white bean dip with chimichurri

I apologize for the unexplained hiatus.  School and the job hunt have been a bit overwhelming these last two weeks, not to mention the 2 baking recipes that I bombed last Monday.  I was so excited to have a long weekend to "celebrate" President's Day and bake something tasty.  Or, not so tasty, as it turned out.  Thinkin' 'bout Lincoln... and burnt coconut macaroons.  Sigh... oh well.

I'm working on letting things go.

Since then I've been back in the kitchen, working to redeem myself from the President's Day Disaster (it'll live on in infamy, I'm sure).  The other night I made a flat-leaf parsley pesto sauce to smear on top of the chicken we were having for dinner.  I put garlic and olive oil and a little Parmesan in the blender with half a bunch of leaves and pureed.  It was quite tasty, and added some flair to the meal.  Then the following day, we were watching Anthony Bourdain galavant around Uruguay, gorging himself on BBQ'd animal parts, and the condiment of choice on every single table was a sauce by the name of chimichurri.

Homemade Nut & Seed Crackers and A Brand New Year

Happy 2011, all.  It's that time of year again.  That time when people are attempting to conjure up whatever momentum they lost around mid-March last year and focus it on starting anew.  The ball drops, the booze and the cookies run out, and people tell themselves that they're going to lose those pounds, quit that habit, take up that hobby or make themselves over in this way or that.

While I'm all for self-transformation, I think that it's more lasting and successful when approached as a consistent effort, completely separate from the calendar.  I think that the word "resolution" has become a synonym for the word "failure".  So in order to avoid the epic fail, I want to suggest a new word.  One without the excess baggage of cliche or the burden of defeat.  That word is intention.  Say it with me now.... inteentioonnn...

Easy Hummus

Like many busy people out there, I take time on the weekend to prepare food that will get me through the long days and hectic schedules that are my reality Monday through Friday. It's something that I started doing when I went back to school full time so that I'd have something decent to consume for my treks across town to campus where classes and work have kept me for up to 10 hours at a stretch.  Ten hours.  That's at least two meal times and a snack. My budget won't let me eat out more than once a week, and my food sensitivities and distaste for deep-fried-everything keep me away from the school's cafeteria (it is sickening what they serve to students). In order to avoid this classroom-coronary-waiting-to-happen 'food', I end up toting along a second bag with containers full of home-cooked meals, fruit and DIY trail mix. It's a lot to carry, honestly, but well worth the effort in the end.

Luckily, this quarter my time on campus is below the 8 hour mark, so lunch and a snack are all I need to haul with me. On Sundays I usually whip up a pot or a skillet full of something. Sometimes a rice dish, sometimes a salad, or, as of late, a big batch of hummus.

I love this creamy spread for it's simplicity and versatility. There are so many ways to go with this one: roasted veggies, cilantro, chilis, olives, hummous, hummus... which ever way you do it (or spell it), it's one amazing dish. I've been working on perfecting my recipe for a fairly traditional-style hummus. I think today's batch was my best yet. Try it for yourself.

Classic Hummus

2 C. cooked garbanzos (I cook my own, so the measurement is NOT equal to a 15oz. can)
3 T. olive oil
3 T. tahini
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
10 T. water
sprinkle of paprika for garnish (optional)

Add the first 7 ingredients to your food processor, turn that puppy on and process until the mixture starts to form a ball, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times. Turn off the machine, add 5 T. of water and then process some more.

At this point the mixture will start to thin out some.  With the processor running, add the remaining water, 1 T. at a time.  Stop and scrape the sides down a few more times as you're adding the water.  Taste your creation and season further if you like.  If the hummus is still too thick for your liking, add a tablespoon or 2 more water and continue to process.

Scrape it out into a serving bowl and garnish with paprika, if using.  Serve with fresh veggies, or pita, or slather onto bread as a tasty sandwich spread.  Share it with hungry friends or horde it all to yourself (that's what I do!).  I'm having mine with tortilla chips this time around. And  probably a finger dip or two.

Camera Shopping; and an update on iced oatmeal cookies

I've decided to invest in a new camera. One of those fancy DSLRs. I've been reading reviews and specs 'til my eyes want to bleed and finally ventured out to Seattle's fantastic Glazer's Camera to test drive a few different models and, hopefully, come to a decision. I must say that it's a little scary for me to be making this purchase. I've never been one to spend a lot of money on gadgetry, and I have a certain distrust for computerized machines (it took me ages to get comfortable with this here laptop).

Up to this point, this blog has been adorned with photos taken with either a Canon digital point-and-shoot or a Nikon FE2 35mm slr. The latter of these I absolutely adore. It is completely manual, takes amazing photographs and is astounding in its simplicity. I use a 50mm fixed lens on that puppy with results such as these... and these. I love it.

So why the change? Well, for starters, the cost of film and development is forever increasing, and my meager student income does not allow for a lot of extras. This means that I take very few shots in order to conserve exposures. This conservation leads to extended periods between trips to the developers, which in turn leads to huge delays between cooking time and posting time. Unless I use the little Canon. It takes good pictures also, but then I miss playing around with the depth of field. I'm a sucker for fuzzy backgrounds, what can I say?

I long for the convenience of the digital world and the luxury of the slr. So I'm taking the plunge (and the hit to my bank account) and nabbing myself a new camera. I'm so excited!

So what prompted this post were the iced oatmeal cookies that I made and posted about a little while back. It felt kind of wrong to post the recipe without a mouth-watering photo alongside, so I waited. Well, I still haven't used up the 24 exposures on that particular roll of film. So here I am with a great recipe and no visual imagery. So sad.

What I've decided to do is post the recipe anyway. Sooner or later I'll have those pics, and I'll post them up (assuming they turned out well) at that point. Believe me when I say that pleasure will spew forth when these cookies are consumed. I had plenty of helpers to eat mine up, and nary a negative word was heard. Enjoy!


Iced Oatmeal Cookies
makes 20-24 cookies
vegan friendly

Cookies:
2 T. flaxseed meal
1 C. oat flour*
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 T. vegan margarine (or butter)
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 C. applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 C. old-fashioned oats
1/2 C. raisins

Icing:
1/4 C. confectioners' sugar
2-3 T. lemon juice

For the cookies: Stir together flaxseed meal and 3 T. water in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat margarine, brown sugar and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add flaxseed mixture, applesauce and vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Stir dry ingredients into wet with a wooden spoon. Add oats and raisins, stirring to combine.

Cover and chill the dough for 2 hours or overnight. (this step can be omitted - cookies will be softer)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease cookie sheets. Roll dough into balls about the size of golf balls (if you skipped the refrigeration step, go ahead and drop spoonfuls of dough onto the pans and proceed to bake!) and place on cookie sheet. Flatten each cookie to 1/4" thickness with a drinking glass dipped in water.

Bake cookies 10-14 minutes until they look dry on top and are just beginning to brown.

For the icing: Whisk together the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in small bowl until smooth. Icing should be thick but spreadable. Dip cookies into the icing (or use a pastry brush to apply icing to each cookie) and allow the cookies to cool and the icing to harden.

Eat them up!

*a note regarding oat flour. You can make it yourself by throwing some rolled oats into your food processor and grinding them up into a powder. It can take a few minutes, so be patient and keep stopping the processor and stirring them up. If it doesn't get as fine as flour normally is, don't sweat it. You won't even notice the slightly larger flakes in this recipe. Use about 1 1/4 C. of oats to get 1 C. of flour.

Finally A Break; and some iced oatmeal cookies

Full-time student. That has become my identity since about this time last year when my job dematerialized, and I decided it was time to stop putting off the whole college thing. So here I am, more than halfway towards receiving my very first incredibly expensive, increasingly useless certificate of higher education (just an AA folks, nothing fancy). How does it feel? Well, the initial excitement and romance of academia has definitely worn off. That shiny veneer has been rubbed (quite vigorously) down to reveal the stressed-out, tired reality of student life. No wonder people do this when the energy of the early twenties is still coursing through them. I'm reassured of the judiciousness of my choice to tackle college at a later age. I know what I want now (do I?). I'm more focused (in theory). The well-meaning people who tell me these things are obviously not writing research papers at 2 am. The only benefit I can see is my qualification for more financial aid.

Beginning yesterday, however, I am on spring break! How lovely it is to catch some extra sleep, to ride my bike in the sun (well, yesterday was sunny anyway), and to spend as much time as I'd like puttering around in the kitchen. I can cook every day if I want to, instead of relying so heavily on leftovers to get me through the week. In fact, I've already been hard at play in the kitchen.

On Tuesday night I concocted a spiral pasta in a homemade tomato sauce with tempeh crumbles and steamed kale and garlic toast on the side. My dinner companions were pleased, indeed. Last night's dinner menu featured salmon tacos with salsa, fresh guacamole and shredded purple cabbage on homemade corn tortillas. Muy delicioso! My first foray into the world of tortilla making was a resounding success thanks to this post on I Am Gluten Free (scroll down the post). I never knew it could be so easy to reach the level of satisfaction that those yellow corn rounds brought to me.

But the real reason for this post isn't to fantasize about yesterday's Mexican. It's to tell you about today's afternoon endeavor: Iced Oatmeal Cookies. I haven't even started to make them yet, but my oh my am I looking forward to some lemony-glazed, oats spending time on my tongue. I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out.

For You on Your Birthday

Happy birthday, Mom. I spoke to you on the phone last night, and you told me that I didn't have to call you again today. Instead, I decided to bake you something. At first, I thought, "a cake!", but I wasn't sure that I'd actually be able to drop a cake in the mail and have it arrive intact some seventeen hundred miles later. Perhaps I should have the same faith in the mail system as Aunt Mary. She'll quadruple wrap a loaf of nutroll, use ice packs inside of a styrofoam cooler and two day FedEx it without a second thought (we were in awe when that package arrived). No, I'm not as brave as she.

So in honor of your birthday, I decided to bake you something and share it with you virtually. Not a cake. Something to mark the time of year when you were born (don't worry, I won't tell how long ago). I know! Zucchini bread.


I remember the zucchini bread that you used to make. Maybe you still do. August is the perfect time to make use of those green gems that are so plentiful during this season. My farmer gave me zucchini last weekend. I love it when he reads my mind.


This isn't your recipe. This isn't even my recipe. I nabbed it from someone else's website and changed a couple of things (I can never just leave it alone). I hope you like it. I hope you can smell the spices seeping out of the warm oven and taste the sweetness of the flame raisins nestled inside.

Mmm, that loaf is really moist and delicious. Some of the bread ended up being muffins. Those are really good, too; especially with a little butter.


I hope your day is spectacular; you deserve nothing less. Thanks for everything. Cheers, Mom, from my kitchen to yours.

Birthday Zucchini Bread
makes 2 loaves
(vegan friendly)
adapted from the zucchini bread recipe posted on Hell Yeah It's Vegan!

6 T. ground flax meal
1/2 C. + 1 T. warm water
1/2 C. canola oil
1/2 C. unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 C. grated zucchini
3 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 T. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 T. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 C. raisins
3/4 C. chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flax meal and warm water until it's well combined and gooey. To this, add the oil, applesauce, sugar and vanilla, and mix well. Stir in the zucchini.

In a larger mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Fold in the raisins and walnuts.

Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans, or alternately, spoon half of the batter into greased muffin cups.

Bake the loaves for 45-50 minutes and the muffins for 23-27 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.

I can't remember ever having made zucchini bread on my own. What a winner. All that's missing are the candles. Happy birthday!

Brownies: Revisited

Several sun-scorched days ago, I typed out a recipe for sweet, chocolaty brownies to share with you all. By some technological mishap on the part of my film developers, the shots I'd taken of said brownies were sans color. Since then, those film developers have taken the steps of the considerate and redone those photos. I have them now, hue intact.

Because those cake-like treats appeared oh-so-much more delicious the second time around, I thought I would post the corrected pictures to inspire more mouth-watering and spur more of you to action in the kitchen.


I wish I was eating one right now. If I get started early enough tomorrow, I may be able to use the oven without roasting myself in the process...