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January 12, 2013

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Split pea soup, my new favorite

 

Yellow split pea soup, ready to be eaten.

Yellow split pea soup, ready to be eaten.

 

This fall I realized that I love split pea soup, whether from a can of Amy’s or from the cafe in Whole Foods. Christmas leftovers gave me just what I needed to try making it at home. After reviewing a few recipes, I decided on this Cooking Light recipe. I used yellow split peas instead of green, leftover ham from our Whole Foods spiral sliced him, added some green onions because I had them, and omitted the lemon juice. I think this soup could easily be made without ham. The only item I had to get at the store was the split peas. A delicious way to use up leftovers.

First step - simmer water, broth, ham, split peas and onion for an hour

First step – simmer water, broth, ham, split peas and onion for an hour.

After an hour, adding the carrots and celery and then simmering for another 40 minutes.

After an hour, adding the carrots and celery and then simmering for another 40 minutes.

Completed soup.

Completed soup.

 

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September 16, 2012

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Food & Drink

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Roasted vegetable and cabbage salad

We’ve been eating salad often the last few weeks. Mainly because we go out during the week and eat way too much and have to make up for it by having salad for dinner during the week. This week we decided to do grilled vegetables on top of a bed of roasted cabbage. I used sweet vegetables so that we could toss the salad with either a balsamic vinegar or some chipotle infused olive oil.

Ingredients:

  • Sweet potato
  • Sweet yellow onion
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Poblano pepper
  • Cabbage
  • Thyme
  • Rosemary
  • Olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper

Steps:

Chop all vegetables. The sweet potatoes and the carrots take the longest to cook, so keep the slices thin. I like to slice the poblano thin. The cabbage should be sliced into thin ribbons. Toss the vegetables with a bit of olive oil and your spices. I used thyme and chopped rosemary from our garden, sea salt, and cracked black pepper.

Chopped vegetables

Oil a grill pan and cook the vegetable mixture over a low heat. This probably takes 20 – 30 minutes.

Grill pan

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the cabbage. Toss the thinly sliced cabbage with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I usually just spread it out on a foil lined baking pan and use my oil sprayer to give the cabbage a light coat of oil.

Cabbage ready to be roasted

Roast the cabbage at 400 degrees. Stir it when the cabbage around the edges of the pan starts to brown. You want the cabbage to be uniformly cooked throughout. The total cooking time is about 15 minutes.

Cooked vegetables

Cooked cabbage

Serve the vegetables over a bed of cabbage. Each person can season their vegetables as desired. We tossed our vegetables with balsamic vinegars and olive oils on different nights:  red apple balsamic, chipotle olive oil, and fig balsamic. The red apple balsamic and chipotle olive oil were both from Con Olio Oils and Vinegars here in Austin. The fig balsamic I made myself earlier this year.

Bounty from Con Olio

If you don’t top your dish with cheese like my husband does, then this makes a nice vegan dinner.
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August 1, 2012

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baking, Food & Drink

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A fig roundup #2: Baked goods

It’s time for another fig roundup! Unfortunately it appears that our trees are done with figs for the season. The fruit flies have thoroughly infested them. Before the flies were everywhere we ate figs in a number of different ways.

One of the first ways we at them was broiled with goat cheese and a variety of different toppings. Crushed pistachios, honey, fig balsamic, prosciutto… it’s all good.  Fresh figs are also tasty added to salad and eaten with a balsamic style dressing.

I also made fig compote, fig balsamic reduction, and fig infused vokda in addition to freezing a batch of figs. I haven’t used the frozen figs yet.

Figs make a great addition to baked goods.

Fig muffins

To make the muffins, I started with a basic breakfast muffin recipe and changed it quite a bit.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups chopped figs

Instructions:

Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Mix in chopped figs. Combine egg, milk, oil, brown sugar and honey and beat well. Add to dry ingredients, mixing until just moistened. Spoon into greased muffin pan, filling 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Next time I might use more brown sugar or all brown sugar and no honey to make them just a tad bit sweeter. Regardless, the muffins were very good. Because we weren’t able to eat them all right away, I froze a few and have been eating them for breakfast on the weekends.

Dry muffin ingredients

Wet muffin ingredients

Fig chunks mixed with dry ingredients

Batter ready to go

Prior to baking

After baking

Delicious fig chunks on the inside

 

Fig cake

Never content to use a recipe just as it’s called for, I modified this fig cake recipe to my liking.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups mashed figs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • Additional fig slices for topping

Instructions:

Mix together sugar and wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients, mixing well. Oil and flour a cake pan (I used two 9″ round pans). Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. With about 15 minutes left, remove cakes and add fig slices to top. The cake will be golden brown on the top when finished. Check with toothpicks to see if the center is finished.

Mashed figs

Cake batter

In the pan

Delicious fig cake, after adding the fig slices, before the baking is finished. Somehow didn’t end up with a picture of the finished product.

 

 

 

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July 15, 2012

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Food & Drink, infusion

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A fig roundup

Well, our giant fig tree has hit a second round of ripening figs so in addition to giving them away, I’ve been making a wide variety of yummy fig recipes. Here’s a roundup of the non-baked goods I’ve recently created.

Fig Infused Vodka

For this, I peeled and chopped figs, added them to a mason jar along with a split vanilla bean, and covered them with Tito’s Vodka. I let the mixture marinate in the fridge for two weeks before straining out the figs. We tried one drink recipe with the vodka but it wasn’t super good. Anyone have good fig drink recipes? Please let me know in the comments!

Peeled and chopped fig

Figs and a vanilla bean infusing in Tito’s Vodka

Straining the figs after two weeks

The final product – fig vodka!

Fig Balsamic Reduction

A friend at work taught me this trick. Take ripe (or almost overripe) figs, chop them up and soak them in balsamic vinegar overnight. The next day, simmer the mixture until it has reduced somewhat. The balsamic should coat a spoon dipped into the mixture. Strain the figs and enjoy in any food that you might use balsamic. So far, I’ve found it’s tasty to drizzle fig balsamic on broiled figs with cheese or onto a fig, cheese, and onion sandwich. Yum!

Figs soaking in balsamic

After reducing the figs and balsamic

The final product! I’ve already made a second batch to refill my bottle.

Fig Compote

I got the idea for fig compote from this roundup of 10 quick fig recipes.  Here’s what I used:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar (next time, I would only use 1/4 cup sugar)
  • Cinnamon stick
  • Vanilla extract (my homemade kind)
  • Smattering of whole cloves
  • Sprinkle of ground ginger
  • Lots of figs. If the skin was green, I cut it off. If red, I left it on because it was softer. As the mixture cooked, I had to add more figs to get the compote to thicken to a reasonable consistency.

I combined all of these ingredients and simmered for a long time. After I felt it was finished, I refrigerated half of the mixture and froze the other half. It would be good as a pancake topping or with bread / bagel and cream cheese. It is very sweet, so next time I will reduce the sugar.

Sugar and spice and everything nice

Cooking figs

Cooked and ready to eat fig compote!

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July 10, 2012

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baking, Cycling, Food & Drink

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Fueling those long rides

One thing that’s a bit different about my training rides for Bike MS this year is that my stomach is very finicky. I suspect this may have to do with the increased heat and less sleep I’ve been dealing with during this training season. The less sleep part has to do with trying to get out super early to avoid as much of the extreme heat as I can.  During the long rides where I have no choice but to eat during the ride, I find that my stomach tries to tell me that it doesn’t really want to eat. Of course, If I were to ride 50 or more miles without consuming any calories you’d find me passed out on the side of the road somewhere.

From years past, I know that I can’t consume gatorade or any other run of the mill “sports drink”. My stomach immediately turns when I try to drink these things. Just drinking water can get a bit old though. Lately I’ve found that both PureSport and Nuun hydration tabs aren’t too bad. The flavors are a bit lacking in my opinion (and PureSport is hard to find). At some point last year I read a post from someone that whipped up their own all natural sports beverage so lately I’ve been doing this as well. Plus, I’m able to use black tea and rumors have it that caffeine can be beneficial for athletes.

My “au natural” sports drink recipe:

Fill a bike water bottle with the following:

  • 1/3 Brewed black tea, chilled (I prefer to use Earl Grey)
  • 1/3 Lemonade (I’ve been using Santa Cruz Organic Peach Lemonade)
  • 1/3 Water
  • A dollop of honey (We prefer Round Rock Honey, made locally)

Shake vigorously. I like to freeze the mixture overnight and enjoy it in a slushy state during my ride the next morning.

While it’s good that I’m consuming calories through my sports drink, it’s also necessary to eat. Previously, I would usually eat my favorite Clif Bar during a ride (the peanut butter pretzel mojo bar) and maybe some honey stinger energy chews, both organic / natural products. I still eat these but decided to try eating even simpler foods during my ride to help out my stomach. I’ve lately been packing a back of pretzels along with some granola bars I made myself. To make the granola bars, I mixed and matched two recipes, one from gettin’ fresh and another from Kitchen Konfidence.

I made two flavors, raisin and cranberry pistachio.

Very simple chewy granola bars::

  • 2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 3/4 cups honey
  • 1 -1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Cinnamon and ginger to taste (or your other favorite spices)
  • Chopped raisins or cranberries
  • Chopped nuts (Optional – I used pistachios with the cranberry flavor)
  • A dash of salt

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Bring the honey and vanilla to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add to dry ingredients to combine.

Form the mixture into logs and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Careful not to over bake, you don’t want the bottom to be overcooked (trust me).

The flavor is rather mellow, which is good when I’m on my bike and dealing with a picky stomach. I’ve been storing these bars in the freezer and just remove one or two the night before my ride. They go down easy and seem to be a decent fuel for my long rides.

Yum, raisins

Oats and spices

Ready to bake

Bake and ready to eat

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June 17, 2012

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Food & Drink

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Making egg salad

I have plans. Plans to have chickens. Some day. So right now I like to practice eating eggs in preparation. I want backyard chickens for the beautiful eggs they produce. Last week I made a tasty egg salad for dinner.

After hard boiling 5 eggs, I assembled thyme from my garden and fresh dill from the store.

Pretty brown cage free eggs

After shelling the eggs, I added some fresh cracked pepper, a sprinkling of salt, and the herbs.

Next, I used a fork to mash up the eggs with whole grain mustard and light mayonnaise. I also find that plain yogurt can be used for part of the mayonnaise if you want to cut fat or calories. I use mustard, mayo, and herbs to taste.

I like my egg salad on the chunky side so I stop mashing before it’s smooth.

We ate the egg salad with some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes.

To plate our dinner, I chopped romaine lettuce and topped it with heirloom tomato slices and chopped red onion and placed a scoop of egg salad on top. Delicious!

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June 11, 2012

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Who knew we had fig trees?!

Our new house came with a happy surprise. Three fig trees in the backyard! If you’ve never had the pleasure of eating a fresh fig, I highly recommend it, they are delicious. One of the fig trees is huge (for a fig tree at least).

That’s one giant fig tree.

 

Our giant fig tree has special powers. It makes giant figs! Most figs are small, maybe the size of a small lemon or so. This tree produced figs that were bigger than some of the largest apples I’ve ever purchased! Not all the figs get that big, but some of them do. Even its average size figs are large compared to other figs we’ve seen.

One ripe and some unripe figs on the branches.

 

When I went looking for ways to eat our figs, other than just eating them straight, many recipes were a variation of placing cheese on the sliced figs, broiling it, and then topping with something else. So combining a multitude of recipes we ended up eating our figs two ways:

  1. Broiled with goat cheese and then sprinkled with pistachio pieces and a drizzle of honey.
  2. Broiled with gorgonzola on top.

Both were quite good. You got more of the fig flavor with the goat cheese but more of a savory bite with gorgonzola.

Figs, ready for the eating!

 

Sliced figs on a foil lined pan

Topped with goat cheese prior to broiling

Figs topped with goat cheese and gorgonzola, ready to be eaten

 

Prepare yourself for more fig posts, those trees are loaded! Seems like they ripen in waves though so it might be awhile before our next fig culinary experience.

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June 7, 2012

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desserts, Food & Drink

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Leftover bananas + leftover Easter chocolate = delicious

I have a love of bananas. I buy more of them than I can eat and once they are too ripe or almost too ripe I’m faced with what to do with my leftover bananas.

Over the years I’ve come up with strategies for dealing with my banana problem.

  1. Feed them to our dog Molly. She LOVES banana slices. We usually mix it with her dinner but sometimes I just give her extra because I can and she’ll eat it.
  2. Freeze them. I use frozen bananas to make the most wonderful banana bread you’ve ever eaten.
  3. Compost them. To be honest this rarely happens with the first two options around.

Now I have a new strategy to add to my list: chocolate covered frozen banana pops! After realizing I was never going to eat a white chocolate rabbit in the pantry, I decided to put it to good use.

My first step was to slice bananas into about 1.5″ slices and stab them with a small wooden stick. I had left over coffee stirrers from a Starbucks coffee package that worked perfectly. You can also use wooden skewers that you cut into smaller pieces. I put the bananas on parchment paper on a plate and put them in the freezer. A few hours later they were frozen solid.

Next I chopped the chocolate up:

I microwaved the chocolate on 50% power for short intervals (30 / 15 seconds) and stirred it until all the lumps were gone.

I got out the bananas and dipped / rubbed them in the chocolate. I put the bananas back on the parchment paper and into the freezer. Not long after, it was time for me to share the banana pops with my friends!

Very delicious. Not quite as fancy as the delectable chocolate covered frozen bananas made by the food truck Bananarchy, but these are a smaller serving and I don’t have to drive to downtown Austin. Maybe next time I’ll try adding toppings like Bananarchy does. Yum!

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June 4, 2012

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Making natural dog chews

Every dog needs chews. I like to give them to Molly as a treat or to keep her busy and out of my way. She follows me around like she’s my shadow after all.

At some point in a fancy pet store I came across sweet potato chews and bought them. Molly loves them. I love them, except for the price. Enter my food dehydrator, purchased specifically to make Molly sweet potato chews (spoiled, I know). I finally got around to trying this out.

First, I washed the potatoes. Leaving the skin on except for the green parts and eyes, I tried to slice them about 1/2″ thick. They were very hard to slice so usually one side was thicker than the other.

After slicing 4 potatoes, I arranged the slices in the food dehydrator so that they didn’t touch.

I then dried them in the food dehydrator for about 14 hours. Next time, I think I’ll get a Mandoline slicer to make them uniform thickness.

Molly certainly approved.

     

 What’s your dog’s favorite natural treat? Molly also loves bananas and apples. She must have a sweet tooth.

 

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March 14, 2012

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It’s my birthday, I’ll make 4 cakes if I want to

Ok, it was my birthday last month. And then 7 days later, it was my husband’s birthday. To celebrate, we threw a party so that I could bake a cake (or four).

My selections for the evening:

Changes to the recipes:

This year I made the chocolate stout cake with a spiced porter instead of stout. It was in the kegerator after all. I always use store bought chocolate frosting on this cake.

Chai spice cupcakes were delicious and well worth the effort. I made a simple powdered sugar / milk glaze and reused the chai tea bags in the milk to give the glaze a bit of flavor.

This time, I made my honey apple oatmeal cake with store bought applesauce. It’s way better when you make your own applesauce. Or maybe I over cooked it. It was just a bit less moist than usual.

When I had the cinnamon coffee cake made by a friend, it was amazing and I couldn’t stop eating it. Got the recipe and of course didn’t get the same results my first try. The instructions talk about using firm butter in the topping, but really I think you are supposed to melt the butter first. I will have to try again.

Cake display

Chocolate spiced porter cake

A chai spice longhorn cupcake

Honey apple oatmeal cake

 

 

Cinnamon coffee cake... the cinnamon topping is supposed to sink into the cake.

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