mellowtigger | Entries tagged with recipe

When I woke up this morning, it was -27C/-17F (and not much wind) outside. It's still cold. I've been inside all morning, but my fingers and toes are cold. I may go watch tv under the electric blanket to warm up a bit.

As for tv, I think I've mentioned before that my tolerance for violence on television has decreased during my time here in the warzone. I learned last night that it has decreased even more. I tried watching the new season of Snowpiercer (rebroadcasting now on HboMax) but stopped it after just a few minutes. Did I do that for season 1? I can't remember. It may be another of those shows that I have to watch with frequent breaks, if at all.

Meanwhile, new foods. A former coworker from long ago sent me a PowerXL classic air fryer. I already have a nice toaster oven from ages ago that serves most of my crisping needs, but I've been trying new things in this device. With some more experimentation, I think I can get some nice "fries" from raw potato soon. I've nearly worked out the process for that. I'm also still working on kale leaf crisps. My first attempt at dried chickpeas didn't turn out very satisfying. What is working well already is reuben sandwiches.

Two slices of rye bread (not gluten-free, so this is a large indulgence for me)
Two slices of salami on each piece of bread (the cheapest from the grocery store)
Some pressed-out sauerkraut on top of each piece of bread (it helps hold down the salami to keep it from curling up and blowing away)
Cook for 10 minutes at the default starting temperature
Lift them out, drop some Thousand Island dressing on one side
Bring the slices of bread together for a whole sandwich

I don't know what it is about that combination of salty/tangy/sour, but I do like reuben sandwiches. This method works out well.

I tried something new, based just on what I had around me today. It's worth trying again.

I didn't have any gluten-free sliced bread, because there wasn't any at the grocery store, so I bought tortilla wraps instead.

one gluten-free tortilla wrap (but the spinach variety)
two slices of sandwich pastrami, sliced into strips
a few spoons full of sauerkraut
a long squirt of Thousand Island dressing

Wrap it up and eat. Not bad. I would eat it again.

It's worthwhile to squeeze as much juice out of the sauerkraut as possible, otherwise it gets very drippy and ruins the tortilla wrap dough. My pastrami is the cheapest stuff in the store and not very spicy, so I may add some fresh-cracked pepper next time. Also, it was quite thin, so I may add more slices per roll. I wonder if some salty green olive would add some "bite" to it?

What spices could I add? Dill, coriander, cardamom? I think all of those are used in the normal corned beef recipe for a reuben sandwich.

I noticed this morning that my back gate was open. That's a little strange, but not impossible. The heaving ground due to deep freeze and melt is shifting poles on my new fences. Not as bad as my neighbor's fences yet, but enough to be troublesome already.

While going out to secure it, I noticed a yellow popsickle by my back porch. Opened, but uneaten. Whole, not melted. Yesterday was only 1 degree above freezing, but it was still above freezing. In sunlight, that popsickle should have melted. I guess it was left behind last night by whoever opened my back gate. I hope I have lots of spare attention to work on fencing again this summer.

I noticed that my back yard lighting has burned out again. I dislike those halogen bulbs. Whenever I have electrical work done in the house, I want that lamp replaced with an LED fixture. I went online and ordered some replacement bulbs, so I can get lighting restored in these troubling times.

This afternoon as I was making a meal from yesterday's grocery haul, I realized that I have never posted this recipe that I use more often than you'd think. I mean... we're talking about those awful brussels sprouts. Nobody actually likes those, right?

I don't remember what was the original recipe that my former landlord

joshuwain used several years ago, when he offered them to me for the first time. I seem to keep increasing the temperature and cook time until I consistently use this recipe:

brussels sprouts (1 of the following)
- frozen "baby" sprouts, no need to thaw the package, just use directly while frozen
- fresh "small to medium" sprouts, quartered
- fresh "large" sprouts, quartered, then halved again. you want "bite size".
toss the sprouts in large bowl with oil (I use basic canola oil) until everything is lightly covered
sprinkle with salt and toss in bowl to cover everything again
spread on baking sheet so sprouts are not touching
bake in 218C/425F oven for at least 35 minutes

You want them black throughout their outer leafs. That's when you know they're done. They will stink up the house until you can open windows to air out the place. It's worth it, really! They are amazing little veggie bites. I sometimes make a small bowl of them, sit in front of the television, and eat them like popcorn. There are other recipes for spicy versions, but I've never tried them. They are so yummy with this very simple recipe.

Bonus: They are cheap to make, because I can buy big bags of brussels sprouts at the grocery store at low price. It's as if nobody else in the area knows this recipe, so they all hate brussels sprouts, which makes bulk buying very cheap. I just make sure to take one of my low-dose aspirins when I start eating lots of greens with vitamin K. No need to get another blood clot for eating healthy.

My coworker went into the office today to help people pick up keyboards, mice, monitors, and other material that they forgot to acquire on Monday. It was a short window of opportunity for people on Friday, since the office has been restricted only to essential personnel since Tuesday. I'm one of 5 people of about 80? who would normally be able to enter our office unrestricted.

I didn't have to go in for that activity, so instead I reset my coronavirus timer by going shopping. I realized that I needed much more of TastyBite's Vindaloo if I was going to enjoy my restricted meals for a month. I seriously enjoy that stuff. The packaging shows that it's rated as "hot", and it is, even by my spicy standards. It really is delicious with some cooked rice. I don't even add any more spices to it. Just rice and package meal, yum!

Lots of sections at the grocery store were completely out of supply: paper goods, Hot Pockets, frozen vegetables (except spinach), and even fresh ginger root. Baby carrots were hard to find. I ended up buying the pricey organic version. I prefer the baby carrots over full-grown carrots, because they last longer as I slowly use them up in my Soylent smoothies. My recipe is this:

1/2 frozen banana
some ice cubes
a handful of baby carrots
half-fill with rice milk or oat milk
2 scoops of Soylent (about 200 calories per scoop)
add 1 teaspoon turmeric (root or powder)
add 1/2 teaspoon ginger (root or powder)
add 2 or 3 dashes of cinnamon
top with tap water then blend in the NutriBullet

Delicious! I've eaten untold quantities of that recipe over the last year. It's very good as a "staple" meal.

On my way back from a distant Cub grocery store (I go there because my local one stopped stocking those TastyBite packages), I realized that I bought the frozen spinach and sour cream for my other favorite recipe, but I totally forgot the junk food: corn chips! So I stopped at the HyVee store as I passed it. Strangely, they had lots of baby carrots in stock, but the lady in line in front of me was stocking up on Hot Pockets.

I also took a trip farther away to get more food and litter for the cat. Next door was a liquor store, so I decided to get some whiskey. I've been out for a month or two, but I find it good for relaxing when I'm all worked up over news/work/politics. Let's call it medicinal for that purpose. The wait at that store was surprising. They had 3 of 4 cashiers open, and it was still a 10-minute wait because lots of people were stocking up.

After putting away my groceries, I went upstairs, took a warm shower to decontaminate, and changed to different clothes. This is the new normal.

While online today, I also filled out my 2020 Census form. I can't be counted as gay unless I'm married to a same-sex partner. Ugh! And I moved 2/3 of my debit card funds over to my otherwise-unconnected savings account. If things turn bad here at home and somebody steals my debit card, at least they won't be able to empty my bank accounts now.

This isn't the apocalypse, but it does require some preparation nevertheless.

I heard part of the NPR story about folic acid cutting autism risk by 40%. I searched online and found a lot of associations between folate and issues that I blog about regularly such as epigenetics, demyelination, effects on brain areas specifically associated with autism, and most importantly... low energy levels.

For now, I'll just say that I will finish my bottle of vitamin D supplements next week, and I will replace it with vitamin B9 instead. There are upper limits on safety of folic acid (the common artificial form of folate), so I won't go with mega-doses of it. B9 needs to be kept in near proportion to the other B-complex vitamins to be useful, so I'll continue with my multivitamin too. My regimen now includes multivitamin, B12, and B9.

I'm amused that my body may have already known about a B9 problem. I prepare few recipes regularly, but one of them is my homemade spinach dip. Spinach apparently is exceeded in folate density only by beef liver. I can't afford premade spinach dips or those expensive packets of flavor powders, so I experimented to make my own. Here's the recipe that I have used for years.

Spinach Dip
1 package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted but still chilled (squeeze out all of the extra water)
1 package 16 ounce sour cream (low-fat version will work but tastes slightly less flavorful)
1 package water chestnuts (diced to small cubes)
1 T garlic powder (or more, depending on your taste)
1 T onion salt (or more, if you can safely have that much salt)

Mix the sour cream and spices, then the water chestnuts, then the spinach. Make sure all of the spinach is coated with sour cream. Chill again when you're done. I usually pack the mixture back into the sour cream container (as much as will fit) to store in the refridgerator, then pig out immediately with corn chips on what's left over in the bowl. Yummy, cheap, and easy!

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the mellow tigger's musings

Entries tagged with recipe

cold weather and reuben sandwiches

recipe: reuben wraps

popsickles and brussels sprouts

recipe: spicy carrot smoothie (and exposure reset to day zero)

and now B9

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June 2025

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