Taco Salad

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!

Roasted Red Pepper and Leek Soup

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.

Texas Caviar

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

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.

Cheese fries with corn by Kay

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!

Tater Dipped Veggies

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.

Summer Squash Saute

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

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!

Quinoa and Zucchini

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!

Fennel and Spinach Soup

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.

Corny Biscuits au Gratin

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!

White Beans and Red Chard

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.

Bunches of recipes

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!

Panzanella

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.

Fried Tofu and Fried Okra

Two for one! Actually it is kind of three for one since there is also corn in the picture but that isn't really a recipe. Throw corn in a pan with a little oil and seasoning, in this case, Italian.

I know that okra and tofu aren't very popular ingredients but Kay has loved both of these since she was really little. (She really is a little strange I think!).

I'm not sure why I decided to cook these when I was already starting to get a headache! The recipes aren't hard but it does require you to stand over the stove the whole time and coordinate everything without burning it. I was actually successful this time even though the headache was taking a strong turn towards migraine by the time we sat down to eat! I think that is proof that these are pretty simple to prepare. The sight of all those pans to clean wasn't very pleasant though!

The tofu recipe is my own but the okra one is thanks to Alton Brown. We've tried several versions of fried okra but this is our favorite.

Fried Tofu

1/2 block of firm lite tofu

Equal amounts of all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, wheat germ, ground flax seeds, and breadcrumbs (about 1/8 cup of each)

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Drain the tofu and cut into bite size cubes. Mix the breading ingredients (whichever ones you prefer) in a Ziploc bag. Add the tofu cubes and gently coat them with the breading.

Heat a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a saute pan (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) over medium heat. Add the tofu. Allow it to cook about 5 minutes. You don't want to mess with it too much but you should check periodically to make sure it isn't burning. Turn the tofu to brown on the other side.

Remove the tofu from the pan to paper towels to drain slightly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Here is a link to Alton's actual recipe. I followed it pretty closely except I had to adjust the amounts since we didn't have a pound of okra.

Fried Okra

1/2 pound okra

1/4 cup corn meal

Vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Cut the okra into bite size pieces (more on the small side) and rinse them in cold water. Place the cornmeal in a Ziploc bag and add the okra. Mix to coat.

Add enough oil to cover the bottom of a skillet. Heat over medium. Add the okra in a single layer and cook about 7 minutes. Stir and then cook about 5 more minutes.

Remove the okra from the pan to paper towels to drain. Season with salt and pepper.

Kay: I like these very much. I think everyone should try okra and tofu because even if you think you don't like it, you might! A lot of people think this food is only for vegetarians but I like it even though I'm a meat eater.

Mom (Dana): These are side dishes but one of our standby meals is making several side dishes and calling it a meal! Kay hates it when people on TV say "tofu - eww!" She always says, "I bet they never even tried it"!!

Coconut Sweet Potatoes

What a surprise success I had tonight! I hadn't planned to post anything today. This is the night when I pull out any produce left in the refrigerator and try and figure out what in the world I can make with them. I came up with yet another broccoli and pasta dish (why exactly did I buy so much broccoli this week?). But the real surprise was the side dish.

I had one really large sweet potato which would have lasted but I felt like we needed something to go with our pasta to break up the boredom a little. My favorite way to have sweet potatoes is mashed with maple syrup and that is what I had planned to do. I'm the only one who really likes it so I wasn't overly concerned that there was only one potato. Then I spotted a partial container of coconut milk and I had a brainstorm!

Much to Kay's horror, I made her try a spoonful of the potatoes. Then, much to my surprise, she ate every speck of it off her plate and said that she liked it! I live for meals like this!

Please excuse the picture. It was very much an after-thought!

1 large sweet potato

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt and pepper

Peel the sweet potato and cut it into chunks. Place it in a pot with just enough water to cover it. Cover and boil until the potato is soft and most of the liquid is gone (about 30 minutes).

Drain any remaining liquid and mash the potato. Add the coconut milk (adjusting to the creaminess you desire) and the seasonings. Mix well and serve.

Kay: I didn't want to even try it because I hate sweet potatoes made other ways. But this was actually good. I thought it was sweet. I was surprise that there was coconut milk in it because I hate coconut.

Mom: I was pretty sure I would like this because I'll eat just about anything if it contains coconut milk. Kay does not share my love so I refused to tell her what was in it until after she tasted it. Of course I've tried to use this as an example of why she should try everything but I think maybe I was just lucky this time!

More new vegetables

Well since our first try at a new vegetable wasn't very successful, we decided to try 2 new recipes today. Both of these are directly from A Veggie Venture and I didn't really change anything so I will just link to the original recipes. I will show you pictures of our attempts though.

First, for lunch I made Chopped Salad with Sun-dried Tomato Dressing. It contained both jicama and mango which Kay had never tried. She liked both of them. The original recipe called for orange segments but I liked the suggestion of mango so we went for that instead. Kay made the dressing herself. She never passes up a chance to use the food processor! Here is what it looked like without the dressing on it.

Then with dinner, I made the Sugar Snap Peas with Lemon Butter. None of us had ever had sugar snap peas so this seemed like a good choice. Bill and I really liked them and they were really easy to make which was an added bonus. Kay claims she didn't like them but I noticed that she ate them without too much trouble. (Her friend was over at the time so I think she was putting on a bit of an act). Here is what they looked like with our fettuccine.

We were much much MUCH happier with these recipes than the celery!

Kay: I tried the salad and I really liked the jicama and the mango. I helped make the dressing but I don't like putting dressing on salads. My hamster tried the jicama and he really liked it. The sugar-snap peas did not have any flavor to me. I ate them anyway.

Mom (Dana): That salad was fantastic! Today was our first nice day in a while (it snowed last week during spring break) and these vegetables smelled like summer to me. Those sugar snap peas are a great side dish that I'm sure we will have again.

Cooked Celery

First off, I should say that I hate celery. It is one of the few vegetables that I really don't like. I've gotten to the point where I can handle raw celery if I pile enough dip on it but I will still take any other vegetable if it is available!

Over at A Veggie Venture, Alanna posted a challenge to try a new vegetable. I thought this sounded like fun and so I asked Kay about it and she was very receptive. I thought it was only fair that I let her pick the vegetable. I named off tons of vegetables but for some reason she got stuck on celery. I tried to persuade her towards something else but it was no use! I gave in since I didn't want to prejudice her against it just because I didn't like it. Also, we have tons of left over celery from her birthday party this weekend (aparently I'm not the only one who doesn't like it!)

So I pulled out several cookbooks and came up with a combination of recipes that sounded ok. I tried to keep a very open mind about it. Really!
Look how pretty it is. I reminded myself that green is my favorite color. Then I started to cook it and it got an even brighter green!!Then it came out of the oven looking really good. Everything tastes good with bread crumbs on it, right?

Um, yeah, no! Much to my surprise, cooked celery tastes like raw celery. I still didn't like it but I held my opinion until Kay tried it. And what did she think?

Yep - that is not her "yum this is great" face! I was tempted not to post the recipe but I will because someone might like it. I think we just aren't big fans of celery.

To be fair, Bill liked it (he doesn't share my aversion to celery). He thought the pieces that were smaller, and therefore more soft, tasted better.

1 1/2 pounds celery, cut into 3 in strips

2 T margarine

2 tsp olive oil

1 C vegetable broth

1/2 tsp pepper

5 oz cream cheese, cut in cubes

1/2 C bread crumbs mixed with pepper and Italian seasoning

Heat the oil and margarine in a large skillet over high heat. Add the celery and cook for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook for 10 additional minutes.

Remove from heat and add the cream cheese. Stir to combine. Pour into a buttered casserole dish and bake covered at 350 F for 10 minutes. Uncover and top with bread crumb mixture. Bake and additional 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler for about 2-3 minutes until nicely browned.

Kay: I picked celery because I wanted to see how it tasted. If you don't like celery, then put a lot of breadcrumbs. That tasted really good to me.

Mom (Dana): Really I do think that someone who likes celery might like this. It wasn't terrible and I was able to eat it. I just prefer my celery to be more disguised! Also, when Kay says the bread crumbs were good, she isn't kidding. She didn't finish her portion but she did eat all the bread crumbs off of it!