Favorite Dishes: The Cooking Thread

[keltheimpossible]

I don't post here much anymore. I'm busy. Food-related: I'm working on 2 cookbooks (handwritten for friends).  Neither know how to cook. The carnivore will get recipes containing meat, though I will of course encourage him to consider where he sources his meat and to make intentional choices about ethical treatment of both the animals and those who process  them. (Which  means buying local, as much as possible.) The other, a vegan cookbook, has been getting notice from local ppl who write or call or send other smoke signals to indicate THEY WANT A COPY.  I'll have to decide how to do this, coz only these two folks are getting handwritten books! Plus, I'm supplementing each of these with detailed email support.  My way of thinking: teach them to COOK , and they gain a world; give them recipes only, and I've failed as a teacher/chef! 

[WalkingBetweentheLines]

keltheimpossible said:

 I'll have to decide how to do this, coz only these two folks are getting handwritten books! Plus, I'm supplementing each of these with detailed email support.  My way of thinking: teach them to COOK , and they gain a world; give them recipes only, and I've failed as a teacher/chef! 

This sounds like a great adventure. 

Here's a potential solution for the copies. Get a high quality photocopy. That way they still get the handwritten look without the handwritten effort. 

Detailed email support could also translate into a blog instead where everyone gets the benefit of the advise you offer without having tonsend everyone personal email. Of course, your friends can still get the personal emails. I just mean that you can take what you send your friends, filter out the details that can't apply to others and recycle it into a blog post for everyone else. Just supply the blog link in the book. If they have questions, they can ask in the comments and you can answer at your leisure if you provide a comment section at all.

Hope this gives you ideas

[keltheimpossible]

Oh, no. I am NEVER doing a cooking blog! In my current blog (mainly my poetry but occasionally other things), I wrote a post about cooking blogs, lol.  It was, ahem, not complimentary. Many, not all, seem to written by people who are cut from the same cloth: They are women, look Insta-perfect with Insta-perfect kitchens. Most importantly, the recipes they offer are usually...not very good, esp those who are writing for the niche audience of gluten-free vegetarians/vegans.  And I really don't need to wade through chatty details of their Insta-perfect life to get to various details for said recipes. Ugh.

Deep breath. Rant over.  I had considered the photocopy option. This will be a pain in the ya-ya, but you are correct, it is the best option. And these will be GIVEN to folks, mind you. I do not monetize any of my work, be it writing about cooking OR my poetry. (No judgments on those who do so. Just my path.)

[keltheimpossible]

I apologize. You didn't ask to hear this. Sigh. Perhaps you know of sites that have cooking blogs written for people who genuinely LIKE to cook? And  appreciate the art and craft of cooking? I still am uninterested in starting such but do enjoy very much reading about cooking and food. Just...the effort to sort through the dross to get to the gold? Sometimes really frustrating.  

The closest I came to this was almost becoming an admin/mod for a very active (at the time) cooking thread on a different platform. But , like I told those who requested I do so, my time and energy are limited. 

But thank you for your suggestions. Very kind of you. 

[keltheimpossible]

Today's lunch was pretty basic:   Vegan barbequed lentils and brown rice.  FAIRLY decent, esp. since I subbed Swad's Hot & Sweet Sauce for the ketchup, forwent the sugar for some sorghum molasses, and used short-grain brown rice. However, next time I won't be as lazy and use store-bought chili powder. Too harsh. My chili  powder is much better but I ran out a few dishes ago.  I served this with a salad of local greens with a homemade  garlicky lemon tahini dressing (salad not pictured). 

[keltheimpossible]

This is a GREAT favorite on Mayhem Baking & Tea Company's route. (That's ME, lol.) It is TEA-INFUSED granola! GF with cranberries, pecans, coconut flakes and hemp hearts. And I'll occasionally throw in some dark chocolate chips. 

[keltheimpossible]

This banana bread is giving the granola a run in the popularity contest! It is GF, sugarfree, and dairy-free. (Not vegan b/c it does contain egg.) I made the flour blend myself and sweetened it with date-paste. The date paste was entirely a labor love, b/c I hand-juiced ~ 15 mandarins to make that. But the results were evidently worth it, b/c one person (the couple for whom I made it primarily-other assorted folks also got some) named it "Better Than Sex Banana Bread!" 

I don't eat sweets anymore, not even my own. So I really  have no opinion. HA!

[WalkingBetweentheLines]

keltheimpossible said:

I apologize. You didn't ask to hear this.

No problem. I didn't take it any kind of way. I didn't really mean a food blog though. You mentioned email support, and I was suggesting a blog site (you can put anything on a blog) as a means of delivering that information without having to send multiple people a personal email. It could even be a message board rather than a blog.

Ex: Sarah has a food allergy and needs a substitute. Take the info you provided Sarah and publish to your site/blog/message board/group email and others can benefit from the same info even if they don't have the same allergy. You never know when they may be short an ingredient and need a quick replacement or if they might have a guest with a similar allergy. You also can help more people without over extending yourself. You could even post the photocopied recipe book so that when people ask about it, you can just send a link. 

Google Drive is even more simole. You can upload the file and make the sharing view only. Leave the end of the recipe book for additions taken directly from your support email. You can literally copy paste. Or don't update at all. It's still an easy way to share the file.

Lol sorry. I let things like this take me away. I'm absolutely not offended if you don't want to do any of this.