Vox’s posts tagged recipes

Vegan MoFo #4 : Clayudas Recipe

2008-10-07T03:09:07Z

This is what I made for dinner tonight. I figured since it was the first non-Indian dish I've cooked in ages, I would post the recipe. I got it from Vegetarian Times.
I didn't have 'canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce' which I'm going to guess is like...a huge ingredient in the recipe. I tried to sub salsa, and I even added a bunch of red pepper to kick the spice up a bit, but I still ended up having to put salsa on the top of it. Otherwise, it was good! I'm glad I made it, for something a little different. If anyone makes it and uses the chipotle, let me know how it turns out!

Clayudas

A Oaxacan dish similar to pizza. Tortillas are slathered with a spicey black bean puree, baked, then sprinkled with various toppings.

DSCN0485

1 Tbl canola oil
1 small white onion, diced (1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, drained
1/2 tsp brown sugar
4 8in flour tortillas
8 oz slaw mix
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
2 Tbs lime juice

1.) Preheat the oven to 450F. heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add garlic and cumin and cook 1 minute more. Place onion mix in blender with beans, chipotle chile, brown sugar, and 3 Tbl water. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
2.) Place 2 tortillas each on 2 baking sheets. Spread bean mix on tortillas and bake 5-7 minutes or until edges become golden
3.) Toss slaw in bowl with cilantro and lim juice. Season with salt and pepper. Top each clayuda with slaw and cut into triangles.

Serves 8

Per Serving: 157 cal; 6g protein; 4g total fat (.5 sat fat); 25g carb; 0mg chol; 436 mg sodium (unless you omit it, like I did); 5 g fiber; 2 g sugars

Eek, a serving is half a tortilla. Not as healthy as I thought. Good lord, what makes the calories so high? Not the tortilla, half a tortilla is only 40 calories. The beans? Really? Not much else on there. Oh well. Whatever. I don't care.

Enjoy!

~Nikki

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VeganMoFo Day #4: Vegan Vanilla Yogurt Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

2008-10-06T14:59:35Z

VeganMoFo

I don't know when was the last time I made a batch of cupcakes. I don't know what happened to me. At first I was so excited about baking cupcakes and frosting them. Then I thought to myself that I don't love cupcakes as much as I thought. Now that I had such a long break from cute cupcakes, I miss them again. It's hard to believe that I haven't made them in such a long time. I had a big container of vanilla soy yogurt and a new container of cream cheese. I shouldn't have had these two things at the same time I don't want to get into a baking frenzy. So here are my babies - vegan vanilla yogurt cupcakes with vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting. Some had sprinkles on too. That was my hubby's great idea for a little more colors.

Vegan Vanilla Yogurt Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Vegan Vanilla Yogurt Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
(based on this recipe - banana vanilla muffin section)
Makes 12 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

2 cups + 2 Tbsp. organic all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
0.5 tsp. baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
1/3 cup Earth Balance butter
0.8 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3.9 oz applesauce
2 Tbsp. water

For the frosting:

1 container (8 oz) Tofutti plain cream cheese
1/4 cup Earth Balance butter
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Cream together butter, sugar, soy yogurt and applesauce. Mix flour, baking agents and salt. Add to butter sugar mixture and stir well. Add vanilla extract. Be careful not to overmix. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.

While baking the cupcakes, beat the Earth Balance and cream cheese together until smooth with a stand mixer or hand beaters. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until whipped and very fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl to get everything mixed well. Refrigerate to set (at least an hour). Then frost all you want. There is enough frosting for all the cupcakes and some leftover for you.

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Long Time, No Blog

2008-10-05T07:05:58Z

Hm...I wonder how many times that blog title has been used in the history of the blogosphere. Regardless, it's a fact that I have not blogged in a long time. Why? I was busy this summer with my final externship then I was busy finding a job, choosing a job, finding an apartment, and moving in. Now I am busy with my new job. New job, New city. I am now a resident of Miami, Florida. Anyway, I will likely post pictures of my new apartment soon but I want to finish organizing some stuff before I do that. But I will post pictures of my latest cooking adventures.

Tuna Tartare
So there's this restaurant back home called Umi. They have this awesome Tuna Tartare. It's got tuna and avocado and panko. Anyway, I decided to try and recreate it using some random recipe for Tuna Tartare and what I could remember about the restaurant's dish. Anyway, it turned out pretty well. Not exactly the same, but not too bad. On an unrelated note...when I moved I couldn't throw away my Corelle dishes because they're full of good memories.

Tuna Tartare

Chocolate Pudding
For some reason I wanted to make some homemade pudding. I've been making a slightly modified version of Paula Deen's Banana Pudding forever. I won't even comment on the continuous harassment I've received to make this for people. But for that I always use instant pudding (Jello French Vanilla if you're curious). But I had never made homemade pudding. Pretty much the only extra ingredient you need to make you're own pudding is cornstarch. So I decided to try my hand at some chocolate pudding. And guess what? It turned out perfect. Just like what you buy in the store. Now I can make whatever flavor I want. Ok so I know this is boring but sometimes the most simple things are the most satisfying.

Chocolate Pudding

Recipe:
best chocolate pudding
Courtesy of: Smitten Kitchen

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used good quality semisweet chocolate chips; use 70% bittersweet if you want more of a dark chocolate kick)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or skip this step if you’re a slacker like me who is absolutely certain that there is nary a lump her puddin’) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes.

3. If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days (ahem, good luck with that).

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Portuguese Pastry Throwdown

2008-10-02T21:33:48Z

Castle in Sintra

The other night I made queijadas de Sintra, a kind of sweet Portuguese cheese tart. When B. learned that I liked to bake, he rhapsodized about these delectable little pastries that he had when in Portugal. Cheese tarts like this are available all around the country, but the ones in the little castle town of Sintra, a little ways away from Lisbon, are especially renowned. Of course, hearing this I decided I had to reproduce them if I could. Unfortunately, despite the many books of breads and desserts that I have, none of them had a recipe for these, so I had to buy one because I didn't think any of the recipes online looked all that good Then I had to go on an odyssey to find some real lard to use in the crust; not a lot is called for, so I probably could have gotten away with Crisco, but the book is pretty specific about it being hog lard, which in this anti-trans fat era (and in my rather heavily Jewish area) I did have to look a bit harder than I might have in other circumstances. I did finally locate some in a Gristedes, though of course it comes in huge blocks so now I'm going to have to make a ton more queijadas, plus lots of bizcochitos at Christmas (without telling anyone about the lard, of course...in bizcochitos there's much more). Fun fact: bizcochitos are the state cookie of New Mexico. Do all states have official cookies, I wonder, or is NM the only one that wastes its time on such things?

Lard.

As I said, there's not that much lard in the pastry dough for the queijadas, but I did feel that it really made a difference. I first mixed up the dough by cutting the lard into the flour and salt, then added ice water. The dough didn't come together very well -- it was kind of an alarming mess, actually, but I tried not to panic and just wrapped it in plastic and stuck it in the fridge for several hours, as directed, while I mixed up the filling, which was a combination of eggs, mozzarella cheese, sugar, and cinnamon. Real queijadas are made with queijo fresco, which is a fresh sheep's milk cheese that the author of the cookbook says is not available here, but since the cookbook was written ages ago, before all the wonderful cheese shops in NY really took off, I wonder if I might be able to find something more comparable now. Some of the recipes online call for ricotta, which is what I was thinking -- especially if I can get some of that sheep's milk ricotta that I bought at the farmer's market at my birthday, that seems like a likely bet. The next time I make the queijadas I'm going to try, in any case. The mozzarella was pretty hard to get to a creamy texture using my hand mixer, I have to say. Anyway, I chilled that for awhile as well while I embarked on making some salad recipes from another book, one I'm currently reviewing.

Queijada dough

I was still a little skeptical when I took the dough out of the fridge, and it was a tad sticky, but miraculously, it had come together, and with a little flour added, it rolled out absolutely beautifully. I couldn't believe it. The instructions said to get the pastry paper-thin, and I did my best; I had to be a bit resourceful in cutting and shaping the shell, because I didn't have the right size cutter (so I used the base from my Zyliss chopper) and I didn't have tart pans (so I used cupcake molds, as I had seen in some recipes for the queijadas online). After putting the pastry dough in the molds, and attempting to sort of flute them, especially since the dough circles seemed a little oversized, I then filled them part way with the filling. In the first batch I filled them a bit too much, I think, and the eggs in the filling (I assume) caused it to rise up over the top of the pastry in some of them. They were still OK but not as pretty. So with the second batch I was a little more careful. The recipe was supposed to make 3 1/2 dozen; I don't see how that would have been possible with the filling, even if I had used less, but there was definitely enough pastry dough. I didn't keep it, though, wasteful as I felt. Anyway, the second batch worked much better.

I tasted them and took a few to the office, but of course B. was the only one who could judge whether they tasted anything like the ones from Sintra. I was doubtful, though I thought they tasted good on their own terms anyway, but he said they were in fact not too far off; the crust there apparently is flakier (mine was pretty crispity crunchity), and the top was kind of bruléed. I think both of those failings should be easy enough to remedy; the need for flakiness makes me think that perhaps lard is not in fact the way to go for the crust, because I have always thought that butter is what does that. So maybe next time, butter. I should get better at pastry crust anyway, and work on my pies and tarts. It's getting to be that time of year. And for the bruléeing, I'll just need to get one of those mini torches they sell for that purpose; I don't think they cost too much. I briefly entertained the notion of trying it with just a match or candle, but have already come to my senses even without experimenting. So we'll see. At least I didn't fare too badly in the matchup with Sintra.

Queijadas ready to be devoured

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VeganMoFo Day #3: A Simple Veggie Burger

2008-10-04T19:42:08Z

I feel really bad for not coming up with more novel ideas for this VeganMoFo that I was so looking forward to participating in. We are just so darn busy; it is unbelievable. We finally decided to move down to Florida for a year, at least for the winter months. We found a very nice cottage 10 minutes outside St. Augustine and we are moving there early next week. We really need to find ourselves and our sanity back for now, above everything else. I do not mean to complain again, though. Everything is going so well for us; and we are really counting our blessings every day. These are hard times, after all.

VeganMoFo

Anyway, we just had a very simple yet super nice veggie burger for our brunch. The burger pattie was store-bought so there is not much to speak of. We added onions, tomatoes, pickles, vegan mayo and lettuce in between two multi-grain buns. Thank God I made a batch of vegan cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for my next entry.

Veggie Burger

I am truly looking forward to settling down in Florida and cooking much more at home to enjoy the simple pleasure life has to offer. For all of you out there who are going through a tough or a challenging time, all the best wishes go out to you!

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Amish Sour Cream Apple Pie...

2008-10-04T15:20:18Z

Amish Sour Cream Apple Pie

1 c. sour cream
1 egg
3/4 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 c. diced apples, peeled
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Instructions:

Beat cream and egg together. Add flour, sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Stir in apples. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and spread with crumb topping. Bake 20 more minutes.

CRUMB TOPPING:

1/2 c. brown sugar 1/4 c. butter 1/3 c. flour 1 tsp. cinnamon Mix until crumbly.

Note: Found at Recipes - Cafemom

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VeganMoFo Day #2: Another Quickie

2008-10-03T00:57:06Z

VeganMoFo

It was a really long and stressful day. We had so much to do for our little family business that there never seemed to be enough time. I don't even know if I'm thinking straight now. Anyway, I only took one photo for our simple and humble brunch - Mushroom and Pea Pasta with Broccoli. No fancy thing as the name says it all, but some wholewheat pasta is the only thing that keeps us going nowadays. The lighting was bad, obviously, but I really didn't have much time today to get things right.

Mushroom Pea Pasta

I did manage to take some more photos of the back yard I've been enjoying, mostly from looking at it only. Shame on me!

Back Yard, Long Island

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CUPCAKE!

2008-10-02T16:47:44Z

For my birthday this year, my mom enrolled me in her Cupcake of the Month Club. It's a very exclusive club; I'm the only member.

September is Espresso Cupcakes. These are the best cupcakes I've ever had!

*joy*

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It's Pronounced Yeer'-O

2008-10-02T04:37:46Z

Yummy Gyro

Mmmmmm.... gyros. We eat these things at least once a week and if I had known how easy and healthy they were, I would've started making them right when I was born.

Here's how we do 'em around here:

1 Tbl fresh organic dill, chopped
1 cup plain yogurt (raw yogurt has the most live cultures)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp paprika (sweet or spicy)

1 Tbl fresh organic dill, chopped
1 Tbl lemon juice
2 tbl olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
1 lb. lamb steak (chicken or beef also works - don't forget free-range or grass-fed - VERY important)

4 pita pockets, halved crosswise (The Bread Garden has no additives)
thinly sliced onions (any kind, we like red onion)
thinly sliced organic tomatoes
shredded organic lettuce (or serve with a greek salad)

Preheat oven to high broil.

Mix the first four ingredients together in a serving bowl. This is your dreamy gyro sauce.

Mix the next five ingredients together and spread all over lamb steaks. Place lamb in oven on broil for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and slice into thin strips. Feed the bones to your dog.

Serve the lamb, sauce and remaining ingredients while you sit back and listen to your kids happily filling their pita pockets and slurping it all down.

Gyros in NYC

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Show me your Campbell's cookbooks

2008-09-30T16:03:23Z

Campbell's Cookbooks

Here are the 2 Campbell cookbooks I got back in 1970. I love the "Easy Ways to Delicious Meals" as they used items from Campbell's that wasn't always just from soup. There are recipes for Campbell's Bounty products, the Swanson frozen meat pies, the frozen prepared dinners Campbell's beans plus the soup. V-8 juice recipes, their canned spaghetti, and puddings.

Great stuff and recipes. My cookbooks are "well loved" and still in use.

So, show me your Campbell's cookbooks-please

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SousChef Helps You Find, Cook and Dish Out Your Favorite Recipes

2008-09-29T17:34:17Z

SousChef Helps You Find, Cook and Dish Out Your Favorite Recipes

http://prmac.vox.com/library/post/sou...

Acacia Tree Software's just released SousChef helps you be the Chef, start to finish. SousChef accesses an online cloud database made up of all other users' recipes allowing you to quickly find new and delicious recipes. Find a recipe, cook it, modify it and share it with friends and family - all in...

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SousChef Helps You Find, Cook and Dish Out Your Favorite Recipes

2008-09-29T17:33:39Z

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The colors of fall

2008-09-28T22:29:06Z

Fall might be here, but its still summer in our farmer's market. We came home with a trunk full of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, chilli peppers, zucchini, along with delicious local apples. I just had to make soup. Everything in this soup, except from the olive oil, came from the local market.

Mixed vegetable soup

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 zucchini, diced
1 mild hot banana pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 large tomatoes, chopped (I used orange tomatoes)
1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp honey/sugar/agave nectar
2 oz of your favorite crumbly cheese (optional)

- Heat the oil in a dutch oven.
- Add zucchini and peppers and saute for about five minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and saute for a couple of minutes. Our tomatoes were incredible juicy, so I didn't add any water/stock. If needed, add half a cup of water and bring to a boil.
- Add salt, pepper, oregano and sugar. Cover and simmer for five minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Garnish with basil and cheese and serve warm.

This was quite possibly the quickest soup I've ever made. According to A, it was also the most delicious. :)

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Silly Season

2008-09-28T20:45:21Z

Seems that about this time of the year, the internet gets sillier. Especially on the spiritual sites and boards. Add into that when it's an election year, trying to find a decent discussion sometimes seems a fruitless endeavor. And this year doesn't look as if it's going to be any different.

I belong to a number of on-line sites. Political, Spiritual, and of course...Sharing cooking tricks and recipes as well as POGO. Not to mention, a few blog/journal/diary sites for entertainment purposes.

With October and Samhain (that's Halloween for non-Pagans) just around the corner, the Spiritual discussion boards are hopping with 'newbies' claiming of spooks, hexes, and other 'occultish' going ons. Seems that ghosties and goblins are pestering the poor things. Of course, it's still early in the season in this regard...Give it another couple of weeks and the demon attacks will just be getting into gear. Of course, followed closely behind those appearances will be self-professed vampire and demon hunters ready to dazzle you with their 'expertise' and 'powerfulness'.

The political silliness has been going on for a while though. Since Super Tuesday in fact. But as election day gets closer and closer, the more frequent the 'libs' this and 'cons' that are. Doesn't seem that too many people seem to have the first clue about the actual platforms are...And for the few that do? Those that don't seem to only be able to respond with calling the other a 'Lib' or 'Con' as a response. In this particular time of our history, when one would think we'd all be working towards bringing our people together, seems that where politics are concerned they're more divisive then ever.

Needless to say, because of all the name calling and silliness...Of people not being able to discuss politics on a rational level and only interested in labeling others? I'd rather find something better to do with my time then read the repetitive divisiveness on all the boards.

At least there's POGO, my women's group, and cooking to entertain myself with as well as keep my sanity till the silly season passes. :D

Which reminds me...I have a recipe to share with viewers. I've been playing around again with flavor substitutions, and created a masterpiece. So enjoy! It's a sweet, zesty vegetarian style soup.

Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash-Pear Soup

1 small butternut squash
1 teaspoons of olive oil
4 medium ripe pears; peeled, cored, and diced
1 large onion; finely chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon parsley
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut squash in half, place on oiled foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until fork tender. Remove and allow to cool. Remove seeds. Scrape flesh from from the skin and place into a food processor. Puree until smooth.

In a medium soup pot, heat oil and add onions. Saute till tender. Add seasonings and cook 1 minute. Add pears and saute for 4-5 minutes additional minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer 20 minutes or until pears are tender. Add in butternut puree and cream. Stir well.

Add slowly to food processor and blend until smooth. Return to soup pot and heat thoroughly.

Serve with a spoonful of sour cream as garnish if desired.

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All and sundry

2008-09-28T19:19:37Z

First of all, I signed up to do NaNoWriMo this year. Exciting and scary. I think I'm quickly going to become an evangelist for it, so learn more (and sign up yourself) here.
If you haven't checked Mahalo out in a while we've got some pretty great coverage of a bunch of strange things, like Lego Batman video games, Oktoberfest recipes (that's coming up!), the baseball playoffs (go Dodgers) and fascinating young women like Lucy Pinder (NSFW).
I'm also working on a new personal blog, which will be here: http://www.lelahwithanh.com/ It is currently under construction as I tweak it to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. This blog has been a lot of fun, and as my very first blogging attempt, I'm proud of it, but I think it is time for something a little more sophisticated, that syndicates my web presence as a whole (ie: my flickr, twitter, delicious etc). So check back for updates on that.

Wish me luck!

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Good Food, Good Times

2008-09-28T13:16:50Z

Recently, I had occasion to eat out at a local, Chinese fast food establishment. I don't eat out often, but love all sorts of Asian food, including Chinese. It was a special occasion, so I treated me to black bean chicken and shoyu pork. The food was better than I had expected, so it was a good meal

Back in the early 80's while living on the mainland, I took a Chinese cooking course through the local community college system. Not geared to people looking to make a career of becoming a Chinese chef, but geared to normal folk who want to be able to vary their home menu from time to time.

The course was a lot of fun and educational. Each week, we would show up for class and help our teacher, Mrs. Lee unload several bags of food from her car. During class, we would divide up onto teams of two, then prepare three or four items.

After cooking, we would all sit down together and enjoy our evening's class work. Definitely the most enjoyable college course I've ever taken.

One of the dishes we prepared for our class was black bean chicken. Someplace here in my cavernous studio apartment, I have all my recipes and notes from Mrs. Lee's class, but can't quite lay my hands on them at the moment.

Not to worry. I simply hit Google and typed "black bean chicken recipe" and was rewarded with about 1,000 hits.

The recipe below looked both quick and easy. It proved to be not only quick and easy, but way delicious.

In order to accommodate my diabetes and some practical issues, I made only a couple of small tweaks.

I used a pound and a half of chicken. That was one tray with two nice boneless skinless breasts. I substituted Splenda for the sugar. Lastly, I used bell pepper instead of broccoli. I like broccoli, but even if I can tolerate it getting stuck in my teeth, I hate the tedium of cleaning and trimming it. Bell pepper are much more low maintenance.

Following is the recipe. This is worth a try, regardless of your culinary skill level. I got three very good sized meals from this recipe. I'm sure I could have gotten four, but it was so good, I had a pretty large portion the night I made it. It re-heated in the microwave really well.

Next is a batch of oyster sauce chicken inspired by a friend's recent visit to a Thai restaurant.

Enjoy

Black Bean Chicken

Ingredients

1/3 cup fermented Chinese black beans

2 tablespoons peanut oil

2 cups chopped onion

1 garlic clove, minced

2/3 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

4 cups broccoli florets

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1/4-inch strips

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon dry sherry

Preparation

Place beans in a bowl, and cover with warm water. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain well.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 30 seconds. Add beans; sauté 10 seconds. Stir in the broth, soy sauce, and sugar; bring to a boil. Add broccoli and chicken; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until the chicken is done, stirring occasionally.

Combine cornstarch and sherry, stirring well with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to chicken mixture, and bring to a boil. Cook mixture 1 minute, stirring constantly

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Bar Protocols

2008-09-24T18:29:35Z

I think a lot of scientists like to cook. Cooking is like an experiment – you start with a bunch of stuff and transform it into something else that you want. And when you’re in a lab, especially when you’re new to it, one of the first things you spend some time doing is collecting protocols. Essentially lab protocols are recipes for scientific experiments.

Like a recipe, they cover the ingredients (reagents), amounts (quantities often in molar equivalents), how-to-mix them (order of addition), and how to cook (incubate) them. If you follow the recipe, whether its chemistry or molecular biology, you ought to be able to come out with chewy scientific goodness at the end.

I like to cook, but most of the cooking protocols are the Beloved’s. She has the cookbooks and gets Cooking Light and Everyday Food and curates them for new (and mostly healthy) things to try. I will help, but am typically sous-chef and grill person.

I also like a good cocktail (you may have noticed) – and have gladly taken on the bartending duties at The Aerie. So, one of the things that we needed to get beyond the “gin and tonic” and “screwdriver” level of drinks was a good book (or two) of drink recipes. We’ve got a couple that I like:

The Ultimate Bar Book: The Comprehensive Guide to Over 1,000 Cocktails

Mittie Hellmich

The Bar Book. To me, this is The Silver Palette/Joy of Cooking of drink books. Many of our house favorites come from here. It’s not just a bunch of recipes either. The sections are well-written with tips on technique and history of different drinks.

In the Land of Cocktails: Recipes and Adventures from the Cocktail Chicks

Ti Adelaide Martin

In the Land of Cocktails. This book was a great gift last Christmas and focuses on some of the favorite recipes of New Orleans. Some of the recipes in here are complicated (and consist of some unusual ingredients), but are really good. The Sazerac I posted came from this book.

Imbibe

Also, we also get Imbibe magazine – think of it as the Cooking Light of drinking. It comes every other month and always has a couple of interesting things we’re curious about trying.

So – if you’re curious about breaking out of the same-old-same-old and turning your kitchen into a bar-laboratory, get yourself some protocols and start mixing.

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Everybody Salsa!

2008-09-24T05:47:38Z

Yes, just for you guys. I made salsa. Ok, also maybe I made it more for my husband who really likes it. And for my dad who always complains it isn't spicy enough. I'll show him.

I opted to follow the Farmer's Market Salsa recipe from Homecanning.com This is the Bernardin web site. Because I'm all nuts about botulism, I prefer to use tested recipes from fairly reputable sources for a lot of my mixed canning. I'm a little anal that way.

Pepper warning #1. Peppers and onions are low-acid foods. In order to use a boiling water canner safely, you have to use it only with high-acid foods. That's what all the vinegar in this recipe is about. Don't increase the peppers or onions in a recipe like this unless you plan to pressure can because botulism sucks. That said, you can alter the proportions of hot peppers to sweet peppers safely. Yay!

Picture 108

So I like my hot peppers. I am doubling the recipe and replacing the 2nd cup of sweet peppers with those little red things there that look like tomatoes. They are called cherry bombs, and they're delish. In that picture there are also jalapenos and a couple red ripe aurora peppers. You can barely see 2 or 3 cayennes too.

Picture 110

I started out by skinning my tomatoes. To do that I put a reasonable amount of tomatoes in the strainer part of my cool pasta pot and set some water to boil. I boil the tomatoes for a minute, then plunge them in ice water. Repeat roughly 157 times. Or, you know, 4. Once the tomatoes hit the ice water, their skins just slip right off.

While I waited for the water to boil, I diced my peppers. I like my salsa chunky, but it still has to sit nicely on a chip. For that reason, I dice my peppers pretty fine. I also seeded the easy peppers (cherry bombs and jalapenos) because I like my salsa hot but edible. To seed a pepper, use a melon baller or spoon to scrape out the seeds and pith. Don't use your finger nails.

Pepper warning #2. WASH YOUR HANDS! Don't be like my nameless friend who made make-up chili with plans to get lucky that night. Little did he know that he still had hot pepper oil under his fingernails when he did, uh, make up. Ouch.
To wash your hands really well, squirt a little dish soap in your plam then add about 2 tsp of sugar. The sugar will scour off all the oil and is easy to get in under your fingernails to get your whole hand clean. Either that, or go easy on yourself and wear gloves while handling peppers.

As I said, i replaced about 1/2 of the green bell peppers with cherry bombs.

Oh yeah. And I chopped some onions, then realized that i was short. I replaced the remaining onion with french shallots. ooohlala. Also, i minced garlic. I want one of these garlic mincers from Lee Valley. Hear that, birthday fairies?

Picture 111

Once the tomatoes were cooled off and peeled, i chopped them and tossed them in a big pot along with the rest of the ingredients. Because I can't leave a recipe well enough alone, I replaced the cilantro with thai basil. So people actually like cilantro? It tastes like soap. I don't care how popular that is, it's nasty.

I let everything cook for about a half hour on low, then I canned it. Taking a picture of this part would have been SMRT right? Basically, i washed my jars in the dishwasher, ladled the hot salsa into the jars, screwed clean lids on and put them all in my big-assed pot full of boiling water with a lid. It has to be big enough to cover the jars with 1" of water. I have a real canner, check your local thrift shops. I have used a big pot and that works fine.

After the water started boiling again, I timed the boiling for 25 minutes. Then i turned the water off and used my awesome jar lifter tongs to fish the very hot jars out. I left them on the counter, right in MJ's way for a day then stuck them on the canning shelf.

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Voila! Salsa!

Pepper warning #3. Hot peppers are hot. Don't feed this salsa to your neighbor without thinking things through. If you do, at least offer her a glass of water. Sorry Nancy.

Ok, more canning and probably chili to come. No canned chili though, because things canned with meat have to be processed forver and taste really bad. I just freeze my chili and spaghetti sauce. I might try and can some herbed tomatoes though.

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Fall Cooking

2008-09-23T18:44:06Z

One of my passions is cooking. I'm probably one of the few people in my age group that doesn't frequent the fast-food industry. I can count on my fingers how many times a year we eat out or order delivery in fact. It's also therapeutic, in my opinion. The smells and sounds lending as much of a healing to all my senses besides just the dietary ones.

There's many things that inspire my cooking experimentation.

I'll see restaurant advertisements, that although going to those establishments aren't my thing, that the items they're advertising catch my interests. So I'll work on creating my own versions of the recipes instead where my family and friends can enjoy those meals without having to wait in a line.

On the rare occasions we do actually go out to eat, if the meal order is to my liking? Again, I'll go home and recreate those flavors for family and friends.

But my largest inspiration for cooking in the kitchen is the yearly seasons. Of trying out new ways of cooking the vegetables, meats, and fruits available throughout the year. And Fall Harvest Season is my favorite. When gourds are abundant, corn is available, fall apples ripe and sweet, and the smells of cinnamon, pumpkin, nutmeg, and ginger. Perhaps it's the Pagan in me, but Autumn is my cooking inspiration.

Yesterday was the official first day of Autumn. And in celebration I cooked a traditional fall meal.

Spaghetti Squash w/tomato sauce and Italian meatballs
Apple-Walnut salad w/blue cheese dressing
5-grain Toasted French bread
Lemon Ice
Iced Tea

I did warn you I enjoyed sharing meal menus and recipes...And so here is where I'll share the recipe for the main dish. Hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did.

How to prepare Spaghetti squash:

Wash and cut in half. Remove seeds and place cut side down onto non-stick foil that has been sprayed with Pam. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour or until tender. Turn over and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Then take a fork and scrape lengthwise to remove the 'meat' from the skin.

Italian Meatballs:

2 pounds of ground Italian sweet sausage (Or you could substitute 2 packages of Italian Sweet Sausage brats-remove skins)

1/4 cup of orzo pasta

1/4 cup of finely diced white onion

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and form into golf sized balls. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until browned. Makes about 3 dozen.

Simple Tomato Pasta Sauce:

1 15 oz can whole tomatoes, crushed

3 large tomatoes, blanched and coarsely diced

1/4 cup of julienne sun dried tomatoes

1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh basil

1/8 cup of finely chopped fresh oregano

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 teaspoon ground sea salt

1 teaspoon ground fresh pepper

1/3 cup of water or tomato juice (I prefer the tomato juice but if your calorie conscious use water)

Mix all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a slow bubble and cook slowly for 1 hour. Add in meatballs and half of the oil drippings. Stir well and cook till thoroughly heated. Serve on Spaghetti squash or pasta and garnish with fresh shredded parmesan cheese.

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