Mom works late now so Dad does much of the cooking. Mom complained a lot... and concluded that I should do something and hands me pork ribs from the freezer and a squash.
"Sooo, Mom, how do you want me to cook this? I've never made ribs or squash before"
Mom: "You figure it out or call your sister"
Both were seemingly non-plausible options... so I looked at my poor graduate student wallet (yay $25 dollars) and poured through some old cook books of my mother's and found a really yummy looking recipes called "Squash Apple Bake" and "Roast Pork Ribs." I had the main ingredients but had to buy the rest of the ingredients, marinade, soup, etc. with the money I had to feed 4 people. I think I spent about $12.50 out of my own pocket to make dinner.
I love apples.
Unfortunately for me, I have tree nut and peanut allergies... and over the years, I developed Oral Allergy Syndrome... where I'm now have allergy symptoms to fresh apples, pears, cherries (I react to cherries like peanuts now T_T), kiwi, peaches, plums... gahhh...
Thankfully, even with these allergies, I can still eat some of these as long as they are cooked... minus peanuts and other tree nuts. The heat from cooking denatures (changes the shape of) the fruit antigens (some proteins) that may be triggering an allergic reaction. Antibodies in our bodies are created to be specific so that they attack only things that are considered foreign and bad. Antibodies can also cross-react (if you ever worked in a lab, you would know). This is the case for Oral Allergy Syndrome where immune system recognizes proteins in these fruits that are close enough to pollen so that you have symptoms. Sucks :(
What I find weird and fascinating is that although our bodies are very structured and everything is in check, the formation of antibodies is made randomly by a cut and paste method (fun stuff like V(D)J recombination, if you're really interested). Because it's made randomly, there are some that are made that attack ourselves, but those are usually destroyed by our bodies' surveillance system (if not, it leads to autoimmune diseases such as Diabetes Mellitus Type I, Lupus, Graves' disease, Myasthenia Gravis, etc). People with food allergies can blame overactive IgE antibodies and mast cells but you can ask me about that if you're really interested.
The heat from cooking/baking can destroy the structure of certain antigens rendering the person unharmed because the immune system can't recognized the changed shape, in other words, no allergic reaction. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me for peanuts or tree nuts.
This is my train of thought when I'm doing things... I usually spend my time thinking.
Now for this recipe that I took out of Taste of Home magazine that my mom bought last year.
Squash-Apple Bake
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into slices
2 medium apples, peeled and cut
1/2 cup backed brown sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp each of salt and mace**
**I don't know what mace is and couldn't find it in the market... I substituted by using cinnamon powder instead. Still tastes awesome.
The hardest part of this entire recipe is peeling and cutting the squash. I don't know if I need to work out a lot more but I had to watch a youtube video on how to peel and cut squash b/c I was having difficulty.
1. cut the squash and apples.
2. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. put the cut squash in a 2-qt baking dish and then put the apple slices on top.
4. Combine the rest of the ingredients and spoon over the apples.
5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for about an hour or until the squash is tender.
You must try this recipe... the apples taste like apple pie and the squash was tender and amazing.
Roast Pork Ribs from Creative Chinese Oven Cooking
Ingredients
~Pork ribs ~1.3 lbs (I had about double this so I doubled everything for the marinade)
Marinade:
3 Tbsp black pepper sauce (I use the Chinese brand Lee Kum Kee)
5 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp mustard sauce (Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard)
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp honey (I was FAR more generous with this b/c I can't handle spicy)
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp wine
1. Marinate the pork ribs for at least 2 hours OR overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
3. Roast ribs, thick meat side up for 45 minutes until golden brown.
*note you can use the marinade as sauce by putting the excess marinade in a pot, add a little water, and boil the marinade. I added more honey at this point because my mouth was on fire and I was starting to weep.
The soup you see in the top picture is from a kosher mix I got at the market with the remaining cash I had... It cost about a dollar something on sale and it fed a family of 4.
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