Pizza Crust

Is it bad manners to write a poem in the style of "O Captain! My Captain!" about pizza?

Cause I already did and now I'm feeling a bit squeamish about it. (But the pizza I made was delicious.) 

(Also, why have I never posted a recipe for pizza before? I eat it so often!)

O Pizza! My Pizza! our fearful baking is done;

Your crust has weathered the oven, the tastiness we sought is won;

My plate is near, the timer I hear, my tummy all exulting,

While follow eyes the yummy edges, the smell divine and piquant:

      But O tummy! tummy! tummy!

      O the bleeding drops of tomato sauce,

      Where on the plate my Pizza lies,

      Baked fresh and delicious.

Udon Noodle Salad

Sorry for not posting for awhile: I've been busy enjoying the crap out of myself in the States, eating lots of food and enjoying the company of friends and family. I have been cooking nearly every day but have been lax about documenting. (Mom makes fun of me for taking silly pictures and as much as I don't want to let that cow me, I'm a total wussy.)

Anyways, I'm leaving on Thursday and beginning the arduous two-day trip back to Kathmandu. But before I leave, I wanted to teach my momma how to make a few of my favourite dishes. Today's dish is a summer favourite: easy, cold, healthy, light and cheap as shit.

Deliciousness. Yeah. That's right.

I made Mom's with egg cause she's not a big tofu-er, so this is very nearly vegan. Pretty darn close. I suggest preparing everything early in the morning and then letting it all hang out in the fridge so it gets all cold and shit. Then eat it. And get full. And eat some more. Then give yourself a fucking high-five. Cause you're fantastic. Kinda like this dude.

Eggy Spaghetti

I woke up late today and was feeling saucy ... and eggy ... so I threw together this concoction of stuff which turned out deliciously! Eggy spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce. Yum. Yum indeed. I gobbled it up and thought seriously about seconds (although my currently expanding waistline kept me at one).

Bad colours. Sorry :(

So, the heap of deliciousness you see above *does not* look all that appetizing, but lemme tell you (lemme!!) it was fantastic and filling and not that unhealthy and delicious and like a strange combination of breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one spicy, noodley bowl. Yum (again).

Basic Salsa

I am a fan of the salsas. Salsa in the morning. Salsa in the evening. Salsa at everytime. Yum.

So, I generally make a lot of it at once, shove it in a jar and let it sit for awhile before touching it. Then, every morning I can have juevos rancheros, every afternoon I can have nachos and every evening I can have ... well ... salsa ... with something.

Jarred, waiting salsa

Cinnamon Coffee

I like me some coffee. And I love some cinnamon. So why not put them together?

To make cinnamon coffee, you'll need a french press, some cinnamon sticks and of course some coffee. Add the coffee to the french press like you normally would but then throw in some cinnamon sticks. You can reuse these a couple of times (three or so) if you have a shortage of cinnamon sticks. Let brew like normal then pour yourself a cup of delicious cinnamon coffee.

You can also make this into a sweet, iced coffee by adding sweetened, condensed milk to the coffee and pouring over ice. DE-lish.

Smashed Pea, Bacon and Egg Crepe

I love me some crepes! I first learned how to make them while living with two fantastic Frenchmen in Monterrey, Mexico. I taught them how to make biscuits and gravy (they were grossed out by them) and they taught me how to make crepes. Yummy!

A crepe, bigger than my face

Today was a bandh so I got to stay home today (which meant big breakfasts and pincurled hair) and experiment with crepes. So this morning, I wanted smashed peas (after all, I had some fresh mint and Jamie Oliver just posted a lovely recipe about smashed peas and broad beans) and crepes. I usually make my crepe mixture a few days in advance because it gets more delicious the longer you let it sit... up to a point, of course.

A bit decadent? Oh yes.

With most crepes are rather simple to make: flour, egg and a liquid (I like using water but milk is also an option). You just need to get the proportions right. Usually it's 2 liquid:1egg:1flour so if you wanted to make two large crepes, you could use 4 oz liquid, 1 egg and 2 oz flour. 

Taholandaise Sauce

I enjoy big breakfasts. I really do. Massively large, heart-attack inducing breakfasts that keep me full until 1300 or later. I need them!

But I also like healthy large breakfasts and so instead of making holandaise sauce to drown my eggs and english muffin in, I make a vegan taholandaise sauce. This stuff is so good that it doesn't just get reserved for my eggs and tofu. I douse it on steamed carrots, use it as a sandwich filler, dunk my roti and pakora in it. Yummy.

Poached eggs, toast, chicken sausage and asparagus with taholandaise!

I picked this recipe up when I was in college from one of the people that I lived with and have since made it as often as I can get tahini (difficult thing to do out here). The ingredients are relatively cheap and it lasts for up to a week or so if you keep it refrigerated (or if you can hold out for that long).

Project Week: A Brief Hiatus

For the next week and a half, I'll be up in the mountains of Nepal doing a homestay with some students. It's called Project Week and my school does this every year: all first year IB students are split into groups to visit and live in three villages around Nepal. The students live and work with their host families/villages for about a week doing things like community service (painting schools) and other things.

In addition to the above, my anthropology students will be doing field research on a topic of their choosing: something like migration, globalisation, women empowerment or the effect of tourism upon the environment and social structure. Something like that. Basically, it's going to be awesome.

So I'm not going to be here for awhile. In lieu of my awesomeness (I know, I know), I would like to leave you to dwell on two of my favourite packages in my kitchen: my grits and cornflour.

Thanks, love and have a great week. (And I'll totally regale you with tales from the village when I return.)

Food for invalids! WEEEE.
You can also tell it's for foreigners because of that creepy little kid:  you don't see blondies in Nepal.

Grits will make you as strong as this genetically altered corn-kiddo!
EXCITEMENT!

Tomato Coconut Soup

Since it's been oddly cold and rainy here in Kathmandu Valley, I decided it was high time to make some yummy tomato soup. But I didn't have fresh tomatoes and only had canned ones on my hands. Not wanting to leave my house in search of tomatoes, I used what I had on hand and was ridiculously pleasantly surprised.

I decided to add a poached egg to the top of the soup. In the future, this dish would go perfectly with a nice heap of brown rice thrown on a top and maybe some fresh thai basil or spinach. Yummy. I might even try to fry up some paneer or tofu for the next go around: how crazy can I get?

Broccoli Cauliflower (Tofu) Casserole

Every once in awhile I need a creamy, heart-clogging concoction that warms me up and lays me down and puts me to sleep. I found that in this recipe and it combines many of my favourite things: cauliflower, broccoli, tofu, cream, spice and crispy toppings. Yummy.

This casserole is also silly easy to make. Enjoy it with a nice salad and glass of red wine on the side. It certainly warmed me up and then put me to sleep.