without as many mushrooms as that would imply

This sounds so good!

And a new way to try doing popcorn in the microwave.

Tamarind Popcorn

I am so not good with titles.

Here is the recipe. I constructed this whole thing on a foil-lined pan, so clean up of the baked on cheese was nothing.

I cooked it in my toaster oven.

• cut thick slices of eggplant
• drizzled then with olive oil
• broil in toaster oven on one side, then the other, until each side just starts to brown a little
• top each eggplant slice with several fresh basil leaves
• top those with thick tomato slices
• broil until the tomatoes start to look like they are actually cooking (not too long)
• sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and or other good cheese. Feta would be nice, too.
• broil until the cheese is all melty, bubbling, and brown.

The predicted thunderstorm has finally arrived, and will hopefully cool things off a bit.

God knows I didn’t this evening. I was very busy in the kitchen. I made:

• coconut-cabbage curry with paneer (I made it up as I went along. It’s a bit spicier than I prefer. It’s ok, but I don’t think I’ll make it again.)
• another made up thing, this one rather divine: a broiled-in-multiple layers eggplant, basil, tomato thingy. Recipe to follow in another post.
• bread (Joy of Cooking Fast White Bread, made with part whole wheat flour)
• pizza dough, 2 to freeze
• pesto with walnuts instead of pinenuts
• yogurt

Whew. I just time out to eat some of the eggplant/tomato stuff and some curry. And now… the dreaded cleanup.

The temperature in the house is finally starting to drop. Just in time to preheat the oven to 450°F!

So, when it gets hot, I tend to lose my appetite. By late July I only want to eat plain yogurt and sliced cucumbers. Maybe some cold applesauce, or a tomato.

Strangely, since last summer, I haven’t really stopped with the yogurt. I crave it. Dipping into a bowl of Brown Cow whole milk cream-on-top yogurt is like heaven.

But it gets expensive. And I ran out of room for the quart sized plastic tubs.

So I decided it was time to start making my own yogurt.

We will not discuss my first attempt. Apparently maintaining the proper temperature is harder than I thought.

I broke down and bought a yogurt maker. The one I wanted was out of stock at the factory and all vendors. So I got this one, which is a bit more expensive than the other. But I got super saver free shipping and they happened to be running a $10 off promotion (valid through June 30, 2008).

Because I am a big old nerd and more and more of a tightwad, I made a spreadsheet to track my progress on recouping the yogurt maker expense with money saved by making yogurt at home.

And because I am an even bigger nerd, I published it on Google Docs for the world to watch my progress.

“From food all creatures are produced. And all creatures that dwell on earth, by food they live and into food they finally pass. Food is the chief among being. Verily he obtains all good who worships the Divine as food.” -from Upanishads

Ran across this on a post at Mahanandi, which is probably my favorite food blog right now. I’m back on a bit of an Indian food kick, when I’m cooking at all.

More often than not lately it’s peanut butter on crackers, or ramen noodle/tofu soup, or Warner whipping up some scrambled eggs with some sort of vegetable, etc. in them.

It has been the end of the semester, and I have a very big paper to turn in next Monday. So it has been a little busy/crazy. Plus, we’ve had several +80°F days already, and the heat always makes me lose my appetite for anything but plain yogurt, popsicles, and cucumbers.

Yesterday I made:

• a big pot of brown rice
• a pot full of chole
• a stir fry full of carrots, green beans, celery, cabbage, and chewy twice-fried tofu
• Strawberry passionfruit banana lime sorbet
• New York style cheesecake

I also did a lot of dishes.

So the cheesecake is for Warner’s birthday, which is today. I used the basic New York style cheesecake recipe from Joy of Cooking. It is truly a monstrous, formidable concoction, calling for 2.5 pounds of cream cheese (of course I used full fat), 5 whole eggs and two yolks, and half a cup of heavy cream for good measure. It was nearly too much to fit into the springform pan. The top got too dark on one side, but it is nonetheless delicious. I think I like Ken’s recipe better, though.

The sorbet was because Warner got a bag of passionfruits on quick-sale reduced price, and something needed to be done with them. So I made up the recipe and it worked and is delicious.

It is such a good feeling when you know you have learned the skeleton of a certain type of food, so you can start being creative with the recipe.

Item!

Sous-vide now has an Library of Congress Classification number:

Home economics
- Cookery
– Cooking processes
— TX690.7 Sous-vide

One day I want a vacuum sealer and an immersion circulator. And then I make the perfect eggs. Yes.

Guinness/milk chocolate ice cream

I sing the praises of chickpeas. How I love them.

Tonight was a simple dinner that doesn’t qualify as a mush, but feels much the same. It goes together easily in one pot, feels comforting to eat out of a bowl, and makes lots of servings.

I pre-soak beans of all sorts, drain them, and then freeze them in bags. Then I can pop them out of the freezer, bring them to a boil on the stovetop, and them pop them into the over @ 250°F for 40 minutes or so. This isn’t actually quick, but it requires next to no effort. And I’m now spoiled on home cooked beans and canned ones don’t seem as good.

Drain the chickpeas.
Into the now empty chickpea pot, put olive oil.
Heat oil and then add chopped onion and garlic, sauteeing until softened and starting to become translucent.
Dump in .5 lb of frozen okra. Cook until it mostly thaws out.
Add the chickpeas and a big can of diced tomatoes.
Bring to a simmer.
Crumble in a generous amount of feta.
Eat.

Rozin, Paul. 1999. “Food is fundamental, fun, frightening, and far reaching.” Social Research 66: 9-30. :

So, in modern life in the food world, we have many more opportunities for pleasure, and many more perceived opportunities for harm. Food is both a pleasure and a poison. In the balance of these beliefs lies much of the quality of life, and something of the quality of health, as well. It is my perception that the American upper and upper-middle classes have gone too far toward the poison end of the dimension, in their excessive worries about body weight, calories, the presence of toxins in foods, and the proper diet to maximize health. Every bite, for some people, is fraught with conflict. Many Americans, especially women, would seem to be willing to give up eating, one of our greatest pleasures. rather than face the battle between pleasure and poison with every bite. This is less illustrated by the explosion of anorexia and bulimia among American women, than by their “normative discontent” (Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore, 1985) about weight, body image, eating, and food. Thus, for example, in a recent survey of college students on six campuses across the United States, over 10% of women claim that they would be embarrassed to buy a chocolate bar in the store, and about 30% say they would be willing to opt for a nutrient pill, safe, nutritionally complete, and cheap, as a substitute for eating (Rozin, Catanese, and Bauer, 1999). These American phenomena are primarily expressed in individuals of upper-middle and upper classes, and serve to further increase class differences among Americans; we are creating a health as well as wealth aristocracy (Leichter 1997).

And in the Just Part of Why I Love the French Dept., the same paper reports some preliminary results of a survey on food attitudes conducted in four countries: U.S., France, Flemish Belgium, and Japan. While the Americans led the pack in concern about food and health and modifying their diets, the French reported themselves as healthier eaters. They are. And their food is better. Oh, yes their food is better… Also interesting:

Another interesting difference between French and Americans emerges from an analysis of medical practice (Payer, 1988). French medicine conceives of disease as some kind of internal imbalance, as a weakness in what is called the “terrain.” American medicine is more inclined to think of disease as caused by harmful external influences, such as germs or toxins. As a result of this distinction, American medicine prescribes more antibiotics, while the French are much more inclined to suggest rest, vacations, or a stay at a spa.

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Leichter, H. M.,”Lifestyle Correctness and the New Secular Morality,” In Morality and Health, Brandt, A. and Rozin, P., eds. (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 359-378.

Rodin, J. Silberstein, L. R., and Striegel-Moore, R. H., “Women and weight: A Normative Discontent,” In Nebraska Symposium on Motiva- tion: Vol. 32. Psychology and Gender, Sonderegger, T. B., ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985).

Oh hi. I’m still here and have some things to post, but on Monday my advisor and I set tentative dates for my comprehensive exams and dissertation proposal. This has me a bit nervous, so I’ve been in workworkwork mode.

A new thing I’m doing, however, is skimming/reading a “fun” article while eating breakfast. This issue of Social Research is all about food.