Who needs ginger beef when you can have ginger green beans! Yeah, I know, not
quite the same, unless you're a vegetarian. But hear me out.
The thing with green beans is that I never know how to make them differently. I usually just eat them steamed. This picture is from late summer (
still cleaning out the photo archives!), when we had a great BIG crop of green beans. I think this is my third green bean recipe on this blog. That's a lot of beans (
just imagine how many batches I ate and didn't post!).
I had this recipe for ginger beef and I LOVED the sauce so I thought it would go well with green beans. And it does. Since my hubby doesn't really like things "plain" (
he loves his sauces) this seemed like a great way to get him to eat his greens and have sauce left over to mop up with bread or rice. I refused to fry battered-up green beans (
like you do with ginger beef) cuz that just sorta kills the purpose of eating healthy green beans, if ya know what I mean.
...
ginger green beansserves 4
1/2 kg (~1 pound) fresh green beans, ends snipped (oops, I forgot to snip them in the above picture!)
1/4 cup ginger, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped or minced
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp wine, red or white (I have used apple juice too)
2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
Either blanch or stir fry green beans until softened. Set aside.
In a pan with 1 tbsp oil, stir in ginger and garlic over high heat. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add Beans. Mix well. Serve.
This recipe was handed down to me from my sister who got it from her mother-in-law. I don't know if she is the original source or if she got it from somewhere else. All I have is a pretty printout :) sorry.
The thing I love about cooking and baking is that my mind just goes into auto-pilot. I just jump in and don't think about anything sometimes. I find it very relaxing. But sometimes auto-pilot isn't so great. Like this time, when I decided to double the recipe and really ended up quadrupling it since the recipe already was set to make two loaves. I didn't read ahead and only clued in when I was adding
all that flour! So these would have been the original 2 loaves with the below recipe. However, I had a lot more dough.
Soooo I made
this one, all fancy and braided.
And I STILL had a bunch of dough left so I made a bunch of buns and a round loaf (with cheddar cheese sandwiched in the middle).
(You like my little homage to Pac-man. hehe)
I haven't made
bread in a while and my father pickled a bunch of hot chili peppers (they are the small skinny red and green ones) and gave me a big jar. So I figured I'd try them in a bread recipe and add aged cheddar cheese. The peppers give a nice heat and the pickled peppers and aged cheddar together gave a nice flavor.
Good thing I liked it, cuz that's a
lot of bread.
....
pickled hot chili peppers & cheddar cheese bread
2 pkg active dry yeast
2.5 cups warm water
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
7 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup pickled hot chili peppers, chopped small
1 cup (aged)cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg white
1 tbsp cold water.
Dissolve yeast in warm water in mixer bowl. Add salt, butter and flour. Knead with dough hook for 1 minute on speed 2 or until blended.
Add pickled hot chili peppers and cheddar and knead for 2 minutes on speed 2.
Place dough on greased bowl and cover. Let rise in warm place for 1 hour.
Punch dough down and divide in half. Roll each half into rectangles. Roll up the dough tightly from longest side, tapering ends.
Place loaves onto greased baking sheets, dusted with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in warm place for 1 hour.
Make 4 diagonal cuts along the top of each loaf and bake for 25 minutes at 450F.
Remove from oven. Beat egg white and water wash together adn brush each loaf with it. Return to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes longer.
Recipe adapted from: French Bread, KitchenAid Instuction and Recipe Manual.
So you want pizza tonight but you don't want to make the dough... well, I got a solution for you!
I introduce to you pita pizzas! My version of a "thin crust" pizza. I often buy pitas and store them in the freezer so I have it on hand whenever I want to make this or have a filled pita sandwich for lunch.
I can't remember what toppings I used for this pita pizza but really you can use whatever you like. The important part is to saute everything before you put it on the pita since you don't want to bake the pitas too long in the oven because then you would be left with hard shells. And,
that is no fun to eat. It goes into the oven just to warm it all up and meld the tastes of your tomato sauce with your toppings.
...
pita pizzas
Pitas
Tomato sauce - I usually buy plain tomato sauce and add extra spices and brown sugar to make my tomato sauce even tastier.
Toppings of your choice, cut into whatever sizes you like. I prefer small pieces (so I can hide all the veggies my kids don't like to eat) tee hee.
Cheese, shredded
Saute up your favorite toppings to soften them up. Add extra herbs or spices if you prefer, don't forget the salt and pepper!
Spread tomato sauce on all the pitas. Add your toppings to the pitas. Spread the tops with shredded cheese of your choice.
Put into the oven for about at 425F for 8-10 minutes. Remove, let cool. Cut and serve.
Sometimes I wonder why I live where it's cold. It's not like I love really hot heat (cuz I don't, I'm sure I'll complain in the summer when it's boiling) but I'm an in between type of gal, a Golidlocks if you must call me something. I like it not too cold and not too hot.
But, I'm stuck here for now. On the flip side, one thing about cold weather that is good is the wonderful comfort type of foods you can make when it's cold. Stews and chili, ciders and hot cocoa. Mmmmm.
I have to say, I thought this potato chowder was really tasty. I was licking up the spoon because of the wonderful roasted vegetables. I have to admit though, I felt I would have preferred it with some chunks throughout the chowder versus a complete puree. It almost reminded me of something I fed my kids when they were babies, except this was a LOT more tasty.
Even though it had great flavor, I just couldn't eat it the next day. I think it was filling and hearty but I just couldn't do the texture again another day.
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smoky roasted-potato chowder
makes 5 cups
10 baby red potatoes*
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 small red onion, cut into quarters
1 red pepper, coursely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried oregano leaves
1/4 tsp smoked paprika or 1/2 tsp regular paprika
pinches salt and pepper
10 oz (284 mL) can undiluted chicken broth
Preheat oven to 400F. Combine all of the ingredients (except for chicken broth) and spread into large rimmed baking sheet. Roast in oven until potatoes are very tender, about 30-40 minutes.
Put all roasted vegetables into large saucepan. Add chicken broth and add 2 soup cans of water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium heat. Simmer and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes.
Puree soup in small batches with a food processor. Return into a clean saucepan and add more salt and paprika to taste, if needed.
* I didn't have enough potatoes so I used a small sweet potato, equivalent to 5 baby red potatoes.
Recipe from: Smoky roasted- potato chowder, Chatelaine Magazine, March 2007 Issue.
Bored of the usual "salsa with sour cream" or "woot, let's spice it up and add some guacamole"?
Yeah? Then try this out!
Goes great with fresh or (oven toasted) pita triangles and even tortillas. What I really like about it is that it's very healthy without tasting
healthy, unless you just don't like beans. It's got a great fiber count because of the beans and we all know that fiber is a good thing to have in a diet, right?
No? Well, if you are rocking back and forth on the porcelain throne, then you need to be putting away the salsa and scooping up the black bean dip. Just think of how all the friends that you called over to watch sports or some movie will be that thanking you for adding some fiber to the diet.
tee hee!
...
black bean dip
makes 2 cups
1 can (19 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup minced onions
2 Tbsp chopped, fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp each cumin and black pepper
1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
Combine all ingredients (except sour cream) into blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in sour cream. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recipe from: Black Bean Dip, The Crazy Plates Cookbook
