Monday, November 26, 2007

zzzzzzz...

As I write this, fatigue has settled behind my eyes, making it difficult to concentrate. The last few weeks on SCD have been a whirlwind.

Something shifted over the past few days, though.

I got home, and Clark was hungry, so I checked out the chicken soup that had been simmering in the crock pot all day. It didn't look right to me, so I let it go. I went into the fridge and brought out leftover chicken salad. I had cooked four pounds of chicken breasts a few days previously and set them in the fridge to chill.

This chicken salad, I have to say, is the food that seems the most normal to me from all the SCD foods we've been eating. Simple and unassuming, made with homemade mayo, I had shredded half the chicken by hand the day before, slowly. I then mixed it with a liberal amount of mayo, finishing it with a sprinkle of sea salt and a few turns of a pepper grinder.

It wasn't easy to get there, though, because I learned that making a delicate emulsification of mayo was, in fact, more delicate than I'd figured.

I added light tasting olive oil to my blender -- too fast. I was in a rush, and that was my fault. The mayo never took, and I ended up throwing an entire cup of precious, costly olive oil into the trash.

I yelled. I was angry. But my anger was not going to magically turn the mayo into anything other than a soupy mess. So I started over, again, and this time, I relaxed. No reason to get tense about it. It had to be done.

Things suddenly felt a bit more manageable, when before everything felt like an obligation. Clark ate it up after it was done, and asked for more. And when I tasted it...ahh. It was worth the trouble.

So Clark had his leftover chicken salad. When I finally got to really check the crock pot, everything was overcooked and burnt. I hadn't added enough chicken to the crock pot in the morning, in my haste to get out the door. This resulted in not enough liquid, and everything burned.

I threw it out with a sigh. But I wasn't upset this time. It was time to make Clark's birthday cake.


ALMOND BUTTER BROWNIES, STAGE TWO (EDITED TO ADD: THIS IS THE NEW VERSION.)

1 16 oz jar unsalted Trader Joe's almond butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup pasteurized egg whites (so you can lick the bowl! otherwise, two eggs will do)
1 tsp scd legal vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup honey (if you are not using vanilla, use 1/3 cup of honey

NOTE TO BLOG VISITORS: THIS IS THE OLD VERSION; I WOULDN'T MAKE THIS ONE. THERE IS FAR TOO MUCH HONEY IN THIS RECIPE.)

1 c almond butter
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp SCD legal vanilla
1/3 cup honey

Mix by hand (it will get thick). Using a spatula, scrape it out of the bowl into an 8" square pyrex dish that has been liberally oiled. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

4 comments:

Naomi Devlin said...

next time your mayo doesn't come out right - instead of throwing the whole thing away, just sart with a new egg again and pour the curdled mix slowly down the funnel of the mixer. You may need to add more oil to get it thick, but better than wasting a load?

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tip. According to the recipe I'm using, a doubled batch isn't supposed to work in a regular blender...but I could have tried hand mixing it or something.

Now you've got the wheels turning in my head again, though. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Hmmm...good idea with the chicken salad and mayo. We haven't tried that yet. But...is sea salt legal? I keep going between regular and sea salt, because I thought I read somewhere that sea salt was illegal.
CJ

Unknown said...

I know that regular salt is not legal and some sea salts are not legal because they contain dextrose -- sugar!

The sea salt I bought at Whole Foods has only sea salt -- nothing added to it to make it dry. It comes out of the container kind of wet looking, to be honest. So I think it is OK. But ask Pecanbread if you're not sure! I might do that.