Jambalaya!

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and file' gumbo
'Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou 

Okay, actually just the Jambalaya part of that.  But I've got Hank Williams III on the stereo, so that's gotta count for something.


Jambalaya is fascinating, delicious, and easy to make.  I'm not sure why it's not more popular outside of the South (a place I've still never been), but maybe it's considered lowbrow or something because much easier to make than it's fancier cousins, gumbo and étouffée.  If you're a subscriber to the Alton Brown school of knowing the background of your recipes, definitely read the Wikipedia entry on Jambalaya.

Since I've got some on the stove right now, I'll tell you how I usually make it...

• Cut up a package of store-bought andouille sausage into approximately 1/2" sections (kitchen shears work better than a knife for this!) and drop them into a large stock pot over medium heat.  Let them cool through (ten minutes or so), moving them around once in a while so they don't burn too bad.  In the meantime, chop one or two bell peppers (in your choice of color - I'm partial to red), one medium onion (yellow or white), and one or two cloves of garlic (I just use the garlic press).  (Obviously celery is missing from the "holy-trinity" here, but it's tough to buy just a couple of ribs, so I usually leave it out.  Put some in with the onion if you're so inclined.)
• Once the sausage is done, remove it from the pot and set it aside in a bowl, leaving the drippings and any stuck bits in the pot.  Saute the onions in the sausage drippings until tender, scraping up the sausage bits as you go, then add the bell pepper and garlic and cook for a few minutes more.  Add the sausage back into the pot.  
• For the rice, I cheat.  I use packaged yellow saffron rice, which is both lazy and non-traditional, but it tastes good, so who cares?  Add the rice, stir to coat it with whatever liquid is left in the pot, and then add whatever amount of water the rice package calls for and finish based on the rice's instructions.  That probably means bring to a boil, stir, reduce to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for twenty minutes or so.  

So there you have it!  It's a whole meal in one pot, and it's definitely of the "stick to the ribs" variety.  And it takes just long enough to cook, you have time to clean up the prep stuff before the rice is finished.  If you haven't been typing the whole time, that is.

People who read the Wikipedia entry would know that this is "brown" or Cajun jambalaya.  If you prefer the "red", or Creole, variety, add some canned or fresh tomatoes before you add the rice.  This one is actually rather yellow because of the saffron, but I digress.

Sound tasty?  Have a better version?  Questions?  Lemme know.  :o)

Maunderings for June 1, 2013

According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese hot pot chain Hai Di Lao (pay wall) is planning to expand into the U.S.  Owner Zhang Yong started Hai Di Lao in Sichuan in 1994 and opened his first international branch in Singapore last year.  As someone who has recently spent over a month in Chengdu, Sichuan and ate the hot, mouth-numbing local specialty there more times than I can remember, I hope his particular brand of hot pot will find a niche in the U.S.  I think they'll have to work on their menus and educate Westerners on how hot pot works if they're going to be successful.  It is scheduled to open this September in the ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood of Arcadia.

I just ran a 5k charity race this morning wearing semi-generic cotton blend socks, and they didn't give me any trouble, but in case they did, the WSJ was kind enough to enlighten us on the booming high-end sock industry in the U.S.  Apparently the "Thread Architects" and R&D shops at these companies are turning out socks that fit like a glove, resist "trail grime", and can withstand three weeks of wear without washing, and only run $25 a pair(!).  The socks on my feet cost about $2.50, but I do need to wash them every time, so maybe it's worth it.

Luckily I didn't eat hot pot right before the run, or else my socks may have been the least of my worries.

Speaking of food... regarding Paleo Dieters, you know, the folks who have apparently confused personal health with evolutionary success as an excuse to eat nothing but steak, a semi-recent conference of archaeologists and other assorted smart people made some good clarifications on what humans can eat: "You want to know what the ideal human diet consists of? Everything. Humans can and will eat everything, and we are remarkably successful not in spite of this fact, but because of it. Our adaptability is the hallmark of the human species. We’re not called omnivores for nothing."  Read this guy's post, it's good.  Good like a bagel.

Kaffestugan - Definitely a Cheng-Do!

Since I've been in Chengdu, China, I've been trying to collect a few dos and don'ts that I want to remember and/or share.  I call them Cheng-Dos and Cheng-Don'ts.

Kaffestugan is definitely a Cheng-Do.  

Located on the First Ring Road, a bit east of North Kehua Road, Kaffestugan is a Swedish cafe transplanted into Chengdu.  Owned by a Swedish / Korean couple, they serve excellent pour-over coffee (excellent by American coffee standards, not just Chinese); along with snacks, brunch and lunch items, and a good selection of liquor.  The prices are very reasonable, and even though the cafe is located on the second floor of a strip mall, the interior is inviting enough to spend the afternoon barely noticing that you're in China.

I was unable to find their location on Google Maps, but fortunately they are right next to a dental clinic (called Huashan Oral Cavity in English) that is listed.  Click here for a map.


Address: 2F KaiYueXinCheng, No. 9 First Ring Road, South, First Section (opposite Hong Wa Si)
Chengdu 610021, Sichuan, China

邮编: 610021
中国四川省成都市一环路南一段9号凯悦新城2楼

Telephone: +86 (028) 8544 3365
Email: kaffestuganinchengdu [at] gmail.com
Web: www.kaffestugan.com

Improv Broccoli Salad

Last night I needed a side dish, so I would be eating something other than just meat for dinner.

I've had some pretty good broccoli salads in the past, and that seemed like it would go well with barbeque beef brisket, but I had never made it before. But since I had just bought a head of broccoli, I thought I'd give it a go.

And ya know what? It turned out great! Not bad for four ingredients.

1 head of broccoli, cut up into smallish, bite-size pieces

(as small as you have patience for)

1 apple, cut up into small pieces

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup poppy seed salad dressing (I'm sure it would work with pretty much whatever type you want to try)

Combine everything in a bowl, stir together, and consume. Makes about four good size servings and is darn tasty.

Broke and Hungry

I'm pretty broke.  As in, my income is less than my expenses and has been for a while, and I'm nearly out of savings.  Hopefully a couple things will change in the next couple months to help fix that, but for now, broke is the status.

But I still have to eat.  I don't exactly have high nutritional standards (I've eaten a room temperature can of store-brand soup three days a week for the past four months), but I can't eat ramen noodles too often or I want to poke my eyes out.  Yeah, they're cheap, but they taste cheap, they're devoid of all nutrition, and eating them more than once a week makes you feel like a poverty case.  I'm also not an athelete, nor do I work out much, so I don't have the caloric or protein requirements that some people do.

So, inspired by a post from a friend and an MSN Money article I found via Lifehacker, I'm going to share some of my tips on how to save at least a little bit of money and still eat at least decently.

• Don't go to McDonald's.  I know the Golden Arches beckon, but you're going to end up paying $7 for 1,000 Calories of unhealthiness.
  
• Spend a lot of time at other people's houses.  Eventually they'll feel obligated to feed you.  ;)
  
• Date someone who works for a restaurant.  Sometimes there are leftovers or messed up orders than just need a good home.  Like a to-go box and then your belly.
  
• If you're always running late in the morning, don't hit the drive-thru and drop $5, keep a box of Slim-Fast handy and slam one on the way to work.  For only having about 200 Calories, they do a decent job of fending off the hunger until you have time to regroup.
  
• Buy bananas.  They're cheap, nutritious, they've got a built-in handle, and the thick skin means organic is a waste of money.
  
• Make coffee at home.  I use a Clever Dripper almost every day.  Yes, it takes a few minutes, but so does driving to a coffee shop, parking, waiting in line, ordering, paying, waiting again, and then getting back on the road.  I even bought a whole bunch of the paper coffee cups and lids that coffee shops use and take that instead of a mug that I'll probably loose.  Not exactly "eco," but at least it feels like a coffee shop experience.
  
  Also, if you're watching your weight, black coffee or tea is basically devoid of calories, while a Grande Mocha has at least 200.  

• Get off your high horse and shop at Wal-Mart for at least some things.  Yes, they're a gigantic corporation, but they employ a lot of people and pay their taxes, just like everyone else.  (Plus, they're basically free of union influence, if that matters to you.)  Their massive size enables them to get screamin' deals on some common items, but don't just assume they're cheapest on everything - Safeway and King Soopers are sometimes better, just check the ads.
  
  Food "staples," like oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, etc are generally cheaper at Wally World, and non-food necessities, like TP, dishwasher detergent, etc, can trim a few bucks you can spend on better food.
  
• Figure out what you can eat a lot of or what you can eat often and try to find the raw materials in bulk. My favorite items are pasta, oatmeal, eggs, peanut butter, and pretty much anything involving broccoli.  Not really anything that you can get in bulk, but the big can of store brand oatmeal is always less per ounce than the smaller packages.
  
• Buy things that keep while they're on sale and stash them in the cupboard / pantry / stack in the corner.  Remember about what's there, and supplement them with the fresh or perishable stuff when you're looking for that night's dinner at the store.
  
• Your freezer is your friend.  A big hunk of cheese isn't that much more than a little one, but it'll spoil if you just leave it in the fridge.  Cut it up and freeze the part you're not going to eat right away.  Also, frozen veggies are usually a better deal then fresh, and their texture and nutrients are better than canned.
  
• All that being said, just buying the cheapest crap you can find isn't really going to help your body or mind.  You should also figure out what you need to or are willing to spend a little extra money on to feel better.  I noticed that when I buy cheap bread, I need to eat a lot more of it to feel satiated; so I've started buying the redorkulously expensive Ezekiel bread that's in the freezer section, because it actually has some food value and fills me up.  

Of course, I don't follow all of these tips all of the time.  I get lazy and buy a frozen pizza sometimes, and I still go out to eat, and out for good coffee, but keeping this stuff in mind does help save a bit here and there.  

Now here are a couple of my fave cheap meals...

• Oatmeal.  I have a hard time getting bored with the humble oat.  It's just so versatile.  For breakfast I often do hot oatmeal with brown sugar and some combination of peanut butter, fruit (bananas or blueberries are the best), bacon bits (the real kind, not the weird little crunchy ones, and yes, I said bacon), raisins, walnuts, etc.  Water or milk, 4:30 on half power in the microwave.
  
  For a cold breakfast, half a cup of dry, rolled oats with a little tub of yogurt it the shizz.
  
  For a savory switch, make oatmeal and stir an egg, some soy sauce, and salt and pepper into it.  It may need to be re-nuked a bit to cook the egg all the way, but it's pretty tasty.  Bacon is also a good addition, as always.
  
• Grilled cheese.  You can't go wrong here.  Bread, cheese, condiment of your choice, butter on the outside (or in the pan, if you prefer), and BAM, lunch.  Or dinner.  I like to make mine with a little piece of lunch meat and mustard inside, then fry an egg over-easy and put it on top.  The egg, meat, and mustard kind of simulate a fancy French sandwich that I can't pronounce.  Pesto is a nice touch, if you've got some handy, but there are infinite possibilities here.
  
• Crazy-ass peanut butter broccoli noodle concoction.  I can't find the actual recipe, but here's the basics: Japanese noodles (buckwheat, maybe?), broccoli, cooked chicken or tuna (canned is good) or raw or cooked shrimp, peanut butter, soy sauce, cider vinegar, something spicy.  Cook the noodles in boiling water and when almost done, add the broccoli and shrimp, if you're using it, and cook or warm through.  Meanwhile, mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and spicy stuff in a small bowl (gently microwaving or heating on the stove helps combine everything).  Drain the noodles and add chicken or tuna if you want that way, then stir in the peanut sauce.  There ya go, nutritious and delicious.  Adjust seasonings to taste, of course.  

I hope this gives you some good ideas, but you know your body best, so don't deprive it of anything it needs.  Hopefully cheap food can be fun and healthy, too!  Got anything to add?  I'd love to hear it.  

Rice Pudding is Awesome

(And so are digital cameras with good lenses and great exposure control.)  

Seriously, why don't I make this more often?  Probably because it takes 45 minutes to cook, and when I'm hungry, I'm usually hungry now.  Plus, I'm usually running late for something and don't have that kinda time to mess around making amazingly tasty, custardy rice pudding.  But it's totally worth it when I do.

Here's the recipe from Erica G. at Allrecipes.com:

Ingredients
3/4 cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.  Makes four servings.

And here's what I do differently:

• There's no good reason to use two pans.  Just cook the rice and then add the other ingredients to it.  (I know that you're only supposed to use 1-1/2 cups of the cooked rice, and 3/4 cup uncooked can yield a bit more than that, but it turns out just fine.)  
• I used short grain rice - supposedly it makes it a better texture than if you use long grain.  You could go all healthy and use brown rice if you wanted, but it wouldn't taste the same.  
• Speaking of cooking rice, I use Alton Brown's method of heating the dry rice in the pan for a bit and adding the right amount of boiling water to the hot rice.  Really kick starts the cooking process.  
• It might not be necessary, but I temper the egg mixture with some of the hot stuff from the pot before adding it.  I also add a little cream to the milk at this point, if I have any handy.  
• I prefer Craisins to raisins in this recipe, but you can really leave them out or just use whatever is around.  

Sooo good.  But it is super rich, so pace yourself!

A Spectators Guide To Competition Barbecue

Katie's dad is highly entertaining.

He doesn't do anything half way, so when he got into competition barbecue a few years back, nothing was going to stop him from winning everything he could.  He even wrote a book called "The Spectator's Guide to Competition Barbecue" which is now in its third printing (I think) which really illuminates this strange world to the non-Southerner newcomer who is not accustomed to this kind of pastime.  He even sent me down to Texas last June to pick up a shiny new "rig" (which is composed of the "pit" where the meat is cooked and the trailer which it is mounted on) built by the best in the business, Jamie Greer of Jambo Pits.

He'll be cooking on our side of the hill at the Loveland Loves Barbecue competition in July.

Not really sure where I was heading with this post, but I just saw the video on the KCBS website and had to share it.

Oh, he's also a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a magician.

Creating Some Content

I was thinking earlier today about content creation versus content consumption and the hardware needed best able to do each - specifically that the horribly named iPad is really just a large, awkward device to consume the content that Apple wants you to - and I came to the conclusion that I need to be a better content creator. I know I say this pretty much every time I let my poor old blog languish for a few months without a post, but this time I'm thinking in a more general sense.

But, as it's been nearly four months since I've last created any content over 14o characters long and doesn't say "Jumpin' JiveCats" on it, I figured a quick update was in order.

Thanksgiving was good. Christmas was good. I crocheted this cool and extremely warm Santa hat that somehow sheds white fuzz like a cat.
I also learned how to make this amazingly good and super simple artisan bread.
The only problem is that whenever I make a loaf, I eat half of it within a couple of hours and then there isn't enough left to share. I suppose I should just make two loaves at once.

I also took this fun picture of myself drinking a homemade latte out of this sweet mug that I won playing bingo at Everyday Joe's a couple of years ago.
Since I am still out of work and don't really have much better to do with my Fridays, I have been volunteering as a barista at there since October. Needless to say, this has not tempered my coffee habit one bit. In fact, it has increased my level of coffee geekdom to the point that I worked - er, volunteered - at the Mountain Regional Barista Competition over Valentine's weekend as a machine maintainer and a technical judge.
And I suppose that it goes without saying, but I am still totally over-committed to my swing dance troupe, the Jumpin' JiveCats and spend way too much time being co-director, PR person, social media guru, email answerer, teacher, and performer with them.

Well, that's about it. I've officially created some content. Hopefully this content won't be to contentious. ;)

Now I'm off to pick up some Girl Scout cookies I forgot I ordered and find somewhere to make a gigantic print of this picture that I took this morning.

Breakfast of Champions

Well, more like, Breakfast of Someone-With-Time-On-Their-Hands, but still extremely yummy.

Fried eggs with cracked black pepper, Kosher salt, and a dusting of cayanne; topped with homemade (and home grown) basil pesto.

Follow that up with a mocha latte made with espresso from Kona coffee, dark chocolate syrup, and topped with homemade whipped cream.

Pretty much doesn't get any better than that.

And really, other than having the pesto on hand from a masive pesto making session at my parents' house, the whipped cream left over from a previous dessert, and owning an espresso machine, this could all be made any time! ;)

I'm getting hungry just looking at it!

This week on the web

Here's a mish-mash of stuff that I accumulated over the past week that I mean to blog about, but never got the chance. I may have to start doing this every week, or at least when I think about it. It's kinda like James Taranto's Best of the Web Today on WSJ.com, but not daily, and quite a bit less clever. I may have to start doing this every week, or at least when I think about it.

Still uncomfortable with Obama and his elitist arrogance? You're probably just subtly racist. (link)

Steve Tobak explores the alternative-energy bubble on CNet news. "What, you don't believe that there's an alternative-energy bubble? Then you're just not paying attention." (link)

"With [Moqtada al] Sadr's 'retirement,' we've taken another long stride" towards a irreversable victory in Iraq. (link)

"Coffee Served Right" (wing) at the Conservative Café in Crown Point, Indiana. "Latte-swilling liberals welcome, too." (link) & (link)

"China breaks Olympic promises on rights, media, pollution" -- Are we supprised by this? (link)

Busweiser (Anheuser-Busch)'s takeover by Belgian InBev may have been motivated by European corporate taxes that are nearly half of what Anheuser-Busch payed in America. How does that happen?! (link)

"Suddenly being green is not cool any more" in Britian. (link)

Well, there ya have it. I read and posted those articles, so I think they're probably worth a little bit of your time to read. If you have some time, that is.

What Can Brown Do...

...for your waist line?

Mmm... breakfast.

(There's a good chance I'm going to die at 30.)

The Wine Antisnob - WSJ.com

From the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition:

Tim Hanni hasn't had a drink in 14 years. He's also one of the wine industry's top experts. Hanni is matching customers with wines based on factors such as how they take their coffee, rather than relying on his own palate. His maverick approach is transforming the way that Americans drink wine.

Try the (taste)Budometer! It's a pretty nifty little survey / experiment. It got my taste pretty close to right, which is relatively amazing, considering what little information it had to go on.

Happy New Year and 25 Years of TCP/IP

Welp, it's 2008. I'd better try to remember to write that on checks and stuff now! I hope your 2007 was great and your 2008 will be even better.

In other news today, TCP/IP turns 25 years old today. It's good to know that I am older than the protocol that makes the entire internet work. I guess you could say I'm 'Pre TCP/IP'. As with most things that really took root and changed the technological / industrial world, TCP/IP was adopted and backed by the United States government with the ancestor of the modern Internet, its ARPANET network.

Basically TCP/IP is the set of numbers that make allow the internet to find itself. Every connection to the internet has its own, specific IP address (like 216.136.227.255 which is one of Yahoo's) which is organized by the TCP system so that your browser, search engines, etc, can find the stuff that you are looking for. The DNS servers convert those numbers into names, but that's a totally different story.

Also, I was reminded to eat my black eyed peas today for fortune in the new year, so you'd better do that too. Here's the recipe I think I'm going to try.

Two words: Bacon. Cookies.

Oh, yes, you heard (read) that right. I said (typed) Bacon Cookies. Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies, to be more precise.

I have often wondered just what would not be improved by the addition of bacon, and I have not come up with very many things. Salad is good. Seafood is good. Eggs, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, vegetables, other kinds of meat (think fillet mignon). All are good. Bacon just has this sweet, salty, greasy goodness about it that makes it a welcome addition nearly anywhere.

But I would not have guessed chocolate chip cookies. The 'Never Bashful With Butter' blog found out, once and for all, that yes, Virginia, bacon goes good with cookies too.

Read the commentary and recipe, watch the hilarious video, and then try 'em out! I'm strongly considering it this weekend.

And if you are worried about being a vegetarian, or something, it's okay, because bacon is a vegetable.