Parsnip and Carrot Fries: Sweet or Savory

For a second serving of the root flavor of the month, LHF brings you a healthier alternative to those deep fried potatoes at your local fast food stop: sweet or savory parsnip and carrot fries.

Here what you'll need:
Parsnips (I only used one for myself, so the number depends on how much you want to eat)
Carrots (Again, I only used one)
Olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper
Garlic
Brown sugar
Cane sugar

I couldn't decide whether to make the fries sweet or savory, so I opted for both in two separate batches.

Begin by preheating the oven to 425 degrees. Once the parsnips and carrots are cut into long, medium-thin slices, you can coat them in olive oil. Then, lay them out on a baking sheet (you may want to cover it in tin foil to help with the clean up, since the brown sugar sticks), and sprinkle the savory fries with sea salt, pepper, and garlic. On the sweeter side, sprinkle the remaining fries with brown sugar and lightly with cane sugar (I sprinkled some extra brown sugar on the fries once they were done baking as well).

Bake for about 10-12 minutes, and enjoy your sweet and savory root delights.

-Ianna

Rooting for Ginger

Hello Love Handlers. After a bit of a break since LHF's last post, the last ten days of November are going to be packed with new recipies. It should be very exciting, since with Thanksgiving right around the corner, November is a month that truly needs special attention.

To fit right in with the feel of fall, the flavor featured this month is: roots!

It's amazing just how much can be made with roots and LHF has some yummy treats, a fun craft, and a soothing drink in store. To start us off, I want to share that soothing drink, and also let everyone know why they should go out and buy a tea ball if they don't already have one.

Tonight, after a long day of work, I needed something to wind down. I opted to made some fresh ginger and honey tea, which is one of my favorites because not only is it incredibly good for you, it is also very easy to make if you have the right tools.

To make this, you will need:
Fresh ginger root
Honey (I bought mine from a local producer in Julian)
Tea ball (or a tea straw)
Grater

Simply grate enough of your fresh ginger root to fill your tea ball. Then, place your tea ball filled with ginger in a mug and let it steep in boiling water. Add honey.

Relax. Enjoy.

-Ianna

Homemade Apple Butter

Iiiiiiiiiitttts apple season! One of my favorite times of year. When apples are in season, I think I could honestly eat two a day. They are beautiful colors with anything from a sweet to sour flavor. This last week when my roommate and I both had a night to relax together and make something, we decided to make apple butter. The day before she had gone apple picking with her family and brought back a big bag of Gravenstein apples and some half pint mason jars.

Here's what you can do at home to get the same chunky spicy spread:

You Will Need:

At least 4-5 lbs fresh apples

2 C. water

2 C. apple cider vinegar

4 C. sugar

4 Tsp. cinnamon

1 Tsp. allspice

1/2 Tsp. ground cloves

Sterilized glass jars with lids

A friend to help you

PROCESS

-Wash and quarter apples

-Add to a large pot and bring to a boil, along water and apple cider vinegar

-Reduce heat and simmer for about 40-45 minutes

-Remove from heat and pass through a food mill or some sort of strainer to separate out the seeds and stems :)

-Add sugar and spices

-Simmer on low heat for about 2 hours, stirring constantly. You will want to have a friend around to help you for this part.

-In the mean time as you and your partner are taking turns stirring, prepare the jars for sterilization. There are two general methods, wet and dry sterilization. You can boil your jars to sterilize them, but I find this is too much hassle in my small kitchen. Instead, we washed our jars with soap and warm water and allowed them to dry. Then we put them in the oven on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and allowed the jars to sterilize in the oven for about 30 minutes on 425F.

-As the apple butter mixture thickens, make sure to keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot so that nothing sticks and no layer of burned butter at the bottom forms. What you end up with is a very fragrant chunky syrup mix that can be ladled carefully into the jars. It will be mostly a matter of preference, but you will want to get a thick consistency. To test, spoon a small amount on a plate that has been sitting in your freezer. The apple butter should set up and not be too runny or think on a cold plate if it has cooked and reduced down enough.

-H.BOMB

All Purpose Coconut Body Moisturizer

SUPER EASY D.I.Y. BODY PRODUCT!

Try this out next time you need a new jar of all purpose moisturizing cream. It takes practically no time at all, and will always be completely custom, just how you like it. Also, this recipe is 100% vegan for all you cruelty free folks out there :D

All you need, really, is a jar of organic coconut oil. An electric mixer will come in handy too, although you could hand whisk this yourself, if you want to work out and tone those arm muscles. The choice is yours!

Just whip up the coconut oil (which will be a kind of soft but solid consistency at room temperature) until it is soft and airy like fresh whipped cream or meringue. You can leave it as is, unaltered coconut oil, or you can add other oils to make a unique scent or aromatherapy body moisturizer. I split mine into two smaller jars so that I could have more to choose from later.

In both half batches I used vitamin E oil which is good for the skin, and magnesium oil which is also good for skin but can also aid in muscle relaxation and pain relief. In one jar, I added about 20 drops each of peppermint oil and spearmint oil. This relaxing minty one I like to use on my feet and legs after I get home from work and after  showering. In the other jar, I added about 25 drops of grapefruit oil and about 20 drops of lemon extract. This refreshing minty one I like to use everyday as a hand cream. The jars of coconut moisturizer will harden up again at room temperature, but once you scoop some out with your fingers it will literally begin to melt as you apply it to your body.

Enjoy!

With love,
H.BOMB

Thai Coconut Soup

Yumm. Photo by Ianna Angelo

Like Helaina, I also recently tried to make my own interpretation on a dish we loved while traveling around Europe. What I chose to make to introduce August's Coconut Flavor of the Month, was a spin on the Thai Coconut soup that I had in Hungary, of all places. As one of my favorite soups, it has a complex flavor profile, but I was up for a challenge. It is usually made with ingredients such as chicken, mushrooms, cilantro, curry paste, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, and A LOT of lime. I wanted to be able to stay true to some of the staple flavors in this soup, but I also wanted to mix things up a bit. Since my cooking partner, Sarah, is vegetarian, I opted to use fresh rice noodles and tofu instead of chicken. To substitute mushrooms, I used sliced zucchini. The creaminess of the coconut milk was complimented nicely by the tartness and aromatic nature of of the lime juice and lemongrass, while the sweet flavors of brown sugar and shallots danced gracefully on my tongue. Don't underestimate this dish though, it delivers a lot of heat from the red curry paste. Its texture was thicker and heartier than most Thai coconut soups I have tried thus far, which I enjoyed greatly. I think it could even make a wonderful sauce to put on top of rice. Here's how you make it:

INGREDIENTS:
1 can coconut milk
2 cups vegetable broth (or more if you want a thinner soup)
2 tbs red curry paste
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs brown sugar
6-7 cloves of garlic, chopped thick
1 tbs diced ginger
5-6 limes
1 -1 1/2 cup cubed tofu (firm)
1 hand full of fresh rice noodles
1 cup sliced zucchini
handful of chopped cilantro
1-3 inch stock of lemon grass, thickly chopped (do not eat them at the end)
2-3 shallots, chopped
a few fresh basil leaves, which I got home grown from my garden
          *Serves 4-6 people

INSTRUCTIONS:
Begin by chopping the garlic and dicing the ginger to prepare to saute them. I prefer my garlic chopped thick, but you can do as you wish. Heat some vegetable oil (or whatever kind of oil) in a medium-large saucepan. Saute the chopped garlic with the diced ginger on a medium heat, and add in the red curry paste once the ingredients begin to soften. Be careful not to burn your ingredients.

Shortly after sauteing the garlic and ginger with the curry paste, add the vegetable broth, coconut milk, and brown sugar, and increase to a medium-high heat. Stir well. Then, add in the chopped shallots, lime juice, soy sauce, and lemon grass. Bring mixture to a boil, and then decrease the heat to a medium-low once a boiling point has been reached. Let simmer for about five minutes, and then add in the zucchini, tofu, rice noodles, and cilantro. Cook on the medium-low heat until the zucchini has reached your preference of consistency, or for about 5-10 minutes.

Your soup is now ready to serve! Garnish each bowl with some fresh basil leaves. As a reminder, do not eat the large pieces of lemon grass in the soup, they are merely cooked in the soup to infuse flavor.

I can't wait to make this dish again!

-Ianna

Vegan Coconut Lemon Mousse

 

Summertime brings so many great things, such as warm weather, cool water, and appetites that seek refreshing flavors. Appropriately, we present to you with a refreshing dessert that features June's flavor: lemon.

In this flavor of the month recipe, I decided to whip up a coconut lemon mousse, layered with blueberries. This recipe is fully vegan, and is a perfect alternative if you are looking to steer clear of dairy. This recipe does take a little preparation work, but worry not, it is super easy! Here is what you will need:

Ingredients:

-1 can of coconut milk (Do not get the fat free kind)

-1/2 cup powdered sugar (Use more or less, depending on your sweet tooth preference)

-1/4 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed or from a bottle...I used freshly squeezed)

-2 tsp. lemon zest (grated lemon rind)

-Blueberries (or any other fruit you wish to layer with the mousse)

                *An electric mixer is needed for this!

Instructions:

-Place the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight so the thicker coconut cream can separate from the liquid.

-After the can of coconut milk has sat in the fridge overnight, carefully open the can and scoop out the thicker cream that has settled on top into a mixing bowl. You can save the thin coconut syrup leftovers for other recipes that need a coconut flavor.

-Using the mixer,  beat the coconut cream on the low setting, increasing the speed as the milk thickens. 

-Once the milk has thickened to form a light, mousse like texture, add the powered sugar and continue mixing. Next, slowly add the lemon juice and lemon zest.

-Continue mixing until the desired mousse consistency is reached. 

-Layer blueberries and mousse in a bowl or glass. 

-I decided to chill my glass for a little while after I layered the ingredients so the mousse got even thicker and colder, but this is totally up to you.

Whipped coconut milk also makes a great addition to a variety of other dishes, such as a topping for ice cream or pie, so you can enjoy it a number of different ways, with or without lemon flavoring! 

Please, check back soon to see what other lemony recipe treats we have.

-Ianna

Brown Sugar Coffee Scrub

Finally, a new recipe to enjoy for Flavor of the Month! Apologies for the delayed post everyone. This month we have been consuming a lot of coffee and thought we could share some of our secrets with you all. Instead of a recipe to eat, this is a recipe is for a do-it-yourself body scrub to use in the shower. This scrub is absolutely delicious and leaves your skin soft, conditioned and moisturized. It can be used on your face or all over your body. Don't worry if you get some in your mouth too- its sweet and is ok if swallowed in small amounts. The sugar and coffee give it a rough gritty texture that feels great.

INGREDIENTS                                      ALSO

Coffee Grounds                                       A Re-purposed glass jar

Brown Sugar

White Sugar

Olive Oil

Vitamin E Oil

Tea Tree Oil

Mix together about two parts coffee grounds, one part brown sugar, and one part white sugar in a big bowl. You only need as much as will fill your jar, in fact you probably will be able to use the left over grounds from one pot of coffee. Add to this a fairly liberal amount of olive oil, maybe about a third as much Vitamin E Oil, and about 5-10 drops of Tea Tree oil. If you don't have Vitamin E Oil handy, don't worry Olive Oil by itself is also fine. I like the consistency to be moist but gritty- your own preference is what matters though. If your skin tends to be dry, add more oil. If your skin tends to be oily, increase how much coffee and sugar you use. Enjoy!

Cool Quinoa-Brown Rice Salad

Helaina and I are both on our winter break, and while down here in San Diego, I've been cooking up a storm. Tonight, I am going to a friend's annual holiday party. Everyone is supposed to bring a side dish, and since the main course is pizza, I decided to whip up something healthy. What I chose to make, is a cool and colorful quinoa-brown rice salad, full of delicious flavors. It is sure to be good to your body, and your taste buds.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups brown rice

2/3 cups quinoa

2  2/3 cups water

2 tbs. olive oil

1 tbs. cumin

2 tbs. dried parsley

            *Alternately, you can add a bunch of fresh parsley once dish is cooled.

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground pepper

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup sliced almonds

1 tomato, chopped

½ yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

½ red onion, chopped

*Makes about 4-6 servings

Directions:

-In a small saucepan, combine brown rice, 1 1/3 cups water, and 1 tbs olive oil. Bring to a boil. When this begins to boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, and add ½ tbs. cumin, 1 tbs. dried parsley, ½ tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. ground pepper. Cover and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes.

-In another small saucepan, combine quinoa, 1 1/3 cups water, and 1 tbs olive oil. Bring to a boil. When this begins to boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, and add ½ tbs. cumin, 1 tbs. dried parsley, ½ tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. ground pepper. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes or longer depending on if you like crunch in your quinoa.

-Once both brown rice and quinoa have absorbed all the water, fluff each with a fork and combine and mix in a serving bowl.

-Toast sliced almonds in a skillet for about 5 minutes until slightly browned.

-Add almonds, and dried cranberries to the bowl. I like to add the cranberries at this time, because the heat from the dish softens them up a bit.

-Let dish cool completely, and once cool, add lemon juice, chopped tomato, bell pepper, celery, and red onion. Mix.

Enjoy!

Also! Please keep checking back, because we've got some yummy recipes coming your way very soon.

-Ianna

Winter Squash Soup

For this recipe we used Turk’s Turban Squash which we acquired from our good friend, Tom, who grew them. We used two squash, but it yielded a large amount of a very thick soup, so depending on what you like and how much you want, consider using only one squash. This variety of squash was delicious and something new to try. The flesh was a yellow-orange and green color, which smelled strongly of melon when we managed to open the tough shells.

INGREDIENTS                                                                    ALSO

1-2 Medium Squash                                                          5 quart pot

½ Yellow Onion, thinly sliced                                        2 Cold Beers :)

2-3 cloves Garlic, chopped

1 Tomato, diced

1 32 oz. carton Vegetable Stock

½ cup Plain Yogurt

4 tbsp Butter

Olive Oil

Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, Brown Sugar

Green Onions, roughly chopped

            -Makes ~4 servings

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Cut your squash in half, remove seeds, and rub olive oil into it so it will be moist as it bakes. Place these open side down on a baking sheet lined with foil and allow them to bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the flesh is soft and can easily be scooped out.

While your squash are baking, prepare your sliced onions by sautéing them with garlic, butter, salt and pepper in the bottom of the pot. When the squash is out of the oven, spoon it into the pot and add the vegetable stock. Stir this together to mix well and add yogurt, cayenne and brown sugar. You will want to do lots of taste testing here! We ended up adding roughly a half teaspoon or so of each. Lastly, add a small handful of chopped green onions to top your soups, and you’re ready to eat!

We enjoyed our soup with a slice of toast and two tasty beers. Helaina had a Green Flash Red IPA and Ianna had a Napa Smith Cool Brew Hop Ale. It was an awesomely hearty and warm meal, perfect for a cold autumn evening in Santa Cruz.


-Ianna and Helaina

Sweet and Savory Baked Pumpkin Seeds

Taste the Fall! Sweet and Savory Baked Pumpkin Seeds!

Nothing else quite makes you feel like fall has arrived until the leaves begin to turn color, and you find yourself surrounded by perfect, big, round, hard, pumpkins! I found myself in the presence of many pumpkins recently, and after carving mine up in good company, I knew I didn’t want the seeds to go to waste so I decided to set my mind to developing a baked pumpkin seed recipe. There were so many seeds, that I decided that making both a sweet and a savory recipe would be a good idea. I had about two cups of seeds to work with, so I divided up the seeds and here’s what I came up with!

Honey Brown Sugar Baked Pumpkin Seeds:

1 cup pumpkin seeds

About 4 tbsp honey

Brown sugar

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

-Rinse seeds of all the gooey orange fibers, and lay out to dry

-Once dry, mix the seeds and honey in a bowl

-Spread over a baking sheet – do not spread on tinfoil etc., honey will stick!

-Place in oven, and after 30 minutes remove to sprinkle desired amount of brown sugar – overcooking brown sugar can result in bitterness!

-Place back in oven, and bake for about anther 30 minutes

I recommend taste-testing seeds sporadically, because everyone prefers a different level of crunch to their seeds.

Sriracha Baked Pumpkin Seeds:

3 tbsp olive oil

Sriracha – amount depends on spice level desired

1 tbsp seasoned salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp cayenne

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

-Rinse seeds of all the gooey orange fibers, and lay out to dry

-Once dry, mix the seeds and olive oil in a bowl

-Mix in seasoned salt, pepper, and cayenne, and I also added a couple generous squirts of Sriracha

-Spread over a baking sheet

-Bake for about 1 hour – Again, I recommend taste-testing seeds on occasion to reach desired level of crunch

These recipes are just meant to inspire different ways of flavoring pumpkin seeds, and don’t need to be strictly followed. Have fun with it and enjoy!

-Ianna