Besides Pizza

Closing comments for now

2010-02-02T07:45:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone. We've been uninspired lately for any posts as you can see. I'm getting tired of deleting spam comments so I am turning them off for now until we have a new post.

Enchilada Casserole

2009-10-12T12:17:00.006-05:00

If you've read some of our earliest blog posts, you know that Kay has always been in the kitchen with me. When she was a baby, I'd put her bouncy chair on the kitchen table and she watched. When she was about 4, she started making cornbread. Then when she was about 8 she was helping with the cutting, sauteing, and kneading. But she is now 12 years old and it is a whole new phase which involves a lot of complaining and eye rolling and stomping around the house. That is why I was so happy yesterday when she came up to me with one of her old cookbooks and asked if she could make dinner! That is why I'm posting this, even though we don't have a picture. This is a truly momentous occasion!

Actually, this casserole wasn't very attractive anyway. It did taste really good though. Not at all like what I expected. It is out of Kay's favorite cookbook "Kids Can Cook: Vegetarian Recipes" which we've mentioned before. We've had nothing but success out of this book. I will warn you though, this recipe ended up taking about an hour and a half to prepare.

Since I don't have a picture of the food, I'll post a picture of Kay so you can get a taste of the atmosphere around our house lately.

That is Kay with her aunt. We had just got back from the park. She was mad because she was thirsty but I didn't take a water bottle with and her uncle was talking and not unlocking the apartment door so she could get a drink. Oh the stress that is her life!

Enchilada Casserole

(This is half a recipe. The original made 8 servings.)

First make the chili gravy:

3 tablespoons oil

1 onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 tablespoon cumin powder

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup flour

3 cups water

In a large pot, saute the onion in the oil over low heat. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the dry ingredients and stir into the onions. Slowly add the water to the pot, stirring with a whisk to remove all the lumps. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, whisking occasionally.

Casserole assembly:

Chili gravy

8 flour tortillas

2 cans pinto beans, rinsed

cheddar cheese (or melty cheese sauce)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour half the chili gravy into the bottom of an 8x10 dish. Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray it with a light layer of oil. Cook each tortilla on each side about 30 seconds.

Spread a big spoonful of beans in the tortilla and roll it up. Place it on the gravy in the dish. Continue with all remaining tortillas. Pour the remaining gravy over the enchiladas.

Top the casserole with cheese of your choice.

Bake for 40 minutes. To serve, cut into squares.

Melty Cheese Sauce:

In a small sauce pan, mix together:

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk in:

1 cup water

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard.

Cook and stir until the sauce thickens.

Kay: (She's at school now. I'll see if she has time to post later. I know one thing she will say is that the onions should have been cut smaller! She seemed to like it though and for once didn't complain about dinner.)

Dana (Mom): We usually don't add salt to our recipes but both the cheese sauce and the gravy needed it. We make a lot of different kinds of enchiladas but this was really different. The beans, tortillas, and sauce all blended together. The cheese sauce is your typically nutritional yeast fake cheese. If you don't like nutritional yeast (which I happen to love) then you won't like this! Kay and Bill had regular cheese on their part. We did it all in the same pan without any problem.

Franks and Beans

2009-09-19T14:15:00.007-05:00

This is one of those recipes that we used to have when I was growing up but then I just kind of forgot about it. A couple years ago, my dad was over helping with one of our endless home improvement projects and I needed to throw something together for lunch. This has become one of his favorites which is why we had it last month for his birthday as well as a couple weeks ago when we visited my brother's family at their new apartment.

Kay and Grandpa on his birthday

It is very versatile because we have found that most non-vegetarians will eat vegetarian hot dogs without batting an eye if you just don't say anything. The first time I tested this was 2 years ago at Kay's birthday party. No one had any idea. Then a few months later we had a family get-together. My niece is usually a very picky eater (maybe not always but at least when I try to feed her!) but it seemed crazy to get regular hot dogs for just her so my mom and I decided to give her the veggie hot dogs. I worried a little when she didn't want a bun, ketchup or mustard. She ate it completely plain though and didn't seem to mind at all. (I have to say, they've come a very long way since I first tried them 19 years ago. Those things were disgusting!)

Kay and her cousin playing Wii

Therefore this makes a really good meal when you have a mixture of people. It is also really easy. That first time I literally just threw things together!

Franks and Beans

1 cup onions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon oil

15 oz can of vegetarian baked beans

15 oz can of kidney beans, rinsed

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons mustard

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

6 hot dogs, cut into bite-sized chunks

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Saute the onions over medium-low heat until browned. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and simmer for 15 minutes or until heated through and the flavors are blended. Stir every now and then so it doesn't stick.

Kay: I like mostly the hot dogs but my dad likes mostly the just the beans so it works out good.

Dana: This recipe can get unhealthy really fast depending on the ingredients you use. Make sure you check the salt content in all items and get salt free beans if you can.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2009-09-04T09:21:00.004-05:00

I am so happy that school has started again and we are back to a more regular schedule. Kay started at a new school this year and it starts much earlier than her last one so that has been a bit of a shock to our systems. I think we are all finally starting to adjust though.

During the summer, I work in the office two days a week and my parents spend the day with Kay. On their second to last day, which also happened to be my dad's birthday, they took Kay and two friends bowling, out to lunch and to a ceramic painting store. Then for dinner we made one of my dad's favorite meals (upcoming post) with these cupcakes for dessert. They were a huge success. My parents liked them so much, my mom made them again a couple weeks later.

They are very peanut buttery. We may have even eaten them for breakfast. The recipe is out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (fantastic book!). I reduced the sugar quite a bit, omitted the salt, and used rice milk just because we prefer that in baked goods. Normally I would have substituted part of the all-purpose flour with some spelt or white whole wheat but this time I left it alone (it was for a birthday after all!) We used natural, organic, crunchy peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

3/4 cups rice milk

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground flaxseed

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Mix the milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle (this creates non-dairy buttermilk).

In a large mixing bowl, cream the peanut butter, oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and flaxseeds until well combined. Add the milk mixture and mix until well combined.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full (we use an ice cream scoop). Bake 23-26 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks.

Top with ganache and chopped peanuts. Place in refrigerator to set the ganache.

Quick Melty Ganache

3 tablespoons soy milk

1/3 cups chocolate chips

Heat the soy milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until just about to simmer. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Kay: comments to come after school.

Mom (Dana): When I was typing this, I kept putting Peanut Butter Pancakes instead of Cupcakes which has given me a whole new idea!!

Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

2009-07-26T18:41:00.006-05:00

Last night I was going to make either potato enchiladas or black bean and potato tacos (which I haven't posted yet but plan to) but we have both of those so often. It was much warmer yesterday and I didn't want to turn on the oven so I came up with something similar but in a quesadilla instead.

Bill had two races in Chicago today (see Flickr for pictures) and we must have walked 5 miles! I was so happy to have these leftovers at home!

Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

2 pounds potatoes (about 4)

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

1 can chopped chilies

Juice of one lime

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

3/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

tortillas

Cut the potato into chunks. Boil until soft and then mash along with the vegetable broth. When the potatoes are relatively smooth, add the chilies, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Stir in the black beans.

Warm a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan and cover half of it with the potato mixture. Fold the tortilla in half. Cook about 3-4 minutes per side until nicely browned.

Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Kay: I thought these were a little spicy. I didn't see the salsa so I ate mine plain.

Dana (Mom): This made a lot of filling. I'm going to try freezing some of it to see how it holds up. You can use any kind of bean that you like or have on hand. If I had extra spinach in my refrigerator, I probably would have chopped that up and added it as well.

Pesto

2009-07-08T12:36:00.005-05:00

I didn't get very good pictures but that is the pesto peaking out under the peas.

We finally had our first CSA pickup last Friday. Actually, with how cold and rainy it has been, I'm shocked anything has grown. We received Swiss chard, shelling peas, fava beans, arugula, and basil. Kay and I cooked the fava beans which were such a pain but then we sat down and ate all of them within 5 minutes! I'm not sure what we'll do with the arugula since none of use care for it. The other ingredients were all incorporated into our dinner on Monday.

We grow our own basil so whenever I get a bunch from the CSA, I make pesto. Kay and I don't really like peas but I remembered a salad recipe from Ina Garten that used pasta, peas and pesto so I decided to turn that into a warm meal. Shockingly, Kay loved it. I think it had something to do with the huge amount of garlic I put in the pesto. I cut all the ingredients in half, based on the amount of basil I had but forgot to half the garlic!

Pesto

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

8 cloves garlic, chopped

5 cups basil leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup olive oil

Place the nuts and garlic in a food processor and chopped for 30 seconds. Add the basil, salt and pepper and chop for 30 seconds more. Leave the processor running and drizzle in the oil until all ingredients are pureed and well blended.

This will freeze very well.

Kay: I don't really care for peas but they tasted good mixed with the pesto. The fava beans were awesome. We gobbled them up in one minute!

Mom (Dana): For our dinner, I blanched the peas for about 1 minute and then mixed the peas, some cooked pasta, and some of the pesto. Bill and Kay added Parmesan. As you can see, we also had pea pods with almonds and onions and Swiss chard and potatoes.

Vegan Egg McMuffins

2009-07-01T17:36:00.005-05:00

July 1st is the worst day of my professional year every single year. There is tons of work and stress and time constraints but, lucky for you, I just lived it and have no intentions of rehashing the whole thing. After working about 10 hours, I collapsed on my couch to watch some TV and turned on "Delicious TV Totally Vegetarian". After a few minutes Kay wandered in and sat down as well. She was so amazed by how these sandwiches looked, she asked me to make them. So this is what we had for dinner.

First of all, the "egg" part really looks like the egg on an Egg McMuffin. I was shocked. We had ours on toasted sourdough bread with fake bacon (which we LOVE!). When eaten like a sandwich, I thought it tasted pretty authentic and I don't know that I would have realized it wasn't egg if I hadn't been the one who cooked it. Kay ate one of hers as a sandwich and the other by itself. She thought it tasted more like egg in the sandwich than alone.

These were really easy to make. I'm not sure how quick it went but it is 5:40 now and I didn't stop working until 5:00 so within 40 minutes we watched the show, fixed the food and ate it. Not too bad.

Vegan Egg McMuffin

Actually this recipe is just for the egg part. You'll have to figure the rest out yourself!

1 pound firm or extra firm tofu

1 cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Turmeric

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet.

Mix the cornstarch and salt in a bowl.

Slice the tofu into 4 slabs. We cut ours into circles because that's how they did it on TV but it would work just as well as rectangles. Dip each slice into the cornstarch, coating well. Sprinkle turmeric on one side and place that side down in the pan. Sprinkle the top with more turmeric. Repeat with other pieces.

Cook about 4-5 minutes per side until nicely browned.

Serve with toast, bacon, sausage, ham, cheese, or whatever else sounds good to you.

Kay: If you eat it plain it doesn't really taste like egg but if you eat it with fake bacon and bread, it tastes like an egg mcmuffin but a lot less greasy.

Dana: Unfortunately our home computer is in my home office and my work computer keeps beeping at me about new e-mails. I was tempted to ignore them since if I was still on the couch, I wouldn't have even known about them, but in the end, I couldn't so I'm back to work again. At least I got a dinner break!

Vegetable Enchiladas

2009-06-20T17:28:00.005-05:00

For the first time in maybe forever, I'm home alone for about 24 hours. Bill is at Horribly Hilly in Madison, Wisconsin and Kay has a slumber/pool party. I always liked my alone time but I've gotten so used to not having any that I'm not real sure what to do with myself! Luckily, it is gorgeous out today and I have 2 library books and 3 magazines I haven't read so I've been on the porch all afternoon.

I made these enchiladas on Thursday when my parents and one of Kay's friends were over. The grown-ups all really liked them and the kids thought they were ok. I'll take it!

There was one still left over which I ate with herbed rice and roasted carrots. I'm quite impressed with the meal I was able create from leftovers considering it is Saturday and Sunday is our shopping day. Usually at this point we are eating buttered noodles and crackers!

Vegetable Enchiladas

Corn tortillas

Enchilada sauce of choice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 zucchini, chopped

1 yellow squash, chopped

2 cups eggplant, chopped

1 pound firm tofu, crumbled

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp chilies (I used the kind that come in a squirt tube. Hot sauce or crushed red peppers would work too.)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms, zucchini, squash and eggplant. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the tofu and seasonings and cook 5 minutes more. If you must add salt, add it now but not sooner or your vegetables will get watery.

Heat the tortillas in the microwave to soften them. Heat the enchilada sauce in a skillet. Dip each tortilla into the sauce and then fill with a spoonful of the filling (yes, this is very messy). Roll the enchilada and place in a baking dish. Continue until you run out of tortillas, filling, sauce, or pan space. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes.

Dana (all by herself!): I topped the kid's portion with cheddar cheese. Tonight I put sour cream (soy of course!) on mine. I had planned to offer it along with salsa on Thursday but forgot. I'm heading back to the porch!

Taco Salad

2009-06-10T19:01:00.004-05:00

This is the taco salad I grew up with. My husband claims this isn't real taco salad but he still eats it! I always crave this when the weather first turns warm. This time I made one regular salad for Bill and Kay and tried to make a dairy-free version for me. It didn't work. It was fine but didn't taste anything like the original. Tough luck for me, I guess.

Taco Salad

There aren't really measurements for this because it depends on what size pan you put it in. Layer the ingredients in the following order starting on the bottom.

Lettuce (usually romaine or iceberg)

Green pepper

Green onion

Tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Creamy garlic salad dressing

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Doritos, taco flavor, crunched up

If you aren't serving it immediately, wait to add the chips or they'll get very soggy.

Kay: I liked this salad. It tasted like tacos and salad. I really liked the chips! This has nothing to do with the salad but I got a new hamster today.

Mom (Dana): If I ever come across a decent dairy free creamy dressing, I'm giving this another shot!

Chocolate Mousse

2009-05-27T17:48:00.003-05:00

You know, ever since my job decided that they were going to monitor our internet access, my quality of life has decreased significantly!! Basically, I can't check my e-mails at work so they build up to a ridiculous amount and by the time I am done checking them, I don't have time to post on the blog. I'm just going to have to start scheduling the time to do it because post ideas keep piling up!

I was going to post what we did with all the bananas but then the weeks flew by. We ate several of them and made smoothies but we also made this really good mousse. It comes from Go Dairy Free which is a really good book for dairy-free snack ideas.

We actually had this over a week ago. All my time last week was taken up planning our weekend out of town. Bill had a bike race in Burlington, Iowa (he got 11th out of about 30). It was called Snake Alley because part of the course looks like this:

We stayed in Galesburg, Illinois for the weekend. Besides the race, we went to a train museum, ate at a creperie, looked at the Mississippi River, and saw Star Trek. It was a nice weekend but we were really tired from all the driving and the heat so it was nice to get home.

Chocolate Mousse

12.3 oz package of firm silken tofu

2 medium bananas, ripe

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the tofu and bananas in your blender and process until smooth. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour the melted chocolate into the blender along with the vanilla and blend until it is smooth and creamy. Divide the mousse between 4 bowls, cover with wax paper and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Kay: I wish it had less banana flavor to it but it was really good besides that.

Mom (Dana): I've tried a lot of pudding-type recipes that use tofu but they always tasted a little funny. This mousse didn't have that weird tofu taste at all.

Banana Bread

2009-05-12T18:09:00.005-05:00

Last Halloween, we weren't going to buy a pumpkin but on our way home from my parent's house, we noticed a sign that said "pumpkins $1". Who could pass that up? It was at this small tent set up in the parking lot of a small candle and craft shop. I had seen it there all summer but that was the first time we stopped.

A couple weeks ago, Kay and I noticed they were back so we stopped there after going to the library. I don't know where the produce comes from but there is a lot of it and the prices are really really REALLY low. We've started going there every week and I'm always amazed at how much we get for so little.

This week when we were checking out, the guy who I think is the owner said "You want some bananas for a dollar". Why not! He gave us two huge bunches of bananas and then said "I give you more if you can use them - no charge". 15 bananas is more than enough for us though!

So over the next week or so, we are going to post recipes using all of these bananas. The first thing I made was banana bread. Kay doesn't like banana bread and didn't even help make it this time (she is always at tennis) but Bill loves this recipe and he is very child-like at times so it counts as a child friendly food! I messed around with several recipes until Bill declared that it was perfect a few years ago.

I pulled this out of the oven just a couple minutes before Bill walked in the door. As you can see, one disappeared before I could even get my camera!

I usually make mini loaves but I only have 2 pans and this makes 4 and I didn't feel like doing two batches so I tried it in giant muffin pans and it worked great. Plus we don't feel as guilty eating a whole muffin (no matter how big) as we do when we eat a whole loaf!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk (I used rice this time)

2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg beaters

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas (usually around 2 bananas)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon ground flax

Mix all the wet ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix the dry. Add the wet to the dry and stir until just mixed.

For small loaves or large muffins, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

For a regular size loaf, bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

The small loaves work a lot better than the regular size one.

Roasted Red Pepper and Leek Soup

2009-04-30T19:49:00.004-05:00

Did you know that unlike the soccer team, the tennis team either practices or has a match every single weekday? Every one. I was really happy when Kay took the spring season of soccer off to try tennis instead. Her soccer practices were at 5 or 5:30 which was a mess with our dinner time and we had to travel to other towns every weekend for the games. Tennis on the other hand, practices right after school at her school which is seconds from our house and they have a bus that takes them to and from the matches. This was all really good news until I got the schedule. Every night is a bit much!

So obviously our dinners have been a little crazy and weird because I'm not very motivated to make a full meal when none of us are eating together. I did manage to pull this soup together one night though and it went over pretty well. It is based off of something that I saw on Delicious TV but that I didn't write down. This might be her exact recipe or it might be nothing at all like it! But this is at least what I remember it to be!

Roasted Red Pepper and Leek Soup

4 cups chopped leeks (about 1 large leek)

1 jar roasted red peppers (or about 5 peppers)

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups vegetable broth

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the leeks in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add the peppers and cook 1-2 minutes. Add the broth and bring it to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Puree the soup either in a blender or with an immersion blender. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve with a sprinkling of coarse salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Kay: This soup was OK. I like creamy soups like this.

Mom (Dana): Our weather is bouncing all over the place and this soup was light enough that it was enjoyable on the 80 degree days as well as the 40 degree ones.

Fettuccine Alfredo

2009-04-17T09:14:00.003-05:00

Kay and I have both been on spring break this week. Normally this is a fun week, especially when her birthday falls in the middle of it like it did this year. Unfortunately for Kay, she also had to get two teeth pulled, go to the eye doctor and to the orthodontist! Plus the weather was terrible up until yesterday. To make up for this though she is having 3 birthday celebrations including a slumber party this weekend so don't feel too sorry for her.

On her birthday, I let her pick the meal. I was positive she would pick gnocchi but in a surprise move she picked fettuccine alfredo instead. Everyone seems to like this and it is my friend Lisa's favorite out of all my recipes. It is not at all healthy though! Obviously it is pretty much pure dairy so I ate a frozen dinner instead but Bill and Kay enjoyed it.

Fettuccine Alfredo

12 oz fettuccine

1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Cook the fettuccine according to the package directions.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the margarine. Gradually stir in the cheese and then the cream. Stir until well blended. Continue heating sauce, stirring constantly until it boils.

Combine the noodles, sauce and parsley.

Kay: I like the fettuccine a lot. I would rather have the parsley only on top instead of mixed in though. For my birthday my parents gave me a Wii and then I got money from my relatives so I bought some games yesterday.

Mom (Dana): This always looks like a disaster but it does eventually come together. If the cheese is really gloppy, a whisk helps.

Soda Bread

2009-04-05T10:25:00.004-05:00

A while ago, my mom was telling me that she saw soda bread in the store and was tempted to buy it but didn't. Then a few days later she saw it on Martha Stewart. She had never tried it before which I find shocking because I've been making it for years. I had planned to make some for them but then we got sick and lost about a month of our lives but now we are better. So Kay and I made some bread Friday night and then we all got up early and took it down to their house for breakfast.

Most recipes I've seen for soda bread call for raisins but my dad hates dried fruit so we used mini chocolate chips instead. You can also use nuts or a combination of all of them. You can also use herbs instead of the cinnamon and put Parmesan on top instead of sugar and serve it with dinner. It is really flexible.

Soda Bread

In a large bowl, mix:

2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

Cut in 1/2 cup margarine.

Stir in 1/3 cup chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts.

In a medium bowl, mix:

1 cup soy milk

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Let set 5 minutes. Then add in one egg or two egg whites.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Knead lightly to bring the batter together. It will be dry.

Form the dough into a round and place it on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut an X into the top of the loaf and brush it with soy milk. Sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

Kay: I don't like raisins so I was glad we used chocolate chips instead. This was fun to make. I like kneading.

Mom (Dana): This is a very dry bread. The first bite is always a little bland to me but the flavor develops as you eat it.

If you don't have white whole wheat flour, you can use 4 cups of all purpose instead.

Chicken Salad

2009-03-24T19:49:00.005-05:00

Yes, we realize it has been over a month since we posted. And what a dreadful month! First Kay got the flu and then gave it to me. We both had fevers for several days and didn't start feeling better for over a week. After a couple days of feeling better, I developed bronchitis which had me completely wiped out for 10 days. During the 3 weeks we survived mostly on sandwiches and pre-made soups. It was dreadful.

Finally last week I was able to cook again. I've been fixing all of Kay's favorites which are already posted. So today I decided to post her favorite lunch instead. This is about the only non-vegetarian food that is ever made in our house. I developed this several years ago when I couldn't get her to eat anything. I discovered organic canned chicken that is all white meat and low in salt. I thought it would have tons of preservatives in it but it is just chicken, water and salt so I don't feel so bad using it.

Chicken Salad

1 10 oz. can chicken, drained
2 tablespoons fat free ranch dressing
1/4 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup chopped orange bell pepper
ground pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate at least an hour to blend flavors.

Kay: I like this with grapes added in. I like grapes more than the vegetables. I eat it on crackers. Once I brought it to school and our classroom smelled like ranch dressing.

Mom (Dana): I've included all kinds of vegetables in this. I'll try anything that I think she might eat. I can usually spread this across 3 lunches for her.

Texas Caviar

2009-02-22T13:18:00.003-06:00

Lately everything we've been eating is either something that we've already posted or straight from someone else's blog. Therefore, I'm going back to Christmas and posting one of our salads.

This is probably my husband's favorite recipe. When I had surgery a few years ago, I made a double batch of this and he ate it for lunch and dinner for a full week. Amazingly, he still likes it!

It is such an easy item to make, we often take it to get-togethers and everyone always seems to like it. This year I asked my family if they could only pick one recipe from past holidays, which would it be and most picked Texas Caviar.

Kay, just to be different, doesn't like it. Lucky for her, there is usually a large variety of foods when we have this so she can completely avoid it. This year for Christmas, she made it by herself while I was on the phone making our final holiday plans.

Texas Caviar

1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn (white shoe peg is really good)

1 small jar chopped pimento

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup green pepper, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine:

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons sugar

Pour the dressing over the salad and gently mix. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Kay: She is asleep on the couch right now. She is battling terrible growing pains today so no comment from her.

Mom (Dana): Bill eats this with a fork but it is also really good on corn chips or wrapped in a tortilla (I'll throw just about anything into a tortilla!).

Onion Rings

2009-02-07T18:34:00.005-06:00

As you may have noticed in past posts, Kay doesn't usually like onions. That is one of her top complaints. A couple months ago I made green beans in mustard sauce with crispy shallots (I plan to post this if I can ever find the dumb magazine - it has to be in this house somewhere). I had the shallots sitting on a paper draining and Kay kept eating them. I was worried we wouldn't have any left for the green beans! Later when Bill called she said, "I like onions now"!!

I told her she would have to try onion rings the next time I made them. I made them, she tried them, and she loved them. Bill and I love them too. We could seriously pig out on these. Luckily they are not the kind of thing that I have time to make a ton of so we are forced to eat only one portion each.

I've spent forever perfecting this recipe and technique. I finally figured out how to bake them but have them taste like they were fried. I don't have exact measurements since it really depends on the amount of rings you are making. Also, they are really messy but completely worth it.

Onion Rings

Onions, cut into thick rings

Bowl one - flour

Bowl two - one egg with about 2 cups milk

Bowl three - 2 cup wheat germ mixed with basil and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Dip all the rings into bowl one, then bowl two, then bowl three. Place them on a paper towel on the counter.

Cover a baking sheet with the oil. Place it in the oven for 3 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. Immediately place the rings on the pan and return it to the oven. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Flip the rings once about half way through.

If desired, lightly salt upon removing from the oven.

Kay: I never thought I liked onions but these really make me like onions more. I like how they are crunchy.

Dana: I do this same thing, minus the flour step, for eggplant Parmesan.

Beans

2009-02-02T11:40:00.008-06:00

We've always eaten a lot of beans but, unless they are going in soup, I usually use canned. My reasoning for this was that we like to eat a variety of beans and so the cans are more convenient. Like everyone else though, I've been trying to cut back on my expenses and so I decided to try dried beans again. I measured this week and a one pound bag of black beans gave me the equivalent of 4 cans but cost the same as only 1 1/2 cans. The extra bonus was that we now remember that we actually prefer the taste of beans that we cook ourselves!

The way that I combated my own argument that we need a wide variety of beans on hand at all times was to go through my recipes. For the past month, every week I've picked one kind of bean. I then found 4-5 meals or snacks using that bean. For example, last week I made chickpeas. We had patties, falafel, chickpea salad, and roasted chickpeas. I also planned to make a pasta and rice dish with chickpeas but we ran out! There is such a variety of things you can do with beans, you don't have to worry about feeling like you are eating the same thing every night. Not once did Bill or Kay say "Chickpeas again?!".

My other argument was always the time involved which is really ridiculous because, seriously, I'm not that busy! It's almost no hands-on work. Here's what I do:

Soak one pound beans in a large bowl with about 6 -8 cups of water. You need a large bowl. It is amazing how much they swell. Leave on the counter overnight.

When you wake up, drain the beans. Place the beans in a stock pot with 6-8 cups fresh water and one strip of kombu* or 2 bay leaves. Bring the beans to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer one hour. Test for doneness. You should be able to easily crush it with the back of the spoon but you don't want them to be mushy because you'll more than likely be cooking them again in whatever recipe you choose. Drain the beans, remove the kombu or bay leaves, and leave to cool. Once cool, place in a large ziploc in the refrigerator.
(Here's what a smashed bean looks like.)

You can also freeze them. I've done this in the past with good luck. Lately I haven't had any left over to freeze.

I don't salt my beans. I'd rather add salt if needed, when I'm adding them to a recipe. If you insist on salting the beans while cooking, don't add it until the last 20 minutes or so. But really, don't add salt - it isn't good for you!

*Kombu is supposed to make the beans easier to digest. It also seems to help them cook up more evenly. I ordered a ton of it through amazon.com but I've also seen it at our health food store.

Kay: Kidney and garbanzo beans are my favorites. I like kidney beans whole in recipes but I like garbanzo's mashed up like in chickpea patties.

Mom (Dana): Really - it only takes one hour in the morning. You can eat breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, make the bed, watch tv, read a book, etc. Who doesn't have an hour in the morning on a weekend? You could even go back to bed if you really needed too. Just remember to put your timer nearby!

Cheese fries with corn by Kay

2009-01-28T17:41:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, I asked my mom, after school, what we were having for dinner. She said that we were having leftovers. I don't like leftovers unless there is something in the refrigerator that I like. I asked her if I could make something because she had a headache. I said that I wouldn't make anything complex like Pinto Gallo or pizza. I wanted to have something like mini Potato Enchiladas that you would cook in the microwave.

Then I thought of Cheese Fries. I love Cheese Fries. I went in our refrigerator and found some corn. I then knew that my dad and I would have Cheese Fries with Corn. Here's the recipe:

Cheese Fries With Corn

2 potatoes
1/2 can of corn
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (original rice milk)
3/4 cup cheese (Queso and Cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste
salsa (optional)

First, peel the potatoes if you want. Then, cut into cubes. You can either roast or boil the potatoes. I boiled the potatoes because I wanted it to go quickly.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt the margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly for 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly add the milk 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk to combine. Then stir after it is combined. After all milk have been added continue cooking and stirring until it thickens.(about 5 minutes) Then stir in the cheese. Add salt and pepper if needed.

Cook the corn in a saucepan or the microwave.

Drain the potatoes.

To serve, put the potatoes on a plate. Then add the corn on top or as a side. Add as much cheese sauce as you want. If desired, top with salsa.

Kay: I really liked this and so did my dad so he says. You could also use the cheese sauce to dip with chips. You can put whatever flavorings you like. You could put in tomatoes, cumin, chili pepper, or any kind of seasoning.

Dana (Mom): I didn't have any of this because I had a headache and because it has cheese in it but I was quite impressed that she came up with this and then managed to make a successful bechamel sauce!

Creamy Hot Chocolate

2009-01-16T21:04:00.007-06:00

I just noticed I haven't posted a non-sweet recipe since November! Oh well, why stop now!

Today it was -17.5 degrees F when we woke up. I've lived here all my life but this weather is insane! We got out from under our blankets long enough tonight to make this hot chocolate though. This is my and Kay's favorite. I know butternut squash seems like a weird ingredient for hot chocolate but it is absolutely essential for the creaminess. We promise, you don't taste it at all. This recipe makes exactly 2 mugs. Perfect! (Bill won't even try it - he is very stubborn like that!)

Creamy Hot Chocolate

1 1/4 cups milk (we prefer almond milk)

1/2 cup pureed butternut squash (sweet potato also works)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

1/4 cup chocolate chips

Big spoonful of marshmallow fluff

Blend the milk, squash, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and espresso powder in a blender until smooth and well blended. Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan. Add the chocolate chips and heat over medium heat until it begins to bubble. Pour into mugs and top with marshmallow fluff.

Kay: It is AWESOME and you don't even taste the butternut squash. I could drink this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Mom (Dana): Most of the sweetness comes from the fluff so if you decide not to use it, you'll need to add some other form of sweetener. Out of desperation, we've used caramel ice cream topping and that actually worked fine but it thickened it.

To make the puree, steam the butternut squash (or sweet potatoes) until very soft and then puree in a food processor or blender. Extra can be used in these honey puff pancakes!

Elephant Ears

2009-01-15T18:44:00.003-06:00

Our weather is crazy this year. Yesterday we got tons and tons of snow. It took me over an hour to get to work when it usually only takes 20 minutes. I was only there a couple hours before I received a call from Kay saying they were getting dismissed early. Today we didn't get anymore snow but school was cancelled for the cold. It is -10 F without the wind! She didn't seem very upset about staying home today and I wasn't very sad either!

We've been wanting to post but everything we've fixed lately either wasn't very good or it was something that is already posted! This is kind of a recipe but not really.

After dinner tonight we were both craving something crispy. We had fajitas for dinner and the tortillas weren't very fresh so we fried them up and dipped them in a mixture of cinnamon sugar. They hit the spot!

Kay: These were really good. They didn't look like elephant ears but they tasted like them. I think these are healthier than the elephant ears at the fair.

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

2008-12-30T19:49:00.005-06:00

I noticed a very different feeling this year on Christmas morning. First of all, Kay slept in. Then when she did get up, we sat around for a little bit, made cinnamon rolls and then she opened her gifts in a very relaxed manner. That was when I realized the excitement-filled Christmas mornings were over. Then I thought of my parents and realized that even after Kay has kids, we probably won't be any closer to the excitement than they are. It was a little depressing but then Kay opened her MP3 player and got just as excited as she was with her puppet theater at 4 years old!

Also, we haven't reached the point yet where she insists on taking a shower and doing her hair and make-up before opening gifts (a phase that I remember going through)!

These cinnamon rolls are very easy. Bill and I used to have them way too often when we were first married. For some reason I quit making them and just thought of them again about a month ago. Kay really liked them (who wouldn't) so we decided to make them for Christmas breakfast.

This is an old Pampered Chef recipe. We use the same frosting (I mean vanilla syrup) as we used for the chocolate waffles but make it a little thicker.

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

2 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls

1/2 cup margarine

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Separate the dough into 8 rectangle pieces and roll the seams together. Mix the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon together and spread the mixture on the dough. Roll each rectangle of dough going the long way. Cut each roll into 8 pieces and place into a deep dish baking pan so that the swirl design is facing up. Place the pieces close together. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with frosting of your choice.

Kay: These remind me of Cinnabons but you can make these at home and you don't have to eat a big roll. Mine looked like a Christmas tree when I put it on my plate.

Mom (Dana): It doesn't get any easier than this. Bill and I used to eat the whole pan ourselves so we were a little bothered to now have to share with Kay!

Chocolate Truffles

2008-12-28T11:51:00.003-06:00

We were able to enjoy our holiday get-togethers with family in spite of the weather's attempts to ruin it! We've had terribly cold temperatures, severe wind storms, and inches of ice covering everything. Our neighbors across the street lost power last weekend and again yesterday (they still don't have power) but we have been lucky to keep ours. On Christmas Eve, my family walked on about 2 inches of solid ice to get to our door.

Yesterday, the temperatures rose into the 60's which melted all the ice but the warm weather came with terrible winds. Today it is back to being cold again but at least the roads are clear.

We celebrate Christmas Eve with my family and always have various dips and salads instead of a formal sit-down meal.

Kay and I went through all our recipes for the day but decided that our favorite was the chocolate truffles so that is the one we are sharing! The picture at the beginning of this post shows two kinds of truffles. The chocolate covered ones had a clementine filling and were also good but Kay prefers the others, so that is the one we are posting.

Chocolate Truffles

200 grams dark chocolate (we used half 70% and half 85%)

100 grams coconut milk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

toppings of choice such as cocoa powder, ground nuts, coconut, crushed graham crackers, sprinkles, etc.

Chop the chocolate. Heat the coconut milk until just beginning to bubble. Pour the coconut milk over the chocolate and stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in the vanilla.

Allow to cool several hours in the refrigerator.

Roll the chocolate into balls and then in the topping of your choice.

Kay: These are so good. I really liked the sprinkle ones we made. I couldn't even tell there was coconut milk in them. I didn't like the clementine truffles.

Mom (Dana): Instead of the vanilla extract, you could change the flavor by adding any other extract that appeals to you. I think mint would be really good although I haven't tried it.

Chex Mix

2008-12-19T13:43:00.006-06:00

We made chex mix last night for Kay to take to school today for their holiday party. But we woke up to everything covered in ice like this:

School was cancelled, we started vacation a day early, and we now have enough snacks to last us at least a week! We took advantage of this extra day and started to bring up some of our holiday decorations. Luckily we still have power. The neighbors across the street aren't as lucky and we are still nervous because our power lines look like this:

So if you are having weather like us, kick back and eat snacks! What else can you do?

Chex Mix

2 cups rice chex-like cereal

2 cups corn chex-like cereal

1 cup small pretzels

3 tablespoons canola oil

6 tablespoons honey or agave nectar (we used a combination of both)

In a small bowl, mix together the oil and honey until mixed.

In a large, microwave-safe bowl, combine the cereal and pretzels. Pour the honey mixture over the cereal and stir to coat.

Place the bowl in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every 1 minute and then one additional minute stirring every 30 seconds. (Watch closely so it doesn't burn.)

Pour the mixture onto wax paper to cool.

Kay: This is really good. Right now I'm chasing my dog around the house so I think it makes me hyper!

Mom (Dana): I always mean to make this more often and keep small bags of it around for snacks. We would have loved to have told you what Kay's friends thought of it but oh well!

Ginger Cookies

2008-12-15T09:17:00.003-06:00

At 3:30 on Saturday, I was fine. At 3:31 I came down with a horrendous cold. It really did happen that fast. Bill and Kay have been battling colds since September but I've somehow managed to avoid catching them - until now. I knew it was too good to last!

Kay is at school right now but I really wanted to record what she did last night. As I was dieing on the couch, she asked me if ginger was good for colds. I think I said yes.

An hour later, she had made these cookies AND cleaned up the kitchen! These cookies are the delicious result of teaching her to follow a recipe!!!

She used the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance (have I mentioned how fantastic every single dessert is in this book?) but she rolled them in cinnamon sugar instead of demerrara sugar. I can tell they are very good even with my cold-ravaged taste buds.

Ginger Cookies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup soy milk

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

cinnamon sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices. In a separate large bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well. Roll into 1 inch balls, flatten into a 1 1/2 inch diameter disk, press the cookie tops into the cinnamon sugar and place 1 inch apart, sugar side up, on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 10 -12 minutes. Let cool slightly and transfer to a cooling rack.

The recipe says it makes 24 cookies but Kay got 55 out of this recipe.

Brazilian Coffee Cookies

2008-12-04T18:29:00.005-06:00

I made these cookies for the first time several years ago. Kay was playing in the snow with the little boy next door (he isn't little anymore!) and I took a plate of cookies out for them. Kay came in a few minutes later and said "Johnny really loves those cookies!" I always think about him when I make these. For some reason, these have become one of our traditional Christmas cookies.

The recipe comes out of this book (copyright 1963):

After years of hinting, I finally got this book from my mom including all the cut out dessert recipes she had stuck between the pages. It was my favorite book growing up mainly because it has pictures of the various cookies along the bottom of the pages like this:

I remember searching through it and deciding on the most fantastic cookie only to have my mom say "those look too hard, find something else"! At the time I thought she was so unfair but when I got the book I found myself saying the same thing to Kay.

This is a nice easy cookie though. Any instant coffee works well in this. Those coffees in the little cans called International Coffee or something like that work really well because you can get different flavors. Sometimes I add mini chocolate chips to make them extra special. I was just thinking tonight that chopped up chocolate covered coffee beans would probably be unbelievable!

I had to take this picture for Ms. Mac. Look at my poor daughter ruining her health with one of these coffee cookies! Kay loves the taste of coffee but it makes her bounce off the walls so her intake is severally restricted!

Brazilian Coffee Cookies

1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/12 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons powdered instant coffee

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla, and milk until fluffy. Stir dry ingredients together. Add to sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten to 1/8 inch thickness with greased bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 8 minutes.

Kay: I love these. I really like the coffee from Gloria Jean's. I go crazy even when my grandma gets me the low caffeine.

Mom (Dana): These would also make really good sandwich cookies with chocolate in between. (I must really have a sweet tooth going tonight!).

Tater Dipped Veggies

2008-11-30T14:43:00.004-06:00

I have a torn up book that no longer has a cover where I started writing down recipes when I went away to school. I wasn't much of a cook so it took me until after I was married before I filled it. Surprisingly, there are still a few in there that we still eat.

I don't know what made me think of this recipe a month ago. We hadn't had it for over 10 years at least. The last time I remember having it, Bill and I were still in the apartment and our friends were over. I remember only getting to taste a few because each time I pulled one pan from the oven, everyone would eat them as I tried to fill a second pan.

Last month, I had left over cauliflower that I planned to serve with dinner and decided to use this recipe instead of our usual roasted or steamed cauliflower. Kay really liked it so last week I used it again, this time with leftover broccoli.

As you can see, she is now able to eat but has to be a little creative when trying to take bites!

Tater Dipped Veggies

(For most recipes, I wrote down where I got it but this one doesn't say. Not that it would matter, most are from TV shows that are no longer on or really old magazines!)

1 cup instant potato flakes

1/3 cup Parmesan (or nutritional yeast flakes)

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
2 eggs (I used egg beaters)

4-5 cups raw bite-sized veggies such as mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini or carrots

Ranch dressing for dipping

In a small bowl combine potato flakes, Parmesan, celery salt, garlic powder, and butter. In another bowl beat the eggs. Dip the vegetables, one at a time, into the egg, then potato mixture. Coat well. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Kay: I really liked it. I usually don't like nutritional yeast but this was really good. I liked the broccoli and cauliflower both.

Mom (Dana): I think this is the third or forth recipe I've posted using potato flakes! I never realized it was one of my favorite ingredients.

I Can't Eat Anything Besides a Smoothie Smoothie

2008-11-19T19:14:00.003-06:00

(written by Kay)

Today, I had an orthodontist appointment . I had my braces checked. They didn't hurt when I went in. But, when I came out, I WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN!!!! We had Broccoli Potato Bake(which I LOVE) for dinner and I ate the potatoes but not the broccoli because I WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN that I couldn't eat any hard things. So my mom made me a smoothie. Here's a recipe that I call...

I Can't Eat Anything Besides a Smoothie Smoothie

1 cup soymilk

7 frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

4 tablespoon chocolate sauce

Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth.

I like mine blended extra long so I can't feel the seeds from the strawberries. It was SO good I almost forgot about my braces. EXCEPT when I touched my tooth with my tongue.

Lentil Patties

2008-11-15T17:02:00.003-06:00

Bill has not been very happy with a lot of our meals since I quit eating dairy about a year ago. Therefore I was not very optimistic when I decided to make lentil patties with chickpea gravy. I can't think of many things that sound more weirdo vegetarian than that. Surprisingly, he really liked these and he swears that they taste just like Salisbury Steak. I have no idea what that tastes like so I couldn't tell you if he's right or not but I'll take his word for it.

I adapted this recipe slightly from one on allrecipes.com.

Lentil Patties

1 cup dried brown lentils

3 cups water

1/4 cup rice milk

1 cup oatmeal

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

2 eggs (I used Egg Beaters)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Vegetable oil for frying

Place the lentils and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain any remaining water.

In a large bowl, mix together the cooked lentils, milk, oatmeal, eggs, walnuts, and onion soup mix. Mix well. Let stand for 30 minutes or refrigerate overnight.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out balls of the lentil mixture. Drop them into the pan and flatten them with the back of a spatula. Fry until nicely brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side.

Top with ketchup or your choice of gravy.

Kay: These were crunchy and I thought they tasted like peanuts. I don't usually like lentils. I had gravy on mine but I think I would have liked ketchup better.

Mom (Dana): For leftovers, we saved the mixture and fried them up fresh the next day. We had these with mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower and it all came together quickly and with little effort.

Cabbage and Rice Pie

2008-10-27T17:42:00.005-05:00

Kay is at soccer practice right now and it is very cold and starting to rain. Therefore, I'm going to type this up as quickly as possible before I get called to pick her up!

First of all we want to thank everyone who voted for our Paper Chef entry. We won the People's Choice!!

I received quite a bit of cabbage this week from the farm so I searched through all my old cookbooks for some new way to prepare it. I chose this recipe mostly because I had all the ingredients. Turns out we all liked it. Bill and Kay both told me it was good without me asking their opinions so that is a very good sign. Kay, I think, was just happy I finally made something without onions!

Cabbage and Rice Pie

adapted from Betty Crocker's Vegetarian Cooking

1 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 cups shredded green cabbage

2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes (we used the chopped)

1 1/4 cups uncooked instant rice

8 oz cream cheese, softened (we used soy)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 package puff pastry, thawed

1 can tomato sauce + your choice of seasonings

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie plate.

Heat the water to boiling in a medium saucepan. Stir in salt, pepper, cabbage and potatoes. Heat to boiling. Reduce to medium, cover and cook 5 minutes.

Stir in rice, cream cheese, and sage. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to mix all ingredients well. Pour into the pie plate.

Unfold the pastry sheet and place it over the cabbage mixture. Trim pastry to fit pie plate. Press edge of pastry onto pie plate with a fork.

Bake uncovered 25 minutes.

For sauce, heat one can tomato sauce with salt, pepper, Italian seasonings, etc to suit your taste.

Spread sauce on plate. Top with wedge of pie. Sprinkle additional sauce over the pie.

Kay: The cabbage thing was ok even though I don't really like cabbage. I think it would be good with spinach and would help my cousin Lily eat spinach. When we cut off the puff pastry from the edges, I wanted to eat it but my mom dipped them in cinnamon sugar and baked them. They were really good but hot. My mom said I was crazy.

Mom (Dana): This was really easy. I was worried about leftovers and how they would warm up. Bill worked late, though, and his warmed up fine. Just don't heat it too much - just enough to slightly warm it.

I'd recommend this cookbook to anyone, vegetarian or not. The recipes are very basic and "normal". No weirdo tempeh or tofu or other strange vegetarian things!!

Our special guest commenter, Dad (Bill): Amazingly enough, I actually like this puff pastry thing! (He's eating the leftovers right now!)

Promise

2008-10-27T11:10:00.002-05:00

I am posting this to promise that I'll post a real post tonight. This should make me feel guilty enough that I won't put it off!

We tried something new last night and all 3 of us really liked it (shocking)!!

Paper Chef - Apple Pie

2008-10-05T21:06:00.008-05:00

Edited to add: the round up has been posted - http://paperchef.blogspot.com/2008/10/paper-chef-33-roundup.html. I'm always overwhelmed by how creative everyone is!

Kay and I had a lot of fun coming up with a recipe the first time we did Paper Chef and really wanted to do it again. We tried one other time with disastrous results. The other months we were either too busy or the ingredients did not suit us. When I saw the ingredients this time, I felt like we had to participate because there were no animal products!

For anyone not familiar with Paper Chef, each month 4 ingredients are selected from a list and everyone is asked to come up with a recipe using those ingredients. This month's ingredients are beets, ginger, rice, and apples. My first thought was a main dish which we did make. It looked like this:

We really liked how it looked but weren't happy with the taste. Luckily we had a second recipe planned as well. I have to thank my mom and my friend Claire for this idea. Claire had suggested doing some kind of layered dish. I came up with a couple ideas and asked my mom's opinion. She is the one that actually said that I should base it off an apple pie. That is when I decided to go ahead and make just that - apple pie!

I used the beets mostly just for coloring. I always think that apple pie should be red instead of a boring beige and the beets worked perfect for that.

For the rice portion, I used rice milk and rice flour.

Bill immediately noticed the ginger in the filling which was surprising because I thought it was too subdued and that we should have added more.

Kay helped make both recipes and also had the very important job of writing everything down as we did it.

Really Red Apple Pie Crisp

Crust:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine
3-4 tablespoons rice milk

Filling:

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
2 gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 beet, boiled, peeled, and pureed

Topping:

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons margarine

To make the crust, combine the flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter or two knives. Add in just enough milk to bring the dough together. Wrap the dough in wax paper and refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Press the crust into the bottom of a pie pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Fill the pan with the filling. Cover with foil and place in oven. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes.

Combine all topping ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined but still chunky.

After 30 minutes, remove the foil from the pie and spread topping evenly over the apple filling. Return the pie to the oven and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Kay: I don't really care for cooked fruits but this was actually good. I think regular crust on the bottom would have been better but I liked the top crust. This tasted like regular pie or apple crisp, not like beets at all.

Mom(Dana): Bill refuses to let me tell him what is in this pie! We all really liked this. If you need proof, here is all that is left after 24 hours!

More of an idea than a recipe

2008-09-24T20:08:00.004-05:00

I'm really excited about something I discovered tonight. It is probably really obvious to everyone else but it never occurred to me until tonight. For dinner we had this:

It is called Nutty Rice and Broccoli and comes from Christina Cooks cookbook. Personally, I much prefer her TV show to her cookbook but this recipe didn't sound bad and I had all the ingredients. I changed it around a little and added beans. It was bland bland BLAND!! We all ate it but I don't think anyone really enjoyed it. Plus it made a ton.

So after dinner I was writing down various ideas about how to jazz up the leftovers while watching Delicious TV. She had a guest chef on who was making what she called "Scavenger Patties". She went into the refrigerator, pulled out a few items, and turned them into a veggie patty. They had leftover millet, carrot, and I can't remember what else. All of a sudden I thought "wait a minute!!" and ran to the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers.

I threw them in the food processor along with some cilantro, salt and pepper. Then I stirred in some green salsa. It looked like this:

I formed it into patties and fried them. It worked perfect! So now whenever we have a meal that doesn't really live up to our expectations (which is more often than I'd like to admit!) I'm keeping this idea in mind. Instead of bland boring brown rice leftovers, I'm having salsa and rice patty for lunch tomorrow!

Bean, Corn, and Potato Flautas

2008-09-21T18:11:00.004-05:00

The flooding finally went down in our town (although I think there is still some flooding in other areas) but many people are still not back in their homes. Last night after soccer practice we drove around a little. The street behind us is lined with items (including cinder blocks and tons of drywall) that people have pulled out of their houses. The town still has the street blocked off. The apartment complex just north of us sat under water the longest. We knew that the basement apartments would be destroyed but it looks like there was even more damage. The town has not yet turned on the electricity and gas over there so when we drove through, we saw a lot of people throwing everything from their apartments into big piles in the parking lot. It is really heartbreaking.

On to food! Friday I got a new cookbook (just what I need!) called Alternative Vegan. I was excited about this book because it focuses on produce instead of meat replacements. I picked several recipes to try this week. Last night Kay's friend Starr was over for dinner and we all loved these flautas. I'm going to reserve my opinion of the overall cookbook for now though, because the two things we tried tonight were not good at all!

We served these along with a choice of salsa, green salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and tomatoes. I noticed Starr unrolled hers to put the toppings inside. I picked mine up with my fingers and dipped it into the toppings. I made a few changes to the recipe, mostly just to make the steps easier. I also changed some of the amounts because I don't like using partial cans.

This is a little blurry but here is my plate.

Flautas

2 medium red potatoes, cut in large cubes

3 cups water

1 cup red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15-oz can corn, drained

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

12 tablespoons vegetable shortening

12 corn tortillas

various toppings

In a small pot, bring the water to a boil. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender (approximately 30 minutes).

Wrap the tortillas in foil and place in a 175 degree oven.

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the onion and pepper until soften but not browned. Add the chili powder and stir to coat. Add the corn and the black beans, stirring to coat. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro.

Once the potatoes are done cooking, drain the water and lightly mash the potatoes (they should still be chunky). Add to the corn and bean mixture and stir well to combine. Use a potato masher to slightly blend all ingredients together. (You want the mixture to all be mushed together - not separate pieces that can fall out of the tortillas.)

Remove the tortillas from the oven. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the bean mixture into the center of each tortilla, roll them, secure with a toothpick if necessary, and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat for all tortillas.

In a large, high-sided skillet, heat half the shortening over medium heat. Once it melts, place 6 of the filled tortillas into the pan, seam side down. Do not move them for about 5 minutes or until nicely browned. Turn with a spatula or tongs and cook other side for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the flautas from the pan and place them on a wire rack over a cookie sheet. Place them in the warm oven. Add the remaining shortening to the pan and repeat with the remaining flautas.

Allow all fried flautas to sit in the warm oven to drain for 30 minutes before eating.

This served two adults and two 11-year-olds with one left over (although Bill probably would have eaten it had he realized it was still there!).

Kay: The flautas were ok. There was a strange taste that I couldn't figure out what it was. I think it was just all the ingredients mixing together. It was kind of greasy too. I didn't have anything with mine but my friend, Starr, used salsa. She thought they were really good and went back for seconds. She said she would have had thirds if she wasn't so full.

Mom(Dana): These were very good (as in Mexican restaurant kind of good). I don't usually fry our food but this was nice for an occasional treat. Bill really liked them but said they could use a little more chili powder next time. I had leftover filling that will make probably about 5 more later in the week for a snack.

Flood from Ike

2008-09-14T10:19:00.001-05:00

This post is mainly for our family members. At this point we feel very lucky. Our house is apparently on some kind of slight hill because so far we have only minor seeping in the basement. The street behind us is under water and the people are being evacuated right now. I've posted pictures on our flickr (see link to the right). We went driving around this morning and within that hour or so, the water has crept about 4-5 more feet into our next door neighbors back yard.

Honey Puff Pancake

2008-09-13T12:05:00.004-05:00

Like I've said before, we like to have breakfast foods for dinner. They are quick and easy and we usually have all the ingredients on hand even if it's been awhile since our last grocery trip. This is one of those recipes that we only have when Bill isn't going to be home because he doesn't like eggs. Kay loves this recipe so as soon as she heard that he was going to dinner with his cycling friends, she asked me to make it.

Honey Puff Pancake

3 tablespoons margarine or butter

6 eggs (I use a yolkless egg product similar as Egg Beaters)

3 oz cream cheese, softened (this was the first time using soy - didn't notice any difference)

1 cup milk (used rice milk)

3 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes or butternut squash (optional)

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie plate with 1 tablespoon butter. Place the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the pan and place it in the oven. Leave until the butter is completely melted.

In the meantime, place the eggs, cream cheese, milk, honey, sweet potatoes, flour, salt and baking powder in a blender. Puree until smooth.

Remove the pie plate from the oven and immediately pour the egg mixture into it. Bake 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve with toppings such as maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, or powdered sugar.

Kay: This is really good. I like the smaller portions my mom made this time because then I wasn't tempted to eat too much.

Mom(Dana): This time I used ramekins instead of a pie plate. It worked just as well and I didn't have to adjust the time at all. I throw the pureed vegetables in to add a little extra nutrition when I have them on hand. It doesn't change the taste or texture at all.

New color

2008-09-08T19:47:00.001-05:00

We are testing out some new blog colors. I never really cared for the pink. I mentioned this to Kay just now and she said she doesn't like it either. She was the one that picked it!! So you might see some different colors over the next few days until we decide.

Edamame Succotash

2008-09-08T18:25:00.004-05:00

Well, so much for posting every day. I have one more Labor Day recipe but I got a little distracted over the weekend. I was thinking about skipping this one but it was Kay's favorite (besides dessert!) so I have to post it.

My mom found this recipe. I think it came out of one of her magazines but I'm not sure. The whole idea behind making this was originally that I had received fresh edamame from the farm. In the end, we chose to eat those as snacks and use frozen in this recipe instead.

Edamame Succotash

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups edamame (I used frozen)

1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper

1/4 cup sour cream (I used soy)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 2-3 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the corn and edamame. Cook until heated through. Stir in the peppers, sour cream and seasoning. Serve warm.

Kay: I like corn and edamame and I really liked the sauce on this. The second day wasn't so good when we had to warm it up because the edamame dried out.

Mom (Dana): I'm not a big fan of succotash but this was pretty good. It would have been really good with fresh corn because there would have been some sweetness.

The Vegetarian Hundred

2008-09-04T11:50:00.002-05:00

I'm interrupting our Labor Day recap because I just can't resist this list. Barbara at Tigers & Strawberries came up with a list of 100 items that vegetarians should try at least once. Her post is here. (She also did an omnivore one here). I'm (Dana) going to respond to each of these but I'll add comments here and there about Kay. Mostly though, if I haven't tried it then she obviously hasn't either!

The Vegetarian Hundred
1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked - I have many many MANY recipes for mac and cheese!! Kay has never had the kind from a box.

2. Tabbouleh - tried several recipes and now have developed my own favorite version of it.
3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven (preferably with homemade strawberry jam) - I've made both and posted the jam on our blog.

4. Fresh figs - blecht, nope haven't tried them, don't plan to. I realize fresh figs are probably completely different than fig newtons but in my mind they are the same and fig newtons are so disgusting it is a crime to call them cookies!

5. Fresh pomegranate - Would like to try it.

6. Indian dal of any sort - Tried it, liked it

7. Imam bayildi - Don't know what this is. Need to research

8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu - I've had lots of tofu but I don't think I've had this particular kind. I don't usually like flavored tofu but I'd try it.

9. Freshly made hummus - Make it on a regular basis.

10. Tahini - Eat it often

11. Kimchi - Eat it almost daily

12. Miso - Eat it somewhat often

13. Falafel - Love it!

14. Potato and pea filled samosas - Don't like peas but I'd try it.

15. Homemade yogurt - I had planned to make homemade yogurt before discovering dairy was causing all my problems. Still considering making it for Kay.

16. Muhammara - never had it, would try it.

17. Brie en croute - never had it, never will due to dairy issue

18. Spanikopita - I've never had it but I have a lot of recipes for it. This is one of those things I always plan to make but never get around to.

19. Fresh, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes - Just had them last week!

20. Insalata caprese - I've had it before and now make a version without any cheese.

21. Stir-fried greens (gai lan, bok choi, pea shoots, kale, chard or collards) - I've had lots of these!

22. Freshly made salsa - Yep, posted on blog a couple days ago!

23. Freshly made guacamole - Eat it almost every day

24. Creme brulee - Never had it, now never will due to dairy and egg issue

25. Fava beans - I haven't had fava beans but I sure have tried. I have tons of recipes listing fava beans but I can't find them to save my life.

26. Chinese cold sesame peanut noodles - Had it, liked it.

27. Fattoush - Had it. Not too thrilled but it was fine.

28. New potatoes - Had them, like them.

29. Coleslaw - Had many versions, don't like any of them.

30. Ratatouille - Posted my version on blog

31. Baba ganoush - Had it, wanted to like it, didn't!

32. Winter squash - Eat it often.

33. Roasted beets - Had it, liked it. Beets are so messy though.

34. Baked sweet potatoes - Had it. Prefer sweet potato baked fries.

35. Plantains - Never had them but would try them.

36. Chocolate truffles - Yum!!! I made these one year for Christmas and they went over so well, Kay named her hamster after them!!

37. Garlic mashed potatoes - Bill and I always put garlic in our mashed potatoes.

38. Fresh water chestnuts - Never had fresh ones that I know of. Maybe in a restaurant stir fry.

39. Steel cut oats - Had them. Overrated. Won't spend the money again.

40. Quinoa - Eat it often. One of Kay's favorites.

41. Grilled portabello mushrooms - Used to eat them a lot. Now we can't afford them.

42. Chipotle en adobo - Always in my fridge. I throw them into anything I can!

43. Stone ground whole grain cornmeal - Another thing I won't waste my money on again.

44. Freshly made corn or wheat tortillas - In a restaurant. I've never made my own but I have thought about it.

45. Frittata - I made an awesome frittata a couple years ago from Just Hungry with tofu, cheddar and spinach. I don't have the exact link but it is worth looking for. Another thing that I can't have anymore due to eggs and dairy.

46. Basil pesto - Make my own at the end of every summer.

47. Roasted garlic - Love it!! This is something that I always thought was too much of a bother until I tried it. Totally worth the effort.

48. Raita of any type - Never had it.

49. Mango lassi - Never had it. Love mangoes though.

50. Jasmine rice (white or brown) - Cook it almost every day.

51. Thai vegetarian coconut milk curry - Yum. Love it.

52. Pumpkin in any form other than pie - Not a big fan of pumpkin but I've made pumpkin pancakes before.

53. Fresh apple pear or plum gallette - Had apple gallette. I don't like pears and plums.

54. Quince in any form - Never had it. I'd probably try it (but I don't think I'd like it!)

55. Escarole, endive or arugula - I've had endive and arugula for sure. Not sure about escarole.

56. Sprouts other than mung bean - I used to eat tons of sprouts.

57. Naturally brewed soy sauce - Never had it. Sounds expensive!

58. Dried shiitake mushrooms - Shockingly I've never had these. I keep meaning to get some though.

59. Unusually colored vegetables (purple cauliflower, blue potatoes, chocolate bell peppers…) - Chocolate bell peppers!?!!! I've had blue potatoes and that green cauliflower which I think is mixed with broccoli. I've had purple peppers before.

60. Fresh peach ice cream - Maybe?? Not sure but I'd eat it if it wasn't dairy.

61. Chevre - Nope. Cheese problem again.

62. Medjool dates - Yes. I got these for some kind of dessert. It was good.

63. Kheer - I don't know what this is. More research.

64. Flourless chocolate cake - Yes. Never as good as I think it will be though.

65. Grilled corn on the cob - Of course - we live in Indiana!! I still prefer it boiled though.

66. Black bean (or any other bean) vegetarian chili - I have almost as many chili recipes as I do mac and cheese!! Kay hates chili.

67. Tempeh - Have some in my fridge now. Kay and I prefer tofu but I thought we should give it another chance. Now I can't find the recipe I had in mind!

68. Seitan or wheat gluten - Nope. Can't find it in the stores and I haven't been interested enough to make my own yet.

69. Gorgonzola or any other blue veined cheese - I tried blue cheese once. Yuck! Kay would probably like it though. She likes really stinky cheeses.

70. Sweet potato fries - Love them. See above comment under baked sweet potatoes.

71. Homemade au gratin potatoes - Kay loves these. I can't have them due to the cheese (again!) but I still make them for her and Bill.

72. Cream of asparagus soup - Yum. I haven't had this in a long time.

73. Artichoke-Parmesan dip - I have a fantastic recipe for this. I've tried to veganize it but it just isn't the same.

74. Mushroom risotto - I don't like risotto so I probably wouldn't even try this.

75. Fermented black beans - I don't think I've had them.

76. Garlic scapes - Never had them.

77. Fresh new baby peas - I've had them but I don't like peas.

78. Kalamata olives - I've had them. I love olives.

79. Preserved lemons - Never had them. I'd try them though.

80. Fried green tomatoes - Never had them. Not big on fried foods.

81. Chinese scallion pancakes - Never had them but would try them.

82. Cheese souffle - One of Kay's favorites. Pain to make though.

83. Fried apples - Had them. Not my favorite way to have apples but ok.

84. Homemade frijoles refritos - I've made them. In a can is much easier!

85. Pasta fagiole - Isn't this one of the first vegetarian meals people have?! Maybe just me. I've had this a million times.

86. Macadamia nuts in any form - I just made macadamia bars for Labor Day. They were delicious.

87. Paw paw in any form - Never had it but would try it.

88. Grilled cheese sandwich of any kind - Of course!! Kay could make these on her own since she was about 6. (Yes I let her use the stove at 6 - not when I wasn't in the house though). They are really good if you melt the butter with some garlic before spreading it on the bread.

89. Paneer cheese - Never had it.

90. Ma Po Tofu (vegetarian style–no pork!) - I don't think I've had it. I'm really bad at remembering the Asian name of foods I've eaten though. I usually call them names like "that noodle thing with the green things", etc!!

91. Fresh pasta in any form - Probably in a restaurant. I have a pasta maker that I've never used.

92. Grilled leeks, scallions or ramps - I've had grilled leeks.

93. Green papaya salad - Kay and I tried papaya last year. We didn't like it at all so we tried to get the hamster to eat it. It was deemed disgusting by all!

94. Baked grain and vegetable stuffed tomatoes - I don't like stuffed tomatoes but we do baked grain and vegetable stuffed peppers.

95. Pickled ginger - I love ginger but I've never had it pickled.

96. Methi greens - Never had it.

97. Aloo paratha - Don't know what this is.

98. Kedgeree - Never had it.

99. Okra - Had it often. Kay's first favorite vegetable.

100. Roasted brussels sprouts - Love roasted brussel sprouts.

Overall, I'm shocked at how many of these I've had!

Vegetable Tarts

2008-09-03T17:53:00.003-05:00

Like I said in a previous post, I received a ridiculous amount of tomatoes from the farm this week along with a another bag full of zucchini and squash. I had been hanging on to this recipe from La Tartine Gourmande for awhile and this seemed like the perfect time to try it. I'm not going to repost the recipe since I followed it exactly as written except that I substituted margarine for the butter and vegan cream cheese flavored with chives and herbs for the Gorgonzola. Also, her picutres are far superior to mine so I suggest you follow the link to her original post!

Bill and Kay don't care for fennel or whole tomatoes so I made a second crust and topped it with zucchini. I sliced 1 zucchini and 2 small yellow squash and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil with ground thyme, salt, and pepper for about 5 minutes. I followed the same baking directions as the tomato and fennel tart.

We ate these at room temperature on Sunday but warmed them slightly in the oven on Monday for our lunch. They were just as good the second day!

Kay: I liked this better the first day. The second day I thought the balsamic vinegar taste was too strong and I couldn't taste the zucchini that well.

Mom (Dana): Next time I think I'll cut the vinegar in half. It was really good but a little overpowering. I'm definitely using this base again, though. Everyone enjoyed it.

Zucchini Muffins

2008-09-02T19:26:00.006-05:00

Here is another item from our Labor Day picnic. Kay didn't try these but they were so good, I'm posting them anyway! Believe it or not, this started out as a Martha Stewart recipe but I made a lot of changes. This is a very delicious way to use of zucchini if you are drowning in it like we are.

These are really moist so they won't keep more than a couple days. Therefore you might want to eat only these for dinner one night - just so you don't waste any of course!

I thought the sugar could be reduced by at least 1/2 cup in these. They get enough sweetness from the cherries. I left the recipe as is though.

Zucchini Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup silken tofu, blended until smooth

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray or line a muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk together the tofu, sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini, cherries and walnuts. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin.

Bake about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes then remove from the pan.

Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

2008-09-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

Today is Labor Day but we invited my parents over for a picnic yesterday so that we could sit around all day today and do nothing! My mom and I tried out several new recipes and we were happy with all of them. I hope to post most of them throughout this week. We'll see how that goes once our long weekend is over!

Today I'm starting with the salsa because it seemed to be everyone's favorite. I got tomatillos, basil, and approximately 9 million tomatoes in my CSA bag this week so this seemed like an obvious choice.

Here are some of the tomatoes I used.

Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 pound tomatillos (remove husks and rinse under warm water)

4 large tomatoes

1 large onion

1 jalapeno chili (I used canned)

1/4 cup cilantro

Juice of one lime

Salt to taste

Finely chop the tomatillos, tomatoes, and onion. Combine in a bowl with the other ingredients. Place 1/2 the mixture in a processor and blend until smooth. Combine the blended salsa with the chopped salsa and stir. Refrigerate at least one hour to blend flavors.

Kayleigh: I thought this tasted OK but the tomatoes didn't taste the same as they do in the store salsa.

Mom (Dana): I thought this recipe made a lot but we only have a small container left. It is really fresh tasting (for obvious reasons). Don't worry - there's new zucchini and summer squash recipes to come as well!

Summer Squash Saute

2008-08-26T18:13:00.006-05:00

Kay's school year and soccer season started last week and I have to say I'm relieved. Although the school year is much more hectic than the summer, at least it is scheduled. So far she seems happy with her teachers and, although some of her friend's are not in her classes, there are enough that she seems happy.

As you may have guessed, we are still receiving plenty of zucchini in our CSA bags. This past week we got a combination of 20 zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan squash and whatever those light green ones are called.

This isn't much of a recipe but Kay liked it so much I had to post it.

Summer Squash Saute

4 cups various summer squash, cubed

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tablespoon herbes de provence

ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the squash and increase the heat to high. Cook until lightly brown, approximately 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic and seasonings. Cook an additional 3 minutes.

Kay: This was really good. The squash was soft so it was easy for me to eat with my braces but they weren't mushy. I liked the herbs but some pieces had too much seasoning on them.

Mom (Dana): I keep waiting for Bill and Kay to rebel against all this squash but they haven't said a word yet! Personally, I'm loving it.

Roasted vegetable rice salad

2008-08-11T10:55:00.011-05:00

Yesterday, Bill had a bike race in Glencoe, Illinois which is just north of Chicago. We had perfect weather, almost no traffic going up there, and he got 8th place and $55! So overall, it was a very good day! I packed a lunch for us which we ate under a tree. It was lovely!!!

I could have just packed sandwiches but that would have been so boring. Instead I made fruit tarts, vegetable tarts, chex mix, pickled cucumbers, pickled beets, peanut butter cookies and this salad. (We also took potato chips and pop tarts but those don't fit into my beautiful story of my amazing lunch so just ignore that!)

My brother and his family live on the north side of Chicago so this would have seemed to be the perfect chance to meet up with them. As luck would have it, they had already made plans to go to my parent's house which is 40 minutes further south from my house! We still had some energy to burn (along with really expensive gas!) after the race so we headed right passed our house and on to my parent's and invaded their get-together. I plopped the rest of this salad right in the middle of my mom's planned meal so I was able to get second opinions of this recipe.

We are now exhausted but had a really great day so no regrets!

Here are some blurry and just generally bad pictures for your enjoyment!

The back of the truck where you can see the salad as well as the offensive potato chips!

Kay can always find a playground!

Bill coming around the corner. He's right in front of the guy in blue and white.

Kay eating a vegetable tart under a tree.

Lake Michigan was just a few blocks from the race. Here are Bill and Kay walking out on a pier. They got soaked! The wind was so strong I thought we were going to get blown into the water.

Bill a couple hours later at my parent's. (Kay and my niece were in this same room watching a loud movie - I don't think he noticed!)

I came up with this recipe by combining several recipes from Jack Bishop's "A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen". I had been planning to make several separate salads but at the last minute decided to throw everything together and see what happens!

Roasted Vegetable Rice Salad
1 can pinto beans, rinsed
1 zucchini, halved and sliced
1 yellow squash, halved and sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
10 basil leaves, sliced
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil

Place all the vegetables on an oiled sheet pan. Turn so they are oiled on both sides and then add salt and pepper to taste. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, flip and then continue cooking 10-20 minutes longer until browned.

In the meantime, Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil and the rice and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain rice in fine strainer and place in a steaming basket. Put 2 inches of water in the bottom of the pan, insert steaming basket and cover. Steam the rice for 10 minutes. Let cool.

For the dressing, combine orange juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the 4 tablespoons olive oil while whisking.

In a large bowl combine the rice, vegetables, pinto beans and basil. Toss with the dressing and chill.

Kay: I didn't eat much of this salad but I helped make it. I cut some of the vegetables and put them on the pan and I poured the oil while my mom whisked the dressing.

Mom (Dana): I highly suggest you roast extra vegetables and make vegetable tarts to go along with this!

Cinnamon Mini Muffins

2008-08-04T12:26:00.003-05:00

We are lucky to have a water park in our town but not too lucky because it is really expensive. Fortunately, Kay has been invited by two friends who had free passes for her and also went for free with the school since she passed all her required reading books last year. Yesterday we had beautiful weather (not too hot) and she went with her friend Anna. Unfortunately, because it wasn't too hot, Kay didn't notice that the sun was burning her to a crisp. She woke up this morning looking very much like a lobster and feeling pretty sore.

Because I am so nice, I made her these mini muffins. I normally would have picked something a little less fussy but she looked so miserable that I softened. Plus, she offered to help. Somehow when we got the the fussy part of dipping them in butter and cinnamon sugar, she disappeared to reapply her sunburn lotion and conveniently didn't return until I was done. Hmmm...

But look how cute they are. Obviously worth it.

Here is one in Kay's hand so you can see how petite they are. Luckily the camera adjusted to compensate for Kay's red hue.

Cinnamon Mini Muffins

1/3 cup softened butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites)

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk (I used rice milk)

1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottoms of 36 mini muffin cups. Mix the softened butter, 1/2 cup sugar and egg thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, nutmeg and baking powder. Stir the flour mixture and milk into the wet mixture. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 15 minutes.

Immediately dip into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Eat while warm.

Kay: The first time we made these, my mom and I both got burnt trying to get the muffins out of the pans. My mom got burnt first so while she was running cold water on her hand, I tried to get them out and got burnt too! These are really good though so now we are just more careful.

Mom (Dana): Luckily Kay didn't remind me of the burning incident until after I made them this time or I probably would have changed my mind!

Lemony Couscous with Broccoli

2008-08-02T19:23:00.003-05:00

We don't like couscous. None of us. I don't know why, we just don't. Therefore it is a little strange that I had a box of whole wheat couscous in my cabinet. It is even stranger that I saw this recipe and decided to make it for dinner. Both Kayleigh and Bill immediately said, "I don't like couscous". But then the strangest thing of all happened. We all actually liked this. Go figure!

This recipe comes from Nava Atlas' cookbook Vegan Express (which means it takes almost no time to make).

Lemony Couscous with Broccoli
3/4 cup whole wheat couscous
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, sliced (I didn't have a red so I used a regular onion)
3 cups broccoli florets (I used frozen)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons fresh dill
Juice of one lemon
1/3 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil

Combine the couscous with 1 1/2 cups boiling water in a heatproof container. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until golden.

Add the broccoli and just enough water to keep the bottom of the skillet moist, then cover and allow to steam until the broccoli is tender-crisp.

Add the couscous to the skillet along with the parsley, dill, lemon juice and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir together well, cook for 2-3 minutes longer, and serve.

Kay: I usually don't like onions and couscous but this was really good. The onions were so sweet I couldn't even tell they were in there.

Mom (Dana): I had told Kay that she didn't need to be so careful picking around the onions because I had cooked them extra long so they'd be very sweet. As usual, I finished way before her and was outside watering the flowers when she came flying out the door and screamed "I accidentally ate an onion and you're right. They are really sweet!" I can't believe she would admit that!

Quinoa and Zucchini

2008-07-22T17:38:00.006-05:00

I'm disappointed every year with the lack of decent produce we can get around here. That is why I was so ridiculously happy when I found a small organic farm nearby that offers a CSA program. Each week we get a variety of different vegetables and herbs. This is only the third week but I already love it!

One of my favorite vegetables is zucchini so I was thrilled this week when I saw 14 zucchini go into my bag. Doesn't that sound like a lot? Well, not for us. I picked them up Friday afternoon and all the zucchini was gone by Sunday!

This is my favorite way to prepare zucchini. I love it. Kay will eat it but puts a lot more quinoa than zucchini on her plate (we just recently discovered that she really likes quinoa). Bill eats the zucchini but as a side dish and refuses to touch the quinoa.

This picture shows the zucchini and quinoa along with mustard and dill green beans (the green beans and dill were also in my CSA bag).

Quinoa

1 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable broth

Rinse the quinoa well in a fine mesh strainer. Place the quinoa, water and vegetable broth in a medium sauce pan. Bring it to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Zucchini

3 medium zucchini cut in 3 inch sticks
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon margarine
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 handful chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1 bouillon cube
2 teaspoon ground thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet (with a lid) heat the oil and margarine over medium heat. Cook the onion and parsley (or cilantro) until soft and translucent. Add the zucchini sticks, bouillon cube (crumble it), thyme, salt, and pepper. Stir to coat the zucchini and then cover and cook for 15-20 minutes stirring only once or twice. You want the zucchini to get lightly browned.

Kay: I didn't really like the zucchini but I like the quinoa a lot. I can eat quinoa just plain with a little salt for my whole meal.

Mom (Dana): I ate this Friday night, Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday for dinner. After typing this up, I'm really wishing I had more - it is that good!

Phyllo bar dessert

2008-07-19T11:51:00.005-05:00

Wow. When I said we all got sick on 4th of July, I had no idea what we were in for. We got much, much worse before getting better, including several days of fever. After two weeks we are all finally starting to get back to normal again although we still aren't completely well. We've also gone through every kind of cold related medicine and crazy amounts of Kleenex!

We did feel well enough through all this to make a dessert though! I had opened a package of phyllo dough to make something else and the rest of it was just sitting around the fridge so I decided to experiment. Kay and I thought it was fantastic and had trouble not eating it all in one sitting!

We used dark chocolate covered edamame which my sister-in-law gets me from Trader Joe's. I usually hoard them and refuse to share since I only have a limited supply but my illness obviously confused me and next thing I knew, a whole handful of them wound up in this dessert! If you don't have a super nice sister-in-law who brings you dark chocolate covered edamame a couple times a year, then you can use any chocolate covered nuts or even chocolate chips and chopped nuts mixed together.

Phyllo Bar Dessert

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 cup chocolate covered nuts, chopped

2 tablespoons melted margarine

6 sheets phyllo dough

1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon and sugar.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place one sheet of phyllo dough on the pan. Brush melted margarine over the sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Top with another phyllo dough and repeat. On top of the third phyllo dough, brush on margarine and spread all the chopped chocolate nuts over the surface. Top with another phyllo dough sheet. Again, brush with margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Repeat. On top phyllo dough, brush with margarine.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove and pour agave nectar over the top. Let sit 10 minutes. Cut into squares (preferably with a pizza cutter).

Makes: 2 servings

Just kidding - you'll get about 15 decent sized squares.

Kay: These were awesome!

Mom (Dana): These are gooey and sticky and delicious!! If you use honey instead of agave nectar, you may want to warm it first so that it pours better. Plus honey is a little sweeter so don't use as much.

4th of July

2008-07-05T10:10:00.009-05:00

No food this time. I woke up with a terrible cold, Bill's kicked in around lunchtime and Kay's half way through fireworks. Plus it was really cold and the mosquitos were terrible. But we did get some videos to show how noisy it is around here.

In this one you can see some of our pathetic fireworks but you can also hear all our neighbors. They obviously spent much more money than we did!

This one is the town's fireworks show that we can see from our driveway. If you listen closely, in the middle you can hear Bill's beautiful cough!

Today Bill and I are feeling better but Kay is miserable. At least we all got it at the same time so it won't drag out over a week or two.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Strawberry Jam

2008-06-29T19:12:00.003-05:00

Every year when I was young, there was one day when I would come home from school and find my mom and grandma in our kitchen canning. I remember tomatoes mostly and a big mess! The one thing I don't ever remember is being asked to stay in the kitchen and watch. So that is probably why the thought of canning food for later use is completely overwhelming to me!

Instead, I make recipes like this one, but only make enough for us to eat across a week or two. Plus, this recipe only takes about 30 minutes instead of all day.

Strawberry Jam

4 cups mashed strawberries (about 3 pounds whole)

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Mash the strawberries in a food processor in small batches so that everything gets pureed. In a large sauce pan (I use a stock pot - it boils up much larger than you'd expect) mix the pureed strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring often. Transfer mixture to a jar and store in the refrigerator.

Kay: It is really good. It is better than the store bought kind. I wish the strawberries we got this year didn't have so many rotten ones so that we could make more.

Mom (Dana): You'd think we'd get tired of it but since we only get it once a year, we enjoy every last drop!

Vegetable Pita with Pesto Hummus

2008-06-17T17:55:00.003-05:00

Kay has been on summer break for a week now and we are starting to settle into the new schedule. Last week she went to a gymnastics camp each evening so that was a little hectic but she had a lot of fun. It was shocking how much she learned in just one week.

In the middle of our busy week, Kay had her palate spreader removed (she can now talk normal again) and her braces went on. So for a couple days she was back on a smooshy food diet. She is still having some pain but has done a pretty good job of dealing with it.

This sandwich is based on a recipe from a cooking magazine. I changed it quite a bit though based on what we like and what we had in the fridge. Kay had to disassemble hers in order to eat it but she said "This is actually pretty good". Shocking!

Vegetable Pita with Pesto Hummus

For spread:

2 garlic cloves

1 1/2 cups fresh basil

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup prepared hummus

In a small food processor, chop the garlic and basil. Add the oil and blend. Add the hummus and blend until smooth.

Pita filling:

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup chopped cucumbers

1 cup orange bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.

To assemble:

Warm a pita in the oven for a couple minutes. Spread the inside with the spread. Fill with the salad. Eat.

Kay: I didn't think I would like this but it was really good. I went back for seconds.

Mom (Dana): This time I used a store bought hummus. I have a recipe for a really good hummus but I think the store bought blends a little better with the pesto for this recipe.

Meme

2008-06-06T08:21:00.003-05:00

Javagirlkt has tagged us to do a meme and since it is hot, humid and the first day of summer break, this is about all we have the energy for! We'll both answer the questions.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Kay - I was 1 year old so I was probably sitting on the floor watching Barney!

Dana - I had a one year old and working full time so I was ripping my hair out! Actually I was working as an auditor with a different business than where I am now. Wait - I just remembered. I was completely fed up with that job and searching for a new one which I found in August. So I was just on the verge of my career taking off although at this point I had no idea! That's kind of exciting to think of now! We had also been in our house for about a year (yes, we had several life changing events all at the same time!) so we were starting what was to become the neverending renovations!

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
Kay - Watch tv, play on computer, play outside if it doesn't rain, go shopping, listen to music

Dana - Looking at Kay's list makes me wish adults got summer vacation too! I am shopping (obviously since Kay doesn't drive!), doing laundry, planting herbs, reading, and hopefully just sitting around!

Five snacks you enjoy?
Kay - Ice cream, oreos, nutella and peanut butter sandwiches, popcorn, biscotti.

Dana - dark chocolate, tofutti cuties, guacamole, salsa, cucumbers.

Five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
Kay - Buy a Wii and all games, get more pets, buy a big house, buy a water park, buy a limo.

Dana - Finish all our home improvement projects, go to the grocery store without a budget, go to Europe, seriously - I don't know! I'm way to practical for this question!!

Places you have lived:
Kay - In this house!

Dana - In two houses and one apartment all in this same town and then 2 dorms and one apartment in Bloomington, IN while at college. (I think I'm becoming more boring by the second!)

Jobs you have had:
Kay - feeding the cats, sorting laundry, watering plants, cleaning my bathroom and bedroom, mopping the kitchen.

Dana - Babysitting, selling knives, working at a bookstore, pharmacy tech, collections administrator, investment consulting assistant, and then all the levels from staff auditor on up to the top of the audit department.

Future jobs.....
Kay - Architect, interior designer, veterinarian, or a teacher.

Dana - Hopefully still auditing. I love it so much that I just hope the economy allows me to keep doing it. Please please please let my current company not get bought out!!!

To reverse this question, I'll post what I thought I wanted to do when I grew up: store lady (I thought cash registers were really cool!), lawyer, architect, accountant. I actually decided on accounting when I was 14 because like I've said over and over, I'm really boring!!

Now to tag people:

Ms Mac
Holler at Tinned Tomatoes
Melinda at Anything Said
Randy at Possum World
And Bill just to make him post on the blog he made us set up for him!!

Pot Stickers

2008-05-28T10:01:00.003-05:00

Lately I have stumbled across several cooking shows that are vegetarian or vegan. It is so nice to be able to watch a show and not have to think about how recipes can be changed to exclude the meat! It's a luxury I've never enjoyed before. And to completely turn everything on its head, for once, the meat eaters can take this recipe and substitute to their tastes!

Kay's favorite item at our friend's Thai food restaurant is chicken pot stickers. She always gets a special "Kay-sized" order when she goes there. Even though this recipe calls for sausage, I thought it was worth a try. I couldn't help asking if these were as good as the others and she actually said they were better! What a compliment!!

If you are like me, the mention of folding individual items into special shapes sends you looking for something else to make. But I promise, these are not hard and it goes really fast. Kay was able to fold them herself so if you have kids hanging around, put them to work and it won't take you any time at all!

Pot Stickers

(from Delicious TV)

For the filling, crumble 6-8 thawed vegetarian breakfast sausage patties into a bowl (it must be the patties, not the links). Add 2-4 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 chopped green onions and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Mix it all together with your hands.

Place a very small amount of the mixture on a wonton skin. Dip your finger in water and moisten the edges of the wonton. Fold the wonton over diagonally, forming a triangle. Then fold the bottom two corners in to the middle so that it looks like an envelope with the flap up. (Does that make sense? That's the best way I can think of to describe it!)

Place 1 inch of peanut oil in a skillet and fry the pot stickers until they are brown on both sides (2-3 minutes). Remove from pan and place on paper towels or a paper grocery bag to drain.

Dipping sauce:

Whisk the following:

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons white rice vinegar

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons green onion, chopped or cilantro

Kay: These were really really good. I liked them a lot. The pot stickers at 5 Star are my absolute favorite thing but these were even better!!

Mom (Dana): I try to stay away from fried foods since they really don't sit well with me but these were worth the splurge. I just had to make sure not to eat the whole batch in one sitting!

New York Goodwich

2008-05-10T13:09:00.004-05:00

This is one of the first vegetarian recipes that my mom found back when I first announced that I was becoming a vegetarian. It was a huge success from the beginning. My recipe says that it came out of Fit for Life, which I'm assuming is this book. The year is right and the cover looks vaguely familiar.

I always forget to make this for some reason probably because it takes more prep time than our other wraps. This time I found that if I took the time to get all the ingredients ready in advance, we could throw these together in just a few minutes during the next few days. That makes them perfect for soccer season when we are eating at crazy times and always rushing to get out the door.

I'm going to list the recipe as I have it written but I have to admit, I don't measure out my vegetables. I make whatever I have on hand and then we each put whatever proportion of ingredients looks good into each wrap. That means I go really heavy on the barbecued onions whereas Kay goes for extra pickles!

New York Goodwich

1 cup broccoli, chopped

1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped

carrot, red cabbage, zucchini, grated

1 tablespoon barbecue sauce

1/2 cup onion

mayonnaise

chopped lettuce

tortilla

dill pickle, thinly sliced

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower for 5-7 minutes

Combine the carrot, cabbage and zucchini in a bowl.

Saute the onion in oil until limp. Add the barbecue sauce.

To assemble the sandwich: Heat the tortilla in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften it. Spread with mayonnaise. Add broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mixture. Next add the onions and about 3 slices of pickle. Top with lettuce. Roll like a burrito (tucking in the ends) and cut in half.

Note: It is less messy if you roll it up into a piece of plastic wrap.

Kay: I thought these looked really strange so I asked my mom what was in them. She would only tell me one ingredient every time I took a bite. I ended up eating almost the whole thing before she was done. It tasted ok but I like a lot of other things better.

Mom (Dana): Yum!!

Snickerdoodle Cake by Kay

2008-05-07T19:07:00.007-05:00

This is my dad's favorite cake. The night before he was looking for a snack but we didn't have anything. Everyday, he left at 7:30AM to go to work and on some days wouldn't come home until 9:00PM. He's really tried from work so I thought that I would made something special just for him. He really likes Snickerdoodle Cookies. I got the recipe from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. She makes cakes that are easy to deal with by putting cake mixes in them..

Snickerdoodle Cake

1 package plain white cake mix

1 cup milk (we used vanilla soy)

8 tablespoons butter, melted

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9 inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer for one minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed.

Divide the batter between the pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cakes until they are golden brown, about 27-29 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack. Allow them to cool completely, about 30 minutes more.

Frosting

8 tablespoons butter at room temperature

3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the remaining ingredients. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Blend in additional milk if the frosting seems too thick.

Mom (Dana): Personally, I love chocolate anything but Bill is the real cake lover in this family and this is his absolute favorite. I'm not sure what he did to deserve it though!

Mint Chocolate Cake

2008-04-25T18:00:00.008-05:00

Our weather has been super fantastic this week. If only our whole summer could be like this. It is unbelievable to me as I sit here with every window in the house wide open that this weekend it is going to turn cold again and they are actually calling for snow flurries Sunday night. Yes, snow. It has been in the 70's all week. Luckily we know enough about our weather to know you have to enjoy the nice weather while it is here because it never lasts very long. Therefore instead of cooking, we've done more walking.

Last night we decided it was time to bake something. Kay went through all my cookbooks and came up with this cake recipe from here. It tastes just like a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie! The book listed a glaze but the cake is so moist, we ate it plain.

Mint Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and spray a bundt pan.

Sift together the following:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar

Stir together the following:
1 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon peppermint extract

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Pour into the bundt pan and bake 50-60 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Kay: This cake was really good. Before it even came out of the oven you could really smell the mint. It was also very easy to make but it took a long time to cook.

Mom (Dana): This may look like just a regular chocolate cake but it isn't. You've got to try it!

Psst...

2008-04-16T11:08:00.002-05:00

Did anyone notice that my 10 year old daughter is now my 11 year old daughter?!! Her birthday was yesterday.

Chocolate Candy

2008-04-12T14:33:00.006-05:00

I have experimented quite a bit with Stevia, but I haven't had good luck at all. Unlike other sugar substitutes, it is much sweeter so when you would normally use a cup of sugar, you might only use a spoonful of stevia. Every time I've tried to use it, I get a bitter after taste. Until this time! These were fantastic.

The funny thing about this recipe is that Kay claims to not like coconut so, obviously, I didn't tell her there was coconut in these. You definitely can taste it but she never said one word and absolutely devoured these! So when adding her comments today, hopefully she won't look up and see the ingredients!

I wasn't able to get a good picture of these. They basically look like a piece of chocolate. I did get a picture of Kay eating one though!

This recipe is based off one from the show The Sweet Truth.

Chocolates

1 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup peanut butter

4 tablespoons agave nectar

2 teaspoons powdered stevia

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup almond meal (or ground almonds)

1/4 cup coconut (unsweetened)

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Grind the pumpkin seeds, coconut, and almonds (if using whole) in a food processor until finely ground.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Line 3 mini-muffin tins. Fill each completely full.

Place in freezer for 20 minutes.

Kay: I thought these tasted really good. I thought they might taste funny because they have different things in them like pumpkin seeds but I liked them a lot.

Mom (Dana): We thought these tasted best if kept in the refrigerator. They got a little too soft at room temperature.

Chickpea Tahini Patties

2008-04-02T17:27:00.005-05:00

Kay hates bean patties. I make all kinds of them. Black bean, kidney bean, navy bean, butter bean, etc. with Mexican flavors, Italian flavors, Indian flavors, etc. She doesn't like any of them. I make special sauces to put on them, buy special buns, it doesn't matter. I never get a good reaction when I make bean patties. Until this time. Not only did she not complain, she actual enjoyed them. I knew sooner or later I'd find something she would like. Apparently the secret was to stop relying on cookbooks and just throw together whatever I thought sounded good.

Chickpea Tahini Patties

1 large sweet potato (about 1 lb.)

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup tahini

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave nectar

juice of half a lemon

1/4 cup water

2 cups fresh bread crumbs

Peel the sweet potato and cut into one inch cubes. Place in a pot and add water just to cover. Boil until tender. Drain any remaining water.

Place all ingredients except for the bread crumbs into a food processor and puree. By hand, stir in the bread crumbs. Scoop up about a palm-full of the mixture and form it into a ball. Place the ball on an oiled baking sheet and flatten slightly.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, flipping the patties half way through.

We ate these with a ketchup/mayonnaise mixture.

Kay: I liked these. I usually don't like bean patties but this one I really liked. I thought maybe the soy sauce should be cut down though. Other than that I thought they were really good. They would be a good substitute for hamburgers.

Mom (Dana): You can use the store bread crumbs but they won't be as chunky as the ones I make fresh so the amount might be different. Keep adding them until you can form the mixture into a ball.

These also warm up well. I know they don't look like much but they sure were tasty!

One last Public Enemies post

2008-03-27T18:09:00.007-05:00

We couldn't help ourselves, we kept going back to the set! It seemed somehow wrong not to go every night. When will we have something like this so close to home?! We never did get a picture of Johnny Depp. Every time we showed up, we would hear that just a half hour before he had been out. The worst, though, was Tuesday. I thought we should wait until after dinner so Bill could go with but then I asked Kay when she got home from school and she wanted to go right away. It was looking promising for awhile. His car pulled around to the front of the jail so everyone was sure he was about to leave but then after about 30 minutes some unknown woman got in the car.

Kay's cold was really bad and she wanted to leave but then changed her mind and wanted ice cream instead. I was pretty sure the ice cream shop on the corner closed early but we headed down there anyway. Of course we had to detour several blocks away. When we were almost back to the street but on the other side of the barriers, we heard screaming. Kay took off running. He was apparently on the porch but I couldn't distinguish him from any of the other people standing up there.

We stood there for a few minutes until I took a false step, tripped on the curb, and went flying to the ground. I'm really graceful like that! We decided that was a good time to continue to the ice cream shop which was, of course, closed. So we headed home, Kay very grouchy and me, in more and more pain by the second. After dinner Bill asked if we wanted to go back but I could barely walk by this point and Kay was a grouchy mess so we said no. To add insult to injury (literally) the next morning the paper said that shortly after we left, he had walked up and down the line giving autographs and taking pictures.

Still we had to go back! Last night we waited until after dinner. They had more of the roads closed off than usual so they must have been doing some of the street scenes earlier in the day. We stood around for awhile then we heard people screaming down towards the back of the building. Again Kay takes off running but I took my time because I was scared to death of falling again! Apparently he had just walked out of the back door and into his trailer. There were too many people down at this end so Kay couldn't see anything but I kept my eye on the light in the trailer window. Finally he came out and went back into the building but it was too dark to really see anything. So we left.

Even though we didn't get a picture, we had fun (except for the part where I collapsed!) and it was interesting to see how they do things. Here are a few of our pictures from the past two days.

First from Tuesday:

Here are some of the old cars they used.

Here's one of the extras in an old police officer uniform. Obviously he wasn't filming at the time since he is carrying a cell phone!

Here you can see the passenger side door of Johnny's car which we stared at for about half an hour!

And finally, here we are, moments before I fell. He is apparently up there on the porch among all these people. Do you see him? Me neither!

Now for Wednesday:

Here are those big lights turned on.

Here is Kayleigh IM'ing her aunt on my phone.

Eventually, my cell phone started to die so she had to resort to...

stretching. Yes, she is actually doing her soccer stretches while we waited on the side of the street! Very glamorous, don't you think?!

But now the picture we waited days to get. Johnny Depp.

I guess you will just have to trust me that he is there!

We've been fitting in all of this stalking around our normal work, school, soccer practice, homework, and orthodontist appointments. We are exhausted so I plan to pass out in front of the tv for the rest of the night! I'm just not cut out for all this excitement!

Fennel and Spinach Soup

2008-03-26T14:41:00.004-05:00

Soups never take very nice pictures but this tasted so good. I loved it. Bill wouldn't even try it but Kay said it was "ok" and then ate it so I'm counting it as a success!

This recipe comes from Eating for Diabetes which is a cookbook my mom loaned me. She wanted me to try some of the recipes and then let her know which ones were worth making. My other favorite recipes were the Black Bean Burgers and Tofu Fajitas but there were actually several that were good.

Fennel and Spinach Soup

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 stick of celery, finely chopped

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

2 cups vegetable stock

4 cups baby spinach leaves

1 tablespoon chopped fennel tops

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lemon, juiced

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and gently saute the onion, celery, and fennel until soft but not brown. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the spinach, bring to a boil again, then remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Blend with immersion blender or cool slightly and put in a blender or food processor. Return to heat and add salt, pepper, and fennel tops. Heat through and serve immediately with a sprinkling of lemon juice on each serving.

Kay: This tasted ok. I usually don't like cooked spinach but it was ok in a soup like this.

Mom (Dana): Next time I think I'll blend the fennel tops too. I didn't like getting pieces of that in an otherwise smooth soup. Don't forget the lemon. It really bumps this up from being a good soup to a delicious soup.

Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

2008-03-25T09:11:00.004-05:00

The movie is filming here through Wednesday but I don't know if we'll be back there since Kay and I both woke up with terrible colds this morning and it was snowing on my way to work! We might bundle ourselves up one more time though.

In the meantime, we are posting a recipe!! I happened to stumble across a show called "Zonya's Healthy Bites" last weekend and she made these cookies. They already had half the sugar and most of the fat removed so I didn't even have to adjust the recipe for once!

Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 4-serving pack of instant vanilla pudding mix

4 egg whites

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup oats

1 cup chocolate chips

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and pudding mix in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites, applesauce, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.

Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Allow to cool and cut in squares.

Kay: I really liked this. We were watching a movie and I waited for mine to cool because then it tastes better. I had about three already.

Mom (Dana): These tasted best after sitting for a day, probably because the oats begin to soften. We made them a few days ago and they are holding up well.

More from the Public Enemy movie set

2008-03-24T17:45:00.005-05:00

I was going to post the recipe for our chocolate chip and oat cookie bars but Kay is at soccer practice so she isn't here to add her comments. So instead I am going to give you all more amazing news about Johnny Depp's movie that is filming here. Kay's soccer practice is half way between our house and the old jail where they are shooting the movie so we ate dinner ridiculously early and ridiculously fast so that we could go stalk Johnny Depp before her practice. Unfortunately we missed him by mere minutes. We were standing by a woman who said he had just come out and waved to everyone but then went back in the jail. (It is still really cold here.)

We did get to watch a scene being shot though. We are assuming it was a press conference after Dillinger escaped. Here are some pictures.

This is where we were standing first but Kay couldn't see over everyone. The building on the right (partially blocked by the semi) is the jail and the building on the left is where the speakeasy is and where they are doing the cast's make up.

We moved to the side and got a much better view. I don't know why more people didn't move over here. Here you can see the reporters and the old fashioned cameras.

This one is a little blurry but you can see the sound guy and the cameraman.

Here are some more actors. I'm thinking they are detectives or politicians.

It was really cool and Kay wants to go back again tomorrow. We'll see. It is supposed to rain. The cold was bad enough!

We also saw a snow making machine behind where we were standing. That makes us laugh because just this weekend, we had real snow!

Another non-food post

2008-03-23T15:07:00.010-05:00

I know this seems to be a habit lately but we did something very unusual today so we had to post about it. There is a new movie being filmed about Dillinger right now and since the jail he escaped from is still in its original state, they are doing some of the filming in the actual building. And where is this building? 10 minutes from our house. And who is the star of this movie? JOHNNY DEPP!! Rumor has it that they start shooting tomorrow morning at 6 AM. Kay really wants to go down there before school. We'll see.

In the meantime, we went to the site today and looked around. You can't get into the actual jail but they do let you in to the speakeasy next door. Here are some pictures (unfortunately none with Johnny Depp!)

Many of the stores around the square have displays in their windows. This is in our favorite corner ice cream and sandwich shop. You can kind of see Kay's reflexion.

This is the window of the antique store.

This is the old jail. The cells are on the second floor.

This is the building next to the jail that they are using for staging and also the speakeasy set is in the basement.

This is in the speakeasy. That's the "Lady in Red" to the right.

Here is Kay checking out the jukebox.

And here we are pretending to have a drink. (We were actually just happy to get out of the cold for a few minutes!)

Here is a prop we spotted in the hallway.

And here are the lights next to the jail all set up for tomorrow's shoot.

Actually we did make some really good cookies that we are going to post either later today or tomorrow - promise!

Sweet and Spicy Vegetable Stir Fry

2008-03-20T18:12:00.006-05:00

Poor, poor Kay. She has really bad teeth and today she started the whole orthodontist experience. They put in a PSA which is a spreader thing that is cemented into the top of her mouth. She is having a lot of trouble figuring out how to chew and swallow tonight. She just spent over an hour eating a small portion of plain noodles. So until she gets past this, she isn't going to have much to say about food. I've decided to take advantage of the situation and post the meals that Bill and I like and Kay gets the benefit of not having to try everything!

I usually go grocery shopping on the weekend so around this time in the week I have produce that is on it's last leg and really needs to be used immediately. We've all been busy this week so I've been making fast simple meals over the ones I had originally planned. Therefore, I have a lot of produce that needed to be used in one meal. Stir fry!

Sweet and Spicy Vegetable Stir Fry

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup vegetable broth and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Add one block of firm tofu, cut into strips.

In bowl number 2 combine the following:
1 cup shredded carrots
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups sugar snap peas

Bowl number 3:
2 cups bean sprouts
3-4 green onions, chopped

Bowl number 4:
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon red curry paste

With your wok on high, heat 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or peanut oil). When hot, add only the tofu to the wok (retain the broth for later). Spread the tofu into a single layer on the bottom of the wok and leave for 5 minutes. Do not stir! After 5 minutes, add 2-3 tablespoons of the broth and stir.

Add in bowl number two and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, until the onion is transparent.

Add in bowl number 3 and stir fry for and additional 2 minutes.

Add in bowl number 4 and the remaining broth. Stir fry until the sauce thickens.

Serve over noodles or rice.

Kay: I wish I could talk and eat normal!

Dana: I love hoisin sauce! This would work with just about any vegetables you have on hand. Put the firmer vegetables in bowl 2 and the softer ones into bowl 3.

Thai Fried Rice

2008-03-13T18:07:00.004-05:00

Now that I look at my excuses for not posting, they don't sound quite as good as I thought they did. Today we finally had some decent weather. Up until last weekend we were still getting tons of snow but today it is up into the 50s. It was so nice out that we had to get outside as soon as we got home. Immediately after dinner Kay and I went for a walk and it seemed that everyone was outside. Finally we were able to talk to our neighbors after not seeing anyone for months. So why is it with this nice weather, I'm finding time to post but for the past month when we've been snowed in, I couldn't be bothered? I have no idea!

Here is the recipe that I mentioned that we all loved. This is not what we had tonight. Tonight's meal was really good too, in my opinion. Kay wasn't too thrilled with it. I might take a picture of it and sneak it on here anyway because it was really good and. even though she said she didn't like it, she didn't complain too much. That always makes me think that she just doesn't want to admit that it was good! So you may be seeing that in the next few days.

Anyway, back to this recipe. It takes some pre-planning because you need cold cooked rice. But as long as you have that in the fridge, you can pull this together really quickly. Also, I feel I need to point out that this is not a vegetarian recipe because it has fish sauce in it. I know that this will get me shunned out of the vegetarian community but I just can't find anything that gives that same flavor. So kill me.

Thai Fried Rice

4 cups cook rice, chilled

1/2 brick tofu, cut into 8 strips and dusted in flour

1 cup broccoli flowerettes, fresh or frozen

8 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/8 cup soy sauce

1 T brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced onion

3 egg whites

2 T canola oil

1/4 cup chopped green onions

Spray a small skillet with oil. Cook the tofu dusted with flour for a few minutes on each side until browned.

Remove the tofu from the pan. Spray it again and cook the broccoli until brown.

Chop the garlic in a small processor (or just put it through a press) and then blend in the cilantro.

Combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and ground pepper in a small bowl.

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Swirl to cover the wok surface. Add the carrots, onion, and cilantro/garlic mixture. Stir fry 2-3 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the tofu and cook 2-3 minutes.

Make a well in the bottom of the wok. Add the egg whites and scramble them. Once they start to set, stir them into the vegetables.

Add the rice. Stir well then press down into the pan. Let set 1-2 minutes. Stir, press down, and let sit for a few minutes more.

Pour the marinade into the wok and mix.

Stir in the broccoli and green onions and heat through.

To each serving, add a spritz of lime juice. (Don't skip this. It really adds a lot.)

Kay: This was pretty good. I like tofu, rice and broccoli so I liked this. There was a taste in there that reminds me of 5 Star (a local Thai restaurant my grandparent's friends own).

Mom (Dana): I know the recipe looks a little overwhelming but it really isn't very hard. It takes longer to explain it than it does to actually make it!

Bunch of excuses and Paper Chef

2008-03-04T10:24:00.003-06:00

We've been cooking like crazy lately, really! The problem has been that:

1. Everything has been from the same few books, from which I've already posted several fantastic dishes,

2. It has been so good that we devoured it all before even thinking to take a picture, or

3. While I thought it was delicious, Kay didn't so it therefore didn't fit into the blog.

I think those are very good excuses!

The one item that we ate too fast to take a picture of was truly fantastic and I promise to make it again very soon and take a picture.

Our biggest disaster in a long time though, was for the Paper Chef challenge this month. The ingredients were pistachios, green chilies, and polenta. I love love love pistachios and chilies but the sight of polenta made me groan. Yuck - I hate it. When I told Kay the ingredients, I received a huge "eww" when I got to the polenta. From Bill, same reaction. From my mom, same. You get the picture. We don't like polenta! Still I wanted to try to make something so I went and bought some polenta. Big mistake. It was disgusting! Bill and I managed to eat a little bit of it. Kay wouldn't even try it and we certainly weren't going to make her. So if you like polenta, then I strongly urge you to keep and eye on http://lucullian.blogspot.com/ for the round up because I'm sure everyone is coming up with great dishes.

So we are still alive and cooking and plan to have something to post very soon!

Maple Oat Bread

2008-02-17T10:27:00.004-06:00

We've had very mixed reviews of our meals lately. Everything has been ok but nothing really stood out. Finally this bread changed that. We all were really surprised at how good this was. It is quite sweet so you definitely want to eat it as a snack kind of bread. The crust is a little crunchy but the inside is very moist. We had to really concentrate so that we didn't eat the whole loaf in one setting!

It comes from a book with a very unappetizing title and topic so I will link you to it here in order to give all due credit, but won't actually state the name!

Maple Oat Bread

1 3/4 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups soy milk blended with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup regular rolled oats
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9 X 5 loaf pan with cooking oil. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until blended. In a medium bowl whisk the egg whites with the oil until smooth. Whisk in the maple syrup, brown sugar, and soured soy milk. Stir in the oats. Add pecans.

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour into pan, smooth top, and bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool on a rack in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out of pan onto rack and cool completely before slicing. Freezes beautifully.

Kay: This bread tasted like corn bread and bananas to me even though it didn't have any cornmeal or bananas in it!

Mom (Dana): The soy milk and vinegar is used in place of buttermilk. If you eat dairy, you can use an equal amount of buttermilk.

Paper Chef Challenge - Thyme for Latkes

2008-02-03T17:17:00.000-06:00

I was so happy to see that Ilva over at Lucullian Delights was taking over the Paper Chef challenges. You can read the instructions for the challenge on her blog but the main idea is that everyone tries to come up with a recipe using the same 4 randomly selected ingredients.

This time the ingredients were potato, rutabaga, plum tomatoes, and bacon. The only substitution we had to make was Bacos for the real bacon. I had never had rutabaga before but I did a little research and found out they are often prepared similarly to potatoes so that made it a lot easier. Grocery shopping was actually the most challenging part because the rutabagas didn't have stickers on them. Based on the fact that Kay and I recognized all the other vegetables in that produce aisle, we took a chance and bought the one that was left. The check out clerk verified that we had gotten the correct thing so that was one challenge down!

(Kay chopping onions for the first time - she didn't even cry!)

Kay helped a lot in making these. For the first time, she chopped the tomato and onion. She also got to do her favorite cooking task - shredding things in the food processor! The whole family was really happy with how these turned out so I'm sure we'll be repeating this recipe.

Thyme for Latkes

Salsa:

2 plum tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup minced onion

salt and pepper to taste

leaves removed from 4 sprigs of thyme

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside. If it is winter you will want to leave this mixture sit for a couple hours to get some flavor into the tomatoes.

Latkes:

2 pounds shredded potato (not peeled)

1 pound rutabaga, peeled and shredded

1/4 of a large onion, shredded

2 eggs

1/3 cup flour

leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper to taste

peanut oil for frying

Place the potato, rutabaga, and onion in a large bowl. Mix in the eggs, flour, thyme, salt and pepper (hands work best).

Heat about 4 tablespoons peanut oil in a saute pan over high heat for 1-2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high. Form patties with the potato mixture, squeezing out any excess moisture and place 2-3 in the pan at the time. Press each patty with the back of a spatula. Cook until browned, 3-4 minutes, flip, and cook other side. Remove the patties from the pan onto paper towels to drain. Continue with the remaining potato mixture.

After every few batches, you will need to add more oil to the pan.

The fried latkes can be kept in a 200 degree oven while you continue to cook.

When completed, top each latke with some sour cream, a spoonful of the salsa, and a sprinkling of Bacos (or real bacon bits if you prefer).

Kay: These were really good but I didn't use the salsa. I used ketchup instead which is still tomatoes so I think it counts! The rutabaga tastes just like potatoes to me so these tasted just like regular latkes.
(Yes, Kay still eats off her Blue's Clues plate!)

Mom (Dana): In the middle of cooking I made the mistake of assembling one to take a picture of. Then I had to eat it, of course, and was dying for more! I really liked these. I wasn't too sure about the bacos but they worked well with the other flavors. I was also really worried about my rock hard winter tomatoes but they ended up tasting fine. The thyme added a nice flavor change from our regular latkes.

Thanks for hosting this Ilva. We had lots of fun!

Corny Biscuits au Gratin

2008-02-02T12:23:00.000-06:00

As we were going through Bill's grandma's house a few months ago, we came across a cookbook called "Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places" with a 1950 copyright. I love old books and cooking so I was really excited to look through this. It appears that this was a cookbook given to Ford customers. Somehow, buying a car and receiving a cookbook seems strange to me but maybe that was normal in 1950!

There are recipes from all across the country. Kayleigh was horrified that there were several recipes for frog legs! These biscuits seemed like a safer bet.

I've typed up the recipe as is (because I found it charming) but added my notes to the side where necessary.

Corny Bisuits au Gratin from Phil De Graff's Lodges in Trout Lake, Michigan

4 cups Bisquick (I didn't have any so I used this recipe.)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 heaping tablespoon shortening

Cheddar cheese to individual taste (I used 1 cup of misc. cheeses we had left over)

1/2 cup cream style corn

Water enough for a soft dough (about 3/4 cup)

Bran (I used oat bran)

Mix dry ingredients, then work in shortening as for pie crust. Grate cheese into the corn and water, and mix together into a soft dough. Add corn-cheese mixture to dry ingredients and mix fast, adding water as necessary to make a very soft biscuit dough. (I wasn't really sure what they meant here so I added the corn and cheese to the dry ingredients and then stirred in enough water to make a nice batter.) "Flour" the board with bran and pat out dough about 3/4 inch thick on top of it. Cut into biscuits and bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees for 18 minutes).

Kay: These were ok but a little dry. I couldn't really taste the cheese in them though.

Mom (Dana): I liked these. I thought they were really moist. They were pretty easy to make, too so I would probably make them again. I was thrilled to find an old recipe that didn't contain tons of butter, cream, and eggs!

Cinnamon Palmiers by Kay

2008-01-29T18:35:00.000-06:00

This Saturday, my friend, Anna, came over and Mom had Cinnamon Palmiers in the oven. Anna and I were doing our homework and then she spotted my new voice alarm. We started to scream in it and held down the play button. We laughed so hard, Anna fell when she was trying to get to the bathroom.

Then Mom said that the palmiers were ready. She made about 15 of them and there were none left when I wanted one 2 hours later. Anna had about 3 because she liked them so much. I knew what regular palmiers tasted like so I knew I would like them. I think next time we make them, we should roll chocolate chips in them and then put cinnamon on top of them.

Cinnamon Palmiers Recipe by Kay

1 package of puff pastry, thawed
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees. Open puff pastry and roll lightly with rolling pin to seal the seams. Spread the cinnamon sugar mixture over the pastry. Lightly roll with the rolling pin to seal it into the dough.

Fold 1 long side to the middle. Fold the other long side to meet in the middle with the other side. Now fold in half again so the 2 folds are on top of each other.

Slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Place on pan with cut side up. Bake 6 minutes. Flip the cookies and bake 4 more minutes.

Mom(Dana)- This recipe is for a full package of puff pastry. I only made half a recipe this weekend. These are really good. Bill said they needed more sugar but then he ate most of them!

Cuban Bruschetta

2008-01-14T16:13:00.000-06:00

This weekend I went through several cookbooks and my big pile of recipes printed from blogs and spent hours and hours cooking. Unfortunately for Kayleigh, I didn't let her help with any of it. She has a really bad cold and should consider herself lucky she is even allowed in the house! I did let her eat the food, though. I've noticed when she has a cold she seems to like new foods more so maybe I shouldn't be complaining that she is sick again!

I adapted this recipe from The Perfect Pantry for lunch yesterday. It had such strange ingredients and Bill and I agreed that the first bite was really weird. After 2 or 3 more tastes, though, it got better and better. It was a little involved for lunch but not so bad since it was the weekend.

Cuban Bruschetta

Multi grain baguette, sliced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 small zucchini, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 dill pickle, diced

sliced cheese (we used emmentaler because that is what was on hand)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the baguette and toast for 5 -10 minutes.

Combine half the chopped onion, mayo, cilantro, and chipotle in a small bowl.

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a skillet. Cook the onion and garlic until softened. Add the zucchini and carrot and continue sauteing for 10 minutes or until the carrot is soft. Remove from heat and stir in the dill pickle.

Top each piece of toast first with the mayo mixture, then the vegetables, and then a slice of cheese. Bake for 5 minutes.

Kay - These were OK. I don't usually like carrots but they were so-so in this. Zucchini I usually like so that was OK. The cilantro was a little strong. (Mom's note: I don't think it was the cilantro she was noticing. I bet it was the chipotle.)

Mom (Dana) - The key is to dice the carrot, zucchini and pickle all pretty small so that you can fit it onto the bread. The cheese is really just there to hold it all together so the slices don't have to be very thick. For Kay's I cut the cheese thicker and then put a thinner layer of the mayo mixture and vegetables. I figured she would be more likely to eat it if she couldn't see what was under the cheese!

White Beans and Red Chard

2008-01-10T15:24:00.000-06:00

For Christmas this year I got Heidi Swanson's fantastic book "Super Natural Cooking". Since Kay and I both had 2 weeks vacation, I had a lot of opportunity to cook from this book and I took advantage of it. I read it straight through in one sitting. Not only are the recipes delicious but it also has very interesting information about various flours, sweeteners and fats. I highly recommend it!

We've decided to post this recipe because we found it the most surprising. Who knew that Kay and I both love chard?!! We'd never had it before but we are now big fans. To begin with, I didn't even care how it tasted because it was so beautiful with those dark green leaves and red stalk but then we tasted it, raw and cooked, and it tasted good too so that was a bonus!

As I keep saying, Kay doesn't really like cooked greens so I saved a handful of the chard for her to eat raw but I also gave her a small portion of the cooked meal. She ate it all without any complaining so that is success in my book!

Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens

1/2 pound large dried white beans

3 tablespoons olive oil

Fine grain sea salt

1 1/2 cup onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

5 large red chard leaves with 2 stems reserved

Black pepper

Place the beans in a bowl and cover with water. Leave overnight.

Drain the beans. In a large pot, cover the beans and 1/2 cup chopped onion with plenty of water. Leave to simmer on the stove top for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours (until cooked but not so mushy that they are breaking in the water). After about 1 hour add a pinch of salt and pepper. (I cooked the whole bag of beans but only used 2 cups for the recipe. I froze the remaining beans in 2 cup batches).

Chop the chard by removing the stem and then rolling the leaf lengthwise. Then slice into thin ribbons. Chop two of the stems in a small dice.

Using your largest non stick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the beans in one layer, stir to coat in the oil and then let cook without stirring for 3-4 minutes (until they start to brown slightly). Turn the beans and let cook an additional 3-4 minutes to brown the other side.

Add the remaining onion, garlic, and chard stem and cook 2 minutes. Add salt to taste. Stir in the chard leaves and cook until slightly wilted, about 3-4 minutes.

Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan if desired.

Kay: Red chard tastes like spinach and lettuce put together and I like both of them. This tasted good cooked too. I didn't like the beans too much though.

Mom (Dana): This was so much better than I ever expected! I ate two huge helping of it. My chard leaves must have been much larger than Heidi's because she calls for 6-7 leaves but I used only 5 and mine had a much higher chard to bean ratio than what her picture showed. Also, we forgot to put the cheese on at the end but I don't think it needed it.

Jelly Donut Cupcakes

2007-12-31T17:28:00.000-06:00

How embarrassing! December seems to have flown past us somehow. Kayleigh and I managed to get dreadful colds once again this year. Bill thought he was going to miss out but with a little help from my niece at Christmas, he got to enjoy all the sneezing, fever, sore throat fun, too!

We decided that we had to post one more thing before the year ends so we have picked another recipe out of Veganomicon. I've made about 10 recipes from this book now and there was only one we didn't like and several that we loved!

Hope everyone has fun tonight! Kay and I will be partying alone since Bill is working. We have plenty of desserts to get us through the night (or at least until midnight!) so we're happy. Bill, not so much!

Jelly Donut Cupcake

1 cup milk (we used soy)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/3 cup canola oil (we used vegetable)

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

about 1/3 cup jam, jelly or preserves

powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the milk, vinegar and corn starch into a measuring cup and set aside (to get curdled-looking). Line a muffin pan with liners.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg. Create a well in the center to pour your wet ingredients into.

Stir the milk mixture with a fork to dissolve the corn starch and then pour it into the flour mixture. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Place a heaping teaspoonful of jam on the center of each cupcake. It will sink in during the baking.

Bake 21 - 24 minutes until the tops are firm.

Let cool completely on wire racks. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Try not to eat all of them in one sitting!

Here is Kay stealing the cupcake that I was trying so hard to photograph!

Kay: These are really good. I think they taste much better than jelly donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

Mom (Dana): In the book, she says to use the cheapest, most generic jelly you have. We had little bits of several jellies and jams left in the refrigerator so we used the last of those.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Giant Latkes

2007-12-04T20:06:00.000-06:00

I actually saw this recipe on Everyday Italian yesterday and even though she called it a Parmesan Potato Pancake for Christmas brunch, it looked like a great big latke to me so that is what I made for the first night of Hanukkah. I apparently was completely distracted when taking the picture though, and it didn't occur to me to move the pizza cutter!

This was really good though and much less labor than typical latkes. It won't replace our usual recipe but it is a nice change.

To partially make up for the bad latke picture, here are some other ones, although the quality isn't much better!

Here is Kay with a gift from her grandparents. We were surprised by a pile of gifts from them in our family room when we got home today. This is clothes for Kay's webkins polar bear.

Here are me and Kay playing dreidel after dinner. Kay won in a matter of minutes!
Happy Hanukkah everyone!!

Giant Latke

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 pounds potatoes

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Warm the oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until tender, another 2 minutes. Add the salt and pepper. Transfer the onion and garlic to a large bowl.

Peel the potatoes. Grate them using a food processor. Using a kitchen towel or cheese cloth, wring out the potatoes, removing as much of the liquid as possible. Add the potatoes to the bowl. Add the Parmesan and basil. Stir to combine (I used my hands.)

Warm the oil remaining in the pan from the onions over high heat. When the pan is hot, add the potato mixture. Using a spatula, press the mixture firmly into the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes.

Place a large plate over the pan and flip the latke out of the pan. Heat the remaining oil over high heat again. Slide the latke back into the pan and cook the other side for 15 additional minutes over medium heat.

Slide the latke back onto the large plate. Cut as you would a pizza. Serve topped with sour cream, applesauce, or both.

Serves 4.

Kay: This was good. It tastes like our other latkes but I still like the smaller ones better. I like Hanukkah not just because of the gifts but because we play dreidel and spend time with our family. I liked the gifts from my grandma and grandpa and from my parents too though!

Mom (Dana): Do not even attempt to make any kind of latke without a food processor. Seriously!! Although they are good, they are not worth the complete back-breaking effort that would be required to grate those potatoes by hand.

Biscuit Topped Vegetable Stew

2007-11-25T17:51:00.001-06:00

Lucky for me, my mom sometimes buys really good cookbooks but then decides she doesn't want them and so they get passed on to me. The latest one is Veganomicon which is not only full of great recipes but is also really fun to read.

We went shopping for a couple hours this afternoon and it was sleeting by the time we came home. Perfect weather for something that warms up the kitchen and tastes really comforting and old fashioned. I made some slight changes to a recipe called "Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits".

This meal got a thumb's up from all three of us - something that almost never happens!

Biscuit Topped Vegetable Stew

2 potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch cubes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 leeks, thinly sliced

1 small onion, diced

1 1/2 cups carrots, cut in 1/2 inch cubes

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1 cup green beans, cut in thirds (I used haricots verts - the skinny French green beans)

15 oz can of great northern beans, drained and rinsed

3 cups vegetable broth

3 tablespoons corn starch

Salt and Pepper to taste

Biscuits:

3/4 cup soy milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup shortening

Place the potatoes in a small sauce pan and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In the measuring cup, stir together the broth and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a separate measuring cup, combine the milk and vinegar and set aside (it will look curdled).

In a large iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, leeks, and carrots, and cook 10 minutes, until softened and beginning to brown. Add the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook an additional 2 minutes. Add the potatoes. Raise the heat slightly and stir in the broth and cornstarch mixture. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer 7 minutes.

While the stew is simmering, prepare the biscuits. Combine the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. Blend the shortening into the dry ingredients so that it looks like crumbs. Stir in the milk/vinegar mixture. Knead lightly a couple times, adding flour if the dough is too sticky.

Once the stew has cooked for 7 minutes, add the white beans. Turn off the heat. Place globs of the biscuit dough on top of the stew about an inch apart. Place the skillet in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are beginning to brown.

Kay: If I was rating this dinner from 1 to 10, I'd give it a 9. I really liked the biscuits. I don't usually like carrots but they tasted good in this. I didn't care for the onions.

Mom (Dana): This recipe looked a little overwhelming at first but I actually enjoyed making it. I prepped everything first which definitely helped. This tastes like something my grandma would have made. Of course hers would have probably had a lot more fat as well as chicken!

Thanksgiving by Kay

2007-11-23T15:43:00.000-06:00

On Thanksgiving, I spent the afternoon at my Grandma Mary's house. We had a big feast for lunch/dinner. At the beginning, we were just waiting for people to come. We played games and I played with my youngest cousin, Courtney. She is one year old. I'm sorry about the bad picture. This isn't from yesterday, it is from November 4th.

I ate ham, turkey, scalloped potatoes that I hated, broccoli, and best of all, amazing pudding! My Aunt Mary Jean brings it every year and Larry, my uncle, and I eat it all up! Yesterday, I asked her if I could put the recipe on the blog. Here's the famous pudding.

Aunt MJ's Amazing Pudding

-Jello vanilla pudding

-milk

-vanilla wafer cookies

-cool whip

In a big bowl, place a layer of cookies.

Make pudding according to directions.

Pour a portion of pudding over cookies.

Make several layers of cookies and pudding.

Top with cool whip.

Crumble a couple of cookies on top.

She didn't put this but I think she put it in the refrigerator until the cookies get mushy.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T08:28:00.001-06:00

No recipe from us today (I hate Thanksgiving food). Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and to let you know that we have our first snow flurries!

Corn Bread and Beans

2007-11-19T18:30:00.001-06:00

Corn bread and beans was one of the recipes my mom taught me when I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment at college and was going to have to cook for myself. I used to cut the recipe in half but it still made so much that I would eat it every day for lunch and dinner for almost a week. So, obviously, I like this meal!

When we were dating, Bill used to eat dinner at my parent's house almost every night, even when I was at work. The one thing he didn't like was corn bread and beans. He would walk in the door and we'd say, "you aren't going to want to stay today" and he would say "not beans!!". When we moved into our apartment and had to do that first huge grocery shopping trip, he watched me pick up applesauce, then corn meal, but when I got to the navy beans he said, "Please tell me you aren't going to continue the tradition of corn bread and beans." But I loved them, so I made them. About 6 months later he actually requested them and had to admit that the taste had grown on him and he was actually craving them. I never stopped harassing him over that!!

Even if you don't want to venture into the world of corn bread and beans, you'll love this corn bread. I taught Kay to make this when she was, believe it or not, 4 years old. She's been making it ever since.

To prove that she makes it completely by herself, I took a bazillion pictures while she slaved away in the kitchen! Here she is, step by step.

Measuring the flour:
Stirring all the dry ingredients together:
Whisking the wet ingredients:
Pouring the wet ingredients into the dry:
Pouring the batter into the pan:

This is a picture of the bean soup part of the meal. They don't look very interesting! Finally, here is Kay who snuck off to the family room to lick the bowl from the corn bread?! I'm all over cookie dough, cake batter, etc. but corn bread batter - not so much!
Corn Bread

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine. Pour into a greased 9X9 pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Bean Soup

1 pound dry navy beans
8 cups water
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf

(Most recipes will tell you to soak the beans over night but I never bother.)

Combine the water, beans, celery, onion and bay leaf in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. After about 1 hour, add the salt and pepper. Continue cooking 2-3 hours, stirring periodically. For the final 30 minutes or so, remove the lid. Add more water if needed.

Kay: I didn't think I ever liked the beans but tonight they tasted good. It might be because I am a little sick with a cold. My dad really likes me making the corn bread because he says mine is the best.

Mom (Dana): I almost fell over tonight when Kay said "these beans taste good"! She eats her corn bread and beans separately. Bill puts his beans on the corn bread. I do it the correct way (obviously!!) which is to put the beans on the corn bread and then top that with applesauce. Don't say EWW - it's good! My mom does that also but then mushes it all together. My dad puts raw onions on his.

Pinto Gallo

2007-11-14T18:04:00.001-06:00

I love this recipe! It is really fast if you have leftover rice already made up and it tastes fantastic. I adapted this from a McDougall recipe. It was one of those recipes that sounded bland and boring but I had all the ingredients so I gave it a try. I immediately got on the Internet and e-mailed this to several people after making it the first time, it was that good!

It seems like every time I make it, I add one more ingredient to it so that it now barely resembles the original.

For the cilantro and ginger, I use the herbs in squeeze tubes that look like this:

I love these things. I have almost every type offered!

Pinto Gallo

Make rice. (For our rice steamer I used 1 cup Jasmine rice and 1 1/2 cups water).

Put 1/4 cup vegetable broth in a large skillet. Add one small onion and one red bell pepper, both chopped. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently until the broth is mostly absorbed. Add 1/4 cup more broth and 2 cloves of garlic, chopped. Cook again until the broth is absorbed.

Add 1 tsp cumin, 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro (or 1 tsp dried), and 1/2 tablespoon fresh grated ginger (or 1/2 tsp ground). Cook for 2 minutes. Add about 3/4 cup of corn (can or frozen) and one can of pinto beans, drained. Cook until heated through.

Add 3 cups of cooked rice to the mixture. Pepper to taste. Mix well.

Serve with salsa and chips.

Kay: I don't like my foods mixed together like this. This is ok but I'd rather have corn, rice, and beans separate. I like that we eat it on chips though!

Mom (Dana): This warms up really well. The recipe is very versatile and you could add just about any beans and vegetables that you like. Lime salsa is especially good with it.

Macaroni and Cheese

2007-11-09T17:36:00.000-06:00

For some reason, I thought life would settle down when soccer season ended. Wrong! I've had just as many projects at work as I have at home and it has left me very little spare time. We have been cooking and eating plenty, though, so I have several weeks worth of recipes that I can post!

I probably have about 10 mac and cheese recipes. We used to eat it at least once a month if not more. Then last winter, Bill started having problems with dairy so we've had to cool it on our cheese-heavy favorites. Then we found this recipe in Kay's cookbook (that she talks about here) and we were saved. We all really like this version because it is so creamy.

The recipe takes 2 cups of cheese. You can use all regular cheese if you like. I split it half and half with either the vegan recipe I've included at the bottom or a batch of Chreese if I have it on hand.

One more story about mac and cheese. In September Kay came home from school and said, "Did you know that you can buy macaroni and cheese in a box at the grocery store?!" I had to laugh at her amazement because that is, of course, the only way most people ever eat it. I certainly never had from scratch mac and cheese until I was an adult. How funny that Kay is the opposite and never had it from a box!

Macaroni and Cheese

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk (or soy milk)

2 cups cheese (we used 1 cup cheddar and 1 cup "cheeze sauce"

8 oz elbow macaroni

1/2 cup crushed crackers or bread crumbs (we used multi grain ritz)

Cook the macaroni according to the box directions for the shortest time listed.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the margarine over low heat. Add the flour, stir to mix, and cook 1 minute. Slowly stir in the milk, adding about 1/2 cup and a time. Continue to stir the sauce until it is thick and bubbly (this is a bechamel sauce, by the way).

Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the cheese until melted and combined. Add the cooked macaroni. Pour into an oiled 9 X 13 pan. Top with the crackers or bread crumbs.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Cheeze Sauce

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1/2 cup cornstarch

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

Mix these ingredients together in a small sauce pan. Whisk in:

2 cups water

1/2 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon yellow mustard (actual prepared mustard, not the powder)

Cook this over low heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens.

Kay: Every time we've had this it's been really good. It doesn't taste like fake cheese at all. It tastes like regular cheese. I like to eat the Chreese by itself with chips, too. It is not good in omelets though so don't try it!

Mom (Dana): The first time I made this, I didn't tell Bill that it had vegan cheese in it and he ate it up without a complaint! Kay actually requests this specific recipe now.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

2007-10-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up, there was always a health-consciousness in our family. That doesn't mean we always ate healthy (hot dogs were my favorite food!) but the idea of eating healthy was always there. We would go to health food stores, we took vitamins, and my dad exercised a lot. When I was 20, I came home from college and announced that I was becoming a vegetarian. My dad had just found out he had high cholesterol so he thought it was a great idea.

Since then, I've researched all different kinds of diets and have tried out several different healthier options. Right now I'm on a whole grain kick. I figure if I can take the white flour out of our desserts, then we can still have them without me feeling so guilty, right?

Last night, Kay and I made these cookies out of the King Arthur Flour cookbook and we were thrilled with the results. Most of the recipes I've come across substitute part of the white flour with whole wheat but this used all whole wheat. We are big "lick the bowl" kind of people when it comes to desserts and I knew when this dough passed the raw taste test that the cookies were going to be a success!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 oz margarine

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp espresso powder (you can omit if you don't have any)

1/8 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 oz light corn syrup

1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 egg

4 1/2 oz whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

In a saucepan, melt the margarine. Stir in the brown sugar. Heat until it is starting to bubble. Remove from heat and transfer it to a large bowl and allow to cool about 5 minutes.

Stir in the vanilla, baking soda, espresso powder, baking powder, corn syrup, and vinegar. Add the egg and beat well. Stir in the flour and then the chips. Cover the bowl and refrigerate 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

3 dozen cookies.

Kay: These tasted just like regular chocolate chip cookies. I told my mom, "I hope some of these are left on Wednesday so I can take them when I go ice skating with my school." We had to tell my dad not to eat all of them!

Mom (Dana): I loved these. I didn't expect them to be so good but I actually think these might be my favorite chocolate chip cookies.

Bunches of recipes

2007-10-14T12:04:00.000-05:00

Last week I realized that my poor bloglines was overflowing with recipes that I had saved but never made. We went through and picked several to make during the week. I had planned to only post the ones that were good but it turned out they were all good so here is a recap of all of them. I'm going to post links to the original posts instead of retyping all the recipes since we made very few changes.

First was Monkey Bread from Dine and Dish. I picked this to make first to really get Kay in the mood of new recipes and it worked! Who could resist a pile of cinnamon rolls!

As you can see, we had a few issues with ours. It did not come out of the pan very well and the very center was still a little raw. We ate it anyway! It was really good. I think we might try spreading them out on a cookie sheet next time instead of using the bundt pan.

Kay: The outside of this was kind of hard and the middle wasn't cooked but the parts that were cooked right tasted really good. I want to make this again but I want to cook them separately on a cookie sheet.

Next we made this cucumber salad from Absolutely Green. The blog is in French but if you scroll to the end of the post, the recipe is translated into English.

I took this to my parent's house for a get together. We all went to the pumpkin patch but our buffet looked more like it was meant for 4th of July. It was 90 degrees that day! Kay didn't try this (there was a ton of food) but I heard good things from other people about it. I liked it but I expected the coconut milk flavor to come through a little more.

Then I made a broccoli and chickpea pasta dish from Words to Eat By. The date of this blog post will give you an idea of why my bloglines is so full! I didn't take a picture of this because it looked very similar to several other broccoli and pasta dishes that I've already posted. It didn't taste the same though. After two bites, Kay looked at me and said "this is really good!". We all really liked this and it was a nice change from all our other broccoli recipes.

Kay: This was my favorite recipe of the week. I don't like chickpeas much but the broccoli tasted really good.

The next day, we had a meal made up of several side dishes, two of which were new. First was gingered carrots which was from two different blogs, Vanessa Cuisine (which is in French) and La Tartine Gourmande (in English). They were slightly different and so I took ideas from both of them.

Kay isn't a big fan of carrots but she did eat some of them. We eat roasted carrots often with just salt, pepper, and olive oil. This was a nice change.

Kay: I don't like carrots!

That same night, we had Indian spiced cauliflower and potatoes from Smitten Kitchen.

I really liked this and it was a great excuse for using the new pan my mom bought me! One warning though. This does not smell so great when warmed up and I got several complaints at work the next day. Oops!

Kay: The cauliflower and the potatoes were ok but I don't think I like the spices that are on these.

Now for my favorite out of all the recipes this week. Carrot Spice Muffins from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen.

I have some kind of crazy metabolism that keeps me hungry and eating pretty much all day long. I thought this would be a nice healthy snack that I could eat at work between breakfast and lunch. These were way better than I ever dreamed! Days later they were still really moist. Plus they are so healthy I didn't even feel guilty drizzling some glaze on them! I didn't have agave nectar and so I substituted honey instead.

Kay: I liked the glaze but I don't like carrots, even in muffins.

And now for the final recipe of the week, apple and chocolate tart from La Popotte de Manue. I'm always a little nervous when I have to translate recipes from French just because the ingredients may not translate so well. This one worked fine though so I guess I got it pretty close!

Here is my translation of this recipe.

Combine one egg and 2 tablespoons of milk (I used vanilla almond milk) in a stand mixer at high speed until well combined and light. Reduce the spead to low and add 250 grams of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix well. Add 50 grams of melted butter and mix on high until it forms a ball (mine never did so I formed it into a ball with my hands once it was well mixed). Cover the bowl and let sit 30 minutes.

Line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper. Spread the pastry dough on the bottom of the pan (I pressed it down with damp hands). Chop 100 grams of chocolate (we used chocolate chips). Spread half the chocolate over the pastry. Quarter and core 3 apples and then slice them. Arrange the slices standing up around the edges of the pan and then circling in until the entire top of the pastry is covered. Mix the remaining chocolate with 2 tablespoons of sugar and sprinkle over the top of the apples.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Manue suggests topping it with apricot presserves but we didn't.

It was really nice to have apples with something other than cinnamon and nutmeg. Plus, in my opinion, chocolate make everything taste better!

Kay: I don't know what is up with the apples I always eat lately but they always taste too sour when they are cooked. I liked this more than the apple crisp my mom makes though because it had chocolate on it.

All of these recipes have now been printed and added to my permanent recipe file and so now my bloglines is at least a little lighter!

Apple Crisp Without the Apple

2007-10-05T20:49:00.001-05:00

During the Fall, I fix apple crisp several times a week. Bill and I love it, as do my parents so if you see apples in the house, you can be pretty sure an apple crisp will materialize within 24 hours!

It seems unfair, though, to fix a dessert over and over that Kay doesn't like. She really likes the topping but we won't let her eat that and leave the apples so she usually chooses to go without. So I decided to try to make a granola bar that tasted like the topping to the apple crisp.

These were enjoyed by everyone and came pretty close to the flavor I was looking for.

Granola bars

2 2/3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup dry milk

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Heat the oil, honey, syrup and vanilla in a pan (or in the microwave) until heated through. Add to the dry ingredients. Press the mixture into a parchment paper lined 9 x 13 pan (it didn't reach all the way to the edges). It should be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow it to cool completely and then cut into rectangles.

This gave me about 25 bars. The edges were too tough and so I cut those off (and then proceeded to eat them anyway!).

Kay: These were good. They had a lot of cinnamon which I like. It was a little chewy though so they made my tooth hurt a little but I still liked them.

Mom (Dana): We like granola bars in general and these were easy enough to make that I'm going to try to do this instead of buying so many of the boxed ones. I'm sure these are also more healthy than most at the store!

Spinach and Corn Quesadilla

2007-10-04T19:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the bad picture but I was a little too hungry to mess around with the camera! Tonight was a soccer practice which is always crazy. Now that it gets darker sooner, Kay has to leave for practice at 4:30 so we have a very small window for dinner. In my rushing around today I burnt our dinner. Great! I ended up throwing together French toast which we shoved down our throats before running out the door.

During practice I was looking through a cookbook that my friend loaned me. I wasn't very happy with the book overall but one of the recipes gave me the idea for these quesadillas. They were a perfect healthy snack for after practice.

Spinach and Corn Quesadilla

1/4 cup sliced onion

1 tsp olive oil

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup corn

6 oz baby spinach, sliced

1/2 cup cheese (any kind)

flour tortillas

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, corn, and half the can of pinto beans. Cook for about 3 minutes until heated through. Add the spinach and cook an additional 3 minutes until slightly wilted.

Mash the remaining pinto beans.

Heat another skillet over medium heat. Place one tortilla in the skillet. Spread some of the mashed pinto beans on the tortilla. Top with some of the vegetable mixture and then enough cheese to hold it together. Place another tortilla on top.

Cook until the cheese begins to melt and the bottom tortilla is lightly browned. Flip it and continue cooking on the other side until heated through. Cut into wedges with a pizza cutter and then top with salsa.

Depending on how full you make them, this will make 2-3 quesadillas.

Kay: These tasted ok but they have onions in them which I don't like. Next time I want mine made without the onions.

Mom (Dana): The amounts in this recipe are based on the leftover corn and spinach that I had in the fridge. For dinner, it should be doubled. As far as the cheese goes, monterey jack is probably the best choice. We had a little wedge of Havarti, though, and that worked fine.

I tried to make the onions nice and sweet so Kay wouldn't notice. It didn't work! Next time I'll probably do the onions in a separate pan so she can have hers without. Spoiled!

Apple Crisp

2007-09-24T14:23:00.001-05:00

I'm hating our weather right now. Seriously, who wants 90 degrees and humid in September? We had a couple nice days just to tease us and then right back into this dreadful stuff again. If I wanted this, I'd move to Arizona or Texas or one of those other crazy hot places!

When we have normal fall weather, it is my favorite times of year and I have 4000 apple dessert recipes to prove it. This is our favorite though. I think it was originally from Vegetarian Times magazine but I've been making it for over 10 years so I'm not sure how much it resembles the original recipe. We've already had it twice thanks to a big bag of apples my parents brought us from our local apple orchard (the formerly charming and quaint local place that is now an overpriced commercial place).

Kay never likes this as much as we do but, to her credit, she tries it again every year just to make sure!

Apple Crisp

4 large apples cut in chunks

1 cup nuts, chopped (any combination)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

4 tablespoons chilled margarine cut in pieces

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Put the apples in a 9 inch round baking dish. Dust with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

In a food processor chop the nuts. Add the flour and sugar and process until combined. Add the margarine and pulse 8 to 10 times.

Sprinkle the topping over the apples and bake 30 minutes more. Serve warm.

Kay: I like the taste of the topping but I think the apples are too soft.

Dana (Mom): I use all different kinds of nuts in this but it is always at least half walnuts. Usually the other half is pecans but this year I've been using almonds and we are really liking it. I've used all walnuts before as well and that works fine.

The smell in your house is heavenly! It is almost worth making just for that!

Broccoli and Potato Bake

2007-09-20T18:41:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned that Kay likes broccoli?!! You may have noticed that we eat it often.

This is one of those great recipes to have for nights when you don't have any fresh food in the fridge and you don't feel like thinking too much. It is similar to the casseroles from when I was growing up but it is healthier because it does not use condensed soup with all that salt.

You can also assemble it ahead of time and then bake it at the last minute. I really need to find more recipes like this!!

Broccoli and Potato Bake

10 oz frozen broccoli, thawed
10 oz frozen hash browns, thawed
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
3 oz cream cheese, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup other shredded cheese (such as cheddar, Swiss, etc)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste

Thaw the broccoli and the hash browns (either in the fridge over night, in the microwave, or by running under hot water in a colander).

In a medium sauce pan, melt the margarine. Add the flour and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes. With the heat on low, slowly add the milk, half cup at a time, stirring constantly. When all the milk is incorporated, add the cheeses and stir until melted. Remove from heat and stir in the hash browns.

Pour this mixture into a casserole dish. Cover evenly with the broccoli.

Melt the margarine in the microwave and add the breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the broccoli. Add salt and pepper if you like.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the bread crumbs are starting to brown and the sauce is bubbly.

Serves 5-6.

Kay: I like this very much. I eat all of it and don't complain at all. I like that it doesn't have onions in it. Sometimes I add extra breadcrumbs to mine.

Mom (Dana): We prefer the diced hash browns (here they are called "southern") but the shredded work as well. I've used fresh broccoli before and it has worked fine. I've never used fresh hash browns but I'm sure that would work as well.

We use different cheese every time. This time we had cheddar and havarti on hand so we used a combination of the two.

The most unbelievable chocolate dessert ever!!

2007-09-16T20:08:00.000-05:00

Seriously, this dessert is amazing! I love chocolate. It is definitely my favorite food. I could have passed out on on the spot, this tasted so good!

We were watching "Nigella Feasts" tonight during dinner and I have never seen her make anything that I would want to recreate. Then this dessert came on and I thought, "well, it is chocolate and I have all those ingredients". This is so chocolaty and rich and gooey and amazing!!

I've mentioned before that Bill doesn't really like chocolate very much. As soon as I tasted this (and regained the ability to speak) I turned to Kay and said, "Daddy will not like this." Much to our shock, he came out and asked if he could have the extra one (it made 4 and there are only 3 of us). We were shocked. I wasn't even able to finish it! Here is my bowl. I was very sad to leave any but it was just too overwhelming!

It is kind of like a brownie stuffed with pudding type thing. Try to eat it when it is straight out of the oven. It might burn your mouth but it is worth it!

Yum yum yum!

Butter 4 ramekins and place them on a cookie sheet. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a double boiler, melt 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) and 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Allow the mixture to cool about 5 minutes.

In bowl, whisk two eggs. Add 3/4 cup sugar and then 3 tablespoons flour. Fold the chocolate mixture into this.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins and bake 20 minutes.

Kay: These were fun and easy to make. They were really hot though. Usually my dad thinks things are too chocolaty but this time I did!

Mom (Dana): I know you have all these ingredients on hand. Go make them now!! (I promise we aren't eating only desserts right now. The "real" food just hasn't been able to compete with the desserts!)

Meringue

2007-09-13T18:32:00.000-05:00

Before being baked.

This is not the recipe we had planned to post. Yesterday for dinner, Kay and I made a Rachael Ray recipe. I know, I know. I've never made any of her recipes and had them turn out good. But this one had broccoli (and you know how often we eat that!), noodles, and emmentaler cheese (one of Kay's favorites) so I figured it couldn't be too bad. Well it was. We were able to eat it but it was completely bland and used just about every pot and pan I own. Hopefully now I've learned my lesson! Here are some funny pictures of Kay eating it that I didn't want to waste.

So to make up for our dinner, we decided to make meringues (we also made and ate vanilla crepes with nutella and caramel apples but that is really beside the point!). I've been promising Kay we would make these for months now but it has always been too humid or we didn't have time. Finally we had the chance. They turned out perfect and were even cooled in time to have one before bed. They were a great ending to our nine million dessert courses for the night.

We combined several recipes in order to get to this one. Next time we might try reducing the sugar a little bit.

A half eaten meringue.

Meringues

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

In an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites for about 4 minutes until you start to get soft peaks. With the mixer on medium-high, slowly spoon in the sugar and the cornstarch. Then add the vinegar and vanilla. Increase the mixer to high and whip about 3 more minutes until it is glossy.

On a parchment lined cookie sheet, drop meringue by large spoonfuls. Smooth out any peaks so that they won't burn.

Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until the outside is dry and they are starting to turn a very light golden color. Turn off the oven and leave them in there for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the oven and allow them to complete cool before storing them.

They should have a nice crunchy outside that crumbles when you bite into it and a soft, marshmallowy inside.

Makes 6-8 depending on the size.

Kay today after soccer.

Kay: These taste really good but eat them all together. Don't break the top off and eat that first because the inside doesn't taste as good without the outside. It was very cool watching the eggs whip up. I've never seen our mixer on that high of a speed before.

Mom (Dana): I don't really have any comments. I'm still a little comatose from all those desserts last night!!

Tacos

2007-09-02T17:03:00.000-05:00

We love tacos and eat them at least once a month. Of course, because everything we do has to be difficult, I have to make three different kinds of tacos. Kay eats chicken, Bill eats beef, and I eat the vegetarian crumbles. We also like various different toppings so the kitchen is piled high by the time we are done with dinner!

We used to buy individual packets of taco seasoning. The problem we ran into was that Bill and I both liked a little more seasoning than what you get in a packet and Kay likes less so we always had partial packets floating around. We had found a large container of taco mix but it was too salty for us so we threw it away but kept the container and I made our own.

This recipe can be adjusted to add more or less of any of your favorite flavors.

Taco Seasoning

1 cup dried minced onion

1/3 cup chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon cilantro

4 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons onion powder

Mix them all together and use about 1/4 cup per pound of "meat". Add water as needed to get desired sauciness.

Kay: I like chicken tacos very much. I put just cheese on mine.

Mom (Dana): I make myself summer tacos and winter tacos. My summer tacos get fresh tomatoes and avocado which, obviously aren't available in the winter. I was so disappointed last time we went shopping that the avocados in the store were complete mush so I had to eat a boring winter taco in August!

Bubble ring

2007-08-22T17:47:00.000-05:00

First of all, today was Kay's first day at a new school. It went very well and she had no problem opening her locker (which was causing the most stress!). Here she is in her very cute "first day of school" outfit. This year she won't get home from school until after 4 PM. Unfortunately, we have to leave for her soccer practice around 5 PM which means we are eating dinner at the ridiculously early time of 4:15. This also means that Kay will not be around to help me fix dinner. All this time I have spent grooming her to take over in the kitchen and she ditches me!!

So, I took advantage of her last day of summer break and let her pick something to make for dinner. We looked through her pile of cookbooks and decided on this. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I first thought it would be and we all really liked it.

This is in the pan after it was cooked.

This is it turned out of the pan.

And this is one of the pieces with sauce.

Pizza Bubble Ring

8 tablespoons of butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes *
2 pounds pizza dough **
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
2 tablespoons Parmesan
1 1/2 cups pizza sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a bundt (or tube) pan with cooking spray.

Melt the butter. Add the garlic, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.

Divide the pizza dough into 40 small balls. Flatten each ball and place some of the mozzarella into the center of it. Roll the dough up around the cheese.

Dip each ball into the butter/spice mixture and place into the prepared pan. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top and drizzle on any extra butter mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate.

Warm the pizza sauce. Pull off pieces of the bubble ring and dip into the sauce.

Serves 8 ***

* - Kay and I thought this was a little too spicy. Bill thought it was perfect but, as usual, he loses and we will cut back on this next time!

** - I doubled this recipe: http://besidespizza.blogspot.com/2007/04/cheese-pizza.html

*** - Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!! The three of us finished this whole thing without a problem!

Kay: It was good but next time we should do 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon red pepper because it was too spicy and needed a little salt I think. This was fun to make but it is really messy when you dip it in the butter sauce.

Mom (Dana): This was really, surprisingly very good. It is the kind of thing that feels like junk food but it is basically pizza in a different form. A side a vegetables probably wouldn't hurt though!

Walnut Cookies

2007-08-19T09:13:00.000-05:00

After a crazy Friday including Kay's school orientation, soccer practice and a slumber party, Saturday was perfectly non-eventful! We basically sat around watching TV and just relaxed. Our weather is also temporarily cool so it made it even more enjoyable. By the mid-afternoon, I was getting a little bored though, and when I get bored, I cook. It was too early to start dinner so I went looking for a dessert and found these cookies. Perfect!

Maple Walnut Cookies

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons maple extract

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup soy milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

3 dozen walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the oil, maple syrup, molasses, vanilla and maple extracts, and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir until well combined. Add the milk and cornstarch and mix until the cornstarch is dissolved.

Add the flour and baking soda. Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Drop by tablespoonful about 2 inches apart onto the baking sheet. Press a walnut half into the center of each cookie. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Kay: I like walnuts a lot but I didn't like the walnuts on top. There's enough walnuts inside the cookie. My dad just said that there should be more walnut on top, though!

Mom (Dana): These are really sticky, chewy kind of cookies - my favorite kind! I had a lot of trouble getting the cornstarch to dissolve and ended up using my hands. Other than that, these were pretty easy and didn't require me to drag out my Kitchen Aid.

Panzanella

2007-08-12T07:11:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to make this salad for over a year now and, finally, the perfect opportunity came up. Yesterday was my niece, Courtney's, first birthday party. It had been crazy hot and humid all week. Luckily, yesterday, while it was still very warm, the humidity wasn't quite so bad so you were able to handle sitting outside (in the shade) for a few hours. This salad worked perfectly because it was light but filling and all the vegetables are in season so they tasted fantastic.

Kay can't really comment on this since she was much too busy yesterday running around to actually eat. I did manage to shove a piece of cucumber in her mouth as she ran by though and she didn't complain. I think if I was making it for just the three of us at home, I'd put more bread and cucumbers and less of the peppers and tomatoes so that she could pick out the stuff she likes without ruining it for the rest of us.

This was really fast and easy and delicious and I suggest everyone make it right now! (I'm seriously regretting taking all of it to the party - I just might need to make some more today.)

Panzanella

3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups cubed Vienna, Italian, or French bread
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 roma tomatoes, cubed
1 English cucumber, cubed
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 red onion, sliced thinly
20 basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons capers, drained

for dressing:
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Add more oil as needed.

For the dressing, whisk together the ingredients.

In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers. Add the bread cubes while still warm and toss with the dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Wait at least half an hour before serving so that flavors can blend.

12 servings

I made only slight changes to Ina Garten's recipe.

Brownies

2007-07-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

My favorite! I love brownies. If I could pick only one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be brownies. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found a recipe that not only tastes fantastic but also isn't quite so bad for you since it doesn't have any eggs.

I had several people taste test this recipe (adapted from Vegetarian Times) and everyone really liked it and no one was able to tell what the replacement for eggs was. These are really moist, chewy brownies, not the cake-like ones. My husband thinks they are too chocolatey - obviously he is insane!

As a side note, it turns out to be really hard to take a decent picture of a brownie. This is the best I could do after about 30 blurry ones. Apparently brownies are very shy!

Brownies

6 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup margarine

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

10 oz prune baby food

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

Melt the chocolate and margarine in a double boiler (or in a bowl over boiling water). When completely melted, whisk in the sugar and prunes.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold them together until combined. Stir in the vanilla.

Line a 9X9 pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until they look set. Let cool in pan.

Once cool, cut into squares. For additional fanciness, dust the tops with cocoa powder or powdered sugar.

These freeze really well.

Kay: They are really good!

Mom (Dana): My dad hates prunes so I new these were a hit when he kept talking about how good they were!

Roasted Marshmallows

2007-07-23T10:38:00.001-05:00

Ha ha!! Ok this isn't really a recipe but it is something that Kay likes to cook and eat so technically it does fit into the scope of this blog!

Roasted Marshmallows

Large marshmallows (the more the better)

Long sticks

A bonfire

Put your marshmallow (one or two) on the end of a stick. Hold your stick in the fire. Toast to taste. Eat quickly and repeat.

Kay's aunt and grandma like their's black. Kay and her dad prefer them lightly brown.

Kay: I like mine lightly brown but on the top of the marshmallow, it turned black. Yesterday, my family came over and we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of marshmallows. That picture is of my dad.