Phamished

Tortlla Pizza

2009-10-30T12:41:00.003-05:00

My mom has never been a gourmet cook (she's usually the one to bring the relish tray for family potluck dinners). But she's always been remarkably creative and frugal. A great example of this is the tortilla pizza, a staple of my childhood.

Simple, cheap, and quick, albeit not the most nutritious, this remains a favorite lunch of mine. Now that I have a toaster oven it's ready in record time.

Tortilla Pizza

1 flour tortilla
pasta sauce
cheese (works best with shredded, but even sliced can be used)

Construct pizza in the usual way. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Boeuf, it's what's for dinner

2009-10-21T16:17:00.007-05:00

(ok, so I'm sure everybody has already made that joke, but I still think it's funny)

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law, my grandmother-in-law, and myself went to see the movie Julie & Julia (yes, we found the ONE theater in town still showing it). We had a blast, and it inspired me to try my hand at a Julia Child recipe.

My mother-in-law mailed me the recipes for Boeuf Bourguignon, braised onions, and sauteed mushrooms (those last two had frenchier sounding names, but I can't remember them just now). I made the beef and mushrooms, and both were fabulous. Although, it struck me as odd (and very wrong)that that much beef (and bacon) should be combined with ONE carrot?? I added more, but it would have benefited from a few extra (I love beef-flavored carrots).

While the boeuf was, admittedly, delicious, it probably won't figure into my regular rotation due to time and caloric constraints. The mushrooms, however, were amazing (although, probably anything sauteed in butter would taste amazing...)

Breakfast huevos

2009-10-08T09:42:00.002-05:00

I may not have the best omelet-making abilities, but what I lack in cooking skills (and proper cookware, this was made in a stockpot - currently my only non-stick cookware) I make up for in creativity.

When the omelet goes goofy as you try to fold it over, just roll it up in a fresh flour tortilla add a dash of cumin and call it huevos. Now if only I had some chorizo laying around...

THE Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-08-26T12:49:00.005-05:00

Ok, butter, you win, you are amazing.

I just made the.best.chocolate.chip.cookies...ever. So good, they forced me to return to the blogosphere to report on their deliciousness.

While trying to catch up on my never-ending mountain of unread food blogs piling up in my RSS feed reader I accidentally opened this post. I'm not typically too excited about chocolate chip cookies (not that I would turn one down were it offered to me), I'm usually more into shortbread and spice cookies. But something about this recipe peaked my interest (that, and the fact that I've been meaning to bake some cookies to share with the new neighbors).

I followed the recipe pretty closely, even leaving the dough to rest 24 hours in the fridge. But I did sub in walnuts for part of the chocolate chip amount (not paying enough attention to the ingredient list, I only bought a 12 oz bag of chips at the store - had to make up the remainder in choppped walnuts). I used a mixture of whole wheat pastry flour and white bread flour. Also, I couldn't bring myself to make 3.5 oz cookies (really? THAT BIG? Who needs a cookie that big??) I scaled them down to 2 oz cookies, which are still plenty large. I reduced the cooking time to 16 minutes, and that was about perfect when combined with 3 minutes of resting on the hot cookie sheet before disembarking to the cooling rack.

Maybe it was the rest time (more likely the copious amount of butter) but these were amazing. Perfect texture, crispy on the outside, a little soft on the inside, a gorgeous brown color, and the sprinkling of sea salt on top is the perfect compliment to the sweetness of the dark chocolate.

If this isn't the perfect way to meet the neighbors, I don't know what is.

Hostess with the Mostess Cupcakes

2009-04-04T14:54:00.005-05:00

This morning I was the proud co-host of a baby shower for a good friend.
Luckily for me, the other co-host took care of all the details, and
all I had to do was provide the location, and the cake!

A few months ago, my dear friend (for whom the shower was given), was
having some cravings that just wouldn't go away. One such
craving was for hostess cupcakes. Unfortunately for her,
hostess cupcakes contain beef tallow (something her family tries not to consume).

That's where I entered the picture.
In an efforts to expand my baking repertoire, I thought
I might try to make some HC's from scratch (sans beef). Although initially,
I thought I was beening pretty creative, a google search will
show I'm not the first one to think of this.
Despite this, I still enjoyed the challenge.

It seemed only fitting to re-create this special treat for the party this morning.
Only this time I made mini-hostess cakes!

The basis for this recipe can be found here. I changed things around a bit, and even tried using whole wheat pastry flour (which went undiscovered, probably due to their exceptionally sugary filling).
Makes 48 mini cakes.

Hostess with the Mostess Mini Cakes

Cakes:
Bowl 1: Combine the dry ingredients
2 & 1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2/3 C cocoa powder

Bowl 2: Cream sugar and butter together
1 C sugar
1 stick of butter, softened

Bowl 3: Combine the liquid ingredients
1 C liquid (I used a combination of water, milk, and yogurt)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Combine the three bowls. Mix well.
Butter and flour mini muffin pan for easy cake removal.
Fill mini muffin cups about 50-75% full.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Filling:
Beat together until fluffy
12 TBS unsalted butter, softened (I feel gross just typing this)
3 C confectioners' sugar
1 & 1/2 C Marshmallow Fluff (beef free, I swear)
3 TBS + 1 tsp heavy cream

Place in pastry bag for easy cake filling.
Reserve 1/2 cup and mix in remaining heavy cream to make the doodle on top.

Last time I tried to pipe into the cupcakes and didn't succeed very well, so
this time I just sliced them in half and filled between the two halves.
Much easier!

Frosting:
1/4 C heavy cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 TBS unsalted butter, softened

Heat cream until steaming then pour over butter and chopped chocolate.
After a few minutes, everything will have melted and you can stir to
combine. Let this sit another 5 minutes to firm a bit so it doesn't
immediately run off the cakes, then spoon on and swirl to frost each.

Lastly, decorate with the necessary white doodle, so everybody knows
you're not just making any old regular chocolate cupcakes!

Has it really been over a month?

2009-04-02T11:00:00.003-05:00

Sorry, but I promise to be better (or a least to make an effort).

Here's what I've been up to...

Cleaning out the cupboards
a.k.a when to admit you have a problem

Repurposing tupperware/Souffle in IKEA
Molly Wizenberg's 'everyday souffle' from Bon appetite
I've always wanted to try making souffle, but I didn't want to buy a special dish. After cleaning out the various tupperware drawers, I found an IKEA ceramic tupperware with high sides and no matching lid. Although it's square, it seemed to work just fine.

Fig cake
(a healthier, smaller, and non-alcoholic version of Dorie Greenspans 'fig cake for fall' recipe)

Lemon meringue cheesecake
What do to when you've got too much cream cheese in the fridge, but you really want to eat meringue...

My first successful pancakes!!!!
Sadly, I've never been able to make pancakes. It's always the simplest things that trip me up the most. These came from Super Natural Cooking (Which I highly recommend for anyone trying to learn how to use all those funky ingredients the organic tyrants keep bullying us with: millet, quinoa, bulgar). As usual, I tailored the recipe to my own on-hand ingredients and laziness, and made them cute and tiny.

(check out my wrist's double chin, gross)

Pancakes!!!
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
butter

Heat cast iron skillet to medium heat.
Combine dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk and egg.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Grease skillet with small amount of butter and make small pancakes.

Serve with honey. Enough for three people.

The Sweet Life

2009-02-24T19:33:00.004-06:00

We don't eat actual food around chez phamished.

We subsist only on butter and sugar.

At least this past month has felt a bit that way. Between school and an assortment of parties, I haven't had much time for nutritious cooking.

But baking? I'll always find time for that.

I promised someone (over a week ago) that I would get some photos of my recent baking escapades up. Sorry for the delay, enjoy!

Angel Food Cake (+lemon curd)
My first attempt at angel food cake (made for a super bowl party).

After making the cake batter I didn't have the heart to throw out perfectly
good egg whites, so I turned them into lemon curd. I iced the
cake with a simple powdered sugar/lemon juice frosting.

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Biscotti
Even since baking some decent butter-containing biscotti over Christmas, I have wanted to try a "fat" free version. I used a recipe from David Lebovitz, found here, and swapped out the almonds for crushed mac nuts, and almond extract for vanilla extract. I think this is the first time I have been a little turned off by the chunky sugar crystals on top of something. Here they give the biscotti a sort of moldy look. Nevertheless, these were amazing, and
kept well for a few weeks.

Dessert In Three Movements
My contribution to a close friend's baby shower
(and another close friend's going-away party) was the dessert.

I prefer single serving desserts for parties, so these were all basically cupcakes.

The first photos are mini german chocolate cakes, recipe here. Another
amazing Lebovitz recipe (can you tell I've got a super
baking crush on the Lebo??) These were really
cute and very decadent.

Next up, are lemon shortbread cookies. I used a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking book. I rolled these in turbinado sugar and lemon zest. These were my favorite, simple and elegant.

Last up are the mini-cheesecakes. I can't remember the recipe I used here, but I know it involved sour cream. These came out of their cupcake papers much easier then I thought they would. I thought they looked really cute, and they were the perfect amount of cheesecake - about 3 (my mouth-sized) bites.

Scones: Good to the last bite

2009-02-07T08:55:00.004-06:00

Last week we were invited over to a good friend's house for tea. Not wanting to come empty-handed, and having a few extra minutes, I whipped up a simple batche of scones.

Scones are my go-to Rachael Ray style pastry. (does she still cook 30 minute meals? I haven't watched the food network in years...) They are quick, easy, and consistently turn out tasty results.

For these scones I wanted both a "sweet" and a "savory" option. I mixed dried apricots into the entire batch, and the sweet scones were topped with turbinado sugar. For the savory, I used the second half of the apricot batter and added parmesan and cheddar cheese.

The recipe is based on the apple cheddar scone recipe found in the magnificent Baking: from my home to yours, by Dorie Greenspan. I highly recommend this book if you like to bake, or want to encourage that special someONE to bake you someTHING special. Come on, there's an entire blog of bakers that found each other because of their love of this book.

As shown by the photo, this last bite was all that remained the next morning shortly before I remembered to document it with my camera. This bite is from the last savory scone.

Scones

1 large egg
3/4 C yogurt***
1 & 3/4 C flour
1/3 C cornmeal
2 TBS sugar
1 TBS baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 TBS cold butter
1/2 C dried apricots chopped into bits

Turbinado sugar
1/2 C shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 400 F, line baking sheet with parchment paper for easy removal.

Stir together the wet ingredients (egg, yogurt).

Stir together the dry ingredients (four, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt).

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the chunks are pea sized (you can do this in a food processor, just don't get over zealous and grind it to smithereens (did you know this is the name of a band?? Gotta love that phog machine).

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until JUST combined (don't over do this either - scones are the imperfectionists' friend).

Mix in whatever ingredient you want to title the scones as ("cheddar apricot scone").

Spoon out mounds onto the baking sheet (and top if you want with schmancy sugar). They won't spread too much, but if you cram them in too close they won't bake evenly. I can usually fit nine on a sheet.

Bake 20-25 minutes until lighly browned, then cool on a rack.

These tasted great the night I baked them, and even better the next morning.

***Do you notice a trend in my baking recipes, I never seem to have buttermilk on hand, but I ALWAYS have yogurt! For this recipe, I used mainly the whey (the watery stuff that separates out on top of yogurt that mostly people pour down the drain)

Crawl on in

2009-01-28T16:12:00.004-06:00

I love those food moments where you order something new and usual (to you) at a restaurant, and the first bite is (unexpected) magic in your mouth.

On a trip through the Olympic Peninsula, last year, we at a meal at a small and unassuming Thai restaurant. For reasons still unknown to me, I ordered Tom Kha Gai soup. I'm not sure if it was the location, how hungry we were or the fact that it came in such a fancy pot, but that soup was AMAZING. This soup was so good, it made you just want to crawl into the bowl and roll around soaking up those delicious silky flavors. We have since attempted to order it at almost every Thai place we go to, and although some have come close, we have not been able to recreate the fabulousness that was THAT soup.

What's a girl to do, but roll up her sleeves and try it herself! I found an easy to follow recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Tigers & Strawberries. The recipe below is a variation of her recipe, suited to fit what was in the fridge.

Being in the midwest, galangal and keffir lime leaves aren't to be found in abundance (although, oddly enough, my local grocery store sells lemon grass 5 shoots for $2!). So this (obviously) isn't going to be authentic, but it was still delicious.

Tom Kha Gai

1 quart beef stock (this is what I had, chicken would probably be better)
2 cans coconut milk
5 slices dried galangal root**
4 lemon grass stalks trimmed with the outer layers removed
The peels of 2 limes
2 TBS red curry paste
4 TBS fish sauce
8 fresh mushrooms thinly sliced
1 chicken breast cut into small pieces
Juice from 2 limes
2 jalapenos, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh cillantro leaves

**I've tried this before with ginger, not the same, but better then no soup

Combine broth, galangal, lemon grass, lime, and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Add the coconut milk and fish sauce. Simmer for 1 hour.

Add mushrooms, chicken, and peppers and simmer until chicken is done. Add lime juice, and cilantro leaves, and enjoy. And see if the urge to climb into that bowl and swim around doesn't hit you too.

BBB: Croissants

2009-01-22T08:42:00.006-06:00

I've scaled my mount Everest of baking, now what?

I've always wanted to make croissants, it's one of those impossible things you think is way too hard to even attempt, so you give up before you even get started. Having a bit of extra time on my hands, and a bit of leftover holiday baking butter, I decided, why not try?!

My tummy is so glad I did (my thighs are not).

After an initial failed attempt (see picture below) using the recipe from Thyme for cooking (never trust anyone without a working oven), I tried the breadchick version with much success!

I ran into some trouble with my weakling arms and attempting to roll the dough
thin enough. Luckily the husbots ripped arms came to the plate and took over until
I deemed the dough was just right.

(artistic rendering of the husbot)

Actually, after my initial failed attempt at rolling the second-attempt recipe, I wadded up the half-rolled dough in frustration (headed to the trash) and the husbot convinced me to try again. So, I let it rise again again for an hour, hoping my mistakes would work themselves out. And they did! After an hour of sitting in the sun, we rolled the (warm) dough large enough to fit the butter square. And the rest is history.

I made: plain, chocolate, and parmesean cheese+rosemary+garlic verions of these croissants, and they were subsequently gobbled up by our friends during movie night.

Thanks bread babes for the opportunity! I've been a bread follower for awhile, but
I'm usually too intimidated to hop on board. I'm so glad I did this time
(well, my tummy is, the thighs might need some persuasion).

If you want to take the trek up mount croissant, check out the links and
recipes on the Thyme For Cooking blog.

While I might not make these regularly, it gave me a much greater appreciation
for the fine folks are my local bakery who do!

(first attempt, underneath coffee and tea grinds - much caffeiene went into
the making of these delicacies)

Real Crepes

2009-01-21T19:07:00.002-06:00

After a fabulous sushi feast, what better dessert to gorge yourself on then a variety of delicious crepes?

For last night's crepestravaganza we had:
S'mores (pictured) - bittersweet ganache and torched marshmallow fluff (courtesy of my new creme brulee torch!)
Carmel apple - apple-dipping carmel, and apple butter
lemon - lemon zest and powdered sugar
Blackberry+apricot - with their respective homemade jams
Lingonberry + lemon - IKEA jam and lemon zest

Crepes
(derived from the Joy of cooking cookbook)

1 cup white bread flour (this is all I had)
1/2 cup yogurt (the recipe called for milk, but...see ingredient 1)
1 cup water
4 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/8 tsp salt
3 tablespoons sugar
fillings of choice

Blend everything well, and sit covered for 30 minutes (this is a good chance to prepare all the tasty fillings since the crepes only take a minute to cook)

Heat pan to medium heat. When hot, add a little butter, then add about 1/8-1/4 cup batter (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Lift the pan and rotate to coat evenly. Allow it to cook undisturbed for about 1 minute, until the bottom is lightly browned. Flip crepe (I tried to flip it in the air, with limited success, thank goodness for silicone spatulas) and cook on second side for about 1 minute.

Remove from pan to serving plate and add fillings of choice.

Enjoy, then make another!

Camp Crepes (Crampes?)

2009-01-18T16:47:00.004-06:00

I have the wonderful husbot to thank for this great idea! We've seen a lot of camp recipes for pancakes, but what about crepes? They're fast cooking, only require a few ingredients, and provide an easy vessel for your favorite filling!

I made cinnamon crepes from a scaled-down recipe to try out this idea on the stove top.

Camp Crepes

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg
pinch salt

Heat skillet to medium-high heat. I used a $1 cast iron skillet I found at the thrift store yesterday, so I didn't need any grease. If using a regular pan, I would probably add a little butter to the pan before adding the batter.

Mix all the ingredients. When the skillet sizzles when droplets of water are flicked at it, add a few tablespoons of the batter. Pick up the pan and move it in such a way that gravity spreads the batter thinly for you.

Allow to cook for 20 seconds on side one, then loosen the edges with a spatula and flip. Cook on side two for another 20 seconds during which you can sprinkle with your topping of choice (I chose cinnamon). Remove from pan and enjoy! The best time to eat these is piping hot directly from the pan.

These may not be the most nutritious, but the sure are delicious!

Kale & Lentil Soup

2009-01-13T14:22:00.004-06:00

One food I wish I had discovered earlier in my life is kale.

I love kale.

After a holiday season spend indulging, it's nice to start the new year with meals full of all those vitamins and healthy bits we've been avoiding.

Kale is high in vitamins A, C, and K, which affect (among other things) vision, the immune system, and blood coagulation respectively. Aside from it's healthy profile, kale has the benefit of being delicious as well! Bonus!!

This soup is healthy, fast, and leaves you with a few extra meals. Perfect for relaxing and enjoying the melting snow.

Kale & Lentil Soup

2 cups lentils
4 cups water or stock (+more as needed)
1 bunch kale, with stalks separated from leaves, and both chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 nub ginger, peeled and sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Combine lentils, water, kale stalks, onion, garlic, and ginger in a large pot. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for 30-45 minutes, until lentils are soft (add more water if needed).

Add in kale leaves, stir to combine and turn off heat. (I also like to add more raw garlic at the point, but not everyone likes barely cooked garlic).

Let the kale leaves barely cook in the still-hot soup, and then serve. Yum!

This is also good with a bit of yogurt and curry powder stirred in to the bowl.

Indulging hobbies

2009-01-10T17:25:00.006-06:00

Christmas was very good to me this year. I mentioned last time my new madeline pan. This week has lead to a few different madeline-experiements including: Macadamia nut-lemon...

and, cranberry-chocolate!

Both were delicious, but I think we agreed the ones plain were the best!

Also for Christmas the husbot and I both got sleeping bags, a much needed addition to our fledgling backpacking desires, and a fancy ultralite backpacking stove and cookware! So the past few weeks I've started experimenting with various backpacking recipes that are nutritious, easy, fast, and tasty. With the weather a little too nippy in the midwest for a full out camping expedition, we are settling for dreams and practice meals. Hopefully when we do get the opportunity to hit the trail we won't be confined to boil in the bag meals!

It's important to me to incorporate as much fresh and whole foods as possible, without compromising too much on weight. Since I don't have very much camping/backpacking experience a lot of these recipes may need extensive trial and error to see if they will even function as trail meals. But if possible, I would love to avoid as many hotdogs and freeze dried bagged meals as possible.

The first "meal" I have started toying with is a red lentil curry and bulgar salad. It's important to me to limit the active stove time needed for each dish, so I'll be trying out various grains and lentils to see how to cut down active cooking time. Bulgar is simple, just add hot water in a 2:1 ratio and let it sit for 15-20 minutes to soak up the water while wrapped in a pot coozy. Afterwards, various spices and flavors can be mixed in. For this salad I used crushed red pepper, mint, salt, and a bit of lime juice.

I was able to reduce the cooking time for the lentils to around 10 minutes by soaking them in water (3:1 ratio) before cooking, and then allowing them to sit for another 15 minutes after cooking. These recipes were tested on the electice stove top, so they will need to be tested on the MSR before finished to make sure the timing still works, but here's the first round recipe. I didn't try it this way, but I imagine you could mix all the dry ingredients and just add water on the trail.

Red Lentil Curry

1/2 cup red lentils
1 & 1/2 cup water
5 g curry powder
1 g salt
5 g unsweetened coconut shreds
15 g dried milk

Soak lentils in water for 30 minutes. Mix in other ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, wrap to retain warmth and rest for 15 minutes.

A hearty meal for a cold day

2009-01-07T06:07:00.005-06:00

One of my favorite presents from this holiday season is my new madeline pan. I've wanted one for nearly a year, but with all my excessive baking supplies I couldn't justify purchasing another single-purpose pan.

For this first trial run, I made a half pan of the standard recipe from the Joy of Cooking. They turned out amazing, and I saved the rest of the batter to play with and attempt other variations. Nothing beats a fresh madeline with tea!

Yesterday, in my attempt to put off hitting up the grocery store for one more day, I produced a rather delicious soup from refrigerator odds and ends. I think today I'll finally have to go to the store, we've been out of milk for a few days and all the holiday leftovers are gone. I served this soup with homeade garlic & rosemary wheat bread. It was a hearty meal for a cold day.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1 lb ground beef
5 carrots
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped, greens separated and chopped
5 mushrooms
5 cloves garlic
1 bottle V-8
1 quart chicken stock
Pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

Brown the ground beef in a large stock pot, when it's mostly cooked at the chopped carrots, and kale stems. Cook for 5 minutes to soften the vegetables, then add the V8 and chicken stock. Cover and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes. Add the kale greens, mushrooms, and garlic, and simmer 5-10 minutes more until soft.

Happy New Years!

2009-01-02T09:34:00.003-06:00

This year Christmas was filled with family and love...and smoked meats! My wonderful in-laws left our fridge filled with tons of smoked meat-leftovers from our Christmas eve feast, including: smoked salmon, pork, and turkey. I used the remaining salmon in a cheesy-spinach-puff pastry new years eve party appetizer. But the leftover smoked pork I hid in the back of the fridge for the special new years day black-eyed peas. I've made black-eyed peas before (and not just on new years!) using ham cubes or ham bits, but this took it to a new level - fitting to start the year out right! Beans are a magic food/fruit, cheap and wholesome, and easy too prepare. Hopefully I'll find many new ways to incorporate them into our diet in the coming year.

Black-Eyed Peas
2 cups peas, picked over** and soaked overnight
1 cup smoked pork (or ham or skip this if you want no meat)
2 onions, barely chopped
5 cloves garlic, barely chopped or smashed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine and bring to simmer
Cover and cook 4 hours
Revel in how lucky you are to be eating delicious black-eyed peas

**Seriously: don't skip this step! The first time I tried to make beans in high school I did, and subsequently fed my poor pop a few pieces of bean-shapped gravel

I also made some Christmas biscotti this year. The recipe came from a Christmas cookie-baking class I attended at our local foods market. I made mine with cranberries and macadamia nuts. They kept us happy throughout the Christmas holiday week. I hope your Christmas was filled with tasty treats, and that the new year will bring you culinary excitement and joy!

Chestnut Roasting

2008-12-20T09:14:00.005-06:00

Long, long ago (a couple of weeks) we were invited to a chestnut roasting party. I only had a few hours notice, so I threw together something easy (lentils) and something I had been wanting to make (ginger bread muffins).

The party was a huge success with children and adults alike! Sorry, Christina, for taking so long to post these recipes. The lentil recipe is adapted from the Veganomicon (an excellent book I gave my sister in law for christmas last year, after hastily copying a few recipes out of it), and the ginger bread muffins were from one of my favorite food bloggers. My inability to use an entire stick of butter lead me to sub half the butter with applesauce with no ill effects.

Lentil/Quinoa/Cauliflower Curry
adapted from the Veganomicon

2 onions, chopped
1/2 inch ginger, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup red lentils
1 cup quinoa
4 cups water (add more if needed)
1 cauliflower chopped into bites
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime

Saute onion, garlic, and ginger to soften, then add the spices and cook a few minutes more. Add the lentil, quinoa, and water and simmer for 15 minutes. Add cauliflower, cover and cook 30 minutes more (until tender). Add more water as needed. Remove from heat, and stir in the cilantro and lime juice.

Dessert, there's always time for you

2008-10-23T17:55:00.005-05:00

I'm busy, as usual, ergo the past two weeks have wrought a lot of left-over creations to our household. Luckily for me, I managed to snag a wonderful husband who will eat ANYTHING I make (even stuff I won't touch).

(leftover surprise: four types of rice mixed up and reheated with
leftover vegetables soup, topped with sauteed rainbow chard...yum!)

Also, our microwave went on the fritz a few weeks ago, so recently I have been relearning how to cook some things on the stove top. It's actually kind of a fun experience, and the extra counter space where the behemoth microwave used to sit has been repopulated with other appliances. I wrestled with the idea of buying a new one, or maybe getting a toaster oven instead. I think for now we'll go without, and learn to appreciate the extra minutes it takes to re-heat something on the stove top. I've found the extra time it takes are well spent tidying up the kitchen.

One thing I'm trying not to neglect with my busy school time is the ever-present need for dessert. I recently baked a apple tart for a dinner with friends, complete with 5 types of local apples. Also, I picked up a few local pie pumpkins and tried my hand at pumpkin pie from scratch. I'm not sure if it's worth all the work, but it is nice to avoid the cans and end up with a free savory snack of pumpkin seeds!

(photos of completed pumpkin pie to follow...if the sun ever comes back)

I'm still here, I promise

2008-10-04T09:51:00.009-05:00

I've been busy

(or lazy - however you want to call it), full of excuses for a messy house, and neglecting the things I enjoy the most: friends, family, and food. I've started a new portion of my schoolwork which essentially required me to work a full time job instead of attending classes. I feel like I am learning more these past few months than I did in the previous 7 years of college combined. This is the first time I've had to put in these kind of hours (yes, I've been spoiled by school) and it has given me a healthy respect for the women who work full time and then come home and attempt to cook a healthy meal for their family.

Honestly, I don't know how they do it, I just want to come home and put my feet up at the end of the day. I can see why fast food becomes an easy way to satisfy the hungry children. Luckily for me, I've been able to spend the past few year building up my culinary knowledge. I can generally throw together a meal with foodstuffs found in the pantry when I need to, and I've learned the value of a good crock pot. I can honestly say we have not resorted to fast food (yet), although we do still order the rare pizza now and again (but only from reputable sources).

We are still eating, I promise. Just not documenting it for the world to see. I want to try to continue some sort of blog, even when "school" is filling my days. I think I'm going to attempt some sort of regular post, albeit brief, of what we're eating around here.

So here's a sample of what we had this week...

Pizza
with a tomato based sauce, topped with fresh mozzarella shallots, black olives,
artichoke hearts,and lots of fresh basil and oregano from the garden.

Ribs
simmered all day in the crock pot with soy sauce and other flavors,
plus sauteed collard greens and mixed white and brown rice

Singapore Noodles
Inspired by this great blog that I have enjoyed for years. My noodles were thrown
together with leftover odds and ends (noodles and eggs are the lazy grocery
shoppers friend) such as celery, carrots, rib-bits, and green onions.

Yum...

For Christmas I got a pasta maker...

2008-07-30T16:45:00.008-05:00

I had been wanting a pasta maker for quite some time, and for Christmas I got one.

Since Christmas it's been neatly folded into it's box, and stored on the shelf.

Until NOW..!

My wonderful husband has subtly been reminding me of said unused pasta maker ever since. For whatever reason (fear) I'm been reluctant to actually try to make pasta. People always emphasize the importance of not letting the dough stick to the machine - so I've always been afraid that there's very little chance of preventing this failure. Thus I had already resigned myself to pasta-maker fear and avoidance. (I think laziness might have played a factor in not opening the box too, but...)

The motivation to finally try the pasta maker was given when some good friend's mentioned wanting to borrow the pasta maker to try their hand at it. Embarrassed at never trying it myself, I decided it was now or never.

Much to my surprise, pasta making was easy! Basically two ingredients: flour + eggs, turns into a delicious feast! And, much to my surprise, sticking never became a problem.

For this first try, I used the recommended pasta from the manual, and served it with a little bit of olive oil, cheese, basil, and cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Pasta
500 g flour
4 eggs

Place the flour in a large bowl (or on a flat surface), make a well and break the eggs into it. Mix this into a big dough ball, and then let it rest 30 minutes covered with a damp towel. Put the pasta through the machine one fist-full at a time, slowly making it thinner until it is your desired thickness (I stopped at 2), and then put it through the attachment to cut to your pasta size.

Note to self: don't be so afraid of trying new things, don't knock it till you've tried it!

Photography provided by my wonderful husband

Spicy Potatoes

2008-07-13T21:02:00.003-05:00

The night I usually see my brother is Tuesday, or as some call it, Wing Night. He supplies the wings, I supply the homemade spicy potatoes.

Baked potato coins were one of the first things I learned to cook, and they've been a wing night staple ever since. This side dish comes together in a snap, and there are an infinite number of versions. The usual method is to sprinkle with cajun seasoning (hence the spicy potato name), but for this batch I used some rosemary and oregano fresh from the garden.

These potatoes end up being a cross between french fries and potato chips. Perfect to sooth the flame of wing night heat.

Spicy Potatoes

1-2 pounds red potatoes
Sea salt for sprinkling
Fresh herbs
1-2 TBS olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Slice potatoes (the thinner, the faster they cook), and place in a large bowl. Coat and mix potatoes with olive oil and herbs. Spread potatoes on cookie sheet one slice deep, and sprinkle with salt.

Bake 20-30 minutes until lightly browned.

Tuesdays With Dorie: blueberry pie

2008-07-08T18:25:00.000-05:00

I didn’t want to have a whole blueberry pie on hand, since we were traveling over the weekend, so I decided to pull out the mini Le Creuset’s and do individual pies!

These turned out pretty good, and just the right size for a little treat. I also used plenty of chopped lemon verbena from one of the plants on my patio.

I spent all last summer searching for verbena, the best I could do was lemon balm (which is now growing out of control). This spring I lucked out and found a great nursery with lots of interesting herbs. Now my patio is full of (among other things) stevia, verbena, 4 different types of basil. So far, everything has been doing well, we’ll see how they fare in late summer heat. My cherry tomato plants in pots are already starting to protest!

This is my part of the weekly Tuesdays With Dorie blog where fellow cooks produce the same recipe every week. Check there to find all the great entries.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Apple Cheddar Scones

2008-07-01T18:38:00.003-05:00

This week's recipe was an easy sell, we are a scone- loving household. I've tried making scones a few times, but in my laziness, I've never given them a fair shot, and the results have generally been less than spectacular.

This scone, however, made everybody happy.

My husband has a weekly male bonding time at a local coffee shop, I sent these along and have been receiving rave reviews ever since.

This was one of the first Dorie recipes that I followed nearly to the letter (subbing yogurt for buttermilk), and the results were amazing. Maybe I should just let Dorie do the work in the future, and stop trying to tweak every recipe. There's a reason she has us all blogging her recipes every week!

I would encourage everyone to try out this recipe, it's simple and delicious. Be sure to check out all the other fabulous blogs who take part in the weekly Tuesdays with Dorie posting. This event is hosted by Laurie of Quirky Cupcake, and this week's recipe was chosen by Karina of The Floured Apro n.

Cookie Carnival: Snickerdoodles

2008-06-29T07:28:00.002-05:00

Choosing this month's cookie carnival recipe was a group effort. We were given three recipes to vote for, and the humble snickerdoodle won out. My guess is, everybody just wanted to have the fun of typing the word Snickerdoodle this month - I know I did.

Snickerdoodles are a great cookies to share. They are easy to make, no special ingredients are required, and everybody likes them! I made a half batch and took them in to work. I changed up the recipe a bit (we're a butter only household), but the end results were still fabulous.

This is my June entry for the Cookie Carnival hosted by Kate of the Clean Plate Club. Check there to find the round up, and join in on the fun!

Snickerdoodles

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 stick butter (4 TBS)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBS cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together. In the electric mixer beat the butter and 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and combine.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Roll small cookie balls in the sugar mix and flatten onto the cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes. Rotating half way through.

Camp Cobbler

2008-06-24T21:44:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we took a camping trip, and what better dessert could we come up with than cobbler? Fire roasted cobbler was a great experiment. It was easier than I imagined, and tasty too!

All you have to do, is open can of your fruit of choice (I chose blackberry and cherry - which I mixed together in the can), drain the liquid, and rip off the label. Next, open a package of refrigerated biscuits, cut them in small pieces and roll in brown sugar and cinnamon. Top the can with the biscuit dough and butter, then wrap the whole thing in foil and roast it over hot coals for about 30 minutes. (The time goes quick when you're sitting around the campfire, sharing a few beers with friends).

While this wasn't strictly the TWD recipe for this week, I followed along in spirit and adapted the recipe to fit my activities.

Tuesdays With Dorie

2008-06-24T07:27:00.003-05:00

Sorry, no post today. I did make cobbler this week, but I think the recipe it so far from the Dorie original that I will wait to post it tomorrow. We were on a camping trip this week, so I adapted the recipe (quite a bit) to be more travel/fire friendly. Tune in tomorrow to see what delights emerged from this can...

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cream Puffs - Part 2

2008-06-18T22:31:00.004-05:00

I hope I don't get kicked out of the club for cheating and posting the rest of my puffs today!

This is another late night post, so you'll have to (again) excuse the quality of my writing and photo-taking.

When I saw this week's recipe, I was so excited to make the cream puffs (it was supposed to be a big cream puff ring, but I'll find any excuse to make cute little individual desserts). I've been asked to prepare a few desserts for a friend's upcoming baby shower, and I think this will be one of them. I love the fact that this can be made in advance, in parts, and assembled at the last minute.

I choose to use Dorie's pastry cream recipe, instead of flavored whipped cream. I was really in the mood for something like custard, and I make whipped cream a lot. I made the cream almond flavored, which went very nicely with the chocolate and toasted almonds on top.

These week's recipe really intimidated me first, but I'm so glad I conquered my fears (and lack of time) and powered through. These were delicious, and so much easier than I thought. Thanks Dorie! Be sure to check out all the TWD participators!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cream Puffs

2008-06-17T22:49:00.004-05:00

Better late than never, right?

Sorry folks, I really wanted to try this recipe, but unfortunately I ran out of time to do it justice. I've never made cream puffs before, the pastry has always been too intimidating.

I waited till the last possible moment to try, and then fortified myself with plenty of beer to get my spirits up to the challenge.

The results? Better than I thought it would be! Especially for a late night cooking experience for this early riser.

I didn't make the cream yet, or the chocolate topping. But I'm pretty happy with how puffs turned out (although a puff without cream, is just a ball of flour, really). Hopefully there will be time tomorrow morning to try the cream and make these babies shine.

Sorry for the funny lighting - it's getting late, and I'm getting sleepy. I assure you, they look much better off camera.

Saturday Morning Inspiration

2008-06-14T07:41:00.009-05:00

This morning, while leisurely browsing my favorite blogs, I came across this recipe for yogurt muffins from Catlin, at the Engineer Baker. She adapted her recipe from Clotilde's Gateau au Yaourt.

Since I make my own yogurt, I generally have quite a lot on hand (I make about a gallon at a time). Ergo, I am always on the lookout for other uses. This recipe looked perfect for a simple and satisfying Saturday morning breakfast!

This was a great way to use up some yogurt, and some of the leftover jam I made for the Tuesday's With Dorie strawberry tarts this week.

Yogurt Muffins

(adapted from Engineer Baker, and Chocolate and Zucchini)

2 eggs
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
blueberries, strawberry jam, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and instant coffee

Preheat the oven to 375° F. In a large mixing-bowl, gently combine the yogurt, eggs, honey, vanilla, and oil. In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture, and blend together -- don't overwork the dough.

Divide into two separate bowls, adding a couple handfuls of blueberries and a few spoonfuls of strawberry jam to one.

To the other bowl and 1-2 teaspoons of cocoa powder, a handful of chocolate chips, a handful of chopped walnuts, and 1 teaspoon of dissolved instant coffee.

Put 1/4 cupfuls of the batter into muffin tins, and bake for 20 minutes.

I baked mine in paper muffin cups, but quite a lot of muffin stuck to the cups. I think in the future I might just butter the pan well, and forget about the cups.

Tuesdays With Dorie: La Palette's Strawberry Tart

2008-06-10T09:16:00.004-05:00

This week's recipe couldn't have been better timed with the strawberry season here. We picked up a great little box of freshly picked local strawberry's from the coop the day I decided to put this together.

The recipe is a pretty easy one to throw together, or do ahead in pieces. Essentially the layers are just:
1) a tart crust
2) strawberry jam
3) fresh strawberries
4) cream

I have a lot of friends who are beginning bakers, and i think this would be a great recipe to start honing your culinary skills. I think a lot of people (myself included) see all the rules and regulations of baking as a huge and intimidating obstacle. The way I started learning to cook (and bake) was by using prepared products, like those rice and pasta side dishes where you just add water and microwave. Slowly I started to integrate things I learned to make from scratch. In the course of a few years, I now make just about everything from scratch. I've learned that not only do things from scratch taste better, they're generally cheaper to prepare, and not that much more difficult (albeit time consuming sometimes).

That said, this is a great recipe for someone who wants to start 'baking' but doesn't know where to start. Essentially you could just purchase a prepared crust, strawberry jam, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream and put this together in under half and hour!

Since I've moved past most pre-made products due to taste and budget reasons, I actually made the crust, jam, and cream for this recipe from scratch!

We made a last run to Costco before our membership ran out this week, and one of the impulse buys was a GIANT crate of strawberries. Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice till I got home that none of them were very fresh or attractive looking. Instead of throwing them out, I picked through the good ones and made a nice pot of fresh jam. I haven't learned to do proper canning yet, but making a fresh jam is pretty easy. My method is to chop up fruit, add some sugar, and lemon juice and cook on the stove top until it reduces down to a thick consistency.

The crust was made from Dorie's sweet tart dough recipe. I used whipped cream for the topping, which I whipped up right before serving using a bit of heavy whipping cream and sugar whipped together.

I opted to make single serving tarts since I just bought a set of 4" tart pans this week. These came out great, except the crust kind of fell apart while trying to eat it. I kept wondering if maybe you could make cookie-sized tarts using shortbread cookie dough as the crust, maybe I'll try that next time.

The recipe calls for a sprinkling of black pepper to top these tarts. Although we didn't do this last night, we might try it tonight when we have this dessert again with friends.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) was originally used, like most herbs and spices, for both medicinal and culinary purposes. In the last few years several studies have been published which examine the use of black pepper as an insecticide (1, 2). This is especially interesting research as we, as a society, are steadily becoming more concerned about the treatment our food receives before it makes it's way to the table. The use of natural insecticides has benefits both for the health of the consumer, and also the growing environment the surrounding flora and fauna are exposed to. Everything is affected by the choices made by the farming community.

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Be sure check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage for picking this weeks recipe.

1. Simas NK, Lima Eda C, Kuster RM, Lage CL, de Oliveira Filho AM. Potential use of Piper nigrum ethanol extract against pyrethroid-resistant Aedes aegypti larvae. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2007 Jul-Aug;40(4):405-7.

2. Park IK, Lee SG, Shin SC, Park JD, Ahn YJ. Larvicidal activity of isobutylamides identified in Piper nigrum fruits against three mosquito species. J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Mar 27;50(7):1866-70.

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Chocolate Brownies

2008-06-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

On our recent trip to Seattle, one of our favorite treats at the Pike Place Market was the Chukar Cherries.

We bought several bags of the cabernet chocolate cherries as souvenirs for our friends and family.

I guess I had that on the brain when I read the recipe for this week. I thought cherries would be a great replacement for the raisins (which seemed a little odd to me, although I'm sure they would have been delicious).

In going with the Chukar theme, I was hoping to switch the rum with Cabernet, but the googling I did on the subject made it sound like maybe that wasn't the best idea (due to the low alcohol content). I stuck with the rum, but the flame wasn't nearly as exciting as I was hoping for. I also made a few other changes to the recipe due to time constraints and my usual meddling to cut out a bit of the fat and sugar, which I marked in red.

Everybody has heard about the potential health benefits of drinking moderate amounts red wine, but have you ever thought about rum? One study examined two groups of elderly individuals with regards to diet, alcohol consumption (in this case corn wine and rum), and serum lipid levels. They found a correlation between alcohol consumption and increased levels of HDL-C (the good cholesterol) and decreased levels of LDL-C (the bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol.1 While more research is needed in this area to make any definitive statements, it is an interesting study.

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Be sure check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook for picking this weeks recipe.

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden (dried cherries)
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (combo semi-sweet and bittersweet)
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces (only 1 stick)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar (only 1/2 cup)

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

Put the raisins/cherries in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes(or only 30 minutes at 350), or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

1. Ruixing Y, Shangling P, Hong C, Hanjun Y, Hai W, Yuming C, Jinzhen W, Feng H, Meng L, Muyan L. Diet, alcohol consumption, and serum lipid levels of the middle-aged and elderly in the Guangxi Bai Ku Yao and Han populations. Alcohol. 2008 May;42(3):219-29.

Cookie Carnival: Blueberry Drop Cookies

2008-05-31T11:41:00.008-05:00

I actually made these for an end-of- school picnic a few weeks ago, but with all the Seattle traveling I didn't get a chance to post it until today.

These turned out a bit more muffin/scone-esk than I expected but everyone agreed they were delicious. The lemon and blueberry were a really nice combination.

These cookies were a life savor with their short prep time. I had a final in the morning at 7:30, and still had plenty of time to come home and bake these before our lunch party.

I used frozen (and thawed in the fridge) blueberry's. These were a little messy. I think in the future fresh, or leaving them frozen, would be better. I also modified the recipe a bit to cut out some of the butter (also changed the fat from shortening to butter) and sugar (which was probably why the texture was funky), and didn't do the refrigeration step (due to lack of time).

Blueberry's contain many potentially beneficial, and often mentioned, compounds such as antioxidants and anthocyanins. Epidemiological studies have implicated these compounds as potential risk reducers in age-related diseases. One study suggests that dietary supplementation with fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants might be beneficial in reducing the damage the body undergoes from oxidative stress, with is a normal part of aging and can lead to age related diseases such as Alzheimers.1

This is my first submission into the cookie carnival, hosted by The Clean Plate. Check out the site to find the whole round up!

BLUEBERRY DROP COOKIES

Ingredients:

* One-half cup shortening (I used half a stick of butter)

* 1 cup sugar (I used half a cup of sugar)

* 1 egg

* One-fourth cup milk

* One-half teaspoon almond extract

* One and one-half teaspoons grated lemon zest

* 2 cups all purpose flour

* 2 teaspoons baking powder

* One-half teaspoon salt

* 1 cup blueberries, rinsed and picked over

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, sugar, egg, milk, almond extract and lemon zest, mixing well after the addition of each ingredient. Slowly add the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the blueberries and mix until well blended.

2. Cover and chill for 4 hours (skipped this step). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls, one and one-half inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing them with a spatula.

Makes about 4 dozen.

1. Joseph JA, Shukitt-Hale B, Casadesus G. Reversing the deleterious effects of aging on neuronal communication and behavior: beneficial properties of fruit polyphenolic compounds. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;81(1 Suppl):313S-316S.

See Seattle: Part I - tossed salads and scrambled eggs

2008-05-30T09:15:00.013-05:00

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I have a pretty good excuse. I was Seeing Seattle.

Seattle is one of those iconic cities that appears in films and TV shows that seems exciting and elusive to a Midwesterner. Can you imagine a place near the ocean AND mountains, a thriving metropolis with innumerable culinary temptations? We had to check it out!

First and foremost on my list was the Pike Place Market.

Apple cinnamon roll from Piroshky Piroshky, and cheese making at Beecher's Cheese,
and MarketSpice where we picked up some tea and special smoked salt.

We started our trip with a tour of the market, which I would highly recomend. It was a great way to be introduced to the market and Seattle. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and humorous. The tour was kept small (around 15 people) and we used little earpieces to listen to the guide instead of following a shouting person around for an hour.

For dinner our first night we experienced the Crab Pot restaurant, on the pier. As the picture shows, some of the meals on the menu are dumped directly on the table top, and you use a mallet to wrestle your seafood dinner into submission. While the whole thing is a bit silly, it did feel more appropriate then the time I ordered crab legs at McCormick and Schmidt (where I was bibbed and given fancier tools but faced with the same messy challenge - with the added obstacle of trying not to embarrass myself in a fancy restaurant).

In Portland we had Stumptown coffee, and the Voodoo donut (raspberry filled for more authentic breakfast torture).

With all the culinary adventure taking place in my mouth, it left me pondering could Seattle someday be...

Taken from inside the Seattle Public Library.

Check back next time for the non-culinary adventures we experience in the Pacific Northwest.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Madelines

2008-05-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post this week (don't kick me for not being verbose - my excuse is the same - school).

In the midst of finals I managed to whip up a batch of the Earl Grey madelines from the 'playing around' recipes.

I've always wanted to make madelines (I'm not sure why) but without the proper pan I was forced to improvise. I made a half batch with mini muffin pans, which turned out good, except only one ended up with the madeline baby bump.

I saw someone mention substituting spoons for the correct pan. I tried this as well, with less than stellar results (probably due to my over-filling with the refrigerated batter).

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Be sure check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Tara of Smells Like Home for picking this weeks recipe, check there to find the whole thing.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Florida Pie

2008-05-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

Sorry I've been out of touch this week, with school drawing to a close, many things have gone neglected. But don't fear, I still managed to attempt this week's TWD recipe.

Unfortunately for me, this week's recipe got off to a shaky start. Being pressed for time I didn't start this until Sunday afternoon, but was intending to take it to a Sunday evening mother's day celebration.

Luckily for me, I found an old store-made graham cracker crust. I usually make my own now, but I was happy to skip that step and save a few minutes, especially since Dorie recommends this in the recipe.

After searching two stores for key limes, I gave up and went with 'regular' cheapo (12 for a dollar) limes. I also left out all of the coconut (wasn't sure if the mother's would approve). And, since we're being honest - I didn't do the cream reduction either. I just made it like the key lime pie from good old Betty Crocker (I was worried about running out of time).

But there is one thing I did according to the recipe, the meringue. I've never made it before (kind of like my unreasonable fear of raw meat, meringue seems inherently scary). But this was super simple, and super delicious.

Despite the issues, and substitutions, this pie was gobbled up and got rave reviews from the family. Thank you Dorie, for a successful mother's day dessert!

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Be sure check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Dianne of Diannes Dishes for picking this weeks recipe, check there to find the whole thing.

That's all folks, time to hit the books!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Peanut Butter Torte

2008-05-06T06:00:00.006-05:00

I knew this week’s recipe wouldn’t be a big hit in this household. The husbot doesn’t care for peanut butter anything…or Oreos. (sad face)

Rather than eat a whole week’s dessert by myself (admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of those two things either) I decided to see how much ‘creativity’ I could get away with.

First off, I changed the peanut butter to pecan butter (with the power of the food processor, I can do ANYTHING!). Next, the Oreos got replaced with graham crackers. I realized (too late) that using pretzels for the crust would have been a perfect since I’ve been craving a Sheridan’s custard with pretzels all week. Now what I really want to make is some sort of pecan/caramel/ ganache/pretzel/cheesecake concoction!

Even without the pretzels and caramel, this was still pretty darn good.

Although I didn't include the oreos or peanut butter, I did layer on ganache aplenty. Chocolate (due to it's high cocoa content) is a rich source of polyphenols such as catechins and procyanidins. These polyphenols (usually studied from tea) have been shown (in animal models) to inhibit LDL oxidation. However, I did find one study which examined the long term effects of cocoa powder on plasma cholesterol levels. They found that "polyphenolic substances derived from cocoa powder may contribute to an elevation in HDL cholesterol", which in turn may lead to a "suppression of LDL oxidation".1 In other words, it potentially increases the "good cholesterol" which in turn decreases the "bad cholesterol".

Sounds like a good excuse for me to eat some more TWD torte!

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food for picking this weeks recipe.

Baba S, Osakabe N, Kato Y, Natsume M, Yasuda A, Kido T, Fukuda K, Muto Y, Kondo K. Continuous intake of polyphenolic compounds containing cocoa powder reduces LDL oxidative susceptibility and has beneficial effects on plasma HDL-cholesterol concentrations in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Mar;85(3):709-17.

Humpty Dumplings

2008-05-03T18:09:00.004-05:00

I love dumplings. There's really no easier way to say it.

I love them steamed, I love them fried, I love them boiled. I've never met a dumpling I could say "no" to. Even the janky ones served at cheap Chinese buffets I scarf down, and then go back for more.

Last night my husband wanted Thai lettuce leaf wraps (blog post to follow). Unsure this would quench our hunger, I decided to pick up some pork, cabbage, and wrappers to whip up some easy dumplings.

My usual method of dumpling making is quite simple. I throw cabbage, pork, and soy sauce into the food processor, I cook the filling, then fill the dumplings and pan fry them in oil. Horrifically un-authentic, you say? Yes, but when you have an unreasonable fear of raw meat (as I have for most of my life) you leave nothing up to chance.

After getting home, I had a forehead smacking moment when I realized that even after going to two grocery stores to get everything required, I had forgotten to pick up the dumpling wrappers.

Not to be deterred, I put on my thinking cap, rolled up my sleeves, and discovered my new favorite website, Epicurious.

Rediscovered is more like it, I guess. Around Christmas this year I made my sister a Tastebook using a few recipes from epicurious, but I had never taken the time to explore the website. Yesterday I found a treasure trove of recipes and, even better, videos! Including this awesome step by step video and recipe guide for making 1) dumpling wrappers 2) dumpling filling 3) directions for filling and cooking the dumplings AND 4) dipping sauce.

I decided it was time to get over my unreasonable fear of cooking dumplings with raw meat. I enlisted the husbot to help with the dumpling filling. We choose to steam half and pan fry half. Both were delicious and almost all were devoured last night.

These might have been the best dumplings ever (definitely the best I've ever made). If you've got an hour to spare, and a hankering for something tasty, try these out!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

2008-04-29T08:13:00.004-05:00

OR, Fluted Cornmeal and Yogurt Cake (with Dates)

After scanning this recipe, and my larder, I realized I would either have to go to the store, or get creative.

I chose the latter.

After scanning the recipe and seeing sugar AND honey, AND a stick of butter (always makes me heart skip a beat), I decided to see just how much recipe alteration I could get away with.

Turns out, quite a lot!

I chose yogurt, not just because I had about a half gallon on hand, but because I make my own, and I knew the addition would be delicious, and nutritious.

Being a probiotic, yogurt has frequently been studied for it's many beneficial effects. I found an example of a published article where researchers studied the beneficial application of probiotics, where "the affects of probiotics at suppressing the growth of bacteria which convert procarcinogens into carcinogens, thereby reducing the amount of carcinogens in the intestine"1 were beneficial in colon and breast cancer.

Near to my own heart, I found a study where investigators examined the use of yogurt to treat bacterial vaginosis (a common cause of bacterial infection) during pregnancy 2. Pregnancy is a time where special precautions must be taken when using any medications, therefore the potential to use yogurt to treat a pregnant patient is very interesting.

On to the Cake!

Here's my (severely altered) recipe for Fluted Cornmeal & Yogurt Date Cake

500 g chopped dates
1 C yellow corn meal
1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 C yogurt (I make whole milk yogurt)
1/4 C water
1/2 C honey
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 large eggs
4 TBS room temperature unsalted butter

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10 ½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Toss dates into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. Chop dates into smaller pieces.

Whisk the corn meal, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the yogurt and water and lemon juice together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter. Mix in chopped dates. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth out.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Catlin of Engineer Baker for picking this weeks recipe. Come back next week as we tackle Peanut Butter Torte.

1. Nova E, Wärnberg J, Gómez-Martínez S, Díaz LE, Romeo J, Marcos A. Immunomodulatory effects of probiotics in different stages of life. Br J Nutr. 2007 Oct;98 Suppl 1:S90-5.

2. Neri A, Sabah G, Samra Z. Bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy treated with yoghurt. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 1993 Jan;72(1):17-9.

Chicken, again

2008-04-27T12:16:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite styles of cooking is what I call (in my head, and now on this blog) 'leftover cooking'. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can take a series of leftover-filled tupperware, add some fresh ingredients, and turn it into a completely new dish.

Last night we had friends over for dinner, and since I've been pouring over a basic culinary techniques book this weekend, I decided to roast a chicken.

Roasting a chicken is a fairly simple thing to do which turns fairly cheap ingredients into a fabulous feast. For our feast, I used a local chicken ($10), and a mixture of organic carrots, potatoes, onions, and asparagus (together around $5). I slathered the bird with a mixture of butter, salt, and pepper, and filled it with a few cloves of garlic and fresh rosemary from my herb pot.

To fancy up our humble feast I procured a series of cheeses and made a little cheese tray.

But the real star of the show came today. Using the leftover carcass I made quite a lot of chicken broth, half of which went into today's chicken and dumplings.

Into the pot of broth went last night's leftover roasted chicken and vegetable bits, and a few extra fresh carrots and potatoes that wouldn't fit into the roasting pan. I added some fresh parsley and I got my stew on.

In lieu of leftover bread from last night, I whipped up some simple parsley dumplings from my Joy of Cooking and we feasted again. Since the stew recipe is such that anything can be added I'll leave you with the roast chicken that started this whole episode.

Roasted Chicken

3-3.5 lb chicken
1-2 TBS butter + salt and pepper
5 cloves of garlic + 3 sprigs rosemary
4 Carrots, peeled and chopped
3 Potatoes peeled and chopped
7 asparagus stocks, chopped
2 medium onions, choppped
1 TBS olive oil + salt and pepper

Toss all the veggies in the oil/salt and place in the bottom of a roasting pan. Rub the chicken with the butter and salt mixture and place the garlic and rosemary inside. Place the chicken on top of the veg (no grill required), and roast for 1 hour at 425 F. Cover the breast with a bit of aluminum foil so it doesn't over cook. At the end of the cooking time, flip the chicken and broil the underside for a few minutes till it's nice and brown. Chicken is done when it is around 160 F, and the juices run clear (not pink).

A carrot a day will keep the (eye) doctor away

2008-04-22T11:29:00.004-05:00

Although, when your family practitioner finds out you've been filling up on cake all week (and calling it vegetables) he might have a bone to pick with you.

Among carrots many health virtues is it's amount of Vitamin A. While it can't give you super night vision, it may protect against night vision difficulties, but "it's probable that people attributing poor driving ability to their vision may be eating more carrots in the hope of reversing this decline."* Sorry, not the best bit of research, but I’ve been a bit cramped for time this week.

As you can see, I skimped on the delicious icing. Having only two cake pans, I decided to cut the recipe in half and just use the two pans, and that everything would 'be cool'. This resulted in two very skimpy cakes (ok by me) and not nearly enough of the delicious icing (probably because I insisted on icing the outside too). I decreased the cook time to 30 minutes and the cakes were a little over done.

I was serving this cake to friends who weren't fond of raisins, or walnuts. So, instead of leaving them out all together, (I'm not that nice) I chose to throw in the biggest raisins and walnuts I could find (to aid in their pick-out-ability). The result was actually kind of humorous with the cake being so shrimpy and the mix-ins to gigantic.

I also changed up the frosting a bit. Not wanting to purchase lemon extract, I simply added a bit of lemon zest to the icing to amp up the lemon flavor. Although I like carrot cake this recipe felt a little confused with all the additional flavors (coconut, raisin, walnut, lemon). But that didn’t stop us from finishing it in record time.

One of the best things about this cake are the healthy mix-ins. While cooking (or baking, or studying, or...you know…) I usually snack on whatever I can find. In this case, I had the leftover carrot hunks that didn't get shredded in the food processor, raisins, and walnuts. A tasty AND healthy trio.

This is my weekly submission to Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted by Laurie of quirky cupcake. Check out all the other creations by my fellow TWD bakers. A big thank you to Amanda of slow like honey for picking this weeks recipe. Come back next week as we tackle Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake.

*Smith W, Mitchell P, Lazarus R. Carrots, carotene and seeing in the dark. Aust N Z J Ophthalmol. 1999 Jun-Aug;27(3-4):200-3.

Spring is in the air, everywhere I go-o-o

2008-04-21T15:57:00.004-05:00

IKEA - Where fun and fantasy meet

2008-04-17T15:18:00.004-05:00

One of the major drags to living in the midwest is the lack of cool stores. Of the three stores I've grown to love via reading about them on other food blogs - Penzeys, Trader Joes, and IKEA - only one is within a days drive (the first).

Therefore, whenever we visit family near Chicago we always find an excuse to visit IKEA (and Trader Joes).

"IKEA?" You say, "but isn't that a furniture store?"

Right you are! But they also have some of the tastiest Swedish treats around. Annual trips to IKEA allow me to stock up on Lingonberry jam and those crispy flower-shaped Swedish cookies.

On the most recent visit I discovered packets of powder-mix to recreate their delicious meatball sauce. While I'm not much of a mix kind of girl, I was curious to see how close the taste was.

The verdict? Spot on! Unfortunately my attempts at meatball formation was not such a good recreation (i.e. the balls fell apart and turned into meat slop).

So, instead of a meatball/slop recipe here's my simple version of mashed potatoes. Easy for a weeknight dinner, and always delicious! And since the UN has declared 2008 the year of the potato, I think it's time to get out there and enjoy some spuds!

Garlic & Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

4 largish potatoes (I used red) washed and chopped
2 heads of garlic roughly chopped
2 sprigs of rosemary (just the leaves)
Salt & Pepper
1 TBS butter
about 1/2 cup potato water

Boil the potatoes until tender, and the drain and reserve some of the liquid (1/2 cup). Mix the remaining ingredients and smash the potatoes up against the side of the bowl while mixing, leave partly chunky. Add enough of the potato water to increase smoothness to desired level. Salt and pepper to taste.

Over Christmas my mother in law made mashed potatoes in the Kitchen Aid, they were super smooth. I'm too lazy to get out another machine, but if you feel up to it, Kitchen Aid potatoes are tops!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Marshmallows

2008-04-15T08:03:00.001-05:00

I did it! I finally did it!

Every week I see all the cool kats posting their weekly Tuesdays With Dorie recipe together and I think, "I should do that". Well, now I am!

Being a young married college student, I haven't done too much baking yet. I can whip up a cupcake or limited selection of breads on my own, but marshmallows? Before this book I, didn't even realize they were even possible to make from scratch!

Turns out they're not too hard (although I did manage to burn the sugar syrup the first time), but yet very impressive (my favorite kind of dessert).

I ended up making half the batch plain, and half with cappuccino flavoring. Most likely all of them will be used for hot chocolate, as Oz still hasn't quite made up it's mind that it's spring and has decided to continue the showers of flurries.

Unfortunately, my research uncovered few articles extolling the health virtues of the common marshmallow (oddly enough). But I did find one article which showed that marshmallows could be a "viable option for saliva stimulation" used to "determine toddler cortisol concentrations". So, they're not all bad.

You can find this recipe at Judy's Gross Eats, and make sure to check out all the other fabulous marshmallows.

Clements AD, Parker CR Jr, Dixon WE Jr, Salley B.: Marshmallows used as saliva stimulant do not affect cortisol concentrations: finally a palatable alternative for toddler saliva collection. Dev Psychobiol. 2007 Nov;49(7):702-7.

Salmony Paddy's

2008-04-14T21:30:00.002-05:00

Fish is something our diet is sadly lacking.

For awhile now, I've been toying with the idea of forcing myself to learn how to cook fish. It's not that I don't like fish (although I by no means love it), it's just that up till now the bulk of my fish-exposure has come in the form of fish sticks.

I know there's better forms of fish out there (I'll gobble up sushi grade ahi any day) but correctly cooking them has thus-far evaded me.

Why do I think we should be eating more fish?

Among it's many health benefits, salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids, including: EPA and DHA.

Why should you care? The FDA does.

In 2004 the agency allowed the qualified health claim that Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

This may not seems like much. But coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in the US for both men and women. More than half a million Americans die each year from coronary artery disease. Scary statistics, scary enough to entice me to learn how to cook salmon.

The first meal with this salmon was a pan seared recipe which gave edible results. But the paddy rendition, using the leftover flaked salmon, was a winner. This is a great way to introduce fish into our weekly diet (although I imagine the fried patty's probably nix the beneficial aspects of the fatty acids-but I've got to start somewhere).

Salmony Paddy's

1 Cup cooked, and flaked salmon
1/4 cup crushed saltines
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup yogurt
Salt and pepper

Mix ingredients and form small rounds. Fry in batches in a bit of oil, don't crowd the pan.

Snow in April (aka WTF)

2008-04-12T13:05:00.005-05:00

April showers bring May flowers.
April snow really blows.

Although, it does set the stage for great chowder-making weather.

Here, in Oz, few clams roam, but there is corn aplenty. Therefore a hearty corn chowder is perfect to sooth any frustrations resulting from ill-timed snow. This week everything has been blooming, and I was hoping to get in another hike or geocache this weekend. But with the sky looking gloomy and snow falling, I decided it would be prudent to make and eat lots of delicious food instead.

Yesterday we had chowder for lunch with crusty whole grain bread and plugra, Cucumber salad, and fruit salad.

Today we had the leftover chowder, with freshly baked sweet potato biscuits, salad, and grapefruit.

Corn Chowder (loosely adapted from the Joy of Cooking 75th edition)

5 strips of bacon
1 large onion, chopped
2 large red potatoes, peeled and diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
3 Cups milk
1 package frozen corn
1 generous handful of fresh dill, chopped
Salt and Pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pot, remove and drain. When cool, crumble and reserve.

Using the leftover bacon grease, fry the onion and potato for 7 minutes, until partial cooked. Add the celery and cook 3 minutes more.

De glaze the pan with some of the milk, then add the rest of the milk, the corn, the bacon, and half of the dill. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and leave for 10-15 minutes, returning every so often to stir things up. Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, sprinkle with some of the remaining dill to make things look pretty (my picture has no fancy garnish because it was of the reheated leftover soup).

Drool Inducing...?

2008-04-06T12:45:00.005-05:00

Cucumber salads will always and forever be associated in my mind with church potluck dinners. My first taste of culinary diversity came in the form of the beloved casserole.

Literally anything (eg: tuna, chicken, corn, green beans) can be mixed together with a can of cream of (fill in the blank) and smeared into a casserole dish to produce a perfect potluck feast. Topping it with french friend onion rings is a bonus.

While I no longer create many casserole masterpieces, I do still enjoy a good potluck style salad once in awhile. Potluck salads ascribe to the same notion of
1) mix multiple seemingly unrelated ingredients (apple, marshmallow, fruit tidbits, ramen noodles...) together
2) add sauce of choice (vinegar, mayonnaise, whipped cream)
3) spread into a bowl and act natural.

Potluck dinners are the only place where salad does not equal lettuce.

I have no problem with this.

My church supper salad of choice is the simple, yet satisfying:

Cucumber-Red Onion-Vinegar Salad
As the name implies, the ingredients are:

1 cucumber, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
3-4 TBS vinegar (I used rice vinegar since I was serving this with ginger/soy sauce baked salmon)
salt and pepper

Mix the above ingredients and allow to sit at room temperature for an hour (or all day in the fridge). Stir a few times, and enjoy!

Spring Comes To Oz

2008-04-05T17:06:00.002-05:00

Sushi 2

2008-04-01T11:04:00.004-05:00

A quick post to show off pictures of our recent sushi dinner. The ingredients used were: ahi, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, and a spicy crab mix I whipped up. The rice didn't turn out too great, so I'll have to work on that some more, but overall everything was pretty easy, tasty, cheap (except for the ahi) and healthy (except for the cream cheese). That's my kind of meal!

Easter Heirloom Recipe

2008-03-30T14:49:00.005-05:00

In keeping with the post-things-way-after-the-fact trend, here is a fabulous dessert I made for Easter.

Every family has food with history, this banana cake is filled with family lore. As the story goes, my grandma made this cake for special family functions, and it was everybody's favorite. UNTIL the fateful day when only one piece of the cake remained--but more than one person desired it. Apparently an argument broke out over who was to get the last piece of coveted cake. Amidst the furor, my grandma declared her disgust for the whole matter and determined Never to Bake the Cake Again. And she never did.

I heard this story a few times growing up, but didn't realize until collecting recipes for a wedding gift for my sister, that my mom had (years ago) obtained a copy of the recipe from one of my aunts. I couldn't wait for the perfect family gathering to flex my fledgling baking skillz and try this puppy out.

Unfortunately (for me) the recipe was a bit cryptic on some key measurements. This lead to one failed egg cake recipe (the second run I made a buttermilk cake base with a recipe from the always perfect 'joy of cooking' cookbook). And a need to 'wing it' for one of the icing recipes. But in the end, I found success.

Without divulging this coveted family recipe I will say this:

The cake was (supposed to be) an egg cake
The filling included banana slices and a powdered sugar frosting
The outer icing was a pan simmered caramel

According to my dad the cake was "almost perfect", but some elusive and undescribable taste was missing. Regardless, the cake was delicious, and 'almost perfect' is good enough for me!

St. Patricks did come to our house, I swear!

2008-03-26T19:40:00.004-05:00

Growing up, St. Patrick's day was a Big Deal.

I remember the requisite green clothes (my mom can give a nasty pinch), and the unbelievably large collection of shamrock-themed socks I managed to accrue.

These days (thankfully) few people seem to recognize the green wardrobe requirement, but the only businesses (sadly) who seem to get hyped about the holiday are the many bars in town. I remember last year I tried calling every place I could think of to get some corned beef and cabbage, to no avail.

What's a good little cook to do? Why, cook it herself! Growing up my mom always made this in the crockpot, filling the house all day with the scents of what-was-to-come. I choose to prepare mine in my trusty cast iron. The beef was delicous, as was to be expected, but the show stopper was this soda bread/cake I found here.

Simply Recipes was the first food blog I started reading years ago and it's still my go-to blog when I'm looking for a sure thing. I've never made anything from this site that I haven't enjoyed.

So if you feel like trying a simple bread, and your feeling lucky-try this out!

Hearty Meal for a Soggy Day

2008-03-17T12:19:00.005-05:00

I woke up this morning to the grumble of far away thunder. It's been months since we had a good rain storm. I remember as an angst-ridden teen, one of my favorite summer activities was sitting inside my room with my feet dangling out the window during a warm summer thunderstorm. The smell of the wet grass and the water between my toes was heaven!

Today's rain (unfortunately) falls into the gloomy-spring-drippy-rain category, but I still enjoy it-albeit from a warm spot nestled under the covers.

But cold rain days are good for something: hearty German food!

While perusing the pile of corned beef requisite for the St. Paddy's day culinary celebration at the supermarket, I saw fresh bagged sauerkraut was also on sale. Never one to pass up a good deal, I decided there was no harm in two closely spaced hearty meals, except maybe the need for a little extra time on the
treadmill.

One of my favorite blogs recently posted a version of the cooks illustrated version of the mark bittman 'no knead bread'. I've made the original with great success, but this recipe guaranteed a more flavorful loaf. I used a pale ale homemade by some of our talented brew- making friends, and the bread came out marvelously.

As for the sauerkraut, it hardly counts as a recipe, but here goes:

4 medium/large potatoes (i used red), peeled and cubed
3 large carots, peeled and chopped to appx. 2 inch pieces
2 sausages, sliced (I used toulouse made at our local co-op)
1 Bag sauerkraut
1 TBS caraway seeds

Place everything into a large stock pot, add enough water it cover at least half the ingredients, and simmer for a few hours until the veggies are tender. I also added the leftover beer from the bread.

A Conversational Dessert

2008-03-06T20:21:00.005-06:00

Today, when one of my friends tipped me off to the good deals on strawberries at our favorite supermarket, I knew it was time for strawberry shortcake.

Shortcake is a dessert frequently seen in our household. It's probably the only food my husband really gets excited about, and it's incredibly easy to make. It's a winner on all fronts.

In the summer when good deals on berries abound, this appears on our table with unhealthy frequency.

Tonight my conversation partner came over for dinner. With the constant pressures of school bringing us down, I thought this would make a great end to our meal of pasta.

Strawberry Shortcakes

For the shortcakes:
I just follow the recipe on the jiffy baking mix box
(sadly, this is one of the crutches I learned from my mother--Jiffy baking mix makes so many things easier with it's hydrogenation and other superfluous chemicals)

For the strawberries:
A few hours before you want to eat: slice 1 pound of strawberries and mix in at least 1 TBS of white sugar

For the cream:
Whip a small container of heavy whipping cream with 1 TBS of white sugar until in magically transforms from a liquid to a solid (that's chemistry folks!)

Layer in any order you prefer (we usually go with shortcake -strawberries - cream - mint sprig)

white sugar, jiffy mix, strawberries in March?? This is going to loose all my street cred with the locavores.

Afternoon Snack

2008-03-03T20:03:00.002-06:00

The weather took a warm turn this week, the Chaco's came out and we even ventured outside one afternoon (although not for long). One of the many benefits of being home frequently in the afternoon is the ability to have afternoon snacks.

Maybe it's my love of English romance novels or kindergarten that has endeared me to the snack. Who can say? All I know, is that a snack day is a good day!

Today's snack included:
Tangelo slices
Ginger cookies from IKEA
A variety of fancy cheeses including my favorite - cranberry chipotle cheddar
Wheat bread with Havarti cheese and smoked salmon
Chili laced chocolate

Don't you wish it was snack day??

Sushi!

2008-02-26T21:56:00.004-06:00

Sushi, the unatainable dream for midwesterners. I used to say "i don't eat sushi, because we can't get fresh fish here". I now think different, but am still leary of any kind of 'fresh fish' dish in the midwest (save catfish-and so far I haven't seen that as a sushi highlight...except for these crazy cats).

However, the lure to create my own sushi masterpiece has grown to new heights, fueled by a series of well written instructables.

Tonight at 8:00 I decided it was high time, I conquered sushi. I found a sushi mat at world market (i know, i know--but in my defence, the previous midwest argument), smoked salmon and nori and set off on an adventure. As the pictures show, my rolling technique needs some work, but all in all my cucumber-cream cheese-smoked salmon rolls came out pretty good. To heck with the fact that no self-respect legit sushi maker would put include cream cheese...referring to that Midwesterner argument: everything's better with cream cheese in it!

I tried to make some sesame fish sticks for appetizers. They turned out well, but were a bit too sesame-y, i think maybe next time they could do with some added spices in the batter.

V-Day 09

2008-02-19T17:54:00.007-06:00

This valentines I had one desire...delicious layered chocolate cake.

Roadblock: the man doesn't like chocolate cake, or chocolate frosting (I didn't ask-but my guess is he probably doesn't dig chocolate whipped cream filling too much either...me thinks he might be an alien-luckily for me, we have nicole kidman on the job).

Desire fulfilled: some friends of ours needed a V-day dinner delivered (due to medical problems and the inability of the other half to cook much beyond mac & cheese).

Game Plan: chocolate layered cake for us, apple pie for the man.

After searching countless cookbooks i came across this chocolate heart cake that fit the bill. Not wanting to give our friends half a heart (nor did I much feel like purchasing a one-time-use pan) I made mine in a good old 9" round pan, with superb success.

The process encompassed a three day period from start to finish:
Night 1 - Bake the cake and cool (store in fridge)
Night 2 - Whip chocolate filling, assemble cake, and frost with ganache
Afternoon 3 - make truffles from leftover ganache and decorate cake

Our V-day feast included:
Italian Sausage Lasagna (recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker)
Rosemary & Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Lemon Butter Steamed Broccoli
Homemade Bread Wish Fresh Oregano & Rosemary (with olive oil and balsamic to dip)
Cartilage and Brown (doesn't that sound appetizing) Red Wine

Apple pie (Actually the 'apple wrapper pie' also from the great BC)
Chocolate layer cake
French press Kona coffee

Don't you wish your were my valentine??

Time For Change

2008-02-19T17:39:00.002-06:00

I'm the first to admit to my infinite laziness. Before starting any school work in the morning I must first 1) drink my coffee 2) check the news 3) check as many RSS feeds as I can possibly rationalize I 'have time' for...then...and maybe then I'll pick up my notes. Unfortunately this laziness has often expressed itself in the form of not-blogging. I have great plans for a blog, and then the hindrance of uploading pictures, and coming up a recipe stymies my attempts.

But, it's time for change. Tonight, my plan is to learn (via my infinitely less lazy husband) how to upload said pictures, and then I'll HAVE to blog....

Or at least come up with another excuse.

Spanish Rice and Chorizo

2007-12-14T18:07:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things to make is spanish rice. I found a great basic recipe that turns our great results every time. But in my infinite laziness/creativeness I lean more towards one pot meals. Thus a side dish of 'spanish rice' turns into a one-pot meal of rice and chorizo. I spiked this dish with some spinach left over from making a very unhealthy but delicious spinach & artichoke dip for a party tomorrow.

We all know spinach abounds in vitamins (why else was popeye so ripped??), but did you know that along those healthy vitamins can come health warnings? Spinach is loaded (approximately 440 - 400 Mcg per serving) with Vitamin K, which improves blood's ability to clot. However in people taking coumadin and other so-called 'blood thinners' Vitamin K hinders the effects of their drugs.

So what did we learn today? Don't blindly believe that all vitamins are always and only good for you, unfortunately there are many circumstances where this is not the case. It's good to be aware of the possible side effects with any vitamin (and sometimes vegetables!)

Rice and Chorizo

1 chorizo link
1 large onion
1 can diced tomatos, drained (or if in season 1 cup chopped fresh tomatos)
1/3 cup spinach (I used leftover from a package of frozen spinach, but fresh would be good too)
2 cups rice
4 cups chicken stock
1 TBS tomato paste

Slice into coins and brown the chorizo. Remove the chorizo from the pan, and in the remaining oil cook the chopped onion. After 2 minutes of cooking, add the rice to the onions in the pan and cook for a few minutes, until the rice begins to turn brown and smell nutty.

Add the spinach, chorizo, tomato paste, and tomato to the pan, mix and cook one minute.

Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook around 20 minutes until the rice has soaked up all the stock, and is soft.

Topping this dish with cilantro would be a good ideal

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

2007-12-05T08:05:00.000-06:00

Tis the season of unnecessary cookie baking. My favorite time of year. Cookies are a good way to get your feet wet in the baking world, generally there's enough dough for more than one batch, so if you mess up the baking time and get cookies that are too crunchy or soft, there's always more for another try. This recipe came from an old church cookbook (with a few tweaks due to ingredient shortages).

Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
powdered sugar

Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix together the two mixtures. Stir in the oats. Form balls approximately 1 tablespoon in size and roll balls in powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet and press down with a fork.

Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes or until light brown.

For me this recipe made 36 cookies (3 sheets of 12 cookies each)

rice with added benefits

2007-11-30T08:37:00.000-06:00

Towards the end of the week, the theme of my meals tends to be 'how many things can I use up in one dish before they go bad'. Last night I found: 2 zucchini, 1 onion, and some andouille sausage just begging to be to chopped and eaten. I also increased the health factor by using the leftover broth from my 'sick stew'. Zucchini is high in many vitamins including vitamin A. Vitamin A is important in vision and bone growth, and deficiency can lead to night blindness. I like to think that eating extra zucchini will help me to increase my night vision and enhance my cat-like reflexes.

Rice with Added Benefits
2 zucchini
1 onion
2 andouille sausages
2 cups rice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp cumin
salt to taste

Chop and saute zucchini, onion, and sausages. I prefer to saute the sausages first, then use the leftover grease from these to enhance the flavor of the veggies while they saute. Remove from pan, then saute the rice in remaining sausage grease (or add butter if there's none left), until it starts to turn brown and smell nutty. Add back the veggies and sausage to the pan, then stir in the tomato sauce and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and allow to steam, covered, until the rice is soft (20 minutes).

sick stew

2007-11-23T20:31:00.000-06:00

For those days when you just want to crawl back under the covers and keep a full box of tissues at the ready, i give you: sick stew. When you're sick and have no taste buds, you don't even have to add salt (there's enough already injected into most chicken anyway).

2 pounds chicken parts
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 onion (also chopped)
various herbs (i prefer rosemary and oregano, because I have them growing fresh in my kitchen)
water to cover (around 6 cups)
1.5 Cups egg noodles

Place everything in a stockpot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to simmer for an hour or so, until the whole house smells like chicken and and the meat falls off the bones. Add the egg noodles and simmer until they are soft. After slurping some sick stew, crawl back under those covers...you deserve a day off.

afternoon snack

2007-11-20T17:11:00.001-06:00

Home from school, and famished, not much of my snack remained to photograph (sorry). A great way to wake up and cook dinner is a light snack when getting home from school. Today for me it contained toast with goats cheese (on wheat bread i made a few days ago), ceylon tea, and a few dates. According to an article from the orlando sentinal entitled 'for nutrition, make a date with dates', dates "have a high sugar content, making them a good source of energy, and they provide some fiber, protein and vitamin A, and a good bit of potassium. An ounce, or about 3 large dates, is 86 calories." Sounds like a winner in my snack book!

Simple Salad

2007-11-19T20:08:00.000-06:00

The last installment of our summer farmers alliance drop off a few weeks ago, brought delicious salad greens and a variety of colorful baby tomatoes. The virtues of the tomato can often be found listed in various websites (such as vitamin C, thiamine, and riboflavin), but the phenomenon of lycopene is rarely explained, which is a shame. Lycopene is a potent carotenoid antioxidant which, astonishingly, is not broken down, but in fact increases it's bioavailability (your bodies ability to use it) during processing (unlike it's weakling cousin vitamin C, which can't take the heat...and therefore should get out of the kitchen!). So fill up on those tomatoes (if there's any left) and don't feel guilty about cooking them down because the lycopene levels will go up and up!

Simple Salad
salad greens
baby tomatoes
goat cheese crumbles
balsamic vinegar

Mix and enjoy!