Friday, May 25, 2012

(665) asian omelette for one

Asian Omelette (serves one hungry, too busy and slightly broke girl)
-4 free-range, farm-raised eggs
-gluten-free soy sauce
-3-4 green onions, light green and white parts chopped (save dark green for garnish!)
-earth balance vegan butter
-salt & pepper
optional add ins: cooked broccoli chunks, bite sized pieces of bell pepper, toasted sesame seeds for garnish, toasted sesame oil for light drizzling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Break eggs into a bowl. Break the yolks up but don't beat the eggs. Stir in green onions and any other vegetables to be used. Stir in salt and pepper. Drop butter in a skillet over highish heat until butter has coated the bottom of the pan and is bubbling/sizzling nicely.


-Pour in the eggs and watch carefully. Try not to leave the stove to eat cooked polenta that you have resting on the counter (which I certainly didn't do). Wait until the eggs look like the edges are cooked, then with your left hand, grab the handle and tilt the pan slightly towards you. Push the eggs up with a spatula, moving the eggs up and away from you, and letting the uncooked eggs slide down. 


-Put the pan back on the heat for 30 seconds or so, until the eggs cook some more but be careful not to burn them. Once everything is almost done. Fold the omelette over in half and turn off the heat. To ensure even cooking, and to get a few lovely brown marks, I pressed down on mine with a spatula so I didn't get any raw egg. After it seems firm and cooked, remove to a plate. Drizzle with soy sauce while still hot and any other oil/sesame seeds if desired. 


-Eat with buttery, salty polenta grits, perhaps even with bacon (mango-glazed bacon, if I was in my own world), or a big green kale salad. Just go eat it and be happy you didn't spend half of your check on it. Also lovely with a cold beer

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

(663) too little time

if it isn't already obvious, I have been quite busy and a little under stress lately. I am having a bit of a problem with managing my time properly between three extremely challenging, fast-paced, and work-loaded courses. I'm just thankful that I only go to class four days out of the week. I am just always tired for whatever reason. I try to drink black tea, take naps, even go to bed early but it doesn't help much. I'm sure it will get better soon! I also will be trying to exercise again soon.
organic refried black bean tostadas with homemade pico de gaillo on sprouted corn tortillas (Cookie + Kate)

caramelized onion soup with fresh thyme and vegan jack cheese toasts (Tamar Adler via Everyday Food)

curried spinach and tofu (instead of paneer) over jasmine rice (Martha Stewart)

gnocchi/new favorite sorbet/organic local zebra tomato

Bubo 2010 Zinfandel

Bohemian Highway 2009 Merlot

Big House Red/Tracker's Crossing Shiraz/Bubo Cabernet Sauvignon

baked strawberry oatmeal (A Cozy Kitchen)

 I found out that I don't like gnocchi. sweet potato gnocchi with a lemon-thyme butter sauce

vegan chocolate sorbet

I also found out that I don't like dandelion greens because they are far too bitter. chickpeas with dandelion greens (Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday)

Rigby makes everything better

Monday, May 14, 2012

(644) momma manatee

Mother's Day weekend was quite successful. I bought these flowers (below) from work and they are beautiful. I really love the Mason Jar as a vase (which I will totally do when I get my own place!). My mom really loved them. I made her cupcakes and my sister made French macarons. She does so much for our whole family. Thank you mom, we love you.


Red devil's food cupcakes with sour cream chocolate frosting. These are by far the most moist, chocolaty cupcakes I've ever made, I was so surprised! My mom claims they are my best yet. I adapted them from my go-to cupcake source: Ming! I've already made 6 of her cupcakes and I have many more to go!

I let my mom choose the sprinkles. Can't beat simplicity.

I have to admit, I am a little jealous that my sister defeated French macarons before me, but I am also super proud of her. What an interesting flavor to choose for a first time around too: saffron and cardamom. You wouldn't believe how delicious they are. I usually don't like a lot of saffron so these were perfect! She made them a little smaller but they were awesome! She filled them with a cardamom buttercream.

She also made this packaging for our mom! Note my recipe notebook!

Delicate and delicious. Took me right back to NYC

I have to say, I am really growing fond of homemade pizza. I still haven't made homemade GF pizza dough but the Udi's pizza crusts work really well. I'm sure that when I move out it'll be much easier to make pizza dough. This has been one of my favorite pizzas so far: kale red onion and pistachio pizza. This pizza hits all of my taste buds on a high note; the salty, almost bacon-like flavor of roasted/salted pistachios, the sweet red onion, the chewy green kale, hot thinly sliced garlic, and delicious-coma-inducing melted vegan jack cheese. I ate the whole thing in one sitting, and I recommend you follow suit.

Friday, May 11, 2012

(641) too busy on a break

so my spring semester of classes are over and I'm proud to say that I finished with all A's for the entire year! I'm sure this will be quite impossible once I transfer to UNCG but I am still pleased with myself. but to elaborate more on this title, I had about a week and some change before summer classes start (next Wednesday) and I have been pretty damn busy for being on a break. I have been reading a lot, which is lovely, drinking lots of tea, watching too many films, cooking here and there, and buying too much from Whole Foods (but never enough, really). I am almost done with "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" by Haruki Murakami, which I've sadly been trying to read since January. I will then start "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King because to me, summer is synonymous with Stephen King and his great horror novels. I am trying to read more and more. I really fell out of reading this semester due to biology taking up so much time and training at work. Really great films I've discovered thus far over my break have been: The Third Man (1949), Cruel Intentions (1999: guilty pleasure #9), Blow-Up (1966: cinematography worthy only), Irreversible (2002), Fish Tank (2009), and Death Becomes Her (1992). Enough prattling on, though, I have recipes to talk about! 

So I finally ventured out and made oven fries. It always seemed like a daunting task to me, or one could only be perfected by some. I used this recipe as my "guide" and made them, and they were great! I really liked them thinly sliced because they got very soft and fluffy inside.

My family celebrated Cinco De Mayo a day late. We adapted these burritos to be gluten free and vegan. They were amazing and I didn't feel bad about eating things like kale, mushrooms, corn, peppers, and squash with brown rice. I used Daiya's pepperjack wedge, which I found to like more than the Daiya shreds. It will also be used on a pizza this weekend!

This week has been a week of me trying new things. I have finally made curry, in the form of coconut red curry noodle soup. This counts for many new things I've never made besides curry: soup, using fresh lemongrass (which is very strange to chop), and it used shirataki noodles, which are made from tofu. I really loved this soup but I found I needed to give it a hefty splash of GF soy sauce. I will use shirataki noodles in more asian-inspired soups from now on, as they are a little thicker but still delicious. Trying new things has been really lovely!

Being a somewhat vegetarian (or as much as possible), sometimes I have to make myself eat things like fish or even the occasional chicken. I am not a HUGE tuna fan, even when it is sustainable caught $1.40 canned tuna, but I still try to eat these things for protein. We probably have about 50 Martha Stewart everyday food magazines lying in our house, where I stumbled upon this tuna + white bean salad.

Two more new things: eating cooked millet and broccolini. I adapated this lovely stir-fry from one of my favorite blogs and used broccolini because I am honestly a little sick of asparagus right now (though I will be eating some later). I think this recipe would easily be adapted to every season and its corresponding vegetables. I topped mine with a little extra soy sauce, sriracha, and a heavy dose of red pepper flakes. As you can see, my mother and I have not mastered the art of cooking millet, and ours turned out a bit mushy. It's still delicious though! I bet short grain brown rice or even quinoa would be a great substitute here as well!


Also, I tag my posts as vegan and vegetarian because there are usually options for both types of eating on my blog. Please do not get offended, like some have, that I do this. I try to make the things I post accessible to everybody. I am quite aware of what constitutes something to be vegan or vegetarian. Just thought I would say this because some apparently think it's not allowed to do so!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

(633) noboru wataya the cat

school is almost over! I take my last exams tomorrow, then I have about two weeks until summer classes start. that means wine, films, reading & baking!

it's been in the 90s this past week or so and it's sweltering to say the very least. I had to bear the heat to make granola from super natural everyday studded with lots of orange zest, coconut, currants and walnuts. now that I've survived the heat of oven + 90 degree weather, I now have a huge ziplock bag of granola to eat with rice milk all week!

I went back to Heidi's other book, which was the first cookbook I ever received, to make this spring minestrone. it's a perfect light soup for spring (even though it's hot!) and tastes even better with fresh lemon juice and pepper. you could also make it asian (edamame + toasted sesame oil) or italian inspired (basil and lemon zest)


this was absolutely delicious, easy, and not a crazy amount of ingredients. the veggie + egg tower of power consists of caramelized red onions, roasted sweet potatoes + cherry tomatoes with wilted spinach and egg on top. how easy could that be? it was so satisfying to eat something so simple (especially when there's wine involved!)

a southern classic made vegan: black-eyed peas, garlicky sauteed russian red kale, and mashed vegan purple fingerling potatoes. I loved how southern it was with out bacon, ham, or even chicken!
just made this vinegary, crunchy lentil salad with a side of hard-boiled egg, buttered toast and delicious red wine from Shelton Homes Vineyard in NC. may have a little too much of the latter but still awesome! cold lentil salads on a hot day = win!