Maki-zushi / Futomaki

Tonight I made maki-zushi, futomaki to be exact, which is basically sushi with veggies instead of raw fish. Not that i don't like sushi, but when making it at home I don't really want to deal with the raw fish. I found some interesting ideas for veggies from this article on the NYTimes website. So off to the store I went!

I decided not to spend too much money because a few ingredients can go a long way with maki-zushi and sushi rolls. I got asparagus, cucumber, avocado and white mushrooms. I like creminis but for this I figured a lighter taste was better.

I cooked my rice:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup rice
Boil 1 minute, reduce heat and simmer with a lid on for 15-20 minutes. Pour out of pan onto a plate or something to cool.

Mix 1/4 cup rice vinegar and 1/4 cup sugar and microwave for about 30 seconds to help dissolve the sugar. When the rice has cooled, mix about half of this vinegar/sugar mixture into the rice. Let set.

I cut off the bottom 1/3 of the asparagus stems and discarded. Then I cut the remainder of the asparagus into thirds and chopped the mushrooms into strips. I sauteed these together with some sesame oil.

I didn't do anything to the avocado and cucumber. I tried several different styles of rolls but I decided the basic, rolled with the bamboo mat rolls still worked best. You can usually find sushi kits in bookstores or kitchen stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Of course I dipped my rolls in a mixture of low-sodium soy sauce and wasabi! Have fun!

Our "go to" meals

I'm here and I"m still eating! Life has been hectic lately what with it being spring and bike season! Also I'm in the early stages of training for a half-marathon so dinner has been pretty simple lately...so I thought a good post for today would be "go to" meals. You know, those meals you always have all the ingredients for...the ones you have probably at least once a week when you know you should stay in but you have no idea what to make!

Meal #1: Homemade pizza We almost always have a pizza crust or a pizza crust mix. And there's always mozzarella cheese and some assortment of sausage, artichokes, peppers, onions, basil, parmesan...well, there's always something suitable for a pizza!

Meal #2: Grilled chicken, tuna steaks, or pork, baked potatoes and salad. Come on...you know you always have potatoes at home. Some nights there's nothing better than pure simple baked potatoes. AND potatoes have lots of potassium!

Meal #3: Pasta and anything There are few things that don't go with pasta. It's rare that we don't have spaghetti sauce or at least the stuff to make our own spaghetti sauce, pesto sauce, or something to make a cheese or olive oil sauce. Then it can be as simple as adding toasted bread crumbs and green peas, shrimp, or even just broccoli.

Meal #4: Black bean quesadillas When all else fails, mix some salsa into drained and rinsed black beans, add cheese, place in a tortilla and get it all crispy and brown in a pan. Who needs Qdoba?

2 for 1!

Double Double Butter Cake
This past week I got the chance to go back to my hometown and see my family. My dad's birthday was Sunday so I helped my Mom bake Dad's cake while my sister was busy prepping for the rest of dinner--making salads! Mom read her recipe and mixed in the shortening and flour, and I cracked the 5 eggs (each one in the bowl, then in the mixing bowl...wouldn't want to have a bad egg!) After the 1 hr and 20 minutes that the cake was supposed to cook it was still soupy...hmmmm..."What did we do wrong?" Neither of us could figure it out, so we set the timer for another 30 minutes and went to the store. When we came back the cake had fallen--instead of being puffy and fluffy, it was sunken and lumpy. So Mom took it out and tried to flip the cake over onto a plate. It fell everywhere! The entire kitchen counter was covered with cake! Here's what you do when that happens:


So, we tasted the cake--it was still really good! We made the brown sugar glaze and poured it over the crumbled cake in the dish. It may not have been pretty but it tastes good. So what did we do wrong? Well, this sort of thing is what happens when you accidentally use TWICE the amount of shortening that you need. Lesson learned (MOM).

Going meatless

I like to have vegetarian days. I don't know if I could ever be a vegetarian 100% of the time, but I like to find other ways to get protein that just eating meat. Some days I do better than others. Yesterday at the airport I managed to find a great little sandwich shop with a fabulous "Colorado Sunshine" sandwich. Avocado, sprouts, cucumber, pickles, tomato, cheese, and lettuce make a great vegetarian sandwich! Today I wanted to continue the theme so for dinner I made mushroom and roasted artichoke pizza. It's not hard and it tastes great! Roasting is a fabulously easy way to cook veggies. All I did was drain about 5 artichoke hearts, cut them in half, drizzle olive oil on them, add salt and pepper and roast them at 450 for about 10 minutes. If you're cooking something tougher, like brussels sprouts, you'd want to use a bit of a lower temp for a longer period of time.

Anyway, we had some new store-bought pizza crusts that weren't fabulous...but they held the toppings :) Pizza is an awesomely easy way to go--you can put almost anything on a pizza crust and it will most likely taste great!

To Dine out, or not to Dine out?

Recently, after a bad experience at a new Chinese restaurant, I struggled again with a theory...food cooked at home (unless you're a really bad cook) is almost always better tasting and better for you than food cooked elsewhere. Now, I'll be the first to admit that's not true 100% of the time (hence the reason for the "almost" in my hypothesis). When it comes to pizza, Pablo's and the Hot Tomato here in Grand Junction and Fruita respectively will beat me every time at pizza. But Dominos? Pizza Hut? No. Mine tastes like I want it to and has probably pretty natural ingredients on it.

Chinese? Well, I haven't found a place that I just love for chinese here...Sushi, yes. Chinese--well, I think the Lemon Chicken I make at home is better! I know I can make crab rangoon, and I"m pretty damn sure I can make spring rolls and egg rolls. I make a tasty sesame noodle dish too--with WHOLE WHEAT noodles!

Still struggling with bbq, but this summer we'll perfect ribs for sure! All I'm saying is that sometimes, when you want some particular type of food-whether it's Italian, Mexican, or Thai, find a recipe online and try to make something yourself!

Here's a simple sort-of Thai recipe:

Cook any type of basic pasta (whole wheat is best): penne, spaghetti noodles, or rigatoni are best. Then chop and saute a chicken breast (free range or organic if you can get it) and veggies like snow peas, broccoli, pepper, onion...until done with some olive oil, a chopped clove of garlic and salt and pepper. Mix it with the pasta when everything is done and the pasta is drained. On the Asian food aisle of most grocery stores you can find Spicy Peanut Sauce. Shake it alllll over the noodles and mix it up! The more you add, the spicier it'll be! Sprinkle a little cilantro on top and you're good to go without the take out!

Baked Chicken Meatballs with Peperonata

Excuse the lack of pictures...sometimes I just plain forget!

Peperonata is roasted red bell peppers with a caper viniagrette...for lack of a better way to describe it. It is so simple and yet so flavorful!

For the Peperonata:
*3 red bell peppers cut into wide strips
*1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tbsp drained capers
1 tsp red-wine vinegar (white wine works too)
1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes

For the Meatballs
*3 slices italian bread, torn into pieces (I used french bread from Albertson's and it worked just fine)
*1/3 cup milk
*3 oz sliced pancetta, finely chopped (splurge and get it--it's worth it)
*1 small onion, finely chopped
*1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large egg
1 lb ground chicken
3 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley (I did leave this out but used some extra italian seasoning in the sauce)
1 tbsp tomato paste

Accompaniment: garlic bread made from remainder of Italian loaf.

Make peperonata: Preheat oven to 400 F with racks in upper and lower thirds.

Toss bell peppers with 1 tbsp oil, then roast in a 4 sided sheet pan in lower third of oven, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned, about 35 minutes.

Stir together capers, vinegar, red pepper flakes, and remaining 1/2 tbsp oil in a medium bowl and set aside.

Make meatballs while peppers roast:
Soak bread in milk in a small bowl until softened, about 4 minutes.

Cook pancetta, onion, and garlic in 1 tbsp oil with 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat until onion is softened, about 6 minutes. Cool slightly.

Squeeze bread to remove excess milk, then discard milk. Lightly beat egg in a large bowl, then combine with chicken, pancetta mixture, bread, and parsley. Form 12 meatballs and arrange in another 4-sided sheet pan. (Chicken is harder to form into an actual ball than beef. I just kind of molded a handful and didn't try to make them pretty).

Stir together tomato paste and remaining tbsp oil. I added about 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning and 1/8 tsp garlic salt. Brush over meatballs, then bake in upper third of oven until meatballs are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. If you like, top with mozarella cheese and broil for just 30 seconds or so until the cheese is brown.

Toss peppers with caper mixture. Serve meatballs with peperonata.

This recipe was taken from the August 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine. Page 55.

What to make for dinner?

All day I pondered this. For lunch I knew I was having ooey gooey deep dish pizza with Daniel and Richie. It was fabulous! And so was the company ;) Still, after that I decided I wanted something light for dinner. At first I was thinking soup...it was kind of gross outside and soup seemed like a good idea. But I couldn't decide what kind. I wanted a vegetarian meal too...So as I was walking into the store to get lettuce, because I knew I wanted salad, my Mom suggested just making a big salad and getting french bread. Perfect! So I headed to the produce section to see what might catch my eye for the salad: I got red leaf lettuce and romaine to go with some things I already had at home. Then some portabellini mushrooms caught my eye! Perfect size for stuffing and there were 6 of them. Perfect for 2!

Here are the mushrooms before baking:


You can stuff these with anything. Bacon and cream cheese, crab meat and bread crumbs...anything. Tonight I used: 2 marinated pieces of artichoke heart, about 2 tbsp of finely chopped onion, 1/2 tbsp of cream cheese, 4 tbsp of parmesan cheese, and about 4 tbsp of bread crumbs. I mixed and mashed everything together in a bowl and added just a drop or two of olive oil for moisture. I scooped out the "gills" of the mushrooms and brushed the tops off with a damp paper towel then filled each one with the cheese mixture. With the oven heating to 450 I popped them in for about 15 minutes. The finished product, as you can see below, will be a little wrinkly, with nicely browning tops. They might even be bubbling.


My salad had a creamy cheddar cheese in it, roasted red pepper, marinated artichoke, cucumber, carrots...but hey, it's a salad, throw in whatever you want!

Recipes are nothing but outlines

Here's one thing to remember: following a recipe exactly is only necessary when baking. If you're making an italian dish or even just a family favorite main course, be inventive! Don't have green olives? Use some capers! Out of noodles? Try rice! No cream of mushroom? What about cream of chicken or celery?

Today I had no idea what to make. I remembered I had some polenta (the kind already molded into a roll) in the refrigerator and so I looked on my favorite website Food Network and found a great one. It was basically fried polenta rounds with a cream cheese mixture and a red sauce on top.

I had to go to the store anyway so I grabbed some basil and cream cheese while I was there. The recipe called for Mascarpone cheese which is pretty expensive, so I kind of made my own with cream cheese, sour cream, and a little drop of milk. When I got home I:

1. Sliced the polenta into rounds--maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick? And basically fried them in olive oil and butter. About 1 tbsp of each, mixed together.
2. I mixed 1/2 a block of cream cheese with 2 spoonfuls of sour cream and 1 tbsp of milk. Then I added 2 tbsp of capers and about 1 tbsp of lemon juice. This I set aside.
3. I chopped up 1/2 a jar of roasted red peppers, 4 roma tomatoes and 1 clove of garlic. Once all the polenta rounds were browned all over I removed them from the pan and threw in the garlic. As soon as it sizzled I added the tomatoes and roasted red pepper.
4. I was hesitant to add much salt as that can draw out the water from the tomatoes and make the sauce watery. I added about a tbsp more olive oil and let everything cook and soften. Then I added a sprinkle of salt and about 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce, just to add a deeper flavor.
5. Finally I tore up 4 large leaves of basil and added that to the sauce.

To assemble: Place 4 or 5 polenta rounds on a plate. Top with 1/2 cup of the cheese mix and then cover with 1/2 to 2/3 cup of the red sauce.

This recipe can be adapted to whatever you have: black olives, onion, bell pepper, just garlic and tomato sauce...you can do anything with this!