Did you say VEGAN cinnamon rolls?

Yes I know I've posted about these before... but they are just SO good!! And I keep playing with the recipe so... I had to post again! Plus now you can make a vegan version! AND instead of using flour to cover your working surface I used powdered sugar and eliminated the sugar from the dough! I know fun idea right? It gives them a sweeter taste and makes it so you don't have to add more flour to the dough.


Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Servings: 8

These cinnamon rolls are an adaptation/abstraction based on a recipe from the cook book Quick Recipes which was put together by the people at Cook's Illustrated.

Filling / topping
1/4 c packed splenda blend brown sugar (or 1/2 c packed dark brown sugar)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c pumpkin puree

Dough
2-1/2 c whole wheat flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c lactaid (fat free) (you can use regular fat free milk if you don't care if these are vegan, it works) (so just realized lactaid isn't vegan... I'll have to try again with soymilk! sorry about that!)
2 T melted smart balance ( 2 Tbs butter also works )
powdered sugar for work surface

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a 9-inch round non stick cake pan (or in my case a square one)

Make filling
Combine sugar, spices and salt. Add pumpkin puree and stir until combined, set aside

Make dough
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. whisk lactaid and 2 Tbs melted smart balance in a measuring cup or small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy). Transfer dough to lightly floured (with powdered sugar!) work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy.

Pat dough with hands into 12 x 9- inch rectangle. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch boarder of plain dough around edges. Press filling firmly into dough.

Using bench scraper (i used a plastic spackle spatula that we bought at home depot and never used... I claimed it for the kitchen... John wasn't too pleased hahahaha), loosen dough from work surface. Starting at a long side, roll dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.

Roll log seam side down and cut evenly into eight pieces. With hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal open edges and keep filling in place.

in the pan before they get slathered with more pumpkin

Place one roll in center of pan, then place remaining seven rolls around perimeter of pan. They should touch, but not be crammed. Using the remainder of the filling, spread to cover the top of the rolls.

Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen with a spatula. without separating, slide buns out of pan onto greased cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before chowing, otherwise you'll burn yourself... i would know :)

chow!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmmmmmm peanut butter... mmmmmmm I love me some peanut butter, so PB cookies make my knees bend... oh so tasty! I made these last weekend for one of John's neighbors who loves to snowblow the entire neighborhood every time there is a big storm. How awesome is that?? Once these came out of the oven I couldn't help myself, I scarfed down two before franticly packing them up and tossing on a coat to run them across the street (I had to get them out of the house otherwise I would have eaten them all!)

I made the recipe straight from Cooking Light, (except I used crunchy PB yum) I'll totally make them again and as long as I'm making them just for John and I, I'll try to eliminate the oil and replacing it with something else... I'll let you know how it goes! Until then, here's something to droll over.

*drool*

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy!)
* 1/4 cup water
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 large egg whites
* 1 large egg
* 12 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 2/3 cups)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate minichips (I used regular chocolate chips)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.


Nutritional Information
Calories: 128 (32% from fat)
Fat: 4.5g (sat 1.1g,mono 2.2g,poly 1g)
Protein: 2.3g
Carbohydrate: 20.5g
Fiber: 0.6g
Cholesterol: 6mg
Iron: 0.8mg
Sodium: 106mg
Calcium: 16mg

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Maple-Mustard Chicken for dinna!

Ellie is at it again with her Maple-Mustard Chicken, it's on page 212 of The Food You Crave. I'm seriously loving this cook book! Stockton (my brother-in-law) who is a fabulous cook btw whipped this one up for us. We cooked up some spinach and rice to have on the side and there wasn't one leftover to be found. We doubled the sauce for the below recipe since lets face it, we were hungry! (and we had more chicken then it called for)

Stockton preparing the chicken for its tanning time in the oven

Maple-Mustard Chicken
It's super simple!
Mix up:
1/3 cup French mustard
1 clove garlic minced
3/4 tsp dried marjoram (we used some fresh sage since we had it on had from the soup we made the night before)
3 Tbs maple syrup (use the good stuff!!)

Preheat an oven to 375 and trim the skin and fat off of 8 bone in chicken thighs. Slather them with the sauce and cook for about 45 minutes.

Hot out of the oven

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Quaker - True Delights

So I received some Quaker True Delights in the mail to sample through FoodBuzz - very cool. I had seen these show up on the shelves recently and was excited to give them a try. They sent three different flavors:


I first tried the toasted coconut banana macadamia nut. Fake banana smell and taste seriously makes me want to gag so this bar would most likely be my least favorite... but the use of real dried banana was a pleasant surprise and it didn't have a fake or overpowering banana smell or taste! Score 1 for this bar, but I must say I'm a bit more excited to try the other two flavors. The cherry one looks amazing! I'll let you know how it goes latter today at snack time :D

Click to make the image larger to see the nutritionals.

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Ellie's Tuscan Vegetable Soup

So in case anyone was wondering... Friday... the day John took over my blog... yeahhhh my number of hits that day was like 10 times the normal... I got over 1000???? WHAT???? Maybe this is telling me I should just hand the blog over to him and give up or something??? HAHAHA


Or maybe I should get him to do the writing since he's definitely more comedic than I am :) Oh well, hopefully you are all still reading since it's just little old me here today...

So while in the Poconos I received an awesome book from my sister and brother-in-law! It's called the Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger and it's amazing! Ellie even has a little cult following in the blog world where they all make a recipe once a week from her book. You can check it out over at the awesome CB's blog. Clara has been trying to get me to join... but the whole HAVING to cook a specific thing on a specific night... yeahhh I can't plan out my week of eating... I've tried... but I have to go by how I feel that day... you know fly by the seat of my pants! hahaha


This soup though... it's amazing. And I will totally be making it again! Or I should say I will be making this for the first time since my Dad made this up while the rest of us where off skiing. See yet again DAD ROCKS! Mom rocks too but she was busy keeping Walton happy while dad made the soup :)

You can find the recipe on page 85, no pictures there though! I think cookbooks should be required to have pictures of ALL recipies not just some or most... ALL!

The soup includes things like cannellini beans, onion, carrot, celery, zucchini, garlic, thyme, sage, baby spinach... lots of good soupy stuff :) So simple and tasty! She uses chicken stock, which we used, but I bet you could use vegetable stock and keep this bad boy vegetarian!


Oh and in case you can't tell... the soup pairs amazingly with Yuengling Black and Tan. YUM.
CHOW!

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Highjacks & high jinx

Well, Steph was in the Poconos, and a man needs to eat. So I decide, if I’m gonna get down, I’m gonna get down and highjack the blog while I’m at it. All I hear about is blogging this and blogging that (not that I’m complaining about being an official taste tester of Stephchows, mind you). How hard can this be, right?? (I’ll tell you how hard: its Thursday night and I’m just writing this mess from Sat!!)

Now, I need to feel like cooking, and that doesn’t happen often, especially with my woman so eager to take on that chore. But desperate times call for desperate measures. She had told me I had stuff to make pizzas (I used to know such things about my own fridge). So, it was ‘go time.’ Whole wheat pizza dough was waiting for me; I just needed to knead it, flatten it, work it a bit. It smelled a little vinegar-y, so that scared me (but not enough to cease operation). Now, I do have some skills in the kitchen, truth be told; the thing is, it is more of throwing things together into a massive goulash-type deal (I am the self-proclaimed “Koncoction King”).

The next logical step, then, was just to start tossing things on top of this canvas. Pesto, garlic, lil grated parm, some diavola tomato sauce, dashes of pepper and pizza spices.. pretty much no rhyme or reason. Top with some Red Hot, fat free mozzarella, and lean turkey pepperoni. Oh yeah, I am a freak with the lowfat etc, so this was all on the healthy tip. I guess you can tell there will be no recipe to follow, but I baked this bad boy at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes or so (who the hell really knows). Check out the pics. Not bad… not bad at all!

before

after

Well this was fun. Ladies, holla for a man who cooks!! Wait - what’s that Steph? What dishes need to be cleaned...? but… but…I’m blogging.

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Marzipan

So what you saw yesterday was indeed whipped egg whites with sugar. aka meringue :) that said meringue gets folded into this dough to lighten it up a bit. So what exactly are we making you ask?? 7-layer marzipan cookies!! If you live in the NYC/NJ area, you probably have seen these cookies... there are many imitations out there though... that are just colored cake, without any real almond paste to be found *BLEH!* they should be ashamed of themselves trying to pass those gross things off as the real mouth water almond paste 7 layer cookies that I along with the rest of my family LOVE! And in case you didn't realize... these things are BAD for you, this is NOT a healthy stephchows recipe... these are pure unadulterated sugar and butter laden pieces of heaven. But as nana said, "everything in moderation" so once a year, I can totally make and chow these :)

When I gave my dad the first taste of these he said "oooooo this makes me want to never eat the store bought bakery ones again... these are good!"

WOOOHOOO!! (oh in case you are wondering my gingerbread bagels are now safe and sound in my freezer, thanks again dad!)

Onto the cookies... these take some serious time. Perfect for a cold day in the Poconos where there is no TV reception and certainly no internet. Most of the time is inactive but make sure you have a good half day to make these. Oh and we don't have a stand mixer in PA... I have a new appreciation for my kitchen aid now!

So what are the 7 layers you ask?

You start and end with a layer of chocolate that is sandwiching a layer of green dough then a layer of apricot jam, then yellow dough, more apricot jam, and finally red dough.

my sister is a professional at stiring. she helped a ton by folding in the egg whites and then helping stir in the food coloring.

We... (and by we I mean me) were too impatiet to wait to put the layers of chocolate on so we sampled some sans chocolate before dinner. After dinner though we added the chocolate, delicious!!!

yeah you may notice we only did chocolate on the top... the need to eat these things overruled the need to add the bottom chocolate layer.

For the recipe and full directions on how to make this check out Smitten Kitchen. I found the recipe on her site and knew I had to make them :)

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Snow in the Poconos

The Pocono's were fantastic! We skied, we had read time, we mellowed, we crocheted, we cooked and we baked!! Since it was late Christmas I was very excited to receive multiple cooking and baking related gifts! A fabulous flirty housewife apron, 2 amazingly delicious cookbooks (more on what we made from them to come...) A crock pot! A candy thermometer, and a beautiful 3 bowl serving tray. Santa was good this year :)

Check out Walton's "king of the mountain" shirt! He wished he could come skiing with us but unfortunately he'll have to wait a few years :)

Here's a teaser from one the recipes we made. This one is a dessert loved by all of the Snow family. Stockton on the other hand thinks it's nasty :) Once Walton is old enough we'll see if he inherited his taste buds from his mom or dad with this delicious dessert! Here's a hint.. it has 7 layers to it.

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Black Eye Pea... CAKE

Yeah you read that right... cake... made with beans??? And it tastes good? No joke, it's true, and vegan and gluten free too! As Bittersweet will tell you, this isn't a very pretty cake, but it is moist, rich, and tastes like it must be full of butter and sugar.

It's not winning any beauty contests... but it sure is tasty!

Lucky Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Epicurious by Bittersweet (italics are stephchows changes)

2 Cups Cooked Black-Eyed Peas
1 12-Ounce Package Extra-Firm Silken Tofu
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar (I used 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs splenda blend)
1 1/2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Natural Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Instant Coffee Powder (I used instant espresso powder)
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
Pinch Salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan. (I used a bunch of small little loaf pans and decreased the cooking time to 45 minutes)

Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth. Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake. Add in the sugar and coffee powder, and pulse to combine.

Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the food processor, and then let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa, coffee powder, baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.

Spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can. Bake for 60 - 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. I know that’s a bit vague, but it will still be ever so slightly wet since it’s such a moist cake- Just make sure it doesn’t look like it’s covered in raw batter. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.

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Pumpkin & Pesto Pinwheels

Pumpkin & Pesto Pinwheels?? Yeah try and say that three times fast... go ahead I'll wait :)

Happy Martin Luther King Day! I'm off in the Poconos right now celebrating "late christmas" with my family... hopefully off on a ski slope carving out a fresh trail! I couldn't leave you guys hanging though so I figured I'd leave you with some chow to drool over.


Don't these just look delicious?? I found these over at Foodalogue and had to make them!

I used whole wheat pizza dough I bought at the grocery store. Rolled a chunk of it out, plastered pumpkin puree, turkey bacon & sage on one half; pesto, parmigiana & mozzarella on the other half, rolled it up, and tossed it in the freezer. An hour later out it came to slice up and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes.


It was a delicious snack that was devoured very quickly. I'd make these again to serve as an appetizer, or keep a roll on hand in the freezer for impromptu guests, and snacking.

Chow!

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Chocolate Pizzelles

I had mentioned at some point at John's parents house about owning a pizzelle iron... his dad got VERY excited about this fact, so I had to make him a batch! His dad also really likes dark chocolate, so I adapted the recipe to include some dark chocolate cocoa powder. I made sure to bring some into work as well to share the crisp goodness.

My one coworker described them "like a very thin crisp oreo cookie" ... sounds good to me right!?

Again, like I said in my original recipe pizzelle post, the only special thing you need is a pizzelle iron, otherwise these are as simple as you get!

Pizzelle Cookies
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter (melted)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
zest from one orange (optional)

BEAT eggs, add sugar gradually, add melted butter

MIX flour, cocoa, & baking powder

ADD dry mixture to wet gradually, stir in orange zest (if using)

DROP spoonfuls on a hot pizzelle iron and cook according to iron instructions (mine has a light that goes on and off when they are done) remove and cool on a wire rack, or roll into ice cream cone shape and set aside to cool.

You can take two of these and make nutella sandwiches, or sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with ice cream... or just eat them all up plain!

Chow!

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The fallback meal

Some nights are made for cooking elaborate meals, course after course of thought and preparation... and then there is the egg sandwich night. Got 5 minutes, you're all set. CHOW! Personally I like my eggs over easy so when you bite into the sandwich yolk goes all over the place. Come on it's fun, admit it! add a little cheddar, turkey bacon, whole wheat toast. DONE and DONE.


I'll take two please :)

What's your go to meal when you don't feel like cooking all night long?

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Reasons why my Dad rocks

I'm a little bipolar today about Panera. They have this gingerbread bagel, which I am madly in love with. The thing is that it's a seasonal item. I called this weekend to make sure they still had them and when they would have them until... Tuesday. Ok great! Tuesday comes and I drive down the road to get my 18 pack and freeze them

... no gingerbread bagels...

WHAT??? I may have out loud said to the poor girl behind the counter something to the effect of "BUT THAT BLOWS!!" her response "do you want french toast bagels instead?" "no thank you" The guy working the register next to her gave me a pitiful look and said "I'm so sorry" you see, he could see the sadness in my eyes! Then hanging my head I sulked away from the counter... how is this possible?? I mean I called and asked so this specific thing wouldn't happen!

I proceed back to my office and call every Panera in the Rochester NY area... nothing... I'm hating Panera at this point. That is it, I'm boycotting it!! I'm going to angry blog bombard them!! Darn you Panera!!

*lightbulb flash*

Maybe the Paneras in NJ near my parents house still has them.... (rush to google to look up phone number of NJ Panera)

Hello this is Panera...
Hi do you have gingerbread bagels??
Let me check, hold on one second...
(trying to patently hold and not go crazy)
Yup we have them.
REALLY?? OK THANK YOU!
*click*

Madly dialing my mom's cell phone.
no answer.

Madly dialing the house phone.
Hello
Hi dad! I have a random question for you... you see Panera was supposed to have gingerbread bagels today and it's the last day... and they DON'T have any!! But the one by you does.... can you go get me an 18 pack and freeze them for me??
The one up in Essex Green or Short Hills?
Essex Green
You want 18?
Yes please and you have to try them too, so maybe get extra, they are amazing!
I'm on my way now.
Thank you dad love you!
*click*

My dad ROCKS!!!!!

Oh and I'm back to being happy with Panera... but only because of my Dad, otherwise Panera, you'd be in trouble!

So are you all shaking your heads at me ashamed? Or would you have done the same thing? :D

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Blueberry Oat Muffins

These are another trainspotting... I mean tastespotting find. (Update: I just discovered these are by Joy the Baker! She has a ton of great recipes on her site, check her out!) John and I both loved them and devoured them pretty quickly. yum. Toss these in the freezer after you bake them and you have an on the go breakfast or snack, just toss it in the microwave once you get to work and you are good to go!

MMMMMM muffins... mmmmmm

Low Fat Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins
recipe found on Snagwiremedia by Joy the Baker
makes 12-15 muffins
* 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 1/4 cups oats
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
* 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 2 tbsp canola oil
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) (I used 1.5 cups frozen I like blueberries)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil and egg. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fold in blueberries. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

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Baked Falafel

So I was surfing around tastespotting (who I have a love hate relationship... they make me so happy when they accept my images... and so sad when they reject them booo. And man I just can't seem to find a rhyme or reason, there was one image I thought they would reject.. nope they took it, then like 3 others I thought were amazing... and they rejected them!! Oh and btw John will only refer to their site as trainspotting hahahaha. I start talking about them and he's like "you mean trainspotting" hehehe at least it cheers me up after they reject me). OK enough of my drama, I came across this image and had to make them. The recipe and image came from Chow Vegan, love love the name! I must admit though... I made them not vegan. My mixture just wasn't coming together at ALL, so I added an egg white. Problem solved!


These came together wicked quick and wrapped up in a pita with some feta, cucumbers, baby spinach, and a dab of hummus and red hot made for a super tasty filling dinner. I love me some falafel but always feel a bit unhappy in my belly due to the serious fried value of them. These were a de-light-ful change up and I'm totally going to make a ton of these, freeze them, and keep them on hand for a quick weeknight treat!

Chow!
Baked Falafel (changed up a bit from Chow Vegan)
Makes about 21 balls

1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans
1 small onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg white (stephchows add on)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 tsp sesame seeds (stephchows add on)
1/2 tsp paprika (stephchows add on)
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. Put in a medium sized bowl and smash with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Form into small balls, about 1 1/2″ in diameter and slightly flatten. Place onto an oiled baking pan.

Bake for 15 minutes on each side, until nicely browned (since it’s baked, only the part actually touching the pan will be browned and crispy).

Serve with mini pita pockets, hummus, tahini sauce, tomatoes, lettuce and/or cucumber.

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My sister is so cool

I don't know if you guys know about Apartment Therapy or not? But it's a seriously fun website about decorating and design. Anyway they have a section of their site dedicated to decorating for baby... and my sister got featured on it!!!!! Jen and Stockton did a wonderful job decorating Walton's nursery and you can go read all about it here!

Go click now!!! She ROCKS!!!!

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pad thai

Whenever John and I go on vacation or are traveling for one reason or another, we always have problems finding good places to eat. I'm anti-chain, and love giving little places a try, this can make for amazing finds, or awful chow. The only thing we seem to find that is consistently good is Thai food. Kinda funny that no matter where we go, we are always able to find some good thai! The weirder thing though is although we find good Thai all over, I still can't seem to reproduce a good pad thai recipe... Believe me I've tried mixes, from scratch... you name it... and it's never anywhere close to any of the amazing stuff we've had out!

This was my most recent attempt... it looked good, smelled good, and tasted... OK... but nothing great. It's all about that sauce... and I just CAN'T seem to find a good sauce recipe... So dear reader, I ask you from the bottom of my heart, please please do you have an amazing pad thai sauce recipe that you live by?? Please let me know if you do and send the link or just write it in the comments, or whatever! Just please help me stop this cycle of BLEH attempts at pad thai!

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Turtle

Ok hopefully you didn't see the title and immediately think I was cooking turtle. Poor little cute turtle, no worries for you, you are safe. I'm talking about a cute little crochet turtle!

I made this for little Nina-Maria! It was so much fun to make and she loved it. :) John is her godfather and we celebrated epiphany with her and her family last night. Apparently it's a really big thing in Columbia, so Paul and Kim want to bring the tradition to Nina to celebrate. It was a ton of fun and once Kim sends me pictures I'll write all about all the yummy food traditions that go along with it!

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shrimptastic

Sunday nights have turned into sauce night for me and John. This past week we made skinny pasta and topped it with turkey kielbasa, shrimp, and mushrooms in a red sauce. Easy, fast, and delicious!

Cook the pasta (whole wheat for me!) according to the package, I like mine aldente yum! Slice up the turkey kielbasa and mushrooms and toss in a sauce pan with a little olive oil spray. Toss them around until they are nice and browned, at this point plop in a jar of your favorite sauce (in a pinch wegmans Diavola sauce is the hands down best in my opinion, spicy!) Stir and turn the heat down to low. I used frozen cooked shrimp so once they were defrosted I just tossed them in the sauce for the last few minutes to warm them up.

This meal goes from start to finish in 20 minutes. Top with some parmasian cheese or a little parsley and you are good to go! I also added in a bunch of spinach into mine for a little added boost.

Chow!

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Pea Soup

Awhile back I had asked my mom for her/dad's/nana's pea soup recipe. We always ate home-made pea soup growing up, especially after ham holidays... a ham bone makes the soup so good! I think the best part of this recipe is when mom says "It's not rocket science, just get it to taste good. :) " awesome. Hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do! I don't thicken it like Nana used to, but it is super tasty if you do :)

Pea Soup

1 pound of dried split green peas

1 medium onion chopped

1 carrot peeled & chopped

1 potato peeled & chopped

2 quarts water

bullion cubes (optional)

salt & pepper

2-3 tablespoons butter (optional)

2-3 tablespoons flour (optional)

Pick over and rinse peas. Place in large stock pot. Add water and heat to a low boil. Skim off any stuff that comes to the top. (Do not soak peas overnight.)

Add veggies and season with salt & pepper. You can add a few bullion cubes to give it more flavor if you want to. Return to boil, lower heat and cover. Simmer for at least an hour to 90 minutes. If you put the cover on tightly, this has a tendency to boil over. Leave it partly uncovered, or use a larger pot.

You can taste and adjust the seasonings. At that point, you can do a few different things. You can just eat it that way, a bit chunky. If you have a hand held emersion blender, you can blend it right in the pot. If not you can pour it through a sieve, and then smash and push the veggies through the sieve. This is easier to do if you cook it a bit longer to get them softer. That's the way that Nana always did it.

Now here comes the less healthy addition. Nana always thickened it. After putting it through the sieve, she would return it to the pot. In a small frying pan, she would melt the butter and brown it lightly. Then add the flour, stirring it constantly until it had a nice color. She's add some soup to this butter mixture and keep stirring until it was smooth. Then add it all to the soup. It gives it a nice flavor. I haven't done this in years.

A ham bone will give it a lot of flavor. You can use it one of two ways. You can just put the bone in when you add the veggies and let it cook with the soup. At the end, you remove the bone before you blend the soup. You probably have to scrape a lot of the veggies off of the bone. You can chop up whatever meat may come off the bone and add it back into the soup. Or you can simmer the bone in just the water for a couple of hours. Then either make the soup at that point (you don't need the bullion cubes, and probably very little salt). Or you can refrigerate or freeze the water to use when you do make the soup.

NOTE: This is all approximate. If it seems too thick, you can just add more water. You can add more or less of the veggies depending on what you have on hand. Some people put a little garlic in it. You can use chicken stock instead of water. It's not rocket science, just get it to taste good. :)

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Hot out of the oven - Bread

Bread and I have had a sordid love affair for my entire life. I've spent many years battling my lust for its oh so crusty exterior and soft tender insides... oh whoa-as-me. As a young child before words were capable I'd simply stand next to the holiday table pointing to the bread basket letting out weird noises indicating, "excuse me tall person would you please be a good person and hand over that bread basket, if you do, no one will be hurt." The lust continued through high school, a bagel for lunch every day. Bread and I had some rough times towards the end of college a few years back bread and I had a break up for awhile, it was long and hard, I went my separate ways to the world of 100% whole wheat only... but oh I longed for the tender fresh baked white bread... and soon came to realize although not the most nutritional, in moderation I would be fine... but all of you carboholics out there can understand sometimes willpower is no match for the smell of fresh baked yeasty bread filling the house on a cold winter day.

Saturday was one of those days, this bread goes from simple ingredients to risen and baked within two hours, none of this 24 hours to rise crap. I need my fix NOW! As its body slowly crisped and turned golden in the oven, I could smell the wonderful aroma wafting throughout the entire house... ecstasy.

Is there anything better then tearing into a warm loaf of bread fresh out of the oven? Needless to say, I love this quick, easy, not at all intimidating (even if you are scared of yeast) recipe. Give it a try and it too will sweep you off your feet tip you back and lay a big ol' kiss smack on your lips. You can find the recipe for this wonderful lover here. Bake with caution, this bread is a ladies man and will eat you alive ;)

If you are wondering... yes I ate half the loaf by the end of the night... little piece by piece of pure deliciousness.

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lentils are yum

John made me dinner new years eve :) He made a lentil concoction with tomatoes, turkey kielbasa, garlic... I'm not sure what else was in it and he's not spilling the beans! He served it over brown rice with some cheese on top and it was spicy and super delicious!! He also made some home made hummus to start as an appetizer :) look at him go!!! Happy New year everyone!

I'm looking forward to a year full of new chow recipes and healthy options! If anyone has a recipe they would like me to "health up" just send it my way and I'll see what I can do :)

:D

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Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Sushi Love

Three words to describe Rochester, NY in winter time: grey, snowy, unpredictable... but we weren't about to let any of these things stand in the way of our New Year's sushi-love party! A special thanks to Foodbuzz 24:24:24 for hosting our gluttonous meal of unique sushi delights!

Even though snow is not a foreign concept to Rochester... somehow the streets are still not the best after a big storm (like the one that came through last night). Luckily the parking lot outside of Village Gate was well plowed. Converging from work and, for the lucky ones, home, we all managed to make it to California Rollin in one piece, with empty bellies and eager mouths to try a plethora of new twists and takes on sushi. Bacon? Pesto? BBQ sauce??? Yes, you heard me right, not traditional... but OH SO GOOD!

California Rollin is not a traditional sushi place: the chefs are clad with tattoos and piercings from all walks of life. Now don't go thinking this means they don't know what they are doing; they are all amazingly trained and skilled in their craft. Here's a sampling of some of the traditional and unique combination's (descriptions taken from California Rollin's menu).

Crunchy Spicy Tuna Roll: Our fresh made secret spicy tuna mixed with onion crunchies - spicy tastiness filled with texture.

That tempura fried roll to the right... it's called the Dancing Diablo Roll: Salmon Diablo tempura'd with Dinosaur BBQ - a spicy BBQ throw down! Yes that's right, it's slathered in BBQ sauce... and it tastes like heaven :) Don't be afraid, you wont regret it!

Mistletoe Roll: Fresh Salmon, avocado and honey topped with sesame seeds - just like getting an X-mas kiss.
Pisces Roll: Fresh spicy tuna with yellowtail, scallions and a touch of lemon - phenomenally fantastic.
Wosa Roll: Spicy shrimp and tempura shrimp rolled in onion crunches - simply shrimptastic!

To the right we have the South Wedge Roll: Smoked Salmon, cucumber, bacon and wasabi mayo explode! On the left is the Killer Eel Roll: The ultimate Eel roll: Smoked Eel, avocado, Japanese mayo, cream cheese, and scallions.

Spicy Shrimp Roll: Shrimp mixed with Celery in a devilishly hot sauce makes mouths water - a fierce flavor and popular choice.

Anyone for a little edemamae to start? The sea salt makes it so good! Just don't eat the outer shell... unless you are in serious need of fiber :D

Tuscany Roll: Thinly shaved Squid tempura'd to tender perfection in our fresh basil pesto - a must try! Matt ordered this one and I have to say it was one of my favorites!

Killer Shrimp Roll: Tempura Shrimp, avocado, cream cheese, scallions and Japanese mayo - the ultimate tempura Shrimp roll.
Dream Roll: Steamed Shrimp, avocado and cucumber.
Atlantic Ocean Roll: Steamed Shrimp, bacon, and garlic give your taste buds long lasting satisfaction.

D-lightful Roll: Crabstick and Shrimp get close with a succulent slab of bacon rolled in onion crunchies.
Trio Roll: Steamed Shrimp, Crabstick and Smoked Salmon

The aftermath - total destruction.

Of course we couldn't forget dessert, Tempura Ice Cream : vanilla ice cream inside a crispy tempura shell topped with our chocolate-hazelnut sauce ... taste the forbidden!

Some rolls to add to the "try next time list"
Louisiana Roll: Crawdads in our spicy Cajun/Vietnamese sauce.
Bourbon Roll: Tempura crawdads, Japanese mayo, hot sauce, cream cheese, bacon topped with CRUNCHIESs
Spank Me Roll: Snowcrab with wasabi mayo rolled in wasabi Tobiko eggs - embrace the light, taste 10 seconds of Nirvana!
Boss Hog Roll: Soft-shell crab, eel, Japanese mayo, avocado cucumber, bacon topped with eel sauce.
Albino Roll: Banana and Raspberries in a roll, tempura'd then smothered with chocolate and coconut - anyone for ecstasy?

YUM!!

Needless to say we left with full and happy bellies! Again, thank you so much foodbuzz for making this event possible!!!!!

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