Social Media Cookies

For the last ten weeks, I've been in a Social Media Marketing class as part of my Marketing MBA at CLU. It's been the most interesting class I've had yet and I'm sad to end the course. Shout out to my wonderful professor, Teri Thompson, for a fun semester! Thanks, Teri! Now, go buy her book. 

Anywho, my classmates have been aware of the fact that I like to cook and after holding out on my kitchen creations all semester, I chose to reward them for their patience with cookies. But not any old cookie!

I have a tin of tahini that I haven't found a great use for, so I figured I could use it like peanut butter in cookies. It's a seed butter, so that's kind of like a nut butter. Tahini has a nutty, slightly bitter taste and it pairs beautifully with sweet and spicy ginger and smooth and rich chocolate. Add in oats for health factor and sesame seeds for pizazz and you've got Social Media cookies!

Tahini Ginger Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies AKA "Social Media" Cookies
15 cookies


1 c. old fashion rolled oats
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. tahini
2 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, or equivalent of egg subsitute
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2/3 c. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1/3 c. chopped candied ginger (not crystallized - visit Trader Joe's)

 Preheat oven to 350F.

In one bowl, combine flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, mix tahini and butter together until smooth.

Add sugar, vanilla extract, and egg and mix until smooth.

Stir in dry ingredients.

Add then stir in the goodies!

Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes.

When done baking remove sheet from oven and let cookies sit on sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack.

The cookies will finish setting up as they cool - about 10 minutes.

Try to resist the screaming hot melty chocolate.

But you don't have to resist too long.

Knowledge never tasted so good.

Praise Baby Bok Choy Jesus

We have a vendor at our farmers market that has some of the strangest things I've ever seen. I can't even describe all the stuff... spiney looking cucumbers, greens that I've never seen or smelled in my life, peppers of varying sizes and unknown scoville units. We've hit up the okra a few times, which kinda scares me because of its sliminess, but this week we picked up a vegetable that doesn't scare me at all: baby bok choy.

I present to you, dear reader, baby bok choy stir fry.

VEGETARIAN!

Garlic Ginger Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry


Ingredients

• 1 bottle Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette/Marinade (or any other similar marinade)
• 1 package extra firm tofu, cubed
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 3 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 yellow onion, in large slices
• 4 heads of baby bok choy, halved

Directions

At least two hours ahead of time, prepare the marinade:

In a large bowl, carefully toss tofu, ginger, garlic, sesame soy ginger marinade and soy sauce. Try to submerge the tofu so it soaks up all the flavor. Fridge it until ready to cook.

When ready to cook, pick the tofu out of the sauce (keep the sauce!) and place tofu pieces on a baking sheet. Broil on high for 10 minutes, then turn pieces and broil on high for another 10 minutes. 

While all that oven magic is going on, heat EVOO in a saute pan or wok. When oil is heated, add in mushrooms and onion and saute until slightly softened.

Reduce heat to medium, place bok choy on top of onions and mushrooms, and pour the marinade over the bok choy. Cover and cook until bok choy is tender, about 3-5 minutes.  

When the tofu is done, it will lightly crispy on the outside and golden delicious, but not like the apple variety.

Serve with brown rice and plenty of sriracha! I like the tofu on the side, but you could definitely toss it in before the bok choy if you so desire.

 Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

Wimp.

The employed folk might call today "the day before Friday" and say something like "yay tomorrow is Friday." For me, everyday is Friday. Or Saturday, really. BOO PITY PARTY. I'm not taking to unemployment well. I'm realizing just how much a job defined me for the past four years! I think that's a good and a bad thing. Good in the sense that I had so much commitment (FOCUS?) to my job. Bad that I didn't carve an identity otherwise. Good thing I have another three quarters of my life to fix that!

Happy eternal Saturday to all and to all a good night!

Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings Earthlings!

Today started like this:

About damn time. That's right, It's back to Weight Watchers with me. I had huge success with WW in middle school, and again after the freshman 15. And I'm bacccckkkkkk. Between sixth and seventh grade I lost about thirty pounds. Thirty pounds!  Most sixth graders only weigh thirty pounds, right? (I have a really hard time judging kids' ages...)

After my first year of college (read: binge drinking, cafeteria, no mommy) I lost twenty pounds over summer. The only problem was I wasn't done growing and maturing so my habits didn't stick. I didn't know what it meant to cook for myself or what healthy living meant. I really didn't know how crucial fueling your body right and exercising is to your longevity.

My philosophy is that we were given this one body and we only have one lifetime to treat it right. Don't get me wrong, I have done many many terrible things to my body (including starving it with diet root beer and carrot sticks then binging on cookies the next day for an entire summer in high school).  I still occasionally do terrible things to my body like eating processed food and drinking too much diet coke. However I now have the maturity and sensibility to understand that when I eat pure, whole foods I feel better! When I exercise, my head is in the right place and I sleep better at night.

My goals are to relearn healthy habits, especially in terms of portion control. I don't think I will ever look at food purely as fuel... I see cooking and food presentation as an art, really. My relationship with food is a little abnormal, and I know I have room for improvement. I already have healthy food habits and decent exercise habits, but it's time to hone in on them, put my nose to the grindstone and drop the extra pounds I'm carrying around. I dug through old family pics this morning to find some of me at my chunkiest in the last ten years. Trust me, some were a lot worse, but so much that I refused to even look twice at them.

Don't mind Leah, my sister, in the right picture. She must have been in a Posh Spice phase. Ps my momma is a lifetime weight watcher and she looks nothing like this anymore. She's svelte and buff as shit these days (she's my inspiration!). These pics are circa 2004/2005, right in the midst of the freshman 15. I don't want to go back there.

Remember when I mentioned mascarpone cheese the other day? Let me follow through with a promise! Now you're probably thinking, HOLD IT THERE SISTER, I thought you were on a diet?! The great thing about WW (weight watchers) is that nothing is "off-limits", you just have to budget for it. And my dad took care of all the leftovers for me, so really, the best tip is to have a human garbage disposal in your home to eliminate any temptations for overeating. 

Ginger and Fig Mascarpone with Puff Pastry

adapted from Fig and Gingered Mascarpone Napoleons, Gourmet, 2001

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp candied ginger, diced
• 1 large or 2 small fresh figs, stems removed and chopped 
• Puff pastry cookies
• Pretty fig, sliced for topping cookies

Directions

• Mix together mascarpone, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, candied ginger and chopped figs

• Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes at least
• When ready, dollop 1-2 tbsp of cream on top of cookie and a slice or two of fig, like below

If you stopped reading this a bit ago because you don't like figs, I understand. Texture is gross. Replace figs in the recipe with nectarines, peaches, plums, strawberries, or mango. Also the sugar could be easily replaced with agave or honey to taste if you are watching your sugar intake. It's probably a better choice anyway!

That's what I love about cooking. You can never be wrong. If it tastes good to you, then it's good.

Here's something that's never good:

The number of bruises on my body. 

Moving totally wrecked me. Always does. Gotta stop moving so much. Good thing unemployment is so low-impact. (Bitter).

 And on that note, Monster.com awaits me. 

Gingerrific

Let me tell you a story.

Yesterday I went to my favorite place in the whole wide world (um, Trader Joe's, duh) in search of ingredients for various blogable creations. Friendly bearded man was wandering about doing the "Are you finding what you're looking for today?" thing and I took advantage of this, asking where I might find crystallized ginger. I got an earful! Apparently, the FDA is cracking down on Australia for not specifying sulfite presence on food labels. Trader Joe's gets their crystallized ginger from Australia and thus all of the product has been shipped back down under to be properly labeled for FDA approval. I don't know if this is affecting other stores, so DON'T PANIC people. I know crystallized ginger is like a HUGE staple in most kitchens and we might all die without it, but it's just not a reason for pandemonium okay?!


Good thing I'm going to tell you how to make it yourself. Ahhhh, exhale. It's all going to be okay!!!

Candied Ginger Root
adapted from David Lebovitz


Ingredients

• Some ginger
• Some sugar
• Some water
• Some more sugar

Ok fine.

• One large ginger root, peeled and super thinly sliced (use a mandoline unless you're Masaharu Morimoto)
• 2 cups fine white sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 c fine white sugar

Directions

1. Cook the ginger. In a moderately sized sauce pan, add sliced ginger and enough water to cover.  Bring to a boil and them simmer for ten minutes. Drain, repeat. Trust me.

2. Syrup time! Drain sauce pan, add 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar, put over medium heat and let it lightly boil for about 20-25 minutes.
Now you're supposed to monitor temp and get the liquid to 225 F but there is no way in hell I am ever going to make anything in the kitchen that requires that much precision. The goal here is to get that ginger all sweet and soft and sticky and gummy. If you can't do that without a thermometer, then perhaps you might like to start with a simpler recipe in the kitchen? End rant.

3. Let sit for 5 minutes off the heat for safe handling. Over a jar/glass/bottle strain the ginger syrup from the ginger pieces. Guess what? You now have a ginger simple syrup! Two birds, one stone.  And seriously, why would you waste if you don't have to? Allow the ginger pieces to drip dry for a few minutes.

4. On a plate, dredge the moist (gross word) ginger pieces in white sugar. Place on a cooling rack for a few hours to dry out and harden up.

Imagine all the things you can do with this ginger! Garnish desserts, mix in to yogurt or ice cream, incorporate into spreads like cream cheese or mascarpone. Wink, wink, mascarpone that sounds like a great idea, wink wink.... better stay tuned... Or cocktails...

Did someone say cocktails!? Good thing you have that ginger simple syrup! You could do what my mom and I did and mix it with vodka, soda water, and a lemon twist. Or add to lemonade or tea as a sweetener. Or use it for baking. Make it a glaze. Make it into a frosting? My goodness someone stop me. 

But let's take a second and give ginger root some cred. Not only does it add incredible flavors to both sweet and savory foods, ginger also has various health benefits. Ginger is an effective home remedy for nausea or other GI distress. It's an immune booster and a cancer fighter. It has anti-inflammatory qualities (great for arthritis relief).  It is an anti-oxidant. Get those pesky free radicals! The radicals! They're so free!

WHFoods

"A study published in the November 2003 issue of Life Sciences suggests that at least one reason for ginger's beneficial effects is the free radical protection afforded by one of its active phenolic constituents, 6-gingerol. In this in vitro (test tube) study, 6-gingerol was shown to significantly inhibit the production of nitric oxide, a highly reactive nitrogen molecule that quickly forms a very damaging free radical called peroxynitrite. Another study appearing in the November 2003 issue of Radiation Research found that in mice, five days treatment with ginger (10 mg per kilogram of body weight) prior to exposure to radiation not only prevented an increase in free radical damage to lipids (fats found in numerous bodily components from cell membranes to cholesterol), but also greatly lessened depletion of the animals' stores of glutathione, one of the body's most important internally produced antioxidants."

Ginger is also a good source of potassium, magnesium, manganese, Vitamin B6, and copper. Don't know why copper is good for you but okay... 


And the moral of today's story is that I love Trader Joe's. Happy Monday friends!