Roasted Root Vegetables

I have been trying a new diet for the past few weeks. A friend of mine recently got diagnosed with a variety of food allergies and since she knows I love, love, love to cook, she asked me to help her find recipes that were palatable, allergen free, and easy to prepare. I assured her I would go on the same diet, experiment, and get back to her. And I'm slightly pissed. Because frankly? Even though I don't have as severe symptoms as she does, I feel so incredibly better after cutting certain things out of my diet, I could cry. Cheese, people. Cheese. Have I mentioned how much I adore cheese? Fucking cheese. I LOVE CHEESE. And I'm SO not interested in being allergic to cheese. However, I am willing to try just a little bit harder to cut some of the things that make me feel so disgusting - out of my diet. Which includes cheese (Holy cow. I LOVE CHEESE! How can cheese make me feel bad?! It is my destiny! Cheese!) gluten, nightshade vegetables (Hello? Tomatoes? That SUCKS!) But I am interested in expanding my diet so that the lack of cheese doesn't make me want to slit my wrists.

And on that note, I shop mostly at the food coop. If I can avoid the chain grocery store, I do. And in that manner, I found this. A bag of root vegetables. Destined for roasting or soup. So I roasted them. I've never, ever! Had sunchokes, celeriac, turnips or parsnips. I'm 37. I blame my mother. And so far, my favorite (which means it will be in my garden this summer) are the turnips. They are like a mild radish. And almost creamy in taste. I can't even describe them. But they were oh-so-yummy!
I cut about half the bag into bite sized pieces and squished them in a ziplock bag with olive oil, pepper, sea salt, rosemary, oregano and garlic salt. Oh! And I added a chopped onion as well. What are roasted vegetables without onion? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing.
I baked them for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, stirring them on occasion.
And then I served them with brown rice. Dax was pretty sure there was something there for him. But no luck. He doesn't like vegetables. Sorry, buddy.
And if you haven't cooked brown rice by this tutorial, (Click on it. I'm serious.) you haven't eaten decent brown rice. I was totally blow away by how light and fluffy it was. I am not joking. It was superb!

Baked Donuts

I not only made cheese this weekend, I made homemade donuts. I don't know if The Crazy has anything to do with the cooking, but it made me happy. I used a recipe from The Good Cook. And I made some substitutions, because I'm lazy and don't like to go to the store if I don't have to. You can make buttermilk by combining a cup of milk with a Tablespoon of vinegar and letting it sit for a few minutes. And if you only have lime juice, I'd say it's a good substitute for the lemon. Oh, and I had no lemon peel, so I just left that out. And as you can see, I used an egg instead of 1/4 c. of egg substitute. See? Lazy. Either that or "creative and make do."

Mise en place, because The Good Cook told me to. That silver thing looks like something I possibly stole from a restaurant. And the clear glass thing? It's a votive candle holder.

The dry ingredients! And if you don't read the recipe clear through before you start, you are liable to put the dry yeast into the bowl without prepping it. And then you read the directions and understand that you're supposed to prep it with 1/4 c. of warm water. So I dug it out and did it. Sigh.
Then, you're supposed to knead the dough for a good 8-10 minutes. It needed a BUNCH of flour to make that happen. I don't have a bread machine, and I'm not sure a bread machine would have made it better, but it was super sticky. Add as much as you need to make it kneadable.

Then you separate it into 10 balls and make 10 donuts and put them on a greased baking sheet.
Cover them and raise them for 45 minutes. And I will RAAAIIISSE YOU UP! AND I WILL RAAAA IIIISSEE YOU UP! AND I WILL RAAAIIISE YOU UP, ON THE LAAAASSST DAY! Bonus points if you know where that comes from.
They are squishy and plush.
Bake them for 8 minutes and then put on a lemon (lime) glaze. They are not like donuts at all. They are ALL like bagels and bread. And they were super yummy. You either like them or you don't. Tiny hated them. But Other Boy wanted to gobble them ALL up. Yum.
There you go. Donuts. Yeah for me!

Lava. And Its Chocolate Incarnation

I ended up at an impromptu dinner party last night at a local restaurant. They ordered for me because I didn't know about it until they'd already sat down, and my four cheese mac and cheese was an utter delight. Pretty much everyone who had steak wished they were me since the beef was not so good and the pasta was oh-so-delicious. But during the course of conversation, someone said, "What's that cake that you get at Chili's that's part cake and part pudding and a whole lot of delicious?" And that man's wife and I said at the same time, "Volcano cake!" Well. Suffice it to say that I spent the day googling volcano cake, but found out that googling molten lava cake gave me better results. And here are the results.

This is a Martha Stewart recipe. Of which I mostly refuse to follow. It's a principle sort of thing. But it was the easiest and I had all the ingredients on hand and well - you didn't have to separate the eggs and whip egg whites and fold them in. Not a fan of whipping things. Well - just not food things. So here you go.

The recipe said you should cook them in six muffin tins and since I was giving them away, I decided to use my ramekins. I only had three small ones, so I made three baby cakes and two medium ones.

The "dough" got decidedly hard when I mixed the chocolate with the eggs, sugar and butter. I will make sure that those three ingredients are more than room temperature next time. It was almost too hard to plop in the ramekins.

The finished product with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

And the carrying case! A drill box. Perfect!

Molten Lava Cake

4 T. butter

1/3 c. sugar

3 eggs

1/3 c. flour

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, spray ramekins to within an inch of their lives. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add flour. Then fold in the chocolate. Distribute between 6 small ramekins or muffin tins. Bake 8-10 minutes. The top may look sort of dry, but the middle should still be liquid. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes. You can either invert them, or serve them individually in ramekins. They are very rich.

The Anti-Holiday Salad

So, Crissy informed me that spinach and clementines are the antidote to holiday over-consumption. And well. I don't like spinach. Or clementines. But I liked the baby arugula I used in my Christmas salad, so I got some more of that. And three clementines. Not the eight pound bag they wanted me to buy. Just three. And not three pounds. Just three. They even opened a bag for me so I could do that. A little smile will get you a long way in the produce section. Right? Of course, right. (You know that phrase comes from Fiddler on the Roof. Right? You have listened to that soundtrack fifty billionty times in your lifetime. Right? Of course, right.)

I peeled and sectioned the clementine and put the slices on top of the arugula, sprinkled some feta cheese on top, splashed it with balsamic vinegar, drizzled it with a bit of olive oil and then cracked some pepper on top. A pinch of sea salt. And? It was luscious! My mouth liked it. Alot. The feta distracted me from the fact that I was eating something so incredibly healthy that I have no chance of getting scurvy today. I will make it again. Yes! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN! And you will too. Because it's that good.

A Little Somethin' Somethin' for the Cold

It has averaged about 2 degrees Fahrenheit this past weekend. Tiny Apartment has been very, very cold. I've got my tasty wool slippers and homemade wool socks, but today when I was trying to take a nap, I couldn't get warmed up no matter what. So I conspired to cook something hot and spicy to take the edge off.

I keep this three ring binder of recipes I've ripped out of magazines over the years. If - when I finally try a recipe - and it's a winner, I will write it on a recipe card and put it in my wooden recipe box. I know. This whole online thing is great and everything, but I cherish the handwritten recipes from my mother, grandmother and Aunt Kathy. When I see their handwriting, not only do I know it's going to be good, but my heart thinks of them. And I hope that doesn't die with the age of the internet. It might. But so far, I'm not giving in.

So, this recipe - I'm PRETTY sure came from a Clean Eating magazine, but it doesn't really say. I'm assuming so because I think I remember that the recipe on the OTHER side of the page came from a Clean Eating magazine. So, if you don't put your name and date on all your magazine pages, you're shit out of luck in my world. So there you go for credit. The recipe is called Shrimp Fra Diavolo with quinoa. But I despise shrimp, so chicken it is. Fra Diavolo means "Brother Devil" which apparently refers to the crushed red pepper, but I was not particularly impressed with it's devilishness - no matter how good it was. I think if I did it again, I'd add twice the amount of crushed red pepper.

Kate's Chicken Fra Diavolo

Somehow adapted from Clean Eating Magazine

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

2 cups water

1 1/2 T. olive oil

1 lb. chicken tenders for stir fry

1/4 t. sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 t. crushed red pepper

Bring water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy and tender, 10 -15 minutes.

Heat 1 T. of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken tenders, season with salt and black pepper and cook until done, about 3-5 minutes per side depending on thickness. I cooked mine on my George Foreman grill, which I love. Regardless of how you cook it, when it's done, cut it into bite sized pieces.

Heat remaining oil in skillet and add red bell pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Add onion and cook for 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. I used a combination of onions, yellow, and red peppers because I had leftovers from other recipes. Whatever floats your boat.

Add tomatoes and crushed red pepper and stir well. Add cooked chicken and simmer until heated through. To serve, top quinoa with chicken mixture.

Now, I'm a single gal, so I make sure to look at the number of servings each recipe makes. And I got some awesome new Pyrex storage dishes for Christmas, so I portioned it into 4 serving sizes and refrigerated it. I've got almost a whole week's worth of lunches in my refrigerator tonight. And it's lovely.

When all is said and done, I think this dish needs more pizazz. I would definitely add more black pepper and some italian seasoning, along with a healthy dose of crushed red pepper. But that's just me. I make it the way they tell me the first time and then make my adaptations the second time around.

Comfort Food

Hey! It snowed this weekend! I'm ecstatic to say the least. My four year old heart wants to play. But it also wants yummy comfort food. And I've been experimenting. Fried Egg Sandwiches and Black Beans and Rice? YUM!

I bought these ramekins years and years ago. I thought they were pretty. I had no idea they were specifically for certain cooking dealios. I'd been googling baked eggs for awhile. I don't do so well in the fried egg department. I break the yolks and mess them up every time, so I thought if I could soft-cook eggs in the oven, I'd give it a try. It starts with a buttered ramekin. And please, please, please note the coffee mug Gay Boyfriend bought me last month. It makes me laugh.

Then I put in two eggs and peppered it. Added some garlic salt and put it in a 350 degree oven. Some of the recipes said to put it in a water bath. That seemed way too complicated, so no. I think I'll do differently next time.

Then I cooked up some bacon. Oh, bacon. My lover.

I prepared my plate. I made cheesy garlic biscuits the night before from Bisquick. Followed the recipe, but added shredded Velveeta (cheese of the Gods) and some garlic salt. I made them in a pan and not as biscuits and cut them into wedges. That's how much I love cheesy biscuits. Then I buttered both sides (I love butter) and added yellow mustard on one side and a slice of provolone cheese on the other. That might have been a mistake. I'll explain later.

Oh Bacon. I want to marry you.

Bacon on one side. Eggs on the other. They got too done without the water bath. I wanted them over easy, but the slimy whites were too slimy and I kept cooking them until they weren't slimy and hence the medium cooked eggs. I think the water bath would cook the whites faster without sacrificing the gooey yellowness of the yolks. I'll let you know.

The provolone? When it started to melt, it looked a little too much like slimy egg whites, so even though I was convinced it was melted provolone, I couldn't look at it. I thought it might be uncooked egg and it icked me. Sorry. But this sandwich was AWESOME! I can't wait to make it again with over easy eggs and cheddar cheese.

Then on Sunday night, with the flurries coming down, I decided to make black beans and rice. It's really all I had besides fresh produce and I've been eating squash until it grows out my ears. So. I made some rice. One cup of rice. Two cups of water. Brought it to a boil and then simmered it until it was done. About 20 minutes with the lid on. In the mean time, I sauteed half an onion, a red pepper, some garlic, added some chicken stock and simmered until the vegetables were done, added a generous sprinkle of cumin and black pepper and poured in an undrained can of black beans. I simmered off most of the moisture and then added the cooked rice and cooked it until it was almost dry. Yum and good. And great for a cold or warmed up lunch next week. I gobbled down about a quarter of it for dinner.

I promised one of my friends some baked squash with brown sugar and cinnamon and that's what's going on right now. It smells great, but I like my squash savory and not sweet. When it's done, I'll let it cool and then scoop it out, mash it and put it in a tupperware, then ship it out to my car for tomorrow. I can't wait to give it to him. I want to see the smile on his face. That's what makes it so fun!

Homemade Tomato Soup

Oh! It was so exciting to harvest my tomatoes! But I gave them to cowgirl to make salsa. So I ended up making homemade tomato soup from canned tomatoes. Oh well. It was wonderful anyway! I diced a small onion and browned it with 2 tablespoons of minced garlic in olive oil.













Then I added a 28 oz. can of tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of worchestershire sauce, a sprinkle of sugar and 2 cups of chicken broth. Then I simmered it for 30 mintes and added a tablespoon of dried basil.













Cooled it, blended it and added a can of fat free evaporated milk and warmed it up again. It's so good. It's so very good.