Guacamus

Guacamus! Humole! Fun with words*!

I went to Shaw's the other day. (like, a week and a half before I made this). Shaw's is not my grocer of choice, but they're next door to CVS and I had to go there, so when I knew I needed to pick up milk and other perishable staples, I figured I'd just run over to Shaw's, it'd be easiest. That day, Shaw's had a special on avocados: 88 cents each. Whoa! This is an incredible deal!! Half the time I go, avocados are $1.99 each. If I go to Big Y, with a gold coin I can get a bag of 4 avocados for $5.99 (I think the bags are usually $9.99 or around there). So I grabbed 2 avocados. And the next day, tried to figure out what to do with them.

Normally I just make guacamole. It's easy, it's delicious. But it's also more of a summer thing for me. One time I made avocado tempura, but deep frying would be harmful to the fit of my clothing right now, so that's out.

After browsing around, I found an avocado hummus recipe. It looked tasty, and different, and kind of healthy! Splendid.

And funny side note: I never got around to making it. First I wasn't in the mood, then the school week happened and it was all I could do to make a tuna salad sandwich for dinner. I kept checking on those avocados as they sat in the fridge: one was still firm-ish so I wasn't worried, but the other was becoming quite soft- yikes! Finally the day came where not wasting these lovely, inexpensive avocados was more important than grading labs. And guacamus occurred.

Guacamus
recipe based on roasted garlic avocado hummus, by This Country Girl Cooks

4 garlic cloves
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 avocado
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro
2-3T lime juice
1/2t cumin
1/8t (or more to taste) chipotle powder
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste (I used a fat pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper- I figured I'd eat with salty chips/crackers and they'd provide enough salt)

Roast the garlic: peel the cloves and place on a cookie sheet (baking dish, whatever) in a 375F-ish oven for about 15 minutes, until soft. Let cool.

In a food processor, combine: garlic, chickpeas, avocado, cilantro, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2T lime juice and the spices. Puree. Add more olive oil and lime juice if necessary (depending on the softness of your avocado, it may not be necessary. My avocado was so soft I could have mashed it when my hands. It was perfect).

Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, cracker, carrots, cucumbers, etc.

Nutritional info:
makes approx 16oz hummus, 8 2oz servings
per serving:
170 calories
11.2g fat (1.7g sat, 1.4g polyunsat, 7.2gmonounsat)
15.5g carbs
4.5g fiber
3.5g protein
not including your dippers, of course!

And the bonus? I happened to make this just before St. Paddy's Day. Complete coincidence, but I was pretty excited when I realized my convenient timing.

*I choose to call this guacamus: I think it sounds vaguely Latin. Dictum ad tua mater**.

**I have never taken Latin, forgive my Latin grammar.

Summertime, and the eating is good...

Yeah that doesn't really work with the melody of "Summertime", but it's accurate. The eating is very good in our house.

But I have NEWS. Food-related news. I am on a "diet"! I "" it because I stopped thinking about "dieting" as "dieting" 12 years ago when I started going to weight watchers. I prefer to think of it as "rethinking what I eat." Because what good is going on a diet for a month, losing 10 or 15 or 50 lbs or whatever (don't lose 50 in one month, that's not healthy!) and then realizing you can't maintain your new "diet" long term, and gaining all or most back? That's just depressing. As someone who is more interested in eating delicious food than making sure it's healthy (there's something to be said for that, and you definitely can make delicious and super healthy food, but I have a serious sweet tooth and am somewhat lazy), I'd rather just educate myself on my food intake.

I also went to a new ear doctor at the beginning of July who recommended a low salt, low caffeine and low alcohol lifestyle to keep my ear stable (fluid is vital to ears, and a high salt diet will really mess up the equilibrium), so it was then that I started really thinking about what I was eating. Also, when I went to the national DAR meeting at the end of June last year, I was so busy and was basically eating just fruit and yogurt in any spare minute I could find, not the lavish sit-down meals at Old Ebbitt's Grill that we'd enjoyed in previous years (best crab cakes ever!), that I lost almost 5 lbs in 9 days, which made my size 8 capris fit and me very happy. This year, I was just as busy but sadly did not lose any weight , but a week after we got back, I shot up to a somewhat horrifying weight I hadn't seen since high school. I realized an immediate change, a "rethinking" was in order.

Step 1: I began to write down everything I ate. I didn't count any calories, I just acquainted myself with what I was eating. I learned that I snack a LOT. And I make very poor choices when I snack.

Step 2: I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app on my iphone (it's free!). I did start calculating calories after that first week, and then my husband said, you know, I bet there's an app for that. There is indeed. It's easy to input your food and it helps you calculate the calories and other nutritional info. Based on your current weight and height, your normal activity level and your desired weight loss rate, it calculates how many calories you can have in a day. There's a spot to enter in your current weight. And even better, it remembers the food you've eaten before, so if you eat the same thing every day (like I do, for the most part) it's right there and you just need to select it.

Step 3: I actually haven't gotten here yet: exercise. I am lazy and hate to exercise. I walk instead of driving whenever it's possible, but I choose not to count it as exercise, especially since I'm pretty sure each walk is burning less than 100 calories.

Since the day I stepped on the scale and saw the "horrifying weight", I've lost 11 lbs. I've set my app to lose only 1lb a week, and it's been a month, but I'm still overeating (according to their calculations) yet still losing. This makes me think I was horrible, horrible snacker before.

Now this dress fits! Much excitement :)

Fortunately, with the farmer's market just down the street, it's very easy to eat large quantities of nutritious and low-calorie food, like beets, cabbage, zucchini, etc. I'm not overly hungry, and sometimes when I have a very large helping of veggies (such as the night I decided to just cook up all the broccoli, it was a very small head of broccoli and I'm the only one here who likes it) I'm pretty full. The nestle's chocolate chip cookie recipe comes out to 150 calories per ounce of dough. My "big" cookies are about 1oz. I think my big splurge right now is corn on the cob (usually no butter), it looks healthy but it's like 90 calories an ear.... and I can easily gobble up 4 ears of corn at dinner- I loooove fresh corn.

Anyway, that's my current update. Please note: this isn't necessarily right for everyone. It may not even be the best thing for me, but I feel good, I'm healthy (my doctors agree) and I'm sticking to it. The only thing I can recommend is being fully aware of what you eat. If you're not happy with your weight, write down your food intake. Pay attention to your activity. A lot of weight-gain seems to be because people just aren't paying attention to what they're doing. It's far too easy to open that tupperware container of chocolate chip cookies and lose track of how many you've eaten.

Because of my efforts, I'm not baking much (except bread, since I have toast for breakfast every day) unless it's to bring somewhere or give someone. I reallllly want to make some jerky, we bought some at the VT beer festival and it's delicious, makes a very filling snack (even just a couple bites) and it's only 70 calories an ounce! 1oz of jerky is kind of a lot, too.

But now to the recipes. We've been eating a ridiculous number of turkey burgers. At about 300 calories a burger, plus an ear of corn and some broccoli or a helping of corn and blueberry salad, it's a very filling dinner for a decent number of calories. I've also been playing around with a lot of Penzey's spice blends: Northwoods on corn on the cob makes you forget you ever even put butter on corn in the first place, and Muskego Ave seasoning on broccoli will make you devour the entire head of broccoli (unfortunately, both of these blends contain salt so watch out).

Turkey Burgers

recipe adapted from a recipe from the July/August issue of Everyday Food

1lb ground turkey

3T panko

1T whole grain mustard

1t dried sage

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix all together. Form into 5 patties, and grill or broil until done (like 5-7 minutes on each side)

Easy peasy! We've been buying some delish whole wheat ciabatta rolls at the grocery store, which are 140 calories each, although the photos here are of kaiser rolls- we've tried just about every roll they carry. I should dig up my burger bun recipe and just make my own, because those were pretty darn good.

Blueberry Corn Salad

loosely adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

kernels from 3-4 ears of cooked (steamed, boiled, grilled) corn, cut off (however much you have)

3/4-1 cup blueberries (or more, or less)

2T lime juice

1T honey

2T minced pickled jalapenos

1/2t cumin

1/4t chipotle powder (or less)

dash salt

Whisk the lime juice, honey, and spices together, then toss with the corn, berries and jalapenos. 

This is delicious. I've made it like 5 times now. Last night I actually got a little crazy and substituted this for corn and bean salad for our fish tacos. There is about 400-500 calories in the entire salad (depending on how much corn and how many blueberries you use, last night's batch was 312g corn (312 cal) and 300g blueberries (170 cal), and we usually get 6-8 servings out of each batch. Help yourself to seconds!

You also see on my plate onion rings. These are not healthy. They're not exactly unhealthy, since they're baked. They're dipped in flour, dunked in flour/egg/buttermilk and coated in panko drizzled with olive oil. They are ridiculously good, but I haven't made them nor calculated the calories since I started paying attention to my food intake. I'll report back when I figure it out! I like to eat them with storebought BBQ sauce. This is also not all that healthy, but it's my little indulgence!

wamozart12 gets healthy!

Alternate title: wamozart12 lost 3lbs after not losing anything for months and can't stop raving about it!

What's my secret, you ask? An hour a day on the elliptical. Yeah, I bet you wish I had some awesome secret, but no, it's just exercise.

I'm also eating healthier. I don't calorie count anymore because limiting and depriving myself just makes me bitter and short-tempered. I'm baking less, and yes, I really do miss cookies, and trying to eat more vegetables.

All in all, this is just me making excuses for not updating my blog- because I haven't really been cooking much. But here was a nice, quick, healthy dinner. I'm not sure where the pictures went, but it wasn't the prettiest dinner anyway!

Hoisin-Ginger-Glazed Shrimp Skewers

adapted from Everyday Food, June 2011

raw, thawed shrimp, shells removed but tails left on

1 zucchini, cut into disks

sugar snap peas

2 small onions, peeled and quartered

bamboo skewers, soaked in water

1/4 cup hoisin

1T soy sauce

1T rice vinegar

1T freshly grated ginger

Mix the last four ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.

Put everything else on skewers (I like to have skewers contain all one item, so that they cook properly- i.e. shrimp cook much faster than onions). Brush with the sauce and grill, either on a proper grill or a grill pan. Grill till done (shrimp are about 4 min, until they're pink, and the veggies will take longer).

Serve with some brown rice or plain rice noodles. Mmm, healthy! Also quite delicious, this recipe will definitely pop up a few times on my table this summer.

Spiced Poached Apples

Tonight's dessert is brought to you by Dorie Greenspan.

I made dinner one night instead of going out. At the time, we didn't have much in the way of desserts, aside from leftover Easter candy (somehow, sitting at the dining table after slaving away to make dinner, and eating half a hollow chocolate bunny didn't seem to fit), so I decided to flip through the dessert section of Around my French Table.

This poached apple recipe was pretty easy, and as desserts go, pretty healthy. Yes, it's full of sugar, but there's no fat at all, and the start is a piece of fruit. I dressed it up by adding 1/2lb of kumquats I'd purchase a few weeks ago and had no idea how to use- since we were going away a few days after this, I decided I'd better use them up now rather than risk letting them go back while I was gone.

Clint said this was too sweet for him, but I really enjoyed it. I can't decide if I like it better hot or cold, though- which means it might be a nice dessert for a hot summer evening.

Dorie's Poached Apples
from Around my French Table, page 396

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup sugar (maybe reduce this to 3T)
3 cups water
zest and juice from 1/2 orange (cut the zest into long strips)
zest and juice from 1/2 lemon (cut the zest into long strips)
3 pieces star anise
1 cinnamon stick (2in long)
vanilla bean (I used 1/2t vanilla paste)
3 medium apples or pears, peeled, cored and cut in half

In a medium saucepan, combine the honey, sugar, water, orange, lemon, anise and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes. Add the apples and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 min, until the fruit can be pierced easily with a knife- check its progress as it goes, different varieties of apples/pears may cook more quickly.

Remove the fruit once it's done, and boil the syrup for 10 min more. Pour the syrup over the fruit and let cool. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.

I think I'd love this with a small slice of spiced pound cake or angel food cake.

What's Baking? February: Baked with Love

Dunne is hosting our February What's Baking? challenge, and she chose a theme of "baked with love": bake something appropriate to serve on Valentine's Day.

Well, in our house, Valentine's Day coincided with both of us jump-starting our workouts and trying to eat a little healthier. Fortunately, I had recently seen a gluten-free, low-fat chocolate cookie on the Martha Stewart Show (warning: this link takes you to the video, which will start playing automatically), and I just had to try it!

I omitted the chocolate chunks. The cookies are chocolatey enough, and with the goal of a healthy/er cookie, there's no need for extra chocolate (and ok, yes, I know there's fat in the nuts, but that's healthy fat, and you can use fewer nuts. No comment on the amount of sugar, it's still a cookie, after all). Any nut you have on hand would be great in these. I also had a kind of funny mishap- the second time I made these, I made them from memory and accidentally used one less egg white. You know what? The cookies were totally fine (Clint said better). So don't sweat it if you only have 3 egg whites, go for it.
Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart

3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa (or you can use regular baking cocoa, but these really are chocolatey-er and better with Dutch process)
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups hazelnuts (or nuts of your choice)
4 (or 3) egg whites (3 makes a crisper cookie, 4 makes them nice and chewy. I prefer 4, Clint prefers 3)

Preheat oven to 325F. Spread the nuts on a cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes. Cool them slightly, then chop roughly.

Sift together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. (I rarely sift, but I recommend it with cocoa, which tends to stay in chunks (like the movie Dune is in your chocolately drink.), although once baked, you won't notice them very much). Stir in the egg whites and chopped nuts.

Drop by tablespoonful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 20-25 minutes, until the cookie tops look dry and are cracked.

Healthy cookies, the pumpkin edition

Remember the healthy cookies I made a while ago? They were based on the classic Nestle's Tollhouse recipe, but just about everything had a substitution. The only thing I left alone was the baking soda and salt.

I used the well-known applesauce-for-butter substitution, which in my original healthy cookie batch, gave a nice apple flavor... that didn't play well with the chocolate chips (in my mind, everyone else seemed to like them). I loved the raisin and spice version, and I kept thinking that if applesauce subbed for butter like that, what about other fruit purees? The most obvious was pumpkin, but now I'm considering beet puree... it could be good. I definitely plan to try it at some point. Plus, the cookies would be naturally pink, and that's just plain awesome.

Oh, and today's healthy cookie is even healthier- greek yogurt instead of oil.

Pumpkin cookies
an original recipe
1 and 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 and 1/3 cup AP flour
1t baking soda
1t salt
1t cinnamon
1t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves

Whisk these together, set aside.

2T ground flax meal
6T warm water

Stir together, set aside.

1/2 cup pumpkin
6T nonfat plain greek yogurt
2T oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated or turbinado sugar
1t vanilla

Beat that together. Then add the flax meal and water mixture.

Stir in the dry ingredients.

Add:
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

Drop a tablespoon of dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes, bake only until the cookies are just barely browned.

I love that these cookies are like little pillows- these is only because I use a cookie scoop to drop the dough on the cookie sheet and the dough comes out nicely rounded on top. The cookies themselves are very fluffy and light, almost like a little cupcake. I love that they aren't greasy at all, I don't feel the need to wipe my hands after picking one up like I do with standard cookie recipes. However, you can tell they're healthy, they're not a perfect substitute for a higher-fat pumpkin cookie. But when I have an urge for a bite of carb, these are great.

The stats:
per cookie, 68 calories, 1.6g fat, 14.2g carbs, 0.8g fiber, 1.3g protein.

Cookies of Success

I need to find a name for these cookies. "Healthy Tastes Good Cookies"? "You'll Be Surprised Cookies"? Because against all odds, these were delicious. It only took 4 days for 8 people to devour 5.5 dozen.

I made these cookies because I was going away for a weekend o' fun with my friends, and leaving my husband all alone at home (he cleverly made plans with a friend to hang out, grill, and go to a minor league baseball game, so I suppose I didn't need to feel bad at all. Also, he had the cat.) I said to him, I will make you cookies so you don't feel sad I'm gone. He said, yay. I said, I will make them with flax seed meal instead of eggs. He said, yay! I said, what kind of cookies do you want? He said, chocolate chip.

I said, hrm.

Then I pondered, and since I wasn't sure about the flax seed meal in chocolate chip cookie form, I figured I'd go all out. I'd do the applesauce for butter substitution, something that has never been done in cookies before (oh, you know I lie, but it does say online, wherever Clint found the substitution info, that this is very not recommended for cookies. Whatev.)

And against all odds, these cookies were great. They're big, fluffy, soft pillows, very unlike the flat, chewy/crunchy cookie I normally prefer. The drawbacks: I actually don't like the chocolate chips in them, I'd rather have fruit and nuts. Luckily, that'll just make them healthier. Also, while you can eat the dough with no salmonella worries, I'd stay away from it. It's shiney and goopy and gluey, and doesn't taste good. I know, isn't that sad? However, as I found with the oatmeal/flax seed meal cookies, the flax seed meal for eggs substitution makes a delicious dough, so it's only the applesauce/oil for butter sub that adversely affects the dough.

The Cookienearly vegan (except for the chocolate chips), whole grain, low fat, no saturated fat, no cholesterol. The only thing bad is normal amounts of sugar. But really, if you take away the sugar and the fat, what are you left with? Pitas.

2T flax seed meal
1/4 cup + 2T warm water
stir to combine, set aside.

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I do wonder how olive oil might be)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 and 1/2 t vanilla
Beat to combine.

Add the flax seed meal/water mixture, beat briefly.

Stir in:
1 and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1t baking soda
1t salt

Stir until combined.

Add
2 cups of:
chocolate chips
raisins
dried cranberries
nuts
diced dried fruit
any combination of the above.
Drop by tablespoonful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, bake in a 375F preheated oven for 14 minutes.

Cookies are best served at room temperature, but have a satisfying crust and soft middle when still warm.

Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce

As with the previous CSA batches, we've been overrun with lettuce. I'm pleased to say, however, that for the first time ever, we've actually eaten all the lettuce. The reason? Two: maple vinaigrette and Thai lettuce wraps. I love the thai lettuce wraps at the Cheesecake Factory. So, I used google to try to find that recipe (mostly for the dipping sauces), and ended up with this batch, which calls itself a copycat recipe. I can tell you they're good, because we've had them twice already. But they're not copycat recipes, not even close. For one, the thai lettuce wraps chicken from Cheesecake Factory has a yellow marinade, not brown, and doesn't taste like soy. This cashew tamarind dipping sauce tastes nothing like any of the Cheesecake Factory sauces. The cucumbers are very close, however, and even though I haven't yet made the coconut rice noodles, they look like a promising reproduction. Even so, these recipes are delicious, the lettuce wraps are filling, high in veggies, reasonably healthy (not that I've calculated any nutrional info, but I think only the coconut noodles and dipping sauces have a significant amount of fat and calories), and best of all, make a serious dent in your 5 heads of CSA lettuce. (and the chicken is great over a salad!)
Soy lime chicken, serves 6 (or 2 for 3 meals)

3lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup water

Combine soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger and water in a
shallow dish, stir to combine. Cut chicken crosswise into
3/4-inch-wide strips and add to dish. Marinate for 30 minutes
(up to 2 hours), stirring mixture occasionally. Cook chicken-
grill on bamboo skewers (pre-soaked in water) (recommended
method) or stir fry (what we did) with 1T oil.

Marinated Cucumbers (not pictured, oops)

1/4 cup rice vinegar
2T sugar
2T cup water
dash salt
1/2 large cucumber, peeled and sliced into 1/8in thick
quarter slices

Combine vinegar, sugar, water and salt, cook over medium
heat til sugar dissolves liquid starts to boil. Remove
from heat, cool to room temperature. Place cucumber slices
in a bowl, pour vinegar solution over. Let marinate 30 minutes.

Tamarind-Cashew Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup cashews
1/3 cup cilantro
2 cloves garlic, quartered
2 green onions, chopped
1T sugar
1/2t black pepper
1t cumin
1/2 cup honey
4t white vinegar
1t tamarind pulp*
2T olive oil

In a food processor, combine cashews, cilantro, garlic, scallions, sugar, pepper and cumin. Pulse a few times. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine honey, vinegar and tamarind pulp. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, try to dissolve tamarind pulp (I couldn't get it to dissolve, but it's going in the food processor anyway). Remove from heat, let cool. When it's cool, add the liquid to the food processor and blend briefly. Drizzle in olive oil and blend until a nince sauce forms.

We also had rice noodles (cooked according to the package directions, not
flavored at all), shredded carrots, and, of course, the lettuce.

* tamarind pulp: I'm not entirely sure I did this right, but
here's what I did. I took one of my tamarind pods (purchased
at Whole Foods a while ago)
peeled away the brittle outer shell,
peeled away the veins, and scraped the sticky pulp stuck to the seeds.
And the pulp from one pod yield about 1t, just what I needed for
the cashew tamarind sauce.

Practice for the CSA

Our first CSA starts in 3 weeks, and I'm pretty excited about it :-D  

Many people online have been discussing CSAs, and I saw a blog post (which I unfortunately can no longer find) on pointers if you're considering a CSA. I suppose for the average person, who cooks because they have to, not because they spend all their spare time looking for new and exciting recipes to try, this list would be useful. It had points such as "you're going to get a lot of veggies. Will you be able to eat them all, or give the

m away?" and "You need to pick up your share every week- if you're on vacation, you need to find someone to get your share for you." (and ok, the first one is a good point- I think I'll even be surprised at the volume we'll get. But I'm preparing for it)

The last note was a plus for me, yet it was presented as a negative point: "you will get vegetables you don't normally eat. Are you willing to try new foods and recipes?" Well, DUH, why else would you get a CSA? (aside from supporting a local farm, of course). I think this is the best part. We're going to get things I've never cooked before, maybe even things I've never eaten! Awesome!

While we twiddle our thumbs, collecting recipe ideas and just waiting, Clint gave me a practice round (probably by accident). He was in NH for work, and I a

sked him to stop at my favorite grocery store and pick up some (many) things. I included "some veggies, whatever's on sale, all we have are parsnips and leeks". So what did he bring home? Kale.

Kale?

When I asked what he wanted me to do with the kale, he shrugged and said I'd figure something out. It took me until the kale needed to be eaten to do something, but I did it!

Baked sweet potatoes stuffed with kale and ricotta

for 2 servings

2 sweet potatoes

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

1 bunch kale, washed, thick stems removed, and cut/ripped into bite-sized pieces

salt and pepper to taste

1T balsamic vinegar

ricotta cheese 

Wash potatoes and rub with olive oil. Poke holes with a fork all over, and place on a baking sheet in a 450F oven for 1 hr.

In a medium saucepan, heat 1T olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2min, stirring constantly, to kind of fry the garlic. Reduce heat to medium/medium-low and add kale. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 min, stirring occasionally, until kale is wilted. Add 1T balsamic vinegar. Set aside.

Once sweet potatoes are done, slice into them lengthwise, stuff with 2-3T ricotta cheese and kale.

A few notes:

1. these are delicious. I'd never thought to pair ricotta with baked sweet potato, but they're great together.

2. these are super easy- baking the sweet potato is time-consuming, but you really just pop it in and walk away.

3. they're healthy!

4. I'm really hoping for some kale from the CSA. :)

Flax seed meal, what's that?

I'd heard of it, but never really paid any attention to it until Clint and I were watching an episode of Martha, where she has an allergen-free cookbook author cooking with her. This allergen-free cook caught Clint's attention when she started talking about egg substitutes (since Clint is so anti-egg, he says because of the cholesterol content, but he's been anti-egg since before he knew
his cholesterol was high).

1T flax seed meal + 3T water= 1 egg
And not only does this get rid of 1 egg, it adds a new source of omega-3 fatty acids and fiber. Even better, the taste test on the show selected the flax seed meal cookies as the better cookie.

I didn't really have a recipe to go by, but I thought oatmeal would be a good pairing for flax seed meal, while I learned my way around this new seed masquerading as a grain. (note: I had trouble finding flax seed meal at the normal processed-food-specialty grocery stores (Shaws, Big Y, Stop and Shop) but Whole Foods carries like 5 different kinds/brands.)

Flax seed meal oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookies
using the Quaker Oats oatmeal raisin cookie as a guide.

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2cup canola oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup turbinado sugar*
1t vanilla
2T flax seed meal, mixed with 6T warm water
1cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup + 2T all purpose flour
1t baking soda
1/4t salt
1/2t allspice (just for fun)
3 cups oats
3/4cup chocolate chips
1.25cups dried cranberries or raisins

Cream together butter and oil (I'd planned to use 6T oil instead of 8T, but I had exactly 8T left, so I decided to just use up the bottle), add sugars and beat for 2-3 min. Beat in flax seed meal/water and vanilla.Sift together flours, soda, salt, allspice, and stir in to the wet mixture in 2 batches. Stir in chocolate chips and cranberries/raisins.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough on a cookie sheet, bake at 375F for 14 min. Makes 4-5 dozen cookies.
The one thing I like about these cookies (aside from not being scolded for snacking on the raw dough) is that they have a real depth of flavor that the regular recipe doesn't have. The regular recipe is sweet, a little vanilla-y, and has great texture, but these have this earthiness that I really love. I'm not sure if it's the whole wheat flour or the flax seed meal, but it's good. You can expect more use of flax seed meal here.

And they're still delicious the next day- nice and soft, and just as flavorful.

*Note: if you use white sugar instead of turbinado (which is fine), use 1cup brown sugar, 1/2cup white sugar.

Easy, Healthy, Tasty

Isn't that a great combination?

Yesterday we decided on fish for dinner, and I pulled out one of the first dinner recipes I made as an adult (the few things I learned in girl scouts or from my mom don't count, I did those as a teenager). I started going on Martha Stewart's website to look for new recipes quite a bit in college, when I realized I really, really loved to cook and experiment with food. I printed out this recipe in March of 2001, my junior year of college. I've made it fairly regularly ever since then, with the exception of the past year or so, when I just haven't been cooking dinner that often.

Ginger-lime-soy cod with tomatoes, leeks and spinach, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe from the February 1998 MSL.

The first thing I did with this recipe was cut out the oil. You don't need it, it's just extra calories and fat for no reason.

Ingredients, for the marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce
10T (1/2 cup + 2T) lime juice (or a combination of lime and lemon juices)
3-4T freshly grated ginger (grate over the bowl to catch the juice, too)
1/4-1/2t freshly ground black pepper

Combine all in a bowl, set aside.

2lbs tomatoes, cut into wedges (any kind of tomatoes can be used, cherry and grape tomatoes cut in half also work well)
2lbs leeks, ends trimmed, cut into 1/2-3/4in rings, and washed well (or you can use 2lbs onions cut into wedges, or a combination of the two- onions will require a longer cooking time)
1lb spinach, washed

6 5oz cod fillets- last night I used half cod fillets and half "captain's cut cod loins", which were thicker pieces of fish, and I much preferred over the thin fillets (just from the taste and texture) (In the photo above, the piece of fish on the left is the "captain's cut loin") And finally, other white fishes, such as scrod, haddock, etc work well. I haven't tried tilapia, but I think it would substitute nicely, possibly with a shorter cooking time (thinner cut of fish).

Arrange (i.e. dump or toss) the cut tomatoes and leeks/onions into a 9x13 inch pan, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (photo taken before I cut the tomatoes)

In another 9x13 pan (pictured here is an 8x8 pan, I made a full recipe of veggies, but only half a recipe of fish), lay the cod fillets skin side down.
Brush liberally with the ginger-soy-lime sauce (or just spoon it over). Only use about half the marinade, you'll need more for later.
And bake in a 425oF oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the veggies, turn them over with a spoon, and brush with more marinade. Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the onions/leeks are tender. Continue cooking the fish for 5-10 more minutes, until it's opaque, then remove and keep warm while waiting for the veggies.

Note: a better arrangement might be to cook the veggies for 10 minutes, remove to turn and brush with more marinade, then return to the oven and put the fish in the oven now to bake for 10 minutes more. This way the fish will be done when the veggies are.

Anyway, after cooking the veggies for the second 10 minute interval, remove from the oven, and lay the spinach on top of the leeks/tomatoes/onions. Brush with the remaining marinade, and return to the oven for about 5-8 minutes, until the spinach is wilted.
To plate, arrange some spinach on the plate, place one cod fillet over it, and place the veggies on the side. The veggies are pretty soup from their own liquid and the marinade, so a shallow bowl might be a better way to go.
I calculated some of the nutritional info from thedailyplate.com (handy website):
per serving: 250 calories, 6g fat, 24g protein, 20g carbs. Supposedly the fish also has 40mg cholesterol, which is about 16% of your cholesterol on a normal diet.

Additionally, having this dinner makes you feel a little less guilty about having real ice cream for dessert. ;)

Chili, and more bread

I woke up this morning and thought, what bread shall I make today? Then I joked to my husband that when I worked primarily on yeast for my research in grad school, I never made bread, and now I make it all the time- I think it's because I miss my yeast.

Today required a little more searching before I could get started. What to make? I made raisin cinnamon bread (which could be improved upon), cheesey sesame seed bread to get a break from all the nutella sweets, then rye bread, solely because we'd found some rye flour in the baking cabinet. But what about today?

As usual, I made a recipe from my King Arthur Flour cookbook. In flipping through the "yeast bread and rolls" section, I found a number of good looking recipes, but the Simple Sweet Bread page caught my eye. I ended up making Swedish Cardamom bread.

Step 1: in a medium-sized bowl, combine 1 cup lukewarm milk with 1 cup flour, whisk together, then add 1 heaping tablespoon yeast. Stir a bit, then leave alone for a little while- 45 minutes today.

Step 2: add 2 eggs, 6T softened butter, 1t cardamom, 1.5t salt. Then at 3.5-4 cups of flour, one cup at a time. Knead for 4 minutes, let rest for a few minutes, knead 4 more minutes (I kneaded all in the mixer, as usual), then place in a greased bowl, cover, and leave in a warm spot for about 2 hrs.

Step 3: punch down the dough, and divide into halves, then each half into thirds.
Roll each third into a snake, and braid each set of 3 dough snakes- for 2 braided loaves.



Step 4: let rise again, covered, for an hour. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350oF for about 30 minutes.

Then eat.

We also made more chili. This is the same recipe I used (with some minor alterations, frozen corn instead of canned, chipotle powder instead of cayenne pepper) on Super Bowl Sunday. I adapted Sunny Anderson's Interstate Chili recipe.


In a crock pot, combine:
2 red peppers, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 yellow onions, diced
3T cumin
2T oregano (dried)
1T cinnamon
1T chili powder
2t chipotle
3T worcestershire sauce
1T tabasco
2cups chicken broth
1 bottle dark beer (we used Long Trail Hibernator)
1 giant can kidney beans (or 2 regular cans)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 bag frozen corn kernels

While your husband's doing that, brown 1.25 (or so) lbs ground turkey and 6-8oz sausage (smushed into bite sizes bits, and we used some sort of smokey spicy delicious-smelling portuguese sausage) in a pan, then drain off the grease and add the meat to the crock pot.

Stir it all around. Cook- last time we cooked on low for 5hrs, this time we're trying it on high for an hour, and low for 2-3hrs, until we feel like eating.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and cornbread.

Cornbread: 1 full recipe, in an 8x8 dish.

1.25 cups flour
3/4cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2t salt
2t baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup thawed frozen corn kernels

Whisk together first 5 ingredients, then beat together eggs, milk, oil, and add to the dry ingredients. Stir in corn. Bake at 325oF for 25 min in an 8x8 baking dish.

Nutella #2

Welcome back to Nutella Week!

After a vigorous zumba class the other morning, I came home, showered, and needed some sort of snack. I have lot of grapefruit, but I needed something more substantial. Yet I didn't want something too filling.

So I had grilled bananas with nutella drizzle.

I based this on a Sandra Lee recipe for grilled bananas foster (which would have been good, but I wasn't in the mood for making a sauce).

2 bananas
1-2T nutella, warmed a bit in the microwave for 20sec

Cut the bananas lengthwise, and cut the ends off. Place on a preheated grill pan that's been sprayed with a lot of non-stick spray, flesh side down. Grill over medium-high heat for 4 minutes. Flip over, and grill peel side down for 4 minutes.

Transfer to plate, leaving the peel on, and drizzle with nutella.

On eating this lovely, delicious and super easy snack, I recalled that there's hardly anything more decadent and homey than warm bananas. Adding the nutella brings out the banana-ness in a way that I can't explain- it's like chocolate on bananas, but better, more complex (hazelnuts, duh, I know). After making this, I think bananas should be an obvious pairing for nutella.

Instead of dipping a banana in peanut butter, I'm tempted to dip it in nutella now.

Chicken Soup for the Stomach

I grew up on my mom's chicken soup with dumplings. This old Yankee version is not the same as the southern classic "chicken with dumplings", as our version contains no dairy products, just fresh winter veggies, chicken, and broth. However, I'm basing that on a single Paula Deen recipe, and have never tasted chicken with dumplings, so I could be wrong.

As a child, I was never really big on chicken soup. I'd eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup with saltine crackers when I was sick, or after being out on a cold winter day, but I would never chose soup over any other dish. I started getting into soups when my college would have myriad tomato-based soups (although never cream tomato, I still hate that kind, only the pureed tomato or veggie broth type, like tomato basil, or minestrone), and I started eating the cheese from my dad's french onion soup when he'd order it, and gradually started eating that. New England clam chowder is another story, I could and would eat gallons of that (then and now). Eventually I discovered squash bisque, and soup took on a whole new meaning. But while I gained a taste for soups in general, chicken noodle was just something to eat while sick.

Then I went home a couple weeks ago for a night, and mom called up when I was about to leave and said, "what do you want for dinner?" This is always a fun question, because they actually keep food on hand in their house- meat, fresh veggies, the kind of thing you have to go to the grocery store more than once every 10 days for. I said I had no idea, and by the time I got home, she seemed tired and said, it's chicken soup for dinner.

I thought, blah. But she was going to make dumplings, so I could deal.

You know where this is going. I liked the chicken soup so much that I had to email her several times the following week to learn how to make it myself- the fact that whole chickens were on special for 99cents/lb at Big Y definitely helped.

My Mom's Chicken Soup (my interpretation)

Boil a whole chicken in enough water to cover it. My chicken was about 6.5lbs. I added an herb blend (Penzey's Sunny Paris, I was also considering a Stonewall Kitchens poultry blend I have) and 2 garlic cloves. Bring the water to a boil, and let it boil for about 1.5hrs (I let it sit on the stove, in the water after turning the burner off, since I had other things to do). Normally you'd also season with salt and pepper, I did not (I did that later).

The liquid in the pot is now chicken stock:
"Chicken stock tends to be made more from bony parts, whereas chicken broth is made more out of meat. Chicken stock tends to have a fuller mouth feel and richer flavor, due to the gelatin released by long-simmering bones."

One key point, to save you some surprise and confusion: if you chill the chicken stock, it turns gelatiny. Very, very gelatiny. This is normal.

Remove the chicken from the stock, and transfer the stock to a container. Most of it will be put in the fridge for a later use, and about 1/3 of it used for the soup. Pull all the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and skin. Transfer the meat to a big pot (I just reused the boiling-the-chicken pot, with a quick rinse). Add about 1/3 of the freshly-made stock, and
6 carrots
6 celery stalks
2 onions
2 sweet potatoes
all of that diced into big chunks
and 3 garlic cloves (remember to pull them out at the end)

Then I added "enough" water. I hate this term, how do you know how much is enough? I basically added water to get near the top of the pot. It turned out to be not enough, so each time I reheat the soup now, I add a little more water.

Also add whatever herbs you'd like. I used the Penzey's blend again, but my mom likes dill. You can also add more salt/pepper at this point. Whatever you add, taste the liquid and see how it's going. Have some fun with your spice drawer/shelf.

Boil that until the veggies get softened enough, about an hour.

I made the mistake of pre-boiling the sweet potatoes before adding any of the other veggies or meat. I boiled them for about 20 minutes, and once the soup was complete, they verged on mush. You don't need to pre-boil sweet potatoes.

Then chill the soup. Due to my poor timing, the soup got done around 12:30am on Wednesday night, and even an hour later, it was still too hot to put in the fridge, so I took advantage of our screened-in porch and put it outside. If this isn't an option, don't start pulling the chicken off the bones at 10:30pm like I did. The soup chilled outside in high 20s weather for about 8 hours, then in the fridge for another 10hrs.

Chill the soup for at least 12 hours, for the fat in the liquid to harden. (my soup-fat did not harden after 8hours outside) This is how it looks
Very unappetizing, right? But it skims off the top really easily, it's about the consistency of butter.
This looks a lot better. This is 2 servings of soup that I took out to reheat (over medium-high heat until bubbling) for dinner.

I make the dumplings fresh.

Dumplings for 2
1 and 1/3 cup flour
2t baking powder
1/2-1t salt
1T+1t crisco (I actually used I can't believe it's not butter, since I bought it especially at my husband's request, and he ignores it)
The above ingredients are homemade Bisquick. 1 and 1/3 cup of bisquick will work if you have that- I just didn't have any)
dash of pepper
herbs of your choice- again, I used the Penzey's blend (about 1-2t), and my mom uses dill
1/3cup milk

Stir that all together, drop by spoonful into the boiling soup.

Cook the soup with dumplings uncovered for 10 minutes, then covered for 10 more minutes. If you have my luck, it will boil over many, many times.

Result:
The dumplings turn the soup opaque (but not really creamy, just thicker), and I think mine is yellow because I used I can't believe it's not butter, with its lovely yellow #5 or whatever, instead of uncolored crisco.

Because I skimped on salt and pepper while making the soup, I always make sure the shakers are on the table and full.

This isn't the prettiest meal, but it's actually really tasty. And I feel that making soup is an "anything goes" type of dish, so what I've written here is merely a guideline for your own soup-making adventure.

And what about the extra stock? Well, I actually end up adding a ladlefull of stock each time I reheat 2 servings of soup (and some extra water). I did use the rest of the stock up last night in a pork dish you'll read about later. I miss having that giant thing of stock in the fridge, so I may make another batch of stock/soup this weekend.

I'm sure you can also buy canned/boxed stock, but if you have the time, boiling your own chicken is a lot cheaper, and doesn't really require any effort on your part, aside from pulling the meat off the bones. I recommend doing this the old-fashioned way. Canned broth/stocks have their place, and it's not in this soup.

The healing properties of Nutella

I had a bad day yesterday. Nothing serious, just many, many little things going wrong, culminating in getting a trojan virus on my computer. Luckily, my virus protection software is up to date! Thank you, Norton! But needless to say, by the time I returned home, I was in kind of a mood.

Now, the day before, I'd read the newest issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. I really love this magazine, but this month I think it's really surpassed its previous excellence in giving me a ridiculous number of delicious (and healthy!) recipes to try. The very last recipe of the magazine is always a cookie recipe, and this month it's nutella sandwich cookies, using whole wheat flour and oats- so it seems rather healthy! (apologies- I can not seem to find this recipe online, or else I would definitely post it. I'll copy it down and post when I make a batch, though.)

With nutella cookies on my mind, I was eager to make these. However, after more thoroughly reading the recipe, I saw the dough needs to be refrigerated (and you can skimp on the time of fridging, but you can't really cut it out altogether), and the idea of rolling out whole wheat dough (it can be tricky) was very unappealing.

So I opted for another nutella treat. A friend made these for a party I threw back in April, and actually gave me the rest of the nutella (did you know nutella has a shelf life of about a year?), and her bars were ridiculously good. So I made them instead.



I made Nutella Blondies.

These were very easy. You simply melt half a stick of butter, and mix it with 1 and 3/4 cup brown sugar- that's a very, very high sugar:butter ratio. Then beat in 2 eggs and some vanilla and let it get fluffy (it gets very fluffy). Add in 2 cups of flour that's been sifted with 2t baking powder and 1t salt (I'll try 1/2t salt next time, they were overly salty, but noticeably salty), and then stir in a heaping tablespoon (and I mean heaping) of nutella and 1/3 (I used 1/2) cup toasted hazelnuts (I used almonds- I don't keep hazelnuts on hand, and I toasted the almonds for about 15 min, from the time I turned the oven on to the time it was finally up to 350oF).

Press it all into a greased 8x11 pan (I don't have such a thing, used 1 loaf pan and 1 8x8 pan) and back 25 (I did 30,, which was maybe a hair too much) minutes. Let them cool and top with a little dollop of nutella.

Now, you can see that they look good. You can imagine that they taste good. The one thing I did not expect was how ridiculously good they smell. Clint was in the living room while I baked these, and when I opened the oven to peek at them after 23 min, he had to come into the kitchen to investigate the heavenly aroma. I thought we were both going to pass out from the delicious smell. You may think I'm kdding, but I'm not- not completely.

So anyway, these are very easy, they're very good (the best blondies I've made so far, so I'm keeping this recipe to modify as needed), and interestingly enough, they're actually really low in butter. The same amount of ingredients for cookies would have 4 times as much butter, so it's possible these are healthy (I may try substituting 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour for the same amount of regular flour). Note: I'm kind of ignoring the nutella I added to this, which was about 1/3 of the total fat- nutella is unfortunately very unhealthy (I'd like to note that a friend pointed out the irony of the commercials where the mom gives her kids whole wheat toast spread with nutella, as a way to get them to have a healthy snack. Nutella is delicious, and by definition, terribly unhealthy).

Speaking of healthy, and I don't have an accompanying photo (but they weren't pretty, anyway), I made whole wheat pancakes this weekend. A friend gave me her mother's super awesome pancake recipe, and since Alton Brown taught me how to make pancakes decently (not perfectly, but I'm getting there), I've been going to town on this recipe.
2.5 cups milk
2 eggs
2T melted butter
1/4cup sugar
2cups flour
2t baking powder
1t salt

Whisk milk, eggs and melted butter, stir in sugar, add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on a greased/buttered skillet (friend said butter, but I'm finding that either works well enough). Normally I halve the recipe and add whatever fruit we happen to have in the freezer (usually blueberries, sometimes strawberries). This weekend, I wasn't in a fruit mood, I was in a gingerbread mood.

So.
substitute whole wheat flour to be one third of the total flour (i.e. 2/3c whole wheat, 1 and 1/3c regular flour)
brown sugar instead of white sugar
2t cinnamon, 1t ginger, 1t nutmet, 1/2t cloves.

Yum! It had a nice flavor from the brown sugar and spices, and an earthiness and more texture from the whole wheat flour.

Again, no pictures, because even though I can make pancakes, I still burn most of them, and you don't want to see burned pancakes when I'm trying to suggest a recipe.

A domestic, TDL weekend

TDL = to-do list.

We had one, and we did things on it. I wish I had photos, before/after style.

1. We cleaned/unpacked. At the top of the list was bedroom, guest room (guest coming tomorrow), kitchen. Also on the list was to clean (vacuum, dust, bathrooms), and unpack the office, and maybe the dining room. And... success!
Bedroom: completely unpacked, just needs some more furniture (not sure what just yet- but there's a ton of empty space)
Guest room: contains 4 boxes of craft supplies, otherwise unpacked! It also needs furniture, a bureau is on its way
Kitchen: all unpacked! some cabinet reorganization is necessary, and to purchase a free-standing cabinet or shelf thing
Dining room: unpacked! Requires 3 pieces of furniture, one's on its way, the other 2 still need to be purchased
Office: well... it'll be done by the end of the week- the new desk's not due in til friday anyway.
Living room and den: they'll get there. We seriously need bookcases to finish off the living room, and small tables. The den currently serves as wedding/shower gift storage.

2. We cooked, in the style of a married couple. This will sound odd, coming from me, but all of a sudden, on Saturday, the idea of cooking dinner completely terrified me (I was also sick). I bake all the time, and I love to cook, but when I cook dinner, it's a big, gourmet production. I don't cook simple things that can be done on any normal old weekday night. And I thought, what happens when I have kids?!? Kids actually have to eat, they can't get by with a bowl of cereal or cheese and crackers and a piece of pie for dinner. So I got out my only Rachael Ray cookbook, and made, with reasonable success (we didn't have enough couscous to soak up the liquid, so it was soupy), sweet and spicy chicken and couscous pot. And it was good- we both had seconds, and looked forward to lunch the next day. Yesterday I then made a cashew chicken and sweet potato curry with curried quinoa. We lacked a green food item, tonight I'll add some steamed asparagus when we finish off the leftovers. Both of these dinners took us about 1.5 hrs to make, but most of that time was spent thawing the chicken or waiting for it to cook, so if we can get a little more stream-lined, I think we're good. (and now we're both looking forward to lunch and dinner today :) ) So I think I need to get another RR cookbook (how strange is it that, with all the cooking I've done, I've never made a 30 minute meal?) and peruse my Everyday Food mags, all with sticky tabs in hand, and mark the heck of these books so I can get some good, quick recipes. We'll work on making them kid-friendly (i.e. kids probably won't like the kind of flavors we like) when we actually need them to be.

3. We worked hard on the wedding thank you notes. I hate that we're not done, 5 weeks after the wedding, but finally, we're nearly there. I have 1 more and Clint has 10 more, and we have to address 90 or so of them. But since I wrote about 75 of the notes, Clint will address more than half of them (he also has much better handwriting than I do).

And I hardly knit at all. I did the kitchener stitch on 16 stitches to finish a sock, and cast on and knit 8 rows of a baby sweater. but the best part of the weekend was that I slept in, wore sweatpants and no makeup, and didn't set foot out of the house (except to get the mail on Saturday) the entire weekend. I haven't had a weekend like this in at least a year.

Risotto!

I haven't made risotto in a while. I think I first made it because Giada did, and I watched and saw that it's not difficult. I like risotto, because unlike other rice dishes, it actually has some flavor (ah, cheese, how I love you). I started making it and having fun with it. I made it with sausage and tomatoes (um, don't use maple sausage for this, it's strange with tomatoes), ham and fresh peas, and butternut squash. Yum. A friend has been trying to perfect risotto with her boy, and I hear her talk about it sometimes, and think, I should make risotto. I could make it with the contents of my pantry and freezer, so why not?

Yesterday in lab I was trying to think of what I could possibly have for dinner, and someone gave me a bag of fancy risotto rice (she said it was the "good stuff, not arborio, but better." I forgot to read the label and see what it really was) when she moved to Illinois, because why bother carrying rice halfway across the country? I also had freshly frozen corn in my freezer, so I decided on corn risotto. Then Clint's a saint and picked me up some bacon at the grocery store- I once had corn chowder with bacon in it, and it's a really great combination.

I had my doubts. You see, yesterday was nearly the suckiest day that ever sucked, and I was brain dead by the time I left. Luckily, my advisor came by and we went over the figures for my paper, which actually cheered me up a bit. I was sure I'd never have the strength for a time-consuming (although really quite easy) dish like risotto.

Yay, I was wrong.

I used Martha Stewart's squash and squash blossom risotto recipe from March 2002 (maybe 2001) as a template.

I cooked 1/4lb of bacon (cut into bite-sized pieces) in a pan, after trimming all the large chunks of fat off. I might suggest using more bacon than this, especially if you get Bacon of Awesomeness like Clint did, you'll want to snack on it while the risotto's cooking.

After it was cooked, I transfered the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, and sauteed 3/4 of a large white onion in the bacon grease- which actually was very little bacon grease, from trimming the fat.

Season with salt and pepper, then once the onion's soft, add 1 and 1/2cup of risotto rice (i.e. arborio)- over medium heat. Stir constantly until it's kind of opaque (or 2 min), then add in 1/4cup of white wine(and add a 1/4 cup of wine to a wine glass for yourself- this'll take a while), stir constantly for 2 min, until it's absorbed, and then add in about 1/2 cup of a mixture of 2.5 cups each of water and chicken broth that you set to heat when you started the bacon (um, make sure you turn on the burner you set the pot of broth on, and not a different burner like I did, because then the broth isn't warm and you burn your wooden spatula you were using for the bacon).

Stir frequently until the liquid's absorbed, then add anohter 1/2 cup, stir, add more, etc etc, until you've added nearly all the liquid, or all- I added 4.25 cups of liquid, and you'll know it's done when the rice grains are of a uniform color, are soft but not mushy- al dente, I suppose. It takes about 20-30 min.

Then add in some corn (I think I did 2 ears' worth), the bacon that's been set aside, and some chopped fresh sage (2T should be good). Stir that together, then add a handful (i.e. 1/3cup) of grated/shredded cheese- I used my handy-dandy fondue blend of ermentaler and gruyere, which I always keep on hand).

I didn't add all the bacon, and sprinkled some pieces on top of each serving of risotto. Clint also pan-fried some cajun catfish, which made for a tasty dinner. I neglected to take a picture, which is too bad, because I'll take a picture when I heat up some of the leftovers (I think this'll be 4 more meals for me, at least), but I don't have any more bacon to garnish.

Try risotto, it's good. I like the recipes from Williams-Sonoma, but I bet Giada also has some good ones, and plenty of others would, too.

This morning we went to the farmer's market. Clint bought some elk, because that's what Clint does at the farmer's market, and I got baked goods for breakfast (spinach and cheese croissant, which is good, but the ham and cheese one is better- which is why it's been sold out for the past 2 months when I get to the market) and 2 lbs of heirloom tomatoes. I got the purple-ish green ones, which I believe I will use for this tomato bean salad. I'll also make some fig-balsamic reduction and have a tomato, basil, mozzerella salad.

Speaking of beans, I noticed the other day that I have like 6 cans of canneloni beans in my pantry. It's kind of odd, I like them, but only ever eat them on salads. So I'm going to try this recipe so I can clean out the pantry (but I have no zucchini, so I'll substitute in whatever veggies are in my freezer, perhaps peas, and I'll use the fondue blend instead of parm).

Brief knitting update: working diligently on my slippery socks for the Tunbridge Fair (although unfortunately, I also need to work diligently on my thesis) and I found a nearly-finished baby sweater that I started last summer, ran out of yarn, so never did the sleeves. The sleeves are all it needs! And I found more of that yarn! So I'm going to finish that for the Tunbridge Fair. Also considering entering my clapotis, but that'd be 6 knit items to enter, that might be excessive. For the baked goods department, I'm entering: jam squares, coconut macaroons (instead of duck sauce cookies), chocolate cherry cupcakes, possibly gingered banana bread (if my bananas go spotty by Tuesday)- and perhaps just a half loaf, and no pie. The two cookies are easy to make at least, and I could make the banana bread in my sleep. The cupcakes are the only thing to really put effort into. The cupcakes and the socks. This is all due Wednesday afternoon! Wish me luck (I may be working from home Tuesday so I can bake....)

Post-gym dinner: scones and smoothies

Last night, I made scones. I found this recipe from KAF several weeks ago, really intended to make them, but did not until last night. I even went out and bought dried cherries. But yesterday, for some reason, I really wanted to make scones.

I got home late, since I went to the gym after lab, and got to work.
Recipe:
2 and 3/4 cups flour (I used 1-3/4 cup all-purpose and 1cup cake flour, because I have a ton of cake flour and don't actually like to use it in cakes, and it may or may not have made a difference- I so seldomly use cake flour that I don't really know)
1T baking powder
3/4t salt
1/3cup sugar
Whisk all that together.

Then blend in one stick of cold butter, chopped up into small-ish pieces.

Then add in your fruit/nut/whatever. I used 1-1/2 cup dried tart cherries, but I was also considering using fresh blueberries- but then I decided I'd have those for lunch today. Raspberries would also be really good. Someone commented on the recipe on the KAF site and said she used crystallized ginger, and I really like that idea. The possibilities are endless.

Then: in a separate bowl, combine 2 eggs, 1/2 to 2/3cup of milk (this confused me... I can see it being like pie crust, you add enough liquid until it comes together, but if you do it like this, you don't really want to stop short of the whole mix because you need the eggs... I added 1/2cup to the mix and figured I'd add more milk if I needed it) and flavoring: I did vanilla. Add this slowly to the flour/butter mixture, until it comes together.

Don't overbeat this, it has baking powder and will become hockey puck-like if you do.

Then: pat the dough into 2 6 inch rounds, and score into 6 wedges. Freeze for 30 min, uncovered. All the comments said this was optional but really, really good. I can't argue with this. I think they would have been flatter and spread out if I hadn't frozen them. This recipe also produced a far fluffier scone than my usual recipes, closer to what I get in restaurants that act like they specialize in scones.

Before baking brush with milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar (white sugar is good enough). Bake at 425 for 20-25 min. Eat as soon as they're cool enough to handle, because YUM.


I had my peach "nectar" smoothie last night for dinner (I always have a smoothie after going to the gym, solid food doesn't appeal to me after 40 min on the elliptical). My smoothie was an odd flavor combination, since I only had blueberry yogurt, and was sure I had one vanilla left. My smoothies always include: a piece of fruit or handful of frozen berries, one container of non-fat yogurt, 3-4 ice cubes, enough fruit juice to make it slurpable through a straw, and a spoonful of ice cream or gelato. Last night was: blueberry yogurt, coconut gelato, 1 peach and slushy peach nectar. It was a random assortment of flavors, but yum.

My dinner was smoothie, and once the scones were out of the oven, 2 scones. Then this morning, I practically ran through my morning routine so I could sit down at the table with 2 scones and my coffee. I might have to bake another batch on Thursday to bring on the plane with me. :)