Chicken Curry Riiiiice

I was really craving curry... I used to buy/make it all the time! In fact, when I worked in Long Beach, I used to have it every Friday with the guys from work (New Miyako on Carson Street in Long Beach). That's where I get the title for this post:  The Japanese lady at the counter would take your order (me: "#14, please!") After taking my order, the little Japanese lady would turn to the back kitchen area and say "Chicken curry RIIIIIICE!!" and stand on her tippy toes to emphasize "rice" (and be seen over the counter that separated the front from the kitchen area).

So when I saw this post for beef curry by cavegirl Tiffany (it's a paleo diet thing), I had to try it. Trouble is, I had almost none of the ingredients, at least the ingredients that mattered (give me a break, I'm new to paleo!) But I did try the cauliflower rice thing from *another* cavegirl recipe that was linked from that post to their other post for Korean BBQ, which you have to find toward the very end of the post (third paragraph from the bottom). Did you miss it?? Yeah, I had to read the post a couple of times to find it, so I'll just quote it here:

Serve with your choice of vegetable or cauliflower rice. I simmered finely chopped cauliflower in a shallow pan with about 1/2 cup of chicken stock, teaspoon onion flakes and garlic powder until the stock cooked off. This created more of a "white rice" versus our fried rice recipe.

Sooo simple, and just so happens... I was at the Lancaster Farmer's Market last Thursday, and found a vendor selling heads of cauliflower. I bought one just to go with this recipe :) And BTW, I wish the cavegirls would quit posting such awesome sounding food... I might have to try it all!

Annnnyway... curry, yeah, that's where I'm going with this... So I have boneless, skinless chicken thighs, some carrots, a sweet potato (more paleo than a regular potato, aparently... plus... farmer's market again), a large white onion, about 4 garlic cloves, 2 jalapenos, some left over zucchini (from those zucchini fries I made, yum!) and some Golden Curry (because I'm lazy, and it's pretty good). And damn, I forgot the eggplant I got from someone at work (thanks, Michelle!) and the mushrooms! I had to cook those separate and add in at the end.

Bummer! I'll have to cook these separate and add to the finished product...

For the curry, I just browned the onions, garlic, and chicken, then added everything else. Use just enough water or chicken broth to cover, and bring to a boil. Add the curry, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sweet potatoes are soft. In my case, add the cooked eggplant and mushrooms at this point (D'OH!!)

Finished curry

For the "rice," I kinda food processed it too much (I need to remember to break up the pieces smaller before dropping them in or they get stuck and the rest gets over processed). I also probably didn't cook it enough, since it was a little like mushy, watery oatmeal, not sticky rice consistency. It still tasted like cauliflower, so kinda disappointing. Hmmm... Maybe I'll try broccoli next time... I don't have a problem with green rice.

Finished cauliflower rice

So that's it... overall, pretty yummy! Actually, I had to have a bowl in the middle of writing this ;)

Curry was a little runny, but delish!

OK, there's one more image I have to show, but I have to warn you, it's a little graphic...


You probably don't want to see this...


Might be NSFW, at least I wouldn't want my boss to see this...


OK... here we go...

Graphic photo of the consequence of curry. Sometimes you lose one :(

Attempted Necklace For The Girls

I tried to make a necklace for Kaylee's 5th and Sara's 1st birthdays. Hmmm... not exactly what I envisioned. I started with a length of pink cotton chord and some pink cat's eye beads.

I tied a Celtic heart knot in the chord, then threaded one bead on either side of the knot. Outside of the beads, I tied a regular knot to keep the beads from sliding around, and then tied the loose ends in a double slip knot for adjusting after the necklace is around the neck.

Unfortunately, the chord is thin so the heart didn't come out very... heart-like, and it's dwarfed by the beads. I'm really not happy with the results, so I'll try some larger para chord or something and dye it pink. But then, I'll need some bigger beads... Ugh, and the photos are on a white background and the beads and chord are a pretty pink that doesn't come through here. The cat's eye effect is kinda neat, though.

Unfortunate attempt at threadbending (@SingingHobbit).

Update 08-08-2011, Kaylee's birthday: I forgot to credit the source of the Celtic knot I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yo5nSXND5o

I tried again at the necklaces, this time with some thicker chord... one set polyester, one set of cotton.

Some cotton chord with the pink dye

Dye and chords in...dying container (hey, it's what I had available!)

Final Dyed chords, LHS is cotton, RHS is 100% Polyester

The dye directions said not recommended on 100% polyester, but I like the lighter pink shade and the better workability of the polyester, so I went with that. Using the polyester chord, I tied the Celtic heart knot, then added the beads.

Imagine the color adjusted with a white background... it looks way better

So there it is... and I ended up making another one for Sara, whose birthday is also this month. Kaylee loved it! She actually wanted to wear it to bed, but of course we didn't let her.

Oatmeal The Hard Way

Ok, so anyone that actually knows me in RL knows that I'm pretty lazy... so lazy, in fact, that I will spend an hour to save myself 5 minutes! So When I say, "Oatmeal the hard way," I really mean, "I like eating tasty and healthy oatmeal, but I'm lazy and don't want to take literally an hour making oatmeal everyday." Here's my method:  First, do yourself a favor and find the steel cut oatmeal. This tastes way better than the mushy instant crap, it has a crunchy-chewy texture, and it's healthier than the instant because it's not processed to the point where you can add water, nuke it for a minute, and it's done.

Steel Cut Oats

This is what you want, steel cut oats, or "Irish style." I found these at my local Trader Joe's, and sometimes at grocery stores, but I have yet to find them at Walmart :( Anyway, start cooking the oats to the directions, in this case, each serving => 1 cup water per 1/4 cup oats. I'm making enough for the work week, so 5 cups of water and 1.25 cups of oatmeal.

I like to substitute apple juice for water, which makes the oatmeal taste like apple pie filling. I either go all apple juice, or mostly juice and some water.  When the apple juice starts to boil off, the sugar gets concentrated, so I never add any sugar.

Boil the liquid (juice, water, or combination of the two), then add the oats and stir for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken. Simmer for about 30 minutes, depending on how cooked you like your oats. In the mean time, take out the 2 cup mason jars and fill ~1/4 full with all the goodies...

Two Cup Mason Jars Filled With Goodies

I REALLY like walnuts, but I also add raisins, cranberries (dried), blueberries (frozen or dried), 1t cinnamon, or whatever else goes good in oatmeal. Some day I'm going to try apple chunks, bananas (mashed or chunks), prunes (maybe need to cut up first?), etc.

I use the mason jars, because I like how they seal when I pour in the hot oatmeal which cools and sucks down the lid**. Plus, they end up being just the right size for breakfast. Once you pour the hot oatmeal in the jars with all the goodies (or you can add the goodies after you put in the oatmeal, which might be easier, especially for the cinnamon), you need to give it a good stir, then put the lid on. At this point, I usually let the jars cool for an hour or two before putting in the refrigerator to dump some of that thermal energy.

Jars Stirred and Ready For the Fridge

When you're ready to eat, just take off the lid and pop in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Stir and eat.


**I finished making the oatmeal around 8 PM tonight, and around 9:15 PM I heard the "pop" of the lids getting sucked down. I guess I can put them in the fridge now :)

Knitting For Kaylee

Since I haven't repeated a category twice on this thing, I'm going to post something completely different again (why break the streak? :)  I wanted to knit something for Kaylee to use in the cold weather, and since I can knit ANYTHING as long as it's one color and in a straight line, I thought I'd knit a scarf. Of course, as soon as I finished, the weather started heating up...

OK, and since I wanted to do other things besides scarves (this is #4 for me), I decided to try a hat. Of course, I cheated and used a loom, but shhh, don't tell.

THAT'S a better smile

Here it is on the loom before I added the brim:

Sous-Vide Steaks

So this sous-vide thing is all the rage right now (?) so I thought I'd try it. Couple of New York steaks, some salt and pepper, and about a beer cooler full of warm water (~140°F).  That's about it...

Here's some more info:
Obligatory Wikipedia link
Awesome Serious Eats Primer
Serious Eats sous-vide on the cheap

Basically, you hold the meat (vacuum sealed or in a zip-lock bag) at a constant temperature (I used a beer cooler) using a water reservoir at your cooking temperature (~140°F for medium, in my case).

Ready to go in the cooler (heater?)

Zip up the baggies until just a corner is unzipped and dunk in the cooler full of water at the proper temperature. Use this to help you get out all the air from the baggie (the water pressure will squeeze out the air).

Steaks in the cooler, water at 140°F

I only let out enough air so the steaks would rest on the bottom but float upright so they could have warm water on all sides.

Final temperature

After about 4 hours, the temp had gone from 140°F to 129°F. Oops, that's a little low, so I added boiling water until it was back up to 135°F. Now it's time to cook the veggies.

Carrots and asparagus cooked in the toaster oven:

1. Wash and pat dry

2.  Mix with some EVOO, salt, and pepper in foil or baking dish

3.  Bake @375 for about 10 minutes

Take the steaks out of the cooler, and throw in a pan at high heat with melted butter (just for color) for about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper at this stage. Here is the final steak (ok, so I ate a few bites before I remembered to take a picture):

Pan seared for about 2 minutes

The Lovecraftsman: 6 ways to turn Cthulhu into an emoticon

The Lovecraftsman: 6 ways to turn Cthulhu into an emoticon: "If you're like me, from time to time you'll suddenly find yourself needing to use a Cthulhu emoticon. Okay, you probably won't need to, bu..."

Pi Day (3.14@1:59)

So, it's Pi Day... I had a "donut offence" that I have to pay anyway (don't ask), and Pi Day was coming up. Perfect opportunity to combine the two! I'm thinking Pi-can pie (pecan), in the shape of Pi. Hmmm... First step:  I had to get the correct volume of pi insert (consisting of pecans, sugar, more suger, butter, fat, love, etc.)

Figure 1: Equation of a frustum of a cone, two bases known

Figure 2:  Known (measured) parameters of the frustum, completed cone for reference

Table 1:  Values used in volume equation

So now that I have the correct volume of pie filling, I need to construct a pie form in the shape of pi with the 98.4 in^3 volume. Using some stupid, gawd-awful French CAD software I won't name, I designed a pi-pie form.

Figure 3:  Pi-pie form with frustum of cone pie tin overlaid for reference

Well... things didn't go as planed... see, I've never actually made a pie before, let alone a pecan pie, not to mention one in *THE EFFING SHAPE OF PI*. Let's just say, the bottom crust is more trouble than it's worth to make from scratch, so I ended up using the nice, uniform, perfect ratio of ingredients, frozen pie crust. Four of them, to be exact. Yeah, they're not exactly made for non-circular pie tins. Oh, and since I had to form the pi by hand, it didn't exactly rest flat on the baking sheet, so all the liquid part of the filling ran out the bottom. Luckily, Tina saw the trouble I was having and made a frustum-of-a-cone shaped pie (thank the gods that I bought the ingredients in bulk from Costco). Now, I'm taking both pies to work... that is, if we don't eat one first ;) OMG, they smell sooooo good! Nom!!

Figure 4:  Finished Pi-can pies looks good enough to eat!

So what do you think? Here's the link to all the photos, including the under construction stuff:

Pi Day Pix