Mimsy Were the Borogoves

I have always liked eggnog! Even the cheap stuff from the grocery store. But fresh homemade eggnog is in a class by itself. It isn’t heavy, like the carton stuff, nor is it heavily spiced, except with alcohol. It is almost a drinkable mousse.

This recipe will be a lot easier if you have a stand mixer to whip the egg whites and a whipped cream maker to make the whipped cream.

For a sharper flavor, add an eighth teaspoon of allspice along with the other spices.

You can easily double or triple this recipe for larger crowds.

Try to use a trustworthy source of eggs. While salmonella almost always lives in the egg yolk, which this recipe lets sit with the alcohol for a few hours, that probably is not enough time to kill any salmonella in the yolk. According to these eggnog researchers it takes several weeks for alcohol to kill salmonella bacteria.

One thing about the office I can’t understand is how many people complain about their lunch, usually a frozen microwave thing that specifically advertises that it doesn’t have much in it. I can understand buying it once and complaining, but continuing to buy it and complain about how bad it tastes? A diet lunch that encourages you to eat out isn’t an effective diet.

The stereotypical home-made diet lunch is the salad, but the home-made salad has a reputation for being unsatisfying. I think the main problem is our tradition that all salads must have lettuce. For a large salad for a bunch of people, lettuce is fine; for a lunch where you only have room in the lunch container for a limited amount of things, lettuce is too fluffy. By leaving the lettuce out, making a salad for lunch doesn’t have to be bland or empty or a dietary sacrifice. It doesn’t have to be a bunch of lettuce, carrots, and maybe a tomato if you’re lucky. A good, filling salad can make use of whatever vegetables you have lying around, some lemon juice, maybe some cooked meat, some canned beans, and something special to spice it up.

For me, the “something special” is, besides the fresh lemon juice, just a touch of miso and some yogurt. This is really a variation on my Miso-yogurt dressing, but instead of making a batch of the dressing I just mix everything together in the lunch container.

The roast chicken I usually use comes frozen, pre-cooked. All I have to do is open the package and toss in a few pieces. But besides roast chicken, I’ll instead often use frozen cooked meatballs. The frozen meats will thaw by the time lunch rolls around. Or, if I make some bacon for supper I’ll make an extra slice or two for the next day’s salad, and then chop or crumble that into the salad.

It doesn’t have to have meat at all. A fresh zucchini, thinly-sliced, is great instead of or in addition to those things, and I’ll often throw in a half-can of sweet corn, olives, garbanzo beans, or black beans. Which can be with or without meat: you really can’t go wrong with garbanzo beans, feta cheese, and bacon.

The other half of the can will wait for the next day’s salad, just like the other half of the lemon and jalapeño.

“Eating around”, mostly in London. I can attest that Annick Garcia Rooney knows her stuff: she spent her formative cooking years in San Diego. “It all started with an overstocked of treacle…”

Every once in a while I get the idea that I should be eating more miso. I enjoy miso soup, but I don’t make it often enough, so the miso ends up sitting in the fridge until I start wondering how long miso lasts in the fridge.

This time, as I was picking up cheap beer from the local Japanese grocery and gazing wistfully at the miso, I decided to start experimenting. It seemed to me that miso ought to make a good salad dressing. I added lemon juice, one of my go-to ingredients, and it was good. It was also over-powering. So I tried mixing it with my other go-to ingredient, yogurt, to mellow it a bit; this is the result.

I mainly use it on salads, preferably ones with some meat in them. Here’s an example from today:

• 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup crimini mushrooms
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup roast chicken
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

To that, I added 3 teaspoons of miso-yogurt dressing and brought it to work. It’s very good, and the dressing itself seems to be better the second day. I’ve also used it on roast chicken sandwiches, and it’s pretty good there, too.

Even with the yogurt it’s a strong flavor, so go easy on it, but it’s a very nice change of pace.

I try to use whole vegetables just to keep things easy, but this recipe doesn’t want a lot of onion or green chili. If you’re using a normal-sized green chili, consider halving it.

I have a feeling this would go well with feta cheese crumbled in. But I ate it as a side with a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich and it was great.

While she has a racial bias towards Italian, Joy Brunetti’s new food blog on examiner.com is worth keeping an eye on. The first three entries discuss Hodad’s, gelato, and the San Diego County (Fry) Fair. Welcome to the blogroll, Joy.

“As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! An Ex-Pat Kama’aina and Friends explore food in San Diego and points beyond.” Kirk and friends include a lot of fine photos to visually tantalize.