The Intellectual Chef

Man, I’ve been bad about posting lately. I’m trying, I really am! My life is really chaotic right now, though, and it’s hard enough to find time to cook new things, let alone write about cooking new things. That being said, though, I wanted to pose a question to everyone: Why do you cook? (Or maybe it should be why don’t you cook?)

For me, that question has a few answers. I’ll start first with a confession: I haven’t been cooking for that long. I was proud of myself if I could manage brownies from a box or make a grilled cheese on a Foreman grill. Seriously. But once I had been in a college a few years, I got sick of eating pre-packed, crappy food from a can or a freezer. So I started experimenting, and slowly began to realize that cooking wasn’t a chore. Around that time, I stopped eating meat (I now eat fish, but for the first two years of being a vegetarian, I cut out all seafood too). That really forced me into the kitchen. I couldn’t just stop by McDonald’s on the way home and pick something up- I had to take responsibility for feeding myself right. Now that I have a few years of cooking under my belt, I think I’m really starting  to get a good cooking intuition. I don’t need a recipe, I can sense what flavors might work well together, I can pull together a meal on the fly with random ingredients. Cooking is now a creative outlet for me, and it’s tremendously relaxing. I can turn my brain off for a little while, and focus on the physical task of cooking, a job that really requires all of my senses.

That being said, when I get stressed, I don’t always cook as often. But it always makes me feel better (not to mention I get to enjoy a tasty meal afterwards). On Sunday, I updated one of the very first truly delicious vegetarian meals that I made up on my own: eggplant casserole.

An updated favorite

You’ll need:

1 eggplant

3 or 4 tomatoes

1 small white onion

About 3/4 c each of parmesan and feta cheese

About 1 c breadcrumbs

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

First, I sliced the eggplant, salted the slices, and cooked them in a frying pan with a bit of oil. Then I layered the cooked eggplant, sliced tomatoes, and sliced onions, which I topped with cheese. I then repeated the layering, and drizzled it all with a bit of balsamic vinegar for flavor. I topped it all with breadcrumbs that I tossed with a little olive oil. I threw it in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, and had myself a tasty dinner (and a few tasty left over lunches).

I used to coat the eggplant slices in breadcrumbs, and then fry the slices, but that got time consuming and the end product, while delicious, was really greasy. I think next time I make this, I’ll coat the slices in breadcrumbs and then bake them instead of frying. That’s what cooking is all about- experimenting.

A standby favorite

Since the end of the semester is approaching almost as quickly as Thanksgiving, I thought I might leave you with some easy, tasty brain food snacks:

1. Apples with almond butter, sprinkled with cinnamon- really tasty, and really filling.

Perfect mid-morning snack

2. Sorbet smoothie: There a ton of ways to make smoothies, but I threw this together one day with a few scoops of raspberry sorbet, a few ice cubes, orange/pineapple juice, and a splash of milk. Yum!

Ok, I guess I should get back to PhD applications…grrr.

Leigh

Cooking for One

….that sounds like a really sad singles’ cookbook. But it’s sometimes hard to cook for yourself without eating the same thing every day for a week. That’s why a lot of times I’ll buy enough to make several sides, and then just mix and match throughout the week. For example,  this week I tried a new dish that was as delicious as it was cheap: cauliflower and cheese.

Yes, please!

All I did was cut up a head of cauliflower and boil to cook. Then I made a quick roux and added equal parts cheddar and parmesan cheese, and some milk to make the sauce a little thinner. I put the cauliflower in a pan, covered it with the cheese sauce, and then topped it all with some extra cheddar and breadcrumbs. Then I broiled it for a few minutes to make the top all bubbly and crunchy. And can I just say…wow. I’ve always been a fan of broccoli, but I’ve kind of forgotten about cauliflower as of recently. No more will it be forgotten! I see a lot of cauliflower experiments in my future!

Dinner all by my lonesome

Anyway, my dinner last night was simple: I paired a good portion of the cauliflower and cheese with a simple spinach salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, parmesan, and vinaigrette). And of course, a nice glass of red wine to wash it all down.

I don’t think that dish of  cauliflower is going to last much longer, but I’m wondering if I could make some soup out of to give myself some more variety. But of course I can always pair it with a range of other dishes to make a different meal entirely. Any other suggestions?

How do you all cope with cooking for yourself? I know a lot of people say it’s not worth the effort, but I’m a firm believer that cooking something delicious is always worth the effort. How do you balance between cooking way too much food and eating Lean Cuisines for dinner every night? Let me know!

I’m going to go think about this over some cauliflower and cheese.

Leigh

Hello again!

Yeah….so you may have noticed I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve had a really hectic week. Really hectic. Trying to start my thesis, apply for PhD programs, grade papers, and do my regular course work is…well, hard. But good news for you: I haven’t stopped cooking. In fact, I’ve been quite busy this week. But for now, I’ll focus on the joys of eating with friends, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately.

First, as promised, the results of last week’s “dish pass” (everyone brings a dish, some tupperware, and loads up on food for the week):

Dario's fajitas

Avni's Chickpea and Pea Couscous

Wil's Vegetable Stew

Kate's Mushroom Risotto

 

 

 

 

Everything was just delicious, and it was a great way to have lunch ready for the week without doing any work. My contribution seemed to go over quite well. I think we’re planning on doing another dish pass on Sunday, and hopefully I’ll be able to go.

Oh. My. God.

I also made a kick-ass vegetarian chili (if I do say so myself) on Wednesday. I used this recipe (I did add green peppers), and it turned out amazingly, especially since it’s finally starting to cool off here in Florida. I ended up with a huge pot of it, and decided to freeze what I didn’t eat. Good thing I did, because today my friend Scott hosted a football and ribs afternoon smackdown. Since I clearly wasn’t going to indulge in the ribs, I raided my freezer and brought the rest of my chili as well as the rest of this artichoke pesto. All I had to do was make some pita chips, which took all of 15 minutes. Check out this spread:

My kind of Saturday

In addition to the store-bought macaroni salad and coleslaw, there’s also blueberry biscuits, cornbread, potato salad, pickles, coleslaw, cheesy potato casserole, and some knockout creamed corn (all homemade!). There were also some ribs and chicken (both BBQ and dijon) and baked beans- but those were all meaty, so I didn’t indulge. But everything was absolutely delicious, and my pesto was a big ol’ hit.  Say what you want about my friends, but we sure know how to eat.

Eating becomes so much more joyful when you can share it with people that you care about, don’t you agree? I’ll leave you with that for now, and hope that you all make a meal for someone you love this weekend. It’s the best way to get a good mood boost.

Leigh

Falling for fall food

Man, I love fall. Mostly because of all the tasty stuff you get to cook.

Thursday night, we had our ladies night fall-themed dinner. I made beer cheese soup (my mom’s recipe, slightly altered to make it vegetarian and gluten-free) and it was a hit! Here’s a picture (of course it’s after everyone dug in, so it’s mostly gone). And I don’t think my mom will mind if I share the recipe (I’ll give you the version I used). Do yourself a favor and make this immediately!

SO AMAZING!

Biggest block of Velveeta they sell
4 cans of vegetable stock
2/3 c celery
2/3 c white onion
2/3 c brown rice flour
stick of butter
can of Rotel
room temperature 3/4 c light (gluten free) beer

In a sautee pan, melt the butter and sautee onion and celery until soft. Then add the flour and mix as best you can. Add mixture to crock pot (on medium heat) and add the vegetable stock. Add the Velveeta (cubed) slowly. Drain the Rotel, and add. Stick around and stir as the cheese melts so the soup doesn’t get lumpy. Leave in the crock pot overnight if you can, otherwise a few hours will be ok. 15/30 min before serving, add the beer. Serve with crusty French bread and enjoy!

We also had delicious pumpkin bread, a pear and radish salad and (spiked) apple cider. Great meal with great friends!

My goofy-looking pumpkin

I continued my fall celebrations on Friday night with a pumpkin carving party. My friend made an unbelievable candy corn vodka cocktail (candy corn soaked in vodka for a few hours, mixed with orange liqueur and lemon)…just be warned- it’s super strong! I didn’t take so many pictures (once my friends’ go up on facebook, I can share the good ones with ya’ll), but I did snap a picture of my favorite part of pumpkin carving: roasting the seeds. It’s ridiculously easy, and they are so good. Just clean the seeds really well (a colander will be useful here), heat the oven to about 350, sprinkle with salt, and roast for about 20 minutes.

Pumpkin seeds? Hell yes!

Even though tonight is Sunday, I am going out  for another food-themed evening. Some friends have organized a “dish pass” party, which means everyone cooks up a big meal, brings it to someone’s house, and then fills up tupperware with everyone else’s dish. What a cool way to stock up on a variety of meals for the week. I’m going the cheap and easy way- I’m making the veggie skillet I made last week. I’ll share my finds with you, as well as the vegetarian chili I’m planning for later this week.

Happy Sunday- now get away from your computer and go outside to enjoy the wonderful fall weather!

Leigh

Going co-op

You kids are lucky- I’m posting twice in one day! This will be quick though- I just wanted to share my excitement over my shopping finds today. I ventured to my local co-op to find some gluten-free products for my soup tomorrow night (kind of appropriate since my last post was all about going local).  I love shopping there, but I so rarely do, and this is why:

So excited!

I only needed the gluten-free beer and the brown rice flour. $28 later, I walk out with romaine hearts, an avacado, vegan chili, salsa, almond butter, and potatoes too. Yikes! I love the idea of supporting a locally owned, community supported, health-conscious business, but come on….I’m in grad school. I really can’t afford this. I remember the days when Publix used to be too pricey for me and I had to shop at Wal-Mart for groceries (thankfully those days are now behind me because I find shopping at Wal-Mart extraordinarily distasteful). So, while I totally understand the long-term benefits of shopping at co-ops, is it really manageable right now? What do you guys think- what are the ethics of food retailing?

Leigh

Tomato love

Well, it seems as if I’ve been laying low these past few days. I’ve spent a lot of time in the library and in my office, but not so much in  the kitchen. I’ve been mostly surviving on staples, like pita and hummus, nachos (no sour cream or guac: just veggie refried beans, some low fat cheddar, salsa, tomatoes and onions), and salads. I absolutely love salads, and I thought I’d share one of my favorites with you:

I’ll call this a sweet ginger salad. I use spinach or whatever dark greens I have, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, mandarin oranges, crunchy chow mein noodles, and the best part: the dressing. My absolute favorite ginger dressing is Makoto Honey Ginger (it’s in the produce section, next to the veggie dips).

Seriously addictive

I have tried other brands, but I just don’t like them as much. If you do end up having to settle for a plain ol’ ginger dressing, do yourself a tasty favor and make it a little sweeter by adding the juice from the canned mandarin oranges.

I did, however, find some time on Sunday to make the promised stuffed tomatoes. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, and didn’t really make any changes except substituting spinach for arugula. I used some gorgeous ugly ripe tomatoes that I found at Publix. I think the whole thing ended up being pretty tasty, although it was definitely a little mushier than I would have liked. I’m thinking I’ll make it again, except maybe I’ll try adding breadcrumbs to the stuffing mix (and sprinkling them on top) for a little crunch.

Here’s how it turned out:

That’s a simple side salad tossed with olive oil and balsamic, topped with cucumbers, feta, and tomatoes (of course I used the inside of the tomatoes I stuffed! I’m not wasteful!)

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve perhaps noticed my fondness for tomatoes. I LOVE THEM. After I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, though, I wondered about the implications of eating a summer fruit in the winter. I do live in (north) Florida, so it’s a little easier to justify my year-round tomato habit, (they’re grown only a few hundred miles from here!), but most of the tomatoes at the grocery store come from California or South America anyway, regardless of the season. During the summer, it’s easy enough to find locally grown produce at farmer’s markets (which I love to take advantage of), but tomatoes start to disappear this time of the year. So….what’s a tomato lover to do? It’s a staple in my diet, but I feel increasingly uncomfortable buying orange-y, wimpy looking tomatoes from the other side of the country. Should I challenge myself to a week without tomatoes? Give me some guidance here, guys!

I’ll be taking a dip in the gluten-free world on Thursday- some friends and I are having a fall-themed dinner party (of course there will be spiked cider!!)  and I volunteered to cook my mom’s beer cheese soup. One of my friends has a gluten allergy, so I’m modifying the recipe (apparently they sell both gluten-free beer and flour!) so she can eat with us. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Leigh

A night in, a night out

One of my favorite finds at big chain bookstores (Borders, Barnes and Noble) are the cookbooks in the bargain book sections. For some reason, there’s always a great selection of vegetarian (and carnivorous) cookbooks. I love trying new recipes, and I had this one bookmarked for a while. It’s a very simple veggie skillet, and the best part is, it’s ridiculously cheap. Here are the ingredients and what I paid for them:

Shredded 2% cheddar: $2.79

Tasty, easy, and cheap: my kind of dinner

Frozen mixed veggies: $1.19
Instant brown rice: $1.85
Canned kidney beans: $0.83
Canned stewed tomatoes $0.79
Canned tomato soup $0.89
Dill

It’s so easy- just throw all those ingredients (minus the cheese) into a large pan with some water and bring it to boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Then top with cheese. I only used about a cup of rice, two cups of frozen veggies, and a handful of cheese, leaving me with extra for other meals. Even so, this makes four good-sized portions, so it works out to just over $2 per meal! Not only was it super cheap to make, it was very tasty, especially since it’s (finally) starting to cool down here in Florida. This, and my new favorite show, Glee, made for a great Wednesday night in.

My dinner last night- lucky me!

Since I saved so much money on Wednesday’s dinner, I went on a ladydate with my friend Kim last night. We went to a local tapas restaurant that neither one of us had tried, and, oh did we pig out! We split a bottle of tempranillo and seafood paella, then I ordered these amazing seared tuna stacks (layered with plantain chips, avocado salsa, and drizzled with a blood orange vinaigrette), while Kim got some (from what I hear) delicious Kobe sliders.

I’ve been eatin’ real nice lately. I guess I’m making up for all the crappy food I ate while traveling. (AHEM Doritos!!)

I’ve got to finish my leftover veggie skillet, but I’ve got some stuffed tomatoes planned for later this week- I’ll keep you posted! Have a great weekend!

Leigh

Back in the Kitchen!

It’s strange to admit, but ever since I burned myself, I found that I’ve been a bit skittish in the kitchen. I’m afraid of doing something stupid again (like badly injuring myself for no good reason). I haven’t really wanted to cook. Well, as my burn begins to heal- finally!- I present to you, my triumphant return to the kitchen:

I really need to stop taking pictures with my iPhone.

Yes, what a nice spread: wine, green salad, and a no-fry, no-pasta eggplant parmesan. I found this recipe in a Rachael Ray cookbook and modified it a bit, but it was nice and simple: roast sliced eggplant, make some easy sauce, then layer the roasted eggplant with the sauce in a cassrole dish, top with cheese, and broil! Easy, and a nice alternative to my absolute favorite eggplant casserole (which does, sadly, involve fried eggplant. I’ll make it sooner rather than later, though).

So I managed to make dinner without hurting myself, but I will say that I was absolutely not going to make pasta to go alongside this (although it would have been really good). I know it’s really childish, and I’m being extra careful lately, but I am still afraid. Has anyone experienced a silly fear like this? It will go away….right? I don’t know that I want to live in a world where I can’t make myself pasta :-/

‘Til next time,

Leigh

PS: My roomie is hopping on the blog bandwagon, check it out!

Burnin’ me up

I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I’m an idiot.

On Monday night, I have a late class. So I got home around 9:30 and decided to throw a bunch of veggies together and put them over pasta, since I was going out of town soon and wanted to use them all up. The meal itself turned out OK….I sauteed spinach, garlic, artichokes and feta cheese with some black-eyed peas and red wine vinegar. But the pasta part is what killed me. As I was dumping the boiling pot of pasta into the colander, distaster! I somehow lost control of the big pot and spilt boiling water on my thigh. And of course, I was wearing shorts.

Moral of the story here: even if you cook a lot, be careful in the kitchen! This was not worth this (please note that the last link shows an image of my burn: it’s pretty nasty, so don’t let your curiosity gross you out if you can’t handle it!).

Here’s a very shocking video from those daring Canadians on the same topic:

On a better note, my conference turned out to be great, and the food situation wasn’t too challenging. On the way there, I had to settle for scarfing some baked Dorritos in the airport, but the food they served at the conference was actually quite good, with a decent selection of vegetarian options. I did also get to explore some local places: I went to an Ethopian restaurant one night and an Irish pub the other. And on the flight back, I had a little more time at the Detroit airport to get some food. I got an order of chili cheese fries with vegetarian chili! Ok, it’s not the healthiest option ever, but man, I love me some chili cheese fries, which I’ve been missing since I went veggie.

Fall!

Michigan was very cold but quite beautiful this time of year. Here’s a photo I got with my iPhone at the Michigan State campus in East Lansing:

The lights changed and it played very cool spacey music

I also discovered that the Detroit airport is actually gorgeous (sorry, Detroit enthusiasists, but I didn’t imagine anything in Detroit to be described as “gorgeous”).  This is another iPhone picture of the tunnel connecting two different concourses:

That’s it for me. I’ll update with some actual food stuff later in the week, but for now, remember to BE SAFE!

-Leigh

Eating on the go

I once heard that something like 40% of Americans eat in their cars. Now, it’s not like I’ve never thrown back a granola bar on my way to class, or munched on some pretzels on a long drive, but I don’t like eating in the car because I just can’t enjoy my food while I’m driving. And oftentimes the kind of food that is amenable to being eating as you drive isn’t going to taste the best, either (ahem *fast food*). So why do I bring this up? Because I am faced with the frustrating task of eating while traveling. I’m going to Michigan in a few days to present at a conference and to distract myself from thinking about how nervous I am (it’s my first time presenting a paper at a conference!) I’m thinking about how to eat while traveling. And I’ll be honest: I’m not looking forward to it.

I have a two-hour long drive to the airport, and about 4 hours’ worth of connecting flights and travel time coming my way. Which means I have to consider the worst: airport food. Or even worse: airline food. Then, when I get to the conference, they’ve included meals in the registration fee –and as wonderful as the food should be for the outrageous registration fee, I somehow doubt it will be- so I won’t really have the usually fun option of exploring local restaurants. So what’s a conscientious eater to do?

I can’t say I’ve got any real answers other than suck it up. I’ll admit that I hate to fly so I usually am not very hungry in the first place. So I’ll end up settling for a mini can of Pringles in the gift shop instead of paying $8 for a crappy, plastic-y salad at one of the “restaurants” in the airport -one of the rare instances in my life where junk food looks like an attractive option. On the plane, I’m usually content with snacking on the peanuts. Sometimes, though, I’ll actually eat a meal. I generally fly Delta, and my experiences have been mixed. Once, on a long flight to Alaksa, I was served a meal (I even checked ahead of time and ordered a vegetarian option) which consisted of a sandwich (stale sandwich roll, wilted lettuce, American cheese and mayo), an unnaturally and annoyingly small apple and potato chips. I hate to admit the chips were the best part of the meal. That, however was a free meal. I did cave in one time and buy a $6 fruit and cheese plate, and to my surprise, it wasn’t so bad. I’ve bought that sucker again because now I know it’s safe airline food.

What are your recommendations? Should I pack snacks ahead of time? That might be OK on the way there, but what about on the way home? How do you liven up boring buffet food- or is it a lost cause? And is it possible to avoid getting completely ripped off on awful airport food? I need some help here, guys. At this point, I think my $10 would be better spent on a good cocktail at the airport bar than on a crappy lunch.

-Leigh