The Makeshift Cook

Last weekend, the Brit asked me where we should go to get lunch and I said "somewhere where I can get a crapload of salads." My ideal refrigerator would be filled with combinations of beans and grains, veggies and vinaigrettes, fruits and nuts, olives and salty cheeses, and all I would have to do is scoop a bit of each one out onto a plate for instant meal mania. Unfortunately, sigh, I will only have that ideal fridge if I spend a bunch of money at the Whole Foods deli or make everything myself.



When I'm in the mood to make everything myself, this salad recipe from Anger Burger (which is a great read apart from the food stuff) is just the kind of thing I want to make. Hearty, light, tangy, full of delicious cilantro--and I'll just say right now that if you're cilantro-averse, move along right now; there's nothing for you here.



Sometime I'll make this exactly as the recipe says, but this time I used what I had on hand (which is, after all, what this blog is about). Here are my mods for this time around:

• In the absence of red peppers I used about a cup of grape tomatoes and a big shredded carrot. I realize they are not at all the same thing, but they did add a bit of sweetness and crunch.
  
• And I was scraping the bottom of my olive oil supply, so there's only 2/3 c in the dressing, which is just fine.
  
• I used agave instead of honey, and the dressing is just a bit too sweet for my taste, so I'm guessing I can cut down on the sweetener.
• I finished it with a squeeze of lime.
• And I'm eating it with lettuce, because our CSA started last Wednesday and I now feel intense pressure to eat a lot of greens. I think this particular variety is called "Frizzy Headed Drunken Woman," so I'm happy to eat it.
  

A few weeks ago, I made this Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust and was very pleased with the way it turned out. It's an easy recipe, and the dough is easy to handle--rolls out evenly, stretches without falling apart, etc. I made one batch and we had pizza two nights in a row.


With caramelized onions, braised kale, rehydrated mushrooms, gorgonzola. A bit out of control.

We also had hearty little sweet rolls made out of the same dough one morning. I rolled out the leftover dough into a rectangle, dotted it with butter, and sprinkled on cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, rehydrated and chopped apricots, and slivered almonds. Then I rolled it up like a rug, sliced into inch-wide pieces, and baked at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Not too sweet, and very easy to grab on the way to your next Saturday morning chore. Seriously, I ate about 10 of them that day. But that also means I did a lot of chores.

My ongoing quest to be a better meal planner and to make as much from scratch as possible involves virtuous things like loading the new freezer with lumps of this pizza dough. I haven't done it yet, but I have high hopes.

There is a gathering of the ladies tonight, and the Buckeyes a la Kickpleat I made for the clothing swap a few weeks ago were specifically requested. I love these particular ladies, so I am willing to do a bit of manual labor to deliver the treats they desire. However, I was low on crunchy peanut butter and only have Kashi Go Lean cereal, and wanted to avoid making a special grocery store run, since I feel like I'm constantly food shopping. AND I made another batch of almond milk today and have all of this nut pulp (another hilarious nut-related phrase) left over. There was also some date soaking water, which is sweet and syrupy, and that needed to be used up. So I decided to combine all of my seeming problems into a single solution.

I'm glass half-full, it's true.

I don't recommend making this recipe modification I'm about to drop on you unless you've just made some almond milk and have a bunch of ground up, squeezed out almond stuff left over. Or I suppose you could pulse your own almonds into meal status, but I can think of better things to do with almonds. I spread the nut pulp out on a sheet and dried it out in the oven at the lowest setting for about an hour before adding it to the mixture.

I also cut the amount of sugar by more than half, and that definitely affects the texture. I found that I needed something to soak up all the delicious fat, so I chucked in some oat bran and coconut. I'd probably skip the coconut if I do this again. It really starts to make this taste aggressively like a healthy treat.

ALSO, I had some chocolate problems. My little chips melted just fine, but the chocolate was so thick I knew I was going to run out. So I tried to thin it with soymilk and the chocolate seized up and became unmeltable. I ended up laying a veneer of it on top of the balls, which was actually far less messy than the dip/roll technique. It tasted exactly the same--it just wasn't glossy.

Overall, an experiment with mixed results. But here's the recipe anyway.

Chocolate Salty Balls with Almond Meal
1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter, room temperature
1/3 cup Earth Balance, ditto
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons date soaking water, if you happen to have any--otherwise just skip or add more powdered sugar to taste
1 cup Kashi Go Lean cereal, crunched up so that the long twiggy bits are nice and small
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups melted semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 tsp cinnamon (if you like)

Mix everything but the chocolate together in about that order. Roll into 1 inch balls and stick in the freezer to firm up (at least an hour). Melt the chocolate, but don't let it get too hot. Mix in the cinnamon. Dip/roll the balls in the chocolate and line them up on a tray for refreezing. They don't need to stay in the freezer particularly long--just long enough for the chocolate to harden thoroughly.

This version is less Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, more Hippie at a Potluck. It may not be the treat the ladies requested, exactly, but tis still delicious.

I'm experimenting with more raw and vegan foods these days, which has led to some new recipes, which is always good times. Last week I tried making my own Almond Milk from a recipe at happy foody and while I'm not sure I'm a total convert, it was super-easy. I used soaked dates to sweeten and good old fashioned gauze fabric to strain (since I don't own a nutbag, and seriously, how do people not laugh hysterically whenever they think about, mention, or use a nutbag? NUTBAG!!), and it worked just fine.

This almond milk has a thin texture that won't be a surprise to anyone who drinks rice milk, but it is thinner than the commercial almond milk I've tried. This doesn't really bother me. I'm also not sure it's more cost-effective than buying almond milk, at least if you're using organic almonds. But it certainly makes less waste and isn't really a drain on your time, so why not?

So far I'm liking it best on cereal and in smoothies. I haven't figured out yet what to do with the leftover pulp--maybe make a tart crust of some kind? Also, who knew that soaking almonds would make them so juicy and delicious? You might try that (with raw almonds, that is), even if nut milk (ALSO a hilarious phrase) doesn't interest you.

Sorry; I'm immature.

I have been a bad, bad blogger, but I have been cooking! Here are a few recipes I've followed lately, and then eaten:

1. Vegan Nacho Cheese Dip, from the (apparently abandoned) kid-friendly vegan blog, Shmooed Food. We have this non-vegan friend who is always raving about the home fries and vegan nacho cheese at the Triple Rock. I've never tried it myself, but I've been intrigued by the whole idea. The Shmooed Food recipe has gotten a ton of hits and positive comments, so I went for it. The result was pretty good, but didn't set my pants on fire, and believe me, I wasn't expecting it to be CHEESE, so that wasn't the problem. Also, I love nutritional yeast, so that wasn't the problem either. I think I would adjust the spice profile--maybe ease up on the garlic powder and cumin and add adobo instead, or in addition. We ate it with broccoli and cauliflower. Maybe that was my problem: I should have been eating it with chips. Or the aforementioned home fries. Oh heck, I might make it again.
   
2. Balls! To be exact, they were Peanut Butter Buckeyes from my friend Kickpleat's adorable food blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches. I made them for a clothing swap two weeks ago, and they were a HUGE hit. I even used healthy cereal in them (Kashi flakes) and natural peanut butter, so they were, y'know, healthy. Also vegan, incidentally. I sustained an impressive burn while melting the chocolate, the aftereffects of which I am still suffering. The bowl sizzled my middle finger right across my writing callus, and the wound tends to crack every time I bend my finger, thanks to winter dryness. I know, you're welcome. Anyway, I would most CERTAINLY make these again, even though they are messy and my ball-dipping technique (hee) leaves something to be desired. If you're anything like me, you'll call them Chocolate Salty Balls and spend the whole day singing that song from South Park.
   
3. Also from Kickpleat and IN PROGRESS, these vegan Power Cookies are awesome. She sent me some of her first batch in the mail and I ate them for two days straight, to the exclusion of other food. I have eaten two of the first sheetful of my batch, and will probably eat more. The best part so far is that the contents are customizable and I can envision tweaking the recipe any number of ways. I subbed chopped dried apricots and some currents for most of the raisins, and topped off my maple syrup with molasses (didn't have quite enough maple syrup). Also, the cookies can be eaten for breakfast--well, all cookies can be eaten for breakfast. But these have nutritional value!! So you will feel virtuous.