This picture of today's breakfast, rice with apricots, cup of tea, presents a challenge to my tea cred and a cooking mystery.
The tea is fine, made with good leaves, boiling water, in a pot. Last night.
I get so tired of getting up and making breakfast tea that I'm treating it like coffee, making ahead, reheating when I need a cup.
Not as good as fresh brewed, but acceptable before I get my eyes open. But I expect to have my membership in Posh Tea Fanciers revoked any time now.
The rice is a bit crunchy, despite being simmered for several hours last evening, then refrigerated overnight.
I think the mixture of milk and water may have dramatically slowed down the cooking process. Or something.
I usually cook rice in water then add the milk and continue cooking. Maybe I'll resume that approach. If anyone knowledgeable about food chemistry can explain, please do.
And here's one of those reports of "scientific" findings that could be funny if it were less annoying and likely to be believed. Probably by people unused to looking at the premise then considering winding it back to see if it's backwards reasoning. Ratcheting is what I call that where you can't turn it back on itself.
They don't indicate who did the studies, graduate students? Undergraduate social work majors? Or how big was the sample and where drawn? Ten of the writer's friends? A dorm floor?
Because I think you can certainly reverse both propositions to claim that people who are easily distracted tend to have messy desks. And that people who make healthy choices may tend to keep their workspace organized and neat.
There's also a school of thought that says out of clutter come great ideas. That a totally tidy house is a preparation for death.
I'm just sayin'. This is coming from a maker with many interests, who, between projects is neat, the better to start up again. But in mid-flow, the best word would be welter.
Anyway that's where I am, after no walking because of days of rain, now threatening ice. Possibly a little stir crazy.
Bear with me!
My grandfather always warmed tea, in the days before microwaves. I understand it now.
ReplyDeleteNot only will the Posh Tea Fanciers revoke your membership, they will drum you out of the organization with full pomp and circumstance. If you have epaulettes, they will rip them off. And your teapot will be smashed to smithereens on the floor. Don't cross them.
ReplyDeleteMy father used to make a pot of coffee and leave it sitting around a day or two while he drank it. (He'd turn the heat off and then heat up individual cupfuls in the microwave.) I thought it was the grossest thing ever. LOL
ReplyDeleteGood point about the chicken-and-egg question regarding messy desks!
Debra, I see you're leading the charge! Oh oh.
ReplyDeleteSteve, more power to your father!
Marie, I think we're uncovering a secret community of shameful rewarmers right here today.. and the opposition they face..
ReplyDeleteTotally lost my tea cred - I drink iced tea. I make it in a glass pitcher and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. I also drink iced coffee. But on cool mornings I do love a cup of fresh, hot coffee or tea.
ReplyDeleteI cook my rice in chicken broth for added flavor.
ReplyDeleteI keep reading you should not heat your water for tea in the microwave and I don't understand why. Isn't boiling water the same no matter how you heat it?
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ReplyDeleteWell, these days there are thermoses that will keep a cup or so of hot beverage pretty darn hot for quite awhile. I wonder if that would work with your tea?
ReplyDeleteI have no opinion about messy desks but I will say that if things are relatively tidy around here, I do feel better about life in general. But I think this is an individual thing. Some people don't seem to dislike clutter at all.
I, too, have found that cooking rice with milk really slows down the cooking process. Same with tomatoes and dried beans. I do not have proof nor do I know the science.
Saw a show where cooking chemistry is explained. They added baking soda to something (forget what), that I would not ever have thought of. I suspect cooking rice in milk isn't a good idea. I tend to think adding tomatoes to my soup before the lentils, stops the lentils from cooking tjrough.
ReplyDeleteComment box at the bottom goes into the text about moderation making edit on the last line near impossible.
Mary I have an expensive thermos which lasted a few months and I would fill it with fresh tea at night to drink early morning. It stopped working, and this is the new approach.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the milk, I bet it's about fat content or something slowing up the process.
Bonnie I don't think I could cook rice for a dessert pudding in anything other than water, really. I don't know about microwave heating water for tea, because I don't do teabags. But yes, I'd have thought the tea wouldn't care how the water was boiled
SP it's traditional to make rice pudding by cooking the rice slowly in the milk. Usually though, it's done in the oven. I was just trying the stovetop to see. Maybe next time I'll do it my mom's way in the oven. I just wanted a quick dessert! Noooo.
I must be one of the few people who likes rather crunchy rice! I do like to make tea or coffee fresh in the morning, although I wouldn't like to say if it tastes better. But the ritual of doing it is nice. I definitely agree with you about messy people being easily distracted. That is certainly why MY desk tends to be untidy!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to cook some rice tonight for fried rice to go with the egg rolls I made. My favorite rice is short grain brown which Has gotten almost impossible to get. Whole foods which I have to go in the city for and on line which is what I'll have to do.
ReplyDeleteI usually like jasmine brown as a go-to rice.
ReplyDeleteMy BFF had a teddy bear she treasured, made from her mother's furs. I knit it a sweater and hat with ear holes. Her friend saw the ensemble, wanted it and asked me to make it. I said No, thank you. She badgered me for the evening. Finally I told her then my friend's bear outfit wouldn't be special. I hope she found one. With a little ingenuity you can convert a child's cap.
ReplyDeleteIt was good of you to make the outfit and keep it special, too.
ReplyDeleteThe bear in my picture was owned by my dear friend who died. So it's precious to me. It's also very expressive.
There must be something in the air, Ellen Abbott. Fried rice here tonight (except the rice was really barley, and oven baked instead of fried).
ReplyDeleteI too "usually cook rice in water then add the milk and continue cooking". Interesting about the crunchiness you experienced even hours after simmering. I agree with Ms. Moon and Salty Pumpkin Studio about legumes and tomatoes. We learned that the hard way, so to speak.
News from Boise: A Minor Winnowing has begun. Within minutes of posting a worm bin in an online forum, it was claimed. And it only took one email to find an environmental educator eager to adopt three boxes of animal skulls and pelts from my teaching decades ago. A most satisfying state of affairs! I appreciate a somewhat tidy house but rarely attain such a state.
Chris from Boise
It's so satisfying to find good homes quickly for stuff that's outstayed its welcome. Congratulations on the Winnowing. I must say your items are pretty niche compared to the surplus dishes and DVDs we usually hear about!
ReplyDeleteI believe that a home can be cozy without clutter. If I'm busy or tired I'll put the clutter in the bedroom I don't use and close the door. Then deal with when I can. At my age, it sometimes gets to be "out of sight, out of mind."
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden, we eat a rice porridge for desert on Christmas Eve. There's one almond in it and if a young person gets the almond, she/he will be married within the year. If old, I believe you may get rich, not sure about that one.
Will being “stir crazy” perhaps help you in your cooking? 😎
ReplyDeleteInger, yes, cosy is about warmth and comfortable seating and color, I think. Interesting note about the rice porridge, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAC groan. That is all.
I am enjoying the comments here as much as your post. It's funny what people chose to be snobbish about. Not here, but in what I'm now imagining to be in Posh Tea Fancier circles.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments about the "studies". Here's the thing... the wording of the first example can be interpreted two different ways (i.e. switching around which thing is the cause and which thing is the effect) and it still be true (if it is true). That makes it a pretty worthless and lazy statement - not worthy of time spent on any "studies". Of course, the wording could be attributed to the writer at apartmenttherapy.com. I'd like to think so. The second example, I find a bit dubious for the reasons you mention (a confusion about which thing is the cause and which thing is the effect). Or could also simply be lazy writing from someone at apartmenttherapy.com...
During these recent snow days I've been working on my "craft room" and I'm coming to accept that I simply still have too much stuff. The question that has yet to be answered is, "am I willing to part with any of it"? I am stalled at the moment, with no clear answer in sight. I've gotten my desk relatively tidy, and it's not helping me at all to make either healthier OR more charitable choices. Instead, I ordered a new shelving unit. :^\
Now if you report that desk situation to a research study group, I expect they could come up with "proof" that tidiness prevents decluttering.. Or that organizing leads to more furniture purchases.
ReplyDeleteYes, my thought was that distraction would lead to a messy desk rather than the other way around. I know cos that's me.
ReplyDeleteHealthy choices and neatness? Not sure about that one.
A story about tea - my MIL was a tea person and she would get up in the morning and make a giant pot of tea (granite tea pot - large) and set it on the back burner of the stove on simmer, leaving the tea bags in. She, and whoever would happen to visit, would drink away at it and as it got low in would go more tea bags and more hot water. Note, I did NOT say she removed ANY of the bags! When I started dating Resident Chef I would always offer to make the evening tea because I could start fresh. One night I emptied 21 (yes, you read that right!) tea bags out of that pot that had been simmering all day. Talk about putting hair on your chest!!! To this day I can't bring myself to like black tea.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite an introduction to tea!
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