an old favorite

spaghetti and eggs again!

this time i added a handful of chopped parsley for color and some fresh flavor!

what comfort food is keeping you warm?

pumpkin-banana mousse tart

happy thanksgiving!

thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! family, cooking, eating, food-induced-comas, cheesy family games...love it all!

i love this ina garten twist on traditional pumpkin pie. there are layers of flavors and a delicious crust that beats regular pumpkin pie :) who would've thought pumpkin and banana go so well together?! i think i need to try my hand at a pumpkin-banana BREAD!

although the components may seem cumbersome, TRUST ME--it's worth doing it all from scratch. the payoff is high!

the barefoot contessa loves sugar more than i do, so i've modified some of the measurements, methods, and ingredients (yuck to orange zest):

ingredients:

(crust)

- 14 graham crackers (finely ground in a food processor)

- 0- 1/5 cup white sugar

- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 stick unsalted butter (melted)

(filling)

- 1/2 cup half-and-half

- 1 can pure pumpkin puree (15 oz)

- 0 - 1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark), lightly packed

- 3/4 tsp kosher salt

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 3 large egg yolks

- 2 tsps unflavored gelatin

- 1 ripe banana, finely mashed (the riper, the stronger the taste; so pick based on your level of love for bananas)

- 1/2 cup cold heavy cream

method:

1. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in a bowl and mix well.

2. Pour into an 11-inch tart pan; press evenly into the sides and then the bottom. Bake 10 minutes, 350 degrees and then let cool. (for a pretty presentation, use a springform pan.

3. For the filling, combine the half-and-half, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until hot (double boiler), about 5 minutes. Mix well.

4. Whisk the egg yolks in another bowl, stir some of the hot pumpkin into the egg yolks to heat them (so they don't scramble), then pour the egg-pumpkin mixture back into the double boiler and stir well.

5. Heat the mixture over the simmering water for another 4 to 5 minutes, until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly. You don't want the eggs to scramble. Remove from the heat.

6. In a separate bowl, dissolve the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add the dissolved gelatin and banana,to the pumpkin mixture double-boiler and mix well. Set aside to cool.

7. Whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form.

8. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture and pour it into the cooled tart shell.

9. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

10. Share and enjoy!

What did you bake this Thanksgiving?

underutilized foods: brussels sprouts

a group of my foodie friends and i decided to start using "underutilized ingredients" in our home-cookings. we have a list and we're on our way to working through it. these long-lost cousins deserve to be eaten, too! :)

this week: brussels sprouts. since they're in season, they're everywhere! i bought a good-sized brussels sprout tree for $2 at iovine's! it's super cute and fun to look at. tonight, i decided to quickly blanch and saute a few handfuls of whole sprouts in brown butter. i found this recipe that i loosely used. instead of measuring anything out, i basically seasoned to taste.

ingredients:

- 2 handfuls of brussels sprouts, yellow outer leaves removed

- salted boiling water

- about 2 tablespoons of butter

- salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and lemon juice to taste

method:

1. add brussels sprouts to boiling pot of salted water

2. blanch sprouts only for 1-2 minutes until they turn bright green

4. remove sprouts and drain

5. melt butter and pepper in saute pan until browned

6. add sprouts to brown butter pan; warm for a few minutes. toss with a squeeze of lemon juice.

7. add salt to taste

8. enjoy!

i found the recipe to be fresh and tasty, but a little lacking in flavor. perhaps, next time i will sprinkle some salty cheese? brussels sprout eaters: what can i do to give these more flavor without adding more butter or salt?

next up: roasted brussels sprouts (mmm crispy!)

pita sandwiches

my go-to on-the-go meal is a stuffed pita sandwich: it's warm, easy, flavorful and crunchy. i can substitute any of the ingredients with whatever i have in my fridge--i'm still using up leftovers from my party.

here's how i'm currently making my pita sandwiches:

ingredients:

- whole wheat pita bread

- zesty garlic hummus

- thinly sliced cucumbers

- roasted red tomatoes in oil

method:

1. warm up pita in toaster oven

2. cut in half to create 2 pita pockets

4. stuff with hummus, cucumbers and roasted tomatoes

5. enjoy!

portobello mushroom overload

so, im still trying to finish off all the leftover ingredients from my party last week. i have a lot of garlicky hummus, roasted red tomatoes in oil and celery sticks. one of the dishes i made required 24oz of portobello mushrooms. since i'm not good at mental math, i umm, bought 2 POUNDS of mushrooms! hahaha. yeah..so you can imagine how many i have leftover.

today i was inspired to grill up some portobellos on my grill pan and top with the hummus and roasted tomatoes. mmmm! delish lunch!

ingredients:

- portobello mushroom(s)

- hummus

- roasted red tomatoes in oil

- olive oil, salt, black pepper

method:

1. preheat grill pan; heat up a little bit of olive oil

2. gently rub mushrooms with wet paper towel to clean. remove stem.

4. gently scoop out the black insides of the mushrooms

5. lightly salt/pepper the mushrooms and grill for about 5-7 minutes on each side

6. top off the inside of the mushrooms with some hummus and the tomatoes per your liking.

7. enjoy!

any reccs on how to use up my portobello mushrooms?

Brown Sugar-Nutella Cupcakes

I loveee these cupcakes! They're super simple, dense, moist and delicious! I first came across the recipe on Raspberry and Eggplant, but since have tailored it for myself.

I recently found that topping the cupcake with 1-7 fresh raspberries makes it soo much more fresh and bright tasting.

MAKES ONE DOZEN CUPCAKES:

1. Cream in mixer (2 minutes, medium, kitchenaid paddle attachment):

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2. Incorporate 2 eggs (room temp) in butter/sugar mix

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3. Dry ingredients

1.5 cup sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp salt

4. Wet ingredients (whisk together):

½ cup yogurt

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

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5. Add half of dry ingredients (incorporate)

6. Add all of wet ingredients (incorporate)

7. Add remaining half of dry ingredients (incorporate)

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8. Fill cupcake wrappers

9. Bake 16-18 minutes, 350 degrees

10. Cool on wire rack

11. Frost with nutella and raspberries

** fancy alternative: for some crunchy texture add 1-2 teaspoons of ½ cup ground hazelnuts and 2 tbsp. ground, raw sugar mixture to each cupcake wrapper before you pour batter (pictured up top)

What's your favorite cupcake recipe?

what to do with random ingredients?

Last week I threw a dinner party, and now have a fridge full of leftovers. My friend Mary posted about this awesome website Supercook: a recipe search engine that lets you search by ingredients you have at home. Awesome idea. So, I found a yummy and easy recipe for lunch: roasted beets with parsley.

I didn't follow it to a T, but basically used however many roasted beets I already had, sliced thick chunks, sauteed in some butter, and tossed in with chopped parsley. did i mention how much i love beets? :)

mexican sweet street corn!

when i travel, my favorite things to nibble on are usually some form of street food. i saw this recipe on foodnetwork, and thought, "what a great way to honor the spirit of summer: travel and grilling!" on a plus side, right now, white sweet corn is totally in abundance, so i got a great deal from iovines at reading terminal (3 ears for $1)!

i love this recipe because it tastes SWEET (corn), SPICY (chili powder), and TANGY (lime) all at once on a simple piece of corn! I've only slightly modified Sunny Anderson's Mexican Sweet Corn (fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder):

ingredients:

- 4 ears of sweet corn, husks removed

- 2 tbsps canola oil

- 1/2 cup mayonaise

- 1 tsp red chili powder

- 1 tsp fresh, minced garlic

- 1 lime, quartered

- salt

- fresh ground pepper

- special equipment: grill pan (or a grill if you have it!)

method:

1. preheat grill pan. rub corn with oil and place on grill pan; turning on all sides until it is slightly charred; about 6-10 minutes.

2. Mix together the mayo, chili powder, garlic, lime, salt and pepper in a bowl.

3. Remove corn from grill pan and spread the spicy mayo mixture over corn. Squeeze fresh lime juice and enjoy!

What's your favorite street food?

potato crusted tilapia with chive oil

here's a wonderfully simple, and flavorful fish recipe for a summer dinner. i saw giada making this a few weeks ago and thought it looked pretty and easy-to-make! since then ive made it several times for dinner. I use less butter and have tailored the recipe for 2 instead of 4...

here's my adaptation of giada's recipe:

ingredients:

- 2 tilapia filets

- about 3-4 medium red bliss potatoes thinly sliced

- 1 tbsp fresh minced rosemary

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp butter

- 1/4 cup olive oil (for chive oil)

- 1/4 cup fresh minced chives (for chive oil)

- sea salt

- freshly ground black pepper

method:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Thinly slice potatoes. A mandolin slicer is preferable; but if you don't have one, just be careful when slicing with a knife.

3. Place filets on work surface and season both sides with salt and black pepper. Top each filet of with enough slices of potatoes to cover the surface of the fish; overlaying the potatoes like shingles. sprinkle potatoes with a bit more salt and pepper. Sprinkle rosemary on top.

4. Heat a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add butter then olive oil. When oil is hot, add fish (potato-side down). Place in oven for 15-17 minutes until fish is cooked through.

5. Meanwhile prepare the chive oil: by combining the olive oil, minced chives, salt and pepper.

6. Remove from oven. Plate fish with potato side up. Very lightly drizzle with chive oil.

TIP: You will definately have leftover chive oil, which you can store and use elsewhere. It is great rubbed on some flakey and toasty sourdough bread!

TIP: you can substitute the red bliss potato 'shingle-action' with whatever is starchy and in season...perhaps, purple potatoes?

How do you like to prepare fish?

raw strawberry pie

a few weeks ago, jo, hoodes and i assembled a strawberry pie. i saw the recipe in domino mag a while ago, and have been meaning to try this fresh, summery dessert! i love recipes that can do double duty...a big batch of the crust can be modified and used to make homemade larabars. here is my adaptation of this adaptation :)

ingredients:

- 2 pounds fresh strawberries, tops removed, quartered (the more strawberries the better.)

- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 cups almonds, ground

- 1 3/4 cups pitted medjool dates

method:

1. in a bowl, combine strawberries, lemon juice, and brown sugar. Mix well and put in refrigerator.

2. grind the almonds and put them in another bowl and start working on dates. (if you are like me and without a food processor, you could go ghetto and 'grind' the almonds a la peanut butter jar lol!) Remove pits, flatten the dates and mince them into little bits. Place minced dates into the bowl of ground almonds.

3. use your hands to mix and knead the dates and almonds together into a dough. Form a ball.

4. place the date-almond ball into a pie pan (if you are worried about things sticking, put a little bit of canola oil on the pie pan and grease thoroughly) and mold it into the pie pan as best as you can. Take the strawberries out of the fridge, and using a slotted spoon, pile berries into the crust, leaving liquid behind. (you can use the liquid later in a sparkly drink or perhaps reduced down to a glaze..?)

5. place pie in the fridge to set for two hours.

6. enjoy the awesomeness of fresh strawberries, lemon juice, and sweet sweet dates!

happy (rainy) summer!

summer orzo

as you can tell, i like making dishes that only need a little bit of assembling--nothing too complicated. sure, i love going out and trying artistic, complex dishes, but at home, i like, clean, crisp, colorful meals.

now that it finally feels like summer, i'm reviving a lunch favorite: my summer orzo. it is good served warm or cold, so it works well for on-the-go lunches. you can also easily substitute with other veggis that you have on hand (fennel, onion, etc).

ingredients:

(serves 3)

1/2 pound of cooked orzo (al dente)

1.5 plum tomatoes (diced)

a handful of cilantro (roughly chopped)

1/2 can chickpeas

1/2 cup feta cheese (crumbled)

juice of 1/2 lemon

olive oil

salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

method

1. lightly toss tomatoes, cilantro, chickpeas, feta, lemon juice and olive with the cooked orzo

2. add salt and pepper to taste

what you have been cooking for lunch lately?

tangy rice & beans

hello hello,

here's another quick, easy, cheap and hearty dish that i made for dinner tonight. i love making dishes that are simple and allow the ingredients to shine. you can also easily substitute other veggis that you have on hand, or add another protein (chicken, shredded beef, etc). this recipe is full of bright flavors and a bit of tang that you don't find in most rice and beans recipes. the key to the tanginess is the vinegar. here is my version of tommy's rice and beans:

ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of cooked rice

1 small onion, finely diced

1 tbsp minced garlic (or homemade garlic-ginger paste)

1 medium red bell pepper, diced

1-2 cans of black beans

1/4 cup white vinegar (or fresh squeezed lime juice).

1-2 tsps hot pepper sauce (i use sambal chili paste or sriracha)

a handful of roughly chopped cilantro

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

method

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until transparent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and bell pepper, and sauté, stirring occasionally, for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the black beans and vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil; reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer 5 minutes.

Add the cilantro and rice; mix well. Season to taste with the salt and black pepper. Serve accompanied by additional hot pepper sauce. If you want to kick it up a notch, shreeded monterey jack cheese would be good ontop of it.

movie-night munchies

yesterday's lunch at goodstuffeatery reminded me of how satisfying marshmallows are.

here is tonight's movie night snack--hand-torn pieces of jumbo, fluffy marshmallows, smushed in between 2 cinnamon teddy grahams. voila!

(prop handling courtesy of hand model, baji!)

beets

i. love. beets.

i love the earthiness, the sweetness, the smoothness of them. not only are they sumptuous in flavor and texture, but they're packed with all the good stuff!

i've been incorporating a lot of roasted beets in my lunches and dinners lately. they're super simple to roast. all you have to do is pop them in the oven, and in about an hour or so you're good to go! i like to roast a bunch over the weekend so i'm set for the following week. to roast:

1. wrap whole, un-peeled beets in foil

2. place foiled beets on baking sheet

3. roast in oven for 1.25 hours at 425 degrees

4. after cooling for a few minutes, use foil to rub off skin

one way i've been using roasted beets is in sandwiches for lunch. a beet sandwich is a hearty and healthy way to make beets accessible to people on-the-go! here's my take on the beet sandwich:

beets, cheese and greens sandwich: assemble a sandwich with your favorite bread (toasted), roasted beets, cheesy spread and whatever greens you have on hand. cream cheese, goat cheese or any other creamy cheese will work. (try to stay away from cheese that is heavily seasoned, or else it will take away from the subtle sweetness of the beets.) i've been using a garlic and herb cheese spread i found at reading terminal market and fresh baby arugula.

what's a favorite fruit or veggi that you have been cooking up a storm with?

spaghetti and eggs

like most 20-somethings, i have limited resources: counter space, time, and ingredients. i'm all about 'peasant food'--its cheap, easy and practical.

a few months ago i was reading mark bittman's blog and was attracted to the simplicity of the spaghetti and eggs recipe he got from arthur schwartz. using egg yolks as spaghetti sauce sounds so sexy. :)

lately i've been a little protein-deprived, so i thought this would be a good remedy. thus, this has become my go-to recipe for the last few weeks. i've come up with some modifications...my version calls for way more garlic, and a shallot or two for additional flavor. because the pecorino and/or parmasean is pretty salty, i would hold off on adding any additional salt.

what's your current go-to recipe?

------------

ingredients:

sea salt

a handful of spaghetti

3 eggs

3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

4 large cloves garlic, lightly smashed and finely chopped

freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated parmesean or pecorino cheese

method:

1. bring a pot of salted water to boil. start the sauce in the next step, and start cooking pasta when the water boils

2. combine garlic, shallot and 2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. cook the garlic and shallot, pressing into the oil occasionally to release its flavor; it should barely color on both sides. remove and add the remaining oil.

3. fry the eggs sunny side up, gently in the oil until the whites are just about set and the yolks are still runny. drain the pasta and toss with garlic, shallot, eggs, and oil--breaking up the yolk and whites as you do. (the eggs will finish cooking in the heat of the pasta.) top off with fresh cheese.

serves 2