to a healthy 2012?

Hey ya'll,
I haven't posted in a while, hope everyone had a great holiday season!
Now it's back to work and attempting to adhere to our New Year's resolutions....
in honor of those I have a couple healthy ideas to pass on:
#1. roasted red peppers

I love red pepper, but roasted red pepper is especially delicious!  They are super easy to make too, just cut out the stem and seeds & flatten them onto a piece of aluminum foil on the broiler pan.

 I check mine about every 5 minutes and move them around if they aren't blackening evenly.
They should look close to this when they are done.

The entire skin should be wrinkled and mostly blackened.  If you still have smooth red areas, they need to stay in longer.  At this point, use tongs to place the peppers in a ziploc or tight sealing container and let them sit 10-15 minutes.  After being steamed, the skin of the pepper should just slide off and they are ready.  I made wraps for my lunch last week with hummus and my roasted red peppers-yum!

My second recipe is spring rolls.
At the local sushi place, I had honey-Sriracha sauce for the first time and fell in love.... it's dangerously addicting, I should warn you!  So that's what I make first so it can sit and stew for a little bit--simple ingredients:

I put them both in a small saucepan and it's up to you how hot you want it.  When the sauce seemed pretty uniform I transferred it to a bowl while I made the rolls. 
For the spring rolls, I chopped up spearmint, thai basil, and cilantro.  I have made spring rolls before and skipped the mint and basil, they were really bland--you need the herbs!  I slightly boiled some red pepper and carrots strips until they were just softened.

The name of these rice papers cracks me up!  They are really easy to use though, I just fill a pie pan with boiling water and drop them in one at a time.  Transfer the paper to a cutting board and fill them up with your herbs, veggies, cellophane noodles (which after they were cooked I juiced an entire lime over them....), and some bean sprouts!

Needless to say, there were no leftovers!

Welcome to the holiday season....

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!  We had quite a feast over here, I made....

Scones for breakfast
Ciabatta bread
Warm brie with pepper jelly
Candied walnuts
Parker House rolls
Noodle kugel-family recipe
Mashed potatoes
Vegetable pot pie -- I pretty much just eyeball this when I make it, but here is a general recipe
Turkey
Pumpkin pie

On top of that, our guests also brought a couple dishes--it was awesome! 

I just started a new retail job which has been crazy.  It was ambitious of me to decide to host thanksgiving, but on top of that I decided to make everything from scratch.  I don't know what I was thinking!  Looking back it would have been a lot less stressful to just buy a loaf of bread and some rolls at the store... oh well!

We also had a small, but exciting fire when I tried to brown my meringue for the pumpkin pie

Haha!  The best part is that after scraping off the charred part, the pie was amazing so my only advice is to use a culinary torch and nothing else ;)

I also wanted to post that before Thanksgiving, Dano and I made a roasted cauliflower soup that was delicious!  Neither of us even really like cauliflower so I decided to make this soup to use a bunch up from our CSA and we licked our bowls clean!

I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and didn't measure the nutmeg, just grated the seed over the cauliflower until it looked well covered.  And I don't buy garlic powder, just chopped some garlic up and added it to the cauliflower when there was only like 10 minutes left for it to roast.

a great food week...

This week I stopped in at Grocery Outlet (for non-west coasters, it's a great way to get super cheap food) and saw a big bag of poblano peppers... probably 5 or 6 in the bag for a $1.99!

I made stuffed peppers by first charring the peppers on the broiler.  Then I used some quinoa already cooked in the fridge, sauteed some veggies (red pepper, onion, zucchini), and a half can of pinto beans.  I mixed up the filling in the saute pan and added chili powder and salt.  Then slit open the peppers (careful, they will be hot!) and fill!  I topped the filled peppers with some slices of garlic chili cheddar cheese and cooked them (the oven was still hot from the broiler).

Also this week I decided to finally attempt to make Challah bread.  I've made many bread types before but this one has always been floating in the back of my mind since I was told it makes the BEST french toast (I love carbs for breakfast ;) ).  Bread is tricky.... I always get nervous before trying a new bread recipe!  I don't recommend attempting it without a food thermometer.  I used this recipe and it turned out great....

And yes, the french toast Wednesday morning was the best!

phew!

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this!

It's been a really hectic month because I've been trying to look and apply for jobs as much as possible since the summer is starting to wind down.

The other night I didn't get back to the cabin until 9pm but I had a plan to make eggplant parmesan and nothing was going to stop me!

I started by salting the eggplant and laying it on pans lined with paper towel.  This pulls out the bitterness of the eggplant.  After about twenty minutes I rinsed it off, dried it, and breaded it.  Then baked it in the oven on a sheet pan until browned and crispy (flipping once).  Then, in a lasagna pan I layered the eggplant with spaghetti sauce, cheese, herbs, and some sliced cherry tomatoes and baked until bubbly! 

It was amazing! 

I took it for lunch on multiple days with a roll and made eggplant sandwiches warmed in the microwave at work.

It takes a little time to make (I think I finally ate at about 10pm....) but it's not difficult and definitely worth the wait!

Blog number 20!

I came home for my "weekend," which is now Tuesdays and Wednesdays to find that Dan had picked up our first CSA!  We had a ton of carrots and I instantly thought of making carrot cake!

I discovered a website called SparkRecipes that lets you analyze the nutritional information of your recipe so I decided to see how some substitutions on the carrot cake recipe I usually use would affect the nutritional value.  So instead of all that oil, I used 3/4 c applesauce and 1/2 c oil.  I also omitted one egg yolk and reduced the sugar to 3/4 c. white sugar and 3/4 c brown sugar.  I also left out the pecans because we didn't have any.  Then instead of tons of frosting I made a cream cheese icing.  I used 3 oz of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of softened butter, and then just added powdered sugar and milk until it was a good consistency.  Overall I think I saved myself about 228 calories and 15 grams of fat per serving!  I made one loaf and about 9 cupcakes that Dan took to work and he came home with rave reviews.... I don't think anyone missed the extra oil!

Then for dinner I wanted to try to use a decent amount of spinach and we had some portobello mushrooms that were getting old so I decided on..... whole wheat pasta with spinach pesto and chickpeas, topped with roasted portobello mushrooms.

The spinach pesto is pretty easy and I used chickpeas since we didn't have tomatoes.   

Then for the mushrooms I just sprayed a pan with cooking spray and topped the mushrooms with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cooked for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  I topped the pasta with the mushrooms and sprinkled some cheese on top!  Yum!

 

home again, home again

Well, I survived my first week in the cabin!
It's been good, but I am very happy to be home for the weekend!  I ate a lot of quinoa and steamed vegetables all week so I was anxious to get back to my "real" kitchen.... including a fridge full of butter ;)

I was most excited to make something with my homemade vanilla I made a couple blogs back!  It has been about 7 weeks that it has been aging.  I got really obsessed with making something that would really highlight the vanilla flavor.... and I finally settled on just plain pound cake.  I didn't want other flavors to overpower the vanilla.  And all I have to say is.... yum!  We got strawberries at the farmers market yesterday too, so I'm excited to put those together!

Last night I also made biscuits to go with dinner and thought I would share that recipe too.  Homemade biscuits are such a simple addition to dinner and infinitely more tasty than the ones in a can!  (And we got to have biscuits and gravy for breakfast today with the leftovers!)  Give them a try... you won't be disappointed.

Biscuits
2 c flour, plus extra for kneading
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 T sugar
1/2 c cold butter cut into small cubes
1 c milk

I like to blend the first 4 ingredients in a food processor and then slowly add a couple chunks of butter at a time (you can also work the butter in with your fingers).  At the end it should be pea-size or smaller crumbs.  Then I pour that into a bowl and add the milk.  It will be very wet! 

I take small balls of dough (with very floured fingers!) and roll them in a small bowl of flour.  I knead the ball in my hands for a minute or so and then place them into a non-stick sprayed pan.  Then bake at 425 for about 13-15 minutes or until they are golden brown.

benissimo!

If there is one cuisine that I think everyone likes it is Italian!  And as a cheese-o-holic, ravioli is one of my favorite foods.  Naturally I've been thinking about making it from scratch for a long time and surprisingly it was much easier then I anticipated--I wish I had done it sooner!  Sometimes making things from scratch can be daunting because you think... well if everyone I know buys it packaged then it must be hard to make.  But I have found that to be incorrect about a lot of recipes I've tried!  Obviously not something I would try on a weeknight after work but a fun weekend afternoon project...

I used a pasta recipe from Allrecipes but made my own filling by beating together part skim ricotta cheese, an egg, shredded Parmesan, herbs, spinach, minced garlic, and some salt. After I made the dough and the filling I followed this article on Allrecipes for the filling steps.

I had a smaller and bigger circle cutter from cake decorating that I used to shape and cut the pasta.  My back up plan was a shot glass and another drinking glass.  I used a fork around the edges to ensure they were sealed, but it was hard to keep the filling neat so a lot of ricotta was on the outside--it needs to look homemade too right?!

Boiling the pasta until it floated went really quick and then it was eating time!

It tasted... so. good.  I wish I had been able to make the pasta sheets thinner but that might require an investment in a pasta machine so this is good enough for now!  I only wanted to make enough for the two of us so the next day I used the leftover pasta dough and rolled out sheets to make a lasagna.  I usually don't eat very much pasta but this week we ate it a lot and I think Dano was in heaven!

Vanilla beans and lots of cilantro!

I think vanilla is the one ingredient I use a lot that really irks me to buy.... how can such a small bottle be so expensive?!  Then I came across this blog post and got really inspired to make my own!  I did a lot of research and also checked out the recipe on Allrecipes.  After looking at the price of vanilla beans at our local Co-op, I decided ordering them online would be cheaper even factoring in the cost of shipping.  Reading people's reviews, I choose Madagascar beans and purchased them through the website Beanilla.   

Don't they look so yummy?!  The actual process took only like 5 minutes!  I just sliced each vanilla bean down the center leaving the ends intact and dropped them into a vodka bottle!  Now I just have to wait 6-8 weeks... that will be the hard part!

Also Dano and I made a really delicious and super easy dinner last night that I thought I would pass along. 

We made two individual thai pizzas on large tortillas and hot and sour soup.  The original recipe for thai pizza is from Rachel Ray but we sort of make our own thing!  I started typing out each thing I change but I'll just give you a basic recipe!

pizza dough (if serving for more then 2) or large tortillas
plum sauce (in the asian section of the grocery store)
red pepper flakes
mozzarella cheese, shredded
bean sprouts
red pepper, diced
green onion, chopped
cilantro
peanuts

Just spread the plum sauce on the crust of your choice (if you are using pizza dough you might want to pre-cook it so it isn't soggy in the middle) and sprinkle with red pepper flakes (how ever much heat you can handle!).  Then top with cheese and cook in the oven until lightly browned... if you are using tortillas it definitely won't need to cook as long or as hot!  Then take it out and let it cool a couple minutes and top with all the fresh ingredients!  If you like asian food and like everything on the ingredient list--you will love this.
Next... hot and sour soup. 
For the most part I use this recipe, but always use an assortment of fresh mushrooms... dried mushrooms sound kind of gross to me.  This weekend the crimini mushrooms weren't looking too good so I just got a handful of button mushrooms and a portobello that I chopped up.  I tend to amp up the amount of garlic and ginger... and always add chili oil.  Yum, this is so good and even better the next day for lunch!
Its hard for me to relay recipes since I don't measure things out too often but I think it's the best way to cook (although I wouldn't recommend it for baking...).  Taste as you go and make corrections.  Everyone's palate is different so no recipe is perfect for everyone anyway. 
Have fun!

Baking : 1 Tara : 0

I should have known that lately things were going waaaay too well for me in the kitchen.....
Today was a disaster.
Well, to start off with it was the first sunny day we have had in a while and I would have liked to spend it outside.  But tomorrow is one of Dano's co-workers birthdays and I already said I would make the cake.  I decided to make the dark chocolate cake I have mentioned before, which is usually a pretty basic recipe for me!  But our oven and I have a power struggle for it to stay on the right temperature and the cake came out looking a little strange.... then I tried to move one of the layers and it broke into multiple pieces.  I felt like I couldn't start over because I had used all ingredients I had left out for hours to get to room temperature.  So, I made some chocolate buttercream and re-assembled the cake and filled between the layers.  However, during the melting of the chocolate I remembered I need to check the mail for a package I was expecting (this was such a blonde moment....) and just walked out the door to the mailbox!  What was I thinking?!  Walked back in to smoke, burned cream all over the stove.... a huge mess.
I should have stopped here and called it a day, bought some canned frosting, and no one would have known.  But being myself... I decided to try to make a frosting recipe for the outside of the cake that I have been studying for weeks!  When I went to print off the directions it was going to be NINE pages (I deleted the pictures and it was still a full two pages).  Its for Italian Meringue Buttercream from the Whisk-Kid blog (which is absolutely amazing)!  You can check out the link for pictures and the recipe.  Overall I think it went okay... (minus some stray sugar that indefinitely hardened to the stove, the bowl, and my saucepan). 
While all this was going on I also tried to make vegetable stock at the same time!  I've made stock one other time, but today I wanted to try making it in my crock pot.  I sort of used a recipe from Allrecipes but didn't exactly measure everything because a gallon of water won't even fit in my crockpot.

Doesn't that just look amazing!

The veggies roasted and ready to simmer!

I also added just whatever was left of my parsley plant from last summer (mostly stems), sage I found in the back of the produce drawer (ooops!), and a few pieces of the rosemary (also from the patio garden).  I read on other websites that people normally cook their stock for about 2 hours in the crockpot but.... I wasn't really happy with it until it had cooked for like 6!  But that is the joy of the crockpot--you can kind of just forget about it (I went for a hike in the sunshine, finally)!  After roasting your vegetables make sure to really scrape the pan and get all the burned bits into the pot.... I lick the spatula afterward because that caramelized vegetable juice is SO good. Julia Child got me into making my own stock because, well, she says "whats the point of making your own soup if you are using stock out of a can?!"  Which is kind of true... and I would never argue with Julia :)  It's also really healthy because you can control the amount of salt you add and it needs much less because it is so flavorful! 

This was one end result I was happy with today!

Worth all the onion tears...

For my very first blog post I thought I would start with a Julia Child classic--french onion soup!  I scaled mine back a little (just for two, plus leftovers!) and added a few tweaks.  I'm terrible at measuring and following recipes so some of these are estimates....

about 3 c thinly sliced yellow onions
2 T butter
1/2 T olive oil
1 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1 1/2 T flour
1 qt vegetable broth
1/4 c dry white vermouth
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste
round of bread
shredded gruyere cheese

To start!

Sloooowly cooking up the onions.  15 minutes in the butter and oil, covered on low heat.  Then move up to medium, add salt and sugar, and cook for about 25 minutes until evenly golden brown (and smelling like heaven!).  Stir in flour and remove from heat.  Throw on the vermouth and scrape the pan into a saucepan with the vegetable broth.  Simmer 30-40 minutes with bay leaf and check for seasoning.  To finish I toasted a round slice of bread covered in cheese in the broiler, plopped it on top, and added a little more cheese! 

It was so yummy that I could not stop "tasting for seasoning" while it was simmering and waiting for Dan to get home from work!  This recipe is overall pretty simple but you definitely have to be patient while the onions are cooking---do not just turn up the heat to cook them quicker because it will be a whole different flavor!

Bon appetit!