recursive mom function

No. 23: Spring Ragout -- fava beans are a pain, but this was simple preparation of in-season food at its best. How do I always forget how good shell peas are? Don't bother reheating.

( Recipe )

No. 24: Pan-fried gnocchi -- my gnocchi-fearing days are over! No need to boil; just throw them into a pan with some butter and cook until dark golden brown and crispy on both sides. I ate the leftovers with my fingers the next day. Cannot wait to try this with fresh gnocchi rather than shelf-stable, which was all I could find on short notice. Also, you totally do not need clarified butter.

No. 25: Maple-nutmeg ice cream -- beah's inspired combination: half milk, half cream, sweetned with about 3/4 c maple syrup, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of nutmeg.

Just in case anyone not on the places I've been posting this wants them, I've got tomato seedlings that are free to good homes.

I am critically uninspired for what to make for lunch for next week. What are your favorite packed lunches?

It's been a long time since I posted a list! ( Books )

No. 19: Veggie Gyoza -- Used the linked recipe for the filling, which was pretty tasty but not so awesome it seemed obviously worth the effort of assembling eight gajillion little dumplings. nacht_musik fried them while I finished assembling; he reported it was a bit tricky to get the wonton wrappers to cook and eventually developed a combination steaming/frying technique by throwing water into the hot pan with the dumplings.

( Recipe )

Nos. 20-22: I've made three kinds of ice cream recently: a pretty good all-cream vanilla, a seriously decadent all-cream Mexican chocolate, and most recently, a good but not outstanding half-milk-half-cream ginger. The first two I made off recipes in Perfect Scoop; the last we made by slicing a 3-inch piece of ginger and simmering it in 2 cups of cream for an hour or so, then using that as the ice cream base with 2 c whole milk, 1/2 c sugar, and a handful of crystallized ginger bits thrown in as it churned.

I did not realize until sometime in my teens -- which seems surprisingly late to me -- that people washed their dishes with implements other than the ones my family favored. Now every time I see someone's sink, I wonder which of us is the weird one. Obviously, the only way to find out is an LJ poll.

Assume, for the purposes of this poll, that you have to wash these dishes by hand (ie "a dishwasher" is not one of your choices) but that they are not so dirty as to require scrubbing. I'm thinking "plates you just had dinner on," not "pan of cookies you forgot in the oven."*

*Not that I'd know in great detail exactly what that's like or anything...

Poll #1183616 Washing up
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What's your preferred implement for ordinary washing of dishes?

From whom did you learn that this implement is to be preferred?

The universe must contain the perfect curry powder (by which I mean "one with which I can make mild-to-medium curries that are full of flavor but won't burn your tongue off"), but I cannot find it. Have you found it?

ETA: Also, I hate my cheesy stock pot; I burn things on to the bottom 9.5 times out of ten because it heats so unevenly. Advice on what to replace it with is more than welcome. Current candidates are a dutch oven or badasser stockpot (possibly hard-anodized nonstick).

...or at least it would be if I had a camera other than on my phone. For the interim, you'll have to make do with your own visualization based on the information that my grocery store receipt the other day contained the phrase "LOL whipped butter."

( In which I prove myself unable to resist the unread books meme )

Book I cannot believe is not on this list: Goedel, Escher, Bach. Maybe no one even tries to read this any more? Also Samuel Beckett, author of the third and final novel I failed to finish for school before moving on to grad school, where it's simply impossible to keep up.

No. 18: Easy Enchiladas -- These are as easy as advertised: mix filling, roll enchiladas, dump sauce and cheese on top, and bake. I used half a butternut squash (peeled, cubed, and roasted) plus a can of black beans in the filling and put an entire jar of enchilada sauce on top, which worked well. I also froze the pan of enchiladas and then added the sauce and cheese on top just before baking; this worked out beautifully, although the tortillas did soften significantly.

I'm going to try to start putting recipe texts on these posts in case they later go away, but will use cuts! ( Recipe )

She thinks all the calcium gummy bears taste the same, and therefore happily eats all of the yucky purple ones.

In addition to surviving the week (an accomplishment in and of itself), this week's triumph is going to the gym. TWICE.

No. 17: Baby bran muffins -- We made these as regular-sized muffins, baking for about 16 minutes at 400. Mine have chocolate chips, coconut, and slivered almonds and are good; the base recipe is not very sweet, so the sweet add-ins don't seem like too much, although predictably, I still want to toast and butter them and the chocolate doesn't seem a good match for that. redjo's have wild bluberries; hopefully she'll report in a comment how they turned out! Also, if you want to double the recipe (as we did), get your biggest bowl out: it nearly didn't fit in mine.

( Recipe )

Two from 101 Cookbooks:

No. 15: White Bean Salad -- some of the ingredients are tricky to find (notably the citrus olive oil), but it's quite good and dead easy once you get them. I used a mandarin-flavored oil I got at Whole Foods and made up the beans in advance to be added to spinach and cheese as needed. Also added black pepper.

( Recipe )

No. 16: Spring Wild Rice Salad -- Also tasty and slightly unusual, which is a plus if you eat a lot of salads! I used almond butter as recommended in the dressing but slightly less salt and added a dash of soy sauce and one of OJ. Totally forgot the chives and cheese; still good. Probably less than 15 minutes of hands-on time, including trimming the asparagus.

( Recipe )

I suspect many of you will love shirts that say Still queer on the front. The back says "no matter who I'm with or what we're doing." (Sorry to those of you who already caught this on postqueer.)

The 2008 Rites website is now up.

This weekmonth's resolution: get more sleep!

No. 14: Gluten-free cornbread -- I used Earth Balance and soy milk to accommodate a dairy allergy in the group I was making it for; it was on the dry side with a distinctive undertaste of soy, but totally edible. I think more butter in the recipe would've been good; toasting and serving with butter or jam might also help. The person I made it for professed excitement, though, so overall, I call it a win.

For the purposes of this poll, I am interested primarily in people who wear glasses for vision correction. If I am a statistical anomaly in treating my eyeglasses and sunglasses differently, feel free to tell me so in comments!

Poll #1151160 For glasses wearers only!
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

How do you clean your glasses?

No. 12: Chickpea and Sundried Tomato Stew -- easy (only three things to chop) and tasty! Ignore the blogger's comments about how it is too flavorful. Thanks to blk for the recipe!

( Recipe )


No. 13: dreda's ( granola )