Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

The new Whole Foods in Lincoln Park is quite something.  If you have never been into a Whole Foods before you might wonder how I can talk so much about a single grocery store.  All Whole Foods stores are amazing in my mind, but this one is on a completely different level.  Grandpa, you would have loved it.  I must have seen about 50 different free food samples.  I think that might have Costco beat.  Highlights of the new store for me include: the make your own nut butter machine and the build your own trail mix bar.  It is overwhelming to say the least.  I like the small, neighborhood feel of my Whole Foods and will continue to shop there on on a regular basis.  When I am looking for an afternoon outing, entertaining out of town guests who I want to wow them, am extremely hungry and looking to nibble on free samples, or when I am longing to drink wine while grocery shopping, I will make a trip to the LP Whole Foods.  

A couple of weeks ago Jenn posted a recipe on her blog for Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce.  Over the past couple of weeks when going to the grocery store, I've noticed rhubarb being one of the many key displays in the produce section.  It looks slightly odd, long red stalks, rubber banded together in piles next to the apples.  I've never cooked with rhubarb before, nor am I that familiar with the taste.  When I think of rhubarb, it initially brings me back to thoughts about my Grandma and Grandpa.  Among many other things, my Grandpa grew rhubarb in his garden and I can remember my Grandma talking about strawberry rhubarb pie.  I can't remember tasting that pie, but at age 7 or 8 I probably wasn't interested in the difference between an apple pie and a strawberry rhubarb pie.

Rhubarb is a vegetable.  It has a tart, slightly sweet flavor.  It doesn't taste like anything specific in my mind.  I could maybe compare it to a slightly tougher, tarter and fruitier celery?  After sampling it both raw and cooked,  I can see how it pairs well with fruit, enhancing whatever flavor you might combine it with.  

I was able to go to the farmer's market for the first time this season on Saturday morning.  The past 3 Saturday's have been busy with events for work, so I was thrilled to walk through the market, looking at all the fresh produce.  I came home with strawberry jam, spinach, fresh chives, radishes and rhubarb.  I  had this recipe in the back of my mind and made it last night.  I made another batch of banana bread yesterday and served it with rhubarb sauce for my dessert.  Tonight, I am going to try the sauce warmed and spooned over frozen chopped bananas.  

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Adapted from The Whole Kitchen Blog

1 pound rhubarb, chopped

1 container of strawberries, chopped

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

Dash of lemon juice

Chop rhubarb and strawberries.  Place in a saucepan over high heat.  Add water and sugar.  Bring mixture to a boil.  Lower heat and let simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes.  Rhubarb and strawberries will soften and mixture will thicken slightly.  Cool and pour into jars or freezer bags.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

I am sitting here, looking out at my view from the 32nd floor, eating a fruit salad of blueberries and mangoes, listening to Neil Diamond's Home Before Dark album. while relaxing after spending the last hour at spin class.  I have the ingredients sitting out to make chicken tacos for dinner tonight but want to just sit here and relish these few relaxing minutes at the end of a busy day.  This is the time of night I look most forward to.  The to-do list of the day is done and the next couple of hours are just for me.  

My Mom recently bought me a new cookbook.  Let me share a little secret with you.  This book is quite thick and officially does not fit on my 3-level bookshelf.  It is currently sitting on my made-by-hand tiled end table next to my chair.  This table has become the home for cookbooks that no longer fit on the shelf.  I've tried to go through my books, attempting to eliminate ones that are taking up too much space and I honestly feel the need to keep all of them. This latest book is called Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  Now, no, I am definitely not going vegetarian all of a sudden.  However, I am a huge fan of vegetables, couscous, tofu, fruit salads, desserts, hearty soups, beans and other non-meat containing food ingredients.  This book has a wonderful collection of just such recipes, organized in a manner that makes it easy to find a recipe based on one single ingredient.  

Memorial day was just a few days ago and I am ever so grateful for the shortened work week.  I spent Monday at Ben's as he offered to cook: grilled hamburgers, sweet potato fries and rhubarb custard.  I would have gone regardless of what he was serving, but who can pass up a menu like that?  I wanted to contribute to the meal so I turned to Madison's cookbook in search of a recipe.  I came across a Watermelon and Feta Salad.  I've never had the combination of watermelon and cheese before, but the thoughts of salty and sweet do make for a great combination.  The salad can be put together in no time and is a great side to just about any grilled meat.  What a wonderful outdoor grilling, picnic at the beach, whatever summer party you might be going to side dish.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

1 chopped up watermelon (base watermelon amount on  number of guests you are feeding)

1/4-1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

2-3 sprigs of fresh mint, chopped finely

Juice of one lime

Dash of Salt (yes do add this)

Dash of Pepper (and this too)

Combine all ingredients into a serving bowl.  Stir to combine.  

English Muffins, Hazelnut Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly

There must be something about waking up at 4:30am on a Saturday that gives me the itch to be in the kitchen.  This past Saturday, over 60 athletes participated in the Soldier Field 10 mile race as Charity Runners, and have currently raised over $35,000 for the American Cancer Society.   I am honored to be part of such a remarkable program, that does require you to wake up somewhat early on a few selective weekends!  

By noon, I was sitting at Starbucks, drinking a rather large coffee and planning the rest of my holiday weekend.  I had visions of spending the afternoon napping,  watching Lifetime movies and catching up on my Tivo to relax, but I didn't quite get around to any of that.  Once I got back to my apartment, the only thing I wanted to do was spend time in the kitchen. My cookbooks, Bon Appetit magazines and food websites were open, as I looked for the perfect Saturday afternoon cooking project.   I've come to the conclusion that cooking is completely relaxing for me.  There is nothing I would rather do, even after a long day, than spend a few hours in the kitchen, working on a meal, as I plow through some new recipes.   

At the beginning of each year, I vow that I am going to work on becoming a more patient person.  Patience is a virtue and it's one that I haven't mastered yet.  Ironically though, when in the kitchen, my patience shines through.  If I can't get a zipper to go up on a sweatshirt or jacket it gets me right away, no patience at all.  However, in the kitchen, I could kill the yeast in the bread once, even twice, need to remake an entire starter, and it wouldn't bother me at all.  I'm not sure if that is selective patience or just a sign that cooking and I go quite well together?

I've been craving simple food recently.  More specifically English muffins with strawberry jelly.  On Friday night I dined on a meal of packaged whole wheat English muffins, strawberry jelly from Whole Foods and my award winning 365 crunchy peanut butter.   It didn't phase me that I was hungry for that exact same meal again on Saturday night.  I was feeling slightly guilty about eating something as simple as bread and jelly two nights in a row for dinner, so I attempted to go bigger.  Homemade English muffins, with homemade peanut butter and strawberry jelly would definitely make it an acceptable Saturday night meal.  

3 hours in the kitchen post event and I am completely satisfied with how everything turned out.  I have leftover muffins in my freezer, jars of jam in the fridge, and two big things of hazelnut peanut butter to get me through the rest of this week.

Whole Wheat English Muffins

adapted from Mother Earth News (you can find just about anything on Google)

1 cup milk, warmed

2 tablespoons honey

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons melted butter

6 cups white/wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

Combine milk and honey in a stand mixer with hook attachment.  In a separate bowl, mix warm water and yeast.  Let sit for 10 minutes to activate the yeast.  Add yeast mixture to the bowl with the milk.  Pour in the melted butter.  Add 3 cups of flour and salt and mix until combined.  Continue adding flour until mixture forms a ball.  Let knead for about 5 minutes.  I ended up using about 5 1/2 cups of flour total.

Put the dough into a greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel and let rise until dough has doubled in size, about 2 hours.  Remove dough from bowl.  Punch the dough down and divide into 12 equal portions.  Roll each portion into a ball and set on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal.  Cover with a damp towel and let rise again for about an hour.

Heat griddle to medium.  Brush with oil.  Cook muffins on each side for about 5-7 minutes until they are browned.  Do this in batches and move muffins back to baking sheet.  Bake muffins in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes until muffins are cooked through.  

Strawberry Jelly

adapted from homeschoolblogger.com

4 cups mashed strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons powdered pectin

1/2 cup calcium water

Make calcium water according to package directions.  (Calcium powder comes with powdered pectin and helps to gel mixture)  Mash 4 cups of strawberries.  Put in a saucepan.  Add calcium water.  Bring to a boil.  Stir in sugar and pectin powder.  Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.  Pour into jars. 

 

Hazelnut Peanut Butter

my own recipe

Equal parts:

Raw, unsalted peanuts

Raw, unsalted hazelnuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon peanut oil

Toast nuts in an oven at 350 for 8 minutes.  Cool.  Put nuts in a food processor.  Process for about 5 minutes.  Nuts will change in texture: grainy, ball like, paste.  Add oil a bit at a time until you get your desired consistency.

Banana Bread

Not only do I love the warm weather and sunshine that the summer months bring, but I also adore the fruits and vegetables that are available at this time of year. It is such a treat to walk into the grocery store and have at least 10 different in-season fresh fruits to choose from. This afternoon I made myself a snack of chopped red cherries, white peaches and toasted almonds. The fruits needed nothing else. It is slightly difficult do de-seed a cherry, but it is well worth the extra effort. I bite the cherry in half and then scoop out the seed with a spoon. I would obviously need to do something different if I were serving the snack for company, but that situation has not presented itself yet.

Lucky for me and many others I'm sure, bananas can be purchased year-round and always seem to be in season. I would consider myself a professional banana eater as I can eat them at any stage of ripeness. Green - sure, bright yellow - of course, lightly spotted - even better, completely brown and almost black - bring it on. I prefer to eat bananas just as they start to turn brown. I like that their flesh gets slightly mushy and I think it brings out the true banana flavor as they ripen.

I had 3 very ripe bananas sitting on my counter this afternoon. I don't know how I got behind in my banana consumption this week. I had 2 hours to burn before going to the gym so I searched the Internet for a banana bread recipe. I came across the Smitten Kitchen blog and found just what I was looking for. Bread recipes are tough because most call for 2 cups of sugar at least and to me, that just defeats the purpose of making a loaf of bread. I only added a half a cup of sugar to this recipe that called for 3/4 cup and the bread was plenty sweet. Having very ripe bananas enables you to add less sugar as well. This bread is delicious and I'm going to print it off and put it in my 'keeper' file.

Banana Bread

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 very ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)

1 egg

2 tablespoons vanilla

2 tablespoons rum

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 cups flour (I used white/wheat)

2 teaspoons flax seeds

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter and mashed bananas in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, rum, cinnamon and cloves. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour and stir until combined. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

(I was in a hurry to get to the gym on time so I upped my oven temp to 400 and baked for 45 minutes)

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

After doing my weights class at the gym tonight, I made a quick stop into Whole Foods to pick up some halibut for dinner.  I'm on a kick this week of eating fish with pureed mango on top.  I think the warmer weather is getting to me.  It was quite busy at the store, especially for a Tuesday.  I was checking out and the middle-aged, average height, slightly overweight guy behind me started putting his groceries on the moving belt.    Other people's groceries don't usually catch my eye, but this one did.  He unloaded his cart with 3 bags of lemons, 4 jugs of maple syrup and 2 containers of cayenne pepper.  I was immediately intrigued.  In my mind I pictured him whipping up this wonderful, fruity lemon compote to slather on baked fish or a lemon preserve that he could serve on toast and keep throughout the summer.

With food curiosity getting the best of me, I mentioned to him that he had quite an assortment of ingredients there.  "I would love to know what you might be making with those ingredients" I said to him. His response was not what I expected.  "I'm fasting for 7 days and this is all I am going to drink: water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.  I'm going to lose 10 pounds" he said.  I practically fell over with the thought of only consuming those 4 ingredients for a 7 day period of time.  Where was he going to get the strength to stand upright throughout the week, go to work and function as a normal human being?  I really wanted to get his email address so that I could ask him how it went at the end of the week, but instead wished him luck and walked out of the store, grateful that I enjoy eating real food throughout the day.  

Chicken is not one of my favorite foods but when I was home last weekend for Mother's Day we grilled chicken on the BBQ.  I like chicken that has a marinade on it, so the search was on.  I can't wait to have a balcony at my next apartment so that I can grill meat outdoors.  We have 17 years worth of Bon Appetit magazines at our house, so it was only a matter of time before we found a winner for a marinade.  Yes 17 years worth, and we love looking at every single one of those issues.  The jerk marinade is fantastic.  It goes great on chicken but would be wonderful on pork too.  I know the ingredient list looks quite long but you should have most things in your pantry.  You can bake the chicken in the oven too.....for those of us that don't have grills.  

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Bon Appetit, May 2006

3 tablespoons dark rum

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup malt vinegar

10 green onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons dried thyme

2 habanero peppers, stemmed with seeds

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 teaspoons ground allspice

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

3 tablespoons soy sauce

8 bone in chicken breasts, skin on

1/2 cup lime juice

Boil rum and water in a saucepan for 3 minutes.  Transfer rum mixture to blender; add vinegar and next 12 ingredients and blend until almost smooth. Transfer 2 tablespoons jerk seasoning to small bowl; mix in ketchup and soy sauce to make sauce. 

Put chicken into large Ziploc bag.  Pour lime juice in. Spoon jerk seasoning over chicken and massage in through the baggie. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, turning occasionally.  Grill chicken, skin side down, on grill rack, cover, and grill until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally and adjusting heat if browning too quickly, about 50 minutes.

Serve with sauce.

Green Leaf Tuna Salad

I bring my lunch to work on a daily basis.  2 things could possibly ruin my work day: forgetting my ID badge at home that lets me into the door at work or forgetting my lunch at home in the fridge.  The air gets let out of your balloon pretty quickly when you realize the 15 minutes of homemade goodness that you took time to prepare and were looking forward to, sits at home, uneaten.  If you forget the work ID badge, you have to ring the doorbell each time you want to enter the office door, which then requires someone to get up to let you in  It seems like a pretty harmless task but when you are the one that sits near the door (me), it makes for a lot of up and down trips throughout the day. Avoiding the doorbell at all costs is always at the top of my priority list.  

Don't get me wrong, I like to spend money, but I don't like to spend my money eating out, especially at lunch time.  The product that can come out of my kitchen tastes so much better to me than anything a restaurant could produce and 9 times out of 10 it is healthier too.  I have ingrained the job of getting my lunch together into my nightly routine.  It usually consists of apple and peanut butter, English muffin with peanut butter and banana, oatmeal with banana and peanut butter or a turkey sandwich.  

I've been in the mood for something different for lunch than my usual.  When I'm looking for something quick, I always turn to my beloved canned tuna.   I wasn't in the mood for chopping this afternoon after getting up at 4:45 am for our 37th annual Walk & Roll Chicago event.   I started throwing ingredients into a food processor and let me tell you, this recipe just worked.  The food processor chops everything so finely that it doesn't taste like a tuna salad, but instead a nutty, herby, hummus like spread.  You could make hundreds of different variations to this: chickpeas, chipotle peppers, olives, artichokes.  I bought canned salmon this week and am going to try this salad again with a few modifications.  This makes a great healthy lunch and you can make a big batch and have it for a couple of days in a row.  I slather my salad on Triscuits and top with a cherry tomato.   

Green Leaf Tuna Salad

2 small cans of tuna, drained

1 handful of cilantro

1 big handful of spinach

1 big handful of alfalfa sprouts

3 tablespoons mango mustard or mango wasabi sauce

2 tablespoons capers

Dash of dill seed

Dash of red pepper flake

Dash of onion powder

Triscuits

Cherry tomatoes, halved

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until mixture comes together.  Serve with Triscuits and cherry tomatoes.

Lemon Bars

I was searching the internet for a really good, simple lemon bar recipe.  I didn't want anything fancy.  When you are dealing with a flavor as light and simple as a lemon, the ingredient speaks for itself.  You don't need to make a lot of additions of contradicting flavors.  I'm not new to the idea of making lemon bars.  I've made lemon squares from both Ina Garten  and Emeril before.  Both options create above average products.  In my mind, you can't mess up a lemon bar.  I came across the My Baking Addiction blog  and the writer had combined a recipe from both Ina Garten and the Cook's Illustrated magazine.  It claims to be the best of both worlds and I was willing to give it a try.  

I started the lemon bar making process at about 8 pm on a weeknight, which is probably a little later than I'd like to be starting a baking project.  By the time you mix all the ingredients, let the dessert bake, cool and do the dishes, the night really just gets away from you.  The lemon bars finished baking and when I took them out of the oven to cool I was already slightly worn out from the day and ready for bed.  I took the lazy route by covering them with saran wrap and putting them in the fridge, instead of immediately getting them out of the pan.  That was a slight mistake.  No wait....a BIG mistake.  I went to cut them into squares in the morning, and the crust had formed a cement-like bond to the bottom of my Pyrex dish.  I had no idea butter and flour could form such a paste.  It was early, my hands were sore from jimmying the knife beneath the crust and I was worried that my lemon bars had flopped.

The lemon bars turned out just fine, despite the crust fiasco.  Did I really think that one couldn't mess up a lemon bar recipe?  Next time I make them, I will bake the crust about 5 minutes longer and I won't add quite the entire batch of filling.  I like an equal crust to filling ratio and I thought the filling mixture was too thick.  I made the adjustment in my recipe for the longer crust baking time but left the filling quantities as is.  If you want a thinner filling, withhold some.  With those slight changes, this makes for one great lemon bar.   

Lemon Bars

Adapted from Ina Garten and Cook's Illustrated

Crust

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Filling
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest 
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup flour
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish.  Pulse flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt in food processor.  Add butter and pulse until mixture is combined and in coarse crumbles.  Lay the mixture into the pan and press firmly to form a crust. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, and then bake about 25 minutes.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.  Dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

Black Eyed Pea and Butternut Squash Salad

I was walking through Whole Foods today to get the ingredients for the lemon bars that just came out of my oven, and a particular item in the produce department caught my eye: Rainier cherries.  When I was working at Kalck's Butcher shop back in the day, Ken first introduced me to this type of cherry.  Kalck's is located right downtown Crystal Lake and on Saturday mornings there is a local farmer's market right at the corner of the block.  Ken would always walk down the street first thing in the morning and bring back a bag of these reddish yellow gems.  You had to go early before they sold out.  The bag didn't last long at the shop and I was immediately hooked.    

Rainiers are considered the 'cream of the crop', selling for $5 a pound or more.  They are sweet cherries with a creamy-yellow flesh.  One Rainier cherry grower was quoted as saying "growing Rainier cherries is like playing poker with God."  

I had no idea I was dealing with cherry royalty.  The facts don't lie.  In one of my very first trips to Whole Foods, I spotted the Rainier cherries, sitting by themselves in a bin, unassumingly calling out my name.  I picked up the bag and as I was circling back, I caught a glimpse at the price: $12.99 per pound.  I had heard the term Whole Paycheck before but had never really considered cherries could cost that much, even at Whole Foods.  Needless to say I set the cherries down and vowed not to walk past them again unless they were at least 50% off.  

It brought back memories today walking by the Rainier cherries at Whole Foods and catching a glance at the $9.99 per pound sign.  I used my willpower and purchased mangoes instead.  $1 mangoes definitely outweigh $10 cherries.  

For Mother's Day I made a Black Eyed Pea and Butternut Squash salad.  Mom and I found a recipe in the May 2006 Bon Appetit magazine and made a few Phillips family changes.  I just finished up the leftover salad for dinner tonight.  It is a great accompaniment to just about any cooked meat and makes a great lunchtime salad on its own. 

Be careful when dicing up the butternut squash.  I would consider peeling and dicing a butternut squash to be one of the most dangerous tasks that I perform in the kitchen.  Lifting the food processor out of my top cabinet would come in at a close second, but I honestly breathe a sigh of relief each time I don't chop off my finger when dicing up this vegetable.  

 

Black Eyed Pea and Butternut Squash Salad

Bon Appetit, May 2006

Peas
1 cup dried black-eyed peas
4 cups water
1/2 an onion, cut in half
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt

Butternut Squash
1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Salad
3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1 lime
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped

1 tomato, seeded and chopped
Handful of chopped basil

For peas: Place peas in large pan. Add enough water to cover by 3 inches. Let peas soak 2 hours. Drain peas. Add 4 cups water, onion, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to boil and reduce heat to medium, cover partially, and simmer until peas are tender, about 30 minutes. Discard onion and bay leaf. Drain.

For butternut squash: Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange squash in single layer in a Pyrex dish. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons water and oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake about 25 minutes until tender. Cool.

For salad: Whisk oil and lime juice in bowl. Combine all remaining ingredients and peas in large bowl. Add dressing; toss. Season with salt and pepper. Add squash.

Cinnamon Biscuits

The Chicago Tribune Magazine publishes the Sunday crossword in the paper each week.  If I were to subscribe to the Chicago Tribune it would be for 3 reasons: Wednesday's Good Eating section, the Sunday ads and Sunday's crossword puzzle.  I have yet to finish this puzzle on my own, without cheating, using the dictionary, Googling information on my Blackberry, or asking for someone else's expertise.  Today was no different.  Not that I would want the puzzle to be too easy, but it will be quite an accomplishment when I one day finish it correctly and all on my own.  I usually do the crossword in pen, practically daring myself to make a mistake.  I once tried to do the crossword in the Sunday New York Times.  I didn't get a single answer.  I haven't gone back to that puzzle since.  

My Grandma loved to do the Sunday puzzle.  I don't know where she got her patience from, because she worked on it faithfully throughout the entire week.  She always kept the puzzle close by her chair and whenever I was over, I always tried to see if I could fill in any of the blanks for her.  But let me tell you, she was the front runner when it came to getting all the answers.  I can usually spend a good 6 hours working on it, but after that, I need a new form of entertainment.  

Ben, Mom, Dad and I spent the day in Crystal Lake celebrating Mother's Day.  Ben arrived and announced that Anne had made my Cinnamon Biscuit recipe the night before to take home for Mother's Day.  As you know I fly by the power of suggestion and 2 hours later I was whipping up a batch of Cinnamon Biscuits in the kitchen.  With strawberries and fresh fruit in season, this is the perfect biscuit to have in the freezer.  You can top them with fresh fruit and whipped cream, vanilla bean ice cream, or even eat them toasted with jam.  I was going to make my biscuits in heart shapes in honor of Mom, but all I could find were Easter Egg cut-outs.  So in honor of Mother's Day Mom, I made you Easter egg cinnamon biscuits......and I took all of them back home with me!

Cinnamon Biscuits

Bon Appetit, June 2000

2/3 cup sugar

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, chilled and cubed

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Cube butter.  Add butter to flour mixture.  With your hands, work butter into the flour.  Whisk eggs into the dry mixture.  Add yogurt and stir until combined.  If you need to add a little water to make the dough come together, do so.

Pat dough out into 3/4 inch disk.  Use a biscuit cutter to cut biscuits.  Place on baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes.  

Serve with jam, cut up strawberries, or ice cream.

Asparagus Stir Fry

I've started the search for a new apartment, as I intend to move mid-summer.  I've concluded that it might be asking a lot to find another apartment on the 32nd floor to maintain the title of this blog.  The title will remain the same even if I am in a new location.  I will fondly look back at my view from the 32nd floor and be reminded of my first apartment venture, living on my own while exploring the city of Chicago.  Apartment hunting is exciting and overwhelming all at once.  It is fun to think about moving into a new space, with a new area to decorate and hopefully a newer and bigger kitchen to cook in.  With hundreds of apartment buildings in the city though, it is hard to decide where to start and what to look for.  

Quinoa is a grain that you can find in most grocery stores these days.  If you like couscous, you will like quinoa; it is just a slightly crunchier and nuttier version taste wise.  Most recipes require you to soak and rinse the quinoa in a couple of changes of water before cooking with it.  In my apartment, I only have 1 strainer and the holes are way to big to rinse quinoa in.  I would have quinoa down the drain instead of fluffy, cooked quinoa.  It also seems quite time consuming to rinse a grain in so many changes of water.  When I've been at home, I have used the fine mesh strainer to do this rinsing process before, and I honestly cannot tell a difference.  If you use the fine mesh strainer, the quinoa still gets caught in the little holes, which then require you to poke each grain out one by one.  In my opinion, you don't need to rinse the quinoa.

Heidi Swanson posted this stir fry recipe last week and it sounded good to me right away.  I picked up 2 boxes of tofu at the store when making my curry salad last week, so I had an extra one on hand.  Heidi didn't serve hers with quinoa but I thought the addition made it more of a meal.  This is a great stir fry that comes together quickly.  You can use whatever you have on hand to throw in the pot.  I've been eating on it for a few days now and it makes a great salad for lunch or dinner.  

Asparagus Stir Fry

2 cups cooked quinoa

Sesame Oil

1 shallot, diced

1 carrot, chopped

1 box extra firm tofu, diced

2 green onions, chopped

1 bunch asparagus, steamed and chopped

Salt and Pepper

Toasted almonds

Handful of spinach

Juice of 1 orange

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cilantro, chopped

1 sheet of nori, toasted and crumbled

Cook quinoa according to the package directions.  Add quinoa to serving bowl and start adding your other ingredients as you go along.  Heat sesame oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add shallot and carrot and saute until soft.  Add tofu, green onions and asparagus to your pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until ingredients are heated through.  Throw a handful of spinach and cilantro into your pan.  Squeeze the juice of an orange and let all of the flavors combine.  Top with soy sauce, toasted almonds, and nori.  

Walnut Coffee Cake

In the past couple of months I have made quite a few dessert recipes in my 8 x 8 Pyrex dish.  I purchased a set of Pyrex dishes when I moved into my apartment a couple of years ago and they have definitely served me well.  You can cook just about anything in them, they are dishwasher safe and if you have a variety of sizes you can modify any recipe to suit your needs.  

If I remember correctly, square Pyrex dishes used to come in the 9 x 9 size.  All of a sudden, it seems like you can't find the 9 x 9's anywhere.  The brownie box always called for the 9 x 9 size, right?  I can't seem to figure out why the dimensions all of a sudden changed.  It would make sense if older cookbooks, magazines and recipes still called for the larger size, because they are slightly out of date and not current with the cooking world.  But if the April 2009 issue of Bon Appetit still calls for a 9 x 9, what am I to do when all I have is an 8 x 8?

This small glitch came to my attention because I've noticed that the cakes I have been making lately have been a little on the thick size.  It's not so much the size that matters, but I think this is altering my baking times.  The edges are getting done before the center is completely cooked.  I need to start leaving out just a touch of batter to eliminate this problem from occurring on a regular basis or buy 9x9 Pyrex dishes on eBay.  

I found a recipe in the Bon Appetit, April 2009 issue for Pecan Coffee Cake.  I didn't have pecans on hand but I did have walnuts.  I keep a package of walnuts in my cabinet and often eat them with dried apricots as an afternoon snack.  I just swapped out the nuts and only made a few other slight changes to the recipe.  Enjoy!

Walnut Coffee Cake

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup flour

6 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

dash of salt

1 stick butter melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

Combine brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add melted butter. Using fingertips, rub mixture together until small clumps form. Add walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350. Butter 9x9 (or 8x8) dish. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Using a mixer, beat brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Add half of flour mixture; beat just until blended. Add yogurt; beat just until blended. Beat in remaining flour mixture just until blended.

Spoon half of batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle half of streusel evenly over batter. Spoon remaining batter in dollops over streusel, then spread evenly over with offset spatula. Sprinkle remaining streusel evenly over top.  Bake until streusel topping is brown and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. 

Tofu Curry Salad

2 beautiful days in a row.  How lucky are we?  There is something about the warmth of the sun shining that immediately puts me in a good mood.  When walking around outside today, it was the first time in months that I actually noticed the bright green colors of the trees and the tulips growing in planter boxes on the sidewalks.  I spent the day spinning, going to church, sitting outside in the sun drinking an ICED coffee, cleaning my apartment and cooking a few things in the kitchen for the upcoming week.  Sunday is the day when I try to plan my lunches for the week, get all of my vegetables cut up and whip up a sweet treat to have in the freezer for dessert each night.  I've noticed that having homemade food all week takes time but if you get most of it done on Sunday, it makes for a pretty stress-free week.

I was on my way to watch the Bulls game at a friends house last night and stopped in at Whole Foods to pick up something for dinner.  Originally, I had my mind set on sushi.  I was poking through the deli section though and noticed a tofu curry salad.  I sometimes surprise myself when something like tofu curry actually peaks my interest.  I can count the number of times I have had tofu before on one hand.  It's not that I dislike it, I've just never given the ingredient a lot of thought or credit.  I picked up the salad and a container of strawberries/blueberries/raspberries and went on my way.

To say that I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of the salad would be an understatement.   It didn't taste like tofu.  It tasted like a mix between chicken salad and egg salad, but not specifically either one.  I loved the curry flavor and the spice that covered the tofu.  I read the ingredients on the package and thought this was a salad that I could surely create on my own.  I went back to the store today and rounded up some ingredients to make my own version.  Give tofu and curry a try if you haven't had it before.  It's a great healthy meal and you might just surprise yourself on what you think!  I will be taking the salad in my lunch all week served on a toasted English muffin.

Tofu Curry Salad

1 box extra firm tofu

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 stalk celery chopped

1 large carrot, julienned

1 green onion, chopped

1 carton of plain yogurt

3 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon mayo

1 sheet of nori, toasted and crumbled

Take the tofu out of the package and drain.  Pat dry on paper towels.  Dice.  Saute tofu in skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes with sesame oil and soy sauce.  Meanwhile chop the celery, carrot and green onion.  Add tofu to the vegetables in a serving bowl.  Mix the yogurt, cumin and mayo together in a dish.  Add to tofu mixture.  Season with salt and pepper.  Crumble nori on top as a garnish.

Carrot Bread

When meeting new people, the topic and question of where you grew up always seems to come come up in the conversation.  I love that I can talk about growing up in Mandeville, Louisiana for 6 years of my life.  I loved living in Louisiana.  The dry heat suits me.  I made some really great friends, there was always something fun to do in the city and you rarely had a bad meal at any restaurant you dined at.   

At that age, I wasn't quite yet the coffee addict that I am today.  My idea of a treat would have been a yogurt cup from TCBY or a snow cone from Sam's.  Mom and I frequented a coffee shop called PJ's.  It was a small, local place.  Mr. Sam and Miss Mabel, who worked there daily, called me by name and it was the highlight of my day to go in there.  PJ's is just one of those places that I know I will always remember.  They had the best zucchini bread and carrot bread.    I honestly have no idea what the coffee tasted like, but I can confirm that their carbohydrate options were delicious.  

When you think of baking with carrots, I'm sure you immediately think of carrot cake.  I love carrot cake, but it is a sweet dish, and not something that you can have sitting around the house to munch on all week.  Heidi Swanson just posted a recipe on her blog for Carrot Cake that I really want to try.  I was looking through the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook when I was at home during my staycation.  This is a cookbook that has been on our shelf at home for as long as I can remember.   It is one that always has a presence in the kitchen, yet I can't say I have made a ton of recipes from it.  They did have a recipe for Carrot Bread that looked appetizing.  It didn't have a lot of fat or sugar and I thought it would make a good cake to have throughout the week to have with coffee.  It is a bread that has a lot of texture.  You really bite into the walnuts and carrots and the cake isn't too sweet.  No cream cheese frosting here.

Carrot Bread

1/2 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 beaten egg

1 1/2 cup finely shredded carrots

1/4 cup cooking oil

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Grease the bottom and ½ inch up the sides of an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and allspice.  Make a well in center of dry mixture; set aside.

In another medium mixing bowl combine egg, carrots, and oil.  Stir in orange juice.  Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture.  Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy).  Fold in walnuts.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes.  Remove from pan.  Cool completely on the rack.