Oh man I don't believe this! It has literally been years since I posted to my blog. I had completely forgotten about it until earlier today. I have a ton of writing to post, even though it's unedited. I would appreciate feedback from some fellow writer, editor, or just anyone who reads it. There are also more than a few recipes I'd like to post: diabetic friendly ones, but anyone can enjoy them since they're carb, and calorie reduced.

I look forward to posting much more often.

Cheers!

P.S.

I nearly forgot to mention that I am no longer living in Stratford, ON, with Bug. I'm in Okotoks, AB, very close to the Rocky Mountains.

Fickle Recommenders

Since a recommender ok'd me for a Writers' Reserve Grant last year, I thought I could hope for the same this year. Alas it didn't turn out to be so. I got some encouraging comments from a couple of them, but no recommendation for a grant. In short, that sucks. However, the project "Bonbons and Bitter Pills" got completed anyway. I've registered the copyright on it so I'm pleased with that. Now if only my editor would get off his duff and do what he's supposed to do: edit my works so I can post them online. All in good time I suppose, but I wish he'd rush it a bit.

I'm back!

After what has seemed like an eternity I'm back to posting on this blog. You can also see additional, more writing focused, information on my other blog http://www.bonbonsandbitterpills.blogspot.com/ . I don't have any recipes to share at this time unless opening a can of Stag Chili can be considered cooking. Man I can't make the stuff cheaper than what it costs ready made at the grocery store: put some shredded cheese on it, a bit of sour cream, a big glass of milk and there's dinner. It's easy, no muss, no fuss and pretty tasty. Oh and half a can is enough of a meal for one. So that's one can = 2 meals. Pretty inexpensive if you ask me and perfect for a well fed writer on a budget.

The Arts Council Is Taking My Writing Seriously

Finally! I'm really glad to say that someone at Tightrope Books recommended my writing for an Ontario Arts Council Writers' Reserve Grant. Cool! It's wonderful that someone in the "business" likes my writing and is taking it seriously. This really feels great.

A Request to my Readers

I'm wondering if I can ask my readers for a bit of a favour in the form of some inexpensive, but filling recipe contributions. I've noticed that I have readers in India, the UK, Ukraine, Russia, and primarily Canada. It would be great to get some authentic international cuisine happening here. Here's the criteria for the recipes. They have to be inexpensive, feed at least two people, have some protein, vegetables, carbs - you know, the things that are good for you. Why this criteria? The reason I started posting here in the first place, was that there are other people out there in my situation: financially strapped (poor), have limited cooking resources/utensils (my kitchen is tiny and I have 2 pots, one chef's knife, and assorted cutlery to cook with). So the easier the recipe is to make, and the fewer pots/utensils it uses in preparation the better. Gimme a hand here and let's see what we can do.

Man-oh-man

The process to getting provincial funding so I can continue my work is nuts: 27 applications, filled out in triplicate. Robbing a bank would probably be easier, not to mention faster. I sent one app off yesterday, and have the rest to do over the next few days. That's why there are no recipes posted, My apologies. Anyway the stuff I've been feeding myself is really uninspiring. It consists of prepackaged macaroni and cheese mix with some hot dogs thrown in. That's what I've had for the past four days. Yes it's inexpensive, but man is it ever boring.

Feed Four for Five Bucks

The cupboard wasn't exactly bare, but there were a couple of boxes of generic macaroni and cheese things hiding at the back. So I thought "Why not? Let's see what I can do with these." This particular recipe will feed four easily for about $5.00 I'll be posting it shortly.

A Meal for Four - Total Cost $7.79... Not Bad

I made something for dinner last night that I thought I'd only make under threat of torture. Hamburger Helper! But the thing is that it turned out not too bad, and Bug liked it. I have one suggestion though. They don't give you enough pasta in that crappy cardboard box to feed more than one person. I recommend that you put their pasta in some storage jar or other and keep it for adding to a salad or something. I ended up taking 2.5 cups of Rigatoni, cooking them as per package directions, and adding them to the Hamburger Helper sauce mixture once it had thickened. The other thing I did was add about 1.5 cups of chopped up broccoli florets and stems, along with the same amount of grape tomatoes (they were on sale). I added the vegetables right after I combined all the ingredients for the sauce mix and added it to the browned meat. So the vegetables cooked as the sauce was doing its thing. It didn't come across as a prepackaged dinner at all. Best of all? It cost me $7.79 to feed four. You do the math. That's pretty darn inexpensive.

The Promised Recipe

It has been like a thousand years since I promised to post the non-pasta recipe. Yes I feel guilty, but posting constantly is a major headache sometimes because I put off other things, like living, to work on this post that I'm really not sure anyone is reading. This is going to be my last post for a while. I think I'll go on a two week schedule. That way I can have a life, and have something to say and test out new recipes for anyone who is following this post.

Ok. Here goes.

If you have a kitchen scrub brush for your dishes, soap it up, and get the cold water running at a good clip. Scrub all of the vegetables, except the broccoli, and rinse all soapy remains off them. Put them aside in some sort of container. Keep that water flowing because now you're going to rinse the hell out of the broccoli. Put that with the rest of the vegetables once done.

Take a breather, and put 5 - 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet or frying pan. Swish it around on the bottom to coat the pan, and set it on low/medium heat to preheat while you slice the vegetables.

I hope you have a cutting board to slice and chop the vegetables on. If not, clean off a good portion of the kitchen counter as your work space. (Be careful if you're cutting on the counter top and you, like me, are renting the suite. The super is sure to notice the damage and ding you for it once you move out.)

Trim off, the ends of the carrot, and cut it into 3 little orange "logs". Discard the ends. Cut each carrot log lengthways in half, lay it on the flat cut end and slice or chop into 1/4" thick pieces, set aside. Do the same with the beets. Since the beets are nice and fat, slice into 1/4" sections lenghtways, and then cross cut those in 1/4" cuts. This will give you reddish french frie like things. Take those fries and chop into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces and set aside with the carrots. What you did with the beets, you'll do exactly the same with the potatoes, and set aside from the other vegetables. I think you pretty well know the drill with broccoli. Cut off smallish florets, and chop up the larger ones into managable bite sized pieces. Use the stem of the broccoli too, but discard the end as it tends to be yucky. Set the broccoli aside separately, as it cooks faster than the other root vegetables.

Throw all of the vegetables, except the broccoli and potatoes, in the pan, stir to coat with oil, and cover. Raise heat to medium.

Wipe off your workspace. Take 1/3 of a pack of bacon and slice cross wise into 1/4" strips. In a separate pan, or pot with lid, that has been coated with extra virgin olive oil, toss in the bacon and cover. Covering it keeps in the steam from the cooking process and makes it go faster. Stir the bacon now and again to ensure even cooking.... on medium heat.

Wipe off your workspace, and now it's time to make stir fry strips out of the pork. Make the meat look like it's sliced in a Chinese or Asian restaurant: that same width and length.

Check your vegetables. Poke them with a fork. Cool one off and have a bite. If it has a bit of a firmness to it and the colour is nice and bright they're almost done. Throw in the broccoli. Stir things around for a few minutes until the broccoli gets a nice bright green colour with a bit of sweat on it. All the veggies are done now, so set aside in a container and cover with something to conserve their heat.

If the bacon is curling up on itself keep the lid off the pan/pot and stir occasionally until it begins to get crispy. Remove from pan/pot and set aside/cover. Drain off the grease in the bacon pan/pot, and add another 5 or so tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, followed by the pork. This stuff cooks quickly so watch it. Cover for a few minutes, remove cover and stir, recover, and so on. It will be done when there's no pink showing on the outside or the inside if you slice a piece. Take it out of the pan/pot and put aside, not with the bacon.

Toss the potatoes into this pan, cover and raise the heat to medium/high. Keep covered to speed cooking time, but stir every now and again. The potatoes will be done when their skins start to come off or stick to the bottom of the pan. But you can always do the taste test thing as you did with the beets and carrots. Remove pan from heat.

Take two dinner plates: put a good portion of pork strips in the centre of the plate, veggies on one side, potatoes on the other. Crumble bacon on top of the potatoes, and dinner is served.

See I do know how to cook something other than pasta.

I'm Sooo Sorry

I have to apologize to anyone who is following this blog. I was going to have a new recipe posted today, but life just got in the way. You know I'm a "starving writer type". I'm trying to get provincial and federal arts funding in the form of a grant so that I can complete the research for a collection of short stories I'm working on, as well as a novel-length manuscript. That process has taken over my life over the past couple of days. Everything about my submission (begging) has to be perfect. I've resorted to borrowing money to pay for editors to look at my work and suggest improvements. My partner has the day off tomorrow, so we get to do together stuff. I'll try for posting the recipe on Sunday.

OMG We're NOT Having Pasta Tonight!

I discovered that Stratford is an even more happening little burg than I originally thought. It actually has a not-so-small store that sells only certified organic products. They even have red curry paste! Do you realize how hard it is to find that stuff? But curry is not the reason for this post. Rather it is to give you another shopping list for a recipe. What is different with this recipe is the fact that it doesn't use pasta at all. No offence to the Italian people, but sometimes even I have to give pasta a break.

The list is as follows, and should feed two people easily:

Produce

2 or 3 medium red potatoes (white or Yukon Gold will be fine as well).
2 large or 3 medium red beets.
1 eight-inch carrot (utility grade is just fine).
1 good fist-sized head of broccoli. (or you can substitute a couple of palm-fulls of green beans).

Meat

1 pack of bacon, divided into three equal portions (freeze two, and use one).
450 g or 1 lb, of strir fry pork strips.

Incidentals

About 10 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (seriously use olive oil, it tastes great, is good for you, and makes your kitchen guests think that you really do know what you're doing).

About a tea spoon of freshly ground pepper. Orinary pre-ground is fine, but if you can afford a pepper mill and whole black peppercorns then that's great.

Things to Think About

Do all of your slicing and chopping ahead of time and put the ingredients aside separately in small containers (whatever works) because most of them have different cooking time requirements, so you'll be adding each at a different point in time during the cooking process.

How Much Does This Meal Cost?

Without a word of a lie, and thanks to my strategic shopping method, this particular meal for two (using fresh vegetables) works out to about $4.25 for two people, or $2.12 per person. What can you get at a fast food joint for $4.25: two or three strips of overcooked mystery chicken. Hey, this is an easy decision to make. Stay tuned as I post the actual recipe/cooking directions in the next day or two.

A Really Easy Mediterranean Dinner For Two: Greek Style

This recipe uses some of the same ingredients as the Mediterranean Dinner For Two: Italian Version.

Take away the diced tomatoes, and prepared marinara sauce. You will need 3 - 5 good-sized garlic cloves, 3 large pieces of sundried tomatoes, 3 large (preferably extra large) eggs, the same fusili (rotini) pasta, and 1/3 of a pack of good bacon.

The prep work is the same as well. Slice and dice the vegetables, and sundried tomato, as in the previous recipe, and do the same with the sausage. You'll cut the bacon cross wise into 1/4" segments and then chop it up coarsely. All of the chopped vegetables, with the exception of the onion and garlic can be put in the same bowl. Keep the onion and garlic separate from each other because they'll be added to the mixture at different times during cooking. Crack open the eggs and whip together so they are consistently smooth.

Cooking:

Coat the bottom of the frying pan with about 3 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil on medium heat. Once heated through, toss in the bacon and mix about making sure to separate as many of the pieces as possible. Once the bacon is crisp, but not burned, take it out of the pan and set aside. Drain oil and bacon grease from pan and wipe with paper towel.

Add about 5 tablespoon of extravergin olive oil to pan and return to heat. Toss in the sausage balls, and cook until they are browned, but not burned. Once done, remove from heat and set aside with the bacon.

Using remaining oil in pan toss in the vegetables, except onion and garlic, olives, sudried tomatos, and artichoke hearts. Cover pan. Check occasionally ans stir. Once brocolli starts becoming bright green, add the onions. Cover pan. Once onions begin to turn milky white, add the garlic and stir the heck out of the mixture. Cover pan. Once the garlic is soft and turning yellowish, but not brown, take the vegetables out of the pan and put aside.

Cook up the pasta according to the package directions. Once done, drain, and put back into pot. Reduce heat to medium. Gradually stir in the eggs a bit at a time, making sure to coat pasta completely. Once all eggs have been stirred into the pasta, cover the pot for about 3 minutes to cook the eggs further.

Combining

Gradually combine vegetables, sundried tomatoes, meatballs, and bacon into the pasta. Stir well for even distribution. Add 3 to 5 tablespoons of drained sliced black olives, and the same with the artichoke hearts. Stir well for even distribution. Remove from heat. Put desired amount in serving bowls, and sprinkle each with a handful of crumbled feta cheese.

Go and eat!

Nice Thoughts For Crappy Weather

It looks like winter finally hit South Western Ontario. It has been blustering for the last 12-hours, and there is actually snow on the ground (not much, but enough to make it look like winter). I thought that instead of popping hadfulls of anti-depressants for the rest of the season, I'd post some spring and summer photos of Stratford. You can see what my little town looks like.

The court house at Ontario and Huron St.

The East side of Ontario St. down town.

Some kind of flowering fruit tree behind the court house.

In spring and summer, this is the view from my window.

Mediteranean Pasta Dinner For 2: Italian Version (With Leftovers For Lunch)

Ok this is a very easy recipe to prepare. I don't use the full list of items that I purchased. I'll use 1/2 of this, 2/3 of that and so on. I tend to use the rest of the ingredients as I experiment in my kitchen. There is another version of this recipe that doesn't use diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, and it is even faster to prepare. Stay tuned for that post: coming really soon.

Let's start with the really easy part: slicing, draining and straining.

Take out 4 or so artichoke heats. Cut them lengthwise into quarters, and then chop them up into decent sized pieces (enough to give a bit of a bite, but not to choke you). Set them aside in some sort of small container.

Rinse the heck out of the head of broccoli, and snap, or cut off about 6 -8 decent sized florets. Chop these as you did the artichoke and put them aside in a different container.

Do the same with the cauliflower (you shouldn't use more than 1/2 the head). Put in same container as broccoli.

Slice the green bell pepper open lengthwise, take out the seed part and the spongy white bits. Rinse under cold water, and slice lengthways into 1/4" strips. Chop it coarsely and put in same container as broccoli.

Slice the sausage into small meat-ball sized pieces. Place in skillet/frying pan that has about 5 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil in it already preheated over medium. Make sure to separate the sausage balls or they'll cook funny and take a bit longer. Cover, but keep watch over them as it's easy to burn them, so you might wish to lower the heat at this point.

Trim and peel, slice/chop the red onion while the sausage is doing its thing on the stove. (I do the onion last so that my house doesn't stink too much.) Put in small container separate from other veggies and cover to reduce smell.

Every now and then stir and check on the sausage. You'll know it's done when you cut one in two and it's not pink inside. Try to get the outside a little crisp and brown without burning it. Once it is done, remove from heat and scoop out into a separate container or microwave safe bowl... stick it in the micro, but don't turn it on just yet.

Now is the time when you should have a pot of boiling water handy. I usually set it on medium as I'm chopping and slicing, and crank it up to high once the sausage is done. If the water is boiling, toss in the pasta.

Quickly drain the frying pan/skillet of used oil, and put in the same amount of fresh. Add all of the veggies except the onion, stir them around to coat them with oil, and cover the pan. Stir a couple of times over 5 minutes. When the broccoli starts turning a vibrant green, throw in the onion and stir the whole shebang again a few times. Don't over cook the onion. It's done when it sarts to take on a slightly pale/whitish colour. Once that happens, take all the veggies off the heat and transfer to the sausage bowl that's in the microwave. Don't turn on the microwave though.

The pasta should take about 8 - 10 minutes to get ready, so you'll have to work fast here. You'll use about 1/3 to 1/2 of the can of diced tomatoes, rinsed please, put them back in the same pan as the vegetables were in (no worries about draining the oil this time). Stir them about, keeping the stove on medium low. Pour in about 1/3 to 1/2 of the jar of prepared marinara sauce, stir together and continue heating.

The pasta should be ready about now so drain it and put it back in the pot, but not on a hot element. Nuke the stuff that's in the microwave on 50% power for about 40 seconds: put it in the frying pan with the sauce and stir together well. (If you like sliced black olives which this recipe really does need, scoop out about 5 good tablespoons out of the can, and drain as much of the liquid from them as you do so. Put them in the pan and stir them up.)

Take the pan off the heat, and while it is cooling a bit, chop up a couple of handful-sized portions of feta cheese. Once this is done, add the artichoke hearts to the cooling pasta mixture. Place desired portion amount on plates and sprinkle the feta cheese over each portion. If you have some nice crusty bread, with unsalted room temperature butter, have some as an accompaniment.

Go and eat.

If anyone on the planet ever reads this, let me know what you think. Oh I nearly forgot to mention that you can add a small amount of really flavourful red wine to the sauce (buy some really cheap plonk and use maybe half a cup or so) as it's cooking. It'll really punch out the flavours of the meat and vegetables.

Ingredients For A Really Cool And Filling Meditteranean Dinner For Two

Ok, I don't have time to list the recipe steps right now as I am once again heading to my parents' place for my mom's birthday. However, just because I'm a bit of a slouch getting this recipe completely posted, I'll list the ingredients here, and post the rest of the recipe tomorrow.

If you don't have the following ingredients, you will need:

1. small jar of marinated artichoke hearts. (about 4 or 5 whole hearts)
1. jar of prepared marinara pasta sauce.
1. large can of diced tomatoes.
1. small can of tomato paste.
1. small container of feta cheese.
1. small head of blroccoli florets.
1. small red onion.
1. small sweet red bell pepper.
1. very small head of cauliflower.
1. 8" link of sweet sausage, or 3 shorter ones.
2 to 3 cups of dry pasta, preferably fusili, or penne rigate.

All of this comes together really fast. Dinner can be ready in 20 to 30 minutes if you do your prep work all at once.

Stay tuned to see how all of this comes together. And it really is super tasty.

Recipes are coming up again soon: try artichoke hearts, black olives, and sundried tomatoes on for size.

I feel guilty that I haven't posted any new "Well Fed Writer" recipes lately. I cooked up another two which were very well received, by my partner and guests. They weren't anything special, but the ingredients, while unusual, were very inexpensive. With my strategic shopping method - basically menu planning a week ahead of time we get to eat three or four different dishes each 4 to 7 days. And with alternating leftovers, it's like something different for dinner every day. It's a taste-bud treat. All of the recipes leave enough for one lunch the next day, or the day after if properly stored in the fridge.

Before I go further with this though, I will give credit to whom credit is due: my older brother, Tony. He is the one who first came up with this recipe from "Eating Well" magazine about a dozen years ago. I've just taken it up a few notches over the years by experimenting and substituting here and there so that it now is a very hearty meal for 2, with leftovers. Ya gotta stretch that dollar these days, and I've been doing a lot of stretching for the past few years. I'm a master now.

Just to get you in the right mindset, buy the following ingredients for starters: 1small jar of marinated artichoke hearts (should be 4 in there), 1 can of pitted/sliced black olives, a pack of decent bacon (you'll) only need 1/3 of it for this recipe - the rest you'll put in zip lock freezer bags and freeze for later use. Find some sundried tomatoes. They're usually in specialty food sections of grocery stores, but you might have to ask around. If you can't find the sundried tomatoes, try a small jar of sundried tomato pesto. If you can't find either, well they're not crucial to this recipe. They just add a bit of an interesting tang to this concoction. If you have 2 or 3 relatively fresh large or extra large eggs in the fridge, that's great. Otherwise, splurge and buy a dozen of the least expensive ones. (The brown egg conspiracy is all an evil marketing ploy, so white eggs are fine.) I highly recommend about 2 & 1/2 cups of dry pasta (go with Rotini, sometimes called Fusili, as a backup you can use Penne Rigate but the eggs won't cook up as nicely on them as on the Fusili.) And for a garnish, a nice shredded, as opposed to grated, parmesan cheese, to your taste, is fantastic (If you know your cheeses as I do, asiago is a nice treat instead of trusty old parmesan. Also you could crumble a bit of Danish Blue or English Stilton on top, but only after you've mastered this super easy recipe.) And a wee bit of coarsely chopped parsley (fresh preferred - since you can dry the unused sprigs yourself in the microwave, crush them and store them for the next time and not pay something like a million dollars for a little spice jar worth). Oh I almost forgot: 3-5 cloves of garlic, 1 small red onion, and I do believe that's it.

If I have time this afternoon, I'll post the recipe by this evening, but this writer has an apartment to clean, go out and enjoy this gorgeous, crisp early December day, come home to wash dishes and make another el-cheapo pasta dinner (thanks to all Italians) for me and my bug.

If I wake up again at 5:00 am again, I'll post this recipe early tomorrow morning while having my coffee and smokes. (Hey what would a writer be without coffee and smokes?)

Saturday: I'm up this early??

I haven't done any serious writing for the past few days. I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I get a case of creative burn-out if I work on something to the point of obsession, as was the case with "Storm Drain". However, that doesn't mean that I stop thinking of other projects. They're always with me, fermenting in my brain until a critical mass is reached and out they come. My subission piece for the Arts Council is just such a case. I initially wrote it about 6-months ago, but, as is often the case with material written during a hypomanic phase of my bipolar II condition, the work is terribly overwritten. I actually am too afraid to look at it for fear of it being nothing but a rant. Usually, though, I can find usable material in my hypomanic ramblings. It takes ruthless editing on  my part. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Otherwise, everything has been going well. I've tested more recipes that will be posted shortly. They're really inexpensive and tasty, so get a shopping list going and try some of them out.

Techno-stupid

OK. Can someone tell me  how to stop following my own blog? I was trying to do the friend connect thing, and lo and behold I'm a member of my own audience.

Writer's Block?More Than Likely It's Burn-Out.

I didn't work on any of my projects both yesterday and today. No, it's not that I'm lazy, it's called writer's block by some in this profession. That's not the case with me. I call it life just getting in the way. I recently finished the piece for my  mom's birthday. I was at it every day for about two weeks for 10-hours each day. Man I'm cross-eyed, and feeling burnt out. It happens to me sometimes when I really focus on a project and think of nothing else. I put all of my creative energy into it, and more often than not I forget to eat. I just drink Dr. Pepper and smoke instead.

I know I'll be at it again soon. I'm working on my application piece for the Ontario Arts Council. I hope to get a grant from them so that I can finish the research and write a long work. The grants are worth peanuts. But when you make peanuts, any little bit helps. I'll post the application piece once it's finished. I hope someone will read it and give me feedback. It's pretty graphic, but sets up a very, very riveting plot. Jeez, I hope I'll make kajillions of dollars on it internationally.... Seriously, I do hope for that. More importantly though, it's a compelling story, based on actual events in January 2009 through to November 2009. It deserves to be told. I'm good at this sort of stuff. ... Here's hoping!

Well Fed Writer's Comments

I just posted the final, edited version of "Storm Drain", the story I wrote for my mother's upcoming birthday. I think it's more focused than the original version. I cut a fair amount of descriptive text as I tend to over write that way. I also restructured the sentences into more active voice. I think it moves better as a result. If you're visiting my blog please leave comments on the two versions and let me know which you prefer.