary
Time: About 3 hours, but most of that is waiting.
Serves: Probably about 2-3.  Amazing how much milk it takes to make cheese!
Highlights/thoughts: See above. :)  Though I have to say, despite the difficulties, it did turn out nicely!
Would I make this again?  Probably.  It would be nice to figure out how to get the milk to a gentle boil without it going nuts first, though.

Cubed and ready for fridge

Wednesday fan art!

Cindy and I decided that Wednesday would be the best day for fan art.  It's been happening on Wednesdays by accident anyways, and it's a nice mid-week pick-me-up.  So, here is the art for this week: a happy fluffy matzoh ball (and some vague-looking matzah)!

Isn't it so happy?

So, today was going to be paneer day, but I'm changing the schedule slightly.  Paneer takes a while to actually happen, and while it's almost entirely hands-off time, it's still something to keep an eye on.  Plus, I now have dinner plans for tomorrow, so it kinda didn't make sense to make it today and be unable to cook with it for an extra day.  Instead, I'll make it tomorrow (start it before dinner and finish when I come back home) and on Friday night, I'll make saag paneer with it.  It'll work out better that way.  Well, that, and I started biking to school yesterday, and now my body does not want me to do anything but sit. :)

Cooking, recipes 13 and 14 and Tuesday Tip

Not that this is particularly surprising, but I've noticed that since I've started cooking at home more and we've been eating out less, we're spending less on food!  Magic!  I'm liking this new trick.  Hopefully, I can keep this up -- the slightly reduced rate of cooking is working better for me, and after April, I'll try to stick to a similar pattern, though with maybe slightly bigger dishes (which is easy for me) and slightly fewer cooking days.

Anyways, we got potatoes at the CSA a few weeks ago, and last week there was green garlic, and I stumbled upon this recipe for Korean-style pancake potatoes and there we were.  I ended up modifying it quite a bit based on what I had in the fridge and through looking at other recipes, but I thought I should start giving credit to recipes I get online.  Anyways, besides the potatoes, the fridge is overrun with greens, and the pancakes needed a side, so I made a simple side dish of greens and porcini with lemon and soy sauce.

Korean Potato Pancakes

1 lb waxy potatoes  (I used La Soda red potatoes.)
1 head of green garlic (I used 2, and it was overkill.  Mu and I both enjoyed it, but I'm not sure others would)
a scallion or some chives or green onion, if you want (I didn't have any and it was fine)
1 egg
salt to taste (though the dipping sauce is plenty salty)
chili pepper (optional, but nice -- I used about a teaspoon of the stuff I ground up the other day)
neutral oil for frying

Dipping Sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
splash of lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar

Greens and mushrooms
Bunch of greens (I used a bag of kale and a bunch of chard...not sure how much that actually was)
A handful of dried porcini
Soy sauce
lemon juice from 1/2 - 1 juicy lemon
splash of sesame oil
neutral oil
ginger to taste (I just used the kind from a spice jar because I was too lazy)
Penzey's Bangkok blend (optional, you can probably use plain chili or nothing at all)

Pancakes, cooking

Start the greens first, since they can take a while to soften, and they also can sit around while the potato pancakes finish.  Put the dried porcini in a bowl of hot water to soak.  Cut up the chard and kale (I didn't cut my kale and wish I had) into manageable chunks.  Heat some olive oil on medium high heat and add the greens, in batches if necessary.  Once they've started cooking down, about 5 minutes, add the porcinis and their soaking liquid.   Add a splash of sesame oil, some soy sauce, about half a lemon worth of juice, and about a cup of water.  Lower heat to medium, cover, and let cook until the greens are soft, about 20 minutes.

Pancakes and a lady :)

Greens and porcini after the liquid is gone

In the meantime, peel and grate the potatoes using the small holes on a box grater (I had Mu to help with this part, which was really nice). Using a fine strainer or cheese cloth, drain the potatoes into a bowl.  Let the potato liquid sit until the water separates from the starch.  Carefully drain the water, leaving the starch behind.  Finely chop your garlic.  Combine grated potato, garlic, starch, an egg, salt, and chili powder and stir well so everything is distributed.  Heat about a spoon of oil over medium heat.  Once it's hot, add a tablespoon of the potato mixture, then shape into a flat-ish circular pancake.  I did 5 at a time, that's how much space my pan had.  Cook until the bottom is crispy and golden, about 3 minutes.  Flip and do the other side until it's brown.

While you're cooking the pancakes (or, most likely, before you put the first batch on), check on the greens.  Once they're soft, uncover them, add ginger and Bangkok blend, adjust soy sauce and lemon to taste, and allow to cook uncovered until the liquid boils away (I ended up having to drain some).  Also between pancake batches, make the dipping sauce by combining all the ingredients.

Serve hot, especially the pancakes!

Pancakes and greens and a bowl of dipping sauce to share

Recipe summary
Time: About 45 minutes, mostly hands-on.  Mu helped with peeling and grating the potatoes, which probably saved about 10-15 minutes.
Serves: Greens turned out to have 5 servings, and there were a total of 10 pancakes.
Highlights/thoughts: I wasn't sure I could achieve a "Korean" pancake, because I don't know what element in this actually makes it Korean.  It did make me think of dim sum, though, so that's probably good.  The chili powder really added a nice bit of heat and flavor, as well.  The greens were really helped by the presence of the porcinis, so that was nice.  Porcinis are magic that way. :)
Would I make this again? Definitely.  The pancakes felt like a huge success, and were much easier that I was afraid they'd be, and given how often we get greens from the CSA, I'm always making some variation or other on this recipe.

And now for Tuesday Tip!  I know for some people, cooking is this great pleasurable thing that they look forward to and that's a break from their daily lives.  I'm not those people.  There are times when cooking does feel fun (when I'm trying a new and easy recipe, or when I'm making a reliable favorite), and there are certainly things about it that are gratifying (other people saying that my food is yummy, or feeling like a recipe was surprisingly successful, like today), but most of the time, it feels like a necessary and somewhat annoying chore.  One of the things that makes it more annoying for me is that I end up feeling like I'm stuck in the kitchen, with nothing to stimulate me while I'm chopping and stirring.  At the same time, it can be hard to keep up a conversation while I'm juggling different steps in a recipe or different dishes.  So, Mu came up with a solution for me.  He hooked up an old pair of speakers in our dining area so that they're broadcasting into the kitchen, and now I can plug in my phone and listen to podcasts or music while I cook!  The phone itself isn't loud enough to be heard over whatever I'm doing, but the speakers are perfect.  When we have our own house, I'm totally having a sound system put in the kitchen!  But anyways, that's my tip for people who aren't greatly enthused by cooking itself -- music or podcasts can be a great help without being (for me) too distracting!