Playing With Fire

Tags

cooking, habanero, NaBloPoMo, pepper, pineapple, salsa, vegan, vegetarian

I’m a worrier. I worry a lot.

It often isn’t really for any good reason either.

Like, if I eat at this really popular restaurant by myself, are people going to notice and judge me? Of course they don’t give a shit, they’re there to have a nice time and enjoy their food. It’s also highly unlikely that I would be the only solo diner. I know this, but it’s like a battle between right and absurd.

Not every worry is socially-related, though, and I usually make myself go through with things anyway. Last week I acquired eight little habanero peppers from the farm. I can handle a decent amount of spice, but having never cooked with or even handled a habanero, I was sort of nervous. What if I made something and it was unbearably spicy? And what do I make with so many of them? They were part of my work-share, so it’s not like I’d be wasting money if I didn’t use them. Since I also received tomatoes and cilantro, I just decided to do the obvious and make some salsa. Seems like a pretty good way to gauge heat, right?

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Broth Bag

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broth, cheap, easy, homemade, NaBloPoMo, stock, tip, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

Yeah, I started this bag a while ago…

A few years ago, I posted a recipe for vegetable broth. It wasn’t even based on my own. I used a cookbook as a guide and bought vegetables specifically to make broth.

Do you know how ridiculous that was? At some point since then, I ran across this idea for a broth bag.

What you do is save all the ends, peels, etc. when you cut up vegetables (avoiding starchy things like potatoes) and throw them in a big Ziploc bag that lives in your freezer.

Lopped off the tops of some green onions in a jar and added them. Why not?

Favorite Veggie Recipes

Tags

cooking, NaBloPoMo, recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

So with the constant supply of vegetable earnings, I have been cooking a lot. Often this just means I sauté some veggies and top with an egg or toss with pasta. That gets boring pretty quickly, so then I look up recipes, especially when I have somewhat unfamiliar produce on hand.

Here are a few keepers that I loved. Yes, they’re summery, but maybe I’m just looking out for our friends in the other hemisphere.

Turnip Return

Tags

blogging, cooking, fall, NaBloPoMo, soup, turnips, vegetables, vegetarian, winter

So we’re one week into December, and I have to say that while it’s been nice not making myself post every day for NaBloPoMo, it’s also been weird. More often than not, I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a funk, though not entirely because of not blogging. NaBloPoMo did often feel like a struggle, but having the daily purpose/accomplishment made up for it, which was something I noticed last year. I did need the breather, though. Last weekend I washed an absurd amount of dishes due to baking for Austin Bakes, so there wasn’t any real cooking or baking for the next few days to write about anyway.

I’m not sure what led to this realization, but it occurred to me the other day that I had never (knowingly) had a turnip. How had this not happened? I am 31 years old. Turnips are pretty basic, right? I seem to think of them as “northern” vegetables, along with the somewhat equally foreign parsnips and rutabagas. They are all available here, so I guess it’s more that my family never ate them. In my quest to try pretty much anything once (and to also pull myself out of mopey-ness), turnip soup needed to be made.

Turning Ramen into Gnocchi

Tags

cooking, David Chang, instant ramen gnocchi parisienne, Lucky Peach, Momofuku, NaBloPoMo, ramen gnocchi, vegetarian

If you’ve seen the first episode of The Mind of a Chef with David Chang, you know what this is about. If you haven’t and don’t have a Netflix account, he makes a batch of gnocchi out of instant ramen noodles for Anthony Bourdain in, like, seven minutes. (His recipe is also in Lucky Peach Issue 1.) I knew I had to attempt this trickery at some point, which brings us to today.

Making ramen gnocchi is a strange experience, and yet, the final dish is not weird at all. It’s just that you start with packs of crunchy ramen noodles and end up with a plate of crispy, creamy dumplings. Noodles are soaked in milk and blended with egg yolks, and then the resulting pâte à choux is piped into dumplings, boiled, and then finally sautéed in butter. Seems easy enough, and yet…

25th Annual Lone Star Veggie Chili Championship

Tags

Austin, chili, Lone Star Veggie Chili Championship, Lonestar Vegetarian Chili Cookoff, NaBloPoMo, Texas, vegan, VegChili, vegetarian

Last year was my first time attending the Lone Star Veggie Chili Championship (they’ve changed the name, it seems), and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go back this year. This time it was held at the Green Space at Whole Foods Arbor Trails, which was much further south than the previous location. 22 teams were competing for prizes: nine in the Traditional Division (chili with meat substitute) and thirteen in the All-Veg Division (chili without meat substitute).

Souper Nerd

Tags

beer, cheddar, cheese, NaBloPoMo, soup, vegetarian

Sometimes I come up with an idea that I think (key point) is clever and can’t resist going through with it. These ideas usually aren’t helpful in life, but are enough to keep me amused, and that’s all that matters.

Case in point: A few weeks ago, I posted the following on Instagram:

Do people ever eat cheese soup and tomato sandwiches? #deepthought

Well, today, this happened:

Cheddar Hatch Beer Bread

Tags

baking, beer, bread, cheddar, cheese, easy, hatch chiles, quick bread, recipe, savory, Shiner Bock, vegetarian

I’ve heard people say that you’re not supposed to talk about blog hiatuses, but come on, I like elephants. For the most part, I was just baking without blogging about it. (I’m quite good at biscuits now.)

I realized that it’s kind of refreshing to act like a normal person in the kitchen, as in NOT take photos of everything and awkwardly attempt to style food. Style food! I can’t even accessorize myself half of the time. And the thing is, I had the time to do this stuff because I don’t have a regular 9-5 or a family to feed, and my cat is pretty self-sufficient. Maybe I just got used to not blogging? 

24th Annual Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off!

Tags

Austin, chili, cookoff, Lonestar Vegetarian Chili Cookoff, NaBloPoMo, vegan, vegetarian

Today in Austin, the 24th Annual Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off took place at the Burnet Road Farmers Market. If you’re from Texas, you may wonder what exactly goes into vegetarian chili when so many people here swear by one chili rule: NO BEANS. Well, this native Texan thinks that’s silly. Teams could enter into either category of chili: “Traditional” – chili made with a meat substitute (seitan, tempeh, etc.), or “All Veg” – chili made only of vegetables. This year there were nine Traditional and thirteen All Veg teams competing. Some were from restaurants and culinary schools!

I found out about this event through the Austin Food Bloggers Alliance because they wanted to have a team represent the group this year. Taylor Cook and James Seppi of Coseppi Kitchen (see what they did there?) volunteered to be that team. They are new to the group and have a great vegetarian blog!

Guava Manchego Empanadas

Tags

appetizer, baking, brunch, cheese, empanadas, guava, jelly, manchego, savory, sweet, vegetarian

If you ever find yourself in San Antonio, you should really go to the Pearl Brewery, located just north of downtown. Built in the late 1800s with brewing operations ceasing in 2001, a great revitalization effort over the past several years has brought in shops, restaurants, and even a new branch of the Culinary Institute of America.

Probably my favorite place there is the CIA Bakery Cafe which offers items such as coffee, tea, artisanal bread, sandwiches, and stunning pastries. I almost always have to get one of their guava manchego empanadas. Now made with puff pastry, they were originally made with more traditional empanada dough, which I actually preferred. The amount of filling has varied a bit, but it’s always a good ratio between the guava and manchego flavors.