A note on cooking and writing sociology

I have been doing a lot of cooking, and a lot of writing sociology in the past several weeks.  I realized that there are striking similarities between the two.  In both, I am trying to tell a story in an organized way, and in both, I am trying to accomplish multiple things in a simplistic, comprehensive way.  If I am successful in both, the consumer and the reader are left wanting more.

Lemon bar with chocolate gelato

Modified version of Giada's “lemon thyme bars.”  Changes: I omitted thyme, and substituted the powdered sugar with regular sugar.  Omission of thyme, good idea; substitution of regular sugar for powdered sugar, not the best idea I have ever had, but I didn’t want to buy powdered sugar hahaha…remember this is food in a jiffy…and that would have required going to the store.  Still tasty, but if I were to make these again, I would definitely go with the powdered sugar.  The gelato you ask?  No, I did not make this—store bought.

Recipe:

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Mix butter, sugar, and 1/2 of lemon for juice, lemon zest if you like, add in dry ingredients.  Butter a square glass dish.  Take mixture and spread on the bottom of the dish.  Preheat oven 325 degrees, bake for 30 minutes. 

The lemon glaze:

1/2 of lemon for juice, 1/2 powdered sugar (I used regular sugar even for this), mix.  Cool the bars, and top the glaze over bars in the dish.  Let set, and serve. 

Rice Porridge

Rice gone mushy from too much water in the rice cooker?  No problem!

Just take all that rice, put in a large pot on the stove.  Add 2-4 cups of water to the pot, depending on how chunky or smooth you like it.  In this particular rice porridge, I added one chicken bouillon cube for every cup of water. 

However, you can make this vegetarian with veggie stock instead of water and bouillon cubes. 

Let simmer on low for several minutes until you get the consistency seen on the right. -------->

Top with whatever ingredients you like, the rice porridge absorbs any flavors you add. 

I topped this porridge with green onions, cilantro, soy sauce drizzle, seven spice mix, red chili flakes. 

You can also add meat, veggies, etc. into the pot to simmer before serving if you like.

You can also use this same method with day old rice!

This dish is perfect for a cold, rainy afternoon such as the one today.

Soba noodles with summer veggies

Zucchini, Eggplant, Tofu Stir Fry

Chicken Curry with Peas

Beef Stew

Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Pasta