Dyl's 18th Edibles

A lovely day it was........... Dylan's Menu: Ribs (Japanese style) Dad's Potato Salad Slow Cooked Green Beans Extra Sweet Corn Bread Sweet Mint Tea Carrot Cake Ice Cream Dylan requested an ‘All American Dinner’. He specifically stated “No tofu or curried dishes!” Working at the Green Papaya has tired him a bit on the Asian dishes.

For the slab of ribs, I separated them in twosies and marinated them overnight in light soy sauce, water, Chinese 5-spice, garlic, sugar, a tad of sesame oil, fish sauce, and a cap full of red food coloring. The sugar and the red food coloring are the key here. You could use any variation of spices, but the sugar and the red food coloring give it that sticky red sweet Japanese BBQ look and taste…mmmmM! After marinating, I spread them out in a single layer in baking pans and poured a little more of the marinade over them, then covered tightly with foil. These cooked at 275 for an hour, and then flipped to cook for an additional hour. After 2 hours, they still looked pretty sIcK, and I was a bit worried : / I removed the foil and turned up the heat to 375 and started basting them with the juices from the pan about every 10 minutes, continuing for about ½ hour. I think it would have worked out fine if I cut the low temperature cooking time down to about 1-½ hours, then turn up the heat and baste. Anyway they were delicious for my first attempt at ribs!

The green beans, corn bread, and mint tea are pretty self-explanatory and all very yummy. I added a can of creamed corn to the corn bread to give it more sweetness that Dylan was preparing his taste buds for.

Dylan is a big fan of Carrot Cake and it has been a standard birthday request every year. This time I wanted to find something to do with these flavors, but not in traditional cake form. I found a recipe by David Lebovitz for Carrot Cake Ice Cream, and let me tell you it was CRUSHED! I followed the recipe pretty much as follows but didn’t add as many candied carrots or currants as called for. An ice-cream maker was purchased for this and it worked great. (only 25$), and I will definitely be coming up with other ice-cream/yogurt/sorbet creations. I also cooked up a simple box carrot cake. Austin made individual servings by folding the cake and ice cream together. Again CRUSHED!!!

Such a lovely day with the fam, beautiful weather, and good eatin’! Jaime

This morning I made coconut banana french toast, a recipe from a kitchen I use to cook in, it's a good use for leftover coconut milk.

It is exactly as the the name suggests: 1 banana, 1 can of coco milk, and about 4 eggs

mash banana and mix all together. I usually half the recipe for two people, its good with honey or maple syrup. enjoy!

toasts

OK, I tried the recommended goat cheese spread with caramelized leeks. Not disappointing what so ever. A great spring-time appetizer, the lemon zest makes it. Its equal parts goat cheese and cream cheese, lemon-zest and juice, fresh herbs, I used thyme, and a few drops of liquid, whatever you have, cream, milk, water. It was gone in minutes at the party, and it was so easy to make.

Mediterranean Affair

Skye and I had a Mediterranean night. We started with making homemade Naan bread, which turned out pretty good. I intend on experimenting more and will post my adaptations to the recipe another time.

Here is your Naan Bread base: 1/2 cup warm water 1 cup bread flour salt and pepper to taste ***Combine the flour and water into a workable dough ball and set aside covered in a cool place for about 15 min. No need to wait for it to rise since there isn't any yeast. Just let it sit and relax for awhile. When you are ready to cook it up, tear off a piece about the size of a golf ball and roll it out as thin as possible into a nice round shape. Add more flour if you think it is too sticky. Sprinkle any combination of ingredients and spices on top and roll again to incorporate. I plan on doing lots of experimenting with this and will keep you posted ( I want to add little potatoes). When you are satisfied with your creation, throw that baby in a really hot dry pan (I used my cast iron pan- worked great). Turn down the heat to a mediumish temp and cook on each side for about 1 minute, or until the color is nice and brown.

Along with the Naan we made hummus, babaganoush, basmati rice with rice wine vinegar, roasted zucchini, eggplant, red peppers, and onion.

--Jaime

Beautiful Beets

I woke up this morning craving what I had for lunch yesterday. So, yes, this is what I ate for breakfast at 9:00 a.m. These beets are so easy to make and very delish! I marinated them in red wine vinegar, 1 packet of Splenda, a cinnamon stick, salt, peppercorns, and some of the remaining red-stained water they were steamed in. And as long as you don't mind your salad turning completely pink, the marinade juice serves as a good salad dressing :) --Skye

Drum Roll Please . . .

Hi Girls! Well, I didn't intend for our food blog to begin with something as mundane as mashed potatoes, but we're still in the experimenting phase and I just wanted to try posting something tonight.

So: These aren't just any mashed potatoes! They're made with equal parts red potatoes, broccoli (use the stalks too - just shave off the outer skin), and cauliflower. Just boil all three, then throw them in a food processor with whatever you have on hand (I typically use apple cider vinegar, cottage cheese, & milk). There are a million variations to this dish, but the end result is half the calories and carbs of regular mashed potatoes, more nutrition, and ALL the creamy, comfort-food, goodness! (Good way to get veggies into kids too, Molly and Nell!)

--Skye