Pie and More Pie

Sometimes having an allergy requires creativity in cooking  and sometimes that creativity can go awry. Last Saturday was our monthly movie night with friends Gerd and Maria. I decided to surprise everyone by making a banana cream pie. While I knew it was Dan's favorite, I didn't realize that Gerd and Maria were fans as well.

I started with a nice graham cracker crust, sliced a banana on the bottom and set to work making the pie filling (it's called instant pudding and pie filling). I put the metal mixing bowl in the refrigerator to cool it down, then added the pudding mix and 2 cups of almond milk (yes I did say almond milk) and turned on the mixer.

After 5 minutes and no thickening in site I turned off the mixer and did the proverbial head scratching. I pulled out the package and noticed a small note on the bottom of the directions that said something like "hey stupid don't use low fat or dairy free milk" which obviously is the secret to making pudding.

But I had a plan, I put the pudding in a saucepan, turned on the burner and added a little cornstarch and boiled it – Poof it's Pudding; but not enough to fill the pie crust. So I throw on my jacket, drive to the big box grocer for another package of pudding and milk – real milk.  After 2 hours we have pie.

Fortunately pie number 2 – a vegetarian potpie topped with sweet potato biscuits was a lot easier. I started by roasting the veggies I had in the fridge: cauliflower, turnips, carrots, pearl onions, and broccoli with olive oil, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. While they were roasting I chopped an onion and added some whole sage and thyme leaves to a can of coconut milk and simmered it for about 15 minutes to infuse the flavors.

While the milk simmered I made a roux of flower and butter and cooked it until it was golden brown. I strained the milk, added it to the roux and cooked it until it I had the desired thickness.

When everything was done I added the veggies to the sauce and poured it into a deep casserole, and topped it with the sweet potato biscuits (just a standard biscuit recipe to which I added some mashed baked sweet potato).  About a half hour before our guests arrived, I put it in the oven and baked it until the biscuits were golden on top.

Despite all that dinner was good and I appreciated having leftovers for dinner the next day, my back wasn't interested in standing for another afternoon of cooking. Note to self, almond milk and pudding do not play well together.

Valentine's Day, Raw Food and Spiralized Plantain Rice Pudding

It's been an interesting week. I looked out my kitchen window on the day before Valentine's Day and noticed a heart shaped water design on the hot tub cover. I though it was a sign so I ran out to take a picture and I did a little turnabout, instead of being the recipient of roses I was the giver.  It was a hit – and I got an oil change and a car wash – much needed and practical - which I love! 

On Valentine's Day we normally exchange cards and go out to dinner, this year however, we decided to do lunch at a raw food restaurant in Minneapolis called Ecopolitian and then go to a movie. We've eaten at Ecopolitian before and I'm a big fan of the food. I had an order of flaxseed tostadas with sprouted lentil "meat" and Dan had chipotle kale nachos with eco chips – both were spicy and delicious and too much food, we had the same thing for dinner on Sunday.

About Sunday, since I we had lots of leftovers and I wasn't cooking a meal I decided to try my hand at making plantain rice pudding using a recipe from Inspiralized (here). I'm not sure if my plantains were too ripe but I gave up trying to spiralize them because they were turning into mush and just chopped them finely – the end result was tasty.

When I make this again I think I'll switch out the almond milk and use coconut milk to enhance the coconut flavor and I'll add a touch of maple syrup. You can see how creamy it is and it only took me about 20 from start to finish – not bad for a dessert. 

We sat down and enjoyed our tasty dessert and watched the Great British Bakeoff and Downton Abbey. I'm a huge fan of Downton and I'll be sad when it ends but end it will – Perhaps I'll take up some other hobby or get back to more reading or working on my quilt when the season ends.

Old Favorites, New Adventures

 I got a request from my sister-in-law last week to post my roasted veggie recipe and it got me thinking. I don't really have a recipe - I just pull veggies out of the fridge, chop, and add some olive oil to moisten. Then I spread them out on a stoneware pan and top with fresh herbs, a few grinds of pink himalayan sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I roast them in oven at 400 for about 20 – 25 minutes depending on size of veggies and the crunch factor I desire – That's it!

I did more than roast veggies this week tho – as promised I got the Spiralizer out of the closet and made a sweet potato and fennel dish that will definitely be reappearing at the dinner table – vegetarian or otherwise.

I forget about using fennel – I grew it in my garden last summer and I've got some of the fronds drying in my garage. I love adding it to soups and stews to give them a distinctive taste. But, I don't cook with it as often as I'd like to – guess it's time for a change.

I started with a recipe from the Inspiralized site here. I substituted feta (sheep's milk) for the pecorino, black olives for the kalamata and cherry tomatoes (which is what I had on hand) for the plum tomatoes. 

I started by spiralizing 2 large sweet potatoes and tossing them with about 2 Tbsps. of olive oil. I put them in my trusty and well loved 9 x 12 Pampered Chef stoneware pan and seasoned them with pink himalayan sea salt and pepper.

Then I quartered 2 large fennel bulbs, tossed them with olive oil and placed them on top of the sweet potato noodles and added some oregano (ok lots of oregano, I really like the taste).  I added crumbled feta on top of the noodles and fennel and then set the pan to bake in a 375-degree oven for approximately 50 minutes (which was actually a tad too long in my oven – next time I'll go for 45).

I took it out of the oven, added the sliced tomatoes, olives and a bit more cheese and then put it back in the over for 5 – 7 minutes until the tomatoes were softened. Here's what it looked like coming out of the oven before we devoured it – Dinner!

Not to be left out of the kitchen, the hubby whipped up a delicious date bread to accompany our meal. 

 Next week - eggplant - because someone has to love it :-)

Soup and Magical Bread

I've been in a food rut lately.  My husband is a consultant and spends some of his time on the road so I'm left to fend for myself which means, rather than cooking a fresh vegetarian meal I'm prone to grabbing a veggie burger out of the freezer or grabbing some hummus and veggies for a quick snack.

With that being said we did combine our efforts earlier this week to make a spicy Curried Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup. Which by the way was AWESOME.

We started with onions – I suggested 1 but I'm pretty sure there were at least 2 since Dan applies the - if one is good then 2 is even better philosophy to the use of onions.  Added approx. 2 lbs of carrots, 2 small sweet potatoes, some curry powder, salt and fresh ground black pepper (since I wasn't watching closely I can't give you the exact amounts – but suffice to say it was spicy) 4 cups of vegetable broth and cooked it until the vegetables were tender.  

We purred it in the blender in batches and then returned it to the pot, adjusted the spices and served it up with a spinach and strawberry salad with balsamic vinegar dressing.  I was tempted to lick my bowl but held off just to be polite.

Later in the week we took an Artisan Bread Making Class. Generally, Dan is the bread chef at our house but I'm trying to expand my horizons. It was a fun class we learned to make a no knead bread.

We started with a basic flour, yeast, salt and water mixture, let it sit for about an hour and then baked it in a 450-degree oven. It looked kind of flat and pathetic when it went in the oven but when it came out they were 1-pound loaves of fluffy hot goodness with a crispy crust.  It was like bread magic!  We came home with 2 hot fresh loaves of bread and dough to make 4 more – I'm thinking the neighbors will be getting gifts this weekend.

I'm committed to getting my spiralizer out this weekend to make some zucchini and carrot noodles and then roast them with onions, pepper and tempeh and get back to real cooking complete with photos.