Week 12: Girl Scout cookies!!

I bet I know what you’re thinking: Girl Scout cookies for an ingredient?! Aren’t they just a delicious dessert on their own? Indeed they are.  BUT they also make desserts even more delicious and it turns out they have some other uses too!  We had a great time experimenting with cookies as an ingredient and I’m looking forward to sharing our experiences and recipes!

Two thousand twelve is “the year of the girl” and here is some history about the Girl Scout cookie:

Girl Scout Cookies are a familiar part of American culture. For more than 80 years, Girl Scouts, with the enthusiastic support of their families, have helped ensure the success of local Girl Scout Cookie activities. From its earliest beginnings to its current popularity, the sale of cookies has helped Girl Scouts have fun, develop valuable life skills and make the world a better place by helping to support Girl Scouting in their communities. 

There are many different kinds of cookies and this week we’ll be “cooking” with Tagalongs, Thin mints and Do-si-dos.  Hopefully you have some leftover cookies to try these for yourself!

It’s been a really, really long time since I’ve posted and I’m very sorry!

Times have been pretty busy around Megan’s Island and we have been eating our special ingredients, although sometimes not as many featured meals as we had hoped. So, without further ado, here is our first and only tofu meal of the week.  (Not to worry, Brandon was out of town, so I ate this meal for lunch over the entire week.)

Fried tofu. Delicious, delicious fried tofu.

Brandon claims that my fried tofu is the best he’s ever had, which is quite the compliment.  The key is patience — and lots of garlic salt and olive oil.  Pan fry over medium/medium-high heat, stirring regularly until they get a slightly firm fried shell.  I’d say it takes about 20-30 minutes total.  When the tofu is to your desired crispiness, pour it out over a paper towel-covered plate and let the tofu cool and extra oil drain.

I added some sauces and veggies and ended up with this deliciousness:

Tofu stir fry

We’re really busy this week and next, so the food postings and ingredient-involved meals are going to be a bit lacking.  Please accept my apologies in advance.

This week we’re enjoying TOFU!

A little bit from Brandon’s favorite food book, “On Food and Cooking:”

Tofu/bean curd is a curdled soy milk, a concentrated mass of protein and oil formed by coagulating the dissolved proteins with salts that yoke them and the protein-coated oil droplets together. Bean curd was invented in China around 2,000 years ago, was well-known by 500 AD, and became a daily food beginning around 1300.  

Firm tofu

Strawberry juices suspended

This used to be one of my favorite desserts, but for some reason I don’t enjoy it nearly enough.

For this dessert, we took our leftover strawberries, but them up real small — Brandon smooshed some through the garlic press — and added it atop some store-bought angel food cake, topped with whip cream.

All in all, I’m definitely getting angel food cake and strawberries again soon!

A healthy (ish), delicious dessert

Brown sugar, strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Can't go wrong!

Oh yeah, this was good!  We have made this once before, but our reduction turned out a black, sticky mess, similar to an oil spill.  This time; however, it was great.

We started with Emeril’s recipe and soaked the strawberries with the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar. When reducing the mixture, we added mint.  From there, we grilled a hanger steak and made the sides: baked potatoes and brussel sprouts (a favorite of mine).

Here is the finished product:

Deliciousness!

Salsa!

We decided to be adventurous with our strawberry meals and cook ‘outside the box.’ Alas, Emeril’s grilled salmon with mango, pineapple and strawberry salsa.  Rather than using Emeril’s rub, we used Tom Douglas’ Salmon Rub With Love. This was fantastic (with less jalapeno) and we will definitely make it again, come summertime.  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Grilled salmon, our delicious salsa, wilted spinach and quinoa.

I’m enjoying this week’s ingredient as I type this blog post, and boy is it good!

Week 10: Strawberries!

First, a little education from Wikipedia: In addition to being consumed fresh, strawberries can be frozen, made into preserves, as well as dried and used in prepared foods, such as cereal bars. Strawberries are a popular addition to dairy products, as in strawberry-flavored ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, and yogurts. Strawberries and cream is a popular dessert, famously consumed at Wimbledon. Depending on area, strawberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, or strawberry shortcake are also popular.

Our strawberries are “fresh” from Mexico and we have some great menu ideas planned!  Check back soon!

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An addendum from Brandon.  He wasn’t impressed with Wikipedia’s strawberry facts and encouraged me to add some information from “On food and cooking: the science of lore of the kitchen” — one of his favorite food knowledge books.

So, here it is: The strawberry is unusual in bearing its “seeds” on the surface of the fleshy portion, not inside. The seeds are actually miniature dry fruits, similar to buckwheat and sunflower seeds and the fleshy portion is the flowers swollen base, not its ovary. Strawberries don’t improve once picked, so they must be picked ripe.

For our second asparagus adventure, we made Emeril’s asparagus, artichoke, and mushroom saute with tarragon vinaigrette, but we made it our own.

I omitted the vinegar and instead added the tarragon to the saute, along with some  canned chicken.  Once the mixture was complete, we put it over orecchiette and enjoyed.

Veggies, chicken and tarragon over pasta

This meal was good, but it wasn’t amazing and we probably won’t be having it again anytime soon.

This is a favorite meal combination of ours: asparagus, turkey meatloaf and potatoes. It’s delicious and hearty and there are always leftovers for lunch.

The turkey meatloaf recipe is from Everyday Foods and can be found here.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  Delicious and easy. For the asparagus, I cut off the tough bottom section and put them in a skillet with just enough water to cover the bottom half of the asparagus.  I drizzled the dish with olive oil and added some garlic salt and pepper.  Turn the asparagus on medium-high and bring to a simmer.  Wait until the asparagus turns bright great, pull from the water and serve!  Delicious!

Yum, yum, yum!