• Home
• Me & Food
• Recipes
• Blogroll!

RSS

Archive for the ‘interwebs’ Category

Salad Fun with Roasted Beets & Feta Dressing

 

This is almost directly from a Cooking Light recipe.  Ridiculously easy with really interesting flavor combinations. 

1.5 pounds golden beets

1/4  cup crumbled feta

1/4  cup sour cream

2  Tb milk

2  Tb mayonnaise

1 1/2  tsp white wine vinegar

1/8  tsp salt

1/8  tsp black pepper

lettuce/greens

thin sliced red onion

1. Roast beets.  I used the Cooking Light recipe to do this—425 degree oven, scrubbed clean, roasted for 45 minutes.  Slightly cooled, trim roots and rub off skins.
2. Slice beets into wedges (about 8 per beet, if you’re using medium-sized).  Some of mine were huge.
3. The feta cheese (yummm) gets mixed with everything down to the black pepper and blended with a whisk.  It was really thick and difficult for topping the salad, but so worth it.
4. Top greens with beets, red onion and dressing.  The recipe called for fresh parsley at this point.  I left it out.

  

Gorgeous plate.  :) 

We made these poppy seed pan-roasted turnips, but I was not a fan.  The recipe was a bit strange, but this was mostly am experiment to see if turnips will be one of our regular veggies…the answer: NO.  I’ve had a few things with turnips in them that we fine, and I loved the Winter Vegetable Stew with Maple Glazed Tofu we made last year, but this was not good.  If you love turnips, maybe you will appreciate this recipe from Mario Batali, which clearly uses far less poppy seeds than I did (although I followed the recipe exactly, so who knows).

αυγά rancheros?

First up, Santana teaches Matt how to do push ups! No matter what she is doing, if Matt tries to exercise in the middle of the living room, she POUNCES!  Her whole body wiggles and wags along with her tail and she looks happier than ever while bounding across the room to run under him, lick his face, pounce in front of him, and just generally play along with this super fun game of pushups!  It is crazy adorable and we love her for it!  This morning we decided she is the perfect dog for us because of her quirky awesomeness…and we concluded that this is because she is the dog-version of our favorite schvester, Dori.  They are puppy/person soulmates, for sure.

  

Second, some yummy giveaways:

Erin at I Walk In This World is giving away a ton of Mr. Kracker products and asking about whole foods.  Whole foods! Hooray!

Over in Jackson’s World you can enter a giveaway for some Holey Donuts….I need these. Anytime they send me an email, I spend most of the day debating whether or not I need some mail-order donuts. 

Can we count Holey Donuts as a Wholey Food? I think so. 

Ok, enough drooling…on to some cooking.  I have a few meals backlogged that I want to post, but will just spread them out over a few days.  First up, a Greek-inspired breakfast (we have been on a Mediterranean kick lately, I guess).

You all know about my recent obsession with mexi-breakfasts.  I usually get really excited when there are huevos rancheros on a menu…I love the mix of the runny fried egg, creamy beans, crunchy tortilla, spicy salsa…it’s all wonderful for me.

We had leftover gyro meat from an amazing meal we shared from  Mr.. Gyro in Greenwood (this place is SPECTACULAR), and I turned it into a greeky rancheros type thing.  I may need a suggestion for a title for this meal, since all of my ideas have been pretty lame. 

Greek Breakfast Heaven

• 2 pitas
• 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/4 of a small onion, chopped
• dried parsley
• 1/4 cup water
• minced garlic
• 3 Tb shredded cheddar cheese
• Leftover Gyro meat
• 4 fried eggs

1. Toast pitas until a little bit crispy
2. While toasting, sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add parsley, water and chickpeas, cooking over medium-high heat until water is mostly absorbed and chickpeas are heated through. Mash chickpeas to desired consistency (I left it fairly chunky).
3. Spread chickpea mash on pitas and sprinkle cheese ton top.  Pop back in the oven for a couple minutes to melt the cheese. 
4. Heat gyro meat.  We just reheated in the microwave for a couple minutes.  Our leftover meat had a little yummy sauce on it, so that got mixed in as well and when it reheated (with a tiny bit of water added to keep it from drying out) it made a really flavorful sauce. 
5. Put the reheated meat and any sauce on top of pitas.
6. Top with fried eggs.  I aim for over-medium.  

YUM!  This was sooo satisfying.  Definitely not a light every-day breakfast.  But a wonderful weekend treat that held us over for quite a while!  We definitely got our protein in for the day! Also note in the second picture how perfectly my two eggs turned out!! The two I made for Matt were not as pretty, but I was pretty pleased with myself for the second batch. 

 

 

Coming soon: Big S Farms Salsa redeemed! Stay tuned!

Big S Farms Salsa arrival!

Thanks to Missy’s great salsa recipe contest a couple weeks ago, I received a big box full of spiciness on Wednesday! I didn’t get a picture of the box, but it was pretty great…one huge box, full of packing peanuts, with a much smaller box packed inside. Inside this wonderful smaller box…3 jars of salsa and 3 bottles of hot sauce (and some recipe cards)!! Thanks to Vance from Big S Farms!

I am crazy about salsa…if there are tortilla chips and salsa in the house, I will probably want to snack on them. If I snack on them, they will probably disappear. I’m ok with this. It’s delicious! On the Big S Farms website, they describe their Gourmet Habanero sauces and salsas:

Our habanero sauces and salsas are crafted with a perfect balance of heat and flavor to make the perfect taste treat for even the most discerning palate. Each product is made with all natural habanero varieties and ingredients.

I’m contemplating a big Mexican feast this weekend, since I have so much salsa and hot sauce on hand. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. As I try all the varieties, I will definitely be reviewing them here and letting you know how I used them in my meals!

However, we already have two jars of salsa open in our fridge (one we bought a while back and one my parents had at their hotel when they were in town). It seems silly with two half-eaten salsas already on hand to open another jar. But it was new! We had to try it!

So we chose the Medium salsa for a blind taste test of salsa brands!! Matt and I are big fans of taste tests…does anyone remember when Diet 7up had a promo where you could fill out a form online and get a can of diet 7up, sprite zero, and diet sierra mist delivered to you? It was 2 years ago, I think? Anyway, we were EXTREMELY excited about this, and ran to the computer to fill out the form as soon as we saw the commercial. I don’t even think we had to talk about it…the commercial ended, we looked at each other, and we ran to the computer.

We didn’t see the package for a while…and when we did, we had mostly forgotten about it. I went to UPS to pick it up and since it was a package, I had to open it right away…I called Matt from the car, VERY excited. Not only that, they were whole cans of soda! I got 3 cans of soda in the mail! Awesome! He was just as pumped, and we soon were blind taste testing away!

We set up a pretty elaborate scheme with 6 cups. Each of us filled up the others’ cups and marked them with a sticker on the bottom. The taste test revealed some interesting results. From best to worst, Matt’s choice was: Sierra Mist, 7up, Sprite. Mine was: Sprite, 7up, Sierra Mist. We had reverse preferences! My favorite part is that despite the fact that this was a 7up promo, neither of us preferred the Diet 7up over both of the others…promo failed!

Needless to say, Matt was up for a salsa taste test.

I set the test up like this (sorry for the fuzziness):

6 chips, 3 salsas (Big S Farms Smoke on the Mountain, Trader Joe’s Medium Salsa, San Juan Salsa Mild), 1 glass of water.

First, Matt closed his eyes while I fed him the salsas in a random order and then I recorded his preferences. Then Matt fed me the salsa in a different random order…I had to turn around because I am really bad at keeping my eyes closed for things like this.

THE RESULTS (from most to least favorite):
Matt: Big S Farms, San Juan Salsa, Trader Joe’s
Mallory: Trader Joe’s, San Juan Salsa, Big S Farms

We are reversed again!! I think this is hilarious.

I was sad that I didn’t like the Big S Farms salsa! It had a strong flavor that I couldn’t pinpoint and I just wouldn’t be able to snack on that! I think I preferred the TJ’s because it is the thinnest and simplest, without a lot of “fresh” flavors…this sounds strange, but I grew up snacking on this kind of salsa, and it’s the one I can eat with tortilla chips for hours on end because it’s so addicting. I think the Big S Farms will be ridiculously better in meals, and I can’t wait to try it out! We both agreed that we liked the San Juan Salsa brand…we used this in our breakfast burritos over the weekend and it looks homemade…chunky and finely diced (similar to a salsa I made recently). Matt said his top two were really close to one another, almost tied…and I really enjoy the San Juan Salsa, I just couldn’t snack on it on a regular basis.

No matter what my fussy salsa taste buds think, Big S Farms won the Matt Taste Test! Hopefully he will snack on it, and at least I know he will love it when I use it to make some Mexican food! Have you tried Big S Farms? If not, click over to their site  to order your own or find some recipe suggestions! I can’t wait to see how its unique flavor works with other things, especially when heated up! (This makes me consider another taste test…salsa con queso dip! Matt, can I count you in?)

Falafeleftovers

I love leftovers! I am extremely satisfied by using up random bits of leftover things throughout the week and get really frustrated when food is wasted or spoils. So last night’s dinner was very fulfilling for me.

When we made falafel from scratch the other day, Matt had 3 patties for lunch the next day, and we froze the last four for later use. Tuesday, I took them out of the freezer and defrosted them in the fridge, and then popped them in the toaster oven to heat up while I put together the rest of dinner, which largely came from our CSA box this week!

Falafel Chop Salad

• 1 head Red Leaf Lettuce, washed and torn
• Salad Dressing to Coat (we used parmesan pepper or something like that)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, chopped
• ¼ small white onion, chopped
• ¼ block Beecher’s Flagship cheddar, chopped
• 2 small pitas
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Italian seasoning
• Grated Parmesan
• 4 leftover falafel patties 

1. Toss lettuce with dressing, just enough to coat lightly. Split between two plates and top with veggies and cheddar.
2. Brush pitas with a light coating of olive oil and garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and parmesan to taste. Place these on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until toasty (10-20 minutes…keep your eye on them!). Remove from oven, let cool for a minute, then quarter.
3. Toast falafel patties on a tray in the toaster over until warmed through and re-crisped.
4. Serve salad topped with crumbled falafel and pita crisps on the side.

Super easy! I topped each of my pieces of pita with a heaping pile of lettuce and veggies and cheese and ate like a mini open-faced sandwich. So delicious and really satisfying for our tummies…also very very filling. We debated putting some leftover black beans (from breakfast burritos this past weekend) on the salad as well, but I’m glad we didn’t, since I probably wouldn’t have finished.

Matt gets no carrots because of his OAS… stupid allergies! Also, speaking of Matt, he did an adorably wonderful post about the Mallory Color Guessing Game, which he made for me when we started dating and he taught me hexadecimal! Fun!

Home!

HEY HEY HEY! First things first….get over to Missy’s blog and vote for your favorite salsa recipe in her contest!! I’m #8, in case you have trouble choosing a winner from all the yummy choices! 🙂

One more fair this morning and with a lucky traffic day, I was home around 3:30!! I am EXCITED!  I love being on the road and travelling to new places, but I get so homesick…I wish I could take Matt and Santana along with me whenever I travel! That would be the best!

Green Foodie Arguments

Here is a link to an interesting post that is probably of interest to some of the other foodie bloggers out there.  Anyone into the organic, slow food movement should be familiar with Alice Waters and her restaurant in Berkeley, CA, Chez Panisse. When the roommate and I went to California on a grad school visit/research trip the summer before our senior year, and we made it a point to have lunch at Chez Panisse (dinner was WAY out of our price range). Super delicious and fun to be eating at Alice Waters’ place.  I met her and listened to her speak at The Bale Boone Symposium put on by The Gaines Center at the University of Kentucky in 2005 (I think?).  It was really amazing and wonderful for me at a time when I was still sort of defining who I was as a cook. 

The Jezebel post by Sadie, points to a recent backlash against Waters and her push for organics.  One of the most vociferous, unsurprisingly, is Anthony Bourdain (who I have a bit of a crush on, fyi).  Sadie quotes Bourdain:

Alice Waters annoys the living s%#* out of me. We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic. I mean I’m not crazy about our obsession with corn or ethanol and all that, but I’m a little uncomfortable with legislating good eating habits.

First of all, he loves to talk about the Khmer Rouge…I have zero statistics or citations to back this up, but I have heard that name come out of his mouth so many times that when I read about Khmer Rouge (even unrelated to Bourdain at all), I hear it in his voice and I picture him ranting. This kind of random association is wonderful…maybe I should choose something to be obscurely connected to.  Whenever you think of Mussolini, you will think of me! Maybe not…

Second, I love Alice Waters, but I have no problem with Bourdain’s ranting…he often goes off on a lot of topics that I don’t agree with, but that is basically his job.  He’s a complainer and a grumper and I think this is why I love him oh so much.  He openly hates on cultures, women, men, children, other chefs, things I would normally be very against  ranting about…but from him, it’s pretty enjoyable.  So I am not bothered by him particularly saying this.  And I don’t think his overall culinary stance eschews the organic, local side of things.  In the essay “The Evildoers,” Bourdain says that you should “try to eat food that comes from somewhere, from somebody,” and I think this applies not only to his signature “Chef’s Tour” mantra of eating the cultural food of wherever you are, but also to the roots of where you get your food…if your veggies, your meat, your dairy comes from somewhere, someone in particular, you are more likely to connect to it and more likely to appreciate and understand its importance.

About the post itself, I have to agree with Sadie…Waters can handle the criticism as someone behind the Green movement and any kind of revolutionary progress needs to be questioned and pulled in different directions as it develops.  Yes, we’re in an economic crisis and a lot of people are having trouble affording the bare basics for their families.  Yes, the cost of organics is often high and going fully green is not necessarily feasible for every family out there.  But I know an increasing amount of people who are not typical of the “elitist” perception that has been tied to organics, especially as I’ve discovered more and more food bloggers who are in super green mode in so many ways.  And I think if more and more people fit local, sustainable, green, organic ways into their lives on a daily basis, at a level that fits their lifestyle and economic means, then it pushes for more and more change towards the positive. 

While the individual families have to make these changes on the small scale, on the larger, more vocal scale, revolutionaries like Waters and critics like Bourdain are necessary to keep pushing ideas forward and honing and refining the ideas that have made it to the mainstream mindset. 

—-

Ok, that was more rambling than I predicted, but I thought some of the bloggers out there would find this discussion interesting! What are your thoughts on Alice Waters? Anthony Bourdain? Feel free to despise either one, despite my love of them! 🙂

Contest news:

Don’t forget to enter Dori’s Doormat Giveaway, and she has a second one this week for an Always Infinity Gift Pack!

Missy is also having a giveaway for the Always gift bag!

Jackson’s World is not only featuring an adorable pup, but is also having a Spring has Sprung Giveaway! Bring on the spring!

Lucky Taste Buds has a Big S Farms Salsa giveaway! Yum yum yum for Salsa!