Potluck.

I hosted a "potluck." Nobody else brought food, except for some chips and dip. I'm okay with this- I love to cook and cooked way too much, but I have to note that people here suck at potlucks. (Although the homemade bean dip was very good.)

I made this stuffed pepper recipe from the Deborah Madison Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook. I used green peppers from my garden instead of red. I skipped out on the bread crumbs because I don't have a food processor/good way to crumble bread. I love the stuffing a lot. I think next time I try this, I will just cut up the peppers and put them in the mix. No point in stuffing. Makes it too hard to eat.

(I also made a tomato pasta dish that I don't care to elaborate on. It wasn't wonderful. I think I will freeze it though- it would be good in soups.)

For dessert I made strawberry cupcakes using overly ripe strawberries from my health food store. It told me to puree, but again, I have no food processor, so I mashed them up with a potato masher. (I'm not actually sure if it is technically a potato masher. That's just all I've ever used it for. Until yesterday.) I iced the cupcakes with this super simple frosting. The cupcakes ended up tasting almost like strawberry shortbread- the strawberry flavor wasn't entirely throughout the entire cupcake, but it was pretty decent.

Swiss Chard

I have a lot of swiss chard in my garden and had no idea how to cook it. This is a variation of several recipes I found online.

2 tbsp olive oil
large pinch of red pepper flakes
a large teaspoon of pre-cut, ready to go garlic
large bundle of swiss chard (washed and cut into approx. 1 inch strips)
teaspoon of butter
salt

In a large pan, let olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic sautee for about a minute. Then add swiss chard.

(My swiss chard filled the pan)

Let this sit for about five minutes. Stir. Cover for about five minutes again. Add teaspoon of butter and salt. Stir. Eat.

(I ate mine with the bread I made the other day.)

I am very certain that I used far too many red pepper flakes. I think I seriously underestimate red pepper flakes. I liked the dish, but probably would have liked it more with less red pepper.

Also...

I think it should be noted that cold, very lightly sauced leftover spaghetti with the fake shaker Parmesan cheese is a wonderful, wonderful meal. Also, split peas are decent cold. I have not yet mastered split pea soup.

Simple Sandwich

I haven't been around my own computer lately with internet access.

Just wanted to show you all this glorious sandwich that I conquered earlier this week:It's made of homemade bread, fresh picked lettuce from my garden and extra sharp white cheddar cheese. I wish I had a tomato, but this simple sandwich was quite good enough for me at the end of a busy day.

Whole Wheat Bread, Eaten!

Once the bread finished, around midnight, I had a very hard time waiting for it to cool. I waited for about three minutes, grabbed a potholder and went for it.







The outside was pretty crunchy- and there's a lot of outside surface because it was so oddly shaped. I thought it might have been a little on the dry side, but totally not intolerably so. I spread some butter on it and was super happy.

This morning, the bread was entirely different. It is very possibly due to the fact that I put the bread back in the loaf pan, covered it with plastic wrap, put that back in the bread machine and covered it with a towel. (We have knats who really like food. I'm trying to discourage them.) This morning, the bread was much softer and much moister. It was a wonderful breakfast.

I think next time I use this recipe, I'll add a little more butter, and maybe a little more honey. When I was eating it this morning, I came across a sweet spot where there was just a very light drizzle of honey left. It was delicious.

I have good feelings about this bread machine.

Whole Wheat Bread

I am currently making my first loaf of bread ever. A friend let me borrow her bread machine and my current housemate and I decided to use it.

I found the recipe on the internet.

1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey or sugar
4 teaspoons margarine or butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 active dry yeast

(In my bread machine) Add ingredients in order listed; wet first, yeast last. Select "basic" cycle. This is going to take three and a half hours.

The anticipation is killing me!

Pancakes

I made these on my first official day in the SENS house- my first cooking project to get to know the kitchen.

I found it on the internet.

1.5 c. flour
3.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 c. milk
1 egg
3 tbs butter, melted

Mix all dry ingredients. Make a well and pour wet ingredients inside. I used butter in a cast iron skillet. Reloaded the butter in between every couple of pancakes.

Very good and simple. The butter gives it an excellent flavor. Worth repeating.