Harvesting Dinner

There's nothing that makes you feel more like a back-to-the-earth cook than going out into your backyard to pick what you are planning to eat for dinner. Ryan and I were heading to a potluck dinner at a friend'sour friend Jenny's house the other day and I decided to make spring rolls after making a quick trip to the Asian Market. Of course, the market had moved locations, so I drove to their new location. A sign reading "Opening in July" was prominently displayed in their window on that hot July 4th weekend. No specific day specified and too many ladders and paint cans inside for me to think we had any hope of acquiring the thai basil, lettuce, shrimp, and other traditional fixings of a spring roll.

I was undeterred.

Into the garden I went! The garden was brimming with possible spring roll alternative stuffings: basil, mint, kale, and chives were collected, rinsed, chopped, and stuffed into softened rice paper with relish. The spring rolls were a huge hit at the party, and I once again received affirmation that recipes, like all other rule-bearing entities, were meant to be broken.

The next day Ryan and I did a massive harvest of our basil to make some delicious pesto which I only won't share with you because I don't think I've perfected that recipe to the point I would like. But there's plenty more basil to work with, take a look for yourself:

Garden Spring Rolls
20 pieces of rice paper
A bundle of kale or lettuce, chopped
1/4 c chopped mint
1/2 c chopped basil
1/4 c chopped chives
1 box rice noodles, cooked and cooled
2 carrots sliced into thin matchsticks
Other veggies as desired (some suggestions: alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, any other garden veggie you desire...)

Peanut Sauce
1/2 c peanut butter
1/4 c water
1/4 c lime juice (fresh or bottled, fresh being superior of course)
1/4 c soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp rice vinegar
Mix all ingredients thorougly

Fill a cake or pie pan with warm water. Place one rice paper sheet in the water carefully and let soak until it is easily pliable. Place a small handful of rice noodles in the center of the paper and add a couple leaves of kale, a pinch of mint, two pinches basil, some chives, carrots, and any other veggies you are using. Fold the sides of the softened rice paper over the filling and then wrap tightly, burrito-style. Serve with peanut-lime dipping sauce. 

Miso Full of Miso

So, once up on a time, OK, about a month ago, I bought an enormous bag of miso to make miso soup. Now I have made one batch of miso soup and I still have an enormous bag of miso. It was time to do something about that.

Ryan and I have been enjoying our grill that I got him for his birthday on Craigslist, and so we decided to indulge in the purchase of a pound of shrimp for some kabobs. I whipped up a miso glaze which was more than adequate to coat our shrimp. In fact, we still had some leftover. And so, a salad dressing was born.

I want this post to be a waste-not, want-not sort of lesson I suppose. I feel like too often I buy an ingredient for a specific purpose, and then ignore the fact that I didn't use it up and allow it to go bad. I am making a concerted effort not to do that anymore; to find something to do with that leftover lemongrass, buttermilk, or cassava. It's one thing to step out of your comfort zone and make something different, but it's a whole other adventure to recognize that something needs to be done in your ktichen, and to make it happen.

Do I still have a lot of miso? Yes. Will I use it all up? I hope so. If you want miso should you ask me for some? Absolutely!

Miso Glaze
2 tbsp miso
1/4 cup sherry
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp water


Mix thoroughly and use to coat fish, shrimp, veggies, whatever!

Miso Dressing
Use the above recipe and add 1/4 c mayonnaise

Dining Al Fresco

It's pretty much summer in Pueblo, which for us means eating outside on our patio that we made ourselves just a few months ago. The furniture was added for Ryan's birthday; a Craigslist find, and now pots of basil adorn the corners as the warm months promise an abundant harvest.

I have been continuing my bread-baking adventures, this time with the very time-consuming sourdough bread. As I finally reached the baking stage of the 8 day process, I decided I needed to prepare an Italian feast to accompany this accomplishment. And so I turned to that most basic of dinners, the one we all remember from childhood on busy nights when there was no time for our parents to cook; spaghetti.

Growing up, we ate a lot of Ragu and Prego spaghetti sauce, so I think I always assumed that tomato sauce must be very difficult to make. Not so, my friends. I guess if you wanted to make it just like your Italian grandmother, it might be an all day process; I don't know, as far as I know I am 0% Italian. However, it is extremely easy to make a far better than that canned preservative-filled spaghetti sauce of your youth with just a few simple ingredients. As my sourdough bread baked, filling the kitchen with warmth and nostalgic smells, I whipped up a batch of sauce, pasta, and a salad and prepared for a dinner on the patio.

As we sat outside eating, Ryan commented that he thought that food tasted better outdoors. I had to agree. Somehow with sunshine warming your face and plate, breathing in fresh air and the smell of flowers, you take the time to enjoy your food and your environment. I have flash backs to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my childhood treehouse; somehow that incredibly familiar lunch tasted better because I was outside and because the thrill of summertime was all around me. I might not have a treehouse anymore, but my patio reminds me that you don't have to be up in a tree to experience the magic of eating homemade food outside.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

4-5 cloves garlic minced

2 tbsp basil

2 tbsp oregano

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 24-ounce can tomatoes (or equivalent fresh if you have them)

Some mushrooms, onions, peppers, or any other veggies you like in small handfulls

Put the olive oil in the pan with the garlic and cook on medium for 1 minute. Add the basil, oregano, and the veggies. Cook another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil, and then simmer on low for between 20 minutes and 2 hours depending on your time restraints. It'll taste great either way.  

What if bread didn't take all day?

You're not a bad cook because you don't bake bread. I have been telling that to myself for years, with the very simple reason that homemade bread, while delicious, takes too damn long to make! To make a good loaf of sourdough takes six days. To make a good whole wheat, at least most of a day. Risings take multiple hours, so you have to be home all day or at least in and out at the correct intervals, a tough thing to do for anyone with, well, a job, school, family, or life outside the kitchen.

Dum duh duh duhhhhh!!! (triumphant music) I have found the perfect bread recipe for busy people!! That's right my friends; I, Rita Kerr-Vanderslice, the many-time failed bread baker, made bread yesterday and it was lovely, AND it took only 2 hours total. 2 hours!

How is this possible? Not really sure, actually, but I do know that everyone should own this cookbook: The Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Darina Allen is the author, and in this book she tells you how to do everything from making your own yogurt, to raising chickens, to foraging for mushrooms, and, of course, baking bread. Her simple Ballymaloe bread recipe is a simple whole wheat bread that reminds me of my dad making bread on Sunday mornings. Some timing may be slightly different depending on your altitude (writing to you know from 5,000 above sea level) and your oven.

Either way, congratulations to anyone who reads this; you are now capable of being a homemade bread baker; no more excuses. The only changes I made to this recipe are a) converting the yeast measurement from ounces of compressed yeast to teaspoons of active dry.

Ballymaloe Wheat Bread
1 2/3 c lukewarm water
1 tsp molasses
4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3 1/2 c whole wheat flour (or replace 1/2 c flour with bread flour if you have it)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Butter or oil for greasing your 5X8 inch bread pan

Preheat the oven to 450. Combine 1/2 cup of the water, the molasses, and the yeast in a small bowl and set aside. Combine the flour and salt in a larger bowl and grease your bread pan. In about 5 minutes, your water and yeast should take on a creamy texture and be foamy at the top. That means it's ready to add to the flour along with the remaining water. Mix it all together in the bowl with a spoon (it will be too wet to knead) and then place the mixture into the bread pan, sprinkle the top with the sesame seeds and cover with a kitchen towel. Allow the bread to rise for approximately 20 minutes or until the dough has risen to just below the top of the pan. Place it in the oven and cook at 450 for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400 and cook for another 40 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it. For a good, hard crust, remove the bread from the pan 10 minutes before it is done and place it directly on the oven rack.
Enjoy your newfound bakerdom!

Colorado Style Sushi

Like many people these days, I love sushi. LOVE it. However, living in a landlocked state makes trusting sushi restaurants a bit strange. My friend Sammy and I always made sushi back home in Rhode Island using fresh fish from her dad's seafood store, making it even more difficult for me to reconcile the fish I see in markets here with the magical ingredients I know do exist.

However, I persevere for the things I love. Last night, for the second time since moving ot Colorado, I made sushi. Delicious, but very vegetarian sushi. In the end, it's really not terribly difficult to make very good, very satisfying sushi using whatever ingredients you have around. I used fried tofu, egg, cucumber, baby carrots, scallions, and sesame seeds in place of the usual tuna or salmon, eel, lobster, and avocado.

In addition to having a special dinner, yesterday was a particularly startling first day of May for me; it snowed! I realized that cold sushi rolls needed their standard warm, satsifying companion on a snowy May Day; miso soup. I set aside half the tofu, some scallions, seaweed, and took my miso I bought from the Asian market out of the fridge.

To be realistic, landlocked sushi dinners aren't as good as eating big slices of raw tuna and salmon, it's true. However, it does give you that little bit of satisfaction that you get when you prepare that dinner you've been craving forever. It does give you that feeling of home, of comfort, and of accomplishment for making sushi happen without an ocean anywhere in sight.

Vegetarian Sushi
4 cups dry sushi rice
5 cups water
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar
Nori (seaweed)
fried tofu, cut in strips
4 whipped eggs, cooked omelet style and sliced into carrot-stick like strips
sliced cucumber, carrot, scallions, avocado, etc. (substitute anything you'd like)
toasted sesame seeds
wasabi and/or wasabi mayonnaise
soy sauce
a small dish of water for cleaning hands

Cook the sushi rice like normal rice (let it come to a boil, then simmer until all water is absorbed. The rice will have a sticky consistency. Line a bowl with plastic wrap and put the rice in there. Stir the rice vinegar and sugar together and then add them to the rice and stir it in. Allow the rice to cool to room temperature. While rice is cooling, prepare the tofu and egg by frying in a pan with oil and a teaspoon or two of soy sauce. Slice the vegetables so they will be ready and toast the sesame seeds on a pan or in the oven, just until slightly browned and fragrant.
For detailed directions on how to rolls sushi, click here. You do not need a sushi mat, though if you have one they can be helpful. I just use my fingers and make very successful rolls that way. Essentially you want to spread the rice evenly across the nori in a thin layer, place your ingredients in a thin line, much like wrapping a burrito, and then roll carefully so as not to rip the nori

Miso Soup
4 cups water
4 tbsp miso
1/2 cup chopped soft tofu
3 tbsp chopped scallions
1/2 cup dried seaweed

Boil the water, then add the miso until dissolved. Turn the pot down to low. Add the seaweed and tofu. Once the seaweed is soft, add the scallions. Serve immediately.

Avoiding Supermarkets

Ryan and I were talking about supermarkets the other day in the car as we did our usual trip out to the King Soopers grocery store. I was telling him about Wegmans, the supermarket chain I experienced in Ithaca, New York with its enormous fresh foods section, 3 aisles of international selections, and an olive bar. However, even better than Wegmans was living in Providence, Rhode Island with its mini-markets of every ethnic background you could imagine. When Ryan told me that Pueblo actually has both Latin American and Asian mini-markets, we decided to try mixing up our grocery shopping a bit.

First was the Mexican market where we acquired Maseca for our tortillas, chipotle and jalapeno peppers, and some dirt cheap pasta. Then to King Soopers for our staples: bread, yogurt, cheese, coffee, etc., and then to the Asian Market on the other side of town, oddly placed next to a Planned Parenthood.

There we wandered slowly down the couple of aisles, wondering what all of the unfamiliar small jars and packets really contained. I decided to get the ingredients for Miso Soup, and Ryan went to the store clerk to ask if they had any fresh fish. Did they ever. The woman who was running the store went into the back room and returned with two bins, one containing still lethargically crawling blue crabs, the other with shrimp and whole sea bass. She encouraged us to buy the bass, explained how to scale the fish and remove the innards and then proposed a variety of methods for cooking it.

We returned home excited for a food adventure for dinner. Ryan scaled the fish while I prepared a garlic butter sauce as a marinade. We decided on garlic and scallion mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus to accompany our meal, and so the water was put on to boil while I diced the vegetables in preparation.

I'm not about to say that we'll be running back to get another sea bass tomorrow. What I want to communicate with this story is that it's important to try new things. It's easy to get stuck in a food pattern, making the same things over and over, and a lot of that is because we insist on going to the same boring mega-grocery stores over and over. You forget that there are other foods that you like that you don't make, other combinations of ingredients you could prepare that you don't try out. In the end, our mashed potatoes were superb, our asparagus enchanting, but we decided that the more standard tuna and salmon are probably more popular than sea bass for a reason.

However, no regrets. Avoiding buying everything at the supermarket means taking chances on ingredients with labels you can't read, unmarked bizarre looking vegetables, and fish with their heads and scales still attached, and then enjoying the cooking adventure while it's happening.

I'll give you that mashed potato recipe though. : )

Garlic and Scallion Mashed Potatoes
(Makes enough for 4-5 servings)

4 medium sized baking potatoes, quartered, skins on

water for boiling

2 tbsps butter, and more to taste
1/2 cup warm milk
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 scallions minced

Place potatoes in enough water so that they are fully submerged. Boil until a fork stuck in them will go through easily. In a frying pan, melt the butter and fry the garlic for 2 minutes. When potatoes are done, drain the water, add the milk, butter and garlic, and mash until the consistency you desire. Add the scallions and enjoy!

Scones are not bread

"Scones are not bread," Ryan wisely informed me as we sat on the couch eating breakfast. We then went into a discussion about what makes something bread, since it isn't leavening, because certain flat breads don't contain any, and it isn't flour, because that would make cookies a type of bread. It's kind of interesting that despite the difficulty of defining what exactly makes something bread, we do all agree that items such as scones deserve their own category of "biscuits" or "pastries" along with other non-breads like croissants and doughnuts.

The fact is that whether or not scones are bread, they are a wonderful way to start your morning. This recipe is actually my older sister Jessie's, and I would assume it originated from the Vegetarian Epicure, an amazing little cookbook from the 60's which also contains one of the world's best pancake recipes (I'll have to share that sometime). I lived with Jessie for six months after college, the best time of my life for breakfasts that I've ever experienced.
There are 3 truly fabulous things about this recipe:
1. If you leave out the sugar, they make great biscuits
2. You can substitute the crystallized ginger for just about any dried fruit and they still taste great.
3. It allows you to circumvent the used of buttermilk, an ingredient I never enjoy, or plain milk, which tends to make baking recipes taste a little bland. I have found the solution of almond milk can solve this at times, but here, yogurt serves to create a creamy, delicious scone.

Scones a la Jessie
4 c flour
1-1/2 c plain yogurt
1/2 c butter
3 tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 c chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 c shaved almonds


Preheat oven to 400. Cream butter and sugar together until soft. Add half the flour and mix well. Add the yogurt and egg and mix again before adding the rest of the flour along with the baking powder, baking soda, and the salt. Mix in the ginger. Lightly grease a baking sheet and drop scones onto pan. Remember, they will double in size, so size your dollops accordingly. Sprinkle the almonds on top. You can also roll the scones out and shape them into nice triangles, but I am FAR too lazy for that, and by lazy, I mean HUNGRY! Cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy with butter, jam, or plain.

Peace and Hominy

If you have not read the book "Like Water for Chocolate" then I can't possibly recommend it highly enough. I do, however, suggest that you read it with a napkin nearby to wipe the drool from your chin as you read Laura Esquivel's magical descriptions of traditional Mexican cooking. I think it was that book that made me want nothing more than to become a Mexican grandmother, capable of performing miracles with food; stews infused with love and tamales succulent with tradition. However, for now, I must admit I'm certainly in the fledgling stages of this dream, with the latest chapter being my attempt at Mexican Pozole.

Like my search for the perfect Green Chile recipe, I found that Pozole recipes differ dramatically in almost every element of the recipes. It seems that these traditional dishes differ from family to family in how they are made and what they are made of, so I took some inspiration from a few recipes I found online and created something that I am calling Pozole. The one consistency between recipes did seem to be the use of the ingredient hominy, which is essentially dried and treated corn. It can be found at any Mexican grocer, as well as most supermarkets with a Mexican food section. It can be bought either dried or canned, much like beans, meaning the dried version must be soaked to soften. They taste something like a corn tortilla but have the consistency of a potato, adding a heartiness to the Pozole stew. I bought canned, but in the future I would love to start with the dried in my quest to make my food more ethnically authentic. 

In the end, the dish I made was so entirely unlike the Mexican Pozole that Ryan had eaten at a party about a year ago and that had inspired the project that it probably should be given a new name (perhaps Pozole Americana?). However, whatever I made did seem to make a delicious breakfast over eggs with a side of toast. It also made an excellent dinner with cilantro and sour cream on top.

This post is meant to focus on hominy, but I must put in a side note about cilantro: did you know a lot of people think it tastes like soap? My college roommate and cooking buddy Lanie was one of them, but I quickly realized she wasn't alone. I am certainly not one of those people, believing that cilantro should be eaten on just about everything, but I just want all of you cilantro haters out there that you are not alone in your soapy conception. Find comfort in that fact, and then make this Pozole anyways.

Pozole Americana
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 pound chopped pork or for vegetarians, try eggplant instead
1 onion chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1 24 oz. container chicken or veggie stock plus 1.5 cups water
1 8 oz. can diced green chiles
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 30 oz. can hominy or 1 bag dried and soaked
salt and pepper to taste


Cook pork in 1 tbsp olive oil until browned. Put aside. If using eggplant, leave in. Add the onion, garlic and the rest of the olive oil and cook until onions are soft and translucent. Add the cumin and coriander and cook another minute. Add the chicken stock and water, chiles, tomatoes, hominy, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Let boil for 3 to 5 minutes, then turn to low and simmer one hour. 
This recipe makes quite a few recipes, so you can enjoy for a couple of days, or freeze some for a day you don't feel like cooking.

Defining Dessert

I have a question to pose: what is dessert? Is dessert just whatever you eat after dinner? If you eat some pickles at 9pm is that a dessert? What about cheese plates? Chips? I think most of us associate desserts with sweet things like chocolate, ice cream, and cookies. Despite a wave of new age chefs making desserts using bacon or avocado foam, dessert seems to have mainly remained a traditional, sweet delicacy enjoyed after a meal that gives you that small burst of pleasure mixed with guilt.

The first night that Ryan asked me if I wanted dessert I got pretty excited. He hadn't offered before, and I'd assumed that meant he didn't possess sweet food, a not terribly uncommon occurrence. I take after my mother with a strong affinity for all things sweet and especially those that are rich and chocolatey, so you can imagine that I was moderately disappointed when Ryan brought out two bowls of yogurt. Yogurt isn't dessert to me; maybe breakfast or a snack, but I wouldn't call it dessert.

Ryan's larder it seemed was blemish-less, with no traces of sweet or savory indulgences. I have never eaten terribly unhealthily, but I did always keep a bag of chocolate chips in the freezer for days when fresh baked chocolate chip cookies just sounded too good to resist. However, we all grow and change, and I decided that I would do my best to adapt to my new roomie's food choices and not bring chocolate into the house. Instead, I brought granola.

Granola walks a fine line between crumbled up cookie, and seemingly healthy snack. We started buying granola at the store, but then the latest issue of Bon Appetit inspired me to try to make it myself. I don't follow recipes terribly closely because I hate having to go shopping every time I cook, so my recipe is what Bon Appetit would have come up with if they had my kitchen and not their crazy big, fully stocked, state of the art, totally wonderful, oh man, I've got to stop because I'm beginning to drool thinking about their kitchen. Anyways, I use recipes as guides, which is why I try to offer substitute ingredients when I write them; I'm hoping that if I name enough substitutes, eventually I'll describe something that you have in your kitchen. So for all of you with roommates, husbands, wives, partners, etc. that lack a sweet tooth, fool everyone by making some granola. I am also including Yogurt Dessert a la Ryan because I think it might change your mind about dessert forever.

Easy Granola
3/4 c coconut flakes
4 c oats
1/2 c veg oil or melted margarine (butter fine too)
1/4 c honey
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c water
3 tbsp additional butter or margarine
3/4 c almonds, sliced
1/2 c flax seed
1/4 tsp salt (preferably sea salt)
any other fruits, nuts, berries you have around (suggestions: raisins, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, craisins, apricots)


Toast coconut flakes on a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 325 for about 8 minutes or until golden brown. Combine oats, margarine, honey, sugar, and water in bowl and stir together. Place on a baking sheet and put in oven to cook until oats have toasted (appr. 40 minutes). Place the 3 tbsp butter in a saucepan. Add the almonds, flax seeds and/or any other nuts you are using. Cook for about 10 minutes on low heat until nuts are brown and toasted. When everything is ready, combine all together and sprinkle with the salt, then put granola in a container with a lid that seals. I used the oats container that I'd just finished up and it worked great! 

Yogurt Dessert a la Ryan 
1/2 c yogurt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
a handful of frozen blueberries (or fresh if you have them, but frozen are quite good actually)
1/4 c granola
2 tbsp peanut butter


Mix and munch. You won't even miss the chocolate. 

Chickpeas aren't just for hummus anymore...

It's grocery day. That means that breakfast is the butt ends of the last 3 loafs of bread we consumed, and that there's only enough leftovers for one person's lunch. I let Ryan take the last tupperware container of pasta and creamed broccoli because I had an hour this morning to make myself something. Searching through the cupboards, it appeared my choices consisted of a single tortilla, some very brown bananas, and chickpeas. No contest. Crispy chickpeas it is!

I didn't like chickpeas for a long time. I still can't eat them raw and find that my gag reflex is engaged when I see them displayed in a salad bar. Sure, I liked hummus, but that's like saying you like tomatoes because you eat spaghetti sauce. Not the same. However, now that I'm a "grownup" I've decided to start exploring all the foods I don't like (the list isn't terribly long) and find a way to cook them so that I do.

Enter, a Providence, Rhode Island establishment known as FOO(d). Despite the somewhat bizarre and possibly pretentious name, this isn't a fancy establishment. AS220, a local arts and music establishment, set up the restaurant next door to give people somewhere to hang out in between local bands or after an art show. I was bummed when they shut down the old Taco shop that used to live there and opened up FOO(d), but my disappointment soon faded when I ate there for the first time. My main dish (a sandwich, I think) was nothing to call home about, but in the location where one would normally find french fries sat my old nemesis: chickpeas. I was just starting to push them over to my friend next to me in a decided act of rejection when the grown up inside of me woke up and realized that I should try them and stop behaving like a five year old, feeding her lima beans to the lab under the table. And so began my love affair with crispy chickpeas.

What I learned when I returned home to my kitchen and immediately began preparations to make these chickpeas myself was that, much to my delight, you couldn't really mess them up! Every combination of spices was pretty fantastic, though my favorite quickly became an Indian spice combo. The trick was that you were getting rid of that weird texture that chickpeas have and replacing it with the greasy crunch of a snack. The somewhat bland flavor of chickpeas was infused with olive oil and fragrant garam masala.

I recommend you make these chickpeas, and then I recommend that you do some research. Choose a food item that you don't like, are scared of, have never tried. Begin searching for the one recipe you think might change your mind. Sometimes it's fun to be wrong.

Crispy Chickpeas, Indian Style
A liberal 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 15-ounce can chickpeas drained and patted dry on a paper towel or cloth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp curry powder


Put olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Pour chickpeas into pan. Sprinkle spices over the chickpeas as they cook. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. When they are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, you have finished. Now snack away! Note: best eaten fresh out of the pan, but you can try to keep them around for a day or two...I bet you won't be able to!

Superbowl 2011

Ryan and I went nextdoor to our neighbors' house for the Superbowl. I'm not a football fan by any means, but I do love the party atmosphere and the large amounts of really bad-for-you food that generally comes along with such an occasion. This year I was a little nervous because I hadn't met anyone in our neighborhood yet, having only moved here to Pueblo a month ago. I dealt with my nervousness by cooking. I knew no one wanted me to make something too veggie heavy, and so I began to make homemade tortilla chips. My nervousness settled as I rolled out tortillas one by one and flipped them in the pan. I think when some people are nervous about meeting people they feel like they need to make themselves look really good, some people feel like they need to be really funny or charming. I think I've decided that I'll try going straight to their stomachs. It has probably become a bit of a crutch if I really think about it. Cooking is what I do if I'm bored, if I want to impress someone, if I'm upset.

The night ended up being very fun, with friendly people, and plenty of good food besides my chips and the mango salsa and guacamole I whipped up to go along with it all. I like to think that I earned entry into the social atmosphere by making those chips, but I think the reality is that having a dish I knew I'd made from scratch and that tasted great probably just made me feel more comfortable, like a puppy showing off his tricks to impress a stranger. So here's some recipes for everyone who uses cooking for anything other than just food. I think you'll enjoy the tortilla chip experience.

Tortillas came into my diet when my older sister Jessie started dating Eric who is originally from Costa Rica. Homemade corn tortillas are so simple and so much better than tortillas from a bag you won't believe it. Serve them with a breakfast of eggs or a dinner of rice and beans, or go ahead...make some nachos!

Homemade Corn Tortillas
(recipe makes about 12 tortillas)
2 cups Maseca or other corn flour (can be found at any Mexican grocery and most supermarkets)

2 cups water
1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix with your hands (I promise it's easier this way). Heat up an ungreased frying pan to high heat. Now take a plastic grocery bad or a piece of plastic wrap about that size and place a ball of dough about half the size of your fist inside the bag on a flat surface. Now's the fun part! Each tortilla can either be patted down by hand or rolled with a rolling pin. I recommend using my tool of choice which is just a glass jar like a pickle jar or wine bottle, but that's mostly because I don't own a rolling pin. Remove the flattened tortilla gingerly from inside the plastic bag and place it in the now heated pan. You should cook each tortilla for about 15-30 seconds on each side.

Homemade Tortilla Chips
12 homemade tortillas (see recipe above)
1 cup olive oil for frying

Leave that tortilla pan on and add a cup of olive oil. Slice your tortillas up into chips and place them in the pan. Do not crowd them; you might have to do them in batches depending on your pan size. Use a pair of tongs to flip them once they are lightly browned on one side. Once cooked on both sides, transfer them to a plate covered in newspaper or paper towels to soak up any dripping oil. Eat hot, or let cool before you enjoy them.

Mango Salsa
1/2 onion
1/2 bell pepper
1 ripe mango
4 med tomatoes, or 1-15 ounce can of tomatoes (I like to use the ones with green chiles in them for some spice)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lime (optional)

Finely mince all veggies and then sprinkle with sugar, salt, olive oil, and lime juice. Serve with chips!

Essence of Avocado Guacomole
(I love avocados. I mean LOVE. Which is why I often find guacamole to be too much spice, not enough avocado flavor. Here's how I make guac instead)
2-3 ripe avocados 
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt (pref. sea salt)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes


Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and then savor that quality avocado flavor. Ain't nothing better!

The Mafe Factor is born!

 I guess I knew picking a blog name would be pretty hard, but it surprised me nonetheless that I spent about a week making this decision. I guess it's a little like naming a child; you realize that, while your decision may not truly be final and that there are legal recourses one can take to change a name, it is not socially acceptable to flip flop about name decisions. There are, of course, those that do choose to change their mind about these things, but I believe one generally must fall into the category of either a) a disgraced business or b) famous person.

Adjou and a particularly spectacular platter she created

So what is Mafe? Mafe is a Senegalese peanut butter stew that is made with root vegetables and tomatoes and served on top of cous cous or white rice on a large communal platter that everyone eats off of together with their hands. I chose Mafe as my namesake because it is my favorite Senegalese dish to make, and because overall I loved the food experience of eating off of a communal plate, something we would frown upon in the US because of our accute germaphobia. But hey, when in Rome I hope we all find it in ourselves to acquire a few Roman germs.

The Mafe Factor has a second source of origin in another great food adventure I once had. There is a cafe in Ithaca, New York called the Mate Factor which is run by a religious cult called the Twelve Tribes who live in a large communal house in downtown Ithaca, and run both the cafe as well as a farm where they grew most of their produce. They have open Sabbath dinners on Fridays at which they invite the entire community to join them, but very few Ithacans take part except the homeless. However, I convinced my college roommate to tag along with me and we attended one Friday Sabbath dinner at that big house on 3rd Street. While the experience was in many ways socially discomforting, the food was incredible, the people were well-meaning and kind, and the dancing afterwards was surprisingly fun. When I moved to Colorado I discovered that the Twelve Tribes had another Mate Factor in Manitou Springs, and just seeing the sign brought back such crisp memories of fresh greens and thick hearty bread, that it was all I could do not to drool on the sidewalk.

Aminata, Mina, and I enjoy our mafe

And so, let the Mafe Factor be defined as the secret ingredient that the story of a dish adds to the actual taste of the food. It's the spice of memory. In recognition of these food adventures of the past, I will begin with a recipe for Senegalese mafe the way my host sister Adjou taught me to make it. I implore you to make this a food adventure for yourself. Take out that platter you sometime put deviled eggs or chopped veggies on when you have parties. Cover it with white rice or cous cous and then pour your stew into the center. Invite your bravest and most adventurous friends over for dinner, and "Lekka" Senegalese style.

Mafe with Beef, Lamb, or Vegetarian (don't tell my host family I'm allowing this)
3 tbsp oil (olive oil or vegetable)
1/2 pound chopped beef, lamb, or halved mushrooms
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 med potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
5 brussel sprouts, quartered
(Other vegetables to add or substitute for those listed: green beans, cassava root, cabbage, eggplant)
1 med onion minced
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 green pepper, minced (optional)
salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste
1 28 ounce can diced or pureed tomatoes or 4 fresh tomatoes, pureed
14 ounces of water (fill up tomato can halway again, or use about 2 cups)
1/2  cup good natural peanut butter (no more than 2 ingredients)


Sautee meat or mushrooms in oil until browned (about 5 minutes), add all root vegetables and brussel sprouts or cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes. Take the minced onion, garlic and green pepper and mix them together. If you can, it is good to mash them, but I generally just mince them all at once to get a good mix. Add these to the pot along with the salt, peppers, tomatoes, water, and peanut butter. Mix well and bring to a boil. Once at a rolling boil, turn down to low and then cook until veggies are soft.


Serve platter style or in individual bowls with rice or cous cous.
Lekka bu bakk samay xarits! (Eat well my friends)