Review: Lights and Sirens

So very, very good!  I could read twenty of these!  The author writes about his training and internship in paramedic medicine, and it was:

 Grueling

 Scary

 Exciting, Touching, Happy, Painful, and

 A Whole Lot of Very Hard Work.

 He writes well, spinning a fascinating web of technical detail and personal suffering—and joy—throughout.

 

 

Review: Free Outside

A Trek Against Time and Distance

by Jeff Garmire 

This is hard to review subjectively…I enjoyed it because I like almost all books about long treks on trails. I especially appreciated the author’s enjoyment of the natural world around him, despite his travails to cover the distance of all three major trails in one calendar year. Without flip-flopping, either. Pretty awesome.

But I have to admit that the day-to-day details got a little boring. A lot boring, actually. At some points I was just reading a daily blog posting—where he went, how much elevation he conquered, and how many faceplants he took. I kept wishing he could slow down and write about the beauties he encountered. Write more about them, that is. Because he certainly did write about them, just not in as much detail as I wanted.

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #12: Egg and Eggplant Sandwich

Okay, I did so many things wrong on this recipe I can’t honestly say I tried it. But I still liked it fine!  So I’ll call it “my take on” an Eggplant Salad Pita.

The recipe called for roasted eggplant on a pita bread with hummus and topped with a medley of chopped cucumber, tomato, jalapeno, cumin, parsley, lemon juice, yogurt and olive oil. And then further topped with sliced boiled egg and chopped pickles.

My version skipped the egg and pickle, but was otherwise quite tasty. I might make it again someday, for a fancy lunch or for guests.

 

Keep or Discard? Keep, in case I ever want to try again

To-Try Recipe #11: Roasted Chickpeas 

Oops! Well, the recipe called for seasoning with oil and salt, and I didn’t. I just slapped them on a baking sheet and popped it in the oven. They were okay, and if I ever lose my source for ready-made roasted chickpeas, I can do it again. But what’s the point? They’re perfectly good without the extra oil.

Keep or Discard? Discard—I don’t need a recipe for this

 

 

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #10: Shrimp Egg Foo Yong

This turned out pretty good, despite my substitutions. I couldn’t get bean sprouts at the store, so I substituted bok choy, stems only. And I had a 12-oz bag of shrimp, so it seemed silly to use only 1/3 cup of it – I dumped it all in.  (About 2 cups)

I tried the original sauce and the sauce from Saveur Magazine, which we liked much better. I suspect that in the past when we used to make this dish occasionally, we used a sauce with a whole lot more sugar. But this one, with only cornstarch and oyster sauce for sweeteners, was much better.

Keep or Discard? Keep, and try again with bean sprouts. Even if that means a trip to the Asian supermarket. I need some other stuff there, anyway.

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #8:  Coconut Fish Tomato Bake

I intended to use up the old tomatoes (bought before Christmas) in this recipe, but most of them were rotten. I got two good ones out of the bag and had to supplement with some grape tomatoes I’d bought. Which was fine. I used a half-bag of catfish pieces from the freezer, plus spices and a part of a can of light coconut milk. So it was kind of "healthful", although I may have splashed a little too much olive oil on. It looked a little oily in the pan. 

But it was very tasty!  And remarkably easy, too. So…

Keep or Discard?  Keep and make again!

 

To-Try Recipe #9: Apple Butter from the “Our South” cookbook

The reason for trying this recipe, which I will probably never eat more than a couple of spoonfuls of, was to see if it was indeed possible to make apple butter without having to peel the apples. And I’m happy to announce, yes! After an hour of cooking, the immersion blender chopped the peelings right up and they disappeared.

Taste-wise, it was good but not great. I’ll eat it for a few weeks, but at my normal rate of two teaspoons jam on toast about twice a week, it will last me a year at least, And I only used five apples!

Keep or Discard? Discard. With regrets.

Cooking…for the halibut

 To-Try Recipe #7:  Spinach Ohitasi

Wow!  This turned out really good. Maybe a little on the chewy side—the spinach was only cooked one minute—but it's probably better for me that way. It’s simply spinach dressed with dashi, soy sauce and mirin.

Keep or Discard?  Keep for sure, and maybe even make more. Or could I try the leftover Bok Choy instead, in the same recipe?

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #6:  Tofu Lettuce Wraps

This was a interesting way to turn tofu into something with a  flavor.  You cook diced carrots, onion, ginger and garlic in sesame oil; add Hoisin sauce which I didn’t have any of, so I used miso cut with soy sauce and honey; and crumble in the tofu and a few shitake mushrooms. That becomes the filling for the lettuce wraps, and then you serve it with a peanut butter-soy sauce dipping sauce. Pretty yummy.

Keep or Discard?  Keep, even if I never make it again.