10. Poached Eggs

All my hero chefs claim that mastering cooking is mastering cooking eggs.  Folklore tells us that scientific studies are constantly back and forth about eggs and whether or not they're healthy.  This was true a few decades ago.  However, aside from the occasional salmonella recall, the verdict seems to be that eggs are not bad for you.  In fact studies are showing that eating eggs contributes to weight loss and are good for people with diabetes.  This is great news to me because I love eggs and just about in every form they're cooked, which seems to be countless ways.  

While there is some risk of salmonella with eggs, there are some precautions you should take.  One is to wash your hands immediately after handling raw eggs.  Eating raw or soft cooked eggs with a runny yolk may have some more risk than hard cooked eggs or scrambled.  I love soft cooked eggs, so I hazard a bit of a risk, but aside from risking possible salmonella, the soft cooked eggs are quite healthy.  

As another precaution try cracking your eggs on a flat surface, like a clean plate, instead of on the edge of a pan or bowl.  The less of the outer shell you crack into the egg, the better and there's less risk of breaking the yolks.  Breaking the yolk is the last thing you want to do when making soft cooked eggs so really focus on your egg breaking technique, each break is practice, and don't half-ass it.  I cook eggs all the time and still run into some trouble, they're just so delicate.  So, when I do make a successful egg dish, I feel quite accomplished.   
  
The first time I had a poached egg was just a couple of years ago at Uncle John's Pancake House in Toledo.  My mom never cooked them for me when I was a kid and for whatever other reasons they just didn't arrive on my plate.  I heard of them, but I had no idea what they were or even what they looked like. But when I tried them, I immediately fell in love with them.

Apparently poaching comes from the French word for pocket, which is kind of what happens when you cook the egg and the white becomes a pocket around the yolk.   Some recipes call for a precise amount of water in a specific sized pan.  Well, I've found that you probably want three to four inches of water to work.  Any deeper than that and you may have problems.  I recommend a larger pan for more eggs.  This is just to keep the whites from combining.

This sauce pan, filled to just over half way, works pretty good for me for two eggs.  I haven't tried more than two at a time yet.

Place the water on a high heat.  When bubbles begin to break the surface add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of kosher salt.  Regular-ass white vinegar is the only kind I've ever used so, I don't know if other kinds of vinegar work the same or not.  My books don't mention it.  Maybe it's common knowledge and I'm just ignorant of it or something.  The hell if I know.

Crack your eggs into small bowls, this is so you can pour the eggs into the pan as close to the surface of the water as possible.  I've used small bowls and even saucers before, but these neat little Glad storage containers work very nicely.

 

Drop the eggs into the water as close to the surface as possible, one at a time.  The vinegar is supposed to keep the egg white from going everywhere, but I probably need more work on this part because they usually look like the photo above.  I tweak them a little with my slotted spoon just to keep them from combining, but you don't want to mess around with them too long or the yok will harden and you don't want that.  When they look like this remove from the heat, put a lid on the pan, and wait three minutes.

When the three minutes are up, gently remove the eggs, one at a time from the water with a slotted spoon and try to drain as much water as possible.  I put them on toasted English muffins, but they can go on toast and are recommended for salads, though I never tried them that way.  I tried them over Ramen noodles once.

I use Thomas' Light Multi-Grain English Muffins because Mens' Health Magazine and the Eat This, Not That! people have rated them the healthiest breakfast bread.

I break open both yolks and spread it over the egg and muffin, then sprinkle some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper over it and enjoy!

My inspirational hero for this entry is The Mighty Stephen Hawking.  He is an innovator of theoretical physics and cosmology, most noted is his work in quantum gravity and black holes.  He is also a popularizer of science.  One of his many books, A Brief History of Time, is best known world wide for putting modern cosmology in layman's terms.  He's published several other books, appeared in several documentary movies, and created and appeared in television shows about the science of the universe.  He's also appeared on shows like Star Trek: The Generation, The Simpsons, and Futurama, because the writers of these shows are huge fans of Hawking.  Most of this he achieved while suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for forty-seven years.  This disease has slowly debilitated his physical body and he became known for an electronic synthesizer he uses to speak.  He has used a small handpiece to operate his synthesizer, but no longer can, so he uses a device that follows his eye movements.  At this point he's almost completely paralyzed, but has a new groundbreaking cosmology book about to be released called The Grand Design.

9. Sesame-Peanut Noodles

Losing 18 pounds in the past two months is a very satisfying achievement for me.  When I started all of this I promised myself I would buckle down and be more strict about my diet, but the funny thing is I haven't needed to be very strict.  I don't know how many diets I tried that involved strict eating routines.  Don't get me wrong, there are certain guidelines I'm following.  One is drinking more water and unsweetened green tea.  I don't gulp water down like its going out of style I just constantly have a cup of ice water at hand and drink from that, then refill it when it's done.  Then I try to get four cups of green tea in a day, which is supposed to be good for just about everything.  What this does for me is keeps my soda intake low.  Diet soda isn't all that bad to drink but it isn't quite the fat fighter that plain water and green tea are.  The only meal that I try to strictly adhere to is breakfast.  I just try to eat something as soon as I get up, which is usually two eggs either over easy or poached and whole wheat toast. 

The rest of the day depends on when I get hungry.  I loosely try to follow a three meal, three snack structure.  I try to keep the meals light, which usually come from the recipes I post here.  The snacks are also light, about 100 to 200 calorie snacks.  The one thing I try to do is not let myself get too hungry.  When I get too hungry I'm prone to cravings and binges.  I used to think that being hungry was good when dieting and just part of the process, actually no.  Everything I read about weight loss says that letting yourself get hungry is not a good thing.  I know it's anecdotal but I had a roommate that ate almost all day long and lost over a hundred pounds to get down to the ideal weight for his height and structure.  His trick of course was eating healthy food and plenty of exercise.  

Another thing I do is not to let the rules make me miserable.  I've always had a hard time adhering to rules and the more they were imposed upon me the more I resented them.  So I permit myself to cheat occasionally.  This may mean drinking the occasional soda or having  some sort of junk food.  However, I try not to over do it.  If I have a soda, it will be just one glass instead of the whole two liter or a six pack.  If I have pizza I'll try to have two or three slices rather than a whole large pizza.  If I have chips, I try to have a handful or two rather than the whole bag.  This is really the way I used to eat.  I try to keep it healthy but there are just certain things I won't turn down: steak (which isn't too bad if you don't eat much with it); sushi (which isn't really fattening); pizza (see above); and free booze.  Fortunately I don't come across these things too readily anyway so it's easy to only have them occasionally.  

Since I'm not much of a rules person this seems to work for me and the main thing that helps is, if I deviate a little I always try to return healthy eating.  I don't know how many times in the past I've cheated a little and then gave up the diet.  Well, if I'm really going to lose weight I have to change my eating habits for life and that means that when I do cheat I just gotta bounce back.  It sounds simple but it is more difficult in practice.

Sesame-Peanut Noodles
 I found this recipe in Ted Allen's cookbook The Food You Want to Eat.  It's healthy, light, and quite tasty.

INGREDIENTS

Here are the ingredients I used to make the recipe.

Kosher salt
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of mirin (Japanese cooking wine) or Sherry
2 medium garlic cloves
1/4 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes 
1 English cucumber peeled
1 pound soba noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 green onions, green parts only, sliced 1/4 inch thick on an angle

Bring a large pot of salted water (1 teaspoon of salt per quart of water) to a boil.

Meanwhile, toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat.  Stir this frequently until the seeds turn golden brown, about five minutes.

In a food processor, combine peanut butter, sesame oil, peanuts, soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Process to a puree, then stir in half the toasted sesame seeds.

I couldn't find mirin and I don't have sherry.  So I left that out of the mix, but I'm sure it wasn't a huge loss. 

Cut the peeled English cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with spoon.  Slice the halves crosswise, about a 1/4 inch thick, set aside.  Frankly, I didn't find much of a difference in the flavor of an English cucumber and a regular-ass cucumber.

Here is another one of my kitchen helpers.  He's ten and his favorite job is tasting cucumbers.  It's good to see he likes something other than his usual diet of pb & j and boxed mac and cheese.

When the water comes to a boil, add the noodles and cook until tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Drain very well, shake the colander until it stops dripping and dump the noodles into a large bowl.  Add the peanut mixture, cilantro (I used dry cilantro rather than fresh.), and black pepper.  Toss to coat.  

Turn out on a large platter.  Arrange the cucumber around the edge of the platter.  Sprinkle the green onions on top, and sprinkle the remaining sesame seeds on last.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

It's not on a platter but I was the only one eating it when it was done so a single plate it is.

It's nutty goodness with noodles! 

My inspirational hero of the day is Ted Allen.  I first saw him as the food guy from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  His latest claim to fame is the show Chopped on Food Network.  However, my favorite show of his is Food Detectives, imagine Mythbusters but with food.  That's right you may notice a pattern with my heroes being linked to science.  I think science is the best thing humans got going for them.  And check it out!  He's wearing a CBGB apron that is totally awesome!

8. Avo Olive Nori

II went to the cardiologist this past Monday.  You may already know that I suffered from heart failure a few years ago. I also have high blood pressure and an enlarged heart.  So my GP thought it a good idea to see a cardiologist to see how my heart is doing.  The cardiologist was very impressed with the recent improvements in things medically with me and he's started some tests to have a look at things for himself.  He had some blood drawn and an EKG done.  Next Thursday I'm supposed to go in for a stress test and eventually they want to do an ultrasound to look at my heart.  

However, the really good news is, they weighed me and I lost another ten pounds.  That makes for a total of eighteen pounds in just about two months.  So, I'm pretty happy about that and I hope to keep losing more weight.  For my height and frame I still have about two hundred pounds to go.  

Avo Olive Nori
Ingredients

Here are the ingredients I used for the dish.

1 large ripe avocado
1 small tomato
3/4 cup pitted olives
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
bean sprouts
nori sheets

Split avocado witha knife and discard the seed.  Spoon the flesh from the peel, cut it into small pieces, and place it in a large bowl.  You'll want room for mixing.  Pour the lemon juice over the avocados to prevent oxidizing. 
Dice the tomatoes and olives and place them in the bowl with the avocado.  Then add the soy sauce and stir for about ten seconds or so.
 Place a nori sheet onto a clean, dry cutting board. Nori is the same seaweed sheets they use to roll sushi.  You should be able to find this stuff any where sushi fixin's are sold.  This can be rolled with a bamboo sushi rolling mat, but I did it just fine with my bare hands.  Besides, I don't have one of those mats so I didn't have a choice.

Here is the avocado olive mixture.

Take a cup of the mixture and place a half cup of it onto the nori sheet and spread it to the sidest.  Leave about an inch at the top and bottom.  See photo.
 
Place a handful of beansprouts on top of the mixture.  The original recipe that I took this from called for sunflower sprouts.  I changed it to bean sprouts because I think the only way you can get sunflower sprouts is to grow them yourself and most people won't do that.  So I figure bean sprouts should be fine because, even if I am wrong and some store out there carries the sunflower sprouts,  the bean sprouts are easier to find, even if you have to buy them in a can!

It rolled quite well when I spread the mixture like this.

Now roll it very carefully because the nori can tear easily.  The mixture is about enough to make three or four rolls depending on how you spread it.

At this point it looks like a big green cigar.

Slice the roll into about five to six pieces.  When cutting into the roll gently saw into it.  Cutting down hard into the roll as if it were a salami or something, will pinch the roll and just be a mess. 

Place the rolls on a plate and enjoy.

It looks like sushi, but there is not rice, so it's not.

My inspirational hero of the day is Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and futurist.  He is a popularizer of science as well as an advocate for the ethical use of science.  I first heard of him as a guest on the wildly woo-woo late night radio show, Coast to Coast with Art Bell.  He was quite a breath of fresh air among the usual line up of charlatans and pseudo-scientists on the show.  Although he works on the fringes of science and ponders some things that may be far out, he bases everything in solid real science.  I admire his persistence in popularizing science to make it more understandable and accessible to the layperson in a time when we surprisingly need him and others like him to combat the harm pseudo-science and superstition can do.

7. Hummus and Pita Chips

I learned more about Mediterranean cuisine after I became a vegetarian.  I ate a "lacto-ovo vegetarian" diet for twenty years, from the ages of 15 to 35, before I returned to an omnivorous diet.  Lacto-ovo means the only animal products I would eat were eggs and milk, but not flesh, not even chicken or fish.   My motto was, if it took a shit, I won't eat it.  I could pick from plenty of reasons why I was such an angry teenager so I won't go into that too much.  When I discovered punk rock it really spoke to me, especially the tunes of violence, nihilism, and those rife with swear words.   After a few years I discovered the political side to punk rock and how offensive it was to the authorities that I hated so much.  I didn't realize the mere mention of anarchy and vegetarianism could strike dread and fear into so many people, especially during the square-ass Reagan years.  By the time I was fifteen I had been a self-declared atheist of six years and now my new way of annoying the squares was becoming a vegetarian.  I didn't do it for health reasons but the sheer purpose of making people feel guilty about eating animals.  Sure I was full of a lot of contradictory cliches and poorly stated arguments.  But I wasn't looking to win arguments with reason, but emotion.  If I pissed you off, I won.  The world pissed me off and I wanted to feed it its own medicine.

At first, I lost a lot of weight, but it may not have been strictly due to my change in diet.  At the time my mom only had 20 bucks a week to feed three kids and herself.  So there wasn't a lot of soda and junk food around.  There was a lot of stuff for grilled cheese sandwiches, and some of our neighbors gave us veggies from their gardens.  So I ate a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato, fried zucchini, and drank plenty of tap water the summer I became a  vegetarian.  My mom hated that I was a vegetarian because it played hell with her 1950s and 60s mentality.  But I probably saved her a lot of money in those times.  Vegetarians are a dime a dozen today but it was almost unheard of in the 80s and boy did the normies hate it.  It was actually dangerous.  At high school bullies used to try to force feed me meat, some broke into my locker and put meat in it, and sometimes people just threw the stuff at me from their cars.  This really was what it was like to be a punk rocker in a backward town like Toledo back then.  I guess a part of me enjoyed it.  It justified my hatred of the world. 

After a while, my mom found a job and started making more money.  Well, we always had a lot of sodapop and potato chips around the house and that didn't have any meat in it so I ate a lot of shit like that and gained weight again.  Being a vegetarian is no guarantee of being healthy or thin, I know first hand.  Flash forward twenty years I was still a vegetarian because it was a habit by then more than anything.  The morality of it all wasn't very strong with me in the first place and the shock value wore off.  However, when I slid into a mental breakdown after my divorce my life started falling apart and the more I became dependent on the kindness of others.  My bottom at the time was sleeping in the kitchen of an efficiency apartment that housed three other people.  My head lay at the entrance door and the bathroom door was at my feet.  Most of the food I ate people gave to me, that was when I decided I shouldn't be choosy about what food people give me.  Actually when I re-introduced meat into my diet I ended up getting a lot of food.  People just piled it on and the fridge was always full of stuff.

Although I've reverted back to an omnivorous diet, I haven't become a typical meat and potatoes asshole.  I started trying meat that I never had in my life like frog, squid, octopus, eel, alligator, venison, elk, etc., and  I certainly haven't stopped eating the food I ate when I was a vegetarian and now a lot of its helping me in the recovery of my health.  However, I doubt I'll ever become a vegetarian again.  The politics and philosophy of it  are pretty much like all politics and philosophy, just a load of bullshit that doesn't solve anything.

HUMMUS AND PITA CHIPS

When it comes to snacking I'm more of a salt and crunchy type than a sweet tooth.  However, my big weakness with sweets is soda pop and the snacking indulgence is salty and crunchy which can really be unhealthy and fattening.  However, baked pita chips and hummus are pretty healthy for snacking and not too hard to make.  

Ingredients for Pita Chips
1 package of pita bread
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of garlic salt


Oil your pita loaves

Place a whole pita loaf on a cutting board or very clean surface.  put your olive oil in a bowl and dip a barbecue brush into the oil and brush a coat onto the pita loaf.  

A pita pocked covered with olive oil.

spices

 What you really want to do with the spices is try to find the easiest way to distribute them evenly across the tops of oiled pita bread loaves.  In fact you may want to disregard the measurements and sprinkling  the spices separately and eyeball the amounts, this should work.  I've also tried putting them together in a salt shaker and shaking them on the loaf.

The holes are too small for this to work well, If you want to try this I recommend a shaker more like the ones that distribute Parmesan cheese or red pepper flakes.

I even tried mixing some with the oil.  I recommend trying any way you can think of to suit your taste I found I had to put a decent amount on mine to taste it.  You don't want to be too light with it tough.  

I shot the sheet pan with cooking spray, cut the loaves into 8 pieces (They come out the size and shape of Doritos with the small loaves.) and laid them in this arrangement.

Baking
If you want the chips good and crispy put them into an over preheated at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about ten minutes.  You may need a few minutes more or less depending on how crispy you want them.

After ten minutes in the oven, I take them off the sheet with a spatula and place them on a baking grate thing over another cookie sheet.  According to the great Alton Brown, this is supposed to work better than draining on paper towels.

This bowl has a lid and makes for great pita chip storage.

  Hummus
Premade hummus you get in 8 oz tubs at the supermarket are nice and tasty, but they're a fucking ripoff compared to how much you can make at home for the same price.  It may be a little work, but if you love hummus as much as every hummus fan I know loves hummus, then it's worth it because you get so much bang for your buck!
 
INGREDIENTS
1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans)  
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of tahini
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
olive oil
black pepper to taste

Drain and rinse your chick peas.  This will reduce the sodium from the can.  Place into a food processor or blender.  Personally I have found a blender works best for smooth consistency like creamy peanut butter.  Add the lemon juice and tahini.  I found tahini in the refrigerated Mediterranean food  section with the pre-made hummus and with the olives in the dry aisle, go figure.  This stuff is easy to find if you know what you're looking for.  It's a beige paste-like substance in a jar.  
Add the garlic, salt, and a a drizzle of olive oil.  Add a little bit of water, then give it a good shot with your pepper grinder.  Now start the machine.

This is my roomies' 3 year old.  She loves running the food processor.  Is it safe?  I don't care, it's not my kid, just kidding.

This is the roomies' six year old.  He helps with some other things in the kitchen and isn't too bad with the camera.

 

The food processor takes a while to get that really creamy consistency so it's nice to have some help.

  You want to check the hummus periodically.  Get out a tasting spoon and give it a try.  It should be a little tart from the lemon juice, if not add more.  If it still seems too chunky try adding a little more water, but be careful not to thin it out too much.  A little more tahini or olive oil may make it creamy but not as thin.  This dish is real flexible, so I recommend experiementing with the recipe and adding new flavors.  It can be eaten right away but tastes better marinaded in the fridge for a few hours.

This much hummus cost less than two bucks to make.  It'd probably be about six bucks or more at the supermarket.

 

Millions of Dead Cops were one of the leading punk rock bands to promote vegetarianism in the punk scene and with a name like that they weren't too shy about pissing people off.  I met them when they played in Toledo back in 1986, real nice guys actually.

6. Lentils

I haven't worked a job job since October of 2004.  The reason why I say job job is because I have worked miscellaneous jobs since then.  I had two temporary jobs with Maumee Valley Country Day School in 2005 and 2006 as an assistant teacher, but those were 4 week stints each.  I've been a concert promoter and I was making some money as an artist selling stuff to people I know and at tables and booths at conventions.  However, those last two weren't really paying the bills.  The apartment I had before I moved in with my dad in 2003, it was the last time I paid rent and utilities.  In fact I stopped paying all of my bills I slipped slowly into a mental breakdown.  It was the kind of quiet mental breakdown that started with my divorce and career crash and slowly led to me living off the kindness of others.  

But the last punch in/punch out, work evenings and weekends, and wish I would die on the way to work or while working job job I had I was a delivery driver at Papa John's Pizza for an excruciatingly long October in 2004.  The last morning I worked I went in before open with the asshole of a manager.  Well, apparently some huge order came in that was twice what he thought it was going to be and he panicked because he only had my under-trained ass.  At this point, all I knew how to do was deliver pizzas and fold boxes and I didn't do that very well.  Of course, like every asshole I ever worked for, he blamed me, even thought it was very much his fault I was under-trained.  Up until this point he only worked me on busy nights to whip me into shape for delivery. During this there never was enough time to get me on the phones or on the pizza line.

I used to take a lot more shit from bosses at jobs like this in my twenties, but now I was 34.  I had 8 years of college under my belt and two bachelor's degrees in useless subjects.  I was no longer a kid using a job as a stepping stone to a brighter future.  I was in "the future" and not so starry-eyed about it.  I hated life and mostly I hated myself and I certainly stopped giving a shit about what some shithead manager thought.  So he says to me, "Is this all you can do?"  I replied, "Look, if you give me something to do, I'll do it but it's not going to be perfect right away."  To which he further replied, "Well, if your stupid ass learned this stuff when you were supposed to we wouldn't have any of these problems."  At that point I took my Papa John's cap and shirt (I had a t-shirt on underneath) and threw them to the floor, "Fuck you!"  

"You can't talk to me that way!" he screamed.
"Well, I just did," and I gave him the finger and walked out.  He was yelling shit like, "What am I supposed to do?"  Hey, if he was smart enough to call ME stupid, then he could figure it out.  That cracks me up when people whine like that. Why should I give a shit?  For all I cared I could have drowned that guy in the bathtub face up to watch his expression as he died.  I didn't just say "Fuck you," and give the finger to just that guy that day.  I did it to every boss I ever had before him.  That order I left him alone with was for almost a hundred pizzas.  I still think he didn't suffer enough.  That was the last time I had to work a job like that.

That was about the same time I started drawing comics again, doing art, and selling at ska shows.  My friends started taking me to conventions sharing or actually renting me tables at them.  I used Tony Steele's method for packaging and selling autographed prints of my work and I started making more money.  Then I was given a chance to have a one night showing of my art at the coffee house where I hung out and did a lot of business.  Somewhere in there I did the temporary teaching gigs.  Then when the ska concert promoter left for college I took over and started booking shows.  I wasn't making a steady living but I was bringing in some money for myself doing what I wanted.  It wasn't going to take much more of a boost before it became really lucrative, but then I hit a wall with two things. 1. My car died 2. I came down with heart failure.  Those two things really set me back.

I didn't just give up right there.  I kept booking shows and got rides from friends, but the club I was booking at lost their liquor license and closed.  I couldn't find another club to book all ages shows during the weekend.  I started taking Zoloft for my depression but I was one of the few people that the drug made more depressed and it also gave me a voracious appetite and I started gaining weight.  By the time I figured out what the Zoloft was doing to me I had gained over 40 pounds.  The depression from the Zoloft killed my drawing urge too.  Not too long after that I got into a car wreck that injured my ribs and back.  The back injury limited my mobility some and I gained more weight.  I topped the scales at 373.  I could hardly walk, I was wiped out all the time, and I felt like shit.  I won't even go into the details of how moving out of town made things difficult for me.  That's another entry.  Either way, I thought I was done.  I figured I wouldn't have very much longer to live.  So I applied for welfare and social security disability benefits.  I have been on food stamps for over a year now, but none of the other assistance came through.  I just didn't see my life going much of anywhere.

Now, I have this recovery. A second chance I never thought I'd get.  I am very glad it came and I'm glad I'm getting another chance, but it's kind of frightening to me.  I was preparing for the last few years of my life and didn't have to worry about my future any more.  I'm pretty sure that my social security application will be denied, because almost all of them are the first time, but I am now in no position to make an appeal.  I thought I was going to get the disability in about a year then move back to Toledo to be close to family and friends in my last few years.  However, now I won't be able to make an appeal if I'm getting better, which means I'm going to have to start thinking about working again.  

There's no way in hell I'm ready to go back to work now.  I'm better but I need to be in better shape and slim down.  I hope this will take about a year to get to a reasonable shape.  In the mean time I have to give some serious thought to what I'm going to do.  As it stands now, I really don't know.  I know a lot about what I don't want to do.  

It was suggested I go back to college. Well, I have some serious financial troubles with college.  I've already got a six figure debt with college loan people.  I got a degree in philosophy but I hate philosophy now with the same passion I liked it when I started it.  I also have a bachelor's in English but why get a graduate degree in something that would never be able to pay off my loan.  Besides, if I really want to write I should just write instead of hiding in school like I did eight years.  Aside from all of that I have no idea what I'd do with it.  Again, I don't want to repeat the mistakes of my past and hiding in college was one of them.  I'm not saying going to college is hiding but the way I did was.  I would go back to college if I had a serious goal and I needed college to achieve it.  I'm not going to college to find a goal.  

It may seem ironic that it's taken me this long to bring up cooking, and the most obvious topic of working as a cook.  But the most available jobs for cooks is to work in restaurants, ugh.  Restaurant work, especially in the kitchen, is hot, smelly, tense, and rushed.  Everything weighs on speed.  I'm not a fast worker.  That's one of the reasons why I have such a bad track record with jobs.  I'm that guy at every job that just can't catch up.  If anything I'd like to work in the front as a server or bartender but speed is pretty intense there too and its all nights, weekends, and holidays.  I'm not doing that again, it was never worth missing the good times.
 
I just don't want to work a job I hate.  It doesn't even have to be super awesome but I need to like it.  I like working with people and I like being creative.  I don't like a lot of authority or pressure. It would also have to be something flexible enough to let me go to cons and be with friends.  I know I can't ask for the perfect job to just fall into my lap right away, but it's got to contribute some way to what I will do in the bigger picture.  I just don't want to repeat my past mistakes.  All this and I've barely considered the money factor.  Oy vey!

So I've got a lot to think about but I do have some time to think about it and plan.  This is why I'm spreading on the tabsle now.  Just to see what I have working for me.  I need to really consider what are my strengths, passions, and weaknesses.  At least I have nothing tying me down to where I live in fact I think I need to get the fuck out of Ohio all together.  I'm making decisions here that could be the next twenty or so years of my life.  The years fly by quicker at my age, but they can still punch as hard as ever.

Lentils 

I never heard of lentils until they were mentioned on the British comedy The Young Ones that showed episodes on Sunday nights on MTV back in the 80s.  Neal, the hippy of the group was supposed to prepare them for dinner and did just about everything but that.  Even then I didn't really see a lentil until years later.    Lentils are a high protein legume that come in a variety of colors, most commonly brown or red.  There are countless ways to prepare lentils but the following is a simple and tasty way to prepare them.  You can serve them with just about anything.  The last time I had them I ate them with herbed quinoa.  Do not soak them over night.  Just rinse and drain and they're ready to cook.

The stuff for making lentils.

1 cup of red or brown lentils, rinsed and drained
1 quart (4 cups, 32oz) unsalted chicken broth
1/2 cup of diced onions
1/2 cup diced carrots
 3 teaspoons of minced garlic
red wine vinegar

-Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a large pot.

I reduce the sodium content with an unsalted chicken stock.

  
-Add the lentils, onions, carrots, and garlic.  Allow to return to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
-Cook for about twenty minutes and taste the lentils for tenderness.  I like my lentils very tender, so I usually cook them another ten minutes.
-When your lentils reach your desired tenderness turn off the heat and let set for about five minutes to allow thickening.  
-When it has reached a desired thickness, add a splash of red wine vinegar and serve.

I found this dish quite tasty and filling.

There were only 12 episodes of The Young Ones, but they hilarious and my favorite British TV show.

4. Herbed Quinoa

If you haven't already figured it out, and if you choose to keep reading this blog, you'll figure out I'm quite opinionated.  I have some very strong views on many things.  Even things relevant to this blog.  I decided to make this blog very personal and part of that will include my personal views on certain things.  However, I also like readers.  So, I don't want to chase them off.  Yet, I think trying to please everyone is the kind of second guessing that's turned me off of some things I have strong opinions about. One thing I try to remember when breaching the topic of things I feel strongly about is what Bad Astronomer, Phil Plaitt, said, "Nobody in the history of humankind has ever changed their mind about something they have wrapped up in their self identity, because they were screamed at by someone."  I won't pretend to have an opinion I don't agree with, but I'll try to be nice about the ones I do.

Personally, I can disagree someone and still be their friend.  In fact, if I chose to not associate with those with opinions I disagree with I wouldn't have any friends at all.  Some of my friends I am almost completely opposite to in matters of politics and/or religion.  I have the utmost respect for those I can debate with and still remain friends.  Don't get me wrong though, I still enjoy and need to spend time among like minded folks too.  For those whom I have certain disagreements, I don't have a problem with them thinking I'm wrong, because I think they're wrong too.  We almost have to if we truly are who we say we are.  In other words, I can agree to disagree.  However, I would be a liar if I didn't admit I do have my limits, I'm not going to be friends with Nazis, KKK members, or similar people.  I don't want to open my mind so far that my brain falls out.

I'm sure I'll come up with something that some or most, hopefully not all, of you will disagree.  I hope I won't lose too many readers as a result but if ya gotta go I won't beg for your return.  However, if you rationally discuss the issue with me I may even change my mind. I have a bad habit of admitting that I can be wrong sometimes.  What's worse is, contrary to the way most behave, I don't think admitting error shows weakness, mostly it's a sign of strength to me.  So feel free to express your opinions to me.  I just hope you can express the same demeanor I choose to communicate my opinion to you.

Herbed Quinoa

I only recently heard of quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), but it got a big endorsement from Men's Health Magazine for being a seed that is grain-like but has more protein than wheat or rice.  So I thought I'd try the simple recipe they gave for preparing it, Herbed Quinoa.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup chives
1/2 cup basil

Quinoa

Add 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of boiling water.  Reduce heat to simmer and cover for 10-15 minutes when the seeds turn translucent and it's absorbed all the water. 

I got a box of this stuff at Trader Joe's but Whole Foods has it in bulk and I think it's cheaper that way.

  When this stuff was cooking it had a peculiar burning leaves smell.  I kept checking it and stirring it to ensure it wasn't burning and it was fine.  Don't worry, it doesn't taste like the smell.  When I cooked it I took it all the way to fifteen minutes without burning it.  I let it set for another ten minutes or so to let it absorb more moisture.

Saute 
In a separate frying pan heat 2 tablespoons of pure olive oil.  Don't use extra virgin, it scorches too easily.  I hated cooking with olive oil before I learned that pure olive oil cooks better.  Save your extra virgin olive oil for salads and other things.  Then saute garlic and shallots with the lemon juice.  

The Finish

When the garlic starts to turn brown add the basil and chives.  The original called for fresh but I used the dry stuff that I bought in the spice department at Kroger and it worked fine.  Then mix this in with the saute for a minute or two.  When I first made this, I thought there would be too much basil and chives, but it seemed less so when I added the quinoa and cooked it for another two minutes.  Then it's ready to serve!

Admittedly I had my doubts cooking this recipe, but it turns out quite lively and tasty!

I'm a big fan of science, especially astronomy, and Phil Plait is one of my heroes for being an awesome astronomer and a brilliant representative of the scientific skepticism community.