Carrot Cake Oatmeal

I have been eating oatmeal a lot lately. Getting up to go to the gym before work, I discovered an extra half hour of time in the morning allows me to make something for breakfast instead of shoving a bowl of cereal in my face on my way out the door. My usual combination for oatmeal is:

*1/8 cup oatmeal

*1/8 cup oat bran

*~1-2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds

*1/2 mashed banana

I cook all that with 1/4 cup water on the stovetop until it gets nice and thick--this doesn't usually take too long. It's probably about 5 minutes.

Then comes the fun part: adding shit in. My go-to is Peanut Butter & Jelly oatmeal, which entails the above ingredients and spoonful each of jam and peanut butter (about 1 T each). I have two peanut butters right now from PB & Co. One in particular is absolutely transcendent: the White Chocolate Wonderful. Oh my god. It will change your life.

Ok, not really. I hate grandiose statements like that. But it will taste delicious. I also have the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, which is ok, except the raisins in it are really small and hard--not so good. The cinnamon is sortof grainy in the peanut butter, which is actually ok with me.

Anyhoo, I've been inspired to make a lot of different kinds of oatmeal by the following bloggers: Kath, Tina, Heather and Caitlin. This particular idea came from Kath (find it here).

I started with my usual base, then added in:

*3/4 of a grated carrot

*splash of vanilla extract

* 1-2 T brown sugar

*1 T raisins

And here's what I got:

I even made the "frosting" by mixing a little nonfat Greek yogurt with 1 T maple syrup.

So I pretty much was not a fan of this oatmeal. I did not really get any "carrot cake"; it pretty much tasted like oatmeal with carrots in it. I didn't use the mango or pineapple like Kath suggests, so maybe it was missing an extra element of sweet, but I don't think I'd try this again.

I was definitely original, though!

Eggplant-sagna

Cookie Monster and I were headed out of town last week and I needed to use up the produce and perishables in the fridge. It was pretty much a mini Iron Chef in Chez Stadium. Here were the ingredients that needed to be used up: an eggplant, yellow squash, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, plain Greek yogurt, cheese, spinach, carrots and a few other assorted vegetables. Obviously I made Hugh Jass salads with the spinach, carrots and miscellaneous veggies, but the eggplant was presenting a problem. Allez cuisine!

Enter: eggplant-sagna. I sliced the eggplant (after peeling. I don't like the texture of the peel) horizontally as thin as possible to make "lasagna noodles" and did the same with the squash. Then I combined the remaining cottage cheese (there wasn't much--maybe 1/2 cup) with the tomato sauce and added garlic powder, dried basil and fresh oregano from my garden to combine. I then layered the eggplant, squash and tomato sauce mixture to form the base. Next came more eggplant slices and tomato mixture (the squash had run out by this time. It was small). Then I ran out of cottage cheese, so enter: Greek yogurt. Tomato sauce and Greek yogurt sounds like a weird combination, but I laugh in the face of adversity. Ha Ha Ha! (See? That's me laughing in the face of adversity.) Really, it tasted fine. I just added more sauce and herbs to make the same thing as before. Then I completed my final layer of eggplant and sauce, and topped the whole thing with shredded cheddar, provolone and a few sprinklings of goat cheese. Here's what it looked like before getting baked. Ha! My eggplant-sagna got stoned!

And here is the melty, cheesy, eggplant-y goodness after getting totally, like, baked dude in a 375 oven.

Since this was essentially all vegetables, I was not reluctant to add a starch: I made a small side of whole wheat elbow macaroni to go alongside it. It's like the inverse of lasagna: vegetables in the casserole, starch as a side! It's Crazy Inverse Lasagna Land!

Ok, did I get baked too?

Anyhoo, I used up the small remaining amount of the tomato sauce over the elbows and it was delightful. The one thing I would do next time is par-cook the eggplant before assembling the 'sagna. I think an additional 5-10 minutes for the eggplant grilled in a pan would've made this a lot better. As it was, the eggplant was still a little tough. The 'sagna was good, but I think that would've made it great.

And my fridge was naked inside after this dinner. Mission Accomplished! Where's my giant-ass banner?

Cinco de Mayo

I made a lovely, delectable feast for Cinco de Mayo. 'Cuz, you know, we white people take any excuse to celebrate a holiday involving foreign cuisine and traditions. Ole!
It included taco salads: sauteed vegetables and pinto beans over romaine lettuce, topped with salsa, avocado and sour cream for me. With a tortilla on the side, it was really delicious. Unfortunately, I have two pictures of the cuisine prepared that night. The first may explain to you why this occurred:

After *cough, cough, ahem* three of these, the only picture I remembered to take was the flan after coming out of the oven--here it is cooling before I inverted it.
This was my first venture at making homemade flan, and I gotta say, it turned out awesome. The recipe was really simple; it was mostly inactive time.

This flan kicked burro. I certainly did not eat almost half of this container. Nope. That is not something I would do after three margaritas.
*burp*

Here is the recipe, in case anyone's still reading. I don't even think my mom reads anymore. But just in case, Hi Mom!

Caramel Flan
Recipe courtesy of Eagle Brand
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups water
1 14 oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (mine actually came from Mexico!)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°. In heavy skillet over medium-low heat, cook sugar, stirring constantly until melted and caramel colored. Pour into 9-inch round dish or baking pan, tilting to coat bottom thoroughly (you want to do this quickly, as the sugar starts to harden right away).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs; stir in water, condensed milk, vanilla and salt. Pour over caramelized sugar. Set dish in larger cooking vessel and fill larger pan with 1 inch of water. (This is what's known as a water bath. I know you're thrilled by this knowledge. We here at ChezVCK are here to inform.)
Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until center is just set (mixture will still jiggle). (I found this took more like 70 minutes.) Move smaller dish to wire rack, cool for one hour. (You better believe I stuck this in the freezer to cool so I could eat it sooner.)
To unmold, run a knife around edge and invert onto serving platter. Proclaim Ole!

Easter Brunch!

The day before Easter, Cookie Monster and I joined my family for some good ol' egg dyeing at my mom's house. We dyed eggs, ate brunch and had an Easter egg hunt. For people over 30. It was awesome.

Anyhoo, this is one of Cookie Monster's eggs. Fight on! (For anyone who does not know what this phrase means, please see me after class.)
On actual Easter morning, it was just Cookie Monster and me. I wanted to make something special, so I turned to my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I like this book because its recipes are classics.

In the bread section there was a recipe for Nun's Puffs, which are essentially cream puffs with no filling. They are very reminiscent of the tea ring my mom makes, without fail, every Christmas morning. Because I make her.

The dough for the Nun's Puffs is essentially a pate a choux dough.


Here it is!
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk (I used nonfat)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat because that's all we have)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar Honey (optional) (I did not option for this)

Grease twelve 2 1/2 inch muffin cups, including the edge and around the top of each cup; set aside (I used my handy-dandy silicone muffin tin, but still greased it with nonstick spray). In a medium saucepan, melt butter; add milk. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that does not separate. Remove from heat; cool for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute with a wooden spoon after each addition or until smooth. Divide dough evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling cups about two-thirds full; sprinkle with sugar (I'm pretty sure I forgot to do this). Bake in a 375 oven about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from pan. Serve immediately. If desired, serve with honey.

I desired to serve them with homemade raspberry jam (made by my mother-in-law) and lemon curd.

They were really yum! Light and fluffy (though not quite as fluffy as I'd hoped), they really did taste like a cream puff outside. With the jam, they were the perfect amount of sweet.


Trader Joe's provided us with some lovely mimosa-like beverage for a Sunday morning. It was pretty much a peach mimosa in a glass--peach flavored champagne. Normally this kind of stuff is too sweet for me, but it just had a nice peachy flavor and didn't go nuts with the sugar. Cuz' don't be maskin' the taste o' my booze.



See the pretty tulips in the background? And our wedding champagne glasses?


Purrty flowers! Trader Joe's has such a beautiful selection of fresh flowers, and they are all so reasonably priced. I think this bunch of gorgeous tulips was $4.99.


Here's the spread I put together. I made some bacon for Cookie Monster (aww ... who the hell am I kidding? I cooked the shit out of it so I could have some too. This is how I like my bacon--petrified.) I also made some fruit salad to round things out. It included apple, blueberries, bananas and not-yet-ripe mango, which was kinda crunchy but still ok. Though I definitely prefer my mango soft.
But nothing else. ;)



All together. It was a lovely Easter brunch!

Springtime in Portland

Jamaican Jerk Sandwiches with Caribbean Accoutrements

I have been wanting to make a Jamaican jerk-spiced tempeh sandwich ever since I had a transcendent one at Deschutes Brewery in Bend. Sadly, this exquisite menu item did not make the jump over the mountains to the brewery's Portland location, so I had to try to replicate it at home.

I started off by making a marinade at home. I marinaded some chicken and my tempeh in it for a good 24 hours, using these ingredients:

• Ground allspice
• Ground thyme
• Ground black pepper
• Ground sage
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground cinnamon
• Ginger
• Garlic
  
• Brown sugar
  
• Molasses
• Rum
  
• Vinegar
• Pineapple juice
• Juice of 1 lime
• Jalapenos (but they weren't hot enough)
  
• Green onions
  

To go along with the sandwiches, I got a little wild and tried to replicate Caribbean flavors. Or at least what a white girl from the Pacific Northwest thinks Caribbean flavors are. I bought a plantain and sliced it up, then sauteed til it was golden brown, like so:

I also made a mango-bean-avocado salad to go along with everything. It had kidney beans, chopped fresh mango, halved cherry tomatoes, cilantro, chopped avocado and a bit of pineapple juice to keep the avocado from going brown.

See the pretty colors?

To top the sandwiches, I quickly pan-grilled a few rings of pineapple. I also sauteed some red peppers and onion in this pan to top my sandwich.

I put the whole wheat bun with some cheddar cheese in the toaster for a few, then topped with a pineapple ring.

Here is Cookie Monster's sandwich, made with chicken tenders instead of the tempeh. After I had cooked my tempeh through, I added his chicken and dumped in the rest of the marinade, which reduced into a lovely jerk sauce to cover everything.

Here is my tempeh with the peppers peeking out from underneath.

And my whole plate. I doused the sandwich with a bit more of the reduced marinade/sauce before putting its top on.

All in all, this was a really good recipe, but I did not use enough spice. I actually went into the kitchen and got the jar of pickled jalapenos out, adding a few to my sandwich. The extra spice really added a lot, and I plopped a few more into the leftovers.

This was also a pretty good likeness of my beloved Deschutes sandwich. I did not use focaccia bread, obviously, because I try to make my food indulgences in restaurants and eat healthier at home. But the flavors were very similar, and this was a really good and different dinner.

Go me!

Shaken, Not Stirred

But James would not approve: it's gin, not vodka.