chocolate chip bars

For as long as I can remember, my mom has made chocolate chip bars. Whether it's a potluck or a road trip, my mom can be counted on to make a pan of bars. They begin with a cake mix, and she used to add walnuts, but I believe she eventually stopped at my request. 

It was not until fairly recently that I learned that the concept of bars was not widespread in the United States. I don't know if they are a Minnesota thing, or a Midwestern thing, but they are certainly not a California thing. In the summer of 2006, at a family reunion in Minnesota, an announcement inviting people to a potluck caused a bit of confusion. Among other information, there were suggestions for dishes for people to bring, such as bars. The California contingent of our family was perplexed. Bars? Like a drinking establishment? Or prison? This led to a lot of laughs and a long running joke that continues to this day. In fact, for a period of time, every time I visited the Oceanside family, I would bring a pan of bars.  

I've made my mom's version of chocolate chip bars here and there, but I stopped a few years ago because I prefer to bake from scratch. I hadn't thought much about them, until I stumbled across a recipe in the Fat Witch Brownie cookbook. The author, who owns the Fat Witch Bakery, calls them blondies, but to me, they are chocolate chip bars and nothing else.

After nearly a month long hiatus, bars were the perfect way to ease back into baking. They are quick and easy, and the results are always satisfying. I've made lots of things from the Fat Witch cookbook, and it's my go-to cookbook when I want to make brownies or bars.   

black bean, zucchini, and olive tacos

This was the second time we made black bean, zucchini, and olive tacos, and I had forgotten how much we enjoyed them. The recipe is from Appetite for Reduction, from the vegan cookbook authors who brought you Post Punk Kitchen.

Drew was in charge of the tacos (black beans, diced zucchini, black olives, onion, garlic, jalapenos, salsa verde). He made a chipotle sour cream, added some cheese, and we toasted the corn tortillas and ate these as tostadas, not tacos (messy, but more filling). I made the rice (jalapenos, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, green chiles), which is loosely based on this millet recipe from Veganomicon, which is, you guessed it, from the Post Punk Kitchen too.

veggie sushi and chinese chicken salad

I'm back. April was crazy. We barely cooked at all, and I think we turned the oven on once and that was to make a Costco pizza. And so we stayed in last weekend and actually cooked. And baked.

It all began with pickled daikon and carrots. The recipe calls for way, way too much salt, but I've got it figured out now. Instead of 1/4 cup of salt, I add just 1 tablespoon. 

We made veggie sushi, with tofu, cucumber, avocado, green onions, and the pickled daikon and carrots. To be more precise, Drew and I made veggie sushi burritos, not proper sushi. All the rolling and cutting is just too much for us and more complicated than it should be.

As a way to further detox, we also made a Chinese chicken salad, which is loosely based on Giada's Chinese Turkey Salad.

Let's just hope we don't have another month like April.

fast food

Don't worry, we are eating, though judging from my blog, it doesn't look like it. It's been a little crazier than usual around here, what with preparing for conferences (me), working on a dissertation proposal (Drew), and wrapping up the winter quarter and starting the spring one (both of us). Hence, we have been eating "fast food," or meals that require little preparation.

We had tons of collard greens from the garden, so we stir fried them with onion, garlic,  broccoli, carrots, and red pepper and made a red curry (coconut milk and a small jar of curry paste). And last week, we made tofu reubens, which involves little more than pressing and baking tofu. 

The "fast food" will continue for the next few weeks, but in the meantime, let me share with you the best hummus recipe. Hummus is easy to make, but I never made it, until fairly recently. I dabbled here and there, trying out different recipes, but I always went back to the store bought stuff. I could never find a recipe I liked- my hummus would turn out too stiff or too watery. It's not that the store bought stuff was superb, it's just that it was still better than my sorry homemade stuff. This embarrassed me a lot, not that anyone knew about my inability to make good hummus. 

Finally, about six months ago, I became determined to stop buying hummus and start making it. I started testing recipes again, but my hummus just wasn't very smooth. At long last, Smitten Kitchen came to the rescue. It turns out that the secret to super-smooth hummus is to peel the chickpeas. I know, don't roll your eyes; it's the truth. And it is so worth it. Here is the recipe. My only recommendation is to go easy on the salt, the 3/4 teaspoon was too much for my taste. But above all, if you're going to make hummus, peel the chickpeas. Trust me.

coconut caramel clusters

Caramel is my achilles heel. I manage to pull it off only about half the time. In fact, whenever I attempt it, I always make sure I have extra ingredients on hand in case I need a redo. I've tried to make caramel many times, and when I mess up, it's obvious that I've done so. But even when I think I get it right, I'm never certain that I have. 

I made caramel for the first time a few years ago, using a recipe from Simply Recipes. It's the only time I've managed to pull it off successfully- and know it. I guess it was beginner's luck, because caramel has been my nemesis ever since.

Without meaning to, I continued to make homemade versions of Girl Scout cookies last week. This time, I made Coconut Caramel Clusters, a recipe from Baked Elements. I have three Baked cookbooks, and while I'm drawn to the glossy pictures and the creative recipes, I'm not sure how I feel about the cookbooks. Some of the recipes seem hit or miss, but maybe that's just me. And they're pretty high maintenance, so when there's a miss, it's really annoying. 

These bars look really good, and they are, but they are strange. For one, the caramel making process was quite time consuming and a little unorthodox (this is true of some of their other techniques). But perhaps more importantly, the caramel hardens so much that the only way we can eat these is to first heat them up in the microwave for a few seconds. It is impossible to eat them otherwise. Aside from that peculiarity, they are quite good, but very rich. And without a doubt, better than the Girl Scout cookies, Caramel Delites (previously known as Samoas). 

lemon chicken and broccoli

When life hands you lemons (or you buy a big bag from Whole Foods because it is cheaper in the long run than buying just the two that you really need), you make lemon chicken. 

The recipe is from a blog called Appetite for China. Of course, we substitute fake chicken for the real thing (we use Morning Star chicken strips). I roasted some broccoli with sliced garlic, and then tossed it with chili garlic paste, sambal oelek, and sesame oil.

pizza

It's the end of the quarter, so we haven't had much time or energy to cook. We are getting smarter about managing mealtime during this hectic time. Each week, instead of cooking 2 or 3 times like we normally do, we cook once and then eat off the leftovers we've stashed in the freezer from previous meals. 

This week, we thawed out leftover pizza dough (made earlier in the quarter when we made Thai Chicken pizza), and topped it with jarred marinara, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, chopped garlic, and mozzarella. After pulling it out of the oven, I topped it with arugula from our garden. We ate the pizza with a salad made of romaine and carrots with a homemade lemon-garlic dressing.