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My Favorite Sister

Ω August 13th, 2010 Ω Tagged birthday, burrito, cheese, chocolate, heirloom tomato, peanut butter cake, porto, sister, sugarbush farms, tacos Ω 22 Comments

Who is my favorite sister? I’ll give you a hint: she’s extremely smart, loves good food, and lives west of the Mississippi. I wore her hand-me-downs (and hand-me-ups) when I was younger. I look forward to seeing her every Christmas. Lastly, her birthday is on August 13th.

Any guesses??

The answer(s) is in this picture!

I'm the pasty one on the left.

That’s right! Both of my sisters were born on August 13th … six years apart. When I was little, I remember wondering what it was like to share a birthday with my sister. Neither of them seemed to mind, but that nonchalance could have been due to their understanding personalities. Also, when I say that I wore their hand-me-downs AND hand-me-ups, I wasn’t kidding: Courtney is younger than me, but she’s been taller than me since she was about 10 years old. Yeah, I feel … short :)

So! In honor of BOTH of my sisters’ birthdays, I made some special grub. I hope to whet their appetites so that they’ll be looking forward to when I can actually make them a birthday meal.

First up: tacos! When we were growing up, my older sister D would always request tacos for dinner. I always looked forward to tacos, too, especially those little bowls of taco toppings.

D’s Birthday Tacos

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbsp veggie oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 hot pepper (jalapeno, etc.)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup beer (!)
6 – 8 oz. of some sort of protein. We didn’t have beef, so I defrosted and crumbled up a couple of veggie burgers. Beans, tofu, chicken, even tuna would also suffice. Note un: If you use a veggie burger as your protein, make sure you actually like the taste of it. Because I didn’t.
Salt and pepper.
3 – 4 tortillas or taco shells

Toppings:
Lettuce and tomato
Cheese
Salsa
Guacamole
etc.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft and translucent.

While the onion is sauteing, roast your hot pepper. You can roast the pepper by broiling it in an oven or toaster oven until the outside blackens. If you’re like me and you don’t want to turn on the oven in the middle of summer to roast a tiny little pepper, you can use this handy device:

Or, if you have a gas stove, just use heat-safe tongs to hold the pepper in the flames. Be careful, of course.

When the pepper is cool, peel off the skin, mince, and add to the onion along with the minced garlic and protein (crumbled veggie burgers here). Saute for one minute.

Add tomato paste and heat through. Pour in beer and use a spoon to scape all the tasty bits off the bottom (deglaze). Lastly, add salt and pepper to taste. Note deux: If you are using veggie burgers as your protein, you may wish to exclude the salt, as veggie burgers tend to be very high in sodium.

Prepare the rest of your fixin’s. Preparing the taco toppings was always my favorite part. Well, specifically this part:

That would be a delectable smoked cheese from Sugarbush Farm in Vermont. Most of the cheese made it in the tacos and not in my mouth, I swear.

Shredded.

As I alluded to before, I wasn’t crazy about the veggie burgers I chose for the taco filling, but if I had used some other protein the filling would have been EPIC! The beer was a nice extra :)

Now, I DO have another sister. One who happens to be a Master Gardener. You’ve previously met Courtney in this guest post, and I’m sure you’ll agree that you just can’t get enough of her! In honor of her green thumb, I decided to have a simple heirloom tomato and wax bean side “salad”.

I prepared the tomato by slicing it and sprinkling it with a little sugar. Before you explode on me, I just want to clarify that yes, I PREFER tomatoes best with their natural sweetness and no additional enhancement. However, sugar on tomatoes is a common simple dish that I enjoyed in China and wanted to recreate at home. While I won’t be sweetening my tomatoes often, a little sugar was a nice treat for a special occasion. Even if that special occasion isn’t technically my OWN birthday.

Lastly, a peanut butter mousse cake to finish the birthday dinner:

Preparing the chocolate ganache, made from 1/4 cup heated cream poured over 2.5 ounces chocolate, then stirred until the chocolate melts:

Peter spreading ganache over the frozen mousse cake:

Happy Birthday to my favorite sisterS in the whole wide world! I cant wait to see you both soon! :D

Love,
Jessie

» Filed under Favorites, Life, Recipes » 22 Comments

No One Messes with Triple P!

Ω May 5th, 2010 Ω Tagged Amherst College, beets, Cairn terrier, cheese, dogs, dragon breath, Norfolk terrier, office linebacker, pears, pesto, Terry Tate, Triple P Ω 33 Comments

When I walked out of today’s Counseling and Teaching final exam at 1:45 pm, I had just taken three finals in under 24 hours. No, I’m not kidding. There was some driving, eating, and occasional sleeping during that time.

(Here’s where the crotchety coot voice would say, “Young lady, in my day we had FIVE final exams in the space of five hours. And, we had to milk the cows and bale the hay during the five minute break between exams two and three.” )

I have one more final exam left on Friday, and then NO MORE marathon car sessions until August!! :D :D The dietitian for whom I work lives only half an hour away. Sweet.

When I arrived home yesterday, I was thrilled to see a package outside our apartment for me. Inside was a gorgeous purse that I won in Kristen‘s giveaway!

(I’m not sure what I’m pointing at, but it ain’t the purse.)

The purse was made by Kristen’s boss, Anissa, who started her company Lemonade Road while recovering a traumatic injury. The purse is gorgeous and roomy and – did I mention that red is my favorite color?? Thanks, Anissa and Kristen!

During the last few days, I took walks with Peter during study breaks:

Represent!

I also took time out to whip up a little treat I like to call:

No One Messes with Triple P! (Protein-Packed Pesto)

(Who knew Terry Tate had pesto on the brain?)

Ingredients:
A buttload of basil leaves, preferably stripped from your prolific Aerogarden
1 garlic clove (trust me, it potent)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I just broke off chunks due to ~~laziness~~ stress from studying)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well

Place basil leaves, garlic, Parmesan, and pine nuts into food processor. Blend until … blended.

The basil, garlic, pine nuts, and Parmesan, ready to be DESTROYED (or ENjoyed, as the case may be ;) ):

While processor is running, slowly drizzle in olive oil until blended. Add beans and blend the heck outta the pesto until it’s as smooth as desired.

Serve on top of your favorite whole grain pasta, shrimp optional.

I tried Triple P and regular pesto side-by-side. The Triple P is thicker, so if you like a thinner sauce, you can thin it out with a little water or broth. Or, you could serve Triple P as a party dip for veggies, chips, whatever. If you serve it as a dip, you may want to leave out the garlic to prevent clouds of dragon breath.

On the side, I threw together a beet and pear salad that my sister C sent to me a while back.

C’s Roasted Beet, Pear, and Feta Salad

Ingredients:
1/3 C. toasted nuts (almonds, walnut, pecan, etc.)
3 large beets – ends trimmed and individually wrapped in foil
2 firm ripe pears
3 C. beet greens or baby greens
1 C. feta or goat cheese (I used goat because that’s what we had in the fridge)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper

Dressing:
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp honey
2 tsp red wine vinegar or lemon juice
2 tsp grated ginger root

Toast nuts at 325 degrees F for 8 minutes (don’t burn). Or, you could make candied nuts by whipping an egg white until stiff, tossing pecans in the whipped white, tossing the egg-coated nuts in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, and baking at 300 degrees F for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Roast beets in foil at 400 degrees F for one hour. In the meantime, stir together dressing ingredients. If you have a handy husb like Peter, you can use the red wine vinegar that he aged himself in a 2 liter oak cask.

Peel and cube pears and toss with dressing. Chop the nuts. Once beets are done, let them cool, then peel and slice them. Add to pear and dressing mixture. Toss greens with 2 to 1 ratio of oil and vinegar, and add salt and pepper. Arrange greens in a bowl. Add beets and pears and top with cheese and nuts.

As you can see, I didn’t arrange my beets and pears over greens because I just wasn’t feelin’ it. Even so, this salad would be fabulous with some greens, so give it a try! I liked this dinner so much that I repeated it in a slightly-altered form for the next day’s lunch: