Pink Mashed Potatoes?

The term comfort food refers to a style of familiar, simple food or drink that is usually home-cooked, or consumed in informal restaurants. The idea of "comfort food" is popular in western culture and not part of many other societies including East Asia.

- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have one comfort food. It's simple. It's high in carbs. It's served at every holiday gathering. I love mashed potatoes.

One of the perks of living and eating with Jack everyday is that the man loves to experiment...with his food you sickos! Jack is always testing new combinations of spices on old dishes and most of the time those experiments are alright. After a few weeks of beet deliveries from our CSA (we can't complain we love beets), it got me thinking about combining my favorite comfort food with my favorite vegetable.

Now when I say this dish is simple. I mean it's REALLY SIMPLE. When I say it's good. I mean it's REALLY GOOD. I don't think we've fought over who got to finish a dish like this since the last time I made my butternut squash chili (a recipe loved by all that I will eventually post).

The recipe is somewhat improvised. I boiled 2 medium sized beets that had been peeled and cut into cubes. I also boiled about four or five small red potatoes. I then mashed the potatoes while combining in between mashing sessions a helping of beets. I also added a splash of cream here and there to get the consistency I wanted.

This treat is sweet and creamy. It's a great side that adds color to a plate. It's a must try.

Chilled Carrot Ginger Soup

For my birthday this year Jack bought us a CSA membership. Every week we get a box full of fresh veggies. Our CSA even sends us emails with recipe ideas. They're even having a CSA member BBQ at the end of this month. This CSA rocks...we've heard complaints about other CSAs delivering the same thing week after week, not getting many veggies, etc. That is not the case for us! We have so much food we have to bring people over to our place for dinner to eat it all before it goes bad!

This week among some of the veggies we got in the delivery were a bunch of carrots, some red onions and some garlic.

Now I know that soups are usually a winter thing, but when I saw these veggies together I immediately thought carrot ginger soup! Because it's been so hot this weekend I made the soup and then chilled it while I helped Jack on a photo project.

Carrot Ginger Soup

-a bunch of carrots (a little more than a cup and a half) chopped
-2 tsp olive oil
-4 tbsp minced ginger
-2-3 cloves minced garlic
-3 cups veggie broth
-1/4 cup orange juice
-1/2 cup cream
-salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil over medium heat in soup pot. Add onions and cook until soft. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 2-4 minutes.

Add carrots, broth and orange juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until carrots are exceedingly tender. In batches puree soup in a blender. I add the cream, which is optional, when I begin the puree process.

Baked Cheesecake

"I feel the end approaching. Quick, bring me my dessert, coffee and liqueur."
-Brillat-Savarin's great aunt Pierette

My summer classes at Hunter College, although packed full of incredibly useful and interesting information, have been somewhat exhausting and therefore has made me neglectful of this wonderful little blog. Summer Session is coming to an end, but before it did we had the opportunity to have dinner with some good friends and enjoy this treat with some coffee from Baruir's (The BEST place to get coffee in Sunnyside).

This was my first try at a baked cheesecake. I've tried no bake cheesecakes, but the consistency of the cake has never turned out the way I would like. I came upon this recipe and it really came out well. I topped it with a cherry persevre. Our guest had brought strawberry ice cream, which complimented the cake quite well.

Crust (I bought mine at the store. You can try to make it yourself if you'd like.)
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
1/4 cup sugar

Combine butter, graham wafer crumbs and sugar. Press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.

Filling:
2 packages (8oz each) cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed mile (Eagle Brand, 300ml)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I cut up some lemons and squeezed the juice into the filling)
3 eggs

In large bowl beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat until completely smooth.
Add eggs and lemon juice. Mix well. Pour over crust.

Bake for 50-55 minutes at 300 degrees. It's done when it springs back when lightly touched. Cool to room temp and then chill until ready to serve.

Have time for a quick Quiche?

Tomorrow this little break wraps up. I go back to work at Hunter and then the following day the kids return to Lexington. Since I've been at Lexington I've been secretly jealous of the ladies who bring in good meals to reheat. Never thought I would jealous of reheated microwaved meal, but after the umpteenth peanut butter, egg salad, or humus sandwich w/ a side of yogurt feelings start to change. So I'm preparing this quickie quiche to have lunch materials for Hunter and Lex.

This is my old stand-by recipe. I'm glad I'm blogging it b/c the paper the recipe is on is so stained and tattered. I also think this is a great recipe for when you find out last minute that people are coming over for a bite. This usually happens after a very long day when all you can think about is a hot bath, a glass of wine and a good book, but good company and good conversations wait for no one. This recipe is no fuss, real quick and delicious.

Spinach Mushroom Quiche
8 ounces of mushrooms sliced (I use a little less than this)
1/4 cup chopped onion
10 inch pie shell
1 cup shredded swiss (don't go mixin' up your cheeses...it will mess up the recipe)
4 eggs
1 cup cream (i use light cream...some people just use milk)
10 ounce package frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste
a dash of nutmeg
2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Saute mushrooms and onion in oil. Sprinkle bottom of pie shell with the swiss cheese. Beat the cream and eggs. Add the spinach, mushrooms, onion, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour mixture over pie crust. Sprinkle parmesan on top. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce hat to 350 and bake for another 40 min or until a knife in the center of the pie comes out clean when inserted. Let quiche cool for a good 20 minutes or so before serving.
I think this dish can be served hot or cold. Either way you'll be wanting seconds.

I do hope you enjoy this treat and remember...
Keep real on the home skillet kids!

Eggplant and Potatoes

My first year at Hunter is finished. I now have a few days off from both Lexington and Hunter. Jack is on another shoot. Therefore I have had the opportunity to catch up on reading, relax...I've learned that I much prefer to be busy. With this knowledge I set out on this gloriously sunny day in Sunnyside to the local market to find the makings for potato salad, eggplant and garlic dip, and a quiche. Good thing that tomorrow brings good weather and hopefully a bike ride with 5bbc.org , so all these yummy treats won't force me to wear only clothing with an elastic nature.

I have posted an eggplant dip recipe in the past, but this one is slightly different. It's currently cooling in the fridge. Preliminary tasting makes me think it might turn out to be a decent dip. If it's utterly distasteful...I'll post a warning.

1 eggplant
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove
2 tbsp minced onion (i used more..we'll see how that turns out)
Salt and pepper

-Place eggplant on baking sheet. Cut off stem and cut some slashes on the sides. Broil for about 20 minutes or once skin is charred.
-Once cooked discard skin and mash.
-Add all other ingredients and cool in refridgeorator for at least a few hours.

The potato salad is delicious. I am planning on taking some of it with me for my packed lunch tomorrow, but I'm having a difficult time leaving it alone. I subscribe to weekly veggie recipes from peta. I am not vegan and therefore adapt some of the recipes to my lacto-ovo veggie prefrences.

2 1/4 lbs. red potatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup chopped red onion

Scrub and quarter the potatoes. Cook in salted water until just tender. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Whisk together the olive oil, mustard, vinegar, vegan mayonnaise, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
In a large bowl, gently fold the chopped vegetables into the potatoes. Add the dressing, tossing to coat. Season to taste.

I will post the quiche recipe at another time.

Oh sweet ginger!

It's been a long time since a Tasty recipe has been posted. The house in Providence is officially rented, I have one final and a paper left before I complete my first year of grad school and Jack has been busy with shoots and the New York Photo Festival. 
As Jack attends the closing day of the festival, I have stayed behind to enjoy a day of cooking, cleaning and maybe even some studying. 

I saw this recipe in a magazine. Jack loves my carrot ginger soup, so I thought that I couldn't go wrong with ginger bread and ginger honey butter.I've run into a lot of people recently who claim to hate ginger. I too have not always been a fan, but this recipe and the carrot soup recipe have a sweet taste to them and not the bite that ginger haters seem to fear.

It taste great, but it's a little too cake like for me. I need to figure out a way to make it more bread-like. 

Bread:
8 tbsp. unsalted melted butter
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 buttermilk
1/4 cup hot water

Butter:
a little over half a stick of unsalted butter
2 tbsp honey
1 one inch piece of fresh ginger grated (about a tsp)
1 tsp cinnamon

Bread
-heat oven to 350
-stir together dry ingredients
-stir in melted butter
-add all remaining ingredients
-pour batter into 8 inch greased square pan
-bake 45-50 mins

Butter:
-combine all ingredients
-using handheld mixer mix ingredients well
-refrigerate at least half and hour

C is for cookie...

Things have been very busy for us, thus the lack of blogging. We have been back and forth between Providence and the city trying to set up the new place and pack up our loved place in Providence. With all the shuffle we haven't really had the chance to cook. I've missed it!
Today was the first beautiful day of spring. That got me thinking of things that make me feel good. Cooking...and more specifically my favorite cookie recipe.
Try it out and let me know any tweaks you can think of to make these cookies taste even better.

2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups granola (I use the granola varieties found at Whole Foods. I like the mixes with berries in them.)
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt