kiya

IM IN MAI KITCHEN
ASSEMBLN MAI PETTYFORS

REAL TEA PARTY WILL HAVE PETTYFORS

(come the revolution you will have strawberries and chocolate
and you will like strawberries and chocolate)

Swapped dinner nights with artan_eter 'cos Monday was KJ Screams All Day Day and that had me in no state for household chores. (artan_eter made baked soup, because he failed at fried soup utterly. Don't ask.)

So I actually planned ahead for this and did prep in the bits when I'd gotten KJ to nap today. And the results were very good. So. I explain.

( Slow-cooked whole chicken breast & rice with veggies & gravy: a gluten-and-dairy-free meal with treif )

Head cold or vicious allergies or something. Sudafed, take me awaaaay.

( Recipe for this thing I just made up: New World Chicken Paella )

And when it's done I can stash it in containers and GO TO BED.

Salmon sashimi wrapped around a hazelnut and dipped into soy-wasabi mixture: Very Good.

It's the wise choice.

Tomato garnish for chicken recipe thing, retro-engineered from a dish at Chili's with assistance by suzimoses:

You will need:

Tomatoes
A little red onion
Cilantro
Red wine vinegar
A container with a lid
About three days

I got a half-dozen plum tomatoes (the ovoid ones) because that seemed likely to maximise the outer portions of the tomato (the squishy innards are not used). I wound up using about five and a half of them (one had black spots). Core out the gooey bits in the center, chop the shell into little chunks (not quite as fine as it would take to be cubes, but that'll do as an approximation; I cut the tomato the long way and cut each quarter into ~three slices before chopping those down).

Not much red onion -- this is a tomato thing, not an onion thing. For the sixish plum tomatoes, I chopped up a single cross-section segment of onion into pieces roughly the same size, removing the central bits. I also didn't put in too terribly much cilantro, because I'm one of the people who has the 'cilantro tastes like soap' gene, but it took me forever to figure out what it was in the restaurant.

Put the tomato, onion, and cilantro in the container. (ETA: I used an Indian food delivery container, though I'd have done better to mix before putting things into it.) Add red wine vinegar until it's roughly half full. Put the lid on. Shake vigorously. Stick in the fridge. Shake vigorously and invert whenever it occurs to you for two or three days.

To serve:

Do something with boneless chicken. When the chicken is about done, spoon a bit of the tomato mixture over top of it, put the lid on, maybe add a little white wine to the pan, and let it sit for a few minutes to warm up.

So we had about a baked potato and a third left over from previous cooking, and weren't entirely sure what to do with it for a while. Then the Cooking for Engineers blog threw a shepherd's pie recipe at me, and I said, 'Hmmm,' snagged it, and modified it shamelessly. (Oh, nasty, unscrupulous modefilers!)

So I generated food. And we settled down to eat it. I asked teinedreugan what he thought; he said it came out all right. The comments about the quality of the food continued, and improved, until I came to the conclusion that somewhere in the spicing I must have included the crack.

( Notes to self so that I can do this again later. )

Severe tuit shortage reported. Should anyone have received my shipment of tuits, could they please forward it. Thank you.

I got everything done I absolutely need to get done for tomorrow (when is meeting for Lughnasadh). This means that I have made cake (which can either be frosted late tonight or tomorrow before I leave), transferred the meat from pre-marinade to marinade, and run myself severely negative on spoons.

The meat thing was fascinating, though. (I've heard enough people saying Set and Heru have similar tastes -- to the point of "I like whatever my brother likes" -- that I'm basically making Them near-identical dishes for Their birthday party. This is the necessary context.) I found myself with three onions, staring at them intensely to try to figure out which two were most close to exactly the same size. Thus, revelation: dealing with Heru and Set at the same time makes me neurotic.

I smell strongly of garlic and coriander, and have, sort of incidentally along the way, soaked myself in buttermilk. But that's all done; the next step is moving things around and doing the rest of the prep. (Which will be preparing all of the other dishes and baking those). And dealing with the cake.

It was an interesting edition of Cooking With Cat. "Arthur, stop polishing your nose on the cucumber." "Arthur, get out of the space rack." "Arthur . . . --" *pause to pick up white pepper jar and put it back* Why he wants into the spices I have no idea; it's not like we have catnip in there. He rummages in the spices, scatters them, and then flops contentedly in the wreckage. Fortunately, he hasn't opened any yet, and he only tried to climb further up the shelf once (it fell over, dissuading him from that notion).

I think I'm going to go see if I can reach level 56 with the elf now.

(. . . but a whimper.)

Dear people who make egg substitute suggestions on the web. If I had eggs right now, I wouldn't be looking for egg substitutes. This means that "substitutes" containing egg whites are Not Useful. What part of 'substitute' are you not understanding here? I don't mean "I'm mortally terrified of yolks" when I say "I don't have any goddamned eggs."

From conversation with the usual gang, while I was listening to the Grateful Dead.

Whitney is going to hell in a bucket, baby, but at least I'm enjoying the ride.
annwyd says "Bucket? Isn't that uncomfortable?"
oneironaut says "It could be an upholstered bucket."
I say "And more spacious than the traditional handbasket."

330 words, and I'm finally done with 51.

Also, now I need to write something to the tune of "The Sounds of Silence." "Hello Eris, my old friend / you've come to freak me out again . . ." (I got a bit of Sisters of Mercy growled "I want more" at an interestingly appropriate bit of writing . . . )

Now it is very, very late and thus time for me to sleep. I wish I were actually sleepy. Mmmmmmm . . . "Say goodnight, don't be afraid . . . ."

Because gwynyth was interested in how to put together this chicken-egg-mushroom porridge thing that I seem to be eating . . .

---

It required two small saucepans, a cutting board and knife, a spoon, and a small mug.

Ingredients: a couple of dried shiitake mushrooms, a little bit of boneless chicken (both sort of randomly leftover from other cooking projects), milk, butter, flour, an egg. White pepper, lemon peel, powdered ginger.

( Procedure, cut for space and interest: )

I feel very ad hoc, reviewing that.

I'd comment that I feel really upset by the dismissive and trivialising response my last entry got in the context it was originally written for in that entry, but I don't want to pollute it with the contempt.

So I was talking to gwynyth earlier about bread. And I asked her if she wanted the naan recipe I use, and dug it out and gave it to her. And then I said, "Hmm. I haven't made this in ages. I think I'll make naan if I have the stuff for it."

My yeast had a best used by date in late August, 2001. Yes, it has been ages since I made bread, hasn't it? But it proofed up all right, and I have bread dough rising in all its garlicky goodness in the kitchen.

I love kneading dough. The feel of it is so tremendously soothing and comforting. Almost as smooth as wedging porcelain, which I haven't done in ages. Someday . . .

( Sacreligious baking-related MUSH conversation. )

I have weird friends. And I will soon have naan, too.

Addendum: O bliss. I have naan. And for the first time when I made it it puffed up like proper naan. O bliss. So good.