Chestnut Roasting

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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 Apron.