Bonnie Antonini

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Spicy Walnuts – Score A Twofer!

 

Spicy Nuts

Spicy Walnuts

Who doesn’t love a bargain?!  Twofer, BOGO (buy one, get one free) – such a deal.

I make no secret of the fact that I am quite fond of making my money stretch (yes, I’m cheap!).  That’s one of the reasons I like to make things from scratch.  Every time you buy a convenience food (shredded cheese, bagged lettuce, jarred spaghetti sauce), there’s a price to pay.

Along this same line, I’m ecstatic (Yes, ecstatic – I’m an actress. I’m overly dramatic!) when a food I make can be used more than once – and I’m not talking leftovers. I mean you make a dish, change it up a bit, and voilà – a brand new dish.

I would now like to introduce to you my Spicy Walnuts recipe. When you use walnut halves you have a snack food to set out in a bowl at parties or to chomp on watching TV.  When you chop the halves into 4 or 5 pieces, you have a tasty add-in to salads and casseroles.

As the name implies (SPICY Walnuts), they have a kick to them.  If it’s too much for you, ease off on the cayenne pepper. Also, since this is a vegetarian blog, I’m recommending vegetarian Worcestershire sauce – there are several brands.  Spicy Walnuts are easy to make, but they do take about 20 minutes to bake.

NOTE:  You aren’t obligated to use walnuts.  Try almonds, peanuts, cashews – whatever you fancy!

For you visual learners (or those just curious to see me in action), click on SPICY WALNUTS and I’ll show you how to make them.

SPICY WALNUTS

  • ¾ pound walnuts, halves or broken into large pieces (break them by hand rather than chopping to prevent unusable bits)
  • 3 T butter
  • 3 T vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (also called red pepper spice)
  • about 4 drops Tabasco sauce (shake bottle well)

Heat oven to 350º Fahrenheit.

In skillet or saucepan, melt butter.  Add in Worcestershire sauce, salt, cinnamon, garlic powder, cayenne, and Tabasco.  Stir over low heat to blend. Pour in walnuts and coat with sauce. Spread walnuts onto a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with 4 sides).  If you use a regular cookie sheet, you’re more than likely going to have to retrieve fallen nuts from the oven bottom.  Not fun!!! (Believe me!)

It takes a total of 16-25 minutes for the walnuts to brown, stirring every 5 minutes.  Please heed this advice:  set 2 timers!  One for the total of 20 minutes, and one to set every 5 minutes.  Five minutes is just enough time to find one ‘quick’ thing to do. Either this thing ends up taking longer than expected, OR we find another ‘quick’ thing to do and suddenly it’s 10 minutes later. I think you get my point. It’s important to stir them every 5 minutes so they brown evenly.

It’s worth noting, I use a dark jelly roll pan.  Dark pans cook things faster, so my Spicy Walnuts took 17 minutes.  That’s why I put a wide cooking range (16-25 minutes).  The cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the type of baking pan you use. You want the nuts browned and crispy, but not blackened.

WARNING:  These Spicy Walnuts are very addictive.  Like the old Lays Potato Chip advert – I bet you can’t eat just one!

 

 

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Slim Down With Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is making its clothes-shedding presence known. Spring is melting into summer and bulky sweaters are being replaced by sleeveless tops.  Goodbye bulge hiding parkas; hello bathing suits.

It’s about this time of the year we start to regret not keeping up with that annual New Year’s resolution we make every January 1st. You know the one – to get into better shape by eating healthier and exercising more. Oh, the best laid plans.

Well, it’s never too late!

Years ago there was a Campbell’s Soup commercial showing a young woman whose goal in life was to fit into her itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. She devised a plan to eat Campbell’s Soup for lunch instead of her presumably usual calorie laden meal.  She also had said bikini hanging on her wall for inspiration.  I’ve never forgotten that commercial – not only because they had that fun yellow polka dot bikini song playing throughout, but because the premise made sense.

It’s been proven that it takes about 20 minutes for the brain to figure out that the stomach is full. This is why diet experts always tell us to eat slowly. What’s so great about soup is that because of its high water content it fills us up quickly. Of course, because of it’s high water content, we get hungry again sooner.  But, at least, the soup got us away from the table unscathed.  With a little planning we can have a low calorie snack (such as another bowl of soup, a banana, or some yogurt) mid-afternoon to tide us over until dinner.

Of course, if you have a soup made with cream and/or butter, you’re defeating the purpose. I’ve been making a vegetable soup that’s super easy (just throw everything into the pot) and varies depending on which veggies I have on hand or feel like buying.  Sometimes, when I’m in a decadent mood, I even sprinkle on a little shredded cheese – just for the protein, of course. It’s also a great way to get those daily servings of vegetables – especially for the kids.  For some reason they seem to eat them in soup.

VEGETABLE SOUP – makes about 7 cups

  • 1  28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, remove stem ends and chop
  • 1½ cups vegetable stock  (for recipe, click on VEGETABLE STOCK)
  • 1 cup onions, chopped
  • 1 cup carrots, sliced
  • 1 zucchini, halved and sliced
  • 3 mushrooms, coarsely chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • 3 small white potatoes, chopped
  • ½ tsp dried oregano
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp salt
  • optional suggestions:  spinach, quinoa, barley, green beans, cauliflower, kale

Clean and prepare all veggies.  Throw everything into a large pot and bring to a boil.  Cover and turn down heat. Simmer until vegetables are cooked – I always judge by the carrots. EASY!!!

The nice thing about making your own soup (sorry Campbell’s) is that it’s so much cheaper and you can tailor it to suit your taste.  Also it’s a great way to use up those leftover veggies that you just can’t bring yourself to throw out.

Apologies to those of you who now have the itsy bitsy bikini song running in your head!

 

 

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Think Outside The Box Spaghetti

Spaghetti with 'Meat' Sauce

Spaghetti with ‘Meat’ Sauce

I’ve mentioned before that my mother was NOT the most adventurous cook. It wasn’t that she was a bad cook – she was just a nervous cook.  Afraid to try new things.  Plus, she was a product of the modern world of boxed, canned, and frozen foods. She bought into the idea of why take the time and trouble to make something yourself when a large corporation (whose only concern was to make a profit) could do the work for you.

We kids didn’t mind.  After all, we could pick out specifically what frozen dinner we each wanted – some of them even had a little dessert! The only fresh vegetable we ever had was corn on the cob – when it was in season. The rest of the time we had canned green beans or peas. I’d never even heard of broccoli or cauliflower before I left home.

Which brings me to my spaghetti story.

As probably most of you know, when you have to start paying your own bills you really take notice of how much things cost. Fortunately, I was born with a dominant frugal gene (yeah- cheap, okay?). I figured out pretty quickly I was going to have to learn how to cook.

One thing my mother made was spaghetti. She used Kraft Spaghetti, which came in a box, and she added ground beef. It was good, and all I knew. So I decided to make spaghetti and bought the box of Kraft, the ground beef, and made my spaghetti. It was good – again, it was all I knew.

Then one day in the supermarket I happened to notice plastic bags full of dried spaghetti noodles.  What the heck was this? Why are these spaghetti noodles all by themselves and not packaged in a box with a can of sauce?, I wondered.  (You’ll be happy to know this was only said in my head…THAT time, anyway.) It took awhile, but it eventually dawned on me:  I could make the sauce FROM SCRATCH and buy as many noodles as I wanted. (It took many more years to figure out I could actually make the pasta, too.) It honestly never occurred to me people made spaghetti sauce.

Once enlightened, I tried various spaghetti sauces through the years. When I became a vegetarian, the problem became that without the meat, it was really just a marinara sauce.  Having grown up with a nice hefty meaty sauce, plain old marinara sauce just seemed kind of empty. It was tough being a vegetarian in the early days.

Fast forward to my discovery of fake meats (‘faux’ to you posh people), which greatly expanded my vegetarian recipe repertoire.  I’d already started using Loma Linda’s Redi-Burger in my ‘Beef’ Salsa Burritos (remember, quote marks denotes FAKE) and my Navajo Tacos. But it didn’t seem like a good choice for my spaghetti sauce.

I guess good things come to those who wait because, low and behold, in the frozen food section I found Morningstar’s Griller’s Recipe Crumbles.  They come in a pouch and are like ground beef that’s already stir fried (minus the fat).  So it’s a snap to use – no frying, no wondering what to do with all the grease.  Just open the pouch and pour out the ‘ground beef’.

Thanks to these Crumbles, my family can now enjoy a delicious Spaghetti With ‘Meat’ Sauce. I’ve come up with a recipe in which I  simply throw everything in the stockpot and cook for an hour.  As always, when I make something that freezes well, I make a vat of it and freeze it in meal sized portions.  No point in cleaning the pot and utensils more than once.  Making a multiple batch is not that much more work.  Once I’m done, I have enough spaghetti sauce for months!

I’ll give you the recipe for both one batch and six batches (that’s what I make).  I would suggest you make the one batch version first, just to make sure you like the recipe.  If you’d like to see my video of me making this dish, click on: Spaghetti With ‘Meat’ Sauce.

NOTE:  If you want to save about 20 minutes, and are NOT obsessive and paranoid like I am, then buy the canned tomatoes diced instead of whole.  I buy the whole so I can inspect each one and cut off any imperfections and the stem end. Also, you can buy garlic already minced in a jar. It took me 35 minutes to put all the ingredients in the stockpot. You can see where most of the time was spent.

ADDITIONAL NOTE:  It doesn’t matter what kind of red wine you choose.  Just make sure it’s a wine you would actually drink because the flavor will come through.  I usually use Black Mountain cabernet sauvignon – it’s reasonably priced and has a nice taste.

WILL SHE EVER STOP TALKING ADDITIONAL NOTE:  You can either buy vegetable stock OR do what I do and make your own.  Click on: Back To Basics: Vegetable Stock for my recipe.

SPAGHETTI WITH ‘MEAT’ SAUCE 

1 BATCH VERSION – makes 3 cups

  • 1 pouch (12 oz / 340 grams) Morningstar Griller’s Recipe Crumbles
  • 1/3 cup (80g) extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup (125 ml) vegetable stock
  • 1 clove garlic, pressed
  • 1 tsp each of dried oregano, dried basil, and salt
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ½ cup (122g) tomato paste
  • 2 cups (528 g) canned whole tomatoes
  • ½ cup (125 ml) red wine
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

6 BATCH VERSION – makes 18 cups

  • 6 pouches (each pouch is 12 oz / 340 grams) Morningstar Griller’s Recipe Crumbles
  • 2 cups (475 ml) extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cups (720 ml) vegetable stock
  • 2 T minced garlic
  • 2 T each of dried oregano, dried basil, and salt
  • 6 bay leaves
  • 4   6 oz (170g) cans tomato paste
  • 4   28 oz (793g) cans whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 bottle red wine (YES – a whole bottle!)
  • 1 T red pepper flakes

Throw everything in a stockpot and bring to a boil. Lower flame enough so the sauce continues simmering. Cook for 1 hour, stirring often – you don’t want the bottom to burn. Done!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE (this is the last note, I promise):  Make sure you remove the bay leaves before serving the ‘Meat’ Sauce.  Actually, I kind of enjoy the fishing expedition I go on trying to find my 6 leaves. (Shows you how exciting my life is!)  The last leaf is always the hardest to find.

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Ooo La La! Les Baguettes: Tres Simple!!!

French Bread

French Bread

The smell of freshly baked bread is an attention grabber like no other. It’s universal.  At first whiff, people the world over fall into a Zen-like state…. followed immediately by a growling tummy.

Basking in that intoxicating aroma, we imagine the warmth as we break open a piping hot baguette, slowly pulling it apart, and bringing it up to our eagerly awaiting mouth.  We can taste the melting butter as it oozes into the nooks and crannies.  The crunchy outside, the soft insides. They call it the staff of life for a reason.

And, of course, it looks pretty cool when it’s sticking out of your shopping bag.  Note my photo above.

I have to admit, when my kids were growing up, I MAY have gone a little overboard.  Since I was a stay-at-home mom I decided to make as much from scratch as I could. Including bread. Including yogurt. Including pasta. I thought if they were indoctrinated with homemade everything, the taste of preservatives, sugar, and salt laden foods (like store bought cookies, box mac and cheese, and sugary cereals) might not appeal to them.

Yeah, well – it seemed like a good idea.  Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate the pull of peer pressure.  Not to mention that sugary/salty foods just plain taste good.  After all, that’s what they’re meant to do to keep people eating them.

It was on the job training for me – my mother was not exactly an adventurous cook.  Lots of roasts, burgers, frozen dinners.  She had no culinary words of wisdom to impart to me, her only daughter. So I read cookbooks and just jumped in. There were surprisingly few failures – cooking really isn’t as difficult as one might think – if you follow the instructions!

The first bread I tried making was whole wheat. What with having kids now, I knew that would be the most important since sandwich making was going to be a daily activity for years to come.  It was a bit tricky and I had to constantly revise my recipe.  The problem was, the healthier the bread, the more it tended to fall apart.  Not a good thing! It got better through the years, but it was never like the OroWheat bread I, admittedly, buy now.  In my defense, I hardly eat sandwiches anymore so I keep a loaf frozen….just in case.

Next, I tried my hand at making French bread.  Ah, ha!  (Or should I say – Voilà!) This was a success from the start. It’s quite easy to make and there are very few ingredients.  I did allow myself the luxury of buying a French bread baking pan.  You can see it in the photo below.  It’s a perforated metal, curved double loaf pan.  The curved sides keep the bread in the traditional round shape, and the perforated metal allows for air circulation. It’s not a necessity, though.  Your loaves will still come out delicious just using a cookie sheet.

Bread dough rising in a perforated French bread pan

Bread dough rising in a perforated French bread pan

NOTE:  I actually bought two bread pans. Back in the days when I was baking lots of French bread, I would make four loaves at once, then freeze what we didn’t eat.  While freshly baked baguettes are best (unintentional alliteration), they still freeze well. You know me – use that freezer!  If you’re going to the trouble of cooking something, make multiple batches and freeze the extras so you can have homemade food even on days you can’t/don’t want to cook AND you only have to wash the cookware once.

YES, French bread is a yeast dough. NO, it’s not difficult.  I promise!!! And, YES, it takes time because the dough has to rise.

BAGUETTE – makes 2 loaves

  • 2¼ tsp dry active yeast (or 1 packet)
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1 T sugar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3½ – 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ tsp cornstarch
  • ¼ cup water (separate from water mentioned above)

The first thing to do is to activate the yeast.  To do this, simply heat the 1½ cups of water to about 100º Fahrenheit (hot tap water will do) and stir in the yeast.  Set it aside to proof – it will begin to foam-up.

Into your food processor put 3 cups of the flour (we’ll add the rest as needed), the sugar, and the salt.  Attach the lid. When the yeast is proofed (it takes about 5 minutes and will be foamy on top), turn on the processor and slowly pour in the yeast water through the feed tube.  Once all the water is in, continue to let the machine run for 30 seconds or so to incorporate the flour.

More than likely you’ll need to add more flour.  What you want is the dough to form a ball. With 3 cups of flour, it’s probably still all over the workbowl.  Add in ½ cup more flour and run machine again.  If it still doesn’t form a ball on it’s own, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it does. Give it some time to run when you add in more flour – it takes a few seconds for the new flour to incorporate.

When the dough ball forms, continue to run the machine for 45 seconds to knead it.

NOTE:  If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll have to do all the above steps in a bowl and knead for 10 minutes by hand.  But, honestly, think about buying  one.  I use mine nearly everyday!  It’s a great time saver.  Plus, I HATE sticky dough on my hands. Letting the food processor run for 45 seconds is so much better than kneading dough by hand for 10 minutes!!!

Take the dough ball out of the food processor and smoosh it down into a greased bowl. Then pick up dough ball, flip it, and smoosh down the other side into the bowl.  This greases the whole ball.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise for about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough. If you’ve never heard this term before, you may be thinking I’ve gone a little crazy. Punching down dough simply means taking your fist and punching the risen dough to deflate it. This is my favorite part of bread making. But mind if you’re having a bad day – DON’T punch the tar out of the dough. (He’s not the one who wouldn’t let you in when you forgot you wanted to turn left and were in the wrong lane.) Just a quick love tap will do. Then divide the dough in half.  Take each half and stretch it to the length of baguette you want. Obviously, the longer the bread, the thinner the loaf.  Whichever way you like it is fine.

Lay each stretched out loaf on a groove of your French bread pan or a cookie sheet that been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover the loaves and let rise for 30 minutes.

In a small saucepan, heat together the ¼ cup water and cornstarch over a low/medium heat.  Stir constantly until the liquid becomes less murky.  This will happen at the boiling point.  Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 425º.

When dough has risen and oven is preheated, make 2 or 3 diagonal slashes in the raw loaves with a sharp knife or pair of scissors. Brush with cornstarch glaze and bake for 10 minutes.  Brush with glaze again, and continue to bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from pan and serve!

Added bonus:  The aroma of freshly baked bread will linger in your house for awhile, reminding your family just how hard you work for them!

 

 

 

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Hummus Is The New Onion Dip

Hummus and pita triangles

Hummus and pita triangles

When I was growing up, it was unheard of to have company over without serving Lipton’s Onion Soup Dip and chips.  At that time I had a complete aversion to onions.  But onion dip was an animal of a different sort. ( Just like onion rings.)  I don’t question this – it’s one of the great mysteries of the world.

More than likely onion dip became popular because not only is it tasty, it’s incredibly easy to make:  mix together 1 cup of sour cream and one packet of Lipton’s Dried Onion Soup Mix. Done.  It took a minute to prepare and you could call it homemade….just.  It was so easy, in fact, that this was the job children (like me) were given when they wanted to ‘help’ mommy in the kitchen.

What was not to like?  Sour cream and onion-y/salty bits.  And was it addictive!!!  Much as I love potato chips, if there was onion dip around, the chips actually became an excuse to load up on dip.

Alas, those carefree, eat-whatever-tastes-good days are gone.  I can’t remember the last time I saw onion dip at a party (not that I get out much). Potato chips and Fritos have been replaced by pita chips and raw veggies, and hummus has replaced Lipton’s Onion Soup Dip. So long, old friend.

Hello, hummus!  And just in time.  The bad thing about getting older is I can no longer eat an entire bowl of onion dip shoveled in via an entire bag of potato chips, and then work it off by doing 10 minutes of jumping jacks. But the good thing about getting older is wisdom. I’m now wise enough to really understand that you are what you eat.

Of course, that being said, let’s not get crazy. I’m certainly not advocating refraining from a bag of french fries once in a while, or the odd dessert when you’ve got that craving going on. (Hey, I’m the one who wrote a recent blog about Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies!) But what I’ve found is that if you make healthy food yummy enough, it kind of talks you off that ledge hovering over the great junk food beyond. When you’re happily sated, you feel….well, complete.

So hurrah that people are now serving hummus and pita chips to snack on at gatherings. Even my extremely picky youngest child is buying hummus for himself – and actually eating it.  This is the same child who throughout his childhood would order a cheese, mustard, and mayonnaise sandwich when we went to Subway.  (And I don’t mean cheese, mustard, and mayonnaise as extras in one of their selections –  I mean ONLY cheese, mustard, and mayonnaise!)

Nowadays, supermarkets – always ready to cash in on trends – are stocking their refrigerated bins with ready-made tubs of hummus, flavored all sorts of ways.  But if you own a food processor (and if you don’t, BUY ONE!), you really should make your own.  At least give it a try!!!  The markup for the ‘convenience’ of not having to make it is enormous. And, as I keeping saying, when you make things yourself you know what’s in your food (and NOT in your food). Along the same line, why stop at making your own hummus – make the tahini, too. Again, it’s unbelievably easy!

This is one of those recipes that you should make to suit your own taste. More garlic, less garlic.  Spice it up, bland it up. Chunky, pureed.  Whatever you want.

NOTE:  Double, triple, quadruple, etc. your homemade hummus, then freeze it for future use.

HUMMUS – makes 1 cup

  • 2½ T tahini – see recipe below
  • ¾ tsp margarita salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, pressed
  • 1 can garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) – 15 oz can
  • 3 T lemon juice, fresh or bottled
  • 1 T olive oil

Drain the garbanzo beans, discarding the liquid.  Put half the can in the food processor and pulse until the beans are small chunks.  Pour into a small bowl and set aside. Put the remaining garbanzo beans, salt, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil into the food processor and purée until smooth.  Mix the purée with the chunky garbanzo beans and serve. Sprinkle a little paprika on top to make it pretty, if you like.

TAHINI – makes about ½ cup

  • ¾ cup sesame seeds
  • 2 T olive oil

Lightly toast the sesame seeds.  Put the seeds and olive oil in the food processor and purée. Stop and scrape, as needed, to make a paste.

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Egg Foo Yummm!

It isn’t always easy being a vegetarian. Before I changed my carnivorous ways, I had my go-to picks when I went for Chinese food:  won-ton soup, sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, and chicken chow mein.  When I became a vegetarian I found myself carefully examining the menus for meatless choices.  Back in those days I was pretty much limited to stir fried vegetables and rice. This was long before the days when Chinese restaurants started adding tofu – or even removing the meat – from selections on their menus.

I finally spied ‘Egg Foo Yong’ (sometimes spelled ‘yung’ or ‘young’) on the menu and gave it a try.  Mmmmm!  Fortunately, my first sample of egg foo yong was delicious. Since then, I’ve discovered it really depends on the restaurant and the chef.

Egg Foo Yong seemed like a dish I could make at home – I’m always looking for vegetarian recipes AND ways to save money.  Not only can eating out be costly, but I tend to worry if the food preparers are using sanitary precautions.  I admit it – I’m a smidge frugal (okay – I’m cheap) and paranoid.

For those of you who have never heard of Egg Foo Yong, it’s basically an egg pancake with bits of things like mushroom and bean sprouts mixed in, served over sticky rice, and topped with a brown sauce.  I’ll give you the recipe the way I make it, but there’s a lot of room for personalizing. Because these egg patties cook quickly and are best served immediately, I make the brown sauce first, then the sticky rice (and while it’s cooking I get the side dishes going), then I begin the egg pancakes.

The more you can fit on your skillet or griddle the better so the first ones don’t have to sit around too long.  But – word to the wise – don’t crowd them. You’re going to have to flip these babies and, unless you’re a whiz with a spatula, they rarely land where they started. You want to avoid flipping them onto another one.

NOTE:  I use a 13″ All Clad skillet to cook the egg patties and have found that making 3 at a time is the best number.  Perhaps in future, I’ll use my griddle, as well.  That way, I can squeeze in a few more per cooking batch.

NOTE: Cook the rice before cooking the egg patties so it’s ready to go.

BROWN SAUCE – makes 2/3 cup

  • 3g (1½ tsp) cornstarch
  • 4g (1 tsp) sugar
  • 5g (1 tsp) rice vinegar
  • 29g (2½ T) soy sauce
  • 112g (½ cup) water

In a small saucepan put the cornstarch, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Stir and mash until you have smooth paste (no lumps), then add in the water.

Heat over a medium flame until the color changes from coffee-with-cream color to black coffee color, stirring often. At this point the sauce will thicken a bit.  The color and thickness change will occur just before the boiling point.  Once the sauce begins to boil, turn off the heat.

EGG FOO YONG –  makes 8 patties 4″ in diameter

  • 5 eggs
  • ½ T soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup onions, thinly sliced
  • 4 mushrooms, chopped
  • 4 oz bean sprouts (1 cup)
  • vegetable oil for frying

NOTE:  You don’t have to restrict yourself to onions, mushrooms, and bean sprouts (or even use them at all).  You might try carrots, peas, scallions – whatever you fancy!

In a medium bowl beat the eggs.  Stir in the soy sauce, bean sprouts, onions and mushrooms.

In a large skillet, pour in enough oil to cover the bottom and heat over medium/high.  Ladle on the egg mixture like you were making pancakes.  You don’t want to use too much per patty – maybe 1/3 cup. They spread rapidly and then kind of keep spreading. Try not to have them touch – you don’t want to have to cut them if you can avoid it.  

Flip them when they’re well browned on bottom.  Side 2 cooks very fast.

Once they’re well browned on both sides transfer to a platter.  Add more oil as necessary as you cook the remainder.

Serve them hot over sticky rice, generously pouring the brown sauce on top.

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Make A Hot Tomato’s (that’s me!) Stuffed Tomatoes!

Stuffed Tomatoes

Stuffed Tomatoes

I have to confess that until a few months ago I had never eaten a stuffed tomato.  It’s not that I’d never heard of stuffed tomatoes (hey – I’ve been around….well, at least, nearby), it’s just that they never sounded very appealing.  I guess I must have thought they’d be bland and mushy.

For an upcoming dinner party I had planned on making Spinach And Mushrooms Topped Polenta.  This was a mixed group (i.e., vegetarians and carnivores) so I wanted something that appealed to both groups. I always feel like the pressure is on when cooking for carnivores – I want to show them vegetarian cooking is more than tofu and sprouts.

I was racking my brain for the perfect side dish for this entree.  It had to be visually appealing as well as have a taste that complimented the rather bland polenta, spinach, and mushrooms.  Something red, I decided, which pretty much meant carrots, red peppers, or tomatoes.  Tomatoes seemed like a perfect match.  Not only are they a vibrant red, but their flavor would play well against the polenta dish.

In thumbing through several cookbooks (to those of you under 30:  yes, in the old days we used actual books for recipes), I found tomato aspic, soup, stewed, stuffed, and tarts. I honed in on ‘Stuffed’.  Hmmm!  I liked the idea of a contained side dish since the mushrooms were going to be scattered with a brown sauce on top.  A nice, bright, plump tomato would do very well, visually.  Taste-wise, I still had my doubts.

After reading a few stuffed tomato recipes, I came up with own.  Holy Moly!  When I took my first bite, my mouth was aglow with delite.  I actually said, ‘Where has this been all my life?’ I couldn’t believe how powerful the tomato flavor was, balanced perfectly with the garlic, seasoned bread crumbs, spices, and Romano cheese.  Plus these Stuffed Tomatoes formed a perfect marriage with the Spinach And Mushrooms Topped Polenta.

Not only are Stuffed Tomatoes easy to prepare, pretty as a picture, and so tasty you’ll swear you’re hearing angels singing ‘Alleluia’ as you take your first bite, but they can also be prepared (but not baked) ahead of time so that’s one less thing to do as you’re trying to get your meal timed right. (Stay out of my way during the last 20 minutes of dinner prep!)

It doesn’t matter what variety of tomato you choose, but it’s best to use one that’s broader than it is tall.  Tall, thin tomatoes, such as Roma, tend to fall over and spill their contents thus producing an unstuffed Stuffed Tomato.  Not good!  Also, choose ones that are flat on the stem end as this will become the bottom.  For variety, you can also choose a gold or yellow heirloom – what’s life without shaking it up a bit?!

If you’d like to watch me make these delicious Stuffed Tomatoes, click on Stuffed Tomatoes.

STUFFED TOMATOES – makes 2

  • 2 tomatoes (intact and blemish-free)
  • ½ T olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, pressed
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/8 tsp dried basil
  • pinch cayenne pepper (also called red pepper spice)
  • 1 small bay leaf or ½ large one
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 T seasoned bread crumbs
  • ¼ cup Romano cheese, finely shredded
  • 2 T additional Romano cheese, finely shredded

Slice 1/3″ from BOTTOM of tomatoes.  (The stem end will become the bottom of the Stuffed Tomato). Carefully scoop out and save the pulp, leaving the sides and skin intact. Use a spoon for this task – you don’t want to pierce the sides of the tomato. Clean out all the nooks and crannies of seeds and goo, and give the tomatoes a few good shakes over the sink.  Set aside, letting them drain upside down.

Dice the tomato tops and meatier pulp.

In a small saucepan over a low/medium heat, sautè olive oil, garlic, oregano, basil, cayenne pepper, bay leaf, and salt for 1 minute. Take care not to burn the garlic.  Add in the diced tomatoes, turn up the heat to a medium flame, and cook for about 2 minutes. You want the tomato pieces cooked but not mushy.  What you’ll notice is the pieces have still retained their shape but quite a bit of liquid has been released. Turn off the burner.

Quickly strain the liquid using a small strainer, if you have one, or carefully pouring off as much liquid as you can into the sink (use a lid to prevent solids from slipping through. Empty any solids in the strainer back into the saucepan.  You don’t want to get rid of all of the liquid, just most of it – that’s why you need to do this step quickly.  REMOVE AND DISCARD BAY LEAF!!!

Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit.

Stir in the bread crumbs and ¼ cup Romano.  Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture, packing it down.  There should be exactly enough filling for 2 tomatoes.  Top each tomato with 1 T shredded Romano.

Place Stuffed Tomatoes on a greased cookie sheet that has sides (in case of leakage) and bake for 20 minutes. Then turn on broiler (leaving tomatoes where they are) and broil for another 2 minutes, until tops are browned.  Keep an eye on them – you don’t want to burn them! Serve hot.

 

 

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PEANUT BUTTER/CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES: Thick & Chewy!

Thick. Chewy. Chocolate Chip. Peanut Butter. Cookies.  Five words (Yes – I’m counting ‘chocolate chip’ and ‘peanut butter’ as one word apiece!) that individually grab your attention.  But used together, they have the ability to initiate a mighty craving, sending you running for your cookbooks or a local bakery.

I love reading author Joanne Fluke mysteries.  Not only do the characters feel like old friends, but the main character, Hannah,  runs a bakery and Ms Fluke includes many recipes in each book.  One of the recipes in Red Velvet Cupcake Murder, a recent read, was Chocolate Covered Peanut Cookies.  Yummm!  Chocolate covered peanuts are a favorite of mine.  (Who am I kidding – chocolate covered ANYTHING is a favorite!)  Then my mind went a step further and thought that a peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips would be even better – more like a Reeses Cup.

The thing is, most peanut butter cookies are kind of dry, flat, and have those fork marks on top.  I wanted a peanut butter cookie that was thick and chewy – something I could sink my teeth into.  I experimented a bit with both the cookie part and the chocolate chips before coming up with the taste I had in mind.

NOTE:   A walnut sized ball of cookie dough will yield a cookie approximately 1½” in diameter.  If you want a larger cookie, then obviously use more dough.

UPDATE NOTE:  I changed the sugar from granulated to dark brown – EVEN BETTER!!!

CHOCOLATE CHIP PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES – makes 24 cookies 1½” in diameter

  • 56 (¼ cup) butter, soft (but not melted)
  • 123g (½ cup) extra crunchy peanut butter (I used Jif)
  • 127g (¾ cup) dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 197g (1½ cup) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 102g (2/3 cup) milk chocolate chips (you can use semi-sweet, if you like, but I didn’t think they worked as well)

Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, peanut butter, and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. ( If you’re doing this by hand, your upper arm will get a nice workout.)

Beat in the egg.  

Add in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  Before turning on the mixer, mix the dry ingredients with the spatula to kind of blend them.  Then turn the mixer on and mix.  Recipes often have you put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and blend them before adding to the dough.  I would rather not dirty an extra bowl.  My way works fine.  You’re welcome. Pour in the chocolate chips and mix chips in on low.

Preheat oven to 375º Fahrenheit.

For a 2″ finished cookie, roll dough into walnut sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using your fingers, press them to about ½” thick.  These cookies don’t spread much.  

Bake 8-10 minutes – until the edges are starting to brown. Remove them from the oven, letting them set on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes to set.  Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to complete cooling.

There’s no way I can read one of Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen Mysteries without trying at least one of the her recipes.  My husband’s co-workers are reaping the benefit because when I make her cookie recipes, I send them to work with him…. Well, NEARLY, all of them. Hey, a girl has to eat!

 

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Leftover Easter Eggs? Mom’s ‘Chicken’ Casserole To The Rescue!!!

Unless you’re Cool Hand Luke, you may be reaching your wit’s end trying to use up all those hard boiled eggs from Easter. Well, have I got a recipe for you!  It’s my mom’s famous chicken casserole which I ingeniously call:  Mom’s ‘Chicken’ Casserole. Notice the quote marks around the word ‘chicken’.  That means I use faux (aka – fake, imitation) chicken. This recipe uses 4 hard boiled eggs! And, what the heck – if you’re getting desperate, throw in a couple more.

My mother was a very nervous cook.  She generally stuck to what she knew.  Somewhere along the line she found this fabulous chicken casserole that she made for every occasion. It always drew rave reviews so she figured if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  No one ever tired of it.

When I became a vegetarian, I figured that was the end of my mother’s casserole for me. But once I discovered there was such a thing as imitation chicken, I (with much anticipation) tried various brands. While some of them were good, they were all too dry for this recipe. Dang! Then I found Worthington’s frozen Meatless Chicken Style roll. What a difference! It’s very moist and gives the illusion that you’re actually eating chicken. So I dug out my chicken casserole recipe and tried the Worthington roll.  It tasted great!  Imitation meats have really expanded my vegetarian cooking repertoire.

A bit of warning (the bad news) – this roll is pricey, so don’t faint when you’re shopping. BUT it weighs 4 lbs (the good news), so you get a lot for your money.  If you were to cut it into cubes, you’d get approximately 14 cups.  And remember, unlike real chicken, the entire roll is edible – there are no bones, skin, fat, and gristle!  Yuck!!!

Here’s my tip:  Since these logs are far too much for any one meal, I let it thaw enough so I can cut it into thirds.  Then I refreeze the portions on a cookie sheet and, when frozen, seal and store them in a freezer bag.  (If you store and seal the portions before they’re refrozen, they’ll stick to each other.)

Mom’s ‘Chicken’ Casserole is one of those great recipes that you can make ahead of time. My mother always made it the day before – she claimed that allowed the flavors to blend. If you do make it ahead, don’t sprinkle on the potato chips (if you decide to use them) or almonds until just before you bake it.  By the way, my mom used the potato chips; I never do.  Of course, it’s delicious with the potato chips (why wouldn’t it be?) but I’m constantly watching my fat and calorie intake so I leave them out.  Either way, the casserole is fabulous!

The original chicken casserole recipe calls for Cream of Chicken Soup.  Of course, since this was now a vegetarian recipe I had to come up with a substitute.  I decided on a thick basic white sauce with some herbs added in.

NOTE:  You don’t have to use Worthington Chicken Style roll.  If you have another brand you prefer, use that.  Taste is subjective.

This recipe is made in the traditional 9½” x 13″ casserole dish.  If you choose to half it (which I did this time), use an 8″ x 8″ pan.  I actually have a cooking video of me making this recipe, if you’re a visual learner.  Click on Mom’s ‘Chicken’ Casserole to watch.

MOM’S ‘CHICKEN’ CASSEROLE

  • 8 cups cubed fake chicken (I used Worthington’s Chicken Style – see photo above)
  • 2 cups celery, diced (about 6 stalks)
  • 1  4-oz jar diced pimento
  • 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped (throw in more, if you like)
  • ¾ cup mayonaise
  • 3 T butter
  • 3 T flour
  • ¾ cup milk (I used organic nonfat)
  • ½ tsp salt (this is separate from the 1 tsp salt that follows)
  • ¼ tsp each of thyme, dill, and celery salt
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried minced onion (found with the jarred spices & herbs)
  • 2 T lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
  • 1 cup medium cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 2/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted
  • Optional:  1½ cups crushed potato chips

The first thing to do is make a white sauce.  In a small saucepan melt the butter.  Add in the flour and mash it together with the melted butter to form a smooth paste (make sure there are NO lumps – if you don’t do this now, they’ll never come out).  I use a flat-headed wooden stirrer for this.  Once blended, cook the paste over a low flame for 1 minute.  Pour in the milk, increase the heat to medium, and continue to stir until it thickens.  Stir in the ½ tsp salt and the thyme, dill, and celery salt.

In a large mixing bowl mix everything together (including the white sauce) EXCEPT the cheese, almonds, and potato chips (if using).  

Spread evenly into the casserole dish.  If you plan on baking this later, cover with foil and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 350º F.

To bake, layer the potato chips (if using) on top, then the cheese, and finally the slivered almonds.  Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes.  Serve hot.

I’ll be the first to admit the fake chicken version isn’t quite as good as the real thing. Chicken, Cream of Chicken Soup, and crushed potato chips are all really tasty.  But this is still an excellent casserole!  Remember, the fake meats are geared to talk you off the ledge when you start to weaken. The imitation chicken forms a base to all those other yummy ingredients.

Thanks to imitation meats, vegetarian cooking has come a long way.

 

 

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Peanut Butter Buns – OR, Two Salts Do Not A Sugar Make

Djash - Peanut Butter Roll

Djash – Peanut Butter Bun

You may or may not be aware, but we Armenians love our food.  I mean we LOVE our food. When I was a kid, family gatherings were centered around the preparing of the feast, the eating of the feast, the cleaning up after the feast, a brief interlude, and then the eating of the leftover feast. Yeah – we like our food.

My dad always loved telling us about how his mother made this fabulous after-school snack called ‘djash’ (pronounced ‘josh’).  It was a rolled bread filled with peanut butter.  With five hungry children in the house, she used to hide it – hoping to dole it out bit by bit.  But hungry children can be very resourceful and they always found it.  This wasn’t a food my grandmother made for holidays – rather it was an everyday kind of thing.  Something to tide her offspring over between the time they came home from school and dinner.

As far as I knew, djash was just another Armenian food that my family ate, along with shish kabab, dolma, madzoon, lahmajoon, etc.  When people familiar with Armenian foods asked which dishes we ate, I would rattle off a variety of foods.  They nodded knowingly until I got to djash – they’d never heard of it.  I didn’t really think twice about that, except even Armenians didn’t know what it was.  My cousin Sue and I were talking about this (she’d experienced the same thing), and she found out why:  ‘djash’ isn’t a specific food – it means ‘lunch’ or ‘little dinner’.  So when my grandmother made djash, she really meant ‘snack’ – it just so happened the snack was a peanut butter bun.  Now I know why I could never find it in any of the tons of Armenian cookbooks I own.

Years ago my dad had me type up (on a real typewriter – that’s how long ago this was) his mother’s djash recipe.  This was years before I learned to cook anything, let alone a yeast bread, so I didn’t see anything amiss with the recipe.  But recently I made djash and, while it was okay, it seemed like it was missing something.  Then I realized it tasted like it needed sugar.  I went back to the original recipe and there it was – the problem.  Salt was listed twice on the ingredients list, in different amounts.  More than likely, I just figured this was a mistake and eliminated one of the salts.  Now that I’m a seasoned cook (I say modestly), I fixed the problem by reinstating the sugar.

If this is your first time making a yeast roll, fear not – I’ll walk you through it.

DJASH (PEANUT BUTTER BUNS) – makes 12 buns

  • ½ T yeast
  • ¾ cup water, approximately 100ºF
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 8 T butter, cut up and softened (NOTE: more butter is used further down the ingredients list for the filling)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 T sugar
  • ½ lb peanut butter (I used the kind you grind in market yourself, made only with peanuts)
  • 2 T butter, softened
  • egg wash (1 egg and 1 T water beaten together)

NOTE:  If you want a sweeter peanut butter filling, you might want to use a brand like Skippy.  The grind-it-yourself kind has no salt, sugar, or oil added.

Stir the yeast into the water and let proof as you prepare the other ingredients.  Into the food processor put the flour, 8 T butter, egg, salt, and sugar.  Pulse several times.  Once the yeast water is proofed (foamy), turn on the food processor and pour in the yeast gradually through the feed tube.  Soon a dough ball will form.  Let the machine knead the dough for 45 seconds.

Smoosh the dough ball into a greased bowl, then flip it so the top is now on bottom.  (That way the ball is completely greased).  Cover and let rise for 1 hour.  In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and 2 T butter. Don’t melt the butter – it will make the filling too runny.

Punch down the dough and divide into 12 balls.  One by one, roll each ball to a 4″-5″ circle on a well floured board.  Spread a rounded tablespoonful of peanut butter over the circle to ½” from the edge.

djash roll up bigger

Roll up the circle, like a cigar.  Then roll up this tube sideways into a spiral circle.  Pinch the end into the roll.  After rolling each one, place it on a greased cookie sheet.  Cover them and let rise for ½ an hour.

Preheat oven to 400º F.

Press down each risen roll to ½” thick.  Paint them with the egg wash.  When the oven is heated, place the cookie sheet on the middle rack, then IMMEDIATELY LOWER TEMPERATURE TO 350º F.  Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Remove rolls to a wire rack.  They’re ready to eat hot out of the oven.

One final note from my husband – they would probably taste really good topped with a chocolate frosting.  But, of course, what wouldn’t?!