Taco Tuesday

We eat a lot of tacos. Taco bars, restaurants with tacos, street tacos, homemade tacos- you name it, we love it. Something about the format is just so simple, and yet almost deceptively so. Tacos have a lot of requirements- the right flavor combination, the right mouth feel, the right balance of hot and cold. We think these tacos check all those boxes! The recipe makes a lot, but trust us, you'll want them all.

The Mountain of Taco.

The raw ingredients.

The salsa.

The beans.

The final product.

Sweet Potato Tacos with Pinto Spread and Salsa Verde (makes 8 tacos):

Sweet Potatoes:

• 2-3 large sweet potatoes, finely diced
• oil for the pan

        Heat the oil in a frying pan or skillet on high heat. Add sweet potatoes and stir regularly until crispy, about 20 minutes. Be careful not to smoosh during soft stage!

Salsa Verde:

• 4 large green tomatoes
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 2 handfuls of cilantro, chopped
• A pinch of pepper
• A dash of salt
• A sprinkle of lemon pepper seasoning
• 2 green jalapeno peppers, chopped with seeds

         Combine tomatoes, lemon juice, lime juice and spices in a bowl. Let sit while preparing the other ingredients. Add all other ingredients and let sit until sweet potatoes are done.

Pinto Spread

• 1 15-oz can pinto beans
• A pinch of chili pepper
• A dash of garlic powder
• A sprinkle of cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

         Heat beans and spices gently over medium-low heat until warm. Turn heat to lowest possible setting and mash with fork until a paste forms.

Assembly

• 8 flour tortillas
• Extra scallions and cilantro for garnish

         Heat tortillas over a gas flame or in the microwave until warm. Spread a layer of the bean spread, fill with sweet potatoes and top with salsa. Garnish with scallions and/or cilantro if desired. Have a bangin' Taco Tuesday!

Sick Day Soup

When you're feeling a little under the weather, soup is really the best way to go. Especially when the weather is  cold and rainy outside, you can't go wrong with a big bubbling pot of comfort food. Well, maybe you can. But you don't have to, thanks to our recipe below. We've been wanting to try making our own soup for a while, and finally got around to it. We ate it with a delicious loaf of rosemary sourdough bread, but you can dish it up however Mom used to for the ultimate comfort food experience. Heck, you can eat it with a good Netflix movie if you're into that. Whatever makes you feel better.

The Spread.

The Profile.

A little garnish.

In the pot.

All stirred up.

A heart shaped radish.

Sick Day Soup (6 servings): 

• 1 quart of vegetable stock
• 3 16 oz cans stewed tomatoes
• 2/3 onion, chopped
• 1 cup kidney beans
• 7 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 bundle of radishes (about 7), cut into half moons
• 6 carrots, chopped
• 1 1/2 inch ginger root, chopped
• a pinch of salt/pepper
• a dash... or a couple of chili pepper
• a sprinkle of dill for garnish
• 1 tbsp olive oil

          Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place radishes on a baking sheet laying flat and sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in the oven once hot and roast until tender, about 15 minutes. In the meantime, heat olive oil in a large soup pot over high heat. Once hot, add onions, celery, carrot and ginger. Cook for about seven minutes or until mildly tender (they will cook more in the broth, so they don't need to be totally done). Add remaining ingredients (except dill) and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes or until you can't resist eating it any longer. Pour into bowls and top with dill. Treat yo'self. Seriously you're sick, take care of yourself.

Precious Little Cupcake

Cupcakes are essentially perfect. They have all the goodness of cake, in a convenient single-serving size. At the same time, they're small enough that you can make an excuse to have two without feeling guilty- which is our favorite part because we love cupcakes. Today's recipe was made for a meeting, and they were a big hit. These are cupcakes from the original vegan winners of Cupcake Wars on Food Network. They have a chocolate base with special hints of cinnamon and coffee, and a vanilla frosting topped with candied pecans. The original recipe was made with bourbon, but see below for our substitutions. Enjoy!

The set-up.

The little monsters.

The left-over batter in cake form.

AK tested. AK approved.

As always, some tips to optimize the recipe:

• You can always sub bourbon for vanilla in baking- they taste very similar in the finished product. 
• This time, we put the frosting in the fridge for an hour or two before frosting, and it worked perfectly.
• Cooling the cakes overnight provides less chance for residual heat to melt the frosting.
• If you don't have a piping bag, use a Ziploc and cut open one end to make your own.
• There's a caramel sauce that's supposed to fill these, but ours hardened up too much. Be very careful when making the filling.

These were divine. 10/10 would recommend. 

Sunday Brunch

On late, lazy Sunday mornings, one of our favorite breakfasts to make is a variation on fried potatoes. They change a little bit each time, but this time we thought they came out particularly well and thought we'd share the recipe. But don't be afraid to get creative and try your own spin!

The finished potatoes.

The close-up.

Right before they were devoured. 

Improv Potatoes (2 servings):

• 2 russet potatoes, diced 
• Olive oil
• 2/3 cup halved grape tomatoes
• A pinch of lemon pepper
• A pinch of hot sauce (or more, to taste)
• A dash of crushed red pepper flakes
• A dash of onion powder
• A dash of garlic powder
• A dash of sriracha (or more, to taste)
• A sprinkle of ground cinnamon
• A sprinkle of thyme
• Salt and pepper, to taste

          Coat a large, non-stick skillet in olive oil and set to medium heat. While heating, add the garlic and onion powder. After about a minute, add the potatoes. Cook for about five minutes, stirring frequently, then add the lemon pepper and crushed red pepper. Stir for another ten minutes before adding the tomatoes. After another five minutes, stir in the hot sauce and sriracha. Cook for another five, turn off the heat and top off with the cinnamon and thyme, stirring thoroughly to incorporate the spices. CAUTION: These are SPICY. Be careful. Please don't burn your taste buds off. Have a great morning. 

Cookbooks and Cake

Today we dropped by the campus bookstore and while browsing found a book we absolutely had to buy:

The holy book of vegan baking

The book is called Sticky Fingers' Vegan Sweets (Petersan, 2015). It has chapters on cakes, cookies, cupcakes, whoopie pies and more. It was written by the former winners of Cupcake Wars and the only team to ever win on the show with vegan cupcakes! The cake we made is a Chocolate Raspberry Cake and it was absolutely delightful. We think this cake would be perfect for Valentine's Day and is a really fun two-person baking project. It takes a little bit of time but is very much worth it.

The finished cake.

The profile.

The slice.

Some helpful hints: 

• Leave the cakes in a minute or two longer than the recipe says if you have a small oven. Ours were a little sticky in the center which made cutting a challenge.
• If possible, puree your own fresh raspberries.
• If possible, make the frosting and ganache ahead of time and refrigerate, Ours got a bit melt-y sitting out while we decorated.
• Have fun with the decorations! We went with the ganache pictured in the book, a crown of raspberries stuffed with mini chocolate chips, a mound of raspberry puree in the center and some more mini chips over top. This was by far the most fun part of making the cake.

Our overall thoughts on the book:

It's very well written and easy to follow. The page turns can get a bit tricky in recipes with multiple steps, so just make sure you know which pages you're using and bookmark them. There are ingredient and equipment indexes at the front of the book that make advanced baking seem much more manageable. There are two sections of inspiring glossed photos that are the honestly the reason we bought it. All in all we give this book a huge thumbs up and would highly recommend it no matter your baking skill level.

Soapy Pillows

When I was growing up, my mom called these bad boys Soapy Pillows. The original dessert, sopapillas, is a great way to get rid of extra tortillas... and after those burritos we definitely had extra tortillas. They're super quick to make and with two people, the job flies by. It's also pretty cool to watch them puff up. If you're looking for dessert but don't have the typical "dessert ingredients", give these a whirl!

The spread.

The golden children.

Up close and personal.

Artsy powdered sugar.

Soapy Pillows (makes a **** ton):

• 4 large flour tortillas
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups of canola oil
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (for dipping)
• Any other dipping sauces- chocolate sauce, honey, etc.

          Pour the oil into a saucepan and heat on high. Slice the large flour tortillas into 1/8th wedges. Test the oil with a small piece of tortilla- once it sizzles, the oil is ready. Drop the tortilla wedges into the oil two to three at a time. Cook for approximately 10 seconds and flip, then transfer to a dinner plate coated in a paper towel. Even if they aren't quite golden yet, they will continue to cook on the plate because of the oil, so pop them out of the oil after 20 seconds. Transfer all of them to a big bowl and sprinkle powdered sugar over each layer as you place it in the bowl. Pour the maple syrup and other dipping sauces into bowls, and enjoy! 

Inaugural Burritos

Welcome! After being snowed in for the weekend, we decided to kick off this cooking blog with tonight's scrumptious dinner: burritos! They're easy, quick and fun. Here's our version on the classic:

The spread.

The veggies.

The fillins.

The finishing touches.

Inaugural Burritos (makes 4):

Veggie Filling

• 1/2 a red bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 a green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 cup of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• Olive oil to coat pan
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• A dash of garlic powder
• A dash of onion powder
• A dash of cumin
• A dash of coriander
• A sprinkle of cayenne
• A sprinkle of red pepper flakes
• A sprinkle of oregano
• A sprinkle of paprika

          Heat the oil on medium high heat. After about two minutes, toss in the veggies. Stir often, cooking for for about 5 minutes. When veggies look bright and mildly tender, toss in herbs and spices. Stir together for another 2 minutes.

Da Rest

• Your favorite guacamole, to taste
• Peach salsa, to taste
• Hot sauce, to taste (don't be a wimp)
• 1 cup white rice, steamed
• 1 can re-fried pinto beans
• 1/2 cup sliced grape tomatoes
• Cheese (if desired, to taste)
• 4 flour tortillas

          Wipe down pan from making veggie filling. Place tortillas one by one, cooking for about 20 seconds per side. Spread a layer of beans and a layer of guacamole on the tortilla, fill 'er up and wrap snug by folding up the bottom first, then folding in the two sides. Eat the heck outta' that durn burrito.