Not Much of a Story But . . . Highlights

Isn't it just like me setting up low expectations? They prevent disappointment.

Anyways, first dish up is the buttermilk pancakes I made for last Sunday breakfast. They're from the same Epicurious recipe as before. Once again they were pretty good. These ones have pineapple on the side and marmalade and butter on them. Mmmmm, butter. I'm starting to not like them too sweet. . . the pineapple was almost too sweet. Anyways, this took care of the pancake craving.On Monday, I made banana muffins using the Low Fat Banana Bread recipe on Epicurious. This used up some of the leftover buttermilk and 3 super-ripe bananas. I pretty much followed the recipe except I didn't flour the tins, I used about half brown sugar, I added a teaspoon or so of cinnamon, and I used slightly less sugar than called for. Of course, the other change is that I baked it as muffins rather than a loaf. I don't own a loaf pan. Anyways, it made a dozen muffins that baked up in about 22 minutes. Here's how pretty they looked:
The muffins got an excellent rise and had good texture for low fat, I think. My only beef is that they are too sweet for my taste, 3/4 of a cup of sugar is a freaking lot. Next time i would use less than half a cup and probably all brown sugar. I froze many of the muffins for later. We'll see how they hold up. I'm crossing my fingers.

This week I also ate my first Fuyu persimmon, that I know of. When I bought it, the lady asked what kind of tomato it was. That was a little funny. Anyways, it had mild, fragrant, firm almost crunchy orange flesh. It wasn't a particularly sweet fruit. It was subtle, really. I didn't think too much of it while I was eating it, but I kinda want another one. Only problem is that they're pricey and I don't want to eat ones from China and it's hard to tell which are. The sign said California. . . I hope that's true. I think it cost $1.50 and that's the cheapest I've seen.

Finally, my dinner tonight based on Quinoa and Creczenza with Sauteed Mushrooms in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. I had to add a bit of rice 'cause I ran out of quinoa. I enjoyed the crimini mushrooms. The fried egg was my addition 'cause the girl needs protein. I didn't have Creczenza, a type of cheese I've never seen, so I used some grated provolone and asiago. Aside from the mushrooms with chili flakes, it was mild and needed more pepper. Of course that's my fault. The texture of quinoa was a pleasure as always in this dish. Here's a photo of my creation.
I also stirred in a little parsley for colour and flavour. The book this is from is pretty inspiring even if some ingredients are. . . out there.

Yin and Yang: Quinoa and Sausage

Quinoa is supposed to be this super-healthy grain-like substance that contains all the essential amino acids. I've been meaning to try it for a while. If it tastes good what's not too like. Now, you might think I'd incorporate it into some super-healthy dish. But, that's not quite what I did. You see, at the same time I bought the quinoa at Save-On I also bought some Spolumbo's Spicy Italian Sausage.

Thus I created a sort of sausage "ragout" perhaps and served it over quinoa. It also may have been good over pasta. Anyways, what I did was to boil the sausage until it was mostly cooked. Then I sliced it and sauteed it in a little olive oil with about one medium chopped onion; seven large, chopped crimini mushrooms (the brown ones), and a couple of chopped garlic cloves. I sauteed for quite a while to try to get things browning. Then I added a 14 ounce can of plum tomatoes that i stabbed up a bit (stabbing is a good cooking technique, you should stab the sausage with a fork while you boil it). I added some pepper, thyme, and oregano and let it simmer for a bit. Towards the end of the simmering I added a chopped red bell pepper and some crushed chili pepper flakes. Finally, at the very end I stirred in some fresh parsley. I served it over quinoa (cooked by boiling for 15 minutes) and garnished with parsley and grated Asiago cheese.

This is what my concoction looked like:

It was quite delicious, spicy from the pepper flakes and sausage. Sweet with red bell peppers. Aromatic from the herbs. Meaty-tasting chunks of mushroom and of course the incorporable joy of pieces of sausage.

You might be wondering about the quinoa: Did that "grain" work? It worked wonderfully. It has this fantastic slightly chewy texture and a subtle flavour. I liked the way it stuck to the bits of meat and vegetables in this dish. This is what cooked quinoa looks like if you're curious:

I cooks up fast, tastes good, has an appealing texture, and is very healthy as it is high in fibre and protein. I can see myself buying more quinoa and making it a regular part of my dining at home. Actually, I ate quinoa today as sort of a "salad." I sauteed peas, garlic sprouts, and green onion and mixed that with quinoa, canned sardine, pepper, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. I thought it was pretty decent for something thrown together and quite enjoyed the quinoa. But, no photo of that.

What I call garlic sprouts are shoots cut off the green part of the garlic growing in the garden. They tasted garlicy but not really strong.

Quinoa must be rinsed thoroughly prior to cooking to remove its bitter outer layer.