We're still here! Things are a bit different now in our lives. Mostly with Giggles. She has graduated (woo! congrats!) and has begun a new chapter in her life at chiropractic school in Bloomington, MN. If you remember from our first postings, we decided we would find a new recipe each week that we could each make. Then we could blog about it and stay connected that way. Connected through food!
So this past Thursday was the first meal we made. It was Birdman's turn to pick this week (Giggles will be next week) and Giggles chose the beverage of hot chocolate. And we think it was a good start because it turned out delicious. Plus they were very simple recipes. We made No Yeast Bread along with Wild Rice and Vegetable Soup using recipes we got off of VegWeb.com (a great website for vegetarian recipes).
No Yeast Bread: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=25747.0
Wild Rice and Vegetable Soup: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=10056.0
Birdman's Dinner Comments
This meal was awesome because of it's great tastes and simplicity to make. They are definitely recipes I'll save and make again in the future. I had hardly any food available at home, but I found I didn't even need to go to the grocery store since all the ingrediants were very common and readily available. But I still made a few minor changes to the recipes as I saw fit.
The bread was incredibly easy to make and it turned out much like those bakery hard breads they have at most grocery stores. I used all whole wheat flour and ended up adding about a 1/2 cup of extra water (maybe because whole wheat absorbs more?). And instead of sugar I used about 1/4 cup honey. The bread didn't taste spectacular. It kind of had that whole wheat flour taste if you know what I mean. So it's definitely better with butter, jam, or some sort of dip. I think next time I might use a combination of different types of flour just to give it more taste. I also wonder what might happen if one were to use soymilk instead of water? Instead of sprinkling the bottom with cornmeal, I just used some flour; but I think a little cornmeal would have given it a good taste. Also, for asthetic purposes I cut an X on top. Then I sprinkled flax seed and sunflower seeds on top. This may have been a good idea if I had squished them into the dough more. But I didn't and most ended up falling off and making a mess when I tried cutting it.
The soup was also delicious and easy to make. I didn't make too many changes to the recipe. I used dried minced garlic instead of fresh. And I added some awesome spices to give it a little more flavor - oregeno, a bay leaf, and sweet basil. Also, I ended up cooking it much longer than the recipe called for. I think it needs at least 30 minutes for everything to simmer so that the potatoes, celery, and carrots can soften up. It's a really thick soup, so it's certainly reasonable to add some water to it. I love having that wild rice in there! It adds richness to it all.
Overall, I would give this meal 4.5 / 5 stars.
Giggles Comments:
I started cooking at about 4 and I must say it was so much fun! I loved the chopping, the intensive bread kneading, theo (my cat roommate) laying on the kitchen floor looking all cute, onion stinging my eyes, chopping parsley so loud I'm sure my neighbors could hear me, the smell of delicious cooking food just filling my little apartment in Bloomington, and of course the final product.
That is one colorful soup! I gave it a 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. Its really easy to make and just a pleasure for all your senses. I bought diced tomatoes, but I think next time I'm going to go with chopped or something a tad smaller.
The no yeast bread was perfect (4 stars)! I couldn't find bagel dip at the store but I bought some spinach dip instead. It brought me back to our old Thursday night feasts:). I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was to make this bread!
This was a great experience and I know its going to be the highlight of my weeks to come! BIRDMAN AND GIGGLES TIME!!!!
Peace out!
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