spiderdust

Apparently our big crockpot isn't quite big enough for a double batch of apple butter.

At least now the house smells all cinnamony.

ETA: Moved the batch to the big 18-qt. electric roaster instead. All is well.

I also promised insomnia that I'd post this recipe. We had this as part of our Thanksgiving dessert.

Also from the Washington Post

( Roasted Balsamic Pears )

Last night we did our annual batch of latkes. Latkes are one of our family holiday traditions (it's actually a tradition that we started celebrating with ag_unicorn, thats_ms_dragon, dancing_star, and their children), but since we made some dietary changes this year, I figured I'd probably never be able to have latkes again. However in the spirit of not feeling deprived but not overdoing it, we made latkes & invited iceblink and insomnia over to help us eat them.

In addition to the standard potato latkes, we tried a new recipe: matzo meal & cottage cheese latkes. Apparently this recipe was developed by Russian emigrés. They reminded me a bit of hush puppies; maybe needed a bit more onion. I'd like to think that they were probably kinder to my blood sugar than the potato ones, but I haven't actually done the counts on the ingredients, so I could be in for a shock. It's only once a year, though, and I didn't go crazy. Besides, like ag_unicorn said last year, "I just don't think it would be the holidays without latkes. :)"

( Matzo Meal and Cottage Cheese Latkes recipe )

This isn't a vegetarian recipe; it calls for bacon. However, I think the bacon could easily be replaced with vegetarian breakfast strips or left out entirely. For a lower carb version, skip the crust part of the recipe & instead pour the filling mixture into a well greased quiche pan. I'll bet this quiche would be good with 1/2 a cup of sauteed spinach added to it as well!

( click here for the recipe )

I just made a really good cake/cookie out of almond flour, vanilla, Splenda, egg, and butter.

I'd take full credit for the recipe, but it's something that Veronika from work came up with. It's better when you use vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract, but I didn't have any on hand.

I'm sure it would be really easy to veganize... replace the egg with flax seed slurry or Ener-G Egg Replacer, replace the butter with vegan margarine, and of course replace the Splenda (the original recipe called for sugar, but I can't have that) with whatever sweetener you'd prefer.

*urp*
I've eaten too much of it already!

I posted this earlier in veggievictuals, but thought I'd share it with my close, personal friends. :)

( recipe )

Since we're all sick here, I'm making some onion soup.

Here's my easy version:

Melt a 1/2 stick of butter in a large crock pot, chop up lots & lots of onions. Cook overnight. In the morning, add stock (beef or vegetable, whichever you prefer). Soup should be ready by lunchtime.

You can either serve it with cheese toasts or you can do the whole ovenproof bowl/croutons/shredded mozzerella cheese/broiling thing.

I'm also tempted to make some garlic broth. Good sipping broth for sick people!

My crockpot was too small for the chili recipe! I'm using an altered version of the Wendy's chili clone recipe (with Yves Veggie Ground Round, a can of black beans substituted for part of the pintos, celery salt substituted for part of the salt and all of the chopped celery, a can of diced tomatoes & green chilies substituted for the green chilies & part of the chopped tomatoes).

It's supposed to make 12 servings, but apparently they had bigger servings in mind than I did. I had to drag out the big stockpot. It's also a lot more watery than I would have expected, but it's supposed to simmer for 3 hours... maybe some of that will cook away.

I've got some shredded cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream to serve with it later.

I managed to be a little bit productive today. I made two risottos -- one mushroom, one cheese (since Nexus wanted cheesy rice the other day & I figured a risotto would be a good way to make what he wanted from scratch) -- and will use one of them for dinner & use the other one for my lunches this week with some green salad & maybe some crusty bread.
( my basic risotto recipe )

Back to work again tomorrow, then another day off.