I made this from scratch!

...sorta.  I sort of made this from scratch.

But first off - Hello! :)

Where to begin... I have so much to say, which is dangerous because usually I like to talk a lot.  Okay, so today I was hungry (frequent occurrence), and I had some arugula that I knew I was gonna eat... but I knew I couldn't just eat arugula.  I'd still be hungry afterwards!  I also had a tomato and a can of chickpeas.  So by now, the gears are turning in my head, and I'm reminded of this very simple and delicious recipe.  (By the by, that Budget Bytes blog is pretty sweet - I find quite a few quick, cheap, and easy recipes there.)  The original recipe calls for tomato sauce, but I told myself, "Tomato sauce comes from tomatoes.  And you have a big huge tomato!  Why don't you use that instead?"  To which I replied, "What a great idea!"  True story.

I also am starting to realise I really like curry powder and if I can use it somehow, I will.  The original recipe is actually a quick curry with very simple ingredients, so I figured I could throw something together with this template.

So here's my recipe "from scratch."

What you need:
- a smidge (1 tbsp?) of olive oil
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, I'm not picky; this should be minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 very large tomato (or y'know, 2 or 3 smaller ones.  Whatever suits your fancy!)
- approx 1 tbsp of curry powder
- a dash of parika, cuz why not??
- salt and pepper to taste
- a splash of orange juice (Chef Michael Smith who hails from PEI says curry and orange naturally go together.  Of course!...yeah... I knew that...)
- basmati rice (I made about a cup's worth of raw rice)

Step One: Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot over medium-low heat.  Chop/mince onion/garlic and put into a pot.  Try not to burn the garlic like I did.

Step Two: Dice up tomatoes in to smallish pieces and toss 'em in the pot.  Let things simmer in there low and slow (there it is again).  At this point I added a bit of parika and a third of the curry powder.   And salt and pepper.

Tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices all together in the pot.

I didn't mention this in the ingredients, but I wanted salad, so I made arugula salad with lemon juice and olive oil as the dressing (and salt and pepper).  Mmmmm bitter...

Step Three: Okie dokie, then you toss in the chickpeas.  Then i added the rest of the curry powder and the splash of orange juice.  Stir and let it keep on simmering.  I think in total, I probably let things simmer on low heat for about 30-40 minutes.  I'm sure you could keep it on the stove for as long or as little as you like though.  

CHICKPEAS!!!!!

Step Four: Cook rice.

Step Five: Put chickpea/tomato thing on rice. 

Step Six: Eat.

This photo represents the Step Six, the eating stage.  

Update: This tastes even better the next day as leftovers!  

So there it is.  My sort of some scratch tomato curry chickpea thing.  Should you choose to take the risk and follow my instructions, I hope it's decent, or at minimum edible.

Byeeeeee!

Yuna

Ross' Famous Crepes and Vegan Banana Bread with Lisaaaaaa

Holaaaaaaaa!

So Lisa had a rough week at the office, and I've been feelin' pretty low key myself, so I thought having a nice girls' night in would be fun!  I told Lisa to bring a bottle of wine.  So, naturally, because she can do math, she brought 3 bottles.  That's fine, I guess.  We didn't get to all three, but we did choose one.  As the super fancy wine connoisseurs/aficionados that we are, we chose (deliberately of course...) the gewurztraminer.  So, the gewurtalsjdfl;jalsder (from Trader Joe's) is described as, "an exciting and easy drinking wine, more so than most any other white wine type.  You will recognize its heady and aromatic scent.  Gewuae;irjal;er is a very enjoyable wine to drink as an aperitif or with your dinner.  Relax and enjoy!"  It's quite possible Evan Johnson wrote this pretentious description.  Job well done, sir.

Mysha showing Lisa how to open a bottle of gewurztraminer white wine.

Tonight's recipe: Ross' famous crepes two ways - savory and sweet (a.k.a. covered in Nutella).  Lisa says the crepes were fabulous.  I say they were transcendent.  Here's the original recipe.  Soooo simple!  The savoury crepes had jarlsberg cheese, lettuce optional, granny smith apples, aaaand smoked turkey.  Soooo goood!  The sweet crepes had Nutella in it.  Lisa ate two.  What a fatty.  Geez!  Ross probably would've liked maple syrup, but we were in a chocolate-hazlenut mood.

Making crepes, with our famous Cooking After 8 1/2 cup measuring cup!

Whisking flour, egg, and other stuff.

Lisa slicing the apples for our savoury crepes.  Good job Spees!

Crepe batter.

Cooked crepe batter.

Cooked crepe with stuff mentioned above inside = delicious.

One of Fat Lisa's two Nutella crepes. Mmmmm!

Kay, then Lisa made banana bread... But because we're in Carrboro, we made super awesome indie hipster vegan banana bread!  I'm sure we could've made it even more hippie dippy if we added ground flax seed, but whatever, we didn't...  So anyways, according to the recipe, you gotta bake it low and slow.  I just wanted to say, "low and slow." You just set it and forget it!

It's done!

Out of its shell.

Lisa doing a "Yuna style" picture with the banana bread.

Yuna doing a "Yuna style" picture with the banana bread.

How one should live.

Then we talked about our high school days.  Mine were glorious.  Lisa's slightly less glorious.  But it's ok, she's cool now.  She coined the term, "hippie dippy."  Sooooooo cooooooool!!!!!!!  (PS - we're really tired.  But still HILARIOUS!)

Main discovery of the evening: Banana bread should always be consumed with Nutella.  Always.  It will stupendify your life, guaranteed!

Byeeee!
Lisa and Yuna


PS - check it, it snowed in North Carolina.

Pasta with Turkey, Tomatoes, and Half and Half

Hello!

I am currently listening to a "Philosophy Bytes" podcast on consequentialism for my class tomorrow.  It's interesting (at least to nerds like me), but because I'm just sitting at my laptop listening, I decided the best use of my time would be to create a new blog post.  I can probably justify this with my very limited understanding of consequentialism: making blog posts makes me happy and I am not harming anyone else.  Boom.  Multi-tasking justified.  (I hope no philosophers read this...)

So I found this recipe on All Recipes, and it is originally called Bow Ties with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream.  While I like Italian sausage, it just seems a bit unhealthy to me.  So I used ground turkey instead and added some salt, pepper, chilli pepper flakes, and Italian herbs.  And cream; well my mom never fed me cream presumably because of its lack of nutritional value, and I find it kind of heavy, and admittedly I don't really know what cream tastes like... So I substituted this with half and half, based on a user's recommendation to make the dish "lighter."  I also added a green pepper based on another person's recommendation.  Oh, and I didn't have bow tie pasta so I used whole wheat penne.

Otherwise, I pretty much followed the instructions exactly.  It was pretty easy and didn't take too long.  Not bad for a weekday dinner!  And now I have leftovers that will last me the rest of the week.  Hooray!

Here's a super close up picture of the final product:

Pasta with ground turkey and other stuff.

Fortunately, this dish was quite good, and I think I can stand to eat for the next four days. :)  I hope you enjoy it too!!!

The podcast guy is still talking about consequentialism.  I suppose I should listen so I have something constructive to say in class tomorrow.

Bye for now!

Yuna

Food from Durham, NC

Helloooooooooo!!

I still have a lot of food adventures from the summer to tell you about, but it occurs to me that it might take a while for me to get to those posts... so these posts will no longer go in chronological order.  But I think that's okay!  Because I have two exciting other food adventures from Durham.  Not Durham Region, where I'm originally from, but Durham, NC - the land of Blue Devils (booo!), Bulls Minor League Baseball, and pretty awesome food!

On Wednesday, we celebrated the glorious birth of Kristen, one of the contributors of this blog.  She invited us out to the patios on Geer St. Garden in Durham, NC.  If you sit on the picnic benches on the patio, you can bring your dog! :) From what I understand, the restaurant tries to use local, in-season ingredients to ensure a fresh and delicious meal.  I ordered off the special menu and got the tostadas with sweet potatoes and a whole bunch of other stuff on it.  It was delicious!

My tostadas with sweet potatoes.

Kristen's new arm tattoos!

Happy birthday Kristen!!! :)

Okay, next...

Yesterday, we decided to get burgers.  Our friends Lisa and Evan had informed us that the best burgers in the triangle could be found at Bull City Burgers in downtown Durham, NC.  I'll let the experts decide on what's "best", but this place certainly did not disappoint!  

I got a beef burger with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, jalepenos, Bull City Burger's hot sauce, and aioli.  And ketchup.  Also, if you have foursquare on your phone, your first check in will get you a free side order of Dirty Fries (which are just regular old potato fries)!  It was delicious!  The beef patty was really tasty and I'd definitely go back! :)

My Bull City Burger :)

There are lots of great food options in this area, so I hope you can try it out too!

Bye!!

Yuna

Cooking After 8 - Episode 1 - Calzones

Hi again!

Our new contributor, Mysha, has created a new cooking show for all y'all.  Needless to say, we were in a silly mood this evening; but what's the point of life if we can't be a little silly, right?! We think the video speaks for itself, so we hope you enjoy!!!

P.S.  Here's the recipe we used.  The calzones were delicious!  Click here now!  Doooo iiittttt!!! :D

Guys, I'm not gonna lie... This pasta salad is amazing!!!

Today, Mysha (one of my new roommates) invited me to join her at a little bakery in Durham, NC called Daisy Cakes.  Long story short about Daisy Cakes - it was awesome!!!

I had the fennel, zucchini, and something or other sandwich, seen here.  It was so delicious.  But actually, the most memorable thing on that plate was that little scoop of pasta salad.  I don't know what was in it, but it was deeeeee-licious!!!  

Sandwich with super amazing awesome pasta salad.

I was told the dressing for the pasta salad was a balsamic vinaigrette.  Which seemed like a huge lie, but y'know, what do I know.  It also had fennel in it, but it was kinda soft and not too crunchy, which made it even better.  And it also reminded me of how I actually kinda like fennel!

So I went home... And I was committed to making this happen.  Making what happen, you ask?  Making that gosh darn delicoius pasta salad.  So Mysha was kind enough to take me to the grocery store and I bought me some fennel.  I also bought me a tomato.  and some arugula.

I got home and I started cooking.  Here's the breakdown:

- boil water, make pasta (i used whole wheat pasta)

- thinly slice fennel.

- pick basil from Mysha's garden - like 10 leaves or something.  Chop that up real thin.

- chop up that tomato into bite size pieces.

- just before i throw in that pasta, blanche the fennel.  for like 30 seconds.

- mix together some olive oil, and (wait for it...) a MIX of red wine vinegar AND balsamic vinegar.  aw yeah.  (I did like 1/3 balsamic, 2/3 red wine vinegar).  I'm usually pretty cheap when it comes to salt, but I put in a relatively generous amount of salt and some pepper.

- arugula.  wash the arugula, put it in a bowl with the fennel and tomato.  A bit of salt on the arugula seems to help too.

- once the pasta is done, wash it down with cold water.

- mix EVERYTHING together!!!!!!!!

the result: don't wanna toot my own horn or anything... but you get deliciousness.  gloriousness.  something worthy of Zeus' dinner table.

My not-so-modest pasta salad.

Something else you should also know about Daisy Cakes: they made a gingerbread cookie that had bacon in it.  Surprisingly delicious.

Bacon Gingerbread Cookie.  You can really taste the bacon!

Hope you enjoy the pasta salad as much as I do!  And if you ever find yourself in Durham, NC, get yourself to Daisy Cakes!

Love and exploding props, 

Yuna

PS - asian glow.

exciting news!

Friends... I have excellent news.

Soon, we shall have a guest contributor to our food blog.  She may even become a permanent contributor.  If we're lucky. 

Stay tuned. 

:)

- Yuna