Cliffhanger Resolved: Faithless Lover Makes Rice

Boiled and Baked Long-Grain Rice - pg. 101

Geez, that was quite a cliffhanger, wasn't it. Well, whatever was wrong with my intestines (or whatever it was that hurt), thank the goddess that it resolved on its own. Plus, I tried a new doctor and think I'm going to like her. She has solved my IBS with the right probiotic, is paying strict attention to my blood pressure, and has sent me to a neurologist to get my minor hand tremor diagnosed.

Then we went to Borneo. Which was wonderful, enlightening, fun, and just basically a swell trip. We had a few days in Singapore on the way. I love Singapore. I want to spend 2 weeks in Singapore. Then we went to Ft. Smith Arkansas to spend Christmas with Randy's mom and step-father. Then we went to Bakersfield to see Randy's brother and his wife and their twin college freshman sons. Then we went to San Francisco for a business meeting. Okay, Randy conducted business, I shopped and played and ate. And, we've had to give our oldest cat, Maizie Jane Valentine, a lot of extra care and attention to deal with her severe arthritis -- she's doing a lot better now on gawd-awfully expensive narcotics. Well, heck, I would be, too.

Meanwhile, back at the range.... I've been a faithless lover. I haven't cooked much and haven't pursued my Alice Waters TAOSF project. OTOH, I have made Alice recipes that I've made before. And I've played "Chopped" in the kitchen, cooking from the frig without recipes. And I've played around with my Crock-Pot slow cooker and America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook, both of which I LOVE.

Tonight! Tonight! I'm back at it. I made Boiled and Baked Long-Grain Rice. Doesn't sound like a big deal, I know, but I gotta tell ya I've NEVER been able to make rice. Ever. I've always made Randy make the rice because following the directions on the backs of the rice bags has never ever worked for me. I've always ended up with gummy messes. Now I've made rice with all 3 of Alice's methods and every single one of them has yielded the fluffy rice of my dreams. Now Randy makes ME make the rice! (Lately, his rice has gone down hill. Sorry about that, Dear Heart.) I topped the rice with a "Chopped" dish: left over shredded chicken and fresh chopped broccoli in a sauce made of chicken sauce from the originally cooked chicken (in the Crock-Pot) with a big shot of very spicy fresh salsa finished with a bit of hickory smoked salt. It was really good!

So, it's a new year. I've been very productive in my studio in 2012, and now I'm back to TAOSF and blogging about it.

104 recipes completed; a mere 201 yet to tackle

Walk On In

Okay, this new clinic I've been assigned to (and people worry about socialized medicine? we don't have doctor choice already, people! unless we're Donald Trump) takes walk-ins. I walked in and saw a physician's assistant. I generally prefer PAs to family practice docs anyway. So, I've had blood work and an abdominal sonogram already. (And an annual screening mammogram, too, while I was at it.) Maybe a cyst on the spleen??? Who knows. Anyway, it shot the whole day in the head. Should know more tomorrow.

Whining

Sick as a dog. A whole raft of weird symptoms and getting worse every day. Trying to get a doctor's appointment is like pulling teeth. (Yes, I've got one -- for the 20th!) I'm on the verge of heading to the ER, but fighting to resist the urge every inch of the way.

In the meantime, I gotta pay bills. If it isn't one thing, it's something else. I need a glass of whine.

And Yet More Tomatoes

Greek Salad - pg. 53

Well, as long as I'm at it, why not make Alice's version of the classic Greek Salad. In spite of the fact that I don't like raw tomatoes, I've eaten a yacht-sized load of Greek salads in the last few years. It all started when we were in Greece for a couple weeks not long ago. In the summer, in Greece, every restaurant serves endless quantities of Greek salad; and it's all delicious. Very simple. Tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese with lots of herbs and vinegar & oil dressing. You can hide the taste of anything under plenty of olives and feta. Alice's version is a little more elaborate, adding thinly sliced red onion and red sweet pepper. It was good. I'd forgotten how much I like Greek salad, in spite of it being loaded with raw tomatoes. Of course, nearly anything tastes better on the plaza of a restaurant at the base of the Acropolis, in the evening, in the summer. Or on a sailboat at anchor along the Aegean, at noon, in the summer. Oh sigh. I'm so grateful that I've been there and have done that.

103 recipes completed; a mere 202 recipes to go

Tomatoes

pg. 241 - Sliced Tomatoes with Basil

As you know by now, I do not like raw tomatoes. I consider this to be a moral failure on my part, a personality defect, if you will. For decades I forced myself, off and on, to eat raw tomatoes, hoping in vain that eventually I'd "get it," that something would snap into place and I'd join the ranks of adult tomato lovers. I'm 62. It has never happened. I've pretty much accepted this personal defect and have admitted defeat. I do not like raw tomatoes.

As you also know, I chose my Alice Waters cooking project to actually learn to cook well. My goal is to make every recipe in TAOSF. I figured that would take me into uncharted territory and that I wouldn't necessary like everything I made. The cucumbers in cream and mint certainly wasn't my favorite thing, but today I tackled something I knew I wouldn't even be able to sample: Sliced Tomatoes with Basil. It's a very simple salad, easy to make. It's typical of Alice's celebration of fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. But, good grief, it's basically a plate of sliced raw tomatoes.

For his lunch today, I made Sliced Tomatoes with Basil for my husband. I didn't even have one little bite. Not a taste. Not a lick. Spread out on an antique yellow fiesta plate, all that glistening red and green was indeed gorgeous and glorious. He ate every last scrap of it, bless his heart. And I can now mark that particular recipe off my list.

102 recipes completed; 203 recipes to go -- I HAVE COMPLETED 1/3 OF MY PROJECT!!

"Screw Calm and Get Angry" (and Cucumbers)

pg. 247 - Cucumbers with Cream and Mint

"Screw Calm and Get Angry" is the title of a cool little book of quotations that I just got. Just in time for the facebook campaign I'm waging against the Tea Party and its attack on government. I'm so sick of the crap that's going on in Washington I could just scream. I can't understand for the life of me when -- or why -- or how -- the majority of people in this country became so self-absorbed that they've decided to engage, en mass, in cutting off their noses to get revenge of some sort against their own faces. How have we lost any sense of community, any sense of being all in this lifeboat together? I don't understand. And I'm pissed.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, it's that time of year when I become convinced, annually, that there is absolutely no need for us to have a garden since we are awash in a sea of vegetables gifted to us by our wonderful friends and neighbors. Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers, cucumbers of several types, summer squash. There's a great BIG bowl of the stuff in the kitchen. I'll be the first to admit that summer vegetables are still an acquired taste for me. I really love meat and fat and sugar. Beans, rice and pasta, yes. Cheese and dairy, yes. Fruit, yes. Spring, winter and fall vegetables, yes. Summer vegetables? Well......... I don't like raw tomatoes, for one thing. I've already had a lifetime quota of summer squash. Cucumbers? Not so much. It's these heat-of-summer things that mostly leave me cold.

So there they were, staring at me: FOUR lemon cucumbers. (It's not bad enough that we get the neighbors generous offerings, Randy brings yet more of this stuff home from Farmers Market! Two lemon cukes from the neighbors + 2 brought home by RDK. After saying to him: DON'T BUY VEGETABLES THIS WEEK! JUST FRUIT!) Yup, 2 people in this house. FOUR lemon cucumbers. Fortunately, I had cream in the frig. And lots of spearmint in the herb garden. So, I turned to page 247 for Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Now, I suppose this really is one of the world's greatest salads, but it didn't do much for me. Nonetheless, it's another recipe completed. Nobody said I'd love 'em all.

On another front, I've purchased "Slow Cooker Revolution" from America's Test Kitchen, as well as their recommended slow cooker, the Crock-Pot Touchscreen Slow Cooker. Three reasons: (1) Randy will be teaching again come 2012 and it's often hard to time dinner when he's teaching late afternoon labs, (2) I want to be able to have some main courses stashed in the freezer for times when there just isn't time to cook, and (3) when we entertain, I prefer to have everything ready before guests arrive so I can be with them, not in the kitchen.

Last weekend I tested goal #3 with Moroccan Chicken Stew, served with an old favorite of mine, Ina Garten's Curried Cous Cous which is made ahead of time and served at room temperature. One of the guests brought a green salad. I did go a little overboard on dessert, but it was all made ahead of time. Randy took care of beverages. I got to hang out with our guests. Afterwards clean up was fast and easy. And we still had dinner twice more from the leftovers!

Earlier this week I made Fancy Pork Stew with Fennel and Prunes. I have 3 meals worth in the freezer right now. Yeah for goal #2! This weekend I'll make marinara sauce or maybe some chili. After a dinner or two, the rest will go into the freezer.

Who would ever have guessed that food and cooking would become a new passion for me? Although, Randy is making dinner tonight at my request. I just can't face that big bowl of vegetables on the kitchen counter. And he'll be making fried okra for himself, too. Oh well.

101 recipes completed; 204 yet to conquer!

Stuff I Hate. Stuff I Love.

Hate. Right-wing fundamentalists who can't think. You know: do research, analyze the information, and come up with a slightly original thought (perhaps a thought of their own?).

Love. Crab cakes.

Hate. Frying crab cakes. ("Frying" is not my forte in the kitchen.)

Love. Cheese-stuffed roasted peppers.

Hate. Myself when I spend too much time on the computer.

Love. My car.

Hate. When husband takes my car for the day.

Love. Cats.

Hate. Cleaning litter boxes (well, who doesn't?).

Love. Modern medicine.

Hate. Going to the doctor.

Love. Our recent trip to LA.

Tuesday: Check in to the Ambrose

Walk the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica

Watch filming of "Private Practice"

(Tim Daly from "Wings"!)

Dinner at Josie's

Wednesday: Breakfast at the hotel

Warner Brothers VIP Tour

New Dinosaur Hall at the Museum of Natural History

Dinner at The Bazaar at SLS

Thursday: Breakfast at the hotel

The Getty Center

Hollywood Bowl (LA Symphony: Beethoven's 9th)

Dinner at the Bowl (take-out picnic)

Friday: Breakfast at the hotel

Huntington Gardens

Lunch at Celestino's

Hate. Oh, snap. I guess I'm fresh out of hate for the day.

Recipe #100

Lemon Curd - pg. 199

Yeah, yeah. I know. It's been awhile. Travel (his and ours). Sick cat. Garage cleaning (a major project, but part of moving into the not-so-new-anymore house). Ya da, ya da, ya da. You know the drill.

So, I declared today to be cooking day. First, I had 2 test recipes from America's Test Kitchen (home of _Cook's Illustrated_ magazine, a favorite of mine) to make: Simple Almond Granola, and Kale and Sunflower Pesto. Both were delicious and lots of fun to make. Since we're awash in the stuff, I'm also looking forward to making Mark Bittman's Mint "Pesto". (I've recently bought his great cookbook, _How to Cook Everything_, which is billed as a hipper version of _The Joy of Cooking_. It looks to be a more useful cookbook, too. I've never been a fan of _Joy_.)

And I made Lemon Curd! Man, I could eat this stuff straight up. Turns out to be easy to make (since I'm actually a whiz at separating eggs, as well as "stirring constantly") and totally delicious made from Meyer lemons. In the homemade stuff, you add a good bit of lemon zest which really "ups" the flavor. Alice says you can also make fruit curd from any citrus! Oranges! Grapefruit! Limes! Tangerines! Considering that you can also make candied citrus from any citrus, this is an area for further exploration that I'm pretty sure will be made in heaven. Okay, actually made in my kitchen. And -- you can make fruit curd from any berry puree. Who knew!?

Here's where we stand. It's a milestone of sorts.

100 recipes down; 205 recipes yet to make