the everyday adventures of sabrina » recipes

israeli couscous salad yum

sabrina — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:01:45 +0000

so, there’s a foot of snow-slush-ice-goo on the ground, it’s exactly 2.7°F out with windchills of 20 to 30 below zero. (i’ve been trying to teach myself to think in metric and celsius as well, but frankly, celsius is just too depressing to contemplate at the moment.) our 40 mph gusts of wind might decrease to 30 mph in the afternoon, if we’re lucky.

this is not comforting weather.

that said, i decided to make something foodlike to remind me that someday, some fine day in the please-let-it-not-be-too-distant future, the temperatures will return to bearable. i’ve been wanting to try and make some Israeli couscous like i had at spertus a couple of months ago when some friends and i decided to pop by and discover if it was tasty or not. (it is reasonably tasty, and i have to believe that the view from the cafe is fabulous, if it’s not snowy and obnoxiously cold out.) so here we go, attempt #1.

1/2 sweet onion
1 T. olive oil
1 8.8 oz bag Israeli couscous
2 c. turkey broth
1/2 c. chopped dried cherries and raisins
1/2 c. pinenuts
1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped into 4mm cubes just for the hell of it (HA HA MANDOLINE YOU ARE MY FAVORITE KITCHEN IMPLEMENT EVER)
dash lemon juice (maybe 1 t?)
1/4 t. dill weed

saute onion in olive oil until brown and yummy-looking. add couscous to pan and toast. after toasting couscous, add broth, and let simmer until the broth is mostly absorbed. soak dried fruit in hot water, drain. when liquid is mostly absorbed and couscous is mostly cooked, turn off heat, add fruit, and cover and let it absorb the remaining liquid. let cool off a little bit, then add pinenuts, parsley, dill weed, and cucumber. add lemon juice if it suits your whimsy. put in fridge until cool. eat. yum!

a sunday diversion

sabrina — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:13:26 +0000

Sourdough Pretzels

1.5 c. proofed sourdough
1 c. hot water
2 T. butter
3 T. sugar
2 t. kosher salt + plenty more
5.5 c. flour
4 T. sodium bicarbonate

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Dissolve sugar, salt in hot water; add butter and let it melt, then cool to lukewarm. Add proofed batter to water slurry in large bowl. Add in flour, 1/2 c. at a time, to 4 c. Turn out onto floured board and knead in remaining 1-1/2 c. flour. Dough will be sticky and firm. Break off egg-sized chunks and roll to 18″ lengths, about 1/2″ thick; YMMV. Form into pretzel-appropriate shapes. Bring large pot of water to rolling boil with salt and sodium bicarb. Drop pretzels in a few at a time; when they rise to the top, let boil 30 seconds more. Remove to cookie sheet, sprinkle with more delicious, delicious salt while still wet. Bake in 425°F oven for 15 minutes or until brown and crisp. Serve warm.

Eat your heart out, Dorito-devouring superbowl fans.

recipe for a summer weekend

sabrina — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:58:34 +0000

Hot town, summer in the city—
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.
Been down, isn’t it a pity:
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city.

Delicious Ice Cold Lemonade

Juice of 6 or 7 lemons, approx. 1 c. juice
1 c. granulated sugar
5 c. water
1/4 tsp. pure lemon extract

Make a simple syrup by heating 1 c. water and stirring the sugar in until it’s all dissolved. Add this to the lemon juice in a pitcher with the lemon extract. If you happen to have any handy and are so inclined, throw in a couple of tbsp. of grenadine to turn this concoction into pink lemonade. Add as much ice as is in your freezer, add water until you’re happy (or 4 c. if you’re a stickler for recipes).

And if you’re bored and not too worried about dehydration issues, feel free to adulterate your lemonade with cold vodka.

Summer in a glass.

hm.

sabrina — Sat, 26 May 2007 03:13:49 +0000

i discovered something new this evening.

if you try to make jell-o instant pudding with rice milk instead of cow milk, it doesn’t work, and you wind up with bowls of pudding soup sitting in your fridge.

now i’m sad. that was my very favorite flavor of pudding.

alas.

well

sabrina — Sun, 28 May 2006 22:24:00 +0000

so i like to cook. i like to make things from scratch. i have cake flour in my kitchen. multiple types of sugar. that sort of thing.

yesterday i got this insanely compulsive desire to have nachos. i’m not really much of a nachos person generally — if someone has them, i might (will probably) eat some. i, like everyone else, will try to strategically steal the chips with all the cheese. but i don’t generally go out of my way to acquire nachos. i mean, they’re just not very good for you and it is my patriotic duty as a not-svelte american to feel guilty if i so much as look at a waitress carrying nachos to someone else’s table. so it was a little uncharacteristic for me to want to go forth and fetch nachos. or, nacho-making supplies as, of course, it would be cheating and unworthy to not actually make the nachos. fortunately, i have a lovely little supermercado almost literally around the corner (i have to walk to the end of my block, turn, and go half a block) and they have everything i need, down to the escobeche. so i just started making my nacho accessories. i soaked my pinto beans overnight and fried them up today. (damn, bad idea: it’s too hot-slash-muggy to be cooking!) it turns out that it’s really stupid easy to make refried beans. it’s also pretty damn easy to make really tasty fresh salsa. i’m feeling pretty good about this so far. i even invented a delicious tasty drinkie to go along: fizzy water + framboise liqueur + lime + ice. plus non-optional paper umbrella. sip and relax. contemplate your avocados. (of course the unfortunate bit of making the refried beans came after i realized that the company i’m having over tomorrow is at least nominally jewish, and of course i used bacon fat. (no lard. i could not bring myself to buy a whole pound of manteca. bacon at least seems slightly justifiable. also it smells fantastic while cooking.) great, so now i’m not even going to have any help with the approximately eight thousand pounds of frijoles refritos i now have. way to plan that there, sabrina!) now i just have guacamole to make up, but i ran out of tomatos and it’s over ninety degrees out there, and i’m not sure i’m willing to give up my tasty drinkie, even just to walk around the corner, to fetch one. ridiculously, stupidly easy recipes beyond the jump.[MORE]

grandma’s homemade caramels

sabrina — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:47:00 +0000

my grandma gave me her homemade caramels recipe yesterday. i’m going to have to go grocery shopping so i can try my hand at it. the only candy i’ve ever really tried making is english toffee, so this should be interesting.

1 c. sugar
3/4 c. dark corn syrup
1/2 c. butter
1 c. light cream (grandma uses condensed milk)
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1/2 tsp. vanilla

butter the sides of a two quart saucepan. combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, and half of cream. bring to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. slowly stir in remaining cream, and cook over low heat to medium ball stage, stirring almost constantly toward and. remove from heat, and nuts and vanilla, and pour into a buttered 9 x 5 x 3 pan. mark squares when warm, cut when cool, wrap, and store.

Roast Beef with Nutmeg

sabrina — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 07:32:00 +0000

found (a variant on) this while googling for cook times for a beef roast.

Preheat oven to 500°F.
Pat beef roast down with garlic powder, thyme, basil, oregano, black pepper, and liberal amounts of nutmeg. Set roast in pan such that fat is on top, to baste meat while cooking. (Okay, I’ll grant you that it’s nice that, on Atkins, I don’t have to spaz about fat on meat…)

Bake for twenty minutes at 500°F, then reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking. Bake roast for thirty-five minutes per pound (including the initial twenty minutes).

Not bad. Not great, but okay. Would have been better had I cooked it more rare, but I haven’t made a roast in ages and I got the internal temp wrong. Alas.