…are the order for the day. I buy in bulk, cook once, freeze most, use it diced; and while I tried oven roasting, I decided the best-tasting and fastest way was the good old George Foreman grill. I have the little one: I just set the timer for 15 minutes, to be sure it’s done, and just keep loading it on. The bread—is my old standby, most of a pound of white flour, 1 half cup of brown rice flour and a cup of wheat bran, atop 1 1/2 cup water, teaspoon honey or maple syrup, teaspoon salt, 2 T of olive oil, and 2 tsp yeast. The rice flour and bran make the hard crust super delicate and crunchy. The chicken tonight will be heated chicken bits, finished in hot olive oil with salt, pepper, dill; then liberally coated with grated Parmesan, atop Caesar salad, with fresh bread. Tomorrow, and for several days, chicken stir fry, probably with rice; and then a quesadilla in my new maker: mostly mixed cheese, jalapeno, and a spoonful of Texas chili. Also with Caesar salad. It saves brain work, when the cooking is that neatly laid out. The chicken will go from now halfway through October, so rotation of that menu—stir fry is easy to vary—and we’re good.
I also got a neat gadget from Amazon, a bread slicing guide, to keep my slices straight, that sits on a neat little wooden grid that catches the crumbs before they get all over the kitchen. Neat. I just wrap the loaf in a teatowel, and set it on this until ready to slice, and we have no crumbs! Yay! (Jane also rejoices…)
Keep in mind OSG and OSGuy’s kitteh Kate, who’s a wonderful kitteh-person: she’s very old, and not doing well. They were up at all hours with her. Just think good thoughts their way, and hope things can be as good as they can possibly be.
Your recipe for bread reminded of a question I have for you: what brand/model of bread maker do you use and would you buy a similar model again? How long have you had it?
Cuisinart, and it’s the best I’ve ever had. I recommend it without reservation. Got it for Christmas last year.
Thanks! What model do you have? Cusinart offers a bunch of different models of bread makers…
It’s the 200PC. http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-BMKR-200-2-Pound-Automatic-Compact/dp/B0044KJAP8/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1316191778&sr=1-4
Thanks! I have a birthday this month… 🙂
CJ – I think I remember you mentioning that you folks don’t like fish? Wild-caught salmon can be especially economical around here, especially if you cultivate your fisherpeople friends! I get free wild-caught salmon all the time. Good sources of (non-fortified) vitamin D are fish like salmon, mackeral , sardines, and tuna. You probably know this. I take D3 myself since I avoid non-organic dairy so don’t get fortified versions of the stuff and I don’t want to eat fish DAILY. I’m out in the garden (in the sun) all the time as well but the doctors suggested supplementation anyway. I’m sure you’ve had a bone density scan done to screen for osteoporosis. If you are deficient in D, you aren’t metabolizing calcium properly (you probably already know that as well). Since my mom has osteoporosis, and I shockingly broke my arm/wrist in 4 places from a simple fall, I had one done a couple years ago. Luckily, I’m fantastic in terms of my pelvic bone density at least! Hope you are as well!
I’m not fond of freshwater fish, but salmon don’t count. I really like salmon, and you remind me it’s been too long since we had some.
Jane and I are lucky to have good bones. My frame is definitely from my father’s side of the equation, and while he had some old sports injuries, he was solid. Took a fall from 4 steps up a ladder at 70-something and wasn’t even phased.
The walking program is helping Jane and me stay in shape; and we’ve now mapped out a 2 mile route that will involve a steep hill. Unfortunately the *other* 2-3 mile walk we’ve mapped out leads to the doorstep of Pancakes R Us. 😉
Here’s a salmon recipe to try:
Lay down a skin-on filet on aluminum foil, skin side down (also works on steak cuts obviously). Mix 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger with half a can of frozen orange juice concentrate, and brush the mix onto your fish. Broil or grill (I prefer grill) to your preferred level of doneness and wallah! The oj and ginger cook down to make a nice glaze. I usually add several grinds of black pepper before grilling. I prefer the skin-on filet; once cooked the meat will usually come right off the skin if you slip a spatula along the interface.
I am re^n-reading “Legacy of Heorot” and started this post by writing “Here’s a samlon recipe to try.” Yikes! 😀
Sounds really good!
CJ – Glad you don’t have to worry about osteoporosis. I’ve fallen down whole flights of stairs in my youth without anything more than bruises and a meniscus tear in my knee. I was out on a Polish hake trawler at the time as an observer, running to watch a bag being brought in in boots that were too large (they don’t make fisherman boots small enough for me). And, like most, I have fallen from ladders and all sorts of things though my life without much damage. So, when I slipped on ice on a hill and ended up with 4 fractures and a telescoped forearm…I was shocked. I was 54 at the time.
Pancakes R US….AKKKKK! I’ve worked at removing all restaurants, bars etc from my radar. They don’t even exist any longer (wink).
Good luck with Kate, OSG and OSGuy. It’s a hard and anxious time.
All good wishes to Kate, and to her people, too. So hard to see a family member, with or without fur, having problems!
Sending good thoughts to Kate and her loved ones.
Thank you everyone. Last night’s (this morning’s!) 3:00 AM subcutaneous infusion helped significantly and Katie was able to settle down and rest. Sadly, there isn’t a lot we can do except try to make the best decisions we can on her behalf, and ensure that she is as comfortable as possible during the time she has left here with us.
We don’t really know what is wrong except that she is clearly terminally ill. Cancer is the suspected culprit. Her initial labs and chest x-ray several months ago were inconclusive, but we elected not to pursue further diagnostics such as an ultrasound. Even if we were able to nail down Kate’s diagnosis we doubt there is little, if anything, we could do differently. To pursue it further would be pointless, as well as pure torture, for Katie herself.
There’s always a ’cause’, but, y’know, when you’re an elderly kitteh, I absolutely agree, it’s just ultimately old age, and being comfy and with her people is the best thing.
That’s the decision we made with Mackie too. Comfort is far better than essentially useless knowledge.
very difficult time, my sympathies …
Toes and pussycat paws crossed that Kate’s time is restful and comfortable.
Your describing working with wood is like the writing process, a feeling of creativity. Please explain what the OSG means. Just got a clean bill of health myself.
Hey Stephen, OSG is short for “Orion Slave Girl,” from her username. 😉
Best wishes for Kate and humans. I last went through that about six years ago now. I still miss Toby, who was a unique cat. But I’m very glad to have Goober and Smokey, who are busily darting around chasing each other and playing, happy to have me home for the day. Today was slightly cooler, dunno if that’s a trend yet, but it’s made them frisky and joyous, nice to see.
My writing seems to have finally gotten a nudge in the right directions again. It means I’ve started back on an idea I’d neglected to write down, so starting from scratch there, which may turn out for the better anyway. It also means a reassessment of about four or five story ideas which are each different takes on a similar theme/species/situation/character-type. What to combine or whether to pursue them more, each separately, I don’t yet know. It does mean I hadn’t fully realized that’s brewing as a larger theme for me.
The story I’d been working with (still am) has a central character whose exact nature I’m trying to figure out. There are three main approaches there, and who and what he is affects the rest of the story, which hasn’t yet materialized. I *think* the solution is to write enough of each scenario to judge them better. …I do hope that doesn’t mean I get enamored of all three. Now that *would* be a dilemma. I s’pose I’ll find out! No way these will be done before Halloween, though, darn it.
Hmm, think I’ll try that salmon recipe, that sounds easy and tasty, and I really like fish. Don’t think I have any salmon on hand, and won’t until next week, but the recipe is likely to get tried out on whatever fish I do have in the freezer. Mild whitefish of some kind, don’t think it’s catfish this time. Might try some homemade bread this weekend, if I muster up the gumption. (“Muster up the gumption”? Where did that come from? LOL!)
Orange juice (ironically) goes nicely on Orange Roughy. The ginger would be great with it too.
Just a hint….if you are concerned about avoiding fish that are being caught in a non-sustainable way, avoid orange roughy. We have gotten age estimates exceeding 100 for this species (verified via radioisotope analysis), and they have low fecundity/sporadic spawning. Their localized sea mount habitats are highly susceptible to overexploitation and the boom-and-bust nature of most fisheries on populations underline the non-sustainability of commercial fisheries on the species. Stepping off the soapbox…
Seriously, it’s now off my menu, then. Along with sea bass. I’m a marine hobbyist, as some know, and while the hobby has done a lot to make people appreciate what the reefs are, too much love can damage: I’m for sustainable produced coral—anyone who wants to drive by my place can have a nice piece of the hammer coral that ate NY. I’ve fragged off what would cover 3 dinner plates just this year, and it needs it again. I think we’ll make double its original size by year’s end. Sustainable. Homegrown. I’m for it.
Cool! And since I make my mortgage payments by playing with dead fish parts collected from commercial fish caught in Alaska, I’m tuned into the sustainability issue as well. Orange roughy are from an entirely different part of the world but were one of the first species where radioisotope work was done to validate age estimates (my field).
Our local aquarium society has had speakers doing talks on reef tanks and such. I dabbled with saltwater back in grad school, but I don’t like having to remember what kind of water is in the water change bucket….which is then used to drench orchids and other tropicals. They would HATE me (and probably die) if I used brackish/salt or even African lake cichlid water on them. So I stick with little softwater nano tanks with killifish, little blue eyes and other pretty little freshwater tropicals. I’m itching to try breeding some of the teeny little gouramis (like licorice gouramis) and some of the microrasboras (Boraras).
Wow, flashbacks to a time when I was collecting those fishyparts in Alaska. (I have a sneaky suspicion I’m still on some observers hate list because of northern rock-sole) Its shocking to the non-fisherperson how different the catching process can be for different species. Some fisheries 100 ton tows caught in 5 minutes were virtually pure with one target species. Others would struggle along fishing for hours to get 3 or 4 tons of mixed STUFF including starfish, 3 or 4 species of crab, snails, 8 or 10 different species of fish, and my personal favorite, the amazing midwater ROCKS. Not rockfish, ROCKS. Those boats used to make me want to scream because you know they were damaging the seafloor structures.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Factsheets
Good wishes to Kate. Hard times.
for anyone interested in the reefs and the health of the oceans. a documentary made by a friend of mine- or rather I have gotten to know the person who made this doc. I have a lot of respect- firstly that it is a woman’s production company ( in a field dominated by men), and secondly, that they have taken on some really powerful issues. you may remember the movie/doc made re chico mendes, that was their work:
canary of the ocean:
http://mirandaproductions.com/canary/
Both lyrical and disturbing, Canary of the Ocean is a celebration of coral’s beauty and mystery. It is also a prayer for our planet.
Sending good vibes to Kate and her people. That kind of situation is never easy.
I believe I’m going to have to put a bread machine on the wish list (after new spectacles and a new camera). The machine you linked to is very reasonably priced.
BlueCatShip: Thanks very much for explaining OSG, i’ve been wondering.
During my fisheries observer days I saw how the bottom trawls destroyed the bottom, The second year fishing in the same area there sere 1) no rocks brought up and 2) none of the rock dwelling bycatch -Sea Ravens and the like. The bottom must have looked like it had been deep plowed.
That would likely be for flounder, etc, would it not? I’m not in favor of the big trawlers. It would increase the price of fish to go to line-only, but we’re paying a price already: the bill just hasn’t come in. Salmon and catfish are farmed, although there is some controversy about the former, and at least salmon are highly managed: the west coast is taking down a few dams to try to help them, although there you come into conflict with the farmers. The most farmable are catfish and shrimp—but alas, I cannot abide the taste of catfish.
Its not ALL trawlers, though. The ones fishing midwater schooling species like Pollock (admittedly 20 years ago when I was observing) would run around until they found a school, then drop the net, bounce it off the top of the school and pull it right back up with 100 tons of JUST POLLOCK. Any more than a bounce and the net would be destroyed because there were just too many fish! This is the fish most Surimi is made from, and many frozen fish-sticks and fillets. The real problem is with bottom trawling for the flat fish, rock fish, and other bottom dwelling species. Ugh. Ok, soapbox rant deleted~ its just too… ranty! ANYway, just consider, there are fisheries where trawling is a practical and sound practice, we just need to watch the way its used like any other food production method!
There are net modifications that can be used to mitigate the effects on bottom fauna (roller gear etc) of bottom trawling. Bottom trawling does not have to equate with bulldozing the bottom if done correctly and with sustainability in mind. And weeble is right…quite a bit of fish tonnage comes from midwater trawling….and longlining….and pot fishing. I admit I’m not a gear person these days….it was 30-31 years ago that I was out on surveys (Alaska). I’m more interested in how many folks read C.J. Cherryh AND also spent some time out at sea as observers!
I remember when pollock was considered a “garbage” fish, now it’s the major species for fish filets, sticks, surimi, because the more desirable species were overfished. Now what will they turn to after they’ve overfished the pollock population? It’s already illegal to take bluefin tuna within a certain distance of the U.S. shores, unless you have a permit for catching them, and then you have a limit. I remember how they’d catch yellowfin tuna back in the 50s and 60s, they’d just throw a line in the water with a bare hook and let the fish catch themselves. That was fine as long as you were catching them on a pole, but using longlines, or huge purse seines, or bottom-destroying trawls, just means you’re catching them faster than they can reproduce, and you’re catching other things in the nets as well, like sea turtles, dolphins, and other fish that aren’t commercially marketable. We’ve always viewed the oceans as limitless suppliers of food, as well as limitless receptacles for trash and garbage. I’ve been out in the middle of the Atlantic and still found trash floating out there. One of these days, we’re going to have poisoned ourselves right out of existence.