Acid Reflux

I Never Realized How Acidic My Food Life Was!

I've always felt badly for people who struggle with acid reflux. I've seen all the advertisements for over-the-counter and prescription heartburn meds all my life and have felt grateful that I haven't ever had an issue with it. 

Until a year ago. 

It started with an occasional dose of of a popular chew-able medication and progressed to almost non-stop chewing gum and some Googling. Finally last March I made an appointment to see my GP about it. The appointment was to be on March 16. 

Then: COVID-19. There was no way I was going to the clinic. I canceled the appointment. 

And now here we are in July and I've started "The Acid Watcher Diet," by Dr. Jonathan Aviv. I have 4 or 5 weeks before I have to go back to work and it's the perfect time to spend all day shopping, preparing, and cooking food. His book has a 28 day plan for healing and preventing acid reflux.  The Acid Watcher Diet

Here are the NO GO Drinks:

Coffee other caffeinated beverages -I've been drinking coffee, black and strong, since I was about 11. I've been drinking black tea since before that. 

Wine-I've been on and off with wine, either red or white, for the last dozen years. I won't really miss it.

Pop-I gave that up years ago. No problem. I don't drink any effervescent beverages at all. So I'm good there. 

No Go foods:

Citrus

Vinegars

Peppers-the spice kind

Tomatoes

Chocolate

Mint

Raw Onion

Raw Garlic

The big 3 for us is the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Lemons are a close 4th. This stumped me for a day or so. 

Lifestyle Changes:

Aviv also recommends not allowing the stomach to be empty. So my tendency not to start eating for the day until 9 or 10 is out. Also, he says don't lay down or go to bed less than 3 hours after eating the last meal of the day. Since I usually get up between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning, I tend to be heading to bed at 8:30 pm. Bob doesn't usually get home until nearly 6, so often we don't get to eat until 6:30 or even 7:00 pm. 

As always, Bob is always amenable about our meals. I told him what I'm planning and we decided I'll get supper ready when I need to eat, and he'll just eat when he gets to it. No problem. But I am having to work on staying awake almost another hour to give digestion some time. 

So far I've had a lot of good stuff to eat. This is day three. Last night we had Miso-Agave Glazed Halibut and sesame bok choy.

Trisha Yearwood's Chocolate Pound Cake

Actually, this is my Chocolate Pound Cake. Which I made with Trisha Yearwood's recipe on Food Network.

Pretty, huh? I haven't tasted it yet. I'm taking it to work tomorrow to celebrate a dear friend's birthday.

I've never made a pound cake before. I'm not sure why. I've really only eaten it a few times. If it's good, I may make it more often. It was easy enough to make. Just sift the dry ingredients. cream the fat and sugar, add 5 eggs, one at a time, and then add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating. 

I should mention that mine took 90 minutes to bake. The recipe calls for a 10-inch tube pan and this pan was 9.5 inches. I expected it to take little longer, but not quite that much. 

Perfect Turkey Gravy

I've only managed gravy this great twice, so I'm writing it down:

The day before

Roast some turkey parts in the oven at 350 degrees until they are caramelized. If you have spatchcocked your turkey, these parts can be the backbone and neck. If you have not, you can purchase a package of wings or drumsticks and use those. 

After you've roasted the pieces, deglaze the pan with a cup of water, scraping all those wonderful roasting bits from the pan. Pour all the liquid into a container and store in the fridge to use the next day. 

Take the pieces you've roasted, and simmer them for a couple hours in 6-8 cups of water. Store that stock you made in the fridge for  the next day. Do not pour the stock into the pan drippings you made. Use a separate container.

On gravy day

Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan and whisk in 3/4 cup flour. Turn it down low and cook this (yes, it's a roux) for 4-5 minutes. Keep stirring it during the cooking time to prevent scorching. Don't allow it to get very brown...just a dark golden color.

Get the pan drippings and the stock containers from the fridge. Skim off the fat layer from the top of the pan drippings and discard. Whisk the remaining pan drippings into your roux. Now start whisking in some of the stock in 1/2 cup increments. You most likely will use 3 cups of the stock, but add it slowly. You want to monitor the thickness of your gravy so you get exactly what you want. As you add 1/2 cup, it'll seem watery and then tighten up with a few more seconds of cooking as it absorbs the flour from the roux. Once you get it the thickness you want, adjust the salt and pepper. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

I made my gravy about 3 hours before dinner. So poured it into my very small slow cooker and let it wait there on warm. It didn't scorch and didn't require any real attention. But you'll want to check it periodically to be sure your slow cooker isn't too hot. 

Breadmaking, Weimaraner Style

Mac & Tom

One of my favorite food blogger, Elise of Simply Recipes, has posted a recipe and story about Buttery Tomato Pasta.
I'm a bit sheepish that I haven't done the same. In our house it's called Mac n Tom and has even fewer steps than Elise's. Boil pasta, dump in tomatoes. Sprinkle in salt, sugar, pepper, butter. Done.
I grew up on Mac n Tom. My mom would make it for lunch sometimes. I remember a period when we lived in Germany when we didn't sugar. I think Mom told us it "wasn't available" at the commissary, but I suspect it was expensive or she was trying to cut down on our sugar intake. It was also the traditional meal she and Dad fed the kids on Christmas Eve before sending us off to bed to wait for Santa. They would then have lobster. I still think of Mac n Tom on Christmas Eve, though we are more likely now to have our Swedish Christmas Dinner. Thanks, Elise, for bringing up that memory!

Currant Scones

It's been a weather day here in South Carolina and when that happens on a Sunday, I'm very likely to want to spend the day in the kitchen. I already had pinto beans started in the slow cooker, so my thoughts turned to cookies or brownies.

But then I remembered that $12 bag of xanthan gum I bought this summer when I tried making gluten-free bread. Out of that bag I had used maybe 1-2 teaspoons and it peeks at me from behind all my other little specialty bags of flours whenever I open the cupboard. "You are allowing me and my expensive contents to go to waste,"  it seems to accuse.

So I pulled out another spendy ingredient...sorghum flour... and checked the back for a recipe. (I should note here that sorghum flour is also about $12 a bag, but it's not as snotty to me when I dig around in the cupboard.)

Lo and behold I had on hand all the ingredients for these gluten-free scones. Even currants!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a food processor (Use a bigger one than mine. Mine can't hold all these ingredients, so I mixed and cut in the butter by hand in a bowl) combine:

1 1/4 C GF Sorghum Flour
1/2 C Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/4 tsp Salt
4 Tblsp Sugar

Cut in until it resembles coarse crumbs:

4 Tbsp Butter,cut into 1/2-inch slices

In another bowl, lightly beat:

1 large egg

Add:

2/3 C low-fat plain yogurt or 1/2 C non-dairy milk (like a nut or soy milk)

Pour the yogurt mixture over the flour mixture and combine, mixing only just until all the dry ingredients are wet.

Fold in:

1/3 C Currants

Drop the mixture onto an oiled cookie sheet and push into a disk about 8-10 inches in diameter and 3/4 to 1 inch tall.

Brush the top with:

2 Tblsp Milk (cow, soy or nut)

Bake 12-20 minutes, depending upon how large and tall your disk is. Just give it a light flick with your fingernail after 15 minutes. If it still seems a little squishy, give it more time.

Remove from oven and cut into 8 triangles.

Notes: Remember this a quickbread, so you really don't want to overmix the batter. That will make it tough. Also, you want that butter to stay cold in the dough until you bake, so resist the urge to mix the dough with your hands. Work with wooden spoons and work quickly and you'll be fine.

Thanks for another great recipe, Bob's Red Mill!

My Weekend Plans

Stay tuned....

Cleaning out the Fridge

Minestrone, a photo by Food Fanatic on Flickr.

Minestrone is like the summer version of meatloaf (for carnivores) or frittata (for vegetarians). You just open the fridge and start pulling out all the stuff that needs to be used up before it spoils.

Today's version had:
Carrots
Fennel
Onion
Garlic
Kernels from 1 cob of roasted corn
about 1/3 can of leftover black beans
A couple of handfuls of a wild rice blend
Swiss Chard stems
Celery
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 diced banana pepper
Some dried oregano, basil and red pepper flakes and a bay leaf
Seasoned to taste with salt
Garnished with fresh oregano

Roasted Corn Chowder

RoastedCorn, a photo by Food Fanatic on Flickr.

When you can't find what you want, sometimes you have to just whip out the knife, open the fridge, and start piling stuff up.

I had 4 leftover ears of roasted corn. They badly needed using. Usually I don't think about making soup-type stuff when it's 90 degrees out, but every once in a while it calls to you. That and the leftovers.

I like use my mandoline to strip corn from the cob. Yes, you can use a knife. If you don't mind flying bits of milky corn everywhere. With a mandoline, you just set depth and slice away. It's really quite slick!

If you don't have fresh corn, don't worry about it. Take frozen corn and push them around in a skillet with a tiny bit of fat, like ghee or oil. You don't want much oil because you don't want to saute, you are really looking for carmelization. I got about 2 1/2 cups of corn off my 4 cobs, so shoot for that amount. Set the corn aside.

First set of ingredients:

2 T Ghee or oil
2 or 3 medium-sized leeks, white and pale green parts, sliced and cleaned
1 small clove garlic, minced

saute until the aromatics are tender.
Add:

2 potatoes, peeled and diced
Milk-enough to just cover the mixture
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp salt
2 or 3 grinds of black pepper
Red Pepper flakes to taste-I used about 1/2 tsp
1 tsp dried basil (Because my mom thinks corn on the cob should be eaten with basil. She's right.)

Bring this to a simmer and allow to cook until potatoes are tender. Then remove the bay leaf and, using an immersion blender or potato masher, mash up the mixture. Leave it a little lumpy. Some might like to take this out of the pot and blend in a blender, but I don't like to do this, as it tends to make the potatoes too starchy.

Add:
Corn kernels
1/2 red bell pepper, diced

Heat through, maybe 5 minutes.

There you go!

Polenta Gratin with Leeks, Swiss Chard and Gruyere

Tonight's supper is from a recipe I found on NPR. It was a story called "Going with While Grains" that aired a year ago.

I've adapted this recipe to accommodate the fact that I don't have any dry white wine in the house. Actually no wine at all at the moment (*gasp!*). I've also added a few grates of nutmeg because I think I pretty much have to do that with chard or spinach. Just gotta.

Stuff you need:

6 C water
2 tsp salt
1 3/4 C yellow cornmeal
1 C grated Gruyere
2 T Olive oil
3 Leeks, thinly sliced and then washed
1 tsp dried rosemary or 1 T fresh, chopped
1 bunch Swiss chard-white or rainbow, separate leaf from ribs, chop and wash
Nutmeg
Juice of one lemon
Red pepper flakes
1/4 C grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Make the polenta: Bring the water to a boil with the salt. Whisk in the cornmeal. When it's all well-incorporated and bubbling, turn the heat down to simmer and monitor it for 15 minutes, giving it a stir periodically. Stir half the Gruyere into that. Season to taste. Set aside.

While the polenta is cooking, saute the leeks in olive oil until they begin to soften. Add in the chard. Start it cooking down and then stir in the lemon juice. Put in a couple of grates of fresh nutmeg, or 1/8 tsp. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let it all cook down until the chard is completely wilted and the edge is taken off the lemon taste.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Spread half the polenta mixture on the bottom, layer on the greens, sprinkle the rest of the Gruyere, and then spread on the rest of the polenta. Top with the Parmesan or Romano, whichever you are using. Bake until golden brown and delicious, about 45 minutes.

Vegetable Shepherd's Pie-the recipe

Ok, here is the recipe for the Vegetable Shepherd's Pie. My buddy Debbie Burgess tells me to go ahead and publish it. I don't know the chef who created the dish, so my only way to credit her is to point to her website, Chef Mei, Personal Chef Service in Fayetteville, NC.

Here is the recipe with my editorial suggestions in red:

Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie

By Chef Mei, a personal chef. Given to me by Debbie Burgess


Topping
Mashed potato topping**
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil
2 T butter
1 tsp olive oil
1 T chopped parsley.

Filling
3 T olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
2 small leeks (white parts only), halved lengthwise, sliced ½ inch thick and washed
8 ounces cremini mushrooms (I quartered these)
3 large carrots, cut into ¾-inch dice
3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into ¾-inch dice (next time I make this, I might try sunchokes. I almost did this time because the grocery store appeared to be out. But the produce guy found some parsnips for me)
1 15-ounce canned cannellini or navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 C frozen peas, thawed
2 T chopped fresh thyme or 2 teaspoon dried
1 T chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
1 750-ml bottle red Zinfandel or Burgundy wine
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
3 T butter, room temperature
3 T all-purpose flour
4 C vegetable broth heated in microwave
½ C chopped parsley, garnish

**Mashed Potato Topping

Boil 4 large potatoes until tender, 15-25 minutes. Peel and mashed potatoes with 4 tablespoons butter and ½ cup milk. Season to taste and set aside until ready to use. You can also add ½ cup Cheddar cheese to the mixture along with some chopped parsley. Topping is enough to cover a 9x15 baking dish.


Method

Filling: Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onions for 2 minutes; add in leeks, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add mushrooms and and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn heat down to medium and continue to cook until mushrooms give off liquid, about 5 minutes. Next add carrots, parsnips, and all the herbs. Simmer for about 8-10 minutes until vegetable begins to soften. Transfer vegetables to a bowl.

Add wine to the pot and boil until reduced to about 1 cup, about 10-15 minutes. While the wine is reducing, mix together butter and flour in a bowl to form a beurre manie.

Add vegetable broth (As I said in my last post, I think I’d put in only 3 cups of the broth to start, then add more if it’s needed. I felt like there was too much sauce, and too runny.), Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and 2 teaspoon sugar to wine and bring to a low simmer. Whisk in beurre manie until blended and bring to a simmer until sauce slightly thickens, about 4 minutes. Add back the vegetable mixture, thawed peas and beans. Simmer covered for about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Topping: While the filling simmers, prepare mashed potato topping as described above. Melt butter and olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Sauté garlic and basil for about 30 seconds. Add to prepared mashed potato, stir to blend. (I think I’d thin this out a bit to make it more spread-able. Maybe pipe it on with a piping bag?)

To Assemble: Preheat broiler. Place filling in a 3-quart baking dish. Place baking dish on baking sheet. Spoon potato mixture over filling and spread evenly to cover. Broil 3 inches from heat until top becomes golden, about 4-6 minutes.

Notes: I sent this to my mom and told her I think this recipe would be just fine salt-free. The wine and butter really make it so savory that I think someone on a salt-free diet, as my dad is, wouldn't miss that tinge of salt at all. 

Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

This recipe was sent to me by my favorite personal chef (whose food I've never eaten), Debbie Burgess of the Hungry Fox Personal Chef Service in Lancaster. Because it was posted on a closed personal chef forum, I feel I can't publish the recipe here.
The real kicker to this vegetarian (well, not quite, because it has Worcestershire sauce in it) dish is the entire bottle of red zinfandel it has in the sauce. It has a way of adding zip to the vegetable broth which, in my opinion, usually needs something added to it to make it rich.
The recipe took me 2 entire episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" to watch, so it is a little mini-marathon of cooking. But well worth it!
The vegetables are typical winter fare: carrots, parsnips, leeks (and onions), cremini mushrooms and frozen peas.  A can of cannellini or navy beans also adds substance. The potato topping is enhanced with an aromatic butter mixture of garlic, basil and parsley.
Now I need to say here that I have never in my life made shepherd's pie before. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've only actually EATEN it maybe once or twice. So my problems with the mechanics of the recipe probably stem from my inexperience making (or eating) it.
For the topping, the recipe called for boiling "4 large potatoes." Well, that's fairly subjective. And I kind of think I ended up with a bit more potato than was perfect because the amount of liquid it called for adding to it really made a nice batch of mashed potatoes, but was a little thick for spreading on top of the filling. Maybe if I'd thinned it a bit I could have been able to spread it easier. But I think if I were to change the topping recipe, I'd give a measurable amount of cooked and mashed potatoes.
For the filling, I really ended up with too much liquid and it wasn't thick enough. It called for a 750-ml bottle of red zin or burgundy, which you cooked down to a cup. But then you added 3 cups of vegetable broth and the beurre manie, which was 3 Tablespoons flour/3 Tablespoons butter, really had a lot of liquid to thicken. I made another batch of 1T/1T and it helped, but I ended up using a slotted spoon to take the vegetables out of the pot and put them in the casserole, and then pouring liquid in until I felt I had the right amount. I ended up with a little over 1/2 cup of the liquid left. I think if I were change this part, maybe I'll add only 2 cups of broth and then pour more in if needed.
All in all, this is definitely a recipe I'll make again. The vegetables were wonderful, the sauce silky smooth. The garlic and basil in the potatoes really were wonderful additions. The guys loved it and so did I. If I find out at some point that the chef publishes the recipe, I'll be sure to come back to this post to point you to it.

Butternut Squash Soup

ButternutSquashSoup
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

As a vegetarian, I don't have a lot of use for my subscription to Fine Cooking magazine anymore. For Christmas I asked for (and received) a sub to Vegetarian Times.
I'd saved all my copies of FC, and so went through them and gave most of them to my friend Jeannie, who teaches Family & Consumer Science at my school. The only ones I kept whole were the holiday baking issues. But I did tear out a page or two of some of them...recipes that I thought appealed to me and might be likely candidates for my kitchen.
So tonight I made Butternut Soup with Cumin & Coriander. My only adaptation was that I used vegetable stock rather than chicken. The soup is simply delicious! It's not something to whip up on a weeknight unless you want to try it with frozen squash. This recipe is made with roasted squash, which takes about 90 minutes to achieve in the oven.

2 T olive oil
1 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 t kosher salt
3/4 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground coriander
1-141/2 oz can diced tomatoes with their juice
Freshly ground black pepper
Flesh of a roasted 2-lb butternut squash*
3 C vegetable stock
GARNISH: plain yogurt or heavy cream, minced fresh parsley

*Roasting the squash: Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 90 minutes, or until dark brown and very tender. Let cool and then scoop out the flesh

Soup:
Heat oil and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and salt. Saute for 2 minutes and then cover and let sweat until translucent, about 3 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, another 3 to 5 minutes, until the onions start to brown.
Add the cumin and coriander and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Add in the tomatoes and season with pepper. Bring to simmer, cover, and let cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the flesh of the squash, breaking it up a bit. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, uncover, turn off the heat, and let cool a bit. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup gently, careful not to splatter hot soup.
Season to taste, warm up if needed, and serve.
Makes about 6 cups.

Sugarless Banana Bread

Banana Bread
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is my second year of staying away from refined sugar between January 1 and February 14. Doing so makes me feel righteous, but mostly it encourages me to find ways to cook and bake with more natural sugars, such as agave, maple syrup and honey.

Today the Carolinas and Georgia (and probably points beyond, but I don't care) are socked in and slammed shut with snow. Apparently it started falling around 3 a.m. and we don't anticipate it stopping today. We did not have school today anyway, as it's the teacher workday between semesters, but I as a staffer was scheduled to work.

So it was just me and a few overripe bananas this morning. I don't care much for banana bread as a rule because it's so sweet and, well, banana-ey. I like starchy bananas.

I commenced googling for banana bread made with no refined sugars and found this recipe on Cooks.com for sugar FREE banana bread:

HOME-STYLE BANANA BREAD (SUGAR FREE)
3/4 c. mashed bananas
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 lg. eggs
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. chopped nuts
Beat together mashed banana, oil, eggs and water until creamy. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices. Beat well. Stir in nuts. Spoon batter into oiled and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Spread batter evenly. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.
(recipe here)

The bread baked up beautifully, as you can see, with an excellent crumb:


HOWEVER...definitely needs some sweetening. If I make it again I think I'll work some maple syrup into the recipe. But for today I drizzled a small amount on my slice and was quite satisfied. It's nice to be able to control the sweetness.

Weekend!

It's been hard to get up this week. Unfortunately, it'll be hard to get up tomorrow, too, because my yogabuddy and I are going to an 8 a.m. class over by Lake Wylie. Still, I'll get my beloved nap in Saturday AND Sunday afternoon, so I'll still be ahead.

It's been a  hectic week at school as we've begun closing out semester 1 and begun preparations for semester 2. I like the second semester much better because it has a much faster pace. Seniors are getting ready to graduate, underclassmen are registering for classes for next year...but most of all, the daylight hours will be getting longer rather than shorter!

To complicate matters, we'll be also hosting 4 elections in the coming months. We have a special election for a fire district coming up a week from Tuesday, and then SC House primaries, probably a run-off, and then election. I suspect we'll be moving the precinct out of the High School as soon as we can for the next General Election. It's just too much to try to have school and have voters coming in. We have to keep them away from the students, but most of all we have parking issues. I've told the election commission that they'll need to provide one or maybe even two traffic controllers during school hours.

Back to this weekend: I think maybe enchiladas tonight with my leftover refried beans. And I've been yearning for chocolate, so I'm sure I'll make some brownies at some point. I'm off refined sugar again, as is usual this time of the year, so I'll be making them with honey. I did that last year and got some good ones.

Paneer Indian Cheese

I'm attempting palak paneer tonight. I found this very simple video about making the paneer. I've made mozzarella before, which you have to have rennet for, so I'm not really daunted about this. I'm pressing my first batch right now. This video does not have any amounts in it, though. I thought maybe my large skillet (like the one pictured here) would hold a gallon of milk, but it's more like a little over 1/2 gallon. I used vinegar and put in only maybe 1 1/2 teaspoons. He does not say how you know if you are using the right amount, just that you want to avoid using too much! So I poured in about a teaspoon and let it curdle. Then I added a little more to see if it would curdle more.

I'll get back to you about the palak (spinach gravy), and how it all came out.

Pasta Salad: Part Deux

Today was our second monthly "Fat Friday." It's a day when we sign up to bring stuff and then all gorge ourselves on it all. I decided to try my hand at another pasta salad, this one with a Greek flair. I'm a sucker for feta cheese and kalamata olives, so this was right up my alley.

I found this recipe on a website called "Three Many Cooks." Check it out here.

They have a nice photo of the salad there, too. But because I'm trying to shoot more, I figured I'd take another of my own. I've never shot food from the side before. I'm pretty happy with it. I maybe could have used a slightly smaller aperture so I'd have more of the salad in focus, though.

Aloo Gobi & Naan

Sounds a little like a song, doesn't it?

So I made this Aloo Gobi, which is an Indian dish consisting of cauliflower and potatoes. You cook them with onions in a skillet for a while and then add this amazing sauce you've pureed out of tomato, garam masala, turmeric, cumin and chili powder. The garnish should be cilantro but I didn't have any. Also the recipe called for lemon juice. None of those around, but this lime was happy to fill in and add color to this photo.

Taylor and I had this with naan and I have to say this was my best batch yet! Each time I make it, I refine my technique just a little bit  more. Tonight's addition was brushing it with the milk solids I had saved from my super-clear batch of ghee from Sunday. Sprinkled on a little kosher salt and we were good to go!

So now I'm overstuffed with bread. Ugh. But a nice meal. It didn't take long to put together, either. I found this recipe on About.com. Here, try it.

On a side note, and completely unrelated, I accidentally called my poor mother this morning. At 6:30 their time. OOOPS! SORRY MOM! Each morning I call Taylor at 7:30 to make sure he's gotten himself awake. Since iphone STUPIDLY DON'T HAVE AUTODIAL, I use "recent calls" to call him each day. Unfortunately, I guess my finger slipped and I hit Mom & Dad's number instead.

But look at the bright side...at least I had been a dutiful daughter yesterday and CALLED my mother. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been in "recents!"

Baby Carrots | Eat 'Em Like Junk Food | Indulge

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