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donuts!

That word means different things to different people. If you ask T about donuts, he’ll think you are talking about spinning the car around in the ice and snow. It’s an event, as in, “I’m going to an empty parking lot to do donuts.” (In Nebraska, they call them cookies. Weird, huh?)

Let’s talk about the other kind of donut, though. The tasty kind. Over the weekend we were killing time while waiting to pick up a pizza. I decided to dive in to the closest thrift store while T and M hung out in the warm car. I usually do a quick loop to check fabric, yarn and craft stuff, and then breeze through kitchen and household items before heading out. This trip I found something really cool in the kitchen section: donut pans! They looked brand new and were $4 for the set. Ever since I got Jessica Seinfeld’s book, I’ve thought about making donuts, but never really took the time to investigate the molds. I snatched them up and made donuts the very next morning.

They are baked, not fried, so they are more like cake donuts. The only modification I made was to use all pumpkin puree instead of half pumpkin/half sweet potato. The first batch turned out a little small. I didn’t know how much they would rise, so I didn’t want to fill them too high. We got a bunch of little, skinny donuts. I used a lot more batter for the second batch and they turned out great. Better than great, actually. My family inhaled them. I’m surprised they left any sugar on the plate!


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mmm… homemade salsa

salsa

Tonight we stayed in and grilled up some salmon for dinner, along with some steamed asparagus and baked potatoes. Our menu seemed a little dull, so I decided to jazz it up a bit with some salsa for the salmon. I imagine this would also taste great on grilled chicken.

Tomato, Basil and Mandarin Orange Salsa
Adjust amounts to taste. I didn’t measure when I made this, so these are approximations.

1 large tomato
1 mandarin orange
10 chopped basil leaves
1 T finely diced onion
1 T white wine vinegar
1/2 t kosher salt

Cut and de-seed the tomato, then dice. Peel the orange. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice off the pith (the white, thread-like stuff attached to the inside of the peel). Then dice, cutting between the sections. Combine the tomato and orange with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes. You can whiz it in a food processor a bit if you don’t want it so chunky. Serve on grilled salmon or chicken. This would also taste good on bruschetta!

salsa

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felted wool pincushion + bread

I’ve been sewing up a lot of pin cushions. They’re so cute and easy to make. Plus, I’ve got lots of small pieces of felted wool just begging to be sewn into something fun. I plan to list more in my shop over the next week or so.

pin cushion

Also, I just know you’ve been dying to know how my bread turned out. Well, it is awesome! It’s the easiest, fastest and best tasting bread I’ve ever made! So far I’ve baked the basic boule and cracked loaf recipes. I think I might make another loaf this evening. I’m hoping to sneak more and more whole wheat flour in this recipe and have this replace T’s sandwich bread.

boule

loaf

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mmm… bread

Normally, I’m not a big bread eater, but lately I’ve become enamored with all kinds of bread-y goodness. Jimmy John’s has the best sub bread ever. I think you can even just buy the bread from them. We haven’t done it yet and hopefully, after my 5-minute-a-day bread, I won’t be tempted (see below).

We’ve also been munching on homemade parathas. Not ours, but Durga’s. She makes the best parathas in the world. While she was here, she whipped up a bunch of pea, potato and cauliflower ones. Our freezer is stocked! Must ration them wisely.

Today I made more of Jessica Seinfeld’s banana bread, but with my own twist. I always double the batch and mess around with the purees. This time I used a can of pumpkin and two bananas. I guess it’s really pumpkin banana bread. Gotta get Super Foods into my family however I can! I baked these in mini tins for easy freezing and they are so cute!

The last bread is the one I’m most excited about: the 5-minute-a-day basic artisan bread recipe. I first read about this book on Amy’s site and put it on my Amazon wish list. A few weeks ago it arrived on my doorstep! (Thanks, Mom!) It was hard not to read the whole thing from cover to cover right away. Then, life got in the way and T went away for the weekend and wait, wasn’t this supposed to be easy? Today I mixed up the dough and the book is right: total work today was about five minutes. Well, ten if you count coloring breaks with Bella. My dough is in the refrigerator and I think I’m going to try my first loaf tonight. Wish me luck!

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channa masala for dummies

We got the coolest Christmas present from Tanuj and Claire—a big basket of all kinds of Indian spices. They’re the pre-mixed kind that come in a box. Monday night I made my basic Channa Masala recipe, but substituted the box spices for my own blend. Yum! This was so easy to make. You could follow the recipe on the back of the box if you want to measure things out in grams or you can follow my basic combination:

Quick & Easy Channa Masala
double if you want to serve as a main course or want leftovers
(Who are we kidding? Of course you want leftovers!)

•one small onion, chopped
•1 1/2 T chana masala spice mix
•one can diced tomatoes
•one can chick peas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
•one baking potato, peeled and chopped

Saute the onions in a little olive oil until they start to brown around the edges. Add the spices and stir them for a minute until they smell fragrant. Add the tomatoes, chick peas and potato. Bring to a boil and then turn to low and simmer until potato is tender.

For a really quick meal, microwave the potato first!

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more bread

The other day while we were iChatting with my parents, M pulled the bananas off of the counter and opened four of them. I’ve been itching to make something out of Deceptively Delicious because I love hiding good-for-you stuff in my cooking, so I decided to try the banana bread. It called for 1 1/2 cups banana and 1/2 cup cauliflower purees. Surprisingly, four bananas doesn’t make a lot of puree and I didn’t have any frozen cauliflower on hand, so I microwaved a sweet potato to make up the difference. I was a little worried being so adventurous, but it was sweet potato, after all.

bread

The bread turned out fabulous. It smelled so good it was hard to wait for it too cool. I immediately ate two slices and could eat more. I’m not planning to tell T about the sweet potato until he tries it. We’ll see if he can tell. This one has 1/2 cup of sugar in it, so he should be happy. (My zucchini bread wasn’t sweet enough for him.) It also has a good bit of whole wheat flour in it. I’ll definitely be making this again, even if I am the only one who eats it.

UPDATE: T and M both LOVE the bread. T wasn’t even phased by the sweet potato. I’ve trained him well.

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mmm… bread

bread

We’ve been doing a lot of bread and muffins around here. M likes to eat bread and I like to hide nutritious stuff in the loaves. It makes me smile when she’s chowing down on a slice bread and ignoring all of her other vegetables because I know it’s filled with zucchini, carrots and yogurt. Yesterday I made mini pumpkin muffins, which I thought she would adore because she loves pumpkin pie, but she’s totally not interested in them. The zucchini bread, however, is a different story. So far we’ve been through three loaves and she still devours it.

I’ve been making the Zucchini Cheddar Quick Bread recipe from The All Purpose Joy of Cooking with some modifications (of course!). No cheese, extra zucchini, two grated carrots, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, olive oil instead of butter and substituting wheat flour for 1/3 of the white flour. I also used dried dill, onion and garlic powder. T was bummed I didn’t make the more traditional zucchini bread recipe. You know the one that’s really sweet and uses 2 1/2 cups of sugar? I’d never get M down for a nap after a slice of that!

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curried lentils + spinach

We’re busy getting ready for my parents’ visit. The basement is finished! All that is left for us to do before they get here is set up the bed. Last night we cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the carpet. It’s amazing how easy new bathrooms are to clean! It’s also amazing how you can vacuum a carpet over and over and still find bits of construction stuff. I think we are going to have to vacuum one more time before M can go downstairs and play.

Nancy requested the Curried Lentils and Spinach recipe. This originally came from somewhere on the Internet, but I modified it beyond recognition. I guess it’s fair to call it a Kundhi original now. Teresa, if you liked the Saag at House of India, you are going to LOVE this!

1-1/2 t curry powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t cayenne
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced (or more if you like garlic!)
1 lb bag of lentils, picked through and rinsed
1 10-oz pkg chopped spinach, thawed
6 cups of water (or chicken/veggie stock)
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

Sauté the onion in a little oil until it starts to get brown around the edges. Add the garlic and sauté another two minutes. Combine with all of the other ingredients except the tomatoes in your crock pot. Cook until lentils are tender. Stir in can of tomatoes and serve with plain yogurt if you like. (I’d like some yogurt, but can’t have it yet. Soon I hope!)

This makes a lot, but freezes really well.

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recipe: chile verde

M is going through a growth spurt right now. It seems like she’s always hungry and ready to nurse. That means I’m always hungry, too—like, amazingly hungry. You know when pregnant women say all they want to do is eat? Well, I never really experienced that because I was so nauseated all the time. I wonder if it is anything like this. Nothing fills me up. I keep making my meals larger and keep adding on snacks and I’m still Always. Hungry.

So, since I’m already hungry, I might as well talk about food and make you hungry, too. Dairy-free experimentation in the kitchen continues, and I’m still in search of dairy-free recipes to fill the Mexican food void in my life right now. Last night I made Chile Verde. I wanted to use pork, because that’s what you usually get in a restaurant, but it was hard to find a recipe that didn’t have chicken. Also, there’s a gazillion different recipes using all kinds of different peppers. I chose this one, but modified it a bit.

Chile Verde

Toss in a roasting pan with a T of olive oil: 5 tomatillos quartered, 1 onion quartered, 3 serranos halved lengthwise and de-seeded, 4 smashed cloves of garlic. Roast at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until tomatillos are soft and the edges of the onions start to turn brown. Meanwhile, cube 1 lb of pork tenderloin and brown in a skillet. Once the veggies are done, transfer to a blender and puree with 1/3 bunch of cilantro. Pour over pork and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Serve with warm tortillas.

The surprising thing about this recipe is that it tasted sweet, but kind of left you feeling a little salty afterward, which is odd because I didn’t add anything else—no spices, no salt, no pepper. Maybe it was the roasted garlic that gave it the sweetness? Are tomatillos sweet?

I’m looking forward to the leftovers tonight and would like to experiment with other variations of this recipe. Anyone have a good one to share?

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fauxburgers

Why do we call them hamburgers when they are made out of beef, not ham? Oh, that’s why. One of the things I’ve been really craving in my beefless state is a hamburger. T and I have planned a few times for me to try beef on a Friday night. That way, if it doesn’t sit well with M, I won’t be home alone all day with a screaming baby. Friday nights come and go and I never seem to have one. I guess once I’m faced with the reality that I can try some beef, I get cold feet. Do I really want this? Is it worth the risk? And what if M is fine? Will I feel silly for eliminating beef from my diet for the past few months? Then I hear the little volcanic sounds her tummy makes in my head and just can’t do it. So, last night I made some turkey burgers.

I’ve never been a fan of turkey burgers, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I used my mom’s burger recipe. (I think it is hers. If not, I have a made up childhood memory of making burgers this way.)

• ground turkey (not ground turkey breast)
• ketchup
• mustard
• dried minced onion
• garlic powder
• worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper

I think the worcestershire sauce was the key to making these taste like regular burgers. Even T said it was hard to tell they were turkey. We grilled them on our indoor grill, and our house smelled a little like a BBQ when we were finished, but it was worth it! We even had fresh slices of ripe tomatoes and a side of fries. I can’t wait to have the leftovers tonight!