Crunchy chickpeas

I don't know where I found this recipe, but, it was really so-so. (I need to start posting recipes that are less mediocre. This is getting depressing). The idea was that the chickpeas would get crunchy, like soy nuts, and some of them did, but mostly, they just got dry. Dry enough that your mouth feels like its filled with powder. Maybe I just had to cook them longer. Because maybe one in six were crunchy. If you want to experiment, here is the recipe:

Crunchy Chickpeas
1C chickpeas (half a can's worth)
1 tbs olive oil
salt
curry powder

Drain the chickpeas and pat them dry with a towel. Toss with oil, sprinkle on the spices and toss, and bake at 400F for 30 minutes or until they rattle when you shake the pan.

Cottage cheese muffins

Or, king's muffins. I'll get to that.

I knew I wanted muffins, but I didn't know what kind of muffin I wanted, and I wanted to try something different rather than go with the same old favorites I usually make. I snooped around the internets for a while, and eventually stumbled onto this recipe, from 101 Cookbooks, and since I've made some of her recipes before, and they've worked out, I figured I was golden. I even followed the recipe without changing anything! (this is something new for me, this following a recipe thing). Well, I did use dry sundried tomatoes instead of tomatoes packed in oil, since I didn't have tomatoes packed in oil but I did have dry ones. So I almost didn't change anything.

The recipe came together fine, and the muffins taste fine, although I did use ground almonds instead of almond flour (because I have whole almonds, but I don't have almond flour), and I like the crunchiness. I don't, however, like the pricetag that came with these muffins. So, muffins are usually a cheap snack for me - flour, egg, sugar, and some things like walnuts or raisins. These ones needed cottage cheese (not that expensive, but not something I have on hand - $2.50), 4 eggs (for 10 muffins! - $2.99/12=$.99), sundried tomatoes ($?), basil ($3.99), almond flour (if you went and bought a bag of this stuff its $9.99, I ground up whole almonds, a 5lb sack of which cost $9.99, so 1C of them was probably $.50? I can't do math), 3/4C parmesan cheese (this is almost the whole block of what I had, which was $5.20, so we'll call it $4.00 of cheese). Thats a lot of dollars for 10 muffins. They were good, but not that good. Probably won't make them again, although the idea of using cottage cheese in a muffin is intriguing, now that I have half a container to use up...

Spinach curry thing

I don't know that this is an actual curry, but it had curry powder in it, that makes it a curry, right? I felt like making a glop, and glop I did make, but it was really good glop. Sort of like a cross between curry, saag paneer, and dahl. It would have been awesome with naan, had I thought to make some. I put chicken in this, but it didn't need it. Like most glops that I make, this is extremely flexible. Any ingredient can be removed, added, substituted, whatever. It was easy, too, all I had to do was occasionally stir it or add more liquid.

1 lb frozen spinach
1/2C red lentils
1 onion
1 tbs oil
2 cloves garlic
1-inch cube of ginger
a couple chives
a couple leaves of basil
1 chicken breast
3-4 tbs lemon juice
green curry paste*
sweet curry powder*
cumin*
salt*
sambal olek*
Thai garlic chile sauce*
coriander*
mustard seeds*

*all the spices are sort of optional, I mean you want some curry flavor, but just the green curry paste would have been fine. I just happened to have other spices, that were crying out to be used.

Start by sweating the onion in the oil, and then add the garlic until its toasted. Add 2C of water and 1/2C of lentils, and the spinach. I didn't bother thawing it, I let the boiling water around it do that. So yes, I boiled the lentils. It still tasted good. Add the rest of the spices. Put a lid on the pot and let everything cook for a while. Come back and stir and taste. Cover and cook. Continue that process until the lentils taste done. Meanwhile, cook the chicken, and when the lentils are done, add the chicken (or tofu, or lamb, or whatever you want. Or nothing). Serve with rice and naan.

Persimmon Pudding Bread

Or, persimmon bread without the baking soda. A while back, after making our persimmon pie, Jackie gave me a whole bagfull of persimmon goo. It lived in my freezer for a while, until I had time to think about what to do with it. A quick search of the internets brought me to James Beard's persimmon bread, on David Lebovitz's site, and it looked and sounded good. So I figured I'd make it. His bread looks delicious. Mine looked like this:


Thats right, somebody didn't add baking soda. I tried a piece, and despite the two sticks of butter and copious quantities of alcohol and sugar, I didn't like it. Too much like fruit cake. Or a brick. Since my colleagues seem to be immune to the bad baked goods I sometimes bring in (I rarely bring in the good stuff, I eat that), I brought in one of the two loaves. It was pretty much devoured, and people claimed to like it. Weird. So, if you like a pudding-ish, dense, moist, brick-like bread, omit the baking soda from this recipe. If you'd rather have a lighter bread, keep the baking soda. Or just turn the goop into a smoothie or something. I'm not making this one again...

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

I hesitated for a long time before putting this picture up. Because not only is it not all that appealing, its pretty disgusting-looking. I didn't take a picture while everything was warm and beautifully arranged on my plate, because I forgot, and so I took a picture of the leftovers. Somehow, I'm trying to convince you that my congealed pile of cold leftovers is delicious and fresh and steaming.


We got too many brussels sprouts, and have been eating them for a couple days, which led to the inclusion of bacon in this dish. Because bacon makes everything better. In Ed's words: "I'm bringing this to Thanksgiving next year". So despite the gloppy picture, this dish is worth making. Its flexible, you can put anything you want into it, although the brussels sprouts and the bacon you can't really do without.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

4-8 pieces of bacon (depends how much you like it)
3-4C quartered brussels sprouts
1 onion
~2 tbs lemon juice
1 kohlrabi bulb (optional)
1/2 granny smith apple (optional)
2-4 cloves garlic (optional)
2 tbs toasted pine nuts (optional)
random spices and herbs you think might go well.

Dice the bacon, and cook it until it looks delicious and edible. If you like crunchier bacon, cook it longer. Add the chopped onion, cook it until its transparent, then add the diced garlic. Add the brussels sprouts, and cover, stirring occasionally, until they're bright green. They'll probably need another minute or so to get to the perfect consistency, so add the kohlrabi now. Taste a brussels sprout from time to time, and once its at the consistency you like it at, remove the whole thing from heat, stir in the diced apple, lemon juice, and pine nuts, and serve warm.

This goes well over couscous, israeli couscous, rice, or any other grain you might have lying around. And, its addicting.