asparà-go-go with chickpea cakes

after eyeballing this, i thought, well hells bells, why not. i like hummus... why not just make a thicker hummus and then cook it...? i shaved 2 asparagi and threw the rest into a roasting pan with olive oil and shoved in a 200 degree oven. meanwhile...

into the food processor went:
4 cloves of garlic
1 can chickpeas
couple of healthy swigs of tahini
juice of half a lemon
some crumbled up feta
1 egg
enough wheat flour (plus a shake of chickpea flour for kicks) to make it kind of globby

i warmed up the skillet and shaped my cakes.
like hearts.
because im a sap.


then i combined greek yogurt, salt and pepper, olive oil, and spicy paprika. the cakes were decorated with the shaved asparagus and drizzled with the yogurt concoction.

and lunch!

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.

the teaches of peaches: GF tart for nicola

gluten does not get along well with my friend nicola... gluten insists on wrecking havoc on her body, should it get the chance, and that's just not nice. i wanted to make nicola a tart because she's kind and generous, and has been doubly so with our wedding, as has her husband, and, well, i like her. there are dessert shops that cater to folks with celiac disease here, and even an italian restaurant that has GF pasta, but homemade desserts are homemade desserts, am i right? ive made her dessert before, but i was really into the idea of making a special rosemary crusted tart. i would have followed the exact same recipe, save the crust, but i also wanted to try the custard with yogurt, and these peaches just fell into my basket while i was at the market, see, and there we are.

first, i preheated the oven to 350°/175°

ground almonds

next, i made almond flour by grinding up almonds--the trick is to get the flour fluffy and ground before it turns to almond butter. i used a 200g bag of almonds and produced 1⅓ cup flour.

i chopchopchopped a few sprigs of rosemary and combined the rosemary with the almond flour.



then i mixed the almond flour mixture with
3 tablespoons sugar
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup cold butter, cubed (75 g)
1 tablespoon water

these peaches didnt come in a can put there by a man in a factory downtown

i should not have used that much water. i greased a tart tin and started pressing the crust. the consistency was like wet sand and i really enjoyed myself. i was a dirt and sand connoisseur as a young child, and the texture was just right for mudpies, but a little too wet for tarts.

i baked the crust for about 15 minutes and let it cool, then added sliced peaches in a pretty design.





for the custard, i adapted the Apple Honey Custard Pie recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen).

4 eggs
1 cup greek honey yogurt
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp honey
1 tsp-ish cardamon

i baked the tart for about 45 minutes at 375°/190°

and our whole place smelled like heaven. the edges were a bit caramelized, but if this tart tastes anything how it smelled? bliss.

ETA: what nicola thought of the tart

bright and cheery summer salads to eat during a thunderstorm

i'm super lucky to have my laura (and her always entertaining partner ryan) here! we're having a great time doing and sharing items and places of cultural importance.  for the 4th of july, team USA decided to show the swissies what we do for the 4th of july: have a barbecue at the park (with fireworks).  this was a huge cultural hurdle for our swiss friends.  after all,  the swiss, for their independence day on august 1st, have a barbecue at the park (with fireworks).

the fireworks were lacking (which suits me fine because after living in china, well, ive had enough fireworks to last me a lifetime), but mother nature provided a dazzling light show in the summer sky which i found much more rewarding.  as we all gathered at the park, a storm was gathering itself together as well.  we saw the foreboding clouds as we were walking to the park...  gorgeous!

here it comes!

while the grill was warming up, laura and ryan took advantage of the winds to fly a kite!

i threw some peaches on for salad number 1, a delightful combination of greens, grilled peaches, and mozzarella.

peaches!

the first time i made this salad was for my mom, and the poor woman instantly became hooked.

rest assured, the salad is easy to put together.  when i made it for mom, i used buffalo mozzarella, because it was on sale, but regular ol' mozzarella is still tasty.

assemble your salad greens as desired, throw in grilled peaches, add sliced mozzarella, and done! 

the salad dressing is a combination of balsamic vinegar, mustard of choice, and honey to taste, with a healthy blob of crème fraîche (greek yogurt would be super delicious as well).

laura prepared a potato salad, swiss style (she got the basic recipe from christian's mom), and i made another pot of beans in addition to the salads.

potato salad with corn and chives

my other salad was inspired by what we had laying about: 1 cucumber. and since im a huge fan of quinoa, i decided to throw those two items together.  i mixed in some fresh mint from the balcony, some chopped parsley, and added a good swig of rice vinegar.   laura looked at the salad and said, "hey, why not throw in these apricots?" and i said, ooooOOOoooo, yes.  and i'm glad she made that suggestion.  the salad went from awesome to super! awesome!

laura and i watched the storm approach and very cleverly packed up all that we could, save what was on the barbecue, and waited. we had barely gotten things grilled (the carnivors made a pile of sausage) and on a plate when the skies opened up...

we ran to the covered boat dock not far from where we were situated and continued our picnic, along with others seeking shelter.

dining by candlelight 

lightning storms are amazing here, and especially over the lake.  we had front row seats to a dazzling light show.

bon appétit <3