mouth-canyon

every day, almost every way

2007-11-29T15:33:00.000-06:00

I've had my eye on Lorna Sass's latest cookbook, Whole Grains Every day, Every Way, for a while now. I'd sneek peeks at it in various bookstores and then look at the price, go through the book again, look at Lorna's picture where she stands in a field of grain in a cute polka dot sundress, lament the fact I don't live near any hills, and make a mental note to get the book next time. Well, I finally got it and I really wish I had bought it sooner.

The book starts out with a basic introduction to different types of grains, information about how to buy and store them, how to cook them and what flavors are complemented by them. Then there are pictures of some of the recipes and photos of the grains on their own. The photos do not look done up or fancy - they look exactly how they would if you made them in your own kitchen and they are true to the ingredients. With some cookbooks this is not the case - the Tassajara Cookbook, which I should have read the Amazon review for before buying, has gorgeous pictures of the Zen Mountain Center and the food served there, but the pictures do not always match the recipe, and for that matter, some of the recipes don't work as written. While Lorna Sass's book made me want to cook every grain I could get my hands on, the Tassajara Cookbook made me feel like I needed to go to Tassajara for a retreat to try the gorgeous looking food and unwind from the frustration of the inconsistent recipes. I am going to keep trying some of the non-dessert recipes from the Tassajara book and get back to you - I've given up on the cookie recipes because they've all been not-so-good. But in the meantime I will return to praising Lorna Sass and her love of whole grains.

Once you get through the first 113 pages of grain introduction (I know this sounds like a chore, but it's really not), you are more than well prepared to cook up a feast. What you'll notice is that most recipes have suggestions as to what grains you can substitute in/out (because not all of us have 4 cups of kamut in the pantry) and some simple variations to modify the flavors. I think a lot of people are wary of trying to incorporate whole grains beyond brown rice or oats into their diets because they are not familiar with the tastes or ways to cook them, but between the introductory section and the simple recipes anyone should be able to start exploring the colorful (seriously!) world of hominy, teff and quinoa.

I've tried recipes from each section (soups/salads, mains, sides, breakfast and dessert) and they've all been fantastic. However, I think the one that has been the biggest hit in our house has been the coconut rice pudding. My love for rice pudding has already been documented, but this variation brings rice pudding to a whole new level - wholesome, exotic and incredibly fragrant. Also, it's quite possibly the easiest dessert I've made in a long time. I adapted the recipe from the one in the book - used brown rice instead of black chinese rice, added raisins, didn't top with lychees, used low fat coconut milk instead of regular, but the general idea is the same: rice + water + coconut milk = pudding. It's vegan, it's relatively healthy, it's simple and it's a show stopper of a recipe. Go make it and eat it while you look at Lorna Sass's amazing book.

Coconut brown rice pudding
adapted from Whole Grains Every Way, Every Day

1 cup brown rice, rinsed
1 3/4 c water
pinch of salt
1 can low-fat coconut milk
1/2 c raisins
4 T sugar (or to taste)

1. Bring the water to a boil and add the rice and pinch of salt. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 20-30 minutes (want the rice to be tender but not totally done). Don't worry if there is still water in the pot.
2. Add the coconut milk and raisins and return to a boil. Stir occasionally so that the rice doesn't stick, and add sugar after about 5 minutes. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until the rice is cooked and has absorbed most of the milk.

Note: the rice will continue to absorb the coconut milk as it sits, so don't be worried if the mixture still looks a little soupy by the time the rice is done.

Quick update

2007-11-14T15:47:00.000-06:00

OK. So I haven't posted anything in 3 weeks. Sorry. To make amends I've put up some ridiculous photos of our awesome dog, Jordan. She does not like towels, loves the world and will only eat her food if I sprinkle some Cheerios on top (no photographic evidence of that, yet).

The past three weeks have been really hectic - I got into med school (hoorah!), am figuring out how to finish my PhD (yes!) and getting ready for Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh where I will eat ravioli instead of turkey and have pumpkin pie for breakfast (so good!). Thanksgiving is the beginning of 'ridiculous food eating month', as in short order it will be my birthday, Hanukah (jelly doughnuts! latkes! levivot!), then back to Pittsburgh for Christmas (cookies!).

I recently got some more cookbooks (not that I didn't have enough already), and have been cooking up a storm, so I'll post more later. But in the meantime, here's a link to a great recipe. I made it for Heather's clothing swap party and it was a huge hit. Instead of making it in cake form, I made it into cupcakes. Easy.

Fall dinner

2007-10-25T09:13:00.000-06:00

I know it seems like Alice Waters and Girl Scout cookies have nothing in common, but they both inspired a really fantastic Fall dinner. Seriously.

When I was in elementary school I decided that I hated peanut butter. Sometime in high school I ate peanut butter again (we didn't eat this stuff at home as it's not staple of Russian food), and guess what? I loved it. This seems to be a pattern with me, in which I decide I hate a food and don't eat it for years and then realize I love it. The most recent food this has happened with is coconut, and now I am sad about all the years I missed eating Girl Scout cookies and Anthony's mom's homemade chocolate fudge with coconut. The way I realized that I actually like coconut is through an act that at first was completely altruistic - on Celine's blog she made a vegan version of samoas using a recipe from yet another blog. Knowing that these were Anthony's favorite Girl Scout cookies, and that he'd be psyched if I made them, I figured I'd give them a shot. So I made them last night, along with a fantastic butternut squash soup, and figured I might as well try one. Well, I tried four. And the two I packed with me for lunch? Ate them for breakfast.

* Recipe notes - The samoas recipe is pretty right on. I spooned and leveled the flour (whole wheat pastry) and my cookies spread out a lot. I'm not sure if this is why mine did and Celine's didn't. Otherwise I pretty much followed the original recipe w/the comments (added chocolate, less pecans, etc...). The dough is incredibly sticky - I used my hands to mix and had to wet them a little bit so I didn't have 40% dough on my hands, 60% in the bowl. Also, the cookies will look under baked! I was a little nervous when I took them out of the oven, but they are supposed to be sticky and look a little undone. They will set more as they cool.

The fantastic butternut squash soup that I made also includes something that Anthony loves - sage. There is an amazing Italian restaurant near our house called A Tavola, which is known for their gnocchi with sage. They serve it with the leaves fried in butter until they are crunchy, and it really is fantastic. I thought of this when I saw a recipe for butternut squash and sage risotto, but I didn't feel like making risotto. The weather in Chicago is pure 'curl up with a big bowl of soup' weather, so I was looking for a good butternut squash soup recipe instead. I wound up combining two soup recipes - one I had made before and love, but it's a bit sweet, and the other was a butternut squash and white bean soup recipe from Alice Water's new cookbook. The original risotto recipe was from Chez Panisse, so I guess the soup is 2/3 Alice Water's inspired. Since both butternut squash and apples work well with sage, I made a butternut squash, apple and sage soup. It's lovely. Especially with a few fried sage leaves sprinkled on top.

Butternut squash, apple and sage soup

3 T olive oil
2 lb butternut squash, chopped up in little pieces
1 onion, diced
2 apples, seeded and diced
6 sage leaves, chopped (plus more left whole for frying)
2 cups apple cider
4 cups veg. stock
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a dutch oven or other large stock pot over medium heat.
When it's hot add the onion, apple and sage and let cook for about 5 min, until the apples begin to get soft.
Add the butternut squash and continue to cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 more minutes.
Add the apple cider and stir. Let it come to a boil.
Add the stock, let boil, cover and simmer until the squash is soft, about 20 - 30 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, or by transferring batches to a blender, puree the soup until you get a consistency that you like.
Continue to heat the soup and let it reduce until it thickens - here you can make it thicker if you over did it with the blender.
Season with salt and pepper as needed.

To fry the sage leaves - put a pat of butter (about 1 T) into a small frying pan over medium heat. Once melted and the butter is hot, add sage leaves and watch carefully - they quickly go from dark green and crunchy to brown and burnt.

Top the soup with the sage leaves and enjoy!

2 cups of water, 1 cup of rice...

2007-10-16T09:33:00.000-06:00

There used be a band called Rice whose whole bit was to make fun of (or pay homage to, your choice) hardcore songs. It was one of those things where if you didn't recognize what they were alluding to in the lyrics, probably 95% of what made the band awesome was lost on you. I was one of the lucky (?) ones that caught the references and proceeded to play a lot of Rice songs on my radio show. The main side effect of doing this is that every time I think of rice (the food) I think of Rice (the band). One of their lyrics, '2 cups of water, 1 cup of rice - is this the way you measure your life's worth?' is pretty handy when I am cooking, but it's really annoying to have stuck in your head.

I've loved rice since I was a little kid. My mom's mom would make white rice and serve it with a little milk and sugar when I was sick. My dad's mom would cook plov, which is a Russian rice dish that is made with dried fruits or meat (or both). To keep it warm after cooking, she would wrap it in a blanket and tuck it into my parents' bed. When I was older, my dad and I would go to a Chinese restaurant by our house and talk. Those were some of the only times we really spent on our own when I was a teenager, and now I associate generic NYC Chinese restaurants with my dad and fried rice.

Perhaps my favorite rice dish, however, is Kozy Shack rice pudding. Not only did this company corner the market on using K instead of C way before bad metal bands did, it also makes the best store bought rice pudding I've ever had. It's not healthy and has a kind of weird texture, but it tastes phenomenal. It reminds me of Fall, comfortable couches and naps. I haven't bought it in a long time because I always say to myself 'I can make that!' but have I? No. I get home and stare at my different types of non-white rice, shrug and go eat some chocolate instead.

Well, all of that was true until last Sunday. When I did my usual check of food blogs, I saw this recipe on Julie Hasson's blog and I had to make it. In fact, it looked like I had since I have that same Fiestaware mug. And the recipe? Easy and not all that bad for you. I had some left over arborio rice from making amazing corn risotto out of the Rebar cookbook, so I tried it with that and did everything exactly as written and wound up with amazing better than Kozy Shack rice pudding.

I sent Anthony to work with a small container of rice pudding, topped with raisins and cinnamon, which apparently made all of his coworkers jealous. He said he tried to explain to them how easy it was to make (no eggs! no dairy!) but they didn't buy it. But you all now have the link to the recipe, and I suggest you go make it. Right now. It's that good.

Internets

2007-10-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

It's been over a month since my last post, and let me tell you things have been a little nuts. My applications to med school are finally complete and now I get to sit and wait to hear about interviews. Some people are patient, but I am not, so this waiting period is characterized by me checking my e-mail 5698 times a day. I've also begun to dread checking the mail for fear of the thin white envelope. I don't think I was this nervous when I applied to college or grad school. I'm also trying to get a bunch of experiments up and running so I can graduate in June. Finishing a PhD is just slightly less stressful than applying to medical school. Slightly.

To try to maintain my sanity I've been been going to kickboxing classes, hanging out with our dog and cooking. In my downtime in the lab I search for recipes online, so my poor cookbooks are collecting dust. This hasn't stopped me from getting new ones, though. I recently picked up Alice Water's new book when I went to the farmers market and she was hanging out signing copies. I also ordered Dreena Burton's new book, which I am waiting for. I have her other two books and love them. I have yet to make anything that wasn't tasty, simple and healthy out of them.

But back to the topic at hand. I have two recipes for you that you have to try. They are fantastic - one of them I didn't even tweak (which is rare). The first is for a butternut squash salad that comes courtesy of Orangette. It's fantastic. Amazing. I've made it twice in two weeks. The first time I used some odd shaped squashes out of the CSA box, and the other time with a proper butternut squash. Again, twice in two weeks. The first time I ate it all on my own in a matter of a few days. This time I was nice and shared it with Anthony. The other recipe is for cookies - these I shared with Anthony as soon as I made them, but not before I ate some of the dough and my fair share of cookies when they came out of the oven. The recipe I used came from Clotide by way of David Lebovitz. I added 1/2 cup of goji berries, used whole wheat pastry flour instead of the all purpose and whole wheat, and didn't use the cocoa nibs. I also sprinkled them with a little bit of sea salt. You should go make them. They are easily made vegan as they have no eggs.

So there you are! Go cook and relax. Tomorrow I get another big box of random fruits and veggies from the CSA so who knows what I'll make...

Internet recipes

2007-09-02T15:48:00.000-06:00

Even though I have more than my fair share of cookbooks, I have recently been finding that a lot of what I cook is based off of recipes I've found online. I peruse food blogs when I have free time in the lab and so in a way I have probably more thoroughly gone through the recipes at 101cookbooks than those found in some of the cookbooks I have at home.

Top picture: Last week I made the asian grain burger from 28cooks. It came together really easily, although I used a whole can of pinto beans instead of the amount called for in the original recipe. It tasted fantastic when served on toasted naan (from Trader Joe's), with some mixed baby mesclun greens and ricotta salata. Anthony took it to work with him and apparently it made his coworkers jealous.

Middle picture: easy beer rolls from Have Cake Will Travel. I used an old bottle of Amstel Light that we had left over from our holiday party way back in December, instant yeast and no bread machine. I keep having the same problem where I cannot find a good spot to let my dough rise - either it's too hot and the bread comes out tasting too yeasty, or it's just too cold. Woe is me. Regardless, this recipe is really easy to put together and the rolls are great.

Bottom picture: honey loaf. Just in time for Rosh Ha'shanah I found a great recipe for Ukrainian honey cake on the Wednesday Chef. I used some chai tea instead of coffee, whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose, and instead of sugar added 1/4 c of agave. This was so good I pretty much ate the whole loaf by myself in a matter of a three days. In my defense, I did give Anthony some to take with him to work but he never ate it. Oh well - His loss equals my delicious gain. I think I am going to toy with this recipe a bit and try adding some dried berries and make it for the High Holidays.

Well hello there...

2007-08-08T13:08:00.000-06:00

You know how it seems that everytime I enter something into this blog I start off with a statement about how I will update more often? Well, obviously I'm a liar. Or just well intentioned but cannot follow through. Or perhaps just lazy. Whichever reason it is, my not posting does not equal not cooking. I've been trying lots of recipes from the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook, which is excellent. I've made baked tofu, salads, dressings, blintzes, multiple cakes (in a few days I'll post my version of their vegan brownie recipe which I turned into a carob-less, bittersweet chocolate filled cake) and a whole host of other things. Until then, here is a picture of Jordog at the beach and some recipe links.

In non-Rebar cooking news, last night I tried my hand at two recipes I found online. Anthony has been asking for corn cakes since he came back from tour, so that coupled with lots of corn that came in the CSA box last week I decided to find some corn cake recipe. Well, I ended up making corn fritters, and they were fantastic. I followed that recipe almost exactly, but didn't use coriander, did use the cumin and parsley (instead of cilantro, which I didn't have). I also made oatmeal walnut veggie burgers, which I thought were ok. I liked the texture and the technique of using stock, but they didn't taste like much. I think next time I'll play around with the seasoning and add something more than just onions.

I think tonight I will try to make some black raspberry and oatmeal bars. I'll let you know how it goes!

Lemony broccoli pasta and plum frozen yogurt

2007-07-11T10:34:00.000-06:00

The running theme of my CSA share this year seems to be 'vegetables bigger than your head.' Last week I got some chard and kale that were easily the length of my elbow to outstretched fingers. Before that, I got some chives and green onions that were probably just as big. For those of you with gardens such things might be old news. For me, it's an exciting adventure. What will I get next week? What will I do with the enormous cabbage I have? No idea!

I've been trying to be better about cooking things that will last as lunches or dinners for the week using the CSA veggies. Pasta is usually a good bet, and a recipe that doesn't fail is this one for lemony broccoli pasta with chickpeas. I pretty much follow that exactly, but omit the cheese and add more lemon. This time, I used a 12 oz bag of pasta, 1 big bunch of broccoli and 1 can of chickpeas, which made enough for 5 days. The recipe is easy and quick, perfect for a rushed dinner.

One thing I tend not to rush is dessert. The offerings at the market have been so great that I'm hesitant to do anything to the fruit I buy because I don't want to spoil the taste. I've been leaving berries alone and snacking on them plain, but the plums I got recently were another matter. I knew they'd just hang out on the counter unless I did something, so big surprise... I made frozen yogurt.

Here is something I didn't know about plums: the skin makes them tart and a bit acidic. This recipe calls for making a puree of the plums and straining it to get rid of the skin bits and then adding those bits in as needed to achieve the taste you want. The taste of the skinless plum puree was totally surprising - really mild and sweet, not at all like the plum taste I was used to. The recipe is a combination of recipes from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook and The Perfect Scoop. The recipe calls for a lot of tasting, which is due to the fact that you might have really tart or really sweet plums. Go with what tastes good to you.

Plum Frozen Yogurt
10-12 oz plums (try to get ones that are soft and juicy)
5-8 tablespoons agave
1 teaspoon white wine
1 cup whole milk yogurt

1. Pit the plums and puree a food processor
2. Strain the plums to get rid of the skins, but save a bit of the skins to add in later
3. Add agave to the plum mixture in small amounts, stirring and tasting after each addition to get the sweetness that you want. Add a little bit of the skins to get a bit more acidity and tartness if you like.
4. Add the wine, and readjust the sweet:tart levels if necessary
5. Combine with the yogurt and chill for an hour or so, until the mixture is nice and cold.
6. Taste again, and make any adjustments to the taste. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it churn until it reaches the desired consistency.

farmers market: 06.30.07

2007-07-02T10:50:00.001-06:00

My friend Heather came over for dinner on Saturday and we made an amazing meal made out of some of the veggies I got at the Green City Market. One of the stands had the first fava beans of the season, so I had to pick up a pint. I also got some black raspberries, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and white flesh peaches. Here's what we made (you'll notice the dessert came first because, well, it's awesome):

Black raspberry frozen yogurt
1 pint black raspberries
1/2 c sugar (adjust based on how sweet the berries are)
1 t lemon juice (or more to taste)
2 c whole milk yogurt (you can use lowfat but it'll form more ice crystals)

1. Combine berries, sugar, lemon juice and yogurt and blend until smooth
2. Chill for about an hour in the fridge
3. Pour into your ice cream maker and process as per manufact. instructions
*If you want to be really classy, you should strain the mixture before putting it into the ice cream maker to get rid of the seeds from the berries. I wanted to keep some chunks of berry in so I didn't do that and didn't blend everything until it was super processed, just a little bit.

Fava bean and egg salad crostini
(adapted from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook)
1 pint fava beans (about 500g?), shelled
2 eggs, hard boiled
slightly stale bread (we used about 3 giant pieces of an olive and rosemary boule)
olive oil
lemon juice

First a note about fava beans: They need to be double shelled. As you can see in the picture above, when you open the pod there are light green beans. That light green covering needs to be removed, which will expose a dark green bean.
You can shell them by either putting the pods into boiling water for 10 minutes and then running them under cold water and then popping the favas out of the 2nd cover pretty easily, or you can skip the boiling process and expend a bit more energy and do it to the raw beans. The boiling method will apparently change the consistency of the beans, so the method you use should really just depend on what you are going to be doing. For this recipe, since you are going to mash the beans and eggs together, you can boil, but if you are making a salad I'd suggest shelling the raw beans.

1. Preheat oven to 425 and brush one side of each piece of bread with olive oil. Bake the bread for about 5-7 minutes. You don't want it to come out super crisp - the toasts will crisp as they cool.
2. Pour a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, just enough to coat, and add the fava beans. Stir them around a bit until cooked and remove from heat.
3. Cut up the eggs, add to the fava beans and mash with a fork.
4. Add lemon juice to taste, and season with salt and pepper.
5. Spread the mixture on to the toasts.

Pan seared baby summer squash with garlic
3 baby summer squash, cut in half lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

1. Add olive oil to a large skillet - enough to coat the surface.
2. Once warm, add the garlic and let cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Place the squash, cut side down, into the pan and let sit until the bottoms are browned
4. Toss in the pan so they are covered with olive oil and garlic, and then add a splash of balsamic vinegar. It'll steam, so beware.

To drink - we had some peach lambic, which went perfectly with everything.

Busy busy...

2007-06-27T10:42:00.001-06:00

I had thought that things would get less hectic over the summer, but I was wrong. I've decided that in addition to it being the 'Summer of Sorbet' (Anthony's idea), I am going to start blogging what I get in my CSA share every other week and the recipes I use. The first box came last week and was filled with the longest bunch of chives I've ever seen, giant green onions, spinach, lettuce, kale, arugula, sunflower sprouts and two big containers of strawberries. My camera is w/Anthony while he's on tour, so no photos this time around.

So far I've made a dressing with the chives, a millet stir-fry with the green onions from a recipe in Super Natural Cooking (note to self: not a huge fan of millet), a spinach salad with roasted hazelnuts and eaten a lot of strawberries.

In non-CSA related recipes, I made a really fantastic chocolate cake. The recipe came from the Every Day Dish dvd, which I was lucky enough to win. The recipe for this cake and also Dreena Burton's mint chocolate chip cookies are worth the price alone.

farmers market: 06.03

2007-06-05T08:26:00.000-06:00

I missed the Green City Market this weekend, so instead I hit up the markets at Logan Square and Wicker Park. The Logan Square one was tiny - there were a few stands but not much to get aside from lettuces. Lula Cafe had a stand where they were selling pies and grilling chicken, and there was also a food truck selling pulled pork. The Wicker Park market was much larger - with about half of the stands that are usually at the Green City Market. I didn't get too much overall, just some red leaf lettuce, scallions, mizuna, asparagus and rhubarb.

I'm still not sure what to do with the mizuna. Maybe make a light miso dressing for it? We'll see. Last night I grilled the asparagus because I wanted something simple to go with my lunch. Last week I made a pasta primavera with asparagus out of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which was fantastic, but I was not in a pasta mood this week. The lettuce and scallions are going to go into salads, nothing very exciting. The rhubarb, however, was made into something very exciting indeed.

Last week I got my copy of The Perfect Scoop. It's really wonderful - lots of helpful tips and so many frozen yogurt and sorbet recipes. The ice cream recipes also look fantastic, but they require slightly more work than the sorbets and yogurts. Maybe when Anthony's mom is in town this weekend we'll try one. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Rhubarb. There is a recipe in The Perfect Scoop for strawberry rhubarb sorbet - having no strawberries but a lot of rhubarb I modified the recipe a bit and made a really amazing, slightly sweet, really tangy summer treat.

Rhubarb Sorbet
(adapted from The Perfect Scoop)
5 cups chopped rhubarb (about 12-14 stalks or 1.25 lbs)
3/4 cup water
scant 3/4 cup sugar
zest and flesh of 1/2 orange
1/4 c raspberries

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium pot and bring to a boil
2. Lower the heat and cover for about 5-10 minutes, until the rhubarb is softened
3. Let cool a bit and then in either a food processor, blender or with an immersion blender, process the mixture until fairly smooth
4. Let the mixture sit in the fridge until thoroughly chilled
5. Pour into your ice cream maker and process according to the machine's instructions (it took mine about 15 minutes)
6. (If you are like me, scoop out a bit and eat right away and) Pour the sorbet into a air tight container and let it sit in the freezer until it's hardened a bit

farmers market: 05.19 & 5.26

2007-05-28T11:36:00.000-06:00

Our CSA share starts in late June, so until then I've decided to go to the Green City Market for fresh produce. Last week I went around 9am and it was packed with people, kids and dogs and there were long lines around some stalls, especially the ones with baked goods. There is a crepe stand (!!) and a panini stand, in addition to people selling honey, milk, cheese and lots and lots of vegetables. Fruit hasn't come into season here yet, so there's lots of asparagus and rhubarb. Yes, rhubarb. And it's a vegetable.

I've never really had rhubarb - I tried a rhubarb and mixed berry pie once, but it tasted more berry than anything else. I had never cooked with it and always just passed it by when I saw it in the store. How things have changed! It all started when to celebrate my completion of the MCAT, Anthony and I went to Green Zebra. Possibly the best thing we had was rhubarb ginger ale - it blew me away. There was also rhubarb in one of my favorite dishes - a roasted beet panna cotta w/pecans and rhubarb. (There are pictures of what we ate here. I didn't post that, but this is what we had: Fresh Buratta Cheese, meyer lemon gelee, grilled onion relish; Roasted Beet Panna Cotta, pecans, rhubarb and puff pastry; Crisp Chickpea Pancake, pinenuts, basil and marinated black radish; Blue Cheese Beignets, whole roasted pear, bearnaise, port wine; Spiced Eggplant Dumplings, baby carrots, coconut, lemongrass; Prospera Farms Chicken Egg, smoked potato puree, parsley and country sourdough; Parmesan Gnocchi, ramps, english peas, morel mushrooms). I've been thinking about rhubarb ever since, so when I saw it at the market last week and again this week I snatched some up.

It seems like most rhubarb recipes are for pies or crumbles, so that was my first attempt. I chopped up some rhubarb, tossed in some frozen mixed berries, the rind of 1/2 an orange and about 1/2 cup of sugar, and heated it until soft. I poured it out into a pie dish and topped it with some crumble mixture (just flour, sugar and butter pulsed in a food processor) and baked it until brown on top. Delicious. I found myself ignoring the topping and eating the rhubarb, so I decided that this week I'd do something slightly different that focused more on the rhubarb itself - a simple rhubarb compote. The recipe for this is pretty similar to the crumble filling, and really versatile. I poured some over greek yogurt for dessert last night, and I am going to use the rest to make a rhubarb fool (by adapting this tried and true recipe).

Rhubarb Compote
8-9 large stalks of rhubarb (no leaves!), chopped
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup orange juice

1. place all the ingredients into a small or medium pot over medium heat
2. cook until the rhubarb is soft, stirring every few minutes

(That's it!)

zucchini bread with dried blueberries and orange zest

2007-05-20T12:37:00.001-06:00

There is a beautiful Ukrainian church near our house and its bells have been ringing since 10 am. It's 1:30 now and I've already gone out for brunch and read most of the NY Times. And I baked. How ready for a nap am I? Very.

I had one lonely zucchini in the fridge, left over from when I tried to make zucchini cookies earlier in the week and in an attempt at being clever I totally messed them up. I felt like I needed to somehow vindicate my zucchini baking skills and so I adapted yet another recipe from the King Arthur cookbook, with fantastic results. As soon as I took the loaf out of the oven our dog Jordan started to get hyper. She kept going into the kitchen, probably to figure out how she could get the bread off the counter and have a big snack. When I cut into it she just stared at me and began making funny faces and panting. She is still in the kitchen lying down next to the counter with the bread.

The original recipe for this calls for cranberries and 1 cup of unbleached bread flour. I had neither, so I subbed dried blueberries for the cranberries and whole wheat pastry flour for the bread flour. I also added the zest from half an orange, instead of lemon zest. The bread is really great - it is pretty hearty but not heavy, it smells fantastic and I bet would be amazing toasted.

Zucchini Bread with Blueberries and Orange
(adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking)

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teasoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk (I used vanilla almond milk)

1 medium zucchini, grated (makes a bit over 1.5 cups)
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup dried blueberries
zest from 1/2 an orange

1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a 9x5" loaf pan.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Mix together the eggs, oil and milk in a medium bowl.
4. Pour the wet into the dry and mix, adding the zucchini, berries and walnuts once the batter begins to come together (just as a note - the batter was really thick, so you might have to add a tablespoon or two of extra milk if you still have a bunch of flour in the bottom of the bowl).
5. Fill the loaf pan (almost to the top) and bake for about 1 hr, until the top is golden brown and a tester comes out clean.

Pretty green pasta

2007-05-10T13:17:00.000-06:00

So, I'm not so good at updating this thing. I've been cooking up a storm recently but not posting anything. I'm taking the easy way out this time - I am linking to a post for a recipe I recently made: straw and hay fettucine tangle. It's really easy to make and tastes great, but I agree that you need to add a bit more salt and lemon juice. From the same cookbook I tried to make the raspberry curd loaf but used lemon curd instead and added the optional fresh raspberries. It tasted amazing but was structurally unsound. I am blaming it on my oven since its temperature tends to vary. It makes cooking exciting. What else... I also made these chickpea veggie burgers, but found that they needed more seasoning than called for. Finally, if you have an ice cream maker, you should try to make some banana buttermilk ice cream. I used a scant 1/2 cup of maple syrup instead of the sugar. This is probably one of my favorite ice cream recipes and is incredibly easy.

last week's recipes

2007-04-16T12:02:00.000-06:00

Cooking is my official procrastination method of choice. Studying for the MCAT has not only increased by ability to score well on the physical sciences questions, but it has also made me a better cook. Or at least a more active one.

Here's what I made:
1 - Seitan
I've been making seitan by simmering it in stock, with the result being a fairly standard seitan - chewy, somewhat puffy, good. I recently found a recipe for baked seitan that is even easier. You end up with something that is not soggy at all and has more texture. The basic recipe is here. I bet this would be a good way to make seitan sausages. Last night I cut it up and sauteed it with some onions, olive oil and soy sauce, topped it with cheddar cheese, and made a fake philly cheese steak sandwich.

2 - Banana Cake
This is fantastic. When it came out of the oven it had a bit of a crunch to it on the bottom due to the sugar caramelizing. That has since disappeared, but the cake is still great. The original recipe is here. I used fat free greek style yogurt instead of the sour cream, 3/4 cup sugar (turbinado) and whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose. I also made it easier by dumping all of the wet ingredients into the food processor and adding that to the dry. Simple. Make this. It's really good.

3 - Otsu
Yet another recipe from Super Natural Cooking. I swear I own other cookbooks. Lots. This is the soba noodle salad that I've had in many places and never figured out how to make it at home. Lots of cucumber, green onion, tofu and a really simple dressing. Makes a lot.

Speaking of cookbooks - I picked up Vegan With a Vengeance last week. I've yet to try anything substantial from it - I made french toast and it was fine, not mind blowing. Anyone have any favorite recipes I should try?

Passover ended early this year...

2007-04-10T17:02:00.000-06:00

... because I made the sticky teff-kissed spice loaves from Super Natural Cooking. In the spirit of honesty, I've been eating rice, noodles and cereal throughout Passover. I even ate some pretzels (not the soft bread kind - the hard stick kind). Bad, I know. When I was younger I wished that I was a Sephardic Jew because they always seemed to have better food (less reliance on potatoes and oil) and they got to eat beans and rice during Passover. Now I eat beans and rice and tell myself that it's all part of the overall Jewish tradition...

Anyway, back to these beguiling teff loaves. This is the 4th recipe I've made from Heidi Swanson's book. The first was for biscotti and something went wrong because I had to add a lot of extra liquid to the dough. They tasted fine when they were done (thankfully) and I learned that her sweet tooth matches mine, so now I don't have to worry about adjusting the sugar amounts in the recipes. The second recipe I tried was for amaranth biscuits, which I liked a lot. I didn't have regular milk (of the soy or dairy kind) and instead used vanilla flavored almond milk. This lent it kind of an odd taste, so I would not suggest doing that. I'd make those again and make sure I had the right ingredients. I tried to make chocolate chip cookies but that wasn't a good idea - I didn't have enough butter and made substitutions and well... not good. Trashed 'em. So, here we are with recipe #4. It's a winner.

Teff is a flour often used in Ethiopian cooking - you might recognize it as what injera is made of. It is really rich in iron and has a good amount of fiber. It makes up 1/3 of the flour in this recipe, so if you can't find it then just use more whole wheat pastry flour instead. I wound up using 1 cup teff flour, 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup white whole wheat flour because I ran out of pastry flour. I also used only 1/2 cup of butter and substituted 1/2 cup of applesauce for the remaining 1/2 cup of butter. Even though this makes 2 loaves (or 1 loaf and 12 muffins, which is what I did), I couldn't bring myself to use 2 sticks of butter. I left out the grated and peeling ginger (1" piece) because the batter was already incredibly gingery based on smell alone. One more thing - I added about 1 cup of walnut pieces. Here's the recipe:

Sticky Teff-Kissed Spice Loaves (adapted from Super Natural Cooking)
Makes 2 loaves or 1 loaf and 12 muffins or 24 muffins

2 cups wwpf
1 cup brown teff flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t fine grain sea salt
2 t ground ginger
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
(1/4 t cloves - I left this out)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 c water
1/2 c applesauce (unsweetend)
3/4 c blackstrap molasses
3/4 c maple syrup or honey
1 cup natural cane sugar
3 large eggs at room temp
1/2 c (soy) milk
(1 " piece of ginger, peeled and grated - I left this out)
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine the butter, water, applesauce, molasses, maple syrup and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir every once and a while and cook until it's all blended. Pour into a bowl and let cool.
2. In the meantime, preheat the oven at 325 and butter and flour either 2 8x4" pans or 1 pan and 12 muffin cups (or use paper liners).
3. Combine the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices and whisk to combine.
4. Once the butter mixture is cool, mix in the eggs one at a time.
5. Fold in the flour mixture in 3rds. The batter might be a bit lumpy - that's ok.
6. Add the optional walnuts and stir until combined.
7. Pour into prepared pans/muffin tin(s) and bake for 60 min (loaf), or ~20 min (muffins).***
8. Let the bread cool in the pan, or if you made muffins let them cool a bit and then transfer to cooling rack.

*** my oven is pretty nutty right now, so I'd check on the muffins after 15 min or so

Cookbook rec., some recipes and more...

2007-03-23T08:09:00.000-06:00

I've been asked recently by a few people how I figure out the substitutions I use when cooking, especially in baking. A lot of it is trial and error, comparing recipes and just making things up. In general:
3 T applesauce = 1 egg
1/2 banana = 1 egg
1.5 c flax = 0.5 c fat (be careful with this - if you are substituting flax you need to increase the liquid you put into the recipe)
0.5 c turbinado sugar = 1 c regular sugar*
0.5 c agave nectar = 1 c regular sugar*

*I tend to make things not too sweet, so if you like really sweet desserts then increase the ratio

New cookbook:
I just got Heidi Swanson's new cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. It is divided into 5 chapters that have a lot of information about the ingredients. The baking section also has a lot of detail about substitutions and a recipe for thin mints. Seriously. I can't wait to make those. You can find a lot of her recipes, some of which are in the book, on her site, 101 cookbooks.

Recipes:
Since it is spring (hoorah!) I've been making a lot of salads and baking things that are light, and well, springy.

I love all things lemon, so I tried these lemon cupcakes. I used white whole wheat flour, unsweetened applesauce instead of the butter, made fake buttermilk by removing 1 T of soy milk out of 1 cup and adding in 1 T apple cider vinegar (do this first and let it sit - it will curdle), and used the zest of 1 lemon instead of lemon extract. The taste? Delicious.

Apparently I am not a subtle cook when it comes to the use of garlic, but a quick and delicious salad to make is a white bean salad w/red wine vinegar. Chop up 1 shallot and 1 clove of garlic (I used 2, hence the lack of refinement), put that in a bowl and add 3 T red wine vinegar, 2 15 oz cans of beans (I used white beans, but chickpeas would be good too), 3 T olive oil and some chopped parsley. Done.

The best thing I've made all week was probably a salad out of one of Dreena Burton's books. It is a really simple whole grain salad that can easily be a meal in and of itself. Basically, you need 3 cups of cooked quinoa (I used a mix of orzo, quinoa and tiny chickpeas I found at Trader Joe's), chop up some veggies (I used cucumbers and bell pepper), add some fresh herbs like basil and/or parsley (I used both), and top with your favorite light dressing. Anthony said that next time we should try to make it into a gazpacho salad, which I think is a great idea.

Apparently I like tempeh...

2007-03-05T11:46:00.000-06:00

I had previously hated tempeh. I had it for the first time a few years ago and thought it was pretty awful, but kept trying it every once and a while to give it another chance. When I was grocery shopping last week I wanted to try something we didn't eat often, and was pretty sick of tofu, seitan and faux meats, so I picked up a package of tempeh and thought I'd give it a try.

Here's the thing. I really liked it. Or maybe I just really liked the way I made it - cooked in a marinade of garlic, olive oil, coriander, cilantro, cumin and paprika. The marinade, called charmoula, is a standard Moroccan marinade for fish. The recipe I used as a base was from Fresh Food Fast and the suggestion was to pair it with a vegetable couscous with different kinds of greens. Instead, I made a simple couscous by sauteeing a chopped red onion in some olive oil, adding 1 cup of water, letting it come to a boil and then pouring in 1 cup of dry couscous and letting it sit, off heat and covered, for 5 minutes. I also cooked up some broccoli and that was it. This is possibly one of the easiest meals I've made in a while.

Charmoula baked tempeh (adapted from Fresh Food Fast)
1 1/4 c water
1/2 c olive oil
2 t sweet paprika
2 t cumin
2 t coriander
4 cloves garlic, chopped
8 oz tempeh

1. Whisk the water, olive oil, spices and garlic in a bowl until thoroughly combined
2. Cut the tempeh into strips and place in a sautee pan
3. Pour the marinade over the tempeh and over medium heat let it come to a boil
4. Lower heat and cover, letting the marinade simmer
5. Continue cooking until the marinade is absorbed (add more water if it looks dried out)

So... it's been a while... again

2007-03-02T10:11:00.000-06:00

So much for my attempt to blog more regularly... Things have been really busy and as a way of dealing with the stress of MCAT studying I've been baking like crazy. This has been both good and bad - it is pretty nice to come home to a tin full of cookies, but some of my experiments at making things healthier have not come out so well. Our oven has also become really frustrating, with random temperature fluctuations one day and normal temperatures the next.

Instead of posting more recipes today, I figured I'd link to some I've tried recently and also mention some products I got recently that I love.

Double chocolate chip cookies:
This is a recipe I love and make often, and is really similar to this one from the PPK. The one from the PPK makes almost three times as many cookies, which is really the major difference. Taste wise they are pretty much the same (if you add in the optional almond extract and almonds to the PPK one). When I made the PPK version I cut down the sugar by half and would also suggest cutting down the chocolate chips by half. I put in 2/3 cup and I think even that was too much.

Polenta casserole with faux sausage:
I've mentioned this recipe before, but I wanted to bring it up again because it is seriously a really really easy meal to prepare. All you need is polenta, tomato sauce and some fake (or real) Italian sausage. The original version includes making your own sauce, but if you are short on time you can make it a lot simpler by using your favorite premade sauce. Basically, make some polenta, put it into a baking dish, top it with sauce, diced sausage and cheese, and stick it under a broiler for a few minutes. Done.

Product recs:

I love these chocolate chips. They taste great in cookies and also do well if you need to melt some chocolate for something like a chocolate tofu pie.

I've been doing most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's recently. I've been trying some of their new products and some of the things I've liked most are:
Curry Noodles, which are great for stir fries and I bet would be phenomenal in noodle patties.
European Style Yogurt, which is a lowfat yogurt that comes in chocolate or green tea. The green tea one is still unopened in the fridge, but the chocolate one is great.

Hopefully next week I'll post a real recipe - I've got a bunch of apples out on the counter and the only one who really seems interested in them is our dog. I need to figure out what to do with them other than make more applesauce.

so... it's been a while

2007-02-15T09:22:00.000-06:00

Sorry. I've been cooking and cooking and meaning to post... but I forget to take pictures or I totally wing it on a recipe and don't take notes... or I get lazy. Or a combination of all three.
I have made two really great things in the past two days, though. And here they are:

I love peanut butter, and I love bananas. When I was much younger my friend Lee and I would dance around her house listening to Elvis. Somehow that all came together in these:
Elvis approved breakfast bars

Ingredients:
1.25 c whole wheat pastry flour
0.5 c ground flax seed
2 t baking powder
0.5 t salt
0.5 c agave nectar
0.25 c unsweetened applesauce
0.25 c peanut butter (I used chunky and unsalted)
2 large bananas, pureed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil an 8x8" baking dish
Mix together the flour, flax, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
Mix together the agave, applesauce, peanut butter and bananas in a medium bowl
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined
Pour into baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes until tester comes out clean

Notes:
This would make a great muffin!
The peanut butter I used was a solid lump, so I put it into the food processor when I was done pureeing the bananas. You could also just dump the agave, applesauce, peanut butter and bananas all together into a food processor and mix it all together that way.
------------------------------------
This is one of the easiest desserts to make, but you need to have a good blender or food processor to make this work. Alternately, you could also develop a lot of muscle strength if you tried to do this by hand.
Chocolate Tofu Pie

Ingredients:
2 aseptic packages lite or regular extra firm tofu (Mori nu - the kind that comes in the box, not stored in the fridge)
11.5 or 12 oz bag of semi sweet chocolate chips (I used Godiva 60% because I wanted to make the chocolate flavor really rich)
1 t vanilla
2 T honey or agave nectar
pre-baked pie shell

additional options:
1 scant T cinnamon
peanut butter
bananas or other fruit as a topping or pureed fruit mixed in with the chocolate and tofu

Directions:
In a double boiler (aka a metal bowl placed over a boiling pot of water), melt the chocolate.
Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor puree the tofu until smooth.
Add the chocolate, agave/honey, vanilla and whatever else you like to the tofu, and blend until it's all smooth and incorporated.
Pour it all into the pie shell (you might have a bit left over), cover and let chill in the fridge for at least 1 hr until set.

whole grain banana muffins

2007-01-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

I love bananas. They are really easy to bake with, as they can replace eggs and impart a distinct sweetness so you have to add less sugar to whatever you are making. Usually when I have bananas around I tend to make these or the banana bread out of one of Dreena Burton's books. However, I've had my eye on this recipe for a while, so I finally decided to try it. As I didn't have xanthan gum around I decided to make the recipe with wheat flour, which pretty much goes against the whole point, or at least some of it, of the recipe and Erin McKenna's bakery. However, the recipe is still vegan and the sugars come from the bananas and agave nectar, which is a liquid sweetener that is low on the glycemic index. I also added pecans for some texture and protein, oh and made muffins instead of bread. So... basically I changed quite a few things in the recipe, but I think it's still pretty true to the original. Sort of?

Whole Grain Banana Muffins
1 c white whole wheat flour
1/3 c oat bran
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 T cinammon
1/4 t salt
3 bananas mashed or purreed in a food processor
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c agave nectar
1/4 c unsweetened soy milk
2 t vanilla
1/2 c pecans, crushed

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly oil a muffin tin or place liners in tin
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, oat bran, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt
3. In another bowl, combine the bananas, canola oil, agave nectar, soy milk and vanilla
4. Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and add the pecans
5. Stir until smooth and pour into muffin tins
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until browned and tester comes out clean

Makes 12 small muffins

cookbook recommendation

2007-01-16T10:25:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a while (a month almost!), but it hasn't been due to lack of cooking, but rather lack of time. I have a backlog of recipes I want to post, but until I can get to that I thought I'd put in a plug for a cookbook I've been using almost weekly.

I have yet to try something from this cookbook that I haven't loved. I make modifications based on what I have around and also to make some of the recipes healthier (just because it's whole grain doesn't mean it's low in fat). This past weekend I made a carrot cake that was really flavorful and light, but the best thing I've made so far is a pumpkin cake with chocolate chips (the recipe and photo will be up shortly, I promise).

With detailed recipes for everything from crackers to fancy cakes, this book is a great resource. There are lots of helpful tips scattered throughout and a reference section at the end that gives a lot of information about how to use various grains. I haven't attempted to make bread yet, but I will shortly. Until I get my act together and post some recipes I've tried, you can check out this recipe for orange cloud pancakes that was recently in the the Boston Globe. Don't they look good?

what is this stuff?

2006-12-14T09:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I picked up my CSA share and when I opened it up I was quite confused. Beets, potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, parsnips, carrots, cabbage - that stuff I know and like, if not love. But what is everything else? I consulted my handy 'bible' and got to searching. The giant green thing is kohlrabi, but is much bigger than any I had ever seen before. In the bag behind it is winter salsify, which I had never even heard of. Between the onions and potatoes are 2 radishes. Radishes the size of a softball. My dad would be very excited about these, but me? I'm not so sure. The final root vegetable is a giant turnip. Does anyone have any recipe suggestions for some of this stuff? Anthony is much braver than I, and said that we will try it all, but then made a very sad face and said 'are we going to be eating a lot of mashed foods?' So any non-mashed root vegetable recipes would be greatly appreciated.

I'll post the recipes I make up here as I try them.

nutty oat cookies

2006-12-13T10:07:00.000-06:00

Two posts in two days. Crazy, I know. I bought a new cookbook yesterday at my favorite bookstore (all Cooks Illustrated books are 10% off right now, so if you are looking for a good holiday present you should check them out) as a late birthday present to myself. Anthony already teases me for all the cookbooks I have (it's not like I have 101 or anything... yet), but I couldn't resist getting this one. First off, it's really comprehensive and there are a lot of tips and diagrams, which I always appreciate. It's huge and the recipes range from really simple to the ridiculous. There are plenty of recipes in there that are special occasion recipes (just because it's whole grain doesn't mean it's healthy), but there are even more that are simple, easy and nutritious.

Very often when I try to make a dessert that is healthy it winds up 'tasting like health', which I think is Anthony's way of saying 'tasteless' without making me feel bad. Dessert is dessert, however. It doesn't need to be fat free, sugar free and full of 100% of your daily vitamins and minerals. It's a treat and should be thought of as that, but it doesn't mean that I am going to start making cupcakes with almost 1 T of butter in them each to eat on a daily basis. There is a middle ground and I think these nutty oat cookies are a great example.

I've been seeing a lot of recipes with cashew butter in them recently. Bakingsheet had one up recently which extolled the mild flavor of the nut butter while making chewy cookies and Dreena Burton uses cashew butter to make a dip for fruits and veggies that is nice and mild. Armed with my new cookbook and a jar of cashew butter from Trader Joes, I thought I'd put both the butter and the cookbook to the test, and let me tell you they both passed with flying colors. Also, you only need one bowl to make these, so clean up is a breeze.

Nutty Oat Cookies, adapted from Whole Grain Baking

2/3 cup cashew butter (the original calls for peanut butter)
4 T (1/2 stick) butter, cut into pieces
scant 3/4 cup sugar (I used sucanat)
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t sea salt
2 large eggs
1 cup oats (old fashion or quick, NOT instant) ground in food processor or blender for 30 seconds to form a coarse meal
1 1/2 cup oats
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 c dried berries (I used a berry mix, but just cranberries would be great as well)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl, cream the cashew butter, butter, sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt.
3. Add the eggs and mix until fully incorporated. Make sure to wipe down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets worked in.
4. Add in the oats, chips and dried berries.
5. Drop by the T onto the cookie sheets and bake for 11-13 minutes, just until the cookies begin to brown around the edges.
6. Let the cookies cool completely on the pan.

Makes 30 cookies.

It also helps to have a buddy around when you bake them to stare and sniff:

just dump it into a pot lentil soup

2006-12-12T10:01:00.000-06:00

This recipe is adapted from one in Fresh Food Fast. I've made it before many times, and I keep playing around with the amounts based on my mood. This time I added a lot more tomato and 2 teaspoons of minced ginger, but really there is no way you can go wrong with the soup. You put all the ingredients into a pot except for the spinach and lemon juice (the picture to the right), cook it all until the lentils are done, stir in the spinach, add lemon juice and you are done!

lemon lentil soup with tomatoes and spinach
1.5 c rinsed red lentils
28oz can diced tomatoes
3 T olive oil
8 (yes 8) cloves of garlic, peeled
2 t sea salt
2 t minced (or 4 quarter sized slices) ginger
1 spring rosemary
1 bay leaf
6-10 oz bag of baby spinach
2-3 T lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large pot combine everything except the spinach, lemon and extra salt and pepper. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.
2. Cover and reduce heat to medium low and let the soup simmer until lentils are cooked, about 30 - 40 minutes. Once the lentils are cooked remove the rosemary, bay leaf and ginger slices, if using. With the back of a spoon crush the cloves of garlic against the pot - the garlic will be soft and melt into the soup.
3. Add the spinach and stir until wilted and cooked.
4. Add lemon juice to taste, and season with salt and pepper.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

2006-11-14T09:48:00.000-06:00

I swear I make things other than desserts. Really. For example, last night I adapted a recipe for polenta sausage mozzarella casserole by making my own polenta (easy and so good) and subbing tofurkey italian sausage for the meat (otherwise the recipe was as written). And last week I made my own seitan (recipe will be next time I make it) and proceeded to make a fake Thanksgiving dinner, seitan gyros and seitan parmesan. So yes, we eat more than cookies and muffins and cakes, but what can possibly be better than cookies and muffins and cakes? Not much, that's what.

Anthony's mom makes the most amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. They are fairly straightforward and involve pudding mix, but they are a treat and I don't make them unless it's a special occasion. Consequently, I've been hunting down oatmeal cookie recipes that are inanely simple and also not that unhealthy. I found this one and tried my hand at it and futzed around with the ingredients. I got rid of the egg and added a bit extra applesauce, and since I was using sucanat I cut the sugar in half and added chocolate chips. I think that I could have used even less sugar and less chocolate chips (crazy words, I know). The batter, as noted in the original post, is insanely good and would be awesome in ice cream. Since it is vegan I think this would be great to make with kids since they (like me) tend to like getting the last bits out of the bowl and off the beaters into their mouths.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sucanat
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

- line 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper
- preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- in a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined
- add applesauce and vanilla to the sugar and butter mixture and combine until smooth
- stir in the dry ingredients, then the oats and chocolate chips
- drop the batter by rounded teaspoons 2-inches apart on the baking sheets and use a fork to gently flatten the dough
- bake the cookies for 10 minutes until just golden, cool on the sheet for 1-2 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack

makes: 24 cookies

zucchini cookies

2006-11-13T10:44:00.000-06:00

I adapted this recipe a while ago when I had a massive ammount of zucchini from my csa. I've played with it a bit, sometimes I make it healthier, sometimes I don't. Here is the most recent healthy version I made at the request of Eryn. It is a fairly simple recipe but there are a few things to note. First, I used flax instead of butter. Flax absorbs a lot of liquid and makes things brown a bit faster. To get some more liquid into the recipe I used agave nectar instead of the sugar. Agave has a lower glycemic index so it is better for you than plain sugar, and it is also about 1.5 times sweeter so you can use much less in your recipes.

Overall I think the cookies were good - they are on the cakey side, though. I added a bit extra soymilk at the end because the batter was really stiff, but I think it would have been fine without it.

Zucchini cookies with chocolate chips
1 medium zucchini (with skin)
1.5 cup ground flax
3/4 cup agave
1 egg (substitute with 3 T applesauce to make vegan)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips

- preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
- grate the zucchini
- in a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices and salt
- in a large bowl add the flax and sugar and mix until combined
- add in the egg followed by the zucchini
- add in the flour slowly and mix until almost totally combined
- add the chocolate chips and finish stirring
(optional - if the batter is really thick try adding 1 - 2 T soy milk)
- scoop heaping T of the dough onto cookie sheets and bake for about 12 minutes,
until just golden
- cool cookies on baking sheet for about 2-3 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack
- eat!

makes 18 large cookies or 24 smaller ones, depending on how you scoop the dough.

easiest pie

2006-11-03T08:50:00.000-06:00

I had attempted to make apple buttermilk muffins earlier this week and
failed. Miserably. So I've had a container of buttermilk in the fridge and
decided that I needed to use it and I wanted to bake something with chocolate, but not something that was all chocolate. Subtlety, while not usually something I am good at in terms of personality, is something I can achieve through cooking.

I found a recipe for buttermilk pie and adapted it so that it didn't have eggs (I seem to always have bananas going bad on the table) and threw in some chocolate chips for good measure. The crust I used was made in some giant warehouse by the parent company of Jewel, not by my own two hands. The taste was tangy and sweet, with an obvious banana flavor. The chocolate chips sank to the bottom and made a nice layer of chocolate in between the crust and the filling. This is a really good and easy pie, and fairly healthy considering buttermilk is lowfat. I am not sure how this would work if you tried to do the fake buttermilk trick with a non-dairy milk (substitute one tablespoon of fake milk with one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per cup). If you try it let me know.

Buttermilk Banana Chocolate Pie
1 graham cracker crust
1/3 cup sucanat or any unrefined sugar
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 small bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup chocolate chips
cinnamon, to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a food processor, combine sugar, flour and salt and pluse a few times.
Add bananas and blend until well combined.
Add vanilla, nutmeg, and buttermilk and process until smooth.
Pour into crust, taking care not to over-fill the pie.
Add in the chocolate chips and stir.

Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes, until it's set and just jiggles a little bit
in the middle and the top is golden.

Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
Serve chilled or at room temperature.

pumpkin bread

2006-11-01T10:57:00.000-06:00

The first time I made this it turned out a tasty but soggy mess on the inside.
I tried again, this time not at 6 am but at a more reasonable and less groggy
7 pm and it turned out just fine. I think I added in way too much liquid, but
you should make sure that your batter isn't too thick - if it is goopy and heavy
add in 1-2 T milk. A lot might depend on the pumpkin you use and how thick it is.

I made mine with a combination of dried berries, but as I was eating it this
morning I was wishing I was a bit more decadent and added chocolate chips instead.

Pumpkin Bread with Berries (adapted from Everyday Vegan)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unrefined sugar
2 t baking powder
scant 1 t baking soda
2 heaping t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t allspice
1 t ginger powder
couple pinches sea salt
1 cup pumpkin (canned or baked and pureed)
1 cup soy/rice/almond/dairy milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup raisins/dried berries/chocolate chips
1 t vanilla extract
2 t canola

- preheat oven to 350, lightly oil a loaf pan
- in a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well
- in a smaller bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients except the oil
and stir until smooth
- add wet to dry and as it begins to come together add in the canola oil
- pour into pan and bake for about 45 min, until a tester comes out clean
- let it cool on a rack for at least 10 min, pop it out and eat!

easy buttermilk cupcakes

2006-10-31T09:34:00.000-06:00

I basically used this recipe with very little modification. I used vegan butter (soy garden), and you can
also make your own vegan buttermilk simply by pouring out a cup of soy/rice/almond milk, taking out 1 tablespoon and pouring in 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Let that sit for a bit and it will begin to bubble and thicken a little.

I cut down the sugar in these as well, with the intention of making a frosting, but I never did. Lazy. I also added in a handful of crushed walnuts, so these really turned out to be brownie cupcakes.

The cupcakes themselves were really nice and light and super simple to make.

One-Bowl Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 (scant) cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (or vegan option)
1/4 cup vegan butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
Pour in the rest of the ingredients (it's helpful to have the buttermilk at about room temperature) and stir until just combined.
Divide evenly into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 14-16 minutes at 350F, or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

plum cake

2006-10-12T09:24:00.000-06:00

Plums were on sale at Stanely's so I decided to break in my
fancy cake pan and make a plum cake. It smelled great (as you
could guess by Jordan trying to sniff it) and I managed to
unmold the cake with no problems!

I had previously made some apple and pear sauce and
used it as an egg substitute in the cake (the pears
were a nice addition and Anthony's suggestion). Making this
was insanely easy - cut up about 3 lbs of fruit (2 lb of apples,
1 lb of pears), put in a pot with 1 T lemon juice, 1/2 cup of
apple juice or cider, some spices (I put in a little cinnamon and
maple syrup) and stew until the fruit is falling apart. Blend and
adjust spices as needed! Done! I added 1 T of vanilla at the end,
but that is mainly because I tend to dump vanilla in everything.

The recipe is adapted from this.
The original recipe fits a 9" pan, but since the pan I used was a bit
wider and also taller, I doubled the recipe.

Fancy and easy plum cake (could be vegan):

6 T apple-pear sauce (regular applesauce would be great as well)
3/4 c sugar (I used raw unbleached sugar)
2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 t baking powder
2 pinches of salt
1/2 cup almond milk (can use milk or any fake milk)
6 T melted butter (could use vegan butter)
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t vanilla
15 small plums, stoned and cut into quarters lengthwise

Heat oven to 350
Butter and flour or spray a cake pan

Combine the apple-pear sauce and sugar, and then add in the milk,
butter, lemon juice and vanilla.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt, and then
add to the wet ingredients.

This is where you can get all fancy - if using a regular cake pan, pour
the batter into the pan and top with the sliced fruits in any way you
like. Since I was a bit nervous about my new cake pan I put some
slices of plum at the bottom of the pan, topped that with half the batter,
added more plums, topped that off with the rest of the batter, and then
put more plums on top. I figured that if I couldn't invert the cake nicely,
at least one top/bottom would be pretty.

Bake for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
and you are done!

Here are some pictures of the cake in the mold and out just to give you
a better idea:

my kitchen is being over run by herbs

2006-08-18T08:38:00.000-06:00

hey all - i need recipes that incorporate rosemary, dill, chives, or mint.
i bought some small plants and within two weeks the rosemary has doubled and the chives are insanely tall, as is the dill. the mint is just growing beautifully in a fragrant cascade down the window sill.
maybe i'll bake a lot of rosemary bread and drink lots of mojitos.

speaking of baking - i tried this recipe for raspberry lime bread, and it was pretty good. it didn't come out nearly as pretty as that picture, but it tasted pretty good. the lime was subtle, i wish it was a bit stronger. i cut back on the sugar a little bit since i was using turbinado sugar, and used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. the milk i used was almond milk, which i think lent it a softer flavor, almost creamy.

buy an icecream maker

2006-08-13T17:30:00.000-06:00

I got an ice cream maker. I think I am obsessed. How is it that making ice cream is easier than baking cookies?

The first batch I did was banana-buttermilk ice cream, but I added two handfuls of chocolate chips. Amazing. I also cut the sugar in half. The taste? Unreal. The consistency isn't like store bought ice cream, it melts in your mouth a bit more, but still. Ice cream.

The lady who writes bakingsheet just put up a caramelized banana ice cream. Insanitude.

Speaking of which - wtf!

cupcakes galore

2006-07-17T12:26:00.000-06:00

This weekend was spent in Pittsburgh, and to celebrate (and because I
try to bring Anthony's dad ridiculous foods whenever I visit) I made
two kinds of cupcakes - humming bird and chocolate zucchini.

The only modifications I made to the recipes were to use whole wheat pastry flour
and slightly less sugar than called for, but nothing significant. I bet the
hummingbird cupcakes could be made without the eggs as the bananas are a binder,
or perhaps adding an extra banana or some flax would work. I'll try that out.

Baking with so much more butter and oil than usual made me a bit uneasy. It's not
like I eat this every day, but still. It was worth it though - the chocolate
cupcakes were great (although not sweet enough for a five year old palate, the adults
liked them) and the hummingbird cupcakes have a hint of pineapple and a subtle
sweetness. I froze half of the chocolate cupcakes - we'll see how well they do.

Also, if someone could clarify muffin vs cupcake for me that'd be great. As of now
I've decided that cupcakes have frosting, muffins don't. But I guess a bran muffin
with frosting would still be a muffin? I am just trying to rationalize my breakfast
of a hummingbird cupcake (without frosting!)...

buckwheat and blueberry cake

2006-07-12T08:58:00.000-06:00

My grandmother made me eat a lot of kasha when I was growing up, so buckwheat
is something that I have come to love. The flavor is quite potent in this cake,
so if you are not a buckwheat fan you probably want nothing to do with this. This
is great for breakfast!

I got the recipe from Orangette and
made a few subs - I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of the all-purpose flour, used 1/2 cup of turbinado sugar instead of the 3/4 cup of light brown sugar and added three dried slices of navel oranges (Trader Joes sells this - I have never seen it anywhere else before), which I think was key. The orange slices made the cake slightly sweet and fruity, but the orange wasn't overpowering. If you can't find dried orange slices, I'd up the orange zest to the zest from one whole orange. Some nuts would probably also be a nice addition - maybe pecans or walnuts.

Buckwheat and blueberry cake:
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 tsp baking powder
3 slices dried orange, chopped
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
6 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries

For the baking instructions just go to the Orangette link above. I don't have a bundt
pan so I used a large springform pan instead. The cake is excellent but is not a light cake, and is really great toasted with some butter.

banana oatmeal cookies

2006-07-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

I modified this recipe and it turned out pretty well.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t sea salt
2 T butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (I used unrefined)
1 mashed banana
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups oats (quick cooking, but not instant)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup crushed walnuts

- preheat oven to 350 and get a baking sheet ready (I've been using
a baking spray from Trader Joe's)
- mix together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt
- cream together the butter and sugar, then add the banana and egg, followed
by the vanilla
- gradually add in the flour
- stir in the oats, chocolate chips and walnuts
- spoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 11 min

The cookies taste great - the banana stands out a lot. The cookies didn't spread out, so the ones that I made into nice little balls stayed nice little balls, and the ones
I pressed down on spread out a little and looked more cookie-like. I think that
perhaps the whole wheat flour was too much and maybe I should try again with whole wheat pastry flour or a mix of the two. I'd also add more walnuts and instead of more chocolate chips (OK maybe a little bit more) break up the chocolate chips instead. Overall, pretty good cookie!

del.icio.us

2006-06-23T09:03:00.000-06:00

del.icio.us is a way to bookmark webpages - I am using it to store all the recipes
I find. There is a really great introduction to it here
and you can find all of my bookmarked sites here.

I know I've been posting sporadically on here - I will add a recipe for an oat carob chip bar that I made (which I bet would make an awesome muffin! Hmmm!) a few days ago before I head off to... Alaska! I am also going to try out a biscotti recipe for my dad's birthday, and I'll post the results.

Mango fool

2006-06-09T08:04:00.000-06:00

So apparently in dessert terms a 'fool' is anything that involves folding fruit in with whipped cream. This recipe involves mango, heavy whipping cream and the secret ingredient of labneh, a mediterranean style yogurt (or in it's place you can use sour cream - Trader Joe's sells a version of labneh in a tub so it should be pretty easy to get if there is a Trader Joe's near you, or a fancy market.).

1/4 pint heavy whipping cream (1/2 a small container)
1 c labneh/sour cream
2 ripe mangos (is it mangoes?)
1 T sugar (plus more to taste)
lemon or lime, freshly squeezed

in a bowl, stir the labneh (or whatever you choose to use) to loosen it up a bit
in a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until it is thick, but not so thick that it holds stiff peaks
fold the cream into the labneh

in a blender of food processor, puree the mango w/1 T of sugar and a few tablespoons of lemon or lime juice (to taste)

fold the mango into the dairy mixture, add more lemon/lime juice and/or sugar if you want, and you're done!

Double chocolate almond cookies aka Billie's favorite cookies

2006-06-06T08:34:00.000-06:00

This recipe makes some of the best vegan cookies I've ever had (or made!).
It's pretty much straight out of Vive le Vegan! (which also has some other great dessert recipes that are worth trying).

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3 T toasted almond pieces
3 T chocolate chips
1/4 cup unrefined sugar (a little scant)
1/4 t sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup (a little generous)
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract (optional)
1/4 cup canola oil (a little generous)

1. preheat oven to 350 and oil a cookie sheet or cover it with parchment paper
2. in a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda
3. add the almond pieces, chocolate chips, sugar and salt and stir until well combined
4. in a different bowl, combine the maple syrup with the vanilla and almond extracts, then add in the oil and stir until well combined
5. add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until well combined but don't overmix
6. place large spoonfulls of the batter on the cookie sheet and press down on them a little bit
7. bake for 11 minutes, until golden - baking for much longer causes them to dry out
8. transfer from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack within a minute of taking them out of the oven (again because they'll dry out if on the hot cookie sheet too long)

A quick note and another (chocolate/peanut butter) cake

2006-06-02T12:31:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't been updating - I know I promised to put up a cookie recipe (sorry Billie!) and I will do that soon. Really.
I changed the settings so that you can comment even if you don't have a blogspot blog, so feel free to add comments!

Now for another cake recipe -

I adapted this recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's excellent blog (I also suggest you try to make the rosewater baklava - it's easy and really good!).

chocolate fudge and peanut butter pudding cake
You end up with something that is cakey on top and the bottom is pudding/sauce and tastes really good.

Need: 8" baking pan, greased

Ingredients:
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 c sugar of your choice
1/4 c oat bran OR oat flour
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3/4 c nondairy milk
2 t vanilla
1 c sugar
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 c water
1/2 c chunky peanut butter (this is what the original called for, but I'll increase it to 3/4 c next time)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. combine the first six dry ingredients in a bowl and mix
3. stir in (but don't over mix!) the fake milk and vanilla
4. spread this batter into the baking pan
5. in a small bowl combine the sugar and cocoa powder and sprinkle on top of the
batter in the pan
6. heat the water in a small pan and when it begins to boil add the peanut butter, and when it is smooth pour over the batter in the pan but DO NOT stir
6. bake for 35 minutes

tips:
- place a baking sheet in the oven rack below the cake pan to catch things if they drip
- serve warm

Tahini Cake

2006-06-02T11:53:00.000-06:00

I first saw this recipe on Shmooed Food and thought I'd give it a try. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour, decreased the sugar (I used fresh squeezed orange juice which was already pretty sweet), increased the walnuts and used a combination of dried berries (raisins, cranberries, blueberries) instead of just the raisins originally called for. I really liked the end result - it's a fairly dense cake w/a subtle tahini flavor. The berries lend a nice sweetness that isn't too much - I wouldn't eat this for desert, but it makes a great snack or breakfast!

Need: an 8" cake pan or springform pan (probably the easiest)
hand mixer

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 1/4 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon (plus more for dusting in the top before baking)
3/4 c tahini
3/4 cup orange juice (plus a little bit more if the batter is really dry)
1/3 cup turbinado sugar (if you want this to be on the sweet side try increasing the amount or using more berries)
3/4 cup mixed berries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
spray the pan w/nonstick spray (I use one that has flour in it already, if you don't have one like this just dust with flour)

2. combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl

3. in a large bowl, pour in the tahini and while beating with an electric mixer slowly pour in the orange juice and then the sugar - continue mixing until the mixture is smooth and light in color

4. add the flour mixture to the tahini mixture and mix well - you can continue to use the hand mixer but the dough gets to be pretty thick at which point you can switch to a spoon or knead it with your hands as you add the berries and walnuts

5. press the dough into the pan and sprinkle some more cinnamon on top

6. bake for 35 minutes, until golden brown on top and let it cool for a few minutes before taking it out of the pan.

miso pesto, harira and apricot blondies

2006-05-10T11:50:00.000-06:00

This week I made three recipes from Nava Atlas's website.

Spinach miso pesto with noodles (Robina's adaptation, which is also based on the same recipe

18 oz baby spinach
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh basil
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons miso
3 cloves garlic (I love garlic, but this might be too much for some)
10 oz bag of soba noodles (I already had these in my pantry, but I bet it would
work well w/Udon or even whole wheat spaghetti)

1. Steam the spinach until wilted, let cool for a bit and then squeeze out as much
of the water as possible

2. Place the spinach, basil, pine nuts, olive oil, miso and garlic in a food processor and pulse until a coarse mixture is formed. Taste and adjust as needed - I added a little more basil than the original 1/2 cup.

3. Make the noodles, and top the noodles with the pesto.

I found that this made A LOT of pesto, way more than I needed for the pasta.
I had enough of the pesto left over (after taking out three servings worth - basically a big T) to fill an ice cube tray. Freezing the left over pesto and then transferring it to a plastic bag ensures some more quick and easy meals in the future!

Harira based on this recipe
This is a really really easy soup that I love to make. The whole thing, including chopping, rinsing and waiting, took 45 minutes or so.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 large celery stalks, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup dried red lentils
2 teaspoons turmeric
3 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
10 oz package of cherry or other small tomatoes, diced (I just used a food processor)
16 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1. In a soup pot, heat the oil and add the onions. Saute over medium heat until
translucent and then add the celery and garlic. Saute until the onions are golden.

2. Add 6 cups of water, the lentils and spices to the onion mixture. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer gently until the lentils are slightly tender (about 30 minutes).

3. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas (add more water if the soup is too think for your liking), and continue to simmer over low heat. Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro and season with salt and pepper (or more lemon juice!).

I had a big bowl of this with some garlic naan from Trader Joes. Perfect.

Apricot Blondies
I am always on the lookout for healthyish deserts, and this one seemed to fit the bill. I am still torn as to whether or not there was too much apricot flavor in these - Anthony hates apricots and liked these, where as I love apricots and felt that the dried apricot was a little too sweet. The original recipe is here.

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons of cinnamon (I added this on the top right before the oven, but next
time I'll add it into the batter itself)
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1 single serving container of lowfat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup soymilk, or as needed
3/4 cup finely diced dried apricots
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking dish.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (the first 6 ingredients) and stir

3. Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the wet ingredients (the next three and enough soymilk to make the batter smooth, but still slightly stiff). Stir until completely combined. Add in the apricots, chocolate chips and walnuts.

4. Transfer to the baking dish and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Let cool in the dish before cutting.

This recipe made 9 really moist and somewhat decadent blondies - I think I need to experiment more with the apricots, though.

planting pansies, napping on hammocks

2006-05-08T07:24:00.000-06:00

During my junior and senior years of college I lived off campus in a somewhat run down but awesome house with Alison, Laura and Patrick (although others lived there as well, but we were the ones that stuck it out the longest).

Most of my springtime memories involve Alison's hammock on the front porch, planting pansies, trips to Adam's to buy lots of fresh fruit and vegetables (along with amazing pesto), and making recipes out of the moosewood cookbook. There were also lots of car rides with Laura (which involved listening to a lot of the Magnetic Fields), trips to an amazing indian buffet near Rhinebeck and eating at a restaurant owned by a former drummer for Murphy's Law in New Paltz.

Alison, Laura and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Our other roommate Patrick, not so much. In memory of those spring days here is an archive of Mollie Katzen's recipes that I found when I was searching for some recipes last week.

recipe blogs and new cookbook

2006-05-02T08:23:00.000-06:00

I am really still figuring things out as a cook, so I use lots of different cookbooks and websites to get ideas.

My favorite websites right now that I use for recipes are:
Nava Atlas's blog and her "recipe's galore" site

Dreena Burton, the author of Vive le Vegan! and Everyday Vegan has a recipes site and a blog where she posts things she is working on. In addition, there is a site where she posts a lot of useful information on ingredients that she uses.

The Vegan Lunchbox always has good ideas and tips, and the recipes for some of the lunches can be found at Shmooed Food.

I broke my promise to myself of not buying anymore cookbooks when I saw The Silver Spoon on sale at Costco. I justified the purchase because it is basically a cooking encyclopedia (it is arranged by ingredients and the index is wonderful), it was half the usual price, and it was published by Phaidon. My dream library would probably be 80% Phaidon and MIT Press books.

I think that I really do need to stop buying cookbooks, but I am contemplating subscribing to Cook's Illustrated because I love watching America's Test Kitchen. Not only do they make awesome things, but they research the recipes and explain why certain ingredients work better than others and have lots of reviews of the kitchen tools and brands.

Oat bars

2006-05-02T08:07:00.000-06:00

I adapted a recipe for granola bars from Nava Atlas' website

Her recipe called for granola, which I didn't have, and I also upped the flax seed and added some nuts. I added extra applesauce to get the batter moistened and used a different oil.

Whatever I have in the Pantry Oat Bars:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
4 T ground flaxseed
1/2 t baking soda
2 T natural granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 + 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 T olive oil
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/2 cup random dried berry assortment (I got this at Trader Joes, where I am sure
it has a much nicer name. I think the berries included cranberries, blueberries and cherries)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine the flour, flaxseed, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add 1/2 cup applesauce
and the olive oil

Begin to combine, but if the batter is too dry just keep adding applesauce as needed

The batter will get fairly thick once the applesauce and the flour mixture are incorporated

Add in the rolled oats, nuts and berries and stir

If it's not coming together add in a bit more applesauce

Pour the batter into a lightly oiled 8 x 8 inch pan and pat down

Bake for about 20 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean

Let cool and then cut into bars

This made 9 bars (I cut them small to use for snacks) and they were soft and cakey, but not too soft. I think some cinnamon would have been a nice addition, and perhaps instead of sugar a T of maple syrup would have been nice. These were incredibly simple to make, you only need to wash one bowl (which is good for me because I am terrible at dishes) and are pretty healthy. They also taste great warm.

easy as pie

2006-05-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

I know I've been slacking on updating this, but not to worry.
Upcoming recipes will include double chocolate almond cookies (I didn't forget, Billie!), eggplant and seitan falafel, and a recipe for the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ever (seriously).

In the meantime, I made a really simple pie using a whole lot of frozen berries (I used cherries and blueberries) and a small container of blackberries.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To make the crust -
I adapted this recipe

1 cup whole wheat flour (all purpose - I ran out of pastry)
1 cup white flour (all purpose)
2 t sugar
1 t salt
1/2 - 2/3 cup canola oil
3 - 4 tablespoons soy milk (could use regular milk, almond milk, etc...)

In a 9" pie plate placed on a clean counter, combine the flours, sugar and salt
In a measuring cup, whisk together the oil and milk
Pour that over the flour mixture in the pie plate and using a fork combine until the flour is evenly dampended
(I had to add a bit more oil and milk to get this to happen)
Using your hands, spread the crust across the bottom and sides of the plate, and let the extra fall onto the counter and reserve it for the top

To make the filling -
Take about 2 - 3 cups of fresh and frozen berries and blend in a blender until
smooth. Add a bit of maple syrup and lemon to adjust the sweetness/tartness.
Add this to 1 cup of berries, stir and add some cinnamon

To assemble -
Add 3 T cornstarch to the berry mixture and the pour into the pie plate
Top with the remaining crust crumbles (I just scatter them across the top)

Bake for 40 minutes

Cocoa-almond-honey rolls

2006-04-17T11:34:00.000-06:00

I adapted these from the honey bee no bakes recipe on shmooedfood

1.5 c oat bran
generous 1/8 cup cocoa powder
1 T vanilla
generous 1/4 cup almond butter
1/3 cup honey
Maple syrup, as needed

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients
Knead well with your hands
To help the mixture stay together add a bit of maple syrup, or a bit more
almond butter depending on how sweet you want it

Pinch off bits of the dough, roll into balls and place in a container

I snacked on these all day yesterday, but I wisely put a bunch aside as snacks for this week.

Really simple, quick and somewhat healthy treats!

UPDATE: I made these again last night but without the honey (used maple syrup instead), added cinammon, no vanilla and used more cocoa powder and I think they came out better. The taste was similar to a dark-chocolate almond truffle.

Matzoh and Cheese Pie

2006-04-16T15:05:00.000-06:00

Matzoh and cheese pie

This is a traditional Passover recipe from Greece - it tastes like boureakas pie!
I think it would go great with tomato soup and/or a large green salad.
The cheese is salty enough so that I didn't need to add any salt, but be sure to taste the cheese mixture
to make sure it tastes good to you.

Serves 8

Total of 1 lb of cheese - use a mixture of feta, cheddar, jack and mozz (1/4 lb each; save a bit for topping)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped dill
6 eggs, seperated
6 - 8 matzohs, enough to line the pan in two full layers

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Oil a 10 x 14 x 2 inch baking pan

In a bowl, mix together the cheeses, olive oil and dill
In a seperate bowl whisk together the egg yols until creamy
Add the yolks into the cheeses
In another bowl, beat together the egg whites until stiff peaks form
Fold egg whites into cheese and yolk mixture

In a shallow dish large enough to hold about half the matzohs place half the matzohs and cover with water
Let rest for 3 minutes for the matzoh to soften, then drain and use them to line the pan

Cover the matzoh layer with the cheese and egg mixture

Soak the remaining matzohs and use them to top the cheese and egg mixture

Sprinkle the top with cheese and bake, uncovered, for 30 - 40 minutes, until brown on top

Favorite cookbooks

2006-04-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

I've been asked to list my favorite cookbooks, so here they are:

Some of the best cookies, brownies and breads I've made recently come from the following two:
vive le vegan

everyday vegan

Great meal ideas, simple recipes:
fresh food fast

I bought this mainly because it had a lot of recipes for foods I ate as a kid, and it has been used quite often. The bourekas recipe is my favorite thing in here (there is also a great recipe for bulgur patties that you can buy at Soul Veg.):
the foods of israel today

Simple, elegant and fast recipes, with beautiful pictures and really helpful tips:
the instant cook

Sephardic cooking has always appealed to me, and this book is filled with great recipes and is incredibly veggie friendly:
sephardic flavors

I got this cookbook probably 10 years ago. The breakfast and muffin recipes are wonderful, and there is a recipe for an italian rice pudding cake that I adore:
essential vegetarian cookbook

A great vegetarian cookbook, with recipes from around the world:
olive trees and honey

Passover - NY Times article

2006-04-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

I thought this was pretty interesting.

April 5, 2006
It's Passover, Lighten Up

By JOAN NATHAN
WHEN Emily Moore, a Seattle-based chef and instructor, was invited to consult on recipes for Streit's Matzo, she assumed that the baked goods would have their traditional heft, because no leavening can be used during Passover.

Not so, said Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, a member of a prominent rabbinic dynasty, who oversees the company's ritual observances. Let the cookies and cakes rise, he told her. Let there be baking soda and baking powder.

"He acted like I was crazy," Ms. Moore said.

The biblical prohibition against leavened bread at Passover — which begins on Wednesday night — has kept observant Jews from using any leavening at all. Cakes and cookies of matzo meal (ground matzo), matzo cake meal (which is more finely ground) and nuts can be tasty, but dense.

So it will surprise many Jews — it certainly surprised me — that among the profusion of products that most Orthodox certification agencies have approved for Passover are not just baking soda, but also baking powder.

Some rabbis are lifting other dietary prohibitions that they say were based on misunderstandings or overly cautious interpretations of biblical sanctions, and because they want to simplify the observance.

"The holiday has become overly complicated, and people are turning away from the rigorous practice of it," said Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg, the senior rabbi at conservative Adas Israel Congregation in Washington.

Last year, Rabbi Wohlberg said it was permissible for his congregants to eat legumes, called kitniyot in Hebrew. They are usually beyond the pale at Passover for the most rigorous observers, but are increasingly accepted by many Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, particularly in Israel.

"I have also talked to a lot of young mothers over the years whose children, for example, are lactose intolerant and want to use soy milk," Rabbi Wohlberg said. "But soy is a bean and hasn't been permissible."

The restrictions have their roots in the Book of Exodus, which tells of how the Israelites fled Egypt in such haste that they could not let their bread rise and become "chometz" in Hebrew. Only unleavened bread, matzo, is eaten during the eight days of Passover, in memory of the Israelites' hardships and in celebration of their escape from slavery.

"No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory" during Passover, it was written. But, as Ms. Moore said, "There is a lot of misunderstanding about what leavening means for Passover."

Jews avoid flour or grains, for fear that they might become leavened even without the addition of yeast. (Matzo meal, since it's already been baked, is less likely to rise and become leavened.)

Matzo, a simple mixture of flour and water, must be made in less than 18 minutes to avoid the possibility that the dough could ferment and then rise before being baked. "The Talmud says that it should take no longer to make matzo than the time to walk a Roman mile, which later generations understood to be 18 minutes," said Dr. David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

At Passover, some ultra-Orthodox Jews will not eat matzo that has become wet, including matzo balls. Instead of matzo meal, or the fine matzo cake meal, they use potato starch in cakes and other dishes.

But rabbis in even some of the most Orthodox associations say chometz does not refer to all leavening.

"There is nothing wrong about a raised product at Passover per se," said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, executive rabbinic coordinator and chief operating officer of the Orthodox Union's kosher division, the oldest and most widely accepted certifier of kosher foods.

Lise Stern, author of "How to Keep Kosher" (Morrow, 2004), said: "Chometz, which means sharp or sour, denotes bread that has a sourness to it caused by fermentation, occurring when liquid is added to any of the five grains mentioned in the Torah. This refers to yeast, not baking powder or baking soda."

Rabbi Soloveichik said: "They're just minerals. What do we care about minerals?"

While kosher for Passover baking soda and baking powder can be hard to find in supermarkets, they have been available in Orthodox neighborhoods for years. Erba Food Products, of Brooklyn, made kosher for Passover baking powder in the late 1960's.

Ms. Moore, who creates kosher recipes for the Elliott Bay Baking Company in Seattle, adjusted recipes for matzo meal, which is heavier than flour, to make vanilla sesame, lemon ginger and double chocolate mocha cookies with baking soda or baking powder (made with potato starch, not corn starch, which is made from a grain that is avoided).

The ban on legumes is connected to the ban on leavening. Jews in medieval Europe began to keep beans and lentils, as well as grains, from the Passover table because until modern times they were often ground into flour. The use of rice and corn were later restricted, too, by some Jews. But Sephardic Jews of the Middle East continued to eat them at Passover.

Over the past few years legumes have become accepted for Passover by the Israeli Army and the Masorti movement (as Conservative Judaism is known in Israel) partly because of increased intermarriage between Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, as those of European descent are called.

A delicious Moroccan Passover dish of shad and fava beans takes advantage of the freer interpretation of the Passover pantry and the bounty of spring.

The Passover table has changed in many ways. More than 21,000 kosher for Passover items are available in the United States, with 500 new ones this year, said Menachem Lubinsky, president of Lubicom, a marketing firm specializing in kosher food.

With such items as Passover pasta (made from potato starch), quinoa salads, tricolored matzo balls, and ingredients like grape seed oil, kosher organic chickens and matzo breadsticks, a lot of the suffering is being taken out of Passover.

In the weeks before Passover, many homes are rigorously cleaned, and every bit of chometz or leavening removed. Some people avoid cooking in their newly cleaned homes by going to a resort that is kosher for Passover, a practice that in the past few years has been boosting business in the Caribbean and around the country during a traditionally slow period.

At the Hyatt Dorado Beach Resort and Country Club in Puerto Rico, Robin Mortkowitz, a therapist in Fairlawn, N.J., who became Orthodox when she married, was swept away by new foods like sushi made from quinoa, the sesame-seed-sized kernel cultivated in the Andes that many certifying agencies have ruled is not a forbidden grain.

"With people becoming more sophisticated, we have to step up the food program," said Sol Kirschenbaum, an owner of Levana restaurant in New York, which arranged the food at the Hyatt. "It's wild mushrooms and grilled rack of lamb, but I still need to have chicken soup and gefilte fish for the 60- to 90-year-olds."

Kosher companies are also sprucing up their food. Susie Fishbein, author of the popular "Kosher by Design" series of cookbooks, said she is creating recipes for the Manischewitz Web site and food boxes, like tricolored matzo balls with green spinach, yellow turmeric and red tomato paste, using olive oil instead of schmaltz.

"Companies like Manischewitz can't survive on kosher gefilte fish anymore," Ms. Fishbein said. "A whole new generation of cooks is looking for fresh ideas."

But some still find beauty in tradition. When the cookbook author Tamasin Day-Lewis made a flourless almond cake with a fresh orange and mandarin syrup for a party recently, some of her guests who were Jewish said, "This is perfect for Passover."

Passover

2006-04-04T08:44:00.000-06:00

By request I am beginning to compile some Pesach recipes.
My mom sent me a cookbook just for Passover, but I've never tried to make anything from it because the recipes all seem very fancy.
I also picked up an issue of Gourmet magazine because it had some Passover recipes in it, so I think it might be a fancy Passover in Chicago this year.

I cursory websearch also turned up a vegan matzoh ball recipe from the ppk , and the comments section for that recipe gets into whether or
not tofu is kosher for Passover.

Every Passover at my parents' house we always have matzoh ball soup (my mom tops hers with a cinnamon and sugar mixture, leading to a debate between her and my dad as to whether Lithuanians or Ukrainians have better food which usually ends with my dad saying that Lithuanian Jews are snobby), tzimmes and gefilte fish. Both of my grandmothers made their gefilte fish from scratch - my dad's mom was famous for hers and we'd always have a lot of people come over the first and second seders just to eat her cooking. My mom's mom made hers with a tomato puree topping which was amazing. I do not think I will make my own anytime soon, but I always feel bad for people whose only taste of gefilte fish is from the jarred kind. That is what we eat now, unless we go to my sister's in-law's house where we eat the Polish version, which is too sweet for me. My mom also makes matzoh bagels every year which are small and greasy little things, almost like donuts. They are addictive.

One of my favorite Passover snacks is also the simplest: peanut butter and jelly on matzoh.

Legumes, grains and frozen cherries

2006-04-04T08:20:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I made a chickpea polenta that was a bit weird. I keep forgetting that I am not the biggest fan of oregano and thyme, and this recipe was heavy on both. I think I'll try it again, perhaps with cumin and curry instead. I topped the polenta with olives, cherry tomatoes, onion and parmesan before putting it under the broiler for a minute. All in all, the top was good, the spices not so much.

I also made a quinoa risotta with arugula, shitake mushrooms and onions. That was pretty good and really simple to make. I'll post that recipe when I get a chance.

Both recipes came from the new mayo clinic cookbook

The best thing I made for this week was a cherry and apple crisp.
I chopped up two apples, added a bit of lemon juice, 2 cups of frozen cherries, lots of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg for the base. As a binder, I combined some maple syrup and arrowroot (otherwise this thing would be ultra soggy), and topped the whole thing with some ground oats I had in the pantry, more cinnamon, a bit of canola oil and ground flaxseed. After about 45 minutes in the oven it was done and it's so good. I forget how much I love cherries and the frozen cherries I had tasted as good as fresh ones!

spinach soup with rice & curried chickpea pancakes

2006-03-28T21:47:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite cookbooks is "Fresh Food Fast" by Peter Berley.
It's divided into seasons, highlighting seasonal fruits and vegetables and there are multiple menus in each section.

I've made this soup many times and it is a great winter soup (even though it is part of the spring section).
The pancakes are super simple and really tasty.
Heather brought over some bruschetta to go with the meal, which fit in perfectly.
The pancakes are also great with greek yogurt. Mmmmm!!!

Spinach soup with basmati rice

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
10 oz bag baby spinach
1/3 cup basmati rice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspon ground cumin
1 teaspoon seasalt, plus more to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste (I added quite a bit more, actually)
freshly milled black pepper, to taste

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat warm the olive oil.
Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a blender, working in batches, puree the spinach with 1 cup of water until smooth.

3. Add the rice, garlic and cumin to the onions and cook, stirring or about 1 minute.

4. Add the spinach puree, 3 cups of water, and salt and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Stir in the dill and simmer, covered, until the rice is tender, about 3 - 4 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Add additional water if the soup is too thick.

Curried chickpea pancakes

2 cups chickpea flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of water
1 cup plain yogurt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons canola oil
6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 200

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, curry powder, salt and pepper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups of water, yogurt, eggs adn 2 tablespoons of the oil.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir to combine.
Add the scallions and chopped cilantro and mix well.

3. Place one or two small nonstick skillets over medium heat.
Coat with the remaining tablespoon of oil and heat for 30 seconds.
Ladle 2/3 cup of batter in the pan(s).
Fry for about 4 minutes until the surface of the pancake has begun to dry out and bubbles are formed.
Flip and fry for 3 minutes more.
Transfer the cooked pancakes to the heated baking pan and keep warm in the oven.
Repeat until the batter is used up.

berry cupcake shortcake

2006-03-28T11:37:00.000-06:00

i made this for dessert a few weeks ago and it was really simple and awesome.
the cupcake recipe is a modification of one on http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com

cupcakes:
makes 12 big ones in a regular muffin tin

1 ½ scant cups plain soymilk
1 TB apple cider vinegar
2 1/8 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. preheat oven to 350º
line muffin tin w/cupcake liners

2. measure out the soymilk and add the apple cider vinegar
stir well and set aside - it will curdle

3. in a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, bp, bs and salt

4. in another mixing bowl, whisk together the soymilk/vinegar, oil and vanilla

5. add wet to dry and beat until smooth w/a hand blender

6. fill each muffin tin with the batter and bake for about 20 min, until
a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

7. let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, and then remove from pan and
place on wire rack to continue cooling.

to make this into shortcakes, just cut the cupcakes into thirds (i made one
cut to take off the top and another in the middle of the rest) and put a few spoonfuls
of your favorite berries and some whipped cream on top of each layer.

i drizzled some blueberry maple syrup (defrosted some blueberries, added maple syrup and blended
that together - awesome on pancakes!) on the tops as well.

winter squash and spinach lasagna

2006-03-28T11:14:00.000-06:00

I lifted this recipe from Robina's food blog (http://b-eats.livejournal.com/), but modified it a bit:

2 6 oz bags of baby spinach
2 tbs olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2.5 tbs buttery spread (such as earth balance or soy garden, or umm... butter)
3 tbs. whole wheat flour
1/2 cup water
~ 24 oz winter squash (see note)
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 container of lowfat ricotta cheese
1.5 tsp. dried basil
1.5 tsp. salt, or to taste
2/3 cup pecorino romano cheese, grated
1 egg
6-8 oz. part-skim mozarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 handful toasted almonds
box no-boil whole wheat lasagna noodles

NOTE: i got two boxes of 'winter harvest' from trader joes. basically, it's a bunch of butternut squash, sweet potatoes and other things cut into cubes. to use in the recipe, i cut about 1.5 boxes worth of the veggies into thin slices.

1. preheat oven to 350F.
grease a lasagna pan

2. melt 2 1/2 tbs. butter in a medium saucepan, over low heat.
when it is melted completely, stir or whisk in the 3tbs. of whole wheat flour until it is thick and smooth.
whisk in 1/2 cup water gradually, until creamy.
add squash.
cover and let this cook completely.
take care to check it and stir often.

3. while the squash is cooking, heat 2 tbs. olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.
add minced garlic and fry up til softened and fragrant.
add spinach and a pinch of salt.
cover and cook on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or until spinach is tender. remove from heat.

4. mix ricotta, dried basil, 1/3 cup of the pecorino romano, egg, 1 tsp. salt, and spinach in a bowl.

5. when the squash is done cooking, stir in 1/2 tsp of the nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. salt.

6. layering!
a. spread 1/4 of the squash in the pan.
b. then layer lasagna noodles
c. another 1/4 of the squash
d. 1/2 of the ricotta mixture
e. 1/3 of the mozarella.
repeat this again
on top of the last layer of the lasagna noodles add the rest of the squash, mozarella and pecorino romano.

7. topping!
mix brown sugar with 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg in a small measuring cup.
top the lasagna with 1 (or 2 - i have big hands!) handfuls of sliced almonds, crushing them a bit in your hand as you
spread them, and the spice/sugar mixture.

8. cook!
cover the lasagna with aluminum foil for 40 minutes.
uncover lasagna and cook for another 20 minutes.

this smelled so good coming out of the oven! if it wasn't close to 1 am i would have cut myself a giant slice.