It’s a windy, rainy day today and I have the weekend off, so I was feeling the cooking fire under my butt this morning and I made brunch (bacon, eggs, and cheese bites) and lunch/dinner – a gnocchi soup that’s so good, my friend Betsy has even made it. And the only reason I mention that is because we’re both stubborn people at times and it’s difficult to convince each other to do simple things like HEY WATCH THIS MOVIE. But HEY, she tried this soup and has added it to her cooking lineup, so that’s awesome, right?
Anyway, the original recipe is a vegan version – that I’ve made until Christmas and Easter lent. However, today I made it with reduced fat milk and it turned out just as well.
Here’s the link to the original recipe. And here’s the recipe breakdown if you don’t wanna move your eyes from the gorgeous photos I took of my soup.
Ingredients
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic diced
1/2 yellow onion diced
4-5 stalks celery diced
5 whole carrots diced
3 tbsp. cornstarch
4 tsp. Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base
4 cups + 3 tbsp. water separated
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 package gnocchi
pepper to taste
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, celery and carrots and sauté until veggies are softened (approx. 10 minutes).
Dissolve cornstarch in 3 tbsp. water in a small bowl.
Dissolve bouillon in 4 cups water to create “chicken” broth.
Add cornstarch mixture, “chicken” broth and almond milk to veggies. Bring to a boil.
Add gnocchi and spices and simmer on low for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Taste to adjust seasonings and serve with fresh parsley.
It’s officially a month since my last update and shamefully, I did not deliver on my promises of having queued up posts. Truthfully, I was so busy and mentally occupied in the time leading up to the cruise, I just didn’t get around to it. But excuses, excuses, we’re not here to talk about that, so let’s cut to it.
I have a few chrysanthemum photos I want to share from late spring this year.
I tried some different editing styles in Photoshop with these to bring out a more vintage, cooler toned look. I need to mess around with this style, cause I definitely feel like I can enhance them even more, it’s just about finding that balance.
So I have a few recipes up my sleeve that I tried in the past couple months and I wanted to share with you guys.
This first one is super easy and doesn’t actually have a real recipe per se.
I usually make pancakes on Sunday mornings, but I wanted to try making crepes instead, using Pamela’s Gluten Free Pancake flour that I always use. I actually have an additional recipe, straight from my great-aunt, from scratch, that I’ll be sharing later.
For now, though, this one is very simple and delicious. Check it:
Ingredients
(Makes ~8 crepes or pancakes)
1 cup Pamela’s Gluten Free Pancake Mix
1 egg
1 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup water
cinnamon and cardamom to taste
Fruits, honey, whipped cream for toppings
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a bowl
Heat a non-stick pan on high (if you don’t have one, just use spray oil before every crepe) and pour your batter one scoop at a time. Swivel your pan to spread the batter as thinly as you can without breaking. You can also use your ladle to help you out with this if the batter is too thick.
Chop your fruits. Optionally, you can mix them with your honey and set aside while you make the crepes. Stuff your crepes with fruits and roll up, then top with whipped cream or more honey and fruits.
It’s Lent season at my house which means vegetarian food all day errday.
We don’t celebrate Lent for religious purposes in my house, but we do celebrate it for dietary purposes. My mom seems to strugglebus when it comes to cooking vegetarian sometimes, but I cook vegetarian like 85% of the time that I decide to make actual meals (not desserts), so of course it’s pretty easy for me to find exciting recipes to try out.
And of COURSE I got my ass on Foodgawker last night and this morning. Actual morning today because I got up at a semi-reasonable time. I was that excited about making rice.
I knew I wanted to make the rice before I knew what the “main dish” would be. But I found the perfect match – I wanted to do something with chickpeas again, but a little different from straight up Channa Masala.
So I found this great recipe for Moroccan Veggie Stew. I didn’t have saffron because that shit is expensive. And if I had known that pitted dates tasted so good in this recipe, I would’ve added WAY more than the 4 it calls for. My tweaked recipe can be found below, and you can follow the link to see the original.
Moroccan Veggie Stew
Ingredients
1 onion
3 carrots peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 baking or russet potatoes peeled and chopped
4 medjool dates, pitted and chopped (I recommend putting a fistful in there)
1 16 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup (or can) of tomato sauce
2 cups of water
1 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cumin
1-2 pinches of ground coriander
1 teaspoons of smoked paprika
A pinch of saffron (optional)
Olive oil/Grapeseed for cooking
Salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375
Meanwhile, in a sauce pan (or dutch oven), saute the onions, carrots and celery on medium heat with some olive or grapeseed oil and a pinch of salt. Saute the vegetables until they start to soften – about 3-5 minutes.
Add the potatoes, chickpeas, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, and saffron. Stir the ingredients and spices around for about a minute, being careful not to burn the spices.
Add the tomato sauce with two cups of water. Stir in the garlic and the dates. Adjust the salt, cover the pot and bring to a simmer.
Simmer the stew on the stovetop for about 10 minutes.
Transfer to the stew to the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. I also transferred mine to a Pyrex bowl before I popped it in the oven. If you’re using a dutch oven with no plastic on it, you can leave it in your dutch oven pan.
As for the turmeric Basmati rice, I followed this Jamie Oliver video for how to make perfect fluffy rice because I literally always fuck up rice when I cook it. But LO AND BEHOLD, following this video actually worked for me. And the rice turned out great. I did have to add extra salt after it was done because my “pinch” wasn’t enough when I seasoned it at the beginning.
Turmeric Basmati Rice
Ingredients
1 cup Basmati rice
2 cups water
3 pods of cardamom
10 pieces of whole cloves
1/2 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
Directions
Rinse rice in cold water to get rid of starch and imperfections.
In a heated sauce pan, combine your rice, water, spices and salt.
Cover and bring to a simmer-boil for 8-10 minutes (or until water is evaporated). Do NOT remove cover, but make sure the water doesn’t bubble over.
Once all the water is evaporated, remove cover and remove cardamom pods and stick of cinnamon. Stir gently and serve.
I’m back with a delicious recipe I tried out this morning/afternoon. Afternoon, cause I got out of bed at 11:15 and didn’t finish this until after 12, BUT ANYWAY.
I wanted to eat something different from just cereal or eggs or toast, so I got my ass on Foodgawker as usual and found this easy Lemon Dutch Baby with Berry Compote and put myself to work. It’s not too sugary-sweet or too weird and foreign. I thought it was going to turn out like the Finnish “pancakes” I made like 6 years ago, but I realized when I started eating that it’s a whole lot like the Clafoutis recipe I make, except loads simpler to prepare.
Here’s the breakdown of ingredients and directions. I did not make the whipped cream, but I did make the berry (CHERRY!) compote.
Ingredients
for the Dutch Baby:
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
for the Berry Compote:
2 cups frozen berries (‘triple berry’)
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon sugar
for the whipped cream:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
OR
your whipped topping of choice Instructions
Remove frozen berries from freezer, in a bowl combine berries, lemon juice, and tablespoon of sugar. Toss to mix. Set aside to thaw, toss occasionally while dutch baby is cooking.
Place 12 inch cast iron (or oven safe skillet) in oven, preheat to 425º F.
In a blender add lemon zest, flour, eggs, milk, sugar, 3 tablespoons butter, vanilla extract, and salt. Blend until combined.
Once oven is preheated and skillet is hot, use oven mitts to remove the skillet. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet, swirl the skillet until the butter melts and the sides and bottom of the skillet is covered in butter.
Pour the batter from the blender into the skillet. Return skillet to oven.
Bake 22-24 minutes until edges are golden brown.
If you are making your own whipped cream add vanilla and heavy whipping cream to the stand of an electric mixer. Beat on high 1-2 minutes until whipped cream is to preferred consistency.
Give Berry Compote a final stir and pour over the Dutch Baby, top with Whipped Cream. Serve immediately.
I was looking for photos I haven’t posted that I could share and I realized I’ve been hoarding these two from a few weeks ago in my archives. My mom and I usually stop by this mini farmer’s market across the street from Yates Cider Mill when we go. They had pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors and I thought this gourd patch looked neat.
I know it’s officially AFTER Thanksgiving and Halloween and I should be posting like, cute snowflakes pictures, but it’s December 3rd and we still haven’t had a snowfall here in the Metro Detroit Area. And I hope that my mentioning that didn’t just jinx us. I want snow for pictures. But I don’t want it for driving and everything else.
I took my annual trip to Yates Cider Mill last month and of course I brought my camera with me. It was towards the end of the foliage decay in this particular section of town, so there weren’t too many subjects to photograph, but I managed.
I used my 50mm lens, partly because I forgot to stick my macro lens on – however, as I’ve mentioned before, I seem to get some really fantastic bokeh shots with this lens and it continues to be my go-to lens for every day photography.
Anyway, here’s a few shots from the day.
I really like the way the above photo turned out. I think it shows a great contrast between colors, but also between the decay and vitality of nature and how strongly something like a leaf can hang on to it’s live-giving branch. That sounds super poetic, but nature is poetic.
I had a tough time choosing between the above photo and another, landscape version of the same leaves. But ultimately, like that poppy picture from this summer, I like the contrast between the orange of the leaves and the serene blue background.
In this last photo, I found this stalk of leaves sprouting out of the ground surrounded by mostly trees with falling leaves and I thought it was just brilliant to see this bright green foliage defying the autumn season.
