Foodmomiac

Foodmomiac's Macaroni Salad

I have never been a huge fan of macaroni salad. It's usually gloppy and overly sweet, and just... blah. But, there's something really appealing about a macaroni salad. I love elbow macaroni, and I love mayo-based salads, so I always knew that I could probably rescue this dish.

After doing some online research and some in-kitchen tinkering, I think we have a winner. This is based off of a recipe I found on All Recipes, but the additions and changes make it my own. Enjoy! (Note: this makes 10 VERY generous servings, so make sure you have plenty of guests, or are ready to eat macaroni salad every day for a week.)

Foodmomiac's Macaroni Salad

1 box elbow macaroni
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 sweet white onion, cut into 3-4 big chunks
2 stalks celery, cut into 3-4 big chunks
2 carrots, cut into 3-4 big chunks (you can use a handful of baby carrots if that's all you have on hand)
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
2 dill pickles, diced

Cook macaroni for eight minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.

Mix together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

In a food processor, mince the onion, celery and carrots. (You can also just dice these finely on your own, but the food processor does a great job and is super fast.)

Add the veggies to the sauce in the bowl, along with the macaroni, eggs and pickles. Mix to combine, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours (overnight is fine, and probably preferable!)

Moroccan Tempeh (and the start of some detoxing)

Detox Day One: Salad, Tempeh, Couscous
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

What a day, huh? I'm overjoyed that Obama is our new president, and as my dad said to me yesterday, overjoyed that I can once again feel pride in my country.

I'm also overjoyed that these parties that I worked so hard to organize (along with my tireless team - they ROCK) are over (and went amazingly well).

It's a good day.

It is also the start of me and Michael being a bit healthier. For at least one month (maybe three - we are debating), we are going to be really strict about our bodies. No alcohol, no junk food, more exercise. I'd love to do a REAL detox diet (no meat, no dairy, no sugar, no gluten), but I know my limits.

To start our detox off right, we ate our favorite vegetarian dinner; Moroccan Tempeh and couscous. I am shocked that I have never blogged this recipe, but after multiple google searches of my blog, I'm just not seeing it. And you guys need to have this recipe. It is so good. It's from some chef who was a guest star on the Food Network back when I worked there years ago. Over the years I've made some adaptations, and it is so, so good. Even the kids love it.

Moroccan Tempeh

1 pound tempeh (any variety, this is probably two packages)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tempeh into bite-sized pieces and steam for seven minutes. While it's steaming, whisk together the rest of the ingredients. When the tempeh is steamed, place it in one layer in a baking dish (lining the dish with tin foil will GREATLY improve your clean-up). Pour the liquid over the tempeh. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the liquid is at least halfway evaporated and the tempeh has a nice crust on it. Serve over couscous.

A Winning (Vegetarian) Recipe - Vegetable Curry!

Warning: this is a long story kept long.

On Saturday, Michael and I used our au pair for some morning babysitting (instead of the usual evening babysitting) so that we could buy me a new car. This was awesome in terms of the vehicle (Saturn Vue Hybrid), but sucky in terms of date night. In an effort to keep our Saturday night somewhat exciting, we decided to take the kids out for Korean BBQ. We have tried a few different Korean BBQ places since moving to Chicago, and they were fine. Just... fine. None of them held a candle to our favorite NY place; Kang Suh. Until now. I did a little bit of online research and came up with San Soo Gap San. It was amazing. We left reeking of charcoal smoke and raw garlic. Both kids were totally happy with their food, as were the adults. Four stars from me. A picture:

Anyway,it was great, but VERY meat heavy. We ate enough red meat to last a month. So, when it came to Sunday night dinner, we were meated out. I searched around online a bit and came up with this recipe for Vegetable Curry. I made changes OF COURSE, which are all incorporated below, but it was excellent. Everyone loved it, which is a rarity. And it was incredibly healthy. One more benefit is that it is a great use of autumn vegetables.

Vegetable Curry

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 small onions, minced
2 tablespoons flour
1 can coconut milk
2/3 box of chicken broth (you can and probably should use vegetable broth - I just didn't have it on hand)
2 heaping tablespoons curry powder
4 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into smallish cubes
1 handful of baby carrots, cut into small discs (you can use regular, but we always have the babies because of school lunches)
1 small head of cauliflower, broken into smallish florets
1 can chickpeas, drained
plain yogurt (optional)

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Add onions. Saute for about three minutes, or until softened. Add flour and combine well. Add coconut milk, broth and curry powder. Stir well to combine. Add veggies, turn heat to low, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes. Serve over basmati rice with plain yogurt as a garnish. (If you are vegan, leave out the yogurt, for obvious reasons.)

Easiest Grill Dish Ever - Potato Packets

Potato packets
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

We make this dish all the time, and it is so easy. If you don't do it already, you must try it.

Slice a bunch of potatoes very thinly. Slice an onion thinly as well. Take a big sheet of foil and spray it with olive oil (or brush some on if you don't have an olive oil sprayer). On ONE HALF of the foil, layer on potatoes, onions, salt, pepper and more olive oil. You can get crazy here with variations. The potatoes pictured above are made with white truffle salt and a red onion. I've added green and red peppers, and also garlic on occasion. Whatever you want goes. As you create the packet, it will look like this:

When you are done layering, fold the foil in half and pinch it closed so that no air can get in. It should look like this:

Cook over indirect heat on the grill for up to an hour.

When you unwrap the packet, be VERY careful. The steam inside gets crazy hot, and I've burnt myself a few times. You might want to even poke a few holes in the packet before unwrapping to prevent this.

Summer Favorite: Ranch Dressing

I am not a huge fan of commercial Ranch Dressing (except on pasta salad, for some reason). However, homemade Ranch Dressing is a different story entirely, and my kids agree. They never eat the bottled stuff, but the homemade version is a favorite, especially as a dipping sauce.

I only find myself making this recipe in the summer, probably for a number of reasons. I love using fresh dill, but the dressing doesn't call for enough of it to warrant a purchase, so I just pinch some off from my garden. It also has a very light, summer-y flavor. In the winter time, my salads are heavier. I might try making this year-round, though.

The recipe is not an original to me. I use this one with some modifications. Instead of onion powder, I substitute garlic powder, and instead of dried dill, I use fresh. I used the celery leaves only once, and didn't notice any difference in flavor. Feel free to substitute a sprinkle of celery seed or omit altogether. You can also substitute fresh parsley, which is my preference. The most important ingredient on the list is the powdered buttermilk. This stuff kicks butt. You can find it in the baking aisle of your supermarket, or you can order it online (in bulk).

Fancy Mac & Cheese (with no-cook sauce!)

Hot enough for you guys out there? Chicago has actually been just beautiful this week, but I know that many of us in the US are sweltering in 90+ degrees weather. Ugh. Now that I have air conditioning, this doesn't affect my cooking like it once did (our Toledo home had no A/C), but slaving over a hot stove in the summer isn't much fun for anyone.

The solution? No-cook pasta sauces! There are many ways to do this (one of my favorites is to just chop up a bunch of fresh tomatoes, add garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil and enjoy!). However, the method I'm going to share here is by far my favorite (and most decadent).

The ingredients (this will serve 4 with leftovers):
One box pasta (penne or some other tubular shape is best)
One wedge brie (or a small round, but the wedge is easier)
Bunch of fresh basil, sliced chiffonade-style (stack leaves, roll up lengthwise, then cut into thin strips)
Handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Cook the pasta al dente. While it's cooking, grab a big pasta bowl for the rest of your ingredients. Remove the white rind from the brie and cut it into 1/2 inch cubes. Place in the bowl along with the basil and tomatoes. Just before you drain the pasta, grab about 1/2 cup of the pasta water and reserve. Drain the pasta and dump it into the pasta bowl, on top of the other ingredients. Toss well, adding pasta water as necessary for great texture. Salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Vegan Curry

  Steamy Vegetable Curry 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

When I was a junior in college, I was a miserable person. I spent the first semester in Paris, which sounds very romantic, but in reality, it was pathetic. Instead of exploring the city, I sat in my depressing ground-level apartment, smoking endless cigarettes and pining for my boyfriend back home (with whom I broke up a day after I returned home).

Second semester, I was back at school, but still in a funk. I moved off campus, tried to teach myself guitar, and spent a lot of time sitting in my tapestry-heavy room, just brooding and listening to the Grateful Dead.

It's probably a good thing that I stayed in that room so much. The house I moved into was disgusting. (Seriously, ask my dad. He still has nightmares about the compost heap we had stewing IN OUR KITCHEN.) At the time, though, I thought it was amazing. I lived with a bunch of vegan hippies, and despite the filth that surrounded us, we managed to make some amazing meals.

My veganism lasted just a couple of months, but I still make this recipe. Back then it was part of our weekly menu. These days, I make it less often, but you've gotta love a recipe that uses up leftover veggies, is loved by kids (Dylan helped herself to a second bowl when I served it Monday night), and is super healthy.

Vegan Curry
Olive oil
1 apple
1 onion
2 Tb. curry powder (at least)
3 small potatoes, diced
3 carrots, diced (you can also just cut some baby carrots in half, if that's all you have)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup frozen peas
1 can chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup raisins
2 Tb. apricot jam (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil. Saute the onions and apples in the oil until the onions are translucent and the apples start to soften up a bit. Add the curry powder and combine well. Quickly add the potatoes and carrots, stirring the entire time. You don't want the curry powder to burn, but you do want to release all of the fragrance. Add the vegetable broth, chickpeas and raisins. At this point, you'll want to taste your concoction. The potatoes will still be firm, but you will get a sense of the seasonings you need to add. If it is too bland, add more curry. I added the apricot jam the other night, because I wanted it to be sweeter. You can also add salt and pepper at this point. Once it is seasoned properly, turn the heat to low and cover. You'll probably need to cook it for another 30 minutes, but this will vary based on the type of potato you used and how small you diced it. The dish is done when the apples have melted into the sauce and the potatoes are no longer raw.

This dish is GREAT over basmati rice, but I didn't plan ahead the other night, so we had it with Garlic Naan from Trader Joe's. (The Naan is NOT vegan - it is made with yogurt.)

Roasted Vegetable Risotto (with a story)

  Roasted Vegetable Risotto 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Jen was my roommate in college for both our sophomore and our senior years. Actually, (and this is probably one of the reasons we still keep in touch), we never had to share a room. Our sophomore year, we had the very best dorm room at Vassar. It was called the Rockefeller suite, and legend had it that it was built for the Rockefeller girls. I'm not sure if that's true, but the room ROCKED. There were two bedrooms, a full bath (seriously!) and built-in bookcases. We were living the life.

Senior year, we shared a townhouse with three other roommates, and did a ton of cooking. Towards the end of the year, we decided to invite one of our professors over for dinner with his wife. I can no longer recall what inspired us to do this, but I remember working so hard on a risotto dish. I'll need to pull out that recipe sometime, but it wasn't a true risotto (I'll explain what that is in a minute). It was basically rice, veggies and LOTS of cheese. It was really good, though. So good, in fact, that a couple of months ago, Jen emailed me asking for the recipe and for tips on how to make risotto!

As is often the case with me, I don't use a recipe. But, trust me, this is easy. I made this last night with Max literally hanging from my back pocket. (I don't recommend that, by the way. TOTALLY annoying.)

Risotto alla Danielle

Stock
Onion, chopped finely
Arborio Rice
White wine or dry vermouth
Stuff (roasted vegetables, cooked chicken, sauteed mushrooms, whatever you want)
Parmigiano Reggiano

Pull out two pots (one bigger one, one smaller one). In the small one, heat up some stock (chicken or vegetable), and keep at a low simmer (I used almost an entire 32 oz. box). Heat the large one over medium heat, and add some olive oil. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Put in the rice. For a family of four, a cup of raw rice is sufficient. Saute the rice for a minute or two. Add a splash or two of the wine (I used dry vermouth since I didn't have a bottle of white open), and cook until it evaporates. Then, using a ladle, add a 1/2 cup or so of stock and stir it into the rice. Continue stirring until the rice absorbs the liquid. Once it's absorbed, add some more. You want to continue doing this until the rice is cooked. Arborio rice will still be kind of al dente when it's done. It will have a nice chew to it. When the rice is NEARLY done, you can add your "stuff." I added some roasted cauliflower and asparagus (roasted with olive oil at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes). You can add sauteed mushrooms, or cooked chicken, or whatever, really. A good idea is to Google "risotto" and find some ideas. The above formula will work for whatever risotto you make.

When the risotto is done, top with grated Parm and serve!

The World's Most Expensive Chicken (with a recipe for Hungarian Dumplings)

  Homemade Chicken Soup - Max's Bowl 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

I think I mentioned that after I finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I did my food shopping online. I got my staples from Peapod, and then ordered my meat and produce from Fresh Picks, a local service that gets food from (mostly) local farmers, and delivers it once a week. One of the items I ordered was a whole chicken, cut up. It was about 5 pounds, and the total cost was $20.

For those accustomed to buying their chickens at Costco or the supermarket, this price is outrageous. But, when you consider that this chicken was organic, and was raised at a family farm, allowed to roam free all day, it becomes worth it. Also, if you compare it to eating out, it's way cheaper. This $20 chicken fed three adults and two children on Wednesday (we made a version of Chris' recipe). And then it make a delicious soup for two adults and two children last night. AND, I have a really big container of the soup left over. See?? A bargain.

For the soup, I was craving Hungarian dumplings (virtually the same thing as German Spaetzle), which are really easy to make, especially if you have a Spaetzle Maker. I put the leftover chicken in a big pot with carrots, celery and onion. Then, I covered everything with fresh water and let it cook for a few hours. I removed and discarded the onion. I pulled the chicken off the bone and chopped it up, adding it back into the stock. I also chopped up the carrots and celery and added those back as well. This soup went into the fridge to hang out until we were ready to eat.

About 45 minutes before dinner time, I put the soup pot back on the stove. In the meantime, I prepared the dumpling batter. The recipe came from The Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors. It's super easy. Combine 2-1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. baking powder. In another container, combine 2 eggs beaten, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water and 2 Tb. oil (you can also use lard for a more authentic Hungarian flavor). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. This will produce a very sticky batter. Let it hang out on the counter while you wait for your soup to get nice and hot. When the soup is ready to be dumpling'd, put the batter into your spaetzle maker, and let the dumplings fall in. They will quickly rise to the surface, at which point your soup is ready to eat. If you don't have a spaetzle maker, you can put the batter in a large ziploc bag and cut a 1/4 inch size hole in one corner. Then, squeeze out small pieces into your soup.

You can also cook spaetzle in salted, boiling water. Once done, transfer them to a colander. If you cook them this way, you also have the option to follow the boiling with some pan frying in butter. Yum.

Chilaquile Casserole

  Chilaquiles Casserole 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Does this look gross? It was actually quite tasty, and also very easy to prepare. I wanted to make this for Tuesday's dinner, but the eggplant that was scheduled for Monday required brown rice, and I didn't set the rice cooker before work. (I am the WORST at making rice, and I now refuse to make it without the assistance of the rice cooker.)

This is a terrific weeknight meal. I got home from work at about 5:30 or so, and it was on the table by 6:30. You could also prepare it the night before or in the morning, and just pop it in the oven when you get home. The recipe is from Still Life with Menu by Mollie Katzen. This cookbook just arrived at my house. It was in the box of cookbooks that I got from Grandma Ana's apartment. (When she moved into a nursing home last year, my mom set the cookbooks, and some fun cooking tools, aside for me.) This cookbook isn't one of the older ones, but there are a lot of notes in there from Grandma Ana. I know she made this dish, because she made notes next to it in her messy cursive handwriting.

Max LOVED the dish, but Dylan refused to eat it. She is being a real piece of work lately, and spent part of the meal laying on the floor saying over and over again, "but I don't LIKE EGGS! but I don't LIKE EGGS!" She went up to her room for a five minute timeout, came down and apologized, and then had a leftover piece of pizza. UGH.

Chilaquile Casserole

12 corn tortillas
2 4-oz. cans diced green chiles (we used some pico de gallo)
2-3 cups grated cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
1 can beans (I used borlotti)
1 zucchini, cubed
salt and pepper
4 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk (I used milk with 2 tablespoons of vinegar added)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 9x13 pyrex dish. Tear half of the tortillas into bite-sized pieces and place them in the dish. Cover with half of the cheese, the chiles (or pico de gallo), the beans and the zucchini. Tear the rest of the tortillas and layer them over the cheese. Sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Beat the eggs and buttermilk well with the salt and pepper and pour it slowly and evenly over the casserole.

Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. (I would let this sit for about 10 minutes before serving. It was kind of watery for a bit, but then set up very nicely.)