These Beans and Barley Oh... or Something...

Does anyone else remember a song that goes "something beans and barley oh?" Or am I the only one? Even Google has no idea what I'm talking about.

Anyways, I tried cooking pearled barley for the first time this week. An AllRecipes magazine I got from a friend had an article about those crazy new grains (like amaranth and a bunch of others) and how to cook them. I hadn't heard about eating straight barley before; I thought that was something that people ate a long, long time ago that had since fallen out of favor. 

But not all the new grains are popular everywhere you go. Last weekend when we went to the grocery store here in the mountains I wanted to get quinoa or something like it. I said "Do you have matzos and quinoa?" to one of the managers and he said, "Uh... the what?" I asked again but added, "It's like a grain, like rice." So he showed me the rice aisle where I found pre-cooked quinoa in single-serve bowls. Nearby I saw bags of organic barley and thought, "Hm..."

My housemate, Ryan, suggested that we make barley with vegetable soup for dinner one night this week. He'd bought a couple cans of Campbell's and is really good at keeping a mental list of what we've got in the pantry. Last night I started cooking the barley and realized that it would take almost an hour including the time it took to boil the water. So while it was cooking I made spaghetti and we ate that instead.

Today we added the cooked barley to the soup with a couple slices of sharp cheddar cheese. We served the soup with salty crackers, toast, and the rest of the cucumber and tomato salad I made two days ago.

The soup wasn't great. I'm not really a big fan of Campbell's, or of canned soup for that matter. It's so loaded with sodium even when it tastes pretty bland.  The barley was great though; very chewy and with a nice snap. It had a subtle nutty flavor. All in all it was a filling meal and I'm happy with it.

My dessert was the best part though. I'm not sure when I started doing it, but I once decided to have a peanut butter sandwich without the bread. I put peanut butter, whatever jelly I had in the fridge, and Nutella in a bowl and mixed it together. It's basically a combination of different types of sugar - how could it not be delicious? Sometimes I add banana slices or pieces of fruit; whatever I have in the fridge. It's like an ice cream sundae without the ice cream. Soooo good.

PB & J in a Bowl

Pretty self-explanatory, hm?

Happy munching!

Those Elusive Cherries

I actually had an opportunity to use my apron! Woo!

Here in Clintwood there is a pear tree, several apple trees (which already have baby apples on them!), a cherry tree, a baby fig tree, and blueberry bushes. Quite the orchard! In the fall, they make apple butter and apple cider which they sell at fairs. Their cherry tree no longer has its low branches because somebody decided to cut them off to harvest the cherries one year... resulting in a tree full of cherries that taunt me from above. They look so red and juicy and delicious and no matter what I do, I cannot reach them. Fortunately some of them fall to the ground and don't get bruised so I was able to pick almost two cups over the weekend. I cut them into quarters after pitting them. Then I had to decide what to do with them.

They were rather tart but very juicy. I thought they'd go nicely in a bread of some kind so I found a great recipe off Food.com. Thank goodness I stocked my pantry with butter, flour, baking powder, sugar and a little salt.

There wasn't a whole lot in there, so I don't know if I did something wrong with the batter? The pictured bread has slices at least 4 inches high... I don't know what they did. 

The edges burned just a tad. The oven I was working with cooked the bread in about 35 minutes instead of 45. Although the edges were singed, the bread was moist and very tasty. It also made the house smell DELICIOUS.

I only used about 5 tablespoons of the cherries, so I made a sauce out of the rest. I added 3 or 4 spoonfuls of sugar to the cherries and let them sit for awhile before serving the bread.

So yummy! 

Even though I've eaten like a queen today, this still makes my mouth water... mmm... 

Happy munching! 

When Life Gives You a Vegetarian...

Apologies for a text-only blog post - it's weird taking photos knowing that you can't upload them to Facebook right away. West of Bland, VA I lost cell phone service. MetroPCS does not exist among the ridges of southwestern Virginia. This is at once freeing and limiting. I am simultaneously thrilled and disappointed that I do have internet in the Learning Co-op's building. There are eight episodes of Glee that I could catch up on, but I feel bad binge-watching TV while I'm in what should be the simple country. (By simple I mean quiet and easy, not at all stupid. The folks I've met so far are all very intelligent and absolute experts in what they do; I am humbled by and honored to know them.) But I just had to listen to Unkle and the only way I can do that is streaming on Grooveshark. I also need to, keep up with this blog, of course!  

Life gave me a vegetarian while at this internship with the Fourth World Movement in Appalachia in the form of Ryan, the young Marylandian (Marylander?) who's spending the summer with me and the team. He's super awesome and we get along really well, though he makes me feel old when he tells me that he isn't 21. (I scolded him not to drink my beers in the fridge, but I'm not really worried.) His favorite thing to eat is stir-fried vegetables, mainly chopped cauliflower, broccoli, onions, potatoes, and peppers. He adds lemon pepper, garlic powder, Mrs. Dash spices, soy sauce and hot sauce to make Chinese-food-esque stir-fries that are just awesome. Then he throws some cheese on top and dives in. I already love his cooking style. Next time I suggested he throw in some pineapple or mango chunks to add some tropical sweetness. 

Tonight for dinner I took the leftovers of his stir-fry, blended them with the leftover (boxed) rice pilaf that I'd made and scrambled it with six eggs. When I told Ryan my idea for dinner (as he and I are going to switch off cooking) he raised his eyes to the heavens and said, "YES!" We both agree that cooking is boring without another person in the kitchen, so it's safe to say that we're going to get along just fine. 

My other brilliant idea was the dessert, which I was thrilled to introduce to Ryan: banana "ice cream." He said, "But we don't have any ice cream." "That's what the air quotes are for," I replied. I sliced two frozen bananas into a blender, added the rest of the milk that was in the fridge (probably about a 1/2 cup - I don't have measuring cups in this kitchen, hooray!) and added a heaping tablespoon of carob powder. Ryan had never had that either and said that he couldn't tell the difference between it and chocolate. The result was guilt-free chocolate ice cream. It was so wonderful to have seconds and not feel bad about it! 

I'm really looking forward to cooking yummy veggies with this kid. On my mental menu are roasted cauliflower, baked sweet potatoes, vegetable frittata, and apple cake. I'm hoping to get my diet back in check and I think this will help! 

Hopefully the southwestern-style fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mountains of cornbread won't set me back too much... 

Happy munching! 

Playing "Ketchup"

Goodness me... I have been a bad blogger. I apologize. After Mardi Gras, I thought that things might slow down enough for me to blog but instead they just got crazy busy. I left New Orleans in April after my yearlong term with AmeriCorps ended and despite being home in CT and having lots of time to laze about, I didn't blog. For weeks I was working and travelling and then when I got home I just wanted to do nothing. But I did make some things that I wanted to share.

Bachelor Pie

I've been eating a lot of toast for breakfast lately, but I never eat anything so boring as buttered toast - it's a full meal. My grandmother, Magy (Ma Gee for Ma Grosslein), has been making Bachelor Pie as long as I can remember and it's always a staple at her house. While spending a few days with her, my grandfather (Pagy) and my dad on Cape Cod, I ate a lot of Bachelor Pie with strawberry jam and fresh sliced strawberries. At home I made my own Bachelor Pie with peanut butter, bananas, and granola homemade by a cousin of mine. It was so delicious and kept me full straight through lunch time. 

Simple and Delicious Bachelor Pie 

Sliced bread, home baked or store bought; whole wheat and white are best but you can use any type

Butter, if desired

Jam or marmalade, any flavor (homemade is best!) 

Sliced fruit

Toast the bread to your liking. The darker you toast the bread, the more toppings it will support. Spread toast with butter if you prefer and follow with jam or marmalade. Arrange slices of fruit on top. Enjoy, especially with tea or coffee. 

Throwing Things Together (3T) Pizza

Yesterday after running errands Mom and I were contemplating stopping by the new wood fire oven pizza cart in town. Apparently it isn't open on Sundays - and thank goodness. We went home and realized that we had a pre-made pizza crust, lots of cheese, sweet potatoes and other miscellaneous ingredients to use up in the fridge. Mom let me choose what toppings I wanted to combine so I came up with the above: half marinara with avocado slices, cheddar jack and Mexican cheese blends and grated carrot with garlic powder and half sweet potato mash, gala apples and feta cheese with cinnamon.

I baked the pizza in a 400 degree oven for 14 minutes or so until the crust (brushed with olive oil) was brown and crispy. The apple half was sweet like a dessert pizza and the avocado half was heavy with garlic and Mexican and Italian flavors. We were thrilled and so glad that we stayed in!

It feels so good to blog again.

Happy munching!

The Only Quarter Pounder I Want to Eat

Confession time: I used to love Quarter Pounders. Every once in awhile I just had to have one. (Which reminds me... isn't it Shamrock Shake season and don't they stop selling them after St. Patrick's Day? Hopefully that means I'll make it through the weekend without buying one!) I loved that grease and that cheese... all of it together was just... mmm. Now, thankfully, whenever I eat one I get sick. So I've come to associate the Quarter Pounder with getting sick and don't eat them anymore.

But I still love burgers. I don't ever want to give up meat because I love burgers so much. During Mardi Gras weekend when my friend Molly was here we went to a bar on St. Claude called Siberia hoping to see a burlesque and comedy show called "Jiggles and Bits," I think. Because it was Lundi Gras, the show was cancelled. But we hadn't eaten dinner and wanted to try Russian food (we'd already had Ethiopian and would have Lebanese the next day) and stuck around to hear the sounds of "Krewe de Peaux," an eclectic lineup of a marching band from Austin, a rock n' roll trio of Japanese guys, and a very odd little man on keyboard (I left when he came on; he just wasn't my style). She got some type of vegetarian sandwich (I don't remember) and I got the Russki burger, a big beautiful burger with garlic mushrooms and spinach, cheddar and Swiss, LTP, and Russian dressing. It was divine. (I also got a side of fries. They were awesome but the burger was so good and so big that I didn't eat many of the fries; Molly didn't eat them either. During the show, a couple guys were like, "Are those your fries?" They'd gone cold but I said yes and that they could have them. The two proceeded to inhale them; it was pretty funny to watch.)

As part of my pledge to eat what I've got in my pantry, I'm also trying to go through what's in my freezer. I had two pounds of beef in there that I just kept forgetting to thaw. Finally this morning I put one pound into the fridge. When I got home it was still mostly frozen so I thawed it in the microwave in 30-second intervals. Then I made burgers.

I was curious about different ways to cook burgers so I made two quarter pounders in the toaster oven and two in the frying pan.

These taste delicious, even though they look like mystery meat. 

The ones in the frying pan looked much better. 

Instead of the usual accouterments (I know that's not how it's supposed to be spelled - it's your fault Google dictionary!), I ate it on a piece of French baguette with Vegemite spread and avocado. I LOVE avocado - love love love. "Where have you been all my life?!?!" kind of love. I had a little cheese and a few cherry tomatoes on the side. 

It was a very filling, very delicious meal. WAY better than any Quarter Pounder. Though I would still like a Shamrock Shake... 

What do you like to eat on your burgers?   

Amazing "Struggle Dough" Sugar Cookies

So I somehow wound up with a 2 pound and a 1 pound bag of sugar, as well as a small plastic container of local sugar that I got as a freebie with a grocery order. I also have a 1 pound bag of confectioner's sugar, but that's lagniappe at this point. With all this sugar and a pledge to eat out of and clean out my pantry in the weeks before I move away from New Orleans (six! waaah), I decided the other night to bake sugar cookies, thinking that they must use more sugar than normal cookies. (They don't.)

Nonetheless, I was feeling a little upset after a stressful day and had to get up early for work. If I had to get up early and do a volunteer project, I figured cookies would at least make the day better. So I Googled simple sugar cookie recipes and found a good one from AllRecipes - Easy Sugar Cookies. Fool proof, right?

Wrong. After putting together the ingredients I realized that the dough couldn't possibly be right - it was very dry and crumbly. I looked at the recipe again and said to myself, "Wait... a cup of butter... is that one stick or two?" I had only put in one.

After I folded in the second stick of butter, the dough looked much better but was still pretty crumbly. (I thought we had a set of electric beaters but couldn't find the actual beater, just the detachable beaters, so I used some arm muscle to mix everything.) But I pressed on (pun intended), hoping that the cookies would magically turn out right. 

I made little lumpy balls and set them on the cookie sheet, then put them into the oven. Instead of baking for the recommended 8-10 minutes, they needed 15 to get crackly and golden brown.

They still didn't look like the pictured sugar cookies, nor like any sugar cookie I'd ever eaten. Instead they looked like a cross between a cookie and a biscuit. They made the house smell AMAZING though... way better than any Yankee candle. 

The first one I tasted was crunchy on the outside with just a little bit of chewiness in the center. 

Because I used 50% whole wheat, 50% white flour, they had sort of a speckled look to them. All the butter made them very rich. 

Soooo good. Although they only used 1 1/2 cups of sugar, they did help clean out my pantry... every bit counts! 

What do you like to bake when you de-stress? 

Ga-What Now?

You can wax philosophical comparing all the different pronunciations of Americanized Polish food. Peh-ro-gis. Pee-your-gis. P'ro-gis for pierogies, the dumplings filled with everything from prunes to potatoes. Then there's the guh-wump-ki. Ga-lump-ki. Ho-lub-ki for golumpki, the cabbage rolls of ground beef or pork stewed in broth or tomato sauce.

Growing up half Polish, I made and ate pierogies every Christmas Eve since I could hold a fork (for pressing the edges together, of course). My grandmother used to make golumpki in the Crock-pot and although it looked funny it tasted amazing. Alas, I never appreciated borscht (WITHOUT beets) until I was an adult. When I spooned that amazing egg-y, salty broth in my mouth with a bite of kielbasa I almost cried with regret. "Where have you been all my life??" My mom's borscht is the best - I must get her recipe (which used to be her mom's, I think). (In fact, borscht is an excellent way to reuse that water you have after cooking kielbasa. Hooray for waste not, want not reusing!)

Golumpki is also one of those recipes that is great for 3T cooking, when you're just throwing things together. Say you have a head of local cabbage, frozen ground beef, and a jar of tomato sauce in the pantry - ta da, you have a golumpki dinner! The other night that's exactly what I did.

The big blue pot used to go inside my Crock-pot, but I'm pretty sure the fuse is shot. I'm afraid to use it. However, for recipes like golumpki, you can use the pot in the oven. It worked very well! 

I'm ashamed to admit I had to consult a recipe, but I shouldn't have to next time. I made about one and a half dozen cabbage rolls that fed me for a good week and a half, eating either two or three rolls for lunch. They're incredibly filling and really quite yummy.

The fun part about this golumpki is that instead of rice, which I didn't have, I used quinoa. I thought it might be kind of weird but it was actually wonderful. I wouldn't say I like it better than rice because rice is more absorbent but it was delicious. I'm so looking forward to having my last two rolls for lunch tomorrow!

And when it all boils down, you really can't pronounce the names with a mouthful of food anyways!

Happy munching!