Mushroom Stroganoff

stroganoff
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/portobello-mushroom-stroganoff/detail.aspx

3 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, chopped

3/4 pound portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups sour cream

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

8 ounces dried egg noodles

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles, and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and set aside.
2. At the same time, melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring until softened. Turn the heat up to medium-high, and add sliced mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are limp and browned. Remove to a bowl, and set aside.
3. In the same skillet, stir in vegetable broth, being sure to stir in any browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, and cook until the mixture has reduced by 1/3. Reduce heat to low, and return the mushrooms and onion to the skillet.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, stir together the sour cream and flour; then blend into the mushrooms. Return the skillet to the burner, and continue cooking over low heat, just until the sauce thickens. Stir in the parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over cooked egg noodles.

This was AWESOME
The comments also reccomended adding garlic (3 cloves) which I would say is great because I love garlic. Another low-carb person mentioned putting this on broccoli instead of noddles, which would be a fun way to dress up some borning vegetables.
Will do again for sure. Nice umami texture and flavor from the mushrooms :)

Eggplant Parmesean

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-parmesan-ii/

• 3 eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 6 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
• 1 (16 ounce) package mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes on each side.
3. In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses. Sprinkle basil on top.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. 

This works great. I love this recipe. There is a recommendation we follow to salt it prior to baking. 

 Sweat the 1/4" slices by sprinkling with sea salt and letting sit for 30 min. Rinse, pat dry w/paper towel (get good & dry)  

 

I am going to try and make my own sauce this week for this. We have ~3lbs of tomatoes in the fridge and 23 cans in the basement so I think it will work well :) 

Pasta Salad

http://www.momswhothink.com/salad-recipes/pasta-salad-recipe.html

This is a tasty, easy, Italian/American pasta salad recipe. The spiral shaped pasta holds the flavor of the dressing in all those little rings. The dressing is loaded with zesty flavor that mixes perfectly with the vegetables.
Sure to be a hit with any meal, this pasta salad is expecially perfect for picnics and barbecues.

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
Salad Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rotini pasta, drained (about 1 cup uncooked)
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup cubed provolone cheese
1 carrot, cut into julienne strips
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 (2 1/4 oz.) can sliced pitted black olives
1/4 pound salami, chopped
2 Quorn chicken breasts

Dressing Ingredients:

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
3 to 4 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, or to taste

Directions:
1. Combine pasta, red pepper, green pepper, cheese, carrot, onion, olives and salami chicken in a large bowl.
2. Thoroughly mix the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, mustard and basil in a small bowl.
3. Pour dressing mixture over pasta. Toss to coat.
4. Cover and refrigerate at leat 3 hours before serving.

It smells horrible when it's mixed together hot but my goodness this stuff is AWESOME when it's cold.
This is a great meal or side dish. The provolone is awesome cubed. You can't find regular provolone in the regular cheese section, there is only sliced. You have to go to the fancy cheese section or deli to get chunks.

TOMATOES and canning

Hey Again!

So tomato season has SPRUNG! Last week we got 20lbs of tomatoes from our CSA, plus the 7lbs from the previous week, plus my mom and in-laws brought food from their garden/their friends garden. So, 30lbs+ of tomatoes later we have 20 pints of canned tomatoes, and from previous weeks and our neighbors garden we have made 14 cans of salsa, gave two back to the neighbors, and actually ran out of cans so we have 2 cans worth of salsa in the fridge for dinner this week.

Let me tell you - we made home made tomato soup from our canned tomatoes (I've never had anything besides campbell's) and DANG is it delicious with a fraction of the sodium and way more vegetables (we also used previously frozen carrots and swiss chard stems instead of celery).

It's awesome. We love it. We recommend it. Is it hard work? Yes. Does it take time? Yes. But is learning how to preserve your own food and make it from scratch totally worth it? HELL YES!

Couscous of our own

So, the other night my mom visits. She says "what are we having for dinner"
I decided we were having coucous with red pepper (roasted and frozen by yours truly several months ago when they were on sale at the grocery store) tofu, and summer squash (blanched and frozen by me from our CSA).
My mom basicly eats 1 head of cauliflower, broccoli, and a bag of carrots a week with very little variation in her diet. Yes, healthy foods - but variety is key in getting nutrients!
So she thinks... hmm... is this going to be any good? She was very skeptical.

However, Bryan spends a long 20 minutes at the stove and VWUALA dinner. (I love how quick cousous cooks). He had added a wonderful aray of spices (which will vary every time we cook like this) to make the food fantabulous. Mom went back for seconds.

I think this shows a great  thing about how this blog has helped us. We had some food that needed used and just used it up! We didn't look up a recipe or anything and it turned out great - something we never would have tried this time last year!

I hope this blog is helping out whomever may be reading it as well :)

Feel free to post any random-leftovers-made-this recipes here!

Updates, Seasonal Cooking, Food Preserving

Hello Anyone and Everyone that reads this!

As you may have noticed there are a ton of recipes up all of a sudden!
No, we didn't cook those all last night, those are several months of recipes we have totally forgotten to get to.
We just bought a house (exciting!) moved (not so fun) painted (even less fun) started working in the yard (pretty cool, but a LOT to do) and for two weeks we ate out almost every meal (NOT FUN).

So we're back to cooking, but we're falling in a rut. We want to try new foods all the time, but don't have the energy to look up new recipes all the time. We also joined a CSA(community supported agricultre - http://www.communityfarmofaa.org/) and have been getting TONS of summer squash and learning that it can be incorperated into just about anything. It also freezes well, so we've been doing a lot of blanching and freezing based on the directions from this website http://www.pickyourown.org/

We ended up buying a deep freezer because we have so much food and the season isn't even half way over!
I thought I was going to be all about canning, but that does drasticly change the texture and flavor of the food and can require some things to make it acidic for food saftey. However with freezing it's more blanch (cook quickly for 1-3 minutes) strain, put in bags, suck out air, freeze. It also makes veggie broth if you use the same water several times (which we did) and we froze that too!
However with tomato season starting, I am going to get the canner out. Tomatoes do NOT freeze easily. I'm excited to see how this goes!

I love our city because we have such easy access to fresh, local, no spray/organic/biodynamic/lightly sprayed/whateveryouwant fruits, vegetables, and animal products. With the CSA I'm learning about new foods, how to cook them, preserve them, and how they taste. What I've learned is there are few vegetables I don't like (tell me that this time 2 years ago and I would have been extremely skeptical). It's just how they are prepared is the question. Vegetables add texture and some flavor to the food around them but what is truley important is the spices. If you are going to invest in something in your kitchen before you get new cabinets, get a large collection of spices and try them out. They make food wonderful!

Chili, Again

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spicy-vegetarian-chili-recipe/index.html As always, we're trying to find the perfect Chili recipe. We tried this one. It was pretty darn good. However, we decided to go without the cauliflower just because I don't like cauliflower very much. I'd definatley give this one the time of day. I really like the flavors each part adds - especially the cilantro. As you all may have noticed, that is my favorite flavor :)
 Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large bell peppers (1 green, 1 red),
chopped 3 medium carrots,
finely chopped Kosher salt
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 to 1 chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce,
chopped 1 tablespoon tomato paste 2 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 head cauliflower
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, plus torn leaves for topping (optional)
Shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese,
sliced scallions and/ or plain low-fat Greek yogurt, for topping (optional)

Directions Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell peppers, carrots and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring frequently, until the carrots begin to soften, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, chipotle, tomato paste and tortillas and cook, stirring, until the tomato paste is brick red, about 4 minutes (add a splash of water if the mixture begins to stick).
Add the coffee and simmer until almost completely reduced, about 30 seconds.
Stir in the tomatoes, cocoa powder, beans and 2 1/2 cups water and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chili thickens slightly, about 1 hour, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, trim the large stems off the cauliflower and coarsely grate the florets on a box grater. About 10 minutes before the chili is done cooking, stir in the grated cauliflower. Cook 10 minutes, then remove from the heat. Stir in the chopped cilantro and season with salt. Add some water if the chili is too thick. Ladle into bowls and add toppings.

Mac and Cheese

I was really, really surprised at how well this turned out, especially considering how some of our other mac-and-cheese attempts came out (As my wife tells me: we're never going to try a mac and cheese recipe from a lowfat cookbook again...). It's got some weird ingredients, but bear with it!

Quick and Creamy Mac-and-cheese
Ingredients:

• 16 ounces uncooked pasta (of your choice...  but everyone knows that the shells are the best, and elbow macaroni is a distant second)
• 12 ounces of Butternut Squash (Trust us!  Gives a great color and texture, plus lots of nutritious benefits!  Also, see my note below.)
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• 2 cups shredded six-cheese italian blend (feel free to substitute other types of cheeses or mixes here.  I suspect that the exact variety isn't particularly important.)
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:  Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.  When you strain the pasta, reserve 1/4 a cup of the water (this probably isn't super-important, and you could replace this with 1/4 cup hot water-- especially if you have a plastic measuring cup that will crack when you pour boiling water in it.); Put squash in a saucepan, and gradually add the milk, whisking (or otherwise thoroughly mixing) the two.  Cook until the mixture begins to simmer (should take ~3:30 min), then reduce heat to medium.  Add all the cheese.  Mix it until it's a melted near-homogenous mix.  Stir in salt, nutmeg, and the 1/4 cup of water you kept from cooking the pasta.  Pour over pasta and serve.

Now, if you're weird, you can add more nutmeg on top of the mac and cheese, but that's just gross. 

Gotta admit.  While this tasted pretty freakin' good and was super-low in sodium (compared to Kraft), the texture was a little bit grainy.  We used whole grain pasta, so maybe that was part of it.  I think that it was probably the squash that was responsible, though.  You might want to consider really liquifying it in a food processor before mixing it with the evaporated milk.

On making the squash.

• You can buy this frozen at the store, ready to go.  Just make sure you thaw it.  This will increase the sodium content.
• If you get a butternut squash from the farmer's market you can make the squash from scratch (which can be used for a lot of recipes!).  Just cut it in half, gut out the seeds and strings, place face-down on a baking tray, and bake for ~40 minutes at ~400*F.  Once done, scoop the squash (not the skin) into a food processor or blender and mix it until smooth (add a little water, if necessary).

And I think that's about it!  The recipe makes quite a lot, so if you're cooking for few, you might want to cut it in half.

While this turned out good considering the ingredients - nothing we have made yet tops Stoffer's mac and cheese. So if you're looking for comfort food - this is not what you want...

Stir Fry

So, Stir Fry. What is the recipe for stir fry you ask? Whatever is left in your fridge! You can add all kinds of veggies, a few spices (play around! This is really learning to be a COOK instead of just cook food!) Try out anything. Except beets. We tried that. Don't do beets. And don't do whole peices of fresh ginger unless you want your face to burn. But anything else, try it. Put it on rice with a bit of soy sauce. And if you find a good brand of soy sauce -let me know. I still can't find one I like...

Jumbalya

• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 2 cups long grain white rice
• 2 14.5 oz cans vegetable broth
• 1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes (or diced tomatoes with chilis for spicier)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic or garlic powder


Directions:

Saute onion, garlic and peppers in olive oil until soft. Add
can of tomatoes, broth and rice bring to a boil. Cover and
reduce heat. Cook for 30 minutes until rice is done.

The original poster has a small baby so she don't make this spicey. Her husband 
and she add hot sauce to our own bowls. You can add jalepenos
or chilies to this while it is cooking for a spicier flavor.

Bryan and I don't like to much hot either so we added a *small* jalepeno (the ones that are like $.03 :p It does add some heat and flavor but not overpowering. If possible when cutting a jalepeno wear gloves or something. Whatever you do DONT touch the seeds, and if you do touch those DONT touch anything else! Especially your eyes. Oh goodness. I made the mistake of touching the seeds and my hands burned for hours no matter what I put them in!(washed w soap and water, baking soda, milk, whatver, IT HURT!) Be careful. Jalepenos are not kid friendly prep work :p

Enchiladas!!!

So once upon a time I helped do a cooking demo for some Purdue Athletes and the recipes were good, I just rarely (aka never) made them. Finally, while digging through a metric ton of recipes, papers, etc I decided to try this one.
BEST DECISION EVER! Okay, maybe not ever, but definitely of that day.

Chili-Cheese Black Bean Enchiladas, Adapted from Cooking Light September 2003

1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t chili powder
1 t minced garlic
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (12 oz) bag frozen soy crumbles (I recommend Boca over Morning Star, they hold texture better)
3/4 c salsa (we used my OWN homemade CANNED salsa - more on that in a later post)
1/3 c cream cheese (1/3 fat is best)
1 c shredded cheddar cheese (or more in our case)
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (10oz) enchilada sauce

- Gluten free (except the tiny bit boca meat)
AWESOME

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in cumin, oregano, chili powder, garlic, beans, and soy crumbles, and cook 2 minutes, stirring mixture frequently.
3. Stir in salsa, and cook 1 minute. Remove from heat, and add cream cheese and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, stirring until cheese melts.
4. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spread 1/3 cup enchilada sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spoon about 1/3 cup black bean mixture down center of each tortilla, and roll up. Arrange enchiladas, seam sides down, crosswise in dish. Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over enchiladas, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheddar. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

http://www.momswhothink.com/salad-recipes/pasta-salad-recipe.html Pasta Salad Ingredients: Salad Ingredients: 2 cups cooked rotini pasta, drained (about 1 cup uncooked) 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper 1 cup cubed provolone cheese 1 carrot, cut into julienne strips 1/4 cup minced red onion 1 (2 1/4 oz.) can sliced pitted black olives 1/4 pound salami, chopped Dressing Ingredients: 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 3 to 4 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, or to taste Directions: 1. Combine pasta, red pepper, green pepper, cheese, carrot, onion, olives and salami in a large bowl. 2. Thoroughly mix the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, mustard and basil in a small bowl. 3. Pour dressing mixture over pasta. Toss to coat. 4. Cover and refrigerate at leat 3 hours before serving. So, this is AWESOME! We made this a couple of times. Instead of salami we used the Quorn Chicken we love so much(http://www.quorn.us/Home/) Bryan was the one that made it and he said when it was hot and mixed he wasn't sure how it was going to turn out becaue the smell was just flat out BAD. However, after it's time in the fridge it turns out GREAT! It's a great side, party dish, or even a meal! We highly reccomend this one just as is! We also learned that all provolone is smoked provolne when we were at the store :p Definatley make sure to go to the deli cheese and get the chunks because slices just don't do for this.

Mexican Lasagna

http://www.thatsmyhome.com/texmex/meslas.htm
Mexican Lasagna
1 (15-ounce) can pinto, pink or black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14-ounce) can diced crushed tomatoes
1/4 C. chopped cilantro
1 clove finely minced garlic
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
2 C. frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 scallions, minced
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. dried oregano
8 corn tortillas
1 1/2 C. grated Monterey Jack cheese sour cream, optional

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine beans, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, chiles, corn, scallions, cumin and oregano; mix thoroughly. Oil a 2-quart baking dish and line with 4 tortillas, overlapping if necessary. Spread half of bean mixture in a layer over tortillas. Sprinkle with half of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, beans and cheese. Bake 20 - 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly. Let stand 1 or 2 minutes, then cut into squares to serve. Top each serving with a dollop sour cream if desired. Makes 6 servings. This is a great recipe. It's fast and easy and can be gluten free if you have any cileac friends! I personally like flour tortillas better so we use those instead of the corn unless certain people join us. As usual we use yogurt instead of sour cream to up the protein and lower the fat with the same amount of delicious! We've also experimented with this enough we've learned we should double the spices and make sure you get everything as dry as you can or it get soggy easily. Makes good left overs too!

Secret Tofu Lasgna

So this recipe adds in Tofu when no one is looking.
It is a true cook's recipe because the measurements are, well, not really measurements! Bryan does this one....

Lasagna Noodles - no boil kind
2 jars of spaghetti sauce (we use chunky garden)
16 or so oz of cottage cheese - can't be lowfat or it gets watery
~10oz (give or take) tofu packages
oregano
basil
mozzarella cheese
1 Egg
First mash the tofu and cottage cheese together in one big high-protein lump, but not so mashed as to loose texture. Add an egg in here to hold it all together.
Add a LOT of oregano and basil.
Layer sauce, noodles, filling mix, cheese, sauce, noodles, filling, cheese.

No one will know there is tofu in it! MUAHAHAH!

Boudro's Famous Guacamole

Boudro's Famous Guacamole Juice of 1/4 an orange Juice of 1/2 a lime 1 avocado seeded and scooped out of skin 2 tbs roasted and charred Roma tomatoes diced 1 Serrano pepper roasted and seeded and diced 1 tbs medium dice red onions 1 tsp chopped cilantro course salt to taste squeeze juices into bowl. Add avocado and coarsely chop. Add onions, tomatoes, pepper, cilantro, fold into mixture. Add salt. Crudely chopped - not mashed. DELICIOUS!

Pi Day, Registered Dietitian Day

So, as you may know, Pi Day is March 14th (3.14) and as you may know, I am attempting to become a registered dietitian and RD day was the SAME day as Pi day. So we decided to eat some healthy Pi.

Spinach Pi for dinner and Strawberry Pi for dessert.
There was more spinach filling than we used, but I bet we could have put more of the filling in each pi than 2T. We used some of the left overs for omlets-that-turned-into-scrambled-eggs
Which was perfect because that means we had GREEN EGGS on St. Patty's day!

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/salloum87.html
Spinach pies
Spinach pies are the most commonly made pies in the Middle East. They are found on the menu of almost every feast.

1 dough recipe
1 pkg. spinach (10 oz.), thoroughly washed and finely chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
3 Tbsp. pine nuts or slivered almonds
4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cayenne

Prepare the dough for the pies, then set aside.

Make a filling by thoroughly combining all the ingredients just before rolling out the dough into rounds, then set aside.

Form the dough into 20 balls, then place them on a floured tray. Cover with a damp cloth, then allow to stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Roll the balls into five to six-inch rounds, then divide the filling and place two heaping tablespoons of filling on each round, stirring the filling each time. (Preferably the filling should be divided into 20 equal parts.) Fold the dough over the filling, then close by firmly pinching edges together into half moon or triangle shape.

Place the pies on well-greased baking trays, then bake in a 350° F preheated oven for 20 minutes or until pies turn golden brown. Remove from the oven, then brush with olive oil. Serve hot or cold.


The strawberry pi we added 1/3 c of sugar instead of the 1 cup it called for and used a gram cracker crust. Bryan was REALLY excited about this because his mom used to make strawberry pie, but with jello, which has gelatin, which I don't eat - so we found this one. It's great!
http://www.vegalicious.org/2008/06/16/fresh-strawberry-pie/
Serving Size: 8

Ingredients:

1 vegan pie crust, baked (recipe below)
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup soy whipping cream

Directions for the filling:

Cut and remove the top leaves from the strawberries.
If the strawberries are large, cut them I half or quarters.
Arrange the 1/2 the strawberries in the baked pie shell.
Cut the other 1/2 up and put in a sauce pan.
Add the sugar and bring to a boil.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the water and add to the cooking strawberry sauce.
Stir the sauce often, and when it becomes thick and clear, remove from the heat.
Pour the sauce over the strawberries and place in the refrigerator to chill for several hours or until firm.
When ready to serve, whip the soy cream or use a can of Soyatoo to decorate the edges of the pie.
For an easy alternative, if you don’t have so many strawberries, you can also use a cup of strawberry jam, heat it and add the cornstarch as well.

Fresh Strawberry pie
Recipe for a lovely flaky pie crust

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3-4 Tbs. ice water
1 & 1/2 tbs. white sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine (or coconut fat)

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.
Place 1/2 cup of flour mixture in a small bowl, and stir in water until smooth.
Cut shortening into remaining flour mixture until it looks like coarse meal.
Blend in the flour-water mixture.
Wrap dough and chill in refrigerator.
When the dough has chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled pie form.
Puncture the bottom with a fork in several places to create small air holes for the pie to breathe.
Bake in a preheated oven (450F) for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before putting the strawberries and sauce in.

Roasting and Canning Peppers!!!

So. There is this thing called a broiler. It's like an upside down grill. GRILLING INSIDE!!! Yes, Kabobs. Burgers, Openface sandwiches with cheese. WHATEVER YOU WANT! GRILLED. IN JANUARY! Without having to go buy a grill.
Greatest.
Realization.
Evar.

Thanks:http://www.thekitchn.com/kitchen-basics-how-to-use-your-112585

So, I roasted red peppers. I canned and froze them afterwards. It went pretty well. I think I may have under-roasted the first batch and over cooked the second batch. We'll find out when I go to eat them.
http://noteatingoutinny.com/2009/09/12/home-jarred-roasted-red-peppers/

Covering them in olive oil and putting them in the fridge works. Freezing them work. Canning them works. We'll see how good each one tastes in the coming weeks.

Wassail

I don't know about you, but this time of year is awfully cold where I live.
Here is a GREAT recipe I got in my Food and Nutrition Communications Class that will make winter a little more bearable.

1/2 gallon apple cider
4 cups pineapple juice
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cinnamon candies
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
2 whole cinnamon sticks
1 fresh orange (optional)
In a large sauce pan, combine cider, pineapple, and OJ. Set aside 6 whole cloves. Place remaining cloves in tea ball. Place teaball and cinnamon into juices and put over medium heat. Bring to simmer and add cinnamon candies. Stir until candies are dissolved. Keep on low heat to warm or place in crock pot on desired heat setting. If desired place remaining cloves into an orange slice and float on top. (It looks pretty).

8oz is 140 calories, which isn't bad for a juice based drink.
To cut calories when we did this we used Trop 50 juices and cut the cinnamon candies.
If you are 21+ you can use the rest of the pineapple juice for blue Hawaiians!
1.5oz blue carraco
1.5 oz malibu coconut rum
Pineapple Juice
Cherries
Ice Cubes
=HEAVEN!

Please drink responsibly!

New-and-improved Spanish Rice and Stuffed Peppers

A while back, we posted about some Spanish rice we had made, but we didn't give specifics and we weren't super impressed with the result.  But last night, we found an awesome version of the two.

Well, *I* thought that they were awesome.  Carmen's nose was on strike, so she wasn't sure.

Spanish Rice

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
• 1 onion (yellow or red), chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Jalapeno, chopped (Larger = spicier)
• 1 cup rice
• 2 cups water (or chicken broth)
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles (Drained and rinsed)
• 2 Tsp Chili Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Cumin

Directions: In a deep pan, heat Vegetable Oil to low heat and add Onion, Garlic, and Jalapeno and saute for a few minutes (The mixture should become very fragrant).  Increase heat to medium and add rice.  Continue to saute until rice is brown. Add water/broth, tomatoes, Chili Powder, and cumin.  Mix thoroughly.  Bring to a gentle simmer, and let simmer on lowest setting until water is entirely absorbed and rice is cooked (took about 15 minutes for me).


By itself, this was pretty good.  Very flavorful, and just the right amount of kick.  But then we raised the stakes.


Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

• Spanish Rice (See Above)
• Bell Pepper(s)
• Shredded Cheese (cheddar or colby-jack)
• Black Beans
• Ground Beef, cooked, seasoned (optional)

Directions:  Carefully cut out the stem of the bell pepper (after washing!) and remove the core and seeds.  Mix the rest of the stuff together (ratios are all on you!), and ram them all into the pepper (don't be shy about really stuffing the pepper).  Cover the top of the pepper with cheese.  Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes.  Enjoy.

This was just heavenly.  We had some sour cream on the side that we added at our leisure, but feel free to make that part of the mix (at the risk of making your rice soggy).  I wouldn't change much about this recipe, but we'll have to wait until Carmen's nose is working so she can pass judgment.  For she is the queen of Mexican Food.