Popcorn

A while ago Janssen posted this post about afternoon snacks. Now I being childless am not super concerned with feeding a child an afternoon snack. Nevertheless learning that you could make popcorn in a paper sack was very awesome. I now eat popcorn about everyday. And I don't feel guilty about it because I don't even always put butter on it. A little salt is good enough some days. And then even when I do put butter on it's not a ton. And I can feel good that I know what's going into my popcorn.

Zucchini Bisque

I also made this delicious zucchini bisque. If you can't tell, I really love creamy soups. I feel like there isn't a much better way to make a soup delicious than to add cream. But then, cream is good in just about anything. And since this soup also needed something to go with it I tried my hand at a flatbread. This one is a green onion flatbread. It was good, but had pretty much no flavor. Next time I think I'll try a different flavor (maybe garlic??).

Zucchini bisque

Green onion flatbread

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

And lest you think that I haven't cooked in months... I made my own tomato soup. It was pretty delicious. I'm still learning about using cream in my soups. I have a little trouble with it separating because I add it when the soup is still too hot. 

 And nothing goes better with tomato soup than grilled cheese. Yum!

Broccoli Pizza!

You probably remember my zucchini pizza mishap from Monday. And you probably remember that I had planned on making broccoli pizza. So today that's what I did. And I learned from my mistakes:
1. I didn't use red sauce
2. I seasoned my broccoli
3.I pre-steamed my broccoli so it was basically already cooked when I put it on the crust (maybe next time I'll roast it, I bet that'd be pretty tasty)
 And the result was about a hundred times better. I think that zucchini and yellow squash pizza (when properly made) is still my favorite, but this was pretty delicious too. And I will definitely be making it again. Maybe even with the other bit of crust I have in the freezer.

pizza, pizza

Today I made more zucchini pizza. I wish that I could say that this one was as delicious as the others that I have made this year, but I confess it was not. 'Twas my own fault though. I've had a container of pizza sauce in the freezer for a while and I decided to pull it out two or three days ago and I had plans to make a broccoli pizza with it. So that was my plan for today. I've found that things go bad a lot faster here in the summer, so I've been a little nervous that my sauce would go bad before I got to it. So today I pull it out and get out the broccoli and as I'm rooting around trying to find the cheese I find 2/3 of a zucchini left over from making bread yesterday. So I decided that I should make pizza out of it. Of course the red sauces doesn't really go with the zucchini pizza, but for whatever reason I decided that both leftovers just had to be used today. When I stirred up the sauce it was super watery (obviously a by product of having been frozen). And there was at least twice as much as I needed. Nevertheless. I spread all of it on my crust and hoped for the best.

Yeah, it stuck to the pan something fierce, and the crust sogged out almost instantly. I think that in the future we'll quit trying to make dumb decisions like that. It tasted ok, very much like breadsticks with slices of zucchini on top. I'll get around to making my broccoli pizza another time. And I probably won't use tomato sauce, which somehow I think will be ok.

Brussel Sprouts with Roasted Grapes

So a while back I saw this recipe on Two Kitchen Promenade that looked pretty interesting. Brussel sprouts are one of those foods that have a reputation for being pretty awful. In fact, until I made this recipe I had never ever had a brussel sprout before. I think the only reason I was brave enough to try them was because I have known 3 or 4 people in the recent past who think brussel sprouts are pretty amazing.

Unfortunately for me green grapes were what was on sale so my dish didn't have the same color appeal that this one had, but c'est la vie. I will say that brussel sprouts are pretty delicious. I'm not sure how they ended up with such a terrible reputation, but I'm glad that they are coming back in style. One thing I will say though, is that they are much better fresh; they don't reheat well at all--actually, it's mostly the grapes that don't reheat well. Next time grapes (and brussel sprouts) go on sale I will definitely be making this one again.

Potato Pizza

This seems like forever ago that I was on my pizza kick, but for a while I'm pretty sure I made pizza (usually with zuccini and squash on it) at least once a week and maybe more like twice. I'm not sure what happened. I guess I got busy (which I definitely did, if I look at my life in January and my life now they are completely different). But back when I ate pizza all the time I saw this recipe for potato pizza and thought it sounded pretty tasty. Though when I made it I admit that I made some changes because I had neither shallots nor gruyere (though if I did that would've been pretty fantastic). Sadly, it's a little hard to remember, but I'm pretty sure I used cheddar cheese. And I also learned that you definitely need to make sure the potatoes are cooked all the way through before you put them on the crust because they won't finish cooking in the oven. But other than that, the pizza turned out pretty fantastically. Writing this makes me want to make pizza again soon, maybe I'll get ingredients for one next time I do a shop.

Spinach

So for no apparent reason I was under the impression most of my life that cooked spinach wasn't very good. I don't know where I got that impression because I definitely also knew that eating spinach makes you strong enough to punch the living daylights out Bluto--Popeye's nemesis. But so a couple of weeks ago I had a whole bunch of spinach that was starting to wilt, and so it wasn't ideal for a salad, but I still needed to eat it so I looked up a recipe for cooked spinach. It is surprisingly tasty. And since spinach cooks down so much I feel uber healthy eating half a bag of spinach in about 4 spoonfuls.

Spinach with Sesame and Garlic

Black bean and sweet potato tacos

It is amazing to me just how versatile the sweet potato is. I would never have pegged it for being a good taco-filling, or even for going well with black beans. But it is, and it does. Once again I will beg your forgiveness for the lack of a photo. While my taco turned out very deliciously, it wasn't really attractive enough for my to take a picture. (I used too big of a tortilla, and put in too much filling and ate it like a burrito, except with the filling falling out all over the place). Instead, I will have to refer you to this blog instead, and to her picture, because hers is excellent.

Zucchini Pizza

Normally I'm a pepperoni pizza person. Just plain old pepperoni (or occasionally Hawaiian), but this zucchini pizza is fantastic! One of my old roommates used to make it occasionally and it made the apartment smell so good. So today I tried it. And I tried a new crust recipe, which at least so far has passed muster. Admittedly, I didn't use goat's cheese, but that was more because it was too expensive to actually buy. But next time, I think I'll spend the extra money.

Potato Pot Pie

We're all agreed that chicken pot pie is pretty delicious, right?  I mean, flaky crust, chicken, peas and carrots, what's not to like? I'd have to say the thing I don't like about chicken pot pie is the purchasing of the chicken. Why does meat have to be so expensive anyways?

In preparation for a new adventure (more on that later), I've been trying to use up all my food. Always a challenge. So I found myself with a whole bag of peas, and a couple carrots, but no chicken. However, I did have a potato.  (I discovered a while back that potato does make a tolerable chicken-substitute in Indian food, which is how I came to the following conclusion.) Potato pot pie anyone?

I had decided that I wanted to make this pot pie before I went home to visit my family for Christmas, and since I knew my potato would suffer during my two-week absence I decided I'd be all prepared and chop it and the carrots up before I left and freeze them. You can buy frozen vegetables so I assumed this would work. I came home and pulled my frozen veggies out of the freezer to find that my potatoes had turned black. Thinking about it, I know that potatoes turn brown after you cut them much like apples do, so I figured there was nothing wrong with blackened potatoes. So I still used them. (but I also got another fresh potato and used that too.)

What I've since learned is that potatoes don't freeze. When they thawed they were kind of mushy, which was weird, and when they were cooked in the pie they didn't taste like potatoes. Basically, they didn't look like potatoes and didn't taste like potatoes, so what I really ended up with was a pea-pot pie. (I also used far too many peas to be proportionate--why not use the whole bag up at once?) The fresh potatoes did taste like potatoes and were really quite delicious. So I do think that potatoes can work in pot pies. Just not frozen ones. And really, after you pick out the blackened bits the whole pie still turned out ok--though I still wish I didn't have to eat it all week.

Spiced Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Well, as 2011 rapidly draws to a close I figure I better post once more this year. And just to show how on top of things I am I'll admit that I made these sweet potatoes about three weeks ago. You may remember me telling you about my awesome thanksgiving this year and how much I loved the sweet potatoes that my roommate served. So a couple of weeks ago when I got invited to a "Post-Thanksgiving, Pre-Christmas Turkey Dinner" I couldn't resist trying out these potatoes myself.

The very first time I had these it was with the chicken in the recipe--it's very good. But it's also good if you leave out the chicken (and who can afford to buy meat anyways?).  The spicy sweet potatoes seemed to go over well at the dinner (though they had a bit more kick than I had intended). And I really like them so I made them again for my family while I was home over Christmas--actually the real reason I made them while I was home was because my mom had chipotle chilis in the freezer. They didn't like them as much but in all fairness, my family doesn't really like sweet potatoes at all (don't ask me).

Green Smoothies

A number of months ago one of my roommates introduced me to the wonder that is the green smoothie. They're pretty amazing. Essentially you add fresh spinach to whatever smoothie you happen to be making and it turns your smoothie green without changing the flavor. So instead of having a healthy fruit smoothie with half your servings of fruit for the day, add some spinach and then you've got half your fruit and vegetables. A painless way to eat veggies, what could be better? I will warn you though, depending on what fruit you put in your smoothie the color of green can vary dramatically. If you're looking for a lovely light green I'd suggest more yellow fruits (like pineapple and mango).