Ratatouille

Here's another yummy-looking recipe, this time from my friend Kimberly. Seems my friends like cooking as much as I do. :)

Ratatouille

Ingredients:

• 2 small eggplants
• olive oil
• 3 medium sized zucchinis
• 2 shallots
• 3 garlic cloves
• 18 to 20 oz fresh tomatoes
  
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 T tarragon, chopped
• 1 T parsley, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp fine sugar
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Chop eggplant in small cubes. Place in colander and sprinkle liberally with salt. Leave to drain at least 30 minutes.
• Chop all zucchini in small cubes.
  
• Chop the garlic and shallots thinly.
• Dice peppers.
• Heat 2 T olive oil in a dutch oven.
• Add the zucchinis and eggplants and cook for 5 mins until softer. Remove from pot and set aside.
• Heat 2 more T olive oil and then add the garlic, peppers and shallots. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until softer.
• Add the tomatoes and mix well. Cook for 5 minutes before adding the zucchinis and eggplants again.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the chopped herbs, the bay leaf, and the sugar, and cook uncovered on low heat for 1 hour.

I look forward to trying this. Thanks Kimberly!

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

I bought an immersion blender!! I broke it in on this recipe.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Comments & Modifications:

• I used kielbasa, because it was in the freezer and because I like it.
• It's important to brown the kielbasa in the same pot that you make the soup in, because the yummy brown stuff really contributes to the tasty flavor.
• Obviously I used my blender instead of a potato masher. The blender doesn't do "chunky" very well, so I went ahead and pureed the potatoes entirely.

Verdict: This is really, really good. When I gave some to a coworker, she immediately went online and purchased her own immersion blender just so she could make this soup! It's not that bad for you either, although using turkey kielbasa or something a bit lower fat would probably help. I'm not a huge fan of spinach, but despite that I'll definitely be making this soup again.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Dan really likes to take muffins to school with him for breakfast. He's not naturally a breakfast eater, and the muffins go down more easily than most other portable options. I've been making muffins from a mix, but decided to try something homemade this week.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Comments & Modifications:

• Not much to say here, since it's not wise to mess around too much with baked goods.
• I had a huge lemon. It was fine.

Verdict: When I talked to Dan after he tried his muffins on Monday morning, he said they were tough and overdone. I was surprised, since I took them out of the oven when the tops were still nice and pale. Come Saturday I decided to try one of the leftovers, and it wasn't overdone at all! Turns out Dan doesn't like the dense type of muffin; he prefers the tender cake-like muffins. Guess I'll be looking for some more recipes.

Overnight Apricot Oatmeal

Now, if I'm looking for a recipe for my breakfast rotation, this is totally it. Full of fiber and vitamins, and tasty too, what more could I ask for?

Overnight Apricot Oatmeal

Comments & Modifications:

• It's got overnight in the title, but I just cooked it on the stove. I worried about it getting burned or too dry, and plus the crockpot is so much hard to clean! It's super easy on the stove, just combine all the ingredients in a medium pot, and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down until it's just barely simmering, and let it cook until it's thick and the oats are chewy, giving it a good stir every so often.
• Based on some of the comments, and my laziness and cheapness, I used regular milk instead of buttermilk. I'm sure it would taste fine, but having to buy buttermilk and make sure I used it all before the expiration date would prevent me from ever making the recipe.
• I added a bit more sugar (splenda, actually) than called for, and a bunch more salt. Oatmeal tastes bland to me without salt.
• The one modification that really makes the recipe for me is a splash of almond extract. The apricots, at least the ones I bought, are sweet and flavorful but the taste doesn't quite permeate every bite like I would want. The almond extract, if you add just a splash, heightens and intensifies the apricot flavor without being overwhelmingly almond-y. It's awesome.

Verdict: Well obviously I like this oatmeal, since I had it for breakfast every day for the last month. It's really convenient to make it on the weekend and store in the fridge, then reheat in the morning at work when I'm ready to eat. (It does need a bit of extra liquid mixed in before reheating, since it congeals nastily in the fridge.) One recipe-worth is just about five servings, for me.

Now that I have a base recipe, I've been thinking of other tasty flavors that might work well with steel cut oats. Fresh fruit would certainly be tasty, if added after reheating. I imagine cinnamon and maple syrup and honey would all be nice, though probably not at the same time. I wonder what other spice combinations would work? There are enough possibilities to keep me eating breakfast for a long time. :)

Granola

It's been so long, I'm starting to forget the details of some of the recipes I've tried! This is one from back around Christmas; homemade granola can be a good gift for people who are otherwise hard to buy for.

Granola

Comments & Modifications:

• This makes a crunchy, very crumbly granola. There won't be clumps like in store granola.
• Instead of peanuts, I used a mixture of sliced almonds, macadamia nuts, and a few walnuts. The macadamia nuts were really, really good in this, but I only used them because they were left over from another recipe. Pretty much any nut mixture will work, as long as they're chopped fairly smallish.
• No wheat germ for me. Why buy a whole container for 1/4 cup?
• I didn't put in any dried fruit. There's some in the basement, but somehow it just didn't appeal to me in this recipe.

Verdict: This is pretty good granola, for not too much work. I liked it well enough with milk, but in yogurt it's delicious! I think it's kind of caloric for how full it makes me feel, so this probably won't be on my regular rotation, but it's good to have something different for breakfast every now and then.