Samosas are very time consuming.

Samosas are not worth my time, or yours, during the work week. Letting the dough sit, prepping, cooking and cooling down the vegetables, rolling the dough out, cutting, stuffing and baking (or frying) = too much time, especially when you have to make the rest of the meal and have to do laundry.

I used a recipe from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook, which is probably my favorite and most used cookbook, and omitted the peas because I hate them (that texture? bursting in my mouth? gross). They also suggest cutting the dough into squares, which I did and will not do again. They turn out looking like dumplings, as they did the last time I made them, and it leaves you confused as to why you are eating samosas shaped like dumplings when they should be like big, fluffy clouds.

For the main dish, I made a curried lentil soup and was able to christen my most beloved 2010 Christmas present: the 14-cup Cuisinart food processor. I had to double the recipe and did not use a large enough pot, so it was filled to the brim, which makes it difficult to stir and adjust with more water when needed.

Aside from being inaccurately shaped and a bit too spicy, the samosas and soup were delicious. Brown and ugly, but nutritious and hearty.

Also, Meredith and I made dinner tonight! A pretty simple stir-fry with tofu, onions, kale and white button mushrooms and brown basmati rice on the side. I made a sauce with gochuchang, a Korean hot pepper paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. I've used a similar sauce for a pork dish, and it came out more flavorful - maybe next time we will let some of the flavors marinate more, but still a proud accomplishment for a joint dinner venture.

A slice of the future

As the title suggests this is my first post but it certainly won't be my last. This is the first pizza I made, I won't get into the specifics of the dough (as my recipe is quite unique and employs a rare blend of flour, water and yeast). The cheese is a combination of part-skim mozzarella and some shredded Monterrey jack, also as soon as I removed the pizza from the oven I used a carrot peeler to shred off some chunks of romano cheese. I look forward to my second attempt at this as on the first go around I didn't have a pizza paddle and was relegated to rolling the dough out on the counter, placing it on a deformed cookie sheet, and then used a combination of a large spatula and my hands to pull it from the sheet onto the stone in the oven.

Hopefully within the next several weeks and months I'll have some new dishes to post and perhaps a more detailed pizza post (as I do consider myself something of an aficionado). With that being said it's good to be on the blog and I look forward to showing ya'll the simpler side of collegiate cooking.

Bacon Cornmeal Waffles

My Christmas traditions are better than yours.

Please post for Mom: sometimes its good to just go easy!

Pasta!

Since the last of my frozen summer tomato sauce was used up, I haven't eaten a lot of pasta. I don't typically cook or eat pasta all that often, to Adam's dismay, but if I don't have any sauce or when I'm not in the mood for red, I use garlic, olive oil and throw in some tuna. I had no tuna and only clove of garlic, which is always kind of sad and you always wonder how you let that happen.

Anyway, I rehydrated a few sun-dried tomatoes tomatoes in hot water while the pasta started cooking. I sauteed the lone garlic clove, some shallots and sun-dried tomatoes with olive oil and threw in the pasta when it was done, along with some of its water.

I added a tiny bit of butter to thicken it up and topped it with breadcrumbs and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. I eat cheese even more infrequently than I eat pasta, but a good wedge of parm is worth every single penny.

Happy holidays from my pasta plate to yours.

Hi & Thanksgiving Part two

Hi, I'm Jennifer, and Meredith made me do this. I like to cook and bake, and I like to follow recipes. I tend to make something once and never again, because what is the point when there is so much food to go around?

On Thanksgiving, my boyfriend Adam and I were gifted a free twenty two pound turkey, along with an eight pound turkey breast. We have always done our own Thanksgiving, in addition to the one with his family, but since the turkey was so big this year, it became a bit of a production. I usually keep it pretty simple when roasting anything - just salt, pepper and butter, sometimes lemon - but again, since the turkey was so big, I turned to Martha Stewart and her recipe for Perfect Roast Turkey this past Saturday. It is definitely a rich recipe, calling for a cup and a half of butter, and time consuming, having to baste every half hour for four hours.

You will never have a more moist or beautiful looking turkey in your life. Ever.

I served this with pan gravy, buttermilk garlic mashed yukon gold potatoes, wheat/white bread stuffing with sage, caramelized corn with mint, pomegranate cranberry relish, a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, and roasted Brussels sprouts with mushrooms and cream (I wasn't kidding about loving recipes).

The key to serving a feast of any kind is obviously to do as much prep work before dooms day. I made vegetable stock for the stuffing a week and a half ago and froze it. I toasted the breadcrumbs a week ago and bagged it. I seeded and juiced the pomegranate and made the relish three days prior, so on and so forth. Do you know a good tip for mashed potatoes? Make them the night before and let them warm up the day of in a slow cooker. Thanks, internet!

Tomorrow I'm going to use some of the leftover turkey for enchiladas, but I will be cheating and using canned enchilada sauce. We can't all be Martha Stewart.

Chops

We were going to make ton katsu don, but by the time we got back from a long, hard day of abuse from teenagers and staff meetings and fellowship meetings, it just wasn't in the cards.

This was a super quick recipe for chops. Pork chops were about an inch thick, so not too big. Lots of salt and pepper, oregano, allspice on both sides, brown, then roast until the thermometer says 145 in the middle. Perched atop some wilted watercress and crispy chopped bacon. Everything gets done in one pan: first brown the chops, then brown the bacon while those are in the oven, add the greens and garlic, a little vinegar, salt/pepp. Take everything out and reduce some chicken stock, mustard, vinegar, salt/pepper/oregano in the same pan and make a little puddle there on the side of the plate. Brown rice too.

Maybe 30 mins cooking time -- not bad for a Monday night.

ref

Guest post from my mom: morning-after-fritatta-overload

Listen up folks. I taught Meredith and Ben their approach to creative cooking and it went something like this--if you are hungry, look in the fridge. There's plenty there. This is what I call a morning-after-fritatta-overload and it's particularly good if you entertained the night before. In this case, I chopped up and combined some leftover salmon and roasted potatoes we had for dinner and combined it with the olives and goat cheese we served for appetizers. I added a lonely artichoke heart that had been in the fridge for days. I mixed that with a few egg whites (cutting calories where I can) and made my fritatta. I served it with last night's salad that marinated in its dressing overnight. I ate it while doing an old Times crossword puzzle. This morning's puzzle would have seemed too fresh. Love, Mom

I Roasted my first whole chicken last night.

I'm pretty sure I'm a grownup now. (Also, it was delicious.)

Ben, you gotta read this.

How to cook an omlette INSIDE the shell.


These guys were frickin thorough

Why Hello There

My name Mr. Extra Large Gummy Bear
I have a secret.

I am a sot.
A lush.
A drizzy drunk little sauced up little ursa major.

I'm here hangin out with my friend. He's a XXX bear.
Not in the gay-sex-subculture kind of way.
in the "i go to shows and mark my own hands and think loose sex is dirty and not fun"
in the "i dont do drugs, not even the awesome ones"
and i DEFINITELY do not drink. Not a drop.

That's why my little friend over here is so small. drinkin gives you a bit of extra chub. Skinny little bastard.

How to make the magic:
Get some gummy bears. Soak those drunks in vodka. For DAYS. then eat. woooo!

PS. that plate is not filty, i just ate some cookies off of it prior to putting the gummy bears on it. QUIT JUDGING ME.

Return of MK

Made my own butter, bitches:

Basil Butter, to be exact. In stick form:

I just was curious, really. I may never do it again.

Actually, I've been cooking a lot with my roomie. I think I'm ready to get back off my ass. I've been too lazy/tired/hungry to photograph any dishes, but things will hopefully be changing.

Congee and oxtail soup tonight as well, thanks to Cindy.

Oh, and some meringues, below. I made them because I had egg whites left over from the shortbread that I also made. It was a big Sunday for us here.

Japanfest

For the record, since clarification is needed, the sushi is takeout but the soup is homemade.

pumpkin soup with veal

i made too much sushi

who's in love?

oh, that's right. me. jello shots done classy.

tell me you're not also in love. and super jealous that you didnt think of it first!

concord grapes

are delicious. the end.

i made jelly out of them. it was super delicious. the end.

ate it on naan bread for breakfast. stained my teeth and shirt. the end.

totally worth it. the end.

kyle needs to stop cooking for a family of 5

this blog should be called food i take to work.

Mine came to work


Kyle ate at home

variations on a theme

the return of nocturnal culinary experiments

Its called the Freedom Waffle. Basically a french toast waffle. Its fuckin awesome.

The first set toasting. We put rum in the batter. Later ones had blueberries/chocolate chips.


Plated up with bacon and vanilla ice cream.


Kyle dips his bacon into some Kraken.


And the bite.


We had some extra so we brought them over to RUPD for the dispatchers.

on the subject of another dinner

juice made of apples, carrots, cucumber, ginger.
blue brie
baguette.

not shown: cherries. lime flavored olive oil.

on the subject of dinner

just some dinner

on the subject of breakfasts

this is my new daily breakfast.
one frozen banana cut into chunks
some frozen pitted cherries that i bought when they were cheap and ripe and delicious
a tablespoon or so of peanut butter
some chocolate flax seeds
a good big slosh of hazelnut milk
blended in a magic bullet

goddamn is it delicious.

CHIA FRESCA!

After reading Born to Run I've become slightly obsessed. Part of this obsession has resulted in chia fresca, a raw food energy drink. I feel like I have goddamn energy legs. It looks kinda like dragonfruit snot and if you don't watch out it will turn into a gel, but its amazing. I can't wait to bring it on my next run.

delicious healthy snack

matt just said "vanessa. i've discovered an amazing, delicious, healthy new snack.




lettuce.
hot sauce.
yum"

vegan by trial

Vegan Sweet Potato Gnocchi with cashew pesto

:::::::for the gnocchi::::::
one large sweet potato
two russets
a pile of flour

chop up the taters, steam em till they're soft. took my chunks (thumb sized) about 30 minutes.
pull them out, mash the crap out of them. i used an electric mixer and then went in with a fork to get the leftover lumps
wait until they cool, (or dont and just cook your fingers in this next part):
cover the potatoes with a cup of flour and mix in. then keep adding more flour and mixing by hand until it's not sticky anymore, or only barely. but dont mix until it's tough, just enough to get the flour in there. the less mixing you do the fluffier the gnocchi will be instead of like little dense stones. this isnt bread, people.
roll the dough out into logs about as thick as your ring finger (or, what you would estimate a normal ring finger looks like if you have abnormally skinny or fat fingers)
chop up the logs into finger-width pieces and roll down the back of a fork for more sauce grabbing ridges
chuck into a big pot of medium-boiling water (not super vigerous or you'll never know when the gnocci are done)
pull them out as soon as they float (too long and they'll get slimy)

like lil pillows of heaven yum


cashew pesto
chop some basil leaves
chop some cashews
chop some garlic
chop them all together
chop some more
squeeze some lemon on it, let it soak
pour in a little warmed olive oil


oh hell yea.

Perfecto Cookies

I had some cookie dough left over from when I made last-day-of-school goodbye cookies for my students. I froze the dough (wrapped in wax paper in a log, then in a plastic bag) and then decided today that I had enough cookie appropriate events coming up that it was a good time to bust out the rest of these guys. Plus I thought it would be really great to heat up the house with a 350 degree oven on a 90 degree day.

The recipe comes from the New York Times perfect cookie search. The first time I used this recipe, I basically used it as an outline and the cookies were just alright. This time around, the only thing I changed was to use "buttons" instead of "discs" for the chocolate. Sticking to the recipe produced some of the best cookies I have ever made or eaten! Resting the batter, high quality chocolate, and a flour blend I think are key here. I guess sprinkling on some salt does something too.

When I made them for my students, I used probably half-sized dollops of batter to make little quarter-sized cookies, which I thought were a nice little treat and spread them out better amongst 30-ish teenagers. The ones from today are about 5 inches in diameter.

Coffee

So, it's terrible. I've been making (and eating!) tons of delicious meals, and yet I never seem to remember about the camera until after I've polished off the whole plate! Also, I'm trying to go somewhat vegan... as in, I dont use milk products or eggs or meat at all if I can help it at home, but I'm not pressed enough to keep from ordering my favorite breakfast at a diner that has it (creamed chipped beef over toast with a side of bacon). I know, it's dichotomous.so what.


But anyway, here is a quick update to make sure that this blog doesnt die:

here's the meat and potatoes: i bought a cappachino maker. oh yeah. this is almond milk steamed up with a (big) shot of espresso in it and a teaspoon of dark brown sugar. this shit is the bomb, and amazing. and almond milk is awesome in coffee, way better than soy or rice. those guys suck. almonds rule! YUM.

I've been making some good brunches lately

It's like I said. Even though things have been nuts around here, I've been finding a little time to make some pretty epic brunches. I've done some things with french toast, pancakes, benedicts, etc. This week I was inspired by the egg sandwich. I never thought I was an egg sandwich person, but I had my first one ever recently and realized that they are pretty great. This one here has cheddar cheese, spinach, tempe, ketchup, and artichoke hearts with a side of hash browns.

On the side of THAT we have some homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit.

fried tortellini and veggies

If you can fry dumplings, why cant you fry tortellini? Amirite?

Jesus, just to get the veal off the front page :( :(

How do you make vegan french toast more palatable? cook 'em in butter! And serve with sausages yum.

Great French Toast  (from www.thekindlife.com, a pro-vegan website run by alicia silverstone)

INGREDIENTS
Yeast-free bread slices (French Meadow Summer Bread or whole spelt bread are good options)

1 1/2 cups firm tofu

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons rice syrup

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon corn oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Oil of your choice (olive, safflower, sunflower, etc.) for frying



STEPS
Blend all ingredients together until smooth and creamy.
If too thick, add more soy milk. 

Dip bread in batter and fry in hot oiled skillet until browned on both sides. 



Topping: 
Serve with maple syrup. 
Or you can make a great cinnamon butter by mixing cinnamon together with Earth Balance to taste. 
You can also make a maple/flax syrup by mixing 1/2 cup maple syrup and 2 teaspoons flax seed oil (that kind of ratio, because you don't want to make more syrup/flax than you will use)
Mix them together well. 
The oil adds a nice layer to the syrup. 

Don't Hate

Vealburger cooking


Vealburger on toast with coarse mustard, jarlsburg, spinach, tomato, onion