Cooking up a storm and other musings

Now that school is out, I have enjoyed the time I have to cook. I really love cooking and actually thought about going to culinary school at one point, but then I thought it would be a waste of money for someone who won't need to cook meet and cheese. I need to find a veg cooking school. But let me tell you about tonight's dinner. I am proud of it. I am most proud of the curry dish. One of my goal's for the summer was to learn how to cook Indian food, but the past three dishes had turned out only ok. This one was great. Here is the recipe, I didn't have any of the vegetables required, nor some of the spices but it was great just the same. It is from the book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

This book was actually a present from Dan's sister Lizzy, a caterer and personal chef for some of SLC's finest, so I am sure it has lots more to offer.

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. toasted ground cumin (my new favorite spice btw)
1/4 tsp asafetida (i didn't have this, nor garlic or onion powder, so i just used garlic)
1/4 c. peeled and diced ginger
4 tsp ground coriander (i just used whole)
1 tsp. ground mild chile
1 tsp. turmeric
1 onion, thinly sliced (out of onion)

1 large cauliflower (didn't have)

Salt
1/2 pound sugar snap peas
2 tsp. ground anchoor powder (didn't have)
1 tsp. garam masala

For vegetables I used potato, carrot, cabbage, and tomato.

To make: In a wide pot heat oil over medium heat. Add cumin and asafetida and cook for 30 sec. Add ginger, coriander, chile, and turmeric, cook another 30 sec. Add onion, lower heat and cook until soft. Add cauliflower and 1.5 tsp. salt. Mix everything together, add 1/2 c. water and let simmer until veggies are tender. Add the peas and cook for a few minutes longer. Add the amchoor powder and garam masala, stir, and add salt to taste. Oh I also added a little fresh lime juice.

K so we had that with naan, then I made a corn on the cob with this amazing cilantro lime mustard glaze with a touch of agave, so it was salty, sweet, and sour.

basically you just mix garlic, oil, mustard, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, agave nectar or honey if you are a beegan (as I was called recently), salt, pepper. If you want the exact recipe just ask.

For dessert we had homemade soy vanilla bean ice cream with melted carob chips, banana, and almonds. The soy ice cream was made with cream of coconut milk as well as soy milk so it is super creamy. I then used vanilla beans from the local organic hippy market. One bean cost me a dollar point 5, but it was a good touch. I got the start for my ice cream from Veganomicon.

Perhaps my favorite cookbook, this was a bridal shower gift from betty, she gives good books for presents.
You can't really see the ice cream because it is smothered in carob, but it looks just like the 300 calorie milk based kind.



Now here are some pictures of the outised of our apartment:
In case you didn't know, we are the managers of our apt. complex (52 units and lots of funny stories) So our front door gets a big manager sign.
This is the courtyard, we enjoyed our ice cream sundae right on that table. One of our managerial duties is to water the trees, but they are dying. The big bosses say they need more water, I say its because their boxes leak and they don't retain water and because they are shoved in boxes and have no room for there roots to grow. But who knows. Dan looks great in that picture.

Dan has never posted on this blog, but while i was in the other room he typed this in regards to my recipe posting:
just mix a sexy boy with a sweet sexy girl and you get love chocolate

Normally I would delete such mushy words, but in response to requests for mushier blogs (by requests i mean two- quinn and betty) I have kept. enjoy.