Tuna Melt

Sometimes life gets ya down. When that happens to me - I like to have good old fashion diner food - at home. I like a tuna melt and sweet potato fries.

I make my tuna melts untraditionally. First step, pull some gluten free bread from the freezer and pop it in the toaster. While its toasting, I mix my tuna. I mix 1 can of tuna with lots of tarragon, dill, basil, and garlic. I add sliced green olives or capers to give the mixture the moisture. and thats it. I don't like to add mayo to tuna salad when I'm making a tuna melt because it can get soggy.

I pile my tuna mixture onto each slice of the pre-toasted GF bread. Then, I top each slice with a piece of cheese. Throw it under the broiler for a few mins to melt the cheese.

I serve my tuna melts open faced. Thats how they serve them at one of our favorite restaurants, Bull & Bush. They serve theirs on an english muffin, which is what I used to use at home prior to going GF.

Update - our summer 2010

Well, again - it has been a few months and we have failed to accurately document our summer.

Here is what we did Summer 2010:

In June, Bob traveled to Michigan with his dad. They stayed with a family friend. While on this trip, Bob learned how to make Chicken Marsala. He drank a lot, smoked a cigar, fished, and came home relaxed.

When Bob returned, we celebrated our first anniversary. We went to Colorado Springs, played mini golf, saw a minor league baseball game, and enjoyed a picnic at the Garden of the Gods park. 

As with  every summer, we explored Denver and Colorado. We tried new foods at new places. Perhaps the most memorable of the summer was Liks Ice Cream in Denver - B correctly answered the trivia question so we received a free scoop. We ate our ice cream outside on a warm evening, and ended up just having ice cream for dinner that night.

In July, Bob and I enjoyed a week in the Outer Banks or North Carolina. A week of sun, fun, beach, family, and sea food. We loved catching up with the east coast branch of the family, and I learned how to pick crabs. Each night someone would take charge an make dinner for the group, and Bob's cousin, Dari, took charge of breakfasts. She made a GF waffle for me one morning! Dari's husband, Sam, and Bob's cousin, Bill, played bartenders. We enjoyed some Dark & Stormy's, homemade cucumber infused gin, and my very first bloody mary. We ate one amazing dinner out at a place with cheesy art on the walls, and B and I bummed around some local art shops one afternoon, and enjoyed East Coast style Mexican food.

While in North Carolina, I participated in a phone interview, and a day later I was offered, and accepted a new job. More hours, more money, a change of scenery, and a new chance to grow. This new job is perfect for me and I love it. The only downside is that it cuts into the education I was getting from watching a lot of daytime Food Network.

In August, I went to Las Vegas with my mom and my sister. Las Vegas is one of my all time favorite places to go. There is so much to see and to photograph. I love to walk on vacations, and Vegas is perfect for that. I treated my mom and sister to dinner at my favorite Vegas restaurant - Mon Ami Gabi, then, the rest of our stay, we hit up some buffets, at which I proceeded to eat my weight in smoked salmon with capers, crab legs, and sushi. We also "enjoyed" the soda tasting at the Coca Cola store, but I use the word enjoyed very lightly.

This summer was busy. We cooked a lot. We saw a lot. We ate a lot, and perhaps we will post about it in the future. All of our experiences shape our culinary skills. There are photos on my camera, but right now, we are tired. It time for Fall and football.

Summer Rolls in the Summer time

I love egg rolls, spring rolls, wontons, and most Asian style appetizers, but I have had to say farewell to them since going gluten free.

Now, I have become obsessed with summer rolls. I get them at FireBowl (www.firebowlcafe.com) without the dipping sauce (it’s not gluten free.) Last week I was browsing through this month’s issue of Everyday Food by Martha Stewart and found a recipe for them. The recipe looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a try.

These were so simple to make and tasted so great. I must say, summer rolls are best when they are fresh.

Veggie Summer Rolls

First, get a package of rice paper wrappers. I found mine at Sunflower Market. They were very inexpensive, which I had not anticipated. In the past, I have purchased egg roll wrappers from the refrigerated section at the grocery store. Egg roll wrappers are not cheap, they must be refrigerated, they are full of gluten, and they must be cooked. I’m never going to bother with those again, for obvious reasons, but rice paper wrappers are so much simpler and easier to use. I found them in the Asian foods aisle, next to the Wasabi Peas. I’ve had the package in my pantry for a few months. This is defiantly something I’m going to start keeping on hand.

Decide what you would like to include in your summer roll. I chose carrots, cucumber, basil leaves, rice noodles, and avocado – because that’s what Martha suggested. I decided to do things Martha’s way, and prep everything before I got started.

You will need-

2 carrots – peeled and chopped into matchsticks

1 cucumber (or half of a giant one from the farmers market) – peeled and chopped into matchsticks

Half an avocado – thinly sliced

Some nice basil leaves

Some thin rice noodles, cooked

I prepped and chopped all my ingredients and separated them out into little glass bowls – I’m still putting my wedding gifts to good use.

Now, here’s where it gets a tiny bit tricky –

Take one rice paper wrapper out of the package, and set it into a shallow bowl full of warm water. Perhaps this step would have been easier if I had a shallow bowl big enough to fit the entire rice paper wrapper into, but I didn’t. I dipped it into the warm water – I used the leftover water from boiling my rice noodles. When I realized that the bowl I was using was the improper size, I then just laid the wrapper on a plate and used a silicone grill brush to brush the wrapper with water until it was pliable. Then, I added my ingredients – a small handful of rice noodles (I don’t like my summer rolls too noddlely,) a few matchsticks of cucumber and carrot, one whole basil leaf, and a few thin slices of avocado. Then, wrap it like a burrito.

And that’s it!

Make a few. dip them into soy sauce (or in my case, tamari) and enjoy.

Let me tell you – there is nothing more amazing than the taste of basil and tamari together. I’m obsessed. I must find a recipe to utilize these flavors again…..perhaps Asian meatballs……

Jack's Chicken Salad & Karen's Tuna Salad

Last Sunday was father's day, but it was also Bob and my first anniversary. We celebrated our anniversary B & E style with a baseball game, some mini golf, a picnic, and then a movie at home. My father was kind enough to hang out with our dogs while B and I were out celebrating.

In return, we decided to celebrate father's day with a dinner yesterday. I told my dad that I would make him anything he wanted for dinner. Anything. What did my dad chose? Steak and mashed potatoes? Corn on the cob and chicken? Hot dogs and brats on the grill?

He chose chicken salad wraps.

A few weeks ago, Bob and my dad were working really hard to assemble the new bed I bought in honor of Bob and my first anniversary - prior to this we were sleeping on a hand me down mattress on the floor. They were working hard, while I made lunch. I made chicken salad with apples and spinach. It made quite an impression on my dad, so I have decided to name it after him. (Happy Father's Day!)

Jack's Chicken Salad

Grill up a few chicken breasts. Let them sit for a few mins, then chop them into bite sized pieces. Add an apple, diced into bite sized pieces - we use Gala apples. Chop up a handful of fresh spinach leaves. Add the following spices - dried or fresh - dill, tarragon, celery salt, basil, and garlic. Then, add about 1/2 cup mayonnaise - mix everything together. We eat this immediately. I eat mine with Nut Thins, and everyone else eats theirs on wraps.

Karen's Tuna Salad

I'm going to take this opportunity to post my a salad I make sometimes for my mother. My mom and I work Tuesday evenings together. During our shifts, we get a half-hour dinner break. Sometimes, we each make part of a dinner and share it.

My mom doesn't like most meats or fish, but she does like tuna. I created a healthier version of her favorite tuna salad. I read someplace about using mashed avocado instead of mayonnaise in tuna salad. I had to convince my mom that she liked avocado, but now she likes this very much.

Open up a few cans of tuna and put them into a bowl. In another bowl, mash a few avocados with the following spices - dried or fresh - dill, tarragon, celery salt, basil, and garlic. Mix together the tuna and the avocado mixture. I eat mine with Nut Thins, and everyone else eats theirs on wraps.

Because I need more projects.....

I was roving around work the other day and was struck with an idea. At work, we call walking 'roving' so it sounds purposeful. I often choose to rove in the 'cooking and entertaining' section of our library. I was putting cookbooks on display in that area when I grabbed this book:

 

How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition:) 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food

By Mark Bittman

Bob and I received a copy of this book for Christmas 2008 from my mother. Aside from last summer, we haven't really used this book. Last summer, when we were participating in our CSA, we received produce that we had no idea how to prepare, and this book came in hardy - yet I don't think we have discovered its full potential yet.

While flipping through this book, I came up with the idea of doing my own Julie/Julia project, but more appropriately named the Elizabeth/Mark project. Also, I'll be making everything gluten free.

Tonight, I made the first recipe in this 1,065 page book: Five Minute Drizzle Sauce.

Heat 4T of oil in a sauce pan. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and sauté. Add 2T of water and 2T of lemon juice. I then chose to add fresh herbs from our window box garden. I minced parsley, chives, thyme, and basil.

I then drizzled this over steamed rice. Bob and I keep a mixture of rices on hand. I buy whatever kind of rice is on sale at the store, add that bag to the container in our pantry, and then shake the container to mix it all up. I grew up on instant microwave rice and rice made in a rice maker, so when I moved out on my own I purchased a rice maker, because that is what I knew. However, I don't like having too many kitchen appliances around, so when Bob and I moved, we decided to get rid of my old, cheap, small rice maker, and instead we decided to learn how to cook rice on the stove top. Frankly, I was surprised at how easy it was.

I'll be honest, I should have looked up Mark Bittman's rice recipe to fit with the theme of this post, but I already had the rice cooking before I decided to make a sauce from the book.

Here is the recipe I use to make rice:

1. Put rice in a pot with a lid. Add water. Use the ratio of 1.5 cups water to 1 cup rice.  
2. Set the heat to high, and bring the pot to a boil uncovered.  Then put the lid on the pot, and reduce the heat to low. Let the rice simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat, and let the rice sit in the covered pot for another 10 minutes.  

This is not food, but it is a good cause

Hi. I'm Leto


I am participating in the Denver Dumb Friends League's 2010 Furry Scurry with my friend Bob and my friends at the Arapahoe Library District. The Denver Dumb Friends League helps homeless pets find good homes. Without their help, I would have never met my fur siblings— Penny and Duncan.

 Penny, my guinea pig sister, was brought to the DDFL after being found in a parking lot, during a snowstorm, in 2006. My mom adopted her and gave her a great home and lots of love.Penny passed away last spring. I want to help animals in her honor.

Duncan, my dog brother, was sent to the DDFL from a shelter in Wyoming that didn’t have room for him. He was skinny and shy when we met him, but now he’s healthy and fun to play with. He is my best friend and I am glad that he is part of our family.





To sponsor me, Bob, and the Arapahoe Library District, please click
here



Small donations go a long way to helping animals.

Guacamole

The best thing that a person can make without doing any cooking is guacamole. By cooking I mean nothing is every heated, just mixed together. This is considered a "raw food" for that very reason. I'm not quite sure where I am on the whole raw food movement, not having had a chance to read much literature on the topic, but I do know that well made guac is delicious and quite healthy. Here's what you need to make it.

4 large avacados diced (I occassionally do more to make extra because it lasts for a while and is great to snack on)
2 Roma Tomatos diced (I like the Roma because it doesn't turn to much when you cut it up)
4 Cloves of garlic minced
4 Jalapenos diced with seeds removed
1 Cup of Cilantro finely chopped (total guesstimation here, I generally use half of what they sell at the grocery store)
2 Limes juiced
1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 1/2 Tbspn ground jalapeno (this is the biggest variable to make it as spicy as you like. If you don't like spice at all, I'd just drop this. If you're a big fan like I am than go wild)
1/2 onion finely chopped (I put this at the end because I don't usually put onion in my guac, but traditionally you would.)

At this point you have everything piled in your bowl. All you really need to do is get something to mix it together. I wouldn't use a food processor because you want your guac a little chunky, not smoothly blended. My go to tool is a potato masher. This does a really effective job of getting the consistency you want and mixing it together. Once the avacado has been mostly turned into green sludge then you may just want to take a spoon and stir everything to more evenly distribute the ingredients, but the mashing does the majority of the work for you.

A couple of tips when preparing the different ingredients.

1. You definitely want to get riper avacado. If you're slicing an avacado for a sandwhich or in a salad you can lean to less ripeness because you want it to hold its shape well. When making guac your life is easier if it mashes easier, so you can get away with the riper avacado. A good rule of thumb is when you are in the store picking out the avacado is to give it a squeeze. If it hardly budges you may want to let it sit out a couple days to ripen or pick a different one. If it is soft underneath the skin then it is ready to go.

2. Score the avacado. Slice the avacado in half and then pick out the pit with that knife. You then want to draw lines in a grid with your knife on the avacado without going through the skin. Then take a spoon and scoop out the rest. It will save you from making a huge mess.

3. Be wary of the jalapeno. You may want to wear gloves when dealing with these guys. The oils that come from the jalapeno will get on your fingers and burn for a couple of days if you don't prevent it from getting there are get rid of it afterwards. They make a metal bar (shaped like soap) to remove garlic smells by drawing out the oils. This works pretty well but doesn't get under your fingernails. If you forget you will go to bed dreaming of your hand being on fire.

The taste is much better than anything you can get in a store because it is fresh. It is healthy because of the natural ingredients and the good fats that the avacado provides. This whole process probably takes under an hour and is well worth it.