Potlikker

seven shrimp

Since the baby, who we named Elsa Marie (and you can read more about here or just see photos), came Ian and I are eating healthy to lose the baby weight I gained and the sympathetic pounds the put on as well. Mine totaled 55 pounds and his was around 40. I've lost 39 and have around 16 to go. So that means, of course, no yummy eating or cooking the the style that we've grown accustomed to.

Sure, I took being pregnant as a once in a lifetime "free pass" to chow down. Be a hawg, so to speak, and have dessert at every meal, almost. I did not turn down cheesecake. We stopped by Dairy Queen almost every evening for a soft serve cone and an occasional Blizzard.

Queerly enough, my favorite dessert snack was sugar free banana pops from Kroger. Their regular banana pops tasted weird, but the sugar free just hit the spot. So I ate healthy with my nightly/daily indulgences.

And ice cream wasn't my only drive thru indulgence. I was mad for quarter pounder value meals and the every other week original chicken sandwich from Burger King, too. It was this simple: I was so tired. I was so hungry. Those were the facts. What other alternatives were there? But the fetus thrived, nonetheless. Surely, I felt guilty that I didn't feed her (and we didn't know what we were having until she was born) an organic purley wholesome diet, but I don't have the patience for that kind of nonesence, really, truly, honestly. Now that I've confessed...

At this point I'm mostly food averse. Nothing I can have tastes good. I crave butter. Or macaroni and cheese. And the influx of good old southern cookbooks does nothing to help my cravings. Early on I was steaming a lot of food and that helped. I don't know why I stopped. Must return to that.

And to the fish counter. Fish are really low points on Weight Watchers. That's what we do. It works for us. We don't go to meetings. Those don't work. Frankly, the counter folks, who take your money and calculate your weight loss, are incompetent. At least, in our city, they are. We do better doing it at home.

But shrimp, prepared with Old Bay seasoning with salt, vinegar and water is one point, for about seven shrimp. I can eat about a pound of shrimp for about 6 or 7 points, and that ain't bad at all, when you get between 24-20-something points a day depending on your weight.

We also bake a lot of chicken to then slice and eat atop salads. Or we did. Until that grew really boring, too.

Ian has a serious aversion to most vegetables, the ones that are good for you. The ones that are free, points-wise in weight watchers. All the green ones like broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts. I love them, especially steamed, though I dash a bit of salt, or better yet, garlic salt on them. They don't stay with you long, i.e., keep your tummy full, but they are free, which then keeps your points tally high throughout the day.

The worst part is that I cannot have Chinese food. Throughout my pregnancy developed the habit of going for Chinese food at least once a week. My favorite is orange pork, which essentially is orange chicken, but I have 'em make it with pork, since I was raised in the mountain south and pork is just better, y'all.

adventures in cupcakery

While in Nashville a few days ago Laura and I spied Gigi's Cupcakes. We remembered it's location on our way to a yarn store and Ham & Goodys. The Ham & Goodys was no more. Laura said they had awesome lemon cookies, and I'm always up for a cookie caper. Didn't find Ham & Goody's, but got their phone number from the yellow pages at the yarn store and called and learned that the Nashville location closed down. They only do catering now. Drat.

Note Miss Princess cupcake at far right bottom of case

Back to Gigi's. We stopped, hopped out, walked inside, and my eyes lit up. Great, gorgeous cupcakes in their cases. My yen for red velvet cupcakes was not satisfied. It was Friday. They serve Scarlet's Velvet several days a week, including Thursday and Saturday, but not Friday.

We bought four cupcakes each, took them out to the car, and sat and ate them there. I chose the Breast Cancer Awareness Wedding cupcake, Carrot Cake cupcake, Peanut Butter Cup cupcake, and Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip cupcake. Wedding Cupcake was scrumptious, but way too much icing. Carrot Cake was good. I've had worse and better, but theirs is a solid carrot cake recipe that will surely please any carrotcake lover. Peanut Butter Cup was disappointing. Only the icing was peanut flavored; the cake was chocolate. And Midnight Magic was good, if you like chocolate; it's Devil's Food, which I don't eat often enough. Gigi's is the place to go if you love icing, and theirs is perfection. As we sat we watched customers come and go and we commented on the cadre of police officers that entered Gigi's.

Breast Cancer Awareness Wedding Cake from Gigi's

After scarfing down my cupcake, Laura still had half of hers remaining, but I AM eating for two, I returned inside to grab a few napkins for your sticky fingers. One of the police officers guarded the napkin dispenser so I struck up a conversation with him. I asked what his favorite flavor was.

He said, "Miss Princess." With a straight face. Then he went on to tell me how strawberries were his weakness. He, and his fellow officers, always come in on Friday, and he's true to Miss Princess, which is white cake with fresh strawberries and butter cream frosting topped with pink sugar crystals.

And that is the most awesome thing I heard while in Nashville. Well, spoken, that is. The previous night's attendance at the IBMA awards was really something to hear, too.

Laura and I raced against time to return home in time for the baby shower she co-hosted for me later Friday night. I asked, long ago, that she make red velvet cupcakes for my shower, and decorate them like sheep. I spotted sheepy cupcakes at Cupcakes Take the Cake. Decorating them is fairly simple. We called them bloody sheep cupcakes and tried to figure out how to insert a gooey red cream into the center to make it a truly bloody experience.

The clerk at Gigi's mentioned two cupcake shops in Knoxville after we told her how cupcakeless we were in the Tri-Cities. With that in mind, we sought out red velvet cupcakes for the shower, as Laura likely wouldn't have time to mix, bake, ice, and decorate cupcakes for our event later that evening.

Oh, the power of technology. We didn't have a laptop, but I texted three friends who live in Knoxville, one of whom, I was sure would know where the cupcake shops were in town. All three responded with information, and one called and read off addresses and phone numbers to me, and that's how we learned there is a Ham & Goodys in Knoxville. I called them about lemon cookies, and they had some, and closed at 5pm, but we had to skip the lemon cookies and focus on red velvet cupcakes.

Called Magpies to ask if they have RVC cupcakes, and they did. I reserved a dozen and asked for directions to their shop. Kellie's text response indicated they were located in Old City, and I knew getting there was a snap from I-40, but there's a mess of construction and most all traffic is re-routed via I-275.

Arrived at Magpies and learned it was a bakery, not just a cupcake shop. Their interior was delightful, and there were mini cupcake samples that we indulged in, as well. The dozen cupcakes I reserved were actually mini cupcakes. Laura bought them, then saw regular sized red velvet cupcakes and bought a dozen of those as well. I inherited the minis.

The minis are perfect, really. Two bites. That's all. And the amount of icing on Magpie's cupcakes is just right, also. Nowhere near as overwhelming as Gigi's.

Then we hopped back into the car, re-joined the interstate and arrived home shortly past 5 pm. My shower began at 7pm, which gave Laura just enough time to turn a RVC cupcake into a bloody sheep cupcake.

The other two cupcake shops in Knoxville that we didn't explore are: Cities Cupcakes and The Cupcakery.

eggs my way

Sssshhh. I've been bad. Twice now, already. Eating undercooked eggs, meat, anything undercooked, is a no-no for pregnant women. Yet as I enter my third trimester, I figured one or two eggs over easy wouldn't harm T. Rex this late in her/his development.

Accompanying my soppy egg are those delicious heavy cream biscuits I've made a half dozen times or so. Surely they can't be too harmful. I'm not buttering them. I just dip them in my favorite egg part, the runny yellow yolk. Usually feed the whites to the dogs. Not having eggs my way for six months was really difficult. I deserved a break. A broken, runny yolk, that is.

Omnivore's Hundred

Since I have nothing food related to blog about today, other than the great possibility of funnel cakes at the Appalachian Fair tonight, I thought I'd give in and try the Omnivore's Hundred meme. I've seen it appear on blogs far and wide the past week or so, but it was Steph's list that convinced me I should play, too. We'll see how I do, and then maybe we'll see how you do, too?

By the way, the funnel cake reference... I love 'em. But I'm scheduled to go in for a 3 hour blood glucose test tomorrow morning because I failed my first one. My blood sugar level was 164l the normal range is 80-140. I'm trying to take it easy on carbs and sugars this week to prime my blood sugar for a more accurate reading. Cause I really don't want gestational diabetes. Am hoping to make a repeat trip to the AF for a real funnel cake experience.

The rules for this are simple: Bold what you've eaten and strike through those you wouldn't eat even if someone triple-dawg dared you.

1. Venison (My gpa & uncle hunted during deer season, venison stew and steaks were always a treat)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (one of my most memorable meals at Aqua in SFO)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (Same gpa used to make cherry wine with fruit fresh off the trees he grew in his backyard and I got a snortful before age 10)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (can't get the real thing in the USA, so I've had a facsimilie)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (or something similar).
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

So having tried half of the list, well, that's not so bad. And I have no clue about some of those items, especially the ones from other countries. I did better than I thought I might, being so high-cuisine isolated. If you don't have a blog, feel free to make a list of your own in my comments, though I'm not certain you can bold and strike through in comments.

Also forgot to mention: I'm adventurous when it comes to eating and thus none of the items on the list were things I did not think I might consume if give the means and opportunity.

egg salad sammich

Made my egg salad Friday night. Sandwich bread loaf, too.  It's all completely Foose-inspired. I want to call her Fosse for some reason. Suppose it's that I'm more familiar with that name.

Foose's egg salad includes olives, something I like on their own, but not mixed in much except that dressing slathered on a mufaletta. And she called for onions or scallions, too. But I had none of those on hand.

Normally with protein/mayo salad-type dishes I stick to my own rather than try new ones. It's silly, I know. But I'm so particular when it comes to protein salads. Like ham salad? Oh, I'd never try that. When we visit Ian's relative in Canton, OH there's usually talk of picking up a ham salad from and my mind shrinks back from the very thought of that. It sounds wrong. It's likely quite good. What do I know?

The other thing about me and protein salads is that I made them different each time, rarely keeping track of ingredient amounts. I'd rather taste my way to protein salad perfection. This time though, I wrote it down. Here's this month's egg salad recipe:

12 eggs, boiled and de-shelled
4T Hellman's mayonnaise
1T vinegar
2 tsp. sweet relish
2 tsp. sugar
1tsp. mustard powder
1tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1tsp. ground pepper

I texted Ian to ask how he boils eggs, because they usually come out well and he's naturally takes charge of any egg cooking in the house especially if it's for deviled eggs. He said, and I'm fleshing it out a bit, "Put the eggs in the pot and let them warm as the water does. Let them boil for ten minutes." I'm notorious for cooking eggs like 20 minutes or so, but I don't think it damages them.

After peeling them I throw them in a medium sized bowl and add the ingredients random-like.  When I got most everything in there, I tasted and found it lacking. That's when I added the vinegar and sweet relish. Since I'm supposed to cut down on my salt intake (my blood pressure was elevated for me, but still in normal range at my last OB appointment) I went lighter on that than normal. And I'm supposed to watch my sugar, too, just not to over do it. But then, the egg salad wasn't sweet enough and that's when I thought of the sweet relish. I think my mom used to put that in her egg salad until she went olive on me. She does the olives and olive juice in deviled eggs, too, and frankly ruins it for me.

 

The sandwich loaf bread? Oh, how I wish I'd read the recipe thorough. I'm bad to not read ahead with recipes and knitting patterns and sewing instructions. I started on it around 5 o'clock, after getting home from work Friday night. First couple of steps are easy and take no time at all. Then I have to cover for 10 minutes. Then work some salt into it. Then cover for an hour. Then fold it a certain way and let it rise for 11 1/2 to 2 hours. Then do something else to it and let it rise another hour. Surely the bread would be in the oven by 9 o'clock, right? 

 

But no, the bread came out of the oven around 11 o'clock. I let it cool and ate a few slices for breakfast Saturday morning. Then Ian arrived home and sampled both eggs salad and bread. He didn't mind the burnt bottom. Yeah, the bottom was burned. I was bummed about that. Foose's directions said to remove the bread from it's loaf pan and set it directly on the rack. The bottom rack. Bread set on bottom rack equals burned bottom.

Ponchatoula is (bone fide) alright with me

Wouldn't you know that as soon as I bowed to the common ingredient list including box cake mix and strawberry flavored gelatin in the making of my strawberry cupcakes, that I'd come across a bone fide strawberry cupcake recipe? Just my poor old luck, really. But sort of scary, too. Like somehow, months ago when Foose dreamed up this cookbook, she included this recipe just for my sake. To redeem my hurt feelings about whether my cupcakes were "from scratch," for real. It was predestined. 

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea arrived a day or two ago via our U.S. Postal Service. Couldn't help myself from browsing it immediately. The cover photo is super inviting; just completely appealing to my particular preference for food styling. And I'm the first fool in line handing over her credit card to buy almost any and every southern-themed cookbook. Now I don't call myself a fool because these cookbook authors are fooling me into something. No matter that they all have almost the same recipes inside.  There are always a few gems in each one. And certainly that is the cake with SCAST. 

I'm referring to her Ponchatoula Strawberry Cupcakes recipe. Batter made from scratch, and icing too, just what I dreamed of about a week ago. It's not too late though. There are still fresh, locally grown strawberries around. Must seek them out. Sadly, I barely used a whole pint of the gallon I bought. 

Frigid fruit and veggies taste terrible to me, so my berries sat out on my counter, and we're using that natural air conditioning a.k.a windows open. So they spoiled quicker than they should have if they were tucked into my fridge. Can you imagine knitted woolen strawberry cozies to keep each one warm inside that dreadful old icebox? I can.  The sad thing was throwing most of the lot out. Actually, the white fuzzy, almost projectile, mold forming on my berries reminded me of those fuzzy winter muffs that you see little girls of Currier & Ives era paintings carrying along on a sleigh ride, or an ice skating jaunt.

Foose covers a Delta meal from cocktails and appetizers on through magnificent, decadent traditional southern desserts. She grew up in the Mississippi Delta, then traveled a bit to work in big city kitchens. Then went off to cooking school in France, so her rendition of these southern favorites is well-informed. Right off her Cantaloupe daiquiri tempted me to throw caution to the wind about fetal alcohol syndrome and imbibe in such a delight. Yet, I shouldn't drink. And won't. But I'm keeping this one in mind for when I can have alcohol again. 

But I could have her Blackberry Limeade which looks refreshing and like it would soothe my nerves. The food photography/styling is delicious and enhances Foose's recipes. Unfortunately the scenic photography of the Delta, interspersed with those glimpses of heavenly southern food, appear more like stock photos and lack the intimacy and lushness of the latter.

Each recipe begins with a Foose anecdote. Readers learn about her great uncle Thompson alongside  Catfish Ceviche. Thompson preferred sleek cars to big old trucks so popular with all the Delta menfolk, and opened his catfish farming business in 1958.  A large sidebar following the recipe teaches the reader about the spawning and hatching of catfish.

There are lots of expected dishes like gumbo, turtle soup, cheese, grits, mac n cheese, country fried steak, and dumplings. Then there's the unexpected: Barq's Root Beer-Glazed Ham. This one, we'll have to try. Despite the kitsch factor of cooking meat in a soda pop brine, I declare that the end product tastes mighty good and receives rave reviews from our families.

The combination of her photo of egg salad and the recipe for Good Sandwich Loaf bread tempted my tummy, and pulled up to the Shamrock's drive-thru and bought an egg salad sandwich for lunch yesterday with eventual making of my own in mind. Already got lots of eggs for the egg salad and all the makings for the sandwich loaf. 

Those desserts...well, none of them jumped out at me like Sweet Tea Pie. Ooooooo-eee. I'll have to try that. Foose described it like so: 

The flavor tastes like state fair saltwater taffy, and the texture is like pecan pie without the pecans. I think you will enjoy it.

Last night on the phone I told Ian about the book and it's banana pudding recipe from scratch. Since we had a bad experience with the last from scratch banana pudding we made, um, we're reluctant to try it again. Another recipe that caught my eye was Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake. It takes 14 egg whites. Now that is a lot of cracking and separating of eggs. Though I don't ever yearn for angel food cake, that brown sugar twist might keep my interest long enough to try one. 

Be sure to read Fosse's notes to the left or the right of each recipe. She says to separate your eggs a day before making the Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake and that night-before step will result in a higher cake. When it comes to Angel Food, the higher, the better, you know, closer to the Pearly Gates and all those angels with their harps and halos. 

Come July Ian and I head west to Nashville and then south down the Natchez Trace, so I'm mostly hoping that we'll get a taste of good Mississippi cuisine, though it may not be Delta in origin, least not until we arrive at Natchez proper. Any recommendations, anyone?

i eat for two

Lame lame is my name. I'm constantly ravenous and must snack often to sate my hunger. If I don't keep my stomach filled then I feel nauseous. Yep, I'm pregnant. Talked to my Scout who lives in Knoxville and she said she didn't have strange cravings until her fifth month, with almost all of her children. With Zoe she craved rootbeer and never liked it prior to being pregnant. Then with Zac she ate 5 or 6 oranges each day.

No cravings. I'm ending my first trimester. Basically, I'm so fatigued at the end of each day that I lack energy to cook anything. My rice obsession is dying down despite the quick and easy nature of its cooking in my steamer.

What is most difficult about being pregnant are the restrictions on what I cannot eat.

I cannot have soft cheeses such as Brie and feta. Or that yummy melted Mexican cheese. Or any blue-veined cheeses. So that completely ruins the whole salad experience for me. Bleu cheese dressing is my standard. If I can't have that, then I won't get my greens and veggies in my diet. At least those pre-natal vitamins are good for something; filling in the gaps. My alternative is the caeser salad. But those are mostly boring. No unpasteurized cheeses for me. Actually, I think I may have eaten a small bit of Brie, from that last Brie kick, while very recently pregnant. But then when I had an inkling about my body and what was going on inside there, I threw the Brie away. Otherwise, it was too much of a temptation. It was also going bad, too.

Somehow though, it's okay to eat processed cheeses. Yuck. However, I love creme cheese and that's on the can have list. And Ian encourages me to eat lots of yogurt.

I suppose there are some restrictions on fish, too. The other day I lunched with Marie and she ordered sushi. I'm fairly sure I cannot have that. She offered me some of her spicy tuna roll, but I declined. The other thing is that sushi at that restaurant is usually over-rated and not so good. C'mon. It's east Tennessee. How fresh can it be? The raw fish avoidance is so so tough. Really. I love oysters. I had some fried when Ian and I were in Atlanta eating at Dailey's. He pointedly asked whether I could have them and I said yes, as long as they were cooked. But, shrimp doesn't appear on any list.

The no caffeine bit is no big deal except when I'm terribly thirsty in the car and the only thing Ian brought along is his diet cola. It isn't caffeine free. So I'm constantly carrying drinks and snacks along wherever I go because feeding this thing inside me is the essence of my life just now. But I don't do coffee, or herbal teas. But my regular old unsweet tea isn't really a problem as far as caffeine content. Hooray! And since I don't use artificial sweeteners, I don't have to wean myself off of them, either. Surely there was a reason I went cold turkey and drank my iced tea plain from the get go.

Oh hell. I just realized that chocolate has caffeine in it. Not that I purposely eat a lot of it. But Tuesday nights I do a bit of volunteer work with kids and horses and there's almost always a chocolate dessert/snack for the kids and we volunteers at the end of the night. No more chocolate. Perhaps I'll start bringing the dessert and then won't be eating something bad for me. Seriously, chocolate is not my favorite, but the state I'm in requires that I eat and east and eat. The nurse practitioner who did my intake exam at Specialty Hospital said I should eat 2400-2500 calories per day. Normally I eat between 1200-1500 calories each day.  How is it that I'm not eating enough?

Geesh. I need more snack ideas. Mostly I live off those kellogg's 100 calorie snack bars that are fruity. The blueberry are my favorite. And cereal is great too, to bring along to work in a plastic baggy.

Oh, and Melissa, the NP at my OB's office pointed out my high cholesterol levels. She asked if I took meds for that. My old GP never wanted me on Lipitor because of the threat of liver damage. My mom takes it though and it has had a brilliant effect on her cholesterol levels. Melissa told me that my levels will increase during pregnancy and not to worry too much about that. I'm not. Really. But.

Anyway, I hope that sometime very soon, my love of cooking in the kitchen will return and I'll have some lovely content to share with readers of this blog. My understanding is that after the first trimester my energy will abound. Can't wait for it to happen. But come 20 November, or thereabouts, I'll be thinking whole new thoughts about what I can and cannot eat, cause I plan to breastfeed. Sorry if that's TMI for a food blog. So that's a whole nother can o' worms.