potato carrot curry and rice

Ingredients

• 2 russet potatoes, chopped
  
• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped
  
• 3/4 cup carrots, cut into rounds
• 1 white onion, chopped finely
• 1/2 green apple, chopped finely
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 tbs butter/margarine
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• salt and pepper
• 3 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tbs sweet curry (or a mixture of cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, clove, coriander, fenugreek, ginger, numeg, fennel, white pepper, black pepper, red pepper)
  
• vegetable oil
• garlic chili sauce
• any other hot sauce you want
• 1/2 cup raisins

Sautee onions with veg. oil until brown/translucent.
Add some sweet curry. Stir.
Add all the chopped potatoes, carrots, and apple.
Add 1 tbs of red curry paste.
Add milk, butter, and water. Stir and cover. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the remainder of seasonings and sauces, plus brown sugar.
Add more seasonings if desired.
Add all raisins.
Season with salt and pepper.

To make sticky rice:
Rinse rice and soak for several hours (preferably over-night (we did not do this)).
Line steaming basket with cheesecloth, coffee filter, or thick paper towel. Drain rice and add to basket. Place basket in a pan filled with 2-3 inches of water. Turn to high heat and steam for 20-25 minutes. Serve

Thoughts: Delicious, I think. Dan doesn't think it looks like curry. If you want something more curry-ish, cook it less long. We cooked it such that the sweet potatoes got quite mushy. I personally enjoyed it, but I'm not too familiar with what curry should look like. This would probably be better with coconut milk, but it was delicious as it was. Dan is going to try mixing some curry with plain yoghurt. He'll report back.
We didn't follow traditional procedure for making sticky rice. We soaked it for about 15 minutes instead of several hours. As a consequence, it took forever to steam the rice, and even after 30 minutes, the rice was still crunchy. Dan decided to take it out of the steamer and cook it in a little bit of boiling water. After 4-5 minutes the rice became moister and sticky. So we worked that out.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Triple French Toast

This is a recipe for when you just can't fail enough.

Ingredients

• Bread
  
  
  
  • 2.5c enriched unbleached white flour
    
  • 2.25tsp yeast (1 packet)
    
  • pinch salt
    
  • ~1tsp sugar (approximate)
    
  • warm water
    
  
  
• Custard
  
  
  
  • 1 egg
    
  • 1/2c mlk
    
  • pinch of salt
    
  • 1tsp sugar
    
  • 1/2 cap vanilla extract
    
  
  

Okay, first you make the bread. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add water and mix until you get a dough, very slightly damp. Flour the counter and knead it for a few minutes until it's smooth. Set it aside and let it rise until doubled, about an hour. Preheat the oven for 400. Take risen dough and pat it out into a rectangle about 3/8in thick, and then roll it into a log shape. Make slits in the top (optional, really). Cover and let rise for another hour. This is the step I skipped, so if you want "Triple French Toast" to come out the way I made it, don't let it re-rise. Bake until it looks done and the top is golden.

Slice the bread. If you DIDN'T let it rise a second time, it's probably way too dense. Not really good to eat. Here's what I did:

Make about 4 "batches" of the custard (4 eggs, 2c milk, etc). Pour the custard over the bread in a big baking sheet and let it sit covered overnight to absorb the custard. In the morning, make it into French toast.

Now again, I messed this up. The bread was fresh, so it didn't absorb enough of the custard. Also, I forgot the salt, so it was pretty flavorless. Damn it. French toast was supposed to be my fix for my LAST error. So I proceeded a third time. I made YET ANOTHER three "batches" of custard, but this time with a little extra salt. I cut the french toast into cubes and put them in a bread pan. Then I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over them along with some raisins. I poured the custard over them and let it sit for a while. Then, I put it in the oven set at 350, covered in tin foil. After about 30 minutes, I took the tin foil off and put a baking sheet in the bottom of the oven filled with water. The steam it produced gently cooked the custard around the French toast. It's hard to overcook, but check in on this mixture after about fifteen minutes, and then every five to ten minutes after that. Take it out when the custard looks pretty set on top and the bread pudding just BARELY jiggles when you shake the pan.

Thoughts: Nobody is ever going to make this. But I needed to put it up for two reasons: 1) It is really delicious. How many people have ever made bread pudding out of French toast? 2) It demonstrates an important property to remember when you're baking bread: it's easy to mess up, but it's not the end of the world.

I thought this was great. I'm going to be eating it with maple syrup tomorrow morning. This is also the first time I've ever gotten bread pudding to come out correctly - the baking dish with water was inspired and worked. On a disaster index, this can't really be a 1, because it was actually two consecutive disasters followed by a genius cover-up. Also, it would be a little better if I'd used a little salt in the first batch of French toast custard and then, after preparing the bread pudding, if I'd sprinkled just a little brown sugar over the top (to caramelize).

Disaster Index: 2-3/10.

Pasta with Mustard Greens, Tomatoes, and Feta

So the title is pretty self explanatory.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb part pasta
  
• 1/2 lb mustard greens, ribs removed and chopped coarsely
  
• 1 medium tomato, chopped coarsely
  
• 1-2oz feta cheese, crumbled
  
• some olive oil
  
• salt and pepper
  

Boil water. Throw in some salt, and put in the pasta. In a separate pan, sauté mustard greens and tomatoes in the olive oil with some pepper. When it starts to get a little dry, add about 1/2c of the pasta water and let it cook off. When pasta is cooked, add cooked pasta to greens and tomatoes, reserving water. Add feta and about 1/4c reserved pasta water, plus or minus. Stir to combine.

And, yes, the pasta water necessary.

Thoughts: I pretty much made this up as I went along. The bitterness of the mustard greens balances nicely against the sharp flavors of the feta and the sweet and sour of the tomatoes. Next time, I'm going to add more greens and tomatoes per pasta.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - Would cook again.

Chicken Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

This is adapted from a couple recipes. When we make it, it's sort of "until it tastes good," so this is really just a general guide to how to make it:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
  
• 1/2 tablespoon (sweet) curry powder plus or minus a tablespoon to taste
  
• Sriracha to taste
  
• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (say 1 squeeze of half a lime)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (to taste, we prefer more toward 1/2)
  
• 2 packages ramen noodles (just the noodles! Not the flavor packets!)
  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  
• Fish Sauce to taste (we go about 1/2tsp, or you can substitute with mushroom sauce or just leave this out entirely)
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Bring the broth, coconut milk, and curry powder to a simmer in a soup pot. Add chicken and simmer until it's just barely cooked through, about four minutes. Add the ramen noodles and cook until they're tender (about another minute). You may need to add a little more water at this point. You decide. Now, take it off the heat and add everything else (lime juice, green onion, brown sugar, fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sriracha or other hot sauce, and cilantro). Taste it. Adjust seasoning as you desire. We usually use a lot of curry powder.

Thoughts: This is very good, and hard to mess up. Problem is that it's kind of annoying to cook with meat sometimes. There's a lot of room in this recipe for adjustment to your own taste, as well. Don't be afraid of over-seasoning (except maybe with the salt) - you can always add more stock or water.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - good, hard to mess up.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

• 4 cups skim milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 capful of vanilla extract
• 1 cinnamon stick
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of black pepper
• 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate (we used 60% cacao), chopped
  

Combine milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne and black pepper in a heavy-ish saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat.
Cover the pan and let steep for 15 minutes.
Strain the milk (we used a paper towel and a colander, which works well if you don't have cheesecloth or an extra-fine sieve) and discard the cinnamon stick.
Return milk to pan. Over medium-high heat, add the chocolate and stir until melted and completely incorporated.
Drink.

Thoughts: This is absolutely delicious. It is a little spicy, but that's why they call it Mexican hot chocolate. It's pretty thick, so don't use whole milk (the original recipe called for whole milk. Seriously?? Christ). It takes a while for the milk to boil, even over medium-high heat, so be prepared to spend a long time whisking. I'm trying to find out if one can turn it on high heat without burning the milk. We'll see.

Disaster Index: 1-2/10

Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Walnuts

Another Martha favorite


Ingredients

• several frozen brussels sprouts
• 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup parsley
• romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place walnuts in single layer in a baking pan and toast for 5-10 minutes. Let cool. Chop coarsely.
Place frozen brussels sprouts in a pot of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes, until almost tender.
Place brussels sprouts and walnuts in a small pan with some olive oil and heat on high. Add the parsley. Add the lemon juice. Add the salt and pepper. Cook until brussels sprouts are tender (stick a knife in them to check).
Remove from heat, add romano (as much as you want).

Thoughts: This was a little lemony for me. I would recommend just sprinkling a little bit of lemon juice over the sprouts. The romano wasn't in the original recipe, but it should have been. The parsley wasn't either, but I think they were helpful additions.
Be careful that you don't get too happy with these walnuts - they are 200 calories per fourth cup. Christ. So use them sparingly. Otherwise the brussels sprouts were cooked perfectly, so that was a plus. Maybe add garlic?

Disaster Index: 3/10

Waffles

These waffles were... basic. I'll leave it at that.
Ingredients

• 1/2c white flour
  
• 1/2c wheat flour
  
• 1tsp baking soda
  
• a pinch of salt
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1c buttermilk (we used skim milk with a little lemon juice in it)
  

Mix the dry ingredients together. Crack the egg into the buttermilk and whisk lightly. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir. Put in waffle press. Try to get waffles out after a little while. Cry.

Thoughts: These waffles sucked. Some notes for next time: 1) add sugar to the batter. 2) check to make sure you have something to put on TOP of the waffles before you make them. 3) have a waffle iron that won't try to devour your waffles whole. One option to prevent stickage is to liberally oil the grids, but on my iron this takes a lot more oil than I want to think about. I've had success with recipes that have oil in the batter, which somehow prevents stickage as well as creates a nicer texture. The addition of sugar (to caramelize and improve the interior strength of the waffle) might also help prevent the iron from tearing the damn things in half when you try to remove them.

Disaster Index: 8/10 - I mean, I ate them. But it wasn't a good time. It was a bad time.

Chickpea, Mint, and Parsley Spread

Based on a Martha Stewart recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups chickpeas (about one can), rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
• 2 tbs lemon juice (bottled works fine)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper

Cook onion in a saucepan over medium heat until softened, about 8 minutes. Use whatever oil you want for this, as long as its either olive oil or a flavorless oil.
Add chickpeas, cook for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat.

Add chickpea mixture, parsley, mint, lemon juice and salt to food processor, season with pepper, and puree. With machine running, add the 1/4 cup olive oil in a slow steady stream.
This can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Thoughts: Oh man. This is delicious. It is the most delicious dip in the world. Make it for friends, neighbors, and strangers. It might have done well with some roasted garlic, but it certainly isn't necessary. Eat it with pita bread. It would probably also be delicious on some sort of sandwich.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - Mmmmm.

Pizza Dough

This is a recipe we use for pizza dough. Once you have the dough laid out, you can put pretty much anything on it and then bake it at 500 for ~15 minutes (checking it often). The entry before this details precisely what we did put on it, though the possibilities are limitless.

Somewhat limitless anyway.

Ingredients

• 2.25tsp active dry yeast
  
• 2/3c warm water plus or minus (about as hot as tap water will go, maybe a little cooler. You should be able to put your finger in the water for about two seconds comfortably. Minor variation won't matter.)
  
• 2.5c flour plus or minus
  
• pinch of salt (aim for a little less than a teaspoon)
  
• 4T olive oil
  
• 1tsp sugar
  
• Cooking spray (PAM)
  

I've made this in two ways. The first way requires proofing the yeast: put the yeast in the water along with the sugar. Stir it around. Mix the dry ingredients together while it sits and add the olive oil. Then pour the water/yeast/sugar mixture in and mix together into a dough, adjusting water and flour as needed until it's just a little bit sticky. (For the second method, just put all the dry ingredients together INCLUDING the yeast and sugar, mix them together, and then add the oil and finally the water while mixing together to create a dough. This is mainly for if you're pretty sure your yeast is still alive. Won't make too much difference cooking, though.)

Take the dough out of the bowl and flour the counter a little. Knead the dough for about seven minutes, until you could describe it as 'silky' and smooth. PAM the bowl and put the dough in, and then PAM the top of the dough so it's covered in oil.

Now set the dough to rise. Pro tip I learned from my father: microwave half a mug of water until it boils, about three minutes. Set the mug in a corner of the microwave, and then put the bowl of dough in the microwave with it and close the door. It makes a super humid and warm chamber that is perfect for rising bread, and it prevents the dough from drying out.

When the dough has approximately doubled in size (about an hour, although the original recipe says two hours), take it out and, without punching it down, divide it in two. Roll each half out onto a floured surface to about 1/8" thick (it's much easier if you didn't punch it down!) and transfer to a LIGHTLY floured baking sheet or bread stone of an appropriate size. I can usually pretty well cover two 9x13 baking sheets. Brush lightly with olive oil and add the toppings of your choice.

Thoughts: This produces a pretty standard pizza dough, and when you cook it at ~500 degrees you get a nice crisp crust all around, even if you cook it on a baking sheet rather than a bread stone. This recipe is pretty consistent. The only thing I can think of is that there is a prime opportunity to introduce some flavors here. For future pizzas I will consider mixing in oregano, basil, and/or parsley into the dry ingredients. Actually, depending on the type of pizza, you could put pretty much any herb in. I imagine using dill with a more Greek-style pizza, or cilantro with something more South American in flavor. Be adventurous. It's hard to screw up.

Note added 04/11/2008: To get a pizza onto a 500* pizza stone is not an easy task. You cannot merely make the pizza on the counter and then pick it up and put it on a bread stone. It will be a disaster. I've tried it. Instead, after you roll out the dough, transfer it to a thin silicon cutting mat that is LIBERALLY sprinkled with corn meal. Shake the mat back and forth to make certain the dough can slide off if you give the mat a little shake. Add the toppings to the pizza as usual. When it comes to transferring the pizza to the stone all you have to do is open the oven and slide the pizza off the cooking mat. Getting the pizza OUT is much easier - just slide the mat back under the pizza and, supporting the pizza's weight with a hand and hot-pad, pull the pizza away. Le voila.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - works very well for a good solid pizza crust and shows promise for modifications.

Prosciutto, Chevre, and Spinach Pizza

Ingredients

• Several slices of prosciutto
  
• 1.75 oz. chevre
  
• half a red onion, slices separated into ribbons
  
• spinach or arugula
  
• olive oil
  
• garlic
  
• salt and pepper
  
• One recipe pizza dough (see the relevant post)
  

Preheat oven to 500.
While the dough is rising, caramelize the red onions with salt, pepper, and garlic. Set aside.
After putting the dough on the pizza pan/baking sheet, brush the dough with olive oil until coated.
Layer the spinach/arugula/whatever onto the dough.
Add the prosciutto, chevre, and caramelized red onions.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden.

Thoughts: This pizza works really well, but be careful not to skimp on toppings. Next time I make it, I plan to adjust up the amount of cheese used to 4oz. Past experiments have also included fresh fruit such as strawberries or pears along with tangy cheeses (feta or chevre) and prosciutto.

All in all, you won't be disappointed with this.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Vanilla Cream

Ingredients

• 1 cup low fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup nonfat or low-fat yogurt
• 1/8 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whirl all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Serve chilled.

Thoughts: This was a pretty easy recipe. Unfortunately it was really weird. I think it was the cottage cheese. Seriously, who puts cottage cheese in a dessert sauce? This sauce went all right with the oatmeal cookies below, but I don't know if I would eat it with anything else. Or eat it in large quantities. Dan suggested that it might be good on/in French Toast? We'll get back to you on that one.

Disaster Index: 7/10

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup apple butter
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice (or cardamom)
• 2 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350.
Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix apple butter, oil, egg, vanilla, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in raisins.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom/allspice. Stir in oats.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until well blended.
Drop batter by tablespoonfuls about 3 inches apart onto the baking sheet.
Bake 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

Thoughts: For some reason, this recipe didn't work at all. The cookies didn't flatten out; they just sort of stayed in lumps. And they were really dry on the inside. I mean, they were edible, but I wouldn't make them again. These are 65 calories per cookie, on the bright side.

Disaster Index: 7/10

Ribollita

This recipe is a variation on a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. It's pretty heavily modified, though.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 1 carrot, chopped
  
• 2tbsp crushed garlic
  
• 1tbsp tomato paste
  
• 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 10oz package frozen spinach
  
• 1 15oz can cannellini beans or "great northern beans" (what's the diff?), drained
  
• 4c vegetable stock
  
• 1c water
  
• 1 piece Parmesan or Romano rind
  
• bay leaves (1-3), parsley, basil, maybe some thyme, salt, and pepper
  
• bread
  

Heat some oil in a large pan or soup pot. Throw in the onion, carrot, garlic, salt, and pepper. When the onion is translucent, add the tomato paste and stir. Then add tomatoes, spinach, beans, herbs, stock and water, and cheese rind. Simmer, stirring periodically, for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast some bread in the oven (with a little olive oil) at ~350. We use a Madison sour dough, though we've also used traditional Ciabatta. If it's slightly stale, all the better. When it's done toasting, put a piece of bread at the bottom of a bowl and ladle soup over it. Top with more grated cheese and enjoy.

Thoughts: Since we started making this a few months ago it's become a standard. Sometimes we double up on the onions. We've gone as high as 15oz on the frozen spinach, too. This soup is difficult to mess up since most of the main ingredients are just "one can" or "one package". Everyone who's tried this soup has liked it a lot. The original calls for pancetta, though we do it vegetarian style. Still, it might be worth trying some time.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - The only downside is that there are a lot of ingredients I don't usually have. Fortunately, they're mostly non-perishable, so I can stock up and use them bit by bit.

Guacamole

This recipe is taken from a bunch of FoodNetwork chefs. I think we have about 2 parts Tyler Florence, 2 parts Bobby Flay, and 1 part Rachel Ray.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados, scooped out of the rind and chopped
• 1/4 red onion, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced and combined with chopped avocados
• 1/2 garlic clover, minced
• 1/2 tomato

Mix ingredients. Chill.

Thoughts: This was not a shining moment. The red onion was far too strong, as was the lime juice. The tomato probably should have been a roma tomato, or no tomato at all. After a few days, the guacamole got kind of brown anyways. Maybe I would have used yellow onion rather than red onion? Furthermore, we didn't ever add cilantro, which was a huge mistake. Even after adding a third avocado, the lime juice was far too strong. Maybe cut the lime juice in half while adding another avocado.

Disaster Index: 6-7/10 - Needs work. I wouldn't eat it again.

Pôts de Crème

This is a secret family recipe, handed down to me from my mother. It's also not really a secret. It is, however, delicious and easy. Also: Pots de Creme. There, now we can search for it.

Ingredients:

• 12oz chocolate chips (preferably semi-sweet or bittersweet, depending on your tastes.)
  
• 1tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/4tsp almond extract (optional)
  
• 3 egg yolks
  
• 1c milk
  
• 1tbsp butter (optional - if you use skim milk you MIGHT want to add this, otherwise don't.)
  

Put the chocolate chips in a blender. Just put them there. Throw in the egg yolks and the vanilla (and almond, if you're using it). Now pour the milk (and butter) into a sauce pan and proceed to heat until the butter melts (and then just a little longer). If you're not using butter, heat it until you think it will melt chocolate chips. Just make sure you keep stirring it. If it reaches a boil, just take it off the heat and let it cool for a few seconds. The idea is to melt the chips and not scramble the eggs - you just want to make the eggs thicken a little.

Anyway, turn the blender on and slowly pour the milk in while it's running. When it's pretty smooth in consistency, turn off the blender and divide it into a bunch of little glasses - demi-tasse glasses work very nicely, as do things like brandy snifters or any small wine-glass type things. Chill for about an hour. When they're fairly stiff, you're done. Serve with optional whipped cream (preferably home made.)

Thoughts: This is ridiculously easy to make, and you could probably do minor alterations. I have thought of putting a cinnamon stick in the milk while I'm heating it or adding chile powder at some point in the process. Do NOT use cheap chocolate for this. I like Girardelli, as it has a vanilla-y taste. Definitely stay away from Hershey's, Baker's, and Nestle. They just won't work well. Trust me. Roundy's isn't too bad, actually, but neither is it great.

I use skim milk for this and SOMETIMES add a little butter, my mother uses 1% and adds no butter. More fat doesn't necessarily make it better - you have to experiment and see what you like. You could probably use heavy whipping cream if you were so inclined, though I don't know if I'd recommend it.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - This is a must, and it's practically fool-proof. Except once we tried to chill them outside when we had no room in the freezer and a squirrel destroyed about eight of them. Don't let this happen to you.

Open-Faced Peach Cake

Martha.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk (we used skim, you can use whatever)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 3-4 peaches, halved and pitted
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbs chilled butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
• 1 tbs sugar
  

Preheat oven to 400.
Spray a 9-inch spring-form pan with pam, or some other cooking spray.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, combine sugar, milk, oil, and egg. Fold into the dry ingredients.
Spread the batter into the spring-form pan. Arrange halved peaches, cut sides up, over the batter.
Combine cinnamon and other tbs sugar and sprinkle over top of cake. Dot with cold butter (or margarine or whatever).
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Thoughts: Make sure you use peaches that are almost but not quite ripe. Ripe ones will just fall apart when baked. You can pretty much use any type of stone fruit that you want. The original recipe called for plums, but I hate plums, so we used peaches. I don't think it would have turned out any better with plums. You can actually use pears, if stone fruit is not in season. We actually ran out of peaches half-way through this recipe so we supplemented the blank space with 1/2 Bartlett pear, and it was good. Also, make sure you keep this cake in the fridge after you bake it. The fruit can go bad quite quickly. This is an excellent cake for tea. Delicious.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - Make it for your friends and neighbors.

Sweet-Potato Chips

This is another adaptation of a Martha Stewart recipe. We like her.

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato, scrubbed and sliced very very thinly (try for 1/8 inch)
  
• olive oil (extra virgin)
• salt

Preheat oven to 400, with racks in center and lowest positions.
Place sliced sweet potatoes in large bowl and toss with salt and olive oil.
Lay them on a baking sheet, in a single layer (we didn't do this, but we definitely should have).
Bake, flipping once, until centers are soft and edges are crisp.
Sprinkle with salt.

Thoughts: I sliced the potatoes by hand, which was difficult. You can do it, but it's probably easier to get a mandoline or hand-held slicer. The slicing attachment on a cuisinart is too thick. We baked these considerably longer than the recommended 22-25 minutes, though I can't remember exactly how many minutes we baked them for. Closer to 30. Furthermore, we burned several of them. They didn't cook especially evenly because they were in double layers, so some were more done than others. The ones that did turn out were very good. Mastering the cook time on these is going to be challenge. Maybe consider slicing the potatoes thicker (closer to 1/4 inch)? Dan also says that these chips go well with the winter squash dip.

Disaster Index: 5-6/10

Winter Squash Dip

This is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. Hers is probably better.

Ingredients

• 1 lb winter squash (we used 1/2 of a butternut), seeded and cut into 3-inch pieces
• 2 tbs chopped garlic
• 8 scallions, white and pale green parts only, sliced thinly
• 1 cup non-fat yogurt (though you could use full fat and you won't die or anything)
• 1/2 container low-fat cream cheese (see above)
• 1/2 cup grated Romano
  
• paprika
• olive oil (extra virgin)
• (brown sugar)
  

The original recipe calls for chipotle chiles, which would have been good, I think. But this still turned out pretty awesome.

Anyways, preheat the oven to 400. Put the squash pieces in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Also sprinkle with copious amounts of salt and pepper. Add the garlic. Toss. Spread on baking sheet. You can pam the baking sheet first, if you're worried about stickage.
Bake the squash until it is juicy and soft. This will be about 50 minutes. Take the squash out and let it cool.
In the meantime, cook the scallion pieces in olive oil until they're soft (4 minutes).
Once the squash has cooled to a temperature that will not burn your hands, scrape the flesh from the rind and put it in a food processor. Add scallions. Pulse until smooth.
Add yogurt, cream cheese, and Romano. Pulse until combined.
Taste. It may require brown sugar. Put some in (1/8 cup?)
Refrigerate for an hour. Eat it.

Thoughts: Again, this could have benefited from the Chipotles. Otherwise it was pretty good. I recommend eating it with crackers such as Wheat Thins or Kashi TLCs. It is also delicious with red peppers. And pretty good on sandwiches.

Disaster Index: 3-4/10

Granola

This is an edited version of Alton Brown's granola recipe.

Ingredients

• 3c rolled oats
  
• 1c chopped or slivered almonds
  
• 3/4c shredded coconut
  
• 3T brown sugar
  
• 2T honey or maple syrup
  
• 1c raisins, chopped dates, and craisins
  
• pinch of salt
  
• anything else you happen to want to add (today we added about 1/4c peanuts to supplement a lack of almonds).
  

Preheat oven to 250. Take out a baking sheet with moderately steep sides. Add the oats, nuts, coconut, sugar, honey (more or less evenly), and salt. Stir that around with a spatula or wooden spoon. Then put it in the oven and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, taking it out ever 15 minutes and stirring it around to make sure it toasts evenly. Once it's done, throw in the dried fruit.

Thoughts: We've made this a couple times, and it always turns out well. It's kind of a 'blank slate' recipe - you could just add cinnamon or vanilla, maybe orange zest, or chocolate chips (though only after it's done baking). Actually, come to think of it, you could probably use chocolate chips slightly before it's done baking and get sort of 'clusters' of granola, though you'd probably have to refrigerate it once it comes out of the oven.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - A fool-proof, open-ended recipe. Maybe you could make granola bars out of it, too.

Pad Thai

This is based on a recipe Emily gave me (and showed me how to make) after she took a cooking class in Thailand or somewhere like that. I can't remember. Anyway, it's authentic, more or less. I messed around with the proportions, and the ones in this recipe are only an approximation of what I actually used.

Ingredients

• 1/2 block of tofu, cut into .5cm x 1.5cm x 1.5cm blocks (or so).
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• some oil
  
• ~7oz 'rice stick noodle'
  
• 2T brown sugar
  
• 3T soy sauce
  
• 3T mushroom sauce ('vegetarian stir-fry sauce')
  
• water
  
• 1 egg, beaten
  
• 1/3c scallions, chopped
  
• limes, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts to top
  

Heat a small amount of oil in a big pan (wok, if you have it) and add the garlic. After about 30 seconds or a minute, add the tofu and cook until the tofu is getting brown and crispy. Then add the egg and scramble. Once the egg is cooked, add the brown sugar, soy sauce, mushroom sauce, scallions, and noodles. toss those around a little, and then add about a cup of water. Stir around a little more, and then cover. The steam cooks the noodles. Stir the pot around periodically so things don't stick. If the pad thai ever looks like it's starting to get dry, add more water and re-cover. When the pasta is cooked through, adjust seasoning, add water and possibly more soy sauce, hot sauce (maybe sriracha, if you have any) and serve. Feeds about 3-4, depending on how hungry you are.

Thoughts: This went pretty well. Next time I'm thinking I'll add a little rice-wine vinegar or tamarind juice (or both), a little more brown sugar, a little fish sauce, and a little more water / soy sauce / stir fry sauce. The recipe works very nicely, it's just a matter of adjusting the seasoning to taste right.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - this is workable. Give it a shot.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup with Kale

This is an adaptation of the soup of a similar name at Epicurious. But we changed the proportions a little and used an uncooked (I think) Chorizo sausage.

Ingredients:

• 1 7-8oz Chorizo sausage
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 1 clove garlic (or more), minced or crushed
  
• 2 large sweet potatoes, quartered lengthwise and chopped ~1/3" or 1/4" thick.
  
• 3 c chicken broth
  
• a bunch of kale (I have no idea how much. Until it looks right), chopped or however you like.
  

Heat the sausage in oil over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes. If it's anything like ours, it will just fall apart, so there's no point in chopping it up beforehand. Otherwise, 1/4" slices are recommended.

After it cooks, remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and set in a bowl with a bunch of paper towels to drain. Add the onion into the pot along with the garlic. When the onion is translucent, add the sweet potatoes and cook over medium-low heat for about twelve minutes, stirring often. Add the stock and cook for another 20 minutes. Mash some of the sweet potatoes in the pot, and then re-add the sausage along with the kale. Simmer until the kale is the right texture.

Thoughts:
The kale could have been added sooner, about ten minutes after we added the stock. Also, next time maybe we can get sausage that won't fall apart completely while it's cooking. This particular sausage added a really smoky flavor that was pretty good, but pretty intense, and since it fell apart it really overpowered the other flavors. Getting something that coheres would be much better. The soup itself was pretty good, but really quite heavy. Next time I don't know if I'd mash the potatoes at all. It was something of a stew rather than a soup.

Disaster Index: 3/10 - not really a disaster at all, but there were a few things that could be changed. Still, quite delicious in small quantities.

Espresso Miel

A quick recipe, if you can call it that.

I added a little Penzy's China Cassia cinnamon to the coffee grounds before I brewed them (in my Bialetti espresso maker). You have to be careful with this stuff. I probably added 1/6 tsp, but it was almost (almost) overpowering.

Anyway, add honey and milk and you have an "espresso miel" (it's what they call a similar concoction at Electric Earth Café).

Disaster Index: 3/10 - it had a nice flavor, but it's nothing special. If you want something different, it's good.

Fat Free Yogurt Scones

Ingredients
Dry:

• 1 c flour
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/6 c sugar
  
• pinch of salt
  
• raisins / craisins / currants / dried blueberries / whatever
  

Wet:

• 1/2 c fat free yogurt
  
• 1 egg
  

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Combine, but don't over-mix. Spoon out into about six equal scones on a greased baking sheet. Bake 375 for about fifteen minutes, until just barely brown on top.

Thoughts:
I wanted some vaguely healthy scones. But Alton Brown's recipe called for sour cream, butter, and shortening. A lot of recipes use heavy cream or buttermilk in addition to as much butter as the batter will hold.

The fat gives the scone a flakier texture. So these scones will not be the usual scone texture. They're kind of cakey, but when you warm them up with butter and a little jam, they work perfectly for tea. If I want more fat next time, I could try whole fat yogurt instead of fat free. Emily suggests possibly adding oats to alter the texture, though I'm skeptical.

Disaster Index: 3/10 - They're not quite scones, but they're still pretty good.