Month: May 2004

Breakfast this morning was a bowl of the vanilla coconut pudding left over from last night and two cups of coffee. I weighed 155 pounds.

For lunch, I made a three mile circuit around campus, stopping in the fitness center in the Intramural Building and the MBNA fitness center in the White building. Both are very nice. I think I’ll start working out Monday, since the students will be gone. It’s finals week and they’ll all be out of here shortly. On my walk, I stopped at Jimmy John’s for a Turkey Tom Sub — turkey breast, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and mayonnaise on a homemade, fresh-baked French bread roll (547 calories, 26 from fat) — a bag of BBQ Jimmy Chips, and a small Barq’s Root Beer.

For dinner, Gretchen made some really delicious individual Shepherd’s Pies that I had with two Sierra Nevada Pale Ales.

As you can see, this is a great way to clean out your refrigerator.

Shepherd’s Pie

• ¼ cup Butter
• 2 Onions, sliced
• 4 cups Leftover Meat, cooked and diced — though any amount down to about a cup will do, fill it out with diced celery if you don’t have enough
• ¼ cup Flour
• 2 cups, Beef Broth — if you don’t have beef broth on hand, make some up with Better than Bullion Beef Base
• 2 cups each: Tomatoes, diced; Carrots, sliced and cooked; Peas, cooked
• ½ teaspoon each: Thyme, Rosemary
• 4 cups Mashed Potatoes
• 2 Eggs, well beated

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a large saucepan, heat butter and sauté onions over medium heat for 15 minutes.
3. Add the meat and sprinkle with the flour. Stir in the beef broth and the tomatoes.
4. Stir over medium heat until bubbly and thickened, then simmer for an additional five minutes.
5. Mix in the carrots, peas, and herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer the filling to a 9 by 13 inch casserole.
7. Mix the eggs in to the mashed potatoes and spread evenly over the top of the filling.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

I’m separated from Emeril Lagasse by three steps. The mother of the guy in the next office was “chosen one of 50 first prize winners — out of 85,000 entries — in Emeril Lagasse’s national cooking contest.” Here is what Joe has to say about it:

The soup is good! I grew up on this stuff and can whole-heartedly recommend it!

…and here is an excerpt from the write-up in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“I had forgotten all about it,” the Cranberry resident said from her office at Howard Hanna North Suburban.

“My husband [Joe] had urged me to enter because he loves this soup so much.”

Obviously, so did the judges, representatives from Emeril’s cooking show and B&G Foods. They found Kicked-Up Sausage and Bean Soup a winner. [Martinson]

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Martinson, Suzanne. “Nibbles: Her soup’s a winner in Emeril’s contest.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 6 May 2004. <www.post-gazette.com/pg/04127/311640.stm> (6 May 2004).

Did you know that you can find the speed of light with marshmallows?

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal and two cups of coffee. I weighed 157 pounds.

I had a cup of green tea at the office this morning.

For lunch I walked a three mile circuit around campus and stopped and got some Lo Mien for the walk.

Dinner was Beef Burgandy, Au Gratin Potatoes, and two Sierra Nevada Pale Ales, with some vanilla coconut pudding for dessert.

Miso (MEE-soh) is a thick, salty paste of fermented soybeans and grains not unlike peanut butter in consistency. An integral component of Japanese cuisine, miso has been revered in Japan for centuries for its depth of flavor and purported curative properties. It wasn’t until the 1960s that miso first gained shelf space at natural food co-ops in the United States. But in subsequent years, the paste has emerged on menus and cookbook pages in ways previously unimagined.

Its growing popularity is easily explained: No other single ingredient captures miso’s many attributes. The chunky soy paste is often compared with aged Parmigiano for its saltiness, to demiglace for its depth of flavor, to butter for its richness, to wine for its layered complexity and to olive oil for its usefulness. Depending on the cook, miso is a flavor enhancer, curing agent, sauce thickener, fat substitute or culinary cure-all. It imparts instant oomph, whether it’s in the hands of a traditional or nonconformist chef. [Schettler]

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Schettler, Renee. “Miso Goes Mainstream.” The Washington Post. 28 April 2004. <www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45848-2004Apr27.html> (5 May 2004).

I would like to thank Dave over at Weber Cam for adding me to his “food, etc.” list.

From some issue of some one of the Reiman publications. Sorry, we clipped the recipe to add to our scrapbook.

Pasta with Asparagus

• 5 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Dried Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 to 3 dashes Hot Pepper Sauce
• ¼ cup Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Butter or Margarine
• 1 pound Fresh Asparagus, cut into 1½-inch pieces
• Salt to taste
• ¼ teaspoon Pepper
• ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
• ½ pound Macaroni, cooked and drained

1. In a skillet, cook garlic, red pepper flakes and hot pepper sauce in oil and butter for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add asparagus, salt and pepper; sauté until asparagus is crisp-tender, about 8-10 minutes.
3. Add Parmesan cheese; mix well.
4. Pour over hot pasta and toss to coat.

Rachael is roasting her own peppers:

To roast red peppers: Preheat broiler to high. Split and seed pepper and place skin side up close to hot broiler. Blacken skins of pepper. Transfer pepper to brown paper bag and seal. Let pepper cool to handle. Peel charred skins away from pepper flesh.

Breakfast was a piece of Angel Food Cake and two cups of coffee. I weighed 155 pounds

At work, I had another piece of Angel Food Cake that I brought from home and another cup of coffee.

I had a 1:00 meeting this afternoon so I walked over to the Big Onion for lunch and had two slices of pepperoni pizza and a small Dr. Pepper.

Dinner was Pasta with Asparagus and 1½ glasses of 2000 Vendange California Cabernet Sauvignon.

While I am in a musical mood, I thought I would upload this song that I wrote while I was in college and recorded recently while trying to learn to use Apple’s new GarageBand application. Enjoy!