Veggie Chic

Fake Piggies in a Blanket

2010-10-01T23:29:00.000-04:00

I was recently at a party where ‘pigs in a blanket’ were served as an hors d’oeuvre and it occurred to me that I missed the tightly packed little nuggets of American goodness. Not that I ever ate a hotdog after learning what it was, but there is something about a hotdog that seems to be a hallmark of our quote unquote culture.

But apart from the many ‘parts’ that actually compose a hotdog, I became a vegetarian for reasons other than any moral alignments. Plainly, I quit eating meat as a preteen because I thought it was gross. I hated the texture and I didn’t think that it added to any dish I ever ate. People would drool at the mention of a slab of steak or a rack of ribs and I just couldn’t ever find one meat that got me excited like that… so I quit. Of course now, as a liberal, a scientist, and a generally compassionate human being I find lots of problems with the way that we farm. I am quite certain that if I ever acquire a taste for meat I would be an extremely conscientious consumer in that regard. But ANYWAY, I thought that I would try to make ‘pigs in a blanket’ using vegan hot dogs.

I don’t know if Smart Dogs (found in Publix, if not most grocery stores) are the best fake dogs to use, but they are all I’ve seen around in a while.

Fake Piggies in a Blanket

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 10-11 min

Ingredients:

Crescent roll dough

Fake piggies

Egg

Salt

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Unroll the crescent roll dough and cut the premade triangles once to form an additional triangle. Re-shape both of the triangles into the original shape. Cut the hot dogs lengthwise and then in half resulting in four pieces. Place a hot dog piece at the adjacent side of the right triangle crescent (oh geez) and roll towards the tip. Place the piggies onto a cookie sheet covered in foil.

Whisk the egg in a bowl. Unless you have one of those fancy glazing brushes. The easiest way to coat the piggies is by turning them upside down and dipping them in the egg. This is critical to get the glossy look these little appetizers have as well as assist in browning. Sprinkle with salt and pop them into the oven for 10 or so minutes.

I eat them with a sauce I mix up including Miracle Whip, honey mustard, and actually honey. I don’t know if you could trick a meat eater with these, but you could probably trick a small child. : ) Note that the light hitting the piggies below is from the light in the kitchen and not the camera flash. They are just that glossy! Enjoy!

Artichoke Frittata

2010-08-30T14:31:00.000-04:00

I love eggs. I will even occasionally have the yolk raw over rice. (That recipe will find its way up here eventually, too.) I rarely have time in the morning to cook eggs, but love having frittatas on the weekend for brunch. The purpose of the frittata, however, is the other ingredients that the eggs hold together. This is also a good dish to use up vegetables you have in the fridge. The end result tends to be colorful and is always delicious, so this is a great dish to serve when company comes over.

Artichoke Frittata:

Prep time: 10 min

Skillet time: 6-8 min

Bake time: 10 min

Ingredients:

Eggs

Artichoke hearts (jar)

Tomato

Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 375˚F. Scramble a few eggs in a bowl. Slice up a jar of artichoke hearts and stir in with the eggs. Pour the mixture into a frying pan or skillet. Make sure to use a pan that can be put in the oven. Most pans can be, though some of the non-stick ones may have restrictions. However, I haven’t come across a pan that can’t tolerate this heat. Slice up a tomato, lay the pieces in the skillet, and salt to taste. Cook on the stove top on medium heat. The bottom will cook, but the top of the eggs will not cook completely. After 6-8 minutes, place the skillet in the oven. The top of the eggs will begin to brown slightly. Make sure to check periodically to avoid overcooking.

CAREFULLY remove the skillet with an oven mitt. I like to place the mitt over the handle to remind myself it is still hot after I remove it from the oven. You’d be surprised how quickly you forget!!! On a side note, they actually make little covers for handles specifically for this purpose.

Cut diagonal slices directly in the skillet. I like to eat this with a side of guacamole or simply sliced avocado sprinkled with lime juice. Enjoy!

Beer Scones

2010-08-15T10:36:00.002-04:00

I find that I only eat breakfast during the week if something is previously prepared for me. Otherwise, there just isn’t enough time. Cereal would be easy enough, but I am most definitely not a fan. Anything with eggs usually takes too long, which really for me just leaves toast as the only thing that takes under 5 minutes to make.

Alternatively, scones are a fantastic breakfast to have with coffee and can be easily prepared ahead of time. Baking is about the only time I actually measure most of the ingredients, although alterations are often made at the end to adjust for consistency. Also, I frequently use beer in place of milk or water when I bake because I think it results in a moister pastry and I’ve always felt that it improved upon any recipe I included it in.

This recipe results in 12 super large scones or 18 medium scones. Once the main mixture is made, it can be divided into different bowls to make different flavor combinations. These flavors were inspired by Savvy Eats.

Beer scones:

Prep time: 15 min

Bake time: 9-15 min

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups white flour

½ cup raw sugar

2 T baking powder

1/3 cup olive oil

¾ cup beer (I use a wheat beer.)

¼ cup milk or cream

Honey

Salt

Chocolate cherry flavor:

Chocolate chips

Dried cherries

Sea salt

Cinnamon Chai flavor:

Chai tea (loose leaf)

Vanilla extract

2:1 Cinnamon/sugar mix

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Combine all of the main ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix well and then determine if the consistency is appropriate. The batter should be more a lot like cookie dough. If it is too thin, then add more flour. Divide the batter into two bowls.

In one bowl add a generous handful of chocolate chips and a generous handful of dried cherries. Mix and then remove to a greased cookie sheet. Smooth the batter into a circle or oval that is about 1 inch thick. With a mixing spatula, divide the batter into triangles. Shape the edges of the batter so that they are not too thin, which may result in burning. Next, and I can’t stress the glorious importance of this, sprinkle with sea salt. It is absolutely what makes this flavor so undeniably delicious.

In the other bowl, add in a capful of vanilla extract and mix into the batter. Then add in a few spoonfuls if the chai tea. Loose leaf tea may need to be crushed with the back of a spoon in a separate bowl before adding to the batter. Create the scone triangles as described previously and then sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon/ sugar mixture.

Bake for 9-15 min depending on the scone size. The edges should slightly brown. Cool on wax paper and enjoy one when it’s still warm!

I am very excited about making a batch of lemon poppy seed scones and cranberry oat scones next, so stay posted. :)

Quinoa-stuffed peppers

2010-08-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

I absolutely love red peppers. I have also found that stuffing them with a grain and other vegetables is a good way to use up produce at the end of the week. When I first started stuffing red peppers it was with broccoli and mozzarella, which is not at all my favorite vegetable or my favorite cheese. I never really enjoyed them this way until it occurred to me to stuff them with a mixture that I found more appealing. Now, stuffed red peppers are an absolute favorite of mine.

Quinoa-stuffed peppers

Prep time: 15ish minutes

Cook time: 22-25 minutes

Ingredients:

Cooked quinoa

Red or orange peppers

French-style green beans (canned)

Cherry or Roma tomatoes

Margarine or butter

Salt

Somagh (a Persian spice)

Goat cheese

Lime juice (very important!)

Heat the oven to 375˚F. Prepare the quinoa according to instructions. Pour the cooked quinoa in a frying pan with the green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Use whatever ratio your heart desires. Throw in a small amount of margarine or butter, sprinkle with a capful of lime juice, and salt and somagh to taste. I am very liberal with the somagh. Heat for 5 or so minutes, then pour into a bowl to mix with the goat cheese.

In the meantime, remove the stem from the peppers by cutting in a circle around the top. Remove the white pithy parts and rinse the peppers until all the seeds are removed. Spray the outside of the peppers with olive oil and place them upright in a baking dish. Once the quinoa mixture is done cooking, fill the peppers to the top. Bake for 22-25 minutes. The peppers should start to get soft and perhaps appear a tad black in places, but since you aren’t going to remove the skin, be careful not to overdo it.

This has been a dish I routinely go back to. But if you aren’t a fan of the quinoa, I’m sure it would also be good with rice.

Gourmet Portabella & Swiss

2010-08-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

We all know what it’s like to be so busy you accidentally skip a meal. I’ve had one of those months and ended up skipping dinner the other night. I woke up at 1 am absolutely starving and finally resolved to get out of bed to make something to eat. I decided that if I’m already up, I might as well make something delicious instead of settling for a meager snack. I described my midnight snack to a friend and she declared it sounded gourmet, so hence the name. : )

Gourmet Portabella & Swiss

Total time: 15 min

Ingredients:

Portabella mushrooms

Sour dough bread

‘Laughing Cow’ Swiss cheese

Miracle whip

*Optional: a large leaf of Boston lettuce*

Slice up a few portabella mushrooms and lay them in a sauce pan sprayed with Olive oil. Use the spray sparingly as mushrooms tend to exude lots of juices as they cook. Cook the mushrooms fully on one side (about 4 minutes) and then flip them over to cook a little longer.

Toast two slices of sour dough bread. My toaster is too small to accommodate the length of the bakery sour dough bread I buy, so I toasted it on the oven rack at 325˚F for about 5 minutes. Spread the swiss cheese on one slice of bread and the miracle whip on the other. The miracle whip adds a wonderful tangy taste that works so well with the flavor of the mushrooms. I would have loved to also add a nice quality piece of lettuce, but alas, I had none. Top the mushrooms on the bread and enjoy! I liked this so much, that I also had it for breakfast the following morning.

This picture does not do this sandwich justice!

When you're a bad doggie parent...

2010-07-19T22:31:00.005-04:00

When you have just one dog their nails are always trimmed, they’re groomed regularly, and you know exactly when their vaccines are due. When you get a second dog, not only do you run out of patience, but you also run out of food. Frequently. I manage to run out of dog food every time it’s necessary to buy a new bag. So what do you do? You serve them rice, peanut butter, and eggs! The rice is filler, the peanut butter is to sweeten them up, and an egg yolk (without the white) adds in a good amount of protein and other nutrients. And the good news is that they are so excited about the “treat” that they don’t even realize what a bad doggie parent you are.

Today, when I ran out of dog food and gave my dogs the above concoction, I found that I had leftover rice. So I thought that maybe it’d be nice to make my poor bulldogs a treat with what was left in the rice cooker.

<3 My puppies <3

Doggie Rice balls!

Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: 15-20 min

Ingredients:

Rice

Peanut butter

Egg yolk

Salt (not critical)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Prepare the rice in a rice cooker according to directions. I tend to always use a 1:2 grain to water ratio when using the rice cooker. When the rice is finished, transfer it to a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix in the egg yolk. Make sure to avoid adding the white, as it contains avidin which leaches biotin from the dogs’ diet. (However, there is enough biotin in the yolk that it may not really matter.) Add in the peanut butter until a “cookie batter” consistency is achieved. Roll the mixture into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet an inch apart. I add a dash of salt to the balls for kicks, but it probably isn’t a big deal to a canine’s not so discriminating taste.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the balls are slightly browning. Cool on a piece of wax paper and give to your doggies with the satisfaction that not only did you not run out of food this time, but you made them a treat from scratch!

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Portabella Quinoa Delight

2010-07-17T23:03:00.002-04:00

Quinoa is a wonderful grain that I have recently been introduced to. It can be found in the health, organic or ethnic food aisles of even the most common of grocery stores. It’s gluten-free and has the highest protein content of any grain. The most appealing part for me is that quinoa is soft and tends to hold the flavor of whatever it was cooked in very well.

When I came up with this recipe, all I knew is that I was craving some portabella mushrooms in a wicked way. I actually started cooking them before I planned the rest out, but luckily it came together rather quickly. : )

Portabella Quinoa Delight

Prep time: 5 min

Cook time: 15-20 min

Ingredients:

Quinoa

Portabella mushrooms

Cherry tomatoes

Goat cheese

Olive oil

Salt

Prepare the quinoa according to package directions. I like to prepare it in a rice maker in a 1:2 grain to water ratio. (Rice makers are amazing and everyone should have one!) While the quinoa is cooking, slice the cherry tomatoes in half and dice the portabella mushrooms in whatever fashion you like. Simmer them with olive oil on medium heat until the mushrooms are cooked through. Salt to taste.

Crumble some goat cheese into a mixing bowl. I adore goat cheese so I use as much as I think my metabolism can handle at that particular moment. Once the mushrooms and tomatoes are cooked, pour them over the cheese and mix well. When the quinoa is finished, spoon that in too. I add the quinoa in ¼ cup amounts until I acquire the consistency that I personally like.

Serve with garlic toast, a green veggie, and a white wine. I suggest a Riesling, French-style green beans and I definitely recommend whipping up your own garlic butter by mixing in some cooked, freshly minced garlic with butter or margarine. Enjoy!

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“You have to eat your roughage!”

2010-07-16T21:11:00.002-04:00

I once met a 92 year old woman, still healthy and actively driving, who claimed the secret to her youth was ‘roughage’. On that note, kale is an excellent source of fiber, calcium, vitamin C as well as numerous other vitamins. It has been said that kale chips taste like potato chips. I’d have to disagree with that assertion, but they were certainly inspired by potato chips. The advantage kale chips have over potato chips, however, is that you can pretty much eat all you want since a single 1 cup portion is about 40 calories.

Kale Chips

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 11-12 minutes

Ingredients:

Kale

Sea salt

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Use packaged or unpackaged kale. Either is fine, but the disadvantage of packaged kale is that it is already cut into pieces and some of them tend to be small. Fill up a large Ziploc bag with kale, a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and then shake. Alternatively, simply spread the kale directly on a cookie sheet and spray with Pam (or other olive oil spray) and salt and season according to taste. I think sea salt is fine, but the possibilities are endless!

Place the cookie sheet in the oven for 11-12 minutes without disturbing the pieces during that length of time. Obviously, the smaller the pieces are, the less time they take. When finished, most of the kale should be crispy with slightly darkened edges.

Immediately remove the kale to a plate and enjoy!

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Pickled Beet Eggs!

2010-07-15T09:37:00.002-04:00

Don’t be frightened by the idea of pickling eggs or the fact that these turn out purple. I first heard of these while watching Modern Marvels on the Discovery Channel. They did a show on eggs and featured a sandwich diner whose trademark was pickled beet eggs. I’m not keen on pickling history or terminology, but as far as I’m concerned there is sweet pickling or sour pickling. Sweet pickling uses sugar while sour pickling uses salt. Pickled beet eggs are sweet pickled and have a wonderful flavor when they are done. Even the beets end up with a more palatable taste after pickling. They lose the somewhat earthy flavor that several people find unappealing about beets.

Pickled Beet Eggs

Prep/cook time: 20-25 min

Wait time: 3-4 days

Ingredients:

8 eggs (per jar of beets)

15 oz jar of sliced beets

White wine vinegar

Water

~1 cup Cane Sugar

Baking soda

Hard boiled eggs:

Fill a sauce pan with water for boiling. Add a spoonful of baking soda to the water. Place the eggs in the pan and then slowly heat to a boil. I know it requires a little patience, but try to allow the eggs at least 5 minutes to climb to boiling. Let the water boil for 4 minutes and then remove the eggs from heat for at least 10 minutes. Decant the hot water and replace with cold water. Remove the eggs and effortlessly peel away the shells.

Pickling mixture:

Pour the jar of sliced beets including the juice into another sauce pan. Fill the jar with water and vinegar to at least a 1:1 ratio and pour into the pan. I like to add more vinegar than water, but I absolutely love cooking with vinegar so it is up to your personal preference. Add roughly a cup of cane sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and then let it simmer until the sugar is dissolved.

Place a couple eggs in a mason jar. (Plastic Tupperware containers tend to not handle the pickling quite as well.) Cover with the pickling mixture. Continue in a step-wise fashion until you’ve filled the jar. A ½ pint jar will hold 4 eggs. Leave about ½ inch of space at the top. It is critical to leave room in the jar so you can mix the contents every 24 hours. Screw on the lid and then place the jars in the fridge for 3-4 days. It takes at least 48 hours for the egg white to become mostly pickled. After 4 days, they are fully pickled and taste absolutely amazing!

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The trick to hard-boiled eggs...

2010-07-14T12:24:00.003-04:00

I absolutely love eggs in any form, which is fortunate given my vegetarian condition. In the past, I’ve always had an aversion to cooking hard-boiled eggs due to the excruciating amount of time they take to peel. And no matter how hard I tried, I never could get away without removing chunks from the white. And then I came across the fact that by increasing the pH of the water, the cooked egg will adhere less to the shell. It’s amazing the difference it makes! Just add baking soda (which is nothing more than sodium bicarbonate), slow boil and it works like a charm. I haven’t been able to do the ‘blowing’ technique like Tim Ferris, but either way, this reduces the effort required to enjoy a hard-boiled egg.

Pickled beet egg recipe to come!

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The first post!

2010-07-13T23:42:00.001-04:00

I am officially starting a blog about food! Like most blogs it may plummet, but I will try to keep it going despite graduate school and other obligations.

I have recently noticed how often I make up recipes out of the blue based on what is available in my fridge and pantry. And over the years, I have noticed that I am not one to reach for a measuring spoon. I tend to cook solely by taste and consistency. I have come to believe that learning the components and ratios of a dish is one of the most important tenants of cooking and that we would all benefit by liberating ourselves from the tedium of measurements! And while all my recipes will be vegetarian, I’m sure throwing on a slab of chicken would be enough to make them palatable to even the most finicky meat-eater.

Bon appétit!