Food Friday--Stirring! Er, I mean Risotto!

Risotto.  Rice and butter and cheese.  And stirring.  Wine, shallots and garlic and chicken stock.  And more stirring.  Pretty simple, and yet so tasty.  My teenager and I both adore risotto.  My husband not so much, so I make this with the shrimp from last Friday and everyone is happy.  This recipe makes a lot, so if you find yourself with leftovers, just add a little more chicken stock to it before you reheat it and it will be almost as good as freshly made.        


2 cups Arborio rice
1 shallot, finely minced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3/4 cup good quality Parmesan cheese
6-8 cups chicken stock, hot but not boiling
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil



Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté the shallots and garlic but don't brown. Add in the rice and stir to coat the rice with the oil. Once the rice is well coated, add the wine and stir until the wine is all absorbed.

Start adding the hot chicken stock about 1 ladle full at a time, and stir vigorously until the stock is absorbed. Continue adding the stock 1 ladle at a time, stirring until it is all absorbed by the rice. Keep adding and stirring until the rice is done--it will take a good twenty minutes (or longer!) of constant stirring and (less constant) stock adding. After about 20 minutes, eat a grain or two of the rice to test for doneness--it should be firm but not hard or crunchy.

Keep stirring in stock until the rice is a firmness you like. As you stir, the rice will take on a nice creamy, thick consistency.

Once the rice is done, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter, then the cheese.

The rice should be thick and creamy, and buttery and good, and your wrist should be sore and your fingers numb from the carpal tunnel syndrome all that stirring will give you. :)

And you can feel superior because you just made a dish at home that would cost you around $17 in a fancy restaurant. And you didn't even have to get dressed up. :)

Smells to hell, a random journey through my head

Weird confession time.  I like the smell of sulfur.  Especially burning sulfur.  Whenever I light a match, I always savor that sulfury smell.  If I could find sulfur incense I would burn them frequently so my house would smell good.  What?  It's not that bad.  My son likes skunk stench and I have a friend who loves the smell of gasoline.  I have another friend who has no sense of smell and so misses out on all the amazing smells that life throws at us.  She also misses out on the absolutely disgusting smells, too, so I do envy that sometimes.  :)

I have been told that it is good that I like the smell of sulfur since I am going to hell.  I have a couple of different thoughts about that.  One is that I don't necessarily believe in "hell".  I really think that hell is a state of mind.  We have the capability to create our own personal hell right here on earth.  We can make our lives good, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, or we can choose to make ourselves miserable and endure our own living hell.  The book (and movie) "What Dreams May Come" puts out the idea that our afterlife is totally under our control.  We decide what our own personal "heaven" looks like.  I think that applies to our own personal hells too.  Heaven and hell are a matter of perception.  My idea of what would be heaven would absolutely be someone elses idea of hell.

In my heaven it would be cloudy almost every day, with a mist or light rain frequently falling.  No fog, though.  Fog creeps me out.  Maybe one day a week, the sun would break through the clouds for short periods of time and also about once a week there would be a LOUD rollicking thunder storm.  In my heaven, the temperature would range between 60 and 70 degrees, and there would be flowers and green, growing things, and friendly tigers that wouldn't try to eat me, and no ticks or mosquitoes and I wouldn't be allergic to anything.  There would be other things, too.  The pets that I have lost over the years, all my favorite foods and my favorite people would be there, too, once it was their time.  And books.  Hundreds of thousands of books on subjects that I am actually interested in.

That is part of what I perceive as a perfect place.  Everyone is different and that is a good thing.  If we all liked the same things the world would be a pretty boring place.

Another thought that I have about hell is that I am damned to hell in most every religion that believes in it.  Everybody is.  All the Christian religions claim that if you don't worship their version of God you are going to hell.  I want to know how am I going to be in all those different hells at the same time?  The Center for the Study of Global Christianity tells me that there are approximately 41,000 different denominations of Christianity in the world, and there is only one of me.  The math just doesn't work out.

A Mormon that I once knew told me that they believe that hell is the eternal separation from their God.  There is no fire, no brimstone, no burning or torture or anything like that, just not ever being able to be in the presence of their God.  That is a concept that actually makes sense to me.  For a true Christian, what worse punishment could their be than being kept away from their savior?

I have other thoughts and questions but will save those for another day.

How about you?  Do you have any thoughts or questions that you would care to share with me?  

Food Friday--Smoky Garlic Shrimp

Shrimp.  What more is there to say about them?  Well, my 14 year old would say that they are gross and nasty and should just be left wherever they come from and forgotten about.  I disagree.  Shrimp are pinkish and curly and yummy on their own.  But when you cook them with amazing flavors, they become even more tasty.  This recipe is pretty easy to make, and is fairly forgiving.  If you don't have smoked paprika, use regular paprika.  The flavor is slightly different, but it's still good.  Also, I have never been able to find the sherry vinegar that the recipe calls for, but I have used apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar and a half-and-half combination of apple cider and regular white vinegars and it has always been tasty.


Smoky Garlic Shrimp


1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (thaw frozen shrimp by running cold water over them in a colander for 5 to 10 minutes)
1 teaspoon table salt (I use iodized sea salt, but it doesn't matter what kind you use) 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (5 or 6 large cloves, or more if you like garlic like we do)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar ( if you can find it.  Substitute apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar if you can't)
Chopped flat-leaf parsley

Sprinkle the shrimp with the salt and set aside for 10 or 15 minutes.  (I skip this step, but feel free to do it if you want)

In a wide skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil until very hot but not smoking. Add all the shrimp to the pan in a single layer (more or less) and sprinkle the garlic over it. Cook for a minute, then stir in the paprika and cook, stirring constantly until the shrimp are pink and cooked through--around three minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the sherry vinegar, sprinkle on the parsley, and enjoy!

Now, we sometimes serve this with a nice crusty bread to soak up all the yummy, yummy olive oil, and it is good that way.  I also sometimes make risotto and serve this shrimp over the risotto, which is also super yummy.  Also, my husband does not like risotto, but my son does, so he gets his dad's risotto and my husband gets our son's shrimp and they are both happy.  For a few moments anyway.

(Also, this recipe is adapted from Catherine Newman's Smoky Shrimp with Garlic and Olive Oil.  I adore her.)

Is honesty a lost art?

There is a saying out there, "No good deed goes unpunished".  Here recently, my family has gained precious experience with just how true that statement is.

See, for just shy of two years we have had no income.  We have been surviving on student loans and odd jobs.  I have recently started making and selling various baked goods to try to bring in money, as our situation is getting kind of desperate now.

We were receiving food stamps, but when we got our income tax refund, I reported it to my case worker, just like I had been told to, who then called me and said that we had too much money and so the state took our food stamps away.  So, basically we were punished for being honest.  We know other people who are also receiving food stamps that did not report their income tax refunds and they did not lose their assistance.  So if honesty is always the best policy, why are the honest people being punished?  Is honesty the best policy?

My karma (and my religious beliefs) tells me that yes, it is best to be honest.  I believe that whatever we send out into the universe, either good or bad, returns to us three times over.  So, if we lie or do something bad, that energy comes back to us three times worse than what we did.  The same thing happens if we do good.  We get that positive energy back threefold, too.

But sometimes it is difficult to be honest and to do the right thing, especially when you know that it will result in negative things happening.  Sometimes it is easier and less trouble to take the easy way out.  Unfortunately, that results in horrible things coming back around on us at some point in the future.  So I guess it comes down to being honorable and doing the right thing now, even though it will result in temporary hardship or doing the wrong thing now and making things easier in the short term, even though it will make things that much harder later on.

It is difficult to be a good person and to do the right thing, but in the long run, it's probably in our best interests to do it anyway.

Another observation I have made is that when someone encounters an honest person, they don't always know how to handle that.  We had gone to a big-box store one evening to do a little shopping.  In the parking spot next to us was a brand new coffee maker, still in it's unopened packaging.  We waited for a few moments to ask the person who was getting into that vehicle if the coffee maker was hers.  She said no, so we took it into the store and got in the Customer Service line.

Once we navigated through the throng of people to the counter, we handed the coffee maker to the lady at the register and told her that we had found it in the parking lot and thought it should be brought back in.  She looked confused as she took it from us, and after a moment she said, "Well, thank you for being honest".  Like it was something she had not encountered in a while.  I'm certain she does not happen across a whole lot of honesty in her job, but it still saddens me that she was so shocked by people trying to do the right thing.

Another recent change I have noticed that goes along with honesty is in a store I frequently shop in, Aldi.  They do have plastic and paper shopping bags for sale, but people have to purchase them separately, the price is not included in their food purchase.  The bags are inexpensive and used to be available under the conveyer belt for customers to grab and put up with their food.  The bags are no longer located in places where customers can access them.  Seems that people were stealing the bags and lying about it, so management moved the bags behind the cash register where the cashier sits so if someone needs bags, they have to tell the cashier who then retrieves the requested number of bags and charges the customer accordingly.

I understand that times are hard for a lot of people, my family included.  I do not understand stealing shopping bags.  Aldi happily encourages people to bring in their own bags, whether cloth, plastic or paper.  They don't even mind if people grab boxes off the shelves to put their purchases in.  Maybe I am just too simple to understand the mentality that would cause someone to steal a $.05 cent shopping bag, but it just makes no sense to me.

If anyone has any thoughts, insights, epiphanies, bitches or whatever, please leave me a comment.  If you can help me understand the mentality of so many of the people we share the planet with, please enlighten me!

Food Friday--Black Bean Dip, now with photo!

This black bean dip is supposed to be a replacement for hummus.  I like black beans and I really like hummus, and I really do like this black bean dip, but I don't think it would be an acceptable hummus substitute.  It is tasty, though.  Also, instead of using veggie broth to thin the dip, I have used salsa, and it turns out pretty tasty that way, too.  (You can also substitute curry powder for the cumin if you are so inclined.)
                                                                    

So, it's not terribly photogenic.  It actually reminds me of wet dog food.  I assure you though, once it  is chilled, it's good!

                                                                   


Black Bean Dip

3 1/2 cups black beans
1 small onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 T ground cumin (or curry powder)
1 1/2 t olive oil 
2 T chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1/4 c vegetable broth (or salsa)

Drain and rinse black beans if using canned, and for the record, I always use canned for this.

Place olive oil in skillet set over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper and garlic and saute about three minutes, until vegetables are fragrant and starting to brown slightly. Add cumin, stir well, reduce the heat to medium and cook another two minutes. 

Place beans in food processor and pulse several times. Add the vegetable mixture and pulse a few more times. Add vegetable broth in small batches to thin the dip to the desired consistency. Garnish with chopped cilantro if desired. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator for up to 10 days. 

Serve with tortilla or pita chips, as a veggie dip, or if you want, just eat it with a spoon.  :)

Please note that I do not serve this with the cilantro because it tastes soapy to me.  In my opinion the cilantro is not needed and the dip is quite tasty without it.  

If you try it with the cilantro, let me know how it tastes!

Living, thriving, green

At "church" yesterday (Yes, "church".  I am pagan, but we belong to a group of pagans that meets every Sunday afternoon for rituals, forums and classes), a friend of ours mentioned that she would like to have a plant for her room.  Something living that she can care for that would help make the room more cheerful and friendly.  As I have a plethora of plants (inside and outside my home) I happily told her that I would give her a couple of mine.

These are in my kitchen.  There are more in the dining room.

                                                                         
Having a green, living thing growing in my home is something I can totally get behind.  I think I may have said this before, but in my not so humble opinion, my home is not a home without at least one cat and living plants in almost every room (not at least one cat in every room, just one or two total cats).  I believe this so strongly that I even have plants on a shelf in my bathroom.  What?  They help clean the air and make that uber-tiny room smell better.  The trick is keeping the cats from eating the plants.  :)

Why do I like to have plants?  There are several reasons why I like to have plants in my home.  I grew up in places filled with plants.  My mother always had beautiful plants, no matter where we lived.  My grandmothers had flowers and other plants around and inside their homes and I grew up admiring their beauty and colors and amazing scents and I thought that it was normal for people to have their homes filled with living, growing things--animals, plants, children.  Homes are places that should be filled with love and with life, and what better way to do that than to fill your space with things that flourish with loving care?

Schwartz the plant muncher, and teenage boy.  

                                                                           
Plants also clean our air. They filter carbon dioxide and some polution out of the air we breathe, making it cleaner and better for us. They also provide us with oxygen, something that is essential for human life. Also, I like it when people come into my house for the first time and notice the plants and comment on how beautiful they are and how happy they look.
My plants provide another benefit for me, too.  Whenever I walk into my kitchen and see them up on top of my desk, they give me a little psychological boost and make me feel better.  And, now I have a bonus happy!  My stargazer lilies are starting to bloom, so now whenever I am coming home from somewhere, or going out to check the mail, I am greeted by the beautiful lilies on my front porch.  This makes me unreasonably happy.              

One of my Stargazer lilies

                                                                 
There is one other thing that comes to mind right off that my plants do.  I have a philodendron on my front porch, behind the lilies, and that plant is home to a nest full of baby birds.  The baby birds and their parents have provided much entertainment for the cats who allow us to live here with them.

If you look closely, you will see the mommy bird in her nest.

Now, there are some problems with having plants, too. I have some pretty bad allergies and plants tend to collect dust, and sometimes their soil gets moldy and that is a problem for me, so I do have to be careful to keep the indoor plants dust-free and to not keep their soil so wet that it molds. There is also the issue of having cats and houseplants. Cats like to nibble green growing things, and not all houseplants are safe for cats to munch. Even keeping the plants up very high does not necessarily protect them from a small cat who is an awesome jumper, so special precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of both the plants and the cats.

Winnie, the other plant muncher.

                                                                     
Plants, cats, children.  Things that all flourish with loving care.  These are some of the things that make a house a home.  :)

Food Friday--Cheddar Lager Fondue

Fondue.  All three of us adore fondue.  I do not own a fondue pot, but I have a small enameled cast iron pot that holds heat very well, and does an awesome job at keeping the cheese the right consistency.  If you don't have a fondue pot, or a small enameled cast iron pot, a slow cooker would work to keep it warm, too--just get it started in a regular sauce pan and then add to a pre-warmed slow cooker, or just eat it quickly out of the sauce pan.  That would work, too.  :)


Cheddar lager Fondue

1 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (6 cups)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 cup Samuel Adams Lager
6 tablespoons frozen (thawed) apple juice concentrate
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In large bowl, toss grated cheese with the flour. Add olive oil to a large-ish sauce pan over medium heat. When hot enough to shimmer, add the garlic and cook 30 seconds until very fragrant. Add lager, apple juice concentrate, ground mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Heat to a simmer (let simmer 3 minutes if you want alcohol to evaporate) and gradually add cheese, constantly stirring until fondue is smooth and the cheese is completely melted. If it's too thick, stir in additional lager, one ounce at a time, until desired consistency.

Serve this with cubed bread, veggies, cubed apples, or your favorite fondue dipping items.  We all really like pumpernickel bread, lightly boiled cauliflower, carrots and broccoli, and just about any kind of apple.  This recipe makes quite a lot, and is one of our favorite fondue recipes.

Cats and dogs.

Sorry this post is a day late.  Yesterday was my son's birthday and we spent the day with him, trying to make sure he had a good day for as little money as possible.


A friend of mine had to bury one of her beloved feline companions recently and this has brought up some things for me.  I feel so bad for her as I know what it is like to lose a creature that is more to you than just "a cat".  Cats are her totem animal, so she has a special relationship with them.  This is something that I can fully relate to.  My favorite animal is the cat.  My totem animal is the tiger, and one of my deities is Bast, an ancient Egyptian "feline goddess".  As such, I too, have a great affinity for cats.  They are magical creatures for me, and they play a large part in my spirituality and magical workings.  They are not just animals to me, they are my friends.

Whenever I am feeling run-down, tired, out of sorts, or just 'off', often all I need to do to feel better is to have a snuggle with the cat that owns me.  If she is not available, or not amenable to snuggling right then, any friendly cat will help.  The feline energy is great for helping me recharge.

My husband does not understand my fascination with cats.  He doesn't really like cats, and has no idea how someone could enjoy their company. His totem animal is the wolf, represented in our home by a 75 pound German Shephard-Alaskan Malamute mix that looks more like a wolf than some wolves I have seen, and while I don't have any use for the stinking, slobbery thing, my husband really likes him.  This sometimes creates challenges in our marriage and the way we interact with each other.

We both have some of the attributes of our respective totem animals.  Wolves are pack animals.  Tigers are solitary creatures.  My husband is a slightly introverted extrovert.  I am a VERY introverted introvert.  He likes to go to parties and hang out with people while I prefer to either be alone or to be with one or two people (or a handful if I know them all).  Parties are something that I try to avoid whenever possible, but when I do go to one, I usually say hello to everyone I know, then hunt down the animals that live in the house and make friends with them.  If there are no animals, I try to find a quiet, out of the way spot and hang out there.  My husband gets frustrated and angry with me because I don't want to go to all the parties he wants to go to, and he doesn't understand why I don't want to go.  I don't understand his desire to be with other people as much as he seems to need to.  I have told him repeatedly that it's perfectly fine for him to go without me, that I really don't want to go, but he still gets upset.

So this makes me wonder.  Do we take on the attributes of our totem animals, or do we already have these attributes on our own?  I do not have an answer for this, but some of the people I have talked to about it in the past feel that we do take on the attributes of our totem animals, wether for good or bad.  Amusingly, though, there is one tiger trait that I just cannot get behind.  Tigers are carnivores.  They eat meat almost exclusively.  I don't like meat, and avoid it as much as possible.

The differences between my husband and I, and our totem animals, makes me wonder sometimes if cat people and dog people can ever really resolve their differences?  Can a person who doesn't like cats (or one who doesn't like dogs) learn to put aside their personal feelings for the creatures and live in harmony with someone who doesn't like their favored creature, or are we forever doomed to never see eye-to-eye and to always misunderstand the other and their critter?

Any thoughts?