We Are Going To Play A Game...

It is called - GUESS THAT FRUIT/VEGETABLE!On a separate piece of paper please write down your answer. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Open your eyes.

And the answer IS - jicama!

Or jica-huh? As my mother said when I tried to explain to her what I was making for dinner the other day. Jicama is a root vegetable that is also known as a yam bean or Mexican turnip. I'd always heard of it referred to as a cross between an apple and a potato. I really had no concept of what such a thing would taste like until I bit into it. And yeah, that description is pretty much perfect. Jicama is used mostly in fresh fruit salads because of its crisp texture and semi-sweet taste, but like any good root vegetable, it can also be mashed, baked, or fried. It's also a really good substitute for water chestnuts in stir fries. Jicama has a ridiculous amount of vitamin C so it is very good for you. Also, it is frequently fed to diabetics in place of potatoes because of the fact that humans can't process the main carbohydrate in it, and so it can't raise your blood sugar.

I picked up this nice little jicama at MIT's produce stand. I like how they occasionally have interesting vegetables for me to play with. The only problem once I had it was in deciding what to do with it. After scanning the net for a while, I chose to go with a basic veggie salad side dish. Although I have a vendetta against conventional lettuce salads, I love salads that offer a variety of textures and flavors. The recipe I used came from Simply Recipes and called for a simple lime juice dressing, which I used on the first night that I ate it. The acid was a little much for my stomach lining and so the next night, I used Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing which is my favorite dressing of all time. It was lovely.

Jicama Salad
2 huge servings or 4 normal servings, adapted from Simply Recipes

1 medium jicama, chopped into small cubes,
2 bell peppers, chopped into small cubes
1 large red onion, chopped into small cubes
1 mango, chopped into small cubes (I used a champagne mango!)
1 small cucumber
1/2 avocado (for 2 servings - use a whole one for 4)
1/2 cup cilantro
1/3 cup lime juice
a pinch of cayenne and paprika
salt, to taste

1. Cut everything. This will take about a half hour, unless your knife breaks when try to plunge it into the red onion (as mine did) in which case, all bets are off.

2. Toss everything together and let it marinate for a half hour in the fridge before serving.

I am submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted this week by Maninas of Maninas: Food Matters.

Turkish Delights

I've never actually had a Turkish Delight but the term always reminds me of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. You know the part where the witch lures Edmund into her carriage by offering him tons upon tons of Turkish delights? Really, someone should have told him never to accept candy from strangers. Things would have turned out a lot better that way.

I had Turkish food for the first time a few weeks ago, when my roommate and I went to a restaurant in Brookline. There were SO many items that I wanted to try, but alas I could only choose one, so I came away from the menu promising myself that I would try to cook some of the dishes on my own time. I was so pleasantly surprised then, when the theme for this month's Regional Recipes turned out to be Turkey. This was just the impetus I needed to force me to follow up on my resolution.

One of the things that I love about Middle Eastern cuisines/restaurants is the variety that they tend to give you on one plate. There is usually a stew-like meat, some kind of vegetable, and a grain. I also really like the ingredients they use, such as lamb, eggplant, peppers, onions, garlic, lentils, beans, pistachios, pine nuts, and olive oil. Perhaps this array of balanced ingredients is why the Mediterranean diet proves to be so effective for so many people!

A dish that especially caught my eye when perusing the Turkish restaurant's menu was one called Sultan's Delight or hunkar begendi. It traditionally consists of a lamb stew served on a bed of creamy roasted eggplant puree, although the meat can also be replaced with beef, chicken, or veal. Just the phrase "creamy roasted eggplant" was enough to convince me that this was the dish I had to make. I found a recipe for this in the cookbook Arabesque by Claudia Roden, a book that describes the delicacies of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. I modified it slightly, choosing to use beef instead of lamb (because of expense reasons - the only lamb I could find was $13 a pound...I thought that was slightly insane), but otherwise stuck pretty much to the recipe.

The verdict: it was everything I hoped it could be. The stew reminded me of dishes I've gotten at Middle Eastern restaurants in the past and the eggplant puree tasted kind of like mashed potatoes....but way better! Served with some quinoa to soak up the juices, this was a really good meal.


Hunkar Begendi or Sultan's Delight or Beef Stew with Eggplant Puree
Serves 4, adapted from Arabesque

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 1/2 lb beef (cubes for stew)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
14 oz canned diced tomatoes
3 1/2 lb eggplant
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups almond milk (or regular milk)
1 cup quinoa

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Get the stew going. Heat the olive oil and then cook the onion (chopped) until soft and browned. Add the beef, season with salt and pepper, and brown. Add the garlic, allspice, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper and cook for 2 minutes so flavors can incorporate. Add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then simmer. Cook, covered for 45 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for 30 minutes or until stew reaches desired consistency and beef is tender. Taste for seasoning.

3. While the stew is cooking, make the eggplant sauce. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and place cut side down on a greased baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Scoop the flesh out of the eggplant and, in a fine strainer, squeeze out the liquid from it. Chop the eggplant and mash it with a fork until it becomes almost paste-like.

4. Heat the milk that you will be using. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour, whisking until smooth, for two minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the warm milk, slowly. Season with salt and pepper and return to heat. Whisk continuously until sauce thickens, about 10-15 minutes.

5. Add the eggplant to the bechamel sauce, stirring until it is completely incorporated. Taste for seasoning and keep warm until everything else is ready.

6. Cook some quinoa, brown rice, bulgur, barley, or any grain you so desire to go along with this!

I am submitting this to Regional Recipes, which is being hosted this month by dp of Blazing Hot Wok.

Curry Pumpkin Hummus

Yellow is not really an appetizing color. And it's really a shame because this hummus was quite tasty. Most Indian food is also yellow. In fact, much of it kind of resembles baby food, which turns a lot of people off from eating it (at least in my parents' case). Also a shame because Indian food is amazing. In short, yellow food is extremely under-appreciated. Eat something yellow today to show your support for this under-represented food group.

I did my longest run EVER today - 10.18 miles in 1:26:39. I'll do the math for you, that comes to about 7.04 mph. A bit slower than the nine miles but I could feel myself holding myself back to conserve energy. I also ran mostly on dirt next to the sidewalk because I read that it supports your knees more. However, it also slows you down more (think of running on sand but not as bad). It was the perfect running weather this morning - 57 degrees, sunny, with a slight wind. I ended up with a tinge of sunburn on my cheeks and some more defined tan lines (although I expect they will fade). I like to think that I'm preparing for my Bahamas trip. Before we went on vacation, my mom always used to force me to sit out in the sun for about an hour every day because she thought that if I hit the beach without doing so, I would get an instantaneous sunburn. So that's what I'm doing - browning my skin little by little so that it becomes less sun-sensitive. We'll see how that works out. My mom is so funny, she told me so many old wives tales when I was little. And its not just my mother - my roommate and I were talking about this the other day and her mother told her the same ones! Things along the lines of - chocolate will give you pimples, if you shave your legs the hair will grow back thicker, etc. Does anyone else have any fun ones they'd like to share?

Anyway, sorry to digress, the topic of my mother always gets me going. She's an enigma in so many ways.

After the orgasmic cranberry sauce of last week, I knew I couldn't just go back to PB sandwiches (although I do miss my P.B. Loco...). And THEN I remembered seeing a recipe for curried pumpkin hummus on Diet, Dessert, and Dogs that I had bookmarked. It was REALLY good. It made a ton of hummus and tasted kind of like the curried lentils I made a while back (but in spreadable form, obviously). Taking on this recipe also gave me the opportunity to try to use my crockpot as a bean cooker! It was so easy to do and enabled me to not have to stand in the kitchen downstairs for two hours. If you like interesting hummus flavors, I would definitely give this a try.

Curry Pumpkin Hummus

Makes about 3 1/2 cups, adapted from Diet, Dessert, and Dogs

1 cup dry chickpeas

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

2 tbsp natural peanut butter

3 tbsp tahini

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt (I used more, to taste)

1 bunch-ish of cilantro (again, to taste)

1. First, soak your beans overnight in cold water.

2. The next morning, drain the beans and then put them in a crockpot. Cover them with water. Cover the crockpot and cook on low 10 hours or until soft.

3. In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients. Process until blended to desired consistency, adding water to taste.

I am submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted this week by Rachel of The Crispy Cook.

Maple-Soy-Glazed Salmon and Sugar Snap Pea'd Rice

Here's the plan. First, I am going to lure you in with this picture:
Are you salivating yet?

Next, I am going to tell you that before we get to any actual food, I am going to digress with some book reviews that I have been meaning to put up. The first being of Bass Cathedral by Nathaniel Mackey.

First, the amazon.com synopsis: In the fourth installment of this National Book Award–winning poet and novelist's ongoing epistolary work of fiction, Mackey (Splay Anthem) is never shy of the unwieldy or the recondite, plunging readers into the heady thoughts of N., narrating letter writer and member of the fictional early '80s jazz ensemble Molino m'Atet, who are releasing their first album, Orphic Bend. Like the plot points of Mackey's previous novels (which feature first concerts, new drummers and intra-band love triangles), the album release here serves mainly to trigger Mackey's singularly styled vamps on jazz and its mystical connotations. Mackey works in a kind of otherworldly reality, where recognizable situations quickly give way to the fanciful: the band, at one point, finds that cartoon speech balloons appear from the grooves of their album (as they appeared from the band's instruments in earlier installments), causing confusion among the band members and their fans. I dreamt you were gone... begin the balloons; from here, Mackey takes off into the wilds of abstraction and imagination. Less stridently avant-garde and more readable than its predecessors, this poetic novel is nonetheless dense and challenging. It may not be for everyone, but fans of Mackey's poetry, and of jazz, may find themselves right at home.

My thoughts: Don't read this book. Pick it up in Barnes and Noble. Open it to a random page. Read a paragraph. Marvel at the poetry of the language, the way the book seems to use form and word choice to impart the musicality that is being described. Smile. Close the book, put it back on the shelf and walk away, happy in the knowledge that you have lost nothing from not reading the entire thing since you wouldn't have understood anything that was going on anyway. Mackey tries too hard to be esoteric and avant garde with the end result being that you'll find yourself in the middle of every sentence going what the hell is going on and do I even care? The characters are somewhat pretentious and self-involved and just irritating. The language is pretty. For the life of me, I can't understand why the NY Times liked it so much.

Black Flies by Shannon Burke
Amazon.com: Gunshot wounds, crack pipes and rotting corpses abound in this raw and fascinating novel about Harlem paramedics in the mid-1990s, the second novel from former EMT Burke. Oliver Cross graduated from Northwestern as a middle-class do-gooder. But he and his partner, Rutkovsky, a jaded Vietnam veteran and one of the city's best medics, see enough massive trauma to put Cross on the fast track to deep disillusionment. Of the bizarre, tragic and often shocking emergencies encountered during Cross's rookie tenure, the crisis comes when he and Rutkovsky respond to a call from an abandoned building where a crack-addicted, HIV-positive mother has just given birth to a premature baby, and their handling of the mother and child—believed to be stillborn—will alter the course of both men's lives. Burke is a poet of trauma, and his expert, macabre portrayal takes its toll on the reader just as the job takes its toll on Cross.

My thoughts: This book is written through a series of vignettes or encounters that Cross has during his first (and only) year as a medic. It tells of various patients he saw, including all of the gory details (i.e. not for the faint-of-heart), and also does a good job of painting a picture of just how extensively this group of Harlem medics is affected by the horrors that they see on a day-to-day basis. It's also somewhat depressing, though, seeing the mental decline of these men and kind of leaves one with the impression that there are no success stories in this realm. Very few patients make it and those who do are drug-addicted, hopeless, and only live to be placed back on the road to decline. In this sense, I found this book thought-provoking but don't know that I would highly recommend it the way I would others. If you have nothing better to do, then sure go ahead and read it, but if not I don't think you'll really be missing much.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the food.



So we know that I've been VERY slowly but somewhat surely trying to cook through the Bon Appetit book. I have been craving fish recently, especially as the weather has been getting warmer. It just seems lighter and more summery. Can't explain why. This recipe for maple-soy-glazed salmon jumped out at me partially for its simplicity, partially because it features my favorite fish, and partially because it has the sweet-salty combo that I so love. The whole recipe came together within minutes and was really quite tasty. I changed it a bit in that where it called for 1 tsp of adobo sauce from a can of chiles (I wasn't about to buy a can just for 1 tsp of sauce), I added some cumin to impart a smoky flavor. Retrospectively, it probably could have used some chili powder or cayenne and maybe some acid to cut the sweet/fat combo. Perhaps a touch of vinegar. It really was good as-is, though. To go with it, I decided to include some sugar snap peas with an Asian flavor profile to complement the soy sauce in the fish glaze. I found a recipe on Veggie Venture that looked like it would fit the bill, but decided to just cook the rice and sugar snap peas together in order to minimize the number of dirty dishes. The end result being that the rice took on a kind of fried rice flavor, which was all in all quite good.

Maple-soy-glazed Salmon
Serves 2, adapted from Bon Appetit Fast/Easy/Fresh

1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cumin
3/4 lb salmon fillets

1. Whisk together maple syrup, soy sauce, and cumin. Marinate the salmon in this mixture for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat a heavy nonstick skillet. Reserving the marinade, cook the salmon for about 3 min/side or until slightly charred on the outside and just opaque in the center.

3. In a small saucepan, boil the marinade until reduced (about 4 minutes). Pour the sauce over the salmon and serve.

Sugar Snap Pea'd Rice
2 servings, adapted from Veggie Venture

1 lb sugar snap peas
1/2 cup brown rice
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a pan with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, until rice is done.

Lime Cilantro Linguine with Peanut Sauce

Last night my cousin Meghan called me to tell me she would be coming into Boston today to watch her boyfriend run the marathon and asked me if I could spare a few hours to spend some time with her. Even though we didn't spend much time together growing up (Meghan was born and raised in North Carolina), we became a lot closer this past year since she moved to NYC to go to Cornell for PA school (physician's assistant). So, of course I said yes! I met up with her around 10:30 and we proceeded to spend the day running from course mark to course mark trying to catch her boyfriend as he passed. We ended up being able to see him at mile 16 and mile 25. He finished with an earth-shattering time of 3:08!

It was awesome being at the marathon and getting to feel all of that athletic running energy. It made me think that there may be a marathon in my future... Another cool thing about spending time with Meghan was that she is a runner as well and competed in the Philly Marathon this fall. She is also currently training for a 50K Trail Run...that's right - 31 miles on DIRT. She's even crazier than I am. We had so much to talk about it was insane - between boys, love, life, running, family, etc. it seemed like the day just flew by. We just have so much in common that I'm glad we finally became close after all these years. And that was the cheesy realization of my day.

So I am now on my third-to-last of my specially flavored Pappardelle's Pasta. This flavor was kind of a toughie - lime cilantro. I sat around thinking for a while of some other flavors that are traditionally served with limes and cilantro and thought that thai seemed like a pretty good option. Then, I remembered back back way back to when I used to eat dining hall food. I got stir fry all of the time (it is made to order and is probably the safest option) and my especial favorite sauce was the peanut sauce. Suddenly, all of the stars aligned and everything fell into place; I quickly looked through some of my favorite blogs to find a recipe to start with. In addition, I spotted some Chinese eggplant at the MIT produce stand and, since it is something I never see at the regular supermarket, decided to pick some up to mix in with this pasta. In the end, the flavors of this sauce replicated the dining hall version really well and went great with the sweet tangy-ness of the pasta. I have to say, I like my sauce better than dining hall's because I added some extra spiciness to it. In my opinion, the spicier the better!

Lime Cilantro Linguine with Peanut Sauce
Serves 4, sauce adapted from Vegan Dad
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup skippy all-natural peanut butter
1/2 cup almond milk
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp thai red curry paste
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp coriander
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp sriracha (or to taste)
1 lb lime cilantro noodles
4 small chinese eggplant

1. Preheat oven to 450. Slice the eggplant so that you have a series of coin-like pieces. Arrange on a baking sheet, spray with cooking spray, and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cooked.

2. Cook the pasta.

3. Place all of the other ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Heat in a saucepan until bubbly. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

4. Mix pasta, sauce, and eggplant and serve.


I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Hillary of Chew on That.

Thai Sweet Potato Curry

I have been doing some research on this whole knee-ache thing and I discovered what the problem is. Guess what I have. Runner's knee. Is that not the funniest thing you have ever heard? I am a runner and my knee hurts on occasion and so therefore I have RUNNER'S KNEE. Way to state the obvious. It has something to do with my quads not being strong enough or something like that and so I need to do some quad-strengthening exercises, which, unfortunately happen to be some of my least favorite exercises (wall sits, squats, etc.). I may also need to get some special sneakers and so I'm planning a trip to Marathon Sports in the near future. At least it's something that's not really health-threatening or permanently damaging, so that's good news I suppose, it's just annoying.

I have a four-day weekend this weekend (for some holiday that has something to do with Paul Revere - that's New England for you) so I've been trying to enjoy the nice weather. On Friday my roommate and I went out for ice cream - Peanut Butter and Jelly flavored was the new one for the month, yesterday I went for a long walk to get my haircut, tomorrow is the Boston Marathon so I may go meet up with my cousin whose boyfriend is running in it and then my roommate and I are making a trip to Texas Roadhouse and BJ's, and on Tuesday I am planning on going clothing shopping for the Bahamas (even though I hope to be wearing very minimal amounts of clothing during that whole trip :P). Really, it's looking to be a very action-packed few days.

When I went home for spring break, I brought all my winter clothes back with me so that there would be more room in the car in June. This freed up a shelf in my closet which I am now using to display my cookbooks! (They were previously hidden away in a box.) I showed them to my roommate at which point she scoffed at the multitudes of vegan cookbooks that I own. "But Joanne, you eat meat!" she exclaimed. "Yes," I replied, "but I like the way vegans. Plus a pound of beans is less expensive than a pound of chicken. By a long shot." A few days later in an attempt to actually use some of these cookbooks, I set to making this sweet potato curry and asked her if she wanted a taste. She loved it. I pointed to The Tropical Vegan Kitchen, which is where it is from. It just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by its cover. Literally.

Thai Sweet Potato Curry
Serves 2, adapted from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen

1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp red curry paste
3/4 lb sweet potato
1 can lite coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz peanuts, chopped
2 scallions
3/4 cup brown rice

1. Set up the rice to cook (i.e. boil and simmer).

2. Chop up all of the veggies - onion, garlic, and sweet potatoes.

3. In a medium skillet, heat the EVOO. Add the onion and cook until soft - 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 min. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes.

4. Add the coconut milk, soy sauce, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook about 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft. Serve warm, over the rice, with scallions and peanuts.

Fall Into Spring

I love spring. I love the warm weather, I love that I can run outside (9 miles today by the way, 7.3 mph!! - I actually have TAN LINES), I love that I can walk everywhere, I love the clothing, I love ice cream. In short, there really is very little that I DON'T love about this time of year. Except maybe for the fact that it becomes less acceptable for me to eat things like winter squash and sweet potatoes. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I love winter foods...casseroles, chilis, stews, lasagna, etc. So does this mean I plan to stop eating them throughout the summer...of course not. I can't actually go a week without eating a sweet potato, that would be heresy. But I MAY allow some room in my diet for more summertime vegetables.

As a kind of last hurrah to the cold weather, I thought I would make something that screamed fall/winter. Cranberry sauce!! I have never ever liked canned cranberry sauce. Ever. And then, this Thanksgiving my aunt made some homemade cranberry sauce and I couldn't stop eating it. I wanted to put it on everything. And I did. But then I ate it all. Over Christmas break, I stocked up on some bags of cranberries and froze them. And promptly forgot about them. Last week, when I took the pork tenderloin out of the freezer, however, I rediscovered them and realized I had better use them before classes end and I have to go back to New York. Luckily, Tyler had just the recipe for me. I modified it slightly since I was feeling lazy and wanted to make it in the crockpot. It turned out delicious. I could eat this all year round, every day, and never get tired of it. In short, I need more cranberries. The thing I loved most about it was that it only called for 1/2 cup of sugar, which meant the tartness of the cranberries really shone through. Since brie was on sale this week, and we all know how much I have been obsessing over brie lately, I thought putting the two together would be the perfect combo for a sandwich. After throwing the sandwich on the George Foreman grill, I ended up with a baked brie-cranberry sandwich which was super good. I will be submitting this to Tyler Florence Fridays this week, so make sure to stop by and check out the round-up!

Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Makes about 2 cups, adapted from Tyler Florence

12 oz frozen cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 orange, zested and juiced
1/2 cup water

Place the cranberries, sugar, cinnamon, orange juice, and water in the crockpot. Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours. Stir in the zest and let cool to room temperature. Place in a jar in the fridge.

Kitchen Confidential

When I started to read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which is a memoir of sorts about Bourdain's rise to chefdom, I didn't know much about him. Sure, I knew he was the head chef of a restaurant in New York, that he cooked mostly French cuisine, and that the book was to some degree an expose` on what really goes on behind the closed doors of the food industry. But I learned all that from reading the back cover (and also from looking at the menu of Les Halles on menupages.com). Never could I have imagined how taken in I would become by his descriptions of restaurant life. He made me want to be a chef, with callouses on my fingers (battle scars), sweaty, dirty and covered with a whole range of food particles after a long day on the line. Now most people would read that and go, "Ugh, not for me", but he described it with such matter-of-fact pride and reverence that I wanted to be that person just to win his respect. Not to mention the fact that he started out as an average college kid with no intentions of entering the world of food (with no intentions of living past age 25, as it were). As I was reading, I kept thinking I could do this. But then I remembered that whole medical school thing and though, maybe after I retire.

One of the things I admired most about Bourdain while reading this book was his refusal to conform either his food or his mentality to any kind of social standards. He said what he wanted to say no matter how ugly, perverse, or inflammatory it was, just like he cooks what he wants to cook and then leaves it to the masses to decide whether or not they want to eat it (coincidentally, they usually do, unless they're vegetarian in which case they're shit outta luck). He's gutsy and I gotta say, I like that in a man.

When decided what to cook as a dedication to him, I decided to go with some classical French cuisine, as this is the type of food that first drew him into the culinary industry. As I mentioned before, I looked at the menu of Les Halles and looked at recipes for some traditional dishes that I would be able to make with my limited supplies/space. In the end, I thought I would go with coq au vin, a French fricassee of rooster (in this case chicken) cooked with wine, bacon, mushrooms, and garlic. In typical "me" fashion, I modified it a bit and made it in the crockpot in order to save myself some time and energy. I also used turkey bacon instead of regular bacon. Bourdain would have hated that, but I think he would also respect my unwillingness to compromise my integrity, and so I don't apologize for it. And you know what. It tasted damn good.

I will be submitting this to Cook the Books, which is being hosted by Jo from Food Junkie not Junk Food. In addition, since I served it over some egg noodles, I will also be sending it over to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted by Katie at One Little Corner of the World.

Coq Au Vin
Serves 4, largely adapted from Simply Recipes

4 chicken leg quarters
1/4 lb turkey bacon
20 pearl onions (frozen)
6 cloves garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup red zinfandel
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
12 oz whole wheat egg noodles

1. Fry the bacon until crisp. In the same pan, brown the leg quarters. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. In a crockpot, add the pearl onions, mushrooms, and chopped garlic. Next, add the chicken, bacon, and any drippings left over from the skillet. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the wine.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (I left it for about 7). Add the red wine and cook on high for one hour.

4. I ended up removing the chicken, stirring in some cornstarch dissolved in water and thickening the sauce on high for a bit.

5. Boil some water for noodles and serve with the chicken and mushroom sauce.

Pork Stir-Fry with Ginger and Hoisin Sauce

Happy belated Easter everyone! And/or Passover! I wish I can say that I did something super celebratory, but alas that is not the case, especially being that I am a lapsed Catholic. For the past three years I have gone home for Easter, but being that I was back there these past few weekends, I decided to take a break from traveling. It was worth it, I actually needed to get some work done. I did, however, have some Peeps. They are a highly under-rated treat, one that I hated as a kid, but actually really like as an "adult". They are kind of like candy corn, though, in that I love to eat them once a year but get tired of them pretty quickly. I also had lamb. On Friday. But only because my roommate and I went out for Turkish food. It was really good. We also got some falafel, which is a food that I could never live without. Definitely worth buying a deep fryer for...maybe for my next birthday.

So I know you're looking at these pictures going, hmmmm, these look suspiciously similar to a dish Joanne posted about just a few weeks ago. And they are similar. And I debated whether or not to even post them. But then I decided, eh, I have five million recipes for sweet potatoes so why not add a few more stir-frys. And who doesn't love a quick and easy stir-fry, especially when you've got some pork tenderloin in the freezer and broccoli in the crisper.

Pork Stir-Fry with Ginger and Hoisin Sauce
Serves 2, adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

3/4 lb pork tenderloin, cut into strips
1 lb-ish broccoli florets
2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp olive oil/peanut oil
5 cloves garlic
2 tsp ginger
1/2 cup broth
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes

1. Combine soy sauce, sherry, and cornstarch. Add the pork and let it marinate while you prepare all of the other ingredients.

2. Cut the broccoli into smaller florets. Combine the ginger, garlic, broth, hoisin sauce, and red pepper flakes.

3. Heat wok/pan. When it is good and hot, add oil. Once it is shimmery, add broccoli and stir-fry until deep green. Remove to a plate. Add pork and more oil if necessary, along with the marinating liquid. Stir fry 3-4 minutes. Add broccoli and sauce and simmer until slightly thickened.

I think with this meal I finally learned the key for cooking with a non-stick pan. When they say stir constantly, they really DO mean stir constantly.

Now for the good part. The thing that I hate about brown rice is that it takes FOREVER to cook, which is annoying when you live in a dorm and can't just set it up on the stove and leave it to simmer for 50 minutes while you run around doing a bazillion other things. My solution to this was to CROCKPOT it. I added 3/4 cup rice, 2 cups water, and some salt to the crockpot. Put it on low and left for the gym. When I came back (about an hour/hour and fifteen minutes later) there was still a lot of water. And I was hungry. So I put it on high, went down to cook, and came back to mostly done brown rice. It was sticky in the way of Chinese food rice (maybe I added too much water) and all around pretty good. If I had to do it again, I would probably do it on high for the whole time, but I was afraid it would dry out too much.

Cilantro-Jalapeno Hummus

First and foremost, I would like to document my progression on the running front. My legs felt crappy all week. So I cross-trained, taking yesterday off, knowing that with the weather being 60 degrees today I would definitely want to be running outside. I set out today aiming to do 8 miles (ended up doing 8.12 because of the way the bridges are arranged), with the intention of cutting out early if my knee hurt. But it was great, no pain at all! Note to self, sit on your ass all day the day before the half marathon. Final time was 1:08:45 with an average speed of 7.08 mph. It's so weird that I can never run that fast on the treadmill without my knee hurting but when I hit the ground, which is supposed to be worse for your joints, I'm fine. If anyone has any insight on why this might be, I would love to hear it. I'm usually a pretty good hypothesizer but for this, I'm at a loss.

Anyways, earlier in the week, I had some (okay, a whole bunch) of cilantro left in the fridge that I forgot to have with my sweet potato enchiladas. Taking some inspiration from Sophia over at Burp and Slurp, I thought I would do the intelligent thing and turn it into a spread. It is no coincidence that my favorite Trader Joe's hummus is the cilantro-jalapeno one, so I set about recreating it. Thus hummus was so yummy and made a TON, probably about 1 1/2 cups. Plus, since I already had tahini on hand, I'm sure it was much more cost-effective than buying it in the store. I never realized how easy making hummus would be, and I can't wait to try out some new varieties. The hummus itself is vegan, although I enjoyed it on a sandwich with roast beef, which is decidedly NOT vegan. I couldn't help it. I saw an episode of the Barefoot Contessa the other day in which she was making roast beef sandwiches, and was hypnotized.

I am going to submit this to Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted this week by Chriesi of Almond Corner. And for all of you out there who have the genetic inability to appreciate cilantro, I bet this would also be great with basil. In fact, I've never had basil hummus...maybe that is next on the list!

Cilantro-Jalapeno Hummus
Serves 8-ish

1 15-oz can chickpeas
1 jalapeno pepper
1 cup cilantro (I used a whole bunch, it may have been a cup. It may not have. I don't care, do it to taste).
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp lime juie
3/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin

Combine everything in a food processor and blend to desired consistency. Add salt to taste and cilantro to taste. Spread it all over any and everything you can get your hands on, this list can include but is not limited to: bread, rolls, pizza, pitas, pita chips, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, celery, pasta, crackers, etc.

What is your favorite flavor of hummus?

Americana

When I say "American food" to you, what is the first thing that pops into your head? For most people, this phrase evinces notions of barbecue, burgers, fries, pot roast, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, etc. In fact, a good portion of American food is based off the concept of "meat and potatoes" (think McDonalds). Not that this is a bad thing - I love me a good (turkey) burger every once in a while. So when I found out that this month's country for Regional Recipes was America, I knew I would have to do something within these parameters. Originally, I was going to make a pot roast for the family in the slow cooker while I was home for spring break but I ran out of days before I could get around to it (that, and my father insisted that he pick out the piece of meat, which he never got to go to the store to do...they are very picky about their red meat cuts in that household - my mother can't even pick out a steak without running it by him first). Upon arriving back at school, I set to thinking again and decided that since it had been awhile since I'd made turkey burgers, I would whip some up.

The thing that I love most about burgers is that they are so versatile. There are so many different options for flavoring and stuffing them...the options are truly endless. I was never actually exposed to one of these unconventional burgers until I started cooking myself and realized just how many variations were out there - to date I've made southwestern burgers, greek burgers, blue cheese burgers, turkey/lentil/moroccan burgers, and salsa verde burgers, not to mention a whole slew of bean-based veggie burgers. All of these are much more enticing than the plain old cheeseburgers my parents had us live off of every summer. The best part, though, is that with the George Foreman grill, I can eat them year round and they are NEVER dry. My one burger rule, however, is that they have to be stuffed with onions - as long as you do that, you can't go wrong.

I have tons of burger recipes bookmarked and stowed away, but when choosing which one to make I decided to look to the self-proclaimed queen of burgers - Rachael Ray. I went with her Chicken BBQ burgers and they were nice and juicy, infused with just the right amount of bbq flavor. I really liked that the recipe called for caramelizing red onions in tomato paste before adding them to the meat mix - that added a nice flavor. To go with them, I knew I wanted a potato dish and so after hunting around, I found a recipe for Texas Home Fries on Sweetnicks that looked appealing (can you say diner food?). All in all, it was a good meal.

BBQ Chicken Burgers (I used turkey)
Serves 4, adapted from Rachael Ray

1 tbsp light butter
1 large red onion (she called for a small one but I say the more onion, the better)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp buffalo sauce
1.3 lb extra lean ground turkey
1 tbsp hamburger seasoning

In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add the chopped onions, garlic, and tomato paste. Sweat them for about five minutes. Sprinkle in the sugar and remove from the heat once it is mixed in. Let cool for about five minutes.

Add tomato paste mixture, hot sauce, and worcestershire sauce to a bowl. Mix in turkey and seasoning and combine (this is the ooey gooey get your hands dirty part). Form into 4 burgers. Heat the George Foreman grill (or an outdoor grill or fry them or bake them) and cook the burgers for 4-5 minutes each.

I served these on english muffins and with cheddar cheese.

Texas Home Fries
Serves 3, adapted from Sweetnicks

1 1/2 lb red potatoes
1 large yellow onion
1 red bell pepper
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Microwave or boil the potatoes until done. Chop into small-ish pieces. Heat a skillet and saute onion and bell pepper in butter. When they are tender, add potatoes and cook until golden brown. To speed this up, don't stir them around. Add paprika and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I am submitting these to Regional Recipes, which is being hosted this month by TS and JS of [eatingclub] vancouver.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchilada Casserole

Enchiladas are one of my favorite things to order at Mexican restaurants, although I haven't in a while because I've been trying to explore the many other flavors of Mexican cuisine. Although they are traditionally served with beef and/or pork, here in the US they can be stuffed with anything under the sun. Using my love affair with sweet potatoes as an impetus, I decided to adapt the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas recipe from Karina's Kitchen into a casserole, mainly because I was feeling too lazy to make each enchilada. Karina's recipe is interesting because it calls for a chile pepper based sauce instead of the traditional enchilada sauce. The extra spice that these gave contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes (and these were extra sweet for some reason...I bought them at Trader Joe's...maybe there IS something to the idea that organic is better than non?).

This weekend, I was talking about the fact that I cook a lot with one of the other MD/PhD potentials (he is definitely entering the Cornell program also) and he asked me what kinds of things I cooked. I thought about it for a second and said, "Well, I can do anything with a sweet potato". He smiled and said, "Sweet potatoes are good".

I think we are going to get along quite well.


Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchilada Casserole
Serves 4, adapted from Karina's Kitchen

1 cup broth

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup green chile peppers in adobo

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 can black beans

1 lb sweet potato

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup green chile peppers in adobo

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

10 white corn tortillas

1 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese

2 tbsp lime juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

2. Make the chile sauce by combining the broth, the cornstarch (dissolve it in water first), 1 cup chopped green chiles, garlic and 1 tsp cumin in a saucepan. Bring to a high simmer and simmer until it begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Microwave the sweet potatoes until soft and then mash. Combine with half a cup of the chopped chiles. Add the 1/2 tsp of cumin and chili powder. Season with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the black beans with the 4 chopped cloves of garlic and the lime juice.

4. Line the bottom of the baking dish with about half of the green chile sauce. Place half of the tortillas on top, ripping them so they fit. Spread the sweet potatoes over the casserole dish and then top with the black beans. Top with the tortillas and add the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheese (unless you want to make it vegan, then skip the cheese).

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese starts to brown.

Endings and Beginnings

So I am back and I'm sure many of you will be happy to know that I had an AMAZING time. I am so sure now that I made the right decision. My fellow MD/PhD'ers are amazing...about six or seven of us are absolutely sure that we are going and we spent so much time over the past few days bonding. It's really great to meet a bunch of people who you can sit down and talk to for hours even though you have just met. I could not be more excited to live with these people for the next 7-8 years. One of them, Josh, is also a cook like I am so I gave him the link to the blog...hopefully he will check it out. (If so, Hi Josh!). The food on the first day of the revisit (Friday) was pretty good since there were only 27 of us. There was tons of salmon, NY bagels, sweet potatoes (!), etc. Then, starting with dinner on Friday and all of the meals on Saturdays, it was a combined revisit with the regular MD students. I guess it is harder to feed a group of 150+ and so the food went from dreamy to kind of over-cheesy and greasy. It was fine for the first dinner, but I think most of us were tired of it by the next day. To be honest, I kind of just wanted a sandwich for lunch by that point but c'est la vie. I DID have tons of really good rainbow cookies and dried pineapple rings...those things are addictive. I returned to Boston early this morning and, since I kind of felt like a blob, went for a 7 mile run. I feel really energized now and ready to face the masses of work that have piled up.

So these next few recipes are the last of my backlog from spring break at home. I had suggested, upon my arrival, that we have a mini-family party to celebrate my sister's 13th birthday, which had been on March 10th. I volunteered to make the cake (a red velvet cake...yes I am addicted to cream cheese frosting) as well as some pizza dough. Pizza dough was one of my goals for the vacation because it is kind of messy and takes some planning. I decided to make a greek-style pizza with feta cheese, black olives, and spinach for the event and I used Eating Well's recipe for the whole wheat pizza dough. Personally, I wish the dough had been a bit fluffier. Maybe we stretched it too thin or maybe there's something I could change about the recipe. I asked Matt, Kath's husband (from Kath Eats), and he thought it was the thin problem. I am going to try it again at some point using his recipe since the pictures from the times they have made pizza looked fantastic. The cake was also REALLY good. I didn't add enough food dye to make it actually be red, but I foresee that it will be made again, so that can easily be changed.

Since everyone knows that kids love pizza, I am going to submit this to Meeta's Monthly Mingle, the theme of which is Kid's Lunches. It is being hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons

Thanks to everyone for all of the supportive comments to my last entry. It was really nice knowing that you guys were all so confident in me.

Greek-Style Whole Wheat Pizza
Serves 4, adapted from Eating Well

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 package yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm/hot water
1 tbsp olive oil
6 oz baby spinach
tomato sauce
1 cup reduced fat feta
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 can black olives, sliced

Combine the whole wheat flour, regular flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Combine the water and oil and gradually pour into the dry liquids. Mix together to form a dough and knead for 8-10 minutes. Place into a bowl, cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Preheat the oven to the highest setting (500). Roll out the dough onto a pizza pan. My dad bought some "white" pizza dough from a local pizzeria for the non-whole wheat eaters and this is him tossing it. My dough was too small for him to toss. His dad's family used to own a pizza shop, so he's got some insider skillz.
These are my lovely doughs ready to be made into pizza. I had made four but one didn't rise for some reason. I blame the yeast.

Place all of the toppings on the pizza, first spinach, then sauce, then cheese and olives and black pepper. Place in the oven and cook until the bottom of the pizza is brown.

Red Velvet Cake

Serves 12, adapted from Eating Well

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup and 2 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp light butter

2 eggs, separated

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup reduced fat buttermilk

12 oz neufchatel

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

red food dye

Preheat the oven to 375. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray.

Whisk the flours, baking powder, cocoa, and salt together in a bowl.

Beat sugar and butter together until crumbly. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla and food coloring until smooth.

Beat in half the buttermilk on low, then half the flour. Add the rest of the buttermilk and the rest of the flour, mixing until just incorporated.

Clean and dry the beaters. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter with a rubber spatula. Divide the dough between the two cake pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Lick the bowl and the beaters and the spatula.

When the cake is done, let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool for an hour.

To ice the cake, use a mixer to combine the confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and neufchatel. Spread onto the one of the cakes. Place the second cake on top of the first. Ice the outside of the cake. Again, lick the bowl and the spatula. Place in the fridge until ready to eat.

Killing Two Birds With One Pasta

This is the story of how I returned to Boston only to leave it again. Tomorrow evening I will be heading back to NY, this time for the Cornell Re-visit weekend. The purpose of this event will be (a) for me to meet with professors and possibly decide which lab I want to work in for my first rotation this summer, (b) to meet with other accepted candidates and hopefully make friends, and (c) for them to feed me lots of food and take me to a broadway play all in an attempt to win me over to the dark side (i.e. so that I will choose to go to their program, although I have already made my final decision regarding this). I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it. I'm having flashbacks from college orientation in which I was a scared freshman, alone and lonely, afraid that I would never find my niche in the MIT community. Needless to say, I made friends and am happy but it really is exhausting to have to try to make connections with people. That sounds really pessimistic but I don't like being put in situations where you have to smile and be witty and think of interesting things to say; its just stressful to think that this will be all of my future classmates' first impressions of me, and so it had better be a good one, you know? I'm sure they will all be really nice, however, and I can't help but hoping that I will instantly click with some of them. I am also keen to see what the kitchen/bathroom/gym situations will be in the dorms there. I read in their housing guide that you're not allowed to have a microwave. Well, I have news for them, I haven't been "allowed" to have a microwave for the past four years but that hasn't stopped me much.

Aside from that, the warm(er) weather here in Boston has had me in a good mood. Anything above 40 is running weather to me, and so I've been enjoying the 50+ temperatures. MIT recently did a survey on students' eating habits and determined that very few are getting the recommended 5-a-day. In order to try to ameliorate this, they had a fresh produce stand in one of our courtyards from 12-6 yesterday! I was so pleased and got a honey dew, three summer squash, and 1 lb-ish of broccoli for only 6 dollars. This makes me yearn for the days of farmer's markets to return. And also to look forward to living in Manhattan where the Union Square Greenmarket is open year round.

In regards to my post title, I should include the disclaimer that no animals were harmed in the making of this pasta. Although the dog did get fed some olives in the process, but my father claimed that she likes them. What I'm referring to is the fact this is my entry for both Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted by Ruth this week, and also to Tyler Florence Fridays since it was taken from his show Food 911. The pasta was a very simple weeknight pasta and came together pretty quickly. The original recipe called for baby artichokes but I used frozen artichoke hearts. Also, after eating it, I think it could have used some white wine in place of some of the broth, along with some capers. But all in all, a good, simple pasta dish. It is inherently vegetarian and could be made vegan if veggie broth and margarine were used.

Penne with Artichokes, Black Olives, and Peas

Serves 6, adapted from Food 911 (Tyler Florence)

1 1/2 lb whole wheat/regular penne

20 oz or 2 boxes frozen artichoke hearts

3 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic

2 shallots

1 cup black olives, sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3 cups broth

3 tbsp butter

1 cup frozen peas

2 bay leaves

3 tomatoes (I omitted because we had none, but the acidity from these would have been nice)

Coat a saucepan with 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the artichokes to the pan. Add the garlic, shallots, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Pour in the broth, cover and let simmer until artichokes are heated through. Remove the lid and add the olives, tomatoes, and butter. Stir to incorporate. Add the peas and 1 tbsp pasta. Season with salt and pepper.

While all this is going on, cook and drain the pasta. Mix with the artichoke sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.