I am not a baker!

I do not call myself a baker but I am going to try my hand at 2 desserts for family birthdays coming up. Pictures to follow!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/spiced_pumpkin_cheesecake.aspx

Chocolate bundt cake

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-sour-cream-bundt-cake/

Cranberry Relish

• 1 bag fresh cranberries
• 1/4 C water
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1 C fresh squeezed orange juice ( used 3 med. seedless naval oranges)
• 1 orange worth of peel, peeled wide using a vegetable peeler
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 
  
• In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, orange peel, cinnamon stick, and water. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in orange juice. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand to continue thickening. Stores for 1 week refrigerated. Serve at room temp.

Recipe adapted from Tasting Table on PBS and Martha Stewart.

I have NO idea how to make this picture more appetizing, but seriously, I've gone from a cranberry non-believer to cranberry addict!

Green eggs and ham breakfast

One egg

1/4 cup egg white

1/3 package of frozen chopped spinach

Add sprinkle of onion powder and garlic powder

Two slices of Canadian bacon

Sprinkle of finely grated sharp sharp cheddar cheese

Cooked with a little smart balance 

served with toasted English muffin

Eggplant & Sweet Potato Green Curry

I found this in one of those bookstore bargain table over-sized cookbooks--"The Complete Stir-Fry Cookbook." It is a wonderful recipe that features a couple ingredients I have been wanting to work into our diet more often: eggplant and sweet potato. I will have to add a picture next time we make this, as it is all gone now. The lime juice and zest make for a zippy, fresh flavor. The purple eggplant, orange sweet potato, and green cilantro are quite colorful together, too.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp green curry paste
1 1/2 c coconut milk
1 med-lrg sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 med eggplant, quartered and sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce (we like the 3 crabs brand)
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1/2 c loosely packed cilantro leaves

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a large wok and stir-fry the onion and curry paste for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the coconut milk and 1 cup of water to the wok. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potato and cook for 6 minutes. Add the eggplant to the wok and cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender, stirring often. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, zest, and sugar. Gently toss contents of wok. Sprinkle with the cilantro leaves and serve.

Note: The recipe originally called for 6 kaffir lime leaves to be added with the eggplant. They are not available very often at my local international grocery store, so I omitted them and though the finished product was still wonderful.

NUTRITION PER SERVING (6)

Protien 3 g; Fat 16 g; Carbs 14 g; Fiber 3 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; 205 calories

Hummus Kalaya

Julie has already posted one hummus recipe from the Cheese Factory that uses canned garbonzos. You can see that recipe here. The recipe here uses dry beans and is from the Chicago Diner.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 pound dried garbanzo beans (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 quarts water
1/2 coarsely chopped green onion
1/2 cup parsley
3 Tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1-2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

Bring the beans and water to boil, and simmer 1 1/2 hours until they are very tender. The softer they are the creamier the hummus will be. Drain the beans, reserving about 1 cup of the liquid. Place the beans in a food processor with the reserved liquid and remaining ingredients, and process until smooth.

Note: There are a few ways to speed up the cooking time on the garbanzo beans. A quick search online found suggestions to: add 1/2-1 tsp of baking soda to the cooking water; soak the beans for 12 hours before simmering in the soaking water; and use a pressure cooker. I also found suggestions to add a postage stamp sized piece of kombu (dried kelp used heavily in Japanese cooking, particularly in making dashi stock) to the pot while cooking. It will speed up cooking too, as well as helping to eliminate gas from the beans and making them easier to digest.

To make the veggies:

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot
1 small zucchini
1 red or yellow bell pepper
1 medium red onion
1/4 small head of red cabbage
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1 rounded Tbsp dried oregano
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cut all veggies to similarly sized matchsticks. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add all ingredients except the spinach and red cabbage. Cook until the veggies have started to soften and have a little color. You need to make sure not to stir them too frequently if you want color to develops. Now add the spinach and cabbage and cook just a couple minutes  until the spinach has wilted.

Arranging everything for serving
Pita bread can be heated in the oven or on the stove top in a cast iron skillet. Cut them in 6 pieces and arrange in a ring on your serving piece with the points facing out. Arrange the veggies to form a sort of next in the middle of the pita and then spoon hummus into the center. If desired, you can further dress the plate with a quick drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika and/or chopped parsley.

Hot and Steamy Salmon

 


So I was looking for super food recipes today and found several for salmon. Most of them were grilled though, and I was not quite committed enough to this endeavor to fire up the grill for the season just yet. I always feel like I over cook fish on the grill or in the broiler anyway. Something made me think, "poached," and then I remembered we have a bamboo steamer. It gets a fair amount of use, but mostly for steaming dumplings. So I consulted Google and found several tips for cooking fish in a bamboo steamer. This is the recipe I went with:


Cook time: 10 Minutes
Prep time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients

* 2 4-6oz Salmon Fillets
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 scallions
* 4 slices ginger
* 1 lemon
* 2 tsp sesame oil
* Pepper to taste

Directions

* Rinse and pat dry the salmon fillets.  Drizzle soy sauce,  salt, and pepper over the fish.  Sprinkle with sliced scallions and ginger.

* Cut the lemon in half and then cut half a lemon into thin slices.

* Use about 1 section of your bamboo steamer (about 1 inch tall).  Place either some cabbage, butter lettuce, or banana leaf down on the steamer and lay the fish on top.  Place the sliced lemon on top of the fish.  Squeeze the remaining juice from 1/2 the lemon all over the top.

* Steam the fish for 8-10 minutes by placing the bamboo steamer over boiling water in a wok or similar dish.

* Remove from heat and drizzle the sesame oil over the fillets.  Serve hot over rice, bok choy, or thin noodles. (I skipped the sesame oil described here and opted for a teriyaki sauce instead--see below)


View this recipe at its original site here.

I put fresh broccoli in the second steamer basket and already had brown rice going in our rice cooker. To dress it up a little, I pressed the rice into a small bowl to use it as a mold and then flipped it over onto the plate. I then sprinkled some black sesame seeds on the rice for further decoration. On the side, I made a simple maple teriyaki sauce. It was delicious on everything; the rice, the broccoli, and the salmon.

Here's the recipe for the sauce:

2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients and stir well.