Another Opinion Among Many

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big noodle fan.  I don’t limit myself to pasta.  I also like Chinese noodles - quite a bit, actually.  I’ve gotten a bit of a craving for some lo mien or fried noodles today.  Its too bad that I’m not at home, as I cannot make them here at work.

If you like quick, cheap and tasty food, but you don’t want to work too hard at preparing it, try this fried noodle idea.  I like it (sorta made it up myself).

I start with chinese noodles from the Dollerama (one of the best and most stocked dollar stores here in Canada).  I get a brick of noodles that is equivalent to about 8 Mr. Noodles packages for a dollar.

The ingredients:

• chinese noodles
• 1 tbsp oil (vegetable or peanut)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster flavor sauce
• shot hot sauce (your choice - I prefer “Billy Bob’s” from Dollerama)
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• sliver ginger root (ginger powder tastes like crap) (optional)
• green onion (optional)
• 1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

Cook the noodles, according to the package or to taste.  Drain the noodles.  In a hot frying pan or Wok, toss noodles with oil and soy sauce.  Fry for 1-2 minutes.  If you’re in a hurry, you’re done.  if you want tastier, add the oyster sauce and hot sauce.  You won’t be sorry.  For a different flavor, add to this the rest of the ingredients on the list.  Smash the garlic with the side of a chopping knife, like a French knife or a Chinese vegetable cleaver (my preferred knife to avoid tendonitis and carpal tunnel) and chop it up to your taste.  You can do the same with the ginger.  Sliver the onion diagonally and either toss in or garnish with it.

If you choose to add the ginger, add the sugar as well.  They compliment each other well.  Enjoy! Pictured is the dish made with shredded carrot and smoked pork loin.  The sweet carrots complement the fiery zip of the ginger.

I would never go for this size on my own as we don’t have a pan large enough for it, but a 16 inch “rising crust” frozen pizza was given to me. Turns out it was just cheese, and our meat-lover friends didn’t want it. By the time I got it home, it was more than 1/2 thawed, so we decided that pizza was on the menu for lunch. We have an apartment sized stove, which is 24″ wide on the exterior. This means that, at most, you have 18″ to work with in the oven.

What I ended up doing is putting the pizza directly on the rack, which I don’t usually like to do, as I prefer a less crunchy crispy crust. But, from experience (vast experience) in making pizzas from scratch, I employed a technique that I use on my home made pies. The trick is to cook your pizza nearly all the way and, with what you think is about 2 minutes left, turn your oven on to broil, hence using only the top element (for electric ovens - pulling the pie out and putting it underneath in the broiling drawer, if you’re lucky and have a gas stove). What this accomplishes is that golden brown “spotting” on the cheese that is a sure sign of a delicious pizza (or lasagne). The crust wasn’t too bad for a prepared product.

I’ve been trying beer from all over the globe (especially from this wonderful country, of course), as you know, and have found some great beers. I don’t know if I’d appreciate the beers that I’ve tried as much if I had not made it myself in the past. Today, I had some cans of Holsten festbock. This, billed on the top of the can, is “strong dark beer”, as opposed to their maiboc, which is “strong golden beer”. They both are strong, weighing in at 7.0% alcohol/vol. Both are nice beers with a fairly strong malty, fruity taste at first and not a lot of aftertaste (a plus for a India pale ale drinker like myself). The maibock has a lighter taste than the festbock, commensurate with its color. The festbock is really dark. Its not as dark as Guiness or some full bock’s that I’ve seen and had, but its pretty dark. If you want a tasty way to get a fairly cheap buzz in this overtaxed country of Canada, try Holsten. I cannot recommend either of these offerings, as I like them both. There’s a Bavarian offering, Bavaria 8.6, which I think that I like more, but I’m not so sure.

From the first time that I had French Toast, I ate it with ketchup and salt and pepper.  It wasn’t until I got out my parent’s house and saw a girlfriend prepare the dish, that I knew there was a different way to eat it.  As I learned, it wasn’t her that was the weird one, but I.  It turns out that putting syrup on French Toast is the more common method.  I’ve seen and prepared the stuff with cinnamon and nutmeg since.  Even whipped cream is not uncommon.

I still prefer the dish that I grew up with, but I can stand the sweet sickly one that the rest of the world knows (it only took 15 years).  Is it that weird? After all, you start with eggs.

I am here, shamefully still in my pajamas, compiling more crap for my franken-toy. **BEGIN GEEKY PART** I tried to do the installation as wished through the Live-CD. Unfortunately, I had the 2006.1 CD, which is getting long in the tooth. Its 2007 now, and I should have started either with something a bit more recent or installed a more basic setup from the CD. To be truthful, I wanted to see what kind of trouble that I’d get in if I proceeded this way with such a fast-moving distro - and I did encounter trouble. After upgrading the whole system with the “emerge -u world” command, it broke and Gnome is nowhere to be found. Its there, but I cannot get into a graphical desktop. The first problem was a conflict with some of the newer parts of the X-window system, which I fixed. The next problem was to get Gnome to work again. This is the continuing reason why I don’t use Gnome as my desktop. At one point or another along the lifespan of the desktop, Gnome seems to totally crap out in a way I don’t know how to easily fix. Its not the lack of tools that seem to be more available and more intuitive in KDE. I live with that (especially since more thoughtful and powerful Gnome apps are being developed and included in the main installations of many distros). I just don’t feel the desire to tinker at fixing somebody’s bad hooks or buggy code. The advantage of Gnome is that its been “free” all along, which has attracted a lot of developers. This is also its disadvantage, as nobody seems to want to adhere to a common standard. Freedom and imprisonment all wrapped in one.

I’m not going to uninstall the Gnome parts, but its definitely going on the back burner for a while. KDE is compiling in the background, a la CCACHE, and I’ve fallen back to Window Maker to get to the GUI. From there, I installed the light and fast IceWM and am now using that. Strangely, Window Maker was developed as an enhanced branch of Afterstep, which was stagnating. Now, it seems that Window Maker is in that position and Afterstep is plowing all ahead full. **STOP GEEKY PART**

That picture above was taken shortly ago. We’ve got a bit of snow coming down. Its not a blizzard, but as dangerous as one here in town, as the plows have not been out at all since it started. This weather makes me think of good, warm, home cooked food, like sheppard’s pie. I had made one of those a few nights ago and it was browned to perfection, so I snapped a pic of it with Caleb’s little cheapo keychain camera (the pic of the snow was done with that one too). I usually don’t mess with the basic ingredients much when it comes to Sheppard’s Pie as its grea in its own simplicity. I’ve found the key to a good meal with this dish is to put enough potato in it. If its all meat, you’re not going to enjoy it nearly as much as you would otherwise. The key to getting it to brown well is to ensure that the top has some form of fat on it, be it margarine, butter, oil, or cooking spray. A lot of diet-consious people will forgo this step to avoid all fat in their diet, according to some Heart Association lobby inspired “Food Guide”, which makes us unnaturally pick food to eat that are similar to what livestock would (notice that they GAIN weight on this diet). If you leave out the butter on the top, you might as well leave out the dish, as you’re not going to enjoy it nearly as much. Live a little. If you like to have your portions to come out of the pan in nice “chunks”, then stir an egg into your ground beef (or pork) bottom. It’ll keep it all together. You can used creamed corn in your pie but make sure that your potato mixture is not too wet in this case, or your dish will be a bit sloppy (which is okay if you just want the good taste). If anyone really wants, I can write down how I make mine. I’ll try to quantify my “pinch of this” and “dash of that” cooking into real measurements. I may have more to meander about later, but I’ll devote a new post to it, as this one’s getting a bit long.

So, being broke and low in the larder caused me to get a bit creative today. I had some pork chops in the freezer, so I had pulled them out to thaw. I had a pear that I had gotten from the basket at work that I didn’t eat right away and ended up bringing home to eat. So, I put them together!

The “recipe”

• 2 pork chops - we like the thin ones,as they brown well
• 1 pear - it doesn’t have to be fully ripe
• 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar
• steak spice, seasoning, or whatever
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped (or the packed in a jar stuff)
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 shot hot sauce (I like Billy Bob’s from the dollar store)
• about 1/2 Cup water
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• I’m sure that Cognac or Brandy would have been a nice touch

Toss the onion in a hot saute pan with a bit of oil or butter (hint: if using butter that’s not clarified, toss the onions in first and then the butter - it won’t burn as quickly) and saute it a bit, until it starts to become translucent. I like to season my onions with a bit of salt and pepper. Shove the onions over to the side and put the pork chops in the pan to brown up. Make sure that you leave well enough alone for long enough. (pull)If you flip the chops too soon, they won’t have a chance to brown and they won’t taste nearly as good.(/pull) A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the juices are flowing out the top. Then flip them. Chop up the pear and toss it in the pan with the meat and onions. Add the garlic and toss this with the onions. Cover and sweat for a minute or two.

Uncover and add the brown sugar. It will melt and start to caramelize in the juice that has sweated out of the pears, onions, and chops. Once that has occurred, mix the cornstarch in the water and pour it into the pan. Add the Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Stir the liquid until it thickens. Serve.

If you have a bit of brandy or cognac, you could also deglaze your pan a bit with it after the pears soften a bit (be sure to reduce it until the alcohol burns off, or it’ll taste harsh and unpalatable). Then proceed with the rest.

Sorry, folks about not having a picture of the finished product, but I was hungry and ate it in short order!

I’ve been sampling some of the local microbrews. I must say that I am, so far, not impressed. Tonight’s round is Picaroons. I don’t get it. Seems like everyone who has tried it loves it. Tastes like the crap I used to home-brew with those dump-and-stir kits. I’ve tried the “Summer Ale” which is a wheat beer (tasted pretty bad, IMO), the “Irish Red” which is acclaimed (didn’t do it for me - tasted like a beer kit), and the “Best Bitter”, which is no great shakes. Perhaps this is the way beer should taste, but I don’t think so.

Sorry guys, you got me buzzed, but I’ve enjoyed the journey at less expense and better taste. Keep it up. Maybe you’ll make a beer I like. Maybe not.