we both love soup.

the glorious glorious sun hung out for a few days. i thought, at LAST! and then it ran away. boo.

however, the disappearance of the sun did not deter me from making my favourite sunshine salad: broccoli, orange tofu, and coconut milk quinoa. served with or without greens, and with or without other fruits and veggies, it's a delightful and crunchy salad.

gather:
250 ml coconut milk (roughly a cup)
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
broccoli
tofu

orange juice, maple syrup, soy sauce, ginger

it's best to let the tofu hang out in the marinade for at least 30 minutes if not overnight.  make sure to press out the water first otherwise it wont soak up any of the orangey flavour.  my method is to slice the tofu and then lay it on a tea towel.  fold the towel over once, and twice and then press firmly with your hands.

i use about a half cup of orange juice and a few tbsps of syrup plus a generous splash of soy sauce (and sliced ginger goodness, if we have some).

the tofu is stacked in a plastic box--one with a tight seal so i can flip it after a time to make sure the tofu sops up as much as it can.

once the tofu is swimming, i prep the quinoa and lightly steam the broccoli. when both the quinoa and broccoli are cool, i bake the tofu (or pan fry if im feeling frisky) at 175/350 for about 20 minutes.


broccoli is chopped and mixed with the quinoa, cooled tofu is sliced and added, and whatever fruits or veggies are floatin around. for this round, i used grapes. i was going to add a plum but i ate it.



for lunch the next day i made soup. we had a mountain of leeks from my mother-in-law, so i roasted them all with some greek oregano, save a few, and made some stock with the leeks, onion, bayleaf, and astragalus root.

i added the stock to the roasted leeks, threw in some potatoes, and let that simmer for a while. then i used the immersion blender and that was that.

then i made chocolate chip cookies. because... chocolate chip cookies. i used the same recipe ive used before save the yogurt. i used bourbon instead.

bourbon.

c is for cookie.

as i was preparing dinner this evening, my eyes kept wandering to a pantry shelf where a box and two bags of chocolate are sitting pretty. you see, we were gifted lots of chocolate for christmas. much like two years ago, i have a feeling we'll still be eating christmas chocolate at easter. this is not a complaint, mind you, just a statement of fact. we have a lot of chocolate floating around. and as i stared at the chocolate i thought to myself, you know what? i havent made chocolate chip cookies in a while*. so that's what i did.

 i grabbed a handfull of chocolates, unwrapped them, and smashed them to bits with a rolling pin.


i then started to amass the rest of the ingredients and realised... we dont have a lot of butter.

step one when making cookies: realise you only have half a cup of butter.
step two: dont panic.
step three: do some math
step four: cookies



mostly adapted from a tried and true family recipe

1/2 cup butter
6 tbsp as-close-to-brown-sugar-as-you-can-get (pour moi, sucre complet de canne)
6 tbsp other sugar
2 eggs
dash of lemon juice
4.5ish tbsp rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
smashed chocolate bits
1.5ish cups of flour

cream butter and sugars, add egg... mix in dry bits.

bake at 176/350 degrees for not quite 20 minutes... aaaaand....

cookies. (i baked 6 at a time x 3)

that's good enough for me.



*one of my favourite chocolate chip cookie memory was in china.  after we heard obama was elected (round 1), i invited friends to my apartment for celebratory chocolate chip cookies and news watching.

Qapla'! How star trek led me to corndogs

the trees are turning, the air is crisp, and it's almost my birthday. that means it's nearly fall! that also means that the summertime foods are soon to be a memory.

i found myself at the thinkgeek website oogling the kitchen goodies (it is almost my birthday, after all)--more specifically, the star trek cookie cutters--and i stumbled upon the corndog factory. the mister happened to walk into the room right when i said, "ooooOOOooocoooorrrrrndoooooog" ... and he had no idea what i was talking about. lo! I had to show him the video.

this is the face he made


shock! horror! disbelief! "you EAT those?!" well, yes. i mean, i have not in a long time, but yes, i enjoyed corndogs in my youth. i explained how they were fried and didnt involve bacon. i got mine at the local A&W. (true fact: A&W rootbeer came from lodi, where i went to high school. true fact: i made the swiss mister try a root beer float when we were visiting california but it was waaaay tooooo rich for him. the swiss guy. who has chocolate and cheese pumping through his veins.)

still in shock, he skulked away, probably to cleanse his palate with fancy cheese. he was not going to be home for dinner, so i decided to give myself a little treat: corndogs! and what goes with corndogs? beans!! and what else? coleslaw! i decided to give myself one last summertime cookout dinner. except for i cooked in. and baked the corndogs.

i plundered the local market and got some veggie dogs. then i gathered the following and mixed them together:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

i also amassed the liquid ingredients:
3/4 cup/180 ml milk
1 egg
1 tbsp greek yogurt

the two were combined, and the batter was born!

they were to be baked at 400°/205° for around 15 minutes-ish.  sadly, the first batch was way runny.  fear not! i simply added more flour and tried again.  Qapla'!

these turned out tastily delicious! but what made dinner super awesome was not the corndogs alone, but the combination of corndogs and side dishes.

and cookies. but we'll get to that.

first! the beans.  i used my trusty bbq bean recipe


next up? slaw!
i used:
1/2 head cabbage (chou)
a few carrots
1 apple
a little lemon juice
2 healthy splashes of white vinegar
1.5 containers honey greek yogurt

i gingerly coaxed the cabbage into the slicing and dicing machine. then i shredded the carrot and apple, dropped in some raisins, and mixed the whole lot together.

the dressing was a combination of the juice, vinegar, and yogurt. the bonus honey was just perfect.

i mixed the dressing together and drizzled it over the veggies and gave it a stir. then i stuck it in the fridge to chill while the corndogs were corndogging.

the corndogs might look a little wonky, but boy howdy, did they hit the spot.

and then i thought, you know what? it's been a long time since i made cookies. i should make cookies. i used to make chocolate chip cookies in china sometimes, to share. see, it's cultural.

inspired by a post i read, i went ahead and made some holycannoli delicious cookies.

i used:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup browned butter
a little less than 1 cup raw sugar
2 large eggs
1 heaping tablespoon honey greek yogurt
chopped up chocolate (the chocolate "chips" here are square. and weird.)

these tasty treats were baked at 175°/350° for 10 minutes and then sprinkled with alp salt, the swiss version of sea salt.


the mister came home late from work to a divine smelling house.

it had been way too long since i made chocolate chip cookies.  way too long.  i do not think i'll wait so long again.