yogurt tease.

Among other things, I just had a 6 ounce cup of Dannon Light and Fit yogurt for lunch, vanilla flavor. I've been noticing lately that unfortunately it is tasting increasing more artificial. I went to the kitchenette to wash out the cup before recycling it, and had the following conversation with a co-worker, who will be referred to in the remainder of this post as yogurt tease, or YT for short, for his comments and behavior. (I will be referred to as SSC, in case you were wondering)

SSC: (while washing out yogurt cup) Wow, this yogurt tastes increasingly more artificial each time I have it.

YT: Yeah, most yogurts do. Although Stoneyfield yogurt is pretty good.

SSC: (nodding, agreeing-- though making mental note that the Stoneyfield is pricier, and the enormous box of Dannon Light and Fit was a good deal at Costco) Yeah, you're right. (tosses cup into recycling bin, and turns to walk away)

YT: You know, I make my own yogurt.

SSC: (stops in tracks) Really! How do you do it?

YT: Oh, it's really easy. You just need to start with the culture, and you can't buy it at any regular store, because all of their stuff is processed.

(SSC nods, ashamed after eating processed cheap yogurt)

YT: You just heat milk to a froth, let it cool, add the culture, and refrigerate overnight.

SSC: (falling straight into the Yogurt Tease's trap) That does sound easy. Where do you get the culture?

YT: (drops bomb) Oh, mine is from [fill in foreign country here-- left blank to protect identity of said Yogurt Tease]. It's been a family tradition since the 1970's.

SSC: Right. Of course. (finally exits kitchenette, defeated)

our saturday in pictures (and words)

Yesterday we went biking.

I have nothing more to say about this-- I just thought this is a cool picture of the mud on my tire. :)

And now, for something completely different.

Last weekend, we went grocery shopping at Market Basket.

Despite the insanity of 75% of the customers shopping like grocery stores are going out of business, and, oh, that sawdust, we were completely impressed with the brevity of the receipt. It was printed double sided, and lacked the extra "stuff" that Stop and Shop receipts have-- that is, when they tell you how much you've saved this year, how many arbitrary points you've accumulated, etc... so in our minds, score 1, Market Basket.

Fast forward to yesterday: we went to Stop and Shop to buy some ingredients for a goat cheese cheesecake to bring to our friends' Dave and Steph's house for dinner. We purchased our items, and then in the car I realized I had only grabbed 1 block of cream cheese rather than the required 2, so I ran back into the store to purchase the cream cheese pictured below. (Note: when running through the store to get this cream cheese-- because at this point I was realizing we were probably way too late in starting this cooking venture, I accidentally knocked down a small display of mustard. I had to spend more time to pick it up than I would have had I been walking at a normal speed... note to self: do not run past seasonal grilling displays)

So back to this cream cheese: that's all I bought.

LOOK AT THE LENGTH OF THE RECEIPT!

Seriously, Stop and Shop? I had trouble getting this receipt in the frame! Take some lessons from Market Basket, please!

Back to the cheesecake: it was a bust. We managed to get through baking the crust and making the filling, then realized we were better to take it unbaked to Dave and Steph's house, and cook it there... well, their oven was feeling a bit under the weather, and couldn't quite handle making dinner and dessert, so we ended up taking our cheesecake back home afterwards to bake it... and bake we did.

Yet... the filling had been sitting for so long on the crust, that the crust is no longer crusty. And the middle didn't really bake. And apparently we went a little heavy on the lemon juice, because the cheesecake is surprisingly lemon-y.

cookin'

we made an eggplant dish for dinner the other night, pictured here, prior to being baked:

it is a variation on a dish from the cookbook called "vegetables" published by the culinary institute of america-- the actual recipe is for roasted eggplant stuffed with curried lentils... we made a more plain version. here is our variation:

1/2 cup brown lentils

2 cups vegetable broth

1 large (?) eggplant

1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing pan

1/4 cup minced cippolini onion

2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

salt and pepper

1. bring lentils and broth to a boil-- cover an reduce heat to low. simmer until lentils are tender-- 25-30 minutes. remove and set aside, keeping lentils in cooking liquid.

2. preheat oven to 350. grease 8x8 baking pan. cut eggplant in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh, leaving 1/2" to 3/4" thick wall. mince scooped flesh and set aside. put eggplant halves in dish, skin side down.

3. heat large skillet over medium heat. add onion and garlic. saute until onion is golden brown, 6-8 minutes. add minced eggplant, cinnamon, salt and pepper-- saute 5 minutes.

4. drain lentils but save cooking liquid. add lentils to eggplant mix and enough cooking liquid so that vegetables moisten, and simmer until liquid is reduced-- 6-8 minutes.

5. fill hollowed eggplant with mix. cover with foil and bake until tender-- 35-40 minutes.

serve and enjoy! it's also good reheated... we had some for lunch the following day!

scallion pancakes

yesterday i attempted to make rice flour scallion pancakes. they were awful. do you have a good recipe or suggestion for making something tasty?