It has been a relaxing day. Pretty relaxing week off too.
I am learning from the resident felines to not get worked-up about house cleaning and all those unglamorous domestic duties.
It’s a rainy week but that’s fine. I am still enjoying the happy times from our Thanksgiving weekend. I have nowhere to go until tomorrow so I decided to get in some comfort food cooking.
Surely like thousands of other Canadians, I was getting tired of turkey leftovers so I made some sticky rice and okra stew. I added in leftover sliced onions, cooked potatoes and some ripening tomatoes. Funny thing is that in my relaxed, “don’t give a hoot” state I forgot to add the garlic!
It still turned out to be a tasty comfort food treat. Two out of three humans agree. One hasn’t tried it yet.
See below for the basic process and improvised recipe. It’s quite easy and likely contains some of the needed vitamins for your winter-prepping body. I don’t know about the sticky rice though. That stuff is sticky and likely full of carbs.
I don’t usually add potatoes.
This stuff tastes best out of the pot. Reheats don’t receive as many approving grunts.
Happiness is preparing rainy day comfort food like okra stew and watching the process through a clear glass pot lid. pic.twitter.com/tO93i1i4YG
— Theresa Jamone (@tjamone) October 16, 2014
Interesting situation… One of my resident youth became frustrated with seeing the baskets of nicely sorted dirty laundry, lined up and waiting on my bedroom floor for the past three days. She was also running out of clean clothes so initiated the process this morning. Good!
Another young person went out in the rain to apply for a part-time job then picked up some much-needed groceries. Good!
I think they’re tired of seeing me lazing about, watching my NetFlix shows (hellooo, Jean-Luc) and spending hours online. Hmmm.
My devious plan is working.
That Okra Stew – pictures and a rough recipe:

Ingredients: Chopped okra (slimy. ick), diced tomatoes (preferably canned and skinned), chopped onions (not necessarily sliced like these leftovers) and chicken bouillon. Chopped, cooked potatoes are optional.

Take one non-stick pan or stewing pot, put on element at medium-high. Add a splat of butter. Sauté onions and brown the potatoes.
Adding in an unsolicited plug for Stokes and the awesome Remy Olivier pan I invested in a few weeks back. At the behest of a resident young person who also shares in cooking tasks, we threw out Teflon pans and pots that were flaking. Non-stick, teflon pans are not good for your health.

Cover the stew and simmer for about 20 minutes. Cook some rice (optional). Young resident prefers sticky/sweet rice with her okra stew.
Serve.
Kick back and watch a few more episodes of Star Trek, the Next Generation.
Thanks for dropping by.
Stay warm, dry and cozy.
T