super bowl noms and a week in food

Michael and I worked for hours on Sunday to make some really yummy Super Bowl foods, and it was well worth it!  First up, I wanted to make something reminiscent of the pizza bites from the New Years spread, but with actual pizza dough this time.  The original idea was to make pizza rolls a la Totino's (an old addiction of mine), but with the rising of the dough, they turned out more like pizza buns:

the best happy accident ever

Basically, these are like a nice soft bun...filled with pizza fabulousness.  I used a mixture of pizza sauce, FYH mozzarella, and a spicy pizza topping that I get from our corner market (full of peppers and olives and other good things).  The dough is the basic pizza dough from VWAV.  After it rose and rested, I just started pulling off little bits and flattening them, deposited a good amount of the filling, and then closed it all up.  By the time they went into the oven, they'd rose some more, so that's why they're so fluffy.  They remind me of the pizza rolls from elementary school.  Did you guys ever have those?  They were always served with great northern beans, and not a single person ever has eaten those beans, but no one brought their lunch on that day because everyone wanted the pizza roll.  These are better though, because even though they're a little greasy, they're way less greasy than those monstrosities.  The best part of that memory?  My mom taught (still teaches, actually) at my elementary school, so if the cooks had leftover pizza rolls, she could get one and bring it home to me (this was especially rad when I was in high school and no longer had pizza rolls to enjoy).  Anyway, you should all try this out.  They were a huge hit.

wontons!

Everyone really enjoyed the wontons I made on New Years, so those were back up on the menu.  Michael took the lead in this one this time, as he has superior wonton making skills.  We used a newly acquired pasta roller-outer-thing that we sort of swiped from his mom to roll out the dough super thin, which was a huge advantage, as the homemade wonton wrapper dough is incredibly stiff.  (Look for homemade pasta in the future!)  This is the same filling, just Tofutti cream cheese mixed with scallions, fresh ginger, and salt.  While one omni at our party spit it out, the others all loved them.  Anyway, he's a jerk.  Because these rule.

I also made a huge pot of chili and the cornbread from Vcon for everyone to share, but didn't take pictures as most of you, I'm sure, know what chili looks like.  It was yummy though, and we ate it for lunch a few days this week.

Next up is dinners!

pineapple cashew quinoa stirfry

I read some old posts over at the PPK about how people just love this stirfry.  We've never made it because we rarely have pineapple and cashews in our house at the same time.  By a stroke of pure coincidence though, we picked up a fresh pineapple at the store this week, alone with cashews, so it must have been fate.  We added some water chestnuts, baby corn, and broccoli to round it all out.

so photogenic

Yeah, this takes a much better picture than a regular stirfry, for sure.  Anyway, I thought this was pretty good, but I didn't love it.  Michael did love it, however, so all's well that ends well.  I'm not exactly sure what I didn't love about it...  But sometimes that happens.

so flashy

I had to use flash in the next 2 pictures because the kitchen was being like, unreasonably dark this night.  Stupid kitchen and stupid tripod for still being missing.  Hmph.  Anyway, we had a reuben night!  This is the recipe from VWAV, and it is so freaking good.  We use the Foreman grill to cook the tempeh and the sammiches, so that no extra oil or margarine has to be used, plus it makes the sammiches all squishy-like, which is the best way for a hot sammich to be.  Am I wrong?  Didn't think so.  I found that I really like my reubens with some tomato slices positioned between the tempeh and the sauerkraut.  It adds a little sweetness that just makes everything better.  We ate these lovelies with some wonderful chickn veggie alphabet soup!

just like mom used to make...well, sort of

Unfortunately, you can't see the alphabet noodles in the soup, but that's ok.  The really exciting thing about this soup is that we made it with homemade veggie stock!  That's right, we've jumped on the homemade stock bandwagon, and I couldn't be happier.  For the past few weeks, we've been freezing the scraps from onions, carrots, celery, leeks, scallions, and parsley in a big tupperware container.  It finally got too full to close, so it was stock time!  Michael actually made this without me while I was at work one day.  When I got home, I added some bay leaves and peppercorns to the mix and we let it simmer for quite awhile.  The taste of homemade stock is really freaking good.  I think it might be the first time I've even had it, to be honest.  Well, Mom used to make chicken stock for her chicken soup, I think.  But, uh...I'm not doing that, obviously.  The point is that the homemadeness of it just makes the soup so much better.  I added in some soycurls for a treat, and they were perfect in the soup!  Those things really are awesome.

We had leftover reuben sauce, kraut, and rye bread, so Michael made me a California style reuben with Lightlife turkey slices the next day.  Yum!  Just as good as the tempeh, but way lighter.  No picture though.  I was too hungry to hold the camera.

Last night I made us a felafel feast:

my long lost friend

I really, really love felafel, but I rarely make it.  In fact, I've never made it from scratch before.  We always use the Fantastic brand mix, and it's actually really good.  I broil mine instead of frying, which makes them a tad dry, but that is easily remedied with a totally awesome hummus.  The hummus I made last night was probably the best hummus in the universe, ever.  I mean...it was killer.  It's full of garlic, roasted red peppers, basil, cayenne, and all the other things that you always put in hummus.  It's so spicy!  I only added a touch of cayenne, but the kind I get in bulk at the health food store really packs a punch.  A little dab will do ya, if you know what I mean.  Anyway, paired with lettuce, tomato, and avocado, this was a completely wonderful meal to enjoy while watching LOST.  

And if you're wondering why I'm blogging at 1:30 pm on a Thursday, it's because all of my water is frozen and I didn't go to work because I couldn't brush my teeth.  I'm not sure that's a valid excuse, but...  oh well.  Snow day!  Sort of!  It didn't snow any last night though!  But it IS damn cold.  Meh.

I have something fun for you all, but I'm going to post about it tomorrow, because I don't want to overload you with too much awesomeness today.  You might die.

beer and football sunday

As I mentioned earlier, fall Sundays are designated for beer and football. And delicious, easy food. I started out our munchiness with some hummus.

finished this bad boy off today mmm

It was kind of a concoction... I wanted it to be sundried tomato flavor, but ended up adding a bunch of other stuff. Hummus is forgiving though, so it turned out yum anyway. That's a homemade tortilla chip you see wedged on the top of the mound:

a nice healthy alternative to store bought chips

For the chips, I just cut a bunch of whole wheat tortillas into wedges, sprayed with canola oil, sprinkled with cumin, and baked @ 400F for about 5-8 minutes. They were nice and crunchy without being oily and salty. Really let the hummus shine through.

Remember the chestnuts from the farmers market haul? Well, I roasted them.

so cute all popping out of their shells

Unfortunately, I learned that I like chestnuts raw. They have a mushy, potato-y texture after they've been cooked which I just did not like. Also, some wormies decided to make a meal of some of these too, and I got kind of tired of going through the effort of peeling them just to see a worm had beat me to the punch. Gross.

And, as promised, MexiPizza. A favorite around my house that hasn't shown its delicious face in a long time. We were overdue for some mexiawesomeness, and I made this one all on my own while Michael did his homework (he usually insists on making the 'meat' and having creative control... but not this time!). So first off, you need a crust. I used to use a storebought one, but then realized it had honey in it. So now I make my own, which ends up being way more mouthwatering anyway.

just look at that sexy crust. oh yes.

Next, put down a layer of refried beans, then some sliced onions and diced jalepenos (actually, I used chilies this time, but whatever). Brush some salsa onto the crust edges and bake (whatever temp and time your crust calls for). This is what it looks like once it comes out:

so toasty and browned and lovely

Now's the time for toppings. I usually heat up some crumblers (Morningstar brand) and corn with a packet of taco seasoning. That goes on first. Then an entire small can of sliced black olives.

yeah, I know. it only gets better though.

Finally, top with a bunch of shredded lettuce, a jar of salsa and some sliced scallions. Hmm... this looks okaaaay... but it's missing something...

almost doooone!

Oh, wait, that's right.

GUACAMOLE.

slice and top with your favorite guac recipe. it's really NOT DONE until you put the guacamole on it. I'm serious.

K, that's it for today. I need to use some tempeh today, before it gets moldy. I'm not so good with tempeh, but I shall do my best. Hope your Monday has been better than mine. Thank goodness work's over, at least. Now I'm off to clean up after beer and football Sunday. I mean, it's pretty obvious from the title of the day that dishes weren't getting done, right?