Gazpacho-ish

Cool and refreshing.  Pretty thick though, I should have used regular tomatoes instead of roma tomatoes so there would be more juice .

Chop all ingredients, then put them in a food processor.  My processor is small so I had to do a few ingredients at a time and then mix them together in a separate bowl.  If you have a big processor, feel free to process everything at once . 

veggies

1/4 c onion

1/4 c carrots

2 roma tomatos

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

basil leaves

big handful spinach leaves

seasonings

garlic

ginger

mustard 

cumin

liquids

rice vinegar

olive oil

veggie stock

First I processed the onion, carrots, 1 tomato, and some basil with a dash of vinegar and olive oil.  Then, I processed the zucchini with some olive oil and the seasonings, then the yellow squash with some olive oil, then the last tomato and some more basil.  Then I processed the spinach.  I mixed all the ingredients together, and it was super thick so I added some more olive oil and a bit of veggie stock to try to make it a bit looser.

I added a spoonful of plain yogurt to the gazpacho I had with dinner.

Gazpacho/yogurt, sloppy joe, and some chips.  

Dinner is served.

SAT Pizza

Spinach Artichoke sun-dried Tomato Pizza

Very delicious dinner tonight, with this pizza and some salmon.  

SAT Pizza

dough

2 tsp yeast

6 oz hot water

garlic powder

onion powder

ginger powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 c wheat flour

1+ c flour

toppings

pesto

spinach

artichoke

sun-dried tomato

colby jack cheese

bake @ 450 for 15-20 minutes

add a side of salmon, and dinner is served!

Pumpkin Lasagna

I made pumpkin ravioli with a friend a few nights ago and had a lot of ricotta left over.  I don't normally buy ricotta, and couldn't think of anything to do with it other than lasagna.  The pumpkin ravioli were pretty good so I decided to try a pumpkin lasagna.  I think it is my new favorite lasagna. 

Pumpkin Lasagna

c. 14 oz ricotta cheese

c. 3/4 c pumpkin

3/4 c water

15 oz alfedo sauce

9 oven-ready lasagna noodles

1 egg

2 handfuls shredded colby-jack cheese

sage

basil

fresh spinach

Combine the pumpkin, ricotta, egg, sage, and basil in one container.  Combine the water, alfredo, and cheese in a second container.  

Pour a thin layer of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a glass baking dish.  Lay down 3 lasagna noodles.  Cover them with another thin layer of sauce, then cover them with spinach.  Spread some of the pumpkin mixture on top of the spinach.  Lay down 3 more noodles.  Cover with sauce, spinach, and pumpkin.  Lay down the remaining 3 noodles, and cover with sauce.  Cover with a double layer of foil and bake at 375 for 1 hour. 

Eat. Enjoy.

(I enjoyed mine with a pork-chop that I 

sprinkled with onion, garlic, and sage powders and cooked in bacon grease.)

I'm not a huge ricotta cheese or lasagna fan but this one was really, really, yummy.  

Culinary success.

Guinness Marinade, Part 2

Part 1: Guinness Fish

Part 2: Guinness Pork

I put the pork in the marinade around 10:30 this morning, and didn't get around to cooking dinner until about 8 PM.  Plenty of time for the pork to soak up all that delicious Guinness flavor. 

(Check out Part 1 for the marinade ingredients)

this is what the marinade looks like after a night in the fridge...mmm congealed olive oil...haha

after 30 secs in the microwave to un-congeal the olive oil before I removed the pork

 pan-fry til it looks yummy like this:

don't forget the pasta!

Pasta w/peas & spinach

(tossed with pesto, mustard, and olive oil)

And now I will share with you some pictures from the Allegheny Trail, where I spent some time this evening. Absolutely stunning.  My camera doesn't begin to do that view justice, but I tried anyway.  Totally worth getting home late for dinner.  We saw a bald eagle, flying waaaayyyy overhead, I took a picture but it was so far away it doesn't even show up.

there was a stunning sunset on the drive home

Mini Quiche

I was invited to a joint birthday/mother's day party yesterday, and I wanted to bring some food.  I love excuses to play in the kitchen...  I came home from school with 3 gallon ziploc bags full of spinach straight out of the garden last week, and I knew I wouldn't be able to eat that many salads by myself!  I thought about making a giant salad to bring, but salad is boring.  And not all that much fun to make.  So I decided to try making mini quiches.  There were several times during the process where I was rather afraid that it would turn out disastrous and I would end up wasting all that spinach, but I lucked out.  The quiches were delicious. 

lots and lots of fresh spinach, just washed

 I cooked the spinach with nothing but the water that was still clinging to the leaves from the washing

it drives me crazy that so much fresh spinach becomes so little cooked spinach...

make sure you sqeeze as much water as possible out of the cooked spinach

Pie Shell

I've always used crisco for my pie crusts...but it's been awhile, and when I unearthed the crisco from the depths of a cupboard and opened it...it looked kind of...orange.  So I figured I had better use butter instead.

1/2 c butter

1/2 c wheat flour

1 c white flour

1/2 tsp salt

3-5 tbsp cold water

I put the salt and butter in a mixing bowl, then cut the butter up into chunks before adding the flour.  Then I used a pastry cutter to break up the butter smaller and mix it into the flour.  I added the water one tbsp at a time, until the dough seemed like it would all hold together...I forget how many I used, but it's usually about 5. 

I rolled the dough out and used a small glass to cut rounds, which I then put into a mini-cupcake tray.

I baked the the crust at 425 for about 15 minutes.

The Egg Mixture

4 eggs

1/3 c heavy cream

handful of shredded cheese

garlic powder

salt

basil

The Quiche

While the crusts were baking/cooling, I cooked some bacon.  When the crusts were cool, I put a little bit of spinach in each one, then poured the egg mixture on top.  I put bacon pieces on top of half of the quiches. 

pouring the egg stuff got a lil messy...

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

I was worried that they would get stuck in then pan but they actually popped out pretty easily, all I had to do was stick a knife around the edge of each one.

Deliciousness.