Aspirations of Artistry

[minoanmiss]

One of the reasons I'm currently annoyed with myself is that in four days
off I made nothing. No new artwork, no writing, no cooking project.
Hopefully by the time I post this I will have changed that (my spring
quince order is about to arrive so I should cook up some of the older
ones) but I want to do some adventurous cooking over the next few months.

First up: whoopee pies with freeze-dried fruit whipped cream. It's Nurses'
Week at the hospital where I work, and I haven't baked in way too long,
and the only ingredient I lack is heavy cream, which is easy to acquire.
It's the least I can do.

Nezxt up: berries and kale from the Farmer's Market: the Copley market
starts Friday! I feel a lot better after all the kale I've eaten recently,
so let me continue. Maybe tabbouleh-inspired diced salad with hemp
seeds...

Later on: tongue. I love tongue. I get lengua at taquerias whenever I can.
Why haven't I ever acquired and cooked and sliced and devoured a beef
tongue? I should change that.

ETA This is all about food so far! I must be hungry. But this reminds me
that I have a cabinet full of dried and freeze dried fruit to make bonbons
out of, and rainbow fudge to be made as well, and so many things.

There's so much stuff to be made, if I can push aside my own weariness and
the sometimes unpeaceful times in my household, and just get to work.

Comments

[claudia603]

As a child, I used to go to Basque restaurants a lot and they always had tongue. It was the most delicious thing.

[sabotabby]

With four days off I never do anything productive. I dump shit in a crockpot so I don't starve and otherwise watch Netflix. I'm never capable of doing anything creative.

[minoanmiss]

Your job is logarithmically more difficult than mine, though, and you also go out and face down fascists while I just write letters.

ALSO I saw this and thought of you. You could probably make something similar (if not precisely the same) with coconut oil:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/spice-hunting-niter-kibbeh-spiced-clarified-butter-ethiopian.html

[sabotabby]

To balance it out, I never write letters or call anyone. An email is about all I can manage, and I'm not even good at that.

Omg, yes to the niter kebbeh. I could probably even make it with Earth Balance, which is pretty much indistinguishable from butter.

[cmcmck]

Kale is good for one and has the advantage of also being yummy!

[princessofgeeks]

ALL THE HUGS

[acelightning]

Resting, sleeping, and recharging your creative batteries are higher-priority activities when you do get time off. But once you've recharged, your creativity will demand that you get up and MAKE something, so you will :-)

I've made raspberry sauce by pulverizing freeze-dried raspberries, sifting out the seeds, and cooking the powder with water, sugar, and a dash of framboise (raspberry liqueur). And my son uses freeze-dried fruit (also usually pulverized) in alcoholic beverages, and even in things like a glaze for roast pork. But it just never occurred to me to put them into whipped cream. I've got to try that, now - thanks for the idea!

[clevermanka]

I tried cooking tongue in the crockpot earlier this year and it came out great! Hope you have fun making yours. It really is delicious!

[purlewe]

A friend of mine gets dried fruit powder and uses it in her icings and whipping creams. perhaps that is something to look into?

[minoanmiss]

Two friends of yours do that. :) I love buying freeze dried fruit from nuts.com for this exact purpose.

[deborah_c]

I hadn't come across whoopie pies before, and had to Google -- they sound delicious, although I suspect there's no way to eat them politely!

*sends hugs*

[amaebi]

I love tongue. And blood and tongue sausage makes me all swoony.

[corrvin]

Ever thought about small-batch jam? You can get pectin powder in a jar and make, like, half a cup at a time. I made 1.5 cups of mulberry jam last year, and it was awesome. It's like a 20 minute job, assuming you don't insist on picking your own berries.

If you get the low-sugar pectin you can actually do savory things as well, like carrot-rosemary-lemon glaze that goes over roast or what have you.

[med_cat]

This sounds like fun :) Where does one buy the pectin powder in a jar?

Thanks!

[corrvin]

Walmart has it! I'm not at home to tell you the brand name, sorry.

[med_cat]

Thanks! I shall look in Walmart then :)

[minoanmiss]

Hi you! waves

[med_cat]

Lots of plans :) Best of luck, and let us know how it all goes!