You Can't Get There from Here

Heya. This journal is going to be mostly locked and available only to my access list. There are certain exceptions to this: recipes, science posts, some icons, and whatever else I feel is appropriate for public viewing will remain unlocked. The rest is just the errata of my personal life and adventures in parenting. I promise you that my life is not as exciting as you think it is.

If you are here for the fiction: I'm not posting much of that anymore, but any fiction posted here will also be locked. Public versions will be made available elsewhere.

I haven't actually left fandom, I just got very busy. If you feel that you absolutely must know the details of whats going on, drop me a comment here and introduce yourself. And if we know each other from LJ or from Back in the Day, remind me what name you used to go by. I'm thrilled to see old friends and keep up.

My cocktail shaker and I have worked through our differences in couple's counseling, and we are currently enjoying many delicious things, including this gem, modified from Pinterest:

Spiced Rum Daiquiri

makes one

2 oz spiced rum (I used Krikland Spiced Rum from Costco, because... Costco)
1.5 oz lime juice
1.5 oz vanilla simple syrup*

Put it all in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake, baby, shake!

(*Vanilla simple syrup: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Put in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Put in a clean jar or other container and keep refrigerated. Lasts... well, lets be real, until it gets fuzzy and you have to throw it out.)

No, seriously: Oatmeal. Specifically, oatmeal that I actually like to eat. Oatmeal that I look forward to in the mornings, and choose over any of the other breakfast options I have.

And I say all of this with a straight face as a woman who used to feel indifferent (at best) to oats.

Oatmeal

1 Cup water (scant measure; for two use 1 3/4 C.)
1/2 Cup old fashioned oatmeal (slightly heaping; for two use 1 C.)
dash salt
dash vanilla extract
1-2 tsp butter (really, however buttery you like your oats)
1/2-1Cup frozen fruit (peaches or berries work best IMO)
1/4 Cup plain Greek yogurt
drizzle of honey

Put water, salt, vanilla, and butter in a small saucepan. If you have sturdy fruit like frozen peaches (or don't care if berries come apart) add that now. Bring to a boil.
Add oats. Reduce heat to med (just enough to keep it simmering), and set timer for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
(At about 3 min remaining add the berries, if you like them to remain berry-like)
When timer goes off, stir and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 min.

Serve with Greek yogurt and honey.

1/2 kids approved! (one who does like it will voluntarily get up at 5:15 AM to ask if I can make enough for her, too)
This is a warm, filling, stick-with-you breakfast, even more so if you use full-fat yogurt. I eat at about 5:30AM, and it stays with me until lunch at 11.
(Yes, I had this again this morning, with raspberries. My tummy is very happy.)

This is a refreshing, nutritious, non-alcoholic drink that's a favorite of my daughter and me. I have a pitcher in my refrigerator right now!

Barley Twilsley

2 1/4 -2 1/2 quarts water (you want 2 quarts left after cooking)
1 cup pearl barley
3 lemons
1/3 cup honey

Put the water and barley in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 min.

While the barley is cooking, peel the lemons, being careful not to cut into the white part (the pith). You just want the yellow outer part. Juice the peeled lemons. Put the peels, juice, and honey into a 2 quart pitcher.

When the barley is done cooking, carefully pour the water through a sieve or strainer into the pitcher. Save the barley for other uses! Stir, and chill overnight. Lemony, lightly sweet, and entirely delicious!

Other uses for the barley: use in yogurt in place of granola, make barley and mushrooms (I cut that one down a bit, use 1 onion, 8oz mushrooms, and 2 cups cooked barley), or beef-with-barley soup. It's a great, nutty substitute for rice.

Makes about 2 quarts

1/2 kids approve!

link to original recipe at Food52

This is a blatant tweak of a recipe at Food52 -- see link. So, I wandered into this blind. I've only had Ethiopian cuisine once, and had thought the spiciness was a quirk of the restaurant rather than something endemic to the dishes themselves. I had no idea what berbere spice was, and had to order it online (Amazon has a jar for about US$3). But the recipe looked simple enough, and even if I didn't like it, it wasn't a huge investment.

Warning: this is hella fucking spicy, like weaponized spice. BUT! It makes the house smell amazing. It's also super delicious and satisfying, and the heat calms down somewhat the next day (the flavors develop more, too! Yum!), but right out of the pan it was right up to the edge of what I could handle. Please note that I live in a highly Latinx area, and routinely eat spicy traditional Mexican dishes and salsas.

Next time I'll probably toss in some carrots and potato chunks.

USE AN OVENPROOF PAN WITH A LID!

Zighini Beef Stew - this is a one-pan dish, but it will take some time: ~2 to 2.5 hours depending on how fast you are at prep

1 lb beef stew meat in 1" cubes (recipe calls for boneless short ribs, but they're expensive, and the regular stew meat was fine)
salt & pepper
olive oil or other neutral cooking oil
1 onion, about the size of a baseball, chopped
3 Tbsp berbere spice (half this if you don't like the super-spicy)
16oz canned tomato sauce

Preheat your oven to 350*. Coat the bottom of a heavy pot with oil and heat over med-high heat on the stovetop.

Season the beef with a little salt and pepper, and brown the beef in small batches in the oil. The browning gives a nice flavor to the stew. Move the browned beef to a bowl, but do not clean out the pan. Reduce the heat to medium.

Add a little more oil if you need to, and put the onion in the pan, scraping up all the tasty stuck bits in the bottom. Saute the onion until it's translucent, about 10 min. Take your time with this, really.

Add the berbere spice and stir. Cook about 1 min. Stir in the beef and it's juices, the tomato sauce, another pinch of salt, and 2 cups of water.

Bring to a boil, cover, and place the covered pot in the oven to keep cooking. Cook until the meat is tender and the stew is thick, about 1.5 hours.

NOTE: I needed to cook mine for closer to 2 hours, and it still wasn't what I'd call "thick." This is where personal taste comes in. Check it often, and listen to your gut.

Serves: recipe claims 4, but probably closer to 2 or 3
Sides: I served it with rice. (Bread, mild veggies, plain yogurt, cucumber -- these would also be good)
Drinks: Something cold and fruity! Peach tea or raspberry lemonade

1/1 kid approved, but begged for milk! (1 kid was out of town)

Trust me. This dish ends up looking hella fucking fancy, but it's one of the easiest (and fastest!) things I've ever cooked, and so delicious that one of the kids was trying to steal the last bites of fish from my plate. If you make drinks ahead, the longest cook time for this meal was the saffron rice I served on the side. Start that first and you have plenty of time for everything else before the ricer pops.

Poached Salmon (adapted from Serious Eats)

4 5-oz salmon filets or steaks (I use the frozen Atlantic salmon filets from Costco)
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cloves garlic, minced (use fresh whole cloves if you can, not the jar garlic ... ETA: fresh garlic > jar garlic > garlic powder)
1 1/2 tsp dry herbs (I used 1/2 tsp each of marjoram, basil, and thyme -- use what you like!)
1 whole lemon
4 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Season the salmon with salt and pepper and set aside. Slice 1/2 of the lemon and set aside.

In a large, deep skillet, fit the salmon snugly into a single layer. Add the garlic, wine, herbs, and lemon slices. Season with a good pinch of salt. Add just enough water so that the liquid covers about 1/2 of the filets. Squeeze the rest of the lemon into the liquid. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat so that it's barely simmering. Cook the fish for about 4 minutes on the first side, then turn over carefully and cook another 3 minutes to finish. Thicker pieces will need longer to cook, and thinner pieces will need less time.

Remove the fish to a warm plate. Discard the lemon slices. Bring the liquid to boiling and reduce it's volume by about 1/2. Whisk in the butter and add more salt and lemon as necessary. Pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with fresh lemon.

I served this with Strawberry & Limoncello Rosé Sangria (make this ahead to chill), saffron rice and green salad, but asparagus would have also been amazing.

Serves: 4
3/3 kids approved! No leftovers.

Easy and delicious. I ran out of pancake mix, and balked at price of buying more. I noodled around a bit, and put this together from a couple of other recipes.

Yogurt Pancakes

2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk, or sour cream)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 3/4 cups milk (scant measure)
3 cups flour
1/4-1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
1/2-1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
3 Tbsp sugar (white or brown)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Beat the eggs and oil together well. Add the yogurt and vanilla and beat until creamy and thoroughly mixed. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add about half of the the dry ingredients to the yogurt-egg mixture and stir together until smooth, then alternate adding the remaining milk and dry ingredients until everything is combined. Add more flour if the batter looks too thin. Cook by 1/4 to 1/3 cupfuls on a hot skillet or griddle (I set mine at about medium-high). Top with butter, syrup, sugar, and/or fruit.

Makes about 15-20 pancakes.

3/3 kids approved! I couldn't make them fast enough, and the kids are already asking for them again tomorrow.

In which I use the term "stroganoff" very loosely. This could just as easily be called "Chicken with Cream Sauce and Vegetables," and is highly adaptable to individual tastes. First, here's the "stroganoff" version:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 - 1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
black pepper to taste
3 cups sliced mushrooms (about 8 oz)
1/2 large sweet onion, sliced
hot, cooked rice (enough for all servings)

Watch out, this makes a lot of sauce! Don't be tempted to add more liquid.

Brown the chicken breasts on both sides (use a tablespoon of oil or use a non-stick spray). Remove from heat, drain any liquid that remains, and leave the chicken in the pot, and add the mushrooms and onions. Stir together the soup, sour cream, wine, and pepper and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Return to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done and no longer pink in the middle. Serve over rice.

~*~*~*~*~

That's the "correct" version. In a pinch, I have thrown everything in a pot (including frozen chicken breasts) at once without stirring much and left it to simmer for a couple of hours while I did other things. It turned out just fine (but watch out for scorching on the bottom)! I usually serve this with salad and broccoli.

If mushrooms aren't to your liking, you can turn this into a general "cream sauce and vegetables" meal by switching out the soup. Cheese soup with broccoli florets added in the last bit of cooking would be delicious, as would cream of chicken soup, a splash of buttermilk, and peas (I'd serve that one over noodles). It's versatile, easy, and looks more impressive than it is.

3 out of 3 kids approved!

This is a repost for archival purposes

Three bites in and the kids were already asking when I was going to make this again. Not bad for a "what's in the fridge?" dinner. This is easy-easy-easy to make.

Italian Sausage & Rice Thing

1.25 lbs Turkey Italian Sausage (I used mild links)
1 medium-to-large sweet onion, chopped
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice
3 cups of chicken broth (I used bouillon)
2 cups frozen peas
1 cup shredded carrot
1 large red bell pepper, cut into slivers

In a large pot, cook the sausages in a bit of water until all the pink is gone. Drain. Remove sausages from the pan, let them cool enough to handle, then skin and chop. Return to the dry pan with the onion, garlic, and spices. Cook until the onion is tender. Add the rice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 18-20 minutes until the rice is done. Add the peas, carrot, and bell pepper and cook an additional 5-10 minutes until the peas are warmed through.

Serves about 6 regular people, I'm guessing. With teenagers in the house, we had no leftovers.
I served it with salad and peach iced tea.

This is a repost for archival purposes.

This is a fast-n-tasty dinner that's become a regular feature. All the kids love it, and ask for it regularly.

Chicken with Onions and Pineapple

Skinless, boneless chicken breasts (as many as you need, but make adjustments for more than 6)
Lawry's 30 Minute Marinade, Sesame & Ginger flavor
Juice-packed pineapple tidbits, drained (I use a 20oz can for 4-6 servings)
1-2 Onions (I use red onions or Vidalia sweet onions, but any kind will do)


Marinate the chicken breasts in the marinade for at least 30 minutes -- longer marinading = more flavor. You should have some marinade left over in the bottle.

Peel the onions and slice into wedges. Drain the pineapple. Place the chicken breasts in a baking pan and place onion wedges between the breasts. Distribute pineapple tidbits over the top. Drizzle lightly with some of the remaining marinade, if desired.

Bake, uncovered, at 350* for 35-40 minutes, or until chicken is done and no longer pink.

I serve it with rice, steamed veggies, and green salad. Lemonade spritzers go well with this also.