I have been teased mercilessly for years by anyone and everyone who knew about my addiction to Easy Mac. At the time I ate this delicacy with regularity I never worried about my weight. It may have just been the metabolism of my early 20's, or what I like to call easy mac-tabolism. Definition: the rejection of most food groups and the desire to make food preparation as easy or non-existent as possible so I could go back to working on that audition piece.
The plus side of my metabolism is catching up with me, is that I am fully accepting... of rejecting....easy mac-tabolism.
So the other title of this post could be
"what to do with all those leftover veggies in the fridge?"
A bit wordy, so let's make it the sub-title.
This post maybe a bit of a no-brainer, but in the past if I saw a bunch of leftover random veggies about to take their last breath in the fridge, they would pretty much get dumped. Well not now! Not with real metabolism setting in! and not when you have a couple tortillas laying around!
Take the leftover veggies:
Chop them all up and throw 'em down:
Add some black beans for protein, and low fat feta for, well, just because it's delicious:
and voila. The easy wrap. Veggie edition.
Just consider this option the next time you think, well it's not enough to really make...anything.
Just wrap it up! Done.
This one is a little gem. I happen to consider it to be one of the the greatest recipes on the planet but I might be slightly biased. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it, so without further ado, here is Baba's secret recipe for perogies otherwise known as...pyrohy.
This is somewhat a toughie, so if you are new to cooking, I would start with the most important ingredient. Patience. You must also immediately lose your fear of making dough. If you are a seasoned chef you will find this pretty simple, and as long as you have some time to commit to refining your "pinching" skills. You will love the result.
With a food processor such as this one,
the entire experience is shortened and much less grueling. Because making dumplings is a long process I like to split the task into two days. It's convenient to make the filling one day while cooking a whole other meal, and then the next day you put the dumplings together, serve, and save. Depending how big you make them, this recipe should make approximately 50-60 pyrohy. It makes about six solid meals for the cost of...oh... $10.
Day One.
Making the filling.
Ingredients for the filling:
4 Large Potoatoes
1 Large Onion
1 package of farmer's cheese
Pepper
Peel and boil the potatoes, (15-20min-check softness with a fork) and mash. Saute one large onion and add to potatoes. Pepper to taste. Let potatos cool. Add the farmers cheese when cool and mash up everything very well. I have tried using a food processor here and I wouldn't not recommend it. The consistency needs not me tougher so this part takes a bit of elbow grease to make sure everything is nicely mixed with few lumps.
Day Two.
Making the Dough and Assembling. Oh yeah and eating.
Ingredients for Dough:
3 Cups Flour
1 Egg
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
3/4 cup COLD water
Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. That was easy right? Ok now the complicated part...
Add all the ingredients into the food processor but the water. Make sure you are using the dough blade and dough setting. Add water slowly through the feeder until you have a beautiful ball of dough! Have plenty of flour spread out on a baking mat and on your hands because the dough will be sticky. Reach in and split the dough in two. Make sure you cover the processor with a wet cloth to keep the other half moist. Roll the working dough out in one long dough "snake" and then cut the "snake" into 2inch pieces. Roll out each individual piece so you have little flat, round circles of dough. Take a melon baller and scoop individual balls of filling into each circle of dough. Fold the dough over and pinch in a half circle. Set aside and do it again to the next and the next and the next. When you have assembled about 10-15 of them, gently put them in the pot of water that should be at this point at a rolling boil for about 5 min. Remove, cool in a colander, add butter and repeat.
Repeat the entire assembling process with the second half of the dough and filling!
This video kills me. I love the Babas in this clip, and they are not messing around in a factory like setting. The main difference from my instructions and the video is that they roll out all the dough first and then cut circles with a cookie cutter. This is definitely another option, I have just felt like unless you work really quickly the dough dries more this way. They work quickly. ;)
My favorite part of this is when she says "No blowin your nose and then pinchin. We don't like that."
Now I just need to go find myself a "perogie-making" bonnet.
Please write to me with any questions you may have. Good luck and enjoy!!
We have been spared here in Jersey City, but the damage in my neighborhood is still extensive. One week later we still have no transportation into Manhattan. Sirens are still going off outside my window as I write this. We were unbelievably lucky to have had electricity for all but 36 hours of the whole experience. Puts it all in perspective, and I swear the once hardened Jerseyites are acting slightly softer. New Yorkers are tough and there isn't any tragedy we can't overcome. We pray for all of those who are still struggling and piecing their lives back together.
This little bridge connected us to Liberty State park. It has been blown off where it used to be attached right next to the sign.
This webpage: http://printaidnyc.com/posters/
is selling some beautiful posters and %100 of the proceeds go to Hurricane Sandy victims.
I love this one:
Beautiful images from a beautiful weekend in a beautiful place. If you ever just so happen to be traveling though NY, check out this wonderful little city. http://www.visitithaca.com/
Jason Campbell Photography is back up and running with a really fun photo shoot that goes into the category of "satirical boudoir". My girl Shannon along with my brilliant vocal coach Andrew Byrne have created a hilarious cabaret telling stories of her sordid dating life in NYC. Think Sex and The City meets music sung by Julie Andrews and Heart. I know you are already intrigued. We wanted to create a scene where a classy girl just looking for love in all the wrong places finds herself stuck in the most ridiculous and maybe not so classy environment. These are a few examples of the results. I don't think I have laughed so hard doing a photoshoot ever.
by Scott Brown which pretty much sums it up perfectly.
I have been cooking a lot and getting really excited about creativity in the kitchen! Just in time to make a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow for my Canadian husband that I am very thankful for. ;)
Made me have flashbacks to my wonderful times in Italy. I didn't have much time to post pics then so I went through my pictures from Sienna and they were so beautiful they brought tears to my eyes. There are some places on this earth that I can't believe are real. I mean people live here. All the time. Ahhh...someday I will return I will...
The appetizer on the right is raw Italian mushrooms, with arugula, basil, lemon, freshly sliced Parmesan and truffle oil.
Note the size of the prosciutto on this pizza. The Italians do not hold back.
So this week was all about catching up with friends and finally truly nesting. Like, two coats of paint nesting. Like, spending that Groupon to get that canvas picture print nesting. Like taking out the picture frames STILL in that box and putting them out nesting. You now what I am talking about and don't tell me that doesn't sound like it's a good time. ;)
Newsroom. Best new show by Aaron Sorkin on HBO. It makes me feel the way I did when I would watch TV growing up and things were intelligent and well thought out. What a concept! When there was a script (go figure) and editors (huh?) and ACTORS (no honey boo boo's) would rehearse SCENES (what are they?) before the actually went to cut print broadcast.
Anyways, please check this show out-it's one of the best things I've seen on TV...ever.
My new headboard
and new jewelry box.
oh no, actually it's not a box it's a case. Maybe not even a case it's more like a...wall unit. Ok I might be a jewelry hoarder. But isn't it SO pretty?
