Cooking

In pursuit of a cheaper, healthier and less wasteful lifestyle, I am slowly and awkwardly expanding my range of cooking. You probably already know more than I do, but I thought I would share some links to cooking blogs which have helped me get started.

SnoWhite's picture

Finding Joy in my Kitchen by SnoWhite (who may look familiar to SLP grads) is a lovely blog with clear directions and beautiful pictures. I used to eat a ton of cheap frozen pizzas and now instead I make these. My favorite is the Margherita. This is more expensive than the cardboard-crust frozen pizzas I was eating but much more delicious, and because more effort is involved than turning on the oven I eat less pizza which is good at my age. I haven't tried many of SW's non-pizza dishes but I will.

Shiksa's picture but I've made this and it's delicious

The Shiksa in the Kitchen by the magnificent Tori Avery (who is no longer technically a Shiksa) focuses on Jewish food with lots of great Mediterranean dishes. With the High Holy Days coming up I hope to make more contributions to the festive meals than I have in the past, and Tori will be my go-to girl.

Broke Ass Gourmet is not a site I have used yet but Gabi Moskowitz specializes in cheap and easy yet fancy meals. She hosted Read it and Weep's review of The Hunger Games and explained all the tantalizing ways to cook and flavor squirrels, grass and fallen enemies on the cheap.

My picture, mmmmm

Ends and Leavings is Sara's personal blog; she writes about movies, books, music, gender issues (sex lots of sex) and food. Lots of her recipes are easy and delicious and can be thrown together from ingredients you probably already have around. I often make her Crazy Delicious Vegetarian Improv Pasta although I sub in peas or edamame for broccoli if I don't have broccoli and sometimes I add chicken. Tonight I made the Delicious Blueberry Cake recipe she ripped off of Smitten Kitchen (which I have not used directly)'s Raspberry Buttermilk Cake except that I used frozen cranberries instead, I mixed them in the batter instead of leaving them on top, and I didn't sprinkle sugar on top because of the skyrocketing diabetes rate. It was quick, easy and delicious.


And an easy, vegetarian recipe I got from the Star Tribune in 1999:

Portebello Mushroom Steak Sandwiches

Serves 4

4 Portobello Mushroom caps with no steams

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp basil leaves

4 kaiser rolls or other large, sturdy buns

4 slices large, ripe tomato

4 lettuce leaves (or spinach)

4 slices provolone cheese

1.       Turn grill on to medium

2.       Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil and basil leaves to make sauce

3.       Lightly coat the mushrooms with the sauce

4.       Grill for three minutes

5.       Turn over and place a provolone slice on each mushroom

6.       Grill for 2 more minutes

7.       Assemble burger and eat while it’s hot

I made this tonight but was too hungry to take a picture before eating it. It was delicious and took about 10 minutes.

Update: Amanda M. has directed me to this index of cooking blogs: http://punchfork.com/