Tag Archives: digestive system

Worth Trying Once

Posted on December 1, 2019 by Pamela

I am not a breakfast person but I tried a local restaurant that is known for its breakfast and features long lines.

One of the items on the menu was called a frittwich and it was a breakfast sandwich made with an apple fritter. I described the menu item to some friends who take donuts very seriously to see what they thought.

They thought I should try it and get back to them.

I finally revisited the restaurant and gave it a try. It’s a fried egg and cheese and the server recommended adding bacon. Who is going to say no to that?

The first three bites were mesmerizing but the effect wore off fast and after half it was too sweet and weird. I worried how my digestive system was going to treat me and gave up. Overall, it was worth trying but definitely don’t need to do it again.

My digestive system hung together but exhibited some unhappy confusion over what I had done to it.

I’ll be back to posting less frequently. I hope to do more Priscilla recipe testing in the future and will post any gems I find.

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Sugar Loaf

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Pamela

For a long time I clipped almost every brownie recipe I found. I was always on the lookout for a best recipe. I had the idea in my head that there was a giant range in brownie quality and if I was diligent enough, I would find the magical life-transforming recipe of brownie goodness.

Meanwhile I had a gooiest recipe, a most chocolately recipe, Katherine Heburn’s recipe, Test Kitchen Best Recipe, giant brownie bake-off winning recipes.

At one point I probably had at least a dozen recipes in my clippings, most of which I had never tried.
 
I finally went through and threw a bunch away because, I don’t make brownies that often (So why was I on the lookout for a life-transforming recipe? It’s a mystery.) and when I do I usually use this recipe (Thank you Keetha) which is always a big hit or else Mark Bittman’s.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that we had somehow accumulated 3 jars of Nutella and much as we love Nutella, it would take us awhile to work through 3 jars. So I got this brilliant idea to look for a Nutella brownie recipe.
 
I found this one which looks very simple and I was concerned it might turn out mediocre brownies but what the hell, just some butter and sugar and no shortage of Nutella.

They were amazing. They were so amazing I ate THREE! the night I made them and didn’t feel well when I went to bed.

My conclusion is that it’s pretty tough to bake a crappy brownie unless you make a mistake.

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Breakfast with Benefits

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Pamela

There was a little misunderstanding about the oatmeal situation at the house. I thought we were out and bought three more boxes when we still had 2 boxes in the cupboard. Then Bob went to Costco and bought a giant box.

I said, “Well, if the zombie apocalypse comes, at least we’ll have oatmeal.”

(I don’t even eat instant oatmeal. This is all for Bob.)

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You Can’t Have Any Pudding If You Don’t Eat Your Meat

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Pamela

This is the tomato plant that I grew from a seed and knocked all the leaves off when I planted it in the garden. It’s about 4 feet tall and has a half dozen green tomatoes on it.

It is the smallest of my tomato plants. I have two that are as tall as I am with huge branches flopping out the sides of the cage. They are sagging with green tomatoes. The early girl has a few that have gone shiny and yellow-ish. I think I’m going to be eating home grown tomatoes very soon.

I’m convinced that the early settlers stayed alive by eating greens. But you never hear about that. You never find pioneer tested recipes for turnip and beet greens. I don’t even try that hard and I have giant piles of greens that we can’t even begin to keep up with. Especially since I represent about 90% of the greens consumption in my household. The Dining section had an article about all the plant tidbits that most people throw away that you can eat. More garden stuff for the plate.

Last weekend I finally got around to picking some beets to roast. They were soft-ball size with big healthy tops. I saved all the greens plus I yanked up some kale.

The first thing I do with my greens is soak them in water so all the slugs and snails rise to the surface. I know, gross. Better to find them now than later. Then I sauté in olive oil and garlic. Even though the greens shrink when cooked there was a giant bowl which I still haven’t finished. (They taste great with a little ume plum vinegar sprinkled on them.)

The other night I ate about 4 pounds of vegetables for one meal. I didn’t set out to eat that much I just kept finding more stuff in the fridge and thinking, “I want some of this, too.” My digestive system still hasn’t figured out what happened.

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It’s Miller Time

Posted on April 23, 2006 by Pamela

the garden is in

What do you think?

That’s the garden. Put it all in this afternoon. The ultimate in delayed gratification. Just a bunch of dirt now but think how great that’s going to be in a couple of months.

Mom and Erin were here this weekend and yesterday we went to the Farmer’s Market and there were heirloom tomatoes up the wazoo. I bought 4 plants this year — now I have friends at the office to share with if it gets too hairy. But also last year I made a tomato soup which was godhead. I’m not a big tomato soup fan but probably because I associate it with the acidy, tinny taste of the canned stuff. Think of that wonderful sweet, fresh, homegrown tomato taste distilled into a hot bowl of soup. If you’re not swooning, you’re not a tomato person.

I also worked on dahlias. The tubers I “saved” are trashed. I had to junk most of them. I’ve been putting them in mass graves just in case I’ve underestimated them. But then some of them look horrible and wrinkled and have tons of “eyes” on them. I ran out of gas on those early. I’m going to have to hit it next weekend. But the dirt is ready.

Also at the Farmer’s Market I saw a bunch of pretty plants that I would love to get and know just where I’d put them. But that area is not ready dirt and needs lots of TLC and I can’t imagine when I’ll get to that. I don’t have the stamina of a true gardener.

Just today I pooped out way before I was done with my chores for today. I pushed through, raking bark dust, spreading mulch and sorting through moldy tubers. That reward beer was one of the best I’ve ever tasted.

I was too tired to wash my hair except it was infused with bark dust and living dirt and I had to do it anyway. Now it’s 4pm and I’m going to catch up on my shows with a delicious drink.

Also, for those of you following along at home, I’ve been eating 3 normal food meals a day and the digestion is humming like a dream. Yay.

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Amazing Ability

Posted on February 14, 2005 by Pamela

It’s a shame I haven’t found a way to capitalize on this amazing ability I have to make it rain. Way back when I lived in Lake Oswego and was a runner, I could get the clouds to give way simply by lacing on my running shoes. (I should probably qualify my “running” as an activity that looked more like fast walking. I think, back then, if chased by blood thirsty wolves, I could possibly run a whole mile in under 8 minutes. But only 1. Then I’d keel over. Now, I don’t know what would happen.)

This weekend the sun was out Friday and I thought what a great opportunity to get out in the yard seeing as how last weekend when I tried to go out there, it started raining. But Friday I had a zillion other activities going on. (A guy came over to give us an estimate on air conditioning and we’re going for it, yay! I know it sounds unimportant now, but wait until August.) But in my mind I was thinking we’d have sun all weekend so I’d have plenty of opportunities.

Saturday was drippy but yesterday I noticed sun. By the time I finished my chores and put on my work clothes and stepped into the yard, the sky had clouded over and as I walked out there with my tools, the drops started to fall. At first I ignored it but that lasted about 2 minutes and I had to run back inside.

I started doing something else and then Bob came home and we noticed the sun was out again so we decided to go for a walk. We put our shoes on and bam, rain again.

Meanwhile, I put out a medal consideration cooking performance this weekend. Friday I did my rosemary roasted chicken with vegetables. Saturday I made a Russian style soup with potatoes, greenbeans and sour cream and sauerkraut. Yesterday I made my gumbo with cornbread. I bobbled on the dessert.

I like to make Bob a special chocolate thing every Valentines Day and this year I saved a recipe from the Oregonian for Flourless Lavender Chocolate Torte using this designer chocolate that wasn’t cheap. I don’t know what went wrong but the thing didn’t set up in the oven. It just boiled in the pan. I left it in 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for and finally took it out and figured we’d have choco-blobs. As long as it tasted good.

It did harden in the fridge and I put it on a plate and it wasn’t pretty. I generously sprinkled powdered sugar. It tasted decent. I don’t think brilliant, but it was okay.

Between that and the gumbo I woke up at 1:30am and nothing would get me back to sleep. I did finish book #6 hypocrite in a poufy white dress by Susan Jane Gilman which is a memoir written by a woman my age who grew up in New York and had all kinds of funny adventures. But now I have to get through the day on about 4 hours of sleep.

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