Caroline Dines

Any Office fans out there? I thought I would pay tribute to my favorite show with tonight’s post title (if your curious where the quote came from check here). It is appropriate as you will soon find out!  As I mentioned in my lunch post, I went to the Farmer’s market today with a certain vegetable in mind: Beets! My dinner was inspired by Stephanie over at Cookin Fanatic who cooked up a mean batch of golden beets last night. I discovered beets in salad bars about a year ago (I had been afraid to try them before, I have no idea why) and have loved them ever since. Of course the beets I was eating were canned and not a good representation of what a real beet should be like. I literally had no idea how to cook these things until I read Stephanie’s post. I basically just washed the bunch of beets (there were four small ones) really well, cut the tops off, and then wrapped them up in foil. I didn’t add anything! Baked them at 350 for about 1.5 hours (it was so hard to wait!), cut into them to be sure they were done, and peeled them with a small knive. While they were cooling I sauteed the washed beet greens in about 1 tablespoon of EVOO and a small bit of crushed garlic. I then threw the chopped up beets into the pan and topped the whole thing off with a bit of garlic goat cheese and S+P.

Who knew a bunch of beets (literally, I ate the entire bunch) could be such an awesome dinner. Of course I could have eaten some more protein on the side but with my bologna and cheese from lunch (my Mom would call that sandwich a protein overload because it has meat and cheese), I figured I could do without. Besides I think the nutrition content of the beets had me covered. Beets are full of fiber, manganese, folate, B vitamins, potassium, iron, vitamin C, copper and phosphorus. And the Beet Greens actually have 4 grams of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and all the other goodies that the Beets have.

I highly recommend making yourself up some beets either as a side dish or you could jazz em up with whatever else you had on hand. Since these guys were picked fresh today and cooked with no added oil the naturally sweet flavor came through 100%.  I only wish that there were left overs. I guess next time I will buying more than one bunch!

Bet you thought you’d be seeing a pizza slice on here since it’s Pizza Thursday huh? Well I decided that plain cheese pizza that I can have every week wasn’t worth it tonight. On the other hand we are fully stocked for the month with J.P. Licks Ice Cream (Oreo and Oatmeal Cookie Yogurt) which I admittedly was thinking about when I planned my light dinner out. A small portion of freshly baked Apple Crisp went perfectly with the Oatmeal Cookie flavor. I also couldn’t resist a dollop of cool hhhwhip for the top (any Family Guy fans? If you click the link go to about 50 seconds you’ll find out what I am talking about). This dessert was exactly what I needed: half healthy and half indulgent. Also in case you can’t tell by the picture this is a kiddie sized dish.

For your viewing pleasure: here’s a taste of what the end of my night looked like…read on to find out how it all came about.

After another non-stop day (full of awesomeness but none the less busy) I am taking a break from a hectic night of baking here at the house. First I’ll recap my day through my eats! Yoga was yummy and by that I mean I left feeling powerful, full of good thoughts, and with freshly loosened muscles. Ahhhhhhh…I scarfed an apple and Amazing Grass Chocolate covered bar on my way to Coolidge Corner to do errands.

I successfully picked up supplies for tonight’s Halloween Cookie Fest, picked up my newly hemmed jeans (oh the joys of being 5′ 2″), retrieved my newly cobbled boots (needed a replacement heel, $10.00 later I have brand new boots!) and went to the holy land (Trader Joe’s) for some supplies for the upcoming weekend. My cousin Meg was kind enough to meet me at TJ’s and drive me home with all my loot. We hung out for a bit before I had to go to work and she had to go to class. I did munch on some brocoli and cauliflower with bean dip during our rendezvous (sorry no picture!). Then it was time to get geared up in my best halloween inspired, work appropriate outfit (thanks Mom for the Pumpkin necklace).

Tonight was all about getting the house decorated for Halloween. I love Halloween and growing up my Mom did a fantastic job of decorating the house. I brought a few of the homemade pieces that were handmade by my Great Aunt. This pumpkin head witch is sitting on our microwave…

…and this witch  is currently flying on our door (she was made for me when I was a baby, 25 years old and it still looks great!)

Of course some of these items one might find “tacky” or “over the top”. To that I say, have a little fun! I use any holiday as an excuse to decorate in a fun way and usually stray from my more simple and classical tastes. The more outrageous the better! Speaking of outrageous, Darin’s contribution to our Halloween decor are the following two Pumpkin heads. He seriously loves these guys and woud probably keep them up all year if I let him (one thing I don’t abide by is keeping holiday decorations up past the actual holiday!). This year we spruced them up with a wig and a cowboy hat. They crack us up!

On to the house now. My co-worker picked up some awesome pumpkin garland, spider rings, halloween themed boxes of crayons, and festive plates, cups and napkins. We had a great time decorating!

The majority of this garland went around our picture boards and message boards which contain pictures of the children here so I can’t share them but you get the idea!

The best part of the evening was the baking project that I decided to tackle. Our normal Thursday night volunteer is away this week so I figured people would be disappointed without a homemade dessert to finish of their pizza with I decided to make my Mom’s Halloween Cookies that I have eaten every October I can remember. They’re simple to make and sinfully good. My mom normally only bakes healthy treats, and is famous for her biscotti which are virutally fat free, but these cookies do contain butter and lots of sugar (once a year wont kill anybody!)

Mom’s Chocolate Halloween Cookies

1 stick of butter (I used Smart Balance stick)

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/3 cup of cocoa

Combine ingredients (creaming the butter, sugar and eggs first)

Roll dough into ball and place on baking sheet. Take a glass that has been dusted in flour (you may need to do this repeatedly) and flatten the balls out so that they cook evenly.

and bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.  Allow the cookies to set up a bit on the baking sheet (5 minutes) then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool before frosting.

I tripled the batch and easily had about 60 cookies. Thank goodness I had a tri-level cooling rack  Making this many cookies was a lot of work but totally worth it!

While they are baking away you can mix up a quick frosting using butter, confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla.

Make sure you have some fun toppings on hand too. Traditionally these were made with one simple candy corn placed on each cookie. Tonight because sprinkles are my favorite we jazzed things up a bit but I made sure to find room on each cookie for a corn as well!

We added wacky sprinkles and placed the “corn” in haphazard positions.

While arranging them, there was one casuality. Oh darn, I guess I had to eat it! O.k. I promise I am not exagerrating at all. These cookies were phenomenal! They tasted like a cookie/brownie, soft yet a little crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle and the toppings just made them fun to look at and added that extra flavor dimension that only sprinkles can bring. Mmmmmmmm…..I had a total of 3 this evening and am very proud that I held myself to that!

I worked up quite the appetite making these cookies and when the pizza delivery was made I wanted to stop but I knew I needed to hammer these out so they would be ready for more guests. I didn’t break until 7:30 and by that time I was starving. I added some broccoli and cauliflower for more staying power and since my mouth was craving veggies.

I am happy to report that the house is completely covered for this holiday and I am retiring as baker of the evening. I am totally in the Halloween spirit now and have gone crazy thinking about what I am going to be this year. Any good ideas out there?

I woke up excited for breakfast (yes I normally wake up excited, but this morning was a little different), I had my freshly baked granola in mind to try! Below is a final product picture from yesterday. No, I did not eat an entire cup of dry granola for breakfast!

Let’s back up a little bit shall we? I have had a bag of Maine grown oats (Grandy Oats brand to be exact) in my possession since last February. I had bought them with the intention of making oatmeal for breakfast and then realized that oatmeal isn’t my favorite breakfast (gasp!) and I would rather make some granola to top yogurt with. Today was the first time I have made granola and I am happy to report that it came out awesome and was super super easy to make.

To get an idea of the proportions I checked Cookinglight.com for some recipes. I ended up making some substitutions so I feel fine about posting the recipe I came up with.

Caroline’s Granola:

2 cups of Maine Grown Rolled Oats

1/3 cup of ground flax seed

1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup of chopped nut mixture (I used cashews, walnuts and almonds)

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/3 cup of O.J.

1/4 cup of agave nectar

1/4 cup of honey

2 teaspoons of grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon pure bourbon vanilla extract

canola oil cooking spray

1/3 cup of dried cranberries

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Heat the wet ingredients minus the oil and vanilla over medium heat in a saucepan. Remove them from the heat and add in the oil and vanilla.

Pour wet mixture over the dry oat mixture. Stir together and spread out over a jelly roll pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil spray.

Bake at 300 for 10 minutes. Stir on the pan. Bake for another 15 minutes. Stir. Bake for another 5 minutees at 350 on the top rack to ensure that it is crunchy enough.

After it is done baking you can add in the cranberries and let the mixture sit out to cool down completely before you put it away in an air tight container. I made this batch with the help of my cousin Meg and since she contributed to the ingredient list we split the bath in half. I ended up with a good 1 1/2 of granola which should last me a little while since I only use about a 1/4 cup. This morning I cut up a whole banana into small pieces and then topped it with 1/4 cup of granola, a glob of almond butter and poured a small amount of almond milk over the top. I like eating granola with milk but don’t want to eat a huge portion of it so adding the banana contributed to the bulk and meant that I didn’t need as much granola. This was a perfect breakfast in my opinion.

What I love about these oats is the fact that you actually find hulls (which I guess have even more fiber in them than the real oat) in the mix, they’re super raw if you know what I mean. I love the fact that this granola is not super sweet. It tastes like oats and cinnamon and nuts instead of sugar. The dried cranberries add just enough sweetness for my taste.

One of my responsibilities here at the “house” is to help faciliatate and co-run groups. These groups provide the families with support during this difficult time in their lives but also can offer them a fun creative outlet. A few weeks ago I proposed the group idea “Bring Your Own Recipe” night and tonight was the first one of it’s kind. The hope is that every two weeks a different family will be featured and cook a entire meal for the house (with myself and my co-worker as sous chefs and clean up crew).  Since our population is so diverse, I thought this would be a great way to share recipes from all over the world and help the families find common ground through food. Tonight’s meal was Spanish in nature and while I was not able to get an exact recipe (great cooks don’t go by recipes or like to share for that matter), I did manage to get some key ingredients.

There was a lot of GOYA going around…

In fact, I think this dinner was brought to you tonight by GOYA.

My favorite part of the meal were the fried plantains. I watched closely during this process so I could recreate if the craving hit.

After chopping them up you simply fry them in some oil. Take them out, pat them dry a bit, and then press them flat using a mug or glass.

Then put them back in the oil for a bit. Serve hot with salt sprinkled on top.

The rest of the meal consisted of the chicken:

rice and beans:

and the salad (which I made). Boring compared to everything else, but still good!

All I can say is that I can’t wait for the next recipe night, a night off from cooking is always welcome and it was a lovely way to spend the evening. I love my job! The picture of my plate was “eaten” by my camera but you can be sure that I enjoyed every bit of this dinner and a scoop of J.P. Licks for dessert.

Recently Darin and I have been somewhat obsessed with bulldogs. We have spent a lot of time watching funny youtube videos, thinking of names for our future bulldog and always stopping to pet those that we see out and about. Today on my walk to the Hailey House I spotted this painting in the window of a gift shop. I had to snap a photo for Darin

I am so pumped about my new volunteer position! I am basically in charge of the bakery/cafe for the afternoon which means restocking the cookies, scones, and muffins. Dishing out hot soup and selling wraps and salads. This excites me to no end! I have never worked in a restaurant or bakery or cafe for that matter which is very strange considering my love for food. This is the perfect opportunity for me to get my feet wet and I couldn’t be happier. I also get to run the cash register (those of you who know me understand how awesome this, as a child I had a huge old fashioned cash register that I played with and actually used to keep my money until high school when I finally got a bank account!). I was bummed that I didn’t get to take any pictures today but since it was my first day I didn’t feel like having that conversation just yet. I promise a post on the actual organization soon. One tidbit I will leave for you is that their slogan is “Food with Purpose”. Right up my ally!

Lunch was kind of non existent today. I had this bar on my way home and had a free Izze soda at the bakery and a mini corn muffin.

 The Hailey House is located in Boston’s South End neighborhood, it was an easy walk back to Copley Square where I was pleased to find a rather large and bustling farmer’s market!

 I didn’t get any brussel sprouts but I couldn’t resist the picture, they’re so funny looking growing on the “tree”.

 Here’s a little sign with an idea for a quick and easy soup! I didn’t buy the ingredients but I may on Thursday at the Coolidge Corner Farmer’s Market!

 Right in the center of Boston! Can you spot the GOAT CHEESE sign? That’s where I got a log of the best ever Basil and Herb Goat Cheese.

 I thought long and hard about whether or not to purchase some of these GORGEOUS sunflowers.

They were $10.00 for 5 and I just couldn’t justify it. Maybe I should have, it probably would have added a lot of cheer to the apartment but I have never bought flowers for myself and couldn’t see spending that much money on them! What would you have done?

 What I did purchase was an avocado (from a market just up the street that was not selling local food OBVIOUSLY), tomatoes, a pepper, honey crisp apples, and goat cheese.

For dinner I made another variation on the salsa/guac from last week.

• 1 diced avocado
• 1 diced tomato
• 1/2 diced red onion
• 2 ears of corn
• the juice of 1 whole lime
• salt and pepper to taste

I liked this a lot better than the mashed avocado. It was more like a fresh salsa but not hot at all.

 In an attempt to spice things up a bit or at least add a little more flavor, I shook some of this out on my chips and cheese before it went in the microwave. This is THE BEST chipotle sauce in my opinion. Darin’s brother-in-law Justin made it at his restaurant, Mirasol Cantina,  in Winter Park, CO. We use it all the time but only a little bit so it seems to last forever.

 YUMMMMMMM Dinner was filled with these collasal veggie filled bites!

 I would haved liked some greens in there but I forgot to buy some at the farmer’s market today so I went without. I got my fill just the same. The “salsa” was so fresh tasting. I thought about adding some type of oil to help the flavors come together but ultimately decided against it which I think was the right decision. Seriously all you need is a lime, no oil necessary!

After a somewhat boring day of food in my opinion, dinner needed to seriously step up in order for the day to be a success. I have been planning this meal since I saw Heather’s post on a “Healthier Cream Sauce” on Tuesday.

The ingredients for dinner are pictured below.  The spinach and goat cheese were used for a salad on the side. I cooked the sprouted grain penne pasta according to the directions on the box and was surprised at how quickly it cooked up. They warn you to not over cook it which is good because I would have left it longer since I am used to whole wheat pasta taking forever. The penne cooked up lighter than whole wheat pasta and had a delicious nutty texture to it.  I liked the fact that it was sprouted because I have read about the health benefits of eating sprouted whole grains as opposed to your typical whole grains.

To make the sauce I followed Heather’s process but used slightly different ingredients. You basically just throw everything in together and let it simmer down a bit. You seriously can’t mess this up!

Chunky Beef and Basil Tomato Sauce

14.5 oz. can of diced tomatos (I used no salt added TJ’s brand)

8 oz. can of tomato sauce (found in the pantry of the house kitchen, didn’t realize I would need the extra liquid)

1 tbs. garlic

3 tbs. grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp. olive oil

large handful of torn basil (use as much or as little as you like)

1 lb. ground grass-fed beef (browned)

salt and pepper to taste

This picture was taken before I added the extra tomato sauce and beef.

Here it is right before plating. I browned the beef almost compeltely in a separate pan and then added it to the sauce just before it was done.

I kept tasting it while it was cooking and I couldn’t believe how it was turning out! I hate to say it but I have never made my own tomato sauce because I was scared that I would mess it up. Even when I was buying the ingredients for this I bought a jar of sauce just in case I needed it! I guess I should have realized that you can’t really go wrong with the ingredients listed above. My goal is to at somepoint create a sauce completely from scratch; using fresh everything! This was a huge step in the right direction though.

The pasta paired perfectly with this thick and chunky sauce. I would say that the sauce made about 5 servings? I gave Darin a big heaping spoonful because we both realized after he returned from a run that he hadn’t eaten anything today other than a bite of my bread and that coffee! This freaked me out when I realized it and made the dinner earlier than normal so that he could eat something hearty. He had plenty of opportunities to eat it’s just funny that it never really crossed his mind.  When I brought him his plate back to the apartment his eyes lit up and all he said was “wow, thanks!”. I just smiled.  I honestly don’t understand how someone can go without eating all day, it’s not like he didn’t have the chance! It just doesn’t make sense to me. I guess this proves opposites really do attract

Quinoa is one of those foods that I have never LOVED but wanted to due to its balanced set of essential amino acids which make it a complete protein. Quinoa is  gluten free and a good source of fiber with high levels of magnesium and iron as well. I’ve had it plain and mixed with various vegetables but it has never really won me over. While I was preparing the salmon earlier this afternoon, I eyed the box and thought why not try it again. Well I am glad I did! I created a winning recipe with what ingredients I had around.

Creamy Quinoa

• 1 cup of quinoa prepared according to the box (1 cup boiled with 2 cups of water and then simmered for 15 minutes)
• 3 carrots chopped
• 4 scallions chopped
• 1/2 a red pepper chopped
• 3 oz. herb and garlic goat cheese (approx.)
• 1 tbs. olive oil (approx.)
• 3 tbs. balsamic vinegar (I eyeballed this)
• a dash of salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and chill in the fridge until dinner is ready. The beauty of this recipe is that it could include anything that you had around the house. I also appreciated the fact that the veggies didn’t need to be cooked. When they were added to the steamy hot quinoa they softened just enough. Mixing the cheese in when the quinoa is warm is key too because it melts and creates a delightful creamy textured that holds the dish together quite nicely.

The salmon was also a hit! I created a simple glaze and marinaded for about two hours before baking at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

The glaze included the following:

• 4 tbs. soy sauce
• 1 tbs. honey
• 1 tsp. crushed garlic
• 2 tbs. orange juice
• salt and pepper

I really eyeballed the ingredients on this as well and don’t have exact measurements but I don’t think that’s crucial to the success of this dish. You can’t really go wrong with the flavors in my opinion. Just start slow and keep tasting!

On the side we had steamed brocoli. I was so proud of this meal and how it came together. Well balanced and fun to eat!

And for dessert I treated myself to one of these babies that were donated to the house this afternoon.

Man this was good. It made me remember what cookies made with butter were all about. Pretty darn tasty!

When I started volunteering at an urban farm this past May, I began to discover different vegetables that I had never thought to cook or eat myself.  After helping to plant and weed the collard greens I really wanted to try these dark leafy greens so I set out to find a quick and easy way to cook them. The traditional method is a long drawn out process which usually incorporates some type of pork product from my understanding. While these are probably very tasty, I don’t have the time and don’t usually eat a lot of pork. I happened upon this Brazilian method one day while I was searching the internet.

After rinsing the greens, you begin by slicing out the middle section with a good sharp knife.

You will then be left with two halves of the green. Stack these up with the cut sides together. A stack of about 6 or 7 should work.

Next you will roll the bunch tightly.

And then slice the roll very thinly.

Chop the newly cut rolls into rough pieces, the smaller the better because it will cook faster.

At this point you will want to begin heating your pan with a little olive oil, crushed garlic and salt and pepper.

Once the pan is hot enough, throw the greens onto the heat and begin to stirfry.

The heat should be fairly high at this point but after about 4 minutes, you will want to turn it down and cover the pan to steam them for about two minutes.

Having never had the other type of collard greens I really have nothing to compare these to. I would say that the crunchy yet soft texture and the bright green color that they retain after such a quick cooking method is what draws me to repeat this recipe weekly. We ate a larger meal at 1:30 today due to my work schedule and his plans for tennis later this afternoon.

The collards were served with BBQ chicken which I simply baked in the oven and corn on the cob. Simply fabulous.