I couldn’t make it to a meeting last night for my volunteer job because of my real job, so I re-planned with a last-minute mini leap day dinner. no time or inclination to shop, I found an avacado in my fridge and decided to make guacamole. I had leftover multi-grain tortilla chips (from the superbowl, I think?) and pepper jack cheese, so I cooked some beans into a semi-homemade style chili (cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, tomato paste, nutmeg), added some onions and tomato, and layered with the cheese on the chips, baked at 400. I didn’t have limes for the guac, but I did have a ton of organic blood oranges that I added onto my boston organics box last week. which made a decent citrus for the guac and, more importantly, inspired the evening’s cocktail - cinnamon blood orange “margaritas”. all ingredients seen above, it was simple and sweet with the sharpness of tequila (which I am working on learning to like). I squeezed 3 oranges, and poured the juice through a sieve. then I filled a shaker with ice, 4 oz of tequila, 2 oz of st. germain, a splash of club soda, 1/4 of the orange juice, and a teaspoon-ish of cinnamon. shook until cold and then poured into glasses and topped with the rest of the juice. I ended up adding more tequila as well because I erred on the conservative side since I don’t always like it. when I was a kid, I used to mix orange juice, cranberry juice, gingerale and cinnamon as my go-to “fancy” drink. and there’s just something about that combination of orange and cinnamon that is a perfect winter flavor. when booze is added, how can you go wrong?
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I couldn’t make it to a meeting last night for my volunteer job because of my real job, so I re-planned with a last-minute mini leap day dinner.

no time or inclination to shop, I found an avacado in my fridge and decided to make guacamole. I had leftover multi-grain tortilla chips (from the superbowl, I think?) and pepper jack cheese, so I cooked some beans into a semi-homemade style chili (cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, tomato paste, nutmeg), added some onions and tomato, and layered with the cheese on the chips, baked at 400.

I didn’t have limes for the guac, but I did have a ton of organic blood oranges that I added onto my boston organics box last week. which made a decent citrus for the guac and, more importantly, inspired the evening’s cocktail - cinnamon blood orange “margaritas”. all ingredients seen above, it was simple and sweet with the sharpness of tequila (which I am working on learning to like). I squeezed 3 oranges, and poured the juice through a sieve. then I filled a shaker with ice, 4 oz of tequila, 2 oz of st. germain, a splash of club soda, 1/4 of the orange juice, and a teaspoon-ish of cinnamon. shook until cold and then poured into glasses and topped with the rest of the juice. I ended up adding more tequila as well because I erred on the conservative side since I don’t always like it.

when I was a kid, I used to mix orange juice, cranberry juice, gingerale and cinnamon as my go-to “fancy” drink. and there’s just something about that combination of orange and cinnamon that is a perfect winter flavor. when booze is added, how can you go wrong?

pins of the week

1. meyer lemon pudding cake (http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349649646420/): I have a ton of meyer lemons to use in my fridge because I can’t resist them, so this is a must make. I will most likely use yogury instead of sour cream because the smell makes me ill.

2. framed jewelry (http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349649647890/): I desperately need a better storage solution for my necklaces. rings and bracelets are fine in old saucers/bowls, but my necklackes get hopelessly tangled. this seems like a decent option.

3. kitchen sofa (http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349649667512/): there are a lot of great elements of this apartment tour, but I am beyond obsessed with the idea of a couch in the kitchen. I can’t even fit it in my current apt, but someday. and everyone thinks I’m nuts, so I like to keep track of when I see it working.

4. paris map papercut print (http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349649667607/): from http://www.famillesummerbelle.com/, this map is so adorable. I’m a sucker for papercut and paris and also pink. winner.

5. nutella cookies (http://pinterest.com/pin/3870349649668322/): I want to make valentines cookies and these seem perfect. because nutella is always perfect.

when whole foods gives you meyer lemons…

…make meyer lemon ice cream.

my last shopping trip to whole foods revealed a gorgeously perfect bin of meyer lemons, so I grabbed 4, not sure what I wanted to do with them. I had thought about using them for a dinner party, but only ended up using 1 in the salad dressing, and I’d also been planning to make ice cream for the dinner party, but didn’t, so my first thought was meyer lemon ice cream.

I almost talked myself out of it because I wanted something I could make that afternoon and I knew I wouldn’t have time to chill a base and make the ice cream before going off to watch the pats game (which no, I don’t want to talk about, thanks). so, I popped “meyer lemon ice cream” into the food blog search engine (amazing resource, btw) and scrolled through the results. I read a few and decided to combine the basic no-cook base in my ice cream maker instruction book with the recipe for no-cook meyer lemon ice cream from the kitchn (apartment therapy’s cooking blog). I would have just straight-up used their recipe, but I was surprised to realize I didn’t have condensed milk— I guess I used it all making a tres leches cake, but thought I’d replaced it.

anyway, the result took longer than expected to freeze up, but I’m pretty sure that’s just my freezer. it’s also maybe a little icier than I’d like (I cheated and used skim milk which you really shouldn’t in a no-cook recipe so I’ve left it as whole below) but it did freeze after an extra hour in the fridge and it’s really lemony and delicious.

mix 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup cold whole milk vigorously with a mixer or whisk until sugar is dissolved. add 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and the zest and juice of 2 meyer lemons, and a pinch of salt.

process with your ice cream maker following the instructions (I have a cuisinart, I processed it for about 35 minutes).

(and the last lemon was sliced and used with black tea, honey, and jameson’s to make hot tea toddies for a guest the next night. now I want to go buy more.)

easy as peach, pear, & ginger pie

dessert for the beef stew dinner party was also a bit difficult. I had wanted to make ice cream, but got a little irresponsibly tipsy friday night and forgot to freeze the ice cream maker bowl, so that was out. and I kind of wanted to make custard instead, but that seemed like a lot of excessively soft food. so I landed in the middle and went with pie.

I had grabbed a bag of frozen peaches for the ice cream & had how to cook everything open, so started with bittman’s peach and ginger peach pie variation and then added some pears. because the amount of peaches I had didn’t fill the pie adequately and my produce box (from boston organics) had pears in it.

the thing about pie crust is that if you make a really good pie crust, then the effort is totally worth it. if you make a pretty good pie crust, then you may as well make the thing. however, I do not make a good pie crust. someday when I have a kitchen with more counter space, I will perfect pie crust, I swear, but in the meantime, pillsbury crusts work just fine. and I had a few leftover from thanksgiving that were easily thawed.

pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. place 1 9-inch pie crust in pie pan.

toss 1 bag frozen peaches and 1 sliced pear with 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used meyer, because that’s what I had).

mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp allspice, 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch and 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger. (bittman says you can use 2T instant tapioca instead of cornstarch, which I would probably prefer but I didn’t have any.) toss fruit with this mix.

pour fruit into pie shell, highest at the center and dot with 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits. cover with a second 9-inch pie crust and seal edges with a fork or a fancier method that you may actually be good at but I am not. brush the top with a little milk and sprinkle with demerata sugar (granulated white would work, but isn’t as pretty). cut 3 2in slits in the top crust.

if your oven runs hot (i.e., if you often burn the edges of things before the center is done), cover the edges with tinfoil and put the pie in the oven.

cook for 10 mins, then lower the heat to 350 degrees, cook for 40 mins, remove the foil from the edges, cook for about 10 more mins (until golden brown).

I served with whipped cream because in my world dessert is just an excuse for whipped cream. my preferred cream is whipped with 1 - 2 tsp of vanilla and a few handfuls of granulated sugar depending on the amount of cream being whipped. some people are adamant that you must use confectioner’s sugar, but my mom taught me this way and I like my cream a bit less sweet and I always have regular sugar, but not always powdered. whip it in a mixer, using a hand mixer, an eggbeater (hi mom!), or a whisk (dad’s preference) and plop on top of each slice of pie served. serve the pie warm for best results, and then cold for breakfast the next day.

how to cook beef stew

had a super gay dinner party (as in, my best gay college friends + boyfriend, it really wasn’t that gay otherwise. I mean, there was no prancing or anything) last night. intial plan was to make short ribs, creamed spinach, and crispy roast potatoes. because I have a self-diagnosed iron deficiency (read: I’ve been craving red meat & spinach, neither of which I ever want to eat normally) and because one of my guests mentioned wanting creamed spinach. however, whole foods failed me by not having any short ribs. I pouted my way around the store for a while and finally settled on beef stew & spinach salad.

I got home with 2 lbs of stew beef and a basic idea of what I want in a stew, but having never made one before, I consulted my trusty how to cook everything (mark bittman). I ended up using his recipe with barely any variation.

heat a large pot w/ lid or dutch oven (man, I need a dutch oven) on med-high for 2 or 3 min., add 2T grapeseed oil (any neutral oil) and 1 crushed clove of garlic. cook, stirring, 1 min. remove garlic.

add meat (bittman says 2 to 2.5 lbs boneless chuck or round, fat trimmed, in 1 to 1.5 in cubes. I used what whole foods gave me because I don’t like to touch raw meat because I’m a squeamish borderline vegetarian) to brown. he says to do it “a few pieces at a time” because crowding will make it difficult. I did not listen, because I was in a hurry. I would also say a few pieces at a time might be a little excessive. I would say do it in at least 2 batches to allow for easy turning and full browning rather than a kind of half-boiling. however, he also says you can skip the browning, so. turn the cubes until brown on all sides (about 10 min total). sprinkle the meat with kosher salt & pepper (I did some seriously liberal sprinkling, esp. with the pepper) as it cooks.

remove the meat with a slotted spoon, set aside. pour/spoon off any fat floating on the top. turn heat to medium. add 2 large white onions, cut into eighths, cook & stir until softened (about 10 min).

add 3 Tbsp flour and stir constantly for about 2 min.

add 3 cups red wine (I used a 5 dollar zin, you can use any liquid), 1 bay leaf, 1 Tbsp fresh thyme (I used like 5 or 6 sprigs) and boil. turn the heat to low, cover, cook 30 min undisturbed.

uncover, stew should be wet, if not add more liquid (I didn’t & ended up regretting it, so even if it seems pretty wet, I’d add a little). add potatoes cut into 1in chunks (I used 6 smallish red potatoes), & four carrots also in 1in chunks, increase heat and boil, lower heat, cover, cook for an hour until meat & veg are tender.

add 2 cloves minced garlic and 1 small bag (1 - 1.5 cups) frozen peas (I used the organic mix w/ corn). cook 5 more min, either covered on low if the consistency is correct or uncovered on high if it’s too soupy. I went with the latter and it reduced really fast, leaving me with less liquid than I would like, so I’d be careful with this next time (as well as adding extra liquid as noted above).

my stew served 4 w/ 1 person having seconds and 1 serving leftover (so, 6).

the salad was 1 box of baby spinach, 2 shaved carrots, 3 stalks of celery sliced, marcona almonds toasted with pepper & paprika, and dried cherries. dressing a few Tbsp of whole grain sweetened mustard (bourbon molasses from stonewall kitchen), the juice of half a meyer lemon, and olive oil - adding & whisking until I got the consistency I wanted.

…and now I’m thinking leftovers for lunch.

pasta w/ lemon “cream” sauce & capers

prepare pasta as usual. I used linguine and made enough for dinner & 2 lunches. the sauce makes enough for 2-4 servings depending on how much sauce you like on your pasta.

while the water is boiling, to make a vegan lemon bechamel sauce, measure out 1 cup almond milk, juice 1 medium lemon, and set both aside.

heat 2 T of olive oil over medium heat. add 2 T flour and whisk constantly for 5-10 minutes (until the roux is slightly tannish). lower the heat and begin adding the almond milk to the roux in small amounts, whisking after each addition until smoothly blended. once the sauce is at the consistency you would like, stop adding the milk.

add the lemon juice to the sauce, whisking to incorporate. add salt and pepper to taste and whisk again. remove from heat.

toss the pasta with the sauce and a few teaspoons of capers. serve immediately, or refridgerate up to 3 days.

Flour's Famous Banana Bread Recipe : : Food Network

bought this cookbook, had ripe bananas.

adapted as follows:

substituted vanilla soy yogurt for creme fraiche

cut amount of nuts in half, added half amount in chocolate chips.

made as muffins (because I lent my loaf pan away & have yet to get it back) & it equaled 12 muffins + 12 mini-muffins.

they seem good, a little sweet, which is probably the yogurt rather than the creme fraiche. they’re moist, though, so that’s a plus. my old banana bread recipe was a lot drier.

vegan cashew sweet potato chili

heat 1 T olive oil

chop 1/2 medium red onion. add to oil w/ 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp cumin, 1 T oregano, 2/3 T salt, cook ‘til tender.

chop 1/2 green pepper, 1 jalepeno, 1 stalk celery, 1 cherry pepper, 1/2 red pepper, 1 large clove garlic, 1 small sweet potato. add to the onions, cook through.

add 1/2 cup cashews, stir, cover & simmer 5 minutes.

add 1 large can crushed tomatoes, 3 T chili powder, 2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp paprika, stir.

add 1/2 can pinto beans, 1 can kidney beans, bring to a boil.

lower heat, cover, simmer 45 minutes.

I like my chili plain, but you could serve w/ rice if that’s your thing. I vote serving with crusty bread and beer.