I haz a blog?

Pin It Okay, I neglected the blog, which three of you in the world read. Hope you all didn't start a search and rescue mission (*cue laughter*).

Moving on. We have been subsisting on frozen pizza, veggie burger and one bad food experiment after another. I attempted a vegan moussaka, which was awful. It was just meh on the first day. I thought the soy bechamel cheese sauce, made of soy milk, Earth Balance, soy ricotta and more soy cheese, tasted very soy-y (shocking! who would've thunk?), but it was alright. Then the next day, the whey separated and we had disgusting looking tofu on top and a pool of liquid at the bottom. Not one of my best vegan experiments. There are days when I think, "Hey, this isn't bad! I can go vegan tomorrow!" And then there are days like these where I think, "Man, butter, eggs, cream and real cheese sound mighty fine right now."

I also attempted to make a black bean soup. You'd think that's pretty fail safe, but you'd be wrong. Because my beans did not cook. At all. For 3 hours. VB ate the soup quietly so thankfully I didn't have to chew crunchy beans with my soup. Unlike that moussaka that's staring at us with its ugly tofu and pool of liquid every time we open the refrigerator. Remind me to throw that crap out.

I promise some real cooking soon. In the meantime, please feel free to laugh at (not with, I'm not laughing yet) my culinary failures.

Orecchiette Two Ways

Pin It I made some mao er duo (cat's ear noodles), the Chinese cousin to orecchiette, Italian little ear pasta. That got me curious about the Italian orecchiette. I gotta say that these were not very successful, possibly because I accidentally used corn meal instead of semolina since I never got around to labeling everything my pantry. Ahem.

Anyway, I made orecchiette with broccoli by simply sauteing broccoli with some shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes and red wine vinegar. For a different take, I also made some orecchiette with some roasted butternut squash, pine nuts, and fresh herbs. I think both were equally delicious, but certainly would be better if my pasta come out a bit better.

Live and learn. And organize pantry!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Orange Ravioli

Pin It

I'm testing a little theory of mine that like colored foods taste good together. Like all oddball theories of mine, this one has very little basis and dubious origins. It sort of worked... with a bit of tweaking.

I roasted some apples, butternut squash, carrots and garlic until softened and then pureed them with some orange juice and orange peel (VB: "Are we having fruit salad for dinner?"). Then I filled them into some store-bought potsticker wrappers. I tried two sauces with them -- first, a traditional sage butter sauce, except with butter substitute. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that butter substitute is not a good choice here. I don't know what I was thinking (palm to face)! The sauce was greasy and not very flavorful (I think I forgot to bruise the sage). And it also wasn't surprising that the raviolis were too sweet and smelled too much like orange Pledge.

Second sauce attempt was much better. I made some pesto with parsley, scallion, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. It paired well with the raviolis because they were less sweet with only a hint of orange. And the fresh herbs enhanced the earthiness of the squash, carrots and apples. But the pesto merely elevated the raviolis to "edible," an upgrade from "gross."

Call me stubborn, but I think there's something to my little theory despite what happened here.  This is probably a failure in execution. But I learned:

• Fruit salad is not a good idea for dinner.
• Ingredients that belong in potpourri shouldn't be stuffed into raviolis.
• Respect the butter.
• But punish your herbs.
• When in doubt, add more garlic.

A Public Service Announcement

Pin It I urge everyone out there reading this blog (all THREE of you) to go home and spend a few hours organizing your pantry. No, it doesn't sound exciting or fun or sexy. Yes, you probably have a lot to do already and that's probably at the bottom of your to-do list (if it's even on the list). But one day soon, you will thank me for this.

Because you never know when your significant other will decide to make pasta from scratch using the flour contained in a jar labeled "all-purpose flour." And s/he will not know that you had dumped rice flour into the jar because you ran out of containers and couldn't be bothered to change the label. Then s/he will seriously wonder why the dough has the density and elasticity of a damp rag. And then as s/he stands in the kitchen scratching his/her head as to what happened ("but I followed the recipe exactly!!...."), you'll have to sheepishly admit that you screwed up, thank him/her for valiant effort and apologize profusely.

No fresh pasta for you! And you're out of rice flour. All because you couldn't be bothered to find a sharpie and a label when you had to.

Yeah....

Well, at least it's not rat poison.

The more you know... *Rainbow*