Category: eating in
06/18/11 10:37 - ID#54533
Finding time to cook?
My favorite way to keep grains, beans and herbs is labeled and stored in glass jars ranging in size from gallon to 1/2 pints. These same items, if stored in boxes or plastic bags, defy functional organization...
Yeah, and you never know when you might reach for rosemary and use cilantro instead.
Remember, if you’re hungry right now, it is not the time to start washing rice. Order a pizza for dinner and while you’re waiting for it to arrive, then determine tomorrow’s main dish.
Seriously? How long does it take for this woman to cook rice? 5 hours? I have never EVER had a hungry day when it took me more than 20 minutes to put a well balanced rice-based dish together from scratch. Such ridiculously pseudo-methodical articles about planning ahead and cooking is what makes simple cooking seem tough to people and encourages junk food consumption.
Cooking is meant to be unplanned, quick, improvisational and fun when you are doing it for yourself and your loved (or even unloved) ones. That is why it's called "cooking" and not "strategizing".
Permalink: Finding_time_to_cook_.html
Words: 208
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/18/11 10:47
Category: i-tech
06/18/11 12:26 - ID#54521
Most useful Chrome extensions
The 1st extension I install (and this reflects the sad state of my internet usage) is the creatively named OWA Chrome Companion which obsessively checks my work email every few minutes and pops up a wild array of small notifications everywhere if a new message (however spammy and random) comes in - at which point I have a mild anxiety attack and scurry about trying to unsuccessfully ignore the email. It kind of defeats the whole point of the extension.
Oh well... moving on, I hate filling forms and entering passwords repetitively so these two extensions just fill them in for me:I guess if someone developed a way to hack these extensions, I could be in serious trouble...
And I hate new windows popping up all the time so this extension makes them behave and forces every single tab and page and popup into ONE window. By the end of the day, I have a million tabs, but still it a fair price to pay for ONE WINDOW!
It's kind of a vicious cycle, so I need this "Tab Glutton" to keep a check on my tabs. (Actually, I end up not managing them at all and sometimes accidentally close everything and re-opening everything again from scratch but let's not talk about it.)
Then of course, there is link grabber which helps me visualize all content on a page and the content that I am usually interested in (pdfs mainly) at a glance and grab them without having to wade through all the text.
Lastly, Readability Redux makes the web a better place:
I can get rid of most evil and awful ads and poor web designs and can read the content in peace. I just wish there were a spring green or vibrant orange background to the text...
Permalink: Most_useful_Chrome_extensions.html
Words: 419
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/19/11 09:26
Category: i-tech
06/15/11 04:29 - ID#54498
It's an error.
Permalink: It_s_an_error_.html
Words: 16
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/15/11 04:29
Category: buffalo
06/11/11 07:20 - ID#54478
Citybration balloon ride and cheerio breakfast!
If I can take one of the earliest balloon rides, I then want to dash to the city hall and watch the rest of the balloons and the sunset at the city hall sunset reception!!!
Who wants to do this with me? It's on Friday, June 24th, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. (e:matthew)? :-)
And OoooooH! Downtown-Buffalo made authentic Cheerio Breakfast on Sunday! Wooohoo! June 26, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Erie Canal Central Wharf.
Permalink: Citybration_balloon_ride_and_cheerio_breakfast_.html
Words: 110
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/11/11 09:14
Category: science
06/10/11 07:51 - ID#54468
Wash your produce well!!
After wild allegations against the whole Spanish salad produce industry, the unmasking of the organically grown sprouts as the culprits comes as a bit of a eye-opener about the health risks of organic farming. Are we really sure that the human and animal refuse used as fertilizers in organic farms do not leave behind cysts and eggs of sundry virulent bacteria and parasites? Do we always make sure that we wash our produce well before eating it raw?
In the past, I have been guilty of trusting apparently fresh-looking greens and produce too much and eating them after a cursory wash. However it pays by the spadefuls to remember that cysts/eggs are hardy and can survive mild non-abrasive washing. It is up to us to make sure that our food sources are not contaminated.. and even if they are, that we do the utmost that we can to prevent superficial parasitic and bacterial cysts and eggs from entering our system.
Permalink: Wash_your_produce_well_.html
Words: 221
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/10/11 07:53
Category: eating in
06/09/11 07:45 - ID#54461
Raw Applesauce as butter substitute
1. Chop apples
2. Blend it like hell.
Will work as well as regular applesauce as a substitute for butter? I have successfully used store-bought applesauce almost completely as a butter substitute but I don't feel like buying those small sealed applesauce plastic cups. And I don't want to take all the time to make "authentic' boiled-in-a-saucepan applesauce.
What do you think? Has anyone tried just using raw applemash as a butter substitute?
EDIT:
The Original Recipe of the Speculoos for 6 biscuits contains:
8 oz Unbleached All-purpose Flour
5 oz Sugar Dark Brown
5 oz Butter
4 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp Baking Soda
2/5 tsp Cinnamon Ground
2/5 tsp Nutmeg, Ground
2/5 tsp Cloves, Ground
2/5 tsp Ginger, Ground
2/5 tsp Ground Black Pepper
with these crazy Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 speculoos
Amount per Serving
Calories..................324
Calories from Fat.....168.8
% Daily Value for a 2000 calorie diet
Total Fat..................18.76g (28%)
Saturated Fat...........11.93g (59%)
Cholesterol...............51.46mg (17%)
Sodium..................180.47mg (7%)
Total Carbohydrate...36.22g (12%)
Dietary Fiber..............0.18g (0%)
Sugars....................20.51g
Protein......................2.37g (4%)
Estimated Percent of Calories from:
Fat====52%
Carbs==44%
Protein==2%
That would be like eating 118% saturated fat in ONE biscuit.
Alternative ingredients to the Belgian Speculoos
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
Permalink: Raw_Applesauce_as_butter_substitute.html
Words: 217
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/10/11 02:44
Category: i-tech
06/09/11 12:05 - ID#54457
What do IE tab extensions for Chrome do?
1. IE Tab Classic:
2. Chrome IE Tab Multi:
The questions is how do these extensions manage to load the fully featured OWA while native Chrome cannot? Is using these extensions as risky as using IE? How are these extensions working?
Permalink: What_do_IE_tab_extensions_for_Chrome_do_.html
Words: 89
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/09/11 12:07
Category: i-tech
06/09/11 08:14 - ID#54456
Guitar Google Doodle
Go ahead! Play it! And I can't believe someone (Zack Bernardin) created this masterpiece with a mouse... or a keyboard sequence!
I couldn't create a coherent tune even if I tried!
From:
Permalink: Guitar_Google_Doodle.html
Words: 84
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/09/11 08:19
Category: the odes
06/08/11 11:29 - ID#54453
In love
I found it through colr.org and then through flickr but alas I can't locate the original page again. I usually change back to my solid black in around 3 days but this desktop feels so much more awesome than any I have ever had. The greens are so perfect and the yellow is just so happy!
EDIT: Located the original, after some crooked-logic searching:
Permalink: In_love.html
Words: 79
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/10/11 10:08
Category: eating in
06/07/11 05:49 - ID#54442
Calcium! Calcium!
I can get 80% calcium in one little 8oz serving of Yogurt! I am going to burn this figure into my teeny brain. So the next time I am making excuses about there not being an ideal calcium source, I can come here and see plain facts staring me in face.
Plain low fat Yogurt
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 8 oz (227g)
Calories.......................150
Calories from Fat.......30
Amount Per Serving and/or % Daily Value for a 2000 calorie diet
Total Fat........................3 g (5%)
Saturated Fat.................2 g (10%)
Trans Fat.......................0 g
Cholesterol...................20 mg (7%)
Sodium.......................190 mg (8%)
Potassium...................560 mg (16%)
Total Carbohydrate........17 g (6%)
Dietary Fiber...................0 g (0%)
Sugars.........................17 g
Protein.........................11 g (22%)
Vitamin A.....................20%
Vitamin C......................6%
Calcium........................40%
Iron...............................0%
Vitamin D......................35%
Riboflavin......................20%
Vitamin B12..................15%
Phosphorus..................20%
Permalink: Calcium_Calcium_.html
Words: 153
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 06/07/11 05:57
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Really? they take lack of hair and two left feet that seriously, eh?
For example, I was buying the same bunch of chard as some other woman at Pricerite and struck up a conversation with her about recipes. Both of us were appalled at how the other was about the cook the chard (I was going to stir fry for a minute with garlic and serve it with raw onions, tomatoes, whatever nuts I had and splash a bit of yogurt with spices on it all as a dressing). She was going to boil the chard with bacon fat for a whole 24 hours before it would be fit for consumption.
And I don't even fall in the same "camp" as Jamie Oliver and Julia Child. I am in the academic fruit-pyramid making camp. *shudder* *shudder* at how in the world is preventive epidemiology EVER going to work. :/
And telling people not to eat animal flesh is not an option. As you said, what inner city population can relate to that?
But that's just me, I'm old, fat, bald, and I can't dance. If I was Inuit, the tribe would have put me on the ice floe years ago. So to echo Neil Young, take my advice, don't listen to me.
Cooking is for freaks and snobs who are just not one of us?
This gradual global migration to a fast food eat-out culture is a multilevel multicausal problem. But media environment and social structures play a substantial role in propagating the problem...
PS: Jamie Oliver also has a personal herb garden out of which he takes fresh herbs and cooks them in his 30 min meals. What inner-city population can relate to that?
Along with that bloody wanker Gordon Ramsey, Oliver wants people to cook quick healthy and tasty meals instead of eating fast food. And just like Paul McCartney asked about "filling the world with with silly lovesongs" what's wrong with that?
Did you know, for instance that the great julia child actually felt that julie (or julie and julia fame) was "demeaning" her "efforts" and "achievement" at cooking when she did her 1-year project? I mean who are these snotty hags anyway? Why are they dictating (either consciously or subconsciouly) and influencing the populations perceptions on cooking? I wonder sometimes if this gradual move away from simple kitchen cooking to increasing consumption of fast food here and elsewhere across the pond is partially the doing of these culinary monsters...
I spend a lot of time talking with random people on the street and a majority feel that cooking is time consuming. I lead a pretty crazy life, sometime I work 18+ a day and STILL have time to quickly cook something rather than ordering or eating out. But I am not influential. Neither are similar-quick cooks around the world. Why? I think it's because of the self and media-hype built around these julia-childesque dinosaurs... They do a disservice to the mental attitudes of a population when it comes to cooking and eating habits.... :/
Screw the frogs.
Though I have to say that I am not sure that the French culinary world would agree with you about "unplanned, quick, improvisational and fun" cooking no matter who it is for.