Eating PRO on the go, part I

Jess Snyder and I are in Houghton MI this week at the National US cross country skiing championships, and to make it a little more affordable we're cooking for ourselves this week. This could be disastrous, but between a microwave, a fridge, and a crockpot, we have a bunch of really good meals lined up. Vegetarian chili, tabouleh with chickpeas and feta, taco night, rice and microwaved stirfry veggies, Moroccan couscous with mint and apricots and almonds, and various yummy snacks, means that we'll be eating well and enjoying life. I've decided to post a picture and recipe of each meal we eat each night, mostly as a distraction from being in Houghton MI.

Tonight was Tabouleh and chickpea night.


Tabouleh:
~1C dry bulgur
1 tomato
1/2 cucumber
~1/2C lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
feta cheese to crumble on top
1 can chickpeas
~1/2C chopped parsley
~1/4C mint leaves

Boil some water either using the coffeepot or the microwave. Pour it over the bulger in the crock pot, cover, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, until it tastes chewy, not raw.

Chop the cucumber and tomato, add the chickpeas and herbs, add the lemon juice and salt and pepper, and stir it around. Taste it, and adjust the seasonings as needed. Remember that you'll be adding the bulgur, so you want it a little more lemony than you'd normally make it.

Drain the bulgur, and add to the mix. Stir it around, sprinkle cheese on top, and eat.

Pear-Cranberry Coffee Cake

I don't know if this is a bread, or a coffee cake, or a what. Its based loosely off of a bread recipe, but the streusel on top gives it more of a coffee cake feeling. Tastes good, though!

2C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2C sugar
1 1/2C chopped pears (I used one Bosc pear, skin on)
1/2C cranberries, chopped in half
1/2C walnuts
1C buttermilk
1/4C applesauce
1/4C yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Streusel:
1/4C brown sugar
1/4C flour
1/4 stick of melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, pears, cranberries, and walnuts. Mix well. In another bowl, beat the egg, then add the buttermilk, applesauce, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the bowl of liquids to the dry stuff. Stir just to combine, then pour into a greased 8x8 inch baking pan. You could probably make muffins, too.

Melt the butter, then add the rest of the streusel ingredients. Once they are all combined, sprinkle this over the top of the cake. I added about 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts, too, but this is optional.

Bake for ~30-45 minutes, until your toothpick comes out clean. Cool briefly, and enjoy!

Beeramisu

Stolen straight from here. But here is the recipe if you're too lazy to click the link:

1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs beaten (I didn't add eggs)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
48 ladyfinger cookies (about 1 package)
6 ounces (3/4 cup) Porter beer (I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout)
1/2 cup brewed coffee, the stronger the better
1/2 cup cocoa

In a large bowl mix together the mascarpone, sugar, beaten eggs and vanilla. Fold in the whipped cream. Set this mixture aside.

In a shallow dish stir together the Porter beer and the brewed coffee, Dip the ladyfingers cookies into the coffee mixture. Don't let the ladyfingers get soggy. Arrange them in a single layer in a glass 8x8 dish. Spread 1/2-inch layer of mascarpone mixture on top of the ladyfingers. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cocoa. Repeat this for the second layer. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.

Serves 12

I brought this to a weekly gathering of cyclists who run together and then eat together, and it got rave reviews. I will most definitely make it again.

Polenta Wedges

I used a 50-50 mix of polenta and corn meal (the regular stuff). I think you can put just about anything in these lovely golden wedges, this time I just used some herbs, but next time I might use some mushrooms, or sundried tomatoes.

Boil 3C of water. Slowly stir in 1C of the polenta-corn meal mix. Turn down the boil to less of a rollicking boil, and stir the mix constantly. Add whatever things you want to add--I sprinkled in some herbs de provence and salt and pepper. Keep stirring and bubbling until the glop is pretty thick and pulling away from the sides. Then pour it into a dish (an 8x8 baking dish works well) and smooth out the top as smoothly as it can go. Chill this dish.

After about a half hour, the baking dish full of polenta should be pretty solid. Dump it out on a cutting board, and slice into wedges. In a cast-iron pan, melt about half a tablespoon of butter. Add some of the wedges, and cook (without moving them much) until they are golden-brown on the bottom. Flip and repeat. Cool them on a paper towel.

Impulse Buy

It looks like a little dwarf to me. A dwarf thats actually an eggplant.

Lamb Lollypops in an Orange-Ginger-Soy-Sesame Glaze

I know, this isn't a muffin. Its shocking, really, to think that I eat anything other than healthy OCD muffins. But, it happens. We decided that we wanted lamb, and we were debating various ways to cook it and settled on a glaze. I thought this would be fantastic over mashed potatoes, but the motivation to make mashed potatoes wasn't to be found, so we went with popovers (baked in a muffin tin--see! There are muffins involved!).

Glaze
Juice of one orange
2 tbs granulated sugar
Grated peel of half the orange
~1tbs grated ginger, although I imagine ginger powder would be fine
2 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs black sesame seeds (or white, if that is what you have)



First Ed dissolved the sugar into the orange juice, then he added everything else. He pan fried the lamb, cut into individual lollypops (chops? I think I prefer the term lollypop), in some sesame oil, and just poured the glaze over the top. Don't get the heat too high or the glaze will burn. We used a really delicious organic little lamb, and cooked it super rare, just barely warmed up on the inside, the way meat should be. I've got to admit, that was the best lamb I've ever eaten, and I've eaten some delicious lamb. I love eating baby animals. I think this glaze would also be really good with duck, or venison. Anything with that gamey taste. Maybe next time we're in Whole Foods we'll check out that slab of buffalo meat...

Peach Blackberry Crisp

I don't exactly remember the ingredients for the crisp part, because I made this a while ago and didn't write it down. But it was fan-f***ing-tastic.

I believe it went something like this: 2-3 peaches, peeled and sliced, with ~1C of blackberries. Put that in a bowl with a half cup of sugar and a quarter tsp of corn starch, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Mix together in a separate bowl: 1C oats + 1C flour + 3-6 tbs (depending on how rich you want it) melted butter. Put the fruit in a pyrex dish, cover with the topping, and cook until the topping looks golden brown (10 minutes?).

Sorry to be so vague. But its a crisp, how much direction do you really need?

Cranberry Orange Walnut Muffins

More muffins! This one was originally a quick bread recipe, but I tend to make all my quick breads into muffins, so, muffins they are. This recipe was originally from the King Arthur Flour book, with a couple tweaks by yours truly. This muffin ranks as number 2 in my favorite muffins list, after the carrot-spice muffin. Its an absolutely fantastic flavor, especially after you let it sit for a couple of hours and the flavors really come together.

2C flour
1/2C sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1C cranberries*
1C walnuts
Grated rind of one orange
juice of one orange
2 tbs yogurt
boiling water to make 1C
1 beaten egg

*The original recipe called for raw cranberries and a whole cup of sugar, but I used dried cranberries (craisins) which have added sugar, and reduced the sugar.

Preheat oven to 325. Combine the dry ingredients, then add the walnuts and cranberries and orange zest. Squeeze the orange juice into a one-cup measure. Add the yogurt and then fill the rest of the cup with boiling water. Add this mixture to the beaten egg.

Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased muffin pan and cook until its done (~15-20 min).

Edit 12/8/07: I tried them with the full cup of sugar and raw cranberries chopped in half, and the result is even better. So tart, yet so sweet, just delicious!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

As far as I understand, Thai spring rolls are narrower with less stuff in them, and often cut up into pieces. The Vietnamese ones are thicker, and eaten as a finger food, I think. They have rice noodles in them, and more fresh herbs. I made Vietnamese ones, because, well, I don't think I can roll well enough to cut up spring rolls.

This is really just a chopping and rolling exercise, its not all that complicated. First, you prepare all the things that are going to go in the spring rolls, then you roll them up and hope that the rice paper doesn't break.

Ingredients:
1/3 package rice vermicelli (they usually come in a big package that is in three parts)
Rice paper wrappers
6 oz pork (I used tenderloin, costco variety...)
~1C fresh basil
~1/2C fresh cilantro
~1/2C fresh mint
1 carrot, julianned
1 cucumber, sliced into long thin slices, but not quite julianned
1 green onion, diced
1C lettuce leaves, diced

Sauce:
4 tsp fish sauce (soy sauce could probably be substituted)
2 tbs fresh lime juice (about one lime)
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tbs white sugar
1/2 tsp garlic chili sauce (I would go with a little more of this)
3 tbs hoisin sauce (again, I would go with more of this for a thicker sauce)
If you like thinner dipping sauces, add up to 2 tbs water
1/4C chopping peanuts

Pork Marinade:
4 tsp fish sauce
2 tbs lime juice
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp garlic chili sauce


La mise en place

First, slice the pork into flat slices, so they'll cook quickly. Marinate the pork for at least 30 min. As it marinates, chop up the ingredients that need chopping. To cook the rice noodles, boil some water, pour it over the noodles in a pot, and put the lid on the pot. Leave those until you're ready to work with them, and they'll be cooked. Once the pork is marinated, cook it until its done, however you like to cook meat. I used sesame oil in a frying pan.

Once the pork is cooked, shred it using a fork. I found that if I held the meat using a knife, I could pull at it with a fork, and it shredded quite nicely.

Fill a large bowl with warm tap water. Place one of the rice wrappers into the water, for about 30 seconds. Once the rice wrapper is pliable, take it out and lay it flat on a cutting board or a table. Start by dabbing a little of the sauce on a small area in the southeastern quadrant of the circle. You're going to keep all the ingredients in the innermost section of that quadrant. Put down a bit of pork, then carrots, green onion, basil, cilantro, and mint. Add some cucumbers, then a little bit of lettuce. Add some rice noodles (use your judgement as to how full you want your wrap to be; the rice noodles taste like exactly nothing: they are just filler to make it roll more easily), then start to roll. dum dum dum!

Its kind of hard to explain this. If you're good at wrapping burritos, you'll be fine. Start with the eastern edge of the circle. Fold it over the stuff thats in the wrapper. Then take the southern edge and fold it northwards, pushing the filling south into the wrapper, to keep it tight. Once you've gotten it mostly around, fold in the western edge, pushing the filling as tightly as you can into the middle. Then finish off the roll. The rice wrappers will dry like a cement, holding it closed.

Repeat with the rest of them. Put the peanuts on top of the dipping sauce, and enjoy!

(I have no idea how many this makes. Somewhere between 12 and 24, depending on how much stuff you put in each one).

Cookie Turd!

Imagine the following scenario: you have too much cookie dough. We're imagining, because it rarely happens. At this point, you have a couple options. You can bake it all into cookies. You can eat it (although we're assuming you've already eaten your fill, otherwise, why would there be extra?), or you can freeze it. I like to freeze cookie dough in a log, wrapped in saran wrap, and then when you want to eat some, you just cut a slice off the end. For some reason, I call this a cookie turd. There's really nothing better than a frozen piece of cookie dough.

Risotto

I first watched risotto being made while I was in DC--Helene took me over to her friend's house, and they made risotto. It was delicious, and didn't look that hard, so I made some at home. I thought it was good, if a little overly creamy, but Ed didn't like it at all (because of the creaminess). I figured it was a lost cause, and then we were over at another friend's house, and he made risotto, and Ed really liked it. Ok, its ON. I decided to not add any cheese at the end, and to cook the rice only until just al dente, not quite fully cooked. Well, it worked, he liked it and I think we get to have risotto more often.

This is actually a fairly easy thing to make, it just happens to be pretty labor intensive. i.e. you stand at the stove for 45 minutes and stir rice. The end product is worth it, though. You can put pretty much anything in risotto, as long as you follow the right steps in the right order. The idea is that first you must toast the rice in some sort of fat, and then you slowly add your liquid little bit by little bit, until the rice has absorbed as much liquid as possible and it tastes done. Yup, thats it. So here is my take on a dish that carries a reputation for being hard to make, but isn't...

Ingredients:
5-6C vegetable or chicken broth, preferably real broth but boullions will work in a pinch
1C white wine (or a good hard cider; we used a pear cider and it was delicious)
1C short grained rice. Aborio (sp?) is traditional risotto rice, but sushi rice worked well. No long grain, brown, or wild rice.
1 small yellow onion
2-3cloves garlic (depends on how much garlic breath you like)
1/2C grated parmesan cheese
1C additions (diced mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, olives, whatever)
1-3tbs olive oil or butter

The method:

First you want to heat your liquids. When you add the liquid to the rice, it must be warm, otherwise you shock the rice, leaving the inside raw but cooking the outside (eventually). Thats not good, so heat your liquids. I generally have a pot of broth heating on a back burner, and just microwave the alcohol.

Next, dice your onion and various additions. In a large frying pan or wok, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Then add your onions and garlic. Once the onions are sweated, add your rice. You want to stir this around so that the rice gets fully coated in olive oil. Add more if you need to. Cook the rice like this for a minute, until its starting to look translucent.

Once the rice looks translucent, add 1/3C of your warmed wine or cider. Stir it in and allow it to completely evaporate. Then add the rest, 1/3C at a time, waiting for it to evaporate fully each time. During this time you can also add your additions, but don't do them at the same time as a liquid addition since they're generally full of liquid (mushrooms, for example). Once you've used up your wine, start adding the broth, 1/3C at a time. The starch in the rice should start to make a nice goo, by this point. Depending on how gooey you like it, let the liquids evaporate/absorb completely before adding more or add more as they're still kind of gooey. Taste the rice every so often to see if its done. It should triple or quadruple in size.

Once you've got your rice to the cookedness that you want it to, remove from heat and stir in ~1/4C of parmesan cheese. This will make it even more gooey, so if you don't like that, don't add the cheese. Serve the risotto, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Enjoy!

I found 1 cup of rice fed two hungry people, as a full meal, not a side dish. double or halve the recipe accordingly.

Bean-corn salsa

Another one of my favorite things to make when its hot and I have fresh tomatoes...

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 ears of corn, cooked and the kernels cut off the cobs
2 large tomatoes, preferably super fresh
2 tbs finely chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic
1/2 red onion
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste

Chop everything until its approximately of equal size. Put it in a large bowl, mix it together, and eat it.

Peach Tarts

Anna and I have been picking fruit a lot recently. Generally its either preceeded or followed by a rollerski, which means you can eat more fruit while you're picking it (you have to taste test each tree!). Last week the peaches and nectarines were out, as well as ginger golds and honey crisps (two of my favorite types of apples). We also got a bunch of raspberries--they were so good that you'd fill the whole pint box, eat it, and then refill it. Anyway, I made a peach tart, and it was delicious. Recipe follows.


Crust:
4 tbs butter
2 tbs lard
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
~2 tbs water

In a food processor, mix the flour and salt. Add the butter, and process 5-7 times. Add the lard, and process 5-7 times. Add water 1 tbs at a time (or if you have a spray bottle, spray it) until the dough just sticks together when you push it between your fingers. Roll it out and put it in a pie pan. Poke some holes in the bottom with a fork to let steam escape. Bake at 375 for ~10 minutes until its pretty much cooked. It should feel hard, not doughy.

Filling:
6 peaches
2 tbs sugar

Peel your peaches, put them in a bowl, and sprinkle the sugar over them. Let them sit for 10 minutes. Then spread the slices in an artistic manner over the crust, including some of the sugar syrup.

Bake the tart at 375 for another ~10 minutes, until the peaches are soft. Let it cool before you dig in :)

Carrot-spice muffins

I realize a lot of what I cook is baked, and generally a muffin. Thats because they're easy, quick, and healthy enough I don't feel bad eating them as training food. Plus, I like muffins. And then I discovered/created carrot-spice muffins, and my whole muffin world was turned upside down. These things put all other muffins to shame (well, not all, but many). Despite not having any oil, they're incredibly moist, and there is a complexity of flavors that is just really yummy. mmm. I'm drooling just thinking about them. so, yeah, carrot muffins. The recipe is based loosely off of a combination of recipes found online, so no real source. recipe:

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat bran
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup carrots, shredded
3/4C applesauce, unsweetened
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp grated ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger) --OPTIONAL
1 tsp orange zest --OPTIONAL
1 cup walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup milk (skim is fine)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter or spray a 12 cup muffin pan (regular size – about 1/2 cup each).
2. Mix together dry goods in a large bowl.
3. Stir in carrots, apples, raisins, zest, and nuts.
4. Combine milk, beaten eggs, and vanilla.
5. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened (just until the flour streaks are gone – do not over mix).
6. Fill the cups with batter almost to the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin.

Blackberry Scones

After a little over-exuberant blackberry picking, I had lots of blackberries. So, into scones they go. Although these scones were purportedly for the IBC team at great glen tomorrow, I don't think they will make it that long... they're gooooood.

The wet:
1 egg
3/4C milk

The dry:
2C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 /2 tsp salt
1 /2 stick butter (frozen)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs sugar for the top
1 C blackberries

Mix the dry ingredients. Using a cheese grater, grate frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Mix that in using your fingertips. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then add the wet to the dry. Fold until just mixed, then dump onto a table and gently knead the dough into a ball like shape. It is probably possible to make two balls. Cut these into eighths, move them onto a cookie sheet, and pour the remaining sugar on top. Cook until golden brown. Alternatively, brush the tops with an egg wash, and forego the sugar topping.

Fish

Does this exist in Boston? If so, where?!?!?!?

Fresh tomatoes and basil and avocadoes from the Public Market in Seattle. Life is good.

Maple Walnut Banana Bran Muffins

Can we call it an everything muffin? Even Ed thought these were good. That means they're like super awesome. The inspiration came as I was wandering through whole foods after a particularly long and painful run, wondering what I wanted for dinner. That could possibly be the most dangerous thing you can possibly do after running, because you get home and wonder why the heck you bought so many groceries. But I somehow ended up with a giant bag of organic bran flakes, and so I decided to experiment with bran muffins. Contrary to what I had previously thought, bran muffins are good! Especially if you add maple syrup and walnuts, its tough to go wrong. These muffins stayed moist, which I think is due to the applesauce and bananas. Anyway:

2.5C flour
1C bran
1 tbs baking powder
2 tsp salt
1/4C brown sugar
1/2C walnuts
2 mushed up bananas
2/3C applesauce
3/4C unflavored yogurt
1 tbs oil
1 egg
1/4C maple syrup

Mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add the walnuts. In a separate bowl, add the wet ingredients (including bananas). Mix this up well. Then, add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix it as little as possible. Bake at 400 F until done.

Strawberry scones

We went strawberry picking the other day, which could possibly be my definition of heaven. After eating more than I ended up paying for in the tupperwares, I came home with oodles of strawberries. What to do? I was too full of fresh strawberries to want to eat any more of them, so strawberry scones it was. Alex and Jackie were over, and between four of us, we devoured the whole recipe in oh, 14 seconds flat.

There was a near disaster when I forgot to add the sugar, but Jackie came up with an ingenious way of coating the tops with sugar and broiling it so that you get this crunchy, sugary, coating on top, and it was awesome. so:

1/2c milk (skim worked fine)
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1/2 stick (4 tbs) unsalted butter, frozen
2 Tbs sugar
3/4C strawberries, chopped

Put a cheese grater in the freezer. No, seriously. One with the big holes, if possible. Preheat your oven to 425 F.

In a big bowl, add flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 tbs sugar, and mix really well. Take the frozen butter and using your frozen cheese grater, grate it into the flour. Once you've grated half a stick of butter into the flour, use your fingertips to rub it into the flour, until its sort of crumbly looking. Don't do this too much.

In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk, and then dump it into the dry ingredients. Mix it in, using the least number of strokes as possible. It'll be pretty dry.

Dump the mixture out on a floured table, knead no more than 12 times if its really not at all together, and form into one or two circles. Cut these up into wedges, and bake for ~10 minutes, until not quite golden. Here is the important part--when the scones are almost golden brown, take them out and sprinkle a thick layer (~1 tsp) of granulated sugar on top of each one. Then set your oven on broil, and broil the scones until the sugar layer on top has melted into a solid caramel-ish layer. Cool them as long as you can possibly wait, and then devour!

Sorry no pictures, we ate them too fast. Then I made two more batches the next day, and again, they disappeared too fast to take a picture. huh.

Nutrigrain Bars!

So I ran out of energy bars, and didn't really have the funds to go buy more of them... so I decided to make some. I like nutrigrain bars, so I thought that might be a good start. I ended up using a muffin recipe for the bottom, jam in the middle, and an oatmeal cookie recipe on top. I wanted these to be relatively healthy, i.e. not all just sugar and butter, as good as that would taste. I did end up with a 27%, 66%, 8% fat, carb, protein ratio, which works pretty darn well for any pre- or during-workout food.
so:

The Bottom:
1/2C white flour
1/2C whole wheat flour
2 tbs granulated sugar
2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4C milk
1 egg
1 tbs unsweetened yogurt
2 tbs oil (you could probably substitute one of these tablespoons for a tbs of yogurt, to make it 2tbs yogurt to 1 tbs oil)
1/2 tsp vanilla

For the Top:
1/4C butter (1/2 a stick)
1/4C brown sugar
1/4C whole wheat flour
1/4C white flour
3/4C oats (although next time I'll definitely add more)
2 tbs applesauce (You could try yogurt here instead if you wanted to increase the protein)

Middle: 1/2C of jam, whatever flavor you like. I like smucker's blackberry jam.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make the bottom layer first. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. In a 2C measuring cup, mix together the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry, stir until just mixed. If its not runny enough, add more milk. Grease a 9x9 inch pan, and pour the thinnest layer you can manage into the bottom of the pan. Bake until the top is just firm enough to spread jam on top.

Spread the jam on the muffin layer. Using your fingers, mush out chunks of the cookie dough into the thinnest layer possible and spread on top of the jam. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done. I sprinkled mine with oats before baking, and that tasted good.

Repeat as many times as necessary to use up the rest of the batter and dough. Cool as long as you can (About 30 seconds in my case, because I want to eat them so badly). Cut into bars, and eat.

Papaya Cookies

These were more cakey than cookie. But they were good!



This recipe would also work well with persimmons. Heck, it would probably work well with pumpkin even. I bet white chocolate chips or pecans would be delicious too, I just didn’t have any on hand.

1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup papaya puree
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)


Glaze:
1 1/4 C confectioner’s sugar
2 tbs milk
1 tbs papaya puree
1 tsp grated orange peel

Cream the butter, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Add the papaya puree, stirring until blended. Stir the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add them to the papaya mixture, stirring until the flour is just mixed in. Add the nuts if you’re using them.

Lay out plastic wrap on a large, smooth surface. Place the cookie dough on the plastic wrap and form into a long cylindrical log, wrapping the dough completely with the plastic wrap. Place in the freezer, and chill at least a couple of hours, until frozen or almost frozen.

Preheat the oven to 375. When the dough is fairly solid, unwrap from the plastic wrap and slice with a sharp knife into 1/4 inch rounds. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies spring back when lightly touched. Let them cool completely before frosting.

When the cookies have cooled, lay them over a sheet of wax paper. Whisk the confectioners sugar with 2 tbs of milk until smooth. Add the papaya puree and the orange peel and mix until smooth. Dip the spoon into the glaze mixture and dribble over the cookies. Let them harden and serve!

Chocolate-beet cupcakes

2 cups beet puree (about 3 large beets)
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1Cchocolate chips

Bake the beets until they are cooked. Peel and trim them, and then puree them in a food processor. Or you can be all old fashioned and mash them with a potato masher.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs and water, and mix until smooth.

Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder together into a bowl, and then stir in the salt. Then, add the wet ingredients to the dry. When it is smooth, fold in the beet puree.

Scoop the batter into a prepared baking pan. You’ll have to adjust your baking times for the size of your pan. For a small, 4-inch round, bake for about 30 minutes. Cupcakes are about 20-25 minutes. The Budnt cake from the original recipe called for 70 minutes. The cupcakes seem more portable though... Don't overcook the cake, you want it still moist.

I have an idea for a healthy version of this cake (replaces the chocolate chips with walnuts, for one, and replacing some oil with applesauce), but I haven’t tried it yet so I won’t post it. It will very likely be a flop first time round. This version, however, is delicious! I tried it both plain and with some thawed out frozen raspberries, which was delicious, but hid some of the delicate beet flavor.

OCD Muffins

As a coach for CSU, I try to go to as many practices/talks/things as possible. Rob recently set up two nutrition talks, basically one talk divided in two (because we all know the attention span of high-schoolers). Sarah, a grad student at UNH, came down to talk about nutrition specifically taylored to highschool skiers. The main point of session 1 (last monday) was that endurance athletes need to break down their food as: 60-65% carbohydrates, 20-25% fat, and 15% protein. This is all fine and dandy, but I was wondering--if I were to sit at home and eat muffins all day, and only muffins, is there a muffin I can make that would have this ratio? Yup. And I made it this morning.

These are by no means sweet muffins; those cake-like things you get at Dunkin Donuts. I suppose they're more "good-for-you" muffins than anything else, but I think they taste delicious. Of course, its a muffin, naturally I think its delicious. I used 3/4 yoghurt to 1/4 oil, to increase the protein percent and decrease the fat (otherwise it wouldn't fit the criteria of being a well rounded food to eat all day). I expected that this might do some funky things to the way it rose in the oven or something, but they turned out fine. Light and fluffy and poofy on top. I based my recipe off of the zucchini-lemon muffins that I like so much, because I figured zucchini is good for you too, so you may as well have it all. So:

The 25-60-15 Muffin

2C flour
1/2C sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2C walnuts
1/2C raisins
1 zucchini, grated in a cheese grater, skin included (unless you don't want little green bits in your muffins)
2 carrots, also grated
zest of 1 lemon
1/2C milk (I used skim, because that is the only milk we have. It always works out)
2 eggs
3 tbs unsweetened yoghurt (once again, I used skim, because its what we have)
1 tbs vegetable oil

So if you add up all of these ingredients, you get 2,310 calories, 64 grams of fat, 367 grams of carbohydrate, and 65 grams of protein. When you calculate the percentages, you get 25% fat, 64% carbohydrates, and 12% protein. I think thats pretty darn close to the ideal 25-60-15. I suppose if you wanted more protein you could replace all the oil with yoghurt, and you would go down in the fat percentage and up in the protein percentage. Here I'm going all OCD again. Enough.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a big bowl. Then take the grated zucchini in your hands and squeeze it over the sink. Add the zucchini, carrots, lemon zest, walnuts, and raisins to the dry ingredients, mix them around until they are well coated.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a separate bowl. Make sure the eggs get mostly beaten. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix just enough to combine (you'll fine there is a lot of "stuff" in this muffin--it might take more mixing than you're used to). Grease a muffin pan and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until they look done. This made 20 muffins for me, so it was two batches. And then you can eat your muffins feeling good about how healthy you are being! woohoo OCD muffins!

Conclusion: You can sit on your couch and eat muffins all day and still get your exact macronutritional requirements for an endurance athlete (but do endurance athletes sit on their couches and eat muffins all day?)

Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes

2 eggs
1.5 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 tbs butter
2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped finely
1 tbs fresh basil, chopped finely
1 green onion
1 small orange (or red) pepper
5 pieces white bread, ripped into little pieces
1 tbs mustard
1 tbs mayo
1 pound crab meat (or imitation
1C breadcrumbs
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

In about a half tablespoon of butter, sweat the onions with the garlic and some salt. Once they are translucent, take them off the heat. In a large bowl, mix two beaten eggs, the paprika, cayenne, dried tarragon, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, basil, and parsley. Mix that together, then add everything else except the breadcrumbs.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper, and roll out little balls of the crab mixture. roll it in breadcrumbs to coat it, and then put it on the sheet. I got 17 crab cakes out of it, but depending on size, you'll get a different number. Cover the crab cakes with another sheet of wax paper and chill for at least 1 hr.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, just to make sure that the egg is cooked. I pressed on the cakes with a spatula near the end of that, just to compress them a little more. No idea if this was necessary. After about 10 minutes cooking, turn your oven to broil, and broil the crabcakes until they are brown on top. Flip them over, and broil the other side. We were planning on frying them after we had baked them for a bit, but got lazy. Plus, we didn’t think we had enough butter. Lame, I know. I bet they would be really good fried, but they were damn tasty broiled.

Improvements for next time: I would definitely break up the crab meat into smaller pieces, to keep things uniform. In my case, I used imitation crab, which did have some real crab in it, but was just lots cheaper. Tasted fine… I would probably also put some breadcrumbs into the crabcake mixture, just to hold it together better. These cakes were pretty crumbly once you started eating them, but were still nice and moist. Definitely would like to try making these again, but it did take a fair bit of prep time.

Gazpacho Stakcs

This may be my favoritest salad ever. I really love the flavor and texture combinations, even if you don't make it as a stack. It can save you a lot of grief if you just make a big pile of vegetables and drizzle that with the dressing, because the stacks can be a pain in the neck. But they do look very nice. Caveat - if you are serving stacks, make sure to serve them on a full-sized dinner plate, because a smaller plate will not contain the collapse once your guest (or you) sticks a fork into the stack.

This recipe was taken from "Stacks: The Art of Vertical Food" by Deborah Fabricant.

Gazpacho salad stacks:

Planning ahead:
-prepare and drain all the vegetables the day before. The secret to this salad is uniformly diced and drained veggies
-Prepare the dressing the day before
-Assemble the stacks 2 hours ahead and chill
-Prepare the minced parsley early in the day

Ingredients
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 red onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 cups small croutons
1 1/2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and diced
2 cups peeled, seeded, and diced tomatoes, drained (approx 3)
1 english cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced, and drained
3 whole green onions, diced
6 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Garlic-Lemon dressing
12 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped, for garnish (I didn't have any olives, so didn't use them)
1/2 cup capers, for garnish (I also didn't have capers, so skipped them)
6 anchovies, diced, for garnish (I also didn't have anchovies, so didn't use them)


Advance Preparation
Toss the peppers, onion, and celery with vinegar and sugar. Set aside.
Assembly
Spray 6 stack cylinders with vegetable spray and place them on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Layer in the following order: 1/4 cup croutons, 2 tablespoons pepper-onion-celery mixture, 1 tablespoon avocado, 2 tablespoons tomatoes, 2 tablespoons cucumbers, 1 teaspoon green onions, 1 teaspoon parsley. Repeat the layers. Press down firmly and chill for 1 to 2 hours.
To serve, slide a spatula under each stack cylinder and transfer to a serving plate. Unmold and drizzle dressing over and around stack. Garnish with olives, capers, anchovies, and 2 tablespoons minced parsley and serve.

Garlic-Lemon Dressing:
Yield: about 2/3 cup

3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons fresh basil
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

combine the garlic, salt, lemon zest, basil, mustard, lemon juice, Tabasco, and pepper in a food processor and blend well. Slowly add the oil while the machine is running until the dressing is well blended and thickened. Can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Roasted Root Veggies

Roasted Root Veggies



Oven-roasting brings out the natural sweetness of any vegetable, and this is particularly true in the case of roots. The original recipe called for some sugar and some sweeter-type spices, but I was in the mood for something savory. I think they might have browned a little better had they had more sugar to caramelize, but alas. I did not want sweet roots. The original recipe also calls for parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, and carrots—I did not have any of these vegetables, so stuck with what I had. It was good anyway.

1 small sweet potato
1 large beet root
1 medium sized red-skinned potato
2 small purple (blue?) potatoes
1 tbs olive oil
salt
pepper
rosemary
herbs du provence
coriander
anything else you think might taste good

I preheated the oven to about 350. Our oven is less than accurate, so this could be anywhere between 300 and 450. I think it normally runs a little hot. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Mix together olive oil and spices to taste. Make sure you taste this and like how it tastes before adding the veggies.

Slices the roots into French fry-shaped sticks. You could do this in slices too, if you wanted to grill them, but they would take longer to cook. Toss the sticks in the olive oil mixture. I find tossing with my hands works best. Once they are all coated, put down a layer of veggies on the cookie sheet, and stick in the oven for a while. Once the sticks are somewhat soft, broil them the rest of the way. Feel free to toss them every once in a while to keep them from burning. Once they are starting to brown, they are done.

I made these again the other day and used about half as much olive oil, and they were much less oily-looking, but still browned up fine.

Tomato-Basil-Mozzarella Stacks

Taken from the cookbook called "Stacks: the art of vertical food" by Deborah Fabricant

Roasted Vine Tomatoes, Pesto, Mozzarella di Bufala, and Pine Nuts with Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette
Yield: 6 servings


Planning Ahead
-Prepare the roasted tomatoes the day before
-Prepare the pesto the day before and chill, covered with plastic wrap
-Prepare the vinaigrette the day before and chill
-Assemble the stacks 2 hours prior to serving and chill

Tip: to cut the mozzarella use a taut piece of dental floss

Ingredients:
8 tomatoes, 3 inches in diameter, sliced into 24 equal rounds, discarding the end pieces
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
24 fresh basil leaves
12 slices mozzarella di bufala, 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
3/4 cup pesto
1 cup sundried tomato vinaigrette
1 tomato, seeded and diced for garnish

Advance Preparation:
Preheat oven to 250. Spread 18 of the tomato slices in 1 layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Reserve the remaining tomato slices for the stack base. Sprinkle the slices with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Bake 2-3 hours, or until the slices are slightly dried but still moist. Cool.

Assembly
Spray 6 stack cylinders with vegetable spray and place them on a sheet pan. Layer the stacks in the following order: 1 fresh tomato slice, 2 basil leaves, 1 slice mozzarella, 2 teaspoons pine nuts, 1 tablespoon pesto, 1 roasted tomato slice. Repeat the layers beginning with the basil and ending with the third roasted tomato slice. Press down gently but firmly and refrigerate until serving time.
To serve cold, slide a spatula under each stack cylinder and transfer to a serving plate, unmold, garnish with the additional basil and pine nuts, and spoon viaigrette around the base. Spoon tiny dots of additional pesto around the edge of the plate and serve.
To serve warm, place the stacks in a pre-heated oven set at 350 for 10 minutes, or until heated through. Slide a spatula under each stack cylinder and transfer to a serving plate. Unmold, garnish with diced tomatoes, spoon vinaigrette and additional pesto around the base, and serve.

Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette
Yield: about 1 cup

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/4 cup drained and diced oil-packed sundried tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

to make the vinaigrette, place the mustard, vinegar, and garlic in a bowl and whisk until blended. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking until blended and thickened. Stir in the parsley, sundried tomatoes, salt and pepper. The vinaigrette will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for about 4 days.

Shortcut Stacks
-purchase a quality pesto
-purchase a tomato vinaigrette
-use drained oil-packed sundried tomatoes in place of the roasted tomatoes

So this one has its pros and cons. The pros would be that it tastes delicious and it looks gorgeous. The con is that it is very difficult to eat. I mean, there is just no way to cut it. It all falls apart, and then you're left with a slightly messy tomato-mozzarella-basil salad, which tastes really good, but if you served it on a small plate, you would have tomato all over your table. The other con is that it takes eight tomatoes, and at $2.49 a pound, we're talking like $20 of tomatoes. And for cheapskates like me, thats too much money to spend for one dish... sorry. I really should start growing my own tomatoes, I would never run out of things to do with them. Anyway, delicious and pretty, but hard to eat.

Made with Love Nuts

Alas, no picture of the nuts. Next time I make them I'll take a picture. Just a shot of the ride we were on when we rediscovered the barter system to pay each other back for things. "I owe you two pastries for dinner last night, but you owe me three pastries for pulling so long in the wind"... Not that these nuts are pastries, but we biked to Callie's restaurant where they make these nuts. So there is almost a connection.

Made with Love Toasted Nuts
(Thanks to Callie)

1 C pecan pieces
1 C whole almonds
1 C pistachios

1 egg white
1 T curry powder
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
1 C white sugar

Whisk egg white until very frothy. Coat nuts. Blend spices and sugar separately and then coat nuts. Bake in 400 degree pre-heated oven on sheet for ~7-9 minutes (until golden brown).

My suggestion for their use (other than just eating them):

1-3C mixed baby salad greens of mesclun or whatever you like best in a salad
2 tbs crumbled mild feta
3 tbs nuts
1/2 Asian Pear
1-2 tbs maple mustard dressing

The dressing: mix together some dijon mustard, maple syrup, and olive oil. If its too strong, add some water. Adjust the three parts as needed to get a taste you like. As usual, salt the sald before dressing.

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts

My dad used to scare me as a little kid by threatening to feed me overcooked brussels sprouts. I guess he had some bad memories of them, because we never ate them at home. Then I tried some this year, and I can't get enough. Then again, anything caramelized or crunchy tastes good to me... and I like green things too.

Brussel Sprouts:
1 Lb brussel sprouts
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey (optional)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425F. Cut off the ends of brussel sprouts and cut them in half. Place them in a baking dish large enough to hold them in one layer and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the bottom third of the oven for 20 minutes. Stir, drizzle with honey and vinegar (if using), and roast another 5 minutes. I definitely use the honey and balsamic vinegar.

Edit 5/15/08
I didn't realize other people read this blog. Looking back on this recipe, it is one I took directly from here, and I probably shouldn't have posted the recipe up without a reference, or even posted it at all. However, even if a recipe is printed somewhere in its original form, the internet is a fickle thing, and sometimes blogs disappear (or get deleted). Hopefully nobody will be too offended... This blog is where I play with ideas and kitchen experiments, and I like to post my successes, whether or not I was the one who came up with the idea.

Calorie Bombs (AKA Date-Almond-Coconut Balls)

These things are awesome. They taste even better after they've sat for a day and the cocoa has had a chance to kind of sink into the cookie-part of the balls; then it tastes less bitter but still like dark chocolate cocoa powder. I can't really explain it.

1C shredded coconut
1C whole pitted dates
1C toasted chopped almonds
1 beaten egg
1/2C packed brown sugar
1 squirt of lemon or lime juice (maybe 1 tsp?)
Baking cocoa

In a food processor, chop up almonds. Toast in the oven for a while until they taste toasted. In same food processor, chop up dates as finely as possible. Mix together almonds and dates in a bowl, with your hands. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix together with your hands. Form into little balls, roll in baking cocoa. Bake for 10 minutes, allow to cool before eating. I got about 40 balls out of the recipe.

Coconut - Oatmeal Cookies

Uh, this recipe is straight from the side of the box of oatmeal... but I took out the raisins and added the coconut, and its way better that way. I love oatmeal cookies.

Oatmeal cookies:

1 stick of butter
1/2C brown sugar
1/4C white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4C flour
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
11/2C oats
1/2C coconut

Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to egg/butter/sugar combo. Mix well. Add oats and coconut. Bake at 350 until slightly brown at edges. Makes ~24 cookies, depending on how large you like them.