Eating Alone In Half The Time

 Without Crow

There was a crow sitting on the railing, but the world is a constantly changing place. There is no image which is meaningless. Grab them while you can.

Really Light Pancake. If you want a healthy, puffed up pancake which tastes great, try half flour, half instant oatmeal with an egg. Hot pan just beginning to smoke, and turn down the flame (do not use non-stick, especially if you have birds. Sorry I keep mentioning this but it kills them. See elsewhere in this blog). O.K., back to the pancake.

For those of you who know how to cook, this is obvious, but the sticking-the-fork-in to see if it comes out clean actually does work. Be sure it is clean before sticking it in. I use my shirt. The trick of covering it and lifting the cover to see if there is still steam rising is an iffy procedure. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell between steam and the beginning of burn. Of course, if it’s burned you’re done, whether what you’re cooking is or not.

My advice is to get rid of it. I’m serious, if you think you eat or drank something which should not for any reason be inside you, see this page first  wikiHow on How To Induce Vomiting. Sometimes your body will do it for you, but not always, and you must do it for yourself. But either way, read the wiki. But first, if you are not doing it as an emergency procedure, take a look at this ca.answers.yahoo.com blog and what everyone is saying. And, as the first post says, if you do make yourself throw up (or your body is doing it for you), be sure to drink a lot of water because you are losing liquid which your body needs to keep going. On the other hand, if you listen to “they-suspended-my-account-again”, you’re on your own. But please do drink water. 

Shouldn’t Have
Then there are those other times, when you ate something which might have been a bit off biologically speaking. Either chuck it, or go with the culinary science of centuries. The link below is an extremely well done list of spices and herbs which are antimicrobial in nature,  which I felt I definitely needed after eating my last meal of leftovers. Judiciously decided not to photograph or otherwise document the dish.

I decided to go with the science. Note: The () around words indicates the strength of the antimicrobial action. A piece of french bread was used as a base for the antimicrobials, topped with a slice of onion (inhibitory), cheese (for body with no particular antimicrobial action), and so much cinnamon(strong), oregano(medium), thyme(medium), and coriander(medium) that the bread base was no longer visible – hence the absence of a photo. Oh, and the hotdogs which went with the leftovers were covered in mustard(strong), so I already had a good start. For documentation and for other spices and herbs which are antimicrobials, see ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECTS OF SPICES AND HERBS O. Peter Snyder, Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management; St. Paul, Minnesota

NOTE: If you do not see this entry, then it didn’t work.

IT WORKED!!

Peas and Dogs in TrailMix With Almonds. Fried in olive oil. Some of my meals remind me of my teenage years. Not that my mother ever cooked this way. But who knows, I may have eaten more peas back then if she had. Added in some brewer’s yeast for the B vitamins and some red wine for the resveratrol and, depending on the seriousness of your trail mix maker, you have a well rounded meal anybody could love. Well, almost anybody. The dogs are soy. Ate them with mustard. Had to get some turmeric in.

Instant Walnut/Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancake. Similar to Really-Light above but the difference is that this is really an OATMEAL pan cake. You only see part of this because I just wanted to make a pancake for myself and eat it without all the photos. But as I was enjoying it, thought that it was so good that I had to put it up. So the part you don’t see is really not there anymore. It’s in the vicinity is all I can say. One part flour (this is whole wheat) to two  parts oatmeal (or equal amounts) mixed with water to pourable consistency and fried in olive oil. Cinnamon is an integral part of the recipe, so you can put it in the batter or on top afterwards. At least 2 heaping teaspoons. With syrup, and walnuts for the Omega-3 plus all the other food value and health they give you.  The way to start the day happily.

 Hotdog Stew. As I was cooking it I decided that if it looked good, I’d put it up. Otherwise… The basic ingredients are soy dogs, green beans,  pecans, tomatoes, garlic. And the sauce is flour, cheese, water, coriander, cayenne pepper, za’atar, basil, salt, wine (the good stuff) topped with sesame seeds.

Tomato/Sunflower Breakfast – 2 eggs, sunflower seeds, tomato paste, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic powder.

Mushroom Spaghetti. This is a two stage preparation. First, fried the mushrooms and garlic in olive oil and set aside. Made the spaghetti sauce of milk, instant mushroom soup powder, salt to taste. Cooked the spaghetti and when done, strained the water out letting some cold water flow over it to get rid of any starch left over. Returned the spaghetti to the pan and fried in olive oil with some butter until all water was evaporated, and added at least 2 tsp each of basil, oregano, and turmeric. Taste it because this has to taste great. Mine was not great, but it was good only when I added the oregano. See mushroom warnings top of page.

 Hummus with Tahini on Sprouts. The avocado was not ripe but I had to remind myself that it still had all the properties which make it a health benefit, and besides that, it did taste like an avocado. Olive oil on the outside portion of the sprouts, topped with cayenne pepper powder, and sunflower seeds.

Toasted-with-butter Bread with Sliced Soy Burgers,  Onions and Hummus Sauce. The sauce is flour and milk with a small amount of hummus mixed in. Salt to taste. Ground cayenne pepper for health, and sweet paprika for show plus sunflower seeds. Had more sauce which I poured on after the shoot. Could only eat one of them after downing the sprout salad above.

Grilled Dogs on Sprouts Sandwich. Butter toasted slices with mayonnaise and soy dogs with the microbe fighting spices oregano, coriander, basil, cayenne pepper powder, pepper, salt. Thyme or za’atar on the hummus with olive oil and sweet paprika. Should also include fried onions for that extra taste and health. This one did not have them but it’s model, which was eaten previously, did. See “Shouldn’t Have” above for details on antimicrobials.