I wish Martha Stewart wanted to adopt an adult

Every month, I wait like a kid waiting for Santa, for my Martha Stewart magazine to arrive.  I don't get much mail.  I'm really painting a pathetic picture here.  I've been reading Martha Stewart since I was 15, when I subscribed to the magazine without my mom's permission via Publishers Clearing House.  If we'd won, she would've felt SO bad for punishing me...

A lot of Martha's recipes can be intimidating and I've made the comment before, that no matter how exact I am, there are certain recipes she puts in those magazines that NONE OF US will ever be able to pull off.  Ever.  That's how Martha wants it.  Where in the heck am I going to get banana leaves to wrap halibut in?  Why do you leave me shaking my fists at the sky when all I do is love you?! 

Ok.  Enough swim fan.

The issue I received yesterday had a recipe I knew I couldn't mess up. It was for a grilled pizza with cheesy corn, fresh tomatoes, and basil.  I ended up doing a few changes (I'm so brave!), including making my own flat bread for the pizza, rather than the suggested frozen pizza dough.  I made mini pizzas with the flat bread, about the size of a salad plate. I also did this in my kitchen rather than on the grill. I'm really excited about sharing this recipe because this is something that could easily be adapted into something you can freeze and pull out on those unexpected crazy nights.  It's something you can top anyway you really want, according to your picky eaters...or if you're the picky eater.  But please try it this way, just once.  Because OMG, dudes...

Martha didn't let me down.

We don't own a grill, which is kind of weird.  But I've found, between a stove top grill and some cast iron skillets, you can get a lot of what you're after with just those things. 

Flat Bread

- 1 pkg dry active yeast

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 1 tblsp honey or agave

- 1 tblsp olive oil

- 3/4-1 cup water

In a bowl, mix yeast, salt, and flours.  Stir in honey and olive oil and then, in a slow steady stream, mix in water until a dough starts to form.  On a floured surface, kneed dough until smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a greased bowl and cover.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled, or about an hour.

Heat a stove top grill or cast iron skillet on medium heat.  Do not oil the grill or skillet.  Divide the risen dough into 4 balls.  Roll out to about a 1/8".  Grill each of the flat breads on each side for 1-2 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned.

You can freeze these if you aren't going to use them right away.  Just let thaw for about an hour and top with whatever you want!

Parmesan Roasted Corn, Tomato, and Basil Flat Bread Pizzas

- 1 1/2 cups corn, canned or from about 2 ears

- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

- 1 clove of garlic, minced

- salt to taste

- 2 small tomatoes, sliced thin

- 4 to 6 oz mozzarella

- 1/2 cup fresh basil

In a dry cast iron skillet, cook corn over medium heat, stirring frequently until it starts to brown just a bit.  Remove from heat.  In a blender or food processor, pulse corn, Parmesan, garlic and salt until smooth with small chunks.

Preheat oven to 450.

Spread some of the corn mixture over each of the prepared flat breads. Top with mozzarella and tomatoes and a light sprinkle of salt.  Heat in the oven until the mozzarella is melted and the tomatoes are heated through, about 5-7 minutes.  Top with basil and serve.

Enjoy the crap out of it!

Melt my heart

I'm still on the never ending search to find delicious deserts for my allergy ridden niece.  I don't want to get carried away on vegan recipes on this blog, but at the same time, vegan recipes are so much fun to...invent.  I have a real pet peeve about diet or vegetarian or vegan foods, swearing they "taste just like the real thing".  It always seems like it takes a lot of weird chemical based ingredients to make those foods barely passable for brownies or hamburgers or whatever they're "supposed" to taste like.  And I think it's what sends people running whenever healthy, vegetarian or vegan foods come up.  It's just going to taste like weird imitation stuff.

Summer is the ultimate time to enjoy fruit.  I'm obsessed with blueberries, watermelon, kiwi, and peaches right now.  I eat them at least twice a day.  I can't stop.  But it doesn't stop the sugar monster that apparently lives in my person, to creep up and want something more than just raw fruit.  I don't want to anger it. 

Here, little monster.  Will this help?  I just want to make you happy...

Blueberry Lemon Honey Sherbet (ok, this is vegan...but it doesn't have to be)

- 1 cup frozen blueberries

- 2 tblsp lemon juice

- 1 6oz. container soy blueberry yogurt (available at Kroger.  Use regular vanilla yogurt or heavy cream if you're steering clear of the vegan thing.  If you use plain yogurt or cream, you might want to increase the honey by another tablespoon or two.)

- 2 tblsp honey

In a food processor or stand mixer (or, heck, in a metal or glass bowl with a hand mixer), combine ingredients until smooth and well mixed.  Freeze in a metal or glass bowl and cover tight with saran wrap.  After an hour, remove from freezer and mix well in your food processor or mixer.  Cover and freeze again.  Do this every hour for about 3-4 hours. 

I don't own an ice cream maker, but I'm bound and determined to get around all that.  I've learned over some extensive googling, that it can be done.  It just requires more work.  Basically, you're doing the churning, rather than the ice cream maker.  But if you're in the middle of nowhere and you need ice cream, like, NOW, uh, you'll churn like there's no tomorrow.  And it's worth it!

Brain Freeze!

Food coma

I need to make a note right now:  I should blog first, eat second.  I'm so full I can hardly move my fingers.  I feel like I just gained 5 pounds...in my fingers.  Mercy.

(Don't worry.  I gained zero pounds in my fingers.  It's all in my head.  You were worried.  Aren't you cute?)

My dad recently took on a new healthy diet in an effort to lose weight and ultimately alleviate pain from a recent knee surgery. Most if what he eats is completely vegan (there's that word again! Hang in there...) and it's already worked wonders.  I think he's dropped about 12-15 pounds in a month or so.  The best thing about the diet he's on is that it's less of a diet and more just an effort to be aware.  Not in quantity or portions, but what's in the food.  Eat healthy, but eat the hell out of it.

Today's lunch is brought to you by my dad's diet and some of the cool things he's taught me.  But again, this isn't diet food.  This is real food.  And it's real good.

You're looking at some lentil tacos made with homemade tortillas.  Homemade tortillas are one of my favorite new tricks dad's taught me while on his vegan adventure.  They're so delicious and INSANELY filling.  Seriously, try them.  See if I'm fibbing.  What's more, these homemade tortillas are made from corn masa and water.  That is it.  That's it!  See?  Now you have to make them. 

Note: Corn Masa can be found at most grocery stores.  For my local pals, I know that Kroger and Piggly Wiggly carry it.  You can generally find it in either the Hispanic section or the flour/baking section of the store.  It's about $3 for a large bag.

So let's start with the tortillias!  Andale!

Corn Tortillias



- 2 cups Corn Masa

- 1 1/2 cups water

- 1 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.  The texture you're trying to achieve is something kind of play dough like.  A soft, smooth, wet, but not sticky, dough.  You should be able to roll it up into a ball.  If it's too wet, add more masa, or if it's too dry, add more water!  You can't mess it up. Let the dough rest, covered up, for about 30 minutes. 

Grab a ball of dough, about the size of golf ball, and roll it into a smooth ball.  On a parchment covered flat surface, give the ball of dough one little smoosh with the palm of your hand and cover with another piece of parchment paper.  Using something heavy, like a cast iron skillet, press down hard on the covered dough, making it flat as you can or like. 

Heat a large non-stick skillet or griddle over medium/high heat.  Cook the flattened tortillas on the dry skillet, for 1 minute on each side, or until it's as browned until you like it.  This is about you, after all.

Once tortilla is cooked on both sides, remove from heat and cover with a paper towel.  You can stack all of the tortillas on top of each other with a paper towel in between each.

This recipe makes about 8 medium sized tortillas.

And for the filling...

Lentil Tacos

- 1 cup of lentils

- 4 cups water

- 2 tblsp olive oil

- 2 tblsp chili powder

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1/2 tsp onion powder

- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

- 1/2 tsp oregano

- 3 tsp cumin

- 1 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp corn starch

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 avocado, sliced

- a handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered

- fresh cilantro

- lime

In a medium sized saucepan, heat water up to a boil.  Stir in lentils.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook lentils, covered, for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain. 

In a small bowl, mix chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper, oregano, cumin, paprika, salt, and corn starch.    

In a non-stick skillet, heat 2 tblsp olive oil and add lentils.  Coat well in oil and add 1/2 cup of water.  Stir in spice mix.  Bring to a simmer and then cover and reduce heat to low, for about 3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Fill a tortilla with a couple tablespoons of the lentil mixture and top with avocado, tomato, and a few cilantro leaves.  Squeeze a little bit of lime juice on top, fold it up like a taco, and eat up!

Thank heaven for cheesecake

I'm not even sure how to enter typing out this post because I feel like I need to be really careful about the word I'm about to use.  I don't want to deter any readers and as soon as I type this word, I might send a good few of you, off to a better world where this word was never spoken.  The word I mean to say is...vegan.  Hello?  Is anyone still there?

Before I lose what's left of my audience, let me just say a lot of why I've explored vegan cooking is because my sweet 9 year old niece, Courtney, has a severe allergy to milk and egg products.  She spent the whole first 18 months of her life sick as all get out because doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.  She's a 9 year old who can't eat pizza, or kit kat bars, or buttered popcorn.  Which is actually kind of good in a healthy way, but all kids should get to junk out every now and then.  The thing about Courtney is, she never complains about it.  She doesn't seem to really mind.  She's so mature about it...while she dances on the coffee table.  I'm really proud of that girl.  Because if it were me I would full-on through myself on the floor like a toddler in the grocery store, screaming for a snickers.  For sure.

So, sweet Court, this post is for you!

Vegan No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

For the crust:

- 7 or 8 graham crackers (I like to use the cinnamon ones, just because they're yummy, but you can use plain or honey if you want)

- 2 tblsp sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 4 tblsp coconut oil, melted

For the filling:

- 2, 12oz containers of Tofutti sour cream (this was at the Kroger in Batesville, in with all the healthy juices and tofu, next to the produce section)

- 3/4 cup sugar

-1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

- 10 strawberries, sliced

- 2 tblsp sugar

- 2 or 3 graham cracker squares

Put graham crackers in a ziplock bag and seal.  With a rolling pin, roll over the crackers until they're finely ground.  Mix in a bowl with sugar and salt.  Add oil.  In a muffin pan (I used a silicone muffin pan because I found it helped pop these little cheesecakes out without damaging them at all.  But a metal pan is fine too), scoop graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup.  Fill just over 1/3 of the way full and, using the back of a spoon, pack the graham crackers down.  Once all the cups are filled, put the muffin tin in the freezer and let set for about 10 minutes.

While crust is setting, whip together sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl with a whisk.  Remove pan from the freezer and fill cups to the top with the cheesecake filling.  Freeze for at least an hour before serving.

For the topping, slice strawberries and mix with sugar in a bowl.  Cover the bowl and let sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Drizzle strawberry juice and strawberries over the top of the cheesecakes.  Crumble the graham cracker squares over the top of strawberries. 

Store cheesecakes in the freezer.  If there's any left over to store, that is.  And there wont be.

We got the beet

It's fourth of July week and in our family, that's a big deal.  My sister and brother in law come to town from Kentucky, my brother's girlfriend comes in from Chicago, there's a big get together at our cousin's house in Memphis - it's a to do.  But I love it.  Because it's also the week of my birthday.  So I get to be around all my favorite people for my birthday, which is all anyone can ask for. 

With the fourth happening on Wednesday, and everyone and their mama in town, planning a menu for the week is a lost cause.  So I'm just trying to go with really simple things based on what I've already got. 

While at my dad's house the other day, we got to talking about panini presses and that he'd seen a guy use a stove top grill and a cast iron skillet as a make shift press.  I've had that and the question "what am I going to do with those beets and beet greens from the farmers market?", dancing in my head since the weekend.  Here's what I did:

Deeeeeeeeeelightful.  This is just a quick homemade honey multi grain bread with beet greens and Gruyere cheese.  But its so good.  And a perfect summer bite because, despite the cheese, it's light. 

I couldn't wait to try the whole grill/skillet panini press wannabee trick.  Guess what?  It totally works.  Totes.

Boom!  Awesome.

So first, I threw together some bread.  Let me just stop you, because I know where your brain just went and I can feel your eyes rolling as I type.  Yes - I threw some bread together.  And YOU CAN TOO.  I promise, one successful round of bread that rises and smells amazing, and you'll have it down.  I love making bread in the summer too, because you can just put it outside, cover it, and let it rise.  It's the perfect temperature right now!  It's nice to say the temp is perfect for something.  It's kind of miserable for everything else...like living.

Delish.  It's worth it.

Honey Multi grain Bread

- 3/4 cup warm water

- 1 package of dry active yeast

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

- 2 tblsp olive oil

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tblsp flax seed

- 2 tblsp poppy seed

- 2 tblsp sunflower seeds

Stir water, yeast, and honey in a large bowl and let rest for about 5 minutes until foamy.  Mix in olive oil, salt, 1/2 cup of wheat flour, 1/2 cup of white flour. Add flax, poppy, and sunflower seeds.  Add remaining flours, alternately, 2 or 3 tablespoons at a time, making sure each time that all the added flour is completely mixed in.   Do this until the dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl and forms a ball.  Knead several times on a floured surface until smooth.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a dish towel, and put bowl in a warm place to rise for one hour.  Once dough has doubled, punch the dough down, knead a few turns, and then either grease a cookie sheet and form a loaf, or place dough in a bread pan.  Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 425 and cook bread for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Use this bread to make your favorite sandwich.  For my sandwich I rinsed the leaves from the beet stalks, sauteed them in a light drizzle of oil, grated some Gruyere, and grilled that sucker up!  Do this with Gruyere and apple, or mozzarella and spinach, add chicken or hummus or anything!  Snack worthy, lunch worthy, perfection.



This little piggy went to market

I made a joke a week or two ago about dedicating a blog post to my favorite local grocery store, Piggly Wiggly in Batesville, MS, but that joke has turned real.  I really wanted to write this post to make the point that you really can live in the middle of nowhere and still create good, fresh, healthy food.  There's a lot of times when I'm reading Martha or cooking blogs that I love that are based out of New York or other large cities, and they'll make these recipes with ingredients I've never heard of and it can be kind of a let down.  It hurts to say Martha has ever let me down, by the way.  Hurts.  "Let down" isn't the phrase, but I am disappointed to not have access to certain things.  But then I think that's just a minor hurdle.  If I don't have a very specific type of pear, I can use the pears I can find here and make them work.  And I've discovered that with a little time and energy applied to really looking, you'll be surprised at what you'll find in chain grocery stores in small towns.  With food allergies becoming a major issue, most stores in most towns, big or small, are finding it necessary to carry glueten and dairy free products.  There are soy options as well as a lot of unprocessed foods.  I really encourage any readers that live in a smaller area to get to know their local stores really well. 

But this is about MY Piggly Wiggly.  "The Pig" as we affectionately refer to it, has been in Batesville all my life, I think.  It's old location was pretty old and run down, but even then it always carried the best produce of the 3 grocery store options in town.  It's also the most cost efficient of all the stores.  About 2 years ago, the Pig relocated and opened a much larger, much snazzier store.  And with this move came a produce section that constantly blows my mind.  It's opened a lot of doors for me in the kitchen.  Lemon grass, Yuca, Plantains, Kumquats, farm fresh produce from local farms, and the largest variety of peppers I've ever seen.  The store really caters to it's ethnic customers and you can find a lot of otherwise hard to find items for Asian, Mexican, or Italian cuisene. 

I took some pictures of the produce section just so you could see for yourself.  Why I thought this would interest anyone is something I'm still not sure of, but just humor me. 

By the way, taking pictures with a big ol' camera in the middle of the produce section is weird and anything but inconspicuous.

Ok.  It's just a store.  I need to cool my jets.  But it's exciting to me to have access to this kind of food.  It's just a store...but it's kind of inspiring...

I can't speak Italian

I can't read Italian either.  So I was a little bummed when I finally pulled out the old pasta machine my dad gave me out, only to find that the instructions printed on the box were in Italian. And that's it.  Luckily, it's three pieces so it was pretty easy to figure out.  It wasn't easy.  I don't why I said that.  But I DID figure it out.

I wanted to use my pasta machine to make ravioli after making a giant batch of homemade spagehetti sauce on Monday from some farmer's market leftovers (recipe for spaghetti sauce to come!).  I also had about 1/4 of a container of goat cheese sitting in my fridge and about a handful of spinach.  Small enough quantities that I couldn't do anything with them.  And that's when ravioli popped into my head.  I've had this whole wheat pasta recipe saved on my phone for awhile now and today I had just enough guts to try it.  Making homemade pasta, to me, sounds like something real savy kitchen are capable of, but not me.  But I've never let that stop me before.  I've also never let throwing away really disgusting food I've made, deter me from cooking the next day.  Pasta dough is 4 ingredients, so I kinda figured, if it goes bad, I haven't lost much.

The other great thing about attempting ravioli and busting out the pasta machine was this:

Look at those guys.  They were so into it!  Forget successful pasta dough.  They were so excited to play with this thing.  Oh my gosh they're so cute.  Ok - this is supposed to be about ravioli.

First, let me say you don't need a pasta machine to make pasta.  You can just roll it out.  Just make sure you get it reasonably thin. You've seen pasta before.  Make it look like that!

Here we go.

Whole Wheat Spinach and Goat Cheese Ravioli

For the dough:
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp salt

For the filling:
- 1/4 cup goat cheese
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 cup spinach, chopped or torn

In a glass bowl, mix together flours and salt.  Make a well in the center.  Whisk together the eggs and water in a seperate bowl and pour into the well.  Stir until well mixed and a dough forms.  Knead dough about 20 turns.  Wrap dough in wax paper and let rest for about 30 minutes.  Divde dough into 3 or 4 balls and roll out or run through a pasta machine.

Mix together cheese and spinach.  Cut dough into rectangles with a pizza cutter and spoon the cheese spinach mixture on the lower half of the rectangle.  Fold the top half over and rub a little bit of water on the edges of the dough to help form a tight seal.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in raviolis.  Let them cook for 1-2 minutes and then drain.

Serve with spagehtti sauce, alfredo sauce, or just eat them plain!  They're awesome, regardless.