New Obsession: Next Iron Chef.

That's right, friends. My life away from blogging has given me the time necessary to fall in love with the Food Network Show Next Iron Chef. For complete recaps, you can check out one of my favorite websites FoodNetworkHumor.

But I'd like to take this moment to declare myself on Team Ming Tsai.

Seriously.

Spiced Candied Nuts

Yesterday, in kitchen experimentation, I attempted to spice up my candied nuts. Candied nuts, in and of themselves, are pretty simple. You toast some nuts, melt (and try not to kill yourself) some sugar, toss to coat and salt if desired. They're simple and delicious. But I wanted to try something new, so I added some spices. Namely, Hungarian paprika and cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup of toasted walnuts (to toast: lay flat on baking sheet and toss in 350 oven for five minutes)
1 cup of roasted, salted cashews
1+ cup of sugar
roughly 1/4 cup of paprika and cinnamon
After the sugar is melted, add the spice mixture (off the heat)...it will smoke like the dickens, but throw the nuts in and stir anyway. Then, lay it out on a baking sheet and attempt to separate the chunky bunches. (Good Luck).
What did I think?
Well, it might just be the humidity, but it never hardened up the way I wanted it to. It was still delicious. But it didn't give me the same candied crunch as the straight-sugar version. Also, it didn't have the spice level I was looking for. (This might be because I was using sweeter paprika.)

All in all? Pretty tasty, but in need of some tweaking.

Pulled Pork!

Tonight, I made pulled pork. And now you can too! You need:

• Leftover cooked pork products (I had approximately 3/4 rack of ribs and 3 pork steaks.)
• Beer (I used two cans).
  
• Worcestershire sauce and other seasons.

Put all of this in a large pot, turn to simmer and leave it alone for the next 3 or so hours.While it's cooking RESIST the urge to pull the meat off the bones and/or attempting to shred the meat to speed the process. If you just let it do its thing, the meat will fall off the bone on it's own. When that happens, you can use your trusty, scary-looking utensils to fish out the bones and gently tear the meat. (That's my scary looking utensil right there.)

If you did it right, the meat won't need much prompting. It will fall off the bones on its own and the fat will be all rendered and delicious.

When it's done, slather it in some sauce and enjoy!

Mango-Blueberry Compote

As you may recall, I was recently gifted a large quantity of delicious fruits and today, I decided to do something with it. Using this recipe adapted from Food and Wine, I made a deliciously fruitful and delightful dish.The key players are:
-Mediumish sized mango.
-1 pint blueberries.
-1 lemon.Hack up the mango into 1/2 (or so sized chunks) and then combine in a pot with:
-blueberries
-4 scant tablespoons of sugar
-the juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
-1/2 cup water

Let sit on medium heat until it boils and then cook for another 15 minutes.
I enjoyed mine in a mug with a healthy dollop of cream cheese. (Kind of like a deconstructed, warm cheese cake.) It was tasty, and I liked the extra bite of citrus. However, I think I overdid it on the water and/or didn't let it cook long enough -- it was a little too soupy for my tastes. (I was hoping for a thicker mixture.)

Overall though?
Delicious! And I can't wait to try it with waffles or something.

Return from the Internetless Wilderness

Hello again!

After spending the long weekend in an environment where the internet was, in fact, not free (or even cheap), I am back and getting caught up on what's what in the online world. Like my schoolwork (or fights on Jezebel). Wedding weekend was fantastic (if drunken) -- I spent plenty of time catching up with members of the extended family, dancing like a moron and almost melting in the heat of a Saint Louis summer.

But now that I'm back from that adventure (and still on vacation for another week), it's time to get back to my list of things to do. Let's take a look at today's chunk of the grandmaster list:

• Read 100 pages of How to Write a BA Thesis by Charles Lipson
• Complete 5 pages of 20 page French paper (due the first day of fall classes)
• Get caught up on emails
• Work out (more than likely to the sweet sweet music of The Daily Show)

So there you have it. Not exactly a slow day at the office, but it certainly seems to be a manageable load (provided that I get a start on it sometime soon). I find that breaking down my relatively large summer workload into reasonable daily chunks makes it seem a lot less threatening.
Beyond getting that four-part list done, I have two other projects in the works. Like, what do I do with the fruit? My good-buddy-from-the-homeland Grace gave me that lovely assortment of fruits from the Korean marketplace. But now, what do I do with it? I feel like it might be time to try my hand at compote. Or a baked apple. Suggestions, hungry hivemind?


Then, we have July ladymag bonanza! Obsessing over the mainstream media is one of my favorite pastimes, but I really only have the opportunity to do it on breaks from school. So I decided to buy all the "good" magazines for July and see what I can learn. (The "good" ones being Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Redbook -- I like the recipes! -- and Glamour.)

I plan to see what they have to tell me.

Sweet new thing to read!

My awesome cousin turned me on to this awesome blog, which offers in awesome (and free!) eCookbook full of 5 ingredient "minimalist home cooking" recipes.

As a bonus, each recipe takes approximately 10 minutes to make.

stonesoup

Check it out!
Spread the love!

On smoking, food, and "getting fat".

Yesterday, Jezebel ran a post called "French Women Smoke to Remain Thin at All Costs." It, as the title would suggest, examines the relationship between the rate of young(er) women in France smoking cigarettes and their desire to remain desirably thin. Looking to unpack the social pressures placed on women to be thin, it calls for less judgment on body size/perceived "fatness" in hopes that women will feel more comfortable with their bodies and, in turn, quit smoking.

It was a decent article.

And of course, the comments derailed the goodness of the article.* One, in particular, stuck out at me. User lizae writes:

Invite a friend to comment

So I guess if I spend next spring in Paris I need to add "I'd rather be fat than have cancer" to my French phrase repertoire.

But would you, really? If you would, than kudos to you, miss. For some of us, it's a little more complicated than that. For what it's worth, I didn't start smoking to lose weight or stay at a particular weight, or anything even remotely like that. I started because everyone in Korea smokes, and that was just the way it was. (PSA: Kids! Don't befriend Eastern Europeans, you'll learn how to hold your liquor and blow smoke rings!)

But now that I'm a smoker? Well, quitting is going to take some serious planning and consideration, and you can bet your ass that weight gain factors into it. Earlier this year, I put on 22 pounds due to a change in medication. Only recently, have I started getting it to come off. The idea that quitting smoking - regardless of increased exercise - could cause me to gain some (or all) of it back is terrifying.

But let's talk about the underlying causes for a minute, shall we? I am lucky to be a relationship where there is no pressure for me to be skinny. He's loved me when I was a little on the chunkier side, and he's loved me when I wound up a little unfortunately emaciated. (Here's another tip, if you are even remotely competitive/inclined to food-related neuroses, do not under any circumstances, make work-out buddies with someone who has been diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder.)

But that's part of the problem. He and I, and a group of our friends love to eat together. Cooking en masse, we can eat a huge dinner (allegedly with leftovers) for three bucks a person. But there are never leftovers and these people act like vegetables are some strange biproduct corn-fed beef. (Well...we could debate that.) So it's hard to work on my own weight/image issues and still keep up my typical social eating schedule.

So I had a melt-down: My clothes don't fit! I have no money to buy new clothes! My stomach conditions require a diet with fiber! And I'm supposed to watch my sugar intake! I can't hang out with you people if you're only going to feed me transfats and refined carbohydrates!

It was epic, and I did it at 6:30 in the morning before work.

A little melodramatic? Absolutely...but I think the message got across. We've started incorporating vegetables (cheap vegetables, but vegetables nonetheless) into the repertoire. We play frisbee while the grill heats up, or walk to the pool hall instead of driving. There are talks about going to the batting cages. And, as it turns out, I wasn't the only one uncomfortable with what we've been eating.

To get back to my original point, I'm working on my weight through diet and exercise and I'll quit when I'm ready.

...Whenever that is.

*I love Jezebel, and I think it really is a great, judgment-free community. Unless of course, they're talking about a subject that it's "okay" to judge: like smokers, parents with large strollers and Taylor Swift.

Dorm Egg Salad

When I'm not kicking (academic) ass, I work in a very large dorm cafeteria. If I didn't work there (and if I had a meal plan), I might even find the food options attractive. Alas! Those days have come and gone and I can easily work a 12 hours shift and find nothing even remotely appetizing.

But I gotta eat, so when a coworker/RA-with-Unlimited-Meal-Plan offered to "swipe me in" for dinner, I decided that eating for free sounded like a good idea. My options looked bleak, so I decided to get creative.
Into the crappy plastic salad bowl went:
-two hard boiled eggs (cut into 1/4'd wedges)
-1 tablespoon mayonnaise
-1 teaspoon mustard (or more to taste)
-Salt/Pepper/Sriracha to taste.

Then you smoosh it all up in your salad bowl and eat with some pita triangles. High-ho, deliciousness. And if you're at all concerned about nutritional information, here it is:

Nutrition Facts 1 Serving Amount Per Serving Calories 253.3 Total Fat 20.8 g Saturated Fat 4.8 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.4 g Monounsaturated Fat 4.2 g Cholesterol 427.8 mg Sodium 310.0 mg Potassium 134.9 mg Total Carbohydrate 2.5 g Dietary Fiber 0.2 g Sugars 1.0 g Protein 12.9 g *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

If you're concerned about fat and/or general caloric intake, you could easily sub in "salad dressing" (aka Miracle Whip) or opt for fat free mayo. Or, skip it all together and use more mustard with a little bit of lemon or vinegar for bite.

Even better than the nutritive options is the price point! For me, it was free, but if you were going to make this at home, it would be ridiculously cheap:

Two eggs: roughly 32 cents
Mayonnaise: can be as cheap as 9 cents
Mustard: approximately 3 cents used
Sriracha: 29 cents an ounce.

All in all, this meal would have cost me about 60 cents.

Not bad, I don't think.

Game Plan

When contemplating the beginning of the end of the beginning of my life, it becomes more and more clear that some intense goal setting is in order. These goals are more than just idealistic motivators -- they serve as a way to keep me accountable (at a time where "senioritis" is the norm).

As of right now, I have several long-term, thematic goals that I would like to accomplish this year:

-Complete a senior honors thesis in Political Science, so that I can graduate with honors.
-Establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle, complete with balanced diet and regular intentional exercise.
-Regain control of my finances/budgeting, in the hopes of graduating with at least $1,000 in my savings account.
-Maintain relationship with my significant other of more than three years, or know when the relationship should no longer be maintained.
-Find full-time employment for my post-graduate life.

So that's the heavy.
Later on, we'll get back to the funny.

[ETA]: Perhaps I should include "Quit Nicotine, Caffeine and Alcohol" as a goal...but what fun is that?