CHEESE!

I made it. I'd give you the recipe, but it's really more of a "come to my house and I'll show you how to do it" sort of thing.  That's right, that's how I do things around here. Here's what I did with it.

BEFORE BAKING:

AFTER BAKING:

This was some velvety soft, exactly perfect, so luscious with sweet roasted tomatoes kind of mozzarella. Oh yeah.

Red, White, and Blue

You're feeling patriotic now, aren'tcha? Well, don't get too comfortable, because this actually hails from another country who celebrates with our noble colors: France. The other week I picked up this perfect bag of potatoes from Sam's—they are baby red, yukon gold, and blue potatoes. In case you've never used them, fair warning—blue potatoes are "Dyed in the wool, true blue, through and through." Sometimes I like to quote Joseph F. Smith just for funsies.

It's just boiled potatoes with a dressing, but it's good. And it's more fun with multicolored potatoes. That is all.

Provençal Potato Salad

2 lbs small/baby/fingerling potatoes

Dressing:

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper
1 tsp herbes de provence
2 anchovie filets, diced to smithereens, or ground to a paste
1 clove garlic, fine diced
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp olive oil

Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add 2 tsp salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, and cook until potatoes can be pierced with a fork. Don't overcook them, or they'll go mushy on you, and mushy potato salad is weird.

While they're cooking, make the dressing by combining vinegar, salt, pepper, hermes de provence, anchovies (yes, ANCHOVIES—don't be a baby about it), garlic, and mustard. Whisk together, then, while you continue whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil to make an emulsified dressing.

When the potatoes are done, drain them, let them cool a minute, so you don't burn yourself, then cut them into halves or quarters. If you use big potatoes, just cut them up more. Drizzle dressing on, and carefully toss to combine. It's great day 2 as well.

100!

Wow, it's taken us years to get to recipe #100 on here. We should do better.

Anyway, I have a recipe, and it's a good one, nay, a GREAT one. It involves all the things you have on hand: barley and garden vegetables. Don't have barley on hand? YOU SHOULD. That is all. It is wonderful and nutty and delicious and nutritious and perfect.

You're going to look at this and think, "barley and veggies—meh," but not a person who has eaten it has a single negative thing to say about it. One of the missionaries the other night was snitching it out of the bowl after dessert. Yup, true story.

The great thing about this is that you can use any of your fresh vegetables in any amount you want. For example, our eggplants are coming on, and we fully intend to make a ratatouille-inspired version in a few short weeks with eggplant, tomato, onion, zucchini, and probably some rosemary or herbes de provence. Right now we have cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and onions, so that's what we're using. Here's the way we've been making it:

Barley Vegetable Salad

1 cup barley
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth [you can use water, but I would go broth on this one, for flavour.]

30-40 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2-3 small to medium zucchini, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1-2 cups spinach
2-3 oz. feta cheese
juice of 1 lemon

Bring broth to a boil and add barley. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 25-30 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop your vegetables and give your zucchini and onions a quick sauté to bring out the sweet goodness in them. Combine all the vegetables and cheese in a large bowl, then dump the barley over them. Let it sit for a minute or two to wilt the spinach a bit, then stir together and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Notes:

• If you use vegetables that need to be cooked longer, like eggplant, make sure you do that.
• Roasted vegetables would also be TO DIE FOR in this one. I can't even imagine how amazing this would be if I roasted those cherry tomatoes until they were fragrant and concentrated. I haven't tried it because I don't want to turn on the oven. True story.
• Add chopped herbs if your want.
• If you have a hankering, nuts, seeds, or dried fruit would also be appropriate and delicious.
• If you want it to be more like a salad, use more vegetables, if you want it to be more like a rice side dish, double the barley. We generally use just the one cup for our family, although we doubled it when we added the elders the other night.
• It's great as leftovers, like most flavour-infused things, and even good cold. Yum.

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, it is amazing and well worth trying.  They were good the night I made them, but were amazing the next day.  After they cool, put them in a container and let sit over night.  WOW!  Yes Marquie, you can make these without the chocolate or split the batter and put chocolate in yours.  Yummy both ways.

I found this in my Vegan Cookies book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tb milk (I used rice milk)
1 Tb ground flax seeds
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tb grated orange zest (about 1 orange)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (can use regular)
3/4 tsp baking soda
generous 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl (I used my mixer), whisk together agave nectar, oil, milk, flax, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Sift in the flours, baking soda and salt.  Mix to form a soft dough.  (It is pretty soft.)  Fold in chocolate chips.  (I just threw them in the mixer)  Drop generous Tbs of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are golden. (I preferred 12)  Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.  Store in a tight covered container.  Enjoy!

Cream of Rice

I happened upon this super yummy breakfast completely by accident while making rice milk.  It is really good and super easy.  This recipe makes plenty and then a bit for my family, so adjust to your liking.

Cream of Rice

7 1/2 cups water
1 cup rice flour ( I ground this in my wheat grinder)
2 Tb vanilla or other flavor of choice
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (how sweet do you like it?)
Blended fruit (optional)

Boil 6 cups of water.  Mix 1.5 cups water, rice, vanilla, and sugar.  Add to boiling water.  (Turn heat down before adding rice, it likes to pop all over and burn you).  Stir until thickened to desired consistency.  Remove from heat and add fruit.  Enjoy.