New Year’s Eve and a Cookbook Review

Ahhh, New Year’s Eve. Parties, glittery nails, sparkly dresses, glasses of champagne….basically, not at all what my NYE looked like. Mine was more along the lines of staying in, cooking a massive feast, drinking wine, and getting into bed by 12:45. Jelly? You should be.

Instead of going out this year, we decided to stay in and do what we never ever do – spend too much money at Whole Foods, and too much time in the kitchen prepping and cooking a totally decadent meal. We hadn’t really decided on what to make, when I got an Amazon package yesterday from my mom with a new cookbook in it, Plenty. PERFECT timing, Mom! The book is INCREDIBLE, and I’ll get into more details later, but all there is to know now is that it’s filled with amazing vegetarian recipes that are both simple yet unbelievably tasty. We picked three recipes from the book, then set off to Whole Foods to stock up on supplies.

It took us about three hours to prepare and eat (inhale) everything but it was so, so worth it. Our menu consisted of:

- Fig, goat cheese and arugula salad

- Marinated bufala mozzarella and sliced tomatoes (photo below)

- Stuffed portobello mushrooms (with melted tallegio cheese, parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes. Photo below)

- A MASSIVE cajun rubbed steak (for Brian, obv.)

- Hazelnut S’Mores for dessert (photo below)

We also finaaaally opened a bottle of wine we picked up during our trip to Italy. It was delicious.

Now. Back to the cookbook. THE COOKBOOK. It was as if this book was MADE for me. It revolves entirely around vegetables, with a touch of dairy thrown in here and there. The book is split into chapters by family of vegetable – mushrooms, root veggies, beans, peppers, squashes, etc.  The photos are beautiful, instructions easy and (my favorite part) the recipes aren’t complicated. They each contain ingredients you have in your kitchen (garlic, salt, onion, oil, pepper), and all focus on the taste of the vegetable itself versus hiding it behind complicated sauces and spices. I can’t recommend it enough. GET IT!

Happy New Year!

To a year of happiness, health and GOOD FOOD. YAY 2012!

 

Italy in Photos

Food photos, I mean. (You didn’t actually think we went sightseeing or anything, did you?)

Brian and I went to Italy in April. We were there for a week and, well, we ate a LOT. A lot of cheese, wine, bread, pizza, and coffee. In fact, I didn’t consume a SINGLE green the entire week, which is pretty rare for me. Not even a side dish! Anyway, my body paid me back, because by the end I was sick, and I NEVER get sick (knock on….coffee table.) Brian made a funny analogy, and compared my body (the insides, people) to a Ferrari. Runs smooth about 99% of the time, but if a tiny thing goes wrong, the whole thing shuts down. Oops. I was definitely shut down by the end of the trip, and in fact, as SOON as I got home did a 2 day cleanse to restore my body back to what it was pre Italy. Phew. Definitely did the trick. Anyway, enough complaining! The food was incredible. These are all pretty self explanatory, so enjoy!

An Herb “Garden”

Not the greatest picture, I’ll admit, but alas here it is! Our little herb “garden” aka plastic container attached to our window sill. Confessions: these were NOT grown from scratch! A few weeks ago, I suddenly wanted to grow my own herbs. Immediately. We went to a gardening store down the street, picked up a container, some soil, and then I went down to the farmer’s market and picked up already grown (don’t judge) sage, rosemary and basil. Came home, re-planted everything and sat  back to admire my (Brian’s) handiwork.

It’s been three weeks since we planted them and so far so good! I’ve used the herbs to make:

• Rosemary baby potatoes
• Roasted butternut squash with sage
• Chopped basil for pasta

The best part about them (aside from knowing they’re fresh, organic, pesticide free, etc) is that I don’t have to worry about them going bad! Snip them when I need them, use, repeat. Plus, they’re surprisingly easy to take care of. I was thinking they’d have croaked by now, but nonetheless, they are standing strong. Lesson learned? GROW YOUR OWN HERBS!

Anybody out there?

Anyone? Followers…you guys still there?

For those of you that have stuck around (Hi, Mom!) I won’t bore you with a litany of excuses as to why I haven’t been blogging. I just wasn’t feeling it, and didn’t want to force myself to blog. The good news is that I HAVE been cooking (and snapping pics) so there is new stuff coming! I can’t promise that I’ll go back to blogging 1x per day as there’s a lot going on these days. I’m training for a half marathon (!), doing more yoga and don’t have as much time as I did before….but fear not! There are good things coming :)

Oh! Another announcement: while I still stay away from all meat (chicken, fish and red meat), I have been incorporating some dairy and some egg back into my diet so don’t be surprised to see a recipe here and there with butter or eggs. Nothing crazy, and not too often but it’s definitely there.

Now….onto what I’ve been up to for the past few months….

Where I’ve Been

I’m alive, I’m alive! A LOT of stuff has been happening over the past few weeks, and I haven’t spent nearly as much time in the kitchen as I’m used to.

• I moved a week and a half ago to Hoboken, NJ (just for six weeks though! I’ll be back, NYC. Swearsies.)
• The week before the move, I was packing the kitchen and ate out a lot (see: every night).
• Now that I’m IN Hoboken there have been a lot of visitors, events after work, and….yeah, just not a lot home cooking.

I’m hoping this will change relatively soon. This week is another busy one plus I’m going out of town this weekend, so not making any promises, but hopefully I’ll have some good stuff to share soon!

A New Addition To The Family: Herbert

Not much to say here except that:

• I nabbed this thing at Trader Joe’s for a mere 2.99 (!). A box of basil from TJs costs about a dollar more — can someone explain THAT to me?!
• I’ve been dying to grow my own herbs all season and now, I finally can!
• I’ve had this for a week and have used basil in 80% of the meals I’ve made and it’s delicious.
• After a week of basil consumption, Herbert’s stems are looking pretty barren. But thats okay! I water once a day, leave him in sufficient sunlight, and I have a feeling he’ll be back in shape in no time.

I’m hooked. Long gone are the days of packaged basil. If you’re one of those people that believes that adding basil to anything will make it tastes better (me, me, me) and you happen to be in a TJs or farmer’s market this weekend, pick a basil plant up. You won’t be disappointed!

Kitchen Cleanout: Veggies and Beans

We’re going out of town this weekend – Charleston, SC to be exact. I’m pretty excited. I went last year for the fourth of July and it was, to directly quote some of us as we lounged in the lake, beers in hand: “THE BEST FOURTH OF JULY OF OUR LIVES!” (truth.) So, naturally, I’m ready to relive it.

In honor of leaving for three days, I decided to skip grocery shopping this week (!) and make do with whatever I have in my fridge. There’s a bunch of stuff in there as well as in the pantry that’s been sitting around for too long, so this is the week it’s all going to be eaten.

Tonight was pretty simple: tofu, frozen bell peppers + onion mix, canned latin style black beans, microwaveable brown rice. Fancy? Hells no. Really good anyway? Mmmhm.

I won’t bore you with the details of exactly how we cooked the frozen vegetables (on the stove) or how we “prepared” the beans (in the microwave), but I will say it was a successful meal. We set out a bunch of different sides, mixed them all together, added in a bunch of chopped up cilantro, smothered everything in hot sauce, and voila –  a lazy Monday night dinner.

Update, Update! How To: Tofu

Guys! A WONDERFUL thing happened! Remember my How To: Tofu post from a few days ago? Well, Brian read it and surprised me with my very own TofuXPress! (I’m convinced he bought it just to save himself from “pressing” duty, which is usually how he helps out with tofu dinners. Whatever his reasons, I care not — the fact is that I came home from work today and there it was, waiting for me, all shiny and new. Thanks Bri!)

I LOVE IT. It was easy to put together (aka there is no “putting together” required), and after having the tofu in the presser for about 15 seconds, there was already a pool of water accumulated. We poured out the water, put it in the fridge, and 10 minutes later, it had filled up again. The box says to leave the TofuXpress in the fridge for an hour to let it fully drain, but I couldn’t wait the whole hour, so after about 20 minutes (and draining it twice) I decided that my tofu was drained enough.

Bonus? The darn thing comes with a marinating top! Once you’ve drained your tofu, you remove the top piece, fill the plastic container with the marinade of your choice, cover it with the marinating top, and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

I’m so happy with this thing. I can’t even tell you how much time and paper towels this will save me. I will be making tofu a LOT more now.

Note: I am rarely, if ever*, this excited about kitchen products. In fact, re-reading this post, it doesn’t even sound like me…that should show you just HOW happy I am with this little sucker.

*I admit that the only other time I was this excited about a new addition to my kitchen was when I got my Cuisinart 4 Cup Food Processor. This was the day my life changed forever.

How To: Tofu

Recently, a few of my friends have posed the question to me: “What do I do with tofu…?” While the answer to this might be obvious to those of us that have been vegetarian for a while, to others it’s a mystery, and rightfully so! I mean, it comes in a box, it’s mushy, water leaks from it, it doesn’t smell or taste like anything, and I’m supposed to be eating this stuff!? Uhhh…right.  So I wanted to dedicate a post to this exact question in the hopes that tofu making/eating will be easier to some of you!

There are really only four steps to enjoying tofu:

1. Drain

2. Flavor

3. Cook

4. Eat

1. Drain:

The most important step in cooking with tofu is draining it. All this means is removing most of the water from the brick of tofu. There are a few ways you can do this. There’s the fancy shmancy way using the Tofu X Press (I don’t own one, and can’t personally attest to how it works), or the good ‘ole “press it with something heavy and use a ton of paper towels” way, which is what I normally do.

Once you’ve removed the tofu from it’s packaging, place it on a plate, cover it with a paper towel, place another plate on the paper towel, and top it all off with something heavy: a book, a huge jar of pickles, a brick if you happen to have one lying around…you get the point. Let the “tower of tofu” sit for about 15 minutes or longer — you’ll see the water oozing out of the tofu. Good!

At this point, most of the water should be removed. But when cutting the tofu up into either slabs or cubes (more on that later) I usually use a few paper towels to soak up some of the extra water from the tofu.

2. Flavor:

Next, it’s time to cut the tofu up. There are a few ways you can do this: either cut it into slabs (one tofu brick usually cuts into 5 or 6 slabs) cubes, or triangles. I usually go with cubes if I’m going to be cooking them on a stove top or slabs if I’m going to use a grill. Regardless, once you have the tofu cut, it’s time to dress it up!

My go-to tofu marinade is soy sauce, pepper, diced garlic, sesame seeds and red chili pepper flakes. I combine the ingredients in a tupperware container, add the tofu cubes, and let them sit for at least an hour (the best thing to do is let it sit overnight, but who thinks that far ahead anyway?!)

3. Cook:

Once you have the tofu flavored, it’s time to cook it. I usually spray a skillet with olive oil spray, put it over medium heat and stir fry the tofu cubes. Once they’re brown on all sides, you’re done!

Another option, if you’ve cut/marinated the tofu in “slab” form, is grilling it. I whip out my tiny George Foreman grill that’s perfect for this exact purpose. Easy peezy.

4. Eat:

At this point you have your perfect little tofu cubes/slabs and you’re wondering what to do with them. Pair them with a few veggie sides, brown rice, noodles, put the cubes in a salad…there’s nothing you can’t add them to.

If all of this sounded a little overwhelming just remember the four easy steps: Drain, Flavor, Cook, Eat. You don’t have to follow the steps exactly as they are above –you can add/improvise the marinade, bake the tofu instead of grilling, etc.

And now I’ll leave you with some inspiration for the next time you get the tofu itch:

The Basics:

Grilled Teriyaki Tofu

Easy Baked Tofu

Grilled Tofu and Soba Noodles

A Little Fancier:

Basil Grilled Tofu

My Tofu Scramble

Note: All photos (Tofu Scramble excluded) are not mine. Tofu Marinade photo is from (never)homemaker,