End of Year Review, Ciabatta Pizza and A Look Ahead

I am quite proud of what I've accomplished in this blog this year. Although it hasn't been a whole year that I've been writing it, keeping track of the delicious things I've made, bought, and baked, I have written more than 50 posts and gotten almost 1500 views. That's pretty amazing. I have to give thanks to my friends and family that have read this blog and promise you all (and myself!) that I will continue posting to it in 2014. 

Before I think deeply about where I've been, I want to add some photos that I didn't write a blog for in December. (It's been a crazy month!) 

This blog was named for my mother and all the meals she ever cooked for me, which I will never forget because there were so few. Okay there really weren't that few, but there were a couple tried and true favorites that we rotated through. One of these was Boboli pizzas. Boboli sells plastic-wrapped shelf-stable pizza crusts that you can spread sauce on and add your own veggies and bake and presto, you have delicious pizza without the hassle. (I've discovered that I love making my own pizza crust, but oh well. Having the crust already made is an amazing luxury sometimes.) 

Whenever we'd make Boboli pizzas, no matter what toppings we'd use, Mom would always spread shredded carrots under the sauce and cheese. She thought I didn't notice, and maybe I didn't for awhile, but then I realized how tasty they make the pizza. (And we're not the only ones who love this - Domenica's has a roasted carrot pizza that uses carrot paste instead of tomato sauce. It's wonderful - and half-price from 3-6 p.m. every day!) 

I had some yummy ciabatta that needed to be used so I made pizza, complete with shredded carrots. 

It tasted much better than this photo makes it look - New Year's resolution #1: TAKE BETTER FOOD PHOTOS! My phone takes pretty good shots but the lighting sucks in my New Orleans kitchen. Hopefully it'll be better in my Connecticut kitchen...

What a fun year it's been. I succeeded in the Eat Local Challenge and failed in my own "no gluten for 30 days" challenge. I've been feeling okay with some up's and down's, but not terrible enough to believe that I actually have a gluten intolerance. Perhaps I'd be better off without as much of it, but I cannot, in fact, live without cookies. I love them so much.

At church on Sunday I talked with a friend who "doesn't eat sugar." I wish I'd asked her if that includes honey, because I could probably do all right cooking and baking without table sugar but boy... if I had to give up honey I think I'd be very sad. It must take a long time to wean oneself off sugar. I admire her a lot.

I'm happy to say that I didn't gain any weight over the holidays but I could be fitter than I am. So I'll work on that next year. As far as eating goes, I really do love to eat and don't really want to give up things. Even though your life is probably better and longer if you don't eat certain things, I believe that we should be happy too, and being happy includes eating sugar and bread and ice cream and all the bad stuff now and then. I would like to work on restraint, though. It's incredibly hard to say no sometimes.

My mother is going to start juicing in the New Year. I've gone back to having smoothies for breakfast but I just couldn't drink all of my meals. I admire her a lot for her determination. Go Mom! You inspire me every day.

Much love to all of my readers and fellow food lovers - happy munching!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Six Months in the Making: 100% Local Chicken Soup

I guess I had a little too much fun this Thanksgiving because I got sick. The changing weather isn't helping either; for a few weeks it was frigid and now it's humid and in the seventies again. I hear it'll go back into the fifties next weekend. Oy.

Sunday I started feeling a sore throat, then Monday it was still sore and I developed a cough, and then Tuesday morning I had a razor-blade coated throat and productive cough (are you hungry yet?) and took a sick day. I slept until 11 and got up and cooked chicken soup.

It wasn't exactly a restful way to start the day, but I'm proud to say that I made pretty good chicken soup and cornbread. I used up the chicken stock from the whole chicken I bought a few weeks ago and added half a sweet potato, two small heads of broccoli, some herbs and salt. After letting it cook until the sweet potato cubes were soft, I had a bowl. Then I realized that I had just made a 100% local meal. Joy!

- Local chicken from the Crescent City Farmer's Market



- Local broccoli from the same vendor as the chicken at the CCFM
- Local sweet potato at the CCFM
- Local oregano and thyme from Hollygrove Market and Farm
- Local salt from Breaux Bridge, LA (leftover from the Eat Local Challenge!)

That's a lot of work for local food. I guess that's what it means to eat local. It was pretty good but I can't figure out how to make chicken soup taste like boxed chicken soup. (The key ingredient is probably MSG... oh well.)

Hooray for local! Now to get better...

A Hand-Washed Turkey...

In honor of Turkey Day, this bit of stupid:

You have to watch it all the way to the end to get my reference, but yes, it has to do with turkey. This fantastic video is from 2003 but I still remember the song.

Yesterday was of course Thanksgiving Day (and today is Buy Nothing Day, so as much as I'd like to buy rolls to have yummy turkey sandwiches I am going to go without) and I was honored to feast with my team at the Fourth World Movement New Orleans. I accompanied my turkey, green-bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, stuffing, and sweet potato pie with brown sugar bourbon, Beaujolais Nouveau and chardonnay. Not only was I in a food coma but I was also in a bit of a too-much-alcohol-too-fast stupor. Not drunk, but just unable to stand. At one point I was so full that I just had to sink into the couch and stare contentedly at folks. I have two Tupperware containers full of leftovers as well.

My contribution to the dinner (as it was really a Thanksgiving potluck) was a yummy satsuma and pecan cake. I wasn't sure how it would turn out as satsumas are so tough and membrane-y but it was delicious. How could you go wrong, really, with cinnamon-spiced pecans, sugar, and butter?

I adapted the Crustless Cranberry Pie recipe to make it more local and was thrilled with the results. Everybody gobbled it down, so I guess everyone else liked it too!

Before the wet ingredients were added, it looked like everything was covered in snow. =)

I freaked a little bit while the oven was pre-heating because I could have sworn we had a 9-inch glass pie pan in my house but I couldn't find it. Good thing I had these heart-shaped cake pans that my friend Maya gave me! They added a nice touch to the presentation.

So yummy. The top developed a crunchy crust and the insides were chewy and sweet. I highly recommend this recipe!

Enjoy your turkey sandwiches and turkey soup and turkey salad and turkey tacos and turkey...

A Whole Dang Chicken - and some promo!

We're actually going to start this off with a promotion (which also has to do with chicken).

A friend and co-worker recently opened a cafe in a restored and re-purposed Chinese laundry on Bayou Road here in New Orleans. Pagoda Cafe is run by Dan Etheridge, who also works with Tulane City Center and helped start up the N Roman and Columbus clubhouse where the guys cook hot dogs every Tuesday. All great folks. Last week I met another community member at the cafe for a lunch meeting and had the roasted chicken, pesto and arugula sandwich. Oh so good!

So after eating chicken at a restaurant, I tsk'ed myself because I had an entire chicken in my freezer that was waiting to be eaten. It was a little intimidating, honestly, and boy did it take forever to defrost. After a hard day at work where I knew I wasn't going to be able to go in the next day, I put the chicken into the fridge to start defrosting. Twelve hours later the chicken was still a little frozen. I left it out on the counter for a few hours and decided it was finally time to get it ready, frozen or not frozen. 

I Googled "how to roast a whole chicken" and found the simplest recipe possible: some salt, some pepper, some olive oil, and whatever herbs I could find (local, dried thyme and oregano with a generous sprinkling of TrueLemon). The grossest part was taking the neck out but all the other giblets were out so it wasn't so bad. (Turkey neck is also a big thing here; folks chop it up and put it in crawfish boils and it's actually pretty delicious). Also, damnit, if I'm going to eat meat, I need to be able to deal with the icky bits. And in case you're wondering, this chicken ran around and ate grass happily for the duration of its life (screw you, Tyson). I bought it from my farmer friend Nancy at the Mid-City Crescent City Farmer's Market. 

Once the chicken was prepped it looked like this (with just a little ice in the cavity).

It was actually really cool to rub a chicken. I liked the way it felt in my hands. I popped the chicken into the oven and roasted it according to the recipe. The house smelled SO good. It smelled so good that once the chicken was done I started eating and carving it before I even took a picture. So here's the meat. 

Mmm... meat. So much yummy meat. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. There's one drumstick and some thighs under there. What's probably going to happen is I'll freeze it; thanks to The Kitchn for their tips! 

Once all the meat was off I knew I was going to use the carcass, so I Googled "how to make stock from a whole chicken" and found this recipe. Just look at those beautiful jars of stock. I'm going to have some in about an hour and a half. I didn't have a huge stock pot so I used the biggest pot I had and got it going.  

The stock's currently simmering but once it's done I'm going to use it to make stuffing for Thanksgiving next week. 

What's everyone planning to make for Thanksgiving? 

Botched Baking

Now is the time of year when you actually want to be baking, especially when the heat is a little iffy in your house. It's been in the low 50s during the day and 40s at night (which in New Orleans is a big deal! it's even a little hard to type because my fingers are cold) and I'm all bundled up. I actually turned the heat on to try to get the house to 65; it was at 54! I've had the heat on for awhile now and I'm still pretty cold.

First I wanted to share a photo of some baking that a friend did. My co-worker brought in cupcakes for Halloween, which I thought looked great. She said that she'd put sprinkles on the cupcakes for a dirt effect but they melted into the frosting and created a Dalmatian-esque topping.

Okay, maybe more black mold than Dalmatian... but this is New Orleans after all, and black mold is kind of a thing here. The bones added a nice crunch and red velvet - how could you go wrong? 

Where did red velvet cake come from anyways? I Googled it, hoping to find out the history, and found all sorts of urban legends including that it was a ploy by the food coloring company to get folks to buy more food coloring during the Great Depression, that its secret recipe was leaked via chain letter from the outraged housewife who didn't want to pay the chef's $350 bill for his secrets, and that the red color is caused by a chemical reaction between cocoa powder and baking soda (pretty sure that's not true). Sounds like an NPR Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! game! And because I love BuzzFeed, here's their take on the cake. I didn't know that Emma Stone ever talked about red velvet cake but I think I like her even more now. 

So after my bike ride to Angola, which was an amazing experience that I didn't journal during (gasp!) because I was too damn tired after each day of riding (54, 73, and 30 miles respectively), I was left with a bag of peanuts, chocolate-covered raisins and raisins that I had eaten on the road. For some reason my stomach didn't react well to the trail mix so I was hesitant to continue eating it after I got home. One weekend before a potluck I was thinking about the trail mix and Googled "leftover trail mix." This is the recipe I came up with and decided to make. 

This is what came out of my oven.

Luckily there were two dozen other brothers and sisters of these cookies, otherwise I would have been sorely put out. The cookies had so much butter in them that they just melted. When I tried to separate these, both from the cookie sheet and from each other, they just came apart so I wound up throwing them out. I regretted it after tasting the ones that came out all right. They were so crispy and so buttery and so amazing. I think I would like this recipe better with chocolate chips and not raisins and peanuts. I'm keeping you in mind for next time, Whisking Through Life!

The third botched baked thing in this installment is a baked macaroni and cheese that I made a little while ago. I had a butternut squash that literally sat on my countertop for almost a month, just patiently waiting until I got my shit together and cooked it. When I got my hair buzzed by my co-worker in September we made baked macaroni and cheese and left out the butternut squash, though I had wanted to add it even back then. Finally I was making the comfort food just for myself and could add whatever the heck I wanted. The result is below, not a great rendition but a picture.

I essentially made a box of Annie's shells and white cheddar (the only boxed macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten, even as a kid - thanks Mom!) and added a few extra ingredients.

- the butternut squash, which I roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper
- crushed up bran, minus the raisins from leftover Raisin Bran
- goat gouda cheese that I had in the fridge
- grated parmesan cheese that I had leftover from eating out

I whipped everything together and baked it at 450 for about 20 minutes and - here's the botched part - the bran never really crisped but just sort of got warm. The macaroni and cheese, which had been so gooey and cheesy and rich, dried out in the oven. When I reheated the dish for lunch the next day, the bran was soggy. So I'm not sure how I could fix any of those problems... but hey, it was still a success when I first baked it!

Now it's time to go cozy up under my four covers and dream about breakfast.

Oooooooatmeeeeal...

I Love Bok Choy!

November at the farmer's market means bok choy and all kinds of other delicious greens. I've been eating a lot of sauteed bok choy (with bacon grease, with butter and garlic, with sausage...) and today I decided to try a roasted bok choy dish.

I Googled "bok choy with bread crumbs" and came up with this recipe: Epicurious's Bok Choy Gratin.

It's in the oven right now and smells amazing. I'm bringing it to a potluck and I'm crossing my fingers that the dish survives the bike ride there!

Cross your fingers!

Farmer's Market End of October Edition

Last week at the farmer's market I walked into heaven. The stands were overflowing with fall greens: kale, kolrabi, Japanese spinach, and other things I'd never even heard of. The thing that made me happiest, though, was red peppers. I've been wanting red peppers but since they weren't in season I made myself wait. You know the saying - and there were the red peppers I'd been waiting for.

Not wanting to go overboard, I picked up purple kale, red peppers, apples, green beans and shrimp. The shrimp was wonderful last week so over the weekend I needed to figure out what to do with all the rest. I went to Rouses, thinking I might buy chicken to go with the peppers. I remembered having some delicious sausages at a barbecue once and know that sausage and peppers go well together. My only mistake was buying the sweet Italian pepper sausage to go with the peppers - that particular type of sausage has fennel in it, which I don't particularly like. Lesson learned!

But, since I don't throw anything out, I'll eat the sausage. I sauteed the sausage and then added sliced red peppers and a little olive oil. I brought half of what I cooked for lunch today and have the rest for later. I ate the sausage and peppers on tortillas with hummus. Delicious (despite the fennel).

As for the kale, I've been putting it in smoothies but still had a huge bunch that wilted in the fridge. Not wanting it to go bad, I knew I'd have to eat it for dinner tonight. I remembered I had some bacon in the freezer so I Googled "kale and bacon" and came up with this recipe. It sounded perfect. I had to adjust the recipe a little bit as I did not have 2 pounds of kale or 10 slices of bacon, but I used up all my kale and all my bacon and thus achieved the goal of the meal. 

I realized something strange while eating this. Chinese food, specifically thin brown sauce, must be a combination of garlic, bacon grease, water and some leafy green because that's exactly what this dish tasted like. It was really quite yummy. 

For dessert I blended two bananas with some yogurt, a tablespoonful of carob powder and a little water to make a mock Wendy's Frosty. I won't be eating there until they pay their tomato workers a fair wage. If you're interested in this campaign, please click here to sign the petition and read more. 

What are your favorite farmer's market fares? 

Happy munching! 

Conquering a Fear: Shrimp!

I love shrimp. Growing up, I never had it at home because my mom's allergic. Whenever she eats it, her tongue itches. I can't imagine how annoying that would be. Whenever we'd go out, I'd get pasta with shrimp or Chinese food with shrimp and have the leftovers ALL to myself.

Every week at the Crescent City Farmer's Market, I walk past coolers full of shrimp, crab and catfish. They all look so delicious and affordable but I just wouldn't know how to cook them. Knowing I have very little food at home and an evening to myself, I finally took the plunge. I walked up to the seafood woman and said, "I have two questions: how long will these keep and how do I cook them?" She gladly answered my questions and I bought a 1/2 pound of de-veined, peeled shrimp.

I also bought green beans, purple kale, apples, and peppers. I wasn't sure what to do with the shrimp but liked the idea of sauteing them with the Gar'Live (garlic, butter, olive oil and herbs) that I bought at the market awhile back. I Googled sauteed shrimp and green beans and came up with a paprika shrimp recipe.

I sauteed the green beans first in the Gar'Live so that they'd be a little softer when I added the shrimp. They cooked for probably five minutes. 

Then I added the shrimp and a little lemon juice.

To serve, I added a bunch of Parmesan cheese (because I love it). This would be incredible over pasta. The beans were al dente and the shrimp had complex flavors of butter, lemon, paprika, and garlic. Mouthwatering. Probably one of the best things I've cooked in a long time. And oh so easy to make! 

Happy munching! 

A New Take on Beans and Rice

Instead of red beans and rice, I cooked black beans and cous cous. The black beans came from the farmer's market. They were dried in a bag on one of the vendor's table. Most of the beans they sell are fresh, in a cooler on ice, so I was curious about these. I asked how much they were and the guy said I could have them. I was worried something was wrong with them but I took them home and cooked them and they were just fine. I didn't want to cook rice, opting for something a little healthier. The whole wheat cous cous cooked up very easily and made a lot. So I've been eating black beans (spiced with a recipe online), cous cous, and ketchup for a few days.

Today I decided to do something a little different, adding local Japanese spinach and wrapping everything in toasted corn tortillas. It was so delicious and so easy!

It's OVER ONE THOUSANNNNNNNNNNNNND!

Hey guys! Thank you for being awesome readers and for putting me over a 1000 views! That's pretty exciting!

On Saturday I had my first satsumas, which was pretty awesome. I drank Abita Satsuma beer and didn't think it tasted very satsuma-y, not actually having tasted a satsuma.

When I saw them in this basket, I thought - it's a lime! it's a lemon! (because they are green on the trees down here) no - it's round! What the heck? And one of my co-workers said "Did it suddenly become satsuma season?" and yes, yes it has. They were squishy and ripe so I peeled one. (And then another... and another...)

Mind blown, right? They're orange on the inside and do turn orange once they're picked. These are just early satsumas so they're still green. But they were juicy and quite tasty. I am always happy when I can have local citrus. 

Here's to the satsuma! 

The satsuma, Citrus unshiu (definitely going to call it that from now on!), is a seedless citrus fruit from Japan. There are four cities in the union named after the satsuma, one in Florida, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana - all hot places where they flourish. Only the kumquat can withstand cooler temperatures than the satsuma, whose trees can last in 15 degree Fahrenheit weather for a few hours. (15 degrees in New Orleans? haha hahahahh HA HAHAHAHHAAA that's a good one.) (Thanks Wikipedia!) 

Keep calm and peel on. 

Of Plenty and Pie

Mmmm... gives me a belly ache just looking at it! 

I seem to write often about getting a bunch of one item and storing it up for the winter (or the off-season, Louisiana doesn't have a "winter"). First strawberries, then peaches, and now apples. I love my farmer's market apple seller, who always greets me with a smile and knows who I am. I think her name is Ashley. Every week she greets me and asks me how I'm doing. Recently I got my head buzzed so this week she complimented me on it. I told her the real reason I stop by is for her compliments, which always make my day. Last week they had a blush apple that I liked but had to make applesauce out of when they got too mushy. This week they had delicious crisp Granny smith apples, a favorite of mine. Pie had been calling my name, so I bought a large bag of juicing apples, the ones that have bruises and the smaller ones. Out of the whole bag of maybe 40 apples, only a dozen had bruises so the deal was really sweet. 

After crashing at a friend's in the Bywater, I bought two pie crusts on the way home. No, I didn't make my own crust. I will someday but right now I don't have a rolling pin or any wine bottles or anything in my kitchen. It took me probably three hours to peel and slice all the apples (I also don't have an apple corer, which by the way is probably one of those kitchen utensils you really don't need unless you cook with apples all the freaking time). They were tart with a smooth sweetness. I realized early on that all the apples I'd prepared would never fit in one pie crust, so I decided to also make an apple crisp. 

I cut one of the two pie crusts into strips and made a lattice crust. Instead of pouring the sugar glaze over the crust, I just poured it over the apples. The pie baked at 425 for 15 minutes and 45 at 350. Although the taste is wonderful, the apples are mushy. Next time I'll only bake it at 350 for 30 minutes to see if that makes the apples a little more crisp. 

It's wonderful to have pie, especially on a day without humidity... 

A Freezer's Worth of End of Season Peaches

A week ago, I bought a box - at least 20 pounds - of end of season peaches. Some of them weren't ripe yet but they've been ripening quickly ever since. It was the last week that the orchard staff would be coming to the farmer's market so I knew I wanted to buy as much of their stock as I could. Luckily I live within walking distance of the market so I bought the box and carried it home, leaving my bike under their watchful eyes. One of my neighbors stopped on her bike to ask if I wanted help, so I met another neighbor. I love that about New Orleans - folks really are willing to help you out.

I sat myself down in front of the box and started to cut up the ones that were mostly ripe. I separated out the really ripe ones that were starting to bruise to use right away. The rest went into baggies in my freezer. My roommate has also started to drink green smoothies with bananas, mangoes and various greens so our fridge and freezer are bursting with fruits and veggies. I have one more bag of strawberries which I'll use in my smoothies after I run out of fresh peaches and then it'll be frozen peaches probably until November, or December if I'm lucky. I am quite obsessed with fresh, local-grown fruits and veggies. The South is spoiling me.

I did a little more 3-T cooking last week when I had three butternut squash and a bunch of peaches. I decided to roast the squash with olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper and on a whim added two peaches.

You almost can't even see the peaches! Surprisingly, the dish was wonderful.

I brought it to a potluck on Tuesday where it was gobbled up. Everyone loved it. The peaches add a nice sweetness in contrast to the garlic. 

I'm sitting here snuffling, thankful for the hot soup that's making my nose run, but also grimacing as I drink apple cider vinegar and honey with weak Throat Coat tea. Whenever I have a cold it starts in my throat then moves to my chest where it settles and makes me tired and hungry. It's like I'm never satisfied. So to distract me - 

what are you cooking? 

Could Be Doing Much Better

Once again, I am not doing well with my challenge. It's too easy to eat other people's leftovers. I can say with pride that I did not eat any cookies this week at the office. However, I did eat quiche with crust, one or two puffed wheat bars when I forgot my fruit snacks at home, and the last of my frozen bread. (Oh, and beer - gluten intolerant folks are advised not to drink it. I just started to like beer a few years ago and don't want to have to give it up.)

I've been feeling okay except for the cold I got walloped with early Thursday morning.

I'm so glad that quinoa isn't a grain because I can live without rice if I can have quinoa. And I do really love fruits and vegetables.

Thank goodness for the simple things...

Challenges Aren't Ever Easy, Right?

Of course not. So, naturally, we had pizza at the office today.

We planned to do a data entry party to enter all the volunteer waivers into our database as a team. We've been putting this off for months, so the stack of waivers was getting ridiculous. I brought a lunch and everything - quinoa with tomatoes, olive oil and basil, and red beans over mustard greens.

And then we ordered pizza... and I ate two slices, very slowly, and decided I didn't want to eat pizza anymore. They were just so greasy and I didn't even enjoy eating them. I saved my lunch for tomorrow.

At a community meeting tonight I did not have any oatmeal raisin cookies when they were offered to me, nor did I have any cookies at the office.

So I've made progress already and I'm proud of myself! Yay!

A New 30-Day Challenge

Today I have made a decision that I will try really hard to stick with.

I want to reduce my carbohydrate and gluten intake.

On Thursday night I went to a potluck at my church and sat next to a friend of mine who is gluten-intolerant. I'm not sure if she has Celiac's, exactly, but she brought gluten-free cookies so that she could eat something yummy for dessert. Her peanut butter cocoa oatmeal cookies, by the way, were my favorite thing at the potluck. I asked her why she went gluten free and she said that she had originally given up carbs to lose weight. Then, after reaching her goal weight, she started reintroducing carbs into her diet. Instead of enjoying what she was eating, she felt terrible. The symptom that stuck in my brain was joint pain - she said her joints were killing her, something that had never happened to her before. So she did some research, decided to cut out gluten and felt better. That got me thinking.

Some time ago, I started to draw patterns between white bread and headaches. I typically eat whole wheat bread, but if I eat a lot of white bread - like hamburger buns, pizza dough, white toast, etc - I would get headaches more frequently. I thought it may have something to do with the refined wheat and high sugar content. So I started to be more mindful and have far fewer headaches.

Since moving to New Orleans, I really don't eat bread often. I don't buy loaves of bread and actually enjoy making my own. But, when I'm out and about, I eat po'boys on white bread, sandwiches on white foccacia or buns, and other white bread products. When I'm at the office or church, my main weakness is cookies. I love cookies.

And yet when I eat them, especially in the middle of the day, I feel sluggish and my head gets cloudy. So sometimes I pop one of my migraine pills, which does make my head feel better. But what would happen if I just didn't eat the cookies in the first place? Would I still feel that way? And if I did, what would my body really be needing?

All these questions are making my head buzz, so what I need to do is simple. Make a conscious effort to stop eating bread, cookies, and pasta. It's going to be very hard but I've heard that it takes between 21 and 30 days to create a habit. I just have to remember how I feel now (achey, tired, terrible) and hope that I'll feel better without wheat.

Besides, these are the things I really can't live without:

- tea
- homemade yogurt
- chocolate
- fresh fruit
- tomatoes
- fresh vegetables

I can live without cookies.

3-T Cooking

My typical way of cooking is saying to myself, "I have X, Y, and Z that I need/want to use up... how might they go together?" I have re-christened this method 3-T cooking, or "Throwing Things Together." 

When the bunkhouse emptied and there was leftover food, I took a few odds and ends home with me. One of the things was a big bag of Raisin Bran. After getting tired of snacking on dry Raisin Bran, I picked out all the raisins and made my gramma's raisin salad. I crunched up the bran into small bits and attempted to eat it as oatmeal, which just soggified and was difficult to choke down. I also added it to a couple smoothies, which worked to a point; they were a little chewy. Then the other night I had the brilliant idea of making a baked macaroni and cheese using the bran flakes as a crust. The result: delicious 3-T baked macaroni and cheese! 

Baked Embellished Annie's Macaroni and Cheese

bran flakes
curry powder
paprika
2 boxes Annie's or similar macaroni and cheese
hunk of cheddar cheese

Sprinkle curry powder and paprika into the bran flakes to taste. Cook the macaroni and cheese according to the box directions. Add butter and milk for extra creaminess. Grate the cheddar cheese and stir into the macaroni and cheese packets. Once melted, spoon the mixture into a baking dish. Bake until the crust starts to crisp and brown.

Notes: You may grease the baking dish, but it isn't really necessary. We used a gas oven that you have to light yourself, so I have no idea how hot the oven was. I'm guessing it was around 350.

The macaroni and cheese tastes very good with ketchup but is also amazing on its own. My initial idea was to add pureed butternut squash - I'm going to try it next time. My imagination tells me that adding butternut squash will make the macaroni and cheese sweeter and give it a little more substance. Unfortunately macaroni and cheese is one of those carb-laden dishes that doesn't stay in your stomach very long; with a vegetable hidden inside, I think my tummy will have to work a little harder.

What do you like to cook when you 3-T?

The End of the Month's Review

I came back from Connecticut and Massachusetts and didn't eat at home very much. I flew in on a Tuesday and waited until Thursday to go to my farmer's market. I didn't make yogurt until Sunday. But, I have lots of yummy stuff that I've been eating that I want to share with y'all. Right now, I have chunky peanut butter and Nutella on a spoon and it's bliss. 

I had yummy roasted vegetables (fairy tale eggplants, green pepper, garlic gloves, and sweet potato) with olive oil, salt and pepper. Delicious! 

This is a carrot and raisin salad that I made in imitation of my grandmother's. I had so many carrots that needed to be eaten and I had Raisin Bran. I picked out all the raisins, put the carrots in a blender (for a very short amount of time) and whisked together equal parts of mayonnaise and apple cider vinegar. Delicious!

Joy the Baker provided the recipe for this brown sugar, but I remember reading somewhere that if you're in a pinch, molasses and white sugar can combine to make brown sugar. I was amazed by how easy it was to make it and how delicious it tastes - no preservatives or anything chemical. Now I won't ever buy it again, so long as molasses is in my pantry. Two things I can forever take off my shopping list: yogurt and brown sugar. 

At the farmer's market this week, I bought apples. I thought I'd be getting maybe 8-10 apples; instead, after telling the farmer that I like smaller apples to bring as snacks, I brought home 17 small Golden Delicious apples for $7. This photo (in which the Nutella sort of looks like a litter of puppies, and is taken on my Spongebob plate) shows my latest obsession of putting Nutella on apples. I'm thinking of renaming these apples Chocolate Delicious. 

Another thing I bought at the farmer's market this week was Asian string beans, a weird, long, purple bean. I figured they'd be good in a stir fry so I bought them. I realized I don't know how to stir fry, but I was able to put the beans in a yummy vegetable omelet. I had some fun plating too. 

I went looking online for recipes for these weird beans and found one for braising. I'd never braised green beans, so thought I'd give it a try. If you don't like something, what do you do? Why, smother it in butter and garlic of course. The result was a little chewy but quite delicious. It's somewhat like eating snakes- very buttery snakes with chunks of onion and garlic. 

The aesthetic is nice, though. 

Broccoli Soup with Gouda and Parmesan

I am so excited that I'm going home next Friday! I haven't seen my mom or my home since April and my dad since March, so I'm well overdue for some family time. It's also the bi-annual Grosslein reunion on Cape Cod, so Mom and I will drive out for that. Can't wait can't wait...

One of the major things you must keep in mind when preparing for a vacation is what you have in your fridge and pantry. You want to make sure that whatever's left won't spoil before you come back. Last week I inherited a bunch of leftover food from one of our volunteer groups, including two heads of broccoli. I knew I wouldn't eat them steamed, because that's just not something I do often. So I decided on soup.

I looked at a lot of broccoli soup recipes: ones with half and half, ones with an immersion blender, ones with "1 (1 pound) loaf processed cheese food, cubed"... the list goes on. I didn't want to use half and half because of my pseudo-lactose intolerance, don't have an immersion blender, and processed loaf cheese, just... no. Never. Then finally I found one that had the basic ingredients (milk, broccoli, cheese) and seemed adaptable.

Cream of Broccoli soup with cheese, adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker's adaptation of a similar recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (one whole stick) salted butter
1 red onion, chopped
1 small red potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 cups whole milk
2 heads broccoli, 1-inch florets and 1-inch rounds from the stem
Pepper
2 cups shredded 5-year aged gouda
1/2 cup parmesan, grated

1. In a large pot, melt the butter. Add the onions and potato. When the onions are translucent and the potatoes are soft, slowly whisk in the milk.

2. Add the broccoli with lots of ground pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the broccoli is tender. Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring in between to melt.

3. Transfer the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender if you have one) and blend on low until pulverized. Serve immediately or freeze in containers.

Notes: The potato eliminates the need for flour. When you add the broccoli, you may add salt but I didn't because the butter was salted.

This is a very tasty and easy recipe that makes a lot of soup. Great for a potluck or other large gathering of folks. 

Happy blending! 

How Not to Candy Watermelon Rind

I call this post "how not to candy watermelon rind" because what I did last week was boil watermelon rind with spices and a lot a water. I used the recipe from Food com but instead of just letting the watermelon rind sweat, I filled a deep pot with water and then let the watermelon rind and sugar sit for 12 hours. What I wound up with after adding vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice and pieces of lemon rind and chili powder, was spiced water and chewy spiced watermelon rind. It's pretty delicious and you can use the pieces of rind in yogurt parfaits, but my favorite way to use this recipe is in beer.

I went to a krewe recruitment party on Sunday and brought a jar of this watermelon rind. They had a keg (sadly this was my first keg party) of Abita Amber and after one or two Solo cups I had the idea of combining the beer with the spiced water from the rind. It was SO out of this world delicious that I had a couple more Solo cups' full. There wasn't any water at the party besides what I brought (just beer and Jameson and other alcohols) so I was not drinking enough water. Although I had fun meeting new people and swimming in Lake Pontchartrain, I got very dehydrated and had a miserable night.

Lesson learned!

Right now I don't want to drink or eat the watermelon rind, so I'm not sure what to do with it... Just the smell of it makes me feel nauseous. I'll give it a couple weeks and see if I feel better.

Please don't equate candied watermelon rind with feeling sick, though. I love this recipe and highly recommend it! Just don't put water in the pot; only peeled and diced watermelon rind with sugar. Let it sweat for 4-12 hours and then proceed with the recipe. Hopefully your end product will be chewy and delicious, like my second attempt will be.

Enjoy!

How to Freeze and Eat Summer: Lemon Nectarine Frozen Yogurt

This recipe is a work in progress. I started it Thursday when I bought some of the most juicy, delicious nectarines I've ever had in my life at the Mid-City farmer's market. Four of them were pretty bruised, but even the bruises tasted sweet, so of course I wasn't going to throw them away. Into the blender they went, along with the dream of sorbet or frozen yogurt or something.

I couldn't make ice cream because I don't keep milk in the house, but I do always have yogurt, which I make. I blended together the nectarines, skin and all, with a couple ice cubes (which actually dulled the flavor and which I won't do again) and poured the mix into a plastic container. I put it straight into the freezer.

When I tasted it a few days later, it was not smooth like I'd wanted. Of course it wasn't smooth, because I'd basically made thick, frozen juice. (It was essentially a nectarine scrapey, which is a story for another day.) So today I took it out and let it thaw for about two hours. Then I blended in about 3/4 cup of yogurt to make it a little smoother. I also made a 2 - 1 simple syrup and added about 1/4 cup of that, plus the juice of half one lemon. Now it's back in the freezer and I'll taste it tomorrow. Commence the crossing of fingers!

Ingredients:
4 nectarines, the bruised ones that need to be used immediately
3/4 cup yogurt
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup simple syrup (1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water, boiled together; can be kept in the fridge for a month)
A blender
A freezer

Stay tuned for results! I can tell you that it tastes delicious in the blender...

Oh, Let Them Eat Cake

With love from my co-workers. Isn't this an adorable cake? So far this birthday of mine has included:

- a fried shrimp po'boy, dressed, from Parkway Tavern
- Rum Chata, my new favorite drink, on the rocks
- Rum Chata in a cocktail with muddled bacon and maple Crown Royal whiskey
(I have actually had four Rum Chata drinks this week, two on Tuesday and two on Thursday. It's been a good week!)
- red velvet cake with my co-workers <3
- a group of 60 volunteers picking up trash in my neighborhood, giving me my first service day and 60 volunteers towards my year's goal
- birthday cards from Mom, Dad and grandparents
- Facebook wishes from 40 of my friends, including some I haven't heard from in awhile, which is always nice

I am overcome with love and happiness. I'm tired and I have homework to do, but boy, birthdays are wonderful things. Thank you America for not being communist! Lol.

I've been making yummy smoothies again for breakfast, now that I'm allowing myself to buy bananas again. Happily I got local bananas from the farmer's market last night, so I am super excited to try those. The best breakfast was Monday when I accidentally made frozen yogurt. I blended a frozen banana and frozen pineapple chunks with a couple ice cubes, hoping the ice would make the smoothie more watery. Instead the blender struggled to crush everything; when I added yogurt everything got smooth but stayed thick. When I poured the mix into a bowl, it had become frozen yogurt. I was thrilled and added flaxseed and walnuts. It was DELICIOUS.

After my birthday party on Sunday I should have some more culinary adventures to share. For now, enjoy life and eat well.

Happy munching!

My First True Summer Meal

They say that summer is the best time for salads, but I'm really not much of a salad person. I tend not to have lettuce in the house; I prefer spinach for adding to smoothies. I started eating bananas again after skipping them for the month of June while I was doing the Eat Local challenge and had a smoothie this morning. But the mixed greens I got from the farmer's market turned out to be 80% arugula, so the handful I threw into my smoothie (with yogurt, strawberries, fresh figs and flaxseed) made the whole thing very bitter. I added some honey which made it tasty, with just a bitter aftertaste. 

It must have been a good smoothie because it kept me going until 2:00 p.m. when I ate this yummy salad. I had just a couple pretzels at noon. I wanted to eat something that would fill me up but not be too heavy so I could play volleyball this afternoon in the heat. This salad combines mixed greens, two sliced roma tomatoes, half a grapefruit, walnuts, a hard boiled egg, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. The grapefruit added a nice sweetness that surprisingly paired well with the egg bits. Yummy and very filling! I played for about two hours, which is a lot for me.

Then I was invited to dinner by one of the players. He and his wife grilled burgers, bratwurst, chicken and shrimp with veggies; I ate with them and two of their friends before they went to see "A Little Night Music" at Tulane. The food was so delicious and I was very happy. I made fast friends with their scaredy cat, Cassie, and had to tear myself away from her. She was so damn cute and fluffy and I could have sat on their couch petting her forever. Thierry, I miss you! <3

I may have to buy some more groceries if I want to cook anything this week... happy munching! 

It's Hot Outside, so I'm Going to... Bake Bread

No, of course it doesn't make sense, but this is what I do. I get an idea into my head and I go through with it - even if I have a headache, which I had Monday night when I baked bread. I bought more active yeast over the weekend because I plan on baking bread a lot. I make my own yogurt, so why shouldn't I bake my own bread? Having baked it now, I think it's delicious and kind of don't want to buy bread ever again. 

Because I don't have loaf pans, I Googled "baking bread in a Pyrex bowl" and found this recipe: My Mother's Peasant Bread from Alexandra's Kitchen. I had all the ingredients so I whipped it up. The dough was incredibly wet and did not rise as much as I think it should have, but the bread still came out great. I cut the bowl-bread in half and put half in the fridge and half in the freezer. I cut the faux foccacia into 2" x 2" squares and put half of those into the fridge and half in the freezer. I'll have bread for at least two weeks, if not longer. Yay! 

 The wet dough, before punching it down.

The Pyrex bowl and 9" x 13" baking dish while rising.  

The finished products! The one on the left side is the faux foccacia. I did not follow the directions completely and left out the olive oil and rosemary so that I could use this for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The bread would be delicious with olive oil and rosemary - maybe next time.... The round loaf is very buttery and I was afraid it'd be stuck in the bowl because I baked the dough in the same bowl I mixed it in. Mixing the dough in the bowl incorporates some of the butter into the dough, instead of leaving it on the bowl as a greasing agent. So next time I may use a separate bowl to mix the dough and then plop the dough into the greased bowl for baking; the loaves certainly did not "fall out" of the Pyrex like Alexandra says they should. 

The next morning I had a fried egg, piece of cheese, and a toasted slice of the bowl loaf with Vegemite for breakfast! A very filling breakfast; I usually get hungry around 10, 10:30 but this kept me going until 11:30 when I had some green pepper sticks and a couple figs from my friend's garden and the community orchard in the Seventh Ward. We were weeding the tree pits and she comes over and hands me a pinkish little blob, saying "The first fig!" So I ate it (I have had figs off the tree in New Orleans before) and it was scrumptious. 

Now I have some mushy figs in my fridge... what to do with those... 

In other news I bought fancy artisan chocolate at Whole Foods today. It was on sale! It's quite delicious chocolate and was so odd (and so on sale) that I just had to try it. I am a choco-holic, fo' sho.

Day 30: The Last Day: 1 Oyster, 2 Cocktails and 3 Scoops of Ice Cream

At the Eat Local finale party, I ate a grilled oyster! It had butter, garlic and Parmesan on it and was quite tasty. I can understand why folks love these, but - I saw a platter of raw oysters and THOSE looked gross. I have my limits.

I also tried Kleinpeter's Pralines and Cream ice cream, served by a dreamy older man from Sydney who still has his accent. The two cocktails were the winners of the Garden to Glass contest, one with rum and one with vodka. Sooo good.

Despite the end of Eat Local month, I will continue to eat local whenever possible. I just won't feel so guilty if I can't do it.

Happy eating!

The Second to Last Day: There's Good News and Bad News

Today I made pizza from scratch. The finished product was delicious, despite my dough being too thick so the pizza kind of falls apart. I can't eat it in a slice like you're supposed to, but isn't that what God made forks for?

Kneading the dough was really therapeutic. I probably added more flour than called for, but the dough was so sticky. Is there a way to keep your hands from getting covered in dough? I felt bad when I washed it all down the drain. 

This was another one of my "I have stuff that needs to be eaten!" recipes. I used a Fairytale eggplant that I'd brought home from a sustainability seminar two weeks ago, pictured below. They're really tiny, like index-finger-length and taste great when sauteed in olive oil. My problem with eggplant though is that it's rubbery. I'm not a huge fan. I paired the eggplant with a clove of garlic I bought last weekend. 

I used the last half of the jar of spaghetti sauce I had in the fridge to dress the pizza and paired a baby Vidalia onion and wrinkled green pepper that I bought off the clearance table at Hollygrove Market last weekend on the other half of the pizza. Feta cheese from Jessica's house and cheddar cheese that I bought when I got here two months ago (which is still good!) finished off the pie. I covered each topping with half of each cheese, so I actually have four different types of pizza. When I cut the pie, I got between 2 and 4 slices of each type. 

I baked the pie in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and the crust was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Pretty damn delicious! 

The best part about it is that I not only learned how to make pizza dough (although you have to divide the dough you make into two parts, save one part and roll the other part out THINLY on the perforated sheet), I also learned how to make whole wheat dough. I will make it again, into bread, once I buy a bread pan or two. My roommate doesn't cook or bake very often, so the kitchen is pretty bare. I miss my Philadelphia kitchen so much some times! 

I have been eating a whole lot of non-local watermelon and boy do I love it...