Tag: Food

The apartment complex Ariesna and I live in is located directly behind a grocery store. The store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (except for a couple of holidays). Given it is only about a 5 minute walk to get inside the store; we tend to leave the decision of what to have for dinner till it is time to make dinner. The upside is we don’t have to keep a lot of food around the house and we can get fresh meats/fruits/veggies for dinner. The downside is we are frequentally tired after work and just grab some sort of box meal, like Hamburger Helper, as we don’t always feel up to doing real cooking. Tonight, like many nights, neither one of us knew what we wanted for dinner. I started poking around online looking for a recipe to try and found the following recipe AllRecipes.com.

Beef Peach Pie

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup soft bread crumbs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pinch pepper
  • 1 (15 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, egg, milk, onion, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Press into a 9 inch pie pan like a crust.
  3. Prick meat all over using a fork.
  4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven.
  5. Remove from the oven, and pour off any excess fat.
  6. Arrange the sliced peaches over the beef.
  7. Mix together the vinegar, ketchup and brown sugar, and spoon over the top of the peaches.
  8. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.
  9. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving.

NOTE: This recipe is copyright 2006 Allrecipes.com and not CC licensed like all of my works on this site.

I think Ariesna mostly made this dish to humour me. She hates peaches. But from the moment she pulled it from the oven, I was sure we had a winner. The scents coming off the pie were mouthwatering. Then I got myself a plate, a fork and took a bite.

Oh. My. Gawd. It was GOOD! The brown sugar mixture carmelized over the meat creating a heavenly glaze. And the juices of the peaches soaked throughout the meat, every bite was delectable.

AWelkin, does this dish sound good to you? We’re thinking about making it again when you and Bryon come over on Friday.

I’ve been home sick the last couple of days and today while I felt mostly felt fine; I was running a bit of a temp. I couldn’t sleep so to entertain myself; I surfed the web and found this links which amused me.

  • Bento | Gmaps:Google Maps with English translations showing eating/dining options in Tokyo, Japan
  • Motherload: A flash based game where you drive a mining pod on Mars digging for ore. Sounds silly but it’s strangely addictive; I clicked it intending to play for just a few minutes and ended up spending hours on it today. Then again, part of that could have been the cold medicine.
  • MythBusters | Lost Experiments: The Discovery channel has put online short video segments from the MythBusters TV show where we get to see never before released footage. 😀 Very cool!

Today marks the completion of my third decade on this planet and I am quite pleased to be able to announce that I ain’t dead yet. 😀 But worry not gentle reader, I’ll not be subjecting you to some passé retrospective about my life. Instead, I’ll just recap today and today alone.

I was up playing Wild Arms 3 till about 3 am as I just couldn’t sleep. Most likely due to an excessive amount of munching on holiday goodies while downing glass, after glass of soda1. I found one monster to fight that took around an hour to defeat but it jumped my characters up 4-7 levels! *grin* Then when I eventually got to bed; I slept poorly. Our apartment is just too dry this time of year and our little humidifier stopped working. This causes me to keep waking up with sinus headaches and a terrible thrist. I got out of bed about 8:30 – 9 and went back to playing the video game a bit more. Shortly there after, Michelle got up and gave me my birthday present.

What’d she get me? A case of blue balls Bawls. Then after lazing around most of the day; we headed out to the local mall to meet some friends.

I’d foolishly asked a bunch of friends to join us in watching the Narina movie with a follow-up plan to eat dinner together. There was one point that I’d not factored in these plans. This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday. Just about the last Saturday before Christmas. Traffic was insane and people all around were grouchy, though we did run across some nice people that helped us get around the parking lot2. We went over to the mall a little early and bought a new humidifer and then headed down to the theater. We got tickets, met up with our friends and went in to watch the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

*whew* What a movie! While not perfect, it was probably as good as we could hope for from a Hollywood production.
High points:

  • The actress playing Lucy was spot on. Most of the other actors cast in the movie were also quite good
  • The backgrounds were gorgeous.
  • The addition of the Nazi bombing run at the beginning of the movie really helped to give context to the time of the story.

Low points:

  • The costuming on the witch. Her outfits were ugly and just didn’t work with the imagery I have in my head for the character. Though I do have to admit the black , soulless eyes did work for me.
  • The witch was not nearly as afraid of Aslan as she should have been. In my memories of the book, the witch was terrified of Aslan but the movie seemed to put them on a more even footing.
  • Maugrim’s voice. The actor doing the voice did a fine job, but being the only character without a british accent really stuck out and annoyed me.

Overall, I’d say it was worth seeing in the theater and it is something I’ll be adding to our DVD collection when it becomes available.

After the movie was over, we headed to the restaurant. Oh, I should mention we had called earlier in the day to try making reservations but were told they don’t do that for parties of less than 8. And that they would have plenty of room for the 6 of us. When we got there; we were told it would be a 2 hour wait. We decided to switch to the Oyama Sushi restaurant. They seated us within minutes of our arrival (even though they were already pretty packed). Then they plied us with drinks until our food was ready3. We had a jolly time chatting and drinking (non-alcholic, for the most part) but all good things do come to an end and eventually we all headed home. It was a very good day and while I ain’t dead yet; I am a bit tired so good night, sleep tight and don’t let the space bugs bite!

1 a.k.a. pop to you heathens.
2 A few people threw their cars into reverse to open up bigger areas for us to drive through and things of that nature.
3 It turns out this weekend contains not only my birthday and practically the last weekend before Christmas but it’s also graduation weekend for the University! No wonder everything was so packed today! This also explains why it took so long for our food to arrive.

Ingredients

  • 1 Pound cake
  • 3/4 c Strawberry jam
  • 1 cn Pitted apricots (1 lb,14 oz) – drained and pureed
  • 11 oz Mandarin oranges – drained
  • 1/2 c Marsala or cream sherry
  • 2 c Vanilla custard
  • 1 c Heavy cream
  • 1/4 c Superfine sugar

Directions

  1. Split cake into thin layers, spread with jam and half the apricot puree, and sandwich back together.
  2. Cut into bars, about 1-by-2-inches, and pack into a 2-quart serving dish, arranging oranges in and around cake.
  3. Pour Marsala over top, spread with remaining apricot puree and cover with custard.
  4. Cover and chill 2 hours.
  5. Whip cream with sugar until stiff.
  6. Frost on top of trifle and decorate with candied fruits, if desired.

This recipie should yield about 10 servings.

[Editor] This is a recipe Ariesna found online someplace and wants to try making sometime.

The Organic Trade Association and food processors are asking Congress to change the Organic Foods and Production Act (OFPA). This could allow synthetic substances in products labeled “organic” and could weaken organic dairy standards. These amendments were introduced on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Sept. 19, and may be voted on as early as today. Please call your senators NOW!

Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)
(202) 224-3744
email: chuck_grassley@grassley.senate.gov

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
(202) 224-9369
email: tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov

Representative Jim Leach (R-02)
(202) 225-6576
email: http://www.house.gov/leach/email.htm

Representative Leonard Boswell (D-03)
(202) 225-3806
email: rep.boswell.ia03@mail.house.gov

Representative Jim Nussle (R-01)
(202) 225-2911
email: http://nussle.house.gov/email.htm

If you’re not sure which congressman represents your district, please refer to the Congressional Districts map at www.legis.state.ia.us/redist/congress-color.pdf PDF File

*TALKING POINTS*
Note: When calling, speak respectfully. Staffers answering phones don’t need to hear rants. State who you are and a few short words about your relationship to organics (“I’m a member at a natural foods co-op in Iowa City”). Be concise, make the point or points that matter most to you, then sign off with a thank you to the person who takes your call.

The Main Point: “I’m calling to ask the senator to vote against the organic rider on the Agricultural Appropriations Bill. This amendment to the Organic Food Protection Act is unacceptable because it could:
a) permanently allow synthetic processing aids and food contact substances in foods carrying the USDA organic label
b) leave unresolved whether young dairy cows could be treated with antibiotics and then converted to organic after twelve months.
c) create a dangerous loophole in which organic ingredients could be substituted with non-organic ingredients based upon ’emergency decrees’.”

“Furthermore, this amendment is an unacceptable end-run around due process because:
a) it undoes court decisions that have already ruled on these matters.
b) it shuns public comment from organic consumers, who are the ultimate judges of any organic label’s integrity.”

“The strongest aspect of the USDA organic program is its integrity. Please vote against this amendment, Senator.”

Want to learn more?
Organic Consumers Association
Cornucopia Institute

[Editor’s Note]: Ariesna got this information comes from the New Pioneer Coop member’s newsletter.