Try some bulgur; it's not vulgar

Apologies for the title of this post. I was in a somewhat corny mood. So, bulgur salad. A success, I would say. I've had some bulgur lying around since a visit to Stringtown Grocery when I just grabbed any grains that looked cheap and tasty, but I hadn't done anything with it until now. The other morning it was cloudy and cool, and I rushed to boil my bulgur while it stayed that way, and then made this cold salad that I could eat when it got hot again. I used this recipe but I deviated a lot.

I wasn't able to find all the vegetables at the Farmer's Market, or cheaply elsewhere, and I was determined not to spend a lot of money on this project. So I went with the dressing formula as-is, with the exception of possibly having slightly less than six tablespoons and four tablespoons of the fresh herbs (and it was plenty), but I changed the veggies. I used some sweet onion, some sweet pepper (a kind of pale yellow colour), and some roma tomato for colour. As you can see here, to cut down on dish use I mixed the yoghurt in the bowl I'd be using for the salad, then threw the chopped veggies in, and then finally mixed in the bulgur. I also didn't bother toasting the pine nuts and thought they were unnecessary, considering how much pine nuts cost. I loved the salad, though. It made enough for about six small to medium sized servings, and it was tasty with a nice contrast between the crunch of the bulgur and the moisture from the yoghurt. Very flavourful.

Yet another grilled cheese

Tired of grilled cheese yet? Too bad for you. No really, this should be the last one. I think my craving is quite satisfied. This is the same "mystery" recipe as before, except with mozzarella, and I thought equally tasty. The good news is, we're finally hitting that peak point of the foodie year in Iowa City - the point where there are still good vegetables at the farmer's market, and good fruits in the grocery store, but it's cool enough in my apartment to actually cook/bake them. This is a very small window, but hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of it. Classes start tomorrow, though, and I need to think about what appetizer I'm going to bring to an international programs picnic on Thursday. It has to be from a non-US culture, so I'm thinking sigara böregi. Maybe. Also going to Kalona next week for tasty, tasty cheese, which will be a good thing. I love me some tasty cheese!

Foodie Failure

Well that was annoying. I'd been craving sweets from the time I got up around 6:30, and at about 2 pm I decided to do something about it. I was all set to make lava cake, when I managed to burn a substantial quantity of chocolate. I was so annoyed by the loss of perfectly costly chocolate and the fact that I'd have to wash yet another dish with no food in return that I gave up on the cake idea. Now I have some diced butter in my fridge that I wish was not diced, and I'm still craving sweets something awful. Ah, well. Really I'm not posting just to complain, but to tell you about a new widget I just stuck on the layout here. Look left and you'll see a little box from Suite101. It will update with my latest articles - not a whole lot about food so far, but some of them will be. And perhaps other topics you enjoy!

Une fête du fromage!

I was very excited when one of the bloggers I read regularly, Chez Loulou, announced that her regular feature, La Fête du Fromage, would have a blogger event companion of the same name. But I also must admit, spending money on cheese is not something I can do right now. I don't know if the French economy is holding up better than the rest of the world, or if it's just the fact that cheese is *always* cheap in France (which it is), but when I went to the cheese bin and saw that even tiny, halfway decent good cheeses were $4 and up, I knew I'd burst into tears if I brought one home. So instead of celebrating the particular type of cheese (Sargento grated cheddar, extra sharp), I'm celebrating the technique.

This is my second attempt at grilled cheese, and I'm embarrassed to say that after I learned this technique I couldn't find it anywhere. I know I read about it on a blog, but I checked my favourites, tastespotting, food gawker, my Google reader, and nothing. If you know where it's from, please let me know. I know it came up in the past couple of weeks. Anyway, the super-simple technique is just to combine three parts grated cheddar with one part sour cream and a bit of dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. You put this on your bread, you butter the outside, and I again used the toaster oven technique at 425, about six minutes a side. I'll link to the real recipe as soon as I find it, but I loved the technique. It made the cheese gooey and goopey, but a lot easier to swallow than plain old melted cheese, and it comes apart better so there aren't strings of cheese hanging out of your mouth. Also, the mustard gave it just the right spice. I'm not a big mustard fan, but I loved the taste. Thanks Loulou to hosting the event and mystery blogger for the recipe!

Soup! Very green soup!

I have to admit, as much as I love them, I don't normally buy avocados in Iowa. They're just far too expensive. $1.69 for a single avocado? Give me a break. I'll take the packaged guac, thanks. However, I have been looking for tasty cold soups beyond the standard gazpacho, and this recipe from Spicy Salty Sweet, adopted from Gourmet (which I haven't actually had a chance to read, even though it's the June issue), caught my eye. Her picture makes it look much thicker and creamier, which is probably the buttermilk, but mine was still mighty tasty. Unfortunately, the man at the farmer's market lied when he said he had seedless cucumbers. I definitely spent some time hollowing out the seeds. That said, the cucumber was delicious, the extremely expensive avocado was mighty nice, and my adjustments (no salt, sweet onion instead of scallions) didn't really hurt anything. Soup that isn't perfectly smooth takes some getting used to, but I like the taste, especially the mint. Yum!

Cucumber and Avocado Soup
adapted from Gourmet via Spicy Salty Sweet
makes 3-4 servings

one large (preferably seedless) cucumber (about a pound)
one large avocado
1/8 to 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
a couple squirts of lime juice or the juice of half a lime
1/2 cup skim milk

Chop the avocado and the cucumber into fairly large chunks, removing seeds from cuke if necessary. Leave aside a small handful of cucumber and avocado, and throw the rest into the food processor with the onion, mint, and lime juice. Process to a puree, then add the milk and blend until smooth. Throw the chunks of veggies in and eat.

Blog Party Retro: Grilled Cheese and Egg Cream

I must admit, when I read the theme for this month's Blog Party, I scratched my head a bit. I gather that a lot of people were really excited about the "retro" theme, but I couldn't really think of any retro food. I don't have retro cookbooks. Could just be my sprightly age, but I had no idea. So I started thinking about diner food. Diners are kind of a 50s thing, I think. And I used to love egg creams when I was a teenager, so I could make one of those. And grilled cheese, that's kind of a diner food. And hey, my mom was born between the 1920s and 1960s! (I won't tell you the year, because a lady's daughter never tells her age). I love my mom's grilled cheese to death. I don't know if she was actually making it in the 1960s yet, but it's delish. Unfortunately, I kind of suck at grilled cheese, though, so I decided to cheat. I used the broiler on my toaster oven, and as you can see it doesn't really crisp, because the crusts blacken so much that you want to take it out while the rest is still a bit soft. I did try it again, though (not pictured), with the toaster oven at 425, and that worked very well. Nice and light brown and crispy. Also, it turns out egg creams don't have egg in them (really?) I thought they were like milkshakes, you know, you drop a raw egg in to make it tastier. But no. This one kind of failed, because I used a short glass, but I hate washing out the tall ones.

Mom's Grilled Cheese
The Toaster Oven Version

2 slices bread (I used sourdough)
3-4 thick slices of extra sharp Cheddar (I used Tillamook Reserve)
mayo
margarine

Preheat toaster oven to 425. Slather your bread with mayo, then top with enough Cheddar to cover it. Spread the outside of the sandwich with margarine on both sides. Put on the foil-lined toaster oven tray. Cook about six minutes on each side. The bread should be light brown and cripsy, the cheese nice and gooey.

Egg Cream
(makes one tall glass)

2 T chocolate syrup
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup seltzer

Make sure all ingredients are cold. Squirt the syrup in the bottom of a tall glass. Slowly pour the milk in, then the seltzer to within an inch of the rim of the glass. Let it foam up, then carefully stir with a long spoon, trying not to disturb the foam.

Judith, You're So Smooth!

Yes, another smoothie post. I did a lot of experimenting with different combinations. I tried one that was a variation of something I saw on Tastespotting featuring a couple of kiwis, strawberry, and banana, but I found that the frozen strawberry taste was nothing like fresh. The one below ended up being pretty good, despite that, but I think part of it is just that using frozen fruits makes it more like ice cream. The banana provides the thickening. The trick is to drink it before it melts, and tastes like plain old smoothie. I also tried just a plain old peach smoothie, with regular peaches, and the lack of peach taste was surprising. I could mostly taste the honey. Go figure.

Frozen Berry Smoothie
(makes one serving)

about 8 whole frozen strawberries
a handful of fresh blueberries
half a frozen banana
1/4 cup (approximate) skim milk
a few squirts of honey
a couple tablespoons of wheat germ

Pulse all the ingredients except for the milk first, until a puree forms, to avoid milk spraying around the kitchen out the sides of the food processor. Add the milk and blend until smooth. Enjoy immediately.