New Recipes: April

Keizo and I tried a record breaking number of new recipes in April. While he did most of the cooking, I like to think I pulled my weight with the meal planning and grocery-list making. It seemed to take most of Keizo's nearly three month visit for him to really grasp the concept of planning ahead and buying ingredients for multiple meals at one time. As much as I generally enjoy grocery shopping, it's not something I want to do everyday!

Waiting more than month between trying a recipe and writing it up here has both its pros and cons. In general, it gets harder to remember the details of each one, whether or not the recipe was followed exactly, which substitutions I would make next time etc; but on the other hand, it also gets easier to pick out the winners. 

Spring Pasta with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes - Not exactly a winner, but I am sure I will be eating some variation on this theme (pasta + vegetables) several more times over the summer.

"Pizza Chicken" - Given the amount of gooey cheese in the photo, it shouldn't be a surprise that this recipe falls into the "make again" category. Running the oven in the summer is less than ideal though, so it may have to wait until fall.

Cheddar Beer Fondue - Although I was initially concerned we would set off the fire alarm, this ended up being a really fun meal. It was fun to make, fun to eat, and inspired several conversations about future uses for our "new" $8 fondue set. Our dipping items consisted of bread, sausage and roasted vegetables and I had a hard time choosing a favorite. One word of caution, the recipe is labeled as "date night," but contains a whopping 16 servings of cheese. I think next time I will halve it with the hope that we'll be able to get up from our chairs a bit more quickly afterwards.

Eggplant & Chickpea Curry - This is another "make again" recipe with lots of vegetables and chickpeas to give it some more staying power. Not nearly as entertaining as fondue, but definitely worth trying :-)

Bim Bim Bap - Somewhere under all those toppings is some rice and marinated ground turkey(?) I went a bit overboard with the garnishes trying to use up old produce and add on new farmer's market finds (see the pickled yellow beets in the middle? Delicious!) and drowned out the flavors of original recipe. I see more rice bowls in the future though, since the different components can be assembled ahead of time and combined later for a quick meal. Also, they're an excellent base for delectable pickled things from No. 1 Sons.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - I had high hopes for this recipe based on the photos and several roasted vegetable sandwiches with portobello mushrooms and goat cheese enjoyed over the years. The results weren't quite what I was hoping for, nor was the dish particularly satisfying as Keizo and I both had double servings.

Creamy Chicken Quinoa Casserole - This was one of Keizo's picks, and while creamy and comforting, it was also rather bland. It improved with some hot sauce, but is not one I am likely to make again.

Miso Broth Bowl with Soba - This meal was inspired by the cherry blossoms and our visit to Hana, a small Japanese grocery store located on U Street. I was impressed by their selection, and will definitely be making a return trip when I run out of my favorite Japanese pantry items like miso and okonomiyaki sauce. Now that the weather is warming up, I don't know if I would make this again anytime soon, but it was really tasty.

Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins - Wrapping up on a high note, these loaded potato skins were tasty and really filling. The chipotle peppers packed some heat, and we were also able to enjoy some of the leftover filling with tortilla chips.

Nine new recipes in a month was quite a lot; the past few weeks I have been relying on some old standbys and trying to use up some things from the freezer. Today, I made gazpacho for the first time, so there will be at least one new recipe in the May round up. When I write it up, however, is bit less certain.

Thank you for reading!

gReeN

Today was quite the Monday.  I didn't sleep particularly well last night, and there were some very noisy birds outside at least an hour before my alarm went off.   Then, just as I was unlocking my bike to go to work, it started raining (yes, better then than en route).  I drove instead, but the gates to parking garage were down and my parking pass expired at the end of May.  

My job today was culling old files, removing all of the metal clips to get them ready for shredding.  Unlike last week, when I got to laugh at people's senior portraits from the 80's and 90's, today I was going through application files with portfolios from very talented people who either did not get in, or decided not to attend UVA's School of Architecture.  And while it took a long time to remove spiral bindings and the like, I spent no where near the time the applicants did putting them all together.

I came home a bit after 5, hungry and a little discouraged after destroying other people's creative work.  I ate a banana with peanut butter and decided to make a recipe I found over the weekend, to use up some leftover ricotta and make myself something a little fancy to counteract my afternoon.

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette from Smitten Kitchen was my starting point.  I found pre-made pie crust on sale at the store for $0.75 yesterday, so I wasn't even going to pretend to make my own crust.  I picked out some nice looking zukes at the Farmer's Market and dusted off the mandolin slicer.

While rooting around in the fridge for the other ingredients, I came across some old green beans on their way out, and thought they matched the color scheme nicely.  I washed them thoroughly and picked out the slimy ones (ugh!), drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and set aside to roast while the galette was cooking.

Fitting with the theme of the day, the ricotta I specifically found this recipe to use up had already turned a disturbing pink color and acquired a funky smell.  Ooops.  I substituted Greek yogurt, used feta instead of mozzarella and added a splash of lemon juice to the cheese filling.

I unrolled the pie crust, spread out the cheese filling and began to "shingle the zucchini attractively on top" as called for in the recipe.

I folded up the edges and drizzled with the remaining garlic/olive oil mixture.  I skipped the egg wash because I don't like having 1/2 of an egg sitting in the fridge.  I eat plenty of eggs, but can never remember to use up forgotten halves.

Green beans roasted and galette baked while I sweat it out with Shawn T and the Insanity crew, which was much needed.   Endorphins released, I sat down to my fancy green dinner.  The green beans, being both old and left in the oven for too long were pretty desiccated, but the yummy galette pretty much stole the show.

The pre-made crust turned out to be a great shortcut that allowed me to redeem an otherwise blah day.  The crust came in a two pack--when/how will the remaining one transform my life?!?  Stay tuned....

Mmmmm Bacon!

About two weeks ago, this was sent out by yours truly to all of the planning graduate students:

Then, on Easter I woke up at 8 AM to make my contribution to the group potluck: BH&G's Bacon & Egg Muffins.

I started with the bacon, something I don't think I have ever made myself.  The recipe only called for 4 pieces, but it's impossible to buy just 4 pieces of bacon at the store.  Also, while it smells wonderful, bacon is a mess to cook, so I decided to cook up the entire package at once.

Next, I used some of the bacon drippings to scramble the eggs and...

...grease the muffin pan as suggested by the recipe.  

The rest of the muffin came together quickly, even with my addition of  some extra bacon bits.

The bacon greased muffin tin was filled with bacon laden muffin mix and topped with more bacon. (Do you see a theme here?)

Baked until the edges of the muffins pulled away from the pan and bacon on top looked nice and crispy.

The potluck didn't draw a huge crowd, but there was plenty of scrumptious food and absolutely glorious weather.

I filled up my plate (more than once) soaked up some sunshine, and threw a few bocce balls before it was time to pack up, head home and hit the books...

...and scrub the bacon grease off the stove.  At least the morning was enjoyable!

Last Supper

Keizo's last night in town we decided to stay in and cook together.  We didn't head to the store until about 5, and then I made him do Insanity with me, so I don't think we started cooking until well after 7. 

The menu was pasta with vodka cream sauce, roasted broccoli and garlic toast.  The cream sauce sounds fancy, but I got the recipe off the back of a bag of store brand frozen tortellini and added a ton of extra vegetables.  

Ready to eat!

The sauce was yummy, although next time I don't think I will add all of the liquid called for in the recipe.  All of the extra vegetables meant that I had leftovers too!

Blog > Essay Writing

Just a quick post that I am hoping will put me into writing mode so I can finish my paper that is due tomorrow.

One highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend was a trip to Trader Joe's, where I stocked up on "necessities" like whole wheat tortillas, low carb chocolate, gingerbread flavored coffee and ridiculously cheap, ripe avocados! Two of these ingredients found their way into my dinner last week. Guess which ones.

My mother graciously emailed me this recipe for "Mexican Lasagna." Tortillas take the place of noodles and regular tomato sauce is replaced by a bean/tomato/onion/olive/enchilada sauce extravaganza. The cheese part stays about the same.

Alternate layers of the ingredients listed above and sprinkle the top with tortilla chip crumbs and bake for 20 minutes at 350* F.

My mom's instructions said to serve with salsa on top, but I opted for some avocado instead, with a side of plum, which is another Trader Joe's find, but not quite as noteworthy as 4 ripe avocados for $2.99 and a $4 bottle of Chardonnay.

My new holiday placemats were also purchased Thanksgiving weekend, on Black Friday no less! I bought them and a Pyrex measuring cup for myself at Homegoods. Wild, I know. The trip to Trader Joe's was way worse for the wallet!

And writing this is probably bad for my grades. Back to work!

Chili con Crock-pot

I have a new roommate, purchased on sale for $20 at the grocery store:

And they say you can't buy love! Sheesh.

Emotional attachments aside, you can buy a Crock-pot and a lot of things in cans to make a really easy vegetarian chili on a Sunday afternoon.

All of the above were opened or chopped and added to the Crock-pot. Cooked on Low for 5 hours (recipe here)

When it starts to smell really good and your stomach can't take it anymore, prepare some cornbread and shred some cheese.

Spoon into bowl, top with bread and cheese (I like to mix mine all together,) eat and repeat as necessary.

That's serving #2 above, please ignore the crusty remains of #1 around the edges.

Leftovers no more

I have finally finished my leftovers from last week! It seems like they have been around for a lot longer than that though.

Leftovers can be wonderful. I definitely don't have the energy nor the inspiration to cook every night; so in that sense, they are completely necessary. However, when I had them for two meals on Sunday and still wasn't quite done, I was approaching the end of my rope.

At least one of the repetitive meals was super photogenic. Soup and salad featuring week old greens and even older cabbage (in the soup).

For the soup, I halved this recipe and added a bunch of things from the fridge/freezer. The soup base is a can of diced tomatoes and half a can of refried beans with 1-2 cups of "stock" (water with all purpose seasoning...that's basically what bullion is, right?) plus frozen veggies, cabbage, and meatless crumbles topped with tortilla chips and some parmesean cheese. Quite good, and ready in about 15 minutes. Tough to beat...at least the first time around.

Salad is old greens from giant tub I thought I would have no trouble finishing before it got soggy (early in the summer, I did eat a Costco sized tub of spinach pretty much all by myself while my parents were out of town for 10 days. Not so much this time and I can't explain it) plus diced peach, pecans and fresh herbed cheese drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The cheese really did the trick, as it should for $7. I can't help it if I have expensive tastes!

Dining Hall at Home

Apparently there is something about Wednesdays that makes me feel the urge to cook. Tonight I was inspired by 3 days of cloudy, wet weather and an ongoing hankering for pizza. And fries. A typical student meal, except without a meal plan I get to make them myself.

I only used 1 of the suggested 4 sweet potatoes the recipe called for and neglected to modify the other ingredients, so these were oilier than they should have been. Not exactly crispy either. Next time I might try them in a frying pan instead of the oven.

I made my own yeast-less pizza dough with this recipe. On this one I remembered to halve all of the ingredients. I had a nice round base all spread out on the cutting board, but when I tried to transfer it to the pan, it ended up looking like this:

I covered it with these...

...starting with a layer of pesto and meatless crumbles.

The was a slight mishap with a sliding hot mitt as I was removing the pizza from the oven, making it look even wonkier than it already was, so there is no photo of the final product save for the slices on my plate below (note the missing cheese on left piece.)

Cheeseless...so sad. Also sad is the fact that I unwittingly bought low fat feta cheese at the store and it tastes nothing like the full fat version and doesn't really melt either. At least this meal used up a fair amount of the container.

Mmmmmm fries. Thankfully it would take something much worse than failing to calibrate a recipe properly to make sweet potatoes taste bad.

And now that dinner has been cooked, eaten and cleaned up after, it's back to school work. Ugh, there have already been a few days where I can't believe I signed up for this willingly!!