george foreman rulz!

So I've been craving some good sandwiches lately and came up with a plan to make my own. Very simple, actually. Two pieces of bread (I'll probably spread a bit of peanut butter in the next version). Piece of ham, slice of swiss cheese, some shreaded cheese (fontina, mozarella, etc.?) and slices of apples. Assemble altogether and stick in foreman grill.

Crunchy, sweet, savory, nutty ... yum =)

Sugar

So ... I've been reading a little bit from health articles and magazines about different sweetners, including sugar substitutes. The pink stuff, the blue stuff ... even the yellow stuff (Splenda) ... really gone through so much chemical changes that they're pretty bad for you. I've tried all three at one time or another. The yellow stuff touts itself as "natural" and "made from sugar" ... tastes nothing like sugar. I mean, even through they said it tastes like the real thing ... trust me, it's nothing like it.

I've also tried other "natural alternatives", including Stevia - a natural leaf from the stevia plant that tastes sweet. That leaves a funny aftertaste in my mouth.

So far, honey and maple sugar seemed to be the only thing that's acceptable to my taste buds, but both of them, especially honey, has such a distinctive taste that it doesn't always work with everything ...

Until I recently came across Agave Nectar. This stuff is great. Tastes like sugar, has the consistency of thin honey. According to most of the articles I've managed to find, this stuff is mostly fructose and glucose with a low glycemic index. This means that our body can metabolize it much faster than regular sugar so it doesn't just sit in our blood stream or get stored as fat in our body. Better for those with diabetes too.

They sell this stuff at the health food stores. Check it out!

Saffron

A bit of quick calculation determines that it's still cheaper to cook lunch and feed the crew than it is for me to go out for a quick lunch.

Yesterday, I made pan fried chicken with herb de provance. Also had sauteed fresh shitaki mushrooms and pan fried grits madellions. Everything turned out well enough that I decided to try something else for today. So ...

Garlic Chicken and artichokes braised in a white wine sauce. It didn't take too long to make and it was getting braised nicely while I was in the shower in the morning. At the last minute, my snifter told me to add some saffron to the sauce to give it a bit of something different. Cheapskate as I am, I tried using safflower instead, but the smell just wasn't right. So ... in went a pinch of the real stuff. The difference it made ... it's pretty amazing.

Outcome? Turned out wonderfully! The staff had a good time devouring the dish and I LOVE the sauce.

Veggie Pork Buns

So H and I went and hit the slopes last weekend. Rather than paying too much for food that's not that great, we opted to bring our own instead. So, I brought along a couple of Vietnamese Sandwiches and we ate that the first day. We had planned on spending a half day on the slopes the next day and left our veggie pork buns in the car instead. When we finally got back, we were pretty hungry and tore into our buns to find ... a frozen meat ball instead (it was a very cold day). Since we knew it was going to be a cold day, we went to the local ski shop and stocked up on some warm supplies before we went out ... headsock that covers our entire face minus our eyes, warmer socks for H and warm hands and toes (chemical packets that's activated by air). We had a sudden inspiration and threw our warm hand packets in the plastic bag, and left the whole bag over the warm air defroster in the car. It took a while, but they did thaw out eventually and we devoured them.