Shadow Void

Hey

Tonight, I made Pasta with lemon. It's spaghetti that has a sauce made of lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, black peper, and salt. On a scale of one to ten, one being lowest, this dish gets a 0. The flavors just don't work. Yes, it is an actual recipe. I will post the actual recipe tomorrow if I can.

Gnocchi

 

Cooking

Tonight, the parents are out of town, and I am left to fend for myself. Needless to say, I am cooking for the first time in a long time. I am making gnocchi. If you don't know what it is, gnocchi is a small potato dumpling. I guess it's Italian. My recipe is fairly simple it's potatoes, flour, and salt. Right now the potatoes are baking in the oven and I'm waiting on them to finish so I can get out the food mill and get the whole cooking thing going on. Not sure what I want to have with them. Oh…my camera is annoying me so there won't be pictures but maybe I can get a really quick video to show you guys either tonight or tomorrow. So yeah just thought I would share.

Edible Plant Tryout; Black Raspberry

These wonderful berries are a native raspberry. I happen to love this time of year and I look forward to it every single year. Sadly, this plant doesn't produce fruit year round. You pretty much can get your fill when they are on the plant. Our family has four or five such plants on our property. Each year, I make sure to get my fill. Typically, we eat them pretty much right off the plant. If you've never had the opportunity to taste black rapsberries, I would say you're missing out. Though I am sure, there are other edible goodies out there that taste plenty good. I can think of one such plant right now ie Pawpaw. I highly recommend this plant. A couple things to know about this plant, 1.Berries are ripe when they turn the blackish purple color that you see in the picture, 2.The stems of this plant has thorns.

Edible plant tryout

Today, I tried dandelion greens for the first time. I made sure that I gathered what you might call baby dandelion greens. Quite frankly, I'll stick to the blossoms. I was not at all impressed. Someone else will have to make them for me the next time.

Edible Plant Tryout: Violets

Last week, I went out and collected violet flowers. I made violet flower sryup. Sounds somewhat different huh?? I gathered the flowers from various places in the yard. I made sure to ignore the plants growing near the road, along the driveway, and under the bird feeders. Carefully, I rinsed the flowers to remove any insects or other debris. The violets were put into a bowl. A saucepan of water was put on the stove and allowed to come to boil. Once the water was brought to the boil, I removed the pan from the heat and poured the water over the violets. You'll notice that the much of the color will spill out into the water. Don't worry about the color change, it's perfectly fine. It needs to sit for twenty four hours so I kept it in the fridge till the next day. After sitting, I strained the water making sure to remove flowers. Make sure to strain the fluid into the a saucepan and then add your sugar and bring to the boil. Now, the color changes as you boil the liquid to a light brown color.

I was not really impressed with this syrup. I did have someone else try it and they said it had a slight flowery taste to it.

Here is the recipe that I used.

 

2 C Fresh flowers

2 1/2 C boiling water

3 1/2 C Sugar

You want to bruise the flowers with your hand. Place the flowers in a saucepan and pour the boiling water over them and allow it to sit overnight. The next day strain the juice. Combine the sugar and honey with the violet juice and bring it to boil. Heat until it reaches the desired thickness.

Next week, I'm going to try some native greens. I'll try to post a video of it.

A Tale of Cooked Chicken

I don't know if I said this but mom and dad are off again in Utah. Anyway, I cooked a chicken breast yesterday. I boiled in water along with taco seasoning, rice, and bell pepper. After it reached a full hard boil, I reduced it down to a simmer. I let it cook for like a half hour. After that, I cut out a piece of the breast and made myself a chicken taco with it. I had the rice on the side. Oh...I also had a piece of corn on the cob. Hey I was hungry what can I say. I went to make a chicken quesadilla today.

 

I got the chicken breast out to get some more meat off of it. I took one look at it and I realized something. My chicken breast was cooked or at least partially cooked. The part that I used last night for my dinner was apparently cooked. You know how raw chicken has a sort of translucent look to it. Well, the chicken was pink and translucent. I have to use it so I found something else to eat and put the breast into the oven for about 15 minutes at 425 F. So hopefully now that breast it done and I can have for dinner tomorrow. Only problem is I'm sort of tired of doing the whole chicken thing. I think I'll do fish tomorrow. Yeah that sounds a lot better.

The Fat of It

As a small fry, I was always small. As a teen, I was small for my age. Even now, I am smaller than the average adult. I am not the smallest guy out there. Still at a whooping 5' 1/2 inch tall, I am still a feather weight. Sometimes, I wonder what it is like to be tall and then I wake up to the reality of my size. I'm never going to be a big guy. I doubt that I'll ever know what's like to weigh 120 lbs. As of right now, I'm still in the two digit weight limit. Kind of crazy huh? Okay, but that is not the point behind this particular post.

 

Who has the ultimate responsibility for the obesity in this nation or in the world? Ultimately, I believe that we have the responsibility for our own weight. After all, aren't we the ones who put food in our mouths? It doesn't matter where the food comes from rather it's from your fridge or your favorite fast food joint. We can't blame a restaurant for our inches. At least that is my humble opinion. You can eat just as good or just as poorly at home or out. It would be easy for someone to blame the source of their intake. Still it's interesting to note that there are some people out there who say that the government has role to play in our obesity plague.

 

What role does the government play in the fattening of America? It would to be in their limits of certain ingredients. Things like high fructose corn syrup and other fats. I thought it was nice of them to limit the trans fats in foods. Big brother has given us our food pyramid which tells us how many servings of food groups we should have. They also require food companies to list nutritional facts on their packages for us. All we have to do is read the package. As a border line diabetic, I do check the packages before food enters my cart. I honestly check the carbohydrates and the fats to see if I'm okay. The federal government can only do so much for us. Is it the Food industries fault?

 

Okay, so yeah they might have a small hand to play in this national epidemic. After all, they make the food that we eat. You can't eat a TV dinner and not take in more salt than you really need for a day. You won't like the cholesterol either. Now, I'd be a fool if I said that all fats are bad for you. They aren't all that bad for us. In fact we need fat in our diet. We don't need to be eating prepared foods taken from the freezer section for every meal. We don't need to be eating fast food every day. So I what do you think? Where does the blame lay?

Chicken Breast Baked With Garlic

This recipe comes from Going Solo In The Kitchen by Jane Doerfer. I have to admit that I've changed it just a tad. Jane, if you read this, this is my favorite recipe so far. No, I've not tried all of them yet.

1 whole chicken breast

1-2 teaspoons cold butter thinly sliced

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Loosen the skin on the chicken breast and lift it up. ** ( I like to cut three small holes, pockets, into the breast and stuff them with just a little bit more garlic. ) Cover the flesh with the butter and sprinkle with the garlic. Lightly sprinkle with saly and pepper. Replace and smooth out the skin, place breast into an ovenproof pan, and bake in a preheated 450 degree F. over for 25 to 30 minutes or until cook. Remove from oven and let the chicken sit for at least 20 minutes. Discard the skin and garlic pieces before serving.

** I make this by placing fresh vegetables in with the chicken breast and wrapping them up in foil. I'm going to try posting some recipes that I love to make. Being single doesn't have to mean eating out all the time. This book is great if you are single.

 

Extreme Eats

Weird Foods People Eat

I know these food items may sound a bit strange, but in the countries where people eat them, they must be somewhat normal. I’ve been reading a book called Extreme Cuisine. The whole book is filled with unique foods from all over the world. Some as extreme as my pets, that right people eat tarantulas. You may not know this but in Peru, guinea pig is as common as chicken is here in America. Out in the some of the Islands in the Pacific, bat is considered good eating. In some places, they even eat snake. I’m not just talking about rattlesnake, but cobra.. They even drink the bile and blood of the snakes. Somehow, it seems so wrong. Perhaps, eggs are more your thing. Well, in Costa Rica and other countries in South and Central America, they eat iguana eggs. Another delicacy so to speak is called fugu. Fugu comes from a highly poisonous pufferfish. In Japan, a chef must be licensed in order to prepare this fish. One fish carries enough poison to kill 30 people. Hmm…we know that jelly is good tasting, but what about jellyfish. There can’t be much to eating it. My guess is that it’s very rubbery. Perhaps, it’s even more rubberlike than octopus or squid. I was quite shocked to learn that people even eat cockroaches. I’ve got some large one’s that I have used to represent insects in my presentations. I don’t know about you but the idea of eating one is enough to make me sick. It’s also interesting that silkworms aren’t just raised to produce silk. Any way, I thought I would share with you some tidbits. I don’t read the book after eating. It’s interesting reading when I can stomach it. Talk to you later guys and gals!