A lot going on in there...

I’ve been on sort of a never-ending quest to find the perfect lunch salad. It’s tricky business because you want something that had plenty of filling ingredients so you can make it through the afternoon. Ideally, it would also keep really well so you can take it for an entire week.

Oh. It also needs to taste really, really good so you don’t get bored with it.

You can see a lot of my previous lunch salad attempts in the Macheesmo salads category. I try a bunch out that I don’t always post as well. I try to only post the really outstanding ones.

Which would easily include this one.

In fact, this one might have been my favorite to-date. The funny part is that it was inspired largely on a pre-made salad that Betsy grabbed at a local grocery store one day when I completely failed at making a lunch salad. It was so good that she asked me to try to re-do it. I added a bunch more veggies and stuff to it, but the idea is basically the same.

Asian Quinoa Salad

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, cooked according to package
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, seeded and diced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 scallions, minced
4-5 radishes, sliced thin
1/3 Cup soy sauce (dressing)
1 Tablespoon mirin rice wine vinegar (dressing)
1 Teaspoon spicy sesame oil (optional for dressing)
Chopped peanuts
Chopped fresh basil
Toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1) Cook quinoa according to package.

2) Chop veggies finely and stir in with cooked quinoa.

3) Drizzle in dressing a bit at a time. Taste and adjust with more dressing if necessary. You might not need all of it.

4) Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes on medium heat until the seeds are lightly browned and fragrant.

5) Stir in peanuts, seeds, and basil.

Making the Quinoa

Quinoa sounds all fancy (and can sometimes come with a fancy price tag), but it’s surprisingly easy to make. You should read the instructions on the package since there are a few different varieties of quinoa. In general though, rinse the quinoa with cold water and then get some water simmering in a large pot. Usually you want a 2-to-1 ratio, water-to-quinoa.

Once the water is simmering pour in the rinsed quinoa, cover it, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Then kill the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then lightly fluff it up and you’ll have a really delicious quinoa!

quin-wow.

Prepping Other Ingredients

The list of veggies you could toss in this salad is pretty endless. I’d recommending using whatever you have in your fridge that might go well in it. For me this included some cucumber, red pepper, onions, and shredded carrots. I also picked up some really beautiful radishes at the market on this given week and I figured they would give the salad a nice crunch also.

One thing I wouldn’t add to this salad is any kind of cheese like feta. Sometimes I like adding cheeses to salads like this, but in this case I think it would be too much.

Colorful stuff!

As far as prepping the veggies go, just try to get them sliced up pretty finely. You don’t want any huge chunks of any one thing. For the cucumber, I would remove the seeds, but you can leave on the skin if you want.

These were my radishes after a quick dice.

Go pretty thin on everything.

Once everything is in the bowl with the quinoa it’s a really pretty mix.

Hard to get healthier than this!

The Dressing

I kept the dressing pretty simple for this salad. You could fancy it up a bit with some fresh ginger and/or garlic, but I this was a quick and easy dressing that definitely go the job done.

You can definitely leave out the sesame chili oil or sub it with normal sesame oil, but I do think it’s a really nice touch.

Peanut are optional... only if you're allergic.

Just mix up the soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil and drizzle it over the salad. Depending on your tastes you might not need all the dressing so I would add about half of it and then adjust the flavor.

It’s pretty hard to remove soy sauce from a salad like this so start slow.

Add a bit at a time.

Once you add some dressing, stir it all together and then taste it. Just adjust it to your tastes at that point!

The Bonus Items

There’s a few bonus items that I think kick this salad up a notch. I added a few handfuls of chopped peanuts, a big handful of fresh basil which I just diced up and a few Tablespoons of sesame seeds.

Sesame seeds can be a tiny bit bland straight out of the box, but if you toast them for a few minutes in a dry pan, they become lightly browned and really fragrant.

So I recommend toasting them.

Love the smell of these guys.

You could add the garnishes to the top if you want, but I just stirred everything together.

This is supposed to be a low maintenance dish after all.

Lunch every day!

Honestly, this is about as healthy as a salad can get in my opinion. It’s got tons of veggies and flavor to get you going. If you wanted to add even more protein to it you could add some chicken or tofu, but I didn’t even think it needed it.

It’s a great change from the standard deli bar salad or whatever.

About as healthy as it gets!

After a week of vacation eating mainly seafood and butter, Betsy and I were in the mood for some healthy stuff when we got home.

I wondered through the produce section and picked out a few things that looked particularly good (green beans/corn). To make a meal out of them, I tossed them with some spicy sesame soba noodles.

Turned out to be really flavorful and one of my favorite healthy dishes in a while.

Summer Soba

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1 9.5 ounce package of soba, cooked according to package
1-2 Cups green beans
2 ears corn
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 Cup carrots, shredded
2 scallions, only greens
1-2 Tablespoons sesame oil (or chili sesame oil), for soba
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (for cooking)
Fresh basil (garnish)
Chopped peanuts (garnish)

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin
- 1 Serrano pepper, diced with seeds
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 inches fresh ginger, grated

Directions:

1) Prep all veggies and set them aside.

2) Cook soba according to package then drain and toss with sesame oil.

3) Mix sauce ingredients being sure to mince ginger/garlic/pepper well.

4) In a large skillet, add oil and then all the veggies except carrots and scallions.

5) Cook veggies on high heat for a few minutes until hot, but still a bit crunchy.

6) Add sauce to pan and cook for another minute or two until sauce is fragrant.

7) Add soba to pan and stir together well. Then stir in carrots and scallions.

8) Serve with chopped basil and peanuts.

Prepping the Ingredients

The veggies that I used for this are by no means the only ones you could use. Almost any fresh summer veggie would be great tossed in with this dish, so don’t feel limited by what I included.

Good summer stuff.

Assuming you do use some of the veggies I used though, prepping them is pretty straightforward. Dice up the red pepper, snap off the ends of the green beans and chop them in half. Cut the corn off the cob.

Pretty easy prep.

In essence, this is a stir-fry recipe, so I mixed up a very quick and simple sauce for it. Nothing too heavy, but just to give the dish some flavor.

Not pictured: Serrano pepper

Mince up the garlic, pepper, and ginger really finely and then stir it together with the soy sauce and mirin.

Seriously awesome sauce.

Cooking the Soba

If you aren’t familiar with soba, don’t fret. It’s basically pasta except made with buckwheat. This gives it a really unique flavor (almost nutty). It also takes no time to cook. Most soba cooks in just a few minutes.

Pretty things.

The thing about soba is that it’s a really sticky pasta. After you cook it and drain it, you’ll want to toss it with some oil or you’ll end up with one big block of pasta that will be pretty hard to work with.

But if you pour over a few tablespoons of sesame oil then it will flavor the pasta and also keep it from sticking. If you want to add some heat do the dish, you can use sesame chili oil!

Oil is key.

Finishing the Dish

Once your veggies are prepped and your pasta is cooked, this is a pretty straightforward dish to make.

Add a few tablespoons of oil to a large skillet and toss in all your veggies (except carrots and scallions) over high heat. Cook these for just a few minutes. You want to make sure that they still have a bit of crunch to them.

Don't over-cook this!

Then stir in the sauce and let it heat up and get fragrant for a minute or two.

Finally, add in all the soba and stir the whole thing together. As a final step, stir in the carrots and scallions and you’re all set!

Yum.

Serve the soba immediately with fresh basil and peanuts on top.

Very colorful and healthy dish.

Health in a bowl.

One of my favorite things about soba is that unlike some other pastas, it maybe tastes even better cold. So leftovers are perfect for a weekday lunch or something.

Summer soba was a total hit at my house. It’s a perfect use for some of the delicious veggies available these days.

It's a banana people.

I’m assuming that I have at least a few Arrested Development fans reading.

The whole time I was making these guys, I was replaying this scene (Hulu w/ sound) in my mind:

George: You what?
Michael: Burned it right down to the ground.
George: Are you crazy? There was money in that banana stand.
Michael: Well, it’s all gone now dad, and it was my decision. So next time you want to have a little power struggle, remember that you’re playing with fire.
George: There was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars lining the walls of the banana stand.
Michael: What?
George: Cash, Michael.
Michael: Why didn’t you tell me that?
George: How much clearer can I say, there’s always MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND!

Seriously though, after having one of these for dessert one night, I can see how there is definitely money in a frozen banana stand. These were completely delicious.

The Frozen Elvis

Yield: Makes 4.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 bananas, cut in half
2 strips bacon, crispy
1/3 Cup peanuts, chopped
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1/4 Cup milk, cream, or half and half
4 Popsicle sticks

Directions:

1) Peel and cut bananas in half and insert popsicle sticks.

2) Lay bananas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze for an hour.

3) Cook bacon until crispy and drain. Chop with peanuts. Set aside.

4) Melt chocolate and cream together in a double boiler or in the microwave if you're careful.

5) Make a bed of toppings on the baking sheet where you'll place the bananas.

6) Dip frozen bananas in chocolate and lay on topping bed.

7) Sprinkle with more toppings and freeze for another 30 minutes.

8) Serve whenever the mood strikes you!

From On A Stick.

The Elvis, Frozen

There’s a pretty classic sandwich that I guess Elvis always ate which was banana, peanut butter, and bacon on toast. This genius take on it is from Matt Armendariz’s new book, On a Stick! I met Matt at SXSW this year. We were on a panel together.

He’s written a totally fun appetizer book. There’s around 80 awesome recipes in it, all of them involving things on sticks!

This frozen version of the classic sandwich makes it much easier to, well, put on a stick.

Start by cutting all your bananas in half and sticking a few popsicle sticks in them. Lay them on a baking sheet with parchment paper and let them freeze for about an hour.

Always money in bananas!

The Toppings

Incorporating the peanuts and bacon as a topping is pretty genius.

The key is to make sure your bacon is cooked very crispy. I do this by cooking it on a medium-low heat for about 15-20 minutes. This way the bacon won’t burn, but the fat will slowly melt out leaving the bacon very crispy.

Can't go wrong with bacon!

Let the bacon drain for a few minutes with some paper towels to absorb the oil and then chop it up roughly with some peanuts.

As an aside, this would be an amazing topping for an ice cream sundae.

Awesome topping alert!

The Chocolate

So obviously bacon and peanuts won’t just magically stick to a frozen banana, so we’ll need some help.

Nothing like chocolate to do the trick. Just add your chocolate and cream (or milk) to a mixing bowl over some boiling water. Stir it until it’s melted.

You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave if you’re careful. Just be sure to not over-zap it or you’ll scorch it.

Yum.

Making the Desserts

It should be pretty obvious what you do at this point. Just take your frozen bananas out of the freezer (they might not be entirely frozen which is fine) and give them a dip in the chocolate. Use a spoon to make sure they are covered completely.

This is easy people.

THE TRICK that I learned only after failing at one is that you need to lay down a bed of toppings to set the choco-banana on after it comes out of the bowl.

If you lay the banana right back on your cold baking sheet, the chocolate will freeze to the baking sheet and when you pull it off later you’ll leave a layer of chocolate on the sheet and only have a half-coated banana. NO GOOD.

But if you do a bed of toppings, like this, then you can set the banana on that and it’ll stay slightly raised off the sheet.

Important step!

Don’t forget to sprinkle toppings all around the bananas so they are evenly coated.

Freeze these a second time for at least 30 minutes and then you can chomp into them!

Not only are these super-fun to make and eat, they also happen to be very good.

CHOMP.

You know what’s shocking about these is that they aren’t actually that bad for you. Half a banana, a relatively small amount of chocolate, plus a tiny amount of bacon and peanuts?

I’d guess this is better for you than an ice cream sundae and I found it to be just as satisfying. The banana kind of melts as you eat it and is nice and creamy.

And the salty sweet thing is right up my alley.

How good do these look? Leave a comment if you’re an Elvis fan (sandwich or singer).

Good stuff!

I ran a test on Twitter last week that pretty much confirmed what I thought was true. I sent out a quick Tweet asking for people to send me their favorite granola ingredients. Here’s a quick sampling of the dozen or so responses I got:

- @jessicabair: Honey & Blueberries
– @lowrha: Maple syrup, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and dried strawberries.
– @gardenvarieties: coconut, dried fig & apricot, pecans.
– @outlawdiva: Sesame seeds, oats, flax seeds, walnuts, cashews, raisins (all colors), currants, honey, maple syrup.
– @onmaggiesfarm: Maple syrup, almonds, unsweetened coconut. I mix up the flavor with spices: cardamom, nutmeg, ginger.
– @melissamauk: Applesauce, pepitas, brown rice syrup and oats.

Honestly, it was probably my most responded to tweet ever. People have opinions about granola and all their opinions are different!

So I called my theory confirmed… my theory, of course, being that you can put almost anything in granola.

Because of this, it’s the perfect way to clean out your pantry and use up extra nuts, spices, and fruits. So let’s make some!

Kitchen Sink Granola

Yield: 9-10 Cups

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

6 Cups rolled oats
2 Cups of any nuts that you have on hand (I used peanuts, almonds, and pecans)
1 Cup Sweetener (maple syrup, honey, agave, rice syrup, etc)
1-2 Cups dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, etc)
1 Teaspoon cinnamon (always a good idea)
1 Teaspoon salt (necessary)
Up two 2 Teaspoons of other spices (cardamom, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, etc.)
Various seeds (poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds...)
Up to 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Grind any whole spices you are using and roughly chop nuts.

2) Add spices, seeds, and nuts to oats and mix well to combine.

3) Add sweetener to mixture and stir well.

4) Spread granola out onto two baking sheets. Make sure there is an even layer on both sheets.

5) Bake granola at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes. Keep a really close eye on it.

6) Remove granola once it's golden brown and let it cool for a few minutes.

7) Add dried fruit to granola and let it cool completely.

8) Stir in a large plastic bag and serve with yogurt or milk.

Cleaning house

This might surprise you, but I have a pretty ridiculous pantry on any given day. Because I make a very wide range of dishes here on Macheesmo, I have a drawer full of almost any spice you could want, a full inventory of nuts and seeds, various dried fruits, and a ton of other random stuff.

And sometimes, I need to clean house. This is the perfect recipe for such a task. Out of all the things in my kitchen sink granola, I only bought two items: Oats and agave syrup. I had honey and maple syrup in my pantry also, but I wanted to try agave so I picked some up.

So I encourage you to use what you have for this recipe and not copy me exactly. It’ll be good. Trust me.

Go crazy.

The Method

While it isn’t really all that important what you put in your granola, it is important how you make it. You’re shooting for a nice crunchy granola that’s toasted, but not burned. It’s a very fine line.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I needed to grind up some whole spices. If you have them, use them, otherwise don’t. I wouldn’t buy new spices just for this recipe frankly.

All are pretty optional.

Mix your oats with all the spices and seeds very well. I had a spice attack for this version!

Get it?

The Agave

I’ve never used agave syrup before and it’s becoming the talk of the town so I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon.

Since agave is the same stuff that Tequila is made from, I was pretty sure this syrup would make me puke and blackout, but it did nothing of the sort. Probably because it doesn’t have alcohol in it, but still. I was worried.

Really the only purchase I made...

In actuality, it’s a really good syrup. It has a very unique flavor and it isn’t quite as sweet as honey. I think it worked great for granola.

Once I had all my spices, nuts, and seeds mixed in with my oats, I added my agave and stirred it all together!

The sweet stuff.

Baking the granola

Ok. The tricky part is baking this stuff. Spoon out the granola mixture onto two baking sheets and try to make sure the granola is in a pretty even layer over the sheets. This will make sure it cooks evenly.

Nice and even.

Bake this stuff at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Stir it every few minutes, five at the most. This is really important because the edges will cook slightly faster than the center and if you don’t stir it often, you’ll end up with burned edges.

As it gets closer to being done, check it very frequently, every three minutes or so. You definitely don’t want to burn the stuff, but you do want it to be golden brown. It’s a bit tricky, but as long as you keep an eye on it, you should be okay.

In short, this is not a recipe where you can walk away from the kitchen and do something else for 30 minutes and expect to come back to anything edible.

But if you keep an eye on it and stir it frequently, you’ll be well rewarded with some beautiful granola.

Careful not to burn it!

The Fruits

Once your granola comes out of the oven, let it cool for 5-10 minutes and then toss in any dried fruit that you want to add to it. Again, I added some dried cherries and cranberries because that’s what I had on hand.

Some dried fruit.

Once the granola is cooled completely you can store it in a large freezer bag.

This stuff will keep for weeks without a problem.

It blends in pretty well actually!

I like to eat mine with milk, but Betsy likes hers with yogurt.

It also happens that I made granola that almost exactly matches the counters in my kitchen.

Am I right or what?

I like it as a cereal.

If your pantries are looking slightly overrun these days or if you’re just sick of your normal breakfasts, this is a really good way to use stuff up and change stuff up!

So, I have to ask. What’s your favorite granola ingredients? Leave a comment!

Puttin' my grill to use.

If you’ve been a long time Macheesmo reader (thanks!) then you probably know that one thing I disliked about my cooking setup in DC was that no-grill situation. I had no space for a grill and it drove me crazy. It was one of my top priorities to snag a snazzy grill when I moved to Colorado.

These rants did not fall on deaf ears and my loving mother and mother-in-law pitched in to get us a really nice gas grill. And if you think for a second that I’m just not going to grill because it’s December well then you have a new thing comin’!

Now. Some people might be a bit disappointed that the first grilled thing I’m choosing to post on Macheesmo is tofu, and so let me just address that right away.

1) The first thing I grilled was actually steak. I couldn’t think of a better way to break-in a grill.
2) Tofu is delicious so just get over it.

Grilled Tofu with Spicy Soba

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into 6-8 triangles.
1 10 ounce package of soba noodles
1 Cup fresh basil, loosely packed
1/2 Cup parsley, loosely packed
2 cloves garlic
1 red jalapeno pepper (doesn't have to be red). You could use any number of chilis for this.
2 inches fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Pinch of salt
Sesame oil for tofu

Directions:

1) Press tofu under a flat surface with a bit of weight to press out some of the water. Then slice tofu into triangle pieces that work well for grilling.

2) Brush tofu with sesame oil and set aside until ready to grill.

3) Combine pesto ingredients into a food processor and pulse until a paste. If you don't have a food processor, you can mince all the ingredients well and stir together.

4) Cook soba noodles according to package and then drain and toss with pesto.

5) Grill tofu over medium-high heat for 6 minutes a side, turning 90 degrees halfway through to make criss-cross marks.

6) Serve tofu over soba noodles.

Making the Pesto

This is kind of a modern, Asian slant on pesto. I’m not even sure if it’s cool to call it pesto, but that’s what I’m calling it because it’s just a few things mixed into a paste basically and served over noodles.

Awesome flavors.

If you have a food processor, you can just minimally chop the herbs and stuff and then toss them all in the processor for a few quick pulses.

If you don’t, then make sure you mince all your ingredients really well. The last thing you want is a big chuck of pepper or garlic in with your soba. It should be a pretty even texture.

Add in the oils and vinegar near the end. The little bit of liquid helps bring the pesto together.

Pesto 2.0.

Soba

If you’ve never cooked with soba, I’d really encourage you to give it a shot. If you can make spaghetti, then you can make soba. The only difference is the flavor. While spaghetti can be a bit bland, soba has a fantastic flavor on its own. It’s a bit nutty and is fantastic with the other flavors in this dish.

Soba soba.

Just cook the soba according to the package. Be sure not to overcook it or it’ll get really mushy. When it’s done, drain it and then immediately toss it with all the pesto.

This is a pasta that’s great hot or cold and makes awesome leftovers the next day.

Yum.

The Tofu

This might shock you, but tofu is actually really easy to grill. There’s no need to worry about cooking it all the way through or anything like that. Basically, all you’re looking for is to heat it up, get some nice grill marks on it, and infuse some nice flavor.

Anytime you are grilling or pan frying (which you can do for this recipe if you don’t have a grill), it helps to press the tofu block between a few paper towels with some weight on top to get out a lot of the liquid in the tofu. Then you can chop it up.

The only issue with tofu is that it does have a tendency to stick to things. So, I brushed all of my triangles with sesame oil which made them easy to move around on the grill.

Sesame oil is key.

I turned my grill on medium-high heat and grilled these guys for about 6 minutes a side, turning them 90 degrees at 3 minutes to get some criss-cross marks.

The criss-cross gives the tofu a nice even grilled texture over the whole piece. It also looks good!

BAM.

While your noodles are cooking and your tofu is grilling, you can chop up some scallions and peanuts for topping the dish.

Optional stuff. Sort of.

Then just toss a tofu triangle or two on a big mound of soba and add some garnish if you want.

It’s a really healthy dish that’s definitely not lacking in the flavor department.

Healthy stuff.

I don’t know if you guys picked up on this from this post but…

I’M REALLY EXCITED TO HAVE A GRILL.

Anybody a grilled tofu fan? Leave a comment!

Tastes like Thanksgiving!

It’s always a good idea to have a bunch of snacks out for people during a holiday feast. This is because it’ll take you 2 hours longer than you expected to actually get dinner on the table.

Oh sorry. I’m projecting again.

I always like to have snacks out that way I don’t feel pressured if dinner is a few minutes (120 say) late.

Peanut brittle is a great treat for just such a thing, but sometimes I find it to be too sweet so I thought I’d add some herbs and spices to it to change it up a bit. Betsy and I brought this big bag of Thanksgiving toffee to a party and the verdict was split: Betsy didn’t like it. Everybody else did.

What’s that they say about your loved ones being your biggest critics??

As an aside it happens to be my biggest critic’s birthday today… so Happy Birthday Darlin’!

Ok. Sorry. Back to toffee.

Thanksgiving Toffee

Yield: 2 sheets

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup water
1 Cup peanuts
1 Cup walnuts
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 Teaspoon fresh sage
1 Teaspoon fresh rosemary
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
2 Teaspoons baking soda
4 Tablespoons butter

Helpful Equipment:
Silpat Baking mats
Candy Thermometer

Directions:

1) Prepare all ingredients before you start cooking toffee.

2) In a large pot over medium-high heat, add sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir and cook until sugar is dissolved and syrup reaches 280-285 degrees.

3) Stir in nuts, herbs, spices, and salt. Keep cooking until toffee reaches 310 degrees.

4) Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and butter.

5) Spread toffee out on silpats or parchment paper. Let toffee cool to room temperature.

6) Break toffee up and enjoy!

The thing about toffee

Toffee is a really simple thing to make up to a point. You just stir a bunch of stuff together until it’s ready and then spread it out and let it dry. Sounds easy right?

The trick is knowing when to stop cooking because if you cook it for a minute too long, you’ll burn the stuff.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. To start, you need some sugar and corn syrup.

Not great for you but oh well.

And some chopped herbs and spices. My favorite part of this toffee was actually the red pepper flakes. The spice worked great with the sweetness of the toffee.

I also overdid it on the sage. Sage is a pretty intense flavor and kind of overpowered my candy. I toned it down in the recipe though.

Too much sage!

You could use almost any kind of nut for this. Peanuts are standard and you could use all peanuts if you wanted. I decided to throw in some walnuts also.

This is getting nuts.

No matter what herbs or nuts you use, make sure you have everything ready before you start on the toffee because you don’t want to have to waste time measuring or chopping once the toffee is going.

Making the Toffee

Start by adding the water, sugar, and corn syrup into a heavy pot.

Serious Syrup

You will 100% want to use a candy thermometer for this. The only reason why you would be able to do this without a candy thermometer is if you’ve made toffee for like 20 years and can tell when it’s ready by sight. Of course, if you’ve been making toffee for 20 years then you probably also have a candy thermometer.

SO use a candy thermometer no matter what.

Stir this mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and the temperature is 280-285 degrees. That’s very hot by the way, so don’t touch it or anything.

I know this because I accidentally drizzles some hot syrup on my skin and it burned like Hades.

Anyway, when your toffee mixture reaches the right temperature which will take about 10 minutes probably, very quickly stir in all your nuts, salt, herbs, and spices.

You’ll end up with something like this. It’ll be sticky for sure.

Temperature is very important.

Keep stirring and keep it on the heat until it reaches 310 degrees. This part will go really fast and is the tricky part. Try not to let it go too far over 310 degrees or the sugar will start to burn.

You need to keep stirring it constantly and keep your eye on the temperature. For stirring, use a silicon spatula if you have one. The toffee mixture won’t really stick to it.

Spreading the Toffee

Once your toffee reaches the right temperature, take it off the heat and quickly stir in the butter and baking soda. Then pour it out onto a silpat. If you don’t have a silpat, get one. They rule.

But you can also use parchment paper I think. The toffee shouldn’t stick to it.

Work quickly and spread it out as thin as you can.

Work quickly people.

I needed two Silpats for mine so plan accordingly.

Let the toffee cool to room temperature and then you should be able to break it up into shards. This is the fun part.

Take out some aggression!

I thought this stuff was pretty addictive which is always the sign of a good toffee. In all honesty though, I think it would’ve rocked with just the spicy pepper flakes in it. That was the part that did it for me.

Toffee is an easy thing to play around with once you get the technique down.

What do you think? Does herbs in toffee sound like a good idea?

And that’s why homemade peanut butter rocks. Is it faster or healthier than buying peanut butter in the store? It’s probably not faster and probably equally healthy. Is it cheaper? Well, actually it is, but that’s kind of secondary to the fact that it’s a lot of fun!

Making peanut butter is one of those things you can do with your kids. It’s like a magic show. You start with, well, peanuts and you end up with this delicious stuff.

Umm... easy.

This is kind of comical, but I’ll list the ingredients to this meal just for fun.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Yield: 2 Cups

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups peanuts
1 Teaspoon neutral oil (opt.)

Directions:

1) Pulse peanuts in a food processor until they form a rough paste.

2) Depending on the peanuts, it might help to add a small drizzle of oil to get the peanuts to come together.

3) Once the peanut butter is made, serve it immediately or store it for up to a few weeks in the fridge.

You can make peanut butter with literally just peanuts, but it takes awhile. If you add just a few drops of neutral oil you can really speed up the process. It’s seriously magical.

You start with, well…

The ingredients...

I used roasted and salted peanuts but you don’t need to necessarily use those. If I didn’t use salted, I’d probably hit my peanut butter with just a pinch of salt near the end.

Anyway, add your peanuts to a food processor. I used my little mini processor. I added about two cups of peanuts to start.

Is this really going to work?

Then just start pulsing the peanuts! At first, it won’t seem like you’re getting anywhere other than making a lot of chopped peanuts. Stop here if you need nuts for a sundae. Otherwise keep going!

Ok... chopped peanuts.

Keep your finger on the trigger. At this point, I’ve pulsed my peanuts for probably 30-45 seconds.

Chopped even more!

I honestly think that if I would’ve kept at it, it would’ve formed peanut butter, but to speed up the process I added a very small amount of canola oil (1 teaspoon). After another few seconds of pulsing it started to get creamy.

This is when the kids would say, “WHOA!”

Now we're getting there.

After another few seconds of pulsing, you’ll have very legit peanut butter.

Awesome.

So I left my peanut butter pretty plain, but the obvious advantage of making your own is you could experiment with add-ins. Honey? Cinnamon? Cayenne? Who knows. Go crazy!

Very peanuty.

I’ll tell you one thing about this peanut butter that I loved: It tasted like peanuts! It was actually somewhere in between the creamy and chunky varieties that you’ll find in the store, but the flavor was really deep and intense.

I actually made this batch around lunch time over a weekend so I decided to use it for lunch!

For half the lunch, I made some toast and slathered one piece of toast with peanut butter and one with honey.

Jelly would be the obvious choice.

Slap those together and you’ll have a pretty tasty sandwich. I also couldn’t resist making some classic ants on a log!

Awesome lunch.

Start to finish, I’d say this took me 15 minutes to do and I’ll admit that it would definitely be faster to reach for the jar. But it was really cool.

If I had kids, I think it’d be fun to have a peanut butter party. Make a bunch of peanut butter with the kids and then provide a bunch of fun mix-ins. Everyone can make their own sandwiches out of their own peanut butter!

What do you think? What would you add in?

Anyway, I made a dish very simple to this a few months ago, but the technique that they recommend in Cook’s Illustrated for stir-frying broccoli is definitely different than the one I used. It produced great results though.

Warning: If you’re not a broc lover, maybe you should skip this post and just check out a random recipe or something.

Pretty tasty... assuming you like broccoli.

But assuming you even somewhat like the green stuff, this is a great dish. It’s very healthy and just left me feeling energized. Betsy had the same review and even handled the leftovers before I could have any!

Stir-Fried Broccoli

Yield: Serves 3-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds broccoli, cut florets into 1/2 inch pieces. Peel stalk and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Garlic oil:
2 Teaspoon vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 Teaspoon red pepper flake

Main sauce:
1/3 Cup chicken broth (homemade is best)
1 Tablespoon dry sherry (I substituted rice vinegar)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
1 Teaspoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Thai chili sauce (or chili-garlic sauce)
1/2 Teaspoon Sriracha (optional)

Toppings:
Chopped peanuts
Sesame seeds
Broccoli sprouts

Directions:

1) Cut broccoli into even-sized pieces. Peel the stalk and cut it into about 1/4 inch pieces. You can go as big as 1/2 inch pieces for the florets.

2) Prepare the rice according to package.

3) Combine garlic oil ingredients in a small bowl and let them marinate a bit.

4) Whisk together main sauce ingredients in a separate bowl as well.

5) Add broccoli to a large skillet over medium heat with a drizzle of oil. This will give the broccoli time to steam a bit as it cooks.

6) After about 6 minutes of cooking, add sugar to the broccoli and continue to cook. The sugar should caramelize the broccoli a bit.

7) Right before broccoli is cooked, make a small well in the pan and add in the garlic oil mixture. Let it cook for 15 seconds in the hot spot and then mix everything together.

8) Finally add the main sauce and stir. Cook for about a minute and the sauce should thicken immediately.

9) Serve the broccoli over rice with extra Sriracha and/or chopped peanuts and sesame seeds.

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated.

Prepping the Broc

One of the most important things about this recipe is making sure you take your time prepping the broccoli.

Big Stalks.

You need to make sure that the stalks and florets are cut into evenly sized pieces or the dish won’t cook evenly. The stalk pieces are much harder to cook so cut them into smaller pieces. I did about 1/2 inch pieces for my florets and 1/4 inch pieces for my stalk.

The exact size isn’t as important as making sure that your pieces are uniform.

Also, before you cut up your stalk, remember to peel it! The outside skin of the stalk is really tough, but the inside is tender and tasty.

Peeling and Chopping...

The Sauces

Besides the broccoli, there are three things you need to do to get this meal ready. You want to make sure to do all of these or at least get them started before actually starting to cook your broccoli. The cooking will go fast once it’s started.

Rice – Gotta have rice with this meal in my opinion. I used some Basmati, but use whatever you have available.

Garlic Chili Oil – We’ll add this to our broc near the end, but basically just combine your oil, chopped garlic, and red pepper flakes in a bowl and let them chill for now.

Spicy oil!

The main sauce – The main sauce for the broccoli has a chicken broth base. I beefed my version up a bit from the one they had in the magazine by adding some sriracha to it.

The chicken broth I used was some I had frozen from the stock I made after my five spice roasted chicken. See! Making stock does pay off later!

A bit spicier than the original

Basically, just whisk together all of your sauce ingredients so the cornstarch doesn’t clump and then you’re all set!

Very good sauce.

Cooking the broccoli

I’ve had pretty good success stir-frying broccoli in the past by steaming it slightly first and then cooking in a blazing hot pan.

The method they recommend give you the best of both worlds but definitely contradicts what I think of when I think of stir-fry. For one, the recommend against using a wok. Instead, they recommend a heavy skillet.

Second, instead of high heat, they say to cook over a medium high heat which will give the broccoli time to steam a bit while cooking.

Third, and most strangely of all, the say to sprinkle a tiny pinch of sugar on it cooks. This will bring out the sweetness in the broccoli and also help to caramelize it a bit.

All of these things worked like a charm for me!

I added my broccoli to a hot pan with a Tablespoon or two of oil over medium high heat and let it cook for a few minutes, stirring every minute or two. Then I hit it with a pinch of sugar and stirred more. My broc was perfectly cooked and a bit brown after 10 minutes!

Adding the Sauces

CI recommends adding the garlic oil after your broccoli is mostly cooked so it doesn’t burn. Following their lead, I made a well in my pan and poured the oil garlic mixture right in the center!

Their method. Not mine.

Let that cook over the same heat for literally 15-20 seconds. Then mix it all together with your garlic.

Next, add your main sauce to the mix. It should start bubbling immediately. Stir continuously for the next minute or so and the sauce should cook down pretty substantially.

It should coat the broccoli but not be really thick like some sauces that you get with take-out dishes.

This was how my finished version looked:

Not goopey at all!

I plated my stir-fry over rice and drizzled it with a little extra Sriracha for more heat and topped it with chopped peanuts and sesame seeds for some texture.

Gotta serve on rice.

I think my previous method of quickly steaming the broc and then stir-frying it over high heat works equally well, but this is a bit easier and only requires one pot.

It’s a great way to guarantee good results with stir-fried broccoli and the sauce is really awesome.

The sauce is spicy enough to give tons of flavor to the dish and I don’t really miss the meat!

Spicy and healthy!

This dish is very flexible. I’ve made it twice now two completely different ways. The sauce is very adjustable and I’ve topped it with peanuts or cashews, different kinds of sprouts, and scallions one time and cilantro one time. So go crazy with it!

Broccoli Pad Thai

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds broccoli, cut into florets
1 package (14 ounces) rice noodles
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Sauce:
1/4 Cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons fish sauce (obviously leave this out if you are shooting for a true vegetarian version)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon chili sauce (I used a chili garlic sauce one time. It was awesome. Also adjust this to your heat desires.)
1 lime, juice only
3 inches ginger, peeled and grated

Garnishes:
Peanuts or cashews, chopped
Sprouts, bean or broccoli are good
Scallions
Cilantro
More chili sauce or soy sauce to taste!

Helpful Equipment:
Wok
Vegetable Steamer

Directions:

1) Chop off all florets from the broccoli, cutting them so they are basically the same size. Peel the stalk and chop it as well (optional).

2) Par-cook the broccoli until it’s cooked but still slightly crunchy. You could do this in a pan or other options to cooking the broccoli are to use a steamer for four minutes or blanching the florets in salted, boiling water for about 3 minutes and then shock them in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. They should be bright green when they’re done and cooked but still slightly crunchy.

3) Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. This should involve putting them in boiling water (off the heat) for about 15 minutes. Remember to use a lot of water (one gallon per package). Also, be sure to stir every few minutes.

4) Drain the noodles through a colander and give them a rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

5) Lightly beat a few eggs.

6) Whisk sauce ingredients up in a bowl.

7) Add sauce to a hot pan or wok. Once it is hot, add all noodles and begin stirring to combine the noodles and the sauce for a few minutes.

8) Once the noodles are hot and the sauce is reducing, add eggs and stir more. The eggs should cook almost instantly.

9) Add broccoli and keep stirring.

10) After a minute or two of cooking, it should be done. The sauce should be reduced down and thick and the noodles and broccoli should be hot and the egg cooked.

11) Serve with toppings – sprouts, nuts, soy sauce, chili sauce, etc.

Preparing the Broccoli

The first thing I like to do for this meal is prep the broccoli. Start by chopping off all the florets. If some are larger, cut them in half so they are basically the same size. If you wanted to you could peel the broccoli stalk and chop it up as well. I just used the florets though.

Next, you want to par-cook the broccoli until it’s cooked but still slightly crunchy. Soggy broccoli does not make a good Pad Thai. If you have a steamer, that’s probably the easiest, but I also made this one time and blanched the florets in salted, boiling water for about 4 minutes and then shocked them in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. That worked just as well as steaming. If you are steaming though, they’ll probably take about 5 minutes. They should be bright green when they’re done and cooked but still slightly crunchy.

Steamin' broccoli! Steamin' BroccolAY!

Preparing the Other Ingredients

Besides the broccoli, there’s a few other things you need to get ready for the meal. First, is the noodles. Basically, just cook them according to the directions on the package. This should involve putting them in boiling water (off the heat) for about 15 minutes. The two important things to remember about rice noodles is to make sure you use a lot of water. One gallon per package is probably good. Also, be sure to give them a stir every few minutes. If you don’t do these things, the noodles have a tendency to stick together and you’ll end up with clumps of uncooked noodles in your Pad Thai.

Strange creatures.

Once your noodles are cooked, drain them through a colander and give them a rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Also, lightly beat a few eggs!

Whip it good. And by good I mean lightly.

Making the Sauce

While your broccoli or noodles are cooking, you need to prepare the sauce. These are a few of the things you will need. You’ll also want some soy sauce and ginger for sure.

Missing from the photo is soy sauce

Basically, just whisk everything up in a bowl. I think it’s pretty important to taste this and adjust for your taste buds. I consider my version above to be middle of the road spicy. It’s an incredibly flexible recipe though so taste a tiny bit and adjust. The sauce should be pretty intense because it has to flavor a lot of noodles and broccoli.

Good lookin' sauce!

Cooking the Pad Thai

It’s important to have all your ingredients ready before you start. This dish goes pretty fast, especially if you have a good wok. If you don’t, you can still make this dish though. I made it once just using my largest skillet and it was extremely edible.

To start, add your sauce to a hot pan. It will sizzle and bubble and start to reduce immediately. Once it is hot, add all your noodles and begin stirring to combine the noodles and the sauce. If you have a good hot wok, this will go very quickly – just a few minutes will do the trick for sure.

My crappy version of stir-fry.

Once the noodles are hot and the sauce is reducing, add your eggs and stir more. The eggs should cook almost instantly. Then add your broccoli to the party! Again, this is a stir fry. Not a let-sit fry. So keep stirring it!

Nice.

Toppings Galore

After a minute or two of cooking, it should be done. The sauce should be reduced down and thick and the noodles and broccoli should be hot and the egg cooked. The real fun of this dish involves toppings. I like to put out a bunch of bowls of various toppings (above in the recipe) that people can add to their individual servings.

I think some sprouts, a few nuts, and a good drizzle of extra soy sauce or chili sauce makes for a good version.

Top with all kinds of good stuff.

Start to finish this dish takes about 30-45 minutes to make depending on how good you are at multi-tasking and how hot you can get your pan or wok. It feeds a family and is pretty economical if you have a well-stocked pantry. All I needed to buy for my version was broccoli, rice noodles, limes, and ginger. It’s great the next day for leftovers also!

I haven’t experimented too much with Thai dishes like this, but I found it pretty straightforward and was as good as most (but not all) Pad Thais that I’ve ordered for take out. If you are looking for something healthy and quick this week, give it a shot!

Last week, I mixed up a batch of this delicious sesame noodles dish with chopped cabbage. It was great for dinner that night, but it was even better for leftovers the next few days.

Spicy and delicious.

The real backbone of a meal like this is the sauce. It has a really rich sesame flavor, but at the same time will give your mouth a little burn thanks to the chili sauce. When I was making it, I was thinking of all the other stuff I could do with it besides coat noodles in it. It could also be a killer marinade or if you thickened it a bit, it would be a great dip for any number of things.

Sesame Sauce (Adapted from a William Summers recipe)

- 1/2 Cup peanut oil
- 4 ounces (about 2/3 Cup) of Tahini sesame paste
- 2 Cloves Garlic, chopped fine
- 1 Tablespoon Chili sauce, or to your taste
- 6 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 6 Tablespoons wine vinegar (red or white is fine)
- 4 Tablespoons sugar
- Large pinch of salt

Somehow I managed to have all of these things in my pantry.

So while the recipe is pretty specific, I think a lot of the ingredients can be adjusted to taste. The one thing I wanted to make sure I got right was the Tahini paste. I had no idea how much 4 ounces of Tahini paste was so I weighed it out. Turns out to be about 2/3 of a Cup.

And anytime I measure anything with Chili in the title, I tend to make the spoon overflow. Oops.

You don't need to be so exact.

Besides this killer sauce, all you need for this recipe is a red cabbage and some sort of noodle. You can also choose a few garnishes like cucumber or scallion, but those are optional.

You can buy cabbage already shredded which is fine, but it isn’t too hard to cut it yourself. When I get a whole one, I cut it into quarters and then cut out the core part which doesn’t dice very well. Then just slice the cabbage as thin as you can get it.

This is a lot of cabbage.

Because of the way cabbage leaves split apart, you can just slice in one direction and then sort of mix it up with your hands or a spoon and the shreds will separate. For this recipe you only need half of a cabbage, which was probably 5 cups shredded if you are buying yours pre-shredded.

Mix the cabbage with half of your delicious sauce.

This is already pretty good.

About the noodles. I know very little about Asian noodles. I went with just a standard rice noodle which was perfect for the dish. Honestly, I think any kind of medium sized noodle would work great. Jeff told me he has even made with spaghetti before. So feel free to experiment with different options, but if you want a winner for sure try these guys.

You want the whole box which should be between 14 and 16 ounces of noodles.

You could use any number of noodles.

They are really easy to cook and only take about 5 minutes. Whatever noodle you choose, after you cook it, rinse it under cold water to stop the cooking process. Then toss the noodles with a Tablespoon of sesame oil. This is basically just to keep them from sticking together. If you don’t have sesame oil, I think you could use peanut oil.

Then mix everything together! Don’t forget to add the rest of your sauce.

All mixed up!

I like mine extra spicy so I topped it with some extra chili sauce and some other little garnishes also.

This was really good as leftovers also.

When I had this on day two (and three), I hit it with just a few drops of vinegar. The vinegar tends to mellow (or evaporate or something) quickly so it loses that tang pretty quickly.

I think this dish is best cold. On day one, I ate it at room temperature (the noodles cool down when you rinse them off). You could chill it though if you had time. I was about to eat my arm so I simply couldn’t wait.