Cucumber Salad

This recipe was inspired by a local restaurant, Istanbul Grill (http://www.grillistanbul.com/), that makes a delicious cucumber salad. We often order takeout from this restaurant for lunch at work. Istanbul Grill has an incredible vegetarian menu that has given me lots of ideas for vegetarian recipes. This is my personal take on the Turkish cucumber salad.

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, peeled and cubed

1 cup tomatoes, cubed

1 red pepper

1 avocado

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced

6 ounces plain fat-free greek yogurt (1 small container)

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 T olive oil

1 t salt

*The traditional cucumber salad also includes one diced red onion, but I am not the biggest fan of raw onion, so I left it out.

This recipe is best made with all fresh ingredients. The crispiness of the fresh vegetables is one of it's best features. Chop cucumbers, tomatoes, and red pepper into similar-sized small pieces/cubes. Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Being careful not to slice through the skin, slice a checkerboard pattern into each half of the avocado. Remove avocado from the skin using a large spoon, and you should end up with pieces about the same size as your other cubed vegetables. Mix cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, and avocado together in a mixing bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine parsley, cilantro, yogurt, vinegar, olive oil, and salt, and mix well. Today I used a jalapeno balsamic vinegar from Great Lakes Olive Oil company, a store in Frankenmuth, Michigan, that has a wide variety of delicious flavored olive oils and vinegars. I LOVE this company, and I'm sure you'll hear me mention them again. See http://www.greatlakesoliveoil.com/ if you are interested in more information.

Add yogurt and spice mixture to veggies and mix well until all pieces of vegetables are coated in yogurt. This salad can be eaten plain, or in a tasty wrap with falafel, hummus, and/or your favorite meat. When I am eating meat, I like to add it to a doner kebab (similar to a gyro) from the restaurant mentioned above.

Delicious Vegan Split Pea Soup

You will not believe how good this soup tastes. I can hardly believe there's not meat in it. Even if I go back to meat eating in the future, I'll probably still make this soup because it's ridiculously tasty and still good for you.


The recipe was adapted from two split pea soup recipes from The Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen, and Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. This would have easily made 6-7 pints of soup, but silly me didn't plan ahead and ran out of lids. Instead, I froze some of the soup in 2-cup glass storage containers that are surely going to pop their lids in the freezer. Lesson learned.

Ingredients:


3 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 white onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 cups carrots, diced
1 ½ t sea salt
2 t oregano
¾ t black pepper
1 t dried mustard
10 cups vegetarian broth
1 lb. split peas
1 t Bragg’s liquid aminos
1 bay leaf


Heat olive oil in large sauce pan or dutch oven. Add garlic and sauté for one minute. Add onions, celery, and carrots, cooking over medium heat until onions and celery are soft. Stir often. Mix in salt, oregano, black pepper, and mustard, and remove from heat.

Never have I cried so much from onions as I did today - WOW this one was pungent!

Add vegetable mixture, broth, peas, and liquid aminos to slow cooker and mix ingredients together with a large spoon. Add 1 bay leaf. Cook for 6 hours on low heat.


After 6 hours, carefully fish out the bay leaf and discard. Stir soup well to mix everything that has settled to the bottom. This makes a lot of soup, so I highly recommend canning or freezing some for future use.


**If you would like to can your soup: Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water before cooking is completed. Turn off slow cooker after 6 hours, stir, and immediately ladle soup into jars, filling to brim. Wipe tops of jars clean before tightly sealing the lids. The canning process must go very quickly; if soup is allowed to cool, the jars will not seal and will not be safe to store at room temperature.


After about an hour, you should hear a “pop” as the button on the lid pops down. This indicates the jar is now sealed and safe to store in the cupboard. If the button on the lid remains raised after 1.5 to 2 hours, this jar is not going to seal. Refrigerate any unsealed jars and eat within 24 to 48 hours.

Vegetarian Mushroom Soup

Today is day one of my vegetarian experiment. I had an adventurous day of grocery shopping, tracking down certain rare ingredients across the east side of Cleveland. It turned out that Whole Foods was the only place I could find things like amino acid supplements, vegan cheese, tahini, and a colorful variety of lentils. When I got home, I adapted the following recipe from the Hungarian Mushroom Soup in one of my favorite cookbooks since childhood, The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. The soup took about an hour from start to finish and makes 3 pints of soup.

Ingredients:


2 T butter
1 T olive oil
1/2 T minced garlic
1 white onion, diced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs baby portabella mushrooms, sliced thin
1 t salt
3 t dried dill
1 T paprika
2 t lemon juice
1 cup dry white wine
3 T flour
2 cups water
1 cup milk (at room temperature)
black pepper
1 t Bragg's liquid aminos
1/2 cup sour cream
1 T parsley


Melt butter with olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for a minute or two. Add onion and sauté on medium-high heat for a few minutes (about the time it takes to wash and slice the mushrooms). Add mushrooms, salt, dill, and paprika, and mix well. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring often.


Turn heat back to medium-high, and add lemon juice and wine. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add flour in very small amounts, stirring well to avoid lumps. When all flour is mixed in, add water. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring often.


Stir in milk. Add Bragg's liquid aminos, a vegetarian supplement that tastes similar to soy sauce and adds necessary amino acids that may be lacking in a vegetarian diet. Add sour cream, stirring in vigorously with a wire whisk until no lumps of sour cream are visible. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley last, and remove from heat. If desired, you can save the parsley until just before serving and add on top of each bowl of soup for a nicer presentation.



**If you would like to can your soup: Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water. At end of cooking, heat soup until just starting to bubble. Turn off stove and immediately ladle soup into jars, filling to brim. Wipe tops of jars clean before tightly sealing the lids. The canning process must go very quickly; if soup is allowed to cool, the jars will not seal and will not be safe to store at room temperature.


After about an hour, you should hear a “pop” as the button on the lid pops down. This indicates the jar is now sealed and safe to store in the cupboard. If the button on the lid remains raised after 1.5 to 2 hours, this jar is not going to seal. Refrigerate any unsealed jars and eat within 24 to 48 hours.

Roasted Red Peppers

I have found that roasted red pepper are a good way to make almost any dish more interesting. I especially like to add them to scrambled eggs, sandwiches, and those easy pasta meals that come in a box. Yesterday I had a taste for quinoa, but needed to spice it up a little. I made an easy Near East box of quinoa, and made these easy roasted red peppers while it was simmering.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


Slice 1-2 sweet red peppers into long, thick slices. Arrange these slices to form only one layer on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, mixing with your hands to make sure peppers are coated. Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then turn up to broil for 2-3 minutes, watching closely to make sure they don't burn.


By the time your peppers are done roasting, the quinoa should be done. Mix the peppers into the quinoa just before serving. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pigs in Blankets

Lent is approaching, and this year I decided to give up meat for Lent. We have a bet going - if I can make it through Lent with no meat, James owes me $100. If I don't make it, I owe him a steak dinner from a nice restaurant, and at that meal I will not be allowed to eat meat. I'm really looking forward to the challenge of finding healthy, meatless recipes!


With only a few days of meat-eating left, I am trying to use up foods that will tempt me to stray. A package of amish chicken sausage that was in the freezer was definitely something that had to go - I LOVE this stuff. At 30 calories per flavorful link, it allows me to pig out at breakfast without killing my diet. I used the whole package today (12 links) on this recipe.

Ingredients:


8-12 sausage links
1 package Pillsbury Grands biscuits
A few slices of cheese, cut into pieces slightly smaller than the sausage
1 egg white
Salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Separate the biscuit dough into the individual biscuits, and cut biscuits in half until you have as many halves as you do pieces of sausage (you may have some biscuits left over; I just baked the extras on their own). Smash a half a biscuit in your hands, flattening and stretching until you have something resembling a rectangle about the size of your palm. Place one sausage and one piece of cheese in the middle of the dough, stretching the dough so that the ends overlap enough that you can press the edges together. Place seam-side down on the baking tray.


Continue until all sausage/biscuits are used up. I was able to easily fit 12 on my large cooking tray. Beat one egg white with a few tablespoons of water until foamy. Brush the egg wash on the tops of the dough. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.


The result was enough to feed two people for breakfast, but if you make other food I'm sure you could stretch it to feed more people.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to write a quick post about the tasty food I brought home from Chicago for Valentine's Day - a heart-shaped deep dish pizza from one of my favorite Chicago eateries, Lou Malnati's.

I technically brought home FOUR pizzas, with the intention of rationing them over the next few months until I can replenish my stash on my next trip. The heart-shaped pepperoni pizza was so good, we immediately put pizza #2 in the oven so we could eat that too. I'm guessing all four pizzas will be gone by the end of the week.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Nonna's Chicken Cacciatore with Polenta and Green Beans

In honor of my Italian grandma's 90th birthday yesterday, today I learned how to make my great-grandmother's (Nonna) chicken cacciatore, polenta, and green beans. Nonna (Margaret) was born just north of Venice, Italy, in 1900, and came to the the United States in 1905. This was a standard meal that she and my grandma Ollie made often.


My birthmother, Mary, getting ingredients ready.



Chicken Cacciatore ("Hunter's chicken")

Ingredients:

8-12 chicken thighs

Olive oil

1/2 white onion (chopped)

1 small bulb of garlic (peeled and chopped)

1 28-oz. can stewed tomatoes

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

Rosemary, thyme, and sage to taste, or poultry seasoning.

In a hot skillet (400 degrees if you have an electric skillet), add a few tablespoons of olive oil.

About this much...

Add garlic and onion and sauté until soft. Add chicken and brown both sides.

When chicken is browned but not cooked all the way through, add stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add a few tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage, or a few teaspoons of poultry seasoning if you do not have fresh herbs. Reduce heat to low (200 degrees if you are using an electric skillet), cover, and let cook for about 25-45 minutes (25 if you have boneless meat, 45 if there are bones).

While this is cooking, make the polenta and green beans.

Nonna's green beans

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fresh green beans
3 shallots (chopped)
2 T butter
2-3 T olive oil
1/4 t cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste
1 t tomato paste
1/2 cup water

In a shallow microwaveable dish, add green beans and a 1/2 inch of water and microwave for two minutes. In the meantime, melt butter in a skillet and add olive oil and shallots. Sauté shallots until just starting to brown. Add green beans, cinnamon, and a few dashes of salt and pepper. Turn heat to low and cover, allowing to cook until the green beans are your desired crunchiness. Dissolve tomato paste in the 1/2 cup of water, and add this in the last few minutes of cooking.

Nonna's polenta

Ingredients:

Water
2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 t salt

Before starting polenta, butter a large, shallow platter in preparation for the end of this recipe when you won't have an extra hand to do it. Nonna used a large wooden platter that did not need to be buttered. A very large wooden cutting board will also work.

Bring 4 1/2 cups water and salt to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, add 1 1/2 cups cold water to the cornmeal, mixing until there are no lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling water, turn the heat down to low, and stir constantly for 5-20 minutes (depending on the quality of the cornmeal). Tradition dictates that you should be stirring the polenta with a wooden spoon.

When the polenta is very thick, but not thick enough to be pulling away from the sides of the pan, remove from heat and pour immediately onto platter or cutting board. Shape with a spatula or a damp kitchen towel so you have a nice round patty of polenta.

Let cool for 5-10 minutes until the polenta is firm enough to slice easily. Using a sharp knife, cut into slices like a pizza. Use a pie server to remove slices from the platter so they still look pretty.

By this time, the chicken cacciatore and the green beans should be done cooking. Serve the polenta with some of the sauce and tomatoes from the green beans and chicken.

As we were about to sit down to lunch, we realized today that we were eating Nonna's favorite meal on the old chairs from her kitchen. It seemed very appropriate for the occasion.

Nonna's chairs

Buon appetito!

Triple Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti

It's getting late, so this will be short - I'm driving to Chicago in the morning to help the writer of The Shepwell Kitchen (http://shepwellkitchen.blogspot.com/) shop for a wedding dress! I had a stressful day of doctors' appointments, tests, and shortness of breath (verdict: bronchitis), so I was in need of some serious kitchen therapy by the time I got home. Here is the amazingness I created.


Ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar*
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips**
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped


*I used organic, unrefined Demerara sugar for the first time and am happy with the results.
**I used Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate chips.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream sugar and butter together in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mixing between. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture slowly, mixing in small amounts until all dry ingredients are mixed in.

In a separate bowl, combine chocolate chips and chopped cherries until mixed well. Add to dough and fold together using your hands or a large spatula until chips and cherries appear uniformly mixed throughout the dough. Cut dough in half. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (I finally broke down and bought some when I realized how cheap it was). Form two logs on the parchment paper from the two halves of dough.

*Insert immature yet obvious joke here*

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. After loaves are removed, drop the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Let cool on baking tray for 5-10 minutes before sliding onto a baking rack to cool, still on the parchment paper. After 30-45 minutes out of the oven, slide parchment paper and loaves onto a cutting board. Using a very sharp knife, carefully cut loaves into 1-1/2" slices. Spread on large baking sheet on a clean piece of parchment paper. 

Can I eat it yet?

Bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, remove from oven, flip all pieces over (carefully or they might break!), and bake for 15 more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on baking tray until pieces feel hard enough and cool enough to easily move to a rack. I plan to leave mine out to cool overnight to make sure they are nice and stale and hard, perfect for dipping in coffee. This is not recommended if you have an ant problem in your house.

I can't WAIT to eat some of these for breakfast tomorrow!

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

I ate the most amazing sandwich the other night at one of my favorite restaurants, Melt. Melt has three locations around the Cleveland area, and everything on the menu is amazing. This month they are bringing back the best sandwiches of 2011 for one week each.

This week is the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Melt, which is the ultimate BLT. The sandwich includes "hickory smoked bacon, applewood smoked bacon, black-pepper crusted slab bacon, and sweet candied bacon," all topped with a bacon cream cheese, bacon-infused mayonnaise (made at the restaurant), cheddar, romaine lettuce, and tomato." 

I think the candied bacon really makes the sandwich, giving the sandwich that wonderful taste of when you accidentally get maple syrup on your bacon at breakfast. I absolutely loved this sandwich, and ended up eating the whole thing instead of boxing half up for later like I usually do. The explosion of flavors was totally worth the stomachache I had later from overeating.


The sandwich is, as usual, served with a side of awesome fries and some not-as-awesome spicy cole slaw, which I always forget to cancel so it doesn't go to waste. Also, the specialty sandwiches tend be paired with a special cocktail, so of course I had to try the Kevin Bacon Vanilla Alexander. The drink is described as "Bulleit bourbon infused with bacon, Godiva white chocolate liqueur, cream and real vanilla, shaken with ice and topped with real whipped cream and crisp bacon bits."

The drink was... interesting, to say the least. It tasted good at first, but the bourbon aftertaste didn't seem to fit with the other flavors. It tasted like Bailey's Irish Cream mixed with whiskey and bacon. I found it tasted better when I abandoned the straws and drank straight from the glass, getting bacon bits in every sip. I'm not sure I would ever order this drink again, but I have to give props to Melt for actually creating a drinkable bacon-flavored cocktail. I have attempted this feat in the past, and it ended VERY poorly.


The meal was altogether a success, topped with the end-of-meal revelation that there is a Melt rewards program! I signed up for the card, which will earn me $20 of free Melt for every $250 I spend. I was SO excited to learn about this program. Not that I needed another excuse to go to Melt.


References:
http://meltbarandgrilled.com/

Easy Ham, Egg, and Cheese Cups

Someone posted a picture on facebook recently that inspired this easy, fast, fun breakfast.


Ingredients:


Sliced deli ham
Whatever cheese you like (I used Havarti)
1 egg
Salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick butter spray. Fold a piece of ham and push it down into the muffin cup so it forms a cup for the rest of the ingredients. Add cheese, again pushing down so that you still have a cup. Add 1 egg, being careful not to break the yolk and trying not to spill it outside of your little ham cup. Add a dash or two of salt and pepper on top.


Repeat until you have as many as you want - you can fill up the whole muffin tin, or just make one for yourself.


Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees; less if you like runny eggs (yuck!). The ham will be crispy enough that you should be able to pull them out of the muffin tin easily, keeping their shape. Enjoy!

Isn't it adorable?

Biscotti Attempt #1

I have been meaning to attempt to make biscotti for a long time, and finally went for it yesterday. It was a cloudy, nasty day in Cleveland and I had no desire to go outside, which for me usually results in a GREAT day in the kitchen.

The biscotti was a bit of a disaster. I have swept my kitchen floor 4 times and am still feeling crumbs under my feet. The disastrous results, however, were user error, and not the recipe's fault. All I can say is wow, biscotti is difficult. At least 50% of this recipe ended up in the trash, but the other half is pretty good for a first try.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 cup slivered almonds

2 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

4 eggs

1/3 cup triple sec*

2 t anise extract

1 t vanilla extract

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 egg white + 1 t water mixed in a small bowl for egg wash.

* The original recipe called for brandy, but I don't have it. I think whiskey would work too.

First thing, toast the almonds. Spread almonds in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. While they are baking, you can mix the rest. Let almonds cool before adding to the dough.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in triple sec, vanilla, and anise. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, and add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing thoroughly (I had to switch from the mixer to a big spoon at this point. Add almonds , mixing enough that they are spread throughout the dough.

Cut the dough into four parts. This is definitely necessary; I know this because I only cut it in half, and this happened:

Oops.

If you make your loaves too big, they will crack, break, and be extremely difficult to deal with. So follow the directions. Make four long, skinny logs, two on each baking pan. They should be a few inches wide and have room to spread out as they bake. Brush the egg wash (egg white and water) on the top of the loaves, covering the whole thing. I actually found it easier to use my hands to spread the egg wash. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Turn oven down to 300 degrees when you take the loaves out.

Be very careful removing your loaves from the pans. Most recipes say to use parchment paper on the trays, but how many of us have that in our kitchen? Let the loaves cool so they are barely warm or room temperature before slicing. Using a very sharp, non-serrated knife, cut 1-inch slices and lay out flat on a baking sheet. Don't make your slices too thin, or they will fall apart.

Bake your sliced biscotti at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes, turning slices over every 10 minutes until they are beginning to brown. Let cool on a rack. Your biscotti will harden more as they sit out and cool. Once cool, store your biscotti in an air-tight container. Buon appetito!

References: My recipe was based on this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Nanas-Anise-Biscotti-451