Stand Aside

eggplant tempura with mascarpone and blueberry

: Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I’m in a recipe mood. I tend to post up many of my meals on Facebook and receive lots of comments. Frequently its, what is the recipe. So in an effort to further clutter my blog with unrelated material – I will now post recipes here and there. Maybe it will help me to post more frequently and I can get back to the subject matter which most of you are more interested in. Marketing. Advertising. Business. Current Events. My take on all of that jazz.

Anyways, let’s get back to this eggplant business. I had acquired quite the large eggplant this past summer. Now, I was able to make 3 different dishes out of that one vegetable for myself. The most snack-tastic were these tempura eggplant sticks. So freakin’ tasty! I added a mascarpone cheese topping with blueberries to give it a sweet and clean finish. I’m a big fan of healthy dishes and this is definitely up there.

Eggplant is a relative of tomatoes, potatoes, and … tobacco. It is native to India and shows up in a lot of Indian, Arabic and Asian dishes. Different species (cultivars) of Eggplant are usually classified by their size, shape and color. I had a large, purple elongated-ovoid type which translates to the big, purple, long, and oval.

Eggplant Tempura with Mascarpone and Blueberry

eggplant
egg
flour
ice water
salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
mascarpone cheese
heavy cream
fresh blueberries
Olive, canola, or peanut oil

Peel entire eggplant. Slice into 1/4″ wide and 2 1/2″ long strips. In mixing bowl beat egg with ice water. Then add flour until mixture becomes thick and slightly lumpy. Season the mixture with an 1/8 teaspoon cayenne. Pour oil into a saucepan or pot to make a 3″ depth on medium to high heat. Carefully drop a droplet or two of water into the oil to see if it crackles. IF so, your oil is hot and ready. Line a separate plate or bowl with paper towels. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper, dip into tempura batter, and carefully place into frying liquid. With metal tongs or a fryer basket let the eggplant slightly brown on one side. Then flip to brown the other side. Once cooked after about 4-6 min, begin laying them on the towels to dry. You can keep them warm in the oven on low if you’d like. Mix the mascarpone cheese with heavy cream and blueberry in a bowl until smooth and light. Serve the eggplant on a platter with mascarpone and blueberry as dipping sauce.

kale chips au sel de mer

: Image via Wikipedia

Looking for a healthy and tasty snack? Kale chips are definitely high on my list. Kale is a cabbage type vegetable in the same family as broccoli, collard greens, and brussel sprouts. Its high in iron, calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and beta carotenoids. It has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties which basically means keeps your skin youthful, and might help reduce the risk of cancer.

To make the Kale into chips involves a very simple process of prepping, seasoning, and baking.

Ingredients:

Kale (1-2 bunches)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Olive oil

Begin by splitting the Kale leaves down the stem and removing the stiff parts of the stem with a sharp knife. Slice the large kale leaves into chip-sized pieces. Throw out the stems. Place the leaves into a mixing bowl. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil over the leaves. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sea salt and tablespoon of black pepper onto the leaves. Preheat your oven to 250°. Use your hands to toss and mix the leaves so that the oil and seasoning evenly coats them. Try not to use a spoon as it may damage some of the leaves. Cover a flat baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the leaves out evenly on the baking sheet in a single layer. Don’t let them overlap. Use a second baking sheet if needed. Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes until leaves are dry and crispy. Remove and lay them on paper towels to cool and collect oil.

Serve warm or room temp and enjoy.

*Tip* Freeze the Kale in the fridge for an hour and a half. Thaw, then begin the recipe. The chips will take on a slightly sweet flavor.

internet-based interest groups aka meetups

: Image via CrunchBase

Meetup.com provides a platform that connects people via the internet along common interests. It’s similar to meeting people at the gym and connecting on fitness and other aspects of life. However, Meetup gives us the power of the internet to connect with others! Type a search term in the topic/interest field, follow it up with a zip code of where you’d like to Meetup and voila! Instant Meetup satisfaction. Other tools that make finding like-minded people easier are the Trending, New in-your-area, and Upcoming fields. Don’t know who you want to meet, just browse the menu of categories.

Turns out its not just a website, but a social concept. As the world grows larger and people spread, core social groups are created, transitioned, lost, and updated. Since it is essential to our health to maintain interpersonal relationships we strive to facilitate our interactions. Family is generally our first experience with social groups and relationships. It gives us a benchmark to either find more like it or escape from those that are like it. Either way we are trained to thrive in social groups. More often than not keeping a social group is difficult in the modern, western world as circumstances and situations change. Take this scenario: Mario grows up with his mother, father, and younger sister. They live in a suburban area and have an enjoyable life. Mario’s father leaves the family when he is 8 years old. Mario, his mother, and sister move to a new state near extended family. Growing up he goes to college out of state. He returns to find his sister in another state at college. His mother is busily working and living her life. Mario gets a job offer across the country. He moves, and immediately identifies with no one. What to do?

Join Meetup. Dating sites are actually all the rage nowadays and make for a great way to meet people too.

EDIT: Honestly, I began writing this a long time ago and forgot where I was going with it. Moral of the day > Finish that which you start within a reasonable amount of time.

links for 2010-08-19

Names and narrative: A catastrophe by any other name | The Economist

Language has always been an interest of mine. The figuratives and literals of different cultures can make such a difference in communication. I tend to listen…

(tags: language economist linguistics foreignrelations)
Wall Street Lukewarm to Hulu IPO Plans

Hulu needs a business model to make sure their IPO goals don't crumble…

(tags: 2010 hulu onlinevideo finance)

Integrated de.li.ci.ous and WordPress for Blackberry

So I definitely need to kick it up a notch with my blogging. Enter stage right: de.li.ci.ous and Blackberry.

Especially since my life has been full of downtime the past couple of weeks. A little history here: I fractured my foot while running recently. Such a small injury has forced me to revisit how I live my life. Depending on others to help me out doing many things which I had taken for granted. Getting to work, getting lunch, grocery shopping, laundry … and the list goes on. Hopefully in another 2-4 weeks I’ll be back on my ‘foot’ to accomplish my normal routine independently. Shortly thereafter I’m getting back on my mountain bike and heading back to my rock climbing group.

By the way, speaking of my mountain bike. I bought a new one recently as my last was stolen. Check it out, a beaut’ in my own biased opinion!

mountain bike

Yes, stolen. So I revisited my locking mechanism which was very apparently faulted. The perpetrator cut through my heavy gauge steel combination lock. Now I’ve upgraded to Kryptonite’s ULock which is great for locking the bike up on stops as I ride through the city. I’ll have to share my great experience with Kryptonite in another post.

Back to de.li.ci.ous and Blackberry integration. Delicious was very simple to tie into my blog. I’ve used it previously to link blog when I was hosting on TypePad. Now with WordPress and my own hosting I’ve made sure to include so that I can link-blog. Logged into delicious, clicked Settings, entered in my blog information and Presto! I have a working link-blog.

WordPress for Blackberry was easily downloaded via their App World. Now I can blog on-the-go and will probably have to remember to keep my posts on topic as being out causes me to thing about Food-blogging a lot. Something I do on my personal Facebook account. Anyway, I encourage integrating many different types of blogging in order to keep the mind engaged. We humans have short attention spans; text can only go so far.

: Image via Wikipedia