thanks, edna!

girl, i'm glad you cooked on sunday...
you inspired me!

edna made these delicious little egg roll wrappers that wrapped up spinach, shallots, and goat cheese. yum! luckily, she likes me enough to bring me some. they were tasty!
so i came home tonight, and i played the copycat!
i used wonton wrappers. a 16oz package of frozen chopped spinach (thawed & drained). 4oz of fat free cream cheese. two shallot bulbs. garlic. i blended all of that, sans wonton wrappers, on the pulse on the food processor. i rolled about a tablespoon in the wonton wrapper and rolled it up... just like an eggroll! sprayed that mess with cooking spray, and popped em in the oven at 400* for about fifteen minutes on each side.

now, i'm stuck on thinking of the perfect sauce to go with these delicious little spinach rolls!

it's hot, keep it fresh!

here's a cilantro recipe for you, susan!

black beans & corn.
classic.
i think that this may have been one of my most successful trials at black bean & corn salsa. i used a full can of corn to half a can of rinsed black beans. usually, i put cut up red onions in, but i find that they get too harsh as the salad sits. then, when i eat it, i kill people with my breath. so, to prevent unintentional manslaughter, i left the onions out. i did add chopped fresh green onions (thanks, farmer's market!) and chopped green chiles, and topped it off with the juice of a lime. remember: get yourself a citrus press. it's phenomenal.

*good on top of salad, over chicken or fish. yum!

spring!

it's no secret that i love asparagus! (well, now i do!)
and finally, it has come!
artichoke season is beginning!
no more demanding 5$ each for an artichoke!

i looove spring produce!
(and you should, too!)

strawberry mojito salad!

alas, this one is alcohol free, you boozebags!

seeing as it's strawberry season, there is no better reason to make a strawberry salad. a plain mixed fruit with strawberries salad is boooriiing. so i began thinking...
seeing a picture of those tasty strawberry mojitos that my sister ritualistically makes this time of year, inspired me! strawberries + lime + mint + booze = tasty! let's cut out the booze so we can all keep our day jobs, and viola!
fresh, strawberry salad!
i used about two quarts of strawberries (those little green containers) and the juice of three limes. i have a citrus press, which i love. i highly recommend investing in one. i added a packet of the organic mint leaves, found in the produce section. i threw the mint leaves & the juice of the limes into the food processor. altogether it produced less than a quarter cup of "dressing", if you will. i tossed that with my cut up strawberries and let it sit in the fridge for about a day.

*note: after a couple days, the chopped mint turned. it doesn't taste any different, but it is much less attractive. next time, add the chopped mint and lime as you eat.

beer 2.0

typically, when i drink, i am in no condition to make a list of adjectives to describe what i'm drinking. when i do drink, after the sixth or seventh... or eleventh or twelfth beer... i'm almost incapable of discussing the finer points of a brew...
when it came to this bison brewing honey basil (it's organic!), it was love at first taste! we met on a warm fall afternoon in durham, and it was on draft. personally, i think that this beer on draft is much more impressive than in the bottle.
now, don't get me wrong, should you stumble upon this gem, get it. immediately.
i had whole foods order the honey basil (typically you can find an ample amount of bison's chocolate stout, but no dice on this) and it is perfect spring beer. it's light, and the basil gives the beer a fresh taste, that is so unique on the beer circuit.

i had this for lunch while kayaking on the falls of neuse river in the spring.
perfect!

those aren't noodles!

tricked you!
it's zucchini! woot!
heat, humidity, and sunburn are all terrible things about the summer.
squash, is one of the summer's finer points.
yes, i know. it's not summer yet, but a girl can get excited, can't she?
these tasty little green zucchini were just what i needed to make a faux-sagna!
so many silent letters! and it's still tasty!
despite my anxiety over potentially cutting off a digit, i broke out the mandolin. slicing noodle-thin strips of zucchini was easy and quick, and got me going on my faux-sagna. i sliced about four zucchini, at just under 1/8" thickness.
also to prep:
-mix about 12oz of ricotta with just under half a cup of egg beaters.
-reduce down tomato paste, tomato sauce, and a few tablespoons of garlic.
let the layering fun begin!
-tomato sauce on bottom of the pan.
-overlapping long strips of zucchini
-tomato sauce
-overlapping long strips of zucchini
-large pieces of hand-ripped fresh basil (thanks, farmers market!)
-ricotta mix
-zucchini
-tomato sauce

so on, and so fourth until all your materials are gone. i popped these bitches in the oven at 425* for about 40 minutes or so.

being i cooked down tomato sauce, it was a bit thick, and i was worried the whole faux-sagna was going to be dry, but it isn't! why not? simply because, i'm amazing.
the only down-side to this super squash strata, is turning the oven on. clearly, when it's 100* in the summer (when zucchinis are in their prime) the last thing you want to do is bake anything. so crank on the air, and break out the mandolin.

it's totally worth it.

it's magic time, kiddies!

for my next act, i will turn you into.... something delicious!

stay tuned!

beer!

along with my passion for food,
i consider myself a beer connoisseur.

so here you have,
my first beer post!

i'm slowly starting to become a firm believer in new belguim
beers. why now? you ask?
well, i stayed away from the fat tire solely because it was becoming popular and showing up all over the place.
then, i had their 1554. amaze.
then, this character walked into my shopping cart one day at whole foods. i like ipa's, i thought. i kinda like new belgium. so, to the cash register we went.
i spent the better part of a warm-weathered weekend, working through a six pack. no doubt, it was time well spent. it's not as... harsh? if you will, as other ipa's that i've had. it has a great, fresh hoppy flavor, and is a great beer to launch me into spring and summer seasonals.
so here i am, ready to spent some time outdoors in the warm spring weather... and i'm out of new belgium ranger ipa.

...crap.

fridge dump!

i haven't gone food shopping in quite a while, and the puzzle pieces of food left in my fridge don't coherently go together.
little did i know!
the produce drawer was fairly full of veggies ready to be roasted.
roast on!
two pounds of asparagus (i love spring!) red onions & carrots. i let them sit in some italian seasoning and then i popped 'em in the oven. 425* for a half an hour or so, constantly tossing them so they didn't stick to the pan.

i guess simple is all it takes sometimes.
super simple, super delicious!

typical tremendous thursdays!

thursday dinners are always the best!
when i have an audience, i put on my a-game!
woot!
i made a lot of food for dinner this week, and i held it all together with some big flavors. it looked pretty rockin' and it tasted delicious.
here we go...
the shrimp was peeled and deveined. luckily, the deveining was done for me. why? because it's disgusting! i tossed the shrimp in a frying pan on medium / med-low heat and let them get opaque on each side. then, i added my mixture of (surprise, surprise) pineapple juice and spicy garlic texas pete's! yum! i had quite a bit of sauce, so i let the shrimp finish cooking with the sauce, and then i jacked the heat up to high and let that sauce cook down and get nice and thick.
oh, you little neon orange shrimps... how i want to eat you!
i cut up a chicken breast into some super skinny strips. i cooked that over medium heat and added onion powder / garlic / paprika / chipotle rub... anything i pulled out of the spice cabinet, really. made sure my chicken was just cooked through.
smear some fat free refried beans to a la bandarita low carb whole wheat tortilla (they're 1 point!) and added my chicken. they were an unfried, jacked up, taquito! finished that mess off with some mango-pineapple salsa from earlier in the week, and it was outstanding!
i made a plain salad topped with salsa to go with the shrimp, and added some extra beans.

super-fresh, spicy & sweet mexican!
this isn't taco bell, my friends!

fantastic!

the pit.

mango salsa, shmango shmalsa

what? no room in the fruit salad bowl for mango?
i guess i can handle that.
woot!
mango-pineapple salsa!
get... down!
i took a quarter of my fresh pineapple and diced it up. i added it to a can of diced tomatoes with jalepenos. i think jalapenos might be one of my new favorite pieces of produce.
spicy!
like me!
diced pineapple, dices tomatoes, diced red onion, and a mango! mangoes. what pains in the ass to cut up. but their fruit is so juicy and worth it! i made this salsa with the intent of eating it on salad, with shrimp or chicken.
funny thing, you can even eat it with a spoon!
it's out of this world!

why?
because i made it!

tofu revival!

this (mildly) skinny girl can only eat so much tofu glazed in pineapple juice & recaito / sweet chili sauce / tso.
so, today, i picked myself up and said,
"bitch, start cooking better!"
to think, that's all it took to get me motivated!
so, here we have...
tofu, which i've recently starting cubing. yeah, i like to mix it up. i think it's going to make me eat more in a sitting, so i will have to exercise some type of self-control! (faints!)
here we have tofu (cubed) thrown in a scalding hot pot with sesame oil, garlic, and ginger. after the tofu browned on most sides, i threw in about a tablespoon of soy sauce, let it cook up, then it was done.
yum-town!
clearly, i'd get bored with one type of tofu, so, considering my love of pineapple juice... we have... cubed tofu, thrown in a screaming hot pan with a tiny bit of olive oil, browned/blackened on most sides, then an improvisational mix of pineapple juice / garlic hot sauce.
for all you meat-eaters out there, yes! this would taste awesome on chicken, shrimp, wings, etc.

to think, all it took was a little yell-at-yourself to get the food revolution restarted!
awesome!

cabbage casserole!

who would've thought that those two words would have worked well together?
not me!
apparently vegetarian times did.
(what an excellent resource as a publication and a website!)
they had a recipe for a cabbage strata, which naturally, i refused to follow the recipe on and had to give it the good 'ol kathrine treatment.
bow chikka bow wow.
i doctored their recipe slightly, adding my own fabulous touches to it!
i started by blanching the cabbage leaves in garlic water. (i refuse to use salt!) i also browned some finely slivered onions, cooked down two cans of diced tomatoes, and thawed a 16ox bag of spinach.
now that everything is (almost) mise en place....
i greased up a 9x9 baking dish and made a layer of cabbage leaves on the bottom of the dish. on top of the cabbage layer, i sprinkled my browned onions. yum! i love onions! after, i spread a layer of my cooked down diced tomatoes (which i cooked down with garlic and italian seasoning). on top of that i placed a mixture of spinach & fat free cream cheese. the original recipe called for ricotta, and for some reason i could not bring myself to buy dairy. i figured i would forge ahead, doing without. alas, considering the dry nature of the cabbage and the cooked down tomatoes, i dug up a bar of fat free cream cheese that had been hiding in my fridge. i mixed half a bar with the 16-ish ounces of thawed, drained spinach. so, after the cabbage. after the onions, and after the tomatoes, came 6 splotches of spinachy cream cheese, on top of my casserole, looking like a die. i re-layered, and re-layered, making (i believe) three layers in total. cabbage, onions, tomatoes, spinach. i baked my strata (how fancy!) at 350 degrees for about an hour.
mmm!
a full-on vegetable bake!
what more could you ask for?

dessert sans chocolate?!

...here we are again...
desserts!
no chocolate!
though, i suppose in this case, we could be a snack. yum!
i made a kick-ass fruit salad for the easter festivities. cantaloupe, strawberries, fresh pineapple, green grapes -- delish! i was going to add mango, but there was no more room in the bowl. (a happy misjudgement that panned out well, as i went on to make mango salsa. woot!) then, to go with my delicious easter fruit salad, i made some type of marshmallow-cream cheese-cool whip fruit dip. it was a holiday, i got a little crazy!
my fruit salad for this week is fresh pineapple, strawberries, and green grapes. i love fresh pineapple. it's becoming less of a pain in my ass to cut up, i think, because i've been doing it so frequently. plus, i learned a wonderful trick. take the core of the pineapple, and throw it in my smoothies in the morning. (too tough and fiber-y to eat, but i will be damned if i throw it away any longer!) i added a little vanilla to give some depth of flavor. while i was cutting all my fruit up, i had some type of hybrid artist-chef moment. i was struck by the color in produce, it's truly vibrant and outstanding. inspiring, even. and that is something i can get behind.
so, with the beginning of spring upon us, i've taken a minute to admire all of the produce i've cooked with today. color, shape, pattern.... appreciate it all!
it makes the food taste better, i promise!
alas, no fruit dip, we're back on track from here on out, slackers!

date night dinner!

i was super excited for this dinner!
oh sister, you're spoiled!

i started by throwing a bit of olive oil, chopped garlic, and the juice of half a lemon in a hot pan. i tossed in the piece of tilapia, and as the tilapia cooked, i added the juice of the other half of the lemon and dill. (dill... one of my faves!) i use the chopped up herb paste in the tubes (it's cheating, i know, but it's easy and the herbs don't spoil. they're a miracle!) i will say, i cooked this piece of tilapia perfectly!
woot!
as for the side, i suppose you could call it at tapenade?
who knows!
i cook down some sweet onions, (the more the better, in my opinion!) add diced tomatoes, chopped up kalamatas, and a roasted red pepper. or two. i cook the onions until they start to brown, add the peppers, and then add the tomatoes. i like to cook that mixture on super high, in order to cook out most of the moisture. once the mixture has cooked down, and finally i add the olives.
oh god, i love kalamata olives.
together, the fish and the tapenade work perfectly. the richness of the cooked down vegetables and the light taste of the fish compliment each other so well.
i will say, i was looking forward to this dinner all week, and it was so worth it.
easy and delicious!

just like your mom!

cupcakes!

need i say more?
while there may or may not have beena bit of a run-in with a civilian while trying to park to get cupcakes, the plunder was well worth it!
enter, cupcake shoppe.
how i love thee, allow me to count the ways...
this trip was purely for gratuitous picture-taking, over-indulgence, and sugar consumption.
hey, at least i'm honest with myself.
i indulged:
black & white - chocolate cake & vanilla icing (yum, good 'ol traditional favorite)
cookie monster - vanilla cake with vanilla oreo icing. nom nom nom.
peanut butter cup - chocolate cake & peanut butter icing.
mocha me crazy! - dark chocolate cake & espresso icing. total super fave!
while the black & white is my never-fail go-to cupcake... that mocha monster.... it's the best! the cake was chocolaty, but not sweet. and the buttercream was the perfect balance of sweet & rich & espresso-y.
i will say, the mocha monster took the top honors!