Mug: No Cook Fruit Oatmeal Treat

This recipe needs a new name.

I could not resist a recipe with the term "No Cook" in the title.

Mug: No Cook Fruit Oatmeal Treat

This recipe is a good example of how recipes evolve. I adapted this recipe from an idea I found on: http://realmomkitchen.com/11339/no-cook-berry-oatmeal/and the author of that recipe adapted her recipe from a recipe from another source.

In most cases, I struggle to make substitutions in recipes. But, various fruit and yogurt combinations seem suited to this recipe. I also try to use what I have on hand.

Ingredients

One 12 oz mug

6 oz of pineapple yogurt or plain yogurt

2/3 cup of oats (about 5 ounces based on an 8 ounce cup)

2.5 tablespoons of pineapple chunks, canned, or other fruit (3/4 ounce)

1.5 tablespoons of pineapple juice or other fruit juice (3/4 ounce)

1/2 banana, sliced (slice banana in the morning)

1 tablespoon peanuts, crushed

honey

Process

Reserve 1 tablespoon of pineapple chunks and banana slices.

Stir remaining ingredients together in mug.

Refrigerator mug overnight.

In the morning, top with additional pineapple chunks, banana slices, nuts, and a drizzle of honey.

Imagine banana slices and a drizzle of honey.

Notes

Yogurt containers vary in size. My yogurt container was 242 grams or about 8.5 ounces, so I had to save about 2.5 ounces.

This is supposed to be a breakfast dish. I found it filling and sweet; I would consider also it a dessert.

Note: because I forgot to put the banana in the ingredients picture or to top off the dish with the slices and a drizzle of honey, my pictures are not accurate.

Minor edit: 9/11/2019

If My Mother Could See Me Now -- Chicken Picadillo -- My Way

My mother was a good cook. I could hardly boil water. But, as I work on this new cookbook, I am tackling more complicated recipes.

I think that mom would have liked this dish.

Adapted from original recipe from Dinners_Cookbook_508-compliant

Ingredients

2 tblspns olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 chicken thighs, if possible remove skin

1/3 cup tomato sauce (no salt)

1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth (use 1/2 cube chicken or vegetable bouillon)

1/3 cup lemon juice or lime juice

1/4 tspn ground cumin

a few raisins

Garnish of choice

Parmesan cheese

Garnish choices: fresh cilantro, capers, green olives, chopped

Process

Gather all the ingredients together.

Make spaghetti or rice, first.

Save the spaghetti water, if possible after draining.

Add olive oil in skillet, set at medium heat.

Add onion, bell peppers, garlic, cook until soft about 5 minutes. Note, I added a little of the spaghetti water to keep the vegetables from burning.

Add chicken, cook for 5-10 minutes until chicken is cooked (no longer pink inside).

Add tomato sauce, broth, lemon juice.

(I used a coffee cup and added the tomato sauce, then the broth using 1/2 a bullion cube and spaghetti water, then the juice of 1/2 a lime and topped it off with more spaghetti water.)

Add cumin and raisins.

Cover, reduce heat to a simmer, cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with rice or spaghetti and black beans.

Add garnish and parmesan cheese.

Notes

I got off to a good start by collecting all the ingredients in the same place. Plus, I started chopping the onion and green pepper as I made the spaghetti.

Unfortunately, my electric stove top seems to have two temperatures, boiling hot and warm.

While I think the dish came out good and I love olives, they were a nice touch, next time, I think I will punch up the curry powder.

But, I am beginning to see a problem. I am making too much food for me to eat, better start calling friends over for lunch or dinner.

My First Dry Bean Dish

As a good tightwad, I should have a repertoire of dry bean dishes. I don’t.

Beans provide fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals and no saturated or trans fat. Also, dry beans are easy to store.

I do like beans but I use canned beans. Also, I have a few crock-pot recipes that call for canned beans, but I don’t have a dry bean recipe.

So, I began a search for a dry bean recipe I could make. In my research, I found two bean soup recipes that have been on the U.S. Senate menu every day for over 100 years and decided to use it as a guide to making my own bean soup.

Here is the original recipe:

The Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup Recipe

2 pounds dried navy beans

four quarts hot water

1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper to taste

Wash the navy beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened.

Place beans into pot with hot water. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally.

Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup.

Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.

Serves 8.

Source: U.S. Senate: Reference Home > Senate Bean Soup http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/bean_soup.htm

Ria Stone’s Bean Soup

Note: Dry beans expand during cooking, so when you choose a quantity of beans to cook, consider the size of your cooking dish. Add enough beans to fill about 1/3 or less of the casserole dish. Also, the type of bean and the length of the soaking time will affect the cooking time.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a kg bag of frijoles (generic Mexican beans), or use navy beans or white beans, rinse and sort -- remove unsightly beans and debris like rocks
• 4 - 12 cups water
• two shakes garlic powder
• two shakes black pepper
• one garlic clove, chopped
• 1/4 can of Spam, chopped

Alternative spices: sage, or rosemary and thyme, or bacon, or ham, or ham bones.

Mexican Frijoles (Beans)

Process:

Put cleaned beans in casserole dish with a lid.

Add four cups of water to cover beans and a little more.

Cover and put in refrigerator overnight.

The next day, season with garlic powder, black pepper and olive oil.

Cover. Microwave 7-10 minutes on high, bring to a boil.

Remove, stir, add two - three more cups of water, return to microwave, cook for 7-10 minutes.

In a saucepan, brown onions and garlic in olive oil, add to beans.

Add Spam.

Cook additional 7 minutes.

Check beans. Stir. Cook for 7 minutes.

The beans are obviously soaking up the liquid because there is very little soup.

Check beans. Add 3 cups water, if needed. Stir.

Check beans. Stir. Cook another 10 minutes.

How do you tell the difference between an undercooked bean and an overcooked bean? Some of the beans seem shriveled, others hard.

Check beans. Add 2 cups water. Stir. Cook for another 10 minutes. The reason for adding water as the beans cook is to avoid having the liquid boiling over and out of the casserole dish.

Check beans. I got it. The beans are full and soft.

Take one cup of beans from casserole dish, mash with a fork and return to casserole dish to thicken soup.

Season to taste.

Remarks

This is a troublesome recipe for me. I am short. The microwave hangs on the wall. It is a reach to put in or take out the casserole dish.

I spilled liquid when I took out or put the casserole dish in the microwave. This is an additional reason why I don’t do dry beans. Too much time, too much trouble.

This dish like many become more flavorful if they are stored in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Note: 1/4 pkg of beans in a medium casserole dish filled the dish 3/4 full.

My future goal is to soak enough beans (less than 1/4 pkg) to make a single or double serving of a bean dish. Also, a smaller casserole dish would make things easier.

The Math

For me, the math of cooking is always a surprising hurdle.

For this recipe I had a kg bag of frijol beans.

The recipe called for 2 pounds of dried beans and 4 quarts of water or one gallon of water.

One kg is roughly 2 pounds. So, I would need a gallon of water for one bag.

1/2 a bag would need 1/2 gallon of water or 2 quarts of water.

I wanted to use 1/4 a bag, so I would need 1 quart of water or 2 pints.

A pint is 32 ounces or 4 (8 ounces) cups of water. So, I would need 8 cups of water. In the end, I used 12 cups of water.

Linotype: The Film

If you are a print addict, this is a Must See documentary.

Using lively interviews with: experienced Linotype typesetters; museum owners and staff; historians; great graphics; and old news clips, director, Douglas Wilson, tells the story of the Linotype, a semi-automated hot-metal typesetting machine that dominated the print industry for almost 100 years.

In February 1890, Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German watchmaker and inventor, introduced the Linotype. Not since Gutenberg invented a printing press that used movable type has an invention had such an impact on the world at that time.

Edison called it the eighth wonder of the world.

A Linotype is a mammoth machine with hundreds of moving parts and uses molten lead. Essentially, the typesetter keys out text, character by character, and the machine has a bank of letter, punctuation, and space molds that fall into place. Molten lead fills the molds to create a solid metal strip that is added together with other strips to create a page of metal type that is taken to a printing press.

Until the invention of the Linotype, creating a page of metal type for print was composed by hand. So, the process could only go as fast as the compositor.

With the introduction of the Linotype, the speed of creating a page of metal type increased. Now, one person could do the work of six. Now, newspapers could print larger editions, multiple editions and could include various articles to attract more readers.

People, now, had inexpensive access to printed material. There was a huge appetite for printed materials, so the number of newspapers and magazines mushroomed.

Literacy rates grew.

Sales of the Linotype boomed around the world.

In the documentary, you will see why Linotype operators were craftspersons and you will see how much they loved their profession and the machine, the Linotype. The joy of typesetting, the beauty of typefaces, the art of creating a line of type became part of thousands of pieces of printed materials.

The introduction of phototypesetting in 1940s spelled the end of hot-metal typesetting. By the 1970s, thousands of Linotype machines were scrapped after being replaced by phototypesetting equipment. Phototypesetting machines were later replaced by publishing software on desktop computers.

Many of the people in the documentary are so passionate about the Linotype, they collect and maintain Linotypes. Some of the people you will meet are a traveling Linotype mechanic who goes to various print shops or museums that still use a Linotype, and a man who bought numerous Linotypes and started The Linotype University on his property alongside six miles of railroad track he built for his train.

As a former phototypesetter in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I had heard of hot-metal typesetting. In my research, I had learned some of what was covered in film, but I never got to see a working Linotype. So, not only did I enjoy seeing a working Linotype in the film, but I also appreciated the depth of information and history, Director Wilson presents.

Director, Douglas Wilson; Cinematographer and Film Editor, Brandon Goodwin; and Sound Technician Jess Heugel have created a comprehensive, fascinating documentary about the man and the machine that revolutionized the print world.

Contact Info:

Linotype: The Film

In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World

2733 E. Battlefield Street, #141

Springfield, MO 65804

USA

linotypefilm@gmail.com

http://www.lineotypefilm.com

Thanks to All Who Downloaded My Free Cookbook

 A "number" of people downloaded my free ebook, Recipes from the Kitchen of a Frugal Non-Cook. Thanks.

I am laughing. I think it's funny. I can't cook.

Plus, when I review that cookbook, I worry that people may set their house on fire because I may have not been clear on the temperature settings for the stove.

I am working on another cookbook for "advanced" non-cooks or something like that -- at least there may be more recipes that don't require boiling water.

But, after seeing these numbers, I think I will add some humorous text to my next cookbook as well.

There is no way I have a future in cookbooks. I just had a breakfast of leftovers and had to force myself to eat some of the lentil dish I made -- I just don't like lentils but I hate to waste food. I have tried to make lentils several times over the years. Maybe I think the taste and texture of lentils will grow on me. Maybe not, just like okra, I will never like okra.

Note: Post updated to remove actual numbers from various outlets due to TOS requirements.

Boomer Cafe -- For Adventure, Write a Book

 Updated 3/14/2020

As a new author, it is still exciting when you see articles about your work.

Today, Boomer Cafe posted my article about writing as an adventure.

http://www.boomercafe.com/2014/01/26/baby-boomers-search-adventure-might-write-book/

This link no longer works.

Here is the text of the article:

Baby boomers in search of adventure might write a book

Have you ever thought about writing a book? As a baby boomer, you might now have the time you never had before. That’s what happened to Ria Stone of Silver Spring, Maryland (and nowadays, Yucatan, Mexico), who turned out not just one book, but two. So her recipe for adventure is, write a book.

1/26/14 10:38 AM

Have you ever thought of writing a book? Has anyone ever said, “You Should Write a Book?” I suggest considering the idea.

Writing a book can be an exciting adventure. It can be hard work, a time of discovery, and an education. It can reap treasured memories, new friends, and introduce you to new worlds.

After being prematurely retired, I moved to Mexico where I found time to appreciate life. After six months, it dawned on me, “I have time to write that novel I always wanted to write.” 

So, in 2011, I began the process. It involved a lot of research but I like to do research. After comparing traditional and self-publishing options, I choose to self-publish as an eBook.

After two years of writing, rewriting, researching, going to writers’ conferences, joining writers’ groups, meeting and chatting with other authors in person and online, and working with an editor and several ‘beta readers,’ I published Gina’s Dream late last year. 

What an adventure! What an education! Because Gina’s Dream was a science- fiction/romance, I went to several science-related websites and studied various aspects of astronomy and space flight.

In other attempts to make the story real, I researched restaurants and their menus so that when my characters went out to eat, the menu choices would be authentic.

I studied weather and seasons, biology, and more.

There were many details to handle, like new software applications I had to learn to use quickly. I would feel a sense of accomplishment when I successfully used a new application or completed a process.

Then, while researching ways to promote my novel, I came across the idea of offering something free on my website: an eCookbook. What a great idea! I had an old cookbook I started years ago. This would be a great time to resurrect it. So I did.

Creating, writing, researching, and formatting recipes for the eCookbook was just as exciting as creating the novel. The only drawback was, I think I gained ten pounds re-testing recipes.

My eCookbook, Recipes from the Kitchen of a Frugal Non-Cook, was written for those (like me) who feel like aliens in the kitchen.

Letting family and friends know about the publication of my eCookbook sparked many wonderful memories of past dishes and meals. My family is even talking about creating a family cookbook. I inspired friends to consider writing that cookbook or novel that they too had been wanting write.

Writing and publishing sparked wonderful conversations and stories. And I met many wonderful people. I learned so much. The experience exceeded my expectations and more.

Creating the eCookbook was so much fun, I am working on another one.