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Dippity Do-Da: Light Hummus, Roasted Pepper Dip, & Edamame Dip
2008-01-31 21:19:00
?Dip? describes me as much as my posting today.It?s one of those days where everything I?ve started has gone kaplooie, from breaking a jar of jam on the kitchen floor (sending shards of glass and gooey blackberry ricocheting to every corner of the kitchen; only an HOUR to clean up) to singeing my ear with my hair straightening wand (why didn?t I stick with the ponytail?), to hiding my keys from myself (finally found in the hamper).Needless to say, I?m behind schedule. And since there?s still a spinning class to teach this afternoon, a sweet baby to bathe and feed, and a concert to attend tonight, I?ll have to speed through this entry.It?s January 31st, and that means it?s the last day of my vegetable devotion month. I wasn?t sure which direction I would go for this final veg entry until my mother mentioned that my brother needs some inspiration for lunch.More precisely, he wants ideas for children?s lunches (my nephews are 3 and 5). But Mom mentioned that some general lunch ideas fo...
More About: Pepper , Light

Oh, Salsa
2008-01-31 01:12:00
The other day, my friend Lindsey and I had an email conversation in which she posed an innocent inquiry:"What are your favorite salsa recipes?" .I was at a momentary loss.Before I go any further, let me explain my geographical location. Two and half years ago, my husband and I moved to Nacogdoches, Texas; we?re in the heart of what?s considered deep East Texas. Tex-Mex cooking reigns supreme here, which means one thing is certain: if you live in these parts, you had better know salsa.Unfortunately, I don?t.Or, more precisely, my California-inspired salsas bear little resemblance to real Texas salsa. For starters, my versions of of salsa, are almost always raw, made with chopped raw fruits, vegetables, herbs, garlic, onions, peppers, and the like; Texas salsa is cooked.Other differences are more subtle, but equally salient. Texas salsa shares many characteristics with real cowboys: rugged, traditional, full-bodied and fiery; forget the foo-foo. By contrast, my salsas resemble free-wh...
More About: Salsa

Chimichurri Chit-Chat (plus VIDEO)
2008-01-30 05:30:00
Visit my YouTube Channel for my chimichurri video:http://www.youtube.com/user/camilla cooks Little time to make dinner. A limited choice of fresh herbs from the market or garden. A longing for big, bold flavors. It?s time to discover chimichurri.Chimichurri is an Argentine sauce traditionally used on grilled meat. Multiple versions of chimichurri exist, but the essential formula is always the same: a generous handful of fresh herbs, a tangy splash of acid (e.g., vinegar or lemon juice), and the spicy bite of both garlic and cayenne, all anchored by the mellow warmth of olive oil. Think of it as the new pesto.As fun as it is to say chimichurri, it?s the ease of preparation, versatility, and taste?at once fiery and fragrant, cool and refreshing­?that will win you over. I only discovered a 5 or 6 years ago (I honestly do not remember the precise when or where) but I was hooked on the first bite. And because it it relies on two always-available, low-cost herbs from the market (parsle...
More About: Video , Chat

Frugality, Canned Tomatoes, & Moroccan-Spiced Fish
2008-01-29 02:49:00
Staying on my cheap (who, me?) theme, it?s on to one of my quick fish suppers; it?s easy to make yet results in all sorts of interesting flavors and textures. The inspiration behind its creation is a Moroccan fish tagine I made a while back (tagine is the word for both the cooking vessel and the spiced stew cooked within). While delicious, the tagine required marinating the fish in 3/4 cup of spiced olive oil for 24 hours, roasting for an hour and 45 minutes, and spending about 40 dollars on ingredients?not exactly weeknight fare (at least, not at my house).Off to the drawing board!I simplified the steps (e.g., no marinating, and stovetop simmering instead of oven roasting) and ingredients (e.g., canned petite-dice tomatoes instead of fresh, fresh lemon instead of preserved lemon, cinnamon & cumin?also traditional Moroccan spices?instead of saffron); it?s a snap to pull off (you can keep almost all of the items in the freezer or pantry) but the flavors are still captivating.I ...
More About: Fish , Frugality , Tomatoes

Black Bean Soup with Pumpkin, Lime & Chipotles
2008-01-27 18:54:00
Graduate school made me a better cook and more firmly directed me on to the road to recipe development. It wasn?t the examination of social theory, the fun-filled evenings in the library stacks, or trudging through the snow with a 20-pound backpack that sparked my culinary creativity, but, far more simply, having to cook on a very limited budget.I read all of the grocery sales sheets each Sunday and marked out a game plan?if there was a bargain, I was going to get it, and I designed my menus and experiments around the weekly specials. I stockpiled my freezer (and cupboards, and yes, even my bedroom closet) with super-bargains, was the first on the scene at the local bakery for bread markdowns, and became hyper-skilled at spotting red closeout stickers for exotic and esoteric ingredients.Back in the kitchen, I focused on techniques and precision to make the most of my frugal bounty. It was around the same time that I began mapping out all of my creative experiments on the computer be...
More About: Black , Bean , Soup , Pumpkin , Lime

Whole Grain French Toast for a Chilly Saturday
2008-01-26 23:44:00
Apparently my toast ramblings of yesterday penetrated deep within my brain because I woke this morning, starving, with a profound craving for French toast.It had been a restless night. I drank far too much tea yesterday to ward off the chills, and the caffeine coursing through my veins, coupled with the lyrics of Oscar the Grouch's song "I Love Trash" (Nick's new favorite song on Sesame Street Musical Celebration) coursing through my brain had me tossing and turning.So it was time to get up, get to the kitchen (Nick on hip), and start making French toast.Most mornings, I am not a big breakfast kind of woman. A smoothie, a muffin, a bowl of cereal, some fruit, and/or some yogurt (almost always yes to yogurt?I have an obsession with the stuff and will write about it another time). So if the desire does strike to eat something hearty, I don?t put up a fight (and this morning, I didn?t).I have the same feelings about French toast as I do other toast, especially when it comes to the br...
More About: French Toast , Saturday , Toast , Grain

A Toast to Toast
2008-01-25 19:17:00
A bit of prose in praise of comfort food is almost as good as a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup on a January afternoon. Almost.Fiction, food articles, and cookbooks celebrating the solace of stews, muffins and casseroles are entertaining, soothing, and full of tender morsels of memory and inspiration. But on days like this when the temperature plummets, the wind howls, and dark clouds knuckle against the pine trees here in East Texas, I want my chill-chasing comfort food now, without having to read about it or trouble myself with elaborate preparations.So I make toast.Mine is not the creed of a health food extremist: no recommendations here for a regime of sprouted 20-grain bread and weak teas as penance for December dietary indulgences. I simply offer a reminder of the most basic of comfort foods.Toast requires no recipe or special appliance (not even a toaster?you can toast bread under the broiler or above an open gas flame, turning once for even browning). All of the pleasur...

Sneaky Smoothies & Video Debut
2008-01-24 21:29:00
Drumroll please?Today marks the launch of my first Enlightened Cooking Video . The link is at right under the heading CamillaCooks Videos, or click below to find the video on my channel:http://www.youtube.com/user/camil lacooksFrom this point on, I will be posting more of my video shenanigans on a bi-weekly basis. I had a lot of fun making this first one; hope you enjoy it.The topic of my debut is ?sneaky smoothies?, which follows my theme from last week of finding ways to incorporate vegetables into the first meal of the day. I make both of these smoothies often; they?re delicious, satisfying, and make you feel virtuous , even when you head out the door with a lumpy ponytail and mismatched socks.Pumpkin-Orange SmoothieI like my smoothies thick, but if you prefer a thinner smoothie, don?t freeze the banana.2/3 cup orange juice2/3 cup 1% lowfat milk1/2 cup canned solid pack pumpkin1/2 of a medium banana, sliced and frozen2 tablespoons honey (more or less to taste)1/2 teaspoon vanilla e...
More About: Smoothies , Debut , Sneaky

Pink Lemons & Golden Beets
2008-01-23 18:00:00
In the midst of my cold, a friend dropped by with a goodie bag full of some beautiful produce from Central Market in Houston: an assortment of baby squash, a bunch of golden beets, and pink lemons (bless you, Alva).Before I get to the beets, a few words about the pink lemons: I had never seen or heard of them before, so I was excited to give them a try. They are beautiful when cut, revealing a bright pink interior. The scent was the same as most lemons, but with perhaps a slightly floral quality.I wasn?t sure how to best get a proper taste (sucking a cut half straight up didn?t jump to mind), so I squeezed the juice and mixed it with a bit of powdered sugar; first I dunked my finger for an unfettered taste, and then drizzled some over two madeleines. The floral notes were more pronounced when mixed with the sugar; I really liked it, but I can see that it might be too much in some recipes. It was perfect in the icing drizzle on the otherwise plain vanilla madeleines.I grated some of ...
More About: Pink , Lemons , Golden , Beets , Mons

More Edamame & Some Pilaf Ramblings
2008-01-22 18:19:00
I?m back in the saddle, which means that the cold has finally blown over (with the aid of about 10 boxes of Kleenex) and I am cooking and writing full force today.I?m still in an edamame state of mind, but I?m using it today as a vehicle for exploring a tried & true dish worth revisiting: pilaf.Alas, pilaf has been marginalized (along with fricassees, stroganoffs, aspics and all things devilled) as a dish reminiscent of 1950s home economics classes: outdated, and bereft of style and fashion. If people are familiar with pilaf at all, it is only as an oily buffet offering, studded with limp carrot and celery cubes. Who would bother making pilaf?I would, that?s who, and I hope by the end of this posting I will have convinced a handful of others, too.I propose a reincarnation of pilaf. Forget what pilaf has been?it has outstanding contemporary potential and minimal costs of time, effort and money. It an showcase the flavor of your favorite cuisine (e.g., Greek, Thai, Japanese, India...

Edamame Succotash
2008-01-21 21:47:00
Cool, hip, and beautiful from every angle, edamame is the supermodel of the frozen vegetable world. People who shun all other frozen vegetables proudly display their edamame bags in supermarket carts and proffer it as a sophisticated nibble at dinner parties.Edamame is a specialty variety of soybean harvested while still green. Because they are immature, the beans have a crisp-firm bite and a fresh, clean flavor. Frozen edamame is widely available in at supermarkets these days; you can find it both in the pod or shelled. The whole pods are most often eaten as a snack (you may have had them in a Japanese restaurant); the pods are lightly cooked in salted boiling water and then only the beans are eaten by pushing them directly from the pods into your mouthWhile the pods are fun for snacking, it?s the shelled edamame that most excite me because they can be added to all manner of dishes, including salads, soups, stir-fries; even plain as a side dish with little more than salt and pepper...

Hot Toddy for Me
2008-01-20 20:48:00
As I suspected on Friday, my radiant glow was not attributable to the carrots but rather to the beginning of a cold with fever. It was coming on stronger yesterday while I was baking, but it slammed full force at bedtime last night. (On a side note: yes, the sitter came as scheduled, so the birthday dinner outing went off without a hitch--hurrah!).Rather than cooking, I am spending the day between bed and computer, blowing my nose and catching up on some editing. But I did want to post one recipe, my father's primary weapon against head-colds: a hot toddy. Is it health food? Absolutely. In my book, a warming elixir that makes you feel better with every sip qualifies as health food by every measure (including the jigger).Cheers--hope to be back at the stove tomorrow. Bourbon Hot ToddyThe liquor varies in hot toddy recipes: some swear it must be scotch, others call for brandy or rum. But my dad is a bourbon man, so that's what it's got to be for me.1 ounce (2 tablespoons) bourbon1 ...

What is "eating healthy", anyway?
2008-01-20 16:01:00
If you haven't come across it, there is an interesting thread on epicurious (posted 1.18.08) asking "what does eating healthy mean to you?" Some interesting responses, worth checking out:http://www.epicurious.com/articlesgui des/blogs/editor/2008/01/what-does-healt. html
More About: Healthy , Eating

Carrot Cupcakes with Lemon-Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting
2008-01-19 23:54:00
It?s my birthday weekend, which means the oven is on and this post will be short. Just managed to get Nick down to a nap, so I?ve got to type fast; I still have to make myself-semi-presentable for dinner out tonight (whoo-hoo!).Even though I?m heading out to dinner, I?m making my own cake. When I turned thirty a few years ago, I decided to create a variation on the theme of ?life is uncertain, eat dessert first?. Specifically, it is ?life is uncertain, bake your own birthday cake?.I highly recommend this tradition for everyone old enough to bake; it makes birthdays extra special, and planning and making the cake is almost as fun as eating it.I used to limit my birthday cake option to cheesecake (I?m a huge fan). But if I?m not inviting a crowd over, an entire cheesecake is too much, even for cheesecake-loving me. So I?ve branched out, and this year it?s short and sweet: carrot cake cupcakes. I still get my cream cheese fix, but the yield is not as overwhelming.It was a little wild g...
More About: Lemon , Cardamom , Cheese , Carrot , Cream

Carrot Perfection
2008-01-19 03:13:00
Contemplating carrots?That?s what I was doing last night at about 3:30. My baby boy has a cold and woke up throughout the night; after the 3 a.m. ?Mama!!!? S.O.S., I could not return to sleep (especially knowing that it was up and at ?em in two hours).So I snuggled on the sofa, opened my bedtime brain-candy book (at present, a mystery?Uniform Justice, by Donna Leon--all of her mysteries are set in Venice with plenty of mention of food), and munched on some carrots.Perhaps because they are considered a ?staple? vegetable, carrots receive minimal interest and even less enthusiasm. Cellophane bags-full of baby carrots have given carrot munching a boost, but my non-scientific assessment is that there remains a ho-hum carrot consensus amongst American consumers.Now, in the relative light of day (another cold, wet, grey one here), I can think more clearly, and it seems like high time to discuss the perfection of carrots.Crunchy, sweet, cheap, always available (even in some gnarly gas stat...
More About: Carrot , Perfection

Spinach Florentine Meatballs
2008-01-17 17:09:00
With its unapologetic green color and earthy flavor, spinach is not a vegetable about which most people are indifferent.Particularly in the frozen spinach category, too many fall into the ?you?ve got to be kidding? category, most likely based on memories of grade school lunches past where the innocent green was boiled to brownish-grey oblivion (I think I can still recall the smell).It?s because of this that I relish the challenge of winning over a larger subset of the population to this healthy, convenient, and, yes, potentially scrumptious, vegetable.If a single recipe can aid in the conversion, it is my Florentine meatballs (the Florentine referring to the spinach and cheese mixed in with the meat). They are tender, delicious, and easy to make?all of my favorite dinner criteria. They work especially well for me and my husband because I can make them in advance, store them in the refriegerator or freezer, and reheat later.You can enjoy the meatballs in multiple ways, too. Try addin...
More About: Spinach , Meatballs , Nach

Fregola & Spinach
2008-01-16 23:14:00
It?s a cold, rainy day here in East Texas; I couldn?t be happier, because I love being inside and cozy.I wasn?t as thrilled with the forecast when I awoke to my vibrating alarm this morning at 5:20 (I teach a 6 am exercise class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). But once I got my semi-comatose self out of bed, dressed, and arrived at the gym, I was marginally more awake and happy to be up.My favorite part of these early morning workouts is that, by the time 7:30 rolls around and I am fully (well, mostly) conscious, it?s all over?it?s almost like I dream myself through the workout (I hope my class participants aren?t reading this). Sometimes, hours later, I have to remind myself that I really did get up and teach; the sore muscles?and later, paycheck?are my only indicators.Now I?m home, showered, re-dressed, caffeinated, snug in my kitchen (well, at the moment, office) and ready to enjoy the wet day?the grey makes me feel like I am back home in the SF Bay Area. Sigh. Some tea is brewin...
More About: Spinach , Nach

Vegetables for Breakfast, Part III
2008-01-15 16:52:00
It?s day three of vegetables for breakfast and, rather than offer a specific recipe of my own, I instead present my quick hit list of ways to get those vegetables in the early a.m. I drew inspiration from the list this very morning and made a quick scramble eggs with scallions and diced roasted tomatoes mixed in (see the link to the roasted tomato recipe from Gourmet at the end of this post?amazingly good, and it starts with a can of tomatoes). I think I may stay on this vegetable kick longer than I expected to?Camilla's Quick Ideas for Breakfast Vegetables Add assorted vegetables to egg scrambles and omeletsWhether scrambled or an omelet, eggs are a great vehicle for getting some morning vegetables?deliciously. Remember the frozen pepper and onion mix and frozen spinach I mentioned in my list of frozen favorites? Both make excellent and easy additions in a snap (remove a small amount from the bag, microwave for a minute, then blot or squeeze out any excess water). Also consider usi...
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