Heather Bakes

That’s What She Said…

Who Done It February 1, 2010

Filed under: January 2010 — heatherwlu @ 4:05 am
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I may or may not have just finished watching the Duggar special… good god, that was emotional. Baaaaad idea.

Anyway…

Great weekend! It was pretty low-key, for the most part. I’ll give you the highlights.

Friday night we grabbed dinner at Peggy Sue BBQ in Highland Park. One of my favorite things to do before eating at a restaurant for the first (or second, in this case) time is to read the Yelp! reviews for recommendations on what to order. Two items consistently came up in the reviews: Jalapeno-Cheese Griddled Bread and Fried Pies.

So. We started with the bread:

Doesn’t look like anything special, right? It’s from Empire Baking Company and SO GOOD. Very crunchy-cheesy.

I had a salad and the Hoppin’ John (black eyed peas, rice and shredded pulled pork topped with caramelized onions).

Their salad bar is pretty old school, but I love that they have real spinach (not baby), fresh bacon and homemade dressings. And the Hoppin’ John is awesome… and less than $6!!!! I would order it for the onions alone.

So for dessert we split a cherry fried pie. I pictured one of those glazed gas station fried pies in the paper wrapper. Not so much. The outside of this almost tasted like a funnel cake- very soft and light. Very tasty. Next time I want to try the apricot.

(And by the way, sorry for the iPhone pics… I forgot my camera.)

Saturday was Mama’s (and Daddy’s) big night out. Lauren hosted a 1920’s themed murder mystery party at her house to celebrate her birthday. Brian was “Mayor Biggs” and I was his wife, Mabel. Do I look like a Mabel?

Other party pics. Don’t worry- the cigs are all props :)

So much fun! Thanks to my parents for babysitting. Jack said that he had a wonderful time and wants to do it again soon.

Finally, I tried quite an interesting recipe tonight. For some reason I pulled out Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book and realized that there are a LOT of recipes in there that I want to try. On the menu tonight was the “Sweet N Saur Cabbage Soup.” Okay, the ingredient list sounds… interesting: ham steak, cabbage, sauerkraut, honey, hash browns, dill, apple cider, white beans. Weird, right? But it works.

It definitely has a little tang to it, but the sauerkraut mellows out a lot during cooking. If you like German food, you’ll enjoy this soup. Next time I want to toss in some fennel seeds. Oh- and it makes a TON. It’s actually a pretty healthy- and inexpensive- dish.

So there’s our exciting weekend! Off to bathe Little Man and then catch up on laundry. Oh, the excitement never ends…

 

No Soup For You December 30, 2009

Filed under: December 2009 — heatherwlu @ 1:58 am
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Good News: I actually made dinner tonight!

Bad News: Brian and I had to play pass the baby in order to actually eat it.

You know that your pantry is too full when you forget about what food is in there. This morning it occurred to me that at some point last week I bought cinnamon raisin bread… I found in squished behind a bunch of other stuff. Eh, no harm no foul. So breakfast was the bread (not toasted- I wanted some chew) topped with cinnamon-raisin peanut butter, a sliced apple, and some very grown up coffee in a very *not* grown up Cabbage Patch Kids mug… circa 1983.

It finally hit me today that if I want to be able to eat lunch (or breakfast, or dinner), I should take advantage of any and all nap times to do a little prep work. While Jack snoozed this morning, I threw together a salad of baby spinach, chickpeas, chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, capers and smoked turkey. So when lunchtime rolled around (er, nap #2), I just threw some Annie’s Woodstock on top and dug a Babybel out of the fridge:

Speaking of naps, I decided to try and get Jack to nap in his crib today. He hates the Pack N Play, so up until this point he’s only slept in his swing. I swaddled him in his little Miracle Blanket and laid him next to his new seahorse toy (it lights up and plays music and is essentially baby crack… or at least that’s the idea). This was about 30 seconds into my little experiment:

Fast forward another 30 seconds and he was WAAAAAAAILING. So much for the crib. Oh well, at least it looks pretty.

It actually snowed again today! Naturally soup sounded really good for dinner, and I ran across a recipe for Kale and White Bean Stew in the newest issue of Real Simple.  It’s very easy to make- so much so that I was a little concerned that it would be bland. I ended up substituting chicken broth for half of the water and added twice as much lemon juice as called for in the recipe. I didn’t have a parmesan rind so that was left out.

It was tasty, though not particularly filling. I think it would be even better if you added some kind of sausage. Next time.

I also made a wrap out of an Ezekiel tortilla with smoked turkey, roasted red pepper hummus, spinach and avocado:

(By the way, don’t heat a frozen tortilla in the microwave for longer than 30 seconds… unless you want a giant tortilla CHIP. Just saying.)

The soup serves 8, so we have lots of leftovers. Always a good thing.

Hope everyone is staying warm tonight!!! See you tomorrow.

 

Love Soup October 6, 2009

Filed under: October 2009 — heatherwlu @ 4:15 am
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I came to a sad realization yesterday: It had been days since my last legitimate vegetable. Isn’t that awful? My diet has gone swiftly downhill these past few months and I’m totally feeling it. So goal of the week is MORE VEGGIES… and fruits too, of course. Hold me to this.

We were super low on groceries today so breakfast and lunch were a little random. Breakfast was almond butter, sliced banana and a drizzle of honey on Oroweat Double Fiber bread, along with a giant glass of milk:

pbb

Spent the morning cleaning our dirty house, cleaning out the hall bathroom cabinets to make room for Jack’s stuff, and putting together another art project for his room:

cards

I found those vintage-looking animal flash cards at Michael’s in the Martha Stewart Crafts section. Some of the animals are pretty funny- sea urchin, xenops, etc. The other piece of art in his room so far?

calm

HA.

Lunch was one of my favorite salads: tuna, white (cannelini) beans and chopped red onion, dressed with red wine vinegar & olive oil.

tuna

If you want to have 2 immediate BFF’s in this house, just open a can of tuna. I’ve never seen Chloe and Piper run so fast.

My mom gave me a copy of Country Living magazine, which I rolled my eyes at and then ended up reading from cover to cover in the car yesterday. My favorite article was by Anna Thompson. She wrote about soup-making and how different soups have brought her comfort at various points throughout her life. You can find the recipes she mentions here (Pickle Soup?? Sign me up!). Of course that made me want a big bowl immediately. I could eat soup for every meal.

I settled on this recipe for Super Quick Minestrone by Michael Chiarello. Lots and lots of vegetables: carrots, celery, zucchini, onions, potatoes. It also includes pancetta, which adds a nice smoky flavor. The recipe is fairly quick, though the prep takes a while… just a ton of chopping. The only changes I made to the recipe were using yukon gold potatoes instead of russett, and adding a few splashes of red wine vinegar to the final product.

I had my bowl with a big slice of crusty bread spread with goat cheese.

minestrone

Yum. Comfort food.

Can I just say how upset I am about this? Gourmet is an institution (you guys know how much I love Ruth Reichl) and can’t believe that they’re shutting it down. First Domino, now this.

It’s a sad day.

-SURVEY-

Favorite soup??

 

Cursed September 9, 2008

Filed under: September 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:03 am
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Today flew by. I didn’t even really do anything- went for a run, showered, did some Sanitation and Safety reading, and then it was time to leave for class. I thought that the rail ran every 10 minutes, but apparently that is WRONG… so I had to drive downtown for class so I wouldn’t be late (no reading time on the train :( BOOO).

I had a delicious sandwich for lunch: smoked salmon, baby spinach, capers and goat cheese on an Ezekiel bun. YUM. Along with grape tomatoes and some baked tortilla chips:

And for dessert? Pumpkin Kisses, naturellement.

Soooo I missed last week because of Labor Day, but we’re back to SLOW COOKER MONDAYS!!! I found this recipe from Cooking Light for Curried Squash and Apple Soup.

The soup is delicious. It needed a little more salt than the recipe called for, but other than that it was great- just slightly sweet and very filling. I cooked it in the crock pot on high for 4 hours (set the timer) and then pureed it with my new toy: the immersion blender :) We topped it with sour cream because Target was out of Fage.

Alongside we have a simple turkey (roasted… smoked turkey is gross) sandwich on whole wheat with spinach, pickled jalapenos, sweet pickle slices, light mayo and Vivi’s Carnival Mustard. Yum yum yum.

Here’s the thing- I think I’m cursed right now. I’ve never been what one might call graceful, but in the past two weeks I have:

  • Broken my toe
  • Spilled coffee all over my grandmother
  • Ran into the wall while trying to hurtle over a Chloe gate (kind of like a baby gate, except that we don’t have a baby. We have a pug…)
  • Dumped my very delicious frozen yogurt all over the floor of the yogurt store
  • There are more but I can’t think of them right now.

And now, today, I basically hacked open my thumb while trying to cut up a butternut squash for the soup. I even watched a video online on how to slice a squash, after having this happen back in April, the last time I tackled one. UGH. I was using my super sharp 10″ chef’s knife (that I NEVER use… apparently with good reason) and the thing would not stop bleeding. It was gross. That’s actually why I missed the train- I figured that it would be both uncool and ironic to show up to a Sanitation & Safety class while gushing blood.

So those of you who see me on a regular basis: WATCH OUT. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

Stoup-id June 12, 2008

Filed under: June 2008 — heatherwlu @ 1:50 am
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Hey hey, the baker is back… or the cook-er. Cook? Whatever.

I bought Rachael Ray’s Just in Time cookbook at HomeGoods a couple weeks ago (for like $12- sweet!) and finally got around to trying out one of the recipes. The “just in time” theme comes from the fact that all of the recipes take either 15, 30, or 60 minutes to cook. The prep time is supposed to be close to the same for all of the dishes.

I recently had a really delicious panzanella salad at a local pub, so I was excited to see a recipe for Panzanella Stoup. Let me just put it out there that RR’s made-up words really bother me. It’s a stew. A vegetarian stew, actually, with crushed tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, fresh basil, garlic, and stale crusty bread. I used about half of a large whole wheat baguette. Oh, and balsamic vinegar, which added a nice tang to the broth.

It’s delicious- very tomatoey and FILLING (from the bread, I assume):

The cookbook said that you would know when the stoup *shudder* was ready when a spoon could stand upright in the pot.

So there ya go.

With some extra time to kill after work today, I ambled around the grocery store for a while and found a new (for us) little veggie: Broccolini. I’ve seen this used on Top Chef- I think Anthony Bourdain actually told one contestant that his broccolini was the worst dish ever served on the show- but never tried it. We drizzled it in olive oil and salt and roasted it in the oven on 450 for 10 minutes. After it came out, we added a splash of balsamic vinegar. Final product:

It tasted a LOT like kale chips, oddly enough. Good stuff.

Brian grilled a chicken sausage for himself, but I ended up making a little salad out of what we had in the fridge: spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and balsamic. Meant to sprinkle on some sliced almonds but forgot… didn’t miss it, though!

Here’s my plate. That’s the leftover butternut-squash-polenta-that-won’t-die on the side. We STILL have a lot left in the fridge:

Busy night! I have a big project involving fondant that I’m starting tonight. Expect a post on that tomorrow evening, but here’s a hint: Think RED & BLACK.

 

Shop, Cook, Eat, Listen May 12, 2008

Filed under: May 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:45 pm
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Yesterday was surprisingly productive!  I made Oatmeal Pancakes from Kath Eats for brunch (with what time we got up, there’s no way I can call it breakfast), then we dropped Chloe off at Petco (I’ll post on that later… long story), joined our new gym, ran to Sprouts for some groceries, cooked dinner, worked out at new gym :) , ate dinner, and then made this morning’s breakfast. Oh, and watched Kingpin.

I pulled out Eat, Drink and Be Vegan last night- pretty much our entire dinner came from that cookbook.  I’ve been dying to try the Polenta Croutons and just happened to have a tube of polenta sitting in the fridge.  They came out… okay. I’m blaming myself for not liking them more; I expected them to be crunchy, but they had more of a chewy texture (more like toasted bread), AND I used the garlic-herb polenta- which didn’t have the best flavor.  Next time I’ll use plain polenta and cook the croutons a bit longer.  Here’s what they looked like just out of the oven:

I also made the Lemon Lentil Chickpea Soup.  Very yummy.  I added more lemon juice than the recipe called for, and also sprinkled in some hot sauce (Tabasco Chipotle was all I had on hand, but Cholula would have been better).  You know what? I need one of those immersion/stick blender things.  My giant food processor is a huge PITA to both drag out and clean. Just sayin.

Finally, I threw together a random salad with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, dried snap peas ♥, and the best part of all: little chunks of goat cheese.  I never realized how great goat cheese is on salad- it’s soft and kind of spreads around so you get some on each bite.

Here’s my dinner. Sorry it’s not a great shot- my camera kind of crapped out after 3 pics:

I picked up a can of Hansen’s Diet Tangerine Lime Soda (you can see part of the can up there in the corner).  It was very refreshing, but halfway through I realized that it tasted exactly like Fresca.  Weird.

The dressing is also from EDBV: Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette.  It’s really simple (Basic, if you will): balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil and mustard.  Brian really liked it- probably because it’s not my usually tsp of olive oil to gallon of vinegar-type dressing… hehe.

We’re out of bananas, so I couldn’t make my favorite oatmeal.  I usually cook 2 servings of it at night and then have breakfast taken care of for the next couple days.  Anyway, the latest issue of Eating Clean magazine had a Quinoa Porridge recipe so I decided to give that a shot instead.  No picture, but it’s quinoa, milk, chopped apple, blackberries (the recipe called for blueberries), cinnamon and sliced almonds.  Not bad- but it’s just not as hearty and creamy as oatmeal.  A better summer breakfast, I suppose.

I know this is turning into the longest post EVER and you’ve probably stopped reading by now ;) , but guess what’s soaking on my counter right now??? Wheatberries! I’ve been reading so much about these and can’t wait to try them. Absolutely no clue what I’m going to do with them (any ideas?), but exciting nonetheless.

OH, one more thing.  My favorite band in the entire world (those of you who know me know why), the Old 97’s, are releasing a new CD tomorrow.  I’ve previewed it online and it’s fabulous.  You can listen to some, if not all, of the album on their myspace page.  Definitely worth checking out, IMHO.

 

Tofu Stew April 24, 2008

Filed under: April 2008 — heatherwlu @ 3:00 pm
Tags: , , , , , ,

We’ve been having the craziest storms around here lately! Last night was the 3rd time in about 2 weeks that tornadoes have popped up in the area.  We just got a lot of wind and lightning at our house, thankfully.

This past weekend I pulled out my old Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites Cookbook (poor Brian– I asked him what he wanted for dinner this week and he just said, “Meat. “  I think he’s getting tired of my vegan/vegetarian recipes). Anyway, I used to pull recipes from this all the time but I guess I’ve just accumulated too many cookbooks since then.  After perusing, I settled on the Mushroom Tofu Sesame Stew… though I subbed PB for the tahini, so it’s more Mushroom Tofu Peanut Stew.

It ended up being the perfect “huddle inside while it’s nasty out” soup! Very filling, comforting and not too hard to make. There’s a little prep work involved; Bri thought I was going nuts when he opened the fridge and saw two of my cookbooks in there- but I explained that a bit of tofu-pressing was required. The ingredients are pretty basic: just onions, celery, tomatoes, peanut butter, pressed tofu and some veggie broth (the recipe called for water, but broth just sounded more appealing), plus a little soy sauce at the end.  The PB gives it just the right amount of creaminess without too much of a peanut taste.  I may or may not have added an extra TBS of peanut butter.  That’s just how I roll.

The salad was excellent as well.  I’m probably the last person on the planet to discover Snap Pea Crisps, but MAN these are good. Although a little high in fat, the flavor is pretty strong so you don’t need very many.  I threw a few on top of my salad last night and they stayed crispy through the whole bowl!

There are some yellow peppers, tomatoes, almond slivers and a little Annie’s Roasted Red Pepper dressing in there too.

I should also note that dinner was accompanied by Chloe’s constant barking at every flash of lightning. It really set the mood nicely.

My giant to-do list is staring me in the face so I better run.  Oh, do you like the new placemats? They clash horribly with our black and white runner, but I saw them at the Crate & Barrel Outlet and thought they looked so summery and cheerful!