Sick-Day Chicken Soup

Jill

It's bound to happen. Every year, the temperature drops significantly over night, and then one of us gets a cold. Blech. Everybody knows that home made chicken soup makes you feel better when you're sick, even if it's only helping you mentally. If you've got some kind of full-time commitment like work or school (or screaming children), you may think that making a pot of chicken soup from scratch is an impossibility given your super-busy schedule. WRONG, IDIOT. JEEZ. DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING? Um, I'm kidding, but seriously, I've learned along the way how to cut some serious chicken-souping corners and still come out with a huge pot of something that tastes just as good as chicken soup from complete scratch.

Moving

Jill

I've noticed that a lot of blogs go through the cliche where weeks pass by without a single post, followed by some sort of sorry explanation to account for the laziness. Well, this blog is no exception, but I promise I have a great reason!

Asian-Inspired Vegetable Soup with Shiritaki Noodles

Jill

Making soup used to seem mysterious and time-consuming, but now I've come to the conclusion that it's got to be difficult to screw it up. Boil water with something to make stock, or buy premade stock and save yourself buttloads of time. Then you just add anything you like. I've gone through those steps multiple times and I've yet to come out with anything inedible or gross.

Weeknight Vegetarian Chili

Jill

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE making a big ol' pot of meaty chili and letting it slowly simmer together. However, it's not always practical to pull one together from thin air. For instance, you may not always have fresh beef or its defrosted alternative ready to go at a moments notice. This vegetarian chili can be thrown together from stuff that can be kept in your cabinets indefinitely (almost), takes about half as much time from start to finish, and tastes pretty darn good if you ask me. 

Baked Pasta Puttanesca

Jill

I'm not sure if this is a universal statement or not, but when I go back to school, my stress level skyrockets. The amount of time I have for planning and creating elaborate meals shrinks, and I pretty much just want to curl up in a ball and have somebody take care of everything for me. Since I don't live in fantasy land, I have to make due with what I can. I think this semester I'm really going to try making quasi-healthy cooking a priority so that I don't get on the train to Bloatsville, USA.

Mediterranean Swordfish in Parchment Packets

Jill

Usually for Keith's birthday, I ask him what he would like me to make him for dinner. This year he decided he wanted to eat swordfish, and all I can say is thank goodness for food blogs. Prior to that, my entire fish-cooking repertoire consisted of salmon, haddock, cod, and tilapia. That's it. Swordfish has always seemed like something out of my league. Why? Because I told myself so, and then it becomes the truth. I did a little food blog searching and came up with a recipe that seemed relatively simple to prepare.

A Review of Daiya Vegan Cheese

I think it would be a lot more difficult to live lactose-free if there weren't all of these wonderful products on the market that cater to people with issues or lifestyles similar to mine. Replicating cheese is obviously a HUGE deal, as tons of childhood comfort foods revolve around this ingredient. Some of the available products I've encountered, however, have been either baffling or downright gross.

Lentil Salad with Dill

Jill

I can't believe that summer is winding down already! It's almost time to bring out the warmer clothes and spend hundreds of dollars on required textbooks that I'll probably open once or twice. I can still cling to the warm weather for a few more weeks and experiment with the last of the season's cold dishes that I'll have in my repertoire for next summer.

Vegetable Tian

Jill

I realized recently that it had been a while since I spent an afternoon in the kitchen, relaxing and preparing a dinner that takes a little more care and effort than the usual throw-together-and-devour meal. As I was pondering this idea, I came across some beautiful photos on tastespotting of vegetable tian, a French casserole composed of rounds of vegetables layered over a bed of sautéed onions and garlic. As I researched this dish, I found that most of the recipes were more or less the same. They all seemed to involve potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini at the very least, with eggplant and yellow summer squash occasionally present. Many of the recipes topped the casserole with melty gruyere cheese, which I would love to taste, but obviously that isn't an option.

Fish Tacos

Jill

Last night was one of those nights where it was really just too hot to think. I went to the store planning to get a couple of nice pieces of tuna to marinate and sear, but when I got there, the tuna didn't look so hot. Instead, I grabbed some haddock, a fish that I'm familiar with cooking. I usually bake the stuff in a hot oven with tons of heavy ingredients on top, but there was no way I was going to heat up my whole apartment.

Healthy Breakfast. No, Really.

Jill

So I love food. I love a LOT of food. However, this poses a little problem, or a big problem, depending on how you want to look at it. It occurred to me a month or two ago that I had reached the heaviest weight I'd ever been in my entire life. I couldn't understand how this could be possible. I cut out every single scrap of dairy from my whole diet. I stopped consuming the obscene amounts of meat I used to consume. I hardly ever ate candy, cake, or cookies, simply because I couldn't due to the dairy, and yet my weight was still gradually climbing.

Blackberry Gel Pudding

Jill

Chocolate has always been my favorite dessert flavor, but the older I get, the more I start veering away from chocolate and heading into fruit-related territory. I had some blackberries hanging around in my fridge and decided to try out a blackberry pudding because hey, why not. This is actually more like a blackberry gel dessert. If you want something with a more pudding-like consistency, halve the amount of cornstarch. The texture may be a bit deceiving after first cooking the pudding, but the after a few hours in the fridge, the gel really sets up.

Vegan Pesto

Jill

It's weird how the prospect of not being able to have something makes you want to have it more, even if you never really wanted it in the first place. I used to always take my coffee black with sugar, way before all of this lactose-intolerance nonsense. Now I've tried almost every non-dairy creamer on the market (and I've become pretty loyal to one made from coconut milk). I find myself wanting to try a lot of dairy foods that I never really cared about when I could actually eat them.

Cucumber Avocado soup with Prosciutto-wrapped Melon

Jill

It's finally fixed! It seemed like forever, but my computer is finally fully functioning and operational. In celebration, I'd like to post some of the things I've been hanging on to for the past few weeks.

Lately, there have been a lot of unbelievably hot, muggy nights. They're the type of nights that don't really lend themselves to standing over a hot stove or cranking the oven. If you're in the same boat, try this combo out and see how quickly you become refreshed.

Mini Chocolate Berry Tarts

Jill

So it's been pretty impossible to post updates lately, and this problem stems from the fact that my computer is in a semi-permanent state of dead. The computer is less than a year old and therefore still under warranty, but for some reason it's been taking an ungodly amount of time for it to get fixed. I have photoshop installed on that computer, and though you might not be able to tell from the horrible state of most of my own photography, I do like to touch up a couple of things before I upload pictures. For instance, the lighting in my apartment isn't always that great for taking pictures of food, and things that are actually in vibrant delicious colors end up being captured in sad, flat, unappetizing colors (with a little help from my non-pro point & shoot camera). With a few lighting adjustments on photoshop, I can get the colors in the photo to be pretty close to how they are on my kitchen counter.

That being said, I realize I can't really hope to keep a blog going if I don't continue to update it (plus I miss writing about whatever I ate the day before), so I'll make a couple of posts without my precious photoshop until this problem can be fixed.

Zucchini "Pasta"

Jill

So, it's been a while! Georgeanne and I are both in positions that have been making it difficult to post. She's staying at her sister's in Edinburgh (and eventually moving back here), and I have a lovely combination of final exams and a computer that keeps randomly shutting itself off. I have a ton of stuff saved up that I'd like to post, but I'll start with something really simple and easy to make.

Vegan Bolognese

Jill

From the amount of vegan recipes I post here, a person might assume I'm a vegan. I'm actually neither a vegan or a vegetarian. A while back, I thought about the amount of meat both Keith and I were consuming on a daily basis. Without making any conscious effort to do so, I realized we were both eating meat at LEAST once a day, and sometimes even with every meal. I'm pretty sure we take the availability and inexpensiveness of meat in this country for granted to be able to eat so much of it without even realizing it. We both decided to cut back our meat intake to one day a week. It's not super strict, and nobody is getting yelled at for ordering a steak if we happen to go out to dinner even if we already had meat that week. We both ended up feeling a lot healthier, and strangely enough, I find myself not even desiring meat the same way I used to. If you combine the effort to cut out some of the meat in my diet with the lactose intolerance, a lot of the things I make end up being vegan kind of by coincidence.

Home Brewing Update

Jill

My beer has spent about 3 weeks fermenting, and something tastes off. I gave it a little taste-test and it seems to be a little too sweet for the amount of time it's spent in the container. That could mean a number of things, but I'm hoping that the yeast just took a little break. Usually, sweetness could mean that the fermentation isn't finished. If the temperature of my beer dropped below 68º, the yeast would stop fermenting. Luckily, once the temperature returns to an appropriate level, the yeast will pick up right where it left off. If this is the issue, all I have to do is allow the beer to sit for a little while longer. However, if things don't start tasting right in about a week, I'll have to scrap it and start over.

Balsamic Risotto with Roasted Red Peppers

Jill

After getting comfortable with the idea of risotto, I realized it's actually a pretty easy thing to throw together on a weeknight. It's also a great base recipe to start with to get rid of some of the things in your fridge (like I keep saying I want to do more of.) I had a half of a jar or roasted red peppers in my fridge, so I used that as a starting point for this recipe. Since Keith loves the flavor of balsamic vinegar on anything and I just acquired a bottle of some really delicious stuff, I figured it might be a good addition to the risotto. I started with a pretty small amount of the vinegar and I'm really glad I did. It lent just the right amount of flavor to the dish, but I think any more might have been too much. 

Home Brewing Part 1

Jill

A few years ago, my brother got me a Mr. Beer kit for my birthday. The idea of brewing my own beer had never occured to me, but as a biology major the process of fermentation was nothing foreign. I always imagined home brewing as something extremely time consuming and easy to screw up, and it probably is. Luckily, the "Mr. Beer" kit is kind of foolproof. Think of it as the EZ bake oven of home brewing.

Peach Smoothies (non-dairy and vegan)

Jill

It seemed long overdue, but we can finally turn off the heater and open the windows. That also means that pancakes and oatmeal are going to be off of the Sunday breakfast menu for a while. In this weather, I would rather have something refreshing that's going to leave me energized, as opposed to the usually carb-laden faire that causes me to veg around on the couch for at least an hour afterwards.

Dairy-Free (and vegan) Blueberry Ice Cream

Jill

It's been pretty rainy and gross in Connecticut for the past few days. Spring seems to be taking far too long to get here, and I've been taking the opportunity to make a lot of the heavier, blazing oven foods that I know I won't be in the mood for once things start warming up. This weekend, however, I decided that we needed a little taste of summer.

Garlic and Lemon Baked Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots

Jill

I love chicken. Baked or roasted chicken is one of my favorite comfort foods, and although the end result is fantastic, there really isn't that much effort required in the preparation. The first time I made Elise's classic baked chicken , I was stunned at what came out of the oven. The only ingredients that went into it were chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper, and yet when I took my first bite it was so flavorful. (If you noticed that both Georgeanne and I link to Simply Recipes a lot, it's probably because I basically learned to cook from Elise's blog when I got my first apartment, and I often link Georgeanne to some of her recipes.)

Risotto with Rainbow Chard

Jill

Risotto. It sounds so fancy, doesn't it? Maybe that's why the prospect of making it has always scared the crap out of me. Georgeanne (who is currently en route to the US, so maybe we can make something fun together in the coming weeks) has explained to me in the past that it's actually really easy to throw together a risotto. Just keep adding liquid to your rice until it absorbs it and stir. 

Kitchen Experiment: Chow Fun Noodles made from Won Ton Wrappers

Jill

I love chow fun, but for some reason, Connecticut doesn't. In New York, it seemed that every Chinese restaurant had chow fun on the menu. Since we moved to Connecticut about a year and a half ago, we haven't been able to find any local places that carry the stuff. I'm definitely a noodle lover, and the big, square-shaped, squishy chow fun noodles are up there among my favorites. It's occured to me several times that I should try to make chow fun at home, but the Asian markets in the area are limited and packaged chow fun noodles are difficult to find.

Pizza Minus Dairy

Jill

 

I don't think I'd be saying anything too shocking by stating that it's difficult to eat healthy or cook at home all of the time as a full-time student. A lot of evenings when I come home from a long day of classes, knowing that I have to invest more time in studying for an exam the next day, I just crack open a jar of pasta sauce and boil some spaghetti. On even lazier days, I just dial the number for the Chinese restaurant down the street. I do really enjoy cooking, but sometimes it seems impossible, or I'm just too exhausted.

Basic Thai Chicken Curry

Georgeanne

Easy Thai Chicken Curry
(can be substituted with tofu or shrimp, or beef with red curry)
Serves 2 with a little bit of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch

For a little over a euro, I bought a substantial pot of yellow curry paste. I can easily get five or six meals out of that!

SEAL OF APPROVAL

Georgeanne

SEAL OF APPROVAL

My favorite grocery store here in Paris is Tang Frères, a gigantic Asian grocery store with the best prices in the whole city. Seriously, you save so much money by shopping there. Cheese and bread are cheap in France, but nothing else! Though the bulk of their stock is Asian, your culinary prospects are not limited as they have a huge inexpensive selection of fresh herbs and vegetables, fruit, meat and seafood.

EZ BOK CHOY with Garlic and Oyster Sauce

Georgeanne


Really, really easy Bok Choy with Garlic and Oyster Sauce 

Ingredients

• Two bunches of large bok choy, or a few bunches of  baby bok choy (or however much you'd like)
• 1 tsp of cooking oil
• 1/2 cup oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

Shrimp with Avocado and Bacon on Seasoned Rice

Jill

I told myself I was going to start trying to make dinner from food I already had on hand, but for some reason that process scared me. I'm not really used to cooking blind without a recipe yet. Last night, however, I was in a really relaxed mood, and I just didn't feel like going to the store. The boyfriend and I had eaten a late lunch at a diner and had spent the rest of the day at the book store, so by the time we got home in the evening neither one of us was starving. 

Dîner à la Française

Georgeanne

In stark contrast to Superbowl fare, the boyfriend's aunt cooked up a French feast for his cousin's birthday.

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Jill

 

Superbowl Sunday usually means chicken wings, chili, and other heavy man-type food. I definitely enjoy all of that deliciously unhealthy stuff, but this year I wanted to throw a little something extra in. I wanted to break up the usual masculinity with something completely frivolous, and almost ridiculous in contrast. That's right. It's rainbow cupcake time.

Dairy-Free Lasagna

Jill

 

 Nutritional yeast is something that used to really scare me. It's a vegetarian supplement, made from little yellowish flakes of yeast (obviously.) I kept running into it in vegan-friendly recipes, mostly worked in as a cheese flavoring. I kept avoiding it, however, because not only did it seem a little too weird for me, it also seemed unnecessary. Plenty of cheese substitutes were easily available around me, and they worked just fine. Macaroni and cheese? All I needed was some soymilk, some margarine, and some shredded soy "cheddar". Pizza? Shredded soy mozzarella worked just fine. Tofutti makes a pretty good "cream cheese" and "sour cream". Still, there was one problem I kept running into: ricotta. Nobody sells a non-dairy ricotta, and if they do, I have no idea how to get a hold of it.

I've Been Schooled

Jill

I can't really speak for Georgeanne, but I pretty much know a few things to be true. We are not photographers. We are also not chefs. We are two people who truly enjoy cooking at home with the limited resources that we have, and we enjoy learning a few things on the way. We spent a lot of time talking about cooking together, and this blog kind of naturally came together as a way to share our food experiences with each other. If other people enjoy reading about them or can benefit from them in some way, that's even better.

Fancy Frühstück

Georgeanne

Glühwein and Mulled Cider

It's a crime to talk about the Winternachtsmarkt without mentioning the rich, hot beverages. Glühwein, a staple of the German winter markets, means “glowing wine. Glowing like…embers!” as my German roommate explained to me. Glühwein is hot mulled wine that really just hits the spot while outdoors on a brisk Berlin evening.

My sister with Glühwein at the Edinburgh German Christmas market

Jamie Oliver's recipe for mulled wine is a great start. I like to play around with the spices, for instance I tend to like more cinnamon (his recipe calls for one stick, I like two) and maybe a couple more cloves. But really, it’s to your liking so his method is a good foundation for your own personal mulled wine recipe.

Instead of making it in a pot, my dad adds the wine then the spices to the Crock Pot and lets them mull slowly. I like this method the best, it keeps the wine warm and rich.

Trying something new, my friend got hot Apfelwein, or mulled cider. Oh yeah, the Glühwein and cider stalls all had free gingersnaps to much on and dip into your hot drink. Amazing.

Mulled cider is made like mulled wine, so you can follow Jamie Oliver’s recipe and use cider rather than wine. For the nice and easy Crock Pot way- add as much cider as you’d like to the Crock Pot and then add the spices and boil. Turn down the heat as it mulls. Add some rum for some fun.

- Travel Tales - 

The woman working at that mulled cider stand was pretty grumpy, unlike anyone else at this festive market, and carded my friend when she ordered the Apfelwein (nobody cards anybody in Europe.) It took about 10 minutes for her to angrily pantomime what she wanted us to do since our German was limited and her English was nonexistent. We tried handing her money, saying the name of what we wanted again, saying “bitte?” over and over etc. Anyway by some miracle of Gott we figured it out what she wanted and handed her the ID. The woman was confused/angered by the hologram on her driver license (from British Columbia), glanced at it briefly, and, without making eye contact, gave us the drinks anyway.

Yeah yeah cop lady, two dumb North Americans wandering around Berlin looking to get drunk at 1pm. Little did she know we had peed our pants earlier that day taking in the history of her amazing city.

Berlin Frühstück

Georgeanne 

Breakfast in (continental) Europe is different than back in the USA. One of many things I miss about home is a nice big diner breakfast complete with endless cups of (American) coffee, eggs, pancakes and fake maple syrup. I’m really hungry right now. In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, hotel/hostel breakfasts usually involve rolls, butter, jam, granola, and platters of cold cuts and cheese. Being a cheapskate, I eat granola for breakfast then make myself a sandwich for lunch and sneak it out in a napkin. Exception: this one time in Frankfurt I stayed in the Hilton and the breakfast was this ridiculous buffet with any type of breakfast food you can imagine.

NUTS 4 NUTS, or VERRÜCKTE 4 NUSS

Georgeanne

No, no we weren’t done eating. We stopped at the German equivalent of New York’s NUTS 4 NUTS stands. These delicious honey-roasted peanuts came wrapped in a little beak (as demonstrated by my friend) that reminded me of the herb-filled beaks doctors used to wear during the plague epidemic. 

BEST OF THE WURST (wurst title ever)

Georgeanne

Next stop on the tour de market was the popular wurst stand. There were many and it was difficult to choose, but again, we picked the one with the most German people lined up. I used this tactic in Italy and ended up having the best pizza of my life. There were plenty of wursts to choose from, but we went with the classic pork bratwurst.

Weihnachtsmarkt and Knäckerbröd Pizza

Georgeanne

My friend and I decided to travel to Berlin in early December. Unbeknownst to us, this was the time of the brilliant German Weihnachtsmarkt, Wintermarkt, or Christkindlmarkt for all y’all in Bavaria.  My friend and I were floored by the array of covered stalls with local merchants peddling their wares, the omnipresent melodies of live brass quintets and, most of all, by the abundance of delicious German winter foodstuffs.

Chicken and Broccoli Puff Pastries

Jill

 

 I’m pretty new to coming up with completely original kitchen ideas. That is, something that I didn’t see somewhere else and alter to my tastes. That’s why I was totally shocked when I was struck with random inspiration for some party food. I got the idea early in the morning last week, and by the time I was making it that night it was totally different. I was craving beef with broccoli, like the kind you get from Chinese take-out. I thought it would be neat to make it portable, like in an empanada. Through a series of improvements, it morphed into chicken with broccoli (and a little rice mixed in) wrapped in puff pastry. It’s not really an empanada, so I’m not sure what to call these. I was in a rush to take these pictures, so I left them on the parchment paper they were baked on (with browned bits of dripped eggwash and all.)

Lactose Intolerance and Fettuccini Alfredo

Jill

Lactose intolerance has been a major part of my life for the past few years. I went from having symptoms that seemed like minor annoyances to having horrifyingly painful symptoms that no amount of treatments seemed to be able to stop. My body was clearly trying to tell me something, and I was ignoring it by continuing to take enzymes and other things to work my way around the problem.

Three-Bean Chili

Jill

Something would feel really wrong if I wasn’t eating a bowl of chili while watching the Super Bowl, even if I have no vested interest in either of the teams playing (which is usually the case.) This has been my standard chili recipe for the past few Super Bowl parties we’ve hosted. There are no crazy ingredients that are impossible to find, it comes together quickly, and it’s relatively stress-free to make when you’re making a bunch of other stuff at the same time. It has served me well, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be retiring this recipe after this next party. I’d like to trade in the ground beef for something chunkier and swap the quick cooking-time for something that gives more complicated flavors time to develop.

Georgeanne

Sausage, freshly grated horseradish, spicy senf and pretzel roll thingy. A delicious 2 euro lunch that wouldn't kill Jill! Before I ate this, the guy working at this wiener stand cut his finger really badly while slicing the next guy's sausage(ha ha ha, "wiener," "guy's sausage" etc.). The image of his sliced finger next to the sliced sausage, both roughly the same size, really,really grossed me out. I would love this picture, but that finger slice is the only thing I can think of when I see it. Now I've ruined it for you too.

Georgeanne

I stumbled across these beautiful red currants in Salzburg, Austria, at this little market that sprang up around noon right behind Mozart's house.

Recipe Index

Here's a quick recipe index to help you find what you're looking for. Some of these recipes may appear in more than one category (since they apply to more than one category)

Asian
Vegetable Chow Fun made from Won Ton Wrappers
Basic Thai Chicken Curry

Beef
Three-Bean Chili
Dairy-Free Lasagna

Beverages
Glühwein and Mulled Cider
Peach Smoothie (non-dairy and vegan)

Breakfast/Brunch
Berlin Früstück/Omelette Recipe
Peach Smoothie (non-dairy and vegan)
Mini Frittatas with Veggies

Desserts/Baking
Rainbow Cupcakes
Dairy-Free Blueberry Ice Cream (vegan)
Mini Chocolate Berry Tarts
Blackberry Gel Pudding

Pasta/Pizza/Italian
Dairy-Free Lasagna
Fettuccini Alfredo
Knäckerbröd Pizza
Pizza Minus Dairy
Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese
Zucchini "Pasta"
Vegan Pesto
Baked Pasta Puttanesca

Pork
Best of the Wurst
Prosciutto-Wrapped Melon

Poultry
Basic Thai Chicken Curry
Duck and Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie/Hachis Parmentier aux Patates Douces et Canard
Chicken and Broccoli Puff Pastries
Garlic and Lemon Baked Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots
Sick-Day Chicken Soup
Lemony Chickpeas with Chicken Sausage and Spinach

Rice
Risotto with Rainbow Chard
Shrimp with Avocado and Bacon on Seasoned Rice
Chicken and Broccoli Puff Pastries
Balsamic Risotto with Roasted Red Peppers

Seafood
Shrimp with Avocado and Bacon on Seasoned Rice
Fish Tacos
Mediterranean Swordfish in Parchment Packets
Easy Dijon-Crusted Salmon

Soups
Cucumber Avocado Soup
Asian-Inspired Vegetable Soup with Shiritaki Noodles
Sick-Day Chicken Soup


Vegetables/Salads
EZ BOK CHOY with Garlic and Oyster Sauce
Vegetable Tian
Lentil Salad with Dill
Weeknight Vegetarian Chili