Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Here are some clementine-turkeys, mostly because my grandma says I need oranges for good luck, but also because I'm silly like that.  Hope you all are having a wonderful day filled with food, family, and friends!  :)

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Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots

Everyone knows at least one reluctant vegetable eater.  Maybe you are one... (ahem, Buddy).  Perhaps I'm being too idealistic, but I can’t accept that anyone actually hates vegetables—you just have to find the right recipe.  This particular veggie recipe is another one that’s almost too easy to blog about, but again is too special not to write about.

It's the perfect comfort food; it has a warm, velvety richness, but there's nothing complicated about this dish.  When the sky goes grey and the wind picks up, this is what I crave.  Forget chicken noodle soup--when I get sick, I want comfort from something more substantial, and these carrots fit the bill exactly.  As a matter of fact, when my sister's wisdom teeth were removed, these carrots--in mashed form--were all she ate for a week.

Now, fast forward a few years, to when Buddy and I started dating.  When I first discovered Buddy's aversion to fruits and vegetables, I was aghast!  Almost three years later, it's an ongoing mission to convert him into a veggie lover, except now it's also become a running joke.  I still get teased when I have an orange for dessert, or you know, say that pizza isn't a vegetable, and Buddy still sends me emails like this:

Link here to article on listeria-plagued cantaloupes

Even so, I like to think that I've made some progress on my vegetable crusade--thanks to this recipe.  Buddy may not remember, but these carrots are the first vegetables I've cooked for him, which he grudgingly liked, and even had seconds of.  No one can resist anything covered with melted butter and brown sugar, and I can certify that this dish is the gateway drug of veggies.  More than that though, these Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots are perfect for a cold day like today, perfect for snuggling on the couch with a bowl full of carrots and sharing them with someone you love--even if they claim to hate veggies.  

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots

Adapted from my mom

Total Recipe Cost: $0.79 for 4 servings!

I use a lot more butter here than my mom does, but I’m young, and don’t have cholesterol problems—yet.  If you’re not a butter fiend, I’d definitely start with ½ T butter, and add in small increments until you reach your desired buttery-ness. 

4 large carrots

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

salt (almost 1/2 teaspoon)

parsley (optional)

Set water in a large pot to boil.  Meanwhile, peel and chop carrots into approximately ½” thick pieces.  Drop the carrots into boiling water, and cook 3-5 minutes, or until the carrots reach your preferred tenderness.  Drain the carrots, and return them to the pot (heat off, or very low to help the butter melt).  Add the butter and brown sugar, and stir until the carrots are evenly coated.  Salt to taste, though you’ll need more than you expect.  Top with parsley to garnish.  Serve this to the vegetable-haters in your life, and dare them not to love it!

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
4 large carrots	$0.33/lb	$0.66
1 T unsalted butter	$0.11/T	$0.11
1 T brown sugar	$0.28/C	$0.02
salt		negligible
pepper		negligible
parsley		negligible
TOTAL		$0.79

Questions about Total Recipe Cost?  Click here!

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Broccoli Panzanella

There's a decidedly crisp chill in the morning, scarves are coming out of the closet, and I have a definite craving for some hot apple cider.  It's official; summer's over, even here in San Diego.  Of course, seeing as today's high was 74F, everyone's still in sandals, and I recently went to a pool party, I'm not quite ready to start blogging exclusively about braised meats, hearty stews, and all things root vegetable.

This broccoli panzanella is a good compromise of the seasons; it's a refreshing, summery slaw, but the star of the dish is broccoli, a cool season crop.  As soon as I saw the recipe, I needed to try that tangy buttermilk dressing.  Mostly though, I had to make it because I'm a sucker for slaws.  I'm not fooling anyone by calling this a panzanella.  Sure, bread is added here for a reason--it contributes the perfect amount of saltiness and texture--but the foundation for this recipe is unabashedly a slaw.  To be honest, I'm obsessed with slaws and perhaps you can tell, given that they're featured in >20% of my posts now.


I love almost all slaws, but this dish in particular is special.  With its light but creamy dressing, it's decadent yet still healthful.  There's a sweetness from the cranberries, but also some heat from the red onions.  It's a veritable playground of textures, from the crispy croutons to the crunchy broccoli, and every cranberry is a sweet surprise.  I can't stop at just one serving, but hey--it's broccoli, so eat up!

Broccoli Panzanella
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Total Recipe Cost: $5.54 for 8 servings!


A panzanella is traditionally an Italian salad of bread and tomatoes with an oil and vinegar dressing.  I took some liberties with naming this dish--panzanella is such a fun word, I had to use it!  However, I do want to highlight the bread component in this recipe.  In short, I'm a big advocate of homemade croutons; they're so easy, so cheap, and sooo perfect for snacking.  :)


Croutons:
1/2 loaf of crusty french bread
2 tablespoons olive oil
oregano
salt
pepper

Dressing:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup of walnuts
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup of dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cut bread into small chunks and arrange on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and generously season with oregano, salt, and pepper to taste.  I like my croutons crispy on the outside, and slightly chewy on the inside, so I toast them for 10 minutes--increase the time to 15-20 minutes if you like them crisp throughout.  Set the croutons* aside to cool.

To toast the walnuts, arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet and (if you are lazy like me) put them under the broiler for 2 minutes, or bake for 10 minutes at 350F.  Let these cool before chopping into smaller pieces.

Meanwhile, chop the broccoli into small pieces, then add the chopped red onion, dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts.  Whisk** the dressing ingredients together and then toss with the broccoli mix.  This may be too much dressing, depending on the size of your broccolis, so just add the dressing to taste.  Store in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat, then combine with croutons immediately before eating!

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
½ loaf of French bread	$1.49/loaf	$0.75
2 T olive oil	$0.32/oz	$0.32
oregano		negligible
salt		negligible
pepper		negligible
½ C buttermilk	$0.55/C	$0.28
1/3 C mayonnaise	$0.08/oz	$0.21
2 T cider vinegar	$0.11/oz	$0.11
1 T sugar	$0.26/C	$0.02
1 C walnuts	$4.50/lb	$1.12
2 heads broccoli	$0.88/lb	$1.32
½ small red onion	$1.49/lb	$0.75
½ C dried cranberries	$0.33/oz	$0.66
TOTAL		$5.54

*Croutons are shockingly easy to make!!!  No one should ever have to buy store-made!  Also, the magic of croutons is that you never have to worry about buying too much bread, because once it goes stale--perfect for making croutons!  Problem fixed with a delicious solution.  Just store them away in a sealed container... I'm a little embarrassed to say how long I've kept them for (ahem,  >1 week).  

**A lot of times I just end up mixing vigorously with chopsticks...usually when I'm cooking alone and know that I'd have to wash the whisk myself.  But really, any method works, just get the dressing smooth!

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"I Scream" Graveyard Pie

Without a doubt, this has been the best candy-less, costume-less halloween weekend I've ever had.  Instead of frantic costume-making, I had a surprisingly non-frantic arts 'n crafts session helping with place cards for my cousin's wedding.  Less than 24 hours later, in a quiet, sunny rose garden, they got married!  (Congratulations Erwin and Cindy!!!!!!)  The rest of the weekend was a blissful blur of food, family time, and more food.  In fact, I almost completely forgot that it was Halloween, though looking back, I'm pretty sure one little girl wore a Disney princess costume--complete with a tiara--to the wedding.  Now that I've arrived back from the wedding weekend, I've realized, in typical procrastinator fashion, that I have only a small window of opportunity left for a halloween-themed blog post!

From the right, my spooky neuron with my friends' pumpkins--Apple logo with Steve Jobs face, Toad from MarioKart

Luckily, I'd managed to squeeze in some quality halloween related activities the week before.  It's not halloween without a bit of sugary decadence, so this I Scream (ice cream) pie with its graham cracker crust and milano cookie-tombstones called out to me at once.  As a bonus, I decided to decorate the tombstones with the names of famous neuroscientists, though this quickly turned into scientists with short names.  Turns out, it was the perfect complement to my similarly geeked-out jack-o-lantern: a spooky neuron, with fangs!  Happy Halloween everyone--may it be filled with sweet treats!

I Scream Graveyard Pie
Adapted from Everyday Food
Total Recipe Cost: $5.18 for 8 servings!


9 graham crackers
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 pint ice cream #1 (I used cookies 'n creme)
1 pint ice cream #2 (I used mint chocolate chip, yumm)
12 oreo cookies or chocolate wafers
5 milano cookies
decorating gel (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325F.  In a food processor (or by hand with a rolling pin), process the graham crackers until they are finely ground (it will be roughly 2 cups worth).  Add the butter slowly, and mix until well incorporated.  Press the graham cracker mixture firmly into a 9" pie plate, along the bottom and sides, then bake for 20 minutes until set.  Let the crust cool at least 45 minutes before adding ice cream.

In a separate bowl, stir ice cream #1 until it's softened and can be easily spread.  Using a rubber spatula (it sticks less to the ice cream), spread the ice cream evenly across the crust.  Freeze the pie for at least 1.5 hours, until it's firm.

Soften ice cream #2 and spread it on top of the first ice cream layer.  Freeze it again, while you prepare the remaining layer.

To make the "dirt" layer of the graveyard pie, finely process the chocolate wafers.  (If you're using oreos, like I did, just twist off one side of the cookie for the pie, and use the remaining cookie+frosting halves to make your some doublestuff oreos for later!  You're welcome.)  To make the tombstones, cut the milano cookies in half and decorate with your own spooky twist!  Spread the crushed cookie "dirt" evenly on the pie, then firmly place the cookie "tombstones" cut side down into the dirt.  If the ice cream is too hard, use a knife to cut slits to place the tombstones in.  Eat your scary treat immediately, or store frozen for up to a week!  Happy Halloween!!!

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
9 graham crackers	$0.06/cracker	$0.54
1 stick unsalted butter	$0.11/T	$0.88
1 pint ice cream #1	$2.88/1.5 quarts	$0.96
1 pint ice cram #2	$2.88/1.5 quarts	$0.96
12 oreos	$0.07/cookie	$0.84
5 milano cookies	$0.20/cookie	$1.00
TOTAL		$5.18

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Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Tomatoes are like apples.  Okay--they're not like apples at all, but I love eating them like they are.  It's a quintessential summer moment, biting into a raw tomato that's fresh off the vine.  The only problem with this scenario (or at least blogging about it) is 1) October doesn't really qualify as summer, but hey, I live in San Diego so cut me some slack and 2) who reads a food blog to hear about how someone didn't cook tomatoes?  My autumn-themed solution to all this... slow roasted tomatoes.  Yummm.

Seeing as I live in an apartment with limited balcony sunshine, these beautiful homegrown tomatoes are courtesy of my friend Ali, whose husband is plant whisperer biologist and thus has the ultimate green thumb.  This is how I came to acquire a good two pounds of unbelievably sweet, perfect tomatoes. (Thanks Ali!!!)

My mom says it's a waste to cook homegrown tomatoes, and for the most part, I agree with her.  They just taste so good alone!  There's no way grocery-bought can even compare to homegrown.  Even Buddy, Mr. Veggies/Fruit-Hater (aka boyfriend), gobbled these up raw, and declared that these were special tomatoes.  Nevertheless, this recipe was begging to be made, so I fired up my oven and set to roasting them up.  These tomatoes were so sweet and delicious before cooking, that roasting them for hours only concentrated that flavor and made it even richer.  After eating these, there's no way I can call roasting fresh tomatoes a waste--it just tastes like pure decadence.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

tomatoes (small varieties like cherry, grape, etc.)
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.  Cut tomatoes in half, cross-wise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with a little olive oil, then sprinkle some salt and pepper (these won't need much since they're so flavorful on their own).  Roast for three hours, or until the tomatoes have shriveled on the outside, but are still a little juicy on the inside.  You'll have to adjust the time according to the size of your tomatoes, but don't worry, I encourage intermittent (and in my case, usually frequent) taste-testing.

You can refrigerate these up to a week to store, though I like to heat them up a little before eating again.  Here are some of my favorite ways to eat these warm:

-Spread whipped cream cheese on crackers, top with thinly sliced basil (chiffonade, if we're being fancy) and a roasted tomato!
-Brighten up a simple pasta by tossing with these roasted tomatoes.  Add olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper!

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No "Total Recipe Cost" this time... after all, it wouldn't be very nice to rub it in that these delicious tomatoes were free for me.  :)  However, if you insist on a calculated cost, I'd estimate probably $2-3/pint of grape tomatoes at the supermarket.  But, considering that the oil, salt, and pepper are negligible costs, this is pretty cheap for some high-impact flavor!  

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Cha Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)

Red tastes better.  Whether it's children fighting over the red M&Ms (they taste the same, people!), or the sad decline of Red Delicious apples, we almost can't help that our eyes are drawn to that rich, full color.  It's like this whole Red Velvet cupcake mania now--don't you all know that it's just chocolate flavor with red food coloring?!  Now, try to use this argument against cha siu, and it's a whole other story.  Is that hypocritical?  Of course!  But those of you who grew up eating cha siu know exactly what I'm talking about.

Translated, cha siu literally means "fork roasted," and you see this bbq pork in windows all over Chinatown, hanging from skewers, deliciously burned, and dripping with honeyed glaze and rendered fat.  Everyone knows it's just food coloring, but that brilliant red sums up all that nostalgia and lures you in for an impulse food-buy.

Digging through my old photos, I found one of a Chinese restaurant window and sadly the cha siu, hanging from the bottom rack, is cut off--upstaged by the glossy roast ducks.  Even with its bold color, cha siu can get out-shined, especially when accompanying it in the window is often a spectacular whole roasted pig, complete with a wide expanse of golden crispy skin.  In truth, I think I've taken cha siu for granted.  You don't reserve it for special occasions, the way you might a roast duck, and as a matter of fact, it always ended up in many everyday meals.  Growing up, we'd eat it with plain rice--fresh from the store, and still glistening with honey.  I would snatch up the crispy choice pieces, and days later, the leftovers would be in fried rice, in noodles, and it even--I recently experimented--tastes great on pizza.  We had it often, and it was delicious in every different dish it managed to sneak into.  

For me, cha siu is the epitomy of comfort food.  The odd part is that it's never occurred to me to cook it myself; it's always been one of those things I thought was best left to the experts.  But when I came across a recipe in Appetite for China, I had to at least try it.  In the end, I omitted the food coloring, being too lazy (and cheap) to justify the trip to the store for purely cosmetic reasons.  When this cha siu came out of the oven, I was pleased by its more natural rosiness, although when I took my first bite, I couldn't tell if it tasted the same as I remembered.  It simply didn't taste red, if that makes any sense... I know, it doesn't.  That didn't matter though, because it tasted like crispy honeyed perfection, with that rich earthiness of 5-spice layered beneath the sweetness.  More importantly though, and I suppose this is the magic of cha siu, is that even when I'm 3000 miles away, it tastes like a slice of home.

Cha siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
Total Recipe Cost: $5.02 for 8 servings (2lbs)!  (Cha siu from the store is around $8/lb!)
Adapted from Appetite for China

While this isn't technically cooked in the traditional way, the bake 'n broil combo is an astonishingly easy alternative with exceptionally tasty results.  Since I'm not a BBQ master, a meat thermometer came in mighty handy for this recipe!  Nobody likes dried-out cha siu, so I aim to finish at an internal temperature of 145 degrees (newly approved by the USDA, who recently lowered the safe temperature from 160 degrees).  My times may vary from yours, depending on differences in size of the pork strips, so just be careful!

2 lbs pork butt (don't worry, it's actually the shoulder!)
4 tablespoons rice wine
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon 5-spice powder
6 cloves garlic, minced
few drops red food coloring (optional)
3 tablespoons honey

Cut the pork butt into strips, roughly 2 inches in diameter.  Trim off some of the fat, but don't go all health-crazy--it needs a little fat to keep it moist!  Mix together the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, hoisin sauce, 5-spice, and garlic for the marinade; add some food coloring here, if you want that extreme red glow.  Vigorously rub this into the meat, and marinate it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least a few hours).

Preheat the oven at 400 degrees.  Arrange the meat in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet (this will make your dishwasher infinitely happier!), discarding the marinade.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until the meat reaches an internal temperature of about 130 degrees.  Flip the meat over and switch the oven to broil.  If the meat starts to burn too much, move to a lower rack in the oven.  Cook for about 10 minutes, until the meat is slightly burnt, and the thermometer reads 145 degrees.

Immediately, while still hot, toss the cha siu with the honey, and allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes.  Thinly slice the cha siu, and gobble it up with a steaming bowl of rice!

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
2 lb pork butt	$1.99/lb	$3.98
4 T rice wine	$0.07/oz	$0.14
4 T soy sauce	$0.08/oz	$0.16
4 T sugar	$0.26/C	$0.07
1 T hoisin sauce	$0.10/oz	$0.05
1 t 5-spice powder	$0.17/oz	$0.03
6 cloves garlic, minced	$0.24/head	$0.12
3 T honey	$0.31/oz	$0.47
TOTAL		$5.02

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Spinach Pesto Quesadilla

This almost feels like cheating, posting a spinach pesto quesadilla recipe as a separate entry, rather than as an addendum to last week's spinach walnut pesto post.  But it just didn't seem right to relegate this astonishingly simple, yet surprisingly filling and delicious treat to footnote status--especially since quesadillas actually occupy a special place in my proverbial recipe box.

Until college, I considered quesadillas to be drab and mediocre, merely conduits for sour cream intake.  That is, until I met my freshman year roommate, Rachel.  Very quickly, we'd struck a bargain--I'd be the cook, if she'd wash all the dishes.  On the rare occasion that she'd cook, it'd be (you guessed it) quesadillas.  They take less than 2 minutes to make, and it's hard to pass up an opportunity for melty cheese and copious amounts of sour cream and salsa.  Still, I was baffled, because as delicious as the crispy tortilla and gooey cheese combo is, I was convinced that quesadillas don't constitute a proper meal.  It's all cheese!

Years later, Rachel and I are still best friends and roommates (somehow we've ended up in the same grad school program, in labs right next door to each other--yes, it's ridiculous).  She still makes quesadillas all the time, and I still turn up my nose at the thought of bringing quesadillas into work for lunch--they get microwaved, ugh.  Sometime recently though, I've gone through another quesadilla revolution.  It all happened one fateful night that there was leftover steak. Preposterous, right?  Uneaten steak is a culinary rarity--unheard of, at least at my place.  But then the next day, with leftover steak in my quesadilla... it was a total eye-opener.  You can put anything into a quesadilla!!!  My favorite 'dilla-stuffer is still steak, sometimes with pesto, below.  It's so good, that when I have steak, it almost makes me want to save some for leftovers.

Spinach Pesto Quesadillas

Total Recipe Cost: $0.65 per quesadilla!

Inspired by Rachel's inexplicable ability to eat 'dillas every meal for days on end

This is so easy that it feels silly to have a recipe, but the genius about quesadillas (that took me a while to appreciate) is that you can add any veggies (spinach, peppers, etc.) or steak to make it more epic.  Another favorite variation is the pizza-dilla, with cheese and pepperoni (sans pesto, though).

1 large flour tortilla

1.5 tablespoon of spinach pesto

1/4 cup of shredded cheese (I used a cheddar/jack mix)

veggies or leftover steak (optional)

Place a tortilla in a frying pan, preferably non-stick (so you won't need oil).  Sprinkle cheese across half of the tortilla, and spread the pesto on the other half.  If you're adding extra meat or veggies, place them on the cheese-covered half, and sprinkle some extra cheese on top, to ensure that the cheese melts over and holds the delicious bits all together.

Heat for about 1 minute on high heat, or until the cheese starts to melt.  Fold the tortilla over (it's easier to fold the pesto side onto the cheese side), and continue to brown both sides until you reach your desired crispiness!  

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
1 flour tortilla	$0.24/tortilla	$0.24
1/4 C cheese	$2.71/lb	$0.17
1.5 T spinach pesto	$2.52/cup	$0.24
TOTAL		$0.65

Spinach and Walnut Pesto
Total Recipe Cost: $2.52 for 1 cup of pesto!

Don't you hate it when recipes call for lemon zest, but no lemon juice?  Sadly, this one won't use up all the juice from your zested lemon.  Don't worry though, if you don't foresee finishing it in the near future, just freeze the juice in ice trays, and store frozen cubes in a ziploc bag. 

1 cup walnuts
1/3 lb spinach, flat-leaf (approx.)
zest from 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
salt
pepper

Arrange the walnuts in a single layer on a baking pan, and toast for 1 minute under the broiler.  This is the lazy quick way!  If you're absent-minded or prone to burning, toast instead at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the spinach, remove stems, and spin (or pat) dry.  Add the spinach, lemon zest, garlic and walnuts to a food processor, and pulse until coarsely chopped.  Pour in the olive oil, lemon juice, and sugar; pulse until it's fairly smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Use mixed with pasta--or, if you're too hungry to wait for water to boil, spread the pesto on crackers with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese for the perfect mid-afternoon (or midnight) snack.  Also coming soon... spinach pesto quesadillas. 

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
1 C walnuts	$4.50/lb	$1.12
1/3 lb spinach, flat-leaf	$0.66/lb	$0.22
1 lemon	$0.30 each	$0.30
2 cloves of garlic	$0.24/head	$0.03
1/3 C olive oil	$0.32/oz	$0.85
1 t sugar, granulated	$0.58/lb	Negligible ($0.005)
salt		Negligible
pepper		Negligible
TOTAL		$2.52

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Spinach Walnut Pesto

Do you love pesto, but have trouble keeping basil plants alive?  That's me.  I'm on plant #2, which I adopted from a friend who moved away (thanks, Jen!) and so far, it's doing well.  My last one flourished for a time, then got nibbled down to the stems by bugs, so I'm still deep in the mindset of conserving the precious leaves.  With all the trouble my basil has put me through, I can't even contemplate harvesting the entire plant to grind up for a few measly tablespoons of pesto--no matter how tasty.  And don't even get me started on pine nuts...

Thank goodness for this cheapie version of pesto.  It doesn't taste anything like its traditional basil-based cousin, but it has that texture, that lightness, and tastes like a burst of summer.  Nothing's missing from this pesto, and believe me, you'll want to put it on everything.  I sure did!

Spinach and Walnut Pesto
Total Recipe Cost: $2.52 for 1 cup of pesto!


Don't you hate it when recipes call for lemon zest, but no lemon juice?  Sadly, this one won't use up all the juice from your zested lemon.  Don't worry though, if you don't foresee finishing it in the near future, just freeze the juice in ice trays, and store frozen cubes in a ziploc bag.

1 cup walnuts
1/3 lb spinach, flat-leaf (approx.)
zest from 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
salt
pepper

Arrange the walnuts in a single layer on a baking pan, and toast for 1 minute under the broiler.  This is the lazy quick way!  If you're absent-minded or prone to burning, toast instead at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the spinach, remove stems, and spin (or pat) dry.  Add the spinach, lemon zest, garlic and walnuts to a food processor, and pulse until coarsely chopped.  Pour in the olive oil, lemon juice, and sugar; pulse until it's fairly smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Use mixed with pasta--or, if you're too hungry to wait for water to boil, spread the pesto on crackers with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese for the perfect mid-afternoon (or midnight) snack.  Also coming soon... spinach pesto quesadillas.

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
1 C walnuts	$4.50/lb	$1.12
1/3 lb spinach, flat-leaf	$0.66/lb	$0.22
1 lemon	$0.30 each	$0.30
2 cloves of garlic	$0.24/head	$0.03
1/3 C olive oil	$0.32/oz	$0.85
1 t sugar, granulated	$0.58/lb	Negligible ($0.005)
salt		Negligible
pepper		Negligible
TOTAL		$2.52

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Yi Mein (Birthday Noodles!)

Today is my sister's birthday!  She also loves to cook (hi Cheryl!), and while our kitchens are nearly 1400 miles apart, they're filled with little reminders of each other--from last Christmas's rolling pin, to this summer's ice cream machine.  In honor of my sister's birthday, I'd like to share a personal favorite (and traditional birthday treat).  For years I knew them only as birthday noodles; they are meant to signify longevity, and usually are the last (and best) course of every traditional Chinese 10-course banquet.

These are noodles you dream about.  More precisely, these are the noodles that I dream about.  In fact, one of my earliest remembered dreams was about trying to eat a bowl full of these noodles (sadly, I always woke up before the first bite).  So what's so great about them?  Let's start with how they're made.  They're a type of egg noodle, made with carbonated water to give the dough an unusually spongy and slightly chewy texture.  Then, the noodles get fried.  It's this fried form that gets dried into ramen-like bricks, which you bring home and fry again.

This is the only brand oyster sauce that my grandma uses... and she's usually
right about these kinds of things.  This is the best brand, and worth the extra money!

There's nothing that tastes quite like it, and quite frankly, no other noodles can top it.  It's the mark of a great noodle, when adding extra ingredients is sacrilegious.  Too many restaurants try to overcomplicate the dish, adding shrimp, lobster, meat... but I say, NO!  Just stop it!  The taste and texture is perfect already; all you need are a few finishing touches.  A dash of oyster sauce, a handful of mushrooms, and a scattering of scallions later, and you're ready to celebrate!  It's not your birthday, you say?  Well, find someone special to toast to, and thank them for supporting all your kitchen shenanigans (happy birthday, Cheryl!).

Yi Mein (Birthday Noodles!)  
Total Recipe Cost: $6.63 for 6 servings!
(The noodle packaging claims there's 12 servings, which is outrageous.  I could easily finish this in 4, but let's pretend to eat like normal people and call it 6. )


20 dried shiitake mushrooms
(1) 12 oz package of yi mein, also called e-fu, yee-fu, yifu, or yi noodles
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon oyster sauce (see preferred brand above)
3 stalks of scallions*
oil
salt
pepper

Reconstitute the dried mushrooms in a bowl of water, for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, thinly slice the scallions, and start boiling a pot of water for the noodles.  When the mushrooms become soft, thinly slice them.  Lightly coat a pan with oil, then saute the mushrooms for about 5-10 minutes.  (If you're using fresh mushrooms, it will take longer to cook, since they release a lot of liquid.  Just cook down almost all the liquid.)  In the last minute, add 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce and a sprinkling of salt.

Drop the noodles in the pot of boiling water and briefly submerge until they are soft and pliable--this will take slightly less than a minute.  Drain the noodles, then place in a lightly-oiled pan (enough to coat the bottom and then a little extra).  Toss the noodles to coat with oil, then pan fry for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat.  There should be no burning or crisping of the noodles!  In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce, and most of the sliced scallions (reserve enough for garnishing).  Salt and pepper to taste, toss to coat the noodles evenly, and continue cooking until the scallions are slightly wilted.  Garnish with reserved scallions, then enjoy!

Ingredients	Unit Cost	Total Cost
12 oz package of yi mein	$0.33/oz	$3.99
3 stalks scallions	$0.33/bundle	$0.17 or free*
20 dried shiitake mushrooms	$12/lb	$2
3T + 1t Oyster sauce	$0.28/oz	$0.47
oil		Negligible
salt		Negligible
pepper		Negligible
TOTAL		$6.63

* Scallions are ridiculously easy to grow!  Watering is optional needed only occasionally.  Mine have survived over a month without watering!  But they prefer at least once every few days.  

When you buy scallions (with roots attached), use the stalks as usual, but leave at least an inch or two from the end of the roots.  Fully submerge the root portion in water for a few days.  Then, plant the rootlets and enjoy the bounty of your free food!  

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