Savoy cabbage. Not Napa cabbage. Anyway.

There are a lot of things I want to make. My supervisor is ill, so my brain immediately jumped to SOUP today. That could be seen as too much of a suck-up move, though, so I probably won’t. Although roasting a chicken sounds good- especially if I do the rice thing again (crap, but I don’t have any onion soup- I wonder if Jon’s got any still in his freezer). I want to make the smothered pork chops from America’s Test Kitchen (ohhh, the gravy is so good- and I don’t like gravy in general). I want to make a sour cherry cobbler (also from ATK). I want to make tortillas and these very cool looking butter cookies with a garnish of salt (San Jose Mercury News from a couple weeks ago). I want to make baked beans again (ATK).

However, I’m extremely paranoid about driving at the moment, so no store for me. I got pulled over yesterday for an expired registration. I have very good luck. But if it hadn’t happened then, I still wouldn’t have seen it, and it just would have been until the next officer noticed. So m’dad and I are going to the DMV today hopefully to sort things out.

Sometimes I make things that don’t turn out well. Sometimes I grate my knuckle, too. Sometimes recipes call for a crapload of cabbage in a soup. If I ever make ribollita again, I’m going to use one kind of leafy vegetable, not three. Kale, Swiss chard, and Napa cabbage? Far too much. I ended up with, like, a keg of soup.

Finished up my not-naan yesterday. I should stick to biscuits. I kick ass at those. And yet, there’s a recipe for tortillas that intrigues….

I was going to bitch about the election and stuff (insert list of everything I’m pissed and worried and scared shitless about here), but I am restraining myself. This is a geek’s food blog, and such it will remain.

So here’s that lentil recipe I was talking about.

Lentil Curry

1 1/4 cups moong dal, roasted

1 1/2 to 2 cups water

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground tumeric

3 Tbsp ghee

Pinch of cumin seeds

2 small bay leaves

2 red chiles

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

1 1/4 tsp freshly grated ginger

2 1/2 Tsbp raisins

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coconut

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp sugar

2 to 4 Tbsp chopped cilantro

Wash roasted dal and bring to a boil. Add salt and tumeric. While boiling, remove scum. Cover and simmer about 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender. Be careful not to disturb dal during the simmering process since stirring may break the grains.

Heat ghee in a saucepan. Add cumin seeds, bay leaves, chiles, onions, and ginger. Fry about 2 minutes, stirring. Add raisins and coconut and mix in prepared boiled dal. Add cardamom, garam masala, sugar, cilantro. Mix well. Simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 16 to 20 minutes. If dal is too thick, add a little warm water. It should be creamy and thick, like pea soup.

(I used canola oil, since I didn’t have time to clarify butter. I didn’t have roasted moong dal, so I toasted the same amount of Le Puy lentils. I fried the onions, chiles, and spices for a lot longer- probably 8 to 10 minutes, adding the ginger near the end of that time, so it wouldn’t burn. During the final simmer, I ended up adding a lot of water, a bit at a time, to keep it the correct consistency. Also, I used more salt, and omitted the coconut. And I forgot the cilantro, although I did have some.)

I don’t care what your political leanings are, if you’re a U.S. citizen registered to do so, please vote today.

I ended up attempting to make a lentil curry and naan on Sunday. That didn’t really work. Well, the naan definitely didn’t work. It’s not bad, it’s just not naan. It tastes okay with that homemade cottage cheese I made, though. The lentils are tasty. But I don’t think they’re what they were supposed to be either. The recipe called for roasted moong dal, and I had Le Puy lentils, which I toasted in a skillet. I don’t know if that was an okay substitution, but it was all I had. Also, no coconut. I ended up cooking it for a lot longer than the directions said, because I couldn’t get the darn lentils soft enough. I wasn’t going to put raisins in it- I really dislike raisins in savory dishes- but I changed my mind in the end, and they’re actually not bad. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow. It’s good. It’s subtle. (I’m currently eating it for lunch.)

I have bread currently going stale. I’m thinking about soup. Ribollita or something.

I think maybe I’ll make something with lentils today.

Well, the adrenaline did not wear off before my alarm went off. I was kind of not happy on Thursday. I’m thinking about baking the firemen cookies. And my neighbor who helped out (assuming I can remember which apartment he came out of). That night, however, after a fabulous meal at Jon and Ryan’s, I came home and made cheese. Sort of a cottage cheese/ricotta hybrid. I’ve been interested in homemade cheese making since I bought an Indian cookbook- it calls for its use in a lot of dishes, both savory and sweet. However, the method they describe uses nonpasteurized milk, which I don’t think I can get unless I know a cow. So, after some googling, I ended up here. This is a fun site. Making the beginner recipe wasreally interesting- the vinegar really works quickly separating the milk into curds! Assuming I can find rennet tablets and mesophilic starters somewhere, I’m going to continue on this cheese path. We’ll see.

Pumpkinfest was last night. I really like the pumpkin I made. I used this design from Extreme Pumpkins, and then I painted black around it so it would be easily visible during the day, too. It’s all part of my endeavors to be the worst Halloween person ever. I’m planning on baking cookies for this, too. Very disturbing for parents. Hee!

I’ve got a little list… bank, Sigona’s, Jon’s, laundry, cookies, video games, possibly lentils, and a costume party. I’m even more lazy than I was last year, when I threw on a bathrobe, grabbed a towel, and went as Arthur Dent. I’ve got a toque and an apron- I’ll just go as a cook. The only question is whether the CCA apron or the Braisin’ Hussy apron.

Oh, my God. I am the world’s biggest moron. Seriously, you guys.

I woke up to the sounds of my fire alarm at 5am this morning. Panicked, I jumped out of bed to see what was going on. I saw blurry orange flames coming out of my wall heater. I ran outside and up to my landlord to ask him for help, but no one answered the door. I then ran back into my apartment to grab my glasses, my cell phone, and my bathrobe (it was quite cold, you see). I called 911 and got the fire department to come. After I hung up the phone, my brain started to clear a little bit from PANIC mode. I had an idea. A neighbor, alerted by my running around and PANIC came out of his apartment. I asked him if his heater had turned on yet this season. He said he turned it on once so far. I asked him if flames shot out of it. No. Okay, maybe I had a legitimate concern. Then, however, it dawned on me that I could just turn the damned thing off. So I did. And then the firemen came. A lot of them. There were two trucks. Even after I told them that this was all because I’m so incredibly dim, they, you know, had to do their job and check it out, so I had six firemen in my apartment, looking at my now turned off heater. I’m such a moron. Who needs to vacuum the dust from her heater.

I think this qualifies as a good story, Sarah. It’s now 6am and I want to go back to bed. Let’s see if the adrenaline has worn off yet.

Argh. I hate it when the Television Without Pity forums are offline. Seriously, the cheesy bean soup that Sandra made yesterday had me completely nauseous. I need to discuss it!

I didn’t get around to making the soup yesterday. I’ll make it today. Probably. The Boston Baked Beans turned out well, but I’m not entirely convinced I couldn’t get the same thing doctoring up a can of B&M. I’ll still post the recipe, though.