Category Archives: Recipe Corner

Cashew Cuisine

23 September, 2012 19:30 ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Cosmic cashew kale with chickpeas is totally a recipe that you should try. I’m linking to a version that calls for crushed red pepper, because I like it that way. Maybe you won’t. I don’t know. You should know whether you like crushed red pepper or not.

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I try so many recipes that end up requiring kale. That’s what I get for reading vegan and health-crazed lunatic sites. I don’t even like kale all that much unless it’s cooked or liquefied in a green smoothie. I bought what seemed like a small bunch, and then I washed it and started pulling it off the stems. Pretty soon I had filled the pie tin I set aside for the purpose, piling leaves precariously high. Then I stacked it on the cutting board. OH GOD SO MUCH KALE MAKE IT STOP. Then it cooks down and looks like almost no kale at all. Almost.

Posted in: cooking, recipe corner, vegetarian cooking ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,

Recipe Corner: Peanut Butter Fudge

24 November, 2010 23:42 ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

This is my famous (or not all that famous) peanut butter fudge recipe. I make it every year for the large Northrup family Thanksgiving gathering, and have modified it over the years. You probably have some hardened brown sugar in your pantry. Use its existence as an excuse to make fudge.

(bdollproject)

I have left out the part where you wander off and scorch the bottom of the pan. This part is traditional, but not necessary.

1/2 cup butter
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups (1 pound) confectioners sugar

Melt butter over low to medium heat in a saucepan. Add brown sugar, milk, and peanut butter to pan. Increase heat to a boil and boil for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour hot peanut buttery mix over the confectioners sugar and beat until creamy and smooth. our into a 9″ by 13″ dish and refrigerate until firm (usually about 4 hours, overnight is best.) Cut into squares. Enjoy deliciousness.

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Recipe Corner: Blissfully Olive-Free Pasta Salad

15 March, 2010 17:54 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I love pasta salad, but I can’t stand olives. This means that I can’t eat pasta salad in most restaurants or delis, at least that I’ve tried. I pretty much gave up until I found one salad that worked for me in the deli at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, and devised my own recipe based on what I liked about theirs.

It’s nothing special or complex, but it’s inexpensive to make and one of my summer meal staples. I make it weekly during the summer, and pretty often during the rest of the year too.

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Posted in: Bad Housekeeping, cooking, recipe corner, vegetarian cooking ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Canines, cupcakes, and the hazards of butter

3 May, 2009 02:17 ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

I hadn’t made cupcakes in a while, so I decided to make some up for my trip northward to see Naomi and Mark’s new place, and to meet their new doggie. DOGGIE! I didn’t have the supplies on hand for homemade dog treats, but human cupcakes I could do.

I pulled out Amy Sedaris’s book, where the cupcake recipe is rather intuitively part of the section on rabbits.

The cupcakes, of course, went through rigorous taste testing before I would inflict them on other people. The buttercream flavor wasn’t quite right…maybe it was because I used Wal-Mart house brand butter that I kept in the freezer. Maybe it was because I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I’m not sure, but I solved the problem by adding chocolate to the frosting. Darn. Other people probably wouldn’t notice, but I do.

I used my Confectionery House baking cups for the first time. Love these. They’re sturdy and don’t show grease marks, and are also pretty. Much better than the cheap paper ones from the grocery store.

I can’t talk about cupcakes without reprinting the recipe, so here you are.

1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar

Beat well, then add:

Add 2 large eggs
2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk

Beat well, fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I get 18, ’cause I’m doing something wrong.

Frosting

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 pound (3 ½ cups) confectioner’s sugar
¼ cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

Whip for a while, color if you want.

Posted in: albany, Bad Housekeeping, cooking, doggies, Pets, recipe corner ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,