Necessary Chocolate

Read for fun: eat with a frozen treat

Remember that summer reading program? The one I haven't mentioned for weeks? I do. And I'm determined to have some amazing adventures with books over the next few weeks.

My last few frantic summer reading moments kicked off last night when the church book club came to my house and shared the classic novels that they'd read this summer (this group reads within themes, rather than choosing one book). Wow. These women. We discussed Oh Pioneers; Dracula; Oliver Twist; A Prayer for Owen Meany; Jane Eyre; Daddy Long Legs; Peter Pan; Love in the Time of Cholera; and (most impressive of all) Anna Karenina.

I love these sorts of occasions. The times when I can use the prettiest breakable dishes that I own.

 

I made NYT Chocolate Chip cookies, and, amazingly enough, something healthiesh:

 

Berry smoothies, frozen and chopped up. Here's my version:

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup frozen strawberries

1-1/2 cups skim milk

1 carton lowfat yogurt (I use any flavor that seems to work)

1 teaspoon powdered lemonade mix

Whir it up until it's smooth and store it in the freezer. To serve, just unthaw it a little, chop it up with a knife, and scoop it into pretty glasses. Or plastic cups, depending on your audience.

P.S. In case you're wondering - I recommended Daddy Long Legs. It's summer, after all. No Tolstoy for me.

P.P.S. Oh, okay. I also recommended Anthony Trollope's The Warden. No surprises there.

Tomato soup & english muffins

Thanks, everyone, who's playing Read for Fun with me! I currently have twelve books out of the library. I really need to make my library bag before I lose the books.

Before I post my most recent foray into cupcake-making, I need to prove that I can, in fact, make things without sugar.

See? Tomato soup, made from scratch, using yet another recipe from How to Eat Supper. And that there's a homemade sourdough english muffin with toasted cheese (I know, it looks like butter, but honest, it's not).

I spent most of last week on the road or at meetings, and now I'm home for a while. Two of those days were spent with internet friends, some of whom I met for the first time, and as always I was so impressed. I came home loaded with goodies from them and a cooler of goodies from Wegmans: pasta salad, watermelon, gazpacho, green beans, olives, etc. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I realized that I was starving and that I had bought nothing filling. Nothing. Hence, the muffins.

Pretty, huh? They're pretty tasty, too, even without the nooks and crannies.

New Yorkers are so nice and (on a completely different note) breakfast menus

You don't think we're nice? Yes, we are. Here's proof.

(Courtesy of the Kiki Strike blog, my source for pure wackiness.)

The seminary class is meeting at my house for breakfast tomorrow.I haven't decided on the final menu yet. It could be sausage/potato casserole and muffins and fruit

OR

 

it could be hot apple crisp. With ice cream. My idea of a perfect breakfast food (if I don't eat the apple part).

 

Or maybe Cap'n Crunch, Pop-Tarts, and Tang. For those who live dangerously.

I sent an email with the choices to the students. We'll see what the response is, and what kind of mood I'm in when I go grocery shopping tonight.

Sourdough bread

It's been so cold (until recently) that I've been craving hot, homemade bread. So now, on top of teaching seminary and working full time, I'm supposed to feed sourdough starter once a week. I do have a very cool crock to store it in.

For my first foray, I decided to make a sourdough version of the no-knead bread that's all over blogdom. You just combine the starter, water, flour, and salt, and let it sit for 12-18 hours until it has doubled.

Then form a loose ball, let it rise for another four hours, and then bake it in a dutch oven. Mine didn't raise much - I did the first raise in the oven with the light on, and that was too warm - and it's a little dense and chewy. But it tastes great. The dutch oven method produces an amazing crust.

I'll try again. Especially if the weather turns cold again!

See? Every now and then I do cook without sugar.

How to Eat Supper: lentil soup

It's a good thing my house is cold, The cold made lentil soup sound good.


I wouldn't normally consider making lentil soup. It's another unphotogenic food. But this is "Coriander-Orange-Scented-Red Lentil Soup" from "How to Eat Supper." And it is so so good. Onions, dried and fresh coriander, garlic, and orange zest all sauted together, with lentils and a chicken broth-orange juice base. Just before you eat it, you add some fresh lemon juice and more orange juice. This just might be the perfect comfort soup.

Today, the Typepad formatting works perfectly. Maybe change is good after all...

How to Eat Supper: refried beans

My heat quit working last week. That shouldn't be an issue in May, but the outside temperature and the inside temperature have averaged 53 degrees this week, and in my world that's a cold house.

When things like this happen, there are always small blessings. For instance, when there was a mouse in the kitchen, I cleaned the kitchen every night. Not a bad habit to start, whatever the reason.

This week, I've wanted to cook real food. Warm food. Hot food. And that desire coincided with buying "How to Eat Supper" and listening to the podcasts from Lynne Rosetto Kasper (from "The Splendid Table). She and her producer, Sally Swift, can make anything sound amazing. Really. I listened to the beans podcast one morning, and ran to the grocery that night so that I could make the refried beans.















I'm not sure that there is any way to make a photo of refried beans look appetizing. The macro isn't much help.
















But just imagine them bubbling hot, smelling of cinnamon, cloves, and a little jalapeno. Wow.

Just have to throw in how much I dislike the typepad interface. Anyone else having problems getting the text to be placed correctly? And it looks like I need to re-establish my photo size. Ugh. Oh, and I should add that my work schedule has been such that I couldn't meet a repairman this week or next. And I did eventually get rid of the mouse.