Rhubarb Crisp

Again, I've been inspired by Mark Bittman. I made his recipe for rhubarb crisp, with a few changes. I used 1/4 cup of white sugar, as he calls for but for the brown sugar I used 1/4 of a cup (instead of the 3/4 cups stated in the recipe). I ran out of oats so I made up for the rest with ground flax seed. I also added in sunflower seeds. I ran out of butter so I used less than the recipe calls for, but I made up for it a little bit by spraying the topping with a bit of olive oil. 

The result was delicious, but not exactly a dessert. Because the crisp isn't really sweet, this falls somewhere between dessert and a healthy snack. We ate it for dessert, but then this morning I had it for breakfast, topped with Greek yogurt.

Asparagus Pita Sandwiches

In continuing to try to find new ways to use asparagus, and eat it every day while it's in season, I made these sandwiches. I spit open the pita, stuffed with a few pieces of roasted asparagus, added cubes of feta and topped with hummus. They were really flavorful, pretty healthy, and super fast to make. 

Chopped Miso Salad

My love affair with miso continues. I made this salad from 101 Cookbooks for lunch for a few days last week and it was delicious. It is super crunchy and very flavorful. I bought one small red cabbage and used half of it for each serving. It was the perfect amount and I didn't feel overwhelmed by the cabbage as I do when I buy a full sized cabbage.

I had some spicy peanuts which I didn't like on their own, because they tasted fake and processed. However, when I added them to the salad they contributed a nice color contrast, and they tasted better. I used prepared smoked tofu, so this came together really fast.

Asparagus Pesto

This time of year everyone is trying to find an original way to use asparagus. I figured I might as well join in on all of the asparagus pesto recipes.

Step one: roast asparagus

Step two: burn roasting nuts while too busy eating some of the roasted asparagus

Step three put everything in food processor (after picking out the really burned nuts), and process.
I added a bit of truffle salt which was pretty good. I ate this for lunch the next day and think I'll go back to 'regular' pesto. It was okay, but I prefer my asparagus whole.

Tofu Pot Pie

I'm in to Mark Bittman's recipes lately. I read his columns and watch his videos on my iPod. This recipe for chicken pot pie/cobbler looked delicious so I decided to make it, and it was a perfect hot meal on a cold night (which we have no shortage of). I used tofu instead of chicken and we both really liked it.

Matzo Brittle

When I decided to make these chocolate crackers, I intended to use this recipe from the San Francisco Choronicle. Somehow I forgot about it, and ended up using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Yum!

Vietnamese Soup

Have you ever watched Diary of a Foodie? It was created by Gourmet magazine so there will be no more episodes. I think it was on PBS, but you can download the shows for free through iTunes (thanks!). Each episode is 25 minutes and usually focused on food from a specific country. It's really well done and interesting. When I went to Morocco we saw oil being produced and I already knew about the entire process due to the Morocco episode of Diary of a Foodie.

Anyhow, they featured a chicken pineapple soup in the Vietnam episode which looked really good. I modified it to omit the chicken. S & I both really liked this; it's sweet but savory and refreshing. Smoked tofu would be really good with this. I intended to use tofu, but the store shelves were empty, so I used chickpeas.

Salad with Miso-Ginger Dressing

This Smitten Kitchen recipe is delicious. I imagined it would be like the salad at Benihana, but it wasn't quite that. It was better. I encourage you to make this, soon!

I bought miso for the first time, at an Asian grocery.