And so I qualify as an old fart. With the move back to
Riverside, I’ve been taking the train to work everyday, prying myself out of
bed between 5am (early train), 6am (later train) and once, 6:30am (&*#%@\^$
I missed the train…!). This means, however, that once out of bed, I can no
longer convince myself that falling back asleep is an option. This is helpful
for normal days when I need to survive until 6:37pm (train is back in
Riverside), not so great for sick days such as today.
Thing is, Bossman and Bosslady have been coughing around the
office for 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago, I was sick with a sore throat and general misery, but the symptoms were
different. I can only guess how it spread.
In any case, the
past couple of weeks have been a comedy of errors, complete with packing
miscalculations, missed trains and illness and injury. Things learned this past
fortnight:
- Do not try to pack and move everything you own within a single day.
- 12-ft trucks are inadequate for the contents of a 1-bedroom apartment.
- A single friend to help you move, no matter how dedicated (you’re awesome, and I probably owe you more Brazilian cheese bread), is probably similarly inadequate.
- Perhaps moving the day after a particularly intense, full day of karate seminar, Instructor Training and your moving buddy’s black belt exam is not the best idea.
- Shifting your sleep schedule several hours earlier is difficult.
- Moving until 2am and waking up at 5am to get to work via a completely new transportation system will lead to errors in judgment.
- Santa Ana is incredibly bike-unfriendly.
- Sometimes, bike lanes are a ludicrous length, or lack thereof. Record goes to the one on Grand Avenue that is about 100 feet long.
- Riding on the sidewalk, with frequent stops for pedestrians/cars pulling out of driveways/extraordinarily narrow sections due to power poles, etc. is surprisingly well-accepted. The alternative is to ride in the road, while cars blow by at 10mph above the speed limit, closer than 3 feet (illegal). See above point.
- The bus will only be on time when you least expect it.
- Biking in the rain and arriving to work more or less soaked is actually a lot faster than taking the bus in the wrong direction for nearly the entire length of the line. Thank you, Google Maps and GPS.
- Karate training will come in handy when you need to sprint all the way from work to the bus stop in a mad dash with your backpack on, because the next bus will miss the late train going home.
- Karate training will be awful when you realize that you are indeed competing this weekend, and indeed, your favorite kata (form) will be off-limits because you have torn the bottom of your right foot from wear and tear. This is a food blog; no further details provided.
- Karate training will continue as regularly scheduled. When you go to bed, your abs will want to know why you are still using them.
- Karate training will result in getting home at 10pm, much improved from 11pm. The slow cooker will be your best friend. My boyfriend is the best slow cooker button-pusher in all of North America.
And with that, I present a soup that is simple, light,
nourishing and very, very cheap, with a bonus of a simple, light, nourishing,
cheap snack or breakfast. Do you see a theme here?
Tomato Cabbage Soup
Ingredients
Small puddle of cooking oil
1 yellow onion
1 head green cabbage
2 14.5-oz. cans chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf
Salt
Black pepper
Water…!
Directions
1. Peel the onion and cut into quarters. I like to cut it in half from root to stem, then turn 90° and cut again from root to stem. This lets me slice the onion into quarter-rings, which are basically small strips.
2. Wash and slice the cabbage. I repeat the onion slicing procedure with the cabbage, since they are both layered vegetables.
3. In a pot big enough to hold all the soup (no slow cooker) or a medium pan (slow cooker!), pour a puddle of oil about the size of your hand. I haven’t found that it makes much of a difference whether your hand is closed, open or you cover the entire bottom of the pan in oil (otherwise known in the food television world as "just a little bit").
4. Add the onion and turn on the fire; the onions will tell you when the oil is hot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are somewhat wilted and translucent.
5. Add the cabbage and cook further, until the cabbage is wilted and there are brown marks on both onions and cabbage. Add a bit of salt here, around a teaspoon or so.
6. If using a slow cooker, now is a good time to transfer all the vegetables to the slow cooker.
7. Add a bay leaf, the cans of tomatoes, and as much water as you like to the soup. I tend to use this water to rinse out the tomato cans, and end up adding between 2 to 3 cans of water to the soup. Season with another teaspoon of salt or two.
8. Cook for at least 30 minutes and up to 10 hours. This recipe is flexible!
9. When the cabbage is soft, salt to taste and add black pepper to taste. Enjoy!
1. Peel the onion and cut into quarters. I like to cut it in half from root to stem, then turn 90° and cut again from root to stem. This lets me slice the onion into quarter-rings, which are basically small strips.
2. Wash and slice the cabbage. I repeat the onion slicing procedure with the cabbage, since they are both layered vegetables.
3. In a pot big enough to hold all the soup (no slow cooker) or a medium pan (slow cooker!), pour a puddle of oil about the size of your hand. I haven’t found that it makes much of a difference whether your hand is closed, open or you cover the entire bottom of the pan in oil (otherwise known in the food television world as "just a little bit").
4. Add the onion and turn on the fire; the onions will tell you when the oil is hot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are somewhat wilted and translucent.
5. Add the cabbage and cook further, until the cabbage is wilted and there are brown marks on both onions and cabbage. Add a bit of salt here, around a teaspoon or so.
6. If using a slow cooker, now is a good time to transfer all the vegetables to the slow cooker.
7. Add a bay leaf, the cans of tomatoes, and as much water as you like to the soup. I tend to use this water to rinse out the tomato cans, and end up adding between 2 to 3 cans of water to the soup. Season with another teaspoon of salt or two.
8. Cook for at least 30 minutes and up to 10 hours. This recipe is flexible!
9. When the cabbage is soft, salt to taste and add black pepper to taste. Enjoy!
This soup reheats spectacularly and keeps very well. My
boyfriend says that it goes particularly well with bread, although I like it
best plain.
Rice with Green Tea
Ingredients
Cooked rice, preferably leftover
Hot water
Green tea bag
Directions
1. Cook the rice, or retrieve last night’s leftover rice that has stuck to the pan.
1. Cook the rice, or retrieve last night’s leftover rice that has stuck to the pan.
2. Boil water, add green tea bag.
3. Add tea to rice. Enjoy!
If you must have measurements…. I think I had ¾ cup cooked
rice to 1 cup hot water, but honestly, the proportions matter very little. Some
people enjoy a lot of tea, some people basically sprinkle their rice with tea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One more note: you may have guessed; this is an excellent way to clean the pan if the rice stuck to the bottom, simply by pouring the tea on top of the stuck rice. In a few minutes, it will be delicious and the pan will have no rice stuck to it.
One more note: you may have guessed; this is an excellent way to clean the pan if the rice stuck to the bottom, simply by pouring the tea on top of the stuck rice. In a few minutes, it will be delicious and the pan will have no rice stuck to it.
