Category: Eggs

Vegetarian Dinner and Whipped Cream

12/1/2014

Requested by the carnivores. Twice!

There has been a lot of cooking/experimenting going on. However, not a lot of blogging, so here's the first set of a backlog of recipes, starting with a new one and an update.

Still winding my way through Jerusalem cookbook and sabih has emerged as a #MeatlessOneDay winner.

The only challenging ingredient here is getting Zhoug (the spicy green stuff you see in the photo at left), but most Middle Eastern or Mediterranean grocery stores will carry it in the refrigerated section.

If you buy hummus and fresh pita from the Falafel Stop in Sunnyvale, you can get it there as well.

Winner Whipped Cream
Quite awhile ago, I had experimented with fruit-flavored whipped cream. Let's add eggnog whipped cream to that portfolio too. Yes, indeedy. Click here for the whole set.

Today is the first day of the Feeding My Ohana Virtual Food Drive to benefit Second Harvest.
Click here and Feeding My Ohana will match donations once again.

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What's Cooking This Week--Hello Oven

10/20/2014

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It FINALLY rained! OK, so it wasn't the downpour, but in a drought, we'll take anything we can get. Instead of singin' in the rain, I went jogging in the drizzle.

The ever-so-slight return of rain and of cooler weather means that I can use the oven for dinners at long last and transition to 'cold' fall/winter cooking. (New England ohana--do not mock me!)

Here's what's cooking this week. And let's keep doing our rain jog/dance. We need even more!

Meatless, Oven-using Monday
Kale Chips and Quiche. First kale chips, then quiche. Optimizing the oven and using surplus eggs. Two dozen eggs expiring at about the same time is what happens when husband and wife go grocery shopping separately, and realize that the household needs eggs. Next time fewer eggs, more texting.

Leftovers Tuesday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice and leftover chili, loco moco style, topped with a happy sunnyside-up egg (because we still have eggs!). We had way more chili and rice than people over this weekend.

Furikake salmon and tea rice. Happy Friday!

Oven Wednesday
Huli Huli Chicken (in the oven). This needs to get back into circulation. A double batch of drumsticks for grab-n-go lunches too.

Meatless Thursday
From-scratch Falafel, but I will buy hummus and fresh pita from the Falafel Stop. Their fresh, warm, fluffy pitas are well worth the trip, but make sure you eat them on the same day. No preservatives.

Fast Fish on Friday
Furikake salmon with chazuke, kim chee. Perhaps I will toss together a spinach and pear salad too.

Have a good week all!

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What's Cooking This Week--Light on Meat

3/19/2013

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Spring in San Francisco

The fact that it's Tuesday means that I had a GREAT weekend in San Francisco. How appropriate that on Saint Patrick's Day, I learned where Irish coffee was first served in the US. With apologies for the delay, here's what is cooking in this house this week.

Clean-out-the-Fridge Monday
Kalua pig for fried rice, a variation on a theme. Leftover Kalua pig was the meat-flavoring agent for fried rice. In this case, it's important to take a light touch on shoyu and oyster sauce because kalua pig is salty. With a side of kim chee!

Meatless Tuesday
Butternut Squash Soup, Round 2. The first time the immersion mixer was lots of fun, but the soup required lots of doctoring and still wasn't quite right. Trying again, this time with coconut milk, ginger and lime juice.

When chickens are productive, make quiche.

Wednesday
Quiche. A friend of mine at work has chickens at home, doing what they do best. Farm-fresh eggs this week!

One classic bacon with onions with Swiss and Gruyere and one vegggie with red peppers, zukes, onions, artichoke hearts and Colby/Jack cheese

Meatless Thursday
Farfalle with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli. Typically my husband makes this with chicken, but we'll try meatless this time.

Friday
Pasta with clams, corn, chorizo and tomatoes from Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. From a diner in Rhode Island. I might swap soy-rizo here too.

Experiment in Salad
Sometime this week, I'm trying a butter lettuce, grapefruit, walnut and feta salad. The original recipe is in this month's issue of Cooking Light. The directions say to peel a grapefruit--how do you even do that?!

We'll find out and report back!

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What's Cooking This Week--Vote!

11/5/2012

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Google "vote" to find your polling place

Even if it means crock-pot, freezer or takeout, make sure you get out and vote on Tuesday. I have already exercised my privilege as an American and voted and you should too. Whatever your politics, we live in an amazing and diverse country.

Thank you also to those who have already donated $980 to the Feeding My Ohana Virtual Food Drive on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank. The hardworking people at Second Harvest tell me they update results manually, so matching funds and weekend donations post slightly more slowly. Thank you to all who have donated thus far!

With that, here's what's cooking this week.

Mmm, BBQ sliders.

Monday
Ground chicken with Chinese long beans stir-fried with black bean sauce and sriracha sauce. Bok choy with oyster sauce and rice. College kids: you don't need a recipe for this, just wing it.

Tuesday--Get out and Vote!
Crock pot BBQ sliders. Sandwiches to watch the election results. And Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey, Phish Phood, and Imagine Whirled Peace, which is on sale this week. A low-maintenance dinner so we can de-construct election results whilst eating ice cream from the carton.

Wednesday
Somen salad. As you enjoy 80 degrees in November in California, please keep our 'back East' ohana in your thoughts.

Thursday
Thai Chicken Curry and rice. Cauliflower is coming into season!

Friday
Weekday Lasagne. A nice way to end the week.

Extras
Yoplait coconut yogurt, which I have for lunch with
Home-assembled trail mix: sesame sticks, cashews and dried raspberries
Perfectly hard-boiled eggs
Roasted tomatoes, with some late-season heirloom German Stripes I got at the Farmers' Market yesterday.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Stay Dry and Safe!

10/29/2012

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Be safe. The ocean always wins.

What a crazy natural disaster few days. The tsunami alert for my Feeding My Ohana-ohana in Hawaii has passed. To our Feeding My Ohana-ohana on the Northeast, stay safe and dry.

Sandy looks like a bad one, so please take care!

Make sure you have lots of water, canned goods like tomato sauce, black beans and tuna, bread, peanut butter, batteries, band aids and gas for your cars and grill.　Out west, here's what's cooking.

Monday
Korean Egg Meat, using fish. I LOVE egg meat, but since my son doesn't eat cow, I'm using Dover sole. Fish jun is standard for Korean restaurants in Hawaii, so I think it should work, and cooking will be much faster than beef.

A proper Monday meal with musubi, kim chee, kale chips and a new kochojang dipping sauce.

Liking the sound of this already!

Meatless Tuesday
Sweet potato curry. This seems like a very fall kind of dish.

Wednesday--Happy Halloween!
Kamaboko Sandwiches. A childhood favorite of mine that I'm foisting upon my children. They can decide if it's a trick or treat. Not nearly as strange as the kimchee/peanut butter or sardine/onion sandwiches I've also liked and eaten as a kid.

Thursday
Christine's Clam Chowder. Feeding My Ohana's Virtual Food Drive kick-off day. We will be matching donations again this year.

Friday
Seared Furikake Ahi Salad. Something new and light to go with Halloween candy.

Extras from the bakery
Butterscotch pumpkin bread
Banana-Nutella bread, from last month's issue of Cooking Light

Eat Well. Be Well. Stay Safe!!

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What's Cooking This Week--Cooking for Rain

10/22/2012

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Monday Night Tacos!

Today was the first rain of the season. Time to transition to soup/oven weather. Three of this week's meals are good 'stock-up' meals. Eat 1. Freeze 1. Here's what's cooking for the shorter days.

Monday
Tacos with no seasoning packets. Here is what is in one of those spice packets: yellow corn flour, salt, maltodextrin, paprika, spices, modified cornstarch, sugar, garlic powder, citric acid, autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavor, Caramel Color (sulfites).

JUST SAY NO to those sodium-saturated (430mg) spice packets. Go with fresh onion, cumin, chili powder, bay leaves, cayenne peper and fresh garlic.

おいしい！好きな　食べ物

Tuesday
Number 1 Udon. Char siu was on sale at Marukai, and bok choy is coming into season now that it's cooler.

Wednesday
Japanese Chicken Curry. A double-batch for dinner and freezer.

Thursday
Double down on Chili and a fresh Quinoa Salad, the go-to option for the choir potluck.

Friday
Corn Chowder. This was major comfort food when the weather got 'cold' In Hawaii, meaning the low 70s. Trying a new version based on Tyler Florence and the Barefoot Contessa, two of my favorite cooking references. Trying to say no to canned cream corn.

Saturday
Quiche. Make two save one for later!

Reminder
Feeding My Ohana's Virtual Food Drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank will start November 1st, and we will again be matching donations.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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A Virtual Care Package for a College Kid

9/24/2012

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Brown University, Providence, RI

This post is dedicated to all college kids (and a few in particular) who are now living the dream of off-campus apartment living.

Ah, yes. The freedom of selecting exactly what you want to eat. No more mass-produced, pre-selected dorm food to be eaten at specified times.

The reality of which quickly becomes, "Oh (appropriate college-level profanity here)!? I have to cook! And wash dishes!? And buy food?! Hello, Mom!?"

A friend of mine has a child is in just such a predicament, with two vegetarian roomies thrown in, just for some added fun.

Do not despair, or worse yet, whine. Armed with a salad spinner, rice cooker, a non stick pan, a non-stick spatula and a baking sheet, you will neither starve nor burn through your parents' money eating out.

Feeding Your Ohana 101: Staples you should always try to have in-house

Spices & Seasoners
Garlic. This makes everything better
Coarse sea salt. Say no to refined salt
Black pepper. The kind you can grind on your own
Olive oil. For general-purpose cooking
Canola oil. For when you decide to fry something, and you will
Shoyu (soy sauce). Low-sodium, green label Kikkoman is my favorite
Roasted sesame seed oil. Dynasty or Kadoya brand
Oyster sauce
Sriracha sauce. Look for the rooster on the label. He is your friend.
White vinegar. Buy a gallon and you can also use it to clean your floors. When you clean them.
Balsamic vinegar. Impress your friends
Brown sugar. For homemade teriyaki sauce
White sugar. If you bake. A mom can dream!

Optional
Cooking sherry and ginger

Generally non-perishable items
Onions. Technically perishable, but they last a long time and you will use them a lot
Rice. White or brown short grain, Koda Farms if you can
Quinoa.That you can cook in your rice cooker
"Noodley" type pasta like linguine
"Shaped" pasta like penne, farfalle, or elbows
Nuts. Pine nuts, walnuts and cashews
Dried cranberries. Good to toss into salads
Bread. Add cheese and it's a sandwich

Perishable Items--stored in the fridge
Eggs
Real butter
Cheese. Parmesan and your favorite for sandwiches
Yogurt
Firm tofu. If you and your roomies can make peace with it
A bottle each of lime and lemon juice. Fresh are always preferable, but these are good to have on standby

What you can make with the above supplies plus a trip to the grocery store for fresh produce.

Vegetarian
Bri's Butternut Squash
Easy Roasted Asparagus
Greek Salad
Onzo Salad
Quick Pasta Salad
Quinoa Salad
Roasted Tomatoes, so that you can make Panini
Spaghetti Sauce II--Jars
Spaghetti Sauce Pizza
Simple Spaghetti
Tofu Steaks

Not Vegetarian
Banish the Bottle Teriyaki Chicken
From Scratch Pork Loin
Get a Costco Chicken (or two!)
Laurie's Chicken Salad Sandwiches

These can be vegetarian by leaving out the animals:
Leftover Mauna Lani Chicken Pasta Salad
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice
Any Kine Quiche

So whether you are Lions, Tigers or any-type-except-Golden-Bears,

Cardinal, Crimson or Big Red--enjoy college.

Remember that if you have aluminum foil and an iron, you can make grilled cheese, and that snow banks are excellent temporary coolers.

Eat Well. Be Well.

Study Hard. Play hard, but not too hard. After all, I'm still a mom!

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What Was (Barely) Cooking Last Week

9/17/2012

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Hmm. When last I posted, I deliriously anticipated a speedy return to cooking after a couple of days. My kids cycled through this cold after a few days, why not me too? Then the reality of a middle-aged body with bad sinuses made itself very apparent.

One week later and still sniffling.

I've never been a fan of starving a cold or anything else, so we did not starve last week, thanks to takeout and my truly awesome husband. I've chose spicing out a cold and so here's what we ate last week.

Starve a cold? Nope.

Monday
Indian Pizza from Pizza Pub. Yes, we used a ValPak flyer, but it turned out pretty well. Indian pizza is more like putting the spicy Indian chicken dish of your choice (tandoori, tikka masala, paneer or butter) on a flat naan bread-like crust with onions, hot peppers and a little cheese. Not so much pizza as flatbread, with a nice differentiated crunch from both crust and veggies. Plus, it was temperature and spicy hot, just what stuffy noses needed. We will definitely try this again, and not just when we are sick.

Tuesday
Oyako donburi. Almost chicken soup and pure comfort.

The pork loin magic sauce

Wednesday
From-scratch Grilled Pork Loin. This is becoming a good go-to meal for especially hectic days. Start-to-finish in about 45 minutes, including marinating time.

Thursday
Kalua pig and Kim chee fried rice. We had leftover kalua pig, snow peas, shredded carrots and rice. Add an onion and kim chee for another meal of spicy comfort food.

Friday
Sandwiches from Ike's Lair, Cupertino. IF hockey season ever gets started, this will likely replace our beloved Togo's. Gasp, there I said it. Why? A great value, a lot of vegetarian and vegan sandwiches, and seriously amazing Dutch crunch bread. Our favorites, #19 Home for Thanksgiving: turkey with Havarti, cranberry sauce and sriacha; Steve Jobs: eggplant with pesto and provolone and #6 Hot Momma Huda: Halal chicken, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, ranch and provolone. Four sandwiches will run about $40, but you will have enough for at least two meals.

I would also like to thank the cyber-ohana for all of your kind words and cold remedy suggestions! Hearing from you all was good medicine indeed. I am on the mend!

Eat Well. Be Well.

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What's Cooking This Week--Back to School

8/27/2012

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The kids are back in school, and soccer, piano and carpool are starting up again. So dinner has a decidedly academic theme. Here's what's cooking at our house this week.

Monday
Home Ec Review Assignment #1. A hodge-podge I've made before called "Philly stir-fry." For the entire family, I used only one Cajun and one Sheboygan sausage from the newly re-opened Dittmer's in Mountain View, CA. I sliced the sausages very thinly and then stir-fried them with onions, mushrooms and green and yellow peppers. This way, the sausages are really a flavoring agent, rather then the centerpiece of the meal. The children eat a lot of veggies this way. We ate it over rice and a bit of sriracha sauce. Leftovers will be eaten Philly cheesesteak-style in a traditional sandwich roll for lunches. Started at 5:45 pm and eating at 6:30 pm

Tuesday
Science Experiment #1. Egg and chunky tomato sauce and chard topped with bread crumbs and parmesan. I'm working on this as a kind of Italian loco-moco. This is an amalgamation of two recipes, one from Gale Gand's Brunch!, and one from Cooking Light. This could turn out spectacularly or not, but that's the fun of it.

Wednesday
Economics 101. Costco Chicken. I *LOVE* when Feeding My Ohana-ites send me suggestions. Keep 'em coming! This week, I received guidance on how to use Costco chicken bones to make jook (Chinese rice porridge), and this sounds too good to pass up. I may even buy two so that I'll have extra for chicken salad sandwiches and for Friday's Tortilla Soup. 3-4 meals on 2 chickens!

Thursday
Editing Assignment #1. Ginger cilantro fish, possibly with chicken. I'm cleaning out the Greenhouse and will probably transition this page to my Pinterest board. It's time for this one to put up or be purged.

Friday
Economics 202. Chicken Tortilla Soup, with the rest of the Costco chicken.

Extra Credit for the Afternoon Teenager Feeding
Spinach dip, pre-packaged snow peas and baby carrots. I used Knorr's as the starter pack.
Fresh jalapeno/jack cheese tamales from Whole Foods
Crackers and cheddar cheese
Yogurt, nuts and fresh berries
White Cheddar Cheezits, but only because they are on sale
Watermelon
Li-hing pineapple if I can find a good one. My girlfriend made this over the weekend and I need to eat it again.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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Look Before You Cook

3/31/2012

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This week's dinners started out smoothly. I was very excited to have a local source for eggs, so it was ham and egg cups with fresh farm eggs on Monday and a new salad on Tuesday.

Ham and egg cups

New fruit and vegetable salad

In particular, fruit and vegetable salad salad was a hit. The combination of nashi/oranges and a lime dressing make for a very clean and zippy salad. Click here for the recipe.

After that, not so much.

Wednesday's Chicken curry should have been a no-brainer. Chicken, vegetables and either an S&B or Vermont brand curry block. However, sometime before 6:00 pm, definitely before the chicken and vegetables are already cooking in the pot, one should make sure that there is a block of curry in one's house. I missed that step.

At 6:15 pm, ad-hoc chicken soup developed after adding a container each of vegetable and chicken broth, some spices and orzo. By 6:45 pm, it became orzo-risotto. By the end of the night, it would go into a pyrex dish, destined to become a chicken/orzo bake.

Lessons Learned:
1) A block of Japanese curry really is essential for making Japanese curry.
2) Make sure you have it before you start cooking.
3) If you need something to absorb A LOT of liquid, orzo is a very good option.

Guy Fieri made Thursday's turkey/brie puff pastry tarts sound so deceptively simple. I added a few more items and the flavors are definitely all there--turkey, apples, cranberries, a dollop of mustard and brie--in a puff pastry. However, a few construction and quantity issues need to be worked out. They weren't bad and there were no leftovers but that's because teeny-tiny tarts are a a tad insubstantial for two teenagers and two hungry adults.

Lessons Learned:
1) TV is not real life, especially Food Network TV and Hawaii 5-0.
2) Some brie does not melt, even after 30 minutes at 400 degrees. At all. Best to find a soft version.
3) "Tart" no matter how much the yield, shouldn't be the main course of dinner.

Friday's dinner was postponed so we can eat the orzo before it threatens further expansion.

Eat Well. Be Well.

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<<Previous

Vegetarian Dinner and Whipped Cream

What's Cooking This Week--Hello Oven

What's Cooking This Week--Light on Meat

What's Cooking This Week--Vote!

What's Cooking This Week--Stay Dry and Safe!

What's Cooking This Week--Cooking for Rain

A Virtual Care Package for a College Kid

What Was (Barely) Cooking Last Week

What's Cooking This Week--Back to School

Look Before You Cook

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