Pressure Cooker

I canned vegetable soup.

And Peach/Mango/Passion fruit marmalade.

And Sugar cookies!

Shepard's Pie

I made a Shepard's Pie last week. The recipe's from the Sunday's At Moosewood cookbook. Every vegetarian should have a copy. The book is divided into regional sections - vegetarian recipes from Africa, British Isles, Italy, China, Mexico, ect. ect.
I used a prepared tofu "sausage" instead of the frozen, shredded tofu called for in the recipe and pre-packaged mashed potatoes, because they were free with a purchase at the grocery store.

Tofu Layer -

Tofu "sausage" 16 oz pkg
1 large onion chopped
2 med carrots sliced
1/2 cup celery sliced (or any root veg. of your choice, parsnips,beets,ect.)
2 Tbs veg. oil
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp coriander/cumin seeds
pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs soy sauce

Saute the onions, sliced vegetables, and spices in the oil until the onions are translucent. Stir in the tofu, lemon juice, soy sauce, and black pepper. When heated through, remove from heat and set aside. Place this first layer in a well greased 9x9 inch baking dish.


Potato Layer

Use pre-packaged mash potatoes (like me) OR

4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 Tbs butter
1/2 cup milk
salt to taste

Place cubed potatoes in saucepan and cover with lightly salted water. Bring to boil, simmer until potatoes are soft. Drain - saving hot potato water to use in gravy. Mash potatoes with butter and milk. Salt to taste. Set aside.


Mushroom Gravy

2 Tbs veg. oil
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
3 Tbs soy sauce
pinch black pepper
1 1/2 cups hot potato water
2 Tbs corn starch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Heat oil in a skillet, stir in mushrooms, soy sauce and black pepper. Saute until mushrooms are tender. Add 1 1/2 cups hot potato water and bring to a boil. Slowly stir in cornstarch mixture and cook at a low boil, stirring continuously, until gravy in clear and thick.

Pour mushroom gravy over veg./onion layer in baking dish.

Cover with mashed potatoes, dot the top with butter and bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 mins - until top becomes golden.

If I made in again I wouldn't bother with the tofu "sausage". I used portabella mushrooms and they are 'meaty' enough.

HP Tofu

I could eat a whole pound of tofu by myself, if it's cooked in HP sauce marinade.

The fruity is de-li-ci-ous, but I also rather like the india mild.

Hmm, choices,choices.

This is my recipe:

1lb. firm tofu-cut into 1"x1"

cubes and pressed

for 20min to remove water.

3Tbs HP sauce

2Tbs soy sauce

2Tbs vinegar

1Tbs rooster chile sauce(pic below)

2tsp cornstarch

Mix together and let sit for 10 min.

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Lay marinated tofu cubes in an even layer

on a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown.

Eat.

This is thai rooter chile sauce. No kitchen is complete without a bottle of this in the fridge.

Knead Me

I did a bunch of baking today.

First, Brioche.

Date-Nut bread.

Almond puff pastry baking.Almond puff pastry with lingonberry preserves. Drizzled with lemon sugar frosting and topped with candied pecans

Stir Fried

I stayed inside this week-end and cooked. It's -15F outside with a windchill of -35F. At that temp. any exposed skin freezes in about 15 minutes. I hate winter.
I watched The Day After Tomorrow at work last week.
In the movie first there are terrible tornadoes that kill hundreds of people.
Then the oceans rise and finally a deep freeze covers the northern hemisphere.
In the movie, living where I live, I would be frozen dead.
One thing that bothers me about the movie: the temp gets down to -135F and humans freeze instantly, unless they're standing next to a fire.
Question: Would a fire burn at -135F? Wouldn't all the oxygen be sucked away from the fire?


Well, that's what I've been thinking about this week-end. Freezing and dying.
This is a pic of some tofu I marinaded and then baked at 500F. It comes out of the oven salty and crispy on the outside and creamy soft on the inside.

My mom used to make this for me as a special treat.
It's my second favorite snack.
I guess some people think of mac&cheese or chocolate pudding as comfort foods, but this is what I like.
My favorite meal is really weird. Nobody outside my family likes it.
It's fried onions, bean thread noodles, textured veg. protein, mushrooms, and soy sauce.
It's cooked like a casserole. Mmmmmm. Yum yum.

This is a pic of the stir fry I made. I love baby corn! And jasmine rice.

This is a pic of the egg bread I made today. And a radish sandwich.

Eggy bread,butter, and radish. Mmmmmm.

And then I made some molasses cookies.


I slept for hours and hours this week-end. Work on Friday really tired me out. I worked a morning shift after working a shift the night before. Then I was on CT, on a Friday, always exhausting. People always try to get in on Friday for pain they've had all week.
But what if it gets worse over the week-end?
True.

Secretly, I don't really mind. I can do an Abd/Pelvis CT in 15mins.(they're scheduled every hour) and a head CT in 5 mins.
I've made it sort of a game.

Also, one of my co-workers (we'll call her Talky), who is six months younger than me(as opposed to everyone else who are: 35,45,47,57,64 years old) was working and we always have a lot of fun.
We have our own inside jokes and we can complain about other people.
It's fun.
After working for 3 years with people as old and older than my parents, it's nice to have someone closer to my age to work with.


And I can boss her around sometimes.
Because she is younger than me.
But sometimes she talks too much.

Rice Fire

I love Indian food!
Dum Aloo is my favorite. It's potatoes in a semi-fiery tomato sauce with lots of good spices. Mmmmm and samosas and naan.

I wish I could find a recipe for the red relish that's often served in Indian restaurants for an appetizer. I think it's made out of finely chopped onion and lemon juice, but what makes it red and gives it such a great flavor? Cumin? Annatto?-that would give it a bright red color. Hmmm. I guess I'll keep looking.

So far today at work I have done ONE, yes, count it, one Abd/Pelvis CT on a chemo pt.

My boss asked me today if I would be interested in working from 2pm to 2am x 3 days a week without week-ends and NO CALL!!!!
This seems like a pretty good deal to me. I'll have to see if it works out though. I don't think I would be interested if I still had to work week-ends.

I wish I knew what kind of shifts other x-ray depts. worked.
As I've just passed my Mamm boards (in Dec. score of 98, thanks very much!), it would kind of suck if I didn't get to do mamms at all. They only schedule mamms until 3pm, because there's only a staff of one(me!) in the dept after 3:30pm.
Ho Hum, have to see how it goes.

Cookin' Cookies

I baked cookies tonight. First, Light-as-Air Sugar cookies and then Old-Fashioned Raisin Sugar cookies.

The Light-as-Air sugar cookies are light, airy,and crunchy. Their crust (do cookies have crusts?) is crispy, but their insides are very soft and tender. They have a subtle almond flavor (from extract) and I used superfine sugar mixed with lemon extract for the topping sugar. So, there's a little tangy bitter-sweet bite when you first taste the cookie.

The Raisin sugar cookie doesn't have any nutmeg or spices in it like other raisin cookies. The recipe calls for vanilla extract, but I always use both almond and vanilla extract. Also, I soaked the raisins in rum. They plumped up beautifully and make for a super soft tender raisin cookie.

And I used my very own eggs from my pet chickens! Fresh eggs, warm cookies, yum!

Making Pie

above: Before cooking
I made Wylann's Pot Pie today. It's one of my favorite foods. It has potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, corn, and onions cooked together under a tangy cheddar cheese roux, cradled in a flaky pastry shell. It is soooo good. Anything with that much cheese has to be delicious.

Below: after cooking
ready for eating!