Paddle Faster, I Smell Zucchini

I finally cooked something! Actually, I knocked out three Moosewood recipes today! The first was these adorable "Zuccanoes" which are basically just stuffed zucchini. You're meant to use rice as the main stuffing, but of course, I used quinoa. Also my Mom is trying to use up all the of the random food we have in our pantry, so I put I serious dent in our quinoa stock with this recipe.

To go on top of the canoes, I made a carrot puree (other veggie purees seen here and here). This didn't quite thicken up as much as I thought it would, but it has a good combo of spice and sweet to go with zucchini. You add just a touch of orange juice as well as spices so the effect is a very very orange sauce.

The only downside is that you have to roast the carrots which weirdly takes FOREVER.

Dessert (as seen to the left) was another adventure into the fruit crisp world (I previously tackled apple) with a delectable peach cobbler! I used four peaches, which was absolutely plenty.

Carrot Cake, the Noblest Birthday Cake of All.

It's my sister's 18th birthday!! Well, technically, it's her birthday tomorrow, but I'm home tonight to celebrate/bring the first round of my apartment things home. She's a big fan of carrot cake, so I decided to make her Moosewood's version as a birthday present.

The biggest issue with this cake is that I already packed up my salad shooter so I had to grate the carrots by hand. Definitely buy already shredded carrots whenever possible. Other than that, it's a pretty basic cake recipe, with lots of butter and eggs and deliciousness. Moosewood has some optional additions that you can include in your carrot cake, like poppy seeds on the outside, raisins, walnuts, and coconut. I am a purist, so I chose none of these things. But they probably would be pretty good (except maybe the coconut). Cream cheese frosting is a non-negotiable however. Moosewood has zero frosting recipes, but that's fine with me because the stuff from the can is the best anyway.

I should really be a professional food
photographer...

For some reason, Moosewood says to cook the cake in loaf pans or a 9x13 pan. I chose to use round cake pans because it's, you know, cake. This also meant that I could put a layer of cream cheese frosting between them, for maximum delicacy. One of the cake circles broke in half as I was putting it on top of the other, but I tried to use the frosting as a kind of glue to keep the whole thing together. Although, clearly one can of the stuff was not enough...

The batter for this cake is very thick; almost more like a dough than a batter. I really wish cookbooks would include information about how the recipe is supposed to look at certain stages because often times I feel a bit lost. My internal monologue gets all, "Okay, I followed your directions, but could you tell me if this is actually right...I don't think it is..."

Maybe some cookbooks have this, I don't know. Moosewood has these hints sprinkled throughout, but with no consistency or detail. I guess nothing I've made has failed too epically, but still I would appreciate the guidance.

Anyway, the cake turned out great and was SOOOOO good! Great way to celebrate a day of packing and unpacking and my wonderful sister's birthday!

Goin' Greek and the Less than Triumphant Return of Pound Cake

Yum! 

            Tonight’s my last night at home as I will return to school tomorrow to work some extra shifts before the semester starts. Using the extra filo dough from Christmas, I decided to make the dish Spanakopita, which is basically a Greek spinach and cheese pie. I paired it with a fruit salad, using Moosewood’s guidelines, and my sister made a white bean salad. Additionally, I was meant to make some bread since I now know how to use our bread machine, but I forgot. 

            The spanakopita was completely delicious. The filo gets crispy and flakey, while the spinach and cheese get all melted and gooey. The spinach is wilted with onions, herbs, and garlic, and then you mix in feta and cottage cheese (that's 2/11!). Using olive oil, you layer the filo dough sheets and spread out the spinach mixture in the middle. Filo dough, also spelled fillo or phyllo, is paper thin and extremely fragile. It’s used in all kinds of strudels to create a delicate crust.

            For the fruit salad, I followed the recommendations under a special heading called “Dead-of-winter fruit salad”. It was less of a fruit salad and more of a mixed fruit bowl because all I used were apples, pineapple, and strawberries. I thought we had bananas at home, but apparently not. Moosewood’s fruit salad “recipe” is basically a list of instructions on how to cut up various types of fruits. So I didn’t really have to use most of it.

I didn't want to use (clean) the
coffee machine so I invented a new system.
Yes, that is a sink strainer...

            The pound cake was a bit of a fail. I decided to make the mocha-swirl variation because it looked the most delicious. Yet again I made the mistake of overfilling the pan, which led to burned edges and an undercooked center. I thought I had left it in long enough for the middle to be mostly set, but that was not the case. My sisters and I were able to eat about 2.5 slices off the end, but then middle poured out in a fountain of lava-like batter. But those two and a half slices were really good. The whole cake is coffee flavored, but there were swirls of chocolate all around. It was absolutely delectable. But the moral of the story is to just buy a bigger cake pan instead of cramming all the batter possible into one tiny tin. 

             It's now been about 2 months of this project and I'm still slightly behind schedule. The first two weeks of January will probably be pretty busy cooking days because none of the dining halls will be open and I won't have anything else to do. But once the semester gets going, it may take me a few days to get into the swing of my new schedule. I think I should be able to catch up, though.

Merry Christmas!

I know I said yesterday that I wasn't cooking anything for Christmas. That was a lie. I did not make a Moosewood recipe, but I did help out with our dinner. Mom and I made an egg and cheese soufflé from Moosewood's follow-up book, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Additionally, I got my first exposure to filo dough which will be featured on the blog again soon.

We also made a delicious trifle for dessert. Mom got this beautiful dish as a gift in the morning and we scrounged up some fillings. A quick trip to CVS allowed us to buy instant vanilla pudding, but sadly not whipped cream. Still very yummy though.

So, just a quick little holiday post for tonight. I hope you had a happy holiday and that 2013 ends wonderfully for you!

All photo credit goes to Mom

Minestrone: A Story of Redemption

            A few years ago, when I was probably 13 or so, a weird set of circumstances led me to be put in charge of supervising Christmas Eve dinner. The rest of the family was out of the house, attending church, and I was coming back from a volunteering event too late to make the service. So I was tasked with watching over the minestrone that was simmering on the stove. I was probably supposed to do other things as well, but I don’t remember. Watching the soup was the most important because my Mom was nervous the house might burn down. Usually when parents tell their children not to burn down the house they’re being facetious. And I want to make it perfectly clear before you continue reading that I in no way burned down the house. Note that the previous sentence doesn’t say that I in no way burned anything. Yes, I burned the soup.

Pasta purists...get out. 

            It takes a very special kind of person to even have the ability to burn soup. To be fair, minestrone is more on the stew edge of the spectrum than straight up soup. It’s got lots of chunky bits and even some pasta. The base is made from tomato puree and water, so it’s kind of like tomato soup 2.0. But still, it’s soup, and I burned it, effectively ruining Christmas Eve dinner.

I don’t remember exactly what happened. Mom had written me what I’m sure was a very clear and slightly condescending Post-It note of instructions. I think I was supposed to leave the pot simmering and then at some point turn up the heat and maybe add something or stir it. I honestly have no idea. After the family returned, I do have vivid memories of standing over the stove as my Mom stirred up blackened chunks from the bottom of a deep pot and looked at me with rage and a vague glimmer of astonishment (as I said, it takes a very special person…) And of course, I remember crying and apologizing to everyone a lot. I know that we were having soup and sandwiches for dinner. I had not managed to ruin the sandwiches, so I guess we just ate those. I think I made Mom clean up the charred mess, but she might’ve banished me from the kitchen at that point.

Pretty much ever since then, whenever I talk about cooking, someone in the family brings up this incident. Mom still tells people that I can burn water. It’s not really that upsetting. Let’s be honest, I completely deserve it. And as a positive, I do always win the “Kitchen Horror Stories Game” at parties. I’m not that surprised by people’s hesitations when I tell them I have a cooking blog. But hey, it’s a learning process. And now I know that it is possible to burn soup and people get mad at you when you do it.

So this Christmas Eve, I am determined to stop being “Miranda, Soup Burner” to “Miranda, Soup Guru” (admittedly, still a terrible super hero name. Maybe she can be a “soup”-er hero, hahahahhahahahaahaha, I'll stop). I volunteered to make minestrone to complement my Mom’s tamale casserole, a recipe of her own invention that involves all of the normal tamale ingredients but without the incredibly tedious process of wrapping it all in cornhusks. We also whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches because no dinner is complete without those. And this soup was not burned! It did get really hot from the Dutch oven, and possibly would’ve burned if we hadn’t taken it off the stove exactly when we did. But it was un-charred and absolutely delicious.

My Christmas present to myself is not to cook anything! Happy Holidays! 

Take a Wok

Soundtrack for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YKcGGO2Ljc

            Back home for Winter Break and the cooking continues! Tonight I made my family Stir Fry with two different sauces. I was particularly excited to use my Mom’s wok since I don’t own one and they make you feel incredibly legit. I also could’ve been excited about using a rice-cooker but since I don’t actually know how ours works, Mom did it for me.

Yum! 

            Moosewood doesn’t so much have a stir-fry recipe as it has a list of suggestions and guidelines. I made mine with broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, onion, and bean sprouts. Moosewood recommended additionally using any combo of cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms, zucchini, and spinach. I would recommend using more vegetables than you'd initially think you'll need because once you add the sauce you want as much surface area as possible. I didn’t quite achieve this, so the overall dish was a bit overly saucy.

I'm really getting a lot of use from
these nerdy Gordon Ramsay memes...

            Speaking of sauciness, I made Moosewood’s Basic Stir Fry Sauce—which gets poured right onto the veggies while they’re still in the wok—and Orange Ginger Sauce, which you could put on the side. You’re supposed to put ¼ cup of soy sauce into these sauces (each). As I quickly learned, this was way too much. Both were rather salty and overpowering. It wasn’t bad; I think a lighter version of both would’ve been pretty good. But both just were too much and took away from the vegetables. Also freaking grated ginger is the worst and the smell will never ever go away. So I think I definitely need a bit more practice with Stir Fry, especially with sauce ratios.

            More recipes coming up soon as I continue to force my family to eat my food as a sign of support!