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!