Making Tonight's Dinner Amazing

It's a chilly, rainy day in the sovereign nation of Dade County, Georgia.  The mountains that surround us are covered with deciduous trees, which are in turn covered with leaves that are just on the brink of bursting into a violent color palette of reds, oranges, and yellows. 

This calls for the commencement of soup season.  And what better way to celebrate Autumn's Advent, than to pile on the spices!

As always, I have made alterations and substitutions, but for the epically curious, the original recipe comes courtesy of this place: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Lentil-Soup-5344#ixzz1aVZhxc6U


Curried Lentil Soup

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 red potatoes, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2+ tablespoons Garam Masala
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 cans rotel tomatoes, juice included
• 2 cups lentils (about 12 ounces), with juice retained

I start with dried lentils and cook them, lightly salting the juice.  

 

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, potatoes, and carrot.  Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Mix in pepper and garam masala and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes with juices and lentils with juices and bring to boil. Cover pot, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer about 45 minutes. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. 

 

This recipe can be made up to 2 days ahead. Refrigerate until cold, cover, and keep refrigerated. Before serving, rewarm soup over low heat. 

 

I might decide to serve it with rice so my soup-wary husband thinks he's eating curried lentils instead of curried lentil soup.  But I'd love to serve it in bowls outside on the porch with a cup of masala chai and some sour cream and cheese in it.  Either way, we'll see. 

Making Being Violently Ill Amazing

I'm thinking the title is probably a tad bit of a misnomer, there was nothing amazing* (unless you're very strange) about the effects of this bug I picked up on my recent trip to Honduras.  Nor was there much amazing about the RAB diet my mom put me on (Rice soup, Applesauce, Bananas), which she said was gentle enough to help the villi in my intestines regrow.  It also was gentle enough that I was hungry all day yesterday, even though I splurged a little and had oatmeal soup instead of rice soup.  Today, though, was time to slowly titrate my body back into normal eating habits, and this is where the creativity and amazing comes into play. 

*the heat pad, however, was most definitely amazing. 

Recipe of the Day: Egg Drop Banh Pho Soup

This is an Asianified version of chicken noodle soup, and even easier on the stomach.  I started with some veggies that looked mild, and prepared the Banh Pho rice noodles (for those who haven't read my post on Thai curry, you soak the noodles in water for about 20 minutes, then throw them in your stir fry until they're soft.)  Then I made the Egg Drop Soup, and added the noodles and veggies to the finished product. 

The Stir Fry/Banh Pho part
1-2 carrots
1 green onion or shallot
1-2 stalks of celery
1/3 of a package of Banh Pho rice noodles

Put the noodles in some water to soak them.  Chop all the veggies, cook with a little of the chicken broth in a wok or frying pan.  You don't have to get them all the way soft or brown them, because they will be heated in the soup, which will add a minute or two to how long they cook.  When the veggies are as done as you'd like, add the Banh Pho noodles, and cook until soft.  Turn off, and make your egg drop soup part. 

The Egg Drop Soup Part
1 quart chicken broth (I freeze mine after cooking a whole chicken, then thaw it every time I want egg drop soup)
1-2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste


Heat the chicken broth just to boiling, turn the heat down.  Beat the egg, slowly drizzle it into the hot broth.  Wait about 3 seconds, then gently stir it to break up the now-cooked egg bits.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  If you like your soup a little thicker, add about a teaspoon of cornstarch while you heat the broth. Once you have stirred the egg, add the Banh Pho and Veggie part, stir, and make sure your salt and pepper amount is still good. 

Variations: I like to garnish with Furikaki (rice seasoning).  I'm also pretty sure some brown rice would be very good in this soup in the absence of Banh Pho.  A little bit of soy sauce might also be tasty, and you could always vary the veggies depending on whether you're sick or not.  This reminded me of miso soup, so some tofu and seaweed or kale would be incredible as well. 

Making 40 Hours with No Water and No Power Amazing

When we saw this coming, we knew we were in for a wet few days.  What we didn't realize was that it would be so wet, the wind would uproot soggy trees by their soaked roots and drop them on power lines within the first few hours of the rain starting.  Oh, and those same lines that brought us power, powered the well pump that gave us water. 

Night 1: Watch the storms, play Apples to Apples by candlelight.  We moved our bed into the living room where there were fewer unstable trees, and more unstable windows out of which to watch the lightning and wind. 

Day 1: Put the houseplants outside for the drink of their lives.  Within an hour, they had gained 5 lbs apiece in water weight.  Fatties. 

Night 2: Ate watermelon and played the Ungame by candlelight.  Moved bed back into room so we'd get a decent night's sleep without the antsy cats plopping around all day.  Mr. Mike brought his work laptop home with a full battery so we could watch Gabriel Iglesias and Oceans 12. 

Aww, but she's so patient sitting by the window, waiting for the rain to stop.  This is Bynx, the Duchess of the family.  Really, what made the entire time amazing wasn't our ingenuity, but our interaction.  Being family, sitting and talking to pass the time, cooperating to make the best of what we had on hand, playing with the cats, and enjoying time together. 

Moving

Moving is what bwings us togevah today. 

I am typing from my cozy temporary room, having called Windstream and my landlord today to make it official.  In fact, my responsibilities have diminished greatly in the past 24 hours, and I find myself with little or nothing requiring my immediate attention; and am therefore feeling resort overtones.  I even laid out in the back yard and soaked up some sun in preparation for my upcoming mission trip to Honduras.  The more tan I get beforehand, the less I'll have to worry about sunscreen while I'm on the dig site. 

So, last night we packed up the in-laws' Honda CRV and old Ford pickup for the dozenth time and unplugged the lamp and swept the floor and left our keys on the stove when we left.  We were only moving about 8 miles away from the apartment, so we opted to make the multiple trips instead of renting a moving van for the day.  We used what few boxes we had on hand, and simply piled on the rest of the stuff.  We're living out of a suitcase, but are blessed to have space to set up a nice dorm-esque area for the computer and a few items to suffice for the time being.

Every time we do something like this, I am tempted to throw away everything else, all the packed up stuff, all the furniture, all the everything, and just live like this.  Simple, un-chained from material things, and free to make each day new.  Of course, I'm technically bumming off the in-laws for their stuff, but hey, what fantasy was ever without its surrealism?  So I'll stress again, like I have been for so long and practicing not nearly enough: SIMPLIFY!  If you don't think you have a ton of crap, MOVE.  When you pick up that random doo-dad your aunt Flitchie gave you when you were 10 and have never used, throw/give it away.  Even if you don't plan on moving in the near future, your livable space will be much more livable with less junk. 

For anyone who is moving or planning on moving, learn from my recent experience:

1. Start early--pack and re-pack boxes to organize items and make the most of space.

2. Have give away zones, places where you put items to conveniently "lose during the move"

3. Collect boxes and plastic bags from the grocery store.  These are great for packing.  There is no such thing as too many boxes.  Well, maybe there is, but I have yet to see it. 

4. If you're moving more than 10 miles away, pay for the moving van.  It will save you in gas.

5. Even if you plan to do the change of address form online, pick up the kit from the post office.  It has coupons in it.  I can get 10% off of my next purchases at Best Buy or Lowe's now.  And use the paper kit instead of online, it's free and the online one charges you $1.00. 

As a note on #2, I've had a huge blessing out of giving stuff away.  Things I don't use or know someone who would love the item more than I would, I got to give away.  Not only did it lessen the load of stuff I have to carry, but I get to see friends enjoying things that were just stuff to me.  It gives them and you both an item connected to a memory of each other, which will long outlast the item alone. 

A New Place to Make Amazing

Sorry for the long time between posts, I have good reason, I really do.  And this reason comes with an announcement:

Making Making Do Amazing is moving to a new location!  In the lag time between moving out of our apartment and moving in to a new place, my husband and I will be making some amazing out of his parents' house.  I'm certain this will afford many blog opportunities about maximizing small living quarters and enjoying time with family.  These next few weeks are going to be priceless, especially since we lived with them while waiting for this apartment to be ready and now we've come back to the beginning before making a fresh start in a new city with (hopefully) the new job for my husband. 

So, on the agenda today, moving the outdoor plants.  I am not confident that my irises and gladiolas will fare well in buckets, so I'm planting them and enriching the poor soil options to hopefully create something to add to Momma's home, and not just take up space. 

Christmas in August

I love Christmas, I really do.  It's the only real bright spot making the cold weather worth surviving.  I know, I'm a wuss, I live in Georgia, where we only usually have 4 weeks of hard freezing and mid 50s the rest of the winter, but that's cold to me.  And last year's 8 weeks of hard freezing were...how to describe it...insufferable? Miserable? Horrifying?  Anyway, back to the topic at hand. 

Christmas.  Warm colors, family, friends, gifts, abounding creativity.  It has been on my mind in an unusual way, and early on this year.  "Christmas in August" has been an offering for years now, but I never really understood the mid-summer yearning for ice and cold wind and Christmas, until I'm feeling it now.  Minus the ice and cold wind bit. 

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.  Since last Christmas, January has New Year's, February Valentine's Day, March/April have Easter, May my birthday, July Independence day, then we have a long dry spell in August, September, October, and the first half of November, until Thanksgiving and Christmas herald new beginnings for next year.  This is the longest festivity dry spell in the entire year.  There's no gardening to be done, only a weekly filling of my hummingbird feeder. 

Of course, if I truly realized the urgency of how soon my mission trip to Honduras was coming up, I wouldn't be indulging these thoughts of Christmas lists and pinecone bird feeders....but what the hey.

What do you guys think?  What are some good Christmas to-do items that I can start early?

Apple Pancakes

I love looking at fresh-juiced apple juice.  

The LaFayette, Georgia Goodwill is my newest Achilles heel.  I might as well budget $25 toward every time I walk into that store.  And who can blame me, when there sits a brand new Oster juicer on the shelf for $10.00?  I had been saving up Swagbucks rewards and in another year and a half I'd have enough Amazon gift cards to buy a juicer.  So of course I had to try it out.  After I juiced almost every fruit and vegetable in my refrigerator, I realized the true expense of this critter was in the grocery bill it would produce.  I also saw how addictive it could be, especially watching the pulp and foam layering out in a cup of apple juice.  All of a sudden, the watery junk sold at the grocery store lost all appeal when faced with this complex beverage. 

A fun experiment followed.  I had made shredded apple pancakes before at Christmas, and served them with a spiced apple syrup, but I wondered if this juicer would make apple pancakes a hearty, healthy, non-special-occasion breakfast. 

So, I chose a recipe from Cooks.com:

1 1/2 cups apple juice
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat together apple juice and eggs in a medium bowl. Add the flour, oats, wheat germ, baking powder, orange peel and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed.Lightly grease a nonstick skillet. Make as you would pancakes pouring approximately 2 tablespoons batter mixture onto hot skillet for each pancake. Flip (only once) when bubbles begin to form around edges.

Simple, right?  And notice something else: the absolute absence of anything that involves milk or oil/fats or sugar (except in the juice itself).  I had neither the orange peel nor the wheat germ, but I did use whole wheat flour.  I would probably use the orange peel next time, the pancakes had a wonderful texture but were a little bland.  They didn't taste much like apples, either, which may have been the fault of my apples.  I usually prefer a stark organic Fuji or McIntosh. 

Here's the batter.  It made about 8 pancakes and fed 4 people.

I used a cast iron quesadilla skillet as a griddle. 

This is rehydrated pulp from the juicer.  It reminded me of applesauce.

The "applesauce" garnishing the pancakes.  Definitely a winner.

Pros and Cons:
Pros: Simple recipe, very healthy ingredients, filling and hearty
Cons: Juicer makes hard cleanup, a little bland (fixable), recipe should be doubled for large families.