Easier Than Falling Off a Log
Archive for March, 2010
March 28, 2010 at 11:10 pm · Filed under breads, food
I can’t believe I hadn’t posted my soda bread before. I’ve been making it for at least 3 years now. Huh.
I have no idea where I got the recipe from. I obviously didn’t invent it myself, but one soda bread recipe is likely to be much like the next, except that this one doesn’t contain stupid raisins. Why would you want to do that to a perfectly good loaf of bread, anyway? So I, y’know, don’t. I suppose you could, if you like that sort of thing, but be aware that I’ll look at you the same way I do at people who put ketchup on scrambled eggs.
Soda Bread
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk
Method
Preheat oven to 375.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Stir in buttermilk until a dough forms.
Shape the dough into whatever shape you want and plop it onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 40 minutes or until the top crust is golden brown.
It’s magical toasted (or just warm out of the oven). As you can see, I couldn’t resist it myself.
March 21, 2010 at 8:20 pm · Filed under food, meals, pasta
Matt and I have an ideological disagreement over ravioli. He feels that the only true filling for them is cheese; specifically, ricotta cheese (which I don’t like, because, in sufficient quantities, it makes me gag). I was used to meat ones, when I was little. He was referring to the kind you purchase in the frozen section, which wasn’t something I was familiar with. This recipe said to use frozen ravioli, but meat was the preferred filling. Ha! They do exist! Buuuut not here. All I could find was the ricotta kind. So I kind of soldiered through this recipe, and the fairly dominant flavours of the sauce masked the ricotta mostly, and the texture wasn’t as noticeable as it sometimes is. I’d still rather try it with meat, because I feel that that would fit better thematically, and where I got the recipe, Mommy I’m Hungry, recommended meat anyway. So there… or whatever. I win. Or perhaps lose.
Also, this is quick as hell, and easy, and I don’t really care that it uses mostly pre-made stuff. If you have homemade stuff hanging around, or you’ve got that kind of time, go nuts on it.
Mexican Ravioli
Ingredients
1 25-oz package frozen ravioli (meat if possible! Yeah! GO MEAT!!)
1 10-oz can enchilada sauce (which apparently comes in colours other than red… well, not around here it doesn’t!)
8 oz salsa
one of those bags of “Mexican blend” cheese – the original recipe called for the whole bag, but since I made this in a big pot instead of a skillet, there was less surface area and I didn’t wind up using the whole thing. Maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of a bag.
sliced black olives for garnish
Method
Cook the ravioli according to package directions.
Drain and set aside.
In the same pot – I mean, it’s big enough to hold all the ravioli at once, you already know that from cooking them, so obviously it’s the right size, why get another one dirty? – mix the enchilada sauce and salsa over medium heat until warmed through.
Stir in ravioli (gently!).
Cover with cheese and sprinkle with olives.
Slap a lid on that pot and lower the heat.
Let cook for 3 – 4 minutes or until the cheese is all melty.
March 15, 2010 at 12:12 am · Filed under food, side dishes/appetizers
Brought this dip, with the thyme flatbread, to the Lost party. It doesn’t look like much – I mean, it looks like pink stuff in a bowl – but it tastes awesome. AND it’s vegan. I don’t think I’d be as impressed with myself for making delicious vegan snacks if I actually were vegan – I mean, I’m not that impressed with myself when I make a sandwich, or whatever… actually, no, that’s kind of a lie, I am totally impressed with myself whenever I make anything delicious. So never mind the digression I was about to go on about how this food should be judged on its deliciousness merits, not on whether it fits into a certain dietary framework.
The recipe is from The Urban Spork, which, P.S., is not the same thing as just “Urban Spork.” The latter does not exist and will cause you much consternation if you search for it. I look out for you, dear reader.
White Bean and Red Pepper Dip
Ingredients
1 14-oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, smashed
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 roasted red peppers – I used jarred ones, which means it was an approximation of 2, because they’re all disassembled in there (if you use jarred ones as well, drain the oil off them first)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
Method
Put everything but the lemon juice and salt and pepper into a food processor and mash on that button until it’s smooth.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
March 14, 2010 at 12:06 am · Filed under food, side dishes/appetizers
Last week, we went over to a friend’s house for a Lost-watching party. I like this kind of thing, because I like the environment where everyone bounces ideas and theories off each other (also known as my work on a Wednesday morning), and I’m not really bothered if I only know one other person there – I mean, obviously, I’m talking to the entire internet right now, not that they’re listening – and I feel like I notice more, not less, when I’ve got other people around to help. Matt feels the opposite way and does not even want to hear my theories about what’s going on, because what if I turn out to be right? It will have been a spoiler and I won’t even have known that it was one at the time. Plus it’s a bunch of noisy strangers impeding his enjoyment of the show, and if you know Lost, you know that it’s a show that requires a certain amount of concentration. So I don’t know if we’ll go again, but if we do, we can get our Tupperwares back.
The friend is vegan, and his lady friend might be, or she might just be vegetarian, or, I don’t know, she might worship at the church of bacon, but you have to cook for the most restrictive common denominator, so these little babies are vegan-tacular, and so is the dip I made with it (next post!). Apparently the flatbread dealies reminded our friend and his sister, who was in attendance, of something their parents used to make when they were little. So… win?
The recipe for these comes from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, where she refers to them as being crisp. Mine were not crisp – granted, I didn’t have enough time to let them cool fully, just enough so that they wouldn’t be too hot to tear them apart into useable pieces (and the last one, not even that long, really), so maybe if I’d left them out on the rack they’d have gotten crispy. But I liked them in their more bready state. Maybe you will too.
Thyme Flatbread
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tbsp fresh thyme, plus some extra florets, if you will, to use as a garnish
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil, and keep the bottle on hand to brush the tops of the flatbreads
some kind of coarser salt for sprinkling the tops
Method
Put a baking sheet in the oven and turn the thing on to 450.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, thyme, salt, and baking powder.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the water and oil in.
Stir until the dough comes together.
Knead it 4 or 5 times.
Divide the dough into 3 balls and take one out to roll. Cover the other 2 with plastic wrap.
Roll out one ball at a time, to about 10″ in diameter, or until it’s fairly thin all over. Either roll it on a parchment paper or Silpat (P.S., Matt got one for me for Valentine’s day!), or roll it out and then slap it on a parchment or Silpat.
Sprinkle the top with thyme and salt, and brush with olive oil.
Get the hot baking sheet out of the oven and put the parchment or Silpat, flatbread and all, on it and put it back in the oven.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until the edges start to get brown and crispy and the bread puffs up in some places.
Take it out and put the bread (only) on a rack to cool.
Repeat the process with the other 2 dough balls, one at a time.
As each flatbread cools, break or tear it into smaller pieces.
March 7, 2010 at 9:20 pm · Filed under food, meals
It’s another Tokyo Terrace recipe! Would you believe that I put off making it because I didn’t want to seem too stalky? Hard to believe, I know, considering that I am posting it, but I made other stuff in between! It’s been weeks since I’ve done one of hers!
I did, to my credit, make some changes. First of all, we ate them for actual dinner, with some rice, instead of having them as appetizers and snackyroos. Hmm. “Snackyroos.” Too Rachael Ray? Sorry. Anyway, I also substituted maple syrup because I forgot I was out of honey, and I used bourbon because that’s the kind of whiskey I have on hand. “Old Grand-Dad.” Also, I forgot that I needed an onion (the whole time I was thinking I already had everything I needed) so I minced some garlic and threw that in, which: yumface. Halved the recipe, too, since that served 6, and, I mean, I know it’s an appetizer, but we were having rice too and… basically I knew anything with 2 lbs of ground beef was going to make more than enough.
Teriyaki Meatballs
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp (aka 1 1/2 tsp) miso paste
1/4 cup panko
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp bourbon
1/2 tbsp hot water
1/2 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp (aka 1/2 tbsp!) soy sauce
Method
Combine the ground beef, egg, panko, miso, and garlic in a bowl.
Form into meatballs, about 1 1/2″ in diameter – better get out your rulers, I WILL be checking!
Get out a big pan, unless you don’t mind doing batches, and heat the oil in it over medium to medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, get the meatballs in it and let them brown for 2 – 3 minutes.
While they’re cooking, mix the bourbon, water, soy sauce, and maple syrup in a little bowl.
Time to pay attention to the meatballs again. Turn them to brown on all sides. Mine had a bit of a sticking to the pan and coming apart problem, but I’m sure yours will be fine.
Pour the sauce mixture into the pan and reduce the heat by a notch or so.
Let it be for 2 – 3 minutes, then turn the heat back up so the sauce reduces and the meatballs get cooked through.
Be sure to get sauce all over the meatballs before it all reduces away, which it probably will if your meatballs don’t cook instantly.
March 6, 2010 at 10:50 pm · Filed under food, meals, soup/stew
As many of you know, I was in Vancouver for the first week of the Olympics, because when the Olympics come to your hometown, you go. And when I’m home, I always like to cook something. Not just to be nice to my parents to thank them for putting us up, but because it’s nice to get to use their huge kitchen, buy produce at Top Ten (p.s. to Boston, why have you not embraced the concept of produce stores?), use different brands of stuff, and see if they like the stuff that I like. So this time I made this “Spicy Mexican Lentil Stew,” which… I don’t know if maybe I messed it up (not impossible… far from it), but it wasn’t all that spicy. It was flavourful, and like all stews it deepened in flavour the next day, but spicy isn’t really what I’d call it. So that’s good news if you’re not into spicy things – don’t be put off, it’s delicious.
The only real alteration I made was to ditch the cilantro; I can’t handle the stuff, and my family didn’t know it was supposed to have been there, so they couldn’t miss it. Oh, and I chopped 4 stalks of celery before realizing the recipe only called for 3. P.S., on day 1 it’s basically a soup. Stew-osity comes after sitting in the fridge overnight. But since this makes tons, odds are good you’ll spend more time eating it as a stew than as a soup, so I’m leaving the title as it is.
Mexican Lentil Stew
Ingredients
2 cups dry lentils (the original recipe called for red, and that’s what I used, but only because that’s the only kind the supermarket by my parents’ house had. I wasn’t going to be picky and I don’t see why you should be either)
4 cups water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 stalks celery, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 14.5oz cans or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes (I’d have used the fire-roasted kind if the store had had them)
4 cups vegetable broth (I’d have used my own stock if I’d been at home… alas)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cumin
10 dashes hot sauce (although the original recipe said you could go up to as many as 15, and if you want any spiciness to speak of, you’ll probably want to do that, since 10 was basically unnoticeable)
1 lime, sliced into quarters or 8ths
Method
Put the lentils and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, saute the onion in the olive oil in the bottom of a big stew pot.
A couple minutes later, add the garlic.
Next, throw in the celery.
Keep sauteeing everything until the onions and garlic just start to change colour – you’re not really trying to brown things here, but it’s obviously impossible to stop just before they get brown.
At this point, dump in all the rest of the ingredients except the lime and the lentils (which might not be quite ready yet anyway).
Once it’s hot, the lentils ought to be ready (by which I mean they’ve absorbed all the water), so throw those bad boys in as well.
Give everything a good hearty stir and don’t be too precious about it, go ahead and bash some of those lentils around a bit. Breaking them will allow them to thicken up the stew so it’s less of a soup.
Heat through.
Serve with a lime wedge, which you can squeeze into your bowl to suit your taste.
Also, can we talk about my adoptee? Crystal, she of the Cozy Kitchen, is the new foodblogger I’m mentoring through Adopt-A-Blogger 4. She’s just redesigned her site and it’s super inviting, so you should all go check it out. While you’re there, be sure to coo at her adorable son and vote in her weekly poll. It’s a great idea to build community, so go help her build it by being a part of it!
