d Constitutional Cooking: September 2006

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Sunday Afternoons and Death Traps

Sunday afternoon's the best way to get to Tuesday night without really having to cook much. This week my Sunday afternoon consisted of sweet potatoes and baked chicken (I'm the queen about writing stuff you already know how to make). I miss spinach salad as a side dish, but oh well, huh. Will we ever eat it again?

  • Chicken Breasts:
    • Threw the (frozen) breasts into a plastic bag on Friday afternoon with some dijon mustard, a little olive oil, balsalmic vinegar and a smidge of honey. On Sunday afternoon they were thawed, so I stuck them and their marinade into a pyrex container, covered them w/ foil, and baked them at what I think was 350 for 30 minutes or so (internal temp 170, check your fav. standard cookbook). Probably should have taken the foil off to get a little bit of bakedness to the chicken, but this way it was at least very tender. Tonight: chicken salad with a leftover breast, light mayo and some more of the mustard.
  • Sweet Potatoes:
    • At the same time, I threw in a couple of sweet potatoes on their own baking sheet, then after they were done (appx 1hr) smushed them up with a smidge of butter. I'm lazy and more likely to eat them if they're already out of their jackets.

A Special Home How-to: Not Food Related, exactly
This weekend was very eventful. In the whole sit on the sofa, walk around the capitol, and watch TV way (Studio 60, anyone? Pilot's on nbc.com). The most exciting part was my little visitor Saturday night. While not exactly a cooking topic, a graham cracker box is involved so I'm counting this as a recipe. On first chilly night in this old apartment building, I reckon I wasn't the only one who wanted to hide under a quilt. Scoping out my little porch door was a tiny brown field mouse. Cute, and goodness knows I need some friends, but really not someone you want to hang out with. A bit of a freak-out ensued (mostly because I knew I would have to set a trap which eventually means dealing with a dead mouse, yuck).

I called my father and he suggested brilliance: set the trap (no small feat for a novice) and put it into a cracker box. If you turn the box on its side it'll still have room to flip and kill the mouse but you don't have to touch deadmouse+trap, supposing it works. Cruel, probably, but better than a mouse roommate with all the gross germs. Yucko. No mice were harmed in the taking of this photo and the trap remains as you see it in the picture - empty. I think Mickey moved on to a better apartment. Clearly mine is just too clean.

Recommendations, please:
I'm having a few folks over for Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night. Any good suggestions for easy appetizers? REALLY easy, I'm lazy and busy easy. Chips and salsa easy.

posted by mg at 9:01 PM 3 comments

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Stuffed Acorn Squash




After exhausting summer's bounty, it's time to embrace autumn. You have to time this recipie - it has to be cool enough that you want something hearty, but still in fig season, which does not last long into the fall. I came up with this business myself, so the quantities of ingredients are not exact. Nonetheless, here it is:


Stuffed Acorn Squash
(serves two)
  • 1 acorn squash, halved and seeded
  • 2/3 lb. sweet or spicy turkey sausage
  • 1 dry pint of fresh figs
  • ground red pepper to taste
  • garlic powder to taste
  • 2 oz. goat cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place squash halves in a baking dish. Fill baking dish (but not squash) with appx. 1" of water. Bake squash for 40 minutes. Remove squash, spread 1 oz. goat cheese in each half. Return squash to oven for 10 minutes or until tender.

Cook sausage over medium-ish heat in a non-stick skillet. Slice figs into rounds, add to sausage. Sprinkle on red pepper and garlic powder. When the figs get soft and the sausage is done, remove from heat and set aside.

Once squash is tender, pile the sausage/fig mixture into the cavity of the squash.

Side note: I haven't figured out the right side dish of greens for this main course, so I currently go with a salad. I try to tie in the flavor of either the figs or the goat cheese. Of course, with the e. coli threat, I skipped the salad entirely.

posted by ek at 8:41 PM 0 comments

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Gangsta Wraps


My wraps are gangsta because they're the shiz-nit (that's right, I went there). I made two yesterday (three, counting one for my lunch today) because I'm currently obsessed with Flat-Out Bread Wraps. Some kinds are 100 calories per serving, have lots of fiber and protien, and really are quite tasty. Here are the wraps from yesterday:

Breakfast Broccoli Wrap
After eating this at about 8am, I was not hungry in the slightest until 12:30, 1pm or so.
  • handful of cooked broccoli, chopped into small bits
  • two eggs
  • one slice Swiss cheese, cut or torn into small pieces
  • one whole-grain Flat-Out Wrap
  • salt and pepper to taste

Warm broccoli in non-stick pan. Add eggs, scramble lightly. Add Swiss pieces. Cook long enough for cheese to melt. Scrape out of pan, onto wrap. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roll and eat!

Quick, Summer's Almost Over Wrap

I'm doing my best to eat every last bit of summery good food before the season ends. So for dinner last night, I had the following:

  • one small cooked chicken breast, diced
  • one small tomato, diced
  • 1/3 small eggplant, cooked and diced (I'd grilled mine the night before)
  • 1/3 of a large ball of fresh mozzarella
  • 1 T. Trader Joe's (or any) Sundried Tomato Bruschetta spread (also includes green and black olives)

Heat all in the microwave. Throw into Italian Herb Flat-out Wrap. Fold and devour.

Protein & Veg Wrap
This is my lunch for today. I'm very excited.

  • whatever kind of wrap I used, can't remember
  • squirt of mustard
  • 1.5 T hummus
  • Italian-seasoned roast beef, appx. 4 oz.
  • one slice Muenster cheese
  • half a handful of (hopefully uninfested with e. coli) salad mix
  • 1/4 red pepper, sliced into strips
  • 1/4 cucumber, seeds removed, sliced into strips

Spread mustard, hummus on wrap. Throw on all other items. Roll.

I will be getting more creative as time goes on, I promise. I have a few recipes that are in a holding pattern, waiting for me to get to the farmer's market!

posted by ek at 8:49 AM 4 comments

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Freezer Filler... or, Nothing Like the Smell of Very Done Toast

It's time to have something quick for the freezer. The next 2 weeks are pretty busy with work stuff and, of course, the beginning of the new season of Grey's Anatomy, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have yumminess available on short notice.

Tonight I fixed an enormous baked ziti (Or would it be a baked penne? The little texture to penne is better than ziti... but I digress). My front stoop is next to a giant basil plant that I hope is for communal consumption, because I used it for a bruschetta appetizer (with homegrown mama-garden tomatoes) and mixed into the low-fat ricotta/cottage/mozzerella cheese mixture for the ziti! Nothing special to the recipe, just used what was in my head plus random additions from the internet to make sure I baked it for the right length of time. I added sauteed baby portabella mushrooms (I think called cremini) instead of meat sauce. I'm going to slice it into individual servings and stick in freezer bags tomorrow.

Bruschetta: Yeah, yeah, you know how to make this, I know.
  • Squish a clove of garlic, seed and dice a tomato or two, add some chopped basil, some balsalmic vinegar and olive oil. Mix together, let sit for a few minutes, and serve on toast.
  • Additionally, when making the toast, figure out how your brand-new toaster oven works so as to not to catch the kitchen on fire. Also, check your smoke detector that failed to go off after the kitchen was filled with the charred smell of bread. (What were the poor neighbors thinking...)

For the ziti, I got out the camera that is now sitting in the dining room, waiting anxiously for the next cooking experience. However, I don't feel like hooking the camera up so instead you get a picture of my jar of shame. Please note that I haven't done this alone.

posted by mg at 10:25 PM 1 comments

Monday, September 18, 2006

SpicyGoodness: Chloe Masala

Tonight it was finally time to try my hand at cooking on my somewhat fickle gas stove. Turns out it works just fine.

My tiny kitchen is the least-ventilated spot in the house, so last week I asked my landlords to fix my window that wouldn’t open (among other things). Thank goodness! Window + ceiling fan + a nice rain tonight made cooking in there tolerable. Well, sort of.

The Menu: Chickpeas. EB introduced me to Chole Masala while we were studying for the bar. I’m not sure how authentic this recipe is, as I didn’t have E’s, so I googled until I found one easy to make. This one was on a random parenting website called HipMama. After all, I did dream I had children this wkend. As the Masala is not the prettiest thing in the world to look at, I included my kitchen window instead.

The recipe:

  • 1 T vegetable oil
  • 2 onions (small to medium) chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 T chili powder (I added more to make it spicier)
  • 1 T turmeric (turns everything yellow)
  • 1 T paprika
  • 1T cumin
  • 1 T coriander
  • 12 oz can chickpeas
  • 14 oz can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 T garam masala

How to:

  1. Heat the oil in a big pan, add garlic; When brown, add the onions and cook until soft and a nice golden color. I had to add a little more oil to keep the onions from sticking. Make sure that they are good and done, unless you like your onions to not be mushy.
  2. Add all the spices except the garam masala. Stir and cook for two minutes, then add a little water if too dry to mix. I ended up adding about a cup of water to keep everythign from sticking too much. (EB does this part separately from the onions with her recipe).
  3. Add tomatoes and well-rinsed (learned the hard way) chickpeas and bring to a boil, then cover and set to low. Cook for 20 minutes. (Add water at anytime if mixture is dry). I didn't have to add any water here.
  4. Then add garam masala and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Last semester's visit to the Farmer's Market for spices paid off. I ate the peas plain, like chili, with some toast and a Sam Adams Oktoberfest. Probably you could eat it over rice as well. In retrospect, I’d add another can of tomatoes and chickpeas, or add one less onion. The onion to chickpea ratio was a little out of whack. Potentially could puree it to put on toast for an appetizer. Sort of like spicy hummus. Random but could work.

Dessert was Edy’s slow churned PUMPKIN (It’s seasonal. Like the beer. Go eat it right now.).

EK, Mom and I made your baked oatmeal while at home last wkend. V. good. I ate it cold for breakfast on Sunday and it was yummy. And ridiculously easy. Next time I think I'll bake blueberries into it.


posted by mg at 10:38 PM 1 comments

Baked Oatmeal - update

The oatmeal was a success. I made it plain, to see where I stood on flavor. I think that it needs more salt than I used...but of course, that's to taste.

This morning I had a chunk of it with blueberries and a dribble of fat-free half-and-half over the top. Yum - especially because I heated the berries with the oatmeal. I think that the oatmeal by itself would have been too dry without the added goodness.

Also, just a note: Trader Joe's has trail mix in individual serving sized-packets. This is a godsend for someone like me, who has very little self-control when it comes to stopping after a handfull of the stuff when it comes in a big bag.

posted by ek at 10:41 AM 1 comments

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Shut Your Apple Pie Hole

My man-friend came across the long state of Tennessee to visit me here in Knoxville and in honor of his arrival, I decided to heed Betty Crocker's (or was it the Pillsbury Doughboy?) advice that nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven. So, I made an apple pie a la Joy of Cooking's fantastic and simple recipe.

Luckily for lazy me, my apple pie is even easier than Joy of Cooking's because of one trick that I normally keep secret: I never make my own crust. I buy the roll-out, Pillsbury ones and they are great. None of the mess or frustration of working with finicky pastry dough. Otherwise, I follow Joy of Cooking's Apple Pie I recipe exactly:

  • Place one pie crust round into a 9-inch pie pan (I always use Pyrex) and trim any overhanging dough to 3/4 inch all around (thanks to the wonder of the pre-made pie crust, there shouldn't be much to trim). Keep the remaining pie crust round in the fridge.
  • Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  • Peal, core and slice 1/4 thick 2 1/2 pounds of Golden Delicious apples (5 to 6 medium to large apples). The type of apple you use is CRUCIAL, so don't deviate from Golden Delicious - they retain their texture and don't flood the pie with juice
  • Measure 6 cups of the apples and combine them with:
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • 1 tablespoon strained fresh lemon juice (I use the kind that comes in the plastic lemon in the produce section - works great with no need for straining)
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring several times, so that the apples soften slightly and will better fit into the crust.
  • Pour the mixture into the bottom crust and gently level with the back of a spoon. Dot the top with
    • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • Brush the overhanging edge of the bottom crust with cold water. Cover with the top crust, then seal the edge, trim, and crimp (with a fork) or flute (with your fingers - I prefer fluting).
  • Cut steam vents into the top crust and sprinkle with
    • 2 teaspoons sugar
    • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Bake the pie for 30 minutes (toward the end of this time, check to see if the edge of the crust is getting too brown - if it is, ring the edge in foil to prevent it from getting any darker). Slip a baking sheet beneath it, reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees, and bake until the fruit feels just tender when a knife is poked through the steam vent and thick juices have begun to bubble through the vents, 30 to 45 minutes more (it took mine 40 minutes this time).
  • For the filling to thicken properly, the pie must cool completely on a rack, 3 to 4 hours. If you want to serve the pie warm, place it in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes
  • The pie can be kept 2 to 3 days on the counter.....if you don't eat it by then, which you will.

The pie turned out so well that we ate it all before I had a chance to take a photo of it. So instead, here's a snapshot of my trusty sous-chef, hard at work.

posted by ATP at 11:57 AM 1 comments

Test...test...is this thing on?

Hello! Central Pennsylvania here. So, ladies, my current and continuing obsession is how to have good, healthy food to eat at all times, without cooking at all times. I've noticed multiple breakfast/lunch places here serve baked oatmeal as part of their morning menu. But rather than spending $4 a day to buy it, I went in search of a recipe for myself. Here's what I found - it's a good base to add nuts, dried or fresh fruit, and (maybe if I'm feeling decadent) cream. There are even some that add fruit juice to the mix. I'd cut the sugar big time if I was adding the juice, though...
  • 3 cups oatmeal
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
Mix all ingredients together and pour into 13 x 9 inch buttered pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

Mmmm, tasty. I can make it on Sunday night, then cut out a chunk and take it with me to work in the mornings during the week. I'm also planning on bringing my french press to chambers, so I'm going to be set up quite well as far as breakfast goes.

posted by ek at 9:18 AM 2 comments

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

2d Post Ever, Just For Fun


I just wanted to see if a photo would come through. Apparently it does. These delicious looking radishes (I don't even like radishes) were from a yummy market in Beaune, France. The land of bread, cheese, and wine. And markets. And fonts change, too. Should we choose a font? Or just do what we feel like? I sort of like wiggling my colors around in relation to the photos I'm posting...

posted by mg at 8:25 PM 0 comments