just stuff I threw together

You might have noticed by now that here at Made Up Food we are not afraid of pre-packaged items. But they have to be good - at least as good as the “real thing”.

One that I am a huge fan of is Trader Joe’s frozen rice - both the Jasmine and Brown varieties are (almost) better than I can make from scratch and zap in the nuke-o-matic in 3 easy minutes. Sounds too good to be true, but so far its been great every time.

Stock up when its in the store cuz its so popular they can’t seem to keep it in stock.

Here’s a recipe I want to try from over at Table for Two: Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole that also happens to use one of my favorite condiments, Sriracha.

* Careful you don’t burn your fingers opening that hot package the way some people have.

My wife, daughter of a hippie family that made their own tofu, has always turned up her nose at my suburban Wonder-Bread-eating culinary youth (well, we did eventually start eating Roman Meal, which I suppose is a little better), but despite my love for her, I have no shame about my eating education. We did, after all, eat a lot of healthy, diverse food–we just ate a lot of sloppy joes, tuna noodle casserole, and grilled cheese sandwiches, too.

With this exposition in mind, let me present a scenario: It’s 1984. Your mom or dad has just made a chocolate cake (Betty Crocker, out of the box) and finished frosting it using the frosting-in-a-can. But, of course, there’s frosting left over, and nothing goes to waste in this house. So it goes into the fridge, awaiting a later fate. A few days later, burritos are made–lovely, shreds of beef, jack cheese, refritos, and lots of green chiles, of course. There are flour tortillas left over. Into the fridge they go. Now, there they are on the same shelf…perhaps it was only a matter of time before the invention of…

The chocolate burrito.

“Eeewwwww!”, you say. But, as with so many amazing experiences in life, first impressions can be deceiving. So take a walk down the dark side of the dessert (or in my case, breakfast, or coffee-break, or lunch) street, and make a chocolate burrito.

The process couldn’t be simpler: Get your flour tortilla, left over from the other night’s south-of-the-border fest. Please don’t use a corn tortilla, ok? That’s just sick. Lay it on a clean, flat work surface (or in the palm of your hand if you’re in a hurry). Get out that half-empty can of chocolate frosting. Any brand will do, but I prefer Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker, something in the milk chocolate to chocolate fudge spectrum. It might help to thrown the can in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up–you don’t want to break the flaky four tortilla as you spread the frosting. Slide your knife around the inside surface of the frosting container, scooping up a tablespoon or two of dark, sweet goodness. Spread it onto the tortilla. Repeat. Ideally, you want a coating of frosting that is thin, but thick enough to cover the ridges and valleys of the tortilla itself. A coating about as thick as the tortilla itself usually works well, but it all depends on how sweet your tooth is.

Then,roll it up. If you are working with a smaller tortilla–say, soft-taco-sized, you end up with a roll about an inch in diameter, sort of like a taquito. If you are using a full-size burrito holder, you’ll end up with something approximating, well, a burrito. If you’ve used the perfect amount of frosting, you get a nice alternation of frosting/tortilla/frosting/tortilla, spiraling all the way out into your sweaty, anticipatory hand.

Serve with a glass of ice-cold whole milk. Because this isn’t health food you’re eating. You might want to make a second one in advance…you know, just in case. Despite my now much healthier eating habits, I have a soft spot in my heart for the chocolate burrito, and to my wife’s chagrin, I plan on imparting this affection on to my little girls as well. As for my wife: well, I have yet to catch her in the act of making one of these, but there are times when I swear there is less frosting in the can than there was earlier, and all of the tortillas seem to have mysteriously disappeared….

Welcome Alan Bucknam as our newest author on the blog! He and his wife Robyn have been our go-to’s for fast easy and yummy things to cook for years so I know his posts will be things I want to try Plus with their having precocious twin girls, I am betting they are child friendly as well. Yay Alan!

Lately we like to have some hot cereal to get things started in the morning. Normally my husband cooks up a pot which takes about 20 minutes. Too long? I think so too, well more to the point I think that when I look up from my computer mid morning and realize I forgot to eat and am starving that I want something NOW.

So although its not quite as good as the “real thing” I have created a shortcut that might be handy to have around that is definitely way better than packaged instant oatmeal.

Take a nice jar or other container and dump in the following:

Couple of cups of quick cut dry oats, couple of handfuls of walnuts or almonds crushed up a bit, some dried cranberries (or raisins if you like them) and if you like sweet I suppose you could even add some brown sugar to the mix itself although I haven’t tried that. Shake really hard to evenly distribute the goodies in the mix.

When you are ready to eat grab a half cup or so in a bowl, add some hot water ( I boil it up in the electric kettle first) and pop in the microwave for 1 minute. You can add some frozen berries during or after and the heat will warm them up.

I like to stir in a spoonful of plain yogurt or some soy milk and start chowing down.

Made up food includes made up drinks, and as I generally have a pretty pityful bar stock I do tend to get even more creative in this area.

Ok, I’m pretty sure I’m in no way the first to invent this but its a lovely limey “damn its hot” Sunday evening beverage when you want a mojito but don’t have any rum:


the Fauxito

• In a highball glass muddle 10 mint leaves with about a teaspoon and a half of sugar.Loosen this up with a small splash of bubbly water (club soda, seltzer etc. - I used talking rain plain).
• Add a bunch of ice and the juice of 1 and a half fresh squeezed limes.
• To this add a jigger of gin and top off with the fizzy stuff and a stir. garnish with cute mint leaves and enjoy.

Since we just stocked up on all kinds of goodies there won’t be the impetus to get super creative with limited ingredients. So I thought I’d share one of my favorite keep on hand ingredients - Café Yumm! Sauce.

We here in Oregon are lucky to have this local and it looks like you can buy it by phone too, but so many have loved it so much that there are scads of “hacked” recipes - try here: http://mpchickchat.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html
(about halfway down the page, I like her substitute on the fly style too!)

It’s basically (from the jar and the myriad of times my neighbor and I tried to recreate this)

Canola oil, lemon juice, almonds, nutritional yeast, garbanzo beans, soybeans, garlic and secret herbs and spices - and the process and proportions are part of the secret.

Plus check out their menu for meal inspiration ideas - just about everything we’ve had there is delightful.
And of course if you’re in Oregon find one of the restaurants and eat there.

Here are a few of the ways I use Yumm! sauce:

• Dip for those bitty carrots or chips or crackers or anything else I can fit in the jar.
• On rice with salsa for a faux Yumm bowl
• On nachos
• As a salad dressing
• With leftover chicken or meat in a pita with whatever is green (but not moving) in the fridge

If you’ve used this fantastic fattening condiment let me know what else you’ve made with it.

I asked my friend Nzinga to write some blog posts too because although she is always VERY busy she actually knows how to cook! Add in an adventurous streak and you know we will be seeing some excellent made up food. Thanks for adding your voice Nzinga!

It was unexpectedly bloody hot and humid today - a day filled with numerous technical snafus and stress. But I was hungry anyhow and this is what I threw together. All I can say is that it was tasty enough to inspire this blog.

Cold Spicy Somen Noodle Salad
here’s what’s in it:

1 packet somen noodles (1 serving)
8 mint leaves finely sliced
hot and sweet asian chile sauce
soy sauce
rice wine vinegar

I added what i had left of pickled herring and onions in wine sauce - about 1/2 cup rinsed thoroughly and drained

Toss the seasonings and herring/onions in a bowl while the noodles are cooking. Rinse the noodles under really cold water and stir in.

total time - about 10 min.

I’m thinking I could do this with canned tuna or a nicer protein if I wanted to serve it to others…

First off this is a NOT a blog about imaginary food - it is a blog about real food for people with real lives. Real food I “make up” as I go along and really eat. I do this a lot when things are super busy and I don’t have time to really cook. But the food you will find here is 100% real.

So, when I am overwhelmed by all my work work and all the life work that needs to be done, what do I do? Start a new project of course. And so on a particularly hot hectic day in August this blog was born. I decided that there can never be too many blogs about Life Hacking or food so I started my own and hope you find a useful tidbit or two in here.

The inspiration was tonight’s dinner. My husband teaches classes several nights a week and I am a work-a-holic web person, so cooking falls pretty far down the list of to-do items as does shopping for food sometimes. This has led me to be adventurous and try out some interesting combinations of items that are at hand. I mix a little of this and a dash of that and call it a meal. A “made up” meal.

I have a true love/hate relationship with food, and that goes for all phases, shopping, cooking and eating. I am an impatient person by nature so what you will find here will generally be fast and easy to prepare with no meticulously crafted recipes. What you will find are edibles that when thrown together are decently delicious (or not) and maybe some ideas for a healthy-ish quick fix it food when you are too pooped to ponder or go to the store. And just for laughs I will post my conspicuous failures as well.

Always on the look out for something fresh and tasty, I’m hoping others will add their experiments and success to this blog so that I can try ‘em out. Philosophy about food prep and ingredient combining equally welcome. If this sounds like you, too and you want to share what you have come up with as a regular author shoot me an email at cookin@madeupfood.com

So the next post is my first made up food and that’s it for now - I’ll come back and prettify this blog when I have time… um, yeah, right.

Meanwhile a quick and dirty google search turned up this early adopter:
http://www.doesntsuck.com/archives/002369.html
Beer Hash Browns sound good!

And if you want to see how real women cook check out this foodie blog with pretty pictures and great recipes.

http://table-4-two.blogspot.com/