God Born and Love Bound

blackknife @ 2014-04-11T12:42:00

2014-04-11T19:43:59Z

This is a rough estimate recipe. So do it all to taste. You could probably toss all the veggies in some garlic and oil and quickly braise them, too. I was thinking that this would be more like a cool pasta salad. You could serve it with soup or a nice French bread. I love sourdough so I’d be all into that. D mentioned a tofu soup last night. I’m curious how it turned out. I’m going to make this on the weekend. We want to go to the Arboretum and this will be a quick dinner after or a painless lunch beforehand. We’ve never been so I’m kind of excited to go.

Sometimes we get lazy and end up eating junk food because we didn’t plan ahead. However, Burger King makes a great veggie burger if I do get lazy and want to hit fast food. I’m going to have to cook tonight. I don’t know what yet. It’ll be something quick, though. I’d like to head to the gym and see if I can work myself out hard enough that I sleep through the night.

Yeah, I know. I’m kind of rambling. I have fog head. It’s lunch time. Maybe I’ll actually eat and snap out of it and get back to work. *sending my love to D and C, loved the cuddle pile*

Summer Thai Noodles –Caine

Ingredients:

8 ounces of (whole grain) spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained.

¼ cup shredded carrots

¼ cup bean sprouts

¼ cup any X veggie (Bell pepper, or cabbage)

¼ cup peanut butter ( crunchy)

¼ cup crushed fresh peanuts (for topping)

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or some light vinegar, seasoned or not.)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons chili paste

¼ cup of honey (optional)

4 green onions sliced

2 tablespoons sesame oil

Preparation:

Heat peanut butter in microwave to soften (20 seconds)

In a large bowl whisk together peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, chili paste and honey.

Add spaghetti, veggies, and sesame seeds

Chill until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature

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Pad Thai Sauce

2014-04-04T16:07:23Z

These are a carry over from yesterday’s Pad Thai Tofu Pizza recipe. I have had both style of sauce and the palm sugar and tamarind juice one tastes lighter than the second. However, the second one is closer to what I experience in most recipes. It has heat to it and really Thai food without a little heat in it isn’t doing it justice.

I don’t really have a recipe when I make this. I kind of do it until it tastes right. To me the sauce should be sweet, then salty then sour for it to be a really good sauce for the noodles. It’s good for the sauce to be kind of strong while it stands alone because once it’s actually mixed with noodles and all the things you taste in Pad Thai, it will balance out.

Pad Thai is actually really easy and one of my most favorite things to eat. I like it way better than say chow mein, which I can eat tons of. I kind of dress that up Thai style, too. I really like the layers of Thai food and the way it brings so many flavor profiles together…okay so I have been watching a lot of “Chopped” so I almost sound like I know what I am talking about…almost.

Pad Thai Sauce #1

1 cup tamarind juice

1 cup + 3 tablespoons palm sugar

1 cup of water

½ cup fish sauce

Pad Thai Sauce #2

1 ½ Tablespoons of tamarind paste

½ cup fish sauce

½ teaspoon of chili sauce (or pepper flakes)

1/3 cup of packed light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

Preparation (for both) : MIX IT IN A BOWL

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Pad Thai Tofu Pizza (no grammar check)

2014-04-03T18:19:01Z

Okay recipe time. This one is quick, diabetic friendly and hopefully tasty. I haven’t made this yet, but it’s on my meal plan to try. It calls for a pre-made pad Thai sauce, but you can make one yourself. I can find a recipe for it, but if you’re in a hurry pre-made is okay. It’s just going to be processed a bit more than you might like.

Also, the ingredients do not list garlic at all. I can tell you right now, I’ve never made pad Thai without garlic and I’d cook my tofu in it. If I had time, I might also marinade the tofu in the sauce, but most likely I’d do this last minute and not bother. Also the recipe calls for green onions which is perfect, but I could see really thin slices of regular onion on here. I don’t know, you’re basically making stir-fry and putting it on flatbread and I like a bit of onion in most of my stir-fries.

I’d also worry about the dryness of the flatbread and experiment with putting a thin layer of sauce on the flatbread itself. However, the stir-fry may be saucy enough and not need it.

I want to try this this weekend. I hope I can pull it off. I often screw up tofu unless it’s tossed in a soup. I think I’m impatient or something and don’t drain it well. Bio-Mom cooks the fuck out of tofu and it’s always perfect. I guess I could ask her how she does it. Oh man, fried tofu dipped in sweet chili sauce…You know, I’m not even hungry. It’s just fucking tasty and I know it. I’ll not be making that this weekend though. I do not fry things well at all. I can buy it at Lolibowl though…I’ve been hitting Lollicup way too often for avocado shakes. I have to stop, but they are just so fucking tasty.

Ingredients:

2 thin crust, wheat flatbreads

1 teaspoon canola oil

5 ounces firm tofu, drained and diced

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon pad Thai sauce

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3 cups coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)

1 green onion, chopped

4 tablespoons reduced-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the flatbreads on a pizza pan and bake for 4 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. In a large nonstick skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and cook for five minutes until lightly golden. Add the pad Thai sauce and red pepper flakes, cook for 2 more minutes.

3. Add the cabbage and green onion, and cook for 2-4 minutes more.

4. Divide the cabbage-tofu mixture in half and spread evenly onto the flatbreads. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cheese on each flatbread. Bake 4 minutes in the over and serve hot.

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BURGERS

2014-03-28T19:10:24Z

One thing that is certain about me is I love BURGERS. I like beef burgers, turkey burgers, salmon burgers, veggie burgers, burger, burgers, burgers! So, it’s lunch time and I’m about to microwave a Dr. Pragers veggie burger. It’s not the best way to do it. I’d rather bake it or pan fry it in olive oil. I also don’t have all the fixings I’d like either. I have a wheat bun and some random dipping sauces. So, lunch may suck ass, I don’t know yet. Normally I would dress it like a normal hamburger: lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard and ketchup. I don’t always put cheese on my burgers, but it does tasty up a veggie burger. All that got my burger fantasies going.

Our tummy is in one of its OMG do not feed me meat phases. I don’t know what happens. We don’t digest beef easily in general unless it’s ground or some exorbitantly fancy spendy cut of beef. So while I love steak we don’t tend to eat them that much. When we go do steak houses, I normally order salmon. If I know way ahead of time, I can prep our tummy for the tasty, but brutal onslaught of beef, but honestly knowing ahead of time doesn’t happen often. Plus, I really like salmon. I don’t cook it well at home. So when I get the opportunity to get it fire grilled I go for it, especially if it’s got teriyaki sauce on it.

Anyway, burgers. I am eating a veggie one and though I like it, I like falafel better. I’ve made falafel balls once and it involved a deep fryer so guess what? I didn’t do it again because I don’t like deep fryers though I like deep fried foods. I found a recipe for falafel burgers. It looks really easy and they are pan fried, so I think I might be able to handle it. I also found a baked recipe. I figure I could probably bake the burgers, too. But you know I don’t know the ins and outs of cooking so I thought I would look at what they did to bake it and see if there is a reason why I can’t. I don’t see one. If you do, let me know.

I also included a black bean burgers because they look like beef patties to me and I know they are chock full of protein. I’ve never made them, but I am interested. The final link is to a bunch of burger recipes. I can’t say I’ve ever used a recipe to make burgers. I kind of throw whatever I have on hand in them from just salt and pepper to all kinds of onions, bell peppers, Worcestershire sauce. I tried doing an inside out cheeseburger on the grill once, too. They rocked. So anyway, this is wear my tummy brain is at. I’m fucking hungry.

Falafel Burgers: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5605/falafel-burgers

Baked Falafel: http://mideastfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/bakedfalafel.htm

Black Bean Veggie Burger: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-black-bean-veggie-burgers/

Best Burgers: http://www.foodnetwork.com/grilling/grilling-central-burgers/best-burger-recipes.html

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Fudge (as Requested)

2014-03-25T19:29:51Z

QUICK FUDGE

The Stuff You’ll Need:

9-inch square pan.

Sauce Pan

Spoon

Candy Thermometer

The Ingredients:

3 Cups of Sugar

¾ Cups of Butter

1 Can (5 oz.) or 2/3 Cup of Evaporated Milk

16 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I’ve made this with peanut butter chips & peanuts, too.)

1 Jar (17 oz.) Marshmallow Crème (any brand)

1 Cup Chopped Walnuts (I’ve used almonds and sometimes put in dried chopped cherries)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

What to do:

Bring Sugar, Butter, and Evaporated Milk to a full boil on MEDIUM heat, stirring constantly. Cook for 4 min or until candy thermometer reached 235degrees Fahrenheit, stirring constantly.

Stir in Chocolate and Marshmallow Crème, stir until melted. Add Nuts, Vanilla, mix well.

Pour into 9 inch pan, cool completely then cut into squares.

There are other recipes that don’t include the marshmallow crème. The directions have to be followed exactly or you it comes out watery or rock hard, etc. (I have so many juvenile jokes running through my head.) This recipe is so simple and never fails. You don’t have to use marshmallow crème; you can melt your own marshmallows. It’s super easy, like I make rice crispy treats in the microwave.

I mentioned a few variations, like what type of nuts, what type of chocolate chips and even dried fruit. You are really only limited by your imagination. You might be able to use fresh fruit in this, but I’ve never tried it. I’ve also seen this recipe done with 2 or 2 ½ cups of sugar. I don’t think the amount of sugar matters here as long as the temperature gets reached. However, I wouldn’t sway in the non-marshmallow crème recipe and do exactly what they say. Here’s that recipe. I think you’ve got the skills to manage it.

CLASSIC COCOA FUDGE

What You’ll Need:

You need the same equipment as above, plus foil and wooden spoon. I don’t know why the wooden spoon, maybe heat conductivity?

Ingredients (It’s almost the same as above):

3 Cups of Sugar

2/3 Cups of Cocoa

1/8 Tablespoon of Salt

1 ½ Cups of Milk

¼ Cup of Butter (or ½ Stick)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Cup of Chopped Nuts (Or none)

What To Do:

Line pan with foil, butter the foil.

Mix Sugar, Cocoa, and Salt in sauce pan, stir in Milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Boil without stirring until mixture reached 234 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove from heat. Add Butter and Vanilla, DO NOT STIR. Cool at room temperature to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. (If using nuts, add in here.) Beat with wooden spoon until fudge thickens and just begins to lose some of its gloss. Quickly spread in prepared pan, cool completely. Cut into squares.

I’ve tried this way once and it didn’t work out. There are tons more ways to make fudge and some are easier than this one, but none are as easy as the Quick Fudge. Our bio-grandmother used to make awesome fudge that had a coolness to it that was similar to the coolness of powdered sugar. I don’t know how she did it. I thought maybe it was the cocoa fudge recipe since she was old school and probably wouldn’t use marshmallows. However, I made the marshmallow crème fudge and people think we totally slaved away and are brilliant.

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Souffle (Public)

2014-03-12T16:51:07Z

Since Damien had a soufflé yesterday and all I could think of was quiche, I had to look up what the fuck a soufflé is. It is, in its most base form a “lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert.” And so I bring to you two, yes two soufflé recipes…Because you know I must know how to make these things.

Spinach Cheddar Soufflé

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish

¼ cup finely grated parmesan chest, plus extra for sprinkling (Sprinkle me!)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup scalded milk (This right here tells me I am never going to make this because wtf over the extra step of torturing the milk.)

¼ teaspoon of nutmeg (This can get you high, but again too much work. I’d be better off scalding milk and bitching about it.)

A pinch of cayenne pepper (A pinch? Really? What if my pinch is bigger than yours? Which it probably is. *smirks*)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. (Kosher? Are we getting uppity here? Well, it is a soufflé. It gets a pass.)

4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature (meaning you should have gotten them out before reading this ingredient list.)

1/s cup grated aged cheddar cheese, lightly packed. (I’d eat the cheddar while grating it.)

1 package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry (This sounds like I can get some of my anger issues taken care of.)

5 extra large egg whites, at room temperature (This should be under the egg yolks? I mean, why the hell is it way down here? You could have taken out the extra egg at the same time as the other 4 and saved the egg whites. Or do people who cook read the ingredients list first or have done this so many time or wait, know that a soufflé requires egg whites to get all blowed up as the name implies? I know blown…)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (Tartar makes me laugh. I can see rich people exchanging this along with their Grey Poupon.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter the inside of a 6-8cup soufflé dish (6 ½ -7 ½ inches in diameter by 3 ½ inch deep) and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. With a wooden spoon (Why?), stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the hot milk, the nutmeg, cayenne, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. (I would not have prepared the milk…) Cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, until smooth and thick. (Smooth and thick…he he)

Off the heat, (I guess Ina means take the pot off the fire and do it there. I keep think of Cael in heat.) Okay so off the heat, while still hot, whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time. Stir in the cheddar, ¼ cup of parmesan and the spinach and transfer to large mixing bowl. (Now I get why you need to read the recipe first. She should have listed a here’s what you’ll need too. I would because this giant mixing bowl is OUT OF NOWHERE to me.)

Put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt in the bowl and of an electric mixer. (Whoa! This is way too fancy. Can I just beat it to death?) with the whisk attachment. Beat on low speed for 1 minute, on medium speed for 1 minute, then finally on high speed to form the firm, glossy peaks. (This has just turned me on. However, NO way can I make this. It requires too much attention, one minute this, one minute that, don’t forget your wooden spoon!!!!!! Are we done with that requirement, by the way?)

Whisk one quarter of the egg whites into the cheese sauce (We made cheese sauce? When?) to lighten and then fold in the rest. (Fold the rest into the cheese sauce? I’m confused.) Pour into the soufflé dish, then smooth the top. Draw a large circle on top with the spatula to help the soufflé rise evenly (Thanks because why really helps, Miss Wooden Spoon.) and place evenly in the middle of the oven. (UH, my oven racks a5re usually even…). Turn the temperature down to 375 degrees F. (That’s sneaky.) Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (Don’t peek!)ßThat’s actually in the recipe..until puffed and brown. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Soufflé

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, plus extra to butter to butter the ramekins (must look up ramekins)

1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar plus 15 tablespoons (1 per ramekin) (Will need 15 ramekins, thanks for the mention now.)

12 egg whites

1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar (Still laughing from the last mention)

3 2/3 cups of 61% semisweet chocolate, such as Valrhona (sweet product placement.)

12 egg yolks (Again, why the fuck are we segregating the egg needs? I mean I’d like to know up there I need 12 not down here.)

So far liking this way better, looks tons easier and that makes C-Pies happy.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Butter the ramekins and pour 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar in each. (It is really important to know what a ramekin is apparently.) Turn them to let the sugar stick to the butter. (Butter? Oh right we...yeah) and then pour out the excess. Place the ramekins of a sheet pan.

Using a stand mixer, start whisking egg whites on low speed. Slowly add 1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar and cream of tartar. Continue to whisk until medium peaks form. (Just lost me, no mixer and fuck slooooooooooooooooowly)

Melt the chocolate with the 2 sticks of butter in a double boiler (What is this contraption?), stirring continuously for about 7 minutes. (NO.) Then, remove the chocolate from the double boiler and add the egg yolks, one at a time, stirring until smooth. (Yeah, will do senor). Fold the mixture into the chocolate a little at a time. Off the batter to the buttered and sugared ramekins, filling them to the top. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Top with powdered sugar. (This I could totally do.)

Okay so this is waaaaaay beyond my skill level. No way am I making these. I can make pecan stickys and that’s way fucking easier. You make muffin mix and on the side you melt butter, brown sugar until it’s gooey pour it in the muffin tin, throw pecans on top then pour your muffin mix on it and bake that shit. That’s how I cook.

I’m going to lay my head down for a bit. (GRRR) I hate being sick.

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Craving Pizza (public)

2014-03-05T17:43:08Z

I really want pizza right now. I’ll eat any kind of pizza as long as it has extra sauce. Soooo hungry. I think I might try eating some food. Coffee isn’t the best breakfast.

This one lookes interesting. I ove caramelized onions.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/bestof/toprecipes/bestpizzarecipes/recipes/food/views/Wild-Mushroom-Pizza-with-Caramelized-Onions-Fontina-and-Rosemary-230633

Margherita pizzas are so simple and me loves some to-mat-toes.
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/bestof/toprecipes/bestpizzarecipes/recipes/food/views/Cherry-Tomato-Pizza-Margherita-357889

50 easy pizzas,becuse pizza should be the easiest thing ever to make.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/50-easy-pizzas.html#

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blackknife @ 2013-09-05T14:39:00

2013-09-05T21:40:33Z

This is what I’ve been listening to today.

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blackknife @ 2012-12-27T17:34:00

2012-12-28T01:37:08Z

I've lost much in my life. Some of it by my own hand and some things were stripped away from me. Everything I've wanted I've fought to keep. I will never understand loving and wanting something so much and letting it go. Why do that to yourself? There is a time to be selfish and that is most of the time. ;)

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