Electronic Entertainment

I recently had the startling realization that the way I manage finances is highly influenced by the countless hours I spent in my younger years playing SimCity2000 and Rollercoaster Tycoon. Those two games taught me to balance the management of immediate cashflow and making investments that will pay off in the distant future, long before I would ever consider using the terms "cashflow" and "investment" in my normal vocabulary.

On the other hand, I do regret the thousands of hours I spent being entertained in front of a 15" CRT, when I could have been spending my time developing healthy face-to-face relationships with other people, learning all sorts of fascinating things about the real world, using imagination, and generally being more beneficial to society.

I think that there's a balance to be struck here; I would argue that the right video games in moderation aren't a complete waste of time, and can actually teach more than watching the latest primetime television series. I think mainly you have to be very careful about how much time is spent doing so.

As an aside, I also have the opinion that entertainment that tries too overtly hard to be "educational", generally ISN'T. (See "Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All" for an excruciating example). I'm inclined to think that the above-mentioned games were in fact WAY more educational than reading and math games.

I'll conclude by saying that I've been thinking a lot about how to help foster my children's enthusiasm for learning. I think mostly the key is to just spend time doing things with them. My wife and I have discovered that our children seem to come with a great curiosity about the world around them, and we have the opinion that the key to feeding and developing that curiosity is to spend time with them doing a variety of activities, including reading, cooking, gardening, singing, hiking, camping, and yes, also playing computer games. I think it's all about spending time together, teaching that there are so many fascinating things to explore in this world, and finding a balance.

Saag Paneer in action

This weekend I tried the recipe from my previous post. I don't know where to buy paneer, so my daughter and I made it, following this recipe: www.wikihow.com/Make-Paneer-(Indian-Cheese).

Cooking Saag Paneer

Saag Paneer served with Chicken Tikka Masala and Basmati Rice. Follow that link for the other recipe, but beware that it calls for WAY too much salt, reduce it to about half.

Saag Paneer

I was recently talking to a co-worker about cooking Indian food. His parents are both first-generation immigrants from India. He was impressed that I've tried cooking a couple of dishes, but enlightened me that it doesn't have to take two hours. I asked him about a particular dish that I found on allrecipes.com; he said "too many ingredients..." He indicated that most Indian dishes that he cooks only take about 20 minutes. He gave me this recipe for saag paneer:


(11:08:50 AM) Rahul: step by step
(11:08:56 AM) Rahul: 2 lbs of spinach
(11:09:08 AM) Rahul: wilt the spinach in a pan and pour in blender
(11:09:10 AM) Rahul: including the water
(11:09:19 AM) Rahul: heat oil, 2-3 tbl
(11:09:27 AM) Rahul: heat up 2 cups of onions
(11:09:29 AM) Rahul: and brow
(11:09:30 AM) Rahul: n
(11:09:34 AM) Rahul: brown the onions
(11:09:38 AM) Michael: diced onions? or rings?
(11:09:42 AM) Rahul: diced
(11:09:46 AM) Rahul: smaller the better
(11:09:48 AM) Michael: roger
(11:09:52 AM) Michael: minced even\
(11:09:53 AM) Rahul: 4 cerrano pepers
(11:10:05 AM) Rahul: if you would like, i dice them....since im lazy :)
(11:10:12 AM) Rahul: 4 peppers diced
(11:10:19 AM) Rahul: add to onions after browned
(11:10:27 AM) Rahul: add ginger around 1 tbl spoon
(11:10:34 AM) Rahul: 2 tsp of garam masala
(11:10:38 AM) Rahul: 1/2 tsp tumeric
(11:10:45 AM) Rahul: then 1 tomato diced
(11:10:46 AM) Michael: fresh ginger? or will powder work?
(11:10:54 AM) Rahul: fresh is nicer :)
(11:10:59 AM) Michael: agreed :)
(11:11:11 AM) Rahul: so cook this for about 1-2 minutes and mix
(11:11:13 AM) Rahul: in pot
(11:11:24 AM) Rahul: then pour in the spinach puree
(11:12:17 AM) Rahul: cook for 2 -3 minutes
(11:12:29 AM) Rahul: then you add paneer cubes
(11:12:33 AM) Rahul: and 1tsp of salt
(11:13:04 AM) Rahul: really low heat and cover for however long you want at least 10 minutes so the paneer can soak up the flavor
(11:13:08 AM) Rahul: and thats it you are done
(11:13:17 AM) Rahul: if its too bitter, add some squeezed lemon
(11:13:25 AM) Rahul: it should take about 20 minutes from start to finish
(11:13:31 AM) Rahul: and will feed quite a few people
(11:13:57 AM) Michael: hmmm
(11:14:01 AM) Michael: I like the lemon trick
(11:14:24 AM) Rahul: thats the key to all indian food if its too bitter

Whole Wheat Pancakes

I have to start out by saying that I spent my childhood eating white-flour products, like wonderbread, and even though as a child I ate pancakes cooked from home-made batter, they were generally made with white flour. Later on my mother decided to switch to whole wheat bread, which I wasn't too fond of at first, but grew accustomed to. Later she introduced what we called "blender pancakes", because it involved mixing the ingredients in a blender, including raw wheat. I have fond memories of blender pancakes served with pear sauce, which was puree of pears that we had picked from our own trees, and that mother had canned during the summer.

Now days when I eat white flour products, they just seem to be missing something. They don't take as long to digest, so the meal doesn't "stick" with you as long. Nutritionally, they end up having all of the carbs with hardly any of the good stuff that comes with whole grains.

This isn't the blender pancake recipe, rather it's an adaptation of a pancake recipe that I found in a cookbook. However, I will say that my adaptation has been very much influenced by my mother's pancakes. Also, it's my kids' favorite breakfast.

Without further ado...

• 1 1/2 cups wheat (I use hard red wheat, but any will do)
• 1/3 cup powdered milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups water (adjust according to how thick you want the batter)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil

1. Preheat a skillet or griddle to 375 F.
2. Grind the wheat :) (It actually ends up making more than 1 1/2 cups wheat flour).
   
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a "well" in the middle of the dry ingredients.
4. Mix the liquid ingredients in a medium bowl. Make sure the eggs are thoroughly beaten.
5. Dump the liquid mix into the large bowl with the dry ingredients.
6. Mix until smooth. (I know, every other pancake recipe in the world says your batter should be lumpy, but I mix it smooth).
7. Pour a 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto skillet or griddle.
8. Flip when they start to look dry around the edges (the "wait until the bubbles pop" trick doesn't work so well with whole-wheat pancakes, trust me on this one).
9. Each pancake will be done about a minute after you flip it.
10. Repeat 7-9 until all of your batter is gone.

Makes 4 servings.

Serving suggestion: Stack two pancakes, spread a thin later of sour cream on top, add unsweetened applesauce, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. You might think that sour cream sounds strange, but it doesn't taste sour with the applesauce and cinnamon sugar. Despite the fact that it has "cream" in the name, it has significantly less saturated fat than butter, and doesn't have the transfat found in margarine.

Another nice way to enjoy these pancakes is with almond butter, applesauce, and cinnamon sugar.

Eating healthy

In these days when there is so much controversy over how to eat healthy, it can be hard to separate bad advise from the good. I generally try to find simple, easy-to-follow principles that don't sacrifice how much I enjoy my food. Here's a great article that fits my criteria; if you don't have time to read the entire thing, at least read the first line:

Unhappy Meals

Call before you die

Today I was minding my own business, riding my bike along the streets of Seattle, from the office where I work, to the bus stop, when I looked down and saw a message engraven on a metal knob embedded in the pavement: "Call before you die". Kind of creepy.

Peanut Butter Fudge, Take 1

This last weekend I decided to continue a budding family tradition of making peanut butter fudge. I marched into the kitchen on Saturday night after putting the kids to bed, determined to not leave until I had made peanut butter fudge. I looked up a few recipes in cookbooks, and was presented with the following options:

1. A classic fudge recipe, which involved using a candy thermometer. I didn't have a candy thermometer on hand, and I don't trust my ability to judge when a confection is heated to the soft-ball stage (without the thermometer).
2. A "simple" fudge recipe, which didn't require such precise heating. However, it called for two cups of small marshmallows. I didn't have any marshmallows on hand. However, I did have a jar of marshmallow cream, on which I found the next option...
3. The recipe on the back of the marshmallow cream jar. This recipe was similar to the simple fudge recipe, except it didn't have a peanut butter fudge adaptation, and I didn't want to use the 3/4 cup of butter that it called for.
   

I was already in the zone, so going out and buying something was completely out of the question. It would have interrupted everything. I was ready to make a masterpiece; surely I couldn't let such trivial matters ruin it. Therefore, the only option left was to make up my own recipe.

I decided to use option #2 as the basis for my recipe, since it conveniently had optional instructions to make peanut butter fudge. The base recipe called for 1/2 a cup of butter, the alternate recipe said to substitute 1/2 cup of peanut butter for the butter. I decided to substitute the whole jar of marshmallow cream for the 2 cups of marshmallows, since the other recipe told me to use the whole jar.

It called for one 5 ounce can of evaporated milk. I only had a 12 ounce can, so I altered that part a little bit to be a more round number in relation to the can that I had: 6 fluid ounces, which is 3/4 of a cup.

It also called for 1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces or chopped bittersweet chocolate. I looked up a substitution; the best that I could find effectively said 2 parts cocoa, 1 part butter. Now, you have to understand that butter is a precious resource to me, so I use it sparingly. I thought, "I'm substituting peanut butter for butter in a different part of the recipe, so why not do it for this part?" The decision was made, I would alter the substitution: 2/3 cup of cocoa, 1/3 cup of peanut butter.

Now, I really don't like measuring the same ingredient multiple times; clearly it would be much simpler to just combine the two measures of peanut butter. 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup = 5/6 cup... Hmm... I didn't have a nice way to measure 5/6 cup, so I rounded it up to 1 cup. Badda Bing! My new recipe was born:

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 5-ounce can of evaporated milk
• 6 ounces of evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 2 cups tiny marshmallows
• 1 jar marshmallow cream
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  

1. Line a 8x8-inch baking pan with foil, coat it with non-stick cooking spray
2. Decide to ignore the part in the book that say to butter the sides of a 2 quart sauce pan.
3. Combine the sugar, evaporated milk, and peanut butter in a 2 quart sauce pan, and warm over medium-high heat. Stir with your favorite wooden spoon constantly unless you want ash-flavored fudge.
   
4. Notice that the book says "10 minutes or until boiling", interpret that to mean "until bubbly". When it starts to bubble (at about 6 minutes), lower the heat to medium.
5. Forget to set a timer until after it has cooked for a little longer. Realize that the book said to continue cooking for 6 minutes after lowering the heat. Clumsily use one hand to set the timer to 5 minutes while frantically continuing to stir with the other.
6. Take it off the heat, madly dash around the room collecting and measuring the remaining ingredients (the marshmallow cream, baking cocoa, and vanilla). Stir them in until the marshmallow cream is completely melted.
   
7. Beat it with the spoon until your arm feels like it will fall off, or for one minute.
8. Pour into prepared baking pan, cover, and place in the refrigerator.
   
9. Sample the remainder by licking the wooden spoon and by scraping the sauce pan. Feel proud of yourself that it actually tastes pretty good.

We left it in the refrigerator overnight and checked it the next morning. It actually set up! Well, it wasn't quite as firm as some other fudge that I've had, but come on! At least it holds its shape! The only other thing that I wasn't completely satisfied with is that ... how do I put this? ... Let's just say that the marshmallow flavor isn't quite as subtle as I had hoped. All in all, I think that it turned out quite well considering all of the last-minute alterations that I made. Our two-year-old even gave it her stamp of approval.

I'm going to try again next week. I think that I'll cook it a little bit longer, and maybe I'll use marshmallows instead of the cream. On the other hand, I think I'm onto something with that larger dose of peanut butter...