Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Rhubarb Galore!

We have a massive pile of rhubarb growing in our backyard. Kyle picked a pile and I made my annual summery Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Crisp and Rhubarb Cobbler. But I was left with about a cup of chopped rhubarb – the perfect amount to make Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake from Meredith McCarty’s Sweet and Natural cookbook. It’s very caramel-like since the upside-down topping has brown rice syrup, which I actually use now! For years I’ve had BRS stashed in my pantry and I always tended to sub maple syrup for it after having tasted some disgusting Rice Dream frozen dessert. Thank goodness for Isa, as her recipes encouraged me to try rice syrup products again and I’m so glad! Anyways, back to the recipe – good, a little flatter than I expected, but tasty.


Speaking of flat, I used same said rhubarb to make muffins. I used this recipe, but made it two ways. First, I used clabbered soymilk instead of the soy sour cream, producing a rather soggy muffin. Delicious, but very crumbly and sticky. The second time, I actually followed the recipe...a first for me! The muffin was much drier this time, which leads me to believe, according to the Goldilocks legend, that the next time I make this recipe (with a few modifications), it will be perfect!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Summery Stuff

From VT's July/August again I made three recipes. The first was Barbecued Tofu and Grilled Corn Salad. Fabulous! I never managed to get grill marks when using my grill pan but it worked great!

Next up was Roasted Vegetables (no photo). Very basic, but I never put veggies under the broiler like this with such good results. I’ll definitely do this again when making pizzas with roasted veggies. Way better than the sogfest I usually end up with cooking marinated veggies in a wok pan.

Finally, my last recipe from VT was for Mango-Teriyaki Tofu with Brown Jasmine Rice. Delicious! I used leftover salad dressing from the revolting salad I made in the last post. Super easy. Again, great grill marks on the tofu from my grill pan, except after I flipped the tofu, I left it on the grill too long/at too high of a temperature since it went beyond grill marks. I scorched the sauce onto the tofu. Kyle was kind enough to pick it off each slice :(

I then made Rainbow Rice from W Network’s He Said, She Said. I really liked watching Mary Jo Eustace and Ken Kostick in the 90’s on What’s for Dinner, so I was happy to see them pair up again. Poor MJ...I would be bitter too if my hubby left me for Tori Spelling of all people. Anyways, she came up with an interesting recipe for peanut butter in a colourful rice dish that I had to try. Sounds like it’s got everything in it but the kitchen sink. I managed to use a few substitutions (including edamame and corn instead of the peas and omitted the bananas since I will never cook with them again) and it was pretty good and very easy. I’d say it’s a comfort food dish and I liked how it had lots of protein too. I wouldn’t say that this would be a recipe that I’d serve at a fancy dinner since it doesn’t look the greatest.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Oh God...My Child Doesn't Like Veggies!

I was all excited to make my own baby food (easiest recipes to follow ever!). After trip to the local organic market, I have a nice freezer stash of carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and green beans. On Monday, I was excited to test out my 'creations' now that Ash is six months old. The verdict? So far, carrots are not a hit. This was the first veggie we tried after rice and oats, and Ash responded by spitting out the carrots (compared to scarfing down the grains) and making lovely gagging sounds. I hope this is not a sign that she doesn't like veggies, as despite feeling nauseous, I ate every veggie under the sun while preggo in an effort to expose the little one to many flavours.

I hope tomorrow's attempt at butternut squash goes better than carrots did!