Random stuff

[allana]

I feel quite virtuous. I've started updating my food blog again, and I've even managed to cook some healthy stuff. I was shocked to see how many comments I got when I started posting again... I guess folks missed me, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy :D Currently I'm making some dulce du leche (for the second time today--don't ask) in preparation for making a Flan.

I've turned my kitchen into a bit of a microbiology experiment this week, though. I'm having another bash at making a sourdough starter. I've always wanted to bake using wild yeasts and I'm wildly envious of everyone who's managed to get a starter going (and the people who've managed to keep them going for decades). I'm supposed to be hosting a community cooking day in May, and I was hoping to make something with sourdough then. (I was planning a literary theme, and proposing that people cook something from their favourite works of fiction. So, gruel a la Oliver Twist or Johnny Cakes from Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, etc etc.) We shall see. Currently I have a paste of organic brown flour and Evian, sitting in a jar. And a big reminder to check it at midday tomorrow :P

Hmm, what else is going on? Dave's birthday is this weekend and amazingly, I managed to get all of Dave's birthday presents bought in one go yesterday, so I can hole up for the rest of the week and try and wrap things prettily. Dave is much better at wrapping presents than I am, but it seems a bit cheeky to get him to wrap his own pressies!!

Other than that, little is going on. Like everyone else, I'm in the throes of some serious Jerry-love this week. I've been dividing my time between catching up on DVDs, blogging, and staring at hundreds of luscious photos :)

Comments

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

Gruel! Gruel! I want to make gruel!

(I'm seriously kidding. But I think the literary theme is a wonderful idea, and I hope everyone thinks of something more appetizing to make than gruel. I would make biscuits using the recipe you linked me to in honor of Augustus McCrae's biscuits in LONESOME DOVE. (And then I'd dump sausage gravy all over them because I'm really having a craving.))

Glad to hear you're food-blogging again. :D I love drooling at your blog.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

Hey, you'd be more than welcome to join in... you don't need to have a food blog to participate--I can host photos and writeups :D You're still craving sausage gravy? Get Mark to bring home a can--it's been days and days!!

I fleetingly considered asking the butcher for a pigs head, so that I could make "head cheese". I remember being fascinated as a child, with how Laura Ingalls Wilder's family used up every part of the pig at butchering time. Alas, I think Dave would leave me if he opened the fridge and found Babe The Sheep-pig's head in there!!

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

I looooove the smell of head cheese. But not the taste. *makes face* It doesn't look too attractive either. But mmmmmm. Nice smell.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

I've never actually seen or tasted it. I just wanted to win in the "Most Effort" stakes ;) Having had a quick look at a few recipes, I shan't be making it. I no longer have a pan large enough for a pig's head :P

Maybe Anne's "Sorry Cake" from Anne of Green Gables? Where she uses linnement instead of vanilla extract? I should really start thinking about this properly... May isn't that far away.

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

Um linnement? Are people going to have to eat this? How about fried green tomatoes? Or won tons (a la The Joy Luck Club. Or Oysters served with pepper, vinegar, and bread (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.)

Gosh this is fun. I need to make friends in the area and do things like this.

Why are there no other rock band slashers in the Asheville area WHY?

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wouldn't actually make it with linnement :P I'd just relate the story and then make the cake with vanilla extract :P

Other options on my list included Stephanie Plum's Mother's Upside-Down Pineapple Cake (just the thing to cheer you up after your car's been blown up); any of the monthly recipes from Like Water For Chocolate; maybe a pizza or lasagne a la Kay Scarpetta from the Patricia Cornwell books; or what about home-made ginger beer? I always wanted a picnic with "lashings of gingerbeer" when I was a kid; I probably spent far too much time reading Enid Blyton.

Ooooh, I just remembered! There are more recipes at the back of Fried Green Tomatoes, not just the tomato one! I seem to rememeber a biscuits and gravy one, as well as coconut pie.

And you don't need friends in the area... this is all done purely online. The best thing about that, is that you don't need to tidy the house. The only down-side is that you get to see all these tempting things, but you can't taste them.

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

Not having to tidy up the house is a huge bonus. :D

I just read over some fried green tomato recipes...which lead to fried dill pickle recipes...

...and now I'm craving fried dill pickles with horseradish dip. I think I actually have all the ingredients for that on hand.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

Now fried dill pickleds sound awesome!! Can I come and visit?

PS. Start a food blog ;)

[silentinflames.livejournal.com]

Hey, sounds as if you're feeling better, hun? :D

Hm, I love Flan. Funny enough I ate it for the first time--in Mexico, lol!

I usually bake my own bread, using dry yeast. My mother makes sourdough bread sometimes. It seems too much work, though. Good luck with the starter.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling much less pathetic :D

I've never had Flan before, but going on the basis that I love creme caramel, and I adore dulce du leche, I should fall in love with Flan!!

I also bake a lot of bread, but sourdough has always been the pinnacle of bread-baking for me. One day I'll crack it.... Plus, I have tons of recipes for sourdough leavened cakes and even brownies. I'm sufficiently curious to want to know what sourdough brownies would taste like :D