OMGSNAX!

it seemed like a good idea at the time.

INGREDIENTS
1 large sweet potato
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

METHOD
heat the oven to 425 F. bake the sweet potato until tender, about 50 minutes, or bake in the microwave. when it is cool enough to handle, peel & mash it with a potato masher. add the flour, egg, cinnamon, & nutmeg & mix with your hands until well combined. shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper or plastic, & refrigerate it for at least an hour & up to 1 day.

fill a large saucepan or stockpot with water, and bring it to a boil.

when the water starts to boil, add the salt. using 2 spoons, scoop up about 2 tablespoons of dough with one, & scrape it off into the pot with the other. cooking no more than 5 to 8 gnocchi at a time, wait for them to rise to the surface, about 3 minutes. let them cook 1 minute longer, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon & transfer them to paper towels to drain. repeat this process until all the gnocchi are cooked. serve them right away.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
ok you guys. i followed the directions to the letter. TO. THE. LETTER. & yet they were just not good. i mean, not the worst thing i’ve ever eaten, but srsly? should’ve been way deliciouser. YES IT’S A WORD YOU WANNABES LAY OFF OK.

ok. let’s do this thing.

i baked the sweet potato. i mashed it. it smelled good.

mashed sweet pataters

i made the dough. it was sticky. no, really. NO. REALLY.

mixing

fully combined

i chilled the dough for two hours. i dropped it by heaping tablespoons into boiling water.

about to take the plunge

i boiled them till they rose to the surface, & then boiled a little bit longer. i chased them around the pot with a slotted spoon to get them out.

bad moon rising

i drained them on paper towels. they were amazingly doughy.

stupid dumples

i cooked a couple with butter, & daniel rolled a couple in brown sugar. we threw the rest out. it was a colossal disappointment.

whatevs, ppl. what. evs.

 

 

“Sweet Potato Drop Gnocchi” from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook by Diana Shaw, © 1997.

my sister’s second grade class did a project on apples &, in the process, compiled a cute handmade apple recipe book featuring one recipe per student. my mom made an apple cake recipe from that book fairly frequently while i was in middle school, & it was damn good.

this is not that recipe.

i’m not really sure why i didn’t go with a tried & true. after all, i’ve never made that apple cake before so technically it’d be appropriate for OMGSNAX!, but somehow, when push came to shove, ok, well (a) i was planning to make these sweet potato gnocchi tonight that just so totally didn’t happen but which i’m pretty sure i’ll do tuesday after my stats class, (b) actually, i was INITIALLY going to make asparagus potato puffs, but then my sister wouldn’t get me the potatoes when i didn’t have enough, & the aspargus was all fat & woody looking, & then i left them in the car all day when we had our warm spell last week & they got wilty & yucky, & (c) i’m lazy, & even though i’ve called my mom three times in the last four hours, i didn’t want to ask her for the recipe. i don’t know, don’t ask.

so i got this recipe out of a vegetarian cookbook i’ve had forever that i’ve been looking through a lot lately (hello, future attempt #3 at red bell pepper soup!) & it seemed pretty easy & daniel likes apple cake, so, you know, i’ll make him try the gnocchi another night, right?

INGREDIENTS
2 cups dried apples
1 cup freshly pressed apple juice
1/4 cup unsweetened, unseasoned homemade apple butter, or store-bought
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or kamut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

METHOD
heat the oven to 350 F.

place the apples, apple juice, apple butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, & cloves in a large saucepan. bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat. lower the heat to medium & continue simmering, stirring often, until the apples soften & the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.

meanwhile, place the flour & baking soda in a large mixing bowl & combine with a whisk. pour the apple mixture into the bowl, & stir quickly & thoroughly. (the mixture will foam as the baking soda reacts with the fruit juice.) pour the batter into a nonstick or lightly greased 7- to 8-inch round baking dish. bake until the cake is firm, & a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
ok, freshly pressed apple juice? homemade apple butter? i’m so sure.

yeah, i’m not even gonna address that.

but to add insult to injury, of course i screwed up & went to the wrong grocery store. dierbergs (or whole foods or wild oats) would’ve had some of this “unsweetened, unseasoned” apple butter, but schnucks? oh no. so i got stupid musselman’s apple butter that’s both sweetened & seasoned with cinnamon & i figured, ok, it’s a quarter-cup, it’ll probably be ok. i thought about cutting back on the cinnamon in the recipe but decided against it.

also, ok, i just thought i’d admit up front that i just don’t have any kind of circular baking dish. but i did the math & i’m pretty sure a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan is about the same. ish. so, you know.

45″ sq. is pretty close to 50.25″ sq., right?

that said, dried apples? very sticky. i’d imagined dried apples as more of an apple chips type thing, but the kind i got were superduper sticky. which makes sense, i guess — i mean, apricots are sticky, prunes are sticky, raisins (ew ew ew perish the thought!) are sticky. but still. kinda messy.

chopping apples

before the “apple mixture” became a mixture

everything else post-chopping went pretty much according to plan, although i have to say that the “foam” that the recipe talked about was kind of a let-down. i guess i expected something along the lines of a bath bomb or chemistry experiment, but what i got was a low-level fizz that, although daniel took a photo of it, i can’t show you b/c it was all blurry.

our attempt at an “action shot” of the foam that wasn’t

a delicious batter

does it taste good? yes. is it as good as the cake my mom always makes? no. but it’s pretty close. & that’s not bad.

with caramel ice cream

 

 

“Apple Pudding Cake” from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook by Diana Shaw, © 1997.

so here’s the thing: i realized at work today that i absolutely had to do this week’s recipe today, as tomorrow is brian’s CD release & saturday i’ll be in kirksville with him for another show, & then it’s NEXT WEEK already, & come on, man, i’ve got a schedule to stick to! sheesh.

other dishes up for consideration, mostly found while browsing allrecipes.com during my half-hour lunch break, included: some kind of yellow curry & broccoli, sweet potato cornbread, frittatas, macaroni & cheese, some kind of pasta (oh wait but yesterday!), cheesecake. but then i got home & flipped through my Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home & saw i’d dog-eared a fried rice page, & daniel said that he’d been craving some kind of rice dish ANYWAY, so we were off to schnucks to get a bunch of overpriced oils & some vegetables. thank god for last minute choices!

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or cider vinegar
2 teaspoons molasses or brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili paste, or splash of chili oil (optional)
1 cake tofu (about 3/4 pound)
3 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
2 medium red or green bell peppers, cut into thin strips
6 ounces snow peas, stemmed (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup water
4 cups cooked brown rice
2/3 cup chopped scallions
chopped toasted almonds (optional)

METHOD
in a shallow nonreactive bowl, mix together the marinade ingredients [everything through chili oil]. cut the tofu into strips 1 inch long, 1/2 inch wide, & about 1/2 inch thick. add the tofu strips to the marinade & stir gently, using a rubber spatula to avoid breaking the tofu. marinate for about 10 minutes.

prepare all of the remaining ingredients & have them at hand before starting to stir-fry.

heat a wok or large skillet. swirl the oil around the wok, add the peppers, & stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high heat. add the snow peas & water & continue to stir-fry, uncovered, until the water evaporates & the snow peas are crisp & begining to puff up. using a slotted spoon, remove the tofu from the marinade & add it to the wok. stir for a moment, hten add the rice & heat thoroughly. pour on the marinade, add the scallions, & stir.

serve immediately, garnished with chopped almonds if you like.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS

daniel chops the ginger (still don’t have a grater, people)

i hate brown rice.

have you noticed how often i start this section with “i hate X” or “i hate Y” ..? well as a big old DUH, i’m picky! christ. let it go.

so i bought some speciality medium-grain sticky rice b/c, as i discovered during last week’s chana masala fiasco, good rice really does make a difference (the basmati rice was delicious). & i will tell you this: eff your uncle ben’s minute rice shit, b/c this is where it’s at.

other things i did differently: added broccoli, halved the snow peas, 86ed the green bell pepper, used way less tofu (daniel doesn’t like it), oh, & i scrambled an egg on the side of the wok after i’d cooked the vegetables b/c doesn’t fried rice usually have egg in it? the hell?

my virgo boyfriend had to stack all the vegetables on the cutting board just so

vegetables in the wok

but holy COW, this was a good marinade. & i almost always mess up tofu when i make it, but i just got extra-firm & crossed my fingers & it didn’t fall apart! & it tasted really really good! & it was made even better by the fact that i didn’t have to chop any of the vegetables b/c daniel did it all while i did the tofu & the rice.

note the mongolian “fire oil” in the background

anyway, i believe we finally have our first OMGSNAX! success story. & imagine this, i owe it all to moosewood!

the final product

 

 

“Fried Rice” from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day by The Moosewood Collective, © 1994.