Nacho Cheese Sauce

• 3 Tbsp of Butter
• 2 Tbsp of Flour
• 1 Cup of Milk
• 2 Cups of Cheese
• 1/2 TBSP ground mustard
• 1/2 TGSP Chile Powder

Take the silly small saucepan. Melt the butter most of the way, stir in the flour. Cook on HI heat until the buttery balls of flour turn into something that looks like mash potatoes ( a couple minutes ). Slowly add milk while stirring. Stir in spices. Turn heat down to Low/Medium Low. Gently sit in handfuls of cheese until melted. Do not raise heat, cheese will get grainy. Pour over nachos, and enjoy!

--Michael

Must....Slather....On....Something.....

This must be made immediately!

--Michael

Balsamic Strawberries, Barley "Risotto" with Shiitake Mushrooms, and Vegetable Spring Rolls

On a non-food related note, does anyone else think it strange you have a choice of 7 musical selections to view when on the Taco Bell site (upper right hand corner)?

Balsamic Strawberries

• 7.5 cu sliced fresh strawberries (3 "baskets")
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

After slicing the strawberries, stir ingredients together gently. Let flavors meld in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving chilled. Will last several days. Is delicious over toast or ice cream, but tart enough to serve at a meal.

Barley "Risotto" with Shiitake Mushrooms

• 6 cups water
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 cups rinsed pearl barley
• 6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Large Onions (Diced)
• 12 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
• 4 Sticks of Celery (Diced)
• 1-2 lbs Shititake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup minced parsley
• 5 Cups veggie broth (or mushroom broth)
• 10 cups water
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 18 oz blue cheeseSpray Fat (aka PAM)

Boil water with butter and salt. Mix in barley. Lower to medium low heat and cook for 45 minutes covered. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Remove the stems of the mushrooms. Discard. Dice the caps of the shiitakes.

Panfry the onions to a nice golden brown using a litte spray fat. Add the olive oil to the pan when done. Add the garlic, celery, and mushroom bits, until all are tender. Fold in the barley (it will turn to glue if you are too agressive) in batches. Fold in the parsley. Stir gently, distributing the oil and vegetables throughout the barley well.

Add the broth, reduce heat to low/medium-low and simmmer for 10 minutes, until the broth is all absorbed.

Stir in cream and blue cheese and serve immediately.

Vegetable Spring Rolls

• 8" Round Rice Papers (20 or so)
• 6 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 6 teaspoons wasabi paste (make it from wasabi powder and water- it's much cheaper than way)
• 3 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 cup mayo<6 cups shredded broccoli
• 15 oz extra firm tofu
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut
• Whole romaine lettuce leaves
• 3 tablespoons soy
• 3 tablespoons lime
• 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Prepare each rice paper in water then lay out to sit for 5 min on a towel or damp plate.

Combine the ginger, mayo, wasabi and lime juice.

Toss the shredded broccoli, tofu and coconut. Add the mayo sauce and toss.

To assemble:

• Take one rice paper
• Place a lettuce leaf on the rice paper
• Spoon slaw onto lettuce leaf
• Wrap rice paper up into a roll.

Let sit for 15 min. Refrigerate if it is going to be more.

To make dipping sauce:
Whip together soy, lime juice and crushed red pepper

--Michael

Russian Cabbage Rolls, Broccoli Cheese Soup & Corn-Spelt Quickbread

Golubtsi (Russian Cabbage Rolls)

The wrap:

• 1 Head of Cabbage

The stuffing:

• 1 Tube "Ground Beef Style" Gimmie Lean
  
• 1 cu rice
  
• 2 med onions (diced)
  
• 2 carrots (shredded)
  
• 28 oz canned tomatoes
  
• 2 tsp salt
  
• Black Pepper

The sauce:

• 2 tsp tomato paste
  
• 2 cu vegetable stock
  
• 1 bay leaf

The cooking fat:

• 1 stick butter

The topping:

• Sour Cream

Wash and trim cabbage head to remove dirty leaves. Boil whole head for 15 minutes. Dunk into an ice water bath for 30 seconds. Slowly unwrap the leaves, treating them like delicate little flower . Then, lay them flat on the counter, again like delicate little petals, then pound them flat with the bottom of a glass. (God I love Russian cooking)

Cook the rice in 1.5 cups of water.

Grate the onions (or use a rotary grater attachment on your food processor). Put these and 1/4 the butter into the pan. Fry until browning.

Crumble the gimmie lean into the pan with the onion. Set pan aside, removing the onions and gimmie lean with a slotted spoon or tongs to leave the fat behind.

Grate the carrots (or use a rotary grater attachment on your food processor).

Mix the rice, gimmie lean, carrots and onions together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take your pounded out cabbage leaves. Put about 1 tablespoon of the stuffing in each leaf. Fold up into an envelope shape, then tie off with butcher string or a thread.

After enveloping all the Golubtsi, set them aside, and melt the rest of the butter in the pan you browned the gimmie lean in. Once melted, put 4 or 5 golubtsis in the pan, and brown each side. Set aside afterwards.

Remove the string. I repeat, remove the string

Boil the vegetable stock with the tomato paste and bay. Simmer on med-low for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Serve golubtsi with the sauce and sour cream on top.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

• 2-3 cups diced potatoes (pre-peeled)
  
• 2.5 cups broccoli florets
  
• 1 medium carrot
  
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 1.5 cups chopped onion
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 3.5 cups water
  
• 3 cups (packed) grated cheddar
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1 tsp dill
  
• black pepper to taste

Peel and slice the carrot. Boil all the veggies except the broccoli in the water until very tender. Puree.

Steam the broccoli. Combine with the puree and all the remaining ingredients except the cheese and bring to a fast simmer on medium heat. Turn down to low heat.

Slowly stir in the grated cheese by the half-handful, until it all melts. Serve immediately.

Corn-Spelt Quickbread

Dry:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
  
• 1/2 cup coarse corn meal
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 2 tsp baking powder

Wet:

• 3 tsp sulfur free molasses
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375. Use spray fat (aka PAM), to coat a loaf pan. Stir together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Stir together the wet ingredients in another big bowl (making sure to mix the eggs into the milk before combining with the melted butter). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry bowl. Stir together, pour into loaf pan, put in oven for 25 minutes or until a stick comes out of the middle of loaf clean.

Spinach-Mushroom Quiche with "Chicken" and Waffles

This dish will be a little southern for many of you.

Chicken and waffles is a Georgia tradition. While some of you can't imagine putting the two together, until you've tried it, this is a case of something you can't deny.

Of course, we're not using real chicken, we're using the meat-substitute Quorn. As we've mentioned before, it is made from the roots of mushrooms.

If I'm a little inexact about the ingredients this week, my wife is trying out the Trader Joes that just opened up 2 blocks away, so I'm not sure what I'll be cooking with.

Spinach-Mushroom Quiche

For each quiche we need:

• Frozen Pie Crust
• 3/4 cup half and half
• 2 eggs
• 1pkg defrosted frozen spinach (or cooked down fresh spinach)
• 1 can mushrooms (or 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms cooked)
• 1/2 lb shredded swiss cheese

First turn on the oven to 350F. Crack all the eggs and pour the half and half into a cup. Beat vigorously.

Stir up the spinach and mushrooms, and put into the pie crust. Sprinkle the cheese on, and then pour enough of the egg/dairy mixture to come somewhat short of the top of the quiche.

Bake for 45 minutes (will be slightly jiggly, but solid), then let the quiche set for 15-25 minutes before serving. (Unless you like volcanically hot scrambled eggs that are runny, in that case, serve immediately).

Fried "Chicken"

Bread according to the method mentioned in this post. I use a mixture of panko and normal bread crumbs this time. I make sure and put salt and pepper in the flour I use for this one. Then I pan fry these or deep fry them, depending on time and quantity, usually at 20 degrees below the smoke point of the oil I'm using, which is usually safflower or vegetable oil. If you do this recipe with *real* chicken, I recommend using a good chicken finger cook time/temperature, more like 5 minutes on each side at 340F, to make sure you don't die of undercooked chicken.

Waffles

Almost straight out of I'm Just Here for More Food, I use the buttermilk waffle recipe, however I use 50/50 whole/white flower.

Serve with the "chicken" on top of the waffle, drizzled in syrup. The quiche goes on the side.

--Michael

Calzones, Greek Salad, Grilled Zuchinni

My April 1st post was a joke for those of you who didn't catch it....we're still vegetarians and have no plans to not be. The first half of April was quite busy so I slacked off on the blogging. Now that product #1 of Rowdy Labs is out the door, I can blog again.

Garlic Grilled Zucchini

Sliced into medallions, then drizzled with olive oil, these are then put into broil. Garlic is put is *separately* after the squash is done, as it burns easy, just to get a hint of roastedness.

After cooking, they are both tossed in a bowl, along with parmesean flakes, black pepper, kosher salt, and a little onion powder, then served.

Greek Salad

Romaine Hearts, black olives, pepperoncini, onions, feta, roma tomatoes, and greek salad dressing (we're using something from a jar this week). Slice everything into rings, hydrate the lettuce (we're using one of the 5 salad spinners we got from the wedding), then spin and toss and serve.

Olive and Veggy Sausage Calzone

These come in two parts: The Dough and the Filling

For the dough, we're going to use a variation of what we use to make the piroshki we really had on April 1st:

3 pkgs dry yeast
3 tsp honey
3 cu warm water
4.5 cu wheat flour
4.5 cu white flour
1 cu veg oil
3 tsp salt

Stir yeast and honey into warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Combine 3 cups of each flour and the salt in a bowl then mix in the oil and yeast mixture. Stir this for 140 vigorous strokes. This is to produce a precise amount of gluten in the dough, which will give it a particular chewiness in the final product. Let this sit for 30 minutes or until it bubbles, whichever is longer.

Dump out onto a floured breadboard and knead in the other 3 cups of flour. Knead for 10 minutes, drop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, then cover and leave for an hour.

We're stuffing them with olives, veggy sausage, and mozzerella. Some will be made with red sauce, others with pesto. We take the dough after punching it down and divide it up into individually sized calzone-sized balls that we roll out to 1/8th inch thick. How do I know how thick? I have rubber bands that go around my rolling pin and force me to go no flatter. These are great for making pastries of all sorts, not just calzones.

We crumble the Gimmie Lean veggy sausage into a skillet and brown it. Then we mix it and the sliced olives and cheese together, then mix each, along with each of the sauces.

After rolling out, I take a fork and poke the inside of the calzone to make holes for steam to escape (docking). I'm careful to not go through the outside, just a little bit.

We then use a disher to get a reasonable amount in each of the calzones. Judgment is only needed for the first calzone, then after than, its just an integer count of disher scoopfuls. After filling, we close then use a fork to make the edge thin and sealed. We brush with butter and a little Parmesan cheese to allow for browning.

The dough in question will require 30 minutes at 375 F to cook (per pan of 8). Everything inside is already cooked, so there is no worrying about that.

And this recipie gives dough amounts for 20-24 calzones. You probably are going to want to cut that in half, one third, or one sixth for your own purposes.

They keep for a week and a half or so, can be frozen with little loss, and are good when reheated in a microwave or oven.

--Michael

Dinner tonight after a suprising convesation.

My wife and I had a strange conversation last night that I didn't expect to ever have. From the recipes given below, I am guessing you know what it was. I'm sorry if I'm brief today. I'll recap how dinner went later in the week as why I'm changing back to a more normal diet.

Fillet Mignon
Lemon Aperagus
Bacon with Macaroni and Cheese
Applesauce

I know what some of you are thinking: I owe him a steak dinner.

--Michael

Hot Hot Hashbrowns, Scrambled Eggs and Veggy Sausage

Today we're serving breakfast at dinner, serving hashbrowns, scrambled eggs with cheese, veggy sausage links, and french toast.

We cook all the french toast per Alton Brown's method. We don't immediately cook the toast in the oven, instead waiting until right before dinner.

We're going to serve the french toast with Boysenberry jam and powdered sugar.

The sausage links have been covered before on this blog and are popular with meat eating and non-meat eating folk alike.

We're going to make the eggs in the electric fryer. This doesn't mean we're frying them, we're just using it because it is a nice, temperature controlled device that just happens to be nonstick (a must-have for egg dishes). We will put 1.5 eggs per person in here (right before dinner, rounding up) and stir in a tablespoon of milk (or leftover half and half) per person. I make this sound much more exact then it is in actuality, where I just pour some in. :o). First off, you turn the fryer on to 200 or so. You put the eggs in and let them start to cook onto the pan. Then you use a spatula to stir them off. As the eggs cook, they will solidify in the pan. Continue to stir intermittently. When the eggs look just a little saucey, take them off (they will continue to solidify and dry out after coming off the heat).

For the hashbrowns, we'll cook them in another pan. We're going to put some peppers from the "Chiles with Adobo Sauce" cans you see in the store to give the potatoes a little heat. Chopping up the peppers into little strips, we'll stir them in with the hashbrowns before cooking, letting them brown with the potatoes.

--Michael

Quickiefood: Park Picnic Pasta

• Elbow Noodles
  
• Bag of Defrosted Quorn
  
• Sun Dried Tomatoes (In oil)
  
• Queen Anne (aka Green) olives
  
• EVOO (aka pretentious green olive oil)
  
• Gouda (aka Cheese given to us at Xmas)
  
• Dried Thyme
  
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  
• Salt
  
• Garlic Powder
  
• Flaky Parm (aka Cheese leftover from who knows what)

We used an electic water boiler to quickly get some water to 212. We used our big pot to hold 4 pitchers full of water, then threw enough pasta for two in. We dabbled a little EVOO in to stop foam ups. After the pasta was al dente (doesn't feel soft, yet isn't hard or bad tasting), we strained it in our colander.

While the water was cooking the pasta, we sliced up some sun dried tomatoes into raisin sized bits, threw in some sliced green olives. We shredded the gouda with a box grater. We pulled a bag of quorn tenders out of the fridge and microwaved them (quorn is a chickenish fake meat made out of mushroom roots).

We throw these items in with the pasta and drizzled EVOO over the pasta. We stirred, then mixed in spices, then put it into two plastic containers and put some of the cheeses (also grated while the water was cooking the pasta).

After uncorking a bottle of wine (Barefoot Merlot), we then stuck the stopper back in. We threw that recorked bottle and two solo cups into a Ikea bag with 2 plastic forks and a blanket to sit on. We threw a couple boxes of golden raisins in for desert, then walked over to the park for some time to enjoy our dinner with the puppy in the park.

Total Quickiefood Couch to Sidewalk time: 21 minutes

--Michael

Carefully Outfitting Your Kitchen (Part 1)

The Simple Dollar recently published a list of pots, pans and knives for a beginner to get to start cooking

That blog is usually spot on with money advice, however I think this time people are being told they need to buy a lot more than they do to get started cooking. He preached restraint then told you to buy 10 pots. They said sets are silly then suggested you buy a set of knives. They were right you are going to ruin things but they didn't think about all the other parts of a beginner's mindset. A beginner will:

• Ruin Food
  
• Ruin Pots/Pans/Dishes
  
• Misuse Knives
  
• Possibly Give Up
  
• Hate Doing Dishes
  
• Will always want to use the dishwasher
  
• Sometimes find they don't like cooking that much
  
• Have have no frame of reference to pick out a knife/pot they like
  
• Have a hard time justifying expensive dishes, and if they don't feel awful when they don't use them if they quit

I'm starting a three part series on how to outfit your kitchen, slowly and cheaply at first, then costing more money if and only if the new cook feels this is worth continuing. By the end, they'll be able to cook any amount of any kind of food for whomever they want. Even after the beginning, you'll be able to turn out edible and delicious meals for 1-5 people.

In this first portion, I'll get you started with what you could buy someone for "Their First Apartment" and yet not have a bunch of clutter that just confuses them and takes up space. The following list is skill-independent. It is enough to cook most things while not spending much money.

At this point you're just starting out and are possibly going to give up on this. This is a small investment that has a real chance of paying off for you, but at the same time, you won't feel like an idiot if you end up never using it like many Americans. (If I thought making you feel like an idiot would help make you keep cooking, I'd suggest more expensive stuff. I think you'll just not cook and feel like an idiot).

For a newbie, I suggest wooden spoons because:

• Dishwasher Safe
• They're cheap
• Doesn't Hurt Teflon Coated Pans
• No one ever got burnt grabbing a wooden spoon (that wasn't on fire)

You need only 1 knife and 1 cutting board. You're just starting. You really don't need more. For the "Big Pot" a huge aluminum one from a cooking supply store will be good enough. You can also buy them at places like Amazon and Bed, Bath and Beyond. For the other two pots, buy something cheap and coated with Teflon. These will probably be thrown away, although they may last a surprisingly long time (I finally threw out a pot I purchased in 2002 that was of this quality).

Here is a list of a reasonable amount of "gear" to get your kitchen able to cook enough variety you don't need to go out:

• 1 Microwave (I'm assuming this is already available)
  
• 1 Oven (I'm assuming this is already available)
  
• 1 Stove (I'm assuming this is already available)
  
• 1 Box (Cheese) Grater
  
• 3 Wooden Spoons
  
• 1 Big Pot (at least 4qts, preferably 6) and lid
  
• 1 Saucepan (Teflon coated 2 or 3 quart) and lid
  
• 1 Fry Pan (Teflon coated, at least 8 inches)
  
• 1 9x9 Glass Baking Dish
  
• 1 Cookie Sheet
  
• 1 set Dry Measuring Cups/Spoons
  
• 1 2-cup glass measuring Cup
  
• 1 slotted plastic scoop (like to scoop a casserole)
  
• 1 Silicone spatula
  
• 1 Plastic Colander
  
• 2 Metal Bowls
  
• 1 Plastic Cutting Board
  
• 1 Stamped Steel Chef's Knife (i.e. Crappy knife that doesn't stay sharp long but is cheap and will work for now)

Will allow cooking of:

1. Any boiled/poached food (e.g. Broccoli, Potatoes, Shrimp)
   
2. Any pan-fried food (e.g Panir, Sausage, Quesadillas)
   
3. Many roasted foods (e.g. Roasted Bell Peppers, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes)
   
4. Many seared foods ("Fried" Tofu/Steak falls in this category)
   
5. Salads (Mix them up in the bowl)
   
6. Nuts/Snack Mix
   
7. Biscuits
   
8. Pancakes
   
9. Gravy
   
10. Pastas
    
11. Rice Dishes
    
12. Most Sauces
    
13. Brownies
    
14. Cookies
    
15. Casseroles
    
16. Lasagnas
    
17. Sausage
    
18. Fried Hashbrown
    
19. Gellates (a pie wrapped up like a Crunchwrap(TM) then cooked on a cookie sheet)
    
20. Chili
    
21. Stew/Soup
    
22. Fried Eggs
    
23. Omelets
    
24. Poached Eggs
    
25. Scrambled Eggs
    
26. Stovetop Mac and Cheese (Homemade is easy, delicious and better for you)
    
27. Melted Chocolate Foods (the metal bowl on top of the big pot == double boiler)

On Amazon, I put all these into one place, and came out with a price of $194 before shipping. I'm going to be switching out comparable items over the next week or so (and as suggestions come in) to try to get the shipping cost down. Right now it's in the 40's, I hope to get that down into the 20's.

Amazon is not the best price for some of these items, but you'll *easily* save the $200 (or even $240) within 2 months of cooking for yourself rather than eating out for every meal. You have 27 kinds of things to make, that is more than enough dishes to hold you at home eating for two whole months. You'll get away with an even cheaper start bill of you go by a cooking supply warehouse. A word of warning: don't get fooled by kitchen specialty stores that try to look like supply warehouses. If you don't see restaurant gear there, it's not where you want to be (at least right now).

Subscribe to make sure you catch part 2 of the series. If you want recipes for "beginner" versions of any of the above, comment and I'll post all of them together.

--Michael

Cheese and Pepper Enchiladas, Fried Jalapeños, and Sauteed ZucchiniCorn

Today we're making food from Mexico.

Main Dish: Cheese and Pepper Enchiladas

This is out of Sundays at the Moosewood Diner. We wanted something simple that dealt with the fact many fresh veggies are not yet available in stores. We use the fresh corn tortillas that are sold throughout the US. They come in a stack and cost about 2 cents each.

Inside they will be filled with chilies, bell peppers, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and onions. They will be doused in a homemade enchilada sauce made from onions, coriander, cumin bell pepper and chilies.

We will serve them on a bed of rice (as suggested).

Fried Jalapeños

This is an amazingly simple dish stolen from Willy's Mexican Grill. They have something on their menu they called jalapeño poppers. This is a misnomer. A jalapeño popper is a stuffed jalapeño that is fried. What they serve at Willy's isn't stuffed (or even breaded).

They slice longitudinally through the jalapeño in two different directions, leaving parts all connected at the stem, dangling in 4 parts. You then take this and throw it in a fryer (stem and all). You then let it fry till soft, then remove, dry some residual oil off of it then salt and squirt lime juice over it. They're delicious and the frying lessens the heat of the jalapeño quite a bit. They are priced at 50 cents at Willy's, which is quite a bit of markup from my calculation.

Sauteed Zucchini Corn

After not finding something simple enough to complement this rather simple meal, we decided to take to the internets and look for something tasty or tasty enough once adapted. We found this misnamed dish. There is nothing slightly casserolish about this dish, but I think it can be turned into something tasty.

First off, while butter would be tasty and work well with the corn (evoking the "buttered corn on the cob" idea), I think the dish would be just as tasty if lighted up a bit. So we're going to substitute olive oil here for the butter.

As "fresh" tomatoes aren't ripe, we elect to used canned diced tomatoes (which are). As we're going to lighten up and simplify the dish, a little bit of acidity in the dish (from the tomatoes) isn't a bad thing, so we're going to half the sugar. In addition, we're going to serve it with ribbons of chopped cilantro on top.

--Michael

Feed Change

My RSS/Atom feeds are now going to be through feedburner.
Simply subscribe to my feed at this url now:

 Subscribe in a reader

The old feed will no longer function. Sorry for the inconvenience

--Michael

Eggplant Parm, Sauteed Lemon and Herb Musrooms, and Chopped Broccoli with Lemon

Today, we're going to make a friend of ours cry. She's not coming tonight because she has family in town

We've got few enough people here to make eggplant parmesan. The reason this is a person limited dish is that you have to fry all the little bits of individually breaded eggplant, and that's after you've already individually breaded them. Breading and bit frying takes time.

We again steal Alton Brown's recipe for this dish. That's because its delicious, and has such a phenomenal texture, I've served this to about a dozen people who "hate eggplant" and all had a second helping. It comes out of his I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking.

To make this dish, you chunk up as much eggplant as you'd like to eat. I suggest more than you think. This is very tasty, and I always lament when we finish off the last microwave dish of it. Then you bread it in the following admixture:

Flour Coat: Flour + Fresh Ground Pepper
Egg Coat: Eggs + Water
Crumb Coat: Grated Parm+Panko Bread Crumbs

To Properly Bread Anything:

Take a Crayola washable marker. Write W on the back of one hand, and D on the back of the other. Pretend the wet hand (the one with a W), will be burnt by anything powdery (i.e. Any Flour or Breadcrumbs, or things coated with such). Pretend the dry hand will be melted off as if dipped in acid if it touches anything wet (i.e. eggs, things just coming out of the eggs batter, or the unfloured eggplant). You don't really need to write on your hands, or be so melodramatic, but you do need to be this careful, otherwise you're hands will become a pile of breaded glop that doesn't really work very well. I usually use my right hand as my W hand and my left as my D.

Setup your counter, left to right, in the following order:

Bowl of stuff to be breaded
Bowl of seasoned flour
Bowl of watery eggs
Bowl of "breading" (panko and parm for us)
Cookie drying rack as a catch tray

Take your wet hand. Pick up a piece of eggplant. Drop (from a short distance) into the flour.

Take your dry hand. Pick up a small amount of flour from the bowl. Drop it all over the piece like a TV chef or a character in a movie about the desert who's playing with sand to make a point about the endlessness of time. Using your dry hand, take the now (overly) coated piece and shake off and tap off on the side of the bowl as much flour as you can. Now drop (from a short distance) said piece of flour coated goodness into the egg mixture, being careful not to melt off your dry hand by touching it to the liquid.

Take your wet hand and fully coat the piece by moving the eggs over the piece (remember the still powdery parts will burn you). With your wet hand, now pick up the piece that is fully coated and drop it from a short distance into the bread crumbs.

Take your dry hand, and fully coat the piece with the breading mixture using the movie character dropping sand method. Once fully coated, move to the side of the breading bowl. Leave this here for a couple minutes. I usually move them out of this bowl (with my dry hand) right after I've just finished breading the piece after it. You're moving the freshly breaded piece from the breading bowl bowl to the cookie cooling rack.

To make the eggplant parm, we do the above with half moons of peeled eggplants that are all about the same size. We then deep fry all the little bits until golden brown. We then put a layer of them down into a casserole dish, along with some marinara sauce, then a layer of provolone slices, then another layer of tasty bits, then more marinara, then more provolone, then you get the picture, until the dish is full. We top it off with marinara and a little more grated (or shredded) parm on top.

Chopped Broc (From Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone)

Lemon(s)
Broccoli (or Broccoli Florets)
Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (should be green).

Turn broccoli into florets if it isn't already. Stick in one of those steamer things that cost $5 at the grocery store and look like UFOs. Put the steamer thing in a shallow pot of boiling water (as per steamer directions). Steam until it is what you'd call al dente if it was pasta. Without cooling it down, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Mushroom Magic (From Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone)

Mushrooms (Assorted types, mostly a common type)
Garlic
Flat Leaf Parsley
Butter
Lemon
Pepper
Salt

Put butter in pan. Melt. Put mushrooms in pan. Cook until liquid comes out then goes back in them, folding and stirring. Do the butter/mushroom thing in two batches if you have a lot of mushrooms. Put garlic in the pan, stir briefly, until garlic just starts to brown. Squeeze lemon into pan, mix with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Cover in bits of freshly chopped fresh parsley.

--Michael

Empanadas, Pinto Beans, and Tomato Lime Soup

Today we're making something a little Mexican/Caribbean.

We're making empanada filled with what we call, "El Pollo Chicken". Yes, I know, El Pollo means "The Chicken". However, that what it ended up being called over time in the house I grew up in. My mother makes this out of real chicken. We, out of Quorn. It is inspired by the chicken they serve at El Pollo Loco, however, not exactly the same, being more Caribbeanesque with the pineapple juice.


Marinade For "Meat":
1/3 cup Lemon juice
1/3 cup Pineapple Juice
1/3 cup Lime juice
1/2 cup Oil
1 teaspoon Ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon Garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper


With it we're serving spicy beans in cumin, stock and love:

Canned Pinto Beans (Rinsed Extremely Well)
Cumin (1.5 tbsp per can of beans)
Jalapeno Peppers (1 per can of beans, sliced into rings)
Can of Veggie Stock (1 per 3 cans of beans)

And a soup from the Sundays At Moosewood Resturant Cookbook called Sopa de Lima. It is a tomato based soup with limes, garlic and chiles, we well as some monterey jack and cilantro.

In addition we are serving a delicious rum punch from that same cookbook. I must share the mix with you:
1 oz Pomegrante Syrup (Aka Grenedine)
1 oz Lime Juice
8 oz Orange Juice
8 oz Pineapple Juice
6 oz Rum (The Darker The Better)

It reminds me quite a bit of the drink served on the way back from our snorkeling expedition on St Thomas during our honeymoon. At the time of writing this post, I've tasted several glasses full of our Pitcher, and will need to make more.

--Michael

Stealing Meals from Other ATL Veggies

Foodie Thievery.

Today we're going to steal from another pair of Atlanta vegetarians. I happen to read their eats blog via RSS. They recently made a vegetarian Shepard's pie and a walnut, avocado, Dijon honey mustard and butter lettuce salad.

Now I think these two make good stuff quite often. They cook a little too vegan for my taste, eschewing milk/egg products where I'd use them. This is a problem for me because cheese is the most important of the four food groups here (cheese, eggs, vegetables and hot peppers). However, her husband is a great food photographer as you'll see on their blog. In addition, she's usually dead on with her mix of veggies.

In her post, Sally says she'd like Vegetarian Times recipes to include more spices. She says she added some, but I don't think she added enough. (She added aromatics [garlic+onion], which is better than nothing, but don't fill the exact role as spices for me).

I think Sage will be a nice addition to this dish. It is something that is used with meats and any other fatty foods. It tastes like an astringent, extremely fresh black pepper. It was one of the herbs we saw growing wild (along with lemon grass) when on Antigua for our honeymoon.

In addition, I think some further bite is needed. So we'll throw some paprika (which is indeed only a little bite) and some dried thyme for a rounding out of flavor.

Also, I'm used to cheese in my Shepard's pie. Alexa thought the pretty orange mashed potatoes were cheese and isn't interested in the dish without it. So, time for a finely shredder cheddar to insinuate itself throughout the dish. I believe it will find itself mixed into the "meat" part rather than the potato part.

Also, Dan said that they thought tangerines would go well in the salad. So we're going to add those in too.

I think it is a *much* safer thing to cook three dishes rather than two. You're insured against one just being plain bad, one having something a guest can't eat [a problem with 4-14 guests], and one being burnt or undercooked. Alexa agrees, and so today, we're also going to make a third dish.

Lentils with Goat Cheese, Olives, and Fresh Thyme. This is out of Three Bowl Cookbook. It will lend a strong snap to the meal with the goat cheese and will round out a meal if the pie or salad proves unsuitable.

--Michael