Baked Oatmeal

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. I tried this baked oatmeal recipe from Heidi Swanson's new book, Super Natural Cooking via the adorable blog Lottie + Doof. It was so tasty! I'm posting it because I think it'd be a great dish to put on a brunch spread--a more elegant way to serve goatmeal. You could mix it up with all kinds of fruit, nuts, spices, whatever. Truthfully, I can't imagine myself making it on a regular basis because it only tastes a little better than basic oatmeal but takes much longer to prepare. Still, a good recipe to have in one's back pocket for leisurely weekend brunches.

Preheat the oven to 375.
Generously spread a ~8x8" casserole dish with butter (oh fine, use nut or canola oil)
Cover the bottom with sliced bananas. 2 should do it.
Sprinkle 1c frozen or fresh blueberries (or any other fruit)
In a bowl, mix together 2c oats, 1/2c nuts (if you have them), 1t baking powder, 1.5t cinnamon, and 1/2t salt. Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit.
Then, in that same ol' bowl, whisk together 2c milk (I used almond), 1 egg, 2T melted butter (optional), and 2t vanilla. Pour this into the casserole dish on top of everything else.
Give the dish a little shake to settle it all out.
Dot with 1T butter (optional).
Bake for 35-40 min until the oatmeal is cooked through and it gets crispy on top.
Serves 4.

Slow Cooker Lentil Bolognese Sauce

I wasn't going to post this recipe at first, but it really grew on me. I do believe I have eaten it five times during the past week. I make vegetarian tomato-based pasta sauce regularly, but this one stuck out as particularly hearty. Mom, this one would be great to make for Dad. It's thick, smoky, and filling.

Adapted from "Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker" by Robin Robertson

Heat 2T EVOO in a large skillet
Add 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery, and 2 garlic cloves, minced (I used a food processor)
Cook until softened, ~10 min. Add 1/2 cup cheap (dry?) white wine and simmer for 2 min.
Transfer to a slow cooker. Add a 28-oz can of crushed tomato, ~1c tomato sauce (or 2T tomato paste in 1c hot water), 1c dried brown lentils, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and season w/ salt, pepper, and oregano.
Cover and cook on low for 8h.
While the lentil sauce is cooking, blend 1/2c white beans (I used Lima) +/- 1/4c milk.
Just before serving, add white beans, 1/2t liquid sauce, and 2T minced parsley leaves (if you have them).
Serve over whole wheat pasta (I liked it with rotini) and top with cheddar cheese.
I used a generous 1/2 cup of sauce to one serving of pasta.

One caveat about this recipe: even with the sauce cooked through thoroughly, the lentils still came out a little crunchy. If you like your lentils really soft, I might precook them a little (maybe ~15 min).

Farro casserole

I haven't posted for a while. I've been traveling (spring break Boston woo!!) and I've also just been cooking uninteresting, uninventive dishes. Today, this dreary Baltimore day, I decided to break that funk. I made myself an incredibly tasty lunch adapted from (what else?) this 101 cookbooks recipe. The original recipe calls it a "risotto," but I'd say it's more of a rice casserole. It'd make a great pot-luck dish.

Preheat the oven to 400.
Prepare a casserole dish (8x8 or so) with EVOO and lemon juice (the original recipe suggests lemon zest, which would probably be better if you have it)
Chop 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic.
Heat 2T EVOO in a medium saucepan.
Saute the chopt onion and garlic wth a pinch of salt until the onions are soft and beginning to become clear.
Add 1.5c uncooked farro and saute for a minute or so more.
Stir in 1c (1 can) tomato sauce and 2.5c veggie stock.
Allow this to come to a simmer while seasoning with black pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary and salt.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1/2c Parmesan and a GENEROUS 1/2c mozzarella (I cubed some fancy mozzarella--amazing!).
If desired, stir in 5 chopt cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopt olives.
Pour this mixture in to the prepared dish, cover with foil, poke holes into the foil, and bake for 40 minutes or until the farro is soft. Take the foil off for the last few minutes of the baking time in order to make the top nice and bubbly.
Serve topped with shaved Parmesan.

The finished product:


My first helping:


So tasty and so perfect for a chilly winter's day!

Finally, edible tofu

Tonight's tofu trial was tolerable. Saute 3 leeks until soft. Mix in some hummus. Meanwhile, cube tofu in a casserole and add diced tomatoes and some salsa. Mix in the leek/hummus mixture. Top with Brad's Dried Kale Chips - - doubtless the planet's most expensive snack food per unit weight. Cook at 350 for 30 min. I served it with rice cooked with onion, chopt apricots and ginger. And a Rioja. Actually pretty good.

Libby commented!

On Dan: The Cake.
Hello Libby!

Real Chinese Food

By "Real Chinese Food," I do not mean food that is real Chinese. I mean food that tastes like the food I expect Jimmy's Chinese Food Carry-out down the street would sell if it was ever open (and not a front for something criminal.) Tonight I made a version of the Joy of Cooking's "Broccoli Stir Fry" that tastes a little salty, a little sweet, and kinda greasy: exactly like good ol' American Chinese food. Granted, it contains no MSG and nothing was deep-fried, but I think that's for the better. I bet this recipe would taste excellent with bok choi substituted for broccoli, as well.

Stir together in a mug: 2T water, 2T cornstarch
Stir together in another mug: 1/3c wine (I used white, red would prob. taste better), 3T soy sauce, 2T brown sugar
Heat 3T vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat
Add ~1T minced ginger and 4 large garlic cloves, sliced. Stir for a moment, then
Add 1 big crown (1 head) broccoli (cut into medium-sized florets) and 4 sliced mushrooms
Add a generous sprinkling of red chili flakes (or a real pepper)
Cook until the broccoli is somewhat softened but still crunchy on the inside
Pour wine mixture into the pan, stir in 1/2 pkg (~7oz) cubed firm tofu
Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 30 seconds
Stir in the cornstarch mixture
Cook, uncovered, until the sauce thickens, 1-2min

Top with sunflower seeds. Nom over rice.

DAN: THE CAKE

This cake derived from an old clipping for a lemon crunch cake. First, make a crumb topping. I used 3 T. almond oil in lieu of butter, which sort of worked, and 1/4 c. flour, 2 T brown sugar, 1 t. cinnamon. Then I separately mixed 1/2 c. eggbeater (recipe called for 2 egg yolks), 1 package of tofu (recipe: 14 oz. condensed milk, for which I used to substitute ricotta), 1/3 c. lemon juice, and 1 t. lemon zest. Again separately, I mixed 2 1/4 c. flour, 1 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. salt. Again separately, I mixed 3/4 c. eggbeaters (recipe: 3 eggs) and 2 c. sugar with the mixer. I added 1. c. almond oil,another 1 t. lemon zest, and 2 t. vanilla. The recipe also called for 1 c sour cream, which I skipped. I mixed the flour mixture into the egg-sugar=oil mix, then swirled in the tofy mix. I used 2 cake pans and cooked it at 325 for 35 min, then sprinkled on the crumb topping and cooked it for another 35. Then I sculpted Dan. Voila. Happy Birthday, Suzanne!