I’ve never been great at following directions in the kitchen. I’m not a very creative person in my everyday life, but when it comes to cooking, for some reason my inner artist tends to come out. I tend to use recipes as inspiration rather than instructions, borrowing flavor combinations or techniques, but always putting my own spin on the dish. When I tell most people this, they are usually impressed and say hings like “Wow! You must be a great cook!” or “I’m not brave enough to do that!”

The problem with these reactions is they they suppose that my recipe tweaks always work out well, which they don’t! Lately I’ve been having some difficulty coming up with great meat-based dishes on my own. I am not great at knowing when a piece of meat is cooked properly, and have been erring on the side of over-cooking my meat, which usually results in a disappointing final product.

So, I figured I’d trust the experts at Bon Appetit magazine to show me how it’s done. The cover recipe of the October 2011 issue, Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Loin with Roasted Apples, might have been a bit advanced for my skill level, but I figured if I could just follow the directions, I’d end up with a great meal.

Yeah, not my finest photography work. What can I say? I was hungry!

I was half right.

The only real problem I had with the recipe was with butterflying the pork loin. The instructions said that you could ask the butcher to butterfly it for you, but I skimmed over that part of the recipe. Again I figured if I followed the directions, I could do it myself.

Womp womp.

I ended up making the butterflied pork loin much too thick, which meant that it was nearly impossible to roll the stuffed loin. In hindsight, I should have reserved some of the stuffing and served it alongside the pork. Ah well, it still tasted fine. Also, since the pork loin was too fat, the prosciutto didn’t wrap around the loin completely. The other mistake I made was not reading the ingredients list carefully enough. I didn’t see the part that listed ground pork as part of the filling! I thought it was jut a vegetable stuffing. I ended up using ground turkey instead, which didn’t add any flavor at all to the dish.

Parting Thoughts

I’m so glad I followed this recipe! The results are impressive looking and great tasting. I would definitely serve this to company.  In fact, I think it would make a great alternative to turkey at a Thanksgiving meal, or be wonderful for any holiday dinner. That being said, of course there are a few things I would do differently.  Next time, I will skip the ground meat in the filling all together. It just doesn’t need it.  I will also swap out the prosciutto for bacon. The prosciutto got a bit too crisp in the oven and dried out a bit. The roasted apples were my absolute favorite part. They absorbed a lot of the pork flavors but were still sweet and tender. Awesome. The sauce was fantastic as well. A note of caution: lining the pan you roast the pork loin in is essential! My pan required a long soak before it came clean.

You can find the recipe for Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Loin with Roasted Apples here: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/10/prosciutto-wrapped-pork-loin-with-roasted-apples

I’ll keep things short and sweet for this post. This Olive Oil + Cherry Coffee Cake is a cinch to pull together once you pit your cherries, which takes forever and makes a huge mess. I wouldn’t be mad at you if you used frozen pitted cherries, even though fresh are way better tasting.

The reason it’s so effortless if because I used baking mix. Specifically Trader Joe’s Multigrain Baking & Pancake Mix. It makes terrible pancakes, but awesome coffee cake and biscuits. I suggest picking some up, or another brand if you don’t have Trader Joe’s where you live.

Olive Oil + Cherry Coffee Cake

1 egg
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2.5 cups baking mix (I used Trader Joe’s Multigrain Baking Mix)
1/4 cup + 2tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, stemmed, pitted, and sliced in half

Preheat your oven to 350. Lightly spray an 8×8 baking dish with olive oil or nonstick spray. Set aside.

Measure the milk in a glass measuring cup and add the vinegar. Stir briefly and set aside to “sour.” The milk will curdle slightly, that’s what you want to happen.

In a mixing bowl lightly beat the egg. Add the oil and the milk. Mix well.

Add the sugar and baking mix. Stir until just combined. Fold in the cherries.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool slightly and then cut into squares and serve!

I found this cute popsicle mold at the grocery store the other day for only $3 and had to pick it up. I love frozen treats in the summer and I’m sad to say that I have never really made my own. I knew that I could play around with ingredients to make fancy popsicles, but I figured I would start out with a mixture I was pretty sure would work out: creamsicles.

The instructions on the popsicle molds suggested trying a smoothie mixture in the popsicles, which I thought sounded great. So I simply mixed together fruit juice and plain yogurt, with a little maple syrup for sweetness and added some diced fruit. The results were great! I can’t wait to play around with other combinations. I’m thinking peach + mint would be pretty awesome!

Strawberry-Orange Creamsicle Popsicles

Makes 4 popsicles. My popsicle molds each hold a little less than 1/2 cup.

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 4 strawberries, diced

Whisk together the yogurt, orange juice, and maple syrup in a bowl. Place 1 diced strawberry in each of 4 popsicle molds. Pour 1/4 of the yogurt mixture into each mold. Insert the sticks and caps, and freeze until completely firm, at least several hours.

Life has been a little crazy lately. <–When has it not been?

Anyway, crazy in this case is good, because I have been working!

(PHEW!)

I decided to stop waiting around for employers to give me a job, and start making something happen for myself. I’m doing freelance writing (legal and food-related) as well as working as a research attorney for a law firm. I’m still trying to fill up my time since freelance/contract work means that you only work when someone needs your services, but I’m off to a good start, and I’m feeling proud of myself for making this happen. I would prefer to have a more stable job with benefits and a steady salary, but for now I’m doing okay.

The other crazy thing is that Mex just accepted a new job! He’s loving it so far and his employer seems great. He doesn’t work from home anymore, and his commute to work has been crazy (the 405 is not your friend), so we’re actually moving! To the beach! Details to come.

So there are a lot of crazy things going on in my life lately, but they are all good things and I’m excited to get out of the funk I have been in. To deal with the craziness, I’ve been trying to use my free time to make big batches of food to freeze or refrigerate so that even if we’re tired at the end of the day we can still have a great homemade meal.

This Vegetable Baked Ziti is a great make ahead meal because it’s comforting, healthy, and super easy to put together. It’s very versatile, and you can customize it to what you like.

Swap out the vegetables with whatever you like or whatever you have on hand. Use fresh, frozen, canned, leftover veggies in any combination that sounds good to you. Just shoot for about 4 total cups of veg.

The cream cheese in the sauce makes it creamy and almost makes it taste like penne ala vodka or a cheater version of vegetable lasagna. You could omit it, substitute ricotta cheese or cottage cheese, or even some mashed tofu if you’d like. Or use a creamy tomato sauce in place of the marinara.

This healthy baked ziti is also a complete meal, because it covers all your food groups in one dish. A salad on the side certainly wouldn’t hurt, but if you’re running  short on time, just warm up a serving of this ziti and dinner is ready.

Vegetable Baked Ziti

Makes about 6 servings. Freezes well.

• 4 cups cooked pasta (I used bowties)
• 2 medium zucchini, medium dice (about 2 cups chopped)
• 2 cups shredded broccoli
• 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
• 2 handfuls shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• pinch red pepper flakes
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cook the pasta according to package directions in your largest pot. When done, drain and set aside. Return the pot to the stove and add a splash of olive oil. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant. Add the zucchini and broccoli and stir. Season with salt and pepper and cook until softened. Add the marinara sauce and cream cheese and stir thoroughly to combine. Add the cooked pasta to the pot and stir well.

Transfer the pasta mixture to an 8×8 glass pan. Top with Parmesan, mozzarella, and panko bread crumbs.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the topping is golden brown. Makes about 6 servings.

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Try as I might, I just don’t enjoy the taste of raw broccoli.  It’s one of my favorite vegetables cooked, but in its raw form I avoid it like the plague.

Briefly blanching the broccoli takes care of the raw taste while still leaving crunch, but blanching requires boiling water, draining, and chilling the blanched broccoli before serving.  Sometimes that’s just too many steps for me.

So, I decided to see if I could somehow get the raw taste out of the broccoli by essentially marinating it in an acidic dressing overnight.  I was so excited that it worked!

I used the technique to make this Qunioa and White Bean Salad.  It’s incredibly quick to mix up, and just needs to chill in the fridge overnight before eating.  It’s even faster if you make use of leftover quinoa, as I did here.  This grain salad makes for a light but hearty main dish because the quinoa is a complete protein and the broccoli and red bell pepper add a hefty serving of veggies.

Make this at night and store it in small containers and you have a healthy and inexpensive lunch to bring with you to work the next morning.

One quick shopping tip: If you can find quinoa in the bulk bins, it’s usually much cheaper than if you buy it packaged.  If you don’t have bulk available, you can usually find it in either the healthy foods section or where you buy rice.  In fact, quinoa cooks much like rice does.

To cook quinoa:

• First, rinse the quinoa thoroughly in a fine mesh strainer
• Next, combine 2 parts liquid to 1 part quinoa in a pot.
• Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover.
• Cook about 15-20 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed the liquid.
• Fluff with a fork.

Quinoa and White Bean Salad
This salad has great texture from the creamy white beans and crunchy raw vegetables. You can use bottled salad dressing or make your own, just don’t use a creamy dressing like ranch, you need something a bit more acidic to slightly wilt the vegetables.

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked
• 1 cup canned white beans (cannellini), drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup raw broccoli florets, chopped
• 1/3 cup your favorite salad dressing (I used Trader Joe’s Tuscan Italian)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Comine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss carefully, so as not to mash the white beans.  Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight so that the flavors blend and the acid in the vinegar and salad dressing slightly wilt the broccoli.

The next day check for seasoning before serving.  If the salad soaked up all of the dressing, add a bit more, a tablespoon at a time, until it’s very lightly coated.  Serve cold or at room temperature.