The Brown Rice Chronicles

I made brown rice yesterday:
1/2 c long grain brown rice
1c + 1/4 c water

boiled covered until the water was gone

RESULT: crunchy rice NO GOOD


I made brown rice today:
1/2 c long grain brown rice
2 cups water

boiled uncovered until the water was mostly gone

RESULT: It's goo. I have successfully made goo (KE must be so proud)

Tomorrow I will try again. Hopefully I'll get the hang of this brown rice thing, I still have a large bag of it!

I made this rice to go with curry, my new favorite cheap meal! So good and it tastes just like it does from the Thai places in Brooklyn!


Pineapple & Broccoli Red Coconut Curry
1 brick of tofu- pressed 1 hour and then fry (use a nonstick... I learned the hard way that stainless steel just doesn't work)
approx 1 Tbsp oil
1/2 onion chopped small,
3 spoonfuls Thai Red Curry Paste
1 cap coconut milk
3/4 c broccoli (if it's frozen, heat it up in water for a bit and drain before adding to curry)
1/2 c pineapple tidbits
Splash of fish sauce
Prepared Brown Rice

1. Prep Tofu and set aside.
2. Cook onion and olive oil covered to soften a bit (learned form watching Julia Child made French Onion Soup- on my list to attempt this winter!)
3. Add curry paste, stir around, add broccoli, stir some more. Add coconut milk and pineapple bits and sprinkle of fish sauce and simmer.
4. Add tofu and simmer a bit more til reheated.
5. Serve over brown rice (hopefully you know how to make it... or you buy the instant stuff... which has a better success rate!)

The quinetessential city dwellers fireplace

1. install greasemonkey,
2. install Loopy for youtube
3. go here and click 'loop' (bottom right) then go to fullscreen mode
(remember to adjust the time on or disable your screen saver)

What to do with dried out garlic bread? Savory French Toast!

I picked up a loaf of roasted garlic bread the other day but failed to store it in a ziploc bag or the fridge so it got too stale to snack on. There are two things i know stale bread is good for: croutons and french bread. I also have a bunch of dried rosemary from my mom's garden so I decided to make a savory french toast with the leftovers for KE and my dinner.

1. Slice remaining bread in 1" thick slices
2. break 3 eggs into a bowl that is big enough to accomadate one slice of bread, whisk in ground pepper and about 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
3. Heat a skillet with olive oil, soak bread in egg mixture, flip to get both sides, and cook so both sides are light brown
4. Top with a veggie or sauce. We used some left over grape tomatoes, sauteed in some olive oil to soften and put ontop of hot french toast.

Afterthoughts:

• KE wanted some balsamic vinegar on the tomatoes, to make them a little more tart and savory
• I had considered a broccoli puree on top of the french toast - or perhaps some sauteed greens? the tomatoes were good but there could have been more veggies on top!
• I would totally make this again with fresh bread, not just dried out bread! There are probably other spice and herb combinations that are fantastic as well.
  
• With a few more veggies on top this is a pretty healthy meal: grain (bread), protein (egg), veggies (whatever you put on top).

This has been one of our more successful experiments, yay!

Meat on the cheap

Sometimes you just need to do a little reading to realize the strange sounding cut of meat is totally edible and worthy for more than feeding to the dog.

Check out this NY Times article It May Be Cheap, But it's Also Tasty

I don't cook much meat and I tend to stick to chicken and fish, but in preparing my mole dinner I compared prices and while I like getting chicken breast fillets, the cost difference for thighs (which the recipe called for anyhow) was about 2$/ pound in savings! Next time I want to try something new perhaps I'll peruse the cheaper cuts of meat.

Brooklyn Homestead is online!

We are selling chocolates through Etsy! Please take a look at our shop, Brooklyn Homestead.

Ever had a kumquat? Me neither, until now!

I never had either but KE and I decided to give them a try. With no idea how to eat them we turned to the omniscient internet and found this video which explains 'How to Eat a Kumquat'!

We bought 6 of them. They are grape sized fruits with a skin that looks like orange peel but is more thinner, like a really tough skinned tomato. The tart flavor is intense at first (and would have been alarming if not for watching that video!) and chewing made it get sweeter. There's just one seed in the middle, about the size of a pine nut.

It wasn't bad, I don't know that I would snack on them, but I am curious about what kinds of dessert they make and how they are in a jam or marmalade. I hope to attempt making jam this summer! Probably raspberry or blueberry- depending on what's available in Vermont. I wish my grandma was around to teach me to make jam. Her's was so good I asked for it for Christmas one year and she gave me 4 tubs of strawberry jam! It was my most memorable present from her :) She made raspberry for my brother, I don't know if he was expecting jam though haha!