Ataraxia Opposed

There are ups and downs when grocery shopping with N in mind. Swanson, Campbell, Progresso - all of them had some type of soy oil or soy protein in them. Healthy Valley was my savior but 1-2 months ago they too turned on us. They started putting soy protein in their cream of Mushroom and Cream of Celery soups. I had to stop making rice bakes and casserole dishes which had become weekly staple.

I researched several "Cream of" soups until I figured out a ( general template )

So far I've tried celery and asparagus. The flavor is something I have never gotten with canned. After a bowl of each I poured the rest in 12 & 20 oz containers for use in future recipes. Aside from the initial chopping, the work involved with this dish is minimal.

Add 1 more thing I can do from pure scratch!

I've taken to making bacon by the package in the oven of late. It is easier to make, the bacon almost always cooks evenly and is much easier to clean up. Whatever we don't eat immediately gets bagged and tagged in the freezer. However, taking it out of the oven is not for the faint of heart. a pound of bacon makes 1/3 - 2/3 cup of pure rendered lard. One can't escape the thought "This has been deep frying in all that fat"!
So I thought I would try a healthier method. I layered the bacon on a grid cooling rack that fit in a half sheet pan. "Ha," I thought, "The bacon will be suspended from all that grease below!" I'm pretty sure an evil cackle resonated immediately after. It normally takes 10-12 min to make. After 20 there was still no real progress and the ends were charring. So back into the grease they went, bubbly with happiness as they settled in. Four minutes later they were done - deep fried in their own fat, golden, crispy, and ambrosia.
As I drained off pan and dabbed the bacon I thought about how bacon is made on the stove. You are not supposed to drain the fat off until you are done. The chefs call it "lubrication" probably because most cannot bring themselves to face the fact: proper bacon must basically be deep fried.
If this story has ruined your bacon eating, I suggest you come to grips with it. Eat a salad later to make up for it or have the bacon on a salad instead of a cheeseburger. If this story made you a feel a little wiser and hungry, keep in mind that bacon fat is supposed to make wonderful biscuits. :-9

I grew up in Hawaii eating all sorts of Asian and American food. Some of my favorites were typical for a kid: ice cream and pizza. In college I started to cook for myself and my magic ingredient was soy sauce. I put it in everything, even if just a dash. "Soy makes everything better" was my culinary philosophy and catch phrase. My staples were fried rice, shoyu chicken and dressed up Ramen. I was just discovering the beauty of nuts in salad, bread, candy, etc. I swooned at Pad Thai. I discovered peaches - ambrosia incarnate. I could see my culinary future revealed to me and I was very happy. To boot soy, Asian foods and nuts were now touted as "healthy foods". I was so set.

Then I met my future (and now) husband, N. A week into knowing him I discovered that he was allergic to almost all legumes (e.g. soybean, peanuts), nuts, raw drupes - basically everything I had sworn was culinary center. For the 99% of the population that doesn't know what a drupe is look at this Wiki page. Due to not being able to take soybean oil he had never had any Asian foods, and barely ate any biscuits, buns, cakes or bread products in general. Name a food I gushed about up through that time and N physically could not eat it. We could never go to an Asian restaurant together. We would never share Thai takeout or grab a bowl of pho. It was if he breathed nitrogen instead of oxygen - and was allergic to normal air. I thought "this can't work out. I give it a week, month tops".

It is now several years, an LDR and our wedding later and here we are. N doesn't cook. I do and despite all the challenges I do a very descent job. I decided I should start blogging about my/our culinary adventures in hopes to give and get help, support and company anyone out there in the same situation.