spices

it’s worth investing in spices. they really “SPICE UP” a dish!

okay sorry for that. but really – it’s worth it.

rosemary, chili powder, oregano and basil are a good place to start. curry powders are very useful as well.

for sweet things vanilla (not a spice , i know) and cinnamon are the best. by the way, if you’re buying vanilla please don’t buy the artificial kind. real vanilla is so much better, even the cheap mccormick kind.

buying spices can be very pricy, but it doesn’t have to be – and they add a lot of flavor and variety to otherwise boring or repetitive dishes. Scout out local Asian and Hispanic markets, as they usually have cheaper brands. Badia is a particularly good brand. Most grocery stores have “ethnic” sections – these are a great place to find cheap spices (and rice). They’re, like, $2 cheaper there.

buying off-brand food

sometimes it’s worth it – for example, the store brand milk or bread are perfectly fine.

sometimes its better to shell out for the real thing –

Target popcorn – it doesn’t pop very well and tastes a little stale

offbrand nutella – not nearly as good. doesn’t spread well, tastes funny.

generic dairy products – aside from milk, which holds up pretty well, dairy items such as cream cheese and block cheeses are risky. The quality is all over the place – Publix (SW/Florida) has pretty good cheese, but Target cream cheeses are iffy.

Generally it’s bad to buy something that like Nutella or Cheezits that have a very specific taste. Off-brand bbq chips, not so much.

4/21 –  I don’t know whether it’s bad because it’s fat free or if it’s the brand, but target-brand yogurt isn’t very good, definitely not worth the few cents you save by buying it

photos

they’ll be up eventually  y’all

spring break’s next week

once i escape the crushing tidal wave of midterms i’ll improve things

sriracha stirfry

okay, there are a fair amount of ingredients and fairly long instructions,  but don’t worry. The instructions may seem long but they’re all pretty easy. The vegetables and tofu are pretty cheap. The vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha sauce and worschestshire sauce are more expensive – I wouldn’t buy them for a one time dish –  but they will last a long time and are useful in other dishes… especially sriracha sauce, which is delicious on pizza. (it’s also pretty cheap in the right places – check the Asian section of the grocery store.) If you don’t want to buy you might be able to find these ingrediants from a friend or in a communal kitchen. My school has an online marketplace where you can obtain most ingredients on the cheap.

Note: the sauce can be scaled up or down depending on how much you want. If you’re doing a smaller batch, you can always save leftover sauce – it’ll be good for awhile. I also like my sauces tangy, so you may need to tone down the vinegar a bit. However, independent sources have declared the sauce “yummy” and “delicious”

If it ends up being too spicy you can:

• use less of it for marinating the tofu/don’t marinate the tofu as long
• put less of it in  😦
• dilute it  with more soy sauce/vinegar
• eat it with lots of plain rice!

ingredients 

• 6tbs rice vinegar *
• 6tbs soy sauce (lite) *
• 1 tbs oil (recommend: sesame, but others are fine) *
• 3/4 tsp sriracha *
• 1/2 tsp worschetshire sauce *
• 1 tsp sugar *
• 1 lb tofu
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 onion
• couscous or rice
• sesame seeds

potential add ins: ginger, chili flakes, garlic; curry powder is a definite plus

Easy; time: 2 hours, but you don’t have to watch it the whole time.

This makes ~ 6 servings, but it is easy to scale down.

directions: 

combine marinade ingredients. cut up tofu and then marinade it – to do this, put the tofu in a dish and pour the marinade over it until it completely covers the tofu. Let it marinate for about an hour.

In the meantime, chop the carrots, celery and onion. Larger pieces are fine – they’ll cook down.

First: sautee onion. Put a little oil in the pan – enough to lightly coat the bottom of the frying pan. Once it is hot (remember: you can test this by dropping a piece of onion in. does it sizzle. If yes, you’re set) put the onions in the pan and cook over medium heat. They should soften and brown, but not burn. make sure to turn them over every once and a while.

The times are fairly flexible – once you put them in, they can sit for a while (just turn the heat down). When you have about 45 – 30 minutes of cook time left, add the tofu, carrot and celery. Cook in essentially the same way. You can add a little of the marinade to taste, but careful: it’s easy to overdo it. Let the whole thing sit on medium heat with occasional stirring.

If there is a lot of liquid in the bottom of the pan you can take out the veggies and tofu and then add a little flour (or cornstarch if you happen to have it) to thicken it. keep it over the heat for a minute or so while stirring to do so.

Serve it warm over the carb of your choice. Sesame seeds are a nice finishing touch. Refrain from salting it – even the lite soy sauce is pretty salty.

sriracha stirfry. inaccurately named. slightly spicy. super delicious.

chicken soup

My boyfriend is sick. Really, really sick – during midterms no less. All he ate for the first three days  was toast and tea. Now that he’s feeling well enough to eat, I made him some chicken soup.

ingredients 

• 4 cups chicken stock – I used Savory Choice Chicken Broth concentrate ($2.99 at Whole Foods; this is actually on par with the canned stuff, and it was very good)
• 2 carrots
• 1-2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 2 bay leaves, if you can find them
• chicken – we use the Sam’s Club canned chicken (tasty) but you can substitute any kind.

Chop up your veggies into small chunks. As a guideline, ask yourself: would I want a chunk this size in my spoon? If the chicken doesn’t come “pre chunked”, use a fork and knife to seperate it into bite sized pieces (they can be messy)

Put in the carrots, bay leaves and  stock a. Keep it over low heat, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.

Optional: Meanwhile, get a frying pan. Put a little oil in (enough to lightly coat the bottom) and put it over medium heat. To test whether it’s read, drop a piece of onion in. It should sizzle a little. Add the rest of the onions and cook until they begin to sweat – that is, when they start to get kind of shiny and softer. Add them to the soup.

Add the chicken with the onions and keep it cooking. You can turn it up, but the heat should be at a low-medium.
You want to  add the celery towards the end – mushy vegetables in soup are not a pleasant experiencce.

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note: if you’re making this for a sick person, make sure not to eat after them. I am now sick during midterms as well : (

makin’ soup

I am not a fan of soup. But it is easy to make, easy to reheat and therefore worth investigating further.

This is a vegetarian soup based off of something my dad makes. He has a basic formula that I use a lot: starch + rosemary + acid = deliciousness.

I think that adding a little sausage or bacon would be absolutly delicious and if that is your thing, you should definitely try it!

With that in mind, I present to you

Lemon White Bean Soup, Pretty Tasty

You will need:

• 2 cans of white beans*
• 2 cans of stock
• 1 lemon
• Rosemary!*
• Pasta shells (maybe)
• oil (olive is best)

Drain the beans and rinse them. Put the beans in a pot with a little oil to cook them down. You don’t want them to turn into a giant mush, but you want it to get thicker and make the beans softer. Stop when there are still distinct beans but they are starting to disengrate. Add the stock and lemon juice, bring to a simmer. Start with half a lemon and increase from there. Add rosemary and let it simmer for a while 30 minutes to an hour. There will be foamy stuff on the top – skim it off with a spoon.

That’s it! It’s delicious served with warm loaf of bread

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A note on beans:

These can be tricky. I’ve had mixed luck with different types of white beans. Best advice: don’t buy Great Northern beans unless you know you really like them. They suck for this. Otherwise, just buy the most innocuous looking white beans you can find. They’re cheap, as are the other ingredients, so don’t stress out too much.

You can probably find a rosemary bush somewhere and just get it from there.

lemons

to get the most juice from a lemon, roll it on the surface of a table and then microwave for about 10 seconds. By microwaving it and rolling it, you break up the little sacs of juice, so more will come out when you squeeze it.

Careful when you cut it though – if you microwave it for too long, the juice will start to boil inside which makes it very difficult to use. If the lemon is too hot, poke a little hole in it with a knife (please do this over a sink or bowl or something) and give it a second to cool down before using.

Or just don’t microwave it for too long, and then it will work just fine.

If you have a citrus reamer or a juicer, great, but a fork works fine. Do it over a small bowl instead of your dish if you can – picking lemon seeds out of your food is no fun.