Whole 30 Day 2: creamy lemon garlic dressing

I didn't watch the President's farewell address tonight because I can't bear the idea of the Obamas leaving the White House. Instead I went to a friend's happy hour birthday party (and drank nothing tyvm), battled the wind and rain, and watched this when I got home:

Sigh.

At least my food was delicious.

Lunch was another salad with surprise Brussels sprouts. I don't know why I called them surprise. I was surprised when I found them I guess? Whatever the case, they were super tasty.

om nom nom

For dinner, Colby cooked salmon and we ate it with an arugula salad with eggs and tomatoes. It was supposed to have avocado, but the ones that we got were still super crunchy.  No bueno, but the salad was AMAZING because of the dressing.

creamy lemon garlic dressing

1/2 c two minute mayonnaise 

juice from 1-2 lemons (to taste)

2-3 cloves garlic, crushed

salt

Combine everything and let it steep. 

It is so so so delicious. Colby used walnut oil to make the mayo since olive oil is too strongly flavored. The mayo itself is really good and definitely something we'll be using as a base for other dressings and salads. I definitely want to make this jalapeño slaw next week and now I'm envisioning pairing macadamia nut encrusted white fish to make tortilla-less fish tacos. Hmmm..

Procrastination tastes like jalapeño slaw

I want to start cooking again, but I've spent a lot of time coding and re-learning statistics in the name of professional development. I decided to carve out some time today to use up the cabbage that's been sitting in the crisper drawer for a week and the jalapeño that was on its last leg.


Jalapeño Slaw

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded or thinly sliced
1/4 c mayo
2ish T lemon juice
1 small lobe of shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
1 tsp kosher salt
salt + pepper to taste

Toss shredded cabbage and 1 tsp salt to evenly distribute in a colander placed over a bowl (or sink). Let sit for up to an hour, or at least as long as it takes to prep the rest.

Combine mayo, lemon juice, garlic, jalapeño, and shallot. Let sit for a bit to let the flavors combine and the harshness of the garlic and shallot to subside. Season with salt + pepper to taste.

Thoroughly rinse and drain the salted cabbage. Add in the dressing.

We served it with avocado slices and pork. Highly recommend. Would do again. 5/5.

Coconut Raspberry Muffins, Part 1

Remember when I took actual pictures with a real camera in natural light?

Remember when this was a food blog?

Remember when I used to post recipes?

Remember when I planned and executed stupidly complicated dinner parties?

My new job keeps me busy, but I really love it. I was able to meet up with one of my Hackbright mentors today and had a chance to reflect on the last (gasp!) 7 months. It's been good, though there is always room for improvement.

These days, I rarely cook. Colby has proven to be a good cook and, given that he preps food daily, perhaps even better than me. While I miss being in my old kitchen (with the counter space, walk in pantry, center island, in a city where I have friends), I don't miss stress baking because I hate grad school. After watching enough America's Test Kitchen, I finally decided to bake something.

Are these any good? Ish. There should probably be more sugar (maybe even up to 1/3 c) and that would balance out the harsh flavor of whole wheat. It's also unsatisfying that these are made from a mix. However, I'll probably make these again with some modifications. It's a low-pressure way to ease my way back into the kitchen.

Coconut Raspberry Muffins

2 c Trader Joe's Multigrain Pancake Mix (or any Bisquik-like mix)
1 T granulated sugar
2/3 c culinary coconut milk
1 egg
1 T melted coconut oil
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 pint fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Whisk together pancake mix + sugar.
In a separate container, combine coconut milk, beaten egg, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined, some flour lumps are okay.
Add in raspberries and stir to distribute.
Bake for ~14 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Strawberry Chipotle Jam with Liquid Pectin

Oh hey, remember when this used to be a food blog and not a blog about Hackbright?

Right.

So one of my friends gifted us a jar of strawberry chipotle jam for Christmas a few years ago and it was fantastic. I've been making a variation of it ever since, but it's been been awhile. For whatever reason, it's always been easier for me to get liquid pectin and all of the recipes I've seen call for powdered pectin. Here's my converted recipe because I originally started this blog as a way for me to catalog things that I thought I'd want to come back to and I'm kicking myself for not writing this down earlier.

Everything is better with a highly enthusiastic child in the background

Strawberry Chipotle Jam with Liquid pectin

1 c (or 1/2 lb) strawberries, chopped
1 chipotle pepper, minced
1 c (or 100 g) granulated sugar
4 t lemon juice
3 T liquid pectin

1. Combine strawberries, chipotle, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a rolling boil for 1 full minute.
2. Stir in pectin and bring back to a rolling boil for at least 1 minute
3. Make sure that the jam is sheeting and remove from heat
4. Let the jam cool a bit and then pour into a pint-size mason jar.

I like to consider this "nano-batching" because it just makes a jar and then you don't need to worry about the canning aspect of jam making. Be sure to refrigerate the leftover pectin.

Morrocan-spiced Lentils and Beef

Remember when this blog was actually about just me posting my recipes that seemed to work? That was probably like 5 years ago. Let's start that again because I don't have any witty stories or pictures, but this was tasty and Ramona ate it, which is important.

evoo, s + p
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 lb ground beef
2 T tomato paste
1/2 t Ras el Hanout
garlic of some sort
1 1/2 c french lentils, rinsed
28 oz whole or diced tomatoes
2 c chicken stock

Heat a dutch oven and add olive oil until shimmery. Sweat onions + pinch of salt until tender. Brown ground beef and season with salt + pepper. Add in tomato paste, Ras el Hanout, and whatever form of garlic you're using and stir until fragrant (~1 minute). Add in tomatoes and break with a spoon if they're whole. Add lentils and chicken stock as well and then cook for another ~45 minutes - 1 hour until the lentils are tender.

cold brewed coffee

Welp. That photography challenge came and went. Oops. I did take a lot of photos, though, while we were in Michigan and right after we came back home and hadn't downloaded the pictures to our computer.

Om nom nom lake perch from Scalawags. Because they don't have this in Texas.

Mostly, I'm here because I wanted to use this blog how it was intended, for a recipe. For me. Not for anyone else, although you're welcomed to use it, but I can never remember this by myself.

Cold Brewed Coffee
6 c cold water
4.5 oz ground coffee

combine, put in the refrigerator for some amount of time between 12-24 hours. Filter through cheesecloth and then a coffee filter. Dilute in half when serving.

Poppy Seed Cookies

I decided to make the poppy seed cookies from the NPR story I linked to last post.  Since I didn't have a half cup of poppy seeds and since peanut oil that isn't super refined is kind of expensive, I decided to cut the recipe in thirds.  (Also, I didn't need 60 cookies because, hello waistline).  Below is my slightly modified version to account for standard measurement units.


1 c AP flour
3/4 t baking powder
2 T+2 t poppy seeds
1/4 t salt
1/3 c peanut oil
1/3 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla extract

in a medium-ish bowl, sift flour and then baking powder.  You probably won't get all the baking powder, but that's okay because 3/4 t > 2/3 t, which is what would be called for if it were perfectly scaled down from the original recipe.  Whisk in the poppy seeds and salt

In a large bowl, whisk together egg, vanilla extract, sugar, and peanut oil until well combined.  Stir in the flour mixture and chill for at least an hour.

Take chilled dough and form teaspoon-sized pieces into balls.  Pat into circles and bake for ~12 minutes at 350 F.

Allow to hang out on the baking sheet for a minute or two after removing from the oven and let cool. 

These were freaking fantastic.   I'd really like to play around with the recipe a bit to perhaps use brown sugar for a richer caramel flavor and something other than poppy seeds because I'm basically out now.

NaBloPoMo: I fail, but here's a recipe

Oh hey, day two and I already screwed up NaBloPoMo.  I'm not surprised, as I didn't have high aspirations for this, but I wanted to come here and use the blog as I originally intended.  At first, it was just an attempt to log what I'd been making as I taught myself how to cook.  We just had stir-fry and I'm getting closer to a stir-fry sauce that I can reliably make and really like.  Recipe and notes below:



1 T olive oil


1/2 large-ish lobe shallot, finely diced
6ish cloves garlic, crushed

2 t sambal
1.5 t honey
1 t powdered ginger

6 T soy sauce
5 T rice wine vinegar
kosher salt

Place a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Add in olive oil when hot and saute shallots with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent.  Add in garlic and stir until fragrant.  Add sambal + honey and stir all to incorporate.  Add in soy sauce and vinegar and bring to a boil and then turn off the heat.

You can reduce the sauce to get it thicker, but I really like sauce-drenched rice, so I didn't really reduce it.  In the future, I may try it with fresh ginger (~1-2 T finely minced) and add that in with the shallot and perhaps a drizzle of sesame oil in at the end off heat.  This was highly adapted from a recipe that appeared in the Penzeys Spices catalog.

Ordinarily, I would wait until I've perfected this and have a highly photogenic meal in which to document.  That may happen, but Ramona actually grabbed the catalog, ripped a bunch of pages out, and drooled all over it.  Suffice it to say, I'm going to throw this out, but I wanted to document it because I wrote my crib notes on the catalog.

Ahh.  Such is the life of a cooking parent.

Tuna and Bean Salad

Colby and I just started back up with a CSA.  This time we chose Johnson's Backyard Garden.  We decided to go with them because it allowed us to have a bit more control over the vegetables we get (no more yucky eggplant!) and, more importantly, everything is organic.  I know that there's been a study indicating that organic produce is not more nutritious than conventionally grown produce, but that's not really the point.  Ramona has started eating solid foods and everything she's had has been organic thus far and we plan on keeping that true for as long as possible.  In a lot of ways, she's been the impetus for getting the CSA.  Now we have fresh-seasonal-organic-sustainable-local vegetables to give her year round and we can also start to clean up our meals, so to speak, in order to set a good example for her.

Today we got our first share and the first order of business was to make dinner.  We roasted the okra that we got with some spices and olive oil and it was amazing.  When you're eating crazy fresh food, it doesn't really need much to be fantastic.  We also had a highly adapted Tuscan bean and tuna salad with some JBG arugula.  In addition to trying to clean up our eating, we also need fast meals and nothing is faster than this salad.

seasoned, roasted okra

Bean and tuna salad

2 cans tuna in olive oil, drain one can and save the oil and use the oil from the other can with the tuna
2 cans cannellini (or other white) beans, drained
juice of one lemon (zest too, if you're not in a hurry)
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed or finely minced
2 T fresh dill, chopped
salt + pepper to taste

Okay, this is going to be the most complicated recipe ever:

mix everything together
season to taste

My favorite thing to do with the oil is to brush it on bread and toast it in the oven.  If I'm feeling particularly lazy, I just brush the oil on toast.  Either way, eating this with a slice of really tasty bread is highly advised.  I've also used that oil to make a vinaigrette (combine oil with some lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper, and dijon mustard in a jar; shake) to go over greens to eat with the salad.  This time I added a handful of arugula from the share in my bowl (Colby abstained) and it was GOOD.  But I think that arugula is the most delicious stuff ever, so that is something easily omitted if you don't love your taste buds.

Asian-inspired Salmon Filet Sandwich

Have you ever had something at a restaurant that was so good that you wanted to eat it again and again and again?  A couple weeks ago I had the salmon "burger" at Central Market Cafe and to say that I loved it is an understatement.  I've been itching to recreate it, not just because it's delicious, but because it seemed simple enough: salmon filet, wasabi mayo, erm I MEAN aioli, and seaweed salad.  This turned out to be easy peasy and, perhaps, even more delicious than the original.



salmon filet sandwich

4 salmon filets
4 burger buns (I used the same buns that I used for stuffed french toast)
2 T miso paste
2 T mirin
2 T soy sauce
1/2 t sesame oil


1 T wasabi paste (more or less, to taste)
1 t soy sauce
1 t lime juice
1/3 c mayo

maggi, to taste (optional)

seaweed salad

olive oil

1) Preheat oven to 300.  Cut burger buns in half and brush with olive oil.  Put the buns in the oven for ~15 minutes, or until they're lightly toasted.

2) While the buns are cooking, whisk together the miso paste, soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil.  Coat salmon filets with this and let sit for 5-10 minutes, minimum.  You could also let the salmon marinate for longer if you're not, say, eating second dinner at 11:00 PM.

3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the wasabi paste, soy sauce, and lime juice.  Once it's all combined, add in the mayo and stir to combine.  Taste for seasoning.  If it needs more salt, add in a couple dashes of maggi (or you could just add in a bit more soy sauce).  Set aside.

4) Cook the salmon on the stovetop over medium-high heat for ~5 minutes on a side.  The salmon will flake when it's cooked through and be a lovely pink color on the inside.

5) Assemble by spreading a layer of the wasabi mayo on your freshly toasted buns and topping it with a good handful of seaweed salad.  (We got ours from CM because I'm all about ease of preparation right now).

Yes, that's a second sandwich on Colby's plate.   It's *that* good.

twiddlerecipe: stuffed french toast

My friend Chris is visiting this week to meet Ramona and to work with me on a project that he'll be presenting at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.  I'm more than a little bit jealous about that.  Chris also likes to cook, so we've actually put my kitchen to its intended use again, as opposed to the baby washing station that it's become.

images from my past fade into the background (i.e., the kitchen aid stand mixer)

Last night we made strawberry and cream cheese stuffed french toast, using uncut bakery burger buns as the bread.  I didn't really note the exact amounts or the time, but the method is pretty simple.

strawberry stuffed french toast

butter

~8oz strawberries, washed, hulled, and thinly sliced

~1/4 c sugar give or take to taste, depending on your strawberries

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

~1 t vanilla extract

4 uncut bakery burger buns

3 eggs

1 c cream

~1/2 cinnamon

~1 t vanilla extract

~2 t honey

Combine the strawberries and sugar and allow to macerate.  Pulse together the macerated strawberries, cream cheese, and vanilla extract until mostly combined.  It's nice to not completely pulverize the berries, so that there's a bit of texture.

Cut holes into the burger buns, such that a pocket forms.  Stuff the buns with the mixture.  The pockets shouldn't be overflowing, but just filled.

In a large, shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and honey.  Soak each of the stuffed buns in the mixture.  Cook in butter on all sides, rotating the buns so that all six sides are done (so you're not eating raw eggs) and golden brown.

Sambal Green Beans

I haven't done much in the way of creative cooking in the kitchen for a really long time.  Mostly, it's been tried and true dishes that I found to be easy to throw together and quick to cook.  This was thrown together in about 10 minutes from inception to table.

1/2 lb green beans, cut in half
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t salt
2 t sambal
1 t honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 t sesame oil

Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add in green beans and salt.  Cook for a few minutes, or until tender-crisp.  Add in the sambal and honey and stir until it evenly coats the green beans.  Add in garlic and stir until fragrant.  Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil.

You can increase the amount of sambal to taste, depending on how hot you like your beans.

Twelve Days with a Grateful Heart: DSLRs and Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Here's another ugly meal that not even natural lighting and a DSLR could fix.  However, this one is crazy tasty.


2-3 strips bacon

2-3 T olive oil

1 lb chicken (I used boneless skinless breasts since I'm lazy, but chicken thighs would work equally well)

1/4 medium yellow onion, diced

8 oz cremini or button mushrooms, wiped and sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/3ish c chicken stock
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c cream or evaporated milk
salt+pepper, to taste

In a pan, heat olive oil, season chicken with salt+pepper, and pan fry until cooked through and golden.  Slice the cooked chicken.  In a separate pan, render bacon until crisp.  Set aside the bacon and crumble.  Leave at least a couple Tbs of bacon grease in the pan, which might mean not removing any of the rendered fat.  Saute the onions with a pinch of salt until at least translucent.  I usually try to caramelize them a bit.  Add in mushrooms and season with salt+pepper.  You may need to add a bit of oil if you've used most of the bacon grease for the onions.  Saute the mushrooms until they've released their liquid and start to brown a bit.  Stir in the garlic until fragrant.  Add in the chicken stock and stir to pick up any browned bits of mushroom and onion and let the chicken stock reduce a bit.  Turn down the heat and stir in the sour cream and cream until combined.  Don't let this boil because things will separate.  Add in the crumbled bacon and chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over rice or egg noodles.

I guess conventional wisdom says that I should use the pan that cooked the chicken to make the sauce, but I wanted a fast dinner, so I cooked the chicken simultaneously with the sauce.  After the chicken was out, I remembered that I wanted to make asparagus, so the chicken-y goodness didn't all go to waste.  I added a bit of stock to the pan to stir up the browned bits, added in my asparagus and cooked them until tender-crisp.

So  yes, I am thankful for my DSLR because with a little bit of natural light, I'm able to take foods that weren't actually that tasty and make them look delicious.  Similarly, they elevate ugly dishes to things that maybe look palatable.  While this dish is pretty gnarly, it's actually really tasty.

zucchini fritter with way too much onion (way more pretty)

chicken and mushroom dinner, with the chicken-y asparagus (way more tasty)

Pumpkin Cornbread

Recall the ill-fated muffins from yesterday?  Well, they only used a half a can of pumpkin and I was taunted with the rest of the can, just sitting in the fridge.  I decided that the best way to proceed was to make pumpkin corn bread.  This time, however, my recipe tweaking was rewarded.

Pumpkin Cornbread

1 c cornmeal
1 c AP flour
1/3 c sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t grated nutmeg
1 T baking powder
1 t salt

1/3 c oil (I used grapeseed oil, but vegetable oil works here too)
1/2 c milk (or more)
1/2 c pumpkin
1 large egg, beaten

Set oven to 400 F.  Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, milk, pumpkin, and egg.  Fold in the dry ingredients.  Pour into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan and bake until a toothpick can be cleanly removed, about 15 minutes.

The reason why I say that you may need more milk is that it depends on the consistency of your pumpkin.  The pumpkin I used was fairly watery, but the batter was still pretty thick.  Thin it with milk a couple Tbsps at a time if the batter turns to dough.  You should be able to shake the pan to (mostly) smooth out the batter into one even-ish layer.

Ugly, but Tasty!, Butternut Squash Casserole

A couple weeks ago, Colby and I went to Nerd Nite: Food Edition.  Okay, it wasn't actually called that, but that's what it was.  The first speaker was AFBA's own Addie Broyles.  Someone asked her what the key to a successful food blog was and one of her suggestions was to make sure that you post pictures.  This is something that I'm not so great about doing with every post.  Partly, my picture taking skills are pretty terrible, but also because a lot of the dishes I make aren't so attractive.  This dish falls firmly in the category of dishes that are delicious but not at all pretty.

Yeah, this is kind of a hot mess.  And by hot, I mean temperature and by mess, I mean, like, look at it.

Butternut squash casserole

3 lb butternut squash, peeled, cubed, roasted in olive oil and salt+pepper at 400 for ~30 minutes
~1/3 lb bacon (more or less depending on how much you love bacon)
1/2 medium yellow or sweet onion, diced
1/2 c sour cream
1 c shredded cheddar cheese (I'd avoid superduper extra sharp cheddar, actually and feel free to use more if you want)
1/4 c panko (optional)
salt+pepper

Cook the bacon until crisp.  Crumble and set aside.  Remove all but a couple Tbsps of the bacon grease and then saute the onion in the same pan until they're translucent.  I tend to brown them, to get more sweetness out of them, but be sure not to let them burn (oops).  In an oven-safe dish, combine the roasted butternut squash cubes, bacon, onions, sour cream, and 2/3 c of the cheddar cheese.  Season with salt+pepper to taste.  Top with the remaining cheese and panko, if using.  Bake in a 350 F oven for ~10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is melted and bubbly.

Sesame and Wasabi Dressing and Forgotten Jalapenos

One of the worst pregnancy side effects I've encountered is "pregnancy brain".  I've basically lived in a fog for the past 5 months, having difficulty coming up with words and conveniently forgetting how to do things that I've done a zillion times before.

Oops.

Take, for instance, hair cuts.  I usually cut Colby's hair because all
he gets are buzz cuts, so it saves us like 20 bucks a month or so.  The clippers we got from Costco are probably one of the best investments we've ever made there, but I totally forgot that I usually shave the back of his neck, rather than use the bare clippers.  He may or may not have ended up with cuts on the back of his neck.  Ahem.


Suffice it to say, sometimes my inability to remember things interferes with what I'm doing, occasionally with disastrous results.  On the other hand, on Monday I planned ahead and took the time to go to our garden to get some surprisingly resilient jalapenos for dinner.  We built a raised garden box a la Springdale Farm because we have fire ant problems and we thought that this would keep them out.  The garden grew like gangbusters from mid-May to the end July or so, but then we sort of decided that it would be best to just let everything go because it was probably never going to rain ever again.  After about 3 months of very sporadic watering, the garden box looked something like this:

It turns out that basil is impossible to kill.  In fact, that basil is made entirely of stuff that reseeded from last year.  Our rosemary and sage were fine because those are desert-okay plants, but it turns out that zucchini, cucumbers, and green beans are not.  At least, they need to be watered more than once a month in 100+ heat.  Surprisingly enough, the mint plant that we neglected had bolted and seeded, so when we started watering the box again once it cooled off a lot, we found little mint plants all over the place.  I'll have to come up with creative uses for it.  I think the most surprising result was that not only did our jalapenos not die, they started to flower again and make more jalapenos.  I chose the biggest one.  It was pretty and it was going to be part of our dinner.



I made a version of Nigella's crab and avocado salad, but preg brain struck again and I ended up forgetting about the jalapeno that I had so lovingly harvested earlier.  Le sigh.  The dinner was actually really good, though.  Instead of her dressing, I adjusted the proportions to this:


Sesame and Wasabi dressing
1 t prepared wasabi
1 t sesame oil
2 T mirin
1 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 t kosher salt

juice of 1/2 lime

Whisk it all together in a small bowl and toss with 8 oz lump crab meat, 1 sliced avocado, and as much arugula as you can stand.

Om nom.

Fall Favorites: Butternut Squash and Apples

I love butternut squash.  Along with apple, it's one of my favorite fall flavors.  Colby and I just went to the farmers market this morning to pick up some (amazing) bacon from Peach Creek Farms, sourdough from Texas French Bread, and some butternut squash because I can't get enough of it.

I know that I've posted two other butternut squash soup recipes, but this one combines techniques from both recipes and comes out tasting rich and flavorful.

roasted butternut squash and apple soup

2 lbs butternut squash
1 large carrot, diced
1 large celery, diced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1/4 c pine nuts
1 lb apples, peeled and diced (I used a SweeTango, but any sweet apple would do well)
32 oz stock (I used chicken stock, but vegetable stock also works)
1 t ground ginger or 1/2 t nutmeg
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t soy sauce
salt+pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Peel and cube the butternut squash, toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 F oven until the squash is easily pierced.  Depending on how small the cubes are, this can take anywhere from 20-40ish minutes.  Just keep checking.  I usually do this the day before I make the soup and put the squash the oven while I'm cooking other things.

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat a couple tbsps of evoo.  I kind of just eyeball it.  Add in the celery, carrots, and onions along with a big pinch of salt and saute until everything is softened. (Usually 5-10 minutes).  I tend to brown the onions to add an extra layer of flavor.

Make a well in the center of the pot and add in the pine nuts, careful to stir the nuts around so that they don't burn, but brown a bit.  (Usually a few minutes, but just watch it.)

Add in the apples and ginger and mix everything up.  Let the apples soften, but not turn to mush.  (~5 minutes)

Add in squash, chicken stock, brown sugar, and soy sauce and emulsify everything in the pot until smooth.

Taste for seasoning and adjust levels of salt and pepper.

The soup ends up tasting of both apples and butternut squash since the apples aren't cooked to mush.  The soy sauce helps with depth of flavor and is a really sneaky tasty way to adjust the seasoning. This is a great soup to make ahead of time because the flavors mesh together in the fridge.

Chicken and Broccoli Mac'n'Cheese

Sometimes meals are works of art.  This one definitely isn't, but it's pretty tasty.

1 lb whole wheat pasta, cooked
1 bunch broccoli, florets chopped and blanched
1/2 yellow onion, diced and sauteed until brown
2 chicken breasts, cooked and pulled

2 c milk
2 T butter
2 T AP flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
s+p

In a small sauce pan, melt butter.  Whisk in the flour.  Keep whisking until the butter+flour mixture becomes golden and nutty (at least a minute, but longer if you can stand it).  Add in salt and then whisk in milk.  Keep stirring and bring to a simmer to thicken.  Add in 1.5 c cheese and stir.  In a large casserole, toss together the noodles, shredded chicken, broccoli, onions, and cheese sauce.  Add in salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and bake in a 350 F oven for ~10 minutes if the ingredients were just cooked or closer to 30 minutes if everything was refrigerated.

This is actually really versatile.  We just happened to have broccoli, but everything else is basically a pantry staple.  Using leftover vegetables and chicken makes this come together even easier.

Tomatillo Salsa

Why hello, stranger.  And by stranger, I mean the one person who still periodically reads this blog.  Last night, I came to the realization that I only posted three times in June, which is the low for this year.  I'll have a menu soon, but I think that July is going to be another low-post month.

One of my excuses *ahem* reasons for not posting so much in June is that for nearly the entire month, I was taking pictures of every meal and snack I ate as part of an artist's project.  So while all was quiet on this front, I was still thinking about food a lot.  It's been sort of weird not taking pictures of everything I consume, and I think that I might try to take more pictures and post them on my tumblr.  We'll see, though.  I periodically pick it up and put it back down again, but it's been my way to catalog what I've eaten, which (usually) keeps me accountable.

On one of the final days of the project, my dinner consisted of a lot of chips and salsa.  No, I wasn't undergradding out, but rather I participated in a salsa show down at Lewis and Rachel's place.  It was a lot of fun and I was glad to participate, plus I won a giant bank filled with jello.  It also gave me the excuse to make salsa for the first time.  Below is my (jello winning!) recipe.

Tomatillo salsa

2 lbs tomatillos, husked and washed well
1 large poblano pepper
2 whole jalapenos
2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 c chopped red onion
1/2 medium yellow/sweet onion, chopped
1/2 T extra virgin olive oil
6-7 cloves garlic, more if you love garlic (oh man, I love garlic)
1 t cumin, optional
1/3 c parsley or cilantro, chopped, optional
the juice of one lime
salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.  Either in a dutch oven or over the flame on a gas stove, char the tomatillos, poblano pepper, and the two whole jalapenos.  Put the peppers in a plastic bag and seal.  Place the tomatillos on a large sheet pan and then bake in the oven until soft (~10 minutes or so, but squeeze with some tongs to make sure). In a small pan, heat the olive oil and then cook the YELLOW onion with a pinch of salt, until it's soft and slightly browned.  You can also toss in the garlic to take off the bite.  Remove the onions from the pan.  If you're still concerned about the heat level, remove the yellow onion from the pan and then quickly sautee the jalapenos and red onion until slightly soften.  This step is optional.  Peel the poblano and the jalapenos.  My favorite method is to just do it with a dishtowl and scrape the skins off.  It's best to do this with gloves so you don't accidentally put a jalapeno finger in your eye when you're taking your contacts out later that night.  That is a mistake you make only once. *ahem* Once the tomatillos are cooked, place half of them in the food processor, along with the yellow onion, roasted skinless jalapenos and roasted skinless poblano.  Blitz until liquidy.  Add in the rest of the tomatillos and then pulse until a little bit chunky.  Combine this with the red onion and chopped jalapenos.  Crush the garlic into the mix and stir.  Add in the cumin and/or cilantro/parsley if using (I honestly don't remember if I put the cumin in.  I don't think I did, but I did add in parsley [because yuck, cilantro]).  Season with salt and lime juice to taste.  If you let the flavors marry overnight, it's pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.

In creating this recipe, my main goal was to balance everything.  The tomatillos are sort of sour, but they were mellowed by charring and cooking them.  To add that acidity back in, I included the lime juice.  It's the same story with the roasted jalapenos/chopped jalapenos and the sauteed yellow onion (which also adds sweetness to the entire salsa)/red onion.  If you really want to be snazzy, roast about half of the garlic cloves before pressing.

SeaVeggie Pesto

I haven't been posting much lately because I've been writing a lot lately for school.  I'm excited that I can finally take a break from that because I *finally* submitted my first refereed paper to the Astrophysical Journal.  Here's hoping that the editor/referees are gentle.


Anyway, I do more than just write about food.  This should be obvious since I've only posted twice this month and I'd be doing a lot of nothing if I didn't. ;)  Awhile back, I had the opportunity to give a talk at Austin's Nerd Nite.  It was about astronomy and sort of a brief overview of the stars I study and why they're interesting.  There's a video my Nerd Nite talk, along with the other speakers.  In meeting with the Nerd Nite organizers, I got to meet Lewis Weil, a man of many talents.  Not only does he help organize Nerd Nite (which you should totally check out if you're in Austin), he also grows his own ogonori, which he calls SeaVeggies.  Lewis let me take a pack home to play with and I came up with seaveggie pesto.

SeaVeggie Pesto

SeaVeggie Pesto
1 pack (~30g) SeaVeggies 
1 T miso paste 
1 T soy sauce 
2 T toasted sesame seeds 
1/2 T sesame oil
splash of rice wine vinegar to taste


Process all the ingredients until it makes a thick paste.  

pesto+couscous

I tried this pesto mixed in with some couscous, which was pretty good and also on some grilled fish.  The salinity of the seaveggies in the pesto match really well with seafood.  I tried it with steelhead trout but you could definitely do this with salmon or any other flavorful fish.

pesto on grilled trout

A month or so later, I stopped by the SeaVeggie stand at the downtown farmers market and was given a couple packs to bring to the Austin Food Blogger Alliance potluck.  I made a sesame and wasabi SeaVeggie salad.  This was sort of whipped together at the last minute and these amounts are approximate.

Sesame+wasabi SeaVeggie salad

2 packs SeaVeggies, roughly chopped  (the SeaVeggies, not the packs. ;))

1 T sesame seeds, toasted

1-2 t prepared wasabi (depending upon how much heat you like)

1 T sesame oil

2 T mirin

2 T rice wine vinegar

Whisk together the wasabi paste, sesame oil, mirin, and rice wine vinegar.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.  If you find it to need some sweetness, either add in a bit more mirin or you could also whisk in a few drops of honey.  Combine with the sesame seeds and the sea veggies.  Enjoy!

wasabi+sesame SeaVeggie salad

The combination of my terrible photography skills and the fact that ogonori isn't, perhaps, the prettiest vegetable around means that these photos don't do SeaVeggies justice.  Both applications were really tasty!  You can purchase SeaVeggies at the downtown SFC Saturday farmers market and at Wheatsville Co-op on any day.  Thanks, Lewis, for the three packs of SeaVeggies and for letting me play with a really fun and new-to-me ingredient!