I know, pasta with tomato sauce doesn’t sound very exciting. And it isn’t, usually. But when you match recipes from two of the highest quality food bloggers on the internet today, how can you go wrong? Those were my thoughts exactly.
Let me tell you, this dinner was so far from going wrong, I was asking entirely the wrong question. I underestimated how good both of these recipes would be, probably because of their delightfully simple list of ingredients. The pasta? Just egg and flour, and a dash of salt for the boiling water. The sauce? Canned tomato, onions, and butter. Instead of asking what could go wrong, I should have asked what could be better. Continue Reading »
Tags: dairy, eggs, main, pasta, sauces, vegetarian
Posted in Food Features | 1 Comment »
The pickles actually took on this unnatural looking tint of green
After all these pickle experiments, I’ve noticed that there’s only so many pickles I can eat. When I started this summer, I only had a few jars, so in order to try a new recipe I had to hurry up and finish one of the jars I already had. Now, after I’ve collected jars for months, I’ve found a way to get around the jars completely. Continue Reading »
Tags: condiment, pickles, pickling, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »
I love color coordinating my beans.
Weeknights have become busy around here, between new year’s resolutions, birthdays, and the usual. This is the time of year when I know I need food to function but I can’t always bring myself to whip up something new each night. The lack of fresh produce in the house doesn’t help either.
It would be really easy to succumb to take out and pre-made frozen foods, but I know my stomach, wallet, and conscience wouldn’t be happy with me if I did. To combat winter food fatigue, I’ve been making larger batches of things to take for lunch with me throughout the week. I’ve stocked the freezer so that when I’m at wits end I don’t end up ordering pizza (at least not again anyway).
This week, the savior dish was a bean and barley soup I’ve been playing with all winter. Basically, I choose two types of dried beans, throw in a cup of barley, onions, carrots, celery, a bay leaf and bouillon and we eat like kings for a week. This kind of soup is filling, incredibly healthy, cheap, and can last for days and days. I bet you could even feed it to an avid meat-eater and they wouldn’t even realize it is vegan.
Here’s my latest recipe, but this soup is flexible enough that you could substitute just about any ingredient for another similar one (except the barley which is needed for its magical thickening powers). Continue Reading »
Tags: hearty, main, non-dairy, soups, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Recipes | No Comments »
This picture would have been discarded if I hadn't noticed a longing face poking in.*
Half sour pickles, sometimes called “new pickles”, weren’t my favorite growing up. They were overlooked in the quest for the most lip-puckering sour garlic pickles. As my taste buds matured, however, I came to appreciate the more delicate saltiness of a good half sour pickle. From what I’ve noticed, half sours are made from very similar recipes to full sours, but are not left to ferment for as long. Continue Reading »
Tags: condiment, pickles, pickling, treats, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique | 1 Comment »
Hunk of a traditional raclette cheese
While grocery shopping last week, I noticed a wheel of raclette cheese at the cheese counter. The sight of that cheese brought back warm memories of the first time I tasted it, during my time in France, with my host family gathered around the table on a cold winter’s night. The memory of raclette, the meal and the cheese, struck me as a great way to spend the holiday with family. Continue Reading »
Tags: cheese, dairy, hearty, meat, pickles
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique | 2 Comments »
Split-pea soup with crispy onions
Unfortunately for me, growing up I never knew a good pea soup, let alone one outside of the school cafeteria. My mom didn’t make pureed soups from scratch often, so for me the words “Split-Pea Soup” conjured up images of gelatinous vats of over-salted green-gray mush, not unlike in the Exorcist, that would send me running from the cafeteria when appearing on the menu.
So, it’s not a surprise that a couple of weeks ago when Sarah expressed an interest in making a batch after picking up some dried split-peas at the grocery, I needed a little convincing before I was ready to revisit that childhood memory. I’m sure that not all of you grew up detesting pea soup, but after one taste of Sarah’s simple and satisfyingly creamy concoction topped with crunches of bacon and sweetened slightly by carrots, I dropped all previous stereotypes of the heartily-satiating dish. Highly recommended for cold, wintry nights alongside a chewy piece of sourdough. Continue Reading »
Tags: blended soups, hearty, soups, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Recipes, Technique | 2 Comments »
The bread that keeps on giving
About six weeks ago, we were gifted a so-called “Amish Cinnamon Bread” yeast starter in a zip-top bag that came along with a somewhat cryptic-sounding recipe. Due to my affinity for baking, I decided to take charge of the project. After waiting ten days and “mushing” the bag everyday, it eventually yielded what it promised – one deliciously moist cake, and four baggies of starter batter for friends.
I couldn’t help but begin to think of this adventure in baking as an edible chain letter, and low and behold, not long after that initial baking and gifting of starters on consenting friends and family, one came back to us last week. Continue Reading »
Tags: dairy, desserts, eggs, fermenting, food philosophy, treats
Posted in Food Features, Pondering | 3 Comments »
You'd never know this sandwich holds as much excitement as it does.
I had a terrible craving for eggs this week. Not just any eggs though. I wanted deviled eggs… and a lot of them. A normal person would take that as a sign and just make them – I mean, why mess with a perfect thing, right? Not me. I’m far too lazy for that.
To make a good deviled egg, you’re supposed to lay the eggs on their sides overnight to get the yolk to sit nicely in the middle. You’re supposed to let them adjust to room temperature before boiling so they don’t crack when the water gets hot. You even have to worry about how old the eggs are, since fresher eggs don’t peel well after being boiled. You have to boil them perfectly and hope none of the them break. You have to rig up some kind of piping device and fill the egg whites up prettily, all the while losing a tiny bit of that deviled yolky goodness to every surface it comes into contact with. And after all of that work, you have to constrain yourself from eating all of them at once, for the sake of your health, and because you know it will be a long time before you muster up the patience for such a project again. Continue Reading »
Tags: condiment, eggs, hearty, meat, salad, sandwich, sides, treats, vegetarian
Posted in Guilty Pleasures, Recipes | 3 Comments »
Crisp "pickle nickels" pack a multi-dimensioned flavor punch!
Of the three kinds of cucumber pickles I experimented with since the summer, the most successful were the “bread and butter” pickles. Because of their sweetness, these usually aren’t on my crave list. When I think of bread and butter pickles, I think of almost-neon manufactured, sickly sweet, acidic spears that seem to last indefinitely on supermarket shelves not because of their pickled state, but because of a long, unpronounceable list of artificial preservatives and colors. I’ll eat them every once in a while, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a hankering for one. Continue Reading »
Tags: condiment, pickles, pickling, treats, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique | 6 Comments »
I prefer white meat, can't you tell?
I like to cook for other people, don’t get me wrong. I made Thanksgiving dinner for my family yesterday and I couldn’t wait to see them enjoy it. Cooking for other people, however fun it can be, is not my passion.
My passion is cooking for myself. That sounds selfish, but it’s true. Being able to cook is empowering. When you cook for yourself, you only have to make things you like. You can use ingredients that fit your own food ethics, be they political, religious, economic, health-related or just personal. You can use the techniques you like, skip the ones you don’t. Whatever appears on your plate (and how it got there) is entirely up to you. Continue Reading »
Tags: food philosophy, my own ignorance
Posted in Pondering | 9 Comments »
