Easter cooking
When I was younger I looked forward to Easter for the candy, now that I've matured I've come to the conclusion that Easter is actually all about cooking, so that is what I did. It all started Thursday night with a vegetarian friatta (tomato and basil with mozzarella) yum! I had made that once before, but I enjoyed it even more the second time. Friatta's are great for dinner and breakfast, so they are fun and easy to make. Friday I went to Whole Foods with Victoria and while I was there I happened to remember another recipe from the paper that I wanted to make called sweet potato and vegetable tian. Due to more miracles (the first one being the lack of homework) I was actually able to remember all the essential ingredients to make this tian dish (even though I only read the recipe once). I was very proud of myself when I got home and found out that I remembered everything I needed. So, I made that for Friday night and had it with honey orange salmon. It was very good and easy; I would make it again any day. All the vegetables were just chopped up and roasted together in the oven with a little olive oil. Look at how colorful it was when I was mixing it all up.
Two good nights in a row, I was almost ready to become a vegetarian.
Saturday I went grocery shopping since I wouldn't be able to buy and last minute things on Sunday. I ended up with a ton of carrots because I wanted to make a carrot cake (it sounded like an appropriate Easter dessert). I used my food processor to grate a bunch of carrots for the cake, but I had some left over, so I decided I would make carrot raisin salad. I love Chick-fil-a's carrot raisin salad, I could eat it all day long, I have memories of loving it forever. I was convinced I could make a similar carrot raisin salad if I tried. I was successful, it was so good. I was so happy with it that I even took a quick picture to prove that it existed before I devoured it all in a lunch-time frenzy.
Dad decided to invite his girlfriend and her kids over for dinner, so I became responsible for making something everyone would eat. I made another recipe from the food section of the paper: stuffed pasta shells. It was pretty good, not as flavorful as my two veggie dishes, but overall still good and kid friendly. I served it with salad and everyone was happy. For dessert Anita made peach and blueberry cobbler, it was really good. I saved all the leftover fruit and used it Sunday morning for breakfast. Dad and Jon went to church with Anita like decent people, but being the heathen that I am I was having none of that myself. Instead I stayed home, determined to make pancakes for breakfast. Of course, when I went to look for pancake ingredients there were none to be had (there's my karma for refusing to go to church with the rest of my family). So, I didn't have the stuff to make pancakes and all the groceries were closed, what could I do? Not one to be deterred, I started looking at the stuff we did have, then went upstairs to search for creative pancake recipes online. What I found instead was a recipe for crepes. I love crepes, they are wonderful things, but I've never made them at home before, they are very thin and thus prone to being temperamental. I decided to make them anyway. I would have taken a picture to show how beautifully they turned out, but I was too busy eating them greedily the second they came out of the pan. I was resourceful though, and when I was able to stop "sampling" the fresh crepes for a second I got out the leftover fruit and put it on top of the crepes. This made them even better, I was in heaven. After all that I decided it was time to make the carrot cake. I had a "healthy" recipe that involved using lots of carrots, whole wheat flour, less sugar, and oil instead of butter. It also suggested adding raisins and cooking it in a bundt pan so there would be less icing (no icing separate cake layers). I could not believe how easy this was to make, I don't remember the last time any baked good came together so quickly, it was amazing. Turns out that not only the ease of making it was amazing, but the taste also. It didn't taste healthy at all, it was delicious! I was very happy with it. So were Dad and Jon who didn't know about the "healthy" changes and loved it immediately. Aside from being moist and perfect, the presentation also worked out nicely, look at this:
Two good nights in a row, I was almost ready to become a vegetarian.
Saturday I went grocery shopping since I wouldn't be able to buy and last minute things on Sunday. I ended up with a ton of carrots because I wanted to make a carrot cake (it sounded like an appropriate Easter dessert). I used my food processor to grate a bunch of carrots for the cake, but I had some left over, so I decided I would make carrot raisin salad. I love Chick-fil-a's carrot raisin salad, I could eat it all day long, I have memories of loving it forever. I was convinced I could make a similar carrot raisin salad if I tried. I was successful, it was so good. I was so happy with it that I even took a quick picture to prove that it existed before I devoured it all in a lunch-time frenzy.
Dad decided to invite his girlfriend and her kids over for dinner, so I became responsible for making something everyone would eat. I made another recipe from the food section of the paper: stuffed pasta shells. It was pretty good, not as flavorful as my two veggie dishes, but overall still good and kid friendly. I served it with salad and everyone was happy. For dessert Anita made peach and blueberry cobbler, it was really good. I saved all the leftover fruit and used it Sunday morning for breakfast. Dad and Jon went to church with Anita like decent people, but being the heathen that I am I was having none of that myself. Instead I stayed home, determined to make pancakes for breakfast. Of course, when I went to look for pancake ingredients there were none to be had (there's my karma for refusing to go to church with the rest of my family). So, I didn't have the stuff to make pancakes and all the groceries were closed, what could I do? Not one to be deterred, I started looking at the stuff we did have, then went upstairs to search for creative pancake recipes online. What I found instead was a recipe for crepes. I love crepes, they are wonderful things, but I've never made them at home before, they are very thin and thus prone to being temperamental. I decided to make them anyway. I would have taken a picture to show how beautifully they turned out, but I was too busy eating them greedily the second they came out of the pan. I was resourceful though, and when I was able to stop "sampling" the fresh crepes for a second I got out the leftover fruit and put it on top of the crepes. This made them even better, I was in heaven. After all that I decided it was time to make the carrot cake. I had a "healthy" recipe that involved using lots of carrots, whole wheat flour, less sugar, and oil instead of butter. It also suggested adding raisins and cooking it in a bundt pan so there would be less icing (no icing separate cake layers). I could not believe how easy this was to make, I don't remember the last time any baked good came together so quickly, it was amazing. Turns out that not only the ease of making it was amazing, but the taste also. It didn't taste healthy at all, it was delicious! I was very happy with it. So were Dad and Jon who didn't know about the "healthy" changes and loved it immediately. Aside from being moist and perfect, the presentation also worked out nicely, look at this:
posted by Erin at 5:41 AM
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