We had a picnic!

This was that weekend that spring came to NYC all at once in a crazy explosion of 95 degree weather in the middle of April. We celebrated by throwing together a picnic in Fort Greene Park.

In my humble opinion, picnic food should be easy. Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to carry, easy to keep in the sun without spoling. BUT IT ALSO MUST BE DELICIOUS! Is it possible? you may be wondering.

Well the answer is yes. Just take a look at this spread.


Clock wise from top:

I made black bean salad (recipe follows).
Hill made AWESOME brownies.
Alena brought some fruit.
Billy brought a refreshing celery blue cheese salad.
Joey brought "Summer Pasta", which is basically tortelini with basil, cherry tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. He taught me how to make this when we were in grad school together and having almost nightly dinner-making/study dates. This is sooo easy to throw together--just throw all the ingredients besides the pasta in a bowl, let sit so the flavors infuse the olive oil, and then toss with the pasta. You don't have to use tortelini--bowties work well if you want something less heavy.

Here is the recipe for my black bean salad. It is inspired by something I found on Epicurious, but I can't find the original recipe, and I've tweaked it so much anyway that we can just say I invented it.

Ingredients
Salad:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can heart of palm, drained and sliced into medallions
1 diced tomato
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 avocado, sliced

Dressing:
1 clove garlic
Juice of 2 limes
Tb olive oil
tsp white vinegar
splash hot sauce if you want

E-Z:
Toss all the salad ingredients in a bowl. Then toss all the dressing ingredients into a smaller bowl and whisk together. Combine bowls. Toss that salad. Through some pretty avocado slices on top.

Done. Simple, refreshing, good. Look at how happy it made us:

I made tofu parmesan!

When I first moved to Brooklyn, way back in 2005, my cousin Rachel sent a cookbook from a restaurant called The Grit, her favorite restaurant in Athens, Georgia. The Grit serves tons of vegetarian versions of traditional comfort food and is frequented by local legendary rockers the likes of Micheal Stipe. I think I made this recipe for the first dinner party I ever hosted at the apartment, and it was a total success. Except that I misread the recipe as calling for TWO POUNDS of mozzarella cheese instead of two cups! I don't think I actually ended up using that much because the pan would have been overflowing, but I still used a whole lot. 2 cups of mozz is plenty, as you can see in the mouth watering photo above.

I know what you may be thinking, especially you Italian food snobs-- tofu Parmesan sounds sacrilegious--like one of those vegetarian versions of dishes that just should not be messed with. It sounds like it would be soggy and weird. But it's not! It's delicious, cheesy goodness that will win over the biggest tofu skeptic. The trick is that the tofu is sauteed, THEN coated in breading and THEN baked before you put on the sauce and cheese and everything else.

I used Alena's method of squeezing out some of the water from the tofu by stacking some books on top of it and leaving it like that for a good 15 minutes. Works pretty well. One of the keys to making good tofu is getting rid of as much water as possible.

Ok here is the recipe, with a couple very minor adjustments in bold:

Tofu Parmesan from The Grit Restaurant Cookbook by Jessica Greene and Ted Hafer

Ingredients
3 (15 ounce) blocks tofu, extra firm
2 T olive oil
Soy sauce
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
1 T chopped fresh parsely, plus more for garnish
2 1/2 c fine bread crumbs
1/2 t salt
1/8 t fresh ground black pepper
4 c marinara (I used Mama Vallese's homemade sauce, but I have made this before with store-bought. Ain't no shame in it.)
2 c shredded mozzerella
Chopped fresh or dried oregano, for garnish
A sprinkle of nutritional yeast
A couple garlic cloves

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan or glass casserole dish.
Tear tofu chunks of various sizes. Add a thin layer of olive oil to a non-stick skillet and place over high heat. Chop up those garlic cloves and toss 'em in. Cover bottom of pan with tofu chunks and saute, tossiping often and sprinkling with soy sauce and nutritional yeast, which helps make it crispy.

Repeat with another small batch of tofu (I did about one and a half at a time--depends how big your skillet is) until all tofu is cooked in this manner. Drain if necessary and cool slightly. Place in a bowl with beaten eggs and toss together.
Blend 1 1/2 c Parmesan cheese, parsley, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Add to tofu and toss together.
Pour 2 c marinara into prepared pan and spread evenly. Distribute tofu over sauce. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until tofu breading is very well browned.


Remove from oven and spread top with 2 c marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. Garnish with remaining Parmesan cheese, parsley and oregano. Return to oven and bake 10 to 15 minutes until top is well browned.

Yields 8 servings.

Take another look at all that beautiful cheesiness:
YUM. Nothin' more you can say but Y U M.

I made some corn muffins...

Wow, I made these a long time ago. The occasion was a lovely brunch at Laura's house and I decided to make some muffins. They seem like a distant memory by now. BUT, it is never too late to revisit a good corn muffin recipe. These came to me via Smitten Kitchen (what else is new) but the original recipe is by Dorie Greenspan. Until recently, I did not know who Dorie Greenspan was, but now that I have been reading a fair share of food blogs, apparently Dorie is a pretty big deal.

I was drawn to these muffins because they were described on smitten kitchen as being not too sweet or heavy. I love muffins, but I don't love how dry and dense they can be sometimes. As I recall, a year or two ago I attempted to make banana muffins with wheat germ or flax seed meal or something healthy, and they came out really dry and heavy. They may have been healthy but they were totally disappointing. I was sad.

Luckily, these muffins are really fluffy and light. And although they are not too sweet, they still taste like MUFFINS and not CORNBREAD (even though you could still totally serve them with come chili if you wanted to.) I actually had fantasies of making chipotle lime butter to serve alongside these muffins, but did not have time. Instead, I attempted a blueberry butter, which was tasty. But these muffins don't need flavored butters or fancy spreadys to taste good. They are delicious served plain too.

Here's the recipe, which I followed basically as is. Go for it, make some muffins one Sunday morning. Bring them to a brunch or eat them while you watch a crappy movie on channel 11. Eat the leftovers Monday night with some of Sarah's sweet potato chili. It will be great.

Dorie Greenspan’s Corniest Corn Muffins
from "Baking from My Home to Yours"

Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins or 48 miniature ones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil (I used olive oil)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (add up to 1/3 cup more if you’d like) - fresh, frozen or canned (in which case they should be drained and patted dry) - I used frozen, thawed and patted dry.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you’re using it. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes (12 minutes for minis), or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

I Made Yellow Curry With Mixed Vegetables!

I made yellow curry with mixed vegetables! This is a fantastic, simple, vegan (yet hearty) dish. I got the recipe from Veg Cooking (a PETA website; click on link for concise instructions -- the following is rather elaborate because I have some personal suggestions). You will need:

1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup 1-inch potato cubes, boiled (around one medium potato)
1/2 cup 1-inch carrot cubes, boiled (one large carrot)
1/2 cup small broccoli florets
1/2 cup small cauliflower florets
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. crushed garlic
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. curry powder
3 Tbsp. chili sauce
Salt, to taste

First, boil some water in a medium pot. Also, prepare some basmati rice according to instructions on the package if you want to eat this curry over rice. Peel the carrots and potatoes. By the time you're done with that, the water will probably be boiling, so put in the potatoes. Remove when the cubes are nearly done (not all the way cooked, because you will be putting this into the pot later with all the curry goodness and you don't wan't to overcook). Do the same for the carrots (I do this separately because I feel like potatoes and carrots have different cooking times). Cut up the broccoli and cauliflower. If you don't want to waste the stem of the broccoli, cut it up like you would carrots, and cook it with the carrots. Mince the ginger and garlic. Optional: some coarsely chopped onions.

The mess...

In a medium pot, combine the vegetable stock and the coconut milk and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.

Colors not so appealing right now, but wait til you get to the spices.

As per the recipe: "Add the potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. Return to a boil and cook for an additional 2 minutes." I would personally add in the potatoes and carrots first, bring that to a boil, and then add the broccoli and cauliflower because those two cook a lot faster. But I think everything will overcook a bit anyway (especially because I let it simmer longer so it thickens a bit), so it probably doesn't matter too much in the end.

Add the remaining ingredients (SPICES!!!) and stir well. I never have chili sauce so I use 1/3 tsp Nigerian cayenne pepper instead (because that's what I have at dorm).

Cook for an additional 5 minutes, as per the recipe. I would simmer a bit longer though, so it would thicken a bit.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

My attempt at plating and food porn photography.

Makes 4 servings! A bit spicy.

I make pesto all the time and it is so easy and delicious!

I made pesto pasta last night and just had leftovers for lunch and it was SO delicious I feel like I should tell the world. EVERYBODY MAKE SOME PESTO! It is so easy and gratifying!!! You probably think that only your Italian friend's grandma can make perfect pesto, that it takes some secret magic touch. But it's not true! It's actually so simple and easy to make and pretty hard to screw up.

I am going to tell you my method. First let me tell something about me that you may already know from reading this blog:
I hate hate hate food processors. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I can never get them to work right, and it is so frustrating I can't take it. (Alena, I could really relate to your feeling of wanting to cry when your Cuisinart wouldn't work at first. In fact, I almost cried reading that post, I empathized so much.) BUT I LOVE my trusty hand blender, and have yet to find something you are supposed to make with a food processor that you can't make with a hand blender.

SO. Here's how I do it:

Put the following ingredients in a big sturdy bowl:
2-3 bunches fresh basil leaves. (Last night I also threw in a handful of arugula, which added some nice bitterness to the flavor. Sometime I would like to try making pesto with just arugula.)
About 1/2 cup pine nuts
4 garlic cloves, smashed (Feel free to increase or decrease depending on how much you like garlic. Although I think 4 cloves is on the garlicky-er end of the spectrum, so maybe you shouldn't put in too much more than that.)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I am not sure if this is exactly how much I put in. You want to put enough in to get everything wet enough so it will blend, but you don't want it too liquidy.)
about 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
The juice of one lemon (Not everybody does this, but I think it is essential to the flavor--adds a little sweetness to counter all the saltiness.)
Salt/Pepper to taste

Stick that hand blender in and blend away. Hand blenders are also called "immersion" blenders for a reason--you really have to bury it in your ingredients--if you hold it at the surface it will make a mess and not blend as well. You may have to stop a couple of times and scoop the stuff off the blades with your hands to make it blend better.

I like a thicker pesto. Some people like it to be really smooth and thin. Up to you.

Now look. You are done, and you only got one bowl dirty. And you can clean your hand blender by just taking the detachment off.

What are you gonna use your pesto for? Well, you could put in a pizza. You could make some pesto lasagna. You even put in on a sandwich. Make that sandwich a PANINI!!!

Or, you could just make the traditional pasta.

I like thin spaghetti with pesto. Here's something easy you can add to it that will make it EVEN MORE DELICIOUS:

Roasted grape tomatoes.

Here's how you do it:

Preheat the oven to about 425. Put a whole bunch of grape tomatoes on a baking sheet. Toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Pop those babies in and let them roast for about 15 minutes. They will burst and get wrinkled and slightly browned. Don't let them get too burnt--you want them to still be soft and juicy and tomato-y. (tomatoey?)

Throw them into the pasta.

Put tons of red pepper and more cheese on top.

This is a good summer dish because it has a lot of fresh ingredients and doesn't require much cooking. It's also just as good cold.

DO IT!

"Well, SURELY this isn't gonna be disgusting." (The BEST baklava EVER) by Alena and Faryl

The day started on an UP note, Alena and Faryl (us), got Chipotle on our way to pick up Alena's FREE Cuisinart food processor!!!! And POST processor pick-up; guess what?! We were gonna make BAKLAVA!
We chose between two very competent recipes and decided on the one from Epicurious.

We wrote it on a piece of pape so we didn't have to move the computer.
(It looks like E.T. is helping to hold it for us.)

Middle Eastern Nut-Filled Multilayered Pastry (Baklava)

Ingredients:

(We cut the amounts in this recipe in half.)

Syrup:

* 3 cups sugar, or 2 cups sugar and 1 cup honey
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup (optional) - We left it out!
* 2 (3-inch) sticks cinnamon (optional) - We put it in!
* 4 to 6 whole cloves, or 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)- We left it out!


Filling:

* 1 pound blanched almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or any combination, finely chopped or coarsely ground (about 4 cups)
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or cardamom (optional)


* 1 pound (about 24 sheets) phyllo dough
* About 1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter
or vegetable oil - (go with butter, seriously.)

SO. With the newly acquired CUISINART we thought to ourselves, let's fire this baby up and grind up some pistachios, walnuts and almonds! We lifted the heavy thing out of the box. (Did I mention we carried it from 111th street to 92nd?) To our dismay, the Cuisinart in the box did not resemble the shiny, stainless steel model pictured above. In size and shape, yes, the similarities were there, but this guy was probably circa 1978 - complete with some very stylish (for the time) tan and brown plastic attachments. AESTHETICS ASIDE -- It looked sturdy and functional. Everything a Cuisinart should be. We assembled it, plugged it in and....


nothing happened. The shiny metal blade remained inert. The machine was still.

Hell no, we thought. We carried this thing in our little arms all the way from 111th street! It HAS to work!

We moved some pieces around, unplugged, plugged back in, tried again. Nada.

I (alena) wanted to cry a little. BUT - didn't. We found that Nick's coffee grinder served as an excellent nut grinder too. We moved on:

1. To make the syrup: Stir the sugar, water, lemon juice, and if using, the corn syrup, cinnamon sticks, and/or cloves over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring, increase the heat to medium, and cook until the mixture is slightly syrupy, about 5 minutes (it will register 225 degrees on a candy thermometer). Discard the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Let cool.

2. To make the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-by-9-inch or 13-by-9-inch baking pan or 15-by-10-inch jelly roll pan.

4. Place a sheet of phyllo in the prepared pan and lightly brush with butter. Repeat with 7 more sheets. Spread with half of the filling. Top with 8 more sheets, brushing each with butter. Use any torn sheets in the middle layer. Spread with the remaining nut mixture and end with a top layer of 8 sheets, continuing to brush each with butter. Trim any overhanging edges.

5. Using a sharp knife, cut 6 equal lengthwise strips (about 1 3/4 inches wide) through the top layer of pastry. Make 1 1/2-inch-wide diagonal cuts across the strips to form diamond shapes.

6. Just before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of the pastry with cold water. This inhibits the pastry from curling. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake until golden brown, about 15 additional minutes.

7. Cut through the scored lines. Drizzle the cooled syrup slowly over the hot baklava and let cool for at least 4 hours. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week. If the baklava dries out while being stored, drizzle with a little additional hot syrup.

We made polenta pizza!

(This is a real time conversation between Sarah and Alena, the cooks behind this tasty dish.)

Alena: Hey Sarah. So, do you remember how we came across the recipe for this polenta pizza? I know I do.
Sarah: Hey girl. I think I recall. Wasn't it that Bittman article telling you to "Rethink your Breakfast"? Or something like that? The one that misguided you into making savory oatmeal?
Alena: That's the article. All I know is, I am never putting soy sauce in oatmeal ever again. The polenta pizza however, is something I would definitely make again (and did, in fact, the night after we made this one !) Let's tell 'em all how we began the recipe.
Sarah: This is the Bittman Polenta Method. His version of the pizza had spinach and pancetta, but we changed it up to make it vegetarian. But you can put anything you want on this pizza!

Polenta crust:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup whole milk
salt
1 cup coarse cornmeal (we used instant)

Topping:
Mama Vallese's sauce
smoked mozzarella
4 shallots, sliced thinly
bunch a spinach
couple cloves garlic
parmesan

Here are Bitt's instructions for the crust:

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees; brush a layer of olive oil on a pizza pan or cookie sheet. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine milk with 2 1/2 cups water and a large pinch of salt. Bring just about to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and add cornmeal in a steady stream, whisking all the while to prevent lumps from forming. Turn heat to low and simmer, whisking frequently, until thick, 10 or 15 minutes. If mixture becomes too thick, whisk in a bit more water; you want a consistency approaching thick oatmeal.

2. Stir 1 tablespoon oil into cooked cornmeal (polenta). Spoon it onto prepared pan, working quickly so polenta does not stiffen; spread it evenly to a thickness of about 1/2 inch all over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover baking sheet with plastic wrap and put it in refrigerator until it is firm, an hour or more (you can refrigerate polenta overnight if you prefer).

3. Put polenta in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it begins to brown and crisp on edges. Here's where we take over.

4. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Add some garlic and those shallots. Brown em real good. Toss in that spinach. You don't even need to chop it. Just tear off those stems. Cook just for a few minutes.

Now you are ready to assemble.

Spread on that sauce.
Slice up that cheese and put it on.
Distribute those veggies.
Pop that shit in the oven.
Just for like five. Til the cheese melts. That's all you need.

Alena: This is the part I like the best. We got out some plates and put HALF the pie onto mine and HALF onto Sarah's. Actually just kidding, we left like a 1/4 of the pie for Hillary to try, except I think we ended up eating that too. Sorry Hill. We will make another one for all of us soon.
Sarah: This was so good because the polenta crust is spongy but also crispy and is just so delicious in contrast to the smokey mozz and the sweet shallots. Plus it's healthier and feels lighter than regular pizza.
Alena: It's true. In fact, I remember that after we cleaned our plates, we commented that we did not feel as uncomfortably full as we often do when eating regular pizza.
Sarah: That's true. We did make that very comment.
Alena: If only the episode of Gossip Girl that we watched while eating was as good as the dinner itself, you know?
Sarah: I know right. What was up with that Age of Innocence motif. It's like, JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T REALIZE, THIS SHOW IS TRYING TO BE LIKE EDITH WHARTON OR JANE AUSTEN IN ITS IRONIC PORTRAYAL OF NEW YORK HIGH SOCIETY. except it is a show on the cw (i almost said "the wb" LOL).
Alena: Whew, I am so glad you didn't call it the WB, how embarrassing.

I made joey's mama's sauce and it was the best sunday afternoon project EVER!!!

This is just a note to say that a couple Sundays ago, I made Joey's Mama's tomato sauce, and it was a very rewarding experience. Making sauce from scratch seems like such a labor intensive, exact science, but it is really not that hard, and any sauce you buy in a jar really does not compare. The only thing that is at all laborious is that you have to cook it a long time--i cooked mine for about three hours--but that's why it's a good Sunday activity. You get it on the stove, do some laundry, go to the gym, give it a stir once in a while. No big deal! And THEN you freeze what you don't use right then, which will be a lot. Here is a list of things I have made with this sauce:

-spinach ravioli in sauce
-angel hair pasta in sauce with sauteed eggplant and romano cheese
-ricotta filled whole wheat tortellini with chunks of roasted butternut, sauce.
-POLENTA PIZZA (this baby will have its own post.)

The only changes I made to Mama Vallese's sacred recipe is that I added some glugs of red wine (which I've seen Joey do when he makes it, so i figured it was ok), and sauteed some garlic with the vegetable mush before adding the tomatoes.

and i mushed those vegetables in a bowl with my trusty hand blender. i am telling you. you can do anything with that thing. it is the most universal kitchen appliance.

ok that's it. make this sauce this sunday. you won't be sorry. it will be really fulfilling.

We Made a Vegetarian Version of Julia Child's French Onion Soup

This post is long overdue. A few weeks ago, Alena and I were trying to think of something delicious and comforting and warming to make for dinner, and she suggested French Onion Soup. I have often wondered if it is possible to make a vegetarian version that tastes like the real thing, since it's traditionally made with beef broth. Well, it IS possible, and let me tell you: it was DELICIOUS.

The trick is to use the right kind of vegetable broth... some recipes I found on the internet suggested "No-Beef Broth", but we couldn't find it, so we used mushroom broth instead.

Here is the recipe, which is taken from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking:

5 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
3 T butter
1 T oil
1 t salt
1/4 t sugar
3 T flour
2 quarts boiling MUSHROOM BROTH
1/2 cup dry write wine or sweet vermouth (we used the former)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 T cognac
Rounds of hard-toasted French bread
1 to 2 cups grated Swiss or Parmesan (I think we used greuyere)

-Cook the onions slowly with the butter and oil in the covered saucepan for 15 minutes.
-Uncover, raise heat to moderate, and sitr in the salt and sugar. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes stirring frequently, until the onions have turned an even, deep, golden brown.
-Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.
-Off the heat, blend in the boiling broth. Add the wine, and season to taste. Simmer partially covered for 30 to 40 minuts or more, skimming occasionally. Correct seasoning.
-Stir in the cognac and pour into ceramic soup bowls (they need to be oven-safe).
-Float the rounds of toast on top of the soup, and spread the grated cheese over it. Sprinkle with a little oil or butter. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven, then set for a minute or two under a preheated broiler to brown the top lightly. Serve immediately.

We were nervous about putting our bowls in the oven, so Suzanne had the idea to put them in a baking dish with an inch of water to prevent cracking:

Here is the finished product. It far surpassed my expectations! The wine and cognac and long-cooked onion makes the flavor so rich and delicious. YES!

A catch up post: Tofu Scramble, Maple Nut Granola, and Wilted Red Cabbage and Bell Pepper Slaw

Here's a little roundup of some things I have been making recently!




Tofu Scramble

This recipe was actually made out of necessity, since I had a carton of tofu sitting in my fridge with an expiration date rapidly approaching. I always buy tofu with the best of intentions, and then let it sit on the shelf until it is no longer usable, and then I feel bad for wasting food and money. I decided that this time, I would not let that tofu go to waste, so the other day I put about a third of it in some miso soup and decided that the next morning I would make a tofu scramble with the rest.

I have had a few previous experiences with tofu scramble, most of which have been from the brunch menu at Kate's Joint in the East Village, and (sorry Kate), most of which have been kinda disappointing. I keep ordering it though, because in theory, I really like the idea of scrambling up some tofu with veggies and spices, but the result is often a little mushy, watery, and bland.

I finally decided to take matters into my own hands when I saw the following recipe on the blog Bread and Honey. They recommend draining the tofu of any excess water before preparing the recipe, and I think it makes a huge difference in the texture of the dish. I did this by putting the tofu on a plate, covering it with saran wrap, and then putting a weight on top (in my case, a 5 pound bag of flour.) If you do this for about 15 minutes while assembling the rest of your ingredients, you will be all set. This recipe made me really happy because it had a great, firm consistency and was so flavorful. It is a nice change from traditional scrambled eggs, and I think now that I know how to make it, I won't have to stress about wasting tofu as much.

Wakantanka Tofu Scramble: adapted from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup yellow onion, diced (I didn't have this, so I omitted it. Still tasted fine!)
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 pound tofu, extra firm, crumbled (Keep in mind that the proportions of this recipe are for a whole package of tofu. If you are using less, don't forget to adjust the proportions of spices accordingly, or your scramble will taste crazy.)
1/2 cup tomato, diced
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground to taste
1/2 teaspoon nutritional yeast (I didn't have this either , so I used some Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead.)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of soy sauce or tamari
Also recommended: juice of about 1/2 lemon.

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and translucent, approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tofu. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 5 minutes. (Before serving, squeeze lemon juice on top.)


Maple Nut Granola (via Epicurious)

This was my second attempt at making granola, and I think this will be my go-to recipe from now on. Making granola is really easy and it makes your kitchen spell really fragrant and toasty. Of course, you can also modify this recipe in a bunch of different ways and add whatever dried fruit and types of nuts you prefer. I like it because it is not TOO sweet, but just sweet enough, and is delicious with some plain yogurt.



Ingredients:
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup slivered almonds (I actually used 1/2 cup almonds and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.)
1/3 cup sesame seeds
6 tablespoons pure maple syrup
6 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup golden raisins (I think dried cranberries are even better.)
I also added about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 250°F. Lightly spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss oats and next 2 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk syrup, brown sugar, oil, 2 tablespoons warm water and salt (and cinnamon, if using) in small bowl to blend. Pour syrup mixture over oat mixture and stir to combine. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake until evenly browned, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in raisins/cranberries. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container.)

OK: finally, I made this recipe for Wilted Red Cabbage and Bell Pepper Slaw. Now that spring and summer are almost here, I think this would be a really good dish to bring to a picnic or barbeque. This slaw is really crunchy and pungent and would be very refreshing on a hot day - (or a cold day when all you want to do is fantasize about going to picnics and barbeques.)



Wilted Red Cabbage and Bell Pepper Slaw (via Epicurious)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded (about 3 cups)
2 red or yellow bell peppers, cut into 1-inch julienne strips
I also added thin ribbons of peeled carrots. Totally optional, but tasty.

In a saucepan bring vinegar and water to a boil with sugar, salt, and mustard and simmer, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes.

In a large heavy skillet heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add mustard seeds and sauté until they begin to pop. Stir in cabbage and sauté, stirring, 1 minute. Add vinegar mixture and simmer vegetables 1 minute.

Drain vegetables in a large fine sieve set over a saucepan and transfer them to a bowl. Boil liquid over moderately high heat until reduced to about 3 tablespoons and stir into vegetables. Chill slaw, covered, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Whew. That's it for now. Let me know if you try any of these. They are all easy and tasty!