I started up a bit of a food blog over here.
It’s not much yet, but I plan to add all of my favorite recipes as time goes on.
I have a lot of them already typed up, but they need to be formatted in a way that’s readable on the web.
I keep my recipes on my Palm T|X. I have a category on my Task list called Menu, and when I find a good recipe, I either type it in to my Palm or copy it off the web and paste into my Task list.
On the weekend, I ask my husband if he has any special requests. When he does, I change the due date on the recipe to Sunday, which is the day we go grocery shopping. After he picks his favorites, I pick a few more, so we don’t end up having a weeks worth of chicken dishes in a row or something.
Then I go back and forth between the Task list and Handyshopper and check off any ingredients I may need to pick up. I try to keep a well stocked pantry so I only need to buy fresh foods each week. I keep skinless, boneless chicken breasts in the freezer, and buy more every couple months at Costco.
I change the date of the Tasks on my Palm to the day of the week that I’ll make the recipe. During the week, as I make each recipe, I set the date back to No Date, so the recipe falls back from the top of the Task list. Now that I have quite a list of recipes, I don’t worry about keeping track of how often I make the same recipe. Sometimes we want the same thing for three weeks in a row, and sometimes I forget about an old favorite unless my husband mentions it.
This is one of the first recipes I made for my husband, when we were still dating, and it’s been a favorite for a long time. It’s one of those that can be whipped up quickly on a weeknight as long as I have defrosted the chicken ahead of time. I adapted it from a recipe in a book I bought from a guy who came to my suite at work one day selling books. It was called Healing Foods from the Editors of Prevention Magazine.
The original recipe has you pound the chicken breasts flat and marinate for 30 minutes. I usually cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and marinate for about 10 minutes.
The other thing I do is I make the marinade before I even open the chicken package, and taste it. If the lemons or limes are particularly tart, I might add some more soy sauce to the marinade, or I might deglaze the pan with a little chicken broth before throwing the reserved marinade in at the last step. It’s still flavorful, but less sharp to the taste.
On a weekend, I’ll make a large batch of brown rice, but Trader Joe’s now sells pre-cooked brown rice in bags of about 3 servings per bag. On a weeknight, it’s too much to make brown rice, but this stuff isn’t so bad if you doctor it a bit. I usually crunch up the package to break up the rice, then empty it into a Corning-ware dish with some chicken broth, and steam for a few minutes in the microwave. It’s not great, but it works well for trying to eat some whole grains instead of more processed foods.

Chicken with Thai Flavors
1 lb. chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
2 scallions, minced
— Marinade —
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. Soy sauce
1 tsp. Red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. peeled grated ginger root
3 cloves garlic
Combine marinade ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
Cut chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and add to marinade.
Marinate 10 min.
Drain chicken, reserving marinade. This will allow the chicken to brown instead of boil in the marinade.
Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add 1 tsp canola oil and cook the chicken in 2-3 batches, depending on the size of the pan.
Remove chicken to platter and cook next batches.
Add marinade to the pan and boil for at least 30 seconds. (I usually do at least a minute!)
Pour marinade over chicken, and sprinkle with 2 minced scallions.

I hope you will give it a try, and let me know what you think!

One of the nice things about having a diverse group of people to work with is the variety of things you can learn about other cultures. It seems like food is always the first thing people share.
One of my colleagues just returned from a month-long trip to India. He was in Mumbai when the monsoons hit, and got stuck there for a while before returning to New Delhi where he is from. He shared that his brother was out walking in the water and it was up to his armpits! I have been in the monsoons in Las Vegas, where the water comes half-way up your shins, but never up to my armpits. I can’t even imagine what that’s like.
He brought these beautiful sweets back with him to share with the team at work. The long tube-shaped one and the cube-shaped one have silver leaf on top. How pretty! The other has coconut and I think they all have pistachios. Yummy!
He says you can buy them here but they don’t taste the same as the ones he brought back. Not suprising, really.

In the summer, I hate cooking, because it’s just too hot. I have built up a repertoire of recipes that I can stretch for a few days, just to avoid having to cook on the hot days of summer.
When I was a kid, my mother always made 3 bean salad. Green beans, Garbanzos and Kidneys. I never liked the Green Beans, in fact, I still don’t. Every few years, I like to try foods that I hated in the past to see if I still hate them. I recently discovered a love for Asparagus this way, but Green Beans are still on the you-know-what list.
So now that I’m a grown-up, I can make my own version, which I call Two-Thirds Bean Salad. It’s actually nothing like my mother’s version, I don’t think. She is an amazing cook, but we have issues, so we don’t talk. It sucks that I don’t have her recipes, but my sanity is worth so much more.
I never think to measure this kind of stuff, which means I would fail miserably as a baker. I really have a hard time following a recipe exactly as written. I always throw in twice as much garlic as called for. I never use cups of things that come in units, like peppers, onions, carrots. I just use 1 onion, or 1 pepper, etc. It seems so wasteful to use only a cup of something that isn’t pourable.
Two-Thirds Bean Salad
1 (14 oz) can Garbanzo Beans, drained
1 (14 oz) can Kidney Beans, drained
1 green pepper, finely diced
3 shallots, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of two lemons
olive oil to taste, I start with about 2 Tablespoons and adjust from there
Sugar to taste, I start with 2 teaspoons of superfine and adjust from there
salt and pepper to taste
Rinse the beans if they are in that unpleasant goo that they sometimes come in. Otherwise, just drain them. Combine everything but the beans in a bowl. Adjust the last four ingredients to get the balance you like. The sugar might not even be needed, depending on your lemons. Toss in the beans and mix well. Pop the bowl in the fridge and let the flavors meld for a couple of hours. Makes a great side dish for a few days worth of lunches or dinners. I like it with sauteed chicken breasts or a steak. Yum!
I hope you’ll try it and let me know if you like it, blogworld!