Dinner & a movie: The Birds

Another exciting dinner and a movie night! With The Birds. And what do birds eat? Human flesh? NO. Sunflower seeds.


So I made this awesome sunflower seed spread and pita chips!

I adapted it from this recipe which I found from a Google search for "sunflower seed recipes." It was SUPER DELICIOUS and the hardest part was cleaning out the blender afterward.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water

I made it with raw sunflower seeds from the local co-op, but some of the reviewers on AllRecipes said they used salted & roasted ones. Also, following the advice of the AllRecipes reviewers, I dropped the onion and celery from the originally posted recipe.

1) Toast the seeds in a frying pan on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly until the seeds turn they brown.
2) Mix the seeds with the tahini in a bowl. Then, spread the seeds out on a baking sheet and let them cool to room temperature.

3) Meanwhile mix the garlic and lemon juice and set it aside.
4) After the seeds are cooled, put everything in the blender or food processor and blend it!!

Seriously! So delicious! It's kind of like hummus, but nutty and savory-er.

Also by the way, last year I learned how easy it is to make pita chips! Did you know how easy it is to make pita chips? All you do is cut the pitas into triangles, spritz a baking sheet with olive oil and then spritz the tops of the pitas with olive oil, and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Sometimes I put garlic salt on them, but I just did plain ones to go with the sunflower seed spread.

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!

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.

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!