22 March 2011

culinary creativity

So I am not one to brag, but I am getting seriously good at this cooking thing. Well, on occasion.


I still have my fair share of mishaps and mangled recipes - say the first time I tried to bake a potato. in the microwave. without forking holes in it. or the curdled alfredo. or any number of honest mistakes.

but now it's ten years on (really, I didn't cook anything but ramen noodles and the occasional frozen dinner until my sopohmore year of college, and even then it mostly pasta bake and toast piles until I moved to Eden-burgh).

Now, at last, I feel confident in the kitchen. I know my spice rack. I can feel combinations in my throat and nose before anything hits the pan, and I've had some corking successes. Turns out, once you've got the basics in you brain, and the more I let myself invent and ad lib, the better things are turning out.

So first: my weekend decadence: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.

I won't put it in the Gastronomic hall of fame, as I didn't really do anything more than find something outstanding - but I certainly count good research and experimentation as a skill.

So Joy the Baker posted Alton Brown's best batch ages ago. While I didn't bother to melt the butter, using bread flour was inspired (but non-essential) and Joy's great cookie debate got me thinking about cookie chemistry - namely, why didn't I beat and fluff my dough in a mixer they way I would cake batter for light, fluffy perfection?

Also, her pointer on chilling the dough first was very clever. I always do for cut-outs so it's roll- able, but for drop cookies, the chilling helps them stay in shape and stand tall in that first blast of oven heat.

So anyway, essentially, I took this recipe - creamed soften butter with sugar to start, followed the directions (and used a mixer) until the flour - which eventually got too stiff for my shitty $10 bought-it-on-amazon handheld and most importantly, WAY undercooked them.

The best bit though, was adding 1/4c Hershey's cocoa powder, an extra dash of milk to cover the extra dry, and added peanut butter chips instead of chocolate.

My they were heavenly. Seriously. Like amazing.

Especially if you only bake them for ten minutes, and then bring the hot tray to sit in front of the tv (on an ovenmit) so they can finish baking gently, stay gooey and be the perfect mix of mushy melty love while you watch crappy documentaries about China.

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I won't go into such a narrative about my lunch today, but it was stellar. Turning that weird midday "oh what shall I eat" cupboard rummage into something majestic yet simple. Perfect for one.

I will put it here for your delectation.

21 March 2011

the touchscreen terror

So I have been struggling with the touchpad for a long time.

Whatever the iVention or increasingly, every other bandwagon-hopping technofirm's market-share-grabber, I just cannot abide touch screens.

Having been relatively tech savvy in my day I have been dismayed at this. Have I finally become a crochety old person? Have the youngun's passed me by with this new fangled development? Am I too old to learn? Is early adopter no longer in my vocabulary? It keeps me up nights.

I kept trying them, thinking maybe it was just teething issues. Thinking, hoping maybe you just had to grow into it.

But last week I cracked it. Well, Colin did really, but he had no idea his nonchalant observation would open the can of worms it did.

You see, as I tried to type on his iPad (with easel!), I was explaining that it was just untenable. Every single keystroke was wrong.

And then, in his nerdtastic way he said "oh, you touch type"

Which isn't really news, rare though it may be. I went to Catholic School. I had typing tests every week. There was a cloth over my hands when at the computer, and a nun behind me with a ready ruler, so I had to type without looking.

(Okay, the nun bit is a lie, but the cloth hand-fold isn't)

And back in 1989, that was a pretty big thing. That I'd grown up at a keyboard. That I knew what all the keys did. I was pretty proud of my fast little fingers (and certainly thankful of their speed when I had to transcribe interviews in college).

But now, oh now, it has let me down.

Now I am a dinosaur. No one can touch type these days (I can just hear the rachety granny voice now...). It's not a skill anyone cares about.

Most people still laze about with one index finger plucking away, no matter how many years they spend in front of the screen.

And the world of technology has cottoned on. Because people who look where their fingers are going don't care where the keys are. How far apart they are. How tall they are. If the size is changed a bit. If the rows are squashed to fit the netbook screen size. If there is no tactile difference to distinguish between the letters.

But my fingers, they learned a shape. They learned a ratio of movement. One that is consistent and useful, only so long as keyboards are a standard size.

And now, all these squishy, moving type boxes mean where I say H is could be a J or a G or even (gasp) an N.

No wonder I hate these fancy pants screens. They make me seem stupid for being the only person in the world who bothered to do it right in the first place. And now, they reward the lazy fuckers who never bothered. (it's official. I am old.)

But that's capitalism for you. Damn Apple.

18 March 2011

I am working on a short story.

The first in over a decade.

Now it comes close to finishing, I am terrified. my heart is racing.

Someone tell me it's okay. Remind me it's about the story, not the rejection I feel is inevitable.

10 March 2011

food III

my week of eating continues...


Sunday continued
(I caved and had another cupcake that night)

Monday
huge bowl of granola (plain)
apple cinnamon tea

wild garlic leaf*

turkey sandwich: 3 slices of turkey, a bit of marg and henderson's organic sesame loaf
honey roasted cashews (handful)

apple cinnamon tea
a slice of that bread, with nutella on

2 stuffed peppers

two more slices of nutella bread (I couldn't resist)

Tuesday
chicken nuggets (5)
camomile tea

a handful of granola
smoothie

1 c whole wheat penne
1/2 courgette (zucchini)
1/2 bell pepper
roasted with a bit of mozzerella

couscous bake

3 chocolate chip pancakes (for Shrove Tuesday)

Wednesday
2 scrambled eggs, slice of granary toast
peppermint tea

last stuffed pepper
griddle quesadilla

2 tacos (hard shell, soya mince, cheddar, old el paso sauce)
green beas
sweet corn

the last lonely lump of granola

Thursday

honey & walnut bread
smoothie


I'll stop here (though I am planning on lentil and bacon soup tonight, possibly with cornbread). That's pretty much a week. and I could say oh I was on my period. Or I have been really depressed about work.

But the fact of the matter is I eat sweets every day. I do. It's a hell of a habit.

I suppose I don't have caffeine or fast food - so all in all, it could be a much worse vice. And possibly I could find better ways of getting my protein in the morning than chicken nuggets, but they are convenient and require no work, so for now I suppose I'm willing to live with the fact that I eat ready made meat products every couple of days.

So there you go. How completely unremarkable, but still I enjoyed it.




*ps - eating a wild garlic leaf may sound crazy, but was very tasty. I was so surprised there was a hillside full of it this early in the year (and beneath Roslin Castle on my hike no less), I picked a juicy one and nibbled it as I walked the banks of the River Esk. I know. It sounds pretend. But it was a beautiful day - and fresh, sharp treats foraged by my own wildman skills made it extra good.

06 March 2011

food II

deary me, have fallen off the bandwagon already.

Food Week, the next installment:

Saturday
homemade granola (should definitely give you that recipe, my god do I love it)
smoothie (this time boysenberry!)

panko breaded chicken breast with basil salad con sundried tomato relish
elderflower fizz (aka apple juice, tonic and elderflower cordial. sounds snazzy.
sadly, it tasted like canned peach juice)
(also a bite of Liam's tiger prawn linguine)
in case you can't tell, Liam took me out to lunch

peppermint tea

veg stew

Sunday
chicken nuggets (5)
smoothie

picnic lunch
3 herby oatcakes
4 poppy seed crackers
lump of parmesan
3 sun dried tomatoes
granola (handful)
juice box (apple)

2 pork & bramley apple sausages (in buns)
peas
sweet corn
day at the beach today. fucking freezing, but still very sweet of him to take my bloated pms'y self to the shore for a breather from town and a picnic.

03 March 2011

food

we all know I love food. a lot. in many, many different ways.

so it's no surprise houseguests bring on a bout of change and something a little special. but it was shocking how much crap jennie and I ate last week. more sugar than i imagine either of us have had in years. and goodness did I feel it.

so, now it's time to clear out, clean up and get back on schedule.

it's funny, but until I started eating The Old Way (late night pizza, munching on ready made treats, tons of sugar) I didn't realise quite how far I'd drifted from it.

So, as an experiment, I am going to write down everything I eat for the next week. I have no idea if it'll be The Old Way, or what I suppose is The New Way, but based on the feedback our guts were giving (which was audible) I think I'll know it when I eat it.


Wednesday
chicken nuggets (5)
apple cinnamon tea

wild rice with broccoli, tomatoes, peas & bells peppers
juice box (apple)

smoothie (blackberry & cherry)

cornbread roll with lots of honey (homemade)

gnocchi with sage butter
green beans (steamed)

chocolate cupcake (half, no icing)



Thursday
cornbread roll w a tiny bit of honey
smoothie
rosebud & camomile tea

chocolate cupcake (the other half)

juice box (apple)
herby oatcakes (5)

(only now it's written down do I see what an odd list this is going to become...)


broccoli, pepper, tofu & edamame stir fry with egg noodles

a slice of raspberry victoria sponge

Friday
chicken nuggets (5)
smoothie

camomile tea

half a pink grapefruit with a bit of sugar
corn bread roll

savoury cashew & pumpkin seed mix (handful)
juice box (apple)

1 bite of the aforementioned cake.

the chick pea curry I invented tonight
with a garlic & coriander naan