Foods and Yummies

I have such a love-hate relationship with food. I’ve been vegetarian for 19 years (almost 20), vegan for 6 of those. I never have any intention of eating meat ever again in my life, though I have no issue cooking it for the meat-eaters in my life.

Being vegetarian for so long I go through phases of foods that I like. I eat things for months and months at a time until I’m sick of them. Then stop. I’ve been going through a major salad phase lately. I crave green, healthy foods but Salad and I have often been at odds. When you’ve been vegetarian for as long as I have been salad quickly, quickly loses it’s appeal. It’s winning favor again apparently. My favorite?

Mixed spring greens/spinach

Fresh cut strawberries

Cucumber

Baby portabella mushrooms

Walnuts

Touch of Gorgonzola

Bit of balsamic dressing (I hate salads drenched in dressing. I just want a hint of flavor.)

If I’m feeling adventurous I’ll toss in some dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, or orange bell pepper. I know, I know, getting crazy there =)

But that’s for me. What I have been making for everyone else has been off the charts ridiculous lately.

Last Memorial Day weekend I had a small gathering and made:

Caramelized Dijon & Honey Chicken

Deviled Eggs (my own recipe – absolutely delightful)

Caprese Skewers (Cherry tomatoes, basil, fresh Mozz)

Grilled Cheese Toasties gourmet style (Gruyere/Parmesan/sautéed Onion/Roasted Garlic on slices of French bread)

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

For the wedding I made:

Fig and Walnut Tapenade with Goat cheese - essentially figs soaked and reduced in Port wine added to my favorite kalamata olive tapenade base, with goat cheese spread on French bread topped with a hint of walnut. This is so yummy.

Then yesterday was Doc’s birthday so his girlfriend and I brainstormed a huge birthday dinner to surprise him with. I cooked:

Chicken in a Spicy Sausage Sauce

Spicy Mac-n-Cheese (Baked, yet another gourmet style mac-n-cheese. I can’t do anything “normal”.)

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Cookies-n-Cream Frosting

Sangria

I’ve just been cooking like a mad woman. But mad in a good way. I love to feed people. It can be a little stressful doing so much all by myself but I’m a little OCD when it comes to prep work which helps make things run more smoothly. It gives me an immense amount of satisfaction to make food that the people I care for enjoy.

I obsess about finding recipes, but the recipe card/page/whatever is just the idea. I use pre-done recipes as inspiration but 94% of the time I don’t bother sticking to them at all. This is especially true when it comes to meat dishes. I don’t eat meat so I don’t have a knowledge base of experience to pull from. It helps me to have something I can look at to guide my thought process. However I do have an extensive palate when it comes to seasonings and ingredient incorporation so I can always tell when things will work. I look up recipe inspiration, and then alter, cook, and create til my heart’s content.  Food is so fun.

Edible art.

If you’re interested in any of these recipes let me know and I’ll post the source and how I altered them.

Little of this, little of that

Holy crap that was a long break! I know I didn’t post about my vacation but it was a really off vacation for me so I’m just gonna skip it and we can pretend I had a crazy bizarre time dressing up in medieval/middle eastern garb, drinking mead, and bellydancing by campfire light….. which I did.

Today however, I’ve been cooking again! Sunday I went to Friend’s house and made a Turkish/Egyptian dinner to finish off my ideas for the Mediterranean dinner party.  I made Pistachio Soup, Mahmudiye, and Mujadarra.

Gotta say: I loved the (Turkish) Pistachio Soup. It was very, pistachio-y. And simple to make once I got finished shelling all the freakin’ pistachios. By hand. One at a time. Totally worth it.

I enjoyed the Mujadarra as well but I think I overcooked the lentils a bit. Friend and the wife said that it had a very meaty consistency that made it very hearty. I did this in three parts. The lentils/rice/spices, fried carmelized onions, and a middle eastern tomato sauce. All in all I think it came out rather tasty though next time I’ll add the rice to the lentils sooner so I don’t have even  a little overcookedness.

Mahmudiye is unlike anything so instead of trying to describe what it’s like. Here’s the ingredients:

-         Skinless Chicken Breast, cubed

-         2 Tbsp butter

-         16-18 Pearl onions or 1 medium onion chopped

-         6 dry apricots (quartered)

-         1 bunch seedless grapes, cut, or 3 Tbsp Golden raisins (I used both)

-         1 tsp honey

-         2 Tbsp lemon juice

-         1 c. hot chicken brother

-         ½ tsp. cinnamon

-         4 Tbsp blanched almonds

-         Salt and Pepper to taste

Apparently the apricot really came through in the seasoning. I don’t remember a lot of what they said, but I’m told it was tasty.

Thus concludes the array of dishes I’m torn between. Now I just have to take the 20 or so recipes I’ve made in the past couple  months and knock it down to 4 that I want to serve a dining room of 15 people + 4 cooks (myself included). Aye! That’s going to be the hard part.  

Gorgonzola-Potato Soup

As I had a request for the recipe…. Here it is. Enjoy!

Gorgonzola-Potato Soup

1 onion – I use Vidalia or Sweet Onion

1 Tbsp butter

3 medium potatoes (e.g. Vivaldi or baking potatoes)
3 clove garlic
½ c. sherry – I use Taylor Dry or Golden Sherry (Good for Cooking)
2 ¼ c. vegetable stock
3 oz. gorgonzola or any blue cheese – I measure out about 3 level shotglasses

1-2 Tbsp Lemon Juice OR 1-2 Tbsp Sour Cream (whichever is more convenient)
salt, pepper to taste

Peel and chop the onions, peel and crush the garlic.
In a heavy-based pot, melt the butter, then fry the onion until translucent – about 12 min.
Peel and finely dice the potatoes. Add the garlic and potatoes to the onions and cook for another few minutes.
Deglaze with the sherry (Pour sherry onto potato/onion and continue to sautee making sure to coat thoroughly with sherry), leave to bubble for about 3 minutes, then add the stock.
Cook on medium to low heat until the potatoes are soft. This takes about 15 minutes but if the potatoes are easily crushed with a spoon then they are ready. Turn off heat.
Add the diced gorgonzola and leave to melt. Add lemon juice/sour cream. Puree in a blender or use an immersion blender.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

This soup is absolutely delicious. It seems like a lot of steps but it’s really pretty easy to make and soo worth it. Don’t go too heavy on the gorgonzola/blue cheese unless you are a HUGE fan of it. A little goes a long way.

**As an alternative to the lemon juice you can also use 1-2 Tbsp of sour cream. The last time I didn’t have sour cream, so I used lemon juice and it was devoured in a blink. I’ve done so many iterations of this recipe and they are both very tasty.

Bacon......palooza!

Wow, what a fun party. I was absolutely outside of myself the entire time but it was a good affair for sure.  Friends wife made a comment yesterday that she realized I was drinking to cope with the crowd. This was true. Also just to cope with myself and my moods. I played it off well though. I slipped into a party persona and maintained a happy dancing demeanor. There were points I even truly enjoyed myself. So what made Bacon palooza, bacony? Well, the bacon of course. The point was for people to bring various experimental dishes in bacon to be judged on taste, creativity, and presentation.

I made: Sizzling Bacon Wrapped Apricots with a Cranberry Glaze Reduction and Bacon Bourbon Brownies.

I think I used too much bourbon in the brownies and they could have done with more sugar. However, the Sizzling Bacon Wrapped Apricots actually won me first prize in the bacon contest!! The irony of a strict vegetarian winning the Baron of Bacon trophy was not lost on anyone. The recipe was pretty simple too.

Sizzling Bacon-Wrapped Apricots with Cranberry Glaze

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with
• 1 1/2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 12 slices maple-cured bacon, halved crosswise
• 24 dried apricots
• 1 1/2 cups Ocean Spray® 100% Juice Cranberry Juice Blend

Directions

1.      Boil cranberry juice blend in medium saucepan over high heat until reduced to 1 cup. Whisk in cornstarch, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil until thickened. Cool to room temperature. Reserve 1/2 cup of the glaze.

2.      Meanwhile, line rimmed baking sheet with foil; set wire rack over foil and spray with cooking spray. Wrap bacon halves around apricots and secure with wooden pick. Brush with glaze and place on wire rack.

3.      Broil 3 to 7 minutes, or until bacon in browned, turning once. Serve warm with reserved glaze.

I couldn’t turn mine because of the damned toothpicks so I ended up turning the oven on high and baking them for 10 minutes instead. I also just drizzled the glaze over the bacon/apricots when I was ready to serve them so they weren’t overpowered.

Nice. Easy. Award winning? Apparently!

I also made my Honey and Nuts Snow White yesterday. It’s a very Traditional Turkish dish that I’m working on for our Mediterranean dinner party. And man did I get it right this time! It’s basically a blancmange with oatmeal bottom crush and sautéed apples/walnuts and honey on top. It’s not the simplest of recipes but I’m stoked about it.

Honey and Nuts Snow White

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

3 cups milk

2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp starch
3/4 tsp vanilla
For the crust:
1 cup oatmeal

3 Tbsp butter

Honey (to taste)
For the top:
2 tbsp honey
½ cup walnuts, coarsely crushed
1 apple
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Crust: Mix oatmeal, melted butter and honey together and press onto the bottom of your baking vessel. I used a 9” pie plate. Bake at 350 degF until golden brown: approx 10-15 minutes.

To prepare the filling, take milk, sugar, starch and flour into a pot. Cook over medium heat while whisking. Once it is thickened turn off heat. Stir in vanilla. Set aside.

Meanwhile, peel the apple and chop into small cubes. Cook them in a saucepan with sugar until their color changes to pinkish.

Pour the filling over the crust and let it cool for a while. Place the cooked apples all over and drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with walnuts and cinnamon. Serve cold.

Not too sweet, perfectly creamy, delicious. I’m so excited about this.

I also got to work on my light sabers a little bit yesterday! Friend and I cut down the hilts to the size I intend to wield and drilled out the attachment holes. Once that was done we busted out the liquid epoxy and attached the labradorite spheres I’m using as pommels and made the initial attachment. I’ve decided to depart from my previous use of amethyst inlaid crystal in favor of a dichroic glass accented display. The stones I have are beautiful. I hope it all turns out =) I have to say though, I have not been a fan of working with the sculpting epoxy I have. Granted I’ve been working with the lamest tools ever; namely a dull pencil, which I imagine is also contributing to my frustration. I’m definitely going to try to get these things to achieve the twisted organic look that I want. If not, I do have a backup plan, but I want to push my ideas forward to the next level. Not just settle for what I know I can do.  

Test Kitchen: Greek Edition

Experiments in the Test Kitchen! It is absolutely my favorite laboratory environment =)  This weekend I hung out with Friend and his wife and made a 4 course Greek dinner. We’re doing a huge dinner party in October – Mediterranean cuisine. There will be four chefs; Friend, the wife, the wife’s brother-in-law, and myself. Each of us will prepare 4 dishes from countries of the Mediterranean. I’ve been systematically going through the countries that I’m interested in cooking from and testing out recipes on them. This week was Greece!

I made:

-- Spanakopita (Greek spinach pie)

-- Greek meatballs in red sauce

--Chickpea balls

--Date and Walnut Phyllo Rolls in Greek yogurt and Honey

I had a minor timing issue with the Spanakopita but overall everything came out deliciously. I’m taking their word about the meatballs since I’m strict vegetarian. I stuck close to the recipes for everything except the Spanakopita. That recipe is entirely my own.

I also picked up some random cheeses as well:

-- French yogurt cheese with sundried tomato (France) – interesting, a touch bitter but nicely balanced and very smooth.

--Roomkas Gouda (Netherlands)– nice and creamy with an almost cheddar taste

--Caciocavallo (Puglia/Italy) – hard cheese, akin to parmesan but not quite as intense

--Arina (Aged Goat Gouda of Holland) – I used this in the Spanakopita along with Feta and Ricotta. Then we just ate the rest of it. Soo, soo delicious. I really flavorful take on gouda.  

I love being in the kitchen. Cue barefoot jokes.  For the record, I wear heels.