Grillin'

Today I was looking through Pinterest (see my boards here) and I saw a recipe for Grilled Mint Julep Peaches. I do love a good grilled peach and we had a few ending the near of their life from our produce delivery as well as bourbon, mint, and sugar, so we put together a grilling fest.



The recipe for the grilled mint julep peaches is located here. We had four small peaches, so I cut the glaze down by half and still had a lot left over. I tried to turn it into a drink with ginger beer, but it was waaayy too sugary. Over the peaches, the glaze was fabulous.

We also grilled apple-sage field roast sausages, a pear, and beet slices. The beet slices were still super hard by the time they came off the grill. Next time I would probably par-cook them by boiling in water or softening in the microwave oven before putting them on the grill. When we cut the beet into spears, it was tender enough to eat with the salad.

Here is our grill set up.




We have a charcoal grill, but instead of going through the hassle of setting it up and waiting for the coals to get hot, we used my husbands burner he usually uses for beer brewing. He put our cast iron grill pan on top of it and it got hot really really quickly.

Notes
We both enjoyed this meal a lot. The sausages are always good, the peaches were excellent, the pear was a pleasant surprise, and the beets were very tasty. A win!

Sweet Potato Spring Rolls

I was looking through my 200+ food blogs I am subscribed to and found inspiration from Bean Figz and Katz for a lunch my husband and I had this week. They are women after my own heart with their love of sriracha!



Ingredients
1.5 sweet potatoes
cumin
chili powder or chipotle powder
1/2 small cabbage, shredded
1.5 carrots, julienned
sriacha sauce
cilantro
spring roll wrappers
warm water

peanut butter
hot water
sesame oil
sriracha


Method
Begin by peeling and cubing the sweet potatoes. Boil, until tender, about 10 - 15 minutes. Drain and mash with cumin and chili powder to taste along with salt and pepper.

Put a spring roll wrapper in warm water (I usually use a pie pan for the water, it is about the same size as the wrapper) until it is softened. Place the wrapper on a plate lined with paper towels. Add sweet potatoes down the middle and top with some cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and a few squirts of sriracha. Roll up like a burrito. Repeat with the remaining spring roll wrappers until the sweet potatoes are gone.

For the peanut sauce: in a bowl combine 1 - 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter. Add 1 t of sesame oil with a couple of squirts of sriracha. Add a few tablespoons of hot water until the peanut butter mixture can be mixed easily. Stir until combined. Eat with spring rolls.


Notes
Both of us loved the spring rolls with the peanut sauce! Unfortunately, there was not enough food in this lunchbox to sustain us all day, but it was really good. We were both starving when we were going home. Hmm, I need to pack more food.

Also included was carrot sticks, kiwi fruit, pear, and blueberries.

Dinner Club: Beet Burgers, Curry Fries, Blueberry Cobbler

Tonight we had another dinner club with our friend Trevor. He has mentioned several times that he really enjoys beets, but doesn't eat them enough. When I saw the recipe for beet burgers from the PPK website, I knew I had to make them for him.



The recipe for the beet burgers is from the PPK website. The only deviation I added was about 1 tablespoon of cumin powder. I decided to do the suggested pairing with the baked curry fries, although my curry powder was very sweet and I almost thought I had used cinnamon rather than curry powder on the fries. These were very good, the technique of boiling the potatoes first before baking is involved, but it resulted in a good texture for the fries. I put too many fries on my baking sheet so they did not crisp up enough.

For the cobbler, I looked at the recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker for blueberry cobbler and adapted the following to use up our 1.5 pints of fresh blueberries from our food delivery.

Blueberry Cobbler for the Slow Cooker
Ingredients
1.5 pints fresh blueberries
1/4 cup or less sugar
1 T cornstarch

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup or less sugar
1/4 cup oil or softened butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
In a 3.5 qt slow cooker (you can also use the same amount in a 1.5 qt slow cooker), add the blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch. Mix to coat. In a bowl mix the oats, sugar, oil, and cinnamon. Spread over the top of the blueberries. Cook on high for about 1.5 hours or until the top is crispy. Serve with Coconut Bliss Ice Cream.




Notes
Everyone agreed, this was one of the best things we have eaten in a while. My husband and Trevor both eat meat and they were very pleased with the tastiness of the patty. I had my husband eat some of the patty dough before he cooked it up and he said that not only does it look like meat, it tasted a bit like ground beef as well. So very tasty. The cobbler was good as well, but the real star was the beet burger.

Crockpot Party!

This past Friday, one of the new graduate students had a crock pot party at his apartment. Everyone was bringing over crock pot creations to share. Inspite of my crock potting skillz, my offerings did not turn out as I wanted.


Brownie Pudding Goo


Spinach Artichoke dip


Tatertot casserole

Recipes

Brownie Pudding

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Tatertot Casserole
frozen tater tots or hash browns
cream of mushroom soup (I tried to make my own with coconut creamer, but it did not turn out well)
TVP or frozen Boca crumbles (I prefer the boca crumbles
frozen spinach

Mix together in a crock pot crock. Heat on low for about 3 hours. Stir occasionally. Season to taste, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder, etc.

Notes
Brownie Pudding - I accidentally mixed together the pudding part of the recipe into the brownie part. You are supposed to just put it over top and cover the crock pot. So, it turned out to be brownie goo, instead of brownie pudding. It was still good, just not what I expected. Meh.

Spinach Artichoke Dip - this one is always good. Success!

Tatertot Casserole - I put this together in the crock pot on a whim. I was going to do lentil soup, or falafel, but I thought I would try this. I tried to make my own cream of mushroom soup since I couldn't find a non-dairy version at the store. I sauteed up some diced mushrooms, added coconut creamer, added corn starch, then brought to a boil until thickened. I mixed that with the hashbrowns and reconstituted TVP (the hippy store did not have frozen crumbles) and then cooked for a few hours. I added some frozen spinach at the end to give some color and maybe flavor. This came out being so bland and boring. I even added some maple syrup to bring out a bit of sweetness. My lovely husband took care of throwing away the entire 3 qt pot of this. I would like to try this again, but I think I need to work on the cream of mushroom soup part. FAIL

Rice Pudding

I was still trying to use up the rest of the leftover rice I mentioned in the last post, and thought rice pudding would be fabulous for dessert.



Ingredients
1 cup cold, cooked rice
1 cup coconut milk
cardamom pod split and seeds extracted
splash of vanilla extract
maple syrup, to taste


Method
In a small sauce pan, combine the rice and coconut milk over low heat. Stir frequently to keep the rice from sticking. When the rice absorbs most of the coconut milk, add the seeds, vanilla, and maple syrup. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Notes
I had some local blueberries to put on top which added an contrast in textures. This was delicious. This recipe is pretty much a repeat of one I posted before, but now I have a picture!

Crepes!

My husband made crepes one weekend morning. We even bought a flat round cast iron griddle to use to make crepes.



Ingredients
Crepes
mushroom/onion/garlic mixture
nutella
cherries

Notes
Oh man, these were really filling and super tasty. I would make these again. So great.

Pieluck!

Grapefruit and plum tarts


Grilled Peach Pie

Last Saturday, my husband and I had some people over for a pie cook off. My husband had also brewed his own hard cider, so this was also the unveiling for that. I sent out the e-mail for the pie cook off saying that there would be a vegan category and a non vegan category to enter into. We had one pie in the non vegan category (congratulations, Robert! You won!) and 2 tarts and 3 pies in the vegan category. It was so much fun.

The other two pies were Strawberry Rhubarb Pie from the Post Punk Kitchen and a raw berry/nut pie that tasted like yogurt and granola.

Notes
My husband was really excited about his grilled peach pie. He grilled the peaches before baking and then put them in the pie. It was too bad, but you couldn't really taste the grill-ness of the peaches. It was good, just not grilled good. My tarts were simple and fresh.

Hands down, the winner was the strawberry rhubarb pie. Allison made it with rhubarb from her garden and half of the strawberries were also from her garden. It was probably the most delicious pie I have ever had.

Our next cook off is going to be a pizza contest and we are going to break out the beer that is currently brewing in our closet.

Fauxstess Cupcakes

The last couple of weeks, I have been craving sugary foods and decided it was time to make the fauxstess cupcakes from Vegan with a Vengeance.



You can find the recipe here.

Notes
My "fluffy white icing" did not become fluffy or white. I think it was because I made it with natural sugar instead of the plain white stuff and my shortening was slightly melty from it being so hot here in New Hampshire.

I could not find black cocoa powder, so I just used Dutch Processed and they came out fine.

My husband and I each had one and then gave the rest away to people at school. This was super duper sugary, but good. I don't think I would make them again.

Almond Fudge Cookies

Another recipe from Table for Two. This cookbook is pretty fantastic for easy, whole (non processed) food. The recipes usually only use about 5 or so ingredients and they are all non processed stuff. This book helps me stick to our food budget because I don't really have to buy expensive items for the recipes.



Ingredients
whole blanched or slivered almonds

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup oat flour
3 T cocoa/carob powder
1/4 t baking powder
pinch of salt

1/4 cup maple syrup
3 T vegetable oil
1/2 t vanilla extract


Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the almonds aside.

Mix together the dry ingredients and add the wet ones. Only combine until just mixed. It should a thick dough.

Take a couple of tablespoons of dough, roll into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Place a whole almond or a few slivered almonds on top.

Bake until cooked through, about 12 - 15 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes
I made these in the morning before going up school and brought them up to my office. My office mates enjoyed them. I thought they were a little dry, but tasted really great with my Bengal Spice tea. Dip a portion of the cookie in and eat. So good. Also, I could really taste the salt in the cookies. Maybe I should decrease it even more or maybe eliminate it.

Blended Root Beer Float

I was at a party the other day when I had some root beer for the first time in...years, probably. I never drink sodas. I am a water or low sodium V8 type woman. I guess it was part of my Mormon upbringing of no soda and I just got used to not having any. I'm not really a fan of anything carbonated. Anyway, drinking the root beer randomly made me remember having blended root beer floats from Sonic when I lived in Texas. I decided to make my own with awesome ingredients.





Ingredients
Tommy's Naked Soda in Righteous Root Beer flavor. (It has no added color, nothing artificial and actually tastes fabulous.
Coconut Bliss Coconut ice cream in Naked Coconut flavor.

Method
I haven't perfected the ratios yet and this was a bit thin to my taste, but I put in about four big scoops of ice cream in a blender and added one bottle root beer. Briefly blend to not break down the ice cream too much. Pour into tall glasses and drink quickly.




Notes
This needs to be worked on a bit. Overall, very tasty. The coconut flavor wasn't over powering the root beer. I really like this line of sodas, for when I really want one. They have a great cream soda as well.

Coconut Rice Pudding

Yesterday, I had leftover coconut milk and rice from my failed dessert and awesome dinner. I didn't have any room in my small fridge to store them, so I decided to try and make a rice pudding with them.

Ingredients:
Coconut milk
rice, cooked
vanilla extract
cinnamon
crushed cardamom
maple syrup

Method:
Heat the coconut milk in a pan over medium heat. I used about equal proportions of milk to rice. When the milk starts to bubble around the edges, add the rice and lower the heat. Stir to combine. The rice will absorb the milk as it heats. Add the vanilla and spices. Combine and continue heating until most of the milk is gone. Taste and add any maple syrup for sweetener.

Both my husband and myself thought this was really really really good. I was surprised at how well it came out. Next time I have coconut milk and rice to use up, I will be making this again.

Chocolate Coconut Cake

This was another recipe for my Slow Cooker Challenge. It was a snow day yesterday and I thought that baking a cake in my slow cooker would be perfect.

The sound of the cake was fantastic - chocolate, coconut milk, coconut flakes, what could go wrong? It smelled wonderful while it was cooking, but I think I left it on a bit too long. There was 1 cm layer of burnt cake around the outside.

I did not take a picture of the monstrosity. At least the icing is good.

I cooked it directly in my slow cooker instead of in a water bath as called for in the recipe, so that probably had something to do with how it came out. I'll try one of the other cake recipes and see if I can improve upon my method. Regardless, the cake itself was a bit flavorless and needed the icing to taste good.