Hurricane prep by The General

I automatically assume that my house will lose power if anything more than a stiff breeze is forecast.  The defenses provided by a heavy treeline have their disadvantages.  My roommate has had to replace the fence on multiple occasions, which seems to upset her, and in my opinion, she usually ends up a little too comfortable with walking around in sweatpants and a headlamp.

I blend in with the trees.

Hurricane prep is a tightly run exercise in this household.  First, you take a look at your surroundings to identify any potential problem areas.

I like to teach the youngsters as I go.

Next, problem solve before the problems arise.

What if we need to keep warm?

Then, obtain your survival supplies.

Food - protein for strength

Food - carbs for energy.

Toilet paper.

"water" (it's clear and wet, isn't it?)

Create a safe sleeping area away from windows.

I test beds on dogs.

Security is also important, since hurricanes bring out hoodlums.

My middle name is Security.

The point is, hurricanes are more fun than people typically give them credit for.  Hunker down and quit your bitchin'.  Pansies.

Crack pockets

This Easy Eats recipe is brought to us by a very dear friend, cohort, and drinking support group member of mine.  (Clarification: the group supports drinking among its members).  Lauren embodies all that I love in a friend - hilarious, gorgeous, loyal, and an impressive set of cooking skills.

This particular recipe was introduced to a ravenous group of hungover 29ish year olds, and instantly became a hit.  They were quickly dubbed "crack pockets" due to their addictive qualities.

What you need:
crescent roll dough of any variety - how much depends on how many pockets you want.
chocolate peanut butter or nutella
cinnamon
granulated sugar (NOT powdered)




Step 1: Mix 1/3 cup sugar with about 1.5 tbsp cinnamon.  Pour some of the mix into a bowl.

Step 2:  Unroll the crescent dough, and put a dab of the chocolate PB at the fat end of each triangle.

Step 3:  Fold the dough around the pb and push shut the edges to seal in the PB.

Step 4:  Place the dough pocket into the cinnamon and sugar mix, and roll it around to coat the dough.

Step 5:  Place pockets onto a cookie sheet and bake per the instructions on the crescent package.  The seems will poof out, so you will be able to see some non-cinnamony dough in order to check for when it is "golden brown."  Typically, it takes about 10 mins at 375.

Before

After

Serve warm and enjoy!!!  I also recommend that you yell, "THANK YOU LAUREN!" after your first bite.

THANK YOU LAUREN!

Double trouble: Creamy pesto sauce / caprese quinoa

Why stop with plain pesto?  Now that you have a simple presto pesto recipe, let's see what we can do with it to change it up a bit...

I took on creamy pesto sauce, which is great for pasta, fish, and chicken.

Step 1:  Pour 8 oz. of cream into a saucepan.  I personally like to use light whipping cream to cut down on fat and calories, but heavy cream also works.  Turn the burner on to low-medium.

Step 2:  Add 2 tsp. of light butter, and whisk as it melt into the cream.

Step 3:  When the butter is melted, pop out 2 frozen cubes of presto pesto, or use 2 tbsp fresh pesto and add it to the pan.  (Cook's note:  Taste, as usual, and adjust to taste.  I usually go with more pesto for a stronger taste).  Whisk it in evenly, and turn the temp up to bring it to a light rolling boil.

Step 4:  Once the sauce comes up to a boil, turn it down to low and continue to whisk occasionally.  Keep the sauce simmering until it begins to thicken and then turn off the burner.  It will continue to thicken as it cools down, so use it once it reaches your desired consistency.

I served the sauce over grilled wild-caught salmon, with a side of caprese quinoa salad.  I must admit, after tasting how awesome the sauce was, I ended up pouring it over the quinoa as well.

To make the caprese quinoa, cook quinoa at least a few hours ahead of time, and refrigerate the quinoa.  (For cooking instructions, see http://ataps-easyeats.blogspot.com/2011/08/delicious-quinoa.html).  Slice cherry or grape tomatoes to the desired size, chop up fresh basil, and obtain fresh mozzarella (cook's tip:  a lot of grocery stores have it available in various sized balls, so I found some smaller than marbles, which was perfect, because I didn't have to cut it down to size!).  Mix all of it into the quinoa and serve cold.

Presto pesto

Looking up for squirrels.

So this is a little late in the season, because I totally forgot to update the blog (in all fairness, I was distracted by a trip to Alaska).  Can you really go wrong with pesto?  No.  It goes in sauces, on pasta, on sandwiches, with veggies, mixed with goat cheese, on crackers...you name it, you can make pesto work with just about anything.  So, before I go into more complicated things like sauces, let's begin with the basics:  Making pesto.

Step 1:  Locate basil.  Cut some basil from your garden, or pick some up from the grocery store or farmers' market.  I like to mix different kinds of basil to get a more deep flavor profile, but I always use sweet basil as the majority of the stash.  Basil is super easy to grow...I usually grow it in large over-railing flower boxes on my deck, because squirrels love it and the dogs provide a very minimal (albeit much needed) level of protection.

Not even pretending to look for squirrels.

But how much basil do I need?  Answer: as much as you can find, because I will share with you a well-kept secret on storing up pesto for the dry season.

Step 2: Wash the basil.  Fill the clean sink with water and gently stir the basil around to get off any dirt or bugs. 

 Step 3:  Pick off the basil leaves from the stems, and dry them either with a paper towel or in a salad spinner (this method is way more fun).  Load them into a food processor, as much as can fit.  If you do not have a processor (I didn't til I stole my mom's last year), then use a blender instead.  Everyone has a blender...if you don't, go sign up for a bank account and I think the bank will automatically give you one.

Step 4:  Run the food processor on pulse until the leaves are finely chopped, but not pureed.

 Step 5:  Collect your other ingredients:  Garlic, parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, water, salt/pepper, and lemon juice.

Step 6: Add each ingredient to taste.  Per one processor full of basil leaves, I typically add 1/4 cup parm, 1.5-2 tbsp minced garlic, 1/8 c oil, 1/2 tsp lemon, 1/8 c water, and a few shakes each of salt and pepper.  Run the processor to mix everything together, and TASTE TASTE TASTE to adjust the flavors as you prefer.

Good time garlic.

Step 7: The awesome touch = pignolia nuts, aka pine nuts.  What the heck are they???  Not nuts, according to grocery stores.  According to my googling prowess, they are actually seeds. You can find them in the pasta section (what? mind = blown).  Add in 2 oz. per processor (ie if your pre-chopped basil is only half of a processor, add only 1 oz).  Chop chop chop goes the processor.

Seeds.  Apparently.

 Now, you have pesto sauce.  Delicious, green, refreshing pesto.

"Thanks, Amanda, now what do I do with this lifetime supply of pesto?" you ask.  Easy.  Take the amount you plan to eat within 2 days, and pop that into the fridge.  Load the rest into an ice tray.  "An ice tray?!  Are you CRAZY?"  Yes, and yes...crazy brilliant.  Cover the tray in cling wrap and pop that sucker into the freezer.  Now, you have single serve supplies, at the ready.  Pop them out as needed...they melt quickly in hot food, or you can pop them into the fridge to defrost.

Refreshing summer soup - chilled cucumber beet

I have obviously been on a crazy beet kick for a few months...I also have a very short attention span, so I quickly got bored with eating sliced beets over and over (but I still wanted beets).  Oh, first world problems...

My boredom with sliced beets coincided with the explosion of my deck garden.  I have tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, and cucumbers in the produce section this year, and the only thing that the squirrels and the doberman leave for me are the cucumbers.  (Sidenote: I must have the most healthy wildlife in the city given the amount of veggies that have been plucked in their prime).

Winning.

The obvious solution, inspired by one of my favorite, now-defunct lunch spots, was to combo sweet beets and refreshing cucumber into a delicious combo of healthy goodness.  I combined a number of recipes that I found online to get the combo that I wanted, and this is the result:

What you need:
1 large cucumber
4 beets
4 scallions/green onions
1 tsp creamy horseradish
1 tbsp wine vinegar
up to 1 cup of low sodium chicken stock
3/4 cup light sour cream
a food processor (please note, this is NOT a mixer - this thing has blades...you may substitute with a good blender)

Step 1:  Clean and cook the beets per my previous entry.  After they are cooked, let them cool for about 60 mins.  SAVE the beet juice/water from the cooking.

Pretty purple

Step 2:  Peel and dice the cucumber, and place it into a food processor.

Step 3:  Chop the green onion up to where the stem turns to leaves into pieces similar in length to the cucumber dice length.  Place the onion in the food processor.

Step 4:  Cube the beets into the same size as the cucumber.  Place the beets into the food processor with the other veggies.

Ready to rumble.

Step 5:  Run the processor until things start to look smooth.  Then add the horseradish and the wine vinegar.

Step 6:  Now comes the tricky part...you will need to add the chicken stock to taste.  I like a stronger flavor in mine, so I added almost the whole cup.

Am I allowed to call a 1-cup carton of chicken stock "adorable?" 

Step 7:  You will want to use the beet juice/cooking water in order to regulate the consistency of the soup - I only used about a half cup to thin mine out.

Step 8:  Mix with the food processor til everything is well blended.  Your mix will be a deep purple color.  The fun part is adding the sour cream, since it will take it to a vibrant violet color and will add the sour element to balance out the sweetness of the beets.

before

After

Step 9:  Pour into an easy container for refrigeration.  Cool for at least 6 hours before eating.  Enjoy!

Cooking tip:  Remember to always taste as you cook!  This keeps you on top of your seasoning.  Nothing is worse than bland or overly seasoned food...you want to find that happy medium, and you need to taste as you go in order to do that.

Counting calories?

With all these delicious food options, it is easy to pile on the pounds (guilty).  To try to keep myself in check, I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app for iPhone (and I think it is also available on a Droid).  There is a huge database of food with nutritional information so that you can track the calories you eat, as well as the cals you burn through exercise.  You can type in your weight and weight goals information so that it can set calorie recommendations and track your weight.  You can also connect to friends so that you can encourage one another.  I highly recommend it!

Me after vacation

I am now eating Chobani with fresh peaches and 1/8 cup low fat granola on the regular.  Protein up to kill the aggressive hunger of a stretched out belly

Nice rack

More rack of lamb!  I have been playing with the seasoning and technique since my last entry (oh darn, so much practice lamb to eat).  Lamb is delicious no matter what, so the trick is to get the right rub to bring out the flavor profile you prefer.

What you need:
8 bone rack of lamb
1.5 tsp lemon thyme
1.5 tsp parsley
2 tsp crushed rosemary
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper - 1/8 tsp each
mint jelly for garnish

The players: Even my seasoning represents Bucknell.

Step 1: get your rack, and leave it out of the fridge for about 1 hour before cooking so that it will cook evenly.

Step 2: preheat the oven to 400 and let it heat while you prep your herbs

Step 3: Chop all the herbs and mix them in a bowl with the EVOO and garlic, then add salt and pepper

Step 4:  Score the fat on the lamb - take a sharp knife or set of kitchen scissors and make grid-like cuts on the fatty portion.  Note: some people are tempted to cut the fat off - do NOT do this until AFTER the lamb is cooked, or you lose a lot of flavor.



Step 5: Rub the herb mixture all over the lamb and place the lamb bone side down, fat side up in a baking pan.

Step 6:  Cook the lamb to rare - please do not ruin the lamb with well done!!!  Depending on the size of the rack, this can be anywhere between 7mins and 15 mins, depending on the size.  It will be a light brown on the outside when done.

Step 7: Remove from the oven, let it sit about 2 mins (I hate waiting any longer than that), and then slice between each bone.  Serve with mint jelly and any sides you want! And, obvi, a mojito.

Confession: the beets weren't great with lamb, but I wanted both so I ate both.  Judge all you want.