Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

This is another reason to own the Joy of Cooking - twice baked sweet potatoes!
Ingredients:
Sweet Potatoes
Heavy Cream
Butter
Salt
Equipment:
Oven at 400
1 baking dish
1 small bowl
1 large spoon
1 fork/potato masher
Procedure:

1. Pierce potatoes several times with a fork.
   
2. Bake potatoes for 1 hour
3. Slice potatoes in half and scoop out insides with a spoon.
4. In a small bowl, mash potatoes with heavy cream, butter, and salt to taste, then refill potato skins and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
   

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Couscous

This is another recipe from www.vegweb.com
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
2 carrots chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzos drained
1 veggie bouillon cube
1 tablespoon diced garlic
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups cooked couscous
Equipment:
1 slow cooker/crockpot/rice cooker
Procedure:

1. Put all ingredients except for couscous into the crockpot.
2. Cover and put on the high setting for 3 hours.
3. After 3 hours, stir the mixture, shut off the crockpot, and then add the cooked couscous.
4. Let set for 10 minutes.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

There came a point where in my life where I had to admit to myself that cheese should not come in powder. And while I still enjoy the sporatic box of Kraft Mac&Cheese, I have since moved on to a more grown up form of Mac&Cheese which is only a little bit more difficult to make and can be made even if your kitchen is almost completely bare. I'm going to put in both a very specific recipe and a much more general recipe so you can have some general guidelines of things to make sure you have.
This recipe came from my first vegetarian cookbook Ok, So Now You're A Vegetarian, by Lauren Butts. It's a great book for anyone you know who just became a vegetarian, particularly if they're in high school.
Ingredients:
4 tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups skim milk
2 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni
Salt & Pepper
Breadcrumbs (optional)
Equipment:
Oven at 350
Large pot
Colander
Frying pan or saucepan
8x8 glass baking dish
Procedure:
1. Boil some water and cook up the Macaroni. When the Macaroni is about half done, start the sauce. When the macaroni is all done, just drain it and set it aside - since this is baked, it's okay if it gets a little cold.
2. In the small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
3. Whisk the flour and salt into the butter. This will form a paste, but don't be afraid.
4. Gradually whisk in the milk and simmer for 4-6 minutes, stirring. The sauce will become thick - about the consistency of slightly melted ice cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add half of the cheddar cheese and melt it in.
6. Pour the cooked macaroni into the baking dish.
7. Pour the sauce over the macaroni and stir to ensure all macaroni is coated.
8. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. (I actually like to stir the remaining cheese into the macaroni until it melts a little bit, and then top with breadcrumbs.)


This is a really easy recipe to make larger or smaller, and I'll be posting one of my other favorite mac&cheese recipes at a later time. Also, it gives you lots of leftovers for the week!

Stovetop Italian Tofu with Roasted Red Peppers and Snow Peas

The boyfriend and I got busy in the kitchen the other night - in a totally G-rated way. Feeling experimental, we variated a little on the themes we learned when making the below-mentioned Lemon Rosemary Tofu. The results were fantastic. This is a three-food-group meal, totally FDA approved, all unsaturated "healthy" fats and actually totally vegan. Until I covered everything with Pecorino Romano cheese at the end :-D.
Ingredients:
1 block firm or extra firm tofu, pressed.
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tbsp. Italian dressing (we used a Wishbone Olive Oil Vinaigrette)
1 can Vegetable Broth
Italian Seasonings (oregano, basil, thyme, or a mixed container)

1 package couscous of desired flavor (we used a Near East parm. flavor) prepared according to package directions

2 red bell peppers
2 tbsp. olive oil
Italian Seasonings

Snow peas
2 cups water

Equipment:
1 large frying pan with deep sides (omlett pan or wok will work best)
1 two-part-pot (these are called either pasta pots or steamers, it is not essential. If you have a metal colander you can also set that over a smaller pot, or you can just use a regular pot.)
1 oven or toaster oven at 350 degrees
1 small pot to prepare couscous in
1 good knife
heat resistant spatula

Procedure:
1. Cut tofu into strips and/or bite sized pieces.
2. Heat olive oil in pan, fry tofu in pan on medium-high until one side is browned. Flip tofu.
3. While the other side browns, add the garlic and onions and cook until translucent.
4. After the onions are ready, pour in the italian dressing. Fry everything in the dressing until coated. Turn heat to medium-low.
5. Pour vegetable broth in the pan. Allow to come to a boil.
6. Let simmer for ~20 minutes on medium-low, or until almost all liquid has evaporated.
7. While the broth is simmering, prepare snow peas and red peppers by chopping off the ends of snow peas and coring and chopping the red peppers.
8. Brush red peppers with olive oil, spread evenly on pan, and put in oven.
9. Fill pasta cooker/steamer with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Put snow peas in the colander part (or just in the pot if you don't have a steamer) and allow to cook until tender (about 10 minutes), making sure the pot doesn't boil dry.
10. Turn red peppers and add seasoning.
11. After 15 minutes, prepare couscous according to package directions.
12. Grate some cheese to put on top, or serve cheese-less.

Enjoy!

A quick note on pancakes

Pancake mix is a waste of money. For very little more time, you can make your own pancake mix, and its cheaper and tastes better and you know what goes in it.
For good pancake mixes, I like to consult the Joy of Cooking.
The Joy of Cooking should be on your shelves at all time. If you had to move to southeast wherever, and could only take one cookbook and wouldn't have internet, you would take The Joy of Cooking. It's authoritative, and the recipes are actually good. It offers variations and different ideas.
A great cooking website is Cooking for Engineers. Because in the past, men have refused to admit that cooking is a science instead of a "domestic art", cooking has been viewed as "weak" and "feminine" which is a load of crap. But Engineers and scientists make great, if not anal-retentive cooks, because they are so good at following procedures.
So check out Cooking for Engineers here and discover the joy that is cooking.
Also buy the Joy of Cooking because its something everybody should own.

Andes Brownies

In honor of my roommate's birthday on March 5th, I'm posting the recipe for Andes Brownies. I made these for her birthday three years ago when they had come out with delicious Andes baking chips. The chips have since disappeared from the grocery store, but regular Andes work just fine.
These are a great St. Patrick's day recipe, because they're green, and they're also good for Christmas. What they are best for though, is making people think you've put more effort into baking than you have.
Andes Brownies
Ingredients:
1 box brownie mix
eggs, as required by mix
oil, as required by mix
water, as required by mix
1 box Andes chocolate mints (if you work at Olive Garden, you could also just steal a lot of those mints) - I would say to use about 20 mints or so.
Equipment:
oven, as required by mix
mixing bowl
mixing utensil
1 gallon freezer locking bag (Ziploc, Glad, etc.)
rolling pin, hammer, or other smashing utensil
Procedure:
1.) Bake brownies as instructed on package. Clean mixing utensil. (And probably everything else, but I'll not dictate.)
2.) While brownies are baking, unwrap Andes and place into freezer bag. Work quickly, because your hands will melt the Andes if you take too long to unwrap them.
3.) Gently use rolling pin or hammer to smash Andes into smaller pieces. (You can use your hands but you may melt the chocolate.) You want each Ande to break up into about four pieces of relatively equal size. Don't get too anal.
4.) When the brownies come out of the oven, immediately pour the Andes bits over the pan, spreading the chunks as evenly as possible. Wait about 2 minutes for them to melt, then using your mixing utensil, carefully spread the melted, minty, Andes goodness around on top of the brownies.
5.) ALLOW TO COOL. This is key. Yes, they look delicious, but if you do not allow them to cool, you will not get the full Andes Brownies Effect. You can refrigerate them uncovered to speed up the process, but do not freeze.

The finished brownies will be soft and gooey, with a hard mint chocolate layer on top.

Lemon Rosemary Baked Tofu

This is another great recipe from www.vegweb.com. It's a good pantry staple - something you can make with stuff you should have on hand. (If you're a vegetarian, or live with one.)
Ingredients:
1 block of extra firm tofu packed in water (frozen and thawed)
2 tablespoon margarine
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour + 2 tablespoons
1 lemon juiced and zest (or a few generous squirts of lemon juice...about 1tbsp.)
4 tablespoon rosemary
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup of veggie broth
Equipment:
1 Pyrex 9x9 dish
1 frying pan
knives
cutting board
small container to roll tofu in (a tupperware dish works well for this)
Oven at 350
Procedure:

1. Slice the tofu on the short end to create 12 similar size cutlets - press the tofu for at least 30 minutes to drain.
2. Once drained, dredge the tofu through the flour and brown in olive oil in a skillet till browned on each side
3. Place all the browned tofu into a 9x9 baking dish.
4. In the skillet add 1/2 tablespoon of margarine and sauté the onion and garlic until they are translucent. Then add the remaining margarine and 2 tablespoon of flour and combine well. When it all forms a paste, add the juice and zest of the lemon, rosemary and the veggie broth and stir well to combine all ingredients. (If you are going to make rice to go with it, start boiling the water now.)
   
5. Pour the sauce over the tofu and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
   

This is best served over rice, if you'd prefer something a little weird, try noodles.