Caprese Grilled Cheese

WILL IT GRILLED CHEESE?

It will.

End of summer, still cleaning the last of the basil and the sugar-sweet tomatoes out of my garden (and my neighbor's [she said I could!  I swear!]).

Gardens are kind of sad in September.  Everything's a little dry, a little cold.  The growth has stopped.

I have been replacing harvested vegetables with flowers.  Zinnias, sunflowers, marigolds, and lately chrysanthemums.

Cheers me up.

It's not so bad.  Halloween comin', cooler weather.  Hoodies and cardigans and woolly caps.

Yeah, I guess that will be all right.

Caprese Grilled Cheese
These flavors are the kind you never get tired of.  Add some sourdough bread, you've got yourself a stew sandwich.

Makes 2 sandwiches

4 slices sourdough bread
1/4 cup butter (or so, for buttering bread)
2 oz mozzarella cheese. sliced (or to taste)
10 fresh basil leaves
15 cherry tomatoes (or other fresh tomato varieties)
balsamic vinegar, to taste

Heat a small pan over medium-high heat.  Butter one side each of two slices of bread.  Place one slice of bread in the pan.  Top with 5 basil leaves, 1 oz sliced cheese, and 15 or so cherry tomatoes.  It's okay if some of the tomatoes spill out, they can grill in the pan.  Cover the pan and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn heat down to medium.  Flip, cover, and cook another minute or so.  Remove from pan to cutting board, drizzle hot sandwich with small amount of balsamic vinegar (a little goes a long way here).  Slice in half and serve.  Repeat with second sandwich.

Vegan Sweet Potato Guacamole Tacos

Mmmm, summer.  Is it summer yet?

The sweet peas are vining but not blooming yet.

The basil is planted and so proud of its four little leaves.

The store has apricots AND cherries, at prices I can actually afford!

It must be summer soon.

In the summer I don't like to eat meat much.  With the substantial exception of the occasional barbecue hamburger.

(There is something primal and pagan about summer barbecue.  We must partake of the fruits of the bonfire.)

But, outside of that ritual, I love to dabble in the veggies and the florals that the season presents.

Here we have sweet potato, roasted until soft, sweet, and slightly charred.

Avocado, mashed up with lime and salt to make the simplest and, to my mind, best kind of guacamole.

The kind that tastes like avocadoes, just a little enhanced.

Beans and fat green onions (from the garden!) and sweet red onions.

And check out this tofu cheese I made at home - super easy!  I made it!

I normally prefer my tacos simple: meat, onion, salsa and lime.  Oh and cilantro.  But the divergent flavors in this dish harmonized so nicely.

To veggies!

*Don't forget, I am still hosting a giveaway!  To enter, leave a comment on my previous post.

Vegan Sweet Potato Guacamole Tacos

2 sweet potatoes
olive oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and warmed with a pinch of salt and pepper
4 avocadoes
2 limes, quartered
1 block extra-firm tofu
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 tablespoon white vinegar
salt and pepper
tortillas (about 12, I prefer corn [moistened and pan-warmed] but flour works too)
green onions, sliced
1 red onion, diced

Preheat oven to 400F.

Wash, peel and chop sweet potatoes into about 1" squares.  Toss with olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper.  Roast in oven for 30 minutes, or until slightly charred and very soft when pierced with a fork.

To make vegan cheese:  heat skillet over medium high heat, slick with olive oil (about 3 tablespoons).  Crumble in tofu block, stir in mustard, salt and pepper.  Saute until texture dry and crumbly; pour in vinegar, stir in, remove from heat.

To make guacamole:  Remove avocados from peels, mash with the juice of one of the limes.  Add in 1 pinch of salt for each avocado, about 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste).  Mix all up together.

Warm your tortillas by moistening them with a few drops of water and then heating them in a pan over medium heat until soft and steaming.

To assemble tacos:  layer with sweet potato, black beans, and tofu cheese.  Top with guacamole, green onion slices and red onion.  Mangez.

Easter Egg Radishes and 7-Minute Mac & Cheese

It's Easter Egg radishes this year.  Can you guess why they call them that?

The first thing out of my little garden.  We pulled up the last of them today, eating with salt and vinegar.  The kids will eat them if I cut off the colored skin - they are convinced the 'spice' of the radish is in the red skin.  Suckers.

This dish is a result of having a broken car and no groceries.

This dish is a result of a half-memory I have from years ago of eating delicious, deconstructed macaroni and cheese from a $5 noodle joint while on break from my college cashier job.

This dish is delicious.

Here is a kid.  He approves this message.

7-Minute Mac & Cheese

1 cup noodles

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 - 1/2 cup shredded cheese

splash of cream (milk will do in a pinch)

salt and pepper to taste

Cook your noodles according to package instructions.  Mine required cooking for 7 minutes.

Drain noodles, stir in butter.  This is the only stirring you will do.  Put down the spoon!

Put noodles in dish.  Splash in cream to taste, just a bit, just enough to wet them.

Sprinkle with cheese.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Consume with gusto.

I'll be grading your gusto on an A - F scale so don't let me down.

Simple Asparagus Pizza

Friends, I am in and out like a bad radio station.

I'm sorry, it's trip season!  What do you think?

Should have given warning though.

I have been in San Francisco.  Via Ashland, Oregon and Redding, California.

What phenomenal little towns!

Ashland, with its country folk and lush green parks and academics and performers, the usual combination of sophisticates and drunks.


Redding, with its hot sun and palm trees and olive oil and citrus fruit.  Who are you, California!

I don't even know.

And of course the wedding, the reason I traveled.  My lovely friend getting married under towering redwoods in the evening.

Then taking friends to the airport, a stop in San Francisco and chowder in a sourdough bread bowl on the dock.

Back in the car, books on tape, thirteen long, long hours and boom.  Back home again.

I love my life.

Simple Asparagus Pizza (adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perlman)
I love simple food in spring and summer.  No late nights up alchemically combining, stirring the sorcerer's pot.  Just good, easy food.  Eat those vegetables, eat them!

Yields 1 thin crust 12-inch pizza.

1/2 pound asparagus
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Several grinds of black pepper
One 3/4-pound pizza dough, ready-to-go (here's a recipe for a good one)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 lb mozzarella, grated
1/4 lb cheddar, grated
1 scallion, thinly sliced

Preheat your oven to its highest temperature - about 500 degrees in most cases.  If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven.

Wash and chop your asparagus.  Discard the woody ends.  Toss the pieces in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roll or stretch out your pizza dough to a 12 inch round (mine wasn't exactly round...).  Transfer to a floured or cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or a similarly prepared baking sheet.  Sprinkle the dough with all three cheeses.  Pile the asparagus on top.

Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are browned, the cheese is bubbly, and the asparagus might be lightly charred.  Remove from the oven, sprinkle with scallions, and eat.

Sweet Pea Pasta Alfredo

 
It's time for some springtime treats!

You know what kind that is?

It's the green kind.

Fall has caramel and cinnamon, in winter you get clove and orange.

In spring, there are peas.  Nature's candy.

Have you had a fresh pea before?  I think my first experience of them was joining forces with my cousins to eat each and every one off my aunt's pea trellis.

She uh, she wasn't pleased.

This is a simple springtime pasta dish.  Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to love.

You may have to sit and shell peas for a while, but you know what?  It's not that bad.

It's actually kind of fun.  I got my husband and toddler in on it and turns out it suits all ages!

Well, the little one did a lot more tasting than shelling.

An important job, really.

In fact, I think we should all just follow his example.

Sweet Pea Pasta Alfredo (adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perlman)
Serves 4

Salt to taste
1/2 pound dried pasta
1 cup fresh shelled peas (from about 1 pound in the pod) (you can use frozen or canned if you want, but you'll miss out on the floral sweetness of the fresh)
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions.  Add peas to cook during the last 30 seconds of pasta cooking time.  Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water and set aside.  Drain the pasta and the peas together.

Dry out the pasta pot and pour in the heavy cream.  Bring it to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 4 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add the butter and stir it until it has melted.  Generously season the sauce with freshly ground black pepper; add a pinch of salt and the lemon zest.  Add 3/4 cup of the Parmesan and stir it until the sauce is smooth; then toss in the drained pasta and peas.  Cook the pasta and sauce together for 2 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly.  Add the reserved pasta water by the spoonful if needed if the sauce becomes too thick.

Divide the pasta among bowls and garnish with the remaining Parmesan and red pepper flakes, if desired.

Quinoa Cabbage Cups with Tomato Jam

Cabbage cups!

Cabbage, with stuff inside.

You bake it in a muffin tin, you stuff it with stuff that you like.

My husband was inspired by it.

What about taco cabbage cups?  What about putting kim chi inside?

Honey, I think you are onto something.

These have chick peas and quinoa, plus raisins for a surprising burst of sweet between the onions and red bell peppers.

And easy.  Hello!  Sold.

Plus tomato jam!  Have you ever heard of such a thing?  It's not sweet, and it's not for the faint of heart.  It's like a strong marinara, times a million. 

Tasty.

Quinoa Cabbage Cups with Tomato Jam (adapted from Living Without)
Serves 6



For the jam:
6 tomatoes
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground paprika (I used smoked for some spice)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon gluten-free Worcestershire sauce, optional

For the cabbage cups:
½ cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup water or broth
2 teaspoons canola oil or grape seed oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cooked or canned chickpeas
⅓ cup raisins
Juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon salt
12 green cabbage leaves

The following steps can and should be done simultaneously.  Like, not all at once, but while one thing is sitting for 10 minutes get started on the next.  No need to wait until the jam is done to start everything else, for example.

To make Tomato Jam, slice a shallow X into the bottom of each tomato using a sharp knife. Fill a medium saucepan about halfway with water and bring to a boil. Drop tomatoes into boiling water for about 15 seconds and remove with a slotted spoon. When cool enough to handle, peel back the skin from the tomatoes starting at the points created by the X. Slice in half and chop the tomatoes.

Mix together tomatoes and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, stirring often. Stir in cider vinegar, paprika, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce, if using. Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.

To make Cabbage Cups, place quinoa in a small saucepan along with 1 cup water or broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 12 minutes or until quinoa is tender and water is absorbed. Remove pan from heat.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened. Add red pepper and garlic and cook 2 minutes. Stir in quinoa, chickpeas, raisins, lemon juice, thyme and salt. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 12 standard-size muffin cups with oil. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare a large bowl of ice water.

In batches, blanch cabbage leaves for 1 minute to soften slightly and then plunge into the ice water bath. Drain and slice off the tough lower spine of each leaf.

Working one at a time, press cabbage leaves into prepared muffin cups, making sure a generous amount of leaf hangs over the sides. Fill each with an equal amount of quinoa mixture. Fold over tops to seal.




Place in preheated oven and bake 20 minutes, being careful not to burn the leaves. Let cool for about 5 minutes and then place a flat object, such as a cutting board, over muffin tins and invert to unmold.

Serve Cabbage Cups with Tomato Jam.  High five yourself.

Lentils with Rhubarb

 
See!  I promised you rhubarb!

When my husband and I were still dating, I remember asking him if he could have one wish, what would it be?

He answered that he would never have to eat again.

I was astonished.  Still am, really.  What a response!  That's like wishing never to take a warm shower again, or never smell a flower.  Not eat!

And yet.  I'm beginning to feel like that.  For those of you not caught up, due to a minor health issue I've had to undergo a major (though temporary) diet change the past week or so (has it only been a week?  Really?).

No wheat, no dairy, no sugar.  Everyone always asks, 'what do you eat?'

It's a challenge and no mistake.  It's a blast when I find something grand that fits, like this granola, or this egg, rice, edamame and avocado salad.

But mostly it's a long line of vegetable soups and rice cakes, calculated to fill, to fuel brain and muscle function and not much else.

This must be what purposefully fit people feel like (and yes, I have dropped a few pounds).  They say they'll live forever.  I say, you call this living?

Anyway, enough outta me.  I've got about one more week of the hard stuff, then I'll be eating fruit again.  Fruit!

Until then, maybe let's try some millet together?  What do you think?

Lentils with Rhubarb adapted (appropriately) from Living Without Magazine
This is food with nutrients.

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium-size carrot, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 jalapeño or serrano pepper, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup French green lentils, rinsed
3½ cups vegetable broth (or water)

In a medium-size saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add shallots, bell pepper, carrot, garlic, ginger and jalapeño pepper. Cook 3 minutes, stirring often.

Add cumin, turmeric, sea salt and black pepper; cook 1 minute. Add rhubarb and cook 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add lentils to the pot along with 3½ cups broth. Bring mixture to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer covered for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender. 

Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese

One last winter recipe, hey?

One for the road.

A little root vegetable here, a little storable grain there, and voila!

Something that might last you a few months if you hid it in a cool cellar.

(Not in prepared form...don't do that.)

You can cheat with a little goat cheese, if you are into cheating.  My heart is still with you, goat cheese.

Adds a little tang, a little salt to the earthy sweet of the charred beets.

I made this as a side-salad. 

Don't do that either.

This is a meal.  One last winter's meal, then it's all pea tendrils and rhubarb from here on out.

Woo!

Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese (inspired by Deb Perelman  at Smitten Kitchen)

1/2 cup uncooked plain quinoa, rinsed
coarse salt
3 small shallots
olive oil
1 1/2 pounds beets, tiny if you can find them and peeled if you can’t, scrubbed, trimmed, and halved or quartered to bite-size pieces
juice of 1/2 a lemon
black pepper
dab of goat cheese (optional)

for the dressing:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, plus more for finishing
2 big pinches of coarse salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
black pepper

Heat oven to 400°F.

Add quinoa, 1 cup water, and a pinch of salt to a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to about medium and cook until the quinoa has absorbed the water, 10 to 15 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare beets. Peel shallots and place in a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with a few drops of olive oil, wrap the foil to create a packet and place in the oven.

Coat a baking sheet lightly with olive oil. Place the beets on the baking sheet and arrange in one layer, drizzling lightly with a little more olive oil. Squeeze lemon juice over and season generously with salt and pepper.

Place beets in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, then stir/flip them around and roast until tender and crisp at the edges, about another 10 minutes. (Larger beets will take a few more minutes).

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. Remove the shallot packet from the oven and carefully take out the shallots. Toss the roasted shallots into a food processor or blender with the apple cider and balsamic vinegars, 2 pinches of coarse salt, and a pinch of black pepper. Blend until smooth. Drizzle in the olive oil. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if necessary.

Spoon three-quarters of the quinoa onto a serving platter. Arrange roasted beets over the quinoa, and top off with the rest of the quinoa. Drizzle the entire dish with the vinaigrette. Serve with an extra drizzle of balsamic vinegar if you’d like or a few crumbles of goat cheese.

Pulled Chicken Mexican-Type Salad with Everything

Imma break a few house rules now.

#1.  This is a salad.  Okay, I don't have any hard and fast rules against salad, but they aren't my favorite.  They just always seem sort of eh.  Unless you add an amazing dressing and toppings, but then you're just eating dressing and toppings.  Greens are for smoothies.  Why not eat something else altogether? 

And it's well known that you don't win friends with salad.

#2.  This is Mexican-style, but not Mexican.  Mexican food brings up some full-force snobbery with me, since I've had the real thing and it's ermagerd.  And then you come back and someone slops some cheddar on some refried beans and stale flour tortillas and is like, that'll be $10!  And it's just no.

This is not Mexican.  It is in the style of an American parody of Mexican.  But this time...it works.

Stay with me.

#3.  This recipe is copied from a restaurant.  I try not to do this because restaurants are usually boring.  But if you live in my old stomping grounds, living it up in the SLC, you just may recognize this as a hot-selling item from your favorite Tex-Mex-Fresh, Cafe Rio.

Not familiar with Salt Lake?  There's a Cafe Rio in the airport.  Catch it next time you fly through.

It's ermagerd.

My advice?

Get the salad.

Pulled Chicken Mexican-Type Salad with Everything
Makes 4 hearty salads

Dressing:
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream (or Mexican crema)
Juice of 1 1/2 limes
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tomatillos
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 jalepeno (use the seeds if you like it spicy)

Chicken:
2 chicken breasts, about 2 lbs chicken
1/3 cup olive oil
3 cups broth
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
2 teaspoons chili flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced

Rice:
3 cups broth
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles or equivalent fresh
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion
3 cups uncooked white rice

Garnishes:
1 15-oz can black beans
Cotija cheese
Salsa
Mixed greens (use as much as you like)
Guacamole (for easy homemade, combine 1 avocado with juice from 1/8 of a lime and a pinch of salt, mash with fork)
Lime wedges
Toasted tortilla strips (I cheated and crumbled up corn chips, but for easy homemade brush corn tortillas with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and toast in a 450 degree oven for 3-5 minutes or until crisp)

Cook all chicken ingredients together in a crock pot for about 4 hours.  Shred meat and cook an additional hour.

Meanwhile, make dressing by putting all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend well.  Refrigerate.

When chicken is almost done, make rice by placing all rice ingredients in a pot and bringing to a boil.  Turn heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed and rice is soft.

To assemble:  Layer salad in a bed on a plate.  Top with rice (about 1/2 cup) and black beans (about 1/2 cup).  Top with chicken mixture.  Top with dressing, salsa, crumbled cotija cheese, lime juice, guacamole, and toasted tortilla chips.  Insert into face.

Brown Butter Rosemary Corn Bread

Ordinarily, I am a sweet cornbread kind of gal.

Big, fluffy cakes?  With butter?  And honey?  And honeybutter?

Or maybe maple syrup.

And cinnamon?

Yes please.

But every once in a long while, something savory tickles my fancy.

Have you had brown butter yet?

Exquisite.

The liquid and the solids separate, and the liquid turns a nutty brown while the solids darken and sweeten.

If you are using salted butter, it will leave behind (and also carry with it) a fine coating of crystallized salt.

I like to do it with salted butter.

Dip this in chili.

Cover this in cheese and sour cream.

Or just slice and eat it, because it's tender and cakey and tasty enough to do that.

Cornbread, you have a summer home in my heart.


Brown Butter Rosemary Corn Bread (adapted from Joy the Baker)
I wanted to do this sugar free, but the original recipe adds in a 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.  Feel free to do so!  If you're into that sort of thing.

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and 8×8-inch square baking pan.  Line with parchment paper and grease and flour the baking pan.  Set aside.

In a light-colored small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Melt and cook butter down completely.  It will sizzle and crackle.  Keep an eye on the butter and you’ll see brown bits begin to form at the bottom of the pan.  Swirl pan and cook until browned bits are a chestnut color and the butter smells nutty.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and browned butter.  Set aside.

If using sugar, in a large bowl blend together sugar and chopped rosemary.  Blend with the back of a spoon working the rosemary flavors into the sugar.  If not using sugar, skip this step.  But rosemary sugar is probably really cool.

Add flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda to the large bowl with the flavored sugar.  Whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir to combine, ensuring that all of the dry ingredients are moistened and incorporated into the batter.  Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth to the edges.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  Bread is best served warm and will last, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to three days.

Sweet Potato Cottage Cheese Blintzes and a Boutique Academia Giveaway

Mmm blintzes!

It's like a crepe sandwich.  A pancake burrito.

I love trough foods.  You know what I mean...things you can just throw whatever leftovers you have hanging around into and suddenly they're delicious.

Quiche, pasta, fried rice.  And blintzes!

My grandma used to make blintzes with cream cheese.  That is a good memory

These are filled with a sweet potato/cottage cheese mixture that cooks up sweet and hearty and lovely.  The kind of food that makes you feel good after eating.  Like a Russian farmer.  In a movie.

And bonus!  My baby loved them.

He's a picky one, is he.  But wait, there's more!

My friend Maile over at Boutique Academia has authorized me to give away one (one!) of her gorgeous necklaces.

Boutique Academia is a collection of jewelry that celebrates and aestheticizes the sciences.  Thus, here is the cellular makeup of sucrose, or sugar.

Pretty appropriate round these parts, eh?  And you wondered what this had to do with food.

Plus, I just love beautiful things and the creative people that make them.  Here are some more of Maile's amazing things.  Can you figure out what they all are?

Here's a hint - bottom left corner are the cells of a rose petal.  Valentine's is coming!

To participate in the giveaway, do one of the following three things:

1.  Become a follower of this here blog, Icy Violet's Kitchen, and leave a comment here.  If you are already a follower, just say so in the comment.
2.  Head over to Boutique Academia and check out Maile's stuff!  I told you Valentine's is coming!  Come back over here and tell us in a comment what your favorite thing in the shop was.
3.  Like Boutique Academia on Facebook, and come back over here and leave a comment saying so.

There, that'll do nicely.  The giveaway will close Wednesday, January 23rd at 8 pm Pacific Time.  The winner will be announced next Thursday night!  Good luck I hope you win!

Sweet Potato Blintzes with Cottage Cheese (borrowed and adapted, with love, from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

wrappers:
1 1/2 cups milk
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

filling:
4 medium sweet potatoes
2 cups cottage cheese
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt

topping:
raspberry jam (or any other kind)
plain yogurt or sour cream

In a blender, combine all the wrapper ingredients and blend until smooth.  Pour the batter into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or up to 2 days.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Bake the sweet potatoes for about 40 minutes, until soft.  Let them cool in their skins.  Once they're cool, peel them and mash with a fork.

Preheat a medium skillet or crepe pan over medium-high heat.  Once it's heated, brush lightly with melted butter or oil and pour 1/4 cup batter into the skillet, swirling it until it evenly coats the bottom.  Cook, undisturbed, until the bottom is golden and the top is set, about 2 minutes.  No need to flip them.  Transfer the wrapper to a paper-towel-covered plate, cooked side down.  Continue with remaining batter.

Once sweet potato puree is cool, stir in the cottage cheese, egg yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Once wrappers are all cooked, you're ready to make blintzes.  Put a slightly heaped 1/4 cup of filling in the center of each wrapper, and fold it up like a burrito.  Opposite ends together, then pull the end of the crepe nearest to you up over the filling and roll to completely enclose it.  Like an eggroll.  Repeat with remaining blintzes and filling (I had extra filling...it's okay, more blintzes!).  Reheat your skillet over medium heat and brush again with butter or oil.  Cook the blintzes, seam side down, until golden brown and crisp - about 5 minutes on each side.

Serve topped with a dollop of jam and a dollop of yogurt.

Dan Dan Mein (Spicy Chinese Noodles)

So here is news.

We are getting kicked out of our house!

Yes.  The University, whose housing we live in, is seizing the land and booting the tenants.

Time for a feudal uprising!

Not until June, but geez.  Like that makes things better.

And I kinda wanted to move anyway, but geez.  Like that makes things better.

(Okay it does a little.  Time to get a bigger place!  So we'll have space for...wait for it...more babies.)

Anyway, kind of a drag right?  And I don't even want to think about the load of paint and possibly asbestos razing this house will release into the air.

Several layers of latex paint between us and brain damage has not been much comfort.  But don't worry, soon we'll all be breathing it in.

Eh, oh well. 

I'm keeping my quota of turnips this year, lords and vassals.  Don't you think I won't.

Dan Dan Mein (adapted from Anne at My Bare Cupboard...thanks Anne!)

This is an easy, flavorful, slightly spicy noodle dish.  It strikes me as the kind of thing that might be an everyday, simple meal in China but to me was vivid and different and fun.  Filling, light, and tasty as can be.  I recommend it very highly.  I did some Americanizing here, mostly because I wanted to use what was in my cupboard.  I can't say how close the flavor was to the real thing, but I can say it was delicious.  I've included the real ingredients here, as well as what I substituted, and you can find your own balance.

1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups cooked rice noodles
generous 4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 tablespoons  toasted sesame seeds (I went to the Asian store for these and never regretted it)
2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar (I used apple cider)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
generous tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
1/2 tsp five-spice powder (I used...anise.  It was good, but I bet Five Spice is better)
Spring onions, preserved vegetables, chopped roasted peanuts, and cilantro for topping (use some or all of these)

While you're cooking the noodles, pour water and broth into a saucepan and let it boil.  Turn off heat and add the remaining ingredients, whisking to combine.  Let the mixture boil for a minute or two whisking it thoroughly - cover and set aside .

Drain and rinse the noodles in warm water then drain again.  Divide noodles into big bowls and pour the sauce over.  Add 1 1/2 tsp of chili garlic sauce on top and stir.  Sprinkle some spring onions, Sichuan preserved vegetables and some chopped roasted peanuts . Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread

 
Have you ever thought about how carbohydrates and cheese form the basis of all the best food?

Pasta!  Lasagna!  Baguette!  Pizza!

Mac and cheese, anyone?  Grilled cheese?  Garlic bread?  Casserole?  Cheese and crackers! 

This bread cuts right to the point.  It feeds you what you want to eat:  carbs and cheese.

Well, all those elaborations, all those apologies, all those worries about calories, they just aren't necessary. 

What is necessary is this bread.  With cheese.

Oh, and onions.

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread (adapted from Food Wanderings in Asia)

1 loaf of soft, fresh bread
1 stick butter, melted
1/8 c olive oil
3 t minced onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 T dijon mustard
1 T poppy seeds
12 oz grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Mix the melted butter, olive oil, onion, garlic, mustard, and poppy seeds in a bowl.

Slash the bread with X slices, making cubes without cutting all the way through the crust. 

Pour the butter mixture into the X cracks and over the top of the bread.  Fill the cracks with the grated cheese.






Wrap the loaf with foil, sealing it in and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and unwrap, and then bake for another 10 minutes to crisp up the cheese.

Roasted Tomato, Basil and Hummus Sandwiches

 
Oh my goodness, vacation in Michigan is crazy time!

It'd been sunny and hot and lovely for like, a week and a half.  Then last week?

Tornado!

Okay, it wasn't a tornado but I swear some of those black clouds were spinning.  Plus, the house is near a trailer park.  Tornado bait!

I tried to go running that morning, but it went all black and started lightning-ing and thundering like the voice of God itself.

I called my mom-in-law from the road and she came and gathered me into the car, shaking wet and scared in my running booty shorts.

You know how it's really unlikely that you'll get struck by lightning?  Well, you know it happens sometimes.  And you know that when it does, it's going to be me.

It rained, then it hailed, then the power went out for 16 hours.

But seriously, sorry to the people in the trailer park when you lost power.  'Cause the next day was so, so hot, right?  I hope no one had any sad babies over there. 

Sad babies are so sad.

Last night, rain.  Last night, insane wind storm.

Today?  The power was back, and the sun was back, and the heat was back, and the humidity was back.  I swear I could hear it, a kind of vroooshing inferno upon stepping outside.  My relatives tell me it will be like this until the next horrible storm.

Hooray for summer in the midwest!  I'm not homesick for Oregon yet, but maybe some consistent temps in the 80s?  Well, that'd just be swell.

Roasted Tomato, Basil and Hummus Sandwiches
(makes two sandwiches)

1 lb tomatoes
3 T olive oil
salt and pepper
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
juice of half a lemon
1 t salt
2 T tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/4 c pine nuts
paprika
6-9 leaves fresh basil
4 slices good bread (I used a light rye)

Put pine nuts in a small pan over medium heat to toast.  Keep an eye on them while you're working, and remove from heat when they start to brown.

Preheat oven to 450.  Slice tomatoes into bite-sized chunks, toss with salt, pepper, and 2 T olive oil.  Place on a foil-lined (easy cleanup!) baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, or until you get the desired amount of charry goodness.

While tomatoes are roasting and pine nuts are toasting, mix up garbanzo beans (with 1/2 c of the liquid they come in), lemon juice, garlic cloves, tahini, salt, and 1 T olive oil in a blender.  Make a smooth paste out of it.  A smooth paste of hummus.

To assemble, spread hummus on bread (it's good toasted!).  Top with sprinkling of pine nuts and paprika.  Add tomatoes, and finish with 2 - 3 basil leaves per slice.  Have a great summer dinner!