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[Underseer]

Apple-Blue Cheese Salad with Caramel Vinagrette
This is something made at a local pizza restaurant that is not on the menu, but shows up at their buffet and I have no idea what it's really called, but I managed to make a reasonable approximation at home. I would never in a million years have thought to combine these particular ingredients, but I am addicted.

The caramel vinagrette is made from factory-made apple dip because melted sugar fucking scares me. That shit melts at a temp higher than the boiling point of water and it is really sticky. No thank you.

• Apples cut into about one inch pieces
• Caramel dip (for apples)
• Rice vinegar
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Crushed candied walnuts
• Red pepper flakes

The balance between caramel sauce, vinegar, red pepper and salt from the blue cheese is such that I can't quite tell if it's trying to be a salad or a dessert, and that's what is fun about this dish. The amount of blue cheese is a little agressive to add saltiness to the sweet-sour-spicy balance already going on.

I used Fuji apples, but plenty of other apples would probably work just as well, such as honeycrisp. Red delicious apples would be too mushy and granny Smith apples would be too tart.

Mix the caramel apple dip and rice vinegar and whisk in a bowl. Adjust relative amounts based on a good sweet-sour balance to your liking.

Toss with remaining ingredients. The amount of red pepper flakes is a bit aggressive but just enough to smack you in the face not set your mouth on fire. Add enough blue cheese to balance the sweet with a decent amount of saltiness, but the sweet should be stronger than the salty.

Alternately, you can slap this mixture onto fresh spinach, arugula, or greens of your choice and make a "real" salad out of it. If you're going the salad route, you can replace the crushed candied walnuts with sliced toasted almonds, and/or add cranberry raisins (craisins) and/or sliced strawberries. In fact I think the apple mixture above is made ahead of time and used to make one of their salads, and they use the buffet to get rid of extra from the previous night.

 

[Underseer]

Update: the above does not keep in the 'fridge for more than a day or two. Eat it all quickly.

 

[Underseer]

I've been making salads with the above, and it's been very popular around here.

Caramel vinagrette

• Caramel apple dip
• Rice vinegar
• Red pepper flakes

I usually mix this in a small Tupperware-like container with a fork. I can seal the container and shake vigorously as needed.

Salad stuffs

• Sliced apples
• Sliced straberries
• Fresh spinach
• Crushed walnuts
• Blue cheese (or feta if you don't like blue)
• Sliced green onions

Toss just before serving. Croutons optional.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Bean, Artichoke, Kalamata Olive Spread

1 can drained, rinsed cannellini beans

1 can drained rinsed black beans

1 can drained artichoke. Remove any tough outer leaves.

1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp Kalamata Olive brine

Combine all ingredients in food mixer and blend until smooth. May need to add a bit more or less oil and brine. Serve on toast brushed with olive oil.

This keeps well in the fridge and toast is quick to make.

 

[Underseer]

Baked bean modification: Szechuan baked beans

Doctor up any premade baked beans with Chinese spicy fermented bean paste (adds really intense bean flavor plus some heat), Szechuan spicy oil, and a little brown sugar. Garnish with raw, sliced green onions.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Strada Anyone?

Take your favorite prepared or frozen veggies, break up a slice of bread by hand, add some milk or almond milk or yogurt with water, one or two eggs, stir it all up and microwave in a bowl until the eggs are done, stirring as needed. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and dash with salt. Yummy and nutritious.

 

[Underseer]

Baked bean modification: Szechuan baked beans

Doctor up any premade baked beans with Chinese spicy fermented bean paste (adds really intense bean flavor plus some heat), Szechuan spicy oil, and a little brown sugar. Garnish with raw, sliced green onions.

Update: *ahem* go easy on the Szechuan fermented bean paste. It's easy to overwhelm the taste of the baked beans. Yikes.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Strada Anyone?

Take your favorite prepared or frozen veggies, break up a slice of bread by hand, add some milk or almond milk or yogurt with water, one or two eggs, stir it all up and microwave in a bowl until the eggs are done, stirring as needed. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and dash with salt. Yummy and nutritious.

As we are all aware - busy lives and all - it takes time to down a healthy salad. Sometimes I simply chop the romaine lettuce and mix it into the strada before microwaving. One can eat a lot of healthy greens this way and if there's a problem with raw greens the problem is solved quickly and deliciously.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Today I made Pumpkin custard, which is basically pumpkin pie filling. Left out two-thirds of the sugar and substituted ground flax for the egg. Also substituted almond milk for the condensed milk. The pumpkin is from the yard.

 

[Angry Floof]

I can tell winter's coming. I start eating more comfort foods than vegetables.

Yesterday I made a chocolate microwave mug cake and marbled some cinnamon cream cheese through it a little bit. Then topped it with a few scoops of salted caramel swirl ice cream. I had no idea I had such decadence right there in the kitchen.

Today I'm having a wrap of apples, cranberries, walnuts, and cinnamon cream cheese, and holy mackerel, it might as well be fresh baked pie with that cream cheese in it.

And to think I was wondering what I was gonna do with the cinnamon cream cheese.

 

[Underseer]

I can tell winter's coming. I start eating more comfort foods than vegetables.

Yesterday I made a chocolate microwave mug cake and marbled some cinnamon cream cheese through it a little bit. Then topped it with a few scoops of salted caramel swirl ice cream. I had no idea I had such decadence right there in the kitchen.

Today I'm having a wrap of apples, cranberries, walnuts, and cinnamon cream cheese, and holy mackerel, it might as well be fresh baked pie with that cream cheese in it.

And to think I was wondering what I was gonna do with the cinnamon cream cheese.

When it starts getting chilly, my go-to comfort food is Japanese style curry on rice (curry donburi).

You can get the instant curry sauce bouillon from most American grocery stores these days, so it's stupidly easy to make.



Traditional: brown stewing beef, add carrots, potatoes, onions and water (quantity of water determined by package directions). Add bouillon at the very end. Serve over rice.

Garnish: fukujinzuke (literally "happiness pickle"), thin slices of apple, and/or craisins (cranberry raisins).

Secret Underseer family variant: cook the stew without the bouillon for hours until the onions are super soft or even melted entirely.

Variant 2: add fresh ginger, fresh-ground black pepper and/or whatever chile peppers you like.

Variant 3: add squash, celery, and/or mushrooms to the stew.

Variant 4: you can make your own curry sauce with roux and a metric crap-ton of good quality curry powder, thus allowing you to forgo buying the instant bouillon from the store. Given the quantity of curry powder used, I'm not actually sure if this saves money, but it tastes better. I've never had good results using American brands of curry powder. Usually I just buy whatever smells best from the nearest Asian grocery store (which around here usually means Vietnamese).

 

[Underseer]

Further explanation on donburi:

You know how you can call squid "calamari" on a menu and charge a lot more because it sounds fancier? Serve anything on rice and call it "X donburi" ("doan boo ree"). The only catch is the thickness of the sauce of whatever you're pouring over the rice. It needs to be thick enough that most of it stays on top of the rice, but thin enough that some of it dribbles down and flavors the rice. Oddly enough, American chili is perfect for this. Slap it on rice and call it "chili donburi" to sound all fancy and crap.

 

[Underseer]

Caveat: use of the word "curry" indicates that something is a foreign perversion of Indian food (in this case Japanese). In fact the use of the word curry ("kare" in Japanese) indicates that the Japanese actually got this from the English, who perverted goodness knows what from Indian cuisine.

So at minimum this dish went:

India [ent]rarr[/ent] Britain [ent]rarr[/ent] Japan

Kinda circuitous, no? Kind of like how America got its BBQ from

Indigenous Caribbean [ent]rarr[/ent] Spain [ent]rarr[/ent] USA

Which is especially silly because there were indigenous Americans in the northeast doing something very similar with seafood (origin of the American clam bake, I believe).

 

[gmbteach]

We are in Spring here so we are eating lighter meals.

This is what we add for dinner tonight!



It’s simply asparagus, cherry tomatoes, green beans, red capsicum strips, and some sugarloaf cabbage, tossed in a little butter and oil, and dressed with balsamic vinegar reduction and fresh herbs. I served it with penne pasta and sprinkled a little cheese over the top.

Very delicious.

 

[Underseer]

We are in Spring here so we are eating lighter meals.

This is what we add for dinner tonight!

View attachment 17897

It’s simply asparagus, cherry tomatoes, green beans, red capsicum strips, and some sugarloaf cabbage, tossed in a little butter and oil, and dressed with balsamic vinegar reduction and fresh herbs. I served it with penne pasta and sprinkled a little cheese over the top.

Very delicious.

Mmm, looks delish!

 

[gmbteach]

We went vegetarian again tonight and it was delicious.

I took some potatoes, a sweet potato, some pumpkin and a few carrots and chopped them all up into rough 2cm cubes.

I then put these into my baking dish with a good drizzle of olive oil, some garlic infused olive oil (spreads the garlic flavour further) and a light drizzle of chilli oil (as much as you want heat). I then put tossed it all together and put it in the oven on a moderate heat until cooked.

When the veggies were nearly done I cooked some penne pasta to al dente stage.

I then put the pasta and a tin of whole champignons into the roasting dish with the veggies.

And here is where I leave the vegan aspect and add some grated cheese. I toss the grated cheese, veggies and pasta all together, with the remaining oil in the pan until coated.

I put the pan/tray back into the oven and roast until cheese is melted, remove and serve.

Delicious!

 

[Underseer]

I'm actually ramping up my consumption of meat (and beans and nuts).

I got one of those fancy scales that talks to my phone and measures how much fat vs how much muscle I have, and it keeps telling me I don't have enough protein.

 

[WAB]

My favorite snack. What you'll need:

1. Slice of soft white bread.
2. Squeeze-jar of mayonnaise.*

Instructions:

Place bread on flat surface.
Lift mayonnaise (business end downward), and squeeze vigorously on bread.
Be liberal.
Fold bread and open mouth.
Eat.

Other kinds of bread may be substituted. Traditional jar of mayonnaise may also be substituted, but then one will require a utensil.**



*Anyone caught using fat-free mayonnaise will be shot.
**Knife, spoon, small spatula. A fork is not recommended.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

My favorite snack. What you'll need:

1. Slice of soft white bread.
2. Squeeze-jar of mayonnaise.*

Instructions:

Place bread on flat surface.
Lift mayonnaise (business end downward), and squeeze vigorously on bread.
Be liberal.
Fold bread and open mouth.
Eat.

Other kinds of bread may be substituted. Traditional jar of mayonnaise may also be substituted, but then one will require a utensil.**



*Anyone caught using fat-free mayonnaise will be shot.
**Knife, spoon, small spatula. A fork is not recommended.

Truth be told I went to Burger King over the weekend, brought home two Whoppers, got out the jar of mayo, opened the burger, slathered extra mayo onto the beasts and ate greedily.

Have been eating butternut squash soup from the garden. One cup of butternut squash flesh to 1 1/4 cup broth of one's choosing. I make about a gallon at a time and puree it with one of those immersion blenders.

ETA: Those veggies look spectacular. That is my fare throughout the week.

 

[Underseer]

My favorite snack. What you'll need:

1. Slice of soft white bread.
2. Squeeze-jar of mayonnaise.*

Instructions:

Place bread on flat surface.
Lift mayonnaise (business end downward), and squeeze vigorously on bread.
Be liberal.
Fold bread and open mouth.
Eat.

Other kinds of bread may be substituted. Traditional jar of mayonnaise may also be substituted, but then one will require a utensil.**



*Anyone caught using fat-free mayonnaise will be shot.
**Knife, spoon, small spatula. A fork is not recommended.

I don't think I could ever eat that.

But then, I grew up on raw eggs and soy sauce on rice. Dump a raw egg onto a bowl of rice, add soy sauce to taste, and stir with chopsticks until slimy.

If you didn't grow up eating it, you probably wouldn't like it even if you were willing to risk the salmonella.