New inspiration: Quinoa Mac and Cheese

*Update:  This is the best thing I've ever eaten.

Cheese specs:  Half and half, about 3 oz Sharp white cheddar,  3 oz Mizithra Cheese, 3 oz Chevre and some white wine.

Lately I have been very busy on my new favorite site:  Pinterest.  It gives me a place to collect my favorite online recipes and craft ideas in one place, visually.  My most recent discovery on Pinterest is Quinoa Mac and Cheese.

There are many variations of this on the internet.  This particular recipe called for cooking the quinoa and then adding shredded cheese and milk to it, as well as eggs.  I skipped the eggs, but I did make a tasty white wine and white cheddar cheese sauce and added it.  I did leave in the broccoli.  I love broccoli with cheese and while I haven't had any yet (still in the oven!) I did sample the cheese sauce beforehand and it's great.  I regret to say that mine version is probably not as healthy with half and half, regular cheese, and olive oil on my breadcrumbs.  This recipe was actually kind of great to use up some left over ingredients in my fridge though.  Pics to come!

For now, follow me on Pinterest so I can follow you back!

New round of cookbooks from LINCC

I have been getting so bored with cooking lately.  Nothing was inspiring me to try new things or explore.  I started eating take-out and microwave dishes more just to avoid planning and cooking.  Meat was getting in there a little more than I like it to.  I knew this had to change.

Then I got a brilliant idea:  I work at a library.  Libraries have cookbooks!  So I placed a dozen holds on popular vegetarian cookbooks, and I have received a few so far.  Some had so many holds, I'll be lucky to see them by August.  One I was very disappointed with.  I won't mention it (unless you really want to know); the recipes were too frustrating.  It was pretty pretentious.  

Enter The Veganomicon. It's several years old now, so I'm thinking of maybe getting a copy cheap from Powell's.  It's exactly what I like.  Foods I have heard of.  Tasty no-nonsense recipes.  Not just vegan food, because I was a very unsuccessful vegan, but rather variety. It's a thick 250-recipe volume, and it gives you so many options for recipes that you are bound to find one you love.  Especially one you can add cheese to.  

So far I have made two things from it, and both were flavorful and easy to prepare.  

Tonight's dinner:  Scallion flatbread from page 222.  Very good, but maybe not a great, nutritious dinner.  We've been busy today, so I'm not going to count it out as being terrible for you.  They are very fun to make and pretty quick. 

They're cooked on the stove top almost like a pancake, but with little balls of dough rolled out very thinly beforehand and tossed into the pan where they sizzle and brown.  I'd love to try branching out with other types of flatbread, too.  These would be great if company came over.  I recommend using low-sodium soy sauce because the sauce is pretty salty but in general they were great!

Your library is almost certain to have a copy, and used volumes are sold on Amazon for around 16 dollars.  I say give it a try.

Update on Furball!

Last week Furball had been at the Vet's because he was peeing all over the place!  He's always been a crazy litterbox-digger ever since I can remember and we thought he was just neurotic, as I had mentioned it before at both of his vets and neither one seemed concerned.  This time, he was noticeably not well. The vet did about a grand of work on my free kitty, and it turns out that he has bladder stones, which is common in male cats his age.  We were glad it wasn't worse, because cats his age can often become diabetic.  Perhaps not this time, Furball is a very active cat.

Sent home with a course of antibiotics (the stones can sometimes cause infections as well) and a new urinary-tract health diet (which isn't as expensive as insulin, at least) there is approximately a million percent improvement in my little kitty.  He goes to the litterbox a normal amount of times(!) and is very energetic and friendly. As he is quite well, it does not appear at this time that we will have to get him surgery or further treatment. It was, as I must admit, very very worth the price because my home is no longer COVERED in the evidence of his many litterbox trips.  I only need to vacuum weekly, my floors are furniture are clear of litter.  ...And we may get to keep our little buddy around for another 8 years.

Photoshoot!

Furball was sick this week!  He has bladder stones and had to stay at the kitty-cat hospital for two days.  Miss Balloon was the queen of her castle with her brother away.  I took some pictures of her today because she was being so lovely and friendly!

The Pizza Stone

My husband has been suggesting to me that we get a pizza stone for the past several years.  Ms. T has one and he likes her caking so he has been bugging me about it. I'm not usually the kind of person to want to buy odd-ish kitchen accessories, so I never bothered to get one. We were having pizza tonight, so since I had to work, Zach was supposed to get the supplies.  Well, when I came home we had a brand new pizza stone.

As usual, the right tools make all the difference.  Our pizza tonight was fantastic!  It really tasted like a restaurant's pizza or even delivery.  The bottom was crispy and the crust was perfect. Delicious.

I recommend this crust.  I replaced about 1/4 of the flour with whole-wheat bread flour and let it rise in the fridge for about 6 hours.  Baked at 450 F for 25 minutes on the stone.  We topped ours with onion mushroom, red pepper, mozzarella and myzithra cheeses and garlic.

Spotlight on something weird: Portland Ketchup

It's been almost two years since I've moved here to Portland.  I feel that in the past I've done a fairly poor job at highlighting the region, which is one of the main reasons I write:  for the people at home that have either never been here, or have no time to come and visit.

So this year, I think I'm going to try highlighting things about Portland (and other parts of the West Coast) which are favorites of mine.  And I plan to travel.  I'd love to do Vancouver, B.C. and Southern California this year.

First on the list is this:

Portland Ketchup is a current obsession of mine.  I'm a fan of ketchup for the start, believing that fries are only a vehicle for getting the tomato-y sauce into my mouth in as high a quantity as possible.  Coming from Pittsburgh, maybe ketchup is a good regional identifier in my mind.  If that's so, then I'm sorry Pittsburgh, but Portland Ketchup totally eclipses Heinz in almost every way possible.  Made with all natural (and probably organic?) ingredients(no hfcs), this ketchup is fantastic.  The price isn't too good at $5 for this size bottle, but I've seen worse things to spend your money on in my lifetime.  It is very thick and has a good flavor, with spicy cloves very noticeable but not overpowering in a standard tangy, delicious sauce.  Basically it tastes like ketchup.  But better somehow.  I thought I was crazy until I made my husband try it;  he agreed.  (Not that I was crazy, but that the ketchup is fabulous.)

I first noticed its existence in the cafeteria at OMSI where I volunteer. I put it on a beanburger and was totally impressed.  I'm not sure of the availability of this product outside my region, but if you come to my house you will be greeted with some fries slathered in this golden god of a ketchup.

Read all about it! http://www.portlandiafoods.com/  Notice that if you buy it in a 12-bottle case it only costs $3.50 a bottle.  Additionally you can buy a gallon container for $32.00, which obviously I'm thinking very hard about.

Here's some pictures (I'm not dead, just getting old)

Balloon once had a feather growing out of her tail....I have no idea how it got there. 

Our new wheelbarrow before it got filled with dirt.  It's still in the front yard because it's too heavy to move now.

Zach put in a new walkway....he got halfway through before injuring his wrist and having to stop for a while.

I've been making flags out of fabric + double fold bias.  Easy peasy.

Last knitting project...A headband to keep my ears warm.

Dinner....Black Beans and Quinoa

Bose speakers for X-mas.  I didn't know music had all these sounds and stuff in it.