Food Blogs (313)

I've been wanting to make rice pudding for a while now.
As a kid my mother did some conventional rice pudding where the rice always sat on the bottom while the 'pudding part' floated to the top.

This is a takeoff on my previous blog about the Venezuelan Chicha, a drink made with cooked rice, milk, condensed milk and ice cubes. The secret there was putting the rice in a blender.

We had terrible weather today and I decided to stay home and try a twist on an old recipe.

I took 2 cups of cooked rice, a glass of whole milk, 3 eggs, 2 spoons of condensed milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, a few sprinkles of cinnamon and 1 squirt of honey.
With the whole thing in a blender, I had to stop a few times to mix it with a spoon as the part on top wasn't so thick it wouldn't swirl around and mix with the bottom. I could have added more milk but wanted it to keep it thick.

30 minutes in an oven at 325 and the top started to darken. I allowed it to cool and tried a few spoonfuls.

The results: Success!!



The consistency was similar to tapioca pudding and a flavor similar to flan, though not burned with syrup on the top.

If/when I do this again, I'll probably cook it longer so the skin on the top will harden slightly.

I use a fair amount of pure virgin olive oil in salads and for cooking. Usually purchased in small bottles, organic whenever there is a sale. A few weeks ago while shopping at the local farmers market I saw 3 liter cans of olive oil on sale. I would pass this at the normal price and the special sale caught my attention. But... who needs 3 liters?

I held on to one empty bottle waiting for this and last night I finished off another small bottle. It was time and I decided to open the 3 liter can.
Unable to find a funnel, I poured from the can into an 8 ounce plastic cup.

Glug, glug, glug... I had to squeeze the can and back off as it wasn't pouring smoothly. The spout was small and the oil too thick for air to come into the can while the oil came out. It reminded me of motor oil... heavy viscosity and if you pour too fast it splatters.

I pinched the end of the plastic cup into a V-shape and started pouring into one of the small bottles. Going as slow as possible it's was similar to coming out of the can. Too much oil flow and it clogged the opening and spilled over the top of the bottle!

What a stinking mess I had made. 20 paper towels later and filling the cup several times, I was able to refill both small bottles, wipe up and move on to other things.

Rethinking for the next episode. this could easily be enough oil to last me for 2 years...
The next time I do this I'll be better prepared with a funnel or turkey baster or something more efficient in transferring from a can to a small bottle.

With a few cold fronts into Florida this winter, I've been thinking about cooking 'stuff' as it reminds me of a time when my parents were alive and the kitchen was always warm from a gas stove. My dad liked to grill and stove top. my mother was the boiler and baker of the family.
For some (possibly) unknown reason, I thought of rice pudding. Maybe it was the flan custard from a party not long ago. We buy rice in 25 pound bags so there's never a shortage of rice... thinking that I could get a recipe wrong and have to drop the entire disaster into the dumpster!
I made pancakes on Sunday morning... the kind where you only need to add water. Well, I added 2 eggs and used low fat milk in place of the water. Of course it tasted better that way.
Out of milk from Sunday, I went shopping tonight and grabbed the low fat milk again... maybe next time it will be whole milk so I can make some rice pudding.

If I should add raisins or not is open for debate.

I made a sort of stew yesterday. I made double the amount and put half aside in a dish with a lid on it, for another day. Just before I went to bed, I put the dish in the refrigerator. On opening the fridge door this morning, I heard a rattling sound, and soon worked out that it was coming from the lid of the dish of stew. I reached out to touch the lid and it burnt my fingers. It turned out that the stew was boiling away there in the fridge. I took the stew out of the fridge and left it on the work top, where it soon stopped boiling, so I left it for a while and then put it back in the fridge. After about an hour, I went to check on it, and blow me down the stew was on the boil again. Everything else in the fridge is as cold as it should be, it is only the stew that won’t conform to the laws of nature. The ingredients I used for the stew did include a couple of quite hot chillies, but nowhere near hot enough to account for this most puzzling phenomenon.

I saw eggnog ice cream last year at Wal Mart. I didn't buy it but regretted not doing so all year since. A friend of mine's daughter was there last year when I saw it and today she brought me a quart of it she bought yesterday when she was shopping.

Total bliss when having it for desert today.

??? Where to post pictures?
The computer vision cannot be logged in.

Tag. } Ideas to be enjoyed. ) While they remain Legal.

The standard baked potato may be Engineerd into main course status as follows..
Chopped peppers { your choice
Parsley
Pre sauteed mushrooms
Liberal addition of olive oil
Chopped celery & garlic clove
Pink Himalayan salt.
...drink pairing: Tequila, obviously.

McFunger Option..} just 2 tiny home grown 420 buds
Tossed into the center of said potato w/ butter..
Quickly become Force multipliers in the enjoyment of Flame-- the great jazz LP of 1978.

I live in a 55 and older community that started out predominately Jewish. There are 2 synagogues and New York bagel style restaurant within the village. The grocery store across the street has a large ethnic section of foods typical of the Jewish religion/culture.

The bakery there often has seasonal items like Mondel bread that is baked as a loaf and cut with the appearance of Biscotti. The main difference is the Mondel bread texture is softer, similar to a chocolate chip cookie.

Last week something new (to me) appears in the bakery section... Babka.
The description is a sweet bread that has folded layers. I've seen two flavors. Chocolate and Cinnamon.

$6 for a loaf is pricey in my book, but I was curious.
Finishing the last slice tonight, it's doubtful I would try it again.



Maybe cinnamon rolls would be a less expensive choice.

I haven’t had home made rice pudding since I was a child, but that’s about to change. I have got one in the oven as I write. My excitement is growing as tangibly as the skin that is forming on the surface of my pudding. I just wish I had a pair of short trousers to wear when I eat it; that would really add the authentic touch to my trip back in time to those carefree childhood days.

They say that real men don’t eat rice pudding. Well I say be damned with being a real man, and give me the pudding.

I’ll report back later, providing I am not served other deserts in the meantime.

........

A sustained muscle spasm is called a muscle cramp. Leg muscles, especially the quadriceps (thigh), hamstrings (back of thigh), and gastrocnemius (calves), are most likely to cramp, but any skeletal muscle in the body can cramp. A "charley horse" is another name for a muscle cramp.



"In the 1890s, an old horse named Charley was used in the old Chicago White Sox ballpark to pull a roller across the infield. He was old and his muscles would get so stiff he could hardly walk. Players and spectators who caught a cramp thought of the old horse and started calling the condition a charley horse.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs when a blood clot forms in one of the deep veins of your body, usually in your legs, but sometimes in your arm. The signs and symptoms of a DVT include: Swelling, usually in one leg (or arm) Leg pain or tenderness often described as a cramp or Charley horse.
WHAT FOODS CAN CAUSE MUSCLE CRAMPS?
Refined carbs like white bread are devoid of nutrients.
Excessive red meat consumption is bad due to nitrates.
Fast food is full of trans fats.
Foods with refined sugar such as packaged muffins are full of artificial ingredients.
Salty foods can wreak havoc on the body.


Will be continued...in the
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