Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

In September, I rescued a dog. For the holidays, I decided to make her (& some of her dog friends) homemade treats. They're so much healthier for the dog because you can choose exactly what to put in them. This recipe is a huge one and makes quite a bit of treats, so be sure to share and eat within the week, or freeze for future use (up to 3 months). This recipe is adapted from Kevin & Amanda (be sure to click through because they have the cutest photos of their pups posted!).

Chickpea loves homemade treats

Everything Bagel Truffle Oil Croutons

These croutons are my new weakness! I wanted some croutons to bring to the Baltimore Homemade Trade event this past month and figured I would just use whatever bread I had lying around the house. There happened to be a ton of everything bagels in my pantry and once I got the idea in my head about these croutons, I had to make them. This recipe makes about six servings of croutons (one serving per salad or sitting, if you will).

 

Guest Post: An Omnivore’s Quest for the Best Vegetarian “Meatball” - Part II

Welcome back, Chris! I look forward to one of your Friday Night Meatball get-togethers because these sound amazing.
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You may recall back in September I wrote a guest post for this blog in which I compared three vegetarian meatball recipes, in the hope that one of them would be my go-to recipe for vegetarian friends at our version of Friday Night Meatballs. You may also recall that none of the three recipes completely captured my endorsement.I’m back now after more time in my secret subterranean meatball laboratory*, and I’m happy to report that I have a recipe for vege-meatballs that I can proudly serve my guests. The recipe is a modification of Whole Foods’ Spaghetti and Vegan Meatballs recipe. This recipe won my competition but had some flaws that I couldn’t tolerate. 

With a scale of 1 (hideous) to 5 (excellent), the original recipe scored as follows: 

Preparation 4.5, Flavor 3.5, Texture 4, Sturdiness 3, Versatility 5. 

This gave it an overall score of 4.0, and a clear win over the other two recipes.  My modifications needed to focus on flavor and sturdiness, hopefully without compromising the other characteristics too much.  Sturdiness, in particular, was a big problem – the Whole Foods meatballs could not be trusted not to turn to mush in my marinara.

The original recipe has a body of black beans, brown rice, cremini mushrooms, sunflower seeds and spinach.  It adds garlic, onions, basil and oregano for flavor.

Best of 90s Food: Hot Pockets

This year, the Baltimore Sun's Mobbies are asking each blogger to blog about the thing that she would like to bring back from the 90s. Being that this is a food blog, I went straight for everyone's favorite snacks from the 90s. Not only have I chosen to recognize various 90s food that I miss, but I have recreated them with homemade recipes. In addition to this recipe, I will be recreating and blogging the recipes for Dunkaroos, Lunchables and Pudding Pops. Sit back and enjoy this recipe for homemade Hot Pockets.

Guest Post: An Omnivore’s Quest for the Best Vegetarian “Meatball”

Please welcome my friend & amazing home (& Instagram) chef, Chris. He decided to do the dirty work for us in finding the best veg meatball in all of the land. Welcome, Chris!

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I love meatballs.

I love vegetables too, and eat lots of them, but I’m a pretty committed omnivore. And I reserve a special place in hell for the commercial vegetarian burgers and meatballs that attempt to duplicate the taste of meat – usually with a list of unpronounceable chemicals. Why bother, when vegetables taste so great? Now if a veggie meatball can taste great without loading up on artificial flavorings, and come close to the texture and, well, meatballness of a real meatball, then we’re talking.

A friend alerted me to a wonderful blog post by Sarah Grey on the Serious Eats website. The post, Friday Night Meatballs: How to Change Your Life With Pasta describes her 9-month experiment with “Friday Night Meatballs” in which her family extends an open invitation to friends, relatives, social media contacts, and whoever to come by every Friday night for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. It is a simple yet powerful idea; have company for a sit-down meal once a week, where those from all areas of your life meet and break bread, and take a regular break from your busy life and social isolation.

To keep it simple week after week, you need to serve something that (a) is easy to prepare in large quantity ahead of time, (b) you can specialize in and do well, and (c) almost everyone likes. Meatballs with pasta fits these requirements very nicely.

So my wife and I, with the cooperation and help from a few good friends, decided we wanted to try this. I’m hoping it changes our lives, just a bit.

This leaves a small but important dilemma. While I cook meatballs very well, a significant fraction of my friends are vegetarian, lactose-intolerant, and/or celiac. And both of my recipes feature copious amounts of meat, cheese and bread.

My turkey/spinach meatballs.
Needed an ironic photo for a vegetarian blog.

Hence, my search for the ultimate vegetarian meatball recipe.

Heirloom Tomato Pie

Tomato pie is a perfect summertime dinner. Head to your local farmers market (or to your home garden), pick up some heirlooms and get baking! I paired a slice of pie with some roasted corn on the cob to make it extra-summery. This recipe is adapted from Southern Boy Dishes, and makes one pie.

Homemade Sriracha Salt

I have a friend who loves sriracha, and what do you get for your sriracha-loving friend who already has everything rooster-related? Sriracha salt, I say. I have never flavored salt before and was worried it would be difficult, but honestly, it was so easy. I got the recipe from Radical Possibility and it makes one cup of salt. Keep an eye out for tons of other salt flavors in the future!

Cinnamon-Infused Rum

Infusing alcohol is super-easy because it involves a very passive recipe. Really, you just need to decide which kind of alcohol you'd like to use and which flavors you think would go well with that. I've seen a lot of standard flavors (cinnamon, apple, vanilla, etc.) and a lot of more "wild" flavors (rosemary, pickle, elderberry, etc.). Since this was my first infusion experience, I decided to stick with a standard cinnamon rum. I ended up making about six pints of rum for holiday gifts and a little leftover for myself.

Homemade Trade: Vegan Kimchi

Kimchi is a staple in Korean food, and is totally worth making yourself because you can control the flavor. Essentially, you just need cabbage and patience. I made this kimchi for the homemade trade club (last time I made coconut almond granola, remember?). This version is completely vegan, meaning, unlike a lot of Korean-imported kimchi, it doesn't use fish sauce. My recipe is based on this helpful recipe from Greatist, and makes 24 ounces of kimchi (I split it up into six 4-ounce containers). I look forward to eating this as a side dish or snack, as they do in Korea, or even in a grilled cheese, or a quesadilla, which sounds crazy/delicious. Enjoy!

Leftovers Club: Overnight Oats

Overnight oats have become increasingly interesting to me. I decided to throw some together and send them off for my Leftovers Club post this month. You can essentially add anything to your overnight oats, but because I was sending it out, I couldn't put in any fruit (or anything that couldn't ship, for that matter). Not to fear: I made chocolate, coconut & almond overnight oats! This recipe makes one serving (and was inspired by this post).

July: My Month of 'Eating In'

After reading an interesting series of articles on Food Riot, I became more and more enthralled with the idea of 'eating in' for an entire month. I do like to make my own food, but let's be honest -- I eat out a lot. My eating out has a lot to do with two things: convenience (hey, if I'm out & about all day, I'm not heading home for a meal) and the fact that I love (!) trying new foods. But, hey, I like a good challenge, at least I'm not doing it for an unreasonable amount of time (hey, lady in NYC that has been eating in for two years!), and I think it'd be great for my budget/my cooking skills to try this for an entire month.

I love eating as much as this little turtle does.

Homemade Trade: Coconut Almond Granola

I joined a group called Baltimore Homemade Trade, organized by the lovely Martine (who just guest-blogged this recipe for me). Each month a group of folks get together and trade homemade goods (check out the end of this post for a photo of all of the awesome things I left the event with!). For our inaugural month, I was debating between three or four recipes when I settled on this delicious coconut almond granola. I chose this for two reasons: I ran out of time to make some of the other things on my list, and I am obsessed with pairing almond & coconut flavors. This recipe makes 3 cups of granola and is based off this recipe from Kath Eats Real Food.

Guest Post: Old Bay Cheese Crackers

This weekend, I want to welcome a good friend, Martine, as my guest blogger. She's an amazing (!) cook & is always trying something new in her kitchen. In fact, be sure to go check out her awesome vegetarian food blog. I am thrilled that she offered to guest blog for me (and keep an eye out because I'll be guest blogging something for her this month too!).
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Despite being born and raised in Maryland, I've never eaten crab. What can I say? I was a bit of a picky kid, and then I became a vegetarian fairly early in life. And you know, when I hear people gushing about crab season, I think I'm probably better off not knowing what I'm missing. As a way to cope, I've convinced myself that what everyone's actually excited about is just using the crabs as a vessel to consume hypertension-inducing quantities of Old Bay.

Like any Marylander, I'll pour Old Bay over my french fries and popcorn. I'll put it on anything involving eggs. I'll dump it in a bloody mary, and I even used it to infuse vodka for holiday gifts last year. I brought a can with me when I studied abroad in college because I couldn't bear the thought of five months without it.

And yet, non-Marylanders just don't seem to have the same fervor for my spice blend of choice. My main squeeze Andrew, who is from Ohio, claims that his mother has had the same dusty can in her kitchen cabinet for "probably like twenty years." How does that happen?

Old Bay and sharp cheddar is one of my favorite combinations, so it only made sense to add it to a zippy cheese cracker. I like to use the 30% less sodium version, but the regular will work -- you just will want to start at 1/2 a teaspoon and give your dough a taste test before adding more, because the cheese is very salty as well. This recipe is adapted from smitten kitchen's cheese straws.

Leftovers Club: Peanut Butter Bread

This month for Leftovers Club, I made peanut butter bread and it is magical! It tastes a little like a peanut butter cookie, but not as dessert-y (or, as my partner suggests, "It tastes like victory.") I suggest eating it warm and topped with butter, topped with jelly (your own PB&J!), topped with Nutella, topped with cinnamon apples, topped with vanilla ice cream or simply by itself. The possibilities! I got the recipe from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice and it makes one loaf. My Leftovers Club partner (Dan from Platter Talk) will be very happy!

 

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some super-ripe bananas left over this week and yes, I love banana bread, but I really don't want to eat it every time my bananas get too ripe. (Seriously -- this is a recurring problem that probably could be fixed by my buying less bananas. Oh well.) Anyway, it hit me. Bananas. Peanut Butter. Chocolate. YES. A quick Google search pulled up a few recipes (like this one from How Sweet It is) & I was off to preheating my oven. These cookies were delicious, and next time I might sprinkle a bit of cinnamon in them, or something wild like that. This recipe makes a dozen large cookies & I hope you enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

I saw this recipe on Table for Two's blog and I could not resist. I mean, this pesto is perfect on sandwiches, in pasta, and you can dip things like bread, veggies, and even your fingers directly into it. No, seriously, it's that good.

Leftovers Club: Coconut Lime Cake from Diethood

Update to my last post about The Leftovers Club! I sent out my vanilla biscotti and I received a delicious food package in return. (Can I please mention how much I love the concept of this food bloggers' club?) Katerina from Diethood (which she has self-titled 'not a diet-food food blog') sent me quite a few slices of an amazing Coconut Lime Cake.

The cake was dense and moist (even after being shipped across state lines), with a sweet, but not overpowering flavor. Because she used cream of coconut, I could definitely taste the coconut, but the texture of the coconut was absent (which is great for those folks that are weird about the texture of coconut). The lime flavor was a very light accent taste, but definitely complemented the coconut flavor. In summary: I'm in love with this cake.

Be sure to follow Katerina on Pinterest, like her on Facebook, follow her blog, and follow her on Twitter. She's lovely and I'm so glad I was paired with such a great blogger for The Leftovers Club's first month!



Sound like fun? Visit The Leftovers Club website for more information!

Leftovers Club: Spiced Vanilla Honey Biscotti

Jennifer of Savory Simple is spearheading The Leftovers Club, which is a network of food bloggers sending non-perishable leftovers from the recipes that we make. Most of the time, especially with baked goods, I end up making at least a dozen, if not more, of one recipe. For the most part, I bring the leftovers to work, but why not send them over to other food bloggers and receive some treats in return? It's a great idea!

 This week, I decided to make a spiced vanilla honey biscotti. Biscotti is perfect to send in the mail to my Leftovers Club partner, but also because I hosted a clothing swap this weekend and it was a great treat for my guests. This recipe makes one dozen biscotti (or two loaves).

Homemade Hamantaschen

Happy Purim, everyone! I am technically not Jewish, but I absolutely love celebrating Jewish food holidays because, honestly, no other culture parties & eats even half as good! I luckily have a good friend, Rebecca, who teaches me a lot about the Jewish culture. Rebecca held a Hamantaschen Baking Party this weekend and it was just so much fun and so delicious. Below is the recipe that we used (modeled closely to this recipe she found online) and some photos of our adventure. One batch made about 20-30 cookies (this will vary slightly depending on the sizes in which you choose to cut them out). Oh, and if you're interested in learning the story behind Purim and the origin of Hamantaschen, click here!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Make this one time and you'll never buy those store-bought packets again (those things are packed with sodium anyway!). This seasoning is great for tacos, chili, fajitas, or whatever you'd like to make a little spicier. I just filled a jar and keep it in my pantry with the other spices, and it also makes a great gift. The recipe below gives you the spice ratio, and you can make as much or as little as you'd like.