Dirty Rice Stuffed Swiss Chard

I had a fantastic version of this dish at a friend's house last fall. I was invited to a dinner party where nearly all the guest were somehow involved in urban agriculture...needless to say, it was an amazing meal. One of the best dishes consisted of stuffed swiss chard leaves with a filling of rice, cheese, raisins, and who knows what else. I don't really follow recipes, or measure, so here's the general gist of what I did.

First I picked the largest leaves I could find. Then I blanched them for about 30 seconds in boiling water, just to soften them up. I removed the stem from each leaf.

Meanwhile, I cooked some ground turkey and white rice and combine those with some parsley, garlic, and golden raisins.

Each leaf was stuffed with maybe a quarter cup of the rice mixture and they were wrapped egg-roll-style.

I layered the stuffed leaves in a casserole dish on top of a thin layer of tomato sauce.

I covered the rolls with more tomato sauce and parmesan cheese and baked for maybe 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

I don't have any photos of the final product (they didn't last long). Overall, they reminded me of stuffed peppers. Next time I might omit the raisins. They were good, but just kind of weird.

Father's Day Chimichurri

My Father's Day plans involves kebabs, so I thought I'd try making chimichurri. My herbs are out of control, so this was a good way to make a small dent in my supply. From my recipe search, it appears that most chimichurris include parsley and oregano as the main ingredients. I decided to add a couple extra herbs since I had them.

Here's what I started with: approximately 2 cups of parsley, 3 tablespoons of marjoram (similar to oregano), maybe another 3 tablespoons of cilantro, a small handful of garlic chives, nearly an entire head of garlic (but my garlic from last year is pretty small).

I whizzed these ingredients up in the food processor, then added 1 cup of olive oil, about 4 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (what I had on hand), and salt and pepper. Normally chimichurri calls for red pepper flakes, but I left them out since my dad can't handle spicy food.

Since I strayed from the recipe, I'm not sure how legit my chimichurri is, but since it's basically herb pesto (without the nuts and cheese) I think you can play around with it a lot.

I think I better supply some breath mints...

Rhubarb Soda Pop

My first garden harvest this year was some rhubarb from my 3-year old rhubarb patch. I planned on making some rhubarb syrup to use to make soda pop...and it was delicious.

My rhubarb bolted this year, probably due to the drought-like conditions last summer. The two sheathed stalks in the photo below are flower stalks. They were cut off near the base of the plant once I realized what they were.

Here's what the unopened rhubarb flower looks like. At first, I thought it was just an unfurled leaf all crinkled up, but it was actually the flower head.

Making the rhubarb syrup was easy. I mention the recipe I use in this post. After letting it cool, I mixed approximately 1 part rhubarb syrup with 2 parts club soda. The resulting color was a pretty pale pink. It reminded me of pink grapefruit...and it actually tasted quite a bit like grapefruit too!

Broccoli, Chicken, and Feta Cheese Pizza

I've been making a homemade pizza a few times each month during the last year (see my earlier posts on pizza with garlic scapes and cooked greens and pizza with bacon, greens, and tomato). We almost always use chicken instead of pepperoni and I always try to include some vegetables...so it can't be that unhealthy, right?

My most recent pie included chicken, broccoli sauteed in garlic, and feta cheese. Feta cheese has to be one of my favorite pizza toppings ever! It's a little too strong for me to eat "raw" in a salad or in a pita sandwich, but when you bake it on top of a pizza it gets mellower and gains a nice golden brown crust.

 

This pizza was a big hit with my boyfriend, who loves garlic. I wasn't sure if he would go for the broccoli pizza-concept, but we were both pretty happy with it.

BLT Pizza (kind of)

I've been having a lot of fun making homemade pizzas this summer. My boyfriend introduced me to the world of chicken pizza and it's now my favorite topping. The latest pizza did not have chicken (we were out), so we used bacon. I decided to do a play on a BLT sandwich using bacon, swiss chard (it's pretty close to lettuce, right?) and tomato (three different colors of heirlooms). I also included a ton of garlic.

It turned into a very colorful pizza! I've been using frozen pizza dough and it is so good! I don't think I'll ever go back to pizza dough mix. You have to plan ahead a little bit more if you're using the frozen dough, but the pizzas we've been making are almost as good (if not better) than from a real pizza place.

I still prefer chicken, but this was pretty good too!

Make Your Own Tahini

I had some really good hummus at a high school open house last weekend, so I really wanted to make some of my own. Tahini (sesame seed paste used in any hummus recipe) is fairly expensive to buy, so I thought I'd make that from scratch too!

I bought about a pound of raw hulled sesame seeds from a local ethnic food store that sells things in bulk. Sesame seeds were only $2.50 per pound!

I sauteed 1 cup (which isn't even half of the bag I bought) in a dry skillet stirring often. The directions I found online said to roast them in the oven, but I didn't really want to heat up the whole house. The skillet method worked just fine.

I toasted the sesame seeds on medium heat for maybe 5 minutes until evenly golden brown.

Let the seeds cool slightly then whiz them up in a food processor with some oil (do not attempt this in a blender). For every 1 cup sesame seeds, add about 1/4 cup vegetable oil or a mix of vegetable oil and sesame oil (if you have it on hand). I had to add a little more than 1/4 cup before the mixture really came together.

The finished product is the color or peanut butter, but a little runnier. This tahini is probably a lot grainier than store bought, but it tastes really good and is super inexpensive.

*I should mention that this made about 1 cup of tahini, which is way more than you would use in a regular sized hummus recipe. The extra can be stored in the fridge for at least a couple weeks or longer.

Delicious Delicious Yogurt Popsicles

My friend Gina (a popsicle fanatic) inspired me to start making my own popsicles. Ironically, soon after she told me about her popsicle-making escapades, Jamie Oliver posted a recipe for Yogurt Pops on his Food Revolution website. While I didn't exactly follow his recipe, I did get the idea from him.

It actually took me a while to find a popsicle maker. I ended up finding one (and it was the very last one) at Target on 50% clearance (only $1.99)! What a great find!

My very own yogurt pops were made with 1 cup low fat strawberry yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup Jumex mango nectar (look in the hispanic food section of your grocery store).  I was just guessing, but the mixture I made was the perfect amount to fill my four-at-a-time popsicle maker. I froze the pops overnight and then ran them under hot water to release the popsicles. They taste really great! Creamy, sweet, and a little tangy from the yogurt.

Jumex makes quite an array of different fruit nectars, so I'm going to experiment with different flavors. I also made a couple popsicles with just mango nectar and they were also really tasty. 

I also may play around with making a chocolate strawberry popsicle (strawberry yogurt and a little chocolate syrup). Mmmm...sounds so good!

How I Used My First Homegrown Eggs

I've been getting an egg every single day from my one hen. After losing track of time while taking my written comprehensive exams, I came to the realization that I had collected almost a dozen eggs from her already, but hadn't used a single one!

So how did I use my first homegrown egg? To make chocolate chip cookies of course! I realize this probably wasn't the best way to showcase my first egg, but my boyfriend and I needed some cookies.

My go-to chocolate chip cookies recipe comes from this book. Yes, it's a children's cookbook. I recieved this as a gift from Mom many many years ago. I'm pretty sure she got it from saving up UPC labels back in the day when people did that. I don't know how many promotional toys and LEGO kits my brother's and I got from my Mom's "refund club".

"C" is for Chocolate Chip Cookie! Notice the smudges of this well-used recipe.

After fulfilling our thirst for cookies, I decided I would do something a little more egg-worthy...fried eggs for breakfast. 

The yolks are a fantastic neon orange color. I'm not particularly a fan of friend eggs, but these were pretty tasty. I noticed that the egg shells were really difficult to crack! I'm not sure if the shell is thicker than grocery store eggs, or if the inner membrane is fresher and stronger. I also noticed that the egg white was firm and gelatinous, unlike any watery grocery store egg I've ever cracked.

Later that day, I made my boyfriend and myself some english muffin sandwiches (egg McMuffin style) with ham, egg, swiss, cheese, and honey mustard. Yum! As you can see, even after scrambling the eggs, the whites are still mostly intact because they are so firm. Can you tell how many eggs I used?

My First Quiche

I can't believe I've never made a quiche before, but it's true. With my impending eggy-abundance, I'm trying to find new egg recipes that I actually like. The challenge is that I don't particularly like eggs. I don't like them fried or scrambled, or any of the usual ways. I do like them hard-boiled, scrambled into pad thai, dropped into hot soup, or incorporated into baked good (although that doesn't really count). I guess I can add quiche to my "likes" list because this was delicious!

Crustless Quiche with Bacon, Spinach, Shrooms and Swiss

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
4 eggs
6 oz swiss cheese, shredded
6-8 oz bacon (omit, if you want your quiche vegetarian)
6 oz mixed sliced mushrooms (button, oyster, shiitake)
1 cup cooked spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Fry the bacon and drain on paper towel. Chop the bacon into small pieces once cool. Drain off most of the bacon grease and saute the mushrooms in the remaining grease. When the mushrooms are almost done, add the spinach and cook until wilted. Layer the bacon, mushrooms and spinach, and swiss cheese in a nonstick pie pan. In a large bowl beat the eggs, cream, and milk together (I used an electric mixer) until well combined and custardy.  Pour egg mixture over the filling. Bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when poked in the center of the quiche. Let the quiche rest for about 5 minutes before cutting slices.

I would suggest serving this quiche with a side salad because it is very rich. It reheats really well, so don't worry if you have leftovers.

Before baking

After baking

Refrigerator Pickles

These crisp and garlicky pickles are fast and delicious and don't require any canning skills. They will keep in the fridge for at least a week, but I doubt they'll last that long.

Ingredients:

Cucumbers: either hothouse cucumbers (the shrink-wrapped kind from the store), or homegrown

Rice Vinegar: a.k.a. sushi vinegar (I prefer this to most other vinegars)

Dill: fresh or dried (I dried some store-bought dill in my dehydrator)

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Instructions:

Slice the cucumber very thinly and put in a bowl. Barely cover with vinegar. Chop up garlic and dill (if using fresh dill). Combine garlic, dill, garlic, salt, and sugar (to taste) with the cucumber and vinegar. The amount of sugar you use depends on how sweet (use more) or vinegary (use less) you want your pickles. The pickles will be ready in as little as an hour, but they are best if you let them sit overnight in the fridge.

Pad Thai

A couple years ago I learned how to make pad thai. It's really really easy, so you should give it a go. Pad thai generally includes rice noodles, peanut sauce, scrambled egg, chicken, and bean sprouts. You can add pretty much anything you like on top of this such as cilantro, lime, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, chili, etc. Go ahead and experiment, because you're going to love it!

Ingredients:

• I'm not giving any measurements, because I never measure, and this dish really doesn't require any measuring. It's going to be good no matter what ratio of ingredients you end up with. Use your best judgment.
• Rice noodles: get the kind that are about the same width as fettucini noodles. These can be purchased at any ethnic food store and possibly at your local grocery store. 
• Eggs: pad thai is usually made with the eggs scrambled right into the rest of the ingredients, but I prefer them to be scrambled separately.
• Oil
• Chicken breast, diced
• Carrot, diced
• Bean Sprouts
• Cilantro, chopped
• Fresh lime, cut into wedges
• Bottled peanut sauce: can be found at most grocery stores in the asian food section near the teriyaki and soy sauces.
• Optional: broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushroom, etc.

Directions:

1. Soak your rice noodles in hot water for at least 15 minutes, until soft and flexible. Drain and set aside. 
2. Get the remaining ingredients prepped (diced, portioned out, etc) before you go on to the next step. This dish cooks very quickly, so you don't want to be stuck dicing vegetables at the last minute.
3. In a large skillet, cook the chicken in some oil. Set aside (this prevents the chicken from getting overcooked while you're cooking the rest of the dish).
4. Scramble the eggs. Set aside.
5. Stir fry the carrots and any other "harder" vegetables in your empty chicken skillet.
6. Once the carrot is nearly done, add any "softer" vegetables such as the bean sprouts, zucchini, and mushrooms.
7. Add the drained rice noodles
8. Add peanut sauce
9. Recombine the chicken and scrambled egg
10. Toss the noodles and other ingredients until everything is coated with sauce
11. Garnish with cilantro and a wedge of lime
12. Eat piping hot!

Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I finally got around to using up some of the frozen pumpkin puree I made in the fall from my jarrahdale pumpkins. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite ways to use pumpkin puree (probably because it involves chocolate).

I have a feeling this recipe may vary wildly depending on the type of pumpkin you use (i.e. store-bought versus homemade, water content, amount of stringy pumpkin bits, etc). I've made it a few times and it's always slightly different, but always good too!

Pumpkin and dark chocolate chip cookies

*These are not your typical crunchy/chewy chocolate chip cookies, so don't expect them to turn out that way. These cookies are very dense and cake-like.

1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)

¾ cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil (yes, this sounds kind of gross if you're not used to baking with oil, but this replaces the butter)

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

½ t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t milk

1 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips (I think this is a little skimpy. I like to have a chocolate chip in every single bit, so feel free to add another ½ cup)

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda/milk mixture. Stir to combine. Add chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto baking sheets.   Bake 10-12 minutes.

*I have found that an ice cream scoop works well for spooning out the cookies because this batter is extremely gummy and sticky.

*Although this may vary depending on the type of pumpkin you use, these cookies do not spread much when I make them, so you can put them fairly close together on the baking pan.

Gifted Ingredients

I asked Santa for dried cherries, almonds, and pecans this Christmas and I got almost two pounds of each!

I see biscotti, pecan pie, and cherry chocolate chip cookies are in my near future...

I also asked for this food dehydrator to make my own jerky, dried tomatoes, dried cherries, and other dried fruits and vegetables. I can't wait to get started.

Best Ever Alfredo Sauce

My parents absolutely love fettuccine alfredo. We usually only have it during the holidays since it is so rich. It's an incredibly easy recipe and very inexpensive to make at home compared to what restaurants charge. Furthermore, I think this recipe beats any restaurant alfredo I've ever had!

Alfredo sauce can vary widely. Often I find that restaurant alfredo sauce taste exactly like regular white sauce (having zero garlic or cheese flavor whatsoever). I have made both traditional alfredo sauce and this cream cheese version a number of times. The cream cheese recipe is so much more flavorful and really doesn't add that many more calories (although if you're eating fettuccine alfredo, you're probably not overly worried about calories anyway).

*This recipe makes plenty of sauce for 1 pound of fettuccine noodles

½ cup butter

2-4 T of real cream cheese

1 pint heavy cream

2/3-1c parmesan cheese (the cheap, powdery canned stuff is fine)

garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Melt the butter, then add cream cheese and soften. The cream cheese may take some time to completely incorporate. Add heavy cream at low heat, stirring often. Add parmesan and seasonings. Heat until thickened.

*Depending on how rich you want the sauce, adjust the amount of cream cheese within the 2-4 T range. More cream cheese is not necessarily better in this recipe, so do not be tempted to add more than 4T (I know this from experience).

I forgot to take any photos before we started eating...

Big Fat Pretzels

I've been making this pretzel recipe for years and years. I usually end up making pretzels a couple times over the holidays (when I'm not busy making bread flavored paper weights). This recipe is a particular favorite of my family and is very quick and simple. You don't have to wait for the dough to rise and there isn't any crazy soda or lye dipping involved. These pretzels turn out crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. They don't keep very well because the salt will make the pretzels wet, but these usually don't last long enough for that to be an issue.

*Makes 12 pretzels

1 pkg. Active dry yeast

1 1/3 C warm water

1 T sugar

½ t salt

3 ½ - 4 C unsifted all-purpose flour

1 egg white

1 T water

2 T Kosher or Sea salt

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Grease 2 baking sheets. In a large bowl dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt, and 3 ½ C flour. Knead dough on floured board, adding up to ½ C additional flour as needed, until dough is smooth and elastic. Cut dough in half, then cut halves into 6 equal pieces. Roll out each piece into dough rope, about 15 inches long. Fold into pretzel shape. Place on baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Combine egg white and water and brush onto pretzels. Sprinkle with course salt. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve plain or with mustard or butter.

* I have found that this very elastic dough is much easier to roll out into ropes if you let the cut pieces rest for about 5 minutes first.

Egg Recipes

My oldest brother visited recently and we got to chatting about my impending (although not for another ~7 months) egg overload. Being quite a foodie and having taken culinary school classes, he had all kinds of suggestions for using up eggs: aioli, mayonnaise, crème brulee, merengue, etc. Surprisingly, I never made any of these things before. I'll have to start researching good egg recipes.

Aioli must be gaining in popularity, because I've eaten at a couple of restaurants lately that have both featured garlic lime aioli in their dishes. One of them even had garlic lime sriracha aioli.  From what I can tell, aioli is kind of halfway between hummus and mayonnaise.

I got a double-yolker from the grocery store this summer (this was the first one of my life).

It's kind of silly that I'm getting some chickens because I'm not particularly fond of fried eggs or scrambled eggs. However I have found a number of uses for eggs that I do enjoy. I often cook raw scrambled egg into soups such as noodle soup or tomato soup to add a little protein (plus it's delicious). I'm also a huge fan of bibimbap, which is a Korean dish of rice, hot and cold vegetables, sometimes meat, and a fried egg on top.  Eggs are always useful for baking, either for cakes, cookies, biscotti, or for brushing on top of pretzels or bread.

Bread Disaster

I attempted to make a couple different bread recipes the other day while at my parent's house. I'm usually a pretty good cook and baker, but I somehow managed to screw up both recipes.

My oldest brother introduced a very tasty tomato basil bread recipe to my family long ago. I've probably made the recipe ten times throughout the years and it always turns out fine. Similarly, I've also made a recipe called “Simple Crusty Bread” a couple times with decent results.

This time, both doughs failed to rise. I eventually came to the conclusion that this happened due to my impatience. The faucet in my parent's kitchen takes about 5 minutes to get hot water. Trying to save time, I just microwaved the water until hot (scorching hot, I realized later). This must have killed off all the yeast, because the bread didn't rise one bit.

Hoping that the dough would magically rise in the oven, I baked the loaves anyway. Nothing happened. The white bread loaf ended up looking very similar to a vanilla cow-pie, was super dense, and almost completely raw on the inside. That is how the Simple Crusty Bread loaf quickly became Simple Bird Food Bread loaf. The tomato basil loaf wasn't much better, although it had somehow cooked most of the way through. My mom, hoping to salvage one of her favorite bread recipes, had the idea to slice the bread and re-bake the individual slices. Ultimately, we ended up making tomato basil biscotti and it wasn't actually half bad!

Tomato basil biscotti

The moral of the story is:

Don't rush when baking (that's how I also managed to swap powdered sugar for flour when trying to make pretzels years ago) and use water between 110 and 120ºF with yeast.