Moore food, please

Sour Cream Cheesecake

2010-12-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

My mom and aunt have had a bet on the University of Texas vs. Texas A&M football game for as long as I can remember. Most likely longer than I could remember since I am pretty sure the bet is older than I am. Well my cousin and I picked up that bet when we both ended up attending these two fine institutions of higher learning. Okay one fine institution and tamu, but that isn't why I'm here today. Today I'm here to talk about the practice cheesecake I made before I see my cousin over Christmas and have to make her one for real.

This year the Aggies ended a losing streak and won, so I have to produce a cheesecake for my cousin. Now, I have very little baking experience so I decided to go with what seemed to be a pretty straight forward Alton Brown recipe. And while it is pretty easy to follow, some of the hardware needed proved difficult to get my hands on.

The biggest difference in this recipe than what I'm used to is that it called for using a solid 9 by 3 inch cake pan rather than a springform pan. We don't have this size pan, and several stores I checked did not either. So I just followed the recipe but baked it in a springform pan and cut out the water bath.

I do want to try using the water bath cooking method. While the final flavor of the cheesecake was excellent, the texture was a bit soft for my taste. It didn't run all over the plates or anything, but it could have been firmer, and I think cooking it to the recipe should achieve that.

But enough words, have some pictures.


butter for the crust

the crust is ridiculously easy and I will never do store bought again

why yes, that is 2.5 bricks of cream cheese. mmmmm fat

nobody tell Laura I used her mixer

pre-bake

no crack! #happydance

the left over crust bits really add a lot to the final product

Tahini Lemon Rice & Beans

2010-09-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it. I've been a total slacker. Lately, I've been letting my house hubby make the dinners. But as he is now (semi)gainfully employed, I figure it is time for me to start pulling my weight around the house. Plus the college foozball season is upon us, so if I want to eat in the next 12 weeks, I had better get cooking.

Tonight I made Tahini Lemon Rice & Beans from Lauren Ulm's Vegan Yum Yum (pg 81). Zack bought the cookbook as an "us" present in celebration of our one year anniversary. If the other recipes are as good as this one, I'm looking forward to trying the rest. This dish was quick, healthy and delicious.

I used a short-grain brown rice and a rice cooker. I'd like to take a moment to express how much I adore my rice cooker. It is the only way I have ever, EVER, been able to make decent rice. Without the cooker, the water inevitably evaporates before the rice is cooked or the rice turns to a sticky mush. This way is pretty much idiot proof. Just put in the rice and water and flip a switch and you can concentrate on the rest of dinner. Awesome.

Sooo while the rice was cooking I whipped up the dressing which was mostly lemon juice, soy sauce, tahini and olive oil. With that done I sauteed some kale and warmed black beans and shredded carrots. Then I added the cooked rice to the sauteed veggies and mixed in the dressing. Viola!

I really enjoyed this dish! It would make a great dinner for a week night when you're tired and don't feel like anything labor intensive. As a bonus, we finally discovered a way that Zack enjoys greens. Now if I can only figure out sweet potatoes...

the sauce prior to whisking

pre-washed/chopped kale cuts down on prep time

sauteed veggies and rice

the final yummy product

Cajun-Creole-Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits

2010-08-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Last night at the Temporary Moore Home I cooked up some grits. Now growing up in Texas we didn't see a lot of grits about. We all heard of them, but very few people I knew had actually eaten any. When I moved to SC and fell in love with a Carolina girl, I was introduced to the southern staple. Most of the time that I have had them I don't really care for them, but I have found that when they are cooked right they make an outstanding compliment to a variety of dishes.

The recipe came out of Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry and is a vegan reinterpretation of the southern classic, shrimp and grits. The shrimp is replaced with tempeh and the creamy part of the grits is from almond milk and creamed cashews rather than heavy cream. Both the tempeh and the grits required a good deal of time, start to finish took me about 2 hours, but the payoff in flavor was well worth it.

First I sliced the tempeh into bite size pieces and simmered them in a vegetable stock for 30 minutes. While it was simmering, I sautéed leeks with some minced garlic, made the cashew paste and measured out the spice mixture. I also quartered a pint of cherry tomatoes, mixed them with a bit of lemon juice and salt Once the tempeh was done simmering, I drained it and let the pieces dry for half an hour while I got the grits underway. The extra flavor in the grits came from using some vegetable stock in place of some of the cooking water. Once the grits had absorbed the liquids I added almond milk and let that get absorbed. Finally I added a little more water with the cashew paste and let the grits simmer for about 40 minutes until soft but not runny. I asked my beautiful southern bride be the expert on final grit constency.

Finally, while the grits were finishing up, I fried up the drained tempeh in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil for about 6-7 minutes. The frying gave the tempeh a nice crunch on the outside while the simmer gave it a great deal of flavor from the broth. Once fried, the tempeh was combined with the sautéed leeks and the cherry tomatoes.

The dish was one of the better dishes I have made yet, and we will definitely revisit it in the future, but will be saved for days when we have the time to put into it. The leftovers made a great lunch the next day as well, always a bonus.

tempeh before the simmer

the cashews await the blender blade

nine, yes NINE spices awaiting the fried tempeh

I think we're gonna need a bigger pan

creamy grits


fried tempeh given a good shake with the spices then tomatoes and leeks stirred in

serve tempeh over grits with some scallion for garnish and nom away

more pictures here

Shrimp Étouffée

2010-08-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

I assure you that we are still alive and well(ish), life has just kept us from the blog lately. We recently moved cities and are sorta settled in a family house while I look for work and Laura gets settled in her new job. For a bit of comfort recently, I decided to try my hand at a dish that my family has been cooking for years now, Shrimp Étouffée. Wikipedia has a good article on Étouffée if you want to bone up.

This dish is rather simple, but easy to mess up if you aren't paying attention. It starts with a full stick of butter, mmmmmm. Sorry, just the thought of all that buttery goodness made me zone out there for a moment. Once the butter is melted sauté 1 cup chopped onions, 1 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper and 2 cloves crushed garlic. Once the onions become limp add 1.5 cups of water and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Next, add 1.5lbs of shrimp and cayenne to taste (we like it hot and went with 1/2 teaspoon). Let this simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of water and add to the skillet. Serve over cooked rice.

For some added taste of home for me, we paired it with a simple cucumber salad that my family likes to make. The salad combines sliced cucumber (thin is good for this, but it is up to you), mayonnaise (we went with Vegenaise and I swear you can't tell the difference), green onion and ground black pepper (or cracked pepper is nice as well). The salad is best if you can soak the sliced cucumbers in water with some salt for a few hours before mixing the rest of the ingredients.

Finally we added some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, because who in their right mind doesn't like them? All in all this was just what this homesick boy needed.

mmmmmmmmm butter

sauté goodness

still needs pepper

really, don't fear it!

a taste of home

Avocado & Smoked Gouda Sandwiches

2010-05-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

This avocado and smoked Gouda sandwich is one of my favorites. It's a perfect simple meal for a hot day!
Ingredients:
sourdough bread
sliced tomato(es)
sliced avocado
sliced red onion
romaine lettuce
smoked Gouda
spicy mustard
vegenaise or mayo

Lightly toast the sourdough bread under a broiler. Add the gouda, broil for a few more minutes until the cheese is slightly melted.

Top one side with tomatoes, vegenaise, salt & pepper.

Top the other half with spicy mustard, onion, avocado slices and lettuce.

Smoosh the sides together and enjoy!

Chickpea Fattet Tostadas

2010-05-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

After last night's flavor debacle, we decided to try something else from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker and this time it worked out great. Tonight's dish was very simple and actually didn't need the slow cooker at all. The only part of the recipe that called for the cooker was to cook the dried chickpeas. I didn't want to let them go all day, so I just did the quick cook method that took about an hour. Rather than sitting in the slow cooker all day, I just boiled the dried chickpeas for a couple of minutes and let them sit in the hot water until they were ready.

I had never made hummus before, so we just followed the recipe from the book. In the future I'll cut back on the amount of garlic, but otherwise it was tasty. One downside to making our own hummus is that our little food processor is loud and makes our dog cower under our feet.

The dish was very good and much more filling than we had expected. We will definitely do this one again.

just before the poor dog was under foot

pita is hard to slice

hummus all done

pita toasted under the broiler, hummus, romaine lettuce, roasted pine nuts, a touch of fresh mint and Greek-style yogurt: easy peasy

Greek Lemon, Artichoke and Egg Soup

2010-05-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

The downside to trying new things is that occasionally those new things aren't as good as one would hope. This evening we made another dish from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker. We checked the book out from the library a while back and enjoyed it so much that I put it on my wish list and my parents gave it to me for my birthday.

This dish was pretty simple in that I sautéed the artichokes, celery and onion in olive oil. I added the vegetables to the slow cooker with rice and water and let them cook for the afternoon. When it was about time to eat we whisked eggs together with lemon juice to go into the soup.

This all smelled delightful, but the final dish was far too tart with the 1/2 cup of lemon juice that it called for. Also, rather than being a soup, it became more of a slush. We think that our slow cooker may go a lot hotter than what the recipes expect it to. Every time we use it it seems to over cook even at the low end of cooking times.

artichoke, celery and onion ready for the pan

ready for the soup

at least the bread was good

Arepas with Avocado-Tempeh Filling

2010-05-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight we made stuffed Venezuelan sammies from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan! Terry co-authored several of my favorite cookbooks, including Veganomicon, so I expected good things. And this recipe did not disappoint! Arepas are akin to corn bread or just really, really thick tortillas. They have a crunchy crust and a moist and dense center.

The recipe called for the tempeh filling to be made in advance so that the flavors have time to meld. We planned on having the arepas for dinner, so I made the filling in the morning and let it marinate in the fridge. After briefly boiling the tempeh, I sprinkled it with soy sauce and cut it in cubes.

Next I whisked Vegenaise, lime juice and fresh ground pepper together and then stirred in the shredded jicama and tempeh cubes..This was the first time I've ever made anything with jicama and the first grocery store we went to didn't carry it. Once you peel it, it looks a lot like a potato but smelled like a green bean. I wish I would have thought to try a bit of it on it's own, but I didn't.

Making the Arepas was pretty simple. The dough was made out of masa harina flour, salt and water. It was supposed to be strictly Venezuelan or Colombian style masa harina, but the kind we bought was of non-specific origin. The dough was kneaded and then patted out into 6 disks about 4 inches in diameter.

They were then fried in a bit of canola oil before being baked for an additional 15 minutes in a 350 oven.

After baking we sliced the arepas were sliced in half, spooned on the prepared filling and topped it with sliced avocados. The traditional way to assemble these includes splitting them three quarters of the way and stuffing the filling inside like a pita, but we found the sammich construction a bit easier.

The results were yummy! The only way I can think to describe the filling is as a tangy slaw. I love the jimaca and lime combo with the mild tempeh and warm arepas. The arepas themselves were nice, but on their own seemed a bit bland. Maybe adding a bit more salt would help this? Zack thinks they would be good withbutter and honey as a breakfast. We give it four stars!

More pics here

Road Trip for Hash (no, not what you are thinking)

2010-05-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Occasionally we at Moore Food, Please like to let other people feed us. Yesterday, Laura and I went to visit our friend Mandie in Pacolet, South Carolina and attend her family's Hash. In case you are unfamiliar with Pacolet, it is the town near Spartanburg with a big horse in the middle of a river (pictured to the left).

Now those of you, like me, who are not native to South Carolina may be wondering just what a "hash" is. Well the best I could tell when I got here was that it was a bunch of stuff mashed up into some kind of delicious meat paste. Wikipedia has an article on it here. Mandie's family makes a big production out of the meal and pretty much the entire town of Pacolet, SC comes by to partake.

A hash is not normally very vegetarian friendly, but Mandie did a wonderful job of preparing vegetarian dishes for those who don't drool at the idea of meat paste.

Yup, we ate at the "Eatin' Shed"

Hash is typically cooked in a large single pot, this family doesn't screw around when it comes to their pot.

A family member stirring the pot (insert dumb joke here).

The desserts were delicious!

See more pictures of the day trip

Dinner on the cheap - Ramen Bowls!

2010-05-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

You know it. You love it. You probably ate nothing but it in college...it's ramen! Times are tight, so we've been looking for creative ways to eat on the cheap. Zack discovered the Budget Bytes blog a few months ago before the layoffs. It's a lovely little blog by Beth M., a money conscious foodie. It must have been fate! Or google.

This ramen bowl was our first experiment with a Budget Byte's recipe. It was easy to do, yummy and of course, cheap! We bought the ramen on sale for .17¢ each. As with most of our recipes, I added way more veggies than required. We included shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms and baby spinach. In lieu of the flavor packet we added soy sauce and a splash of fish sauce.

Zack dislikes runny egg yolks so I opted for making egg-ribbons similar to egg-drop soup. Apparently I haven't mastered egg-ribbon making. It ended up more like broth with little chunks of egg floating in it.

We bought a jar of chili-garlic sauce to add some heat. It was yummy but very similar to sriracha sauce. If you have sriracha at home, just use it instead. Overall I would say this is a 4 star dish. It would be perfect for an evening when you are really tired and don't feel like making anything elaborate.

Birthday Baking FAIL

2010-05-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

As you may know, things have been kind of stressful and grim for us these past few months. So for Z's upcoming birthday, I wanted to do something completely frivolous and fun. A few years ago I saw a blog post for this Supertall Amazing Rainbow Cake and I knew that would be just the thing. It was gonna be AMAZING! And a surprise.

Zack went to visit some friends Friday night, so I got to baking. Flour, egg whites and sugar flew. The mess was epic. The cake was a coconut cake from a recipe I found on about.com. I separated the batter into different bowls and added the food coloring. I didn't know how much to add, so I just sort of dropped the coloring in and mixed until it looked nice. Then I poured it into the cake pans and baked it according to the instructions. Simple enough.

Now, lets talk frosting. And egg whites - evil, evil egg whites. The icing was going to be a nice, fluffy and supposedly simple egg white and sugar mix. I threw out two batches. The egg whites would not turn into fluffy peaks no matter how long my Kitchen Aid abused them. My last attempt finally yielded something fluffy and yummy.

I stacked the layers, adding frosting and shredded coconut in between them. Then I frosted the exterior and dusted it with the remaining coconut. Voila! A giant Baked Alaska. Wait, what?

A few things: I should have made a double recipe so that layers would be nice and thick, to contribute to the whole "Supertall" aspect of the cake. But time was short and I was out of eggs! Baking tip #1, be prepared. That means have extra in case you eff it up the first time! Also, the cake pans I used weren't exactly the same size. For this recipe you either need a ridiculous number of cake pans, or time enough to bake everything in separate batches. Our neighbors graciously let me borrow a few of theirs so I could bake the cake all at once. Despite the slight roundness of the cake, I was still pretty dang proud...

...That is until the next morning. When this is what I find. All of the lovely, fluffy icing had disappeared into a cobwebby vestige of its former glory. Cursing ensued. Lots and lots of cursing. But I was determined that 3 hours of baking would not go in vain.

We were brave and tried a slice. It actually tasted pretty good. Nice and coco-nutty. The frosting had been absorbed by the cake, so it was very moist. And it looked pretty on the plate, even without frosting.

Next year, I'll be keeping it simple. Patti, I hear you have a cheesecake recipe?

Linguini with Lemon-Roasted Asparagus and Goat Cheese

2010-04-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

I love asparagus! Really, I do. As a child, my experience with it was limited to the canned stuff smothered in cheese. I happen to be a fan of cheese, but canned asparagus is just unpleasant (think mouthful of snot). So I was surprised when I had fresh asparagus for the first time as an adult. Ever since then, I've been happily experimenting with any new recipe I come across. I saw this liniguini recipe last week on CRAFTzine.com and knew we'd have to try it soon. Bonus: asparagus is in season so it's fresh and cheap!

This was a really simple and delicious recipe. The veggie prep included washing and cutting the asparagus and slicing shallots. The citrus marinade took only a couple of minutes, mostly spent mincing garlic cloves. I zested and juiced a lemon and mixed it in with olive oil, garlic, and dijon mustard along with some salt and pepper. The marinated veggies roasted for seven minutes which was exactly the amount of time the pasta needed to cook. Then we tossed it all together and topped it with goat cheese and parsley. Yum! And it was all done in less than thirty minutes (Suck it, Rachel Ray). Download the recipe in PDF here.

Zack chopping veggies

cry face. shallots ain't no joke.

citrus-y goodness

roasted veg

Ta-da!

Salmon & Couscous Packages

2010-04-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

Spring time is here and it is time to step away from the heavy dishes. Tonight we dined on a recipe from The Diabetes Seafood Cookbook (don't worry neither of us have contracted diabetes just yet). The recipe was cooked in foil pouches like we had last week, but rather than a stew the couscous soaked up all the liquid. Laura and I are both big fans of dill and this dish delivered on that taste. The one thing we didn't like was the finished couscous. The liquid used for cooking was white wine and wine flavored couscous just isn't all that tasty. Next time we try this recipe we will either use just water or veggie broth in place of the wine.

We give this one 3 stars for now, but we did end up throwing out the couscous.

dill and sour cream, what more could you ask for?

couscous underneath fish on top (wine to come)

the recipe side was cucumber with sour cream, we decided to add some more dill (it was a good call)

fish = good; couscous = bad

more pictures here

Minted Potato and Chickpea Curry

2010-04-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner comes from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker page 25. An upside to unemployment is that I can watch a slow cooker all day long, but this dish didn't need any babysitting at all. The chickpeas cooked all day in the cooker and most the rest of the ingredients were added about an hour before eating.

The dish was good, but could be better. First the potatoes needed more than the hour the recipe called for. Next time, we will either cut them into smaller pieces or give it more time. Also, to give it a bit more flavor we really should have gone with fresh tomato rather than canned. We omitted the fresh cilantro since neither of us care for the stuff. Next time we may try adding dry parsley with the spices to make up for the lack of cilantro. The fresh mint and jalapeno were particularly nice in the final dish.

We give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars, for now.

the ingredient list was smaller than most of our dishes

sloooooow cookin'

we served it with brown rice

more pictures here

Ramen Radiator

2010-04-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Moore Food, Please is back from our short break, work woes have kept us busy and too exhausted to post recently. We do have a few dishes from the last few weeks to write about and hopefully we will have them all up soon.

Last night we tried a recipe from the Alton Brown book I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 and it was yummy. The recipe was Ramen Radiator (page 169). The recipe reminded me of the "silver turtles" I used to make when I was in scouts as a kids. The cooking method had us wrap everything up in aluminum foil and let the liquid cook the goodies with steam in the oven.

We will definitely revisit this recipe, with a few minor changes. The final dish was a little sweet for our taste, so we will probably omit the honey, cut back on the mirin and slightly increase the amount of soy sauce. We give this one 4 out of 5 stars, and with a little work it could easily become 5.

cremini mushrooms were caramelized in olive oil and toasted sesame oil

the goodies that were going into the pouches

what isn't visible is the half "load" of ramen noodles under the fish

we decided to eat like grown ups for once

mmmmmmmm

more pictures here

Baked Penne with Sausage

2010-03-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Tonight was comfort food night at the Moore house. We got the Williams-Sonoma Comfort Food cookbook from work (working in a library has its advantages) and it is just stunningly beautiful. Most of the dishes are not even remotely vegetarian friendly and a lot of them would be difficult to impossible to create meatless versions. We did decide to try the baked ziti with sausage recipe with vegetarian sausage. The sausage was okay, but in the future we will use faux sausage crumbles rather than links. We also switched out the ziti with penne because we found a whole grain penne.

Baked spaghetti has been a staple in our house, so we decided to try another approach with it. And this recipe did have some additions that we will reuse in the future, namely red pepper flake in the sauce. We both agree that most anything can be made tastier with red pepper flake. Also the addition of roasted eggplant was much needed.

We give this one 4 out of 5 stars. The added plus is that we have plenty of left overs for lunches this week. Oh good God, I just said that. My life is sad sometimes.

Stay away from the Tofurky Italian Sausage (the dish was good despite this part)

sauce with roasted eggplant and sausage

pre-bake

more pictures here

Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad

2010-03-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

Once again, we went to the cookbook, Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats, and once again it payed off. Say what you will about how annoying she can be, Rachael can cook and her recipes rock the house. The name of this dish explains it rather well, but it doesn't tell you just how tasty the salad is. I thought the fish was great, but Laura thought it was a bit too "fishy." Next time I will cook her piece a bit longer and hopefully it will be more to her liking. We did mess up in that we accidentally doubled the lime juice in the fish glaze which took away from the honey flavor, I will try and not do that again.

Overall we give this one 4 out of 5 stars (with 5 stars easy on the salad).

Spice mixture for the salad: garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt and pepper.

We fear the non-stick pan, so this got a little messy

Salad is made of onion (we used yellow rather than red), red bell pepper, corn, black beans, baby spinach and fresh cilantro

Mushroom and Sun-dried Tomato Risotto

2010-03-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

I have to start this out by saying Mmmmmmm! Risotto is delicious. Mushroom and sun-dried tomato risotto is the most delicious thing. Ever. That being said, you have to have time. And patience. But mostly time (and a really supportive pair of shoes). This recipe was from Vegan With a Vengeance. The recipe was simple to follow, but it required a lot of time standing over the stove with almost constant stirring. This is best done with another person so you can stir in shifts . Do not, under any circumstances, send your husband to the store for a bottle of wine while you make it, or you can end up tired and cranky. I'm just saying. The payoff is worth it, as it is creamy mushroom deliciousness.

We subbed dried porcini mushrooms instead of the ones the recipe called for. It was a definite 5 out of 5 stars. We'll be making this one again as soon as I'm fully recovered.

mmmmmmmm

more pictures here

Vegetable Lasagna with Garlic Bread

2010-02-28T15:57:00.000-08:00

Cheesy goodness was on the menu tonight. We tried a new vegetable lasagna recipe that we found online. It was pasta free and called for thinly sliced zucchini, chopped eggplant and chopped yellow squash. All three were roasted in a mixture of olive oil, garlic and dried thyme.

We switched out the portobello with baby bella and the button mushrooms with cremini. In the future we will use all cremini and saute the whole batch. Also, I didn't let the tomato sauce simmer quite long enough and it was still a bit too liquid which made for a messy final dish. Despite that, it was quite tasty and we will definitely make it again. We give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

yellow squash

lightly roasted zucchini

mushrooms, mmmmm

Parmesan

final result

more pictures here

Mushroom Polenta "Lasagna" with Sesame Asparagus

2010-02-21T18:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight's main dish was from Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats page 300. We have made this once before we started the blog and really liked it, so we decided to revisit and it was still just as good. We made a slight alteration to the mushroom portion of the recipe. We used baby bella rather than portobello mushrooms, and it was just fine. The recipe uses prepared polenta in place of pasta. The next time we make this, I may try to make the polenta myself. Also, next time we plan to make it in a larger pan to try and thin the layers out a little bit. We ended up having to cook it much longer than the recipe called for. Hopefully the changes we make next time will cut down on the cooking time.

The side dish was the sesame asparagus we made last month from Vegan with a Vengeance. I am proud to say that I did not burn the sesame seed oil and garlic this time around. We also followed the recipe better and did not end up burning holes in our mouths with too much red pepper flake. Trust me on this one, one teaspoon is plenty for this dish. While the cookbook suggests this as a side to Asian type meals, it paired well with the main dish which also included some red pepper flake.

This was a great dish, despite taking much longer than the recipe suggests. We give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

This one calls for a lot of ingredients

mushrooms, onion, garlic and rosemary

bre-bake

mmmmmmm

more pictures here

Chickpea and Spinach Curry

2010-02-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Night two for Vegan With a Vengeance, with my first attempt at a curry. We made a few alterations to the recipe. First was using ground ginger since the fresh ginger we had wasn't so fresh any more. Second was using ground cardamom in place of cardamom pods, which our usual grocery store didn't seem to have. Upon spice testing toward the end of the cooking process, we added a little more curry powder as well as salt.

The dish was good, but a little more bland then the copious amounts of spice would suggest. My coworker of Indian heritage, told me today that she lives off of curry, so I'm hoping she can give me some good tips on uping the heat of the dish. In the future, we will definitely make sure we have some fresh ginger also more tomato and tomato juice. We give this one 3 out of 5 stars with high hopes of a better dish on the next attempt.

mustard seed and onion

spices and tomato added

cooking down the spinach

simmer with the chickpeas

we went with a bed of rice

more pictures here

Jerk Seitan with Coconut Rice

2010-02-14T17:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight we revisited Vegan with a Vengeance with delicious results. The main dish was jerk seitan (page 159). The recipe says to marinade the seitan for an hour, but I went ahead and set it up around noon and let it sit for about six hours. The only other variation we took from the recipe was to add more cayenne just before cooking, about a teaspoon or so more which gave the final dish a bit more heat.

The seitan was simple and flavorful with the large amount of spices used in the marinade. An onion and green bell pepper were sauteed for about 10 minutes before adding the seitan to the skillet. The seitan cooked for about ten minutes and then for a few more minutes when we added the marinade to the skillet. Total cooking time for the main dish was about 25 minutes.

The coconut rice recipe is from the same book (page 109). This too was simple and delicious. The jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk and water with a cinnamon stick and a little salt. Shortly before finishing, we added the zest of one lime to the party. Side note: we finally got around to getting a Microplane zester/grater and it is awesome.

Last but not least, we decided to add a simple greens salad much like we had with Salmon Cakes last month. We used salad greens tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt and pepper. We also added some tomato and cucumber.

This dinner will be revisited in the future because it was so tasty. We give it 5 out of 5 stars.

ingredients for the marinade

onion and bell pepper

the seitan patiently awaits its turn

finished rice topped with toasted coconut

pair with Shiner Bock for the yummy

more pictures here

A View of Tasty Things to Come

2010-02-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

stay tuned

Left to my own devices

2010-02-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

Laura and I both work jobs that require some night and weekend hours. For the most part we are able to get our schedules matched up so that we work the same schedules, or at least schedules that are at least some what alike. This week is one of the times that we are way off and won't have a night off together all week long, so cooking together can't really happen. Tonight Laura is working and I'm home alone so what do I make, Hamburger Helper. Yes, Hamburger Helper, I am sorry to say it but it is true.

In my defense I did have a large helping of broccoli to go with it. Maybe on my next alone night I'll try my friend Shawn's suggestion of cast iron skillet steak.

Zucchini Pizza

2010-02-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Some nights we take a chance and it just doesn't work out. Tonight was one of those nights with our Zucchini Pizza experiment. The pizza has some promise, but what we ended up eating was really not very good. Don't let that stop you from reading the rest of this.

The pizza recipe was from Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats page 275. We made a few alterations, as usual. We replaced the ricotta cheese with cottage cheese which was an okay change. The change that we didn't like so much was the dough. The recipe calls for rolls of pizza dough and we went with a whole wheat pre-made dough that just was not good at all. We did find an easy enough looking recipe online that we may try next time, but it needs a few hours before it is ready.

The biggest issue we ran into was that while the recipe calls for 2 rolls of dough. We miscalculated the amount of dough and what do you know, we put twice as much topping on one pie and that was a big mistake. The biggest issue was that the cottage cheese had eight (yes e-i-g-h-t, 8) cloves of garlic in it. Now we love garlic and eat it a lot, but this was just way too much. Also with that much cottage cheese on on crust, it oozed all over the place in the baking process.

In the future we will go with another dough, maybe add some fresh tomato as a topping and cut back on the garlic.

beware the garlic

brown thin slices of zucchini (this part was yummy)

the right side oozed

at least it looks pretty

more pictures here

Gratin of Eggplant with Plum Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella and Lemon-Basil Pesto

2010-02-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

Oh, fresh mozzarella how I love thee. Laura and I broke out the Cooking for Two: Perfect Meals for Pairs that was a gift from my friend Shawn and his wife (also my cousin) Jill . We like the book, but it does tend to lend itself to more expensive meals than we usually like to make. We found a pretty good deal on the fresh mozzarella and it was oh so tasty, but it isn't something we will splurge on that often.

Tonight's dish is from page 46, Gratin of Eggplant Layered with Plum Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, and Lemon-Basil Pesto. Yes that is a mouthful, but an oh so tasty mouthful. The pesto was simple: blended pine nuts (that had been roasted in the oven), garlic, Parmesan cheese, fresh basil and lemon juice. The eggplant was browned in a large pan with olive oil and then the yummy layers began.

The pesto brought a bright flavor to the dish that I very much enjoyed. I used too much olive oil in the browning of the eggplant which resulted in far too much liquid coming out in the baking process. Next time we make this we will use less oil on the eggplant and slice it a bit thicker. The mozzarella could have been a bit thinner but that was tricky stuff to slice. Laura thought the cheese could of used a bit more time in the oven, but we both loooooved the fresh mozzarella anyway. We give this one 3.5 of 5 stars.

fresh eggplant

pesto (we eat a lot of garlic)

this will be better in the summer when plum tomatoes are in season

trust me, you really should wish this was a scratch and sniff blog

pre-bake

nom nom nom

more pictures here

Tilapia with Apples, Cabbage & Warm Cumin Vinaigrette

2010-01-31T19:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you've heard, but IT SNOWED here on Friday!!! It was beautiful and so much fun to play in with Munchie. Unfortunately, our cupboard was seriously bare. So we finally risked life and limb today and ventured out to the grocery store. I think we pretty much bought the place out. While there we got the ingredients for tonight's dinner. The recipe is from The Ultimate Cook Book (p 340) which was a gift from Uncle Phil and Aunt Cheryl (thank you for feeding our obsession!).

Zack prepped all of the veggies and I sauteed the onion, garlic, cabbage, chickpeas & a granny smith apple in a bit of butter and white wine. The Tilapia was seasoned with salt and pepper and put on the stove top briefly before being baked in the oven. The vinaigrette seemed more like an onion relish than a dressing. It was made of sauteed red onion, garlic and cumin mixed with lime juice and white wine vinegar.

The original recipe called for bass, but Harris Teeter only had Chilean sea bass. This particular bass has almost been fished to extinction. The Tilapia seemed like a good substitution. The vinaigrette also called for crushed cumin seeds. There were no cumin seeds in the spice cabinet, there was some regular cumin. We decided to use what we had because, damn it, we're kind of cheap.

The result was a yummy, if slightly monochromatic dish. Zack gave it 4 out of 5 stars even though he generally isn't a fan of cabbage. I really liked the cabbage and tart apple combo. I think we will make this one again.

more pictures here

Chickpea Cutlets with Mustard Sauce & Sesame Asparagus

2010-01-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a triple Isa night! We made Chickpea Cutlets in Mustard Sauce from Veganomicon and Sesame Asparagus from Vegan With a Vengeance. I own and luuuuuuuv both of these cookbooks and I'm seriously coveting her cupcake and brunch book too. Despite Zack's attempt to burn down the house, dinner turned out yummy and mostly flame free.

The cutlets were easy to make. Zack had a lot of fun smooshing the chickpeas with our muddler. I kneaded the mash into the wheat gluten and seasoning and smooshed them into 4 thin patties (the thinner they are, the crispier they turn out). I thought that the mustard sauce was a nice tangy complement. Zack could have lived without the capers in the sauce. As always, there were a few substitution. I used bottled lemon juice in place of lemon zest and subbed leftover Panko bread crumbs instead of the standard variety. I think the Panko caused the cutlets to fall apart a bit.

After initially smoking up the house, Zack made the asparagus. He cooked it perfectly so that it was still slightly crunchy. This recipe was delicious but hot as all hell! It called for 1 tsp of red pepper flake. We're both fans of spicy food, but this was toooo much! Next time we're sticking with 1/2 tsp.

Overall, we give this dinner four stars. We'll definitely make it again in the future.

vampire inoculation

the smooshing part was fun

forming the cutlets

more smooshing

cast iron skillets are awesome

spicy asparagus

the yummy results

more here

Sicilian Lentil, Vegetable and Pasta Soup

2010-01-24T17:02:00.000-08:00

It has been a gray soggy Sunday here in Charlotte so we decided to try a slow cooker recipe from a new book at my library called The Italian Slow Cooker. As one might imagine, this book isn't exactly vegetarian friendly, but it did have a nice sounding lentil soup. The prep for this dish was simple and just involved chopping some vegetables and tossing them in the pot with some water and since we went with canned tomatoes we didn't have to bother with peeling and seeding. We never said we wouldn't cut corners here.

The pot cooked on low for 7 hours and we added elbow pasta and let it cook on high for an additional 30 minutes. To go along with the soup we kept with the cutting corners and had some frozen garlic bread. The soup was a good start, but will need some work if we do it again in the future. We think that replacing some of the water with vegetable stock or adding a little bouillon would add a deeper flavor, also adding some fresh herbs would help. If anyone has herb suggestions we are open to them. We give this dish 3 stars out of 5, but it has potential. As a slow cooker recipe should be, it is a good one to let go all day and you can just leave it alone, though an occasional stir doesn't hurt.

mmm fresh veggies

chopped veggies

more pictures here

Salmon Cakes with Salad Greens and Rice

2010-01-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

Two nights, two posts and both from Rachel Ray recipes. She may be annoying, but she knows how to cook and puts out great recipes. The recipe for tonight's post can be found on the Food Network (one of our favorite networks) here. A while back we tried a salmon cake recipe from the back of the salmon pouch and thought, "meh."

This recipe was much better and added a lot of flavor and the sauce was super hot so if you make this and are not a fan of heat, you might want to cut back on the amount of chili sauce. We used Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce and ended up adding another 1/4 cup of mayo to ease up on the heat. We give this one a 4.5 just with some minor changes to the sauce to keep it from being too hot. Serving it over the salad green tossed in olive oil, salt and lemon juice was outstanding.

Other variations we made:

Panko rather than cracker meal (leftovers from the Eggplant Parmesan)
Cayenne pepper because we didn't have any cayenne pepper sauce. I think this added more heat and took away some moisture which made forming the cakes a bit difficult

Laura chopping the dill

pre-cake goodness

pre-fried cakeness

crush the cook indeed

the yummy finished product

more pictures here

Quesadilla Casserole with Collard Greens

2010-01-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

I know, collard greens aren't the first side dish one thinks of with quesadillas, but it works surprisingly well. Laura and I mixed our childhoods a bit tonight with some good 'ol Tex Mex and down home southern dishes. The quesadilla casserole was a Rachel Ray recipe found online and the collard greens were prepared with liquid smoke, soy sauce and garlic from a recipe in Veganomicon.

We liked the casserole and will revisit it with a few tweaks in the future. One thing we both thought would be good was to add some tomatoes to each layer and maybe some diced jalapeno peppers to give it a little heat. Laura really like the greens, but I wasn't as thrilled with them. I didn't each them growing up, so I haven't developed a taste for them. I am told that I will be given plenty of chances in our life together to develop the appreciation of collard greens.

black beans, corn and parsley for the filling

sauteed onion and black beans squished into a paste

tortilla, paste, filling, cheese (repeat 4 times)

bake at 400 for 30 min (Cosby sweater optional)

careful, oven baked cast iron is HOT

top with green enchilada sauce

more pictures here

Eggplant Parmesan à la Alton

2010-01-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Continuing down our nerd road, Laura and I are big fans of Alton Brown. Earlier today I broke out his book I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 to try and find something new to make and settled on Eggplant Parmesan. The preparation of this dish was ridiculously easy and fun to do. We don't break out the cast iron skillet as much as I would like, so getting to pan fry some goodies is always a welcome treat.

The recipe calls for panko rather than traditional bread crumbs and I think that made all of the difference. The panko gave it a lighter and crispier crust than the others would have. One substitution we had to make was to use a pre-shredded mix of cheeses because the store did not have provolone except for sandwich slices. We had some left over spaghetti sauce in the fridge and went with that rather than just plain tomato sauce.

For a side dish we decided on some asparagus and just used a steamer bag from the frozen section of the grocery store (don't knock it, it is actually pretty dang good stuff). I made my first ever reduction sauce with balsamic vinegar which turned out pretty nice, though we went a little heavy handed on it when we put it on the veggies. Otherwise the dinner was a big 'ol win and I plan on making it again soon. Plus, it is a pretty cheap meal that doesn't take long to prepare. WE give it 5 out of 5 stars. But enough of the words, here are the pictures.

knives are fun

workspace

resting while their friends get fried

just a touch of sauce between each layer

"suck it Iron Chef"

Laura likes plating and wanted me to say that

See the whole set here

Faux "Chicken" and Dumplings

2010-01-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

So far we've been good about keeping our dish a week pledge. But we have not, as of yet, shared any tasty food with our neighbors. And we like them. Soooo, Saturday we decided to have us a little dinner party!

Joey and Rebecca
poor neglected neighbors

bitty kitchen table

We made faux chicken and dumplings. This dish has always been one of my favorite cold weather comfort foods.

Faux "Chicken":

2 boxes Quorn Cutlets

4 cups water

2 cups Veggie or No-Chicken broth

3 carrots

3 stalks of celery

1 small onion

frozen peas

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

fresh ground pepper

Dumplings:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbls non-hydrogenated shortening

3/4 cup buttermilk

Defrost Quorn Cutlets, chop into bite-sized pieces and set aside (when defrosting, add a little broth and cover so they don't dry out). Pour broth and water into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add salt and simmer chopped onions, carrots, celery and peas for 5 minutes. Drain the veggies and set them aside also reserving the broth.

To make the dumplings combine dry ingredients and then cut in the shortening until it is the texture of a coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and combine only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Its not necessary to roll out the dough unless you just really want to use a rolling pin.

Put the reserved broth back into the pot and bring to a boil and add fresh ground pepper. Pinch off 1 1/2 inch pieces of dough and drop them into the broth a few at a time. Adding a bit of milk to the broth will help thicken the mixture. Reduce the heat to medium low and stir periodically for 8-10 minutes. Add the Quorn and veggies back to the pot and cook until warm.

Everyone enjoyed the yummy results. Yay for good food, good friends and sharing!

Rebecca and Joey

no longer neglected!

Full Flickr set in all its glory here

Boba Fett-uccine

2010-01-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Nerd Night!

Tonight's dish is a simple fettuccine recipe from Wookie Cookies: A Star Wars Cookbook, with the punny name of Boba Fett-uccin. Because seriously what goes better with pasta than a little galactic bounty hunting?! Nothing, that's right!

The recipe was good (though, the recipe wasn't really necessary). We eat a lot of baked pasta around here and are trying to ease off of that. This is a much lighter dish with steamed vegetables mixed in with a tomato pasta sauce (we went canned on that). The recipe called for broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini. In the future we will cut out the cauliflower and replace it with something else because neither of us really care for it all on its own.

We will revisit this dish again in the future. It is very simple and including prep only took 20-30 minutes from start to finish. A great easy meal for a week night after a long day of work whether that be librarianing or hunting down the dredges of the Coruscant underworld.

Quality testing the fettuccine.

Of course you must top it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Finished Product and more pictures here

Veggie Chili with Jalapeno Cornbread

2010-01-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

Today was so effing cold! Zack and I were both in need of some serious comfort food. This chili & cornbread combo was just what we needed. While the recipe we used for the chili was originally found on the internets, we made so many substitutions and additions that I feel comfortable calling it our own and posting it (without getting sued) for anyone who is interested.

Veggie Chili:
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped & seeded
1 cup celery, chopped
3/4 cup dry red wine or sherry
4 cloves garlic, minced
30 oz canned diced tomatoes w/ juice
15 oz canned kidney beans (rinsed/drained)
15 oz canned pinto beans (rinsed/drained)
1/2 bag of boca crumbles
2 cups water
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 Tbls bouillon *Better than Bouillon Vegetable is the best
2 Tbls chili powder
3/4 tsp ground cumin
sour cream
cheddar cheese

*In a pot over medium-high head combine the wine or sherry with onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Saute veggies for 5-7 minutes.

*Add remaining ingredients and stir. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top with shredded cheddar and sour cream and serve.

Jalapeno Cornbread:
1 & 1/2 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 & 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3-4 jalapenos, seeded & chopped

*Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

*Mix dry ingredients.

*Combine wet ingredients and then fold in jalapenos. Pour into a 8 x 8 greased pan and bake for 25-35 minutes and golden brown on top.

The results were yummy! This dinner was also relatively quick and easy to make. We give it 5 out of 5 stars. It makes plenty and reheats well.

Gratuitous photos here.

Lemon-Thyme Succotash with Shrimp

2010-01-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dish was Lemon-Thyme Succotash with Garlic-Parsley Shrimp from Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats and I for one, thought it was quite yummy. Laura is trying seafood, but is having trouble with shrimp due to the "pop" they make when you bite into them. She also wants to go on record saying they are the "little cockroaches of the sea." I still maintain that they are beyond compare and only made better with butter and garlic.

We both agreed that the Succotash was great and that it is worth another go. We don't agree so much on the shrimp, but that is due to the aforementioned disagreement about the awesomeness of said critter.

A fun aspect of this dish was that it was in two pans at once so we were able to work together at the stove. See more pictures on at the Flickr set.

The succotash included onions, red bell pepper, celery, corn, cannellini beans and thyme.

The shrimp were cooked with olive oil, butter and loads of garlic. They were finished with parsley and white wine.

Seitan in Mushroom Gravy

2010-01-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a recipe found in Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry (Smothered Seitan Medallions in Mixed-Mushroom Gravy, pg 151). It's basically breaded and fried seitan (wheat gluten) in onion/garlic/jalapeno-y infused mushroom gravy mixed with shredded cabbage and served over rice. We made a few substitutions for time and convenience including packet gravy and canned mushroom stock. Because who the hell has time to make their own stock? Please, let me have your life. We also used pre-shredded cabbage because the grocery store was out of whole cabbage (produce FAIL!).

Including prep time for washing & chopping veggies, this recipe took about an hour and half. Twenty minutes of that when the seitan was supposed to be simmering in the gravy we realized that Zack had turned on the wrong burner on the stove. Yep. So an hour would be a more accurate time estimate.

Overall we give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. It is definitely one that we will try again with some tweaking. Marinating the seitan prior to frying and adding more jalapeno and black pepper would make it more flavorful.

The finished dish:

More pictures on Zack's Flickr page

Eggs-traordinary Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens

2010-01-01T16:51:00.000-08:00

Cooking in our household presents some challenges. Dietary restrictions and personal tastes make finding recipes that we can both eat and enjoy difficult. Zack is mildly allergic to soy and hates brussel sprouts, peas, sweet potatoes. I've been a vegetarian since I was 14 and only recently started eating a little bit of fish. I pretty much live on soy. And I love veggies (except for yucky cauliflower). But we're both on the same page in that we've been eating way too much convenience food. So we're trying to incorporate more fresh vegetables and less processed food into our diets. Also our food budget is pretty tight. So we almost never follow a recipe exactly without making some kind of alteration or substitution.

This recipe was easy to make, though it definitely took longer than 30 minutes. It was adapted from 365: No Repeats by Rachel Ray, pg. 48. De-crust and flatten soft sandwich bread and line a muffin tip with it, then crack in an egg and top it with sauteed garlic, onion and tomato. Sprinkle with cheese and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes. The recipe called for bacon but we sauteed bacos instead. I think Fakin' Bacon, a smoky tempeh, would work well for this, but we didn't have any. Also we used whole wheat bread instead of white and parmesan cheese instead of parmigiano-reggiano (that stuff is pricey).

The greens sucked, but that was my fault. In our rush to the grocery store I didn't fully read the recipe and thought they were supposed to be cooked. So I got mixed greens of kale & mustard greens. It was supposed to be a mixed green salad. Sooo, we sauted the greens and topped them with the lemon-mustard dressing. Not good.

Overall the eggy toast was yummy. We give it 4 out of 5 stars. The greens need a do-over.

Zack and Laura: A dish a week

2010-01-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our new food blog! We're tired of eating the same things over and over. Frankly it amazes us both that we haven't spontaneously turned into a frozen pizza. Or a big dish of baked spaghetti. Because we eat them. A lot. Sooooo...we're pledging to try at least one new recipe a week for the next year. We'll be sharing the results of our culinary experiments here. Enjoy!

Happy New Year,
Laura & Zack