Presidential Cooking

Alarm went off at 6 in the middle of some dream I was enjoying, so I turned it off and woke up at 8 to a toddler jumping up and down on my back, shouting "HOP ON POP!" Dr. Seuss, we need a word.

B was off from work today, so I bundled up Edie and we did a tour of the local supermarket. After getting stuff in, I started to cook, not letting up until after 3pm.


TODAY'S COOKING
Tomato Sauce: Softened two large diced onions in olive oil, tossed in 2 shredded carrots and one bunch of fresh thyme, simmered 10 min until very fragrant. 5 cloves of garlic crushed, 1 cup of white wine, full boil until very reduced. 4 cans of freshly milled whole tomatoes, one bunch of basil, chopped, salt.

Considered tossing in some MSG, but decided against it -- there was so much good stuff happening here, why risk it. When my dad would add his "secret" ingredient to his vat of home cooked sauce (a jar of store bought stuff), I wonder if it was the traces of MSG in that jar that made the difference....


Carrot Dressing: Looking for something to make straight raw spinach appealing, it ocurred to me the original reason I LIKE raw spinach was the salad at Dojo... They make a house-made carrot dressing that is pretty special. So I googled, and found this recipe, but after eating it with lunch, it's missing something. I only used it because it was the top google hit, I think the recipes that use tahini might be a little closer. Still, this was pretty good, except that the yield was a meager cup or so.


Broccoli Cheddar Knishes: As Edie is off this week, I'm hosting a playdate on Wedneday. This being Edie's favorite knish and I had a log of left over dough from last week, I made a couple dozen.


Momma Salad & Health Salad: Not gonna have a lot of free time to cook and prep this week, so just tossed these off to have on hand.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, hardcore oatmeal, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, baby spinach & slivered almonds with carrot dressing, 2 kasha knishes

DINNER: 6:15pm, 12" veggie burger on whole wheat hero, cool ranch doritos, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stopped by Subway with Mil strapped to me sleeping, an evening walk to Whole Foods. I picked up the "Cool Ranch" Doritos because I remembered it had that distinct umami taste that I now know to be MSG. I used to think there must be some dehydrated buttermilk in there or something. I looked at the ingredients, and low and behold, once you get through corn and oils and sugars, the primary flavorant, before any cheese, buttermilk or herb or spice, is MSG. Well, there ya go. Tasting the chip, instead of tasting cool or ranchy or buttermilky, all I tasted was MSG. Ick. I did not finish the bag.


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, chocolate chips & almonds, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5