Loud restaurants make you eat more, leave faster.

Check this out: Loud restaurants make people eat more, drink more.

Makes sense, huh?

Though personally, the man & I tend to eat more, drink more at a quieter place. However, we aren't big drinkers or big eaters - unless it's sushi.

Post-race Pizza.

There's nothing quite like home-made pizza. Delicious ingredients combined just the way that we like them... Yum!

For this pizza, I used Jules Gluten-free Flour. It is by far the best gluten-free flour that I've had. No extra ingredients. No adjusting of the recipes. Just use as you would regular all-purpose flour.

I made the dough using AllRecipes Pizza Dough III with a few minor modifications: I gave the yeast about 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for food, I decreased the amount of sugar in the dough, & I added a teaspoon of an Italian seasoning blend into the dough.

Next time, MORE Italian seasoning into the dough!!

For the pizza:
1/4 jar of pasta sauce (leftovers work great for this!)
1 tin of tomato paste
8-12 leaves of fresh basil
Boar's Head pepperoni (gluten-free!)
1 package of Sargento shredded Italian 4-cheese blend
1 diced tomato

I lightly greased the pan prior to putting the dough on it. (Normally, I spread the dough on a flexible, plastic chopping board, & then I flip it onto the baking sheet.) Mix the pasta sauce with the paste. Taste & add any seasonings if needed. (We didn't need any!!) Put down the sauce, then the basil, then the cheese, then the pepperoni, then the tomatoes.

Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Yummy!!!

Homemade Almond Joys.

While I haven't tried this recipe, it's potentially too good to pass up.

Homemade Almond Joys without the milk. Nice. Link sponsored by Grist, the environment news website.

Polenta Bake

This one is easy, easy, easy, and delicious!

1 tube pre-made polenta (or make your own from corn grits, flavored as you wish)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 carrots, shredded
shredded cheese

Sauce:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tbl seasonings (used no-salt seasoning mix)
1 tbl nori flakes (optional)
salt and black pepper to taste
olive oil

Blend all ingredients, adding a bit of oil at the end.

Preheat oven to 400. Make sauce. Oil loaf pan. Slice polenta in half lengthwise, then into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Line the bottom of the pan with polenta, breaking polenta up if needed to fill bottom layer. Top with black beans and carrots. Top with sauce, then cheese. Do the layers one more time, crumbling any extra polenta on the top of the loaf with the cheese. Bake until warm, bubbly and browned on top.

Serve with a salad, or add some greens into the sauce (for St. Patty's Day) or the bake layers.

Enjoy!

CSA!

Just a heads up! If you're interested in joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), now's the time to act.

A CSA is a way to purchase a subscription for a full seasons worth of fresh farm produce. Most of the CSA's here run from the beginning of May (or June) to the end of October. There are options for fresh flowers, eggs, and other items for your subscription. The farm can have drop off locations, deliver to your home/work, or reserve your box at their farm.

For your $$, you get a random selection of in-season produce (fruits, veggies, herbs - depending on the farm) in a bushel or half-bushel box. It's almost like getting a Top Chef/Chopped mystery basket every week.

I like mysteries. & intrigue. & cooking!

I'm going to sign up for my first CSA this year. Very exciting!! I'm eyeing Bigg Riggs' CSA, which has a pick-up option right near my gym every Sunday at the Farmer's Market. So, I can always pick up my supplementals at the Farmer's Market when I scrounge through my box of surprises.

For those of you interested, you can find Farmer's Markets & CSAs through LocalHarvest.org. (Also, if you search by zip code, be sure to zoom to get the slimmed list of what's closest. Otherwise, you've got a 50 mile range of places.)

Yay for spring!!

Quiche me!

You know what's really hard to screw up? Quiche.

I mean - You add a bunch of eggs, some cheese, & a little bit of dairy, & *poof* quiche.

Or you add a few egg whites, a little bit of dairy, some vegetables, & *poof* quiche.

Or you add a mix of eggs & egg whites, a little bit of dairy, some meat, & *poof* quiche.

But my all-time favorite quiche recipes call for a mix of the above. Since we were doing manual labor this weekend & we didn't have time for cooking/cleaning/etc, I made a quiche with a medley of pantry items. I wasn't sure how it was going to taste - since it had all of the competing flavors. It was, however, delicious. After all, how hard does one have to try to screw up quiche?

Pantry Quiche

1 leek, chopped white part only (mostly, I prefer shallot to leek)
3 egg whites
2 eggs
1/2 - 3/4 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chorizo or other cooked sausage
1/2 cup milk or unsweetened dairy substitute
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen spinach
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
couple of sprigs of thyme (chopped) or 1 tablespoon dried
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

1 pie dough (recipe, mix, or store-bought of choice)

0. Preheat oven to 325.
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add leek & cook until limp.
2. Whip eggs, milk, cheese in a bowl.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the eggs (including the leek).
4. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into prepared pie pan (with dough in it).
6. Place pie pan into oven & bake for 1-1:30 hours or until center is set. You may want to increase the temperature to 350 at the end if it doesn't come together & you're especially hungry.

Onion tart.

This year, we celebrated Open That Bottle Night with a few friends.

For those of you who don't know:
Ever have a special bottle of wine that is sitting on the shelf... gathering dust... maybe looking a little lonely? Open That Bottle Night was created strictly for that bottle. It doesn't have to be expensive. It just has to be unopened & waiting.

For our Open That Bottle Night, we opened 5 bottles of wine. Of which, the best was last - an amazing 2003 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm not a big red drinker, but this one could convert anyone. Anyone, I say!

To pair with the wines, everyone brought a little something. Kate, our hostess, made lamb chops and roasted potatoes. Someone else brought a spinach bread & red wine chocolate cake. The man & I brought an onion tart and tea smoked chicken lettuce wraps.

The onion tart? It was phenomenal - a definite keeper. If you read the recipe, you'll see crème fraîche in the ingredients. Crème fraîche is the delight of sour creams & expensive to boot. If you can't find it or don't want to "waste" $5 for a tiny pot, substitute full fat sour cream. I doubt anyone will notice a difference in quality. (Except the cook - who will not be tempted to repeatedly dip a spoon into the sour cream & lick. At least, not me.)

I ended up making it twice this week. After all, we had the ingredients even the crème fraîche (*lick*lick*), & it was amazing. Even non-onion eaters loved it.

The tea smoked chicken lettuce wraps were also good, but not nearly as amazing as the onion tart.

Make it!! Make it tonight!