Crockpot Wheat Berries and breakfast

Rapid City was predicted to be in a huge snowpocalypse (to steal a phrase from BoB). During a blizzard, I always feel compelled to bake and cook comforting meals that are best eaten with a cup of coffee or cocoa while watching the snow blow out the window. Rob went out yesterday morning to get groceries and stocked up on great ideas for supper: pot roast with potatoes and carrots, goulash, and ham and scalloped potatoes. He even got us jalapeno-cheddar cream cheese from B&L Bagels, so we can have delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with soup ... but what about breakfast? Nothing tastes better on a wintery morning than oatmeal. It's thick, warm and filling, and delicious with a whole bunch of "additives" like dried fruit, nuts, milk, etc. The only problem is that we had maybe 1/4 c. of steel cut oats left. Crud. I rummaged through the cupboards looking for a good alternative. What about wheat berries?

I vaguely remembered seeing a breakfast wheat berry recipe on one of the many blogs I read. After a few minutes of searching, I found the one I was thinking of, from 101cookbooks: Wheat Berry Breakfast Bowl Recipe. I didn't have all of the ingredients she calls for, but I can certainly improv if I have a good starting idea!

Crockpot Wheat Berries

2 c. wheat berries
6 c. of water

Combine in a 3 quart crockpot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours.

Although I don't know for certain, I suspect that the wheat berries should be thoroughly rinsed before cooking to remove residual starch (much like you do for sushi rice). The wheat berries were cooked after 7 hours, but they were "gummy" and had a lot of residual starch in the pot. Before making the rest of breakfast, I rinsed the starch off about 1 cup of the wheat.

Wheat Berries with cooked apples, cranberries and pecans
A modification of Heidi's recipe at 101 Cookbooks.


1 cup cooked wheat berries
1 apple, granny smith, cut in 1/8" slices
1 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. cranberries
1/4 c. orange juice
1/2 c. pecans

Pour the orange juice over the cranberries and let them soak while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients. Toast the pecans by placing them in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and tossing periodically until they are fragrant. Meanwhile, slice the apple. When the pecans are done, chop them and mix with the wheat berries. Wipe out the skillet and add the butter. Toss apples with brown sugar and cinnamon in the melted butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring periodically so the sugar doesn't burn. When the apples are tender, mix with the wheat berries. Wipe out the skillet and cook the cranberries and OJ, just until the OJ reduces slightly and the cranberries are warm. Drain the remaining OJ and all ingredients together. Divide between two bowls. Enjoy!

Breakfast was delicious, but I cooked WAY too many wheat berries. My next task is to find a wheat berry salad recipe!

Cranberry-Apple Preserves

I made my second batch of preserves last night - all by myself! That is, I didn't have to ask Mom to stay up way too late to teach me how to can orange marmalade. =)

My inaugural batch was cranberry-apple preserves from the Ball Blue Book. The Blue Book doesn't have the same robust directions that Alton Brown provides, but this recipe was fairly straightforward. A couple of notes: Be sure to chop the apples to a small dice, or about 1/3-inch cubes; otherwise, they take a long time to break down. I peeled the orange and chopped the segments; I did not bother to cut supremes.

Cranberry-Apple Preserves
Ball Blue Book, pg 39

Yield: 9 half-pints (and some change)

2 pounds cranberries
3 green apples, cored, peeled, chopped
1 orange, seeded and chopped
3 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup honey

Combine all ingredients into a large saucepot. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil gently almost to gelling point. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process in boiling water canner 15 minutes.

It tasted like a richer, sweeter version of the cooked cranberries we always have at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love cranberry sauce anyway, but these sweet preserves were an even better way to keep the Christmas-sy feeling all year.

This was a great recipe. Delicious on an English muffin!

Orange Marmalade

On Wednesday, I made two batches of orange marmalade to give away as Christmas gifts. Mom helped me to keep the "candy" from burning all over the stove and to make sure I canned it all correctly. We started with Alton Brown's recipe, but lacking a good scale and a lemon zester, we had to make a couple of changes.

Orange Marmalade
by Alton Brown, tweaked by Erin Handberg

1 3/4 lbs oranges, 3 large or 4-5 medium
1 lemon
6 c. water
3 lbs + 12 oz sugar

10 (8 oz) canning jars with lids and rings
Canner
8 quart stainless steel pot

Wash the oranges and lemon thoroughly. (I used warm soapy water and scrubbed them with a vegetable brush.) Cut the oranges and lemon with a mandolin, removing seeds as you go. Stack the slices and cut into quarters (I preferred pieces smaller than quarters.) Place the oranges and lemons into an 8-quart stainless steel pot. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to maintain a rapid simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for 40 minutes or until the fruit is very soft.

Sterilize the jars and rings, canning funnel, ladle and tongs using a boiling water bath or the hot cycle on the dishwasher. Use a small saucepan for sterilizing the lids - they cannot be boiled as long as the other tools or they won't seal.

Place two small plates in the freezer. Increase the heat under the orange mixture until it returns to a full boil. Add the sugar and stir the mixture continually until it reaches 222 F or 223 F on a candy thermometer, and darkens in color, approximately 15 to 20 minutes. You may need to adjust the heat in order to prevent boil over. (This is important - especially if you're using a glass cooktop!) Test the readiness of the marmalade by placing a teaspoon of the mixture on to the chilled plate and allowing it to sit for 30 seconds. Tilt the plate. The mixture should be a soft gel that moves slightly. If the mixture is thin and runs easily, it is not ready. (We ended up heating until about 225 F before the marmalade set on the plate correctly.)

Once marmalade is ready, remove from heat and place next to filling station. Place a canning funnel onto a hot, sterilized jar. Fill with marmalade to just below the threads on the jar (or leave about 1/4" headspace). Repeat until all mixture has been used. Wipe the rims and threads of the jars with a moist towel and top each with a lid. Place a ring on each jar and tighten thoroughly.

Process jars for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

Our first batch yielded 9 jars and the last batch was an even 10. We got 19 jars of preserves in about 4 hours... not bad for an evening's work!

Cutie Count

We're now up to 15 lbs of cuties!

Cutie Count

Last year, Rob and I ate a ridiculous amount of mandarin oranges (cuties). This year, I decided we should keep track how many pounds of them we eat... Yesterday, we purchased our 4th bag... bringing us up to a 12 lb total so far. Hey, at least we get our Vitamin C for the year!

World's Easiest and Tastiest Swedish Meatballs

We went to a poker party at the Byram's (quite a while ago now), and Crystal had Swedish meatballs on the app menu, along with a bunch of other tasty snacks. They were absolutely delicious! It turns out that they are also ridiculously easy. Before I forget, I thought I would post the recipe on the blog:

Swedish Meatballs
from Crystal Byram

McCormick Swedish Meatballs seasoning packet
McCormick Beef Stroganoff seasoning packet
1 cup sour cream
1 cup water
2 cups milk
2 lbs frozen meatballs
4-8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms

Mix all ingredients in a 4 quart crockpot. Cook on high for 3 hours, stirring occasionally to distribute the sauce.

Eggs Over ... Anything

I must confess that I haven't always been a fan of eggs. When I was a kid, I ate them scrambled - only. Then for several years, I avoided eggs like the plague. I don't know what changed my mind, exactly, but after I got to college, I decided eggs were okay. Now I can't get enough of them!

I love eggs in any style (as long as the white is set - no sunny side up eggs for me!) ... but lately I've developed a huge love for eggs over easy. I'm sure it helps that all of my eggs lately come from a farm where I've been able to meet the chickens. There's no worrying about eating "undercooked" eggs in this house! I get a dozen eggs once a week, and sometimes have to scramble (no pun intended) to figure out what to do with them all.

A couple of weeks ago, Rob and I went to Tally's for breakfast. They had a breakfast BLT that I just had to try. It was all I'd hoped for... a toasty piece of sourdough bread, mayo, arugula, farm-fresh tomatoes, smoked gouda, crispy bacon, and to top it all off, an egg over easy. Delicious as it was, I couldn't help but think that I could make this at home for a fraction of the cost.... and with tastier eggs.

My breakfasts this past week have been a riff on that theme. An open-faced sandwich with meat, cheese and an over-easy egg. I've been lazy and skipped the veggies, but it's still tasty. So, today, I have two variations on the theme to share with you.

Open-Face Breakfast Ham and Cheese Sandwich
Serves 1

1 slice good wheat or multi-grain bread
1 Tbsp. whipped jalapeno cream cheese (we get ours from B&L Bagels)
3 slices (about 2 oz) deli ham
1 farm-fresh egg

Heat an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Start toasting the bread. Spread the deli ham across the bottom of the skillet, turning occasionally until it's hot and lightly browned. When the bread is ready, spread with cream cheese. Pile the hot ham on top of the cream cheese, and let it rest while you prepare your egg. Spray some cooking spray in the skillet (the ham is not fatty enough to skip this step!), and cook your egg. I think over-easy is best for this, but over-medium or even a fried egg would work. Transfer the egg to the pile of ham and toast, and enjoy!

The second variation seems to stray pretty far from the theme, but it was a great way to use up leftovers. Besides, it's the same basic formula: carb + protein + cheese + egg. (Yes, I'm a physicist.)

Two days ago, I had sauteed pinto beans with Montreal Steak Seasoning and chipotle chili powder. I still had about a half-cup of beans leftover. I think this recipe would work with any leftover beans, regardless of the seasoning, but these were particularly good because they were spicy and went great with salsa!

Tex-Mex Eggs and Beans
Serves 1

1/2 c. cooked beans (refried, tex-mex seasoned, whatever)
1/4 c. mozzarella or colby jack
2-3 Tbsp. salsa
1 farm-fresh egg

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Spread the beans on a plate and top with cheese. Spray the pan with cooking spray and cook your egg as desired (I prefer over-easy). Meanwhile, microwave the beans and cheese until the cheese is melted (about 1 minute). Top the hot beans and cheese with salsa and the cooked egg. Enjoy!

Back to bento

School starts officially today, so I've decided to get back on the bento making wagon. Or somethin'

On Monday, I took some chickpeas, some Steamfresh butter-herb pasta, and diced deli turkey. The combination seemed a little odd, but it's what we had in the fridge/freezer. It actually tasted really good once I stirred it all together.

Tuesday's bento was curried chickpeas with a spring mix salad and salami with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge. I ate the cheese and salami together, picked the majority of the salad off the top of my bento box with my fingers, and stirred the rest of the salad into the chickpeas. It was delicious! I really love curried chickpeas.

Today's bento is partly a leftover bento. I cooked sausages, onions and peppers in beer and sauteed some kale for supper last night. I sliced up 1 1/2 sausage links, tossed in a few sauteed onions, and some kale. To round out the carb portion, I cooked some pinto beans with spicy Montreal steak seasoning and chipotle chili powder, and tossed about a half cup of them on top of the sausage and onions. I ate some of the beans for a snack with the leftover half link of sausage, and holy cow were they spicy! Lunch should be interesting later today....

Anyway, I'm glad to be back to making lunches for myself again. Rob will be going down to USD soon, so I'll be on my own for a few days. Hopefully my lunches will be a bit more creative for the rest of the week!

Hail, CSA basket #8 and Beet Salad

On Friday last week, we received the news that our CSA farm had a massive hail storm - to the extent that Donna and Lyn lost windows on both the house and garage, and the entire farm looked like you'd cut everything with a mower. Our veggie crop was leveled. Check out their farm blog for some pictures: harmony-farm.blogspot.com.

I talked to Lyn at the Farmer's Market when I picked up our basket, and he talked about getting in to replant what crops they could (and what would still produce for them before frost). So, all hope is not lost, but I have a feeling that we won't be getting any tomatoes or squash this year. =(

It makes me sad. I'm sad partly because I grew up on a farm and I know how devastating hail can be. I'm also sad because they've been having a fantastic garden season, and we as the lucky consumers are getting to eat all of the tasty results! Fortunately, for us, they had picked some crops before the hail, and in our weekly basket we received yellow squash, cucumber, beets, spotted beans, lots and lots of carrots, and of course, eggs.

The beets are absolutely delicious. I'm not sad that one of the crops they're hoping to replant are beets... Mmm. I'll be eating lots and lots of beet salad this summer:

Roasted beet salad with goat cheese

2-3 large beets
2 oz goat cheese
A drizzle of olive oil, per serving
Freshly cracked salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Trim the leafy tops and scraggly root ends from the beets. Do not peel! Wrap each beet in aluminum foil, and place in the warm oven. Bake for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how large the beets are. When you can pierce the beets easily with a skewer or fork, they're done. Remove them from the oven and vent their aluminum foil packets slightly. As soon as the beets are cool enough to handle, use paper towels and/or a paring knife to slide the skins off. Beets will happily color everything they touch a bright red. I held the beet with one paper towel, and sloughed off the skins with another to keep from staining my fingers too much!

Once your beets are peeled, slice them into rounds about 1/4-inch thick. (They will stain your cutting board too. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap.) Distribute the beets among 2-3 plates. Crumble some goat cheese on each plate, making sure each slice of beet has a little goat cheese piled on it. Drizzle each plate with a flavorful olive oil, and finish with freshly cracked salt and pepper.

We'll see what this Saturday brings for our next basket. I don't mind just getting to eat eggs, because their eggs are amazingly good compared to store bought eggs. Still, I like the variety we get every week when the mid-summer veggies are in full swing. In the meantime, I have more beets and carrots to roast...

Caprese Pasta Salad

We're going over to a friend's tonight for grilling, delicious food, wine and good conversation. I was asked to bring a salad to the party, but I didn't want to bring my old stand-by rotini noodle pasta salad. It's delicious, but boring. Rob and I have been eating whole-wheat tortellini from Safeway with olive oil, salt, pepper and grated romano cheese. I decided to do a riff on that simple pasta dish:

Caprese Pasta Salad

18 oz whole-wheat tortellini (fresh, in the refrigerator section)
3 sprigs basil
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/4 c. romano cheese
2-3 good glugs of olive oil (there's no measurement here, just wing it)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the tortellini to package directions. Rinse in cool water and toss with good olive oil. How much olive oil depends completely on your tastes. I use enough to keep the pasta from sticking together, not enough to drench it or have a bunch running around in the bottom of the bowl. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and toss with the pasta. Sprinkle in a good amount of romano cheese - I guesstimated it at just shy of 1/4 cup. Salt and pepper to taste. Pick all of the leaves off the basil sprigs, roll them tightly in one cigar-shaped roll, and slice them thinly (chiffonade). Toss with the pasta and tomatoes, refrigerate. Before serving, give everything a good stir and add more olive oil if you want.

Aside -- I'm sure by now, you've figured out that I'm not a photographer. I seriously take all of my food photos with my blackberry in whatever lighting I can get. But, I particularly love how the dish appears to be floating in space on this one. Yay for a black coffee table! =)

CSA basket #7 and Summer Veggie Medley with White Beans

Last week, our CSA basket was a little sparse because the summer veggies weren't quite ready. No more. This week we got potatoes, big beautiful beets, yellow squash and onions! Feeling in need of some greens to fill out the list, I also bought some red chard from another vendor at Farmer's market.

Summer Veggie Medley with White Beans


1 (15 oz) can white kidney beans
1 Tbsp. oil (about)
1 medium yellow squash (or two small ones)
1 medium zucchini
1 small bunch red chard
1 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Rinse and drain the white kidney beans. In a 10-inch skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the rinsed beans, basil and red pepper. Stir occasionally while preparing the other vegetables. Slice the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/4-inch thick rings. Cut the stems off the chard and slice those into roughly 1-inch pieces. Add the zucchini, squash and chard stems to the beans with about 1/4 cup of water. Salt and pepper to taste. Put a lid on the pan and simmer for 3-5 minutes, or until the squash is softened slightly. Cut the chard leaves into 1-inch strips. When the squash is softened, toss the chard greens on top of the veggie/bean mix, and return the lid to the pan. Check the chard in about 3 minutes. If the chard is starting to wilt, remove the lid and stir gently until all of the chard is wilted and any remaning liquid is reduced. Serve with grated parmesan and extra freshly ground pepper.

Oh, I also want to offer a word of warning. Pressurized flour can get EVERYWHERE in a kitchen.

For Christmas, we were given a beer bread mix which was cleverly bottled in a liter beer bottle. I thought some good beer bread would be tasty alongside the veggie mix, and decided I should use the mix we had instead of making my own. I preheated the oven, got out a pan, picked the beer I wanted to use... and then I went to open the bread mix bottle. In retrospect, I should have promptly used the bottled mix after Christmas, lest some of the leavening begin to activate. (The bottle was kept in a cupboard next to the stove.) .... Nonetheless, I had no idea that flour would explode like that. The moment I cracked the seal on the bottle a good half the kitchen, and at least half of me, was covered in a fine coating of flour. Some of the mix managed to land in the bowl I had set next to me. The rest of the mix residing in the neck of the bottle was scattered about the kitchen. After several minutes of stunned laughter, I managed to empty out the remaining contents of bread mix into the bowl, scoop any mix off the counters that I could, and promptly clean the rest of the kitchen. By this time, the oven had long preheated. Most of the mix had made it to the bowl, so I used about 10 oz of beer instead of 12 oz and made the bread anyway. It was pretty tasty, and I got the added benefit of a much cleaner kitchen floor. =)

Curried Chickpeas and Spinach and CSA basket #6

I have had an indescribable craving for curry lately. I have no idea what it is. Maybe there was a curry trend on some of the food blogs I was reading. Or, maybe I was just missing eating out at Saigon. Either way, I've had curry on the brain.

I tried to satisfy my craving by ordering Thai chicken curry at Saigon on Friday. Despite the 50 minute wait, all the while thinking I could have made this at home by now, the curry was delicious! But, my cravings didn't stop there...

Saturday, I had decided was a day off. I got up early to fetch the CSA basket (just peas and eggs... it's that turning point in the summer where cold weather crops are done and warm weather crops aren't quite ready yet), and then I read food blogs, and took a nap, and read food blogs, and ... didn't do a damn thing. Sometime around 11:00pm, while Rob was at school, I decided to try a riff on one of the recipes I'd read earlier in the day. I moseyed over to my apartment to fetch the curry powder (Rob's not much of a curry fan, so I was all alone on this one), and then came back to rummage through the cupboards.

The resulting snack was delicious, and I will forever cook chickpeas in this fashion!

Curried Chickpeas and Spinach
Modified from Dinner with Julie's recipe

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. spicy curry powder (more or less to taste)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup water
1 cup(ish) packed fresh spinach

Heat an 8-inch skillet on medium heat. Add the olive oil - in a thin layer that completely coats the bottom of the pan. It might not be quite 1 Tbsp, but you want it to coat the pan thinly. When the oil is good and hot, add the drained and rinsed chickpeas. They will sizzle and crackle for a bit, and that's okay. What we're trying to do is mimic roasting the chickpeas - so we want them to get a little color on them and sizzle over the heat. After 2-3 minutes, add the curry powder and the garlic cloves. Stir frequently for 2-3 minutes more so the curry seasoning is well distributed and the garlic doesn't burn. Add 1/4 cup of water and put a lid on the pan. This creates a bit of a sauce as it cooks down helps with nice even coloring. Cook 2-3 minutes more. When the chickpeas have taken on a nutty aroma and are starting to brown, add the fresh spinach and put the lid back on the pan. It takes about a minute to wilt. Stir the spinach in, and voila! You have a tasty and healthy snack.

I attempted to eat the entire can of chickpeas, but I couldn't quite do it. I did get about 2/3 of the way through the delicious nuttiness. The texture of the chickpeas are entirely transformed when you cook them with this method. I've always found chickpeas to be gritty and strangely toothsome. These chickpeas were tender - almost like well-cooked potato tender. They still had the same flavor, and they had a little bit of the familiar tooth, but they were utterly transformed. So much better! I'm definitely trying Julie's method next time and adding a poached egg. I was so enamored by the aroma of this first batch that I couldn't be bothered to poach an egg to go with it. =)

I have already envisioned using this technique with a variety of flavorings, but the curry definitely satisfied my craving. All it cost me was 10-15 minutes standing over a pan, $1 for a can of chickpeas, and maybe $0.50 for the spinach and curry powder. So I spent $2ish for a delicious meal I couldn't finish in one sitting, instead of $12 for a meal I had to wait an hour for and could finish in one sitting. I'm beginning to understand the rationale behind Not Eating Out In New York!

Mediterranean Night

After band rehearsal on Monday, I texted Rob and asked the simple question: "what's for dinner?" It turns out, at 10:00 pm, that's a harder question to answer than I would have thought. Originally, I had the idea of making some of that awesome sweet and sour red cabbage () with pan-fried brats instead of pork chops. I went to the store with that in mind. Rob, however, was thinking Mediterranean. After many text messages, and a hungry shopping trip later, we arrived on a plan ... or so we thought ... pasta, olives, bleu cheese, spinach, maybe some tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil. Simple. What we came up with was a bit different, but delicious nonetheless.

Polenta topped with Tomatoes, Olives, Mushrooms and Spinach
by Erin and Rob

4 oz mushrooms (white or crimini)
1 (6 oz) bag prewashed baby spinach
4-5 fat green olives (I have no idea what kind they are.. think Martini olives, but from the olive bar, not a jar)
1 Tbsp. capers
1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
3 Italian sausages
A splash of beer for cooking the sausages

1/2 c. polenta
1.5 c. water
3-4 Tbsp. grated parmesan or asiago cheese
Freshly ground pepper to taste

In a 10-inch skillet, heat about a teaspoon or two of olive oil. Add the sausages (I cooked the whole package of 5), and cook until the bottoms are nicely browned. Flip the sausages and brown the other side. Once both sides are browned, pour in about 3-4 oz of beer and put the lid on. Cook, turning occasionally, until the sausages are done. Meanwhile, wash and slice the mushrooms. Cut the olives in half and slice into half moons. When the sausages are done, remove them from the skillet and set aside to cool. Pour out all but 2 Tbsp of fat/beer from the pan and add the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are browned to your liking, pour in the can of tomatoes and their juice, scraping the bottom of the pan to get all of the good browned bits from the bottom. Add the olives and the capers and simmer for few minutes. Meanwhile, bring the polenta water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Once the water is boiling, pour in the polenta and stir a bit to make sure there aren't any clumps. Simmer until nearly done (I love how polenta burbles like the mud pots at Yellowstone!), then add the cheese and pepper and stir to combine. Slice the cooled sausages and toss in with the tomato sauce. Once the polenta is nearly done, add handfuls of the spinach to the pan, cover and wilt, working in batches if necessary to ensure all of the spinach is incorporated. Remove the lid and simmer until the desired sauce consistency is reached.

Spoon some polenta onto your plate and top with the tomato mixture. Serves 2 hungry people, or serves 2 normal people and leaves enough leftovers for the next dish.

Eggs in Piperade - Mediterranean style
by Erin

Leftovers from the recipe above
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat two 2-cup ramekins with cooking spray. If you have some leftover polenta, break it up and put about 1/4"-1/2" of polenta crumbles at the bottom. Spoon in the tomato sauce until the ramekin is about 3/4 full (or leave about 1/2-inch headspace). Make a well in the tomato sauce and crack in an egg. Add salt and pepper to taste, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the egg is set. Serves 2.

Cannellini and Chicken salad with Pepperoncini and Tomatoes

I know the blog has taken a bit of a hiatus. I have four or five posts backlogged, but not completely written, so ... I'll get to it one of these days. =) In the meantime, I wanted to share a new salad recipe that I dramatically modified from one I found on Kalyn's Kitchen.

Cannellini and Chicken salad with Pepperoncini and Tomatoes
Modified significantly from this recipe

1 can white cannellini beans
1 can white meat chicken
4-5 pepperoncini peppers
2 spring onions, white and light green parts sliced
1/3 (about) of a 15.5 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes, drained

1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp pepperoncini juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3-4 dashes Tobasco sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse the cannellini beans. Drain the chicken and shred the pieces. Mix all of the salad ingredients together in a quart sized (or larger) lidded bowl. Whisk the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Chill. This is delicious served on a bed of lettuce with some shredded romano or asiago cheese.

CSA baskets #4 and #5

I haven't been keeping up with the CSA basket posts very well. So, here's a condensed post:

Basket #4: spring onions, lettuce, spinach, radishes, a few peas and 2 dozen eggs

Basket #5: lettuce, lots of peas, new red potatoes, and 1 dozen eggs

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto awesomeness

After supper tonight, I have decided that the sun-dried tomato pesto and feta cheese combo is DELICIOUS on pretty much any grilled sandwich. We made turkey paninis tonight:

Panini Of The Day

2 slices pumpernickel
1 - 1.5 slices provolone
2 oz sliced deli turkey
1.5 Tbsp. crumbled feta
2 tsp sun-dried tomato pesto
Few pieces fresh spinach

Mix the pesto and feta together and spread on one slice of pumpernickel. Pile on the sliced turkey, spinach, provolone, and top with the second slice of pumpernickel. Grill on a pre-heated panini press or George Foreman for about 4 minutes. Enjoy!

I see a lot of improvisation on this theme before I get tired of the combo... I'm thinking avocado next.

CSA Basket #3 and a frittata

Saturday (June 19) I picked up our CSA basket directly from Lyn at the Farmer's Market. Rob and I were going out of town that afternoon, and I didn't want to wait for Lyn to deliver our basket to Bob's. Our basket contained a bunch of beautiful lettuce, spinach, and spring onions. Lyn hadn't grabbed enough eggs when he left the farm, so he asked if I would mind getting 2 dozen eggs next week. I didn't mind not getting eggs because I still had a half dozen left at home!

As I put the veggies away, and Rob got ready to go, I decided to make a frittata before we hit the road. I picked all of the spinach out of our basket and wilted it in our 8-inch non-stick skillet, and tossed in a few onions and a little fresh sage that I had sitting in the fridge. I used up the last of the eggs from last week, and made a tasty, tasty frittata.


In the process of eating our frittata, we also polished off a pint of blackberries. It was the perfect meal before hitting the road.

We took the scenic route to Rob's brother's house in Brookings and partied with Kyle and his friends Saturday night. Sunday, we picked up my Grandma in Flandreau and drove out to Mom and Dad's for some birthday cake (I'm 27!). Dad grilled hamburgers and brats, and we hung out Sunday night and watched a movie. Monday, we drove most of the way home on Hwy 44. It was a far more interesting route - even if it took us almost 7.5 hours! It was a great weekend!

Steak Panini with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

I went grocery shopping tonight for no particular reason. Mostly, I wanted to wander in the grocery store. I had selected a couple of recipes that I wanted to prepare in the next few days, so I did have a list, sort of.

I went to the store looking for pork chops and pork tenderloin. Unfortunately all of the pork tenderloin (that wasn't pre-seasoned) was in 3 lb packages, and I only needed 1 1/2 lbs at the most. The $12 price tag kept me from buying the larger tenderloin and cutting it in half, so I was in need of another type of meat. Safeway had almost every cut of beef on sale, and I found some thin cut bottom round steaks for $2 each.

I also noticed that the bakery section had some bleu cheese and peppercorn ciabatta rolls that I had never seen before. My brain immediately jumped on PANINI, so I tossed them in the cart too. On the drive home, I hatched a plan. I was thinking of thin-slicing the steaks and using them in salads or wraps, and I realized that steak panini would be awesome. Last week, I bought some sun-dried tomato pesto, originally thinking I could use it to make a lazy man's sun-dried tomato mayo... and the plan came together.

Steak Panini with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
Recipe by Erin Handberg

2 Safeway bleu cheese-peppercorn ciabatta rolls, or other roughly 4" square ciabatta rolls
4 oz steak, thin cut bottom round
3 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese
1 Tbsp store-bought sun-dried tomato pesto
2 slices provolone
Spicy Montreal steak seasoning, to taste

Heat a George Foreman grill or panini press. Season the bottom round steak with spicy Montreal steak seasoning, or salt and pepper. (I like the kick from the steak seasoning and gets used on almost everything!) Grill the steak 4 or 5 minutes or until it's about medium.

While the steaks are cooking, mix the feta and sun-dried tomato pesto with a fork, mashing it together until the pesto is evenly distributed and the mix could be spread easily. Slice the ciabatta rolls horizontally. Place a slice of provolone on the top half of each roll. Divide the sun-dried tomato feta mixture and spread 1/2 of the mixture on the bottom of each roll.

When the steak is finished, slice it in thin strips against the grain of the meat. (This helps keep the ordinarily tough cut tender.) Divide the steak between the rolls.

Grill each roll for 4 or 5 minutes on the Foreman (or panini press). If using a Foreman grill, be sure to hold the top down for the first minute or so to squish the roll down and get the traditional panini grill marks. When the cheese is melted and starts to drip from the roll, remove the panini and cut it in half. Serves 2.

This is perhaps the most delicious panini I've ever eaten, and I'm a huge fan of some of the paninis at one of the coffee shops downtown. The tang from the bleu cheese roll, the spiciness of the steak seasoning, the richness of the meat, and the intenseness of the sun-dried tomato pesto made one pretty darn awesome sandwich! Rob took one bite and began nodding - I didn't even have to ask if he liked it!

As we ate, we discussed other possibilities for the bleu cheese roll and sun-dried tomato feta mix... turkey and spinach, grilled veggies, etc, etc. =)

Bacon-wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

In my recent food blog reading, I've come across a trend: bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. Seriously, I've seen the exact same recipe (attributed to the Pioneer Woman) used by no less than 4 other bloggers in the last week. It's crazy. Of course, that meant that I HAD to try it. What's not to love about jalapeno poppers to begin with? When you wrap them in BACON, you simply have to make them. And I managed to convince myself that these are better for you than the traditional fried version, even if they are wrapped in bacon....

Bacon-wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
Taken almost verbatim from Pioneer Woman's recipe

12 jalapenos
3 oz or so of whipped cream cheese
6 slices of black label bacon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane. Smear cream cheese into each jalapeno half. Wrap jalapeno with a half slice of bacon. Secure by sticking toothpick through the middle.

Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. If, after 20 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough, just turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off.

Sadly, these didn't photograph worth a darn, or maybe I have too much of a dirty mind to consider posting the pictures. Either way... I'm SO glad that I listened to all of the other rave reviews! These are worth the 25 minute wait... but if you think you only need 6 poppers, double the recipe.

CSA basket #2 and stir-fry

A week has come and gone already, and it's time for a new CSA basket! I'm really impressed with what the CSA is doing so far this year. The produce is so fresh, and they've managed to keep the bugs at bay. I can't imagine how difficult that is for an organic garden - I have a hard enough time keeping the bugs out of my food when I garden INDOORS. Anyways... today we received huge leaves of lettuce, monstrous spinach, spring onions and there were a few radishes hiding in the corner of the bag. Plus, we got another dozen eggs. I'm still not finished with the eggs from last week!

Though I haven't made anything from our garden loot yet, I do plan on making a big salad and/or frittata tomorrow.

I've been spending the last few days reading food blogs. I discovered this week that if you take a muscle relaxant, no work will happen for at least 12 hours. If you take more than one of them in a day, no work happens for about 30 hours. It's not a linear function... so, despite the fact that I was awake and should have been working, I browsed food blogs and added a about a dozen blogs to my blog roll!

One of the many things I came across on Cookin' Canuck was a chicken stir fry that looked unbelievably delicious. I asked Rob if he wanted broccoli in his stir fry or if I should go for something like snap peas. He picked snap peas, so I ended up modifying her recipe quite a bit in the process of changing veggies and scaling it down to a meal for two. Here goes...

Chicken, Snap Pea and Red Bell Pepper stir-fry
Modified from this recipe by Cookin' Canuck

The Sauce:
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup hoisin
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp sesame oil

The Stir-Fry:
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch squares
12 oz (by weight) snap peas, ends trimmed
1 Tbsp black sesame seeds

Stir-fry is all about the prep work, so be sure to take the time to get everything ready before you start cooking!

In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure out the orange juice. Because I'm too lazy to get a measuring cup dirty for the hoisin, I measured that by displacement. Simply add hoisin sauce until the total volume reaches 1/2 cup. Add in the rest of the sauce ingredients and whisk together. Set aside.

Heat a 10-inch skillet (or a 12-inch skillet if you have one) over high heat. Add 1 Tbsp of the olive oil and saute the chicken strips. Add cracked black pepper to taste, about 15-20 grinds from a pepper grinder. Stir the chicken until it is just cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.

Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet and add the chopped ginger and garlic. Stir about 30 seconds until fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic, and then add the vegetables. Stir the vegetables for a minute. Then add about 2 Tbsp of water to the skillet and put the lid on to steam the snap peas for a couple of minutes.

When the peas are vibrant green, but still crisp, return the chicken to the pan with the sauce mixture. Stir until the sauce is thoroughly heated. Plate individual portions, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve.

This recipe was a fairly large meal, but Rob and I were able to finish the pan of veggie and chicken goodness. If you were to serve this with rice or noodles, you could easily stretch it to serve 3, maybe 4. If I were to make this again, I would add a little corn starch to the sauce. It's delicious the way it is, but I was sad to have "wasted" the sauce that remained in the pan. It would be even more delicious clinging to the veggies. Oh, and because I love spicy food, I would probably replace part of the sesame oil in the sauce with some chili oil. Just some thoughts...

Bento #14 - Snack bento and GORP recipe

I spent several hours at school today working on a lecture for our independent study quantum mechanics class. Our independent studies are extremely useful, because I learn a ton, but they're also a lot of work because the students do the lecturing. Thankfully, there are three of us in the class, so the load is lightened a little from my previous independent study experience. Because I wanted to be home to make supper, I didn't want to take a full meal with me to school. I built a snack bento in my 1 cup Fit & Fresh container. I packed 2 Babybel cheese wheels (original and gouda), 1 Laughing Cow garlic herb cheese wedge, and filled the rest with about a half cup of homemade trail mix.

GORP of sorts

1.5 cups almonds
1.5 cups walnutsa
1 cup pumpkin seeds, roasted and salted
1/2 cup Craisins
1/2 cup Zante currants
1/2 cup Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together and store in a one quart baggie. It doesn't last long!

On a side note: I hadn't planned ahead when I brought the Laughing Cow cheese wedge. I usually like to spread the cheese on something - bread or veggies - but I hadn't brought anything that had a spreadable surface. Enter the humble almond. The unsalted almonds in my GORP were the PERFECT vehicle for the garlic-herb cheese. Mmm...

Farmer's Market Frittata

Okay, the title isn't quite accurate ... it's more of a CSA frittata, but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I'll be honest... I grow quickly tired of turkey sandwiches for lunch when we're dining at home, unlike Rob who could eat them every day, sometimes twice. I do agree that sometimes a turkey sandwich is the perfect solution to too much take out and rich food. Other times, it's extremely boring. Today was one of those "turkey is boring" days.


Spinach, Spring Onion and Mushroom Frittata

2-3 cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 spring onions
1 cup (or so) fresh spinach, tightly packed
1 slice Firehouse beer bread - or other dark brown bread
4 farm fresh eggs
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Select an 8-inch oven proof saute pan and heat on medium heat. Once the pan's hot, saute the mushrooms in a little olive oil until they start to brown. Add in the spring onions and saute for an additional minute. Toss in the freshly washed spinach - the water still clinging on the spinach will help them wilt nicely. While the spinach is wilting, cube the beer bread and whisk the eggs. If the beer bread is particularly stale (like mine was), soak the bread cubes in the eggs for a minute or so. Add the bread and eggs to the pan. Keep the pan on the stove top until the eggs set around the edges. Move the pan to the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the eggs are set and the edges are brown. After removing the frittata from the oven, grate a little Parmesan over the top, cut into wedges and serve.

CSA basket #1 and a fresh lunch

Rob and I subscribe to a CSA - consumer supported agriculture - from Chadron, NE. Once a week, produce and eggs are delivered to Rapid City, from the first weekend in June to the last weekend of October. Last year, we received a wide variety of vegetables throughout the summer, and even though the bugs and hail eliminated our tomato crop, I really enjoyed the freshness and seasonality. I have eaten garden fresh foods for years growing up on a farm, but apparently a few years of city living caused me to completely forget what an organic carrot tastes like, fresh out of the ground. They're amazing! "Our" farm - Harmony Food and Produce Co - raises everything organically, and the chickens are truly free range. In fact, we got shorted on the pea crop last year because the chickens discovered they liked the pea shoots more than the bugs!

During the summer, we can eat almost exclusively organically between the CSA, Farmer's Market, and Black Hills Milk. I even found local, organic, free range sheep and beef producers where you can buy individual cuts of meat (instead of the whole critter, like it would be if you bought from a typical rancher in the area). It's pretty sweet that you can support individual farmers and get tons of excellent food in the process. That being said... on to the food!

Our first CSA basket consisted of salad greens, spinach, spring onions and eggs. When I say salad greens, I mean a gallon bag full of fresh red and green lettuces. We got almost a whole gallon bag full of spinach too. Did I mention that this is supposed to feed a family of four for a week? =)

I had to come up with something fresh to utilize our tasty picks for the week... Rob had a big salad topped with roasted turkey breast, caesar vinaigrette, and asiago cheese. I decided to have something a little more "gourmet."

Poached Eggs with Spinach and Spring Onion on Seven-seed bread

2 farm fresh chicken eggs
2 cups loosely packed spinach, roughly chopped
1 spring onion, white and light green parts sliced into rounds
1 slice bacon
2 slices Seven-seed soda bread (see previous post for recipe)
sprinkle of asiago cheese

This recipe is really as easy as it sounds.... In a small fry pan with a little oil, saute the onion until just softened. Toss the freshly washed spinach on top of the onion and put a lid on the pan. It takes about a minute or two to wilt the spinach. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile, poach 2 eggs to your desired doneness - I prefer runny yolks. Crisp a slice of bacon (stove or microwave). Assemble the meal by putting the two slices of bread on a plate, top with wilted spinach and onion, divide the slice of bacon among the bread, and add a poached egg to each slice of bread. Break open the yolk of the poached egg so it soaks into the bread, salt and pepper liberally, and sprinkle with asiago cheese.

Tip: I learned this trick from Rob's mom. When you buy bacon - even if you only need one slice - cook the entire pound. Take the leftovers, drain any excess fat, put it in a freezer bag and toss in the freezer. When you want to add bacon to something, simply pull out a fully cooked slice, nuke for 10 seconds or so in the microwave, and voila! It's much cheaper than buying the precooked stuff (and you have some say in the quality of the bacon you're eating), and it's far more efficient than trying to thaw a pound of bacon for one slice.

Seven-seed soda bread

A lot of food happenings have happened in the last week or so. I'll summarize the notable ones in the next couple of posts...

In my interweb browsing, I came across a rather attractive photo of some six-grain soda bread that I just had to make... Earlier that day, I had gone to the pool and covered 21 laps, sat in the sauna for 10 minutes or so, and then decided I should head back to school to get something done... and that's when I tried to take off my pinky toe on the sauna door. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I did cut the heck out of my toe. After Rob administered first aid, I went back to school for a while and browsed the interwebs. That's when I saw it... Check the original recipe out here.

Rob and I went to the grocery store to collect the seeds I was missing, and I hobbled off to my apartment to bake. Have I mentioned that I love my Kitchen Aid mixer? It's amazing! <3

Seven-seed Soda Bread
A recipe modified from 101cookbooks.com

The seeds:
2 1/2 tablespoons EACH of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds and red quinoa
1 teaspoon fennel seeds

The rest:
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 teas. + a touch more baking soda
1 teas. (scant) fine grain sea salt (I used less sea salt than called for because some of the seeds I bought were salted)
1 3/4 cup buttermilk + a bit extra for brushing the bread before baking

Preheat your oven to 400F. Combine all of the seeds in a small bowl and set aside.

Measure the flours, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in all but 2 tablespoons of the seeds. Put your mixer on the lowest setting and add the buttermilk. Mix until the dough just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 1 minute until you can form it into a ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured baking sheet. Cut a cross into the top, cutting halfway through the loaf. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds, making sure plenty of seeds make it down into the cracks.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the bread is golden crusted on top and bottom. Cool on a wire rack.

It's truly delicious! Using both white and regular whole wheat flours resulted in a rather dense loaf - you could exchange one of the two for unbleached all-purpose flour, and I'm sure it'd be lighter. Either way, the bread was so delicious that Rob and I ate almost half of the loaf while it was still warm with butter and extra sharp cheddar cheese. Mmm! The leftovers will appear in a later post...

Raspberry and cream oatmeal

I love steel cut oats. I love that they're hearty and a little chewy and so much better than their rolled cousins. Rolled oats deserve their own love, but steel cut is the best for breakfast!

This recipe is reminiscent of the instant Quaker raspberry and cream oatmeal that I used to eat by the box as a kid. But I have to say this recipe is far, FAR better!

Raspberry and cream oatmeal

2 tsp. butter
1/2 c. steel cut oats
1-1/2 c. water
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. fresh raspberries
cream or milk to taste

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Pour in oats and stir to coat evenly with butter. Toast the oats over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are fragrant and lightly brown. Pour in water and bring to a boil. Simmer over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until much of the water is absorbed and they are nearly cooked. Mix in the raspberries, brown sugar and cinnamon. Break up the raspberries a little, and cook another 5 minutes or so until the oats are cooked. Serve with cream. Makes 2 servings, or 1 serving for a really hungry person!

Bento #13 - Snack bento

As yesterday at the conference proved, I wouldn't need a big bento to supplement the lunch with healthful foods. Today, I packed a snack bento instead. I took the two "sidecars" from our ECOlunchbox bentos. I filled one with blueberries. The second one I packed with two Laughing Cow Babybel's and one Laughing Cow Wedge, and then poured in habanero BBQ almonds to fill in the gaps.

I did discover that the Stampmill in Lead is a pretty sweet restaurant. We had a limited choice of food; since there were 40 people that descended on the restaurant all at once they only gave us three choices. The Teriyaki steak tips were flavorful and tender. I've only stolen steak tips off other people's plates before - this was my first experience with a plate of them. They sauteed bell peppers and onions to go with the steak tips, and we got a pretty good sized portion plus potato and side salad. Very tasty. The environment was pretty awesome too - they had a nice bar band playing. It was a couple guys and acoustic guitar with only a vocal mic. You could easily talk over them, but they played a lot of good old country, rock, Beetles, etc. I'll have to check out the Stampmill again - when I have a chance to look at the real menu. =)

Bento #12, Caraway Pork Chops and Free Food

Even though I haven't posted in a while, on March 12, I did make the Caraway Pork Chops from Bon Appetit. They were Delicious with a capital D. I honestly think the cabbage was the best part - but the chops were pretty darn tasty on their own.

Caraway Pork Chops with Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage
This recipe is adapted from the February 2010 issue of Bon Appetit.

1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, divided
3 boneless pork loin chops
1 tablespoon (scant) olive oil
2 slices applewood-smoked bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
3-4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage from half of a medium head
1/3 cup sliced shallots (about 2 medium)
1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon (packed) brown sugar

Sprinkle caraway, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, salt and pepper on both sides of pork chops. Cook bacon in olive oil until the bacon is nice and crisp. Transfer to plate. Add chops to drippings in skillet and saute until cooked through. Transfer chops to a plate and tent with foil. Deglaze the pan with a little chicken broth. Add cabbage, shallots, broth, vinegar, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon allspice to same skillet; cook over medium-high heat until liquid is reduced to glaze and cabbage is done to your liking, about 10 minutes. Mix in bacon. Season with salt and pepper. Divide pork and cabbage between 2 plates, or 3 if you're feeding a Karen. =)

I had the great opportunity to head home for a few days - so I haven't packed a lunch in a while. But! Today and tomorrow, we have a collaboration meeting in Lead and I packed a veggie bento just in case. Last year, lunch was sandwiches, pasta salad and lots of highly refined carbs. I decided lunch would be better with veggies instead of chips and cookies. It turned out pretty sweet: half of a red pepper, half of an orange pepper, a bunch of English cucumber, carrots, edamame and a couple of cheese wedges tucked into my ECOlunchbox. The "sidecar" was packed with raspberries and blackberries. It's cute!


Despite my preparations, the lunch offered at the conference was tasty and not filled with tons of sugar and refined carbs. So far, I've only eaten the berries and a little of edamame. That's okay... the veggies will get eaten. Mmm, veggies.

The free supper that I picked tonight is Teriyaki Steak Tips at the Stampmill in Lead. Mmm, free food... If I'm really lucky, the drinks will be free too!

Bento #11 - Tomato soup and rye bread

I'm not sure that today's lunch can qualify as bento - I grabbed a half-eaten container of tomato soup from the fridge, a few slices of dense rye bread, and a couple of Laughing Cow cheese wedges, stuffed them in my backpack, and called it good. Bento or not, it's perfect for the weather today. Apparently the weather gods decided we didn't get enough moisture this year and they're trying to drown us. They're not trying to do it quickly, mind you... it's just inches of rain accumulating over a course of several days. In 40 degree weather. WTF.

Back to the food - Rubschlager rye (either the square stuff or the Ryeola) is amazing. It's thick, hearty, and delicious. I will admit that it doesn't make the best reuben sandwiches, but it's perfect in almost every other conceivable way. If only I could master baking bread like that...

Supper last night wasn't pork chops like I had planned - Karen's dad was in town, so we went to the Firehouse for foodage to hang out with Bill, Karen and two of her kids. Besides, I was so hungry after swimming, I was completely indifferent to the source of our supper - I just wanted food. I "settled" for the buffalo bleu cheese burger and cottage cheese. Mmmm.

Today, I found a recipe on Bon Appetit that looks delicious, and I've decided will work equally well with pork chops: Caraway Chicken Breasts with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage. Besides, it's cold enough that red cabbage won't seem out of place! We'll see if I make it to the store tonight after swimming...

Bento #10 - Tortellini and butter beans with pesto

The semester is OVER! My life is no longer controlled by exams, grading or other miscellaneous deadlines. It's time to develop a new routine - one that includes regular exercise (training for Mt. Whitney), and one that includes healthy food. Ideally, I'd like to lose about 5 lbs while training for Whitney, and that probably implies healthier foods and less alcomohols. Or just more exercise and healthier food... It's almost the right weather to ride bike downtown, sit outside Paddy's or Thirsty's or Bully's with a beer or glass of red wine and enjoy the evening!

Today for lunch I returned to my favorite staple: whole wheat tortellini. It's so easy and delicious. I made 7 tortellini (yes, I counted. It's half a serving.), and filled the rest of my large (330 mL) container with butter beans. I found a jar of pesto in the cupboard and mixed in a heaping teaspoon. I sprinkled the top with grated Romano cheese. The small (250 mL) container was filled with leftover steamed veggies: white corn, asparagus and carrots, and lots of salt and pepper.

When it came time to eat, I realized I should have added salt and pepper to the top container. Pesto has a lot of flavor, but salt and pepper would have completed it. I also couldn't finish the beans. CalorieKing says my packed lunch was about 400 calories. I probably ate 350 of them. Oh well, the rest will be a snack before I workout.

It's rainy and crappy out today, so my plan for the evening is to head to the Y for a swim. And for a post workout meal: pork chops! Mmmmm, pig. I could never, ever be kosher. The pig is just TOO TASTY.

White Bean and Chicken Salad, and a delicious lunch

Wednesday this week, I knew I would need to spend a fair amount of time at school working on our exam. I needed a lunch that would stick with me and last... and it had to be something available in my cupboard. I had a can of chicken, but almost no other meat, so chicken it is.

White Bean and Chicken Salad
1 (12 oz) can of chicken
1 (16 oz) can of white kidney beans, or other white bean
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1-2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

I mixed it all up, cooked 2 oz of whole wheat penne, tossed the penne in olive oil and combined the whole works in my ECOlunchbox with some shredded Parmesan. It was an absolutely delicious (if bland looking) lunch. I couldn't come close to finishing it - which worked out, since I would need to eat later in the day.

The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful food-wise. Back to turkey sandwiches at home.

This morning though, I was tired of turkey. Instead of a turkey sandwich I opted to try out my new silicon egg poachers.

Poached egg with Capicola, Bleu cheese and Rye
1 slice rye bread
2-3 slices of smoked hot capicola
1-2 Tbsp crumbled bleu cheese
1 egg

Boil water and soft poach the egg according to your poacher directions (or if you're talented, poach them without the help of a little silicon cup!) Layer the capicola and bleu cheese over the rye. Microwave for 15-20 seconds to soften the cheese and render some of the fat in the capicola. Put the soft poached egg over top and slice the yolk so the whole thing is covered in runny egg goodness. Serve with coffee. Devour.

Rob thought my lunch smelled funny and wouldn't try it - but he's not a huge fan of stinky bleu cheese. Sad. It was delicious! The bleu cheese I used was pretty powerful, so it did taste largely of cheese. Even with the cheesiness, the saltiness of the capicola and the runny egg made it a deliciously flavorful and rich lunch. No need for extra salt or pepper!

I went to my apartment and picked up my microplane because I want to try this for lunch sometime this week. Mmm. I will admit that the bento project has had me seeking out more creative, and filling lunch options. I like it!

Lunch at home

As usual, it's been a crazy week or so with school wrapping up. Last weekend, we had the NanoExpo 2010 poster session and our spring choir concert. Both went extremely well... and I ended up winning the poster session! Sunday, we had lunch with Rob's family in Belle Fourche... and so far this week, we've been up early enough to actually eat at home before coming to school.

While I've been having a lot of fun packing lunches, there's nothing like a casual lunch at home. Today we had split pea soup and turkey sandwiches, nothing fancy. But, when you add a glass of wine and enjoy your lunch with someone you care about, it becomes a much more special occasion. It was a little weird drinking red wine before coffee, but it was well worth it. I lounged around the house after lunch, caught up on my internet reading, lingered over my coffee, and then sauntered to school in the 60 degree weather. Despite the 25 mph "breeze," it was a gorgeous walk.

Tonight, though, it's time to get back to cooking. I have a few peppers and mushrooms in the fridge that could use some love. I have sausage in the freezer and a bag of lentils in the cupboard. Perhaps lentils and sausage? What about the peppers and mushrooms? I also have polenta and a huge chunk of Parmesan. Hmm... so much to think about.

Oh yeah... and I should probably think about the exam I'm working on. =)

Bento #9

I made two completely different bentos today. The large containers for both of our boxes were still at school in the fridge, containing leftover garlic spice chicken. The only containers I had available were the ECOlunchbox containers, which don't work particularly well if you have a need to divide your food. Nonetheless, I had one leftover grilled chicken breast in the fridge, and enough pasta for one lunch.

Rob's lunch today was identical to Bento #7 - I packed garlic spice chicken in the small round container, nestled it in the main box and filled the rest whole wheat tortellini and Brussels sprouts, covered liberally in Parmesan and salt and pepper. Rob supplemented his lunch with the leftover chicken from the fridge at school.



My bento probably sounds a little lame, but it was delicious! Since I had boiling water already, I poured half a bag of edamame (in the pod) into the pot to cook once the pasta was finished. The other half of the chicken breast was packed in my round container with Asian zing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings. Once the edamame was done, I packed it in the remaining space with freshly ground sea salt. Mmm... tasty! It was also very high in protein and kept me satisfied until almost 6:00.



Supper tonight was also very tasty. I bought a pound of ground buffalo last week that needed to be used up. Rob was sound asleep on the couch when I got to his place, and he wasn't particularly enamored with the ground buffalo idea. Apparently he prefers the animal making up ground meat to "moo" when it's alive. I guess buffalo don't "moo." Since Rob wouldn't be eating my buffalo burgers, I crumbled about 2.5 oz of bleu cheese, added a good handful of shredded sharp cheddar, and spiced it with Montreal steak seasoning. After mixing the cheese thoroughly with the burger, I made two 1/4 lb patties and four 1/8 lb patties. I grilled everything up, nuked some veggies, and had a melty, rich, tasty burger topped with extra melted cheddar, buffalo wing sauce, and nestled on a whole wheat bun.

The rest of the meat I put in the fridge, and I fully intend for the four little burgers to be "sliders" for lunch tomorrow. Mini whole wheat pitas will make good vehicles for serving, too. I can't wait!

Tally's, a tiny lunch, and happy hour

Rob and I started out the morning right with breakfast at our favorite restaurant downtown: Tally's Silver Spoon. My usual order alternates between the mini breakfast with an extra egg, or the eggs Benedict, depending how hungry I am. I'm a huge fan of their eggs Benedict, largely because I'm too lazy to make hollandaise myself. Rob was brave and tried the crepes with scrambled eggs and ham. (His usual is the two egg breakfast with an extra egg.) While they were probably tasty (he didn't share!), it wasn't quite enough food for him. Meanwhile, my eggs Benedict addiction left me stuffed.

Speaking of breakfast, I would like to call attention to Tally's coffee. I don't know what they do to it, or where it comes from, but this stuff is the best cafe coffee I think I have ever consumed. Seriously, it's so good and tasty, you'd think it contained MSG. Hmm... maybe it does? Nah...

One more commercial for Tally's while I'm at it. They've recently undergone a change in ownership, and the new chef is a young stud from Le Cordon Bleu in Portland. I am a terrible person and still haven't gone there for dinner... BUT the weekend brunch designed by the chef is AMAZING. I've had pork cassoulet topped with a runny egg and foie gras. (A meal I wish I could preserve in memory for all time, it was that good.) I've had a savory waffle topped with mussels, salmon and shrimp with a runny egg, roasted red pepper coulee, and some other delicious sauce I can't name but I can guarantee it contained butter.... If you don't make it to Tally's for dinner, at least try their weekend brunch!

For lunch, Rob and I stopped at the Miner's Shack for chili and a salad. I ate veggies and skipped the chili, in anticipation of happy hour beers and food.

I was in the middle of some frustrating work at school when 5:00 happily rolled around. Lori and I went out for happy hour at Minerva's. We ordered a couple of Fat Tires, honey BBQ wings and pizzas. Minerva's makes a thin crust pizza that is quite delicious. Lori tried the chicken cordon bleu pizza and I got one of my favorites, the LaBella. I stole a piece of Lori's pizza and it was quite tasty - chicken, ham, cheese and breadcrumbs with a white sauce. I still prefer pizzas with marinara sauce and dug into the LaBella - pepperoni, portobella mushrooms and sausage. As usual, the conversation was great. (I'm really going to miss her when she gets the job at Sandia.)

My delicious foodie day was concluded with an equally delicious nap on the futon at my place. And, I'm currently hatching a lunch plan of pasta salad and leftover chicken (from the bentos on Monday)....

My Bento Boxes

Since I'm awake and trying to avoid the work I should be doing, I thought I should take the time to post pictures of the bento boxes I own, just in case the links I provided in the first post disappear eventually.

My bento is the Urara Dragonfly Bento set by LubeSheep. Yes, the brand name is weird, just go with it. The large container is 330 mL and the small container is 250 mL. It's cute! I've also discovered that if I pack it "correctly," the small size is more than enough food.



Rob's bento is the Liberty Men's Bento set, also by LubeSheep. The large container is 550 mL and the small container is 450 mL. Some bento users out there claim you can fit a sandwich in the top box, which is largely why I purchased it. I'm not quite sure how. It will barely hold half of a sandwich. Oh well, it's the right number of calories for Rob to eat for lunch, according to the bento box guidelines on Lunch In A Box.



Finally, we both have a stainless steel ECOlunchbox that we purchased at REI. I don't know the size in mL, but I do know that it perfectly holds a sandwich with a few veggies along the side, and it has a separate, lidded round container which works for additional veggies or yogurt, etc.



This begs the question... what's for lunch tomorrow?

Bento #8

I love fresh pasta. While I learned to make it this fall, and discovered that it is fairly easy and truly yummy, I don't often take the time on my own to make it. Consequently, I have fallen in love with Safeway Select's whole wheat fresh pastas, particularly the four cheese tortellini. I'm also addicted to Steamfresh frozen veggies. I know there's probably something inherently evil about nuking veggies in the bag they're frozen in, but until I'm told the carcinogens will kill me, I figure the nutrition gained by regularly eating veggies is far better than nothing.

I made two bentos this morning by taking advantage of both tasty conveniences. I had grilled three chicken breasts last night on the Foreman. I loosely filled the large containers for both my box and Rob's box with diced chicken (about 1.5 breasts), and covered it in a little spicy garlic wing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings. Meanwhile, I boiled two servings of tortellini and nuked two single serving packages of Brussels sprouts. When the pasta was done, I tossed it with olive oil, covered it in salt, pepper and freshly grated Parmesan, and packed it with the Brussels sprouts in the small containers.

I don't regularly microwave my bento - largely because I don't know if they are designed to handle a microwave. I wasn't sure how Rob would fare eating cold pasta and chicken, but he didn't complain. In fact, I was complimented on the tasty lunch! At least something went right today... stupid grad school.

Bento #7 and the Welsh Rarebit

I was suspicious that I would have a hard time making a nifty lunch every day. Sure enough, after Easter break, it was super difficult to get back to making a regular lunch! Thursday for lunch, I packed my dragonfly bento with leftover sushi from our trip to Ichiban the night before. Friday, I made a turkey on rye and packed it with a Ziplock bag because my bento was at Rob's house!

However, this week, I think the most important food event was the Welsh Rarebit we had on Wednesday night. I'd made hard boiled eggs a couple days before, and I decided to attempt making cheese sauce from scratch for the rarebit. Mmmm..... can I say delicious?! Rob even loved it, and said he far preferred to Hollandaise. I have a new favorite cool weather supper. =)

Welsh Rarebit recipe
Adapted from Alton Brown, Toast Modern episode

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 teas. Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon)
1 teas. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teas(ish) Kosher salt
1/2 teas(ish) freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. Fat Tire
3/4 c. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 c. (6 oz) shredded Cheddar (I used a bit more!)
4-5 shakes of Tabasco

4 hard boiled eggs
6-8 slices of Virginia ham (I used deli ham)
2 slices dark Rye or Pumpernickel

Alton's directions were spot on, so here they are: "In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Cook, whisking constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, being careful not to brown the flour. Whisk in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add beer and whisk to combine. Pour in cream and whisk until well combined and smooth. Gradually add cheese, stirring constantly, until cheese melts and sauce is smooth; this will take 4 to 5 minutes."

While cheese sauce is cooking over low heat, toast bread, heat ham and hard boiled eggs. (I diced the ham and eggs and warmed them in a fry pan over medium heat.) Pile ham and eggs on toast, cover liberally with cheese sauce, and serve with more salt and pepper as desired.

Italian sausages and peppers over polenta

I've been contemplating dinner with sausage and peppers over polenta for a couple of days. I've had a three-pack of peppers in the fridge that needed to be cooked, and I bought Italian sausage a couple of days ago... so, here's the invention that led to a delicious supper:

Italian sausages and peppers

Note: This recipe would probably serve four handily. I made far more sausage than we needed for the two of us, just so I could get it all cooked. Rob and I ended up eating 3 sausages in one sitting + about 1/3 cup (dry) polenta + a small bunch of kale.

8-9 Italian sausages, hot or mild
1 large yellow onion, sliced thinly in half moons
12 oz dark beer (New Belgium 1554 is tasty)
2 Tbsp stone ground yellow mustard
1/4 tsp each cumin and chili powder
1/2 tsp rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
1 each red, orange and yellow bell pepper
4-6 oz. baby portabello mushrooms
15.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved

Heat a deep 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Heat about 1 Tbsp olive oil. Add the sausages in a single layer, and brown on one side. Flip the sausages. Toss the onions on top of the sausages and pour in about 10 oz beer. Simmer about 10 minutes, or until sausages are done.

Remove sausages from the pan and set aside. Turn up the heat, add the mustard and spices, and (mostly) caramelize the onions. If you run out of liquid, use some of the reserved beer or tomato juice. When onions are nearly caramelized, add peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Simmer until peppers are tender, stirring occasionally. Nestle the sausages on top of the vegetables, cover. Turn the heat to low.

Meanwhile, cook polenta according to package directions, and finish with a handful of parmesan and a pat of butter. (I use Bob's Red Mill polenta.) I also cooked some kale.

Serve with a scoop of polenta, a couple of sausages, a pile of kale and a good scoop of the pepper mixture. Garnish with more parmesan, if desired. Delicious with a dark beer. =)

Bento #6 and the rest of the week

Bento #6 was completely unoriginal, since it was identical to Bento #5! I did add a side salad from the Shack though. Mmm, salad.

Thursday, I gave a presentation at school, so I ate a late breakfast and skipped lunch. We had Buffalo Wild Wings for supper. Mmm. I think the mango habanero sauce would be awesome for cooked chicken bentos. The spicy Asian sauce was quite tasty too!

Friday was Good Friday, and I sat at home waiting for skis to arrive, so no bento. Probably no new bentos until Tuesday...

Bento #5 - Mini quiches

After doing a lot of reading about people packing mini quiches in their bentos, I decided I had to give it a try. I was talking with a friend from school, and we came up with the idea of baking mini quiches in a mini muffin pan and using wonton skins as the crust.

I bought wonton skins from Safeway and Hormel Real Bacon crumbles (too lazy last night to fry bacon!). After spraying the muffin pan with Pam, I carefully filled each of the 24 muffin cups with a wonton skin. I put a little (~ 1 tsp.) shredded cheddar in the bottom of each, and topped that with a little (~ 1 tsp.) bacon crumbles. I filled each muffin cup with about 1 - 1.5 Tbsp. of scrambled egg. It ended up taking 6 eggs for the 24 mini quiches. Then I baked them in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. They were tasty! R and I ate 6 of them last night before I packed them in the fridge.

In the future, I would blind bake the wonton skins for a minute or two so the bottom of the crust is a little crispier. Otherwise, no major changes. I can see a lot of variations on this theme in the future!

Lunch today consisted of 3 mini quiches nestled in the 330 mL container with lettuce and a Laughing Cow Garlic Herb cheese wedge. The bottom (250 mL) container contained a little leftover rice, chili and cumin spiced black beans, and about 1/3 of a sliced avocado.



Lunch is delicious! Be careful opening the containers though: the avocado stuck to the top and it was a little messy to carefully extract it from the top. The bottom layer needed salt... which I happened to have at school, so I was covered.

Bento #4

Monday's bento was a leftover bento. The top (330 mL) container was filled with a couple pieces of leftover General's Chicken from Saigon Restaurant, baked beans from the Safeway deli, and a Babybel cheese round. The bottom (250 mL) container was carefully packed 1/3 full with rice, and the remainder was filled with radishes, carrots and the last of the snap peas.

At lunchtime, I bought a cup of tomato soup from the Miner's shack. I mixed the rice in with the soup (cold rice is weird for me), and enjoyed the rest of the bento. The addition of soup was so filling that Rob ate half of my veggies!

Bento packing is getting faster! It only took 10-15 minutes to put this one together.

Bento #3

Friday's bento was much quicker to pack. I made R's sandwich first - turkey, Swiss, and lettuce - and packed it in the ECOlunchbox with sugar snap peas and grape tomatoes. The small container was packed with radishes, carrots, and a few more sugar snap peas.

My bento was made with leftover beans and tuna from yesterday. I wisely lined the container FIRST. I made a small cup out of a slice of Swiss and packed it with tuna. Then I lined the rest of the large (330 mL) container with lettuce and filled it full of white kidney beans, grated parmesan and a cherry topper. I packed 4-5 spears of sliced asparagus in the spaces. The small container (250 mL) was filled with half a plum, carrots, snap peas, radishes, and blueberries to fill the gaps.

Total time for both boxes was about 25 minutes. Not bad!

Bentos #1 and #2

I've been very intrigued by bento in the last couple of years, and I finally decided I'd had enough of packing boring sandwiches for lunch! Time to try my hand at bento. I'll get in the habit of taking pictures eventually, but for now, I want to record what I've packed, along with any thoughts on making it better, faster, etc.

The first bento was just as boring as my usual lunch... I packed a turkey sandwich with Laughing Cow French onion cheese, tapenade and lettuce in my new stainless-steel ECOlunchbox from REI (http://www.rei.com/product/793860). I packed several carrot sticks and a few grape tomatoes along the edge of the sandwich, and filled the small container with carrots and radishes.

I got my bento box from Japan in the mail yesterday. It's the Lube Sheep Blue Dragonfly box (http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/bento-box-urara-blue-330ml-250ml-dragonfly). My goal was to pack a slightly more traditional bento style meal. I tried to do some of the prep work the night before, thinking that I could cut down the time making my lunch in the morning. I boiled whole wheat penne and tossed it with a bit of olive oil before refrigerating it. I also drained a can of white kidney beans, tossed them with red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and dried basil.

In the morning, I added "sweet and spicy" tuna to the beans. I lined the large (330 mL) tier with lettuce, packed about a 1/2 cup of penne along one side and filled the rest of the tier with the beans and tuna. The whole container was covered in some extra cracked pepper and freshly grated parmesan. In the small (250 mL) tier, I packed steamed asparagus, a few olives, grape tomatoes and some broccoli salad.

Despite the fairly simple meal, my second bento took forever to prepare. I packed the box full of penne and beans before I decided to line the box with lettuce... so I dumped it onto a plate and started over. Packing the second tier was easier, mostly because I just crammed whatever fit into it!

Regardless of the effort involved, the lunch was quite tasty. I'm looking forward to developing a few more skills in packing my lunches quickly...