Bubbles

I haven't personally made this recipe yet but I wanted to put it on my blog so I can get rid of the paper on my desk!

1/3 cup dish soap or baby shampoo
1 1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons karo syrup or sugar
combine

Carrot Cake Pancakes

I plan on making these this week!
carrot cake pancakes

Tallulah's Amazing Blueberryalicious Pancakes

Recipe:
1 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons oil
2 cups blueberries
butter and oil as needed to coat the skillet
makes about 12 4-inch pancakes

This is one of my favorite pancake recipes.  I found it in one of Noah's books (about a pancake chef cat) that we checked out from the library.  I always double the recipe.  I think I use half white and half whole wheat flour.  I often use dry nf milk mixed with water as well.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients together.  Add wet to dry, mix til everything is just incorporate (don't over mix!).  "Never sneeze directly into the batter."

gnocchi with brown butter

tonight our friends (Rich, Beth, Beth's mom, and kids) came over and made the most delicious meal. We made gnocchi together--recipe at the bottom--and then we made this amazing sauce to coat it. All you do is melt a stick of butter, add some fresh sage and fresh squeezed lemon juice from half of a lemon. (We doubled the recipe since we had a lot of gnocchi.) You cook the butter until it is brown. Dump cooked gnocchi into the "sauce" and gently toss together. Serve and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Mark made some awesome asparagus to go with it--I'll have to have him post the recipe sometime. He basically tossed the asparagus with lots of olive oil, lemon juice, S&P, and Parmesan and then roasted them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 400 (I think--I was rolling, cutting, and forking gnocchi while he was making this) for 15-20 minutes. Once again, I find myself loving a food that I've never really enjoyed that much.

If you refer to yourself as a picky eater, I really encourage you to go out and start trying some new foods and/or previously disliked foods because things change. Life is so much better when you are able to enjoy more good things. The same thing goes for offering food to your "picky" kids. Just because they don't like something one day doesn't mean they won't change their mind. The key is to keep an open invitation to trying any foods. When I asked Noah if he would like some asparagus (he often doesn't like "green" things) he happily said, "sure!" And then he ate every bite!


(the kids got bolognese sauce so the adults could have all the good stuff!)


In case you're wondering, Rich is not wearing a women's top. He is wearing a baby carrier with a baby inside of course. :)

Gnocchi:

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 lbs  russet potatoes
1/4 cup cream
1 egg
nutmeg
2 cups flour

DIRECTIONS:
1. cook the potatoes (bake in oven/microwave or boil.  whichever you prefer).  Boil a big pot of water to cook the gnocchi.
2. peel potatoes and mash.  (Beth insists on using a potato ricer, so if you have one, use it)
3. beat cream and egg together.  Season liberally with nutmeg.  Mix in with potatoes.
4. work the flour in and knead the mixture. (you may need to add a little more cream/flour to get the right consistency.  It shouldn't be sticky or dry)
5.  on a floured surface, roll dough into a snake about quarter-sized diameter.  You will probably have to keep cutting the snakes in half to make it easier to roll.
6.  Cut snakes into 1-inch long pieces.  If you feel like being fancy and making a lot of extra work, you can press each piece with a fork.  It's not necessary, but Beth likes to do it :) Did I mention that Beth is half Italian?
TIP: as you are making the gnocchi, put the 1-inch pieces onto a floured cookie sheet only one layer deep so that they don't stick together.
7.  Drop gnocchi into boiling water.  They take only a couple minutes to cook.  When they float to the top, they are done.  Use a slotted spoon/strainer/slotted ladle/etc to scoop gnocchi out of the water.  repeat until all the gnocchi is cooked.  Toss with sauce and you're ready to eat!

WARNING: do not attempt to make the gnocchi ahead of time and plop them in a giant bowl and leave them in the fridge.  It will be a disaster.  I know from experience.  If you want to make them ahead, you need to spread them out on a cookie sheet (1 LAYER!) and freeze them.  Once frozen, they can be put in a bag for storage.  I have never tried this but I've heard it works. 

Pad Thai Peanut Chicken

For our anniversary, Mark and I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. I really wanted Pad Thai but I also wanted something with peanut sauce. The menu item with peanut sauce was served on spinach which didn't sound as delicious as being served on noodles. So I don't know if this is an authentic Thai dish or not but today I combined the two dishes to make this really awesome dinner.

Pad Thai Peanut Chicken

Ingredients:
1 package (mine was 16 oz) rice noodles

peanut oil
3 chicken breasts (I don't know how many pounds, sorry!)

Sauce:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups chicken broth
2/3 cups creamy peanut butter (I eyeballed this so more like 3-4 large spoonfuls)
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar (use rice vinegar if you have it)
sriracha hot chili sauce, to taste (optional)

Veggies:
peanut oil
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup grated carrot
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1 inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 jalapenos, diced (I mostly deseeded mine, I'm not a good judge for how much to add!)
2-3 large handfuls bean sprouts

Toppings (optional, if you are lame) :
chopped peanuts
chopped cilantro
lime
shredded coconut
sesame seeds
sriracha hot chili sauce

Directions:

1. prepare noodles according to package (soak in very hot water for 25 min, then drain)

2. sauce: whisk the cornstarch into the chicken broth until dissolved. Whisk in the peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar and keep warm. To add more spice, add a 1/2 teaspoon or so of sriracha. (I added a bit to the big batch and then set the bottle on the table so everyone can adjust to their own liking)

3. Saute chicken in peanut oil. I sauteed the breasts, then chopped them up into smaller pieces but you can chop the raw chicken first if you wanted. I just hate touching raw chicken. I also forgot to season my chicken first which I think would have made the chicken much better tasting! (season with salt and pepper, or if you know something fancier, go for it!)

4. Heat more oil in a LARGE skillet over medium heat. Add onion. Wait a minute or two then add garlic, ginger, and jalapeno. cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the carrots and bell pepper. Cook until all veggies are tender. Add softened noodles and chicken chunks. Add bean sprouts and cook a couple more minutes. Toss the vegetables, pasta, and chicken with the peanut sauce to serve.

5. Squeeze some lime juice on and pile on the toppings. Keep the sriracha handy!

My thoughts: this was a total experiment for me. I've never made Thai food before but it was so good. Noah (4) even asked for seconds. I think Maren (1 1/2) would have too but she's been a little under the weather lately. Mark and I had several helpings. The chicken is not my favorite part about the meal, but then again, I'm not a huge chicken fan. I won't forget to season my chicken next time and I'll probably cut it up into smaller chunks. This dish can easily be converted into a vegetarian meal (veggie broth and no chicken). Also, it's gluten-free for all my celiac/gluten intolerant friends out there. Enjoy!

delicious curry!

My friend Kate made this dish for us once and it's one of my all time favorite meals. Here's the recipe. I didn't have any lamb and I just wanted a quick curry sauce to go with some rice. My rice recipe equals this plus this. Basically I make the saffron rice (without the saffron part) by sauteing the uncooked rice in butter and then adding the boiling water. then I saute some onions, carrots, and ginger; then I add the cooked rice. Just can also just add whatever cooked rice you already have on hand.

In the meantime I made the makhni curry sauce--I used only whole milk (no heavy cream/yogurt cause I didn't have any) and added enough til it was thin thick. (pourable--not pasty and not soupy). I added a little sugar to tone down the spices just a tad. Then I added a can of drained garbanzo beans.

We sprinkled peanuts on top.

So good. It's been a long time since I've had curry since for the last couple months anything other than chicken nuggets or ramen. (Hooray for 2nd trimester!)

waffle-ize it

I'm not a sandwich person. Unless it's a really good sandwich. For example:

thinly slice some artisan bread (ie: rosemary olive oil)

generously spread on some brie (get it from Costco)

then add some thinly sliced apples (i prefer granny smith, and I use my awesome V-slicer)

And some deli ham

lightly brush outsides of sandwich with olive oil

Cook it in a waffle iron.



This was probably my favorite sandwich. ever.

Then I found this fun website about other things to try in your waffle iron: Waffleizer. I'd like to try it with falafel!

More Rhubarb Recipes

Rhubarb Lime Muffins
(makes 24)

- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cups brown sugar
- 3/4 cup demerara sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
- 2/3 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- juice from one lime
- rhubarb pulp

Topping:
- 1/2 cup demerara sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter/margarine
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. preheat oven to 375 F
2. make topping first
3. then combine dry ingredients. in a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients except rhubarb
4. pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, fold in rhubarb
5. put in greased muffin pans, top with sugar mixture
6. place muffin pans on cookie sheets so that the bottoms/sides don't overcook
7. cook for about 18 minutes



I came up with this recipe using this one--this is usually how I come up with my own recipes. I look at a recipe and say, hmm I can make this better. Or, oh man, I don't have enough brown sugar left. Any I have all these limes I need to use. Anyway, I'm not a big muffin/cupcake person because usually they are dry and mediocre if not eaten straight from the oven. Not so with these. They were the best muffins I have ever made or tasted. The flavors were right on (Mark: "yum, did you put cardamom in these?") and they were perfectly cooked: not raw, completely cooked, not a dry speck on the muffin. They weren't fluffy, which is why I directed to make the topping first so that you don't loose all that leavening if you wait til the end to make it. But otherwise they were delicious. Also, I pulled them out will they still looked a little goopy on top--they will continue cooking in the pan...

Rhubarb Ice Cream
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups rhubarb juice
- 1-2 cups whole milk

Pour ingredients into ice cream maker. The end.

Next time I make this ice cream, I will use more rhubarb juice and less milk (2 cups juice to 1 cup milk). It had a nice, subtle rhuby flavor but I wanted more. Also, if you use heavy cream instead of whole milk, it will refreeze much better. But you don't have to add any additional sugar. Perhaps juice from 1 lime would work well too...

Cardamom
this stuff is really expensive. sometimes. at the store I usually shop at, it is like 20 bucks! but I found a large jar (as opposed to the tiny 2 oz ones) at Whole Foods for 4 bucks. sweet deal!

What to do with Rhubarb

You can't find rhubarb at just any grocery store here in Cleveland. It's taken me 3 years to learn that I have to get it at the farmer's market in season if I want it. The great thing about rhubarb is that it freezes well. So now, every Saturday, I have a date with the farmer's market so I can pick up 2 or 3 bunches--I'm going to need a bigger freezer!!

- Prepping rhubarb for freezer: cut rhubarb into 1-inch pieces and place in a freezer bag. (easy!)



While thumbing through my family cookbook that my mom put together for me one year, I discovered a fun way to get more bang for your buck.

Rhubarb Juice
- put 4 cups of chopped rhubarb into a sauce pan with 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar. Cook until the rhubarb is tender (keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over!)
- Place a strainer on a bowl (I use a glass 4-cup measuring cup) and pour rhubarb into strainer
- DO NOT PRESS PULP in the strainer



- Reserve the liquid. One option is to pour the liquid into clean ice cube trays and freeze.
- Use rhubarb pulp for pie filling--it's already cooked and sweetened so you can reduce cooking time and your pie will not be runny!





Rhubarb Mint Mocktails
- Plop 4 or 5 frozen rhubarb cubes (see above) into a glass
- Add chilled ginger ale
- Add a sprig of mint


(really wishing I had some cute little cocktail glasses! Don't mind my son's fingers, he was anxious to try some.)


Cardamom Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble (this is tweaked a bit from smitten kitchen, but credit goes to her for the original recipe!)


(smitten kitchen take 100 bajillion times better food photos than I do. Even so, this pie was amazing and the cardamom makes it really awesome!)


Filling:
- Cooked rhubarb pulp (see above)
- A bunch of strawberries (1 quart maybe???), de-stemmed and sliced (I don't remember how much I actually used because I bought my berries in bulk from costco and we ate most of them before I decided to make pie)
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup lime juice (you could use lemon)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- Pinch of salt

Topping:
- 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour (you can't even tell. I used this because our white flour bucket was empty and I was too lazy to go down to the basement to fill it up)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons demerara sugar (don't skip this step if possible, I love the texture of this!)
- 1 stick melted butter

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 375. mix together filling and put in a pie dish.
2. Combine die ingredients for topping, add melted butter and mix together until you get crumbles
3. Cover filling with crumble. Place pie dish on a foil-lined baking dish so you don't get sticky juice dripping down onto the bottom of your oven. bake for 25-30 minutes or until topping looks golden brown.
4. enjoy with ice cream :)

Tomorrow, I will be making Rhubarb Ice Cream with my rhubarb juice. I'll post the recipe once I come up with it--especially if it's a success!

Baked Alaska Pie

This pie is pretty simple and looks fabulous. And of course it's yummy.

you need 1 baked pie crust


Fill it with a quart of softened ice cream. (peppermint, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, for example)

Generously drizzle top with chocolate sauce. Stick in freezer until ready to top with meringue.

Whip 5 egg whites with 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar. Don't try to do this by hand. Use an electric mixer!!! When foamy, add 2/3 cups sugar. Beat until eggs are stiff and glossy. Glob on pie. All of it. make sure to seal the edges of the pie so that no ice cream is showing. You can stick it in the freezer again for as long as a day until you are ready to cook.


Cook on lowest rack of oven at 500 F for 2 or 3 minutes or until light brown.

Maple Bacon Pecan Pie

Pie day just so happens to be a really huge holiday in my family. We celebrated a couple days early so we could do it on the weekend. Just in case you are wondering. Pie Day=Pi Day=3/14 :)

Last year we did an avocado pie. This year my secret ingredient was bacon.

Got the recipe here:

Pecan and Bacon Pie

We did a few things differently. I didn't make the pie crust with the bacon grease because I already had a crust on hand and I try to simplify my life as much as possible.

We added more bacon.


I chopped the pecans a little bit.

We used 2 teaspoons of vanilla mixed with 2 tablespoons maple syrup instead of Bourbon.



It was pretty much everybody's favorite pie. We will never make a baconless pecan pie again.

No Knead Bread

My friend Rosie posted about this bread on her blog recently so I borrowed a cast-iron pot and tried it out. This bread is awesome. So easy! Here's the recipe that I used:

NY times no knead bread

I didn't do the whole step involving putting the loaf on a towel. I just left it on the cutting board the whole time and covered with plastic wrap.


Didn't shape it either really. Just threw it in the pot and voila!


It went great with a green salad, fruit salad, and roasted red bell pepper soup!

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi is a yogurt drink. Basically, it's a mango smoothie.

Ingredients:
fresh or frozen (and partially thawed) mango (I prefer the convenience of frozen!)
nonfat plain yogurt
milk/cream/halfnhalf
sugar

Fill your blender almost halfway with mango. Add a little milk (up to 1/4 cup??). Skim works just great! I used heavy cream or half n half the last 2 times I made it cause I needed to use that up. Pour in a half cup of sugar. Scoop in several large scoops of yogurt. Blend. Taste. Add whatever you think needs adjusting. I add up to 2 cups of yogurt. If you are using fresh mango, add a few ice cubes if you like.

Enjoy!

Easy Lemon Cheese

You, yes YOU can make cheese too. Here is an easy cheese recipe that doesn't require any special equipment (The stuff I use is pretty standard fare).

Ingredients:
1 gallon whole milk
Juice from 3 large lemons or 1/2-3/4 cup lemon juice
non-iodized salt
herb of your choice (optional)

1. Heat milk in stainless steel pot or double boiler* to 175 degrees F.

2. Turn off heat, add lemon juice, cover, let sit for 15 minutes. You may need to add more lemon juice if your milk doesn't look curdled enough. Line colander with cheesecloth**

3. Carefully pour milk into the cheesecloth. wrap it up and let the cheese drain*** for a few hours. The longer it drains, the more crumbly it will be. The less drained, it will be creamier like cream cheese. Take notes on what you do because my cheese turns out a little different every time! :)

4. Put cheese in a container that has a good-fitting lid. Mix in salt (1-3 teaspoons--taste it as you add!!!) and chopped herbs. voila!

5. serve with crackers or bread. Or if more crumbly, serve on curry, soups, salads, etc!

P.S. This is not my recipe, it's Ricki Carroll's--the cheesemaking genius. I found this recipe online all over the place so I thought it would be okay to share.

*I have made it in just a stainless steel pot, not using a double boiler. This works fine but I tend to stir it for most of the time it's heating up so that it doesn't burn on the bottom. As for a double boiler, you can use a large stainless steel bowl or pot. You may need to invert a ceramic plate at the bottom of the bigger pot so that the container holding the milk doesn't touch the bottom.

** I bought some cloth diapers at Walmart and sewed 2 together. They work great. I prefer this to an actual cheese cloth because the knit is tighter and you won't loose any precious curds! You can also use butter muslin.

*** You can hang it and let it drain. I don't have a good place for this though. I wrap it up tight, leave it in a colander that is resting in a clean bowl (my sink is rarely clean and I need it for my dirty dishes). I place something like a plate on top of my cheese to help the draining process.

Pumpkin Curry

I stole this recipe from my cousin's blog. Hope you don't mind Rache! It freezes well--I'm using this recipe for my freezer group. I doubled the recipe which will be plenty for 4 maybe even 5 families. I used hot madras curry as well as curry paste to give it a little more flavor. I also added about 1 tsp tumeric. serve with rice (or as soup) and top with anything you like!

We usually top our curry with raisins, coconut, and peanuts. Any dried fruit and nuts/seeds will do. chow mein noodles, pineapple tidbits, diced peppers, shredded cheese or crumbled cheese. (when I make lemon cheese, we like to use that) Seriously, you can put anything you want on curry!

Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Curry

• 1 onion diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil or butter
• 2 tsp garlic
• 3 tsp curry powder
• salt and pepper to taste (probably about 2 tsp salt? taste as you go)
• 3 cups veggie broth (or chicken)
• 1 big can of pumpkin
• 1 can of coconut milk

In a large pot, put the onion, butter, garlic, and curry with the butter, cook until onion is soft.

Add broth.

Add pumpkin, and let boil for about 10 minutes

Stir in the coconut milk.

Pasta Sauce

1 can diced tomatoes (+ one fresh tomato I needed to use)
1 can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
5 or so leaves of fresh basil
2ish tablespoons of sugar

I threw the tomatoes, onion, and basil in my mini food processor. Then I threw everything EXCEPT Garlic into a small sauce pan. Stir until everything is blended in and hot. I added the minced garlic right before I took the sauce off the stove because garlic tends to lose it's strong flavor when it is cooked.

Serve with pasta (we put it on ravioli)

This was a pretty impromptu meal but it turned out so good! Next time I will add a few more leaves of basil. The basil, might I add, is from my garden! woohoo. Mark even said that this was the best and freshest tasting pasta sauce he's had. That is a big compliment coming from Mark because he's not always a fan of my experiments with tomato-based foods.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

Do you ever get Cafe Rio withdrawals? I sure do. (If you have ever been to or lived in Utah, you SHOULD know what I'm talking about--if you don't, try this recipe. It WILL blow your mind.) Anyway, here is a link to a blog of someone who recreated the recipe for the pork, tomatillo ranch dressing, and pico de gaillo. It makes a whole lot of meat, so invite friends over or get excited to eat cafe rio all week long!

CAFE RIO PORK

All the fixin's


5+ pounds of pulled pork soaked in Dr. Pepper and lots of sugar. Yes, I am a dietitian. Why do you ask?? (and for goodness sake, I'm not asking you to drink the whole pot at once!)


Happy family

P.S. I used to love Dr. Pepper but now it seems that on the rare occasion that I drink it, it's really not as good as I remember it. I'd rather just soak my pork in it ;)

Perfecting my go-to meal

Lately I have been really scatterbrained as far as dinnertime goes. I used to plan one week of meals and then go shopping once a week for all the things I needed for those meals. I haven't done that for at least a month now. yesterday Mark got home and we had nothing for dinner. We took a walk to the grocery store and picked up ingredients for my Quick Go-To meal: fish, couscous, and veggies.


(I used salmon instead of tilapia in this picture)

menu:

About 1 lb. tilapia (or your preferred fish) with lemon pepper
Couscous with pine nuts, tomatoes, and onions
parmesan green beans
garlic french bread

I had everything on hand but the main items--fish, couscous, green beans, and bread

Putting It Together:

1. drizzle a little olive oil in a frying pan and heat up
2. boil water for couscous
3. turn on broiler for bread
4. start cutting ends off green beans

When oil is hot enough (I believe it should have a ripply look on the bottom of the pan), throw tilapia on and pepper liberally with lemon pepper. (I have this really good grinder lemon pepper from trader joes that isn't very strong so I completely cover the top of the fish)

If water is boiling, add couscous, stir, cover, and remove from heat

Throw green beans in microwave safe bowl with a little water and microwave for 4 minutes.

butter bread and throw in broiler for a couple minutes(DON'T FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!!)

check/flip fish

chop up tomatoes, green onions or whatever you want to add to your couscous

(CHECK BREAD!!!)

When fish is ready, should be flaky, opaque and golden around edges, put on plate and set on table

throw green beans into hot fish frying pan and sprinkle liberally with parmesan and stir occasionally

Drizzle 1 or 2 tablespoon olive oil into couscous and then mix with tomatoes, onions, pine nuts, etc.

When green beans are done--parmesan will be browned and crunchy--put them on a plate. Add a little red wine vinegar (or something acidic like lemon juice) to the frying pan to get all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan from fish and green beans. heat for maybe a minute then pour into couscous and mix around.

This has been the best version of this meal so far. I like this meal because it's balanced and tasty as well as fast. Especially with Mark's help, I can whip this all together in about 20 minutes and yet it seems so fancy. Enjoy!

If you have any further suggestions or questions, please share.