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Feb. 15th, 2011 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holytoastrI think ben is learning to hate the metro as much as I do. I was supposed to be at the park and ride at 6:15 yesterday. Instead I arrived at 6:50. All thanks to some door problem which backed up the orange line really badly.
The whole thing put me in a foul mood, but I still managed to make dinner without too much of a tantrum.
Before we moved, we were mostly vegetarians (usually eating meat at most twice a week), but during the move we ate a lot of bad for us fast food. We're trying to get back to our normal eating habits. Over the weekend, we bought a ton of fresh veggies which I plan to make into delicious things all week.
Last night I made stir-fried cashew vegetables. I found the recipe in a rachael ray vegetarian cookbook. She is one of the most annoying food personalities out there. But I found that if you totally tune out all the commentary and intros she includes, the recipes in the book are pretty basic and non-offensive.
I was very proud of myself for not burning anything. Our new house has an electric stovetop, which has been a real challenge for me. I've only ever used gas! The first week we moved in, I burned soup. Burned it into a black sludge at the bottom on the pot. But I have been reading up on electric stovetops and have been learning where I have been going wrong.
For example, I foolishly thought that the highest setting correlated with the highest setting on a gas stovetop. Not so! The highest setting exists only to burn things. To get a normal high heat, I need to stick somewhere around 6-8.
Also, you can't just turn on the heat and start cooking. The stovetop needs time to warm up, like an oven! And once it is warmed up, it stays that temperature for a very long time. So if I need to boil something and then reduce to a simmer, what I really need to do is have one heating surface set between 6 and 8 and one heating surface set somewhere between 2 and 4. Then when I am ready to simmer, I move the pot to the pre-heated simmer surface.
It's all so complicated and requires a lot of planning!
Tonight is one of ben's d&d nights, so I don't have to make dinner. But I'm making walnut stuffed mushrooms tomorrow night and I want to prepare the stuffing tonight. That way all I need to do tomorrow night is pop the prepared mushrooms in the oven.
Later this week I'm making spinach ragu and lentil chili. And I was thinking this weekend I might make some vegetable lasagna!
The whole thing put me in a foul mood, but I still managed to make dinner without too much of a tantrum.
Before we moved, we were mostly vegetarians (usually eating meat at most twice a week), but during the move we ate a lot of bad for us fast food. We're trying to get back to our normal eating habits. Over the weekend, we bought a ton of fresh veggies which I plan to make into delicious things all week.
Last night I made stir-fried cashew vegetables. I found the recipe in a rachael ray vegetarian cookbook. She is one of the most annoying food personalities out there. But I found that if you totally tune out all the commentary and intros she includes, the recipes in the book are pretty basic and non-offensive.
I was very proud of myself for not burning anything. Our new house has an electric stovetop, which has been a real challenge for me. I've only ever used gas! The first week we moved in, I burned soup. Burned it into a black sludge at the bottom on the pot. But I have been reading up on electric stovetops and have been learning where I have been going wrong.
For example, I foolishly thought that the highest setting correlated with the highest setting on a gas stovetop. Not so! The highest setting exists only to burn things. To get a normal high heat, I need to stick somewhere around 6-8.
Also, you can't just turn on the heat and start cooking. The stovetop needs time to warm up, like an oven! And once it is warmed up, it stays that temperature for a very long time. So if I need to boil something and then reduce to a simmer, what I really need to do is have one heating surface set between 6 and 8 and one heating surface set somewhere between 2 and 4. Then when I am ready to simmer, I move the pot to the pre-heated simmer surface.
It's all so complicated and requires a lot of planning!
Tonight is one of ben's d&d nights, so I don't have to make dinner. But I'm making walnut stuffed mushrooms tomorrow night and I want to prepare the stuffing tonight. That way all I need to do tomorrow night is pop the prepared mushrooms in the oven.
Later this week I'm making spinach ragu and lentil chili. And I was thinking this weekend I might make some vegetable lasagna!
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Date: 2011-02-16 02:19 pm (UTC)