Help, help, I'm drowning!

Not in water, nor in work, but in an addiction. I'm addicted to recipes. Recipes, you say? But recipes are good! I like recipes! Yeah, me too, but this is getting out of hand. I very reluctantly hit the "delete" button on FoodGawker in my Google Reader today, and I had to keep saying to myself "this is the right thing to do, this is good." Because let's face it. The point of copying all these recipes diligently into my database is supposedly that I can have a lot of great things to cook. But I don't have time to cook, I certainly don't have time to plan meals, and lately I haven't had time to blog or leave comments or enjoy this community that I'm in because I've been so busy diligently going through my reader, bookmarking recipes, and then importing them one-by-one into YummySoup. This seriously has to stop. In the interest of catching up a little, I've trimmed back so that I'm only using Tastespotting and the individual blogs I like, and I'm only copying recipes that are actually unique or really something I want, and I'm using this post to dump some of the photos that I'd like to blog about but let's be honest - I don't even remember how I made these things from September or October! So it's not quite cold turkey, but it's a start, and maybe I'll even dig into some of the wonderful cookbooks I own and sit down and plan some meals, instead of getting swept so heavily into the hurricane force winds that are the internet.



This was a sort of middle eastern-style toss up I made with roasted eggplant, yoghurt, lemon, onion, parsley, and dill. I'm becoming very attached to plain yoghurt, and I tried to have some vanilla the other day for breakfast and it was just painfully sweet. Maybe that's good news for my sugar addiction.



In case you ever wondered how I normally start my day, this is it. I'm still addicted to Adagio, though I'll admit that Mighty Leaf ginger twist and rainforest maté are tasty enough that I considered going back to them just for those two at the Christmas sale. The multigrain cheerios are my normal starter, except in the dead of winter, and I have six boxes in my closet from a sale at the grocery store.



I never did give you a final verdict on the Sachertorte. I liked it, though next time more apricot jam. It was predictably dry, as European cakes are, but the Schlag always fixes that. The Austrian professor was happy that I'd remembered it, though he did mention that he has Sachertorte for breakfast every morning. Psh. How was I to know?



Before cutting back on sugar, I went on a bit of a Choxie binge. Their chocolate isn't cheap, but I do highly recommend this key lime thing, which has bits of graham cracker in it, as well as all their various espresso/coffee flavours and the cake flavoured truffles. You can get Choxie at Target.



Rita and I had a seminar together this semester, and she came over one day to work on our research together and put together this lovely little spinach salad.



I meant to take my camera with me when my friend Matt and I finally got a chance to try out Seoul Grille, but I didn't, so behold leftovers. It was actually quite good, though I had to do some bargaining since there wasn't anything vegetarian on the menu. Fortunately, they could do this dish with tofu and without the egg, which I didn't really want. There were lovely bits of marianated seitan (or maybe it was tempeh) and all sorts of vegetables to throw in (or eat alone).



This tasted better than it looks, but you have to admit that the combination of blue cheese and caramelized onions is a good one.

Around the World in 26 Letters: Sachertorte!

When I saw that the first challenge for the letter "A" was Austria, I knew I wanted to participate. Austrian baked goods are, quite frankly, yummy, and what's more I was planning on doing this on a Sunday and I have a Monday class with an Austrian professor from 5-7 where we're all complaining that we're starving. So I decided to make a Sachertorte and bring it to class. Since it is only 2:43 on Monday as I write this, I haven't tasted it, but I can tell you about the process. I followed the recipe more or less religiously, and it went pretty well for the most part.

It looked complicated, but the cake part took only an hour from start to in the oven, and baked up quite nicely. I didn't bother "spackling" the little holes, because I'm not that anal. The apricot glaze was also fairly easy, though I was somewhat limited by a grocery store that only had one apricot option, called "fruit spread." I didn't bother straining either, because bits of apricot are tasty. The hard part came with the chocolate glaze. I used the small saucepan as recommended, and I'm glad the chocolate didn't burn, but it was impossible to keep it from boiling over! I couldn't stir very effectively with the candy thermometer in, and if I tried to stir and then stick it back in, it wouldn't get all the way up to the temperature before it had started boiling over again. So I estimate that it was probably only about 220 degrees max, and definitely too thin.

My kitchen was quite a mess after it had run all over the place, and though I kept doing a scrape-and-retry job, it never really set enough to keep there from being thin spots where you could see through. You can see the dripping in progress here, which continued onto my floor. I decided it didn't really matter, though, and a thin glaze is still a glaze.. So I'm about to go whip up some Sahne and head to class. I can tell you that the cake itself is tasty, and the top that you have to cut off tastes great with jam! I don't know if I'd do it other than for a special occasion, because the jam and chocolate are pretty expensive, but it's an impressive treat. Check out Prettybaking in Israel in October for the roundup!

AVF #4: Watermelon, Cucumber Salad, and Fruit Salad

For the picnic theme, I decided to go with cold things. Actually, this is mostly the fault of the weather, not the challenge, as the heat index has been above 100 and the humidity has made me wonder whether I haven't accidentally morphed myself home. I have a small box air conditioner in my bedroom, but the design of the apartment means that there is no airflow to the other rooms. It's been a challenge, but a welcome one, to think of lots of cold things to eat.

The first picture is sliced watermelons and cucumber salad, which is actually just cucumber with S&P and oil and vinegar. I found the recipe on Tastespotting, but I kind of mangled it by using seeded cucumbers and cutting them thicker. It was still tasty, and I got to try out my white wine vinegar with herbes de Provence. Next, we have a simple fruit salad with apricot, kiwi, strawberries, Granny Smith apple, and seedless red grapes. Tasty! Fresh apricot is a bit tart for salad, but I don't mind it. Maybe next time I'll break down and buy peaches.

A week of feasting

So I'm obviously a bit behind on getting all my recent meals posted for you, but part of the reason for that is that I had my friend Nicole visiting for a week, during which we cooked a lot. Having a guest to do the dishes and chop things is never a bad thing, and I'm always more enthusiastic about tasty food when there's someone other than me around to eat it. Of course, the flood made impromptu grocery trips difficult, but we managed to do pretty will regardless. The apricots pictured here were purchased one night during a walk downtown that turned into a swim, practically, when the sky opened up. Judith's flood tip of the day: always go to the store with a buddy, so that when you need the last gallon bottle of water on a high shelf, said buddy can give you a leg up.

The apricots were breakfast for most of the week, because I came up with the most amazing crumble recipe. It was actually a hybrid of a few different recipes, because I wanted to use fresh apricots but the crumble topping I liked most came from a recipe that used the dried variety. I used this in terms of oven temp/time, and I used about a pound of apricots, halved and stones removed. I baked in a greased casserole, not a pie dish. I then prepared the topping from this recipe and sprinkled it on top before baking, but without the whole pecans. So tasty, especially if you're a big fan of tart fruits (which I am).

We also did some dishes that I didn't bother to photograph - Nicole's amazing grilled cheese, my goat cheese enhanced scrambled eggs, and the zucchini patties I posted about before (that are still amazing) - but I decided that this grits dish deserved a snapshot. I cooked the grits in the usual way on the stove, then added a bit of butter and a LOT of cheese. Parmesan, mozzarella, and goat cheese all made an appearance, making the grits thick and cheesy and amazing. Sauteed onion and canned (blame the flood) mushrooms went on top, cooked with a little sherry.

The last food adventure we tried was a cheesy tortilla pie. I made a lot of variations on the original recipe, but I loved my version. I used an 8" springform and 8" flour tortillas, so no trimming. I think I used six tortillas. For the cheese, I mixed cheddar and mozzarella. I only used on can of black beans, but I also added a can of mushrooms. Once the bean mixture was a few minutes from done, I added a chopped zucchini in place of the corn. I didn't use a jalepeno, and I used water because I didn't have beer. It turned out great though, despite all the changes. Very cheesy, and I loved the green onions on top. The springform pan is also great for presentation.

One last thing I wanted to mention is a trip to Masala, a restaurant in Iowa City, for dinner. I've been to one of Iowa City's two Indian places, but not Masala, which is all vegetarian. I really enjoyed it! We got an appetizer platter, which may not have been the best idea, and I was so-so on some of that, but the garlic naan was amazing, as was the rose lhassi. For my main course, I had punjabi curry, and it was perfect for my tastebuds. I asked for it "very mild," and it was just spicy enough for me, with a delicious rich curry sauce.

Don't forget! Entries for A Vegetarian Picnic Feast are due a week from today, July 4th!