Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Cookies

For my turn to bring in snacks for Worlding the World, I made pumpkin cookies. I added pepitas (pumpkin seeds) to the top as a garnish. They would be yummy with walnuts or raisins instead of chocolate-chips, too. They were a big hit (just like the monster cookies!).

from: http://chocolatechiptrips.blogspot.com/2009/12/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Joy the Baker) (makes about 14 cookies)

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter two baking sheets.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix the butter, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips and walnuts.
4. Scoop about 1/4 cup mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart.
5. Bake for about 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Feel-Better Soup

I was feeling a bit under the weather one weekend in October, so I made some therapeutic soup. I sauteed onions and garlic, then added chicken boullion and lots of veggies we had in the fridge. I added some canned adzuki beans for protein. The addition of kale in the soup was especially delicious - its stiff structure held up well in the soup and the curly texture was a pleasure to eat!

Monster Cookies in honor of Halloween and the Universe

When it came time for me to provide snacks for CHUM 377: Worlding the World, my three-hour religion seminar about the origin of the universe (...there's a lot more I could say about this class...), I knew I had to make something epic. I chose gigantic monster cookies in honor of Halloween. These were delicious and addictive (I ate half the cookie dough in the process of baking off the three batches) but next time I'll cut the sugar in half, use only organic chunky peanut butter and leave out the M&Ms. They were too sweet! as someone correctly pointed out:)

Recipe here.

Yeah, I ate that.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore Mark Bittman. So when I found out that the best sandwich he ever ate was at a small cafe on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, I obviously had to go there and order it. It was almost twice the price of every other sandwich on the menu just because of this NYT review--but totally worth the experience. Best sandwich I ever ate? Not really. Haha.
Mark Bittman Review

Beautiful

AND/OR

(click pics)

THIS was a good dinner

Beet, Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad (a less fancy but still delicious version based on this recipe)

Eggplant and Green Beans roasted in Panko crumbs...an 86 Lawn invention? (Just recently discovered Panko crumbs and had fun experimenting with them!

AND

Butternut Squash Apple Ginger Soup
1/2 large onion, sliced into 2 inch pieces
3 cloves of garlic
1-inch nob of fresh ginger
4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 apple, peeled ans diced
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Sautee the onion, garlic and ginger in the olive oil for about five minutes on medium in a medium sized soup pot. Add the broth, butternut squash and apple and bring it to a boil, covered on high heat. Once it reaches a boil, lower the heat to let it simmer uncovered for about 10-20 minutes until the squash has softened. Blend the soup with an immersion blender if you have one or in a regular blender in batches. Be careful when blending hot liquids! Season with nutmeg, ginger, salt and pepper (or whatever other spices you like! Curry would work too...) Top with yogurt if desired.

We forgot protein, so we added our favorite Apricot Sage Chicken Sausages to the side :)

Peach Crostinis

A delightful 10-minute lunch treat! Grilled peaches, white wine, goat cheese on Ryvita Fruit and Nut Crackers.
Recipe Here.

Favorites (Repeats)

A plate of my favorite things:


And a remake of a favorite recipe:

And another remake of a favorite recipe:

Banana-Oat Bread with Chocolate Chips

We've made a lot of banana bread this semester. Three recipes in two months, in fact, which forced me to pick favorites. My personal favorite was this Weight Watchers recipe that featured lots of oats and egg whites. We added the chocolate chips:)

	1 1/4 cup(s) all purpose flour 1/2 cup(s) unpacked brown sugar
	1/2 tsp table salt
	1/2 tsp baking soda
	1/4 tsp baking powder
	3 tsp canola oil
	1 large egg(s), beaten
	2 medium egg white(s), beaten
	3 large banana(s), ripe
	1 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add oil and eggs; mix thoroughly.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add bananas and oatmeal to batter.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes.

Best Blinner Ever

Everything looks so gross on those cheap-ass plates we bought!

One weekend in March, I was the only one home on Saturday. I slept until 3pm and then made myself this Blinner. Best Blinner Ever.

• Whole Wheat Challah French Toast (from the shuk in J-ru)
• Balsamic Fig Jam (from the Central Market in Florence)
• Middle Eastern Fruit Salad
• Plain Yogurt (from Mr. Zols)
  

Fruit Salad Recipe: Dates, Granny Smith Apples, Kumquats, Walnuts, Dried apricots with a dressing made from Pomegranate Syrup, Cinnamon and Orange Juice

Mark Bittman's Fried Rice

Made this back in February in my old oven-less kitchen in Jerusalem---Epic Fried Rice Recipe---Never make a different one--- 'nuff said.

Catching Up: Balsamic Fig Toasts

In an effort to return to food blogging, I'll be gradually sharing some stuff we've been cookin up in our new kitchen! Enjoy!

These Fig toasts were simply incredible. Homemade Balsamic Fig Jam atop fresh goat cheese, cracked pepper and onions (carmelized in bacon grease!) make these toasts to die for. We used toasted apricot-endive bread.
Recipe here.

Accompanied by a salad of mixed greens, blueberries, avocado, corn and orange vinaigrette.

Soufflé

I think soufflés are more popular up north- I haven't even seen them on menus in Provence. However, I felt I should master the art of soufflé creation before leaving France, so I made one for a potluck based on this recipe. It was full of sundried-tomatoes, cheese, and spinach...like a very fluffy quiche or frittata. It was not difficult to make and tasted great. Shoutout to my housemate, who beat the eggwhites with a hand mixer for at least 10 minutes. A bientôt!

Cooking Blogs I Love

Will Monson emailed me a couple weeks ago asking about food blogs that I liked to use. I composed a great list and have been meaning to post it. I'm constantly finding new blogs through tastespotting which essentially does the screening for you, but here goes:

1. http://www.tastespotting.com/
my absolute fave! this is all you'll really need because it links to many of the best blogs- basically how i found most of the following:

2. http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html
TONS of healthy and veggie recipes!

3. http://www.anediblemosaic.com/
same- healthy and often veggie. this is where that pumpkin sage pasta i made came from.

4. http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/
not so healthy, not so veggie

5. http://trissalicious.com/

6. http://nutmegnanny.wordpress.com/
for baking!

7. http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/
prolific and colorful

8. http://www.simplybreakfast.blogspot.com/
back by popular demand, simply breakfast is always an inspiration...she's more of a photographer than a cook

9.http://bread-and-honey.blogspot.com/
my first food blog ever! right when i was getting into cooking last year. not the best, but i love it. also lots of art stuff too.

10. http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/style/the-minimalist/1194811622323/index.html#1194837900594
not a food blog but an index of mark bittman vids! i love watching him cook

11. http://smittenkitchen.com/
made really good rice crispy treats from here:)

12. http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com/

13. http://chocolatechiptrips.blogspot.com/
this woman invented my fave. apple salsa

14. http://pieceofcakeblog.blogspot.com/
more baking

15. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/
this one comes in handy when cooking for dieters/vegans

16. http://pastrystudio.blogspot.com/
pastries!!

17. http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

18. http://danatreat.com/
oh- i wanna BE this woman: she's a stay-at-home mom by dad, personal chef by night...3x a week she cooks healthy vegetarian meals for 3 families and gets paid!

Cooking in Jerusalem!

Thanks for the inspiration Jen, I've been meaning to post for awhile now. I haven't been photographing food hardly at all since I've been here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! I spend most of my time in the kitchen at my internship at the Eucalyptus Restaurant, and therefore don't do a ton of cooking at home in my apartment. But we've been doing this great thing on Tuesdays where a bunch of us go to kickboxing class at the gym and then have a very late potluck dinner afterwards. They seem to be getting better and better each week and it's great, because we can each focus on just one dish and then we all share. That's a potluck for ya. But anyways, for the sake of posting, I'll put up the 3 photos I do have of food that's been cooked like 2 months ago haha.

We did a repeat of Ali's mom's tofu spaghetti sauce. A great thing to make if you lack every cooking tool including an oven, like we do!
These next two dishes come straight from one of my favorite food blogs, an Edible Mosaic. It was an eggplant and garbanzo bean stew over a creamy polenta.

I made it for our first real Shabbat in Israel, after we'd been there only a week and a half. Shabbat in the student village turned out to be pretty dull...it's hard to get around, nothing's open...and I haven't stayed in the student village on Shabbat since this night.

I've been meaning to bring a camera to work to show you guys the restaurant and the kitchen and some of the dishes I've (kind of) learned how to prepare. I know I'll get made fun of hardcore for taking pics, but not like that's anything new- they love to make fun of me there (mainly in Hebrew and I never know what's going except I'll randomly hear my name, oh my...)

Cookin' in Aix

Chopped pears and golden raisins cooked in a little grape juice with fromage frais ("fresh cheese" - it's like sour cream without the sourness).
I bought a big bag of mixed seafood from this frozen foods store in Aix and made a stew with a variety market-fresh veggies. Everything cooked in a bit of chicken broth, canned tomatoes, and a little l'huile d'olive (olive oil). Whole wheat pasta completed the repas (meal).

My friend was sick so I cooked her some chicken soup. I cheated by using a little chicken bullion but it was mostly celery, carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, brown rice and chicken breast. Très delicieuse!

Food/Israel

So, the food and cooking experience here has been quite different than what I am used to. First of all, it's been difficult to find most of my staples- luna bars, kashi cereal, whole wheat tortillas, fresh spinach, chicken apple sausage (totz not kosher), any meat for that matter, goat cheese...all my faves are nowhere to be seen. Instead my dietary staples have been whole wheat pita, cucumbers, turkey, hummus, dried fruits and nuts and seeds, and apples. The dates and figs here are incredible, as well as the tomatoes, avocados and apples. So many apples. The shuk at Machaneh Yehudah is incredible- as you can see above- a total culinary heaven- and this doesn't even give you a sense of the atmosphere...
This is the quantity of food they serve at your typical restaurant. It's insane- literally 22 different salads with fresh pita and pickles. That's all you really need to eat when you go out anyways- we barely order anything else.


We can buy alcohol legally here! But we can't technically get into most bars/clubs that we want to- they're usually 24 and up...how ironic, right as i'm turning 21, I go to the only country where you have to be 24.
Gotta love the English translations of the menus...I think I'd much rather just eat the chicken without knowing what it really was...

A new job and some old pics

Agh! Sorry about the lack of posting of late. I have been in Jerusalem for a month, without a single post about the food here. Have I been cooking? Yes. A lot? Not really. But I did land an internship in the kitchen of a restaurant called Eucalyptus in Jerusalem. It's this awesome place that specializes in Biblical food- kind of the perfect place to be for a religon major foodie like myself. Read reviews here, aodand there are articles about it on the restaurant's website. I start next week and am very excited! But before I post about the little I have cooked here, I wanted to put up some pics that got left behind due to finals last December. Way back during finals week, Barbara and I took a break to make this healthy butternut squash casserole with apples, onions and nuts. It barely used any fat, and turned out pretty good. I think it would have been even better with more nuts and more thinly-sliced red onions. The sandwhich that we improvised to go along with it was divine, though. Mine had a veggie burger, a poached egg, arugula, goat cheese and apricot preserves on a toasted cinnamon-raisin English muffin. !!!



Later that week, after the Alis had completed their finals but everyone else was still chugging along, they offered to make us all dinner and it was such a wonderful night! They made Dijon potato salad, spinach with cherry tomatoes and feta, artichokes, salmon, AND shrimp! t was a feast and thinking back to it warms my heart:)

Latke Party

My mom's delicious latkes for our belated Hannukah party: