Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

Since becoming a mom, I have had little time to cook or bake.  Gone are the days where I would seek out new recipes for dinner or try using ingredients I never cooked with before.  Baking occurs mostly at night when the baby is asleep, if I have the energy, or when family is over to watch the baby while I bake.  The baby is almost 8 months old and I am slowly getting back into the groove of things.  I've told the hubby he has to cook dinner twice a week now.  I don't care if it's something easy like pasta or tacos, or if he wants to make breakfast or a sandwich for dinner, or even if he picks up something on the way home from work (which isn't preferred).  I just don't want to be super mom all the time take the baby to day care, working all day, picking the baby up from day care, feeding the baby dinner, cooking dinner while still holding, playing with and entertaining the baby, and then putting the baby to bed.  I was doing that 5 days a week for over 3 months now and it's only been 2 weeks that the baby is sleeping through the night.  Imagine doing all that while getting 7 hours of interrupted sleep.

Okay, baking has become a treat... Well, it's always a been treat.  It was always my comfort, something I did to cure the pain, let the mind go blank, and the body to be at ease.  Now, the "treat" is that I get to feel "normal" again.  I get to feel like I'm not a working mom and do something I love to do for me... kind of like yoga. :)

About a month ago, my girlfriend organized a bake sale for her future step daughter.  She asked friends on FB to make a dozen cookies to sell at the bake sale.  I decided to take an old recipe and make it new.  I added nutella to peanut butter cookies. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (recipes tend to call for smooth peanut butter but I only have chunky lying around and it does just fine)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup Nutella

1. Combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separte bowl. Slowly mix into the peanut butter mixture.
3. Stir in Nutella.
4. Bake at 350 degrees, about 7 to 10 minutes.
5. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Gardening = Food

Gardening classifies as food, right? I thought I'd start documenting the spring/summer garden this year so I don't forget what I did and what worked or didn't work. So far...

I took a stellar seed-starting workshop with Nan Sterman on 3/17 where we started seeds in a root trainer system and various pint-sized containers (e.g. strawberry and tomato clamshells). After finishing the workshop, I left with 16+ different types of vegetables and herbs.

Here is the list of them (in the root trainer):

• Basil 'Cameo Container'
• Basil 'Genovese'
• Chard 'Pot of Gold'
• Cilantro 'Santo Organic'
• Dill 'Vierling'
• Lettuce 'Garden Babies'
• Eggplant 'Purple Fingerling'
• Pepper, 'Rainbow Bell Mix'
• Pepper 'Sweet Pimiento'
• Tomatillo, 'Purple de Milpa'
• Tomato, 'Gold Nugget'
• Tomato, 'Mortgage Lifter'
• Tomato, 'Roma'
• Tomato, 'Super Bush Container'
• Zinnia 'Benary Giant Mix'
• Zinnia 'Berry Basket'

These were the optional ones (the bigger seeds):

• Cucumber 'Armenian'
• Cucumber 'Straight Eight'
• Melon 'Honeyrock'
• Squash summer 'Dark Green Zucchini'
• Squash 'Horn of Plenty'
• Pumpkin 'Winter Luxury Pie

And here is a picture of where they're at right now, approximately 3 weeks later:

I'm still trying to figure out where to plant all of them and whether I'll have enough room in the 2 raised beds.

Suzie's Farm: Week 6, final week

I picked up my final week's CSA box from Suzie's Farm on Saturday. It contained the following:

• 1 head lettuce (8.5 oz)
• yellow beans (13.25 oz)
• bunch of carrots with greens attached (10.25 oz)
• bag of spinach (4.5 oz)
• bag of arugula (6 oz)
• sweet yellow snap peas (9 oz)
• bunch of white turnips (13.5 oz)
• 1 small Romanesco cauliflower, with lots of leaves attached (1 lb 14 oz)
• small crowns of broccoli (11.75 oz)
• container of pea greens (4 oz box), originally supposed to be sunflower greens
• 2 small Sweet Pepper Golden treasure (3 oz)

Can I make anything with the pretty greens attached to the carrots?

I mostly finished everything from last week's box except for the squash and herb mixes. Lots of salads and soups.

Suzie's Farm: Week 5, "Thanksgiving" box

I picked up my "Thanksgiving" box (it was labeled as such) this weekend from the Poway market. Unfortunately, since it was already Saturday, I didn't get to use the items for Thanksgiving. Some of the items like the herb bouquet would have been nice to have. The Thanksgiving box contained:

• butternut squash, in place of the pumpkin (1 lb 12.5 oz)
• spring raab, 1 bunch (11 oz)
• broccoli (8.5 oz)
• bag of arugula (8.25 oz)
• bag of chopped spinach (6.25 oz)
• purple beans (13.5 oz)
• sugar snap peas (13.5 oz)
• 2 medium acorn squash (2 lb 5.25 oz)
• 2 large brown onions (1 lb 10.25 oz)
• bag of pear tomatoes (14 oz)
• wheatberry sprouts (6 oz container)
• herb mix (rosemary, thyme, sage) (1.25 oz)

The enclosed note from the farm raves about the "pumpkin pie" pumpkin we were supposed to get in the box, but it looks like they ran out and replaced it with a butternut squash. That was disappointing since I was looking forward to trying the pumpkin. No fruit again, but that's okay because I am loving all the greens this week.

Box Mix-up

There was no Suzie's Farm Week 4 box posted because I accidentally forgot to pick my box up last week. I had changed my pick-up location to Poway, then gone on vacation for a week, and promptly forgotten that it was still set to Poway. I thought I was picking it up at Hillcrest and fully intended on going there on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, my error dawned on me and I hurriedly called the farm, leaving them a message and asking whether I could pick it up on Sunday. No answer. I even went to the HFM on Sunday to ask if there was anything they could do. The worker in the booth recommended I sent them an email. I did this when I got home and received a reply on Monday stating that I was out of luck. :(

I know this is my own fault for not picking up the box, but I this was still upsetting and annoying.

What is a trip to Palm Springs without a little Cheeky's?

Cheeky's has easily become our breakfast place while visiting. The service is attentive and the food is great. Let's not forget about the flight of bacon ($4):

Each time we go it's been different strips. This time it was: extra thick, apple cinnamon, pepper, jalapeno, neuske's. We agreed we liked the jalapeno the best.

Rich had the soft scrambled eggs with English white cheddar and prosciutto ($10). It also came with a side of toast. I tried the buttermilk and fresh corn pancakes with blueberries and bacon ($10). It was 2 large pancakes with corn kernels mixed into it. For some reason, I was envisioning the pancakes to be made from cornmeal but I think I read the description wrong. They charged me $1 to add blueberries, which was disappointing since there didn't seem to be anywhere near $1 worth of blueberries in the pancakes. The pancakes themselves were great though -- fluffy, moist and delicious. I love that they also provide real maple syrup.

It's a semi-expensive breakfast at about $30 for both of us, but until we find a better alternative, we'll stick it out here.

Jake's: Living up to the Hype

On Saturday night, we decided to try out our surprise favorite from last year, Jake's Ready to Eat. Last year we thought the combination of good service and value made this a win. But had we hyped it up in our minds and would it live up to our expectations again?

Jake's isn't a big restaurant and although our first reservation time slot wasn't available, they were able to reserve a table for us within 15 minutes of the time we originally wanted. This time, we sat on the outside patio, next to a heat lamp and covered by a tent to keep the rain out. With the dim candle on the table and green hedge of a backdrop, it made for a pretty and relaxed atmosphere.

The amuse-bouche was a beet skewer with goat cheese. Two of my favorites!! Rich was generous and let me have his portion. Excellente.

They added a few new items to their menu since the last time we were here, including an option to get a three course meal for $29. A select number of entrees were allowed for this option. Since I was already planning on getting a salad and one of the entrees, this made more sense economically. The organic mixed greens salad was good (no cheese!) and for my entree, I had the fettuccini a la vodka ($16) with heirloom tomatoes. It was very heavy and rich, but also really delicious. I couldn't finish the entire dish.

Rich had the (surprise!) filet mignon ($26) with mashed potatoes and asparagus. He enjoyed it and said he thought it was better than the filet he had the previous day at Chop House.

For dessert, I was allowed to choose anything on the dessert menu. It was a toss up between the toffee banana crunch cake and the coconut cake, but the waiter said the coconut cake was better (hands down). Rich had a giant brownie ($6) which he said was good, but preferred a less cakey brownie. The coconut cake was very good. It was HUGE (3 layers) and moist with delicious cream cheese frosting. None of that gross buttercream stuff. I only wish there was more coconut flavor in the cake itself.

We were stuffed by the time we finished and they still surprised us by bringing out two bites of a pecan tart, just like last year. The owner (guessing?) also came by to ask how everything was. The service was awesome. We love Jake's.

Another weekend in Palm Springs

We were in Palm Springs again last weekend, trying a few new places as well as a couple of favorites from last year.

First up was the Chop House restaurant for Rich's steak fix. It is right across the street from LG which I found funny but there seemed to be a good number of patrons at both establishments. The decor is dark and reminiscent of a traditional steakhouse. We were seated on the patio which was less stuffy than inside and plenty warm with the overhead heat lamps.

I started with the organic beets salad (without the gorgonzola cheese). It was on the small side for a hefty $9 with maybe only 4 slices of beets total for the entire 1-2 cups worth of salad. It was fine, but I could have easily eaten a double or triple portion.



Rich had the regular (8 oz) filet mignon ($31). He said it was good, but not knock-your-socks off good. It was good enough that he finished his plate though! All of the menu items are a la carte, which in my opinion, just makes dinner more expensive. He had a side of french fries ($5), and was disappointed they didn't carry any potato options he would have liked (i.e. roasted potatoes).

For my "entree", I had two side dishes, the brussel sprouts hash ($7) which was caramelized onions, mushrooms, shredded brussel sprouts and truffle oil and the wild mushroom ragout ($8) which contained a mix of shitake, portabello, chanterelle and button mushrooms. They were a bit too oily for me, but the flavor was very good.

 For dessert, we tried the NY style cheesecake ($7) which we both thought was dry and not very good.

Overall, it was a decent but expensive meal. We'd probably go back if we had to, but would rather search out other options.

Suzie's Farm: Week 3

Since I wasn't able to make it to the Hillcrest Farmer's Market this morning, I arranged to have my box picked up at the Poway Farmer's Market. I like that the Suzie's Farm CSA website allows you to easily switch the location. I had never been to the Poway market before and although it is smaller than Hillcrest, there is still a good number of fruit and veggie booths and not a lot of craft ones (a plus!).

This week's box contained:

• red russian kale (5.25 oz)
• cabbage cone (1 lb 5.5 oz)
• basket of serrano and cherry bomb peppers (6 oz)
• more zucchini (2 lb 7.5 oz)
• 2 bunches onion purplette (4.5 oz)
• 1 bunch parsley (2.25 oz)
• 2 golden treasure peppers (4.5 oz)
• 2 red bell peppers (5.75 oz)
• 1 red kabocha squash (1 lb 13.25 oz)
• 1 bunch radish (8.5 oz)
• pea shoots (4 oz)
• cannellini beans (shelled weight = 4.75 oz)

I'm not sure if I'm not trying as hard to use my produce (possible - I haven't been cooking as much this week) or if Suzie's Farm is giving me more food than the Inland Empire CSA (possible - I was getting their "small" box), but I have a lot of leftover produce from last week. I still have the zucchini (with more zucchini this week!), 1/2 of the onion purplette (I'm finding it hard to figure out what to do with these), radish greens, and some peppers.

I am enjoying the selection so far (with the exception of maybe the 3 weeks of onion purplette and zucchini), and also that most of the box is VEGETABLES! The only other complaint is what to do with all the "hot" peppers. As a person who doesn't eat hot peppers, I have had a basket of them every week. I usually use serrano peppers in salsa, but I don't know if I can use a whole basket of them. And the cherry bombs? Are those hot?? I haven't seen those before. Maybe Maddie the crazy hot-pepper eating dog wants to try one?

Halloween Spookiness

For Halloween, we had "spooky" chili, cornbread, and a spooky dessert.

The chili contained all ingredients from Suzie's Farm except for the beans. I cut out bat shapes from cheese to make it "spooky." Heh.

For the spooky dessert, I made these Devil's Food Cake cupcakes from Martha Stewart. I generally don't like making cupcakes because they tend to come out dry when I make them, but these were moist and fudgy. My original plan was to fill them with strawberry preserves to make them ooze "blood" when bitten into, but I ran out of time to do this. They were still yummy on their own. And of course, they tasted even better with spooky faces on them!

Suzie's Farm: Week 2

Sorry, it's been a really busy week so no picture this week or weighted values, but I can at least provide the list of items in this week's box:

Suzie's Farm - Week 2 box contents:

• acorn squash, 2 small
• 1 bunch mint
• 6 small zucchini
• 2 large brown onions
• bag of small tomatoes
• two small heads of fennel
• mixed sweet peppers (golden treasure, red pimiento)
• head of lettuce
• basket of habeneros
• red russian kale
• bunch of radishes
• 2 bunches of onion purplette

I used a lot of last week's items to make chili for Halloween.  I'm still working through the fennel and acorn squash.  And the habeneros?  I took those into work and didn't dare try them myself.  I was coughing just chopping jalapenos the other day.

Lettuce Patch!

Real gardening at last!

Landscaping is officially done and I now have a real garden. No more patio container gardening for me! Off to the nursery...

Suzie's Farm: Week 1

This week I begin a trial run in the next CSA I'm trying as part of the CSA Smackdown:

Suzie's Farm

Suzie's Farm doesn't offer a "trial" period so the shortest subscription you can purchase is 6 weeks. Since there is no trial period, there is also no pesky "new joining/registration" fee that some others have.

Reading some reviews on Yelp, I saw that there were some complaints about the boxes containing too many vegetables and not enough fruit, but for me, this is probably a good thing. :) They also do not allow any substitution of items as Inland Empire did. However, their prices are cheaper. I was on a small box at the Inland Empire CSA for almost $35/box and the small box at Susie's is $18/box. Since the regular size box was only $25 (still less than Inland Empire's small box), I went ahead and signed up for the large box. It was $150 for 6 weeks ($25/box).

I picked up my first box yesterday at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market. The boxes are all in the back of a big truck and they expect you to bring your own bags, transfer the produce to your bags, and break down your box. I checked off my name and put all of the produce into my 2 bags. They were pretty heavy bags when I was done! One nice thing I noticed is that there is a printed list of everything in the box so I know exactly what I'm getting. Another nice thing is that a couple of recipes related to the box contents were also included:

Here is what week 1's box contained:

• 4 cucumber (2 lb 6.75 oz)
• 3 green peppers (11.25 oz)
• tomatoes (1 lb 3.5 oz)
• 2 brown onions (1 lb 14 oz)
• sweet pepper mix (7.25 oz)
• 1 butternut squash (1 lb 7.5 oz)
• 1 bunch mint (1.5 oz)
• 2 small heads of butter lettuce (9.25 oz)
• 1 bunch celery (10.5 oz)
• purple onions with the greens on (11.75 oz)
• 8 zucchinis (1 lb 11 oz)
• basket of jalapenos (8 oz)
• 1 green melon (don't know what kind) (7 lb .5 oz)
• dragon beans (8 oz)

The interesting items in the bunch were the dragon beans:

What am I going to do with these?

Otherwise, I'm thinking this box screams CHILI.

What is it?

Here are pictures of the final melon from the Inland Empire CSA. What is it??

Whatever it was, it was sweet and delicious. The watermelon and oranges were also especially sweet. Tomatoes were too ripe and several went bad in a couple of days.

I finished all of the produce this week from the CSA except for a few lemons and an orange.

Very Best Vegan Bac'n

I signed up to be a recipe tester for an upcoming vegan cookbook. First recipe...

Vegan Tofu Bacon!

Or should I say Facon?

I was excited to try this recipe since the MorningStar vegetarian bacon strips I've sampled in the past aren't vegan (they contain egg whites and milk) and it would be nice to have an acceptable substitute. Also, I don't know about you, but I like recipes that have non-scary ingredient lists. Look at the ingredients in the MorningStar strips:

EGG WHITES, SOYBEAN OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, TEXTURED SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, WHEAT GLUTEN, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN GLUTEN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF GLYCERIN, SALT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SODIUM CITRATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, TORULA YEAST, CARAMEL COLOR, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, NATURAL SMOKE FLAVOR, MALIC ACID, GUAR GUM, YEAST EXTRACT, LOCUST BEAN AND GUAR GUM, SODIUM SULFITE, CARRAGEENAN, RED #3, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, NONFAT DRY MILK, YELLOW #6, VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE], VITAMIN B6 [PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE], VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], CITRIC ACID, CYANOCOBALAMIN.

I'm not even sure what half of those ingredients are and some of them are downright scary. What are "natural and artificial flavors" anyway?

This recipe was pretty easy. Although I'm not allowed to print the actual recipe, it involved marinating sliced tofu for a few hours before either pan-frying or baking them. None of the ingredients included TBHQ, Yellow #6, or sodium sulfite.

The result?

Not bad, but a bit too salty to me! If I sliced the tofu thin enough and cooked them long enough, they crisped up just like the Facon. They were good eating alongside scrambled tofu and in a FLT (Facon Lettuce Tomato) sandwich. If I was craving bacon, I'd make these over both real bacon (hello saturated fat!) and the processed and pricey vegetarian bacon strips.

Inland Empire CSA: Mystery Week 5 box

It turns out I had another box waiting for me from the Inland Empire CSA. I'm not sure what happened or why I have another box, but I'm not complaining!

This time, the note under my name said "no grapefruit" and there was ZERO grapefruit in the box.

Week 5's box:

• 1 bag arugula (6.25 oz)
• fingerling potatoes (1 lb 1/2 oz), not pictured
• heirloom tomatoes (2 lb 4.75 oz)
• 6 round zucchini (2 lb 5.75 oz)
• romaine head (9.75 oz)
• mystery melon (2 lb 6.5 oz)
• part of a large seeded watermelon (3 lb 12.5 oz), not pictured
• 2 ears corn (1 lb 9 oz)
• 3 lemons (10.75 oz)
• 5 oranges (1 lb 11 oz)
• 1 eggplant (9.75 oz)

I should be able to use all of the contents this week... but I'm wondering what I'll do with all of the zucchini...

Beet Burgers

I read this article from the Union Tribune on different veggie burgers around town. I'm always looking for good meat-free options and the article made mention of a few I haven't tried yet. Although I have been to Neighborhood, I had their black bean burger while there and not the beet burger. Imagine - a restaurant that carries not one but TWO homemade veggie patty options!

Since I didn't see myself going to Neighborhood any time in the next few weeks and we had a BBQ to cook for (with vegetarians coming), I tried making the beet burger recipe from the article.

The wide range of ingredients made it a time-consuming recipe to make, especially if you make the seitan from scratch. But the result was worth it. Beautifully pink-red patties with a nice texture, the vegetarians and I loved them.

Here's one shown with sliced heirloom tomatoes, red onion, and hummus spread on the bun:

Beet Burgers
Serves 10 (as 6-ounce patties)

Craig Jimenez, the chef at East Village’s Neighborhood, recommended this recipe for do-it-yourself cooks. He suggested using the freshest ingredients possible, which contributes to consistent texture.

“We are looking for the same salivation we get from eating an aged beef burger — its juiciness, flavor, bite resistance,” Jimenez said.

Note from Veggie Choices: The beet burger is just as mouthwatering to non-meat eaters.

4 to 6 large striped beets, (roasted, then peeled, then grated)
1 1/2 cups lightly roasted cooked chickpeas
1 to 1 1/2 cups toasted and ground flaxseed
1 cup cooked red quinoa; cooked according to package directions, then lightly roasted in a sauté pan
1 cup prepackaged plain seitan or homemade seitan (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon roasted garlic
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black Tellicherry peppercorns, to taste

Combine all ingredients until they form a ball. Add more toasted ground flaxseed for the right consistency. It should come together smoothly and not be dry or too soft or mushy. Remember, the texture of each ingredient should be visible and provide bite.

When your patties are shaped to a 1/2-inch thickness, sauté in a nonstick pan. Place on a toasted whole-wheat bun and top with aged cheddar or Gruyere cheese, fresh tomatoes, red onions, butter lettuce, pickles and spicy brown mustard. Chipotle hummus also makes a nice spread.

Homemade Seitan

Ever since I found out that the fake meat they serve at most vegetarian restaurants is "wheat gluten", I've wanted to try making it myself. Call it a weird food fascination. I finally had a reason try making it a couple of weeks ago. I was making veggie burgers and the recipe called for homemade seitan. What was even better was that the recipe included a seitan recipe to make it at home.

It was relatively easy and the final product is... not bad. I haven't passed final judgment on it yet, mostly because I haven't made anything with it except for the veggie burgers. The veggie burgers had a lot of other ingredients included and I couldn't tell where the seitan was hiding. Like tofu, seitan doesn't really have a distinct flavor and instead soaks up the flavor of whatever it is cooked with.

The recipe was simple and didn't involve too many ingredients... just vital wheat gluten, some spices and a mix of water and veggie brother. I followed the instructions exactly and kneaded the dough as required.

Much kneading and resting later, I had an unappetizing brown log of sponginess.  I cut the dough into strips and boiled it in veggie broth for 45 minutes.

It greatly expanded in size. After 45 minutes, the pieces were drained and rinsed in cool water to prevent further cooking. They still looked unappetizing, but then again, most fake meat does.

Homemade Seitan Gluten Dough
This can be made ahead of time.

2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour [I used the Arrowhead Mills brand]
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 cups water or vegetable broth
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water

Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Separately, combine liquid ingredients. Add wet dough to dry with a fork and knead. Rest the dough for 10 minutes, then knead for 5 minutes, folding it into the middle. Roll the dough into an oblong shape with a diameter of 4 to 5 inches. Rest for another 10 minutes.

Bring the broth and water mixture to a simmer.

Cut dough (it should feel tacky) into 2-inch strips, cover and simmer in the broth for 45 minutes. Add more water if needed. Strain out the liquid and rinse under cool running water. Dough can keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Inland Empire CSA: Wrap up

This week marks the end of the 4-week trial with the Inland Empire CSA. We had a lot of food to finish up from the BBQ we hosted last weekend, so I didn't do as well finishing last week's CSA contents. I still have an apple, 1/2 bag of arugula, the watermelon, the green beans, and 2 grapefruits (surprised?). I plan on taking this week "off" and officially starting the next CSA next Sunday.

Since this was my first CSA, I don't have much to compare it to, but here are some things I liked and didn't like about the Inland Empire CSA:

Yay

• a good amount of fruits and veggies for me (one person, voracious produce eater), although I did supplement by buying greens for the week
• ability to swap out items I didn't want at the farmer's market

Blah

• cost seems higher when I compared it to other CSAs
• most of the produce needed to be eaten immediately (e.g. the tomatoes were almost over-ripe and would get moldy in a day)
• too much grapefruit, but more importantly, they ignored their own message to not put grapefruit in my box!