Mmmmmm-jadra February 8, 2010

I did it. I made mujadra, which is spelled so many ways that I’m not even going to bother to list them all. I’ve been meaning to for awhile. It’s really not that hard. Lentils, bulgur, onions, oil, spices. How hard is that?

I guess I just never got around to it. There’s a lot of things I never get around to. I saw a book while I was at Kroger yesterday: Wintergirls by the same lady who wrote Speak. I want to read it, but I’ll probably never get around to it.

It’s yet another book about eating disorders. Anorexia, just like me. When I read the summary, it made me yearn for those days when there was a space between my thighs. Isn’t that odd?

I still don’t have my period. Doctors ask me if I want it: “I still don’t have a period,” I say. “Well, do you want a period?” they reply. I always say yes, but it’s a mechanical yes, much like the lies I used to tell when I was thin: “I ate before coming,” “I’m not hungry,” “I hate nuts”.

Period: such an interesting word. Periods mark an ending, the ending of a complete thought, of a menstrual cycle, of a space in time. But periods are not the end-they’re not paragraphs or pages or novels. No, periods are somewhere inbetween. A little bit like I’m inbetween beautiful and ugly, thin and fat, anorexic and bulimic. Do you ever think about how many inbetweens there are in life?

Deep down, I feel like not having a period keeps me in this “inbetween” where I can be anorexic, where there’s still a chance for me to go back to the times when I was happy. Was I happy? I can’t even remember now. I must have been at least a little happy, if only for a few moments. I’ve gained all this weight and lost all those moments.

And I think that, all along, when I was gaining weight, I was tricked into believing that the food would make me happy. That being “healthy” again would make me happy. But we are never healthy unless we are happy and, now, I am neither.

Please, just let me be beautiful again.

Period.

Randomness February 6, 2010

So I know I haven’t been posting. I promised the site editors at least two posts a week. So, this one’s going to be about a little chem joke.

I could whine about how I’ve been eating so much and getting fat and ugly. But chem joke sounds better, doesn’t it?

Johnny was a chemist
But now he is no more
What Johnny thought was H20
Was H2SO4

Pav Bhaji (sort of) January 24, 2010

IF YOU ARE AN ETHIOPIAN AND READING THIS, PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME HOW TO MAKE ANY MILD ETHIOPIAN VEGETARIAN DISH!!!!

PLEASE

Okay, now that that’s done with, I can start talking about all the classes I’m failing. All because of a damn i-clicker. What is an i-clicker, you ask. It’s the most annoying, perverted piece of technological crap I have ever had the misfortune to come across.

And believe you me, I’ve come across a lot of perverted technological instruments.

As you might have guessed from the previous post, there hasn’t been much cooking going on in my kitchen. Yes, there was the making of the broccoli (see the oven-roasted broccoli recipe), but that’s not truly “cooking”.

This recipe came more out of desperation. The kind of desperation that results from buying a large amount of produce that is (now) rotting. So what do you do with rotting produce?

Well, if you’re a normal person, you throw it out. If you’re me, you chop it up and boil it in some tomatoes and spices. I suppose this is my equivalent of “what’s in the fridge soup”. I don’t really do soup (unless it’s split pea, crushed lentil or black bean) so no soup for me, just mush. Doesn’t sound too great but it’s amazing. AND it works with any veggies.

It’s basically just a canvas for spices.

yummy

Pseudo Pav Bhaji

• veggies of choice (mushrooms, spinach, eggplant, etc)
• tomatoes and tomato puree
• onions
• spices (I go with the indian “garam masala” and “kitchen king” with a couple dashes of turmeric, cumin and coriander; garlic and ginger as always)
• lemon juice
• green peas

→Saute the onions, garlic and ginger. Add veggies and tomatoes/puree. Add spices. Stir. Cover. Cook till veggies are soft and soupy goes to mushy. Top with a squeeze of lemon juice and a LOT of green peas.

So good.

Science is taking over my life January 17, 2010

Now I remember why I didn’t have time to eat in high school: it was all those damn chemistry classes.

This post isn’t really food related. Or weight related. Or anything related really. I just felt like I should say hello and let everyone know I haven’t drowned myself in arsenic yet.

That’s next week.

On a somewhat less sadistic note, I did get my old job back. Well, I suppose that’s sadistic in and of itself. Is it still sadism if you give people a local anesthetic before cutting them open?

Hopefully I’ll be cooking something today.

Sushi (No raw fish here!) January 9, 2010

Well, obviously there’s no raw fish…I’m a vegetarian.

I still haven’t figured out what to do with my life, although I am still open to suggestions. I’m not applying to any grad schools or anything but, seeing as how I can’t get a job until I get a real diploma, I figured I might as well sign up for some science classes to prevent me from going crazy.

Although science classes have been known to MAKE people crazy.

Oh, I’m also looking for a job (not a career job, a regular job), so if anyone knows about one in the Lansing area, please…do share.

Until then, I will be haplessly cooking. Hopefully, all of it won’t be hapless. This sushi was pretty hapless but that’s mainly because I neglected to buy carrots and sprouts and anything else that one would normally put in sushi.

Really, it was just more of an impulse thing. Tasted good warm though.

Sushi

Brown Rice Sushi

• sushi wrappers
• sprouted brown rice (I actually had one of those Annie Chun’s kits that I bought forever ago and thought I should use. I don’t really know exactly how one would sprout brown rice)
• portabello mushrooms
• marinade for the mushrooms (soy sauce, garlic, ginger, salt/pepper, apple cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce)
• other vegetables/fruit (if I had them, I would have thrown in carrots and possibly sprouts, but I ended up with just baby corn and pineapple to accompany the mushrooms)

→Prepare the marinade. Marinate the mushrooms: you can either do it the long way or just do what I did and put them in a dish with the marinade, cover the dish and zap it with your microwave until the flavors are absorbed).
Prepare the rice. For me, this meant microwaving the little rice container my kit came with.
Spread the sushi wrapper (seaweed) on a bamboo mat (if you actually have a bamboo mat, you probably won’t be reading this so you can just spread it on the counter like me).
I didn’t use the seaweed that came with the pack (it tasted funny) but I had some other dried seaweed that I bought from the grocery store so I just used that. It had directions for wrapping on the back with little pictures. Without the pictures, here it is:
Spread the rice on the sushi wrapper (dried seaweed), leaving about one inch of space at the end (the long end, not the short one).
Align the vegetables along the edge of the riced side of the sushi wrapper (seaweed).
Roll.
Chop.
Dip in sauce (marinade for the mushrooms).
Enjoy.

Grape Leaves January 6, 2010

Apparently, existential crises are extremely conducive to the culinary arts. I’ve been cooking like crazy these past few days…muffins, mushrooms, eggplant, and, of course, grape leaves.

Before I get to the leaves though, I think I need to elaborate on the existential crisis. If you really don’t care and you’re reading this anyway, please keep reading…because I need some serious help on this one. That means you Nina!

As you may or may not have heard, I’ve just graduated but, according to the wonderful educational bureaucracy that is my university, I won’t be receiving my diploma till next semester. (There was some sticky business with a few transfer credits from the study abroad I did in England).

Of course this means that no one is going to hire me. Not that I’m even sure I WANT to be hired right now. I did fail my journalism class (first class I’ve ever failed in my entire life). I’m probably not even meant to be a journalist. Getting that grade was like a life sentence…”Here’s your future as a journalist–failure.”

My friend says not to let that idiot discourage me. But maybe he’s right (the professor, not the friend). Maybe I’d be no good at being a journalist. I didn’t enjoy the class all that much. Two of the three papers I was assigned didn’t even use ONE of my stories.

Maybe I wouldn’t be happy being a journalist.

But then what the hell am I supposed to be? A doctor, maybe. I don’t care enough about people. Although the strange combination of art and science that is medicine has always captured my interest. I’m just afraid that, if I go through all the extra school, I’ll get bored of it. I might just be bored of being a journalist. I get bored oh so easily.

Bored of TV shows, bored of foods, bored of places, bored of things, bored of classes, bored of people, bored of jobs, bored of careers…I haven’t been able to stick with one thing for an extended period of time. Everything just gets old after awhile.

*sigh* I wish I knew why I’m constantly craving new. Maybe that’s why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place: I thought it would always be something new, but given this last semester, that feels like a fallacy.

What do I do?!!!

Grape Leaves in the pot (I know the picture's bad, but it was dark out so I couldn't get a clear picture without the flash)

Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves
**I’m not going to detail how to stuff them because I don’t think I’d be able to describe it properly. Just google it and watch a video.**

• Grape leaves
• Rice (or brown rice, which is what I used)
• chopped tomatoes
• chickpeas
• parsley (chopped)
• green onions (stem and bulb, chopped)
• yellow onions
• garlic and lemon juice to cook the leaves in
• olive oil

→Drain, rinse and blanch the leaves. Soak the rice in water for 10-20 minutes and rinse.
Mix the rice with everything but the garlic, lemon and olive oil.
Spread the grape leaves out, put a tablespoon of rice mix in the center and fold (this is where you might want to look at a video).
Line the bottom of a pot with carrots or onions or extra grape leaves. Arrange the grape leaves on top so that there’s no room between or around them.
Put a layer of sliced garlic on top. Add lemon juice (FRESH) and enough water to just reach up to where the grape leaves are.
Put the pot on high heat until the water boils and then reduce to medium for about an hour.
Enjoy all the hard work.

I lose weight on vacation. December 31, 2009

I swear. It’s true. I think it’s because I’m a picky eater. When I’m at home, I eat unlimited amounts of hummus (my one weakness that’s not sugar). If there’s no hummus, then there’s no fun in it for me so I end up eating nothing but fruit and vegetables.

Which is what vegetarians should be eating anyway, right?

Anyway, this isn’t just a random tidbit about me that none of you probably cared to know. It’s actually relevant to this post, which I’m going to try to make relevant to this blog…sort of.

I just got back from a 5-day trip to Disney World. Sorry for the lack of postage. I was too busy trying to make my dreams come true and what not. I did meet the fairy godmother but found her a little to vapid to even understand the depth of my pains.

*sigh* I guess that’s what happens when you sell out to big corporations like Disney. No more power to grant wishes and what not.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t horribly hard to find decent veggie food down there. I figured it would be all pasta and pizza, but there was actually decent hummus in Disney World!

If you’re into Japanese food, there’s a place in the Hilton on Lake Buena Vista that made me realize how much I love sushi. I’ve had sushi before and decided only the the non-vegetarian versions must be good, but the vegetarian sushi at this place had me going back for more.
Benihana (I think they have locations in other places too)

Benehana's sushi (from their webpage)

Disney’s Magic Kingdom has a place called the Columbia Harbor House with excellent hummus. It’s one of those dirty diner type places where everyone orders fried chicken and a side of fries, but the hummus is amazing. The vegetarian chili was pretty good too, but it was a little watery for me.

So there it is. I managed to make this post about food. Hopefully I’ll be back to cooking soon.

Chat Masala (without the chips!) December 15, 2009

So my internet has decided to work only sporadically. I guess that’s what you get for trying to mooch off of someone else’s connection.

Ah, there it goes again.

Well, no need to whine about my internet woes on my blog. I would say something deep and insightful about the fact that I’m done with school but I really can’t think of anything to say right now. So here’s a recipe…

Eggplant Chat

Chat Masala like stuff

• Eggplant, sliced
• Chat masala (you can get this at an Indian grocers)
• Chickpeas (or hummus)
• Sweet and sour chutney (or something sweet and something sour)
• Plain yogurt

→Rub both sides of every eggplant slice with the chat masala (I just sprinkled it on top and rubbed it around with my finger). Grill.
When the slices are done being grilled (don’t burn them!), put them on a plate and top with the chickpeas (hummus?), plain yogurt and chutney.
If you’d like, top with something crunchy (unsweetened cereal? boondi? crumbled chips?)

Typically, this dish is done with chips. You can get it at pretty much any roadside stand in India, but I think the eggplant combined with the masala makes a nice change. If you don’t want to buy the chutney, just think of it this way-you need something sweet and something a tiny bit sour.

Couscous, etc December 7, 2009

Note to self: Avoid sitting on flimsy desks or you’re going to end up on the floor with a desk on top of you.

And that is painful.

Seriously!

Look at the pretty pomegranate seeds!

Fruity, Nutty and Cheesy Couscous

• couscous
• pomegranate seeds (so worth the trouble)
• goat cheese, crumbled
• pumpkin seeds, toasted of course
• FRESH cilantro and/or mint, chopped
• lime juice, preferably fresh
• pomegranate molasses or, if you have no idea what the hell that is, just use balsamic vinegar (see UPDATE)
• olive oil if you’re a “put olive oil in your dressing” sort of person, which I, being fat phobic am most obviously not

→Prepare couscous as directed on package (for an extra kick, use veggie stock in place of water). Fluff with fork after prepared.
Once couscous is ready, stir in dressing*
Add the cilantro/mint, pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds and goat cheese (no substitutions on the goat cheese!)
Stir until well combined.
Chill because this tastes horrible warm.

*NOTE: For every 1/2c of dry couscous, make a dressing of about 1/2T lime juice and 1/2T balsamic vinegar. I have no idea how much oil you would add seeing as how I try to avoid the stuff as much as I can.

The amounts of the other ingredients are relative to the flavor you want. For about 1/2c. dry couscous, I used about half a pomegranate, 4oz of goat cheese and 1-2T pumpkin seeds.

UPDATE (12/12/09): Something was off with this recipe so I tried adding some pineapple juice. It helped, but not all the way. You need something to offset the sour, orange juice perhaps?

Top 10 TV Shows/Movies of the Decade December 7, 2009

10. Julie and Julia: A little slow and a little annoying at times, but it still deserves a spot on here.

9. The Princess and the Frog: Yes, I realize this hasn’t come out yet, but it’s a disney movie! How bad can it be?

8. Ace of Cakes: Nice blend of art and cake, although ultimately pointless.

7. 30-minute meals with Rachel Ray: Yes, her voice is a little annoying and I object to her crumbling under the pressure to lose weight, but someone who can chop that fast AND talk at the same time, deserves a spot on here.

6. Chopped: Iron Chef without the drama.

5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Burton’s, of course!): Chocolate river, enough said.

4. Unwrapped: Interesting facts about food that you never wanted to know but will be glad to learn. Oh and my 11-year-old brother likes this show. If that’s not a good enough reason, I don’t know what is.

3. The Biggest Loser: Something about it is strangely motivating. Don’t need all the paraphernalia though…

2. Iron Chef: Do I need a reason?

And the NUMBER ONE TV show/Movie in the past 10 years is most defiantly…..

Picture courtesy of The Food Network

1. Good Eats: If you haven’t seen this show and enjoy tinkering with recipes, I’m sorry for your loss. Alton Brown is absolutely hilarious as well.