Acorn Squash Recipe?

Does anyone have any great / "simple" acorn squash recipes? One is sitting on my counter and I would like to use it in the next 24 hours, if possible!

vegan corn chowder

Here's how good this soup is: I made it yesterday, ate it for dinner, put some leftovers in the fridge, and froze the rest. I ate the fridge leftovers for lunch and thawed the freezer soup to eat tonight. MMMM.

I got the recipe from Food.com.

Also, I used my brand new Pampered Chef knife and it was AMAZING. I'd never used a good knife before and cutting with it made me feel like I had super chef powers.

Anyway. Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced (I used a whole one)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced (I used a whole one)
• 2 small carrots, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage (I used oregano instead)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh black pepper
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
• 2 small russet potatoes, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (I used 1/4)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons soymilk
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup (I used honey)

Directions:

1. Sautee onions, pepper, and carrot in oil over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add herbs and salt, sautee a minute more.
2. Add corn, stock, potatoes, bay leaf, and cayenne. Cover and bring to a boil for 3 minutes.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, uncover and simmer for 7-10 minutes more.
4. Puree half of the chowder. Add soy milk, lemon, juice, and maple syrup. Stir to combine and serve.

 
  

Completely excellent.

2 great uses for candy canes

1.) Peppermint bark
This is my favorite Christmastime recipe! It's sooo easy and sooo delicious. And its perceived fanciness level is higher than the level of difficulty in making it.

Ingredients:

• 12 candy canes
• 1 lb vanilla almond bark*

* When I lived in California literally no grocery store knew what I was talking about when I asked for almond bark and they kept trying to sell me almonds. Umm no, almond bark is a chocolate-ish substance designed for melting. Technically nowhere on this package does it say almond bark, but, IDK, that's what my mom always called it.

I misread "CandiQuik" as "Candique" which sounds a lot fancier.

Anyway, all you do is crush all the candy canes. I used a dumbbell. Be careful because even if you put them in a nice Ziplock bag you'll probably still crush right through the bag and get candy cane dust on the counter. And if the counter is wet, the candy cane dust will melt into a pink crust that is really hard to get off the counter. Not that that exact thing happened to me OR ANYTHING.

Then, melt the almond bark, either in the microwave or in a double-boiler on the stove.

Then, add the crushed candy canes and pour it out on waxed paper on a flat surface.

Let it cool for about an hour (or put it in the fridge if you're in a hurry) and break it up into pieces. Oh, and some recipes will call for you to melt dark chocolate and drizzle it over the top. This does admittedly make it look even fancier, but I think it tastes better with just white chocolate. Also, some recipes call for you to add peppermint oil, but... let's be real, with 12 candy canes in there it is straight-up minty enough.

For an extra fancy touch, you can put it in festive little bags!

2.) Peppermint brownies

Again, the perceived fanciness here exceeds the difficulty level.

Ingredients:

• 1 box brownie mix and everything the box says you need to make said brownies (eggs, oil, whatev)
• 1 can buttercream frosting (or you can make the frosting yourself if you are like that)
• 1 tsp peppermint oil
• Crushed candy canes (I used 6)
• Red food coloring*

*Some might make a case for green here. I will only say that my college dining hall had green mint-frosted brownies that were universally referred to as "toothpaste brownies."

Make the brownies like usual and let them cool. MEANWHILE mix half the can of frosting in a bowl with the peppermint oil and food coloring until you get minty, appropriately-colored frosting. Frost the brownies and top with crushed candy canes. BAM.

peanut-yam soup

Recently, I attended a potluck where this was far and away the star dish. Everyone, myself included, raved about it. The chef confessed it was from a Moosewood cookbook, and I immediately went online to look for it and attempt to replicate it.

I ate leftovers of it today for both lunch and dinner and I'm still excited about it.

Anyway, here's the recipe. It's a little messy to make but totally worth it. And it makes a lot so you can freeze some for later. Or just bring it all to a potluck and show up everyone else.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil or 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh gingerroot (you can peel ginger with the back of a spoon, if you had not already learned that from the Food Network!) 
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 2 cups chopped sweet potatoes (up to 1 cup white potatoes can be substituted)
• 4 cups vegetable stock or 4 cups water (I used half stock and half water, cuz I ran out of vegetable stock. It was fine)
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional... I used honey)
• 1 cup chopped scallions or 1 cup chives  (I didn't use these)

 So... first cut everything. I tried to cut it as I went along and it ended up a little chaotic. Then start sauteeing the onions in the bottom of your soup pot for a few minutes. Then add the cayenne and ginger. Then add the carrots and sautee for a few MORE minutes. Then add the sweet potatoes (and regular potatoes if you are using them) and the stock or water and bring everything to a boil, then let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Then blend all of that with the tomato juice with a food processor or immersion blender if you have one, or with a shitty regular blender if you are like me.

Ugh it looks disgusting in this phase. It gets better, I swear!

After it's blended, put it back in the soup pot and stir in the peanut butter. Taste it and add sugar or honey if you think it needs it. (I did.)

Then eat it because it will be so delicious!! Oh yeah and the recipe called for topping it with fresh chopped chives or scallions, but I had it that way at the potluck and I personally feel like it's better without them. But you can add them if you think you will like them.

Mmmm!

Seriously, I know I said the other spicy sweet potato soup recipe was the best soup ever, but I think this is the NEW best soup ever until further notice.

Roasted Pear Salad

I made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! Even the non-vegetarians (i.e. everyone at Thanksgiving besides me). My mom clipped the recipe out of a magazine. Here it is on the Marzetti salad dressing website.

It's pretty easy and really fancy-looking, like restaurant food!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup balsamic vinagrette dressing (Marzetti.com would prefer you use Marzetti brand but I betcha any brand is fine)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (the original called for 1/4 cup but I doubled it because my family loves pecans)
• 4 oz blue cheese
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 3 firm pears
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 8 oz butter lettuce (but we just used bagged salad mix)

Preheat the oven to 375. Mix 3/4 cup of the salad dressing with the sugar over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and set aside. Toast the pecans in a skillet over low heat (making sure they don't burn), then add the cherries and blue cheese. 

THEN cut the pears in half and scoop out the middle a little bit. Also, cut a slice down the back so the pears will lie flat on a baking dish. Sprinkle lemon juice over the pears to keep them from getting brown. Fill the pears with the pecan-cheese-cherry mix and then pour the sugared salad dressing over the pears. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes and baste the pears a few times. (I had to look up what "basting" means since I don't usually cook things that require basting... just scoop the salad dressing off the bottom of the pan and pour it back over the pears I guess!)

Meanwhile put the lettuce on salad plates and then when the pears are done put one on top of each pile of lettuce, and drizzle the rest of the balsamic vinagrette over them.

That is a fancy salad, son!

Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup

This is from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook and it is way, way better than canned cream of mushroom soup. Which, who even eats that? No one.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion (you guys know how I feel about the partial vegetable issue... I used a whole onion and it was FINE. But I just thought I'd let you know that the cookbook says a half)
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 thinly sliced carrot
• 1 diced celery stalk
• 1 chopped portobello mushroom
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried marjoram (I didn't have marjoram and I looked on the Internets and found that you can use ~1/3 the amount of oregano in place of marjoram, so I did that)
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 cups soy milk
• 2 tsp soy sauce (I think I might reduce the it to 1 tsp next time I make it--to me it tastes a little too soy saucy as is)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

I bought these cute Porteenie mushrooms since they were cheaper, and I was going to cut them up anyway! I used three of them instead of 1 grownup portobello.

Also, I just used all the leftover carrots and celery from a veggie plate at party so I think it was too much carrot and not enough celery, but whatevs! It tasted great and got all those veggies outta my fridge.

Anyway, what you do is heat the oil in the bottom of your soup pot and sautee all the veggies with the garlic, salt and marjoram (or oregano) for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so they don't burn to the bottom of the pot.

MEANWHILE set aside 1/4 cup of broth. Add the flour and stir into a paste.

After the vegetables have sauteed, add the rest of the broth, the milk, the soy sauce, and the cayenne. Bring it to a boil, and then slowly add the flour paste while stirring. After all the flour is stirred in, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Yum!

Sweet Potato Casserole

I grew up in New England, but between the years 2000 and 20006 I lived in Virginia. For the most part, Virginia is "southern" and they sure eat that way. One of the delicious treats I discovered while there was Sweet Potato Casserole. My mom doesn't like sweet potatoes, so this was never even offered to us. This stuff is super sweet and delicious. I make it once a year, on Thanksgiving. This year, I have been asked to bring two batches because everyone loves it so much.

This recipe is my friend's mom recipe and it is amazing.

Jean's Sweet Potatoe Casserole

3 cups of cooked mashed sweet potatoes (I'm with Renata, just cut up 3 SP and call it a day)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all together (add vanilla last)

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake in lasagna pan at 350 for 35 minutes

Enjoy!

AMAZING spicy sweet potato soup

OK this is from The Student's Go Vegan Cookbook, which called it "Chilean Two-Potato Soup" but I renamed it spicy sweet potato soup. I doubt it's even from Chile. Whatev. It was reallllly good. Probably the best soup I've ever made. Maybe the best soup I've ever eaten. So good.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced onion (I just used 1 average sized onion, IDK if it was 1/2 a cup or not)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 cup diced sweet potato (again, I just used 1 sweet potato. Who the fuck would cut up a potato, measure out a cup, and then save the rest? For what? Whatev.)
• 1 diced red potato
• 1 4-oz can green chilies
• 1 cup corn kernels (I used a little can)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp thyme (but I didn't have any)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (but I didn't have any so I used a couple shakes of crushed red pepper)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Fresh lemon or lime juice

Heat the oil in the bottom of a big pot and sautee the onion and garlic for a few minutes, then throw in everything else except the lemon juice. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes ish. Add a little lemon juice to the soup as you serve it. (Except I didn't do that part either because FUCK LEMON JUICE. Yeah, I said it.)

 This is perfect for the winter. Warm and filling and spicy and colorful. Make it today! Make it RIGHT NOW.

You guys, we totally made cheese

Guess what you guys, my friends and I made mozzarella cheese! FROM SCRATCH.

Ever since I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver last year, I really wanted to try making my own cheese. In the book, Kingsolver recommends New England Cheesemaking Supply Company so we got their 30 Minute Mozzrella & Ricotta Kit. It probably took us more like 45 minutes, but still! Easier than I ever thought it would be to make cheese.

I'm not going to post the whole recipe... if you are interested, you really should buy the kit. It has a step-by-step guide and all the ingredients (besides milk).

Curds and whey!

Mary Gen stirring away

Me stretching the cheese

Fresh mozzarella cheese balls! Admittedly not the most aesthetically pleasing cheese, but it was our first try. And it tasted good! I think that we let it cool too much before we tried to shape it. Just something to keep in mind if you decide to make your own cheese.

It especially tasted good once we made pizza out of it!!

awesome vegan chocolate chip cookies

OK, I've been dabbling with different vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes and I hit the jackpot with a slight variation on this one.

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Earth Balance*, softened (although Earth Balance is the best, you may use any other non-dairy butter/margarine)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plain applesauce
• 2 cups chocolate chips

I think the real key was my vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips. I got them from the bulk bin at the local co-op, and they were delicious. And I didn't measure them, I just used a whole big scoop of them which I think was more than 2 cups. Lesson learned: don't use crappy chocolate chips! You deserve better!

Anyway, preheat the oven to 375. Then mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. In a bigger bowl, mix everything else except the chips. Then add the flour mix, and finally the chips. Spoon out the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes-ish.

I am serious, these cookies were awesome and everyone I gave them to flipped out about how awesome they were. They were a little soft and cake-y but also a little crispy. And, again, excellent chocolate content. Mmm.

LARG

So, in my college dining hall we had this one delicious soup on the menu rotation. It was called "lentil and roasted garlic soup," but we referred to it as LARG. I realize "LARG" is not an appetizing name for a soup. LARG also did not have an appetizing appearance. It looked a lot like sewer sludge. However, it was DELICIOUS. One of the very best things on the (admittedly mediocre) dining hall menu rotation.

And then, my junior year I think, they changed food providers and WE LOST LARG. Until now, kind of? My friend Molly found a LARG recipe in a cookbook and she & I both made it and have been discussing how best to recreate the LARG of our college days.

Ingredients

• 1 whole head of garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• a couple of carrots, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound French lentils
• 8 cups vegetable stock or mineral water (I used vegetable Better than Boullion to make the stock)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic 

Disclosure: I didn't have any rosemary or balsamic vinegar. I'm not fancy, gosh.

Anyway, first heat the oil in a big pot and add the onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes. Then add the s&p and bay leaves. And the rosemary if you have any. Then add the broth and lentils, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour or until the lentils are tender. (If this happens before your garlic finishes roasting, take it off the heat.)

MEANWHILE roast a head of garlic. I used elephant garlic and it was pretty awesome. I realized I didn't have any foil so I put in in a bread pan and covered it with a cookie sheet and some olive oil. Kind of ghetto, but it worked!

Then, put the roasted garlic in a blender or food processor, maybe with a little water. Once it's blended add it to your soup along with the fresh minced garlic and the vinegar (if you have it) and bring it back up to a boil for a few minutes.

And then it's done, hooray! I made it when my college friend Julia was here and we both agreed it would be more college-authentic if you blended the whole thing to make it more sludgey. However, your mileage may vary, because maybe you don't want your soup to resemble sewer sludge for some reason??

Needs to be sludgier.

My cat Duarte approves. Or at least does not blatantly disapprove.

Crock Pot!

Hey guys, what has two thumbs, speaks limited French, and a used Crock Pot? This moi.

So, what are your favorite (vegetarian) Crock Pot recipes?? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS.

peanut butter swirl brownies

I got it into my head that I really wanted to make peanut butter swirl brownies, but for some reason I either found really elaborate recipes that called for melting down baker's chocolate, or really basic recipes that started with a box of brownie mix. I had neither baker's chocolate nor brownie mix on hand and I didn't want to go out and buy anything since I was confident I already had the makings of peanut butter brownies on hand. I ended up combining this recipe and this recipe and they turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself.

Brownie batter:

• 1/2 cup butter (I used Smart Balance)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

Peanut butter filling:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (again, I used Smart Balance)
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (I used white sugar and it was fine)
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Then, in one bowl, first mix all the wet ingredients for the brownie batter, and then add the dry ingredients. Set them aside and mix up the peanut butter filling. Then grease an 8x8 pan and fill it about halfway with brownie batter. Drop in several spoonfuls of peanut butter filling and swirl it around with a butter knife or something. Don't get TOO swirly or it will just blend together. Then pour the rest of the brownie batter over this, and then the rest of the peanut butter filling in spoonfuls and swirl it again. Bake it for like 20 minutes. Or until they're done.

Swirls!

vegan butternut squash bisque

Oh my God, this was so delicious.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
2 diced onions (or 1 big one)
1/2 cup soy milk (or cream)
1 Tbsp Smart Balance (or butter if you want to un-veganify this)
Cumin, curry powder, and cinnamon
Salt & pepper
Olive oil (I use the spray)

So, first cut the squash in half (lengthwise) and put it flat-side down on an olive oil'd baking sheet and bake it at 375 for 45 minutes or so. 20 minutes before the squash is done, start cooking the onions in the butter or fake butter at the bottom of a pot. Let them turn brown but not burnt. It should take about 20 minutes. Like I said. Pay attention, jeeze.

After the squash is done scrape all the squash off the skin with a spoon and put them in the pot with the onions. Then add the vegetable stock and spices (OK I didn't measure these, I just did like three good shakes of each one. I used this recipe as a base and it suggested using only nutmeg, but I didn't have any nutmeg, and also some of the comments on the recipe suggesting using the spices I ended up using). Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for half an hour or so.

Then, be super careful and put it in the blender with half a cup of soy milk. (Or cream, if you want it to be, well, creamier, and don't care about un-vegan-ifiying it. By the way, I used vanilla soy milk since that's what I keep around. I was a little worried it would make my soup taste too vanilla-y, but it didn't really come out in the soup at all.) If it's still hot, you should put a dish towel over the top of the blender and hold it down, because blending hot liquids will make the top of the blender fly off!! It's true, I read it on the Internet. Or wait until it cools. Or get a fancy immersion blender. Whatever.

I tried really hard to get a photo of this that made it look delicious but it is not a terribly photogenic food. TRUST ME IT'S AWESOME.

Anyway, this soup tastes totally super awesome. I ate it with some of the bread I made from the recipe I made last week and it was like being in a restaurant. A super awesome restaurant.

PS I also toasted the squash seeds in olive oil just like pumpkin seeds. They were a little smaller than pumpkin seeds but tasted basically the same.

"too lazy to go to the store" tomato sauce

My mom's garden has infinity tomatoes right now so I've been trying to use them up! I made gallons of chili and some salads and stuff and then I thought: pasta sauce?! So I looked up some recipes online and they all called for basil and oregano and whatnot, which I don't usually keep on hand because... I don't really make Italian food that much. And, as the title implies, I was too lazy to go to the store.

6 tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
4 chopped cloves of garlic
1 diced onion
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper

I chopped the tomatoes and cooked them in the oil for like 15 minutes. And then I threw in everything else and simmered it for another 15 minutes.

And then I ate it with some whole wheat penne pasta and it was yummy! Oregano? Basil? Who needs 'em?? Another time I ate this over some couscous and it was good. Another time (this recipe made a lot) I sauteed a zucchini and some mushrooms and put sauce over it and it was also good.

bread!!

You guys, I totally made bread. From scratch! With yeast and everything! Not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I followed the recipe from here pretty exactly.

• 4 cups of all purpose or unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt      
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 package dry yeast     
• 1 3/4 cups hot  water

First: mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a big bowl. Then it said to "form a well" in the dry ingredients and stir in the water and then the oil until it looks like dough. It specifically said to use a wooden spoon but I don't have one so I used a plastic one?? It turned out okay. I don't know what effect a wooden spoon would have but use it if you've got it, I guess.

Then, on a "well-floured" work surface knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it feels "elastic." I have no idea what that means because if you ask me it was elastic to start out with? So I just set a timer for 10 minutes and did that.

Then I put it in in a big bowl (the same one from before but I rinsed it out and then sprayed the inside with olive oil spray) and covered it with Saran wrap for an hour and a half.

Here again I diverged from the recommendation of that website because I don't have any "bread bowls." I have one metal loaf pan. And after the dough has risen for an hour-ish, you're supposed to divide it in half and put the halves in whatever you're going to bake them in (greased) and let them rise again for 20 30 minutes. But only one batch of the dough went in the loaf pan and the other half stayed in the bowl. It turned out okay I guess?

I forgot to say, pre-heat the oven to 375 and bake it for 20 minutes or until it turns "golden brown."

OH and I decided to make one loaf of cinnamon bread so I just mixed 1/4 cup of sugar and a couple good shakes of cinnamon in with the dough. There is maybe a more scientific way of doing that but it turned out pretty tasty.

It is tasty! Kind of dense and I wondered if maybe I didn't knead it enough, or whatever, but my friend Mary (who is an accomplished breadstress and sent me this recipe) says the recipe is for kind of dense bread and if I want something lighter I should try this recipe. WHICH MAYBE I WILL.

Oh and Mary says this recipe also makes good pizza dough which I will definitely try in the future. 

Also I have to say that clean-up after this was a bitch and there is still bread dough stuck to my sponge. Worth it? I guess?

PS I consulted with Mary and she said I should leave it out longer for the second rising and it will be fluffier. I made another batch of bread and left it out for more like 30 minutes on the second rising and it totally worked. Yeah bread!

baked zucchini fries

I adapted this from this recipe. Basically I didn't use cheese. And I halved the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk (I used soy milk cuz that's all I had, and it was fine)
1/2 cup Japanese Panko bread crumbs*
Salt & pepper

* I actually bought these rather than just saying "eff it, I'll use regular bread crumbs as I might have been tempted to do" and I think it was worth it, they're really light and crispy!

So I preheat the oven to 425 and cut the zucchini into 4-inch spears. I mixed the egg and milk and dipped the zucchini into the liquid mixture, and then into the bread crumbs. At first I misread the recipe and mixed the egg, milk, and bread crumbs all together. Mistake!! It does not work and I had to throw it all away.

After the zucchini pieces were coated, I put them on a olive-oil coated baking sheet. And then I baked them for 15 minutes, flipped them over, and baked the other side for another 15 minutes.

Verdict: I have to be honest; these were not nearly as good as fried zucchini. But I guess they are healthier or whatever. And they were still pretty good. Oh and I have to say that they were not as good the second day when I microwaved, so if you are only making them for one person, maybe only do half the zucchini and dip the other half the next day? Or just eat a whole zucchini in one sitting.

The original recipe also has a recipe for a Greek yogurt dip that probably would have been awesome, but instead I just ate them with ranch dressing.

Thai Tofu Curry

I just made this curry for lunch and it was amaaaazing. And pretty simple, despite the pretty long list of ingredients. I sort of mashed up this recipe and this one and altered it according to what I had on hand.

Sauce:
1 can coconut milk
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Thai chili sauce
Juice of an orange
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp curry powder

Then I blended it all in the blender and set it aside.

Tastes better than it looks

OK then I cut up:

1 onion (I think next time I make this I would do 2 onions. But the one I had was pretty small so maybe just 1 big onion. Whatev.)

1 yellow pepper

1 tomato

1 portabello mushroom (because it was about to go bad, otherwise I would definitely just use brown mushrooms or something cheaper)

1 pack of cubed tofu

(The recipes I cribbed from suggested: cauliflower, snow peas, chick peas, yams... I think you could put pretty much whatever vegetables you have lying around into this sauce.)

I started cooking the onions and peppers in a little bit of oil and then poured on the sauce and brought it to a boil.

 

Then I let it simmer for a few minutes and then dumped in everything else and simmered it for like ten minutes.

And then I ate it and it was AWESOME.

I ate it with some Minute Rice because I acquired a box of it when we closed down the camp kitchen for the summer. It was fine even though you are supposed to eat Thai food with jasmine rice. Whatevs.

Vegan-ish Chocolate chip Oatmeal Cookies

These are almost vegan except I used regular chocolate chips. If you get vegan ones, or just use raisins instead, they will be vegan! Whoaaa.

I kind of made this recipe up based on the oatmeal cookie recipe that came on the Meijer brand oatmeal package. They are delicious, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:
1 cup applesauce (just the regular kind from a jar. I thought using my homemade applesauce would make it too apple-y and cinnamon-y, but who knows, maybe it would have been awesome)
1/2 cup Smart Balance spread
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

So, first I creamed together the sugars, applesauce, and Smart Balance. Then I added the vanilla, flour, salt, and baking soda. Last I stirred in the oats and chocolate chips! I baked them for like fifteen minutes at 350, but I like my cookies crisp and golden brown. Start checking them after 10 minutes if you want them softer.

PS this makes really delicious dough that you can eat without fear of salmonella! Yeah!

applesauce

GUYS I just made applesauce from scratch and it is totally awesome and delicious.

I used this recipe from Simply Recipes.

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 3 inches of cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

I used a 3-pound bag of Paula Red apples, which I had never heard of before, but which were on sale. Also on the bag it said "perfect for making applesauce" and guess what, they were. Also I didn't peel them because my grandparents used to say that all the best nutrients are in the apple skin and they used to make applesauce with the skin. Also peeling 3 pounds of apples sounded like a lot of work. Whatev.

Also I used lemon juice from a bottle. And a couple good shakes of cinnamon instead of a stick. And no lemon zest. I used the full half-cup of sugar but I think I would recommend less. As is it's not quite too sweet, but pretty sweet.

Anyway, all you do is put everything in a pot together and bring it to a boil. Then take down the heat & simmer it for 20-30 minutes and stir it once in awhile.

Simply Recipes says you can freeze it for up to a year!

Vegan "Buttermilk" Biscuits and "Sausage" Gravy

I'm not going to even pretend this was my idea -- I found this on the VegWeb site and made them this morning...AMAZING. Seriously. I'll just copy and paste. :)

Ingredients:

"buttermilk" biscuits:
2/3 cup non-dairy milk
2 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon apple or orange juice
2 cup unbleached white pastry flour (wheat flour just won't make fluffy biscuits, I have
tried)
2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
gravy:
1/2 tube Gimme Lean, sausage flavor
salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons non-hydrated margarine (or olive oil)
2-3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

Directions:

Start with gravy. Put margarine or oil in pan and turn on medium. Add Gimme Lean and break into very small pieces. Sprinkle with pepper and stir fry.

Preheat oven to 400*F. In a glass cup or bowl, add lemon juice to non-dairy milk and let it rest for a few minutes to thicken. In a different bowl mix oil and juice and beat them together with fork.

Place flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add oil mixture and mix until it resembles bread crumbs. Then stir enough of the reserved soured milk so the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and SLIGHTLY sticky (not enough and biscuits will be dry).

Place on a floured board and roll or pat to 1" thick and cut into 2 1/2' round biscuits and place on dry baking sheet. Place in oven and bake until light golden (10-12 minutes).

Right before biscuits are done make gravy. Make sure Gimme Lean is nice and browned. Deglaze pan with 1 cup water for 1 minute then mix remaining 1/2 cup water with flour to make thin paste. Add to sausage pan, stir constantly until thick. Season with salt and pepper.

**Note: pepper should be very prominent in the taste! Add enough to really taste it. Fresh cracked pepper is the best for this.

Take biscuits out of oven and cut in half and spread liberally with margarine and top with ample amounts of gravy.

This serves 2 people with gravy on four half biscuits. This can feed more people if you use a whole Gimme Lean, and double the other gravy ingredients.

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

------------------------------------
I used all-purpose flour, and they turned out great. Strongly recommend this!

call for simple vegan-ish recipes

Hello food-bloggers! I have been having some stomach pain lately and my doctor recommended that I stop eating eggs, cheese, and fried food for awhile until we figure out what's causing it. I'm a vegetarian with somewhat limited resources, so eggs and cheese constitute a pretty large portion of my diet. Especially eggs! So cheap and so filling! Now I am going to tell you a list of what things are commonly available in the DR and you, perhaps, will provide me with a delicious recipe I can make?

- Fresh vegetables: carrots, onions, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, auyama squash. (Not quite the same thing as pumpkin, but for recipe purposes I think it will work in place of pumpkin.) Sometimes tomatoes.
- Fresh fruit: bananas, pineapple, papaya, apples (sometimes).
- Pretty much any canned vegetable.
- Bread.
- Any type of canned bean. Also dried, but I don't have a pressure cooker and I am too impatient to cook them forever.
- Brown rice, white rice.
- Pasta.
- Tomato sauce.
- Most basic spices and condiments.
- Flour, baking powder, other baking necessities.

With these things, mostly I eat: some combination of those veggies stirfried with rice or noodles, or in a sandwich. Or pasta with sauce. And hummus with everything.

I can only bake in a Dutch oven.

Oh and only cheese is banned for me, not other dairy. So if you have a recipe with milk or yogurt, that is okay.

OK go! Feed me!

Guinness Beef Stew

See, my problem is that I'm not the one who cooks. My husband is. How can I be on a food blog if I don't cook? Except, I love to eat... so there you go.

Well last night Noah made Beef and Guinness Stew which is a recipe featured in this month's issue of Cooking Light.

This is where I cut and paste and give credit where it's due

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter, divided
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 5 cups chopped onion (about 3 onions)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
• 1 (11.2-ounce) bottle Guinness Draught
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) diagonal slices carrot (about 8 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) diagonal slices parsnip (about 8 ounces)
• 1 cup (1/2-inch) cubed peeled turnip (about 8 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons butter to pan. Place flour in a shallow dish. Sprinkle beef with 1/2 teaspoon salt; dredge beef in flour. Add half of beef to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove beef from pan with a slotted spoon. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, and beef.

2. Add onion to pan; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and beer, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return meat to pan. Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, raisins, caraway seeds, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Uncover and bring to a boil. Cook 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrot, parsnip, and turnip. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and bring to a boil; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with parsley.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

365

Fat:

19.4g (sat 6.8g,mono 8.6g,poly 1.7g)

Protein:

25.3g

Carbohydrate:

18.8g

Fiber:

3.6g

Cholesterol:

62mg

Iron:

2.6mg

Sodium:

454mg

Calcium:

52mg

Margaret M. Johnson, Cooking Light, MARCH 2010



Ok - so this was so delicious. I know like half of you are vegetarians, but for those who aren't - OMG - the meat is so tender and the veggies delicious. It was a little labor intensive (or so Noah told me) but in my opinion, well worth it!

let's talk about chili!

I love chili! And it's soo easy to make. In college I looked up a recipe for chili because I had no idea what I was doing. The recipe I found called for a packet of onion soup powder mix, which tastes awesome in chili (but that stuff is too expensive in the DR). My mom likes to put Reese's peanut butter cups in chili, but I feel this is a waste of Reese's peanut butter cups. What are your CHILI SECRETS? Tell me them.

Here's a super basic vegetarian chili recipe. I just made it yesterday with what I had lying around. It was delicious! The recipe is nothing special, but it's a place to start if you've never made chili before.

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 onion
some garlic
hot sauce to taste (I use three or four good shakes)
pepper to taste
(At home, I loved to put celery in chili! But celery is hard to find in the DR.)

First, chop the onion and garlic and sautee them together in a little bit of oil.

When the onions turn clear, take them off the heat. Dump all the ingredients into a pot. Don't drain the beans or tomatoes, just pour the liquids into the pot too. I don't add any water besides the tomato and bean juice.

Yumm. Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for like half an hour. Stir it occasionally or it will burn to the bottom of your pot. Trust me :( Anyway, that's it! You made chili!

But wait! There is the question of chili TOPPINGS. Some people say sour cream. Others, shredded cheese. Or corn chips. Of course, none of these are terribly healthy. Nutritionally speaking, your chili is better off without any of those things. Whatevs! Here's my new favorite chili topping:

 

QUESO HOJUELITAS. Hojuelitas ("little sheets/pieces") are this awesome snack food that for some reason is not widely available in the US. It's basically a combination of a Cheeto and a Frito. And they are perfect on chili.

Yum!

other food blogs!

So, obviously this is already the best food blog ever. But what other food blogs do you like?

I really like to look (and drool) at Smitten Kitchen, although I've never actually made anything there. But I keep bookmarking stuff for "after I'm done with Peace Corps and have a real kitchen and a real grocery store."

I also like the Post-Punk Kitchen, which is vegan. Although a lot of the "waiting for a real grocery store" stuff applies there, too.

Also, sometimes I like to go to AllRecipes.com and do an ingredient search, like for example when I impulse bought a can of coconut milk and didn't really know what to do with it. (I ended up making this coconut rice with black beans, in case you were wondering. It was good, but didn't taste very coconutty.)

Also, I asked a gluten-free friend for recommendations, since I know Sandy is trying to start cooking gf.  She recommended Gluten-Free Girl (specifically this post) and Simply Recipes: Gluten Free. I've been looking at them and some of the recipes look delightful even if you do eat gluten.

Leave your suggestions here, and maybe we can start a food blog links section in the sidebar.

Easy Beef Stroganoff

This is probably one of my favorite weeknight recipes (especially in the winter!), not only because it's SO tasty, but also because it's quick and easy to make. It's about 20 minutes from prep to table and who can beat that, really?


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak or ground beef
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small package sliced mushrooms
  
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Golden Cream of Mushroom Soup
  
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (I LOVE the flavor of smoked paprika, but regular paprika works just fine too!)
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
  
• 4 cups hot cooked egg noodles (or rice)
  

Heat half the oil in a large skillet. Cook beef until browned and set aside. Add remaining oil to the pan and saute onions until soft. Add mushrooms and saute 3 - 4 more minutes, stirring often. Add soup and paprika (you can eyeball it - I added more than the recipe called for and LOVED the flavor it gave it!) and heat to a boil. Lower heat, stir in sour cream, return beef to the skillet and heat through. Serves 4

Inspiration

I've been reading Michael Pollan's books -- just finished In Defense of Food and almost done with The Omnivore's Dilemma.

This certainly helps motivate me toward veganism, but I have such a feeling of helplessness.

My temporary solution is to grow vegetables -- this year, I want to grow eggplant. Just eggplant. Just to see how it goes.

I remember when I was very young, my grandfather had all sorts of vegetables growing: green beans, corn, tomatoes, so on and so on, and there was something so enjoyable about walking out there with him and helping him plant seeds, watch the veggies grow, and be able to eat what was produced.

I don't know. I'm not aspiring to become a farmer. I just would like to grow this and that, and hopefully this year, I can start with one item. Hopefully the motivation won't fade between now and then.

Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Seed Pesto

I got this from vegweb.com's recipes; it is AMAZING.

Ingredients:
1 head of roasted garlic (I bought mine pre-roasted from Sunflower Market)
1-3 cups of basil (up to you how much you want; the original recipe called for three cups, but there's no way I was fitting three cups into the magic bullet)
1 cup + a smidge of Olive Oil
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 cup walnuts (or other nuts)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (which makes it cheesy-like)

Blend all ingredients, gradually adding the olive oil and garlic -- make sure it's the right amount of garlic for you (I would guess I used about...10 cloves? Roasted garlic is milder than raw, so don't be afraid).

Use on pasta -- though we're considering also trying it on the vegan eggplant I posted about a few days ago!

I didn't measure the olive oil, just kept adding, and I think I added too much -- but it was so delicious. Highly recommended, and our new favorite vegan "thing."

veggie peanut noodles!

My friend Amanda taught me how to make this sauce and my friend Stephanie taught me how to make noodle stir fry with ramen noodles. But I was the one who combined them!! This recipe is sooo good and pretty easy. But it feels so fancy to make your own sauce!

Peanut sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup-ish water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ginger (the sugar and the ginger are optional & to taste. You could also try some garlic powder or whatever suits your fancy)

 

Put everything except the water in a bowl and stir it. Stir in the water a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.

 

Saucy! Make this first and set aside. OR, buy some pre-made sauce and skip that part of the recipe.

Noodle stir fry ingredients:

Some vegetables. I used 1 carrot, 1 onion, and 2 little peppers. Broccoli would be good but it's really expensive in the DR.

2 eggs (optional. Meat could also be optional here, I guess)

2 packets of ramen noodles (any flavor--you won't use the seasoning packet)

5 cloves of garlic, or a few spoonfuls of pre-minced garlic

Sesame oil (sesame oil is a little expensive but I must emphasize how totally delicious it is. If you must, you could use a different type of oil here).

I forgot to put the eggs in the picture, but y'all know what those look like, right?

Hey, maybe the reason Roland hasn't posted much at CB the last few years is that he's been busy building an oil empire!

Anyway, cut all the veggies up into bite size pieces. Mince the garlic.

 

Now! The timing here is a liiittle tricky, but not too bad. Put a pot of water on to boil. Then, start stir-frying the vegetables and garlic in some sesame oil. When the water starts to boil, put the noodles in. Don't cook them all the way! Leave them in the water for about a minute and take them out. (Throw the seasoning packets away unless you are super super thrifty and have some alternate use for ramen seasoning. I don't.) Meanwhile, crack the eggs into the veggies and scramble them in, and then dump the peanut sauce over it.

 

Mmm, almost ready! OK, after the noodles have been in for a minute-ish, take them out with a slotted spoon (or drain them) and toss them over the veggie-egg-sauce mixture. Stir fry the noodles in with everything else for a few more minutes.

Mmm-mmm good!! This serves 2 Renatas. It might serve three light eaters.