It's a wrap

If you come to my house for dinner and you're a vegetarian, it's 10 to 1 I will feed you pasta or eggplant.

Why eggplant?
-it's cheap
-you can roll anything savory in eggplant and it looks and tastes great.

Just slice 1/4 slices of eggplant and roast them in the oven 5-10 minutes or until pliable.

Then put whatever you have kicking around inside.

These have:
mushrooms
spinach
eggplant scraps
brown rice
green olives.

Saute the innards if they're mushy. I consider it essential to include either olives or cheese- gives it a nice saltyness.

You can then bake these, serve at room temp as hors d'oeuvres. They can be kept warm for hours and still taste great as long as they don't dry out. (so cover or add more sauce)

What to do with Phyllo Dough

After a month without a camera charger, and therefore without pictures to make a blog from here is my triumphant return. And nothing says triumphant like a mini muffin pan.

Mac and Cheese Phyllo cups.

Phyllo dough, defrosted.
butter for brushing on phyllo dough
lots of cheese (say a cup grated at least)
chicken stock or milk
flour
lots of butter

First- make phyllo cups (or you can buy them! so much easier!)

1. get out a few sheets of phyllo stacked up. (Leave the rest covered or it will dry out very quickly! )
2. Cut squares of dough just larger than a mini muffin pan cup. brush square on both sides with butter and press into pan.
3. Bake at 350 for five minutes or until golden brown.

Then- make mac and cheese

1. Cook Macaroni til al dente (don't worry if you overcook it, you want mushy macaroni in the end anyway)
2. Make cheese sauce
-mix equal parts of butter and flour (about one tablespoons each for each cup of sauce you make) and cook until it smells nutty and is golden brown, at least five minutes.
-Add chicken stock or milk gradually, stirring constantly with a whisk to break up lumps. Stop when sauce is the consistency you want, about that of a thick chowder
-bring sauce to a boil.
-Add grated cheese, still stirring.

3. Pour sauce over macaroni- you want the macaroni to be completely covered. set aside to cool.
You can add something for color; I added red bell pepper diced fine.

Then put 'em together:

4. Scoop macaroni into phyllo cups.
5. Bake at 350 until macaroni is warm.

Feeling decadent? melt some cheese on top.

Serve warm.

Whole wheat Sourdough bread

2 c high protein All Purpose flour (King Arthur brand is good ) or bread flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c sourdough starter*
1 c warm water
1 Tablespoon salt (if you like salty bread like I do)
1 teasp yeast


This bread was a little less holey than I like, but a firm loaf with a good chew that has proved good for sandwiches.

1. Mix whole wheat flour, starter, water and salt. Mix thoroughly- use a standing mixer if you've got one. (If you have time, let this mixture stand overnight. Your bread will be much better for it.)

2. With mixer going or useful helper stirring, add white flour a little at a time until the dough comes together into one large ball and no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. You are shooting for a dough that is slightly tacky, but not ooey or sticky. For me, that was exactly the amount of flour listed above. For you, it might be more or less. Knead for five minutes with hands or mixer.


2. Let dough rise in something that is the shape of the loaf you want. - I used a bowl lined with a floury cloth. (An old t-shirt piece I completely covered with flour) I am anti oiling the bowl, because then if you want to shape your loaf later, the oily dough doesn't stick to itself.

(2 b preheat your oven to 375, put your pizza stone or cast iron pan in it)
3. In about three hours, gently lift out of bowl using the cloth and set on a peel/cookie sheet with cornmeal on it so it won't stick. Gently poke or pinch parts of bread until it is the shape you want . Slash the top a couple times with a sharp knife or razor blade.

4. Cook it till it's done (it sounds hollow when you knock on it or thermometer inserted into bread reads 190 degrees)


* don't have the energy to write about this now. If you don't have any, I'll send you some of mine.

How NOT to make buttercream frosting

Just Follow this recipe:

six egg whites
1 1/4 c sugar
4 sticks butter
cornstarch
confectioner's sugar
vanilla.

1. Take six egg whites, heat over a double boiler with 1 1/4 c sugar until sugar is dissolved and whites are slightly warmed.

2. beat until stiff and cool, almost 10 min. Beat in 3 sticks of softened butter, two tablespoons at a time.

3. Go to add the last stick and realize that you are in the process of overbeating the egg whites, which have turned into a disgusting, curdled mass:



4. Borrow a food processor from your lovely vegan neighbors. Deveganize it by pulsing your unclean animal product frosting until smooth again.



5. Realize the frosting is too liquidy and frantically add half a box of confectioner's sugar and several tablespoons full of cornstarch.

6. Proceed to make a baller classic greek temple cake despite your hardship.

Sandwich Bread- failure

This is what happens when you're too impatient to finish the second rising- your bread rises quickly in the oven and splits on the side. I know that, and yet I still mess it up.

Seeded bread- Failure!

This was supposed to be one of those German ryle loaves- dark and dense and studded with all manner of seeds.

Well yours truly shot right past dense and hit rock hard.



On the plus side, spray painted gold it might make a nice decorative doorstop.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

-Pre-heat oven to 400
-Cut Potatoes into wedges, rise and then dry thoroughly. (the rinsing and drying is clutch! don't skip that step!)
-Toss in a bowl with two tablespoons olive oil and two teaspoons salt.
-Line wedges up on a cookie sheet
-Bake for 10 minutes, flip, bake for ten more. If wedges aren't done, lower heat to 350 and continue baking until cooked through.

Spicy Broccoli and Tofu stir fry

Cheaper than Chinese take-out. Faster than pasta night.



Make the sauce, throw it in a frying pan with cut up broccoli and tofu. dinner is served.



Sauce:

All the ingredients are to taste. Feel free to add a little more or a little less.


3/4 c white wine (something sweet and cheap is fine)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 whole dried red peppers, or 1 teasp crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water.

Bring ingredients to a boil. Sauce is ready. add to broccoli and tofu and fry until broccoli is al dente.

How to win friends in 30 minutes or less.

People love ice cream. People love cookies. Give the people what they want.



On the way back from an impromptu Peabody Essex museum visit (shoutout to the Chinese house exhibit!), we made plans for potluck taco night one hour after we got back. Everyone offered something, and I heard myself saying:

"Oh, I'll make an ice cream cake."
"Yeah, sure I'll just throw it together"
"Ok, see you in an hour."

By the time I got back to the apartment and got my act together, making a layer cake and remolding the ice cream to fit as a layer was out of the question. So it was down to a MacGuyver-style how can I fool my friends into thinking I actually made something.

If you ever find yourself in a similar dessert situation, here is what I suggest:

1. Buy a block of cheapo ice cream, the kind that comes in the square cardboard box.

2. Crush a bunch of store bough cookies- I did layers of Oreo and gingersnaps. (Shout out to Mi-Del gingersnaps)

3. Cut ice cream horizontally into four layers. press cookies between each layer and all over outside of cake. Return the cake to the freezer.




4. Whip two egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar or so. Set aside. Whip a cup of cream with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon to taste. Mix the beaten egg whites and the whipped cream. This is your "frosting."

5.Cover the cake with the frosting, using a spatula, a pastry bag or a spoon. Freeze until serving. Once frozen, this cake can survive a 1/2 mile walk to your friend P.'s house for taco night.



The (effort) to (adoration from friends) ratio with this dessert is amazing. I highly recommend it.

(Caveat: it's not that cheap, because you're buying pre-made stuff)

Holey Chewy Pizza

I'm all for thin crust Neapolitan pizza with "leopard spotting," but sometimes I want a pie with some heft and some chew. And I always love big bubbles.

(Tangent: When I used to work at a pizza place we had a five foot long two prong fork to pop the bubbles. I never used the thing. Although it had the nice effect of making it look like a vampire had attacked the pizza. Which was hilarious if it was a garlic pizza. Oh no! vampires are developing garlic resistance! its the MRSA of the food world! )

There are three million recipes for pizza dough out there, but this is the one I like for chewy crust because :
-you make it in one afternoon.
-you don't need bread flour.

it's on the sticky end of the spectrum, but not a Jim-Lahey-style ball of goo that's unmanageable.

Ingredients: flour, water, yeast, salt. fin. *


Helpfully, I have bolded the parts which I think are important or interesting. If you have made pizza before, you probably only need to read the bold parts.

1. Mix: 1 1/2 c flour, 1 1/2 c warm water , 2 teasp yeast, 2 teasp salt (in the bowl of a standing mixer if you've got one.)

2. Let stand for as long as you can bear it. At least 20 min. The warm water helps quick rising if your apartment is as cold as mine.

3. Using mixer or sturdy spoon, add flour until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl, about 1 1/2 cups. Knead/mix until you are bored, try to stay unbored for at least 5 min.

4. Let stand again for 30 min or so (leave it in the bowl. No need to oil the bowl, just scrape the dough out if it sticks.) Start preheating pizza stone, if you have one. This is also a great time to assemble your toppings.

5. Scrape dough out of bowl. Divide into two pieces. Gently fold into ball shape (this is important if you want your pizza to be round. The dough "remembers" the shape it rests in, so if you let it rest in a whacked out quadrilateral shape, you will get a whacked-out quadrilateral pizza). Let rest for a few minutes.

6. Roll or stretch dough into a circle. Put some flour or cornmeal on a peel or an upside down cookie sheet. Place dough on the peel/sheet , add sauce, cheese toppings. Don't press down your toppings or the dough will stick to the peel/ sheet.

(I use whole canned tomatoes instead of sauce. I've always been contrary)

7. Your pizza stone is hot now. Don't have a pizza stone? get out your cast iron skillet. put it on the stovetop on high for five minutes or until you smell smoke. Viola- instant preheated "pizza stone" Put it in the oven, crank the oven as high as it can go.

8. Scootch the pizza from the peel/sheet onto the stone/skillet. Ten minutes later, eat pizza.

(mushroom / potato-rosemary pie. Go try a potato pizza right now. It will change your life)

*fin means end in French. don't get excited. this is not another ingredient.

Haymarket Success

(No, this is not an out-of focus picture of organ meat. Read on and you will discover what I was attempting to show)


I went to Haymarket, Boston's outdoor produce market, on Saturday just before closing. The prices (already low) drop drastically at the end of the night. If you're prepared to fight through crowds of Abuelitas and Grannies with sharp sided carts, you just might find a produce seller who will call you sweetie and give you two pounds of grape tomatoes for $1.

Being cheap by nature, I never buy these in the store, so to have two pounds of them is awesome. After eating the good ones, I roasted the rest. As my co-worker Luis says:

"Sale, pepe, olio di olivo*, an' thas' it. "

These are good eatin': alone, on pizza, in a quiche. I of course, froze them, because I have an unnatural fear of running out of food. (In the event of a zombie apocalypse, we will be doing fine here in the apartment).



*yes, I know this is not Spanish. Luis half-translates for us gringos.

Failure (s) of the week - Twofer!

A. First, I can't get rid of the top picture, which is sideways. Yes, I have tried simply deleting it. No, I don't want to hear about how to fix it.

B. These bars are a perfect way to use up that container of caramel sauce you froze because you didn't follow a recipe and added too much butter and then the sauce separated.

1.Take the sauce, warm it up, add three eggs, salt and some vanilla.

2. Add the right amount of flour and then (key step!) --> Keep adding flour until the batter is thick, doughy, and pasty. Taste it and see how floury it is.

3. Ignore the bad, floury taste. Bake at 350 for twenty minutes.

4. Try a corner of the bars. They should be bland, floury and hard.


Blond brownies. Keeping me humble since 2010.

Freezing Rain Turkey Soup

This morning began with my roommate, J. saying "Hey I think it's hailing."

I replied with "Hey I think I'll e-mail my internship and ask if I can switch my hours to any day but today."

Which lead directly to:

-"Hey I think I'll spend the day lazing about the apartment, trying without success to read several different library books,"
and
-"Hey maybe I should get a cat. Or volunteer in Haiti."
and
"Hey, maybe I should make soup"

Ingredients:

-Leftover turkey, preferably dark meat with bones that has been in the freezer since Thanksgiving.
-Onions, carrots, celery, frozen peas.
-barley or brown rice.
-salt, pepper, cheap white wine.


1. Throw the frozen turkey into a pot with just enough water to cover. If you put any more, your soup will be watery. Turn on high.

2. Twenty minutes later, take out the turkey pieces and pick meat off bones. set meat aside.


3. Put bones back in pot, add half of the carrots, onions, celery, in huge chunks. Include onion skins and celery leaves. Add a dash of cheap white wine, and lots of coarsely cracked pepper (crack in a mortar in pestle, or with the back of a spoon)



3. Twenty minutes before you want to eat, strain out all the stuff from the broth. Add barley (which expands a LOT. Try one cup or less for soup for four) and carrots and celery cut up bite size or smaller. Cut onions pole to pole in thinnish slices. Put the meat back in a bout five minutes before serving, along with frozen peas if desired.




4. Freeze in containers, preferably ones that take up the same amount of space as the leftover turkey did. This will erase any temporary sense of accomplishment you have.

Variation: add lemon and sage (fresh or dried). Half a lemon was enough to make my soup very lemony-perhaps too lemony.