The Bunny Box

Last week, as celebration for finally finishing my Big Scary Paper, we had a few good friends over for Bad Movie Night. The essential components of Bad Movie Night are: A very very bad movie Lots of alcohol to get through said movie Junk food Well for this night, we chose Sharknado for the bad movie. Friends supplied the alcohol, and I made a veggie platter because apparently I don't understand the concept of junk food. Surprisingly, the veggie platter was practically gone at the end of the evening (and I still have alcohol in my fridge and bag of caramel corn. Apparently my friends have their priorities all wrong.) Even so, I still had a bag of straggling vegetables that didn't get consumed at the party.  Come Thursday evening, I felt I should use them before they started to go bad. So the veggie calzone was born. I roasted all the veggies in a pan with some olive oil, s&p, and garlic powder.  Then I made my pizza dough recipe , cut it into two ...

If you've been wondering where I've been, you may be surprised to learn that a lot has happened in the last few months. I started grad school We bought a house. We moved. And that may be a short list, but I'm sure you know that can keep a person pretty busy. Well today I finally finished writing the Big Scary Paper (BSP) that's been consuming all of my time for the past couple of months. This monster tips the scales at 93 pages, and as you can imagine, I'm thrilled to be done with it. At the same time, I'm way too exhausted to make "real food." So tonight I indulged in a grilled cheese sandwich. A really amazing grilled cheese sandwich. With pear... ...and cheddar... ...and spinach... ...and cottage cheese... ...on thick slices of Italian bread... ...with butter. Because if you're gonna make grilled cheese for dinner, you better be willing to go all the way. So I hope the Fall has b...

In past years, I've left cooking for the holidays largely up to my parents and in-laws.  We'd split meals between our families and at most, I'd be making some sort of dessert.  Well this year, with our toddler's nap and bedtime schedules, eating out for the meals really wasn't going to be practical.  So this year, I decided to go it alone and cook enough food to last for a 3 day holiday. I wanted to keep things simple, but I also wanted to incorporate the simanim (symbolic foods) into my menu. So here's what I came up with: Round raisin challahs Sweet & Sour Gefilte Fish Honey Glazed Meatballs (served over mashed sweet potatoes) Sauteed Carrots and Leeks Roasted Beets Acorn Squash Stuffed With Brown Rice & Dates Apple Ginger Crumble Everything came out tasty, but there was WAY TOO MUCH FOOD for two people and a toddler. So we have leftovers (yay!). By far, the most interesting and successful recipe of the holiday was the ...

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine steered me towards a produce subscription service called Washington's Green Grocer  (H/T to Diana).  If you've never heard of a produce subscription before, here's how it works: You sign up to receive a box of produce, select the box size and the types of produce you would like to receive ( Organic , Local , etc .) and how frequently you would like to receive it (weekly, on-demand, etc.). They determine which specific produce will be in each variety of box for a given week and provide you with a list. You then have the opportunity (up until the night before delivery to your area) to remove items which you don't want to receive and replace them with extras of the other produce being offered. You can also order other items at no extra shipping cost (though you must pay extra for the items). The box is then delivered and the rest is up to you. After snooping around their site for a bit, I figured I could give it a try, an...

I don't have a lot of words for this post. Just pictures.

Heaven.... A while back, I saw something on the internet about making coconut milk whipped cream.  It sounded simple enough, and it definitely sounded healthier than making anything with Rich's Whip. ~shudder~ So about a month ago, when I started noticing strawberries in my grocery store, I picked up a can of coconut milk and decided to try it out. See that cool, smooth, creamy whippiness? I was pretty impressed with the results.  It whipped up well, it was perfectly sweet, and most importantly, it didn't really taste like coconut. I quickly came up with the idea of making a strawberry shortcake, and knew I'd want to make it chocolate cake because...well...I like it? Chocolate cake, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. What could be bad?! The problem was that I just couldn't justify making a whole cake for just myself and my husband (because this is way too much sugar to give to my toddler).  So I'd been waiting for the opportunity...

It's been a long long time since I've made cookies.  I just couldn't take it.  Had to get back on that horse. But with baby around, I have to be a little more conscientious about what I bake. You know I like to make my cookies SLIGHTLY healthier with little changes like oil instead of butter, whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, etc. But for my baby?  Doesn't feel like enough! Call me crazy.  Go ahead.  Do it. Anyway, with healthiness in mind, I made these cookies with apple sauce instead of oil, honey instead of white sugar, whole wheat flour, and less brown sugar.  I had to add more flour to the recipe to thicken the dough.  In the end, they came out tasting like kind of awesome muffins.  If I make this again, I'll put it in a muffin tin and add in some shredded zucchini, apple, and a dash of cinnamon. Oatmeal Muffin Cookies 3/4 C brown sugar 3/4 C honey 1 C apple sauce 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extr...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not exactly into the all-natural, anti-chemicals, crunchy granola, hippy lifestyle.  Not to knock anyone going that path, but it's just not for me.  I'm pretty attached to a lot of the chemicals in my day to day life. So it may surprise you to learn that I've been trying to get into some of this natural DIY stuff.  Don't be alarmed, it's not for fear of chemicals.  It's just because I love that feeling when I use things I made myself.  So if I can make it, without spending TOO much time or money, and it will work as well or better than the products I buy, why not go for it? My first step was to do a lot of reading and pick a few products with easy to find ingredients.  I started with lotion bars using a simple recipe of coconut oil , cocoa butter, beeswax, and essential oils . (click links for recipe and where to find ingredients) After making that basic recipe and coming away with some pretty nice lotion bars...

Today was Purim! I spent it writing a paper. I don't want to talk about it. So I'm skipping straight to the recipe for our Purim seudah mac & cheese. This mac & cheese recipe will blow your socks off. Pumpkin Butter Bean Mac & Cheese  (serves probably an army...about 9-12 servings.) 2 boxes macaroni/pasta (I used whole wheat mac and...not sure what the second one was?) 1 can butter beans, liquid drained into a separate cup 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree 4-5 cloves garlic (to taste) 1 tsp olive oil s & p and ground red pepper to taste (and whatever else your little heart desires, because this is a very flexible recipe) 1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese 1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese bread crumbs Fake bacon bits Cook pasta according to package directions (salt the water like the ocean) and drain, reserving some of the liquid. Puree together: butter beans, garlic cloves, olive oil, s&p and spices.  Add liquid fr...

I have a thing for spicy. Not a HUGE thing. But I like my food to have some kick. For this reason, about once a year, I buy a small container of green Schug, a Middle-Eastern hot pepper dip.  I use it sparingly to add that certain something to various foods, including eggs, sandwiches, chummus...just about anything. Last week, I was walking through the produce aisle and noticed a package of bright red, flawless hot peppers...for $1.  I had no clue what I would use them for, but I bought them. Then on Friday, I thought, "Schug!  Yay!" This schug recipe comes out spicy, but not TOO spicy.  It's flavorful, but with that certain kick you look for in a hot pepper sauce. Goes well with Challah and chummus. (Note: I didn't measure anything, so there are no measurements.  I'm trying to guess, but I wouldn't worry too much about getting it exact.) Schug 1 Cup hot peppers, stems and seeds removed 1/2 tsp olive oil 1 tsp lemon j...

I want to begin this post with a very important announcement: Apparently, I like sloppy joes! The only memory I have of eating sloppy joes has me sitting at a friend's house as a little girl eating what was clearly nothing but overcooked ground beef and ketchup. That was never my thing.  I'm sure I attempted to nibble politely, but rest assured I had no interest in trying it again after that experience. Then last week, my husband came home from work and requested sloppy joes because his coworkers had mentioned they would be eating it for dinner and now he wanted some.  It's not like him to request anything for dinner.  When asked, he usually just says, "Whatever you want."  Naturally, I wanted to jump on this opportunity. I did a recipe search and found something that looked ok.  As I planned this dinner, I kept thinking of alternative foods I could have available for myself, because I don't like sloppy joes. In that spirit, I actually went out to ...

This is just a quickie post to update you on those biscuits I made the other day . I went ahead and made them again yesterday using the 1/2 C all-purpose flour AND rolling the dough thicker.  The result was... Well... I'll let you be the judge... Isn't that glorious? Now for comparison... Kind of flat? Taste-wise, they were the same.  That is to say, they were delicious.  Especially straight out of the oven. And they whip up in about 20 minutes, so they're also extremely dangerous. Steamy, fluffy, buttery biscuit... Whole Wheat Biscuits  (adapted from 100 Days of Real Food ) (makes 8-12 biscuits, depending on how thick you roll out the dough) 1 & 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour 4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 Cup butter (4 Tbsp/half stick) 1 Cup milk (I used coconut milk the first time and regular milk the second time.) Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut up butter into pea-siz...

This past weekend, Huz and I took the Boo to visit some friends out of town.  We had a blast, especially the Boo who made lots of new friends, including two kitties, a doggie, and a fellow baby.  There were a lot of fun times over the weekend, but this blog is pretty much about food, so let's focus on that. Friday night, we had a southern themed dinner which included fried chicken, gumbo, collard greens, mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits.  All delicious, of course.  But for me, the biscuits were a highlight.  I ate way too many of them.  Not sure I've ever eaten biscuits before, but this was an eye-opening experience. I was, of course, determined to make them myself when I got home, so I got right on it. I found this recipe for whole wheat biscuits which came out amazingly from the oven, though they didn't puff as much as I would have liked, but they were soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and satisfyingly buttery.  Next time...