just stuff I threw together

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/