From Recipes From Italy

My husband turned me onto a channel on YouTube which features prominent Italian chefs watching American cooking videos, and critiquing their versions of Italian dishes. Now, fully knowing there is no one way to do anything, I take it all with a grain of salt, but found I learned a few little things to up my bolognese game. Taking the techniques shown, and their critiques of the work done, here is what I made this past Tuesday--I loved how it turned out!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of smoked bacon of choice (mine was a cherrywood thick cut)
• 1 lb ground beef (we had 3/4lb of ground Wagyu, I would have liked more, so say 1 lb)
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 large carrot
• 1/2 a medium-large white onion
• 1 16oz can crushed tomatoes with basil
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup red wine
• Fresh thyme
• Olive oil
• pasta of choice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Have two pans at the ready--a deep sautee pan and a large sauce pan.
2. Cut the bacon into 1/4" chunks and put in sautee pan to start rendering yummy fats
3. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in the large sauce pan over low heat. While it is heating, cut celery, carrot, and onion into big chunks and toss into a food processor (I have a little Ninja that works great for me) and fine chop. Add this to the olive oil in the pan and sweat the vegetables over a low heat until they release a fair amount of moisture.
4. While the veg sweats, back over in the sautee pan, add your ground beef and brown over medium heat. You want some crispy brown bits in there, so don't be afraid to bump the heat to get the Maillard reaction you want here.
5. Once beef is browned and veg has sweat it out, add veg to the sautee pan with the bacon and beef, stir to combine. Add in the can of tomatoes and the red wine (I briefly swish the wine around inside the tomato can to get the last of the juices outta there), stir to combine. 
6. Reduce over low heat as long as you can stand it. I only had 45 minutes to do it, since it was late at night and we needed to eat, but 2 hours is better. I add the fresh herbs about a half hour before the end of the cook, because personally I like it to retain some of its "greenness" in the flavor profile. If you don't care about such things, add it when you add the tomato sauce.
7. While sauce is reducing, add water to the sauce pan you used for the veg and cook your pasta. A good spaghetti noodle is good in a pinch, but a wider noodle is preferred if you have it.
8. Drain pasta and spoon a bunch of the bolognese in with the pasta and stir to let the pasta soak up and "finish" in the sauce.
9. Tong a nest of pasta into a bowl, top with sauce. Add grated parmesan cheese on top if you like (this is blasphemy to some Italian chefs, but hell...we're Americans and we like our cheese).

We are finishing up our Whole30 this week, and had some meals prepped for the final two days, which included a batch of my favorite IP pork carnitas. Since we're still off All The Things, we couldn't use regular tortillas yet, but I had great success with making plantain tortillas a couple weeks prior and was eager to try to improve upon it. The flavor and consistency of those were mostly good, but they were a bit dry and dense. I hoped to simply mix up a little bit more moist batter, and add some compliant baking powder to maybe add some fluffiness.

Well, best laid plans... My green plantains intended for my tortillas had turned brown in the middle, and all I had were ripe ones. What came next was messy but delicious! The "batter" is more sticky and temperamental, due to the more ripe plantain, but the sweetness from the plantains were amazing and the texture of the tortilla was stellar. Chris made a point to tell me I needed to write this recipe down, so here it is!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 yellow plantains, mid-ripe ideal, with some browning
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, refined, melted
• 1 Egg Whites
• 1/8 tsp Whole30 compliant baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp Tapioca Flour, or more (or whatever non-gluten flour you like)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut plantains into 2-3" chunks. Boil for 5 minutes to soften and remove skins. (you can also microwave for a couple minutes, if you prefer).
2. Put all ingredients except for tapioca flour in food processor and blend. If it seems too sticky and wet, add a little tapioca flour to help bind. It should be pretty wet, but able to be molded into soggy ball/lumps with your hands (sounds SO appetizing, doesn't it?!).
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a little tapioca flour (you can skip this, but I felt it helped work the batter). Divide plantain mixture into four balls and place well spaced apart on the floured paper. Spread into desired shape with your fingers, wetting them with water as needed to prevent sticking. Optional: Sprinkle flour over the tops, then place a second piece of parchment paper on top. Roll/press out plantain mixture until desired size and thickness. With a couple small plantains, mine came out to about 4" across and 1/4" thick. I would try to make them a little thinner and wider next time.
5. Remove top parchment paper, if used, and place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 5 minutes. Check for doneness and remove when browned.

Soon, my precious.

We are in the home stretch of reintroduction right now. What I can say is: Feh. Nothing has changed, really. Chris MIGHT have a slight corn sensitivity (he got stuffy overnight after having precisely six corn chips, so it seems unlikely, but maybe?), but nothing else has changed. Dairy had no effect, alcohol is back in rotation (though more moderate than before for now), non-gluten grains nothing for me for sure. Tomorrow we do legumes, and Saturday we do gluten grains, then we'll be all done.

We slept a bit better during the middle and end of the experiment, but that's likely more not having sugar, especially in wine or end of day meals or desserts. But nothing like "I SLEPT LIKE A BABY!" Just, "Yeah, I guess I have been sleeping a little better."

We have both cut way back on sugar in our tea in the morning and are more aware of sugar in stuff than before. And I got some new recipes we like very much to carry into the future.

That's about it. Nothing life-changing like they try to promise.

I have had some online friends inquire about my process of making my Halloween 2018 headdress, so I thought I would share a few pics and short videos I tried to make during the process. It is not comprehensive, but it may give a little helpful insight?

First of all, materials:
One inch wide transparent plastic headband ($5 locally at Display and Costume)
Clear plastic hair combs
Thin beading wire (I think mine was .024")
Heavy beading wire (I got 18 gauge)
Wire tools (mainly something to clip wires with, but some small pliers are helpful in twisting wire when needed)
High temp glue gun
Multi-temp glue (100 mini-sticks)
Various beads, jewelry bits, and some wedding/holiday floral decorations*

*I was in around the Halloween season, so Christmas stuff was already out. I chose silver, glitter, frosted things for my theme. Luckily, even in the "off season", wedding floral stuff can often have similar glam.

For the glue gun, I prefer high melt for projects like this. Specifically, I was using materials that would not melt under the heat of the glue, which is your number one consideration. After that is considering how strong of a bond you want and your working time. I find that high temp guns have a shorter working time--that is, it cools and sets a little more rapidly. While some might prefer the longer working time and flexibility of a low-temp glue, for this project I was going to be making a lot of items made just from glue, with no structure underneath them; and additionally, they would need multiple layers of glue, where I would need it to set, then lay down another layer on top. My process was sped up a little bit with a faster-setting glue.

Instructions

Prep the headband: I took the hair combs and lined them up where I wanted them on the headband, roughly about 3-4 inches to either side of the center of the headband. I made a little mark with a Sharpie (very tiny, just so I could see). Then I laid down a line of glue on the top of the comb and glued them to the underside of the headband.
Taking some jewelry wire, I anchored them in place further. I eventually decided I was going to wrap them entirely and lay glue down over it, for extra security and to keep the wire from poking.
Then I started playing around and gluing the biggest pieces and background pieces in place. I knew I wanted something kind of horn-like, so I put these "frosted branches" on either side.
Then I started making a lot of "icicles". These are just multiple layers of hot glue laid down. I lightly oiled the bottom of a glass baking dish and used this as my surface. You can use any smooth, heat-tolerant surface to do this on, including ceramic plates, metal pans, non-stick trays, etc. The oil helps the glue to release. Re-apply between batches, and be sparing--it doesn't need to be dripping with oil to work. Some crafters use Pam, but I just used a paper towel with some canola oil.
I made a short video. I tried to replace the audio, but some stuff on YouTube as an option was either too short or too irritating. So you may get to hear my listening to the Wicked Broadway soundtrack, or a collection of inspirational Unitarian sermons a friend sent to me. Lucky you!
Some more footage of releasing and cutting to shape when needed.
And more, this with me doing some more cleanup with fingers and scissors to get rid of fly-aways and errant glue loops.
And finally, this isn't my headdress but my husband's, which is all made of glue entirely to make an icicle crown. I thought I'd show a little bit of the gluing/attachment. You do this for 15 minutes, and you'll figure out what you need to do for your specific project.
Then I started adding the icicles to my headdress, continuing to add more background stuff (branches, silver glitter doo-dads). And when I felt I had all my icicles in place, I started "encrusting" it with some jewels at the base of the icicles. I didn't want it to appear too "formal" or regular, as I wanted this character to be more "fae royalty" and found-objects, so I made a point to make it a little asymmetrical as I went along. This is NOT easy for a Virgo, I am telling you.
A close up of me starting embellisment. Nothing fancy.
A better look at the overlapping icicles. The three middle there are different on purpose. I bought some glitter covered plastic spiral "icicles" at Display & Costume and covered them with glue to make them irregular and smooth to match the others. These are more rigid and form the central part of the crown.
To help me as I went along, I laid out a collection of icicles on my work surface, which is an old broke-ass cutting mat which conveniently has a ruler on it. Then I could see the length of each and it was easier to make the crown peaked by grading the height of the icicles placed.
And then here is my final result. The center piece was on clearance in JoAnn's jewelry section. I bought this one for this project, but any time I am there I peruse their clearance stuff and will buy cheap materials to add to my collection for future projects. On this project, I am using about 75% new stuff, and about 25% from my stash.

Whole30 Realness:

By this stage in Whole30, it seems a lot of people are feeling improved energy, gut happiness, improved skin, maybe a little weight loss (feeling like clothes fit better, not scale-weight), better sleep, and/or generally good about the struggles of the first three weeks. Some people talk about "Tiger Blood" in week 3 or 4--a feeling of high energy and enthusiasm.

Not so much for me.

I am broken out in weird ways, my energy is no different, my gut isn't really any different, and sleep is maybe marginally better if I am being generous.

I am sick of cooking all the time and not being able to just order a pizza after a long exhausting day, or grab a sandwich when I am running errands.

I miss making a little tea with milk and a lump o' sugar to soothe my spirits on a busy work day or during a stressful time (my mommy made this for me growing up when I was stressed before an exam or going onstage for a play or singing). I haven't had "my tea" in almost two months now, with my gentle ramping up I did weeks before starting Whole30.

I am tired of doing so many dishes all the time.

The meal planning is a part-time job, and we are spending a more on groceries in general. I mean, we ate a lot of fresh food to begin with, but this is...more).

The upside: I still like the food I am cooking very much. It's delicious and satisfying (if not a lot of work). Planning to have real breakfasts, in some form every morning, has been good for my hunger levels throughout the day, and is worth the effort. I am not sick of chia seed pudding yet. Trying new recipes and ingredients I haven't tried before is fun (mostly! Ha!). I discovered there is tons of awesome grain-free and gluten-free options out there that are damn tasty--I always poo-poo'd them!

I am curious to see what introduction will be like in a little over a week. Maybe then I will see what I am not noticing now? Some people report not noticing the ABSENCE of certain food sensitivities, but certainly saw the PRESENCE of them on reintroduction. So we'll see.

7 days to go. We are right now having discussions about what celebratory reintroduction we will have on Halloween. Wine seems an obvious one, but it may be something as simple as rice/grains with our meals that day. We'll see...

But right now...I am just kinda grumpy about it. Here's a photo of Benni's ridiculous underbite at us all to make me feel better.