February 28, 2011 by The Yum Yum
O HAPPY DAY! Don’t you love the serendipitous affairs of happening upon delicious recipes at random? And here we are, so I suggest you take note and take heart and try out this great food.
There’s nothing more fun than sharing other people’s recipes and ideas!
Thank you so, so, much for posting this!
via athursdayschild
Category Uncategorized | Tags: asian food,postaday2011,sesame chicken,vegetarian | No Comments
February 27, 2011 by The Yum Yum
These freaks of nature have made it all the way to Alabama, and Maw-Maw is the one in happy possession of them.
Honestly, I couldn’t begin to believe the size of these potatoes, but as I do love potatoes, I still quite adored them.
But you can’t truly appreciate just how large they are from this picture.
That’s my hand.
Now, of course, many of you will be quick to point out that I have small, girlish hands, and this is true.
They’re also angelically soft, or so I’ve been told.
Mama Harris blessed me with great skin.
On the right we have a normal potato. On the left, the monster of a potato that looks like it could eat an entire army of smaller potatoes.
Maw-Maw had a genius idea- she quickly obtained a ruler and measuring tape for us to use so you could see exactly how large the potatoes were by comparison.
The sockdolager of the matter is as above: the potato was ultimately nine inches long. I didn’t even bother to see how many inches around it was.
Did I mention that Maw-Maw made mashed potatoes that night?
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: enormous vegetables,mashed potatoes,postaday2011,potatoes,vegetables | 1 Comment
February 26, 2011 by The Yum Yum
After the grand journey to Publix and the provision of a number of delicious foods to me by my friend Kelly, I decided to whip together some delicacies for the all-important night of watching the Grammy Awards. Lady Gaga was performing, after all, and my friends and I were not about to miss Our Lady performing her new single.
I arrived at Caleb’s house sooner than he did, and so I shared the wonderful meals from my other friends with this set of friends. The piece de resistance was the Tofurkey bruschetta I put together, which was fast, easy, and one of the best things I’ve ever popped into my mouth.
One quick thing to remind everyone about is that dry, bland crackers and bread actually can serve a purpose in this world; namely, they will become the bed and supporting table of more flavorful things.
So the mini-toast crackers became the main part of the dish, followed by slices of Tofurkey, all topped off with the cucumber salad that Kelly had made the day before.
Tofurkey is comparable to many vegetarian alternatives: the taste is, at best, lacking something or odd if eaten by itself. In context, which is to say, when Tofurkey is eaten on a sandwich, cracker, or in place of actual turkey meat, the difference in taste isn’t really noticeable.
The taste of plain Tofurkey actually grew on me, and my whole love for pesco-vegetarianism has only continued to grow.
The cucumber salad had tomato and onions in it, and there was yogurt sauce on it (I think), which gave it a nice, cook taste. The dryness of the cracker was remedied because of the sauce on the veggies.
All-in-all, this dish made me incredibly happy.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: bruschetta,cucumber salad,postaday2011,toast crackers,tofurkey | 6 Comments
February 25, 2011 by The Yum Yum
A few weeks ago, I had the incredible fortune of hanging out with my dear friend Rheana. Graciously she prepared some of the best food I’d eaten in a long time.
My mystic friends have a huge trend in the world of food: they tend to go towards more veggies, more fruits, and more vegetarian-ish options. In my world, that’s not a bad thing, because it’s a change towards the freshness of life, and I adore trying new things.
Rheana fried plantains for us, though she was afraid they didn’t turn out so well. The truth is, she did a fantastic job with them, a job that I was unable to properly mimic over the next couple of days. At least her fried plantains stayed inside their dough; mine had no dough on them by the time I finished frying them.
She also cut up pita bread and provided us with baba ghannouj and hummus. Baba ghannouj is a kind of pureed eggplant, and hummus is a dish consisting of ground chickpeas and a number of spices.
When I was younger and first tried the baba ghannouj, I didn’t like it, but tastes, in time, do change, and so I found myself delighted to have it once again. You’d be surprised at what going without a food for 4 or 5 years can do to transform one’s interest in it.
This does not hold true for squash. I could go the rest of my life without eating any squash, and if there is a God, I’m sure he’ll see to that.
Hummus is more delicate in flavor than baba ghannouj but also more filling, and the fried plantains were a sweet treat that reminded me of the apple turnovers popular in my own family. Fried fruit is where it’s at.
Rheana and I also had hot tea with this meal.
If you’ve never tried Mediterranean food, I give you a whole-hearted suggestion to do it.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: baba ghannouj,fried bananas,fried plantains,hummus,mediterranean food,pita bread | 4 Comments
February 24, 2011 by The Yum Yum
Tonight, I happend upon a cookbook.
A vegetarian cookbook.
Unfortunately, the cookbook, at the store, was $40.
This cookbook has been declared the equivalent of Julia Child’s The Joy of Cooking.
After researching it online, I found I could obtain said book for only $25 (including shipping and handling.)
Perhaps, then, this is a sign that I should take up the torch where Julie Powell left off. I can’t do Julia Child’s recipes because so many of them involve meat, but this cookbook is 100% vegetarian, and that, I can do.
What do you guys think? Should I take up the challenge, get the cookbook, and then spend a year of my life trying to cook through every single recipe listed in it? It’s a huge book, honestly, but the recipes sounds good, and most of them don’t seem too terribly troublesome. Plus it would give me something to constantly blog about, so my blog would have a definite theme, and I would never run out of ideas of food to make for parties, get-togethers, and so on.
Give me some feedback! (Pun intended.)
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: cookbooks,julie & julia,vegetarianism | 5 Comments
February 24, 2011 by The Yum Yum
Remember how I told everyone that my grandmother’s tea kettle whistled, letting us know the water had boiled?
My friend Rheana has a wonderful tea kettle that she used to make tea for us.
Have you ever seen something this cute?
Moreover, this is 100% Southern. I daresay you’d find any number of people who have kitty cat tea kettles.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: kitty cat,tea,tea kettle | No Comments
February 23, 2011 by The Yum Yum
In our last adventure, we saw the shopping list and discussed some of the finer aspects of shopping at Publix.
Okay, actually, we just saw how excited I was about shopping at Publix.
Our meal consisted of three major parts:
The salad consisted of organic spinach and arugula and grape tomatoes, chopped up and mixed together with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese (in a small quantity.) The flavor burst in my mouth and makes me hungry thinking about it even now.
Normally, I am not a fan of salad. Most salad tastes bitter and dry. Now I’m convinced that the reason for this is because most salads are not made from organic food, and this causes a huge difference in quality and taste.
Some people might suggest that it’s a matter of psychology, but from what I can tell, organic food actually has a different taste to it that I can only describe as being “purer.”
My first experience of organic food came with an organic orange last year, in which the orange did not have the normal “bitter” aftertaste to which I’m accustomed. In a likewise manner, the tomatoes and spinach did not have that aftertaste- they were tomato and spinach all the way through, not lacking anything, and man, oh, man, was that salad good.
The spaghetti consisted of regular spaghetti noodles and mushroom alfredo sauce, along with the meatless meatballs. The meatless meatballs have no special way of being prepared- you can just pop them into the sauce, warm them up, and let them cook with it, and when everything’s ready, mix it all together as I did.
Naan is a kind of bread from India. This particular naan had a garlic flavor to it, which complemented the theme of the meal rather well. To prepare naan, you must sprinkle the bread with a bit of water, pop in the oven for two to three minutes, and there you have it.
Altogether, the meal was smashing and delicious and worthy of sharing with you all. This is the kind of food that I prepare that makes me feel as though I’ve truly arrived in the world of cooking, though deep down I know I still have an incredible amount to learn and must progress to even greater heights. That old Southern magic isn’t mine just yet, but I’ll get it somehow.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: dinner,garlic,organic food,postaday2011,spaghetti and meatballs | 6 Comments
February 22, 2011 by The Yum Yum
Can I state over and over again the kind of sheer adoration that I have for Publix? Trip number 2 yielded similar results to trip number 1. I ended up spending $20 soulful dollars on six items, and with Earle’s purchases, we created one great meal.
The initial idea I suggested was to have bread bowls. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any kind of bread that would have been suitable for the job, so we had to take our ideas elsewhere.
Publix specifically had a buy one, get one free on spaghetti sauces, so Earle took advantage of it.
That led us down the pasta aisle, and with the sauces in hand, along with the visit to the veggie meat area, we discovered meatless meatballs.
Meatless meatballs.
One last time: MEATLESS MEATBALLS!!!
That settled it: spaghetti and meatballs. Meatless meatballs.
My purchases included the following:
The Smart Hot Wings were not exactly a necessity, and honestly, they were way too expensive for what they are. Not that they were terrible, just overpriced, and so I probably won’t be investing in those again. I do consider that to be my “splurge” of the night.
Stay tuned for part 2, in which we’ll explore the actual meal I prepared.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: grocery shopping,organic food,publix,vegetarian | 3 Comments
February 21, 2011 by The Yum Yum
Though most of you are going to think that I just dump things from cans into a pot in order to cook, I guarantee you that’s not the case.
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: chili,meatless chili,postaday2011,vegetarianism | 2 Comments
February 20, 2011 by The Yum Yum
Talk about tasty dishes, this was one of my favorites of the night. Oh, who am I kidding, all the foods were my favorite, but these were too easy to eat, and I literally ate most of the platter of crab roll-ups.
What you do:
Seriously. Try these. Eat these. We all adored them, and I plan on making them many times over again in the near future.
Carpe diem, and happy cooking and eating!
Beaux
Category Uncategorized | Tags: comfort food,crab meat,crab rolls,cream cheese,easy recipes,postaday2011,seafood,Southern food,tortillas | 2 Comments
