Canned Peaches...

Last weekend I was at my friend's house and she turned to me and said "I have a can of peaches that I need to use, what should we make?" My first thought was a tart, of course. One of those rustic free form ones that you don't need a tart shell or anything for. Turns out it's kinda hard to find a recipe online that uses canned peaches for this purpose...but that didn't stop us! We cobbled together two recipes - we used this recipe that has a recipe for a tart crust and how to make canned peaches but not the two together...fail. Then we used this recipe for the filling, since it used a pre-made crust.

We drained the peaches and saved the juice (hello...sangria) then sliced them. Easy! Our tart ended up baking about twice as long as the recipe for the filling - just was not turning brown. Yum!

T-shirt Refashion

Happy Memorial Day all! This has been a sewing day for me - finished my homework for my quilting class this week, started on the binding of my first quilt and made a a new shirt. I've seen this idea floating around on Pinterest and when my work was selling T-shirts for charity, I thought this would be a great way to use my shirt!

First cut off the sleeves

Then cut the top, just under the scoop

Also cut off the bottom, keep this for later

Fold over the top of the shirt, pin and sew

All sewed up

Take the part that you cut off the bottom of the shirt and thread through the top of the shirt. I used a safety pin to help guide it thorough.

Finished product! Sorry I look like such a goof! It's hard to take a picture of yourself in the mirror...

I tied the ends once I fished them through my sewed openings. You could cinch it more, but I wanted to see the pattern. I think I may be doing this with a lot of my future shirts!!! Also this took about 10 minutes or less to make.

Indian Dinner in the Country

Being as rural as we are, it is hard to get good ethnic food. Sure, Philly is only 3 hours away...but that's a 6 hour round trip for Indian! No thanks. When I saw an Indian takeout menu at home come across my RSS feed, I knew this was a chance for a fun time. First, a giant thank you to my co-resident and friend, Ravi for obtaining those very important ingredients - ghee, garam masala (which his dad blended for us!), cardamom pods and an entire grocery bag full of spice mixes that will take me quite some time to use. Secondly, thanks goes to Jei, another friend and recent finisher of a photography class for the very artful pictures.

Menu:
Chicken Tikka Masala
Onion Naan
Spicy Sauteed Spinach AKA Saag
Cilantro Yogurt Sauce AKA Raita

I followed the recipes, so there is no reason for me to just copy and paste them in. The whole affair didn't take too long - I marinated the chicken in the morning, then the rest of the Tikka Masala took about an hour. The spinach took about 10 min, the rice another 15. Made the raita before so it had time for the flavors to meld. The naan was the thing that took a while. That was mainly because I had 1 small skillet and only 4 burners. If I were to make the whole thing again, it may not have taken as long. In the end, the three of us had a marvelous time with Ravi rolling, myself cooking and Jei snapping away, and really, the memories you make while cooking with friends are the best of memories!

the most important ingredient - ghee

Saag

Chicken Tikka Masala

Our solution to no rolling pin - empty wine bottle

naan in the making

naan in the pan

the finished dinner

Sooo yummy! I have to admit that I was a little nervous making Indian food for someone who was Indian, but it got rave reviews as being better than anything you could get in a restaurant. Note, not as good as mom's but I'll take it!!

Daily Lunch - Salads

Since the beginning of the year, I have pretty consistently made a salad for lunch during the work week. Over these past couple of months, I have gotten pretty quick a whipping up my daily salad. So I thought I would share my tips with you. First, some thoughts on veggie storage:

 

Cucumber

 

Bacon



Arugula

I've become a user of paper towels. I actually don't use them in any other kitchen task so I guess this works. I even re-use them for the next round of veggies. Seems like moisture is your enemy when it comes to fresh veggies. I can usually squeeze 2 weeks out of lettuce with a paper towel on the bottom and top of the container (I use organic greens, they come in a plastic clamshell). I also put a towel with my bell pepper and I wrap my baby cucumbers (but I find they still get slimy - I've been washing them right before I chop them up, the paper towel contains the slime from getting to the other cukes). So here's my salad prep:



2 baby Cucumber



1/4 green pepper



shredded carrot



cauliflower (left over from pizza)



2T bacon, cooked in oven



arugula



Finished Product

Now, I timed this (the next day, when I wasn't taking pictures of each step) and it took me 7 minutes to chop and assemble the salad. So to all of you who think you don't have time to do this in the morning, I say to you - you can! Or you can make it in the evening before, but I'm lazy at night. Usually, I have poached chicken to put on the salad, but I've been using bacon for flavor and protein.  Also, recently, I started making salad dressing. This is something I've found that I really enjoy. Also the Magic Bullet comes into play here:



Before blending



After blending

My ingredient picture is missing mustard - something that is very important when making salad dressing. Mustard has natural emulsifiers that keep the oil and vinegar blended so I can use the dressing for a couple of days and don't have to remix. The general rule in dressing is 2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar. I usually switch that and really just eyeball a bunch of stuff and add a dollop or 2 of oil. I've been making an Italian style dressing - roasted garlic, mustard, Italian seasoning (a lot), salt, pepper, vinegar, oil. As I said, I'm really enjoying making my own dressing. I get to use up those flavored oils and vinegars...way fun.  Also remember to measure your dressing:

That's 1 oz of dressing, more than enough for my salad. Yum, yum, yum. Now, get chopping!!

Derby de Mayo

I love the Kentucky Derby. I'm not sure why, I'm not a big horse person. I think it's the pageantry, the juleps and of course the hats!

My Derby Hat!

The thing about the Derby this year is that it also happens to be the same weekend as Cinco de Mayo - a "holiday" similar to St. Pattys that is much more popular in the USA than in the country the holiday originated. But any reason to have a theme party is good in my book. So Derby de Mayo it is!

This year I made tacos and beans. Yum. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit, no real changes except that I put it in the slow cooker. Easy peasy. Oh, also I couldn't find cojita cheese so I used feta instead. Worked as a good substitute.

Chiles

Taco

Beans

The bean recipe also came from Bon Appetit. Another winner. I used the leftover bacon fat from the oven cooked bacon seen in this post rather than cook up another batch. Good times were had by all.

Magic Bullet...magic

I love my Magic Bullet! I make smoothies every morning with it but kinda have an issue with the size of the mug, well until now. My poor bullet blender bases were leaking! Oh no! So I took a look on Amazon to find replacement parts, which I found but I also found this!! These mugs are much bigger than the standard mug, as you can see:

This is this morning's smoothie: spinach, 1/2 banana, watermelon, 2 T protein powder (I use Designer Whey), 1 T chia seeds, 1 t macha powder, 1 c almond milk, 10 drops liquid stevia. In the smaller cup I have to use 2 installments to make my smoothie. With the larger cup, I can put it all in the cup and there's room for everything to blend smoothly. I can even use the full scoop of protein powder, I am one happy girl!!

Sunday Breakfast

I've always thought the idea of "eggs in purgatory" was a good one, but have never tried it...until now. Weekdays I make my green smoothies for breakfast. On weekends I usually have eggs. Love, love, love eggs. Particularly now since I have real organic eggs from a coworker's chickens. The yolks! I have never seen such yellow yolks! Ok, enough poetry on Ruby's eggs...on to cooking them in tomato sauce! A quick search of the internet (I'm very surprised that I don't already have a recipe on hand!) gives this recipe from Skinnytaste. On a side note, do you know about Skinnytaste? You do now!! Amazing website/blog with great, flavorful recipes that are lower calorie!!!

I just happened to have leftover tomato sauce from my adventures in cauliflower pizza so that went into a skillet. I don't have harrisa, as is mentioned in the Skinnytaste recipe so I doctored the sauce with my stand by of Italian seasoning. Then, when the sauce is all nice and bubbly, add eggs and cover for 4-5 min or until egg is set to your liking. I added cheese on top at the end for some extra yum.

Nom nom nom. Fast, easy, no fuss breakfast. Also, I saved the tomato sauce for another cauliflower pizza the next night - easy tomato sauce - can of tomatoes, put in Magic Bullet, blend, done!