Italian!

Ok... this one involved using up some of the stuff i had in the kitchen, and it came out really nice. It's a baked dish with penne pasta, a garlic, peppers, and onion tomato sauce, and topped with broccoli and some mozzarella. Here's how i did it: for the sauce, i cooked up the garlic, a green, a red, and a jalepeno pepper, along with an onion until they were at the point where you would put them on a sandwich. then i added a chopped tomato and a little bit of tomato sauce, and added some basil. i put the cooked penne at the bottom of the baking dish, and then covered it with the sauce. next, i steamed some broccoli, put it on top of the sauce, and added a layer of grated mozzarella with some bread crumbs. then i baked it for about 12 minutes until the broccoli got a bit brown. it didn't come out of the dish and onto the plate looking all that fancy, but it was certainly yummy...

Christmas Dinner 2007

Well... there's a few different things going on here:
one: a satay-style tofu - a mixture of garlic, ginger, peanut butter, braggs, honey, coriander, lemon juice, hot sauce, and water was used to marinate the tofu for one hour, and then baked for about 30 minutes. this idea was modified from a recipe in the cookbook, tofu cookery, by louise hagler.
two: ginger-garlic infused brown rice - here i simply cooked the rice as normal, then in a sauce pan i quickly sautéed garlic, ginger, and a chopped hot red pepper, added a little bit of water to make a creamy paste, and then i just mixed the rice in.
three: indian-style okra - i love cooking indian, and over the years, this has proven to be a challenge for me. i have some stuff down pretty well now though, and this dish, for instance, came out great. i sautéed various spices first, then added onion, celery, carrot, okra, a jalapeño, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
four: fresh made persimmon juice - i took a persimmon (the non-astringent type) and put it in the blender with some water and ice - simple and yummy - and it sort of came out like a mango lassi (minus the yogurt), which was perfect for this indian meal.
and of course i'm going to have some of that pie (from the previous post) for dessert...
merry christmas.

christmas pie!

here's a pie i made on christmas eve, and i just couldn't wait until christmas day to try some. i haven't baked in a couple of years now, but i've been wanting to start again, so i found some good stuff at the market this week, and here's what i came up with: it's an apple-pear-blackberry pie with homemade crust. check out the easy crust recipe:
flour, butter, water, salt, sugar. simple. and the filling was pretty easy too. a couple apples, a couple pears, some blackberries along with a mixture of soy milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little bit of lemon juice. bake it for 45 minutes, cool, and enjoy...

winter solstice...

i made the bulk of this dish for winter solstice dinner 2007. the rice dish was a bit different for me. i first made a vegetable stock, then began to cook veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onions, celery, squash, and carrots) and added the dry rice to this mixture. i then slowly added the veggie stock over the course of an hour or so, resulting in a nice creamy, delicious rice (these pictures are a day or so after the fact). i wrapped some of the rice concoction in large pieces of green leaf lettuce. for the original dish (pictured below), i wrapped the rice mixture in steamed beat leaves, added some grated cheddar, and covered it with a simple sweet tomato sauce. and... that's some homemade green tea up in the corner - iced with an infusion of raspberry tea. finally, i just have to pass on what i'm reading right now - "the Omnivore's Dilemma" - which is an excellent read if you're thinking about what you eat. the author investigates the many different food chains that exist in the US, from industrial agriculture, to what is left of hunter/gatherers. highly recommended for a critical look at how we eat. happy solstice!