Cobbler, Quiche, Burger, Cabbage, Dumpling

Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler



Adapted from Joy the Baker.

Well, I swapped all-purpose flour for whole wheat (that was all I had), white sugar for coconut sugar (all I had... strange kitchen, indeed), likely decreased the amount of overall sugar and, clearly, substituted the plums for peaches. Ta-da.

This recipe is a keeper - adaptable, delicious, simple.


Bärner Zibelechueche



Swiss (Bernese) onion pie. I would liken it to an onion quiche. November Switzerland in pie form.

German recipe here.


Salmon Burgers



Recipe adapted from Underbaraclara. (Google Translate will provide you with the jist)

Adapted due to lack of ingredients/equipment/motivation. EX: mashed a much smaller quantity of salmon with a fork. Still added a whole egg, so needed some breadcrumbs to soak up the moisture and was unwilling to toast bread, so smashed some stale bread with a rolling pin into entirely too large pieces. Did not even realise that the recipe called for sour cream for the dressing and so used mayonnaise + crushed garlic + lemon juice and that's it.

I suppose I can no longer call this space a "vegetarian" blog. We might get into this another day.


Cream Braised Cabbage and Tomatoes



Something resembling a recipe:

Chopped cabbage, onion, little oil, salt, pan. 10 minutes ish. Veggie bacon, halved cherry tomatoes. Couple minutes. Little cream, even littler white wine, pepper, few minutes.

Sometimes the most humble of meals are the most satisfying.


Apple Dumplings



Recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Mustard Friend guest appearance! And yes, that is Mountain Dew. Being poured over an entire cup of melted butter with even more sugar on top of very few apples wrapped in two packages of Pilsbury crescent rolls. Eating these literally takes 3 years off one's life. Literally worth it.

I don't think I will make these again (I won't say ever) simply because they are so dangerously easy and gooey and buttery and caramely... I'm in the kitchen cutting up apples and taking out the Mountain Dew right now. Damn it.

Pizza Secrets

Pizza
Simple? Yes. Boring? Hardly.





My ultimate pizza dough recipe. Dead simple. Dead quick. Dead delicious.

Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough recipe from Allrecipes.com
(If we don't happen to have honey or I just don't feel like dirtying a spoon to scoop some out of the jar (ie, most of the time), we omit the honey, and honestly, I can't taste the difference.)
The Mustards split this recipe in to two pizza pies.

Mr. Mustard is real particular about the order of his pizza toppings.
This is how he does:

In order!

Pizza/tomato sauce
Cheese
Onions
Vegetables etc
Spices

The tastier of the two pizzas pictured featured diced potatoes & pesto!

And now for the real secret to gooood pizza:
HOT OVEN!
Forget 350F or whatever the recipe says.

- Turn your oven to broil with the rack near the top.
- Sprinkle a cookie sheet with cornmeal and place the bedazzled pizza in the centre.
- Now let that baby buuuuurn (not literally) for 7-10 minutes, or until everything is nice and bubbly and lightly browning.

Homemade Pasta with Homemade Pesto

To make up for my (extremely)extended absence, I thought I'd ought to make my (re)debut post a knock-out. And that, it is. It really is.

Homemade Pasta with Homemade Pesto



(I literally had to throw this plant out a few hours ago. Maybe I was feeling nostalgic, hence the surprise posting... but it was just getting too buggy(ew) and those bugs are stubborn and I would not put it past them to mowsy on over to my brand-new herb additions and set up camp there.)











To the last drop.


Recipe for homemade pasta from JoyTheBaker. Get it here!

Recipe for homemade pesto from Das Grosse Betty Bossi Kochbuch:

(Lately we have been adding chopped sundried tomatoes to the basil mixture before pureeing it and it is amazing!)

Basilikum-Pesto

3 bunches basil, coarsely chopped (about 100 g)
3 garlic bulbs, pressed (*we use only 1, though)
2 T pinenuts

Puree in food processor
(do not over-process or basil leaves will become bitter)

1/2 t salt
3 T grated parmesan
small amount of lemon peel (*I think we skip this, but it sounds nice!)

Mix into basil mixture

150 ml olive oil

Add slowly to mixture

Pesto will keep in the fridge for a maximum of 5 days.

Cheese Fondue

Cheese Fondue From a Box

Maybe you can sneak one of these in before it gets well too balmy out to even think of sitting round a hot pot of melted cheese. Sounds good, doesn't it?



I don't have a recipe for this (though I have made it from scratch before) because it's from a box!
We Mustards buy the Safeway brand from, uh, Safeway but add a pinch of paprika and pepper and an even smaller pinch of nutmeg. And about 1/4 C white wine. Which you are required to purchase anyway should you make fondue, so you will inevitably have it on hand.
We sometimes dip drained, canned pineapple in the cheese in addition to bread. But I know Swiss people who would object to this.



I know all this because Mister M is Swiss. A real, live Swiss man.

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Vegetarian Wonton Soup



I possibly feel like making this right now. It is delicious.
And, what I mean by "vegetarian" is simply that I used mock ground "beef" (I have also used mock ground "chicken") instead of the real deal. Maybe I can think up a yummy vegetable version.
Really, this soup is so good. Especially with the cabbage, which you don't find in traditional wonton soup. You could leave it out of you want, but I think it really adds to it.

Missus Mustard's Wonton Soup

Serves 2-4

For the wontons:
about 14-16 wonton wrappers (for as many dumplings as you want) (I found mine in the freezer section of Buy-Low)
1/4 of a package of Yves Original Veggie Ground Round
2 tsp dried chives
1 spring onion, white & green parts chopped
salt & pepper

For the broth:
1/2 head of a small savoy cabbage, cut into strips
3 c (ish!) of water
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
enough vegetable bouillon to make the water salty enough for your taste
sprinkle of dried chives
pepper (optional)

1. Thaw wonton wrappers in the fridge the night before.
2. Put cabbage and sesame oil into a pot and let cook for 1-2 minutes, until just beginning to wilt. Add the rest of the broth ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
3. Mix all ingredients for the wontons (except the wonton wrappers) in a small bowl.
Place a teaspoon of mixture in the centre of a wonton wrapper, bring in opposite corners of the wrapper over the filling and pinch the wrapper together at the top. Get it? Then squish the top all together so nothing can spill out and so it looks like a little candy in a wrapper. **
4. Do this with all wrappers and filling.
5. Bring a pot of slightly salted water to a slow boil.
6. Add the wontons in carefuly and take them out with a slotted spoon once they float to the top.
7. Place the wontons in the broth and serve.

** Next time I will try wetting the edges a bit with water on my finger to help them stick together. I think this will really help a lot.

Pasta Salad

What I Have Had On Previous Days
That I Would Have Had Today
Had I Not Had Something Else
(title)



Really cheap (in every sense of the word) beer in my Mason jar.
I did drink out of my Mason jar today, but it was iced coffee, not beer.
And I did drink beer today, just not out of my jar because it was dirty from my coffee.



Pasta salad. Atop a bed of lettuce.
Wanna know the recipe? Here it is:

Pasta Salad a la Missus Mustard

roughly 200 g uncooked whole grain egg noodles
a handful of grape tomatoes
a nice bed of lettuce
2 tbsp olive oil
(vinegar if you want)
1-2 tbsp pesto
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1-2 tsp fresh, chopped basil
salt & pepper
dollop of cottage cheese
sprinkling of parmesan cheese
(mozzarella would work nicely too)

1. Cook pasta in salted water
2. Cut grape tomatoes in half, set aside
3. Drain pasta, put back into the pot (make sure it's not too hot) and add oil (vinegar), pesto and spices. (Add enough oil to coat all pasta quite thoroughly, it should not be at all dry. I suppose you could add a little water too if it's too dry and you don't want to add extra oil.)
(At this point I also stuck a lid on the pot and put it outside to cool down. You don't need to, but Mr M wanted the pasta cold)
4. Plate on top of lettuce with cottage cheese and parmesan.

Mister Mustard put vinegar and sliced black olives on his and he loved it.
I'm sure it would be tasty with a lot of different things thrown in too.

Spätzli

Spätzli
(pronounced sh-PATZ-li)

A Swiss specialty made by my special Swiss Mister.
If you've never had spätzli before, it essentially tastes like pasta. (Is it a pasta?)
In Switzerland you basically don't bother making it from scratch because pre-made is everywhere, cheap and delish. But this is North America! We don't typically do spätzli. But luckily for you, my Swiss guy does. And I will lovingly hash out the directions into English.









Adapted a lot from Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen recipe for Käsespätzli.

(We made a half recipe)

400 g flour
4 eggs
250 ml fizzy water
1 tsp salt

1. Put flour in a big bowl, make a well in flour, drop in the eggs and lightly beat them.
2. Add in fizzy water and salt and mix for 5 minutes until dough is fluffy.
3. Leave at room temperature for 15 minutes.
4. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
5. Drop small blobs of dough into boiling water by cutting off pieces as you slightly pour dough out of the bowl (if that makes ANY sense. Look at pictures 1 and 2 and it might make more sense)
6. Let blobs boil until they float to the surface.
7. When they float to the surface, scoop them out with a slotted spoon.

Optional directions:
Lightly fry spätzlis in a pan before serving with sauce.

Mushroom sauce

um...

I'm still waiting on this one. It is a Mister Mustard original and he's not home. Next time, okay? Okay. Deal.

Huevos rancheros, baked egg rolls and falafel.

A breakfast, a lunch and a dinner.
Of course, these 3 meals were not eaten in one single day! That would be a bit much, don't you think?
Although it might be fun to go to Mexico for breakfast, China for lunch and the Middle East for dinner. But again, we're verging on piggishness here and that will not do!

Huevos Rancheros


Thanks to my vast knowledge of first-year-University Spanish, I can safely say the first word of the title means "eggs". I can also safely say, this meal is gooood.
Recipe inspiration from fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com
though I didn't really follow the recipe.

Baked Vegetable Egg Rolls








Recipe from the same site. I like her blog because 1. she loves Mexican food, as the Mustards do 2. she is always looking for ways to cut out fat and make dishes healthier 3. she consistently has tasty recipes to try.
And OH MAMA, these are no exception! We didn't have enough filling (though we made it to the recipe, so if you make these, I would (at least, because, I mean, I can certainly deal with over-stuffed egg rolls!) double the filling for just as many wraps) but they were scrumptious, crispy without being greasy (though give me some greased up Vietnamese roll dips any day and I'll be beaming like a clown), definitely vegan and all other sorts of yummy.

Falafel




You know what? Mister M made both hoummus and falafel from a mix. And you know what? It was good! And we're not ashamed! Go buy yourself a box (or 2 if you want hoummus) and eat yourself a big, bad falafel in a pita.

We used:
whole grain pitas
hoummus
fried falafels
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
homemade tzatziki sauce

Homemade tzatziki sauce (from The Vegetarian Cook's Bible):
1 english cucumber
1 1/3 c Yogurt Cheese (we used plain yogurt)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped (we didn't want to stink, so we omitted this and it was still good)
2 tbsp finely chopped mint (we didn't have any)
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Scrub cucumber (peel if not organic) and shred into a colander. Let stand in the sink or over a bowl for 30 minutes. Squeeze lightly to expel excess liquid.

2. In a bowl, combine cucumber, yogurt, garlic, mint, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to mix well. Taste and add more mint, lemon juice, salt or pepper as required.

And there you have it; a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner.

Mock crabcakes & cinnamon buns

Mock Mayland Crabcakes



Recipe from delicioustv.com
I have been watching Toni's podcasts lately and thought this one sounded yummy. I will basically try mock-seafood anything, though, so maybe it's just me. Mister Mustard deeply objected to the making of crabcakes, but I persisted and finally made them.
I didn't like them all that much. Sorry, Toni.
Tartar sauce recipe from allrecipes.com
I added a few chopped capers and spices. It was quite a while ago, so I don't remember. It was good, though.

Cinnamon Buns



Recipe from edible-moments.blogspot.com
Half of the recipe I used straight away and half I put in the freezer. Both batches were tasty, but the freezer batch was even more so.
The author of this recipe didn't specify how thick to roll out the dough and I definitely went overboard with the rolling pin. Next time I will stop myself at about 1 - 1.5 cm to make them more fluffy like her's.

Jogging time, folks. We had roasted potato fries with miso gravy for lunch. Guiiilty.

Quinoa ratatouille, tabouleh & oreos.

Ratatouille with Quinoa


Mister Mustard coordinating his outfit to his cooking endeavours.



We make ratatouille a lot in our house. It will absolutely be made again, and next time it will be accompanied by a recipe!
This was both of our first times eating quinoa. It's curly! And sticky. And distinctively very yummy.


Homemade iced tea. New obsession as it gets warmer.

Tabouleh



Mister Mustard's Tabouleh

1 chopped tomato
1/2 English cucumber, chopped
1/2 chopped red pepper
3 green onions, white & light green bits sliced thinly
1 avocado, chopped (optional. it wasn't used in this picture here, but it's really tasty)
raisins (optional)
chopped parsley (optional)
3-4 servings of cooked couscous

dressing:
Mix in a separate small bowl or measuring cup
2:1 ratio of olive oil : lemon juice (about 1/3 - 1/2 C in total? he said he doesn't know)
salt
pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tsp dill (I love it, but the Mister hates it, so add accordingly)

Mix together in a big bowl and eat it up! Mister Mustard served it with hummous and tortilla chips.

**Really, we just add whatever vegetable we have in the fridge and think would taste good.

Homemade Oreos



Does using raw, organic sugar instead of 'ol white, refined sugar make a difference in baking? It sure seems to for me. I could feel the crystals in these and it put me off, but the taste was amazing! So I will be trying these again. Either with un-hippyfied sugar or some kind of powder like sucrose or Splenda or something fancy and chemical like that.

Something else I would change (back), is the method of forming the cookies. In the recipe I'm linking to here, she forms them individually (which I thought was a waste of time!), so I rolled my dough into a log, threw it in the fridge and then sliced it. Do it her way. I think they will turn out more compact and less full of air holes. Because Oreos don't have air holes.

I've had a bit of trouble but I do urge you to try these! They are very tasty and the filling is much better than the original. So easy as well. Everybody wins.

Recipe from cupcakeproject.com

PS The only things I made in this episode were the iced tea (go me!) and the oreos. So, thank you Mister Mustard for your yummy lunches and dinners!

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.

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.

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.

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!