Pizza
My pizza on pizza pastry shell (flat pressed dough found in the freezer section of the super). Cooked in a frying pan. This took more than 15 minutes because I used olive oil in the pan and when I went to turn it over, it wouldn’t. I had to scrape it off the bottom and clean the pan and use butter before it would work. On top of everything else, while photographing, I dropped the fork. Had to wash it with one hand – the one not holding the camera, and dried it on my shirt. It’s clean, sortof. The sauce is a store bought pizza sauce. And uug, yellow cheese. The things on top are supposed to be mushrooms. But because I didn’t have any, I used very thick instant mushroom soup and dropped it on with a teaspoon. With oregano. Very good and saved a lot of money. Next time I call Pizzaman.

This was before I learned how to make my own tomato sauce. But it still looked good enough to eat. So I did. It has chunks of hard goat cheese (but any good cheese will do) on top. Also walnuts which are a good source of Omega-3 which we all need and do not manufacture for ourselves (see http://tsingle.info/ for a discussion of why we need this). By the way, this is just the blog off of the main site of tsingle.info which you are invited to visit if you like stories, comments on living, stuff for living alone besides this blog, and a lot of other things including article of the month and computer tips. But back to the dish. I do not give recipes here. I hate measuring amounts, waiting in-between, setting aside for an hour, a night, a day.  If it’s not ready now (or 10-15 minutes from now), I am not interested. The spaghetti took 12 minutes including the boiling of water in the electric coffee pot to speed things up. A secret: It was a little bit chewy. And the burger? It’s a vegetarian burger which was boiled in with the spaghetti and then fried for a couple of minutes once the pan had been drained. These vegetarian look-a-likes are getting better and better in the taste department. One of these days, very soon, no one will be able to tell the difference.  
 

For those who know better, and those who don’t NOTE:
In this case, I know better… than to clean the pancake jar for the next use, so the dough will not go sour so quickly, by pouring boiling water into it WHLE HOLDING THE GLASS JAR. Don’t. If you want to be able to spill out the water immediately and put the jar away, place it directly under the tap for cold water. Fill it with boiling water, and then run cold water into it. I know theoretically all about heat conduction and different materials. Now I know first hand – that’s the hand holding the jar.

If you  have a “For those who know…” please put it into a comment. I am making a special page and will add some of them with name of sender.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS

I have to say something about the cat. We have at least 3 good people on my street. I am not one of them. And there are about 20 street cats. Each evening there are three small groups gathered at different places for someone to bring out the evening meal.  I should say that we have 20 well-fed street cats on our street (fixed, or so we are told by the municipal veterinarians who informs us each year that they will take very good care of and return them so there will not be 80 next year).  But new ones keep showing up anyway.

 This one took more than 15 minutes. I only have the one saucepan and had to cook the broccoli patty separately which, by the way, is burned on the bottom because I took the garbage out.  The rice was cooked yesterday in such amounts that I had to freeze 3/4 of it. Cheese on top is combination of great hard slice goat cheese or any cheese other than that yellow sliced stuff. Walnuts are for Omega-3 (see tsingle.info). And the humus (really, if you have never tried it, you should not be without it) I use to cut the taste of the broccoli patty on which  it sits. Actually the broccoli is quite good by itself.

My dishes are getting to look so good that I am thinking of opening a restaurant. But that will not happen. Takes nerves of steel, real expertise, and good customer relations. Well, enough said. Oh, and the use of more than one plate, fork and saucepan.

nah

I don’t plan what I eat. I go into the kitchen and just find myself fixing something. It seems to be right for that particular moment. When it is ready, I look at it to decide if I photograph it or not. If the  feeling is nah, I don’t. Do you see the nah above? That was last night’s supper.

The last fling before nightfall

Picture taken this month. I went out and looked up and saw these clouds about 20 minutes before sunset.  

This (photo to come) is a vegedog (two in fact) if you can see the other one, topped with Rockfort (blue cheese) wedge pieces. I don’t think it comes in slices – would just fall apart, and onions with mustard and mayonnaise. The salad dressing is a special lemon dressing with spices which had an interesting taste. You know, when you are in a fancy restaurant and you don’t quite like what you are eating but you enjoy it anyway because it’s expensive and you are eating it you know where. That’s what I felt about the dressing. I bought it because I knew I needed some change from the thousand island I had been using.  So I liked it anyway.

COMMENT
I am going to have to categorize all of this one of these days, but right now I am just enjoying my meals without the organizing get in the way. If I am going to continue, will have to start using the oven. I’ve avoided it but it severely limits my range! There are severe limitations in using only one frying pan because the other one burned. I have the funds to buy a new one, but I have too many other things to do, and I do not like shopping. Never have. Except for the necessity of buying food to live, I think I haven’t been inside a shop to buy something for myself for 3 months. Take that back, I did buy something for the computer.

I made myself a cup of soup and wanted to put some croutons in it. They were old and tasted like cardboard – had the same consistency. So, I decided to fry them in oil and while I was at it, added some trailmix/granola to it with some walnuts, and added brown sugar (any kind will do). What came out was great. Except that the croutons dropped like a rock to the bottom of the soup. But, for the rest, do not make too much of it at one time. You won’t be able to stop eating it. One suggestion may help – burn it a little. It is also great on ice cream.

I had some ice cream left over and because it wasn’t very much, decided to put whipped milk on it. I have found that 3% milk will whip up to a standstill. Milk with only 1% will also but it all depends on environmental conditions. What those are I do not know. Evaporated milk seems to work under any condition.

And, you can see the results for yourself. Real art. The only problem with this type of art is that it disappears very fast. I have always felt sorry for those chefs who have spent hours slaving over a hot stove to produce something really great. They turn around and when they turn back its gone. What can that do for one’s ego? Well, I guess it is in the job description.

Today it’s two salads. Actually, all I did was buy one of those bags of already cut up salad makings, separated out and chopped up the carrots a little. That’s the lemon with spices sauce which I don’t like too much, but it’s starting to grow on me. The ‘meat’ patty is one half of the original – vegetarian. The other darker greenish one (burned on the bottom like the last one) is broccoli. Maybe I should look at the bottom when I take it out of the box before putting it in the pan. It may already be burned.

On the salad are walnuts (trust me, they’re there), and blue cheese. I bought an extra one by mistake, so it will be featured a lot in this section. Tastes great so maybe it wasn’t a mistake. Something told me to reach my hand into the cheese section in exactly the same place twice.

The cat?

Catching some rays. Ahhh, the good life.