Saddened by the apparent realization that I may be lactose intolerant.
My recent spate of excessive red meat and cheese consumption left me with some pretty serious heartburn, so I went on a bit of a liver/gall bladder detox to try to re-balance (add: cucumbers, pears and beets; delete: red meat, cheese, refined sugar and chocolate), and within a single day I felt like a new woman.
So of course, to celebrate, I had a seemingly harmless bowl of granola and milk for breakfast. BAM! Heartburn again. Could be the granola, I guess, but what are the chances, really?
This truly does suck. If my life has no cheese in it, I'm not sure how I'll go on. But at least it will help me get better prepared for the post-apocalyptic shortage of luxury goods.
Anyway, I guess for the time being I'll lay low on the milk and cheese, but hopefully it won't mean we have to break up.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Watermelon-strawberry! Holy mother of god, the best smoothie in the world
Post workout refuelling is always a challenge for me, since I go straight there after work, which means I get home close to. 8pm. I've been especially indulgent with the cheesy deep-fried snacks and red meat this last couple of weeks, so my system is telling me its time to detox.
Enter the watermelon strawberry smoothie!!
I bought a watermelon a couple of months back, and couldn't finish it all before it turned to crap, so I chopped it up and froze it. Same with my last pack of strawberries. As a single girl, it's difficult to get through that big a portion unless I have a bender. A watermelon bender.
Anyway, here's the goods:
- half a cup (ish) of frozen watermelon chunks
- half a cup (ish) of frozen strawberries
- 1/3 a cup (ish) of plain low fat yogurt (my preference is Liberte brand, but Greek style is fine too, just not that crappy watery junk)
- 1 cup (ish) of Sunripe watermelon strawberry juice
Blend to a liquid consistency. Consume, and moan in ecstasy. I feel instantly redeemed for the cheeseburger I had for lunch!
You know, smoothies will be the thing I miss most after the zombie apocalypse.
By the way, I DO NOT. Recommend watermelon smoothies, or blended drinks in general, using unfrozen watermelon. It's hard to believe it could be so different.
Enter the watermelon strawberry smoothie!!
I bought a watermelon a couple of months back, and couldn't finish it all before it turned to crap, so I chopped it up and froze it. Same with my last pack of strawberries. As a single girl, it's difficult to get through that big a portion unless I have a bender. A watermelon bender.
Anyway, here's the goods:
- half a cup (ish) of frozen watermelon chunks
- half a cup (ish) of frozen strawberries
- 1/3 a cup (ish) of plain low fat yogurt (my preference is Liberte brand, but Greek style is fine too, just not that crappy watery junk)
- 1 cup (ish) of Sunripe watermelon strawberry juice
Blend to a liquid consistency. Consume, and moan in ecstasy. I feel instantly redeemed for the cheeseburger I had for lunch!
You know, smoothies will be the thing I miss most after the zombie apocalypse.
By the way, I DO NOT. Recommend watermelon smoothies, or blended drinks in general, using unfrozen watermelon. It's hard to believe it could be so different.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Caramel coffee martini
Well what a surprise this little experiment was! The inspiration for this recipe came to me while I was in the liquor store, looking all bewildered and amazed at the enormous array of flavored vodkas! So much to choose from! I stumbled across the salted caramel, and that was it, I just knew. My friend Brad came over to test recipes with me, and the first one was so good we didn't try anything else all night. Just lots and lots of the same one. The amazing thing is, I have no hangover today!
Anyway...
Fill your martini jigger half full with ice, and in it, place the following:
- 4 parts Stoli "Salted Caramel" vodka (oh my lord, sooo good)
- 1 part Kahlua
- 3 parts half and half
Shake, pour. Makes enough for two large-ish martinis, or three normal size ones. My pitiful little martini glasses are so small that I got four out of it. I sprinkled on some ground rock salt, and some grated dark chocolate shavings, which were delicious, but I think too messy and way too much work for what they contributed overall. Another idea might be to melt some chocolate and dip the rims in it, and chill the glasses to set it, but holy cow does that ever sound like too much work.
The awesome part of the shavings was that when the martini was finished, the residual shavings looked just like a glass full of ants! Mmmmm!
If you were feeling really decadent, you could top this with some whipped cream, but that's a little too much fat for my liking. I'm trying to reduce the muffin top before my summer vacation. Really, martinis are not the best way to do that.
The next Salted Caramel recipe to test is going to be something with root beer or Dr. Pepper.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Trouble in Paradise
I was home this long weekend visiting my parents, and as always, my mom and I got into talking politics and religion (its your fault I'm like this mom!). For such a contentious topic, and considering the very dark places I've gone in my studies of both, I'm patently shocked that we agree on most issues, at least in the matter of the relationship between evangelical proselytizing and modern ethics.
I was even more surprised though to discover that Mom was already aware of the bizarre trends within the Christian churches in America to increase their membership - such as free beer and staged fights - an appeal to younger men, evidently, to make church more enticing. What she didn't know about was the involvement of the "manosphere," the growing group of men who have become so disillusioned with modern life that they are easy pickings for the proselytizing efforts of the post-millennial Evangelical movement.
The men of the manosphere feel useless and unworthy, and the church is capitalizing on their dissatisfaction, fostering it, and directing their rage at feminism, making them into weapons, effectively, because feminism is entirely responsible for the disbelief in the masculine superiority of the bible. Thus, they have found a common enemy.
Certainly, the blaming of feminism (and atheism of course) is nothing new for the church, but that they are utilizing the present sense of dissatisfaction of men to boost their own strength is very new, and dangerously exploitative. This isn't something I ever wanted to say, and I don't mean it as an insult, a warning rather, but this particular group of men is extremely vulnerable to exploitation (think of the fascism of Fight Club, and its numerous references to the crisis of masculinity). Not only that, but they are overwhelmed by a repressed violence, which is being fostered by this religious group. To further compound the situation, evangelicals make up a statistically significant portion of the US government. The social and political consequences of this, if left unchecked, could be catastrophic to the equal rights movement.
Yes, I am saying this now: Post-millennial Evangelism is the modern world's fascism. Really, this shouldn't be shocking at all. Any religion that holds proselytizing as its most central tenet is inherently fascist, but presently, it is actively seeking to institute a moral theocracy in America, the intention of which is the 2nd coming of Christ, the manifestation of Revelations, and the End of Days - a "fascism of the people" - and all the world will lose if the campaign succeeds.
As I attempted to explain the gravity of the situation to my mother (no slouch herself in the matter of advocating for reasoned thought), I started frothing at the mouth a little, ranting like a crazy person, and she had to calm me down with a cup of tea. I'm sure she's grateful to know though that my interest in religious studies in college really was only academic, and that I had no plans to run off with a cult. Quite the contrary mom - it was a case of "know your enemy."
I was even more surprised though to discover that Mom was already aware of the bizarre trends within the Christian churches in America to increase their membership - such as free beer and staged fights - an appeal to younger men, evidently, to make church more enticing. What she didn't know about was the involvement of the "manosphere," the growing group of men who have become so disillusioned with modern life that they are easy pickings for the proselytizing efforts of the post-millennial Evangelical movement.
The men of the manosphere feel useless and unworthy, and the church is capitalizing on their dissatisfaction, fostering it, and directing their rage at feminism, making them into weapons, effectively, because feminism is entirely responsible for the disbelief in the masculine superiority of the bible. Thus, they have found a common enemy.
Certainly, the blaming of feminism (and atheism of course) is nothing new for the church, but that they are utilizing the present sense of dissatisfaction of men to boost their own strength is very new, and dangerously exploitative. This isn't something I ever wanted to say, and I don't mean it as an insult, a warning rather, but this particular group of men is extremely vulnerable to exploitation (think of the fascism of Fight Club, and its numerous references to the crisis of masculinity). Not only that, but they are overwhelmed by a repressed violence, which is being fostered by this religious group. To further compound the situation, evangelicals make up a statistically significant portion of the US government. The social and political consequences of this, if left unchecked, could be catastrophic to the equal rights movement.
As I attempted to explain the gravity of the situation to my mother (no slouch herself in the matter of advocating for reasoned thought), I started frothing at the mouth a little, ranting like a crazy person, and she had to calm me down with a cup of tea. I'm sure she's grateful to know though that my interest in religious studies in college really was only academic, and that I had no plans to run off with a cult. Quite the contrary mom - it was a case of "know your enemy."
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Finally, someone admits the truth
The truth about equal pay.
See, now, not the best way to start off the day, running across an article like this:
The reason for the opposition to EQUAL PAY
I'm trying to calmly and logically order my thoughts on this so I can write a proper analysis, but I'm getting worked up into a bra-burning frenzy right now, sitting at my workstation.
See, now, not the best way to start off the day, running across an article like this:
The reason for the opposition to EQUAL PAY
I'm trying to calmly and logically order my thoughts on this so I can write a proper analysis, but I'm getting worked up into a bra-burning frenzy right now, sitting at my workstation.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Fresh lemon dressing
Mkay, so its back to recipes today.
I'm puritanical when it comes to salad dressing, can't stand store bought of any variety, and I've tried almost all of them. On salad that is. They are fine on other things, just not salad.
Anyway, so this dressing simply could not be any easier.
Juice of one lemon
One large garlic clove
1-2 tablespoons - ish of soy sauce or Maggi (to taste)
One tablespoon - ish of honey (again to taste, I like it more savory but its a personal preference that is easily adapted to)
Put all this into a clear container, and add the exact same volume of olive oil or grapeseed oil.
Blend (I use the Magic Bullet).
It is a minor phenomenon, so tasty and healthy and tasty and healthy and... mmmm. Ohhh yeah, it goes nicely in almost every variety of salad too. I had it tonight very simple, just romaine and parmesan.
I'm puritanical when it comes to salad dressing, can't stand store bought of any variety, and I've tried almost all of them. On salad that is. They are fine on other things, just not salad.
Anyway, so this dressing simply could not be any easier.
Juice of one lemon
One large garlic clove
1-2 tablespoons - ish of soy sauce or Maggi (to taste)
One tablespoon - ish of honey (again to taste, I like it more savory but its a personal preference that is easily adapted to)
Put all this into a clear container, and add the exact same volume of olive oil or grapeseed oil.
Blend (I use the Magic Bullet).
It is a minor phenomenon, so tasty and healthy and tasty and healthy and... mmmm. Ohhh yeah, it goes nicely in almost every variety of salad too. I had it tonight very simple, just romaine and parmesan.
The argument for the gender divide
I read a super-fascinating article today, just by accident, while looking for some information about the practices and beliefs of Gnosticism. Specifically, I was wondering why choice and reason is so frowned upon by Evangelicals, and other fundamentalists and scriptural legalists, to the point of being considered heretical. And boy, did I find it! It stems from a fear of "gnosis"... knowledge. Egads! Not knowledge! That's the devil's work! You know things, and then you start thinking independently, and you know we can't have any of that sort of nonsense. Remember, there was this tree...?
Anyway...
Anglican view of the "Neo-Gnosticism" of Carl Jung
In it, I was quite surprised, is a fairly well written and convincing treatise making Carl Jung appear to be the singular source responsible for the brand of immorality known as hedonism that plagues modern Christianity, and also quite mad. Even Freud thought he was mad, apparently, and that's saying quite a lot. I had never really considered that Jung would be blamed for the destabilizing of western civilization! What a bad man, trying to reconcile the polarity of the genders. How relentlessly stupid of people to think there might be something to his theories of spiritual reconciliation.
Basically, the evangelical wing of the Anglican church is attempting to present Jung as a cult leader for advocating the very ancient notion of dualism and self-knowledge found in almost every spiritual practice in the world, since the history of man.... except for Christianity of course, which strictly condemns any sort of dualism as an indulgence of evil.
The article in question, of course, calls for Anglicans to return to the good ol' days of strict adherence to authentically biblical masculinity and femininity, and traditional marriage roles. What a shocker (yawn). And lo, what a surprise, it coincides so nicely with the recent insurgence of Evangelicals and MRA adherents into the public forum, reminding us to stay inside those boxes, for our own good.
Anyway, while falling down the rabbit hole in pursuit of interconnections, as I am prone to do, I found links between Gnosticism and so many other fascinating things! - Free will, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Plato, the Age of Enlightenment, Libertarianism, Locke, Free Love (this is soooo interesting!), and the puritanical belief in America as the site of the New Jerusalem mentioned in the Book of Revelations.
This mess is going to take a while for me to sort out... It kind of brings me back to the rush I had in my liberal arts collegiate period though, a weird high of academia-fueled spiritual adrenaline/nausea combination.
"Ah, the heady days of space piracy."
Anyway...
Anglican view of the "Neo-Gnosticism" of Carl Jung
In it, I was quite surprised, is a fairly well written and convincing treatise making Carl Jung appear to be the singular source responsible for the brand of immorality known as hedonism that plagues modern Christianity, and also quite mad. Even Freud thought he was mad, apparently, and that's saying quite a lot. I had never really considered that Jung would be blamed for the destabilizing of western civilization! What a bad man, trying to reconcile the polarity of the genders. How relentlessly stupid of people to think there might be something to his theories of spiritual reconciliation.
Basically, the evangelical wing of the Anglican church is attempting to present Jung as a cult leader for advocating the very ancient notion of dualism and self-knowledge found in almost every spiritual practice in the world, since the history of man.... except for Christianity of course, which strictly condemns any sort of dualism as an indulgence of evil.
The article in question, of course, calls for Anglicans to return to the good ol' days of strict adherence to authentically biblical masculinity and femininity, and traditional marriage roles. What a shocker (yawn). And lo, what a surprise, it coincides so nicely with the recent insurgence of Evangelicals and MRA adherents into the public forum, reminding us to stay inside those boxes, for our own good.
Anyway, while falling down the rabbit hole in pursuit of interconnections, as I am prone to do, I found links between Gnosticism and so many other fascinating things! - Free will, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Plato, the Age of Enlightenment, Libertarianism, Locke, Free Love (this is soooo interesting!), and the puritanical belief in America as the site of the New Jerusalem mentioned in the Book of Revelations.
This mess is going to take a while for me to sort out... It kind of brings me back to the rush I had in my liberal arts collegiate period though, a weird high of academia-fueled spiritual adrenaline/nausea combination.
"Ah, the heady days of space piracy."
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Tech support
Anyone reading this, I'm dying for some technical advice for this page. I need to know how to make two separate, postable pages - one for recipes etc. and one for other thoughts. I've figured out how to make a second page, and get the page index on the home page, but the 2nd page isn't actual posts, just comments. Plus I want to take the recipes that are already on the home page, and transfer them over to the recipe page, without having to re-write the whole darn thing.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
How dare she??
That woman who is using my name
Well, I never.
Much to my surprise, I find that some other so-called "Cheryl" has started up a blogger page called Cheryl's Test Kitchen (that was mine!), where she is posting recipes and commentary. Perhaps rather than posting my own, I will just link to her page and let people think we are the same person. I was planning to change the name of this site anyway, since its becoming less and less about recipes, and more about other things that go down in my kitchen. And other kitchens.
Well, I never.
Much to my surprise, I find that some other so-called "Cheryl" has started up a blogger page called Cheryl's Test Kitchen (that was mine!), where she is posting recipes and commentary. Perhaps rather than posting my own, I will just link to her page and let people think we are the same person. I was planning to change the name of this site anyway, since its becoming less and less about recipes, and more about other things that go down in my kitchen. And other kitchens.
Just theorizing about housework
I was reading Cinzia La Strega's article about housekeeping, always a topic of hot contention in gender-based commentary. Since it seems to be impossible for me to post comments on her site, I thought I'd take this topic up on my own. Cinzia's take on it is that women, even high-powered ones, still hold on to their household responsibilities is "because they don't really want to forfeit their "traditional feminine" roles."
I've always had a different theory about working women who still do
the lion’s share of the housekeeping work. There could be some aspect of adherence to tradition in their minds, but I chalk it up to a
difference between the sexes – but not in the same "evo-psych" way that the MRA and fundamentalist crowds rationalize female subordination. Allow me to elucidate...
The Blog of Cinzia La Strega : Tears of a Clown
The tragicomedy that is the manosphere, as articulated by Cinzia La Strega
The Blog of Cinzia La Strega : Tears of a Clown: Reading between the lines of Roosh's post today ("Men Are Nothing More Than Clowns to the Modern Woman"), I'm guessing so...
The Blog of Cinzia La Strega : Tears of a Clown: Reading between the lines of Roosh's post today ("Men Are Nothing More Than Clowns to the Modern Woman"), I'm guessing so...
"Manosphere" support group
As most of my friends are already too aware, I spend a good deal of time discussing the finer points of the men's rights movement with people who are, well, somewhat less than agreeable. Admittedly, it does make me a little bit nutso sometimes, but I think this issue is of such importance for the future of the world that I think my sanity is worth challenging for the love of reason!
At any rate, I have been searching for an online support community of sympathetic and intelligent folks of all gender-persuasions, and finally found one!
http://rooshnme.blogspot.ca/
Cinzia La Strega is also an exceptionally good writer, somehow simultaneously sympathetic, funny, critical, and intelligent. Even if her articles weren't so dear to my heart, I would still want to read her work.
At any rate, I have been searching for an online support community of sympathetic and intelligent folks of all gender-persuasions, and finally found one!
http://rooshnme.blogspot.ca/
Cinzia La Strega is also an exceptionally good writer, somehow simultaneously sympathetic, funny, critical, and intelligent. Even if her articles weren't so dear to my heart, I would still want to read her work.
The amazingly positive power of family dinner
Yeh, so I'm admittedly kind of a luddite when it comes to this tech blogging linkback mystery of computer-savviness, I'm working on it slowly but its a major obstacle given how far behind the curve I am.
I'm going to try to re-post a link to one of my favorite sites which covers every nuance of wonderful that I occupy my time thinking about. If you have any recommendations or aid to help me be better at making this page more inviting or graphically impressive, I eagerly await your feedback.
The Art of Manliness - The amazingly positive power of family dinner
I'm a single woman, and very happily so, but even so I consider my close friends to be part of my protective community circle, and make a point to have group dinners as often as I can. In fact, I have designed the kitchen layouts in my home renovations to specifically accommodate dinner parties! There is nothing in this world that enhances bonding like food. And since this blog originated with a focus on food, this post seemed relevant! As Brett and Kate, its authors, note, even the extremely busy President of the United States makes time for his family dinner his priority (damn communist!), so you can to.
I'm going to try to re-post a link to one of my favorite sites which covers every nuance of wonderful that I occupy my time thinking about. If you have any recommendations or aid to help me be better at making this page more inviting or graphically impressive, I eagerly await your feedback.
The Art of Manliness - The amazingly positive power of family dinner
 |
| This kitchen layout is perfect for dinner parties! |
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Where I've been at
 |
| Site of future garden |
Anyway, this is the 'before' picture package.
 |
| Compelling me to cook every day |
Artichoke chicken n' shells
My breakfast experiment this morning turned out so good that I thought I'd share!
I pulled out the trusty Magic Bullet (TM) and blended up a marinade of about 1/4 c of mayonnaise,1 clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon, some rock salt, and about 6 marinated artichoke hearts, with a splash of the liquid from the artichokes for consistency. Pureed this until it was a sauce, and poured it over a large chicken breast that I had cut up. It would totally work fine if you wanted to do it as a whole breast or smaller pieces, but I went for the peasant style, random-shaped chunks about 1.5" square, as it was getting tossed with bite-size pasta.
After the chicken had a chance to sit in the marinade a bit, like 15 minutes or so, I fished it out of the sauce and cooked it. I opted to pan fry it, but again it would probably work fine if you wanted to broil it or barbeque it even. I might try it barbequed next time, I think it would crisp up nicely.
There was quite a bit of marinade left over in the bowl, so it might be better to do two breasts instead of just one with this quantity.
I fried it in a drizzle of grapeseed oil, a few minutes on each side of the chunks, turning them regularly to get nice browning on all sides. While pan frying the chicken, the oil from the marinade separated, and I dumped a bit out, but not all of it. The rest in the pan became the "sauce" for the pasta!
I like to cook extra pasta and bag up the leftovers for later, I put it single-use portions into the freezer for times like this, when i just wanted a quick snack and not a whole pasta dish. For this dish, I used medium size shells. I put the shells into a bowl with a splash of water, and defrosted it in the microwave for two minutes while the chicken cooked. When ready, just drain off the water, add to the dish in the pan, and toss!
After everything was evenly hot and coated with sauce, it started to brown up a little, and I thought that was a good time to call it done. I served it all up with some sliced fresh avocado, and some finely grated parmesan, with a light spray of coarse ground pepper and salt.
All told, cooking time was under 10 minutes, and it was deeeelish. An unusual breakfast for sure, but hey, I`m an unusual gal! Who wouldn't like chicken for breakfast anyway?
I should add, the longer you marinate this, the stronger the garlic flavor will be. As it was only 15 minutes, the artichoke was dominant, or I should say subtly managing the situation, rather than being overpowered by the garlic's dramatic flair. If you wanted to snazz it up with stronger flavors, more lemon would be nice.
Also an option, after marinating, roll in panko crumbs, and pan fry for a more crispy fried chicken style.
I pulled out the trusty Magic Bullet (TM) and blended up a marinade of about 1/4 c of mayonnaise,1 clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon, some rock salt, and about 6 marinated artichoke hearts, with a splash of the liquid from the artichokes for consistency. Pureed this until it was a sauce, and poured it over a large chicken breast that I had cut up. It would totally work fine if you wanted to do it as a whole breast or smaller pieces, but I went for the peasant style, random-shaped chunks about 1.5" square, as it was getting tossed with bite-size pasta.
After the chicken had a chance to sit in the marinade a bit, like 15 minutes or so, I fished it out of the sauce and cooked it. I opted to pan fry it, but again it would probably work fine if you wanted to broil it or barbeque it even. I might try it barbequed next time, I think it would crisp up nicely.
There was quite a bit of marinade left over in the bowl, so it might be better to do two breasts instead of just one with this quantity.
I fried it in a drizzle of grapeseed oil, a few minutes on each side of the chunks, turning them regularly to get nice browning on all sides. While pan frying the chicken, the oil from the marinade separated, and I dumped a bit out, but not all of it. The rest in the pan became the "sauce" for the pasta!
I like to cook extra pasta and bag up the leftovers for later, I put it single-use portions into the freezer for times like this, when i just wanted a quick snack and not a whole pasta dish. For this dish, I used medium size shells. I put the shells into a bowl with a splash of water, and defrosted it in the microwave for two minutes while the chicken cooked. When ready, just drain off the water, add to the dish in the pan, and toss!
After everything was evenly hot and coated with sauce, it started to brown up a little, and I thought that was a good time to call it done. I served it all up with some sliced fresh avocado, and some finely grated parmesan, with a light spray of coarse ground pepper and salt.
All told, cooking time was under 10 minutes, and it was deeeelish. An unusual breakfast for sure, but hey, I`m an unusual gal! Who wouldn't like chicken for breakfast anyway?
I should add, the longer you marinate this, the stronger the garlic flavor will be. As it was only 15 minutes, the artichoke was dominant, or I should say subtly managing the situation, rather than being overpowered by the garlic's dramatic flair. If you wanted to snazz it up with stronger flavors, more lemon would be nice.
Also an option, after marinating, roll in panko crumbs, and pan fry for a more crispy fried chicken style.
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