Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This Week's Meals: Dad's Hot and Sour Soup (!/2)

This is the third time I've made this dish. The first time, it came out really bad, and almost sweet. Seeing that I wasn't able to adjust it, I gave up on it.

The second time, it came out sweet again, but I decided I wasn't going to stop until I fixed it, and it turned out if I put about three times the spices than the recipe called for, it tasted like I remembered from the restaurants.

This was the first time I made it with the extra ingredients from scratch and it's perfect. Hot, sour, salty, the only thing missing are some bamboo shoots. Which I might add next time I make this!

Title: Dad's Hot & Sour Soup
Yield: 4 servings
Category: Soup
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Made With Lau
Website: https://www.madewithlau.com/recipes/hot-sour-soup

---
Ingredients
---
2 whole tomatoes
2 oz carrot
2 oz seafood mushroom
2 oz king mushroom
3 whole shiitake mushrooms
1/4 ounce dried wood ear mushroom
2 whole eggs
1 oz red bell pepper
2 whole green onions
2 whole dried chili peppers (optional)
14 oz tofu
5 cups water [soup base]
6 tbsp vinegar
3 tsp white pepper
3 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water [slurry]
3 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cooking oil

---
Instructions
---
1 - Wash all the vegetables
2 - Rehydrate the dried woodear mushrooms in warm water for 10
minutes.
3 - Cut away the roots of the seafood mushrooms and cut the stems in
half.
4 - Cut the king oyster mushrooms into little strips.
5 - Cut the shiitake mushrooms into this slices.
6 - Cut the woodear mushrooms into thin slices.
7 - Cut the tofu into thin strips.
8 - Cut the carrots into thin strips.
9 - Cut the red bell pepper into thin strips.
10 - Mince the green onions.
11 - Dice the tomatoes into small cubes.
12 - In a bowl, mix together cornstarch and water with a spoon until
it becomes an even slurry.
13 - In another bowl, crack eggs and mix well.
14 - Begin boiling the water, so it's ready later.
15 - Set the stove to its highest heat setting, and start to heat up
the wok.
16 - Add a little bit of corn oil (1 tbsp)​, as well as our dried
chili peppers (2 piece).
17 - Heat and toss the chilies around the oil for about 1 minute as
our wok heats up.
18 - Cook the diced tomatoes for 30-60 seconds, then add our boiling
water.
19 - Next, we'll add white pepper and stir for 15-30 seconds.
20 - Add salt, sugar, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce​. Stir for
15-30 seconds.
21 - And finally, we'll add our tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables (with
the exception of green onion). Stir gently for 5-10 seconds.
22 - Remove the dried chili peppers.
23 - Cover the wok with a lid.
24 - Once boiling, since the cornstarch has probably settled, mix it
up again with a spoon, and slowly pour in the cornstarch over the
course of 50-60 seconds. Stir constantly.
25 - Beat the eggs again, and slowly pour in the eggs all around the
wok, over the course of 20-30 seconds.
26 - Add vinegar to the wok, as well as sesame oil.
27 - Turn off the heat and transfer the soup into a bowl.
28 - Garnish with the minced green onions.

---
Notes
---
Makes 4 servings at ~400 calories per serving.
Calories 363
Total Fat 17g
Total Carbohydrate 30g
Protein 21g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Oh yeah. Feeling that hike today.

Ollalie State Park

Met this fine person on the hike. Works in the aerospace industry, wife and three kids and follows a low sodium diet.

Twin Falls

The cherry blossoms and dog woods are starting to come out....

Where I Am Now
https://youtube.com/shorts/fD6bYXrN2ow?si=gPjS-0eY2D0XB3Lk

YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION

You can tell that whoever decided this was a good packaging idea did NOT come from a trucker family. Cause...well...if you know, you know.

You know. There IS a portion of the Oregon Trail that is sitting inside the one safe state for being trans right now, and that's Oregon itself.

I may do at least that portion of the trip, either on a long weekend or take a week off to do it. One day to the start point, one day of the trail, one day to drive back.

Thoughts for summer.

Okay, that's some legit thunder.

Storms on the horizon.

"They perjured themselves about the Signal conversation and we have the proof!"

Proof doesn't matter if no one bothers to prosecute. We KNOW they're lying. It's the consequences to that that are missing.

Thoughts Before And About Bed

Here's the problem I have with the 9-5 life. I wake up at 7, and I can't get moving. It takes me hours to fully wake up. I'm functional about noon. And normal about 4.

Today, I started working on an art project with a friend about 9PM and got really raring to go. I loved it, had tons of ideas, a million things to do. And at the peak of my art energy?

11PM. It's bedtime. I'm not even tired.

This Week's Meals (2/2): Campfire Hobo Dinner

So. This has a wierd origin story. I was watching an episode of Mythbusters, when, during the making of a firepit, Jamie started making what he called a "Campfire Hobo Dinner." After some researching I found out what it was and what it consisted of, and it is FANTASTIC.

Might have to do with the HUGE knob of butter you put in it, but that's beside the point.

This was a fun little meal to assemble, and I can see that cooking it on a real firepit would be a lot of fun. It's doable in an oven, and comes out great. I think I'd go lighter on the carrots, just because when you cook carrots, they get sweet, and I don't like sweet carrots.

Title: Campfire Hobo Dinner
Yield: 3 servings
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Category: Entree
Cuisine: American
Source: food.com
Website: https://www.food.com/recipe/campfire-hobo-dinner-247841

---
Ingredients
---
1/2 pound smoked sausage (sliced)
1 cup potato (sliced)
1 cup carrot (sliced)
1/2 cup onion (sliced)
4 tsp butter
garlic powder (to taste)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
cooking spray
4 sheets aluminum foil (18 inches square)

---
Instructions
---

1 - Spray 18-inch square of aluminum foil with cooking spray.
2 - Place equal portions of the meat in center of foil.
3 - Place equal portions of the vegetables on top of meat.
4 - Season with equal portions butter
5 - Season with salt, garlic powder and pepper to taste.
6 - Fold top and sides of foil several times to seal food.

THREE WAYS TO COOK: Always place seam side up when cooking. You may
want to double wrap if cooking on a campfire or grill.
•CAMPFIRE: Place on hot coals near the edge of your campfire and
allow to cook 25-30 minutes, or until meat is done.
•GRILL: Place on medium/hot grill for 40 minutes; rotate 1/2 way
through cook time.
•OVEN: Preheat oven to 350°F Place on cookie sheet or cooking
stone; bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until meat is done.

OPEN CAREFULLY!

---
Notes
---

Makes 3 servings at ~400 calories per serving
Calories 358
Total Fat 23g
Total Carbohydrates 15g
Protein 12g
Makes 4 servings normally

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

This Week's Meals (1/2): Taiwanese Three Cups Mushrooms.

This is a variation of last week's Three Cups Chicken, and honeslty, not as good. And probably not helped by the fact that I think I have sesame COOKING oil, and not sesame FLAVOR oil.

The Three Cups chicken from last week had some good flavor, if a little light. This is very heavy soy flavor. I think the main difference being the chicken used Shaoxing Wine, and this used Sake. What we ended up here with was a very heavy soy sauce flavor.

The mushrooms, though - tasty and flavor soaked. Just very soy saucy.

I'm likely going to remake these dishes with proper toastes sesame oil in the future. But as it stands, they're not bad. They can only get better.

Title: Taiwanese Three Cups Mushrooms
Yield: 2 servings
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Asian/Chinese
Source: Asian Vegan Eats
Website: https://asianveganeats.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/taiwanese-three-cups-mushrooms/

---
Ingredients
---
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 inches ginger (thinly sliced)
5 cloves garlic (halved)
3 whole king oyster mushrooms (cut into bite sized pieces)
10 oz oyster mushrooms
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine
1/2 cup water
1 cup whole Thai basil leaves
1 whole red chili pepper

---
Instructions
---

1 - Heat up the vegetable oil and sesame oil in a wok on medium high heat.
2 - When the oil is hot, add the ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
3 - Add mushrooms. Saute until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
4 - Add the soy sauce, rice wine and water.
5 - Turn the heat to high. Continue simmeringr the mushrooms in the sauce until the sauce reduces down about 3/4s.
6 - Turn off the heat.
7 - Add basil leaves and red chili pepper (if using it). Mix well. The
heat of the food will wilt the basil leaves.
8 - Serve with a BIG BOWL of rice. Enjoy!

---
Notes
---

Make 2 servings at ~37.5g of carbs
Normally makes 4 servings.

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Nutritional Information
---

*Nutritional information reflects amount per serving.*
CALORIES 329
TOTAL FAT (g) 12
Saturated Fat (g) 2
CHOLESTEROL (mg) 0
SODIUM (mg) 2060
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE (g) 34
Dietary Fiber (g) 9
Sugars (g) 6
PROTEIN (g) 16

This is totally the chutney they had at my first Indian place. The onion was minced finer than I did it, and it was a bit more watery, but the flavor is exactly the same.

Yum. :)

The very first Indian restaurant I ever went to back in the 90s, had chutneys sitting at the table. Two were the usual ones, which I still see all the time: Mint and Tamarind. But they had a third one I've never seen anywhere else.

AFTER ALMOST THIRTY YEARS I FOUND IT! It's not a tomato chutney like I thought it was, which is why I could never find it. It's an ONION Chutney. I may hit an indian grocery grab some poppadum (they look awesome when you cook them in the microwave), and make some of this for old time's sake: https://www.jcookingodyssey.com/indian-onion-chutney-recipe/