Thyme For Cooking, the Blog

Snow Peas, Mangetout; It. Was. The. Cable.

Don't you just love it when you learn something new?

Do you find yourself thinking that it would have been ever so much better if you could have learned it a bit faster?

Did you know that cables can quit working?

I didn't.

Now I do.

Mere seconds after I finished my post on Friday I lost my internet connection.

Since it was during 'un orage', a thunderstorm, I naturally assumed it was the phone lines/modem.

After a bit more investigation I discovered mon mari's computer still had internet access so it wasn't the modem.

After an hour or so of plugging, unplugging, switching equipment and generally rearranging everything under my desk I determined it was the Ethernet card. 

Simple enough: buy a new one.  (From the 'When all else fails, throw money at it' school of computer repair.)

Have you popped the case on your computer lately?

It reminds me of the progression of car engines.

Back in the beginning of time, when I was a young, independent wench, I did my own car maintenance.  All the guys did and I was, usually, one of the guys. 
(At the time I worked in the engineering department of a heave equipment manufacturer - what do you expect?)

When one 'popped the hood' one could not only see the various engine components, one could access them.  It wasn't necessarily easy but one could get at the points, plugs, oil, etc. (I couldn't afford a car with AC.)

The last time I looked under the hood of a car the entire engine was enclosed in a nice, shiny case and it filled the engine compartment so completely there was no room for dust, let alone fingers or tools.

Much the same has happened with my computer.

Eight years ago I bought the components and built my own. 

Four years ago, when I opened the case, it was about 50% full but still with all recognizable, accessible boards and chips.

Now it's chock-a-block with cables and wires and boards and stuff.

And many of us know, from experience, that the worst thing that can happen when you take something apart is that, after you put it all back together, you have a piece left.

Thus, I decided to take my computer to the computer shop and let them replace the Ethernet card.

Being nice, young lads (read: didn't trust a female over 30 to adequately diagnose a computer problem) they plugged it in before taking it apart. 

It worked.

Damn!

Now what do I do?

I'd already eliminated any other hardware possibilities.

It couldn't be software since it was working at their shop.

They looked at me like I was an alarmist idiot, crying wolf for no reason.

I, half-jokingly, said 'Maybe it's the cable'.

They laughed, shook their heads, patted me on the back (Stupid Woman!  The Cable?!?!?  It's NEVER the cable!) and sent me home.

Before I left I bought a new cable.  I told them it was for mon mari's computer.  They snickered.

It was the cable.

Here's how I know:

  Old cable: no internet.
  New cable: internet.

So, now you know. 

Sometimes, the answer really is the simplest and easiest.

Why can't we ever believe that first off?

I'm keeping it simple for this week's edition Weekend Herb Blogging, that wonderful event started by Kalyn, of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Our host this week is Susan, of The Well-Seasoned Cook. 

Visit her site on Monday for the complete re-cap of recipes from around the globe.

Two new things I learned today: (what an educational weekend this it turning out to be!)

Green peas contain nutrients that help support energy-producing cells.  Tired?  Eat your peas.

They also contain nutrients that are important for maintaining bone health, something we all should be concerned about.

Plus they are one of the best sources of vegetable protein.  (Ooops, that's 3 things)

Most fresh peas end up in the freezer section but, this time of year, the Sugar Snap Peas and Snow Peas (sugar snap peas have slightly larger peas in the edible pod) are at the markets.  And they are good in ways other than a 'stir-fry'.

Mangetout (Snow Peas, Pea Pods) - Two ways:

Sautéed Snow Peas with Browned Shallots

snow peas, 5oz (150gr)
2 shallots
2 tsp olive oil

Peel and slice shallots. Trim pods. Cut large pod into pieces, at an angle, if desired. Heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until browned, reducing heat after 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total time. Add pea pods and sauté 2 - 4 minutes, depending on size, stirring frequently.

Sautéed Snow Peas

snow peas, 5oz (150gr)
1 tbs fresh, snipped garlic chives
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Trim pods. Heat butter and oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add pea pods and sauté 2 - 4 minutes, depending on size, stirring frequently. Taste, when they are done to your liking, add chives, salt and pepper and serve.

Someday, when I grow up, I'm going to have my computer equipment on top of the desk, so I don't have to crawl under it with a flashlight to get at the back of the box.  Then, just maybe, I won't have a big ugly centipede living under it.

Bon Weekend!

Fried Asparagus; Roasted New Potatoes; How many blogs are there...Really?

This is not a food blog.

I am not a food blogger.

I thought I was.  Really, I did. 

I was pretty sure, actually - what with all the recipes and food photos.....

Apparently I was wrong.

It all started innocently enough.  I read a statement, somewhere, that there were 48,000 food blogs in the U.S.

That was such a nice round number, and such a confident statement, that I had to investigate.

I started Googling.

Then I Googled some more.

I will not insult your intelligence by giving you the many and varied words and word strings that I used.

I will not bore you by giving you all of the outdated facts and over-the-top opinions that I discovered.

I will not embarrass myself by admitting to how much time I wasted spent at this endeavor.

I will share a few interesting tidbits:

At one point, in 2006, someone (obviously with massive amounts of time on their hands) counted, and there were 56 million blogs.  I could find no more recent numbers that agreed with each other.

The consensus is that between 60% and 80% of all blogs started are abandoned within 1 month.

I couldn't find any statistic as to how many of the now-surely-in-excess of 56 million blogs were active.

At one point, 1.09 million blogs were only active for 1 day.

The average life expectancy of a blog is 126 days.

The oldest abandoned blog was active for 923 days. (Couldn't stick it out to the 3-year mark, eh?)

WAIT!!!!!!!

I just discovered a new career!!! Blog Archeology:  The study of ancient blogs, defined as older than 900 days.  How exciting!

Back to the naval gazing....

Half of the pundits I read said blogging is on the way out, being replaced by Twitter.

The other half said it will replace print as the most important media for writing.

After that dip into the pool of general blog knowledge I decided to get on with the search specifically related to food blogs.

That's when I saw this in the number one spot on Google:

     "A comprehensive food blog directory: If it's a food blog you'll find it  here!"

Well, there you have it!  My answers, all on one site.

I clicked.

I scrolled.

I didn't find me.  There was no Thyme for Cooking, the Blog listed anywhere.

Apparently this is not a food blog.

I did find a number of, what I consider inactive, blogs listed, those with no posts for the last 3 months or longer.

The site itself had it's last update on Oct. 6.  And the one before that was June 18.

So, I wouldn't consider it active.... Or current....

Regardless, I got so depressed I could no longer continue my investigation.

Since I'm not a food blog I'll use the rest of today's post to discuss the merits of penile implants/enhancers. 

I've been getting a lot of fascinating spam on that lately and I just can't decide how big I want 'my  package', 'my rod', my 'love tool' to be.  Never having had one to start with, it's a particularly difficult decision.  Anyone care to advise???

For those not interested in the aforementioned topic, here are a couple of spring recipes that I made before I became more self-aware.  (Maybe I can't cook either.....)

Sautéed (Fried) Asparagus
Everybody roasts.  Why not fry?

10 - 12oz (350gr) asparagus
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp butter (optional, but I'm depressed)
1 tbs fresh, snipped chives
sea salt

Snap off ends of asparagus. If white use vegetable peeler and peel the bottom half of stalk. Put asparagus into a skillet big enough to hold them without cutting, add oil and sauté over medium heat until starting to brown and blister, 8 - 10 minutes. Remove, add butter (optional) and chives, sprinkle with salt and serve.

Roasted New Potatoes
New potatoes are early, tiny, immature potatoes of any color, usually 1" (2.5cm) or less in diameter. They have a high moisture content, are incredibly creamy

18 - 20 new potatoes
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

Leave potatoes whole and unpeeled. Just wash lightly. Toss with oil, lightly salt and put into a baking dish large enough for them to be in a single layer. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes. Stir half way through baking time.  Serve... Be ready for a an OMG moment with the first bite.  

Now, could someone please tell me what I am?

Oh, and what size I should want my, "you know" to be.... muy importante, tambien!  I have soooo many emails to answer!

Spring Pasta: with Asparagus and Peas; March Madness; The 2 Simpsons

March Madness!

I might as well get in on the fun; take advantage of the name, as it were.  They're trying to take advantage of mine.

Or maybe the people at the 'March Madness Sports Book' thought their patrons would find my post on Avocados in Omelets stimulating.

And the people at the 'NCAA People's Official Sports Book' just thought my dissertation on Caramelized Onion Lasagne particularly fascinating. 

Between the two of them they left 132 TrackBacks on my blog last night.

I suppose I really ought to thank them. 

I knew that sports books existed before we moved to Ireland but they didn't play a big part in daily life in the Midwest.

They did in Ireland. 

We decided to move to Ireland in the fall of 1995. 

For those who do not remember the major event of that autumn, it was trying to discover 'who killed Mr. Burns' on 'The Simpson's'.

For those who do not remember the other  major event of that autumn it was the O.J. Simpson Trial.

Any of you who know the Irish can see where this is headed:  Every major and minor sports book in Ireland had odds on 'the 2 Simpson's: O.J. versus Homer'. 

It was all that was talked about on the radio and in the pubs.  The odds changed almost hourly and everyone was in on the action.

No one gave a rats ass about the actual trial; the actual guilt or innocence of any of the parties; and whether or not Mr. Burns could be resuscitated.

But everyone followed every tidbit on 'American television' so as to monitor their bets.

One could bet on one or the other; or any of several combined outcomes.  (Please don't ask me to explain: it was so fast and so rapidly changing it made my head spin.)

It put all of it in a totally different, surreal perspective.

It was so very Irish.

And now, thanks to all those TrackBacks (yes, deleted) I feel like I am, in some small way, a part of the American basketball scene...or is it baseball....  It's spring right?  Doesn't baseball start now?

Speaking of spring:  We are excited. (Aside from March Madness, of course.)

The "A" vegetables are returning: Artichokes and Asparagus.

Since we eat and shop seasonally, by choice as well as necessity (if it's not in season it's not available), we are never certain when they'll first make an appearance.  It can be as early as mid-March, like this year (YAY!!!!) or as late as mid-May, like 3 years ago (boooo!!!).

The earlier they appear, the longer the season, so be warned:  There will be a lot of "A" vegetable stuff appearing on these pages in the next weeks. 

You can bet on it!

With the return of spring the cooking, chez moi, undergoes a change.

The cast iron Dutch Oven used for stews and braises gets tucked away and the salad spinner comes out. 

The oven gets cleaned and the barbecue grill comes out of winter storage.

Yeah, I know, we're a bit early.  But that first steak, done in the dark, wearing a jacket and holding an umbrella is still damn good!

And to go with it: a lovely Spring Pasta, the perfect entry for Presto Pasta Nights, the love-child of Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast.  Visit her blog on the first day of spring for the complete round-up!

Spring Pasta with Asparagus and Peas

3/4 cup of peas, fresh or frozen (plain)
6 - 8 oz asparagus
1 1/2 tsp butter
1 1/2 tsp flour
1/2 cup (4oz, 125ml) milk
1/3 cup (3oz, 90ml) ricotta
1 tbs Dijon-style mustard
1/2 tsp tarragon
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup pasta, farfalle

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. While pasta cooks:
The vegetables: Trim and roll-cut asparagus into 1" (2.5cm) lengths. (To roll-cut: cut the end off at an angle, roll 1/4 turn and slice at the same angle, roll 1/4 and slice, etc. This gives you interesting looking pieces with lots of surface.) Bring a large saucepan half full of water to a boil. Add asparagus and cook for 3 minutes. Add peas after 2 minutes. Drain and pour into a bowl of cold water. When cool, drain well.
The sauce: In a small saucepan heat the butter over low heat. Add flour and stir with a whisk for 1 minute. Add a little milk and whisk to combine. Turn heat up to medium and keep adding milk, a little at a time and whisking. When it's thick and starting to boil stir in ricotta, tarragon and mustard. Keep warm until needed.
To assemble: Put drained pasta in a bowl. Add sauce and toss to combine. Add vegetables, combine, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

I know, I know:  A proper pasta dish should have more pasta then 'sauce'. 

I'm having my own version of March Madness and it has to do with gorging myself on spring veggies!

Don't forget: I'm hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week!  Send your entries to thyme2.kate@gmail.com.  Come on and play with me!  Join the Spring Madness!

Pasta with Prosciutto and Chevre; It's Time to Calibrate; and a Rant on Big!

Remember my epiphany about my blog and website looking vastly different on different monitors? 

I decided it might not be prudent for me to recalibrate all the monitors I came in contact with. 

It would certainly be prudent to recalibrate my own.

After spending the morning tweaking controls, changing percentages and generally  mucking up my settings, I decided that, just possibly, someone else had done this before me.  Possibly, said person might even know exactly what to do.

On to Google!

I found 2 sites that I found very useful and you might, also.  Both sites explain how to calibrate your monitor settings and give verbal and visual examples to use. 
They are: http://www.momentskept.com/MonitorCalibration.htm
               http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

I hope you find them as useful as I did.

And may all of our photos look as beautiful to everyone else as they do to us!

Now I have some questions/observations:

Does everyone in the U.S. live in family units of more than 5 with at least 2 rapidly growing teenage boys?

Are there no 1, 2 or 3 person households?

If you are relegated to living in a smaller family unit must you throw away 30% of your food or live on Lean Cuisine?

I recently heard a scary statistic that roughly 30% of all food purchased is thrown away.  The reasons were: actual spoilage and/or past the 'use-by' date.

I can now understand why. 

I like to have juice and cereal for breakfast.  I am one person.  I could not find either milk or orange juice in less than 1/2 gallon containers.  What do you people do if you need a cup of milk for something?  One could buy a quart and probably use it before it spoils, but a 1/2 gallon?

At my sister's I was having oatmeal for breakfast.  There was a 1/2 gallon of milk in the fridge with about 2 tbs. gone.  It was sour; she threw it out.  My b-i-l went to the store and bought another 1/2 gallon - and wondered if they should store that one for 2 weeks, also, (until it was bad) or just toss it now.

My choice for juice was the ubiquitous 1/2 gallon for roughly $4.50 or a six-pack of little individual juice boxes for roughly the same price, although about 1/3 the actual juice.

Why does everything have to be so big?  I understand the advantages of big, and, when I had a rapidly growing teenage boy, I bought big.  But, surely, there is a significant part of the population that would be interested in small, or, at least, smaller.

Then I went to Costco.  May I say WOW!  Perhaps I should say that bigger, er, louder.  I can certainly understand the appeal: for big events and big families.  And some things come in larger quantities of smaller containers that could be shared...
But, if I put that gallon of mayonnaise in my fridge along with the 1/2 gallon of ketchup, a quart of mustard, and a 5 lb block of cheese, that would fill it.  No more food!
Plus I'm pretty sure that I couldn't use it all before it spoiled - and had to be thrown out.  30%!

One more, then I'll shut-up before you all start flaming me:

Does everything come already seasoned/herbed/marinated?  Don't people realize how much added salt , chemicals and general junk is in the 'herb-flavored rice'?  The prepackaged Cuban Red Beans and Rice? 
Or how much extra you pay to have someone else pour the teriyaki marinade over your chicken breasts?

At the store I used to shop at, I asked why they no longer carried such things as plain brown rice, or even the trendier Jasmine (but plain).  The answer?  No one bought it.  What sold was the ready-made, prepackaged stuff.

I understand that the Whole Foods and Trader Joe's type store fill this need in the larger cities, but what about the smaller towns?  Is everything too convenient?  Don't people know that a simple vinaigrette can be made in about 20 seconds and one can add herbs to their own rice?

Well.... Some people know!  All of us who spend their time writing, cooking, eating, planning and obsessing about food know. 

Ruth, of Once Upon A Feast, knows.  That why she's spent the past year promoting all the wonderful pasta dishes we can make from scratch (or close).

I know the Presto Pasta Nights Big Birthday Bash was last week, but the banner is so cute....

Pasta with Prosciutto and Chevre

1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
12 Greek or black olives, pitted
12 green olives, pitted
8 oz white beans (cannellini)
1 tbs olive oil
3 oz (60gr) fresh spinach
6 - 8 slices (4oz, 125gr) Prosciutto, Serrano, Bayonne (mine) or other dry-cured ham
2/3 box chevre (goat cheese) - the little cartons of creamy goat cheese, 5 oz (150 gr)
(Chavrie in U.S. Chevraux in France)
1/2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1 1/4 cup pasta

Cook pasta according to package instructions.
While waiting for the water to boil, prepare sauce:
Thickly slice onions. Mince garlic. Slice ham into large strips. Cut olives in half. Drain and rinse the beans.  If spinach leaves are large cut in half.  Heat oil in medium non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and sauté until tender.  Add garlic and ham. Sauté for 10 minutes longer, until ham is slightly crispy. Add olives, beans and goat cheese and heat through. When pasta is done, drain but don't shake every last bit of water off.  Put the spinach on top of the sauce in the skillet, add the hot pasta and stir to combine.  Sprinkle with cheese, stir again and serve.

This serves two.

In case your wondering, all these bits (except the ham and pasta) were leftovers from the weekend.  If you're really nice to me I'll tell you what else I made....

I am not among the crowd that throws out 30%.  Those use-by dates?   I usually give at least a 10-day grace period....longer if I still have it.

Pasta with Red Beans and Ham; The Learning Curve

I love it when I spend two solid days working at my computer and accomplish absolutely nothing. 
Nada!  Rien!  Zip!  It's exhausting!

I'm back where I started on Saturday morning.  And, I might add, damn glad to be here!

It all started simply enough.  In case you didn't know, (duh!) I have a website, Thyme for Cooking, in addition to this blog (sacrilegious, I know!) with which I am trying to eke out a living to maintain my current lifestyle of, um, living, eating, etc.  I've been wanting to add a 'member's only log-in' function for the last year and finally decided it was time.

Naturally, I did the first thing I always do with any problem: buy something!  In this case I bought a little piece of software on the internet for interfacing with PayPal. 

They said it was easy to use. 

The fact that they also said I should have knowledge of PHP and MySql didn't deter me in the least.  (Don't know those words?  Hahaha!  Me neither!)

Then I bought "PHP and MySql for Dummies" at Amazon.com.  I mean, other people do this right?  It can't be that hard! 

The fact that I had no knowledge of PHP and MySql didn't deter me in the least.

Next step, before actually opening the "Dummies" book, is to go to the the host for my website, tick the little boxes that say "Add MySql and PHP capabilities"  and try to install my new software. 

Didn't work.

So, I did what else I always do: start opening files and folders, checking this, tweaking that, running this, installing that; generally, in the guise of 'familiarizing myself', I dig a whole that gets bigger and deeper with every click of the mouse.

By the end of Saturday, pretty much nothing worked.  Even the stuff that had worked in the morning no longer worked.  It was time to quit.

Back at it Sunday morning, I decided to do the next thing I always do (after I totally screw things up): delete the whole mess and start over; this time reading the instructions, opening the book and starting at step one. (How boring!)

Except, I couldn't!  Delete it, that is. 

Somehow, in all of my tweaking and clicking, I had managed to delete my own privileges.  I no longer had the authority to do anything.  No matter what I tried to do, the F***ing, helpful, computer came back and said "Access denied".  I no longer had the authority to give me my authority back!  You can see the problem.

By the end of Sunday I conceded defeat.  I hate that!  I called the help line. 

After two days of this, I was not feeling receptive to the chipper voice on the other end.  Fortunately, I remembered that I wanted him to actually help me....

He spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out the problem.  (Number one issue with geeks: much more interesting to figure out why than to just fix it.) 

Finally, he admitted he was stumped.

Finally, he listened to my plea: just delete the whole mess and let me start over!

But what about saving your work, he asked... Trust me, I don't want it saved...

So, this morning I'm back where I was Saturday morning, with a clean slate, a pristine program, a do-over!

Now, where was that book again?  Oh never mind, who needs books....

That's why I'm not much of a baker - you have to read the directions.  Takes all the mystery out of it!

It's why I like pasta; imagine what you want it to taste like and then add ingredients until you're there!

And who says Red Beans need to be with Rice?

This is my entry for Presto Pasta Nights, started and hosted each week by the lovely Ruth, of Once Upon A Feast.  Each week find a plethora of pasta in her Friday post...

Beans are a major vegetable in both France and Spain, but are normally sold plain, rarely flavored or spiced. If I could get them, I would use 'red kidney beans in chili sauce' for this. If you do, you might want to use less chili powder. Frying the chili powder releases more of the flavor.  I used a local, dry-cured ham.  It has tons of flavor so not much is needed.  Prosciutto is probably the easiest, similar ham to find, but Serrano, Iberian, Bayonne, would all be delicious.

Pasta with Red Beans and Ham

1 cup dried pasta, penne, rigatoni
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1/2 green pepper
1 tbs olive oil
1 can whole tomatoes (15 oz, 450 gr)
2 1/4" (.6cm) slices dry-cured ham, Prosciutto,
1 can/jar red kidney beans (15 oz, 450 gr) or chili beans if you can get them
1 small can chopped green chilies
1 tbs chili powder
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
2 bay leaves, fresh or dried
few drops hot pepper sauce optional
anything else you would like to add to make it hotter - jalapeños, red pepper flakes?

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Chop onions, celery and pepper.  Finely chop garlic.  Heat oil in large, nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add chili powder and sauté 1 minute.  Add onions, celery, pepper and garlic and sauté 7 - 8 minutes.  Trim ham and cut into bite-size pieces.  Add ham and sauté briefly.  Drain and rinse the beans. (Do not rinse 'beans in chili sauce'.)  Drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice, then roughly chop.  Add beans, tomatoes, herbs and hot pepper sauce.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.  Add green chilies and simmer 5 minutes more.  Add reserved juice if it starts to look to dry (not necessary if using chili sauce beans).  Taste, adjust heat, remove bay leaves, add to pasta and toss well.  Serve.  Mon mari has jalapeños on the side.

Be sure to stop by Once Upon A Feast on Friday for the complete recipe round-up. 

Back to work - if the entire internet collapses later today, don't blame me...I'm not that good!