African Pineapple Peanut Stew

Now, now, I know there are no photos to accompany this blog post. For that I am sorry. However, this recipe is worth consideration anyway. I got it from one of the Helena Vegan Potluck emails, and it's even gluten-free!

African Pineapple Peanut Stew

Serve on rice, millet, or couscous (quinoa would probably work too). Top with crushed peanuts and chopped scallions (optional).

1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp. veggie oil
1 bunch kale or Swiss chard (4 cups)
2 cups undrained canned crushed pineapple (20 oz)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp. Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional if you don't like cilantro, like me)
salt to taste

In covered saucepan, saute onions and garlic in the oil for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are browned. Wash kale/chard. Cut cross-wise 1 inch thick. Add pineapple and juice to onions and bring to a simmer. Stir in kale/chard, cover, simmer for 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times, until just tender. Mix in peanut butter, Tabasco, and cilantro, and simmer 5 minutes. Add salt to taste and serve. Makes at least 4 servings.

This recipe got high ratings from Kelsey, Rabi, and Susan. Unfortunately for me, this meal had little nutritional value, as I ended up not digesting any of it (if you get what I mean). And given that and the fact that there are no photos, one could say this meal never existed. But I guarantee, it was tasty the first time around!

My beef with Kristin

Another visitor to the Birdhouse! Ask Kristin about her colorful coworker next time you talk with her. Said acquaintance supplied the focal point for our meal. I got the recipe from another foodie blog: http://my-plate.blogspot.com/

Mexican Cornmeal Waffles

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cups canned tomatoes with green chiles
1 can red kidney bean
shredded lettuce
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream

Mix all of the waffle stuff. Beat it up with your beefiest whisking arm. Make Belgian magic with your beeping waffle maker. Then fry up all of the taco stuff. Cook the beef real slow 'cause you got it from our very own Montucky and it's real lean. Arrange it for a pretty blog photo before eating:

Stefania's Sweet Sixteen

My sister's 16th birthday was last Sunday. After a surprise party thrown by her friends, we had family friends over for shrimp fajitas and cake.

I made her a gluten free, yellow cake with dark chocolate, cream cheese frosting. The taste was good, but the texture was a little spongy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and rice flour two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.
2.Mix the white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and xanthan gum together and set aside.
3.Mix the eggs, sugar, and mayonnaise until fluffy. Add the flour mixture, milk and vanilla and mix well. Spread batter into the prepared pans.
4.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 minutes. Cakes are done when they spring back when lightly touched or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool completely then frost, if desired.

Cocoa-Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 to 5 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hersheys special dark - very rich, but VERY good!)

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder into the cream cheese mixutre. Gradually beat in powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency. This frosts tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch layers. (Halve the recipe to frost a 13x9x2-inch cake.) Cover and store the frosted cake in refrigerator.

Yummy!

For the Pleabians!

I've been meaning to make this dish for about a year--it was sent to me by my dear surrogate mother, Landis, who created it when she found herself with a root cellar full of root veggies, particularly celeriac. Since I was busy making these ginger cookies for our Valentine's Day craft night:

Rabi started on the Peasant Pot Pie (and I helped finish it up). Here's the recipe. Note, allow at least 2 hours for making this!

Landis' Peasant Pot Pie:

Filling:
6 cups H20
2 Tbsp. vegetable bouillon base
2 large carrots
1 large onion
2 large parsnips
2 large potatoes
1 celeriac

Cube/dice all veggies. Bring H20 and bouillon to a boil and cook veggies until tender, ~7 min. Reserve broth and veg.












Gravy:
3 Tbsp. butter (earth butter)
1 cup mushrooms
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup heavy cream (soy creamer)
2 Tbsp dry sherry

Saute the butter, mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary. Add flour. Gradually add reserved broth, then cream, then sherry. Cook, whisking at times, until sauce is thick and reduced to 4 cups. Mix in reserved veggies. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to buttered 13.9.2 baking dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake filling, covered, until bubbling, about 50 minutes.


Biscuits:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. butter, diced
1 1/3 cup buttermilk (or 1 1/3 cup non-dairy milk and 1 Tbsp. white vinegar)

Stir to blend flour, baking powder, rosemary, and salt. Add butter and using hand, rub in until it resembles coarse meal. Gradually add the buttermilk, toss with fork until moistened. Drop dough atop hot filling by big tablespoon. Sprinkle with pepper. Bake, uncovered, ~45 minutes.

Happy Birthday Abe (and Charles)!

This weekend marks a very special occasion. It is a day for us to honor good, ol' Abe. A charming man; a man of the people; a man who believed that all little boys could go up and up. For those of you who don't know it, in college I lived in a house called Lincoln Manor. And so today, we honor Mr. Lincoln for building our big pink house with his bare hands. And also for having such a stylish hat... and being tall.

Luckilly, one of the former Lincoln Manor dwellers now lives in Helena, and she was able to stop by the Birdhouse for an early birthday celebration on Thursday. We made a cake using the very same recipe that Mary Todd used to woo Abe over during their courting days. While there was no wooing here, we did have a lovely evening in the tower, complete with hot tea and a bedtime story, read by our very own Vanderblog. Might we recommend the tale of "Hucklebug" to all of you dear readers as well?


In addition to hiding the fact that the middle stuck to the pan, we also included the mango tip our hats to the late, great, Charles Darwin. I think you can make the stretch. What an auspicious day! Thanks for the bundt pan, SB.

Fantastic Filipino Food

On Monday, my mom and I had a great treat. The pastor and his wife at our church are filipino and Marian, along with her friend, Guata, taught us to make a few filipino dishes. Pancit has always been one of my favorite dishes and an ex-boyfriend's mom taught me how to make it once, but I had since forgotten. Here are the recipes.

Pancit
Carrot
Cabbage (Greener the better)
Onion
Bell pepper
Celery
Garlic
Lemon
Oil
Soy sauce
Chicken broth
Meat of choice – pork, chicken, shrimp
Noodles (many types of rice noodles can be used, but we used “Rice Stick Special Bihon”)

Cooking for pancit can be done in a frying pan, but a wok is preferable.
First, cook meat with a little water. This part probably takes the longest because the meat has to be cooked slowly enough to become more flavorful. While meat is cooking, cut vegetables. Vegetables should be cut diagonally. About halfway through cutting the meat, add oil. After meat is brown, add garlic. Add onions. Add soy sauce. Add the rest of the veggies, peppers last. Once veggies are cooked, but still crispy, take everything out of the pan except for the liquid and some pieces of meat. In a separate pan, boil water. Add the boiling water to the main pan, along with the can of chicken broth, more soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Add noodles to the mixture after about 10 minutes. Once noodles are cooked, mix everything back together. Squeeze lemon juice over the pancit before eating.

Banana Lumpias*
Golden Saba – Whole steamed saba bananas (these come in a bag in the freezer section. I asked if regular bananas could be used instead and was told yes, but they probably wouldn’t be as good)
Lumpia wrappers (we used Sinex – individually separated sheets)
Brown sugar
Oil

Defrost the bananas. Cut the bananas in half. Roll them in brown sugar and then roll one half in each lumpia wrapper. Heat oil in small frying pan. When oil is hot, lightly fry each lumpia. Frying these doesn’t take very long – we only fried each for about 2 minutes.

*Granny smith apples and cinnamon and sugar can also be substituted for the bananas and brown sugar.

Buchi (Rice cakes)
Coconut milk
1 package Mochiko sweet rice flour
Cornstarch for your hands
Small package of coconut syrup (Ma Capuno brand)
Flour plate
Oil

Combine all ingredients together. Wait five minutes. Roll mixture into small balls. Roll balls in flour (I’m assuming this part is optional). Heat oil in frying pan. You can cook many of the balls at once. Cook them slowly until golden brown. After cooling, eat the buchi either plain or with honey or syrup.

In other news, I hiked up to Beaver Lake with a friend on Saturday. We finally had some decent weather.

Tuesday I wasn't called in to sub, so I hiked up Indian River to the Indian River waterfall. If the sky would be a color that is not white or gray, I could probably get some better pictures! The weather really hasn't been very good lately!

I'm going to be getting as much hiking in as possible in the next few weeks because I found out yesterday I have to have another knee surgery. It is pretty minor as far as knee surgeries go, but I will still be on crutches for a few days afterwards. No fun. My next project of the day is to schedule that surgery, so I'd better get on that! Miss you all!

Where once there was

...a pie, there are now three full stomachs.SB and Vanderblog got all hungry after we went skiing on Sunday and baked something so great that it was gone before I could photograph it. Which isn't quite true. I would post Rabi's dairy-free, gluten-free pie crust recipe, except that it was pretty terrible by all accounts. Sarah's stawberries and rhubarb saved the day.

And where once there was a Subaru, there is now a hefty quote from my friend Don the auto mechanic.

Think in terms of multiple VISTA stipends.

But luckily, where once there was an aimless VISTA aluma, there's now a somewhat employed secretary, who starts some more work with the Governor's Office for Community Service tomorrow (Natalia, I think this means we can get our noses pierced in March!). And I thought I was done with Global Youth Service Day!

Incidentally, we did have a great time skiing Sunday, even though my car couldn't muster up the gumption to get us to Stemple pass:
Thanks for documenting it, Rabi!

My First Meal at the Birdhouse

So, I guess this is my first blog post on the new blog. Exciting! Last night, after Yoga, Sarah, Kelsey and I whipped up some lentil soup. The recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/lentil-soup/Detail.aspx. It had carrots, tomatoes and spinach. Yum. Natalia, it's dairy free, gluten free...actually our whole meal was. We paired the soup with coconut milk sticky rice topped with chopped apples and a salad. The sticky rice was completely amazing. There are lots of recipes out there, and we adapted one to fit our needs. We used 1 can of coconut milk, half an apple, 1 3/4 cups rice (we used sushi rice, but it can be any kind). We cooked the rice with the appropriate amount of water and then added the can of coconut milk to the cooked rice. When the dish was ready to serve we topped it with the chopped apples. We ate under a dimmed overhead light with the candles lit and some nice classical background music playing in the Bose stereo. I think I like the birdhouse. The heated floors are the icing on the cake. Sarah and Kelsey topped off their meal with some batter that was going to be used as truffle ingredients. Kelsey could tell you more about this than I can. It looks pretty next to the candles though. Gabe, cous cous actually has gluten in it, since it's made from wheat. That soup sounds good though. I subscribed to that food blog, thanks for the tip!

Mark Bittman's Food Manifesto

Greetings! I want to make sure that everyone has seen Mark Bittman's Food Manifesto for the Future, currently the most popular article on nytimes.com. I suspect that none of his recommendations for a healthier, more sustainable food production system will be new to any of you. And I don't have anything to say about it, except that I would gladly sign up for his Civilian Cooking Corps. But as I'm a Bittman Booster, I had to post it.

In cooking news, Monday I made Spaghetti with Fried Eggs, which was once known as "poor man's spaghetti," but falling food prices and rising incomes have since brought tomato sauce within reach of all. Basically you lightly fry eggs in a lot of olive oil and pour it over spaghetti. It might have been very good, but I overcooked the eggs, so they weren't runny enough to form a decent sauce. But still tasty. Tonight I made a stir fry with tofu, broccoli, and onions. It was quick, easy, and very satisfying. Not much more to say about that.

Oh, and Natalia, to respond to your request for vegetarian gluten free recipes, I do have one I like. A chickpea and butternut squash stew, served over couscous. I've only done it once before, but with good results. You can find the recipe here, on the website of a competing food blog (apparently we were not the first to come up with that idea).

Poop on a Plate!

Well, Rabi and I were feeling like we needed to get our act together about this blog thing, so here's what we had for dinner tonight: poop on a plate! Aka, taco salad. Gabe, Rabi used your remaining food stamps to buy the tostado chips, salsa, and avocado (avocado and salsa mixed together make a good impromptu guacamole), and I provided the lettuce. (Gabe this is Rabi. I actually used your food stamps to buy yogurt and gluten free bread flour at the Real Foods Store. Sarah doesn't know what she's talking about. Ahhhh! She's kicking me off the keyboard now$%^#). Okay, so Rabi didn't use Gabe's food stamps for this meal, but it would have been nice if he had--that way Gabe would have technically been contributing to this meal. Anyway, despite the unappetizing look of this meal, it was pretty good. Unfortunately, Rabi forgot to take the Beano before eating (see the bottle to the left of the plate?), so tonight will be uncomfortable for us both. (Just for Sarah, not me!)