I’m not terribly religious(if at all) but my family is and we celebrated Easter today so happy Easter everyone! Today was a culinary adventure. For the more experienced cook, I imagine it was an easy endeavor, but since I’m barely even a a novice cook, it was interesting, to say the least. I learned today that a garlic clove is NOT the whole garlic but only one little bit of the garlic. So when my hummus recipe called for three cloves of garlic, guess what I put in? Mmhmm, three whole heads of garlic. Needless to say the hummus was, ah, quite garlicy. However, all in all everything turned out really, really great. I was definitely surprised.
To begin the day, I had a really really good Cherry Granola I got at Greatest Grains yesterday. I added a few equal trade bananas that my mom bought there as well and put it together with some non-homogenized milk from Kolona.
It wasn’t a lot of food, but it was definitely enough to fill me up, this morning. Truth be told, I think it would have tasted better had I heated the granola because after a couple of bites it started to seem kind of “raw.” I’m really not sure how else to describe it. It wasn’t bad, per say, but I wouldn’t call it extremely tasty either. I have a little left over, so maybe tomorrow I’ll try heating it up or something. The bananas, however were amazing. As a random note, I only used half a banana since they are so big. Like I said, I lost yesterday’s receipt, but I’m pretty sure the granola as a whole was $3, so this was technically about only $1 for my breakfast. If you include the banana as well, maybe $2. So, definitely keeping in line with the idea that eating this type of food CAN be less expensive.
Oh! And how can I forget?! My grandma was in Texas and while there, she bought these amazing grapefruits at a farmer’s market. I can’t vouch for whether or not they’re organic, but they’re definitely “real food.” I noticed my grandma had a juicer she had recently bought at a garage sale and remembered she gave me once just like it, so me craving something a bit sweet(and other than water or milk) thought it might be fun to make grapefruit juice to see if it was any good and if it might be possible to make it at home. Let me tell you, this stuff is amazing! Everyone that tried it was like, “This doesn’t taste like normal grapefruit juice at all. It’s not sour, its really sweet and kind of mellow.” I think I”m addicted. I’ve had a total of like three grapefruits today. I made up four of them, added water and put a pitcher of the stuff in my fridge.
As you can see, the juicer is a really simple one. It’s super easy to use and is kind of fun. The one I have looks pretty similar, just a bit bigger and a little cheaper looking, but it still does exactly the same thing.
The only think “bad” about it is that sometimes the seeds get in it, but I either swallow them without noticing or just use my teeth to kind of block them from getting in my mouth. There isn’t much pulp. I suppose I could add some since the juicer creates a lot of it on top, but I’ve been kind of munching on it and throwing it away. I’m thinking about actually using the pulpy stuff it creates for a desert or something because it’d taste great on a tart or something. I think I’ll also try to make lemonade since this is tasting so good. I did use the juicer to make lemon juice for one of my recipes. My poor grandma didn’t realize I had already used all the grapefruit juice and went to try it and was definitely surprised by what she tasted.
I know most people usually put cereal in those things, but it worked out really well for my juice. Lets see if it last more than two days!
The first thing I made was called “Asparagus and Spring Noodles” and I in move of sheer idiocy threw away the recipes I found. Luckily, I found ther other two, but I CAN NOT find the recipe for this one. I do however know the ingredients: 8 ounces of lamb(which I put threw a kind of cheese grater so when I cooked it it ended up looking a lot like sausage, which is what the recipe wanted.), rosemary, goat cheese, chilli peppers, tagliatelle noodle, onions and asparagus. This was soooooooooo delicious. Then again, it’s got noodles, cheese and asparagus. Pretty much three of my favorite things.
I could have SWORN I took a picture of it. In fact, I remember doing it. I guess my phone hates me because it decided not to save it. Pooey. I do have a picture of my plate which has this entree on it though:
The picture really doesn’t do it justice. It was great. Everyone really liked it. When the potluck was over, I had a ton left, so I put it in a freezer bag and tossed it in the freezer so it’ll last longer and I can enjoy it for more than a couple of days. Also on the plate is my Carmalized Onions and Cannellinni Hummus Bruschetta. This is what I put WAY too much garlic in. However, I really like garlic so I didn’t really find it all that overwhelming, especially when paried with the carmalized onions.
I got the recipe from Henry’s Farmers Market.
It’s kind of divided up in to three seperate parts. You put the hummus on the toasted bread and then the onions on the hummus. It was a really nice mixture of tastes. If you’re wondering about the bread, it’s made fresh at Greatest Greens every day and only had about three ingredients in it, fullfilling the real/raw food requirement. (Tasty too!)
Here’s the uber long recipe:
Cannellini Bean Hummus
Makes 2 cups
1 (14.5 oz.) can cannellini or white beans, drained and rinsed
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbs. tahini
2 Tbs. organic extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
hot sauce to taste
Place ingredients in food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Caramelized Onions
Makes 2 cups
3 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
5 large sweet onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. raw cane sugar
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
Heat oil and butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add onions, salt and sugar. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until onions turn a rich, golden brown. Stir in thyme and refrigerate until ready to use.
Bruschetta
Makes 24
1 large whole-wheat baguette
3 cloves garlic
4 Tbs. olive oil
Preheat oven to 425° F. Slice baguette into 24 rounds. Brush lightly with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Bake 10 to 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Rub fresh garlic over the top of each round. Spread with hummus, top with onions. Garnish with fresh thyme (optional).
Lastly, I made Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Gouda and Chives. Oh man, was this delicious!!! I love cheese and potatoes. What can I say, I’m a midwest girl and those are kind of our staples. I wish I hadn’t been so full, because I’d have eaten the whole pan!
This one took a little bit longer than the other entrees just because I had to bake it for an hour, but man was it worth the wait. I will admit, I spent about four hours total making everything, but when you’re listening to NPR and joking around with the familia and seeing people you haven’t seen a while, it’s a great time. The kitchen gets SO crouded at family events. Everyone’s preparing something, kids are running through, getting yelled out to stay out, messes being made and cleaned up and some of the most delicious(and obnoxious) smells come from it. I cannot wait to eat the heck out of this thing as the week goes on. (I put this in the freezer as well.)
Here’s the recipe for y’all:
3 cloves garlic
cooking spray
2 1/2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes
1 c. milk
1 c. half-n-half
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 c. shredded smoked Gouda cheese
2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh chives
Preheat oven to 350° F. Rub one clove garlic on the inside of an 8X8 baking dish, including the sides. Finely chop remaining garlic. Peel potatoes and slice thinly using a mandolin, about 1/8-inch thick. Place potatoes in a large saucepan with garlic, milk, butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Using tongs, remove enough potato slices from pan to arrange in one layer in baking dish. Sprinkle with a third of the cheese. Repeat with two more layers of potatoes and cheese, ending with cheese on top. Pour milk mixture over potatoes. Gently shake the pan to distribute the milk evenly. Cover with foil and bake for one hour, until potatoes are soft. Remove foil and place under broiler for 2 minutes, until golden brown. Serve garnished with fresh chives.
I can tell you, the more I cook, the more I like it. I feel so much more accomplished at every meal if I cook it. It’s just like, “Look, I spent 30-60 minutes making this and damn! It’s delicious!” Everyone at Easter really liked everything. I got a lot of compliment and a lot of advice too. I love getting cooking advice because every little bit helps. For instance, since I didn’t buy canned beans, I had to soak them. Silly me didn’t realize that was an 8-10 hour ordeal, so I just had to boil them for a good two hours before they were soft. The hummus came out really good, but I imagine had I known about softening the beans, it’d have been even better.
I won’t lie, this splurge on the huge dinner was really expensive. However, the asparagus could easily feed a family of sex with food to spare. The hummus ended up being like three pounds, so there was definitely a lot there and the recipe for the potatoes said it feeds six, so when you break the math down(I won’t tonight because I don’t feel it’s really neccessary) it’s still pretty cheap, especially when you think about how long it’ll last lonely ole me. Hehe.
So…deep breath…the total is $69.24. Imagine if I had been a family of six and this had been our dinner. It gave us an appetizer, entree and side all for about $10 a person which is significantly less than you will find at any restaurant. (Take that Walmart and your claims of being cheaper than eating out, so is this!) I wanted to make a dessert, but there really wasn’t time and honestly, the grapefruit was kind of a desert in and of itself. Plus, I was full after all that food and really couldn’t eat any more.
Since dinner was so big, I just had some leftover kuskus by itself since I was hungry, but not super hungry.
Thanks for reading this looooooong entry, guys!
-Ashley
