1 month to go

I have about one month left of my sugar free year. So far, the experiment is a failure. I have not lost my cravings for sugar at all, even with avoiding dessert the last 5 months (including over thanksgiving and christmas--which was brutal). Some people do well with honey instead of sugar, but for me it seems to make no difference at all. I always craved sugar, even when I had not had it in months.

And so I will do one last attempt before the year is up. I will continue to cut out all sweet things (which I did for 5 months except for one week in there I had unrefined sweetened treats again), but now will no longer eat fruit. I know I get sugar cravings when I eat more fruit, so I'm interested to see what happens without it. I eat enough vegetables that I am not concerned with any loss of nutrients.

I may extend the year a few weeks so that I give fruit-free a good run.

6 months later

Today is 6 months exactly since I first started no refined sugar. I have changed the commitment from no refined sugar to be no treats or treatoids.  I haven't lost any weight, but I did discover that I have fructose malabsorption (thus honey is a bad sweetener choice for me) and that I don't think the Costco brand of maple syrup is worth eating (or buying) compared to other brands I've tried. I think my lack of weight loss was because I was just replacing regular treats with honey sweetened ones. Which is really not helpful. So the end of that. I think I will be ok with still eating dark chocolate, so long as it is 85% or more. That stuff is not a big temptation for me. Also, naturally occurring sugars in carob and whole fruit I think are fine. But not fruit juice.

the end.

relentless

After a recent discussion with friends, I decided to give up something for lent this year. I'm scrapping added sweeteners, refined or not, from my diet. I'm shooting for 10 grams or less each day of added sugars. (This includes fruit juice. Whole fruit is ok.) After lent I'll allow unrefined natural sweeteners to some degree, but I am going to continue to avoid refined sugar for a year, staying below the 5 or 10 gram/day mark. (I'm still working out what is feasible without making everything from scratch.) I'm hoping that during that time I will totally lose my desire to eat it so that when the year is done, I won't suddenly rush out and buy a bunch of treats, and will instead want to continue avoiding it.

I know this is sort of drastic, but smaller measures don't seem to work on me and I'm tired of the ill effects on my health and well being. It's all or nothing, and I choose nothing.

For the record, lent began on 3/5/2014. Wish me luck.

kitchen lessons

I've started cooking again. Occasionally. I didn't cook at all during my first trimester of pregnancy, and now I am starting to cook again and trying to empty the fridge/freezer. We are moving in three weeks.

I thought I'd put down a few things I learned about cooking so I can remember them. I'm sure there is a lot more to this list, but for now I am remembering just two things.

1) For sauces and soups, use white flour. (Gravy is an exception; whole wheat flour works fine in it and just makes it a bit more gritty. I usually use whole wheat flour when making sausage gravy for a biscuits/gravy meal.)  I created this rule for myself after using whole wheat flour as the thickening agent in some kind of soup. It turned out really strange. I wish I could remember what it was. If it is bread product, whole wheat flour works fine. But if its just used as a thickening agent, the results are unpredictable and might be less than delightful.

2) Don't assume that anchovy paste/fillets can be interchanged with sardine juice. I know I might be an oddball in liking sardines. Before I was pregnant, I was on a sardine kick and loved eating them on rye toast with cheese. There is always some sardine "juice" left in the tin after all the sardines are taken out. At first I dumped it in the sink, but then I got the idea that I should save it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for some future use. David is not a huge seafood fan, but I have made a fish-base soup once or twice. Or maybe just once. I thought the sardine juice could go in something like that. So I accumulated leftover juice from 3 or 4 cans, adding up to about 1/4 cup.

Meanwhile, I read in cooks illustrated that adding tomato paste and anchovy past/fillets to a beef stew will add depth to the beef flavor (without making it taste like fish). There is a very good beef stew recipe that uses these ingredients and it is super awesome. As I said before, I am trying to use up what is in my freezer. Recently I was making another beef stew recipe and decided to throw in the frozen sardine juice. BIG MISTAKE. It made the whole kitchen smell like sardines, and you could definitely taste it in the finished product. It was still edible and tasted fine, but the sardine flavor ruined the dish in my opinion. Perhaps if I had used only 2 teaspoons of the juice it would have worked out perfectly. (The stew recipe that calls for anchovy fillets says it is 2 teaspoons worth.) But I probably won't ever try it again.

3) This is more of a complaint against blogger and its search engine. I have discovered, to my dismay, that when searching my recipe blog, the title is not searched, only the body of posts. HOW LAME IS THAT? Super duper lame. This means that I have to rely on my tags to find certain recipes. Or, I should just repeat the post title in the body of the post so it will be searched. I might go back and do that for all the posts.  Grrr.

obsession

I have become obsessed.

with Bengal Spice tea.

I am unashamed.

the Egg Issue

Oatmeal cookies are my favorite cookie. Growing up, I used to make them as bar cookies by pressing the cookie dough into a cookie sheet. This is one of my mom's favorite shortcuts. She did it not only with cookies but with muffins too. Muffins were always square growing up and rarely made in muffin cups.

But now I can make round cookies. I am an adult. I can do what I want.

Yes, oatmeal is my favorite. Oatmeal Raisin, to be precise. I imagine some of you may gasp at the lack of chocolate in my favorite cookie. It seems that most people are of the opinion that chocolate chip cookies are the best. These people have somehow been lead astray.

Whenever I make oatmeal cookies, I invariably want to "consume mass quantities." (name that flick! My parents quoted this movie for years..and still do.) For this reason, I try to make a smaller batch. But one always runs up against the Egg Issue. I recently made this recipe. (Though I hardly ever make cookies anymore..)

the Egg Issue: a problem arising when only a fractional amount of any given recipe is made and the number of eggs resulting is not a whole number

How does one deal with the Egg Issue? In the recipe I made lately, it calls for 2 eggs. Thus I halved the recipe, but there were still too many cookies. What do I do if I want to make only a fourth of the recipe? How do I get half an egg? Do I just round up and use a whole egg anyway? Do I toss the extra egg bit?

My opinion is that rounding up to a whole egg is a bad idea. Extra egg white is like extra baking powder--it could make the cookie rise too much and be cakey. One solution would be to just mix an egg and use only half of it. Then you could freeze the rest or toss it. Or you could save it for an omelet or scrambled eggs the next morning. If you feel lazy, it is better to sacrifice half an egg then be tempted by too many cookies, in my opinion anyway.

the heel

I made persimmon bread with some pulp I froze a while back. The recipe is here. It was very tasty.

So as you know there are two kinds of bread slices: the heel, and the middle. Each has its advantages. When the bread is old and dry, the middle is best. When the bread is new and dry, middle is best. But when the bread is moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside (which is what happens when sweet breads cool on a rack), the heel is THE BEST.

(I must point out that this is my own opinion. DH thinks the heel is the best at all times. It took me a while to believe that he truly preferred the heel and wasn't just trying to be a martyr by claiming he wanted it. My mom always did that. Yes, my mom, the heel martyr. She also "likes" cold leftovers. Whatever mom. You know you like them reheated. We both know.)

So usually I am content to let DH eat the heel. But not with warm persimmon bread. I took the heel without asking him first. I took it and took a few bites. Yum. THEN I told him that the bread was ready and did he want some? But he saw I was consuming the heel. He was just a little bit sad until I reminded him that there was still ANOTHER heel and there is no rule against eating it last. So we both ate heels first.

teehee

Hanukkah

DH and I had Hanukkah last night. We ate:

potato latkes (deep fried! I've never deep fried anything before.)

cream cheese cookies

eggnog (store bought, but tastes like homemade. )

and watched:

Christmas Everyday

Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas

and listened to:

Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song

It rocked.

We like celebrating all kinds of holidays. We are going to get a Menorah for next year.

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An aside: For those of you who know me on Facebook, I posted our family Christmas newsletter a couple days ago if you are interested in seeing it.

worlds of possiblility

I know how they do it.

Yes.

I KNOW.

For all of you who have tried and failed to take dried black beans and cook them up into what you'd hoped would be a tasty equivalent to canned but then realized you'd failed beyond the extent of comprehension...I feel your pain.

Yes. Pain. Black beans are hard to make just like they come in a can. One might say painful. Or impossible. First, they taste bland. Second, their skins split. And they take forever. You have to soak them for at least 8 hours and then boil them for 2. So how does S&W do it?

Probably just how I did it. They use FRESH black beans. My Salvadoran friends gave me a bag of freshly picked black beans a few days ago. She said not to soak them. Just cook for 30 minutes in boiling water with salt and garlic.

I looked at the beans in the bag. I tried to squash one. They felt hard as rock. I should have stomped on it to check, but I missed my opportunity. After questioning her, I discovered that beans come out of the pod looking the exact same way we buy them in the bulk bins. Except the older they get, the drier and harder they get. Wow.

So I just made perfect beans. Yay for me.

the glory of rice pudding

I worship rice pudding. It is true. I don't recall ever eating rice pudding before moving to California (Going on 5 years!). It might have been one of those buffet dessert items at Chuck-A-Rama, but I don't remember trying it (or if I did, it was not worth remembering!) BUT then I started to shop for myself (after leaving home) and there was that one magic day in Safeway when I saw Kozy Shack brand rice pudding next to the sour cream...and I bought it. My life would never be the same.

Then came the many attempts at making rice pudding. There was the baked puddings, the stovetop puddings, the one time disaster of a crockpot pudding, and finally more precise puddings that used a thermometer. Some would curdle*. Some would be fantastic. But nothing could match the consistency of Kozy.

*Curdling is a thing of the past. The blessings of living at sea level combined with the delicate egg yolk conspired against me for too long, but now I have outsmarted them. I just keep the heat down:) (Custards are supposed to stay between 185 and 190 F during cooking time to prevent curdling.)

Then came the time when I bought Kozy pudding and it was awful. Yes. It tasted totally off. Then I was afraid to buy it for a while. Suddenly I wondered if Kozy pudding was really the ultimate.

Now after being in El Barrio going on 2 years, I have discovered Salvadoran rice pudding. There is a couple in our ward who like to make it to serve after baptisms (and sometimes go crazy and give it out after church--like last week!). They use a combination of sweetened condensed milk, regular milk, cinnamon sticks, and a lime--rind and all! No eggs! Fancy that. It is quick to make, none of the hours of reducing milk or anything laborious in that vein. Lucky is the one who chokes on a piece of cinnamon and finds part of a lime in their cup. Eat with caution. Oh, but the delight of rice pudding!

Incomplete LIST of rice pudding recipes attempted:

1. The baked rice pudding recipe I used comes from Betty Crocker Cookbook.

2. Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/rice_pudding/

This one I made notes. They go like this:

Turned out great--much more creamy than baked rice pudding. I kept the heat below boiling like she said, and the egg did not curdle. I think I will try sweetening with honey next time (less than 1/4 cup).
SO good. Try with 1/4 cup arborio next time, it was VERY thick. I put raspberries in it and it was so divine.

(I should point out that I used arborio rice instead of the short grain white the recipe called for. Had I used short grain white, it would not have turned out so thick.)

3) Crockpot: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/03/crockpot-rice-pudding-recipe.html

Notes:

it curdled. Using high heat after putting the egg in was a mistake--it might work on low, but I'm not sure I want to try it again when I have another rice pudding recipe that is great. (simply recipes)

4) Temperature measured: http://www.ehow.com/how_4830558_kozy-shack-rice-pudding.html

I can't exactly recall how this turned out. I think it worked ok, but by this point I had been trying to cut back on rice pudding (since I inhaled it at ludicrous speed) and only made this recipe one time.

5) This one is untested, but highly recommended by some people in a chowhound thread: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Raisin-Rice-Pudding-762

I need to make this one.

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As a final note, I must remark how much I adore puddings and custards of all kinds. DH doesn't care as much about pudding as I do, but we try not to let that be an issue in our marriage. But he can surely attest to the fact that more often than not when I'm feeling like dessert I'll say, "I want a pudding."

The Egg: one eternal round

So.

Have you ever noticed that the majority of recipes that call for an egg yolk (minus the white) are for dessert?

And another thing.

Have you ever noticed that the majority of recipes that call for an egg white (minus the yolk) are for dessert?

Yes. I have noticed both these things.

Macaroons. Angel food cake.

Pudding. Flan. (Hollandaise sauce is not in this listing. Nor is mayonnaise.)

If one is trying not to waste part of an egg, one is forced to make two desserts. This might be considered a hardship by some. Others might toss the half they don't use.

To this end, I actually spend time looking for non-dessert recipes that use egg whites. If you have some, please share.

I recently discovered that you can freeze egg whites for 12 months and they turn out ok. Egg yolks, not so much though.

Alas.

Applesauce: important things to know

I adore applesauce. It is my favorite thing to put on top of waffles/pancakes/french toast. It is so refreshing. Sigh.

But not all applesauce is created equal. Safeway, Treetop, and Motts all fall short. Trader Joes actually sells applesauce that is still crunchy! Ew. I made the mistake of buying it again (even though I knew it was evil) and am now repenting while I cook it in a pot on the stove so the chunks become fully cooked and soft. (I must point out that they sell two kinds of applesauce, and their "Big and Chunky" style is tolerable, however, but pricey.)

Sweetened applesauce? What is this world coming to? Would you sprinkle sugar on an orange before you eat it? No. Ew. In the applesauce world, "regular" style applesauce is code for sweetened. Beware!

If one must make due with inferior applesauce, at least make sure it is unsweetened.

But I have made a remarkable discovery. Something so vastly important that I will make a special trip to the store just for applesauce. This remarkable discovery is: Whole foods, 365 brand unsweetened applesauce. The texture is incomparable and amazing. The taste is delicious. Even the glass jar is attractive. It is slightly more expensive than safeway brand, but less expensive than Trader Joe's tolerable "Big and Chunky" style.

Hurrah.

LRH recipes blog

I've started a new blog for my own use in cooking and keeping track of what I make. I also embedded a calendar that I'm using in an attempt to plan meals in advance.

The address is http://lrhrecipes.blogspot.com/

pickles: an attempt at domesticity

This portion of the post was written August 18, 2009.

It was not many weeks into marital bliss that I discovered DH has a great love of pickles. If I buy pickles, he eats them. No languishing forgotten in the fridge. He eats about two pickles a day, on average. One before leaving for school, another after getting home. Pickles (the "good" kind), are kind of a lot of money though. And I only ever saw them on decent sale ONCE. (I bought 8 jars, and they were gone in the blink of an eye! I should have just cleaned out the store.) So I buy a jar here and there when a lesser brand would go on sale, but the sales aren't much of a deal.

Poor DH. He does not have enough pickles to eat.

And now, the seemingly tangential story that will transition smoothly back to the world of pickles:

DH and I ate at a friends house last Saturday night. The lovely lady of the house, Karina F, had just finished canning some peach jam. In awe at her domestic skill, she pointed me toward the counter where I saw her homemade pickles. I tasted some too, and they were yum. I then determined that I MUST make pickles for DH. Especially since small cucumbers are in season and cheap.

So. I attempted to make pickles. I sort of followed this recipe. Except I have no idea what a "head" of dill weed is, so I ignored that. And I didn't have any ice (or ice trays for that matter), so did not do the ice bath. Then, I got to the part where I tried to sterilize the quart jars in boiling water. It turns out my biggest pot was not tall enough to submerge the jars. (Drat!) So I tried to make do. I sort of "processed" half of the filled jars for 5 minutes in boiling water, and the rest I didn't bother since I didn't think it would seal anyway (and I of course googled it and somebody random on chowhound said it wasn't necessary to process them.

Here is the result:

I am supposed to wait two months to allow for mixing of flavors, but we'll see.

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October 24th:

So, there are only 2 jars of pickles left. David began eating them after about 2 weeks. And they are really good! Pretty crunchy too. I think the ones I did NOT boil fared better. Next time I do this, I will try a canning method that is specific for keeping pickles crisp. No more submerged boiling, but perhaps steaming? Not sure yet. I sort of don't have any canning equipment. I'll do more research next year:)

PS. Janie the magnificent has a lovely post about her family pickle rule. No more than two per person per day. I think we might need this rule in my house eventually as well!

a favorite snack.

My latest favorite snack is a combination of these two things:

1) Real yogurt.

and 2) Creamed honey. Mmmm.

I get a tiny bit of honey on my spoon, then get a spoonful of yogurt. Then I eat it.

Creamed honey is much tastier for spreading on breads than regular honey. The texture and taste are different. But I do use regular honey in baking.

(By the way, I ate yogurt while making this post.)

the perfect bean: a journey

When it comes to burritos, I always get pinto. (You know, they always ask "black or pinto?" unless they haughtily assume you want black and don't ask). I like pinto beans. Black beans would be like invaders.

Except, there are things in which I think black beans are perfect. For example, something I have made increasingly often this summer is a black bean salad. It contains: 2-3 chopped tomatoes, a can of black beans (or 1 1/4 cup cooked black beans), 2-3 ears of corn (raw & fresh!, with the corn cut off the ear), a chopped avocado, and lots of chopped cilantro (like half cup of leaves maybe?). Reija was my inspiration on this recipe. She made a version of it for the dinner at which we met her beaux, Bob, this past summer. (And now she is engaged, how wonderful is that!)

I have all the sudden remembered I have two ears of corn in the fridge. Anyway. Back to beans. So, I decided that though 89 cents for a can of black beans is not highway robbery, much of the time I don't have a can of beans (alas, poor planning). This means I have to go to the "charming" but expensive corner store to get beans, and they charge 50 cents more for a can. So I decided my dependence on canned beans must end.

(As a side note, another reason for having black beans is because eventually I want to try to make this flourless chocolate cake that uses black beans.)

Attempt 1. Method: Soak all day, then boil.

This did not go well. The soaking went fine and I rinsed the beans afterward. Next, I boiled the beans. It took more than 2 hours of boiling for the beans to be fully cooked. They did not hold shape well either and were falling apart. This would be ok for a pureed dip, or inside a burrito (someone else's burrito perhaps), but NOT in a salad. Alas.

Attempt 2. Method: Overnight soak, then pressure cook.

See the pressure cooker. I just bought it last week. Before today, I had NEVER used a pressure cooker. (And didn't know how to use one either!)

Ok. After spending hours trying to figure out the directions (which were insufficient, and thus I turned to the web and youtube), I finally began my first use of the pressure cooker. In retrospect, I can say that I did not have the heat turned up high enough to build pressure up all the way. (The giant toggle thing in the center of the lid is supposed to shake around at the correct pressure, but there was steam coming out near the handle so I was confused!). Thus the beans weren't fully cooked after 10 minutes. (10 minutes, by the way, is what the pressure cooker directions say is necessary to cook soaked black beans. Only 10 minutes! Not 2 hours!). So I tried again, and this time waited longer, on the edge of my seat, and the pressure built up correctly. There is a little pin that pops up near the handle when it reaches pressure, I discovered. I think that also locks the lid in place so you can't open it until the pressure goes down.

So. After cooking (at correct pressure) 5 more minutes, the beans were cooked, but falling apart. The directions said for the beans to stay in tact, I should let pressure fall naturally (which is what I did) and not manually release the steam. This is what it looked like (below):

I think I added way too much water.

And this is how it looks strained and rinsed (below). The pressure cook method worked better than boiling, for sure. But I think if I'd used the pressure cooker correctly it would have turned out better. Next time, hopefully it will be perfect! (Must add salt next time too.)

P.S. There is one thing I can't figure out about my pressure cooker. There is a backup safety valve on the lid (the small attachment shown to the left on the lid in the picture). It screws on and off. Is it supposed to be screwed on tightly (or loosely)? The directions do not say...and I know not. Anyone know?

dark chocolate souffle

So, up to this point I haven't been much of a food blogger. BUT that doesn't mean I don't cook. Or think about food a lot. (too much).

My latest favorite website to get recipes from is www.foodgawker.com. I discovered it from the blog of lovely Kim who has two adorable dogs, one of which is now famous for sneezing. Foodgawker is a collection of recipes from the blogsphere. Pictures and blurbs are submitted by the bloggers. You can search for nearly any food or combination of words and get awesome looking recipes. For example: searching for lemon brownie yields two recipes. There are over 28,000 recipes on there so far, and more are added every day. I made super awesome garlic fries a couple months ago that I found on there.

So anyway. I got some cute yellow mini-souffle dishes (or ramekins) for a wedding present, and have used them to make dark chocolate souffles. While delightful, the souffle dishes are WAY too big for one person (for dessert). Mine are 10 oz and basic ramekin size is 6 oz I believe. The 10 oz dishes would be perfect for a savory souffle for one person. But to continue. I found this recipe on Cooking for Engineers, and multiplied it 1.5 times to fill two 10 oz souffle cups. This is the result:

Yum! The one problem with these souffles (besides being too much to eat, even for me) is that they taste better after cooling off. The problem with cooling off is that the souffle falls. It is still fluffy, but it is definitely shorter. And the crispy top softens somewhat during cooling.

The recipe calls for 70% cacao, but I use guittard bittersweet. I have no idea what percent it is. You could probably use chocolate chips and melt them, or use cocoa+oil and add extra sugar.

PS. Baking chocolate (the kind with individually wrapped ounces) is a rip off. It costs twice as much as getting bulk chocolate that you break apart yourself. Food scales are really helpful.

cookbook heaven

I have too many cookbooks. This is undeniable. I used to have more, but I gave some away during the last move. Both shelves in the picture have nothing but cookbooks on them! The magazines on the left are Bon Appetit issues. I purchased half of the cookbooks at booksales (FOPAL I love you!), and the rest are wedding gifts, ward cookbooks, and presents from the mum. I'm obsessed. I try not to buy more cookbooks when I'm at booksales, but I just can't help it!!! I haven't made recipes from all of them either. YET. Anyone else have this problem?

(Click on the photo to read titles, if you are interested.)

corn syrup

I had a friend in 4th grade who claimed to be allergic to corn syrup. She was from the South (Alabama maybe?) and had an accent. I even remember her name. Lets call her AC.

So, AC told me she was allergic to corn syrup, and then excitedly mentions that because of her allergy there is only one kind of ice cream she can have--the best (as she called it)--Dryers. I have never had Dryers before and have never checked the ingredients to double check that it does not contain corn syrup. Because as we all know, nothing is for sure unless I confirm it. Ahem.

I have often thought back on this conversation between myself and AC. Why should I retain such seemingly mundane and useless knowledge 15 years later? I know not. But whenever I read the ingredients on a box of cereal and see "corn syrup" listed, I think of her. AC. She may not even be AC anymore. She might be AZ or AF or--who knows, even FA. Most recently when I read on the box of cereal "corn syrup" and thought of good old AC, I wondered HOW she could possibly discover she was allergic to corn syrup. Everything has corn syrup, practically. How could she have isolated this single ingredient and figured out it was the one thing preventing her from meal time bliss? And by age 10?

I can only think of two possible explanations:
1) she ate corn syrup plain and had a reaction. (I dislike this idea. Who would eat corn syrup alone?)
2)Her mom made pecan pie and experimented replacing the corn syrup with honey at the advice of a cooking friend(as my lovely french friend told me to do). After witnessing the two reactions of AC to the seemingly similar pies, the verdict was out. AC must be allergic to corn syrup.

I put my money on #2.

Ratatouille

I have made Ratatouille three times now.

1) Pre-movie. At least 4 years ago. I did not like it..and I don't recollect where I got the recipe.

2) Post-movie. 1 year ago. I used the Cooking for Engineers version. There is some debate that the "real" way to make Ratatouille involves cooking each vegetable by itself to preserve the individual flavors (as done in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1) before combining at the end. The Engineers recipe is not done this way. But I still recommend it. It was most delicious. DH thought so too.

3) Post-movie. 4 days ago. This time I tried Julia Child's version. It turned out really well. I can't remember how the one last year tasted in comparison, but DH claims that he does and that the French version is better. So, there you have it.