Gratitude of the Day: Being an easy-going cook

Now, I wouldn’t be so bold as to say I am a good cook. If you put me on the set of one of those reality cooking shows I would stare at the rows of ingredients like a deer in the headlights and then maybe manage to whip together a mediocre salad off the top of my head. I wouldn’t know where to begin when creating a recipe for muffins or cookies or pies from scratch. I don’t know anything about palates or contrasting flavors or any of those things cool people go to culinary school to learn. What I do know is that I am relatively easy to please and my mother was kind enough to instill upon me what I call the “shrug and go” technique. It involves exactly what it implies. When you come upon an ingredient you don’t have or a method you don’t understand you simply shrug and proceed ahead with whatever first pops into your heard. For instance, this evening, I decided to put together a recipe I found for Kelp Noodles and Spicy Peanut Sauce and my inner monologue went something like this:

“I only have one package of noodles instead of two. Ah well, never liked noodles much anyway — more veggies for me! Oh. I don’t have broccoli. Brussel sprouts it is then! What on earth are Enoki mushrooms? Let’s pretend it says button mushrooms. One teaspoon of grated ginger? What if mine is frozen into a solid block formation? Hmm… yes this large chunk I have sawed off will do. Don’t have red curry paste…let’s go with green. Two teaspoons? That’s awfully complicated to measure. I think a small-ish sized glob will be just fine. Hey wait, I don’t have cumin or coriander or chili sauce like I thought. Curry powder? That’s spicy-ish. And cultural. Meh… sound good. Hurrah!”

And I gotta say… it was a pretty darn fine meal. I mean look at it:

Now, truth be told, this method doesn’t work for everything. I once swapped evaporated milk in for condensed milk and the results were not pretty. I probably should have assumed from the names that evaporated would be the exact opposite of condensed… but hey — live and learn! I don’t think I’ve ever followed a recipe word for word and I’m okay with that. It all tastes fine to me!

P.S. You should totally try this recipe in whichever form works for you — because it’s seriously delicious.

Taking a Class

I think it’s so important to keep learning new things and picking up different skills. And even though my jobs allow me to be constantly learning, sometimes I feel work-related learning isn’t quite enough. Sometimes I want to do something totally random and challenging in a completely different way. So here is a list of all the classes I want to try and take over the next year:

- Art classes (painting, pottery)

- Cooking classes (specialty baking…maybe how to make fancy cupcakes!?, cultural cooking – I would love to learn how to make really authentic Indian food)

- Dance classes (of every style imaginable!)

- Language classes (Start with Spanish and knock the rest down one by one)

If you’ve taken any other good kinds of classes that you’d recommend please let me know! I am always in search of new ways to broaden my horizons!

Carrot Bran Muffins

I decided I wanted to make use of some carrots I’ve had sitting around and also finish off a box of All Bran Buds that were past their expiry date. I came across a recipe on food.com which got me started and then made  substitutions and alterations based on what I had lying around.  So if you give this recipe a whirl – don’t at all feel obligated to stick to the ingredients rigidly. I had a lot of fun making things up as I went along and encourage you to do the same. So here’s the recipe to get you started:

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup bran (I used All Bran Buds and ground them into a powder in the food processor)

- 1/4 cup all purpose flour (to help the muffins rise a little)

- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 2 1/2 tablespoons ground flax

- 1/3 cup dried fruit (I used dried blueberries but raisins would be great too)

- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

- 1/3 cup sugar (I used Splenda)

- 1 tablespoon cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 egg

- 1 3/4 cups milk

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- 2 tablespoons melted margarine

- 2 tablespoons apple sauce

- 1 rounded cup shredded carrot

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In medium mixing bowl combine flours, bran, flax, sugar/Splenda, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

3. In large mixing bowl combine egg, milk, lemon juice, margarine, apple sauce and carrot.

4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and combine thoroughly.

5. Divide mixture evenly among 12 muffin cups (do not use paper liners).

6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. When removed the tops should be firm to the touch. Let them cool before removing from pan and placing in an airtight container for up to a week.

I strongly recommend enjoying them warm with a little bit of butter or margarine. They can also easily be frozen and taken out and warmed up whenever you need a quick breakfast. Enjoy!