How modern electronics and a few cups of coffee, make my days off so productive.

I had a day off.  Two of them, in fact.  With no plans, nothing set in stone, aside from the fact that I should probably work out at some point on one of those days, since I am running in my first ever race in 3 weeks, it's 10 miles and I've never run more than 7.  But who's counting?  As one of my dear friends said, "I run because I love to eat" and those are my exercise beliefs in a nutshell.

So I had some time off, and lots of things I wanted to make.  We had finally ran low on the copious amount of granola from the prior post (which keeps really well for the record), and with the sweet knowledge that  two days off in a row from my job, comes with the dread that sometime in the not so far off future, I will have to work many days in a row before having 1 day off (see today, day 1 of 9) I wanted some good healthy snack options for me and the Monkey to eat in the week ahead.  So I made my list.

-Granola (a must)
-Hummus
-Bread

But wait.  As I was getting my thoughts and ingredients together, I had a horrible realization.

This is my cookie jar.  And something is very, very wrong.

THERE ARE NO COOKIES!  Oh, no, no, no!  This will not do.  A house is not a home without homemade cookies!  Isn't that a song?  Okay, so let's write a new list.

-Granola: (it's so easy, we can totally bust this out in no time.  See prior post.  So.  Easy.)


-Hummus: Okay, I've never written about this before, but if you own a food processor, could not BE any easier.


-Bread:  I will address my love for my new kitchen toy, my awesome bread machine, in a later post.  One when I'm feeling really lazy.  There is no skill, but I still love it.

-Cookies: Clearly the front runner.  So this is how it's going to work.

I had two cups of coffee while I worked.  I hadn't been on a cooking frenzy like this since we had our annual family making, pie and thanksgiving dessert extravaganza, which included my sister, my niece, and a LOT of red wine.  I started the bread machine first.  I have been trying to make my own sourdough starter for a few weeks, and it's going okay.  The bread doesn't quite have the amazing sour taste of a store bought kind, but it's pretty good in it's own right, and I'm hoping that the flavor will get stronger over time.  So I put together two recipes, one of a basic sourdough bread machine recipe, and another (which I had made before to excellent results) rosemary bread machine recipe.  Half white, half wheat flour.  It turned out really nicely, and I will continue to tinker with recipes and report back.

Next, once I hit that power button on the bread machine (that's really all it takes, folks.  If you can just remember to put yeast in last, you are set), I moved on to the granola.  Oven at 325, same for most cookies.  Perfect!  The granola is just as yummy as last time, but I forgot to buy coconut.  Bummer.

Moving on, granola is in the oven, I move on to hummus.  My favorite flavor that I have made is sun-dried tomato.  Take some tahini, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas, depending on what you call them.  Same thing), garlic (I like LOTS), lemon juice, olive oil (depending on how rich you like your hummus, just add more or less) and a little water.  Throw everything in the food processor, and blend. Add more olive oil/water or less depending on how thick you like it.  Then add anything else fun.  Parsley, roasted red peppers, or if you are me, sun-dried tomatoes.  So good.  And then it's done.

Finally!  The most important.  More important than the breakfast that is granola, the lunch of hummus, the dinner that could be rosemary bread.  Dessert.  Cookies.  I ask the Monkey what kind of cookie he wants.  The winner by a long shot, over oatmeal raisin (he's not a big fan) or peanut-butter is Molasses.  I doubled the recipe to freeze half the dough (because if you haven't guessed by now a) I'm lazy and b) I love entertaining and there is nothing I love more than baking fresh cookies for a gathering.  Even when they aren't fresh.  And they have been living in my freezer keeping the fake meat products and the frozen bananas for smoothies, company.  I also added chocolate chips to half of the dough, because who doesn't love a little bit of chocolate mixed in with just about anything?  The only thing I would do differently in the future is a little less sugar, as they were a bit sweet to my taste.  Also, instead of sprinkling/rolling them with sugar, I sprinkled them in a pinch of kosher salt.  The secret I learned recently, of a good cookie (specifically chocolate chip, but really this is pretty universal with any cookie) is add just a tiny bit of extra salt.

Thank you Gourmet, by way of Epicourous.  Enjoy these.  We are.  And the fake meat and the frozen bananas in the freezer seem to be pretty fond of them too.

Makes about 25 cookies.

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325°F. and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter, shortening, and 3 cups sugar until light and fluffy and beat in molasses. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture and combine well.

In a small shallow bowl put remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Form dough into 2-inch balls and roll in sugar. On baking sheets arrange balls about 4 inches apart and flatten slightly with bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake cookies in batches in middle of the oven 15 minutes, or until puffed and golden. (Cookies should be soft.) Transfer cookies with a metal spatula to racks to cool.

I made it thought the wilderness...somehow I made it through... and made granola!

 I am a very bad blogger.  I should be one of those people that doesn't let a week go by, without feeling the need to create amazing bits of food and then express the experience of it via the information superhighway and interwebs, paired with beautiful photos.  However I am not one of those people.  There were holidays, there was baking where the only documentation of it's existence is the fading memories of the food comas it induced.  There was a show I was in, where I existed on a diet solely made up of salads, nachos, soft baked pretzels vast amounts of emergen-C, coke zero and peanut m&m's.  So no blogging was to be had by me.  Fast forward a month and a half, past the insanity of Valentines day at work, and here we go.  A day off, and a desire (planted by one of the sisters fierce blog team and my friend) to make granola.

After spending time in the bulk section at my friendly neighborhood grocery store (AKA also where I work) I picked out everything I could ever want in my granola.  This is what made it into this batch:

raw (not quick) rolled oats

sliced almonds

raw cashews

sesame seeds

sunflower seeds

dried coconut pieces

pecans

dried cranberries

raisins

agave syrup

honey

vanilla

cinnamon

nutmeg

canola oil

Firstly, I preheated the oven to 350.  Then, I started mixing all the dry ingredients into one bowl.  It was about this time when I realized I didn't have enough room for everything in one bowl, so I had to split it up into two bowls.  Something you may have learned about me by now (or perhaps you have enjoyed it first hand, by being sent home with a vast amount of leftovers) is that I always make ALOT of something.  It's this disease I have, like never being able to line up the buttons on my sweaters correctly and not realizing it until I'm out in public and my sweater is hanging all funny, with one side longer than the other.  I always make a ridiculous amount of food, and I can't help it.

So back to the granola.  I mixed all of my dry ingredients together.  Next, in a small sauce pan, I heated over medium heat I'd say about 1 cup of agave syrup (once again, measuring is not my strong suit.  I just dumped into it looks like a good amount) and about 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 cup canola oil.  Then while heating and stirring, I added a few splashes of vanilla.  After all the liquids were mixed and a little warm, I drizzled them over the dry items, mixed it all together and spread it unto a shallow baking sheet, lined with parchment.  (Note: I could write an entire post about my love of parchment paper.  By gollie, it is the BEST!  The lack of clean up!  The lack of scraping sticky items or bits of melted cheese off of my dishes!  Every kitchen should have it, along with bon-ami and steel wool for when everything goes all wrong.)

Anyhoo, with the oven being up to temp, I baked two trays at a time (this ridiculous amount of granola took up four and a half baking sheets. Yeah, I have issues), leaving them in for ten minutes, taking them out and tossing the granola to make sure it was being toasted on all sides, and then rotating the trays from the top to bottom and visa versa and putting them in for another ten minutes.  Twenty minutes (and much snacking on the remaining raw granola that I hadn't baked yet) later, the kitchen smelled awesome and this is what I had.

Mmmm.  Crunchy granola yumminess.  So, there is really no recipe to duplicate here folks.  Just put together what you like in your granola (I read a few recipes that said to wait and toss the raisins in after you had baked the granola and let it cool.  Of course, I read this AFTER I had mixed raisins into half of the recipe, so I baked some and then added some later. And it all tasted fine.)  I had been really intimidated by granola before this.  My dad makes the best I've ever had to this day, and it was nice to make it and see that there is no hidden granola mystery.  It's easy.  And fast.  And so much cheaper than buying it!  Thus disproving that age old theory of the triangle of "Cheap", "Fast" and "Good".  The idea is that you can pick any of those two, but you can't have all three.  Now I'll have to change it to "cheap, fast, good and granola".  That folks, may have to be the name of my cookbook.  Or my autobiography.  

Shrimp Etouffee (my first time at cooking shrimp....fancy that!)

I was a vegetarian for the first 20 years of my life.  I have never had chicken, turkey, pork, and if you don't count the bite of steak that I tried, and immediately spit back out (it bounced back at me when I bit into it!  It freaked me out!) I have never had cow either.  But I admit it, I dig the seafood.  I LOVE sushi.  Salmon is my all time favorite, and tuna is pretty yummy too.  But since I didn't start eating the stuff until a few years ago, I'm still learning on the best ways to prepare it.  This is where the Whole Foods Market, recipe section on their website comes in.

There was a sale the other week on shrimp.  I figured, what the hey!  I like shrimp okay, and it was a cool grey day.  What better time to try out this Shrimp Etouffee recipe?  I gather my thoughts and all the ingredients.  I halved this recipe because I was just feeding me and the monkey and there was still plenty of leftovers, but here is the original one, so do with it, what you will.

-6 Tablespoons butter
-3 Tablespoons flour
-1 cup chopped onion (and we all know how well I measure things like vegetables.  I just threw in an entire medium sized onion.)
-6 green onions, chopped
-1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (again, I tossed in whatever I happened to have.  I enjoy my veggies, and you can never have too many in my book.)
-1/2 cup chopped celery (see above.  Whateves!)
-2 cup water/stock (I used vegetable stock and it was yummy.)
-3 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined (my comments on this to follow.  And remember, I only used a little over a pound because I halved the recipe.)
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-Salt and pepper, to taste
-1 bay leaf
-Tobasco sauce, to taste
-Hot cooked rice (you can go back to my older posts to see how I make my rice.  Or read directions on the box.  I used brown rice, cause that's how I roll.  Unless I'm making sushi.  Then white rice is the tops!  But I digress.)

Here we are!  What a nice looking picture, right?  I spared you all by not posting a much less desirable picture of the shrimp deveining process.  Oh lord.  It made me realize why I had been a vegetarian for as long as I had.  It was a very humbling (and time consuming!) few moments, and made me realize how homogenized it is to purchase ready packed, to go, portions of meat.  I think way less people would eat meat if they had to be the ones to a) kill the creature they were about to consume and b) ready it to be consumed.  So I had a nice little time with these little shrimp, recognizing what they had been, and appreciating how yummy they were going to be, all the while being exceedingly disgusted at the entire deveining process.  But I was determined to move forward, and so I did.  Onward!

 In a skillet, (I used my favorite cast iron pan) melt the butter over medium high heat.  Once melted, add the flour, and continue to stir and blend until the flour and butter mixture is a deep golden brown.  Like so:

Add the vegetables, and cook until tender.

Stir in the water/stock, shrimp, parsley and seasonings.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked.  I did it for 20 minutes and it was PERFECT!

Serve over hot rice.  If you want to be a fancy pants, I saved some fresh parsley and used that as a garnish (because I am nothing, if I am not an aspiring fancy pants in the kitchen.)  And let me just say, it was worth the shrimp prep because this dish is silly easy and SO GOOD!  This just darted to my list of go to dinners, along with the miso tofu num nums, pizza, and veggie tacos (in our house, we like to call them toncos).  So kudos to the Whole Foods Market website, with all it's recipe action.  Now, back to rehearsals and gathering other seasonal recipes to try out.  Coming soon, (thanks to a free cookbook that is all cheesecake recipes) I'll be exploring the wide world of the cheesecake, so start knitting your excited caps.  Fancy Pants Cheesecakes are on the horizon.  So close, I can almost taste them.....

I know....I know....

So it's been a little while.  Life happens, work happens, and then THIS happens:

Yup.  You guessed it.  I'm in a SHOW!  This isn't JUST a food blog, you know.  It's "Stuff I Like, By Me!"  I love theatre.  And I love musical theatre.  I always have.  I was singing Annie before I could talk (just ask my long suffering family), and memorizing children's books that my parents read to me, long before I could read.  I could fake cry with the best of them, and I have never had a problem projecting my voice.  Some call it loud, I just say that my voice "naturally carries".  No matter which way you spin it, I love the theatre and I have been lucky enough to be cast in many a show since the age of 11.  Take this gem if you will.  Here I am in my first REAL show.  It was for the Community Children's Theatre (which has long been disbanded, which is a pity because it was the only thing going on for children's theatre for many years.)  It was a musical production of "Robin Hood", circa 1992.  I was "Beth".  Yup, there was a character in Robin Hood called "Beth".  Well, in this show anyway.

Oh yeah!  Check me out!  I remember my tights that we had to dye in tea, and the "chain-mail" vests, which were actually knitted garments that had been spray painted silver.  Anyway, this was the first show I had to really audition for, and above all, sing a song in order to get cast!  Well, lucky for me, I was cast.  But I digress.

The show I am currently working on is called "The Drowsy Chaperone" which you may have guessed from the above picture.  It played on broadway from 2006 to 2007 and won the tony for best book and best score.  It's a silly and fun show, and I'm just thrilled to be a part of it.  There are many familiar faces to those of you who see theatre in Charlottesville, and even if you are not a fan of theatre, much less, musical theatre, I think you will enjoy it.  It runs from December 9 through January 16.  I'll be posting more about it as we get closer to opening, and hopefully I'll have some more time to cook in the month or so, leading up to it.  Until then, I'll be learning my notes, and looking for yummy fall recipes.  And maybe be carving a pumpkin or two.  Who can say?

The PBJ bar!

Sometimes, I have ideas.  Sometimes, I have silly ones, big ones, wee ones, improbable ones and unstoppable ones.  I had a group of friends over to my house yesterday for a brunch type thing.  I was feeling exceedingly lazy, and exceptionally poor.  How best to pick a food to serve when you are feeling these things, I ask?  Some may say, "who needs food when you have mimosas?" (Unfortunately, this is a question I also asked yesterday, and 24 hours and two bottles of seltzer water later, I think I finally get it.)  Some people may also say "just go to Bodo's, stock up on the crowd pleasing carbs, and be done with it!"  No sir.  Not this day.  I wanted comfort food.  Something fun and childlike but with a twist!  And this my friends, is what I came up with:

The peanut-butter and jelly smorgasbord!


So much goodness all in one place!  I assembled fresh ground, honey roasted peanut-butter and almond-butter from our neighborhood Whole Foods, two types of crackers (a ritz style and a wheat), raisins, chocolate bits, honey, agave syrup, sliced bananas, mixed berry jelly, and finally gram-crackers.  Then, I dug in (before the guests arrived, yes.  I had to make sure this wasn't a wonderful, awful idea.)  It was everything I wanted.  The almond-butter with raisins on a wheat thin, the peanut-butter with banana and honey on a ritz, and for dessert, peanut-butter and chocolate on a gram-cracker.  Each one was so yummy, and it was the perfect different kind of snack to share.  The reviews were positive and to top it off, there wasn't much remaining at the end of the party, so that helped with the clean up.   See my friends, sometimes my ideas work out pretty well.  Sometimes they end up like the potato leek soup that I made that one time, where I didn't wash the leeks well enough, and the soup had so much sand in it that the only person that would eat it was my darling dad.  But sometimes, yes, sometimes things of beauty come out of it all.  Like knowing that leeks harbor massive amounts of sand, and also knowing that you are never too old to appreciate a good PB and J.

Lasagna experiment, or how 90 minutes at 375 saved my dinner.

Not all experiments turn out as well as the miso glazed num num episode.  This is a story about one that turned out fine, just not as golden as I would have hoped.  But now I have a great jumping off point for the next time.  Let's start at the beginning.

I ask Monkey (AKA my boyfriend) what he wants for dinner, every day I cook.  The past three answers have been an emphatic "Lasagna!"  My only lasagna experience (aside from eating it) was making a vegan version years ago with a friend.  (My vegan days, which are happily over and we shall never speak of again, lasted for many many years due to a dairy allergy from childhood that I outgrew and then I discovered the joy of cheese, yogurt and Ben and Jerry's.  But I digress.)

I have a large tool belt of "go to" recipes, but lasagna is not one of these things.  Okay, let's try this out.  Epicurious took me down a long road of recipes and I picked this one from Self magazine, 2005.  I tweaked it.  As per usual.  I don't do measuring when I cook if I can help it, so here we go!

What I used:

1 rounded cup of ricotta
1 tbsp thyme
1/2 tbsp basil (dried)
1/2 tbsp oregano
3 plus cloves of garlic

Mix all these things together and set aside.

Looks tasty, right?  And it is!  I could have used a little more garlic, but I can't ever have too much garlic, so use to your taste.  Also I sprinkled a little black pepper and salt.

Next I chopped up a ton of vegetables in the amounts of:



1 carrot
1 large zucchini
1/2 a yellow onion
1 green pepper
8 mushrooms
1 broccoli crown

For the remaining ingredients, I used one box of oven ready lasagna noodles that had been in the kitchen cabinet for longer than I care to admit, 3/4 jar of pasta sauce (it would have been an entire jar, but we had used a bit for pizza sauce the other night. Desperate times.) one 32 oz can of crushed tomatoes (to make up for the lack of tomato sauce remaining) and 1 large chunk of mozzarella, grated.   now the layering begins.

Start with coating the bottom of your pan with sauce.  Then layer the noodles, veggies, and top off with dollops of the ricotta mixture and a nice handful of the mozzarella.  Repeat these layers (I think I fit in 4 good layers?) and end with noodles, sauce and parmesan on the top.

• Having finished this layered beauty, it was time to put it in the oven (pre heated to 375) and bake!  Now, this is where it got tricky.  The recipe I used said it only needed to bake for 50 minutes.  As poor Monkey and I discovered after  each crunching our way through a small piece, this was not nearly enough time.  "That's it!"  I thought to myself.  "I am officially a failure in the kitchen.  One of the most foolproof foods you can throw together, and I can't make it."  Back in the oven and 40 more minutes later, I realized I was wrong.  It was good.  Quite good actually.  Maybe more cheese and sauce and less veggies for next time (I was trying to make this on the healthy side, but who am I fooling?  Cheese is what makes the world go round and why try and use less of a brilliant thing?)  Lesson learned my friends.  You can never have too much garlic or cheese in the world.

Miso glazed num nums

Ah miso, such a rare, misunderstood, mysterious thing you are.  Frequently found in the dairy section or hiding in a cooler in your neighborhood health food store,  I love you and I want to share my love with everyone!  Here is a little something I made last night (much to the delight of my darling boyfriend, whom we shall call Monkey to protect his identity.)  Since this is cooking and not baking, the exact measurements are much more flexible so feel free to add, subtract or mess with as you see fit.  That's exactly what I did and this is what I came up with:

Miso Glaze from Whole Foods Market website (the actually recipe was "miso glazed catfish and bok choy" but I"m not the biggest catfish fan, being a dedicated follower of salmon, so I took some of these ideas and ran!)

What I used and you may need, if you make this like I did.  This fed two very hungry people, and there was enough left for lunch for two less hungry people.

3 bunches baby bok choy (or one large bunch of regular bok choy)
1 lb (ish?  1 pack?  Whatever.) of extra firm tofu.  I let it sit between a few sheets of paper towels and between two plates with two heavy jars on top of it, to force out any excess water.  Once again, whatever you want.
10 or so shiitake mushrooms (because I LOVE them)
1 bunch of scallions.

For the Miso glaze:

2 tablespoons oil (I used olive)
3 tablespoons white miso (like the picture above)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons warm water

Whisk these four ingredients together.  Slice tofu into thin, wide strips, and place into a baking dish.  Brush half of the glaze onto the tofu, making sure to coat and get both sides, and set aside.

While the tofu is lounging in it's own yumminess, saute scallions and mushrooms in a little olive oil.  Add baby bok choy (chopped up into a manageable size) and a little bit of water. Cover and let steam for 3-5 minutes, or until the bok choy is done just enough to your liking.  Add the remaining glaze and mix in.  Turn down and let simmer while you go back to the tofu.

Now, I will say in retrospect, I will choose to bake the tofu in the baking dish because Monkey and I decided that the tofu was a bit oily because I chose to fry it.  Nonetheless, it was yummy and you do what you want.  So I fried it on a high heat, turning it over after 3 or so minutes on each side.

So it was really yummy, and I can only imagine it would have been yummier still if I had a) let the tofu sit in the miso glaze even longer or b) baked the tofu which would have burnt off less of the glaze so there would have been even more to spoon over the finished product.  I also served it over brown rice, which I'm assuming all of you fine folks can figure out how to make (hint, follow the directions on the box.)  In any case, this was a really well played experiment!  Monkey loved it and said this one of, if not my best meal experiment yet!  And if Monkey is happy, than by golly so am I.  So take away from this, that miso is SUPER yummy, and a really great addition in stir fry recipes.  And now for the final product!

Miso Num Nums

Editors note:  I made this dish again because I've been craving it ever since try number once, only this time I baked the tofu in the miso glaze at 300 for 45+ minutes.  AW, MAN it was EVEN BETTER than the first time!  I had never tried baking tofu before and I could see this being an awesome and healthier way to enjoy tofu, as opposed to frying it (when I often tend to fill the house with smoke anyways, so perhaps it's best I stick to the oven for this dish.)  I would imagine any kind of marinade and tofu, baked at a low heat for a long time, will undoubtably be yummy.  Anyway, I am once again full and happy, and that's kind of the point of it all, am I right?