A Revised Take on Barefoot's Mushroom Risotto

So I tried my hand at Barefoot Contessa's wild mushroom risotto. Mine is more like the average woman's risotto, since Ina asks for ridiculous things such as the threads of saffron crocuses.

I substituted sausage for the pancetta and only used chicken broth, since I didn't have any white wine around to use / sip on :(

So one little hiccup while I was sauteing the shallots and sausage... I realized I only had about 2 servings of the arborio rice and not 6 like the recipe asked for. I already had too many onions and sausage, just didn't add all of the mushrooms. I wish it was the other way around.

It was hard to not nom right in while standing over all of the delicious smells.

Added a good helping of parmesan to the risotto off the heat and here is the final plating. Given the substitution, sans white wine and saffron threads, and iffy ratio of rice to other ingredients, this was uber tasty. I would suggest not adding too much salt or pepper, if any at all, because the broth already has so much flavor in it.

French Apple Cake with Cardamom Creme Anglaise

Caramel Pot de Crème

with Coffee Whipped Cream

First attempt at Daal

So chocolate chip cookies, pisto manchego, banana bread, cornbread, black bean chili, and many more later I remembered I had a food blog! So without further ado:

Procrastibaking

I'm really not that much of a cook, but I've always loved baking. There's something so pleasingly mathematical and precise and safe about it. A couple of teaspoons of this, a couple of cups of that, and voila, you will have yourself some completely respectable muffins/cookies/whatever. Also, I love nearly any recipe that involves the oven. It makes anything delicious. Garlic? Check. Tomatoes? Wouldn't eat them any other way. Hummus slathered on a piece of flatbread with some veggies thrown on top? Done, done, and done. The only things you can really do wrong when it comes to the oven are: not greasing your pan, keeping stuff in there too long, or you know, forgetting to wear oven mitts. (Sometimes you have a pan of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies gazing up at you all oozy and decadent and you just don't have time to go looking for things like oven mitts.)

Anyway, now that I've left cool, idyllic California for the humid, icky, seriously-why-can't-I-ever-have-a-good-hair-day-here East Coast I've found the oven has a major drawback: in a non-air conditioned apartment in New Haven in August, it has an unfortunate tendency to bear-hug the entire place in its overwarm, cuddly-bordering-on-needy embrace.

Unfortunately for my apartment and sanity, I tend to turn to baking most often when there are thing(s) I'd rather not be doing. Like confronting a mini-quarterlife crisis. Prepping for a week's worth of interviews at school. Et cetera. Procrastinating + baking = procrastibaking.

So I procrastibaked all weekend long. I had such an urge to procrastibake that I started making these blackberry orange muffins, which sounded like summer in a pan. I'd gotten all the way to zesting my orange and folding the blackberries into some flour when I realized I was totally out of eggs. Not only was I out of them, but I knew I was out of them--I'd picked up a dozen at Gourmet Heaven (which really should be renamed Usurious Passably-Stocked "We Sell Pop-Tarts and Thus Cannot Refer to Ourselves as Gourmet" Market) and then, deterred by the $7 price tag, put them back down. And then left. And yet here I was, midway through a recipe that called for two eggs.

Back in the day, my optimism might have led me to mix all the ingredients anyway, stick it in the oven, and "see what happened." This kind of thinking was smashed out out of me right good after I made white chocolate cookies that resembled nothing so much as a semi-solid, thick stew. Never again.

Google revealed as the solution (among other things, including vinegar, Egg Beaters, flaxseed oil, and "Go back to the store and just buy a carton of damn eggs") a whole mashed banana. Both eggs and bananas have a really bizarre, sticky, slick, difficult-to-replicate texture. It seemed to make sense. And sure enough, the banana mash and a little almond milk (I decided I'd go whole cow on the vegan thing since I'd already started--pun so intended) held the dry mix together.

Twenty minutes later (the batter was a lot thicker because of the lack of egg, so I didn't bake the muffins for quite as long):

Blue(berry) banana orange blackberry muffins. They say four fruits a day...

These guys were not bad given the last minute improvisations (and my accidental impaling of a few blueberries and blackberries in the mixing process, which led to a Smurf-blue batter). The banana flavor was subtle and the crumb a little denser, but aside from that...really not bad. I sprinkled some raw sugar on top of each, which gave the muffins a tasty little crunch.

I thought this and some five-ingredient peanut butter cookies (so easy: flour, peanut butter, agave nectar/honey/maple syrup, vanilla, baking powder) (unfortunately no pic available as they were eaten too quickly) would kick the procrastibaking right out of me.

But no. The next day, interviews still looming, I was seized with a sudden urge to make...naan?

That's right. Naan. I actually had a little packet of yeast, nestled among my baking tools, from my last procrastibaking spree. And I had flour. And sugar. And salt. And that's all you actually need to make a pretty delicious little piece of naan.

Little naan breads all ready to be baked...how cute are they?!

I was terrified to make these b ut they weren't bad at all, and the recipe I used was incredibly easy to follow. I do think I left them in the oven too long--they had more of a crunchy, bready texture than the soft pull of naan I'm used to--but that was easily rectified with a damp paper towel swaddling and a zap in the microwave.

I served them with a super-simple daal featuring random spices (curry powder, cumin, chili powder, something else red, tons of garlic, and salt) and a pack of red lentils.

And then I sat down to write this blog.

Wonder what my next feat of procrastination will be...

Cheese (and mac)

Don't be fooled by this unfortunate mug shot, taken as quickly as I could before ripping off my oven mitts and into this dish. This buttery, crunchy, creamy, decadent mac and cheese was just...transcendent. And would you expect anything less from a Martha Stewart recipe?

It all started with me and the cheese section at Whole Foods (perhaps that will be the title of a future memoir). I noticed a few blocks of cheddar nestled alongside one another. Who knew there were so many types of cheddar? And fontina? And gruyere? On sale? Before I knew it, it was 11pm, I had bits of Cabot extra-sharp clinging to my hair, cheese-grating-induced finger cramps, and an enormous mound of grated cheese on my countertop.

The thing about mac and cheese is that it's hard to screw up, unless you pansy out and decide to go puritan: "Do I really need to put four pounds of cheese in this?" "Maybe I can use olive oil instead of butter to toast the breadcrumbs." Friends, no. This is a balls-to-the-wall mac and cheese. So unwrap that stick of butter, and then unwrap another. (And then maybe hit that spinning class tomorrow morning.)

The only real tricky part of the mac and cheese is making the white bechamel sauce (flour + butter + teensy bit of milk) which you have to stir and stir and stir until smooth and silky. Why, you ask? Bechamel sauce is the base for the creamy, cheesy sauce that will eventually cling to your tiny macaronis and sing to your heart. It's what unites the mac and the cheese, marrying them in the most perfect union.

Once you've made your bechamel, next comes the fun part: melting down all that cheese you grated.

Aww, yeah. It looks pretty innocuous, but that right there is four pounds of cheese melted down. No regrets here, baby.

The mac part of the mac and cheese is almost an afterthought--toss those little guys into this sauce, stir, throw into a (buttered!!) pan, and coat with (buttered!) breadcrumbs. Bake until golden--the color of sunshine and angels' halos.

When I was in France, my host mother would often serve ridiculous cheesy dishes like this one with a tiny salad (sometimes even just ripping the leaves off of a head of iceberg lettuce and tossing with olive oil and balsamic vinegar). I liked to think of those little salads as legitimizing whatever quiche or cheese souffle or potato gratin we were digging into. So serve this with a green salad (mine featured toasted pecans, beets, baby mixed greens, and goat cheese).

Then, if you're me, you'll have to roll right into bed. And bring the leftovers to work the next day.

Kimbap

Staple Korean snack.

Late Night Regrets

Whataburger, you get me everytime given you're just about the only 24hr service in suburbia.

4th meal - whatachicken with fries and water

UPDATE: The bread was toasted too long and the fries a little too salty.

Beer Bread

Not to gloat, but it was almost as good as mustang bread.

(Confidential to Alex: Can you come photograph my food? My pics are just not cutting it.)

Fresh Corn Salad with Basil

Fresh corn, basil and tomatoes from the farmers market + red onion, lime, and olive oil. Served with a dollop of yogurt.

This is not NY pizza, but...

...it's still one helluva good pizza.

Lunch today - Mama's Pizza 13" classic cheeze pizza

This is my new favorite pizza joint. My first taste of Mama's Pizza was during a Burleson shift. It was midnight, I had not eaten anything since before 6pm, and I was ready to have my way with the pizza in the break room. One word - nomilicious.

Does it make me a glutton if I had satieted my hunger but was still thinking about the pizza on the drive home, the next day, and craving it ever since?! Possibly...

I really hoped that Burleson was not the only location I could get my hands on this delicious 1" thick mama's special cheese pizza. Thank the person upstairs, there are many locations in the D/FW area. So I moseyed on down to the Arlington location.

(don't mind the grease >.<)

The pizza was just as delicious as I remembered it. I argue this is better than the Margherita at Campania's West Village and either the White Special or White Pizza at Coal Vines Uptown. Pizza off anyone?

Sometimes...

...you just can't get inspired. You've spent all night making tomorrow's celebratory mac and cheese feast, grated about a billion carrots for a homemade carrot cake, toasted pecans for a beet-and-greens-and-goat cheese salad...but you can't think of anything to make for yourself.

So you forage in the freezer for something edible. Trader Joe's frozen Indian food? Check.

More importantly, you find this baby in the fridge.

I know. Watermelon beer? Sounds like an ill-conceived analogue to pink Andre. But it's actually the perfect summer beer, and after a night spent making bechamel sauce and running back and forth from the grocery store for forgotten ingredients, it, some palak paneer, and a full Hulu queue are the perfect way to unwind.

Cake Ballz

Apparently the cake ball is the new cupcake.

"What is a cake ball?" I asked a friend this question a couple of months ago after she suggested getting an after-lunch dessert. She just about had a headsplosion. She then took me to Creme de la Cookie for a quick introduction. I had a headsplosion. This little treat was UH-mazing! It looked pretty simple in its design, so I decided to try my hand at it.

I surveyed home-made recipes online and this is what I put together:

I baked a 13x9 yellow buttercream cake via cake box instructions. Let the cake cool for 30 minutes, then crumbled the cake into a large bowl. I then added about 10oz of buttercream icing to the cake and mixed until I had a play-doh like consistency. I didn't have a 25mm ice cream scoop on hand, so I used a coffee scoop to scoop out balls. I leveled each coffee scoop and 2 leveled scoops made 1 ball about 1.5in in diameter. Chilled the balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

I then coated them in chocolate ganache [semi-sweet chocolate chips melted with heavy cream over a double boiler] and chilled them in a closed contained for another 2 hours.

For the stringy design on top, I tempered chocolate in the microwave, dipped a chopstick in the chocolate and waved it back and forth quickly over the balls. I chilled the balls one last time for 30 minutes.

Here's what a dissected finished cake ball looks like:

A couple of things I would have done differently:

The recipes called for simply melted chocolate to coat the balls. I wanted a shiny coating, hence the ganache, but I should have anticipated it being too soft. Ganache doesn't harden, so I used a fork to eat the ball to avoid a melty mess.

I would also opt to submerge the ball completely in the chocolate coating rather than using a toothpick to dip. The coating made the ball so heavy that it slipped off the toothpick anyway.

Voila, the cake ball.

The Sandwich Method (TM)

I know what you're thinking. "That's a sandwich. What is this, amateur hour? Come on, people are making zucchini cutlets around here."

Friends, I post today because I care. Because I love. And because I am the recent beneficiary of a special secret we'll refer to as the Sandwich Method (TM). (That's right. It's trademarked.)

The Sandwich Method was imparted to me by someone very special, who--despite thinking that avocados and marinara sauce go together--makes the meanest grilled cheese north of the Mason-Dixon line.

It goes something like this. You are stressed out because of all the veggies in your fridge. (#firstworldproblems). Why did you think you'd eat salad every day for a week? And alfalfa sprouts? Really? Those things have a shelf life of about ten minutes.

Enter The Sandwich. This baby is a vehicle for any veggie wilting judgmentally in your fridge as you reach past it for the leftover coffee cake. All you really, really need are:

(1) Two slices of good bread.

I should note here that I am very partial to something Whole Foods sells called Early Bird Multi-Seed Bread. I'm definitely the sucker who falls for anything including the words "multi" or "whole" before the word "grain." Multi-seed seemed like an improvement on the usual, and boy, is it delicious. It's hearty and crunchy and toasts up beautifully. (I recently perused the calorie count and realized exactly why I find it so delicious. But!--this has not stopped me.)

(2) A slice and a half of cheese.

There's just something about that extra half. Provolone, cheddar, havarti, muenster...it's all legit.

(3) Hummus.

You guys, hummus is, in the words of a friend, "super-croosh" here. It's NOT optional. The hummus and cheese operate in the kind of synergy management consultants aspire to. You want lots of it, and you want it on both pieces of bread.

(4) Aforementioned veggies

Think in threes: spinach, shredded carrots, thinly-sliced red onions; kale, tomatoes, sprouts; avocado, avocado, avocado (I love avocados).

Now: the Method.

The key is getting your skillet warm, but not hot. It's got to be just right. Coat that puppy with olive oil spray (no judgment here--I love olive oil spray. Dare I say it's the best thing since sliced bread?). Next--and this is key--place the bottom slice of bread (loaded up with hummus, the cheese, and the veggies, in that order) on the pan. Let it sit. Let it think. Let it reflect on what it was, and what it will become. But don't put the top slice on just yet. You want the heat to radiate upward, a slow burn, as it were. (Minus the burning.) You let the bottom and middle of your sandwich hang out on the pan until the cheese stops being square and starts melting--reluctantly at first--then clinging to the crust of the bread. Then you slap the top slice of bread (spread with hummus) on top, spray it up nice and good with the olive oil spray, flip the whole thing on its head, and cook until both sides are equally brown (or if you're me, practically black and crunchy).

I don't know what it is about making sandwiches like this, but I've found it really elevates what would otherwise be a soulless, personality-devoid cheese and hummus and reject-produce sandwich into a sexy grilled (veggie and) cheese.

Ben & Jerry's

Cure for the Monday night blues, 'nuff said.

Black Bean and Zucchini Cutlets

I've never made my own vegetarian burgers before. As a former meat eater, veggie burgers seemed like something outside the realm of home-cooking. Reproducing something similar in texture and flavor to real meat seemed to belong more to a lab than to a kitchen. As time has gone by, however, recreating meat exactly has become less of a priority. And once again, necessity led me to try something new as I scrounged my cabinets for dinner tonight.
These are vegan. They wouldn't have been, but I used the last of my eggs in the Apple-Rum Cake. The main ingredient here is canned black beans. The recipe called for dry rolled oats and an egg, but instead I cooked some steal cut oats, which acted as a binder along with some bread crumbs, in place of the egg. The remainder of the burger mixture was just chopped onion, shredded zucchini, and spices.Instead of serving these up as patties on a bun, I formed the mixture into cutlets, pan-fried them, and served them with angel hair pasta. But there was far too much for a single meal, so I formed the remainder into patties and froze them. The resulting patties were surprisingly meaty, the steel cut oats giving them a pleasant chew and the pan-frying lending a nice crunch to the outside. Overall, the homemade veggie burger is a party that I'm glad I came to late, rather than not at all.

Apple-Rum Cake

Self-proclaimed sweet tooth of the group, I often find myself craving an after dinner treat. Or as it happened today, after lunch. And as a poor grad student, I don't often have the opportunity to go out and buy 70% Belgian chocolate or a quart of fresh raspberries for some decadent creation. I, therefore, will find myself searching my brain, recipe books and cupboards to find the recipe and ingredients that will satisfy my fondness for dessert with whatever is on hand (otherwise know as "now"). This is one of those creations. Apple-Rum Cake.


A slight modification of the original recipe means that this cake was make solely with pantry staples (including the grad student staple, rum). Even my realization that I was out of both milk and vanilla did not stop me from having my just desserts.

Lupe Tortilla Plus Salad

I should probably start by mentioning that as a rule I’m not really partial to Mexican food, and usually only have it when other people invite me. So it was this time as well, with the added bonus that the restaurant they picked had only one vegetarian main course that I could find. But, then again, a fifty-five minute wait on a Friday night hopefully bodes of good things to come, and since that wait started at 8 pm, I may or may not have been ravenous by the time the chips, salsa, and queso were brought out. Considering my hunger, I’ll just skip to (my) main dish, called “Ensalada Verde.” Ok, so having a salad at a Mexican restaurant may be blasphemy, but ignoring that fact, it was a rather marvelous salad: green leaf lettuce and pico de gallo, tossed with roasted pablano pepper (had to look that one up, I’ll admit), and Monterrey Jack cheese, plus what must have been two whole avocados. Oh, and of course, the most important ingredient, jalapeno lime vinaigrette dressing, which was possibly the best salad dressing I’ve ever tasted: ever-so-slightly spicy, a little sour, and very smooth. Vegetarian-approved, for sure.

I would be remiss not to mention what the omnivores at the table had, which was basically a giant platter of sizzling fajita meat containing beef, chicken, and shrimp, with giant flour and corn tortillas. Protein galore!

In any case, Lupe Tortilla is known for its fajitas, and according to my non-scientific poll of the three other people at the table, it gets an A+. Or five stars. Or a dozen cows. Whatever.

Welcome, foodies.

The idea for this blog originated after we spent an idle afternoon going into transports discussing (over Gchat, no less) homemade bread recipes and cake balls. On a post-college graduation California roadtrip last summer, probably the most frequently asked question the four of us posed to each other was..."Where/when/what are we eating??!?!" (All right, that's three questions.) From brothy Thai soups to fragrant California cheeses to sumptuous desserts involving lots of chocolate and very little flour, "Oh, the Things We Ate" could very well have been the title of our West Coast vacation.

All this is to say is that we are four friends, and we love food. Three of us are vegetarians, but that doesn't stop us. One of us makes a mean Bailey's cupcake and has secret dreams of being the next Barefoot Contessa. One of us is known to use the phrase, "I whipped up this pumpkin tart this afternoon" completely unironically. One of us is such a good photographer he can make Spaghetti O's look like a Roman delicacy. And one of us has (unofficially) been crowned the victor of a three-way mac 'n' cheese cook-off (granted, one of the options was vegan, which sort of made the whole thing a cakewalk) using a recipe that would make Paula Deen blush.

We love food so much that we have decided to dedicate this blog to the delicious things we eat. And we hope you enjoy browsing as much as we enjoy chowing.