Snacks

Copycat P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

September 17, 2010
Thumbnail image for Copycat P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps

P.F. Changs may not have been the most authentic Asian restaurant we ever frequented in the States, but on our then extremely limited graduate student budgets we could go out to eat, be sure there was gluten free goodness, and get like 6 portions of food for $40 – a near steal for eating out. We would always order an appetizer, then my husband would get a fried rice and I’d get a rice noodle dish. Considering we were ordering as much for the leftovers as we were for the experience there, it was easier later if I also got a gluten free dish. One thing I can really commend them on, besides having a gluten free menu and system in place before most other restaurants knew what gluten free was, was their chicken lettuce wraps. I think they were our favorite dish out of the menu, and they certainly became a tradition of sorts whenever we went there.

25 comments

Tomanade

September 3, 2010
Thumbnail image for Tomanade

Think tapenade, but with sun-dried tomatoes added in. I’m a huge fan of tapenade, the salty/sour/slightly bitter spread is just begging for some fresh baguette. When I saw a new-to-me spread called tomanade in the grocery store, I had to check it out. Much to my disappointment, it was literally puréed sun-dried tomatoes with absolutely no other ingredients. Talk about overly tart, and not part of my vision of tomato and olive blended goodness. Uggh. Well no matter, why don’t I just throw something together that is more of what I had in mind when I first found out about the existence of tomanade?

36 comments

Bruschetta

August 17, 2010
Thumbnail image for Bruschetta

Bruschetta was the first dish I ever tried to master. Not quite my first cooking memory, but it counts I think. It’s probably not the most authentic recipe, but I like how it tastes and I really enjoy the texture. It is the perfect poem to celebrate tomatoes (because food is just another form of poetry). Just perfect on some fried baguette slices, as the sun is wilting (along with the rest of us in this heat) down towards the horizon, a constant reminder these dog days are not over just yet!

31 comments

Summer Salad App

August 12, 2010
Thumbnail image for Summer Salad App

We’re not quite moved yet, even though all our pots and pans are packed up. Food processor is packed, and so is the toaster oven. Cooking this week is a pretty minimal word. And in the case of this post, non-existent. Lately, we’ve done lots of salads because prep work and lack of cooking work makes them really easy. This is one that we just kinda threw together in our heads the other day coming home from work. Beyond simple, quick, satisfying, and no cooking required. Took a max of 10 minutes to make (when you count chopping all the veggies), 5 minutes to photograph (don’t you just love the tablecloth? ha), and then a few more minutes to devour!

22 comments

Gluten Free Granola

June 19, 2010

This granola was made specifically as a method for enjoying the dried strawberries that we got at the market the other day.  They aren’t just dried fruit, the strawberries do have some sugar added and when we bought them were labeled as “confiture”, making them more like fruit snacks, but oh were they delicious and [...]

20 comments

Smoked Salmon Pâté

June 13, 2010

I don’t usually write about my failures in the kitchen – after all, who wants to try a recipe that didn’t work?  However, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m learning the slow lesson that life is not always about the end result, but about the process that one went through to get there. Our [...]

57 comments

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →