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Vunderfüd  This has quickly become a holiday favorite in my family- my father is CRAZY for the stuff, and it's the sort of recipe that's hard to screw up. If you over-mix it, it's just a little crustier. If you over-cook it, it's just a little crublier. And so far, I've had a few people comment that they prefer it that way! So a delicious and easy addition to your holiday cookie bnoxes- a few slices of carrot bread. 3/4 c white sugar 1/4 c packed brown sugar 3/4 c sunflower seed oil 2 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 2 beaten eggs, or 1/3 c apple sauce for a vegan alternative pinch of salt pinch of ginger 1/2 c raisins 1 c grated carrot 1/2 c chopped nuts (I like pecans or almonds) 1/2 tsp vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9"x5" bread pan. Beat the sugars with the oil. Then sift in the four, powder and soda, salt, and spices. Then mix in the eggs or apple sauce until JUST blended. Add the remaining ingredients, and pour into the prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack for 60 minutes, or until it tests done. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. It may seem VERY crusty and hard, but trust me- it's moist and delicious on the inside! Enjoy! Current mood:  cheerful.Current music: Nicolai Gedda - "La Boheme". Well, the economy is in the tank, and it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. This means one very important thing- it is time for you to learn to cook like a starving artist. This is a recipe for one of the world's cheapest soups that I developed while I was... a starving artist. If I have one good piece of life advice, it's to marry somebody who makes more money than you. Anyway, the soup. In the words of Mrs. Bucket, "Nothing goes better with cabbage than cabbage." It's true. Cabbage soup has a bad rap. People think of cabbage soup as being the worst case scenario. Living off cabbage soup is the sort of thing your grandparents told you about to let you know just how lucky you were. Well, cabbage soup is delicious. And easy. I have several COMPLETELY DIFFERENT cabbage soup recipes, so really one could eat nothing but cabbage for a month and hardly notice. This is one of my favorite varieties, because it's really the most comforting. Another time I'll put up the recipe for "Feel Better Cabbage Soup," but in the meantime feel free to play around with this one. 1 med. (1.5 lb) head hard green cabbage 1 med. onion 1 leek 1 tbs veg oil 1/8 tsp saffron 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground coriander 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp sugar 4 c vegetable broth Cut up the onion roughly. Slice up the white part of the leek. Toss both of these in a pot with the oil, and simmer it gently. While simmering, heat up your veggie broth. Cut the cabbage into eighths. Now remove the core. It's sot of like a stem, and you'll know it when you see it. Now slice up the cabbage into roughly bite sized pieces. Toss them on top of your onion and leek, and mix them up. When you veggie broth is nice and bubbly, add all the spices and the sugar. Now pour all of it over the cabbage in the pot. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover it, and leave it alone for about half an hour- until the cabbage is nice and tender. If you've got a blender, blend most- but not all- of the soup. Serve it with your few hard crusts of bread, or with a good veggie BLT. You know you've got a recipe worth keeping when your meat-loving husband goes giddy over vegetables. This is a very easy recipe, perfect for a day when you've got a cold and want something satisfying without taking the trouble and you're tired of soup. Of course, the two non-vegan ingredients are optional, but I do recommend picking up a vegan sour cream. The flavor of the sour cream REALLY brings our how delicious the stew is, and there are many very good vegan sour cream alternatives. I recommend Tofutti. 1 butternut squash, skinned and seeded, chopped into 1" pieces 1 medium yellow onion, sliced 4-5 garlic cloves, minced 3 tbs olive oil 1 can kidney beans 2 small russet potatoes, chopped into 1" pieces 3 c water 1 c orange juice 1/2 tsp orange zest 1/2 tbs fresh rosemary, or 2 tsp dried ground rosemary 1 tbs Spike or Mrs. Dash salt and black pepper 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese sour cream, for garnish In a large pot over med. high heat, sauté onions in oil until translucent. Add garlic and spices. Add squash, potatoes, water, and orange juice and mix well. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Allow to simmer gently for half an hour. Add beans, and continue to simmer for another 20-30 minutes. After serving, cover the top of the stew with Parmesan cheese. Add a dollop of sour cream. Serves 6. Enjoy! Here pictured with grilled cheese and heirloom tomato sandwiches: 
Current mood: calm.
Hello again, inturwubs! I know I've been gone a long time. I apologize. I promise that my return heralds many more yummy recipes for your enjoyment! This is one I modified from my mother's. Completely vegetarian, easily made vegan. It's also appropriately autumn-y, and a great thing to do with all those root veggies that are suddenly turning up. I'm listing below what I prefer to put into my Shephard's pie, but this is one dish that is easy to tweak! Try throwing in anything else you like. It's pretty hard to make it NOT delicious! 2 tbs vegetable oil 2 medium yellow onions, sliced 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 large carrots, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 sweet potato, chopped into bite sized pieces 2 medium sized red potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 turnip, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 parsnip, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 small daikon radish, chopped into bite sized pieces 1 c frozen peas 1 c frozen baby lima beans 1 c frozen corn kernals 1 bay leaf liberal amounts of Spike liberal amounts of coarse ground black pepper 4-5 yukon gold potatoes 1 tsp salt 1 tbs processed horseradish 1/2 c Parmesan cheese (optional) 3 tbs butter/margarine 2-3 c milk (or soymilk) 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (vegan option: 1.5 c vegetable broth) Preheat oven to 350* In large, heavy skillet, heat the oil over med. high heat. Add onions, garlic, Spike1, black pepper, and bay leaf. When slightly translucent, add carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, parsnip, radish and turnip. Cook until tender, then add the frozen vegetables. Sauté an additional 5 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil, add the salt, and boil the yukon gold potatoes until thoroughly soft, when a skewer or toothpick can be inserted completely through easily. Mash potatoes with butter, horseradish, milk, and cheese. When mixed properly, they will be creamier and soupier than you would normally want mashed potatoes. Remove bay leaf, and pour vegetables into casserole dish. Spread condensed soup over vegetables (or pour broth evenly over vegetables). Now cover the whole thing with the mashed potatoes. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until top begins to brown. When finished, it is not only delicious, but absolutely beautiful! 1Spike is a seasoned salt, much like Mrs. Dash or Lawry's. I've just always found it has the best flavor, and makes both excellent vegetables and excellent broth. A dish I invented for my fiancé on our anniversary. They combine one of his favorite foods (portabella mushrooms) and one of my favorite foods (goat cheese) into a simple and DELICIOUS dish. 10 portabella mushroom stuffing caps 6 oz bucheron goat cheese 1/2 cup crushed walnuts 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped 3-5 tbsp grated parmesan Wash the mushrooms, and remove the stems. In a small bowl, use your hands to mush together the cheese, parsley, and walnuts. Use a metal spoon to fill the mushroom caps with the cheese mixture. Arrange the mushrooms on a LIGHTLY greased baking dish. You definitely want to use a dish with sides as opposed to a tray, because the cheese inside the mushrooms will melt. Sprinkle parmesan cheese onto the stuffed mushrooms. You definitely want GRATED cheese, and not parmesan powder. Bake at 350• for 20 minutes. Serve either hot or cold. Hot, the mushroom flavor stands out the most. Cold, the cheese flavors take over. Current music: Ben Folds - The Luckiest. Okay, so I know a mimosa is *supposed* to be made with champagne, but we're all on budgets, right? Besides, if you use a yellow watermelon, it does look like a mimosa... It's been a while, I know. What with the unbearable heat here in the midwest, I haven't done much cooking. But enough excuses, recipes don't *have* to include heat- or even substantial food- now do they? A dear friend of mine spent the last eight months traipsing across Europe, and returned with an Italian idea that has inspired what has quickly become my favorite coctail of the summer. It looks incredibly impressive at a party, and it's absurdly easy, so here we go. 1 watermelon 1 fifth Absolut 1 tsp salt Yup, that's it. Take your watermelon, and let it sit until it's a bit too ripe. Still eatable, but squishyier on the inside than you'd normally want. Then slice off the top. What you have now is a sort of bowl of soggy watermelon insides. With a spoon, dig out as many of the seeds as you can find. In this process, you'll basically liquify the insides of your watermelon. Go ahead and eat the bigger chunks of the flesh, you want mostly juice in there. Whatever you don't munch on, mash it up. Now add the salt, stir well, and stick your mushy watermelon in-a-half-shell in the freezer. Leave it there over night. Remove the watermelon from the freezer and allow it to thaw for about ten minutes. Now add the vodka, stir gently, and serve. If it starts to melt, just put it back in the freezer. A friend of a friend of mine, Katie, gave me a birthday present even though I'd never met her. Katie owns a small book store, and she'd heard about my endless curry experiments, so she sent me "The Curry Cookbook" through our mutual friend. To thank her, I invented a curry JUST FOR HER and invited her over to try it. It's a mild curry, and it's utterly delicious. Don't over-do the salt, the tomatoes add quite a bit on their own, and remember! It's supposed to be mild. I recommend serving it with coconut rice. 1 lb eggplant, cut into large bite sized pieces 2 small onions, chopped coarsely 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 can stewed tomatoes, with liquid in can 1 cup quinoa, uncooked 1 cup slivered almonds 3 tbsp peanut oil 3 1/2 cups water 1/3 cup lemon juice 3 japone chilis 3 cardamom pods, crushed 2 tbsp dried curry leaves 1 tsp turmeric 1 cinnamon stick 2 whole cloves 1 tsp thyme, crushed 1/2 tsp tarragon, crushed 2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed 1 tsp mustard seeds, crushed 3 tbsp dried cilantro 1/2 tsp salt In a pot, combine quinoa and 2 cups water. Bring them to a boil, and add the lemon juice. Reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to simmer for 35 mintues. In a large pan with a lid, heat oil over medium flame. Add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, curry leaves, coriander, and mustard to the oil. Allow to simmer a few minutes, and then add the onions and garlic. When the onions begin to look translucent, add the eggplant. Add 1/2 cup of water, and cover for ten minutes. Stir the eggplant and add in the almonds. Add a little more water and cover again. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, until much of the water has evaporated. Now add the can of tomatoes, WITH the liquid they're packaged in. Now add in the thyme, tarragon, turmuric, cilantro, and japones. Cover again, and allow to simmer for another ten minutes. Continue to add water as it evaporates as needed. When the quinoa is cooked, remove it from the heat and add it to the tomato/eggplant mixture, and stir it in. Now mix in the salt, and serve. Serves 4+ Once upon a time, in a land far, far away- actually it was right here- I was out of money. Well, that happens to most of us, particularly when we're art students. Fortunately for me, I have a wealth of friends who are usually willing to donate food to their local starving artists. Also I live in an artists collective, so begging for scraps door to door isn't too unusual. By the end of one particularly long day, what I had in my kitchen was this: a plethora of spices, lasagna noodles, condensed cream of mushroom soup, potato chips, acorn squash, cabbage, an oregano plant, and more beans than you could shake a stick at. The squashagnarole was born. Later, with some money and mad revisionist skilz, I adapted the original squashagnarole into its current incarnation. 1 package lasagne noodles 4 cups broken ridged potato chips (or potato sticks) 5 cups of condensed cream of mushroom soup 3 cups spinach, chopped 2 cups white mushrooms, chopped 2 acorn squash, skinned and cut into thin slices (that's the hard part) 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 1/2 cup mozzerella cheese fresh oregano, chopped Preheat oven to 350˙ Boil the noodles. Cook them until they're just tender, and then drain. Rinse them in cold water and set them aside. In a bowl, mix together the condensed soup, garlic, mushrooms and spinach. Using a 9"x13" baking pan, cover the bottom of the pan in a layer of the soup mixture. On top of this, place a layer of lasagne noodles. Then another layer of soup stuff. Then a layer of potato chips, a layer of squash, and then another of noodles. Continue in this pattern (soup, noodles, chips, squash...) until the pan is practically overflowing. Cover the top liberally in oregano. Bake for 50 minutes. Serves 6+ Okay, this is so easy that it hurts. Don't tell anyone that, though, because it looks ridiculously pretty and impressive. 1 bunch asparagus 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp olive oil celery salt lemon pepper mint dill Rinse the asparagus and cut it into 1-2 inch pieces. Simmer in oil and lemon juice over med. heat, with all of the spices, for about 2 minutes. Cover it and let it continue to simmer for about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer for another 3-5 mintues. Serve on either quinoa or jasmine rice. Serves 2-4 Yup- you can make it by yourself. Note: A big part of the fun in making hummus personalization. Once you know how to flavor it, you can do anything you like to your hummus, and it's always cool to know that *nobody* makes it the way you do. I like to add Za'atar and coriander to mine, and sometimes sun dried tomatoes or orange peel. There's all sorts of things you can do it, so make it your own. Own that muthafuckin' hummus. 1/2 cup tahini 2 cans chick peas (also known as 'garbanzo beans') 1/4 cup lemon juice ~4 tbsp water salt pepper garlic cayenne garlic powder olive oil Now, I like to use a pastry blender for this, but you can use a blender if you like. Mix together the chick peas and lemon juice. Mash the bejeesus out of them. I like to leave them a little lumpy, but that freaks out some people. If they seem a little dry, add water. Using a fork, mix in the tahini, salt, garlic powder and cayenne. I recommend this garlic powder, but that's just my preference. Also, for those of you who don't know where to get it, you can procure tahini at most major grocery stores in the same section as the packages of hummus.... probably near the fancy cheese. Put it in a tupperware to save it, it'll last a few days, but cover the top in olive oil before you put it away or serve it. Makes about a pint |
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