This recipe blew my mind! Who knew it was possible to make your own popcorn at home in a microwave? I have been looking for a popcorn maker for months (if not a year plus) as I am addicted to popcorn. However, I know that the chemical/processed microwave popcorn that you buy is not the healthiest for you. Thanks to the Food Matters book by Mark Bittman I learned how to make my own!
Homemade microwave popcorn
Ingredients:
1/4 cup popcorn
1/4 tsp salt
whatever toppings you want
Procedure:
1) Put the popcorn in a brown bag and fold the top many times. Microwave it for 3-4 minutes until there are 4-5 seconds between pops. Add your toppings, shake and enjoy.
Delicious and nutritious! Popcorn by itself is really healthy and low calorie. Even if you add your own butter and salt it is still way better for you than any microwave version! Thank you, Food Matters!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Eating to change the way I live
So I've been reading a lot of books about food and our food industry lately. Some of it is pretty scary stuff, opening my eyes to what I thought was doing right was actually still kind of wrong. In the past couple of weeks, I have read The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules by Michael Pollan and Food Matters and The Food Matters cook book by Mark Bittman. I am just about to start In defense of food also by Michael Pollan. I won't go into the details here, but the basic synopsis is to eat more plants and whole grains and fewer animal products. Oh, and that even things that you think are "good" for you or the environment (like organic or free range) aren't always necessarily so (that was the scary eye opening part). Michael Pollan kind of talks about how all this happens and Mark Bittman talks about recipes you can make within this "diet." So, with these books in mind, I am trying to eat in a more health conscience and environmental health conscience way. I already do for the most part, but I am going to try even harder. Every journey starts with a first step. My first step were the following two recipes:
Cold Noodles with Cucumber, Avocado, and Crab
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and grated
1 tbsp minced ginger
8 oz rice, buckwheat (soba), or wheat noodles, preferably whole grain
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 avocado, skin and pit removed, chopped or sliced
8 oz lump crab meat
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
lemon wedges
soy sauce, for serving
Procedure:
1) Bring a large pot of water to boil and salt it. Put the cucumbers and ginger in a colander, sprinkle with one tablespoon salt, and toss well. Let the mixture sit in the sink for about 15 minutes, then rinse with cold water and set the colander aside to drain.
2) Cook the noodles in the boiling water until they're tender but not mushy. Check them frequently: the time will vary from a minute or 2 for thin rice noodles, to 5 minutes for soba, or up to 12 minutes for wide brown rice noodles. Drain the noodles, rinse with cold water, transfer to a serving bowl or platter, and toss with the oils. Top the noodles with the cucumbers, avocado, crab, cilantro, and peanuts and toss again. Serve, passing the lemon wedges and soy sauce at the table.
Brown Sugar-Glazed Butternut Squash
Notes: A sweet glaze underlines the best qualities of roasted butternut squash, but only if the squash cooks evenly and the flavors are in balance. Here’s what we discovered:
•For the sweet element of the glaze, tasters preferred the complexity and depth of dark brown sugar to plain white sugar.
•Salt and pepper perked up the squash without overwhelming it, and a little melted butter added nutty richness and tied the glaze together.
•How the squash is cut affects how it caramelizes in the oven. We settled on 1-inch cubes, which had enough surface area to brown well yet were small enough to cook to full tenderness in a reasonable amount of time.
•A splash of cider vinegar after the squash came out of the oven countered the sweetness of the glaze and gave the dish some zing.
Brown Sugar-Glazed Butternut Squash
Serves 4 to 6
We like the deeper flavor of dark brown sugar in this recipe, but light brown sugar can be substituted.
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (see note)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
Procedure:
1. PREPARE PAN Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat lightly with cooking spray.
2. ROAST Toss squash, sugar, butter, salt, and pepper in large bowl until well coated. Transfer squash to prepared baking sheet. Roast, stirring every 15 minutes, until squash is well browned and completely tender, about 45 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack, sprinkle squash with vinegar, and stir to coat. Serve
Both dishes were really easy to make and really delicious. I learned a few things about soba noodles: one, they are very expensive if you get them 100% buckwheat ($9 for 8 oz, really?). Two, they cook really fast. I used a little too much ginger so I sometimes would a get a really gingery bite every once in a while. I guess that's what you get for not measuring! I just threw in the ginger, peanuts and cilantro in the food processor and pulsed until they were all chopped up. Thank goodness for food processors! I did use artificial crab meat as I happen to love it and real crab wasn't available. Either way about it, I recommend this dish.
The butternut squash was amazing!!! I couldn't stop eating it. It had a delicious sweet roasted flavor. I think I overcooked it as it just kind of mushed together (look at my pictures). However, it just had such a great taste that I really didn't care! I would definitely make this recipe again although at first I was complaining about all the prep work involved in skinning, chopping and seeding a butternut squash. It was totally worth it. Amazingly enough, I've had this same squash for months and it is still good! Amen for winter squash! Yummy yummy yummy!
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| Cold noodles with cucumber, avocado and crab |
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| Close up |
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| Brown sugar-glazed butternut squash fresh out of the oven |
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| Golden deliciousness |
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| Our dinner plate (the chicken drumstick came from Scott) |
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Scott's birthday dinner, part 2 (Lasagna and Green beans)
It figures that I would post the sweet before the savory. Or perhaps I am posting the most difficult before the easier. Either way about it, these next two recipes were quite easier to make.
Classic Lasagna, Italian-American-Style
Ingredients:
package of lasagna, cooked but underdone
container of tomato sauce
ground bison
3 cups ricotta cheese
3 cups mozzarella, shredded
1 1/2 parmesan, shredded
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Brown the bison, drain it of fat and mix it with the tomato sauce.
2. Butter a 9x13 pan. Lay down 3 lasagna noodles at a time right next to each other but not touching.
3. Add ricotta cheese, then meat sauce, then mozzarella, then parmesan.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have made your lasagna.
5. Heat in the oven for 20-30 minutes until it is bubbly.
Julia Child's green beans
Ingredients:
Green beans
2-3 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
parsley
Procedure:
1) Prep green beans (remove ends) and set 6-8 quarts of water to boil.
2) When the water is boiling quite vigorously, put the prepared green beans in the pot and cook until they are just done (about 5 minutes).
3) Drain in the sink and cool with running water for three minutes.
4) When ready to serve, put the green beans back in the pot with no water and heat them up. Keep shaking!
5) When warm, add 1-2 tbsp butter, pinch of salt, pepper, juice of 1/2 lemon and a little more butter. Toss with some parsley and serve immediately.
These two recipes were much easier to make. For those of you who are truly astute, you will notice that I have not mentioned the kale chips. This is because Scott remains the master of kale chips and so makes them almost every time we have them. Best of all, we had two friends (who should look familiar) come over and help celebrate with wine and a game of Munchkin. What a wonderful time!
Classic Lasagna, Italian-American-Style
Ingredients:
package of lasagna, cooked but underdone
container of tomato sauce
ground bison
3 cups ricotta cheese
3 cups mozzarella, shredded
1 1/2 parmesan, shredded
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Brown the bison, drain it of fat and mix it with the tomato sauce.
2. Butter a 9x13 pan. Lay down 3 lasagna noodles at a time right next to each other but not touching.
3. Add ricotta cheese, then meat sauce, then mozzarella, then parmesan.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have made your lasagna.
5. Heat in the oven for 20-30 minutes until it is bubbly.
Julia Child's green beans
Ingredients:
Green beans
2-3 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
parsley
Procedure:
1) Prep green beans (remove ends) and set 6-8 quarts of water to boil.
2) When the water is boiling quite vigorously, put the prepared green beans in the pot and cook until they are just done (about 5 minutes).
3) Drain in the sink and cool with running water for three minutes.
4) When ready to serve, put the green beans back in the pot with no water and heat them up. Keep shaking!
5) When warm, add 1-2 tbsp butter, pinch of salt, pepper, juice of 1/2 lemon and a little more butter. Toss with some parsley and serve immediately.
These two recipes were much easier to make. For those of you who are truly astute, you will notice that I have not mentioned the kale chips. This is because Scott remains the master of kale chips and so makes them almost every time we have them. Best of all, we had two friends (who should look familiar) come over and help celebrate with wine and a game of Munchkin. What a wonderful time!
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| Lasagna with bison |
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| Green beans Julia Child style |
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| Jeremy, Christian and Scott enjoying jalapeno poppers that Jeremy brought over. Yum! |
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| Our dinner plate |
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| A wonderful birthday dinner with friends |
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| A celebratory picture taken after too much wine and champagne :-D |
Scott's birthday dinner part 1 (Queen of Sheba cake)
This is the first cooking blog (and indeed the first real cooking) that I have posted in a while. Scott's birthday was on monday, March 7th. Since we both decided we were too poor to eat out, I decided to cook him a very nice dinner (in a rather ironic twist, I should have just taken him out to eat as the groceries ended up costing more than the dinner would have!). Anyways, I wanted to cook him whatever his little heart desired. He decided on a meat lasagna with bison. I decided on green beans Julia Child style and kale chips and we both decided on the Queen of Sheba cake.
As you faithful blog readers know, Scott and I have been watching Julia Child off and on since around Christmas time. About a month ago, we watched an episode that featured a delicious chocolate almond cake titled the "Queen of Sheba." We both salivated copiously and decided that this should be his birthday cake. I should say that I am not a big fan of chocolate cakes, but this cake looked like it was to die for! Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
4 oz semisweet chocolate (2/3 cup)
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup almonds (pulverized in blender or food processor with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup cake flour
Procedure:
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set the oven rack in lower middle level.
2 Melt the chocolate and the rum. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cut butter into 3 pieces and cream it. When soft and fluffy, add sugar and beat 1 minute. Beat in egg yolks until well blended.
4 In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Beat in cream of tartar and salt and continue beating until soft peaks are formed. Gradually beat in 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff, shiny peaks are formed. Blend melted chocolate and coffee or rum into yolk mixture, then add almonds and almond extract.
5 Stir a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate using a rubber spatula. Scoop the rest of the whites over chocolate and, alternating with sprinkles of flour, rapidly and delicately fold in the egg whites. Turn batter into buttered and floured 8-by-1 1/2-inch round cake pan, tilting it in all directions up to the rim all around. Set in preheated oven. Bake 25 minutes.
6 Cake is done when puffed to the top and a toothpick inserted 2 to 3 inches from edge comes out clean. The center should move slightly when the pan is gently shaken. Remove pan to a rack and let cool 15 minutes. Unmold onto rack. Let cool 2 hours before storing or icing.
Chocolate Icing for Queen of Sheba cake
Ingredients:
2/3 cup melted chocolate
2 tablespoons dark rum
6 tbsp softened unsalted butter
Procedure:
Beat in butter, 1 tbsp at a time. Let it cool until you can spread it on the cake.
I was quite nervous before I started making this cake, as I had only made a grand total of three cakes before in my entire life. The first one was from a box mix with pre-made frosting. I don't even know if you can truly count that. The next two were a carrot cake; one was made for myself and one was made for my friend Jane's birthday. Those cakes were made from scratch. This cake was more complicated than anything I had ever made before.
Part of the expense of the groceries was just buying the materials needed to make the cake! I didn't have an 8 x 1/5" cake pan that Julia called for. After searching in two or three different stores (which only had 9" cake pans), I finally found an 8 x 2". It would have to do. The first thing you need to do is butter and flour the pan (basically butter the pan and then put flour all around and pour the excess out). The next sort of difficult part was melting the chocolate. You have to set a pan of water to a simmer (took me a while to figure out that what I thought a simmer was is indeed a simmer), take it off the heat, put a smaller pan containing the chocolate and rum into the simmering water pan and then cover it for five minutes. I couldn't quite get it to melt the way it was supposed to but fortunately had watched the show where Julia said that you could add a tablespoon of hot water in if it starts to become grainy. That did the trick.
Okay, now comes the real trick: the beating of the egg whites without an electrical beater! I followed Julia Child's advice in The Way to Cook and prepped my bowl ahead of time with 1 tbsp of vinegar and a pinch of salt (pour the vinegar out but don't dry it all out). The egg whites have to be at room temperature. That took a while, too. Then beat and beat and beat. Add the cream of tartar in (I didn't add in the salt because it was already in the bowl), the sugar and beat and beat and beat. Fortuntaely, Scott has experience beating egg whites (from Renaissance camp's denatured proteins lesson) and was willing to tag team and help me out. Man! What a lot of work! One of the things I definitely want to get when I get married is an electrical egg beater. Whoo! The tricky thing is that when you add in the chocolate and flour and such later you have to be careful not to overmix or your cake will lose all its leavening power (since you don't add in any baking powder or baking soda). I didn't quite mix it 100% (although Julia Child said it is better to under beat than over beat) as some of the tastes were patchy in the final result (e.g., the edge tasted more almondy than the middle). This was also a result of my only having one true mixing bowl. I ended up having to mix the cake in the bowl for the salad spinner which has a slight peak on the bottom making it difficult to truly mix. Still, it came out quite delicous. I had a fun time decorating the cake as well.
As you faithful blog readers know, Scott and I have been watching Julia Child off and on since around Christmas time. About a month ago, we watched an episode that featured a delicious chocolate almond cake titled the "Queen of Sheba." We both salivated copiously and decided that this should be his birthday cake. I should say that I am not a big fan of chocolate cakes, but this cake looked like it was to die for! Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
4 oz semisweet chocolate (2/3 cup)
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup almonds (pulverized in blender or food processor with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup cake flour
Procedure:
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set the oven rack in lower middle level.
2 Melt the chocolate and the rum. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cut butter into 3 pieces and cream it. When soft and fluffy, add sugar and beat 1 minute. Beat in egg yolks until well blended.
4 In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Beat in cream of tartar and salt and continue beating until soft peaks are formed. Gradually beat in 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff, shiny peaks are formed. Blend melted chocolate and coffee or rum into yolk mixture, then add almonds and almond extract.
5 Stir a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate using a rubber spatula. Scoop the rest of the whites over chocolate and, alternating with sprinkles of flour, rapidly and delicately fold in the egg whites. Turn batter into buttered and floured 8-by-1 1/2-inch round cake pan, tilting it in all directions up to the rim all around. Set in preheated oven. Bake 25 minutes.
6 Cake is done when puffed to the top and a toothpick inserted 2 to 3 inches from edge comes out clean. The center should move slightly when the pan is gently shaken. Remove pan to a rack and let cool 15 minutes. Unmold onto rack. Let cool 2 hours before storing or icing.
Chocolate Icing for Queen of Sheba cake
Ingredients:
2/3 cup melted chocolate
2 tablespoons dark rum
6 tbsp softened unsalted butter
Procedure:
Beat in butter, 1 tbsp at a time. Let it cool until you can spread it on the cake.
I was quite nervous before I started making this cake, as I had only made a grand total of three cakes before in my entire life. The first one was from a box mix with pre-made frosting. I don't even know if you can truly count that. The next two were a carrot cake; one was made for myself and one was made for my friend Jane's birthday. Those cakes were made from scratch. This cake was more complicated than anything I had ever made before.
Part of the expense of the groceries was just buying the materials needed to make the cake! I didn't have an 8 x 1/5" cake pan that Julia called for. After searching in two or three different stores (which only had 9" cake pans), I finally found an 8 x 2". It would have to do. The first thing you need to do is butter and flour the pan (basically butter the pan and then put flour all around and pour the excess out). The next sort of difficult part was melting the chocolate. You have to set a pan of water to a simmer (took me a while to figure out that what I thought a simmer was is indeed a simmer), take it off the heat, put a smaller pan containing the chocolate and rum into the simmering water pan and then cover it for five minutes. I couldn't quite get it to melt the way it was supposed to but fortunately had watched the show where Julia said that you could add a tablespoon of hot water in if it starts to become grainy. That did the trick.
Okay, now comes the real trick: the beating of the egg whites without an electrical beater! I followed Julia Child's advice in The Way to Cook and prepped my bowl ahead of time with 1 tbsp of vinegar and a pinch of salt (pour the vinegar out but don't dry it all out). The egg whites have to be at room temperature. That took a while, too. Then beat and beat and beat. Add the cream of tartar in (I didn't add in the salt because it was already in the bowl), the sugar and beat and beat and beat. Fortuntaely, Scott has experience beating egg whites (from Renaissance camp's denatured proteins lesson) and was willing to tag team and help me out. Man! What a lot of work! One of the things I definitely want to get when I get married is an electrical egg beater. Whoo! The tricky thing is that when you add in the chocolate and flour and such later you have to be careful not to overmix or your cake will lose all its leavening power (since you don't add in any baking powder or baking soda). I didn't quite mix it 100% (although Julia Child said it is better to under beat than over beat) as some of the tastes were patchy in the final result (e.g., the edge tasted more almondy than the middle). This was also a result of my only having one true mixing bowl. I ended up having to mix the cake in the bowl for the salad spinner which has a slight peak on the bottom making it difficult to truly mix. Still, it came out quite delicous. I had a fun time decorating the cake as well.
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| Laying out all my ingredients beforehand, just like Julia Child says |
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| The cake cooling from out of the oven. As you can see, it didn't rise all the way to the top with the larger cake pan |
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| Finally unmolded. The French make a thin layer cake |
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| With the icing and decoration |
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| Standing proudly with my cake |
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
On having people cook for you, making soups and more...
So, I'm back. Obviously, my life goes on even when I am not writing in the blog. After all, a girl still needs to eat. I am afraid that there hasn't been much exciting cooking going on. In fact, for the most part, I haven't been cooking at all. Why is that, you may ask? Well, part of it is having a man who can cook. I absolutely love cooking but it is very nice to not have to do it all the time. If I did, I don't think it would be quite as enjoyable. In the last month or so since I have written in this blog, Scott (or others) have been doing a lot of the cooking. Scott makes his absolutely delicious Green Chile chicken soup. He also makes a real mean Macaroni and cheese and green chile. It is just white macaroni and cheese pasta from a Trader Joe's box but add in the green chile and some special Scott love and it becomes magic.
Last week, I was blessed enough to be visiting with our family friends Jim and Ida at the B and B ranch who generously put myself, Scott and my Dad up and cooked for us all plus treated us to lunch every day! What wonderful people (and not only because they gave me free food). It was a bit of a shock to come back on sunday last and have to cook for myself again.
I have made one discovery about cooking this week. Scott has been directing and so has had to stay at our job for the days that it is in program. Since I am not working program, that means that I have had to cook for myself. Yesterday, I cooked a very delicious lentil soup (very similar to the leftover lentil soup I made previously but with celery and potatoes instead of rice) but realized that I didn't enjoy it quite as much without someone there to appreciate it. There's just something about cooking for other people that just brings joy into my heart. It is wonderful to see someone else enjoying your food. When it is just you, what's the point? Other than a good meal, I suppose... I did enjoy my soup. I am coming to realize just how much I do enjoy lentil soup. And it was even better today!
Last week, I was blessed enough to be visiting with our family friends Jim and Ida at the B and B ranch who generously put myself, Scott and my Dad up and cooked for us all plus treated us to lunch every day! What wonderful people (and not only because they gave me free food). It was a bit of a shock to come back on sunday last and have to cook for myself again.
I have made one discovery about cooking this week. Scott has been directing and so has had to stay at our job for the days that it is in program. Since I am not working program, that means that I have had to cook for myself. Yesterday, I cooked a very delicious lentil soup (very similar to the leftover lentil soup I made previously but with celery and potatoes instead of rice) but realized that I didn't enjoy it quite as much without someone there to appreciate it. There's just something about cooking for other people that just brings joy into my heart. It is wonderful to see someone else enjoying your food. When it is just you, what's the point? Other than a good meal, I suppose... I did enjoy my soup. I am coming to realize just how much I do enjoy lentil soup. And it was even better today!
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| Scott's Green Chile Chicken soup, first day |
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| Green chile chicken soup a couple of days after. Notice how the broth has thickened. Yum... |
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| A vegetable soup that I made from leftover vegetables I had around the house. Using red onion and red cabbage made the broth turn purple. I am not going to blog about it because I didn't particularly like it and I think I had an allergic reaction to it. |
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| My Dad and I at the B and B ranch |
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| Lentil soup |
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