Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

Wee! I’m now a featured blog. Yay.

I’d like to extend this privilege a little by providing a few links to my favorite friendster blogs:
My Blog: The Latrine of Intellectualism - based in the UK, not updated that often, but what’s there is good.
The Gallery of M. K. Styles - MK is a thinker, and it shows.
Yup…Just Me… - A.A. of the Friendster forums, a fellow Canadian.

As I filled up the coffee maker yet again, I had a slight conundrum. What has coffee ever done for me? Not the first cup in the morning that shakes me from bedraggled mind to the sharp thinking gal that I normally am, but the coffee taken at 4 PM at work after lunch. That cup of coffee which inevitably keeps me jittery through the evening, and sometimes keep me from sleep.

What has it ever done for me? I love it for its warm liquidiness - the fact that I have a hand warmer on my table that is divinely drinkable. I’m obsolutely addicted to the aroma, the creaminess, the sugariness (I over sugar my coffee) slight aftertaste of acidic coffee bean. But what has it ever done except to keep me up at night? Sure, I want a warm drink, but hot chocolate (equally fattening and sugary) could do the trick. If I’m simply thirsty, a mug of water will do.

What is it about coffee that makes me want to drink another cup? Does drinking 3 cups of coffee a day somehow qualifies me as an adult? The fact that as a child it was the forbidden drink and I can only have a little with a whole lot of milk probably made me think that only adults may drink coffee. Therefore, at the point which I turned adult (I recall that being 16 or so) I drank it liberally. But now that I teach at two different places, and is generally regarded as a person of authority, what am I trying to prove? Is it so important that I gulp down a mug of coffee at 4:30 PM?

I poured myself a glass of tap water.

Short conversation with the bf last night over a Wendy’s burger (my brief lapse in judgement over fastfood - happens evey couple of months or so, and often regret comes within hours) involves him wanting to go on a detox diet, or going to some clinic where they practice detox on people through a colonix something.

I told him that it’s a bunch of bull. He told me that he didn’t know what I was so defensive about. I told him I can’t understand how people believe - and pay for - such bogus claims.

"Oh but it seems like it makes sense - it simply helps your body get rid of chemicals." - Stu

"Yeah, it all ‘make sense.’ Psychics solving crimes, expensive miracle skin cremes. ‘Detoxification’ is just a way for self-help gurus to convince you that your body is incapable of taking care of itself, and they capitalize on the fear that builts on the so-called facts mainstream media choose to feed us: things like how the full-moon induces murderous behaviour and how you only use 10% of your brain. Total complete BULL." - Me

"Well, just imagine what the other 90% can do! You can’t just blindly doubt everything." - Stu

My point exactly. I really should subscribe to the Skeptical Enquirer.

All you have to do is follow the following steps for the 7 days. Some things might not be what you expect though.

1. Wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual.
   Sleeping in actually makes people lethargic and sluggish. Get into the
   habit of waking up early, and avoid the stress of running late. This
   also gives us time for some excercising.
2. Stretch. Do 15 minutes of cardio BEFORE you go to work - aerobics is the most convinent. Just load up a dvd and follow along.
   Excercing releases endorphins in your brain. If you have morning sinus
   problems, that would effectively make it go away. It’d also give you a
   nice appertite for that big breakfast.
3. Eat a reasonable breakfast - eggs and bacon are fine. Have a coffee. This will be your ONLY coffee, so savour it.
   It’s 7:30 am. When was the last time you’ve eaten? A snack last night
   at 10 maybe? It’s been a while. Load up on some good, hearty food. It’d
   stop you from wanting to devour a hamburger for lunch later.
4. Eat the heaviest meal of day at lunchtime. You can have a steak if you like, but if you do more than 6 oz of red meat, don’t say I didn’t warn you about the heartburn. Take the entire hour eating lunch.
   The feels weird, but works. If you’re going to have mashed potatoes and
   steak, have it NOW. Take the time to eat it over an hour. Don’t rush.
   Most people can’t stomach that much food at this hour, so you’d
   actually end up eating less than you would at dinner time. Restaurants usually have lunch specials on entrees that gives you a smaller portion of the dinner plates, so you’re scoring a good deal as well.
5. Do another 15-30 minutes of cardio when you get home. 15 if you usually don’t excercise. 30 if you already do.
   This would put around 5 hours between eating that hearty lunch and excercising. You should have plenty of food energy for this.
6. Eat a vegetarian dinner. No meat after 2 PM. Make sure it has lots of protein.
   Carnivores sleep more than herbivores. The common heavy dinner at 6 PM
   would make the normal person fall asleep during the movie at 8 pm. So
   having a light veggie dinner gives you just enough juice to last
   through the evening, without making you sluggish.
7. Make sure you take in 8 glasses of water during the day, but don’t guzzle two glasses at once.
   This keeps your muscles hydrated so you won’t feel that acidic pain when you excercise.

At the end of seven days, you should notice a difference in your energy levels. You should be able to wake up feeling better, stay awake during the day with LESS caffeine, and excercise longer.

• Before you grate a block of cheese, throw it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Firmer cheese is easier to grate.
• If you have a food processor, grate a whole kilo at a time. Buy big blocks at a discount. Spoon into individual freezer packets (I use Glad Press ‘N’ Seal for the freezer) by serving size. The key is not to PACK them. Freeze them loosely in a package, and it should crumble when you open it up. I do this to my mozzarella, and half of my cheddar.
• Only freeze your cheese if you don’t just plan to cut it up in blocks and eat it. Defrosted cheese is better cooked than eaten raw, since the freezing process does effect the texture. General rule - the less moisture the cheese holds, the better it’d hold in the freezer. It won’t taste any different though, so if you’re just going to crumble it and use in sauces (blue cheese), go ahead and freeze it.
• You can freeze blocks as well, just make sure they’re tightly wrapped, and defrosted in the fridge. Don’t try to freeze soft cheeses such as mascarpone. Hard cheeses (like aged white cheddar) actually tastes better if you freeze it for a couple of months and defrost in the fridge.

If you’re having reservations, just think of all the frozen meals you heat up in the oven that contains cheese. Frozen pizza, anyone?

I used to use grocerygateway.com when I lived farther than a couple of blocks from the grocery store. It was a tad more expensive than a visit to No Frills, but in the dead of winter, it’s definitely worth it - but I’m digressing. This is about grated cheese.

How often do you use grated cheese? Mozarella, for example. You can put it on pizza, swirl it in pasta, splatter over onion soup, sprinkle it on chicken before baking, cover macaroni in Mac’n'cheese. And every single time you take it out of the fridge, you grate it. You NEVER ever SLICE mozarella. So why buy it in a block?

The price of Black Diamond Mozzarella in a block at GroceryGateway: $13.80 /Kg
The price of Kraft Shredded Mozzarella Cheese at GroceryGateway: $20 / Kg
The time to grate 1 kilo of cheese with a food processor: 30 seconds.

How many 30 seconds are there in an hour? 120.
How much does it cost to grate cheese? ( 20 - 13.8 ) X 120 = 124. $124 bucks an hour.

Nothing like home-made hot coco on a cold winter night. Like this one. You need a double boiler. Some recommend putting instant coffee into their hot coco, but I like cayenne pepper instead.

Ingredients - serves 4
4 cups of whole fat milk
1 cup of chopped pure dark chocolate
1 cup of sugar (this really depends on the sweetness of the chocolate you chose - best to add later to taste. Go a bit under though, since marshmellows add sweetness)
1 TSP cayenne pepper
16 pieces of marshmellow (regular sized ones that you usually put over a fire)

Instructions
Heat Milk on low (preferably in a doulbe boiler), to almost hot but not bubbling. Add chocolate, whisking to make sure that nothing’s sticking to the bottom. whisk in sugar and cayenne pepper. Pour half the mixture into cups.

Using kitchen scissorts (or a knife, but scissors make it easier), cut marshmellows in halves. This creates a moist area for them to fizz when they hit the liquid. Top the hot coco with marshmellows, then pour the rest of the coco on top. Garnish with bits of chocolate left over from the bar chopping you were doing earlier.

You can substitute the cayenne pepper with 8 TBSP of cream de menthe instead, for a minty coco.

I joined SparkPeople.com last week to track what I eat. Granted, I really don’t try to stay within how much calories I’m consuming - just tracking what I do eat.

Mostly I joined because I need something to whip me into drinking 8 glasses of water a day. I think I must’ve been doing <1 glass of water plus 3 mugs of coffee with cream and sugar, plus two glasses of milk. That’s something I always made sure I did - two glasses of milk a day for strong bones, since I’m so bloody accident prone, I need every bit of help i can get! Knock on wood - I haven’t ever broken any bone in my body, yet.

(Did I tell you about the time where I fell down the stairs at work and all I did was sprain a finger? And the time when a counter plank hit me straight on the top of the head and was rushed to the ER only to find that I was perefectly fine except for a scratch on the nose? Yup. Strong bones.)

Turns out that I’m consuming around 1200 - exactly how much I need - regardless of whether I track it or not. I just eat a meal when I’m hankering for a snack and it’s meal time, or eat a snack when it’s not. I also have a bad, bad habit of eating tuna out of the can a lot. Maybe 3 times a week. In the old days, that would give you alzeimer’s. Now it turns out that my fish addiction is really good for me.

When I have a fast food day I end up not eating anything else for the rest of the day (fast food makes my stomach whirl. Then I eat it again when I forget that it does.) so that 1000 calorie combo at Wendy’s isn’t so bad after all, since it would turn out to be the only thing I eat that day. But if I go to a good restaurant, just watch me devour a 12 oz steak. It’d take an hour, but I just LOVE a T-bone. I also love lobster tail in purified butter, fish and chips with real tartar sauce, real lox, potato latkes, and southern fried chicken. If I ever start really counting calories, shoot me.

Hence the lack of quality posts. Don’t you just LOVE technology?

I used to keep a chalkboard in the kitchen when I lived in a house and the kitchen was bigger. It was very convenient for writing down recipes as I go with dirty hands. It was also good for letting everyone know what we’re having for dinner ahead of time. Not to mention that with an old flea market salvaged painting frame painted gold, it made a great wall decoration.

You can make your own chalkboard. All you need is a sheet of cut tempered masonite, and some chalk board paint. You can get masonite cut to size at a decent sized art supply shop. I got mine from Loomis & Toles, but you can get it pretty much in every art store. It’s quite cheap - a panel of 24" by 30" will set you back a mere $6.

Now that I live in an apartment with my boyfriend, and the kitchen and dinning area is meshed into one, I really don’t want to be eating chalk dust. So I went with the second best - a cork board. They’re quite a bit more expensive since it’s manufactured, but if you’re really in a pinch, here’s a little trick. You can even brush color it to make it look like a corkboard.

You’ll need:
An old frame. Flea markets are full of these. I have 4 in the storage closet.
1 Sheet of styrofoam, cut to the inside size of the frame, with a little extra on each side
1 sheet of muslin
A regular stapler with staples
White Glue

Get some sheets of styrofoam. If you’ve done some online shopping, maybe a large frame, or anything delicate aand flat, then you’d have some sheets lyring around. I got mine from the metal dance pad I ordered from Innex. Directron.com offers free styrofoam if you’re willing to pay for shipping. It can’t be that expensive - it weighs little more than air! You can also get foam board at your local art shop, or check out places such as freecyle.org.

Next thing you’d need is a sheet of muslin big enough to wrap the sheet of styrofoam in the front, and enough give to staple it into the back. Muslin is coarse untreated cotton and can be colored with fabric dye. Have fun. It’s also used as a fitting material - tailors use it to make patterns. It’s cheap at $2/yard, and thumbtacks go right through them.

Assemble your board with staples on the back, and mount it with an old frame with white glue. There! Homemade clothboard. Thumb tacks would go right into it with no resistance, it costs nearly nothing to make, and you can color the fabric to match anything in the kitchen. If you don’t have a frame, just use a binder clip and a nail to hang it on the wall.

Mine is a repository for grocery lists, blank sheets for writing recipes on, and new recipes I have to try out printed on 1/4 letter sized paper. One corner I reserve for a blob of putty. When I want to try out a new recipe, I just putty it to the cupboard above the stove.