I had all of the ingredients on hand so I knew I had to make these.  I used 100% almonds instead of a mix though.

I did something wrong though.  Instead of following directions and coating the nuts with egg white, I coated them with a bit of melted earth balance vegan margarine.  This was not a great substitution, as my coating did not stick to the nuts well at all.    I ended up putting them in a skillet over medium heat to melt the sugar a bit, so that it would coat the nuts.  It ended up coating unevenly, and my result wasn’t that beautiful, but was delicious!

I am not complaining at all though, these came out really delicious- a bit smokey, sweet, and spicy.  My *edits* to the recipe resulted in a bit of brittle-like coating on the nuts, so they were a bit crispy and I broke them into shards.  They smell amazing.

The best way to serve these (besides straight from the container, of course) is in a salad made with romaine, carrots, dried cranberries, red bell peppers, avocado and blue cheese. I dressed the salad simply with lemon vinaigrette.

So for dinner tonight I knew I was going to have pizza, but the question was what kind?

I didn’t have any cheese on hand save for a bit of parmesan, so I decided to go for something a bit less ordinary than the pizzas I usually make.  I decided to caramelize some onions and add them to a white pizza.  This came out really well, if I do say so myself.
Take your time caramelizing the onions- the longer you let them cook at a low temperature the better.  Don’t fuss over them, the cooking time is long but they really only need to be stirred a few times.  You can put a lid on them and walk away for a while if they are over low heat.

This pizzetta is definitely for garlic lovers!  If you’re less keen on garlic, try using roasted garlic and spreading the mashed cloves over the dough before you bake it.

Pizzetta Bianca with Caramelized Onions

• 1/4 of this pizza dough recipe (or enough dough to fill an 8×8 square baking pan)
• 1/2 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• dried oregano
• dried basil
• crushed red pepper flakes
• parmesan cheese (optional)
• fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Line an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper and spray with olive oil.  Stretch the dough to fit in the pan.  Spray with a bit more oil.  Set aside.

In a large skillet over low heat, spray a generous amount of olive oil then add the onions.  Cook very slowly until they turn caramel colored- not crispy!  It should take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Add the sliced garlic to the pizza dough, followed by a bit of each of the herbs and a shake or two of crushed red pepper flakes.  Then add the onions and the optional parmesan cheese.

Looking a bit... *beige* before baking

Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Sprinkle the parsley over, if using.

I had half of this for dinner tonight with a salad.  If you want to make this to serve 4, just use half of the pizza dough recipe and use a bit more of each ingredient to cover the pizza.

I realized after plating this Chickpea Salad that it looked like one of those cold plates that I remember from visits to the Diner as a kid.  Consider this a bit of a vegetarian update on a classic.

Chickpea salad sandwiches have been my favorite way to use up the remainder of a can of chickpeas that always seems to be sitting in my fridge.  The recipe below is more of a method rather than a traditional recipe.  Feel free to make this your own with whatever you happen to have on hand.  I’ve noted some suggestions below.

Chickpea Salad

• 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/4 cup diced carrots
• 2 tbsp minced onion
• 2 tbsp crumbled tofu (optional) (I had this leftover in my fridge as well)
• yellow mustard (optional)
• 2 tbsp greek yogurt
• salt and pepper

Mix the carrots, onion and crumbled tofu (if using), in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, add the chickpeas and mash with the back of a fork.  Be careful not to mash too carefully, you still want some chunks.  Add the chickpeas to the carrot mixture along with the greek yogurt, salt and pepper to taste, and a squirt of mustard if you like.  Mix well and serve.

Notes:

• The greek yogurt can be subbed for mayonnaise (vegan or not), regular plain yogurt (vegan or not), or a combination of any of these.
• Add in spices to your hearts content here: curry, turmeric, garam masala is a great Indian combo. Dill tastes nice.  A few pieces of minced seaweed can make this taste more like tuna salad.  Sliced green onions can be tasty and colorful.

I’m home sick today, feeling pretty lousy.  I was craving soup, but all I had in my cupboard was creamy tomato and butternut squash soups.  Creamy soups are not at all what I want when I don’t feel good.  I had about a cup of dried split peas in the cupboard and a huge bag of carrots in the fridge, so I figured I’d make some split pea and carrot soup.  This is really tasty and simple — and it requires minimal effort, which is perfect when you’re pretty sure your sinuses are squeezing your head into oblivion.

The colors of the raw carrots and split peas are really pretty too.  Please make sure you pick through your dried split peas before you cook them for the soup– I almost always find a tiny stone or two in there.  Also, this soup is vegan as written, optionally vegetarian if you use butter, and also optionally fat-free if you sauté the onions in water.  Holy versatile!

Split Pea and Carrot Soup

• 1 Cup dried split peas, carefully checked for debris and rinsed
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 large carrot, finely diced*
• 1/2 large sweet onion, diced*
• 1/4 tsp salt
• dash pepper
• 1 tsp vegetable bullion (optional)
• 1/8 tsp Liquid Smoke (optional)
• 1 tsp earth balance (vegan margarine) or olive oil or butter or water

Melt the earth balance over medium heat in a large pot.  Add the onions, salt and pepper.  Cook until the onions are translucent.  Add the carrots, bullion, liquid smoke, and water.  Bring to a boil over high heat then knock the heat back to low/medium low to simmer for 30 minutes or until the split peas are tender.

At this point, you can blend the soup (or half of the soup) in a blender for a smooth soup, or leave it chunky.

Notes:

• No picture of the finished soup because let’s be honest- it’s not attractive.  Tastes great though!
• * Here is a good time to use one of those mini food choppers if you have one.  You want really small pieces of carrots and onion if you are going to leave the soup chunky.
• The liquid smoke is optional, but I think it gives the soup a nice flavor.  I add it here because most traditional split pea soups have ham hocks or bacon in them and the liquid smoke mimics that flavor.  You could also saute some crumbled vegetarian bacon or ham in with the onions to get the same effect.
• You can make this soup fat-free by omitting the earth balance or oil and just using a bit of water in the bottom of the pot to saute the onions.  I like the flavor of the earth balance here though.

• 2 Cups cold leftover rice* (I used unseasoned sushi rice)
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• Kale, 1 large handful, chopped
• 1/3 cup edamame, thawed
• 2/3 cup zucchini, sliced
• 1/3 cup broth or water
• 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp white miso (or more soy sauce)
• Squirt of lime or lemon juice

In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, spray with a bit of olive oil or other oil, add the onion, carrot, and garlic.  Stir often until the onion softens and browns a bit, about 3 minutes.   Add the kale and the broth, cover and turn the heat down a bit.  Let cook for about 4 minutes, until the kale is wilted and the carrots are tender.  Uncover and add the zucchini, rice, soy sauce, and miso.  Stir really well to combine everything, making sure that the miso dissolves.  Add the edamame and the lime juice to taste.  Serve immediately.

Note:

• The leftover cold rice here is key!  It gets a bit dried out and fries much better than fresh rice.  Use whatever you have on hand, leftover takeout rice, brown rice, sushi rice, even quinoa or bulgur.

I first tried the Buffalo Wings.  I baked them in the oven per the package directions, and my initial reaction was that these looked nothing like they did on the package.  They looked pretty disgusting, actually.

Appetizing presentation?  Definitely not.

Great taste?  Eh.  The texture was great, but they were unbelievably spicy, and that comes from a girl who pours Sriracha and Frank’s Red Hot over everything.  I could barely handle the heat, and my guess is that most people would find them too spicy.  The sauce just wasn’t good.

I don’t have a photo of the Beefless Tips, but they were much better looking and tasting than the wings, perhaps because they didn’t come with a sauce.  The texture was great, and the flavor was neutral enough that they tasted great both in a stir fry that my sister made and a “beef bourginon” that I made for myself for Christmas dinner.

Overall, C- on the wings and B+ on the beefless tips.  I probably won’t buy them very often, but I might pick them up every now and then.

We sat in The Cafe which is the downstairs restaurant in the building.  The next time I go I would love to visit The Dining Room upstairs because the view is awesome!  Thankfully, even though we sat downstairs, we got to try food off both menus! The whole staff was very warm and inviting, and really made us feel special for the whole meal. I have no doubt they went above and beyond because we are Jen’s family, but I’m sure any dining experience here would be the same- Fantastic!

My entree was not on the menu, and when I was told I was having Egg Foo Young I have to say that I was not at all excited about it.  All I could think about was something heavy, greasy  and full of salt.  Good thing I let Chef Alex talk me into giving it a go, because it was absolutely delicious.  It was really light, full of fresh vegetables, and just a bit crisp.  The dish was also very spicy, which always makes me happy.  The sauce on the plate was a bit sweet too, which was a nice balance.

We also tried the Four Cheese Pizza which was my least favorite dish of the evening, but was still good.  It was just a bit heavy on the cheese for my taste (but it’s a 4 cheese pizza, so that’s my bad).  We took most of this home and it made for a great lunch before we hit the parks!

This next dish was Creamy Roquefort Gnocchi.  This was pretty sinful, super creamy, cheesy, and crispy on top.  Really strong roquefort flavor, which is fine by me because I love the stuff, but I only managed a few bites of this one so I could save myself for the rest of the [gigantic] meal.

This is the best thing I have ever consumed.  Pumpkin Ravioli sounds pretty ordinary but this was far from it.  The pasta was soft, the filling was pumpkiny-sweet without being dessert, and the pine nuts, crispy sage (I think?) and balsamic reduction were an outrageous combination.  There was a lot of butter in this dish, which was fine by me because it was HEAVEN!  Order this, and send some to me.  Nom.

So after we thought our meal was over, we were served ENORMOUS plates of sushi!  Jen had been raving about the sushi for quite some time now, so I was anxious to try it.  However, I was insanely full at this point, even though I only ate a few bites of each dish.  I loved that the sushi chef made me a plate of all vegetable sushi, and that his creations were far from the standard avocado-cucumber rolls I’m used to.  (Not that there is anything wrong with them!)  The carrot sushi was so pretty, if a bit difficult to eat.  The shitakke mushroom was my favorite though, not anything I had ever tried before.

Look at those green bean bundles of tasty hiding in the back there.  Yum!  I brought 95% of this plate home with me.  Woo hoo for vegetable sushi!

As if we hadn’t stuffed ourselves enough, we were served a huge dessert tray.  I guess I failed to take a photo of the entire plate, which included Baked Alaska, but these Banana Beniets were all I ate anyway.  After seeing The Princess and the Frog (which you should all go see- it was so good!) all I wanted to eat were these delicious fried balls of heaven, and I was beyond rewarded.  They were like bananas foster doughnuts straight from the stove.  Amazing.

Thanks so much for the incredible dinner Jen!  I know she makes the staff read this blog so thanks again to the awesome people who stopped by to say hi, and our really friendly and sweet server and the chefs.  I hope to see you soon!

It took some explaining to my family, because everyone kept thinking of sweet bread pudding, and thought my idea sounded gross.  How wrong they are!  Basically, savory bread pudding is like making stuffing.  Bread, vegetables, spices.  The additions that make it a “pudding” are the milk and egg “custard.”

I used this recipe from Cooking Light  for Mushroom, Roasted Red Pepper, and Goat Cheese Savory Bread Pudding.  as a guide, basically because other recipes I found were loaded with cream and butter and tons of eggs, which probably taste amazing, but I wanted to keep this light.   I kept the main ingredients the same, but changed the method a tiny bit.

I see no need to use jarred roasted red peppers.  They take no time to make either on the stove or in the oven, and are way cheaper.  So I used 2 red bell peppers that I roasted myself in this recipe.  I used a mixture of different mushrooms, left out the leeks in favor of sweet onions, used egg whites instead of egg substitute, and used this amazingly salty and pungent goat feta in place of the regular crumbled goat cheese.  Delicious.

I also made homemade peppermint patties while I was home.  Really, I had nothing to do during the day, can you tell??

The recipe I used is here and it was really simple and really delicious.  Here are the main ingredients:

Pretty straight forward, eh?

Here are my tips for making these: after you make the inside filling, refrigerate it for a few minutes.  Then form them into  ”pucks” by rolling into small balls and flattening, and then put them on a tray and place in the freezer to firm up for a bit.  Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and allow it to cool quite a bit before you dip the pucks in it.  Otherwise, the filling tends to melt.

My only complaint with these is that they need to be refrigerated to stay together.  I wanted to give them as gifts but once left out they were way too soft.

I used the same method as the peppermint patties to make homemade mounds bars and almond joys.  Just leave out the peppermint extract, and add in some flaked coconut to the filling.  Just eyeball it until the dough comes together.  Use the exact same method for refrigerating and forming the pucks, but make them more like little logs to mimic the real thing.  For the almond joy-ish treats, I simply pressed a whole almond into the top of the chocolate.

Really fun to make, simple ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard.  If you have a spare hour to kill, I recommend giving these a try.

Next, I headed to Brooklyn and while I had a slight mass transit nightmare on the way I made it to my friend Dan’s apartment in one piece.  I had a great time with Dan!  We got to meet up with my childhood best friend, made up rules to play shuffleboard, had awesome burgers (hold the beef on mine, thanks), and be lazy for a few days.

It was really sweet of  my uncle and Dan to host me so I could escape reality for a few more days, so I decided to thank them.  With food, naturally.  Dan requested key lime white chocolate cookies, because he’s fancy like that.  I hesitated initially because I dislike white chocolate a LOT, but found a recipe and gave it a whirl.  They came out pretty great.  The picture, however, did not.  The recipe is here.

Next, I figured cookies weren’t enough, so I made granola, of course.  Coconut Almond Granola to be exact.  I even used measuring devices and wrote down the exact recipe this time!

I packed it up in small plastic containers that I reused from the supermarket for easy shipping.

Coconut Almond Granola

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 cup raw almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1 T soymilk
• pinch of salt
• dash of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking tray with parchment.  In a bowl, combine the brown sugar with the soymilk.  Stir to combine, and microwave for 30 seconds, until the sugar is melted.  Add the salt and cinnamon, then the oats, coconut, and almonds.  Mix well, and pour onto the baking tray into an even layer.  Bake for 10 minutes to begin with, stir.  Bake in additional 5 minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until it is lightly golden, smells nutty, and sounds crispy (trust me on this one).  Cool to room temperature and pack in airtight containers.

Notes:

• This batch took 10 + 5+ 5 + 2 minutes to be the way I like it.  Use this as a guideline.  Never walk away from baking granola!
• Almonds are really easy to chop for baking, so instead of buying them ground or flaked, I just buy them whole so they are good for snacking and baking.
• If you still need to be convinced that making your own granola is worth it, I ran numbers:  the total cost of making this recipe is right around $2.46, which works out to about $.31 per serving.  The same amount in the grocery store can be as high as $6.99 or $.87 per serving.  No brainer.

I have a lot of things to share from the month that I’ve been away from the blog, so I guess I’ll try to break it all up into different posts.

I’ll start with the baked goods I gorged myself on while at my moms house.

First up: gingerbread men.  Because it’s Christmas, which means you eat gingerbread men.  Nuff said?

As usual, I did a pretty lousy job decorating them:
Note the angry one in the middle, and the deformed fella on the bottom.

I made a Syracuse Orange man (heh. heh.) but he turned out pretty dopey looking.

Next, we have my favorite food in the world: Mom’s Apple Pie.  It’s really something special, and I beg my mom to make it every time I go home.

She made me one while I was there, and I watched her like a hawk to figure out how she makes it so good.  I made one myself while I was there, but it wasn’t as good as hers.  Ah well, the food someone makes for you always tastes better than the food you make for yourself.  Here’s my photo diary of the pie making process.  Note: my mom uses store bought pie dough.  It rocks.  And it’s easy.  Don’t hate.

The magic recipe.  It’s really nothing fancy, but it’s amazing in its simplicity.
The dough.The apples.

Fill ‘er up!

Action shot!

Make sure you put the excess flour + sugar + cinn from the bottom of the bowl on top.

Dot with butter.  I’ve always thought it was funny that placing pieces of butter on top of something it called “dotting” it.

Voila!  (Pronounced phonetically, of course.  Who speaks french anyway?)

So good even the dog wants a nibble.

I’m going to post the pie recipe on the recipe section of the site.  I’ll throw up a link in Part 2, where I will share a recipe for savory bread pudding and homemade peppermint patties and almond joy/mounds bars!  Part 3 will be a recap of the fabulous meal that I had at Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Downtown Disney. So much yum coming up!