Taco Night

We decided that Friday night dinners in home-cooked January should be "fun" food, so this week we made one of our favorites, tacos. We filled the table with lots of yummy taco fillings, including ground meat (real meat!), refried beans, grilled peppers and onions, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole.
There really aren't recipes to share...for the beans, I use canned pintos and mash them in their liquid. Saute 1/2 of a small onion and a clove of garlic in olive oil, then add mashed beans and cook until desired consistency. I've tried to make refried beans (and other dishes) using dried beans, but they just didn't come out that well and it was a whole lot more work. I guess I'm just a canned beans kind of girl. :) I've made guacamole a few times and haven't provided a recipe, so I figured I'd describe even though I don't follow a strict recipe. Basically I just mash a couple of ripe avocados, then add a bit of chopped red onion (a slice or two is enough), a clove of minced garlic, salt, cilantro and juice of half a lime. All can be adjusted to taste.

Take a look at our tasty creations (Al's is the double decker):

Sweet Potato and Carrot Pancakes

I had a couple of sweet potatoes that needed to be used so I made them into vegetable pancakes. I ran 2 sweet potatoes, 2 carrot and half an onion through the food processor with the grater attachment. Then I combined the shredded vegetables with an egg, ~3/4 cups flour, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of melted butter and a splash of milk. I shaped into pancakes and cooked in butter over medium heat until the vegetables were tender and the outside nice and crispy. These pancakes were really good and didn't take much work at all. You could use other root veggies to make similar dishes.

A note about portions: This week, it seems like leftovers are really piling up. I want to keep cooking every night but I hate to waste food. Most nights, it's just Alex and me, and Alex doesn't eat too much of some of the things I'm making (though I'm proud that he has tried everything!). But recipes are usually for at least four servings, so I'm trying to modify them when possible and not make too much. Otherwise, I'm going to have to start bringing extra lunches for friends.

Chinese food and game night and a late night cake

The inspiration for tonight's meal came from the vegetable dumplings Mike's dad made for me. We have a special deal where he trades me dumplings for cookies. There were 40-50 dumplings taking up too much space in my freezer so I decided to make them for game night. But since those won't really home cooked, we also made some vegetable fried rice and fried tofu. I say we because Mike helped with the cooking...ok, he did most of the cooking, but I helped. Mike made great sauces for the tofu and dumplings. We had a pretty full table once Ihab, Megan, and Ben arrived.

After dinner, we played a rousing game of True Colors and had a great time laughing and finding out what everyone else thought of us. For dessert, Megan brought a yummy cake.

Once everyone left and I got done cleaning up it was pretty late and I was planning to go to bed, but I just couldn't get comfortable. So, I got up and decided to make a cake to bring into work in the morning for lab meeting. Late night baking has long been a habit of mine, though these days I sleep much more than I used to. I made a simple and delicious cake from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook - everyone at work seemed to enjoy it.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cake
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans

Combine the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk and vanilla, beating until smooth. Stir in 1 1/4 cups pecans. Pour batter into greased bundt or tube pan and sprinkle remaining pecans over the top. Bake at 325F for ~1 hour until a knife inserted comes out clean.

A simple supper

After last night's cream-fest, we needed a break and made a really simple meal. I knew I had a busy day so this morning I washed some beets and wrapped them in foil. Alex helped with the cooking by putting the beets in the oven at 400F while I was still at work. An hour later, when I arrived home, the beets were ready. I had a long, busy, and at times frustrating day today, and it was nice to come home to a warm house with an almost prepared dinner. I took peeled and sliced them and combined with little olive oil, salt and pepper and served them with Trader Joe's Harvest Grains. Aunt Fran introduced me to this tasty blend of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. You just simmer in some broth (I used my homemade vegetable broth) and it's ready in 10 minutes! The grains and beets went great together and made a wonderful simple dinner. Alex added some ham since he's not really a beet fan.

Seriously Amazing Soup

I just made some seriously amazing broccoli cheese soup. It was so good that even Alex liked it - and I don't mean had a taste and tolerated but actually enjoyed it! Probably because it is also seriously unhealthy, full of cream and cheese. I think this is my favorite thing that I have made thus far. I found the recipe online as a copycat recipe of Panera's broccoli cheese soup, and it really does taste just like theirs (which I haven't had in years since it uses chicken stock). I made a couple of substitutions and the final recipe is below:

Broccoli Cheese Soup
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half (I actually made my own half and half with 1 cup cream and 1 cup skim milk)
2 cups vegetable stock (I used the stock I made yesterday)
1/2 pound fresh broccoli (I used ~3/4 of a really big head of broccoli, basically enough to fill the pan)
1 cup carrots, julienned (I probably only used about 1/2 cup)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar

Saute onion in butter. Set aside. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add the half-and-half, making a roux. Add the stock whisking all the time. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender for 20-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The soup should be thickened by now. Pour in batches into blender and puree or use an immersion blender (that's what I did). Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Stir in the nutmeg and serve.

The soup was rich and delicious, really a meal in itself. We just had a small green salad (to make me feel better) and some bread for dipping along with it. If you like broccoli at all (or even if you don't), you should make this soup!

After one week of home-cooked January, I'm feeling good about this project. It's been pretty manageable and the food I've made has been tasty for the most part. I've mainly made decisions about what to cook from day to day and I'm trying to get better about planning in advance. To that end, I made a big batch of vegetable stock today to use later this week.

Vegetable Stock
1/4 cup canola oil
2 onions, quartered
4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 potatoes, sliced
1-2 cups mushrooms (I used one king oyster and a handful of baby bella)
5 cloves garlic
12 cups water
20 stems parsley with leaves
1/4 cup soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in stock pot then add onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms, and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes until vegetables start to brown. Add water, parsley and soy sauce, bring to a boil and then simmer, partially covered, for ~1 hour. This recipe makes just over 2 quarts. Strain, pressing vegetables and store in refrigerator for 3-5 days or freeze.

For dinner, I used the remaining king oyster mushrooms from Mike's dad. I simply sauteed them in canola oil with salt and pepper for 10 minutes and then added 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tbsp soy sauce. After cooking for 1 minute more, I served the mushrooms over thin Chinese egg noodles. I boiled the noodles for ~3 minutes and then rinsed them in cold water. Then I added 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce and some chopped green onions and stir fried the noodles in oil until they were heated through. I topped mine off with a little Sriracha hot sauce. The finished meal tasted better than it looked. The king oyster mushrooms have a chewy consistency and a mild flavor and went well with the Asian flavors and noodles. Alex isn't usually a mushroom fan but he thought they were ok, a pretty good compliment ;)

A busy day but I still had time to cook!

Today, I escorted Alex and eight of his friends on a trip the Hershey Theatre to see Spring Awakening. I knew it would be a long day and I might not have time to cook, so I kind of cheated and prepared banana bread last night, which we ate for breakfast today. I'm really picky about bananas and only like to eat them when they are perfectly ripe so I always end up with overripe bananas, which I freeze to use for baking. I used a recipe from a book that has always proved reliable for baking recipes, the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book.

Banana Bread
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (4-5 medium)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Combine eggs, sugar and oil in a separate bowl and then add to dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Bake at 350 for ~1 hour until knife inserted in center comes out clean.










The bread turned out great and made a wonderful breakfast.

It was a long day driving to and from Hershey (2 hours each way) and watching the show (which was really amazing). Alex's friend Sarah's mom rented a 12 passenger van so we could all travel together. The kids sang songs from Glee and Spring Awakening and kept us entertained on the long trip. When we got home around 6:45 I was planning not to cook, but I got inspired to make something simple, black bean croquettes, which are essentially Mexican-style falafel.

Black Bean Croquettes
1 can black beans, drained
1 small onion, minced
2-4 tbsp cilantro, minced
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp cumin
hot sauce to taste
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Mash beans (I used food processor) and combine with other ingredients. Form small 2-3 inch patties and fry in oil until browned evenly (~7-8 minutes), rotating patties halfway through.

I served these with some cheese quesadillas, fresh guacamole, sour cream and the leftover enchilada sauce from last weekend. They turned out well and I was proud that I got cooking done even after such a long day!