About future...

Groningen!

Hi everybody, good afternoon!
Its lunch time here, and my office so scary, only 4 people here. LOL.
I cant wait for tomorrow, because i will face my lonng holiday soon!
And now, i wanna tell you guys and gals, my lovely blogreader, about my day yesterday.

December 28, 2010, again its an intake session for Hanze University at Neso Jakarta. And i went there with my friend Indah. And one boy joined us, he is Abibong, Indah's friend. We are going together. At Neso, we were looking around and read the brochures. Met Mbak Uchi, and of course the lovely one, our representative, Kak Nadia.

it is Ms Nadia

We talked alot yesterday, and laughing non stop. We talk about the procedure and all the matters, all the advantage, all the shopping thingy, etc. I dont wanna loose my chance to go there, to Netherlands. And groningen already stole my heart. *cheesy*

Me and Indah

And after that, we went to Roti Bakar Eddy to get some dinner. yeah! Then went home.

Fettucine with Walnut Basil Pesto and Slow-dried Cherry Tomatoes

I don't know why I'm even posting this, because there's hardly anything to it. This just goes to show how important it is to keep a well-stocked fridge, not with processed ready sauces, but with your own homemade "extras". I made this right after I made the fresh pasta, so by then I couldn't be bothered to cook up any fancy sauces.

Ingredients

Homemade fettucine (For clearer instructions, check out my homemade sourdough pasta post. You'll need 1/4 to 1/3 the dough from that entry)

2 tbsp slow-dried cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp "chunky" walnut basil pesto

generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Cook fettucine in boiling salted water for 3 min, or till desired tenderness. Drain, don't have to drain fully well, then plate.

2. Toss pasta with rest of the ingredients. Done!

This is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

Leeks braised and sauteed, and as two fillings for omelettes

Braised Leeks are a classic in french cooking. They are very easy to prepare and like all members of the Alium family, Onion family, they are really good for you.

First you must choose and clean the leeks. I prefer my leeks on the smallish side as they are easier to cook and I think they taste better than the enormous ones. To clean them I follow Julia Child's advise which roughly goes like this.

Lay the leek on a cutting board. From the top of the white part to the end of the green part slice it through. Then roll it a half turn and again slice through.
 Holding it lengthwize parallel to the bottom of the sink basin clean by running water accross one of the cuts while opening gently the leaves..never hold upright against the flow of water or you will force the sand deeper into the leek. Then once the leek is clean where you cut it turn to the next cut and continue until you have cleaned all the areas you have cut. Sandy leeks are unpleasant so make sure you got all of it out.

Next, Cut off the root end and then cut off most of the green parts.

To braise the white part of the leek you need to first in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil brown the leek. Then add some broth..chicken or even vermouth or white wine to the pan and slowly poach turning until it is tender.

For the greens you can cut them into one inch pieces and saute them in a bit of olive oil for use in other preparations

I am suggesting two omelette fillings here using the sauteed leeks.

One is with the sauteed peppers from the 11/22/2010 posting along with a bit of Ricotta

The second omelette filling uses the sauteed leeks with some Coach Farms Lowered Fat Goats Cheese Chevre..and a bit of  salt and pepper. 

Leeks braised and sauteed, and as two fillings for omelettes

Braised Leeks are a classic in french cooking. They are very easy to prepare and like all members of the Alium family, Onion family, they are really good for you.

First you must choose and clean the leeks. I prefer my leeks on the smallish side as they are easier to cook and I think they taste better than the enormous ones. To clean them I follow Julia Child's advise which roughly goes like this.

Lay the leek on a cutting board. From the top of the white part to the end of the green part slice it through. Then roll it a half turn and again slice through.
 Holding it lengthwize parallel to the bottom of the sink basin clean by running water accross one of the cuts while opening gently the leaves..never hold upright against the flow of water or you will force the sand deeper into the leek. Then once the leek is clean where you cut it turn to the next cut and continue until you have cleaned all the areas you have cut. Sandy leeks are unpleasant so make sure you got all of it out.

Next, Cut off the root end and then cut off most of the green parts.

To braise the white part of the leek you need to first in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil brown the leek. Then add some broth..chicken or even vermouth or white wine to the pan and slowly poach turning until it is tender.

For the greens you can cut them into one inch pieces and saute them in a bit of olive oil for use in other preparations

I am suggesting two omelette fillings here using the sauteed leeks.

One is with the sauteed peppers from the 11/22/2010 posting along with a bit of Ricotta

The second omelette filling uses the sauteed leeks with some Coach Farms Lowered Fat Goats Cheese Chevre..and a bit of  salt and pepper. 

Slow-dried Cherry Tomatoes (Oven-dried)

I love sun-dried tomatoes. That slow drying process removes the water from the tomato, leaving all the flavour behind, so what you're left with is tomato(flavour) x 10. You can get them quite easily at the supermarket, but they're so expensive, so when I saw cherry tomatoes at a reduced price, I figured it's time for some DIY!

London's grey and gloomy these days, but while I may not have the warm Italian sunshine, I have an oven!

Ingredients

500g pack of cherry tomatoes (You can try this with plum tomatoes, it will pack an even sweeter punch!)

1 clove of garlic

sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

pinch of dried basil

extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Cut tomatoes into halves.

2. Scoop out most of the seeds, then salt the insides. Leave them cut side down on a rack, before rinsing and drying. I missed this step, so my tomatoes still ended up with a bit of juiciness to it. But they tasted yummy so I didn't feel too bad. Just can't keep as well, although, I ended up finishing it in a day anyway.

3. Crush the garlic with the sea salt, then add the pepper and basil. Spread over the cut side of the tomatoes.

4. Place tomatoes cut side up on a baking tray in a single layer. Drizzle over the evoo.

5. Put into oven to dry at 100 degrees celsius, for at least 3h, or preferably overnight.

6. Once done, put tomatoes and the tomato-infused oil into clean and sterilised jars, top with more evoo, and seal. It should keep for months if done properly, but you'll probably use it up way before that.

This:

will shrink to this:

So if you've got a lot of tomatoes and a lot of oven space, do a larger batch at a go!

You can puree it to make a delicious sauce, or add it to savoury baked goodies, or simply toss with pasta-- definitely an easy and yummy addition to your kitchen.

This is part of Tasty Tuesdays, and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

Homey

I'm spending this last week of the year being homey. Which is not to be confused with being homely.
Homey: comfortably informal and inviting; cozy; homelike
Homely: lacking in physical attractiveness; not beautiful; unattractive; not having elegance, refinement or cultivation.

What I mean to say is, I'm spending some time at home at this week, making my place warm and cozy, comfortable and inviting, and part of doing that is cooking up some yummy food. Yummy is kind of a homey word itself. When you read a restaurant review, you see words like "delicious" and "tantalizing" and "excellent". But rarely do you see "yummy". And yet, as a home chef, I cannot think of a better word to describe the taste of cookies, cupcakes, stews, soups, bread puddings, and roasts that come from my homey kitchen.

Homey is like homely in that it is not aspiring to be elegant, refined, or cultivated. It is only aspiring to be yummy. It makes you feel good, and that is often just enough.

Happy New Year and enjoy this homey recipe for Pork and Wild Rice Soup. I ended up overcooking it a bit, and it turned into less of a soup and more of a pork and wild rice dish but the flavors are solid, and extremely yummy.



Pork and Wild Rice Soup (Cooking Light)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup brown and wild rice blend
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1 (32-ounce) carton fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons crumbled queso fresco
• 1 sliced peeled avocado
• 24 baked tortilla chips

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown pork on all sides. Remove from pan. Heat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add rice, onion, garlic, and chiles; sauté 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add pork, 1 cup water, oregano, broth, and beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in cilantro, juice, salt, and pepper; simmer 2 minutes. Top each serving with cheese, avocado, and chips.

Ten Holiday Healthy Eating Strategies

Holidays are always a challenge to healthy eating.

Here are some of my personal strategies:

1. Pre-eating!..this learned from my ever slim girlfriends..eat a meal or a good sized snack with a bit of fat and protein at about 5-6..then you are not so hungry when those hi cal low food value hors d'oeuvres are being passed around and you can pick and choose which you want being already a bit full 2 sticks of celery with a really high quality sugar free tablespoon of peanut butter is great for this as it is very filling and while fatty the fat is "good" fat 
2. Make your first cocktail Water!..yes and the second and third too if you can..wine is fine in moderation but it is harder to be moderate after we imbibe
3. Always cook a bit more of anything you cook than you need. Save the rest for later either to make another thing out of it or for another meal later. I am still eating the turkey stew I made after thanksgiving that is frozen in one person portions and ready to go when I am casting about for something to eat
4. Portion Control everything! but especially treat foods. Stick to your healthy eating plan as much as you can and drink more water!
5. Savour tiny amounts of treat foods. Denying yourself all these treats all the time will build up too much pent up demand. 
6. Use smaller plates and teaspoons instead of soup spoons
7. Focus on what you are eating..it counts if you are talking, standing walking, it all counts. If you look at, chew or drink slowly and smell the food, your body will register much better the whole experience. If you gobble it and ignore that you are actually eating you won't have experienced the fullness of the experience, nor will you feel full..try a food meditation!
8. front load the carbs..have your carbs for breakfast, lunch..that's it! Never..or almost never for dinner. My favorite comfort dinner? Pasta and red wine!!! could anything ruin a diet more??? So its a once a month or less treat
9. Eat early when possible..It may be socially difficult but when it is not its the best plan..
10. Dance! Vigorously! It uses calories!

Ten Holiday Healthy Eating Strategies

Holidays are always a challenge to healthy eating.

Here are some of my personal strategies:

1. Pre-eating!..this learned from my ever slim girlfriends..eat a meal or a good sized snack with a bit of fat and protein at about 5-6..then you are not so hungry when those hi cal low food value hors d'oeuvres are being passed around and you can pick and choose which you want being already a bit full 2 sticks of celery with a really high quality sugar free tablespoon of peanut butter is great for this as it is very filling and while fatty the fat is "good" fat 
2. Make your first cocktail Water!..yes and the second and third too if you can..wine is fine in moderation but it is harder to be moderate after we imbibe
3. Always cook a bit more of anything you cook than you need. Save the rest for later either to make another thing out of it or for another meal later. I am still eating the turkey stew I made after thanksgiving that is frozen in one person portions and ready to go when I am casting about for something to eat
4. Portion Control everything! but especially treat foods. Stick to your healthy eating plan as much as you can and drink more water!
5. Savour tiny amounts of treat foods. Denying yourself all these treats all the time will build up too much pent up demand. 
6. Use smaller plates and teaspoons instead of soup spoons
7. Focus on what you are eating..it counts if you are talking, standing walking, it all counts. If you look at, chew or drink slowly and smell the food, your body will register much better the whole experience. If you gobble it and ignore that you are actually eating you won't have experienced the fullness of the experience, nor will you feel full..try a food meditation!
8. front load the carbs..have your carbs for breakfast, lunch..that's it! Never..or almost never for dinner. My favorite comfort dinner? Pasta and red wine!!! could anything ruin a diet more??? So its a once a month or less treat
9. Eat early when possible..It may be socially difficult but when it is not its the best plan..
10. Dance! Vigorously! It uses calories!

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A Hearty and Satisfying Fry Up to Soak up the New Year Booze

New Year is almost certainly the time of year when a majority of people over-indulge in terms of alcohol consumption. Although it is unlikely to make you drink less, eating hearty meals during this period will most certainly help your body cope to some extent with these alcohol excesses, ensuring that you feel less ill at the time and particularly afterwards. I well remember as a young man starting out on my drinking, "Career," having it drummed in to me by especially my grandmother that if I had to go out drinking, it was vital that I had a good lining in my stomach beforehand. The meal she most often advocated was an old-fashioned fry-up, cooked in lard in what was an absolutely delicious but certainly less than healthy fashion.

Although I am not trying to pretend that the fry-up I have prepared here is a healthy eating option, I have at least exchanged the lard for oil and tried to retain the hearty aspects of the meal with just a touch less cholesterol.

Ingredients per Person

2 beef link sausages
1 slice of black pudding (blood sausage)
2 rashers of bacon
1 egg
1 slice of bread
3 closed cup mushrooms (stalks removed)
1 medium to large tomato (halved)
Half a white onion (sliced)
Sunflower oil for frying
Salt and pepper

Method

It is important to remember when cooking eggs - especially when frying them - that the egg should never be cooked straight from the refrigerator. It must be removed at least a couple of hours in advance and allowed to come up to room temperature if you are to know anything like the best effect.

You will need two frying pans to make this recipe, at least one of which should be fairly large. To the large frying pan, add around a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Put the two link sausages in to the pan and cook on a low to medium heat for ten minutes, turning occasionally. After this time, add the black pudding and fry it for approximately five minutes each side (depending upon the thickness of the slice) until cooked.

The tomato, mushrooms and onions can be added to the pan after the black pudding has been turned.

When everything is in the pan, place a large dinner plate in to the oven and put the oven on to heat to 225F/100C/Gas Mark 1/4.

While the sausages and black pudding complete their last few minutes of cooking, cut a hole in the centre of the slice of bread using an egg cup. This is to accommodate the egg yolk. Add some oil to the second frying pan (which must be non-stick) and bring it up to a fairly high heat before adding the bread. Fry it for a couple of minutes to effectively lightly toast one side and then turn it over. Break the egg in to a small bowl and then carefully pour it on the bread, ensuring the yolk goes in to the hole.

The sausages and black pudding should be removed from the frying pan and transferred to the hot plate in the oven to keep warm. The bacon should then be added to the pan with the vegetables to fry for a couple of minutes each side. At this stage, the pan with the bread and egg should be placed in the oven. This will complete the cooking of the egg without having to turn the bread again and spoil the presentation.

When the bacon is ready, the meal can be plated up and served - with the HP Sauce being optional.

Intellectual Chaos

... is what happens when you mix mountains of government funds available for climate research with a pro-warming political agenda. The UK's Meteorology Office claimed the winter was going to be mild.

The Met Office’s forecasts of warmer-than-average summers and winters have been so consistently at 180 degrees to the truth that, earlier this year, it conceded that it was dropping seasonal forecasting. Hence, last week, the Met Office issued a categorical denial to the Global Warming Policy Foundation that it had made any forecast for this winter. Immediately, however, several blogs, led by Autonomous Mind, produced evidence from the Met Office website that in October it did indeed publish a forecast for December, January and February. This indicated that they would be significantly warmer than last year, and that there was only “a very much smaller chance of average or below-average temperatures”.

The New York Times tells us that the harsh winter was a foregone conclusion.

In Brooklyn and Newark, it exceeds 24 inches, and, in Boston, which has received 18.2 inches, the story has not yet fully been told. Nor is this a freak accident. Seven of the last nine winters in the eastern United States and Eurasia have been exceptionally cold.

And what do we learn from the Grey Lady? Listen to Judah Cohen – “director of seasonal forecasting at” a suspiciously nameless “atmospheric and environmental research firm,” which, as you might guess, depends on government funding to support its research – who writes in that estimable journal that “the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes.”

Got that? “We’re freezing not in spite of climate change but because of it.”

What did you expect? Climate forecasting is notoriously inaccurate, but there were millions up for grabs if you claimed you could do it or if you just claimed you could predict some kind of consequences. What we've ended up with is a hodgepodge of contradictory research papers that can be used to find anything you wish.

There was another comment thread somewhere on the web where the original article claimed the cold winter disproved global warming. In the comments, activists posted links to journal articles which had predicted that global warming would cause such winters. These were immediately countered by journal article links claiming it wouldn't. This is a natural outcome of politicizing science.

The global warming industry used the press to peddle tales of doom in order to get more politically-based funding for research. Now those (contradictory) tales of doom can be used by either side to prove anything you want since the predictions were all over the map. Meanwhile, reality provides one refuting data point after another to each of them.

Nils-Axel Morner, head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden, argues that any concerns regarding rising sea levels are unfounded. "So all this talk that sea level rising, this comes from the computer modeling, not from observations. ... The new level, which has been stable, has not changed in the last 35 years. ... But they [IPCC] need a rise, because if there is no rise, there is no death threat ... if you want a grant for a research project in climatology, it is written into the document that there 'must' be a focus on global warming. ... That is really bad, because you start asking for the answer you want to get."

The end result of all of this will be cynicism from the press, the politicians and the public. Anyone standing with the global warming alarmists will end up looking like a fool, just like the UK MET Office.

It's another mild winter in England due to global warming.