Week One

I'm coming to the close of Week One of my challenge, and I've had a lot of fun. I may have been more fruitful in my food preparation, but as of Wednesday, my refrigerator has been out of commission. Although my roommates and I have been playing the "keep the door open as little as possible to keep the cool in" game, the 80+ degrees August weather is not helping anything. It was sad to find my heavy cream as a solid and to clean out bags of brown-ish liquid from the produce drawers... We're going to try defrosting the entire thing today to see if that won't fix the problem.

I ran into a dilemma this week regarding my dining-out allowances. On Tuesday, I went toThe Old Fashioned with the med students who have been working in my lab this summer (thanks for all your help Chloe, Price, and Zubin!). We started things off right with an order of fried cheese curds, paired with the Spanish Smoked Paprika dipping sauce. I must admit, the sauce may have overthrown my favorite sauce, Tiger Blue (a mix of a horseradish-based Tiger sauce and blue cheese dressing). And for a truly decadent entree, I decided on the No. 51 Mac & Cheese with Wisconsin sharp cheddar and Sarvecchio, topped with breadcrumbs and served with pickles on the side. It's so rich that it's a challenge to eat it all in one sitting, and since it was a late dinner, I wanted to go to bed right as I got home, instead of staying up to pack a lunch for the next day. Thus, are leftovers from dining out allowed? I concluded yes, since I did not want to see it go to waste, and I didn't think it would survive a freeze very well.

Before the fridge debacle, I was able to make hummus (and freeze it in the interim) with crackers! I've made hummus plenty of times in the past, but I've never made it with cooked-from-dried garbanzo beans.

Hummus (adapted from here)

What you need:

• 2 cups (~one 15-oz can or ~1 cup dried) garbanzo beans + 1/4 cup of can liquid or cooking liquid
• 4 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp tahini paste
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• spices as desired; I like to add a few dashes of cumin and some red pepper flakes

What you do:

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the garbanzo liquid into a food processor or blender; blend.
2. Add some or all of the garbanzo liquid and blend until hummus comes together in a creamy goodness.

Everything Crackers (adapted from here)

What you need:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup milk or water (my milk didnot survive the fridge, so I used water)
• 2 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• "Everything" mix (a haphazard combination of kosher salt, poppy seeds, and granulated garlic and onion)
• A couple of spritzes of water from a spray bottle

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and pepper in a food processor and pulse a couple times until combined.
3. Add the pieces of butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture becomes sandy.
4. Add milk while the processor is running and run until fully incorporated.
5. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-6 minutes.
6. Divide the dough into sections and roll through a pasta machine (however you need to set it up...) to the second thinnest setting. You can also roll the dough out with a rolling pin, though be careful to roll evenly.
7. Arrange dough pieces on an ungreasedbaking sheet and score with a knife or pizza cutter.
8. Lightly spray the dough with water and sprinkle on your "Everything" mix.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the crackers are light brown. Cool completely before eating or packaging (if they make it there).

Michael came over last night for dinner, and had suggested making a stir fry. As a sauce, I was thinking of just mixing some sesame oil, liquid aminos, and ginger. There's a delicious Korean-style teriyaki sauce in my "fridge" that I couldn't get out of my mind, so a quick internet search gave me this gem that I have adapted here:

Sweet and Savory Teriyaki Sauce

What you need:

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4-1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

What you do:

Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and put over low heat for 25 minutes or until desired thickness. Stir often.