Small Packages

Hearty breakfasts now come in small packages stuffed into large boxes and lined up on shelves. Instant oatmeal, protein shakes, Cliff bars... They can keep you satisfied for hours. But I ask this of you: name the ingredients. 

Exactly. In my opinion, it's always better to make things yourself. When it comes to heartiness, however, that often means a bigger meal than the concentrated dosage of grub you find in those small packages. Well this morning I made myself a hearty breakfast with a surface area no larger than a coaster. It's a little strange-sounding, but trust me--it's worth the taste bud risk. 

RECIPE:

1 white cheddar Quaker rice cake (if you MUST be boring, go with "no salt" flavor.)

3 T peanut or other nut butter

1/2 banana, sliced

It's pretty self-explanatory: spread the PB over top the rice cake, place the sliced banana on top of that, and enjoy staying full till lunch!

Until your time again finds mine, 

Julia

Mi Cocina

I'm home! Not just home, but officially a college grad. I've spent the last seven days unpacking, and while I'm not yet finished with that project, I just had to find the time to get in the kitchen. I love coming home to cook for many reasons: higher quality utensils, bigger kitchen, my mom's credit card, and, of course, some time to experiment! I've been eating shrimp tacos for 3 of the past 5 nights, and for some reason that craving has not yet died down, so I decided to hit the kitchen and tackle it myself. One of my favorite places to eat is a Mexican "Street Food" restaurant and bar where I also coincidentally work. My favorite dish? Not the shrimp tacos, but close--the fish tacos. My restaurant uses tilapia, which is an extremely mild, flaky, and fresh-tasting white fish. So as to not go overboard with the whole shrimp thing, I bought tilapia and attempted the fish taco. I surprised myself yet again--it worked! These things were delish:

RECIPE (serves 2):

1 filet of tilapia (or your choice of another fish)

Soft tortillas (I used whole grain. You can also substitute tortillas for bibb lettuce.)

1/4 c Panko

1/4 c Grape Nuts (I used Publix generic brand)

1 egg

Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper

2-3 T coconut oil

1/4 c salsa

1 c shredded cabbage or cole slaw bag kit

1 t sriracha

1 t dijon mustard

1 t mayonnaise

1/4 t (a pinch) wasabi powder

1/4 t (a pinch) sugar (I used Truvia)

1 t soy sauce

1 t rice vinegar

1/2 t sesame seed oil

***this is a lot of ingredients! I was just messing around when I made the slaw (everything listed after shredded cabbage). You can toss the cabbage in any store-bought dressing--it doesn't even have to be Asian-inspired like mine! The dressing recipe for my Asian Sesame Chicken Salad would work great, too!

Cut the fish into "chicken tender"-sized pieces; season them with salt, pepper, cayenne, and any other seasoning that suits your fancy. I used very little seasoning. In a small bowl, use a fork to beat your egg into a consistent yellow liquid. On a plate, blend the Panko and cereal and make a flattened but loose pile of the mixture. You can also season this mixture. On medium-high heat, melt 1 T of the coconut oil in a medium-sized, nonstick pan. A layer of liquid oil should thinly coat the bottom of the pan; add more coconut oil as needed. Prepare your assembly line hands! Coat each piece of fish in egg, then breading, then place on the pan of hot oil. Cook 2-3 minutes per side, and remove. I do not think the fish needs to be hot for a fish taco--in fact I prefer that it not be--which is why I cook the fish first. If you would rather it be fresh off the stove, prepare the fish last.

In a medium bowl, combine cabbage/slaw, sriracha, mustard, mayo, wasabi, sweetener, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. toss until cabbage/slaw is evenly coated. There may be extra liquid at the bottom. This makes a great decorative and tasty drizzle.




I removed the excess oil from my pan and used the warm pan to heat my tortillas one at a time. I also cut my warmed tortillas in half, as whole grain tortillas tend to be larger than the small flour or corn tortillas you can buy. Spoon a layer of slaw onto the center of the tortilla. On top of the slaw, place your fish, and then top with salsa. Fold the tortilla, and you have your fish taco! Because of the weird shape of a half-tortilla, mine are kind of folded like burritos. Don't forget your drizzle!

This is a fun way to achieve restaurant-style fish tacos right in your own kitchen. Because of the breading, frying oil, and shell choices, this is also a lighter variety of the typical fried-fish taco.

I'm so glad to be home!
Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say "Green?"

I've always told people I'm not a fan of bell peppers. First of all, I really just don't like the flavor, but I also don't like America's obsession with "roasted red peppers." Yes, they have the bell pepper taste I don't particularly enjoy, but they almost always come on things that would be 100% better if by "roasted red peppers" they meant "sun dried tomatoes." I can't tell you how many times I've been out to eat with people and the ordering process goes something like this:
Friend: "What are you getting? I can't decide. Oh, this looks good."
Me: "Yeah, I saw that too; that does look good. I just really don't like roasted red peppers. I wish they were sun dried tomatoes instead."
Friend: "Oh! They're not? I literally read that and saw sun dried tomatoes anyway. That's what I thought I'd be getting. Oh well. It should be good anyway."

Because, you see, people like bell peppers. So to them, it's not the end of the world when a tomato is really a pepper. That being said, dear restaurants: why not just use tomatoes?!

Anyway, that was a good rant, but the point is that I may be weird in not liking bell peppers, but I know I'm not weird in specifically not liking GREEN bell peppers. They DO have a distinct taste and I know plenty of people like them, but plenty of people don't! Hence the origin of my title. I have discovered that I like, wait for it, orange bell peppers! Isn't that crazy? I know, some people thing they all, even the green ones, taste the same, but I beg to differ and I think they're all gross except for the orange ones. And probably the yellow ones since I'm pretty sure they're the same thing, just different shades of orangey yellow.
So, the other night I was feeling like an "I swear, I'm not anorexic" vegetarian (you know the type) because it was 9:30, I hadn't eaten dinner, knew I needed to, wasn't hungry, and hadn't had a fruit or vegetable in approximately 4 days. So, per usual, I rummaged, and found an orange bell pepper. That's ALL I found or I wouldn't have even gone where I'm about to go. I said to myself, "ok, I can handle this. All I need is some ranch--a LOT of ranch--and I won't even care about the bell pepper." Well, there was no ranch. Only Asian sesame vinaigrette and Caesar. ASV wasn't going to be potent enough so I went with the Caesar. Like always, a pretty plate is always going to taste better than an ugly mess, so I prepared the bell pepper by slicing it into narrow pieces, lining them up on a long rectangular plate, and then I drizzled Caesar and olive oil on top. I also sprinkled on some cracked pepper and some chili flakes.
To my surprise, it was delicious, and if I didn't love bacon so much, I might have become an "I swear I'm not anorexic" vegetarian that night. Oh well. Maybe I'll sprinkle bacon on top next time. Win win.


Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Netflix is for the Weak

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Sometimes, When I Get Nervous...I make a casserole.

SPRING BREAK 2013!!!! And I'm making casseroles. Why hasn't anyone called Girls Gone Wild yet?
This week is spring break and I just decided to come home and spend time with my family (slash hang out with my recently acquired FUTURE HUSBAND but shhhh he doesn't know yet). Everyone (my mom) in Charlotte, however, either has a job (my mom)(and MY FUTURE HUSBAND), a boyfriend (my mom), or goes to bed really early (my mom. and my grandmother), so I found myself coming home from my favorite cafe at around 9:30 feeling terribly bored and lonely. I really like having the house to myself, obvi, but last night my brain was just not having it, so I detoured to the grocery store to get some ingredients for my typical lonely girl fix: the casserole. I know, casseroles are for second-time bachelors, post-ICU patients, and the women of the fifties, but what do they all have in common? These people are the pitied, and by golly if I wasn't throwing a little pity party myself. So, casserole it was. I rallied up the fixins and I was outta there. My oven was preheated in no time, and I was soon-to-be lonely no more.

Ingredients:
Assorted veggies. I bought one bag of assorted baby carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower and one bag of Brussels sprouts. It totaled 3-4 cups.
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 to 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, depending on how much you like them and how many you can get your hands on. I like the dry ones that come in a bag, not the ones stored in oil.
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Olive oil, Lawry's seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, chili flakes, and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice your veggies so they all have a flat side. I'll cut my cauliflower and broccoli into thirds and my carrots and Brussels sprouts in halves. Toss them in enough olive oil so they are thinly but evenly coated, add some of your spices to taste, and pop em in the oven on a cookie sheet. Stir occasionally.
While those are sizzlin, heat up a pan on medium with some olive oil and chop up your onion and garlic. Put the onion and garlic in the hot pan with about a teaspoon of Lawry's and any other spices you'd like. You really just want the garlic to be cooked; you're not trying to caramelize the onions. Remove from heat.
Take out your veggies when the edges are brown or even slightly (ever so slightly) blackened.
On the cookie sheet, mix in your onion concoction and your tomatoes. Let the mixture cool just to the point that you can touch the food without having to throw it down screaming. Mix in about 2/3 of your cheese. That's 1/3 a cup I think. Pour it all into a casserole dish and top with the rest of your cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Using your finger, push any protruding sun dried tomatoes to just below the surface of the cheese. Sun dried tomatoes tend to burn in the direct exposure to the heat.
Everything is cooked, so baking is only a matter of the cheese melting and the top crisping. Just check on it and take it out when it looks good, kinda like my picture below! (Though this is actually of the next day, heated up in a smaller dish.)

Casseroles are your friend; pitied you are not!

Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Forever 21

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST ROOMIE/BIFFLE/SOULMATE EVER!!!

Today is my girl Kelsey's 21st birthday FINALLY. I'm so excited. So I made her this cake. It's based on a scene from a premonition I had last night. Here we come.

Icing is butter/cream cheese icing with not enough yellow food coloring, and cake is dark chocolate fudge from a box, 'cause that's how I roll.
I rubbed a thin thin layer of icing on the mini bottle and on Barbie's bod to make the "confetti" stick.
To write with icing, just put your icing in one corner of a zip lock bag, tape up the corner to make it a little thicker, then cut off a teeny weeny point of the corner to make a hole. This is cheaper and more customizable than one of those piping tools that bakers use. Super easy and makes you look like you know what you're doing.

Until your time again finds mine,
Julia

Que Syrah Syrah

It was only a matter of time before I fell in love with wine. Allow me to introduce you to wine jelly. My new go-to for big kid party contributions in my new big kid life. At least, that's how I look at it. In contrast to most of my other recipes, this is less inspired by another dish and really more of a copy. Like my sausage balls, however, I did not have the full recipe (but this time because America's Test Kitchen wants my money), so I had to figure it out. Pretty sure I did.

Ingredients:
One bottle of red wine, falling anywhere between crappy and vintage.
3 1/4 granulated sugar
Pectin powder (I think around 2 T, but sprinkle it in until a film forms between stirs)
3 T lemon juice
1 pat of butter

Pour about 1 cup of your wine into a small saucepan and reduce it (at a simmer/low boil) for 15-20 minutes. In a separate, larger pot, pour the rest of the wine and put it on medium-high heat. It needs to be warm enough to dissolve the sugar. Which is added next. Slowly add the sugar in increments and stir to make sure it is dissolving. After you've added all the sugar, pour in your lemon juice. Bring the wine mixture to a low boil and sprinkle in the pectin. The pectin will not dissolve (in fact it will form waxy clumps) unless the wine is boiling. Once it is dissolved, however, you can turn the eye down and add your pat of butter. This is to prevent a foamy layer from forming on the surface of the wine. If there is still foam build up, add a little more butter. There certainly isn't ever such a thing as too much butter. After you have reduced the heat, a film should form on the surface of the liquid, and there might even be a gel-like build up on the sides of the pot. Finally, stir in the reduced wine that has been simmering in the small saucepan. Remove the mixture from heat, and immediately pour into the container you plan to store your jelly in. Allow the jelly to refrigerate for 24 hours. Depending on the amount of pectin your "film" required, it could take only a few hours, and strangely enough warm jelly is kind of delicious.

Serving suggestion: 

Serve with crackers (I like Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits or these awesome Raisin Rosemary Crisps I found at Trader Joes) and a stinky cheese. If you like bleu cheese, try that--or a creamy gorgonzola. I'm not a huge fan of bleus though, so I went with a goat cheese brie. I love goat cheese, and I think brie goes really well with wine, and I was lucky enough to find a combo cheese at Trader Joes. Delish. You probably won't even need dinner.

Until your time again finds mine,

Julia