Spinach Stir-Fry

This is what we just ate for dinner tonight (it’s 7pm in Denmark as I’m writing this) and was very yummy.  I’m glad I searched the freezer and found frozen spinach now =]  I’m excited for my leftovers for tomorrows lunch.

Oh, and this can easily be made vegetarian by simply leaving the meat out.  Still good.

Spinach Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

• Rice (and water to cook it)
• Meat product (choose your favorite)
• 1 package frozen spinach (defrosted and drained)
• Mushrooms (whichever kind and however much look good to you.  I prefer lots and lots.)
• 1 large onion (and any other vegetables you feel like adding, but I stopped there.)
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• Soy sauce (2 parts)
• Vinegar  (1 part)
• 2 tsps sesame seed oil and vegetable oil
• Seasonings (salt, pepper, red chili flakes, coriander seeds, and basil to taste.)

Cook:

1. Marinate meat and/or veggies in sesame seed oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and seasonings for 20 minutes-2 hours.  Soy sauce and vinegar should be 2:1 parts just enough to coat all the meat and/or veggies with a bit at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Cook rice and chop vegetables if not already chopped and soaking.
3. Add vegetable oil to a pan or wok and cook meat and vegetables until meat is done and spinach wilting.  For more well-done meat products, add the vegetables after the meat has had a chance to cook some of the way.  Serve over rice.

-Ariel

Glogg

Glogg.  I tried this for the first time today at a Christmas party.  It tastes just like the holiday season.  Very sweet and spicy, in the same way as hot apple cider.  I haven’t tried making it for myself yet, but I found this recipe online that look good.  From what my host family has said about making the drink, this one is the most authentic I’ve found.  They also say sometimes to make the drink people soak the fruit and nuts in schnapps overnight and then add them to the bottom of the glass, rather than soaking them with the spices overnight.  Anyway, just something small to share today.  Enjoy =]

-Ariel

Feminist Friday Quick Clicks, 10 and Open Thread

Linkage:

• “Why Amurika is F*cked”- eight minutes and twenty-two seconds of youtube wtf interviews with people waiting in line at a Sarah Palin book signing
• In the UK a straight couple was denied a civil union because those are for the gays?
• Escalation in Afghanistan.
• “Dinosaurs are for Boys (Girls Allowed)“-  Sociological Images discussing androcentrism, “or the idea that boy things are good for everyone but girl things are only good for girls”
• On BPA in all our food packaging, how it’s effecting us, and who to contact to help stop it.
• Hillary Clinton and Obama in a caption-this-photo.
• Cats actually are evil.  I win.
• [Edit to include this sexist pig's shit:]  Glenn Beck is OK with a Beck-Palin 2012 ticket, but Palin-Beck 2012 is too rich- she should just get back in the kitchen where she belongs.

This list is short.  Sorry- most of what I’ve read this week wasn’t particularly share-worthy (imo) or filtered into my Google Reader at a time when I was just skimming.  Anyone have any links or stories to tell?

Also, hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving =]

Cooking the Turkey

I am so  not an expert here, what with Sundays turkey being the first I’ve ever cooked, so here’s a couple links to help with figuring out timing etc.

• USDA’s guide to safely thawing, roasting, and storing the turkey.
• Here’s a Good Eats recipe that I thought looked really good but then totally ignored when it came to actually cooking the turkey.
• Butterball’s list of How To’s.
• And because all the other links pretty much give out the same advice and everyone here can google (I assume,) instead of posting more of the  same timetables, here’s a list of the 18 Naughty Things You Can Only Say On Thanksgiving.  That should get you in the cooking spirit… maybe.

=] Ariel

Easy Gravy and Giblet Gravy

Gravy is actually really easy to make.  For some reason I imagined more work being necessary, but when I made it Sunday it turned out to be the simplest thing.  Once the turkey is done, just add some chicken stock to the drippings in the pan s to deglaze it, scrape any bits that need to be scraped, and add flour to thicken.  If you want a giblet gravy, just cook the giblets first (bring water to a boil in a saucepan, then lower heat to simmer giblets excluding the liver- should be refrigerated- for about 45 minutes, then add the liver and cook another 15-30 minutes ) drain, chop, and mix it with the drippings, chicken stock, and flour in a saucepan and then serve.  Done!

-Ariel

Easy Bread Stuffing

Here’s an easy recipe for stuffing on Thanksgivings day:

Stuffing:

Ingredients:

• One loaf of cheap white bread
• Chicken stock/ water and bouillon cubes
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 onions
• 1 egg
• Salt, pepper, and any other seasonings wanted
• a couple tsp butter

Cook:

1. Grease a large pan and preheat oven to 170′C/350′F.
2. Chop the celery and onions, and crumble the bread.
3. Mix everything together with just enough chicken stock to moisten but not soak the bread.
4. Add to pan.  Top with a couple tsp of butter and bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes.

Simple and delicious.  My grandmother makes a similar recipe only subbing the bread for a box of saltines and uses 4 sautéed onions.  That’s also good.  =]

-Ariel

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ohmigosh, I feel so accomplished, or something, after successfully cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner for 6 adults and 2 kids yesterday.  I made a turkey (of course, and it was my first ever,) stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and cranberry glop for dinner, and for dessert I served an apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake (recipe below.)  I got this recipe from a woman I worked with a few years ago, swapping my families mondel brodt recipe for it, and I’ve been making it since (though with a couple changes worked in over time.)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients (crust):

• 4.5 dl/ 2.25 cups Nilla Wafer or Graham Cracker crumbs
• 1 dl /0.5 cup chopped pecans
• 1dl/ 0.5 cup melded butter or margerine

Cook:

1. Preheat oven to 170′C /350′F
2. Mix crumbs, pecans, and butter together and press onto the bottom and up part of the sides of a spring-release pan.  It won’t go all the way up, and it won’t be perfectly smooth- no worries.
3. Bake 10 minutes before adding filling.

Ingredients (filling):

• 3 (200g/8oz) containers of cream cheese, softened
• 2dl/1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 dl/1 cup canned pumpkin (I actually altered this recipe here and used a small, softened, peeled, pureed, and strained fresh butternut squash.  But not everyone wants to go through all that effort.)
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or clove to taste

Cook:

1. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Remove about a third of the batter to another bowl and mix in pumpkin and spices.
4. Pour batters onto the crust alternatively and run through with a knife to marble.
5. Bake for about an hour.  The center will not fully set in this time.
6. Run a knife along the edge of the pan to loosen and refrigerate for at least 4 hours prior to serving.

-Ariel

Book Club, Book 2

Also I am totally realizing that I never assigned a new book for the book club.  The next book is “Rowing The Atlantic” by Roz Savage and I intend to make a thread about it on December 13th.  =]

(Also thanks mom for buying and shipping it to me!  I just got it Friday.)

-Ariel

Apple Pie

Ahh!  I can not, for the life of me, find my camera battery charger.  So no pics, unfortunately.  Anyway since Thanksgiving is not a Danish holiday (obviously) but I am an American, I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner here tonight for my host dad’s birthday.  I’m excited, this is the first Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever planned and executed myself.  Yesterday to prepare I made an apple pie (recipe below,) a pumpkin cheesecake (recipe tomorrow or later tonight if I don’t pass out after all that turkey dinner,) and my grandma’s cranberry glop. As soon as my host mom is done baking birthday buns (a Danish birthday tradition) I’ll be plopping the turkey in the oven and starting on some mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and gravy.  I’ll post all those recipes over the next week prior to Thanksgiving actually showing up.  Anyway here’s my apple pie recipe:

Apple Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 6 large green apples, peeled and sliced
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• 1.5 dl/0.75 cup white sugar
• 1 dl/ 0.5 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp flour (if the mixture is a bit liquid)
• a couple shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or clove to taste
• 2-3 tsp butter

Mix:

1. In a large bowl, coat the apples everything but the butter, adding the flour last if there is liquid at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Pour into pie crust (recipe below) and top with a couple tsp butter placed randomly to melt as it bakes.

Apple Pie Crust:

Ingredients:

• 450g/3.5 cups all purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 2 dl/1 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 dl/0.5 cup cool water

Cook:

1. Preheat oven to 180′C/375′F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt to remove any lumps.
3. Put the shortening in the middle of the bowl, coat  your hands with flour in order to minimize contact with the shortening (we don’t want it to melt) and work the flour into it.  This might take a while (and it might help to chop the shortening up a bit first,) but just keep pressing the flour into the shortening until they are one.
4. Add the water and work the dough into a ball.  Don’t knead it- the least amount of contact is still best.  Add more water by the tbsp if more is needed to keep a ball shape.
5. Cut the ball in half and roll it out to line your pie pan.  If you can’t roll out a full flat bit, cut that in half and piece it together (thats how I do it.)  Add the pie filling.
6. For the top, I prefer to roll out the remaining dough, cut it into strips, and weave the top.  This is because I cannot roll out a flat pie top.  If you can roll out a flat pie top, feel free to do so, just make sure to fork it a bit so the air can escape once it’s pinched on.
7. Brush the top with cream or milk and dust with sugar and/or cinnamon.
8. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Yum!

-Ariel

Feminist Friday Quick Clicks, 9

Awesome: “Starting December 14, 2009, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will no longer be a required vaccination for immigrant women and girls.”

For those looking for stores to boycott over the holiday season, here’s a list of the stores that say ‘Merry Christmas’ and those who are more inclusive, choosing a ‘Happy Holidays.’

“Meet the Predators“: a post on who rapes.

Glenn Beck, still being an asshole, compares universal healthcare to rape (are you kidding me?) using the Polanski case for an analogy that doesn’t even make sense to anyone who’s read or seen or knows ANYTHING about that case.

Two recent diagrams from Indexed that I liked.

John Stewart on Palin’s book tour, or whatever.

Tampa (the city I’m from) adds transgender protections to its nondiscrimination ordinance.

Chaz Bono in an interview on abc news: “…gender is between your ears, not between your legs…”

You don’t even need to see the before and after shots to see what a terrible, impossible photoshop job this was.  An entire chunk of Demi Moore’s hip is missing (quite obviously) in order to make her appear even thinner.

After all that crap they put her through, Caster Semanya will be allowed to keep her title.

Oprah plans to end her show in 2011 and start a new one on her own channel.

 

[Edited to include links I'd forgotten to insert prior to the scheduled time this was posted for.]