Roaming & Food

Most of this will not be about roaming. The first part is, though.

I'm going to Ireland over Winter Break to meet up with some friends I met in Latvia. I'll spend a few days in Dublin with Steffi and Jana, two German girls. Steffi was one of my flatmates in Rīga, and Jana lived next door. Then we'll venture West to Galway to visit JP and Meagan, two Irish people, who were also my flatmates in Rīga; Anya, a Ukrainian-Irish girl I met n the way to Russia; and Dermot and Jimmy, two of JP's "mates" who visited us in Rīga. A Polish girl named Magda and a Finnish girl named Laura might also come. I don't get very excited about many things, and when I do it's usually stormy weather, but I'm pretty excited about this trip.

Onto the food part. It's pretty long, but hopefully worthwhile.

I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen, and I tend to mess around a lot until something that seems edible turns up. I'm pretty good at making things that taste good, though, so I thought it would be a good idea to systematize some of what seems to work well. And then I thought it would be neat to share it. Maybe someday I'll publish a cookbook of really cheap foods you can make with only a stove, a pot, and a pan as cooking utensils.

None of this requires meat, which I think is cool. My favorites are 1) the lentils, because overcooking them seems to have no impact on the taste of the food, and 2) the deviled eggs, because I thought they were really hard to make, but they're actually really easy, and delicious.

POTATO STIR-FRY/HASHBROWN-SORT-OF-THING

Use this stuff:

• Potatoes (two seems about good)
• Garlic (a few crescents)
• Onion (a little less than half is probably alright)
• Pepper (about as much as the onion)
• Tomato (a little less than the onion and pepper)
• Whatever other vegetables you have sitting around
• Oil
• A pan that won't melt
• A stove

Do this to it:

1. Run the potatoes under water and scrub them with a sponge a bit to get the dirt off.
2. Cut them into pretty small pieces, around the size of scrabble tiles seems good.
3. Cut up all the veggies except the garlic into pieces a little bigger than the potatoes.
4. Cut the garlic up really small.
5. Set the pan on a stove turned up all the way.
6. Put some oil in the pan. A spoonful's probably about right.
7. When the pan gets too hot to touch, put the potatoes in. Move them around occasionally, otherwise they'll burn.
8. When the potatoes start to turn kind of brown, add all the other stuff to the pan.
9. Keep moving the stuff around sometimes.
10. When the potatoes start to turn black at the edges, it's done.
    
    

PANCAKES

Use this stuff:

• Flour (maybe a cup or so)
• Milk or water (a little less than the flour)
• Baking powder (a small spoonful)
• Salt (a really small spoonful)
• Butter (about as much as you'd put on toast)
• An egg, if you have one.
• Oil (some)
• Whatever you like to put on top of your pancakes
• A pan that won't melt
• A stove

Do this to it:

1. Mix all the stuff together, except the oil, the pan, and the stove. Oh, and leave out the eggshell.
2. Turn the stove about ¾ of the way up.
3. Put a dribble of oil in the pan. Probably about the size of a nickle.
4. Pour some of the mix in the pan.
5. Let it cook until the bubbles that pop leave holes that don't fill with goop.
6. Flip it.
7. Let it cook for a little less time than it took on the first side.
8. Done. Put whatever you want on top.
   
   

REFRIED BEANS

Use this stuff:

• Beans (a few handfulls)
• Water (about twice as much as the beans, by volume)
• Onion (half of a big one)
• Bell pepper, any color (half)
• Tomato (half of a big one)
• Bacon grease, or some other oil (a few spoonfuls)
• Ground cinnamon
• Pepper flakes
• Tapatio or some other hot sauce
• Salt
• A big pot
• A medium pot
• A big pan
• A stove

Do this to it:

1. Put the beans in the pot, fill it with water, then pour the water out. The beans are now rinsed.
2. Fill the big pot with the beans still in it with about twice as much water as beans.
3. Turn the stove all the way up and put the pot on it.
4. Wait for it to boil, and then wait a few minutes longer.
5. Add some cinnamon, pepper, and hot sauce.
6. Turn the stove way down and leave the pot there for a few hours.
7. Stir it occasionally so it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pot.
8. When the beans are really soft, dump the water out into the medium pot.
9. Mash the beans until it there are hardly any left unmashed.
10. Cut up the onion, pepper, and tomato into big chunks.
11. Turn the stove about ¾ of the way up.
12. Put the pan on it and drop in a few spoonfuls of bacon grease or other oil.
13. Add the onion, pepper, and tomato to the pan. Move the stuff around a bit so it doesn't burn.
14. When the onions start to turn clear, flop the mashed beans on top.
15. Stir the beans so the vegetables get mixed in.
16. Pour in as much of the bean cooking water as you can comfortably fit in the pan.
17. Add some salt. A small spoonful's probably good.
18. Keep stirring the vegetable-bean-water mixture until a lot of the water evaporates.
19. When the stuff only jiggles a little bit when you move the pan, it's probably done.
    
    

LENTILS

Use this stuff:

• Lentils (a few handfuls)
• Water (twice as much by volume as the lentils)
• Carrots (a few)
• Onion (a big one)
• Salt
• Tapatio, or some other hot sauce
• A pot made of something that won't melt
• A stove

Do this to it:

1. Turn the stove all the way up.
2. Put the lentils and water in the pot and put it on the stove.
3. Wait until it boils, then turn the stove way down.
4. Chop up the onion and carrots into big chunks and plop them in the pot.
5. Add some salt and hot sauce. You'll probably want a lot—lentils seem to soak this stuff up.
6. Wait a while, but stir it sometimes so the stuff doesn't burn to the bottom of the pot.
7. When the top of the lentil-onion-carrot mixture starts poking out above the water, it's done.
8. Pour the excess water out and eat it.
   
   

DEVILED EGGS

Use this stuff:

• Eggs (a lot)
• Water (lots)
• Mayonnaise (a few big spoonfuls)
• Mustard (a few big spoonfuls, but not quite as much as the mayo)
• Sugar (just a little bit)
• Horseradish sauce—optional (a spoonful or so)
• Red dusty stuff—optional, but it won't look right without it (just a bit)
• A pot
• A stove
• A bowl
  (If you don't have sugar and mayonnaise, a spoonful or two of vanilla ice cream works fine. Strange, but true.)

Do this to it:

1. Put all the eggs in the pot.
2. Fill the pot with water until the eggs are completely submerged. Then fill it some more
3. Turn the stove all the way up and put the pot on top.
4. Let it boil for a long time.
5. Take the eggs out (careful!--they'll be hot).
6. Get the shells off the eggs, but be gentle so you don't hurt the tender insides.
7. Slice the eggs in half the long way.
8. Get all the yolks out and drop them in the bowl.
9. Add the mayo, mustard, sugar, and horseradish sauce and mix it up really well.
10. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg whites.
11. Sprinkle some red dusty stuff over it.