Pretentious Word Nonsense

Introduced to this by my stepmom.

Salad ingredients:
-4 cups shredded cabbage
-1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
-2 tbsp roasted sesame or sunflower seeds
-1 pkg Maruchan Ramen Chicken Flavor (broken or crushed) - just the noodles here

Dressing ingredients:
-3 tbsp white vinegar
-ramen seasoning packet
-1 tsp dijon mustard
-2 tsps sugar
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/2 cup "salad oil" - ???
-2 tsp chopped cilantro

Mix salad ingredients.
Whisk dressing ingredients.
Add dressing to salad, toss.

I love my mom's pancakes and a while ago she and I worked out a rough estimate of her recipe, so here it is for posterity.

Mix two bowls, one with dry ingredients and one with wet.

DRY BOWL:
-4 cups of flour
-1/3 cups of sugar
-salt: 3/4 teaspoon? 1 teaspoon? 1.5 teaspoon? <- literally what I have in my notes. If/when I make this myself I'll start off with 1.5 teaspoons, I assume that's what we settled on
-rounded teaspoon of baking powder

WET BOWL
-4 cups whole milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1-2 eggs

Add dry bowl to wet bowl, slowly, make sure to mix well
Heat pan to max heat and use butter to coat
Ladle batter on
Chocolate chips and/or banana slices (banana - push down on, add a little batter on top)
Wait until bubbles in batter leave holes when popped before flipping

You can store leftover batter in the fridge or freezer. You might need to add a little milk when you do take it out again.

This is a recipe I'll have to come back to and adjust. I made it once...sort of...and it was pretty good. "Sort of" as in I couldn't follow instructions fully. Oddly enough, one adjustment might be to add more peanut butter, as I wanted a stronger peanut flavor the first time around. But it is delicious!

Ingredients:
2 medium onions, peeled and kept whole
3 large tomatoes
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (I didn't cut mine into pieces; see below)
8 small eggplant (my store doesn't have "small" eggplants
1 pound okra
1 pepper scotch bonnet pepper (couldn't find this at my store so I used a habanero)
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, grated (personally I use ginger paste, it's more convenient for me)
3 bay leaves
6 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
2 quarts chicken stock

Steps:
Place the chicken in a large, heavy stockpot. Place whole, peeled onions, pepper, grated ginger, and tomatoes into the pot. Add chicken stock and place over high heat. (Ftr, first I put the chicken in the slow cooker for a while in the hopes I could have this be a slow cooker recipe. I could not. But it did soften up the chicken so I don't think it was a bad idea to slow cook it first.)

Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the onions and tomatoes are tender. Remove onions and tomatoes from the pot and transfer to a blender. (I also put the pepper in the blender and I think that was an improvement. The heat of the pepper was evenly distributed in the soup.)

Blend the soft vegetables in a blender, then pour back into the pot, bring to a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes.

Cut the stem ends off the eggplants and make a cross-shaped incision in the tops (not too deep as the eggplant should remain whole). Add them to the soup. (Again, I couldn't find small eggplants so I just chopped big ones up into pieces. It worked okay. The eggplant pieces tended to fall apart after thawing and heating saved soup but it wasn't super unpleasant imo.)

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the peanut butter until it is very runny. Begin to add water a little at a time to the pot, stirring to prevent lumps or scorching, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add peanut sauce to the pot and stir to combine. Peanut oil will begin to separate from the sauce and float on the surface.

Cut the ends off the okra and add them to the soup. Simmer another 10 minutes then add salt to taste, and serve. (I used a bag of frozen pre-chopped okra, which also felt fine.)

Recipe my mom cooked when I was a kid and is very nostalgic to me. Luckily for me, it's super simple.

Ingredients:
-Chicken thighs or leg quarters. My mom suggests skinning them. But I DO like the skin so I don't.
-Soy sauce/Bragg's amino acids
-Minced garlic
-Paprika (I like smoked paprika)

-place chicken in a baking dish, suggested to have at least 1/2 inch between pieces
-pour sauce over chicken (most will run into dish)
-smear pieces with garlic and sprinkle with paprika
-add water to dish to raise liquid level to at least 1/2 inch.
-my mom says to bake at 350-425 degrees for at least 45 minutes, until it's fall-off-the-bone tender. I like sticking it in the oven, turning it on and then leaving it for 1 hour 30 minutes, because I'm lazy and am worried about pre-heating with Pyrex baking dishes.

...but here is a list of things my mom added to ground beef to make tasty taco meat.

Chopped onions
Chili powder
Garlic
Onion powder
Paprika

I wish I better understood how to handle tofu. Another recipe from The Dinner Daily

8 oz. cubed tofu
2 tbs rice vinegar
1 tbs minced ginger
3 tbs orange juice
3 tbs soy sauce
4 tsp plain sesame oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 cups chopped broccoli

1. Drain tofu of all excess water. This is an intensive process; I ended up pressing it out with a heavy book and paper towels for several hours. You want it really dry.
2. Combine rice vinegar, ginger, orange juice, soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil in bowl.
3. Heat remaining oil in wok over medium heat.
4. Add tofu, carrots and broccoli and stir fry until tofu is lightly crisped (8 to 10 minutes).
5. Add sauce, stir to coat thoroughly, let cook for a few minutes.

Another recipe. It's tasty, although a bit of a pain to prepare.

1 lb (about two 6") zucchini
1 clove minced garlic
1 egg
2 tablespoons minced fresh herbs (chives, mint, basil, parsley, etc)
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste

1. Grate the zucchini and dry. The recipe I has says "by wringing it in a clean towel or draining it, salted, in a colander for half an hour". Just so you know, half an hour is NOT going to be enough time. You'll need to get out a lot of water if you want your pancakes to cook properly. Slightly moist is fine, but get out as much water as you can manage easily.

2. Combine zucchini, garlic, salt and pepper, herbs and egg.

3. Stir in the flour.

4. Cook the batter like any other pancakes, about 3 minutes on each side. Supposedly this goes well with lemon wedges.

Makes about 3ish small pancakes.

The local greenmarket (very tiny farmer's market held on the street) offers free recipes to encourage more purchases, and the ones I've tried are delicious, and I am very messy. So I'm saving some of them here before the papers disintegrate.

Ingredients:
2 medium zuccini
1 clove of garlic (choose minced garlic, imo)
3 tbs raw pine nuts
"a few handfuls" fresh basil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs kosher salt

1. Slice zucchini into thin "linguini" lines.
2. Toss zucchini with salt in colander and let sit. It'll let off water.
3. "Julienne" the basil (just chopping finely would have been better probably).
4. Put garlic, pine nuts and lemon juice into a bowl and crush into a paste. Or put into a food processor, I guess.
5. Add 3/4 basil to pesto, crush some more.
6. Add olive oil, mix into a "rustic" paste.
7. Drain/squeeze zucchini, put into a fresh bowl, toss with pesto paste and remaining basil.

Makes about three smallish bowls or two big ones.

Taken from here, taking the comments on the recipe into account. Also, I didn't have enough blackberries so I tossed in some red raspberries too.

I wouldn't call these "dumplings" - maybe it's a British attempt. Still, the results are delicious.

Sauce
3 cups blackberries
1 cup raspberries
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups white sugar
2 cup water

"Dumplings"
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1.25 cup buttermilk


In a large pot, combine the raspberries, lemon juice, sugar and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally, but gently so as not to crush the berries.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in shortening using a pastry blender or the tines of a fork until the pieces are no larger than peas. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together. If it seems too stiff, add another splash of buttermilk.

When you lift the lid on the pot, the dumpling sauce should be slightly above the level of the berries. If needed, you can add equal amounts of additional sugar and water to the raspberries. Drop the dumpling dough 1 tablespoon at a time into the boiling sauce. Cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes, then remove the lid, flip the dumplings over and cover again. Cook for another 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Thai Broccoli Noodles with Shrimp

1/2 lb shrimp
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 lb wide rice noodles
3 eggs
3 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 lb broccoli in 2-inch lengths
1-3 teaspoons yellow bean sauce
2 teaspoons oyster sauce

Peel and devein shrimp.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok.
Add rice noodles and eggs, cook 2 minutes.
Set aside noodles.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil with garlic, yellow bean sauce, oyster sauce, and stir until garlic is golden brown.
Add shrimp and broccoli.
Stir fry for 2-3 minutes or until cooked.
Add noodles, toss, serve.
2-4 servings.