Freezer-Friendly Archives | Page 2 of 4

Spiced Orange Cranberry Sauce

November 17, 2015 By Karen

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I wrote about it twice last year, when I shared the story of my dad and the pear and cranberry crisp with gingersnaps, oats and almonds, and when I wrote about feeling grateful and Dorie Greenspan’s maple-cornmeal drop biscuits. I love it for the food (obviously,) but more than that I love the traditions we’ve created around it.

We’ve hosted the meal ever since we moved into our home ten years ago. Family comes from near and far, and the best part is that for the last decade it has been low key and drama free. My parents separated when I was 14, so like many kids I had years of juggling holidays and figuring out whose house got priority which year, and there was often stress and nonsense involved. But as an adult with my own home and growing family, I chose to rewrite the terms. …

Chipotle Barbecue Pulled Pork in the Crockpot

October 12, 2015 By Karen

As the weather cools, the crockpot starts living on the counter again, instead of down in a cupboard. I love my crockpot. It’s brilliant. I love it so much that I often have two of them going at the same time. Because if you’re going to bother cutting and chopping ingredients, you might as well spend a few more minutes and get twice the payoff. Of course, that’s only worth it if you’re thrilled with the results. And let’s face it, there are some definite crockpot fails out there, and I’ll own several. Dried out chicken, burned sauces stuck to the bottom that are impossible to remove, flavorless mushy carrots floating in a stew. But those fails haven’t deterred me. I have my favorite recipes that never go wrong, and I am always on the lookout for more. I’ve already told you about the easiest ribs in the crockpot (with a dry rub they’re sweet, spicy and smoky all at the same time!), but I have held out on my family’s other favorite recipe: Chipotle Barbecue Pulled Pork in the Crockpot, which I’ve been making for years. My first notes in my binder for it go all the way back to 2007. (The binder that my sister-in-law says is the one thing she would grab from my house in case of a fire. Just sayin’. I promise to write more about that one day.) I’ve got a stained, ripped page that was printed off of AOL a million years ago, covered in 6 different pens with all my changes and comments like AMAZING!!!!, and FIFTH BIRTHDAY 2012, but no source on where the original recipe came from. With a little internet searching, it turns out the base recipe I began with is from Real Simple, but I have adapted it over the years. Since then it’s graced our table for parties, holidays, and filled ziploc bags in my freezer for countless last minute meals and deliveries to friends who need a bit of a boost. It is so easy to put together, makes your house smell amazing, and is always a crowd-pleaser. Freezer-friendly, it is a great make ahead weekend project so that you can have dinner ready on a crazy Thursday night when you get home late from work, kids are starving, and nobody feels like cooking….

Peach, Ricotta and Basil Pizza

August 27, 2015 By Karen

Hello! I know you haven’t seen me here much these last few months, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been in my kitchen. I’ve said it before: it’s my happy place. My oasis. When there’s nonsense going on, I retreat to the place where nothing can go wrong, and where I can get a few minutes of solitude. Okay, maybe you are looking at that last sentence and thinking, “But everything can go wrong in the kitchen!” Sure, flour can be spilled, dough can be too sticky, crust can get burned, but really, is it the end of the world? No. Is it a disaster? Never. Unless you’re slicing a digit and bleeding all over the place, or burning yourself on a hot pan (all things I can proudly say I’ve done, more than once,) mistakes in the kitchen aren’t tragic. So just take a deep breath and embrace the fact that you can be creative, you can feed yourself and people you care about wholesome food, and it’s going to taste damn good in the end. Oh, and that solitude? Sometimes it happens, and pushing dough to the edges of a pan is meditative, and other times I’ve got whining kids cranking out saying they’re hungry, or that their brother was mean. But truthfully, just being in the kitchen calms me down, and my reactions are kinder there.

So what have I been cooking? I’ve made 9 pizzas in the last seven days. Yes, nine. Four had peach, basil and homemade ricotta, two were avocado, corn and basil, a pesto pepperoni and a standard pepperoni, and then one with garlic oil, figs, mozzarella, Maldon sea salt and a splash of balsamic. I just got on a kick, and I can’t seem to stop. Here’s the thing: pizza is really easy. It’s one of those tricks, that once you learn how to do it, you wonder why you never did it before. And you can throw anything you want on top, and most of the time it works. This week, they all worked. And they worked so well that I just kept repeating them.

I’ve been making my own dough for a few years now. I’ve tried tons of recipes, but my all time favorite is from the cookbook and blog, Dinner: A Love Story, by Jenny Rosenstrach. Her recipe is pretty much Jim Lahey’s no-knead dough recipe, and it’s a winner….

Summer Fruits Tea Cake (and 10 Books to Go With It)

July 8, 2015 By Karen

I love the feeling of falling into somebody else’s world, temporarily leaving my own reality to find a place in another. In some ways, I experience that in my work. It’s my privilege as an interpreter that I’m allowed into the most private moments of other people’s lives, or simply that I have the opportunity to walk into situations that I would never otherwise have access to. Although that’s not at the foundation of why I became a sign language interpreter, and certainly not a main reason why I continue to be one, it is a part of what keeps me balanced.

Being in the hospital room as a child is born, in the court room when a divorce is granted, on the course as someone learns to ride a motorcycle, in the classroom where they study to be a priest, a rabbi, a teacher, a lawyer, an historian or an artist, in the office when someone is fired, on the phone for a fight between a mother and her son, or on a stage in front of tens of thousands of people, it’s my honor to gain perspective from other people’s lives.

While my professional access to these experiences might be unique, I know I’m not alone in the desire to immerse myself in other’s stories. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve done that with books. I was the little girl hiding with the flashlight under the covers, escaping into The Secret Garden. I was the teenager devouring trashy novels and Wuthering Heights with equal abandon (which I guess might have been trashy in its day.) In my twenties I called the New York Public Library my second home, and missed my subway stop time and again as Barbara Kingsolver, Isabelle Allende, J. K. Rowling and David Sedaris wove their tales around me. And in my thirties I fell in love with audio books and cookbooks, returned to children’s literature, and began a habit of reading electronically.

I read so much that I can’t keep track of it all without maintaining a list, and so for years…

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sour and Hot Mushroom Tofu Soup

May 19, 2015 By Karen

It’s been a while since I updated you on the cooking club I participate in. I wrote a general “how-to” guide for cooking clubs, I told you about our inaugural Israeli night, I shared the Apple Cider Rum Punch from the Caribbean dinner, and I filled you in on Indonesia by way of an Avocado Shake with Kahlua and Godiva Liqueur. But there have been three others that I’ve kept you waiting on! While Mexico and Greece are on standby, I’d like to catch you up on our incredible Chinese meal and let you know about one of my new favorite cookbooks.

In order to expand my options in the kitchen lately, I keep ordering new cookbooks at the library and actually (shockingly!) cook out of them. But after years of collecting cookbooks for the sake of collecting, I have become much more selective. If I find one I really like, that I am willing to make a permanent space for on my bookshelf, I go ahead and buy it. This is one of those books. Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to study at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in central China, and while not a native Chinese cook, she has become a prominent cookbook author. Her latest book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking is easy to follow, filled with healthy recipes and beautiful photographs that show food you’ll want to cook on a regular weeknight basis. Experimenting with Chinese cooking was on my to-do list, but this book pushed me to finally do it. It’s a perfect introductory book, and I can’t recommend it enough. (Full disclosure, the link is an affiliate link. It doesn’t mean you’ll be charged any extra, it’s just that I’ll get a few pennies to buy an extra mushroom or two if you purchase anything after clicking through.)

The one thing to know is that you will need to pick up a few specialty ingredients for your pantry, but once you have them you’ll be prepared to throw together quick and easy meals that will beat Chinese take-out ten times over. It will be healthier, more flavorful, cheaper, and can be made in less time than it takes to place an order and get it. That’s definitely true of her Spicy Buckwheat Noodles, her Sweet and Spicy Cold Noodles (which I’ve already made at least half a dozen times!,) and her Spicy Sesame Noodles, which all can be made in the same amount of time it takes to make boxed mac and cheese. Seriously. They’re incredible. But admittedly, for a girl who’s definition of soy sauce was the low sodium bottle from Trader Joe’s, I had some shopping to do to stock my pantry. I was lucky though to have a Taiwanese friend take me on a tour of our local new Asian grocery store, and after 90 minutes of wandering the aisles, I was ready to go. If you don’t have the same resources near you, remember you can always find ingredients online. Don’t let your location stop you!

Vinegar and Soy Sauces: Fuchsia Dunlop's Sour and Hot Mushroom Tofu Soup is a healthy, lighter version of a Chinese take-out favorite. With four types of mushrooms, it's hearty enough as its own meal, or the perfect compliment to a feast. It's comforting and impressive, and this large batch will leave you with plenty to freeze for future bowls. | www.tastyoasis.net

If you can’t find ingredients locally, Amazon carries them! Just click on the photo.

Which brings me back to the recipe that I chose for cooking club: Fuchsia Dunlop’s Hot and Sour Mushroom Tofu Soup….

Quick Tip: Freezing Ginger

March 26, 2015 By Karen

Just a quick tip for you all today, because my brain and time has been otherwise occupied, and lately my kitchen has been the scene of studying more than anything else. Which means I have been all about easy meals and shortcuts, and I thought some of my tricks might be worth sharing. And I realized that while this might seem obvious to some, maybe it hasn’t crossed your radar yet: You can freeze ginger!

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to buy fresh ginger for a recipe, or to throw into a stir-fry, and I tend to have more than I need. And it ends up shriveling in my crisper drawer into a freakish looking fuzzy mess, and I have to toss all the extra that I wasted. And of course, I then need it for something else, and I’m mad. So the solution is simple: when you buy your ginger, simply peel it all at once, chop it into different size pieces (some big, some small) and toss it in a Ziploc freezer bag and store it in the freezer. Obvious, right? (Except that for years it wasn’t obvious to me at all.)And you can then use that frozen ginger straight from the freezer. Just grate it using a microplane, or let it thaw for a bit in some room temperature water, or throw it in your Green Smoothie as is. (Which is what I did this morning in the picture below. My smoothie turned a bit darker because I added some blackberries and carrots to it, but the shining star was the cube of frozen ginger that got blended up with the spinach, banana and yogurt. It was ridiculously good. Trust me: add ginger to your smoothies.)

And when I take a break from studying, I’ll put together a post on how else to use your ginger. I’ve got a hot and sour mushroom soup recipe that I made for our cooking club a couple of weeks ago that is going to make you look at what you get from Chinese take-out in a whole new way. In the meantime, back to the books…..

Healthy Green Smoothie with Spinach, Kale and Banana

March 13, 2015 By Karen

My family loves a good ritual, and I find comfort in traditions that remind me to take time out of my everyday nonsense and reflect on where I am, how I’ve gotten here, and who has filled my heart along the way.

My brother Brian’s birthday was St. Patrick’s Day, and when we were little we always celebrated with Shamrock shakes. They were a special green treat, and I always looked forward to the trip to McDonald’s for that cold and creamy drink that went so perfectly with hot and salty fries.

Tuesday will be the 30th anniversary of a different birthday tradition though. Every March 17th since I was 9 years old, I have celebrated my brother’s birthday with six green helium-filled balloons: one for him, one for my mom, one for my dad, one for my brother Andrew, one for my abuelita Julita, and one for me. The people who loved my brother the most. But these balloons aren’t headed for a party; they’re headed for the sky….

Nutella Crunch Cookies-Two Ways

March 11, 2015 By Karen

***Before I get started with these Nutella Crunch Cookies, I have a shameless plea: Would you please take two minutes to nominate Tasty Oasis for the Saveur Food Blog Awards in the Best New Voice category? On Tuesday, I wrote a whole post about it, and I would love for you to check it out. The deadline is this Friday, March 13th, and I would be ever so grateful! Thank you!!!***

There was a time in our house when we consumed so many jars of Nutella that we were able to trade in the labels for a Nutella t-shirt and two (count them: TWO) Nutella travel coffee mugs. I’m not sure what that says about us, especially knowing that during that period I never even tried baking with this chocolate hazelnut spread of deliciousness. Almost all jars were just devoured straight up, on a spoon. Granted, sometimes it was added to a bowl of vanilla ice cream, but that’s as creative as we ever really became. Of course, that amount gluttony meant that we had to take a good two year Nutella hiatus. Brian went off of sugar for a bit, and I just found mine in other places.And then the Winter of 2014-2015 struck. (Do you see where this is going?) And Nutella has made a full force re-entry into our lives. Brian has been making Nutella “drinking chocolate,” the spoons have returned, and I…well, I bake. I got an idea into my head around a month ago: I was bound and determined to make the perfect Nutella cookie. And because I care so much about you all, I wasn’t just going to present you with my first attempt. That first attempt might have been declared, “The best thing you’ve ever made!” by my taste-testing sister-in-law, (the one who previously said the same thing about the OMFG Extra Dark Chocolate Ice Cream,) but I thought I could push it further. So four batches later and I actually have TWO winning recipes for Nutella Crunch Cookies that I am sharing with you today. Honestly, I just can’t decide which one I like better. And all my generous friends and family who have willingly submitted to be tasters (poor things) are split down the middle on which is the winner. So I leave it to you to bake both and decide!…