Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Made in advance of the enchiladas It is the time of year to look for ways to use up tomatoes! I have canned plenty of puree and tomato sauce, I have made chili and tomato-based farro and sweet and sour, and I have a year's supply of salsa in the freezer. And so, enchilada sauce. I worked from  this recipe  from Dinner Then Dessert because it's easy. And because I was cooking 8 things at once, I simplified it further and skipped the roux, so mine is super watery. I'll add flour next time, but this one tastes good and the texture is passable. The Recipe: 2 tb vegetable oil 2 tb flour 3 tb chili powder 8 oz tomato sauce 1 c vegetable broth 2 tsp cumin 1 tb garlic, minced 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp salt Heat oil in a saucepan. Add flour and chili powder and stir until the color turns a bit brown. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk. Cook for 8-10 minutes until thickened.

Enough flavor for about 50 meals. My friend, Thu, invented this sauce and served it to me at lunch one day. I demanded her recipe and made it for company two days later, and received rave reviews. I could eat this on anything. I have had it on tofu (yum) and grilled vegetables (yum) and in my mind it would be perfect with shrimp or other seafood. Thu suggests adding tomatoes if serving it with seafood. I will try that. She told me the recipe without quantities, so I did my best to quantify it below. Hers was still better, so there is room to perfect the recipe below, but it's a delicious starting point. The Recipe: 1 medium shallot, minced 1-2 garlic cloves, minced 3 tb sugar 1/4 c fish sauce 1 small splash soy sauce Saute shallot and garlic until golden brown Add sugar and stir until melted Add fish sauce and soy sauce and stir Simmer to slightly thicken the sauce.  The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: Unusual and delicious ...

Still hot. The last time I made blackberry "jam," I just boiled blackberries with a little bit of sugar and lemon and called it good. It was not jam. It was sauce. It was good, but I wanted jam. This time, I found  this recipe , which promised actual jam without the need for pectin or much sugar. Sounds like my error the first time was just not cooking it for long enough.  This is easy, delicious, and only takes a little bit more time (but not much more effort) than my previous attempt. My only change was that I added a splash of extra lemon juice to each jar to increase the acid content even more before water-bath canning them. Probably not necessary, but I did it. The Recipe: (from Practical Self Reliance) 5 cups blackberries 1-2 cups sugar, depending on sweetness of berries and how quickly you want it to gel 2 tb lemon juice, plus a splash in each jar Combine ingredients in a heavy pan. Cook on medium-low, stirring periodically, until it gels. Al...

I could not figure out how to take this photo without my reflection in it. Previously, my pickled beets have all happened very unscientifically and they have turned out great. This time, though, I wanted to actually can them (water bath), so I carefully followed  this very official-looking recipe  to make sure I had the correct acid content and instructions. It worked, and I now have three jars on the shelf waiting for winter! Rather than copying the recipe into this page, I will just leave this link here: http://www.atcoblueflamekitchen.com/Recipes/Recipe-Box/PICKLED-BEETS

I wasn't confident enough about the acid content to can these, so they are in the chest freezer now. This week, the CSA gave us three hatch chilies! I successfully roasted and peeled them, and then, faced with many tomatoes and a good onion and a jalapeno pepper, I decided to make salsa. I loosely followed  this recipe from Chili Pepper Madness . It is so good! I'm mad that I don't have any chips or tortillas or anything that would be good for snacking with this salsa at the moment. The Recipe: 3 hatch chilies 4-5 medium tomatoes, halved 1 white onion, cut into chunks 4 cloves garlic, smashed 1 lime, juiced 1 jalapeno, seeds and membrane removed salt to taste Coat the chilies in olive oil and salt. Roast them under a broiler for 20 minutes, flipping half-way through. Immediately transfer to a covered bowl to cool off, then remove the skins and stems. Place halved tomatoes, chunks of onion, and garlic cloves on baking sheets. Bake at 350 f...

Before: Beautiful berries from Thistledown After: 11 jars and bellies full of strawberries The first thing we accomplished on our Summer Fun to-do list was strawberry picking and making jam. The last time I canned strawberries, I went without the pectin and ended up with strawberry sauce. It was good, but it wasn't as good as jam. So this time we did it the right way. I knew we wouldn't need much sugar, since these strawberries were SO sweet. I searched through many recipes that claimed to be low-sugar but actually contained a lot of sugar, and eventually settled on  this one from Lively Table . Easy and delicious. The only change I made was not running the strawberries through a food mill or blending them. We opted for chunky strawberry jam. The Recipe: 4 c strawberries, stemmed and washed 1 c water 3 tsp lemon juice 4 1/2 b low sugar pectin 1/3 c sugar Mash strawberries with a potato masher. Place mashed berries, water, lemon juice, ...

They look benign, but these have SO much flavor. In our previous CSA, we were allowed to list three items that we never wanted to get, and turnips were at the top of my list. Then we switched CSA's, and our FIRST WEEK with the new one, guess what was in there? Since pickling has worked well for other less-desired CSA items (radishes and beets, I'm looking at you), I searched to see is pickled turnips were a thing. And I found  this Momofuku turnip pickle recipe , which gave me an excuse to use the kombu in our pantry. I followed the recipe exactly, even though it seemed like too much sugar. And yes, they are sweet, but in a good way! They packed great punch on an asian-themed salad, and I plan to put them into our tofu bibimbap bowls this week, especially since we ran out of kimchi. The original recipe says that at Momofuku, they serve these as a snack, but I don't think I'd snack on these without something bland for balance. The Recipe: (from Mo...