Appetizing Muse

New Home for Appetizing Muse

Sat, 1 Jan 05 00:00:00 UT

Appetizing Muse has moved to a new location:

http://shenanchie.tripod.com/weblog/

I hope to see you there.

Bon Appetit!

Prepping for New Years Eve

Thu, 30 Dec 04 07:46:00 UT

Yesterday afternoon I took time to make the filing for my homemade egg rolls, our food of choice for New Yearâs Eve. I like preparing in advance, and my recipe for filling takes a bit to put together. This time I opted for ground pork shoulder, which I cooked slowly with MSG, garlic flakes, white pepper and dabs of teriyaki and soy sauces. After draining the meat and letting it cool, I minced the meat and set it aside.

Other filling ingredients include minced water chestnuts, mushrooms, carrots and Chinese cabbage. After returning the meat to the electric skillet, I added the vegetables and cooked the entire lot slowly for about an hour. Once done, I let the mixture cool completely before storing the refrigerator. When it comes time to complete the meal, I will take the mixture in measurements to fill egg-roll wrappers, secure the ends with a rub of cornstarch and water, and submerge them in my wok filled with oil. Once the egg roll skins become browned and crispy, they come out of the oil and are drained on paper towels. They can be eaten as is, or dipped in a favorite mustard sauce.

Friday morning I will prepare the fixings for my Chinese fried rice: green onions, cubed ham, scrambled eggs and a smidgen of peas. I usually cook double the amount of white sticky rice as the dish goes quickly in my house. I mix the cooked rice in my wok with the other ingredients and toss the lot with soy and teriyaki sauces. New Years Eve will find us munching on egg rolls and enjoying homemade fried rice.

Happy tidings to you and yours!

New Digs Part #2

Thu, 30 Dec 04 07:43:00 UT

I finally finished working on the "new" Appetizing Muse weblog, having ironed out the commenting system kinks with Haloscan. The issue was something simple of course, but it never seems that way when scrutinizing html code rather than plain text. I will provide the link to the new blog the first day of January.

Iâve also rejuvenated several of my articles that contain information about specific foods, such as: Artichoke Ambrosia, Avocados, Garlic Galore, Hot Diggity Dog (all about frankfurters), Mushroom MÃ©lange and Tea Time. Links to the articles will be on the main page of the new weblog next month.

Off I go to attend to more update workâ¦see you next year.

Coffee Carafe Woes

Mon, 27 Dec 04 17:45:00 UT

This morning my eight-month old coffee pot died. Not literally, of course, but somehow the carafe developed a small crack on the bottom. I turned the pot on this morning after letting the dogs outside, and when I came back coffee was flooding the counter. Iâm damned cranky first thing in the blessed a.m. unless Iâve had my coffee, so it was straight out to the store to find a replacement. My husband worked all night, but he kindly offered to come along.

Our old pot is a Black & Decker Smart Brew, and I wanted to get the same or similar. We went to three different stores before finding a black twelve-cup coffee maker. Our old one is programmable, also with a clock and warning alarm when the coffee is finished brewing. We couldnât find another one of those, so we settled for the basic Black & Decker coffee maker.

However, we had grown accustomed to the features of the old pot. Once we got home, I simply placed the new carafe in the old machine. Itâs sort of a roundabout way to have the same coffee maker, but before anyone asks none of the stores we visited carried non-dribble replacement carafes.

I finally had my first cup of coffee at ten-thirty this morning. What a dreadful state of affairs!

Working with Boards

Mon, 27 Dec 04 17:42:00 UT

I bought a new cutting board today, a nice cherry hardwood with a juice groove. The board is supposed to be conditioned after purchase with oil to seal and preserve the wood. Can anyone tell me what kind of oil? Cooking oil, such as olive or canola? Or is there special oil for cutting boards? My husband wants to apply olive oil, but Iâd rather find out what is considered proper.

The Chicago Cutlery web site was no help â nary a mention of oil types for conditioning â but I did find an interesting page about types of knives and their uses complete with illustrations.

Dinner Suggestions

Sun, 26 Dec 04 00:45:00 UT

Two mouth-watering recipes from Campbellâs Kitchen:

Savory Beef & Portobello Mushrooms

Creamy Ranchero Enchiladas

First Breakfast

Sun, 26 Dec 04 00:43:00 UT

According to Star Chefs, breakfast on New Yearâs Day is the most important meal of the year. Several top chefs have some menu suggestions with recipes:

Feeding the Resolute & Dissolute on New Yearâs Day

Holiday Fare

Sun, 26 Dec 04 00:38:00 UT

Christmas dinner was nicely done with an orange-glazed ham, mashed potatoes and green beans and kernel corn sautÃ©ed in a bit of butter. It was my intention to make scalloped potatoes to go with the ham, but my husband begged for mashed. Since tasting my version of mashed potatoes using liquid Coffee Mate instead of milk four years ago, he wonât eat the dish any other way.

I was the lucky recipient of several kitchen gadgets for Christmas. My mother sent me a mega-nut cracker (especially good for walnuts and other large nuts), along with a set of canisters, a plastic container for opened bacon, a Bread Buddy (the caricature pictured at right); and a Batter Pro.

At first I thought the Batter Pro was for sieving pancake batter, and wondered why? But then I started reading the included booklet, and realized the three-parts to the gadget were actually for mixing batter without having to touch raw foods, soaking edibles such as onion rings, vegetables and more in the batter, and then turning it over so the excess batter pours into the second container. This leaves coated vegetables or meats without dripping batter, and ready to fry up. The gadget also came with a flat whisk and a multi-purpose guide knife. Iâm sure the Batter Pro will also work for tempura batters, which I use more often than standard coatings.

As the day wound down I listened to U2âs How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (a gift from my husband) as I made a loaf of wheat bread from scratch. It was a nice ending to a wonderful day.

Florentine Lunch

Wed, 22 Dec 04 17:15:00 UT

I prepared Tomato Florentine Soup for lunch today, and it was mighty tasty. I was surprised by the goodness of it because I donât normally like cooked spinach, but the fresh leaves managed to stay firm even though I cooked them briefly with melted butter and onion before adding the soup.

On the side, we had grilled chicken-and mozzarella sandwiches. Itâs the same premise as grilled cheese, except I used thin-sliced chicken deli meat and mozzarella cheese on the bread instead.

Christmas in Eire

Wed, 22 Dec 04 17:09:00 UT

For those interested, the latest Irish Abroad newsletter contains some holiday cheer:

Irish Christmas Traditions

Hereâs a snippet:

The laden table:

After evening meal on Christmas Eve the kitchen table was again set and on it were placed a loaf of bread filled with caraway seeds and raisins, a pitcher of milk and a large lit candle. The door to the house was left unlatched so that Mary and Joseph, or any wandering traveler, could avail of the welcome.

In another Irish Abroad article, peruse the suggestions to cure a hangover:

How to Cure a Hangover

And last but not least, if you like mince there are recipes awaiting you from Irish chef Margaret Johnson:

Make the Most of Mince

Nollaig Shona duitâ¦

Ornament Munching

Tue, 21 Dec 04 16:14:00 UT

This might prove to be interesting:

Edible Ornaments from the Food Network

Meatball Misstep

Tue, 21 Dec 04 16:13:00 UT

This was last nightâs dinner:

Swedish Meatballs (Stuffing-Style)

1Â½ LBS lean ground beef

1 pkg. (6Â¼ oz.) Beef Stove Top Stuffing

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 jar (12 oz.) beef gravy

1 C sour cream

Preheat oven to 400Â° F. Mix the meat, eggs, onion and 1Â¼ cups of water. Shape into 32 meatballs, each about 1â in diameter. Place in two foil-lined 13X9 baking pans; bake for twenty minutes. Mix beef gravy and sour cream in a large saucepan. Add cooked meatballs, mix lightly. Cook on low heat for about five minutes. Serve.

I misread the recipe (here I go again), and made the stuffing mix from the box first. I also used chicken flavor instead of beef. Once it had cooled, I combined the stuffing with the meat, eggs and onion, and completely forgot about adding the water. I cooked the meatballs in my steamer rather than in the oven, and then added them to the beef gravy-sour cream mixture, along with a small jar of button mushrooms.

I also boiled egg noodles, and once everything was cooked I spread out the noodles in the bottom of a large serving dish, and then spooned the meat/gravy mixture on top.

Perhaps because I steamed the meatballs, the original call for 1Â¼ cup of water was not necessary. The meatballs were tender and moist. The entire meal was good, even with my little blunders.

The recipe originally came from Kraft Foods/Stove Top Stuffing.

Chili & Noodles

Sun, 19 Dec 04 17:21:00 UT

Some of the leftover remnants of my second marriage include mysterious bills that surface because my ex seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, the knowledge of true Italian pasta sauce, the experience of making homemade ravioli, potato cavatelli and almond biscotti, and a little snack known as chili and noodles.

The combination sounds odd, but itâs actually quite good. My ex used to take a can of chili, water it down a bit, and then pour it over cooked pasta noodles such as angel hair or corkscrew pasta. I always added a touch of Romano or Parmesan cheese to boot. Itâs a nice quick meal, very satisfying, and it was my lunch on another foggy day.

New Blog Reads

Sun, 19 Dec 04 17:18:00 UT

Thanks to a short article in the new edition of Bon Appetit, Iâve checked out the following web logs and have added them to my own Blog Reads:

Slice:

All about pizza in New York City and then some.

The Food Section:

All the news that is fit to eat (according to Bon Appetit).

Both journals contain much about food, and seem well put together.

New Blog Digs

Sat, 18 Dec 04 16:08:00 UT

Beginning in the New Year, Appetizing Muse will be moving to a new home. Iâve enjoyed the time spent at Journal Scape as it left me free from worrying about a commenting system and collecting archives. However, the time has come to roost in my own web space (shenanchie.tripod.com), and the changeover will become effective the first of January. Iâll leave the current and archival entries at Journal Scape, but all new posts in 2005 will be at the new space. All archives have been copied to the new digs as well.

Moving Appetizing Muse to my own web space will allow me to be more creative with the design and the basic structure of the web log. A few years ago I did the same with my primary blog Irish Eyes and the transition went rather well. I can add what I like without restrictions, including graphics, styles, colors and other details associated with a web page.

For those who subscribed to the Journal Scape blog, I will continue to send out update notifications unless requested not to do so by individual subscribers.

I will provide the new web address for Appetizing Muse the first of the year. At the moment, I am hammering out some kinks in the commenting system at the new blog with Haloscan, but hopefully this will be resolved shortly.