sarah elisabeth's oatmeal

I often eat oatmeal for breakfast. I use regular oats - not quick - and it's still fast enough for me to do before work unless I'm in an uber-rush. I've been meaning to share oatmeal with the blog for awhile, but I kept forgetting, but since I'm on a roll here, I present to you my morning oatmeal for one.

Take a half a cup of oats and 1 cup of water and pour into a small saucepan (I usually use a different pot, but it was in the dishwasher. I also usually buy my oats in bulk at whole foods, but I was out and bought a box of quaker oats and stop and shop the other day, so that's what's in the pictures. I think it's a little gooier, but it's fine.)

The rule for oatmeal is like rice - for every unit of oatmeal add twice as much water. (1 cup of oatmeal, 2 cups of water, 12 cups of oatmeal 24 cups of water, 3/4 cup of oatmeal 1.5 cups of water) Usually I just add the oatmeal first, and then whatever container I used to scoop the oatmeal, I use to measure out the water.

Turn the heat on high - but watch closely so that you can turn it down as soon as it bubbles. while you're waiting and watching, add a handful of sliced almonds, a handful of raisins, and 8 shakes of cinnamon. Stir it (I usually use a wooden spoon, but the regular spoon you're going to eat it with is OK too.)


When it bubbles, turn the heat down as low as it goes. Stir often, almost constantly. I get out the bowl, spoon and sweetener at this time, stirring between each getting.

After about 5 minutes the oatmeal should not be liquid-y anymore, and it should start to almost stand up in the pot if you build towers of it with the spoon. Some of it will inevitable stick to the bottom - don't stress about this. If it starts to burn then you either have the heat up too high, there's not enough water, you didn't stir enough, or it's just done and you should eat it!

Spoon/pour the oatmeal into a bowl. -- a word on sweeteners here. In general I rotate between three different sweeteners - applesauce, brown sugar, and maple syrup. If you are using brown sugar or apple sauce, I recommend putting them in the bowl first and then spooning the oatmeal on top of them. I was using maple syrup this time though, so I poured it on top.

Now stir and eat. it's good for you.


In terms of modifications - they are infinite. You can add pretty much anything to oatmeal - fruit and dairy products particularly lend themselves, but I've seen success with other things! My grandmother likes blueberries and milk, some folks are fans of bananas, when I was hiking we used to add GORP to the cream of wheat - and sometimes to the oatmeal too. M&Ms or chocolate chips, peanuts, dried cherries, butter, cubed apples, soy milk, whatever you like, really.

vegan split pea soup

My friend Christopher is having a vegan potluck this Friday in order to give my friend Jarrett the opportunity to talk a little bit about Stone Soup Farm and his CSA program (there are still farmshares available at the Harvard Square pickup location - check it out: http://stonesoupfarm.googlepages.com/ ) and to try everyone else's yummy food.

I knew I wouldn't have time to cook Thursday or after work Friday before the potluck, so Wednesday was the time to get it done - but I needed something that would last. I've gotten really into this other foodblog - 101cookbooks.com - and I had been interested in making her split pea soup, so I decided to give it a shot. I was especially excited to try the smoked paprika, which I had gina marie pick up for me at stop & shop today. The recipe came from here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-split-pea-soup-recipe.html - and I varied a little bit, but mostly I stuck with her plan.

I sat in the living room since folks were over and I chopped two onions.
Once I was done, I returned to the kitchen and stirred the onions and some salt in with some olive oil over medium heat in my big soup pot.


Next I poured a bag of split peas in a bowl and poured some water in, swirled it around, and then poured it out the water slowly and used my hand to keep the peas in the bowl.

once the onions were soft I poured the peas in.
Then I poured in 5 cups of water and half a veggie bullion cube. The I stirred, turned the heat on medium, and let it simmer while I watched TV. When I remembered I stirred, and I got nervous it was getting too thick about 10 minutes in and put the lid on most of the way.

When the peas were soft - and the water mostly absorbed, I got out my immersion blender. I poured half the soup into a bowl, and then blended the stuff still in the pot. Then I poured the stuff in the bowl back into the pot, and stirred in the juice of half a lemon and a few sprinkles of smoked paprika and a little more salt. I heated it for a minute or two to get everything to gel.

Then I turned off the heat and put the soup in a heavyduty tupperware. I'm going to bring smoked paprika and olive oil and lemon zest with me to prepare little bowls at the potluck that look as pretty as the ones on 101cookbooks.com!
If I remember I will take pictures at the potluck and let you all know how it came out!

I took a picture at the pt luck yesterday - but I forgot to bring my camera, so all I have is the a picture from the phone. I swear it looked prettier in person! I skipped the lemon zest, but I brought the olive oil and the smoked paprika so that folks could "season" their soup, and this is the "sample" that I made so that people would know what to do:

chard risotto -- vegan (or not!)

I bought some rainbow chard at the stop and shop yesterday because it looked good and seemed right for the season. I knew I was making dinner today, but had no idea what I would make! At work I looked up recipes that had swiss chard and I was thinking I wanted to make soup, but most of the chard soups had anchovies in them - and I wasn't interested in making that tonight. But then I found a list of recipes including chard and abelandcole.co.uk - and it had a cool risotto recipe in it in addition to a soup with anchovies, so risotto it was! The recipe is here: http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/content/recipes/chard.htm#recipe6 - all of the chard recipes are on that page, and it made me want to try some more!

First I took a bunch of rainbow chard and cut out the stems - I'm saving them for later - but not sure what I'm doing with them! then I tore it in large pieces and put it in a colander and washed the leaves.

Then I put the chard leaves still with some water on them in my saute pan and turned the heat on medium and put the lid on. Every so often I used some tongs to stir it around.

I chopped an onion and sarah emily chopped 4 cloves of garlic. I added those with two shakes of powdered cayenne pepper to a soup pot with the bottom covered in olive oil. I put the heat on medium low and stirred.

Once the chard was cooked I spooned it into a bowl to cool. I deglazed the pan with some white wine so that I could take advantage of the chard juice that was left over.

when the onions looked soft I added half a cup of risotto rice and stirred it in so that it was coated with the oil and onions and garlic and cayenne. Then I poured my delgazing wine from the saute pan over it and added 4 cups of vegetable stock to the pot. I turned the heat up to medium high until it bubbled.


While I was doing that, sarah emily chopped the now-cool chard into small pieces. after about 40 minutes, with occasional stirring, the rice started to seem cooked and it really thickened up - I was worried it wasn't enough rice - but a little goes a long way! when it was thick but still a bit liquid-y I stirred in the chard and added some pepper. after about 3 minutes it looked hot and good and it was ready!

I set out some fake and some real parmesan and the four of us ate everything. it was really pretty good!

creme caramel

A few weeks ago, my friend Chloe and I made creme caramel aka flan to be the finale of our taco dinner. (I'll try and post about the tacos later.)

My mom taught me to make this - my favorite desert - when I was in high school. You can make it in individual cups, but it is easier, and I think more fun, to make one big creme caramel. The recipe we use is basically the recipe from cooks' illustrated.

The easy part is making the custard. From the Cooks' Illustrated recipe:
1.5 c. whole milk
1.5 c. light cream
3 lg. eggs
2 lg. egg yolks
2/3 c. sugar
1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Heat milk and cream, stirring occasionally, in medium saucepan over medium heat until steam appears and/or an instant-read thermometer held in the liquid registers 160 degrees, 6 to 8 minutes; remove from heat. Meanwhile, gently whisk eggs, yolks, and sugar in large bowl until just combined. Off heat, gently whisk warm milk mixture, salt, and vanilla into eggs until just combined but not at all foamy. Strain mixture through fine mesh sieve into large measuring cup or container with pouring spout.

Sometimes the flan has a lot of bubbles in it. This is not ideal, but I am not sure how to prevent it - my theories are that you need an evenly temperatured oven or that you have to be very careful not to make the custard mix foamy. Really though, I have no idea.

The caramel, for me, is the tricky part. I generally make my flan in a bread-loaf pan. it's nice because you end up with a "loaf" of flan - easy to cut, easy to plate, and pretty elegant looking. However, my mom's vaunted strategy of making the caramel in the loaf pan did not work for me at all this time. I think my burners were just not wide enough - some of the sugar was burning while other parts hadn't even melted.

We deviate from the cook's illustrated version somewhat on this because we don't use water. For the moment, I advise making the caramel in a saucepan and then pouring it into the pan you'll make the flan in. you can do this the day before if you want.

For the caramel, put 2 tablespoons of corn syrup in the bottom of the pan and try to spread it around evenly by tipping the pan around (don't put anything in there - corn syrup is really sticky!). Then add 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice. Finally spread 1 cup of sugar evenly over the top. Now put the saucepan over low heat and watch it like a hawk. Do not stir. the mixture should start to liquefy and darken. You should swirl the pan around a bit so that all parts get cooked pretty evenly. as soon as everything is liquid, as long as it is at least a little bit brown - it is done. Turn off the burner, and immediately pour the caramel into the pan you're going to cook the flan in. If you burn the sugar, you are screwed - you should start over. I should point out that while making flan this time, we burned three sets of caramel before we got it right. Chloe was very saintly about cleaning out the loaf pans. also, at one point, I caught a paper towel on fire. It was kind of awkward.

let the caramel harden in the bottom of the loaf pan, then pour the custard mixture on top of it.

Now you have to prepare the flan for cooking.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
pull out one of the shelves in the oven and place a large roasting pan (or in my case this time, a rectangular casserole, onto the shelf - first lining it with a dishcloth folded to lay flat on the bottom.

Set a full tea kettle to boil.

set the flan in its loaf pan in the center of the casserole dish. When the water in the kettle boils, pour it into the roasting pan until it goes about 2/3 of the way up the flan. then push in the rack and bake for 75 minutes.

when the flan is ready, remove it from the water bath, set it on the counter/stove, and let it set for a few minutes. Then put it in the refrigerator so that it can cool further. when the pan is cool to the touch, it is probably ready. it is fine to give it more time though. *Just* before serving you should unmold the flan. run a very sharp knife around the edge of the flan. With some assistance, if possible, lay the platter that you plan to serve the flan on on top of the loaf pan. Flip the platter and loaf pan over so that the open side of the loaf pan, which is touching the top of the platter, is facing down. Let it sit for a few moments and then gently shake flan until it comes free and is laying on the platter, caramel side up. pour any remaining caramel over the flan (it should sort of swim in it.)

Now you can slice the flan and serve it. make sure to spoon lots of caramel on top! I will have to make this again soon so that there can be pictures. It was really yummy though!

get a farm share with stone soup farm!

OK y'all. our friend Jarrett Man has started a fabulous new farm called Stone Soup farm out in Belchertown, Mass. The farm will have a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) component where a weekly delivery of the harvest will be made in return for your financial support of the farm.

This is Jarrett:

I know Jarrett and his farming skills well, and I have nothing but the utmost faith in him and his farm. I'll definitely be signing up for a full share to share with my roommates (a full share easily feeds three and can really feed four with no problem). If you're at all interested, check out the sign-up sheet at: http://stonesoupfarm.googlepages.com/CSASignupform2008take5alllocations.pdf (it's a .pdf) or you can learn more about the farm in general at http://stonesoupfarm.googlepages.com

The food will be fresh, local, and grown without chemicals. If you've had a tomato from a local farm, you'll never be able to eat one from the supermarket again. it's the same with carrots. The vegetables just taste completely different.

Snazzy farm logo:

To top it all off, you'll try things you've never had before, and you'll eat things that you wouldn't think to buy.

Financially, it's a great deal, at least if you eat a lot of vegetables. I pretty much eliminated my food bills from June until November last year. and if you split your farm share three ways, even paying on the higher end ($500) of the sliding scale, it's still less then $200 for an entire season of vegetables - and it's enough vegetables that except for some rice and pasta, and maybe some protein, you don't have to really have anything else!

The pick-ups in Boston will be in Harvard Square and near South Station. There's also one out in Leominster or Lunenburg or somewhere like that, and plenty more opportunities out in W. Mass. If you have questions - email Jarrett at stonesoupfarm@gmail.com (tell him Sarah sent you) or you can get in touch with me - but I might not have an answer :)

I really can't recommend this enough. really!

norwegian raisin buns - vegan style

My mom made raisin buns all the time when I was a kid, and I would always complain because she didn't put enough raisins in them. When I found this recipe for a vegan version, I decided to become master of my own destiny. Raisins galore!

I borrowed the recipe from here: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=291


I took 1/2 cup of earth balance and put it in a saucepan on low. Then I added 1.25 cups unsweetened soy milk to the saucepan. Careful not to let it boil!

In a bowl I combined 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cardamom, and a packet of dry yeast and stirred.

Then I poured the earth balance/soy milk mixture over the dry ingredients, and added a little more than a cup of raisins. Then I kneaded it with my hands for about five minutes. I set it, in the bowl I had kneaded it in with a handtowel over it, on top of the stove (the oven was preheated to 430F so the stove was nice and warm) for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes I dumped the sough out on a cutting board coated in flour and kneaded it for another 3 or 4 minutes. I kneaded it into something of a flattish square, and then I used a sharp knife to cut it into about 20 pieces - 4 slices one way and three the other. I took each little dough square and mushed into a ball and set it on a cookie sheet.

Finally, I had prepared a mixture of a few tables spoons of sugar in some warm water on the stove. I brushed this over the top of each bun. ("brush" may not be the word - lacking any kind of pastry brush, I used a spatula.)

Then I put them in the over for about 12 minutes.

When I took them out they required some spatula-ing off of the cookie sheet (maybe I should have greased it) but sliced in half and spread with some earth balance - they tasted exactly like they should.

Fair warning - these aren't a dessert so much as a snack or something to have with coffee. They're not super sweet. yummy though ;)

the (macro)biotic woman

come january 1, I'm back on the macro wagon. I fell off during the summer when I decided that it was more philosophically sound to fully partake of my farm share and eat the local deadly nightshades (otherwise known as potatoes and tomatoes and peppers) than to avoid them and eat foods grown outside of my neighborhood farm. but now the farm share is over, the rules have been bent, and I'm so far outside of macrobiotic guidelines that it's a bit of a sham to even claim the title for my own.

I got into macrobiotics about a year ago through a book that had been recommended to sarah elisabeth. two things struck me as I studied the basics of this diet:

1. macrobiotics is a lifestyle choice, not a diet. it's a philosophy that manifests through food but is actually about the way a person chooses to live her life;
2. macrobiotics is pretty much exactly what my nutritionist had me doing when I was prepping for my back surgery - and that period of my life was the healthiest I think I've ever had.

the description of macrobiotics was so sane and so familiar - creating a diet that is balanced with a person's life and the world around her - that any sort of extremes were diminished in face of the larger picture. (I will admit, however, that it didn't hurt that I had just discovered I was lactose intolerant. cutting out all dairy is much easier when eating it gives a kid crippling gas.) plus the people who were teaching me about macrobiotics, like my friend robin and jessica porter, were so normal when explaining the details to me. yes, there was talk about the yin and yang of foods, but all of it was delivered with a shrug and a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. it was the most rational food talk I'd heard in a long time.

macrobiotic eating is hard to describe to people who have never heard of it, especially because there are some parts of macro living that are guaranteed to raise the crazy flag. like the fact that many people insist that macrobiotics can cure cancer. I don't believe that (not many folks do, it turns out). but I do believe that what I eat should be a balance of foods that are good for me and good for the world around me. I do believe that how I eat is more than just the food on my plate.

this is probably the most straightforward explanation of macro eating and life that I've found. in addition to the macro food pyramid, it also suggests that fresh air, a good night's sleep, and singing are key parts of macrobiotic life. any dietary guideline that tells me that singing a song is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, well, you've got my heart right there.

lentil soup

I work at Downtown Crossing near the Filene's Basement building. When I used to buy my lunch (that is a no-no now, since I am not spending money) I would go to this amazing place that was literally a hole in the wall of the Filene's building called Mediterraneo (sp?) and I would buy their lentil soup and it was amazing. It was agreed in my office that it was probably the best lentil soup
*ever* - but I was truly the strongest adherent. It also came with mouthwatering warm pita - for which I broke my whole grain oath. This was an oath-breaking kind of place.

The Filene's building and everything in it have closed until 2009 or some other godforsaken time when I will probably not be working here anymore. Mediteraneo didn't make it, and so my lentil soup life has been really lacking. I've looked for substitutes, but they're just not right. Nothing in a can compares. The Whole Foods one is too watery, the Bagel Plus one is too oily. I haven't even tried the Finagle A Bagel one because it's too expensive.

So it's been many months since I had good lentil soup, and in the summer and when it was still warm, that was sad but OK, but now I am just over it. So I decided to try to make my own. I read like 18 recipes on the internet, and finally decided to use Post-punk Kitchen's French Lentil Soup recipe as my base: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=105

I managed to make it without going to the store too - everything I needed was in my house! yay simple food.

I drizzled some olive oil in my big stock pot, and then added a whole chopped yellow onion and a huge cubed carrot both from the farm share. I added the onion first, but I let the whole thing saute for quite a while - till it almost smelled like it was burning (but then not quite). Then I chopped pretty much an entire head of garlic (6 cloves?) and added it in, along with a teaspoon and a half of paprika, a teaspoon and a half of thyme, a big dollop of Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon, there was a theory in my office that the secret ingredient in Mediteranneo's soup was mustard) and a teaspoon and a half of salt and probably two teaspoons of pepper (I would have added less salt, I think). after about two minutes I plopped in half of a one of those very large cans of crushed tomatoes and stirred. Then I covered it and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, I uncovered the pot and added 4 cups of water and two veggie bullion cubes and brought it to a boil with the cover on. Then I took the cover off and added 2 cups of generic lentils from stop and shop and 2 bay leaves to the soup and stirred. I let it cook for about an hour with the cover on and then added about 1.5 cups more water. Then I brought it to a boil and let it cook for about 15 minutes with the cover on, and then another half an hour or so with the cover off.

I think I took some pictures, but I don't have them uploaded yet. I'll add them when I get them.

The soup came out really well, it was very thick, which is what I prefer, and I served it with some warm crusty bread, which is always a plus, It reheated well with a tablespoon or two of water added per serving before reheating in the microwave. It wasn't quite mediteranneo - I think it was a little too tomato-y, but I think the mustard gave it the right kick.

I'm going to make it again soon, I think!

potatoes!

remember those breakfast potatoes referred to in the earlier post about breakfast in Norway? I made them the other day to bring to brunch at Max and Lyssa's. And someone thought to take a picture!

I had carrots from the farm share, so I threw those in, and I bought a red pepper and used the potatoes and onions I had from the farmshare. I used oil in stead of butter to enhance vegan-ness. also, heavy on the pepper, and long on the cooking. I put the lid on at the end too. mmmm mmmm.

brussel sprouts return to the neighborhood

here's my theory: people who don't like brussel sprouts just don't know they like brussel sprouts. here's the corollary: brussel sprouts are the enigma of mainstream vegetable life. here's my example: how many folks out there know that brussel sprouts look like this prior to packaging:


it's a stalk - cool, right? and so my premise is that if most people don't even know how brussel sprouts come into the world, how can they possibly know how to treat them right? here's my suggestion for a night on the town with your dear friend, monsieur b. sprout, chaperoned by my culinary panacea, garlic.

1. preheat the oven to 350.

2. mince a lot of garlic. like, five cloves at least. go nuts. or hold back, but know that I would be going nuts with the garlic if I were you.

3. wash your brussel sprouts and peel off the top leaves. cut brussel sprouts in half and lay them on a baking sheet with the newly cut side facing up. the number of brussel sprouts is really of no importance. how many people are you feeding? what else are you serving? are you nervous about the taste? (don't be. keep washing and cutting brussel sprouts. this is good.)

4. when you've maxed out your sprouts, sprinkle them with olive oil and minced garlic. I like to toss on a sesame seed-seaweed-sea salt mixture as well, but you can skip that entirely, or use plain salt and pepper.



(also, please take a moment to observe my DIY pot lid on the back burner. nice, huh?)





5. check on the brussel sprouts after 20 minutes. you want the insides to be soft and the outside leaves to be crunchy. a good hint is to examine the state of the garlic. if it's still brown and roasting, you're fine. if it's looking burnt, well, take those puppies out of the oven.

6. if you're feeling crazy, scrape all the brussel sprouts and garlic-olive oil mixture into a bowl and toss before serving. otherwise, just use a spatula and place these on a plate. it's good stuff. I had these with brown rice for lunch this week, added them to a soup for extra flavor, and just ate them cold out of the fridge. seriously. this will change your mind about brussel sprouts.

and if I'm wrong, you're not using enough garlic.

beef stew - are you tired of my weekend yet?

So here comes, finally, the beef stew I've been threatening to make for ages. I just realized I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but you'll just have to deal with seeing the process.

Also, will someone please buy me a digital camera? the phone camera sucks.

Once again, as with the spaghetti sauce, this is my dad's recipe. but all mistakes are mine :)

For starters you need 1.5 pounds of beef. I like to just buy the precut stewing beef, because then you don't have to trim it. I still cut it into smaller pieces though. If you can't get it precut or it's much cheaper not too, get a nice piece of beef and trim off the fat on the outside and cut it into cubes about 3/4 inch.

I bought stewing meat, so I just made the pieces smaller and then dumped them into my big pot and turned the gas on about medium. I stirred every so often until the meat was pretty brown on all sides. This creates some nice juicyness and drippings that will make the stew taste good. add some salt and pepper at this point as well. while it's cooking chop one small-medium sized onion or half a large onion. when the meat is pretty brown, add in the onion. and then it will look like this:



Next it's time for spices. lots of spices. add dried thyme, basil, and marjoram (marjoram is key - it's totally what makes it taste/smell like stew!) I usually add about 1-2 tablespoons of each - but mostly I just play it by ear. whatever I have enough of. Stir.

Then comes the tricky part - not that tricky, but my dad made it sound tricky when he was first explaining it to me. add 2 tablespoons of flour, like this:

stir the flour until the meat and onions are nicely coated. this is what will thicken the broth into a tasty, thick stew.

next add water. I like to add a lot. the general rule is 2 cups of water for every bullion cube that you are going to add, and you need to bring the water level up at least as twice as high as the meat, but I like to bring it up much higher. This time I added 6 cups of water, but then I added more later, so it might be prudent to add it all at the beginning. now turn the heat up to high. then I added 3 beef bullion cubes - however, these were extra large bullion cubes, and I think made the stew a bit saltier than I liked it, so if you used extra large bullion cubes, I'd go with 8 cups of water for 3 bullion cubes.

Next use a wooden spoon to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot so all those nice drippings the meat made earlier get mixed into the broth.

Add a bay leaf.

now lower the heat so that the soup is simmering, not boiling. just little bubbles. Let it sit on the stove simmering for about an hour. if you only have half an hour, that's ok, but longer is better.

While it's doing that chop your vegetables. My dad always says 3/4 cup of carrots and 3/4 of a cup of potatoes, but I always add more than that because that's my favorite part. I think I chopped 1 1/2 cups of carrots and 2 cups of potatoes (peeled first) and it was about right.

The carrot was actually all one carrot, because it was an enormous carrot from my farmshare. the potatoes were also from the farm share, but unlike the carrot, were not so spectacularly large as to require me to take a picture of them:



Look how big that is!!!


After an hour, add the carrots, and stir.

let the carrots simmer for ten minutes in the stew, and then add the potatoes.

finally, add the secret ingredient:

2 tablespoons of plain tomato paste, and stir. You will see that this completely changes the color of the stew, and makes it amaaaaazing.

cook until the potatoes are nice and tender - but take it off the heat before they get mushy!

You can check the salt and pepper at this time and adjust to taste as needed. I say less salt, but sometimes really peppery stew is excellent.

you can serve it right off the stove once the potatoes are done, but it is best 1-2 days later out of the fridge. if the broth has dissipated, feel good about adding a fair bit of water to it before it hits the stove/microwave for reheating. The leftovers are always better than the original.

blueberry muffins. so not vegan.

On Sunday morning I woke up and made blueberry muffins. blueberries were on sale at wholefoods, but still ridiculously expensive. nonetheless, I powered through - I combined two recipes from the internet and then modified them - because I'm awesome like that.

I hadn't made muffins in ages, so I was a little worried, and I ran into several snafus, but then gina marie told me they were the best muffins she's every had, and then I felt good about it. they are really freaking good.

so first I went to whole foods in my pajamas and slippers because I had forgotten to buy muffin cups. I am now the proud owner of 60 organic unbleached muffin cups.

then I sprayed the muffin pan with Pam and spread it around in there with a paper towel. Then I put a muffin cup in each little round. I had 4 foil cups yet so I used those to see if there was any measurable difference - there wasn't.

then I began the long and arduous process of making the muffins, which was a pain in the butt because I have no mixer (it turned out I had my hand blender, but I couldn't find it at the time.)

because of the lack of mixer, I but a stick of butter (1/2 cup) in the microwave for 20 seconds so that it would be somewhat beatable, then I added 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and went to town with a wooden spoon for about twenty minutes. (read some new york times and checked my email while I was doing it). When I felt like I couldn't stand to make it any "fluffier" I gave up and mixed 1 3/4 cups white flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder in a separate bowl. I decided against buttermilk because, really, who needs buttermilk? so I measured out 1/2 cup of organic 2% milk and I alternated mixing in spoonfuls of the flour mixture and pours of milk until it was all well blended with my eternally useful wooden spoon.

I was feeling saucy so I also added a little more than 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon flavoring to the batter, just to see what would happen.

I had 4 of those little-bitty plastic containers of blueberries. I mashed one of the containers in a bowl with the back of a spoon, and stirred it into the batter. I took the other 3 and tossed them with a 1/4 cup of flour in a larger bowl. then I took the flour-dusted blueberries out of the bowl and mixed into the batter what was left of the flour I used to coat the blueberries. Finally, I gently folded in the flour-dusted blueberries.

Then I used my wooden spoon and my blueberry crushing spoon and dumped a sizeable amount of batter into each muffin cup (there were 12) and tried to keep it even until I had used all the batter (they get very full! - it's ok!)

Finally, I sprinkled the tops with sugar.



Then I put them in the preheated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes - really I just waited till the tops were light brown because my oven timer didn't work (I'm kind of incompetent with that.

The results... mmm...


yay! aren't you proud of me?

Vegan Blueberry Buckle

On Saturday I had a vegan potluck on my list of things to do, and I had promised to make a dessert. This was maybe not the best idea since I am no vegan baking expert, but I turned to the internet, which is always my friend in times of baking crisis. On the Post-Punk Kitchen website (created by the same vegan chef extraordinaire referred to in sarah emily's last post) I found a user-submitted recipe for blueberry buckle.

I have never made a buckle before, and certainly not a blueberry one, but it seemed like a good adventure. My roommate was using the cake pan to make Jello (she offered it up to me, but I decided I would just be crazy) so I decided to make it in a casserole pan. Why not?!

Here's what I did (lightly adapted from this recipe:http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=278):

I used my hands to rub earth balance around the inside of my casserole pan.

In a big silver mixing bowl I mixed:
1/4 cup corn oil
1/2 cup sugar (so maybe some vegans won't eat that. so sue me. I'm not about to waste by buying sucanat when I have white sugar sitting in my kitchen!)
1/4 cup soy yogurt (plain plain plain unsweetened)
1 pinch of salt

I mixed these with my very incompetent whisk-that-is-missing-a-handle. It worked ok though, this was not hard to mix. It smelled good too. Like yogurt.

Then I added 1 cup of whole wheat flour and beat that in with the special whisk.
then I beat in 1 teaspoon of baking soda and an additional 1/3 cup of soy yogurt (who knew soy yogurt was useful for anything??)

I spread my dough in the greased casserole with a spoon
then I dumped a little more than 2 cups of frozen blueberries on top and tried to even them out with my hands and not have frozen blueberries all over my floor for stepping on.

Finally I had to make the topping. the vegan topping presents some challenge - vegan fake-butter melts so easily that it is hard to make it crumble. I tried, and failed, but it came out ok anyways:

I scooped 1/4 cup of Earth Balance out of its tub with a measuring spoon and put it in my measuring cup since that was already dirty anyways.
Then I dumped in 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour, and a 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground coriander, and ground ginger. This smelled really good.
Then I mushed it around with my (clean) fingers and tried to make it crumbly, but then I realized that the more I worked it, the more my fingers warmed it up, so I gave up and just sort of tried to crumble it evenly over the top of the buckle.

Then I put the casserole in the preheated 350 degree oven and left it there for just under an hour (but for a bit more than the 50-minute recommended baking time because I was worried that since my pan was deeper but not as big that it might not cook ok in the middle.)

Finally I took it out, put a lid on it, and put it in a bag and took it on the T to porter square, where it was eventually consumed :).

Here are some pictures (thanks Hilary!):














me eating the buckle because I wanted to try it before I had to go:

with vegan condoms:



also, fyi, a buckle seems to be something with a cake-y bottom, a pie/cobbler middle/ and a crisp/crumble top. Make sense? In theory this was supposed to be cut into bars, but since I made it in a round casserole, that was not happening. Plus then it would cool too fast. but the point is, the bottom is solid and thick and full of soy yogurt-fortified cake, so you could cut it into bars.

Get ready for more posts soon. this was a hard-cookin' weekend.

Breakfast in Skurdalen, from the one who makes it.

Sarah emily posted a bit about breakfast in Norway. The breakfast that she and others have eaten that I make in the cabin in Skurdalen (pronounced, roughly, "skrewdallin,") is influenced by the smorgasbord-y breakfasts common in scandinavia, the bread, cheese and eggs that they consume constantly, and my dad's awesome cooking skills, straight outta southern california.

Basically, the key is, use everything in the little cabin refrigerator, including whatever is left of last night's fish dinner. It's important to have at least one hot "centerpiece" - this is to satisfy the American in me.

Usually, it's potatoes. To make the potatoes:

scrub a buncha little potatoes (you can peel if you want, but I never do) - either red or white
cube the potatoes
cube one small-medium sized onion
finely chop or crush 4 cloves of garlic
put a 1/4 stick of butter or (for vegans, lactards, and the rest of the butter-averse) a bunch of oil (vegetable or olive) in a frying pan
add onions on medium heat
add garlic
saute about 2 minutes
add in potatoes
stir pan with spatula every 1-2 minutes
dice 1 red, yellow or orange pepper (optional)
dice 1 zucchini (optional)
(you can add pretty much any vegetables you have, they will change it up a little, I have found peppers and zucchini particularly satisfying, but carrots, broccoli, etc can also be good - or you can skip the extra veggies altogether and just revel in starchy goodness)
after potatoes have been in pan for about 10-15 minutes, add zucchini and pepper
add salt & lots of pepper
add garlic powder if you feel like it
cook - stirring often to avoid burning, and adding more butter/oil (especially necessary when using butter) whenever it seems prudent.
you can now be done, if you wish. Vegans must finish here.

optionally, you can scramble/fry an egg into the potatoes.
to do this, whisk an a few eggs, and optionally, some milk in a bowl.
pour the mixture over the potatoes and stir it around.
it's done when the eggs are cooked to your liking.

AND/OR

add cheese!
you can grate it or just break off hunks. In Norway I almost always use gulost (yellow cheese - which is sort of like a mild cheddar) or jarlsberg (a mild swiss-like cheese) for this.
add chunks of cheese liberally with the heat on medium low and stir until it melts.

when the potatoes are done, put them in a brightly colored bowl with some kind of ikea utensil for serving.



Moving on from the potatoes,
another key element is the boiled egg.
you need an egg cup for everyone
boil the eggs to their liking (softer is better for this purpose).
put each egg in an egg cup.
when it's time to eat the egg, tap your knife on the side of the egg near the very top to crack it a little, and then slice off the top.
if you like, add a little salt and or pepper to exposed egg.
now using your little bitty spoon, scoop the egg out of it's shell to eat it. you can eat it off the spoon, or you can put it on bread as part of your smorbrod assembly.

which brings us to smorbrod, the real heart of the breakfast. "Smor" in Norwegian, means butter. "bord" means table, thus, smorgasbord, buttertable. smorbrod is what norwegians eat for breakfast and lunch - butterbread. basically, you take some bread - usually a pretty heavy one with lots of seeds and stuff in it, and you spread some butter on it, and then you spread more stuff on it. the "smor" (butter) has come to mean more than just bread, so the smor is the spread, whatever you spread on it, and that's what we but on the smorgasbord (spread table!)

Here are some typical things for the smorgasbord:

bread, sliced in a basket sitting next to the toastmaster (person sitting next to the toaster is the toastmaster. they toast bread on request for the rest of the table) you might have a graabrod, very rough bread, "loff" (pronounced "loof") which is yummy white bread, solskinnbrod, which is sunshine bread and has sunflower seeds, and whatever other bread you baked or picked up at the bakery. Also in the breadbasket there may be Wasa crackers or other breadlike objects that you can spread things on.

cheeses. set them out on a wooden board with a knife and a cheeseslicer (norwegian invention!). I usually but out all the kinds of cheese in the fridge, usually at least one yellow cheese, one brown cheese (usually geitost, a brown sort of sweet caramelly goat cheese - geit means goat), something kind of creamy and/or stinky, and then whatever else you picked up.

veggies. usually a tomato (tomat), a pepper (paprika), a cucumber (agurk), put on a board with a paring knife so people can slice their own. these are key.

meats/fishies. salami or other sliced meat, any leftovers. often I poach the fish (fisk) that we catch in the lake, and if you make it nice the night before it's very yummy the next day. sometimes I reheat it by sauteeing it in a little parsley butter (persillesmor) just before breakfast. (there is no microwave at the cabin, which is why the food always tastes better). also, jars of little fishes, brined and pickled - herring mostly. These are not my favorite, but sometimes I put them out so folks can try. Norwegians also like to eat little shrimps (reker) and breakfast. I can't usually afford it, but smoked salmon is also a biggy. and yummy. sometimes also there is bacon, but the norwegians have nothing to do with that :).

Boiled eggs. I know we already had them in our eggcups, but it's important to also have them hardboiled for peeling and putting in the eggslicer (another norwegian invention!), which then makes perfect smorbrod slices.

also key are butter, jams (syltetoy) (the norwegians are big on blueberry), nutella or other chocolate (sjokolade) spread.


then everyone sits down with their hot beverage, their cold beverage, and gets started on their eggcup, the bread gets toasted, people have some potatoes, and then the spreading begins. At this point it is also key to *make your lunch* - which you do by spreading your bread (all open face sandwiches in norway) and then putting a piece of wax paper between each piece of spread bread. then you wrap it in more wax paper - or if you're modern like me, a plastic bag.

then you go swimming in the lake and fall asleep with your book on your face.

Yes and No

three foods that I will almost always say yes to, no matter what form they're in:
1) red cabbage
2) bok choy
3) kale

three foods that I will almost always say no to, no matter what form they're in:
1) maple syrup
2) honey
3) eggplant

I'm lactose intolerant and will drink a pint of milk sooner than I'll have anything that is remotely maple flavored. I would prefer to have crippling gas than even smell the stuff.