Experimenting with Food

This is a totally weird picture of Enzo, his face looks a little too sneaky for my taste. But the weird picture goes well with his weird taste.

His new favorite sandwich is .... (are you ready to barf...Mariko don't read this) peanut butter and mayo. I kid you not. Yesterday I lost all appetite while I watched him slather a ton of mayo on one bread and a ton of peanut butter on another and than happily take bite after bite after bite.

He has all sorts of creations that he comes up with. A lot of it is nasty, according to my taste buds, but he has a fun time and feels ownership and proud of his creations.

We went through a phase where he would always want to make french toast rice cakes, which is what he's holding on the picture above. It was actually not that bad, interesting texture for sure but he could down 3 or 4 of these puppies and loved sharing them. The first time he offered me some I said "no way" and he responded "first you have to take one bite and then you can say no thanks" which is what I had told him earlier that day for lunch and every day before that during any meal where I plan the menu.

Sometimes I wish I was a little more adventurous in my cooking.

Kentucky Biscuits

I’ve had this problem lately with food.

Meaning, I don’t like it.

I don’t like thinking about it, preparing it, or eating it. I especially don’t like digesting it.

Because, you see, I’m sick. Morning sick. Except it’s all day all night sick. I hate hate HATE feeling that way, but at the same time I don’t care, see?

I have an onion growing on my counter. I just can’t bring myself to cut it up. I let an entire tray of mushrooms go bad in my refrigerator. I don’t even want to look at them. And instead of healthy food going into my body, I’ve been mostly living off of Reese’s Puffs and french fries. I know. It’s just about the most awful thing I can think of.

But Valentine’s Day was last Sunday and I thought I should put away my dislikes and try to prepare something edible for my daughter and husband for breakfast, who have been suffering my lack of food interest for about four months now.

I searched for biscuit recipes even though I know I always make terrible biscuits. I’ve tried so many recipes, and I find that they always taste dry and hard. My hub loves KFC biscuits and I’ve yet to find a copy cat recipe that actually tastes like KFC biscuits. It’s so sad. I’ve read a lot about biscuit technique (cutting with a sharp thin biscuit cutter or knife so that the sides don’t “meld” together and keep the whole thing from rising properly) and thought about what makes my perfect biscuit. I even have tried Dorie Greenspan’s version and I swear, it was not good. I would like to believe that I messed up on the recipe, however.

With skepticism, and after examining many ingredient lists, I decided on a recipe I found on “allrecipes.com” which, generally, earns my disdain. I’m a Cook’s Illustrated, Gourmet mag before they left me hanging on Bon Appetit, ATFT, Smitten Kitchen, kind of girl. I like when someone has scientifically proven to me that they have the best recipe. So generally, I don’t just go around randomly. I stick to my trusted sources.

But I was wrong. This recipe rocks. It’s fluffy, savory with a touch of sweet, and moist. And my favorite part was that I didn’t have to roll out, cut the biscuits, re-roll the scraps, and spend a half hour cleaning the counter of dried flour and dough.

And my family was so happy. We were all so happy, until I had to vomit during church. But that’s a story for another time.

Kentucky Biscuits from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 dash salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead together for about a minute (LIGHTLY—don’t overwork the dough). Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, pat or roll into a 6x6 inch square, and cut with a sharp knife into 12 even sections. Do not separate.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center of the square comes out clean. Separate into biscuits, and serve hot.

Fried Cheese balls

These are like mozzarella sticks only shaped like a ball.

A couple weeks ago we found ourselves with more fresh mozzarella than we knew what to do with. We made pizza a couple times, we put it in soup, and  then we decided to fry them up.

Fresh mozzarella is awesome but my son was kind of grossed out by the wetness and didn't want anything to do with them fresh. Frying them up took them to a whole new level of deliciousness (like most things fried).

From start to finish (minus the frying part) my son was able to help me make these.

1. First put while flour on a cup and have your child roll the freshh moszzarella in it to coat with flour.
2. Then whisk together 2 eggs with a tablespoon of milk and coat the floured mozzarella with the egg mixture
3. Next have your child roll the mozzarella on breadcrumbs. I normally have italian seasoned breadcumps around but this time I didn't. I just added 1 cup of bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of italian seasoning and some garlic salt. I mixed that all together in a shallow pan and had him room the  mozzarella around.
4. I fried them up in hot oil very quickly, just to toast the breadcrumbs on the outside.
5. He liked his with ketchup. I like mine plain. Anyway you have it it's totally good.

Snobby Joes

My husband likes to eat healthy food just as much as junk food, most of the time, but sometimes I say I’m cooking vegan and get that face from him that says, “Vegan?! Gimme some MEAT.” Now that I’ve said this he will claim that he never prefers meat over animal-free meals, but I see pretty clearly which foods become leftovers and which ones don’t.

So even though we might have a dinner where we’re not fighting over the last strip of flesh from the bowl, we walk away feeling full without our bowels bloated out for the next three hours. I actually really enjoy that.

This is one of our favorite vegan meals, especially because it is really easy and takes about 20 minutes to prepare, tops. The only thing it isn’t easy on is the eyes. I know. It tastes WAY better than it looks. PROMISE! It’s delicious. And I swear that I could trick a kid into thinking these are actually real sloppy joes. It tastes exactly right. These lentils are also very yummy with tortilla chips. I’ve served this meal to vegan skeptics, and one of our especially carnivorous friends was asking me for my leftovers the next day.

Snobby Joes (serves 4-5) from Veganomicon

• 1 C red lentils (brown lentils are fine too—I just like the color of the red better—you also have to cook the brown lentils just slightly longer)
• 4 C water
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 green pepper, diced (optional)
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 2-3 T maple syrup (the real stuff)
• 1 T yellow mustard (the fake stuff, not Grey Poupon or the powder)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• Chili powder, to taste (I use about a scant tablespoon)
• salt, to taste
• french bread, sliced; or hamburger buns

1. Cook the lentils and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn heat down and simmer for 10 or so minutes until tender. Drain.
2. While lentils are cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet until hot over medium high heat. Add onions, garlic, and pepper. Saute for about 7 minutes, until golden brown.
3. Add lentils to the pan. Add tomato sauce, maple syrup (taste to decide how much sweetness you need), mustard, oregano, and chili powder. Stir well, and cook until flavors meld together and the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste.
4. Serve with bread. I prefer an open-faced sandwich so the mixture doesn’t squirt out of the sandwich.