tofu fo' you

You know, growing up I never really got the deal about tofu. I found it kinda bland, mushy at times, texturally ambiguous at other times. Not that I really had a strong opinion about it either way, it was just a common component of a lot of the dishes my mom made and so I never really thought about it. I didn't like it or dislike it; it was just kinda there.

As I got older and started perusing the world of culinary creativity, I ran into articles and recipes and blogposts featuring this legendary vegetarian/vegan staple in a variety of interesting ways. Since then, tofu has come into a whole new light for me! Don't get me wrong, ma po tofu and tofu pudding and fried tofu with garlic soysauce and all those other traditional dish will always hold a special place in my heart. But here are some more ways I've spruced up the normal tofu scene.

First up...

Baked tofu!

Okay, so sticking things in the oven does not take a stroke of culinary genius but I've never done this before! It's QUITE popular around the blogosphere and it seems like everyone has some sort of wonder marinade that just makes their hunk of 'fu into the best tofu of all time.

I've experimented a little.

My first marinade/rub consisted of:

• Spoonful of sesame oil
• Spoonful of soy sauce
• Spoonful of rice vinegar
• Little bit of dijon mustard
• Tons of ginger powder
• Sprinkle of garlic powder
• Spoonful(s) of honey

I've also played with adding five spice rub, cumin, and brown sugar. The best combos are those with a heavy dosing of something sweet or spice-y. I was sad that the sesame flavor gets lost in the oven, and the soy sauce becomes the most overpowering ingredient. I'm thinking that fewer ingredients would actually be better! I tend to go a little overboard.

Top half of pan: dijon mustard + honey glaze + some things listed above; bottom half of pan: soy sauce, sesame oil, and a lot of the things listed above

Use firm or extra firm tofu, drain and rinse and let it dry for a bit. I blotted mine with a paper towel - it depends on the texture of tofu you're going for. If you want something akin to chewy tofu jerky, then try to remove more moisture and slice it thinner. If you're going for the crispy on the outside, soft on the inside thing, go for fatter pieces.

Then coat with your marinade of choice, spread out on a baking pan and bake at 400 degrees for about half an hour. I never bake things at a consistent thickness or a set amount of time. I'm like the OCD cook's worst nightmare so...do like I do and experiment!

So the next tofu concoction is a bit more interesting.

TOFU ALFREDO SAUCE!

I've heard rumors that tofu can be made into creamy things and you can forego all the heavy cream and butter. Chocolate mousse, cheesecake, smoothies....

This cream sauce actually turned out pretty well. It gets a little clumpy as it cools but hey, then it's kinda like ricotta cheese. Still good.

Ingredients:

• 1 block silken tofu
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• dried oregano + other italian herbs
• 1/2 cup of some sort of milk

Blend tofu with soymilk. You can use more or less soymilk depending on whether you want your sauce thicker or thinner. Pour into large bowl. Mix in nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and herbs to taste. You could just throw it all in the blender, but I didn't want to risk having my blender smell of yeast and herbs forever so I separated the processes.

Sautee garlic + onions with a little olive oil, salt, and herbs in a medium saucepan. Pour tofu mixture into sauce pan and heat on medium heat until starts bubbling slightly. Stir constantly to keep it from clumping! Pour over pasta and serve ASAP!

Once it cools/if you refrigerate it, the sauce congeals into a more crumbly tofu mixture, somewhat like ricotta or cottage cheese. It still tastes great and goes well with pasta despite losing the alfredo creaminess.

Simple, healthy, and delicious!

I took the bit of leftover liquid tofu + milk in the blender and added a frozen banana, some frozen strawberries + black berries. Blended tofu makes smoothies thick and creamy and proteinlicious! Yum.

You're pretty cool, tofu. I guess you and I can be friends now.

when life gives you zucchinis...

...stare at them in confusion.

So, growing up, zucchini was a vegetable that pretty much never made an appearance in the house. It's not really found in Asian cooking and I just never really been acquainted with this green summer squashy entity.

If you may recall, on our recent peach picking excursion, we picked up two hulking zucchini specimens and then also received a couple more from a family friend. Apparently, once you start growing zucchini, you'll have enough in one season to last you a lifetime. That's why we're never growing zucchini.

Of course, being rather dessert oriented, the first idea was to make zucchini bread! And make zucchini bread I did, for the most part following this AMAZING recipe. I used whole wheat flour instead, halved and used brown sugar.

The first batch resulted in one plain loaf and one loaf loaded with chopped up pieces of a 70% dark chocolate bar. UM HEAVEN.

The second batch was, shall we say...naughtier. It may or may not have involved this. Lots of this.

Oooh yes I did. First, I took half a cup of raisins and soaked it in warmed rum for a couple of hours until the raisins plumped up with alcohol infused goodness.

But wait, that's not all. After baking and cooling off for a bit, the entire loaf was then doused in a ridiculous RUM GLAZE:

• -1/2 cup butter
• -1/4 cup water
• -1 cup sugar
• -1/2 cup rum
• 
  
• Heat butter, water, and sugar in saucepan until boiling, stirring frequently. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and then remove from heat before adding rum. Let cool for a few minutes. Poke some holes in your loaf and brush glaze over entire loaf, letting more dribble into the cracks.

I die.

Maybe combine them both for a dark chocolate rum raisin loaf next time? Hehehe...

If zucchini bread doesn't do it for you, you can always chop up the darn thing and sautee it with a little EVOO and garlic.

Or slice it up, rub with a little salt, pepper, oil, and Italian herbs and roast it.

Or use a spiralizer or peeler to make long pasta-like strands and top with your favorite tomato or cream sauce. Raw zucchini strips make an excellent and healthy pasta substitute!

Pasta with chopsticks? Sure, why not.

And with that, I'm off to deal with our one remaining stash. Bring on the zuke!

going to country...

Gonna eat a lot of PEACHES!

Despite the 100 degree high humidity weather, we made our annual foray up into the mountains of VA for some pick-your-own fun. Hollins Farm in Delaplane has an amazing orchard of peaches, both white and yellow, as well as other fruits, veggies, and farm fresh products. You can also get farm-raised beef from them, which they sell in bulk. Still trying to get enough people together to one day make a purchase from them! Smallest denomination is something like a quarter of a whole cow, which is something like 100 pounds of beef...err......

Anyway, our family members are all loyal white peach eaters so we were after the lovely white lady peaches, that have this amazing peachy floral aroma. We have this kinda crazy gene in our family that when we see fruit on trees, we start making involuntary grabby motions with our hands and foaming at the mouth. And then once we start pickin', we don't stop until we're forcibly put into a straight-jacket, blind-folded and removed from the farm quickly and efficiently. I kid you not.

So we picked a lot of peaches.

And I do mean a lot of peaches.

These photos still don't do our craziness full justice. We have something on the order of 150+ peaches chilling in our house right now. Did I also mention we're going back next weekend? Uh huh. Peach season is far from over.

We also got some beautiful and ridiculously sweet Japanese shiro plums.

And I totally went batshiz for these BLACKBERRIES!!! Just gawjuss!

Have you ever seen blackberry blossoms?

I'm in there somewhere.

Can't contain the crazy.

Yeah we got quite a bit of these too.

But wait, there's more! As if we'd pass up the opportunity to get all the super fresh produce we can. Hello, my favorite members of the solanaceae family!

Seriously, fruit have got to be some of the most beautiful things on this planet.

Last, but definitely not least, we got two of these babies. Overgrown babies. Ignore my messy house.

So, in conclusion, we have fruits and veggies coming out of our ears. If I've turned into a rabbit the next time you see me, please give me a loving home. If this is impossible, just promise me you'll use me to make the friggin most delicious batch of lapin a la cocotte known to mankind.

Until next time! Got a favorite recipe involving peaches or zucchini? Gimme a hollah!

hummus in the house!

Commence attempt number 193282904 to start/restart the whole blogging thang! This time, I've resolved not to put too much pressure on myself and have already accepted the fact that this will most likely not be a daily blog. And most DEFINITELY not a 'here's everything I eat and do in a day' type of blog. While I loooove the food/health bloggers who document their lives in such fun and interesting ways, and would love to try doing what they do one day, I've decided to commit this blog to random food ramblings, my own culinary creations, and my regular adventures in the kitchen, whenever they happen to occur.

And what better way to jump start a new era in the Hummusphere then a recipe involving...dunununuh...HUMMUS!

You know, I realized that hummus hasn't actually had much facetime on this blog. SHAMEFUL I know. I promise, as a loyal citizen of the Hummusphere, that I will pay more tribute in the future to this fabulous food item.

So we had eggs. A lot of eggs. And so in an effort to render them all edible as efficiently as possible, I decided to hard-boil them. But hard-boiled eggs are so...vanilla, you know? So in a fit of rebellion, I grabbed some not-so-typically-found-in-egg-salad ingredients and lo and behold, made egg salad.

HUMMUSY EGG SALAD

• 2-3 hard-boiled, peeled eggs
• 2 tbsp hummus
• splash of olive oil
• generous sprinkling of black pepper
• heaping spoonful of nutritional yeast

Mash up the eggs and mix everything together and tada!

Serve on a sandwich, on a bed of greens, on a spoon...

Hummus is an excellent substitute for the usual mayo+ mustard combo. And let me say something about nutritional yeast! I've seen it around the foodie intarweb communities for a while now and I've always been mildly intrigued and terrified at the same time. What is this stuff that looks and smells kinda like fish food but have all these health aficionados leaping in fungus induced joy? So finally, I picked up some and tentatively started sprinkling it on my salads, sandwiches and what not. Verdict? I like it! It gives a nice savory flavor to anything you add it to. I wouldn't call it cheesy, as many others do, but it's definitely not bad. Props for the insta-umami!

Now, let's look at this picture.

Ummmmmmm yeah. There's also an unpictured bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the pantry. And another couple of bars in my room. Er. I may or may not have a slight problem.

If anyone knows any fab uses for dark chocolate, hollah at me! Right now, I'm just eating it straight, which is already divine; melting it and drizzling it on things, which is possibly more divine; or forgetting the damn spoon altogether and just drinking it out of a bowl, which is, duh, the best idea I've ever had.

Until next time!