Homemade lumpia



The few modifications I made to mom's recipe were to:

• use up the head of garlic I had lying around


• add a good-sized chunk, grated, of a leftover ginger root


• chop only the green parts of a bunch of organic green onions


• use an organic pork and antibiotic-free chicken mixture


• use up the remainder of the organic baby carrots which were in the fridge (resulting in more than 1/2 cup of carrots)


• use a vegetable bouillon, instead of the implied chicken or pork bouillon

It took me a few tries to get my wrapping technique right, but I was happy with how tightly rolled they were after that. The lumpia seem to be lacking in a lot of the garlic that mom's have, so I'm going to have to prod around for some tips on that front, I think. That said, these were delicious, and I'm proud of my first attempt at making these.

Latest batch of jam thumbprints



This batch differed from my last batch in that I used coconut oil as my fat component, and the strawberry jam I made from last year's trip to the chemical-free berry patch.

Oh, you have taught me plenty

Methinks I've had a few managers take this as a To Do list

8 rules to discourage your employees

...words left unspoken left us so brittle, there was so little left to give...

Quick and easy dinner



Chinese-style fried rice made with:

• organic, brown Basmati rice (prepared a day ahead)
• reduced-sodium soy sauce
• sriracha
• lightly scrambled eggs
• ham
• organic baby carrots, chopped —
  the rest get saved for snacking
• peas
• onion
• garlic
• ginger

The way you're acting lately makes me doubt

The triumphant return of
Every week, the same again

1. Asteroid plays chicken with Earth


2. Key to Eliminating U.S. Flight Delays? Redesign the Sky Over New York City


3. Female employees asked to undress


4. John McCain's daughter, Meghan, having trouble dating after campaign


5. Beauty Affects Men's and Women's Brains Differently


6. Jellyfish sushi: Seafood's slimy future

You can’t run away from yourself

I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on

Kermit The Frog, here



Which Muppet are you?

Damn glad I know how to cook, right around now



Normally, I don't care for soup. When I'm sick, however, I crave my homemade chicken soup (and little else). So, since I've taken the day off for feeling like crap, I thought I'd put the chicken I roasted on the weekend to good use. Also, as an exercise in showing the world how anal I am with my food, I'm showing you, in braces, all of the items with which I was extra finicky about what I did.

Stock:

• back and wings of a whole, roasted chicken {it was roasted on a bed of garlic, onion and sweet potato, had an olive oil and salt rub and finally had lemon juice poured over it}, plus the bones from the breast and leg meat


• {filtered} water, enough to submerge the chicken carcass in


• bouillon cube, optional {I used one Harvest Sun Organic Herbal Bouillon Cube this time}


• saffron, optional

Soup Ingredients:

• Chicken leg meat, plus whatever gets picked off of the carcass once the stock has been made and set aside


• one whole onion, diced {I would've preferred a yellow onion to the Spanish onion I had on-hand}


• one head of {organic} garlic, diced


• about one head of {organic} celery, chopped


• about 1/2 lb. of {organic} carrots, chopped


• one package {organic — whatever that means in this case} mushrooms, cleaned and sliced


• one whole {organic} tomato, chopped


• {sea} salt and {fresh cracked black} pepper, to taste

Absent 'cause I'm an idiot — but which will be present once Matt brings it home on his way from work:

• ginger root, peeled and grated