Grapefruit Pizza

This post is a digital high-five to all those citrus fanatics who will eat grapefruit any way it's presented (I know you're out there. I'm one of you :P). Some of y'all might of read the title and thought, "what? seriously? she's gone off the deep end." Maybe I have, but Erica made me do it. We had all the ingredients and this idea has been marinating in our brains since the kale and grapefruit salad episode. This pizza is savory and so, so good. I know I say that about all the wacky pizza combinations I post, but this one might be the wackiest and the best-est.

Grapefruit Pizza

You'll need:

1/2 a grapefruit
1/2 an onion
4 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic garlic
 handful of arugala
shaved parmesan cheese
herbs de provence
sea salt
crust recipe of choice

For the crust:

Erica and I used this crust recipe (except that 00 flower is waaaaayyy out of our budget we just used all-purpose white flour for the whole thing).

For the sauce:

In another pan, pour three tbsp olive oil and mince or grate one garlic clove. Let sit on low heat for 5-7 minutes.

For the onion and grapefruit:

Dice onion and put in pan with a tablespoon-ish of olive oil on low heat. Carmelize.

Carve out grapefruit and sprinkle pieces with herbs de provence.

To Bake:

Roll out dough on pizza stone with parchment paper cut to size. Add sauce, onions and grapefruit. Bake at 550 for 6-8 minutes. Broil for one more minute.

Remove from oven.

Spread arugala and sprinkle parmesan and salt onto pizza. Let sit for two minutes, then slice and enjoy!

-Madelyn 

Snowpocalypse Pizza

It has been over a month since my last pizza post! Can you believe it?

Both my roommates have commented on how long it's been since I last made pizza. When I looked in the fridge one afternoon and saw I was low on food in the face of a much anticipated, impending snow storm (about half a foot of snow, winds reaching up to 50 mph, -30 degree wind chills. blegh), I rolled out the dough.

Our local grocer reopened his doors at the beginning of this semester. He's about two blocks away from my apartment. Around 4 o' clock, during a break in the downpour I bundled up and ran down the store and grabbed an onion and a white sweet potato (I planned to get just a regular ol' russet, but like I've said before: I'm a sucker for funky vegetable varieties). I ran home and pre-heated the stove.

This pizza came out of the oven just as the sun set and the wind picked up. Noah and I were in the midst of a intense game of scrabble. The storm lived up to it's expectations. So did this pizza. It's the perfect compliment to frigid temperatures and evening board games.

You'll Need:

-1/2 a white sweet potato, thinly sliced
-1/2 a red onion, also thinly sliced
-kale
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-2 cloves garlic
-feta cheese
-s & p
-crust ingredients and recipe of your choice

Preheat the oven to 425.

The Crust:

Make the crust recipe of your choice and roll dough out on pizza stone lined with parchment paper. Cut parchment paper down to size under the rolled out dough.

The Sauce:

In a pan on very low heat, pour three tablespoons olive oil. Use microplane to grate (or you can mince) garlic and add to pan. Gently stir to spread the garlic bits out evenly in the olive oil.

The goal here is to infuse the olive oil with garlic flavor, not to really cook (burn) the oil and garlic. Our burners have levels that start at low and then are numbered 1-8 and then have a high setting. I set the burner in between the low and 1 setting and only let it set for 5-7 minutes. The oil should be warm but not hot.

Spread evenly onto rolled out dough.

The Veggies & Cheese:

Slice the potato and onion very thinly. If the potato isn't cut small enough, it won't cook through at the same rate of the rest of the pizza. Think thin. Once the onions are cut out separate the rings. Distribute potato and onion slices evenly onto dough.

Rinse kale and cut/rip to bite size pieces. Add to pizza.

Sprinkle Feta on top.

Cook at 425 for 12-15 minutes. (Tip: I like to broil my pizza for the last minute of cooking to get the golden brown color on the crust) Enjoy!

-Madelyn 

Unsour Sourdough// Sourdough Bread Troubleshooting

I made a loaf of sourdough bread just before Christmas break. It was good-- crusty on the outside, airy and chewy on the inside-- but, it wasn't sour. A little bummed, I typed into google, "why isn't my sourdough sour?" and came up with a variety of reasons the bread didn't have that much-coveted sour taste and a myriad of solutions including everything from feeding your starter rye flower to catching wild yeast (I know, I wondered too...). I'm no sourdough expert, but after some troubleshooting, I've put together a list of recommendations that worked for me. My last loaf of bread was mouthwatering-- hard crust, chewy center, and sufficiently sour. I hope that if you're also struggling with your bread recipe, these ideas help! Here we go:

1. Feed your starter 12-24 hours before using it. If you see hooch (the liquid that develops on top of your starter) in your starter, that means the starter has nothing left to "eat" and if that hooch has been on your starter for awhile (like if you forgot to feed it for a bit) that might be contributing to the lack of sour taste in your bread. When you decide you want to make bread, feed your starter the day before you make the sponge for your dough.

2. Let your dough chill in the fridge overnight (or at least several hours). Fermenting your bread, what you do when you set the dough aside and let it rise, at a warm or room temperature just doesn't create the same flavor as when you put the dough in the fridge.

3. Add a spoonful of plain yogurt to your dough. I've read some bakers recommend adding the spoonful of yogurt to your starter, but I'm hesitant to add anything other than flour and water directly to my starter because.... well... if you ruin it, it's tricky to bring it back. Instead, I added a tablespoon of greek yogurt to my dough. The theory is the sour taste of the yogurt will add a tangy flavor to the dough as it rises-- I definitely noticed a difference in the flavor of my bread when I added it.

Good luck, and happy baking! 

Madelyn 

Food...Don't Waste It

This poster is hangs in my kitchen as a reminder to myself. It's a digitally remastered poster from World War I to promote the responsible use of food.

The food situation in the United States is a sad one indeed. I'm not going to go much into here because there are many more writers and experts who can speak to this issue in much more eloquent and expert-ish ways but in the context of my own life: I love to cook, I love to eat. Some of my best memories from childhood take place at orchards in upstate New York-- the smells of overripe fruit fallen mixed with earth, the rustle of leaves when you pluck one from a tree, the crisp taste and the sharp crunch of the first bite--and around berry bushes in the foothills of North Carolina-- the drone of busy bees, the dark purple stain on your fingertips from picking, on your lips and tongue from eating-- all of this reminds me that selecting and consuming food should be much more holistic than diagnostic, sensual rather than clinical.

I love sharing time with the people I love in the kitchen and around the table. Food and time, this is my love language. I buy with thought, I cook with care, I barely eat meat (I looove bread)...but I struggle with what's leftover at the end of the meal.

But, I am not a leftovers kinda girl. I come from a big family (of boys) and didn't grow up eating leftover food from earlier meals because, well... it was a blue-moon miracle if there was any leftover!

Fast forward to college and I struggled with paring down recipes to feed just me (and occasionally often Noah). After the original meal, I was left with an extraordinary amount of extra food that either I grew sick of or went bad before I could finish it. 

I learned to cook from my mother and we cook for six, sometimes seven, people. My eyes are often too big for my stomach. I know it's a skill, not a gift, the ability to eyeball portion-sizing and rethink leftovers comes with time and practice. I'm working on it.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with what I did with my leftover onions and butternut squash from this recipe: 

You'll Need: 

Butternut Squash

Onion

Lentils

Curry

Cumin

S & P

Cook the lentils, add in onions and butternut squash cooked from the original recipe. Add curry, cumin, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I made an unfortunately large amount of this (delicious) recipe, ate it for a week, then got a little sick of it, and then it went bad. I had to throw it away. 

It's a process, right? 

-Madelyn

Deets:

Food Poster// Paper Time Machine via Etsy
Books on Food// The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Compassionate Carnivore , In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

My Three Favorite Winter Drinks

Good morning!

Whether I like it or not, it's still winter. The temperature hovers just above freezing, a light snow falls throughout the week. Later on it warms up and turns to rain. Then, the temperature drops and it freezes, turning our apartment parking lot into an ice rink. School was cancelled the next day. I'm craving spring, the smell of dirt, of new earth, the color green, and the longer daylight hours.

When I express this, Noah reminds me: "don't wish your life away, honey," so I'm trying to be patient and soak up the beauty of this season, right now.

Right now, I'm enjoying the extra days off because of the weather. I'm enjoying making soup and bread, feeling the stove warm my kitchen. I'm enjoying these three warm winter beverages:

London Fog

You'll Need:

-Earl Grey Tea
-Milk
-Water
-Sugar
-Vanilla Extract

Add 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup water to pot on medium heat. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half a tablespoon of sugar (or more or less to taste). Stir. Once hot, pour in mug and add an Earl Grey tea bag. Let seep for 2-4 minutes. Enjoy.

Nutella Hot Chocolate

You'll Need:
-Nutella
-Milk

Add 1 cup milk to pot on medium heat. Once milk is hot, add two tablespoons of Nutella. Whisk until smooth. Pour in mug and enjoy.

Vienna Coffee

You'll Need:
-Coffee
-Heavy Whipping Cream
-Powdered Sugar

Using a hand mixer, pour heavy whipping cream and teaspoon of powdered sugar, make whipped cream. Add heaping spoonful to a cup of black coffee and enjoy immediately while it melts into your coffee.

Warm Kale Citrus Salad

Good Morning! 

Last week, I was procrastinating on real work and craving kale. It was a fortuitous combination because I came up with this recipe instead of doing said work, and boy, it's a winner. Erica and I are brainstorming other ways to use this grapefruit (like maybe on pizza?!) because its just so good. This is a tasty, warm, and seasonal way to get some extra fiber and protein (kale) as well as vitamin C (kale and grapefruit).

You'll Need: 

Kale 

Grapefruit 

Garlic Clove (just one)

Herbs de Provence

Sea Salt

For the Grapefruit: 

-Preheat oven to 375

-Slice grapefruit in bite-sized pieces 

-Sprinkle with Herbs de Provence and Sea Salt to taste

-Roast in the oven for 15ish minutes

For the Kale: 

-Chop garlic and put in sauce pan with a teeny bit of olive oil on low heat for about two minutes. 

-Tear kale off the ribs (that main vein that goes down the center of the leaf) and add to sauce pan with a little bit of water, turn heat to medium high and cook until water is evaporated and kale is dark green and soft. 

The Salad: 

-After the grapefruit is out of the oven, slice off skin and lay on bed of kale. Both will be warm, the kale is soft, and the grapefruit is extra juicy. No dressing is needed! :) 

Enjoy! 

Madelyn 

Back to School. Back to Pizza.

Hello!

I've just moved back to my apartment in Boone and am preparing to start the new semester. The first evening back Noah and I made this tasty pizza: kale, butternut squash, and caramelized onion pizza with a delicious cumin white bean sauce. While I was kneading the dough, he and I joked: "back to school. back to pizza."

Pizza has always been my go-to comfort food. When I'm stressed, overwhelmed, or craving something homey, I roll out the dough. I make pizza.

Also, there's something delicious and zany about coming up with these crazy combos. You can find more here and here.

You'll Need:

Kale
Butternut Squash
Red Onion
Great Northern Beans
Cumin
Olive Oil
S & P

(Crust of your choice).

the Butternut Squash:

-preheat the oven to 400 degrees
-slice squash in half, drizzle in olive oil, salt, and pepper
-bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until squash is soft and easily cut with a knife
-take squash out of the oven, peel skin off and discard, cube squash

the Bean Sauce:

-drain about half the liquid from the can of beans
-empty remaining liquid and beans into food processor, add pinch of cumin (about 1/2 teaspoon) and blend until smooth
-set aside for later

the Onion:

-chop onion and place in skillet with a little water
-cook until onions are soft and water has mostly evaporated

After rolling out your dough, spread bean sauce on crust, add squash, onion, and kale, and mozzarella cheese to taste. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for twenty minutes or until center is cooked.

Enjoy!

-Madelyn 

P.S. Some of my tips for cooking pizza crust can be found here.  

Under appreciated Vegetables: Brussel Sprout// The Perfect (Pizza) Marriage

I am a big fan of under appreciated vegetables: beets, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts, just to name a few. and today I am starting a new series where I share some of my favorite ways to enjoy these under appreciate vegetables. Of course, one of those ways is on pizza.

Brussels sprouts have a bad rap for a reason entirely unknown to me. They're delicious and a great source of vitamin C. In fact, brussels sprouts might be my favorite of the under appreciated vegetables. Especially when it's paired with bacon. This pizza might be the perfect marriage.

You'll need:

Pizza stone
Parchment paper
Brussels Sprouts, sliced in half
Crust ingredients and recipe of your choice
Sauce, either homemade or from a can
1 1/2 c mozzarella cheese
2-3 strips of Bacon

1. Make your crust recipe.
2. Preheat the oven to 325.
3. Slice the brussels sprouts in half and drizzle with olive oil and s&p. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the brussels sprouts are soft on the inside, but not yet crunchy on the outside.
4. Measure parchment paper to size of pizza stone. Set aside.
5. Slide pizza stone in the oven with the brussels sprouts to preheat.
6. Pre-cook bacon.
7. Roll out dough on parchment paper, spread sauce, brussels sprouts, bacon and cheese dough.
8. Pull stone out of the oven, then turn heat up to 425.
9. Put parchment paper with uncooked pizza on stone. Cut any extra pieces of the parchment paper off and discard (otherwise they'll burn in the oven).
10. Cook pizza for 8-10 minutes on 425. Then, for the last 2 minutes of cooking turn oven to broil.

Total cooking time: 10-12

What's your favorite way to enjoy brussels sprouts?

-Madelyn 

I need to be stopped...another Pizza post

Happy Tuesday!

T-minus 10 days and counting until Halloween! I love Halloween. It's my second favorite holiday (next to Christmas) and come November 1st I feel completely justified blaring Christmas music, so there's that added bonus. Anyway, this post is not about my Halloween-love (though there will be a post to come on that, promise). It's about pizza. Are you surprised? Me neither.

I told myself I wouldn't post about pizza for a few weeks because:

a) you probably aren't as pizza-obsessed as I am
b) I needed to use my grocery budget on stuff other than pizza toppings

But, I'm making an exception because this pizza is a brilliant idea (thanks mom!) and I wanted to share it with you. It's a deeelicious combo: olives, peppers, and artichokes; veggie-packed and a tad bit salty.

You'll Need:

-Green Olives, specifically these green olives (found at walmart). Normally, I like black olives, but usually not green olives. These have me converted. Yum.
-Artichoke Hearts
-1/2 of each: Red, Yellow, and Orange Peppers
-Pesto
-Mozzarella

 Use pesto as the sauce, slice remaining ingredients to desired thickness. I halved the olives and chopped the artichokes and peppers.

 I've been working on my crust recipe, and while I don't have a winner yet to share with you I do have some crusty tips to get that delicious, restaurant-esq. crust:

1. Preheat the oven and your pizza stone (and you must use a pizza stone). For at least 15 minutes. Ideally 30ish.
2. Use parchment paper underneath the dough. Cut the paper into a circle slightly wider than your dough (so it won't burn).
3. Broil your pizza for 1-2 minutes before pulling it out of the oven.

Also, these pictures have nothing to do with Pizza or Halloween or anything aforementioned in this post, but I love these pictures and wanted to share. My (tall) little brother had homecoming with his girlfriend two weekends ago. I came home to take their pictures.

And the nice thing about having tall little brothers is that they thank you for said pictures is very dramatic, spinny ways:

Or at least thank you for the photo shoot being over, in this case. Love you Jack! :)

-Madelyn 

Sacred Pizza Sauce

I feel a tad bit anachronistic posting this recipe today-- the temperature was in the high forties this morning when I biked to campus. I'm planning on bringing my plants indoors for the night because the chill is supposed to stick around through tomorrow.

And on through the next five months. (Just kidding. I hope.)

Anyway, y'all know how much I love pizza. It's my favorite. All the time. While I'm still working on finding the perfect crust recipes (if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them! Bring on the recipes) I believe I have concocted my favorite pizza sauce recipe using literally the last of the summer's tomatoes, which adds a bit of reverence to recipe. Sacred Pizza Sauce, if you will. I could've used those tomatoes for anything: panzanella, a mean BLT-- but I knew they were meant to become sauce on a killer pie later on this year when I'm craving some summer flavor. It's an easy recipe; you'll love it:

Sacred Pizza Sauce

Olive oil
20 palm-ish sized (or smaller) tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 t red pepper flakes*
salt to taste

Pour some olive oil in the pan on medium heat, mince (or grate, using this magnificent tool) garlic, and begin dicing and adding tomatoes to pan, stirring occasionally. Add red pepper flakes, stir, add salt, stir. Once it's boiling, cover and reduce heat to low for 15-20 minutes.

If after 15-20 minutes it's not yet at the thickness you want, remove lid and keep on low heat allowing some of the liquid to evaporate. Stir occasionally.

*I like my pizza sauce with a little bit of a kick-- if you're not so inclined, reduce the amount of red pepper flakes.

Also, note my insanely messy kitchen (I'm working on a pizza crust recipe/making dinner):

Enjoy!

-Madelyn

A Hunger Filled With Fragrant Gold

I really considered making the title for this post "a great resource for sourdough bread making...would not be this blog." But I just finished a book of poems by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my absolute favorite authors, called Another America. She wrote a fantastic poem about bread making where she describes her husband baking a loaf while she reads a book and the "hunger filled with fragrant gold" drew her from the book and to the kitchen. I listen: to the measuring cups/ little quarrels of half against quarter/ then the sifted hush of the flour/ there will be kneading/ there will be punching down/ and rising and rising again/ and finally a home/ and a hunger filled with fragrant gold. I love that. 

I'm not sure what is so attractive about bread-making for me (actually, I do have a clue: the taste) because it's definitely time-consuming and a tad bit expensive. But I enjoy it. When I make wheat bread, I use a recipe from my godparents. My machine is a garage-sale find gifted to me by my mother (it also looks like R2D2, a total plus). I think the ritual and history is attractive: knowing that for hundreds, thousands, of years there have been men and women-- some of whom I know or am related to-- making measuring flour, kneading dough, and baking bread. That's really cool.

I'm comfortable rolling out the dough for wheat bread or throwing some ingredients in a bread machine. I'm still voyaging into the foray of sourdough bread making. Maybe in a couple, I don't know, years when I have a method down I can speak with some authority on the topic, but right now? HA. So this is not a post about how to make a sourdough starter or the best recipe for sourdough bread, this post is about good resources for sourdough and how I made my first loaf. Here we go:

I decided early in the summertime that I wanted to make sourdough bread. I googled around, reading and attempting a few different methods (none of which were successful. some of which were smelly.) before finding the motherload of sourdough bread resources here. It has great advice for beginners.

I learned that I probably shouldn't be making my own starter (oops), so I ordered one from Carl's Friends. Carl's Friends is just that, a group of friends who send free sourdough starter to anyone who sends them a self-addressed and stamped envelope in memory of their friend (who gave them the starter) Carl T. Griffiths. He was not only a very accomplished bread-baker, but also a very generous man. He, too, would give starter to anyone who asked or sent an envelope. The starter has been in his family for over 150 years. When you order the starter, they say expect about a six week turn around, but it only took about three weeks before mine came in the mail. It arrives like this.

Their brochure has instructions on how to reactivate the starter. And once you complete those you end up with something that looks like this! 

I decided on the Alaskan Sourdough Bread recipe included on the reactivation instruction (link above), with a few small changes:

(recipe adapted from Carl's Friends 1847 Sourdough Starter Brochure)

Makes one large and one small loaf. (Or possibly three small loaves)

1 c sourdough starter
4 T olive oil
1 t Baking Soda
8 c bread flour
2 1/2 c warm water
1/2 c sugar
1 T salt

The night before, combine starter, water, and 2 c flour. Mix with a fork, cover with a dish towel and let sit overnight. The next morning, add all the other ingredients, mix well, and knead until "elastic and smooth." Place in large bowl, cover again, and let rise until doubled (approximately 40 minutes). Punch down and knead again. Line pan with parchment paper and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes.

Do you make your own bread? If so, what kind? I'd love to hear about your methods!

-Madelyn 

P.S. Have you read this article about 10 habits you should pick up from your grandmother? I agree with every. single. one.

also-

Another America by Barbara Kingsolver// found here
Recipe for the soup in the first photo// here

Pizza Epiphanies

Not too long ago I wrote about my love for a really good salad, but I have another great food love: pizza. In all forms: the kind you find at food carts at baseball game dripping in grease to the more creative versions found at restaurants with unambiguously psychedelic names.

I love inventing in the kitchen. I love looking at what I have, and what I don't have, and coming up with something new, like this pizza- an arugula and spinach pesto sauce with roasted cauliflower, potatoes and goat cheese- which just kind of dawned on me like a pizza epiphany one Friday evening. I raided the farmer's market for ingredients the next morning. I did not originally plan to use these gorgeous purple potatoes or the orange cauliflower but my philosophy for food (and clothes, and art... and life) leans towards "why choose something boring when you can choose something colorful?"

I'm sure it would be just as delicious with russet potatoes and white cauliflower,
but not nearly as pretty (hah).

I'm not really one to toot my own horn (or use a lot of cheesy idioms) but this pizza is amazing. I shared it with my roommates and a couple of friends and we're still talking about that awesome pizza even though I made it several weeks ago. 

These directions are wordy and sound kind of time consuming (sorry!), but it's really not that bad. The whole process probably took a little under an hour to complete. 

What you need: 

1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

1 cup Arugula

1 cup Spinach 

2-3 cloves Garlic

1 cup Olive Oil 

1 t cumin 

1/2 t curry

1/2 t cayenne

1/2 t garlic powder 

1 head Cauliflower

2 medium-sized potatoes 

1 packet Fleischmann's pizza crust yeast 

1 cup white flour

3/4 cup- 1 cup wheat flour 

Sugar 

Salt

Pepper

The "Pesto" Sauce: 

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups of arugula/spinach mix (the stems of arugula are slightly bitter, when I make pesto with them I always pull off the leaves and discard the stems) 

3 cloves garlic 

approx. 1/2 cup olive oil 

Blend in food processor. 

To be honest, these are all approximations. I'm abysmal at measuring while I'm cooking-- I eyeball most things and taste test frequently. You want the sauce to be slightly more sauce-like than pesto-like. If it's too thick (on the pesto end of the spectrum), add more olive oil. 

The Cauliflower: 

1 t cumin

1/2 t curry

1/2 t cayenne 

1/2 t garlic powder 

mix! 

Chop up cauliflower and spread florets on a baking sheet. Drizzle a cooking oil of your choice (I used olive oil) over the florets, then evenly sprinkle spice mixture. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes or until florets are about halfway cooked.

The Potatoes: 

Slice thinly. 

Drizzle with olive oil. 

Add salt and pepper.

Bake at 425 for 10ish minutes. 

The Crust/The Whole Pie:

I bought this brand of yeast (make sure you buy the kind that says Pizza Crust Yeast!) and followed the instructions on the packaging (also found here), though I subbed the 1 3/4 cup white all purpose flower for 1 cup white flower and 3/4 cup wheat flower and I added more wheat flour while kneading the dough. I spread the dough out on a pizza stone greased with a tad bit of oil and added the sauce, cauliflower, potatoes, and added goat cheese then threw it in the oven. It took about to 17 minutes for pizza to cook.

Ever since this evening, I've been brainstorming more wacky/awesome pizza combos and scribbling my ideas down in a notebook. I'm super excited to try them out. If they're good (cross your fingers!), I'll be sharing them on here soon.

-Madelyn

"And Eat More Salad."

So I may be flying my freak flag a little high today with this post but I decided to post it today because it's my first day of my last year of college (!!!!!!!) and I had the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song "Teach Your Children" stuck in my head this morning-- more specifically a cover/spoof of the song that was performed on A Prairie Home Companion over the summer by a band from NYC about a graduation in Brooklyn where the refrain of "know they love you" was changed to "and eat more salad."

So, thanks Garrison Keillor.

I was beyond excited this summer when a new restaurant (which shall not be named) opened up in town and their specialty was-- yippee!-- salads. My mom and I went the first week it was open, all jazzed about the deliciousness we were about to consume and were spectacularly disappointed by our meals. Nothing was fresh, we had tons of crunchy, flavorless lettuce, few veggies, and lots of croutons. There's nothing worse than a wimpy salad. 

Admittedly, I'm a little vegetable obsessed. Purple Cauliflower? Amazing. Orange Beets? Mouthwatering. Don't get me started on my adoration of brussel sprouts. I think more people would enjoy their veggies and their salads if only they were exposed to more than the boring old iceberg-or-romaine-lettuce/out-of-season tomatoes/ranch combo.

The secret to loving your veggies is make a killer salad with them. You can easily make one of these hardy, delicious, and nutritious meals in your kitchen any day. Here's how to do it: 

Start with a trip to the farmer's market or another vendor/ grocery that sells fresh (like picked less than three days ago) produce. Buy something different, something you've never tried before, to add to your meal. Never had swiss chard? What about kale? Try it!

Diversify your greens. Many people don't realize how many different flavors exist under the umbrella of "greens." Spinach is pretty mild (in my opinion). Arugula is peppery. Romaine and Iceberg Lettuce have very little flavor, actually, no flavor, and therefore they do not have a place in my salads! Making a salad is an opportunity to experiment.

Think outside the box. The "other stuff" you put on your salad is entirely up to you. Just make sure that the veggies are as fresh as possible-- tomatoes, onions, carrots-- whatever tastes good. Then, think about shaking it up. Add something different. Maybe some quinoa? What about sprouts? My favorite is this brand (but I buy mine at earth fare). Maybe try tuna? Avocado?

Consider the ratio of greens to other veggies. There should be enough of the "other stuff" so every bite of the salad you take has some greens and some other stuff in it. 

Don't drown it in dressing. Salad dressing is meant to compliment the flavors of your awesome salad-- not drown all the icky veggies so all you taste is ranch. :) Use dressing sparingly.

I love making a homemade honey balsamic vinaigrette like this:

honey
balsalmic vinegar
cooking oil of choice (I like either olive oil or sunflower seed oil)
s&p to taste

I start with about ^^this^^ much honey in a bowl and add twice as much balsamic, a quick dollop of oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper and mix together with a fork. No worries if you make too much, the dressing will keep in the fridge, though I don't know how long-- mine usually gets used by the end of the week. :) 

And, that's it! You have a kick-butt salad to get you through your first day of class! Hope you enjoy it.

Madelyn

P.S. My roommate, Erica's blog lives here.

Lately: Seeing Green and Making Dough

I'm starting a new series this week where I post just a few pictures of what's been going on lately and thoughts that are on my mind. 

Lately, I'm psyched that I can finally start bringing my plants outside during the day. 

I saw a family in the grocery store the other day, the mother was pushing her little boy in the cart while two little girls-- one wearing face paint whiskers, a big flowery skirt, and cowboy boots and the other wearing a plastic tiara, a dress and pacifier-- holding hands, trailed behind her. The whiskered girl was saying, "you know, mama, I think we really need some sunflowers." I couldn't help but smile. And buy some sunflowers. 

My mama has a small binder that she uses as a homemade recipe book. I love flipping through it and seeing the collection of recipes she's curated over the years. Some of the recipes are from books or the internet but many more are from people we've known in the many different stations we've lived while in the military. There's Miss Pam's Sweet Potato Casserole. A rhubarb bread recipe from my grandmother. A New York Cheesecake recipe from my mom's boss. 

A few years ago I made a recipe book of my own, and included some of the recipes from my mom's collection. I have a recipe for curry from my South African friend Pashy, who I met while she was studying abroad here in the states, and a few other from my international friends. I hope to fill this book even more as the years go on with great food recipes from great people. I wanted to share one of these with you today. This is my godparent's recipe for wheat bread. I've tweaked it a little to reflect how I've been baking it lately: 

4 cups warm water

1 tbsp. dry yeast

1 tbsp. honey 

4 cups white flour

3 tbsp. oil

3 tbsp. honey 

3.5 cups whole wheat flour 

additional white flower 

Combine water, yeast, 1 tbsp. honey, and white flour and beat until smooth. Cover and let sit 1 hour. Add oil, honey, and whole wheat flour and mix well. Let sit 15-20 minutes in refrigerator. Turn out onto floured counter and knead for 10ish minutes, adding flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Cover and let rise again for one hour until doubled. Divide dough in half and bake on greased pizza stone at 400 for about 45-50 minutes. 

I don't have much experience making breads, this recipe is easy to follow, hard to mess up, and makes two very tasty loaves of bread. These past two weeks, I've made the recipe and kept one loaf for myself and given the other away to friends (what college student doesn't like free, homemade bread?). 

Have a great week, friends! 

-Madelyn 

Cabin Fever and Salad Cravings

Hey there.
It's been awhile...sorry.
I've been in a mad rush during this first week of class, and frankly haven't had anything blog-worthy in awhile. Making yogurt has become part of my routine. And it's saving me an insane amount of money. I grew some sprouts. And tried a quinoa and brussel sprout recipe that epically failed. The sucky part of being a poor college student is you have to eat your cooking flops, not just once, but for the rest of the week because you blew your grocery budget on the ingredients. Sigh.

We had a "belated holiday happening" at the apartment last week before classes started.

I make a greek yogurt-based, kale and artichoke dip for the party. It was creamy and delicious, you can find the recipe here.We had fun, decorating gingerbread houses, wearing witches hats, and just spending time with one another. It was great (also, note that Emily is an amazing gingerbread-house decorator). :)

I began to feel a little achey towards the end of the night, and decided to turn in while the party was still in full swing. The next morning, I went to the doctor and tested positive for strep throat. Ick. The day after that, classes started. 

So this week has consisted of taking antibiotics, regaining my balance, figuring out my schedule and routine, generally trying to find my footing. I found a few yoga classes to go to. I've spent a disgusting amount of money on textbooks. 

It's been snowing on and off all weekend and I was the only person at my apartment Friday-Saturday. Let me tell you something- cabin fever is real. I finished my homework, crocheted, practiced piano, watched Star Wars and painted. By the time my roommates and friends got back into town Saturday night I was ready to explode with the feeling of I-need-to-get-out-of-this-apartment-and-do-something-now. We went out to dinner. 

This morning, I got up and made more yogurt for the week and planned what I wanted to make to take for lunch as well. I found this recipe for Quinoa cakes and based my ingredients off of her list. Except I used red quinoa and added a lot more olives, and lemon zest to the recipe. I've also had a hardcore salad craving (my first ever. seriously, who gets those?) for the past week so I made up some arugala, spinach, and kale salad with dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and homemade sprouts. So this was lunch. And will be lunch for the next 100 years because the recipe (or my lack of following it...) made at least 20 quinoa cakes this size. They taste oddly like salmon cakes. Which is fine by me. 

Mmmm. 

Also, Erica's boyfriend's dog has been staying with us. I have severe dog (and cat...and horse...) allergies which usually means I can't even be around a dog (let alone pet them) for an extended amount of time, but Lucy is a Golden Doodle, which is a hypoallergenic breed. I was originally skeptical- because my allergies are obnoxious and even being in a room where a dog used to live messes with me- but I have had absolutely no trouble around Lucy and it is the. best. ever. 

She loves a good belly scratch and I am perfectly happy to oblige her because I can actually pet her! Yippeee!!! It's the best. I am trying to convince my family that we need one.

Here's to cabin fever, salad cravings, and hypoallergenic pups, 

Cheers, 

x M

Make// 02: Misadventures in Yogurt Making

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present my first EVER breakfast of my own homemade greek yogurt! *Fist pump* Woo hoo!

If you follow me on Instagram (...or talk to me in person...) you know that I've been trying to make my own successful batch of homemade greek yogurt since last summer-- with very limited success. My mama gifted me a yogurt maker before the school year started, it was garage-sale find and after two batches of runny yogurt I thought the thrifting gods had let me down and I had gotten a defective yogurt maker. Thankfully, this was not the case.

If you're interested, I simply wasn't stirring enough while heating and cooling the milk to make sure everything was an even temperature. So if you're having your own battle with yogurt making: stir, stir, stir. Lather, rinse, repeat. :) I can share the process I use later on, though I think it's pretty standard.

Happy Thursday! 

Enjoy your breakfast. I am. :) 

x M

Make// 01

Hola from the Polar Vortex. It was -8 degrees this morning, though now I think it's hovering around a balmy four degrees Fahrenheit. Whoop de do.

For all my whining, cold weather doesn't *really* bother me all that much, but the sun going down so early is a bummer. I'm over Daylight Savings by December 25th. I want my sunlight back.

Small aside: doesn't polar vortex sound really sci-fi-y?

Sounds like something the Doctor would say, like, "oh no we're flying into the POLAR VORTEX!"

Sorry.

I'm done.

Also, boyfriend got a new (to him) film camera recently. Hence the pictures. Notice the white stuff in the background.

What was this post supposed to be about? Oh yeah.

My New Years Resolution was to make more.  And I've decided to hold myself accountable to that goal by blogging about it. So, every now and then (hopefully more now and less then) you'll see a post with the title "Make//" and some number. That's a resolution post.

And this is the first one. And it's about soup, because you need warm liquid whilst trapped inside a polar vortex. It's based off of this pin from Pinterest.

And it goes a lil' something like dis:

6 cups veggie broth
1.5ish cup lentils
1 tablespoon curry powder
pinch of cinnamon, coriander, and cumin (or one teaspoon garam masala)
1 cup kale
1 onion
salt and pepper to taste

Bring broth to a boil and then add 1 cup lentils and chopped onions. Wait until onions are clear and then add spices.

I used The Gourmet Collection's Thai Style Green Curry because my roommate Hayley got it for me for Christmas. But you could use any curry. I also used cinnamon, coriander, and cumin because those were the only spices I had that make up garam masala.

Use immersion blender (a.k.a. the best thing since sliced bread) to blend the onions and lentils until you get desired texture (I don't like smooth soup, I need a little texture so I blended on high for 20-25 seconds). Then add remaining half cup lentils.

Let simmer. Add kale. Let simmer some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. And serve!

Disclaimer it's not a pretty looking soup, and that's not just because I took a picture in bad lighting. But it's also not that spicy. And very very tasty.

Stay Warm! 

x M 

Elfing Around

We made like elves and created some holiday cheer of our own today. With this obnoxiously warm weather, there's almost no chance of a white Christmas this year (can I get a bah humbug?).

I'll have to settle for snowflake sprinkles on my chocolate covered pretzel sticks. This recipe is ridiculously easy, I considered not sharing it because of the self-explainatory-ness of it, but my family is one of the only ones I know who include these in their cookie trays, so I figured, might as well.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sticks:

-Dark Chocolate (either chips or bar)
-Bag of large Pretzel Sticks
-Holiday Sprinkles
-Wax Paper

Spread wax paper on cookie sheet (this step is not strictly necessary, but it's a pain in the butt to get frozen chocolate off a cookie sheet once this whole process is over. Trust me.). Melt dark chocolate by putting in microwave for one minute, stirring, and microwaving for one more minute. Dip, drizzle, dabble, or decorate the pretzel sticks in chocolate and sprinkles. Put cookie sheet with pretzels in freezer for 15ish minutes or until chocolate is solidified on the pretzels.

Enjoy.

Side note:  I have been to Target five times in as many days either Christmas shopping with friends or family. There is no Target in Boone where I go to school, so it's one of the first places I go when I get back. My roommates and I joke about going through withdrawal during the semester. I never thought I would get sick of it. I was wrong. 

Hope you've gotten your shopping done! I may not be posting much over the next few days, but I'll be back after Christmas and definitely before the new year!

x M