What to do..? Cook!

I am quite all right with being snowed in. Im definitely a homebody when Im not out exploring the campus and surrounding neighborhoods or going out somewhere with friends. The snow storm provided a good opportunity for me to get settled in and crank out some recipes Ive been meaning to create for several days now. Laura and Erin came over for the evening and we decided to make some dinner with all the fresh stuff I brought home the other night. Here is what we ended up with.

Guacamole!

I adore guacamole. Chips, salsa and guac are all I need to live on.. We made this delicious guac with:

3 organic avocados

diced red onion

diced tomato

cumin

garlic

lime juice

cilantro

s+p

This is the recipe I got from my friend's mother who is from Texas, so its pretty tasty. You can put corn and other stuff in it, depending on what you like.

Potato Cauliflower Souffle

potatoes

cauliflower 

salt

pepper

butter

evaporated milk

ground cloves

grated baby swiss cheese

egg replacer

For the topping we used:

toasted sliced almonds

butter

brown sugar 

grated baby swiss cheese

a little flour, I think.. 

This lovely creation was inspired by my mothers delicious sweet potato souffle, which made the cut in to her cook book, and also due to Laura's suggestion to turn what started as a potato-cauliflower mash in to a souffle. I didnt have any eggs so I used a powdered egg replacer instead, which worked better than I thought it would. It rose nicely, was not too dense like mashed potatoes and was delicious when hot out of the oven! I  was pretty impressed with ourselves this time; this recipe, once refined and reproducible, will get its own card in my recipe box.. This means a lot, because I hate using recipes! A dish must be very tasty for me to go through the trouble of recording how it was made to taste a particular way.. I prefer to throw tasty things together and assume it will have a tasty result than follow the rules of a recipe! I keep telling everyone that this is why I won't make a good chemist.. 

The third thing we came up with was supposed to be a Thai curried butternut squash soup.. I just baked the squash with some butter, black truffle oil, salt and pepper till it was soft, mashed it with evaporated milk and more butter and added some basil, curry powder, grated fresh ginger, garlic and a couple other spices that seemed good at the time. I dont have a blender, so I used the hand mixer to make it more like a puree. It turned out more like a thick sauce or paste, but it was delicious served over the saffron rice we cooked with it! I think it would have been much better with a fresher squash and if I had a blender..

The last thing we made is not something we made up, but its a personal discovery. Snow + flavored coffee creamer = ice cream! This was made with a large bottle of English toffee international delight coffee creamer, but most of it ended up melting because we were all so full.

More randomness

I was dropping my friend off yesterday afternoon after having been snowed in the previous evening,  when we came across a big pile of stuff at the corner outside the entrance to her apartment complex. After I found the suitcase the other day she had mentioned that she needed one, so when we saw a little black suitcase on top of matching end tables, we pulled over and got out to investigate.
We guessed that the stuff had just been put out since it wasn't covered in the aforementioned 7" of snow.. The suitcase is in excellent condition and the perfect size for Erin; inside were more treasures: a pair of black leather cowboy boots and three other pairs of size 12 mens shoes. Not an hour before I had made a comment about how badly in need of a new pair of shoes I am and alluded to the possibility of going shoe shopping, a once every-other-year kind of event for me; however, I didn't entertain the idea long, thinking of how the snow would affect what would otherwise be a simple errand.. Ever since I found that pair of ladies boots last summer at the dorm dumps Ive been wanting a pair of my own(mens cowboy boots), although they're slightly large and I haven't decided if I want to keep them for good; after all, they could easily fetch a price to pay for my chemistry book or biology lab manual, both of which ive been putting off buying in hopes of acquiring one for free or at a reduced price.. and now that we're entering the third week of school.......
In addition to the suitcase of shoes, we found a small boom box and a flashlight. inside the end tables. I would have taken the tables too, but I have nowhere to put them.. Thinking back, I should have taken them.. they could have hung out in the living room until someone on craigslist wanted to pay $10 for them.. We'll call this a lesson learned.

Oh, how I do love random finds! To think that this would have just sat beside the road or been picked up by someone else if I had decided to stay in the house for the third day in a row.. Another lesson learned: people still throw stuff away when it snows. Its also good to get out and about every now and then..

Before the storm

Last Thursday there was a meet up to go diving and a few friends came along to see what we could recover before the forecasted snow storm came the next day. We found lots of good stuff including:

2 cases(~120) Uncrustable sandwiches

16 tomatoes

bunch of bananas

5 jalapanoes

2 bell peppers

3 organic avocados

4 apples

1 bag cranberry beans

1 bag bagles

3 boxes organic yogurt tubes

2 packs organic butternut squash-apple yogurt

8 individual yogurt cartons

box mushrooms

3 cans New England clam chowder

2 cans evaporated milk

loaf Hawaiian king sweet bread

4 boxes granola bars

3 bags barbecue chips

3 heads romaine lettuce

box baby romaine 

fresh ginger

frozen chicken breasts

This is just the stuff that I brought home, and unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of everything before putting it all away.. I had lots of stuff to cook while snowed in for three days!

Random..

After school today I was driving home when I saw a big red suit case next to the dumpsters outside a house, so I promptly turned around and went back to investigate. It seemed to be fine so I tossed it in the back seat and was on my way. Upon closer inspection when I got back home, I discovered that the top handle had been broken off which must be why it was tossed, although it's otherwise in good condition. Inside, the was a small plastic trash can and an allen wrench set,  much nicer than the one Ive got in my bikes saddlebag.

Basil had to come check everything out.. maybe this is the suitcase we will be living out of in Hawai'i...?  

Finally, Pies!

My best friend's little brother is shipping off to Army boot camp. Its very sad. His going away party was last night so we all got together to send him off well. Later on we all rendezvoused back at Laura's, but on my way over there I decided to stop at the store to pick up some late night snacks. I didn't dig deep but I found some good stuff:

10 pie crusts
16oz block cheddar cheese
bag sliced cheddar
3 loaves bread
veggie platter
box of baby greens

The veggie tray looked good but didn't taste good... There was a big bag of fish filets that must have dripped all over it or something because it smelled fishy and had a weird taste;  we decided against eating it. I left some cheese, bread and a pie crust with Laura.
 I was excited about the pie crusts because Ive been talking about baking pies for ages, but have not had any flour to make the crust dough with. It wont be as tasty as if I had made it, but ill settle for a pre-made crust. The last pie I made was soooo good but my fav is blueberry and I still have all those bags of fruit in the freezer from whenever we found those.. or perhaps peach-blueberry? Ill have to think on it. At first, I only grabbed a couple boxes, but after considering my love for pies, I went back on my way home to get five more in case I don't find any flour for a while. I couldn't help but think about the organization called Free Pie or something: http://free-pie.org/
 I absolutely adore this idea. Maybe I could organize one in Greensboro. I guess all these crusts and frozen fruit would make it pretty simple to start from; maybe Ill go back tonight for the rest of the crusts.. Anyone wanna get together to bake pies and give em away somewhere?

In the news

I don't really watch TV, except for situations where there is one on in the same room.. I also don't read much.. I can, but unless I have some kind of assignment or special interest, I don't usually just pick up books and start reading them.. This means that I never see the news on TV, never really read news papers, check news blogs or anything like that. Whatever filters in to my life comes mostly from conversations with friends, overhearing stuff at work, or some discussion at school or something like that. A few days ago someone at work asked me what I think about what is happening in Haiti and I had no clue that there has been a catastrophic earthquake resulting in apocalyptic fight-to-the-death-for-a-morsel-of-food type scenario that is unfolding. Kind of like 9/11.. I was a freshman in high school when it happened, but since we didn't have TV at home I never really saw or heard exactly what happened. I knew there was an attack and planes in towers and shit, but I never saw images or read the stories about it. So, months later when I saw videos of the plane hitting the tower for the first time and people falling from the sky I sobbed.
I recently heard about the "NBC fiasco" which I had virtually no knowledge of. I heard someone at work talking about there being a time slot discrepancy for some show with someone, but thats all I knew. I became inquisitive, since everyone seems to be in such a huff about it and began asking questions. So, apparently Conan O'Brian is getting fired and given like 40 million dollars and his show is being given to Jay Leno or something like that... I don't understand why people are so upset about it. I couldn't care any less. It has no affect on mine or anyone elses present life or future whatsoever, unless you are related to one of the two or work for NBC I guess... If these are the things that common people consider important and pressing newsworthy issues, what issues are scientists concerned with?  What are the real problems that so many forces are trying to distract people from with frivolous, mindless crap that matters to no one.
Obviously, I should be in the know about the important things. It is an individuals responsibility to keep up with what's going on in the world, but it seems that the "important" things that are in the news are complete and total bull shit: "John and Kate are getting a divorce!" Who the hell are they?  "Michael Jackson died!" So... what? Everyone dies.. "Unauthorized Oprah biography coming in April" Are you kidding? Who the hell besides Oprah gives a rat's ass!? Lets talk about the poor and homeless people who are starving to death in America or the children in public schools whose families cant afford lunches and go hungry, while every one of the biggest grocery store corporations are destroying tons of perfectly good food every day ..to save money? For convenience? Lets do something that advances humanity, something that brings human life to a higher level of quality and efficiency instead of simmering in this cesspool, thinking that we're just fabulous creatures at the peak of existence.. There is so much work to be done.
Anyway.. I guess I should start making more of an effort to be aware of the real problems occurring in the world.

Good finds

As I was riding my bike around the neighborhood yesterday I came across two items that I had to come back for with the car. The first thing is a very large wooden crate.

It measures 41"x45" and the bottom is raised off the ground. It was used to hold a load of slate, which was used in building the giant new houses down the street that all popped up within the last year. When I saw it I immediately knew that I would take it home and make a compost pin out of it. It is the perfect size and can easily be changed to allow one side to open on a hinge when its time to turn or ready to use. Im very excited about this, as it will give me more motivation and make it easier to compost everything at home.

The second item that I found is a small child's bicycle.

I have actually been keeping my eye out for one for a while but kind of forgot about it over the winter. I'll use the fork and wheels to build a small trailer for my bike so I can finally emancipate myself from my car.. or at least on nice days.. I would really like to build a little single wheel trailer that I can load up with crates and take with me wherever I go. I am very excited about this too.
I bought a hiking backpack for like two dollars a few months ago at the Habitat for Humanity Re-store, one of the best places ever, and took out the frame so that it could serve as the base frame for my trailer.

 Unfortunately for me, as a sagittarian, I cant seem to finish an awesome project before another awesom-er project consumes me.. in fact, right now there is a half sewn apron hanging on the mannequin, tiny bike parts laying on the floor and several unframed pictures stacked up on the shelf.. But now that Ive got all the parts, I just have to put it all together. This will require some outside help since everything needs to be welded together and I don't know anything about welding, although like so many other things, it would be a hobby Id take up if I had the time and equipment.

Cheesus Christ!

This dump was like unwrapping layers of presents; produce and flowers on top, then boxes of crackers and dried fruit, then containers of cole slaw, potato salad and tuna salad, then layers of cheeses, ham, salamis and other deli meats and finally, plants! What fun!  

Well its all been tallied up and Ill be damned if I didn't find most of my wish list. I only went to one grocery store and a retail place. Heres what I brought home:

8oz deep fried cajun sliced turkey breast
2 1lb bags sliced brown sugar ham
3 10oz pkgs Sara Lee sliced deli meats
1lb pkg sliced honey ham
7 4oz pks sliced hard salami
3 pks Genoa salami
4 pks pepperoni
3 8oz pkgs sliced Muenster cheese
3 pks Colby Jack
6 pks Baby Swiss
6 pks Smoked Provolone
5 pks Aged Swiss
4 10oz containers snack mix
3 12oz containers dried fruit mix
4lb bag sugar
5lb bag red potatoes
1lb bag frozen gnocci
2lbs butter
2 pkgs wonton wraps
3 heads organic green leaf lettuce
2 heads organic red leaf lettuce
3 bunches organic spinach
2 boxes baby organic mixed greens and herbs
2 bell peppers
1 pear
1 grapefruit
1 cantiloupe
3lb bag clementines
2 bunches radishes 
1 organic cabbage
2 bunches celery
2 bags cipolline onions
8 white and yellow onions
1 cucumber
6oz pkg sliced portabella mushrooms
1 bunch green onions
1 box brussel sprouts
1qt veg oil blend
3 boxes Veggie Tales fruit snacks
64oz bottle mystery juice.. apple? 
1 Superfoods Naked smoothie
1.5l. bottle laundry detergent
box trash bags
2 spathiphyllum
1 other house plant I cant recall the name of
office chair
2 picture frames

None of the meat or cheese I looked at was expired yet.. Its too bad I didn't check till I got home; I left a whole lot behind as you can see in the pictures. While writing this, I considered going back to collect the rest to put in the freezer but decided against it, as I have filled most of the house with stuff already and I don't even eat much meat anyway.. So I thought about getting it to take to a shelter or something.. but then I remembered school started this week and I will never ever actually make it there to drop anything off.






So now lets take a look back at the list I made before going out tonight and see how it matches up with the one made of what I found.

Flour............................................no flour, but I found sugar!
Naked smoothie drinks.......................check! And its my favorite, next to mango that is.
Brie, parmesean or another nice cheese.....no brie or parmesean, but just about every other kind!
Butter..........................................check! They came in the most adorable little mini sticks too!
Cream or half and half.......................not this time..
Eggs............................................nope

baby organic spinach.........................organic spinach+organic baby greens=good enough

shallots.........................................2 bags of cipolline onions will do!
balsamic vinegar.............................. nope

Ginger..........................................nada

Garlic...........................................onions galore, but no fresh garlic


Earlier today I realized I would need trash bags soon, my sister asked me to look for plants for her new apt., Ive been needing a good office chair for a while and I was also thinking about frying some the wonton wraps I have to make chips earlier today, but they were all dried out.. now i've got lots of fresh ones!

Im still amazed by how much stuff there always is and that I can usually find whatever I feel like at the moment. Im certain that I could have found the rest of the item if I had gone to another store or two.. 
I have recently found some other freegan and dumpster diving blogs, so Im excited to read them and see what others' experiences are like. One really cool one I found is about a girl's adventures in LA. Her stories about scaling walls and climbing under fences to get to the goods makes me feel awfully vanilla.. Her adventures make mine sound like a walk through the park. on the sidewalk... You can read her stuff at http://funkypunkyg.blogspot.com/.

Wish Lists

Ive often talked about wish list items, items that I need or want and think about before going out. Well tonight I am going to make said list before going out and see what I come home with. I usually limit these mental lists to three items, but tonight I'm thinking big and want to find:

Flour
Naked smoothie drinks
Brie, parmesean or another nice cheese
Butter
Cream or half and half
Eggs
baby organic spinach
shallots
balsamic vinegar
Ginger
Garlic

Here goes..

Ham croissant with mango-apricot spread

Last night my best friends and I decided to watch a movie and hang out at my house all night. Before we watched settled down to watch "Dead Zone" starring Christopher Walkin, which was awful by the way, we decided to make a little snack. Laura and I had made a version of the ham croissants a few nights before so we decided to try it again, changing the things that we talked about last time. We sliced the croissants and put ham on each one.

 We decided to make a mango-apricot spread so I cut up some of the dried pineapple flavored mango slices I had and put them in a small sautee pan with some apricot preserves, water and sugar. I added some cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and reduced it a bit. I put the mango-apricot spread on the bottom and put them in the oven to bake at a medium-low temp so that the ham would get hot and without burning the croissants.

While they baked I while I grated an apple and shredded some pepper jack cheese to top the sandwiches with. When the ham was ready I spread the apple and then cheese on each one and put it back in to broil for a minute longer.

Once the cheese had melted, they were ready.

The results were exceptional; Ive never had anything quite like them before, although a few things could still be improved the next time around..

How to clean cheese

My new camera has arrived so I thought Id do a step by step how-to guide to keeping firm cheeses clean and fresh so that they last a lot longer. Most people are very scared of "bad food" and think that the tiniest speck of mold on a block of cheese means its beginning to rot or something. The truth is that mold can be simply washed off of the cheese, leaving it free of anything gross. Take this example:

I found this cheese the other night. It was obviously thrown out because of the big patches of mold growing on it, even though the cheese is still good and fresh.

Upon opening the package, you can see that there was some pretty gnarly mold on the whole side of this block. This is a good example because it doesn't really matter how much mold there is, as long as what you are trying to save is more cheese than mold..

Just run it under some cool water and wash it with a clean cloth or brush. You should obviously not use hot water for this, as you will have a terrible mess to deal with afterwards.

Once it is satisfactorily clean, put it in a clean, dry towel and pat it dry. It is important to make sure it is good and dry before wrapping back up, or it will just get moldy again in a couple days.

Voila! A fresh, clean block of cheese. This pepper jack was also pretty moldy, so I tried washing it too, and it worked just as well. Wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap or keep it in a well fitting tupperware container; the less air its exposed to, the longer it will keep before getting moldy again or drying out.

I grated some of both cheeses on top of these Swedish baked potatoes. They were delicious. I found out this time that Yukon Gold potatoes is the way to go for this recipe, which I posted earlier.

Fruit n' Veges

Bro and I went out and and got a bunch of stuff the other night. I didnt write it all down but I took pictures. Among the items were:

parsnips
apples
carrots
greens
pears
oranges
limes
bananas
squash
tomatoes
red onions
potatoes
fresh herbs
vegan cheese
roses

Small Run

Last night I got my sister to go to a couple places with me. We didnt find a whole lot but what we found was good. We found two small tables with broken legs so I took the leg off one to fix the other. My sister found a new metal shower caddy for her new apartment.

2 boxes Woven Wheats... great with the chicken salad
2 potatoes
2 red potatoes
1 sweet potato
2 bags lettuce mix
1 caesar salad kit
1 bag broccoli and carrots
small table
metal shower caddy

Recipes galore

Ive been cooking lots of stuff that I have been meaning to post recipes for but I always seem to forget.. Well here's a recipe for some chicken salad I made today that turned out really well. I based it off of my moms recipe that she used in her restaurant and changed it to suit what I had in the fridge. The results were tasty!

Curried Ginger Chicken Salad

Chicken
mayonaise
diced celery
diced green onion
minced red onion
minced roasted garlic
minced garlic
relish
dried cranberries
soy sauce
curry powder
toasted sesame dressing
basil
cilantro
salt
pepper
soy sauce

I mixed approximately equal parts celery, onion, cranberries, and mayo with about 2 tbsp garlic and ginger, tsp herbs, soy sauce, sesame dressing and curry powder, and salt & pepper to taste. You can add more or less of what you like and change it to suit your taste. I served it on a toasted English muffin with organic spinach leaves for lunch.

Ive also been talking about baking a pie for days but haven't gotten around to it.. so tonight I whipped one up with some stuff that needed to be used while I made big pot of soup stock with all the veggies that needed to be used.

Strawberry Ginger Lime Pie

2c strawberries
2 segmented limes
1c sugar
2tbsp flour
1tsp vanilla extract
~1tbsp minced ginger
frozen pie crust

Mix up ingredients and pour in the pie crust. Bake according to directions on pie crust package. Dare I say, easy as pie.. or following directions. As you all may have gathered from previous posts, I prefer to make my own pie crust because its much tastier and really easy, but I didn't have any flour.. Ill keep an eye out at the dumps next time.

New camera!

Im really excited about the new camera that I ordered last week. Its a gift to my self for being awesome last year and fulling commitments that I made to my self. Its supposed to get here on Wednesday..  I know I mentioned I recently got a new camera, but it has proven that it can't keep up with my demands.. 

Its pretty nice and would be good for taking to a party or to bring along on a fun night out, but its not very durable and im always afraid of destroying it when I take it to the dumps with me. It has been dropped twice and has a small crack and a dent above the screen.. its made in China, so its not built for durability.. After considering my needs I decided on this one:

This one is pretty much indestructible. Water proof, drop proof, crush proof, freeze proof.. Just what I need. I got an extraordinary deal on mine too which makes it all more satisfying. I cant wait to test it out!