Tag Archives: Southern fried tofu

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, home stuff, pets, Uncategorized, Walking by

A nice walk in the park @ 6am so not dark but predawn. The jerk was still there but then left @ 6:15 so we had the path to ourselves. Nice!! The Easter christians were there for their annual sunrise thing but we avoided them.

The first iris are blooming now and so is the white camellia tree.

When we moved here almost 26 years ago there wasn’t much salvageable. But there were 3 camellia bushes. These were most likely heirloom from the 50’s. The only one to survive is this white one which is now more of a tree.

Under the camellia tree is buried Ollie and Finwe. Gosh, I still miss them everyday!!

This week is the kitchen zone. Because of all the painting and moving things, I don’t need to wipe a lot of shelves. Plus, I’ve been keeping up on some things I normally do in the K zone week, like the windows. It shouldn’t take too long to do.

For Easter/ Spring dinner( we don’t celebrate Easter), I’m making Southern Fried tofu which is just like it sounds. Like fried chicken but tofu. I dip the tofu( be sure it is pressed for a few hours) in an egg wash then coat with a blend of parmesan and bread crumbs.Then I fry. I serve it with a homemade tartar sauce made up of mayo,green olives, parsley and stone ground mustard. I usually make potato salad but I think I’ll do macaroni today.

The painting commences today and hopefully we will be done till we tackle the bedroom which was,as I said previously, kind of a mistake to start. Now we will need to finish it. That’s okay we’ll do it soon. I guess I didn’t realize the touch ups I was doing were so dramatically different even though it’s the same paint. It’ll look fresh and bright when it’s done.

So today is Friday?And tofu recipe!

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized by

I guess I was off by a day yesterday. I thought it was Friday, thus the edited post.

Oh well, I’m going to blame it on getting back from Tahoe on Monday and that throwing the week off. I mean we didn’t do Taco Tuesday so it was all messed up. Just kidding.  Well, maybe not.  It’s going to be very hot today @ 105. This has been the hottest summer I can remember here.

Well, I’m not doing a lot today except drop off the Cancer thrift store stuff.  Then some laundry and I took down the Ikea cotton curtains in my office area to wash.

Tonight is Friday night pizza, but I think we’re ordering take out. It’s just too hot to cook even on the BBQ which is where I’ve done the pizzas all summer.

A very nice reader asked how I made the baked tofu. Well, a little history here to date me… Way back in the early 70’s when there was no Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s etc.. there wasn’t tofu in stores except maybe Asian markets and that had horrible additives and tasted pretty awful… so, I made my own tofu. Believe me, it wasn’t really all that much fun, was extremely labor intensive and you got a teeny piece of tofu in the end.  So we didn’t start using tofu till we moved to California in 1975 and then tofu was just starting on the scene.

I learned to cook tofu every which way.

So to do the baked tofu that is like the Wildwood seasoned tofu, you press your tofu for a few hours. I put mine in a dish and put a cast iron skillet on top. This presses the water out. Then I cut the tofu in half and then slice the halves thin so like little squares. Then I make a marinade of tamari (soy sauce), garlic, a little olive oil Or any oil, freshly grated ginger if I have it. Then marinade as long as you can. Even an hour is good overnight better. Then bake in the oven for @ 40 minutes at 350.  You can flip half way thru if your OC about it. That’s it . We eat it like this cold in salads or whatever.

My southern fried tofu is breaded.  Again press the tofu for an hour or so. The best tofu for this recipe is Wildwood extra firm and that you don’t need to press.  Then cut in half and then little fingers. So each piece is @ 1/4 ” by the length of the tofu so maybe 2″. IMG_0390

Then you’ll need 2 bowls. One. add 1 egg and a little water and whip together. The other bread crumbs and grated parmesan. (This is NOT a LOW calorie dish). Then dip in egg first then bread crumbs. I often do this twice to get a nice crust.

Then add oil to a heavy cast iron skillet or pan and heat up The oil should be maybe and inch or so but I have used less. Then when it’s hot start frying. Just keep adding the tofu and turning ones done on one side.

Then we serve this with homemade tartar sauce which I use mayonnaise, red onion, green olives, mustard, and basil. All chopped up of course. I make this for 4th of July and special occasions.

I have experimented with baking the tofu and it’s good but not as good.

 

 

Rainy again

Posted in budgeting, cooking, minimalism, Uncategorized by

It’s a rainy Monday. We walked in the park and it was just misting.  Yesterday, there was an Easter service that we walked by. And there were 3 sets of new baby goslings.  Unfortunately today we saw a Canada goose had been gotten by a coyote or mountain lion and feathers were everywhere. And there were only 2 sets of parents.  Canada Geese are extraordinarily fierce with their young so it must have really tried to protect the babies. WE did count the babies and I got to 19 so maybe some of the ones of killed goose went over to the other parents. I hope so.

We had southern fried tofu for Easter dinner. Of course, we don’t celebrate Easter as such, just as a renewal of a new cycle of life. Not based on Jesus. So I made a potato salad and we had some deviled eggs. I didn’t fry the tofu but baked and you’d think the end of the world had come. I guess I’m not doing that again.  It was pretty good just not quite as tasty as when I fry them.

This week is not too busy. I have an Invisalign appt, and that’s it. Plus I’ll go to the Koffee Klatch on Thursday.  I have a good size load of Life magazines to go the Humane Society Thrift store.  There are some great ones from the 40’s going but it’s just the way it needs to be. Plus the van is full of Foodbank boxes so I’ll do that tomorrow on the way to the gym.

Next week are my labs so that’ll be interesting. At some point, my light chains will begin to increase and then who know. For now, I live each day as if it is a gift.  Life is precious, non-essential live it as fully as you can.

 

One thing about minimalism is that as you clear the nonessential, you really begin to experience things differently. DEfinetely clearer and more in touch with what is around you. It’s a process for sure.  I have to say, every time declutter or look at what is it I want around me, I’m surprised at what the answer to that is. I want my house to be clean, clear of stuff and just a simple place to live, cook and be. It’s getting there.

They’ll be a lot of no spend days this week as the budget is used up. We have a DMV to pay and that’s about it. So, freezer meals and pantry plus what I bought at Costco. Lots of salads.

Tonight is pasta night. I’m thinking an alfredo with a big salad.