creamed chard, recipe searching, and paper sacks

This is the fourth new recipe I've tried this week, and I still have a few days left. You might be rolling your eyes and asking, "Does she find recipes anywhere else!?" when I say, it's from Smitten Kitchen. The answer to that would be...it's where I look first, and often I have no reason to look elsewhere. It's just that, the Smitten Kitchen recipes seem to coincide with the groceries I already have, while other recipe sources seem to insist on a trip to the store just for one recipe.

No matter. Yesterday, I decided to make creamed chard and onions and serve it over spaghetti. The original recipe called for actual cream. I used plain soy milk (unsweetened would have been better) and it worked out fine. The good news is that I was able to find a use for some of the swiss chard in the garden (my plan when I sought out a recipe to make), which is quickly approaching the size of elephant ears. It was so easy to grow, and it's beautiful, and everyone tells me how versatile it is, but help, I just don't know what to do with it! I throw a few leaves in stir fries here and there, but other than that, I'm lost.

Here is everything cooking on my tiny stove. One pot was to soften the chard. A skillet to make the roux (butter + flour--I used Earth Balance) and toast the onions and garlic. And finally, a pot of spaghetti. The dish was simple and delicious.

Okay, so let's talk recipes some more. I've been bookmarking recipes like mad lately and not all are from Smitten Kitchen (but the ones that are will be amazing!). Let me share what I've found:

Pinterest - I think most internet-savvy people have heard of Pinterest by now, but basically users "pin" things they find on the internet to different categories, and people "re-pin" things they like. You can search for a particular ingredient or dish, or use broad categories. Searching "vegan" seems to bring up a lot of things.

Food Gawker - I hadn't heard of this until yesterday. If you like to photograph things you cook, you can submit pictures that link to recipes, and possibly get published here. They do reject a lot of photos, so the ones that make it are really top notch. It seems helpful for finding recipes and I would love to try to be published there.

Tastespotter - Same as above. There seem to be more vegetarian recipes here, but it could just be what is up right now.

Healthy Happy Life - A favorite new find, this food blog features all vegan recipes and beautiful photographs. I've bookmarked quite a few things here to make ASAP.

Finally, I leave you with this. These are all the green tomatoes I had to cut off of the tomato plants last weekend because of damage to a few branches. I put them all in a brown paper sack, closed it up, and forgot about it for a few days. One has turned red and a few more are on their way (some might be too under ripe to ever turn red)! The ethylene gas that they naturally give off helps them turn red faster when trapped in the bag.

making something French

This year I've felt the urge to branch out with my cooking. I'm up for trying most vegetarian recipes, but especially those with a good history, because awhile back I started to think that my cooking overall could be a bit more exciting if I started learning more traditional recipes instead of just throwing things together (although I still do that when I'm short on time, and it's still tasty!).

This weekend I decided to go for the French tian. It's amazingly easy, so much so that while layering everything in the pan, you might be thinking to yourself that it looks kind of boring. You will be pleasantly surprised with that first bite, however, when you realize it's everything you had hoped it would be and more. And this is the perfect time to make the particular recipe I used, because it uses eggplant, tomato, and zucchini.

Step one, vegetable broth. It's expensive and you only need 1/4 cup, so I would recommend that you make it yourself. You can plan ahead and save the ends of the veggies you use for a few days, or you can make do by using the ends of the zucchini you are about to use, the tip of the eggplant (don't include the side with leaves--they are prickly and not to mention poisonous!), a pinch of parsley, and whatever else you have on hand (I threw in a chunk of an onion and one piece of celery--don't go overboard on strong tasting add-ins). Simmer all of this with at least a cup of water on the stove while you prepare everything else. I threw in a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil too.

Step two, roasting the veggies. Cut your eggplant and zucchini into 1/8 inch thick slices and roast them flat on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. They might look a bit ugly afterward, but don't worry about that, you'll be covering them up.

While that's roasting, prepare your bread crumbs and herbs. I used 4 slices of homemade bread and toasted them in a skillet with a little olive oil before making them into crumbs in my chopper. The recipe called for untoasted bread crumbs but I thought this would add a richer flavor. For herbs, you'll need to chop about 2 tsp each of thyme and oregano, 2 Tbsp of parsley, and 2 cloves of garlic.

In a casserole dish, begin to assemble your layers. First, a layer of eggplant and zucchini, then a drizzle of olive oil (the recipe is from Cooking Light and really limits you on the amount of olive oil, but I'm a little more loose with mine! Make it how you like, but realize that fat adds a lot of flavor). Next, a layer of very thin fresh tomato slices.

Then, a layer of breadcrumbs and herbs. Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper.

Finally, a layer of nutritional yeast (what I used) or parmesan cheese. Repeat all of the layers until you run out of ingredients (I made just two layers). Then pour 1/4-1/3 cup vegetable broth over your dish.

Bake it for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees, no lid, until the bread crumbs on top start to brown.

Voila! You just made a tian. Now wasn't that easy? Let me know if you try it!

new recipes

While I'm not in classes, it's my goal to try 3-4 new recipes a week. I tend to venture out in the dessert department but not as much with savory foods, so, this week excluded, I hope to remedy that. I've already been bookmarking a lot of recipes for next week, so I hope to share something really new and amazing next Saturday! But for now, here's what I've got.

First of all, lemony zucchini pizza from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe called for goat cheese to be spread on the crust, but rather than do that, I made a chickpea spread. In truth it was hardly altered from my normal hummus recipe, other than I cut way way back on the cumin (only a dash this time) and I used about three times as much lemon juice as usual to accommodate the recipe. The results were amazing! I never make pizza without tomato sauce, but I would totally make this again.

I almost feel that this is cheating, but I altered my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe by using sliced up baking square chocolate instead of chips and throwing in a handful of walnuts and hazelnuts. Next week I'll try to really use all new recipes, but let me just say this was a delicious addition, and some bites taste like Nutella! Mmm.

And I finally got around to trying this chocolate beet cake in honor of Alex's birthday (my only substitution was flax + water for the eggs). I will say that no one would have guessed the secret ingredient if I had not told them, but I felt I could taste them since I knew they were in there, and that weirded me out just a little. The recipe's baking time is also WAY off (egg sub. could account for a few minutes, but not as much as it was), which probably explains my reluctance to say I was pleased with this cake, because the recipe called for 30 minutes, which I seriously doubted...but it became a big headache and even at 1 hour and 15 minutes (uh, yeah) with the bamboo skewer coming out cleaned, seemed a little too gooey in the middle for me. I still think that THIS is the best chocolate cake I have ever made, and I would recommend that recipe in a heartbeat (I leave out the food coloring and just make a velvet cake, minus the red!).

pickled tomatoes

There in my fridge sat a large bowl full of green tomatoes, mostly pear, a few cherry. You know, the green tomatoes I wouldn't stop talking about last week. They called out to me every time I opened the refrigerator door, leading to feelings of guilt over wasting food I had grown with my own two hands. I made two batches of green salsa and still had leftovers. Always eager to try new recipes/kitchen skills, I decided to pickle them. I wasn't completely new to pickling. Last year, we made two jars of pickled banana pepper rings (with so many surplus banana peppers from the garden, we thought the jar number was going to be closer to seven or eight, but so go pickles). Then we promptly left them in Arkansas (accidentally) before they were ready to eat (but truth be told, they were a little on the mushy side because I wasn't sure when to stop boiling them during the pickle-making process).

Pickled green tomatoes. I first tried them last October from a farm stand about half an hour from here. My mom tells me they're available back home, but I just never noticed them before. I looked up recipes and found so many varieties. One that really piqued my interest was an Italian variety flavored with mint and basil. For yesterday's batch, I decided to go with a dill variety (because I grew dill this summer specifically for the purpose of pickling!), but I think that Italian recipe is next on my list.

Back to the dill, however. The past few weeks, stepping onto my back porch means getting a whiff of pickle-scented air. It is so peculiar. Never having grown or really cooked with dill before, I could not imagine how much the pickle derives its taste from the herb. I thought the other spices and of course the vinegar had a lot to do with it. It turns out dill alone is the perfect embodiment of the pickle. And so I used this recipe. I only made one quart of tomatoes this go around, so I didn't go all the way through the canning process and am just keeping them in the fridge. I hope to properly can a few things before summer ends, though!

First, I sterilized my jar, then tossed in all the seasonings. I did not have any hot peppers, so I altered that part of the recipe and substituted red pepper flakes. I also used two cloves of garlic, a few pinches of dill, four peppercorns, and 1/4 tsp homemade pickling spice.

The thing I liked about this process is that I did not have to boil the tomatoes. Like I said before, last year that's where I messed up the banana peppers. You want your pickles to be crispy. At this point, I added my thoroughly washed tomatoes to the jar on top of the spices. At the same time, I was boiling water, vinegar (5% acidity), and salt. I could not locate any pickling salt so I used Kosher. Don't use iodized salt or you will have some ugly pickles (still edible though).

After the vinegar mixture comes to a rolling boil, I poured it over the tomatoes. My recipe suggested adding 1 tsp olive oil to each jar for added flavor, so I did so. I left half an inch of room at the top of the jar.

Then I topped off my jar with a sterilized lid and let it cool on the counter for two hours.

Voila! Now I wait two weeks, then here's hoping I have some tasty pickles.

frozen summer treats

The temperatures have been creeping up here over the past couple of weeks (although today the high is only 80! so excited!) so I have been making lots of frozen treats. Normally I prefer to bake, but turning on my oven in my tiny kitchen at the moment produces a sauna-like effect unless it's past sunset. I've made homemade sorbet (I purchased this adorable and practical miniature ice cream maker a few weeks ago!), popsicles, and of course, smoothies. Here is a strawberry, orange, banana all-fruit popsicle I made in one of those plastic molds, which reminds me of my grandmother because she would always make them for me out of extra strongly mixed Ovaltine (does anyone still drink that?).

If you like making homemade sorbets and ice creams, might I recommend the new Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home recipe book to you? So far, I've only made the riesling poached pear sorbet, which is my most favorite thing to get when I visit Jeni's, a local Columbus favorite (and for good reason...it's the best ice cream or sorbet you've ever had...ever...actually, okay, for me, it's a tie between Jeni's and Gelateria dei Neri, the best gelato in all of Italy, in my opinion...but I think that says a lot) but it was amazing. It turned out in my tiny home ice cream maker exactly the way it tastes at the shop. The recipe book has about a dozen sorbets if you are like me and don't do dairy, and lots more ice cream if you are lucky and can. I highly recommend it if you have an ice cream maker.

happy 4th

Happy 4th of July! I am missing my family and childhood traditions of this holiday, but am thankful for the company of good friends here. Last night's dinner was delicious, and there is watermelon (and vegetarian hot dogs) on the menu for today! I haven't seen any fireworks this weekend but I have been hearing them every night. It's also so nice to have a longer weekend and one less day of school/teaching this week.

magic risotto

Last night's dinner, featuring a mostly local salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (mesclun mix from the garden!), homemade bread, and magic risotto. Okay, just risotto (vegan style--veggie broth + nutritional yeast instead of chicken stock + parmesan cheese). But I call it magic risotto in honor of the episode about Sookie's magic risotto on Gilmore Girls.

Here's hoping I have time to cook more delicious things once my summer classes begin tomorrow!

made from scratch

Meet Baby. This is my neighbors' cat. And yes, these are my back steps. And yes, I have a fence. I normally encounter Baby on my front porch, give her a few pats on the head, and go on my way. She is a sweet cat. However, she has recently found a way into my backyard and thinks that if the door is open (which it is, if I'm cooking and it's below 80 outside--my kitchen gets stuffy!) she is welcome to come in. She also thinks my garden is her personal litter box. Sigh. I spent awhile training her to stay on the third step down in hopes that she wouldn't keep coming in the apartment. She is very smart and would humor me for five minutes or so, not moving from the step when I'd tell her to stay, but as soon as I'd turn my back, she'd run in. Not cool, Baby.

Yesterday, I was invited to a special dinner, and volunteered to make a vegetarian dish. I had purposely made espinacas con garbanzos for the first time the day before to test it out. My first batch had storebought bread in it, but I didn't have enough for the second, and rather than run to the store, I decided it would just be easier as well as more delicious to throw a loaf of bread on in the bread machine. I didn't have time for a wheat loaf (takes around 4 hours) so I went with white (only 2 hours) and although I don't normally prefer white bread, it turned out amazing.

After I got the bread going, the next step was to harvest some spinach from the garden. My spinach is starting to bolt, but doesn't taste bitter yet. The process is being delayed by some of the cooler weather we've had over the past week. I'm hoping that when the harvesting period is over, I can save the seeds to grow in my fall garden.

Next, I cooked the spinach in olive oil with a pinch of salt.

After the bread was done, I cut two 1/2" slices into cubes and "fried" it, or toasted in a skillet with more olive oil. I also added cumin, paprika, pepper flakes, ground pepper, vinegar, and fresh garlic as the recipe calls for, then ground it up in the blender.

The final step is to add the ground bread crumbs and spices to the chickpeas (cooked 2 days earlier in my crock pot for convenience) and an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce. At the last minute, stir in the cooked spinach. The dish is wonderful on its own, but even better when served with a slice of bread toasted in the skillet with, you guessed it, more olive oil.

I also took a batch of vegan brownies. I love this brownie recipe because it's vegan, but there are no gimmicks in it, just sugar, flour, oil, baking powder, salt, cocoa, and flax. I sometimes cook with vegan butter, but try not to make it an everyday thing, since it is a processed food. If I can bake something without it, I'm all for that. Same with anything else that is made from soy. I believe many of those things have their place, but I try to be careful with my consumption levels. I would definitely be up for using local, family farmed dairy products, if I weren't lactose intolerant.

I don't have any finished pictures, but trust me when I say they are delicious! Someone at the dinner asked me if I had made the brownies without eggs, so I suppose it's noticeable, but he went on to say that he still thought they were great.

ode to the humble chickpea

The humble chickpea is one of my favorite foods. I love it for its simplicity and versatility. Many of my favorite dishes are centered around chickpeas. Recipes aside for a moment, I can throw chickpeas into anything, and I do. Pasta, salad, homemade veggie burger patties, soup, chili, you name it.

Of course, there's hummus. This recipe is very close to mine, but I garnish it with a puddle of olive oil and sesame seeds. I also experiment with different additions. My favorite hummus varieties are black bean hummus (1/2 chickpeas, 1/2 black beans) and roasted red pepper hummus (And how much better to use freshly roasted red peppers from the garden! I can't wait for the peppers to ripen!).

Then there's a close cousin of hummus, chickpea, mint, and parsley spread by Joy the Baker. This is delectable.

One day, I wanted to make some spinach and artichoke dip for a get together, but I don't eat dairy. So a faux spinach and artichoke dip was born, replacing the cheeses with mashed chickpeas and nutritional yeast. The result was delicious and surprisingly similar in taste. I left out the mayonnaise altogether, but perhaps next time I'll try a little Vegenaise (speaking of which, I once made my own vegan mayonnaise with this recipe and it was the weirdest, most amazing thing).

There's chickpea salad, the vegetarian relative of tuna salad or chicken salad. It can be made a variety of ways, all of which I find more than acceptable. The more chopped vegetables, the better. I like it on a bed of lettuce or as a sandwich spread.

A month or so ago, I finally got on top of my goal of learning to make Indian food, and started making my own chana masala. It's so simple, I can't believe I used to buy it already made because I believed it to be difficult.

And now, today, I added one new chickpea dish to my repertoire: espinacas con garbanzos. The fact that it has a Spanish name made it all the more appealing to me, perhaps for the same reasons chana masala once seemed difficult to make. It sounded exotic, mysterious. I liked saying the title, putting the knowledge acquired in five Spanish classes to some practical use. The fact that it called for spinach, which was waiting in the garden somewhat impatiently to be harvested, made it all the better. And the fact that I had the rest of the ingredients in my pantry already and had just cooked a large crock pot of chickpeas didn't hurt either (side note: crock pot is by far the easiest cooking method, and tastes a million times better than the canned ones!). I followed the recipe exactly, except used white vinegar rather than red wine vinegar (okay, I lied, I didn't have all of the ingredients). There might be a subtle difference with the other vinegar, but you won't hear any complaints from my tastebuds. This recipe was amazing! I served it over "fried bread" (toast made on the stove with olive oil) as suggested. I'm planning to make it again tomorrow with the rest of the pot of chickpeas. It was that good. Thanks, Smitten Kitchen! You never disappoint.

Do you have any other uses for chickpeas? I'm always looking for new inspiration!

smoothie queen

Are any other smoothie lovers reading this? I've been perfecting my smoothie making abilities since I was in 8th grade! I remember when I first started, how calculated I was about following a recipe my mom gave me. But now, I don't really play by any smoothie rules. I can make a smoothie out of very few ingredients, and can usually come up with something in a pinch using whatever I have available. A few days ago, the mood for a smoothie struck me and I had some berries that needed to be eaten, so I came up with this, and now I've made it several times.

2/3 c. almond milk
5-8 raspberries
5-8 blackberries
3-5 strawberries
1/2 frozen banana
5 fresh mint leaves
splash of lemon juice

Of course, this can easily be altered to suit your tastes or refrigerator contents. As a general rule, when I have bananas that are about to go bad, I peel, halve, and freeze them for smoothies, or make them into banana muffins. In my opinion, there's no reason to ever have to throw away a rotten banana! What is your favorite smoothie recipe?

p.s. That yellow glowing spot above my smoothie glass is a lit-up firefly! My yard is currently full of them and I love it.

2nd annual honeysuckle sorbet

Second annual honeysuckle sorbet! It's my spring tradition now. Served with fresh mint and blackberries this time. Here's the recipe again. It's made from honeysuckle flowers, water, cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice. So easy! This time I used 1/2 c. less sugar. I don't notice a difference in the quality. I would like to get an ice cream maker and make it in that, so it wouldn't be as icy (it was still icy last time with more sugar). It's still very delicious, however! And I love that it's made from a wild flower, and one that reminds me of carefree spring seasons of childhood, at that.

new cooking territory

I have certain recipes/dishes memorized. Like the chocolate chip cookie recipe I "invented" by combining bits and pieces of what I liked from four other recipes. Or like my "famous" salsa recipe, created through trial and error, batch after batch, until one day I thought it was so delicious that I stopped tweaking it and committed what I had done to memory. That kind of cooking is tried and true. It does not disappoint until it becomes too predictable. Then I find myself itching to try something new in the kitchen.

Last week, while grocery shopping, it hit me. I'd never made anything with fresh blueberries. I'd never made blueberry muffins! (from scratch...but is there any other way!?) Blueberries are in season (hoping to find them at the farmers' market soon! but for my first batch, supermarket blueberries had to suffice) so I picked up a package and then looked online for a good recipe when I got home.

The great thing about being an avid baker is that once you have a stockpile of ingredients, you usually only need one or two new things (or sometimes, nothing new) for any given recipe. I've also gotten really good at converting recipes to be vegan, so now I don't even bother to look for most recipes from vegan sources. One of my favorite recipe sources is AllRecipes because of the user comments and ratings. The blueberry muffin recipe has over 4,500 reviews! I usually spend 5-10 minutes reading a few reviews for recipes I plan to try, to see what the general consensus is. Sometimes users make helpful suggestions.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins - my vegan version

* 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup unbleached sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 Tbsp ground flax + 1/4 c water
* 1/3 cup soy (or otherwise dairy free) milk
* 1 cup fresh blueberries
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

And for a crumb topping, I didn't measure this out, but combined:

* vegan butter at room temperature
* flour
* sugar
* cinnamon

Bake in a muffin tin at 400 degrees F, 12-18 min.



Another thing which I had wanted to cook for a long time but which always intimidates me is Indian food. I think the names of the dishes as well as the wide variety of spices is what made me feel like I couldn't do it. So I started paying closer attention. I learned the names of my favorite Indian dishes. I read about which spices went into each dish. I don't have it all memorized, to be sure, but I have a better understanding of it now, and it's not as intimidating. I decided to make chana masala first, a chickpea dish and one of my favorites. I slightly cheated by buying a spice mix as opposed to making my own. I didn't own about half of the spices needed for the dish, so this cut down on the price a lot, and the good news is that the spice mixture is just straight spices, no weird preservatives or anything else bad. It was $1.50 from my local Indian grocer, for enough to make the dish 5 times. Now that I know I can handle making this type of cuisine, however, I'll probably try to start acquiring the spices. Making chana masala was so easy, and it turned out to be quite delicious in its homemade form. If you are interested, I recommend checking out this Smitten Kitchen post on the subject.

hello, sunshine

Summer is almost here. The sun is actually shining in Ohio (quite a feat, from what I've gathered over the past eight months), my winter coats have been pushed to the back of the closet, the farmers' markets have opened, the garden is planted, I've been riding my bike daily, and the end of spring quarter is less than three weeks away!

Over the course of the summer, I will be taking three classes, teaching one class, and making lots of art. I have so many ideas that I haven't had the time to execute yet. I'm also planning to spend a lot of time working on DIY projects around the house. I don't see these as being too separated from my art, actually.

This quarter, I'm in a screen printing class, and I've recently started screenprinting on fabric. It is awesome. I hope to do a few sewing projects with the fabric if I can make enough before the quarter ends. I have dreams of making a quilt from it, but we'll see. I'd also like to make my way through several cookbooks, including The Chicago Diner Cookbook, which Corey thoughtfully ordered for me after we visited the vegetarian diner on our Chicago trip in March. I haven't had much time to cook from it yet, but I did make the biscuits, which were delicious. The recipe is not posted on their website, but they have shared a few others if you're interested.

Things I love this month:
- baking delicious asparagus every other day
- gardening with Corey
- photographing local food happenings
- spending my spare time outdoors to the point of sunburn

I'm working on new innovations for the One Lonely Apricot shop. Stay tuned!