Tummy Thursday

Or “never trust a recipe over experience”.

Last year, the blackberries fell victim to a hungry deer that ate all the flowers. This year, they#re getting ripe and are delicious, so I decided to make muffins.

I googled a basic recipe for cream cheese and blueberry muffins and came up with the following:

  • 1/2 cup of oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 oz cream cheese
  • vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 0.25 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • blueberries

OK, I exchanged the oil for butter and the buttermilk for Greek yoghurt (which was only a quarter cup), yet still it seemed to be a lot of liquid, but well, that#s what the recipe said. The taste was delicious, but they did what muffins do when they are too wet: they crawled all over the baking tray.

Next time, less yoghurt.

unbaked blackberry muffins in a tray

Looks good
© Giliell

Baked blackberry muffins.

Tastes good
©Giliell

Tummy Thursday

Today’s meal doesn’t actually look very nice, I have to admit, but it’s a local classic. the region I come from was formed by two factors: industry and agriculture. While many parts of Germany went either way, we always kept our rural character while still becoming important centres for mining and steelwork. the local industry bosses found out that keeping people in small rural areas instead of dense cities like Düsseldorf or Bochum had its advantages, too. They gave “generous” credits to their workers so they could build modest houses, and where now completely dependent on that one employer. The other advantage was that they could get away with lower wages because the people had gardens to do some small scale farming and supplement their income.

This means that most of the local diet is based on potatoes, poor people’s food all over Europe.

This particular dish has many names and probably as many “secret” family recipes as there are families. In my family it’s called “Grumbeere un Kneppcher dorjenanner” (potatoes and dumplings mixed together). Most people call it some version of “married ones”. All these names hint to the fact that the main parts are cooked in a single pot.

Enough history, lets get started.

Peel potatoes, slice them into wedges and bring to boil in a very big pot. This is not pictures due to being dull.

Next, make the batter.

Per person take 100g flour and 1 egg.

Mix together with enough milk to make a not too runny batter, add chives, salt, salt again, it isn’t salty enough, add some more, and nutmeg. Most people, me included will add something to make them lighter. My mum sometimes used sparkling water, i just add a pinch of baking powder.

Bowl with batter

Actually I didn’t have chives and used parsley

When the potatoes are 5 minutes from being done, take a big spoon and put it into the boiling water to make it hot and wet, then scoop out batter and put it into the pot, always dipping the spoon after each turn. Best wait a second or so after the first one to see if it holds or if you need to add some more flour.

Pot with dumplings

They will rise to the top quickly, but need a few minutes to boil completely. Best take one out and check.

Dumpling cut in half

The inside should be firm, not runny

When they’re done, scoop potatoes and dumplings into a big dish and fry some bacon cubes. People rarely had large servings of meat, but often a slice of bacon to add flavour to their meals. Usually the sizzling bacon is poured over the dumplings and potatoes, but since the kid no longer likes bacon, I serve it at the side.

Use the bacon frying pan to heat some salted milk which is poured over everything. Serve with a green salad and enjoy.

Bacon, potatoes and dumplings and milk

The finished meal. I swear it tastes way better than it looks

The Completely Wrong Way to Cook Shrimp. Deliciously.

No politics today. Giliell¹ got me drooling so I cooked myself really generous lunch today and now, two hours later, I am still barely able to move. And because I did not follow any recipe anywhere and was more “freestyling” I have decided to make pictures just in case. And write-up the recipe and share it, because it turned out very tasty.

The Ingredients. ©Charly, all rights reserved

The ingredients are, as you see, one very big tomato, one lime, two cloves of garlic, about one half of a leek and a very, very small pattypan. The lime and the leek are store-bought, the rest is the courtesy of our garden. Not shown here is rice, because rice is rice and there is nothing interesting about it.

However with rice I started, because I like natural rice and that takes half an hour to cook. So first thing I have done was to start cooking rice, start the timer for half an hour and then proceed to make the next step.

Shrimp Bath. ©Charly, all rights reserved

Next step was prepare the water for cooking shrimp, because those need a bit of time to cook too. For this I have used the lime and I squeezed all the juice out of it into about half a liter of water. I added white pepper, shredded caraway, about a tea-spoon of salt and splashed in some olive oil with garlic essence (If I did not have olive oil with garlic essence, I would have thrown in third clover of garlic). I have set the water to boil and proceeded to cut or otherwise preparing other ingredients.

Preparing the shrimp was easy. Take the bag out of the freezer, take out one serving of shrimp, give shrimp into a mug, give the bag with the rest of the shrimp into the freezer.

Chopped up veggies . ©Charly, all rights reserved

Rest of the ingredients had to be chopped. Well, except the peas. The pattypan into about 20×20 mm bits 5 mm thick, the leek into rings and the garlic into tiny bits, but not too tiny. And the tomatoes into thin crescents, although ring would work just fine too.

I cut all the green stuff out of the tomato and toss it away. It has unpleasant taste and contains unhealthy toxin, so it hardly counts as wasting food.

The pattypan was rather harder than I thought it would be, To cut it and peel of the 1 mm waxy skin I had to use a small knife, because the big one was not a safe option for that task.

At this stage the water for shrimp started to boil, so in they went, still frozen. I had to ramp up the power afterwards for a bit so it starts to boil again quickly, and once it did I have put a lid on it and let it slowly boil for about 15-20 minutes.

 

Leek Rings. ©Charly, all rights reserved

Frying pattypan. ©Charly, all rights reserved

I put a generous amount of sunflower oil into a frying pan, heated it up to 150°C and fried slightly the leek rings. When they just about started to turn transparent, I have thrown in the pattypan bits and also fried them to the point when they surface started to turn transparent and darkened. As I said, I was freestyling, but I had a reason to do it this way – the darkening signifies the breaking of cell walls and it is the point where the veggies start eventually lose water and suck in the fat. And I did not want too much of that.

Simmering Veggies. ©Charly, all rights reserved

When I judged the leek and pattypan to be at the right stage, I tossed in the tomato with a pinch of salt and the green peas and with occasional stirring gently simmered it under cover for about ten minutes.  The tomato was very juicy, but still I had to add a bit of water twice, because I have kept the temperature relatively high.

Tomatoes actually lose a lot of taste to fat, but this was exactly the reason why I used generous amount of oil at the beginning. Because I have done similar thing before, with different vegetable mixes, but the cooked shrimp were always relatively bland and without much taste – they were not bad, exactly, but they were not delicious either.

Frying Shrimp. ©Charly, all rights reserved

Therefore this time I had another plan for the shrimp than just to cook them. When the veggies were cooked I put them into saucer and I poured as much of the sauce and oil back into the frying pan as I could manage. And after that I have thrown in the shrimp with the finely chopped up garlic and ramped up the powah.

The shrimp simmered with the garlic for a bit in the sauce, and when the water evaporated and only mostly oil remained, they started to fry as well. I was frying them for just a few minutes, until they changed colour from opaque white-pink into just-barely transparent gold-brown, but not as long as to burn the garlic which would have turned bitter. When I considered them finished I took them out of the oil and onto the veggies and rice in the saucer they went.

And here it is. It turned out also to be ever so slightly more than one serving, so if you decide to reproduce my recipe, take that into account when scaling for more people. However I cannot guarantee you will enjoy it as much as I did. This time, the shrimp were juicy and their unique taste was finally brought out with just a touch of garlic and not completely outcompeted by the vegetables.

A very generous serving. ©Charly, all rights reserved

1 –  Not blaming, quite the opposite.

Sourdough update

I made another bread, and what a difference.

First I think that despite having followed the recipe, the starter wasn’t ready yet the last time. This time the dough already felt very different when I first mixed everything together. During the subsequent kneadings it would be much lighter, too, and I had to shorten the final resting time from 5-6 hours to 2.5, because otherwise it would have run out of the bowl (that worked nicely, thank you). I also preheated the stone thoroughly and look how this turned out. I also added black caraway seed and rosemary and that is delicious.

A round loaf of bread

©Giliell, all rights reserved

A cut loaf of bread

©Giliell, all rights reserved

a lice of bread with butter, one corner has been bitten off.

©Giliell, all rights reserved
Warm with butter, the best thing in the world.

Tummy Thursday: Sourdough Bread

Or, you live, you learn.

For my graduation my aunt gave me a cookbook “Vegetarian Spain”. She wrote that she hoped I would like it despite being not a vegetarian, which is something that always puzzles me. While I’m happily omnivore (as is she), I’m not Jordan Peterson or his useless daughter and an exclusive carnivore. Actually, I more often cook vegetarian than not, so why should I be offended by a book about vegetarian cooking?

Anyway, what intrigued me was the idea of making my own sourdough.

I’ll post the recipe for the sourdough starter and not the elaborate kneading and resting instructions, you can surely find some on the net if you’re interested.

Starter:

Day 1:

Mix 150g whole wheat flour with 150 ml water in something higher than wide that holds at least 1l, cover with a clean dish towel, let rest in a warm place.

Day 2:

Add 75g durum wheat flour, 75 ml water, 1 teaspoon of sugar, cover again and let rest.

I didn’t have durum wheat flour, so ordinary flour worked as well.

Day 3:

Like day 2, minus the sugar. By now it should look like this and smell like it went wrong.

bowl with sourdough starter

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Day 4:

Carefully remove the brown water on top. Add 75 g flour.

Day 5:

You can use your starter now. You can also keep it in the fridge and add 75 g of flour and water every week.

I didn’t read the instructions carefully before and when I finally did so i noticed that making that bread would require the whole day and it was midday already, so I waited until the next day. According to the recipe the dough needed to be kneaded and folded and letting rest often and for a long time, so while it wasn’t that much work, it required several hours of being at home.

The recipe also asked for 600ml of water and that was way too much. Even after adding some more flour, my dough was too wet.

unbaked ball of bread

Finished dough ball.
©Giliell, all rights reserved

The finished loaf needed to rest for another 5-6 hours, and it simply ran, becoming very flat.

Fresh loaf of bread

Still delicious
©Giliell, all rights reserved

Another mistake I made was a good idea not thought completely through. I have this “pizza stone” which imitates a real stone oven, and I thought it would be a good idea to bake the bread on it. I still think it is, but I didn’t consider that the stone would need a much longer time to heat up than just the oven, so instead of adding direct heat from the bottom, it kept the heat away so the bread didn’t bake all the way through as you can see in the next picture. But you can also see how the sourdough worked and it was a damn delicious “just with butter” bread.

Freshly sliced bread

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona: the City 3: El Mercado de la Boqueria

Just off the big Boulevard “La Rambla” is the big market hall Boqueria. The front is dominated by the stalls that mostly offer their goods to tourists, but in the back you can find the Barceloneses doing their shopping. Fresh fish and fruit and most delicious baked goods for prices that let you forget that you’re supposedly in a tourist attraction.

Colourful displays of sweets and marzip figures.

Marzipan and sweets in the market.
©Giliell, all rights reserved

What I interestingly couldn’t find were signs and comemorative plates of the terrorist attack that happened there last year.

Tummy Thursday: Hello and enjoy your meal

Welcome to a new installation here, which is Tummy Thursday (after the addition of Tree Tuesday the Thursday felt neglected).

Tummy Thursday is about food, and food is everything. It’s one of the most basic necessities like breathing, but it can also be a luxury item (I still don’t understand caviar). It is something mundane, consumed while walking to the bus stop (or writing blog posts) and it’s a celebrated art form. It is public and it is private. It is political. It tells stories about race, colonialism, migration, poverty and richness. It is also damn delicious.

The idea of Tummy Thursday is to show those sides and also to share recipes and our love of food. Submissions are more than welcome. We’re such a diverse group of people here, so tell me your stories, show me your recipes, send me your pics. I can be reached at nym(86-7) Ät the google thingy DOT Com.

One more thing before we come to our first recipe: the don’t be an asshole rule applies double here, since food is such a sensitive topic. There’s nothing against saying “not my taste” or some light hearted jokes about peas being a weapon invented by the horse devils, but absolutely no food shaming. Oh, and it cuts both ways. You wouldn’t be the first person that told me that eggplants are actually delicious and the reason I don’t like them is that I haven’t tried recipe X. You won’t trick me into eating cardboard again.

Giliell’s vegan chickpea curry

Nanny Ogg’s famous cookbook features a recipe for Mrs. Colon’s Genyoom Klatcbian Curry, which is introduced like this:

Few recipes in these pages have caused so much debate as this one. Anyone over the age of forty knows how the classic recipe goes, because it has been invented and reinvented thousands of times by ladies who have heard about foreign parts but have no wish to bite into them. Its mere existence is a telling argument for a liberal immigration policy. Like real curry, it includes any ingredients that are to hand. The resemblance stops there, however. It must use bright green peas, lumps of swede and, for the connoisseur of gastronomic history, watery slivers of turnip. For wateriness is the key to this curry; its ‘sauce’ should be very thin and of an unpleasant if familiar colour. And it must use a very small amount of ‘curry powder’, a substance totally unknown in those areas where curry grows naturally, as it were; sometimes it’s enough just to take the unopened tin out of the pantry and wave it vaguely over the pan. Oh, and remember that the sultanas must be yellow and swollen. And soggy. And sort of gritty, too (ah, you remember . . .)
Not only does it show again Pratchett’s genius in bringing roundworld issues such as appropriation of food and racism to a light hearted cookbook, it also is apparently still tasty, though I haven’t tried it myself. While I keep telling myself that my curry would at least be recognisable to people who actually cook curries for a living, the recipe has absolutely no claim to authenticity whatsoever.
Ingredients:
Veggies of choice, preferably some that become somewhat mushy. The exact combinations vary, but for me carrots are usually a must and potatoes for creaminess. Pictured below are carrots, a red bell pepper, half a Hokaido squash and potatoes. Not pictures are onions and garlic.
Bowl with diced vegetables.

Just looking at it counts as a serving of veggies. ©Giliell, all rights reserved

I lightly fry everything in coconut oil, then cover it with vegetable broth and let it simmer. Depending on whether you remembered to soak the chickpeas the night before or open a can, you add them now so they can cook, or later.

A covered casserole with veggies

©Giliell, all rights reserved

My seasoning varies as well, this time I used fresh ginger, allspice, black caraway seed, cumin and  chilli. After about 20 minutes the potatoes start to fall apart and I add some coconut milk and the chickpeas and leave it for a few more minutes on low heat. You can serve it with naan bread or rice and it keeps well in the fridge.

Enjoy your meal.

A casserole with chickpea curry

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Dividing The UK Twelve Ways & The Most Popular Sauce.

Maps crated by reddit user generalscruff.

Maps crated by reddit user generalscruff.

Click for giant size!

The 12 maps above are a tongue-in-cheek look at the various ways the UK is divided besides Brexit or how to pronounce scone.

And before anyone complains, they are meant to be humorous and should not be taken too seriously.

You can see each map in more detail below: click over for this!

Map created by reddit user generalscruff.

Map created by reddit user generalscruff.

Click for giant size. You can see more of this here.

Ice Cream Saloons: A Place For Unchaperoned Women.

Ice cream parlor of L. C. Fish, Merced, Calif.

Ice cream parlor of L. C. Fish, Merced, Calif. Source.

…Throughout the 19th century, restaurants catered to a predominately male clientele. Much like taverns and gentlemen’s clubs, they were places where men went to socialize, discuss business, and otherwise escape the responsibilities of work and home. It was considered inappropriate for women to dine alone, and those who did were assumed to be prostitutes. Given this association, unescorted women were banned from most high-end restaurants and generally did not patronize taverns, chophouses, and other masculine haunts.

As American cities continued to expand, it became increasingly inconvenient for women to return home for midday meals. The growing demand for ladies’ lunch spots inspired the creation of an entirely new restaurant: the ice-cream saloon. At a time when respectable women were excluded from much of public life, these decadent eateries allowed women to dine alone without putting their bodies or reputations at risk.

[…]

The first ice cream saloons were humble cafes that served little more than ice cream, pastries, and oysters. As women became more comfortable eating out, they expanded into opulent, full-service restaurants with sophisticated menus that rivaled those at most other elite establishments. In 1850, a journalist described one ice cream saloon as offering “an extensive bill of fare … ice cream — oysters, stewed, fried and broiled; —broiled chickens, omelettes, sandwiches; boiled and poached eggs; broiled ham; beef-steak, coffee, chocolate, toast and butter.” According to the historian Paul Freeman, the 1862 menu of an ice cream saloon in New York ran a whopping 57 pages and featured mother of pearl detailing.

[…]

Although ice cream parlors had an air of dainty domesticity, they also developed more sultry reputations. At the time, they were one of the few places where both men and women could go unchaperoned. As a result, they became popular destinations for dates and other illicit rendezvous. “Did a young lady wish to enjoy the society of the lover whom ‘Papa’ had forbidden the house?” the New York Times wrote in 1866. “A meeting at Taylor’s was arranged, where soft words and loving looks served to atone for parental harshness, and aided the digestion of pickled oysters.”

Innocent young couples weren’t the only pairs tucked together in the velvet booths. During a trip to Taylor’s, one writer observed “a middle-aged man and woman in deep and earnest conversation. They are evidently man and wife—though not each others!” Moralists were also outraged by the presence of pimps, prostitutes, and women “who were not over particular with the company they kept.” These scandalous scenes prompted rumors of ice cream “drugged with passion-exciting Vanilla” that seduced virtuous women into taking “the first step…which leads to infamy.”

These charges did little to dissuade respectable women from patronizing ice cream saloons. In fact, their reputation as “a trysting ground for all sorts of lovers” may have made the saloons all the more enticing. According to the Times, Taylor’s “always maintained its popularity, in spite of (or perhaps because of) rumors that it afforded most elegant opportunities for meetings not entirely correct.”

Oh my, passion-exciting Vanilla! I have vanilla ice cream in my freezer, and I had no idea of the evil I was hosting. I’ll enjoy it all the more for that. You can read much more about the history of Ice Cream Saloons at Atlas Obscura.

The Most Annoying Weed Ever

My strawberry patch looks awful. What little I planted this year has mostly dried due to way too warm and dry May. However I still have enough big strawberries – those damn plants infested the side of the vegetable patch and grow among grass and potatoes like mad. Annoying, truly, on oh so many levels.

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Goodies!

From Voyager & Jack, so very sweet of you! I was momentarily afraid Rick was going to just drink the maple syrup, then I tasted it…ohhhh. I’m gonna be wanting pancakes. And I just ran out of Burt’s Bees! I could never go wrong with Wonder Woman at my side, and my thanks for the tea! And all the rest – Rick gave me the raspberry & orange chocolates, and oh, I don’t even have words for how utterly om nom nom it is. Thank you so very much.

Gingerbread Bonsai

Sorry for the rather poor picture quality, this was before I had money to spare for semi-decent equipment. One of my creations from a few years ago, I think 2011. I cannot say exactly, because in my old camera I had to set up date after every change of battery, so I ended up not setting up the date at all, because it was difficult and annoying.

Gingerbread bonsai.

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Cancer Chronicles 18: Water Is Life.

© C. Ford, all rights reserved.

© C. Ford, all rights reserved.

I am in full chemo brain space cadet mode, so this post will most likely be on the disjointed side. As of my last chronicle, I have been struggling with the cumulative effects of chemo. My 6th cycle was pushed back by a week, and I went in for IV fluids four times before that cycle. I cannot even begin to say just how much that helped. It upped my energy and my appetite, and I need all the help I can get with the latter. On Saturday (the 5th this month), I went for a very short walk. As short as it was, I could feel that I was pushing things too much. I ended up going into full collapse all of Sunday.

One of the more terrifying effects of chemo is getting hit with this overwhelming weakness. You find yourself unable to walk all the way across your dwelling without having to stop and rest. The idea of walking two blocks without resting several times is impossible. It’s difficult to describe just how bad it is. Normal movements are taxing to the point you can’t finish simple tasks like folding clothes or washing some dishes without taking breaks. The worst of that hit me back when I did the Neulasta, but its been lying in wait, and hit again after the short walk. All of which brings me back to hydration. After I had the four pushes of IV fluid, I felt close to normal. What used to be normal. Rick emails me every day while he’s off at work, to check in and see how I’m doing. One of his emails included this line: You seemed way more alive last night than you have in a long time! I sat for a long time, staring at that, overwhelmed with conflicting emotions. It drove home just how close to dead I’ve been, how…faded. It hurt like hell too, because it was a very sharp reminder of just how fucking rotten this has been for Rick, how difficult it is for him to see me mostly gone, and wondering if I’m still there, buried under all the side effects.  You can’t help feeling like you’re letting everyone down, including yourself. It’s very difficult to engage mentally and emotionally when you can barely bring yourself to move physically.

I’ve been steadily downhill since the walk, so Rick called infusion yesterday to set up fluids for Wednesday, but they said they could fit me in that afternoon, so off we went on Monday for another IV push. I could easily tell I was once again very dehydrated, because I didn’t have to pee. If my fluids are good, I have to race to the nearest lav as soon as I’m unhooked, and there have been times I’m off with IV pole, couldn’t wait. After the fluids today, we ran a few errands, and Rick once again remarked that the difference after I get fluids is night to day. For the last two cycles, I’m going to set up appointments for fluids on the Monday and Wednesday after my pump comes off. If you find yourself dealing with the terrifying weakness, you might want to holler for getting a series of IV fluids after a cycle.

We were sitting in the car in the market parking lot, having a sticky chocolate break before doing the market stuff, and I was telling Rick about how I had been feeling, that it wasn’t just the physical shakiness, which is still with me, but this loud, internal shakiness, all fizzy and overwhelming. Right away, he nailed what it was like – a really bad hangover. I haven’t had a hangover of any kind for a very long time, but the recognition was instant, it is just like that, the same dehydration and imbalance you get from drinking too much, when all you’re really capable of is sleeping it off. Chemo is mostly all “trying to sleep it off”, but that doesn’t work for chemo like it does for a hangover. This is not a matter of not having enough fluid intake, either. The chemo and the side effects dehydrate you to a point you could not drink enough of anything to bring you to proper hydration. I’m drinking something or other pretty much all the time, and still ended up like a walking piece of brittle kindling. Being dehydrated can also make your blood pressure plummet, so if you are getting consistently low reading like I was, look to get yourself properly hydrated, and your blood pressure will normalize quickly.

Dehydration also makes some of the side effects worse, like the skin peeling. It’s bad enough when you’re plump with fluid, and a nightmare when you’re all dried out. Scratching an itch will end up with your skin splitting open. I think that’s about it for now, my brain is jumping ship, and I need sleep. As always, if I have more to add, I’ll edit sometime today.

On a food related note, if you work in a hospital cafeteria, making the food and all, for the love of humanity, do not put effing cardamom in pumpkin pie! Also, if you grind the seed pod along with the seed, don’t ever touch the spice again. This comes up because last cycle, I was hungry, and Rick wandered off to the cafeteria to find something for us to snack on. We ended up with pumpkin pie that tasted like Vicks. Cardamom is a lovely spice, but if you don’t know how to use it, it’s a disaster. Chemo messes with your taste enough, getting a slice of Vicks pie doesn’t help. :D Speaking of, check out this Vicks ad, my my. (I did make sure it was that pie, not me. Afterwards, at the market, we bought a pumpkin pie, and it was just fine. I brought home another one yesterday. Turns out that it’s an easy thing to eat during chemo, and it’s cooling without triggering the oxali cold sensitivity.)

Water is life, and if you’re undergoing chemo, it doesn’t do to overlook the importance of it.

ETA: I’m actually cleaning today! And doing some laundry! Never thought I’d be so effing happy about that. Another ETA: If you’re in treatment or a caregiver who makes appointments, you do not need to go through any hoops to get fluids – just call infusion directly, and your grand and wonderful nurses will set you all up.