Darkoshi

Easy Brussels Sprouts recipe

2026-05-10T08:24:34Z

I had a package of frozen Brussels Sprouts in my freezer for quite some time. Today I finally cooked it. I didn't have time to do anything fancy like pan-frying or baking them (the oven was otherwise occupied already). So I microwaved them.

I got ideas of how to season them from these videos:
Quick & Easy Microwave Brussels Sprouts Recipe
Once You Try Brussels Sprouts This Way There Is No Going Back

This is what I did:
I microwaved the sprouts (already defrosted for about half an hour) for 90 seconds.
I cut them in half; I was able to flick off most of the remaining ice that was still on them.
I sprinkled the following over them, then mixed them up well:
salt, toasted sesame oil, tamari sauce, onion powder, ginger powder,
Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning (salt, red pepper, black pepper, garlic),
Grace Caribbean Traditions Fish Seasoning (salt, spices, garlic, onion, citric acid, MSG, black pepper),
Weber Kick'n Chicken Seasoning* (dried onion, salt, dried garlic, spices, red pepper, dried orange peel, sugar, dried red bell pepper, paprika),
Weber Gourmet Burger Seasoning* (salt, dried onion, spices, dried garlic, sugar, chili pepper, rice concentrate, tomato powder, dried red bell pepper, natural smoke and grill flavors)

*still leftover from my niece.

I microwaved them for another 3 and a half minutes.
I stirred them, then microwaved them one more minute.
It tasted good! And it was so easy to do.

I thought the salt and spice was covering up any bitter taste.
Later I remembered about the bitterness having been bred out of certain vegetables like Brussels Sprouts. So who knows, maybe I would have even been able to eat them plain. But I don't think they would have tasted nearly as good.

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that feeling when...

2025-07-14T05:08:49Z

...you get up and walk into the kitchen to get some ice cream which you've been thinking about in the back of your mind ever since looking up about the new ice cream shop which serves vegan soft-serve ice cream, and you see the bowl of cucumber salad you had left out, intending to eat after finishing dinner.

:: ok, I'll eat some cucumber salad, and *then* I'll have ice cream ::

... and then you walk into the kitchen again after eating salad, ready to get ice cream, and you see on the counter the 8 figs you had picked from the tree. You know if you don't eat them now while they are still fresh, they won't taste as good tomorrow...

:: ok, I'll eat the figs, and maybe then a little bit of ice cream. ::

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refreshingly zesty carrots

2025-07-06T08:46:29Z

This is a good way to use up carrots that are dry or slightly bitter:

Peel, then grate the carrots. (I think I used 4 carrots)
Mix some frozen orange juice concentrate with water (I used about 4 tbsp or maybe more with 2 cups water)
Add about 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar to the OJ.
Add 1 to 2 tbsp maple syrup to the OJ.
Stir the liquid, then pour it over the carrots.
Let it marinate in the fridge.

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mushy peas

2022-04-14T07:13:06Z

I opened the can of mushy peas today. They taste good. They taste, if I remember right, much like Campbell's Green Pea soup. An item that I've never found a good ready-made vegan substitute for before now. I still don't like the idea of there being food coloring in these mushy peas though, and these were too expensive to buy on a regular basis.

I ought to cook it from scratch using dried peas. How hard can it be? Peas are small so they should cook fast, no matter if I get the split or whole ones, right? That may have been the difficulty when I tried it in the past though - cooking them long enough to get soft without them burning on the bottom of the pan.

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mushy green

2022-03-21T06:31:26Z

I haven't been keeping close track of the local face mask mandates. But I'm of the impression they've been suspended for the time being. When I went shopping today, I expected not to see anyone else wearing face masks. I planned to wear mine anyhow, and figured people would think I was odd. So, like usual, right?, I thought in reply. But I decided to wear my not-as-tight KN-95 instead of the most protective one.

There were actually a lot of people wearing face masks; not only store employees but other customers too. It seemed like more people were wearing face masks today than last year or the year before.

I bought a can of mushy peas to see what they are like, in spite of the ingredients including artificial color. That would have been a fitting thing to eat on St. Patrick's Day. And if I'd thought of it earlier in the month, I could have put my green fairy lights on the porch.

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Among the things I've read about Ukraine was a comment by a local, "The fasting has started", in reference to food supplies being tight. It's a grim thought, in addition to everything else.

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"Salad Days"

2021-09-16T03:38:12Z

The song "Gold" by Spandau Ballet includes this line in its lyrics:
These are my salad days

The term "salad days" was not familiar to me, but there's a whole Wikipedia article about it. It says:

The phrase was coined in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in 1606. In the speech at the end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar she says:
...My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood/To say as I said then!

The phrase became popular only from the middle of the 19th century, coming to mean "a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion." The metaphor comes from Cleopatra's use of the word 'green' — presumably meaning someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature. Her references to "green" and "cold" both suggest qualities of salads.

I don't know why, but it strikes me as odd, to think of Ancient Egyptians eating salad. But then, Cleopatra cavorted with Ancient Romans. Did Ancient Romans eat salads? Apparently so.

Bon Appetit Wednesday! An Ancient Roman Salad:
Romans loved salads. Columella’s writings suggest the Romans were much like we are today in their search for delicious and inventive salad combinations.[2] A main ingredient in all of these recipes was salt. In fact, the word salad comes from the Latin word sal, meaning salt.

According to the next articles, Ancient Egyptians domesticated lettuce. But they also considered it an aphrodisiac (or they didn't, depending on the article).

Watch out the Egyptian salad. Lettuce in Ancient Egypt: a ‘sexy vegetable’ and its usages

Lettuce and Kings: The Power Struggle Between Horus and Set

Ancient Egyptian Sexuality: Life in Ancient Egypt

... there I am getting dragged down a winding path of topics from where I started.

Going back to the Shakespeare Cleopatra line, it's neat how it is a double (or more) metaphor. Green is a metaphor for youth; coldness (temperature) is a metaphor for coldness (lack of emotion). And then salad, being green and cold, becomes another metaphor for youth and/or coldness.

Update, 2021/09/29:
The ancient Egyptian depictions of lettuce shown on the above link don't look much like modern day lettuce.

But today I came across a lettuce variety which does look somewhat similar to the Egyptian depictions:
Celtuce (also known as "stem lettuce".
Celtuce: A Stocky Stem Lettuce From China (video)

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Cucumber Salad

2021-07-18T20:41:28Z

I used this salt-and-drain technique on my last batch, and it turned out so good.

Cucumber Salad, the way I like it:

Peel the cucumber(s). (Sometimes I do this and sometimes not. This time I did.)
Slice cucumber(s) into bowl. (Use mandolin to get slices as thin as possible.)
Sprinkle slices generously with salt.
Stir well and continue salting to distribute salt onto all the slices.
Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for an hour or more.

The salt draws out liquid from the cucumber. This helps to remove any bitterness the cucumber may have had. It also makes the slices become soft and limp. (I prefer them this way. If you prefer firm crunchy slices, this recipe is not for you.) Without this step, it usually takes several days of storing the salad in the fridge for the slices to get to the same level of floppiness.

Drain the liquid from the slices.
Taste the slices. If too salty, rinse them off with fresh water and let drain again (then maybe re-salt to taste). If not too salty, leave be.

Sprinkle with onion powder (or whatever else you want to add).
Add some vinegar.
Stir well.

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browser stand-off. leeks & cilantro.

2021-02-28T08:08:35Z

I'm in a standoff with my browser: I refuse to let it update as long as it keeps nagging me to update, and as long as I can't find a way to make it stop nagging.

It used to be when an update was available, it would pop up the message, and if I didn't choose to install it right away, it would remind me at a reasonable frequency, no more often than once a day. Now it is doing it multiple times a day. Suffice to say, I became very irritated and have dug my heels in deeper than ever. I don't want to completely disable updates, but... I haven't found any other solution so far. Maybe I'll need to downgrade to an older version. ::SNEER::
Bah.

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One of my phones popped up a message saying that a COVID-19 Contact Tracing app was available (the first such message I recall having gotten). But it was an app for the state of North Carolina. I live in South Carolina.

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Yesterday, my mom gave me leeks and a bunch of cilantro which she'd gotten from a friend.

I cut up and cooked the top dark green parts of the leeks separately from the rest. (I had read a webpage which said this part of the plant is inedible, but that is untrue. Perhaps on some plants the leaves are too tough to eat, but on these they certainly weren't.)

I stir-fried both parts in olive oil along with the cilantro. With the leek tops, I stirred in balsamic vinegar. It turned out quite good.

In the other pot, I added fresh ginger, a can of black-eye peas, and a package of potato gnocchi (after boiling it). It turned out quite good too.

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Today was like a warm spring day. Upper 70s. Flowers are starting to bloom. Yellow flowers grew from the bulbs which I had thought were small onions.

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nutrition labels

2021-01-14T08:31:01Z

Starting in the last 4 years or so, the requirements for food nutrition labels in the U.S. have changed:
4 Major Changes Are Coming To Food Nutrition Labels (May 2016)
Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label: What Parents Need to Know (April 2020)

The Nutrition Facts Label: Its History, Purpose and Updates (March 2020)

There are four vitamins and minerals that are required to be listed on every updated Nutrition Facts label: vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium. While calcium and iron were also required before the latest update, vitamin D and potassium are new to the list, replacing vitamins A and C. The swap was made because Americans get enough vitamin A and C in their diet but fall short on vitamin D and potassium.

So Vitamin A and C are usually no longer listed, which I did not realize. But what about all the other vitamins and minerals? I seem to recall that labels used to list many other vitamins and minerals too, didn't they? Now they hardly ever do.

There have been multiple times over the last few years where I've looked at the nutrition label on some product that I'd expect to be healthy, such as vegetables or fruit, and have thought to myself, "According to this it has basically no vitamins or minerals at all, so it must not be that healthy after all. Fruit and vegetables are overrated."

I wonder if other people have had that reaction too.

Update, 2021/01/23: I didn't think to mention it before, but it was a false expectation of mine which caused that reaction. I expected that if a product had a measurable amount of certain vitamins or minerals, that those amounts would normally be listed on the label. I thought they would only be omitted when they weren't present at more than trace levels.

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spiced pumpkin puree

2020-11-13T05:10:16Z

I made this tonight.

Dissolve 2 cubes of veggie bouillon cubes in a small amount of hot water and set aside.
Brown 3 medium onions, diced, in vegetable oil.
Add the bouillon water and continue to cook the onions til soft.
Stir in a good amount of pumpkin puree; I estimate 4 to 6 cups.
Add approximately 1.5 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp curry powder, some cumin, and some diced fresh ginger.
Add 1 can coconut milk and stir well.
Simmer until done.

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glass noodles

2020-03-01T02:28:13Z

I'm annoyed at NBC, calling the election less than 1 minute after the poll closing time, with no votes even officially in yet. They'll probably end up being right, but still. I've never once even encountered an exit poll at my polling places, so how can they really know what people have voted?

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After voting, I stopped by an Oriental grocery, hoping to find some mung bean thread noodles, which I haven't had in ages. I didn't see any on the shelves, but did find some good-looking sweet potato and acorn starch noodles. In the vegetable section, I got a bag of an unfamiliar looking green, which per Google Lens turns out to be crown daisy, aka edible chrysanthemum. It now occurs to me this may be what a local Korean restaurant uses in their "Korean salad", which was always more memorable to me for the spicy salad dressing they put on it than the greens themselves.

While paying, I asked the owner if she knew where I could find mung bean noodles, and it turned out that the store had them after all. The package said "bean vermicelli" on it, which I must have mistaken for "rice vermicelli" while scanning the shelves. So then I bought that too. [ ETA: But these aren't as good as the ones I remember from the past. I prefer thicker noodles rather than these very fine vermicelli ones. ]

There was also a Mexican supermercado next door, so I browsed it too. I got a box of "shavegrass tea" (aka horsetail) because I'd never heard of it before, and some fresh epazote which is another leafy green vegetable unfamiliar to me. I'd seen the latter in dried form before, but not fresh. The leaves don't smell good, but they taste ok. I'd planned to stir-fry it, but apparently eating it all at once like that may be a bad idea.

Ingredient Spotlight: Epazote:
"Be aware that too much epazote can overpower a dish and even lead to nausea."

Epazote: Mexico’s Mystery Herb
"In very high amounts, epazote can be toxic: It is a vermifuge of the highest order, which means it will kill any intestinal parasites you might have living in your innards."

So maybe I'd be better off making a pot of beans and adding the epazote to it near the end. That could let me use up some of those ancient beans in the cupboard... but then again they are so old, they might not get soft even using the pressure cooker. I'll try it anyway; if the beans don't turn out well then I won't add the epazote.

So. Plans to cook tonight, which might be overdoing it: bean thread noodles, stir-fried or maybe blanched crown daisy, and a pot of beans which will take forever to cook. Oh darn it, they aren't even soaked. That won't work, will it?...

I know! I'll instead take all the canned beans from the cupboard, cook them with some spices and the big can of fire-roasted tomatoes... maybe add that can of pumpkin which I can't figure out what to do with... and then put the epazote in it. And then hopefully I won't get nausea or throw up from it.

I'm glad I didn't buy 2 bunches of the epazote, which I contemplated in the store. Even this one bunch must be at least 2 cups worth, while most recipes I see say to only use a few sprigs of it.

ETA: On further thought, I'll probably throw the epazote away. There's no point in mixing it up with good food and possibly ruining the whole lot, and no point in eating something that may make me feel sick. I wasn't originally planning to cook beans anyway, and to got through that trouble only to use up a couple of sprigs out of the whole bunch, which I then won't even be able to taste? Not worth it.

The stir-fried crysanthemum turned out good.

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Dandelion Greens Saute

2020-01-12T04:38:49Z

I was worried the dandelion greens might be bitter. But they turned out very good the way I cooked them. (It could be that the store-bought ones simply aren't very bitter to begin with.)

I dry-roasted some raw pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, and hazelnuts* in a pan with some salt, until the first one popped out of the pan. I set them aside. After they were cool enough, I rubbed the loose hazelnut skins off the hazelnuts and discarded the skins.

I squeezed the juice out of several miniature lemon-type citrus fruit that my mom gave me from her little tree. They look like tiny tangerines, but taste sour, though not quite as sour as lemons.** Then I cut up the remaining thin peels into small pieces, and set both aside.

I sauteed a clove of crushed garlic in some almond oil*. I added a leftover half package of Gardein Italian Saus'age (partially defrosted), and sauteed that till it started to brown.

Then I added the washed & chopped dandelion greens and citrus peel. After a few more minutes of sauteeing, I added the citrus juice. I also added a few handfuls of raisins. Then I continued sauteing it all until the dandelion got soft enough for my taste. Then I stirred in the roasted seeds & nuts, and sprinkled on salt.

*All of which I happened to have in my fridge; they're quite old. But they still tasted ok.

**They're not kumquats, though they look similar. They are a squat round shape rather than oblong and have a thinner peel. I remember reading the plant label after my mom bought the tree from somewhere, and that it had a warning about this variety being patented, so that you're not allowed to propagate it. The fruit have seeds; I'm not sure if my mom ever tried growing more trees from them. Now I'm curious if they would even grow, and am curious if my mom still has that plant label; it's been years since she got it. The tree is still in a pot, and she brings it inside every winter.

Summary of recipe ingredients:
1 bunch of store-bought dandelion greens (the large/long kind, not wild-picked)
~1/4 cup pine nuts
~1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
~1/3 cup raw hazelnuts (filberts)
~1/3 cup of lemon or other citrus juice
~1/8 cup of citrus peel, cut into small pieces (could use zest instead)
~1/3 cup raisins
~4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic
~1.5 cups of vegan sausage slices
salt to taste

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errant thought while munching

2020-01-12T01:22:02Z

Jicama is like kohlrabi, except that it tastes good. It doesn't have that bitter cabbage-like flavor.

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the passion of dandelion and hickory

2020-01-11T23:12:42Z

Although I'm vegan, I don't often buy much fresh fruit and vegetables. Doing so results in needing to wash, peel, cut, cook, (etc.) as well as eat them, and to do so before they go bad, regardless of whether I have the time that day or week. Background stress. Not buying them avoids that. Usually I'll only buy a few easy things here or there. Avocados are good. Occasional fruit. Carrots; they last almost forever in the fridge without going bad.

I felt like cooking something this weekend though, and that fruit would be nice too. So yesterday I bought:

a passion fruit
2 oranges
blueberries
blackberries
jicama (pre-cut sticks, ideal for munching on! such a great convenience even though it comes in a plastic container)
fennel
dandelion greens

The fennel didn't have a bar-code on it. At the self-check-out station, it wasn't listed in the item look-up menu. A Kroger store employee came over to help, but we couldn't find it on their physical cheat-sheet either. Then I said, "It's also called anise, but I don't think it would be listed under that..." Yet it was listed as "anise / fennel".

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My erstwhile flu or cold still lingers a bit. Last weekend, my upper right chest area ached for a day; might mean a slight lung infection. My throat has been phlegmy; I still have a slight cough and occasional runny nose. Otherwise, I've still been feeling ok. Still much better than the usual kind of colds I get, where my nose is runny and/or congested non-stop for days or weeks.

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Kleenex has renamed their "Cool Touch" tissues to "Cooling Lotion". In the store yesterday, I wasn't sure if it was the same product. The ingredient list included polyethylene (plastic!?), which I hadn't remembered it having. So I took a photo of the label and didn't buy any. But comparing that now to a "Cool Touch" box which I still have, the ingredients are the same.

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While walking, I passed a hickory tree and thought of that children's rhyming song, Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. Except I thought the rhyme must be like "Tickety tickety tock, the mouse ran up the clock" (since clocks go tick tock). I recall thinking, well if I *did* put in the word "hickory", how should it go, "Hickory hickory hawk?" I played around with other variations in my mind, "clickety clickety clock", "clippety clippety clop"

Looking it up today, I was surprised that my brain's initial word association of "hickory" with the rhyme was correct. It's interesting that those words "hickory dickory dock" may have come from Cumbric numbers.

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strange flavors

2019-11-24T22:46:53Z

There's saffron on these roasted carrots!

If I'd realized that from the start, I'd have been able to appreciate the flavor, rather than wondering why the carrots tasted so suspiciously odd.

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everything you didn't know you wanted to know about baby carrots

2019-04-21T08:23:30Z

As in the little finger-sized things sold in plastic bags, as opposed to actual immature carrots.
Did you know (or remember) they've only been around since the 1980s?

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/babycarrot.html

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okra with no aitch

2018-07-08T05:43:49Z

Things I learned about okra from its Wikipedia page:
There's a red variety, which tastes the same as the green one.
The leaves can be cooked and eaten like other greens.
"Okra seeds may be roasted and ground to form a caffeine-free substitute for coffee."
An oil can be pressed from the seeds.

In case you're bored, here's a funny little story (not at all about okra) I came across after reading one about okra:
Mr. Mathrubootham is exasperated with national stupidity
(In sharing that story, I don't mean to make fun of India, as I think just as many people here in the U.S. and elsewhere are fascinated by those kind of videos.)

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Lately Google Maps shows location balloons for hotels when I search on places, so that I can hardly find what I'm looking for, because of the balloons and hotel text covering the map. Does anyone know if there's a way to disable that layer in the options somewhere? I'm viewing it on a computer, not on a phone.

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cucumber salads

2018-07-07T23:42:13Z

A family friend gave me some vegetables from his garden. Yellow squash, zucchini, okra, and several cucumbers. I'm on vacation this week and have been staying at Qiao's house, so planned to cook them here.

Qiao bought a bunch of kitchen stuff after moving in, including pots and pans, plates and glasses, and sundries. He hardly ever cooks though, so it doesn't get much use. He mostly goes out to eat, or brings home take-out. I've used his stove only once or twice so far, for boiling noodles. It's a gas stove, which still makes me nervous (gas stoves spit out flames! fire hazard! gas hazard!). But mainly because it's easier to cook at my house (where I have all my supplies) and to bring food over, or to heat food up in his microwave or his toaster oven.

Yesterday I realized I needed a cutting board. The two smallish ones that Qiao has are wood, and were sitting behind the sink for a long time and got black mildew marks on the bottom from it being wet back there. At home I have a glass cutting board, which seems more sanitary. Yesterday I bought him a glass one like mine. I also brought over my garlic crusher, mandolin, and oil and vinegar.

At the grocery store, I bought fresh chives and dill for making a cucumber salad. Generally I slice the cucumbers, and add salt and vinegar, and sometimes dried dill and pepper or a bit of sugar. It never tastes as good as when my mom makes it, nor as good as the wonderful cucumber salad I remember from German restaurants (which tasted different from my mom's). So I hoped that adding fresh herbs would help. I figure that chives are sort of similar to onions in flavor; I don't care to cut up onions for a salad, but I can do chives.

When I look up German cucumber salad recipes, they almost always include sour cream. The ones I remember were not cream-based. They were zesty, light, and refreshing. I could eat a whole plateful if only they'd serve that much. My mom sometimes scrapes onion juice into hers; I think that is part of what makes hers special; she also sometimes adds garlic. But I tried before, and mine still didn't get that special flavor I'm looking for.

I just realized, that Qiao doesn't have a cucumber peeler. Shucks. I could leave the skins on, or I could delay making the salad to some other day.

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Oven mitt! That's another thing that's missing over here.

A duller paring knife would be good too. It's hard to peel garlic with a sharp knife.

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Note to self: Do not put raw garlic in cucumber salad (or anything else) again. It causes way too much gas.

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good simple pea dish

2017-12-26T02:58:14Z

I don't usually care much for peas, but this dish turned out good:

A bag of frozen peas (I think it was Cascadian organic, but didn't keep the bag), and a bag of frozen lima beans, boiled with 2 vegetable bouillon cubes until soft, then kept on low heat until most of the liquid was absorbed. The peas turned out nice and mushy inside (like pea soup), rather than sweet & juicy which I don't care for.

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this week

2017-10-16T05:10:39Z

Let's see. Monday, the dogs dug out from Qiao's yard.
Tuesday night or morning, they dug out from my yard. Or maybe dug and climbed; I'm still not certain. Searched the neighborhood nearly 3 hours for them and then finally found them in 2 different backyards one street over. Which I only noticed because our neighbor's dog barked and looked in that direction. (When I was searching before, I tended to look everywhere *except* in other fenced areas, wrongly assuming that if a yard was fenced off with a closed gate, that the dogs wouldn't have been able to get in there).
Then we took them back to Qiao's place where we can keep the small dog (the main instigator) tied up with a cable more easily until the fence is better secured. I think I will have to put down mesh fencing along the ground after all.

Wednesday, I cut up and cooked 2 butternut squashes that my mom gave me from her yard. They grew on their own out from her compost bin; not just these 2, but several more, all summer long.

Thursday, Qiao's retina started detaching.. he had surgery on that eye just 2 months ago for the same problem, but this time it is even worse than before (even though at an appointment 2 weeks ago, the eye doctor said it was looking good). He has emergency surgery scheduled this week on Tuesday. I hope they can fix it. His other eye also had the same problem several years back, and that one has been ok since its surgery (which was done using silicone oil, versus the recent surgery which used a gas bubble). This time the doctor's notes say he might use a scleral buckle, and/or silicone, or another gas bubble. We're hoping it won't be a bubble again, because Qiao had a hard time keeping the required face down position last time.

Friday, I made a new patient appointment with a doctor, so that I'll finally have a "primary care doctor". The nearest doctor's offices to me weren't taking new patients. So it's at a place somewhat further away, but not too far. The earliest appointment date they had was early December. Initially, it will be to discuss these foot nerve issues and/or whatever comes back from the blood test results and/or maybe the cracking sounds my neck has been making for almost a year now.

Today I ordered a new washing machine. I found out that there aren't any specific standards that must be met to call a washer "high efficiency". I found out that different companies / countries use to measure tub capacity differently, so that what one might call 2.5 cubic feet, another might call 3 cubic feet. But around 2011 the U.S. government started enforcing standardized measurements. I found that a lot of washers now include a setting for "Casual" clothes. Ie., whites, colors, casual, delicates, jeans, bulky items. The other ones are familiar, but I have no idea how "casual" clothes are supposed to be different than the others, or how they are supposed to be specially washed.

At work, they are finally giving me a new laptop with an SSD hard drive. It will be Windows 10 though; I'll have to get used to that.

I've started updating my Firefox add-on "ToggleDocumentColors" for WebExtensions. But because of everything else, I haven't had time to do much yet. It has to be implemented totally differently than before, because WebExtensions don't let you read or update the browser about:config settings. That boggled my mind when I found out. So instead, the add-on will have to "inject" a CSS sheet into the page, and the user will have to enter their desired colors as add-on settings, instead of the add-on being able to use the color settings the user already entered in the browser settings.

On Friday morning, an alarm siren was going off in a nearby shopping center. It could be heard at my house even inside with the windows closed - in the rooms on that side. That includes the room with my computer, and we had a Skype meeting that morning, so I was hearing this faint high-low-high-low-high-low siren noise in the background for more than an hour. By the time I was ready to leave for work, I was so annoyed that I started yelling (inside the house), in a wailing way, imitating the sound. It was slightly amazing - I was really able to imitate it pretty well... sort of like the wailing done in some North African cultures when someone dies. Ululation, that is the word. But I was using my throat/vocal cords to ululate, as opposed to my tongue. My voice was hoarse for the rest of the day.

Late Friday evening when I got back from work, the siren was still going! I called the police to report it, and was thankful that I was going to Qiao's house for the weekend.

Sunday evening when I got back from Qiao's house, the siren was still going!!!! I called Qiao and told him that I was coming right back, after I gathered my stuff for work, and more food. On the way back, I drove down to see where exactly the siren was coming from. It wasn't from where I expected; it was from an empty store even further away.

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a peek in the cupboard

2016-10-09T06:48:48Z

A while back I bought a can of Cuitlacoche, also called "corn mushroom" or less flatteringly, "corn smut". It is considered a delicacy in Mexico, and was expensive - at least $4 or $5 for a small can. I don't recall ever having had it before, and suspected I might not like it, as in general, I don't even like mushrooms. But it being vegan, I figured I should at least try it.

It sat unopened in my cupboard a long time, as it being such a small can, it didn't seem worth the trouble of getting out my saute pan and cooking it.

Remember my trip to Kroger Marketplace, when I found the 89 cent bottle of date/orange/flaxseed/chili spread? (which by the way, makes a chili-bean-like tasting sandwich.) I went back to the same store a couple days later to get a shelf for supporting my keyboard when working standing up. I didn't end up getting the shelf, as it wasn't quite the right size. But this time, the special discount section had a bunch of Cuitlacoche cans, for only 39 cents each! I still didn't know if I'll even like the taste (especially after reading this review), but at least now I could buy enough for a whole panful, to make it seem worth the effort of cooking it.

I also got some other greatly discounted items - vegetarian taco filling, vegetable couscous sauce, and even some switchel drinks. Oh, and even a box of cinnamon raisin Matzo granola.

Man, that place is like a candy store.

Update - 2016/10/09:
I sauteed the cuitlacoche with onion and garlic in peanut oil, and ate it with cornbread and vegan smoked gouda cheese. The cuitlacoche actually tastes all right to me. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's not at all mushroom-like. It reminds me of some food I've had before, but I can't think what.

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radish tops

2016-05-23T02:58:41Z

Gosh, radish tops (greens) taste good raw. At least these ones do. I was going to cook them together with the mustard greens and chard, but I think I'll eat them as a salad instead.

The radishes look like the first photo on this page (French Breakfast Radish): Radish Varieties & History.

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Gosh darn it, the mustard greens taste good raw too. Zesty! I'll add a little of them to my salad.

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cutting cauliflower

2016-04-25T13:50:38Z

Note to self:

When cutting up a cauliflower head into smaller pieces, after breaking it apart into big chunks, for each smaller chunk, cut upwards through the stem part way, then use hands to pull both sides of the stem apart. That way the florets break apart on their own. If you cut all the way through the florets, then you end up with a lot more loose white pebbly bits.

Another note: Cauliflower is a food that can cause gas. That link also has a recipe for oven-roasted cauliflower, which looks quite good.

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dinner and dessert

2015-12-13T05:18:42Z

Before Thanksgiving, I bought some pul qua squash, also known as opo squash, calabash, or bottle gourd. I'd never cooked it before, and wanted to see what it was like. I also bought a fennel bulb.

This week, while wandering through the vegetable section at Kroger, I remembered that the squash was still in my refrigerator's vegetable drawer! Out of sight, out of mind.

Today I belatedly remembered it again, so I've finally sauteed it. It's juicy and has a mild flavor, sort of like cooked cucumbers or chayote.

Note to self: Next time, cut out and discard the center spongy part of the squash. It has a rather unpleasant texture after being cooked.

While browsing recipes, I found a photo of caramelized fennel. It turns out that you can caramelize fennel, just like caramelizing onions! So I did that with my fennel. Yummy. That's how I should always prepare it from now on.

I used coconut oil for the caramelizing and sauteing - the first time I've cooked with coconut oil. It went well. Scooping the solid "oil" out of the jar with 2 spoons wasn't as awkward as I thought it might be.

marahmarie had linked to an article about how it is bad to fry food in vegetable oils, due to aldehyde toxins that form in the oils at high temperatures. Here is another article about the same study. Both seem to me to be rather lacking in details.

But that, along with other things I've read about the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio in vegetable oils, and how too much omega 6 causes inflammation, made me decide to try cooking and baking with coconut oil.

This last year, I've been mainly using sunflower, safflower, and olive oil. The sunflower and safflower oils are organic, expeller-pressed and naturally refined (terms explained here).

I'm still not convinced that naturally refined vegetable oils like those are necessarily bad, especially at the medium temperatures that I saute at.

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For dessert, I'm going to bake lazy cake cookies - a chocolate chip bar cookie made with cake mix. I'll use the Neat Egg substitute again, as it works so well in baked goods, and I'll use melted coconut oil instead of the butter.

Pistachio Pudding Cookies : another good-looking recipe, which I may trying making a vegan version of.

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fenugreek reek

2015-06-17T14:19:46Z

Not having cooked methi before, I thought it was okay to include the stems. Wrong - the chopped up stems remained tough and fibrous even after cooking.

I had cooked the greens with mustard seeds, which in spite of my familiarity with their popping action, made a bit of a mess on the stove.

Because of the stems, I told Qiao that he didn't have to eat his portion. Then, after meticulously picking out all the stems, I ate the remaining good parts up all by myself, just to get rid of the mess and be done with it. That was Sunday evening.

I didn't notice the methi having any strong flavor. Raw, it tasted simply like mild greens to me. This seemed odd, as I had read that it had a distinctive taste. I recall fenugreek seeds not having much of a smell either - only a light butterscotch smell.

Cooked, it was like spinach. Most of the taste was from the mustard seeds.

Fast-forward to Monday afternoon. I was surprised by and self-conscious of a smell emanating from my underarms, even though I had washed and used deodorant like usual that morning. After getting home in the evening, I washed and applied more deo, but the smell persisted. I worried that my deodorant was no longer working for me.

Tuesday morning, I showered and again applied deo. I even re-applied some deo before and after my lunch-time walk outside in the 100-degree heat. But I still noticed the odor. It's not even a very bad smell, but definitely unfamiliar. It's not the normal smell of my sweat.

So I wondered if it was from something I had eaten. I've been trying out SAM-e supplements... but I had started those over a week ago. Furthermore, I had gotten sweaty working in the yard on both Saturday and Sunday, without noticing this odor.

Then I remembered the methi and mustard seeds. I had eaten mustard seeds in the past without any ill effect. Could it be due to the methi? Yep, apparently so.

Fenugreek pungent sweat, how to get rid of it?
(from a comment on that page) Fenugreek contains an aromatic compound called Soletone. It smells sweet like maple and a bit curry-like. It is the scent that people notice wafting off of people from certain countries where it is commonly eaten. These people do not notice it since they and those they know mostly smell like it, so to them it isn’t an odd thing. Some Asians have commented that Americans all smell like rancid butter, which is probably true based on our diet. Some Asians smell like fermented cabbage to other people. The fact is that most of us shower every day and these smells have nothing to do with hygiene (although this can be a separate issue).

The Mystery of the Maple Syrup Smell

ETA: My body odor continued to smell of fenugreek for a whole week, even though I had only eaten it that one day!

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