Archive for the 'good eatin'' Category

November 16, 2008 | Filed under: VloMo08, good eatin'

So yesterday was really 15 but I called it 14. Today’s video is 15 but really 16. Whatever. I tend not to pay attention to the date when I’m not at work. I also don’t wear a watch on my days off so I never know what time it is. Makes for the illusion that it’s one looooong day off with some sunshiny parts and some nighttimey parts in between.

You’re in for a spate of cooking videos. Why? Because on my days off I cook and I’m housebound. Cooking videos are marginally more interesting than sitting-on-the-couch videos, or sleeping videos.

Savory Hand Pies!

Pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs spices of choice
1 cup butter or shortening (I use butter-flavored Crisco)
10-14 tsp icy cold water

Mix flour, salt and spices in a large bowl. I used cumin, coriander and tumeric for this particular chicken sausage meat pie. Cut in the shortening with either a pastry cutter or two butter knives (nice upper arm workout) until the mixture is predominantly pea-sized crumbs. Gradually add the ice water by spoonfuls till the whole mess just comes together. If you pinch it and it holds it’s shape, stop mixing. Form it into one or two balls depending on your counter space (i only have enough room to roll out two smaller ones), saran it and refrigerate it for one hour.

Filling:

This is the fun part. Pick your filling. Some kind of meat/veggie or chicken/veggie or potato/veggie combo cooking in a small amount of liquid (Worchestershire, Soy sauce, Lizano Salsa*, tonkatsu, hoisin, curry, whatever). Doesn’t matter what you use, just cut everything really small and don’t let it be too drippy. Past fillings have included

1. Curried ground pork, Yukon gold potato, onion
2. traditional Jamaican beef patty filling
3. Chicken sausage, Lizano, onion, red pepper, sweet potato
4. Sweet potato, leeks, mushroom
5. Chorizo, potato, chipotles, onion
6. Duck, scallion, hoisin

To Fill:

Roll out the dough to 1/4″. Cut out circles 2-3″ with a floured glass or biscuit cutter. Roll out circles to 5-6 inches 1/8″ thickness if you can manage it. Mine tend to be smaller. Fill w/2 tbs chopped whatnots, crimp, bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or ’till golden. (I like a light egg or milk wash as well…makes the crust all shiny and pretty!)

*INDISPENSABLE STUFF! Savory Costa Rican perfection for all meat pies! Painfully hard to find. I have mine shipped.

November 15, 2008 | Filed under: country mouse, good eatin'

14. I think it’s 14. I think I last posted at 10 or 11. Yeah, well…you wanna make something of it? It’s HARD posting daily! I knew that going into VloMo, of course, but between work and a cold and having a life where not a whole hell of a lot happens makes for a dearth of moviemaking. Sometimes I feel like I have to give my life a jolt just so I can have something to vlog about.

Today we finally bought a new dishwasher. The one that came with the house bit it (of course) a month after its 7 year warrantee expired. We’ve done without for several months and now realize that we go through WAY more propane than we did before. No goodskees. Had to bite the bullet and spend the cash to save money in the long run.

Also, I hate doing dishes. Loathe. Brian and I have a general “I cook; you clean” agreement, but sometimes…well…you know how that can go.

More important than the dishwasher, though, is that the appliance store is down the road from Friendly’s! PATTY MELT! JIM DANDY!

November 11, 2008 | Filed under: VloMo08, 20 seconds and under, good eatin'

A wee late, yes. I spaced yesterday. Spent the majority of it on the bus. Dreamed of fried apple fritters because really, who doesn’t?

November 2, 2008 | Filed under: VloMo08, good eatin'

Nothing says “feel better soon” like a giant steaming bowl of homemade chicken soup.

Nothing.

“Vitamin C” by CAN, An oldie and a goodie. Terrific live clip from CAN themselves in 1972 or just as much of a treat, a solo dance performance in a Canadian (CANadian?) supermarket.

August 10, 2008 | Filed under: country mouse, good eatin'

…and I won. Sort of. Technically I came in second, but really the 1st and 2nd place prizes were identical in value, but the 1st place winner got to choose which one they wanted.Not to put too fine a point on it (and not that it matters, because really it was all in good fun), but I was robbed. Robbed! I was robbed! My melon was SO much more bare than the winner’s! Ask anybody!