Monday, May 31, 2010

Nutty Semolina Italian Bread

I am calling it this because the sesame seeds give the bread a slightly nutty taste, making it, in my opinion a great sandwich bread!

1 1/4 cup of semolina flour
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 table spoons butter
1 1/2 cups of water
1/4 cups of toasted Sesame seeds
1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons of instant yeast

Mix all of the ingredients together in your bread machine (wet-dry with the yeast on top, not touching the water.).

Remember that semolina is a driest type of flour, so you might not want to set it on a dark crust setting just because of how tough it will be.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Salad Time


...Okay it is really hot here. Really muggy and hot. So there is only one thing that I want after running around all day and that is...well everything in my refrigerator.

So as usual I followed my body as I looked through the refrigerator. That really is the beautiful thing about salads; you can put anything in them. As always change whatever you want. If you want sun dried tomato in there, go for it! Toss in some stuff that is about to go bad.

Ingredients:
Salad
2 leaves of butter lettuce hand torn
2 small radishes sliced thinly
1/2 small Haas Avocado sliced
1 Green Onion chopped
Handful of cooked chickpeas

Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Red wine Vinaigrette
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Thyme to taste
Lemon juice to taste

First mix all of the veggies together and place to the side. Then in a small bowl whisk together all of the vinaigrette ingredients. Drizzle over the top of salad.

Herb Garden 101


Alright, as many of you know I live in an apartment which is not the most conducive to cooking hard core anyway. One of the things that gets to me about it (Besides not being able to compost or have a gas stove installed) is the fact that I have no yard for herb gardening.

Herbs and spices are one of the best medicines for a sad boring dinner. There are no limits to how you can change something with just a layer of basil. So I started my own porch side garden in a pot. What I really want is an Areogarden but I don't see myself finding one hundred dollars in the new future. Either way traditional gardening has its own advantages.

Heres what you'll need:
1 medium to large gardening pot
Bag of organic gardening soil
Small bag of sand
4 kinds of organic seeds

Okay, for new gardeners sand might seem weird but trust me. Place a layer of sand about 2 inches thick on the bottom of your pot. This will keep water from running out when you water it and make the soil more absorbent. Next place a layer of the organic gardening soil until about 2 inches from the top of the pot. Don't pack it. You want the soil to be rather fluffy.

Next, divide the pot into four sections in your mind. Place the seeds under the soil about 1/4 of an inch unless the package directs you otherwise. Keep in mind that different plants will need different things so when you try to pick your seeds make sure that they have similar care needs! You can put markers in the soil if you want, labeling the kind of herbs that are in each section. Water, lightly so that you don't move the seeds around and place on your patio.

Depending on your herb you should water daily in the morning or evening. If you live in the south you know this is because less water will be evaporated by the sun.

And there you are! You should have your own little Herb garden sprouting up on your patio in the next 15 days!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Vegan Pasta

I know it has been a really long time. Just having trouble cooking what with the end of school, graduation and trying to find a new place to live.

But after long last I bring to you another recipe for home made Vegan Fettuccine! I am a huge pasta fan. One of my earliest memories is of standing on a chair with my father making our own home made pasta. Of course at the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever to pour the eggs through the little slot on the electric pasta machine and watch it mix.

These days though I go a little lower tech with a hand crank pasta maker that I got for Christmas. It looks like this and you can find one in a lot of home goods stores what you're looking for. it looks something like this one:

Ingredients:
1+ cups of all purpose flour
1+ cups of semolina flour
2/3 cups of water
1 1/2 table spoon Olive oil
Salt

Start by mixing the two types of flour together, creating a well at the bottom. Set this a side.

Mix wet ingredients and salt together in smaller bowl before pouring it into the well. Mix all of these together, if it is two wet add a bit more flour until it not too wet or too dry.

Take out a manageable piece of dough and run it through the crank that does not have holes. Crank until it is the desired thickness. Switch the crank handle and take the long peice of dough. Carefully crank it through, using your other hand or a friends to hold the pasta coming out on the other side. Place it on a floured baking tray until you are ready to boil it.

Unlike store bought dried pasta, this will only take about three minutes to boil through. Boil water with olive oil and salt in it.

Once drained you can top it with salt but I recommend trying it on its own first. I like to chop up veggies like roma tomato's, onion,and garlic with a touch of fresh basil. But to each his own! Enjoy.


Notes that you can save extra by wrapping it in cling wrap and freezing it.

Monday, May 3, 2010

A Summer Nights Dinner

Okay so I'm trying something new right now and that is a...basically raw food medley for dinner. Lets face it; it's summer we are running around, we want to be outside (most of us) and we want to look good. After laying on the beach, or swimming, or going on long hikes for the day, the last thing we want to do is ruin all that fun but hard work off with a heavy dinner that makes us want to unbutton our jeans and do a Homer Simpson.

So what I did tonight was take a page from a raw kind of life style and put together a grouping of foods that will fill you up and do what food is meant to do: Nourish your body. You can always subsitute other foods out but make sure that you are getting what you feel your body needs. Look them up. So here is mine:




The first thing that you can probably see is that these are all some great snack foods. Grapes, baby carrots, walnuts and Hummus. What you cant see is that all of these foods have their own special powers. The grapes are amazing anti oxidants. Walnuts are chalk full of amino acids and enough omega three as a cut of salmon. Hummus is made from chick peas and is stuffed with lean protein. The baby carrots are full of vitamin A which is great for helping you sun drenched skin and eyes... among other vitamins. Top that off with a cup of fruit juice (Pure of course) and you have an amazingly good for you meal!