Spring Garden Pictures

Enjoy some lovely pictures of my garden.

Strawberries!!!

After discussing my “top 10” with my husband, he suggested I add eating crawfish boil in Galveston on our honeymoon. I agreed. It was a memorable experience. My husband sucked the juices and brains out of the  head; I did not.
He also listed several of my favorite restaurants, food carts, dives in Stillwater; I admit that I have been very spoiled in my international college town.
But on to the recipes!
Strawberries! are in season. For a few bucks pick up a few pints this week and eat them with honey sweetened whipped cream.
And if you don’t eat them all and you fear they are going soft, make this sauce combination for a peanut butter and jelly breakfast treat. I made these two sauces the previous weekend and served them on top of French toast.
Sauces can make a meal very special. Think of your Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce or giblet gravy. Or a ice cream sundae with no hot fudge. Sauces can make the meal.

 

Strawberry Sauce
1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled, and roughly chopped
1/2 c. powdered sugar
3/4 c. water

Mix all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until the berries are softened. At this point you can puree the mixture and strain out seeds for a beautiful ruby sauce or mash with the back of a wooden spoon and leave chunky for a rustic sauce.

Peanut Butter Sauce
1/4 c. peanut butter, smooth or chunky
3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. powdered sugar

Mix peanut butter alternately with sugar and milk. Whisk vigorously to loosen the peanut butter at first.

If you find you have some Strawberry Sauce leftover, make this butter cream to frost cupcakes, as I did, or to spread on warm biscuits.

 

Strawberry Butter Cream
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/3 c. strawberry sauce, pureed and strained
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat with an electric mixer butter and strawberry sauce until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. If the frosting is too heavy or thick for your liking, thin with milk.

How Family changes Our Eating Habits and Traditions

    Eating Traditions took a little vacation last week. I had a good case of writers block and I couldn’t convince myself to write about anything.
    But on to business...
    When I met my husband at school, I had no idea how much we would influence each others eating habits. We ate a lot of meals together at the student union while at school.
    Jeremy was the first person to introduce me to sushi. I had not eaten fish other than fried catfish, but then he started taking me to sushi and seafood restaurants.
    I introduced him to new vegetables: asparagus, spinach, and brussel sprouts. First starting with cheesy concoctions and then moving on to other options.
    Together we’ve explored new cuisines neither of us were exposed to growing up. Indian curries, Japanese hot pots, artichokes, and sting rays are all part of our culinary journey together.
    We’ve torn apart each others family favorites. Jeremy’s Mexican casserole was influenced by his childhood in Arizona. My skillet breakfast is almost exactly how my mom would use only one skillet to cook breakfast and then toss it all together.
    We also try to push each others taste buds.
    I love spicy foods. I love the kind of spicy foods that make you cry when you eat them. The kind that clear out your sinuses and make you go “I can smell everything”. This is not the case with Jeremy.
    Jeremy loves sweet, savory food and trys to avoid extremely spicy foods. Bread and butter pickles are one of his favorite treats that I don’t like. Give me sour dill pickles any day.
    All in all, I never realized how much my cooking and eating habits had changed since I met my husband and started sharing my meals with him. Some of my most treasured memories of our dates are when we’re trying new foods and bonding with that experience. So I offer this simple list of suggestions for things to try eating or cooking with your friends and family. Whether you end up loving them or hating them, you tried something new and hopefully made good memories.

My Top 10 Most Memorable Meals/Cooking Experiences/Foods
10. Japanese Hot Pot with Sting Ray at Tokyo Pot in Stillwater
9. Smoked Trout Salad at Smoke on Cherry Street
8. Learning how to cook in a wok and eating stir fried meals for 1 week
7. Eating a Chicago hot dog at Portillos
6. Eating smoked pheasant for Thanksgiving
5. Eating my Grandma Purna’s Chocolate Gooey Cake
4. Learning how to perfectly poach eggs with a running center
(goes well with asparagus, bacon, and toast)
3. Having a latte that made me go “Whoa, that’s good coffee”
 at Intelligista in Chicago
2. Learning that to make the perfect pie crust you need vodka
(more about this in the future)
1. Eating cheeses, salami, olives, and pickles on State St. in Chicago

Vegetarian Tendecies - Chickpea Loaf

This week I had the hardest time picking a topic on which to write. I had nothing, diddly squat, beans. Oh, beans! Then I realized, in the last week I had eaten beans 3 times, talked about bean recipes a few times, and read one cooking essay on cooking for one which involved beans. How did beans escape my radar?

Beans are, or should be, a diet staple. Beans are a great source of protein, fiber, and ... . They can be boiled to a stew consistency, mashed and shaped into patties, or added to many dishes for texture and flavor.

One of my favorite snacks, which I don’t always associate with beans, is hummus, which is a dip made of pureed garbanzo beans, garlic, and lemon juice. It is a savory snack, perfect with crisp vegetables and soft pita bread.

Another great dish is a simple serving of brown beans, corn bread and fried potatoes. I ate many servings of beans and corn bread with my family. My grandpa Bill especially liked the corn bread drizzled with honey or topped with jam for dessert.

But, the kind of meal that came to my mind when I decide to write about beans (such an odd declaration) was using beans as a meat substitute for a vegetarian meal. If I haven’t told you before, I have vegetarian tendencies. That means I’m not a vegetarian, but I sometimes find myself eating meatless meals for periods of time because that is what sounds good. I’m thinking of starting a "Meatless Monday" tradition to encourage my habit (and to eat more vegetables).

This recipe is a great substitute for meatloaf. The original recipe came from "It’s Your world: Vegetarian Cookbook". The only changes I made were to had more spices. I actually added a Thai Spice blend to the mixture. It included crushed red pepper flakes, one teaspoon of soy sauce, and lemon zest in addition to the lemon juice. I think you could also add some more vegetables to this loaf such as bell peppers, mushrooms, or carrots.

Chickpea Loaf

2/3 cup dry garbanzos beans (chickpeas)

1 c. cooked or canned tomatoes

1 small onion, chopped roughly

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. chopped parsley

1/2 c. slivered almonds

1 1/2 c. cooked brown rice

Soak the garbanzo bean in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drain the garbanzos and whiz in a blender with the tomatoes, onion, garlic, oil, lemon juice, and seasonings; pour into a bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 375°F for about 1 hour until loaf is firm.

Shabu-Shabu: Japanese Hot Pot

The next time you’re looking for an impressive meal for a date night, or for entertaining people, or just because, try this unusual method of cooking.
My husband and I first encountered shabu-shabu style cooking in Stillwater at a local restaurant called Tokyo Pot. The restaurant serves you your choice of raw meat or fish and a plate of vegetables to be cooked fresh at your table in your own soup pot full of savory broth. Shabu-shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot and the name shabu-shabu is derived from the “swish swish” motion used when cooking the meat in the pot. The dish consists of thinly sliced meat and vegetables which are usually served with dipping sauces. The meat is sliced so thin that it literally cooks in seconds. Soon we came to realize that we loved this style of cooking so much that the $60+ we spent of eating out could be spent on a lot more food at home.

Raspberry Espresso Swirl Cheesecake

Is this blog just a tease? Maybe.

This week I found out that I can make people drool, especially after they’ve had a very satisfying dinner and in need of dessert. My family and i were eating out and I was telling them about my latest cooking adventure (cheesecake) and the raspberry-coffee combination that resulted in the following recipe. I told everyone that I meant to bring the cheesecake but that it probably wouldn’t have made the car ride (since it has been an unusually warm winter) and my family replied with grumbles and complaints.

"why did you even tell me about it?"

So I promised to bring them some cheesecake the next day. I made plans to bring it by my dad’s work so he could take it to my brother’s house to share (however, while my dad arrived I have heard rumors that the cheesecake never did).

I am normally so excited to share recipes with you. This week I hesitate to share this recipe with you after seeing the anguish it caused my family. I hope you make plans to bake this cheesecake so you won’t have dreams of creamy cheesecakes haunting you at night.

This is a baked cheesecake. In my opinion baked is the way to go. I know it seems more difficult than the fridge/freezer versions, but the flavor doesn’t even come close to a baked version. If you’re not a coffee fan, substitute orange juice, lime juice or milk for the coffee/espresso.

Raspberry Swirl Espresso Cheesecake

1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. butter, melted

1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese

1 - 15 oz riccota cheese

3/4 c. sugar

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 espresso (2 shots) or very strong coffee

1 c. fresh or frozen raspberries

1 tbsp. honey

Preheat oven to 350F. For crust, in a bowl combine crumbs with butter. Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9" spring form pan; set aside.

for filling, in a large bowl beat room temperature cream cheese and ricotta cheese with sugar, vanilla, eggs (one at a time) and cooled espresso or coffee. Pour filling into crust-lined pan.

For swirl, in a small saucepan over low heat cook raspberries and honey until softened. Mash with the back of your spoon. If desired, puree and sieve for a smooth texture and to remove the raspberry seeds.

Dot the cheese filling with the raspberry sauce and swirl with a toothpick.

Bake the cheesecake for 40 to 50 minutes until a 2 inch area around the outside edge appears set when gently shaken.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes. using a small sharp knife, loosen the crust from sides of pan; cool for 30 additional minutes. Remove sides of pan; cool cheesecake completely on rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours before serving.

White "Brownies"

White "Brownies"

Brownie Layer:

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

Cream Cheese Layer:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 (16 ounce) package confectioners’ sugar

Directions

Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Use an electric mixer to beat the 1 egg and the butter in a large bowl. Beat in the cake mix until all crumbs are moistened. Pat mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Beat the cream cheese, 2 eggs, and confectioners’ sugar together in a large bowl. Pour over cake mixture in pan.

Bake in preheated oven until light golden brown, about 1 hour. Brownies will fully set as they cool. When cooled completely, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares.