Pão de Queijo recipe

Here's something I want to try. I got it from this article http://blogs.ajc.com/food-and-more/2011/03/02/pao-de-queijo/ by Gene Lee

Pão de Queijo recipe (adapted from Simply Recipes):

Ingredients:

- 1 egg

- 1/3 cup olive or vegetable oil

- 2/3 cup milk

- 1 1/2 cups tapioca flour

- 1/2 cup cheese, queso fresco or parmesan, grated

- 1 teaspoon of salt

Equipment:

- 1 mini-muffin pan

- Blender

——————-

1) Preheat oven to 400°F.

2) Apply a thin coating of oil in each muffin opening in the muffin pan.

3) Put all of the ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.

4) Pour pão de queijo mixture into each muffin opening about ¾ full.

5) Place muffin pan on the oven’s middle rack and bake for 15-20 minutes, until completely puffy and just a little browned.

6) Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes.

7) Serve warm

Vindaloo

So much stuff going on, starting new things. I've had meetings with people who do what I want to do as a consultant, and am getting good feed back. Going to draft a prospectus some time this week. And a budget. Exciting stuff, eh?

Anyway, I'm still on a cooking kick. Today, I caught an episode of Aarti Party on the Food Network and the recipe for Beef Vindaloo and Cucumber Raita looked good. Will modify to use the chicken I have. I went with this partly because I have one cucumber and half a container of plain yogurt already and had been trying to figure out what to do with them. And I have a container of garam masala spices too.

After scanning the web for recipes, the basics seem to be:

1. Fry up a few diced onions and garlic. Can do. That's the basis for pretty much anything savory I cook.

2. Add in bite-sized chunks of meat and brown.

3. Add garam masala, hot peppers, brown sugar and vinegar until thick sauce results.

4. Simmer covered until meat is done.

I'll probably serve it with rice, but Aarti also showed how to make chapatis.

mmm. Getting hungry already.

What everyone's getting this winter gift season

I love to eat. I think food is one of the great pleasures in life. Over the last year or so I have also started cooking more.

Based on a Wall Street Journal review I bought One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking, 600 Recipes from the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishers, Pitmasters, and Chefs.

Just randomly flipping through it, I looked at about a dozen recipes. Of those, about 5 were by SouthEast Asian refugees, one was Persian, and the rest were Latino and European. I love that mix!

There are also stories about the places, the people, the histories behind the foods.

I think I'm going to give it to everyone I know who cooks. Or eats.

And in that spirit, since I couldn't make it to Sister's house for Thanksgiving, I finally made her a sushi toilet roll cover. It's something she's wanted for a while.

It's the embroidering for this that made me want to take up crewel work. I did buy some muslin and a hoop, and got some books from the library. But have yet to do any embroidering beyond this sushi thing.

I started knitting a scarf instead with the gorgeous red/orange/gold silk yarn I got in Savannah a few weeks ago. It's the perfect antidote to all the grey winter weather.

I don't understand Dickens

Based on this suggestion: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9380399&postID=849460249831069589 and my sister's ringing endorsement, I bought the DVD for Bleak House starring Gillian Anderson.

I like Jane Austen as much as anyone else though I've always had a hard time reading Dickens. But I thought, maybe watching it will be different, by which I mean better. After all, it's a series by Masterpiece Theater. It's got to be good, right? And I can crochet on my Babette blanket.

I watched the first half and I have to say I don't understand half of what's going on or why. Mostly the why. For example:

Why did John Jarndyce agree to take 3 complete strangers into his household at Bleak House?
Why did he make one of them his housekeeper out of the blue?
As much as I like Esther, said housekeeper, 3 different men have fallen in love with her within the first three hours.
Why are complete strangers confiding their innermost hopes and thoughts to one another soon after meeting?

What I do understand:
The case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is dragging on forever because there are multiple wills and a large fortune (and Bleak House) at stake. Which John Jarndyce 's brother committed suicide over.
Secret love affairs, babies born out of wedlock, marriages for status, drugs. That's drama no matter what century.

I'm hoping watching the second half will make more sense. But if Masterpiece Theater can't make me like Dickens, then nothing will.

Speaking of TV drama, I've been watching the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. So far there have been 2 episodes and both times Nom Nom truck has won. Has me totally craving banh mi sandwiches.

Madison, WI trip report -- Part One -- Eating, Drinking, and Knitting

I love food and love eating. So I took a picture of the restaurants we visited on this trip.

Madison is both the state capital and the home of the flagship university, the University of Wisconsin. The two are connected by State Street, a pedestrian only street lined with shops, restaurants, and bars.

First up: Maza, a great new Afghan restaurant, on State Street. It's run by the kids of the people who run Kabul restaurant across the street. As you can see, it snows in Wisconsin. Before Maza, this space was The Saz, which also served Mediteranean food.

Here's Espresso Royale Cafe, where Husband and I had our first date 16 years ago. Good to know it's still there.

This is Samba, Madison's first Brazilian steakhouse. It's housed in the old Women's Club building, back when universities were just begining to accept women, I guess. Before Samba, it housed Avol's Bookstore.For lunch one day, we went to Chautara, which serves "Food from the top of the world: Nepal, India, Tibet."

Wonders Pub, in Schenck's Corners, where we had Friday night fish fry, a Wisconsin tradition, courtesy of the Catholics, and probably all the fishing available in the state. Picture taken the next day, not the night of the actual dinner.

Our last day in Madison, we had lunch with Husband's parents at Ella's Deli on East Washington Avenue. It is an extremely kid-friendly place, with a working carousel, which you can kind of see behind the balloon saying "Ella's Deli." Inside, it looks like a toy store and carnival exploded in there. Everywhere you look are kid-friendly toys and sights, including this flying Harry Potter, complete with snitch:

Ella's is pretty close to the freeway to Milwaukee, and when we got there, we had our last Wisconsin meal at

The only restaurant I didn't get a picture of was Wah Kee's which was voted Madison's best Chinese restaurant. It's a great place to get a big bowl of noodles in soup and to fuel up after a long night of drinking.

Our days of staying out all night drinking are over, but one night we did manage to close out the Crystal Corner Pub. It is located, conveniently, 2 blocks from Husband's mother's house.

At the Crystal, I saw a group of knitters (one was knitting a yellow and black sock. Hufflepuff?) One of them was wearing this sweatshirt. The front says "Drinkers with a Knitting Problem." And she certainly was.

I had my knitting too. Brother Two's afghan is great portable knitting.