Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Cooking

No, Mom and I haven't killed each other, I just haven't felt like writing.  We are doing fine.  I took her to Tortilla Flats for lunch last week.  The food was good and she enjoyed the drive.  Yes, DD, they still have prickly pear ice cream.  Still didn't try it as again I was stuffed from my meal.  Some day I'll drive out there and just get the ice cream.  A few days ago we went to Boyce Thompson State Park, and I bought a season pass.  So far it is my favorite place to visit as they have trees there and lots and lots of interesting plants.  Mom and I each bought 4 small cactus plants to grow.  Mom has since found yet another type growing in front of some of my neighbor's places and will try to talk them out of a start of it.  They actually offered when they saw she liked it, but she was too busy looking at it to hear.

Another neighbor had recommended the Ranch Market for produce.  Actually, they were recommending Midwest Meats as a great place to eat (has a restaurant as well as a bakery and butcher shop) and mentioned that the Lutheran Thrift Shop and Ranch Market were in the same area.  Turtle Lady and Bill and I ate at the restaurant, and it is great.  I went back to the produce market a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed.   Mostly because it was so crowded at the time.  I did get a couple of yams to start my foray into cooking again.  I mean, what can go wrong with a couple of yams, right?  So they have sat there and waited patiently (mocking me) in the fridge since then.  Mom mentioned them, slightly puzzled why I would have real (as opposed to canned) yams, but dropped it when I just shrugged.  This morning I was inspired to DO SOMETHING with the darn things.  So, I peeled them (do you usually peel them?) and sliced them into the nice baking dish the casino gave me earlier this month.  They do strange things like that at the casinos here, give random gifts and we all stand in line for up to a hour to get this free thing that we wouldn't spend $30 for at Walmart.  But, I digress.  I put several glugs of Avocado Oil over them as I chopped them into bite size pieces.  The oil was something that looked interesting at Costco when Turtle Lady and I went there.  I mean, I was buying a large tub of Coconut Oil, which I have no idea what to do with, so what is another bottle of oil?  A young oriental guy in line behind me at checkout looked at me quizzically and asked me what does one do with Avocado Oil?  I said it has a high smoke temperature so it's good to fry stuff in.  I hope it is, anyway.  But again, I digress.  So, I did all this while Mom is still asleep so I didn't have to answer similar questions.  Who knows what will come out of the 350* oven in a little over an hour.  Hopefully something I can make soup with if nothing else.  I have the bag of quinoa to use up as well, because, well everyone seems to say how great it is.  Once I figure out how to use it I'm sure I'll be hooked as well.

6 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that they still have that ice-cream. Got to get back that way sometime. Have fun with your cooking adventure. BTW, the micro-wave oven cooks both sweet potatoes and regular potatoes real well.

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  2. Forgot to say, I cook them whole with the skins on. Cut them in half, add butter and salt, and eat them out of their skins.

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  3. I hope you like the quinoa. I have tried it several times and give it "thumbs down", but maybe that's just me. My daughter cooks it in chicken broth, so it picks up a little flavor.

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  4. I like to slice yams (or sweet potatoes) real thin and brush a little oil over them.. then bake them until they're "chips". But then I like them fried, baked or just about any way, except with all that brown sugar and butter that I grew up with. Sounds like you're having fun cooking again.

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  5. I would not peel the yams, the skins have a lot of nutrition in them. I have tried quinoa and found it to be rather bland. I do not care for the texture much either. I much prefer barley which is also good for you but does not have the protein that quinoa does.

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  6. I put my sweet potato in the microwave
    and when done a little butter on them and they are great. Also make mashed swpotato with sour cream just a little and butter.I used to just slice them raw and eat.Can't go wrong whichway you eat them . Just enjoy.

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