Cooking
Two days into true summer temps - lower 80's/upper 90's, 50% humidity and rising, shirt sticking to your back in five minutes or less of life al fresco - the AC at home has kicked the bucket. The AC repair people suggest they'll be able to come out in a week.
Also? Thunderstorms.
Never have I had such a great excuse to hide in a glorious, windowless, air-conditioned office (shared with two other people) and compose long livejournal entries.
I do not have SAD. I am not ADD, ADHD, hypoglycemic, manic-depressive, or anything else I've thought I might be, except maybe a touch hypochondriac. That said, I definitely loosen up and start experimenting with food when it gets warmer. Recent exploits include the Spanish rice mess, banana bread muffins, and peanut butter cookies.
The Spanish rice thing - when you're cooking for one person, you can buy stuff like the Lipton sides, or rice-a-roni, and trick it out with chicken and vegetables to make some perfectly acceptable meals. Ideally, Spanish rice with chicken breast and red and green peppers would've been spicy and yummy. Unfortunately, the chicken breasts spent too much time in the heat and got too tough, and the rice mix was woefully lacking in heat. I smothered every serving in black pepper and barely made a dent. This just tempts me to see how white rice tastes if cooked with chili spices, and/or taco seasoning mix, but I'm pretty sure that it would be disgusting.
The banana bread muffins were a consequence of the overripe bananas in my kitchen. I made three modifications to the recipie in my copy of The Joy of Cooking (below): I made a wild guess that "shortening" meant "butter" (note to self: vegetable oil is closer to the mark), used mini-muffin tins instead of a bread pan, and stuck a whole almond on each muffin instead of mixing in ground nuts. The result was a little dry, but not inedible.
Joy of Cooking quick banana bread recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; have all ingredients at about 70 degrees. Sift together 1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Blend until creamy 1/3 cup shortening, 2/3 cup sugar and 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind. Beat in 1 to 2 beaten eggs and 1 to 1 1/4 cups ripe banana pulp. Add sifted ingredients in about 3 parts to the sugar mixture. Beat the batter after each addition until smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup broken nutmeats. Place the batter in a greased bread pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until done; cool before slicing.
If I were going to do this again, I would call people to ask, "what's shortening?" before getting started. Also, the almonds would either get crushed and mixed in - perfect for midterms rage-venting, since I own a hammer, but no grinder - or I'd add almond extract to the batter. Even better, I'd plan ahead and use walnuts, like I'd originally intended. The mini-muffin thing was really cute, and I wouldn't change that a bit. For one thing, I'd have to buy a breadpan.
Peanut butter cookies are one of the cooking/baking projects I can reliably whip out to my satisfaction. This time they came out a little dry, so I probably need to stick to a one-to-one flour/peanut butter ratio. But they're really rich.
Joy of Cooking peanut butter cookie recipe:
Preheat oven to 375. Beat until soft 1/2 cup butter or shortening. Add gradually and blend until creamy 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar. Beat in 1 egg, 1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Sift before measuring and add 1 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Roll dough into small balls and place balls on a greased cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork and bake 10 to 12 minutes.
I can almost make oatmeal raisin cookies that make my toes curl, but haven't quite gotten there. Making these is complicated by the "instant gratification" factor - I don't usually keep milk in the house, so I have to remember to pick it up with the rest of the grocery haul if I don't want my cookies to flatten out. Also, something's off about the raisin/batter factor; I've been adding a full cup, but I think next time I'm going to dial back to the 1/2 cup the recipe dictates and throw in a bit of cinnamon to see if that solves the flavor issue.
Tangentially, fresh herbs blow dried out of the water. Thank you, dad, for the home-grown oregano. You have spoiled me for life.
Also? Thunderstorms.
Never have I had such a great excuse to hide in a glorious, windowless, air-conditioned office (shared with two other people) and compose long livejournal entries.
I do not have SAD. I am not ADD, ADHD, hypoglycemic, manic-depressive, or anything else I've thought I might be, except maybe a touch hypochondriac. That said, I definitely loosen up and start experimenting with food when it gets warmer. Recent exploits include the Spanish rice mess, banana bread muffins, and peanut butter cookies.
The Spanish rice thing - when you're cooking for one person, you can buy stuff like the Lipton sides, or rice-a-roni, and trick it out with chicken and vegetables to make some perfectly acceptable meals. Ideally, Spanish rice with chicken breast and red and green peppers would've been spicy and yummy. Unfortunately, the chicken breasts spent too much time in the heat and got too tough, and the rice mix was woefully lacking in heat. I smothered every serving in black pepper and barely made a dent. This just tempts me to see how white rice tastes if cooked with chili spices, and/or taco seasoning mix, but I'm pretty sure that it would be disgusting.
The banana bread muffins were a consequence of the overripe bananas in my kitchen. I made three modifications to the recipie in my copy of The Joy of Cooking (below): I made a wild guess that "shortening" meant "butter" (note to self: vegetable oil is closer to the mark), used mini-muffin tins instead of a bread pan, and stuck a whole almond on each muffin instead of mixing in ground nuts. The result was a little dry, but not inedible.
Joy of Cooking quick banana bread recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; have all ingredients at about 70 degrees. Sift together 1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Blend until creamy 1/3 cup shortening, 2/3 cup sugar and 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind. Beat in 1 to 2 beaten eggs and 1 to 1 1/4 cups ripe banana pulp. Add sifted ingredients in about 3 parts to the sugar mixture. Beat the batter after each addition until smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup broken nutmeats. Place the batter in a greased bread pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until done; cool before slicing.
If I were going to do this again, I would call people to ask, "what's shortening?" before getting started. Also, the almonds would either get crushed and mixed in - perfect for midterms rage-venting, since I own a hammer, but no grinder - or I'd add almond extract to the batter. Even better, I'd plan ahead and use walnuts, like I'd originally intended. The mini-muffin thing was really cute, and I wouldn't change that a bit. For one thing, I'd have to buy a breadpan.
Peanut butter cookies are one of the cooking/baking projects I can reliably whip out to my satisfaction. This time they came out a little dry, so I probably need to stick to a one-to-one flour/peanut butter ratio. But they're really rich.
Joy of Cooking peanut butter cookie recipe:
Preheat oven to 375. Beat until soft 1/2 cup butter or shortening. Add gradually and blend until creamy 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar. Beat in 1 egg, 1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Sift before measuring and add 1 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Roll dough into small balls and place balls on a greased cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork and bake 10 to 12 minutes.
I can almost make oatmeal raisin cookies that make my toes curl, but haven't quite gotten there. Making these is complicated by the "instant gratification" factor - I don't usually keep milk in the house, so I have to remember to pick it up with the rest of the grocery haul if I don't want my cookies to flatten out. Also, something's off about the raisin/batter factor; I've been adding a full cup, but I think next time I'm going to dial back to the 1/2 cup the recipe dictates and throw in a bit of cinnamon to see if that solves the flavor issue.
Tangentially, fresh herbs blow dried out of the water. Thank you, dad, for the home-grown oregano. You have spoiled me for life.