Seasoned Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Mustard Dipping Sauce

I heart sweet potatoes. Duh.

I cut up 2 giant sweet potatoes and split them into 3 groups. I added a touch of olive oil to all 3 and then seasoned them differently. One group got just salt and pepper, one got "Mexican Style Chili Powder" (chili powder with cumin), and one got rosemary, greatest spice ever. I baked them for 30-40 minutes on 400, refusing to flip them since I was feeling defiant. And I went to great lengths to keep the flavors from mingling.




I scraped a few very small chunks out of the frozen chipotle peppers in my freezer (orginally canned chipotles in adobo), nuked them for 10 seconds, then added a tablespoon or two of regular mustard. Simple. I will not dip the rosemary fries in the mustard for no real reason.










They are amazing. Duh.

Not Your Mama Herman's Roni Rolls

In college Nick Herman's mom, Mama Herman, would make amazing roni rolls. They were so simple and so delicious, especially after single-handedly consuming 3 gallons of cheap beer. I wanted some pizza-type of food today since it's another calorie-free weekend (thanks LBD!), so I dreamt up this concoction. Note: there is no pepperoni in my rolls, nor is there anything resembling pepperoni. So, basically, they aren't roni rolls at all. And as for the pizza theme, there isn't even any tomato anything near these.

Mama Herman would start with store bought pizza dough. But since I'm lazy and not feeling well, I thought I'd whip up my own dough that I seem to be perfecting lately. I followed my usual recipe (search the archives under pizza) but added Italian herbs (surprised?) and chopped onion. If I hadn't finished off the beer last night, I would have made my herbed onion beer bread instead. I rolled the dough in to 8 large balls and then realized they were too large. So I took half of each ball, flattened it out by hand (probably would have been easier with the rolling pin, but I can't figure out how to use it), and added a chunk each of mozarella vegan cheese and cheddar vegan cheese. I rolled up, placed on cookie sheet, and baked on 375 until it looked done on the outside.

While it was cooking, I added some sea salt to 2 small cloves of minced garlic and used the back of my knife to make it into a quasi garlic paste. I put it in my lovely ramekin and added a tablespoon or two of olive oil. This is the perfect dipping sauce for anything. And the longer it sits out, the better it gets. Not that I've left it out all day and eaten it later...

Just before they were done, I used a spoon to spread some garlic olive oil atop the rolls. Who needs a brush...Anyway, I let them cook a few more minutes and took them out. The chese was oozing out and it was all I could do not to lick the pan. Then when I took off the two breadsticks I made with the last bit of dough, I remembered that I forgot (of course) to add salt to the dough. So I quickly salted the tops of my rolls and put them in the oven for a minute .

It's sort of a good thing that I bit into one and the cheese oozed all over me. Because I had to go back to the kitchen to get a bib and remembered I'd left the other tray of them in the oven. Oops. At least I turned the oven off. Don't worry, they didn't burn and even if they did, I'd scarf them down anyway.

I have learned today what food porn is. Not only is there cheesy goo oozing all over me (it's even in my hair) as I eat a completely delicious treat, but I'm also watching my secret boyfriend, Michael Chiarello on the Food Network. It's pure filthy goodness and I now need to go shower.

Oh, and I just noticed cheese on the wall.

More Soup for Me

Since I woke up with a scratchy throat that morphed into a nice little cough by the evening, I decided I need to make some soup for dinner. Yesterday I received a fantastic present of Brussels sprouts and thought I could make a soup with them. One time I steamed them, threw them in the blender with some veggie broth, and added some pan-fried sprouts for a nice, hearty soup. This time, however, I decided to do something slightly different.

I started off by cooking 3 small onions and 4 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Then I added some water and .5 cup of barley. After it cooked about 15 minutes, I added 1 cube of vegan vegetable buillion and some whole Brussels sprouts. I let it cook until the sprouts were done. And it really hit the spot.

I also needed to use up the rest of the firm tofu that was in my fridge. I cut it into 2 inch by 1 inch pieces and then dipped it in some concotion I came up with. I added about .75 cup of pinto beans, a giant squirt of mustard, some leftover canned tomatoes from my pizza, Mexican-style chili powder, and a little olive oil together and blended until smooth. I rolled (dreged?) the tofu in the dip (which would make an excellent dip on it's own) and then rolled it in finely crushed Cheerios. I started crushing the little o's by hand, but that was way too much work, so then I put them in a random paper lunch bag I had, but they broke it, so I resorted to using the bottom of the mustard container to finely crush them. I then baked for 30 minutes or so on 400 and when the tops weren't brown like I wanted, I turned on the broiler until they were nice and crispy.

As always, I forgot any salt or pepper. And I think it would have been better if I'd thought about it in advance and soaked the tofu in my bean mixture for awhile. But, they were neat and I plan to try to make them again, next time with extra firm tofu and a nice long soak. Finally, a new use for Cheerios.

Super Bowl Funday

Cooking for other people terrifies me. For Thanksgiving my parents came to visit me (the way to do it, by the way) and I cooked a bunch of snacky type of foods before they got here. I had stuffing balls, mini-sweetpotato and meat pies in phyllo dough, apple phyllo things, and cranberry bread. I decided to cook a whole bunch of food and do a round of testing before making the real stuff for my parents. And who better to be my taste testers than friends and coworkers. When it came down to it, I literally couldn't be in the room when my coworkers tried it and I couldn't even talk to them about it. My heart started racing, I was sweating, and I fled the room. So, the thought of cooking for other people always sounds fun in the beginning, but when the time comes I get really nervous and wonder why I signed up to do it in the first place.

I chose to make 2 tasty, healthy recipes, especially after the hostess mentioned that she's avoiding processed foods this month. I made Bobby Flay's lentil and split pea dip, pretty much following the dip recipe as written, but without actually measuring things. You can't have dip without something to dip with, so I dug out the package of whole wheat multi-grain tortillas with flax seeds, used a pizza cutter (how do I have one?) to cut them into triangles, sprayed them with olive oil fake Pam, and put them on a cookie sheet in a 400ish degree oven until toasty.

I also made Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from a recipe on Susan V's FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog. I made these quiches once before but didn't have the majority of the ingredients. But they were so tasty I decided to try again. This time I made them with onions, garlic, green and yellow bell pepper, and spinach. I also added more dried rosemary than the recipe calls for. The first time I made them, I had a tiny bit of trouble getting them out of the pan, but this time I just dumped the muffin pan over and beat the bottoms of the cups- it worked flawlessly. Luckily I was busy messing with the lentil and split pea dip that I didn't hover over them and scarf them all down the minute they came out of the oven. I guess I forgot to mention that when I dumped the quiches out of the pan, one fell on the floor. Yeah, I picked it up and ate around the part that touched the ground. It was 10 times better than the first time I made them.

How'd they work out? No one mentioned much about the dip, but I wasn't feeling it anyway. The quiche reaction was mixed- some people had some texture problems. And I didn't eat that bad, probably because I was stuffed from my Cauliflower Faux Gratin from earlier. However, when I got home I got in a competitive eating contest...with myself.