Peanut Stew

My lovely friend, Chava first introduced this recipe to me two years ago when I visited her in Atlanta. I still make it once in a while, have probably blogged about it before, and have noticed that it is a perfect recipe when entertaining vegan guests, as we plan to do so this weekend.

I did my own variation here, using what we had in the kitchen. It freezes well, and can be made days in advance before a party or dinner.

Chava's Peanut Stew: (my variation)

Ingredients
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
2 T olive oil
1 eggplant
1 sweet potato
1 can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic
1 roma tomato
2 c vegetable broth
4 T peanut butter
1/2 t ginger
dash of salt
1/3 c diced nuts
candied ginger (sliced)

1. Dice your onion and garlic and saute over olive oil for 5-7 minutes. At the same time, slice your small eggplant into chunks and let sit in salt water for 20 minutes with a plate pressing the squash down into the water. Remove from water and put in colander to dry.

2. Microwave sweet potato and then dice after cooling.

3. Add eggplant and sweet potato to the onion/garlic mixture and steam for 5 minutes.

4. Add vegetable broth, tomato, diced tomatoes and bring to a boil until the eggplant is soft.

5. Add nuts, ginger, candied ginger and peanut-butter. Let cool.

Grandma's Apple Cake

I've made my grandma's recipe a couple times recently, and it always reminds me so much of her. Her cake was usually very short/flat and sweet - she made it often.

The recipe:

Mix 2 cups of shredded and peeled apples with 1/2 cup a sugar and let sit for a bit (you know how grandmas' instructions are...)
Then mix with one beaten egg and 1/4 cup of oil and 1 t vanilla
Then add the dry ingredients separately:
1 cup flour
dash of cinnamon
dash of salt
1 t baking soda

Mix dry ingredients into wet batter.
Oil the loaf pan and pour batter into pan, bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy:) We always do. The best apples are right from the orchard but we used sweet Gala apples this time. Rebecca, my 15-month old, "helped" me bake this morning by tasting the apple peel. Well, it's a start!

Enjoy September.

Home cooking for a Tot

My sweet girl hates mashed potatoes - how can this be? She also rejects eggs, avocados, most other vegetables, popsicles, pizza, fish, beans, and quite a few other things. Mealtimes are constant, but they are also nerve-wracking -- what will I make her? Will she eat it? So tonight I baked a macaroni and cheese casserole, tweaking a Moosewood recipe:

1 and 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 and 1/2 cup organic whole milk
1/2 t dry mustard
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese
2 T Parmesan cheese
4 T Italian bread crumbs
8 oz. macaroni noodles (uncooked)

Moosewood instructs you to blend the cottage cheese, milk, dry mustard, salt, and pepper in a food processor, but I do it by hand. Then add the cheddar cheese and uncooked noodles and spread in a greased 9-inch pan. Add the Parmesan and bread crumbs on top and then bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Voila! I just hope she likes it. I'll take a photo of her eating it/refusing it either way...

Whole Wheat Tagliolini and Ice Cream Cake

Last weekend I felt ambitious in the kitchen and made this healthy, fresh, time-consuming recipe, Whole Wheat Tagliolini from Cooking Light.

We've also been making this very, very easy ice cream cake recipe from Real Simple. Both dishes go quickly in this household.

In other news, while I haven't been good about taking photos of food lately, my friends and I are pretty good at capturing my daughter in action. So here are a few photos of our summer:

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

C is for...cookie salad!

I miss baking, and since friends from out of town are staying with us this week, what better excuse? So tonight I made this recipe, and the cookies are both pretty and plentiful. I so love hanging out in the kitchen with a book (well done JSF), a computer, and cookie batter.

I've also really enjoyed reading this series this past week, so much that I feel even more reflective than usual about life with our 1-year old (walking!) girl these days.

The one whose laughter is (pretty much) worth all the tears.

And as we increase the number of hours we need childcare, I can relate more than ever to the moms trying to squeeze in work while caring for a tot. I've given a lot of thought to "finding balance" but in the end I agree with those who say there is no achieving balance -- sometimes you do X very well, other times you do Y. Just a thought.

By the way, even though I don't cook or bake too often these days, I still fantasize about cooking complicated curry dishes and French country cooking. I would love to make cake pops or peach muffins or even an arugula salad, but for now most of my energy is utterly zapped by the time I get around to dinner. So cheers to daydreaming. Until next time xo

Frozen fruit salad and vegan cupcakes

Wow, I haven't posted in forever!

I guess the day-to-day juggling act of working and caring for a young tot has made it hard to remember to post when I cook -- and that's not exactly too often these days! We've mostly been living off Amy's vegetarian and vegan pizzas, baked potatoes with broccoli, and pasta/salad/soup dishes. I also haven't baked in forever - until today.

Anyway, we're not vegan, but I've been more interested in vegan baking lately, so this afternoon I made these pretty cupcakes:

http://www.lovintheoven.com/2007/11/peanut-butter-cupcakes-vegan-style.html

I eyeball/measured the frosting, mixing powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, soymilk, and olive oil.

Then I also made this fruit salad that my mother always used to make for the Fourth of July -- so very sweet!

Frozen Fruit Salad:

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 c sugar
Frozen orange juice
Large can of fruit cocktail
3 bananas, sliced
10 oz bag of sliced strawberries
Small can of pineapple (or use frozen)
Small can of peaches (frozen is fine too).

1. Boil 3 cups of water with your sugar, then remove from heat. Add orange juice and all fruits.
2. Pour into 9 x 13 pan or large tupperware and freeze overnight.

And too bad I couldn't capture photos of these items - they were gone baby, gone, before I could snap a few!

In other news, our precious girl is now 1! Some days I can't believe she has grown so fast, but I also remember trying to capture each moment in my mind, knowing it would soon pass. A friend of mine recently asked, "what did 6 months look like? what about 8 months?" and I can honestly recall vivid images of my daughter at each stage. At 6 months she had just learned to sit up, and at 8 months she had just learned to crawl. At 10 months she learned to sleep through the night. And at 1 year she abruptly decided she was done with nursing. She is consistently her own person, making her own decisions about her likes and dislikes. May we all be so lucky~xo

Baked Eggs

I remember my mom making this when I was young - it was my great aunt's recipe, a yummy one - great for brunches.

Recipe:
12 eggs, beaten

salt, pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups shredded yellow cheese (I used a mild cheddar)

3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk)

Mix together all ingredients. Pour into greased oblong pan (9 x 13). Bake 1 hour 350 degrees.

Cut into squares.

Sweet Potato Chips

My family has been eating these easy sweet potato chips, or fries a lot lately - for dinner, for breakfast, for in-betweens. They're so easy: you just wash and slice up a sweet potato, put them on a lightly greased baking sheet, add salt and/or spices, and put them in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 or so minutes. Delish.

And now, here's something to warm your heart on a cold day. My sweet girl...

Flaxseed Squares

This is another mother-in-law recipe that my family deemed "Shirley Squares." It's the kind of recipe that changes each time you make it, but this is the current version:

2 cups oatmeal
1 cup flaxseed (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 (small) container of egg whites (or egg substitute, to make this a vegan recipe)
1 cup Splenda (or sugar or raw sugar if you like it less processed)
2 tsp cinnamon
4 dallops of applesauce

Spray baking dish with Pam or butter spray - mix ingredients and put in dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Yay for fiber!

Vegetable Soup, How I Adore Thee

The past few days my mother-in-law and I have made vegetable soup twice - so yummy. I don't have photos yet, but I will post one soon.

We've been using chopped and diced leeks, sweet potato, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, celery and vegetable stock. I could eat this every. single. day. And not tire of it.

We've also been slicing up sweet potatoes and making sweet potato fries. We've also been playing nursery songs over and over and over again so much that the lyrics get into my head at night and make it harder to fall asleep.

Happy February friends. xo

"Homemade" Pizza

Boy, Trader Joe's really does make it easy sometimes. Today I bought their ready-to-bake pizza dough, pizza sauce, organic mozzarella, and sliced mushrooms. After Rebecca went to bed, I simply rolled out the dough, added the sauce, cheese, and mushrooms, threw in some Morningstar tofu crumbles and leftover broccoli, and put it in the oven for 12 minutes. I like that so many products at Trader Joe's boast "no artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives."

This pizza is the first meal I've made at home in a while - we've been out of town for 8 days, hanging out with dear friends outside Boston and then visiting Smith College in Northampton where I did some research for the diss. We did a bit of cooking in Northampton - including a lovely spinach frittata out of one of James Beard's cook books that I will have to try again soon. I also fell in love with a new recipe for yogurt sorbet, drank a glass of wine every night and read a great book while there. I am going to try to keep this drinking, reading and cooking up as a recipe for more happiness;)

In other news, we're still experimenting with Rebecca's diet. She did not do well with the carrots, and applesauce is still not appealing to her, but she's gladly accepted peas, pears, bananas (finally) and sweet potatoes, along with a few kinds of cereal and some flat rice crackers. I'm using this baby cook book for inspiration, and I will try butternut squash next.

She turns seven months old in two days and I can't believe she's so big already. She's been waving lately, getting on all fours but not yet crawling, and I think (hope!) that she recently said "ma". She still thinks books are chewing toys, and she likes to dance when I play tunes on youtube. Her naps are still not on a "schedule" but I'm more okay with it now. Tonight I sang to her a bit and played with her feet before bed and it was the sweetest part of my day.

Otherwise I'm back to working on the dissertation. With gusto! I haven't written this much since before I gave birth, and, well, it's about time. Here's some dissertation humor for you: A few months ago I thought it would be wonderful to interview the doctor who ran the first clinical trial of the birth control pill in Puerto Rico. Well, what do you know - Harvard thought so too and did so through one of their oral history projects in 1987. I wound up reading the transcript at Smith, which has helped me start off a new chapter.

Anyway, that's all my news these days. To anyone out there reading, I hope you have a lovely night, and here is a recent photo of Rebecca as she was eating a cracker:

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year at home with red wine and Greek takeout from here. Our baby fell asleep at 5:30 and Jake came home at 6ish. I wasn't wearing heels and glitter, but we watched The Town and talked about the past year together - one of the most amazing years of my life, I must say. It wasn't an easy year, but it inspired awe.

Then this morning I used our new Baby Pro baby food maker to make a very simple carrot puree, which, thank goodness, our fairly particular baby actually ate. I'll spare you the photo of the carrot puree -- which looks identical to the photo of the sweet potato puree. Instead I'm leaving you with this, my current favorite pic of Becca lounging on my in-laws' patio. Sigh, La Vida Miami:

Sweet Potato Puree

In her short introduction to solid foods, this is Rebecca's favorite and quite simple to make - I just bake a sweet potato at 400 for 45-55 minutes, remove the skin, mash it, and add milk.

Baby Applesauce

I'm approaching a new era of cooking here by making our own baby food. So far this has been very simple since my 6-month old baby is only eating breastmilk, rice cereal, and sweet potatoes. So today I made applesauce to add to her diet.

I peeled, cored and chopped up 4 Red Delicious apples, put them in a large pot on low with 1/4 cup water and let them simmer with the lid on for 45 minutes. I then mashed them to a very soft mixture and froze most of it in an ice cube tray.

I tried introducing her to bananas, but this is the face she made:

Carrot Soup

Lots of cooking with carrots this month!

Ever since a friend of mine mentioned carrot soup a week or so ago, I've been wanting to make it -- the recipe I found is surprisingly easy too - only calling for a few simple ingredients: olive oil, carrots, a yellow onion, minced garlic, vegetable stock and a lemon. This I can do!

My friend also mentioned how much she loves her immersion blender. A fan of gadgets, I decided that I, too, need this blender. Perhaps I will start making soups every night!

Peanut Butter Brownies

Ever since my friend, Chava, made this enchanting recipe, I've been wanting to try it. Chava does interesting things with peanut butter - here is another of my favorites, a recipe she taught me to make when I saw her in Atlanta last year. Speaking of peanut butter, I've been realizing that I need more protein lately, so I've been munching on these awful-tasting protein bars the last couple days. So perhaps a peanut butter recipe or two will serve me well. Also, since my not-so-sweet-tooth husband has been asking for cookies or brownies lately, I thought it's about time I make this recipe. I might get to the peanut stew later this month... Plus, the 5 degree weather makes me want to bake and warm up our freezing home.

On that note, my baby and I have been indoors for the last three days - I'm getting cabin fever, so I hope it warms up soon. We've been singing, reading, playing with toys, eating cereal, napping, rinse and repeat. I have to get out tomorrow to drop off student papers, so at least we'll be heading out once. I just really feel for her all wrapped up in her enormous snowsuit:

Seriously mom?

Potato-Bean Casserole

Start with the simplest of ingredients: a potato (boiled) and an onion (sauted).

Rebecca watched with interest as I chopped and stirred...

Yum!

We have called this simple dish "2 J Casserole" for quite some time in my family -- mainly because Jake and I, Jamie, (2 Js) created this vegan dish back in 1999. Jake was living in D.C. for a semester; I came up to visit him for Thanksgiving weekend and we created this by experimentation. And it stuck.

Ingredients:

-- 3-4 potatoes
-- half a can of tomato sauce
-- 1 can of garbanzo beans (I use the low-sodium variety)
-- 3 small tomatoes
-- a yellow onion
-- a few T of olive oil
-- Morningstar tofu crumbles (you might use Quorn crumbles if you tire of Morningstar, as I sometimes do)
-- a dash of spices (This time I used rosemary, marjoram, and basil)

It's a hearty winter dish -- first you dice and saute your onion in olive oil while you boil your potatoes (I cut mine up in chunks first). Then you add the beans and sliced tomatoes to the onion mixture, then the sauce and tofu, and then finally the drained boiled potatoes and your spices. You might also have added a few sliced carrots when you added your tomatoes and beans - we used to do that but I'm all out of carrots. Also, this is the kind of dish that tastes even better the second day - all the juices and spices have been keeping each other company for a bit and it's even more savory.

Enjoy! And check out all the nutrients in the humble potato:)

One last thing - as I attempt to cook these days in between feeding and playing with Rebecca and trying to get her to nap (combined with some working from home), I'm realizing that some of my old favorite recipes like mushroom empanadas and flatbreads were pretty time consuming. Now I'm looking for recipes that are vegetarian and fairly fast. So I'll be going through my cook books and this blog archive to find some dishes that fit for our family at this point -- let me know if you have some good ones and I'll try them!

Carrot souffle

fluffy, yummy carrot souffle

My little one watching me cook, chewing an empty bowl, wondering when we're going to give her first bite of solid food (in a few days).

I am blogging as my baby takes her fourth and final catnap of the day.

For the first time today, my daughter watched me cook a bit while sitting in her high chair playing with a bowl. It stuck to her chin at one point and she burst into tears!

So here it goes. I am stunned that I haven't blogged about this recipe before. A family staple for years, the carrot souffle is sweet, easy, and pretty. You can lighten it up with Splenda or another sugar substitute; you can use applesauce instead of eggs to make it a vegan recipe, and you can add cornflakes on top for crunch or nuts on top for protein.

Here is the simple recipe:

3/4 cup sugar

1 lb of carrots peeled and microwaved for 4 to 5 minutes

4 ounces veg oil

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 tablespoons flour

Pinch of cinnamon

Directions: Chop up your soft carrots and add them to a Cuisinart (or grate them by hand). Afterwards, put the shredded carrots in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir. Pour into 1.5 quart dish sprayed with pam or oil.

Put in the oven set at 350 for 45 minutes.

Voila.

I enjoy the shock of orange amid an otherwise neutral-colored table or buffet. It's also a dish you could make for a brunch, with a dinner, or as an after-dinner dessert. So versatile! The little black dress of my recipes.

Happy Hanukkah!

Dear friends, I tried my hand at making latkes for the second time tonight -- this was the first time. My mom reminded me of how my grandma used to make them -- real fast, she said - 1, 2, 3 and they were ready to eat.

Well, I tried. I can't say they remind me of my grandmother's cooking, but maybe nothing really comes close to that...

But they're greasy and vegan and yummy, so cheers to that, and have a Happy Hanukkah.

Thanksgiving 2010

Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, Mo.

We are so grateful for our family, walks in the woods, food on the table, and storytelling.

Among many other things.

Here are a few photos from the past few days: