Hip Pressure Cooking

I have been so ill this week I totally forgot I agreed to do a guest post for Laura of Hip Pressure Cooking. I love my pressure cooker and her site is filled with lots of recipes on all kinds of things to make in your pressure cooker; I get lost browsing through them. And her photographs, my goodness they're beautiful. I couldn't believe it when she told me she uses a point and shoot.

So, if you're interested in re-reading my homemade refried beans recipe, or you want to check out Laura's amazing pictures and recipes, head on over to Hip Pressure Cooking.

Baked Falafel

This week is just dragging by for me. I think it’s because I’ve been pretty sick and lethargic this week. All I seem to want to do is sleep, and when I am awake, I struggle to keep my eyes open. Needless to say, I haven’t done much in the kitchen. I made these last week and just couldn’t muster up the energy to post about them. Today, I forced myself back in the kitchen and back to the computer.

These don’t look very pretty. They get their anemic, yellow hue from the turmeric, which isn’t necessary to the flavor, I just add it because it’s supposed to be a “healing” spice; a really good anti-inflammatory. I’ll try anything to help aide my GI issues so I usually toss this spice into a variety of foods. I don’t notice a difference in taste, just in color.

These could be fried or sauted in oil in a skillet, but since I try to minimize my stomach pain, I chose to bake them so they wouldn’t be greasy. I served mine with greek yogurt, and chipotle chile yogurt (I mixed a pureed chile and adobo sauce into plain, greek yogurt), but tzatziki would be amazing. I didn't serve them in pitas, we ate them with homemade sweet potato fries.

The hardest thing about making these is remembering to soak the chickpeas in advance, which for me, is difficult. After days of the leaving the recipe and chickpeas on the kitchen counter, I finally had to write a post-it note to myself. Guess subtlety doesn't work too well with me.

Favorite Pizza Dough

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. I have had a busy, stressful week and I'm so glad it's over. I'm exhausted; physically and mentally drained. On nights like this dinner must be easy. Usually on Friday nights we have homemade pizza. I'm not a big fan of pizza, it's always hurt my tummy, even before the GI issues began. But it's such an easy dinner option. Usually during the week I mix up this pizza dough and leave it in the fridge (it will keep up to 3 days) to make on a night when I need a quick, easy dinner. The recipe is a mixture of a bunch of recipes. I took a little from each, and after much tweaking, came up with a my preferred pizza dough.

I top our pizza with homemade pizza sauce, various roasted veggies, and fresh mozzarella cheese. So much better (and less greasy) than take out.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

This week has been incredibly busy for me; full of errands and appointments. It’s been pretty stressful, therefore I decided I needed a special treat; I went with my favorite cookies.

A few years ago, I worked with a girl named Zara. She was from Sri Lanka and was (and is) the most genuinely nicest person I have ever met to date. I never saw her upset, nor even irritated. She would often bring some kind of baked treat to our meetings; cupcakes, cookies, etc. One day she brought these cookies. I think they were gone within 10 minutes. Everyone loved them and no one could stop eating them. I begged her for the recipe and, lucky for me, she gave me a copy. Thank you, Zara, for the best cookie I’ve ever eaten.

Be careful if you make these, you won’t be able to stop eating them.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup

I wasn’t even considering posting this soup because it’s not very visually appealing. I didn’t give it much thought, to me it was just soup. But Mr. Surly raved so much about it, I thought I’d better hurry and post it before I forgot what I did. I had to hurry and get a picture of it, so I apologize for the unappetizing photo.

I love the depth of flavor the roasted garlic adds, while the addition of lemon brightens the flavor. I’ve seen tri colored egg noodles, which would be pretty in this, but I didn’t have any. All I had were boring whole wheat noodles.

I add leeks and cabbage since they are natural diuretics, thereby decreasing any abdominal bloating. No matter what I eat or drink, my abdomen still swells up after just a couple bites or sips of food. It’s painful and frustrating, so I’m trying to consume natural diuretics to help reduce the bloat. If you don’t like cabbage, it’s not a necessary ingredient to the soup, though red cabbage would look nice in it. I try to use leeks instead of onion, because onions just add to my tummy distention. But if you want, onion could be used instead of leeks.

Triple Layer Cheesecake

I have wanted to make this cheesecake for a long time. I was just waiting until all the Christmas treats were gone. This recipe is courtesy of my grandma. Recently, I inherited all her recipes. After she passed away in 2007 they originally went to my aunt. A couple months ago I was craving my Grammy’s roast beef; it was her signature dish. Anytime I went to visit her (which was often) she would make it for me. I never thought to ask her for the recipe. Therefore, I emailed my aunt, asking if she knew how to make this delectable roast beef. Lucky for me she did. That email was all the incentive my aunt needed as an excuse to bring me over a box containing all Grammy’s recipes. My aunt was looking for someone to pass these recipes along to the “next generation” she said, and since I was the first to inquire about a recipe, and she lives near me, she gave me the whole stash; a whole treasure trove of recipes for me to sift through at my leisure.

Some of the recipes are typed, some handwritten, others were clipped from various newspapers ranging anywhere from 1941-2004. I came across this cheesecake and stopped. I don’t remember my grandmother ever making cheesecake. So this recipe intrigued me. I wondered where (or from whom) the recipe came and if Grammy had ever made it. It sounded rich and decadent, exactly the thing to curb my recent chocolate craving.

Since there are only two of us, I reduced the recipe by 1/3 to make one small, 4 ½ inch cheesecake. I’m so glad I didn’t make the full amount, this cheesecake is so rich that I could only eat a small sliver. Each of us had a piece and there is still ¾ of the cheesecake remaining, but we both agreed this was really, really good. If you want a full-sized, 9 inch cheesecake, multiply the ingredients by three scroll to the bottom of the post. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not going to last much longer in our fridge.

Genius

I came across these guys when I was at Williams-Sonoma recently. I'm terrible at guessing the thickness when rolling out dough. I want to kiss the person who came up with these; what a great idea. Now, all I need to do is strap the correct band size on my rolling pin and viola! No more guesstimating dough thickness.


I haven't had a chance to use them myself, but my sister used them for her sugar cookies and said it worked pretty well. You just have to make sure the dough is between the two bands. Lucky for me I have a long rolling pin.

I guess I need to make a pie so I can test them out.

Chai Latte Cupcakes

I am finally settling in back home into my usual routine. I got the Christmas decorations packed away until next year, went to the hospital for some tests, and ran some errands. Now I feel I can relax and resume my daily activities stress-free.

Lately I’ve been on a chai latte kick. It started over my Christmas vacation. I got used to having a cup of chai tea almost everyday. Since I've been home, I have missed that daily dose of chai. I noticed these cupcakes in a cupcake book my sister gave me. They turned out great, not too sweet, with a nice, warm flavor from the spices. I debated on whether I should make frosting for them but decided against it since we still have sugary Christmas treats to eat up. My chai craving has been satiated.