Or, this entry could be called 'The Effects of Television'.
I redid my TiVo lineup the other day, got rid of reruns of That 70s Show (as I've seen every episode in the last couple of months, and find myself all too quick to use something from the show as a reference in everyday life -- kind of like Eric on That 70s Show is always making Star Wars references in every possible situation) and added a couple of FoodTV shows.
One of those shows is $40 a day, which I used to watch, but then FoodTV changed its call letters or something and confused my poor TiVo. The other one I added is 30 Minute Meals. They are both hosted by the same person, Rachael Ray, whom I like even though she spells her name wrong.
So over the last few days, I have watched no less than 5 episodes of 30 Minute Meals. I decided that I would cook up some stuff today that I could have for dinners and lunches this week. A fine plan, indeed.
Freshly under the influence of Rachael, I rush out and buy all sorts of delicious sounding things. Ginger root to grate, fresh cilantro, limes, couscous. Also kool-aid, which I don't think she recommends.
When I got home, I made two different dishes. The first is pretty boring. Just brown rice, black beans, and corn, to be served with plenty of super-spicy salsa. This is a tried and true quick dinner that I eat often.
The other dish was my masterpiece. I whipped together a marinade of olive oil, lime juice, grated ginger, crushed garlic, cilantro, smashed mango, and of course some cayenne pepper. I let the chicken soak in it for a while, and in the meantime I cooked up the couscous (which I must use more -- it took 5 minutes to cook, and is quite tasty) and began chopping up stuff to add to it.
To the couscous I added: minced red pepper, green onions, chopped cilantro, diced mango, and half of a chopped up lime. (I added the other half to the cherry koolaid -- gourmet koolaid, whee!) Then I grilled the chicken on my George Foreman grill (as silly as the thing sounds, it does work superbly for this sort of thing) and sort of pulled it apart with forks when it was done, then added it to the couscous mixture.
I added a bit more olive oil, some salt, and a bit more cayenne pepper, then added up the pulled-apart chicken. (I use the 'breast tenders' so the pieces are pretty little to start with.) Then I had a bowl for dinner. I was SO impressed with it. It turned out very good. I think that next time I'll use more couscous, because it sort of got lost with everything else. That was the only downside, though.
I also spent way too much time tonight messing around looking up geneaology stuff. I found a list of Snoddy researchers that has been active for about seven years, and I think I found some hookups, but there is a crucial missing link where there's no information. But if it does hook up like I think it does, (and it almost has to, there are so many maiden names of the women in question that are middle names of the men that I know I'm related to) then I've found information back into the 1700s.
The girls are home for a while tomorrow. We shall spend our time in a whirlwind of washing clothes and watching all (well, maybe just some, there are 10 hours' worth) of the 'I Love the 70s' episodes from VH1 that I've been recording for Abby.
Posted by Rachel at August 24, 2003 01:17 AM