Month: February 2015

Rejuvenating Wild Rice Salad with Beets and Dill

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Welcome to part deux of  my Valentine’s Day recipe extravaganza (and don’t worry, there’s even more recipes coming your way these next few days!) I made this salad in an attempt to rejuvenate wild rice. An oft forgot grain, wild rice is sick and tired of just being “that hard and crunchy Thanksgiving rice”. It wants to break free! It has seen good times with butternut squash, cranberries, mushrooms, and fruits, but it wants something more in life. It is yearning for some new friends, and it wants to be eaten at any time of year, gosh darn it! Wild rice, meet beets and dill (and tangy lemon dressing, too!). These players are taking wild rice out of it’s turkey-stuffing days to vibrant lunch and dinner plates. This salad is perfect for winter, but would also be a beautiful addition to a spring or early summer picnic basket. I tested out my new mandolin making this recipe, and went to town on these juicy, ecstatically pink beets. I then tossed them in olive oil and …

Summer Lovin’ Rolls

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I have something to admit. I am one of those terrible people who love Valentine’s Day. I am a total mushball, someone who squeals over all things pink and heart-shaped, someone who goes into CVS purposely to browse the copious amount of consumerist love goods. Those over-priced three course dinners for two? Roses? Teddy bears with “I love you” written on their little red shirts? I’m a total sucker. Don’t hate me. Yes, I know all the arguments about why Valentine’s Day is a ridiculous holiday and the person who you’re with should show their love for you all the time, blah blah blah, and if you’re single, how Valentine’s Day is isolating and a stab to the gut, blah blah blah. I know all this. But I still am entranced by our yearly celebration of all things romantic. So, in honor of this gracious holiday, I have cooked up a series of V-Day themed recipes. Brace yourselves: there will lots of fuschia and chocolate. That’s all I’m saying. For my first recipe, I thought …

How to Make Homemade Beans

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As a vegetarian for nearly 10 years (wait- whaaaa?!), I have been through protein “phases”. When I first started out, I had no clue whatsoever about nutrition, and definitely knew nothing about healthful vegetarian protein sources. A child of the processed-foods ’90s, in my early veg days, I would arrive home from school, make a bag or box of noodles with a powdered sauce (Fettucine Alfredo Pasta Roni, anyone?), and proceed to eat the entire pot. Okay, I was in eighth grade, so let’s take that into context, but still. I went on like this for a year or so, consuming plentiful processed foods, while in the meantime, slowly learning to cook my own food. My mother told me, as soon as I became vegetarian, that she would not be cooking separate meals for me. Hence, I needed to learn how to cook. Honestly, I was not upset about this necessity. I had always done a fair share of baking, and I enjoyed sitting at the counter, watching my mom make her famous marinara sauce …