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.

Local Salad (in the Winter!)

Did you ever think that you could enjoy a salad with locally grown lettuce while there was still snow on the ground in New England? I bought a large bag of greens from NorthStar farm, located in Westport, MA at the Somerville Winter Market this weekend. The farmer told me the organic lettuce is grown in an unheated greenhouse during the winter. Each leaf is crisp, clean, and just about perfect. I gave it a quick rinse, and tossed it with some shredded carrot for a simple side salad. I have no idea how these greenhouses really work, but they certainly produce some great tasting lettuce! I was initially worried that the lettuce might go bad before I had time to finish the bag, but the remaining unwashed leaves are keeping very well in the refrigerator. Here’s to local salads for the week….

Swiss Chard Hummus Rolls

All of the credit for this idea goes to Gena from Choosing Raw, and her amazing Collard Wrap Tutorial. I had some Swiss chard on hand and a craving for hummus, so I decided to give this a try. I started by whipping up a quick batch of hummus, and then spreading it on a Swiss chard leaf as shown, with shredded carrot and chopped cucumber. And then I followed the tutorial and rolled it up.

As you can see, I didn’t succeed in making a neat tightly packed wrap, but I did create a few rolls which made a decent dinner. Practice makes perfect, and this seems like a technique worth perfecting. How convenient to fit vegetables, protein, and healthy fat in a roll you can eat with your hands!

Corn and Spinach Chowder

I am sure you’ve caught on to the fact that I usually make at least one pot of soup each weekend during the winter. Soup is usually very easy to make, with most of the effort going towards chopping vegetables. And when you use the crockpot, it’s even easier. I spent less than 15 minutes total on this dish.

I adapted this corn chowder recipe, adding another vegetable (spinach) and one of my favorite spices (smoked paprika). I also made it vegetarian and a little healthier. It isn’t the prettiest soup, but it tastes great without any additional seasoning. And that’s not bad for 15 minutes worth of work.

1 10oz. package frozen spinach

1 16oz. package frozen corn

1 onion, peeled and chopped

3 potatoes, chopped

2 c. vegetable broth

1/2 t salt

1 t smoked paprika

2 c. skim milk

1/4 c. Smart Balance or Earth Balance margarine

Add spinach through paprika to crockpot, and cook on high for 4 hours. Using a potato masher, press potatoes against the sides of the crockpot to thicken soup. Add milk and margarine, and cook on high for 1 additional hour.

Wheat Dinner Rolls

This is most definitely the cutest recipe I made last weekend. I decided to tackle the dinner roll, and used this recipe with a blend of white and whole wheat flour. Many days I bring a container of soup for lunch, so a roll like this will be the perfect companion. And if baking bread from scratch wasn’t enough, I followed the original blogger’s lead and got fancy, making cloverleaves and knots. The rolls came out looking cute, but a little bit dry because I think I added too much flour. The dough felt a bit stiff when I set it to rise, but it was too late by then. Another episode of live, bake bread, and learn…. Still, the experience of breaking into one of these rolls fresh from the oven is something you just can’t buy at the store.