When the Boyfriend’s away one must make roasted fennel with green apples.

My boyfriend hates the sound of raw apples; he claims that it gives him goose bumps. Unfortunately I love apples. This has been a big compromise in our relationship. He will eat them cooked but you can’t eat or slice them when he is around and since he’s not around right now I will be eating apples.

Tonight I made Roasted Fennel with green apples from the Vegetarian Planet Cookbook by Didi Emmons.

It is a simple recipe using only fennel, green apple, 6 shallots, olive oil, salt and pepper, and white cheddar cheese. 

All you do is slice the veggies and fruit, toss them and smother them in olive oil and salt and pepper.

As a side note I like to slice my veggies with a mandolin. It makes it go much quicker. 

The mandolin on the left is for slicing the mandolin on the right is for shredding

You then bake it for 15 minutes (at 400°) then sprinkle white cheddar cheese on it and bake it for another 5 minutes.

 After all of that you eat the sweet but savory goodness of fennel, apple, shallots, and cheese.

Lettuce wraps

The shiitakes were cooked the same as the recipe

These lettuce wraps are light enough for summer eating but are savory and satisfying as well. This is a combo of my two favorite recipes and a little something extra added in.  

Two parts of this recipe come from the  Shiitake Banh Mi Salad from the Post Punk Kitchen website. From this recipe I used the shiitake mushroom  and the pickled vegetables elements. 

I added carrots to the pickled cucumber and radishes

The rice noodles and lettuce were not from another recipe but the dipping sauce came from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. The dipping sauce is the Ginger-Sesame sauce from the Diakon Pot-Stickers recipe (pg.307). It has Balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, honey, dijon mustard, garlic, ginger, wasabi powder, and dark soy sauce on it. was poured on to the the rice noodles in the lettuce wrap. 

Ingredients for the secret sauce.

The end was a pretty tasty result. That's a wrap !

Crepes made with rice flour

 Yet another tasty foray into rice flour, this time in the form of crepes.
I find that crepes are a quick and easy breakfast and this recipe can easily be used for sweet and savory crepes.  
For this recipe 1/2 cup of rice flour,

1/2 cup of half in half, one egg, 1/8 tsp of salt
and one tablespoon of butter is used. I halve the ingredients from the recipe link but still use the full amount of butter.
Then I mix everything together, the butter is melted in the same pan that I cook the crepes in.
To cook the crepes use a 1/4 cup to measure the batter and cook on each side for 30 seconds. This usually makes about 5 crepes

After cooking the crepes I use the same pan to make the filling.  Leftovers, such as stir fires, are always good for crepe fillings. Shallots, spinach, olives, and goat cheese are pictured to the left.
If you like sweet crepes it's all about the Nutella and almonds, just be careful not overfill the crepe or all your filling will ooze out.

Gluten Free Brownies

I don’t really need to be eating gluten free but I bought some rice flour for another recipe and had some left over so I decided to attempt to make gluten free brownies.

This recipe is based off of the Stowe Brownie recipe from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons. Who is one of my favorite cookbooks writers.

I selected this recipe because I have made them before with regular flour with great success, it has few ingredients, and very little flour in it.

Vanilla extract, butter, sugar, 2 chocolate bars, rice flour, and eggs

I followed the recipe to some extent. Melted the butter and chocolate together, beat the eggs and sugar, and then stirred them together with the vanilla and flour. I opted not to add the additional water as suggested due to the rice flour absorption rate. 

Pre cooked brownie

After cooking for 20 minutes

The brownie turned out a lot denser than usual, a real fudgy consistency. The taste is still the same,  super tasty.

Super yummy !

Spaghetti Squash Italiano

This is my take on Spaghetti Squash Italiano from the Better Homes and Garden Vegetarian Cook Book. I have made this several times and have adjusted it to my taste.
The first step is to prep the squash, about 2 pounds, by cutting it in half and scooping out all the seeds, I then poke the outside of it with a fork and bake it at 350° for about an hour. Alternatively if you have a microwave you could cook it in half the time but I don't have a microwave so I can't really attest to this method.
After taking it out of the oven it should soft enough to remove with a fork.

After it cools I remove the meat with a fork and mix it with some Parmesan cheese, about a fourth cup, and then place it back in the oven and cook it until the cheese melts.



Whilst waiting for the cheese to melt I make the Caprese salad to go on top of the baked spaghetti squash. I usually do mozzarella, green onion, garlic, basil, tomato, olive oil, pine nuts and salt and pepper on it. Other options worth trying tomato sauce and or pesto, goat cheese, or roasted garlic.




After the cheese melts I take the squash out of the oven and place the Caprese salad on top of the squash and bake it for about 15 minutes more or until the mozzarella melts.
It should come out like this.

Mushroom Growing

It fascinates me to watch the full cycle of development of food that I eat. This is one reason why I decided to grow my own mushrooms. Besides, they also taste a lot better than the ones at the grocery store.

So far I’ve done 3 kits, all from Pulpit Rock, and have had pretty good results. My first two kits were a portabella and shiitake. The photos below are of the portabella and shiitake kits.

Both did produce quite a few mushrooms. The shiitake kit produced over 3 lbs and the ports I didn’t really keep track of. Both kits come in their own boxes that are also used as the “planters” and humidity tents which are plastic bags, with holes in them, to place on top of the boxes. After setting them up I also spray them with distilled water every other day.

The shiitake comes with sawdust filled with spores and you activate by soaking it in water and a little salt for about an hour, you then place the spore filled sawdust lump on a plastic dish and then the box that it came in. In just of few days I had my first shiitake. I then resoaked the “log” for more shiitakes. I’ve decided for my next shiitake kit to go with another company because I want to attempt to grow them on a real log, supposedly they will taste different.

I just recently purchased another portabella kit. Here are the photos of how to start it and its fruiting after 11 days. The first photo is the box that it comes and grows in, the second photo is of the compost

Above is the Peat moss and lime, the casing, which comes in a separate bag on top of the compost. You have to mix the casing with water until it is barely damp. The casing is then spread evenly on top of the compost and the box is shut for 7 days in a dark place that is about 70 degrees. After that the mycelium is formed.

The next photos are the development up to day 14.

Honey Bee Cookies

Sugar, flour, and eggs always make’s a great cookie!

This cookie recipe comes from the ABC’s of Baking obtained when collected enough Gold Medal PCUs when I was a wee little kid. It really is a good cookbook but it is more geared towards children cooking with their parents. That being said I modified the honey bee cookies by using cardamom, instead of cinnamon, and used salt honey from Colorado to give it a more sophisticated taste. I stirred the butter, egg, brown sugar, and honey together on my stove top with a double boiler.

After it was mixed I added the salt, baking soda, cardamom, and flour to form the dough and then refrigerated it to give the dough a soft chewy texture after baking.

On to the cookie sheet, and then the finished product.