the final decision.

Ha. I say "final decision" with such certainty! There's always a possibility I'll change my mind on this list again, since I do have nearly three weeks before the baking extravaganza, but I decided to take Courtney's advice and scrap both bar recipes, since bars tend to get squished in transport. I also axed the malted chocolate cookie since it called for several ingredients I don't typically keep on hand, and would find using up the leftovers difficult. However, one cannot have Christmas without a little bit of chocolate, so I added the Mexican Chocolate Cookies I made last year to the list -- an easy drop cookie with fancy flavors!!

Here are all nine final contenders:

sea salt caramels
toffee
my grandma's Christmas cookies with buttercream and sprinkles
Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
Lemon-Rosemary Butter Cookies
Anise Tea Crescents
German Honey Cookies
Yummy Molasses Crackles
Mexican Chocolate Cookies

If only I could hit fast-forward, because I can't wait to tackle all of this baking!

What are your holiday baking plans this year?

V.V. important question re: cookies

I posed my Christmas Cookie baking plan a few days ago, and as I've started to get a little bit more organized, I'm realizing something . . .

I'm crazy.

ELEVEN different cookies/bars/candies?? WHAT? The "20 cups flour" item on the shopping list put me over the edge a little bit!

So, here's what I need from you . . . what would you cross off the list? Please check out the following recipes and suggest cookies to eliminate from the lineup, or alternately, cookies you insist I make:

(I only reposted the "maybe" cookies, since I'm unwavering on a few varieties.)

Cream Cheese-Swirled Brownies (I'm going to add some peppermint extract to the cream cheese layer)
Fig and Cream Cheese Bars
Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
Chocolate Malted Cookies
Lemon-Rosemary Butter Cookies
Anise Tea Crescents
German Honey Cookies

Thank you! All opinions welcomed and appreciated!

food for 2, for 2

Continuing our attempt to shop for the two of us, for two weeks at a time, I had one major haul to walk home from the co-op tonight! (Dan's busy recording with one of the bands, and has the car.) Forgive me for not laying everything out pretty-like, but I was mighty tired by the time I arrived home!



BULK:
organic French green lentils
local slivered raw almonds
local raw walnut pieces
local, organic cornmeal
locally-roasted, organic, fair-trade coffee
local, organic yellow popcorn
organic, fair-trade, natural granulated sugar

CHEESE:
local queso fresco
local part-skim mozzarella
local sharp cheddar

FROZEN:
organic orange juice concentrate (local company)
organic cookies & cream ice cream

GENERAL MERCH:
Preserve razor refills

HERBS & SPICES:
locally-bottled, organic curry powder
kava kava root

PACKAGED GROCERY:
chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
organic ginger tea
locally-bottled, organic vanilla extract
organic diced tomatoes
organic, fire-roasted, diced tomatoes
harvest whole wheat crackers (like Triscuits)
Seventh Generation dish soap

PRODUCE:
local, organic broccoli
organic celery
local, organic carrots
organic cucumber
organic bananas
organic avocado
organic brussels sprouts
organic green kale
organic spinach
local, organic white button mushrooms
local, organic yellow onions
organic green onions
organic green bell pepper
local, hydroponic lettuce
local, hydroponic tomatoes
local cranberries
organic navel oranges
local, organic apples
organic mini sweet peppers

REFRIGERATED GROCERY:
local sour cream
5-grain tempeh
firm tofu
grapefruit juice
local, organic plain yogurt
organic flour tortillas

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I am super-proud of this grocery shop! We came in WAY under budget, still managed to buy mostly organic, got everything on the list except maple syrup (I'll pick some up at the FM tomorrow, since it's much cheaper,) and saved a TON of money on sale items! Woo! Oh yeah, and we managed 46% local, even though our growing season is definitely over.

Wahoo!

cookie plan, as requested . . .

Lauren, this one's for you!

Here's my Christmas Cookie plan for this year:

sea salt caramels
toffee
Cream Cheese-Swirled Brownies (I'm going to add some peppermint extract to the cream cheese layer)
Fig and Cream Cheese Bars
my grandma's Christmas cookies with buttercream and sprinkles
Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
Chocolate Malted Cookies
Lemon-Rosemary Butter Cookies
Anise Tea Crescents
German Honey Cookies
Yummy Molasses Crackles

Yes . . . call me crazy . . . but I'm having an impossible time narrowing down the list, so I'll probably make all ELEVEN different things! (If anything gets the axe, it will be the brownies and/or the chocolate malted cookies. Weird that I'd cut both chocolate recipes I chose!)

I did yoga tonight!

It was much needed. :)

I probably won't be posting again until after the holiday, so happy Turkey-Free Day to all!

meals from the week and a mini-shop

Many of you out there can probably relate to the beginning of this post -- I've learned over the past six months or so that it takes a LONG time to adjust to living with a partner. Don't get me wrong -- I wouldn't go back to living alone if you paid me -- it's just that we're still working out the "kinks." For example, how in the HECK are we supposed to get all of the laundry, cleaning, dishes, whatnot done, and still have time left to hang out together, (AND see family and friends,) with my long work days and Dan's busy schedule??? We thought a little more about this issue this week, and have sorted out a couple of potential solutions, including doing the grocery shopping during the week, Dan being responsible for a little more of the housework right away when he gets home from work, (since he gets home so much earlier than I,) and both of us focusing on staying on top of the "clutter" in our teensie-tiny apartment. We are also seriously considering shopping every other week, and last weekend was kind of a trial effort. Here are meals from week one of this experiment:

A simple casserole to throw together the night before and pop in the oven after work:

VT's recipe for Asparagus Mushroom Bread Pudding pleased both the lighter eater (me) and the pig-out guy (Dan) in one pan! Even though I don't care much for eggs, I loved the light texture and load of veggies in this one, and Dan loved the filling bread and layer of goat cheese on top! Side salads rounded out our meal, and it also made fine leftovers for lunches the next day!

I've been working the Crock Pot more than ever these days, and managed to forget to snap a picture of a sweet potato stew I loaded in there on Tuesday night for Wednesday's dinner. (The busiest night of my week -- fifteen minute turnaround between getting home from work and having to leave for choir practice!)

The butterscotch pudding was such a hit, I made a batch of vanilla-chai pudding later in the week:

Yum!

Thai Soup with tofu and lemongrass is a frequent request of Dan's:

Even though this recipe has a couple of major steps to it, (including straining the broth before adding the mushrooms and tofu,) it's pretty quick to the table -- only about an hour!

I used a lump of Artisan Bread dough and some leftover fresh basil as excuses to make pizza:

Mmmmm Margherita!

AND, since we polished off such a huge grocery shop last weekend, our list was so short this week I was able to sneak off to Mississippi Market during my break and fill in the gaps for this week:

(Pardon all of the lettuce -- we're bringing a green salad to Thanksgiving!) I picked up red and gold beets, organic baby mixed greens, local hydroponic lettuce, parchment paper, parmesan, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, pecans, non-GMO cornstarch, whole-wheat pasta, and locally-roased, organic, fair-trade coffee! Even though I had to haul the groceries home on the bus, it's nice to have that errand out of the way so we can enjoy our weekend a little more!

V.V. IMPORTANT QUESTION:

We're taking a beet and goat cheese salad to Thanksgiving. The great debate is . . .

Walnuts vs. Pecans.

Please offer your opinion!

"I always have time for garlic".

To explain the title of this post . . .

Dan has a habit of asking if I need help with anything in the kitchen, listening to a job/assignment I offer, then stating, "I just have to _______ first." (Insert whatever you think appropriate in that blank -- finish this newspaper article, go to the bathroom, check email, etc!) By the time he's ready to help, I'm usually past the stage where I'd need that job done, so I do it myself.

You'd think I'd find this behavior frustrating; I just think it's hilarious!

So, this afternoon, as I was busy making pizza for our lunch, I exclaimed that I had forgotten to slice up a few garlic cloves to top our pizza; Dan immediately hopped up from the computer, grabbed a cutting board and knife, and went to work.

Needless to say, I was surprised, especially since Dan HATES peeling garlic. When I described my surprise, Dan's response?

"I always have time for garlic."

You'd think he was of Italian ancestry or something.

Anyhow, here's that glorious pizza:


AND, the baked mac and cheese with broccoli I made for dinner:

I promise you we each consumed two side salads over the course of the day, too! One cannot survive on cheese and carbs alone. :)

Dessert:

Not much to look at, but this was some fantastic homemade butterscotch pudding! Yum, yum, sweet and caramelly goodness!

I'm thrilled to report that today I also prepped a bunch of greens for consumption later this week, washed and spun a bunch of lettuce for salads, whipped through a batch of granola, baked a pan of oatmeal-raspberry bars, and made our ENTIRE dinner for tomorrow night, save baking it off and making a salad. Woo! I love being prepared for the week!

boiling whole grains

To answer your question, Crystal, some whole grains stand up really well to boiling, just like pasta! I mostly do brown rice, but I think this would work well for oat groats, wheat berries, rye, any other sturdy, usually long-cooking grain. How to do it?

1. Bring a pot of water with a pinch of salt to a boil. (Covering the pot obviously makes the water boil faster.)

2. Add whole grains. Return to a boil. Stir. Lower the heat a little so the grains don't boil over, but keep at a near-rolling boil, until the grains are done. I don't usually cover the pot at this point, 'cause I don't cover pasta either. Brown rice takes 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how fresh it is.

3. Drain grains in a colander and serve!

And don't worry, I didn't come up with this on my own -- Mark Bittman rocks.

fast food . . .

. . . FOOD SNOB style!

Fast food #1:

Tortilla, cheese, leftover beans and rice, fold up, bake until crispy, voila! Nearly instant burritos. And we all know it takes less than five minutes to make a salad. :) Feel free to top your burrito with extra salsa -- I just happened to have purchased "extra hot" salsa at the FM last weekend, so the beans and rice were plenty spicy for me without anything extra. (The man who sold me my salsa said, "You like spicy? You will like this -- it will take you to Mexico!" Awesome -- I need a vacation anyway!)

P.S. Aren't you proud of Dan for picking up whole-wheat tortillas?

Fast food #2:

I can have curry on the table in the time it makes to make a pot of brown rice. (And mind you, I boil my whole grains, so brown rice takes at most 25 minutes.) Fry up the pressed tofu in hot oil, pull it out so you have room to quickly cook the veggies and ginger, add coconut milk, curry paste, low-sodium soy sauce, and a little sriracha, (water, too, if needed,) and simmer until thick. Stir the tofu in at the end, and dinner's served! Yum.

We've been enjoying a lot of squash curry lately, since squash is plentiful, cheap, and local. What "unconventional" ways have you been enjoying squash this fall?

unseasonably warm weather

We've been having unusually warm weather these past few days, (highs in the 60s!) and since Dan was trapped inside the recording studio all day yesterday, we decided to go for a hike this afternoon, even though it was kind of cloudy and threatening to rain. We drove north and west to Lake Maria State Park, which we visited last on my birthday in May! A few pretty shots from the afternoon:







~~~~~~~~~~

I've been cooking like a crazy person as usual this weekend, but I have few photos to show for all of my efforts! I somehow managed to make pizza AND chocolate chip cookies, and forgot to take pictures of each! Disaster! Here's what I did manage to capture . . .

Lunch today:

ACH. Blogger is rotating pictures that I did not rotate! Anyhow, tilt your head to the side and feast your eyes on this feast! Tofu Mom's Lentil Loaf, (vegetarian version,) roasted fingerling potatoes, and steamed brussels sprouts doused in garlic butter. I was initially disappointed in the lentil loaf because it did not set up or hold together well for me, but after my first bite, I'm in LOVE. Amazing, amazing, amazing!!!!! I think if left unattended, I could have eaten the entire pan myself. Make this now!!!! Total veg comfort food -- not going to fool any die-hard meatloaf fan, but this is its own fantastically delicious, rich, tasty creation. YUM!

And, dinner tonight:

More fried rice! Yum again! Dan's brother came over for an impromptu get-together tonight, and this simple, delicious meal made everyone happy. Both guys went back for seconds! Alright!

finishing up the shopping

I met up with my friend Courtney this morning, and finished up the weekly shopping. First, we hit up the Farmer's Market:



A smaller load this week, running only $15, but I still got tons of good stuff! Bell peppers (!), green onions, yellow onions, garlic, salsa, beets, and brussels sprouts! Yum all around.

After the FM, we made the long walk to the Asian grocery store:



Coconut milk, tofu, ginger candies, and persimmons! I'm very excited persimmons are in season right now, but no one is more excited than Courtney. :) She buys them a case at a time!!

I plan to get a head start on my cooking projects today, since Dan's MIA all day long -- super rockstar that he is, he's recording until 10 PM. More later!

return to the kitchen

I haven't cooked since Monday night! (Really, unless you count serving soup out of the Crock Pot and making quesadillas cooking, I haven't cooked since Sunday.) Egad! I guess I did bake Monday night, (muffins and granola,) but still . . . the moral of the story is, it was good to get back into my kitchen tonight. Dinner:

Millet-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, from Vegetarian Times, with a side of garlicky, balsamic-vinegary kale. I really don't care for millet, but I enjoy it in this recipe for some odd reason. Good thing, because it's damn tasty! Dan almost considered a second mushroom half, but restrained himself.

I think he was saving room, because he convinced me to go for a walk with him, promising me an ice cream cone at the end of our travels! We started our walk at the co-op, since Dan wanted to pick up some tea and we needed groceries anyway:



BULK:
local, organic, whole-wheat pastry flour
local, organic rolled oats
locally-roasted, organic, fair-trade coffee

CHEESE:
local part-skim mozzarella
sharp cheddar

HERBS & SPICES:
organic paprika from a local company

PACKAGED GROCERY:
baking soda
organic tomato sauce
whole-wheat panko
Seventh Generation dish soap

PRODUCE:
organic bananas
organic white button mushrooms
local hydroponic lettuce

REFRIGERATED GROCERY:
local, organic plain yogurt
local, organic eggs

I have plans to hit the Farmer's Market and Asian grocery store tomorrow, to pick up a few additional things.

In the end, the ice cream cone was worth the effort put in to obtaining it! Pumpkin ice cream is a good, good thing.

boo, food, hipster kitty

First off, happy very belated Halloween! Hope you had a good one. Dan and I had a pretty low-key day -- we ran errands in the morning/afternoon, went to a play/puppet show thing in a park that a friend was playing music for, and had leftovers for dinner. :) We did finally carve our pumpkin, though, and had plenty of seeds to roast! Yum.

On to food . . .

Lunch Sunday:

Buttery cabbage and onions over egg noodles, with sides of homemade applesauce, and rye bread and butter. Humble and tasty!

Dinner Sunday:

Fried rice! How is it possible that I've forgotten about this simple, quick, and delicious meal for so long! You'll be seeing more fried rice in my not-so-distant future, for certain.

Dinner Monday:

Despite the quesadilla looking like the star of this meal, that humble black bean soup in the background was delicious! (Well, so was the quesadilla, but the soup recipe was new.) I picked up Love Soup by Anna Thomas a few weeks ago, and this is the first chance I've had to cook from it. I made "Black Bean and Squash Soup," on page 140, and it was SO easy and SO delicious! (And doesn't really taste like squash, which is a good thing when squash is in season but you have an anti-squash partner.) I didn't really follow the directions in the recipe, just chucked everything except the salt in my Crock Pot (dried beans included!), turned it on, and went to work. Came home, added salt and veggie broth base, pureed with the stick blender, and voila! Yum. We've been eating this soup all week for work lunches, and I'm still not sick of it!

Last but not least, you know all the hipster cats wear their scarves inside during cold weather:

I don't make a point of torturing the cat very often, but this was worth it!

disastrous diet day

Ugh -- did anyone else eat too much junk food yesterday? There was a staff party at work, at which I ate pizza, salad, and THREE desserts, (well, I had to try one of each of the things that were brought, right?), then I had more sugar with the kids during their party, (cookies w/frosting AND candy corn!), and then I had MORE candy corn during the movie Dan, Ryan, and I went to last night, and THEN I had more sugar -- pumpkin cake! I did manage to squeeze a healthy dinner in there, though:



I've loved this recipe for "Cream of Wild Rice Soup" for both its taste and simplicity -- not a load of ingredients, and easy enough technique. (If you click through, you'll notice "turkey" in the title. Just omit the turkey, add a little more wild rice and veggies, and use vegetable broth.) (P.S. I don't use instant wild rice -- I just cook one cup of normal wild rice and stir that in at the end.) It was nice to get some veggies and whole grains back into my system after all of that sugar! We even had a green salad on the side! Woo veggies!

P.S. banana oatmeal sweetened with agave nectar this morning. I'll slowly work on purging the sugar from my system over the next couple of days! ;)

sunchokes!

Sunchokes, Jerusalem Artichokes, whatever you want to call them, I finally got around to cooking with the pound of knobbly little sunflower roots I bought at the Farmer's Market LAST weekend. (Not a day ago, but over a week ago!) I was so excited to find sunchokes, since I'd never tried them before, and quickly purchased a pound.

I googled soup recipes using sunchokes, and settled on a very simple sunchoke and leek soup, containing nothing more than a little butter, some vegetable broth, milk (or a blend of milk and yogurt, which is what I used,) salt, and pepper. About 45 minutes and a hit with the stick blender later, I had cream of leek and sunchoke soup:



Oh yum! I did detect a hint of artichokeish flavor, which I'm sure was enhanced by the slight sourness brought to the party by the plain yogurt I subbed for part of the milk, but really, sunchokes are their own flavor, in my opinion. Light, almost summery, incredibly subtle, fresh, and TASTY! You'd be hard-pressed to find another fall vegetable that tastes more springy!

Served up with a side salad and a couple of crostini spread with baba ganoush:



AND, pumpkin cake for dessert!



It's been a good night. :)

super-awesome treats, among other things!

I picked my friend Courtney up from the airport this afternoon, and she brought me a gigantic mountain of treats, just to thank me for picking her up! (I swear Courtney, I'll pick you up from the airport ANY time, treats or not!) She was out east visiting her mom, and I guess there's this amazing bulk foods store by her mom's house. Look what she brought me!



Clockwise from far left: golden flax seeds, stick cinnamon, whole nutmeg, organic almonds, dried goji berries, dried STARFRUIT, dried KIWI, and sun-dried tomatoes!!!!! Amazing! I think I'm going to use the kiwi and starfruit as decorations on cupcakes -- they are WAY too pretty to just gobble up! I was also super-excited about the goji berries, since I'd never tried them before!

THANK YOU, COURTNEY!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

I've cooked a little bit this weekend, -- here's what we've been eating:

Asian Hot Pot, from Real Simple:

This is salty, noodley, comfort food at its best! Please note if you click through to the recipe . . . the first time I made this, I followed the recipe as written, and it was so salty for me, I couldn't eat it. I've cut the low-sodium soy sauce down to 1/3 cup, and that seems to suit my palate better. Also, I always add a block of cubed extra-firm tofu, for added protein and "staying power." I had two bowls of this soup for dinner on Friday night, Dan had three bowls. Yum!

Breakfast this morning:

Dan woke up this morning and declared sleepily, "I feel like something sweet." Now, Dan never, ever, EVER makes food requests -- I ask him over and over for meal ideas, and he just says, "whatever. Pasta. Beans and rice." I was SHOCKED that he said he was hungry for something! I asked him, "what kind of something sweet did you have in mind?" And he replied, "pancakes!" Wow. I didn't even think he liked pancakes that much! Since pancakes take less than five minutes to make, (not including cooking time,) I was HAPPY to oblige this request. I asked Dan if he would like blackberries in his pancakes, since we had some in the freezer from this summer, and he replied, "that would be INSANE." So, blackberry pancakes it was. Dan had SIX for breakfast, and I ate the last three of the batch later in the afternoon for a snack. Ha! Leftovers, shmeftovers.

Dinner tonight:

Hello, cheesy, creamy, pasta goodness. I made Fettuccine with Butternut and Gorgonzola Sauce, from Cooking Light, except I used spiral pasta because I couldn't find whole-wheat fettuccine at the co-op this week. Although this dish used, I swear, every pot and pan I own, it didn't actually take that long to prepare, and was definitely worth the extra scrubbing. Creamy, slightly sweet, slightly tangy sauce, full of squash and onions, smothering whole-wheat spirals made for a VERY comforting dinner. I kept the side simple -- plain steamed brussels sprouts fit the bill.

Almost forgot about dessert! How can that be?

Apple crisp, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I love, love, love the apple crisp recipe in Joy of Cooking, which is weird, because I hardly ever cook out of that cookbook! Joy gets used mostly as a tofu weight in my house. :) However, applying that recipe to some of the apples we picked yesterday made a very satisfying dessert.

~~~~~~~~~~

In addition to making the meals pictured above, I also made granola,

(using some of the goji berries Courtney gave us!), a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (which we haven't cut into yet, so you'll see it later this week,) washed and chopped a huge bunch of kale, made a batch of almond milk, and roasted up an eggplant and quickly pureed it into some tasty baba ganoush. (Am I spelling that correctly? Probably not. Oh well.) Yay for being prepared for the week!

double-dose of fall fun

Since the weather was gorgeously crisp and sunny when I woke up yesterday morning, Dan and I decided to squeeze in a double-dose of fall fun after we finished our "to-dos" for the day, (cat to vet, farmer's market, co-op, etc.) We packed a picnic dinner, picked up Dan's brother, and drove east to Afton State Park. Since we had such a dry spring, the fall colors were definitely muted this year, but still beautiful! We enjoyed a 2-hour hike through the woods and prairie, and caught some beautiful views along the way!





























After finishing up at the state park, we drove up the road to an apple orchard, and picked a second round of apples for the season! I was way too busy picking apples to take many pictures, but I did have to record Dan's love of goats:



I swear, that man has a special radar just for finding goats. Give Dan a goat within a 2-mile radius, and he'll find it and pet it! :)

After stopping back at the state park to eat our picnic supper, Dan drove our tired butts back to the city. Needless to say, Dan and I didn't do much last night, and hit the sack pretty early!