To Thine Own Self, Be Food

My experiences with the foodstuff tofu can be summarized like this: Okay, that is only mostly true. Tofu has been around a long, long time, and for the duration my life, tofu has been the "weird hippie food" that everyone thinks a lot about, but nobody really actually eats. But, you know, I'm all about expanding horizons, so when we went to HuHot last month, I tried some with my stir-fry. It looked like this: In addition to the off-putting taste that I can't even describe here, the texture was unusual...and not unusual in that weird-but-I-can-get-past-it way. Unusual in that Oh-God-I-may-die-this-is-so-gross-way. But then, I rediscovered a long-lost gem of a cookbook on my shelves (12 Best Foods Cookbook by Dana Jacobi), and therein was a recipe for Pepper-Ranch dressing. It occurs to me that the time is very ripe for me to try my hand at homemade Ranch dressing...and a simple recipe sits right in front of me. The key ingredient? Tofu. My culinary nemes...

My new bread machine has a dough setting, and naturally, we had to try out the soft pretzel recipe. Easy breezy peazy, really. In fact, making the dough was simple - Mr. Oster did it. The time-consuming part was actually rolling the dough out and twisting it. However, the final products were consumed most heartily by all family members, and even Elliot claimed, "Mom, these taste exactly like the ones we get at the swimming pool!" There are no higher accolades than that. Of course, what little Elliot doesn't know is that Mom's pretzels contain nothing but water, flour, a little salt and sugar, and yeast. Enjoy the before and after pictures. Notice that we have not honed our pretzel-bending skills. Very rough, we are, indeed.

For some time now, my culinary interests have leaned towards the following: homemade and healthy. I am only slightly ashamed of the recent investments I have made to promote those ideals. Late in the fall, I purchased a food processor, which I've always scoffed at as a useless device...until I realized I could use it to produce my own hummus, sweet potato/pumpkin puree, applesauce and mashed potatoes...and, because of its slicing/shredding capabilities, perfectly sliced mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. I suspect I have only touched the tip of the iceberg potential with this appliance. Mid-December brought the purchase of a rice cooker...again, another appliance I once surveyed with sarcastic disdain, perhaps more than the processor. However, after all the readings I've been doing about the Asian diet, I realized I was ignorant about rice...then I realized that rice could actually fit rather well into the health groove our family was trying to...