2020: Week 41

October 5, 2020 – October 11, 2020

I got sick midweek. I am waiting on a test result, but my region has a low case count, so it is likely just an autumn cold. I was worn out and isolating at home, but that gave me some time to start a new cooking project. See far down below for my meal prep and recipe list.

Bucket List Items Accomplished

• Make baghrir (Moroccan semolina pancakes). These ended up a bit of a disaster, but an attempt was made.
• Make atole (masa harina drink)
• Make matzo ball soup
• Make tamagozake
• Do a large puzzle solo
• Make crepes

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Things I Enjoyed this Week

• My 30 day exercise challenge continues, and week four fell flat on its face since I was sick. I only managed two days of exercise. I’ll extend the challenge another week to make up for all my missed days.
  1. Aerial silks class
  2. Walk

• I want to continue posting the new words I find in the wild from books or podcasts.
  1. Tumulus – mound of earth over a grave, burial mound, barrow
  2. Nacreous – like mother of pearl, iridescent
  3. Gnomic – expressed in concise, pithy aphorisms, or seemingly wise, but difficult to understand

• I watched no Oscar Best Picture Winners.

• I taught myself the following constellations this week.
  • Aquarius – The water bearer. Aquarius is a zodiac constellation. Often depicted as a young man pouring water from an amphora into the mouth of Piscis Austrinus. Aquarius is often associated with the beautiful Ganymede, who was whisked away by Zeus in his eagle form to serve as the cup-bearer for the gods in Olympus.
  • Capricornus – The horned sea goat. Capricornus is also a zodiac constellation. A faint constellation, Capricornus contains the Messier 30 globular cluster of stars. Until 130 BCE, the sun appeared in Capricornus during the winter solstice. Capricornus is sometimes associated with the goat, Amalthea, who suckled a very young Zeus after his mother, Rhea, rescued him from being devoured by Cronos, his father.
  • Pisces – The fishes. Pisces is yet another zodiac constellation. Pisces contains a number of galaxies including a pair that are colliding. Pisces is associated with the Greek myth that saw Aphrodite and her son Eros escape danger either in the form of two fishes, or on the backs of two fishes.
  • Piscis Austrinus – The great fish that swallows the water being poured by Aquarius. The two fish of Pisces are said to be its descendants.

Meal Prep and New Recipes Tried

I am going to attempt to cook something new everyday for a month and cook 30 recipes from 30 countries in 30 days. I have started with some different breakfast foods after being inspired by some YouTuber’s recent videos. Great Big Story’s What Breakfast Is Like Around the World and Trying 7 Breakfasts from Around the World, Stephanie Buttermore’s I Ate Breakfast from a Different Country Every Day for 1 Week, and Johnny Harris’ How I Stopped Hating Breakfast. I love breakfast of all kinds. Exploring new breakfast options has been such a delight. Many of these have also been surprisingly easy to make and made with ingredients that are quite common here. I ate some of these for lunch or dinner, but I am a huge fan of all day breakfast, so this has been perfect for me.

• Baghrir (Moroccan semolina pancakes) from Amira’s Pantry. These were somewhat disastrous for me. After the first pancake, they wouldn’t turn out very bubbly. The tops were also gummy and a bit undercooked while the bottoms were overdone. I tried playing around with the temperature, but seemed to have the same problems regardless. I think my batter texture was uneven and a bit off since I tried furiously mixing by hand instead of blending. I’ll have to try these again sometime.
• Cachapas (Venezuelan corn pancakes with cheese) from Global Table Adventure. I added an egg white to the batter since I had one in the fridge, and used goat cheese for the filling. These had such a delicious corn flavour and the gooey cheese complemented them perfectly.
• Rosti (Swiss potato pancake) from Helvetic Kitchen. The crispy, salty outside of this pancake/hashbrowns is to die for. It is worth being patient for. I served mine with a gooey fried egg and carmelized red onion.
• Besan Chilla (Indian chickpea flour pancakes) from Vegan Richa. A spicy and flavourful start to the day, with a delicious serving of vegetables in the form of diced red onion, zucchini, and cilantro added to the batter. I served them with some pumpkin chutney and sriracha.
• Simit Bread (Turkish sesame seed “bagels”) from Amira’s Pantry. These turned out beautifully with a divine sesame crunch and light molasses flavour. They are usually served with a soft white cheese or hard boiled eggs. I used goat cheese, and it was delicious.
• Nalysnyky/Nalesniki (Ukrainian/Polish cottage cheese stuffed crepes) from the Rusnaks. I made the baked sweet version with sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla mixed into the cottage cheese filling. I think if I do them again, I might do the fried version so they are crispy.

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I made these other recipes this week. Lots of cold remedies and comforting drinks.

• Matzo Ball Soup from Jamie Geller. The perfect food for a cold.
• Wild Rose Hip Tea from Earth Food and Fire. I made this using the rose hips I gathered from a park last week. Served with some honey, this was a boon to my sore throat when I was home sick this week.
• Corn Masa Harina Atole with Milk from Mexico in my Kitchen. This is a filling and comforting hot drink with a good cinnamon and corn flavour. I used Silk cashew milk and just made a single serving. It was so thick, warm, and creamy. Apparently this is also used as a drink for convalescents since the corn flour provides some nutrition.
• I also made the chocolate version of atole called Champurrado from Mexican Please’s recipe. I didn’t have any Mexican chocolate discs, but went with their suggested substitution of dark chocolate, with extra sugar, and cinnamon.
• Tamagozake from Umami Insider. This is a cold remedy from Japan that is a sort of sake based eggnog. I love amazake, which is a sweet drink made from sake lees or rice koji, and the sake smell of this drink made me reminisce about it.

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Updates

• I’m continuing my quest to watch more scary movies this October. Here is the list I would like to get through. I watched Halloween, Hellraiser, and Child’s Play this week.
  1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  2. The Thing
  3. Halloween
  4. Alien
  5. Scream
  6. Carrie
  7. Gremlins
  8. Hellraiser
  9. Child’s Play
  10. Poltergeist

• If I get through those other movies, here are some more I’ll keep in my back pocket to keep the spooky vibe going all month.
  1. The Cabin in the Woods
  2. Eraserhead
  3. The Fog
  4. Suspiria
  5. Misery
  6. Pet Semetary
  7. Bride Of Frankenstein
  8. The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
  9. Nosferatu
  10. Audition
  11. Let the Right One In
  12. Get Out
  13. The Conjuring
  14. The Others
  15. The Last House on the Left
  16. The Human Centipede
  17. The Omen
  18. It Follows
  19. The Babadook
  20. Heriditary
  21. Midsommar