A Big Catch-up Post

The last week of October was an...interesting one for me. A death in the family on Sunday meant I was on the road and out of the state for 36 hours or so in the middle of the week, which really threw off my normal weekly routine. And save your breath, Gentle Reader, and don't make that crack about being inflexible for all that yoga I do.

Anywho, because that last week of October was a small bit of chaos, I didn't get to post about some things as soon as I'd planned. So that means I'm just going to get it all out of the way with one big, ugly, lumpy, lengthy post. Take a deep breath, Gentle Reader, and dive on in!

Cookies!
I stupidly made another batch of those molasses-spice cookies I made for Diwali on the last Sunday of October, the day the chaos really kind of started. In fact, that act set a trend: I kept trying to cram in one more thing into each day's already crammed full schedule. But at the time, making cookies seemed like a brilliant idea.

Molasses-spice Crackles1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t salt
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 C stick margarine, softened
2 T molasses
1 large egg white
1/4 C granulated sugar

1. Combine the flour, soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt in a bowl, stir well then set aside.
   
2. Place the brown sugar, margarine, molasses and egg white in a food processor, then process until blended.
   
3. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor, then process until blended, scraping the sides of the processor bowl once.
   
4. Gently press the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and let chill for 2 hours.
   
5. Preheat oven to 375°.
   
6. Shape the dough into 40 balls roughly 3/4" in size.
   
7. Place the sugar in a small bowl, then pour cold water into a second small bowl.
   
8. Dip each dough ball in cold water, shake to remove excess moisture, then roll it in sugar.
   
9. Place each dough ball 3" apart on a baking sheet.
   
10. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 40 cookies

Nutritional Info
Calories: 40
Fat: 1.2 g
Sat fat: 0.2 g
Protein: 0.5 g
Carbs: 6.9 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Sodium: 62 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I'll try to be brief with the ingredient substitutions:

• Splenda brown sugar blend for the regular brown sugar
  
• Blue Bonnet Light for the butter
  
• Morton's Lite salt for the regular salt
  
• Three tablespoons of liquid egg white for the egg white from a large shelled egg

Perhaps using food processors for everything was all the rage back in 1996, when Cooking Light published this recipe. And while it's been some time since I used my little three-cup food processor, there was no way in hell I was using it to make cookie dough. Instead, I combined the dry ingredients in a medium-size bowl, creamed the butter and brown sugar and other ingredients in a larger bowl, added the dry ingredients to it and then covered and let the dough chill.

I suspect this second time around, I should have either let the dough chill longer or not tried to make cookies while preparing supper on a fairly warm day because the dough was not as easy to scoop and shape as it was the first time. In fact, with this second batch, more of the dough stuck to my palms as I tried to roll the balls, which I also made a tad larger because I was tired and didn't want to roll out 40 frickin' balls of dough.

Oh, just a tip, Gentle Reader: Consider skipping the water bath. When the boy and I made these cookies the first time, we dipped about half of them in water and found it wasn't really needed for the sugar to stick. The second time around, I didn't even bother setting out a bowl of water. I just rolled the dough into a ball, rolled it in sugar and then set it on the cookie sheet. Badda-bing badda-boom and done.

Here's another tip: If you use dark nonstick cookie sheets, reduce the baking time by two minutes. I found when I baked the cookies on the darkest of my nonstick sheets for the full 10 minutes, the bottoms got darker and crisper than I like. I like chewy cookies. If you like crisper, crunchier cookies, then go for the full 10 minutes.

Whilst Making the Cookies....
I still had to tackle the supper issue. Luckily, I'd already planned what to have. I'd written down the recipe and had it ready in the kitchen. I'd checked the reviews to see what changes I might want to consider and jotted down some notes. Too bad I didn't check that I had enough of the ingredients.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon8 3-oz. fillets salmon, about 3/4" thick
Freshly ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
4 1/2 t cornstarch
1 3/4 C chicken broth
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 T orange juice
1 t grated orange peel
Orange slices for garnish

1. Place the salmon in an 11" x 8" (2-qt.) shallow baking dish.
   
2. Sprinkle the salmon with black pepper and drizzle with oil.
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
   
4. Stir the cornstarch, broth, vinegar, brown sugar, orange juice and orange peel in a 2-qt. saucepan over high heat to a boil.
   
5. Cook and stir the sauce until it boils and thickens.
   
6. Place the salmon on a serving platter and serve with the sauce. Garnish with the orange slices.

Yield: 8 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 196
Fat: 10.2 g
Fiber: 0.6 g
Protein: 18.6 g
Carbs: 6.9 g
Sodium: 247 mg
Cholesterol: 39 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
This recipe comes from the fine kitchens of Cambell's, makers of Swanson's chicken broth products. Imagine a chicken broth maker wanting you to use so much broth! So in addition to halving the amount of chicken broth, here are the other ways I changed this recipe:

• Screw baking the salmon. I made it in a skillet then poured the sauce over it when the fish was just about ready.
  
• I only had two tablespoons of balsalmic vinegar. Sure, I probably could have put in some red wine vinegar and sugar as a substitute, but I was too tired and frazzled to bother.
  
• Screw the cornstarch.
  
• I used Splenda brown sugar replacer instead of regular brown sugar.
  
• Screw the olive oil. I prepped my skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Not exactly great for the pan, but it works.
  
• Screw the orange wedge garnish. I just ate the orange I'd zested.

I was a bit skeptical about this recipe from the outset: I just couldn't imagine balsamic and salmon blending well. I figured the salmon flavor would massively overpower the balsamic vinegar--and in a way, I was right, but only because I didn't have the full amount of vinegar needed.

Would I try again with the full amount of vinegar? Doubtful. Highly doubtful. The sauce was just all right--not a lot of flavor, so ingredients and effort that go in to making the sauce are wasted. What flavor there was reminded me of the sweet orange salmon I've made before, which had flavor power. If I wanted to combine a bit of sweet and some orange to salmon, I'd make that recipe instead of this blandness from Campbell's.

Kash and Carry
The last meal I made before the week really got nutty was a new recipe I found in Fit Austin, the creepier of the two freebie fitness monthlies I pick up, for it's stuffed full of ads for plastic surgeons, laser hair removal providers, boot camp operators, personal trainers, day spas and questionable massage providers (whenever you look like you'd give a client a happy ending for five bucks, you really shouldn't include a photo in your ad). That said, each issue has a recipe from one of the Central Markup nutritionists, and they're usually pretty nutritious recipes. This particular recipe claimed to have "middle eastern flavors," and yes, Gentle Reader, I was highly skeptical of that claim when the editor couldn't be bothered to capitalize Middle East.

Kam Kash2 2/3 C reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1 1/3 C long-grain brown rice
1 large white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
15.5-oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
16 oz. frozen cut spinach, drained
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. 96% lean ground beef
1 t chili powder
Lemon or red wine vinegar to taste

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a 4-qt. stock pot over high heat.
   
2. Stir in the rice, cover, reduce heat and then simmer for 45-50 min. or until the broth is absorbed.
   
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large non-stick skillet.
   
4. Add the ground beef, onion and garlic, then cook on medium until meat is browned.
   
5. Stir in the garbanzo beans, spinach and chili powder, then continue cooking 3-5 more min.
   
6. Cover, reduce heat and keep warm until ready to serve.

Yield: 7 servings (1 cup rice and 1 cup beef-spinach mixture)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 383
Fat: 10 g
Sat. fat: 3 g
Protein: 26 g
Sodium: 334 mg
Carbs: 47g
Fiber: 7 g

The Faudie's Futzings
This one I futzed with a fair bit:

• Screw cooking the rice in the veggie broth. Water is fine and doesn't mess with the wonderfully nutty flavor of the brown rice.
  
• Beef is not what's for dinner at Chez Boeckman-Walker. I used 99% lean ground turkey instead.
  
• I sauteed the onions in maybe a teaspoon of olive oil, then added the garlic and then added the turkey.
  
• Screw canned chickpeas. I prepared my own.
  
• One of this days, I guess I'll have to get around to buying some chili powder. Until then, I'll keep using the ground red chili powder I have.

Kam kash may not look like much when it's finished, but it's really quite tasty. I don't think there's any better pairing than chickpeas and brown rice--nuttiness a go-go right there--and the spinach and turkey bring a softness to the crunchier texture of the dish.

As for those promised "middle eastern flavors," I'd hardly say they were present. Ground red chili powder tends to have a pretty good kick, but such a small amount in such a large dish hardly did anything. That said, I suspect a person could very easily play with her or his favorite spices to bring some authentic flavor to this thing called kam kash.

Okay, Gentle Reader, you made it to the end. Congrats! Now I'm going to go try to sleep and recover from that crazy-ass week.