Highlights from KublaCon 2011.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I have just a few photos from KublaCon this year, which is really what I say every year because I am too busy playing games and goofing off to remember to take photos. This year I had the added excitement of catching FunkyPlaid’s cold as well as finishing up some homework on a hard deadline, but I still managed to have some memorable times with great friends.

I was especially psyched to get the video of Bob tormenting Jason with his very special pronunciation of “mustard”. I have some other short videos to post after I edit them a bit. Right now I need to sleep for many hours in a row without stopping.

Bob tortures Jason with mustard.

IMG_1330.MOV Watch on Posterous

It has become a treasured KublaCon tradition.

This section makes me cringe.

I suppose I should be glad there aren’t any books titled “When Curdled Milk Gets in Your Eye”. Yet.

Avoid, embrace meal planning: success!

I am sold on this meal-planning gig. Not only did I successfully make three meals last week — counting last night in last week because one of the meals was postponed — but I brought snacks to work every single day.

I did not, however, manage to get my tea-making system set up at work yet. I plan to this week.

The verdict on the recipes: the meatloaf was great, as usual. The Indonesian peanut butter chicken did not have enough flavor but I think that is because I used regular-sized drumsticks instead of drumettes. Note to self and to you if you are also making this recipe: drumettes are key. The Indian curry was pretty good but, again, did not have enough flavor. I felt like it should be sweeter. FunkyPlaid suggested raisins and I think he’s onto something.

Quinoa was the real winner this week. It is significantly easier to cook than rice, and I prefer the taste.

The big loser this week? Hard-boiled eggs. I ate just two of the seven I cooked. Day three those eggs looked at me and I looked at those eggs and there was just no way. I guess I don’t like them as much as I thought I did.

My next big hurdle is eating leftovers without a microwave to reheat them. It is a weird thing to be lazy about, I know, but I really, really miss my microwave. It was perfect for reheating small portions. And thawing things sans microwave is a real pain in the ass, so freezing leftovers is the equivalent of a death sentence in our house. I have perfectly good homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer right now. (Thanks, StillTasty, for confirming its untouchable goodness.)

Eventually I will remember to take photos of food while I make it!

Nostalgic tongue.

It has taken a while, but I think I can make my mom’s meatloaf almost the way she makes it. And although I cannot divulge the recipe, if you are ever a meat-eating guest in my house, I would be happy to make it for you. Just ask. (I have tried making it vegetarian but it results in oven puke.)

My mom’s meatloaf is something from my childhood that I treasure, one of a few dishes that means “home” to me. Finally being able to do this recipe justice is a wonderful thing. I like serving it with sweet and spicy green beans, but my mom used to serve it with her special mashed potatoes. I can still see three heaping plates on the round wooden table in our kitchen. Sometimes it would be so cold outside that the window would steam up, fogging us in our little safe harbor.

What is one of your favorite food memories from childhood?

Her drunk kitchen.

The last time I got completely buzzed while making dinner, I had an idea for a silly video show. Harto beat me to it, and that is totally okay with me.

Watch the rest here.

Author and publisher Carmen Callil has withdrawn from the judging panel of the Man Booker International prize

Author and publisher Carmen Callil has withdrawn from the judging panel of the Man Booker International prize over its decision to honour Philip Roth with the £60,000 award. Dismissing the Pulitzer prize-winning author, Callil said that ‘he goes on and on and on about the same subject in almost every single book. It’s as though he’s sitting on your face and you can’t breathe’.
Judge withdraws over Philip Roth’s Booker win | Books | guardian.co.uk

anagrammed

This has been roiling around in my head, a moment years ago that I wish I had done differently.

anagrammed

fist wrapped around stem
bubble spit laid on lip
elbow crumpled menu
you called me
codependent
while I anagrammed
each step out the door

tend
cope
end

– Halsted M. Bernard

Avoid, embrace meal planning.

As mentioned in my previous post, I am attempting to exhaustion-proof my kitchen by planning meals out in advance and stocking up on healthy snacks and lunches. I have been resistant to meal-planning because I avoid creating additional structure around my diet so I can act like I still have a little freedom despite the gluten-free stuff. This makes the topic a good candidate for my next “Avoid, Embrace”. So here we go …

There are two main issues to address. The first is that while I often want to cook dinner I am also often rushed and/or exhausted. That also impacts my lunchtime and snacking habits; if I am pressed for time and have nothing on hand, I’ll either not eat (and then gobble too much for dinner later) or eat something unhealthy that I can find on the go.

Yesterday I created a meal plan for the week in Evernote so I can access it on my iPhone while I am at the store. I wrote down the evenings we will be at home together around dinnertime — only three this week — and then paged through some cookbooks for inspiration. I decided on:

• Monday: Indonesian Peanut Butter Chicken over quinoa
• Friday: Mom’s Meatloaf with Sweet & Spicy Green Beans
• Saturday: Indian Curry over quinoa

I chose Monday’s and Saturday’s meals because I hadn’t tried the recipes before and I adore my slow-cooker. Also, on Saturday night we need something quick to eat before we head out to our friend’s party, so this will be all ready to go when FunkyPlaid gets home from work. Friday’s meal is an old stand-by, my mom’s recipe for meatloaf that is an occasional indulgence of ours.

After adding the ingredients for the week’s meals to my grocery list, I then added some items for my healthy snacks and lunches this week: carrots, grapes, bananas, almonds, eggs (to hard-boil), hummus, yogurt, Pamela’s gluten-free bread mix, and curry kale chips. This last snack blew my mind a little bit. I had eaten kale chips before, but not ones that made me want to make my own.

Last night, I hard-boiled some eggs and made a loaf of bread. I also packed my lunch before going to bed, a trick I had known since I was old enough to pack a lunch, but had somehow forgotten along the way, causing every morning to be a sad little rumble around the kitchen, opening and shutting cupboards ineffectually, leaving with a protein bar in my hand that is somehow magically supposed to turn into two meals.

Some progress has been made. The next step is to kill my Starbucks habit, because I have been pretending that a green tea latte counts as breakfast. Tomorrow I will bring my tea set to work!

Celiac Awareness Month

In March 2008, I stopped eating gluten for medical reasons, and (with a few transgressions) haven’t looked back. OK, I’ve looked back in anger — like the play, not the Oasis song — but for the most part, I am very grateful to have had such a straightforward and relatively easy way to address my myriad health problems.

May is Celiac Awareness Month, so here are some related links. I won’t proselytize, I promise. If I didn’t have to give up gluten, I wouldn’t have, believe me. I miss croissants and wake up from intricate croissant-eating dreams. Often.

• What is Celiac Disease? from the Celiac Disease on the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.
• FDA.gov’s Questions and Answers on the Gluten-Free Labeling Proposed Rule.
• 1 in 133: “To draw attention to the FDA’s inaction, and to galvanize the burgeoning gluten-free community, leading members of this community will host Capitol Hill legislators, noted celiac disease researchers, gluten-free community leaders and food corporations to the first Gluten Free Food Labeling Summit, in Washington, D.C. on May 4th, 2011. Coinciding with the newly recognized National Celiac Awareness Month, the event will also feature the world’s largest gluten-free cake – symbolizing the big deal that clear, accurate, reliable labeling plays in the lives of people dependent on labeling for their health.”
• Is That Gluten Free? iPhone and iPad app: This is one of the apps I use the most. You can search by brand, category, or product name.
• Stephanie O’Dea from A Year of Slow Cooking and author of my favorite slow-cooker cookbooks, "Make It Fast, Cook It Slow" and "More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow", asks for your help in raising awareness.
• My Twitter list of gluten-free resources and my gluten-free recipe links on Pinboard.

I meant to post this a week ago, but then classes began again, and Lord of Ultima happened, and the month is already two weeks over. Oops. Also another thing that happened is potential accidental glutenation, which isn’t really a word but describes well enough that you know what I mean. Takeout food is tough for me now. I like to pretend it isn’t because it is fast and requires no effort on my part and also it tastes good. But there are so many places for gluten to hide, and my (few) efforts communicating over the phone with restaurants before ordering haven’t inspired much confidence.

So what I really need to do is exhaustion-proof my kitchen. I sense another Avoid, Embrace coming on …