The End of Canned Beans

I used canned. Don't. Skip the walnuts. Obviously.



Oh and I forgot the Parmesan. Silly.
-Amanda

To Start July Off Right

Mushroom Ricotta Orzo !

Baked :)

Bad news: I ate it too quickly to take a photo.


The beauty of going home for the weekend is that I have no choice but to use up goods before I leave.

Boil somewhere from 1/2 to 1 cup of whole wheat orzo for 8ish minutes (al dente). Simultaneously, chop up about 3 cups of mushrooms into little uneven bits, and add them to a frying pan which already has some minced garlic (I used 5-7 cloves) fusing with some olive oil. I let it brown the slightest bit before adding the mushrooms. Oh right! The mushrooms had some fresh thyme in them, and while they were on the frying pan, I added salt, pepper, and half a lemon's-worth of juice. You let that stew in it's juices for a while (10 minutes? Maybe less. Until you get impatient. At that point you scoop half of the mushroom mixture into an oven dish (8 inches by 4 inches, somewhere there). Pile the orzo on top of that. Spread 1/2 pound lowfat ricotta over that (this was VERY difficult. Fingers were involved). Then top it off with the rest of the mushroom. Pop it in the 400F oven, take it out when your house smells good. Gahhhrlic. Have I already recounted my tale of the visit to the Garlic Shoppe? Awful. Don't ever, and I mean EVER, put garlic ice cream in your mouth. Not worth it. The taste will not leave. Noo it's back. Sorry, I have to leave and go ingest antigarlic now. And also check on the oven.


TL;DR put shit in the oven, don't follow my recipes unless you want to get lost.

-Anna

Don't Burn the Nuts!

That's what I did. Not pretty, but still yummy. I left out the green onions and dried cranberries recommended in this recipe. The green onions because ours had gone bad and the cranberries just because I'm not a fan.


Also I would have used less feta. But yummy dressing. I didn't feel like getting my hands garlic-y smelling so I just used a nice dose of garlic salt instead.

I've been waiting so long for this.



-Amanda

Remembering our Fs: Frittata!

We made a pledge in the beginning to make F foods and this is our first frittata! It has eggs, ricotta, mint, garlic, and I added some mushrooms just for texture. I used this guy.

To be honest I think he could have benefited from some Parmesan, but who knows. Also better cold strangely.



-Amanda

Rose Water Madeleines FTW

I did two batches of these so far. Batch 2 was more successful, but I'm holding out for something better. These are from Nigella's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and I think to be a domestic goddess, one needs to learn how to not overbake his/her madeleines.

The picture she has is so powdery and angelic, she also called them rosebud madeleines. Maybe that has something to do with it.



It's a vase, get it?

And, obviously. Maybe it might improve the way I look at these buds? (I think I just triple entendre-ed myself.)
-Amanda

A Moveable Muffin Part 1

Muffin went for a walk this morning! Almost got hit by a car but successfully dogdged the oncoming traffic.


I think it was the sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice that did it.

I also interchanged greek yogurt for the milk and only 1 tablespoon of oil in this . recipe/

And I added cherries too. These have honey and are a bit kiddish in the bran muffin taste department so this is good for them.



-Amanda

The Manouche is in the Oven!

Manouche manouche manouche manouche


For a Lebanese breakfast pizza, it sure makes my articulators happy.

I wanted to try the 'new' place a block away from my house, so I went with my mom, our friend Richard, and Amanda and her daddy. It was a sort of a goodbye dinner, before I went back up for summer school. I could not settle on a single item, then Amanda pointed to the Manouche, which had a little note next to it: "Brain Booster!"

We laughed.

Then I ordered it.

And was not at all disappointed :)

Theirs was greener though, so I wonder if I did something wrong. I definitely strayed from the recipe.



I like manouche a LOT MORE with yogurt and tomato on top. Moisture is key.



linkity link
-Anna