Petite

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and decided I HAD to try something with this label on it. Label of cat juggling fire = automatic win. Luckily (for me) they offered a sweet wine, as I never seem to like any other kind. I’m drinking it now and it’s pretty good. Will probably buy it again at some point.

Since I recently learned how to make scalloped potatoes (yay!) I’ve had the jones to try more potato recipes. However, like a lot of other people out there, this time of year leaves me pretty short monetarily, and I can’t afford to go out and buy a ton of new ingredients even at the best of times. This simple potatoes and balsamic vinegar recipe was easy, I hadn’t tried it before, and I already had all of the ingredients at home.

The recipe is simple, and instead of copying it I’m just going to provide a link: here. The basic gist is that you cut up some potatoes, fry them in olive oil, and then add some balsamic vinegar towards the end. Two things that you should know, since the recipe doesn’t specify, is that you definitely want to use enough potatoes to suck up all the olive oil (about 4 medium sized ones) and that you need to slice the potatoes thinly to help them come out crunchy.

Overall I’ll say that it’s a good recipe, though I wish it had some more specific instructions. I cut my potatoes too thick and they came out kinda soggy. The next time I make this I am definitely going to add another potato as well, though I guess the fault on that goes to me for guessing the number of potatoes that would equal a pound. The one on-site review for this recipe said that it came out kind of like salt and vinegar chips, and I have to concur. Mine smelled that way while they were cooking, and they still tasted okay but I will definitely be experimenting to improve my results.

School has taken me off the bento track, rather than putting me on. These pics are from just before school started.

I finally had a long enough day that it was worth breaking out my Zojirushi bento. I’d say overall it worked out pretty well except my cheese slices hardened more quickly than I’m used to (probably because of the tier I used vs. the temp. distribution in this type of lunch set). I imagine this bento will become a lot more useful once winter soup season sets in.

Clockwise from top left: Rice with vegetable and tofu stir-fry, salad, Glutin-O crackers with cheese slices, and a sliced peach.

Read the rest of this entry »

This recipe is taken directly from The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen by Donna Klein. Mike stumbled upon this book completely by accident at his work and we’ve both been thrilled with the find.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 4 tbsp GF mayonnaise (we use veganaise and love it, but any mayo will work)
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

Whisk all ingredients together until thoroughly blended. Keep covered in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve taken a couple of whacks at making potato chips before and have never really managed it, mostly due to the fact that every time I tried I set my parents oven on fire. Luckily, Mike and I evidently don’t have this problem with our toaster oven, and I finally had some success with the venture.

• 1 potato
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter
• Your choice spices. I used seasoned salt, garlic powder and onion powder

These ingredients will make 1 serving.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Scrub the potato under warm water to remove dirt. If you don’t like potato skin, you can peel it instead.
3. Slice potato so the pieces are your preferred thickness.
4. Rinse potato slices under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
5. Coat your baking pan with oil and lightly sprinkle the spices on it.
6. Lay the potato pieces on the baking pan, making sure they do not overlap
7. Coat the tops of the slices with the rest of the oil, making sure to spread it evenly. Sprinkle your spices onto the potatoes.
8. Put the potatoes in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Turn them over halfway through so they will cook evenly.
9. When the potatoes are done to your liking, take them out and let them cool off. Eat and enjoy!

I should probably mention that my efforts at making potato chips are adapted from the following article, which also has directions on making potato chips via microwave or frying pan: http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-potato-chips.

My chips came out a bit crunchy and very heavily spiced, but that’s okay with me and I’m certain I’ll make them again now that I’ve finally had a success.

Have some pictures.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been checking out tips at some bento sites and I think I’m getting better at this. Here is today’s lunch.

Top tier: plain nori rolls on a bed of lettuce. Tofu, garlic and flax seed cooked in hot sauce and teriyaki sauce in the corner. The little ball of tin foil has wasabi paste in it.
Botton tier: orange, carrot and avocado slices.

I am fairly certain that I’m the only person I know who is fascinated with the concept of bento lunch. Those who are completely unfamiliar with the concept can read a quick history in this Wikipedia article. The concept of a bento-style lunch is gaining a steady western following. I also encourage those interested to visit the bentolunch Livejournal community, which has some excellent pictures and is good for showing how people put these things together and what sorts of food they use.

I actually have two bento boxes. One is a simple red two-tier box and the other is a Zojirushi. However, even though I love bento boxes I don’t always use mine. This has nothing to do with a lack of coolness, because bento boxes are pretty cool, but mostly because fewer tiers means fewer dishes to hand wash later. Also, I have yet to obtain a bento box for Mike, and on days when I work a short shift I generally do just fine on what I can fit into a small tupperware container. I’m hoping to have some more kickass pictures of my bento attempts in the future, but here is what I have so far.

If you’ve looked at the links I posted in the first paragraph than you know that this is about as un-fancy as a bento attempt gets. Looks can be deceiving, and each of these containers actually has the same amount of food in it. I improvised a landscape scene with black beans, broccoli, apples and carrots. The other half of the lunch is comprised of nori rolls (vegetarian sushi), which tasted okay but obviously didn’t turn out very pretty. The lunch on the right had an improvised second tier made from aluminum foil. It didn’t look pretty either, but it woked as far as keeping food separated. The rolled up ziploc baggies have soy sauce in them.

This is an even simpler lunch. It has the nori rolls again. You will see a lot of these in bento, mostly because they aren’t difficult to make and fit really nicely in a compact lunch. This is a lunch for Mike, meaning it’s not big because he isn’t generally a big eater. So I put some chopped green onion and carrot in the nori rolls and then cut the tops off of a few strawberries so the meal would be healthy but not huge.

In the time between when these pictures were taken I bought new nori sheets and decided to try a different brand. The new ones obviously hold together better. Surprisingly, the sheets I’m using in the second photo were bought at a local WalMart.

So, since this is the first post and all precedent on the internet and a plain sense of politeness tell me I should make a nice personal post explaining the current state of my life, people who might be mentioned, topics that might come up, etc. Let me take this time to say that I don’t want to do that. I might in the future, but I’m not making promises.

Frankly, the few people who I know will read this blog already know all of that anyhow.

The information immediately relevant to this post is as follows: I am a vegetarian. My boyfriend, Mike, has celiac disease (his body attacks his intestines when he ingests wheat gluten). He also has sensitivities to poultry and eggs.

We like to eat meals together, and we generally tend to not make two separate dishes for the same meal. This means that every meal we make with the intent of sharing has to meet the qualifications of our respective diets. We’ve gotten pretty good cooking for ourselves, but you couldn’t pay most people to eat the way we do.

Recently we started to get bored with… just about everything that has become a staple for us. We combed our cook books for ideas, and eventually decided that we really felt like pizza. We could have gotten really fancy and made it from scratch, but instead we bought Bobs Red Mill Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Mix. Bobs Red Mill is a brand with a deservedly good reputation among celiacs, who have to navigate a sad world when it comes to baking. Most gluten-free baking turns out really crappy, especially bread. After a while you begin to learn which brands you can rely on, and Bobs Red Mill is one of them.

This was more Mike’s project than mine, so he did the cooking this time. He only needed to add water, oil, and eggs (Mike does okay with eggs in baked foods).

Read the rest of this entry »