June 2008 Archives

I was going to just make crab cakes again with the rest of the crab meat, but I felt like doing something different. After a little searching around I came across this recipe for crab quesadillas.

They were pretty good. Definitely different.


» Recipe for Crab Quesadillas

I just made a delicious vegetable wrap for lunch with odds and ends from the fridge. I would have made a tahini-yogurt dressing, but my yogurt is incubatingtahini-yogurt dressing, but my yogurt is incubating at the moment.


» Recipe for Eggplant and Red Pepper Wrap

This recipe makes enough sauce for about 4 pizzas, but that's alright. Just freeze the rest or serve it on pasta.


» Recipe for Pizza with Homemade Sauce, Roasted Eggplant, and Fresh Mozzarella

These were delicious. I thought the can of crabmeat I bought was jumbo lump, but when I opened it I saw that it wasn't. Oh well. They still turned out great. I was going to try baking them, but the oven wouldn't work againagain (it worked this weekend when I had to make an angel food cake - what the hell), so I fried them on my griddle sprayed with cooking spray. They were probably better this way.


» Recipe for Crab Cakes

Here's another yogurt cake recipe that looks good. I haven't been baking much lately because I'm trying to drop a few pounds (not to mention the oven is on the fritz), but eventually I will have to try this one.

» Susan's Easy Orange Yogurt Cake

This was adapted from a recipe for corn fritters on epicurious. I added green onions, black beans, and spices. I really liked these. The fresh corn provides the perfect amount of crunch and sweetness. They could probably use more spices, maybe upping the chili powder and coriander to 1/4 tsp. I used leftover ears of corn that I'd already cooked, but the original recipe doesn't require cooked corn. I suppose it's fine either way. I also substituted white whole wheat flour for part of the flour because I ran out of all-purpose.

I didn't have jalapenos or cilantro either, so I couldn't make real pico de gallopico de gallo. I just chopped up a tomato and another green onion and squeezed lime juice over it. It would definitely be better with the jalapeno and cilantro. I have plenty of leftover fritters so I think I'll try some tomorrow with a little honey drizzled on top.


» Recipe for Corn and Black Bean Fritters

Had a Tröegs Pale Ale tonight and it was just perfect. It's exactly the taste I want when I want a beer.

I made these for dinner last night. Really good. The recipe is from Simply RecipesSimply Recipes and I've had it bookmarked for 2 months. The amounts I used are slightly different than the original recipe because I had 10 oz of ground beef.

Note to self: I didn't oil the grill grates and I really should have. I also should have let the grill heat up more.


» Recipe for Blue Cheese Burgers

Lately I've been making smaller batches of yogurt because I never seem to be able to go through a whole batch within the 10 day shelf life. I started making 4 oz portions instead of 6 oz, but every time I start to weigh out the milk I can't seem to remember exactly how much to weigh out. So, I'm going to post it here for future reference.

26 oz skim milk (1 lb 10 oz)
20 g nonfat dry milk powder
6 oz plain nonfat yogurt (with live cultures) (I used fresh starter this time)

Directions are herehere.

I ended up with 3/8 oz extra, which is not a big deal but wanted to note it.

For next time: I'll have 4 oz of starter so I should use 28 oz milk (1 lb 12 oz). Also, I've been cutting back on the dry milk powder. Maybe I'll just leave it out next time just to see how thin the resulting yogurt is.

I haven't made pizza in a while, so I decided it was time. Unfortunately, when it was time to preheat the oven it decided not to cooperate. So I took the pizza stone out to the grill and fired it up. I guess I let the stone get too hot, because the pizza was on it for all of 3 minutes and the entire bottom turned black.

That didn't stop us from devouring it though.



Well, the top anyway.

I'm not really sure how I would remedy this for next time. Don't preheat it for so long? Don't preheat it at all? Preheat on medium heat instead of high?

Buy a new stove?

One thing is for sure. I should always make a double batch of dough. Just in case.

Also, I think I try to rush the dough too much. I never really get the pizza as big and thin as I want it to be, but if I would just let the dough rest it would probably cooperate more.

On another note, the bottle of wine we opened tonight was fantastic and Matt suggested I write a little note about it here so we know to buy it again. It's a 2007 Misterio Malbec by Finca Flichman. I'm no wine connoisseur so I'll just leave it at that.


» Recipe for Pizza with Tomato Slices, Fresh Mozzarella, and Basil

Matt's working late tonight so I thought it would be a good time to make falafelfalafel for myself. And I'm glad I did. It is so good. I made a bit too much though. I'm comforted by the fact that most of what's on that plate is vegetables. I made 2 servings worth of mix because the package said one serving was 100 calories and I hadn't really eaten much all day. It occured to me, though, that the 100 calories (and 1.5g of fat) probably doesn't take into account that it's fried in oil.

I think I may have added a bit too much water to the mix because even after letting it sit for a while it was still too wet to form into balls. I tried adding a little flour, but I didn't want to add too much. I ended up using my small cookie scoop and dropping scoops of dough (batter?) into the hot oil. It worked out extremely well. They also puffed up quite a bit when they hit the oil. A third of the package (2 servings) made 7 balls. If I had leveled the scoop it probably would have made 8. I'll do that next time.

The tahini-yogurt dressing was delicious, especially with the feta and hot sauce. All the flavors play well off each other.


» Recipe for Falafel

My dad gave me a call today to say they had a plethora of sugar snap peas from the garden and I should stop by and take some. Those are the best kind of phone calls, even though I know it's just a ploy to get me to come visit. So, I obliged. When I got there my parents were starting on a pork and vegetable stir-fry and I wondered out loud what I would serve with my peas. "Want some pork? We have plenty." My dad pulls out a whole pork tenderloin and hands it to me. It had come in a package of two and they were just going to freeze the extra one. Not one to refuse free food, I gladly accepted it and came home to devise a plan.

It all turned out deliciously. The flavors in the rub complimented the pork well, and the peas were great with the mint.


» Recipe for Grilled Pork Tenderloin with an Herbed Mustard Rub and Minted Snap Peas

It's great when you throw together a bunch of ingredients that you have on hand, totally spontaneously, and it turns out so good that you know you'll definitely make it again, but next time it'll be on purpose.

It all started with a package of ground beef. I was dividing it into 1 pound portions for the freezer, and I was left with about 2 oz of extra meat. Since I was on my own for dinner I figured I might as well cook it up for myself. All I needed was some inspiration. I pulled out some red pepper, green onions, a bottle of teriyaki sauce, and started cooking some brown rice. This gave me about 45 minutes to completely change my mind about the direction I was going and I abandoned the teriyaki sauce (after all, I'd just made something asian inspired for lunchlunch), opting for some fajita seasoning that's been part of my spice collection for too long (and I think I've only used it once before). I'm not even sure why I bought it in the first place, but since I did I might as well use it. If I ever decide to make this recipe without it I'm sure I can replace it with fresh garlic, onion, salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano, some kind of sweetener (honey? brown sugar?) and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

This can easily be scaled up to feed more people, but sometimes it's nice to make dinner for yourself and not have any leftovers.


» Recipe for Mexican Inspired Stir-fry For One

The last time I made soba noodles I forgot to document it, but I believe I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for the sauce. It ended up being a little too peanut buttery for my taste. The first time I ever made soba noodles (which I just realized was almost exactly a year ago) I absolutely loved them, but I haven't made that recipe since. One of these days (if my cilantro ever grows) I'll have to make it again.

This time, though, I didn't use a recipe. I was hungry and wanted a quick, healthy lunch, so I cooked a serving of noodles (then rinsed them under cold water), chopped some vegetables, and whisked together an improvised dressing.

First, there was a generous grating of fresh ginger, then a bit of sesame oil and flaxseed oil. After that came some reduced sodium soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar. I tasted it and thought it still needed something so I added a little peanut butter, just enough to give the dressing a hint of peanut taste. I poured in a splash of orange juice, tasted, and tweaked a little more.

My resulting lunch was good, but nothing too extraordinary. The sauce would have benefited from a kick of red pepper, a bit of sweetener (honey?) and definitely some cilantro. Someday I will have a plentiful bunch of cilantro growing. Someday. I hate buying herbs.

I made these banana cookiesthese banana cookies a week or so ago, and while they are good, I think I'd rather just stick to banana bread or muffins. The cookies were very soft, basically little disks of banana bread. As they aged they got a little gooey on top, much like banana bread does, but I prefer the latter.

As soon as I get rid of the ants in the kitchen I want to make falafel. I think I'll try frying them outside on the sideburner of our new grill so I don't make the kitchen smell like a fast food restaurant.

I'm not sure it's something Matt would go for, being meatless and all, but I'm getting tired of meat. Wonder if he would notice if I start sneaking in vegetarian meals here and there...