The Daddy Guy Cook

There are things I still wish to post here, even as there is a broader food theme I’d like to take elsewhere and perhaps to book form. However, as mentioned in the prior post, the “married” name no longer applies. Well, it won’t, and The Single Guy Cook has been done and was the inspiration for this. I’d like to say that I’m changing the name but not the domain to reserve Page Rank, but Google has inexplicably demolished that. Still, not worth changing it just to rename as what I am: The Daddy Guy Cook.

My cooking revolves around feeding the kids and myself. However it ends up, I have de facto custody of three little ones under five. The pending ex still lives here, and still sometimes appreciates the cooking she obligated me to do, but her schedule usually has her at work for primary meals, and not here that much generally. Formal visitation would be at least as extensive and less harried.

Also? I found after a while that the stuff I made cycled through the same old things, so new things to discuss were infrequent, even before I fell so out of blogging. This was especially true given financial constraints. Kind of hard to try anything new that might risk the food budget. On the other hand, there are times being frugal makes it more interesting….

The more regrettable thing I slacked on, which has had everything to do with food prep and shopping, is my son’s allergies. How do you deal with allergy to egg whites and yolks, dairy, peanuts, bananas, and for a time a clear sensitivity to salicylate levels in foods. It was a nightmare before he outgrew that last, even though the reaction wasn’t as extreme as, say, eating a serving of scrambled eggs and then getting a trip to the emergency room. That will not fit directly with what I have in mind to do elsewhere, and is very much a food-wrangling father topic.

So it’s The Married Guy Cook no more. Welcome to The Daddy Guy Cook.

So the wife wants a divorce.

Ironically, my having the interest and aptitude for cooking that she lacked and was beyond thrilled to outsource as the Big Thing I’d do besides attempting to earn money led to the sheer volume of cooking and experimenting I did, which led to this topical blog, inspired by Jeff Soyer’s short-lived Single Guy Cook blog. I might never have gone so into cooking without her. In retrospect, I could have eaten better and saved a lot of money when single, knowing what I do now.

Obviously I have not kept up on having new things to say here. There’s been a malaise for a long time, between finances and worries, cooking becoming a burden and symbolic of some of our troubles, and allergies in our youngest. Blogging in general became less common and accepted for me. Ironic that it should lead to not insignificant money after I all but gave it up.

I could have and meant to post some about eating frugally, and about dealing with allergies. I may yet, here or somewhere, as it’s not like that’s gone away, and I don’t mean to lose cooking as an avocation. Sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling.

Anyway, it’s a great domain. But if I am no longer married? Keep the domain, strike out married and call it, say, Daddy Guy Cook? Since my kids have become the main target, and driver of what I serve, and will always be of prime importance. Incorporate food stuff back into a solo blog that’s not of any specific focus? New blog, new domain, same focus?

Good question. I haven’t really decided.

The archives here will remain indefinitely, as I have ad commitments to fulfill, and prefer to keep the domain. The bulk of that revenue, however, does not accrue to me, and gives me incentive to create content and build potential elsewhere that will be under my control. Any work I do adding content to the site going forward pays me nothing extra, where that effort might pay if applied elsewhere.

Chances are, as a practical matter, I will take it elsewhere. This is preliminary notice, then, that things can be expected to change.

I invented these recently, off the top of my head, inspired by General Gao’s Chicken. Haven’t recorded it as a recipe as yet, but I did replicate it from memory, closely enough to figure a recipe should be easy. As is winging it. Thought I’d post the picture, anyway. It’s so pretty.

Amazingly appropriate, considering the quantity of rosemary I use.

You Are Rosemary

You are stable and grounded. You may take a slow, steady approach to live, but you’re a survivor. You are an intellectual and very rational. You can see things from a logical, detached viewpoint. You are successful but not particularly ambitious. You have a way of letting success come to you. You tend to be a bit understated and modest. You let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

This is a test of character stripping with a remote editor. Here is the link.

I can’t remember the name of the Hell’s Kitchen winner offhand, but I’d still love to dine at Louis Petrozza’s place, and I still think he’d be cool to meet, much like Rock Harper.

I wrote elsewhere about an odd Hell’s Kitchen dream I had last night. Meant to mention it here earlier, for anyone who might be interest.

Once upon a time, Deb posted her mother’s flour tortilla recipe at our former joint/family/anything blog, Accidental Verbosity, before moving to Blogblivion. We eat these fairly regularly, and once etsimated the cost for perhaps 16 of them at under 40 cents, versus, say, $1.69 for a pack of 8 commercial ones. You pay to save time and effort and get uniformity, but even Manny’s brand isn’t as good as homemade. It probably costs more now, given the recent increases in grocery costs and particularly, we just noticed on having to replace an empty, Crisco. That resulted in buying store brand soy/cottonseed shortening comparable to the current Crisco formulation. Traditionally one would use lard, which Deb almost got me as it was available and inexpensive. Definitely have to try that sometime.

This is a repost and, because it wasn’t written by me, guest recipe, inspired because I recently started making these myself, and found that the recipe was harder to find searching than it ought have been. I realized I’d started a food and cooking blog but never posted this here. Duh.

This was something Deb knew how to do inside out and I deferred to her, as one of her specialties. I’ll comment further at the end, but here is her original text:

Mama Jedi’s Flour Tortillas

We’ve been experimenting with different things to do with flour tortillas ever since we finally got around to trying my mother’s recipe for them. She used to make these often when I was a kid, since they’re better and cheaper than store-bought (and, I believe, because at the time it was tough to get even a passable grocery-store tortilla in rural Minnesota, a situation that has since changed). She taught some of the other women in the neighborhood how to make them, too, and they’ve been a hit with all who have tried them.

Mama Jedi’s Flour Tortillas

4 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening, in small cubes
1 & 1/4 cups warm water
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt

Dissolve salt in water and set aside. Rub shortening into flour with fingertips. (I’ve got the warehouse-club-sized can of shortening, so I meaure it into a cup then divide it as I add it to the flour…instead of a single lump, little spoonfuls. Works just as well…the point is to have it in small pieces so it’s easier to rub into the flour.) Gradually add salt water to flour mixture. (The trick here is getting the flour/water ratio right so the dough is smooth rather than sticky or flour-y. I always seem to need a tablespoon more water or flour to make it just right, depending on how perfectly I’ve measured and the weather that day.) Knead well. Set aside covered for a minimum of three hours (I wrap it in plastic wrap, to keep the dough from getting a “skin,” then toss it back in the bowl and cover with a towel.). Knead again. Divide into 1 & 1/2 inch portions and roll out on floured board. (I shape the dough into a cylinder, then cut off the appropriate portion for the size I want for each tortilla. Usually takes me a test tortilla or two to get it right. The best part of that is that the mistakes are so tasty…yum. I also roll them out right on my countertop…a board is certainly not required, unless you have tile. *grin* The dough should be good and stretchy and a bit of a pain to roll out, and tends to shrink slightly when transferred to the pan, so roll ‘em thin.) Cook each on a hot griddle/frying pan until it bubbles and browns slightly. Makes anywhere from 12 to 18 tortillas, depending on size, thickness, and how many get eaten along the way.

As for what we’ve done with them…we’ve made burritos and quesadillas and even chicken and veggie wraps in the last couple of weeks, and I have no doubt some of the turkey will find it’s way into them in one form or another. Very versatile and very, very yummy.

The first time I made these, I became the official tortilla maker, they came out so well. The directions above say knead again after the dough sits at least three hours. Turns out that Deb didn’t actually do that when she made them. I did it minimally at best. It doesn’t seem to hurt them and anecdotally may be better, though certainly if the dough needs a little extra to get the texture feeling better while making it into cylinders.

I use one of those Pyrex cups that has lines up to a cup but room to add an extra quarter cup by eye. I microwave cold water a minute or 90 seconds, stir in the half tablespoon of salt to dissolve, and set it aside. I’ve been using about a cup in practice.

I make sure the flour is worked into the shortening extremely thoroughly. It’s somewhat like making pie crust, but without the objective of flaky.

I flip them over and over while rolling, to hel combat the curling and get them thin enough.

Basically it’s an easy easy thing to make. The big consideration is the sitting time for the dough. It’s fast compared to making bread. It’s even relatively fast to roll out, and I roll a couple then start cooking as I roll more.

They are so useful and so cheap. We’ve had the challenge of a baby with food sensitivities that seem to be based around salicyslates, and these were a perfect introduction to wheat-based foods, which as expected don’t bother him. Being simple and homemade, I knew exactly what was in them. Not like, for instance, whoile wheat pasta that contains corn meal, which he can’t have. But I digress.

Enjoy!

Not much time, as I am about to make supper here myself. As predicted, it’s Petrozza versus Christina, with Corey gone at three. Respectable, and apparently she was better than my impression of her had been. I do think it was an easier decision that he made it appear, because as always, it came down to the pass, and Corey was easily the worst.

Christina was smart to realize what the challenge was going to be and think about and discuss the ingredients of the dish while dining with her parents.

It was amusing Ramsay called Christina a cheerleader, because Deb has been doing that all season, as a type, at least, perhaps worse if she never actually was one.

It’s a tough call, and there are a variety of skills being tested. Christina would be Heather the second, only less obviously competent up front, more of a talented newbie who lucked out. Petrozza would be the “hey, they let an old guy win for once” winner. Christina would keep the alternating male/female pattern. Petrozza would set them free from it.

Petrozza would seem to be perfect and would definitely be my choice, except the lackadaisical, forgetful tendency. That can be sharpened off and balanced by supporting staff.

Christina is more capable of leadership than I might have expected, but would need some polishing of her own. For her, though, it’s the start of a career, with a bang, and she’d have incentive that Petrozza, being established in his own right, might not.

I’m perhaps rooting slightly for Petrozza, but it’s not going to bother me either way. Presumably we’ll see a lot more of how each of them really are during the finale.

In the course of this, I was looking at the Hell’s Kitchen Wikipedia article and associated season articles. It’s interesting to note that Heather is done with her spiffy contract and is working as “a chef” at nowhere significant. It’s interesting to note that Michael, who famously accepted and then withdrew from an offer to work with Ramsay, and eventually got a plum restaurant gig as executive chef on the strength of his win, is no longer in that position. You just never know.

I have been remiss about posting on this season of Hell’s Kitchen regularly, so now we’re about to see the top three be pared to two finalists.

I just have a few things to say about the last couple episodes.

Bobby I had pegged for a finalist, despite their making fun of him in the very first episode, and his apparently poor leadership skills the first time those were tested (perhaps enhanced through editing). The catch was whether Hell’s Kitchen would break the alternating sexes and/or races mold. Did you really think a woman would win American Idol this year? Least of all a black woman? If they follow the pattern, the script, the storyline, this year’s winner will be female, or at least white. Bobby winning would have broken the pattern and shown they ry not to follow one (or are doing the opposite). Jen winning, well, that would almost overplay the pattern thing.

Petrozza I had pegged for cannon fodder at the outset, shades of Dominic, but he has been steady, if not always clearly outstanding, more similar to Rock Harper than I’d noticed until just lately. And why does he go by his surname, Petrozza, rather than his first name, Louis?

I fear I’ve always liked Christina because she’s cute, but she also seems competent and not as obnoxious as Corey. The two of them have both had their moments of pure bitch, but I perceive Corey more so. I like to like the winner. It still bothers me that Michael won the first season, because I found him too annoying, however competent.

Hell’s Kitchen really played it close to the vest this year, disguising the fact that anyone had sufficient ability to be worthy of winning. I’m still skeptical, but the past couple episodes, particularly the final four, really showed there’s more there than we’d seen. I figure they didn’t want a repeat of Heather and Rock being obvious finalists from near the beginning of the season. Entirely aside from the issue of the winner being leaked, as happened last year.

At this point, I see it being Petrozza versus Christina, with a slight edge to Petrozza. However, if it’s Corey versus Christina, I think Christina takes it, and if it’s Corey versus Petrozza, I think Petrozza takes it. If Jen had somehow made it that far, I don’t think she had a chance. I am so glad she’s gone. They famously edit people to be more annoying than they really are, but I got the impression Jen didn’t need much help.

Hell of a way to conduct a job interview.

The top three is a very telling episode, when each one calls and runs things for a while. Christina could fall apart on that, but Corey strikes me as weaker.

As for the challenge, lunch for 80 pregnant women, what about the issue of soft cheeses and shellfish and whatever? It struck me as odd for the contestants to go into that not aware there might be restrictions. Not that the risk is high, but hey.