Don't worry people, the blog is not changing - just the name. I was never really happy with Creative Rambling but I had to come up with something to have a blog. I am extremely happy with The Sunrise House because I am often up at or before sunrise doing stuff and most of the rest of the house is up with me.
I am on a time crunch now but I will be back later to tell all about the most delicious and easy Eggplant Parm recipe.
See you on the flip side!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Hummus Success
It is now Thursday evening and I have yet to write anything as I had planned, I did however get the computer turned on one morning this week. I am not so surprised, this week has been very intense, with heat, humidity, yorping cats and the need to (once) and mistake of (a different morning) sleeping past my alarm.
I did have a great pre-breakfast morning on Tuesday. Got up on time, maybe even early, got my exercise in and I experimented with a new hummus recipe.
This was not a planned or intensional experimentation but out of need. During the weekend when I might have had a quick 10 minutes to get some more hummus together I did not realize that my supply was so low. Monday rolled around and I had just enough to make the standard lunch of late, hummus and cheese with pickled something on HM roll. The pickled something refers to the two jars I have in my fridge; pickled curry green tomatoes and sweet picked hot peppers.
Lo and behold my pantry did not come through for me this time – no chickpeas. But I did have plenty of black beans, so I went for it. I was partially inspired to do a non chickpea hummus from the small spread about Fresh Peas in the May 2011 issue of Whole Living, featuring – you guessed it! - a fresh pea hummus.
One well rinsed 16oz can of black beans, a medium clove of garlic, a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon each of tahini and lemon juice, a half teaspoon each of salt and cumin plus a quarter teaspoon of black pepper later I have a respectable amount of the best hummus I have ever made.
It is smooth and full of flavor, great plain (even before 6AM) or on my sandwich. The smooth part is really key for me as I usually end of adding way too much tahini and lemon juice to my chickpea hummus to try and get it to smooth out. I would, and will, say that this was a huge success.
My next adventure is eggplant parm, though I am planning for his one. What adventures have you taken in the kitchen lately?
I did have a great pre-breakfast morning on Tuesday. Got up on time, maybe even early, got my exercise in and I experimented with a new hummus recipe.
This was not a planned or intensional experimentation but out of need. During the weekend when I might have had a quick 10 minutes to get some more hummus together I did not realize that my supply was so low. Monday rolled around and I had just enough to make the standard lunch of late, hummus and cheese with pickled something on HM roll. The pickled something refers to the two jars I have in my fridge; pickled curry green tomatoes and sweet picked hot peppers.
Lo and behold my pantry did not come through for me this time – no chickpeas. But I did have plenty of black beans, so I went for it. I was partially inspired to do a non chickpea hummus from the small spread about Fresh Peas in the May 2011 issue of Whole Living, featuring – you guessed it! - a fresh pea hummus.
One well rinsed 16oz can of black beans, a medium clove of garlic, a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon each of tahini and lemon juice, a half teaspoon each of salt and cumin plus a quarter teaspoon of black pepper later I have a respectable amount of the best hummus I have ever made.
It is smooth and full of flavor, great plain (even before 6AM) or on my sandwich. The smooth part is really key for me as I usually end of adding way too much tahini and lemon juice to my chickpea hummus to try and get it to smooth out. I would, and will, say that this was a huge success.
My next adventure is eggplant parm, though I am planning for his one. What adventures have you taken in the kitchen lately?
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Dressing a Salad
Salad Dressing
The Rule of Threes..or fives depending :)
In trying to get in shape and get into healthy habits now while it is “easy” I make myself a salad for lunch every day. It might just me a side salad of spinach or the main course with spinach, beans, nuts and tomato – all depends on what I am feeling like and how hungry I was the day before.
Whatever the salad I always need dressing but I am usually not satisfied with the store bought selections. I find dressing to be too fatty or not have enough oil, too salty or with too sugar and never the right consistency. Being from a family of great cooks I have grown up with homemade dressing so it was not daunting for me to just make my own and be happy.
I make a half cup batch at a time because that it the container I have to bring to work and I can usually get 4 to 5 days out of that amount. I love this system because I like variety. Having the same dressing ever week is boring and makes me regret salad which is a very bad thing. I should say this applies for non-creamy dressings. But I guess you can mix some mayo or sour cream in and achieve what you are looking for.
Making the dressing. I find it is a rule of threes but if you like dressing to be lighter on the oil it should be a rule of fives. The basics are one part flavor and acid two parts oil though your preference might be 2 parts flavor and acid to 3 parts oil or vice versa. The creamy ingredients would be on the oil side of the parts and maybe use a daily liquid to loosen not oil. I always season with 2 pinches of ground pepper and a ¼ tsp of kosher salt. For the spices I use dashes so the absolute max amount would be a ¼ tsp, the sweeteners could range from a ¼ tsp to a full tsp and anything chunky (onion flakes, or dried herbs) usually is a main flavor so ½ tsp to a full tsp.
The main combinations I use are:
curry, ginger, cumin and garlic with brown sugar and white wine vinegar
ginger, honey and lemon juice with white wine vinegar
ginger, garlic, chive and soy sauce with a few drops of sesame oil with light oil
garlic, mustard powder, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar
onion flakes and parsley with balsamic vinegar
I try to experiment with the herbs and spices I have to find new and interesting (but never again) combinations. I would recommend working in small batches until you get the hang of it. There is nothing worse than being stuck with or throwing out a large amount of nasty dressing.
The Rule of Threes..or fives depending :)
In trying to get in shape and get into healthy habits now while it is “easy” I make myself a salad for lunch every day. It might just me a side salad of spinach or the main course with spinach, beans, nuts and tomato – all depends on what I am feeling like and how hungry I was the day before.
Whatever the salad I always need dressing but I am usually not satisfied with the store bought selections. I find dressing to be too fatty or not have enough oil, too salty or with too sugar and never the right consistency. Being from a family of great cooks I have grown up with homemade dressing so it was not daunting for me to just make my own and be happy.
I make a half cup batch at a time because that it the container I have to bring to work and I can usually get 4 to 5 days out of that amount. I love this system because I like variety. Having the same dressing ever week is boring and makes me regret salad which is a very bad thing. I should say this applies for non-creamy dressings. But I guess you can mix some mayo or sour cream in and achieve what you are looking for.
Making the dressing. I find it is a rule of threes but if you like dressing to be lighter on the oil it should be a rule of fives. The basics are one part flavor and acid two parts oil though your preference might be 2 parts flavor and acid to 3 parts oil or vice versa. The creamy ingredients would be on the oil side of the parts and maybe use a daily liquid to loosen not oil. I always season with 2 pinches of ground pepper and a ¼ tsp of kosher salt. For the spices I use dashes so the absolute max amount would be a ¼ tsp, the sweeteners could range from a ¼ tsp to a full tsp and anything chunky (onion flakes, or dried herbs) usually is a main flavor so ½ tsp to a full tsp.
The main combinations I use are:
curry, ginger, cumin and garlic with brown sugar and white wine vinegar
ginger, honey and lemon juice with white wine vinegar
ginger, garlic, chive and soy sauce with a few drops of sesame oil with light oil
garlic, mustard powder, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar
onion flakes and parsley with balsamic vinegar
I try to experiment with the herbs and spices I have to find new and interesting (but never again) combinations. I would recommend working in small batches until you get the hang of it. There is nothing worse than being stuck with or throwing out a large amount of nasty dressing.
on my mind...
Lately I have been bursting with great crafty ideas and filled with a yearning to do...something.... Every time I turn around a new idea comes to me; a cotton shell to wear over tanks for work, a sandwich roll idea using pizza dough, trying to adapt my bread recipe into cinnamon swirl, making a skirt.. and the list goes on. I also again find myself starting blog posts in my head but I never write anything. This is frustrating for me because if I don't take the time to write things down and think projects through I forget – either the whole thing or some key part.
All of this creative thought leads me to believe that summer is finally here and that I am more effected by the seasons than I realized. The season thing can and will be remedied as I have quite a few months and even some snow magic before I really get down. The Summer thing is something much harder to believe. Yes, there are blooming flowers – my azaleas looked fabulous this year, and the weather is warmer but I have yet to see the sun for more than a few hours at a time and we have had more rain that I know what to do with. In fact we had flash flooding just last weekend – the 100 year cycle coming around again me thinks. Of course it was in the middle of the night so the pictures are just aftermath.
 |
| This is our side walk covered in the silt from the river breaching its bank and flooding our neighborhood. The water came right up to the foundation of the house. We luckily had minimal damage. |
But that is not what I am here to declare.
Since I am up at a totally unreasonable hour and have an excessive amount of time in the mornings, even after feeding the cats and myself, making lunch and doing a small exercise routine, I plan on doing 5 to 10 minutes of writing a day. Not everything will be published but I think it will help me to get thoughts out and recorded and to make more progress on the substantial back log of blog post subjects that I have.
We shall see how it goes.
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