Entry tags:
Storm prep
The weather is predicted to dip below freezing on Saturday and not come over it again til Wednesday, with potential snow on Monday. I'm prepping for the worst, and given that this is Texas, the worst means frozen pipes, broken water mains and rolling blackouts. We’re close enough to medical districts that I don’t anticipate losing power for more than a few hours at a time, but still assuming we might Just In Case.
We'll be filling a tub for flushing purposes (in case of water main break; we've never had those pipes freeze), and filling our emergency plastic containers with water. We’re washing clothes and towels so we're set for a week or more, and we've bought a bucket of ice melt. The latter is so we can clear half the driveway of ice to get one car out in case of emergency.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
myrialux fell on ice in our drive and bruised a rib last year, and our driveway is ridiculously steep. I figure better living through chemistry in this case.
I still have little to no sense of taste. Garlic is still gone, alas, but I could smell lemon and can taste balsamic vinegar, so I chose well in my selection of make-ahead, little-to-no-cooking-required recipes.
I've got a recipe tweaked from Black Beans and Tomatoes in Balsamic, here: https://www.food.com/recipe/black-beans-and-tomatoes-in-balsamic-162408
My changes are to double the beans, because otherwise it’s a tomato salad and not a bean salad, to add a tablespoon of olive oil because otherwise the flavorings just run off the beans and collect in the bottom of the bowl, to add salt and pepper because IT NEEDS THEM, and finally to add lemon or lime juice, because while the vinegars give it bite, it lacks freshness. The tomatoes lose the freshness after being soaked in vinegar but citrus brings it back.
I also have baked bacon, so we can grab it and add it to anything that needs umami and crispiness. I can’t smell it at all or taste anything other than salt. Argh!
And then there’s White Beans and Tuna: https://www.food.com/recipe/white-bean-tuna-salad-102111. Similar ingredients to the other dish, also with me adding lemon juice and salt/pepper, but given that I can, at the moment, TASTE lemon and balsamic, I don’t care that it’s similar.
I’ve also got ingredients to make a Japanese potato salad recipe from a book called Real Bento:
Tangy Potato Salad
★★★★
30 minutes or less, Japanese, Lunch, Potatoes, Salads, Sides
Total Time: 15 min Servings: 4 (Scaled 4x) Source: Real Bento, p 49
Ingredients
4 medium potato
12 green beans
4 Tbsp mayo
4 tsp yukari shiso salt or Crazy Salt (see note)
Directions
1. Peel the potato and cut into bite-size pieces. Rinse briefly. Remove the strings and cut both ends off the green beans, and cut into ¾ inch (2 cm) lengths. Put the potato and green beans in a microwave-safe container and cover loosely with cling film. Microwave on the high setting for about 2½ minutes.
2. When a bamboo skewer goes through the potato easily, add the mayo and yukari and mix well.
Notes
* You can use sugar snap peas or green bell pepper instead of the green beans. Since they're just added for color, you can leave out the green vegetables if you want.
Crazy Salt is a Japanese herby salt condiment. See recipe in Paprika for a copycat, or just use garlic salt in MUCH SMALLER quantity.
Our notes: Good! Green beans didnt add much but color; the recipe note above was correct!
The recipe I used for the seasoning salt is here: https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/crazy-salt/
I won’t bother with the green beans as they didn’t add anything and I can’t taste them anyway, and will probably simmer the potatoes instead of nuking them. The cookbook is aimed at parents prepping bento for their kids, so full of shortcuts.
The final recipes I’ve picked out are sandwiches. One's a very simple classic Parisian Jambon-Beurre, three ingredients (ham, butter, bread) and you can find the recipe here: https://saltandwind.com/classic-jambon-beurre-sandwich-recipe/
The other is one I haven’t tried before, and I have ZERO intention of using kale, even though I probably can’t taste it now, becausemyrialux hates it, too. The plan is to dress lettuce in the vinaigrette right before eating. Make-Ahead Salami Sandwich with White Bean Spread and Kale Slaw: https://www.seriouseats.com/lunch-box-make-ahead-salami-sub-white-bean-spread-kale-slaw-recipe
There’s also various sandwich makings so we can default to those.
I also bought fresh basil and can’t for the life of me remember why. I can juuuust barely get a fresh herby smell when it’s crushed so I should make sure I’ve got a recipe in reserve for it. We've got plenty of tomatoes, but when the potential for frozen or broken water pipes exists, my lactose-intolerant self stays the fuck away from cheese, for reasons I trust are obvious!
We'll be filling a tub for flushing purposes (in case of water main break; we've never had those pipes freeze), and filling our emergency plastic containers with water. We’re washing clothes and towels so we're set for a week or more, and we've bought a bucket of ice melt. The latter is so we can clear half the driveway of ice to get one car out in case of emergency.
myrialux fell on ice in our drive and bruised a rib last year, and our driveway is ridiculously steep. I figure better living through chemistry in this case.I still have little to no sense of taste. Garlic is still gone, alas, but I could smell lemon and can taste balsamic vinegar, so I chose well in my selection of make-ahead, little-to-no-cooking-required recipes.
I've got a recipe tweaked from Black Beans and Tomatoes in Balsamic, here: https://www.food.com/recipe/black-beans-and-tomatoes-in-balsamic-162408
My changes are to double the beans, because otherwise it’s a tomato salad and not a bean salad, to add a tablespoon of olive oil because otherwise the flavorings just run off the beans and collect in the bottom of the bowl, to add salt and pepper because IT NEEDS THEM, and finally to add lemon or lime juice, because while the vinegars give it bite, it lacks freshness. The tomatoes lose the freshness after being soaked in vinegar but citrus brings it back.
I also have baked bacon, so we can grab it and add it to anything that needs umami and crispiness. I can’t smell it at all or taste anything other than salt. Argh!
And then there’s White Beans and Tuna: https://www.food.com/recipe/white-bean-tuna-salad-102111. Similar ingredients to the other dish, also with me adding lemon juice and salt/pepper, but given that I can, at the moment, TASTE lemon and balsamic, I don’t care that it’s similar.
I’ve also got ingredients to make a Japanese potato salad recipe from a book called Real Bento:
Tangy Potato Salad
★★★★
30 minutes or less, Japanese, Lunch, Potatoes, Salads, Sides
Total Time: 15 min Servings: 4 (Scaled 4x) Source: Real Bento, p 49
Ingredients
4 medium potato
12 green beans
4 Tbsp mayo
4 tsp yukari shiso salt or Crazy Salt (see note)
Directions
1. Peel the potato and cut into bite-size pieces. Rinse briefly. Remove the strings and cut both ends off the green beans, and cut into ¾ inch (2 cm) lengths. Put the potato and green beans in a microwave-safe container and cover loosely with cling film. Microwave on the high setting for about 2½ minutes.
2. When a bamboo skewer goes through the potato easily, add the mayo and yukari and mix well.
Notes
* You can use sugar snap peas or green bell pepper instead of the green beans. Since they're just added for color, you can leave out the green vegetables if you want.
Crazy Salt is a Japanese herby salt condiment. See recipe in Paprika for a copycat, or just use garlic salt in MUCH SMALLER quantity.
Our notes: Good! Green beans didnt add much but color; the recipe note above was correct!
The recipe I used for the seasoning salt is here: https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/crazy-salt/
I won’t bother with the green beans as they didn’t add anything and I can’t taste them anyway, and will probably simmer the potatoes instead of nuking them. The cookbook is aimed at parents prepping bento for their kids, so full of shortcuts.
The final recipes I’ve picked out are sandwiches. One's a very simple classic Parisian Jambon-Beurre, three ingredients (ham, butter, bread) and you can find the recipe here: https://saltandwind.com/classic-jambon-beurre-sandwich-recipe/
The other is one I haven’t tried before, and I have ZERO intention of using kale, even though I probably can’t taste it now, because
myrialux hates it, too. The plan is to dress lettuce in the vinaigrette right before eating. Make-Ahead Salami Sandwich with White Bean Spread and Kale Slaw: https://www.seriouseats.com/lunch-box-make-ahead-salami-sub-white-bean-spread-kale-slaw-recipeThere’s also various sandwich makings so we can default to those.
I also bought fresh basil and can’t for the life of me remember why. I can juuuust barely get a fresh herby smell when it’s crushed so I should make sure I’ve got a recipe in reserve for it. We've got plenty of tomatoes, but when the potential for frozen or broken water pipes exists, my lactose-intolerant self stays the fuck away from cheese, for reasons I trust are obvious!