Turkey Meatball Madness

Normally not a fan of meatballs, but I do enjoy a very portable shape to my protein. Poached chicken slices have been my go-to up until this point. Now I have discovered baked turkey meatballs made with shredded veggies and breadcrumbs (for structural integrity - I found this out by not having any breadcrumbs the first time around). Recipes online abound, in many permutations. So far, my recipe involves diced crimini mushrooms, chopped parsley, garlic, and shredded zucchini/carrot. And an eggwhite - buying eggwhites in a carton for use in low cholesterol omelets has proved a very useful thing to have in the fridge. So yeah, these meatballs. I see that I could use coarsely chopped dry bread instead of pulverized bread crumbs, too. Very tasty and wickedly easy. Quick. Fun to squish up the mixture with my hands, too. I'm thrilled to have another easy, tasty, low-fat protein source. Gobble gobble.

Ketchup Couverture

What happens when you combine ketchup with unflavored cocoa-butter? Omg, ketchup-dipped cold fried chicken bonbons. I must try it. Even though I think ketchup is The Worst Condiment. Maybe I'll wait until they make mustard couverture.

Ketchup Couverture, which I discovered first on Neatorama.

Salad Orgasm 2010

Haven't eaten a salad in a long damn time. Fond of stews and poached things and potatoes and collards, I guess. Eggs. But a person needs some crisp greens and crunchy radishes/cucumbers/red cabbage, fo sho. I had a serious, serious craving. All this heavy winter food, I need a SALAD.

So I bought some stuff and made one: bib lettuce, baby spinach, fresh radishes, English cuke, red cabbage, red bell pepper. Homemade vinaigrette made of blood orange juice, maple syrup, mustard, basil, olive oil, garlic. Ate this delicious salad with some sourdough slices, and a zucchini/potato/garlic pattie made with egg and a little flour as a binder. Melted muenster on top of that. Griddled with Pam spray.

A. Mazing. Best meal I've eaten in a long time, and my jaws are actually tired from crunching up all that fresh crispy roughage. Salad dinner rocks.

Demoralized by Oatmeal

So I made this breakfast instead. Extra large foached eggs on wholegrain toast, with mango and kiwi. YESsssssss. Kiwis at 3 for a $1 are not a bargain, being very...woody when eaten. However, I waited a week for the 2 for a $1 mangoes to ripen, and finally hit the jackpot with the second one. SUPER. I am craving protein. Time again for beef stew, I think.

Food Failure Leads to Discovery

Well, this morning I had a Fail. I have a container full of oversweetened sweet potato puree. It may not be too sweet for most people, but I'm on a low-refined-sugar kick, and also I'm sick of eating sweet food. I am so low on protein, dammit, I am CRAVING a big greasy turkey burger with cheese. RIGHT NOW. Omg. I am not even a burger person, mind you.

Anyway, the sweet 'tatoes are good, but I'm sick of sweet. Literally, I'm queasy. Trying to convert the taters into something more appetizing, I added milk and made them into a pudding/milkshake. That was fine for several spoonfuls. Then I was all, bleh. So this morning I turned the remainder into pancake batter, by adding an egg, flour, and baking soda. The pancakes were very beautiful to behold on the griddle, golden brown, but...I didn't quite add enough flour, and the insides were a little pasty. They were tasty enough, despite the texture problem.

After eating six palm-sized pancakes, I again felt queasy. Thought I might lose them, in fact - went on a walk around the pond to digest and stroll with Aster (still recovering from her near-mauling by a larger dog named - appropriately - Tigerlily). Digested the pancakes, but it took me about an hour of perambulation, fresh cold air, and a pleasantly distracting phone conversation with someone cute (!!).

So here I am, sick of sweetness. The sweet tater puree was so good for the first day, and it reminded me of a wonderful dinner I once had involving pork tenderloin, haricots verts, and some kind of demiglace...all over sweet potato puree. Maybe my mistake was over-sweetening, maybe they are plenty sweet enough on their own?! Damn you, American cuisine. With your marshmallows and your brown sugar bloating the sweet potatoes of my imagination.

Looking up sweet potato dessert manifestations - yes, I considered pie - I found a Cantonese "warm dessert soup" tangent. One possible soup is sweet potato and ginger and sugar, with pandan leaf.

I have only had one pandan-flavored confection, at Vosges in Soho: a Pandan leaf truffle! It was outrageously delicious, tasting something like hazelnuts and vanilla. So I feel very postively about Pandan leaf.

So I surfed around for it, and apparently there is a South-East Asian dessert specialty called Pandan Chiffon cake. And I really want a slice. Just one thick, moist, bright green slice of sublimity.

Except that I don't really, because I'm SICK OF SWEET. UGH.

Someone get me a medium-rare filet mignon with a side of fiddleheads and forest mushrooms in a red wine demiglace, stat. Multigrain breadsticks on the side, with bleu cheese dip. Yes.

Early American Hoe-Cake or Johnny Cake

Thought I'd try it out, even though I don't have a hoe blade to bake it on. Was reading about hoe-cake in this book called Massachusetts Curiosities...had an anecdote about johnny cake or shawnee cake being fundamental to the survival of the first colonists at Plymouth. Interesting. All that hard Indian corn they stole, what did they use it for? Basically unleavened cornmeal batter cooked on a greased griddle. I used spray Pam, which was not very Colonial of me.

Anyway, pretty good. I like the slight crunch of cornmeal anything, including pancakes. Blueberry johnny cakes would be super. I'll do that next time. Makes a novel breakfast with a glass of plain kefir and some maple syrup. But now I have this urge to go eat some fruits and vegetables. I'm sure the colonists would have preferred some raspberries or venison or sorrel, too. Ah well. Zucchini potato fritters next, since the weather is so shitty for running.

But not for weights. Hurrah.

Birthday Gift: Fabulous Built NY Lunchbag!!!

Lit from behind by the divine light of Super Giftdom. Insulating and attractive, with interior pocket for packets of tea, salt and pepper, and a small spoon/spork...hurray!