A tweet you can eat

Welcome to the stage, tonight's guest blogger: Anna Gorohoff!

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Always looking to expand my dinner repertoire, I recently started following MaureenEvans on twitter. Ms. Evans rose to twitter fame in 2009 after becoming the Internet’s first “tiny cook”. She tweets out full recipes using only the given 140 characters. Not an easy task. But an even harder challenge, decoding those tweetcipes (my word, not hers).

Her tweetcipes range from everyday standards:

Pancakes: Melt3T buttr&brsug/c milk/3yolk. Whip3white. Sift2c flr/T bkgpdr/½t salt&soda&cinn. Fold all; +to grsdpan@med. Flip when bubbling.

To Google-worthy international dishes (at least for me):

Bisara: Brwn 6garlc/¼c oil; boil+c parsly&soakd fava/5c h2o/t cumin&paprka&chili&salt. Cvr,simmr h@low. Puree+lem. Top+olvoil&paprka&cumin.

Inspired by Madgespace’s can do approach to life, I’ve decided to attempt one of these recipe puzzles. Since I’m prone to cheating, I set a few simple ground rules for myself.

1. Can't be something I’ve ever made before
2. No Google searches, image or otherwise
3. Must have all ingredients on hand (more laziness, but we’ll call it a rule)

The first recipe I found fitting my requirements was the Skillet Pot Pie. I haven’t dined on pot pie in years and I’m sure I’ve never made one.

Here’s the tweetcipe:

Skillet Pot Pie: Brwn,rmv 6c veg/T oil. Brwn 3T buttr&flr; whisk+c stock&milk/T lem/t thyme&s+p. Mix all/4c cookdmeat; top+pastry. 30m@400F.

Hmmmmm . . . . let the decoding begin!

Step 1: Pick out hidden and missing items. In this tweetcipe 4c cookdmeat; top+pastry caught my eye. I precooked and diced chicken breasts and prepared a puff pastry top. Note, the ratio of butter to flour in a puff pastry is nearly 1:1 – so you’ve been warned. This is rich.

Step 2: Brwn,rmv 6c veg/T oil = Brown 6 cups of veggies in 1 Tbsp oil, remove. I used onions, purple and orange carrots, and peas.

Step 3: Brwn 3T buttr&flr; whisk+c stock&milk/T lem/t thyme&s+p = Brown 3 Tbsp of butter with 3 Tbsp of flour. Whisk in 1 cup chicken stock and 1 cup milk. Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp thyme, salt and pepper.

Step 4: Mix all/4c cookdmeat; top+pastry. 30m@400F = Add veggies and cooked chicken back into the skillet. Top with puff pastry sheet. Cook at 400 degrees F for 30 min.

All in all, this was a pretty straightforward recipe. It took me about an hour to prep and cook not counting a quick latte and nursing break with my lovely sous chef. 

While it wasn’t the most beautiful dish I’ve ever made, it was tasty (all that butter!) and surprisingly really fun to make. It turns out it’s pretty delightful to cook without a strict recipe. I liked picking my own veggies (aka – whats in my fridge), not following dictated cooking times (you’ll know when the sauce thickens, just watch it), and making decisions based on tasting the food rather than known amounts. You feel quite footloose and fancy free!

My next challenge: pick a tweetcipe for a dish I’ve never heard of. Then we’ll really see how well my decoding skills are!

LYMI

Anna

No Food in the House

Oy vey. Life has been busy!

From weddings to 60th birthday parties to rubbing anti-chafe gel on Andy's buttox, my weekends seem to vanish quicker than a 6-inch sub from Subway (always order a foot-long).

I even recorded a podcast during the drive back from Birmingham on Sunday (patting myself on the back for the efficient use of time)!

Andy and I got back to the flat around 7, exhausted and hungry. But - surprise surprise - there was no food in the house! A common Sunday night problem made worse by the fact that we were fresh off a long, tiring road trip.

By the time I realised the cupboards were empty, I was already in my bathrobe and there was no way in H I was going to put my clothes BACK ON and make the trek to Tesco. Instead, I decided to get creative.

My cousin Carly and my sister Anna often showcase their skills in the kitchen, so I figured it's time I follow suit. Using the few remaining ingredients in the flat, I made cheesy pasta, cheese biscuits and sausages (the sausages were for Andy, who is a carnivore).

WARNING - this meal was not healthy. It also wasn't very good. BUT, it was easy. Quickbread (aka any bread that uses baking powder, not yeast, to rise) is always a solid last resort when there's no food in the house. The same goes for cheese sauce. To make a tasty cheese sauce, you just put a chunk of butter in a sauce pan and add a few spoonfuls of flour and some seasoning. Once that's all mixed together, you pour in a glass or two of milk, grate in some cheese and stir.

One more thing - throw on an apron! You'll love yourself for it. Even if you're just making different variations of cheese and flour, an apron will make you feel like a domestic diva.

If you're ever wanting to make something only from the ingredients you already have, I recommend Supercook.com. It lets you enter what you have and suggests recipes based on that. I use it all the time.

What do you manage to cook up when there's no food in the house?

Cheers,
Margie

P.S. I need new running shoes, but I can't afford to buy any. Do you think there's anyway a shoe shop will give me a pair for free if I review them on my blog?