Kevin's Compendium of Useless Fantasia

RSS feed for this page

Let's take a look at what I did in July:

• I made dinner for friends. Bacon-wrapped, balsamic-glazed scallops. They were pretty good. I forgot to put salt and pepper on them, and the skewers I used are designed to not stick, I think, so it was difficult to turn them. They tasted really good, though. I also made rice with turmeric and lemon-lime Bavrian. Lime jello, lemonade, and lemon zest. My previous attempt at Bavarian with Hip Whip were very disappointing, so I decided to go with real cream. Yum. It was a little darker on the bottom, so the jello could have set a bit more initially. And it could have used another 1/2 hour or so in the fridge, but I made it late, so I wanted to get it eaten.

• I made boneless chicken thighs with canola oil, garlic, lime juice, Thai red curry paste, tamari, and ginger powder. I put that over brown-rice spaghetti. Yum. Just the right mix of tang and spice. Just the noodles in the sauce were good, and the flavor was even more concentrated in the chicken.

• I made an attempt at a vegan variation on Bavarian. I mixed kosher/vegan unflavored jello substitute with 1 cup of boiling water. Then I put a bag of cranberries in a food processor, then added sugar. I added the cranberry pulp to the jello and let it sit in the refrigerator for a while. Then I added a container of Hip Whip. It's a bit weird. Quite tart. I doubt I'll make it again. The texture wasn't what I wanted, and I'm not too fond of the tartness.

• More chicken. I made boneless skinless chicken thighs in canola oil, then a sauce of dijon mustard, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, tamari, and honey, then put that over brown-rice angel hair pasta.

• I made cranberry-lime Bavarian. Cranberry jello, juice from 2 limes plus enough water to make a cup, a little less than 1 cup of sugar (normal is 1/2 cup, but I needed enough to sweeten the lime juice).

• I made pizza. I used a friend's dough recipe, and I put garlic powder in the dough. Olive oil, then veggie shred parmesan-romano-mozzarella mix, then pepperoni, then veggie shred cheddar-jack mix. Pretty good, even though it had that weird fake-cheese taste. Layering the cheese like that turned out really well. The top cheese melted better, and the bottom cheese gave a nice flavor balance.

• I finally made tofu pesto lasagna from Eat Right For Your Type, something I've been wanting to make for a while. Tofu, pesto, cheese, and spinach, basically. I also made shrimp avocado salad. I used a recipe I had gotten from someone after having their shrimp avocado salad. Shrimp, avocadoes, walnuts (original recipe called for pistachios), oil, parsley (original recipe called for cilantro), lemon juice, salt. I didn't "gently fold" it together, and I didn't let it refrigerate overnight, but it was still good.

• I wrote an essay about the various parts of my name. I interviewed both of my parents over the phone for it, and I learned some things that I hadn't known before. It was a neat experience. Then I read it for a small audience at a friend's story reading. I was pleased that it got people talking about their own names.

• I made squash with pasta for a small dinner group. I also made salad with romaine, basil, balsamic, and olive oil. Someone else made chocolate-chip cookies with barley malt and brown sugar. Someone else brought galic bread. Everyone really liked the pasta, which was from Cook's Illustrated, the first thing I have made from that magazine. Yellow summer squash and zucchini, pine nuts, basil, and some other things, all over farfalle (bow-tie pasta). Definitely worth repeating and playing with.

• I made new thing for dinner. A smidge of olive oil in a pot, then some minced garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Then a bunch of ground beef. Let the beef brown. Fresh basil, lime juice, salt, chick peas, cumin, coriander, chili powder, more garlic. Pretty good, and it got better after sitting in the refrigerator overnight. It might have been better with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt. I think that the lime juice is what moved it from good to very good. Next time, though, I'll try to find some leaner beef (this was 75% lean).

• I threw some random stuff on top of salmon and baked it. Balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, crushed red pepper flakes, thyme, and salt. I served it over rice cooked with paprika. I even managed to make a small salad, which I don't usually do with dinner for myself.

• A Bavrian experiment. I did the standard lime Bavarian and added cocoa powder to the whipping cream. It's a bit odd; I'm not sure that the cocoa powder goes well with the lime jello. And the one other person to taste it says it's too tart. Next time, I might try more sugar and melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder, and possibly change the fruit to orange or raspberry.

• I made a lazy dinner. I cooked up some rice, then added a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup to the pot when the rice was done. Added some Frank's Red Hot Sauce and a little salt. Very good warm, and decent cold (I'm eating it for breakfast as I type this).