Sunday, August 19, 2012

Tofu Burgers

I need to be going to bed right now--but the seven hour marathon I just finished in the kitchen warrants, at the very least, a short blog entry. SO! Here it goes:

Dear Heidi,
Thank you for sharing your awesome blog, constantly giving me ideas and inspiration and--of course--delicious dishes.
--Rosalyn

Tonight, I cooked up a few things--but what I got to enjoy right away were my tofu burgers and homemade hamburger buns; oh, and french fries--made with my handy french-fry-cutter that my mom got me a little while ago.

The burgers? Easiest veggie burger I've attempted to make--and super satisfactory. The consistency was practically delightful to work with.
The buns? I think I've found myself a recipe, finally! Third times a charm, right? I was pretty close to giving up on finding a bun recipe that made me happy. I'm glad I kept on hunting. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, which means they were made with only all-purpose flour; that's not generally my style, but I wanted to make sure the recipe turned out results that I wanted. Next time, I'm going to try and throw in a little whole wheat flour and see what happens.

Anyway--to bask in a bit of cook-therapy was great and my stomach was definitely happy with the results. More on this evening soon!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Chronicles of Baking--pt. 3

I've saved the best for last!

So, my mom had sent me mini tart dishes so that I could make little quiches (which is actually what I plan on doing this weekend--more on that in a couple days, hopefully!) While I love quiche, when I discovered the tart dishes, I instantly thought of dessert. Up until this recipe, I had neither previously attempted to make or even eaten dessert tart. And, you know me, I was definitely up to the challenge.


After doing a little research, I discovered that most tart recipes call for kiwi and strawberries. Well, I don't like strawberries and I've never been able to figure out how to properly shop for a delicious kiwi, so I decided to just kind of wing it. I used this recipe as my starting point. I can't remember exactly, but it wouldn't surprise me if I cut the sugar in the filling to 1/4 cup (I cut back on sugar as much as I can--it really isn't as necessary as some would make you believe). I was definitely happy with the way the crust and the filling turned out! Next--the fruit topping.


I decided to use nectarines--because they looked tasty and ripe sitting in the bin at the grocery store! And instead of worrying about a glaze, I simply cut up the nectarine and drizzled some maple agave nectar over the top. (Maple was what I had on hand, although I'm sure that honey would have sufficed.)  I then placed them on top of my filled tarts and sprinkled a little nutmeg over them for the final touch.

So. Good. 
I've got witnesses if you aren't quite convinced--or you could just give the recipe a try! It's definitely a nice, not-too-heavy way to end a meal.


All right, that's all for tonight! I hope to be back soon!

The Chronicles of Baking--pt. 2

Let's just forget about the fact that I haven't posted anything in what feels like a million years and focus on the fact that I'm not going back on my promise to blog about my weekend of baking!
Truth--I feel a kitchen weekend coming on; you know, one of those weekends where I cook, like, four big things in one or two days and take lots of pictures and then set aside time to blog about them. I'm actually really looking forward to it, because I haven't had a weekend like this in a while--but I thought I should tell you about the treats I made a couple months ago, now, as I said I would.


In part 1 I told you about the zucchini bread that I made. Now I'm going to tell you about the chocolate biscotti that I made. I found the recipe here. Maybe I didn't do something right, but it definitely didn't yield 50-60 cookies--in any case, they were pretty tasty. I would recommend using the best cocoa powder you can find--I didn't but could imagine how much better they would have turned out if I had.



What I really liked about this biscotti was that it was completely legit; I mean, there was no biting into these cookies if you didn't dunk them first. I made them with the intention of giving most of them away, and I warned my friends that coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or even warm water was necessary for the enjoyment of the chocolaty cookie.

Anyway, I enjoyed them--and the next time I'm looking to make biscotti, I won't hesitate to make them again. In fact, as I write this blog, I can think of a good friend who I promised biscotti to. This will be the kind that she gets!

Go ahead--give it a try. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Part 3 is coming....right now! So stay tuned!
 

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