Culinary Adventures: Conquering the Oven

It's not so much a culinary adventures as a culinary trial, but I just thought I'd share the happy fact that I've managed to make a batch of cookies in the gas oven - which is important because I've never baked with gas before in my life.  So here I am, trying to figure out how to get the gas oven to work without blowing myself sky-high, in an apartment that's already over 80 degrees....Well, long story short, it's not that hard.  Just press in the dial and turn it to the proper speed.  When you hear the sound of gas being injected stop, the oven is preheated.  Still, open flames and gas unnerve me, but I'm not going to let that keep me from using my oven for nine months.  So, one batch of snickerdoodles later, I'm happy to say that I know how to use the oven.  Point for me.

Culinary Adventures: Poulet à l’Orient

So, part of this whole "living on your own" experience is the challenge of cooking for yourself. Since going out is far too expensive to do more than occasionally, and prepackaged foods are usually unhealthy and always lacking in panache, the best way to feed yourself is to cook your own food. With that in mind, I've decided to share some of my experiments in the kitchen under the title "Culinary Adventures" - because, although I've been cooking for a while, I've always had a safety net (either my mother or the university food service). Now I'm on my own - let the adventure begin!

I didn't do a whole lot of innovative cooking in my first two weeks here because I was still settling in, but now that I've got things pretty much in order, it's time to start testing my culinary wings. You can see the results of my first endeavor at the right. Because I have a ridiculous and admittedly pretentious love of fancy French names for my culinary concoctions (even if I have to make them up, as I did this one), I've named this one Poulet à l’Orient (which translates, for those readers who don't speak French, as Oriental or Eastern Chicken). Here's what I did:

Preparation

I took a quarter of a mid-sized Spanish onion and stuck it in my mini food processor, and once it was finely chopped, threw in two cloves of garlic and did the same. Then I put half a cup of rice on the stove (no not directly onto the stovetop, you cheeky bugger - in a little pot with some water) and defrosted a chicken breast in the microwave. I put the onions and garlic in a frying pan and sautéed them while I cut up the chicken. Then I threw in the chicken and, on impulse, added some frozen beans (French cut). I sauteed the whole thing, then spooned it onto a bed of rice and voila, a meal. But how good was it? (Please forgive the pretension below - I'm imitating Iron Chef.)

Rating

Presentation: 4 of 5
The physical presence is adequate, good symmetry, very solid, wholesome feel. But the onion look slightly burned, which is distasteful, and the colors are somewhat dull.
How to Improve: Don't chop the onion as finely, and the pieces won't burn; it doesn't need to be cooked as long either. Consider fresh beans instead of frozen and add them later (or cook them separately and add them right at the end) for a more vibrant color.

Taste: 7 of 10
The chicken was quite tender, which is good, but lacks independent flavor beyond that of chicken, which is quite mild. The same goes for the rice. The primary flavor element here is the garlic/onion sauté, which is a bit salty and dominates the rest of the dish. It's not dominant to the point of unpleasant, but it does blot out the other elements fairly effectively. I couldn't even taste the beans, for example.
How to Improve: Less onion may reduce the salty flavor, though fewer larger pieces, as noted above, will keep them from burning, which may reduce the salty taste as well. Season the chicken before or immediately after moving it to the frying pan with something appropriate - simple black pepper, or perhaps a more Asian spice, like curry. Put something in the rice, too - a little salt, maybe a little olive oil.

Health: 4 of 5
The vegetables are, without doubt, secondary as far as nutrition is concerned, and the rice is nothing but a carbohydrate. But the chicken was a healthy choice, and none of the ingredients were mixes, artificial powders, or pre-prepared.
How to Improve: A higher ratio of vegetables to meat and carbs will make this dish healthier; consider removing the chicken and going vegetarian altogether (in fact, if you remove the chicken but keep everything else the same, this dish is actually vegan).

Ingenuity, Creativity, and Thrift: 4 of 5
It's not revolutionary, but I seldom cook Asian inspired dishes, and while I didn't intend for this to be quasi-Asian, it turned out that way and I'm not unhappy about it (hooray for broadening horizons), so it's a step in the right experimental direction. Not hugely creative either, but the sudden inspiration to throw in some beans was a good one. Thrift? Not bad - a half-cup of rice can't be worth more than 25 cents, a quarter of an onion (54 cents/lb., one 1/2lb. onion for 26 cents, and 1/4 of that makes a mere 7 cents), two lobes of a clove of garlic for probably 20 cents, a handful of frozen beans (at 99 cents/package) no more than 10 cents - the only even remotely pricey thing was the chicken breast, which probably cost a dollar. So a full meal for under two dollars - now that's nothing to be ashamed of!
How to Improve: Removing the chicken makes this dish even cheaper, but that's not imperative. Try some more revolutionary combinations of ingredients (add water chestnuts for additional Asian points, or give it a Mediterranean feel with fresh basil, chopped cherry or grape tomatoes, and some oregano). Consider ginger, curry, and chilis.

Overall: 19 of 25 (B+)
Not bad for an experiment - it can be made better, but it's a solid start. My next task is to master the oven - as gas oven with no way of telling me when it's preheated. Still, I won't go for ten months without baking cookies, not when I've got my own kitchen. Will keep you posted - stay tuned for more Culinary Adventures!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

I haven't written in a bit because I've been a bit busy getting my *ss kicked by calculus, but I thought I'd take a moment to share the photo at left. Spontaneous art deserves an explanation, methinks.

This is an impromptu map of the Hyde Park neighborhood I made when two friends came over and wanted to know where I was in relation to various other important locations. This is what I came up with, using common household objects and one of my guests' shoes.

The muffin tins represent Washington Park, which is the western limit of the Hyde Park neighborhood. West of the park things go downhill pretty fast - bombed-out inner city, essentially. The Pyrex baking dish to the southeast is Jackson Park, which is on the lake. The Museum of Science and Industry is located at the park's north end, and housed in one of the few remaining buildings from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (the World's Colombian Exposition, about which Erik Larson's excellent historical novel The Devil in the White City is written). The shoe represents the University of Chicago's "Midway Plaisance," which was the midway at the World's Fair. Now it's just open green space. The University occupies space on both the north and south sides of the midway, but the majority of it is on the north side, and is represnted by the ceramic-tile trivet (the square thing in the middle of the photo).

Now, the empty salt and pepper shakers were originally supposed to represent my apartment (the left one) and the Metra stop (the right one), but upon reflection I realized that I'm not that close to the university ( I would be if you removed the four northeastern-most tiles of the trivet, though). Otherwise, the leftmost shaker could actually represent my church (which deserves a blog entry of its own) and the rightmost shaker my apartment, provided you can mentally move the rightmost shaker up (north) about an inch.

Now, the only thing that's missing is a scale. I don't know precise measurements, but I do know that from my apartment to the center of the university is a one-mile walk (not as the crow flies, but as the student walks). So although I say neighborhood, not everything is just down the street. That's true of shopping, but not of the university. And now - thanks to cookware and a good friend's shoe - you know!

Wire, Wire, Pants On Fire

Q: How many AT&T personnel does it take to install an internet connection?

A: It depends. If you believe their propaganda, you shouldn't need any personnel at all - you can do it yourself!

Q: Is that true?

A: Maybe for wireless, but for a DSL connection - well, what does "wire, wire, pants on fire" mean to you?

Let me explain. You'll recall, two posts back, my jubilant announcement that I had finally gotten an internet connection and would post to this blog soon (which I did - incidentally,the Geranium is glad to sign autographs if you're willing to come pick them up in person). I'm afraid I oversimplified, in the hopes that the troubles I had had were temporary. Now, however, it's time for full disclosure.

Monday, 23 August - After my parents help me unload everything, get it in the apartment, and have left, I walk to the AT&T store on 53rd, just two blocks away, and set up my internet with a friendly agent (AT&T personnel #1). I get $10 off my service per month because I'm an AT&T phone customer already. Great! Everything goes fine until she tells me I won't get service until next week Monday (the 31st). You mean I have to wait a whole week for my internet? But there's no way around it, so I grind my teeth and accept it.

Friday, 28 August - After failing to deliver my modem on the first try (sometime between 12 and 3 - I was out of the building doing some grocery shopping), UPS unexpectedly tries again on the same day - around 4-ish, after I have returned, found their notice of attempted delivery slip, and ground my teeth down several centimeters in frustration. Much to my shock - I expected that I'd have to trudge to the Post Office to pick the package up in person - no hitches here. I take the modem upstairs, get the cords and such arranged. But, bear in mind, I have no service until Monday the 31st! So I look at my modem longingly for a while, and then turn on some music and clean things.

Monday, 31 August - According to the packing slip in my modem box, my service will be activated at 8pm - so yes, Monday, but only barely. I spend the day on tenterhooks, and then at 8pm plug everything in, turn it on, and receive...no signal. I unplug, replug, ascertain that everything is securely where it needs to be, restart the computer several times, pray, etc. Nothing. So I call Tech Support (AT&T personnel #2), and after an hour on the phone, we manage to determine that there's a service outage, and that's why nothing is working. So I set up my account on the phone and wait for service to be resumed, which it is, but only after an hour on the phone. Tech Support Guy expresses his relief, and promises to call me back the next day to make sure everything's OK.

Tuesday, 1 September - Tech Support Guy calls back this evening (AT&T personnel #2 again) and I confirm that the internet is indeed working. Excellent, I think - everything should be fine now. Ha.

Wednesday, 2 September - Math Camp begins today (more on that later) - and I walk home for lunch, thinking I'll read the BBC over my sandwich. But my connection is gone. OK, I think, perhaps it's just because the computer went to sleep and lost the connection - I'll restart it once I have time in the afternoon (after classes are done). So I do, and I can't get a signal. Uncertain what to do next, I call Tech Support (AT&T personnel #3), and the lady on the other end, after confirming that there is no outage, advises me to restart my modem as well as my computer. After untangling the spaghetti of cords, I do so, and the connection is restored. Excellent, just a blip, right?

Thursday, 3 September - Happy Birthday to my little sister. No internet problems today. Everything is solved, I think. Calm before the storm, Fate says to herself with a smirk.

Friday, 4 September - Half-day for Math class today, so I go home, have lunch, and decide to cruise the net a bit for entertainment. But I have no connection. So I figure I'll just do what I was told by Tech Support on Wednesday, and that should solve the problem. But it doesn't. I re-read the troubleshooting guide, restart this and that, unplug, replug, and finally give up. So I call Tech Support (AT&T personnel #4) and, after several tests (no service outage in my area), tells me that he'll send a report to the Maintenance folks, and they'll do some tests from the office. If that doesn't resolve the problem, they'll call me via their automated system and tell me. This does, in fact, come to pass, and the robot/computer on the other end explains that they may need to send someone to look at my physical hookup, but they'll call and let me know if that needs to happen.

Saturday, 5 September today) - At 8:55am, at which time I would not normally be awake, but I was today because I had someone spend the night, AT&T calls. A technician (AT&T personnel #5) is on his way and will be at my building in about a half hour to look at things. Grateful that my guest has just left, I grab a hasty breakfast, make the apartment presentable, and do some dishes. The technician arrives, and after much (two and a half hours of) investigation of the phone jack in my apartment, the central hub box in the hallway, and the box out in the alley in back, determines that the wire (circa 1950 - shown above) is faulty. He replaces it, and promises to have the central office direct my signal through a slightly different route that avoids the faulty wires he's found outside. Just wait a few hours and everything will be resolved. Bless him, he overestimated - I have internet by noon.

[Here I will insert a completely irrelevant but very interesting observation - of all the service people I've dealt with in the past week, not a single one was European-American, but rather, African-, Middle-Eastern-, and South Asian-Americans. Fascinating.]

So are my internet problems solved? I should certainly hope so. Only time will tell, and I'll keep you posted - provided, of course, that I can get a connection.

A Flower Blooms in Hyde Park

Very obligingly, my geranium decided to bloom and has sent out not one but two flowers since my relocation. I take it as a sign that although this new life I've set myself up for is different from anything I've ever experienced, some things - like the happiness you feel when flowers bloom - will always stay the same.

For those of you who aren't acquainted with my geranium, we go way back - to the beginning of my junior year as an undergrad, as a matter of fact (OK, so that's only two and a half years, but considering that most people can kill a plant - even a geranium - inside a month, I think it's pretty good). I had just returned from the relatively mild December of southern Germany into the teeth of one of the fiercest Wisconsin winters I've ever experienced. My mother, who knows that I don't really like winter, gave me a geranium for my broom-closet - I mean, dorm room - and we've been together ever since. I take care of it, and it takes care of me.

We have not always been on terribly good terms, I must admit. During spring break of my senior year I left the geranium in my dorm while I went off to Virginia and came back to find that the poor thing had been steamed to within an inch of its life. It had dropped half of its leaves, and dropped more in the week after I returned, each one crisp with reproach, as though to say "You left me, without companionship (or, more importantly, water), for more than a week, during which I pined away and dropped half my leaves, because I simply couldn't go on. And now I'm going to be fragile and sickly, and drop more leaves, to make sure you never leave me again."

What can I say? Botanical coercion works. We haven't been parted since.

The geranium is not alone in my apartment (I'll introduce you to the other plants at some later date). Unlike my other plants, however, it has resisted naming ferociously since day one, as I can't bear to call any living thing "Gerry." Another name has not been forthcoming, so mostly I just call it the geranium. Though perhaps, out of respect for its preeminent position among my plants, I should begin calling it the Geranium, capital G, instead. Thoughts?