Wild Kitchen

Guacamole

We love avocados around here.  Usually I'll just split one in half, remove the pit, sprinkle it with salt and give the girls one half each, along with a tiny spoon.  When I could eat bread (*sigh*) I used to love toast with smashed avocado and salt on top for breakfast.  And, of course, I am passionate about guacamole. 

I picked up this little guacamole kit from Trader Joe's, and I have to say I ended up with the best homemade guacamole I've ever made.  (We'll pretend that my earliest attempts did NOT include mayo.  I know.  Shameful.)  The recipe is simple enough, and could certainly be modified, but it's nice to pick up all the ingredients in one little box -- and the three times I've bought the kit, the avocados have always been perfectly ripe. 

The kit has a shallot, garlic, jalepeno, tomato, lime, and two avocados.  We had more around so I added a third.  Check out the itty bitty avo that was in the bag with the others.  It's hard to tell in the picture just how little it is; smaller than an apricot. 

The kit directions call for dicing the avocado, but I like it mashed up.  I dice the shallot and garlic really fine, seed the pepper and tomato, squeeze every last bit out of the lime, and mix it all up.  Easy-peasy, and very, very good.

Chips with salsa and Tofutti cream cheese

I miss cheese.  Spanish Manchego, brie, bleu, Havarti, sharp cheddar,  Mascarpone, fresh mozzarella, smoked Monterey Jack, feta, Parmesan. . . okay -- this is torture and I'm going to stop. 

I've never found a good soy cheese, and most contain a little dairy anyhow.  BUT, the Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese is pretty good mixed up with my favorite salsa.  I dip corn chips in it, but you could find more creative uses, I'm sure. 

My former mother-in-law used to make a great chili and cream cheese dip which I'm hoping to try and recreate one of these days.  I'll even take photos.

Homemade Hummus, sans garlic

Hummus and chips.  It's a meal for me on far too many days, because it's quick and safe to eat and actually pretty healthy.  But, you know, sometimes I just don't want to deal with the tremendous garlic breath it leaves me with.  Especially if I'm going to yoga later.  Garlic breath makes it impossible to fully enjoy the sighing exhales after 90 minutes of ujjayi breathing.  I want my sighing exhale, so I decided to make hummus without garlic.  I know it's intrinsically wrong, since the real ingredients are chick peas, tahini, lemon juice. olive oil and garlic.  Lots of garlic.  And then, more garlic.

The result was, um, bland, even though I used cumin for seasoning and garnish.  That was fine with me at first, but then I decided that I could dress it up some with things that wouldn't leave me with bad breath.  Why do the sugar-free mini altoids have to contain WHEAT?  WHY?  I took out a couple of small bowls and experimented a little.  The basil hummus was good, but the cayenne and paprika was wrong.  The cayenne was right, but the paprika was too deviled-eggy, if that makes sense.   I found myself wishing for some sundried tomatoes or roasted eggplant to add instead. 

If you've never made hummus before, try it out.  It's easy and good and a quick thing to bring to parties. 

• 2 cups canned (drained) chick peas
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• as much or as little garlic as you like
• 1 tablespoon cumin (or to taste)
• s&p
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Puree everything in a food processor, except for the water and the 1 tbsp of olive oil.  With the processor on, add enough water to get the right consistency.  Serve the hummus in a bowl, sprinkled with cumin and the rest of the olive oil and a huge bag of corn chips.

Skinny omelette from 101Cookbooks.com

I have discovered that it pays to complain bitterly to your friends about dietary restrictions, because then they help you scout out good food!  The lovely and wonderful Elkit has been sending tips and recipes my way, and I got to make one of them for lunch today. 

The Skinny Omelette Recipe from 101Cookbooks sounded really great to me, and even though mine wasn't perfect it was very, very good.  I used chopped organic roma tomato and diced avocado for the filling, and put basil in the egg.  My problem was the pan I used must've been too small -- my omelette wasn't thin enough.  It was wonderful, though, and next time (like, tomorrow morning) I'll use a bigger pan or not quite all the eggs.  Sophie loved it, too, though her favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with cheese rolled in a flour tortilla  (I miss that -- this was just as good in its own way).

Cinnamon toast

*sigh*

I can't eat cinnamon toast, at least not with any of the bread in our house at the moment.  This morning two of the five kids here wanted me to make some, so I did it up right -- under the broiler.  Sometimes we make cheater's cinnamon toast, by toasting the bread in a regular toaster, adding butter, cinnamon, and sugar, and then (turn your head if you are a hard-core foodie) microwaving it for ten seconds to get the sugar melty. 

I know.   Evil personified. 

This time, though, just to torture myself, I turned the broiler on low, put the bread on an ungreased baking sheet, and slathered way too much butter on each piece.  Then I added the cinnamon (organic), the organic and less processed and therefore larger grained (crystalled?) sugar, and slipped it into the oven for a few minutes, keeping a close eye so it wouldn't burn. 

Good cinnamon toast is crunchy on top and soft on the bottom.  The kids loved it.  Excuse me while I go cry in the corner and complain about things being so unfair.

Rice pasta with roasted zucchini, basil, olive oil, & red pepper flakes

Tonight initially looked pretty grim.  We're low on groceries, and no one wants the things we do have.  I ended up taking the kids to play at a friend's house after school, and we didn't even get home until nearly 6.  Luckily, though, we came home with some homegrown squash (think round zucchini):

Of course the kids weren't interested in trying any, so I made pinto bean and cheese quesadillas for the girls, and a flour tortilla with black refried beans and lettuce for Lex.  Nathan has to do a presentation for his second grade class tomorrow on how to make his favorite sandwich.  He practiced by making a couple of BLTs tonight; one for him and one for Lex.  While all this was going on, I made something that I could eat.  (John was at work till late, so I just cooked for myself.) 

I washed and diced the squash, and put it on a baking sheet that I'd brushed with olive oil.  Then, I stirred two of the Trader Joe's frozen basil cubes (those things are genius!) into more olive oil, added some sea salt and brushed that on the squash.  It would have been MUCH easier to just toss it all in a bowl to coat.  Next time.

I cooked the squash in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes, and in the meantime cooked some rice pasta.  When the pasta was finished, I transferred it to a large skillet with the rest of the olive oil and basil mixture and put the heat on medium.  The squash went in next, along with a few shakes of red pepper flakes.  This would have been awesome with some soft goat cheese, but I can't have it.  If you can, add it and enjoy it for me.  I just heated it for a minute or so, enough to get everything warm.  It was pretty good, but I'm still not a huge fan of rice pasta.  Probably would have been better with brown rice.  (And goat cheese. *sigh*)

Why Wild Kitchen? / Baked Tofu

Why did I call this blog Wild Kitchen?  Tonight while I was making supper/doing laundry (my washer and dryer are in a little closet in the kitchen) my daughters ran past me.  Willow (the younger one) was clothed and holding one end of a jumprope.  She was towing Sophie, who was only wearing her underpants.  Tied to the side of her underpants was the other end of the jumprope.  They tore past me, laughing and screaming about naked heinies. 

Wild enough?

John is working until at least 10 pm.  The boys went to a friend's house tonight; hopefully they will come home at 8pm fed.   The girls wanted toast and flat eggs.  If you order a flat egg around here, you'll get a fried egg white.  My kids won't eat egg yolks, unless it's scrambled eggs.  They call the yolk in hard boiled eggs "egg cheese" "egg pits"  "egg seeds" or "the gross part."  I eat a TON of egg yolks.  Tonight was no exception and I ate four scrambled egg yolks before I even made my own supper.  Healthy, no?

I wasn't too hungry (duh) an hour later when I finally had a moment to make something to eat.  I had cold broccoli rabe (leftovers from Sunday night) and baked some tofu. 

Ingredients:

• extra-firm tofu ( I always use the organic kind -- it's still cheap enough)
• honey
• sesame oil
• tamari
• fresh ground pepper

I start by slicing the tofu lengthways into two or three sections.  Then, I blot those dry with clean flour sack kitchen towels.  I chop them (the tofu pieces, not the towels) into cubes, put them in a bowl and add a mixture made from one part honey, one part sesame oil, and two parts tamari.  I don't measure, but I think that's roughly how I do it.  (If you've never used tamari before, it's very much like soy so you won't need to add salt.  Pepper is always a safe date, though.)  I let the tofu sit in the marinade in the fridge if I have time.  Or, you could just let it sit while the oven preheats to 400 degrees.  The tofu goes on a baking sheet, then into the oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

I prefer this with a little heat, but I thought Willow might eat some.  She had plain raw tofu instead.  You could add fresh grated ginger, red pepper flakes, your favorite hot sauce, or whatever heat you like.  Here's my supper, which I was happy to eat all alone.  Bliss.

Once again, I ended up with a pretty plate, but it really needed more color.  I was hoping to find some cherry tomatoes or red bell peppers in the fridge, but no luck.  I did finally find the perfect red compliment though.