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Gumbo Z'Herbes

I'm writing this because my son needs this particular version of Gumbo Z'Herbes as I actually do it. It was based off a recipe in Epicurious that then went to Chow that then went to Chowhound, that then... anyway... I don't know the exact origins anymore, and I've changed it substantially from them.  Ingredients 3  lb  greens (two bags of Costco Super Greens is great for this) 2/3  c  vegetable oil 2/3  c  all-purpose flour 1   yellow onion chopped 1  bunch  scallion chopped 1   green pepper chopped 4   celery ribs chopped 2  cloves  garlic minced 2  t  kosher salt 2  T  Cajun seasoning (preferably Lucille's) 2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth if you're not going vegan or water 2  whole  cloves 2  whole  bay leaves 3 whole allspice 1  T fresh herb (I never have marjoram, so it's been cilantro usually or parsley)  Gumbo Z'herbes Directions Have a big bowl of ice water to the side. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil, add 1/2 tsp salt to the water, then d
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Local Apple Pie

Everything you need, it all gets called out below, too, but if you're like my son, you like a list of everything so you know you have it all. Crust 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 3/4 cup AP flour 1 tsp salt 2 Tbsl sugar 6 Tablespoons coconut oil 1 Stick (8 Tablespoons or four ounces) of butter 4-8 Tablespoons ice water Filling 3 Pounds baking apples if you like the peels on 4 if not, mixed types 1 Tablespoon lemon juice 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon allspice if you have it, cloves might work too 1 Tablespoon arrowroot starch if you have it, or just plain AP flour works, too 2 Tablespoons butter something for a glaze, I use buttermilk, milk, half and half, cream, leftoever egg whites from Jet doing cream puffs... You'll need a tablespoon or less Someone asked me for the recipe, so I figured I'd write it up here, so that I can share it as needed.  In a food processor: 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 3

Why Hope is Important in Climate Change Discourse

When my son decided to go to Mines, he met a bunch of like minded young people his age, and when he first came home there was this time when he admitted that he and his cohort had decided that they were the ones who were going to have to save the world from Climate Change because all those who had gone before didn't seem to be up to the job. He and his friends were facing that reality with determination. A few months ago, he showed me this video: Kurzgesagt's " We WILL Fix Climate Change! " I watched it and cried, and he told me later that when he watched it, he cried too because the main gist of the video is that humanity, in concert, has brought ourselves back from the brink of self-destruction. The weight of the impending disaster was immense, and to know that we weren't all going to just die of Climate Change was huge. There's a lot more work still to be done, don't get me wrong, but all the Apocalyptic tones of authors screaming for attention and the

Povitica, Traditional and My Take

Strawberry Hill makes povitica for the Kansas City Ukranian and Croatian and Eastern European people in the Midwest. They do an amazing job of it and were highly recommended by John's father's cousins. So we bought an apple cinnamon one and an English walnut one to see what they were really like. We ate the apple cinnamon one, first, and that's what I started my experiments to reproduce. I started with Joy Food Sunshine's Homemade Povitica Bread Recipe , but it was far too light and airy and bread-like for me. It's a very nice loaf of sweet bread with a very light swirl of nuts for flavor and scent. It's a nice thing, but entirely unlike the Strawberry Hill loaf, which was super dense and the swirl of flavors dominated the almost chewy wrapper around the filling. It also had very little cinnamon, something I really missed as the Strawberry Hill apple povitica had a wealth of cinnamon richness. Also in talking to the Arkansas cousins, living in the American Sout

Sourdough Branching

I've been branching out a bit with my sourdough.  One particular branch had to do with my sore tooth. I couldn't quite handle the usual crust when I was recovering from my crown replacement. In part because I was still using a good deal of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking to the cloth I was using in the loaf pan for the overnight chill/ferment cycle. Rice flour makes for a much harder crust than I like, though it also allows for really pretty patterns because it comes out white.  The loaf to the left is one that had a LOT of rice flour being used to keep the cloth mostly non-stick, and I did it only once because the texture was so hard for me to chew. I read that one could use a 50:50 mix of rice flour and regular flour and that would mitigate the texture problem, but I ended up using the mix for just rubbing directly on the cloth AND using Farmer John's very coarsely ground whole wheat flour directly on the dough to keep it from sticking to the counter and that w

Potsticker and Boiled Dumpling Recipe

There are two different everyday dumplings that we always used to make at home. One is the potsticker (gwo tiea) and the other is the boiled dumpling (jow tzs) (literally foot). They have a variety of innards and different wrapper dough to deal with their cooking environments. Dough Ingrediants Potsticker Dough 400 grams all purpose flour 210 grams boiling water 2 grams salt Boiled Dumpling Dough  400 grams all purpose flour 210 grams cold water 2 grams salt Dough Preparation - Is the same for both Put the flour and salt in a medium bowl, and, using a fork or chopsticks, gradually add the water. Pour out the pieces of dough and extra flour onto a clean counter and knead together. Place in a covered bowl and let rest for 20 minutes. Then take it out and knead it again until it's smooth and pliable, about 3-5 minutes, and then put in the covered bowl again to rest at least 20 minutes, but it can hold for a few hours. Filling 1 pound meat/protein. Usually ground pork, but ground turke

Dreaming Again, she/he/they, and Healing

I'm dreaming again. One of the side effects of the asthma drug I was taking was "vivid dreams". A lot of the wildest dreams I used to write about were when I was on the stuff. When I stopped taking it, I stopped dreaming. And with the sleep problems, I guess I wasn't getting much REM sleep. But... now that I seem to have worked out a new sleep regimen I'm regularly getting six to eight hours of sleep a night and, miracle of miracles, I'm dreaming again. Jet recommended the anime Demon Slayer  to me, so I've been watching it and it's been feeding my dreams interesting materials. Before that, it was mostly Hades and even Deep Rock Galactic. But between Demon Slayer 's art and motion (and the water animation is amazing) I'm now getting some distinct images at night and situations and sequencing in bright color and sound again.  And with the sleep, I seem to have also managed to make good progress with the healing of that tooth. It makes me aware w