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Food is on my mind...
Jun. 22nd, 2007 09:27 pmFood is font and center on my agenda, for more than the obvious reason of having to eat.
I've been eating moderately for the past week, mostly through the tactic of staying the blazes out of the kitchen and letting Natalie take the lead in the culinary arts. Last night, I prepared a steak - organic, no hormones, no enzymes, and yes, about the price of what I'd pay at the Outback for just a slightly smaller piece of meat. This morning, I had the rest of the steak and a couple of eggs.
Thereupon commenced a fairly painful couple of hours due entirely to my, um, gut. (I should really have recorded the sounds emanating from my stomach; properly amplified, they would scare away prowlers.)
What's going on, I wonder?
* * * I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today, between cooking and cleaning.
First, I made a salad from romaine hearts, straw mushrooms, and pink salmon out of a can (wild-caught, says the label). I had some of it and put the rest in the fridge in a storage container for tomorrow and Sunday.
Later, I made a 12-bean soup, substituting a vegetable bouillon for the package of "ham flavored" spice that came with the beans. I also added a handful of the mushrooms dried during last fall's season. The end result isn't very rich in flavor (it could be the beans are overpowering the mushrooms, or that the mushrooms themselves aren't very flavorful), but it's not bad. Most of it, too, is in the fridge.
Finally, I spied an interesting - and simple - recipe in Galina's health newsletter (which I was reading to learn something about Candida albicans that didn't involve sending the publisher money). In an article promoting the benefits of naturally fermented products, there was a recipe that basically consists of mixing 5 lb of chopped cabbage with 3 tbs of sea salt, tamping them into a container, and then putting a weighted plate on top of the mixture to keep it beneath the level of the brine that is created when the salt sucks the water out of the cabbage.
I was skeptical that such a seemingly small quantity of salt would do the trick, or that there was enough water in cabbage leaves to create enough liquid to immerse the nascent kraut, but as I covered the assembly with cloth a few minutes ago, the brine had just about covered the mixture, so I guess I learned something. In any event, this dish will be ready to eat in "between 1 and 4 weeks" (and I'm too tired to go back and read the recipe again to see if some milestone occurs during that period to indicate the kraut is ready).
* * * My best client called and offered interpreting work next week. Simulations, thank goodness. I'm glad to get the assignments, as June is looking at little green in the bills, to paraphrase a cliché. I'll have to be well-rested (and there is one night assignment among the jobs), so it's going to be important to get a lot of rest this weekend.
Cheers...
I've been eating moderately for the past week, mostly through the tactic of staying the blazes out of the kitchen and letting Natalie take the lead in the culinary arts. Last night, I prepared a steak - organic, no hormones, no enzymes, and yes, about the price of what I'd pay at the Outback for just a slightly smaller piece of meat. This morning, I had the rest of the steak and a couple of eggs.
Thereupon commenced a fairly painful couple of hours due entirely to my, um, gut. (I should really have recorded the sounds emanating from my stomach; properly amplified, they would scare away prowlers.)
What's going on, I wonder?
First, I made a salad from romaine hearts, straw mushrooms, and pink salmon out of a can (wild-caught, says the label). I had some of it and put the rest in the fridge in a storage container for tomorrow and Sunday.
Later, I made a 12-bean soup, substituting a vegetable bouillon for the package of "ham flavored" spice that came with the beans. I also added a handful of the mushrooms dried during last fall's season. The end result isn't very rich in flavor (it could be the beans are overpowering the mushrooms, or that the mushrooms themselves aren't very flavorful), but it's not bad. Most of it, too, is in the fridge.
Finally, I spied an interesting - and simple - recipe in Galina's health newsletter (which I was reading to learn something about Candida albicans that didn't involve sending the publisher money). In an article promoting the benefits of naturally fermented products, there was a recipe that basically consists of mixing 5 lb of chopped cabbage with 3 tbs of sea salt, tamping them into a container, and then putting a weighted plate on top of the mixture to keep it beneath the level of the brine that is created when the salt sucks the water out of the cabbage.
I was skeptical that such a seemingly small quantity of salt would do the trick, or that there was enough water in cabbage leaves to create enough liquid to immerse the nascent kraut, but as I covered the assembly with cloth a few minutes ago, the brine had just about covered the mixture, so I guess I learned something. In any event, this dish will be ready to eat in "between 1 and 4 weeks" (and I'm too tired to go back and read the recipe again to see if some milestone occurs during that period to indicate the kraut is ready).
Cheers...
