3.13.2007

Barefoot and in the Kitchen

This weekend I acted completely out of character by not only baking an elaborate dish (it required 5 pots--and a strainer!), but also by baking two different kinds of cookies from scratch. It's like on Sunday I had a little Betty Crocker Seizure... the lesser-known sister of the Grand Mal Seizure.

Here's a link to the main course recipe on my wiki:
Portobello Mushroom Lasagna

For my vegetarian friends, in particular (Kali, Lilly, pay attention!), this would be a great dish. The mushrooms are hearty enough that they provide a lot of protein. It's provided courtesy of your friendly Food Network and specifically The Barefoot Contessa, a show which I will now have to avoid because it compells me to cook tasty things with a cup of pure butter. Yikes.

By ironic contrast, the cookies were quite healthy. I made several healthful substitutions that, oddly enough, resulted in the tastiest, most perfectly-baked batch of chocolate cookies I have ever made. I started with dark chocolate chips instead of the usual semi-sweet; they're tastier and have more of those "healthy" flavinoids (which is the most made-up sounding substance ever). It was a pear upside-down cake recipe that Alex sent me, that inspired me to substitute applesauce (and a dash of veggie oil) for the butter. Then I got reckless and substituted whole wheat flour for half of the regular white stuff. Then I got plain silly and added a few teaspoons of a fiber supplement and bee pollen (which is supposed to be miraculous for energy and allergies, according to my bee-keeping in-laws).

They were the puffiest, most glorious cookies I've ever made. Now I'm pondering another batch, but substituting honey for half of the sugar.

And in the crossover between politics and comedy...
I can't find the link to the clip from Thursday's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but it was ridiculously hilarious, regarding Hilary and Obama in Alabama. Each, according to Stewart, speaking as if a black person imitating a white person imitating a black person. Ah, politics.

And in geekery...
I've had the Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis theme songs alternating in my head all day. This is no doubt due to the fact that we bought Atlantis Season 2 last week, and as a result, can finally finish watching SG-1 Season 9, since they intersect plotlines. And for the past two days, we've been watching a lot of Stargate.

Life is good... until you get to the last DVD of the season (we've currently got 2 1/2 to go in each show).

2 comments:

Valerie said...

I tell ya, this state was the center of all potus-related behavior last weekend - gwb in enterprise, visiting the site of the awful tornado action, and hilbama in selma the next day [plus bill! the true star.]

of course, i haven't managed to see the daily show since i started working - that commute wears me out! you'll have to let me know how you do it...

Starrlett said...

Heheheh--I actually saw the re-run on cable, Friday morning. I was taking it off and working Saturday instead, so I caught some Comedy Central while I folded laundry.

I find that watching TV is a very handy way to force myself to do housework. Veggie-couch tendencies that actually make me more productive... kinda weird.