The Syndicate

Hedgeowl wrote: Oh what a great idea! I had Sea Dog at a bar where they put blueberries in the beer. I don't remember whether it made the beer better, but it was fun to try. Do they do this where you are?

I've had that beer. I would only recommend it as a breakfast beer with pancakes. Otherwise, it doesn't work.

I just made eggs Benedict. I had to do the Hollandaise sauce three times. I've made Hollandaise several times before, but for some reason it took me a while to get it right this morning. Could be two obnoxious children.

I just had a Greek yogurt parfait with unsweetened coconut shreds and raw almonds. It was pretty for a mid-afternoon snack.

Hedge - They do do that on Seadog! I love the blueberries floating around.

I am not eating squash blossoms dang it! Why are all these pretentious places trying to force them upon me!!!

I improvised a simple dinner tonight -- threw together a curry rub and grilled a couple tilapia fillets with it, sauteed some zucchini & onions (let them sit covered a bit and was pleased with how tender they were mmm), served the fish over couscous with the veggies on the side. It was easy and good, I impressed myself

My meal was likewise simple and off the cuff: Seared chicken breast with a balsamic vinegar reduction (brown sugar added). Had with sweet peas. Never anything wrong with simple if it's good.

Me and my friends went to Wawa's to get iced coffees and we ended up ordering sandwiches there too. The twist is that we all ordered for one another, so I ended up with an egg salad melt (think tuna but with egg salad instead). It was luckily surprisingly tasty.

Wish I had friends.

Epignosis wrote:Wish I had friends.

They are overrated.

thellama73 wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Wish I had friends.

They are overrated.

Yeah, mine can be quite flakey, intense, and disinterested. They did ask once "So what is it about work you are so depressed about?" and they did give me about 3 whole sentences to talk before they interrupted me to talk about how stressful their own work situations are, especially in comparison to mine. :/

We used to eat chili every Sunday for football, but that stopped after this winter, so we're loaded with kidney beans.

I was thinking about making a vegetarian burger tonight, but I've never done it. I'm thinking of using mashed kidney beans, onion, some picante sauce, bread crumbs, and either taco seasoning or black pepper and chili powder. Does it make sense to add steamed carrots to the mash? For some reason the thought of carrots in a Mexican dish is off-putting.

Any advice, especially from you Vegs?

Carrots add some nice sweetness. Id got for it. My favorite veg burger is beet and quinoa.

Any tip on consistency? I like normal hamburgers because of the fat keeping the inside juicy.

I'll add the carrots and give it a try.

If it gets too mushy, add oats or brown rice (or quinoa, etc).

You can add one egg into the mixture to add more moistness too, just like you might with meatloaf. Not one egg per patty, but one egg per mixture that will make about 4 patties (so if you are making 8 burgers, use 2 eggs).

To keep them moist, I suggest baking them off in the oven with a little olive oil instead of pan frying.

Oh I would never pan fry such a thing.

I know I can add an egg, but I'm tempted to keep this completely veg (as a challenge I guess).

Sauteed mushrooms can add that beefy umami flavor while adding moisture. They take on the other flavors, so I don't feel like it overpowers the other ingredients.

You can also use a box of Egg Replacer (used in vegan baking) or chia seeds (let them soak in water for about 10 mins to gelatinize -- great way to get your Omega-3s).

Here are some of my faves: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/ ... om-falafel

Nothing was needed.

Being beans, the final product was mushy in the bread, but I loved the flavor. I would make this again. Thanks!

Great! I'm so glad. I'm making everyone sing Seal in a round.

Tonight was penne with mushroom-olive cream -- a delicious recipe, one of my favorites and appropriate for all you veggie folk!

I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I would eat the crap out of that penne dish as I adore olives in all shapes, sizes, colors, permutations, and national creeds.

Mongoose wrote:I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I used to go to this Mexican place where I insisted on pronouncing chihuahua cheese as chi-hOOa-hOOa. It was really funny, because it drove the waiters crazy. They couldn't just let it go, they had to correct me every single time.

thellama73 wrote:

Mongoose wrote:I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I used to go to this Mexican place where I insisted on pronouncing chihuahua cheese as chi-hOOa-hOOa. It was really funny, because it drove the waiters crazy. They couldn't just let it go, they had to correct me every single time.

I have a friend that insists on pronouncing Lagniappe was "Lag-knee-app-eee", which is less endearing the 10th time you hear it.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as Chihuahua cheese!

Mongoose wrote:

thellama73 wrote:

Mongoose wrote:I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I used to go to this Mexican place where I insisted on pronouncing chihuahua cheese as chi-hOOa-hOOa. It was really funny, because it drove the waiters crazy. They couldn't just let it go, they had to correct me every single time.

I have a friend that insists on pronouncing Lagniappe was "Lag-knee-app-eee", which is less endearing the 10th time you hear it.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as Chihuahua cheese!

There is and it's very delicious. I also like pronouncing Roosevelt with an OO and Robot as Robut (with a diminished vowel sound on the second syllable.)

thellama73 wrote:

Mongoose wrote:

thellama73 wrote:

Mongoose wrote:I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I used to go to this Mexican place where I insisted on pronouncing chihuahua cheese as chi-hOOa-hOOa. It was really funny, because it drove the waiters crazy. They couldn't just let it go, they had to correct me every single time.

I have a friend that insists on pronouncing Lagniappe was "Lag-knee-app-eee", which is less endearing the 10th time you hear it.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as Chihuahua cheese!

There is and it's very delicious. I also like pronouncing Roosevelt with an OO and Robot as Robut (with a diminished vowel sound on the second syllable.)

Does it kinda sound like donut when you say it that way?

I have a story to tell you that involves you and the Scissors Sisters, so I'll type that out later tonight at the other library, which will hopefully be less busy.

mongoose you put the R in the wrong place in mascarpone >:|

Scott Conant would be so disappointed!

The Greek deli near me makes and sells its own plain Greek yogurt, and its unsweetened unlike the plain stuff at the store.

I was out of mayo and don't really want to buy more (constantly trying to weed out preservativey things) and heard you can use Greek yogurt in place of mayo in things like tuna/egg/chicken/tofu salad. I was a little reluctant to try, because I thought it would be too tart.

I tried it and I was so wrong. It gives it a nice bright taste, but you can't tell it's yogurt. I was using silken tofu and added sweet pickle relish, green onions, yogurt, juice of half a lemon, parsely, and black pepper. Stirred it together this morning and it was amazing for brunch.

I typically add curry powder to a dish like that, but I withheld because I liked the "bright" taste of it so much.

That's an interesting idea goosey!!! I never would have thought of that.


Speaking of Greek food......tonight I'm making Moussaka. http://www.food.com/recipe/moussaka-59130 I'm just going to use potatoes this time as I don't feel like messing around with the eggplant. (While I love it, it just didn't work out well for me last time) It's going to take a hecka long time to make though. It took me twice as long as the directions said it would the first time I tried it. But I have more of the ingredients floating around the house to use up than I do for any other hamburger recipe.

I keep stalling it, but it's looking like it's time for me to throw a load of dishes in the wash and get dressed and go shopping for those last two ingredients.

I really like moussaka on occasion, but I find the bechamel to often be very heavy-handed. Patsitsio (spelling?) is also scrumptious.

Mongoose wrote:I say marscapone like this: MAAARscaPOOOOHN because it's so good. I actually had a dream once that scientists figured out how to make 0 calories.

I would eat the crap out of that penne dish as I adore olives in all shapes, sizes, colors, permutations, and national creeds.

I looove olives, but my husband haaates them, so they rarely make an appearance at our house. They make so many pasta dishes so much better though.

Ottolenghi in his veg cookbook Plenty uses greek yogurt all the time for all the dipping sauces. He loves frying things and creating delicious sauces, but I find it a bit tricky getting all the ingredients sometimes. I dont really like the perfumey taste of Orange Blossom water it turns out either.

We made some delicious fresh corn fritters this week. Perfect recipe for tasty summer corn. Now I have my sights on a summer corn chowder.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_10033513

Mongoose wrote:I really like moussaka on occasion, but I find the bechamel to often be very heavy-handed. Patsitsio (spelling?) is also scrumptious.

I can understand that. This is only the second time I've made it and only the 3rd time I've had it.

I love cream and cheese so I tend to think more of them makes everything better, but yea. I can get where the bechamel could be too heavy handed.

That said, the first time I made this - I got all done and was like "this is sooooooo yummy, but I never thought I'd find a dish more time consuming to make than lasagna. I can't believe I would have eaten 2 hours ago if I'd just made lasagna." *teehee*.

I omited the olives from the recepie too as I tend to be the only Italian person on this planet that doesn't like olives. That said, I don't mind Kalamata's if they are used lightly and very finely chopped into the dish, so maybe next time I'll try it with some olives.

I don't think I've had Patsitsio before. But I tend to like Greek food a lot.

Tonight I wanted to not go carb-crazy so I had a veggie burger patty with buffalo sauce on top and then a grapefruit. and 5 green olives ha. LOVE them.

Those both sound excellent, Hedge and Bea!

everything is finally assembled and baking - my sweetie dropped off hours ago - I'll have to wake him in an hour to eat awesome.

bea wrote:everything is finally assembled and baking - my sweetie dropped off hours ago - I'll have to wake him in an hour to eat awesome.

Sounds delicious! At least its homemade and took forever. We still talk about the party my husband threw years ago, right after I met him. He didn't check the cook time on the frozen Lasagna before people started arriving. It was 2 hours! So we had 9pm lasagna and will never let him live it down.

Today before I left home I put tofu bahn mi filling in the slow cooker. I already have the pickles made up as well as cilantro aioli (which is cilantro stirred into greek yogurt and lime juice) and I'll pick up a whole grain baguette tonight.

Basically it's tofu, lemongrass, liquid aminos, etc. But you could use any meat or protein.

This is the recipe I used, but there's many variations. I will often carmelize some onions for the topper as well.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-bnh-m-w ... ss-t-97407

Mongoose wrote:Today before I left home I put tofu bahn mi filling in the slow cooker. I already have the pickles made up as well as cilantro aioli (which is cilantro stirred into greek yogurt and lime juice) and I'll pick up a whole grain baguette tonight.

Basically it's tofu, lemongrass, liquid aminos, etc. But you could use any meat or protein.

This is the recipe I used, but there's many variations. I will often carmelize some onions for the topper as well.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-bnh-m-w ... ss-t-97407

Yum!

Now I really wish we could all have a dinner club.

This is indeed my new dream.

dinner club would be so super radtastic! I am going to my sweetie's draft party next saturday. I have to make the jalapeno poppers that they all like so much, but I'm thinking of making mac and cheese as well.

Last night I made Swedish turkey meatballs over egg noodles with a bastard Béchamel sauce. While it tasted excellent, the texture of ground turkey does not agree with me.

Tonight, I am preparing roasted salmon with a grapefruit-honey sauce over baby spinach with Jasmine rice.

Verdict: Excellent dish- I would like to use a sweeter fruit next time. Perhaps a mango.

I made this tonight with Ugali:

http://ambikaskitchen.com/?p=127

My first time dabbling in Tanzanian cuisine. It was surprisingly good, but I would probably not make it again.

Tonight, it's pork pot pie!

That sounds very quaint! Will you please wear a pork pie hat while you eat it, please.

Mongoose wrote:That sounds very quaint! Will you please wear a pork pie hat while you eat it, please.

Just call me Buster Eatin'!

I have not cooked real food in like forever. Love reading what ya'll are making though!!!

Epignosis wrote:Verdict: Excellent dish- I would like to use a sweeter fruit next time. Perhaps a mango.

Don't go TOO sweet, it is easy to do that with Salmon, which is kinda sweet-ish to begin with. I made an orange sauce once with salmon that was perfect with maha mahi, swordfish or even tuna, but came out too sweet with salmon. Cloyingly sweet, tbh. Maybe if you use the mango (which would be yummy) throttle back a tad on the honey.

S~V~S wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Verdict: Excellent dish- I would like to use a sweeter fruit next time. Perhaps a mango.

Don't go TOO sweet, it is easy to do that with Salmon, which is kinda sweet-ish to begin with. I made an orange sauce once with salmon that was perfect with maha mahi, swordfish or even tuna, but came out too sweet with salmon. Cloyingly sweet, tbh. Maybe if you use the mango (which would be yummy) throttle back a tad on the honey.

I don't like sweet, especially if it isn't dessert. If I feel like something should be sweeter, I mean it.

How about Yuzu? That's sweeter than grapefruit, but not overblown sweet. I think it's the perfect spouse for salmon (says your veg friend, ha).