Breaded Tofu, Refried Beans, and Corn

Remember when I used to post to a food blog? That was pretty cool. Well, here’s what happened. i turned into a broke person, and so I haven’t really been doing a lot of noteworthy cooking. Mostly I just take some dry pasta in my cupboard, mix it with some tomato sauce, and eat it. Oh and remember how I used to post every week about whatever I ate at Brenna and Lydia’s? I haven’t been over there in awhile. So what I’m saying is I didn’t have a whole lot to post about. That will change soon. Ellen’s visiting again this weekend and we’ll probably go out to eat and cook and maybe I’ll get to fall asleep on her knees again.

Tonight Bob and Kat invited me to the upstairs apartment for food and they breaded some tofu for me and made other vegetarian type things! It was an interesting assortment but totally tasty and appreciated, and it beats the crap out of pasta and tomato sauce for the fifth time this week.

That red squirty stuff is some kind of chili and garlic sauce they had. Also there was sweet corn and refried beans that Bob had seasoned with cajun seasoning. Anyways the dinner was super-appreciated. And expect more of me cooking things in a week or so when I get paid!

Pizza Night at Mom’s

Hey, my mom reads this now. Hi mom!

For Mom’s Day I went to mom’s house and made pizza with her and her husband, Colin. If I had known, I would have brought some ingredients, but mom and Colin provided some so I went to work making a veggie pizza on the whole wheat crust they made from scratch. Wow was that good.

We also had a random assortment of veggies and some cheesy stuff on hand so I used that. So hey, here’s what I did.

Once the crust got flattened out I coated it in a layer of olive oil. Next came pizza sauce, minced garlic, diced onion, and some red pepper flakes. After that, sliced tomato, broccoli, and mushrooms, with some chunks of mozzarella and a sprinkling of cheese that comes pre-shredded in the stores.

It turned out pretty awesome and mom and Colin liked it which was really my goal here. Honestly, I used more cheese than I would have liked, but cheese is tasty and I didn’t want mom and Colin to think it was bland. So I used slices of mozzarella a la pizza margharita rather than just shredding a whole bunch and coating the top. It was still more cheese than I’d usually use, but I liked it.

I have to get the recipe for that pizza crust from my mom too. It was good.

-Bret

Pasta, Sauce, and Tofu Salad

Lydia was skeptical when I told her that raw tofu was edible. I managed to talk her into putting it into a cold salad with some tomatoes and snap peas and carrots, though the ultimate tasty of the salad came from Lydia’s dressing/marinade that she made. It had lemon juice, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, and some sugar in it, and it was the best. She gave me the measurements which were like:

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon orange juice

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

I think. Then she marinaded the tofu in it. Good.

Oh and the pasta sauce was some tomatoes and some leftover pasta sauce and some peppers and garlic. And get this – almond butter. When Lydia and Brenna cook I get scared. It turned out tasty though. Their ways of cooking are just totally alien and strange to me. Every time I watch them cook my sanity fractures just a little.

But it’s always tasty.

-Bret

Baked Tofu

My request for game Tuesday food this week was tofu, and this was what was waiting for me when I showed up. There was also some really great roast garlic that’s not pictured. Baked tofu, broccoli, a sweet potato, and some really good beer. The beer was Ommegang Rare Vos. Very grape-y and tasty.

Lydia made the marinade for the tofu, and I can’t remember everything that went into it but there was some soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and peanut butter! It was really filling and good and I kind of wanted to eat all of it, but then they wouldn’t have had any leftovers to eat later and I would have been a huge fatty.

-Bret

Farmer’s Market Couscous Salad

I do not trust Brenna around seasonings. You know what she does with herbs and spices?

Terrorism.

She also just does things that scare me. The other night we made popcorn and she says, “You know what would go good in this popcorn? Cinnamon and cranberries.” My sanity teetered on the brink of uh insanity for a minute. Then she did it and it was good, but I still felt like there was something wrong with the world.

That’s actually a bad example, now that I read it. Though I was coming from a mindset of SALT AND SOME FORM OF OIL. Her weird combinations usually involve something like ground mustard.

Okay, I’m rambling. Anyhow, the Ithaca Farmers Market is open now so we went. I did not see a single farmer for sale! (Ba dum bum tish!) Pickings were slim. I bought some kale. Brenna wanted to buy some stuff and make food with it and she ended up walking away with chives and lemon thyme. After brainstorming ingredients (I think chickpeas was my only contribution) we got the rest at Wegman’s.

Let me editorialize for a minute. I kind of mislike the Ithaca Farmers Market. Most farmers markets you go to and buy directly from the farmer, putting money directly into their pockets, cutting out the middle man, and saving you money. Ithaca? Not so. Farmers Market prices are more expensive than grocery store prices. Now, I can’t blame the farmers. Ithaca has a substantial yuppie-hippie population that loves to do things like buy organic and local and all that, so the demand is there. Farmers can jack their prices. But still, the result is that I tend not to go there as a result.

So, couscous salad: I’m going to try to recreate the recipe the best that I can, but since Brenna did most of the thinking and I just chopped veggies it might be off.

Ingredients!

2 cups couscous

1 15 oz. can chickpeas

1 cucumber, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

chives and lemon thyme chopped up and added – I’m not sure of the measurements but maybe half a cup of each?

salt to taste

Directions!

Cook your couscous. Let it chill. Then mix in all the other stuff. Blam!

I might have added some olive oil to this mix, and afterwards Brenna said she wished she’d picked up an orange bell pepper. That might have been good. But still, this was really great. The lemon thyme was badass. I’d never even heard of the stuff.

-Bret

Coconut Eggplant Biryani

I went to visit some friends in New Jersey and they forced me to cook with them. “While you stay with us you earn your keep!” and then they made me chop mint. But seriously it was a lot of fun. I love friends, and I love friends who cook, and I love friends who want to cook food with me! I got to chop things and mince things and when the spicy fumes got to be too much for Jennifer I got to take over stirring.

Russell and Jennifer cook Indian food a lot. It’s inspired me to give it a try again. They had this big huge cookbook full of Indian recipes (I think it was called 1000 Indian Recipes) and this is one they’ve made in the past. It was really great and had a nice heat to it. Jennifer also made some raitha to go on top.

Also check out their badass skelly blanket. We sat and ate and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We had a good time laughing and Leatherfacing!

-Bret

Grill Day at Work!

So I got transitioned to a new position at work. While that whole thing was kind of a sucky mess, my new team is cool and also I’ve been introduced to a new tradition: Food Friday! Since this is the first week that it’s actually felt like spring, everyone brought in something to grill outside. There was a bunch of meat stuff, but there was also tons of vegetables and some fruit. I think the fact that there’s a licensed dietitian on the team might have had something to do with it.

Though the irony here is that I ate this wonderful picnic-day food inside at my cubicle. The fluorescent lights made it look not the most appealing. Sorry! But it was good. My sad contributions are the fruit salad and macaroni salad that I got at Topps, but hey, that’s what they asked me to bring and as the new guy on the team I know better than to make any waves.

The corn on the cob looms large in the photograph, as it should! It was sooo sweet and good. Sweet corn season is going to take my mouth by storm. Mmm. Though have you ever had a baked potato on a wood chip grill? It tasted all smokey.

The veggie pack was assembled by JS. He marinaded it in a dressing of some sort, wrapped it in foil, and then threw it on the grill. Badass! My dad used to do it all the time.

I thought that the warm weather would mean I would lose weight and get all active, but all this food is turning me into a total chub. On the plus side, I’ve started running a mile and a half every day again. Soon, 3 mile runs!

-Bret

Chili Not Dogs and Veggie Skewers

It’s the time of year for MEN TO COOK MEAT WITH FIRE. I’m not all yay barbecue but it can be really good especially corn on the cob mmm. Yesterday my housemates decided we should celebrate the warm weather by cooking outside and eating on the porch. Jeff made me some veggie skewers marinaded in Salamida’s Spiedie Sauce and after all the fuss I made the other day about mock meats I decided to pick up fake hot dogs (I think these were called Smart Dogs – Topps doesn’t carry Tofu Pups) and cook one up and add some chili sauce. Despite it making me a big liar, my only regret is that I didn’t toast the bun.

Today a bunch of my co-workers have decided to have a barbecue also. There will actually be a lot of good veggie things to eat. JS is bringing veggie packs in some sort of herb marinade. Mike is bringing corn on the cob. I brought mixed melon fruits and macaroni salad. Jeff is making baked potatoes.

Hey remember when it was a big deal that Dan Quayle couldn’t spell potato? I don’t know why I just thought of that.

-Bret

Black Beans and Rice and Baguette with Fresh Basil, Tomato, and Mozzarella

Every Wednesday I go play roleplaying games with two cute, awesome girls who also cook dinner for me. As you can probably tell from that little description, it’s absolute torture. They cook things like open face sandwiches with roast pear and brie and green onions or apple dumplings or homemade pesto. This week, I was told ahead of time that the dinner would be simple so that we could commence with the game playing right away. This is what happened!

First Lydia sliced a baguette and a tomato and some fresh mozzarella and we piled them together with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and some fresh-ground pepper. Man, oh man. If you were a vegan this would have been totally great without the mozzarella. You have my guarantee! Most baguettes are vegan-friendly which is real nice.

Those are some pretty intense shadows, right? The sun was directly in my eyeballs. Eventually Brenna felt bad that I had to eat with my eyes closed and whenever I reached for something I had to just hold my hand out and have somebody place it there for me, so then I got to sit on the non-blinding side of the table with them.

Oh and see that white wine back there? That was my contribution. I went to the wine store and signed up for their rewards club since I buy a bottle of wine a week it seems like. Brenna told me to get chardonnay and I don’t know nothing about chardonnays. Luckily! This old dude walked in ahead of me and I saw him pick up, like, six bottles of this stuff. I figured he must know what he’s doing and grabbed a bottle too. It was pretty good!

So that’s what we nibbled on while we waited for the beans and the brown rice to finish cooking. And then it was done cooking!

 

I’m not sure if they did much seasoning of the beans. It tasted kind of like no or maybe there was a little cumin in there which is fine by me. Brenna added goat cheese to hers. Me and Lydia tried the goat cheese, but thought it tasted peculiar with the black beans and rice. Try your own exciting cheese experiments!

-Bret