Here's another quick recipe for you, tasty roasted red pepper hummus!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:

Ingredients:

1 can of garbanzo beans

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp tahini (sesame paste) or olive oil can be substituted if tahini is not available

1-2 gloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup roasted red peppers

Spices (which spices you use and how much are based on personal preference - I put dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro in mine)

Directions: Put all ingredients into food processor, mix until smooth. Add more tahini or olive oil if consistency is too grainy.

This can be used as a dip for raw veggies such as carrots or celery, or as a spread for crackers. My favorite way to eat it is spread on Fire Roasted Tomato Triscuits - the flavor of the crackers pairs really well with the hummus, creating a zesty, flavorful, and healthy snack! :)

This week, I started making these 10 grain muffins because I had leftover cranberries from Christmas I wanted to use. Well, they flew off the plate! The recipe makes 12 and they don't last longer than a day in my house! I got the recipe off a bag of 10 grain oatmeal.

Ingredients: 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal, 1/3 cup of butter (about 5 1/3 tbsps), 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1-1/4 cups buttermilk, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup unbleached white flour

Directions:

1. Mix the buttermilk and hot cereal, let stand for 10 minutes while prepping the other ingredients and preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In another bowl, cream together the egg. sugar, and butter.

3. Add the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder) to the egg, sugar, and butter

4. Add the milk and cereal mix to the rest of the ingredients. Stir until combined.

5. Spoon into a greased muffin tray.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Source: http://www.bobsredmill.com/

I varied the recipe by adding fruit and nuts. The first time I made these I mixed in fresh cranberries and dried blueberries for a great sweet and tart taste, and this morning I mixed in 3 chopped up bananas and 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts! :) My next experiment, at my sister and best friend's request, will be chocolate chip and banana. I also want to try strawberry banana and apple pecan. :)

Another tip - this goes for pretty much any kind of cake. If you want to reduce the fat content of the muffins, substitute applesauce for the butter in the exact same amounts (1/3 cup butter = 1/3 cup applesauce). Using the original recipe, each muffin contains 6 grams of fat. Using applesauce instead of butter reduces the fat content to .7 grams per muffin! This is especially good if you want to use nuts. The muffins I made this morning would have been a whopping 10 grams of fat per muffin because of the walnuts...with applesauce, only 4 grams per muffin! And there is no difference in taste, I promise! :)

The hot cereal can usually be found at Wegman's, and I would guess you could probably also find it at a Whole Foods or similar grocery store. I managed to find it at my local Shop Rite. If you can't find it anywhere and would still like to try making these, you can order it here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/10-grain-hot-cereal.html

Yikes! I've been so busy baking cookies, dipping chocolate covered pretzels, and shoveling snow the past few days I've had no time for blogging, and now I am very tired. I wanted to post something though, so here's a little teaser of things I'll be putting up when I get a minute:

Recipe: Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna. I made this for dinner tonight and my parents absolutely loved it. It's a vegetarian and Cooking Light recipe but still absolutely delicious.

I may also post a few Christmas recipes now that my mother and I have officially set our Christmas menu. What's for dinner at our house:

Cocktail: Blushing Angel, a mixture of cherry schnapps, vanilla vodka, and white chocolate liquor

Appetizer: Ricotta Cheese Puff Pastries

Dinner:

Ham with cranberry bourbon glaze

Lasagna

Mashed Potatoes

Pretzel topped Sweet Potatoes

Harvard Beets

Cranberry Almond Squash Bake

Corn Pudding

Brussel Sprouts with almond butter-rum sauce

Dessert:

Plain cheesecake (made from the recipe in my first entry)

Assorted homemade Christmas cookies (fruit filled, pecan dainties, almond crescents, sugar cookies, chocolate chip, spritz butter cookies)

Homemade Chocolate covered pretzels


I'm sure I'll be very busy getting started on all that tomorrow, but I hope to make time in the evening to post a recipe. In the meantime, I need to crash. If anyone sees something on the above list that catches their eye, let me know in the comments and I'll get the recipe up ASAP! Goodnight!


~ Em

I'm back with yet another recipe now that I am done with exams for today (and almost for the semester - 1 more to go!). This recipe is for Chinese eggplant, and I got the idea to post it because I'm going to be making it tomorrow and bringing it with me to my exam period, since we're going to be doing presentations and eating food. I am presenting a social studies unit on China, so I thought I'd stick with the theme.

Keep in mind this recipe may call for some things you cannot get at regular grocery stores. I have an Asian market near me so I can get all this stuff. This recipe is also one that does not have measurements, as my friend who dictated it to me does not measure when she makes it. This is an authentic Chinese dish, passed on to me from my friend who lives in Wuhan, Hubei, which is in the center of China. You can make this to taste, adjusting the amounts of soy sauce and spicy eggplant sauce to get you preferred level of saltiness/spiciness. Don't expect it to be very spicy, this dish is usually moderately spicy at best.

Authentic Spicy Chinese Eggplant:

Equipment: a wok pan or some other frying pan of a similar shape and capacity

Ingredients: Eggplant (If you can get it, use Chinese eggplant which is longer, thinner, and lighter in color than regular Eggplant. If not, regular eggplant works fine) cut into small rectangular pieces, Cooking oil (canola, vegetable, sunflower, sesame, etc - NOT olive oil), fresh sliced garlic, one or two pieces of fresh sliced ginger, sliced green onions, Chinese cooking wine, light soy sauce, spicy eggplant sauce, salt, pepper, water.

Directions:

1. Cut up eggplant and put it in water for a little bit

2. Pour some oil in the pan, cook eggplant in the oil until soft

3. Remove eggplant from pan and set aside

4. Add more oil if necessary. Add green onion slices, one or two slices of fresh ginger, and fresh sliced garlic. Cook until there is an aroma from the spices.

5. Put the eggplant back in the pan

6. Add light soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine.

7. Add spicy eggplant sauce and a tiny amount of water, then quickly cover the pan so the steam stays inside and helps cook the food.

8. Cook for a while, adding SMALL amounts of water as needed

9. Before serving, try to remove the slices of ginger as they are mainly for flavor and don't taste very good when someone accidentally tries to eat them.

This dish is usually served over white rice. It makes a good vegetarian dish, and as far as I know it is vegan as well, unless there are animal byproducts in the soy sauce, cooking wine, or spicy eggplant sauce I am unaware of. I am a proud omnivore so I don't usually check for that. :P

 There is also a variation that involves adding ground pork. For that, you want to marinate the pork in salt, pepper, cooking wine, and light soy sauce ahead of time. You would add the pork to the pan between steps 4 and 5.

I am also making a Chinese egg and tomato dish tomorrow, so perhaps I will add that recipe to this blog after my exam!

The fact that I chose to start this blog tonight says a lot about the lengths I will go to to avoid schoolwork.

This particular blog is going to be dedicated to a topic I definitely have a love-hate relationship with: Food. I love everything about food - learning how it's produced, cooking it, critiquing it, the fact that it is a deep set part of culture, how it varies according to region and evolves over time, the visual presentation aspect of creating a dish, and how it provides a creative outlet for people like me, who are very creative but were not blessed with artistic abilities like drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.

I hate food because it makes me gain weight. That's pretty much the only thing I have against food. A personal hope I have for this blog is that should I find myself thinking about food, I will come here and write about it instead of eating it!

However, the main intend purpose of this blog is to present and exchange recipes, information, and opinions. I have a plethora of recipes I would like to share, as well as opinions about everything from organic food to good red wine.

There will be a lot of variation in the recipes posted. I have tested and recorded recipes for all types of cuisines from vegan, to Authentic Chinese, to traditional American comfort food. I have a lot of recipes that have brought me, my family, and my friends a lot of enjoyment, and I am excited to share them with whoever ends up reading this blog!

One fair word of warning - some of my recipes do not have exact measurements. My preferred cooking style is eyeballing amounts, tasting, and adjusting accordingly, and learning by trial and error. I believe most of my recipes do have measurements though, and of course any baking recipes will always have them. If you try a recipe posted here, feel free to comment with any suggestions you have or variations you used.

I am going to end this introduction now and start the journal off right - with a recipe. I am looking forward to making friends with some fellows foodies!

Here's another quick recipe for you, tasty roasted red pepper hummus!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:

Ingredients:

1 can of garbanzo beans

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp tahini (sesame paste) or olive oil can be substituted if tahini is not available

1-2 gloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup roasted red peppers

Spices (which spices you use and how much are based on personal preference - I put dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro in mine)

Directions: Put all ingredients into food processor, mix until smooth. Add more tahini or olive oil if consistency is too grainy.

This can be used as a dip for raw veggies such as carrots or celery, or as a spread for crackers. My favorite way to eat it is spread on Fire Roasted Tomato Triscuits - the flavor of the crackers pairs really well with the hummus, creating a zesty, flavorful, and healthy snack! :)

This week, I started making these 10 grain muffins because I had leftover cranberries from Christmas I wanted to use. Well, they flew off the plate! The recipe makes 12 and they don't last longer than a day in my house! I got the recipe off a bag of 10 grain oatmeal.

Ingredients: 1 cup Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal, 1/3 cup of butter (about 5 1/3 tbsps), 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1-1/4 cups buttermilk, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup unbleached white flour

Directions:

1. Mix the buttermilk and hot cereal, let stand for 10 minutes while prepping the other ingredients and preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In another bowl, cream together the egg. sugar, and butter.

3. Add the rest of the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder) to the egg, sugar, and butter

4. Add the milk and cereal mix to the rest of the ingredients. Stir until combined.

5. Spoon into a greased muffin tray.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Source: http://www.bobsredmill.com/

I varied the recipe by adding fruit and nuts. The first time I made these I mixed in fresh cranberries and dried blueberries for a great sweet and tart taste, and this morning I mixed in 3 chopped up bananas and 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts! :) My next experiment, at my sister and best friend's request, will be chocolate chip and banana. I also want to try strawberry banana and apple pecan. :)

Another tip - this goes for pretty much any kind of cake. If you want to reduce the fat content of the muffins, substitute applesauce for the butter in the exact same amounts (1/3 cup butter = 1/3 cup applesauce). Using the original recipe, each muffin contains 6 grams of fat. Using applesauce instead of butter reduces the fat content to .7 grams per muffin! This is especially good if you want to use nuts. The muffins I made this morning would have been a whopping 10 grams of fat per muffin because of the walnuts...with applesauce, only 4 grams per muffin! And there is no difference in taste, I promise! :)

The hot cereal can usually be found at Wegman's, and I would guess you could probably also find it at a Whole Foods or similar grocery store. I managed to find it at my local Shop Rite. If you can't find it anywhere and would still like to try making these, you can order it here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/10-grain-hot-cereal.html

Yikes! I've been so busy baking cookies, dipping chocolate covered pretzels, and shoveling snow the past few days I've had no time for blogging, and now I am very tired. I wanted to post something though, so here's a little teaser of things I'll be putting up when I get a minute:

Recipe: Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna. I made this for dinner tonight and my parents absolutely loved it. It's a vegetarian and Cooking Light recipe but still absolutely delicious.

I may also post a few Christmas recipes now that my mother and I have officially set our Christmas menu. What's for dinner at our house:

Cocktail: Blushing Angel, a mixture of cherry schnapps, vanilla vodka, and white chocolate liquor

Appetizer: Ricotta Cheese Puff Pastries

Dinner:

Ham with cranberry bourbon glaze

Lasagna

Mashed Potatoes

Pretzel topped Sweet Potatoes

Harvard Beets

Cranberry Almond Squash Bake

Corn Pudding

Brussel Sprouts with almond butter-rum sauce

Dessert:

Plain cheesecake (made from the recipe in my first entry)

Assorted homemade Christmas cookies (fruit filled, pecan dainties, almond crescents, sugar cookies, chocolate chip, spritz butter cookies)

Homemade Chocolate covered pretzels


I'm sure I'll be very busy getting started on all that tomorrow, but I hope to make time in the evening to post a recipe. In the meantime, I need to crash. If anyone sees something on the above list that catches their eye, let me know in the comments and I'll get the recipe up ASAP! Goodnight!


~ Em