Simple pear and strawberry trifle. Kept it very small-kid and convalescent Kavi-friendly this time, with strawberry jam (I don’t usually use jam in my trifle), no sherry, and non-dairy Cool Whip instead of real whipped cream (Kavi’s avoiding dairy for another day or two until she’s fully recovered). (There’s a nice bottle of sherry on the counter, though, so you can either add a glog to your trifle or just drink some…)
We’re hosting potluck and board games and knitting / crochet this afternoon. Kind of a low-key version of our traditional Christmas party + New Year’s open house. I sent out invites late enough, I suspect not too many of our good friends can make it, but maybe a few, and we should have some new folks coming for knitting. A chance to make some new friends, perhaps.
I’ve been mostly in hunker down mode for a while, but I don’t want to stay there forever — time to open up a little, reach out to the community, breathe.
Okay, I promised Kavi a mango fluff, so make that next, so it has time to set. Beef smoore and ginger-garlic chicken made, next I think a quick carrot-cucumber pickle. Will set out yogurt instead of making a raita, because that way, the yogurt can either go with the curries or be eaten with berries.
And if I’m feeling ambitious, maybe some Sri Lankan noodles — Amma used to make those for New Year’s, if I’m remembering right. But there’s a bit of cleaning and organizing to do too, so we’ll see.
Open house 2-6, bring some food or drink to share. Or just show up, and please help me eat all the food I want to cook. 🙂
Tried an experiment tonight — usually when I make Sri Lankan Beef Smoore, I use chuck. But brisket was on sale (half the price of steak), and I couldn’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work — just maybe take a little longer, so I’d need to start a little earlier?
So I tried it, and it was good. It’s not quite as sliceable as chuck, which usually ends up with a roast beef kind of consistency — when you slice this, it shreds some. Yet I didn’t cook it so long that you can easily use two forks to shred it the way you might normally with brisket. (Maybe another 30 minutes would have gotten it there.)
So it ended up a texture that’s sort of neither one or the other…but a deliciously tasty texture, easy to eat with your hand. Kevin did fine with a fork. 🙂
I spent most of the day hauling stuff around the house in a big re-org, and stayed up most of last night nursing Kavi (so tired!), so I wasn’t really up to cooking anything else.
But I’m thinking I’ll save this to put out at the potluck we’re hosting on Sunday (Kavi is FINALLY on the mend from her traveller’s bug, so we should be an illness-free house by Saturday, knock wood!), and tomorrow I’ll make a veg. or two to go with it. It could use a cabbage & coconut mallung, or a bright carrot pickle, or a fresh kale sambol…
Recipe is in my Feast of Serendib cookbook. This took 2 hrs marinating time + 2 hr 15 min. simmering time. You can also cook it in an Instapot to speed things up — link below.
#type2diabetes #fishforbreakfast — this is honestly very similar to my previous fish for breakfast option, which was whitefish spread on multigrain toast, with the same toppings (pickled onions, capers, cherry tomatoes), but so many people suggested a bagel and lox, I figured I should explicitly include it in the list. I eat this all the time. 🙂
I’m watching the new season of Queer Eye right now, and one common theme is how many people don’t take time to take care of themselves, because they’re so focused on caring for other people, or so focused on work.
I try to make a decent breakfast for myself most days, and I really do think it helps set me up for a good day — this meal looks fancy, but takes literally 5 minutes. And it makes me happy, having such a pretty meal, and the flavors are so satisfying and well-balanced, the salty and tangy and sweet, every bite is a pleasure. It’s good to start your day with pleasure.
Nutrition count for half bagel with lox — will vary, but roughly:
Calories: 350
Carbs: 25
know most takeout places will automatically give you a full bagel, but I feel like a half is plenty of bread for me in a meal.
I had a batch of cashew milk toffee that didn’t *quite* set up. I think I need to check the calibration of my candy thermometer. But I thought it might work well as a crumble topping for brownies.
Folks, it’s delicious. REALLY rich, so I only want it in very small bites, but totally yummy.
I’ll have some at the One Lake Brewing event on Saturday, but I don’t have a lot. Come early. 🙂
I’m making a few food items for the One Lake Brewing market on Saturday; I’m planning to bring my cookbooks and some serving items there. I won’t have a lot of any of the food items — no time to cook in bulk. So come early if you want first dibs. 🙂 I’ll be there 11-3.
Spiced cashews is a simple and delicious vegetarian treat — the only tricky thing is nuts want to burn, so don’t cook on too high heat, and do keep stirring throughout. (Use vegan butter or coconut oil to make it vegan!)
Cover a baking sheet with foil. Toast about 2 c. cashews on medium until they start to smell nutty. Add 2 T butter. Add 1-2 t. cayenne. Add 2-3 t. jaggery (or brown sugar). Add 1 T lime juice, 1 t. salt, and enough water to make a glaze. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes, until cashews are cooked. Spread out on foil-covered baking sheet, sprinkle with flake sea salt, and let cool.
Variation: add 1 c. chopped dried fruit (and reduce sugar). Mango, etc.
Your jaggery (or brown sugar) is too hard to cut? Microwave in a safe dish, covered in a damp paper towel, in ten second bursts, until crumbly. Took about a minute before I could start shaving bits off.
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My semester is almost done (classes ended last week, grading final projects this week), so my schedule has eased up significantly. Going to try to start working on this diabetes thing. As I said before, I don’t need general advice — I had gestational diabetes with Anand fifteen years ago, so I did the five finger pricks / day and carb counting, and I have a pretty clear idea of how I should eat in order to bring my glucose levels down.
That said, eating the same dishes over and over again gets boring — and when I get bored, bad things happen. So one thing I’d like to do is start working on incorporating more fish into my diet. I really like fish, but the kids and Kevin don’t, so we just don’t eat that much of it; it’s easier to default to things they’ll eat too.
But I usually eat breakfast on my own, and I like fish (and savory) for breakfast, so here’s a request — give me your breakfast fish dishes, the more varied the cuisine, the better. If they can be made in less than 10 minutes, you get a gold star! If you happen to know calories / carb counts, even roughly, that’d be helpful to include.
This was this morning’s breakfast, along with a persimmon (I love persimmon season) — I’ll probably have some more fruit mid-morning. Part of diabetes for me was switching to eating six small meals / day, to keep my sugars more regulated — that worked well for me fifteen years ago, and it became part of my regular routine. Second breakfast, afternoon tea, supper — hobbits know best.
This is one slice of multigrain toast — while it’s toasting, take out the whitefish spread (I like the Door County whitefish paté, available at my local Whole Foods, if I’m not making my own), capers, and jar of pickled onions. Slice up some cherry tomatoes (they’re pricey, but we’ve gotten addicted to the Cherry Bombs, Sugar Bombs, etc. lines that have come out the last few years, and when it’s so hard to find good fruit in Chicago in the dead of winter, we’re willing to budget a little more for them). When the toast comes out, assemble. I forgot to salt / pepper this time, but you certainly can, and it’ll be even tastier. It was really delicious as is, though.
5 minutes, start to finish.
Rough calorie count, 250-300.
Rough carb count, 33 grams (mostly from the bread, 21 grams, the rest divided between the fish and tomatoes, with a bit for the pickled onions).
Carbs in a persimmon: 8 grams
Rough guideline: “It can be helpful to eat carbohydrates consistently throughout the day. For example, adults with diabetes may aim for 45–60 grams of carbohydrates per meal and 15–20 grams per snack”
Lazy Saturday morning breakfast; taught Anand how to make breakfast sausages and waffles. He had his waffle with syrup and sausage and grapes; I had mine with spicy turkey curry and tea. So good!
Also on the leftover turkey menu lately, turkey curry and rice, turkey curry on toast, turkey and ham cooked into a veggie soup, sliced turkey breast on toasted multigrain bread with mayo, green chili MD sauce, and cranberry sauce. All yum. But I think I’m ready to freeze the remaining turkey curry for a rainy day. 🙂
Did you have turkey? Did it turn into other things?
We divvied up the Thanksgiving dishes pretty well this year. I made the turkey and cornbread-sausage stuffing and mango fluff. Kevin made the mashed potatoes and Caesar salad. Kev and I made the artichoke dip. Kavi, Kev, and I made the eggplant parmesan (somewhat random last-minute addition that Kavi learned how to make in her culinary class, delicious). Kavi made the crescent rolls. Nara brought the green bean casserole and Daniel brought the pumpkin custard pie. I forgot to put out the cranberry jelly, but it’ll be around for sandwiches tomorrow.
