crazyfurries

from leeshajoy

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

1. Seen any really ridiculous bento boxes lately?

Ridiculous food combinations or ridiculously cute? Aw heck, I'll hit both up. Recently the most ridiculous bento I saw recently was at the college campus and it was something that looked like either beef curry or leftover chow mein poured over frosted cupcakes. I really didn't have the heart or stomach to ask if this was 'what was left in the fridge', 'what I could afford' or even the least likely what they wanted for lunch. In fact now I ponder if this meal was a dare.

This is the current winner for most ridiculously cute bento. I haven't been much up on the fan bentos so I'm really going to need to check up on Anna the Red and get back to photographing mine. I should do another fan bento one of these days.

Oh and the most ridiculous-to-prepare bento award goes to miniature miso-pork cabbage rolls.

2. If you could change one thing about your life that is currently beyond your control, what would it be?

...dude, I would change the fact that Mom got the shitty genetic lottery and got the genes for Alpha-1 Antitripsyn disorder, because that would solve her breathing issues, her work issues, and the fact that she's struggling with tissue rejection issues over the lung transplant. all of these things just make me wanna run the clock back and hide under the stairs so much.

3. How did you get into PS238?

There's two murky recollected version to how I started reading the comic...One was that I started with the #0 issue freebie that went into a Dork Storm Press Free Comic, and the other was that I saw the cover for #7 at Dragon*con and picked it up to look at it and was immediately charmed by a comic book that appealed to both ages, was sensibly done and just plain sweet. I bought the first and second TPB the following Dec, right on the after-christmas sales and I've really enjoyed it since then. I dare you not to become charmed by Julie, or Suzie, or Tyler.

4. Favorite mythological creature and why?

Shahadavar. What is this? Well it's the Persian variation of the unicorn. A single horned beast resembling the Eland, with a long feline tail, and that hunted for food with it's horn. That's right, we've got a CARNIVOROUS UNICORN HERE. This bad boy wasn't a stalker though, it'd pick a high rocky spiny slope and point his head into the wind to hunt. See it's horn was riddled with holes that made the air whistle and moan through, like the most enchanting flute music you'd ever hear, and the prey, human and bird alike would be lured into range and then...well after that it'd be all over between the teeth of the Shahadavar and the landscape.

5. *Least* favorite mythological creature and why?

...you even have to ask? VAMPIRES. VAMPIRES BY EIGHTY FUCKING MILES. Seriously, it ticks me off enough that people have glamor-sexualized up and interbred the fuck-ugly Incubi and the zombie to create this fake thing in the media. Here's a fun fact, VAMPIRES DIDN'T DIE WITH THE STAKES. THOSE THINGS JUST KEPT THEM IN THE GROUND.

6. Hit "Shuffle" on your MP3 player of choice. Whatever the third song is, write about when and how you first heard it.

Always with me- Spirited Away soundtrack. I first heard this when my brother finally got his head into gear and let me pick out movies for my birthday gift. I picked up Spirited Away and Kiki's delivery service. You've got a wild guess as to what I watched the SHIT out of for the next few months. It was just...yeah, the summer just before I started working in the Bistro so 2005.

7. What *about* tempura shrimp?

This is the hardest thing for me to get into my lunchbox or find the supplies for. It's dead common to see depicted in manga and popular japanese bento boxes and books about bento boxes and it's mildly frustrating that I have such trouble with them. The closest I can come is the frozen tempura shrimp I get from wal-mart, but those don't come within radio contact of some of the good tempura shrimp I've had.

...or rather a review of the lunches lately because food is the awesome which sustains me. And sometimes it's fun to inflict the images of lunches past upon my dear friendslist

So...

oh yeh, any of you think i should filter out the ones what want to see these from the guys who'd rather not have food porn in their friendslist... Leave a name for the filter in comments.

...yeh it's probably one of my more disgusting sounding recipes but I like it.

What you need:

4 kosher hotdogs chopped into small pieces
5 green onions chopped fine
3/4 of a cup mixed frozen carrots and peas (optional)
2 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
Salt+Pepper to taste

Fry the hotdogs first until they release fat and start turning a light brown, then add in your green onions. After the onions have become soft add in your soy sauce always stirring so that everything gets a good coating.

Now add in your rice and stir it around carefully, so as not to pack it together, but to also coat it in the soy/juices from the food you've just fried. Add in your ketchup and hot sauce, stirring those in to coat everything. It should look like a very light reddish brown. Mix in your veggies here as well if you're using them.

Add salt and pepper to the mix untily ou get a taste you like.

I usually also wrap the rice balls I make from this recipe in an egg sheet or ommelette. It's a way of adding extra protein to this, which if you added the mixed veggies makes for a pretty cheap complete meal.

...should I do a food blog?

Main reasons I haven't started one, outside of posting a few recipes here, are these.

1) (biggest issue) ...I don't measure during my cooking experiments. Not accurately anyway. sure I'll base most of the experiments off of a recipe I might find online or specifically look up. Like Tempura. or Risotto. From there I just start messing around and it doesn't SEEM that origional or creative to me.

2) Other Foodie Blogs. They do food blogging a HELL of a lot better, with lovely photos and strange fruits. I wanna try a kiwano melon damnit. I see them so often in the foodie blogs from the west coast. I know wisconsin has some artisian cheeses and heritage fruits growing here, but usually they're way out of my price bracket.

3) I go squueeeeeeeeeeOMNOMNOM on my experiments and forget more often that I actually write about them in here. I haven't kept track of how many bentos I've done, but it's probably up in the hundreds by now. At least 200.

So. Thoughts?

If there are at least 5 comments by 8pm central time, I'll post the fried spinach chicken rolls recipe.

...it says something that I'm just now realizing that the impact that goddamn christmas planebomber has on my life is that I'm not going to be able to bring a packed meal or even a frigging candybar onto an airplane anymore.

Today's been pretty good overall, granted I used most of it to either clean, complete old sewing projects, weed or cook food for the rest of the week.

Not that any of these are bad! ...Pretty good behavior on my part.

But in the middle of cooking I realized I should probably share the recipe for my Bacon Cheeseburger Shepard Pie.

Whatcha need

1/2-3/4 of a pound bacon really thinly sliced (julienne-ish strips)
1 large yellow onion chopped
4 cooked hamburger patties (I made this recipe up from banquet leftovers...if nothing else substitute the meat with 3/4-1pound of lean ground beef browned)
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar.
mashed potatoes (instant or otherwise. no major difference aside from texture)
Fry the bacon to your desired crispness (I prefer just lightly chewy. nom) and move onto paper towel. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. With the pan still hot caramelize the onions in the bacon fat, then scrape this mixture aside with the browned beef. Pour your milk into the pan and heat up, slowly sprinkle in the cheese mixing well until it forms a thick gooey sauce. Mix together bacon, onion and beef, pour cheese in and mix thoroughly.

Spoon cheese-meat-bacon mixture into ceramic ramekins, foil cups, or sturdy single mini loaf pans. Spread potatoes on top, bake in 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or however long it takes until your taters get a nice golden crust.

Serve hot or chill and eat as a packed lunch.

One recipe reasonably feeds 5-6 people.

Bleu Cheese filled meatballs: 2 parts. This recipe was inspired by the 'snack' I'd have at the bistro of cooked bison meat trimmings and bleu cheese butter and pikkopots Cordon Bleu Bites.

Bleu Cheese 'butter' filling. An adjusted recipe to make the filling a little more gooey and less greasy.

1/4 pound of blue cheese, I used gorgonzola, but whichever variety you prefer, go for it.
1 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 tbsp soft warmed cream cheese
1 tbsp softened butter

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until slightly fluffy, then add sauce, pepper and crumble up bleu cheese into mixture. Cream once again, and don't mind too much if there are big chunks of bleu cheese. Spoon this into a ziplock bag, removing all the air from inside the bag and roll flat before sticking this into the freezer to solidify it. This'll be handy later.

Meatball mixture!

1 lb ground bison meat (you can use ground chicken, or ground beef too, I just like bison)
2 cups bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder or 2 minced cloves of fresh garlic
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder 9optional, I like my meat spicy sometimes and it compliments the gorgonzola)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg.

Mix everything in a medium bowl, you can use your hands to mix if you're not too squicky about touching raw meat, I'm not, and I find it a good way to make sure everything gets to a nice even consistency. Let it chill in the fridge for an hour before taking it out.

When it's ready also take out the bleu cheese 'butter' that was frozen earlier and break it into marble-sized chunks. Start heating a medium skillet on medium heat.

Take a lump of mixture about the size of a gumball machine capsule or rubber ball and flatten it out in your palm to about 1/4 inch thickness. Place the chunk of bleu butter in the middle and wrap the meatball mix around it, so that there are no gaps. Fry in the pan with no oil until all the sides are nicely carmelized. You can fry about 10 meatballs at a time in a good-sized skillet. They got quickly if they're still warm, but you can also freeze them before cooking and fry them when you want them in your lunchbox.

Mojito Chicken Sushi

1 chicken breast
1 lime
Mint leaves
Avocado slices
Soy Sushi wrappers
1 cup hot cooked untreated sushi rice.
1tbsp sugar
1 tbsp water
pinch of salt
1 cutting board
1 plastic wrapped sushi maki mat

Zest lime and split zest into two equal portions. Rub one portion of fresh zest onto chicken breast and allow it to sit. Juice lime and combine it with the other zest, sugar, water and salt, muddle 2 mint leaves inside of this mixture, then removed the leaves and use the mix to treat your rice as you would with a regular rice vinegar mixture. Mix thoroughly and find a place to keep it warm. Start cooking chicken breast in a pan with no oil, until fully cooked, then allow it to cool. Peel and slice avocado and mint leaves, set aside. On your flat, stiff cutting board, lay a sheet of soy wrapper down, and lay your limed rice lightly before spreading it across the sheet, pressing it in to a thin layer of rice. Press your sushi mat on top of the rice and wrapper, with the slats parallel to the length of the wrapper. Holding the sheet and the cutting board carefully, flip the board and mat so that the board is on top, leaving you a neatly laid wrapper-up sushi strip ready for an inside-out roll. By now your chicken has cooled off enough to cut it into 1/2 inch (squared) thick strips. Lay down the chicken strips, the mint and the avocado at the end of the wrapper and roll like any regular skinny inside-out roll. You'll be able to make about 3 rolls, with eight pieces per roll with this, and still have some rice leftover. You can decorate the pieces with whatever mint bits are leftover or little peels of granny apples.

Lime n Dill Chickenbits

1 lb boneless skinless chicken. Can be Thighmeat or Breastmeat
3 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp sea salt (can use plain salt)
1/2 tsp parsley flakes

Trim fat off of chicken and slice it into strips. In a bowl mix lime juice, herbs and salt for marinade. Put chicken into plastic bag, pour marinade in with chicken and mooosh stuff inside around to coat evenly. Let marinade for at LEAST one hour.

Heat skillet with a little olive oil and cook strips until you get a light brown around each strip fo chicken.

Come see what I made! 8D



( More pictures here! )