Garlic Knots

Yay! These rolls are easy to make, pretty, and tasty.

2 1/2 t yeast 
1 C warm water

Dissolve yeast in water, let rest 5 minutes.

1 C wheat flour 
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
2 t sugar

Combine the above ingredients and add in your dissolved yeast. Knead dough 5 minutes. Let rise in a covered, lightly oiled bowl for 1 hour (or until doubled).

When dough has risen, roll it out into a 10x10 inch square and cut into 10 strips. To make a roll, tie a knot and pinch the ends in underneath.

Tie knot

Tuck ends under

Cover the rolls and let rest for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

But you aren't done yet! Now make your garlic butter topping:

4-6 cloves garlic
2 T butter, melted
2 T olive oil
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t salt

Toss rolls in butter topping (or just pour butter over rolls to avoid burning your fingers on hot bread). Then eat.

Pretty!

Winter Tacos; In-season alternative to Tomatoes and Lettuce

What's this? Ben is posting once again? Yes, indeed, now that I have no job, I can return my attention to what's important in my life: amateurish writing about amateurish cooking in a blog that no one reads.

Carolyn and I are (amateurishly) trying to eat more seasonally, in an effort to feel superior to other people. Recently we were craving tacos in a serious way, but this being December, tomatoes are way out of season. Luckily, Carolyn came across this black bean/sweet potato taco recipe from Bitchin' Kitchen.

The recipe is a lot longer than it is complicated, and since the proper link is right up there (and since I'm lazy), I'm going to skip the work of actually typing it out. For the basics:
1) cut up sweet potato into cubes; coat with oil, lime, salt, and pepper (or red pepper flakes); bake in an oven.
2) shred cabbage; mix with 1/4 cup diced onion, cilantro, more lime juice, salt, and pepper.
3) can of black beans like usual.
4) mix yogurt with chopped or pureed chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, plus whatever spices you feel are appropriate.

This meal was fun to make and very pretty to look at, but if your craving is traditional tacos, it doesn't satisfy. That is not to say it's no good; it just doesn't cover the same ground. The soft sweet potatoes combined well with the crunch of the cabbage, and chipotle sauce is just delicious all on its own. If we hadn't started out wanting regular-old tacos, we would have been 100% happy with this meal. And now knowing what it tastes like, we will make it again, but not when we're craving fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese.

Okay, so have you ever been in a sweets shop and like everything looks tasty and you get overwhelmed because you can't decide what to buy?  Maybe that's just me...any who, on my most recent visit to a cupcake shop in NY I bought a filled cupcake for like four dollars and it looked super good but then when I went to try it I was severely disappointed.  It was like WAY too sweet and somehow even though it was filled it was still dry.  AND IT WAS FOUR DOLLARS.  So that is what has led me to this post!
Double Chocolate Filled Cupcakes!

I'm not going to post a recipe for the actual cupcakes since I cheated and used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake Mix©.

But here's what I used for the filling and frosting. I tend to not do a good job when I'm measuring but I will give this my best guess...
6TB unsalted butter (softened)
3TB shortening
1/2 Cup marshmallow cream
3TB cocoa
2 (ish) cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 ts vanilla

Basically all I did was beat the first three ingredients until it was smooth with no lumps. Next add the vanilla.  After that I alternated the remaining dry ingredients and cream.  I whipped all of this until it was a bit more fluffy and then put it in a pastry bag with a plain circular tip.  Shove the tip into the top (some people do bottom-right through the paper) and push about a tablespoon of filling into the cupcake.  Then frost the tops and decorate!
Mine looked like this on the inside!

Oh! On another note for a full batch of cupcakes you may need to double or even triple that frosting recipe.  I only made 6 cupcakes and I have some leftover but it's definitely not enough for 24.  Thanks guys :]

Potato Leek Soup

I don't know where potato leek soup has been all my life, but I am glad it has finally made its way into my dinner rotation. This soup is easy and so satisfying. I'm sorry to have kept it to myself for so many weeks. By the way, doesn't the roll in the picture look awesome? Recipe to come later this week. Unless I forget. Sorry in advance for forgetting.

Potato leek soup

3 leeks, cut lengthwise (I waver between cutting in half or cutting in fourths; suggest your favorite fraction in the comments) and chop
2 T butter
2 C water
2 C broth
2 lbs potatoes (4 medium? I don't know. I buy funny sized potatoes, but then I also own a kitchen scale ((brag, brag, brag)) ) peeled, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 C parsley, chopped
1/2 t thyme
dash hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste


Cook leeks in butter on low for 10 minutes. Be careful not to let the leeks brown, they'll get bitter. Add water, broth, and potatoes. Simmer 20 minutes. Blend half of the soup (or whatever amount looks good). Add spices. Eat.

A Welcome for Wendy

I know you're all wondering why the most recent post showed such a marked improvement in quality over the posts from the past 7 months. Well, I can satisfy your curiosity by announcing an addition to the Dinner Adventure team: Wendy. Welcome, Wendy. I'm so glad you'll be blogging, because I'm much to lazy to post regularly.

Chewy Chocolate Meringue Cookies

So I tried making these cookies which claimed to be chewy meringue cookies on Sunday. While they didn't taste anything like a meringue cookie ought to they did taste pretty good. I got this recipe (with great pictures) from Bakerella's website. From what I understand meringue cookies are traditionally a dry and crunchy cookie but these were soft on the inside and almost melty (I did use a lot more chocolate than the recipe called for). 

1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) large egg whites – about 7
2 cups (1 lb / 500 g) sugar
5 tbsp (1 oz / 30 g) natural cocoa powder
4 oz (125 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used about 6oz)

Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar it entirely dissolved. Next whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in cocoa and chopped chocolate. Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 15- 20 minutes. Rotate the pans once while baking.

This is what mine looked like about five minutes before coming out!

Annnnd up close

I didn't take a picture but mine were almost hollow on the inside with just a bit of melty chocolate. 

If anyone else makes meringue cookies (This recipe of another) let me know what temp you cook them at because I'm suspicious of 350°.  


**By the way I was told I'm supposed to introduce myself. So Hi! I'm Wendy Harvey. I'm Ben's sister. I like cooking. And cookies. And eating.  And really food in general. So there's all that.
Bye! 

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

This is a blog hosted by librarians. As such, it's amazing that we've gotten this far without a book recommendation.Well, we're going to keep that streak going because today I have a book anti-recommendation. Namely, the worst mystery series I've ever encountered: Murder She Baked. These books are bad in every way a book can be bad (and I should know, I've read about 10 so far). Their saving grace, however is the recipes. Yes, recipes. The detective in the mysteries owns a bakery, so almost every chapter there is a recipe.We tested out chocolate chip pretzel cookies from Plum Pudding Murder because: (1) Ben loves chocolate chip cookies and requests that I make them at least once a week; (2) I'm sick of making and eating plain old chocolate chip cookies (see #1); and (3) we happened to have pretzels on hand.

everybody likes these, even Fred

Chocolate chip pretzel cookies

1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks)
2 cups white sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses*
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 cups crushed pretzels (measure after crushing; to crush, put in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (1/2 less than a whole bag)

*If you don't have molasses, you can substitute brown sugar for white. The math doesn't come out exactly right, but I'd assume that it would be fine. Actually, the math does work if you substitute half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar, but if you're the type of person who has two kinds of brown sugar on hand you probably already own molasses.

Cream together butter, sugar, and molasses. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let your cookies rest on the pan for a couple minutes before moving to a cooling rack so they don't fall apart when you transfer. (I've tended to ignore that last step in the past, but I've discovered that it really does help.)

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

Gooey Butter Cake is a rich coffee cake that is loved by St. Louis natives, the Butter Institute of America, and Ben. There are several apocryphal stories regarding its origins, but I'll let you find them on Wikipedia. I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and she got it, ironically, from the New York Times. I hadn't really planned to blog this one, but Ben says this is one of the three cakes he will request for his birthday so I thought I'd better record it.

The cake is made in two stages: first you make a sweet bread dough and let it rise, then you make a custard-like topping and bake. If you have a stand mixer I recommend using it. Otherwise you will need a lot of elbow grease for this one.

3 Tablespoons milk at room temperature
2 Tablespoons warm water
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
Mix yeast into milk and water and let sit for a few minutes, yeast will form little bubbles.

6 tablespoons butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cream together.

1 egg (we've been getting extra large eggs -- recommended)
Beat in to butter and sugar mixture.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Alternate adding flour and milk/water/yeast mixture. Continue to stir for around 10 minutes. This is where the elbow grease comes in. Dough will form into a soft and cohesive ball. When done mixing, spread out into a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish. Let rise at room temperature for 3 hours. Dough should double, but I find it's hard to tell when it's in the dish.

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream together. 

1 egg
Beat in egg.

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Add, alternating wet ingredients and flour. Spread over risen dough. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (baking time based on my increasingly suspect oven, take a peak after 30 or 35 minutes). 

Lentil soup

Eat more soup. Eat more lentil soup.

Here are some links to help you out:
Lentil Soup from Alton Brown
Lentil Soup from Allrecipes

The Alton Brown recipe is spicy, but not too spicy if you are spice-phobic. My mom is a big fan of this one because she likes to cook anything that allows her to break out her immersible blender. The Allrecipes soup is a classic hearty lentil soup and an old favorite from soup-or-stew Sundays (holla back, Heater).

Fred says to try them both.

Another great pasta sauce

If you ever have an urge to read a really good food blog, you should look at Smitten Kitchen. This week's pasta recipe is one I saw on Smitten Kitchen a while back and have been meaning to try (link!). It's super simple, just three ingredients. Four if you count salt. Five if you count pasta.

Tomato sauce with onion and (lots of) butter

28 ounce can whole tomatoes (I used unsalted tomatoes, but that just meant I had to add more salt at the end of cooking. Use whatever you happen to come across.)
5 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, pealed and halved

Heat ingredients over medium heat. Reduce to simmer and let cook for 45 minutes. Mash up tomatoes. Woman from the blog says to use a wooden spoon, but I found that a potato masher worked much better. Salt to taste. Eat.

Very simple, hearty sauce. I will definitely make this again. Ben commented that the sauce was very fresh-tasting and I would agree, although fresh is a funny way to describe something that is mostly made up of canned tomatoes. We ate this on rigatoni pasta which is a short, tubular pasta that holds sauce well.

By the way, please don't be put off by the amount of butter in the recipe. I've read that fat helps the body to absorb the nutrients found in tomatoes (but I'm not going to cite a proper source for that because I'm lazy).

Easy pasta for two

I'm sure this never happens to you, but for me it seems that the more time I have to do something the more it gets put off. I had decided at least two days ago that I was going to make spaghetti for dinner tonight. Last night I had bread dough fermenting in the refrigerator in preparation for baking bread to go with the spaghetti I was going to make for dinner tonight. All day I thought about what recipe I might try out for sauce to go on the spaghetti I was going to make for dinner tonight. So really I have no excuse for waiting until I already had water boiling for pasta before I started on a sauce.

Tomato sauce in a hurry:

Chop onion. Saute in olive oil. Mince 3 cloves garlic and toss in with onion. Add can of diced tomatoes. Sprinkle in what seasonings you like; I used basil, white pepper, black pepper, and salt. Heat until your pasta is done cooking. If you remember (and I didn't) leave your pasta a little under-done and finish cooking in the sauce. Oh, and add a generous dose of grated Parmesan cheese on top of your serving. 

I know that if I read this recipe I would be skeptical. I hadn't intended to blog this one (notice I had already started eating before getting the camera out). My usual sauce is super saucy with tomato paste and tomato sauce and an hour's cook time. But I was really pleased with how this turned out and it was a nice change of pace from my usual.

P.S. Do you see the bread? I made that. Best bread I've made so far.

Bread and Cheese

Sometimes the best snack is the simplest. Here we have slices of Carolyn's homemade bread with slices of white cheddar on top, along with a scoff at those who opt for anything more complicated to stave off hunger before dinner. Let the cutting board double as your plate to feel manly.

Marshmallow Milkshake: Banana, your fate is sealed

Listen up everybody because I'm about to speak such truth as you've never heard. Banana milkshakes are not really that great. Next time you make one, really pay attention to how it tastes. Sure, it's smooth and sweet, and ice-creamy, which is wonderful, but what does the banana really add? It gives a slight chalkiness that makes the shake less refreshing, and the flavor of banana doesn't really marry all that well with the flavor of ice-cream. Bananas are cheap, and when you blend them, they have about the same consistency as blended ice-cream; that's really the only reason they've found a place in milkshakes.

We here at Dinner Adventure have developed (read: stolen) an improved version of the milkshake you know and love by replacing the banana with, yes, you guessed it, roasted marshmallows. This shake is amazing. It will ruin all other milkshakes for you. After we made it once, Carolyn and I had to make it 3 more times in the following days just to sate our addiction. It has made me realize just how bad banana milkshakes actually are.

4 marshmallows per 8 ounce serving
vanilla ice-cream
milk
vanilla extract (or rum)

Instructions: toast your marshmallows over the stove (an electric stove on highest setting actually works very well for this) or in a toaster oven all at once (preferred method). While toasting, blend other ingredients. Add marshmallows to the blender as soon as they're off the heat. I theorize that the cooler the mallows are, the more poorly they blend.

Marshmallows make so much sense in a milkshake that it's hard to believe that everyone doesn't do this. They only increase the creaminess of the drink; they sweeten it; and most importantly, the toasty, caramelized flavor is perfectly at home with ice-cream.

Ginger tofu soup

Easy, fast, delicious soup. I don't need to say more than that. Although I probably will further down the page. Oh yes, recipe comes from this Moosewood cookbook. If you're looking for a vegetarian cookbook you should check out one of the Moosewood's (literally, check it out from your library).

Ingredients
4 cups (1 quart) vegetable broth [we use vegetable bullion]
1 cup thinly sliced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ginger, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 block firm or extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup leftover cooked rice

Heat broth. Add celery, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. Simmer 5 minutes. Add tofu and rice and cook another 5 minutes. 

Yay! Seriously, that's all there is to it. The broth develops a nice light ginger taste while the pieces of ginger add good heat and interest. If you aren't a huge fan of ginger then you could try mincing so the pieces aren't so strong; or cut really big pieces that you can avoid when you're dishing out or eating the soup.

Homemade tortillas

I've made a lot of poor decisions at the grocery store, but I don't think I've ever made a purchase as ill-considered as that package of 50 rubbery tortillas we bought for $3. At the time I think our reasoning was, "50 tortillas for $3?! How can we go wrong?" Although looking back on it, we should have said, "50 tortillas for $3?! How could that possibly be good?" In the end, they were so inedible that Ben had to throw them away when I wasn't looking (because I can't bear to see food wasted). We've now learned our lesson and always make our own tortillas.[Edited to add: Ben thinks it was 100 tortillas in the pack. Even worse.]

Easy peasy recipe:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon shortening
3/4 C water

Stir together dry ingredients. Fold in water to slowly wet the dry ingredients then mix until dough forms a shaggy ball. Tear off a small portion; I'll take a ball of dough slightly larger than a golf ball, but it depends on how big you want your tortilla to be. Roll dough on floured surface so that it's round-ish and flat-ish. Fry in a lightly-oiled pan on high heat. Cook until both sides are slightly browned.

Hurray! The tortillas we make aren't always pretty (notice the lack of picture) but they are always delicious. We're still perfecting our technique here (Joel, when are you going to give your master class?), so look forward to updates on our progress. Some day I might even make a round tortilla, who knows?

In the meantime, check out our earlier posts to find foods to stuff into your own delicious homemade tortillas. May I recommend huevos rancheros, black bean tacos, and even falafel?

-----------

Have you, darling reader, also noticed that I am the only one who posts here anymore? The reason for that is that Ben is very busy doing important things. Right now he's playing with the cat. But that's not all he does, sometimes he has to nap with the cat.

Marinated baked tofu

There's no photo for this one. Sometimes life is not fair.

This may be a recipe for tofu, but don't let that fool you into thinking I know how to cook with tofu. I don't. I've been a vegetarian for over 5 years and this is the first time I've cooked tofu. No, I don't know what I've been eating all this time either.

Drain tofu and remove from package. Wrap block in tea towel or paper towels and place on a plate. Put weights on top of wrapped block and let sit for 10 minutes. Doing this will remove excess moisture and allow tofu to soak up more flavor (probably).


Marinade
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar
chili paste and sugar to taste

Cut tofu into 1 inch cubes. Soak in marinade for about 10 minutes. Spread tofu on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350. Over-baking the tofu will make it very chewy.

I don't really see this as an entree by itself. We put the baked tofu in our usual vegetable stir fry. I could see this working in other things, the marinade can be changed to suit the dish. 

Corn Risotto

This is a public service announcement:

Risotto is not as hard to make as the world at large would have you believe.

Thank you. Now, back to your irregularly scheduled Dinner Adventure.

It's true! You do have to resign yourself to standing over a hot stove for about 30 minutes, but don't let anyone trick you into believing (like I used to) that risotto is rocket science. Just be sure to use a short grain rice that has a high starch content--we used Arborio. Also, don't add too much broth at a time; let the rice absorb the liquid before you add more.

This recipe came from the Joy of Cooking: the vegetarian edition.

Ingredients:

5 cups vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup scallions
1/2 cups rice
1/2 cup dry white wine


2 cups corn (we used corn from the cob, highly recommended ((4 ears should do it)) puree 1 cup and leave the other cup whole
1 cup diced tomatoes (we used canned)
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 Tablespoon lime juice

Simmer 5 cups vegetable stock. Keep your vegetable stock in a separate pot from the rice. Let simmer on low as you cook your risotto so that you are adding warm stock to the rice.

In as separate pot melt 2 Tablespoons butter. Add 1/2 cup chopped scallions (use the white part of the scallion) and cook about 5 minutes. 

With pot on medium-low heat, add 1 1/2 cups rice and stir to coat rice with butter. Add 1/2 cup dry white wine. Stir constantly, or as constantly as you need to stir to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom. When rice has absorbed the wine add 1 cup of stock. Once the stock is absorbed, add more. Continue adding stock (about 1/2 cup at a time) until you run out. This will probably take 20-30 minutes. 

When your rice is close to done cooking, add your cup of pureed corn. Continue cooking. Rice will be done when it is soft and creamy but not so mushy that you feel you could gum it (al dente if you're fancy).

When rice is done, take off the heat. Add 1 cup diced tomatoes, 2 tablespoons chopped basil, 1 tablespoon lime juice, the rest of the corn, and salt and pepper to taste. 

Yum! This really is a fabulous recipe. Each of the flavors comes through really strongly. The fresh basil, corn, tomato, and lime make this dish feel fresh and light. Now that I've found out how easy and delicious risotto can be I'm going to look for other variations to try, but it will be hard to surpass this one. 

Pie crust

This is a follow up to the quiche post. On reflection, the crust on that quiche was the best pie crust I have ever made. I have a long history of crust-related disasters, so I thought I'd better get this one up on the internet before I forget everything. Let this post stand as proof that miracles do happen.

1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
up to 1/4 cup ice water (I used about 1/8 cup this time)
1/2 teaspoon vinegar


Cut butter up into small pieces to aid mixing. Using a fork, mix butter, flour, and salt until uniformly crumbly. Add vinegar and give a quick mix again. Add enough water to form the dough into a slightly sticky ball. By this point I had given up on utensils and was using my hands to mix; it's just easier. 


Chill in refrigerator for an hour. Roll out. Makes one 9 inch pie crust (with a little bit left over for covering up mistakes). 

A few changes from my usual (usually failed) pie crust. First up: vinegar. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it's probably some sort of black magic, or possibly science. A quick internet search tells me that acid breaks down gluten strands that form in dough. Shorter gluten strands make for a more tender (flakier) end product. Another change from my usual method was taking time to chill the crust before baking. Chilling the dough will re-solidify the butter, separating it from the flour, which will result in a flakier crust.  Bonus: chilled dough doesn't stick to the counter as badly as room temperature dough.

And an update on the spinach quiche: strangers liked it too.

Spinach Quiche

It's taken me a long time to get this silly quiche made. We've just moved into a new kitchen (well, a whole new apartment, state, and all) and despite having gone to the store countless times in the past week we always seem to be one to two ingredients short of a meal. But last nights the stars aligned and we wound up with this delicious quiche:

(Thanks to Heather for the awesome pie server!)

May I point out how pretty my crust turned out?

For the insides:

3 ounces room temperature cream cheese
1/3 cup half and half
3 eggs
10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained
4 green onions, sliced
3/4 cup cheese, I used a mixture of white cheddar and monterrey jack
salt and pepper


Beat cream cheese, half & half, and eggs. Add the rest. Pour in unbaked pie shell. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before serving. 


Not hard to make. Promise. Obviously we liked this; we ate half the pie before I could find my camera. We ate our quiche with pan fried potatoes and I set off the fire alarm for the first time in our new apartment! Yay! Fred-the-cat hid under the couch.

Huevos Rancheros

I saw this recipe this morning on another (and much better) food blog and I knew right away that I had found tonight's dinner. This meal is super fast and on top of that is a combination of all the foods that Ben and I like to make on a regular basis anyway.

Huevos rancheros are a traditional Mexican breakfast dish, the basis of which is simply corn tortilla with fried egg on top. You can serve huevos rancheros with a variety of toppings; tonight we've made salsa fresca and black beans.

We started with taco-sized soft corn tortillas. Fry tortilla in a lightly oiled pan, flip when browned. Sprinkle a little bit of cheese over the tortilla.

When the cheese starts to melt, crack an egg onto the cheese-covered tortilla.

When the egg white starts to set, flip the tortilla.

Action shot!

Let the egg cook. Flip onto a plate and top as you please.

Toppings

Black beans we cooked the same way we do when we're making tacos. I put the beans on to simmer (although sometimes they were at a rolling boil because I wasn't paying attention) while we made the huevos rancheros; timing worked out pretty well.

Salsa fresca is delicious: fresh chopped vegetables with salt and lime juice--can't go wrong. Cut up:

2 large tomatoes
half a red onion (or white onion)
2 jalepeños

Add 2 tablespoons lime juice and 1 teaspoon salt


P.S. I hope that no one ever tells me that black beans are unhealthy because Ben and I go through at least 4 cans a week.

P.P.S. A shout out to the locals who have tried to get jalepeño peppers through the self-checkout at the County Market. Their system is super glitchy when it comes to hot peppers. We almost had to steal the ones we used in the salsa fresca.

Homemade Black Bean Salsa

This is going to be a short post, on account of how easy this salsa is to make and how unequivocally delicious it is. In short, it's essentially pico de gallo with blackbeans in the mix. We've made it twice in the past two weeks, and let me tell you, they were not small servings.

So here we are:

Dice the following:
-4 cups tomatoes (or 2 cups tomatoes + one can of diced tomatoes, drained)
-1 medium red onion
-1 poblano pepper or medium green bell pepper
-2 or more jalapenos (and other hot peppers if you're feeling spicy)

In a bowl mix these ingredients with:
-1 can rinsed black beans
-6 tablespoons lime juice
-1 full teaspoon salt

Let refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup diced cilantro just before serving.

What makes this salsa so good, and any pico, really, is the copious use of lime juice and salt. These two ingredients make everything stand out in a really fantastic way. Be sure to drain both the canned tomato if you use it and the rinsed beans thoroughly, because the salt will pull out the juices from the vegetables anyway, and you don't want this salsa to be soupy. Finally, do give the poblano pepper a try. It's not terribly spicy, and it adds a unique flavor that you won't get from just adding a green bell pepper.

This salsa takes only about 20 minutes' work, it's cheap, and it's absolutely amazing. Try it.

Replacing Ramen: Broad Wheat Noodles

Some time ago, we talked about my ramen habit. Almost immediately after writing that post, it occurred to me that there are other, better noodles in the world that are just as cheap. Naturally, I visited my local Asian grocery to have a look around. This post is the first in a series I'm going to call "Replacing Ramen: the quest to find a healthier, better tasting noodle!" In truth, I'm over doing it a little by calling it a "quest". This is the first noodle I've tried, and it's already miles ahead of ramen. It's too late now though; the words are already typed.

ANYWAY, this post is about Carolyn and me cooking up some "broad wheat noodles" with vegetables and spicy lemon sauce. I'm calling them "broad wheat noodles" because I can't find a better name. The package is littered with Asian characters and has only the enigmatic words "Oriential Style Noodle Pasta" in English. Now, before we get started on the recipe, a warning to everyone out there joining in on this quest for a better noodle: this recipe requires both boiling and frying of the noodles, which is nearly twice as much work as ramen.

So here's how it works:

Spicy lemon sauce:
(amounts for 2 large servings)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
1+ tsp chili garlic sauce

The cooking:
-Boil water, add noodles.
-Let them cook for 6-8 minutes on medium-high heat. For some reason, I have trouble pinning down "al dente" with these noodles.
-Remove from heat and rinse thoroughly in cool water until noodles are cool.
-Fry some vegetables. How much oil you use depends on the number of eaters, but keep in mind that the noodles are going to be added as well. 2 tbsp for 2 servings seems like enough.
-We used baby corn, carrots cut in sticks, and turnip greens(cut into strips, added a few minutes later than the rest)
-When vegetables are to your liking, add noodles
-Fry for a minute, then add sauce.
-Fry for another 3 minutes. Serve in magnificently large bowls like the one you see above.

So this is my new favorite dish. Lotta thoughts on this; I'll try to be brief but likely will fail. I feel like these noodles don't lend themselves as well to typical stirfry vegetables like broccoli and mushrooms. Baby corn and carrots are the perfect accompaniment. The turnip greens were something new for us too. The collard greens we tried a few days before turned out so well that we were feeling adventurous. The turnip greens were an excellent addition as well; they're a very hearty leaf that stands up well both to frying and to the bold flavors of the dish. Neither Carolyn nor I can think of other vegetables that would be better suited for these noodles.

This sauce, despite it's simplicity, is perfect, especially for these noodles. There are substitutions and other seasonings to try, as I've discussed in the ramen post, but I keep coming back to this simple combination.

In my opinion, these noodles really require the rinsing and frying process after they're cooked. They're a very starchy product. When you first put them in the water, you can see a cloud of starch off the noodles and go into the water, which means that they'd be awful as a soup. I suppose you could rinse them prior to cooking. I haven't tried it and won't. They're very brittle, so the process would be difficult. Besides, I'm perfectly happy with them as they are.

As I said above, al dente is hard to pinpoint on these noodles. I'm not sure why this is exactly. It seems like they're almost ready, almost ready, almost ready, too done. Even though it's difficult, it's very important that you get them just right, since they'll also be fried. If you over-cook them in the water, the frying is going to make them into glue. If you under-cook them, the frying will dry them out even further by drawing what water there is. That said, a little under done is better than a little overdone.

I seem to have save the only bad part for the end, which is a shame. I really love this dish, and I haven't eaten a single package of ramen since I bought these. Try it.

Simple Summer Supper

Corn is here! I don't know where it's coming from--the corn I see around here is hardly as high as an elephant's eye--but there's corn in my grocery store and I'm going to eat it. My only problem is, I don't really know what people eat with corn on the cob. As a result, we've just eaten a couple other food that, in my mind at least, seemed summery enough to hang out on a plate with corn.

Sautéed Collard Greens


1/2 bunch collard greens
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt to taste


Stem collard greens and cut into 1/2 inch strips. I rolled leaves length-wise to slice. 


Heat olive oil in skillet. Cook garlic until lightly browned. Add red pepper and collard greens. Cook until greens are dark green and just wilted; this will take only a couple minutes. Cooked collard greens still have a slight crunch.


Although Ben and I are big fans of spinach, I'm really glad we decided to branch out and try a different green leafy vegetable tonight. Collard greens are tougher and more substantial than cooked spinach. I think this heavier vegetable stands up well against spicy red pepper flakes. All-in-all, this is a simple, but special vegetable side dish that I will certainly make again (in fact, we ate the rest of our bunch of collard greens for lunch the next day).


Once corn on the cob and collard greens were on the plate, we realized that there was space left on our plates that needed to be filled. Enter cucumber sandwiches. Except I'm not really going to tell you about them. They were just OK; cucumber, cream cheese, yawns. Someday soon I'm going to put a little more effort into these and make something worth blogging about.

So Mini Pizzas

It took me a long time to convince Ben to try tortilla pizzas, so I thought I'd better make the most out of this opportunity. To that end, we've tried two kinds of sauce tonight: one completely new and one not so completely new.

The sauces:

Sauce #1 Cilantro-Pea Pesto

1/2 bunch of cilantro 
3/4 cup peas (roughly equal to the amount of cilantro added)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Blend ingredients (food processor would work better than a blender). We had to add water to get things moving in the blender, maybe 1/4 cup.

The cilantro is a nice amount of spice balanced by the sweetness of the peas. Ben and I really like this sauce and we think it could work in a lot of other foods. Ben tried it as salsa later in the night and commented that it would be pretty good with more salt. I'm going to use it as salad dressing tomorrow. Obviously it would also be good on pasta.

Sauce #2 Tomato Sauce With a Twist That Ben and Carolyn DO NOT RECOMMEND 

Ben did his usual pizza sauce but added cumin. I'm not sure why. I blame the heat. In his defense, he thought he was added only a small, subtle amount. As we found out, there is no such thing as a subtle amount of cumin. 

Eh. I think I liked this better than Ben did. I'm not sold on cumin for pizza, but I think we can make it work in another venue. Indian mock-pizza, anyone?

Our original plan for dinner was to make a regular old pizza, with regular old pizza dough, in the regular old oven. But, if you had spent any amount of time in my apartment today (forecasted high today was 90 degrees and I've only got a tiny, inefficient box A/C) you would understand why we were loath to turn on the oven. Instead, we made tortilla pizzas in a skillet on the stove. I won't write up a formalized recipe. Simply replace pizza dough with tortilla and go from there. I cooked at medium heat for at least 5 minutes, or until the bottom of the tortilla was slightly browned and the cheese was melted. I was careful to go light on the sauce and toppings so that the tortillas weren't overburdened.

Southwestern Black Bean Salad

Last week it was too hot to cook anything, so Carolyn and I put our culinary minds to the test and developed a great dinner that didn't require heat of any kind. Just kidding--as usual, we ripped off somebody else's recipe and are now passing it off as our own creation. Today's dinner (or rather, last week's dinner, because I'm too lazy to post anything on time) is brought to you once again by the Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks.

As you probably surmised from the title, we had Southwestern Black Bean Salad. Being the lover of black beans that she is, Carolyn wasn't content to only have it once a week in tacos. And now that it's so hot outside, soup is out of the question. Naturally, then, she found a way to combine them with lettuce. The following is a fairly simple salad recipe, but what made it special was the Cilantro Lime Dressing (also found in the Moosewood) that topped it off.

Cilantro Lime Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 entire scallions, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup oil

Blend all ingredients except oil until smooth. Mix in oil slowly by blending on low speed.

The Salad:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 & 1/2 cups cooked corn
2 avocados
8 cups of your favorite leafy green vegetable (we used romaine today)
tortilla chips

-Toss corn and beans together with cilantro lime dressing in a bowl.
-On your plates, place your greens, then crush tortilla chips over top.
-Mound your corn/black bean/dressing in the center.
-Add cubed avocado to the mix.
-Grind a touch of black pepper over the whole business, along with a little salt focused at the avocado.

And that's all it takes. This salad was really tasty, and aside from a little blending, actually faster and easier than the chef-style salad that I typically make. The only reason not to make it weekly, on a whim, is that it requires two fairly time-sensitive ingredients, avocado and cilantro.

We actually cut this recipe in half, and I'd say it was almost enough food for 2 people on it's own. Of course, we'd eaten lunch late and were planning on milkshakes for dessert. If you want to round out the meal, I'd suggest a simple cheese quesadilla. Carolyn's recommendation, if you're making this salad in spring or early summer, is spicy tomato soup.

A note on additions: tomato and grated cheese would not be out of place at all in this salad, but I'd leave out the cheese if you're planning to pair with a quesadilla, to preserve contrast. The Moosewood suggests chopped green olives, which sounds gross to me.

Jammie Dodgers

Yes! I'd love some tea! What biscuits do you have there? Jammie Dodgers?! My favorite.

The after-dinner adventure tonight was baking Jammie Dodgers in honor of the last new Doctor Who episode for a long time. I found this recipe for "clones" of the British package cookie. I halved the recipe that was on the website and ended up a little short of 2 dozen sandwich cookies.

Combine:
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup, packed brown sugar
1 egg

In a separate bowl (or the same bowl, on top of the wet ingredients if you are lazy like me) combine:
3 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Add dry ingredients to the wet, one cup at a time, alternating with:
1/8 cup milk and
1 TABLESPOON vanilla extract


Chill in the refrigerator for at least a couple hours before you try to roll out the dough. Because my kitchen was so warm, I had to take out only small hunks of dough at a time so that it wouldn't all warm up too fast. Rolling out warm dough is a messy and frustrating task.


Roll dough on a floured surface-- about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out circles that are about 2 inches in diameter (I used a drinking glass to do this). Place cookies on a greased baking sheet. Make cute cut-outs in half of the cookies (these will be the tops of the sandwich cookies). I used a knife to make my cut-outs, but if you have tiny cookie cutters it would be easier. I incorporated the discarded bits from the center of the cut-out cookies back into my rolled out dough to be economical.


Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.


Cool.

Spread jam (I used seedless blackberry jam) on a plain cookie and top with a cut-out cookie. Repeat. I estimate I used about half a jar of jam.

Ben and I thought these cookies were great (worth the effort). That opinion was later verified by two people who are not authors on this blog-- so you can trust us on this one.

Falafel

My brother passed along this recipe for falafel. The recipe is copied from his e-mail (because I'm super lazy) with a few notes added.

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
1/2 chopped onion (we used red onion)
1/2 cup parsley
2 t olive oil
2 t hot sauce
3 T flour
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt, to taste

The recipe calls for baking these things. I ("I" meaning my brother, but we did this too. It's much too hot to be using the oven.) pan fry them on low heat until they're browned on both sides and heated through, you can try whichever. If you bake them, preheat to 400.

Pulse chickpeas and garlic in blender (If you have a food processor please use it! The chickpeas mush into a thick cement paste at the bottom of the blender. Ben added water to get things moving around in the blender, but that meant that our falafel was wetter and didn't form into very ball-like balls.)  Add onion, parsley, olive oil, and hot sauce, and blend until relatively smooth.

Transfer to mixing bowl. Mix in flour, cumin, coriander, paprika, baking powder, salt and pepper. The mixture should be mushy but firm enough to shape into balls. You can add some flour to firm up if necessary (we added at least twice as much flour because we had to add water while blending).

Pan fry in some oil. I've been using peanut because it's what we have. Presumably canola would work the same. Olive was a little less good the one time I used it. I do this on pretty low heat and they tend not to stick too much. I'll leave that to you. (We used canola oil.)

The recipe says this makes 12 falafels -- I obviously make them larger, because I only get about half that. Make them whatever size you find convenient. (We ended up with 8 falafel patties.)

If you bake, it says to form them into walnut size balls and flatten. Spray a baking sheet with some cooking spray and bake for 16-18 minutes, spray the top, flip, and bake for 8-10 more. 

These are so good (thanks, Brother!). Ben thought that he would like more hot sauce next time, but I thought the spices were perfect as they were; the cumin/hot sauce combo makes these slightly hot with a smokey flavor. We ate our falafel wrapped up in pita bread with cucumber, tomato, and ranch dressing. We used ranch because I had some vague idea that there was a white sauce that people used with falafel-- turned out to be a pretty good addition. I mentioned above that our falafel was wetter than typical, but in my opinion this was an improvement over other falafel I've had in the past; I think most restaurant falafel is too dry.

Stromboli

This week's entry is brought to you by the Bloomington, IN visitors' bureau.

Welcome to dinner-and-a-movie night. Tonight's feature is Breaking Away accompanied by home-made stromboli in the style of Nick's English Hut in Bloomington.

As far as I can tell (by searching the internet and reading the Wikipedia article linked above) in most places stromboli is a delicate-looking Italian turnover sandwich. If you are in Bloomington, stromboli is a giant pizza sandwich on a hoagie roll whose only ambition is to drip tomato sauce on your pants (see above photo). We went with the second definition.

Preheat oven to 350

Slice rolls in half. We used hoagie sandwich bread, but anything in the Italian bread family should be fine. Slather on a thick coat of pizza sauce to the bottom half of your bread. Top with whatever pizza toppings you prefer; we used green pepper, tomato, and mushroom but in future I would like to add in onion (if you are non-vegetarian, Italian meats are more traditional). On the top half of your bread, pile as much cheese as you dare-- mozzarella is good.

Bake on a cookie sheet until cheese is bubbly and browning-- I think our sandwiches took in the area of 10 minutes. 

I think we'll be eating stromboli again in the near future. It's super easy and fast and we almost always have leftover pizza sauce and toppings after we make pizza. Stromboli is best paired with jelly donuts from Square Donuts on Walnut St. in Bloomington.

Black Bean Tacos and Mexican Rice

Hello Internet, it's good to see you again. Carolyn and I have been away, but not idle these past two weeks. Well, we've been mostly idle, but not completely idle. As proof, I'm here to tell you, Internet, about the wonderful taco night we had earlier this week. Before I get involved in explaining the new recipes, I should mention that "black bean tacos" just means a can of black beans instead of beef. So next time you're craving tacos but you have a vegetarian to please, just toss a can of black bean into the skillet instead of a pound of ground beef.

We tried out 2 new recipes for our dinner on Thursday. The first was a new method for seasoning the beans (or beef, if you like). Prior to this recipe, we just used the 50 cent packaged stuff you find at the grocery store. It works fine but is a little high in sodium and easy to forget when you're at the store, and we just felt like trying something new. So the following list is just a mixture of dry spices to be used in lieu of a purchased taco seasoning packet:


1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper


Carolyn and I both agree, this is an fine alternative for seasoning your beef (or beans), and an excellent starting point for further experimentation. On the whole, it tastes very close to what you'd buy at the store, perhaps a touch spicier. In the future, we'll use this as a base, then add other seasonings for varied flavors (for instance chipotle taco seasoning or lime taco seasoning).

Carolyn ate the gorgeous tacos pictured at the top of this post. I went for a taco salad:

Honestly though, taco night was just an excuse to try our hand at Mexican rice. The following recipe is very delicious, though it was by far too oily. Next time, we'll use 1/3 the oil, but keep basically everything else the same:

Blend together 12 oz can diced tomatoes and about 1/2 a diced onion. You'll only use 2 cups of this mixture, so have something in mind to do with the left-overs. We added our left-over tomato and onion in pizza sauce the next night.

Meanwhile heat up 1/3 cup canola oil (Carolyn eye-balled this and estimates she used a little less than 1/3 cup ((but still toooooo oily)))

Rinse 2 cups uncooked rice thoroughly in running water. Our recipe (which I think came from America's Test Kitchen originally, so I trust their advice) claims that this step is vital because it removes excess starch and makes the resulting rice fluffy.

Fry uncooked rice in oil for about 6 minutes (or until "translucent"). Reduce heat to medium and add 4 cloves diced garlic and 2 diced jalapeno peppers (remove seeds if you don't like your food too spicy). Cook a couple minutes. Add two cups vegetable broth and your two cups of pureed tomato and onion. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Next, transfer to an oven-safe pan (we used a glass baking dish, although the recipe recommends a dutch oven) and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven. Stir in as much cilantro as you can stand and liberally apply lime juice. Enjoy!

This was great. As I said above, much too oily, but even that didn't detract from the flavor. The only change I would consider is to add more cilantro, but I tend to go overboard with it. Today, we reheated the rice in a frying pan with a bunch of spinach, and that was fantastic too. Definitely making this recipe again soon.

Soup and Stew Sunday #6: Another Black Bean Soup

Seems like we keep doing soups in twos for our Soup and Stew Sundays. I guess it has something to do with our love of comparing things. Anyway, this week, we made a black bean soup adapted from this smitten kitchen recipe.

Future Ben and Carolyn, make this soup again. It was good, required few ingredients, and really easy to make. I know we usually save the review for after the recipe, so I'll leave it at that for now:

one large red onion, chopped
4 bell peppers, green, red, yellow, and orange, chopped
a tablespoon of oil

Saute for 5-8 minutes, until the vegetables are tender but well before onions begin to caramelize.

4 teaspoons of cumin
4 cloves of garlic

Add these and continue sauteing for 2-3 more minutes.

4 (15oz) cans of black beans
1 tablespoon of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 teaspoons of salt
2-3 cups of water

Chuck it all in there and stir it up a bit. Let it simmer on medium for at least 30 minutes. The longer you let it simmer, the thicker it will get (which is good).

Remove 2-3 cups to a blender and puree, then return and stir.

juice from 1/2 lime

squeeze this in at the end and give it a good stir. Taste, and adjust salt levels accordingly.

We ate this soup with tortilla chips on Sunday and a quesadilla today. It could go with just about any bread product. So there you have the recipe. We used a little too much water so the soup was a bit thin yesterday. It thickened up nicely overnight though. The lime juice was noticeable on Sunday, but it didn't come through tonight; Carolyn and I both agreed that we could add more next time. Other than that, it was a perfect black bean soup. The variety of bell peppers is necessary, I think, and their presence adds a little bit of refreshment that breaks up the black bean flavor.

Give this soup a try and let us know how it turns out.

Soup and Stew Sunday #5: Quinoa and Black Bean Chili

Quinoa? Don't worry, I didn't know what it was either. And, by the way, you're saying it wrong. It's not "qwin-noah," it's pronounced "keen-wha." My roommate, among her many other virtues, happens to be the sort of person who knows the sort of person who purchases quinoa in bulk from the co-op. Thus, this week for soup-or-stew-Sunday we were introduced to this delicious grain.

But enough preliminaries. I know you came here for the recipe. We adapted a chili recipe we found on allrecipes.com.

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water

Bring water and quinoa to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until quinoa has absorbed the water.

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin

Cook onion in oil. Add garlic and spices, cook a little more, about a minute (or until people walk into the room and say "sure smells good").

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (19 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 green bell pepper, chopped (we also added another 1/2 pepper that happened to be in the fridge)
1 zucchini, chopped
2 tablespoons minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (Roommate bravely used a knife and fork to cut the slimy, scary peppers)
1 teaspoon dried oregano


Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes (or until vegetables are soft). Add tomato juice or water if you think the stew looks too thick--we did.

salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup frozen corn 

Cook about 5 more minutes, or until corn is hot.
Serve with chopped fresh cilantro and shredded cheese on top.

Quinoa is really great! Ben thought that the small grain made the broth of the stew seem thick, reminiscent of a meat chili. I like the quinoa because when they are cooked and hanging out in the both they look like teeny-tiny shiny eyes. Sorry to get all creepy on you.

Gourmet Ramen Noodles

I have a vice that probably shouldn't be mentioned on a food blog, but you're also not supposed to stop posting for over a week. We're breaking all the rules here. My vice is a love for ramen noodles. I can see you making that face.

If you do it right, ramen noodles are delicious and easy, I swear. Before I get started on how good ramen is, I'll point out the main reason not to eat them: instant noodles are generally high in carbohydrates but low in fiber, vitamins and minerals--Basically empty calories. But they're really cheap and come in such nice single-serving packages. Plus, it's kind of hard to find non-instant ramen noodles in the middle of the U.S. And we're going to add all kinds of wonderful things that'll make you feel much better about eating instant ramen noodles.

You've still got that face on. I'll have you convinced by the time we get through this recipe. The following is only one of many combinations of ingredients I've used, but it's a standby for me:

1 pack of instant ramen
-See that instant broth packet? Step #1 is to throw it in the garbage. Next, go ahead and toss those noodles in some boiling water to get them started.

4 oz (half a package) of mushrooms, sliced
-Fry these guys in light oil or butter while your noodles are boiling.

soy sauce
chili garlic sauce
fresh ground pepper
lemon juice
As much broccoli as you like, bite-sized pieces

-When the noodles are 1/2 done, drain some of the water, so there is just enough to cover the noodles in the pan.
-Add seasonings to your tastes; I like at least a tablespoon of soy sauce, a heavy teaspoon of chili garlic sauce (that's a lot for most people), 6 or so turns of pepper, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Amounts will vary greatly on how much water is in the pan. If it seems like a lot of salt that you're adding, keep in mind that most of it stays in the broth and doesn't go into your mouth.
-Stir the seasonings into the water, then add the broccoli on top of the noodles and cover.
-Reduce heat
-The broccoli steams while the noodles are infused with flavors.

1 small tomato, bite-sized diced

Finally, add all ingredients to a bowl big enough to contain them. My sister gave me a couple of perfect ramen bowls from CB2 (the big ones are for ramen). Their website calls them serving bowls, but don't listen to their lies.

Seriously, I love this stuff. It's my lunch probably 3 days a week.

Now that you know the standard procedure, experiment with your own additions. Other toppings that are great: hard boiled eggs (sliced, obviously), spinach (traditionally it's seaweed, but this works pretty well), kimchi, and thinly sliced meats. You can also mix up the seasonings. Substitute salt for the soy sauce and add a dose of curry powder and cumin, for instance.

Soup and Stew Sunday #4: $%&# vegetable soup

Poor Ben. He had a long day. He lifted heavy things at the gym this morning. He did his python homework all afternoon. It was probably inevitable that the challenge of a recipe-less stew would be too much for him.

"So, I don't remember how this whole stew thing works. Do you fry stuff? This is why we need a blog. Don't we have a blog thing? Go look at the blog and see how we make stew. What? We haven't written one of those yet? Urghhhh..."

Probably I should be helping.

...Anyway, the soup was un-delicious, so we're not going to blog about it.

Soup and Stew Sunday 3#: Rival Tomato Soup

How is it Sunday again already? I am falling way behind on this whole blog thing. It's a good thing Carolyn manages to keep a schedule, or the blog would never get updated.

Well anyway, I'm here to tell you about the soup we made a week ago, so it doesn't get lapped by tonight's soup. We went with a traditional tomato soup. Yes, we made a tomato soup the week before. No, we do not consider tomato soup two weeks in a row "completely half-assed." Besides that tomato soup was way out there, chipotle peppers and ground up tortilla chips?! In a soup?! What? So we had to bring it back to Earth, and make a nice, wholesome, regular tomato soup that everyone can get on board with. Now, it's been a week, so the following recipe is only going to vaguely resemble what we ate, unless Carolyn comes in and edits it. Carolyn's roommate, who's name will remain "Carolyn's roommate" because I don't know whether she wants to be positively identified on the Internet (yea, I capitalized it. I mean this one, the one everybody uses, not some other, lowercase internet), supplied the recipe and the role of head chef, so maybe she has the real thing written down somewhere. Bare (bear?) with me as I attempt to recreate the magic of last week's culinary masterpiece. (Everything Carolyn and I make in the kitchen is a culinary masterpiece, by the way. The art institutes of the world simply have yet to realize it.) To the recipe:

3 cloves garlic, minced
4 or so carrots, sliced 
2 stalks celery, sliced

fry in oil for a few minutes, you know the drill by now.

1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 (14 oz) can of diced tomatoes
3 cups of vegetable stock
Some spice, might have been thyme?
Salt and pepper
"4 drops" of hot sauce
some amount of Worcestershire, might have been a tablespoon?

Toss that junk in, let the whole business simmer for, oh, say 20 minutes. Then blend the thing up. All of it.

This soup was a perfect simple tomato soup. There's nothing offensive in it, but the flavor is strong enough to satisfy. Whereas last week's tomato soup stole the show from anything else you might eat with it, this soup is great to serve next to grilled cheese, which is what we did. Carolyn had made croutons from her leftover french bread (no post about croutons, Carolyn?) and we also garnished it with slices of avocado.

As you can see, there was a lot of filler in the entry, mainly because I have the memory of a porpoise, so sorry about that. The soup was good, you should try it. That's all for now.

Stir Fry update

For those of you who haven't heard, Ben and I really like to make stir fry. Last night was yet another winner, so I'm going to log our latest updates to the standard recipe:

In addition to the usual vegetables (carrot, broccoli, mushroom, green pepper) we added a thickly sliced white onion. We added the onion midway through the cooking so that it wouldn't get too soft.

For the sauce, I borrowed the formula from one of the Moosewood's stir fries:

1 Tablespoon grated ginger root
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon Chinese chili paste
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon white vinegar 
1 teaspoon cornstarch 

Mix the sauce together and stir in with vegetables when they are just about done cooking. Note that this time we grated the ginger; in the past we have minced it, but I think grating worked much better because it released some of the ginger juices.

The sauce was perfect--the best we've made so far, in my opinion. The added onion worked really well in this slightly sweet stir fry. This might be the last blog post we'll be making, because Ben and I have decided that we are going to eat this exact stir fry for all of our meals from now on.

Friday Night hodge podge

Last Friday, the girlfriend (that's Carolyn) and I ended up eating an assortment of snacks, left-overs, and junk-food instead of making dinner. This is what happens when we don't make a plan. Anyway, on to the recipe:

Corn tortilla chips
Newman's salsa

Open both, pour a measure of salsa into another container if you want to be sanitary (we didn't), and gorge yourself while watching Dr. Who. Wash down with soda or milkshakes

Asparagus
Sour patch kids

Fry asparagus in some oil on highest heat, add salt/pepper or whatever you like (we used season salt) while frying. Don't overcook asparagus, but try to get it a little seared. Should still be crisp inside. For sour patch kids, eat directly from the box. Pair with more soda and tv.

Finish meal with one-too-many cookie dough balls and milk.


I have to be honest, it wasn't the best idea. Carolyn and I both managed to give ourselves upset stomachs by about 8:00. I recovered after eating some fresh green beans. Carolyn somehow thought that Fresca would help, so she had that. On the whole though, the food was good. Next time, I think more asparagus, maybe along with some sort of main-dish, and then leave out the sour patch kids and chips and salsa. Minor changes really.

---------------

Hey, Fred! Do you want a green bean?

No? Fine, be that way.