Sunday 29 March 2009

Strawberry Turmeric Salad & Burritos

Let's start off with something really delicious-looking, so you will stay to read the rest of the post...



The thing with toasted nuts and I, is that, I burn them. All the time.
This is an extreme example, but when I was toasting these pecans and cooking something else on the stove at the same time, I smelled something burning. BURNING = CHECK OVEN. "Oh, it's just a crumb under the burner on the stove". I kept smelling it. "Hm...". "OH #$%*" Oops. Oops, indeed.
And pecans are expensive, people!

Strawberry Turmeric Salad


The second batch of toasting was great, and it turns out this salad really needs the pecans; they add another level of yumminess.

For the salad:
lettuce
a few sliced strawberries
a few small cauliflower florets (though you could use anything you have on hand, really. I actually would use something else next time.)
a handful of toasted pecans

For the dressing:
2-3 tbsp x-virgin olive oil
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp liquid honey
2 tsp ground turmeric
salt and pepper

Toss with salad.

*** I feel like I should have a disclaimer for the recipes that I make up myself:
I don't measure!
I throw in whatever I have on hand!
I go by taste!
So please just adjust them to your own taste and use them as more of a guideline.

Leftovers Burritos



We used our leftover guacamole and refried beans (with some whole beans thrown in) from tostads, combined them with some sauteed, spiced onions and green peppers, threw them on a tortilla with cheese, salsa and lettuce. To make it vegan, just cut out the cheese.
Nom nom.

Saturday 21 March 2009

Daily Granola, Dilly Avocados and Oven Baked Fries

These are a few (three) of my favorite things:



Daily Granola

I know I have already talked about this fabulous granola before, but I just have to.
I've made at least three batches of it (and it makes a lot!) and yes, it is that good.
Just in case you did not get the recipe from my not-so-long-ago very first post, it is here from orangette.blogspot.com



Dilly Avocados

I am currently having a love affair with avocados. I could eat them every single day.
Ripe avocados, drizzled with olive oil & vinegar, sprinkled with salt, pepper and dill.



One of my favorite meals ever is: whatever vegetable we happen to have in the fridge, cut up haphazardly, tossed with oil and spices, into the oven. But I got inspired by Joy's recipe (from joythebaker.com/blog) for oven baked fries and decided on this:

Oven Baked Potato and Red Pepper Fries

(I was cooking for just me that night; it gave me a generous plate)

1 potato, washed with skin on
1 red pepper
1/2 medium onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp fresh chopped rosmary
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme + 3 small entire sprigs
salt & pepper

- Cut potato and pepper into fry-looking strips. Cut onion into large pieces, separate slightly.
- Toss veggies with oil and spices in a bowl, spread on a baking sheet and cook at 400 F for 30 minutes or so, until potatoes are browned.
- I like to dip mine in mayonnaise and ketchup.
*If it weren't for the mayonnaise, this meal would also be vegan!

*** I had to take the peppers off the tray about 15 minutes before the potatoes were done because the peppers were cooking too much. Next time I will either: boil the potatoes a bit before, or add the peppers later.
Boiling them beforehand would use more energy, but I could mix everything together well before they go into the oven. Hm.
I am still learning!



Besides the mayonnaise, everything in this entry is vegan! Hooray.

Thursday 19 March 2009

Pizza Pinwheels

Pizza Pinwheels REMIX







Chocolate for the Missus, cheese for the Mister.

I got this recipe in Grade 10 Foods class (6 years ago!).
Sorry, Mrs. Bygness, I'm giving your recipe away.

This recipe is amazing. It is so versatile; you can make anything out of it.
When I want baking powder biscuits, I just use the dough without the toppings.
When I want cinnamon buns, I spread butter (or margarine) on the dough, add cinnamon, sugar and raisins.
When I want nommy cheese biscuits, I add grated cheese and spices.
When I want chocolatey biscuits, I spread coconut butter (though regular butter would be fine), add cocoa powder, a touch of sugar and chocolate chips.

Seriously, do what you like with this and it will turn out delicious.

I haven't tried the original intention for this since I made it in Grade 10, but I bet it was good too.

Pizza Pinwheels

375 ml flour
15 ml baking powder
1 1/2 ml salt
60 ml chilled margarine
150 ml milk (In the original it adds: 50ml milk powder. We made our own milk!)

40 ml pizza sauce
grated cheese
vegetables chopped very small
(sliced meat cut into strips, if you wish. I was a vegetarian by then)
spices (I don't know exactly what this was supposed to mean, but I guess pepper, oregano, basil... improvise!)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. (We used metric for the measurements, but not the temperature...)
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Cut in margarine into flour mixture using a pastry blender until mixture is mealy.
4. Gradually add milk to dry ingredients, stirring with a fork until dough forms a soft ball. Knead 6-8 times, on a lightly floured counter.
(If making plain biscuits, at this point, make into small balls, or cut out circles, and bake)
5. Form dough into a circle shape. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a rectangle (to about 1/2 cm thick)
6. Spread with pizza sauce (or butter or margarine or coconut butter or whatever!)
7. Sprinkle with cheese, vegetables, (meat) and spices.
8. Roll up like a jelly roll.
9. Using a piece of string or fishing line (I use dental floss), cut into as big of biscuits you want.
10. Place in slightly greased muffin tin.
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

(You can tell this recipe was intended for beginners)

They just WORK. Every. Time.
It's also nice for The Mustards, because we only cook for 2 and the recipe does not make that many.

I found this recipe over at edible-moments.blogspot.com which is very very similar to this one here, but her's look more like "real" cinnamon buns. I'll give that one an audition tonight or tomorrow. The icing looks like a very welcome addition as well!

Mister Mustard is getting very hungry; he's burried in an English essay and I'm making mexican.

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Two Thai dishes.

Mister Mustard Masterpieces


Tofu and red pepper Pad Thai.


Tofu, yellow pepper and baby bok choy on rice.

He likes to free-style his Asian dishes. And he does them well, let me tell you!
Maybe one of these days I will have to sit him down and get him to teach me the ways of his impromptu dinners. He's probably the cutest cook I know.
Thanks, Mister.

Monday 16 March 2009

Pretzels & Tostadas

Pretzels


Punching dough is very fun.


Boiling dough is very fun.


And eating homemade pretzels is also fun.
Normally I am all over the whole wheat, but I think next time I will stick to white. Sad. But true.
NONETHELESS they were super tasty and vegan. Wait, I put egg wash on top. I think it would be better without anyway.
Recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Tostadas with homemade refried beans


Missus Mustard "aren't you supposed to wear gloves when you touch jalepeños?"
Mister Mustard "no, it's fine. I've done it tons of times and nothing happens to me"
WEAR THE GLOVES. Please, wear the gloves.
(I resorted to dipping my hand in a bowl of milk.)
Anyway, they were the best refried beans I have ever had. That's got to count for something.
Recipe from fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com



The Mustard Take on Tostadas:

Tostada + refried beans + shredded cheese + diced tomatoes + preferably guacamole + plain yogurt + optional salsa + baby lettuce leaves.
Stack, get hands very messy whilst eating, repeat.

If you omit the yogurt and cheese, it would be a tasty vegan meal too!

Can you tell I don't write recipes often?


I wish I could post smells... 'cause oh baby, it is smellin' GOOOOOOOD up in here!

Sunday 15 March 2009

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup & Brownies

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup




If you take a gander at the (adapted) recipe from smittenkitchen.com, you'll quickly say to yourself
"woah, Missus Mustard, what did you do to it?"
Yeah, yeah. My aforementioned compulsion of recipe changing sometimes gets the best of me. This soup and yesterday's, ahem, adventure of using up the rest of the canned pumkpin I used for this soup to make muffins (no this, no that plus too much pumpkin and applesauce makes for some funky (though still edible) muffins) are just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. Usually I can follow my nose and turn out spot-on, though radically different than intended, dishes.
But sometimes. Sometimes...

Lessons learned: PRECOOK DRIED BEANS. Soaking alone is not enough.


Dessert: brownies. With Reese chips.
Recipe adapted from doughmesstic.blogspot.com
They turned out so-so. Much better the day after, though.

Saturday 14 March 2009

Toskanische Tomaten-Brot-Suppe & Apple Pie

Toskanische Tomaten-Brot-Suppe


Leftover bread = mandatory bread soup. Made by Mister Mustard!
(If you should be so inspired, and happen to have old bread, give me a shout and I'll translate the recipe from German for you. Mum?)
Recipe from a Swiss magazine, Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen.

My First Apple Pie




And it tasted great. Except next time I will somehow try to prevent the apples from turning to applesauce. Thicker slices? Cooler syrup? I don't know. But I do know that cutting all those apples up only to have them turn to mush was quite disappointing.

Crust recipe from smittenkitchen.com
Filling recipe from allrecipes.com

No cooking tonight. Yam tempura sushi with spicy cream cheese and potato crisps. It may sound off, but oh no. DELICIOUS.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Hi, I'm Missus Mustard.

I'm cheating. I directly copy pasted this from my other blog, Milk White Air. Way to start out a new blog...
Although I must say, that this is exactly why I started 'ol Mean Missus Mustard. I like to keep my food an fashion separate; makes perfectly good sense!

Here goes, entry number one:

"That's it. I'm officially obsessed with food and all things food. One look at my first food blog and I was hooked. Although if I'm going to be hooked on anything, it may as well be food, right?

Here are some recipes (though I seem to have an insatiable compulsion to change them, whether because of necessity or just whim. I can't remember the last time I followed a recipe to a T. Sometimes it turns out great, sometimes not) I have been hoarding.

I also went a little wild with my new free toy, Poladroid. I feel like I'm cheating on Photoshop, in a bad way. But it's just. so. fun.

Let's start with Breakfast.


Devenish-style müseli with mashed banana and grated apple.
No recipe. Just memories of breakfast chez the kids I nannied.


Blueberry pancakes.
Recipe from smittenkitchen.com the apple of my food blog eye! I love Deb.


No recipe. Just my love of organics.


Daily granola with everything and anything nice you can think of in a breakfast granola. I've already made it twice and I love to add to it. It is vegan too!
Recipe from orangette.blogspot.com whom I also love.


Decaf coffee from my grab-n-go coffee maker, because my body hates caffeine so very much.

Lunch.


"B".L.T. Made with lotsa mayonnaise and veggie Canadian bacon.

Since we're usually: a) at school over lunch, or b) eating dinner leftovers for lunch, time's up for this category.

Rollin' up to Dinner.


Veggie fajitas topped with cheese and into the oven.
No recipe, because you're looking at the Mexican master. Well. Reading words from the tips of the master's fingers.


Eggplant tomato sauce. People, this pasta sauce is so good. I don't even like eggplant and this sauce puts a party in my mouth. It is vegan also.
No recipe, but more memories, and tweaking thereof, of the Devenish house.


"Wurst" im teig and Plain Jane, with chickpeas. The "wurst" meaning veggie dogs, even better! So easy and magnifique we've made it again since. Hint* though the recipe is in German, I will let you know it's basically phyllo pastry wrapped around a veggie dog with mustard. Yum.
Recipe and recipe from a German childrens' cooking page and orangette.blogspot.com
And this whole meal is vegan!




Cyril's ratatioulle. It is vegan. Cyril is a fantastic cook. He can take anything blah and turn it into BAM.
No recipe, just his pretty little head.


Would-be Butternut squash soup with Gruyère croutons, but is more like Pumpkin potato soup with cheddar croutons. One of the best soups I've ever made. Now I want to try the recipe as it was intended.
Recipe from milkeggschocolate.blogspot.com
I think Alyson would be the catalyst who got me onto these blogs. Her ever-lovely unruly things page often has little food goodies tucked into it. One thing led to the next. And now I'm a cookaholic.


Valentie's Day gnocchi. I didn't do Deb's recipe justice, but now I know for next time.
Recipe from smittenkitchen.com


All made 100 x better by Cyril's cheesy cream sauce.

Dessert.


Chocolate fondue is amazing with grapes. And bananas. And pears. And I bet you could stick about anything in a warm pot of melted dark chocolate and it would taste good.


Spiced and baked pear with butterscotch ice cream.
No recipe. You could not mess this up if you tried.

I'm hungry."

Next installment: something new? I think so.