Thursday, June 19, 2014

And it's Thursday

* I am working again on the newest shawlette (it's called Wedgewood, from a book of sock-yarn shawls) but since the lace pattern is complicated and there is something like 387 stitches on the needle, I get about two rows (one pattern row and one all-purl return row) done per night. But a few more days of that and I will be onto the knit-plain (but shortrowed) body.

* I tried something new last night. It had been a while since I had cauliflower because the last batch I cooked got all watery somehow, and slimy watery vegetables just put me off wanting to eat them. And then when I was up at my parents' house, we decided to try the already-cut-bagged-florets. I don't know if we just got an old bag, or if they use lower-quality cauliflower for the bagged ones, but it was NASTY. Even my mom said it tasted bad to her.

So I decided to try roasting the cauliflower instead. I sort of followed the guidelines in January's (I think it was) Eating Well, for the cauliflower "steaks" - I cut the head up, coated a pan with olive oil, put the cauliflower on the pan, added seasoning (white pepper and smoked paprika) and baked it at 350 (I started at 375 and turned it down a little partway through) for about 20-25 minutes. This is a little different from what Eating Well suggested: they recommended cooking spray (which I find leaves a funny residue on my pans, and anyway, olive oil tastes better) and 450 degrees, but I was afraid of charring the cauliflower, so I used a lower temperature.

It was pretty good. It was DEFINITELY not watery or slimy, but it was kind of firm yet yielding. (It doesn't get crunchy. Maybe if you baked it longer so the outside got more brown. I was wondering about that). I ate it with some plum-chipotle grilling sauce I have that is pretty good on cauliflower. So I might do it that way in the future instead of steaming it. I'm also thinking the leftovers would probably be good with cheese sauce.

* Tomorrow I go out to collect the summer soil samples. I'm hoping it's less humid. (One location near us was reporting a dewpoint of 77 this morning). I've told myself if I get that done in good time then I can go home and shower and maybe run to Sherman for groceries and other stuff. Saturday I guess I will be in here a while, working on my manuscript. I'm trying to slowly circle back to doing 1 hour of research work a day, though on Mondays and Thursdays it's hard, because I teach from 8-10:45, and then have lab from 1:30 to 5:30, and on Mondays at least, some of the between-time is spent prepping lab, and on Thursdays - when I give my quizzes and minitests - it's spent grading.


1 comment:

Joan said...

Roasted cauliflower is good seasoned with curry powder, too.