a hiatus explained

shortly after I wrote my last post in November (November!), I got sick. I mean really, really sick. I have some chronic illnesses and a couple of them have flared up. It hasn’t been fun, and I’m still recovering.

When you’re violently sick, exhausted and in chronic pain, and still dealing with large quantities of school work and personal commitments, you don’t really feel like cooking. Hence the lack of posts.

I’m back home for the summer and now that I have more time, I’m slowly venturing back into the kitchen. I may update, I may not.

But I am making mango-lime sorbet tomorrow, so chances of a post are good.

junior year and chana masala

it feels like the smallest blink of time since i’ve posted but it’s been… three weeks

I’ve just started my junior year of classes. I’m only taking 16 credit hours but I’m working two jobs and frankly, I’ve mostly been eating goldfish crackers and cafeteria food. I spend most of my free time doing calculus problems (once I went to the beach!) A sign of how stressful this has been: I am currently listening to the angsty music of my youth.

well this is actually for my economics class. the book said this was a simple problem

this is what I’m missing out on

But last week I actually made a curry (I know I post about this a lot, but this recipe is really good)

Chana Masala

This is my mother’s recipe. I believe she adapted it from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. This is a simple and delicious dish.

Ingredients

• 2 cans chickpeas
• butter or olive oil
• one tomato
• cilantro
• garlic
• lemon juice to taste

SPICES:

•  Pimenta roja or cayenne pepper
• Garam masala
• curry powder
• garlic or onion powder
• lots of turmeric

I am not a very neat cook

Step 1: rinse the chickpeas, cover them in water and cook them over medium heat until they are beginning to get soft.

Step 2: put the butter or olive oil in a sauce pan. I use my teensy one & use enough oil/butter to cover the bottom of the pan. This probably amounts to 1-2 tbs. Add the spices and crushed garlic, stir and cook over low heat for a few minutes.

Step 3: add the spices, lemon juice and chopped tomato to the chickpeas. this should be done about halfway through.

Step 4: let the whole thing simmer for awhile. At the end, chop up some cilantro and add it.

Then we eat!

lunch time!

Plus it has the Dmitry Seal of Approval. What more can you ask for?

Now it’s time to get back to work!

Pie Update & Blog update

Last week I made a peach pie. It turned out well, but not as well as it would have if I’d been more than 60% awake when I made it.

(It got a little burnt, and the crust was flatter than I like them to be.)

I reccomend going to smittenkitchen’s site for the ingrediants and instructions, but here they are anyway:

Crust
2 1/2 cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surfaces
1 tablespoons (15 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks (225 grams, 8 ounces, or 1 cup) unsalted butter, very cold
1/2 cup water, very cold

Filling
About 3 1/2 pounds peaches (approximately 6 large, 7 medium or 8 small)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, from about half a regular lemon
1/4 cup granulated sugar (see note up top; use 1/3 cup for a sweeter pie)
1/4 cup light brown sugar (ditto)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Few gratings of fresh nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons minute tapioca, ground to a powder (see note up top), or 3 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch

To finish
1 tablespoon milk, cream or water
1 tablespoon coarse or granulated sugar

Make your pie dough: Whisk together flour, sugar and salt in the bottom of a large, wide-ish bowl. Using a pastry blender, two forks or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until the biggest pieces of butter are the size of small peas. (You’ll want to chop your butter into small bits first, unless you’re using a very strong pastry blender in which case you can throw the sticks in whole, as I do.) Gently stir in the ice water with a rubber spatula, mixing it until a craggy mass forms. Get your hands in the bowl and knead it just two or three times to form a ball. Divide dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and flatten a bit, like a disc. Chill in fridge for at least an hour or up to two days. Slip plastic-wrapped dough into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 to 2 months (longer if you trust your freezer more than I do). To defrost, leave in fridge for 1 day.

Meanwhile, prepare your filling: Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Prepare an ice bath. Make a small x at the bottom of each peach. Once water is boiling, lower peaches, as many as you can fit at once, into saucepan and poach for two minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice bath for one minute to cool. Transfer peaches to cutting board and peel the skins. In most cases, the boiling-then-cold water will loosen the skins and they’ll slip right off. In the case of some stubborn peaches, they will stay intact and you can peel them with a paring knife or vegetable peeler and curse the person who made you waste your time with poaching fruit.

Halve and pit the peaches, then into about 1/3-inch thick slices. You’ll want 6 cups; it’s okay if you go a little over. Add to a large bowl and toss with lemon juice. In a small dish, stir together sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cornstarch until evenly mixed. Add to peaches and toss to evenly coat.

Preheat: Oven to 425 degrees.

WHICH is basically what I did! My peaches mostly worked out. The slightly less ripe ones had to be peeled though.

Okay that’s really all i have bout that.

more later, since I’m making lemon bars.

BLOG UPDATE:

I’m going back to school soon, at which point it will (hopefully) be easier to keep up a regular post schedule. I’ve been moving around a lot lately which makes it hard to a) cook and b) write about it.

recipes for change

I have recently become unattached, i.e. single. It’s for the best, and I feel pretty good about it as a whole, but there were still a few difficult days.

Behold, my patened coping process

Okay this part is important: first wallow for a few days. watch lots of movies.

THEN one morning you will wake up and feel less bad. At that point decide to do some metaphorical ball-grabbing, so sit up and:

• Go on a cleaning spree. Do all that laundry, wash the dishes, mop the floors!
• Meet up with your girlfriends! MOST IMPORTANT and you know, branch out too. meet new people.
• Make upbeat playlist while riding the metro (and/or cry a little)
• Go shopping – by ridiculous, fun things
• Then, make brownies.

When I first started baking (I mean, seriously baking, not just making weird mint cupcakes when I was ten) the first thing I made was Betty Crocker’s Chocolate chip cookies. Then I flipped a little further in the book to her brownies.

The first ones I made were utterly terrible. They didn’t even have chocolate in them, just cocoa powder. However Betty included a second recipe a few pages later, and it is this recipe that I regularly turn to. None of the other recipes I try have come close to this one, but fair warning – it’s not for the faint of heart (or waist). But you know – sometimes you just need to suck it up and eat some brownies.

Unfortunately, I am not able to bake these from scratch… and normally I’m not a big fan of box mixes but as far as they go, Betty Crocker’s Deluxe brownies are pretty dang tasty.

I was going to give you my recipe for Much Better Brownies but I realized that like a fool, I left my recipe notebook at home. But I’ll post it another time. I know the method, but I’m a little shakey on the quantities and I don’t want to give anyone a faulty recipe.

post-script: just because you feel okay for a day doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on your guard for sad feelings. They can still sneak up on you!

Yeah they did.

oh no!

A five hour bus trip to buy groceries is consuming all of my free time this weekend (I don’t have much of it) so I probably won’t have time to cook anything substantial this week! But I’ll try to keep you updated anyway — I am really excited about a certain couscous recipe

just like this cat

thank you for reading !

photos

they’ll be up eventually  y’all

spring break’s next week

once i escape the crushing tidal wave of midterms i’ll improve things