The Periphery of the Mind

We're having Elaine and Martin over for dinner next week, and I'm trying to figure out what to cook. I do know I intend to offer them some of my fried corn fritters with some store bought raspberry chipotle.

Here's a quick and simple little recipe for fried corn fritters.

1 can of whole corn, drained (about 2.5 cups)
4 egg yellows
2-4 tablespoons of flour
1-2 tablespoons of sugar
Salt
Pepper

Mix together, until you get a nice sticky batter-like substance going. Once you've got a good batter, dip spoonfuls into hot oil and fry. When the edges look brown, in about three minutes, flip and cook the other side. Remove to paper towels after another three minutes and allow to cool. Serve with a dipping sauce or eat plain.

I use egg yellows instead of whole eggs because egg whites seem to just make the glop runnier; there's a lot of fluid in the corn even after straining, and adding more flour just makes the end result too doughy for my tastes. The recipe I based mine off of recommends you beat egg whites and put a lot more work into this; I tried it that way, and couldn't taste any difference.

Dipping Sauce

2 tablespoons A-1 steak sauce
2 tablespoons room temperature honey
1 cup low-sodium soy sauce

Mix thoroughly together. The steak sauce and the honey are both rather thick, but have a sweet and salty taste. Adding the soy sauce thins both out a bit, and the low-sodium soy doesn't impact the final flavor much. I also substitute a hot miso in place of steak sauce for a different, spicier flavor.

Okay, this is a bit crude and blunt for some people.

But I really hate the R&B stuff this song makes fun of.

I really hate it.

So, last night Maryanne and I made stromboli, and it wasn't bad.

Quick and Easy Stromboli

1 Canister of Pillsbury Pizza Dough
Mozarrella (I use 2% milk mozarella)
Corn Meal
Whatever toppings you want

I opened the cannister, and unrolled the dough. It's a bit of a rectangular critter, kinda' like a jumbo sheet of crescent roll dough. I tore the sheet in half and laid it out in two seperate pieces. You might want to mash it down a bit, that's okay as the dough -will- expand in cooking.

Then we laid out the toppings. I made some ground beef (96% fat free) with fresh black pepper and garam masala cooked in. We used about quarter pound each, and added mozarella on top. Maryanne chopped some canadian bacon for hers, and I used some diced peppers on mine. Then, once it was all laid out, you roll it up like a big burrito, making sure to close the ends. You can actually cram quite a bit of toppings into it, just make sure to leave room to wrap the thing up.

Next I liberally covered my oven stone with corn meal. A cooking sheet should work just fine though if you don't have a stone. The corn meal helps to keep the dough from sticking, and adds a nice flavorful "grit" to the final crust. I know that adding "grit" sounds kind of weird, but it works well and tastes good. 15 minutes in the oven, and the dough is done. Pull it out and serve with marinara on the side.

Apparently, the main difference between stromboli and a calazone is the use of marinara. If you add marinara before baking, it's a calazone. If the marinara is on the side, it's stromboli.

Anyway, the meal turned out really good. Maryanne was talking about other ways to make it in the future, and we were both really pleased with the Pillsbury dough. I may try kneading other ingredients into it in the future however.

1) Anonymous commenting is enabled now. Which means you don't have to register or log in anymore to comment. But please, leave a name. There were some... odd comments in the past.

2) Hopefully, by the time you read this, you'll be able to get here by entering www.djbabb.com as your address. Okay, more on that to come. Okay, that's working now! Yay! A much easier address to remember and type, no?

What else....

I think I like the minimalist web design I've got right now. I may strip it a bit more though.

Saturday or Sunday - Maryanne cooks (likely fried tacos or salmon patties)
Sunday or Saturday - Tunafish Pitas with side salad.
Monday - Tyson's teryaki chicken tenders and Cavendish baked french
fries.
Tuesday - Chicken parmesean.
Wednesday - Lean roast beef sandwiches and rotini pasta salad.
Thursday - Ham and peppers stromboli, with black olives.
Friday - Papa John's!

I'll try to post pictures and recipies for some of this later.

Been slowly working through a list of free programs for virus protection, e-mail, and pretty much anything you could imagine.

One of the links was to a site called Kongregate. Basically, it's a social gaming site. Meaning you have your game on the left side of the screen and chatting on the right. I just click the "bug report" option on the chat window and that blocks the people talking from sight. There looks to be a pretty good variety of games as well, although some are better than others. Protector is a popular "tower defense" style game, where you purchase, place, and improve wizards to stop oncoming waves of attackers. A nice feature is that the game can remember your progress for you. Pillage the Village is another fun game. If your idea of fun is knocking over houses and killing poor little peasants for fun by repeatedly picking them up and dropping them.

Another site I've been visiting for some time is an online Su-Do-Ku site, Sudoku Kingdom. There's a lot of Su-Do-Ku sites out there, but I like that this one is interactive and has a timer.

He passed away in Maryanne's arms yesterday afternoon. He was 9 and a half.

Maryanne woke me up yesterday morning around 4:30, saying that her cat, Squeaky, was having problems. He was panting hard, open-mouthed, and his hind legs weren't working right. We took him to the emergency vet clinic in Springdale. Checked in around 5:00, and they quickly took him into the back. About two hours later, and the vet came back with X-rays. Squeaky was in a heated oxygen chamber, with some pain killers, to help his breathing. The vet thought he'd had cardiac failure, which caused him to have an thromboembolic aneurysm in his hindquarters and triggered a bout of pneumonia which put fluid in his lungs. He was freaking out, so sick he could barely breathe, and partially paralyzed.

But he was still alive.

The emergency clinic stabilized him enough for us to take him to our regular vet for further treatment. Our normal vet hemmed and hawed a bit, but one EKG and radiologist exam of the X-rays later, they confirmed some degree of cardiac failure. And probably diabetes to boot. The problem with going to a well-equipped, well-trained vet clinic is that they like to sell you the state of the art in animal care. Once it was made clear that the "best" treatment might kill him and that even if it didn't his prognosis was "guarded" (vet speak for "not good"), Maryanne elected to go with a cheaper treatment she could administer from home herself.

He made it home, groggy and somewhat sedated, full of antibiotics, painkillers, and steroids. She keeps him on a heating pad, so his hindquarters can stay warm. The reduced blood flow means his legs get cold and probably feel “asleep”. The drugs seem to knock him out a bit, and sometimes he's more responsive than others. He doesn't move much, but he knew when he was going to have a bowel movement or have to urinate, and he got in his litter box and almost sat up normal before wearing out. His tail wags a bit, and seems to respond to touch. I have to confess, I genuinely figured I'd be burying a cat yesterday, but Squeaky might actually pull through this. For every bad sign we get, we get another sign or two of improvement.

Maryanne and I went to Eureka Springs this weekend and had a nice time, after milling about town a bit looking for a free place to park. If you go, expect to either shell out about $1.75 an hour for parking or else take a chance and park in front of someone's house a few blocks from Eureka Springs proper.

Hit a few different stores and galleries. It's interesting visiting Eureka with Maryanne. We ended up several different specialty clothing stores, while she looked at different shirts. Not to buy, but to study their designs and business model. One stood out in particular, Twice Born Christian Apparel. Some decent designs, and an interesting message. As with a lot of shops in Eureka, they seemed to be getting settled in after the Winter business die-off. The Fall and Winter album by Jon Foreman playing in the background was fairly nice, almost soft instrumental. I imagine I'll be getting Shane a copy for Christmas or some such, so everybody else is on their own!

Also had the chili cheese dip at Cafe Santa Fe in Eureka. The chips and dip were adequate, but the service was really good. I know some people are offended when waitstaff leave pitchers at the table, but Maryanne and I aren't too proud to pour our own water, and the waitress really did do a good job making sure we had anything we asked for.

Of course, the highpoint for me was Silly Chilis. It's basically an overpriced chili shop. Sauces, peppers, novelty items, etc. etc. I went ahead and splurged and purchased a jar of Jalapeno Gold Candied Dill Jalapenos. A sweet pepper, with some nice after-heat. Of course, now that I've found it online I doubt I'll be buying it in Eureka anymore. Sorry Silly Chili. Also got some raspberry chili sauce that is really, really good. I'll update when I figure out what to do with these things.

Because I'd actually gotten a few requests, here and there, I decided to bring this site back.

Less ranty, more reviewy.

Or maybe not....

Anyway, I'll be tweaking and revising the page a bit more I hope. I'm liking the streamlined look, but it's a bit too bland.