chili
okay friends,
I made our now-famous veggie chili the other day, and we ate it yesterday, and let me just say something:
Thank the Lord for RoTel.
It never occurred to me just how much work is saved by those little cans with their green labels.
It also never occurred to me that chopping and removing the seeds from green chiles would cause my fingers to burn/tingle for many many hours.
AND, finally, it never occurred to me to leave some of the seeds in because RoTel definitely has a little spice and this chili required a lot of spices to make up for that.
But it tasted really really good.
I have some left over, but I'm sick today and probably shouldn't eat that, as much as I want it. boo for throwing up.
I can't wait to get home from Italy and try this olive tapenade. It sounds good. The one I have made before has pine nuts in it, so I'm glad to see this doesn't--cuz we don't have those here. boo for no pine nuts.
I hope y'all are cooking a lot because I need to read about more adventures! And post some pics of you two in the kitchen or eating or something. :-)
Yummy Oliveness
Noell and I went to a great restuarant in Charlottesville after I picked her up at the airport in Richmond on Saturday. There we had, among other muoy tasty things, an olive tapenade with goat cheese on toasted bread. Not surprisingly, Noell said we could make it at home and so on Monday we did!
I get to post this (even though Noell developed the receipe) because it's my new favorite food... well, that and because I did the intensive smushing the olives labor.
Ingredients:
tasty olives - about a cup worth
olive oil
fresh garlic (a couple cloves)
sea salt/kosher salt (a pinch or two)
fresh ground pepper (to taste)
If your olives aren't pitted, take a large knife and smush the olive so you can take the pit out with more ease. You might want to do some smushing of the garlic too while you're at it.
In a blender, or a food processor, or a mortar and pestle, add the garlic, olives, and salt. Blend/process/pestle. Add olive oil a little at a time until mash is the right spreadable consistancy. Add pepper to taste.
Get some toasted bread, goat cheese, and enjoy!
my newest cookie creation
last week i "invented" a new cookie (it's a spinoff of the original choc chip recipe you'll find on your average c chip bag) that tastes like a browine with the texture of a cookie, or something that like, let's call it a brookie! anyways, while making these cookies i got into a huge argument with my mom that basically went like this...
why are you baking cookies?i guess cause i was feeling stressed and the kitchen calms me
do you want to be fat again!?!?!anyways, it went on like that and was frustrating and in general mom fashion rather than talk about anything she stormed off and pretended like the conversation never took place once she returned.
just for clarification, one can eat cookies and manage to not get fat, amazingly enough.
so here's the brookie cookie recipe...
2 sticks of butter
3/4 c sugar
3/4c brown sugar
2 eggs
1tbs real vanilla extract
cream all those ingredients together
then add the following ingredients:
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp b. soda
1/4 c cocoa powder
2.5 c flour
mix well.... then mix in
1/2 bag mini c. chips
1 or 2 cups of pecan pieces
1/2 bag mini m&ms
scoop big spoonfuls onto a tray and cook at 375 for 10 minutes or so or you can put them in a jelly roll or glass brownie dish as bars and cook at 350 for around 20 minutes....
YUMMY!
Eastern Christmas = big dinner
For Eastern Christmas (Jan 7--today!) we had a big dinner party. 12 people, all in our house. We sent Naadia and Martha for the veggies: 10 kilos of potatoes, 1.5 kilos of zucchini, three kilos of tomatoes, and a kilo of onions, plus half a kilo of green bell peppers we already had. (one kilo=2.2 pounds) It was crazy! Jennifer and I LOVE mashed potatoes, which is why we needed so many potatoes. obviously. anyway, we had mashed potatoes, zucchini-stuffed-tomatoes, lentils, garlic bread sticks, and rotisserie chicken...then there was fruit salad and cookie bars and brownies oh my! it was crazy.
Here are some pics from the preparation, and also the recipe for zucchini stuffed tomatoes. They are so good, y'all need to eat them ASAP.
making cookies sans electric mixer....
sauteing the stuffing for the tomatoes.....
mixing more salt and pepper into the mashed potatoes (pot 1)....do you sense a theme here? (please note, we did not use a ricer. Also please note that we cooked all these things using the same ONE wooden spoon in our posession at Dawson Hall. And no we didn't actually stuff all that food in our mouths, sadly.)
the result of all our efforts...
Zucchini-stuffed tomatoes:
4 large tomatoes
Salt and sugar
1 1/2 - 2 pounds zucchini
1 teaspoon salt
3 shallots, sliced (I just use 1 onion, finely chopped)
1-2 green bell peppers, finely chopped
some olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh parsley (I don't have any, so I substitute all kinds of different spices--I usually use garlic, basil, oregano, sometimes cumin, and always Emeril Spice)
some fresh thyme (again with no fresh...I use dried thyme)
1/2 pound grated Gruyere (I use whatever kind of cheese the local market is selling this week....usually white cheddar of some kind. We don't have gruyere in Egypt.)
Preheat the broiler (or, if you're in Egypt, the oven. We don't have broilers.). Cut the tops off the tomatoes. Scoop out the centers leaving the outer thick flesh intact. Sprinkle the interior shells of the tomatoes with a couple pinches of salt and sugar, and invert them on a paper towel lined plate to drain until ready to stuff.
With the grating attachment of a food processor or on the large-holed side of a box grater, grate the zucchini, and place it in a strainer. It will look like a TON of zucchini, but it will cook down and you'll be glad you have this much. Trust me. Toss the zucchini with 1 teaspoon salt and place the strainer over a bowl to catch the juices--or just set it in the sink to let the juices drain away. You don't need them. Allow to drain for 5 to 10 minutes, or until you're done with everything else.
In a large heavy skillet, saute the shallots/onions in 2 tablespoons olive oil, until they begin to caramelize. Meanwhile squeeze the zucchini to release as much water as possible. Add the bell peppers to the pan and continue to saute.
Add the dry (drier?) zucchini to the pan, and saute the zucchini with the shallots/onions and peppers for 5 minutes, or until it actually gets cooked (for me this takes about 10 minutes, actually). The zucchini cooks down substantially AND I usually burn some to the bottom of the pan.
Add chopped parsley and thyme (or whatever spices you want), and then toss the zucchini with the cheese, reserving 1/4 cup of the cheese for topping.
Stuff the tomatoes with the filling, mounding it slightly, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Place in tomato halves in ovenproof baking dish and broil/bake them until the tops are golden. Serve hot.
Good side dishes to try (a couple at a time, not all together!): brown lentils, mashed potatoes, brown rice, salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing (I use the one from the balsamic portobella recipe).
Yum.
what genre of meal do you call this?
Dinner last night with fellow YAVs (but cooked all by myself).
Fried rice with veggies (tasted better than this photo looks...). Note to self: sticky rice needs more than 24 hours to get dry enough to be QUICKLY made into fried rice.
and Deviled Eggs (my first attempt at these...). Jason and Sarah said they were good. I was worried because I thought the filling tasted too much like mayonnaise. Apparently the Emeril Spice (mostly paprika...i didn't have any plain paprika so Emeril it was!) did the trick. :-)
And, I topped the meal off with a glass of no-sugar-added Apple Juice, and had a box of Strawberry Milk for dessert. mmm...
all about food, all the time
i love food. and i love cooking it and sharing it with other people. therefore, this is for sharing about food...cooking, eating, recipes, stories, etc. and especially in my case right now (in Egypt, land of the "what do you mean they don't have _____"), adventures in substitution-on-the-fly. :-)
