barley and millet risotto

I owe you people a decent post. Look, here I am! With words! Lots and lots of words, and a smattering of hyperlinks, just for you! :)

Not gonna lie: I think my frequency of posts was affected by two things:

1. Getting an iPhone (it's okay, I was shocked too)

2. Getting on Twitter (again... it's okay, I was shocked too)

In the long run, I think both of these things will be useful. Turns out I take way more pictures if I use my phone (and hey, the 4S has a lovely camera on it, believe it or not), and editing photos is way, waaay too much fun for me. My phone has also given me an appreciation of the square-format photo... it's beautiful! Regardless of Instagram's influence, it makes so much sense for me to love a square photo, given how much I love symmetry. I find it much easier to take a picture that looks balanced (at least for me eye) with a square photo. And really, if you don't believe me, go take a standard format photo and then crop it as a square -- I think you'll like it better. As for Twitter... well, the Twitterverse is still vast and mysterious. I barely have an idea of how hashtags and handles work, but somehow it intrigues me. For now, I like it mostly as a source of information. It's absurd how much you can learn from a well-selected Twitter feed. It's by far the fastest and farthest reaching networking I've ever done. I just hope nobody minds my occasional, inane posts of "Look at my dog! XD #cutestthingintheworld #puppykisses #snugglebug".

So I've got lots to talk about, but I think I'll just have to divvy it up amongst more blog posts soon. For now, I direct your attention to the archives of 101 Cookbooks for this lovely spin on risotto. Our kitchen is a risotto loving one, but it's nice to try a different approach from time to time. Heidi calls for farro, but I am too poor to stock farro in my pantry. If you can snag some you should try it, it's delicious. If you are also a cheep-cheep person, stick to pearled barley. As usual, I chopped some kale and threw it in -- I think the chewy texture went well with the grains. This was also my first time trying out millet; what a cute little grain. I've seen some breakfast millet ideas flying around the internet, and I think that's got some potential. If you know of any good uses of millet, let me know -- I've got a cup or two to use up someday. :)

pear, banana, and kale smoothie

Whew! Holidays, check. Quality family time, check. 2011, check. Cue the snow for Minnesota now, yes?

So here's the part where I, as a member of the blogosphere, am required to at least be a teensy bit introspective. I do believe this is an obligation of one's first post in a new year. 2011 can be best summed up for me as "more of the same". I love Minnesota. I love cooking new fun things. I've enjoyed my time getting to know my sewing machine better. I'm pretty happy that I finally brought my knitting needles out and got knitty all over again. My dog walks on a lead like a pro. Jobby job keeps on jobbing. I keep running. I love my bikes. I've begun to take my blogging kind of seriously. I've been bitten by the photography bug -- I can't stop thinking about framing shots, and I can't wait to upgrade my camera... $omeday. So yeah, not really much to report, but that isn't a terrible thing. Also I will give myself a passing grade on last year's resolution to bake bread once a week. This turned into anything with yeast once a week, and then just making a regular effort to bake bread more often. I am now happy to say we do so often and you should too!

2012 will be mega important, this much is crystal clear. The graduation and job hunt have gotten pretty danged real for dear husband, and thus for me as well. I think this is all I can bear to say at the moment. My plan is to just keep loving my time in MN and I'll deal with changes as they come. And of course, I'll keep you updated as I digest said changes. For now, my 2012 to-do includes:

1. Build a bike. Single speed of course; let's start simple, but with BRAKES.

2. Sew new slipcovers for two chairs and the ottoman and all associated throw pillows.

3. Get dog to appreciate her boots.

4. Bring back the ye olde good tradition of writing Thank You cards.

5. Knit a sweater.

6. Improve my photography skillz. I think my holiday gift from my husband will totally help me out here in reaching my goals. :)

So now I'll talk to you about food! Sweet!

Particularly, let's talk about green smoothies. I have always loved the Green Machine juices; the taste is delicious and my inner child totally gets the giggles when others wince because it looks like I'm drinking pond scum. Healthy, delicious pond scum. This winter we've been stocked with kale at all times (I love leafy greens!!), and green smoothies are a great way to keep the kale turnover going. This smoothie has been resurfacing on the internet over and over again with various tweaks. Here's my iteration:

1 big handful of kale leaves (rip off the tough stems)

1 small anjou pear

1 frozen banana (I freeze them in slices)

1/4 c. cashews

~1 c. milk (your choice)

1 T. good honey

1 T. hemp protein powder (this is optional, but I really like it. It tastes like... granola?)

(I use the flat blade of the Magic Bullet for this)

1. Grind the cashews into a fine powder.

2. Blend in the milk.

3. Add the kale and blend until super smooth. Any flakes of kale will totally ruin the texture.

4. Add the banana, pear, honey, and optional protein powder. Blend until smooth.

5. Pour yourself a serving in a fancy glass and enjoy!

Are there any yummy veggie smoothies that you like to make? Let me know, I'm always on the lookout for good ones with a high success rate...

roasted miso curry

If you are looking to prepare more colorful meals, I suggest you give this a go. This was definitely one of those times where I wanted to pat myself on the back for having such a fun-looking dinner. In college my boyfriend (now husband!) challenged me to eat more colors since I was a very beige-centric eater. Weird how things change sometimes, eh?

So this past weekend I took a cooking class for the first time ever (Thanks, Mom!). I assume high school HomeEc doesn't count, right? I took a lovely class entitled Delicious Mediterranean Vegan, as instructed by chef Robin Asbell. I figured I wanted to take a class on a) something new that I don't already make all the time, and b) something I could eat. So that ruled out all the classes on soups and cupcakes. Knife classes could be useful, but mostly involved carving (then eating) meat. Wine tasting classes were too expensive. Baking bread is something I'm pretty comfortable with by now. So why not vegan? There's nothing bad or wrong or gross about plant-based food. In fact, my favorite part of the class (beside eating super tasty food, duh!) was learning super cool vegan nutrition facts. I think by necessity vegans are some the most knowledgable folks when it comes to nutrition. Robin often started with "Sorry this is boring, but..." before she went into nutrition/food chemistry stuff, but I loved it! The whole class felt like a conversation with her, and she told us lots of funny stories about being a vegan. As a vegetarian, I am totally familiar with some of the most annoying classics -- everyone thinks you're weird, there's always that one person who can't give it up/teases you relentlessly with hamburgers, getting really tired of people asking "but where do you get your protein?!"... and so on and so forth. Therapy.

During the class, I often found myself thinking, hey, I could totally do this! I love cooking for people. I love researching and experimenting. Such a scientist, I know. But one of my major hang ups about being a geoscientist is that I don't think I help people enough. I fell in love with my college over the recruiting campaign slogan "Think One Person Can Change The World? So Do We." The students are all passionate about something, and making the world a better place. I don't think I do enough of that. Sometimes I think I should have been a nutritionist or a food chemist. For now, I blog, and I hope I get people to try making themselves some good real food. :)

One more thing! I found out during class why onions make you cry! It turns out there are sulfur compounds released when you cut into an onion. Once they are airborne, they mix with the water in your tears, and BAM! Sulfuric acid in your eyeballs! Ahhh! Don't you feel so validated?! I always thought I was a total wuss and that one day I'd get used to it. No dice. It hurts like crazy every time. In fact, cutting onions even makes the cat cry, and he has three eyelids per eyeball, so I am so not the wuss here. Solution: I will continue to look super cool wearing my Onion Goggles in the kitchen, and otherwise be confused about why it doesn't hurt when I'm wearing contacts. But let's get serious here, I never wear my contacts. Glasses are way, waaay, cooler.

Enough of my stream of consciousness spouting forth at you. There's a dinner at stake here, yes? This recipe calls for pepitas. Don't let this fool you; these are just simple raw pumpkin seeds. I was all "oh, I don't know what that is, and I am ashamed, so I will just go ahead and use these pumpkin seeds here. Those will toast up nicely." Then I Googled it later. Now you can scoff at the gourmet word with me, and just call them pumpkin seeds, dammit. Maybe next time I will overcome my fear of asking someone at the coop if they really don't have any delicata squash. I get very shy while shopping at the coop for no really good reason.

Roasted Miso Curry
adapted from Miso-Curry Delicata Squash, yet again from Super Natural Every Day

12 oz. butternut squash
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. white miso (of the fifth taste, umami. I will leave you with this to blow your mind.)
1 T. red curry paste
12 oz. extra-firm tofu (frozen and then defrosted, trust me, it is worth it!)
5 small-medium-ish purple potatoes, unpeeled, cut into ~1 cm cubes
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups kale, stems removed, then cut into ribbons and cooked
1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
oodles of cilantro, to taste/tolerance

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F with a rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Peel the squash. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, then cut the halves again lengthwise (so now you have long quarters). Cut these pieces in 1/2 inch slices to make lots of little curved wedges.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, miso, and curry paste. Combine the tofu, potatoes, and squash in a large bowl with 1/3 c. of the miso-curry paste. Turn the vegetables onto a rimmed baking sheet and arrange in a single layer.
4. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until everything is tender and browned. Toss once or twice along the way, after things start to brown a bit. Be careful not to burn anything.
5. In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice into the remaining miso-curry paste, then stir in the wilted kale until coated (it soaks up the lemon juice in a very delicious way! I'd also recommend using this time to toast your seeds too.)
6. Toss the vegetables gently with the kale, pumpkin seeds, and cilantro. Enjoy! You'll always want your tofu this way for ever and ever.

**This recipe is an example in being a sneaky vegan: Don't tell anyone that you've cooked something vegan until after they ate it. Or just don't say anything. I totally pulled this on my husband a few days ago. Sneaky!**

farro soup with butternut squash and kale

There are a lot of food bloggers that I admire. In particular, Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks continues to knock my proverbial socks off. After my birthday I found myself wondering around in a bookstore (noooooo!), and they just so happened to carry her brand new cookbook. I took a peek at it, and totally fell in love. I wanted to make all of it, right then and there! It's pretty cool when you find a vegetarian blogger that has a similar cooking style (and I aspire to cook more like her too). I like food that is warm, solid, and healthy, and generally I like it most if it gets made in one pot. One jerk of a reviewer called it "roly-poly vegetarian". Do you just walk around gnawing on carrots straight out of your organically farmed soil? Sorry sir or ma'am, if you are that jerk and you are reading this, but I think you could find a better word for it. It's damn good food. I like it. I dig that I enjoyed a delicious dinner (and leftovers!), and it didn't occur to me until I was cleaning up that it was totally vegan. Pat on the back.

So farro. It's hip and trendy. From what I gather, it's a whole kernel of wheat. It cooks up pretty quickly and has a nice chewy texture. You can also substitute for it with barley (cheaper!).

Oh, and for the record, I also bought a book on Homemade Sodas. Between my newfound love of hoarding glass jars and filling them with simple syrups, and my darling new SodaStream, it was the right thing to do. More on these developments later.

Onto the soup!! I made a few adjustments, mostly to use what was in the pantry...

2 T. olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 c. peeled and diced butternut squash
kosher salt
2 T. curry powder
1/4 t. smoked paprika
1/4 t. garam masala
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1/2 t. ground turmeric
2/3 c. farro
1 1/4 c. green lentils, picked over and rinsed
5 c. veggie broth
2 c. coconut milk
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 bunch of kale, large stems removed and cut into ribbons (I like dinosaur kale best, but that's probably just because it is dinosaur kale! RAWR!)
1/4 t. coarsely ground white pepper

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the onions and squash. Add a big pinch of salt and saute until the onions soften a bit, a couple of minutes. Add the spices and stir until the onions and sweet potatoes are coated and the curry is fragrant, a minute or so. Add the farro, lentils, broth, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 50 minutes, or until the farro and lentils are cooked through (now's a good time to prep that dino kale). Taste and season with more salt if needed. 10 minutes before the simmer finishes up, add the kale so that it wilts and cooks down. After the 50 minutes, off the heat, and stir in the lemon juice and white pepper. You can serve it with a dollop of plain yogurt (or plain + salt + lemon zest), but the soup is mighty fine all by its lonesome.

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Oh yeah, and one other thing... I think I might be a little bit more like a real blogger now. I've joined forces with the mighty MN Food Bloggers group -- check me out, I'm listed on the website alongside some serious bloggers -- Zoe Francois, anyone? I'm merely ten lines above her on that righthand sidebar. :) I totally did a little Snoopy dance when I found the site, and even more so when I realized what a great resource the group is, and I can't wait to really be a part of its community.

Now I'd better hurry up and learn to use my camera like a big girl blogger.