Pretzels

There's nothing more decadent that creating an Oktoberfest feast - it's just large amounts of deliciously rich foods plus large amounts of German beer! We didn't do all the cooking ourselves, but I did make two of the side dishes: German-style potato salad and pretzels. The pretzel recipe is courtesy of my middle-school era Family Studies course and its teacher, Mrs. Miller-Nesbitt. I knew it would come in handy again! It's pretty similar to this Stefano Faita recipe if you'd like something more official.

Step 1: check to make sure yeast isn't expired (oops). Step 1a: Buy new yeast! Step 2: Pour 3/4 cup lukewarm water into a large bowl bowl and mix in 1.5 tsp sugar. Sprinkle 1.5 tsp yeast on top, and let stand until bubbly, 5-10 minutes. Add 1.5 c flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until blended and it forms a ball. Cover your counter with flour and dump the dough out - now you're ready to get out the day's stresses by kneading for about 5 minutes. If it's sticky, add up to 1/2 cup more flour.

Now the fun part! Divide the dough into four pieces, and roll each into long 'snakes' of dough - 1/2" thick and 15" long. This took a bit of work because the dough kept shrinking back whenever we rolled it out... but it ultimately stayed. Then we got to form our four pretzels. Brush each with an egg wash (1 egg and 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl) and sprinkle with coarse salt. We used sea salt on two and smoked Maldon salt on the other two. Bake for about 10 minutes @425 and cool on a wire rack.

The rest of our feast included sausages, saurkraut, and potato salad made with red onions with lots of oil and vinegar, inspired by this recipe. We had the pretzels with mustard and they were fabulous! Warm, bready... not as large and brown as ones you'd find in a Munich beer garden but just right for our feast. Proste!

Enlightened Pasta Salad

Nothing I like better than pasta. I've never been a big fan of those mayo-based pasta salads, though - I'm more into grain salads with vinaigrettes. But when it was warmer out, I decided to try this light version, aptly named Enlightened Pasta Salad from Rachael Ray magazine (July, 2013). Also, since Greek yogurt is the ingredient du jour, I figured I would try it out.

There isn't much simpler than making pasta salad. Rachael complicates it by making you puree all the ingredients together. Nope. For the dressing, I mixed 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup light mayonnaise, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. I just left out the garlic because as much as I love it, raw garlic is just too potent.

I cooked 10 oz of whole wheat penne and let it cool slightly. Then I mixed in the dressing with 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes, 1 diced red pepper and a couple small raw yellow zucchini. Finish with lots of fresh basil leaves and salt and pepper.

Garnish with even more basil and it's done! I would have added olives if I had had any. Oh well, I added a few capers instead for some tang. This was a lovely, simple, light summer pasta salad. You couldn't tell it was a mix of mayo and yogurt - or maybe you could, but it was still good. And a little less guilty. Make it for your next summer gathering.

Coconut Soba Noodles with Ginger Veggies

This Coconut Soba Noodles with Ginger Kale recipe from Vegetarian Times (Sept. 2013) pretty much had everything I love. Coconut milk? Check. Cilantro? Check. Soba noodles, lime, jalapeno, ginger? Check. I also liked it because it wasn't a curry - which is pretty much the only thing I make with coconut milk. I am also the proud owner of a (mini) food processor, so I can now make sauces that involve pureeing things! Fabulous.

The sauce base is a green paste made up of pureeing the following ingredients: 1 cup cilantro, 6 chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped jalapeno, 1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger, 1 tsp turmeric (I used curry powder) and 1 tsp oil. So easy - I have to make more recipes like this! Heat a small pot on the stove. Add the paste and saute for 30 seconds, then whisk in 1 can coconut milk and 1/2 cup water. Simmer 15 minutes without boiling. Then stir in 2 Tbsp lime juice and some salt and pepper.

Heat a large pan on the stove. Add 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger and 3 smashed garlic cloves, cook 1 minute. I added a handful of baby greens and one sliced red pepper (in place of the kale) with a dash of soy sauce and a dash of water. Cook until ready to eat! Meanwhile, cook 6 oz soba noodles. I found it easiest just to mix everything together in the pan by adding the noodles and sauce in with the kale. Remove the smashed garlic cloves first, though. Next time I'll probably just mince them up and throw them in - I like garlic!

Top with more cilantro and peanuts (or other roasted nuts) and voila - a giant bowl of thai comfort food. As the photo shows it was quite liquidy, since the coconut milk is really only heated through. It was more like a thai noodle soup. It was a little on the spicy side so if you're a wimp, only use 1/2 of the jalapeno. I would also throw in some tofu or something since it didn't have any protein. I still ate a very large amount of it though - slurping contentedly in front of the TV.

Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes

I have totally forgotten what I was planning to make with the two cans of artichoke hearts I bought. Not the marinated kind in small jars, but the ones just packed in water in cans. I must have had a reason, but then I found myself googling recipes to make with them... Luckily I found Ree Drummond's recipe for Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes. I only knew of the 'Pioneer Woman' from Food Network magazine, and had never paid much attention to her, but this pasta dish was super simple (especially when I cut out a few steps) and just what I needed on a weeknight home alone. Her commentary was funny too, and her pictures are so purdy...

First up: one glass of wine for the cook. Then, in a large pan with 2 Tbsp each olive oil and butter, cook one diced onion and three minced garlic cloves for about 3-4 minutes. Add in one can artichoke hearts, drained, squeezed dry and chopped up a little if they're whole, and one can diced tomatoes. Simmer 8-10 minutes. On low heat, stir in one cup cream (she uses heavy cream, I used half and half - and I thought that was decadent!).

Add a pinch of nutmeg and 1/2 cup white wine (she used stock, wine is so much classier) and let it cook for a few minutes. I was already drooling by this point, it looked so good! Add salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the pasta - I used whole wheat linguini. Once it was cooked, I tossed in a little olive oil and a very small sprinkling of parmesan before mixing in the sauce.

Mmm what a classy weeknight dinner! No protein, but oh well. The sauce was very good, rich-tasting thanks to the cream, but was quite liquidy, almost soupy. I can't imagine how decadent it would be with all the heavy cream and parmesan the original recipe called for! I also really liked the artichokes, I'd pretty much only bought the marinated ones before so this was new for me. For a dinner with so few ingredients, it was addictive. Good thing I still have one more can of artichokes in the cupboard...

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

I've been intrigued by the idea of using olive oil in baking - it always seemed a little decadent, to use (expensive) olive oil in a cake or cookie. Surely you wouldn't be able to tell it was in there? Surely the fruitiness of the oil couldn't come across in a baked good? I decided to find out, with this Citrus Olive Oil Cake recipe from Rachael Ray magazine (June, 2013). My test audience: a couple of friends over for game night. We learned how to play Puerto Rico after a heavy dinner of sausage and potato salad.

Sine this was a citrus cake, the first step was zesting one lemon and one orange. The recipe said 1 tsp of each, but more can't hurt, right? Then I whisked the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used the ol' vinegar in regular milk trick), 2 Tbsp each orange juice and lemon juice, and 1 tsp vanilla.

In a large bowl, use an electric beater to mix 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups sugar (that's a lot!) for about five minutes on high. Then on medium speed, drizzle in 2/3 cup of the good stuff - olive oil. It gave the batter a lovely yellow hue. Mix in the fruit zests. On low speed, add half the flour mixture, then the buttermilk mixture, then the other half of the flour mixture. Scrape into a greased 9" springform pan - so excited for an excuse to use mine, I never do! Bake @350 for 1 hr 10 minutes.

Once it cooled I topped the cake with vanilla sugar (I had an old packet in the cupboard that I had bought in Europe, of all places...) and placed it in my new glass cake stand from Ikea, complete with decorative sheet on the bottom. Looks good, doesn't it! This cake was lovely, it rose quite a bit so it was dome-shaped, and it was a nice yellow colour. It was like a sweet pound cake, with a noticeable citrus flavour to it. But the real question - did we taste the olive oil? I think it came through. It seemed to have an extra richness to it, especially the aroma. I would definitely make it again - it would be a great coffee cake. It stayed moist for a good 2-3 days. Just gotta keep buying olive oil on sale!