Who doesn't love TJs?

I don't know if you ladies are near a Trader Joe's, but I've found as a teacher and a vegetarian (well, pescatarian) that I can subsist off of their whole wheat naan/hummus, whole wheat pizza dough and frozen options for that quick lunch or lazy dinner.

I used to think that TJs could do no wrong: cheaper produce, healthier choices and local options. But, then I tried their frozen soyrizo quiche and I had to take a step back. Then tonight I had another disappointing frozen option, so I thought, I wonder if the ladies at Eat This have tried other frozens I haven't and could save me some disappointment and money?

With that, my favorite frozen foods from TJs:
-Thai shrimp gyoza
-Cheese tamales
-Cheese enchilada
-Paneer tikka (their garlic naan is fantastic, too)
-Soy cream vanilla

And the ones to miss:
-Cheese/soy quiche (it will make you cry)
-Vegan Phad Thai with Tofu
-Curried Lentils (not horrific, but not awesome either)
-Breaded Cod (again, not terrible)
-Soy cream vanilla/mango mix

That's what I've got so far...most of these are probably just preferences, but I stand fully by my quiche statements. Please add to the lists if you care.

Food (Supposedly) From the Homeland: Korean Vegetable Croquettes

Funny, that I seem to only post about Korean food despite never really having eaten much Korean food before the age of 18. Oh well.

In accordance with one of my Spring Break resolutions (cooking real food made of things that don't require an ingredient list on the back of the box), I chose this Korean side dish as my first triumph. Whether or not this is really anything like anything served in Korea is up for debate, but I'm sure the woman from Goshen, IN who contributed this recipe really knows her stuff (probably not).

Korean Vegetable Croquettes
(From Extending the Table)

Mix together:
1 cup potatoes, coarsely grated
3/4 cup carrots, coarsely grated (you can actually use any veggie you want, but carrots are recommended)
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (or, if you're me, more)

Make batter of:
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water

Stir batter into vegetables.
Heat in skillet 1/2 cup oil.
Drop vegetable mixture into hot oil by teaspoons or tablespoons depending on size desired. Fry until browned on both sides. Drain on paper. Serve hot.

Now, if you're like me (afraid of fire, oil, and geometrically afraid of fire and oil together), you'll likely not use all 1/2 cup of oil at once. However, if you don't, you'll probably end up using it all eventually, as the oil cooks off the pan (and soaks grossly and artery-cloggingly into the croquettes because it's not hot enough and you have to let them sit in the oil for like 3 minutes). Bottom line: go big or go home (but be careful) - heat that sucker up with enough oil that the croquettes can sit in them and fry up quickly. Also, small is good here - they'll cook a lot faster.

I dipped mine in a little Teriyaki sauce (which, unfortunately, was not home made), water, and Sriracha (made by the Asian gods of awesome). I also cooked up some rice and stir fried some asparagus and chard in a little soy, water, sugar, ginger, sesame oil, and garlic (a la Kim circa 2006).

Then I thoroughly covered everything with more Sriracha (= the best).

Sociable Soups

This year for lent I decided to invite folks to join me for dinner and a time of reflection every Wednesday from Ash Wednesday till Easter. I've really enjoyed intentionally setting this time aside to share a meal with others. What I haven't told my weekly guests is that they are also my excuse for trying new recipes...

The first week I tried this soup from Didi Emmons' Entertaining for a Veggie Planet (the second chapter of this cookbook is titled "sociable soups" hence the blog title...) :

Butternut and Ginger Soup

1 Tbs oil
2 onions, chopped
1/4 c peeled and minced fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 2lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 13.5 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp of Asian chili sauce, or more to taste
3 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbs peanuts, chopped and roasted for garnish

In a large sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat, Add the onions and saute, stirring occasionally until soft, about 7 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic, saute for 1 minute more.

Add the squash, coconut milk, and 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is cooked through 20 minutes, Remove from heat.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. Add the chili sauce, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper. Garnish with peanuts and cilantro, and serve!

Delicious!

It's never a bad time for molasses cookies

Apparently I've been on a cooking/baking roll lately. I tried a molasses recipe today to take to a party, and they were a huge hit! I finished off the leftovers on my drive home (whoops). They go down easily :)

Molasses Cookies (my new favorite, I have to say)

• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar (or 1/2 c brown and 1/2 c white)
  
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup white sugar (for rolling the cookies)

Mix all ingredients together and cool dough in fridge for 1/2-1 hour. Preheat oven to 375F and roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll in white sugar. Place a couple of inches apart and don't flatten. Bake 7 minutes for nice, gooey cookies, and 8 minutes if you like your cookie a little more done. The bigger the cookie you want to make, increase bake time slightly (my last sheet was 1 1/4 inch-ish and I baked them 8.5 minutes, I think). Cool and enjoy! This recipe will make about 4 dozen small cookies (and you'll eat them all).

Simple and delicious

Hello! Hope you are all enjoying 2010 thus far.

On Sunday I was cooking dinner for a friend and I wanted to make something quick yet tasty (don't we all). I knew I wanted to do something rice and beany, so I just went to allrecipes and saw what I could find. Haitian rice and beans is what transpired, and, I shit you not, best r&b I've ever had! Who knew cloves could make them taste so great?

My version of the above recipe:

3 Garlic cloves, minced
3 Green onions, chopped
Olive Oil
1 can of TJ's kidney beans (20 oz)
3 cups water
1 cup white rice
thyme, parsley, cloves, salt and pepper (I just winged it like I always do, maybe ~1 t of the first 3 and s&p to taste)
2 bay leaves
2 chopped dried mexican peppers

I sauteed the onion and garlic (I would use more garlic next time and add other sauteed veggies into the mix to make it a whole meal - maybe peppers and mushrooms?) in the olive oil, then added the drained beans and cooked that mix for a couple minutes. Then I added the water and rice, stirred and then added all the spices last. Simmer until the water is gone and there you go (take out bay leaves, though they may be difficult to find!).

The whole thing maybe took 30 minutes - so easy and really amazingly great! Enjoy!

Soup Season!!!

Hey friends.
Its cold and grey in Michigan, but soups are warm and uplifting. I'm posting to direct you to two great website, with two great soups. I just made caulifower soup it was great! I cut the butter in half, and didn't use the half and half, because I thought it was excessive. But the soup still turned out delicous, and healthier!! Hope you all enjoy.

Hearty Potato:
http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/03/19/a-hearty-potato-leek-soup-recipe-for-the-last-days-of-winter/

Cauliflower:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/01/cauliflower-soup/

When I say from scratch, I really mean it.

My family does NOT buy pie crusts (we're actually quite snobby about our pies), but I've always made pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin, and it always tastes great.

That's what some people call "making it from scratch"...I suppose "not from scratch" would be buying it at the store?


The great pumpkin pie experiment of 2009 took place at my brother and sister-in-law's house this week. Leah and I have both always thought it would be fun to attempt pumpkin pie making sans the Libby's can (read: actually from scratch...real scratch!), so we went for it on Wednesday before the family gathered for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

What transpired was both easier and better tasting than I expected. Literally, this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. The key is to food process the heck out of the ingredients (either pumpkin + egg for enough liquid or the whole recipe before pouring into the pie shell).

Here's the recipe (adapted from All Recipes, makes one pie)

• 1 sugar pumpkin (we used organic pumpkins - they're small, but 1 does the trick!)
• 1 pie crust (recipe below)
• 2 eggs (we used 5 eggs for 2 recipes and it tasted great, but I assume 2/pie works also)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice + a whole lot more and extra cinnamon to taste
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

This is what we did:

1. Cut sugar (pie) pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees F for ~45 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Puree in 2 batches in a food processor (you may need to put the eggs in so that there is enough liquid to process very smoothly - that's what I did) .
2. In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, spices, and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition. Whisk the ingredients until NO chunks are present (the flour clumped up for us, but a whisk did the trick).
3. Pour mixture into the pre-baked (see recipe below) pastry shell. Place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over browning (this is key).
4. Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees F, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake an additional ~40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown (if needed - it may brown enough in the pre-bake of the crust). Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.
5. Please use REAL whip cream (and add a little vanilla, if you like) to top with...it's so much better!

Pie crust recipe (my grandma's famous, makes two crusts):

2 cup flour

2/3 shortening (vegetable or butter flavor)

1/4 cup cold water

1 tsp salt

1. Cut the shortening, flour and salt together using a pastry blender until mixed.

2. Add the water in tablespoons while mixing (with your fingers or pastry blender) until moistened.

3. Ball the dough up firmly, then carefully roll out on a flat surface. Leah is great at this: she rolls once, then flips the dough, then back again, etc. so that it doesn't stick to the counter and gets enough flour on both sides.

4. Pick up the dough by loosely rolling it over your rolling pin and place in pie pan (glass pie pans are the best)

5. Gather up edges and make pretty (see picture).

6. Pre-bake pie shell in oven at 350 F for about 10 - 15 minutes. This will make sure your pie crust doesn't get soggy when pumpkin is added.