Cinnamon Rolls!

Yay! I nearly *followed* a recipe word-for-word! And a DARN this was a delicious recipe at that....
From this book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, I made their cinnamon roll recipe, to test out a different way than I normally make them, and these were absolutely scrumptuous!
Looking forward to eating them again! (Email me for the recipe--he writes in a long style, so I took pics of the 4 pages of the recipe) I love that book by the way....

Normally, I make a whole lump of them bundled together in a springform pan, with really juicy filling making them more like stickybuns than cinnamon buns. So this time it was nice to find that making them as separate rolls also turns out really well, with soft moist dough (with thanks to the egg, milk, and fat you add to the dough!), and the sugar inbetween sinks down to make a light carmelized crust on the bottom which was a nice crunchy touch..

Lemon Merengue Tarts

Mmmm... consistency of the lemon custard turned out just right this time... I wish I had only written down the *exact* proportions of what I did! I dislike it when it's too firm, but want it to stay in form when the slice is cut and not start to ooze out of a pie-slice shape.

Just made a standard pie crust using whole wheat flour to pretend it's a healthy meal, the lemon custard, and the merengue using 3 eggwhites, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of cream of tartar whipped up and just 1/3 cup of sugar beaten into it aftewards--don't let it sit around for long after beating it up before piping it onto the cooled tarts, otherwise the bubbles will start to merge and you get weird lumpy merengue. More sugar helps prevent that though :)

Lemon custard (something close to this):
zest of one lemon
lemon juice from 2 large lemons
~1 c water
1/2 c sugar
1-2 Tbsp of butter or light (low-flavor) olive oil if you have it
bring this mix to a simmer.
2Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in a little bit of water, then beaten with 3 eggyolks, and drizzle this mixture into the simmering lemonjuice whisking like made and it should thicken within a couple minutes--don't go for too long or the egg starts to cook and smell like scrambled eggs, and don't want too much water to evaporate so that the custard will still be soft.

Roasted-pepper Eggplant dip

This was really tasty! Forgot I had made this, and just ran into the picture and I sure wish I had the ingredients and I'd immediately whip more of it together for dinner!

I roasted two whole eggplants until they were collapsed, cooled then removed their charred skins, and also roasted two small red bell peppers until they were softened and starting to get bubbly and a bit roasted.

In a food processor, combined 2 large cloves of garlic, one small red onion, with several Tbsp olive oil and blended those until very finely minced, then added the bell pepper and eggplant, and sesasoned with a combination of cilantro, cumin, oregano, chilli pepper pepper and salt, and further processed it till the veggies were also very finely minced.
Made for an awesome spread onto a nice baguette, like this olive bread!

Cup o veggie salad

One of my favorite ways of serving salad... having a parmesan basket on top holding some veggie goodies...
Pretty easy thing to do, tasty (it's just cheese!), and looks cool--and can be shaped all sorts of different ways. All you need to do is sprinkle a very finely-grated parmesan (or other hard cheese), into a flat (preferrably nonstick) skillet, until it just begins to turn golden--a sign it will harden soon, and then to quickly transfer it atop a curved surface like an overturned bowl and press it gently into the curved shape (careful it's hot!)... and it hardens in just a few seconds, into a thin tasty crisp basket adding flavor and functionality to a salad :P
Then any salad, dressing, and sauteed/baked veggies filling for inside the basket.

Tuna salad and "tofu steak"

I think this was a quite satisfying combo to make a nutritionally quite balanced meal :-) Kind of a low-cal high-protein "comfort-food" style.. already made the combo again this weekend!

Tuna salad was a mix of tuna, one minced onion, 2 diced/minced stalks of celery, spoon of garlic aioli, one spoon of mustard, dollop of herb lowfat cream cheese, and fresh ground pepper, spread onto baby lettuce leaves.

I used a *very* firm tofu--gave a good texture, sliced 500g into 4 patties..could have done 5 for thinner (hence more flavored) ones. I slightly marinated the slices with a bit of salt, garlic powder, and a dash of Worcesterschire sauce (or really any other light marinade to give them some flavor would do). Then I coated them in some seasoned ground soybeans (still with some crunchy grains to it). Seared them for a couple minutes per side in a spoon of olive oil till the soybean coating was golden. Served them over rice prepared with boullion, garlic and herbs, and topped with some thick mushroom sauce with plentiful fresh basil.
It was already decently flavorful from especially the flavor-rich mushroom sauce, also the soybean coating, and the light flavor to the tofu from the garlic and sauce, but next time I think I will plan ahead and marinate the tofu longer in some other seasonings to get an even more penetrant, juicy flavor to the whole "steak".