Whole-Wheat Pasta Dish & Brussel Sprouts

Tonight for dinner we tried a recipe we saw on the food network, prepared by Giada de Laurentiis. It is a light pasta dish made more substantial from the whole wheat pasta.

Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta, and Lemon:
This is her recipe, also with our alterations:
1 pound whole-wheat linguine (we used whole-wheat spaghetti)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound French green beans, trimmed and halved lengthwise (we used baby broccoli instead)
1 clove garlic, chopped (we used 3)
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 lemon, zested (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Transfer the hot pasta to a large bowl and add the ricotta cheese. Toss to combine.
Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the green beans (or broccoli), garlic, salt, and pepper and saute for 4 minutes. Add 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid and continue cooking until tender, about 4 more minutes. Add the pasta with ricotta to the pan with the green beans (broccoli) and toss to combine. Add the tomatoes and gently toss. Transfer to a serving plate and top with lemon zest (optional). 

For more vegetables we also baked some Brussel sprouts. This vegetable has a wonderful flavor, but is often prepared bland, so people don't typically cook or eat them very often. But give them a try! They are so easy to prepare and can taste very good!


You will need:
Brussel Sprouts (any amount you would like)
Olive Oil
Garlic
Pepper (Trader Joes sells a great Everyday seasoning pepper with much more flavor)
Rosemary (optional) 


Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the ends off the brussel sprouts, peel off the outer leaves, and cut them into halves or quarters (depending on their size). Place them in a baking dish so that all of the pieces touch the bottom of the dish. Next drizzle some olive oil on them, add some pepper and combine. Then you can add either chopped or smashed garlic along with the rosemary if you would like.
Bake for about 15 min. then stir them (they may be ready or may need more time). If the thinner leaves are turning brown you should take them out. 

Here is the Pasta Dish along with the Brussel sprouts: 
The pasta was good, but not extremely impressive. We definitely recommend giving Brussel sprouts a chance!

Crispy Tofu with Orange-Ginger-Lemongrass Dipping Sauce

When an experimental recipe turns out better than expected it is time to celebrate! This is a recipe we came up with by wanting to make tofu with ginger and lemongrass, we got the idea to add orange from a recipe called "Crispy Tofu Slices with Orange Dipping Sauce" from Alicia Silverstone's cookbook The Kind Diet.

Our Version turned out as follows:

15 oz pack of Extra Firm Tofu
1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Quinoa Flour
2 tablespoon Flaxseed Meal
Olive Oil
2/3 cup fresh Orange Juice (We juiced 4 blood oranges which was less than 2/3 cup)
Zest of 1 Orange (Blood Orange)
About 2 tablespoons of grated Ginger
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
1 Stalk of Lemongrass

Let the tofu drain of its liquid and pat it dry with a paper towel, cut the tofu into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Mix the Flours and flaxseed meal into a bowl, then add the zest of 1/4-1/2 the orange and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of grated ginger. Dip each of the tofu strips in the mixture coating well on all sides.

Pour enough oil into a large skillet to cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer, and place on medium heat.
While the oil is heating start the dipping sauce. In a pot over low heat add the orange juice, the remainder of orange zest, about 1 tablespoon of ginger, and the lemongrass cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes then add the maple syrup and continue to simmer.
The Sauce has a gorgeous deep red coloring from the blood oranges:

Once the oil is heated place the tofu strips in the skillet, allow to cook for about 3 min on both sides until golden brown and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

Remove the pieces of Lemongrass from the sauce. Pour the sauce into a small bowl and serve alongside the crispy tofu...........Bon Appetit!

The tofu has a nice, lightly crispy texture and the sauce turned out perfect! The lemongrass and ginger complement the sweetness from the blood orange and maple syrup wonderfully. You can taste a hint of each flavor without the sauce being overpowered.

Veggie Pizza

Recently we have made our own pizza's; we have never been frequent pizza eaters but have found that by making it ourselves we can control the ingredients and amounts and the pizza turns out much more delicious.
You can of course use many different ingredients, but this is what we used the last time:

Pizza Dough (We like the herb dough from Trader Joes)
Mozzarella cheese
Goat cheese
Sauce (We have used tomato sauce with carrot puree or spinach puree/ Bruschetta/ Pesto would also be great)
1 Bunch of Kale
Fresh Basil

Other ingrediants that would be great on the pizza are:
Tomatoes, Broccoli, Spinach, etc.

First follow the directions on your chosen pizza dough for oven temp. and time. Spread out the dough on a greased oven pan, spread the sauce over the dough, next tear up pieces of kale and distribute them evenly, then add the basil leaves over the kale. Slice the mozzarella cheese and place over the basil, then crumble the goat cheese and distribute around the mozzarella.

Before baking it will look like this:

Sometimes the center of the pizza is still a little soggy after baking, but it is a simple, light, and tasty pizza!

Slice after baked:

Pear-Blueberry Pie

Recently while on a car ride I (Sierra) started contemplating the idea of a pear-blueberry pie; it sounded marvelous (even though I had never had one before) and I thought I must make one! So I did and it was delicious... so I just made another one for my dear friend Daryl. I enjoy making pies it is simple and oddly soothing. And I could imagine myself owning a Pie Shop, being very content with a pie making life. Just as Ned in Pushing Daisies owned ( if you don't know about Pushing Daisies you should, it was a beautifully vibrant and clever television show). This was the main characters pie shop:

Anyway onto my Pear-Blueberry Pie

You will need...
4-6 Pears ( I used d'anjou & they should be firm so they will hold up better in the pie)
3 cups Blueberries ( about 12 ounzes)
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon chilled butter
Pie Crust ( double crust 9 inch Pie) - I used Trader Joes Frozen dough

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Then peel and slice the pears about 1/4 inch thick. Line a 9-10 inch pie pan with the crust then add a layer of pears, then a layer of blueberries, and finally a layer of the sugar mixture (covering the fruit). Continue to layer until the fruit is mounded above the pie pan finish with a layer of sugar and sprinkle the lemon juice on top, then crumble pieces of chilled butter over the top and cover with the second pie crust.
Make sure to seal the two layers of pie crust together by pinching them, and cut 3-4 slits in the top of the pie.
Then bake for 50-65 minutes until the crust is golden and the juices are bubbling.

The pie can be kind of liquidy so on my first attempt I spooned out a bite to taste it while it was still hot and the hole kept filling with the purple liquid, so I spooned the liquid out (into my mouth) whenever it filled up and it eventually stopped.
This pie has a wonderful flavor, balancing the berries and pears wonderfully and it reminds me of a spiced cider. I highly recommend giving it a try :)
It looks a bit lumpy, but that is because of the blueberries.

Sir Aubergine

Maybe we should begin by explaining how Sir Aubergine came to be...
Summer of 2010 we traveled to Europe and while in Germany we stayed along the Rhine river in a beautiful castle in Oberwesel called Auf Schoenburg.

The key to each of the spectacular rooms comes accompanied by a dashing young knight decked out in a suit of armor, feeling sentimental we decided to give him a name that reflected our travels and his name became Sir Aubergine (The French and German name for eggplant which reflects both the countries we visited) And it provides a food based name for this blog which will combine cooking, baking, and maybe some information about the interesting restaurants we visit.