I'm Never Eating Out Again

Okay, that's a blatant lie. But we recently discovered the joy of re-creating dishes at home. This round: Noodle & Company's Pasta Fresca. We had a little help with this one--much gratitude to the person who asked answers.com how to make this dish. Their answer here, my retelling of it here. The sauce is a white wine and balsamic reduction, a perfect glaze companion to the red onions and tomatoes.

Served with a spinach and strawberry salad complete with almond slivers and crumbly cheese and a very california avocado bruschetta. Topped with a view of the ocean!

Seaweed!

Dulse, to be exact. I've been meaning to up my sea vegetable intake ever since I got the chance to harvest some straight off the rocks in Maine last summer. A stirfry seemed (and proved) an easy route.

Dulse is a great source of iron, trace minerals, protein, vitamins B6 and B2, as well as fiber. I'm mostly attracted to the color, the healthy bit is just a bonus. You do have to like that fishy/sea taste, though.

The gist of the recipe is from the Maine Coast Sea Vegetable Company (you can also order sea veggies from their site, and rest easy that they are sustainably harvested). Maybe someday I'll work up to the "DLT" or "Dummus"...

This meal was also a last chance to eat "local" in Boulder, CO before heading to the Northwest.

Camera has a (tepid) love affair with seaweed here.

Fun with Garlic Scapes

If you don't think that garlic scapes are the most amazingly beautiful thing you've seen all day, raise your hand. And then leave.

I'm smitten with them, both visually and, er, victually (sorry, Webster). The women behind the stand at the farmer's market told me I was the first person to recognize (and therefore prize) the scapes, which surprised me, but I guess I was never aware of their existence before I spent some time on a farm.

My laziness and lack of a blender compel me to fry these up, with a sprinkle of cayenne and a splash of tamari--such a quick and spicy snack!--but I found a pesto recipe and a blog entry on said recipe that were both great. If you're feeling inspired, check them out:

What's a Garlic Scape? and pesto recipe
Garlic Scape Pesto...with pictures!

P.S. Some sites tell you to cut the scapes into 2 inch pieces before adding them to a stirfry, and I guess I see some logic there. But if you're making them solo, leave 'em whole, they're much more fun to eat that way (with your fingers, of course).

An Overdue Homage

Neeta's gone, y'all. Not that I just noticed (it's been two weeks), but I got some baby bok choy at the farmer's market today and it only served to highlight her absence. She's off to unleash pastries and slow-food galore on the unsuspecting and probably poorly-developed palates of her fellow med students. Good thing I stocked up on photos to drool over.

A Yellow Day

Corn Muffins, recipe courtesy of __?__. I found it scribbled into my recipe book. To put it nicely, these were boring. Before baking the second half, I added probably a tablespoon of vanilla and a heaping spoonful of honey. That helped (vanilla is my panacea), but I'd still consider these a blank canvas, in need of gorgeous fruit sauces--i'm envisioning criss-crossed blueberry and raspberry, although that's a little 4th of July for me--or, in the very least, maple syrup.

Yellow Split Pea Soup, recipe from the Tassajera Cookbook. I was intrigued by the use of lemon juice in this recipe (other than that, it features the regulars: bay leaf, cumin, paprika, black pepper...), but the lemon turned out to be too much for me. Maybe if had added it earlier it would have mellowed out, but whew, I didn't like it at all. I'm not going to bother to post the recipe, and the photoshoot was likewise uninspired. Sigh.

Tomato Time (Or, The Limits of My Camera's Focus)

Helped put some tomatoes in the ground at the garden (Growing Gardens, Boulder, CO) the other day, and picked up this trick: pluck off the early flowers and branches bearing baby tomatoes, as well as the first three branches up from the bottom (three is a guess). Then plant almost to the bottom remaining branch (deep!). This way the plant can focus on setting strong roots, which will grow out of where those lower branches used to be.

The itsy tomatoes were precious--too bad the cam couldn't handle the extreme close-up that I wanted. Oh well, these will have to do.

Red Lentil + Chickpea Burgers

Another Myra Kornfeld creation. We made it with the peanut sauce (one that doesn't use soy sauce--included with the recipe). Fairly quick and easy to make, though we had mixed success with trying to speed up the cooling process by throwing them in the freezer for ten minutes instead of the fridge for thirty; they were on the verge of falling apart. Our suggestion would be more spice--triple the cumin, double the coriander, get some chili pepper flakes in on the game, whatever, but don't trust her recommendation.

For a full photoshoot, both making and plating, click here.

"Millet Bars"

A recipe inspired by a local bakery's version. While it's true that the millet adds a lot of flair to these bars, they could just as easily be called oatmeal cookie bars. Once you skim the recipe, you'll see what i mean.

For our first attempt we spread them onto a baking sheet, which could possibly work, but it's hard not to overcook them. The goal is to have a crunchy, stable exterior and a gooey, barely cooked middle portion. So the first batch came out hard, like a hard granola bar. Still good, but not perfect (maybe perfect to crumble into granola...). I think you get a sense of the thickness in these two pictures.

The second round was made in a deeper baking pan, and cooked hardly at all. Perfect! And they're vegan, for those people out there who a) are vegan or b) worry about ingesting undercooked eggs. If you have leftover mash (i don't want to say batter, but we all know that's what it is), it seems well suited to be a crumble topping or eaten with vanilla ice cream.

No, It's Not Valentine's Day

I just passed some gorgeous rose bushes on my walk home from work, and there just happened to be three, count 'em, three types of chocolate mousse in the fridge that love to wear pink. Maybe if you're really nice to her, Neeta will post the recipes.

For the full photoshoot, click here.

Tempeh Trial

The recipe is from Myra Kornfeld's The Healthy Hedonist. My first tempeh experience! I had no idea what tempeh was (it's *fermented* soy, thanks Sandorkraut). Colin's departure (and that of his cookware) has required some kitchen innovation on our part--check the awesome steamer:

OMG I Live with a Pastry Chef Pt. 2

Last Days, First Crust

Colin suffered the fate of those of us who have birthdays close to major holidays--we combo'd his b-day and going away quiches. And I did the crust! The process made me realize two things: how completely i'd been a spectator for previous quiche crust-making adventures and how damn good i am at making said crusts. Well, maybe...I had quite a lot of supervision. But look at how pretty!

Crust recipe here, custard here. The spinach was a new twist for us--we sauteed it briefly with the onions and garlic before baking it in. We also used pink peppercorns (in addition to black pepper). Our spiciest quiche yet!

OMG I Live with a Pastry Chef

A pate sucree shell, pastry cream, and gorgeous fruit combine to create this mignardise. Neeta calls it a "pop-it-in-your-mouth dessert", but it took me slighty longer to consume, since it inspired a photoshoot.

Risotto!

A barley based version from Myra Kornfield's The Healthy Hedonist. Turned out to be low stress (you bake it!) and just as creamy as rice ones we've had.

Jess Special

Not sure who dubbed it so, but it's true, i make this a lot. Probably because it's easy and tasty. We can argue about using canned beans and veggies, but i usually do, at least until later in the summer when the tomatoes are out.

Recipe here.

Smoothies really bring out the cynic in me

Combine in a blender/food processor the flesh of 2 fresh mangoes, 4 oz. frozen raspberries, and 1 cup of plain yogurt. Process until smooth. Delicious.

It's kind of sad though that it's a concoction whose existence is totally dependent on the infrastructure of an absurd produce industry. Mango (in Colorado) combined with out-of-season raspberries - are you kidding me? I hope all our recipes aren't reliant on such a fragile system.

Adventures in Kimchi Pt 2

The verdict: spicy sour/sweet goodness. Ate it with the leftover plain rice noodles, to take the edge off. A quick google and wikipedia search yielded these fun facts:

Kimchi didn't include chili peppers until the the 17th century, when the plant, native to the Americas, was introduced to the region.

Kimchi varieties are often categorized by region and/or season.

Health Magazine named it one of the world's top 5 healthiest foods. Never heard of Health Magazine, but i'll believe them this one time.

Plans for our kimchi include frying it into fried rice and using it as a topping on veggie burgers.

Brooklyn Pad Thai

From Vegan With A Vengeance.

This recipe turned out really well. One thing to watch out for is the amount of noodles. The recipe calls for 1 lb of rice noodles, so we got 2 8oz boxes, but that turned out to be a bit too much for the amount of sauce. Our first batch was a little light, both in color and flavor, so we withheld about 25% of the noodles on the second round and it was much tastier (and prettier--see comparison shot below).

I Love Hot Chocolate

Two points for the Laughing Goat coffee guy (i refuse to use the term "barista").

So Long, Max

It's true. Max has left us for rivers and rafting in California. Of course he needed a send-off quiche. A parting gift from us to him, although he ended up making the crust himself (from this recipe, using all milk and no cream. and soy margarine instead of butter). Insides: asparagus, brocolli, onions, and tomatoes. Outside: severe sadness over max's departure.

The rest of the brunch included breakfast potatoes, tofu scramble, and (you guessed it!) pancakes with a banana compote.