June 29th--BBQ Seitan "Wings" and Vegan Mac and "Cheese"

Dave: Enough with these light and airy European dishes. Crepes are great, ceviche is delightful, but sometimes you need some good old fashioned American barbecue! Tonight I'll be preparing a BBQ of an all American red blooded favorite: Vital Wheat Gluten! Wait, what?

Lauren: You heard right! Tonight seitan will be playing the part of chicken in "Wings of Fire: Extreme Heat."

Dave: And nothing goes better with fiery hot wings than quinoa and corn pasta in rice protein cheese substitute! It tastes a lot better than it sounds, folks. Actually, the spicy seitan wings are a take on the Buffalo Seitan at the Chicago Diner (meat free since '83) but we're happy to be able to make it in our home.

Lauren: The mac and cheese is a recipe I've made so many times, I can almost do it in my sleep, but the substitution of vegan cheese adds a new level of cheese sauce challenge.

Easy BBQ Sauce:

1 1/2 Roma Tomatoes (diced)

3/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 Cup Mixed Berry Preserves

1/2 Tsp 100% Powdered Cayenne

1 Tsp Hungarian Hot Paprika

1/2 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1/2 Tbsp Minced Garlic

1/4 Tsp Black Pepper

1/4 Tsp Salt

Put tomatoes and vinegar in a saucepan and cook on high. Add the preserves and continue cooking until the sauce has reduced to about half of its original volume. Add all of the spices and continue cooking until the sauce has reduced in half again. Put the sauce into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Seitan Wings:

3 Packages Upton's Naturals Traditional Seitan

2 Green Onions

1 Tsp Tomato Paste

1 Tsp Olive Oil

Put all ingredients in a high walled fry pan and cook until sietan is noticeably brown.

Put "wings" in glass baking dish and cover with sauce. Bake at 350 f for 15 minutes. Stir and serve hot.

Mac and Cheeze (that's right, it's got the faux dairy "z")

1 box elbow macaroni (we've used the corn/quinoa blend, whole wheat, rice - all are equally delicious)

1 12 oz. package Silken Tofu, Soft

2 Tbsp. Margarine

1 1/2 to 2 cups cheddar cheese substitute (we used a rice cheese, but have had success with soy-based cheeses as well)

1 green onion (white part only)

Hot paprika

Sweet paprika

Salt and pepper

Panko bread crumbs (optional)

Carefully drain tofu, then puree in food processor. Transfer to saucepan or double boiler and add margarine. Stir in cheese and green onions; add salt, pepper and paprikas to taste. (This is one of those recipes where I really can't tell you what proportions of the spices should be added; tinkering and frequently tasting will get you the most satisfactory results.) Cook until cheese is melted and onions are soft.

In a separate pot, boil water and cook elbow macaroni.

Preheat oven to 350F; combine sauce and macaroni in an oven-safe vessel. Sprinkle top of macaroni with bread crumbs. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until bread crumbs are browned. (I also added a sprinkle of chili powder, just because.)

June 28--Savory Crepes, Sweet Crepes

Dave: I love making crepes! I think crepes get the most mileage for the "you're a man who cooks!?" cool factor. I also love sea food...and white wine...and just about everything else in these recipes.

Lauren: One our first non-work roommate interactions was the day that Dave made Nutella and banana crepes for everybody. Until this point, he'd seemed pretty all-business, but what says "fun" more than crepes and Nutella? I think it's safe to say he won my friendship that day.

Dave: See what I mean? From stodgy "I read post-modern fiction Dave" to "fun loving crepe guy" in seconds. Here's a secret for all of those men out there who want to be able to say "Not only am I a man who cooks, I am a man who cooks....crepes," crepes are incredibly easy to make. Everything that is hard about pancakes is easy in crepe land, my man. Pancakes have a lot of ingredients; way more than seem necessary, right? You never know when to flip a pancake, unless you belong to the Lion's Club. You're constantly adding extra butter to your pan. The list goes on! In crepe land, you have four ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, butter. Crepes tell you exactly when they're done, and when they are done they prepare themselves for flipping by pulling away from the pan. Also, because of the butter in the batter, if you go "non-stick" you don't need to add any oil to your cooking apparatus.

Lauren: I think I can make a pretty good case for easy-peasy pancakes, but we'll save that for a future breakfast-for-dinner entry.

Dave: Be that as it may, crepes have gotten a bad rap as far as being high maintenance.

Tonight we decided to make a low-maintenance meal that feels high-maintenance. Two kinds of crepes with two kinds of very easy fillings that taste absolutely gourmet.

Lauren: For dinner, a seafood crepe in a white wine sauce; for dessert, strawberry crepes. Total time of prep + cooking? 90 minutes. And not just because we've made crepes before - you can do it, too!

Recipes:

Crepes

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups Soy Milk (or cow's milk)

4 Eggs

4 Tablespoons Butter (Melted)

Mix flour, eggs and 8 Tablespoons of the milk in a bowl and mix well. Add the rest of the milk and the melted butter and whisk well. Put the batter in a spouted container (like a liquid measure.)

Preheat a nonstick skillet. Pour enough batter into the skillet to completely coat it. Wait until the edges of the crepe pull up and the crepe slides freely when the skillet is shaken. Flip the crepe and cook the other side until set (I guess you could use a spatula, but it is so much cooler when you flip it in the skillet.)

Seafood Filling:

1/2 pound of seafood (we just use the Trader Joe's seafood mix of scallops, shrimp and squid)

3 Tablespoons butter

3/4 cup Chardonnay (We used Winnefred California Chardonnay - $4.99 at Trader Joe's)

2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten (you can use corn starch if you really want)

2 Scallions sliced to the middle of the dark green part

1 Tbsp minced Garlic

Melt the butter and add the scallions and garlic. Simmer very low for 3 minutes. Add the wine. Add the seafood mix and cook until seafood is just shy of cooked through. Take the filling off the range and mix the liquid with the vital wheat gluten and a few of the pieces of seafood in a food processor. Return the liquid to the seafood and continue cooking on low. When the sauce is sufficiently thick, spoon the sauce onto crepes and roll. Spoon a bit of sauce on top of each crepe and serve hot.

Strawberry Filling:

1 lb. strawberries, sliced (reserve 2 for garnish, if desired)

1/4 cup sugar

scant 1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons lemon juice

In a double-boiler or saucepan, bring water to a boil and add sugar. Reduce heat to medium; stir sugar for 8-10 minutes or until dissolved. Add strawberries to saucepan and stir at intervals until slightly mushy, then add lemon juice. Cook for additional 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Drain liquid, spoon onto crepes and roll. Serve with a spoonful of thick, plain yogurt with a drizzle of honey.

Optional strawberry garnish: Pull up greenery and cut into strawberry at 1/8-inch intervals, from where the strawberry lightens in color near greenery through towards point of strawberry (sort of as if you were cutting it into slices, but not going all the way through near the top). Holding top of strawberry, press out into a fan shape. (There are also lots of videos that demonstrate this, if these instructions are unclear.)

June 25th--Sea Bass Ceviche

Dave: It is a hot night in the old town tonight! So, we decided to make a meal that doesn't require igniting a cooking flame: Ceviche!

Lauren: Ceviche is raw, citrus-marinated seafood - the acids in the citrus essentially "cook" the fish by denaturing the proteins. (Cooking with science is awesome!) We've wanted to eat ceviche for, oh, probably going on a year now, so why not make it ourselves? Plus, the fish guy at Whole Foods really sold us on the sustainably-caught sea bass.

Dave: It is nice to know that we aren't adding to the sea bass problem (I'm sorry, is there some kind of land bass I'm not aware of?). We decided to go with the Spanish ceviche recipe, which is more citrus and sweet than the more savory variations popular in South America and Mexico.

I decided to toss in some Haitian mango because we just listened to a "This American Life" about the plight of the Haitian mango farmer.

Lauren: Gotta love a delicious meal that is also socially conscious! We served it with two sides, purple jasmine rice and asparagus cooked in lemon juice and garlic

Scott also helped out on this one by reprising yesterday's margarita recipe, only replacing the quantity of lemon juice with 1/2 lemon, 1/2 lime, and adding grapefruit chunks before blending. It turned out slightly less sweet (good for those who prefer a less sugary margarita).

Juice of one half of one grapefruit

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup lime

One Mango (Haitian)

Lb. of sea bass (Note: marinade is good for 3/4-Lb. to 1 Lb. of sea bass)

Mix lemon juice, lime juice, grapefruit juice and mango in a large glass or ceramic bowl (metal and plastic are not ideal). Cut the sea bass into thin strips with large surface areas. Marinate the sea bass strips in the lemon juice mixture and put in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Cut the rest of the mango into strips and serve with sea bass strips.

June 24th--Enchiladas Verdes

Dave: We are breaking our run of "let's only make recipes that we have the ingredients for because we don't want to go shopping" in a big way today.

Lauren: Yep - pretty much everything for this meal we bought today. In fact, our ideas for this one kind of snowballed:

"Let's make enchiladas!" (Okay, fairly easy)

"Ooh! With verde sauce!" (Still not that much more work - some chopping, but not much more)

"And tortillas! From scratch!" (Likelihood of swearing at cookware this evening - imminent)

Still, not a lot of things to keep track of in each part of the meal, so it feels more low maintenance.

Dave: Update! I can not make the tortillas work. They are either falling apart on the counter or too thick. I think I am going to try lightly pressing them by hand and using the grill press to get them the rest of the way. I will let you know how it turns out.

Ok, so mixed results on that front. The tortilla has the perfect texture, but I have lost some structural integrity. I'm going to try putting a dough ball on and just placing the grill press for the first few seconds and then slowly applying pressure to it.

All right, so I still have some structural issues and they aren't as effortlessly perfect as my friend Hana's mom's tortillas (big ups to Janie!). But they are still leaps and bounds better than the tortillas you get at the supermarket.

Lauren: This also happens to be night that the Magic Bullet Blending System kicked the bucket, so in the middle of our dinner preparations, we had to run out to Target for a new blender/food processor so that we could finish the salsa verde.

Dave: We had scouted out a very simple food processor that would replace the Magic Bullet at a reasonable price, but when we got to the kitchen gadget section I was struck by a particular show piece...

THE NINJA

Lauren: It blends! It food-processes! It destroys your enemies with its dual blade action!

Dave: And with a pitcher of Margarita concentrate in the fridge, it seemed like a blender that plays up its ability to manage frozen drinks would be a good option.

The Ninja did make short work of processing the verde sauce, and it made some mighty smooth home Margaritas. All in all, I wouldn't use these tortillas for burritos or sandwich wraps, but they are just great for enchiladas and I bet they would make good flautas and tostadas. The verde sauce was delicious and it might become our standard chip dip this summer.

Lauren: This was meal well earned, for sure.

Corn tortillas:

1 3/4 cups masa harina (we found it pretty easily at Jewel)

1 1/8 cups water

(I love this guy - he's so happy about being made into tortillas!)

In a large bowl mix the masa and water together by hand. Dust hands with more masa (mas masa...hee hee) and form into five evenly-sized balls. Put the first ball onto a greased griddle and press lightly with griddle press (or use a tortilla press if you are lucky enough to have one) in an asterisk pattern. When the tortilla is flattened, put it on a baking sheet in a warm oven. Repeat with remaining balls of dough.

Filling:

1 package Chick'n Style Smart Strips

1 sweet onion

1 Tbsp oil

1 Tsp chili powder

1 Tsp cumin

2 Tbsp Louisiana Hot Sauce

8 oz. shredded cheese (we used Jewel's "Mexican Style Four Cheese Blend," but if you can get your hands on queso, chihuahua, or asadero and shred it yourself, that would probably be even better)

Chop the onions and chick'n strips and fry in oil. Add chili powder and cumin; simmer and add Louisiana Hot Sauce and cover the pan. Cook until the onion is tender and saturated with spices. Hold onto the cheese for a little later down the page.

Salsa Verde:

8-10 tomatillos

1-2 jalapeno peppers

1 large avocado

Seasoning (we used cumin, hot chili powder, fresh oregano, and salt and pepper to taste)

Husk, rinse and dice tomatillos. Seed and dice the jalapenos (I left in the ribs for a little extra spice). Put the tomatillos and jalapenos in the food processor and blend until liquid. Transfer to saucepan; add salt and spices to mixture. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Peel avocado and cut into chunks, then place in food processor with sauce and blend until smooth.

Putting it all together:

Preheat oven to 350F. In a casserole dish, put down a layer of verde sauce. Place a tortilla in the sauce, place filling in tortilla, then roll up. Once desired number of enchiladas are in the dish, sprinkle a layer of cheese. Place another layer of sauce over the cheese, then put casserole in oven until cheese is melted.

As a bonus, our margarita recipe!

1 1/2 cup tequila

1/2 cup Grand Marnier (we used Cointreau)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 can (12 fl. oz.) frozen limeaid concentrate

1/3 bottle of beer

Combine ingredients. Chill until ready to serve. 1/2 of this mixture makes one pitcher of frozen margaritas when blended with a blender full of ice.

June 23th--Tortilla Espanola

Dave: Tonight we are making a Spanish Tortilla! No special reason...no new materials on hand...we just felt like it. It's kind of interesting that the Spanish Tortilla has so little in common with the Mexican Tortilla. The Spanish version is much more similar to frittata.

We're making the tortilla with the red potatoes left over from last night instead of the more traditional waxy potatoes...we'll let you know how it turns out.

Lauren: Tortilla Espanola is a classic tapas dish, but seems to be easily adaptable to "Hmmm...what's that in the fridge? An aging red pepper and some olives we should probably use up? Groovy!" The original recipe also calls for onions, which we probably would've added if it weren't a) something that we'd have to go to the store for and b) pouring torrentially.

Dave: That is true...you could really pop anything in this dish and it would be pretty acceptable - as long as you have the traditional eggs and potatoes, it would still be Spanish Tortilla. In related news, there is a tornado warning so I'm glad we didn't run out for an onion.

1 Lb potatoes
2 cups olive oil
½ cup mixed olives (we used a mixture of green and kalamata), pitted
1 red pepper
2 eggs
dash of Hungarian hot paprika
dash of chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Peel potatoes, cut into small cubes or wedges, then put on a clean dish towel and dry well. Cut the red pepper into 1" squares; cut olives into quarters. Heat the olive oil in large, heavy-bottom or nonstick skillet. Add the potato pieces, red pepper, and olives, then lower the heat and cook, stirring frequently for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender, but not brown. (They'll actually look like they've been boiled, yet will have the delicious flavor of the olive oil cooked inside them.)

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a large bowl and season with salt, pepper, chili powder and hot paprika. (Note: If you are using olives, be careful not to over-salt the egg mixture, as the olives will impart plenty of salt to the tortilla. Also, a secret: if you are ever having a dish at our house and taste a spice that is unidentifiable but delicious, it's probably hot paprika. Very few things are not improved by its addition.)

Place strainer over a large bowl; when the potato mixture is cooked, drain into the strainer so that the bowl catches the oil. Set oil aside. When the potato mixture is well drained, gently stir it into beaten eggs.

Wipe skillet clean or wash it if necessary to prevent the tortilla sticking. Heat 2 tablespoons of the reserved olive oil in the skillet. When hot, add the mixture, lower the heat and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the underside is just set. Use a spatula to push the potatoes down into the egg so that they are completely submerged and keep loosening the tortilla from the bottom of the skillet to stop it sticking.

To cook the second side of the tortilla, cover it with a plate, and hold the plate in place with the other hand. Drain off the oil in the skillet, then quickly turn the skillet upside down so that the tortilla falls onto the plate. Return the skillet to the heat and add a little more of the reserved oil if necessary. Slide the tortilla, cooked side up, back into the skillet and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until set underneath. The tortilla is cooked when it is still firm and crisp on the outside but still slightly runny in the center.

Slide the tortilla onto a serving plate and let stand for about 15 minutes. Serve it warm or cold, cut into small squares, fingers or wedges.

Optional: For a little extra heat, serve with Sriracha.

July 22th--Improvised Tajine Curry

Lauren: So, as it turns out, we were a little more tired than expected on Monday after Sunday's Warrior Dash (which was awesome, by the way), and decided to eat some leftover ragout my father had sent us home with from his self-catered Father's Day dinner. He also sent us home with a present - a tajine.

Dave: To put the tajine through its paces, we decided to make a modification of a super easy curry recipe we've developed (because we are lazy and like curry). The tajine is a traditional Moroccan cooking vessel with a tall domed cover, so that when liquid evaporates from your food it condenses and self-marinates. To take advantage of these features we used traditional Moroccan spices in place of curry powder and used potatoes as the basis for the curry, to replicate the tough cuts of meat the tajine is so good at tenderizing. I know that getting potatoes good and soft isn't nearly as difficult a task as tenderizing mutton, but until Morningstar Farms makes a mutton substitute, it's what we've got.

Lauren: We also added paneer cubes to the mix - again, more common in South Asian cuisine than Moroccan, but we had half a bag of it in the freezer (and it's delicious).

Incidentally, tajine is the name for both the cooking vessel as well as the dishes made in it. Traditional tajine also tends to have more fruits and nuts than ours had, so this might be fun to do differently in the fall with root vegetables, dates and nuts.

Dave: Absolutely! It's a great vessel for all sorts of long-cooking foods.

I want to give a shout out to The Spice House (www.thespicehouse.com 1941 Central St. Evanston). We used their Moroccan Spice Mix and their Chili Powder in this recipe. They have some of the best and freshest spices in the Chicagoland area and their staff is always so pleasant and helpful.

Tajine:

1/2 cup Soy Milk

4 Red Potatoes (Diced)

2 Roma Tomatoes (Seeded and diced)

1/2 Red Onion (Peeled and, you guessed it, diced)

1 Cup frozen peas (We used Trader Joe's Brand)

1 Cup frozen paneer cubes

4 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tsps Moroccan Spice Blend http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/moroccan-spice-mixture

2 Tsps Chili Powder http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/mild-medium-or-hot-chili-powder

Sauce:

1 cup Greek yogurt

1-2 Tbsp soy milk

1 1/2 Tbsp Moroccan Spice Blend http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/moroccan-spice-mixture

2 dashes ground cloves

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk Greek yogurt and soy milk together (sauce should have a fairly thick consistency). Add in Moroccan spices until fully combined. Mix in cloves and set aside.

Pour soy milk into tajine and set over low heat. Gradually increase the heat to medium (you should never expose your tajine to quick temp changes.) When the milk has boiled, let the tajine cool and hand wash without soap. You can do this at any time the day you are making the recipe.

Heat olive oil in the tajine. Slowly increase the temperature from low to medium. Put the potatoes and red onions into the tajine and stir slowly, ensuring that they are coated in oil. Cover the tajine and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Open the tajine and add peas, chili powder, Moroccan spice blend and paneer. Stir well and cover. Reduce heat slightly and let simmer 10 minutes.

Turn off the burner of the stove and let the tajine sit (covered) 15 minutes.

Slowly add sauce to the vegetable and spice mixture. If the sauce curdles when added, allow more time for the oil to cool.

Stir well and serve immediately with flatbread.

June 17th--Squid, Asparagus and Red Onion over Citrus Fettuccine in Citrus Cream Sauce

Dave: Tonight's recipe is one we've gone to several times in one form or another over the years. Take a protein (tofu or seafood usually) and toss it with noodles and a robust sauce. We've made many variants, but the basic recipe is always a winner.

Tonight we decided to go with squid over citrus fettuccine.

Lauren: Silken tofu takes almost any flavor so readily that it takes very little convincing to taste like anything else. This definitely works with citrus in the extreme.

We also made the fettuccine from scratch, not so much because we're trying to impress you all (okay, maybe a little) but because...well...remember that basic Play-Doh set with the different filters you can squeeze dough through? The Kitchen Aid Pasta attachment is sort of the grown-up version of that.

Dave: Also they discontinued the squid ink pasta we were going to use in the recipe (Al Dente brand) so we decided to go with something with a little more punch than basic egg noodles.

I decided to pop some citrus flavor into the noodles with a light lemon-lime mixture. I think it may have added to the consistency problem you'll see in the video below, but the flavor was excellent. In the future I might add zest to noodles instead of juice to add some more color and flavor (plus not ruin up the consistency of the dough) but this is how you learn.

Lauren: Yeah, this meal was all about the "not-so-successes" part of the blog...I dropped the tofu in the sink and had to fish it out. Plus, I started cooking the asparagus and onions, and then forgot about them.

Dave: But it all turned out. We ate, we enjoyed ourselves and we lived to blog about it. We use blended tofu for almost all cream sauces instead of using heavy cream. I think we discovered the substitution when we were making vodka sauce and weren't too keen on the fat content of the cream.

Lauren: We've mentioned this sauce twice now...we're such recipe teases. Seriously, though, subbing it for the cream gives you all the creaminess without the heaviness.

Dave: I guess the only other big innovation on this recipe was marinading the squid in rum and citrus before cooking. I think the flavor of dark rum worked really well with the citrus... we may have to make a growler of grog in the near future!

Lauren: YAR!

Squid, Asparagus and Red Onion over Citrus Fettuccine in Citrus Cream Sauce Recipe

1 Lb Squid

1/2 Cup Dark Rum (we used "THE KRAKEN" which is also really good for cocktails or sipping)

1 Bunch Asparagus, cut into approx. 1" pieces

1/2 Small Red Onion, cut in half-rings

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Juice of 1/2 Lime

Noodles:

3 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour, Sifted

4 Eggs

1 Tsp Water

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Vegetable Oil

Sauce:

12.5 oz Silken Tofu, Soft

1 Tbsp rice milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Juice of 1/2 Lime

1 Tsp hot chili powder

1/2 Tsp lemon peel

1 Tbsp capers

Procedure:

Squid

Rinse squid well. Cut squid into thin rings with a santoku knife. If your squid includes tentacles, cut them down to small sections. Put all of the squid into a bowl and marinade with lemon juice, lime juice and rum.

Place the squid in the refrigerator while you work on the pasta.

Pasta:

Combine all pasta ingredients in the bowl of a KitchenAid stand mixer. Put the "beating blade" attachment on the mixer and process at setting 2 for 30 seconds. Change the "dough hook" for the beating blade and process for 2 minutes at setting 2. Remove the dough and work it into a smooth ball with your hands. Divide the dough ball into 4 even sections. Follow the flattening and cutting instructions from Kitchenaid. You'll only need half of your noodles, so you can set the other two dough balls aside for another day or cut them all and freeze half.

Back to Squid:

Remove the squid from the refrigerator and cook in a saucepan over high heat until all squid rings become uniformly white and somewhat curled in on themselves.

Drain the squid and set aside.

In a high-walled sautee pan, heat 1 Tbsp oilve oil; add onion and cook until slightly soft. Add asparagus with a squeeze of lemon and lime juice. Cook on medium heat until the onion is tender and the asparagus is a uniform dark green.

Pasta:

In a large saucepan bring 8 Cups water to a rolling boil. Add 1/2 of the pasta to the water and remove when pasta is al dente.

Sauce:

Drain and blot tofu; place in blender and blend until smooth. In a medium saucepan, whisk tofu and rice milk together with a thickening whisk on medium-low heat. Add lemon and lime juice, chili powder, lemon peel, and salt and pepper while whisking. (Note: If sauce appears too thick, add more milk; if too thin, allow milk to cook off.) Add capers and whisk until sauce begins to bubble. Remove from heat and set aside.

FINISH HIM!

Add squid to pasta; toss with sauce. With a slotted spoon, transfer onions and asparagus to pasta.

Optional: When plating, sprinkle an extra spoonful or so of capers to the top of each serving.

We'll be out of town from 6/18-6/20 for the WARRIOR DASH in Joliet.

We'll return to regular posting on 6/21. Have a great weekend!!

June 16th--Breakfast Paninis and Aioli

Lauren:

All right, it's time to get real. Not every night is homemade-pizza-dough, cupcakes-and-frosting-from-scratch night. Sometimes, we have a boring day at work. Sometimes, we don't feel like getting more groceries. Sometimes, we jog a mile more than we were planning on jogging before dinner (!).

Dave:

On nights like this we usually take it pretty easy. Sometimes we'll throw in the towel and get Thai food from Siam Paragon. But, if you look at our mission statement, we are trying to cook together every night this summer and therefor we need to actually cook a meal... even if it is the simplest meal around. And so, without further ado: brinner.

Lauren:

Personally, I prefer "dreckfast." (Must be said in a Fran Drescher voice for full effect.)

When it is breakfast-for-dinner, that can mean only one thing - LODGE LOGIC GRIDDLE TIME. Seriously, this thing is the best: griddle on one side, grill on the other, can use with a sandwich press for paninis...almost nothing it can't do. Plus, with some sweet new egg rings from Williams-Sonoma...

Dave:

Well, there was basically no way we were going to not do something with perfectly circular eggs tonight. This probably won't be our only brinner post; there are plenty of lazy days of summer and a really great Eggs Benedict recipe in my back pocket.

Lauren:

Whose back pocket? Eggs Benedict Arnold was a joint collaboration!

Dave:

Plus, we have to show off our squirrel and moose pancake molds (must catch moose and squirrel.)

What we decided to go with is breakfast paninis and aioli. This is a pretty standard Sunday morning meal for us made even more special by being cooked on a weeknight. I took to the griddle to play "short order chef" while Lauren whipped up some lovely black truffle aioli.

Lauren:

Let me tell you: aioli is not recipe that you can wing. You can have to have it in front of you every time, or commit it to memory, but there is little in-between - the order of ingredients is key. This recipe does call for egg yolk; I've been working on perfecting a vegan aioli, but have struggled in finding the perfect egg replacement.

Black Truffle Aioli:

(Modified from Tapas)

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice (I've used both with equal success)

2 large garlic cloves, peeled

salt and pepper to taste

5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

5 Tbsp black truffle oil (any non-reactive oil, such as vegetable oil or safflower oil, can be substituted)

In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolk, vinegar, garlic, and salt and pepper together; blend well.

For this next part, you might want to grab a friend. While still gently moving the whisk, very slowly add the olive oil, then the truffle oil, drop by drop at first, then, when it starts to thicken, in a slow, steady stream until the sauce is thick and smooth. Serve immediately.

Breakfast Paninis

2 Eggs

4 Pieces of Bread

2 Slices of muenster cheese

4 Pieces of Smart Bacon (vegan bacon)

Sweet Hungarian paprika to taste

Black pepper to taste

Preheat your griddle and lightly grease two egg rings. Place the egg rings on the griddle and crack one egg into each. Start cooking the bacon on the other side of the griddle and sprinkle it with paprika and black pepper. Place a griddle press on the bacon.

Once the eggs have cooked through remove bacon and eggs to a plate and place all the bread on the griddle. Begin assembling the sandwiches on the griddle in this order:

Bread (one slice)

Cheese

Bacon in an "X"

Egg

Bread (one slice)

Once both sandwiches have been constructed, cook evenly on each side employing the griddle press to flatten.

Cut the sandwiches into 4 strips each and serve with aioli for dipping.

Bonus Post! Or, Our Mission Statement

Lauren:
If you've met us, you know we love to cook. We use almost any excuse to cook. Heck, we considered catering our own wedding for about half a second.

Thing is, we usually work opposite shifts - Dave is usually on the 9-5 side, whereas I work 4-9. There are not a lot of opportunities for us to make dinner together, unless I don't happen to have any tutoring appointments on a given day (also not ideal, as tutoring appointments = increased ability to buy food).

For the summer, however, we're both on the 9-5, so outside of laziness, we've got no excuse NOT to cook dinner. And so that's what we've vowed to do for the summer: every night, unless we are a) out of town or b) going out to dinner with friends, we will cook.

And we'd like you - friends, relatives, annoyed acquaintances who have been directed here from Facebook - to be a part of it. So if you have questions about where we found a particular ingredient, or run into problems recreating a recipe (hey, we can dream), let us know!

June 15th--Red Wine Shrimp and Cointreau Cupcakes

Dave: Lauren thinks this post should be subtitled "Boozy Tuesday" and I can't say that I blame her. We have two dishes with boozy components. For our main course, we have red wine shrimp on polenta. This is a modification of the City Grocery Shrimp N' Grits recipe (not that the City Grocery recipe needed to be modified as it is quite tasty.)

Right now I have the shrimp marinating in the fridge, and I'm enjoying a glass of the wine we're using for the recipe. We're using Chariot '08 which is bottled by Jim Neal Wines ($4.99, Trader Joe's). It's a California table wine with a nice fruity body with back notes of pepper.



Lauren: I'm always good with a wine that lives at the corner of Tasty and Inexpensive, and Chariot more than fits the bill. It also imparts its friendly flavor to food nicely.

Since desserts are kind of a culinary blind spot for us (or at least, something for which we lack a stockpile of tried-and-true recipes), I decided to try my hand at dark chocolate cupcakes with Cointreau frosting. Originally, I was going to try to make fondant from scratch, but it seemed a little labor-intensive to simply jump into tonight.

Dave: Plus, we were having trouble finding a fondant recipe that didn't call for gelatin, which is kind of a "won't" for both of us (horse bone slime, anyone?). Anyway, it seems like Cointreau Buttercream Frosting is in the cards tonight...very exciting.

Lauren: Finally, I get to use that frosting set I picked up at Ikea! Also, things I learned today: buttercream frosting? Outside of a few additions, the name is also pretty much the recipe.

Dave: I'm really excited with how the shrimp came out. I increased the amount of citrus I usually put in the marinade to 1/2 part and used a little salt to help it find its way into the shrimp... all I can say is YUM! Also, I made a little lightly processed tomato chutney, and it is complementing the shrimp like it is its job (which it is).

On a whim, we bought some bell peppers at the Garden Fresh because they were an unprecedented 99 cents a pound. I decided to make a tri-color pepper salad to go with the the shrimp. I decided to go with chili powder instead of the traditional black pepper, and frankly, I don't think I'll ever go back. The chili powder made the bell peppers sweat perfectly, so I didn't need to add any extra liquid except for some white wine vinegar for taste.

Tomato Chutney Recipe:
Three Roma tomatoes
1 Tsp Hungarian hot paprika
1 Tsp balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 Tsp Himalayan pink salt, finely ground

Dice the tomatoes. I like to cut a "grid" into the tomatoes and then slice off the diced bits like so:




Put the tomato into a small saucepan and add all other ingredients.
Cook on low heat until the tomatoes have absorbed the vinegar.

Shrimp Recipe:
Polenta:
1 Tube polenta

Marinade:
1 Cup wine
1/2 Cup lemon juice
1 Tsp olive oil
1 Tsp kosher salt

Shrimp:
3/4 LB veined and peeled shrimp
1/2 Cup red wine

Procedure:
Marinate the shrimp one hour in the wine and lemon juice mixture.

Drain the shrimp. Put the shrimp in a high-walled frying pan and add 1/2 cup wine to cover the base of the pan. Sautee uncovered until the shrimp begin to curl and shrink. Cut the polenta into 1/2 inch sections and fry on a well-seasoned cast iron griddle.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place to polenta circles evenly over the surface of the baking sheet. Place a dollop of chutney on each ring and top it with a shrimp. Put the baking sheet under a broiler for 7 minutes.




Pepper Salad Recipe:
3 Bell Peppers (Green, Red, Yellow) Finely Diced
2 Tsps White Wine Vinegar
1 Tsp Chili Powder

Put the diced peppers in a bowl with a tight lid (in the absence of a lidded bowl, saran wrap can cover the bowl.) Add the vinegar and the chili powder to the peppers and shake well.

Cupcake Recipe:

(Modified from http://qafma.org/2009/08/23/chef-demo-recipe-lorna-yee/)

3 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), finely chopped or grated

1 cup strong, hot brewed coffee

2 large eggs

2/3 cup vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)

1 cup buttermilk (Don't feel like buying a whole thing of buttermilk just for cupcakes? Keep reading!)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour (No whole-wheat pastry flour this time - my baked goods always end up with a "healthy" taste when I try to substitute it)

1 cup good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

DIY Buttermilk

With cow's milk or soy milk:

Add 1 tbsp lemon juice to 1 cup milk . Mix completely.

With rice milk:

A few more steps are involved in this method, but still doable. In a covered container, mix one cup rice milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch. Shake vigorously until corn starch is incorporated into the rice milk. Coat the base of a sauteeing pan with margarine (Earth Balance works best) and heat on medium until margarine bubbles. Add milk mixture and stir constantly with a deglazing whisk until mixture bubbles. Reduce heat immediately and move mixture to another container; place in refrigerator until cool.

Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, mix together the chocolate and hot coffee until the chocolate dissolves. Set aside until the coffee mixture cools.

In a separate large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the eggs for 4 to 5 minutes, until pale in color and almost doubled in volume. It should look something like this:

Turn the mixer speed down to medium and add the vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add the coffee and chocolate mixture, and again beat until combined.

Add the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, and mix just until the batter comes together and no white streaks of flour are visible. As with many baked goods, overmixing toughens the finished product.

Divide the batter into lined cupcake tins, filling them three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed, or if they pass the toothpick test. (Note: mini-cupcakes take half the baking time.)

The frosting I would do differently in the future; I was a little lazy and used the recipe on the back of the powdered milk bag:

1 cup powdered milk

1 stick (1/4 lb.) unsalted butter

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp Cointreau

Mix all ingredients except Cointreau together in a bowl with an electric mixer. Add Cointreau; mix until smooth. Optional: To give frosting more of an orange color to match the orange flavor, add one drop red and one drop yellow food coloring.

Finished Products: