And now for something completely different

It's been a bit of a month and a half.

First, I go on a medication that literally begins changing my life like none other has before. It was amazing how well I was responding. Then I got the rare and deadliest side effect - a rash. I went to the hospital. Everything was OK, but I had to immediately stop the meds which really screwed with me and sent me into a fairly confused and physically stressed placed space.

During this time, I got a call from a recruiter and went through a very fast and very intense interview process with NPR. This was my dream job. 5 interviews later, they made me an amazing offer which I accepted. The offer was contingent on a background check. I wasn't worried. The background check took two weeks. While waiting for the background check, I started on a new medication. This one wasn't so great. It screwed with my body temperature and caused my appetite to go through the roof. I binged in ways I haven't binged in years. It also made me VERY angry. Not good, but I was starting to deal.

At the end of the two weeks, they called me to tell me that the offer was rescinded; my credit score didn't meet their standards. I tried to fight it; the hiring manager even took the issue to NPR senior management, but in the end, they said that my credit made me a "legal liability".

After NPR accepted then rejected me, I crashed for a couple of days. I focused all of my energy on my cycling. I was doing crazy 30-40 mile treks. But the meds were making me angrier and angrier, and I was binging to frightening levels, so I tapered off the meds.

That's when I started something new. I swore that if this one didn't work well, I'd go on a drug holiday. I started it three weeks ago and the last three weeks have been a blur. I've literally lost that time. I've faded and have been silenced. I've read many people's reports of going on this stuff and having their minds disappear until getting up to the correct dosage; that's where I am now - approaching the correct dose.

And all would be well but....

Last Tuesday I had an appointment with the ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat doc) to assess my tonsils for removal. I've been having obstructive breathing issues for awhile now and my doc said that my tonsils were huge, so lets see what the options are.
The ENT pokes around and says, "your tonsils are normal. Sure, they're infected. I bet this happens a lot." Yep. "Totally normal for some people. I'm more concerned about the large mass in your neck."

Large mass in my neck?

LARGE MASS IN MY NECK?
WTF?

So, I have a CAT scan scheduled for next Thursday. I can't do a damned thing but guess at what's up until then. I suspect it's my thyroid as the "mass" looks suspiciously like a goiter. And if it IS my thyroid, that could very well explain some of the unexplained mysteries of the last few years. No doc has ever checked my thyroid before and no doc has ever asked if it's been checked.

*crosses tentacles*

The day of amazing food!

Today has been the day of amazing food!

I was a bit too early to the farmer's market this morning, so I took a walk up Moody St. to Patel Brothers for some urad flour, sandwich masala and mustard seed.

Next, fresh tomatoes and a stalk of Brussel's sprouts from the Waltham Farmer's Market.

Then lunch with a new friend at the amazing Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown. He had a delicious looking medianoche (Cuban sandwich) and for me, Pastrami-spiced smoked salmon platter. Holy crap! Amazing!

Then on to one of my favorite shops, Arax Market for Mediterranean yummies like fresh dates, pistachios and, as always, more baklava than was necessary! (no pictures - can't get camera into my belly). I also did a mini spice refresh - more ground sumac, tarragon, parsley, tarragon, savory, mint and oregano. To keep me going, I also snagged some fine ground coffee with cardamom as well as a HUGE bag of yerba mate.

Now I'm on to dinner prep: smoking some eggplants and tomatoes! Dinner is going to be pretty awesome :)

Chicken Breast with Green Tomatoes and Onions

This recipe isn't so creepy, but it's delicious!

For the last week, I'm been preparing these intricate Indian-inspired dished for dinner; things that would easily take 3-4 hours of preparation (more on these in another post). Last night, I want something quick and easy. What did I have in the fridge? Chicken breast, onions and green tomatoes.

The end result of this combination (along with a touch of sherry and a bit of black pepper) made for one of the most flavorful dishes I have ever tasted! My newfound love of tomatoes (again, another post) has led me to all sorts of tomato-y experimentation. This dish is equal parts sweet and savory and would probably go very well with rice or even a pasta (maybe orzo?)

1/4lb chicken breast
2 medium green tomatoes
1/2 spanish onion
red cooking sherry
pepper to taste
olive oil as necessary (I use spray)

Butterfly the chicken breast and soak in the sherry while performing the next steps

Slice up onions and tomatoes and cook on medium in a large frying pan until onions are browned and tomatoes are losing their structure (use oil as needed/wanted)

Shift the tomatoes and onions to make space for the chicken. Lay down a light layer of fresh black pepper in the pan and lay the marinated, butterflied breast on top. Cover the breast with the onions and tomatoes and let sizzle away until the top is mostly cooked (3-4 minutes or so).

Clear off top of chicken and flip. The piece should be a lovely golden orange. Press-fry until cooked through.

Deglaze pan with whatever sherry remains from marinating and cook down.

Serve!!

Like I said, I wanted quick and easy, so I served it atop of savory rye crackers with a side of brussels sprouts (yum!) The tomatoes were so tangy and delicious! MMMM!

Lies, cilantro and hammer-pounded chicken

I have a terrible habit of making up recipes on the fly and recommending them to people without having actually tested it. The recipe is ALWAYS a success, though.

Yesterday, while at a farmer's market with a friend, and she asked me if I like cilantro, and I blurted out: "yes! I love it! In fact, I have a dish that I make that involved thinly sliced chicken breast covered with cilantro leaved, a bit of garlic, onion, salt and pepper, then I fold it over (think cilantro sandwich), pop it on the grill and eat!"

Sounds delicious! A woman nearby asked me to repeat while she wrote the recipe down - she was excited to try it.

The problem? I've never made this before. Ever. The idea just popped into my head.

To make things right, I prepared it last night:

1 chicken breast, butterflied. Coat the surface with cracked black pepper, little onion powder, garlic and salt followed by a dense layer of fresh cilantro. COver with saran wrap and beat with tenderizer, ensuring that the chicken is well pounded and the cilantro is properly bruised.

Remove the plastic, fold chicken over on itself, wrap and pop in the fridge for a couple of hours (not sure how necessary this is)

When ready, throw the chicken on the grill (I used my George FOreman grill) and cook until done.

I served it with garlic scapes sauteed with spinach and mushrooms and a side of thin sliced, raw kohlrabi.

It was amazing!

I'm going to try a variation tonight:

To the center mix, I'm going to add some basil and pine nuts (pesto!) and then coat the outside with my homemade spicy chick pea flour. Another possible variation will add peppers and onions for a salsa flavor.

I made dinner a little late, but better late than never. Spicy, oven fried chicken, sweet potato and sunchoke fries, chickory salad, topped off with more watermelon than was necessary. *urp*

Sunchokes are my new love, but they may also be the source of my recent gastrointestinal distress, due to the large quantity if inulin they carry.

Revampings

I'm in the process of revamping, so expect changes soon!
eatcreepy
a compendium of creeptacular culinary chaos

Well toss mah salad!

I accidentally created a delicious salad:

Sweet onion
Chopped celery
tomato
lettuce (your choice)
fresh cilantro
fresh parsley
ground sumac

I tend to go heavy on the sumac, for I in in lurvs with it. (I should dedicate a post to sumac; maybe later.)

Mix well and pop in the fridge for 20 minutes or more.
Take out, give another toss and serve.

Another tasty and bold variation:

chop a whole onion
liberally coat with sumac
let sit for 15-20 minutes and eat.
The sumac cuts the harshness of the raw onion, and the two flavors merge so spectacularly that you may begin to rethink intelligent design. Or not, but it IS delicioso!

Meringue and baking fail

I was craving something sweet last night, took inventory of my fridge and pantry and went on a hunt for applicable recipes. I discovered meringue cookies. Egg whites, salt, sugar, lemon, cream of tartar. Excellent! I had everything but the cream of tartar, but I assumed that I could substitute lemon (which was confirmed by several websites).

The one thing that was called for that I did NOT have was a glass or metal bowl. For all of my mixing needs, I have a nice set of melamine bowls. It may be time to replace them. Apparently, plastic and melamine can retain oils even after cleaning, which will cause a meringue to fall or not even form (which makes sense: meringue becomes stiff due to the whipping action breaking the hydrogen bonds in the egg protein. Whipping also introduces air, so the whole thing becomes a volumized air suspension. Oil, even in miniscule amounts, will break the surface tension, reducing everything to a gooey mess).

Needless to say, I was left with that gooey mess. In an effort to not let the eggs go to waste, I dumped in some wheat gluten and some leftover white flour that I had sitting around, added some baking powder, pupped into muffin cups and baked. The result: Flat, rubber cupcakes. Considering the fact that I LIKE chewy things, the texture was perfect. That flavor? Not so perfect. I don't think I rinsed the soap from my baking cups welle nough. That, and the fact that the flour I had used was very, very old lent a lovely stale quality.

Next time, I'll use metal bowls and avoid this horror!

Spice grinding

Ive got a mortar and pestle (2 actually: one for dry solids, the other for things more wet).
Nowadays, I only use them for things that my my grinder doesn't do well with (namely, large, dry leaves like bay leaves).

I've got an old Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder that I was given several years ago which I've repurposed into a spice and grain grinder (after discovering the joys of a burr grinder, but more about that in another post).

Now, this may sound strange, but what I like most about using the coffee grinder is the lack of particle consistency. When grinding grains such as brown rice and barley for about 45 seconds, I'm left with particles ranging in size from a half a grain down to a very fine powder. I like this because I'm a huge fan of textural variation in my food. As I enjoy all of the dishes that combine into a single meal to have varying, but complementary flavors, I also love when a -single- dish has textural variance. The different sized in my pulverized grains lend different properties - chewiness, smoothness and liquid and flavor absorption.

I also make my own spice mixtures, and again, the varying textures make for lovely combinations (especially when I am grinding dried garlic. MMM!)

Creature-less *balls

Last night, I was too tired to head to the grocery store to pick up some ground meat, so I decided to make do with non-creature-originating items within my household.

Now, I'm not trying to go vegan, but I do like having the option; I'm a reluctant carnivore who frequently entertains the thought of ceasing creature consumption.

Creature-less *balls

Base:
1/4 cup pearl barley, ground
1/4 cup brown basmati rice, ground
1/4 cup wheat gluten
1/4 cup garbonzo flour
1 cup water

Spices:
1/4 cup Chopped shallots
1/4 cup minced garlic
Leek, Cilantro, Marjoram, Parsley, Taragon, Savory, Basil
1tbs ground sumac
Pepper to taste, salt if you wish

Mix the base ingredients together. You may need to adjust the amounts above. Initially, I started with just the barley, rice and gluten, but added the garbonzo flour because I had used too much water. You're aiming for a heavy paste that can be rolled into balls. Add spices and mix in well.

Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes.

Roll into balls and place into boiling liquid and simmer for about 40 minutes. (I sauteed some veggies, added a cup of water and some tomato paste and popped the balls in).

I see no reason why these can't be fried, steamed or even baked. If frying, give a nice coating of some kind of flour.

Oh, my *balls!

I've been experimenting with East Mediterranean cuisine as of late (Turkish, Greek, Lebanese, Syrian) and came across a dish called Sabzi Kouftah. Essentially, they are heavily herbed balls of meat and rice stewed in tomato sauce and vegetables, almost like a tangine. It's basically a different take on my *balls. I've twisted it about to reduce the carb load and came up with this tasty dinner last night:

Balls
1/3lb ground *
Herbs (I've only used dry so far, but want to try fresh. I'm not entirely sure of quantity other than, equalize the amounts and make sure the mix is very green - I think I used 1tbs of each listed. I'm still tweaking these):
Leek, Parsley, Tarragon, Savory, Cilantro and Basil.
1/4 cup barley**
egg white
grated onion (about 2tbs)
spices to taste (I used only pepper)

** I've processed the barley in a grinder to obtain a nice powder. If you opt to use whole barley, cook beforehand

Stew
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 can tomato paste
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 large onion, sliced
1/2 small eggplant, cubed
little bit of green pepper
spices to taste (I used pepper, garlic and aleppo pepper - I've intentionally made the sauce on the bland side to accentuate the garnish)

Garnish
Fresh cilantro, marjoram and mint, crushed

Mix ball ingredients well and set aside for 10 minutes or so

In a large pan, saute onion, tomato, green pepper and eggplant on medium until onions begin to carmelize and tomatoes start to stick.
Add water, tomato paste and lentils and bring to a boil.

Form meat mixture into balls and gently place into boiling sauce.
Reduce heat and simmer about 40 minutes (if you are using a large pan, you may want to turn your balls halfway through if they aren't fully immersed).

Remove from heat, stir and sprinkle garnish.

Eat!

As an extra tasty bit, I added diced green almonds to the garnish. I'll post about those a little later.

Me + Farinata = Delicious Farinfailure

In my search for low-glycemic treats, I discovered an Italian bread called Farinata. It's a flatbread made with chick pea flour and water. I have a batch in the oven now, but I think my pan is too thin. Oh well, at least I'll have some tasty superthin wafers.


Farinata:

2/3 cup chick pea flour
3/4 cup water
2tbs olive oil
salt, pepper and rosemary to taste
a flat pan (I used a large non-stick baking tray)

blend flour and water well and lest rest for 2-4 hours.
mixture will have foam on top - scrape off the foam.

Preheat oven to 400F
Mix in oil, salt, pepper, rosemary well

Note: the mix will be quite liquid. Don't worry, it's supposed to be.

Pour into baking tray - it should be fairly thin (mine was TOO thin - it should sit about 1/8" of an inch deep).

Bake @400F for 15 - 20 minutes (still tuning these values)

Your mouth will water from the scent wafting from your oven.

Reaquainting myself with multidimensional mobility

MiniMac. Check.
The ability to walk without pain. Check (for the most part).

Today's my first outing with the new feet and the new laptop. I'm pretty happy with both.
It's 60 degrees out, I'm wearing shorts, I got a ton of stuff accomplished today. Now I'm sitting in the (newly discovered) library up the block from my apartment. Maybe I'll catch up on all of those posts I've been meaning to write.

Back to the basics

Now that I'm getting back on the right track, the kitchen is becoming a fun place again. The last couple of months have been filled with a combination of injuries and poor decisions that have let to a *gasp* 25 pound weight gain. Being that March 1, 2008 was the day I started all of this, my net weight loss for the last year is now 60 pounds. That's still nothing to sneeze at.

Once my injuries heal, and with the return of warmer weather, I'll be easing back into a good and solid exercise routine. 2009 is going to be a good year for getting in shape!

Three cheers for miniaturization and technological advancement!

Back in the stone age of 1993, I would walk the streets during my lunch break pondering ways to make an invisibility suit. Or, at the very least, a partially seethrough suit. I neded tiny video cameras and some kind if thin and flexible video display. I gave up on the idea after I realized that then-current technology couldn't meet my needs.

15 years later, it's possible! I just saw this. I *heart* you technology.