Sunday Breakfast, with Pics!

Yesterday I went to the ghetto Stop & Shop, looking for cheap produce, reduced produce, sales on ice cream, and reduced dog biscuits. I didn't find the reduced produce - even though I called to ask when they put it out, so I think my timing was wrong - but I did find ENORMOUS bundles of collard greens in excellent condition. For el cheapo. So I bought two enormous bundles - the total for both was about $3.00, which is less than I pay for five organic collard leaves at the Co-op. I am swimming in pretty collards.

Other acquisitions were 14 ounces of blackberries on sale - yum! Also, 2 champagne mangoes because they are super. (A woman shouldered up to me while I was looking at the mangoes, and asked me what they were, how to tell if they were ripe, what the big deal was...I was only too happy to oblige! Would be fun to a fruit-and-vegetable reference librarian, carrying my Produce Field Guide in my apron.) Bought inexpensive sliced white mushrooms, some sweet potatoes, small container of chocolate soy milk... Found some discounted Scotch tape and safety envelopes, sure. Didn't find discounted dog chewies or biscuits, but did procure a reasonably priced 5-pack of ground and bacon-flavored rawhide wrapped in a regular rawhide stick: a fine chew for Aster, who has been chew-less for about a week. Bought some shredded mozzarella on a tiny sale.

The ice cream sale turned out to be wild: 2 Breyers for $6.00, any flavor! No low-fat mint chip, must to my consternation. Ended up with low-fat vanilla and rocky road, plus some fancy diet root beer in a glass bottle. Still on my root beer float kick.

So, didn't end up spending that much money, and found lots of items for eating in the coming week. Will have to get some eggs, pears, and TANGELOS at the Co-op. Possibly pineapple. Since my phlegm-war, I have been avoiding milk and other dairy. (Ice cream is dairy, but... I obviously can't live without it.) Thus more eggs and home-fries for breakfast, less cereal or oatmeal. Tasty! But ultimately I must go back to low-fat breakfast during the week, followed by tasty unctuous weekend breakie.

Today's tastiness was the last of my lacinato kale, potatoes, mushrooms, all sauteed in garlic oil and topped with a foached egg. Accompanied by blackberries, and a small glass of chocolate soy milk. Pictured above.

My Fave Breakfast

Well, it's my favorite breakfast lately. Potatoes, Tuscan kale, and a foached egg! Maybe a little cheese on top. Dash of cayenne, a little salt. Amazing. Again I have snarfed it all down before taking a picture. But perhaps tomorrow - a picture is a good excuse to eat it again.

I slice up a baked potato and throw it into the frying pan with a little olive oil, salt, cayenne. Cook it until it's a little crispy on the outside. Put the already-steamed kale on top, mix it up a little to warm the kale without damaging it or overcooking it. Slide it hot onto a waiting plate, sprinkle just a teensy bit of shredded mozzarella. Then I use the still-hot pan to foach an egg. Egg sits happily on top of potatoes and kale, looks very pretty and appetizing. Multiple exciting textures and lots of protein and cooked-greens tastiness.

Hmm, and apparently Eating Well has a recipe for Kale & Potato Hash - similar concept, though they are all fancy and include scallops. I mean: shallots!

I could eat another plate of potato/kale/egg. But I'm planning on running a little later, so must go easy. Perhaps to the Cemetery today, for novelty.

Also enjoying some herbal Tulsi tea, the Licorice Spice flavor. I needed something to soothe my throat during those rough-and-gravelly moments. And this tea was on sale. The main ingredient is Holy Basil, along with ginger, cardamom, licorice, etc. It's very tasty. Doesn't require milk or sweetener to be appealing. Smells very pleasant and perfumes any area in which it brews. I like it.

Tulsi Licorice Spice tea, etc.

Dinner and a Root Beer Float

Well, after five days of coughing my lungs up and sneezing my brains out, I LIVE. Yes, I've foiled this season's rhinovirus yet again. (I've also used www.flufacts.com to figure out the difference between the flu and a cold!) My sinuses are still somewhat raw, but otherwise I am nearly back to normal. Today I went grocery shopping and purchased food for the week, and for my dinner tonight.

Also, I must gleefully note that I checked my receipt as I left, and found $4.50 worth of error! Reclaiming my money was a small but sweet victory. Plus they're so nice at the Co-op, it was no problem whatsoever. I'm encouraged to always check my receipt as I'm leaving the store - hooray for viral habits.

So, my cooking went as follows:

- baked four potatoes in oven
- steamed collards and kale
- prepared Kashi multi-grain pilaf in the rice cooker
- sauteed chicken tenders - an impulse purchase while queuing up at register - in cayenne, poultry seasoning, and olive oil.

My dinner was shredded chicken on top of collards and some Kashi pilaf, with a base of black beans from last week. Quite satisfying and uber-high in protein, but a little too salty. Even for me. Culprits were the canned black beans with their included bacon flavoring, I think.

While at the store, I purchased some diet root beer - which I thought would go nicely with my 1/2 fat double-churned vanilla ice cream. And I was hoping to create a satisfying low-fat dessert for myself. So far, success! Diet root beer float is scrump.

Note: The float is a little too tasty. I am having a second serving. Defeats purpose of diet float? Hmm.

Note: Third float of the day. Clearly I should never buy ice cream in large quantities. Or root beer. However, my eructations are pleasantly herbal.

Jackson Square Stop n' Shop

Saturday was fairly crowded, as expected. I did not see any reduced produce,which was sad. What was left out was wilted, but I did find some nice collards. Picked up exotic things that I can't find at the Co-op, like Champagne mangoes, canned bamboo shoots, and curry paste. Picked up red pears at a fair price. Bought some lemon creme sandwich cookies, and a container of Breyer's low-fat double-churned magnificence. Should have bought two, maybe I will next time. Ambrosia.

So now I am making red curry with my acquisitions. Mushrooms, bamboo shoots, broccoli, curry paste, a little sugar, coconut milk. I'm baking the tofu cubes, smeared first with a little curry paste for flavor. Hopefully they will dehydrate and brown a little, like last time. Then I will combine tofu and curry coconut mixture over short-grain brown rice. Hurrah. No picture, since again I have made glop. Now it's pink glop.

Jackson is going to be my primary access point for...low-fat ice cream. Without reduced produce at Jackson, I might as well just go to Hi-Lo and the Co-op. But the ice cream! Yes. Also, there was a sale bin at which I picked up some random but useful things, like a dented can of black beans and marked-down dog treats. Nothing to sneeze at.

I bought red curry paste this time, thinking it would spicier than green curry paste. WRONG. Red curry is mild. I have added some cayenne. Now I am just excited because of the color.

Calzones and Bleeding Calves

Wipe all Biblical imagery from your mind. After an aquarium jaunt, I was walking through bustling Haymarket during the selling of extremely well-priced fruits, veggies, and fish. I was specifically walking through the fish section when a woman carrying a bulging shopping bag hurried past me. Her shopping bag jostled my leg, at which time I felt a stabbing pain. I looked down, saw that my jeans were apparently un-punctured, said a little "Ow" to myself, and kept walking.

Ten minutes later, I was standing in front of a restaurant reading the window menu. And I felt something dripping down my leg. Looking down, I saw red spots soaking through my jeans. Without rolling up my jeans in public, I felt around and then looked at my fingers - quite bloody!

Once safely in the restaurant with food ordered, I fled to the restroom. Rolled up my pant leg. Was amazed to see two puncture wounds and a mostly-dry cascade of blood soaking into my sock.

My only question is, WHAT WAS IN THE FUCKING SHOPPING BAG. Was it knives? Skewers? Sharp pineapple tops? Fish with spiky fins?! WHAT WAS IT. OH GOD, WHAT WAS IT.

The cuts seem to be healing - they are barely even painful now. It's the curiosity that bothers me most.

My spinach calzone was minimalist and perfect. I should have taken a picture, but dammit, I forgot. Not even expensive. Huge, too big for the dinner plate it was served upon. All crusty on the outside, gooey on the inside, with beautiful fresh spinach. Basically a giant spinach-cheese pizza pocket, with marinara on the side for dipping. The remaining half will be a fine lunch tomorrow.

Also I had a decaf cappuccino. You have no idea how lame I felt ordering a decaf cappuccino! But I had no complaints; they even sprinkled some ground chocolate on top.

All I Cook is Glop

So, instead of roasting veggies or making soup this week, I thought I'd make some green curry with veggies and tofu. Easy enough, I have tofu, I could buy bamboo shoots and green curry paste, make some rice...I bought some shitake mushrooms, a tiny eggplant, some snow peas. I was going all out. And then I realized that the Co-op no longer carries green curry paste or bamboo shoots: their "ethnic" section has been reduced to peanut sauce and soy sauce sauce, basically. LAMEST of the lame.

So I bought some short-grain brown rice and went home. I stir-fried the eggplant and mushrooms with garlic, and a little water to prevent burning. The eggplant became tender as I'd hoped, but then I kept on cooking and it became...a mush. Tasty, but a mush. Into this I added soy sauce, thick slabs of zucchini, red chili sauce. I oiled up a cookie sheet and threw some chili-sauce-rubbed tofu "frites" on that sucker, then baked it for 30 minutes at 375°, and the results were to-frites with a chewy, golden brown thing happening. Very tasty with chili sauce treatment! These I added to my eggplant/veggie glop. And because the eggplant hadn't already soaked up enough oil, I made a thin peanut-sauce replacement for my missing green curry paste. Mixed it all up, ate it over brown rice. It's greasy, but tasty. Though I am a bit frustrated with eating more glop for dinner.

Next week I'll have another attempt at making food with greater structural integrity. (Lentils and mushrooms and spinach stuffed into a phyllo pie sound really good right now.)

Flavor Of The Week

Online custom candymaker Lollyphile has put out their new flavor. Yep, so far they've got maple-bacon, wasabi-ginger, and absinthe. Their new flavor is...

Bourbon. Plus a little sugar. Just straight up bourbon on a stick - it's genius. The site doesn't tell me what kind of bourbon, but heck. It's still bourbon on a stick.

Lollyphile is a smaller part of Candyphile, a company that will send you regional candy favorites - like the Idaho Spud bar - every month. Rare candy of the month club. Maybe they should team up with Steve Almond, the guy who wrote Candy Freak? That's the only other place I've read about the Idaho Spud, in fact.

Hen o' the Woods

What a great name for a restaurant, and especially a restaurant that features local produce and meats, organic stuff, and wild foods like - wait for it - hen of the wood mushrooms. I forget where I read about this place, but it was probably in Gourmet or Bon Appetit or something like that. But I love the name, and the article I read recommended the titular tartine.

Hah! Titular. Alright then.

Here's a link to Hen Of The Wood, which is no doubt an adorable restaurant in adorable Vermont. Maybe I'll get to go sometime, for a special occasion or something. Ooo, I see they have an Amtrak station nearby. Yes! When I'm married to k.d. lang, I'm sure we'll be able to afford a private sleeper car going through Waterbury.

Six Degrees of Grilled Cheese

Reduced-price sourdough boule at Co-op. Muenster cheese. Some of that sketchy margarine from the back of the fridge. Voila! Grilled cheese sandwiches, one of which I will take for provisions - with orange segments - to the museum tomorrow. Hooray! Muenster melts extremely well, I might add. Could have used a tomato in there, but can't have everything. Will take a pic next time.

Also, I found a TastingTable article pertaining to "sandwich scene-stealers" - ways to perk up your sandwich. The first method was using pickled fruit in concert with something rich, fatty, or meaty. The pickled figs sound particularly good to me. Like maybe on grilled cheese, omg.

The other sandwich supplement was bacon jam. Yes, bacon jam - simmered down into something spreadable including balsamic vinegar and onions. Perhaps the opposite of pickled figs. The author of the article recommends it on french toast, elvis peanut-butter-banana sandwiches, or even grilled cheese grilled cheese grilled cheese.

New Food Blog, Cute Teapot

How have I missed the lovely food/travel blog, The Food Section? Who knows, but I've got it now. Actually I found it via subscribing TastingTable, an adorable quick-read email mini-mag about good food and drink. I am liking it so far. It is bite-size, formatting is no problem in my email, and I'm always glad I took the minute to read the article. Good stuff - here's a link to TastingTable, if you like - they have a No Spamming policy, too.

So The Food Section's article for today is about a cute teapot designed to brew your teabags...and then it has a cunning string holder, and a tilted interior shelf to drain and hold your teabag. You know, when you're done steeping and don't want your tea to get bitter. Because you're a tea freak who loves buying quality tea in teabags. Okay, I'm sure you can get quality tea in teabags, but I've read that teabag-tea is mostly the "shake", the broken-up little leaves and twigs. Whereas if you get the expensive loose tea, you're buying whole leaves and buds - fancier tea, true old-school tea.

Quick, somebody make a teabag joke.

A few days ago, I remembered that I had squirreled away plastic bags of Margaret's Hope 2nd Flush darjeeling whole-leaf tea, and also some fancy estate Assam whole-leaf tea. Though it may be a little old at this point, the tea is holding up well in its low moisture-environment. And it's tasty. I'm glad to finally use the unbleached disposable tea bags that the momster sent me for a holiday past. Yep. I'm rambling. I like tea. And I'm cutting down to one regular cup a day, since - WHO KNEW - even small amounts of caffeine contribute greatly to anxiety!

So now I can drink half my cup in the morning, and half my cup in the afternoon. And then stick to herbal tea, like excellent Yogi Tea (Rooibos) Redbush Chai! Yep.

Cinnamon Popovers, Foached Egg

Made cinnamon popovers last night for something to do. Milk, eggs, flour, a little sugar. Hot oven, pre-heated muffin tins. Tasty, especially with some powdered sugar - not unlike a breadier, puffier version of french toast. (French toast on earth - not in Hell.) I would like to try a savoury version of the same recipe, with chives or cheese or something.

Today's after-snowshoeing snack is a thick slice of rye slathered with parsley-mushroom-hazelnut paté, a dab of chive cream cheese, and a delicately foached egg.

My snack rawks.

Foached: an egg that is fried on one side, and poached on the other. A little water in the lid of the pan to finish it up. Makes steam. Turns the yoke a cool pink color. Requires a frying pan with a snug-fitting glass top for close egg observation. One of my fave breakfast elements. I took a picture, so we will see how appetizing a foached egg looks up close.



The answer: it looks okay! Tempting, even.

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

Some would say that you can't make a good chocolate cake - or a good anything - in the microwave.

I would have to agree with them.

The internet recipe for Cake In A Mug is below, and I don't advise following it. I improvised on the recipe - of course - by adding walnuts, chopped organic prunes, fancy cocoa, brown sugar, molasses... And still, my end product is heavy, rubbery, eggy, and sort of tastes like chocolate french toast in hell.

Tomorrow maybe I'll bake some cinnamon popovers and erase this chocolate cake from my mind. Forever.

Generic Cake-In-A-Mug Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug
Non-stick spray or butter for inside of mug

Mix and microwave for 3 minutes. Or save yourself the disappointment, and buy some of that perfectly fine No Pudge brownie mix. There's a recipe on the back of the box for single-serving microwave brownie-in-a-mug. And it's pretty good. Kicks Cake-In-A-Mug's Ass. If Cake-In-A-Mug had any ass. Which it doesn't.

Photo of mug-cake from www.ingredientchallenge.com - thank you!