iesika | Entries tagged with recipe

I'm waiting on food now, so I'm taking a moment to update with holiday type things. I'm at my folk's place, with my immediate family plus Granny, two aunts, an uncle, and a second cousin. The rest of the horde descends tomorrow and Saturday, because the big event in this family isn't on Thursday and doesn't have anything to do with turkey or pilgrims. It's all about the LSU/Arkansas football game on Saturday. ^_^;

Mom made ettouffee for tonight. Tomorrow is steaks and Saturday is jambalaya. I GAVE MOM A TURKEY (work gave me one) and I'm pretty sure she smoked it, but it's not getting to be the center of a meal or anything. Probably it will be sandwiches. There will be 30 people here by Saturday - we will need lots of sandwiches.

Last night/this morning, I made sweet potato butter. It's delicious, and it was soooo easy.

4 cups peeled sweet potatoes, chunked up small
2 cups chopped, peeled apple (I used braeburn and they were deliiiiciouuus)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon or to taste
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, optional
1/4 tsp. allspice
3/4 cup water

I just dumped it all in the slow cooker on low overnight and blended it up with the mixer, and it's very, very good. It came out dark, though, not orange, so next time I make it I'm going to either cook the apples separately for a while first or use applesauce instead of fresh apples, because to cook the apples into mush took so long that the potatoes went all brown. Also, I'd use raw sugar instead of brown, again for the color rather than for taste.

More food and more recipes tomorrow, I imagine.

ETA: Apparently Mom made crawfish au gratin instead of ettouffee. She told me at 10 that she was making ettouffee, and then changed her mind for some reason. Not that you probably care ^_^; Also, there was Chocolate Pie Delight, which is not a pie, but is delightful. And Mom made pralines, and Aunt B made her signature peanut butter cookie cup things that she makes for every holiday.

Recipe time! The experiment was a success!

Green Soup
- two bunches green onions (whites and greens)
- about a cup of frozen sweet peas
- teensy bit minced garlic
- broth to cover (about a cup)
- about two ounces cream-cheese
- two dashes Slap Ya Mama (or Tony's)

Simmer, stirring, until the cheese melts, and blend in a food processor.

I sliced some ciabatta bread like biscotti and spread leftover spinach dip on it, then broiled it til bubbly. And dunked. Mmmnom.

Spinach Dip
- big handful of frozen spinach, thawed and drained (a little)
- artichoke hearts (small jar)
- about 4 oz cream cheese
- about 2 oz grated hard cheese (I had asiago and parm)
- salt, black and red pepper. lemon juice to taste

Blend. (Don't you love one word instructions in recipes?)

I'm so glad I stopped for that bread. Mmm.

I'm getting ready to head up to the camp for the weekend for a family reunion (unlike most people, I very much look forward to mine. At least one of my male cousins is going to be wearing a dress, tomorrow. With sequins. And feathers). I've got T here at mom's house (she and Macie are BFFs and are currently chasing each other in circles in the dining room, and I'm doing some last minute stuff before I drop her at a friend's house and Macie at the boarder's (her knee is acting up, and she would exhaust herself if she came with us this weekend).

The real reason for this post is recipe sharing/documentation, because I have invented something delicious and it is in progress right now. See, I caught part of Iron Chef: Battle Zucchini the other day, and I LOVE zucchini and have stolen lots of inspiration from the show. What is currently in progress is my take on zucchini hummus, and the test batch I made Monday disappeared in about half an hour because it was SO GOOD. So:

Zucchini Hummus

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3-4 zucchini
1 poblano pepper
garlic to taste
lemon juice

- slice the zucchini into rounds and stick that and the pepper under the broiler until the zucchini is bright and steamy and the pepper starts to blister. You'll want to turn the pepper so it will blister on both sides.
- open up the pepper and take out the seeds.
- dump everything into the food processor and blend. Add some water if you need to thin it out - I would guess I used about four ounces, but that's going to vary based on how much zucchini you use, since that's where most of your moisture comes from.

Om nom with pita chips or whatever you like. Or make sandwiches. I love hummus sandwiches

P's birthday is this weekend. I'm throwing a Not Really Watching The Superbowl Party tomorrow (P, M, B, L, and possibly L's boyfriend will be there), and have already made my white chili. I'm contemplating making a black bean dip. There will be chips and salsa and apples with caramel, and, of course, birthday cake. P loves Reese's more than life itself, so I played around with a few things and made him a Chocolate/ Peanut Butter Cake (and practiced my icing calligraphy!)

( recipe! )

White Bean, Kale, and Butternut Squash Pizza

1 batch dough (I adore this recipe and use it all the time. Usually I put seasoning in the dough, but not with this pizza).The kale needs to cook a while, so I'm not sure a pre-made crust would work.

White bean pesto sauce
- 1/2 c white beans
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tsp olive oil

Puree in food processor

Kale
- 1 large bunch kale , stripped of stems and ripped in salad sized pieces (about 3-4 cups)
- a little oil
- 2 cloves or so garlic

Saute garlic in the oil. Once it becomes fragrant, add the kale, stir to coat, and add a tablespoon or two of water, then cover. Steam for about two minutes. Drain the kale before putting it on the pizza

Butternut squash
- a cup or two? -ish? Cut it into slices 1/8 - 1/4 inches thick. my pieces were about an inch or two square, which was a good topping size.
- touch of oil
- pinch of brown sugar
Toss the squash with the oil and sugar.

Prepare dough
Spread bean pesto on dough
Spread Kale on bean pesto
Sprinkle mozzarella over kale
Arrange squash slices over mozzarella
Sprinkle parmesan over squash

Bake until crust browns and squash softens. With the dough linked above, bake at 450 for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy delicious pizza!

Next time: I will be using more bean pesto, and maybe sprinkling on some pine nuts. Mmm

ETA: I made myself hungry while typing, and had to stop and make delicious kale chips to handle the craving.

Delicous Kale Chips

- Kale (stripped of ribs and ripped into pieces)
- olive oil
- salt
- garlic powder

Toss. Bake (350 until crunchy). Stuff face.

Mostly my holiday trip won't be terribly interesting to anyone, since I just drove in big circles around north Louisiana for a week and visited people, but there was one definitively interesting event during the holiday.

We found a kangaroo! On the side of the road, in a very normal neighborhood in Delhi, Louisiana. He is apparently a pet (named Thumper), belonging to someone in my cousin's neighborhood, and he jumped the fence and escaped. He was very friendly - so friendly we never got out of the car. He made like he was going to climb in the window, and then he chased us when we drove away. After we confirmed that he was tame and friendly (so much so that we were handed a toddler and told to take pictures), we went back, but we couldn't find him. No one seemed worried, though, as he apparently knows to come home for supper. He plays football with the neighborhood boys some afternoons, and does not, as I would have expected him to, eat people's gardens. He's apparently a very picky eater.

I thought I was going to upload his picture, but someone didn't dump the pictures off their digital before leaving for an all-night New Years thing. So, recipe instead! My aunt made a cookbook (through the same company that published our family cookbook) and gave me one for Christmas, and I've been playing around with some of the recipes in it, making vegetarian modifications, etc. This one came out delicious.

( White Chili )

The weather finally broke this week, meaning it's still very warm during the day, but it gets cold (read: 65°F) at night. This would be a much celebrated event, except every year the weather change knocks me flat with a sinus infection. This year is no exception. At least it didn't happen during Hell Week.

I've been eating a lot of miso soup (with tons of green onions), and drinking tea with lemon and honey, and just now I made Carrot Orange Ginger Soup. It's delicious, sinus clearing (as only a hot liquid with tons of fresh shredded ginger in it can be) and probably the prettiest soup I've ever seen (it's bright orange - way orangier than the photo with the recipe - and I put a little swirl of cream on top when I dished up my bowl, which, through the wonders of Brownian motion, turned into a smiley face). I wish I'd taken a picture.

ETA:

The World's Prettiest Soup!

No smile, but still pretty.

I made entirely too much rice the other night (haven't gotten the hang of the awesome new microwave cooker just yet), and I've been trying to get rid of it. I played around in the kitchen tonight with the stuff in my pantry and came up with this, which was so good I wanted to share.

2 cups cooked rice (I had long-grained white, but basmati or jasmine would be really good)
1/4 cup almonds, chopped coarse
1/4 cup cashew pieces
1/4 cup flaked coconut
Tbsp butter (could use oil, just to brown the nuts and such)
Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 c coconut milk
red pepper to taste

In a nonstick skillet
Brown the nuts a little in the butter.
Add the garlic and coconut and cook until the garlic softens and the coconut starts to look a little toasty.
Dump in the rice and stir it all up. Let a little moisture cook out before you add the coconut milk and pepper.
Cook a little longer, stirring, until the rice is sticky but not wet.

Enjoy! This was very filling (all that protein) and very good. Nutty, slightly sweet, a touch of heat and garlic.
I might try tossing in some shredded carrot next time I do this, near the end so it doesn't loose its crunch, or bleed orange.

I put the rest of my open can of coconut milk in the blender with some fresh chunked pineapple and some mango, and that was my dessert.

Ooo, and as I'm typing this, it's been suggested I try again with wild pecan rice, though I'd probably want to reduce the nuts if I did.

Someone gave my dad two huge flats of home-grown blueberries yesterday. So far I have made pancakes, pie, and muffins (the later I am eating now). The pie, I invented and am proud of, so I am sharing:

Om Nom Blueberry Pie

1/2 c sugar
1/3 c flour
about 1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 cups blueberries
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla
about 2 tablespoons butter
a pie crust (I cheat and use pillsbury)

Topping:
1/2 c softened butter
1 1/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar

Mix dry ingredients together. Toss blueberries with lemon juice and vanilla, then dry ingredients. Dump into a pie pan lined with crust.

Mix the flour and sugar, then cut in butter to make crumbs and cover the top of the pie.

Bake at 400 degrees with a foil ring around the edge to keep the crust from burning, 20-25 minutes. If the topping is not as brown as you'd like, broil on low for a minute or so, but watch the pie carefully.

Serve with vanilla ice cream. Om nom nom. Enjoy!

Current Mood: accomplished

Happy Twelfth Night! We started out with the kingcakes at work, yesterday. OMG I love kingcake. If they weren't charging 40+bucks to ship them, I'd send one to everybody. I got a great big New Orleans style with praline and cream cheese filling, and the family has mostly eaten it (both siblings' SOs were over last night to help). No one's gotten the baby yet! Whenever my turn comes around again, I'm going to hit a French bakery near here for a gâteau des Rois, which I also love, and I might make a banitsa, which is mmmomg.

There is a REALLY good kingcake recipe here, and even if you don't want to make one, Chef Folse has a brief history of the tradition up. (Chef Johm Folse is kind of a local institution. He's a bit like Louisiana's Food Ambassador, and he's got a radio show you can listen to online). The glaze should be thin enough to be drizzled over the cake, not spread on. To make the colored sugar, put a drop of gel food coloring on your hand and rub about a quarter cup of white granulated sugar between your palms, washing & drying your hands between colors (green, gold, and purple). If you don't have gel food coloring handy for the sugar, DON'T USE LIQUID - you're better off dividing your glaze in thirds and tinting that. Also, braiding your dough is pretty but unneccessarily hard (it's a very soft dough), and not even terribly traditional. it's much easier to just roll the dough like a jelly roll, which will give you a pretty swirl when it's cut.

Mardi Gras is early this year (February 5). It moves because the date is tied to Easter (being the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent - which is why we celebrate it, because you have to get all your partying in before it is time for atonement).

If and when I find my Fats Domino and other cds (I think my mother ran off with them), I will be sharing some Mardi Gras music.

Remember, you have to cram all your sinning in before February 6th, so get crackin!