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Friday, June 29, 2012

Spelt Bread

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Spelt Bread
It has been so hot that nothing seems appetizing.  Or, more aptly, simplicity is treasured over decadence.  What's more simple than a nice piece of bread, slathered with jam or fruit preserves?  I happen to like spelt bread because it has a very particular (in a good way) taste.  It's a thick and hearty bread, a bit like whole wheat, but tastes a lot better.  You can have spelt bread with jam ...
Nice Cherry Jam
Or you can smother your bread with almond butter ....
Oh just look at this gooey goodness ....
So Many Crushed Almonds!
See all those crushed almonds?  Barney's Almond Butter (Crunchy) is the BEST!  It's the only almond butter that doesn't taste like almond butter, but tastes like peanut butter.  So if you want a healthier substitute for peanut butter, Barney's Almond Butter is for you!  It's really really good!  And pairs really well with bread, though I like it straight from the jar, with a spoon ....

And have it with nice summer fruits ....
Apricot & Cherries


Recipe from Group Recipes
Spelt Bread
4 1/2 cups whole meal spelt flour
2 TSP salt
1 3/4 TSP warm water
2 TSP honey

Combine flour, water, and salt.  Add in warm water and honey.  Mix until the flour is moistened (about 2 minutes) and then knead for about 2 minutes longer.

Transfer dough unto floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat over to 450 F and spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.  Punch dough down and fold dough into pan.  Cover with a plastic wrap again and let sit for about 1 hour.

Remove the plastic wrap and make an incision to the center of the bread.  Bake the dough for about 35 minutes.  Let bread cook for about 10 minutes longer.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Secret History

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I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  Anyway, what really struck me was the contrast between lyrical beauty in the classical sense and the harsh bitterness of reality.  It reminds me of what they say about the Ivory Tower, the secluded academics living and breathing the words of Homer and Virgil (well, perhaps not Virgil since Virgil or the Aeneid is more concerned with setting a legitimate foundation for Rome, and not so interested in exploring the terrifying beauty of war and sacrifice, say), sipping wine in the afternoon and nibbling on crackers while discoursing on how the structure of a Dante or a Milton supports the thematics.  It reminded me of all the philosophical questions with which undergraduates could concern themselves late into the night, with all the philosophers paraded before them -- Plato, Aristotle to name a few.  It's interesting that the book was written in the 90's, when the humanities were still fashionable(?)  These days the quantitative disciplines seem to have crept up on the humanities and replaced them as the more "useful" majors.
But the story is also about belonging, or achieving a sense of belonging.  The main character wanted to belong to a special clique of rather secretive Greek students.  He was from a different social class, not having gone to the most expensive boarding schools and such.  And he was flattered that he could belong, until he got the hint that all was a plot to commit the perfect crime, of which he was inextricably a part.
Anyway, I guess the book reminded me of why I did not want to go into academia in the humanities ultimately.  I am just rambling here, so I will stop.  In other news, the decision on the Affordable Care Act is coming out today!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Decadence in Summer: Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Brownies and Cherries

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Cherries
What's better in the summer than ice cream?  Strange to say that I would like ice cream, since I don't like cream, butter, cheese, or any dairy products in my food.  But I do like ice cream and chocolate milk.  It has been so hot these days that there's nothing better than feeling the surge of coldness creeping up as the ice cream slowly melts in your mouth.  Besides, chocolate and cherries always go well together.  Since I like things with peanut butter (except peanut butter & jam sandwiches), I added some peanut butter to the ice cream to make chocolate peanut butter ice cream!
A Sprinkle of Cranberries
Or you can be more moderate and have fewer scoops of ice cream but more dried fruit, in this case cranberries!
But I like mine with many many scoops of ice cream, the more the merrier, as they say.  Oh, and did I tell that there are brownies in the ice cream as well?  Yes, it's truly quite decadent, and I just had to restrain myself from adding a large brownie at the bottom, as a "dish."  (Of course, you can add brownies on the bottom plus sprinkle nuts on top!)

Recipe
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Brownies
4 oz chopped semi-sweet chocolate (use Ghiradelli)
2/3 cup unprocessed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups (whole or 2%) milk
1 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
3 cups cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (creamy or crunchy) peanut butter (I like Crazy Richard's)
***AS MANY BROWNIES AS YOU WANT***

Place cocoa powder, sugar, milk, and cream into a large mixing bowl and whisk beat the mixture until the sugar has finally dissolved.  Stir in the vanilla.  Cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Whisk in peanut butter before transferring the chilled mixture to a ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes.

Add in the chopped chocolate about 5 minutes before you finish churning.  Then fold in the brownie pieces (break up the brownies first).

Enjoy!
Am I Enticing Enough?


Monday, June 25, 2012

Almost Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies

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Almost Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies
It was a nice weekend.  The weather was perfect -- not too hot or humid.  A nice break from the scorching heat of the week before.  Lazy and lounging around were the motto.  Only a tiny jaunt over to the park that involved resting on a park bench.  And standing around watching a deer and it munched away.  It literally ate everything in its path; despite its small size, it had a large round belly.  We saw another deer, with small antlers.  This was also a small deer, so perhaps male baby deers do grow antlers.  But none of the deers we saw had spots anymore, so they were past the baby stage.  There were also birds, chickadees and the infamous robins.  Plus other more interesting birds that were flittering to quickly in between branches for us to get good look.  But food-wise, we made cookies.  Almost flour-less peanut butter cookies to be exact.
We like cookies and we like peanut butter.  In fact, we like peanut butter so much that we wanted to use more of it rather than less of it.  All peanut butter not tempered by flour.  That is the way we roll.  And it was a nice recipe since it was small, so we didn't need to worry about finishing them all.  
More Cookies
It was very good.  Rich and peanut-buttery.  We also added half a bag of chocolate chip morsels because we were (well, I was) greedy.  Peanut butter and chocolate ... a most wonderful combination.

Recipe (Adapted from Vanilla Sugar)
Almost Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup crunchy all natural peanut butter
2/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
2 TB cornmeal flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*We added about half a bag
Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix.  Set aside.
Combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.  Crack egg open in a small bowl and beat.  Add egg to the cookie mixture.  Add in flour mixture.  Mix until combined,  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Cover bowl and refrigerate for about 2 hours or more.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F.  Roll into a ball and place on non-stick cookie sheets.  Bake for about 14 minutes until lightly browned.

Resting Cookies 
Cookies in Detail
Enjoy!
Cookies in Formation

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Should we Worry about Super PACs?

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Should we worry about the effects of super PACs on the election?  I think we all know that super PACs skew heavily towards one side of the political spectrum (certainly not ameliorating the phenomenon of heavy polarization among the electorate), and make a farce of the once rather legitimate principle of "one person one vote."
Citizens United opened the floodgates to campaign contributions.  The basis is rather odd though.  It's not as though contributions are "speech" pure and simple, but rather contributions are another form of influence buying.  I don't think anyone really believes that a contribution of $1 million won't buy you some favors, perhaps in terms of favorable laws in the future.  It seems that freedom of speech becomes used as justifications in and therefore entangled with numerous other things, such as commercial privileges and commercial speech.  Meanwhile, commercial speech has never been accorded inviolate status.
In any case, I'm sure the President will be able to weather the effects of super PACs in his campaign.  But the Congressional races are more worrisome.  A half a million donation in a Congressional race speaks loudly, and can potentially tilt the playing field towards the candidate with the most money.  And there's plenty of outside money in some high stakes elections.  You might query whether someone should be able to donate to a candidate in a district in which he or she has no vote.  There's a rule that prohibits any personnel at an investment advisory firm from making contributions to state pension fund officials if the personnel cannot vote for the official.  So, perhaps there is something insidious about making donations to candidates for whom one cannot vote.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Halibut with Peaches & Cilantro for a Scorching Summer Day

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Halibut with Peaches and Cilantro
It's summer already.  We've been suffering from excessive heat on the East Coast lately, over 90 degrees for 3 days!  This oppressive heat has left us without much of an appetite, except for nice juicy fruits.  The peaches are here!  In fact, we bought a bunch the other day, and I had the idea of cooking with them.
Nice juicy Californian Organic Peaches
You just need 1 peach per fillet.  Of course you can use more, but I was stingy with my peaches since I also enjoy eating them as they ripen, just as they are, plain and simple.  You can also use any fish you prefer, since I had halibut on hand I used it.  But cod, monkfish, haddock, hake, and barramundi all work.
The result was a nice fillet tempered by a tinge of sweetness from the peach.  It made the fish a bit more fruity and palatable on a hot summer day.

Recipe
Halibut with Peaches
2 halibut steaks
salt and pepper to taste
1 TSP soy sauce
1 small stem of ginger, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TSP sugar
3 TBSPS juice of pineapple
2 peaches
1/4 CUP good white wine
1 or 2 sprigs of cilantro
2 TBSPS frozen corn
1 celery stalk, chopped

Mix the wine, garlic, ginger, sugar and soy sauce.  Marinate the halibut for at least 1 hour (of course, the longer the better).  Save the liquid.
Heat the avocado oil.  Brown the steaks with first.  Then pour the marinade into the pan and cook until the liquid has almost evaporated and halibut cooked.
To prepare the peach, slice the peach.  Pour 2 TBSPS pineapple juice over it and lightly heat it in pan.  Add in 1 2BSPS of frozen corn and the celery stalk.  Then assemble the halibut and peach, finally glazing the last TBSP of pineapple juice over the fish.  Garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy!

Halibut Ready to be Enjoyed

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Mumbles about Inflation and Unemployment

Pin It Now! Since this blog is supposed to have random thoughts and not just food recipes or descriptions, I will try not to disappoint.  If you have been following the news at all, you know that no action is being done to help lower unemployment.  Mostly the justification is something along the lines of inflation prevention.  Now of course, if more people get jobs the consumption will rise, and if the consumption rises things will naturally become costlier.  But compared to the current situation that should be a GOOD thing, not something to avoid.  We are suffering from extraordinarily low productivity in the US right now and a bit of inflation targeting should encourage people to go out and spend and invest, and hence hire workers.  Now, of course we can do things on the fiscal end but we've all seen how difficult it is to get anything done on the fiscal end.  And actually the private sector probably wouldn't borrow much because people are afraid of the fiscal cliff come January 2013.  The only weapons we have left are on the monetary end.  Of course, if you are retired and no longer working, you naturally wouldn't want your savings to erode in value.  But the 8.2% unemployed surely don't see things that way.  I guess the dual mandate isn't so dual at all, but perhaps 1 1/2 one way and only 1/2 the other way.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dumplings

Pin It Now! Oooh dumplings.
Chicken and Pork Dumplings
A very easy and versatile snack.  You can use literally any filling you like.  Of course, you can buy dumplings always, but if you make them you can fill them to the brink ... LARGE dumplings.  I mean, who wants skinny sad and tired pieces of dough-wrapped goodies, right?

Recipe
Dumplings
1 lb minced pork
1/2 lb minced chicken
1/2 cup carrots, finely diced
1/2 cup napa cabbage, diced
2 TBSP soy sauce
dash of ground ginger
dash of sesame oil
1 package of store bought dumpling skin

Dipping Sauce
2 TBSP soy sauce
dash of sesame oil
1/4 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of red pepper flakes

(of course, adjust the condiments to taste)

To make the dumplings, mix together, very well, all the ingredients except for the dumpling skin.  Then wrap the filling inside each skin.  This is how well mixed mine was.

I happen to like very plump dumplings, like so.
Plump-y Pan Fried Dumpling
They were well received.  Enjoy!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Friday Mango Bread

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The other day I was gifted with a box of mangoes, 12 to be exact.  I had cut up 3 for our outing to the countryside, and eaten an additional 4.  Plus, I had given 2 away.  But that still left me with 5 soon-to-ripen mangoes!  Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE mangoes.   The truly ripe ones are juicy, fragrant, and wonderfully sweet.  Although I like them with just a tinge of tartness, they are wonderful in multiple ways.  You can eat them plain (as I do), in salads, as relish to accompany a simple grilled halibut or snapper, and so on.

Or, you can bake with them.

I consulted a recipe from Dorie Greenspan titled, very aptly, "Fresh Mango Bread."  The result was addictively enticing, but you will be pleased.  In fact, you will be amazed.  The bread was incredibly moist, so moist that it was better the next day, after you have left the mangoes enough time to soak through the dough.

Recipe                                                                                                                           
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan                                                                                     
Ingredients:                                                                                                                    
3 large eggs                                                                  
3/4 cup canola oil                                                            
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar                                          
1 tsp baking soda                 
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 cups mangoes
1 cup raisins
grated zest of 1 lime (omitted)
1 cup walnuts (my addition)


Preheat oven at 350 F.
Mix oil and eggs.  Chop up the mangoes and set aside with the raisins.  Mix everything else.  Pour the wet into the dry.  Fold mangoes and raisins into the dough.  Sprinkle walnuts on top.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours and voila!  You get to enjoy this wonderful mango bread.  Oh and large slices please, if you don't want your bread to fall apart.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

A Trip to the Country

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The other day we ventured out to the countryside.  It was beautiful and relaxing.  The weather was gorgeous, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect.  Here are some pictures.  See the bright moon in the first one?  It was taken at dusk. 



Here's another gorgeous view of the countryside.  You can see the mountains rising in the distance.  I love going on hikes in the country -- we met plenty of people and dogs on our hike (perhaps because we selected the easiest one?)  


After rambling about and saying hello to cows, goats, and random birds, hungry struck!  What better way than to pack a picnic and indulge?  We had sliced mangoes, blueberries, blackberries, ham and bread, plus these deliciously addictive California Flatbread Crackers!

They were a joy to eat!  I eat them plain, although they pair well with spreads such as pates and smoked salmon mousse!  Or cheese if you prefer (I'm not a big dairy fan except for ice cream so I've personally never tried).  But there's no need; these crackers went down one after another, until the whole entire package was GONE!!!  Yes, but we didn't do all that walking for nothing, did we?  Needed to replenish those calories after a "cough cough" strenuous hike of all of 1.7 miles!