sticky bbq tempeh

Hi! I sure love sticky saucey things. You should too. So we're kind of eating healthy, so no desserts or anything. Sadfaces. The good news is that I made this tempeh and it was delicious. Remember last time I made tempeh and posted about it?

Tempeh is kind of boring by itself, but crisp it up in a pan and coat it with a sticky sauce and it's a delicious thing you should eat. This is Lightlife brand garden veggie tempeh. This is a super easy recipe. All you do is crisp the tempeh and pour over an easy quick bbq sauce that can be whipped up in 1 second, let it cook for a minute or two or five to thicken the sauce and make it stick, and you're done. I served it over rice, with a side of kale chips. 

sticky bbq tempeh

1 package tempeh (I bet this would be good with tofu too probably)

oil for cooking, 2-3 T or so

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c ketchup

4 T cider vinegar

2 T mustard

1 T hot sauce

Slice the tempeh about 1/4" thick. Heat enough oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan you're using over medium-high heat, and toss in the tempeh. Cook for a few minutes on each side, until well browned and crispy looking. While that's happening, whisk together the brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard and hot sauce. When all the tempeh is crispy, pour over the sauce mixture and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for a minute or two or three until the sauce thickens. Serve over rice, or on a sandwich, or whatever. 

Those same noodles, with shrimp and greens and mushrooms

HI! I've been eating these noodles a bunch of times because they're so good. Look! Here they are with kale and mushrooms and shrimp! Also they're easy and fast and cheap and easy.

Look how healthy. Vegetables!

Noodles with vegetables and shrimp


Follow the recipe for these noodles, but cook a few big handfuls of chopped mushrooms until browned, then add some chopped kale in with the noodles. Add cooked, peeled shrimp instead of the crab, and add a teaspoon or two of chili sauce because spicy is delicious! Yum. I will be making these with variations, they're so easy and good and fast.

Crabby noodles with snow peas, from The Gluten Free Asian Kitchen

Hi! Happy New Year! We're trying to eat healthy this month, like everyone else in the world, but it's not going so great. Alex has a cold so we're on a strict chicken noodle or dumpling soup diet. Before he got sick, though, I made these awesome noodles from this cookbook I for got Christmas from my dad, The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen. I've made a few recipes from it so far and it's pretty great. These noodles are easy and delicious and fresh. I tossed in some leftover shrimp, and put more cilantro and scallions on the table for serving.

Crabby noodles with snow peas
from  The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen

1 package mung bean noodles (otherwise known as jellyfish noodles)
4 T veg oil
6 scallions, chopped up (plus more for the table)
4 cloves minced garlic (I used 6)
1/4 lb chopped up snow peas
8oz real crabmeat, picked through for shell pieces
1/2 c chopped cooked shrimp
1/2 c clam juice
2 T fish sauce
1/3 c cilantro (plus more for the table)

Pour boiling water over the noodles and let them sit for a minute or two until soft and stretchy (the book says to use hot tap water but I let mine soak for half an hour and nothing happened, so boiling water did the trick almost immediately). Drain the noodles and chop them up with scissors.
Heat half of the oil over medium heat and cook the scallions and garlic for a minute, then add the snow peas and cook another minute. Add the rest of the oil and the crab, shrimp and noodles, stirring well. Add the clam juice and fish sauce and cook a few more minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and toss with cilantro. Serve with more cilantro, scallions, and hot sauce if you wish.

Here is a photo of my puppy, who is growing up very fast.

Our trip to Europe

Remember when we went to Europe? That was over the summer. I promised to write about it, and never did. Oops! Here are some pictures. 

First we went to London. 

Great architecture

We didn't go up on the London Eye

We did a lot of touristy things like take photos in front of everything

We ate gluten free fish and chips at the Mermaid's Tail in Leicester Square. It was ok, but not the best ever. 

Horses may bite

Then we went to Hungary and Slovakia to visit Alexs family. 

As always, I was fed extremely well. Pictured here - gluten free bread, keilbasa and a weird rice and liver and blood sausage (delicious), and little pickles and apricots

We made something called 'Spanish Bird' which is beef pounded thin, filled with salami, bacon, hard boiled egg and pickle, then cooked in the pressure cooker. Deliciously. 

A relative of Alex's made me this giant loaf of gluten free bread. His son has Celiac, so he brought this over for me and I devoured the whole thing. I've never had anyone give me fresh baked, warm bread before. 

This is lecso (lech-o), a mix of tomatoes and onions and peppers and bacon that you eat for breakfast in Slovakia. 

Slovakia

I made friends with this little spot-faced dog (sure didn't think I'd have a spot faced dog of my own soon after we got home!)

We went to an 'adventurepark' where we went on a ski lift up a mountain and then rode a roller coaster and did a ropes course thing

We cooked fish and chips for Alexs parents (using my recipe)

We went to the Budapest Zoo, which is my favorite zoo. I touched a sloth. 

We went to the Vasarcsarnok Market, where there are a million stands of vegetables and meats and things. 

We went to a great flea market in Budapest and I bought some cameras (what else)

We ate a lot of delicious salamis

Then on the way home we stopped in Iceland for 24 hours because a flight was cancelled. This was my favorite part of the trip. We saw a friend of mine from summer camp (really, in Iceland!) and ate a ton and explored and loved it. I want to go back. 

We ate the best lobster soup of my life at this awesome seafood restaurant, the Sea Baron. I obviously didn't eat the bread. 

We had two different kinds of fish and whale, and it was all delicious. 

This is the Sea Baron. He came around offering samples of things like fermented shark (what he's holding there, it was not delicious) and whale blubber (so delicious). 

Iceland was cool. I bought a really expensive, perfect sweater. 

Alex bought a great hat. 

The end! Vacation was great. 

The stuffing of your dreams (sausage stuffing)

I know, Thanksgiving is over and no one wants to look at another scoop of stuffing or turkey slice or plop of cranberry sauce until next year. Everyone except me! I love Thanksgiving. We had a great time. My mom and sisters and a friend all came over and I cooked a giant turkey, way bigger than we needed for the six of us. 

This post is a little delayed because my computer crashed and I bought a new one online on Thursday (did you know a lot of electronics stores start their black Friday online sales on Thursday?) and it arrived yesterday, but I had to set it up and play with it and catch up to all the internet things I'd missed in a week. New computers are so fast and shiny! I love it. It's a Toshiba of some sort.

Back to this stuffing recipe. I found it on Epicurious, and it claims to be the stuffing of your dreams. Obviously I had to test that, and they're right. It's a dreamy stuffing. Butter, cream, sausage, garlic, parmesan cheese, etc. These photos are from when I remade it, to eat with the rest of the turkey we have. It's not too involved to make, cook some sausage and some veggies and mix up some liquid and stir it all together and bake it. Oh and drizzle it with some cream if you want right before you bake it. Seriously.

Sausage and bread stuffing
From Epicurious


1 loaf gf bread*
1 T olive oil
2 lb sausage, casings removed (I use sweet Italian like the recipe called for, but I can imagine it would be delish with half spicy and half sweet)
1 stick of butter
3 onions, chopped
4 ribs of celery, chopped
a head of garlic, minced or pressed
2 t paprika
4 lightly beaten eggs
3/4 c heavy cream, divided (you can use half and half and it will still be ok)
1/2 c really good stock
1 c parm cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 350. Chop up your gf bread into cubes, then spread onto a cookie sheet and toast until crispy. Turn the heat up to 425 if you plan to bake the stuffing now. Heat up the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, then break up half of the sausage into the pan and cook until well browned and delicious. Remove to a bowl with a paper towel in the bottom to drain the fat. Cook the rest of the sausage as well. Wipe out the grease from the pan, then melt the butter. Cook the onions, garlic, paprika and celery together until softened. Combine the sausage, bread, and vegetables. Whisk together the eggs and 1/2 c of cream and cheese and stock. Stir in the liquid and spread into a glass baking dish (your largest). Drizzle the rest of the cream over the top and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes until heated through, then remove the foil and bake another 20, until crispy and lightly browned.

Makes about a million servings, and can be made a day or two ahead if you keep it in the fridge, just bring to room temp before baking.

*I use Food for Life brown rice bread. Their breads are pretty crappy for eating, but great for things like breadcrumbs and stuffing. Soft breads like Udi's tend to get all soggy if you don't crisp them up enough.

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and here is a picture of my puppy.

Cranberry cocktail ideas

Wondering what to do with your cranberry liquor? Lots of things!

You could mix it into some ginger ale for a fancy Shirley Temple-y drink.
You could make a cranberry cosmo, by mixing 2 oz cranberry liquor with 1 oz cranberry juice, 1/2 oz of triple sec, and a squeeze of lime juice.
You could mix it into some orange juice.
You could make a sparkling cranberry with 1 oz of cranberry liquor in the bottom of a glass topped off with champagne.
Or you can just sip it straight.
Freeze some cranberries to chill your drinks instead of ice cubes.

Cranberry liquor

Hi! Happy almost Thanksgiving! Need a drink? Here is a good one. 

Look what a pretty color! It tastes good too. This needs about three days to set, so don't make it on Thanksgiving morning.

Cranberry liquor


12 oz cranberries
2 c sugar
1 c water
1 liter vodka

Microwave the water and sugar 30 seconds at a time until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool while you run the cranberries through the food processor. Combine the cranberries and sugar mixture, then stir in the vodka. Pour into a large jar or two and let sit in the fridge for at least three days. Strain, and then use to make cocktails!