Posts by admin:
- Toasted corn tortilla
- 1 1/2 Tbsp refried beans
- shredded lettuce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp guacamole
- 2 tsp tomatillo salsa
Drunken Irish Whiskey Cake
March 18th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I am Irish by marriage..that is fair right? I love it! I pray that God gives us the opportunity to visit Ireland and see the wonderful sights. In the meantime….I will have to be content to wear as much green and try not to make too many Irish meals, if you know what I mean. If I had had time I would had made cabbage and some other item, but I decided to make a meals with lots of green and a dessert that would be traditional to its name.
I first started making vegetarian tostadas, while Ryan had the rest of his beef to eat with HIS tostadas from a previous meal.
I oven-baked the corn tortillas for 10 minutes, while I made the guacamole with one leftover tomato and red onion. I added some Tony’s for added pizzaz too! I washed some romaine lettuce and chopped it thinly and took out the red salsa and green tomatillo salsa. Can you tell there is a lot of green? I also warmed up some vegetarian refried beans for the base of the tostada. Here is how the layering happened:
I enjoyed this with a nice glass of cold hard cider since I found out that Guiness is NOT vegan! Boo…oh well, I survived.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
WHat you do not know is that I made dessert before dinner! I try to do my major cooking when Ryan is not home so that I am not consuming my time in the kitchen. I like to spend quality time with the husband.
As I scanned through various vegan desserts I finally decided to make a nice bundt cake. If you have been reading my blog you got to know that it seems like I like making bundts. They are fun and easy and yet look so elegant, what can I say?
I started out by greasing the bundt cake with a little nonhydrogenated shortening to prevent the cake from sticking. I then ground up 1/2 cup walnuts and placed that in the pan.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I then mixed the wet ingredient in a medium bowl and the dry ingredient in a large bowl. I made a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients and poured the wet ingredients in the middle, stirring little by little.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Once that was mixed well, I poured the batter in the bundt pan on top of the nuts.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I placed the bundt in a preheated oven (325F) and cooked for an hour.
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While that cooled just a bit, I made the drunken glaze to pour over the cake. Did I mention I used whiskey IN the CAKE and in the GLAZE? A drunk little bundt, indeed!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Once that all melted I poured over the cake and let the glaze soak . What were the results? I served Ryan a slice and I went to check on the clothes drying in the laundry room. When I came back, he was on his SECOND slice! Can’t leave anything hanging around, LOL. He still claimed the breading part needed more sugar, but that the glaze added sweetness to it but not that much. I decided to make a second batch of the glaze to add to the cake.
The results? I took the cake to a choir party and I heard great feedback from the choir. Another two thumbs up for vegan dessert!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Drunken Irish Whiskey Cake
Adapted from vegweb.com
makes one bundt cake
Pan
1/4 to1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Cake
1-1/3 cups almond milk
2/3 cup oil
1/3 cup Irish whiskey (I did not have Irish whiskey, just used regular whiskey)
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons coffee
2-2/3 cups whole wehat-white flour
1-1/2 cups vegan sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
Glaze
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Irish whiskey
3 tablespoons Earth Balance vegan margarine
2 teaspoon water
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle nuts onto bottom of pan.
In a medium bowl combine wet cake ingredients: almond milk, oil, Irish whiskey, and coffee. In a larger bowl combine dry cake ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and add wet, mix very well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 60 minutes.
When done place pan on rack for 10 minutes then remove cake from pan and place on rack. Either proceed to glaze or hard sauce preparation or let cake cool and eat as is.
Glaze: Place all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 2 to 3 minutes. Poke still warm cake all over with a skewer or fork. Then slowly pour glaze over cake. Let cool and enjoy or add a dollop or hard sauce and enjoy.
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“Chicken” Meatball Calzone with Arrabbiata Sauce
March 17th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
What he did not know what I was going to do, was ride my bike to campus and meet him there, so that took an extra 10 minutes. Since it was a beautiful day, I had to soak it up as much as possible and I thought, why not take a bike ride? On my way back home, I took another route and stopped by Grand River. Since the snow has melted, all the rivers are a bit on the high end, even to the point of flooding. Our area park was completely flooded! SNOW and ice took on a different form. God’s wondderful creation! Here is what the river looked like:
Ever since we finished our gospel and spirituals concert on Saturday, I can;t take the songs out of my head. I relive the moment since it was a most electrifying concert for me personally. There is something so different when singing regular hymns and sacred music to gospel and spirituals. It is like the whole body, mind, and spirit are involved and transport you to the actual time and place that perhaps made the slaves sing, long time ago. I thank God for freedom despite some people not having it in many countries.
What are you thankful for??
In addition to continuous music rolling through my brain, I enjoyed the glorious day. It was super sunny with blue skies and the temperature was magnificent. I wondered if I was going to get to enjoy it since work tends to run a little late some times. NO worries! I called Ryan and asked if he could spare some time between studying and he said he could. We played racquetball for an hour! So energizing indeed!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Some guys had just gotten out of the river after river rafting! The waters looked pretty scary for that!When I got home, I knew it was time to get dinner ready! Since Ryan had eaten HIS lunch at 10:45am he was about to gnaw off my arm from hunger. When I told him what I was making, he said he would be patient till dinner was ready. What a great man!
I had taken a poll earlier in the afternoon, because I could not make up my mind whether to make a polenta pizza or calzones. I finally decided and went with calzones.
I worked on the dough first so I could let that rise a bit while preparing the ingredients for the filling.
I had all the ingredients to make Ryan a pepperoni and provolone calzone with sliced tomatoes and black olives. This is what his calzone looked like:
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I finally decided to make some mini meatballs using Match “Chicken” and to use Teese.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Teese is another vegan cheese out in the market and I had a promotional coupon to buy one and get another free. I thought that was a good way for me to try this product. I then added some green olives, sliced red and orange peppers, and some red onions.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
A while back, Foodbuzz sent me two bottles of Bertolli sauce to try as part of their Tastemaker program. I used the Bertolli Arrabbiata sauce, which is a spicy tomato and red pepper sauce, to add a bit inside the calzone, but eventually it was placed on top of the calzone as soon as it came out of the oven! YUM! This sauce is delicious and I can’t wait for it to be in stores!
Once the dough was split in half and rolled out, I added the ingredients to each half and baked it. While it baked, I made a spinach and romaine salad with radishes and a balsamic vinagrette.
Ryan devoured his monstrous calzone and claimed it was SUPER delicious, just what the doctor had ordered!
I liked my calzone, but I was not completely convinced about the Teese. I believe it would had been better if I had left it out and just had the other ingredients cook inside the calzone. If you like Teese, then this recipe would work with or without it! Make sure to have good marinara to add to the top of your calzone!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
“Chicken” Meatball Calzone with Arrabbiata Saucemakes 2 BIG calzones
Dough
3 1/4 cups King Arthurs whole wheat-white flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1 envelope yeast or 2 1/4 tsp
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup olive oil
Add yeast, sugar and 1/4 C. of the water to a small bowl and let set 5 minutes.
Add flour, salt, oil and the rest of water along with yeast mixture and mix well. Turn out onto a floured board and knead dough until smooth.
Allow the dough to rest in a bowl while preparing calzone fillings.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and place pizza stone in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a pizza stone, put a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and DO not place it it oven. Wait for calzones to be finished.
Filling1/4 cup red onions, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced
1/4 cup green olives, sliced or whole
1/2 cup colored peppers
3 Tbsp Bertolli Arrabbiata sauce
10 small Match “chicken” meatballs (preparation below)
1/2 cup Teese mozzarella (I used cheddar since the store ran out)
Match “Chicken” preparation
1 cup Match ground “Chicken”
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1 tsp basil
1 tsp gound garlic
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp dried onions
Place ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Make 10 meatballs and cook in skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Cook for 10 minutes.
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
After the dough had rested, I split the dough in half and rolled it out on a cutting board. Can also be done on a flat surface. I sprinkled some cornmeal on the cutting board.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I then used a rolling pin to flatten the dough to a 12′ diameter. I added the ingredients on the center of the dough:
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Then I folded one end over to the other end and lifted the bottom portion of the dough to the top part of the dough to seal:
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I sprinkled some more cornmeal on top of the calzone and placed both finished calzones on the HOT and preheated pizza stone in oven. I sprinkled some cornmeal on the pizza ston as well.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Bake calzones for 20 minutes. When calzones are removed from oven, serve immediately and our some of the Bertolli sauce on top and enjoy with a green salad.
I cut mine in half since it was so big.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
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Zevia Giveaway winners
March 16th, 2010Quick note to announce the Grand Prize winner who won a entire mixed case of Zevia. Mari is our Grand Prize winner!
The other 2 readers who won a 6 pack of Zevia are Evan @Food Makes Fun Fuel and Kelsey.
Please email me with your mailing addresses so we can get your yummy pop to you!
THANKS!
Stay tuned for the next giveaway!
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Toronto blogger meet-up
March 16th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but I have either not had the pictures available for me or I have been transferring pictures to my new laptop. Sigh…anyhoo..our blogger meet-up happened the second day on our trip to Toronto. Angela from Oh She Glows, set up a date and a place to meet. It was a fun late birthday celebration with 14 other women.
I was a little nervous but it was more an excited nervousness. I like meeting new people especially when it is about meeting people with the same interests. Our meeting place was at a vegan restaurant called Fressen. When I arrived, there was only one gal, Kristen, at the table. We soon started chatting while the rest of the women continued arriving. I met Angela and mostly the women sitting on my side of the table, seeing that having a conversation with all of them was virtually impossible.
At our table we had a nice brunch menu option and a tapas menu on the back.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
We ordered our drinks of choice. I had their fair trade coffee with soy milk, which was VERY delicious and the other women ordered hot tea steeped in a french press or green juices. I was quite shocked that a restaurant that boasted using fresh ingredients had their juices already pressed. Green juices should be pressed WHEN ordered, since the enzymes break down after a while. Oh well, this was the reason I did not order one.
If you can tell from the menu, there were MANY options that enticed all of us. The majority of the women ordered the avocado salad, while Kirsten, sitting on my right, convinced me to try the tofu scrambleseeing that she had tried it before. SHe and I were the only ones who ordered that. It was 11am and it was brunch so we were fin trying this. I was glad that I did! It was the last 2 dishes to come out of the kitchen. I felt badly that half our table was waiting for us to start eating. SO nice! Here is what it looked like:
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
It was a ton of food and definitely hard to finish, but so worth having the next time. What more can you ask? Good food and great conversation. All the women were from Toronto except for Kristen, who is from Rhode Island originally but had moved to Toronto to start culinary school. At least I was not the ONLY AMerican ya know?
If you get a chance, check out these great blogs:
Julie @ www.julieboyer.com
Kristin @ http://kristinsnibbles.wordpress.com
Morgan @ www.lifeafterbagels.wordpress.com
Kirsten @ http://www.torontoworkout.com
Nienke @ www.revelblog.com
Haya Anna Finan @ www.trainingtolive.com
Alex @ www.happygolucky.ca
Stephanie @ www.mediterraneanmiss.net
Christina @ www.starsinthecity.wordpress.com
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
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Warm Carrot Salad
March 15th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
We are finally home after a being away the whole weekend. The Holland Chorale had a great and most amazing concert last night featuring wonderful spirituals and gospel songs, mostly composed or arranged by Rollo Dilworth. A high school choir from Grand Haven came in to perform half of the program, while the rest of the group did the other half. It was a most electrifying night for me and all the performers. Hopefully the audience were moved by the Spirit as I was! Here is a sample of one of the pieces the high schoolers performed. It was MY favorite!
As soon as I got home after church, we opened up Rollo Dilworth’s CD and continued to enjoy the music on our Sunday afternoon. We took a bit of a nap and then Ryan and I played racquetball for an hour! It was so much fun! I told him that we would be prepared to play crazy tennis when the nets were placed back on the courts. We can’t wait!
Today I created a delicious veggie dish that did not take a lot of work. If you are a carrot lover, this is a dish for you. I cooked these sliced carrots, allowing them not to get mushy but let them remain semi-raw so that the vitamins continued intact. I love juicing carrots on occasion but then I miss all the fiber. This is another way to enjoy carrots.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Warm Carrot Saladmy creation
serves 6
10 carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick at an angle
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
3/4 cup whole pimentos from a jar, chopped
1 1/2 tsp dry dill weed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil on medium heat.
Add sliced carrots, and cook for 5 minutes. Add sliced onions and garlic and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Add mushrooms and pimentos next and cook for 10 minutes. Add seasonings and mix well.
Remove vegetables from heat and allow to rest until warm. Serve with choice meal.
