12
votes
What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
One thing I've STOPPED drinking is alcohol. Instead I've been drinking lots of fizzy water, Soda stream concoctions, coffee, and energy drinks.
It's not a New Year's Resolution or Dry January thing, I just needed to stop before it became a real problem
Congrats on stopping, it takes some willpower, but it’s 100% worth it! I wasn’t quite addicted but did associate drinking with certain emotions and had a bit of a dependency and also quit before it became a problem. You’ll be feeling great about it in no time!
Funny you use the word "willpower," because the book I read to help me quit didn't require willpower at all. Instead of "giving up" alcohol, I'm gaining the benefits of nondrinking
I love looking at it that way, actually, and now that you mention it, that is kind of what got me to stop. I started realizing how great I feel sober rather than struggling to quit a dependency.
Congrats! A fee years ago, I replaced a 6 Diet Dr Pepper per day habit with what has become a 3 liter per day fizzy water habit. While quitting alcohol is I'm sure much harder, it's been so much better for me as well. I pretty much do unflavored sodastream these days. My sister likes to put peach or grapefruit bitters in hers, and it does have a certain charm.
I love mixing flavors with the sodastream! And honestly there's too many benefits to quitting alcohol to really call it "hard"
I bought an Aeropress last week! I made a cup of coffee based on their instructions and another based on James Hoffman’s video on it and both made great cups. I’m impressed by the brew quality given how easy the process is and how little time is needed. I do recommend one to anybody looking for a better cup of coffee without necessarily getting into the extra work that something like a pour over can be.
Loooove my aeropress! Nice clean flavors. Not bitter!
I visited a restaurant food supply store and came home with a container of Thai curry spice paste. I've been mixing it with coconut milk to make curry sauce. Edit I also chop vegetables and stir fry them to add to the sauce. It's good with tofu or meat, over rice.
Great score! If I may be so bold, this recipe for red lentil soup (gifted link) uses Thai curry paste and is my favorite new dish this winter. I've already rattled on about it, but if I had an abundant supply of curry paste, this is what I would be making.
Yum! Thank you.
I'm not one for asian style foods or cooking outside my comfort zone but I tried making a peanut butter sauce chicken and noodles dinner. My fiancée and I enjoy it, it was easy to make, and we want to have it again soon.
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a46148878/creamy-peanut-lime-chicken-noodles-recipe/
I've been on a baking tear. I made a Christmas pudding which turned out well, but was a pain in the butt to make since I had to make mixed peel by hand. I ended up with way too much mixed peel and made hot cross buns with them... but I still have a bunch of mixed peel still left. The hot cross buns were decent but needed to prove a bit longer. I stuck the dough in the dryer and forgot what the size was before so I pulled it out too soon. Flavor was really good though.
I should probably wait for next week's thread to post this comment to get maximum eyeballs on it, but I'll probably forget, so if I remember then I'll probably post at least the question part in both if no one is opposed to that.
The Question Part:
Does anyone have any simple, fast recipes for salad dressing that doesn't go bad quickly? Preferably it can be made in a large batch and kept in the fridge for at least a week. Preferably with no difficult-to-source ingredients. I know that's super picky but if I get some good answers it will be very worth it for me.
The venting part:
I'm having a problem and that problem is what I *haven't* been eating. When I feel like I'm eating and functioning well, at least three out of every five meals that I have at home are some kind of salad/just a vegetable that I've sliced and dipped in salad dressing. I like to have at least 3 substantially different salads in my rotation so that I don't get bored and I get a variety of nutrients. Back in the US I used to have, no exaggeration, 11 different salad dressings in my fridge at any given time, and each one was guaranteed to get used up. I like salads because they only take a few minutes to make, even when I'm *really* doing well and I'm weighing/tracking all of the ingredients. I also like the way a high fiber diet makes me feel.Since I've moved to Sweden, this has gotten a lot harder, because there are just fewer options available. I can make due with the reduction in most of the ingredients, but the dearth of decent salad dressings here is going to be the death of me. There's only one that any of the grocery stores near me have that I really like, it's a curry lime dressing, and they're always out of it. I've been unable to recreate it at home. That leaves me with just oil and vinegar, and I only really like that on a caprese salad, which I've gotten tired of from eating too much of it. Lately instead of eating salads I've been eating a ton of processed food, and I feel so much worse from it. I'm definitely gaining weight, not a lot yet, but it's only going to get worse if I don't find a solution. I know going from salad to microwave pizza seems like a huge pivot and surely there have to be steps in between that I'm skipping, but this is just sort of where I am. If I can't have a tasty salad then I am going to inevitably eat garbage and I am not doing a great job of finding a middle ground. I also always have something with a good amount of vitamin C in it in my salads, and that reminds me to take my iron pills, so I've been missing out on those lately. I'm aware that I am literally able to control these choices and I could just...do better, but as far as what is likely to happen based on what has been happening, that's not going to happen.
Penzey's has some salad dressing seasonings that make fairly tasty, reasonably long-lasting dressings. I personally rather like the creamy peppercorn dressing, and I've kept a batch of it for about a week without problems.
They are a US-based company though, and while they'll happily do international shipping, it requires a bit more work on the part of the buyer (customs declarations and probably import duties forms etc.).
You could probably use their ingredients lists as springboards to make your own dressings with spices from local suppliers though, so it's probably worth a look.
I'll see if I can get a box of these sent over!
What do you usually use foe the base? Yogurt? Sour cream? Mayo? Or are there instructions with the box?
A mix of mayo and sour cream is what the creamy peppercorn and I believe ranch ones call for. The vinaigrette calls for oil and vinegar, of course. I haven't tried any others. I imagine you could just use whatever base you want though, since it's all just spices and seasonings. No one is going to call the Salad Dressing Police on you.
They sell individual bottles of each of these, by the way. I just linked the sampler box for illustrative purposes. You might want to check out the site if you plan to buy anyway, as you'll likely want to get a range of things to justify the trouble of shipping to Sweden.
I love Penzey's. We're lucky to have a location nearby. They have big jars of each of the spices and blends they sell that you can open and sniff as a way to sample. I could spend hours there.
I neglected to answer: yes, there are instructions on each label.
From The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt:
Sharp Balsamic-Soy Vinaigrette:
I can easily get all of these things! How long does a batch of this usually last?
Easily at least a week (after that it depends on your food safety tolerances, for me I've used it for a month or so and it tasted fine). You can also easily scale this down to a half batch.
I would recommend making it in a squeeze bottle, so it's easy to shake up and dispense.
Thank you!
You might want to start experimenting with making your own dressings, maybe keep a batch of a tried and true recipe around, but every week make a small batch of an experimental dressing. This article goes over some basic formulaic stuff, but it's basically just
You can make surprising amount of flavored dressings just from this formula. Also, don't worry about whisking, I just put mine in a jar and shake before dressing salads. With vinaigrettes, so long as your dressing is refrigerated I would feel comfortable eating most dressings for at least a month, probably more like 2, but ymmv.
Regarding your vent, not sure if part of the issue is lettuce availability, but you may want to consider switching to slaws instead of salad. You don't have to make slaws creamy, you could do something like a quick curtido or vinegar based slaw instead. You can also look into things like carrot salads or things that use other root veg as bases.
My 2 go-to salad dressings:
Balsamic Vinegrette (I don't use measurements I just kinda feel it out)
-balsamic vinegar
-olive oil
-sea salt
-dried minced garlic
-black pepper
Lazy method, just drizzle on top of salad. Less lazy, put in a mason jar and shake to combine.
Lemon Dijon
-1/2 c olive oil
-2 tbs lemon juice
-2 tbs dijon mustard
-1/2 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
-black pepper (to taste)
Lazy method, put in a mason jar and shake to combine. Less lazy, use an immersion blender to create a stable, creamy dressing.
Vegan gluten free lasagna: used Rao's marinara doctored with vodka, carrots, onion, and cashew cream to make it a vegan vodka sauce, beyond beef and Italian sausage, mushroom, spinach, and vegan ricotta and moz (based on the cashew cream). One of the best dishes I've ever made.
Vegan gluten free chick'n pot pie: this was easy apart from getting a flaky GF crust. That's tricky—though probably true because I'm a novice baker. Pleased with how it turned out. Excellent winter comfort food.