Indian Food is scary

Or at least that is what i have always told myself. i LOVE Indian food, but have always felt like it is out of grasp of my cooking ability. i think it has something to do with some of the spices being unrecognizable. let's say you are making something and it you taste it and something is off. Does it need more Hing? Or does it need more Tamarind Pulp? How the hell do i know? WTF is Hing, anyways? you see? Scary stuff.

When Noelle and i are at the gym, we spend a lot of time noting how we married the same dudes. there is so much "really? he does that too?!!??" happening that our neighboring cyclists must be bored stiff by our ramblings after 3 minutes. too bad we have 27 more minutes to go, old guy! anyways, the one thing that makes me like Noelle's husband instead of Neil, is that if i cook a meal and it doesn't turn out well, just pack it up and go home. game over. nothing good here. move on. J and i are both super cranky like that.

So yes, indian food is scary. it could ruin two whole days, retrospectively, if you count the time to marinate the chicken.

But something got under my skin. Building our garden and the thoughts of being vegetably self sufficient, the crazy apocalyptic ramblings of those on the internets, i don't know.....i decided it was time to provide my family with Indian Food. no more blindly trusting that society will provide me with Indian food, just because i know i have a take out menu in the drawer. i pushed my fears aside. i found recipes. i even went to the fancy spice store and purchased what one can not find at safeways and such. People, meet Hing, Mango Powder, and Ghee (some people make Ghee. i think my cousing Kerry does. but she also has two kids and teaches. she clearly does a lot of things that i do not do):

So the menu was not to be a fancy one: tandoori chicken (grilled, since we do not have a Tandoor Oven, surprisingly enough), aloo gobi, naan, and cilantro mint chutney.

I don't bake. and i don't bake in Denver. and again, i do not have a tandoor oven. AND i am trying to cur back on the white carbs. so this whole naan plan is just really pushy in general. but i went for it, whole wheat in my oven at high altitude and all.

dough before rising:
then in the oven, science started to happen. Neil found out when i started yelling "science is happening in the oven!!!!!"
a little ghee brushed on top and we're looking good, people! that it totally naan!
the chicken marinated for 30 hours or so. i was surprised to read that most "authentic" tandoori recipes call for some kind of food coloring to get that pinky red color. regardless, i just took a recipe from Cooking Light and grilled it up. oh, and people, the wave of the future is in boneless skinless chicken THIGHS. they taste better, are cheaper, and they taste better and are cheaper. why are those two reasons not enough for you?


the aloo gobi freaked me out. maybe it is all the pot i smoked in high school but there just seemed to be So Many ingredients. so i got out all of my little glass bowls and did all my prep work. i lined it all up in order of appearance and opened all the windows in case i was going to burn everything and i just went for it.

and it worked!

the cilantro mint chutney was a breeze. i'd like to thank the Bhores once again for the food processer. i have no idea how we lived before it!






So, in all, the standouts were the aloo gobi and the chutney. those were to my previous professionally made Indian food standards. The naan was amazing for 30 seconds and then it went really hard, like a cracker. a yummy cracker, but the texture of naan is what makes it so dreamy. i'll have to readdress. the chicken's flavor was not tandoori, but it was good. basically, what one would expect from a Cooking Light recipe that is geared towards not having to go to the special spice store.

oh, and Neil hates cilantro and mint. but he ate the chitney cos i didn't tell him until after that it was cilantro and minto. oopsie!

My favorite thing to have discovered about all this is actually a financial one. Indian Food at a restaurant is expensive! i remember paying $7 for aloo gobi in SF! now, i have all of the spices in house, so i can make it for the cost of 2 potatoes and a head of cauliflower! tandoori chicken? $12 in a restaurant. i can now have it for $3 worth of chicken thighs. you catch my drift here, people? it's a nice thing to know.

so, come the apocolypse, you know where to get your Indian Food!

spring is a season, not an emotion.

one of the many reasons we love denver is the sun. some say it is sunny 300 days a year here. some also say it was foggy 300 days a year at our last home. that crap takes a toll, you know.

one of the many reasons our dogs love us is that we keep our tomatoes in the fruit basket. this makes them easily accessible for snacking in our absence. seriously, i need to hide tomatoes from Moose these days.

Spring in SF was literally just a couple of warm days. the whole "season" was lumped into daylight savings and single people feeling a bit frisky for a bit. here, it is approximately 1/4 of the year, which makes sense since there are approximately 4 seasons and such. duh.

So, a love of tomatoes combined with abundant sunshine clearly calls for something pretty specific....a fenced in veg garden. (i say "veg" because Jamie Oliver says "veg". now i am awesome.)

BEFORE:
see how there is a seam? Previous owners had implanted some kind of Only Child Amusement Device....a huge structure on a bed of tan bark, with a huge curb to delineate the "child" area from the "adult" space. weird.

first we got to building raised beds. some of the beds will be constructed of wood.
this week, i will be getting rocks delivered to build more raised beds. it is hard for me....rectangle plots of land on rectangle blocks of land. so many 9o degree angles. i am hoping my rock plan will counter that a bit.

but don't forget who we live with. tomato stealing low fence jumpers. so we do more. neil creates an outdoor workshop:

and fences are built.




i help:
but that shit is loud so sometimes i need to close my eyes and wince.
and the cool thing is that we still have the bulk of the yard, plus the side yard to play fetch with the dogs in.
i am still not smoking and am still exercising. i have lost a few pounds, but mostly it is inches i have lost and muscle i am gaining. i have set a goal that i am afraid to call a goal. it is more of a "if i ever do this i will be awesome" reference point. i would like to be able to jog round Sloan's Lake without stopping. It is only like 2 or 3 miles, so it should be able to happen soon-ish. Unfortunately, i forgot that Moose hasn't been going to the gym with me. Our little jog/walk around the lake kind of kicked his butt today. at least he was tired enough that i was finally able to really catch his toe-fro on camera. people think his paws are big but it is all fur.



so this week i build my rock beds and Neil will build the gate next weekend. we can't plant warm weather stuff until mother's day but we might be able to sneak some carrots, lettuce, radishes, and beets in there a bit earlier. if you don't like beets, roast them. roast them and realize how wrong you were about beets and then send me a check for $20 for saving your liver. you will not find a cheaper liver anywhere else, i promise.

happy spring, mofos!

not okay

i am a creature of habit. i go to the gym every day. and i am pretty much always there at the same time of day. if i am by myself, i tend to lean towards the elliptical machines. i love them, but they are just far away enough from the 4 televisions that i can't read the closed captioning. it is frustrating, but i have found a solution.

you see, i tend to go to the gym during the most boringly televised time of day. one tv is espn. one is msnbc or some other news channel that has so many "windows" open that you can't even understand what they are reporting if you are two feet in front of the screen. then there is the one that shows Inside Edition, the lowest of all the low television. once, when i was on a closer exercise machine, they were "reporting" on a grandma that was beat up by some teenagers. i don't like looking at beat up grandmas. then there is the last television....my savior. it shows some kind of today show-ish show. i think it is al roker? i don't know. but they are always cooking! i don't need to be able to read the words below....i just watch the pretty food happen. it's perfect.

until today. some rat bastard changed the channel to the Rachel Ray show. She was interviewing the cast from The Watchmen. I felt bad for Billy Crudup, which is weird because i am normally not one to pick the side of the dude who leaves his 8 month pregnant girlfriend to be with this chick who he isn't even together with anymore (was it worth it, Billy?) and now she is marrying this dude , who apparently is famous but i never heard of him until the happy engagement was announced. yay!

Also, you would think that i would be all "oh, she loves animals and i love animals so we are total BFFs". she makes a dog food. it is called "nutrish" and it is crap. Her food is rated 2 stars out of 6. what i feed my dogs is rated 5. if i made dog food, i would actually make one that is good for dogs. and i would not give it such a lame and misleading name, either. that is how i love animals.
She may donate the proceeds of her slop, but she is not Paul Newman (~~*le sigh*~~). Let me be very clear about that. "nutrish?" puke.

and really, how many shows can be just about burgers? according to rachel ray, 42 is the correct answer to that question. i know this because i actually did a search and counted them myself. Next time you want to make a fancy burger, save yourself the annoyance of her mug and email me. greek? add feta. mexican? add salsa and feel free to garnish with cilantro. Indian? throw some raita on there and you are good to go.

do you see what i am saying, people? it's not rocket science. it is clever marketing. don't fall for her 30 minute undercooked meals. admit that things can take 45 minutes and open up your resources to other celebrichefs and books. your kids will still love you. You will not be 15 minutes late to work the next day. you can still consider yourself on the pulse of America. just quit giving Ms. Ray your money. she's got enough and she isn't earning it.

also, i would like to announce to the triscuit people that i will specifically not buy your product if rachel ray is on the box. that goes for all marketed packaging. rachel ray = no dollars for you.

daylight savings has got nothing on rachel ray. i will be waking up an hour earlier tomorrow to get to the gym an hour earlier and be home an hour earlier, safe from this madness. i will use that extra hour to make a 90 minute meal. i will abbreviate nothing. And nothing will be served on a bun.