The Impulsive Kitchen

OK, so Joe Yonan of the Washington Post published this a couple weeks ago in the Food Section .  Joe is a vegetarian, and I have used his recipes before because Joe likes really big flavors.  This recipe appealed to my Southern roots - hello! - Sweet Potato, Collards AND Black Eyed Peas - what's not to like?? Anyhoo, when we tasted this, my beloved said, "It would be perfect with BACON!", which would completely negate my goals of reducing meat consumption, right?  Even though it was true - it was   bland .  I bumped up the salt and pepper amounts and it was better, but still a little boring.  I thought, what about Sriracha?  This made a LOT of soup, so I added probably about a 1/4 cup of the Sriracha to the batch.  It was really good, the Sriracha added the Umami that this soup was missing.  Though, there's no bacon in it, the Sriracha adds a sweet, smokiness that was sorely missing. It's a gorgeous soup, as you can see from the WaPo pic...

So, my spouse and I started this 5-2 diet in January, that started over in England.  The gist is that you subsist for 2 days a weeks on 500 - 600 calories for the day.  Our "fast" days are on Monday and Thursday, because that works well for us both.  I am chief-cook in our marriage, so I thought it would be cool if we went essentially vegan two days a week. Baby-steps, right? The first week was the hardest, but it's gotten much easier every week. Anyhoo...I have been looking for really hearty, but low calorie soup options. I used to love this soup that my Grandmother, we called her Dee-Mama, made back when I was a kid. It was hearty and  comforting.  Dee-Mama's was, most assuredly NOT vegan (I think it either had bacon or sausage in it). So, this is not a family recipe, but it's inspired by one.  This may be too spicy for you with the Chipotle pepper (from Penzey's, by the way), but adjust accordingly. Vegan Cabbage Soup In a large-ish stockpot he...

Next Saturday, we are having a birthday party for a dear friend of ours that is turning 40...she actually turned 40 yesterday, but this weekend is Easter, so everyone had too much to do to schedule it this weekend. The gal's name is Suzanne and she currently works for the State Dept. She made up the guest list and my and my pastor's wife, whom I refer to as Saint Cheryl of Shirlington.  It's going to be about 35 to 45 people...the largest party I have ever thrown. I am going to do a signature cocktail that is based on her with her experiences.  She's fluent in Russian, and spent nearly a year in the former Soviet republic Tajikistan...so of course I am calling it the Suzann-istan. I bought 1.5 liters of 100 proof vodka and placed it in 2 Mason jars, I added dried apricots and 1/2 a vanilla bean, and closed them and set them in a window sill, they are a light orange color right now so something is infusing. I read where pomegranates are a big crop in Tajikist...

Yeah, so about this user profile pic... This was taken in our garage in 2009.  You are no doubt asking yourself, why is that goofy looking bald guy cooking pancakes in a garage? I'll tell you! We did a renovation project in 2009 that took up much of the year...we started in April and moved in, in August.  During this time, we were without a kitchen and I was cooking in my garage.  I made it work, and we didn't resort to going out to eat except for a few times. I had a Microwave oven, a 2-burner cooktop, a rice cooker, a Vitamix Turbu-effing-blender and our grill which also had a side burner. It was an excellent test of my cooking skills and imagination - we didn't use the grill a lot when we finally move back into our renovated space, as we were so sick of char-broiled flesh. I documented the project at renovolutions.blogspot.com and it's still there, I never deleted it. You are welcome to check it out.  It's pretty good if I do say so myself. l8r, Clark

The Corpse Reviver #2 Ingrediants: 1 oz Gin 1 oz Cointreau 1 oz Lillet Blanc 1 oz fresh Lemon Juice 1-2 drops of Absinthe, Pernod or Herbsaint Place all ingredients in a coctail shaker filled with ice and shake for 20 seconds.  Serve without a garnish. The Corpse Reviver #2 (there were apparently several of them), is an old pre-Prohibition cocktail.  There's a warning in an early 20th century bartender guide, that 4 of these imbibed in rapid succession will "un-revive" the corpse.  It was a hair-of-the-dog coctail, must like a Side Car.  I'd read about it for years and decided to give it a whirl on Sunday afternoon, before dinner.   It is essentially a classic Sour recipe, and packs a BIG citrusy punch with the Cointreau and lemon juice. Lillet Blanc is a fortified wine, like a vermouth, from France that is famously an ingredient in James Bond's lethal Vesper Martini.  Lillet Blanc has a bittersweet, syrupy citrusy quality.  ...

Hey, My name's Clark, and welcome to my new blog!  I have had several blogs over the years, one I maintained off-and-on over at livejournal for years, but it was more of a diary, than a life-style journal. The Impulsive Kitchen is going to be more about me and the things that interest me.  It's my blog and I can blog about anything I want right?  Anyway.  I am currently interested in breadbaking, mixology, making liqueurs, and scratch cooking.  We'll see where this goes, and where it takes us...or me, given that I'll probably be the only person that sees many of these posts. So here we go!  First up...