Ugh I have been SO SO bad about blogging and posting. I've been cooking so many things and moving from the old place to the new place has been freakishly stressful. Additionally, I've been having relationship problems, which makes me just want to escape somewhere (bed perhaps?) and shut out everything.

Finally, the body can't handle the stress, so it's finally closing down. I'm sniffly, exhausted and achy and I think I may have to call in sick tomorrow. I did a thanksgiving dinner yesterday! Ah it was so much fun! It was the first thanksgiving I had ever done on my own! I made Turkey the same way I had done Lucky the previous year. However, I don't think it was as good. I only had leg meat, but I liked it. It didn't get rave reviews though.

For stuffing, I made a chestnut mushroom stuffing (I LOVE chestnuts)
Here's the rest of the menu:

Arugula salad with beets, blue cheese, and candied walnuts
Brandied sweet potatoes in orange cups
Sauteed brussels sprouts with blue cheese and bacon
Sauteed corn with roasted red peppers
Creme de Cassis Cranberry Sauce
Cornbread (from a mix)
Pumpkin pie (I even did the crust by myself! No prepackaged betty crocker-ness for me!)

Ok all of that is way too much to post now, so I'll just do the stuffing.

3 cups (750 g) Roasted shelled chestnuts
2 stalks of celery
3 medium onions
1 heaping tablespoon herbes de provence
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 cup chicken broth
Bread crumbs

Sautee onions, mushrooms, and celery in a bit of butter or oil. Add the chestnuts and herbes with lots of salt and pepper. Sautee until most of the liquid has released from the mushrooms and has evaporated. Put it in a small square baking dish and pour the broth in. SPrinkle bread crumbs over, and bake at 350 F (150 c) for about 50-60 minutes.

Maybe I'll put another recipe up because that one was fairly simple and I still have some writing left in me...

Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups

6 oranges
4 average sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup (125 ml) brandy
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup
dash of orange juice
pinch salt
mini marshmallows

Put the sweet potatoes in an oven at 200 C (450 F) for about 40 minutes to an hour (until easily pierced with a knife)
Halve each orange, and run a knife around the edge of the orange meat. Scoop out all the meat from the oranges and reserve for whatever you may want it for. Do this over a bowl, by the way, so that you can catch the juices.
Once the potatoes are done, peel, cut them into chunks and put them into a saucepan. Add the brandy, dash of orange juice, and maple syrup, and puree with an immersion blender. Simmer on low heat for a bit to burn off some of the alcohol.
Spoon the puree into the orange cups and bake at 350 F (150 C) for about 20 minutes. Top with mini marshmallows immediately after removing from the oven.


Anyway. I'm going to Boston soon for Christmas and I'm really excited. I love living here, I never would want to be anywhere else. When I first moved here though, I had no obligations, no one knew me, and I could basically do whatever I wanted. Now however, I have all these obligations, things to do, and while they're stupid things (i.e., take the cat to the vet) It still gets stressful and is a bigger difference than when I first moved here.
This is not helped by the fact that I have a boyfriend who is INCREDIBLY unhelpful in these day to day operations. He sleeps until he has to wake up for work, which means he sleeps through the entire daylight / getting things done period. This means that I then have to leave work and run around and do stuff that I wouldn't HAVE to do if I had simple help. Gah.
My big "to-do" items currently are making sure that I go to the bank to authorise Prazske Elektrina to withdraw money for the gas bill, order cable/tv, take the cat to the vet in anticipation of our Boston trip, and finish moving things out of my old flat (should have been done a LONG time ago, but again, SOMEONE kept me occupied in bratty ways and didn't even THINK of helping) I just can't wait to have it all done.

My crazed cooking look.

You can see the corn and the prepped brussels sprouts and the sweet potatoes in the mini oven.

Not so Lucky the turkey. Apparently he needed more salt(!)

Quesadilas

In a kind attempt to help me get rid of food in my fridge before I more, some friends came over yesterday. I decided to use up some leftover tortillas that I had and make quesadilas! But what to fill them with? I had 2 ideas, that were as far apart from each other cuisine wise as possible. But, I made both, and both were delicious. No pictures (BAD Katka, BAD) again. Sorry. :-( they disappeared too quickly!!!

Pumpkin Quesadilas
250 g mashed pumpkin
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
300 g red kidney beans
2 tsp cumin
generous pinch salt and pepper
chopped bell pepper
100 g chopped fresh coriander
2 large flour tortillas
shredded cheese (cheddar or equivalent) (about 250 g)

Stir the pumpkin and beans together in a skillet til the pumpkin loses some of it's water content. add the garlic and onion and spices
Remove from heat

In a large nonstick skillet, lay a tortilla flat. Spread half with half the pumpkin bean mixture, sprinkle pepper and coriander on that, then cheese on top of that.
Fold the tortilla in half.
Flip the quesadila when the first side is toasted brown.
When the other side is toasted brown, remove from heat and cut into wedges


Pear and Spinach Quesadila
1 large clove garlic thinly sliced
300 g loosely packed spinach
1 pear, halved and cut into thin slices
Herbes de provence
salt and pepper
about 250 g smoked cheese
Chopped hazlenuts

Fry the thinly sliced garlic until light brown and crunchy.
Remove from heat
In a large nonstick skillet, lay a tortilla flat. Spread half with half the spinach.
Sprinkle generous pinches salt, pepper and herbes de provence on that, (used about 1-2 tsp of each) then sprinkle cheese on top of that.
Fold the tortilla in half.
Flip the quesadila when the first side is toasted brown.
When the other side is toasted brown, remove from heat and cut into wedges

Stress

So I've been dealing with a lot of personal stress recently. I just got a mortgage but it's so incredibly complicated due to the fact that there are two names on the mortgage, one income is here, the other is in America. It's opened a can of worms that I really wish hadn't been opened. I have been cooking, but I've been terrible with pictures and lazy with blogging. So here's an update.

My boyfriend and I decided to make Romanian stuffed peppers on Saturday. It was delicious! We were a bit like tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber though. My mom used to make stuffed peppers, and I always thought she baked them (covered) . Also, we knew it had a tomato based sauce, but we weren't exactly sure if the sauce should be cooked separate from the meat. What we produced was lovely, but I don't think it was done the "traditional" way! But, for your culinary enjoyment, here is Petr and I's Romanian stuffed pepper recipe.

Stuffed Peppers
4 bell peppers, top cut off, deseeded and deveined as best possible.
3/4 lb (200 g) ground meat
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
2/3 c (150 g) cooked rice (very soft)
1 chopped tomato
1 tablespoon summer savory (or a mix of thyme, rosemary, and cumin)
1 tablespoon salt or podravka
generous pinch black pepper
4 heaping tablespoons (1 small can) Tomato paste
1 cup (250 g) water

Now, here is the first error. You're supposed to steam the peppers first to make them softer, but we didn't do this. Oops. It was still good. If you want to do it traditionally, steam the peppers first for about 10 minutes to soften.

Fry the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices until they are light brown and aromatic
Add the beef and break up into small pieces.
Add the tomato paste and water
Simmer several minutes
Add in the cooked rice and let cook another 10 minutes. If it seems too dry, add more water.

Now here is what we did:
Over a small baking pan, hold a seive. Pour the meat and rice mixture into the seive and stir gently to seperate the tomato sauce from the meat and rice.
Stuff the peppers from the meat and rice remaining in the seive.
Place the peppers in the baking pan, cover with foil, and bake about 30 minutes (45 to an hour for softer peppers)

Serve with mamaliga (polenta)


Is that all? Oh no, readers. I havent been JUST cooking stuffed peppers! I made pumpkin butter last night adapted from a recipe I found on Martha Stewarts website. It was good, but I used only brown sugar (no white) so it's not as sweet as some might expect. Additionally, the brown sugar turned it a quite ugly shade of brown. However, the result is an aromatic, not too sweet butter that would go well with sweet and savory dishes.

Pumpkin Butter
250 g (1 cup) pureed pumpkin
50 g (bit less than 1/4 cup) packed dark brown sugar
6 whole cloves
5 allspice berries
teaspoon nutmeg
teaspoon cinamon
teaspoon ground ginger

Grind the cloves and allspice berries in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Add this and all other ingredients into a small saucepan. On low heat, stir until the mixture becomes thick and "buttery" a bit like gnutella or frosting, perhaps....
Spoon into a container and refrigerate.

Yes, it's that easy. It makes the house smell HEAVENLY too.

I also made a winter vegetable stew that I will write about a bit later. I'm doing a bit of a recipe overload today! I have one more, which I will NEVER EVER EVER recommend doing. Why am I putting it here? Because despite all the time, it was REALLY good. The only reason I cooked it for so long was because I had a glass (or 3) of wine and not much else to do (my boyfriend was going shopping) Additionally, I had promised him risotto, but the only rice I had was brown (believe me, I smacked my forehead even before I opened my mouth. I knew what I was getting myself into)

Southwestern Style Brown rice Risotto

1 medium onion diced
2 large cloves of garlic minced
1 small jalepeno pepper minced
1 tbs of butter
150 g (2/3 c) brown rice
1 chopped tomato
1 small red pepper diced
50 g (1/4 cup) cubed cooked chicken
50 g (1/4 c) packed chopped coriander
half a carrot, diced
60 g (1/4 c) cheese (I used Zlata Praha, which is a bit like Eidam but a little sharper. Colby or mild cheddar might be a good alternative)
1 tbs salt
1 tsp black pepper
I don't even know how much (I think about 2.5 litres...) chicken stock / water (I used water after my litre of chicken stock ran out)

You know the drill.
Saute onion, jalepeno and garlic in butter
Stirr in rice and toast a bit
Add carrot
Add broth. Stir until absorbed.
More broth. Stir til absorbtion.
More. Stir.
Test it as you go to see how soft the rice is.
Mine took about TWO HOURS of pouring and stirring.
When I noticed it was getting to the right consistency, I just threw all the other ingredients in with a bit more water and stirred it until I smelled the aroma of the peppers.

How nice to finally give my arm a break! Yes, it will be an ugly brown color, but it is GOOD and CREAMY. At the end of cooking, the last thing I wanted to worry about (obviously) was to take a picture. You'll just have to imagine the delicious mess yourself (Or try to make it at home!) I'd say I'd do it again, but I probably wont. How I wish it didn't take so much time to make...

More leftover chicken

I actually made this recipe the day we got back from Romania, but was too tired/zonked to post it.

As an update on my earlier post, I finally figured out what the mystery spice is! In Romanian it's called "cimbra" and in English it's Summer Savory (I had guessed from it's thyme-y smell it might be summer or winter savory, but wasn't completely sure) Now my task will be to find it here in the Czech Republic once the supply that my boyfriend's grandmother gave me runs out. After researching, it appears the Czech name for it is "Saturejka" so I will just have to hit up all the spice stores I know of and see what they can do for me. At least it has a Czech name!

So (again terrible with taking pictures!) I made this the night we came back. I was tired and didn't want to cook much, and my boyfriend's grandmother had sent us home with peppers, tomatoes, and leftover cooked chicken. I had some potatoes and cheese languishing in the house that demanded to be used promptly, so I created the following dish. Also, after having been fed non-stop for 4 days, I tried to lighten it up a bit (you'll notice there is no cream or milk in the mashed potatoes)

Chicken, Tomato, and Pepper Ragu with Cheese mashed potatoes

Mashed Potatoes
5 medium potatoes
1/4 c (60 g) firmly packed grated soft cheese (I used "excellent" syr, which is akin to a mild cheddar or gouda)
1 tbs butter
Potato cooking water
2 small cloves garlic
salt and pepper

Chicken Ragu
3 cooked thigh and/or breast pieces of chicken, shredded
2 medium tomatoes diced
1 small pepper (I used one of those white ones I've blogged about earlier)
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves minced finely
2 tbs tomato paste
1 cup (250 g) water or broth
2 heaping tablespoons poultry seasoning (I used "grill" seasoning)
1 tsp marjoram
1 level tablespoon podravka (use salt if you don't have it)
2 tbs flour dissolved in some hot water

Scrub potatoes well and cook in boiling water until soft

While potatoes cook, shred chicken, chop vegetables
saute onion, garlic, and pepper in a bit of oil in a non stick pan
add seasoning and marjoram and stir for a bit til fragrant
add remaining ingredients.
Give a stir, and simmer on low heat for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occaisionally.

While ragu is simmering, peel potatoes, add cheese, garlic, butter, several ladles of the potato water, salt and pepper. Mash with a potato masher or whip with a handheld whipper.

It's best to do the potatoes while they're still warm and right before you serve the ragu. Once the potatoes start to cool, the cheese may get a bit gummy. You can fix this by popping it in the microwave on low-medium heat for about a minute and then stirring again.

Ladle ragu next to or on the mashed potatoes.

Yum.

Back from Romania

So I just got back from Romania yesterday. What a great trip with some great food! I'll do a run through of some of the dishes I had that were particularly yummy:

Papanache: This was a dessert. It's like a donut. You take dough, fill it with some sweet cheese (ricotta, farmers cheese) then pop a hole out, fry it, and drench the whole thing in berry sauce and sour cream (creme fraiche)
Yum.

Sarmale: I can't wait to try to make this. You start with cabbage (kale) leaves that have been soaked in water and salt in a warm place for several days. Then you fill the soft leaves with a mix of ground meat, rice, salt, pepper, garlic, onions, and a spice that I am still trying to figure out the Czech or English word for. Haha. Sorry, vacation makes my mind a little less sharp. Anyway, you take these filled leaves and bake it in a bit of the cabbage water, some tomato paste, and a bit more of the spice. Yum.
Mamelige: This is essentially polenta. But so good. Romanians serve it instead of potatoes or dumplings, and it's just delicious!! I had it the last night with sour cream and brynza (akin to Feta, but a bit more salty)

I have more pumpkin!!! I'm not sure what to do wiith it. The cookies were a huge hit with my boyfriend, so I may make some more. I haven't made pumpkin pie though...I do have canned pumpkin though, so I may make one for thanksgiving. I think tonight I may either roast some or make a soup. Curried pumpkin soup. Yum. Off to look for recipes!

Mushy bananas

I love bananas. In all their stages of ripeness (well, maybe not the green ones...flavor is a bit weak)

I had two bananas that were ripening away, and yesterday I had to do something with them (the skin was almost black, and I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow morning. I would hate to think what they would look like when I got back) I don't have a loaf pan or a muffin tin, so I thought of doing banana cookies, brownies, or bars.

While searching through the cupboard, I found a package of oats that had been sitting there FOREVER. Eager to use two goodies that had been languishing away in my flat, I decided to go for bars, also excited because I had never made them before, and assumed they would be good for my future travels. I found a recipe on epicurious.com for banana oatmeal bars with chocolate chunks After reading the reviews, I garnered from the recipe that

a) there was too much sugar
b) it was too cakey.

Modification time! Also, I always need to halve recipes because I don't bake in a regular oven: I bake in a toaster oven, which means I can only use a small baking pan. I think the above recipe also calls for nuts, which I leave out for my boyfriend, because his jaw was broken and he is still quite sensitive to hard, crunchy items.

SO, for my bars. The full recipe calls for 2 bananas. I actually had 2, very overripe bananas. I wanted to use them both. When I was vegan, many recipes that I used said that overripe bananas could be used instead of an egg. I kept this in mind and decided that if the batter was too thick, I would add the egg. If not, then I would leave it out.

For oversweetness, I noticed many reviewers cut the sugar in half and it was fine. So I did the same, and used more brown sugar instead of white.

To correct for the cake-yness, (I wanted a more hearty, sturdy bar) I switched the amounts of oats and flour, and also used whole wheat flour. So there I was, mixing away, following the directions, and I added the dry ingredients. It still appeared (to me) very wet. Not bar like at all. More oats. Still wet. More oats. Still wet. More oats....getting better! I wish I remembered how much oats I used. The amount in the recipe below is my best guess, but I would suggest adding the oats until the batter gets quite sticky and sticks to the beaters a bit more than cookie dough. Even after baking them, I turned them out and the bottom was still quite (cake-y) soft. I will not be afraid to bring on the oats next time!!!

I've been really bad with pictures recently, I promise I'll get better! I just never thought of taking pictures of my food...

Banana Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate Chunks

1/2 cup (125 g) all purpose flour
1 cup (250 g) quick-cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (125 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (60 g) sugar
1/2 cup (125 g) packed golden brown sugar
2 large mashed ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 c (100 g) semi sweet chocolate chopped into chunks

Preheat oven to 325°F (170 C). Butter and flour 8x8-inch (sorry, don't know the centimetres on this one...) baking sheet. Blend first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until well blended. Beat in bananas, then vanilla. Stir in flour and oat mixture, then chocolate.

Spread batter in prepared pan. I always bake uncovered the first 15 minutes and then cover with foil (this allows for the item to bake evenly and not get the top burned, which I believe is a result of the small size of my toaster oven) Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean and top is golden, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on rack. Cut into bars and serve.

Officially a snob

Yesterday afternoon I had pumpkin gnocchi again.

I warmed up the gnocchi in a tupperware container on low microwave heat. While I did this, I I browned some goat butter on the stove and threw in some dried sage, salt and pepper. When the gnocchi dinged, I poured the butter over, and finished with some grated aged goat cheese (akin to Parmesan in consistency)

Cow's milk products, I fear, are just too plebeian for me.

I looked like QUITE the gourmand, eating my lovely gnocchi, awash in expensive goats milk products.....out of a tupperware container. :-)


Monday I made pumpkin cookies! I took a food network recipe and halved it, but essentially followed it to the letter. I think I added a bit more pumpkin than was called for though, which left me with a very soft batter. Also, in attempt to keep the cookies healthy-ISH, I used light cream cheese and whole wheat flour. I like what the whole wheat flour did actually: it left a lovely, nutty taste.

I love soft cookies, and I've actually figured out a couple of tricks to make them softer:

1) replace half the white sugar with packed dark brown
2) chill the dough in the refrigerator before spooning onto the baking sheet
3) take them out before you see brown on the edges (though for the pumpkin cookies, this was the sign that they were done...)
4) Rotate, rotate, rotate that baking sheet! At least halfway through cooking.

I will add a picture later, but for now, here is the recipe. Also, for excellent shaped cookies, roll the chilled dough into balls between your palms before placing on baking sheet. Do it quick though or it'll start melting on you....

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 (125 g) cup sugar
1 stick (125 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon Maple syrup
1 egg
3/4 cup (175 g) canned pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground all spice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
1 cup (250 g) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

Frosting
1 (8-ounce) (125 g) package softened light cream cheese
1/2 cup (125 g) confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixer, fitted with a paddle, cream the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy. Add the maple syrup and eggs. Mix to incorporate. Add the pumpkin and mix to incorporate. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix well. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool on racks. When cool, ice with the cream cheese frosting.

For the Frosting: In a mixer, fitted with a paddle, add the cream cheese. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla. Beat until smooth. If frosting is too thick, thin with a little milk. Fold in the lemon zest. When cookies are cool spread with some of the frosting. Garnish with a pecan or raisin if desired.