Confession is good for the soul, and is encouraged in the Christian faith. I felt like making a list of my kitchen disasters so far. Perhaps you have ones that are worse than mine (then again, probably not).
I think that I have accidents in the kitchen because the Devil is trying to keep me out of the kitchen but I'll show him! I'll show you all! Mwahaha!
1. I set my cast iron skillet on fire at school this year. I left it on the still-hot stove with oil in it. I'd read that you should keep your skillet oiled to keep it seasoned... But I suppose I misinterpreted that one...
2. I've ruined several pans of cupcakes so far. I cooked one set for 40 minutes... Recipe said to cook for 20-25. Boogie gracefully ate one to prove to me that they were not totally ruined... They were, though, so we threw them out. I over-stirred one batch. The batter was so smooth it was like milk by the time I finished whipping it around. They came out sticky and sunk in the middle, like mini-craters. I ate one, but That Cool Guy spit his out.
3. You probably remember the time I turned the oven on broil and closed the door. The glass inside shattered. Yeah, that was fun...
4. This week, I was steaming some dumplings and ran out of water under the steamer. I didn't notice until the burning smell from the bottom of the pot got to my parents.
5. We were in a hurry once and I invited two of my friends at school up to my apartment for grilled cheese sandwiches. It was quicker than going to a restaurant, and cheaper! Well, I promptly burned one of their sandwiches. We didn't have time to make another. She ate the burned one without complaint, but I sure felt like a dork.
6. I frequently skip steps in the recipe without meaning to. Example: when I made those baked apples, I did not pour water into the bottom of the cooking pan until about 15 minutes into their time in the oven... Thankfully, I corrected the mistake and they still turned out. I also accidentally leave ingredients out.
7. Substitution is a big challenge for me. I substitute regularly. The thing is, I stay pretty aware of all the groceries I buy and I make a serious effort to use everything up. If a recipe asks me to buy X and I think I could just use Y because it's already in the house, I'll do it. It doesn't always turn out.
I suppose that's enough for now. Don't be surprised if I come back and add to this list later. Mayhem in the kitchen will likely be a regular event this year, as Boogie and I share the condo in Nashvegas.
Now I must skip off to make some homemade waffle mix before Momma gets up and uses the box recipe... Hehehe
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Three Lists in One
Summer is usually my time to finally do all the awesome things I've been wanting to do all year. Since I am hopelessly addicted to lists, here are two:
Summer Shopping List
Summer To Do List
These lists are always works-in-progress. We'll see where they go!
A note about the vegan stuff...
Eat Right 4 Your Type says that blood type A's do not digest dairy very well. It's not that we're allergic or lactose intolerant (though some of us might be), simply that our bodies reject it. When I became a vegetarian in January, I increased the amount of soy milk I drank and switched from regular cheeses to soy cheeses. Then, I returned to regular cheeses and went back to using half-and-half in my coffee. Right now, I tend to go back and forth. One week, I'm all about the soy milk in my coffee. The next, I'm dumping cheese on everything and downing ice cream like it's my job (wait, eating ice cream is part of my job...) Now I'm back on my no-dairy kick. Don't get me wrong, I'm no stickler about this. I love sunny-side up eggs and cheddar cheese. I put loads of Smart Balance butter on my toast and no matter how hard I try, I just can't enjoy a bagel without the cream cheese. Cutting back, however, can only be a good thing. The fact that Mom bought Almond Milk - one of God's greatest gifts to man - has aided the process. Thanks to Eat Right 4 Your Type, I've made these changes:
Summer Shopping List
- More photo boxes for bedroom storage needs
- Vibram 5-Finger Socks
- Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
- A big jewelry box
- The Vegan Table
- A new cord that connects my camera to the computer, allowing me to upload photos
- More workout shorts (with pockets) or a skirt like this
Summer To Do List
- Organize my Recipe Binder
- Make Ketchup
- Finish reading Woman Defined
- Finish reading Mere Christianity
- Make this coffee cake
- Reach the point where I run 40 minutes at a time
- Try homemade vegan ranch dressing
- Make veggie burgers from scratch
- Make homemade hummus
- Take Josie and Popo to the dog park
- Finish reading Eat Right 4 Your Type
- Go see: Toy Story 3, Prince of Persia, Eclipse
- Find our old bread machine and all it's parts
- Drink more hot tea
These lists are always works-in-progress. We'll see where they go!
A note about the vegan stuff...
Eat Right 4 Your Type says that blood type A's do not digest dairy very well. It's not that we're allergic or lactose intolerant (though some of us might be), simply that our bodies reject it. When I became a vegetarian in January, I increased the amount of soy milk I drank and switched from regular cheeses to soy cheeses. Then, I returned to regular cheeses and went back to using half-and-half in my coffee. Right now, I tend to go back and forth. One week, I'm all about the soy milk in my coffee. The next, I'm dumping cheese on everything and downing ice cream like it's my job (wait, eating ice cream is part of my job...) Now I'm back on my no-dairy kick. Don't get me wrong, I'm no stickler about this. I love sunny-side up eggs and cheddar cheese. I put loads of Smart Balance butter on my toast and no matter how hard I try, I just can't enjoy a bagel without the cream cheese. Cutting back, however, can only be a good thing. The fact that Mom bought Almond Milk - one of God's greatest gifts to man - has aided the process. Thanks to Eat Right 4 Your Type, I've made these changes:
- Drinking hot tea more often
- Eating more nuts and grains
- Drinking soy milk more regularly
- Taking my multivitamin every day
- Drinking more fruit juice and adding fruit juice to my water
Monday, June 14, 2010
In the Kitchen
I've been lazy today and didn't go for a run early this morning as originally planned. When the alarm went off, I hit snooze a few times too many. Being out late last night at church was a workout in itself. God moved in a powerful way and many lives were changed!
Boogie and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday before the evening church service. She looked at several fashion magazines while I scanned VegNews. It was a beautiful magazine and inspiring to see so many other vegetarians. (They even had a feature on 8 vegan weddings, the cakes looked glorious!) Sometimes I feel like I'm one of a very small group of odd people who refuse to eat one of the staples of our American diet (meat). While the magazine was too full of animals rights rants for my taste, the recipes and information about maintaining a vegetarian diet were very useful! Having just re-read information in the Blood Type Diet that explains why people with Type A blood are healthiest on a mostly-vegan diet, I'm re-inspired. It's fascinating to me that a simple fast at the beginning of the year - just one month without meat - ended up changing the way my body felt and my energy level so dramatically. Until this point, I've been convinced that it is simply the hormone levels in our highly-processed, non-organic meat that were bothering me. However, Eat Right 4 Your Type suggests that people with Type A blood tend to have lower levels of acid in their stomachs and their bodies process meat slowly, storing it as fat. Our bodies tend to thrive on vegetable proteins and products in their most natural, organic state. While there are lots of people who would likely eat their own pets before giving up meat, I've loved the way I feel when I'm meatless! I rarely feel "heavy" or sluggish after eating. I can taste so much more variety in my foods that I never noticed before. I'm happier.
Done with that tangent. As I said, VegNews had some recipes in it... I wrote down a recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies and made them this morning. Now, you must understand that I was skeptical. My family is big on sweets. We eat a LOT of dessert around here and Mom bakes something at least once each week. In fact, at this moment we have two tubs of ice cream, chocolate peanut butter bars and brownies all in the house. We're pretty picky when it comes to desserts. It must have chocolate. It should be from scratch. It is best chewy (Dad might protest that one, he likes crunchy cookies). So, the idea of vegan cookies sounded... Well... Adventurous? Risky? But I was in the mood for an adventure, so I was in the kitchen at 9:30AM, putting the cookie sheet in the oven.
They are DELICIOUS! Even Boogie and Quad think so! (Boogie is my nickname for my little sister, in case you forgot, and she's in college but the name was given to her when she was a baby... Quad is the nickname for my brother, still in high school, but always the greatest guy around).
So, here's the recipe:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup applesauce
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 370.
Combine sugar, margarine, vanilla and applesauce.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt.
Stir until dough begins to stiffen.
Add chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until light brown.
Yesterday evening I made Oatmeal Raisin bars. They are very sweet and delicious, and also very easy. Next time I will use some sort of sugar substitute, since I feel like they are too sweet for me (and even though I work at an ice cream shop, I still like to watch my sugar intake). I also made some major changes. We were out of rolled oats. So, I used original instant oatmeal for 1 cup and apple cinnamon instant oatmeal for the other 1/4 cup, emptying the breakfast packets into the measuring cups until I had enough. I'm sure the texture would be crunchier and less crumbly if I had used rolled oats. The addition of the cinnamon/apple oatmeal really made it sweet and dessert-like. I'll re-make them following the recipe next time and post it here.
Boogie and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday before the evening church service. She looked at several fashion magazines while I scanned VegNews. It was a beautiful magazine and inspiring to see so many other vegetarians. (They even had a feature on 8 vegan weddings, the cakes looked glorious!) Sometimes I feel like I'm one of a very small group of odd people who refuse to eat one of the staples of our American diet (meat). While the magazine was too full of animals rights rants for my taste, the recipes and information about maintaining a vegetarian diet were very useful! Having just re-read information in the Blood Type Diet that explains why people with Type A blood are healthiest on a mostly-vegan diet, I'm re-inspired. It's fascinating to me that a simple fast at the beginning of the year - just one month without meat - ended up changing the way my body felt and my energy level so dramatically. Until this point, I've been convinced that it is simply the hormone levels in our highly-processed, non-organic meat that were bothering me. However, Eat Right 4 Your Type suggests that people with Type A blood tend to have lower levels of acid in their stomachs and their bodies process meat slowly, storing it as fat. Our bodies tend to thrive on vegetable proteins and products in their most natural, organic state. While there are lots of people who would likely eat their own pets before giving up meat, I've loved the way I feel when I'm meatless! I rarely feel "heavy" or sluggish after eating. I can taste so much more variety in my foods that I never noticed before. I'm happier.
Done with that tangent. As I said, VegNews had some recipes in it... I wrote down a recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies and made them this morning. Now, you must understand that I was skeptical. My family is big on sweets. We eat a LOT of dessert around here and Mom bakes something at least once each week. In fact, at this moment we have two tubs of ice cream, chocolate peanut butter bars and brownies all in the house. We're pretty picky when it comes to desserts. It must have chocolate. It should be from scratch. It is best chewy (Dad might protest that one, he likes crunchy cookies). So, the idea of vegan cookies sounded... Well... Adventurous? Risky? But I was in the mood for an adventure, so I was in the kitchen at 9:30AM, putting the cookie sheet in the oven.
They are DELICIOUS! Even Boogie and Quad think so! (Boogie is my nickname for my little sister, in case you forgot, and she's in college but the name was given to her when she was a baby... Quad is the nickname for my brother, still in high school, but always the greatest guy around).
So, here's the recipe:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup applesauce
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 370.
Combine sugar, margarine, vanilla and applesauce.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt.
Stir until dough begins to stiffen.
Add chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until light brown.
Yesterday evening I made Oatmeal Raisin bars. They are very sweet and delicious, and also very easy. Next time I will use some sort of sugar substitute, since I feel like they are too sweet for me (and even though I work at an ice cream shop, I still like to watch my sugar intake). I also made some major changes. We were out of rolled oats. So, I used original instant oatmeal for 1 cup and apple cinnamon instant oatmeal for the other 1/4 cup, emptying the breakfast packets into the measuring cups until I had enough. I'm sure the texture would be crunchier and less crumbly if I had used rolled oats. The addition of the cinnamon/apple oatmeal really made it sweet and dessert-like. I'll re-make them following the recipe next time and post it here.
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