beets

the british seem to love vaccuum packed, pre-cooked beets. apparently these are ready to eat and can be served hot or cold. but they kind of weird me out. anything sold on the vegetable aisle should require further cooking unless it is going in a salad (or is a carrot; also, i must mention here that the brits have the sense to put avocados in the fruit aisle). anyway, this sent me searching for a recipe for my beets. i found this at veggie venture:
BEETS IN ORANGE SAUCE
Active time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 4

1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter (omitted, didn't miss at all!)
1 cup orange juice
2 15 ounce cans beets
Salt & pepper

Place medium saucepan on MEDIUM heat. Working quickly while saucepan heats, mix brown sugar, cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in the saucepan with a wooden spoon, working out the lumps. Slowly add the orange juice, stirring so lumps don't form. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. While sauce cooks, drain the beets. Stack several slices and dice by cutting in thirds, first one way and then the other. Add beets to sauce and cook until beets are heated through and sauce bubbles. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.

being me, however, i felt the need to deviate vastly from the recipe. so i used the juice of one small-med sized orange, no butter, three little beets, and flour instead of cornstarch. i also added cayenne. that's just the sauce ingredients.
i made the sauce without ever boiling it and put into it not only beets but also a very small apple, chunked. and the kernels from about three-fifths of an ear of corn (added late so as not to cook to mush). cooked, stirring constantly, until everything was hot.

not the greatest thing ever (if you have more oranges, add more orange juice), but i think the apple and corn really helped. i would also suggest adding onion, probably pre-cooked just to translucency.
would probably do well served with roasted new potatoes with rosemary.

apple bread success

stole the recipe below from the ever wonderful twofatals.com
being a poor student, i omitted the walnuts, used substitutions for the baking powder, used butter instead of smart balance, used whole milk instead of skim, and made flax eggs. i also only used grated apple for half of the apple requirement and put apple puree (have i mentioned the crazy brits don't believe in applesauce?) in for the other half. turned out very well, but needs nuts, or maybe raisins. sonja, my flatmate, suggested eating it with cream cheese. we didn't have any, so we tried it with highland crowdie instead, to excellent results.
oh right, as always, i baked this in muffin tins as i have no loaf pan.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted smart balance
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup apple, peeled and grated
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350. (or 175 C, wtv) Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk and butter (and vanilla) together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients, apples, and walnuts into it. Using a spatula, mix everything the batter together. It should be pretty lumpy. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake it for about an hour, until a knife comes out clean. Let it cool, then serve. (or just serve)

what to do with a severly underripe mango

ok, as fanny can attest, i am a terrible judge of mangos. plus i should have known there would be a reason lidl had them half off. anyway, purchased and then sliced open a seriously underripe mango. what to do now?

slice mango into thin slices. quite thin.
place in hot skillet, sprinkle with a decent amount of cinnamon, and let cook a few minutes. add 1-2 tsp sugar, depending on your preference and cook until they've reached your favorite shade of yellow. ta-da! candied mango.

baked apple slices

ok, this one might have gone rather spectacularly wrong from a technical point of view, but it tasted good.

basically, i had a big cooking/baking apple left over after tarts, so i thought i'd bake it, but i had no apple corer, and no brown sugar. also no pan aside from a cookie sheet, a muffin pan, and aluminium foil. so i took my usual approach and invented something:

cut apple into slices and lay them out over a big sheet of foil. leaving enough room to fold the sides over and create a closed packet thing, spread the slices out as much as possible. fold up to create edges and corners.

in a skillet or a sauce pan, combine two big spoonfuls of honey, some water (not much - i put in too much), two spoonfuls of sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, and sultanas. get nice and hot. (this part's amazing. it tastes like childhood storybook ideals of harvest and small-town halloween all rolled into one. i have to figure out how to make it into proper candy at a later date).

taking care not to spill the sticky mess all over your counter or pans, pour the sauce into your pseudo-foil-pan. fold closed. bake until done.

be careful, this doesn't need to bake long or you will have apple mush (or, if you have added too much water, apple mush soup). check it fairly freqently. would probably also be a good idea to vent the top of your pan.

additional crepe note

if you are flying out the door trying to make your train, which you do, by the skin of your teeth, but regardless are flying out the door trying to make a train that leaves in less than twenty minutes when you live about half that away from the station, and therefore have absolutely no time to saute your spinach in butter with cheese to put on your crepes like you planned,
you can always put a spoonful of plain, nonfat, bioactive yoghurt on a crepe, spread it around, and then add five or six good-sized baby spinach leaves, roll, and eat. yum.

also, thought briefly (ever so briefly) about actually photographing my food experimentations like normal food blogs, then quickly remembered that the results of my experiments tend to be rather unsightly, although tasty. so whatever your experiment looks like when you're finished (ok, blackened and charred excepted), that's totally what it's supposed to look like. or more succinctly:
shoot first. call whatever you hit the target.
which is really my cooking strategy in general.

crepe discovery

i owe my first crepe experience and my crepe recipe to one of my oldest greatest friends' older brother, benji. when we were in late elementary school, for some reason or another there were two or three of us spending the night at christi's, and somehow we convinced benji to make us crepes. they were, of course, fantastic. we smothered them in powdered sugar and ate until out tummies hurt. and then we begged benji for the recipe, which he gave us. i'm pretty sure the recipe is actually oriniginally from francois, the derdeyns' belgian exchange student (as opposed to any of the several other exchange students they've hosted), but i will always think of it as benji's.
traditionally, this recipe only comes out at my house for special occasions. it calls for two eggs and usually gets topped with all manner of delicious sweet things, and in any event generally sits in the back of the recipe stack (now cookbook) like a much-beloved but seldom worn pair of culinary heels. until now. because now i know that this recipe can be made (drumroll please) with Flax Eggs.

in honour of this monumental discovery, i give you,

Benji Derdeyn's Crepes
1.5 c flour
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking (the recipe doesn't actually specify which, but i use soda)
2 c milk
2 eggs (or flax eggs)
2 T butter
1/2 t vanilla

mix. pour. cook. eat.
*always follow the first pancake rule with crepes

and also
MK's Asparagus Crepes
follow directions closely or the temperature will be inideal

boil 3-4 stalks of asparagus for about five minutes, or until tender and very green
whilst asparagus boiling, cut up about 1/4 log of chevre or welsh goat cheese and put on plate. sprinkle with sea salt. have lemon wedge at the ready.
remove asparagus from water as soon as it's done and cut into little bite sized pieces.
put asparagus atop cheese on plate, spritz with lemon, stir up a bit.
make crepe. (the real one)
put asparagus-cheese mixture into crepe.
consume immediately.

*note: can substitute (olive oil and cayenne) sauteed green bean pieces for asparagus for a different take on things. use welsh goat cheese if possible when using green beans.

recipe for emmons - MK's carrot salad

this is crazy easy, has approximately no fat, can be made in any quantity, and keeps well for several days. and it has no mayo, which is actually the point as i'm not so keen on mayo in most circumstances.

carrots
applesauce (or apple puree if the italians take after the english)
orange juice and/or pineapple juice (i usually use orange, but a splash of pineapple helps)
sultanas or craisins (or chunks of apple)

mix the applesauce and the juice (in about a 3:2 ratio, to be adjusted to attain desired consistency).
add dried fruit and let sit (rehydrates fruit) whilst you
(peel and) grate the carrots.
stir fruit mixture.
pour fruit mixture over carrots and stir.
let marinate a few minutes to a few hours (depending on how hungry you are - it gets better as it sits for a bit)
eat.
store any extra in an airtight container in the fridge.
will keep well for about three days, less well thereafter.

ok, when i'm just making this for me, i use about two big carrots, about half a cup of applesauce/juice combination, and a handful of fruit. usually makes about two good-sized servings in my experience.
to make it for more people, grate more carrots and make more fruit mixture (remember you can always add more of any ingredient to acheive your favorite balance)