Food, Glorious Food...
Thanks to bipagan and her husband's "sorry we're late" Danish kringle and fresh cherries, we had quite a feast last night. I made polenta with cheese and "peperonata", wanting to make Italian food that wasn't spaghetti for once. Even though the cookbook didn't suggest it, I guess these things do typically go together. I used a recipe like this one, but actually, I've since found versions on the 'net that sound yummier. People generally use different types of sweet bell pepper and include fresh garlic. I got one "boo" on that because I either didn't know or forgot that lovelokest doesn't like cooked peppers. (Sorry! I actually rarely ate peppers as a child and teenager because my family is a bunch of freaking northerners, so I really do know many recipes that don't include them, I promise.) We also had lemon pizzelle from the grocery store, which were very popular.
My lazy polenta: I basically cooked one cup of plain dry cornmeal according to the package directions, except that near the end of cooking I turned the heat down and simmered it, stirring it a lot to get the lumps out. Then I put our host's glass 9x13 pan on the burner for a few seconds to heat it up and smeared margarine on the bottom and an inch up the sides, and spread a little less than half of the cornmeal mush in a thin layer on the bottom. Then I sprinkled roughly 2/3 of a cup of shredded Swiss cheese over it, spread the rest of the mush over that, and put another 2/3 cup cheese over the top. I baked it for 20 minutes in a 350-degree oven. I used to eat cornmeal mush for breakfast occasionally, so I'm used to the taste of it, but I think some people would find it too bland, especially without the red wine vinegar from the peperonata soaked into it. All I could find online was a zillion copies of an even tamer recipe than I used, a few similar but needlessly unhealthy ones, and ideas from a bunch of people who puzzlingly want to smother it with seafood, so out of curiosity (and not being able to read Italian), I looked it up in German and found all sorts of interesting variations. People use different oils with it, they put mushrooms and/or onions in it and different spices (I think crushed rosemary would be really good), they use more pungent cheeses or make a separate cheese sauce to go over it (thankfully not of the Arby's Beef 'n' Cheddar variety). So my advice to anyone who wants to make a meal like that is, "Go nuts." But I'm glad I didn't, because as it was, the food was barely ready in time for Stargate Atlantis. That's why I try to avoid cooking when I'm not going to be home most of the day - being able to cut vegetables and measure or even partially cook things makes everything SO much easier. I'm definitely not Iron Chef material, but I'll probably never get fat unless I make so much money that I can actually afford to eat in restaurants and buy unholy amounts of fat-laden convenience foods, because it takes me pretty much all day just to cook one meal.
In other boring news, I finally got rid of that American Express Gift Card my uncle gave me. I'm really grateful to him for giving it to me, but when there's a $3.95 fee for using it, a $2 fee for every month that goes by for not using it after the first 12 months, and the threat of a black mark on one's credit report when using it as a partial payment for something more expensive (that mimics an attempt to go over the limit on a real AMEX card), it adds a little stress to the equation. At least I rarely see him, so he hasn't been bugging me to tell him how I spent it yet. So I basically decided that the next time I was in Madison, I would go to Dick's Sporting Goods and look for something that cost exactly $20. I got one of those shirts that is made of polyester and spandex but is supposed to feel like cotton and keep runners drier, and it actually works better than I would think. And they had an XS (women's), so it actually fits pretty well, though I still have to wear little girls' shorts with it. Darn real adults with their actual hips and such.
My mom was watching an episode of Seinfeld where George gets a date with a good-looking woman by cheerfully declaring, "My name is George, I'm unemployed, and I live with my parents!" Think that would actually work?
Damaged goods
Send them back
I can't work
I can't achieve
Send me back
Open the till
Give me the change
You said would do me good
Refund the cost
You said you're cheap but you're too much
My lazy polenta: I basically cooked one cup of plain dry cornmeal according to the package directions, except that near the end of cooking I turned the heat down and simmered it, stirring it a lot to get the lumps out. Then I put our host's glass 9x13 pan on the burner for a few seconds to heat it up and smeared margarine on the bottom and an inch up the sides, and spread a little less than half of the cornmeal mush in a thin layer on the bottom. Then I sprinkled roughly 2/3 of a cup of shredded Swiss cheese over it, spread the rest of the mush over that, and put another 2/3 cup cheese over the top. I baked it for 20 minutes in a 350-degree oven. I used to eat cornmeal mush for breakfast occasionally, so I'm used to the taste of it, but I think some people would find it too bland, especially without the red wine vinegar from the peperonata soaked into it. All I could find online was a zillion copies of an even tamer recipe than I used, a few similar but needlessly unhealthy ones, and ideas from a bunch of people who puzzlingly want to smother it with seafood, so out of curiosity (and not being able to read Italian), I looked it up in German and found all sorts of interesting variations. People use different oils with it, they put mushrooms and/or onions in it and different spices (I think crushed rosemary would be really good), they use more pungent cheeses or make a separate cheese sauce to go over it (thankfully not of the Arby's Beef 'n' Cheddar variety). So my advice to anyone who wants to make a meal like that is, "Go nuts." But I'm glad I didn't, because as it was, the food was barely ready in time for Stargate Atlantis. That's why I try to avoid cooking when I'm not going to be home most of the day - being able to cut vegetables and measure or even partially cook things makes everything SO much easier. I'm definitely not Iron Chef material, but I'll probably never get fat unless I make so much money that I can actually afford to eat in restaurants and buy unholy amounts of fat-laden convenience foods, because it takes me pretty much all day just to cook one meal.
In other boring news, I finally got rid of that American Express Gift Card my uncle gave me. I'm really grateful to him for giving it to me, but when there's a $3.95 fee for using it, a $2 fee for every month that goes by for not using it after the first 12 months, and the threat of a black mark on one's credit report when using it as a partial payment for something more expensive (that mimics an attempt to go over the limit on a real AMEX card), it adds a little stress to the equation. At least I rarely see him, so he hasn't been bugging me to tell him how I spent it yet. So I basically decided that the next time I was in Madison, I would go to Dick's Sporting Goods and look for something that cost exactly $20. I got one of those shirts that is made of polyester and spandex but is supposed to feel like cotton and keep runners drier, and it actually works better than I would think. And they had an XS (women's), so it actually fits pretty well, though I still have to wear little girls' shorts with it. Darn real adults with their actual hips and such.
My mom was watching an episode of Seinfeld where George gets a date with a good-looking woman by cheerfully declaring, "My name is George, I'm unemployed, and I live with my parents!" Think that would actually work?
Damaged goods
Send them back
I can't work
I can't achieve
Send me back
Open the till
Give me the change
You said would do me good
Refund the cost
You said you're cheap but you're too much