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.

Potato leek soup / Pasta (or rice) with sauteed veggies

I got a bunch of organic leeks in this week's produce delivery, so I made potato leek soup.   I love this soup; it tastes great, it's easy to make, and unlike some non-dairy interpretations of classics, I don't miss the milk products.  I made the soup in the morning, while we were getting ready to go out for the day, and was able to quickly put together a salad and pasta dish to go with it when we came back. 

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 leeks, white and palest green parts only, chopped and well washed (chop them first to make sure you wash all the dirt out)
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of non dairy (and non hydrogenated) butter substitute
• 4 to 6 cups of veggie broth
• optional sprig of rosemary or other herbs
• 1 to 2 cups soy milk
• sea salt & pepper

Saute the leeks in the buttery stuff over low heat until they are wilted and limp (maybe 8 to 10 minutes).  Add the potatoes, enough stock to cover, the optional herbs, and bring to a simmer.  Put a lid on it, and let it simmer until the potatoes are cooked, about a half hour to 45 minutes.  Remove from the heat, add soy milk.  At this point you can either remove and mash some or all of the potatoes, put some or all of the soup in the blender, or (my favorite way) use a hand blender to get the soup to the consistency you like.  Add s&p to taste. 

I also had some zucchini in the produce box, and red bell peppers in the fridge.  I cut up and diced those and sauted them in olive oil and garlic.  I added part of the saute to pasta, for the girls and John, and I microwaved some brown rice to add to the rest of it for me.  The hot pepper flakes were added after so it wouldn't be too hot for the girls.  They loved it, which I wasn't expecting. 

And that cube of garlic in the tiny glass bowl, is a genius product I buy at Trader Joe's.  They're little frozen cubes of garlic, basil, cilantro, and parsley.  I *love* them and use them all the time.

Chilled avocado soup

I'm so ridiculously full right now.  Painful.  I've been craving avocado soup, and finally made it this afternoon.  I'd forgotten how simple and how good it is. 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium avocados (peeled, pitted, and diced)
• 1 tablespoon shallots (peeled and chopped)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (or butter)
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 1 cup soy milk (I use unsweetened)
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 medium tomato (diced)

In a blender or food processor, blend avos until smooth.  In a small skillet over medium heat, saute the shallots in the oil until tender and almost translucent but not browned.  Sprinkle with chili powder and set aside to cool.  In a large bowl, whisk together avocado with stock and soy milk.  Add shallot mixture and whisk until smooth.  Stir in sea salt and pepper to taste, maybe some hot sauce.  Chill for 45 minutes, garnish with tomato.

I doubled the recipe so we could have some tomorrow, too.  While the soup chilled, I baked some tofu and boiled a bunch of swiss chard.  I put some raw pinenuts in the oven to toast (those went into a mixed herb salad) while the tofu baked, and cut up enough tomato for the soup garnish and for the salad.  When the tofu was a couple minutes away from being done I microwaved some Trader Joe's precooked and frozen brown rice.  I didn't have room for the salad, and that photo of my plate was taken before I added an unholy amount of real mayo to dip the chard in.  (I don't wanna know if you use miracle whip.  Mayo must be real -- preferably homemade though I rarely make it --  and that is non-negotiable.)

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*)

Birthday Watermelon

Sophie turned six last Sunday.  We had a party at ChuckECheese during the afternoon, and I cooked a supper that she likes for that night: rosemary, olive oil, and garlic roasted chicken, broccoli rabe (baby broccoli) sauteed in olive oil, baby yellow potatoes roasted with (you guessed it) olive oil, rosemary, and salt.  For the grownups, I also sauteed some fresh spinach with pine nuts and canellini beans.  In olive oil. 

Can you use olive oil too much?  No.  Especially when it's from Spain.  But that's just my opinion. 

Earlier in the day, before I made supper, but after she'd had ChuckECheese cake, Sophie requested a watermelon with candles instead of a cake, which made me insanely happy.  All I did was cut the watermelon in two, then slice off the bottom so it would sit evenly on the plate.  She put the candles in, the boys helped light them, and we sang.  It was a really great watermelon; we ate it all.  And, for once, I didn't have to say no thanks to birthday "cake."

Favorite cookbooks

Of all the cookbooks I've ever had, these two have consistently produced great results:

Here's proof I'm not making that up:

Roasted zucchini, sauteed sugar snap peas, and brown rice

Every Friday a nice young man from Westside Organics shows up at my door with a box of fresh and (mostly) local organic produce.  Yesterday he brought sugar snap peas and zucchini, along with strawberries, white peaches, apricots, apples, bananas, an avocado, a lemon, spinach, and a mango. 

I didn't have much time to spend cooking tonight, and the kids just wanted pasta with butter.  I know that is a horrible supper, but I let them slide since they usually eat healthier because I was lazy. 

I can't eat pasta with butter, so I made brown rice with zucchini and peas.

Ingredients!

• brown rice (I use the frozen already cooked kind from Trader Joe's because sometimes I don't want to wait 40 minutes for brown rice)
• 3 or 4 zucchini
• sugar snap peas
• olive oil
• tamari
• sesame oil
• salt & pepper

I washed and stemmed the peas and put them in a bowl.

Then I washed the zucchini, cut off the ends, and sliced them lengthwise.  I brushed a baking sheet with olive oil, set the strips in a single layer, and then brushed them with more olive oil and sprinkled them with salt.  I put them in a 350 degree oven (probably could have been hotter) and set the timer for 15 minutes. 

While the zucchini cooked, I got the pasta going and set out a skillet (a wok would be better) for the peas.   When the 15 minutes were up, I turned the zucchini slices over and put them back in the oven for ten more minutes. 

Then I started the peas.  Just heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on high heat (watch out for the splat factor), add the peas and stir fry until they are shiny green.  Maybe until they start to brown, if you like.  When they are finished, put them in a bowl (I use a spatula instead of just pouring them all in so I don't end up with too much oil), and drizzle 2 tablespoons tamari and 1 teaspoon (I probably used three times that, though) sesame oil over the top.  Then I just mixed it up with the brown rice, which I doused in tamari and sesame oil. 

It desperately needed some red; if I could have a do-over, I'd add red bell peppers (stir fried) or tomatoes (roasted with the zucchini).  Red pepper flakes would have looked nice, too, but I wasn't feeling the hot. 

The kids ate their pasta.  I tried to feed them some veggies, but they were having none of it.  That's okay.  More for the grown-ups.