FitFool

Want to make a vegetarian dish with an eye-catching presentation? This is the one! My past attempts at making quinoa tasted kind of bitter, leaving me indifferent to the high-in-protein grain that I keep hearing about. This time I followed instructions and rinsed the quinoa. Was that an important step? I'll be doing that from now on since it tasted good (though I'll need to remember to get the fine mesh strainer for all those itty bitty grains). I used a Taiwanese Pumpkin from my parents' garden here. It looks and behaves like a Kabocha Squash but my parents say the Taiwan Pumpkin is a different vegetable. For the winter greens, I used kale. You could also use chard, collard greens, rapini, mustard greens, or turnip greens. I increased the amount of artichoke hearts since I like those. I used non-marinated artichoke hearts but you could probably use marinated if you preferred.

The original recipe includes instructions for making an anchoïade (an anchovy dressing) but I left that out since I was making a vegetarian meal for friends. I think even the meat eaters in our group found this to be a satisfying dish. Thanks to my sister for sending another great recipe my way!

Public service announcement:

It's cheap lobster season here in New England again. Market Basket had lobster on sale for $4/pound and they'll even steam them for you if you're squeamish about doing that part yourself. Some will say you shouldn't buy lobster in the summer (I think the rule is to not buy lobster during months that don't end in 'y'). (Correction: the rule was to only eat shellfish during months ending in 'r') These are 'New Shell' lobsters so they haven't had a chance to grow into their new shells. Their shells are very soft at this point. Those lobster crackers won't be of much use with soft shell lobsters. Better to use a sturdy pair of kitchen shears to get at the meat inside. Picked up 6 lobsters for $17. That's less than the price of a single lobster roll at Neptune Oyster (oh but what a delicious lobster roll they serve! Piled high with tons of lobster meat too).

So far we've eaten steamed lobsters and Lobster Mac-n-cheese. I'll probably make the lobster quiche again unless I can think of something else to make with the remaining 2 lobsters.
Lobster Mac-n-Cheese
Lobster Quiche

Saturday afternoon, I found myself sitting in a line of folding chairs, sandwiched between 3 little girls on one side and 2 little sisters on my other side. At the other end of the line sat a couple, smiling nervously at each other and quietly taking in the scene around them. We were sitting inside the mini amusement park inside Jordan's Furniture in Reading, MA, waiting for our trapeze class to start. The kids were mostly staring at the water show as streams of water swayed in time to the blaring music. I was staring at the rigging trying to assess how safe it looked. My first thought was that the safety nets down below looked really dinky. There were 2 pairs of swinging trapezes at the top. Below each pair was a narrow strip of netting. There was a partial GAP between the nets. The whole thing was supported by lots of cables and when you climbed up to the top, you realized that the platform sways around.

Once when my sister was visiting from out of town, B and I took her there to try out their trapeze with some trial swings. It was terrifying but kinda fun too. Afterwards we stuck around and watched others swinging back and forth and I thought I'd like to try again some day. Some day came over six years later. My friend had bought a class but her shoulder was injured and it was too late to cancel so I got to take her place.

After I signed in and signed the waiver forms, one of the staff members slapped a safety belt around my middle and tightened it as tight as it would go. Then she slipped a hand in between the belt and my back and tugged on it to test it. She tightened it up some more. I'm so glad we women don't have to wear corsets any more. Class started with some quick safety rules. Don't walk past the red tape because that's where the person holding the safety lines walks. Don't walk under the net because if someone lands in the net while you're under there, you could get bonked as the net sags to catch them. Asking if anyone's injured and maybe shouldn't participate in class today. (I think they ought to ask that question when you register for the class and save people the trip out if they have a bad back or shoulder.)

Then a verbal walk-through of what we're going to do. Walk up the stairs to the platform and they'll clip two safety lines to the belt cinched tightly around your waist. Every time they say, "Ready," then we're supposed to get ready to do something in the next moment. In this case, ready means to bend your knees and HUP means hop off the platform. It doesn't have to be a big jump. After all, we're just dropping into air. We all stand up, toes right up to a line on the floor. We reach out and grab and imaginary bar. One by one, he goes down the line saying, "Ready...HUP!" and we hop over the line. Simple enough.

We sit back down for more talking. Once we're hanging from the bar, they'll call out instructions and we'll hang from our knees and then go back to hanging from our arms before dropping into the net. "So...any questions?" And the kids had plenty. "What if I can't get my knees up over the bar?" "What if I fall off the platform?" "What if I can't hold onto the bar?" "What if I fall off while I'm hanging from my knees?" What if I'm too scared to jump off?" Basically every question I had but was too self-conscious to ask myself.

They they started sending us up to the top, one at a time. I was surprised that we were not trying things out on the low trapeze bar in the back. Instead it was right on up to the top. We walked up about 2 flights of stairs. The steps are slotted and my feet hurt a little walking on them. I wonder if the slots are put there intentionally to sharpen the awareness of how high you're going. If so, it's working. I'm feeling nervous.



When I get to the top, she clips the safety lines to my belt, one on each side. She tells me to rub some chalk on my hands if I need to. I'm about to decline until I realize my hands are indeed lightly sweating. I don't think I NEED the chalk but I rub some on just in case.



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If you're in the Boston area and you'd like to see one of their free performances, they have one this Saturday night 7:30pm-8:30pm at Jordan's Furniture (the one in Reading, not Natick).
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While lobster was so cheap in August (just $4/pound at the grocery store in the Boston/NH Seacoast region), we binged on lobster dishes for a week. Steamed lobsters with melted butter, lobster quiche, and today's dish. Inspired by hearing canyoncat mentioning he cooked up lobster mac-n-cheese a few years ago, I've been curious to try making that dish ever since. Yummy! Definitely hanging on to this recipe to make again some day. When I served this up, there were lots of contented mmmmms at the table. I felt lucky to be enjoying that meal together with both friends and family.

"Um...are you sure those ingredients are going to taste good together?"

I was going to go grocery shopping with my sister and she had pulled up this recipe that mixed together watermelon, tomatoes, mint, and feta cheese. (We were going to omit the sweet onion because she avoids onions.) This didn't sound at all appetizing to me.

My sister insisted, "This is the perfect summer dish! It's delicious and refreshing and we're going to make it!"

So we made it and sure enough, it was a huge hit. I've made this dish four times now and it's been enjoyed every time. I've given some of it away to 2 sets of friends and they've all been excited about the dish too. It really is the perfect summer dish. No cooking required (so no added heat) and the mint-infused chilled watermelon tastes absolutely wonderful. One of the times, I added just a little diced red onion and liked that version too.

Most times we used regular red tomatoes since that's what we had available but if you can get your hands on any heirloom tomatoes of different colors (orange, yellow, green), then use those because it's so pretty that way! For the green tomatoes, make sure you're using green heirloom tomatoes that are still green when ripe. If you use the tomatoes that are green because they're not ripe, I think those taste tangier. The tomatoes that are green-when-ripe taste pretty much the same as the regular red tomatoes.

Seriously, go try this out!

Growing up, our mom sometimes made congee (pronounced con-jee) for breakfast, except she called it mwaye (all one syllable sounding kinda like moow-eye). I think that's the Taiwanese word for it. Each person had a bowl of watery soft rice. In the center of the table, there were a variety of small dishes to eat with the rice. Most often, we had sliced green onions, Chinese pickled cucumbers (in soy sauce?), eggs (tea-smoked or fried), and pork floss (a dried, shredded pork). Sometimes we'd also have whatever leftovers we had kicking around the fridge. Although we kids were finicky eaters, we all liked this meal. So much so, that when we were in Taiwan, we would request this dish even in restaurants. This embarrassed my parents a bit since apparently it was not really restaurant food. It's the sort of thing you have at home when you're sick and you want comfort food or if you're poor and don't have a lot to eat. It's not the sort of thing you order when you're out in a fancy restaurant celebrating gathering with your extended family for the first time in years. No matter. At least it wasn't as bad as when we demanded peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

I still love congee and made it on rare occasions. Last Christmas, B's dad and his wife gave us a fancy fuzzy-logic rice cooker. I've always pooh-poohed these things but I have to admit, they make perfect rice that doesn't stick to the pot or burn on the bottom. It even has a setting for porridge so it's easier than ever to have congee for breakfast. Awesome!

So on one hungry morning, I made this for breakfast. Starting from the egg and going clockwise, I piled on: fried egg (over medium with soy sauce drizzled on it), zucchini, Chinese watercress (from my parents' garden), green beans, and dried shredded salmon. That's right, now you can get dried shredded salmon! Mom brought some back from Taiwan for me on my last trip. Underneath that whole pile of stuff, the bowl is filled with soft rice porridge.

Apparently you CAN order it in restaurants. At least, I've seen it on menus in some of the places in Chinatown. I guess I've absorbed my parents' disdain for that as a restaurant dish though since I've never ordered it. Same way as I never order fried rice since that's made from old leftover rice. (And yet I make fried rice at home to use up my own rice leftovers.)

Sorry...no recipe since I'm just using a setting on my rice cooker. I think the basic idea is something like a cup of rice and lots of water (like 9 cups of water) and cook until the rice is really soft. But there should still be water. Add hot water as needed to keep it watery. Then season it and top with whatever you like.

I had high expectations for this recipe since it billed itself as Succulent Braised Pork. My oven was running a little on the cool side so I left it to braise for an extra hour. (Besides, I wanted to go for a run before dinner.) I did flip it once in the middle so that the top would have a chance to be submerged in liquid too. When I took it out of the oven, the meat was indeed meltingly tender. I was able to shred the meat with just a fork. At first, B felt the meat was very bland. I had added some potatoes to the recipe and maybe they had soaked up a lot of the salt of the original recipe. I had skipped the final tasting step so once I sprinkled on a dusting of salt, he agreed that it tasted wonderful. The first time I made it, I added the optional cup of water and the sauce came out very thin, more soupy than thick sauce. Second time, I added less liquid and a little more flour and tomato paste. That seemed to help. Either way, the broth is flavorful.

With lots of carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes, it made for a nice one-pot meal. We had the leftovers as shredded pork tacos. Another night had the leftovers with Jalapeño Cornbread and roasted sweet potato wedges. Definitely keeping this recipe in our regular rotation since it's pretty easy to prepare and mostly requires patience while waiting for it to finish cooking.

Got a bunch of old prescription medications kicking around your house? You can safely dispose of them at your local police station this Saturday (assuming they're participating). Before, I had been told to just flush or throw away old medications if they weren't on a small list of drugs that were handled differently. I had even been told to flush radioactive chemotherapy meds! Thankfully, I was able to turn them in during National Prescription Drug Take Back Day back in April. There's another one tomorrow. So clean out your medicine cabinets!

More details available in the link below.

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day
Oct 29, 2011 10am-2pm
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/

I had roasted some sugar pumpkins and now wanted to use my pumpkin puree. I threw this dish together after reading other pumpkin and pork chili recipes for ideas of possible ingredients to use. Quantities listed in the recipe are just guidelines. We basically started with most of the ingredients listed and then added a little more sugar, maple syrup, and lime juice until we liked how it tasted. Pretty tasty! Great way to stretch a single pound of ground pork into enough meat for several satisfying meals. This ended up being a pretty soupy chili with lots of liquid so we mixed in some cooked wild rice and it tasted great. By the last days, we had to add a little liquid when we reheated the chili. The pumpkin seems to add a bit of sweetness and a pleasing smooth texture to the chili.