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I did it!
I made my first-ever batch of gazpacho last night, and guess what? IT’S AWESOME!!! I love it! I didn’t think I would, actually. Even Alexis loves it, and I REALLY didn’t think she would. I took two recipes and sort of combined them to make my own version. Here’s what I did:
4 cups of V8 juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 large onion
1/2 bell pepper, deseeded
1 cucumber, deseeded
1/2 baguette, crusts removed and cubed
1/4 tsp comino
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2 TB red wine vinegar
juice of one lime
black pepper and Tabasco to taste
Garnishes:
1 cucumber, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 baguette, cubed (or croutons)
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
Toss all the ingredients (except the garnishes) into a food processor and blend until smooth. Place in a container in the fridge to chill for a few hours. Top with the garnishes and eat with zesty relish!
BTW, if you eat two large bowls of this, you WILL get a bellyache! It seemed like a good idea at the time because it tasted SO good, but….ergh…all those bread crumbs must have expanded in my belly.
Things I've been drinking lately
I’ve become a connoisseur of what I call “drinkie drinks.” These are alcohol-free beverages that have an aura of cocktail about them. Here are some of my personal favorites:
Seltzer+lime juice+a drop of rosewater served ice cold.
Pineapple juice+orange juice+coconut milk, blended and served over crushed ice (or blended with ice and served as a smoothie)
cranberry juice+seltzer+twist of lime served on the rocks
apple juice+seltzer (apparently this is a legitimate German favorite, and Lex can tell you the name for it—apfelsomethingorother)
orange+lime+grenadine+seltzer+drop of rosewater, served over crushed ice
Tampico (any flavor, but I like the pineapple/mango/cherry), plus seltzer, plus lime juice.
A virgin pina colada made with coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, crushed pineapple, and ice, all blended until smooth.
Frozen strawberries+coconut milk+sweetened condensed milk+drop of rum extract, all blended until smooth
Crazyladyade (not really a drinkie-drink): This is essentially double-strenth Kool-Aid lemonade (add two packets to a half gallon of water instead of one and double the sugar) and then dump in as much lemon juice (preferably fresh, but reconstituted will do in a pinch) as you can take. Serve on ice. Good hot for a sore throat, too. Warning: drinking too much of this will make you CRAZY! For you drinkers out there, this makes a great base for Russian lemonade. Throw in some vodka, and you’ve got a party.
Passion tea lemonade (again, not really a drinkie-drink): In a one-gallon container, brew eight bags of Tazo’s Passion Tea or Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea in a half gallon of boiling water. Add two packets of Kool Aid lemonade (or your favorite lemonade mix) and two cups of sugar while the water is still hot. Remove the tea bags after 10 minutes, squeezing them out to get all the lovely redness. Mix until all sugar is dissolved. Top off the rest of the container with cold water and ice cubes. Ready to serve immediately; EXTREMELY refreshing and addictive.
During the summer, I also love to drink other iced, sweetened herbal teas, especially mint tea and chamomile tea.
If you are a drinker who is planning a cocktail party, make sure to put out a nice display of mixers, juices, sparkling waters, sodas, and plenty of ice, too. Not only will your bar become more versatile (the drink possibilities open up a hundredfold), but your non-drinking friends will thank you! I usually end up taking my own drinks to parties and dinners, because most hosts do not consider the non-drinking guests, and provide only beer, wine, water (from the tap), and caffeinated beverages (cola, mostly), which I cannot drink. I anticipate this and bring my own drinkie-drink. Be a good host and think of ALL your guests’ drink needs.
Seltzer and juice are cheap, which is one of the reasons we have pretty much stopped drinking commercial sodas and have switched entirely to seltzer plus whatever we feel like tossing in. I can get a 12 pack of seltzer for half the cost of a 12 pack of soda, and when I add in the cost of a 64 oz bottle of juice, I’m still coming out cheaper than the 12 pack of soda, plus I’ve got twice as much to drink!
Summertime recipes wanted!
It’s hot…
I’m sweatin’ like a whore in church.
It’s time to start making summertime foods.
Anybody have any yummy recipes they’d like to share? I would particularly like to hear recipes for gazpacho and interesting variations on sangria and lemonade, though I’m open to anything that’s cool and refreshing!
I’ll start:
Three Bean Salad
Toss all of these into a bowl:
1 can garbanzos (chickpeas) – rinsed
1 can kidney beans – rinsed
1 box frozen green beans
sliced black olives
sliced green olives
1 (red or white) onion – sliced
1 head of garlick – chopped
2 stalks of celery – chopped
tarragon
parsley
dill
olive oil
white balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
Use as much oil, vinegar, herbs, salt, and pepper as you prefer. If you make the salad a couple of hours ahead, the green beans will thaw and cool the whole thing down nicely. If you don’t want to do that, just rinse the green beans under cool water and dry them with paper towels before adding them in.
Chill in fridge. Will last quite a while.
You can add other yummy things to this salad if you like: green onions, slivered almonds, pecans, cooked pasta, different types of beans….use your imagination. I tend to toss in whatever I have.
Shrimp Ceviche
Tomorrow we go to Alexis’ Aunt Michelle’s house for Thanksgiving. Alexis is making this awesome German chocolate cake, so I decided I should probably take something, too. I decided I really wanted some ceviche, so I figured I’d share the wealth. I made some pico de gallo, tossed in some garden shrimp, and sliced up some avocado. There’s lots and lots of lime juice squeezed in. I put some plastic film over the top so the ceviche could marinate overnight in the fridge. Tomorrow it will sit over some ice and get served with tortilla chips.
Here it is:
In addition to the ceviche, I made 18 mini pineapple upside down cakes. I figured there should be at least one non-chocolate dessert. I’m sure there will be other desserts, but hey, you never know! The little cakes are cute. They turned out better than I expected.
Lex’s cake smells REALLY good!
Oh, and it’s snowing outside. Snowing…on Thanksgiving!
Miso Hungry
I loooooove miso soup. When I left San Antonio, I had to clean out the fridge and throw away all the perishables. Among them was a lovely tub of miso paste that I’d been hanging onto for ages (it will keep in the fridge up to a year or more). We had a Japanese grocery in SA, and everything there was dead cheap and wonderful! It was there that I bought my miso paste and all the other stuff to put in the soup: wakame (dried seaweed), tofu (available anywhere, really), soy, dried shiitake (if you like), and the sesame/sea salt seasoning that is so popular in Japan. I would have to go to the regular market to get the green onions to garnish the soup. Really, miso is like any other soup. You can put pretty much anything you want in it. These are just some of the things I like in it.
I can’t find a Japanese market here in Baltimore, so I ordered some miso paste from Asianfoodgrocer.com. It finally arrived via fedex day before yesterday, along with some Pocky for Alexis, some extra wakame, some rice vinegar, and some chili sauce.
Finally today I made my miso!
If it looks a little oily, it’s because I fry my tofu before putting it in the soup, and then the oil from the tofu tends to float atop the soup. Frying tofu is, of course, not necessary. I just don’t like the flavor or texture of plain, uncooked tofu.
This miso has wakame, green onion, tofu, and soya in it. I added some sesame/sea salt seasoning just before eating. I use about one tablespoon paste to a cup of water. I prefer white miso to the red and get the kind with no MSG.
Autumn Harvest Feast
This past weekend, Lex and I took a trip with Carrie and Kathy to Larriland Farms, a pick-your-own farm. It was the last weekend of the season, so we got in under the wire. While there, we picked up fresh apple cider, three jars of fruit jams and preserves, a couple of pie pumpkins, four acorn squash, a whole bunch of spinach picked from one of their fields, some homemade fudge and homemade fruit treats. On the way home, I was inspired by all the beautiful fall foliage to make an autumn-themed meal using all the vegetables I’d just purchased.
Yesterday’s dinner consisted of the following menu:
Sausage-stuffed acorn squash
Wilted garlic spinach
Savory mashed pumpkin
Sweet potato biscuits
Pumpkin bars (for dessert)
Sparkling apple cider (Just added club soda to the fresh cider and served cold)
My personal verdict:
Loved the sausage-stuffed squash. The savory sausage and the sweet squash was a good combo (not unlike applesauce and pork chops). The spinach was also a winner. Anything with that much garlick (12 cloves to 1.5 lbs of spinach befor the wilt) can’t lose! I enjoyed the mashed pumpkin, but Lex said it was “too exotic” for her palate. I might try mixing the pumpkin with potatoes next time and see if that helps her enjoy it more. I like squash, though, so this worked for me. If you like zucchini casserole, then you’ll like this. The biscuits were total losers! Sweet hockey pucks. I probably overhandled the dough, which didn’t help, but they were going to be heavy no matter what I did. Using yams in place of milk is NOT a winning combo when trying to come up with a light and fluffy biscuit. Another mistake I made: dropping them instead of rolling and cutting. This needs to be a THIN biscuit if it’s going to work at all. I ended up tossing these out. The pumpkin bars ended up more like cake primarily because I used too small a pan. My complaint about this recipe is the high level of oil used in it. They seemed a bit greasy to me. Finally, I enjoyed my little apple cider “mocktail.” The club soda cut some of the sugar in the cider, which was intensely sweet, and the drink helped to set off what was-on the whole-not a light meal. This is definitely “comfort food,” though certainly not the usual fare.
A Texan's First Maryland Crabcakes!
Unlike Alexis, I never think to photograph what I cook, but tonight I made my first crabcakes. I’d eaten them before, of course, but I thought it was time I made the effort. It didn’t seem like it’d be so hard. I bought a pound of Maryland backfin crabmeat at a seafood Market down the street. They put the container on ice in a bag, and the guy rings me up and says, “Here you go, hon.” Heh. How Baltimore.
Anyway, I used the recipe located on this site. The only difference is that I did not deep-fry the cakes. Instead, I took Patti LaBelle’s advice and put a bit of butter on each cake and broiled them for four minutes on each side. Perfect! Nice and golden brown. Food Safety Queen, Alexis Brown, broke out the meat thermometer and required me to test the temp of the food before allowing me to remove it from the broiler. The center temp of the cakes needed to be 145 degrees. No problem. They were well over that.
They were mighty tasty. The only problem we had is that I need to learn to clean the meat better. This was my first time picking cartilage out of crabmeat, and I didn’t get it all, so we had to chew and spit, chew and spit. Other than they, they went down smooth.
One lb. of crab makes six cakes, btw, and it cost me about $15. The lump crab (the really primo stuff) would have run about $23. I wasn’t prepared to plop down that kind of cash for an experiment. Maybe next time.
Orange Rose Sparkler
Or, as Alexis likes to call it, “Homemade Fanta!”
Last week, she made kataifi, that wonderful Greek dessert made with shredded phyllo, butter, and nuts, and then drenched in simple syrup that is flavored with rosewater. Well, she had leftover syrup that she stored in the fridge.
Prior to that, I had bought a three liter bottle of club soda. Why? Well, for a while now, I’ve been concocting what I like to call “drinky drinks.” Since I don’t imbibe alcoholic beverages anymore but still have the lingering desire to play at tending bar and mixing up new designer drinks, I have taken to satisfying these urges by creating “mocktails.”
Some have been smashing successes. Others have been phenomenal failures.
My Braun hand blender is my best buddy when it comes to blending these drinks, especially the frozen ones.
Well, last night, I was dying for something sweet to drink, but we were out of Sprite, and I didn’t want to make KoolAid (the last refuge of the desperate), nor did I want to make jamaica con limon (though the last time that went over pretty well). It was late, and all that seemed like actual work.
Instead, I broke open the club soda, got out my “freezy mug” from the freezer. You know the glasses…the ones that have liquid in them that freezes and keeps your drink cold. And then I poked my head in the fridge and started to figure out how I would assemble the drink.
My eye settled first on the carton of orange juice. Grabbed it. Then the bottle of RealLemon. I was feeling too lazy to actually juice a lemon. Then I saw the tupperware container with the rosewater syrup. EUREKA! The final ingredient.
I didn’t really measure the proportions. I just poured some syrup in the glass first, then orange juice, then a smidgen of lemon juice. Topped it all off with club soda, and I gave it a good stir to incorporate the ingredients.
Finally I took an experimental slug. Would it work? It was EXCELLENT! I even went in, woke up Lex, and made her take a sip. She pronounced it no different than Fanta (I don’t entirely agree; there is no hint of rose in Fanta) and then promptly went back to sleep.
At any rate, the drink went down extraordinarily well with the tuna salad I had just made. Very light and refreshing. One change I would made next time I mixed the drink: less syrup and more lemon. I think I made it too sweet this time. I would have preferred a bit more tartness. Maybe even the juice of a lime would have helped.
The BEST tuna salad EVER!
Well, you know. . .in my humble opinion. . .
Here’s the recipe:
1) Boil up some pasta al dente (macaroni, small shell, bowtie, twists, whatever would hold together in a salad and suits your fancy), toss it in a little olive oil to keep it from sticking, and chill it in the fridge.
2) Dice up the following:
-a stalk of celery
-about a quarter to a third of a red onion, depending on the size of the red onion and your desire for “oniony” flavor
-one tart apple. I prefer winesap. Granny Smith would work here, too.
-sharp cheddar cheese (or whatever sharp-tasting cheese you want to toss in here that will hold together in a mayo-based salad)
-chop up a couple of handfuls of pecans or walnuts or almonds. Whatever you like best. I used pecans.
3) Drain the water off a can of albacore tuna.
4) Toss the tuna together with the diced/chopped items, toss in a handful or two of Craisins (or regular raisins or chopped dates if you like), and stir in the juice of one lemon.
5) Fold in enough mayo to bind the items together. Don’t let the mixture get too goopy.
6) Season with fresh-ground black pepper, kosher salt, parsley (freshly chopped is best, but dried will do in a pinch), thyme leaves, and tarragon. Fold in seasonings.
7) Finally, remove pasta from refrigerator and toss together with tuna mixture. Replace salad in fridge and allow to chill for a hour or two before serving.
8) Serve on a lettuce leaf. Garnish ideas: lemon wedges, apple slices, extra Craisins, sprigs of parsley, pecan halves
Would be super-refreshing if served with the beverage mentioned in my next posting!
Comforting casserole
Taco casserole
Brown a pound of ground beef or ground turkey. Drain the grease. Add taco seasoning. I refuse to buy the prepackaged crap because we all know that taco seasoning is simply chili powder, comino, garlick, onion, salt, pepper, and, if you like, a dash of something spicier like Bufalo Chipotle Sauce.
Grate a pound of cheddar or monterrey jack cheese or some combination of both.
Chop up a large onion and quarter about a fifteen flour or corn tortillas, depending on your preference.
Other ingredients may be added according to your taste: chopped jalapenos or bell pepper, green onions, black olives, refried beans.
Spray a lasagne pan with PAM and line the bottom of the pan with the tortilla quarters. Start layering the ingredients, starting with the beans or meat, then adding the vegetables, and finally adding the cheese. Repeat the layers until the pan is filled. The top of the casserole should be covered in tortilla quarters, sprinkled with cheese, onions, and a bit of chili powder.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until the tortillas are golden brown on top and all the cheese appears to be melted.
Serve casserole with garnishes of sour cream, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
