Danger!

As we prepare our humble abode for the visit of our nephew, I discovered just one more hazard that we must protect him from. Bulk grains! This bucket must be removed from the premises immediately.

Kitchen Tidbits

Some interesting tidbits from NPD's Kitchen Audit found that:
-40% of Americans use a recipe once a week
-A cookbook owned for more than 2 years is the top recipe source
-61% of households read the newspaper food section
Ring true for you?

AB's Two Mile Margs

In honor of (Inter)National Margarita Day and a perfect bluebird day at Keystone, mixmaster Aaron concocted some tasty slopeside margaritas sure to make your ski tips curl - especially when enjoyed at two miles above sea level!



Margarita Day is February 23 if you want to mark your calendar for next year - but you don't have to wait until then to enjoy these luscious libations that go down as smooth as a freshly waxed board.
His secret recipe:
1/4 c blue agave tequila
1/4 c triple sec
2 tsp agave syrup
juice of 1/2 lime
pinch of salt

Mix it all up and pour over lots of ice in a salt-rimmed glass. Note to the faint of heart: these Two Mile Margs are nearly as potent as an incident at Three Mile Island. Raise your glasses to the snow gods, and enjoy!

Ports and Portuguese Wines

I just gave a wine tasting for some enthusiastic yogis, comparing Portuguese wines from the Douro region with their fortified counterparts - ports. To me, it's like comparing Warrior II with Triangle pose - same building blocks, different manifestation. Both wine and yoga come from ancient traditions, and both, when approached with intention and an open heart, allow us to engage the senses, marvel at the wonders of creation, and, of course, recognize our human capabilities and limitations. For you, my dears, an exclusive on the tasting notes... the yoga you will have to do yourselves. I wish you joy in exploration.

The Wines:

Castello d'Alba Branco Reserva (~$13)
"Castello d'Alba" means White Castle, but this wine's no slider. The blend of white grapes, tempered by the heat and stone of Portugal's Douro valley, is a full-bodied exotic beauty of a bottle. An intriguing bouquet wafts into melony, citrusy, sinful goodness and an absolutely decadent mouthfeel (think contraband silk stockings). Try it simply with fruits and cheeses, or with meatier fare like roast chicken or grilled swordfish.

Callabriga Douro (~$15)
Ok, people, you'll want to grab two of these: one to drink now - and I mean immediately, no arguing, please - and one to hide in your basement for a couple years till you've almost forgotten it's there and can joyfully rediscover it, like finding a shiny quarter on the sidewalk when the parking meter's running low. The deep imperial purple hue of this Portuguese red blend heralds bright notes of dark cherry and raspberry, their ripeness balanced by clean tannins and a clarion acidity, with hints of pepper, cedar, and eucalyptus. Lovely with a salad of blueberries, arugula, and fresh sheep's milk cheese, or toss it up against a roast (or mock) duck just for kicks.

The Ports:*

Burmester White Porto (~$15)
Take those stockings from the Castello d'Alba and bump them up to silk sheets and a cashmere throw, and you've got the Burmester. Exotic, aromatic, subtle, almost more delicate than sweet - but is that a hint of white chocolate, or is it caramel? Or marzipan? Guess I'll just have to keep trying it till I figure it out... and while I'm at it I might as well have some marble cheesecake too. Mmmm.

Sandeman Tawny Porto (~$14)
Aged in oak, the Sandeman Tawny takes the cherry and raspberry notes from the Callabriga and bakes them in the sun. The dried fruit, pecan and vanilla notes go great with anything nutty, caramelized or burnt, like pecan sandies, creme brulee, or vegan marshmallows toasted over your gas stove.

Noval LB Ruby Porto Finest Reserve (~$20)
Without the woodiness of the tawny, in this ruby from Noval the fruit is at the forefront, reflected in its deep magenta color. "LB" stands for "Late Bottled," meaning the port has been mellowing in a vat for a while, and all the flavors have had a chance to really get to know one another. Though it has the density, smokiness and nuanced spice of a vintage port, this one doesn't need decanting and fairly jumps out of the bottle into your glass. While fantastic with rich desserts like ganache or triple chocolate fudge brownies, the classic ruby pairing is still a big honking stinky bleu cheese like Stilton.

*Um, so what's port again? It's just a style of fortified dessert wine originating in Portugal. It's fortified the same way Minnesotans occasionally fortify themselves against our interesting weather, with some straight up, good clean hard-rockin' liquor, in this case grape spirits (brandy, basically). Dumping that in raises the alcohol content to 20%, as opposed to the usual 11-13% or so you see in regular table wines. That'll stoke your fire.

Ode to Penzey's Lemon Pepper

Here is something I love. I’ve been putting it on everything, and inventing ways to use it even more, like this lemon pepper chickpea snack. Discovering their lemon pepper gave me one more thing to love about Penzey’s, and if you have never visited one of their stores or drooled over their catalog, well, it is time. Who would have ever guessed there could be such a difference in the world of spices, but once you taste Penzey’s cinnamon and then go back to the garden variety jar in your cupboard, it seems a bit like getting into a Yugo after driving a Porsche. Not that I’ve ever driven either, but, you know what I mean. It’s like that across the board with their spices – Janae, for example, can wax truly poetic about their peppercorns. (She lives within walking distance of a Penzey’s, lucky girl.) The best part is these delicious differences don’t really come with a bigger price tag than the spices at the grocery store. My only wish is that they would start offering organic spices. Hopefully someday.

The lemon pepper is fabulous on pizza, popcorn, salads, baked potatoes, you name it… To make these chickpeas, sauté them on medium heat in just a bit of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of lemon pepper. Choose a pan big enough for them to spread out in a single layer, and stir occasionally. Keep an eye on the heat – you want it to be hot enough to get them sizzling a little so they’ll slowly crisp and brown, rendering them nice and dry on the outside for finger snacking – but not too high or they’ll quickly blacken. Plop yourself down in front of a good flick and munch away!

Chili & Cornbread

One of my favorite meals is some good chili with cornbread. So satisfying! Especially on a cold windy day. I like to mix things up when I make it, so use this as a jumping board for creating your own version (and let the rest of us know what you do!).

Using canned beans will make this meal a lot quicker to throw together, but if you have a pressure cooker, it doesn't take much more to use dried beans instead. My pressure cookers are possibly my favorite kitchen tool and I highly recommend investing in one. They will make it easy to make your own beans, cut down on your cooking time for lentils, rice, etc. I've got a four and an eight quart cooker myself. The four quart is plenty of space for making most meals, but it's fun to have a big one and it also means I can make two things at once! When you are cooking dried beans, throw in some kombu. It will add essential minerals to your meal and will also make the beans more digestible. It's located in the Asian foods section of the grocery store, along with other dried seaweeds. Use a four to six inch piece for a large pot of beans. For this recipe, I did 1/2 cup dried black beans with kombu in the pressure cooker - they take between 15-18 minutes to get soft without presoaking them. I also did 1/2 cup aduki (or adzuki, azuki) beans. They're a bit smaller, so they only take between 8-10 minutes to cook. I also like using kidney beans, chickpeas, or blackeyed peas. Pick a couple of your favorites, and you're good to go.

Chili

2 cups of beans, cooked

2 15 oz cans of tomatoes, or one 28 0z can (I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes w/ chilis)

1 med onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic

1 red pepper, chopped

1 med zucchini, chopped

1 cup broccoli

1 cup carrots

1/2 cup sweet potato puree (save yourself some time - use baby food!)

2 1/2 tsp cumin

3 tsp chili powder

1 tsp Mexican oregano

3/4 tsp cayenne (or add some jalapenos, chipotles, or habaneros if you please)

2 handfuls of nutritional yeast

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for 3-5 minutes. Add vegetables and spices. Let cook for an additional 6-8 minutes, until beginning to soften. Throw in tomatoes and nutritional yeast and let simmer for another 12-15 minutes to let spices come out. Taste and adjust as needed!

Feel free to mix up the veggies - spinach or other greens are also delicious, sweet potatoes, or whatever makes you smile. I normally do a half of a can of pumpkin instead of sweet potato puree, but didn't have other plans for pumpkin in my life right now. Other additions to boost your protein and add some texture: crumbled tempeh, TVP, Lightlife Smart Ground, or quinoa.

Throw a dollop of sour cream, some cilantro pesto, or a dash of hotsauce and you're set!

And onto the cornbread....I have gone through a couple of phases of searching for the perfect cornbread. My latest quest is of the gluten-free type. This one was inspired by a recipe in Simple Treats, but I made a lot of variations. I thought it tasted pretty good, but I still am trying to figure out how to make gluten-free goodies less crumbly! I was going to work some more on this recipe before posting, but Aurelia kept saying "yummy!" after every bite. With such hearty approval from my four year old testers, I decided it was worthwhile as is. Be on the lookout for other recipes as I continue to experiment. I used a 9" cake pan to bake it and it was nice and thick - plenty to go around!

Gluten-Free Cornbread

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 3/4 cup quinoa flour
2 T baking soda
2 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup agave
1 1/4 cup almond milk
2 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until well mixed. If the batter is too dry, slowly add more almond milk until you reach the desired consistency. Pour into a greased 9" square or round cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Nice'n'easy acorn squash

Yawn... so, long day today, and a freak warm spell has left my apartment damp and chilly. (The radiators just don't bother unless it's 20 below.) Time to turn on the oven and bake some squash, and maybe the place'll heat up a bit. There's not much in the fridge and I'm feeling lazy, so I just tossed a couple acorn squash in the oven and rummaged around to see what else I could add.

Mmm, organic butter melted in a saucepan. Toss in some garlic and oh look! Here's an apple - peel that, core and slice, toss 'er in the garlic saute... Anything in the freezer? Oh score! Blueberries! Some of those, and hey, limes were 3 for a buck at the supermarket (there goes the 100 mile diet), so squeeze in the juice of half of one of those and simmer on low for 10 minutes or so, till the apples are just soft and the blueberries are gloriously melty and purple.

Rummaging in the fridge again, I find a stashed bottle of Abymes Vin de Savoie and some Spanish cheese, a Ros. (Please don't ask why there just happens to be Spanish cheese in my otherwise nearly empty fridge. We all have our addictions, and it's still cheaper and healthier than heroin, last I checked.) Wine goes in the glass, and a nice wedge of about $2.50 worth of expensive, imported - but oh so delicious! -ludicrosity goes on the plate.

Halve and seed the now-baked squash and divide the apple-blueberry mixture between. (I'd have taken a picture, but I was hungry. You will have to use your imagination.) This is a seriously fine squash. Buttery, nutty, and even slightly sweet, though I didn't add anything to it. The apples and blueberries are tart and the garlic gives just a little kick. And the cheese... well, the cheese is just divine.

The wine, from the Alps in southeastern France, is Evian on crack. To be honest, I'm finding it a little acidic for this rustic fruit-and-veg dish, but it seems to be evolving nicely as I plow through my meal.

If I had it to do again, I'd add a bed of wild rice and tart the whole thing up with a good dose of sage. Oooh, and a side of steamed or sauteed greens. Then I'd pair it with a Beaujolais-Villages or a mellow pinot noir from the Northwestern US or, a little edgier, a gamey one from Austria or Hungary. Vastly cheaper and darned good is the Alfredo Roca pinot from Argentina. Or just ask your local cork dork for a nice fruit-forward plonk around $10-15. Heck, Charles Shaw's merlot would work just fine.

Oh, but I'm looking forward to making a yummy soup tomorrow with that second squash and any leftover Abymes!

Squash Fries and Sriracha Mayo

We have a lot of winter squash hanging out in our basement from our farm share this fall. One way to use some of that up is to make fries. It is really fast, easy, and tasty. The only time consuming part is peeling the squash, in this case a butternut squash. Tory is incredibly gifted at peeling squash and cutting into the perfect pieces. So, I'm betting her fries would be a thing of great beauty. After I made this, we saw Ina Garten using a vegetable peeler to peel her squash, when making risotto. It looked pretty cool and easy. One person attempted this and broke her peeler (check out for good Ina and Giada commentary :). Amazon reviewers claim this peeler will peel winter squash. I don't have much confidence in my veggie peeler, but I will have to try it out next time. The Sriracha mayo is a good dipping sauce. I don't make it incredibly hot, so feel free to add more Sriracha. This is one of Jack's favorite things to eat, he loves squash, but more importantly he loves Sriracha mayo. What can I say he likes spicy food, plus who can resist mayo?

Squash Fries

1 butternut squash
olive oil
salt

Peel squash and cut into fries. Lightly coat in olive oil and spread out evenly on a cookie sheet. Place under broiler. You don't want to salt them until they are done cooking, so they stay on the crisp side.

Sriracha Mayo

1/4 c mayo (I used Vegenaise)
1/8 t garlic powder
1 t Sriracha Sauce

Mix all the ingredients together. Dip away.

Enjoy!

Vegan Stracciatella

I've recently had a couple inspirations to make an old favorite - a quick and easy Italian soup called stracciatella (straw-cha-tella). First, I heard good news from the friend who taught me how to make it (she’s expecting - congratulations, Ivana!). Then, my veggiphobic friend told me he had decided to befriend a vegetable, and he valiantly picked Swiss chard to be his new buddy. I love chard, but it seems like a much more intimidating choice than, say, baby carrots, would have been. But, by all reports, Zak and the chard are getting along swimmingly.

Hearing from Ivana had me waxing nostalgic about my time in Tuscany (why did I ever leave?). While I got to WWOOF at an incredible organic farm named Motrano, Ivana got to study abroad in Florence, and she was taking a cooking class when I came to visit. Stracciatella was one of the many amazing things she fed me. In that typical Italian way, it is incredibly simple and incredibly good. It gets its name from the ‘tatters’ of egg that are stirred in at the end – just like chocolate chip gelato is also called ‘stracciatella’ for the flakes of chocolate in it. I have veganized the soup, but I’ll include notes on the traditional preparation as well.

Vegan Stracciatella

3 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 c red wine
1 bunch red Swiss chard, chopped, stalks separated
5-6 c water
1 pkg soft tofu packed in water, drained
salt, pepper

In a large pot over medium high heat, sauté the onion in olive oil with the nutmeg and 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper until nearly browned. I like to fresh grate the nutmeg, but ground nutmeg can also be used. Add the garlic and sauté for a few more minutes until all is nicely browned. Deglaze the pan by adding the red wine. Add the chopped stalks of the Swiss chard and cook for a couple minutes to soften slightly. Stir in the chopped chard leaves and add the water. Crumble in the package of tofu. I like to use soft tofu to mimic the egg, but any firmness will work. However, don’t use shelf-stable silken tofu, as it falls apart too much. Adjust the salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste. Bring just to a simmer and serve immediately – I like to keep the chard crisp and green. Garnish with a couple twists of pepper, a sprinkle of coarse salt (I like Celtic salt), and/or a drizzle of really good olive oil – my favorite find stateside is Frantoia.

Traditional variation – Instead of adding the tofu, wait until the soup comes to a simmer and then quickly stir in a couple beaten eggs just before serving. The heat of the soup cooks the egg and it will form into little shreds. If you have some rind of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, you can put a few pieces into the broth to simmer and add the chard later in the cooking process so that the flavor from the rind has a chance to infuse into the soup and the chard isn’t overcooked. In Italy, they sell the rinds at the cheese counter. I’ve seen them for sale at Whole Foods - ask your local cheese counter if they have any. It’s a good way to add the flavor of Parmesan in recipes where melted cheese wouldn’t work. You can add a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast to the vegan version to bring in the richness of the cheese if you like.

This just in - Ivana writes from across the ocean that she grates a couple spoonfuls of Parmesan and a bit of nutmeg into the beaten eggs before stirring them to the soup. She also uses half veggie stock/half water, and likes to make croutons to add to the soup by cubing whole wheat bread and toasting in a pan drizzled with olive oil, salt, and any other spices that inspire you. Buon appetito!

Tempeh variation – This is pretty far removed from the original, but last week I made it with a package of crumbled tempeh that I browned with the onion at the beginning, instead of using tofu. I also used white chard instead of red, and threw in a handful of chickpeas as well.

A reminder to check your fire extinguisher before engaging in culinary activities. A box of baking soda will also work in a pinch.

Cook bravely! (But always be prepared!)

Birthday Cupcakes

This was my Sunday project. It was Ella's birthday, so she got to choose what kind of cupcakes she wanted for her party. She flipped through Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (which has pictures guaranteed to make kids of all ages drool), and while she wanted about fifteen different kinds, we ended up with these two - Banana Split and S'mores. While most of the cupcakes out of there have been fantastic, we haven't been too impressed with the banana split ones, so I just made some fancy banana bread with chopped up strawberries and chocolate chips. Pink frosting is a must have in the four year old crowd, so she got strawberry frosting on top with sprinkles, of course, and chopped dark chocolate. The S'mores cupcakes were a first, and a big hit. I've got a mechanical pastry bag now and as you can see, it's lots of fun! An unbelieveable amount of cake was consumed, the kids were running wild....a good time was had by all.

Banana Bread (or cupcakes if you will)

2 cups flour (normally do spelt, but for the kids I did use 1 1/2 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
1 cup mashed ripe banana
3/4 cup milk product of choice (soy, almond, rice) + 1 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix milk with apple cider vinegar and set aside. If you prefer, you can also use buttermilk.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until well-combined. Add chocolate chips and strawberries (must confess I didn't measure exactly how much of each I used, so adjust to your own taste). Depending on what you want, pour into cupcake pan, 9x13, or a loaf pan. The cupcakes took about 20 minutes to bake, the bread takes closer to 25 minutes. Pull out when golden brown on top and toothpick or knife comes out clean.

Strawberry Buttercream Icing (based on Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening (I used Jungle Butter, but have also used Spectrum's)
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine (Earth Balance)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberries

If you are using frozen strawberries, let them sit out over night or for several hours before making frosting. When completely thawed, pour into blender with liquid in bowl and a splash of milk of choice. You will need between 1/4 and 1/2 cup strawberry juice, depending on how strong you want the strawberry flavor. You may need to adjust the amount of sugar you use if frosting is too liquidy. Set aside.

Beat the shortening and margarine in a medium mixing bowl until well combined. Add the sugar, vanilla, and some of the strawberry juice. Beat until starting to combine, then slowly add the remaining liquid. Beat for another 5-7 minutes until fluffy.

This makes plenty of frosting for piping, so if you're just going to spread it on, I would cut the recipe in half for a dozen cupcakes. Enjoy!