Friday, January 31, 2014

Cullen Skink

I keep trying fish recipes and saying, it's good but I wouldn't want to have it every week, and it occurs to me... who says I have to have anything every week? I am growing as a cook. Boy back in the day, it was Hollywood Grill for Sunday breakfast and Choppers for Sunday dinner, Taco Burrito Express for taco Tuesdays, and Little Caesar's Hot and Ready pizza for Friday dinner, but now Sunday breakfast is covered by my breakfast cooking practice, Sunday and Tuesday dinners are pre-workout and covered by my dinner cooking practice, and I actually go to the grocery and cook dinner Friday night. I mean, I love my quick salmon and broccoli, that's no problem to eat every week. Not every week of the year though, I was looking for one or three more techniques like that and maybe I'll find them. Or maybe I'll just make something different for Friday dinners—that's a thing, you know.

cullen skink

I got the tip for this from my auld friend Ariadne, I keep calling her my auld friend because she is an old friend, but also because she's Scottish! Look at the map! So this is Scottish fish soup, so maybe they have a different kind of smoked fish in Scotland, idk. I found 8 oz packages of smoked trout and another kind, I forget which, at the Jewel. I followed the original recipe as written, apart from changing it from metric, but I tasted the fish and quailed at putting in both 8-oz packages. I thought it would be too strong. Half the fish came out quite mild, so YMMV. I feel like 12 oz is where I'm going to settle at.

4 Tbsp butter
1 onion
1 leek
2 large baking potatoes
1 quart milk
8-16 oz smoked fish, I used trout
parsley

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat.

Finely chop the onion and leek and add it to the pan. Saute until soft but not browned, about eight minutes. Meanwhile peel and dice the potatoes, and mince a handful of parsley. Pour in the milk, turn up the heat to high, and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer until soft, about twenty minutes.

Add the fish and simmer until it slips off its skin and flakes easily. Carefully lift it out and let it cool a bit. Flake it and discard the skin and any bones. Add the flaked fish back to the soup, and stir in the parsley.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Marshmallows

marshmallows

Ermahgerrrrd, I made marshmallows!

Let me tell you, I won't generally voluntarily eat a marshmallow. I think they're kind of gross. I might eat just one toasted, I do like the toasted part. I don't actually like s'mores, which I think on Pinterest makes me public enemy number one, lord there are so many s'mores recipes. I do like a) rice krispies treats, and I really like b) marshmallows in hot chocolate. A marshmallow in hot chocolate is really the best. Because it's just the one marshmallow, which is the definition of a treat in my book.

But, these! I'm trying to save them for hot chocolate, well, I gave a good amount of them away at practice, actually thinking that folks could go home and have hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows, and people were opening up the little baggies and eating the marshmallows right there, I almost fainted. I forgot that you could do that to a marshmallow. And you know what, they're that good.

For the above, I basically followed the recipe for Not Derby Pie's maple cardamom marshmallows, substituting nutmeg as suggested. The maple is really good, I admit, but I think for future batches I will just use corn syrup. Though I also like her suggestion to use gingerbread spice and molasses to make gingerbread marshmallows. I really am making these for hot chocolate, though. And I make really rich hot chocolate, it's kind of a waste of expensive maple syrup. And I'm under no illusion that I can make these healthier by avoiding corn syrup; so for those directions I went back to the source, Smitten Kitchen's Springy Fluffy Marshmallows.

I'm going to experiment some more. I saw something out of the corner of my eye about bourbon marshmallows, what. I don't have bourbon, but I have rum. Rum marshmallows. Malort marshmallows? I'm going to be the Johnny Appleseed of marshmallows. Just because it's so cool and surprisingly easy to make them.

My personal pro tip is, line the baking pan with parchment and there's no fiddling to get the marshmallow slab out of the pan. It'll just lift right out. And, I use my serrated bread knife to cut the slab into squares.

Not Derby Pie says you can use a stand or handheld mixer, but I definitely prefer my stand mixer for beating the syrup and just use my handheld mixer to beat the egg whites.

powdered sugar
3 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
two half cups cold water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla

Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper, butter the paper and dust with powdered sugar.

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water in the mixer bowl, and set aside to soften.

Cook the sugar, corn syrup, the second 1/2 cup of cold water, salt, and nutmeg over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and boil without stirring until a candy thermometer registers 240 degrees, about eight to ten minutes. Remove from heat and pour the syrup over the gelatin mixture, and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

Beat the syrup on high speed until it turns white, thick, and triples in volume, about six minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until they they just barely hold stiff peaks. I use my stick blender with its whisk attachment. Add vanilla, then beat the egg whites into the syrup until just combined.

Pour the marshmallow into the baking pan, I used my hands to scrape it all out and smooth it in the pan. "Maybe you should have lubed," Dawn said, who was watching all this. Sift about a quarter cup of powdered sugar evenly on top. Chill uncovered until firm, I put them in the unheated foyer overnight and they were ready when I got out of bed. Actually, they were why I got out of bed.

Grab the edges of the paper and lift the marshmallow onto a cutting board. Peel the paper away from the sides and bottom of the marshmallow, then cut the marshmallow with a serrated bread knife into bite size pieces. I cut mine like I do egg bites, which is also where I got the parchment idea from: in thirds lengthwise, then in fourths crosswise, then each piece in quarters.

Dust the marshmallows on all sides with more powdered sugar, then put them away in a mason jar or in little ziploc bags for giving away.

Baked Chicken and Vegetable Soup

chicken soup with white beans, parsnips, and mushrooms

This baked chicken soup happens to be made from the roasted endive, parsnips, and mushrooms that I made earlier in the week, I was starting to burn out on roasted vegetables and decided to dress them as soup, and realized that I love making soup. It's so satisfying and creative, actually at the last minute I decided against the endives and ended up throwing them out. Meep, but the soup was better without.

But anyway, this soup always starts with the olive oil, onion, celery, carrots, and thyme, and ends with canned beans and the extra chicken you roasted earlier in the week, and what goes on in between is up to you and your refrigerator.

olive oil
an onion
two celery stalks
2 carrots
thyme
4 cups chicken stock
roasted parsnips
roasted mushrooms
1 can beans
4 baked chicken thighs

Heat the oil in a saucepan over low heat.

Peel and dice the onion and add it to the pan. Scrub, trim, and dice the celery and carrots, adding them to the pan as they're diced. Turn up the heat, sprinkle in a little thyme, and saute the vegetables until they're translucent and a little bit golden, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile drain and rinse the beans, and dice the chicken.

Add the stock, roasted vegetables, beans and chicken. Bring to a strong simmer over high heat, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for twenty minutes.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Furious Russians
 a.k.a. pumpkin white russians

furious russians

You're worried that I have a drinking problem, right? I do have a drinking problem, drinking half and half. I bought a quart of half and half Saturday afternoon just to be sure that I had enough to make these to bring to Ska's for the Bears game, then DRANK HALF, I mean, with my partner in crime, half in this amazing french toast crunch and half in hot chocolate that I made with half and half, almond milk (you know, to lighten it), and a bar of chocolate, and on Sunday morning there wasn't enough.

This is a party-size amount, but the basic recipe is equal parts pumpkin butter, half and half, and vodka. Although! I originally made this with whipped cream vodka and it was good, but I didn't think it had to be so sweet. So for Ska's I made it with plain vodka and I liked that better, but I think that sweetened vodka has a lower ABV than plain? Or it's so sweet you can't taste it? Anyway these were real strong, so you may like to adjust to taste.

three jars Trader Joe's pumpkin butter
3 cups half and half
a 750 ml bottle of vodka
a can of whipped cream

Whisk together the pumpkin butter, half and half, and vodka, and ladle into jars. To serve, pour into a glass and top with whipped cream.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Baked Chicken
 and Roasted Endive, Parsnips, and Mushrooms

baked chicken with roasted endive, parnsips, and mushrooms

You know what's really good, roasted cabbage, but cabbages are too big. I was wishing out loud for a readily available tiny cabbage, and I think Lola said, "brussels sprouts" and I was like (:O and now also submit to you, belgian endive.

This was the batch that I drowned in chicken fat, if these look a bit soggy. I think the concept is sound, still.

4 chicken thighs
   plus 4 more chicken thighs to eat with soup,
optional
salt
pepper
4 belgian endives
three or five parsnips
8 oz mushrooms

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Debone the chicken thighs using a very sharp, small knife. Sprinkle the cut side of the meat with a little salt and pepper. Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet, tucking the skin under the meat. Don't bother with aluminum foil. Also don't bother trimming the skin or if you do, scatter the extra pieces of skin on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through if your oven is uneven.

While the chicken is baking trim and halve the endives, scrub, trim, and cut the carrots into large pieces, and wipe, trim, and halve the mushrooms.

Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and set them aside. If you did eight chicken thighs, drain some of the fat off and put the extra four chicken thighs away to eat with soup later in the week.

Turn the oven up to 500 degrees. Arrange the vegetables on the baking sheet, carrots first, give them a 15 minute head start in the oven. Then add the endives and grapes and roast for another 15 minutes.

Fill four jars with a sliced chicken thigh and a fourth of the roasted vegetables each, these you can just reheat in the microwave and eat. Or you know, eat whatever you want right away and put away whatever's left.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Theory of Mind

I wonder if, before I get into talking about habits, should I tell you my theory of mind. Why not.

It's nothing earth-shattering, it's basically Freud's id/ego/superego in my own words. I think I've told this to you in pieces already.

The overall idea is, you may not feel like you control all of yourself. Do you? I don't. I feel like there's one part of me that's me, and other parts of me that are also me, but other, if that's not too circular to say. I feel like it's important to say it like that. Because I've been through patches where I thought those other parts were other, and not me, and I fought with them, well, it works a lot better when you don't fight yourself. You are the most powerful enemy and the most powerful ally you can ever have. I think the best you can do in a fight with yourself is a draw, why settle for that when you can fight all together for the win, and also, it's a lot less work. I mean, there's still work. There's communication and negotiation that has to happen, basically teamwork between:
theory of mind

  • Body - This is your gut level, I happen to believe that we have little brains all around our body. Cf., muscle memory. You don't have to believe that, but I do.
  • Undermind - This corresponds to Freud's id. This is your subconscious or maybe your heart, you know, your feelings. I have a whole theory of feelings, some other time.
  • Mind - This corresponds to Freud's ego. This is the part of me that's me, my conscious mind. This is the operator, the one who listens to the others and decides the next course of action.
  • Overmind - This corresponds to Freud's superego. This is your superconscious, which is sort of meaningless. It's your autopilot. The word I use most often for this is scripts, algorithms that you write to automate processes.
  • Othermind - These are the minds of others who are not you, you know, other people that you know. Or you know, Wikipedia when you want to look something up. Or "the media" and whatever it's telling you at the moment.

The whole point is to get all of the above, each trusted for its own strengths and entrusted with its own jobs, working smoothly together and functional. I'm not going to talk about all that now. I want to get to talking about habits, which are scripts, which means overmind.

Overmind can get hella dysfunctional, that's called bad habits. Overmind is where you put things that you do without thinking; you can see how that can be great and how that can be a problem, right? Also every part of you except mind only thinks this is how it is. So when you're in the grip of a bad habit, overmind just thinks that this is how it is—at four o'clock, I get up and get a package of Twinkies from the vending machine in the breakroom. That is not a hypothetical, that was me Monday through Friday from 1989 to 1992. Mind's job is not to be fooled into thinking that seems is is, first of all, and then it's to imagine the possibilities for is, and then choose and create is.

The point is, you want to save mind for important executive and creative functions. In fact—or in this half-baked theory, anyway—it's mind that creates habits. Then they run in overmind, getting things done without having to pay mind to them. Which saves mind, right? So basically anything that I need or want to get done, that I've done my thinking about, gets made into a habit. So things get done, and boy, you can get a lot done like this, it is faster after all to do things without thinking, which of course is why you should slow down and think sometimes. Not everything gets made into a habit, lots of things I'm not done thinking about and keeping in mind, all the more reason to make room.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Pizza Quest
 the art of pizza

pepperoni thin
So this was a really decent pepperoni thin crust. Perhaps more saliently, it served as our appetizer as we waited for the main event.

spinach and sausage pan
I greedily wanted the stuffed, but Dawn confirmed via smartphone that it was the pan we had to try. It is really, really good. The crust tastes like ...something. I am not a food reviewer, but you know what I mean?

dawn
Dawn, our fearless leader.

legal and berg
Joining us on tonight's quest were Legal and Berg. We contacted them old skool, on the TELEPHONE.

poppy
Your intrepid reporter and photographer.

The 20 Best Pizzas In Chicago Via Chicagoist.

Art of Pizza
As Art of Pizza has become more popular over the years, the restaurant has slowly taken over the entire strip mall where it's located, which is now appropriately known as Art of Pizza Plaza. The reputation of the establishment firmly rests on its pan pizza. It's a pie so perfect, so solidly crafted, I've yet to taste its superior. It begins with an exceptionally sturdy crust, crispy on the bottom and sides but possessing a wonderfully chewy interior. Eating it also doesn't require a knife and fork; you can perfectly balance your slice on three fingers: thumb, index, ring. Above the crust is a zesty sauce that’s neither watery nor overly chunky, making the ideal backdrop to Art of Pizza’s superior toppings, among them thinly-sliced discs of spicy pepperoni and juicy black olives packed with flavor. (I'm especially partial to a combination of sausage and spinach, both rustic and hearty.) And then the cheese, oh yes the cheese, usually a shade of toasty brown with a scattering of oregano on top. This is pan pizza offered up with an attention to fundamentals, offered up, well, artfully. Get yourself a 14-inch so that you have leftovers. If you don't eat it all at once, that is. —Rob Christopher

Art of Pizza is located at 3033 N Ashland Ave.
Well, he's not wrong. How do you pick one out of twenty pizzas to start with, well, I am apparently drawn to the words "strip mall." I can't say that how my pizza balances on my fingers is top of mind, but I suppose you could. It is a sturdy crust, it's not floppy or soggy at all with sauce. Oh hey that's what we had, the spinach and sausage combo. And there is something good about the cheese, it's toothy or something.

We asked the guy at the counter how many girls the 14" pan would serve, if they were girls who could eat. He said 3–4, so we ordered an 18" thin to start with. That worked out well, we were hungry and the pan took about 35 minutes to come to the table. As it was we were eyeing other people's pizzas that came out before our thin crust. We had twelve pieces of thin and four pieces of pan left over, very neatly divisible by four. A good omen to begin our quest.

So I brought a little box with a piece of pan and three pieces of thin to the sweetie man, which when he answered the door set me up perfectly to say Pizza delivery wowww-owww-owww.

One down, nineteen to go!


Friday, January 24, 2014

I Have No Honor

m: eight o' clock has reared its head

p: oh nooo

p: i punch eight o' clock in the face

m: hnnk

m: eight o' clock will come back in fifteen minutes

I have no honor is from my idea for a Klingon alarm clock, it wakes you up with a Klingon death cry and if you hit snooze it says, "you have no honor."

ETA: I did not actually punch him in the face, I just pushed his stomach a little bit.

Egressions #115-118


115. Eeeeee! Via Wantist.
116. Love this. Via Crafts Unleashed.
117. Aw. Via Foodiggity.
118. Cute! Via Makezine.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

State of the Biz
 winter 2014

odie's larder

It's an embarrassment of riches, really. Guarded by ninjas.

There are still three clients, I love them and they are all doing well. And we are halfway through our six week plyos bootcamp, ahhhhh.

Now coming up is a fork in the road, travel team tryouts. Ahhh.

It's not a fork fork that leads me away in one direction, never the twain shall meet. Idk, I told you, I am weirdly in the moment with my life this year, it's not about getting to my destination, to any destination, it's about where do I want to be right now, what do I want to be doing right now.

My brief history with travel teams: Tried out in 2010, didn't expect to and didn't make the team. Tried out in 2011, expected to and didn't make the team, which sent me into therapy. Well, possibly it was the combination of my sister dying and not making Second Wind that sent me into therapy. Didn't try out in 2012 because I was studying for my trainer certification, and didn't try out in 2013 because I thought I was done with that. But then tried out for Third Coast later that year, made the team, perfect attendance, jammer of the year.

Right now. Between my day job and my three clients, I'm making a living, i.e., paying all my bills, in the black. I can live like this indefinitely. I sort of love my life, not to attract the attention of the gods.

I could:

  • Choose to train more. Offer round two of plyos, which is going well, after this one finishes. Or run an all rolling and stretching class up the flagpole and see if four to six people salute. Or go looking for a 7:00pm Tuesday client, and while I'm at it, a 2:30pm Saturday client, and maybe a 5:30pm Thursday client. Geez, three new clients, I could buy this Bears jersey that I really really want.
  • Take a chance on trying out for Second Wind. Which I'm pretty much decided on. I'll try out if I can make tryouts, I don't know yet if it conflicts with my Saturday training appointment and I will choose to keep that. If I can't make tryouts, I can still ask to be considered. Following that, there's just two possible results:
    • make the team
    • don't make the team

If I make the team, it means not having time for another Tuesday client or class, because practice, and also not having my nice Sunday routine, because practice. It means I can hold the line but not grow the biz until I see this through. I would have decided against if it had meant not holding the line, if you want to know. I'm okay with holding, but not retreating.

If I don't make the team, then it's back to Plan A. How often do you get to do that.

This is kind of weird, you'd think that the thing to do is be the master of your fate; you'd think that reading 80% of the self-help that's out there. Which I think I do. But I actually feel... like I control too much of my life. Like I don't want to write myself into a corner, I like to leave blanks for twists and turns that I wouldn't have thought of.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Mulled Wine Jars

mulled wine jars

Pictured here are mulling spices, before I figured out about the cinnamon stick and bay leaves and the cutie. The cutie is the best part, I have to get a picture of that.

a bottle of red wine
apple juice or cider,
   I like Martinelli's unfiltered apple juice
water
cinnamon sticks
bay leaves
cuties
cloves

Divide the wine between three quart-size mason jars and add 1-1/2 cups of apple juice and 1/2 cup water to each jar. Drop a cinnamon stick and two bay leaves into each jar, and look, now you have grab-and-go jars of wine right in your fridge. I'm not really sure that's what I need, but I have them.

To serve, first, you stick a cutie with some cloves. Then you pour a jar into a small saucepan, drop in the cutie, and put the pan on medium-low heat. I hate to watch things so I set my timer for thirty minutes, that usually covers bringing the wine up to a simmer and then letting it simmer.

I chose these spices because they're easy to fish out! Fish them out, ladle the wine into two mugs, and make yourselves a big bowl of popcorn.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Baked Chicken
 and Roasted Cauliflower, Carrots, and Grapes

baked chicken with roasted cauliflower, carrots, and grapes

Oh! I think this time the Jewel was out of regular chicken thighs, so the sweetie man got boneless and I draped them with half a strip of bacon to simulate the basting effect of the chicken skin. Then I roasted the veggies in the bacon fat.

Man, those crispy singed bits on the cauliflower are NOMZ.

4 chicken thighs
   plus 4 more chicken thighs to eat with soup,
optional
salt
pepper
maybe half a head of cauliflower
three or five carrots
eh, about a pint of grapes

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Debone the chicken thighs using a very sharp, small knife. Sprinkle the cut side of the meat with a little salt and pepper. Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet, tucking the skin under the meat. Don't bother with aluminum foil. Also don't bother trimming the skin or if you do, scatter the extra pieces of skin on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through if your oven is uneven.

While the chicken is baking trim the cauliflower and carrots and cut them into large pieces, use your judgement how much cauliflower you want. I use about half a head and save the other half for avocado vegetable hash. Pick the grapes off their bunch.

Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and set them aside. If you did eight chicken thighs, drain some of the fat off and put the extra four chicken thighs away to eat with soup later in the week.

Turn the oven up to 500 degrees. Arrange the vegetables on the baking sheet, cauliflower and carrots first, give them a 15 minute head start in the oven. Then add the grapes and roast for another 15 minutes.

Fill four jars with a sliced chicken thigh and a fourth of the roasted vegetables each, these you can just reheat in the microwave and eat. Or you know, eat whatever you want right away and put away whatever's left.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Work/Play Review

Actually I wanted to write a habit review.

But I feel like my habits are—well, my everything is—informed by my work/play matrix and it might be a good time to revisit that?

This still holds:

work is something that is done as a means to an end
play is something that is done as an end in itself

Now we make a table:

  that is workthat is play
Work WORK
something that is done
as a means to an end
that is a means to an end
HOBBY
something that is done
as a means to an end
that is an end in itself
Play PLAY
something that is done
as an end in itself
that is a means to an end
PASTIME
something that is done
as an end in itself
that is an end in itself

I left off with this right around this time two—yikes, three years ago, when I was just going back to work after my sister died. That's weird, I feel like I've moved on; yet obviously, still living that outcome. I mean, I only went back to three days of work last August. Well, anyway. What do I mean by work. What does it all mean.

  20112014
WORK my day job
two days a week
my day job
three days a week
HOBBY Systems
Home
write blog posts
write Livestrong articles
Systems
Home
PLAY derby personal training (train)
derby (practice)
PASTIME everything else write blog posts
watch TV and movies
make stuff
see people

I'm also going to say that this still holds:

Do a little bit of work, but as little as possible.

Make a living at hobby or play.

The less work you do, the less pastime you need.

Really those three things are how my life works, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, your mileage may vary. That said, here's a quick rundown of my life:

  • WORK is work, my day job, I'm up from two to three days a week now. Really I only did that to help out because Jackie was finishing up her physician's assistant program, but discovered that the difference between two and three days is like red and black, as in "in the black" for the first time, and for five months and counting, since everything went to hell in a handbasket. So that's fantastic, and it super holds for me that where a lot of work is soul crushing, a little work is whatever the opposite of soul crushing is. Soul un-crushing. Soul straightening and smoothing out.
  • HOBBY is housework, basically. I know, that's so dire to say. It just ended up like that, I'm not saying that my hobby is doing dishes. When it's all caps, it's a technical term. That said, yeah, cooking and cleaning and clothing myself are things that I do as means to an end, so that I'm not hungry, dirty, or naked, that are ends in themselves. I enjoy cooking, cleaning somewhat less, and if you can't tell from the state of my sweatpants, clothing least. Kind of importantly, I no longer count writing as HOBBY. Writing actually phased through PLAY and now lives happily in PASTIME.
  • PLAY has expanded from derby to personal training and derby, which is an awesome development.
  • Last but not least, PASTIME actually has a bit more focus, not the least of which is that writing lives here. It's hard to explain, it feels at home here. Writing feels better being part of PASTIME, and PASTIME feels better having writing in the house. The other members of the house are watching TV and movies, seeing people, and making stuff (usually while watching TV).

Haha:

  • writing - Gryffyndor
  • watching - Ravenclaw
  • seeing - Slytherin
  • making - Hufflepuff

Or hm:

  • WORK - Slytherin
  • HOBBY - Hufflepuff
  • PLAY - Gryffyndor
  • PASTIME - Ravenclaw


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Bout Day Breakfast
 TF vs MA
 sweet clafouti with fresh apple

sweet apple clafouti with greek yogurt, toasted walnuts, maple syrup and bacon, with water and coffee

Sweet apple clafouti with greek yogurt, toasted walnuts, maple syrup, and bacon, with water and coffee

More bout day breakfasts!

This is just regular old sweet clafouti baked in two ramekins, otherwise known as half as much clafouti because they turned out so beautiful and I couldn't not let the sweetie man have one. Anyway, I don't think I specifically wrote instructions for using fresh apples in clafouti, I'm sure you could have figured it out, but here:

2 tablespoons butter
an apple
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk
greek yogurt
nuts
maple syrup

Heat over to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter in an ovenproof skillet over low heat. Peel the apple, and hey, pop the peels in the toaster oven for crispy apple sticks, chop up the apple, and toss it in the butter. Saute until softened, about five or ten minutes?

Beat together the eggs, flour, and milk, and you know what's great for this? My rocket blender that I use for smoothies, blend for thirty seconds. Pour the eggs over the apples in the pan.

(In this case I divided the apples between two buttered ramekins, then divided the eggs over the apples, then put the two ramekins in the oven on the cookie sheet that I was baking the bacon on. Which I burnt, oh well.)

Bake for 25 minutes. Run a heatproof rubber spatula around the edges and under the clafouti to release it from the pan (or ramekins).

Serve with a scoop of greek yogurt, a sprinkle of nuts, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

(Now that I'm actually looking at the original clafouti recipe, I guess this is supposed to be two servings. Whoop, not this winter...)

omg so i made bacon on the cookie sheet, and i poured off the bacon fat into a tiny glass and put sweet potatoes on the cookie sheet to put in the oven, and i fix my breakfast and i'm like, there's one for you in the kitchen, and some walnuts and maple syrup and bacon, and i just went into the kitchen to do the dishes and the tiny glass is empty! and i'm like, what do you think was in this glass? and he goes, maple syrup? and i'm like, NO. and he's like, well it was good.

 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Egressions #111-114


111. Feesh + carbo load, two birds, one stone. Via Food Network.
112. Cullen skink via an auld acquaintance. Via Good Food Channel.
113. Squeeed! Via Laughing Squid.
114. My mom used to make this. Via Korean Bapsang.

I tried fish and vegetable tempura for Friday night dinner and it was good, but kind of too rich for every week. So now I am looking into fish soups, and also fish pasta for erev bout day dinner, and also cute crocheted sea creatures cuddled up in beds.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Early Winter Thursday Cooking Practice
 slow carne, greens, and sweet potato

Thursday's cooking practice is slow carne asada or carnitas, greens, and sweet potatoes.

First, I do the carne asada or carnitas: chop what needs to be chopped, cut the meat into large pieces, mix up the spices, and rub them on the meat, layer it all in the slow cooker where it sits and smells good for four hours on low or two hours on high, still playing with that.

Next, I put on a pot for water for the greens. A thing that I did with the Korean ground beef and Chinese ground pork, which I sort of miss, is after I blanched the greens, I just sauteed them in the pan the meat cooked in, so it picked up all those flavors. Now I just blanch them a little longer, drain and cool them in cold running water, squeeze them and put them away.

Last, the sweet potatoes. I do four at a time, scrub them, put them in a baking pan, and throw them in a 400 degree oven, and set a timer for an hour so I don't forget they're in there.

fistfuls of greens

The sweet potatoes get halved and put away, and the meat gets shredded and put away. When you have an hour between coming home from work and going out to practice, you bleat I NEED FOODZ and the sweetie man fixes a bowl for you and heats it in the microwave:

slow carne, greens, and sweet potato

The greens are a little bland, so I mush it all together to get a little of the spices from the meat on the greens.

Crispy Apple Sticks
 or pear sticks

crispy apple sticks!

I got this recipe for crispy apple skins from Not Derby Pie. This is a thing that I make when I make sweet clafouti with fresh apple or pear, from the apple or pear peels. Obviously you could make it any time you have the occasion to peel apples or pears, scaled accordingly.

apple or pear peels
cinnamon or ginger

When you're prepping your apple or pear for clafouti, quarter the fruit lengthwise, core the quarters and halve them lengthwise again. Remove the peel from each eighth with a paring knife, it's okay to get a bit or even a lot of fruit with the peel. The peeled fruit you chop up for the clafouti, obviously.

Since I'm only peeling one piece of fruit, I just arrange the peels on my toaster oven tray and sprinkle them with cinnamon or ginger. Turn the toaster oven to 250 degrees and pop the tray in, and then you basically forget about them.

Sometime mid-morning you go, AHHH, the apple peels. Say it's been about 40 minutes or an hour. And you take them out, and they're perfect. You can poke them to see if they're crispy enough, they actually crisp up a bit more once they're out of the toaster.

Just a fun little mid-morning snack!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Black Tea and Cuties

black tea and cuties

My go to afternoon snack for the foreseeable future.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Early Winter Tuesday Cooking Practice
 baked chicken and roasted vegetables
 viz., brussels sprouts, beets, and cuties

After I've eaten clafouti for breakfast, Tuesday's cooking practice is baked chicken and roasted vegetables. I guess that's kind of two recipes, plus I bake some extra chicken thighs for soup. So this is a pretty hard-working practice.

4 chicken thighs
   plus 4 more chicken thighs to eat with soup,
optional
salt
pepper
1 lb brussels sprouts
three beets
two cuties

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Debone the chicken thighs using a very sharp, small knife. Sprinkle the cut side of the meat with a little salt and pepper. Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet, tucking the skin under the meat. Don't bother with aluminum foil. Also don't bother trimming the skin or if you do, scatter the extra pieces of skin on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through if your oven is uneven.

While the chicken is baking trim the brussels sprouts and beets, cut the beets into large pieces, and peel and separate the cuties.

Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and set them aside. If you did eight chicken thighs, you may be asking yourself is there an upper limit to how much chicken fat I can roast my veggies in? I tried it and the answer is yes, so drain some of the fat off. Put four of the chicken thighs away to eat with soup later in the week.

Turn the oven up to 500 degrees. Arrange the vegetables on the baking sheet, beets first, give them a 15 minute head start in the oven. Then add the brussels sprouts and cuties for another 15 minutes.

Fill four jars with a sliced chicken thigh and a fourth of the roasted vegetables each, these you can just reheat in the microwave and eat. Or you know, eat whatever you want right away and put away whatever's left.

baked chicken and roasted beets, brussels sprouts, and clementines

Savory Clafouti with Sausage and Kale
 alla Francesa's Forno

savory clafouti made with leftover kale and sausage from francesca's forno

My favorite thing in the WORLD is to make something delicious out of scraps. I had a little bit of kale and sausage left over from some pasta that I had at Francesca's Forno, I dressed it up as a savory clafouti. Egg clafoutis are my winter home breakfasts, Tuesday and Thursday, and I'm still deciding if I want butter coffee or actual breakfast on Saturday.

olive oil
leftover sausage and kale or whatever, a half cup to a cup
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat a bit of olive oil in an ovenproof skillet over low heat. Toss in the sausage and kale and warm up them up.

Blend together the eggs, flour, and milk in a rocket blender for thirty seconds. Pour the eggs over the sausage and kale in the pan.

Bake for 25 minutes. Run a heatproof rubber spatula around the edges and under the clafouti to release it from the pan, and cut it into wedges.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Microwave-Poached Eggs in Veg Puree

poached eggs covered

I got this microwave-poaching tip from Ruth, the key is the covered Pyrex container with the little vent. And the other key is, the eggs poach better if they're sitting on top of and not sunk under the sauce. Idk why that is, but it does seem to be true.

a jar of veg puree
two eggs
parmesan cheese,
optional

Empty the jar of puree into the Pyrex bowl, and gently crack the eggs on top of the puree, so like, don't plop the eggs into the puree, it's more like you carefully pour them out of the shell and lay them on the puree surface. Cover and microwave on high for two minutes, check it and give it a stir around the edges, recover, and microwave on high for another two minutes? Check again and if the eggs aren't quite done, give them another minute? Microwave mileages definitely vary, so you may have to experiment with yours to get it right.

I keep a container of parmesan in the fridge at work, so I sprinkle some of that on top, and if it still tastes bland, just a little bit of salt will do wonders. I know this seems like a weird thing to eat, but to me it is a bowl of gorgeous.

Microwave-poached eggs shakshuka
Same as above except with a jar of shakshuka, and topped with avocado and feta.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Winter Fitness Chart
 re-evaluated

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
HOME
Systems
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PLAY^
 
PLAY^
practice
PLAY
practice
PLAY^^
intensity
PLAY^
 
PLAY
scrimmage
PASTIME
Watch
PASTIME
See
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

Omg lolz. Hyeah, that. Is not happening.

I'm proud though, my plyos class is harrrrrd. I'm a first things first sort of gal, and a great believer in movement restoration, so my work lately has leaned in that direction, and I generally don't think of myself as an asskicker, but haha. Oh my god. Actually it's a good thing that I decided to do the workout with the class, otherwise I might not have known. I mean KNOWN, known. It's going to be GREAT, but I'm going to be able to do this plus my three skate practices and that is all. I'm actually thinking about taking Miss Bike on the train to Kris's and back. After Nora this Saturday, four days after plyos, I looked at those big kettlebells and even my eyelids felt heavy—

So basically swap in Tuesday plyos and swap out Wednesday bike and Saturday weights for six weeks. Which works: three high, one low, one high, one rest, one low...

Early Winter Sunday Cooking Practice
 veg puree


Theoretically, "cooking practice" posts are supposed to take you through all the recipes that I would make in an entire cooking session, except I think I only make one recipe in two out of three cooking practices. So basically this is like me giving juggling lessons for juggling just one ball, which is sort of me in a nutshell. The Clothes Make The Girl just started her 2014 Whole 30 meal plan series if you want to check out something a little more high level.

But anyway, Sunday's cooking practice is work breakfasts for the week, which as you know for winter is eggs in veg puree of which there are carrot and cauliflower versions. I mostly make cauliflower, though. I may have a post coming up about winter carb cravings, but the upshot is that I can up my carb allowance just with root vegetables and not resort to bread and pasta, but maybe not root vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Lately I have a nice thing going, Sunday is my day for sleeping in and then doing a little work in bed. I get butter coffee in bed. When I get up, I tidy the bedroom—the sweetie man does the dishes on Saturday and Sunday, so I don't have to tidy the kitchen—and I tidy the bathroom, wash up, and get dressed. Then I set about making this veg puree.

You don't have to click through for the recipe, here it is:

two bags of frozen cauliflower
2 cups almond milk
4 tbsp butter

Put cauliflower, almond milk, and butter in a large saucepan, bring to a simmer over high heat, and then simmer over low heat for 25 minutes. Puree in the pan with a stick blender.

This makes four servings of puree, I ladle out three containers for later and put them in the refrigerator.

cauliflower puree jars

By now it's just about noon, I eat what's left in the pan for lunch:

two eggs

Crack the eggs into the remaining cauliflower puree, cover the pan, and simmer over medium high heat for five minutes. Spoon out the eggs and scrape the cauliflower puree with a rubber spatula into a bowl.

Sit on the couch, eat gorgeous poached eggs and cauliflower puree, and get started with Sunday afternoon systems work.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

He Has Been Carving Away At That 2 x 4 All Morning

m: do you remember darkon

p: mm hm

m: do you think the guy who designs all those castles and structures

m: is called the LARPitect?

p: hahaha!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Early Winter Food Chart

Green tea with almond milk, most mornings in bed.
Sleep in Sunday morning, butter coffee to tide me over until lunch.
Eggs in veg puree for Sunday lunch and work breakfasts.
Sweet or savory egg clafouti for home breakfasts.
Baked chicken and roasted vegetables for work lunches.
Baked chicken and creamed vegetable soup for home lunches.
Black tea and cuties for afternoon snack.
Slow meat, greens, and sweet potato for pre-workout dinners.
Salmon and broccoli for Friday or Saturday night dinner.
Cococherry2O for workout drink.
Roasted fruit, sliced almonds, and greek yogurt for post-workout snack.
Coconut-popped popcorn and mulled wine for Friday or Saturday evening snack.

Welcome to my all-new food chart in pictures!

Early winter is a hybrid fall-winter food chart.

I had been starting the day with green tea with apple cider vinegar but when it gets cold, I want something less bracing and more comforting and warm; so green tea with almond milk in going to fill in the cold months.

Winter breakfasts are eggs in veg puree for work, and egg clafouti at home. I mostly make sweet clafouti with a fresh apple or pear, that's fastest. My savory roasted tomato and goat cheese clafouti recipe is delish, but it's a pain to roast the tomatoes and I feel like they do need to be roasted. I did however make a really brilliant savory clafouti from leftovers I had from Francesca's Forno, I will show you that soon.

For work lunches there was still fun to be had with baked chicken and roasted vegetables from fall and if you bake extra chicken, you can have that with creamed vegetable soup for home lunches.

Afternoon snack is going to be black tea and seasonal fruit, which is cuties right now.

Where I'm ultimately at with pre-workout dinner is a) either ground meat or slow meat, b) greens, and c) either rice or sweet potato, which yields four different combinations, and the winter combination is slow meat, greens, and sweet potato. I meant to develop a fish and veg tempura recipe for dinner in, but that hasn't happened yet; so salmon and broccoli from fall is still standing in for that. With my schedule I am so not going to eat fish for dinner three nights a week, so I will have to amend that.

Workout drink is cococherry2o, of course.

Roasted fruit with sliced almonds and greek yogurt is supposed to be my post-workout snack, but lately I've been on and off with greek yogurt, idk why. I've taken it off my protein list, my post-workout protein now is nuts. I mean, I might have nuts and greek yogurt sometimes. Anyway, expect tweaking here. For evening snacks in, you can see the picture is popcorn but truthfully the business end is the beverage, not shown, which held over from fall is still mulled wine. Mmmm.

Ultimate food chart! Tweaked, actually, already, from last week.
Early winter food planner for the extremely detail-oriented.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Winter Fitness Chart

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
HOME
Systems
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PLAY^
intensity
PLAY^
practice
PLAY
practice
PLAY^^
intensity
PLAY^
duration
PLAY
scrimmage
PASTIME
Watch
PASTIME
See
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

Mmmnnnph. How did that happen. First of all I was honestly planning on only doing two skate practices per week, and then captains were like everybody please do at least three so I was like ookaay. Then, I want to participate in my plyos class after Joe on Tuesday. For professional reasons, honest! I feel like leading a class could be different than training a client, plus it's going to be funnn. Then especially in winter, that bike ride to Kris's is as intense as you can get short of high intensity. And finally I still want to do my heavy lifting program after Nora on Saturday. So this is basically looking like six high intensity days in a row, with one day of rest.

I need to get more clients to save me from myself. After plyos is finished, I should see about getting a second Tuesday client. A second Saturday client would be nice, too. Maybe a Thursday client.

Oh well, let's try it. I've been pretty nicely powered down for the past two weeks, I feel ready to come at the new year punching and kicking!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

S1 Lifer Helmet

s1 lifer helmet

So like I said, the strap on my hockey helmet broke again. So I ended the hockey helmet experiment and got an S1 Lifer Helmet.

Not much to say, I like it a lot. I feel more like myself in this helmet than I did in my hockey helmet.

The cool thing about the Lifer is that you get the helmet size based on your head measurement, and then customize the fit with the front and back liners. But I just have an L helmet with L liners, because I always wear a bandana. Ho hum.

Also it's multi-impact. My old S1 helmet, which I still wore for biking until I got this, was multi-impact, too.

Pretty much covers what I wanted a hockey helmet for, fit and multi-impact, without making me look like Tron.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Winter Chart

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
HOME
Systems
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PASTIME
Write
WORK
 
PLAY^
intensity
PLAY^
practice
PLAY
practice
PLAY^^
 
PLAY^
duration
PLAY
scrimmage
PASTIME
Watch*
PASTIME
See
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

* Make stuff while watching TV

Winter! Home season! Same basic schedule for two seasons in a row! Calendar seasons I mean, not sport season. I mean, when I said home season I meant sport season.

Same three days WORK, same four days HOME with three cooking practices and one cleaning practice. Same six days PLAY; but I'm counting Sunday referees as a pro bono class and I have my Tuesday plyos class, that makes three personal clients and two group classes. Same four blocks of PASTIME, but fine tuned; what I want to do for pastime is write blog posts, watch movies and TV series, see people, and make stuff. I'm getting a good sense when I need to power down and just watch something, and when I've had enough of that and want to write stuff. I'm also getting good at switching between the serenity to stay in and the courage to go out.

I've been doing these charts for years, you know, and I do feel like I finally have a handle on work, home, and play. I'm going to set cleaning habits this year like I did my cooking habits last year, though. That leaves pastime to level up. It's not that I have pastime goals, that would be ridiculous. It's really that I want a pastime system per Egression #108. Which maybe is also ridiculous, but. I just want to get more out of my pastime. I don't want it to be more productive. Obviously the point of pastime isn't productivity, it's enjoyment. I want it to be more enjoyable. Sitting on the couch watching television has been my go to for downtime, but I can feel myself getting bored with it. The wrong thing would be to kneejerk Do Something and goodbye downtime, what I need is to think about something to do for downtime. Making stuff while watching television seems to fit the bill, for example, making stuff with my sewing machine doesn't fit the bill, mahhh setting up the machine, sitting at the table instead of on the couch like God intended for pastime, and generally too serious and goal-oriented. But hand sewing silly costumes for Odie is fun and sort of a puzzle without a predetermined solution. So stuff like that.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Winterval Epiphany
 HATS OFF

winterval epiphany

Ready for 2014!

Isn't this cool? It's the Curio EXP CAL YYYY Calendar, all the dates of the year (except 2/29) in expiration dates. But of course you can use it year after year, so it never expires. It comes with little post-it notes that you can write things on, I started myself with some bouts and birthdays...

Friday, January 3, 2014

Egression #108

108. This is my life! Via Entrepreneur.

This is a serendipitous egression to start the new year, circumspicere, this is my life, this is what I'm all about. In fact SYSTEMS is one of the main categories that I blog about. If you really want to know, here's where it is in context:

  • WORK
  • HOBBY
  • PLAY
  • PASTIME
    • Write
    • Watch
    • See
    • Make
...if you were wondering, I'm sure you were, what slice of my life you're looking at.

Actually I think I have inadvertently outlined a map for where I could go next. Like I have decently developed systems for food and fashion, but God knows I could do something about the house. And I'm always developing systems for fitness, FYI, "train" means when I train others and "practice" means when I practice myself.

These are the things that I'm turning into habits, which hugely took up my time last year. I'm going to make up a percentage and say that 80% of your life might be habits, your routine that you program yourself to do practically on autopilot. It takes a fair bit of work to program yourself like this, first of all. And then, program yourself and then what? Life as an automaton, is that a life??

See, I think it is. Remember when Princess Di got in trouble for saying that being a princess was 80% slog and 20% fantastic, I think that's right. I think the hard part is accepting how much work life is, I myself have had to come to this in stages. I don't think I accepted my sleep needs until maybe five years ago. Then what, I need to sleep and also rest? And now what, feed myself? At this point I feel like the carver at a buffet, dutifully carving the juicy roast down to the bone. And seeing that it's when you get down to the bone and you're getting nervous that there's going to be none left, just like they say, that's where the magic happens.

Anyway.

I'm just saying, it makes sense to me to get good at the slog, get that down and out of the way, not saying that you can't learn to enjoy it for what it is, and free yourself up for your toothpick of fantastic. I bet that's all we get, that little bit of fantastic. But I bet that little bit goes a long way, what are you going to make with your toothpick?

So maybe I will write more about that this year. Probably a lot more about systems, and maybe a little bit about my toothpick.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Ultimate Food Chart

ultimate food chart

I've done it! Pollock, I've cracked it wide open. I think. Brace yourself for this little piece of abnormal psychology alla Poppy, my ultimate food chart!

Man, I had just about given up on this and ::click:: it all fell into place. Or well, I think what happened is that my schedule clicked into place and hopefully will be staying in place long enough for me to build my little house on the prairie.

See I upset myself last fall trying to come up with monthly food charts, that's changing gears too fast for me. I really prefer changing gears every thirteen weeks: stumbling the first few weeks over recipes I haven't made in a year, getting the hang of them again, being able to do them with my eyes closed, and then time please to switch it up again. It's not about having a unique food chart for each month; it's more about having a unique food chart for each key month, i.e., the key month of each season, e.g., February for winter, May for spring, August for summer, and November for fall, and hybrid food charts for the between months. So for example, January has pieces from the fall and winter charts, March has pieces from the winter and spring charts, and how do you know which pieces? You just pick them, whichever ones work.

Well, we'll see! All this is contingent on my life chart staying the course, I'd reeeally like to run with this for a while. As long as I've had this blog, my schedule—which is to say, my life—has largely been at the mercy of when there were practices that could be picked up, and it's been transition after transition, from Derby Lite to WCR, from Rioter to Fury, from preseason to home season to postseason, from home team to travel team and back again, but maybe, finally, derby-wise, I am who I am? Not to mention the whole knock knock and barfing stars thing, that also happened. And I'm not saying that I'm done changing, obviously not, hopefully not. Can I be this for a while, though? Work MWF, cook and blog Tue Thu, practice Sun Mon Thu, train Tue Wed Sat, and rest Fri Sat?

So every month, I am going to post the month's chart. Disclosure: I'm on blog time, so I'll be posting the chart I did last month, but, CLOSE ENOUGH. So like, I've been cooking off the early winter chart all December to be posted in January. You will see, next week.

I'll be amazed if I'm able to use this for the entire year. It will be constantly updated, like already I'm over black tea and chocolate. Sad to say, chocolate has been giving me headaches. Now I just have black tea and cuties for the orange, I'm all about cuties right now.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

New Years Day
 LIGHTS OFF
 hoppin john, greens, and cornbread

new years day

Tuesday is the sweetie man's day to mind Rudy, so I actually roused myself yesterday afternoon to get my own groceries for today's dinner, and boy, Jewel was a madhouse, lines going halfway up the aisles, I got my cart in line and got checked out, and as I was pushing away from the checkout I realized that I had gotten everything to make blackeyed peas and rice except blackeyed peas. Aaaagh. But then when I went back, there weren't any blackeyed peas left. So I got black beans, so this is more moros y cristianos. I guess this year instead of prosperity we're wishing for racial harmony. Which is probably a better thing to wish for, and anyway we still have greens for cash money and cornbread for, uh, gold money, I guess. Boy that's really a lot to wish for, prosperity and cash money and gold money...

For greens:
1 lb collard greens
1 smoked ham hock
water

Trim and slice collard greens. Put the greens and ham hock in a small saucepan with enough water to cover when you squish down the greens pretty firmly. Do you know what I'm saying, greens shrink a lot so don't drown them. Simmer for about an hour, then fish the greens out with tongs or a spaghetti server. Elle says to save the pot liquor for soup, I think I will save that and all the ham hocks and make a ham bean soup yum yum.

For hoppin john:
olive oil
1 onion
3 ribs celery
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
1 lb black-eyed peas, soaked overnight and drained
6 cups water
2 smoked ham hocks
1 cup brown rice

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Chop onions, celery, and peppers, adding them to the pan as they're chopped. Saute until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add peas, water, and ham hocks. Cover and cook over medium heat until peas are tender but still whole, about 30 minutes. (Black beans take longer to cook than blackeyed peas, by the way, more like an hour.) Add rice, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes more. Remove ham hocks.

For cornbread:
3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Here is my patented way to make cornbread with the least amount of dishes, first, throw the butter into a 12-inch skillet and into the oven to melt.

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon— do you see, you can measure the cornmeal, flour, and sugar all with the quarter cup measure. Measure the milk in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, and whisk the egg right in the measuring cup, pour that into the dry ingredients, and stir it up with the spoon. Get the skillet out of the oven, generously brush the melted butter up the sides of the skillet as you drizzle most of the butter into the batter. Give the batter one more stir with the spoon, guide it into the skillet with the spoon and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.