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Archive for the ‘Food and…’ Category

Learning@Lunch

Posted in Food and..., Science!, tagged , , , , , , on August 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I read with lunch. Sometimes speculative fiction, of course, but often other types of writing as well, including nonfiction. Right now I’m reading Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner.

Appropriate lunchtime fare, wouldn’t you say? Allow me to share with you two fascinating excerpts:

You probably don’t think of your lunch as being constructed from powders, but consider the ingredients of a Subway Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich. Of the 105 ingredients, 55 are dry, dusty substances that were added to the sandwich for a whole variety of reasons. The chicken contains thirteen…. The teriyaki glaze has twelve…. In the fat-free sweet onion sauce, you get another eight…. And finally, the Italian white bread has twenty two….
— p.11

Yum. And lest you think that a salad at home is necessarily pitfall free:

… using fat-free dressing on a salad can prevent you from absorbing many of the vegetables’ healthy (fat-soluble) phytochemicals.
— p. 18

This has been Learning@Lunch. Enjoy:)

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Oh Asian Grocery Doorbusters, How I Love Thee

Posted in Food and..., tagged , , , on October 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The Asian grocery down the street can have some amazing  deals. This past week it was daikon (aka white radish) for nine whole cents a pound, and lemons, nine for $1. Now, I picked up some daikon because, well, why not?, but I also bought as many bags of lemons as I could carry. I love lemons, their color and acid taste, the way their juice brightens almost any dish, and the fact that they don’t even need to be fresh to be good. In fact, sometimes they are better when they’ve been preserved. On the off-chance that you too have been blessed with citrusy goodness, I include my recipe.

MOROCCAN PRESERVED LEMONS

One of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever tasted involved these savory morsels of salty sour goodness. The Restaurant Marrakech in Fez serves poulet citrone with chicken stewed to the tenderest perfection in a bright yellow potion of salty preserved lemons and olives and onions. I haven’t reconstructed the recipe but I’m working on it.

2 lemons, organic if you’ve got them
½ C (122g) fresh lemon juice
⅓ C (86g) coarse salt

1. Wash the lemons well. Cut them into 8 sections each and place in a glass jar. Add the remaining ingredients, cover tightly and shake to combine.

2. Leave the lemons at room temperature, shaking the jar every day, for 2 weeks. Rinse lemons before using.

Note: from The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook. Recipe scales well, and once ready, lemons will keep in the refrigerator for ~6 months.

Doubled recipe in a 750ml jar. Trust me, you want to pack these in something water-tight.

/zomg delicious!

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I Hear Winter Is Coming

Posted in Food and..., Other, tagged on October 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

We put the garden to bed this weekend. Finished uprooting the tomatoes, stripping all scarlet runner beans, and thanking the basil for its heroic effort in these Northern climes. In an effort to retain some essence of summer just that much longer, I brought in a few clippings of the apple mint. Prodigious stuff, this plant will take over a garden if you let it, but in a container it is content to produce huge, gorgeous, fuzzy leaves with a distinctive but mild mint flavor. Terrific in spicy peanut noodles, chickpea salad, or smoothies.

Apple mint

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Thanksgiving (v1.0.ca)

Posted in Food and... on October 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I have just given my very first Canadian Thanksgiving. It was a lovely mix of friends and family, and of course, food.

* Menu for a Canadian T-Day (appetizers and alcohol are assumed, because… well, because):

— Turkey with stuffing and gravy

— Tortiere (meat pie to us English speakers)

— Green beans with lemon, butter, and anchovy sauce

— Mashed cauliflower with herbs and boursin cheese

— Orange cranberry sauce

— Pumpkin pie (Tried a new recipe, from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything; I wasn’t sure about the added step of pre-cooking the pumpkin mix, but the result was a deliciously creamy custard-y filling. Recommended.)

Funny, none of the Canadians at the table knew what they were supposed to be thankful for, so we settled on friends, family, and dinner:)

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This Cake…

Posted in Food and..., Other, tagged , , , on September 14, 2012| 1 Comment »

… Is Not A Lie:)

Image

Have a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster too, while you’re at it.

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What I Wish My Summer To-Do List Looked Like:

Posted in Food and..., tagged , on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

— Perfect my margarita recipe (frozen, no salt, fresh limes);
— The end.

Sadly not so much, but I like to dream.

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Dinner

Posted in Food and..., tagged on July 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

— Home-grown tomato salad with local (i.e. backyard) basil, mozzarella and goat cheese salad
— Crusty Italian bread (the bread was crusty, not the Italian)
— Shrimp quick-stewed in a bit of water with lots of lemon juice, salt, bay, pepper, scallions, sherry, and olive oil, then topped with a reduction of the cooking liquid. So delicious Mr. Man licked the bowl. Me too, actually.

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