On Falling Behind

I don't remember exactly which day it was that I fell off this track, because I was already behind when it happened, scrambling to fill in past days' posts to little avail. It's strange, because I haven't been supremely busy or anything. I do know that this segment of the project doesn't feel very urgent, especially since I don't live in an area full of specialty stores and restaurants that can offer me anything I haven't tried before. I want to try sweetbreads, but good luck finding it on a menu around here. Ditto for kidney and tongue. I would have to drive seventy-plus miles to find these things, and even then I might not be able to. Which is frustrating, you know?

I'm not trying to excuse myself for falling behind, maybe just to let you know that I'm still here and that I plan on getting better with this whole blogging thing, but that I'm tired. Also, to let you know that I can't put off dieting any longer. All this food obsession is pushing me past my weight limit. So I will be doing my best to slim down for the next few months, which means I probably won't be able to eat a new thing every day. I have to admit, there's a part of me that's thinking about giving up. I don't feel good about myself when I let myself get chubby. Then again, I've never been as thin as I want to be. It's going to be tough to keep my calories in check and still try new things. In some ways, I try new things without attempting to. For lunch I wrapped pastrami, cheese, tomato, and dijon in a tortilla. I've never done that before. But I have those ingredients all the time, and it's not vastly different from any other sandwich. It's not growing my knowledge of cuisine.

I'm going to do my best. But right now, I'm exhausted. I don't know how this resolution is really moving my life forward at this point. Maybe I should just skip ahead to phase three, starting with low-cal recipes.

Day 200: Macaroni Cheese Soup

I'm sure that macaroni and cheese soup was invented accidentally, by someone whose cheese sauce turned out too runny. Soup is basically a thin sauce, anyway. The version I had was tasty in a very kid-friendly way, but I'm betting there are quite a few amazing mac n cheese recipes out there that could be converted into soups, or beer cheese soups that could benefit from a little macaroni.

Sorry for the persistently petite posts. I'm suffering a little post-grad depression and slacking on things that I should be doing in favor of sleeping late and watching lots of 30 Rock (I just discovered it a few weeks ago and I am now officially in love).

Day 199: Roasted Raspberry

Just a short one to account for the day before yesterday. I tried roasted raspberry chipotle sauce with a chicken sausage, and it was awesome (except, maybe, for the seeds). What it revealed to me is that I need to try roasting some fruit. It was a pretty sweet sauce--I'm betting roasted berries could work with dessert or with dinner.

See? I told you it would be short. Now I have to get ready for jury duty.

Day 198: On the Trail

The hubby and I were supposed to go camping this weekend, but predictions of heavy rain kept us at home. We did, however, go for a hike (hurrah for Kamiak Butte). We also dug into the homemade trail mix I had made for the occasion.

I had never tried to assemble my own trail mix before, and since the bulk bins at my local Winco warn heavily against sampling, I had to trust my own sense memory and choose items that, to my mind, sounded good together. Here's how my trail mix shaped up:

1/2 cup banana chips
1/2 cup chocolate covered banana chips
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup smoked almonds
1 cup pistachios (no shells)
1 cup honey roasted sunflower seeds (again, no shells)

Of these items, I had never had chocolate covered banana chips (though I could imagine how awesome they would be) or honey roasted sunflower seeds, and, of course, I had never had all these mixed together. When I got home, I thought I would need to play with a few combinations of these ingredients to make a mix that worked, but when I took one of each item (well, more than one sunflower seed because they're so small) and popped them all together in my mouth, it was delightful. I dumped them all together, shook the bag, and voila! I had trail mix.

Day 197: My Goodness

I could write about last night's dinner at Nectar in Moscow, ID, where I had some super yummy lamb chops and my very first broccolini (nice vegetable--kind of noncommitally vegetabley). Instead, I'm going to write about my dessert at Bucer's Coffeehouse & Pub, where the hubby and I ate a lovely slab of chocolate Guinness cake (who knew beer was so good in cake?) with Irish cream frosting (um, yum!), accompanied by a pint of (what else?) Guinness Extra Stout. Beer and cake. It's a whole new taste sensation. Add to this some pretty fun Irish folk music, complete with a pipe/whistle thing made out of PVC (sounded pretty good), and you've got a lovely evening.

The interesting thing is that there was no alcoholic taste in the cake. I would expect the cake batter to absorb that bitterness into the chocolate, and for a lot of the flavor to bake out, but the baker had a nice light hand with the Irish cream in the frosting so it didn't overwhelm. The most interesting thing to me was how nicely the beer went with the cake. Alongside the chocolate, it didn't taste bitter at all. It's one of those things to bring out at a tasting party, like pairing Merlot with chocolate or white wine with fruity candies. But don't go overboard; in my experience, booze and sugar stop being friendly less than a couple drinks in.

Day 196: Mallow Out

When you think of foods that are easy to make at home, you probably don't think of marshmallows. Unless you've made them at home. Then you know the secret.


It's really basic: add gelatin and cold water to your stand mixer's bowl; boil some sugar, corn syrup (it's an essential to candy-making; get over it), water, and salt to the soft ball stage; start the mixer on medium and slowly pour in the syrup; whip the crap out of it until it's thick, sticky marshmallow.

There's a science to it, of course. You need the right proportions. I used Alton Brown's recipe in the Good Eats 2 cookbook. Though he often goes a little overboard, in my mind, to get what he considers the "perfect" recipe (I recently watched an episode of Good Eats where he made really thick English muffins and dusted them with oatmeal instead of corn meal. I didn't agree with either of these alterations.) he is the most scientifically minded cook I can think of, so when it comes to candy, I'll put my trust in him. And I was right. The marshmallows turned out wonderfully. And for the first time in my life, I tasted a marshmallow that didn't come out of a bag.

I think the texture is the main difference. They're denser, softer, creamier. The flavor is less simply sugary, too. I'm excited to see what they do over a campfire. If it doesn't rain, I'll be testing that tonight.

Day 195: Cream Tea

Clotted cream is an interesting bit of English cuisine, popular in high tea (or cream tea)--a meal that doesn't really require tea at all. It's sort of like butter, but not quite so solid. It has a lovely, creamy texture, and as I understand it, is best served in large globs on top of scones with jam. So that is exactly how I ate it. For the scone, I used the recipe for Lily's Scones in Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess with one minor substitution: I used buttermilk instead of milk. For jam, I used marmalade. It was one of those supremely surprising snacks that makes me consider adding a daily teatime to my schedule (I also very much enjoy the preparation and consumption of tiny tarts and crustless sandwiches). Of course, the fact that I only found clotted cream in a tiny jar at World Market could stand in my way, unless I were to find a clotted cream recipe of my own. Since it seems to be somewhere between whipped cream and butter, I don't think that would be too difficult. It might be worth investigating.