Month: March 2011

And I’m off…..

I made it through the first 8 weeks of being a full time student, and now I get to enjoy spring break in sunny Florida! As you can see, I also reduced the inventory in my refrigerator this week. The peanut butter will be applied to whole wheat bread in the freezer for breakfast, and that blue container on the right side of the second shelf contains my lunch for today, while I am at my internship. The Yo Crunch yogurt on the top left was on sale last week, so I bought it for a treat, and it will make a perfect afternoon snack. I’ll be travelling at dinner time, so I’ll need to get food at some point. I wish I could say that I prepared something good to bring on the plane like last year, but I didn’t.

I am excited to do some cooking while I am there, and I heard we’re kicking things off with an Irish feast tomorrow for an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration. I am sure looking forward to Irish bread! But I am looking forward to seeing this little (partly) Irish guy more..

I am not sure exactly when I’ll be posting next week, but stay tuned!

Lemon Plum

It’s been a while since I’ve tried any new fruits or vegetables, and I am sure there’s a lot that I haven’t tasted. I was at Russo’s Market and spotted this lemon plum. It’s not a local fruit of course, but comes from Chile. It is the size of an average plum, with yellow flesh. It tastes similar to a plum, perhaps just a little more tart. But this lemon plum was a nice treat, and makes me look forward to fresh fruit in the season ahead!

Tootsie Rolls

I was lucky enough to be invited to a candy party last weekend, and figured this was a good excuse to try to make candy. The lovely hostess Elizabeth is vegan, so I started some Internet searches for vegan candy recipes. I decided to make homemade tootsie rolls using this recipe, which can be either vegan or not, depending on the ingredients. I had to use more powdered sugar in order to get the right texture, but they came out pretty well. I probably should have let them cool a little more before packing them up to leave the house, but time was of the essence, there was Skittles infused vodka waiting! They were good, but a little too sticky.

Since I was on a roll (get it?) I decided to make another batch to bring to work. This time I used a bit more sugar, and also let them cool completely for about an hour before storing them in a airtight container. The modified ingredients and simplified instructions are below. The texture this time was more like fudge, not exactly like a Tootsie Roll but still good.

There were definitely a few things that surprised me:

1. Just one tiny teaspoon of cocoa powder provides the chocolate for a whole batch
2. Almost 2 cups of powdered sugar somehow fits into this same size batch
3. Ginger snaps give the candy a distinctive spicy flavor

I don’t have much experience making candy, but it was fun!

1 t cocoa powder
2 T butter, margarine, or vegan margarine
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1/3 c. ginger snap crumbs
1 2/3 c. powdered sugar, plus more for dusting cutting board

Place cocoa powder and butter or margarine in a small saucepan. Heat slowly, until butter or margarine is melted. Add corn syrup and stir well. Remove from heat.

Add 1/3 cup sugar and stir to mix thoroughly. Repeat 3 more times, until you’ve added 1 1/3 c. sugar total. At this point, turn the candy ‘dough’ onto a cutting board dusted with powdered sugar. Knead in an additional 1/3 c. sugar. Add more sugar if dough does not feel stiff enough.

Divide dough into sections, and roll each section into a log. Slice into 1″ pieces. Allow to cool completely before storing covered.

-Adapted from recipe submitted by vegbilayameogo on vegweb

Polenta with Tomato Braised Beans

I’ve blogged about polenta before, including this dish with kale, and these polenta triangles which are still a favorite. Really, all it takes is cornmeal, broth or water, a pinch of salt, and less than 30 minutes. I was searching for some new recipes for the weekend, and saw this one for tomato braised beans over polenta. There’s always a can of beans and a can of tomatoes in my cupboard, so I made this dish without even needing to leave the house. I added about 1/4 c. of Parmesan cheese to the polenta towards the end of cooking, and then used more cheese as a garnish. Don’t be intimidated by the polenta cooking instructions here, just pour the cornmeal slowly in the beginning and then keep stirring until it’s smooth. It’s not fussy like risotto, and comes out right every time. So if you’ve got a cannister of cornmeal lurking in your cabinet, take it out and give this a go!

Mark Bittman’s Customizable Soups

I know that at least some of you are familiar with Mark Bittman, a food extraordinaire with the NY Times. I tweeted about this yesterday, but wanted to make sure I shared it on the blog as well. Bittman wrote an excellent piece which is a roadmap of sorts for making soup. There are 4 basic varieties of soup: creamy, brothy, earthy, and hearty. Each of those has a million variations, it’s just a matter of what you like and what you have on hand.

If you are the kind of cook who likes a little inspiration and/or guidance but doesn’t need a concrete recipe, this is an article for you! And it’s the perfect weekend to whip up a few more batches of soup to see you through the end of winter. I am not sure which one I am going to try, but I’ll be back Monday to share….

Falafel Burgers

I read a lot of food blogs, and I bookmark a lot of recipes. I could cook for weeks, catching up on the backlog of great dishes I want to try. But sometimes recipes just fly to the top of the list, like these falafel burgers from Oh She Glows. Trust me, you’ll want to make these ASAP. They are just a little spicy with cumin and paprika, and just a little crunchy with sunflower seeds. I left out the tahini, but increased the lemon juice by a bit.

I actually made mini-burgers, and served them on a bed of local lettuce and topped with avocado for dinner. But the burgers will be transformed into a portable lunch when stuffed into a pita, or perhaps dipped into plain yogurt and eaten by hand. There are a lot of possibilities here, and I am sure I’ll be making another batch of these soon.

Roasted Beet and Onion Pizza

This recipe is my entry into the Somerville Winter Market recipe contest. I took careful note of your suggestions, and came up with this Roasted Beet and Onion pizza. I wanted to use simple and abundant winter produce, and beets and onions fit the bill. And because just about everyone loves pizza, it’s a great way to introduce less familiar produce such as beets.

I chose to use whole grain pizza dough, which you could make on your own or purchase from a bakery or grocery store. Smoked paprika is one of my favorite new spices, and I love the way it tastes with balsamic vinegar. And finally, the cheese was purchased from Robinson Farm, with a creamy texture and nutty taste.

Putting it all together, this certainly isn’t a traditional pizza, but hopefully something you will like just as much as I did! The pizza has a sweet and earthy tone, and it makes a hearty meal. The vegetables could be roasted on the weekend, and then used to make an easy weeknight dinner. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a piece leftover for lunch the next day.

1 lb. whole wheat pizza dough
5 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
5 golden beets, scrubbed, trimmed, and diced
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 t smoked paprika
3/4 c. shredded cheese, such as Robinson Farm ‘A Barndance’
Set dough in a glass bowl coated with cooking spray, and cover with a towel. Place onions, beets, vinegar, and oil in a baking dish and toss well. Roast at 400F for 60-90 minutes, or until beets are tender.

When pizza dough has come to room temperature, spread dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Top with beet mixture, paprika, and shredded cheese. Bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes.

Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

I admit that I’ve had this coupon for a free package of Buitoni pasta for a long time. I am not sure why I waited. I love pasta, and this version from Buitoni is stuffed with a mixture of Portobello and cremini mushrooms, garlic, and two types of cheese. I boiled the pasta for just five minutes, and tossed it with some grated Parmesan. It was a quick and elegant dinner.

Fresh pasta is always nice, but it’s the filling that really makes this pasta great. It has a rich mushroom flavor which you don’t want to cover up with tomato sauce. In fact, you’ll want to savor each bite! The pasta is a bit expensive without a coupon, but perhaps I could figure out how to whip up a similar filling on my own. Thanks to Buitoni for a great dinner and the inspiration to try my hand at mushroom pasta.

I was provided this product with a coupon from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. I was not compensated in any other manner to write this product review.