Food

Dessert

Cream Cheese and Bananas in a Pie

• ¾ c sugar
• 1/8 c flour
• 1 c milk
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 9" pie shell
• 1+ bananas

1. Mix sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a bowl. Really make sure the cornstarch isn't in lumps, or else it gets annoying later on. Be melting the butter while doing this. You can also soften the cream cheese separately, or at least take it out of the refrigerator. Also bake the pie shell at some point.
2. Add milk gradually, then butter.
3. Put this stuff in the pot, heat it around medium, and mix it until it thickens. It will be obvious when it does. Take the pot off the stove and turn it down to low.
4. Wait until the stuff stops steaming, then add the vanilla.
5. Put the pot back on the stove, and incrementally add the cream cheese. When done take it off the stove, and let it cool to not more than warm.
6. After the pie shell is cool (you do not want cooked bananas) slice banana(s) to tile the bottom of the shell.
7. Pour the cream cheese stuff into the pie shell over the bananas. You can add more layers of bananas if you want. You'll probably get pie overflow even with only the bottom layer, especially if you don't have a deep dish crust. You might just have to eat some of the filling. Rats.
8. Refrigerate the pie so it stiffens somewhat.

Molasses Spice Cookies

• 2 ½ c flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¾ cup butter or margarine
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 large egg and 2 tbsp milk, or
• 1 medium egg and ¼ c milk
• 4 tbsp molasses

Peppernötter

• 1 ¾ c flour
• ½ c cornstarch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ to ½ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp ground cardamom, or nutmeg
• ½ tsp grond cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 1 c butter
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c sugar
• ¼ c milk or cream
• 2/3 c almond slices

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and spices.
3. Mix butter and extract. Gradually mix in sugar.
4. Add dry ingredients and milk, alternately.
5. Mix in almonds.
6. Make ¾ inch spheres, 1 inch apart, on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 15 minutes.

Bread

Stuffed spherical pretzels

• 1 package yeast
• 1 c warm water
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 2/3 c flour
• Cubes of mozzarella cheese
• Cherry or plum tomatoes, minced
• Couple of garlic cloves, minced
• 1 egg

1. Heat oven to 425 F.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the water.
3. Add honey.
4. Add flour.
5. Knead.
6. Make spheres stuffed with 1 cube of cheese and some tomato and garlic.
7. Beat egg and brush spheres with egg.
8. Bake 10 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

Applesauce muffins

• 1 egg
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 c applesauce
• ½ c vegetable oil
• 2 c flour
• 1/3 c packed brown sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Cinnamon

1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Line muffin cups with foil.
3. Beat egg.
4. Mix in milk, applesauce, and oil.
5. Add flour, sugar, and baking powder.
6. Mix until flour is moistened (still lumpy).
7. Fill muffin cups (probably about 15).
8. Bake about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Maple Something-nut Muffins

• 1 cup sour cream (old yogurt might also work)
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat stuff (as in flour, bran, flakes, or something)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup nuts

1. Heat oven to 400F. Grease or otherwise line muffin cups.
2. Mix the sour cream, maple syrup, and eggs. Add the nuts if they're large and nobbly (as in whole shelled pecans, for example) so they don't harbor flour later.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients separately.
4. Mix in the liquid ingredients.
5. Put in muffin tins.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

Banana Bread with Stuff

• ½ c sugar, slightly more if using plain yogurt
• ¼ c butter, softened
• 1 egg
• ¾ c mashed very ripe bananas
• ¼ c yogurt, plain or of some suitable flavor
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ¼ c flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup small or chopped berries of some sort

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan.
2. Mix sugar and butter.
3. Stir in eggs.
4. Stir in bananas, yogurt, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Stir in flour and baking soda until moistened.
6. Stir in berries.
7. Pour into pan.
8. Bake about 1 hour.

Sweet Oatmeal-and-Stuff Bread

• 1 ½ c flour
• ½ c wheat bran
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 c rolled oats
• ¼ c molasses
• 1 ¼ c yogurt
• 1 c stuff, like dried fruit and/or nuts -- e.g. raisins, almonds, walnuts

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Add yogurt, molasses, and stuff.
3. Put in a greased loaf pan. I'd say pour, but the dough is almost bizarrely stiff and looks something like peanut brittle, so don't pour.
4. Let stand 20 minutes and heat oven to 350.
5. Bake 1 hour.

Freshherb Bread/Fresh Herbbread

• 2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 ½ tsp wheat gluten
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 ¼ c very warm water, up to 1 3/4 c in very dry conditions
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tbsp shortening
• 1 ½ tbsp chopped fresh sage
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
• ½ tbsp kalonji or caraway

1. Grease small loaf pan.
2. Mix white flour, sugar, gluten, and yeast.
3. Add water, cilantro, shortening, sage, and oregano.
4. Mix.
5. Mix in whole wheat flour.
6. Spread dough in pan.
7. Sprinkle kalonji on top.
8. Cover and let rise 40 min.
9. Heat oven to 375F.
10. Bake 40-45 min. until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
11. Remove from pan and cool.

To follow: Ingrid's grilled cheese photo essay, if pictures are scanned.

Rice

Rice pudding

• ¾ c white rice
• 1 ½ c water
• 2 c milk
• 1/3 c sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2/3 c sliced almonds
• 1 tbsp butter
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Cook rice according to package directions, in 1 ½ c water.
2. Mix in 1 ½ c milk, sugar, and salt.
3. Cook again 15-20 minutes, until thick.
4. Beat egg.
5. Add rest of milk, egg, and almonds to the rice. Cook 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.
6. Remove from heat and mix in butter and vanilla.

Weird rice

• 2 cups broth
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne or paprika
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
• ½ teaspoon mustard
• 2 tablespoons yogurt
• Some parmesan cheese

1. Boil broth, lemon juice, and rice (well, not the rice, but it's a bystander).
2. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add mustard, yogurt, and parmesan cheese.
5. Add the rest of the stuff.
6. Mix.

Salad

Spinach with Stuff

• Spinach
• Grape or cherry tomatoes (I like grape better)
• Feta
• Fresh tarragon leaves, maybe. Or fresh oregano, or use your judgment.
• Olive oil
• Tabasco

1. Mix all the non-liquid stuff.
2. Mix in olive oil to taste. Mainly I use this as a vehicle for the Tabasco.
3. Mix in some Tabasco.

Stuff to put on lettuce

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans
• Another 1/3 cup nuts
• 1/3 cup gorgonzola

1. Blend first 4 things in a blender.
2. Add other 2 things.

Pear salad

• Fairly bland leaves, such as lettuce (not spring mix)
• Pear
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• About 2 oz goat cheese (not salty)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1. Mix it all.

Soup

Sweet Potato & Onion Soup

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 ½ cups vegetable stock
• 1 ¼ cups unsweetened orange juice
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan.
2. Sauté sweet potatoes, carrot, onions, and garlic for 5 minutes.
3. Add vegetable stock and orange juice and bring to boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes until sweet potato and carrot are tender.
5. Put mixture in a blender and blend until puréed. Return stuff to pan.
6. Mix in yogurt and cilantro.

Tomato and stuff soup

• 1 can of tomato soup, appropriately deconcentrated (low sodium "tomato with tomato pieces" soup says not to add water, but add a little less than 1 can)
• Carrots cut into little cylinders
• 1 garlic clove, chopped or garlic-pressed
• Cooked whole wheat noodles
• 1 birdseye chile, squished into bits
• White poppy seeds
• Brown mustard seeds
• Pine nuts
• Dried oregano, or fresh to be treated as the parsley and cilantro
• Dried basil, or fresh to be treated as the parsley and cilantro
• Flat-leaf parsley
• Cilantro leaves

Cold green soup

• 1 garlic clove, sliced
• 2 cucumbers, sliced
• 1/3 cup layered fresh lemon balm or mint leaves
• 1 cup plain yogurt or old vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

1. Add garlic to somewhat more than 1 cup of water, and boil.
2. Put cucumbers and mint in blender.
3. Put the approx. 1 cup of boiled garlic water plus garlic in blender.
4. Add yogurt and hazelnuts.
5. Blenderize until almost smooth.
6. Chill in refrigerator.

Sauce

Hollandaise sauce

Salad dressing

• 3 tbsp lemon or lime juice
• 2 tbsp honey
• 4 tsp soy sauce or tamari
• 1 ½ tsp grated ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Pepper
• ½ c olive oil
• ¼ c sunflower seeds
• Grapefruit

Mix. Let this sit (in a refrigerator) for a while.

The original directions said to use large oranges, but grapefruit is better. Use your judgment as to how much of the grapefruit to use. For example, if the grapefruit is d*** good, it may be necessary to just eat the other half. This can be done while the stuff is sitting in the refrigerator. Actually, you may want to leave the grapefruit out of the steeping-in-the-refrigerator step and just put it on the salad.

Sesame dressing

• 6 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 ½ tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp mirin
• ¼ c sesame seeds
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp chile paste

Stuff to put on fruit

Béchamel sauce

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 c milk

1. Melt butter over low heat.
2. Mix in flour.
3. Cook until smooth and bubbly.
4. Gradually add milk.
5. Boil and stir until it's as thick as you want.

Un-American cheese sauce:

Add ½ c shredded pepper jack cheese as the last step. Add some Tabasco if desired.

Curry sauce:

Add ½ tsp or so curry powder to the flour.

Onion and sour cream sauce

• ¼ c sour cream
• ½ c yogurt
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• ¼ tsp cayenne powder
• 2 T olive oil
• ½ of a red onion, chopped
• ¼ c white wine
• 1 T lemon zest
• 2 T fresh dill leaves, or 2 tsp dried

1. Mix sour cream, yogurt, caraway, cayenne, and 1 T olive oil in a bowl.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan.
3. Cook onion in oil about 5-7 min. until a little brown.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Add wine, replace, and cook 3 min.
6. Add sour cream mix and cook 1 min.
7. Turn off heat and add lemon and dill.

"Beef" "Stroganoff"

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced into U-shaped pieces (like the celery it almost is)
• 1 bag of frozen fake ground beef
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2/3 cup vegetable broth, water, or the juice from canned tomatoes
• 3 tbsp vermouth
• 8 oz. plain yogurt, or sourish vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup fennel greens, which should have come attached to the fennel bulb
• 2 tbsp paprika

1. Cook the fennel slices in oil for 5 minutes on medium heat, until very slightly brown and greener.
2. Cut the fennel tops into small pieces.
3. Mix the yogurt, fennel tops, and paprika in a separate bowl.
4. Add garlic and cook for 2 min.
5. Add fake ground beef and cook until warm, about 4 min.
6. Add flour and cook 30 seconds.
7. Gradually add water, broth, or tomato "stock".
8. Gradually add wine.
9. Boil.
10. Add yogurt, fennel tops, and paprika.
11. Cook 2 min.

Drinks

Mango lassi

• 1 mango
• 1 c milk
• 1 c plain yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla, and ½ c sugar, or
• 1 c vanilla yogurt and somewhat less sugar.

Coffee suggestions

1. Add hot chocolate mix, or
2. Add instant cappucino mix. This has the added benefit of more caffeine.