Darkoshi

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.

An except from daily notes:
I got into my car, annoyed at the waste of my time. I had trouble pulling out the seat belt because even though I felt like I was reacting calmly, the seat belt could tell I was annoyed.

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On some days, there is the feeling that every little thing which can go wrong, is going wrong. (Not big things, just little ones.) But realizing that lets me take the little setbacks more in stride. Oh yes, everything is going to go wrong today, so of course that happened.

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We are doing Christmas Eve on Christmas Day this year. Perhaps for the first time; perhaps not. I'd have to check my notes.

I listened to Christmas music on the radio while baking tonight. I made a package of double chocolate muffins. I also made a veganized version of this recipe; it turned out very good:
Salted Butterscotch Apple Bars

After tasting the "Watkins Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla" which I bought last time as it was a better price than the other vanillas, I realized it is not the same as vanilla extract. I was probably tricked by the label saying "with Pure Vanilla Extract" in bold, but under that it says "with other natural flavors".

I am up way too late again; it's a habit and the "way too late" keeps getting later and later.

I finally used up the remainder of an 11-year-old packet of yellow stone-ground grits, after looking up some recipes. It actually tastes quite good this way, savory and somewhat creamy:

2/3 cup grits
5x that amount liquid; half soymilk and half water (1 + 2/3 cup of each)
2 vegetable bouillon cubes

I heated the water and soymilk and dissolved the bouillon cubes in it.
After bringing the liquid to a boil, I whisked in the grits and turned the temp to low.
I simmered the grits for an hour, stirring every few minutes to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
After removing it from the heat, I stirred in 2 tablespoons of non-dairy butter.

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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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.

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

It'd been so long since I made baklava that I'd forgotten where my recipe was, or what it looked like. The recipe (unless I had another one too... did I have some cutouts from a Greek cookbook?) is actually titled "Kadaifi", from "The Compassionate Gourmet" cookbook. I usually substitute puff pastry sheets for the kadaifi pastry. (In the beginning, I'd made it a few times the semi-traditional way using phyllo dough sheets brushed with margarine, but that's much more tedious, and ends up drier anyway, I feel, compared to the much easier puff pastry sheets).

This recipe doesn't even mention rose water or orange blossom water, which makes me suspect I had another recipe too. I always put one or the other or both in the syrup. This recipe includes cinnamon and lemon, which is also very good, but the cinnamon tends to overpower the other flavors. I should use less cinnamon, or none, next time.

For the nut filling, normally I use walnuts and/or pecans. This time I used pistachios, cashews, and pecans, toasted.

Even double the amount of syrup from the recipe, seems a fairly small amount to me. But actually, after pouring it over the pan it does look quite adequate.

Update: It turned out very sweet. I think now that less syrup would have been fine... As long as there are plenty of slits cut into the top layer of pastry, so that the syrup can soak into the filling.

I found some Archway Cashew Nougat cookies at Big Lots. I've had them before, and they are *so* good. They are also vegan, as far as I can tell from the ingredients.

This post is mainly a reminder for myself, so that I will remember what they are called in the future.

Dang, they are going for $10 a package on Amazon! They did cost $2.50 each at Big Lots. I'm going back anyway to return the unopened packages of inside-only hooks I had bought, so I will see if they have any more of the cookies left when I am there. Maybe other grocery stores carry them during the holiday season too; I'll have to look.

This Christmas Nougat cookie recipe supposedly tastes similar to the Archway cookies.

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.

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.