Everyone Loves Quesadillas

niclark submitted the following:

Ingredients:

• flour tortillas (one per quesadilla)
• avocados (1/2 to 1 per quesadilla)
• cheese, grated or cut into small cubes (we used sharp cheddar cheese because that's what we had on hand, but many cheeses would work just as well)
• a wee bit of butter (optional)
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• cinnamon
• balsamic vinegar
• lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mash up the avocado. Mix in equal parts garlic powder, onion powder, and cinnamon (a pretty heavy dash of each), a splash or two of balsamic vinegar (a little goes a very long way), and a small splash of lemon juice.
   
2. Melt a little bit of butter in a medium or large skillet (large enough to fit your tortilla), or just bring the skillet up to medium-low heat without the butter if you want.
   
3. Put the tortilla in the skillet and let it start to brown a little bit. Flip the tortilla and sprinkle on the cheese.
   
4. When the cheese just starts to melt, add the avocado mixture. Fold the tortilla in half, then cook for about a minute on each side.

Optional delicious additions: diced tomatoes, diced red onion

Vegan? Look here.

Kacosta '10 (say it out loud, it sounds cool. She's a cool girl, so it fits perfectly) updated her blog and made it into a cooking blog. She's vegan, so try it out if you're vegan as well. Or if you're a carnivore. Just do it.
Here are some links!
Pumpkin Pasta Casserole with Camalized Onions and Walnut Topping
Rice Milk and Rice Yogurt Recipe
End-of-week curry soup

The other day I made the last one (the soup) with some alternations, since I didn't have a few of the ingredients, and simply substituted them with something else. It's delicious, easy, and I still have lots to go (it's one of those things I don't get sick of having everyday!). Very economical, and easy.

Thanks KaCosta!

Blandness, soups, and then some

A couple of weeks ago I was sick. Being sick at college is just really not that great, because you still have to do everything you would've done anyway if you were well. Or you don't, and watching re-runs on TV makes you go stir-crazy. Then there's that whole thing where nothing tastes like anything. So what are you to do when this happens to you?

Things to do (not necessarily fun but productive):

• clean out that Tupperware with old old food that should've been cleaned out a long time ago (hey, you can't smell it now, so why not?)
• drink seltzer - to get your carbonation fix (you can't taste the soda anyway...)
• eat things that are good for you that you usually don't like
  
• eat/make soup
• eat comfort food

Examples of soups:

Carrot Kale Soup:

• onion and garlic (or garlic powder), chopped up
  
• butter
  
• carrots, chopped up
  
• kale, chopped up
• lemon juice
  
• salt, pepper, veggie or chicken broth

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, cook butter and chopped up onion and/or garlic until onion is translucent.
   
2. Add the carrots, and kale. Cook until carrots are tender.
   
3. Add the veggie/chicken broth with the right amount of water if it's in the form of a bouillon cube. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice.
   
4. Cook for 20-30mins until desired consistency.
   
5. Cream in a blender.
   

Carrot Ginger Soup - I made this and it's very good! Do it!

Grilled ham and cheese sandwich (with kale on the side):

• 2 slices of ham
• 2tbsp of butter
• 1 slice of cheese
• mayo/mustard (optional)
• 2 slices of bread

Directions:

1. Butter two slices of bead. Each on one side. Put the buttered-side of the bread down in a pan, spread mayo or mustard if desired on the un-buttered side. Add 1 slice of ham.
   
2. Add the cheese. Add 1 slice of ham on top of that.
   
3. Put the other slice of bread, with the buttered-side up on top of the rest.
   
4. Cook until desired at medium heat.
5. In the rest of the pan, you can fry other things. I tried putting kale in, and it tastes so good!

Other variations: For fieldwork we went to this farm called McEnroe one good Wednesday two weeks ago, and they had this TBA sandwich that the other intern and my professor chose. I had a bite. And it was one of the best bites of a sandwich I've had in a while. What does the TBA stand for?
Turkey, brie and avocado. Yeah. That's right. Yum!

Beets? Part II

Here's another recipe. This is called "Pyttipanna" and is easy, can be frozen, and delicious. 

Ingredients:

• Ham (or other meat), cut in small cubes
• Potatoes, small cubes
• Onion, small cubes
• Pickled beets
• Butter or oil
• Optional: egg

Directions:

1. Fry the onion in some oil, in a large pan.
2. Add the potatoes, and the meat.
3. Fry until ham/meat is golden, and potatoes are cooked. 
4. Serve with a fried egg, ketchup, and pickled beets.

This can be frozen in a ziploc for convenience later (without the eggs and the beets). 

A can of beets?

Do you also have a can of pickled beets somewhere in your cupboard and don't know what to do with it? I've got two recipes for you. 

Recipe #1:

Beets, brussels sprouts with rice (own creation)

Ingredients:

• 1 can of beets (don't drain them)
• 2 carrots
• brussels sprouts (a whole package)
• garlic or garlic powder
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 cube vegetable stock
• rice
• water
• oil
• salt, pepper, and optional: parsley, lemon juice

Directions:

1. Chop the onions and the carrots, fry in oil in a medium saucepan on medium heat.
2. Add the garlic (minced) or garlic powder
3. Add the vegetable stock (the cube kind), and the beets with the liquid, add some water if it's too salty at the end
4. Add the rice
5. Add the brussels sprouts, bring to boil. 
6. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes until desired consistency (you can make it more soup like if you want.
7. Add parsley (optional) and lemon juice (just a drop)
8. Enjoy! (Eat with cheese or ham if you want to add more protein)

Peas and Degrassi

What's better than turning on the TV on a gloomy Saturday and find out Degrassi is on? Well, watching Degrassi and mixing odd things together to eat.

Hummus + Tomato Sauce Peas:

• Frozen peas
• Tomato sauce
• Hummus (preferably a kind with some roasted vegetables or something)
• Optional: sausage
• Things to eat with it: Pasta, Rice

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat up the tomato sauce, the peas and a big dollop of hummus, and optional sausage.
   
2. Done!
   

Vegetable Soup with Beer

Vegetable soup is so delicious, and easy to make. Especially with Bob's Red Mill Vegi Soup Mix.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of vegetable broth or 2 cups worth
• 1/2-1 cup of Bob's Vegi Soup Mix (or your own mixture of lentils, pasta, beans, etc.)
• 6oz. beer (1/2 can)
  
• Some suggestions:
  
• Broccoli, carrots, onions, tomatoes, anything you have
  
• Mackerel
  
• Turmeric, salt, pepper, soy sauce, curry

Directions:

1. Pour in the vegetable broth in a medium saucepan. Start cooking with chopped onions if you have some.
   
2. Pour in the beer, and make sure that it cooks as to get rid of the alcohol.
   
3. Mix in the vegi soup mix, or own mixture
4. Cook with any other vegetables, ham, or fish
5. Spice it up!
6. Let simmer together until everything's soft, and cook until preferred consistency.
   

Midterms are crazy so I made you some quinoa bread

I'm sorry for my lack of blogging, but when you've only had time to survive off of chocolate and peanut butter, and things I've made in bulk beforehand... then there's not much cooking I can blog about.
Perhaps this recipe for Quinoa bread (adapted from one of my favourite blogger's recipes CLICK) will make up for it?

I changed a few things that are probably more applicable to college students who do not have things like arrowroot or buckwheat flour available.

Note: You need to soak the quinoa over night.
Another note: I do not have spirulina as called for in the original recipe, and my bread turned out kind of bland because I didn't add any spices to it. If you like it bland, then do not add spices to it. It tastes kind of like corn bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1 cup wholewheat flour
• 2 cups of water
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbs honey or agave
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• optional: spices, salt, cinnamon, herbs, matcha, green machine powder

1. Soak the 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water over night
2. Rinse quinoa the next day and get rid of as much water as possible
3. Mix milk, quinoa, eggs, honey/agave
4. Pour in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, spices, matcha, green machine powder
5. Combine together and put in a greased and flour-ed loaf pan
6. Bake for about 45-50 minutes
7. Yum!

Apples to Apples

There's an abundance of apples at my house, and thus I go to great lengths into trying to incorporate apples into every meal. So far... I've been (or meaning to start) indulging in the following:

• apples with yogurt, cereal, cinnamon, flax seeds, walnuts, peanut butter, coconut, oatmeal for breakfast (anything you can find)
• baking apples, put some sugar and cinnamon on it, stick it in the oven
  
• apple crisp/crumble:
• mix oatmeal, butter, sugar (brown and white), flour, cinnamon
• slice or cut apples, and pour mixture on top
  
• stick in a greased pan
• eat with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or something yummy like that
• I used to have a craving for the ACDC spinach, sunflower seed, lemon dressing salad with apples and cranberries. So mix all of this together, and there you go. Add cheese for some more substance and protein.
  
• instead of pb and jelly, try pb and apple
• melt butter in a saucepan, add sugar if you like things sweet, put cut up apples into the saucepan (season with cinnamon or curry)
• vegetable curry (mix apples into your curry)
• I'm sure that going without Gossip Girl for a week is almost impossible for you as well, so maybe some Blair Waldorf salad will help alleviate the wait? (Yes I've been dying to say this for a long time)
• apple scones
• apple pie
• apple butter
• apple jelly
• apples with cheese is also great - eat on crackers (I know grapes and pears are more standard choice, but hey, whatever)
  

Apple Honey Breadcake!

Sonia Robert's Rosh Hashanah-themed recipe: Apple Honey Breadcake!

"I have deemed it a breadcake because it has the sugar levels of a bread but I put a crumbly top on it. Also, my measurements are not exact because, well, that's not how I cook."

Ingredients:

• 2 2/3c. flour~1/3c. flax seed meal (for nutty flavor)
• 1c. honey
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• Lots of cinnamon. Seriously, open that baby up and pour.
• 1 tsp ground cloves (or thereabouts, depending on how much you like cloves).
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ginger (optional)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• ~1/3c. vegetable oil (big splash)
• 5 small chopped apples (I used green ones)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 325.
   
2. Mix this all up and pour it into a greased casserole dish, or two loaf pans, or what have you. As long as it fits.
3. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes. During this time, mix up a crumbly top from butter, flour, cinnamon and sugar, with a dash of cloves: about a tablespoon each of flour and butter should work, with maybe two tablespoons of sugar. Mix it around til it's crumbly.
4. After it's been in for 10 minutes, take it out and put the crumbly top on. Then stick it back in and bake it for 40-50 minutes at 325 degrees. HOORAY! You are done!
   

Submitted by soroberts

You found a can of beer

...that's leftover from the beerpong you played with those kids you half-know the other night? Put it to good use, make a quick, easy, delicious soda bread.

This recipe is adapted from "Country Wisdom Almanac".

Quick Beer Soda Bread (Note: This is not sweet bread, this is bread. Don't let the sugar fool you.)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  
• 1½ tsp of salt
• 1 can of beer (12 fl oz)
• 3 tbsp of sugar
• 4 tbsp of butter, melted (put 3 tbsp of butter in a mug, and heat it for a few seconds in the microwave)

Directions:

1. Put oven on 375 degrees.
2. Grease a bread pan (or 1-quart souffle dish).
   
3. Combine all the ingredients, apart from the butter. Do not overmix.
4. Put in the breadpan, and put the pan in the oven.
5. Bake fo 50 minutes. Take out the pan, pour the melted butter on top.
6. Put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes and a delicious crust will develop!

Variations:

• In the book they mention adding 1 tbsp of cinnamon, ½ tsp of nutmeg, ½ cup of chopped walnuts, and using 3 tbsp of brown sugar instead of 3tbsp of white sugar - it tastes amazing, but it is still not "sweet"
  
• You can also substitute some of the white flour to whole wheat flour (for instance, 2 cups whole wheat, and 1 cup regular and maybe some oats. If you only use whole wheat the bread becomes very dense). This will make it healthier.
• Feel free to be creative!

Submitted by vefehrm

Herbs feature: Parsley

So using parsley can be beneficial because it's got this pretty awesome taste to it. It's also a very good source of iron. You know what they say... A bushel of parsley a day will keep the nosebleed doctor away... Anyway.

Parsley can be bought fresh, or dried. Dried parsley, to me, does not taste anything like the fresh kind you can get a small bushel for less than a dollar at say Stop N Shop. So,

Now, you may not want to use it all at once so how can you store this?

Keeping it for 2 weeks:
- I found this nifty little tip right here.

Keeping it in the freezer for longer:
- cut off the leafy parts (you can easily tear it with your fingers), throw away the stalks, keep the leafy parts in a tupperware container
- put in the freezer and take out whenever you want some (there are some of these boxes available in the freezer department at grocery stores but they are usually double or triple the price)

And now some suggestions as to using it:
- on bread with hard-boiled sliced eggs, tomatoes, salt and pepper and sprinkle parsley on top
- sardines or mackerel and parsley go well together
- potatoes any style
- rice (risotto)
- soups

Submitted by vefehrm

Professor Bradley's Edamame Hummus

Professor David Bradley kindly submitted the following recipe, claiming that it is "usually a fan favorite"!

Ingredients:

• 1 bag frozen shelled edamame (boiled for 3 minutes, drained and rinsed with cold water)
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (more/less for consistency)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (for topping)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients but the oil in the bowl, in a food processor.
2. Turn on, and slowly drizzle in oil as the ingredients are being processed to a creamy consistency.
3. (use half the edamame for the hummus, the other half for topping)

Submitted by dabradley

Salmon Spread

This spread is ideal for baked potatoes or toast. Spice up your weekday with some smoked salmon (lox?)!

Ingredients:

• 7/8 cup sour cream (original recipe calls for creme fraiche)
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, and cut into small pieces
• 1½tsp French mustard (Dijon)
• 2tbsp fresh basil or dill, chopped
• ½ red onion, chopped
• 100g smoked salmon (cut up in thin strips)
  

Directions:
Mix together in a bowl, salt and pepper and serve with toast or baked potatoes. Add a little lemon juice if you want!

Submitted by vefehrm

Facebook Status = Yummy Sandwich

Rebecca Katz' Facebook status the other day was:
"well toast whole wheat bread. spread mayo on one side and pesto on the other. put on red onion, smoked turkey, and yellow heirloom tomato. eat and be satisfied"

Vassar Cooks Facebook-stalkedly (yes that's a word) asked her whether she would be willing to share this on this blog and she said yes.

So here go the ingredients:

• Whole wheat bread (two slices)
  
• Mayonnaise
• Pesto
• Red onion
• Smoked turkey
• Yellow heirloom tomato

Directions:

1. Toast the bread
2. Spread the mayonnaise on one slice
3. Spread the pesto on the other
4. Put the red onion, turkey and the tomato on one slice
5. Put the other slice on top
6. "Eat and be satisfied"

Welcome!

Dear Vassar Students,

This blog is an attempt to collect and share all of your favourite recipes in one place. As it is in its beginning stages, we are aiming the collection towards those in senior housing (TAs, SoCos, THs) as well as Town Students. Of course you can also use these recipes if you are living in a dorm, but hey... the kitchens can be pretty limited in terms of appliances/measuring cups, etc.

Please contact vassarcooks@gmail.com for submissions, questions, requests and/or concerns. Please submit a source (book or website) if it's not your own recipe. We do not want any copyright issues!

ENJOY!

The "sections" (tags) are currently:
- quick: quick and easy
- few: few ingredients
- subs: substitutes (for situations like: "OH! I forgot vegetable oil... my cupcakes will be a disaster!" but don't worry... there's always applesauce!)
- basics: basics of cooking (boiling water, frying an egg)
- frozen: foods that can be frozen for a longer time (tomato sauce, meatballs)
- healthy: healthy/well-rounded meals
- desserts: desserts
- veg: vegan/vegetarian