Cooking

Because I've been reading almost nothing but cookbooks lately*, I've been craving cooking and baking. I actively want to make pies and cakes and all sorts of things. What I HAVE made so far has been "Rys" aka medieval rice pudding with almond milk (aka our normal milk), which was ok but not great. I also wanted to make rice waffles using leftover brown rice from last night's dinner and the shiny brand-new waffle maker I received as a wedding present from a student. Surprise surprise, the waffle cookbook she'd also given didn't have rice waffles. Neither did the Breakfasts & Brunches cookbook. Nor did the King Arthur Flour Baking Companion. So I thought to myself: what of my antique cookbooks would have rice waffles? And lo and behold, my first guess was correct. Mrs. Tyree's "Housekeeping in Old Virginia" (pub. 1879) had THREE recipes for rice waffles. I made some slight adjustments, as I didn't have eggs (I added apple sauce and sour cream), but they turned out tasty! "Amusingly", my husband had to go with his third option for topping. As our maple syrup had mold (ew), most of the honey accessible has crystalized, and so it was butter and powdered sugar as the final option.

But all of this has not cured my lust for cookery. And so, having asked my husband to thaw the leftover dumpling filling from the last time I made potstickers (good gods, that was 8/27/15), I am making dumplings today. They are so simple, it's almost a crime to purchase them. I use the pork version from Use Real Butter. And so we shall have tasty tasty potstickers for dinner, with dipping sauce based on what I have in the cupboards more than anything specific. I think it'll be soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, red pepper flakes, minced garlic, grated ginger, and sesame seeds. This will go along with our rice and beans -- new attempts to actually EAT what's in the pantry!

* I'm reading up for the next HFF challenge. I think I'm going to wind up using a French recipe, because I'll have to translate the French and that is enough of a mystery for me! Most of the cookbooks I use are clear enough to follow -- or I have been reading/cooking with them long enough that they're clear to me. I mean, if I see a cake recipe that's only ingredients, I know what to do with them. Either that, or they'll say "make as a sponge cake" and I'd have to just double check the beginning of the cake chapter for sponge cakes. So, I'm going with "I've read them too much to be confused".