I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! This time of year marks our first official year in Michigan. We had arrived 3 days prior to the festivites to a new home, a new city and no friends! This year we spent it with friends while enjoying some good food and laughs. It is during these important holidays that makes me think even more of family because it was always spent with family, but now that we have been away from all of them, I realized that Ryan was my family. I have been truly blessed.
We celebrated with friends, whose birthday also happened to be on July 4th! How fun. I told her she did not have to blow out candles since she had the fireworks to see. My friend’s husband bought her some Texas BBQ from Waco, Texas and there were tons of fixin’s. The birthday girl made potato salad, salsa, chips, beans, and her husband made BBQ chicken on the grill and roasted corn! SO sweet by the way. I got to enjoy some local beer called Oberon, which I found out is a seasonal beer. Did you know beer could be seasonal?
After we had finished eating, we enjoyed laughs and good Baylor stories and then brought out the cake. I made my grandma’s Strawberry Cake since I had asked my friend what her favorite cake was. Sorry folks, it was NOT vegan so I decided to make it as is, but it is a white cake mix using strawberry jello. Since I already knew what the cake tasted like, I tried to make the icing a little different. Prepared sugared strawberries, crisco, and powdered sugar sure are hard to work with but it proved to be a good icing. I forgot to take a picture of the cake though! Bah!
After cake we rushed out to catch the fireworks in the near by mall area and set up our chairs. Here are a few pictures of the fun fireworks:
We had a great weekend y’all. On Saturday, I cleaned, baked, cooked, did laundry and SO many other things. I was high on energy and I needed to get things done, but before that happened I made a yummy brunch for Ryan and me. It had been a while since I had prepared a tofu scramble so I decided to make one.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
A while back, I had emailed the Chocolate Maven in New Mexico after I had tried their delicious tofu scramble asking them what the wonderful ingredients were, but I NEVER heard from management. I just always wondered that if a place gave you their business card asking you to contact them whenever, don’t you think they would have the decency to email you back? Oh well. Since I had not heard back from them, I decided to replicate the recipe from the flavors I remember tasting.
This recipe is very unique since it takes a ripe tomato but some green chiles. It has a little spicy but not much since it is only to bring out the flavors of this dish. It is mighty flavorful and worth making.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
The olive oil, shallots, and garlic make the base of this scramble, then the tofu, tomato and green chiles continue cooking, absorbing the base flavor. So delicious. Some green spinach then finishes the meal and add some green to the dish. Enjoy the dish.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Southwestern Tofu Scramble
serves 2
1-12ounce extra firm tofu (I use Mori-Nu)
2 shallots, diced
1 garlic, minced
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe tomato, diced
3 Tbsp green chiles, diced
3/4 cup spinach, packed and chopped
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
Press the tofu before hand for 30 minutes to an hour. (lay the tofu between two paper towels and place on a plate. Cover with a plastic bag, and add heavy books on top of the tofu)
Remove pressed tofu from paper towels and pat dry. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium heat and add olive oil, shallots, and garlic to the pan. Fry for 3-5 minutes and then add the tofu. Crumble tofu with the wooden spoon, leaving pieces in bigger chunks.
Add spices and cook for 10 minutes allowing all the flavors to mesh. Add spinach and serve with avocado slices and toast!
