Cooking Experiment: Mexican Lasagna and Applesauce Sorbet

Not both at once, that would be silly. ^_^

Lacking any better ideas, I decided to try making a Mexican-style lasagna-- well, I was thinking of making chili, but I decided that I wanted something a bit more solid. I iterated on that thought a bit, toward chili meatloaf and chili burgers, and eventually settled on a variation of something I'd made before, an enchilada casserole.

I began with sautee'ing ground turkey, seasoned with chili powder, cumin seed and ground cumin, and black pepper. I set that aside, then cooked some chopped carrots and zucchini, enough to make them al dente but not so much they became squishy, added bell pepper strips, white kidney beans (I had no idea there was such a thing but they are apparently high in fiber) and black beans, then mixed the turkey back in along with a small jar of chipotle salsa, and that took care of the filling.

For the actual lasagna, I layered two large whole wheat flour tortillas, filling, mozzy cheese, and repeated this twice, with the last layer having shredded cheddar cheese and crumbled rice-and-beans chips sprinkled on top for crunch. I baked this at 350 degrees for 40 minutes in the oven.

( Cut for image! )

Shopping is Fun: Sur la Table and the Walking Company

I blame tugrik!

His sous vide cooking experiments look really good, so I figure why not give it a try? Seems like to use one though, you need a stock pot or other basin that can tolerate being heated to sous vide temperatures, and a FoodSaver or similar device to vacuum seal meat and veggies into bags. So, after doing some research, I decided to get the relatively cheap and straightforward Cusinart Vacuum Sealer, along with a stock pot from Sur la Table.

Shopping surprise #1: to assist shoppers in getting their purchases to the car, they had some strips of plastic tape that could be cut to length and peeled back on each end to reveal the sticky side, and would attach to either side of the boxes, becoming convenient handles. Nifty! They worked pretty well and peeled off without too much trouble.

I decided to cruise the rest of the street mall to see what was interesting, and spotted a place called 'The Walking Company'. "Hmm, me, let's go check that out," I thought to myself. "Maybe they'll have walking sticks or something."

Nope... It was a shoe store! But hey, I'd been meaning to look into some new shoes anyway, so I asked if they had velcro shoes. They did, but only on their website, and would I like to order it through them? A glance at the shoe sizes revealed a rather... complete selection of sizes. "Say, how do I find out what shoe size I am, anyway?"

( SCIENCE! (cut for image) )