alias_sqbr: A cartoon cat saying Ham! (ham!)
It really is just a small, efficient convection oven, it's less that you can cook new things and more that a bunch of recipes become faster and easier. But that has made a pretty big difference, to us as people who spent a lot of time thinking "I WOULD cook that in the oven but ehhh... too much effort".
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: A cartoon cat saying Ham! (ham!)
Nothing super exciting, just little things.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
I made a cooking sideblog, [personal profile] square_meals. I only have one recipe on it so far and we'll see if I actually use it, it's mostly for my own organisation and you're welcome to subscribe or not as suits you.
alias_sqbr: A cartoon cat saying Ham! (ham!)
I've been experimenting with making my own lazy electrolyte drinks since all the ones I could find had artificial sweeteners which tend to disagree with me.

Currently I'm basically just making dilute cordial(*) plus about 1/4 teaspoon of table salt per litre in a jug in a fridge, which has been SUPER refreshing.

Commercial electrolyte drinks have other salts like magnesium and potassium but all the easily available unsweetened powders I could find included a variety of other vitamins etc which I'd feel weird having in such inconsistent amounts and they also probably don't taste great in aggregate.

I'm wondering if something like Heart Salt would be better than regular salt, it has a little artificial sweetener to cut the bitterness of the potassium but presumably less than stuff like Hydralyte/Gatorade etc. The fact their website says nothing about it being a more varied electrolyte makes me wonder if the potassium isn't very bioavailable or something.

My favourite flavour combo so far is 1.5L of raspberry cordial plus an extra cup of water to reduce acidity and sugar, with two tulsi teabags left in it for a few hours to add more complexity of flavour. Which is still a fair amount of sugar and artificial colouring but unfortunately lightly flavoured water easily falls into an uncanny valley of undrinkability for me. Though maybe chilled lightly salted water would be ok? Wouldn't taste as nice though...

Experiments continue!

(*)I know people overseas use 'cordial' differently than we do here. I'm talking about an uncarbonated drink made by diluting a flavoured sugar syrup with water.
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Has anyone had good experiences with devices to help cut vegetables into thick slices or sticks? I specify thick because my in-laws gave me this thing for making thin slices, and it works fine but it's still a lot of physical effort and I don't actually want thin slices most of the time. If I want something diced finely I just use my food processor. What I have trouble with is making slices/sticks/cubes.

The physical effort of cutting is something of a problem for me, but even a manual device that used the same amount of strength but required less concentration would be helpful. Variable widths would be the most useful but a set width over 1cm/half an inch would be something.

I looked it up online and there are things that do what I want but I have no idea how useful they are in practice.
alias_sqbr: A cartoon cat saying Ham! (ham!)
I just bought the low-effort cookbook Cooking is Terrible after seeing it recced a bunch on tumblr, and I feel like it was worth $5USD for me, even having to scroll past anything reliant on cheese/beans etc. I haven't actually cooked anything from it yet, but I recognised a bunch of things I already make, and got a bunch of interesting ideas I intend to try. And I was inspired to create something new and tasty(*)

Where it differs from traditional cookbooks is that it's designed for people who don't have the energy for a lot of thinking or preparation. So the easiest stuff is at the front: a list of things you can eat with no prep at all. Then come suggestions for nice sandwich fillings, moving on to general advice for making soup plus some nice combos of ingredients etc.

I can see it being useful to scroll through when I'm hungry and have enough ingredients and energy to cook something but nothing seems both attainable and appealing. I might take the text as a base for a personalised version, removing all the things I will never eat and adding in extras.
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: A cartoon cat saying Ham! (ham!)
I eventually got back to sleep and had very odd dreams. Just as I was heading towards wakefulness I looked up and saw an audience of aliens in theatre seats watching me (though most had gotten bored and were reading newspapers), and right at the back was Agent K from Men in Black grinning and eating popcorn. It was very surreal.

Via [personal profile] cofax7 , a meme, edited to not be so country specific.

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of: 
pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, margarita glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, and fondue sets.

Some of these really do get used about once a year though. That said, my diet has changed quite a lot in the last few years: I used to make lot of pies and milkshakes, for example. (the milk frother was a quiz night prize anyway)
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Slice 2 potatoes into 5mm slices.
Cut the top off a bulb of garlic (but do not otherwise peel it)
Pack together, evenly and tightly spaced, on a paper-lined baking tray with a few mushrooms.
Sprinkle with lots of salt.
Put into a cold oven, put the heat up to 180C and bake for 45 mins.

It might be nicer if you sprayed the paper and then the top of the vegetables with oil, but I didn't (this might let you get away with not using paper, too). The mushroom and garlic juice mixed with the potatoes to make them Very Tasty. I haven't tried the garlic yet, I intend to freeze it and chuck it into other recipes.

Less successful or simple but still nice turkey and spinach:
Fry up some onion, celery and carrot. Mix with stock, wine, thyme, onion powder, tinned apricots and soy sauce, simmer until reduced.
Put a small turkey roll in a small dish, pack with spinach. Sprinkle with lots of salt and pepper, pour over the sauce, and cover.

Bake at 180C for an hour, at least if you haven't preheated the oven. You'll end up with a sauce which would probably make nice gravy (I intend to cook it with the leftover turkey tomorrow)

And yes, I was eating vegetables and typing up this entry during the 15 minute time difference *is now eating turkey*
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Because I'm an idiot I didn't get my camera until the last full day of the con so have almost not photos. But what I did get was Rob and Lise's awesome Molecular Gastronomy Hour. It reminded me a bit of Kitchen Chemistry.

The main star was Sodium Alginate. That post has the main gist, so briefly:
Sodium alginate is a flavourless gelling agent which forms a harder gel in contact with calcium.
We put a mix of cream and yogurt into unflavoured sodium alginate gel and got, well...a mushy mess. But in theory the gel covered milk balls sound cool :)

We then got a syringe of coke gel and dripped it into calcium chloride and made teeny little salty sweet balls. They needed more rinsing than we could manage so looked better than they tasted but again, the idea is cool :)

(The panel also included a comparison of banana smoothies with and without xanthum gum, but since I can't eat any of the ingredients but the banana and it just looked like banana smoothies didn't record that bit)
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Making icecream has left me with lots of leftover egg whites. Being gluten free for a bit has left me with lots of left over gluten free flours.

So today I thought "Stuff it, I'll just chuck some of them together" and made a bodgy version of these Hazelnut macaroons.

I had (very roughly measured): 180g hazelnut and almond meal (about a 2:1 ratio I'd say), 150g caster sugar, 3 semi frozen egg whites, about a tablespoon of sultanas.

And they're DELICIOUS. The mixture of nuts works really well.

Must. Not. Eat. All. The. Biscuits.

Profile

alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
alias_sqbr

December 2025

S M T W T F S
 123456
789101112 13
14151617181920
21222324 252627
28293031   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 3rd, 2026 08:12 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios