Sandwich!

Cheese meets English Muffin meets Onion meets Rosemary meets Pear meets Spinach


My first sandwich here! I remember someone telling me a really bad joke about sandwich in third grade. Something about a witch. Actually I don't think 3rd humor was at this level yet, but I just thought maybe it was about a beach-y witch. Ahah, get it?

Kay, anyhow. I got this idea from here . Except regular onion instead of red. Pear was not ripe, sad story and not grilled, which would have been better. The laughing cow cheese is bomb. I most definitely recommend.

Eat this like this .

-Amanda

Bake Vs. Gratin

I say bake. This seems simple but actually takes quite a bit of leg work. Got it from here.

Swapped the rice for barley, just cause. Didn't feel like buying rosemary, so that go nixed. I must say I do like the idea of using the chard stalks.



Impressive NY Times. I clap for you. Just a little bit.

-Amanda

Boil, Barley, Boom!

This is really simple and made up. Boil water, rinse barley, put barley in water. For about a 1/2 c. of barley in 2 cups of water that took like 35 minutes. Then chop some carrots, de-stem some spinach, chop some scallions, take the leaves off some thyme and sauté with salt and pepper and a little white cooking wine. Add barley and some grated gouda.

And Bam!




-Amanda

I Made a Recipe!

Whole Wheat Penne with Kale, Onion, Thyme
I found a recipe it called for chard. I used kale. It called for feta. I was going to use goat cheese, but then I decided I didn't feel like opening the container. Then I was going to use a combination of ricotta and not fresh Parmesan. The ricotta had expired over a week before, so it was only Parmesan. It called for red onion sauteed in olive oil. I broke our olive oil container last week and only had a white onion, so I sauteed it in vegetable oil. It called for pine nuts. Pine nuts are expensive, so no. It called for oregano, no oregano, so I used thyme. It called for tomato sauce or canned tomatoes, I'm not a fan and didn't feel like opening up a container regardless.



I think this means I made a new recipe(!) So first chop an onion. Sauté it in a tablespoon of oil. It'll cook so fast if it's vegetable and not olive! While this happening heat up a pot of water to cook the pasta. Once the water is ready put in about 4 or 5 handfuls of whole wheat penne. It usually takes like 15 minutes or so to cook fully. While the water is heating/pasta is cooking take a bunch of kale and tear the good leaves off the stalks into bite-size pieces. Gradually add the kale to the onion pan and make sure the heat is pretty low, say simmer. As the vegetables are cooking add some from thyme and salt and pepper. Stir until the kale is nearly soft, but still bright green. Mix together in a bowl with the cooked pasta and add however much Parmesan you like.

It's real.

-Amanda

Forgotten Pizza

We made this a while ago, hopefully Anna will post the quinoa cakes since I didn't get any shots of them. This pizza has a harrowing past. First it was supposed to be grounded by some whole wheat pita bread.
Unfortunately the pita bread had mold on it. We went to Trader Joes though and per Anna's suggestion got whole wheat lavash instead. It turned out a lot better than I think the pita would have--so thin and crispy.

Also originally this was going to be based on a healthy living sort of Martha Stewart recipe of asiago cheese, ricotta, red onion, and mushrooms, a top some sort of whole wheat flat bread. Instead we decided to use leftover spanakopiropita (we've been wrong all this time apparently, spanakopita is just spinach and no feta; however this had ricotta and not feta, so I'm not 100% sure, but anyway) filling. We still grated some of the asiago cheese on top and put a few sliced mushrooms too.



So good. I really want to make this again. Maybe this on a warm summer night?

-Amanda