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.