Food In Many Forms

In my search for easy recipes, I ended up on quite a few emailing lists - Better Homes & Gardens, Food Network, Tastebook all have the privilege of spamming me. At work today, I was browsing through recipes for "Crisp Summer Salads" and I was shocked at what passed for a salad. The first "salad" - The Layered Spinach and Pot Sticker Salad - on the list included potstickers, strawberries and strawberry jam as ingredients. Then to add insult to injury, they tell you to whip up a recipe of " Spiced Chips ". As is frozen chicken pot stickers weren't unhealthy enough. It isn't a salad just because it has spinach! Next is the Southern Cobb Salad , and to it's credit, it looks like a salad. However, I don't even want to think about what constitutes the " cheese dressing ". I'm terribly confused by the Smoked Salmon and Melon Salad . I guess it counts as fruit salad, but why I would mix salmon with cantaloupe, honeydew and blueber...

I've been home for the summer for a few weeks now, and my dad being the health freak that he is, confronted me about the high salt content of some of the pre -prepared foods that I eat. One of my favorite is Near East Mediterranean Curry Couscous. It is so delicious and takes five minutes to cook! However, it does have 550 mg of sodium per serving. With three servings per box, that is a lot of salt (69% of your Daily Value). My dad insisted it would be simple to replicate the combination of spices that I love so much - "Just had some curry and turmeric and it will taste the same!". But I am sure there must be more to it. The ingredients list includes "salt, peas, molasses, spices, carrots, garlic, turmeric spice, natural flavors, parsley, honey and onions." This is where the research comes in. I have to figure out what those ambiguous "spices" are. Possibilities include: - Cumin - Curry powder (Duh, this probably should have been first in the list...

I was making macaroni and cheese for lunch today, and I thought maybe I could make up for the unhealthiness of it if I added some vegetables to it. When I looked online for recipes that other people had made, I found so many with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and peas - some of my least favorite vegetables. They brag that you can barely taste them! They tell you to chop up the broccoli nice and small so you can't hardly taste it. But I like vegetables, I don't want to hide the taste. I did find one recipe from fitness magazine that was to my liking. It had zucchini, peppers and sweet onions, with a Parmesan and ricotta cheese sauce I believe. I wonder how it would go with my boxed white cheddar spirals...

Well, I definitely have eaten vegetable dumplings before, but I feel like making dumplings merits crossing #13 off my list . When I found dumpling wrappers in the Asian market near my house, I knew that I had to try and make them! But when I thought about it, I didn't really know what vegetables you wrap inside. Upon investigation, I found pre-made dumplings in the freezer aisle made with carrots , celery , mushrooms , sesame oil and taro powder . I bought celery, carrots, scallions and and a mixture of maitake, cremini and portabello mushrooms to stuff the dumplings. Not sure how to combine the ingredients, I tried chopping the carrots and celery in a food processor. Before I knew it, the entire package of dumpling wrappers had disappeared into the steamer basket - probably 50 dumplings ! I was trying to think what the insides of vegetable dumplings look like when you go to a restaurant, and really all that comes to mind is a dark mass of unknown ingredients. I want to learn mo...

My new favorite organizational tool is definitely the itso storage system from Target. (That's pronounced tar-jay :P) I had this grandiose idea of building shelves that could hold books or have foldable fabric shelves to tuck away clutter, but it turns out Target read my mind and made itso! I already bought two of the white plastic ones, and they got filled up almost inmediately. And for $13/box - I find it hard to believe I could make my own much cheaper. Especially considering how prone I am to making large mistakes... Unfortunately, the plastic version has a lot fewer options, but I don't think a college apartment merits anything sophisticated. There is something so exciting about re-organizing! I love knowing where everything is and spending the time to explore under the bed and beneath piles of old magazines and school binders to find that long-forgotten necklace or an old pair of knitting needles that are still perfectly good. I have been searching everywhere for this sk...

Wow, I have been going through my list faster than I thought! Last weekend I went blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard with my friend and her family. Normally, the season is halfway over about now, but there were barely any left! We had to comb over a lot of bushes to get the amount that we did. It seemed like an obvious choice to make blueberry pie since that is #23 on my list, but this recipe for blueberry crumble seemed so delicious. I will try and post the recipe; it was cut out from an old Washington Post article about blueberry recipes.

With #1 on my to-do list under my belt, and summer classes behind me, I am feeling rather ambitious. I am due to do something crafty. After all, that is the point of this blog. Hopefully, I will be going berry picking on Saturday - #2 on my list - so maybe I will make a pie - #23 on my list :) I think the most ambitious project I am going to be able to start is hemming my new pants. I have yet to find the perfect school bag pattern and I need the dimensions of the window before I can make curtains. It's a tough life keeping yourself busy!