Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes
I made these simple chocolate chip cookies last week because I was trying to use up a stick of butter. And, truthfully, I was also trying really hard not to work on my first law school memo.
I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com (surprise, surprise): http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/detail.aspx. I halved the recipe to accomodate using my one stick of butter, and it worked out just fine. They were a big hit in my Contracts class.
So this is a modification of the Basil Cream Pasta Sauce that I got from AllRecipes.com (http://madhuknitsandcooks.typepad.com/madhu_knits_and_cooks/2006/09/absolutely_fant.html) to take out the cream and just make it more like a pesto. This takes maybe 15 max to prepare, so it’s a great way to get away from the canned pasta sauces.
What I did for about 3 servings of the sauce was take:
1 cup of fresh basil leaves
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
Maybe 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (no idea really, I just eye-balled it while pouring directly from the bottle into the food processor)
Approx. 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese (again, just eye-balled it so not entirely sure)
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
So throw the basil leaves and garlic into the food processor, mix for maybe 10-20 seconds, and then start pouring in the olive oil. You’re going to want to make sure that the resulting mixture is a little too olive-oily because you’re going to need to make sure there is enough to soak up the parmesan while still making it a "sauce" as opposed to a "spread" of sorts. Then throw in the parm, continue processing until you have the consistency you want and then mix in the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
When you throw over pasta, I would recommend adding the sauce after you put the pasta in whatever serving dish you will use. You can put it directly in the pot where you cooked the pasta after you’ve drained the water out, but the heat of the pot may melt the cheese in the pot a bit so that it’s a bit harder to clean the pot later. Of course though, putting the sauce on hot pasta is great precisely because of that little melting of the cheese when it hits the pasta.
So I made this Roasted Red Pepper Dip with the Quinoa Tabbouleh ( http://madhuknitsandcooks.typepad.com/madhu_knits_and_cooks/2006/09/quinoa_tabboule.html) and they worked really well together. The dip goes very well with pita bread as well (preferably warm or toasted whole-wheat pita).
The dip is low-fat and a great source of protein because it has both tofu and beans (and trust me, that is a great combination — for those who don’t like tofu, there is no way you’ll know it’s in here!). You can find the recipe at the Vegetarian Times: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/recipe_details.cfm?recipe_id=9707
So as the multiple categories for this post indicate, this dish can be consumed as an appetizer, snack or main course. Quinoa, according to the box I purchased, is a super-grain that was widely consumed in the Incan empire. According to Wikipedia, "Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete foodstuff" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa). So why not make this fantastic dish AND give the gift of "a balanced set of essential amino acids" to those who are lucky enough to eat it?
I got this recipe from the Vegetarian Times, and thankfully you can find it online: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/recipe_details.cfm?recipe_id=9866.
The variations to the recipe that I made: I doubled the recipe, used a little extra garlic, and I used 1/2 the recommended fresh lemon juice. The reason I used only half the lemon juice is that I accidently spilled the juice from one of the lemons I juiced, and I only had one lemon more so I could only get a little over 1/4 cup of fresh juice. BUT I am happy that that was the case, because I think any more lemon juice would have made it a little too lemony.
I also made the quinoa in a rice cooker, which I thought was a great time-saver while I was the chopping the parsley, etc.
The next time I made it, I think I will also increase the amount of chopped parsley to the recipe to make it a little more "tabbouleh"-like, but I think that is just up to you and what you want to use the recipe for. If you use it for a main dish, I would recommend increasing the amount of parsley, but if you use it as part of a Middle Eastern platter or the like, you probably don’t need to increase the amount of parsley because there will already be a lot of flavors in the dish.
I would really recommend trying it with the Roasted Red Pepper and Bean Dip (http://madhuknitsandcooks.typepad.com/madhu_knits_and_cooks/2006/09/roasted_red_pep.html ) because the combination of the warm quinoa tabbouleh and the cool dip make it not only a fun heat contrast, but the flavors go really well together as well.
One final tip — make sure you fluff that quinoa once it is done cooking! It really makes a big difference.
Last weekend was a crazy cooking weekend — there were two law school potlucks and I wanted to use up some of the ingredients I had purchased the previous weekend. One of the items I made was a batch of chocolate caramel shortbread bars, which were very simple to make and a big hit with my law school small group.
I’m not sure if you can fully see all of the layers of these bars, so check out this picture as well:
I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com, you can get it here: http://christmas.allrecipes.com/az/CaramelShortbreadSquares.asp
The only variations to this recipe I made is that I used an 8×8 square pan instead of a 9×9, and after chilling the bars, you should take them out of the fridge just a little bit before cutting them. If you don’t give them some time to get closer to room temperature, it can be really hard to get a knife through the chilled bars straight out of the fridge. I also cut the bars a bit larger than the recipe recommends (so I got about 25 bars) because they should be small because they are so rich, but not THAT small.
I would recommend making these for a simple snack for kids, or for a casual lunch/afternoon gathering. I don’t think they would work the best in really warm weather though because the milk chocolate might get a little gooey and messy.
Another delicious and really easy recipe from Allrecipes.com – please check it out at http://vegetarian.allrecipes.com/az/73456.asp. I decided to make this because I had some leftover light cream from the chocolate chip scones that I made, and I didn’t want to make scones again. I highly, highly recommend that you try making this one night.
I added some crushed red pepper near the end of the sauce preparation, and I highly suggest you do so as well if you like a little bit of spice in your food. I put the sauce over some multi-grain linguini, and I had to really restrain myself from eating all 3-4 servings that I made. I will be making this again, though I am thinking about taking the cream out of recipe and just adding more olive oil to make it a bit stronger of a flavor, healthier, and a bit more simple.
Last week I made some chocolate chip scones for my law school "small group" using an altered recipe from the February 2006 edition of Vegetarian Times. They turned out to be fairly moist and ridiculously good.
I wish I could provide a link to this recipe, but unfortunately it is not available online (and I don’t want to violate copyright laws), so please so to your local library to get that edition. In general, I would highly suggest that magazine — it’s full of recipes that are simple, healthy and really tasty.
I made these Zucchini Grinders last week using a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com — please check it out at http://vegetarian.allrecipes.com/az/73456.asp
I quartered this recipe (to make just one serving), and added some crushed red pepper to the mixture and it was pretty delicious. The only thing I would recommend against is using an actual loaf of Italian or French bread, as opposed to rolls, because you’ll have way too much bread and not enough zucchini tastiness!
I loved this dish growing up — I was one of the few children I knew who always asked for broccoli for dinner! I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I.
For 2 large servings, or 3-4 small servings
2-3 cups of broccoli (I generally use around 16oz of frozen broccoli florets)– if frozen, only partially steam before adding to pan
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 garlic cloves — coursely chopped into large chunks
1/2 yellow onion — chopped
3 dried red chilis, break them in half as you add them to pan (you can get at an Indian grocery store)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (not ground cumin)
1 teaspoon of uridahl / white dahl (you can get at an Indian grocery store)
3/4 – 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
Heat oil in a cooking pan (medium heat) and throw in mustard seeds and dried red chilis
Once the mustard seeds start popping, add the cumin and uridahl and cook for a minute or two
Add the garlic and let cook for a minute, but make sure the heat isn't too high that the garlic burns
Add the chopped onion, and saute mixture for 1-2 minutes, until the onion cooks to where it is no longer raw
Add partially steamed broccoli, and saute dish for 5-10 minutes, until cooked to your taste. While sauteing, add salt to taste *NOTE* Be liberal with adding the salt, it is the key ingredient to make all the flavors come out in the dish.
If you are using fresh broccoli, you can cover the pan if you want to help the broccoli to cook.
If you want to the dish to be spicier, you can add hot curry masala powder at the end. You can find this at Indian grocery stores. I like adding more onion and garlic, but that's because I like stronger flavors. Let me know if you make any adjustments that you particularly like.
Serve with rice or any Indian breads.
So, this simple recipe that I threw together late last week was inspired by two influences from the summer:
1) The wonderful "Greek Country Salad" served at the Artopolis Cafe in Chicago’s Greektown.
2) The last few minutes of a Rachel Ray "30 minute meals recipe" where she created a tasty and healthy non-dressing dressing (my words, not hers :-)).
I made this one-serving salad using:
Chopped Hearts of Romaine Lettuce (maybe 1/2 of one "heart" — is that even the right terminology? I have no idea)
1 medium-sized tomato, chopped
Approx. 1/8 of a red onion, chopped
Handful of small pepperonncini peppers, coarsely chopped (and you can give just take a few extras, cut them open and squeeze the juice onto the salad for extra flavor)
1-2 oz. of Feta cheese, cut into large chunks
lemon juice, I used 1/5 of a fresh lemon to get a good flavor for the salad
extra virgin olive oil
Basically just throw these ingredients together in a large salad bowl, juice the lemon directly onto the salad, and then throw on a splash of olive oil. You can alter the amount of ingredients you use to find the right kind of flavor that you like, and of course add extra ingredients like olives (which I personally dislike) to the salad to make more "greek" if you will.
A tip that I learned from this Rachel Ray-inspired non-dressing dressing is that first you should put the lemon juice (the acid) first on the salad, before you put any olive oil so that the flavors meld better and take away the bite of the acid. I’m not quite sure on the science of this one, but I believe Rachel Ray!
In short, this is a really great simple AND filling salad that I recommend everyone tries out!