Laura

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it today, and happy Thursday to those who don't.

And for anyone who is having a rough time of whatever type, I send caring and hope it gets better in whatever way it can.

Meanwhile, I share a brief and silly story to brighten your day. We are having Thanksgiving dinner at home, and I don't normally cook a Thanksgiving dinner - let alone a full turkey. But as I was able to get a free one at the store while buying what I would have anyway, I am in fact cooking a whole turkey. Plus miscellaneous sides and so on, though at this stage there's very little left to be done other than application of heat and some mixing for some of them.

But! I was planning out tucking the roasting pan and the sheet pan the rolls will be on back in the oven to cool (so they won't be on the counter when I need that counter space!) later on. At the same time I was getting a kid some microwave pasta because it's hours yet until the feast and he was hungry now.

So I put on the oven gloves to take the bowl from the microwave (four minutes makes for a very hot glass bowl, and I prefer not to burn my hands), moved it to the hot pad I'd set out, turned back to close the microwave door, and - because I'd been thinking about returning things to the oven which is right next to the microwave - very nearly took the gloves off and tucked them in the microwave.

I'd have had a right hard time finding THOSE when I next needed them! Fortunately they are back where they are supposed to be, so I don't have to use a clumsier oven mitt to get the turkey out later, only to find what I needed a bit after when I microwave the peas.

Mmmmmmmm. Clam Chowder (Jake's, from a can...so sue me) was always among my favorite things growing up. YUM. And...then I had to go lactose-free. Clam Chowder generally doesn't work with that. And then I went low-FODMAP...onions, celery...oops.

So. Today I have GLORIOUS clam chowder, richer than what I was used to, but in a very good way.
I started with https://fructosefreeme.com/tag/clam-chowder/ and made the following changes:

• Substitute Earth's Balance one-to-one for butter
• Substitute lactose-free whole milk one-to-one for cream
• Completely omit celery
• Use only 1.5 turnips (because shredding turnips is a pain...)
• Substitute 1/2 tsp dried thyme (because I had it)
• Substitute 3 ounces of chopped cooked bacon intended for topping salads (because I'm lazy)

And thus, add the bacon/Earth's balance/turnip all at once initially and cook for 8-10 minutes, then move on with the recipe.

Oh MAN is it good. Ian liked it so much he asked for seconds. Scott and Andrew had taquitos, but I expected that.

Courtesy of Facebook memories, I was reminded of this recipe: http://kyrielle.dreamwidth.org/2014/08/10/chicken-pineapple-slow-cooker-tagine.html

It was delicious and we loved it! But it's not FODMAP friendly. So I'm revisiting it. I am not making it this week (the meal planning is already done!), but I'm revising it to something I think will work and that I plan to try.

( Read more... )

Well, the boys were "okay" with their eggs and pleased with their garlic bread tonight. Didn't get them to eat the salad. (Didn't try hard, either. WHY do people love "spring greens"? I consider eating them a necessary evil when they're what I have, but if the taste were any sharper, I could've used it to cut the garlic bread.)

We are getting a CSA share from OurTable this summer: http://www.ourtable.us/news/springsummer-local-food-boxes-week-3 was this week's.

Garlic bread made with the white part of the garlic and a whole lot of butter (and a loaf of Italian bread from the store); eggs cooked with the green garlic (for the boys and Scott) or with zucchini, some radish greens, and a bit of choi (me, because cannot have garlic); and, urgh, spring greens in a salad.

Not too shabby. I'll enjoy eating the actual radishes tomorrow, and I have another serving of my eggs and another of theirs left over. And enough greens for argh. They were really generous with the salad greens.

I'm actually looking forward to "oh GOD they planted ZUCCHINI" season because I love all the options zucchini provides. I realize this makes me a freak. But...we got our first zucchini this week. YAY. (Extra yay, because joking aside, that means we'll lean more toward strawberries in a future week, and if you ask me if I want 'extra strawberries' or 'extra zucchini' to be a thing in a week that already had some of whatever-it-is, well, extra strawberries are more-appreciated by the rest of the household and equally appreciated by me, so. But I also have a lovely chocolate-zucchini-muffin recipe that will probably get some play time this summer. Tonight I didn't have the energy for it tho.)

I'm lazy, so I Googled this and found: http://www.paleorunningmomma.com/pre-race-food-easy-paleo-and-low-fodmap-meatloaf/

And then, because I'm lazy, I further adapted it. What I did:

2 pounds ground turkey
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp salt*
2-3 tsp Italian seasoning**
1 tsp dried chives

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix ingredients thoroughly. Spray a 9x5 baking pan and press mixture into it, pressing down a bit more in the center. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes / until no longer pink in the center. (I think I overcooked this slightly. I don't think it actually mattered. It was wonderful.)

* I was quite happy with this amount but you should be aware that I often find tasty what others call bland, and adjust your recipe accordingly. The original called for 3/4 tsp.

** I didn't have poultry seasoning handy and I couldn't find any at the store that was looked low FODMAP. As it happens, I'm glad I couldn't find it. Best substitution is best. I don't WANT poultry seasoning. I used McCormick's Italian mix. Since this already had oregano and basil, I added more than 2 but less than 3 teaspoons and called it good. It was.

After seeing several very positive posts from synecdochic about sous vide and the Anova Precision Cooker, I decided to get one and try it.

I'm terrible at steaks. Seriously, oven-baking them is the only way I don't destroy them to the point you can't eat them. I've set the smoke alarm off. It's ridiculous.

Sous vide and sear? I can do that, and my first attempt produced the best steak I've ever cooked...and it was edible. So, there's that. Now trying it with a lesser cut and seeing if the long-cook-time means tender works for us.

So, easily amused Laura is easily amused. Also enjoying the chance to eat good steak without having to go to a steakhouse. Since I'm still eating mostly low-FODMAP with some experiments to see where I don't have to, it's nice to know what the seasonings are. (Low-FODMAP means, among other things, no onion or garlic flesh. Restaurants probably do use those in a lot of cases.)

Oh man I am stuffed. Happily. The kids mostly ate the rice (Drew) and olives/pineapple (Ian), but both tried the chicken, and Ian at least said 'yum' and liked the spicing. Scott and I loved it.

( Recipe, in case anyone wants it )

And enough leftovers for me to have a couple lunches this week from it (one wrap in a tortilla - yes, I'm weird - and one salad with a side of the dish cold), plus probably another meal's worth of rice (for Drew) and meat/sauce/whatever (for Scott and I, with olives for the boys).

...yes, really, it went that fast. Inhale-worthy. Though if I weren't cooking for the boys, I'd be really tempted to omit the black olives. They don't hurt the flavor, but they're not adding much ... except for making the small ones even try the meal. Which is a lot. (And no one even noticed the onion in the end result, which is IMO the way onion should be - adding to the whole and keeping quiet about it. :)

Why? Because I'm lazy and I can.

Sweet Yam Dip

I'm not sure this even qualifies. Bake a big yam in the oven at 425 for about 45 minutes - until it's soft, whatever that takes. (Scrub and pierce it first.) Strip the skin off. Puree it - if it's soft enough, you may be able to just mash it with a fork. Add 1-2 TBS maple syrup and a dash or two of cinnamon. Mix well.

Spicy Sweet Potato Dip

Bake a big sweet potato in the oven at 425 for about 45-60 minutes, until it's soft. (Scrub and pierce IT first, too.) Strip the skin off. Puree it. Add 1/3 cup nut or seed butter (I used sunflower seed butter, but the original recipe was for almond butter), a clove of garlic, about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon each of smoked paprika and cayenne pepper, and a squirt or two of lemon juice. Blend well. The original recipe also called for "salt to taste" but I didn't think it needed any in this case.

Mmm. So, someone else posted about their chicken korma, and I went 'hey, I could do that....'

Except I'm trying to up my vegetables, so I went with a veggie one. And omitted the nuts. And of course no dairy so I omitted serving it with yogurt. Can I still use the name after that? Honestly, I don't care. It was tasty. Curry, yes, but mild and sweet, no bite at all. I might actually increase the spiciness a tiny bit next time...but I might not.

In the crockpot, because I am not up to standing over the stove right now for some odd reason.

( The recipe.... )

Drew picked the raisins out and ate them. Not a total win, but Scott and I were happy. And at least Drew didn't mind the curry overtones to his raisins. :P

I love shopping on Black Friday.

Okay, before you all have me committed, let me rephrase that: I love grocery shopping on Black Friday.

You can actually get some good deals on "Thanksgiving" themed foodstuffs (I got cookies 75% off because the frosting was harvest colored for goodness sake) and some other things. And most of the other people are out chasing the much better (but costlier, and more aggravating) deals at the various Big Sales. Alas, the grocery did not have a sale on meat (sometimes they do) worth mentioning, so I did have to buy the stuff I'm cooking and freezing at a normal price. (But I'm not cooking and freezing as much since we have rather a lot of turkey leftovers. Yum.) I got a great deal on mini-croissants, though. They're about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of a regular croissant and were selling 8 for 50 cents. I got two containers - and then the register screwed up and rang them up at $2.99 so after she confirmed the price with the bakery, one was free. 50 cents for 16 mini-croissants is an even better deal. (Pity it didn't mis-ring up something more expensive, though. *amused*)

I actually did - after tweeting about the silly people lined up for it - end up going into Costco because I remembered we needed more baby wipes. Alas. However, it wasn't actually any worse than Costco on a Saturday afternoon, and while that's frankly terrifying when I remind myself it was a Friday morning, it's still something I can deal with. There were some okay deals there, if you needed what they were selling, which I didn't.

And I confess to actually going to one store that was "really" doing Black Friday - Target. I promised myself I'd flee if the lot looked really bad, but it didn't. I was able to get a cart, and in fact there were tons of carts, which is a good sign. And they had some decent deals on things we needed, so I got those, a couple impulse buys (including appallingly cutesy socks for me, but as they were $1 a pair, I don't feel too bad about that!), and got out.

And now? Now I am home, with the dryer running, a pork roast in the oven, and a pile of dishes I don't want to do but will, shortly, have to concede and deal with. Every so often I poke at various online sites and then make faces because they're not offering deals on what I want. Amazon offered a deal that REALLY tempted me on a camera...but I don't NEED a camera. No, not even this one. *sigh* It's a 12-megapixel, waterproof, can-be-used-underwater camera. However. What would I do, take pictures of the bottom of my bathtub? Yeah, right. And if I wanted to, I could drain it. :P Drew doesn't swim underwater yet - when he's older, maybe there will be something to use that camera on after all. But not right now. It's one of those toys I've always wanted, and it's down into a tolerable range, and...I can't justify it at all because I wouldn't use it. I wishlisted it anyway, but appropriately low priority and with a note. But still. Underwater camera! ...yeah. Okay, done whining here. For now. About this. I think. ;)