Delish

[harmony_bites]

I'm feeling social today, even though I'm on an extended vacation from HP fandom and not sure if and when I'll ever be back, so I thought I'd share this recipe I tried for dinner last night as a way of saying "Hi, hope you're all well." The nefarious influence of silburygirl among others has led me to gain something of a taste for veggie goodness. (Oh, stop

Comments

[elidyce]

Good to see you! :) And much understanding on being all Pottered out for a while. I've been through it several times, with X-Men, X-Men Movieverse, Potter, Smallville, etc... you just reach saturation point eventually. Taking a complete break for a while can really help.

Or, you know, finding that you're expecting a baby and being largely distracted from all things fic-related for a while. ;)

As to eating more veggies, great idea! I share my favourite tofu recipe:

Cut firm tofu into slices about half a centimetre thick.

Marinate in soy sauce for at least five minutes.

Fry in just a little bit of oil - one of the good ones, like sunflower or olive, that keep your coat shiny and your nose cold and moist - until it's crispy around the edges.

Can be eaten alone, cut up into strips and put into salad, or as part of a tofu-burger - I usually put it with lettuce, tomato, fried onion, grated carrot, and a bit of organic mayonnaise (the kind made with real eggs, lemon, honey, etc, not the weird sweet standard commercial stuff) between two slices of toasted bread. Does have a bit of fat and salt, obviously, but it's tasty, cheap, and proteinalicious, and the veggies will fill you up while the crispy tofu gives them flavour.

I also recommend cooking silken tofu, the runny stuff, in a pan with onions, grated carrot, and a dash of soy sauce or seasoning of your choice. It comes out with a consistency like runny scrambled eggs, then you mix it into rice like pasta sauce into pasta and it is *yummy* as well as nutritious. Plus, it only takes about five minutes, goes nicely with salad, and stores well.

[harmony_bites]

I think with fandoms you tend to reach saturation point from two directions. First, there's the crap. It's inevitable and often a little different in each fandom (I recall Trek for instance partisan national politics was more intrusive than here). You get to know people too well and your good will gets eroded by wank, diva-ism, and HP is prone as Trek wasn't to those who try to control others given the moderated archives and exchanges. Trek didn't have that, but when Enterprise the series started, quality started to crash even before cancellation. With HP there just hasn't been a SSHG I've tried, many, many of the authors I've loved have moved on, and with canon's end there's little under the sun, and yeah I think I have moved way beyond saturation point so at least a break is called for.

I can't imagine though I'd ever not love Snape/Hermione and the old stories I fell in love with, just as I still love the Janeway/Chakotay Talking Stick/Circle--and that includes your Survivors. Even if right now the very thought of SSHG induces a nausea akin to that too full "no, not one more" feeling right now.

Love hearing from you! And I'll definitely try the recipe. Tried Falafel from scratch last night, but not too successful--for one the recipe I found involved frying and that's not good on the health or weight loss front. I did love the homemade hummus though. Will have to try that again.

[elidyce]

It's that one-too-many cookies feeling, isn't it? No matter how much you love them, sooner or later you just have to stop eating them before they make you throw up.

A lot of my best known recipes involve frying, as I grew up with a whole lot of campfire cooking. The very healthiest way to fry things, as far as I know, is in a well-treated cast-iron frying pan, which requires almost no oil at all without the health-risks of teflon. But a drop of sunflower oil won't do much harm - I've been told it's one of the healthiest oils to use for frying, and you do need some oil and fats in your diet for good health. (Avocado, olive oil, oil-rich nuts etc, are all good) For a non-fried option, tofu cubed and marinated in soy sauce is also awesome in a tomato pasta sauce - it doesn't taste anything like meat, but it's yummy.

It's good to hear from you too! How have you been?

[harmony_bites]

It's that one-too-many cookies feeling, isn't it? No matter how much you love them, sooner or later you just have to stop eating them before they make you throw up.

I stopped in Trek before that point--I think because nothing can hurt you like your first fandom so there I got cut enough to want to stop the bleeding. And also the quality in Trek crashed really fast towards the end of my time there. Even post-canon, the quantity and quality in Snape/Hermione hasn't been hurt as dramatically because we were so huge a fandom to begin with. So yeah, instead I've had time for that oh, god, I-can't-believe-I-ate-the-whole-thing-feeling to develop! (Although maybe that means a recovery is possible with a break)

A lot of my best known recipes involve frying, as I grew up with a whole lot of campfire cooking. The very healthiest way to fry things, as far as I know, is in a well-treated cast-iron frying pan, which requires almost no oil at all without the health-risks of teflon. But a drop of sunflower oil won't do much harm - I've been told it's one of the healthiest oils to use for frying, and you do need some oil and fats in your diet for good health.

I've read that canola and olive oils, being mono-saturated are the healthiest, and yes, you do need some fats in your diet,. but not much, and it's pretty easy to get enough and fats are much more calorie dense than carbs or proteins, so I would like to minimize them--certainly deep frying in two inches of any oil isn't the way to go, and is what was called for in the falafal recipe. Tofu is a favorite, and I'd often make it szechuan style marinated in a bit of sesame oil, sherry, soy sauce, broth and bean paste, then stir-fryed with veggies over rice--bean curd is a versatile food.

It's good to hear from you too! How have you been?

I've been fine--although not been inclined to writing unfortunately. I know you're anxiously waiting for a certain development ;-)

[elidyce]

Recovery is definitely possible with a break... it's worked for me in the past. It's much easier to get past the glutted feeling than the oh-god-don't-let-them-get-me feeling, definitely. Holidaying in a couple of other fandoms might help. :)

Olive oil is excellent, I'm told, especially the extra virgin, but it gets less good for you when overheated. Or so I have been told. Sunflower oil is healthier when hot.

Deep frying is gross, though. When I fry things, I use maybe half a teaspoon of oil... half-filling the pan is just icky! Just enough to keep it from sticking, the way you would with a good stir-fry. (And it's worth trying a cast-iron or treated ceramic pan, if you can get them, not a steel or teflon one - they need significantly less oil than steel and won't shed any harmful bits into your food like teflon)

The certain development is due in two weeks. ^-^ I am both excited and apprehensive!

[harmony_bites]

Holidaying in a couple of other fandoms might help. :)

I wish. My muse seems a picky bitch. I rather like the Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop, and a new book came out in it recently. I was really relishing reading it, especially since a new LK Hamilton Anita Blake came out reminding me how bad that series had jumped the shark, and I was wondering, gee, why can't I feel the urge to write in this fandom? I think it's that I both need to intensely feel for a character, but feel he or she is ill-done by their creator. In Trek, I hated how Kirk died, hated how he ended up alone, and hated he wasn't as appreciated in Trek fandom as Spock--I think that primed me for fanfic in Trek. With HP, I fell hard for Snape, and boy, he really didn't get a break from JKR. But with Bishop for instance, I'm happy with the way she's developed things--I don't feel this need for course correction. Or the intensity for any one character actually. I wish a new fandom would bite me.

Olive oil is excellent, I'm told, especially the extra virgin, but it gets less good for you when overheated. Or so I have been told. Sunflower oil is healthier when hot.

Huh. Hadn't heard that.

I don't own a cast iron or ceramic pan. Not sure I've even seen one around for a long time. Mine *are* mostly teflon--but I usually sautee in very little oil or use other methods like baking.

The certain development is due in two weeks. ^-^ I am both excited and apprehensive!

I can only imagine!