Like riding a bicycle, or a horse.

I'm mixing analogies, or idioms or something. Something about not forgetting how to ride a bike and then something else about getting right back on the horse. 

I blog pretty much in "real time," meaning that I don't have a backlog of foods waiting to be posted at any given moment.  Generally speaking, I'm writing about foods I've cooked recently.  I have one older post that'll go up soonishly from before we took our little hiatus, but usually, if I'm writing about it, it's from this week or so.  Usually there are still leftovers in the fridge.

So that means that when stuff comes up, there isn't content I can just push out automatically.  I don't have stock posts.  

How to measure and convert

The thing that stresses me out in the kitchen is measuring, so I try to avoid it.  Over the winter I made my version of the conversion chart/art "(ch)art?" I saw on The Kitchn, and that helps with some of it.

But there are other measurements that I keep having to Google*.  As I mentioned when I first posted that (ch)art - and I'm going to have to trademark that word and make it my own - I often have to Google the conversion from packet of yeast to jar of yeast (it's 2.25 teaspoons).  

Here are links to some nifty online conversion tools and printables that you can tack up on the inside of your cabinet door. 

Eating Seasonally and Whipped Jello

One of these things is not like the other. 

This is something called whipped Jello.  You take Jello let it set a while, and you whip it, then you let it set longer.  It is not food.

A friend of mine asked about a statement I made about having been eating seasonally for a few years.  We do, generally, eat our produce seasonally.  That means that while I buy tofu and chicken and mustard and couscous and kidney beans year round, I only buy tomatoes when they're here.  "Here" means that someone local (within a state or two) grew them and they're ready now.  

Measuring and Stealing ideas

When I'm making dinner and writing about it, and I tell you to add a quarter cup of this or a half cup of that or 2 oz of cheese, it's because either I threw it into the bowl and then thought, "Oh, I need to figure out how much that is so I can tell people," or it's because I thought ahead and measured out the amount of stuff I wanted to use, just for the purpose of writing it down here.  Everything I make, other than bread and the few other baked goods that originate in my kitchen, is by feel or guess, or smell.  I don't measure, in real life.*


Measurement is why I'm not much into baking.  Bread seems forgiving.  Sometimes you need to add more flour, but my cakes don't turn out and I'm just not that precise.  I'm a cook, not a baker.   

Happy New Year!

Good morning.  Today is about Sodastream seltzer with whatever fruit we have on hand in it.  Also, hiding from Mummers.  

On The Road

"Diskette"

So I've been out of town, and not cooking.  MSNDG came through and photographed the goods for ya'll this week.  I couldn't tell what that one leafy thing was from the picture, and neither could she, in person, but I looked in the fridge when I got back, and it's celery.  Celery that is so leafy and green and fluffy that I just feel like I need to make chicken stock.  But ya'll've* seen me with chicken and it's not pretty, so we'll see.  


I was in DC, at a conference.  Sous Chef Brian is a big fan of monuments and statues and blisters and such, so he came along.  He went around taking pictures like this:

And I went around taking pictures of hotel carpets, like this:

"Space Invaders"

Oreo Cookies

No, this isn't a recipe for Oreo cookies, for that you can go here.  I haven't tried it, but it showed up in a quick Googlin'.

I don't care for cream filling.  I don't care what you're filling with cream, unless you're saying "cream" but meaning "cheese," I just don't care for it.

But I like Oreo cookies.  Just not the cream.   They're not food, so I don't eat many of them, and I'm not telling you to run out and eat them.  I am saying that it's pretty easy to make an Oreo cookie cream-lessly delicious.

Open cookie.  Apply business card, credit card or butterknife. I prefer a business card.  Discard cream filling.  Dunk.

We'll be back with our regularly scheduled programming pretty soon. 

I'm an ass

Hi there.

It's not like I had anything thrilling to tell you about.   It's gross hot, and it's only early June, and no one wants to use the oven.

I actually tried - I made the two day whole wheat bread, but it rose too much and isn't bread-shaped.  One of the two loaves is usable, just made t-shirt shaped slices, but the other was too far gone, so I made two day bread crumbs and two day croutons.   

But really, other than that, recently cooking has meant busting out the melon baller or washing off some snow peas.   Because really, it's hot.

My CSA starts tomorrow.  I'm super-excited.  The first week is "farmer's choice," like a regular CSA, but after that we'll be choosing our own veg.  So I have no idea what's coming, which made shopping this weekend really interesting.  "No leafy greens, I bet we'll be overwhelmed with them."  "Ok, enough leafy greens to last us to Tuesday, but that's it."  Will there be cauliflower?  Will there be tomatoes?  But seriously, it's hot, so our menu for the week is like pasta salad and salad salad.

My plan is to get what I get tomorrow, tell ya'll about it and see if I get some awesome suggestions for what to do with it.  You'll help, right?  Then I'll post a few of those things throughout the week.

That's the plan, at least, but as above, I'm as ass.  Check out my recent Google search results.

Yeah.  At least it wasn't some once in a lifetime vacation photos.  It was asparagus. 

I don't have a paperclip, so I tried a leg from a binder clip with no success.  I'll borrow one from work today.  Thinking I was smart, the first thing I did was eject the CD drive, and I think I heard the computer swallow the SD card at that point.  

Slick design, Steve (or Jony Ive, or whoever) but there's only like 1/3 inch gap between the SD hole and the CD hole, and from the looks of the Googling, lots of folks do this.

So I'll post pictures and reasonable posts as soon as this is resolved, or start putting up iPhone photos again. (Eew).

Saturday's Mouse - from April 2007

Saturday night, or about 1am Sunday, I'm asleep. Brian had been saying he couldn't sleep and seemed tense or whatever, so he's on edge, but I'm very much asleep. I wake up to Brian scolding the cat -- hardcore, just screaming at her. I assume she's tearing up the dustruffle again, and try to sleep. Brian will not shut up with the yelling so I ask whats going on, and the cat has a live mouse in her mouth, in our bedroom. IN OUR BEDROOM. A very angular, big eared, tiny, brown, jumping mouse. I barely remember what happened next, but I'm certain Brian would describe my behavior as less than helpful. There was screaming.

We've had about one mouse per year in this house, and it wouldn't be a big deal except that we have a VICIOUS blind cat and a very troublesome Maine Coon. I don't want to step in mouse guts, and I sure as hell don't want one in my bed. This was the 4th time she's physically brought it to us, alive.

Finally I locked the cat up (I do remember suggesting I hide in the guestroom with her) (we don't lock up William. While it would be devestating for a mouse, if the mouse found its way to Will's mouth, the mouse would really have to do that on its own, to find the cat and physically launch itself into his mouth, so its not much a concern. My blind cat is a terrible hunter.) and we pulled these sheets of particleboard out of the closet, created blockades, and trapped the mouse. I'm simplifying, this was an hour and the screaming continued. Brian swore up and down that the mouse was in the shoebox, and took it across the street to a patch of grass. He did not see the mouse exit the box. He now believes the mouse did not exit the box, as it was never in the box. We let Sabrina out to verify that the mouse was gone. She did an inspection and we both thought she gave us the 'all clear'.

So about 9pm Sunday we're finishing dinner and I look over my shoulder from the couch (because we're classless, and thats where we had dinner) and theres Sabrina with a toy mouse and wild eyes. I say "Brian, don't freak out, Sabrina has a TOY mouse, but she's acting a little weird." Brian looks, drops his plate and tells me its real. It is. Its a fat, soft, pretty damn cute grey mouse white belly. It is NOT yesterday's mouse. So I pick her up and she drops it, and I guess she's used to this now beause she let me lock her in the guestroom. We chase it into the kitchen where it vanishes. VANISHES. I watched it go under the desk the microwave is on, and then it was gone. We were really running around, just after eating, and my heart was racing, Brian was feeling sick and we couldn't find any sign of mouse.

We took a break, and then I put Sabrina's leash on her and took her downstairs to search. She did a thorough survey and was sniffing under the desk where the mouse had darted. Brian starts pulling things out from under there...giant cannister for norwegian cookies, toaster oven, serious 'on-vacation' cat feeder and she watches him pull out the feeder and put it aside. First assumption was that she was interested in her own food dish, but no...she looked at Brian and he says she said "Hey, did anybody check that?" He picks it up and way in the top (its like a cannister with a narrow bowl on the bottom) is a little grey mouse. Brian takes it across the street and frees it, Sabrina relaxes.

11:00 we're turning off lights and setting the coffeemaker for the morning. Sabrina comes running down the stairs, brown mouse (saturday's mouse?) in her mouth. I put her in our bedroom (she's very good at "Drop IT!" now) since Brian was inisting that the mouse came from the guest room, because thats where Sabrina spent a lot of the day. We corraled the mouse under the dresser that acts as a sideboard in the dining room, effectively trapping it under the largest and most unweildy piece of furniture on the ground floor, and stared at it for a while. Finally it freaked out and climbed a metal folding chair that was resting aganist the dresser. Once it was at shoulder height I scooped it into a box and ran it across the street.

We let Sabrina out and watched her check the house (she checked the toilet throroughly, touching the water to make sure) and when she calmed down, I calmed down. Brian is calling maintenance today to check for holes.