Honey Ginger Lemonade

Makes a little more than a quart. Feel free to double or divide if you're making more or less.

You will need:

2-4 lemons 

2-6 oz honey

1 inch or so of grated ginger

2-3 cups water

Ice

Pot

Seive (tea strainer works too if you're careful)

Pitcher

Water goes into the pot. (Fact: I often get lazy and just heat this up in a couple of big mugs in the microwave. It's all good.)

Wash your lemons, cut into quarters, squeeze as much juice and pulp as you can into the pot. Then throw the lemons themselves in there too. This is to taste; I like a not-crazy-tart lemonade so I usually go with 2 lemons, but if you MUST HAVE THAT CITRIC ACID PUCKER then go for more!

Grate your ginger right into the pot. Pro tip: most of the medicinal properties of ginger lie just beneath the skin so instead of using a peeler, gently rub the skin off with a knife.

Add your honey to taste. If you're not sure, start with a little--you can always add more later. Another pro tip: raw unfiltered honey has a LOT of health benefits that the generic bears you buy at the supermarket do not. It also tastes way better.

Heat long enough for everything to melt and combine. No need to bring to a boil. Just get it hot.

Taste (carefully, don't burn your tongue) and adjust honey/lemon ratio as needed. It should be stronger than you actually want it at this point because this is going over ice which will water it down. Add more lemons if it's too sweet or too watery; add more honey if it's too tart.

Half-fill your pitcher with ice and pour your lemonade through a seive into your pitcher. Done!

BONUS BOOZE OPTION: If you mix 1 part pinot grigio and 1 part honey ginger lemonade you will have a bangin' beach drink.

Cheap Burgundy Pesto With Mozzarella

(A "What's In the Fridge?" Adventure Pasta!)

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 cup of cheap wine
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
A bunch of basil, fresh or dried
Any other green herbs you have lying around that you think will work, fresh or dried
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Mozzarella
Grated romano or parmesan cheese.

Cook your pasta.
During this time, chop up garlic and put in a skillet with olive oil and wine, on medium heat. Add cayenne pepper if you're into that, as well as a ton of basil and other green herbs according to what you have and your whims. I had dried basil and a random container of dried "italian herbs" I inherited from a roommate.
Keep the heat on your wine-oil-herb situation to medium low. It can bubble but don't let it go crazy. But it's OK to reduce it somewhat.

When your pasta is ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE DONE, drain it and transfer into the wine-oil-herb situation to finish it. You can turn the heat up a bit. Let it cook a few more minutes.

Chop your mozzarella into small cubes and toss it in, mixing carefully to distribute it well.  Add a small ton of grated romano or parmesan (use your own judgment of what "a small ton" is) and mix well.

Serve!

Lemon-Spinach Stuffed Shells (Vegan!)

This is one of those "random stuff in my fridge and cabinets" creations that worked out well.

Ingredients:
10 large shell pasta pieces
Half a large container of fresh spinach
Half a lemon
Olive oil
A few cloves of garlic
Salt, coarse ground pepper
Other spices according to your whim (I throw in a pinch of turmeric and cayenne to almost everything these days)

You can obviously up-size this dish if you're cooking for a crowd. Just bear in mind that fresh spinach shrinks a LOT. Next time I do this dish I might even do more spinach; there's room.

Boil water and add shells. They need 10 minutes or so to cook (or just make them according to the package directions or your own preference).

While they are cooking, chop up garlic finely & start it off in a generous splash of olive oil. Heat should be medium-low. Chop your lemon into a few pieces--squirt as much as you can and then toss the lemon pieces into the pan to continue to add flavor.

Once the garlic is browned, add the spinach. Be careful not to overcook--spinach should be a bright dark green when ready so it does not loose its flavor and nutrients. Remove from heat as soon as it looks close to done (it will keep cooking for a little bit off the burner).

Drain shells & spread on a plate. Scoop spinach into shells bit by bit. I did 2 rounds of this so I didn't end up with very uneven filling amounts.

Then, carefully place each shell back into your pan (add a little oil if you need to for non-stickiness) and let it simmer on low for a few minutes to cook the delicious lemon-garlic flavor right into the pasta.

Sprinkle with salt and coarse ground pepper and serve!

Accidental Necco Wafer Iced Tea

So my sister works for a tea importer and as a consequence, I end up taking home delicious and extremely fancy teas every time I visit.  Not coincidentally, I have developed a tradition of making a new fancy iced tea blend every weekend.

Today I sipped my new iced tea for the first time and was surprised to learn I had created something that had a flavor/scent somewhere between that of a Necco Wafer, and that of a Choward's Violet mint.

I'm not sure how I feel about this... uncanny... development.  My taste buds are still getting over the bizarre circumstances but I seem to be enjoying it.

Ingredients

-A bunch of ice

-Hot water

-1 bag Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Spice tea

-1/2 tsp loose Moroccan Mint

-1 tsp loose Buccaneer tea from Serendipitea

-1 tsp loose darjeeling tea

-like 1/4 tsp of Dark ChocolateTea also from Serendipitea (I was finishing off a container)

Put a bunch of ice (I usually use 2 regular ice trays' worth) into a large pitcher.

Steep tea in 4 cups hot water. (I usually just throw it all in loose, and then pour through a strainer once steeped.) Don't steep longer than 5 minutes - that will make it more bitter, not more flavorful.

Pour hot tea into the pitcher with ice and stick immediately in your fridge. It's usually cold enough to drink within a few hours.

This is unsweetened and I don't find it to need sweetener. But if are a sweet tea fan, dissolve sugar in the hot tea (before you pour it over the ice), to your taste. I find that the result is a little better if I steep tea first, and then add sugar.

Potato Garlic Halftime Soup

If, like me, you are ever watching a football game and then see a commercial for some sort of delicious creamy soup and you're like OH NO how can I eat something like that right now...
This soup is for you. Easy to prepare during halftime/commercial breaks.

Ingredients:
3-5 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons whipped butter
1/2 sprig of rosemary if available*
a few shakes of dried thyme
1 cup broth
1 cup milk
1 cup potato flakes (this makes it pretty thick, use less or more depending on desired thickness)
2 oz grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp lemon juice

*dried stuff is OK too; a sprig is just nicer because then you can pull it out after and not be left with branchy stuff in your soup.

Serves 1-2 people.

Chop garlic and start it simmering in butter with the rosemary sprig on very low heat. This way you can leave it until the next commercial.
On the next commercial, add your broth (or bullion and water if that's your fancy.)
On the following commercial, add flakes and then milk. Stir well. Adjust your thickness here with your flake to milk ratio if desired. Then add the grated cheese.
Let simmer, partially covered, until the next commercial break.
Add lemon juice & stir well/quickly so it doesn't interact badly with the milk.
Serve!

SOUP-A-THON 2012: Cheesy Spinach & Tomato Soup

This took me under 30 minutes to make and tastes friggin' awesome.

Ingrdients:
1/2 a pound of fresh spinach
1 tomato, diced
2 cups of bullion (I used Knorr's Vegetarian Vegetable)
1/4 of a red onion, diced
3 oz finely shredded cheddar
1 cup finely shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of fat free milk
Garlic, pepper, thyme
1-3 tablespoons of lemon juice (to taste)

Get your broth/bullion in a medium pot, on medium-low on a burner so it will be ready to go.
Wash and chop your spinach into smallish pieces. Also dice your onion.
Add spinach and onion to pot.
Add cheese to pot, stirring quite a bit so it doesn't glob up.
Add lemon juice to pot.
Add spices.
Add milk to pot, again stirring quite a bit.

Let simmer until cheese is all melted in. Your broth should be a nice buttery yellow color.

Add your diced tomato at the end.  Mix in.

Serve!

Makes about 4 servings and each serving is 195 calories. Booyah!

SOUP-A-THON 2012: Avocado and Tomato Soup

How have I never made avocado soup before this day? I don't know what my problem is.

Serves 1-2.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
2 cups of broth (I used Knorr's Vegetarian Vegetable bullion)
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
half a long hot pepper (or 1 jalapeno, or whatever you feel is right), chopped finely
1 tomato, diced
1/3 of a medium red onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
Black pepper & garlic powder and/or any other spices you may wish to use
Olive oil

Coat the bottom of a medium pot in olive oil.  Chop your garlic finely and start it simmering. The goal is to let it get just a little brown, then turn the heat down or remove it from heat so it doesn't burn.

Add your hot pepper and onions. Let them cook a little bit. If you don't want this spicey nix the pepper. The more the hot pepper simmers in the oil the hotter it will be, so allow that to guide when you add it and how long you let the simmering go.  Add your spices in here.

Remove from heat when you feel your onions and pepper are cooked enough (I like my onions a little raw but I realize not everybody does).

Peel your avocado and remove the pit, and put the avocado into a blender with your lemon juice and broth. Note: if you just made the broth, you should wait until it is warm not hot.  Blend until these things are nicely pureed, then pour this mixture into your pot with the onions, pepper, garlic and oil.  Also, add your chopped tomato.

While stirring, heat until hot but don't let the soup boil. Apparently avocado can separate and get not good.  So don't do that.  Just heat until it is eating temperature.

Serve!

Possible awesome garnishes: cilantro, sour cream, some kind of nice latin american cheese...

Soul-chinnis with Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce

This entire recipe is under 200 calories, really simple and quick, and tastes awesome.  The zuchinnis are kind of hot and hearty and the dipping sauce has this very nice cooling effect because of the red pepper and cilantro. Serve it as an appetizer for 2-4 people or do what I did and eat the whole thing for dinner! (I threw in a side salad and an english muffin to make it a whole meal.)

Roasted Red Pepper Dipping Sauce:

There used to be this amazing place in Brooklyn called Aunt Suzy's, and they served every table bread and butter with this amazing red pepper dipping sauce. They closed last year and I have been mourning that amazing sauce ever since.  Anyway, this sauce isn't exactly the same but it does have that nice roasted red pepper zing.

Ingredients

1 red pepper

1 small tomato

a small bunch of cilantro

splash of shiraz

Roasting a Red Pepper:

Roasting a red pepper is really easy but takes time in the oven, so start this about an hour before you plan to actually cook everything else. You can brush the pepper with oil but I usually don't (why add calories?) and I'm still quite happy with how it comes out. Basically, preheat your oven to about 450-500 degrees, stick your pepper on some foil or a baking sheet, stick it in there and walk away. Check periodically. When a spot turns black, turn it. When the whole thing is mostly black, take it out (carefully!), put it in a bowl and cover the bowl with saran wrap. Leave it for 10-20 minutes. Then you will be able to easily peel off the skin and get the seed/stem out when it is cool enough to touch.

Once your red pepper is roasted, throw it, and a tomato (chop the tomato up into big pieces), and your cilantro, and your shiraz, into a blender. Then blend until it's a good consistency. You're done.

Soul-chinnis:

Ingredients

1 large zuchinni

1 tsp whipped butter

1 tsp Jamaican soul seasoning

dash pepper, dash thyme, dash paprika

Peel & julienne your zuchinni. Put a wok* on medium-high heat and melt the butter in it, spreading it around to cover as much surface area as possible. Add your zuchinnis, then your spices, then mix around vigorously with a spatula. 

This does not take long to cook. When the skinniest zuchinnis start getting floppy and translucent, you're done.

And there you have it!

*If you don't have a wok, I'm sad for you. You can use a frying pan. Or go to ikea and buy a wok for $20.

Microwaved Baked Potato Pizza With Tarragon

So, I don't have a stove! I can't really say what's wrong with it but it won't turn on and it's a really old gas stove so I'm leaving it to a questionable expert (my super) to examine it rather than risk burning my new apartment down.

I'm someone who really enjoys cooking awesome food despite unexpected limitations, so today I decided I would have toaster oven bagel pizza for dinner. But! My bagels went unexpectedly stale (too stale even for toasty resurrection).  And thus was born...

Microwaved Baked Potato Pizza With Tarragon


Serves: 1
Calories: 400 (this may vary depending on potato size and cheese saturation level)
Ingredients:
1 potato
Handful of Grape Tomatoes
Handful of Shredded Cheese (I used Sargento's Artisan Blend of Mozzarella and Smoked Provolone)
Small (a little goes a long way!) bunch of fresh tarragon
1 tbsp Butter
Lemon Juice
1 clove garlic

Start by microwaving your potato. Wash it and POKE HOLES IN IT FIRST! to avoid disappointing results like in-microwave explosion. Use a fork and poke deeply. Different potatoes take different amounts of time to bake in a microwave; if you feel uncertain start with 4 minutes and go from there.

While your potato is microwaving, chop up your garlic and tarragon very finely. Put them into a mug. Add lemon juice--just enough to sort of generously coat/cover your garlic and tarragon. Add a dollop of butter. Set aside.

Slice or chop up your grape tomatoes as you see fit.

When your potato is done, microwave your mug of butter, lemon juice, garlic and tarragon for 30 seconds or until butter is melted.

Cut your potato into quarters and fluff it a bit. Pour half the butter mixture over it. Then dump your tomatoes on top of it and then your cheese. Pour the rest of the butter mixture over it. Microwave this for 20-30 seconds.

Ta-da! Microwaved amazingness.

I ate this with a glass of cheap Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, which I feel goes fabulously with anything even vaguely Italian.

Fried Portabello Caps

Things you will need!

Portabello mushroom caps (however many you & your food-eaters desire)

1/2 a small glass of red wine

olive oil

garlic, rosemary, cayenne pepper, black pepper

Wash your portabello caps!

Drizzle a little olive oil into a frying pan. Put your mushroom caps in the pan, top up. Shake your spices upon them. (You know by now I'm into being liberal with spices. Careful with the cayenne, it'll get hot fast since you're frying.) Drizzle a little more olive oil on top of them and pour half your wine over them. Medium-low heat, cover them. After a little while, turn them over and pour the rest of your wine inside them. When they seem done (smaller, darker, softer), spatula them out.

You can just eat these as a main thing, like a steak, with some salad and potatoes or something. Or, toss them with some pasta and garlic and oil. Or, throw them into your lunchtime salad. Or do all of these things.

Also, this recipe can be easily modified as an awesome vegan barbecue option. Season them exactly the same way, wrap in aluminum foil (shiny side OUT; aluminum's not the best for you and it's safer that way), throw on the grill and turn over now and again.

Fancied Up Fake Potatoes (Oregano Experiment #1)

As some of you know, I'm growing herbs and a few other things this summer.  It's pretty exciting business, and every so often I send an excited text to a friend like "My cilantro is bolting!" or "My oregano thinks it owns the world!" or "Peppers are growing, peppers are growing!"

Anyway, my oregano DOES think it owns the world, and despite being Italian, I kinda missed the bus on oregano.  Basil has always been the herb of choice for my family.  But, so, I've got all this oregano and I decided it was time for experimentation.

This experiment went well and will satisfy you folks who have been asking for Quick and Easy.

Ingredients:

-Potato Flakes 

-Milk

-Water

-Butter

-a handful of fresh oregano 

-a clove or two of garlic

-salt and pepper.

Here's your story: the potato flake package can tell you how to build mashed potatoes out of them.  Most types involve first microwaving water-and-or-milk and then adding flakes.  This is the kind you need.

Get your bowl ready.  Put in your water-and-or-milk.  Then chop up a clove of garlic.  Very small!  The only cooking this garlic is getting is in the two minutes in the microwave, so it will have a zing.  You want very small pieces unless you're a garlic fiend like me, so it doesn't shock your delicate sensibilities.

Drop in the clove of garlic.  And take your fresh oregano and rip it up some with your fingers: this releases the flavory juiceness*.  Also, you probably don't want to be getting entire leaves in your potatoes, so rip it up nice and small.  Drop that into the bowl as well.

Then just prepare your potatoes according to the directions on your Potato Flake Package!  I recommend the addition of copious amounts of butter, salt, and pepper, because that's how I roll.

*Flavory juiceness: it's an industry term.