Weekend Cookbook Challenge #1: Dig out your oldest cookbook and make something from it.

The night I got the cookbook (December 1995):

(That’s me - seated in the middle. Don’t ask why I’m wearing a shiny shirt! It was the 90s, people!)

My oldest cookbook also happens to be the one that means the most to me, even though I rarely use it. I received it as a gift from my co-workers upon my graduation from U.C.L.A. (GO BRUINS!) In college, my job was planning events for the Student Union.

At my goodbye dinner, my friends all signed the inside of the cookbook with sweet wishes for me as I embarked on my new life as an adult. The messages are dated December 7, 1995 so that means I received this cookbook exactly 10 years and 8 days ago. Holy crap, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I graduated from college!

Check out the kind words from my co-workers:

We went to dinner at Chin-Chin’s in Brentwood to celebrate my graduation. So I pasted the fortune from my chocolate-dipped fortune cookie in the corner of the signed page. It says, “Have patience. It will benefit you.”

I only keep in touch with one of the people who signed my cookbook, but I’ll always treasure the generous thoughts behind the gesture. Also, I think it’s interesting that I was already culinarily-inclined back then considered I’d never cooked a meal in my life at that point. Living in a sorority house certainly kept me spoiled for longer than many college students.

Anyway, my co-workers gave me the Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook a lifestyle choice which, as my husband commented recently, must have seemed quite “avant garde” at the time. As a freshman at U.C.L.A. I gave up eating meat because the food in the dorms scared me. There were rumors that the cafeteria meat was Grade “D” and I believed it. So I pretty much subsisted on Golden Grahams, Coke, and the Salad Bar.

When I moved into my sorority house the food situation improved, but I took my new vegetarian preferences with me. I went at least 5 years without having even a bite of meat and that includes chicken and turkey. I went a full 10 years without having red meat at all. I didn’t miss it, in case you’re wondering. But I prefer how I eat now because I consider my current diet more moderate and flexible.

I used to cook from this book more, but I haven’t made anything from it in about 8 years. So today, as part of the Cookbook Challenge, I made the Middle Eastern Rice with Lentils. It was yummy, but nowadays I would consider it more of a side dish than a main course. I used chicken broth instead of water - so much for eating vegetarian! And I used dried currants instead of raisins because that’s what I had on hand.

Middle Eastern Rice with Lentils
Serves 4

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 T tomato paste
2 1/2 cups water (I used chicken broth)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup dry lentils
1 t salt
1/2 cup raisins (I used dried currants)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
Additional water, if needed

In a large saucepan, cook the onion in oil, stirring, until soft, over medium heat. Add the rice and stir for several minutes. Combine the tomato paste with the water or broth and cinnamon. Add to the rice along with the lentils. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the salt, raisins, and pine nuts into the rice mixture. The mixture should be a little watery; add 1/4 cup water if it is dry. Place the mixture in a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish. Cover and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

I decided to keep it really simple for Sugar High Friday #13. Just two ingredients combined to form heavenly little nuggets of frozen-together goodness. Sometimes the simple things in life are the most exquisite.

Usually, I make this treat with dark chocolate and raspberries, but I couldn’t fine any fresh berries. So, I switched the plan and used macadamia nuts instead. My husband’s Aunt Ruthie gave me the idea for these. She makes them with apricots, too, but I think there’s something more complicated to that so I will wait and see if I can get the apricot secret out of her.

So, I started with a pound of 70% dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s and a bag of unsalted macadamia nuts. I coarsely chopped half of the nuts to give some variation to the texture.

Then I melted up the chocolate in the microwave. Here’s where it gets kind of messy. Use a spoon and make a little puddle of melted choclate on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle in a few macadamia nuts, to taste. This what it looks like before the final step:

Then drop one more spoonful of melted dark chocolate on top of the nuts. After you fill up the baking sheet with these luscious little discs, it will look like this:

Actually, it will probably look a lot neater than that because I am a sloppy cook. The kitchen is not a pretty sight when I’m in action. But the food usually tastes really good, I promise! With this treat, how could it taste bad with such rich and simple ingredients?

Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about an hour. Then remove and enjoy. Keep any leftovers frozen and just pop them out of the freezer one at a time when you’re ready for a treat. Yum! These are actually quite dangerous to have in the house. When I make the raspberry ones, they usually don’t last long.

If you look at the original photo on the top of this post, you will see the final product. The chocolate darkens and deepens. They’re the perfect sugar high - for Fridays or any day.

[Check in this weekend for my round-up of my favorite food blogging of the week.]

One of these things is not like the others!

Yesterday I ate vegan and the only thing I really missed was cheese!

Throughout college and for years afterwards, I ate totally vegetarian. A bite of chicken didn’t enter my mouth for years. And while I’m not a huge meat-eater nowadays, I love fish and dairy, especially cheese. Also, I’m not really used to micro-managing what I eat, so scanning labels for even a hint of dairy wasn’t a natural fit for me. My main food concern, on a normal day, is to eat organic ingredients as much as possible and to avoid artificial ingredients, such as colorings and preservatives. I mainly shop at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

Yesterday, the day I decided to eat vegan, I was on the run all day, driving to work and appointments with hardly any time in between. Here’s what I put together for my day for vegan sustenance:

Breakfast – Red Bull and Kashi’s Autumn Wheat in a plastic baggie – I know it’s not good to eat on the go, but it was either this or starvation and with a long day ahead of me, I had to go the dry cereal route. I love Autumn Wheat, though, because it’s shredded wheat sweetened just a tad - crunchy and filling.

Lunch – Whole Foods Salad Bar – I love eating at Whole Foods. It’s the one of the few places where you can grab a quick and healthy meal to go. I wish they had a drive-thru! Yesterday, my first inclination was to grab some of their arugula salad with pine nuts and parmesan. But, no cheese for me on Vegan Day. So instead, I created a little bed of spinach and red leaf lettuce on which I put some Multigrain Tabouli (Japonica rice, brown rice, wheatberries, cucumber, tomatoes, red onions, and spices) and Golden Beet Couscous (Shallots, Beets, Israeli Couscous, and Spinach). It’s healthy, chewy, and delicious. I grabbed a bottled water and a vegan bar of dark chocolate that really scared me but turned out to be pretty tasty. My sister-in-law Lydia informed me that all dark chocolate is vegan. I never though about that…! Is that true?

I ate my lunch in the car while listening to Dr. Laura! I actually kind of like that solitary time. Is that weird?

When I got home a few hours later, I only had a moment to grab a quick snack of cranberry juice and brown rice cakes sweetened with buttery caramel. It was actually pretty delicious and satisfying. In fact, I might go have some now!

Dinner - A couple more hours of work and then my friend Amanda came over to watch our favorite show – America’s Next Top Model. I cobbled together a vegan salad culled from two Cooking Light recipes – Fruited Israeli Couscous and Citrus Couscous Salad. Basically, I liked the idea of the flavors in the Citrus salad, but I wanted to make it with Israeli Couscous, which I’d never cooked with before. The salad turned out fruity and satisfying, but the next day I didn’t like the way the Israeli couscous looked – more clumpy and solidified. I would definitely make this salad again some day, but I would stick with the traditional couscous, due to the consistency factor for leftovers.

Here’s the vegan recipe for Citrus Couscous Salad:

2 cups fresh orange juice
½ cup water
1 t salt
1 (10-ounce) package whole-wheat couscous (about 1 2/3 cups)
½ cup dried apricots, sliced
½ cup dried currants
2 T red wine vinegar
1 cup chopped seeded cucumber
¾ cup chopped green onions
½ cup coarsely chopped pistachios
¼ cup chopped fresh mint
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 T extra virgin olive oil

1. Bring 1.5 cups orange juice, water, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Place couscous in a large bowl.
2. Combine ½ cup orange juice, apricots, currants, and vinegar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes. Drain and discard cooking liquid.
3. Add apricot mixture, cucumber, and remaining ingredients to couscous, tossing to combine.

Makes 8 1-cup servings
Source: Cooking Light Magazine

So to sum up my day of living veganly, I actually enjoyed it and I felt rather healthy and satisfied. I’ve been wanting to take it easy on the cheese and crackers lately and I very rarely eat meat at home, so I guess I’m already more than halfway there.

Thanks, Amanda, for coming over and watching Top Model with me!

Tagged with: IMBB # 19 + Vegan

WBW13: Like Wine For Chocolate

Believe it or not, I’ve never made a cake before. OK… well, maybe a Duncan Hines in the 80s or something.

But anyway… after all of the positive support I’ve received on my blog in its first 3 days of existence, I felt ready to dive right in and try my hand with the pros as a participant in the Wine Blogging Wednesday event hosted by Chocolate and Zucchini. The basic concept is to make a rich chocolate cake and pair it with a wine and report on it. Sounds good to me! Any excuse to drink on a weeknight!

So, I stopped by my local Vons, which happens to have one of the better wine selections in my area. Being the shallow, uninformed lush that I am, I chose my bottle based solely on the cuteness of its label and the fact that it was described as fruity which a quick Google search had revealed as a key element of wines that pair well with dark chocolates.

Oh yeah - and also I really liked that it had the word “Screw” in its name:

It’s a 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon called “Screw Kappa Napa.” It won Best in Class and Double Gold in the 2005 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition . It costs around $17.

And it was only after the first glass of wine that my husband looked at me and said, “Oh! I get it! It’s called Screw Kappa because it has a screw-cap!” Yes, we’re geniuses, people.

Sipping the wine before we tasted the chocolate cake, it was sweet and strong. The label describes the wine as having “coffee, ripe raspberry and vanilla oak aromas” with strong tannins. Although I am quite the “alcohol enthusasist,” I am no conneisseur of the vine. I can’t describe wines in the way of a sommelier or even someone who is trying to imitate the Paul Giamatti character in “Sideways.”

But I do know chocolate.

And once we paired it with Clotilde’s Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Cake, my husband Daniel and I were amazed to see how much the wine improved with the addition of the smooth, rich chocolate. I’ve never actually witnessed the way that the right wine can be so perfect with the right food. The idea of “pairing” wines was a vague and irrevelant concept to me - before tonight.

As Daniel put it, “The chocolate cake takes away the bite of the wine.” I would just say that it was synergistic - the intense chocolate fudginess brought out the best in the fruity richness of the Cab… and vice versa.

Then we sat down with our wine glasses and listened to the Steven Wright comedy CD that just arrived from Amazon this afternoon and laughed together.

My first cake was fricking phenomenal. I finally get how wine pairings work. I have 8 comments on my 3-day old blog. And I’m laughing on the couch with my husband. a

Not bad for a first-timer.