Kitchen Witch

Weekend Meals

2010-04-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Tacos

Taco shells
Cuban black beans (mine were frozen from when my mom made them, but you can buy them canned)
1-2 tomatoes (diced)
1-2 avocados (made into guacamole)
3-4 leaves lettuce (sliced into "shreds")
1/4-1/2 pound shredded cheddar
1 package chick-un
1/2 onion
salsa

I cooked the onion and the chick-un in a pan together, but they weren't anything special and I would just leave them out in the future. Then you just pile each ingredient into your taco shell... so fast and easy and fresh!

Spiral Casserole

1 package whole wheat spiral noodles (cooked per directions and drained)
3/4 pound cheddar cheese
2 veggie sausages
2-3 roasted red peppers (mine were from a jar)
1 small package goat cheese

This dish was inspired my macaroni and cheese, but it has a western twist. I often make my mac and cheese as just that: macaroni and cheese. No other ingredients. This is unusual, as most recipes add a lot of cream, but I feel it is the heart and soul of the dish, and when served hot the cheese melts and you really don't miss the cream (when cold, it is much stiffer).

I decided to add a little kick to the dish. The sausages and peppers gave a little spice, while the goat cheese gave it some tang (and a little more creaminess).

It's pretty easy - just mix all the ingredients together in a very large bowl, then pour into a casserole dish. You can bake extra to get a crispy top, or you can just eat it as it is.

Noodle casserole is great - I froze 2 servings, had 2 servings for lunch this week.

Saturday: Dessert & Leftovers

2010-04-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Rice Crispy Treats

4 tablespoons butter
1 package mini marshmallows
7 cups Rice Crispies

Of course Rice Crispy Treats are an easy item to make. Melt the butter in a very large pot, then add the marshmallows and melt them (don't let them get too hot or they'll burn!). Then add the Rice Crispies, stir very well, and pour them into a greased (sprayed with oil) large baking dish or pan.

I decided to get fancy with mine and drizzle them with chocolate. To keep the chocolate soft, I added a tablespoon or so of butter to the mixture. I melted my chips in a small metal bowl, placed in a medium pot with about an inch of water. This is my make-shift "double boiler." It helps prevent the chocolate from burning.

1 large handful chocolate chips; 1-2 tablespoons butter

Once melted, I quickly took a spoon and essentially splatter painted the top of the treats. Once everything was cooled off, I cut the treats into 2-3 inch squares and piled them high on a plate. Yum!

Finally Finished Truffles!

I'd had this truffle filling sitting in my fridge for a very long time. I finally took it out, used a melon ball to scoop little circles, and dipped it in the melted chocolate above. They tasted delicious, but the extra butter in the chocolate coating prevented the outside from hardening. We still ate them all up!

More Samosas

I some how managed to triple the samosa filling I made the other day... I guess that's what I get for no following the recipe! It was a luck mistake, because they were delish. I bought more pie crust and made another batch.

Friday: Finally Fresh Food

2010-04-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

This week was pretty bad. I either had plans or got home so late every night that I didn't end up cooking ALL WEEK! I hate it when that happens. Monday I worked late. Tuesday I went to a kickoff party and basically ate dinner, but went ahead and went out to dinner afterward as well. Wednesday I got together with my family, but we ordered sushi to go. Thursday night I had a civic event (ballot counter at a speech contest), and ate pizza there. And then it was Friday.

Fresh Salad with Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil
As usual, the best ingredients make the best salad. Mixed greens are served with fresh mini-mozzarella, cut up fresh basil leaves (from my potted garden), heirloom cherry tomatoes, and served with aged balsamic, highest quality olive oil, a dash of salt and pepper, and a hint of agave nectar. Divine!

Artichokes
Last time I made artichokes they were undercooked. I wanted to avoid that, but I was also in a hurry. I decided to use the pressure cooker. I put in about an inch of water, dropped in the two perfectly round and aptly named "Globe Artichokes," brought to a "tsk tsk tsk," and then let it cool off until the lock released. They were overdone. Next time I will do the fast release method and see how they turn out. They were edible, but mushy. I served them with melted Earth Balance - fake butter mostly made from vegetable oils, so it still melts nicely. In fact, it is saltier than butter, so I think it makes a better dipping sauce.

Couscous Pilaf
This mix comes from Trader Joe's ready to cook. It has large couscous, orzo, mini garbanzos, and dark quinoa. It's fast and tasty, with a nice texture. I cooked mine with chick-un boulliuon (For ten minutes as package directs). When it was done I added cranberries and pistachios. I served it with an Italian soy-sauge. Delish!

Sunday: Fast Samosas

2010-04-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

2 15 ounce package pie crust (frozen or refrigerated)

4 large red-skinned potatoes
1 16 ounce package frozen peas
1/2 package pre-cut onions (I hate chopping onions, so I always buy these)
6 tablespoons butter
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
1 teaspoon crushed garlic

If your pie crust is frozen, be sure to take it out first and defrost for 1 hour or more.

Quarter the potatoes and place in a pressure cooker with a steamer rack. Add 1 cup water, and fasten lid. Heat (on high) until the pressure cooker is "tsk tsk tsk-ing", and then reduce to medium and cook for 8 more minutes. Then remove from heat and let it cool until the lid can be removed.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to remove the lid, put the butter and the onions in the a thick pan. Cook on medium heat until onions become clear. Butter may brown, but do NOT let it burn - if it starts to brown, turn the heat down.

I added the potatoes and peas, but I mean to add the curry, ginger, and garlic first and cook it for a minute - it helps bring the flavor out. If you forget, just add it all in; it turns out fine. Cook on medium heat and try to mash up the potatoes (I used a tong/spatula).

Cut the pie crust into 8 wedges. Add a tablespoon of potato-pea mixture and fold the corners together and pinch the edges shut. Pinch thoroughly if you want them sealed - they ten to "burst" open while baking. Bake on parchment paper for about 30 minutes.

So yummy! Serve with chutney if you like. I could practically eat the whole tray. This makes 32 samosas. You could cut the recipe in half if you want fewer, but they are so good you might want the extras for lunch or side dishes.

Friday/Saturday: One Pot...Two Meals?!?

2010-04-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so how do you cook two different meals in one pot?

10 Bean & Vegetable Soup

1 cup 10 bean soup mix, soaked for 24 hours
5 cups water
3 medium red-skinned potatoes (cut into 1/2 or 1 inch pieces)
3 medium carrots (sliced)
2 bouillion cubes
1/4 cup dried mushrooms (the small broken bits from the bottom of the bag)
1 piece seaweed (I left this whole so I could pull it out later)
1 jalepeno (I left whole so I could remove it)

When I made this, I put all these ingredients in the crock pot and cook for 12 hours. But 12 hours later the beans were still tough! I don't know if they were a little old when I bought them or if cooking them on "low" was not hot enough. Luckily beans sink when they aren't cooked, so I pulled all the rest of the soup off the top and left the beans in with a little bit of broth.

So I was left with a savory, brothy vegetable soup. Served with cheesy toast that crispy almost like giant croutons...mmm! It actually reminded me a little bit of French onion soup for some reason; I think the mushrooms made it really rich in flavor, and the cheesy toast was delicious when it absorbed that broth.

I kept going with those beans...

1 cup 10 bean soup mix, cooked for 12 hours in a small amount of broth
4 additional cups water
2 tomatoes
1 jar heat & serve tomato soup
1 bag alphabet noodles

I added the extra water and the diced tomatoes and left it cooking for another almost 48 hours! Then I added the jar of tomato soup and the noodle and heated those for about 30-45 minutes and served.

Well, to be honest, this second soup did not turn out all that well. The beans were still slightly tough. I think they were old or something. I also cooked the noodles in the crock pot, so they got pretty mushy. I advise you and my future self to cook the noodles on their own and add to the soup just before serving. And toss the beans that don't seem to be cooking - they probably won't.

Wednesday: Pasta & Greens

2010-04-07T22:55:00.001-07:00

I made some butternut squash pasta the other day that was delicious, and all I did was add red sauce! I still had about half the box left, and I thought I could make it even better by getting healthy-gourmet with the toppings.

1/2 box butternut squash & parmesan raviolis (dry)
1/2 pound blue cheese
1 small bunch dinosaur kale
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons butter
A few tablespoons of water

Boil the ravioli according to instructions (ie: boil for 15 minutes).

Put the butter in a pan, heat it, chop the kale quickly, and add it to the pan with the garlic and water. Cook for the same 15 minutes (or a little longer, until soft). Add the blue cheese and melt.

Strain the pasta, then add to the pan with the kale and mix it all together.

Marshall really liked this version, but I actually preferred the red sauce! I thought the blue cheese overpowered the squash...
It took about 20-25 minutes total, and I had a large serving leftover.

Weekend: Camping Scramble Eggs

2010-04-05T20:27:00.001-07:00

When camping, Marshall really likes to make gourmet meals - he cooks more on the camping trips than any other time! But this time we were winging it. We didn't make a huge grocery shopping trip like we usually do, and we mostly packed what we had in the cupboard. This included eggs, and we thought we could make them scrambled (one dish meals always reign since we have only one propane burner).

4 eggs (we really lived it up with 2 eggs each!)
1 Chorizo-flavored soy-sauge
1 tomato
3 mini bell peppers (or 1/2-1 bell pepper would work)
Salt & Pepper

Scrambled eggs are an easy affair. We started with the veggies, cooking them up a little bit before adding the eggs. But then we just cracked the eggs right into the pan, and stirred quickly, then cooked until there was nothing shiny or clear. The chorizo soy-sauge was great, but the other veggies turned out a little bland. I don't know why; sometimes that just happens. So we poured the rest of our salsa on top and it was delicious. Bon appetite!

Weekend: Camping Sandwiches

2010-04-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sandwiches are always a great meal, especially when you are on the go. We went camping this weekend and made sandwiches two days. We used the same basic "recipe."

Bread (Whole wheat or Rosemary)
Meat (or fake meat, we used Tofurkey slices)
Cheese (havarti and cheddar)
Tomatoes
Mustard (in this case "Moosetard" Alaskan Smoked Lager Mustard)
Olive tapenade
Avocado

Everyone knows how to make a sandwich! You put all the ingredients between two slices of bread and eat. In this case, the sandwiches were a little bland. I think the bread:filling ratio was a little bread-heavy. Also, toasting the bread is always nice, and since we were camping we couldn't do that. This also made the sandwiches kind of "thick" and dry. A little mayonaise would have helped there.

The mustard was delicious, but too mild. On our last sandwich we slathered it on, and they were significantly improved. Also, we had kind of mild cheese and out tomatoes were bland. They looked good, but what can you expect - they were from the mainstream grocery store.

Overall, disappointing sandwiches, despite the ingredient list sounding good. It's all about the ratio, I suppose.

Wednesday: Post Happy Hour Greens

2010-03-31T22:29:00.001-07:00

I had a case of the post happy hour blues. This is when you go to happy hour, but all the food is junky. You of course eat it anyway, since you are there to socialize. But afterwards you feel nasty. The best answer (if you are not so full that you think you will burst) is the post happy hour greens.

In this case, we had gone to Trulucks, a seafood joint in the UTC area. It was probably ok, but I'm a vegetarian. Even though I make a lot of exceptions, I also don't really like seafood, so there wasn't much of an incentive this time. I am also battling a cold, so I didn't feel like drinking. As an after thought, I probably should have stayed home, but I was so eager to hang out with my new neighbor-friends that I eagerly said yes! But all I ate was sweet potato fries (delicious), and a carrot cupcake (also good). Despite their tasty-ness, I felt incomplete. I needed the post happy hour greens.

Post Happy Hour Greens

The main thing is the cut up something green, season it, and cook it.

1 small head broccoli
4-6 leaves kale (I used dinosaur)
3 small purple potatoes
garlic flakes
nutritional yeast
havarti
white wine
soy sauce
butter

Cut the potatoes very thinly. They take a while to cook, but I was going to put all this in one pan. They had to be thin to cook faster than the broccoli. Chop the broccoli coarsely. Chop the kale. Sprinkle the garlic & nutritional yeast on top. Sprinkle some white wine and soy sauce. Grate half a block of cheese and chop a few small pats of butter. Mix it up, put it in the oven at 350. I baked dfor 20 minutes with foil and maybe 30 without. They were well done. I actually forgot about them after I took the foil off, but they turned out delicious. A minute longer and they would have been on the burned side.

A Day Off: Frech Toast & Texas Barbeque Tofu Sandwiches

2010-03-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

After the Pre-Easter Picnic Brunch, I took home half a baguette, which was left mostly open overnight. This morning I thought I'd better save it by making it into French Toast

French Toast

1/2 baguette, sliced
About 1 cup Milk (I actually used Vanilla Soymilk, Unsweetened)
3 eggs
Cinnamon (optional)
Butter for cooking (or oil)

I never measure when I make it, so I can't tell you exactly how much milk I used, but the basic idea is to mix up milk and egg and dip some bread in it, then fry it (medium-high heat, use a thick pan, and lots of butter helps).

French Toast is really easy, especially once you've made it a few times. The hardest part if getting the ratio of batter to bread accurate. Some people like to lightly dip their bread, but I like my bread to soak up as much batter as possible. I also like to add cinnamon, and usually vanilla extract, too. Today I got the ratio just right - not a drop of batter leftover, and every piece of toast saturated thoroughly. Oh yeah, and I had some "Ambrosia" and strawberries leftover from the brunch so I served those up as well.

After the Pre-Easter Picnic Brunch, I also ended up with a LOT of potato salad! Somehow, I inherited a very large and very full container. I wanted to make something that would go with potato salad. In fact, I think I will be making things to compliment potato salad all week. And what goes better with potato salad than barbeque?

I was really hungry, so I made my quick version. I post it here today with the promise that I will also make my involved version sometime.

(Quick) Barbeque Tofu Sandwiches

1 package baked tofu (terriyaki flavor)
4 slices jalepeno cheese (or jack, cheddar, etc)
1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced
2 foccacia buns (mine had rosemary, which added an interesting flavor twist)
Barbeque sauce

My buns were frozen, so first I heated them up in the microwave to defrost them a bit. Then I sliced them in half. I also sliced the baked tofu into 4 thin slices.

I placed two slices tofu on one half of each bun, then placed two slices cheese on top of that. I put them in the toaster oven, toasted them once, then turned it to broil for 5-10 minutes. Then I added the other half of the bun and toasted one more time.

I pulled out the sandwiches, added the barbeque and sliced tomato, and voila! I served it with a heap of potato salad, 1/2 of a sliced up avocado with slat and pepper, and the leftover brussel sprouts from Friday.

Marshall says: "Yum! That was an amazing sandwich!"
And later he says: "That sandwich was so good!"
Time: 15 minutes
Leftovers: Well, I actually took some of the tofu and cheese I would have put on my sandwich, and put it one piece of bread sliced in half to make a half sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Friday Dinner: Soup & 2 sides

2010-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

My parents were coming for dinner, and as usual I was already running out of time before I'd even started to make dinner. Also, I wanted something healthy and fresh. And I'd bought some random vegetables a few days before that I needed to use up. Oh, and I had some leftover rice from making sushi, and I wanted to use that, too. But my dad is a little picky - he'll eat what ever someone makes for him, but I actually wanted him to like it, too. Mexican is usually popular, so I wanted to combine the rice into something Mexican... I thought maybe I could mix into some soup, so I went to one of my old standbys: Vegetarian Soup Cuisine: 125 Soups and Stews from Around the World. I found a couple soup recipes that used rice, but didn't have the ingredients for either one. Instead, I combined them into a Mexican Corn Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Greens.

Mexican Corn Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Greens

2 sweet potatoes
2-3 leaves collards
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 cube buillion
3-4 cups water
1 can corn
serve with rice

Soup is always easy, and I try to make it even easier. Basically, chop the vegetables, boil those that take longer first, then add the others. In this case, cook the collards and sweet potatoes for 10-15 minutes (with boullion & nutritional yeast). Then at the very end add the canned corn. To serve, scoop into a bowl and put some rice on top.

Bean & Tomato Salad

1 very large and wrinkled heirloom tomato
1 container pre-mixed bean salad
6 leaves basil
6 sprigs parsley

I felt like we needed some protein, but as I looked through my canned beans nothing really sounded like ti would go with the soup. I thought about adding some white kidney beans, which would have been fin,e but didn't sound great. I also had a can of bean salad, and thought I could serve that with some herbs and tomatoes.

Basically, open the bean salad and out in a large bowl. Chop the herbs finely, and the tomato coarsely. Add to bowl, and mix everything well. Tada!

Brussel Sprouts

1 small bag brussel sprouts
2 small sweet mini bell peppers
white balsamic
butter
olive oil
brown sugar

I had the brussel sprouts, and those are not good when they are not fresh. For that reason, I wanted to use them up. I also bought them at the regular store, so I was already suspicious that they'd be bitter. (If you think you don't like brussel sprouts, try them fresh from the farm... they are a different vegetable). To make sure they weren't bitter, I decided to add butter and brown sugar :)

I also mixed in some white balsamic and olive oil, just to add some more depth. I cut the sprouts in half (so they'd absorb more in their leaves), added the butter, oil, vinegar, and sugar. Baked for 20 minutes in the oven at 350, covered with foil. In hindsight, I would have left the foil off to let them get crispy.

Everyone says: The brussel sprouts are the big winner.
Time: Maybe 45-60 minutes to prepare everything, plus another 20-30 while they cook.

Thursday: Healthy Ramen

2010-03-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Making a pack of ramen into a healthy meal is easy. I remember the first time I did it in grad school. I was feeling depressed that all I had for lunch was ramen. But I had some carrots, which I thought I could throw in. Then I found some celery. And some ginger root I had in the freezer and grated into the broth. Then I thought I could add some miso paste. And some seaweed. In the end, it was my own private stone soup! Delicious, fresh, fast, and healthy! Now I buy the natural ramen when it's on sale (otherwise it's too expensive), and make it for dinner. These are the baked ramen noodles (not fried), and they don't have MSG or anything unnatural. They are still high in salt, but otherwise pretty good for ya.

2 packs ramen noodles & spices (one was ginger-lemon grass, the other miso-seaweed)
2 carrots
1-2 leaves collards
some diced onions (I used a spoonful of the ones in the bag - I hate chopping onions)
2 small mini-bell peppers (or any type of pepper)
3 small pinches of 3 types of seaweed
Broth from soaking seaweed

Cook the carrots, collards, and onions for 3-5 minutes first, using the soaking broth. Then add the peppers and seaweed and spice packs. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Then add the ramen noodles for 1-2 minutes. Voila!

Marshall says: It's like Ramen, but ... healthy!
Alegra says: Good, but probably would have been better with more ginger!

Sunday Cake

2010-03-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Coconut-Kumquat Cake

I had some kumquats I needed to use up. You can only eat so many of those straight. I had also recently purchased two cans of coconut milk, thinking I was out, but I put them away I saw two more cans of coconut milk! I don't use coconut milk that quickly, so I was wondering if I could find a coconut-kumquat recipe. I thought that seemed really unlikely so I was actually just searching for a kumquat recipes... lo and behold I found a recipe that used both!

I mostly just followed the recipe from "Kumquat Growers."

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut, toasted
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat, a lighter version of whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (I used the whole can...a little more than a cup)
4 tablespoons coconut oil
4 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
1/2 cup kumquats, with the rind (I did not de-seed, I just food processed thoroughly)
2 tablespoons sweet white wine (replaced the orange and lemon juice)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I followed the same instructions, toasting the coconut and heating up the milk. Seemed like extra steps, but I did them anyway. I omitted the icing entirely.

In the end, it was a little heavy. Probably the combination of extra liquid (whole can of milk instead of just 1 cup), and the whole wheat flour. But mostly I think it was the extra liquid, and if Id cooked a little longer it probably would have been better. It was still tasty if you heated it up for 15 seconds in the micorwave before eating. The heat makes it a little "lighter" tasting.

Sunday: Easter Eggs Early

2010-03-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

In preparation for my Pre-Easter Picnic brunch, I decided to make my boiled eggs and color them the week before. This was because of the crazy week I knew was approaching at work...the week before Science Festival.

I did the mainstream thing, and used Paas Egg Dye. I bought two boxes, and with one box I followed the instructions for "pastel", and on the other I followed the instructions for "bold" (or "vivid" or some similar description).

What I learned was that you should not waste your time with pastels. You should use the bold instructions, because then it just takes a quick dip to turn out pastel. Following the usual directions, it takes MINUTES for pastel using the pastel instructions and MINUTES for the vivid using the vivid instructions. That's minutes holding an egg halfway in the bowl of dye if you are trying to do something creative. Instead, just use the vivid instructions, and hold the eggs briefly for pastel colors.

Those eggs on the bottom spent more than 5 minutes in the bold dye... but I just completely submerged them.

Saturday Potluck: Funny Sushi

2010-03-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make something that would be popular at the potluck I was going to... but I also didn't want to make a trip to the grocery, nor did I want to make something that would be super expensive, because it is a very large potluck and I wanted to make a good volume. I happened to have rice and nori, so I thought I could make sushi. I didn't have any of the normal fillings, but I recalled some very weird sushi rolls I used to make in college, and thought I'd revisit some of those recipes.

The first thing to do is the cook the rice. White rice is pretty quick, maximum 20 minutes. I made a large recipe - leftovers are easy to use.

2.5 cups white rice
5 cups water
about 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar

Put it all in a pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Cook another 10-15 minutes. Turn the heat off after all the water is gone and let it sit a while. Then add the seasoned rice vinegar and mix well. You are supposed to use short grain white rice - it's the stickiest. But I used long grain white this time, and I"ve used brown rice plenty of times in the past.

The next step was to gather some fresh greens from the garden. That is a euphemistic way of saying that I picked some of the dandelion greens that are running rampant. This was also a chance to do some weeding, as I'd promised Marshall I would do while he was gone.

1 colander full of dandelion greens (well washed)
1 package baked tofu (savory flavor)
1 large ripe avocado
1 package nori seaweed

Cut the tofu into thin strips. Slice the avocado thinly as well. I like to slice it in the skin, then remove it with a spoon. It works pretty well. Lay out a large piece of nori. Take a handful of rice and spread it out thinly over about 3/4 of the nori sheet. (You leave a little strip across the top without rice, and fill the rest.) Lay a thin row of tofu, avocado, and dandelion greens all in a strip in the middle of the rice. Roll it up tightly and then use a little water to seal the nori to itself.

Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.

Potluck says: It was gone in less than five minutes. That's a hit!
Time: 60+ (rice takes 20 minutes, rolling takes 20-30, picking greens takes 10-20)
Leftovers: I kept one roll uncut, wrapped in saran wrap. I can cut it and have it for lunch tomorrow or this week. I also have a few servings of rice and some chopped up tofu. And a whole basketful of greens, with boatloads to clips form the yard!

Friday: Quinoa and Butternut Squash "Salad"

2010-03-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

I needed something healthy. I needed something green. I was back in the same predicament I'd faced earlier this week: limited time, nothing fresh in the fridge, and not enough patience to start from scratch. So again, I decided pre-cut vegetables are still a better option than a restaurant or a frozen meal. This time it was butternut squash and collards. I didn't even know they made pre-cut collards; I have to admit that I was actually kind of excited when I made that discovery.

This is a salad like a pasta or potato salad.

Quinoa and Butternut Squash Salad

1 1/2 cups quinoa
3 cups water
2 bouillon cube (or replace water AND bouillon with broth)

Put the quinoa, water, and bouillon in a small or medium pot. Bring to a boil, and then turn to the lowest possible heat. Let cook about 20 minutes while you prepare the rest.

1 bag cubed butternut squash (or about 1/2 whole squash)
1/2 bag chopped collard green (or about 1/2 bunch)
olive oil for pan

If using whole veges, chop up the squash. Mix the squash in a bowl with some olive oil (or other oil). Then place on cookie sheet. Put in oven; turn oven to 375. It is not necessary to pre-heat. Cook about 15 minutes, then add the collards (chop just before if necessary). Cook another 5-10 minutes. I put half of the collards on the baking sheet, and half on top of the quinoa. Those in the oven get crispy, while those on top of the quinoa are steamed and softer.

4 mini red bell peppers (or 1/2-1 large)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (I used half regular and half white)
a few dashes cayenne powder
salt and pepper

Chop the mini bell pepper. Remove all the ingredients from heat. Mix together in a large bowl, and add bell pepper, oil, vinegar, cayenne, salt, and pepper - all to taste! Mix well. Taste often to make sure you have enough salty, spicy, peppery, sour for your preference. It's a beautiful salad!

Marshall says: He wasn't home... he would probably have added more salt and another dressing. But I snarfed it up as is. Yum! I feel so healthy after eating it, too!
Time: about 30-45 (would probably be about 60 if you had to chop, too)
Leftovers: Lots! This recipe probably serves 4 (large servings).

Wednesday: Green for St. Patty's Day - pasta & bath

2010-03-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

I spent a lonely St. Patrick's Day at home this year. While this is my second favorite holiday (after Halloween - both involve dressing up, one in costumes, the other in my favorite color), it was a strange week, and all my plans fell through, and I went home to relax by myself. I didn't really feel like cooking all that much, to be honest. But I didn't want to go out to eat, and I thought I could try to be a little festive by eating something green. On top of that, green is one of the most important food groups, and since I wasn't cooking a lot this week, I felt low in chlorophyll.

I decided to do a quasi-home-cooked meal. This is the kind of meal where most ingredients are packaged in some way, but you prepare it yourself. I don't prefer to eat this way, but I console myself by knowing that partially pre-packaged meals are still better than a totally packaged meal.

Green Pasta

1 package refrigerated butternut squash ravioli
1 half of 1 small bunch broccolini (flowering broccoli stalks; broccoli is fine, too)
1 large spoonful pesto

Boil the pasta according to package directions. In the mean time, chop the broccolini or broccoli. After paste is done, drain, and the put in a frying pan with some olive oil and the broccolini. Cook until broccolini is wilted and raviolis are browned. Add the pesto and stir until melted. Serve hot!

This dish is really easy, but it balances a pre-made pasta with a fresh ingredient and a homemade ingredient.

Green Bath

I also wanted to take a bath, but our custom concrete bathtub does come with the limitation of oil and salt causing discoloration. I wanted to do seomthing in celebration of St. Patty's... I decided to take a green bath!

1 large handful green tea in a hot bath

Survey says: Marshall wasn't home. I thought it was good, but not great. Although I have to admit that I made it again the next day without the broccolini and it was even better. I think the broccolini overpowered the pesto some, and would be good with a smaller amount of it.
Total Time: 15 minutes
Leftovers: Pasta only, a 2nd serving

Monday: A "Fancy" Snack

2010-03-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the simplest things can become fancy if you present it well. Snacks a great example. I wanted to have some hummus and bread, but was feeling inspired and pondering how I could make it a bit fancier than usual. I decided it was all in the presentation.

1/2 demi-baguette, sliced and toasted
3 kinds of dips and spreads: I used olive tapenade, spicy red pepper hummus, and edamame hummus
Small serving bowls and garnishes

I sliced the demi-baguette and toasted it. I always keep crusty bread in my freezer. This has a short shelf life of just a couple days at room temperature before it gets stale, but bread freezes really well. It's best if it's pre-sliced, and then you just toast the slices, but even if it is a loaf, you can defrost in the microwave for 20-30 seconds on medium heat, then slice it and toast it.

While the bread was toasting, I took out my spreads and dips and used a mini-spatula to put them in small glass bowls. The mini-spatula is a great kitchen tool that most overlook, but it makes a huge difference in getting things out of small containers.

I placed the toasted slices on a plate, and garnished with a few olives and a sweet mini bell pepper. Things like these are easy to throw on the side of a plate and add a nice "fresh" quality to the meal. The same goes for parsley & orange slices, which restaurants use a lot. But similarly, a slice of apple, celery, or anything you have in the fridge can likely be substituted.

See what a difference presentation can make?

Time: 5 minutes
Leftovers: I put more than enough in each of the bowls, ate what I wanted, and put the rest aside for a couple hours until we eat dinner - Marshall will have my snack as a side dish, and I'll just stick to the main course.

Saturday Lunch: Mom's Huevos Rancheros

2010-03-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

So, after a breakfast of tea and banana chips, I felt I needed something homemade and hearty for lunch. My mom ended up making Huevos Rancheros.

Can I count my mom's recipe on my own blog? Is that wrong? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night, wondering if I have violated some kind of moral law of blogging. I think since I make my Huevos Rancheros really differently, I will include her recipe and then vow to make my own soon, and post that one as well. Plus it was really more of a group effort: my mom and I shopped together, I made guacamole, Marshall chopped something...

Mom's Huevos Rancheros

Oil or butter for cooking
1/2-1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can green chiles (Rotel)
Mexican spices (cumin, garlic, oregano, chile powder, paprika, etc)

eggs (1-2 per person)

First you cook the onion in oil or butter until it is soft. Then you add the canned goods, spices, garlic. Cook that up until it is hot and bubbling. Then bring it a gentle simmer. Add the eggs gently, so they are laying whole on top of the tomato sauce. Cover and cook them for about 5 minutes until the whites are cooked, but the yolks are still soft. This is hard to time; my mom does a great job, but my yolks are always cooked through.

corn tortillas
chopped cilantro
grated cheese (cheddar or similar)

In the mean time, warm some corn tortillas (in the microwave is fine). Once the eggs are cooked, serve on top of the tortilla on a large plate (sauce is runny). Add grated cheese and chopped cilantro on top if you like.

Fast Guacamole

Avocados
Salsa

There are many ways to make guacamole. My fast shortcut to great guacamole is just to take ripe avocados and cut or mash them up (I like mine chunky), and add my favorite salsa to taste. I used 4 small avocados and about 4-6 tablespoons of salsa.

Time: 20-30 minutes total
Serves: Three of us had 2 eggs each
Leftovers: none (not recommended, since egg whites get into tomato sauce, and guacamole turns brown)

Thursday Night: Italian!

2010-03-11T21:33:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to make lasagna, but I always thought it would be hard. Then a friend at work said it was really easy, and I felt inspired. Still, it took me about a year to remember to buy lasagna noodles. I finally got some today! I got home determined to make it, even though I realized I only had half the sauce required (actually more like 2/5), and almost no cheese. Do you think that stopped me? No, it did not. And I was very glad I'd had a stint at veganism in college - I pulled out all the old "fake cheese" tricks.

Healthy Lasagna

1/2 box lasagna noodles (more like 3/5)

1 jar pasta sauce (actually 4/5 of a jar)
I should have used a second jar of sauce, but I didn't have it, so I used 1 small can tomato paste, and about 2-3 cans of water, plus a tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning.
1 small jar olive tapenade (optional)

Mix the tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and olive tapenade in a medium bowl (easier if you just have 2 jars of sauce - no mixing required).

1 package firm tofu (soft, silken tofu would have been better - a little more wet; this replaced 1-2 cups of ricotta or cottage cheese)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup "dry" parmesan (like Kraft)
2 eggs

Crumble the tofu into the bowl. Add the eggs, nutritional yeast and parmesan. Mix well.

1 tomato, slice thin
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

Alternate layers of:
sauce
noodles
cheese mixture

Top with sliced tomato and grated parmesan. Tomato could also go in the middle. Cook for 60-90 minutes, until noodles are soft.

Mini Caprese

Heirloom tomatoes are not quite in season, so I got the heirloom cherry tomatoes instead. I think they grow better in a greenhouse, so are better out of season than the large ones.

1 package heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 package small mozzarella balls in brine (drained)
1 large spoonful of pesto

Mix all ingredients together and let marinate 30-60 minutes. Yum! I also added a tiny bit of extra olive oil.

Marshall says: Well, he didn't say much, except he did warn our neighbors that it was "hippie lasagna." Everyone pretty much liked it, but agreed it could be a little saucier. I think 2 jars of sauce would have done the trick, because the made up sauce was thicker, and so probably got drier from cooking than regular sauce would have.
Serves: a lot of people
Total time: 30 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking, 2 hours total
Leftovers: We had 4 people eat, and we didn't eat half of the pan of lasagna. At least 4 servings leftover.

Wednesday: Easy Dinner of Soup and Side

2010-03-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Mid-week, and I am feeling tired. But yet I want something fresh for dinner, and don't want to go out. Soup is always easy, and you'd be amazed at how many vegetables can fit into a bowl of soup! Another trick is to combine something homemade with something store bought or already prepared. Tonight I used that trick twice! I had some Aisan-style dumplings, and they only needed 2-3 minutes to boil. That sounded good to me. I also had some pre-cut sweet potatoes.

Asian Dumpling Soup

1-2 carrots
2-4 mini bell peppers (1/2-1 regular bell pepper would work, too)
1 small handful broccolini (broccoli flowering stalks, but 1/4 head of broccoli would work, too)
1 small handful already shelled edamame beans
4-6 cups water (6 if you are using larger volume of vegetables)

6-12 small Asian-style dumplings (mine were stuffed with mung-bean noodles, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, and a lot of flavoring, but mostly soy sauce)

1 large spoonful miso paste (or 2-3 packets instant miso)
1 large spoonful tahini (sesame seed paste)

Chop the vegetables to your preferred size. Larger chunks are easier to cut, but slower to cook (and vice versa). Add to boiling water. Cook for a few minutes, until carrots are just turning soft. Add the dumplings, cook a couple more minutes. Remove from heat.

After you remove from heat, add the tahini and miso. If using paste, you may want to mix well in small bowl with 1/2 water before adding, to make sure it gets dissolved. Miso is "living" (it is fermented), so it is best to add it after the soup has stopped boiling, so it stays "alive."

Curried Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Curry used on anything besides curry in an instant way to fancify. I prove it here with curried sweet potatoes.

1 package pre-cut sweet potatoes (or 1 large sweet potato, cut into strips)
1 apple, sliced thinly
1-2 tablespoons curry powder

I used an apple slicer to slice the apples, and they were too thick. If you use an apple slicer, cut them in half after you use it, so they are closer in size to the sweet potatoes. Place sweet potatoes and apples on a cooking sheet, spray with oil, spread around, and spray again. You could also put them in a bowl and pour oil over them and mix them up; more oil would make them crispier. Once arranged on try, sprinkle with curry powder. Bake at 350-375 for 15-30 minutes (longer for crispier product).

Marshall says: "The soup needs more salt." "Woah! Are these apples?? I just dipped them in my ketchup!" I recommend warning guests that apples are mixed in with sweet potatoes so they don't make the same mistake. I thought the soup would have actually been better as a stir fry - all the same ingredients, but without the water and in a pan instead of a pot. With a little more oil of course.
Total Time: 45 minutes or so
Leftovers: Ate all the potatoes and apples; had 1 bowl of soup for lunch the next day.

Sunday Night: Another Salad

2010-03-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I had gone to the farmer's market. I didn't buy a lot - I only had a little bit of cash. But I bought a few things, including one $4 tomato. It was a large tomato, and it was an heirloom tomato. And after trying to grow my own heirloom tomatoes last summer - which produce just a few, small, flavorless, but pretty tomatoes - I vowed to never complain about the price of heirloom tomatoes again. They are well worth it.

This tomato was also very ripe, so I knew I needed to use it this weekend. I had originally thought it was big enough tomato to make a huge caprese salad for me and Marshall. However, the next day I hadn't done that, and we were heading over to my cousin's house. I had offered to bring a salad. This could have worked out well if it had been just me, Marshall, she, and her husband (and their two very small kids), but in addition to all those people, my dad, both my aunts, my uncle, and another cousin were coming. There was no way that tomato was going to make caprese for all of us. SO I made a caprese-inspired green salad instead.

Caprese-inspired Green Salad

1 very large and ripe heirloom tomato (mine was red) - sliced into thin, small pieces
1/2 or 3/4 bag salad greens, maybe 4 ounces (I used herbal salad mix)
1 small bunch arugala (I cut these into smaller pieces - this gives it a kick like basil)
several spoonfuls green & black olives (pitted!)
1 cup grated mozzarella*
3/4 cup the best olive oil you can buy
1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

*I had wanted to use buffalo mozzarella or another fresh mozzarella in brine, and slice them really really thin, but I was in a rush at the store and all I could find was the usual "dry" mozzarella, so I bought it an grated instead. It worked just fine, and grating it (large grater) actually distributed the cheese better throughout the salad.

Once everything is cut up, you just mix it together in a large bowl - large enough that there is room for further mixing once the dressing (oil and vinegar) is added.

Marshall says: I didn't hear him say anything, but my uncle loved it! He said he could really taste the oil and vinegar and that is was nicer than anything you could get at a restaurant.
Serves: 8
Total Time: 15-20 minutes (grating the cheese took about 5 minutes)
Leftovers: I grated the whole block of cheese, so my cousin lucked out with a tupperware full of cheese for use later this week. The salad was all gone.

Sunday Morning: Waffles

2010-03-07T10:17:00.001-08:00

I like to double all the recipes I make on the weekend, so that I have those leftovers to eat during the week. This Sunday Marshall and I had planned to eat breakfast together. Usually I want him to get up and make the food, but I wake up so much earlier than him that most of the time I end up making it anyway.

This morning I decided to make waffles. This was partly because I recently read a book about clutter and getting rid of stuff, and a waffle iron was listed as one of the least used kitchen appliances. In order to justify the space it is taking up under the counter, I decided I had to use it more often. The other reason is because I like waffles and because they make the prefect weekday morning leftover - a minute in the toaster oven or microwave and your breakfast is ready! I try to make my waffles pre-sweetened and pre-flavored, and then you can even skip the butter, syrup, etc, making them truly "out the door" food.

Mix and Match Waffles

Whenever I make food, I usually look at a recipe and then don't follow it. The waffles were no exception. I looked in my trusty Diet for a Small Planet, which almost always has a recipe for the basics that other cookbooks often leave out. I usually have to change these recipes because they are based on making "complete proteins", and I don't always have the ingredients. (And I don't really worry too much about complementary foods... I figure that kind of stuff works itself out if you eat a healthy, diverse diet).

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour (this is a light whole wheat flour; you can probably use regular whole wheat, or white, or half and half and they would still turn out fine)
1/4 cup whey protein (I try to add this to carb-a-licious recipes, to increase protein)
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking powder

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. I use a whisk to try to fluff them up a little. I like to think it's a close approximation to using a sifter (which I still don't own).

4 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk (I used plain soymilk)
1/2 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
6 tablespoons oil (I used grapeseed - it's good for high temperatures)

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk together well.

I used about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of batter mix for each pour into the waffle iron. I oiled the iron only for the first batch (using spray oil). I also added a small handful of "mixings" into each pour of batter. I used a handful of each of the following:

Chocolate chips
Dried mixed berries
Shredded coconut
Pecans
Candied ginger

Then the last two pours I also added about a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a small handful of chocolate chips (to each pour). Oh, and I did one plain pour as well.

Marshall says: I like chocolate chip the best. And I agree, with mixed berries as a close second.
Time: about an hour, with cooking (you can eat after the first batch or two, becuase each pour takes at least 5 minutes to cook)
Serves: at least 8 servings (about 8 pours). We pigged out this morning - at least two pours each (wanted to try all the flavors), but I will probably only eat 1/2 of a pour on the weekdays.

Saturday Cooking: Quiche, Soup, and Pesto

2010-03-06T18:07:00.001-08:00

We were going over to our friends' house. They recently had a baby, and we had offered to bring dinner over entirely, but they insisted on making food as well. It definitely made for a more intimate dinner, but it also made me feel like I couldn't just whip something together last minute. Of course that was exactly what I did anyway.

I often like to make Frenchy things for my French friends. I had considered making the French Egg Rolls, but I'd forgotten to buy more puff pastry. At the point when I actually started to think about making something, I had about 90 minutes before we had to leave the house. It needed to be fast and good. I didn't want them to know that I hadn't thought about this meal until an hour and half before our dinner.

I rummaged around the fridge, wishing I'd been to the store more recently. I had some different veges, but nothing to cook them with. I had even been to the farmer's market that morning, but all I got was vegetables (not surprisingly). Grain standbys like rice or quinoa felt too simple. I did remember I had bought some eggs, so I thought I could make a quiche, which of course had the benefit of being French. I also had some pre-cut butternut squash, which never lasts that long so I wanted to use it. I'd never heard of winter squash in quiche, but it sounded interesting. I decided to go for it, keeping the French theme in mind.

Butternut Squash & Blue Cheese Quiche

1 package butternut squash chunks (could also cut from whole squash, probably about 1/2 a squash)
2 very small onions (or 1/2 large onion)
olive oil
pie pans

Luckily I read the instructions on the butternut squash package, and noticed I would need to cook the squash before I added the eggs. So I put the squash in a couple of tin pie pans (I was making two so we could have one for this week) with a lot of olive oil. I also had some fancy sweet onions from the farmers market, so I chopped two of those up (they are small, like a shallot), and added one to each tin. I baked those for about 20-25 minutes at 400F while I prepared the filling. I didn't even pre-heat the oven (this is less important when roasting veges, but more important for baking things like cookies).

8 eggs (for two quiches I actually recommend 10-12)
1/2 package of blue cheese (more or less to taste, or replace with a milder cheese if you prefer)
Bac-un bits
Salt
Pepper

Mix all the remaining ingredients together. I used a whisk; a spoon would do. I tried to pour this into the tins while they were in the oven, but started to make a mess. So I recommend taking the tins out of the oven, then pouring half of the mixture on each tin. Then back in the oven. I dropped the temperature to 350F at that point, and cooked them for about 20-25 minutes.

Tomato Soup with Dumplings

I saw a recipe to make homemade tomato soup with dumplings. I knew I didn't have time to make such a thing from scratch, but I felt the quiche was going to turn out small, since I didn't actually double the number of eggs in it (see ingredients above). I also had a couple cans of Campbells tomato soup I'd inherited, and I wasn't sure I would use them anytime soon. I decided to make a semi-instant version of the recipe I'd spied. I asked Marshall to help, since I was afraid I'd run out of time. Also I doubled this recipe so I could have some for this week.

2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 cans water
8 tablespoons tiki masala seasoning (paprika, cumin, coriander, ginger, chile, garlic, turmeric, black pepper, etc) or replace with 4 tablespoons of your favorite mixed seasoning (Spike, Mrs. Dash, etc)
1 tomato, chopped up

Add all these ingredients together in a soup pot. Heat until simmering. Considering adding another can of water if it looks thick. (I did not, but I think it would have helped cook the dumplings better.)

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons herbal seasoning (salt, pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, dill, parsley, etc); you can use your favorite all-purpose seasoning (Spike, Mrs. Dash, etc)
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons flax meal (optional - it's good for you)
Butter (I used about 1/3 of a stick; next time I'm definitley using more)
6-10 tablespoons milk (I used plain soymilk)

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Then chop up the butter with a knife, add to the dry ingredients, and use your hands to break the butter into small bits and mix with the flour mixture.

Add half the milk, mix by hand. Keep adding tablespoons of milk into the mixture just barely sticks together. Once it does, form small balls of dough by hand. They need to stay together, but don't press on them too hard. I think doing that made ours cook kind of dry (I think the broth couldn't really get inside).

Drop the dumplings into the soup and cook for 20 minutes. Keep temperature low and don't cover the pot - mine boiled over and made a big mess! Also stir frequently and add water if needed - our dumplings stuck to the bottom of the pot.

Pesto

While I was at it, I went ahead and made the pesto I was meaning to make all week. I had bought a large bunch of basil, and it was starting to wilt. Pesto is really easy if you have a food processor. If you don't, a blender will do, but it it takes a little more pushing down into the blades.

1 large bunch basil
olive oil
parmesan cheese
nuts

I rinsed and then used scissors to cut the basil leaves into smaller pieces and take them off the stems. I put those in the small food processor. I poured in oil until it covered the leaves and started to cover the bottom of the food processor. I added a super small handful of pine nuts and a medium handful of walnuts. Then the food processor was really full I blended it up. Then I grated some parmesan off a block... I don't know how much. I grated up a piece the size of half a deck of cards or so. Then I blended one more time in the food processor (it got smaller after the leaves were made into paste, so there was room again). Voila! I divided it into two baby food jars, stuck one in the fridge, one in the freezer.

Marshall says: The dumplings were too dry. The soup wasn't good. Let's not make it again. However, the quiche was good. The friends said everything was good, but they might have been being polite. I thought it was all great, and I am looking forward to the fact that I get to eat all the leftover soup! I do agree the dumplings were dry, but they were flavorful, and if you cut them up and cover them with soup they are moist enough for me.
Serves: 8 (including leftovers)
Total time: 90 minutes (maybe closer to 2 hours if you don't have someone to help)
Leftovers: 2-4 servings soup & dumplings, 1 quiches (2-4 servings, depending on size) - because I double everything knowing we'd only eat half. And of course two jars of pesto!

Friday Day: Instant Lunch

2010-03-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Simple Salad

Sometimes on Fridays at work we host teachers and students for professional development. On those Fridays we buy Mexican food. I used to eat it every time; it tastes good, but I always feel bad after eating it. However, on those days I also have to be at work at 7am, so it is hard to get motivated to make a lunch, even the night before. Fifteen minutes of sleep is just as precious as night as it is in the morning. But this Friday I just couldn't bring myself to eat it again. So I made an instant lunch.

Pre-mixed salad from a few days ago*
Spinach
Arugala
Raisins
Walnuts

Instant dressing
The highest quality olive oil you can buy
Aged balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper

*The arugala was a little wilted, but the spinach held up quite well. That was good lesson to learn about which greens can be mixed ahead and which need to be eaten right away.

This dressing is so simple but so delicious. The key is in the olive oil. It has got to be so delicious that it practically tastes like fruit juice or wine.

I paired this off with some Wheat Thins and Spicy Hummus.

Wednesday Night: Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

2010-03-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

I organized a progressive dinner with my neighbors last night. First of all, I haven't been that excited for a social event for a long time. Ever since I got the idea and invited my neighbors I have been giddy with excitement. This is because for a long time I felt alone in Mira Mesa (well, alone of friends, not love). Then I met Krissy, my down the street neighbor. After about six months we had become very close, and then her husband returned from deployment. I was excited to get to know him. And in the mean time I met Zach and Janice, my across the street neighbors. They are super cool chemists that we just started getting to know a few weeks ago (they moved in a few months ago). (Just FYI: Sometimes I can make stories really long.)

I jokingly proposed a progressive dinner to Krissy to get to know Mark, since we were back and forth on the location. Then as an even further joke I said we should invite Zach and Janice, too. Well, there's truth in every joke, and after a few text messages the whole dinner had come together. Zach and Janice were such good sports that they even agreed to participate before they knew what a progressive dinner was! (In case you are wondering, it's when you have each course at a different location.)

My house was last, and it was for dessert. I really wanted to use this amazing olive my sister gave me for the holidays. It is like fruit juice or wine, it is so aromatic and light. And I recalled a dessert I'd had one time in Spain: Chocolate cake drizzled with olive oil. I did some online searching, and found a great recipe at "Chow," one of my favorite gourmet webzines for cool people. I actually followed this recipe pretty precisely, but of course I had a few little twists to make.

Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt
9 ounces chocolate (I used Valrhona Le Perles, these are literally little "pearls" of chocolate, and I chose them because they would melt easily and quickly.)
1 cup heavy cream

Heat (but don't boil) the cream, then pour into a medium mixing bowl. Add the chocolate (if you have large pieces, cut them up first). I accidentally boiled the cream, so I used poured it through a strainer so no "skin" would get into the ganache. Otherwise it didn't seem to make a difference.

I cooled mine for only about 2 hours (Chow calls for 4). It was still soft, but I just put little dollops in small glass dishes and poured the olive oil on top, then sprinkled it with ginger salt. I served mine with "Almondinas", miniature biscotti with almonds and raisins. I also served it on a small plate with a french-style macaroon. The Almondina and Macaroons both came from Trader Joes. We also served it with thimble-fuls of port from Orfila, a San Diego winery that makes excellent port.

Marshall Says: He had several servings. That spoke for itself. Some of the neighbors seemed hesitant to eat olive oil on chocolate, but they all agreed it was a good match in the end. The ladies of course had several servings each, including me.
Serves: 30 micro servings
Time: 15-20 minutes - fast!
Leftovers: We ate about 2/3 of the ganache. I plan to turn the rest into chocolate bon bons!

Wednesday Day: Simple & Light Lunch

2010-03-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

Usually for lunch at work I will either bring in leftovers or make something really simple and easy. This is mostly the latter.

Hummus on Naan with Peppers

1 large piece Naan (I got mine at Trader Joe's; there are better brands out there, but it's decent)
1 tub hummus
1 small container leftover chopped fresh green bell peppers

This is really easy; I jsut spread the hummus on the naan, and then sprinkled the bell peppers on top. Adds a nice fresh ingredient to the simple dish. I also ate this with the leftover cucumber salad.

Monday Night: Super Quick Asian

2010-03-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

We were doing our taxes last night, and I had a lot of work to do (a report due the following day). So I just wanted something really quick and easy. As usual, I chose a them. I wanted to use up this asian ginger salad dressing that was pretty mediocre.

Soba Noodles with Peppers & Tofu

1 package soba nodles
1 bowl leftover tofu & peppers
teriyaki sauce & asian ginger salad dressing

Boil the soba noodles - they cook really fast, about 5 minutes. Drain in the colander. In the meantime, heat up the leftover veges & tofu in the pot for a couple of minutes. Then add the noodles back in. I topped the first serving with the asian ginger dressing, but this dressing just tasted like mayonnaise (why I never really liked it that much to start). The second serving we each had we put teriyaki sauce on top and it was SO MUCH more delicious!

Edamame

1/2 cup ready to eat edamame soy beans
sea salt

I put these in two cute little dishes and heated them up for 30 seconds in the microwave, then sprinkled some fancy sea salt on top.

Cucumber Seaweed Salad

1 large english cucumber
1/2 - 1 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2-3 tablespoons japanese rice seasoning

Slice up the cucumber as thin as possible. It doesn't really matter how thin or if they are consistent (see picture). If you can get them paper thin the whole time, that's great; if not, it still tastes good! Any kind of cucumber will do, but the persian and english varieties have thinner skins so are nice for making salad. Pour a bunch of seasoned vinegar (this literally just means sugar is added to it; you can buy at any asian market and even trader joe's carries it). Sprinkle the rice seasoning on top (this is mostly seaweed). Stir or shake. This salad is actually better the next day.

Marshall Says: "I like these noodles, but they aren't good enough to blog about. The cucumber salad is, though."
Serves: 2-3 large servings
Time: 15-20 minutes - fast!
Leftovers: Used leftover veges, but also have a full serving of noodles for lunch (that's the third serving), and couple side cucumber salads. And I only used a little bit of the edamame package.

Sunday Night: International Three Course Dinner

2010-02-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

Lentil-Spinach Soup

Looking in the fridge, I see some frozen spinach water (water used to boil spinach, then frozen for use later as a broth). I had been looking through my current favorite cookbook earlier, Vegetarian (Homestyle), and it had a recipe for lentil soup with spinach. While I didn't have any spinach, I did have lentils. And now I had spinach broth. I defrosted the spinach broth, threw in the lentils. Rummaged around the fridge some more and remember the arugala (rocket) - that's close to spinach! This is not very heavy on the spices, but being lentil soup it is roughly Indian.

1/2 cup red lentils (any color will work)
about 4 cups spinach broth
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 handful golden raisins

Mix the above ingredients together, bring to a boil, then simmer 20 minutes or so.

Arugala/rocket
Jarred crushed garlic
Salt

Add a handful of arugala (or spinach), and a small teaspoon or less of jarred crushed garlic, and a few dashes of salt, simmer another 5 minutes, then turn off and leave covered.

French Egg Rolls

In the same cookbook, I saw a recipe for something that looked delicious, but was made with filo dough. I hate filo dough because it's really time consuming; I always use puff pastry instead. I had some puff pastry left over from a dinner party a few weeks back, so I took it out of the freezer to thaw. In the mean time, I had to make up the rest of this dish. I had very few of the ingredients that the recipe actually called for (celery, carrots, etc). But I did have peppers, which it called for. The recipe was originally roughly French or Italian, but since I had so few of those ingredients, I decided to go with Asian. I wanted to add tofu. I had three kinds of tofu in the fridge: plain, baked savory, and baked teriyaki. The teriyaki looked the most flavorful, and fit with the Asian theme.

2 orange peppers
2 green peppers (I actually cut all 3 of the green peppers I had; I figured I could use the others on top of one of my salads, sprinkled on the soup, etc.)
1 package baked tofu - teriyaki flavor (mine was from Trader Joe's)
1/2 box puff pastry
Teriyaki sauce (I used "Soy Vay" brand)
Sesame oil for cooking in a pan (any oil will do)

You have to thaw the puff pastry!!! This takes at least 40 minutes, but it's really important. The good news is all you do is throw it on the counter and wait. But there's no cheating either - you can't run it under hot water to speed it up. You also need to preheat the oven (this takes about 10 minutes).

Cut up the peppers really small. Cut up the tofu the same size. By really small I never mean as small as a chef - that would take too long. Something close to the size of thumbtack will work. Add a couple spoonfuls of teriyaki sauce and mix it all up. Heat up a pan with some oil and then cook the peppers & tofu for 10-20 minutes, just until the liquid is mostly gone and the peppers are a little softer than when you started.

Once the puff pastry is thawed, cut one sheet into 6 pieces. If it's not thawed it will break when you unfold it. Mine did this, which is why I decided to cut the puff pastry into the shape that I did, and is how fate guided me to invent french egg rolls! Take a spoonful of peppers & tofu and sprinkle it in longways, then wrap the edges up and press together along the top, leaving the ends open (you can fit more filling in this way). On a whim, I sprinkled/pressed some sesame seeds along the top edge. You can do this if you want to.

Put the french egg rolls on a cookie sheet. I lined it with parchment paper first - it works WAY better than oil! And I recently found out you can reuse parchment paper! Bake for 15-20 minutes. I served mine with some habenero-mango sauce I had in the fridge. They were also delicious plain. And of course you could serve them with any other sauce you might have: more teriyaki sauce, or some hot pepper suace diluted in vinegar and sugar.

Spinach Arugala Salad

You might be wondering how I managed to have spinach for the salad, but not the soup. Well, I had already mixed together the end of a bag of spinach and the end of a bag of arugala (both still fresh, just almost gone) to make a salad for work. Three salads, to be exact, in three containers. But I didn't really mix them; the spinach was on bottom. So I just pulled some arugala off the top for the soup. But I took one of the containers of salad for dinner. It's really easy to make more than one salad at a time, so I had used the same mix of two kinds of greens, but mixed in different toppings. Most toppings will last several days; avoid adding cut up fruits more than one day before eating. I chose this one:

2 handfuls baby spinach
2 handfuls arugala/rocker
1 handful golden raisins
1 handful cashews
cilantro dressing (mine was from Trader Joe's)

Mix in a very large bowl, or shake in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid. It was a little risky, since the toppings were kind-of trendy/Californian, but the dressing was Mexican. I think because it was simple (only 2 toppings), it all came together well. I made this early and let it sit with the dressing, so the dressing kind of marinated and "deflated" the spinach, softening it up (the way I like it). If you prefer crispier/crunchier spinach, add the dressing just before serving.

All this was served with 2 slices of orange and a glass of sparkling water with lime. Yum! Marshall approved of everything. He wanted me to write down the French Egg Roll recipe, which is actually why I decided to re-visit this blog with a new theme. I plan to write down everything I cook for at least a week, maybe more. I even promise to take a few photos.

Serves: 2
Total time: maybe 90 minutes or possibly 2 hours...sorry - decided to write this up after I'd already cooked!
Leftovers: The other two salads and one small bowl of lentil soup. Plus I had at least 1 cup of the pepper-tofu filling. Stay tuned for how I re-use this later in the week!
(I had planned to have 2 of the 6 French Egg Rolls for lunch, but Marshall ate 4 instead of 2.)

Sunday Morning: Classic Oatmeal

2010-02-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Classic Oatmeal

I had oatmeal twice this weekend. I had it Saturday morning at a yoga retreat, with lots of do-it-yourself toppings. I told Marshall about it, and he said it sounded good. It did, so I decided to make it again.

1 cup whole oats
2 cups water

Mix together in a medium pot/saucepan. Once boiling, turn down to medium or low. If you leave it on high (as I did) the bottom will burn or at least stick.

1 apple
1 handful dried cranberries
1 handful date pieces
Several dashes of cinnamon

Cut up the apple into bite size pieces. Mix the apples, cranberries, and dates into the oats. Cook everything until the water is absorbed and the oats are soft. Feel free to try a bite if you aren't sure if the oats are soft yet. It takes maybe 10 minutes. I wasn't paying attention. I will next time.

Maple syrup
Brown sugar
Milk or soymilk

Serve warm with any of the toppings. If it sits around too long the oatmeal gets really thick and almost rubbery. It still tastes good, but it looks funny. This combination of fruits is sweet and tangy - delicious!

Serves: 2
Total time: maybe 20-30 minutes
Leftovers: none. We ate it all up!

Thursday Night: Baked Potato Soup

2010-02-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

Baked Potato Soup

I wanted to make baked potato soup, but didn't exactly have all the ingredients. Do you think that stopped me?

I even snuck in a bunch of leftover veges that I had from the week before!

4-6 red potatoes (thin skin)
1/2 head of cabbage
1/4 very large red onion (half a medium or a whole small would work just as well)
some celery (I used the last 2-3 celery stalks of a bunch, but you could use just the tops - I often cut celery this way for ease of use)
4 cups water
1/2 cup un-chicken broth powder (I got mine in bulk at Henry's/Wild Oats)
Butter and/or oil

Coarsely chop all vegetables. You could also add carrots or scallions if you wanted. Chop more finely if you don't have a blender. Put 3 or so tablespoons of butter or oil in the bottom of a pot/saucepan. I used half butter, half grapeseed oil. Add the onions. Mine were coarsely chopped, since I hate cutting onions and I was planned to puree the soup in the end. Cook onions about 10 minutes, until soft.

Add the cabbage and potatoes and water and broth powder. You could use liquid broth instead, it's just more expensive. Cook for about 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft when stabbed with a fork. Then puree - I always used my magic wand blender. You can blend it right in the cooking pot (while it's hot!), and it's so easy to clean!

Cheese (I used hard parmesan)
Bac-un bits (I got mine in bulk at the food co-op)

Grate cheese on top of soup; I just used a little, but it would be good with a lot. Sprinkle with bac-un bits; this is the magic ingredient. I didn't add any salt because I used so much broth powder.

Marshall wanted me to write this recipe down, too. He probably doesn't realize how much cabbage was in this soup! I actually made it last week, but he brought it up again because I tried to eat the last of the leftovers for lunch , and he didn't want me to because he hadn't had any of the leftovers yet. That is a sign of a popular soup!

Serves: We each had one small bowl.
Total time: about 1 hour (30 miutes prep, plus cooking)
Leftovers: We had about 5-6 small bowls leftover.
I often freeze soup in small glassware with rubber lids - it makes an easy weekday lunch "to go." I usually do some in single serves, some in two-servings (those are for weeknight dinners).

About the Book

2007-01-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

Kitchen Concoctions is a fun and effortless approach to cooking healthy, living well, and celebrating life. By playing witch in your home, it teaches how to live your values, instead of focusing on details. People want to integrate new ways of being into their life, but all too often get caught up in the instructions. This book teaches how to approach eating, cooking, luxuriating, and sharing by following your instinct, seeing abundance, and using what you have around you.

There are recipes, but you don't need to follow them. There are spells, but you can make those up as well. There are many suggestions, and few rules. It's all about tapping in to your inner creator, and getting inspired!

Contact the author.

Illustrations

2007-01-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Susie Reneau is an artist who lives and works in La Jolla, California. She creates beautiful art using silk screen, as well as drawings and paintings. Her work is playful and enlightening, using animals and bright colors to demonstrate the feelings of peace and happiness that associate her work. She uses quotes in much of her work and has successfully created additional commodities from her original artwork by reproducing it in larger quantities, making postcards and other more ephemeral items. She also makes an annual calendar, largely by hand.

Images that recur in her work include penguins, cats, tea cups, and many other critters. Pigs, unicorns, and butterflies are also important players. She chooses quotes from the inspirational to the silly, and everything in between, addressing such issues that all of face in life: birth, death, nature, shopping, chocolate, friendship, and so many more.

For Kitchen Concoctions she has explored her vegetal muse.

Introduction and Contents

2007-01-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

It is my opinion that a witch can be of any race, nationality, creed, or religion. For me, being a witch is not a religion (though for some it is). The beauty is in the reflection of an individual’s personal journey, through any life, from any background. The kitchen witch incorporates all of this into what she brew’s up.

Cooking is one of the basic forms of creation, the others being birth and art. And I see food as an integral part of my being. Food isn’t something I do; it’s what I am. Take the self-professed “foodies” and take their approach to food and steep it in a profound sense of interconnectedness. That is the kitchen witch. Recipes, therefore, follow suit as the witch’s creation and art form. Mostly what you find here is a pallet. I won’t tell you exactly what to put into your dinner, but I’ll give you an outline.

And a spell is akin to a prayer; it’s just a little more poetic (in the largest sense of the word). For those of us who like walking more than sitting and thinking more than silence, spells can integrate our spirituality into the everyday. I speak to God everyday, through making my bed, driving to the store, mailing a letter, and chopping some vegetables. Spells just help me to remember that.

Pampering is the last portion of this book, and that is because we are all creations of the universe. The kitchen witch needs to feel good in order to do good. We need to be loved in order to love. Taking care of ourselves from the inside out and the outside in allows us to more easily tap into our highest selves.

1. Cook like a witch
Philosophy
Cauldrons and other Cookware
Oven Blessing

2. Ingredients
Grains
Vegetables
Greens
Fruits
Protein

3. Creating your Kitchen Shrine
Kitchen Blessing
What to stock
How to Create a Balanced Meal
Themes
On Accidents

4. Recipes
Basics and Condiments
Peanut Sauce Delight
Vinaigrette
Broth
Soups
Soup d’etat
Bean Soup
Miso Soup
Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup
Casseroles
Italian Pasta Casserole
Mexican Tortilla Casserole
Home Cooked Macaroni Casserole
Italian Eggplant Casserole
Clean Out The Fridge
Fried Greens
Roasted Root Vegetables
Stuffed Pepper (or squash, or tomato, or…)
Pot Pie (or Shepard’s Pie)
Sweets and Treats
Hot Chocolate
Versatile Oatmeal Cookies
Easy as Pie
Fruit Crisp or Cobbler
Magically Appearing (and Disappearing) Cake
Frosting

5. Parties and Covens
Dinner Parties
Housewarming (and moving)
Spontaneous Picnics
Costume and Theme Parties
Tea Parties

6. A Witch’s Daily Spa
Fresh Facials
Tea Facial
Fresh Fruit Facials
Exfoliators
Moisturizers
Potions and Lotions
Oils
Essential Oils
Oils Infused with Herbs and Spices
Oils Infused With Fresh Herbs
Tinctures
Incense
Powders and Salts
Salt Baths
Body Powder
Flower Waters
Salves
Candles
Soaps
Lotions

7. Assorted Other Spells
Celebrating the Seasons
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Moon Spells
New Moon Spell
Full Moon Spell
Journal Blessings
Old Journal
New Journal
Spell by Mail
Gardening
Planting the Seeds
Tending the Garden
Returning to the Earth
Traditional Composting
Guerilla Composting
Speedy Composting
Conclusion

Resources for the Kitchen Witch

Excerpt & Recipes

2007-01-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

Creating your Kitchen Shrine

Plenty of delicious meals can be made from just a few ingredients. These are the basics of a healthy diet, and while they are delicious when cooked up in various combinations that are also refreshing and satisfying served on their own. When purchasing ingredients for recipes and spells, always keep in mind your connection to the things you are bringing into your life, and very likely your body. When you buy a banana, you are connecting yourself to the grocery store that stocked that banana, the truck and the driver that delivered the banana to the store, the plane or ship that carried that banana to the truck, another truck and driver in the land that grew that banana, the farm where the banana came from, the farmer the cared for the banana as it grew, and the family that farmers supports with his wage. Wow! What a banana, huh?

The other part of creating your kitchen shrine is the aesthetic of your kitchen. Keeping your kitchen clean and functional is part of that aesthetic. But more than that, it’s how you decorate and design your kitchen. Do you store your pots hanging from a rack, or in a cabinet? It all makes a difference in your personal kitchen shrine. Hang up a beautiful decorative tile, or display your fruit in a handmade bowl. Once in a while, buy your kitchen some flowers! She deserves it, and you want to keep her happy.

Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup

This is a great way to use up the small bits of tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag! This soup is a well-rounded meal unto itself. The pumpkin seeds provide protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Leftover chicken or turkey (think Thanksgiving leftovers!) goes great in this soup (add small pieces when you add the vegetables).

1 clove garlic
1 handful (or more) hulled raw pumpkin seeds
Olive oil

Chili powder and/or chili flakes
Cumin seeds or powder
Black pepper
Bouillon or broth or water
Tortilla chips

Summer:
1 large pepper (bell or other pepper, but too spicy)
2-3 zucchini or yellow summer squash, or 6-12 of the cute little bite-sized ones
1 ear fresh corn
1 large fresh tomato or several small fresh tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro

Winter:
dried peppers
1 medium or large winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc), peeled and cut into cubes
1 can of corn or about a cup of frozen corn from summer
1 can tomato paste or diced or crushed tomatoes
severable spoonfuls dried cilantro

To prepare:
Dice or cube vegetables.
Grind or crush chili flakes and cumin seeds, if using.

Heat some oil in large, heavy pot. When hot, throw in pumpkin seeds, chili powder/flakes, cumin, garlic clove, and black pepper. The pumpkin seeds will pop, and you should stir frequently. When most of them have popped, or when they begin to turn brown, add the fresh or dried pepper and squash. Stir every few minutes for about ten minutes. Add the fresh corn kernels or the whole can of corn (including liquid). Then add water or broth or water and bullion until the vegetables are just covered. Bring to a boil.

Dice tomatoes and cilantro while the water boils. Add cilantro, stir, and remove from heat. Serve hot with diced tomato, fresh cilantro, and crushed tortilla chips on top.

Tip: Don’t add salt while cooking the soup; the tortilla chips often make this soup quite salty (especially if you use the end of the bag). You can always add more salt later, but you can’t take it out! Also, watch out the for the garlic clove; if it’s a romantic dinner no one should eat it; if you’re sick, you should seek it out.

Versatile Oatmeal Cookies

This cookie recipe is incredibly versatile, yielding a pretty much infinite combination of cookie flavors by following the basic steps. Since it uses nut butter, you can alter the nut butter alone for variety of cookies: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Almond Oatmeal Cookies, Cashew Oatmeal Cookies, Sesame Oatmeal Cookies, etc. But when you get to the mixings, you can really have a hey-day! Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Raisin Almond Oatmeal Cookies, Cranberry Cashew Oatmeal Cookies, and so forth. (Chocolate Chip Raisin Peanut Butter Cookies… it’s endless!)

Mix together in a small bowl:
1/3 cup nut butter (peanut, cashew, almond, etc)
2 tablespoonfuls canola oil
1 cup sugar or other sweetener (if using liquid sweetener, use a little less milk)
1/3 cup milk or milk alternative (soy, almond, oat, etc)
Vanilla or almond extract, if desired

Sift or mix well in a large bowl:
1 cup flour (white or whole wheat or combination)
½ teaspoon baking soda (can substitute baking powder)
pinch of salt

Pour the liquid from the small bowl into the large bowl and mix thoroughly.

Mix in with a spoon:
1 cup oats (whole or rolled, not instant)

Finally mix in ½ to 1 cup (total) of any of the following, if desired (I’d stick to one or two):
Chocolate chips
Nuts (walnuts, sliced almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts, etc)
Raisins
Dried cranberries
Diced dried fruit

Spoon onto an oiled baking sheet, making approximately two dozen cookies. Bake for 8 minutes; do NOT overcook! Take them out after 8 minutes as the tops begin to crack, even if they don’t look quite done. Otherwise, they get very hard.

Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to wire rack or a plate.

The Marketplace

2007-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Anyone who eats, bathes, or laughs can benefit from buying and reading this book. While targeted at a female audience, the women who will enjoy Kitchen Concoctions come from a variety of lifestyles and backgrounds, from young professionals to busy moms to students to girlfriends to cooks to pretty much anyone. Think Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food meets I Like You by Amy Sedaris.

The timing is ripe for a book of this type. Food writing has been gaining popularity over the past decade. Novels such as Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz include recipes as a means of furthering the plot and developing the characters.

Furthermore, interest in the organic, sustainable, and slow food movements is at an all time high. Everyone wants to participate in this growing market, but many people feel excluded by high price or inconvenience. We can see that a food revival is in the midst in literature as well as our society. Kitchen Concoctions demystifies the notion of organic food being unattainable and home cooking being too time consuming. With a little ingenuity and creativity anyone can eat well and live in abundance.

Alegra is connected to chocolatiers, restauranteurs, organic farmers, and a wide array of foodies across the continent (even around the world). Through her network of friends, farmers, and foodies, she will tap into many opportunities to promote her book, from the farm stands to friends' websites to restaurants and shops. She also has an established audience at many of her own websites, where she will promote Kitchen Concoctions.

About Alegra Marcel Bartzat

2007-01-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

Alegra Marcel Bartzat is editor of a biology website. She has had several works of poetry published in journals and periodicals. She has written scientific essays and journal articles, mostly about ethnobotany and marine botany. She is an ordained minister of Universal Life Church as well as an ordained clergy of Spiritual Humanism, a spiritual organization not affiliated with any church. She celebrates several pagan holidays and considers her kitchen sacred. She is a kitchen witch.

The ideas and guidelines in this book are based on the way Alegra lives. She is a master of L'Arte D'Arrangiarsi, Italian for the art of arranging. Loosely speaking it means the art of making something from nothing: a meal from a seemingly empty cupboard, a spa retreat from household items, a party from leftovers, gifts from things that are lying around, a celebration from the pieces of life.

Alegra cooks at home almost everyday, but rarely goes to the grocery store with a list, and even more seldom follows a recipe. She supports the local and organic food movement with out a lot of thought or effort. She is degreed in environmental biology and creative writing. Kitchen Concoctions captures the essence of her lifestyle.

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