Arugula Pesto
I had some leftover arugula recently (more on why in my next post). I also have a ton of pecans in my freezer, thanks to a recent longing for pecans (that resulted in an online purchase of authentic Texas pecans) and a subsequent trip to see my grandfather, who gave us even better pecans. I even had parmesan in the fridge. So, I decided the best way to avoid wasting the arugula was to make some pesto.
I was incredulous when I first read that you could make pesto with herbs other than basil, but I’ve since become a huge fan of non-arugula pesto. Arugula has a slightly peppery taste that I enjoy, which sets arugula pesto apart from the basil kind.
This goes well with pasta, pizzas, really anything for which you’d use basil pesto – I like to pair it with a baked potato and a little white cheese.
I made this popcorn recently, along with several other baked goods, because the senior associates on two of my biggest cases were leaving the firm, and since one is Mormon and one had a pregnant wife at the time (the baby has since arrived!), bottles of wine did not seem like appropriate going-away gifts. It’d be kind of like giving Emily the vegetarian steaks as a birthday present.
It is always bittersweet to embark on a big baking project. It’s a lot of fun and, for some strange reason, a great stress reliever. However, whenever I spend more than an hour in the kitchen, I start to miss Emily even more than usual. Luckily, we’re beginning to plan our next Smitten Kitchen day, so I won’t have to wait long till I can cook and bake with Emily again.
This recipe didn’t take much time at all to make, and the beloved carnivore has since requested that this popcorn become one of our staple desserts/snacks.
The beloved carnivore wound up taking a ton of this stuff to work, all because of my lack of spatial reasoning skills. I popped two bags of popcorn and didn’t realize until I was measuring the popcorn into a bowl that I only needed one bag. The beloved carnivore, selflessly trying to prevent needless waste, casually mentioned that I could just make a double batch.
Please note, however, that unless you have the biggest mixing bowl that Ikea sells (I do, because I am on a mission to own ALL THE BOWLS), you should make each batch individually. It doesn’t take much time to make a single batch, and it is pretty tough to stir a double batch even if you have a mixing bowl big enough.
Homemade Oreos with an Optional Patriotic Twist
I can’t believe I haven’t talked about these yet, because I make them at least twice a year. The beloved carnivore likes the filling, which tastes a lot like the filling for whoopie pies. And I am an Oreo devotee with a passion for making things from scratch that you can much more easily purchase at a store. Because I can. And with companies like Hostess filing for bankruptcy and endangering such American favorites as Twinkies, it’s just safer if we all figure out how to make our favorite store-bought snacks, just in case.
I recently made a batch of these cookies and decided to make them patriotic, in anticipation of Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, etc. Also, I still have a lot of non-blue food dye left over from the many packs of food dye I got to make all those blue wedding mints. I couldn’t find blue food dye all by itself, unless I wanted to use the gel kind, which in my experience stains my hands a lot more than liquid food dye. Normally that’s not a serious problem, but I didn’t want to be known as the Smurf Bride. Far better that I be known as the Hurricane Bride, frankly. That sounds much tougher.
One more thing before I get into the recipe. While most cookie doughs I’ve made in my life refrigerate and freeze well, I don’t think this dough does. I’ve refrigerated it before with good results, though not as good as when I’ve made the cookies right after the dough is ready. The one time I’ve frozen the dough, the cookies had a different texture and didn’t taste quite right. I am not a scientist, like Emily, so I have no idea why this is, and it may have nothing to do with the fact that I froze the dough. Nonetheless, I’m still recommending that you not freeze it.
This is not a pretty photo, and hopefully I will be able to replace it soon with one that’s not, y’know, taken with my phone, and that maybe does justice to. . . the best etouffee I have ever made.
The beloved carnivore has been extra sweet lately, even though I myself have been a little . . . difficult. So I decided that he deserved etouffee, one of his favorite meals. Yesterday, I came home and spent forty-five minutes chopping vegetables (for a double batch), only to pull out the shrimp and discover it was unusable.
When I was in college in Chicago, some friends and I had a wonderful tradition that sprang up somewhat accidentally. Several of my friends lived in an apartment together, and I was an honorary roommate because I was there so frequently. A few of us started watching Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights together, and because it came on shortly after dinnertime, we made dinner together first. Even the people who didn’t like Grey’s Anatomy started joining in the dinner portion, and Thursday night dinners were born.
We would rotate who was responsible for dinner, and as a result, we were all exposed to lots of each other’s family recipes and other favorite recipes. This soup comes from my friend Gaby’s family. She made it one cold, windy Thursday (also known as “Thursday” in Chicago), and it hit the spot perfectly. It’s very healthy but it doesn’t taste “healthy.” You can make a double batch easily; it keeps well and a double batch will make 20 small meals or 10 big ones. By my calculations, it has less than 100 calories per serving, even if you use whole milk, and it doesn’t have all that sodium that canned soup has.
I make this often, when the weather turns cold suddenly or when I miss Gaby even more than I usually do. One spoonful takes me back to Chicago in my mind, where so many of my favorite people still live. It also takes me back to a time when Grey’s Anatomy had yet to jump the shark, but I digress.
This past week, I’ve had this soup every day for lunch and am not sick of it one bit – in fact, I’m looking forward to having it again on Monday.
If you want to freeze the soup, I would recommend not adding the milk all at once. Instead, add the milk when you have thawed and reheated the soup (adding about 2 TBSP of milk per cup of soup).
Too Tasty to Be Pasta Salad: Asparagus and Goat Cheese Pasta
I have a problem with goat cheese. When it is in my house, I have difficulty not consuming all of it at once. You know that woman who consumed nothing but pop (in addition to smoking like crazy)? Well, first of all, as a diet pop connoisseur, I panicked when I read all of those headlines, until I realized just how much 2 gallons of pop is. Short answer: it is far more than the 2 – 4 cans of Diet Dr. Pepper I often drink on a busy day. Second of all, and to the real point–I could live like that, on one “food” all day, everyday, if it were cheese and crackers.
Anyway, after seeing this dish featured on Smitten Kitchen, I have made it many times over the past couple of years, including this Sunday. Due to my extreme love of cheese, all I needed to know was that it had goat cheese in it, and I had to make it. All I need to know these days is that it has asparagus, and the beloved carnivore actually likes asparagus quite a bit. As a result, this dish is both delicious and an efficient vegetable/nutrient delivery system.
Unlike pasta dishes that use parmesan, pecorino, or other cheeses that are more commonly paired with pasta, this pasta dish is a bit on the dryer, less creamy side. It’s still creamy, but it is not as though the pasta is covered in a sauce.
Another note – I like it with a good bit of lemon, but the beloved carnivore likes it with less lemon. It is really a matter of personal taste, though I’ll note that I think you’re better off cutting some of the lemon zest out than cutting out the lemon juice. Hilariously, I made this for my husband’s grandparents and sister before I found out his sister does not like lemon. I felt bad about that, but she was okay, she just put barbecue sauce on it. Actually, as I found out later, she puts barbecue sauce on pretty much everything. I guess barbecue sauce is to her what goat cheese is to me (Now I know what to get you for Christmas, Lisa – a case of barbecue sauce. Kidding!).
Our New Domain Name
Just a little housekeeping note to let you know that our domain name is now https://em-and-am.com/. Our old domain lapsed, and someone snatched it up very quickly, so we had to add some dashes.
You can also always find us at https://emandam.wordpress.com.
Chocolate Almond Swirls
We will get back in the swing of blogging at some point, I promise. Now that the fella and I have finally finished unpacking our apartment and are almost all the way done with purchasing furniture (a long saga, let me tell you), I finally have time to cook and bake again. Or, rather, I choose to have time for these activities – work has been incredibly busy all year, but baking keeps me sane. As does exercise, so the two hopefully cancel each other out.
Saturday morning, I decided to bake 4 different types of cookies after almost pulling my hair out over our taxes. It turns out that being a full-time student for the first five months of the year, moving, getting married, starting a new job, and moving again–well, all that makes for one heck of a complicated tax filing. Luckily, I had plenty of flour and butter, because I was already planning to bake at least one type of cookie for my wonderful mom, who was coming into town for business. Having my mom stay at our finally-fully-furnished and clean apartment made me feel all grown-up in a way that probably indicates I’m not actually all that grown-up.
These cookies were a last-minute addition to my set of cookies. I remembered I hadn’t yet used the almond extract I purchased from Frontier Co-op when I made Emily those cupcakes with strawberry orange banana frosting. After a bit of googling, I landed on a Land O’ Lakes recipe for Chocolate Almond Swirl cookies. They looked delicious and I had to try them. They are delicious and are now going to be a staple cookie for me, particularly during the holiday season.
Earthy Simplicity (easy oat bread)
Have we talked about this bread yet? I feel like I must have shared it with you at some point between when Amanda and I first made it last August and now. August was busy, so I guess I didn’t tell you then, but surely I sang its praises in October when I made it a second time. If not then, surely in December, right? I mean, if I had time to make a fifth loaf amid the rush of work parties and decorating, I also had time to duck in here and whisper a little about oats not destined for holiday baking.
But alas, I’ve kept it a secret between Amanda and myself. Sometimes secrets are best. I swear I do my best cooking when no one is watching. When it’s just me, my eclectic mix of pots, pans and utensils, and whatever ingredients fill the fridge. Alone at the dinner table, I can’t imagine anything tasting better. It’s when I try to recreate dishes for friends or family that I become my own worst critic. I want nothing more than for them to fall in love with the same flavor combination that peppered my memories long after the last leftovers had been reheated. Read more…
Spinach Artichoke Dip
When Emily was here for our most recent Smitten Kitchen day, we realized we’re also becoming a pair of Annie’s Eats lovers. I think about half of our recipes came from her blog. She’s as reliable and charming as Deb – I hope she writes a cookbook, too!
When we cook, we always make a dip – like peacamole or roasted red pepper and white bean dip. We both love spinach and artichoke dip but had never made it, so it was not a difficult decision to make Annie’s spinach and artichoke dip.
A quick note on this recipe – I made it again, and I felt like the results were infinitely better when I (well, Emily and I) used frozen spinach from a bag than when I (singular) used frozen spinach from a box, which retains a lot more water and therefore (I think) loses more flavor and is stringier.
emandam 