5 posts tagged “counter project”
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking that cheese and noodles are good.
Call squant on the way home. Ask him to make the macaroni and cheese. When he asks what to do, tell him this:
Boil until done:
- about a small shoebox's worth of organic bulk macaroni from the hippie grocery.
When done, drain, then put back in pot. Add:
- 1 pint microwaved milk (just make it hot, don't boil.)
- 1 1/2 blocks of monterey jack cheese.
- Some garlic.
- Whatever other spices you want.
Whack with a hammer until crumby and then sprinkle over the top
- 1 box (6oz) safeway cornbread stuffing mix - microwaveable
- The rest of that half block and cheese you have left.
When you get home about an hour later, check the oven. Damn, that smells good. Not quite done yet, though. You want to cornbread crumbs to be toasty brown. Let it bake about 10-15 more minutes.
The Verdict
Squant is a very good cook - unlike me, he doesn't seem to have this urge to add everything to every recipe. Therefore, when he was going for "Whatever other spices he likes" he added some paprika. Not paprika, cayenne, kelp, powdered ginger, and sage, but just paprika.
Cheese and macaroni and cheese is not one
of those dishes where things get uggy after a few days, so it keeps
well. The fact that squant made an uberload of it has not been a
problem. Mac n cheese is a simple dish with simple tastes. Cheese and macaroni and cheese is similar but with more cheese. It is also very good - we've been eating it for lunch and dinner since monday and we still look forward to mealtimes.
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking it was late, I hadn't eaten all day, and squant mentioned we had a couple of cans of black beans. Need food that basically makes itself.
Recipe
Cook in rice cooker:
- 1 1/2 c toasted quinoa
- 3 c water
- 2 tbsp corn oil
Mix together in 9 x 12 baking dish
- 1 triangle wedge of pepper jack cheese, grated
- 2 cans black beans, drained
- 1 medium sized tub salsa fresca
- Cooked quinoa from above
Serve in a bowl with corn (or in my case soy flax seed cause I like em') chips as silverware. Put 1/2 avacado on each and a few dollops of good, hot salsa.
The Verdict
squant "I was really worried when it came out of the oven that the beans and cheese and salsa would be overwhelmed by the quinoa but this is freaking delicious."
And it was. Freaking delicious. Also, cheap mccheaperson.
What Was I thinking?
Because of the counter project, a quart container full of beige powder
labeled "Falafel" sits on the counter. Well, if it's on the counter,
we have to eat it then, don't we? Besides, falafel is one of squant's
favorite foods.
So I text him from work to ask him to mix it with some water so it has
a chance to stand, and also to mix some mint in with some yogurt,
because that seems kind of appropriate. Because you know, I've never
made falafel before.
Sometimes I forget that Squant has a whole year of gribblet's cooking under his belt, and he's a pretty sharp monkey. So when half an hour later he comes back and says "It's very gloopy. It's more like hummous than falafel mix. I don't think this is right", I don't think "Something is wrong here", I thought "My sweetheart still gets flustered by the kitchen, that's so cute."
"Add falafel powder" I text back, and go back to my trying to wrap up a hundred different things at work.
I get home, and find a bowl of beige gloop about the consistency of a good milkshake on the counter. squant glowers at it while I mix the rest of the powder in. "This is not right." He keeps saying. I am beginning to have misgivings also, but if there's one thing I know about cooking, if you're making something for the very first time and it seems to be going off the rails, trying to correct after things have gone wrong will just depress you. Best to just carry on more or less towards where you think that barn is.
Recipe
Mix together:
- 1 quart beige "falafel" powder
- About yay much water
Also mix together:
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- 8 tiny little pita breads
- 1 avacado
- 1 romaine heart, lengthwise
Take the beige goop and make it into eight patties. Ignore squant's suspicuous muttering. Decide to occupy him by asking him to fill the 8 tiny little cut pita breads with a tablespoon of humous, an eighth of an avacado, and some onion.
Beige goop does not make very good patties. By this point, Squant will be declaring that the powder is hummous mix and all it needs is some garbanzo beans and oil and it will be great hummous. Ignore him; you've tasted it, and that stuff is definitely not hummous. It's not selling itself much as falafel either, but clearly - not hummous.Put about 1/4 inch of olive oil in the bottom of a pan. Heat on medium heat until sizzling, then gently place the patties in the oil. Around this time squant will declare that he's not putting onions in the 8 tiny little pitas. Your feeling is, at this point it hardly matters. Decide that he'll be better occupied with something a little more challenging. Take the one Romaine heart out of the fridge, slice it lengthwise, place each half on a plate. Instruct him to "dress" the romaine heart.
Carefully turn the (ok, yes, it's probably hummous. But not good hummous. Some kind of budget hippie hummous or something. How it got into your cupboard labeled "falafel" is a total mystery) hummmous balls. Carefully, because the little fuckers want to fall apart.
Note that squant seems to be making pretty good headway against the romaine halves. He's squeezed half a lemon over each, and sprinkled some sea salt. A dollop of good olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar, and they are looking kind of fancy and stuff. Be impressed with his manly ropmaine heart mastery as you prepare to slip the fried hummous balls into the tiny little pita halves.
Serve with a small puddle of humous, drizzled with a little bit of the good olive oil and some Tapatio. Store the rest of the beige goop in the fridge for the next time. While eating, point out those attributes that make the balls look more like falafel than hummous.
The Verdict
As we are finishing up the meal...
Squant "That container in the fridge..."
Me "You're not wasting any time, are you?"
Squant "Sorry."
Squant "My belly is making sounds."
Me "Gurgling, like?"
Squant "More like clanging and whirring and a warning sort of beeping."
Me "So you're saying... you didn't really like the fried hummous balls."
Squant "Sorry. I don't mean to harp."
Otherwise known as oatmeal raisin flaxseed macadamia nut coconut cookies.
What Was I thinking?
I was thinking the counter project had just started, we had a four day weekend ahead of us, and there were a number of recipes on the interweb which alluded to the possibility of some delicious cookies.
Recipe
In one bowl mix:
- 1 c flour
- 1 c flax meal
- 1 c shredded coconut
- 1 c macadamia nuts
- 2 c oatmeal (1/2 steel cut irish style, 1/2 toasted regular flattish oats)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
In another bowl cream together
- 1 c brown suga'
- 1 c wht suga'
- 1 c vegan buttery spread stuff
Then beat into the sugar mix:
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
Mix the two bowls together and add:
- 1/2 c raisins
Drop the cookies (about 2 tbsp worth) about 1 inch apart on oiled cookie sheets. Try not to eat too much of th raw dough. It's good, but it's better cooked. Cook about 10 minutes. Check, then cook for another 15 minutes. Man, those suckers smell good. Notice Squant staking around the kitchen. Squant wants cookies.
Take the cookies out of the oven. They are HOT. Try not to burn fingers or tongue attempting to eat cookies before they have cooled.Wait five minutes. Use a very stiff spatula to scrape the suckers off the sheet. They're stuck. But oh, so freaking delicious. Stop at 4 with a congratulations to yourself that you've done well. Feed the same number to squant.
The Verdict
He likes them.
These cookies will not last nearly as long as 24 giant cookies should last two people. At my house, we had one with each meal. Sometimes after dinner we'd have two.
The good news is they are full of fiber.
They could probably stand to have the butter spread stuff halved, or even quartered. Flax meal adds a lot of oil, so they were slightly more greasy than necessary.
In which gribblet and squant resolve to be completionists. They clean out the cupboards and place everything on the counter that hasn't been touched in 6 months.
The rule is: each meal must include something off the counter until the counter is clean.
What's on the counter:
- 2 c Yellow And Green split peas (Woulda been more but some got away)
- 3 c Shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 c macadamia nuts
- 3 Cups Whole ground flaxseed meal
16 RyVita Light rye whole gran crisp breads2 13/5 oz cans trader joes light organic cocnut milk - 15% less fat than regular cocnut milk- 30 Raisins - big fruity ones, too.
1 lb. Organic quinoa- 1 box (6oz) safeway cornbread stffing mix - microwaveable
8 oz (by weight) Rice stik pasta15 oz can low fat split pea soup20 oz pineaple chunks in unsweetened pineapple juice- 2/3 of a bottle blue corn atole (gruel)
Shitload of "falafel"- One betty crocker pie crust
- Some popcorn, about one movie night's worth for two people.
Hang on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
