Potato Leek Soup

This is a great soup to make a ton of and have on hand all week. It requires only three ingredients (one of which is butter) so it's a good one to try if you're at the store and don't want to run all over getting ingredients. I like to make as much as I can, using roughly equal parts leeks and potatoes.

Russet Potatoes, peeled and chopped
Leeks, trimmed, washed well, and sliced

Put chopped leeks and potatoes into large pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer till potatoes are done (about 45 minutes). Mash with a fork until smooth. Add some big hunks of butter and salt to taste.

Never Run Out of Tacos

Okay, so my sister is always complaining that I never have any food in the house when she comes over. Really she's saying that she never has any food in the house when I come over. This recipe costs almost nothing and it's easy to always have ingredients on hand.

Ingredients (even a few of the following fillings make a good meal):

Pinto Beans
Pepper Jack or other spicy cheese
Potatoes
Corn Tortillas (They are sold even at the stores where all their flour tortillas are gross. They are also inexpensive, come in bulk, and last a long time)
Tapatio, Crystal or other hot sauce
Chopped Onion
Fried plantains (optional)
Red Cabbage (also lasts practically forever!)
Salt

Directions:

Wash and cut up the potatoes, and make enough for leftovers. Put them in the microwave for 4 minutes and heat up canola or other light vegetable oil on a skillet. After the potatoes have been cooked in the microwave, fry them in oil until crispy. (Optional: add vinegar and sugar). Add salt.

Put a can or two of pinto beans in a pot and heat on medium. Add some olive oil and Tapatio and mash them up so they are still kind of whole but more liquid.

Fry up the tortillas until bubbling and a little crispy.

Put cheese on open tortilla, then put beans and potatoes inside, being careful not to overfill. Slide a fresh tortilla underneath and let it heat up so it's steamy and soft. Add cabbage and onions and fold into a taco. Drizzle hot sauce on each bite.

One makes a light meal, two makes a hearty meal.

Sad Sandwich

I made this sandwich today while sad. It tasted good, so I guess I wasn't too too too too sad.

Ingredients:

Sourdough bread
Tapatio or other hot sauce
Mendocino Mustard or other sweet hot mustard
Tofu
Soy sauce
Black Pepper
Red Chili Flakes
Cream Cheese
Monterey Jack Cheese
Sliced Onion


Mix together the soy sauce with a little water, chili flakes, and black pepper.
Cut tofu into very thin strips and soak tofu in mixture. It would probably be good to marinate for a while, but I didn't, and it turned out fine.
Fry tofu until very well cooked, adding extra pepper or chili flakes directly to the tofu in the pan.
Toast Bread
On one side of the toast, spread a very thin layer of cream cheese with some tapatio or other hot sauce sprinkled over it.
On the other side, spread a layer of Mendocino Mustard (or other sweet hot mustard).
Put tofu, cheese, and onions on sandwich. No need to use too much cheese.
Heat the sandwiches up on the pan before eating to melt cheese.

Note: if you make this sandwich vegan, the only really good fake cheese is Vegan Gourmet. "Better than cream cheese" is pretty good for the cream cheese, though I still like real cream cheese better. The sandwich I made today was with fake cheese and it was really good.

Serve with Bloody Marys and beer and a side of Kale and another little side of sliced avocado.

Red Bean, Sweet Potato, and Peanut Stew

Another one-pot dish. I used a rice cooker but any large pot will work.

Ingredients:

Canned red beans, rinsed well
Canned diced tomatoes
Sweet potatoes/yams, diced and softened in microwave
Peanut butter, about 1/4 cup
Onion, diced
Garlic, chopped
Fresh ginger, chopped
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Curry powder (about 2 tablespoons)
Salt to taste
Lime squeezed on top
Water

Heat the garlic and onion in oil in the bottom of the pot and cook till clear. Add ginger and spices and cook another minute or two. Add sweet potatoes, coat. Add beans and tomatoes, stir. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer. Add peanut butter. Add water as needed to maintain slight soupiness (shouldn't be like a paste). Simmer until sweet potatoes are well-cooked. Salt to taste and squeeze lots of fresh lime juice on individual portions. Serve over rice. It's also really good if you mix the rice in a lot.

Curried Garbanzo Beans with Swiss Chard

I made this curry in a rice cooker during my lunch break. It would also be an easy one-pot meal on the stovetop.

Ingredients:

2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed well
1 can coconut milk
1 thinly sliced onion
Chopped fresh ginger
1 large bunch of Swiss chard, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1/4-3/4 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
Olive Oil


Heat the oil in the bottom of the pan.
Add the onion and cook till clear
Add the ginger and spices and mix well
Add the coconut milk and garbanzo beans
Add the chard and simmer until chard is well cooked.

Serve over rice.

Peanut Butter and Saltines

There were only three or four saltines left last night when I discovered this snack lying about among party-goers. Brian said that this is what his Dad had for a snack in his office where he worked as a doctor.

This is a good example of a snack that is easy to always have around the house and also very easy to forget about.

Guacamole

This is a simple and delicious guacamole recipe that is flavorful and very fast to make.

Ingredients:
Hass avocados
Limes
Salt
Hot sauce (tapatio or valentino or crystal are all ideal) if available--if not, use red pepper flakes
Cilantro if available

Slice all avocados lengthwise and remove pits.
Scour the flesh of the avocado in a grid pattern.
Mash up the avocado with a fork while still in the skin (this helps mix it up later).
Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and then mash together in a bowl.
Add remaining ingredients to taste and mix well.

A Delicious Sandwich

This delicious sandwich consists of:

Rosemary bread
Lettuce, tomato, etc.
Quickest Peanut Sauce (#3)
Seasoned Tofu


The Quickest Peanut Sauce (#3) is peanut butter, lemon juice, and pizza flakes. It is so quick it doesn't even get its own entry.

Seasoned tofu is a package of tofu baked at 350 for 1 hour (turned once) in a pan with a mixture poured on it of equal parts soy sauce and water (totaling 1/2 cup) with about a half teaspoon of Chinese five spice and two teaspoons of ground fennel seeds.

If you don't want to make the seasoned tofu you can just fry up some tempeh in a little soy sauce and it'll still be good.

The seasoned tofu is from a recipe in the excellent book entitled Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd by Mollie Katzen. It has delicious recipes for 24 or more people.

Serve with Corn on the Cob in the summer and steamed greens in the winter and potato chips in the fall and sweet potato fries later in the winter.

This is a good recipe to keep in mind if you need to pack a lunch every day for a week. You can make up a batch of the tofu and then a batch of the peanut sauce and then it takes about 2 seconds to assemble the sandwich each night. Then you can be like, "no, thanks, I don't need to buy a salad sandwich, I have the best sandwich ever right in my bag".

Fresh Tomatoes and Oil on Herb Bread

This is what I have been having for breakfast lately.

Halve some Rosemary bread (I used "Herb Slab" from acme bakery).

Toast or heat up slightly in microwave.

Slice tomatoes on top.

Drizzle some olive oil on them.

Add salt and pepper.

Eat with Peppermint Tea in a transparent glass mug.

Salsa

This recipe was given to me by my friend Peter. He is Mexican and is an excellent cook.

Put on a fry pan:

3 or 4 Tomatoes
A few cloves of garlic
2-4 Serrano chilies
1/2 onion

No need to chop or peel garlic or onions

Cook and turn till blackened on a few sides.

Put in blender or food processor and blend but don't let it be totally pureed.

Add a small pile of salt.

English Muffins like Jefferson used to make

Copied directly from http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/dayinlife/breakfast/at.html

Monticello Muffins

4 cups of flour
1 1/2 packets of yeast
1 1/2 cups water
cast iron griddle

Mix flour, yeast, and water. Dough will be very sticky. Coat your hands in flour before kneading the dough. While kneading, continue to add small amounts of flour to the dough until the stickiness disappears and the dough becomes more solid. You may find you add as much as 1/2 cup more flour during this process.

Put the dough in a large bowl, cover with a towel, and leave in a warm place overnight. The dough should more than double by morning. The underside of the dough may be a bit sticky -- if so, knead it a bit more. Using your hands, shape the muffins into small golf-ball sized balls. Set the muffins aside, cover with a towel, and let rise for an hour.

Preheat ungreased griddle over medium heat. Add shaped muffins to griddle and cook for about five minutes on each side.
The muffins will look like biscuits on the outside and English muffins on the inside. Serve immediately. Makes two dozen small muffins.

Tostada Weekend Brunch

Today we made a Mexican brunch.

To make it:

Refry up some refried beans with garlic and onions
Slice some bell peppers and fry lightly
Crisp tortillas on burner or pan
Make up some fresh salsa
Assemble beans, peppers, salsa, and sour cream (better than) on the tortilla.

Serve with chips, extra salsa and a big glass of orange juice mixed with fruit juice. We used Kiwi Strawberry.