Camera Left in New Jersey!

It's been a long two weeks. We went to NJ, spent 24 hours and about 1/2 a month's salary in the City, and finished with an extra-large dose of scotch and firearms at my dad's. We came out of it all right though and now I'm almost back in the swing of things. The only blogging set-back is my lack of a camera. We left the camera, as well as Mike's winter boots in New Jersey. Hopefully I'll have it back by next week, however, and the photos and comics will return. In the meantime, I'll try to post a few food related stories and ideas.

Comic on my first Comic

I'm so meta...
The first comic was an experiment and here's a commentary comic that follows:

Tuesday Night Pasta

Tonight was a busy night. I posted my first full comic and it didn’t fit the screen correctly. Even when I import the largest photo size allowable in Blogger you can’t read all the captions and most of the detail seems to be lost. This snafoo in my well fed chemist comic plan was a bit of a bummer, but it didn’t seem to effect the tasty dinner we eventually enjoyed at the end of the day.
After work I came home with intentions of picking up my forgotten running shoes, but wound up snacking on some blue corn chips and bean dip while I prepared for an eventual dinner. I sliced an eggplant into thin medallions, added a generous amount of salt, and covered the slices with a plate that was weighed down with several bags of dried beans. This process will help to remove some of the bitterness from the eggplant. I also cleaned and sliced, lengthwise, several handfuls of green beans.
From there I picked up Mike from work, picked up a birthday cake for Sarah, and stopped by my mom’s where we hung out for about a half an hour. Then all three of us returned downtown in order to celebrate the birthday of the lovely, talented and always hilariously informative Sarah of Sarah’s Books, Used and Rare. Sarah rents the second floor of my mother’s building and Mike rents the third floor. My mom, Sarah and Mike officially inhabit the coolest building in all of Central Maine. Once songs were sung and cake was had (but not by yours truly-not only is there wheat and dairy in there, but there’s sugar…eek!), we drove back to my mom’s house in order for me to finish a blog post. We still don’t have internet at our new home, so I need to catch the internet where I can. I would do this at work, but my school has some serious filtering in effect and all things blog are strictly prohibited.
When we finally arrived back at the homestead, it was time for something quick, easy and filling. In other words, it was time for some PASTA. Make that brown rice pasta: wheat free and somewhat whole grain. I rinsed, drained and patted dry the eggplant I had previously set up to drain. Into the cast iron pan and along with a generous portion of olive oil went the eggplant, now sliced into thin strips. Then about 7 or 8 cloves of minced garlic went into the pan. Finally I added the green beans along with some water and balsamic vinegar and covered to cook. Before the green beans were completely cooked, I added some very small cubes of firm tofu to the mixture. Between the eggplant, the olive oil and the tofu, this meal was shaping up to be quite rich and “meaty”. The pasta I decided to cook was a package of brown rice fusilli. When the pasta was al dente I drained and rinsed the noodles with lots of cold water. When the eggplant/green bean mixute was ready, I tossed the pasta and vegetables together with a little bit of extra olive oil. I topped the entire dish with chopped walnuts.
The carrot/cucumber salad was simple and a lovely light side dish to the heavy pasta dish. I thinly sliced one peeled and seeded cucumber. I also thinly sliced three medium carrots. I tossed these vegetables with the juice from ¾ a lemon, a large pinch of sea salt, ½ a minced hot pepper and 1-2 Tbs of olive oil.
Mike and I ended the meal absolutely stuffed to the gills.

Monday Night Stuffed Peppers

Monday night I went to the grocery store under somewhat unfavorable conditions for a thrifty shopping experience. I had just finished a work-out at the gym, I was hungry and Mike wasn’t with me. I was defenseless against the allure of leafy greens, the tantalizing sheen of firm eggplants, and the seductive piles of almost eighty dollars worth of produce. Never mind the fact that we’ll be leaving for New Jersey within the week for winter vacation. I wanted that veg!
One of the results of my zealous spending was Monday night’s dinner. I managed to pack in: 2 orange-yellow peppers, 2 portabella mushrooms, 2 onions, 1 cucumber, ¼ bunch of dill, 1 bunch broccoli rabe, ½ a head of cauliflower, 5 cloves of garlic and one hot pepper. How about that for eating your vegetables?
I roasted the peppers in the oven at 450˚F, turning occasionally. When they were done browning on all sides I removed them from the oven, placed them in a bowl and covered the bowl with a plate to help steam off the skin of the peppers. In a cast iron pan I pan-fried cubed onions and portabella mushrooms. When the mushrooms and onions were done I added in some left over millet/wild rice mixture that I had cooked the previous day. With a little water in the pan, everything mixed up nicely. Once everything was heated through, I added in a generous portion of chopped pine nuts as well as some chopped up dulse sea vegetable for a salty, nutritious kick. (I set aside some of this mixture for myself. I added cooked, lump crabmeat to this portion. Mike doesn’t like crab, so I made I made a separate portion with crab for me.) I peeled the skin off of the peppers, pulled out the stems with seeds and stuffed the peppers with the millet/wild rice/mushroom mixture. I then pan-fried the peppers in the cast iron pan with a little sesame oil with the cover on the pan.
The cucumber salad was easier to prepare. I peeled a large cucumber, sliced it into thin rounds and added about ¼ of a small onion which was thinly sliced. Finally I added some finely chopped fresh dill and dressed with brown rice vinegar and a large pinch of sea salt.

I sautéed about ½ of a small head of cauliflower in olive oil until it began to brown. I then added some diced garlic and diced hot pepper. Finally I added a bunch of broccoli rabe, drizzled in some water and covered to cook. I intermittently stirred the vegetable mixture and added more water as needed. When the broccoli rabe was cooked through I removed the mixture from the stove. I left the heat on the burner and added some balsamic vinegar to the hot pan and reduced the vinegar, added a little water, and reduced again. I poured this liquid over the vegetables.
This was a tasty meal.

Sunday Night Tuna Dinner is a bit of a FLOP

and here’s the comic that documents the whole episode.
To view the comic you should right click on the image and chose "open link in new window." Mac users should control-click to chose "open link in new window".

Cartoons!

I’m going to start making cartoons to accompany my blog entries.

The first cartoon I want to share is a general portrait of the well fed chemist.

This next cartoon is from the meal I made last week with the squash fritters.

Here's a cartoon of me trying out the tamarind paste for the first time at my mom's house last week:

Finally here's a cartoon of me from this past Friday when I went out with mike and our friend ryan to our local pub. There's only one thing I can eat on the menu: the house salad minus croutons. Needless to say, the whiskey makes a big impact when I'm only eating salad. When we arrived home, I scarfed down some left over rice with dried fruit and nuts.

Maine Shrimp with Soab Noodles

Soba Noodles with Tiny Maine Shrimp
Yesterday at the European Market I decided to try the already cleaned and de-shelled Maine shrimp. The native shrimp here are tiny and have a much more salty taste than the big shrimp I’m used to eating. But, hey, if it’s caught locally and it’s fresh, I’m going to try it.
Mike and I needed a quick lunch yesterday when we returned from the Market because our plan was to tackle all of the Christmas shopping we’ve been avoiding all month in one fell swoop. I boiled up some 100% buckwheat soba noodles and pan fried some carrots, garlic and kale in the big cast iron pan. The soba noodles, when cooking is complete,need to be immediately drained and rinsed with a lot of cold water. In fact these noodles are best when served cold. I had some left over white beans that were cooked with sea vegetables and mixed with miso from several days ago. It was time they made their way into some sort of meal. I decided to use the same cast iron pan from the veggies to cook up the little shrimps with some of the left over beans. We served up big plates of noodles, veggies and shrimp for lunch.
The shrimp is very salty and was a nice contrast to the hearty buckwheat noodles. The kale and the carrots were both sweet and lovely especially because I had purchased them from Fisher Farms only hours previously. It was a tasty little lunch.

Tamarind Veggies

Tamarind Veggies.

I took a little two mile jog in the new neighborhood yesterday afternoon. My route included a stretch of route 202, a major highway type of road. My plan to run on route 202 was not the brightest idea I’ve ever had. Even if the cars move away from the shoulder to avoid me, they are traveling upwards of 60 miles an hour. This is in sharp contrast to my 10 miles and hour on foot. Next time I’ll seek out an alternate route. The trouble with finding suitable running, walking or biking roads in Maine, however, is the fact that all the raods were all constructed for the sole purpose of supporting car and truck traffic. I do, however, hold out hope for the future. Surly the possibility exists that as more people start to walk and bike, the residents of small towns in Maine will demand that shoulders be expanded and room for bicycles and pedestrians will become a reality. I think I’m off topic a little….. onto to the food.

After my little two mile jog and traffic reconnaissance mission I threw a bunch of food stuffs into a canvas bag, picked up my husband downtown and headed for my mom’s house. My mom generously allows me to cook in her kitchen. I think it might be a bribe to get us to come over so that she can drink beer and doesn’t have to drive 6 miles out of town to visit us. It’s a bribe I love accepting.

Included in my travel bag of food were two new items: tamarind paste and annatto chili powder. I know that tamarind paste is used in both Indian and Thai cooking, although I’m not really sure how and I’ve never purchased the paste before, only the actual fruit. I’m also unfamiliar with the annatto chili powder although I know this spice is also frequently used in Thai cooking. Of course, my ignorance never stops me from experimenting a little.That’s half the fun of being a chemist.

When we arrived, my mom already had some rice on the stove, so all I had to do was prepare a little bit of veg and some tofu. I sliced onions, diced some garlic, cut some carrots into matchsticks, and chopped some celery and green cabbage into thin strips. I also cut ¾ of a pack of tofu into small cubes. I cooked everything in a large cast iron pan, starting with the onions and tofu in some olive oil. I added the rest of the veggies in the following order: garlic, celery&carrots, then green cabbage. Along the way I added some water to the pan as well as about two tablespoons of the tamarind paste (so sour!!!) some honey and a few teaspoons of the annatto powder. The color was a beautiful reddish brown. While cooking the cabbage I covered the pan with a lid.
The taste was subtle, a little sour, but nothing overpowering. We served the tofu and veggies over rice with a wedge of lime. My mom suggested adding raisins which provided the perfect bit of sweetness to balance out the sour tamarind.

Conclusion: subtly yummy and tangy.

Squash Fritters! Rich and Tasty

Squash Fritter, Rice, Miso-White Beans and Kale/Arame Salad

There are two women, one from Argentina and one from Brazil who are now selling home cooked foods at Bangor’s European Market. Mike, after purchasing several empanadas and some pastry stuffed with spicy chicken, pointed out that they were selling fritters made from butternut squash. Mike thought I might be inspired by their recipe and could make a tasty bread-crumb-free version at home. So last night I did just that.

I steamed some cubed buttercup squash, sautéed a little bit of onion, garlic and hot pepper, then mashed everything up in a bowl with some chopped fresh parsley. I shaped the mixture into patties and coated with a mixture of chopped sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. I use a cast iron pan and pan-fried the fritters in about an eighth of an inch of sesame oil. There is nothing in this world like a cast iron frying pan.

We also had a garlicky arame and kale salad. Arame is a sea vegetable that needs to be soaked for a little while then can be cooked either by boiling or stir frying. I cooked up a little garlic, in the same pan that I had cooked the fritters, then added the arame. At the last minute I tossed in the kale and covered until wilted. The dressing was a rice syrup/rice vinegar/toasted sesame oil mixture. If you’re not used to sea vegetables, arame can be a bit overpowering. It tastes a little like you went swimming in the ocean and swallowed. I, however, find it mighty satisfying.


I cooked some small white beans with both Wakame and Kombu sea vegetables and added some miso once I removed the beans from the heat. I blended about 1/3 of the beans to give them a creamy consistency.

We served everything with a mixture of brown and mahogany rice.

I would also like to point out that in the center of my plate is a generous serving of sauerkraut. This was a heavy meal! Fried squash, thick beans and hearty rice are all quite rich and dense. The sauerkraut helped to lighten things up a little. So did a little vodka with olives!