Category Archives: food

How Serenity Feels Right Now

24 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by in Exercise/ Fitness, food, Gentrification

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It is 10:25 PM here, November 23. Even though I suspect I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) I find these early dark nights as we approach the Winter Solstice to be quite cozy. I am reflecting on my very pleasant day and what I accomplished and I am quite satisfied.

I had lunch with my old friend John. We enjoyed some Cuban food in the friendly confines of the original Kuba Kuba, down in the Fan District. The Fan is a fully gentrified neighborhood completely rehabilitated, updated, and priced out of reach for the student, bohemian, art student types who once flocked there. But that’s America for you. If I sit tight and not go anywhere, I could be living in the cool hipster neighborhood before too long.

I had the black bean soup, eggs and a codfish cake. Satisfying. John and I talked, old friends just catching up, reconnecting.

After lunch I swam at the Y, 2050 meters, the longest I have swum in quite a while. I finished, showered, shaved, came home. I dreaded starting dinner, but by the time J came home, I was ready. I am now a huge fan of riced vegetables, cauliflower especially. I added sauteed mushrooms and a shallot some thyme and caraway seeds. I used it as a bed for a poached salmon filet.

Then The Wizard Of Oz came on TV. Perfect. Now I am enjoying a Popeye cartoon.

I am serene because I did what I wanted to do and needed to do today. I have taken a sabbatical from attempting to solve any big problems, like the Border, tax policy, or The School Lunch Program. I have been ignored by countless Administrations, from Nixon to Trump, about my peculiar insights. If they want to be that way, I’m not crawling to them for recognition.

J is sleeping. She usually sleeps, with the television on. I will go up, fold laundry, get ready for bed, and fall asleep. The bed feels especially cozy on a wintry night. Maybe I will sleep nude.

Food. And Sex.

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in food, Sexuality

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It is Seven AM. I am watching a vacation video that Fresco Channel posted on YouTube about a trip to Key West, taken in the Summer of 2018.

It is innocuous enough and his videography holds my attention. There are scenes in the video that underscore just how obsessed we are with food. The featured event is called Lobster Fest and the video opens with food vendors preparing lobsters. He records trips to shops with great big cookies on display. Nothing unusual,right? But juxtaposed beside the food are the women rockin’ their admittedly hot bods, eating. No, nobody’s having sex, but nobody is into modesty either.

In my early teens, in my fantasy forming years, a classic film premiered, Tom Jones. It was all about class differences and the decadent landed gentry, just the sort of thing one would expect from the Labour-oriented filmmakers of the time. John Osborne, author of the play Look Back In Anger, wrote the screenplay, adapting the Henry Fielding novel of the eighteenth century.

One memorable scene features the title character Tom Jones (played by the incomparable Albert Finney) and a rather slatternly woman, played by Joyce Redman, seducing each other by eating. If food is your “thing”, this is pretty hot stuff., especially the “oyster course”.

When an amateur videographer, does a vacation video featuring food and attractive women, I think it’s easy to infer how we continue to link the two themes, food and sex, together. Of course, it takes a little effort to infer that the hot rockin’ bods and the monster cookies with whipped cream on top are in fundamental conflict, unless these women are Arctic explorers, marathon runners, or endurance swimmers, of which I am quite skeptical.

Cast Iron Pleasure

16 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by in cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, food

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I received a cast iron pan for Father’s Day from MrsCorC?. Cast. Iron. I took the tags off, got out the lard, worked it into the cooking surface, popped it into the oven at 350° F (177° C) for an hour. It came out seasoned, good to go.

Today I made a frittata. It has been my third preparation of a frittata since I discovered a recipe for this simple, tasty, and well nigh idiot-proof dish. The prior efforts came out well, but the cast iron pan made a marked difference. The ingredients just cooked better.

Tonight, I fried a plantain and made salmon cakes. Everything was sublimely crispy. I am in the trial and error stage of plantain cooking. I think I am supposed to do more with the plantain than peel, slice and fry, but it tastes pretty good this way. The salmon cakes cooked very evenly. This was a solitary pleasures supper. MrsCorC? is not a fish cakes person, viewing them as “low rent”. At $7 a can for red sockeye salmon, I consider them a luxury. She was at work, so my “bachelor” meal encountered no reproach.

This evening meal followed my evening workout. I swam another 2500 meters. The longer swim is already giving a boost to my weight loss efforts. Yes, Fans, I gained back some of the weight I lost. Now it is going away.

Things come and go.

“The thing that has been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done,is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.– Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Cooking With Tapioca Flour

17 Thursday May 2018

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Now that I have your attention with that enticing title, I shall tell you about the chocolate pudding I made with milk, Greek yogurt, Ghirardelli’s 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate, cinnamon, demerrara sugar, and vanilla extract.

Here’s the thing though, I only have a ball park figure of how much Greek yogurt I used. Maybe 24oz (by weight). It was Stoneyfield Nonfat Plain Organic. It had been in the fridge almost too long and I wanted to do something with it before it went bad on me. I was too lazy to pull a cookbook off the shelf. So I made up a recipe.

First I melted 4 squares (1/2 a bar) of Ghirardelli’s semi-sweet 4 squares of Ghirardelli’s Dark Unsweetened Chocolate in 8 oz. whole milk. I used Fair Life. It is a brand I am impressed with because it uses an ultra-filtration process. It has a longer life in the refrigerator and has less lactose than regular milk. After the chocolate is melted, I added 1 cup demerrara sugar, the yogurt and about 6 tablespoons tapioca flour to thicken. Tapioca flour is also known as tapioca starch. It has the thickening qualities of corn starch but dissolves more completely without lumps (or less lumps.) Bob’s Red Mill has tapioca flour. You can find it with the gluten free flours.

I brought the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, just as I would with cook and serve store-bought pudding. I added 2 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp cinnamon (may be 3, I forgot). I poured the cooked mixture in 6 oz Pyrex custard cups and let chill for about 6 hours, maybe longer. It was nicely thickened with a smooth consistency.

Mrs CorC? is a fairly discriminating (picky) eater. She has her likes and dislikes. Little things like an “off” texture don’t meet her standards. She liked it! It did not taste too “yogurt-y”. She liked the cinnamon tones with the chocolate.

My goal was to use up the yogurt. Goal met! The secondary goal was to see if I could make my own version of cook and serve pudding. Goal met! The tertiary objective was to increase my uses for tapioca flour. Goal met! The stuff is really nice to work with. Buy some and see for yourself.

Sunday Break

06 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in cooking, food, Sport

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Today was a repeat of yesterday. Get a meal ready before she decides she wants to go out. This gets me moving around and using my imagination and skills. All around a win. I figured we’ve saved about $70 this weekend with this strategy.

I found a Boston butt section at Food Lion Thursday, It was reduced meaning it needed to be prepared sooner rather than later. With Goya Mojo Criollo marinade I fixed Cuban-style “roast” pork in the slow cooker. It is a) fool-proof, and b) delicious. You can look it up. Hint): Put the meat in the cooker, pour over the marinade. Cook on the “low” setting for 5-6 hours.

I next had some black beans on hand that I then cooked with shallots, garlic, cumin, a dash of turmeric and a couple shakes of Badia Taco Seasoning. Badia is another Latino foods line that has some good products

I had some zucchini cooked with tomatoes, mushrooms, shallots and garlic that I seasoned with Herbes de Provence simmering away.

Lastly I fixed some cornbread. Good. Old. Cornbread. I make it from a recipe I took from the back of a bag of cornmeal. A sure winner. Again easy. Mix 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/4cup sugar, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp.salt in one bowl. I sift the ingredients, but that’s not necessary. In another bowl, beat an egg ,add a cup of milk (or buttermilk or kefir), and a quarter cup oil. Add the liquid to the dry, mix “real good”, and bake in a greased 8 x8 pan at 425 for 25 minutes or till golden. Foolproof. Delicious. Southern.

I enjoyed our lunch with a glass of hibiscus tea. Luzianne sells hibiscus in tea bags and its red color and tropical flavor is a delight.

I’m sitting, thinking about the bad broadcast coverage of the Kentucky Derby on NBC. The Suits at the Peacock Network thought they could make an interesting 2-hour show out of a 2 minute race. Well they couldn’t. I don’t care who Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Al Roker thinks might win. Or the profound insights of the owners, trainers and jockeys. I did notice that Bob Baffert has a hairstyle similar to legendary professional wrestler, Ric Flair. Greatness imitates greatness.

As near as I can tell, the jockey gets on the horse, points it in the same direction as all the other horses are running and hopes for the best. (The Best includes horse and jockey living to race again.)

All in all, it was a very exciting race. I don’t follow the horses much, not being a bettin’ man. It is obvious from the desperate attempt to gin up interest that horse racing is dying out.

This quiet Sunday is what I needed. I have had a late sleep, a nice meal and life is good. I needed the rest.

Things Happen.

09 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by in Family, food

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Back in late February, 24 February, to be exact, my stepmother fell, fracturing her femur. She is 92, so this is a very big deal. After surgery, and a hospital rehabilitation, she is back at home, continuing her rehab, with the hope of walking again without the aid of a walker. Her days of living alone, however, are over.

Saturday was cold and rainy, more like late February than early April. Homemade macaroni and cheese seemed like the perfect dish. I made a cheese sauce, and, upon discovering a complete absence of macaroni, broke up the linguine and angel hair pasta I had open in boxes. It works just as well. I’m taking the pasta and cheese sauce over to my stepmom in a few minutes.

Things happen. Elderly people fall. Lives change.

There are things that happened during my blogging hiatus I will eventually share. D’s femur fracture is but the first.

There is a deep emotional hurt I will post about, but it is political in nature. I’m not ready to write about it because the pain after almost eight weeks is still too raw, reminiscent of the collapse of my first marriage that ended forty years ago, coincidentally in the early Spring. I am still losing sleep over this recent incident.

More later.

Cooking For Fun

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in cooking, food, Uncategorized

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What’s the saying, “Why do it if it isn’t fun?”  Let’s be real. Sometimes cooking isn’t fun. Like it’s work and the budget for food is small ’cause there ain’t no money. Then again there are opportunities that cry out for creativity. 

Friday, there was almost an entire half gallon of milk with a “sell by” date of 30 December. It figuratively was imploring me to use it. Add to the ingredient pool two bars of Ghirardelli Baking Chocolate, one 100% Cacao, the other Semi-Sweet. Last night we made real hot chocolate with melted 100% Cacao. Just melt 2 oz of the chocolate, mixing it into a cup of water, Add sugar. Then add three cups of milk. Bring it almost to boiling. There are more steps but that is the gist of it. You will wonder why you ever use that instant hot cocoa mix, especially with the vile desiccated marshmallow marbles.

Today I melted  two ounces of the Semi-Sweet in a double boiler, dissolved that in milk and added it to Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding as it cooked. I added a shake or two of cinnamon, just because the cinnamon was within easy reach. That received a nod of spousal approval.  Now there was a cup of milk left from the short-dated  half gallon. A cup of Hot Ovaltine finished that off.

I did not let the milk go bad. Mother and Dad would have been proud. The calories consumed is another question.

Happy Resentmentholding Day.

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by in Catholic Life, food, Sobriety

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  • The Aztecs had a rite of human sacrifice wherein a priest would excise the heart of a female victim from her body with an obsidian dagger and offer that still beating heart to the Aztec deity. We should not be astonished at the miraculous conversion to Catholic Christianity of the indigenous persons of Mexico in a little over a decade after the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  If some anticlerical secularists in our culture are to be believed, we should be resentful that the indigenous religion was abandoned. Those nostalgic for the old religion are obviously in no danger of having their own hearts ripped out.
  • So we have another Thanksgiving and America has an opportunity to express gratitude. How can one even begin to express gratitude in our Culture of Entitlement? Gratitude makes us uncomfortable. We do not ever want to be uncomfortable!!!! Never. Ever. 
  • Are you grateful for the modicum of comfort you enjoy? Why be grateful for something you are entitled to? If we remember the Pilgrims and others who celebrated Thanksgiving nearly 400 years ago, we can always dredge up every wrong committed by European immigrants subsequently from 1620 who treated others shamefully and shabbily, wrongly. That will stifle, even smother, this humbling spirit of gratitude. My experience among my fellow  recovering drug addicts and alcoholics in my circle of friends is that gratitude has to be instilled among us.  We feel entitled to feel good.  We drunks and druggies act on our sense of entitlement by using.
  • The Culture of Entitlement and Resentment is fueled by the fires of Envy.  One is entitled to a free college education, free healthcare, safe neighborhoods, clean air, clean water, and somebody else, not you, has to pay for it. Those who have more than you obviously stole it, in one way or another.
  • If you don’t have all that you desire, the proper attitude is covetousness directed at those who have more, not gratitude for what you do have.
  • It’s a prescription for discontent.  So the logical break from a day of Thanksgiving is to rush out and jump back on the acquisition merry-go-round. That these are purchases intended as gifts is merely a different salve for our egos, proving to ourselves that not only are we savvy consumers, but think of others, almost as much as we think about ourselves, but not quite.
  • Gratitude. Get some.

Friday And Fish Sticks

20 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in cooking, food, memoir

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I had a tomato caprese panini (or is that panino?, singular?) for lunch, with a bowl of minestrone. I do the abstain from meat on Friday penance most weeks. It reminds me of my childhood. I wasn’t raised Catholic but the public school I attended always had fish sticks on Fridays. They were served with boiled potatoes  sprinkled with dried parsley, boiled cabbage, and corn bread. I still like fish sticks. Until now, that has been one of my darkest secrets. Now you know.

It is a quiet day on the trainspotting front. The trains have been rolling through Ashland more or less on time. Right now, I’m waiting for the Northbound Carolinian #80 to pass through. It is about 15 minutes late. The leaves are just beginning to turn, but it is hardly dramatic. Here comes #80 Northbound just as a southbound freight, hauling intermodal containers, passes on the other track. This is like having a model train layout.

Looking at the box cars covered with graffiti, I often wonder if there would be less graffiti on freight cars, if there were more funding for the arts in public schools. Or would we simply have better trained graffiti artists?  As President Obama once said, “That question is a little above my pay grade.” (To answer, that is).

I had a slightly longer swim last night, 3500 meters, in a pool slightly warmer, than the temperature in my regular pool. I will be leaving in a short while to do my swim for the day.

The quiet of our home and neighbourhood during the day is most soothing.  I can hear a few insects chirping and the noise of the compressor on the fridge.

MrsCorC?  is working a late shift so dinner is just for me tonight. I could go buy some fish sticks. Maybe I will.

The Thrill Of Victory

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, food, Health Issues, Uncategorized

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Back in May, I decided to get serious about losing weight and keeping it off. I weighed 215 lbs then. Rather than have Weight Watchers© merely draft the monthly fees out of my checking account, I thought doing what they suggested would be a smarter choice.

This afternoon I weighed in at 180 lbs., within 2lbs of my goal weight of 179, so I again have Lifetime status and I get to use the digital resources of Weight Watchers© for FREE!!!!!!

I am very happy and satisfied. I remember every lame excuse I had for not doing the Weight Watchers© Plan. I remember every lie I told myself about being OK with how I looked and what I weighed.

Weight Watchers© is a disciplined way of living, putting food and eating within a healthy context. Plus the inducement to exercise makes the Plan fun. I even get Fit Points© for housework. There is nothing to stop me from fantasizing around my cleaning chores. I am a secret “service sub”. If one keeps the blinds drawn, there is nothing to stop one from cleaning house ” nekkid,”

My planrs for the next few weeks in maintaining my weight loss involve finding new ways to prepare and cook new vegetables, like tomatillos, fennel bulb, and kohlrabi. 

The most important things I’ve learned about weight loss and weight maintenance are slowly is better, don’t make weight loss harder than it has to be, and expect “bumps” along the way. I did not quit.

Yay ME!