I'm trying not to think about when this tomato is gone.
Friday
Love affair
I've been having an absolute love affair with this tomato. I haven't had a good tomato since September, and this one is so tender and sweet and fresh that I just can't leave it alone.
Toad in the hole with tomato and cheese for breakfast!
Waste not want not. Peanut butter and bananas!
Lunch! Crackers with mustard, a basil leaf, cheddar, and tomatoes! Plus a quartered pear. MM.
I'm trying not to think about when this tomato is gone.
I'm trying not to think about when this tomato is gone.
Wednesday
Alors
My french class–which I am no good at–is having a pot luck today. Madame Wadge, you just became human to me.
Few things boost my spirits like eating a ton of different food at the same time. I also occasionally enjoy when I don't have to pack a lunch. I mean, I've had a lot of yogurt containers explode and salad dressings leak. So schlepping a non-blow-uppable cake to school is something of a comfort. If worst did come to worst, I'd way rather eat squished crumbs of out of my bag than try and scrape up spilled yogurt. Sigh. What I wouldn't give for some more reliable tupperware.
I wanted to make something sweet, but not heavy. And lets be honest, I wanted to show off my baking prowess. But instead being diligent last night and doing homework, I made the banner for this blog. So I hit my always faithful, always fast fall-back. I made banana bread.
Mom's Banana Bread
If more people ever start to read this blog, I wonder if I'll be sad that I am sharing family foods. I don't think so, because I hate a secret recipe. Every Christmas I have to struggle against denouncing my Aunt Lorelei, simply because she won't give me the recipe for her amazing salt-candied cashews. I have tried so many friggin' times to recreate it, and I get close. I make a ton of other really good candied cashews, BUT NOT HERS. Raaaagh!
So no. I won't feel bad about hawking off my family recipes. Make this loaf. Think of my Mom. She's really tall and thin, and once someone yelled "OH MY GOD, THAT'S JAMIE LEE CURTIS!" and my Mom laughed and said "No, no. I'm her sister Bessie!"
My Mother's name is Shelley. She is also not related to Jamie Lee. Sigh.
Few things boost my spirits like eating a ton of different food at the same time. I also occasionally enjoy when I don't have to pack a lunch. I mean, I've had a lot of yogurt containers explode and salad dressings leak. So schlepping a non-blow-uppable cake to school is something of a comfort. If worst did come to worst, I'd way rather eat squished crumbs of out of my bag than try and scrape up spilled yogurt. Sigh. What I wouldn't give for some more reliable tupperware.
I wanted to make something sweet, but not heavy. And lets be honest, I wanted to show off my baking prowess. But instead being diligent last night and doing homework, I made the banner for this blog. So I hit my always faithful, always fast fall-back. I made banana bread.
Mom's Banana Bread
If more people ever start to read this blog, I wonder if I'll be sad that I am sharing family foods. I don't think so, because I hate a secret recipe. Every Christmas I have to struggle against denouncing my Aunt Lorelei, simply because she won't give me the recipe for her amazing salt-candied cashews. I have tried so many friggin' times to recreate it, and I get close. I make a ton of other really good candied cashews, BUT NOT HERS. Raaaagh!
So no. I won't feel bad about hawking off my family recipes. Make this loaf. Think of my Mom. She's really tall and thin, and once someone yelled "OH MY GOD, THAT'S JAMIE LEE CURTIS!" and my Mom laughed and said "No, no. I'm her sister Bessie!"
My Mother's name is Shelley. She is also not related to Jamie Lee. Sigh.
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
2 mashed-up bananas
1/2 cup of one of the following (or a combination! Yes! I love to combine!) millet, raisins, chocolate chips, walnut chunks, pecans, coconut, fresh blueberries! I used millet in this recipe because I love the little crunch they add.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
In a medium sized bowl, mash the bananas into a paste. Beat in the sugar and eggs til creamy. Mix in oil.
In a different bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and whatever added ingredients you have decided upon.
Add wet ingredients to dry, and pour into your greased pan.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. When a toothpick comes out glossy but clean of crumbs, you're done.
Tuesday
Go time
I haven't had much of a life recently. There is only two weeks of school left in this semester, which may I say, is horrifying. Every once and a while I think to myself I've only got one year left in my undergrad, and then I get the dry-heaves. So in lieu of hating all of the work I have to do, I'm going to try and convince myself that having homework is better than having a mortgage to contend with. I have a niggling, twenty year-old conviction that I am right.
So, some things that take 10 minutes or less to cook, that I've been eating a lot of in these last harried days of the semester.
Coke and Maltesers
Open up a can of cold Coke. Tear off the top of a bag of Maltesers. Alternate sips and bites until the sugar rush gives you the maximum jitters. Go for a run with your newfound energy and feel healthy afterwards.
Anticipating Having to Skip Lunch Breakfast Sandwich
A piece of toast topped with cream cheese, pesto, sliced avacado, and an egg fried in olive oil
Thick as Mud Coffee
I just got a french press, and rather than the recommended two scoops I like to put in about five. It makes for some slap-you-in-the-face caffeine, let me tell you.
Roasted Asparagus
I only really like the skinny asparagus, as I find the thicker stalks too woody and fibrous. That being said, it's hard to find good asparagus for cheap in winter. SIGH. I broke my cardinal cheap-produce rule in the interest off fast dinner.
Drizzle some olive oil over asparagus (more or less depending on how much you are roasting), season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400º for 4 minutes or so. My toaster oven works a dream for this, as it heats up so fast. These guys also work really well n the barbeque.
Once crisp-tender, remove from the oven/BBQ. Top with one or all of the following: goat/brie cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes (packed in oil), lemon zest.
Su Choy and Asparagus Asian-Style Scramble
The ugliest thing I've eaten in a while, but so fast and so tasty.
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp hoisin (or oyster sauce, if you have it)
1 Tbsp (scant) cornstarch
2 Tbsp grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 asparagus spears, broken into bite-sized pieces
1 egg
Pinch of red chili flakes
1 cup of chopped su choy, aka Chinese cabbage, packed
Mix the rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin/oyster sauce, and cornstarch together, Set aside. Heat the 2 Tbsp of oil in a skillet. Ad minced garlic and ginger, saute until fragrant–2 minutes. Add su choy and asparagus. Let the heat of the pan let wilt it for about 30 seconds. Add cornstarch mixture and egg. Scramble fervently. Take out your pent-up end-of-term stress out on it! Raaaagh! Add chili flakes! Mix mix mix! Until the egg is cooked, and the mixture has thickened and become a sort of saucey dressing. You'll know it is done when it looks exceedingly ugly. Season with salt, eat fast.
Pumpkin-Pecan Muffins with Dates
Adapted from Gourmet, November 1997 (RIP)
Don't think that I'm staying up late every night to make up a batch of these babies. I made them a few weeks ago and cut them in half, and lucky for me they freeze UNBELIEVABLY well. All I have to do with pop them in the toaster in the morning and stumble around the kitchen until they pop up, spicy and fragrant and speckled with those soft dates
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (or squash)
1/4 cup buttermilk (I used 1/4 cup regular milk with a 1/4 tsp of vinegar, as I can't justify buying buttermilk when all I'm going to do with it is bake)
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all-spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
3/4 cup of chopped pecans
3/4 cup of chopped dates
Preheat the oven to 400º and butter a 12-man muffin tin.
In a bowl, whisk the applesauce, pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla, milk (buttermilk or milk/vinegar mixture), and molasses until well-combined.
In another, larger bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients, including the dates and pecans. I find that giving them a bit of a flour-coat keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the batter. Whisk in the brown sugar last.
Careful not to over mix, add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together until just combined. Spoon into your muffin tin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. I found that the batter made exactly twelve muffins, but they took EXACTLY 20 minutes to bake. Anymore would have made them dry.
Spread with peanut butter and eat as you run out your door and to the bus stop. Don't cry if you miss the bus. It's give you more time to savor breakfast. And to buy an enormous coffee from the cafe two blocks away, even though you're broke and supposed to be off coffee. Heh.
So, some things that take 10 minutes or less to cook, that I've been eating a lot of in these last harried days of the semester.
Coke and Maltesers
Open up a can of cold Coke. Tear off the top of a bag of Maltesers. Alternate sips and bites until the sugar rush gives you the maximum jitters. Go for a run with your newfound energy and feel healthy afterwards.
Anticipating Having to Skip Lunch Breakfast Sandwich
A piece of toast topped with cream cheese, pesto, sliced avacado, and an egg fried in olive oil
Thick as Mud Coffee
I just got a french press, and rather than the recommended two scoops I like to put in about five. It makes for some slap-you-in-the-face caffeine, let me tell you.
Roasted Asparagus
I only really like the skinny asparagus, as I find the thicker stalks too woody and fibrous. That being said, it's hard to find good asparagus for cheap in winter. SIGH. I broke my cardinal cheap-produce rule in the interest off fast dinner.
Drizzle some olive oil over asparagus (more or less depending on how much you are roasting), season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400º for 4 minutes or so. My toaster oven works a dream for this, as it heats up so fast. These guys also work really well n the barbeque.
Once crisp-tender, remove from the oven/BBQ. Top with one or all of the following: goat/brie cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes (packed in oil), lemon zest.
Su Choy and Asparagus Asian-Style Scramble
The ugliest thing I've eaten in a while, but so fast and so tasty.
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp hoisin (or oyster sauce, if you have it)
1 Tbsp (scant) cornstarch
2 Tbsp grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 asparagus spears, broken into bite-sized pieces
1 egg
Pinch of red chili flakes
1 cup of chopped su choy, aka Chinese cabbage, packed
Mix the rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin/oyster sauce, and cornstarch together, Set aside. Heat the 2 Tbsp of oil in a skillet. Ad minced garlic and ginger, saute until fragrant–2 minutes. Add su choy and asparagus. Let the heat of the pan let wilt it for about 30 seconds. Add cornstarch mixture and egg. Scramble fervently. Take out your pent-up end-of-term stress out on it! Raaaagh! Add chili flakes! Mix mix mix! Until the egg is cooked, and the mixture has thickened and become a sort of saucey dressing. You'll know it is done when it looks exceedingly ugly. Season with salt, eat fast.
Pumpkin-Pecan Muffins with Dates
Adapted from Gourmet, November 1997 (RIP)
Don't think that I'm staying up late every night to make up a batch of these babies. I made them a few weeks ago and cut them in half, and lucky for me they freeze UNBELIEVABLY well. All I have to do with pop them in the toaster in the morning and stumble around the kitchen until they pop up, spicy and fragrant and speckled with those soft dates
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (or squash)
1/4 cup buttermilk (I used 1/4 cup regular milk with a 1/4 tsp of vinegar, as I can't justify buying buttermilk when all I'm going to do with it is bake)
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp all-spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
3/4 cup of chopped pecans
3/4 cup of chopped dates
Preheat the oven to 400º and butter a 12-man muffin tin.
In a bowl, whisk the applesauce, pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla, milk (buttermilk or milk/vinegar mixture), and molasses until well-combined.
In another, larger bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients, including the dates and pecans. I find that giving them a bit of a flour-coat keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the batter. Whisk in the brown sugar last.
Careful not to over mix, add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together until just combined. Spoon into your muffin tin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. I found that the batter made exactly twelve muffins, but they took EXACTLY 20 minutes to bake. Anymore would have made them dry.
Spread with peanut butter and eat as you run out your door and to the bus stop. Don't cry if you miss the bus. It's give you more time to savor breakfast. And to buy an enormous coffee from the cafe two blocks away, even though you're broke and supposed to be off coffee. Heh.
Monday
Salvage
Since the Bagna Cauda, I've mostly been eating eggs and muffins. I've got an enormous project due tonight at midnight, in times of stress, I always revert to breakfast food. I think it makes me feel like I've just woken up, and that I have a whole stretch of time. It's a fleeting, but delicious trick, and it has kept me happy(ish) for the past week or so.
After my dinner of scrambled eggs and salsa last night, I was putting the milk back in the fridge when I saw, buried beneath a stack of carrots, that little radicchio. I looked sad, the edges of its leaves slightly wilted.
Now, not only did I spent a lot of money on that little thing, but before the Bagna Cauda and my introduction to anchovies, I'd never eaten radicchio either. And even though I loved the saltiness of the anchovies, and the sexy, slippery egg yolk, the radicchio never really got to prove itself. Which is why I've decided to just cook it up by itself and really give it the attention it deserves.
Oven-Braised Raddichio with Balsamic and Thyme
1 sad head of raddichio, cut into quarters
1 tsp of minced fresh thyme (the only thyme in my backyard is lemon thyme, but it was good too)
3 T or so of olive oil
Drizzling of balsamic
S&P
Silly easy. Dress the raddichio wedges with the olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper. Toss gently to coat everything. Pop them in a hot oven (roughly 400ºF? I used a rickety little toaster oven, and it melted the plastic appliance on top in the cooking process. So 400ºF should be about right) and cook for 12 minutes on one side. Flip, bake 8 minutes more. Once they're done they look silky and wilted, the edges slightly caramelized.
Drizzle some balsamic on top and enjoy by themselves. Raddichio's fantastic bitterness is buttressed by the smoothness of the olive oil and thyme. These wedges became downright sexual on a piece of toast with some melted brie. YES PLEASE.
After my dinner of scrambled eggs and salsa last night, I was putting the milk back in the fridge when I saw, buried beneath a stack of carrots, that little radicchio. I looked sad, the edges of its leaves slightly wilted.
Now, not only did I spent a lot of money on that little thing, but before the Bagna Cauda and my introduction to anchovies, I'd never eaten radicchio either. And even though I loved the saltiness of the anchovies, and the sexy, slippery egg yolk, the radicchio never really got to prove itself. Which is why I've decided to just cook it up by itself and really give it the attention it deserves.
Oven-Braised Raddichio with Balsamic and Thyme
1 sad head of raddichio, cut into quarters
1 tsp of minced fresh thyme (the only thyme in my backyard is lemon thyme, but it was good too)
3 T or so of olive oil
Drizzling of balsamic
S&P
Silly easy. Dress the raddichio wedges with the olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper. Toss gently to coat everything. Pop them in a hot oven (roughly 400ºF? I used a rickety little toaster oven, and it melted the plastic appliance on top in the cooking process. So 400ºF should be about right) and cook for 12 minutes on one side. Flip, bake 8 minutes more. Once they're done they look silky and wilted, the edges slightly caramelized.
Drizzle some balsamic on top and enjoy by themselves. Raddichio's fantastic bitterness is buttressed by the smoothness of the olive oil and thyme. These wedges became downright sexual on a piece of toast with some melted brie. YES PLEASE.
Sunday
Dying properties
I made this soup the other day.
It was one of those one-off soups, because I had all of these odds and ends lolling around in my fridge that I wanted to get rid of so I could have a really satisfying, expensive grocery shop. I wasn't paying attention to how much of what went in, but this is the basic stuff:
Now-I've-Got-A-Clean-Crisper Soup
or
Beets-Dye-Everything-Wasteland/Lipstick-Pink Soup
A quarter of a musty old beet, chopped
A can of diced tomatoes, plus juices
Two (?) carrots
Half an onion
Rosemary
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup or so of chicken broth
Olive oil, for the initial saute
That last splash of red wine
S&P
Basically saute the veggies and rosemary, add the tomatoes and chicken broth, boil furiously, and then blend up. It was earthy, warm, and sweet with the tiniest pinch of heat. Perfect for a procrastinating Friday afternoon. Plus, I love that aggressive color. it reminds me of being a thirteen year old Avril Lavinge skater grrl with arm-warmers and shoes that I drew on. SIGH, those were the DAYS.
Also:
Now-I've-Got-A-Clean-Crisper Soup
or
Beets-Dye-Everything-Wasteland/Lipstick-Pink Soup
A quarter of a musty old beet, chopped
A can of diced tomatoes, plus juices
Two (?) carrots
Half an onion
Rosemary
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup or so of chicken broth
Olive oil, for the initial saute
That last splash of red wine
S&P
Basically saute the veggies and rosemary, add the tomatoes and chicken broth, boil furiously, and then blend up. It was earthy, warm, and sweet with the tiniest pinch of heat. Perfect for a procrastinating Friday afternoon. Plus, I love that aggressive color. it reminds me of being a thirteen year old Avril Lavinge skater grrl with arm-warmers and shoes that I drew on. SIGH, those were the DAYS.
Also:
My friend KChan stabbed a whole bunch of leaves on her walk home from the bar. I thought this was cute. Cute, no?
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