Kitchen Nearly Completed--I Can't Wait to Cook!

Soon soon soon, we will have a kitchen again. Not only that but a nice one, with doors on the cabinets-n-stuff.

Here is a draft of what I want to cook as soon as we have a kitchen:
* Homemade Lasagna
* Mediterranean Fish
* HUGE Quantities of Caramel Corn

Meantime, my husband and I have been pleasurably overdosing in take-out and instant foods. But as it turns out, there's a limit to the amount of frozen mac-n-cheez I actually want to eat. Huh, didn't know that. We've had to become somewhat inventive.

For example, today, desperately needing a healthy dose of green veggies, I found frozen creamed spinach in my grocery store. I microwaved it and spread it thick on multi-grain crackers. Sounds weird, but it was awesome. It would be great on crispy grilled Italian bread. I'm actually planning on eating it as a healthy-ish comfort food snack in the future, even after the kitchen is completed.

Cool Photo Summary

So, I've been getting bzzzzzz-ay the last few weeks. Bachelorette party 1, bachelorette party 2, wedding 1. Not much time to blog. But still eating healthy. And when home, putting together those quick staples that, luckily, I can never get enough of! Miso soup, lentil soup (organic boxed), PBJ with organic PB and high fiber bread. I can eat PBJ three meals a day and still want more.

Still, even when busy, it's easy to fit in a quick article here or there. Especially articles with pictures ...

Like this great photo summary from Huffington Post called the 12 Things You Should Definitely Buy Organic. It's a great summary of toxins to watch out for in foods and household products. And, they use data from one of my all-time favorite organizations, EWG.

Borox: Not Green

I love the movement on so many blogs and websites lately toward green cleaning supplies. I definitely have a few favorites I use at home. (Check out my blog on making homemade deodorant.)

But I've often wondered about a couple ingredients commonly seen in these "green" recipes for making your own cleaners. Anytime a recipe for a homemade "green" cleanser includes a store-bought manufactured product that is not labeled as green or ecologically safe ... well, you got to wonder.

One common ingredient in these online recipes that always made me raise an eyebrow was Borox.

Now, I just recently learned that my eyebrows were onto something. According to the Environmental Working Group, Borox is not the green clean alternative many have hoped it would be.

Check out EWG's blog on the topic. They very clearly describe the possible health effects of Borox, such as skin and eye irritation as well as hormone disruption. The blog also recommends lovely alternatives, such as vinegar and lemon juice.

Maple Syrup & Popcorn Everywhere, and I Want to Eat It All!

Popcorn is in the air.
Maple syrup skies.

It must be something about September. Autumnal thoughts? Because I'm seeing some goo-oo-ood recipes out there for maple syrup and popcorn. (Or maybe after eating all mine, I just want to make some more.) In the last couple days, I found these two great-looking recipes, so I thought I'd share:

Joy the Baker
Maple Bacon Kettle Corn
Yes, bacon. Want some now.

Tinned Tomatoes & Rhubarb and Honey (via a recipe exchange)
Maple Pecan Popcorn (made entirely from maple syrup as a sugar source)


These are just fantastic. :-)

I Love A Good Challenge--Want to Give Me One?

I love a good challenge!

Maybe I watched too many MacGyver episodes as a kid. Maybe I view my kitchen as a cutting-edge laboratory. Maybe this is my way of being an astronaut, a scientist, and a magician all at once.

I don't know why. But I'm a challenge addict. Easy = boring. Challenges = fun!
I don't know what it is about piling my plate high with "to-do" tasks that gets my brain going and my blood flowing, it just does.

#1: I've already given myself the The 25 Husband-Approved Salads Challenge. (Wondering if I'll allow certain things like pasta salad ... hmmm ... seems like cheating.)

#2: This fall, I'm thinkin' I might give myself The Pancake Challenge. After trying Dragon Musing's excellent pancake recipe, I suddenly had loads of ideas for different pancake recipes. Something I'd definitely like to try once it gets cooler.

#3: But the challenge I'm MOST keen about, MOST excited would be the one I've just come up with (of course) ... The Leaner, Greener, Meaner Challenge from Friends. I was thinking how much fun it would be for friends to give me their recipes to try to adapt into a healthier or greener versions. Is that obnoxious of me? I hope not.

So would you help me out? Give me a challenge? I'm willing to get my hands dirty and make my taste buds giggle. Pick your favorite comfort food, your favorite overall recipe, a recipe you would make more often if it was healthier, or Aunt Betty's Artery-Clogging-Casserole recipe ... and I'll see if there's any thing I could come up with to make it healthier AND make it taste as close as possible to the original.

If you have a recipe you think would be fun to contribute to my goofy challenge, please post or e-mail me.

xoxo

Laughing at Sandra Lee is Cathartic and Good for the Soul

Normally I vote democrat ... but Andrew Cuomo is dating Sandra Lee?

Gack!

I'm gonna have to look over all my voting options this upcoming election.

This headline brings an especially huge evil grin to my face: Cuomo's Mom Trashes His GF Sandra Lee's Lasagna. Mama Cuomo don't like it!

Apparently Sandra's recipe uses cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I have nothing against this. Cottage cheese has more protein. It has a lot less calories and fat than if you use whole milk ricotta. But it doesn't have that much fewer calories or grams of fat if you've been using low-fat ricotta (low-fat ricotta has about 30 more calories and 3 more grams of fat per cup than 4% cottage cheese, so if you use 2 cups for a small lasagna or 6 servings, then that's a difference of 10 calories per serving).

Also, apparently, she uses canned tomato soup instead of tomato sauce. Now, that gets me peeved. Why?? Soup, sauce. It all comes in a can. So her choice isn't due to convenience. If you want condensed tomatoey goodness, use tomato paste. The only reason to use tomato soup is if you actually want less real tomato and more corn syrup in your lasagna!

But still, it's not so much about her recipe. It's more about her. What is it about her? There's really nothing wrong with her. There's actually a lot of stuff to admire. I admit: If I ever met her at a party, I'd compliment her on her success and on her appreciation and obvious love of her grandma. I bet she'd be a lot of fun to chat with. Lots of fun at a party. Nonetheless, as soon as I see her on TV, I start to giggle and squirm.

I guess it's all a matter of degree and awareness:
Degree
It's not just that she uses packaged foods. Noo! It's that she uses TONS of packaged foods, calls it healthy, serves it to kids (on her show), and comes up with atrocious egregious wasteful combinations of packaged foods in completely unnecessary ways (so many examples, but here she is cooking with baby food).
Awareness
It's not just that some of her recipes are absurd, silly, weird, and gack-a-licious. Noo! I'm cool with that. Frost ice cream to look like a baked potato! That's cool. Just at some point, I want to see a flicker of awareness of what you're selling to your audience. That you know this food probably doesn't taste great. That you know this kind of cooking is just to be silly and foolish. That's it's all just for fun.

I can stand behind fun. I can't stand behind peddling corn-syrup-chemical-preservative-crap for fun.

I guess Cuomo picked a person perfect as a running mate, oops, I mean date. They both seem like ultimate politicians. Each in their own ways. And, of course, I'm sure he loves the way she says the word "COCK-tail."

The aforementioned ice cream made to look like a baked potato

Late Breaking News: Kleenex Destroys the Universe

What the f^&%! Seriously, Kleenex?

Have you seen this? Scourge of the Earth. Kleenex Hand Towels.

First of all, normally I dig the CDC. But in this case, I don't care. I bet the guidelines for using paper towels or an electronic air dryer are intended for people working in hospitals and schools, but even if the CDC meant this for homes, I. just. don't. care. It's completely idiotic. Yeah, germs in the home are the real threat. Sure. Not oil spills or human trafficking or war. Hand towels, now there's something we can all be frightened of together. Hoo-rah.

Second of all, the single-use towels are made out of 100% virgin fiber. Yup, nothing recycled here. And the Kleenex company blames that on you, the consumer ("Because of the superior softness consumers expect from KLEENEX^® Brand, KLEENEX^® Brand Hand Towels are made with 100 percent virgin fiber.")

Third of all, do we really want our home bathrooms to turn into public restrooms? Do we, the American public, actually feel safer and more at ease about health and hygiene in public bathrooms? Perhaps because of the uniformity of public bathrooms ... Afterall, uniformity was supposedly a big reason why Americans grew to trust the quality of McDonald's back in the day. But public bathrooms? Gack!

Fourth of all, don't we all use our hand towels after we've washed our hands just to wipe off the little bit of generally clean water left on our hands?


I gack all over your new product, Kleenex. How's that for hygienic?

This Game is Called: What Could I Cram Up That Commercial's A**?

Grr. Commercials. So dumb.

The dumb commercials take up my brain energy by making me have to constantly argue with them in order to just defend my mental turf of intelligence and reality.

I end up finding myself just looking at the tv and mumbling over and over:

Up yours.

Up yours.

My husband is worried, and he should be.

I mean ... I'm sure no one out there, no one I know, the average person in the world, would actually think it wise to dump out all their bad soaps and cleansers and replace them with green soaps and cleansers. Because we all know that either through use or through throwing them out, the toxins in the standard soaps and cleansers will make their way into our water supply or fill up our landfills. Right? We all know this. So, the most efficient and green thing would be to use up the bad guys and then buy the good guys.

But the commercials show happy, bouncy people bringing boxes of standards cleansers (presumably full or partially full bottles) out to the curb. Waste, waste, waste!

Stupid commercials. Acting as if they're green. But portraying a vapid, wasteful message. Making me worried about the masses out there, you know the ones ... the ones who voted for Voldemort or demand to see birth certificates ad nauseum. That's what really grinds my gears. (Just like Peter Griffin in Family Guy.)

Where Is Your Kitchen, Anyway? (And Where Have Your Hands Been, Mister?)

A few years ago I used to watch the Food Network ALL THE TIME. See, we were sort of getting it magically, for free. My husband and I moved into an apartment, and a few months later, all of a sudden, we were getting the Food Network. So I watched it constantly, trying to cram in as much food-lore as possible before Big Brother found out. I dosed out on food tv.

And while I learned some nifty things (how to slice and dice in super chique ways) ...

I also heard some seriously stupid advice being given ... like this:

FANCY PANTS CHEF: So then you take your soup while it's piping hot and pour into your storage containers and put immediately in the frig. You wouldn't want any bacteria getting into your "fancy-pants-chef-soup," would you? And this will keep the flavors fresh!

ME: What??? Well, aren't you a genius. NOT.

I mean are we so worried about bacteria nowadays? Where is your kitchen? Where have your hands been? Have you been cooking in Dr. Horrible's Secret Chem Lab? In the mole-man's underground lair?

Putting super hot foods into a plastic container. Bad. Heating the plastic releases toxins.

Putting super hot foods into the frig. Bad. It takes a lot of electrical energy to remove heat energy and make something cold. Adding hot foods to your frig warms up your frig's average temperature; and it can stay warm for hours, using up lots of extra electricity as it works to combat the heat. Meantime, the rest of your food has sat in a slightly warmer environment. Gack.

So, please, let us all collectively diss the Fancy Pants Chef who gives stupid advice! Wait for the hot steaming food to completely cool down to room temperature. Then, package in a plastic container (if you really want). But I say, leave the food in the cooled metal pot, and put in the frig.

I mean ... unless you like sour milk and green eggs and ham.