survival, day 4

[aryanhwy]

In an attempt to combat two birds with one stone, boredom/loneliness and the temptation to skip meals or pig out on junk food, I've watched quite a few cooking shows over the last few days and have decided to try my hand at everything that sounds interesting. For supper today I made devilled mushrooms, with a few changes. I put them over egg noodles instead of pasta, and because both google and wikipedia were not especially forthcoming on what chestnut mushrooms are, I used portabella mushrooms instead. In retrospect, I think I would've been better off either cutting the portabellas smaller or going with the kind called "paddenstoelen" in Dutch, which I believe probably are chestnut mushrooms, since they're shaped like button mushrooms except brown. I also used 125 ml of cream instead of 50ml, because the small container of cream the grocery store has is 125 ml, and what am I going to do with 50ml of cream? (Well, other than give it to Slinky. But contrary what some little grey cats might think, Slinky doesn't need to have 50ml of cream. The dribble remaining in the bottom of the container is plenty.) I also went with the entire amount because I wanted to have more of a sauce over my pasta. Overall, I was pretty happy with it (modulo wanting to use a different type of mushroom). Soon after I'd added the cream I tasted it and was a bit disappointed because the worcestershire sauce flavor was almost non-existent. But there was a point when the cream had reduced sufficiently and suddenly the sauce turned brown, and at that point I took it off the heat and it had a nice worcestershire-y flavor. Though I might add 2 tsp instead of 1 next time.

On an unrelated note, I really wish I had a dressmaker's dummy. I don't generally work from patterns, which means for fitting things I get to try them on and pin them up or draw chalk lines on them myself. (I have conscripted Joel a few times, but only for very simple things). It would be so much easier if I had something me-shaped that I could put the shirt/dress top on and do the fitting on it. I wonder where on earth I'd go to find one...

Comments

[katerinfg.livejournal.com]

What you want to do, for a custom dressmaker's dummy, is put on a t-shirt that comes down over your hips and then have someone wrap you in duct tape, covering the entire shirt (and if you can sacrifice a turtleneck, then add that and cover it in tape as well.) Cut the resulting form off of you with scissors, going straight up the back, then tape it back together at the cut and stuff it with newspaper. Voila!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion! Joel's got a few t-shirts that are in need of sacrificing. This now reduces a potentially difficult problem (finding a dress-maker's dummy) to a probably easy problem (purchasing duct tape). Can you believe it, we'd been in Amsterdam for two and a half years, and haven't needed to buy duct tape yet?

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

and what am I going to do with 50ml of cream?
Put some of it into coffee or tea? Use it in oatmeal? In muffins? On cereal?

As for the dressmaker's dummy...You ever consider getting cast?

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I don't drink coffee, find cream in tea (even in chai) just a bit to...creamy, oatmeal is disgusting, and I don't put dairy products of any type on my cereal, I prefer it dry. So, I guess that leaves muffins. :)

I hadn't ever, but I actually know to whom I'd go to find out more. My landlady's daughter and son-in-law are artists, and could probably put me in touch with the right people....Interesting thought!