Archive for the ‘“Recipes”’ Category
Posted by terrepruitt on August 4, 2011
Often I hear people say they would like to cook eggplant but they don’t know how. I also hear a lot of people say you have to get the water out of eggplant before you cook it. Well, I would like to try cooking it another way because the only way I know how is to roast it, of course. Recently I bought some eggplant specifically to cube it and sautee it to see how that would be. But when I started thinking about how yummy it is roasted, I opted for roasting it. I have used Japanese eggplant, which it nice because it has less seeds. It is also nice because it is more evenly shaped so all the slices come out basically the same size so they cook at a more even rate. I typically use the large pear-ish shaped eggplant. The last time I bought it, the store clerk said she had always wanted to try it but didn’t know how to cook it (see, I told you people tell me that). So I decided to share my way of cooking it. You know I love to roast veggies. Roasting veggies is so easy because you can put them on and work on cooking the rest of dinner. I was so busy cooking the rest of dinner I forgot to take pictures of the roasted eggplant. I remembered to take pictures of it as I sliced it, but I forgot to do it after it was cooked.
I slice at about 3/8 of an inch. I put olive oil on the pan (I use a cookie sheet), then place the slices on the pan in rows, then I drizzle a little olive oil on the slices. I sprinkle garlic powder on each slice. Then I sprinkle salt on each slice. The salt will help release the water. Pretty much the same way as sweating the vegetables, but the water will evaporate in the oven. I usually cook them for about 15 or twenty minutes at 400 degrees. Then I flip them over. I usually add more seasoning. It depend on how much salt I put on before. I might add more or not. I put them back in the oven. How long depends on how they look. Often times they don’t cook evenly so some will be done where others will not. So I take the done ones off the pan, then I set the timer for the time I guess that the next ones will be done. When that time is up I take the done ones off the cookie sheet and put the pan back in the oven. Depending on how they are cooking, I might flip them. It is a process. You have to watch them a bit. That is why it is good to have other stuff to be cooking in the kitchen. You also have to decide HOW cooked you like them. You can cook them just a little until they are still really soft and doughy or you can cook them until they are crispy–almost like potato chips. I like mine crispy.
A friend on FB said she puts cheese on the slices. That would be excellent. I haven’t tried that. I am sure it is really good.
I don’t squeeze out the water before cooking and I don’t take out the seeds. I also do not cook it for a set amount of time. I start with 15 minutes and go from there. It is best to decide as you go along.
I did not realize that eggplant is a fruit, a berry in fact. I don’t think in terms of botany. I just think in terms of eating and cooking. The information I saw said eggplant is a fruit that is used in cooking like a vegetable. So yeah, I think of it as a vegetable.
So that is how I cook eggplant 🙂 pretty much how I cook all my vegetables. What about you? Do you cook eggplant? How? I really would like to try it other ways, but I don’t know how to cook it aside from roasting it. Did you know it is a fruit? Did you know it is a berry?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: aubergine, cheesy vegetables, easy veggie, eggplant, Facebook, olive oil, oven roasted, potato chips, roasted eggplant, roasted vegetables | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 24, 2011
My friend made a comment on my celery post. She offered the recipe for celery soup (it’s in comment #5). Awesome, you know I am on a soup kick. There are a lot of recipes out there for celery soup, of course, but it is nice to have a recipe from a friend. A nice tried and true recipe. I made it tonight, but I made some adjustments.
Since I don’t like pepper, I only put a sprinkle in, but I think this might have kept it from having much flavor so I added the marjoram which — to me — tied the flavors together nicely.
1 bunch celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp marjoram
a sprinkle of black pepper
a sprinkle of salt
48 ozs chicken stock
Sautee onion in olive oil, then add the parsnips. Cook the parsnips for a few minutes. When the parsnips start to get tender, add the celery and spices, cook it for a few minutes. Then add the stock. Let it simmer for awhile, then let it come to a boil. I let it cool for a bit then blend in blender or with a stick blender.
This is becoming my standard method of cooking soup. I have just been changing the ingredients.
I will probably try the celery soup with an apple -as my friend mentions- one of these days. What about you? I would love to hear what you’ve come up with.
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: celery, celery soup, chicken stock, immersion blender, marjoram, parsnips, stick blender | 7 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 17, 2011
I love tortillas. I love that they come in so many different flavors and ways. Depending upon your nutritional needs and health goals you can pretty much get almost any kind of tortilla you want. There are corn tortillas. They can be white corn, yellow corn, or corn with flavors. There are flour tortillas, wheat, whole wheat, multi grain, or white. There are low carb tortillas, low fat tortillas, spinach tortillas, tomato tortillas, fortified tortillas, high fiber tortillas, gluten-free tortillas, low-sodium tortillas, and the list goes on I am sure.
There are probably as many tortillas as there are ways you can cook with them. I think I have proclaimed my love for them before. Here is one of my favorite ways (why yes, yes I do have MANY favorite ways to eat a tortilla. And this is ONE! 🙂 ) This is a tortilla that I had warmed in the oven, then I put cheese, onions, and grape tomatoes on it. Then I heated up until the cheese was melted. Then I put the spinach on it. Then I put the mushrooms on it that I had cooked.
This is actually what my husband ate. Mine was not as colorful as I did not have the tomatoes or onions. And I cooked my spinach a little so it was wilted and wilted spinach does not make as pretty of a picture was the non-wilted kind.
Love this. Just looking at it I want to go have one. To me this is an easy meal. Put a bit of cheese and load a tortilla with veggies. Have more veggies on the side. Yay. Perfect!
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Cheese, corn tortillas, easy meal, flour tortilas, grape tomatoes on it, health goals, low carb tortillas, low fat tortillas, multi grain, nutritional needs, onions, tortillas, Veggie Topped Tortilla, whole wheat | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 5, 2011
Since I have a few posts about salads, I have a few comments about salad. When my blogger sister mentioned in her comment her favorite salad is a layered salad I asked her to send me the recipe. So she did. I invite anyone to send me salad recipes. I am not necessarily requesting any certain TYPE of salad because we all have different nutritional needs, different likes, and different dislikes. Here is The Water Witch’s Daughter’s favorite salad:
Seven Layer Salad
It is generally topped with a dressing to marinade for about four hours before serving, and then it is topped with crumbled bacon. The typical dressing is one cup of Miracle Whip mixed with a half cup of sour cream and a quarter cup of sugar.
These are the ingredients pictured:
one to two bunches of romaine lettuce, chopped
one yellow pepper, chopped one cucumber, peeled and diced
about two cups carrots, chopped
one container of grape tomatoes, cut in half
one package of thawed frozen peas
one cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese
_________________________________________________
Looks like she started with the lettuce, then put the peppers, then carrots, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, then topped it with the cheese. I guess you can layer it anyway you would like, she didn’t say.
She did say that she did not marinate this one she just used ranch dressing. So it seems like there are dressing options. As with any salads, you can make them with whatever you want, and you can layer them, but I am thinking that the peas and the cheese combine to make a specific type of texture and flavor.
I am not a fan of Miracle Whip, more accurately I don’t like it. The ranch dressing is more my style, but on my salads I tend to just use olive oil and vinegar. But for this I would think a light creamy dressing would be good. With the ingredients state above, what dressing would YOU use? Do you have a favorite? Or can you suggest one that might be less calories? What would really blend well with this salad yet at the same time make it pop? Please share because I am curious as to what to use.
Thank you to my friend SuziCate for sharing her favorite salad! Thanks for the picture too!
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: blog sister, Cheese, layered salad, less calorie, Miracle Whip, ranch dressing, salads, SuziCate, Water Witch's Daughter | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 12, 2011
I was going off the “recipe” for Green Garlic and Spinach Soup, but I was not measuring and making it up as I went along so the measurements are not exact.
When I served it I put some mozzarella in it. For hubby I put some raw onions and mozzarella. But I made him taste it BEFORE I added anything and he thought is was good without the added onions and cheese. I would imagine if you like pepper it would be a GREAT addition to this soup. I was going to serve it with hot sauce to my hubby because originally I thought it was going to be rather flavorless, but it turned out not to be flavorless and he liked it.
Keep in mind that I made this up, never having made a soup like this and never having used the immersion blender. So you might want to read my “Experimental Soup” post so that you know some of the issues if you haven’t done something like this before. Basically keep an eye on things because this post is not a step by step, “turn stove on, turn stove off” kind of recipe.
Baby Bok Choy and Spinach Soup
–olive oil
–1/2 (ish) of a medium sized onion chopped
–some chopped onion (for garnish)
–2 bundles of baby bok choy
(chopped, bottom portion separate from leafy portion)
–2 or 3 tsp of minced garlic
–garlic powder
–garlic salt
–48 oz of chicken broth
–some beer
–shake or two of teriyaki
–1 6-oz bag of spinach
–1.5 (ish) wooden spoonful of cream cheese
–mozzarella
Sautee onions in the olive oil. When the onions look tender add in the chopped bottom portion of the bok choy. Let it cook a minute, then add the garlic. While the bok choy is cooking, add garlic powder and garlic salt to help the veggies sweat. Sautee until tender. Then pour in the broth. Added some beer and teriyaki.
Stir it as you feel necessary throughout the entire process.
Bring to boil. Add the cream cheese if you are going to use it. Add leafy portion of the bok choy and bag of spinach. Gently boil for a few minutes or until the veggies are wilted.
Once the veggies looked wilted use the blender to mix it all up.
Ok, so if you try this let me know. If you make changes let me know. Sometimes I just stick to what I have tried because I don’t wanna ruin a good thing so you can do the experimenting for me and let me know what you’ve done that works! 😉
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: baby bok choy, Baby Bok Choy and Spinach Soup, beer, bok choy, chicken broth, cream cheese, emulsion blender, Experimental Soup, garlic powder, garlic salt, green garlic, green garlic and spinach soup, immersion blender, spinach | 11 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 7, 2011
Ok, so I haven’t made it yet, and I didn’t make up the recipe, but I plan on making it. I found my instructions for my immersion blender. It is an old one. It is a Thane Thunder Stick Pro. I can’t find the year on the instructions, but I know that I bought it since I’ve lived here. That has been within the last 12 years. Ha! I know they have improved since then. If I end up using it as much as I hope I will just have to get a new one.
Anyway, the recipe for teriyaki sauce is as follows:
I will definitely experiment with this because I will avoid the “artificial sweetener” and MSG. I might just try the below recipe from allrecipes.com.
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup cooking sherry
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
I am sure someone has mentioned to me to make my own teriyaki because I LOVE teriyaki and I don’t like the High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) used in the brand I normally by. I had a friend call me recently to tell me of a brand that didn’t have HFCS but the choices were spicy and ginger or something.
So, I will just try to make my own. Not that I have to use the blender, but why not?
Do you like teriyaki?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: artificial sweetner, cooking sherry, emulsion blender, ginger, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, immersion blender, MSG, teriyaki, teriyaki sauce, Thunder Stick Pro | 1 Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 5, 2011
Last week one of my friends posted something on her Facebook page about green garlic. I meant to ask her about it when I talked to her but I forgot. Then she visited my blog and made a comment that included green garlic. She said she had posted a recipe of green garlic and spinach soup. She has many things that she makes that I want to try and I told her I put that on my list, well, I can cross it off. She had me over to lunch and she made green garlic soup.
First of call green garlic is somewhat what it sounds like. It is not GREEN so much as it is “new’ or not yet read to be mature garlic garlic. It looks like a scallion, but it is the garlic before it starts changing into cloves and a bulb.
I was able to witness this being made and she made it look so easy. Much easier than the recipe looked. She made a creamy soup without any cream. It is awesome. I need to find my immersion blender and start using it and I too will be able to make creamy soups and sauces without cream.
She cut up the green garlic. Sautéed it in olive oil. She used a little bit of butter, maybe a teaspoon or two. She cooked it until it was tender. Then she poured in a box of stock. I spotted the recipe and it called for vegetable stock, but as we were dining she said she used chicken. So I am going to use whichever one I can find without Canola Oil. 🙂 Then she put in a huge bunch of spinach. It wilted quickly then she blended it all in the pot.
It was gorgeous. It was delicious. It has to be nutritious because it was garlic, olive oil, spinach, and low sodium chicken stock. Oh, she did add crème fraîche to the bottom of our bowls, but that could be left out.
I can’t wait to find my blender’s directions so I can change the blade and get to making soups. I sure it will happen just in time as the weather changes.
If my friend happens to read this and wants to correct, add, or change anything in my notes on her recipe please do. Also, if you are here . . . . thank you so much. Thank you for visiting and thank you for having me over for your yummy soup and closet shopping!
Soup? Do you make your own soup? What is your favorite recipe?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: blender, chicken stock, closet shopping, emulsion, emulsion blender, Facebook, Facebook page, favorite soup recipe, green garlic, green garlic and spinach soup, green garlic soup, immersion blender, olive oil, spinach, vegatable stock | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 3, 2011
I always hear about collard greens and how nutritious they are. I was in the store the other day shopping after my Nia class. I always feel energetic after Nia. Sometimes even a little adventuresome, so I decided to buy some collard greens. I was hoping I could cook some mushrooms and throw the greens in and let them steam a little bit. I looked up how to cook collard greens and what I found was boil with ham hock. Uh-oh. The two things I read talked of cooking the bitter out or disguising it with bacon or ham. I looked at the pictures of dull green soggy veggies piled on a plate and realized why I had never eaten collard greens. Ewwww. It looks like a soggy pile of spinach.
I decided to go ahead with my plan. I minced a shallot and cooked the mushrooms. I didn’t salt the mushrooms because I was thinking that I would need all the salt I could use on the collard greens AND I would need to sweat the greens. Right as the mushrooms were done cooking I put a little butter in the pan, I was thinking this would help counter-act the bitter I had read about.
I put some wine in the pan. I was thinking in addition to the salt sweat I was going to have to somewhat steam the greens because I had also read something about the greens being tough. I put the greens in and put a spoonful of minced garlic on it. Then salted it a bit. They cooked much faster than I thought considering what a heart leaf it is.
So, my hubby was happy. It tasted like the mushrooms I usually cook or like all the other veggies except there was a slight sourness to it. So, now that I know they don’t taste horrible and they can be cooked and enjoyed without boiling them with ham hock, I can step away from the normal flavoring and try other flavors. Ones that will compliment the strong flavor of the leaf.
Do you cook collard greens? Do you boil them with the ham hock? How do you cook them? Give me some ideas because I think I will be making them a lot more because it really made my husband happy.
Posted in "Recipes", Food, Vegetables | Tagged: boiling vegetables, Collard Greens, dark green vegetables, garlic, green vegetables, green veggies, hamhock, happy husband, mushrooms, Nia, Nia class, Nia Classes, soggy vegetables, sweat the greens | 18 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 26, 2009
Oh, with the Memorial Day weekend behind us we are thinking forward to more barbeques, right? Especially since we had such spectacular weather in the San Jose Bay Area. Well, I honestly don’t know where this recipe came from. I will credit the person that I got it from about 10 years ago. I worked with this woman named Diana and she brought this salad to a potluck. I have been making it ever since.
Now, it is an exercise in imagination calling this a recipe, this really isn’t a recipe per se, because I don’t have amounts of ingredients. You need to decide that for yourself. I am just sharing the idea and giving you a ball park.
So basically you get some mangos peel then cube them. Then you cube or slice a peeled cucumber. Throw it all in a bowl, then you add lemon juice and salt. So easy. And so good. But you have to decide how much mango you want or how much cucumber. And the lemon and the salt again, all to taste. What I usually do is I bring a lemon and salt to the event so that people can add more if they like.
I usually start out with three mangos to an English cucumber. And I chop everything up in tiny little cubes because I like to get a bites of both mango and cucumber. I am a firm believer in eating the edible skin of my fruits and vegetables, so I don’t always cleanly peel the cucumber, but without the cucumber skin you can taste the mangos better, I think.
Mangos contain the antioxidants C and A. They also contain fiber. Even peeled cucumbers have vitamins and minerals that most could benefit from.
This salad is one of those super easy, yet packs-a-tasteful-punch kind of summer salad that I bet you will have on all of your barbeque tables from now on.
“Recipe” for Mango and Cucumber salad
- Peeled and cubed mangos and cucumbers, salt and lemon juice to taste.
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: barbeques, Bay Area, Bay Area Exercise. summer salad, bbq, cucumbers, fruit salad, lemon, lemon juice, mangos, punch, Recipe, salad, San Jose Bay Area, San Jose exercise | 7 Comments »
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