not exactly a recipe, but....

So lately, I've been very lazy about posting here, not that I was ever very good about it. Lately, one thing I've been enjoying a lot is pesto. So a lot people are familiar with the normal basil pesto, which is basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan in a blender and used as a sauce. It turns out that you can make pestos out of a lot of things, not just basil. We've been making them out of tomatoes, roasted peppers, zucchini, basically anything I can stick in a blender and think would taste good as a pasta sauce. Tonight we are going to try roasted eggplant and bell pepper pesto, with maybe some tomato thrown in, since we have some in the fridge. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm thinking it will be a bit like baba ganoush, but warm and poured over pasta, instead of cold and dipped with pita.

farro with veggies and veggie sausage

I haven't posted in a really long time, because I've honestly been in kind of a food rut lately, and haven't done anything exciting. That all changed last night, when I tried a new grain (farro) with some zucchini and peppers and field roast italian sausage. Seriously, if you can get field roast brand sausages, do it, because they are amazing! But, if you can't, don't worry about it. This would be really tasty without it, too!

First up, I got my farro from trader joe's and it's "quick cooking" farro, which means it's already cooked most of the way, and only takes 10 mins. When I read the instructions, it said something to the effect of 1/2 cup farro + 1 cup water or broth, bring to a boil, then simmer 10 mins. What I missed at the end was it said to drain the excess liquid, which I didn't do, because I was expecting it to cook somewhat like rice. Don't worry though, I made good use of the leftover liquid, so no big deal. 

I used the whole package which was 1.5 cups farro, plus 3 cups of "not chicken" broth. I followed the instructions, except for draining it in the end. The broth didn't add much flavor, and I honestly was using it because I had an open carton in the fridge that I needed to use up. Feel free to use whatever broth you have on hand, or just some water.

While the farro was cooking, I chopped up a red bell pepper, 2 scallions (green onions), a cubanelle pepper, a big zucchini and 2 links of the sausage. I put all of this into a bowl, and brought it over to the stove. I put a little bit of grapeseed oil into a large skillet, put it on high, and added about a tablespoon of minced garlic. We have a jar in the fridge, but if you don't love garlic as much as we do, just chop up a clove or two. I let the garlic sizzle for a minute, and then added all the veggies in, and stirred them around. I added in salt, dried oregano and basil, and a little bit of crushed red pepper. I let that cook for a while on medium high, stirring occasionally.

After the farro had cooked for about 10 mins, I looked, and the liquid hadn't absorbed, so I tasted it, and it seemed like it was done. I have never made farro before, but it was chewy and not tough,  al dente, so I figured that was probably good. I poured the farro into the skillet, broth and all, and let that boil and reduce down. After a few minutes, it was reduced down quite a bit, and I grated some parmesan cheese in it, stirred it in, and added a little more salt (to taste). 

If you leave out the sausage, you might want to include some beans in there, to make it a little more substantial. 

I had the leftovers for lunch today, and it will reheat well, so don't worry if you have leftovers. 

Sorry there are no pictures, but I hope you try it anyway. I'm sure you will enjoy it. 

banana chocolate chip bread for breakfast

Last saturday morning, I made this awesome banana chocolate chip bread for breakfast. I used this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/better-homes-and-gardens-banana-bread-448398

with the following changes.

First, I replaced the egg with another banana. This was because I had 4 bananas to use up, and I had remembered hearing that a banana was a good egg replacer in baking. Next, I replaced the nuts with chocolate chips. This shouldn't be surprising, since my post is for banana chocolate chip bread, instead of banana nut bread. Finally, I used white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, because that's what I had at home.

This bread had a really wonderful flavor. It was sort of buttery, which was strange since it contains no butter. It was really amazing, and I hope anyone who stumbles across this tries it.

The bread I made was not vegan, since my chocolate chips weren't, but that's the only thing you would have to change to make it vegan.

risotto and chickpea stuffed peppers

First, mix three packets of trader joe's savory veggie broth concentrate with four cups of water, put it in a saucepan and start it heating on low. 

Next, Pour some extra virgin olive oil in a pan, probably about 1/4 cup. I used a pan that's halfway between a skillet and a saucepan. It's shallow and wide, but it has straight sides like a saucepan.You could probably just use a big pot, but make sure it isn't too thin, so the risotto won't burn. 

Heat the oil on medium-high heat, and saute about 2 tbsp minced garlic, along with parsley, rosemary, oregano, basil, and thyme, and just a pinch of crushed red pepper. I didn't measure the herbs, so just use your best judgement. These were all dried, except for the garlic, which we have a jar of minced garlic in the fridge. Saute this for about 1-2 minutes, until the garlic starts to brown a bit, and then add 1 cup arborio rice.

Stir the rice around, and let each grain get coated in the oil. Keep sauteing it until the rice starts to smell a bit nutty. This can be a bit hard, with all the herbs, but trust me, you will notice a difference in smell. Once it smells nutty, add about 2/3 cup of a semisweet white wine. Reduce heat to medium, and let this simmer until it no longer smells strongly of alcohol.

Next, start adding broth, a ladle-full at a time. Add 1 ladle of broth, stir and simmer, until there is very little liquid left. Then add another ladle. Keep doing this, and stirring constantly, until the rice is al dente. It will take about 40 minutes. If you run out of broth, then add hot water. (I didn't run out of broth, but the risotto recipe I was using as a guideline had that suggestion.) Add salt and pepper to taste. It won't need much, because of the broth, but I did add a sprinkle of salt. Once it is al dente, remove the risotto from heat, and let it cool.

Now, Open a can of chickpeas, and drain and rinse them. 

Prepare the peppers by cutting the tops off, and removing the seeds and as much of the white stuff as you can without breaking the peppers. This recipe should fill 4 red bell peppers.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix about 1/2 the can of chickpeas in with the risotto and stuff that into the peppers. Top each pepper with bread crumbs. Bake for about 40 minutes in the oven, then remove and eat.


If you don't want to do this all at once, you could double the risotto recipe, and have that for dinner one night, and then use the leftovers to stuff peppers the next night.

creamy yam and peas

This is what I made last night for dinner, and it was really tasty:

Ingredients:
1 long yam, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
~1 c frozen peas
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
parsley
rosemary
nutmeg
half & half
parmesan cheese
half an onion, cut in strips
1 tbsp minced garlic

Directions:
Heat olive oil in large skillet on medium high heat. Add garlic and onions. Once they are sizzling, add yam. While it's cooking, stir frequently and add spices. Cook for about 15 mins or so, and then add peas. Cook until the peas are no longer frozen, and add a generous splash of half and half, and parmesan cheese to taste. Reduce heat to medium low, and cook until the cream thickens.

I served this with a side of spinach and cheese ravioli, but it was great on it's own, and could also go on pasta.

For any vegans out there that find this recipe, it was tasty before the addition of the half & half, so you could serve it like that, or splash in some "motherless milk" and a little nutritional yeast, if you want to have that added creaminess.

Sorry for the lack of posting+enchiladas

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past several months, but I have been very busy with work and moving across the country. I promise to post a new recipe this week.


The only new thing I've cooked lately was cheese enchiladas. This was really easy.


Ingredients:
mozzarella string cheese
small tortillas (either flour or corn will work, but they should be about as wide as a mozzarella stick is long)
2 cans of enchilada sauce
shredded cheddar cheese


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Unwrap the string cheese. Wrap each cheese stick in a tortilla, and place seam side down in a shallow baking dish. Repeat until pan is full, or you have sufficient enchiladas for everyone who will be eating.
2. Pour enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
3. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

These are tasty on their own, or topped with sauteed onions, peppers and summer squash. This would also go well with a Spanish rice. Enjoy!

super easy salsa pasta

I did this for lunch on Wednesday, and it was super easy and really tasty.

All you need is some olive oil, a small onion, pasta, and some jarred salsa.

First, start a pot of water going for the pasta. Then, dice the onion. When the water boils, toss the pasta in.

In a skillet, heat some olive oil and saute the onion, until it gets a little browned, but still firm. Pour salsa in with the onions, and stir. Let that cook a little more. When the pasta's done, drain it and toss it in with the salsa and stir to coat it. Enjoy!

I made about 1/4 pound of penne pasta, and used about 2/3 cup of medium tostitos salsa. Feel free to use whatever brand you prefer.

The sauce came out tasting sweet, spicy, and a little smoky. It didn't really taste like salsa anymore, and if I hadn't made it myself, I probably wouldn't have known it was made from salsa.

orange cranberry sauce

Ok, so I did this before thanksgiving, and I'm only getting around to posting this now, but it's really good, so enjoy!
I started with this recipe:
http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Gravy-Sauce-Condiment/Homestyle-Cranberry-Sauce.aspx?cmpid=ps-Holiday2010-RM_Cranberry_Sauce-cranberry_sauce_recipe-ex
And I replaced the water with orange juice, only used half the sugar, and left out the vanilla. Oh, and I couldn't find my jar of ground cinnamon, so I ground up some cinnamon sticks with a mortar and pestle, which smelled amazing. Don't feel like you have to do that, though.
It was pretty sweet, so you can probably even get away with 1/4 or 1/3 cup of sugar, if you want it less sweet.

kale chips

Ok, this is really simple. All you need is some kale, some oil, and some salt.
1. Wash the kale, and rip the leaves off the rib in the middle, and break them up into chip-sized pieces. If there are thick ribs running through the sides of the leaves, you can remove these too.
2.Put the leaves in a bowl. Pour some oil in. Toss the leaves around so they are all coated. Liberally sprinkle with salt, and toss around again.
3. Put the leaves on a single layer on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with foil for easy cleanup). Bake at 300ºF for about 15-20 minutes, or until crispy. Try one to see if it is crispy enough for you. If they are still a little chewy in the middle, then bake a few more minutes.

Potato, rice, rice, potato, carrot, parsnip, and lentil stew

Ok, so I had a bunch of veggies that I needed to use up, and I was feeling pretty lazy. Soup is the obvious choice to make in this situation, because you can just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it cook.

10 cups water
4 veggie bouillon cubes (each makes 2 cups broth)
1 large can crushed tomato with basil
1 large clove garlic, minced
some olive oil
1 cup rice
3 handfuls of lentils, probably about 1 cup
about 3-4 medium potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
3 carrots and 1 parsnip, cut into bite sized pieces
1 leek, chopped up (you could use an onion instead)
a dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Pour olive oil in a large soup pot. add the garlic, leek, carrots, parsnip, potato, and rice. Turn heat to high, and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Add water and bouillon cubes, stir. Reduce heat to low, add the lentils in, and cover.
3. Simmer until the rice and lentils are tender to your liking.

The next day, it was even thicker. And my boyfriend said it was even better with a little bit of hot sauce added. 

Macaroni and Cheese with broccoli

This one is all my own recipe, and it makes a lot, so be prepared for leftovers.
Ingredients:
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp flour
a little less than 1/2 gallon of milk
~1 cup sour cream
a splash of half and half
2 lbs sharp cheddar cheese, cut into small pieces or shredded
2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets and chopped small
3 lbs macaroni elbows
seasoned bread crumbs

1) Fill large pot with water, heat on high. Meanwhile, melt butter in another large pot, add flour and stir.

2) Add milk, sour cream, and half and half to the pot with the butter/flour mixture. (Note: the half and half and sour cream aren't necessary, I just had a little in my fridge that needed to be used up. It's fine with just milk.) Stir, and reduce heat to medium-low.

3) By now the pot of water should be boiling. Add the macaroni in. Stir, and cook according to the package instructions. Keep stirring the milk mixture in the other pot, and try to keep it from boiling. If it starts to boil, reduce the heat to low.

4) When the milk mixture gets thick, add the cheese in and stir. Keep stirring often.

5)When the pasta is done, drain it and put it into baking dishes. Sprinkle the broccoli in with the pasta, and add sauce. Stir the sauce in. Top of with bread crumbs, and bake at 350ºF for about 20 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are nicely browned. ( I used one big foil pan plus 8 little individual sized foil pans, and had some left over.)

This was a really tasty dinner, and it makes tons of leftovers that reheat well. Instead of baking the little pans, I let them cool and froze them. They are now homemade frozen dinners that I can pull out and bake on nights when I'm tired and don't feel like cooking, and are significantly cheaper than buying the premade frozen dinners.

Pumpkin Pie

Ok, so I stink at making pie crusts, so I just got a frozen one. I used this recipe for the filling:
http://www.rwood.com/Recipes/Pumpkin_Pie.htm
The only changes I made was that I used a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin instead of a sugar pumpkin, and I used half and half for the cream, and regular white sugar instead of the unrefined cane sugar. It came out pretty tasty, although it wound up tasting more like a custard pie and not as pumpkiny as I was expecting.
Also, I topped it off with homemade whipped cream. For this, I put a pint of heavy whipping cream in a bowl with a 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tsps of vanilla, and I whisked it until it was thick and foamy. I started out whisking by hand, but my arm got tired, so I switched to the electric mixer, which has a whisk attachment.
The whipped cream wasn't super thick last night when I first made it, but I put it in the fridge overnight, and now it's really thick and rich. Tastes really good too.

New posts tomorrow, I promise!

I've been lazy today, and just ate leftover soup and a pb&j. I plan on making macaroni and cheese with broccoli and a pumpkin pie tomorrow, so stay tuned for the recipes.
On Tuesday, I'm going to make some kind of stir fry with red cabbage, because I have a whole head of it from my farmshare, and I don't know what else to do with it.

roasted breakfast potatoes

So I roasted these in the oven, but you could fry them instead.
Ingredients:
potatoes
olive oil
salt
garlic powder
chili powder
oregano
thyme

1. Peel the potatoes, and cut them into bite-sized pieces. I used probably 5 potatoes, but most of them were pretty small. After they were cut up, they covered the bottom of a 9 inch round cake pan in a single layer.

2. Pour some olive oil over the potatoes in the pan. Be generous, I probably used about a half a cup of oil. Toss the potatoes around with your hands, to get the potatoes all coated with oil. (You could do this with a spoon, but I love the way my hands feel after I've gotten them covered in olive oil. Makes my skin really soft.) There was about 1/8th of an inch of oil in the bottom of the pan.

3. Sprinkle the potatoes with the salt and spices, and mix them around. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit and cook until the potatoes are soft when poked with a fork. It should take around 30 minutes or so. I didn't measure the spices, so just put however much looks good.

Rosemary would be tasty in this, too, but we were unfortunately out of rosemary.

potato corn carrot squash soup

Ok, I know that sounds like a very busy soup, but in my defense, I wanted to make squash soup, but only had one acorn squash at the time. I did have a bunch of carrots and potatoes, though, and canned corn was on sale. So, I decided to just throw it all in together. It turned out pretty tasty.
Here's a link to the original recipe I started with:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-Soup-with-Ginger-15572
And here's what I did:
Ingredients:
1 large acorn squash
2 leeks, on the smaller side, white and light green parts
3 medium-largish potatoes
5 carrots (one was really big, but a couple were small)
1 small head of garlic, it was 4 large cloves
10 cups water
5 veggie bouillon cubes (each cube makes 2 cups broth)
2 cans of corn, drained
1 hot pepper, a thin curly red one
~1.5 tbsp minced fresh ginger
Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the soup pot.

1. Cut the acorn squash in half. Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and set them aside. You can toast them up later for a nice snack. Spray the cut ends with cooking spray and put it cut ends down on a baking dish. Cover the pan with foil, and stick it in the oven at 350º for 30-40 minutes, until the squash is soft.

2. Peel and mince the ginger. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Wash the leeks, remove the outer 2 leaves, cut off the top and bottom. Chop up the leeks. (I sliced them down the middle, then chopped into ~1/8 inch pieces.) Cut open the pepper, pick out the seeds and membrane, and chop into small pieces. Pour some oil in the pot, and dump the ginger, garlic, leeks, and pepper in. Don't turn on the stove yet.

3. Peel and chop the carrots. Peel and chop the potatoes. Open the cans of corn and drain off the liquid.

4. Turn on the stove, and let the the garlic, leeks, ginger, and pepper cook a bit, stirring it around. (Note: I also put some salt in at this point, but it's probably not necessary, as the bouillon has plenty of salt in it.) Add the water and the bouillon. Scoop the squash flesh out of it's skin and plop it into the soup pot. Drop the carrots, potatoes and corn in too. Cover and let it simmer on low for an hour or two.

5. Puree it in batches in a blender. Enjoy with some nice bread. If you toast the seeds, you can also top the soup with them. 

As a side note, I toasted the seeds with olive oil and garlic salt. They were delicious!

tangerine sesame muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• zest of 2 tangerines
• 2/3 cup tangerine juice
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Wash tangerines. Using a zester or a cheese grater, grate the peels of two tangerines. Cut tangerines in half, and squeeze out the juice, using a strainer to catch the seeds and pulp.
2. Put sesame seeds in a skillet, and heat, stirring, until golden brown.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, white sugar and tangerine zest. Stir in tangerine juice, 1/2 cup melted butter, and eggs.
4. Pour into 12 muffin cups.
5. Blend 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toasted sesame seeds, and sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean.

So first, we should give credit where credit is due. We didn't make up this recipe, we just modified it. Here is the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Muffins/Detail.aspx
The reason we used this recipe was that we had a lot of tangerines, that were very ripe and very seedy. There was no way we would get through all of them before they spoiled. We needed a recipe that called for juice. We decided to add the sesame seeds as a play on lemon poppy muffins, and when we saw the recipe, we decided to add the sesame seeds to the topping.
We also had leftover juice, which gave us some fresh juice to drink with the muffins. If you don't want to deal with juicing tangerines, you can just buy juice, probably using OJ.

pumpkin spice cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 c packed brown sugar
1 1/4 c white sugar
2 c pumpkin or squash, canned, frozen, or fresh (cooked and pureed)
3 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan.

Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Cream together butter, eggs, and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the pumpkin. Beat in the flour mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool before removing from pan.

honey corn muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 c honey
1/2 c frozen fire-roasted corn (we bought this at Trader Joe's)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Into a large bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, butter, and honey. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring until just mixed. Stir in the corn.

Pour the batter into a greased muffin pan, bake about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These came out really tasty, but didn't rise well. We suspect that the butter was still hot, and cooked the egg a little, when we added it to the wet ingredients. When you make this recipe, try whisking the milk, butter, and honey together first, then add the egg. This way, the milk will cool off the butter, and the egg won't get cooked.

rice, veggies and beans

The rice was pretty tasty, so here's what I did:
I cut open a jalapeno pepper, cut out the seeds and membrane, and chopped it into small strips. Then I put some extra virgin olive oil in a big pot, added the pepper, about 1 tbsp of minced garlic, some mixed frozen red, yellow, and green bell pepper strips, some frozen roasted corn, and 2 cups of rice. I heated this over medium heat and stirred it, until it started sizzling and it started smelling very good. Then I added 5 cups of water, 3 vegetable bouillon cubes, and about 2 cups of roman beans. (I had cooked the beans from dry about a week ago, and then stuck them in the fridge and almost forgot about them. You could put a can of beans in instead.) I covered this and let it cook on medium low heat until the water was mostly absorbed. It tasted good, but needed a little salt.

cheesy eggy rice bake

First, I cooked 2/3 cup of rice. I put 2/3 cup of rice in a small pot with a little over 4/3 cups of water. I put the cover on, and heated it on low heat for about 30 minutes, until the water was absorbed. While the rice was cooking, I chopped up a medium onion. When the rice was done, I cooked the onion in some extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan. I sauteed the onions for a couple of minutes, and then added the rice in with the onions. I stirred it around a bit more, and mixed apart the rice chunks. Then, I put it into a glass baking dish, and let it cool a little bit, with a cover on top, so the rice wouldn't dry out too much. I beat up 3 eggs with a little water, with sage, rosemary, parsley, crushed red pepper, oregano, and sea salt. I poured this over the rice, and stirred it in with a fork. I put some shredded mexican cheese blend on top, and baked it at 325, covered, for about 40 minutes. Then I took the cover off, and baked it for a few more minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I let it sit for a few minutes before eating it. Enjoy!