Totally Tubular Terrarium Tutorial

Today we are going to learn together.

About nature.

And the ecosystem.

Let's make a terrarium.

Shopping List

• From the thrift store or dollar store:
• Glass fish bowls, vases, bowls, glasses, etc
• From the pet store:
• Aquarium gravel (many style to chose from! Even awesome tacky bright pink.)
• Activated filter carbon (also in the aquarium section)
• From the garden store:
• Potting soil for cacti/succulents
• 1-2 feature succulents (~$2 ea) per terrarium
• From your neighbors' yards
• cuttings of succulents! I get them from my mom, but if she wasn't my mom, I would totally steal some from her yard. For a quick tip on taking succulent cuttings, see here. It takes about a 3 days for the cuttings to be planting-ready, so plan ahead.

In your glass of choice, add about 1" of gravel.

Top that gravel off with a sprinkling of carbon. Sprinkle in evenly until you only see a little peak of gravel (~1/4").

Add 2" of potting soil.



Remove succulents from garden store packaging and tickle the roots. Make a spot in the terrarium for the succulent and bury in the soil. Make your arrangement.

Add a wee bit of soil to fill in and make sure roots are covered.

Water moderately and evenly.

Place in a partially sunny spot (a window that gets light for only a few hours of the day) to give time to take root.

After 2 weeks, you may move to a bright spot in your home that is not necessarily by a window.

Some tips:

• Try variety inside the terrarium for balance. Something tall, something leafy, something with tiny leaves, something big, something colorful for contrast (like a red or purple variety).
• Try one large statement succulent and 1-2 complimentary mini succulents.
• Try a micro terrarium (in a small glass or even stemware)
• Top with sand (colored!) or gravel on top of the soil if you want to commit to the arrangement.
• Spray paint miniatures a contrasting color (i.e. turquoise dinosaurs, pink kittens) and place inside for whimsy. 

Care:

• Succulents like to stay dry. Sprinkle with a small bit of water once/week.
• Do not leave in direct sunlight for long periods of time. The glass makes a microclimate and it can get too hot quickly.
• Name them names like Sally, Spike, or Rhonda. Plants like to have names.

Resolutions and a Bastardized Wellington

First of all, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe, fun, and delicious holiday.

Now that the new year is upon us, I am thrilled to be making my annual Google Doc of new year resolutions. This year's goals include 

• actively seeking a career-related internship by searching and applying for at least one every week
• volunteering three to four times a month at the humane society
• losing those last pesky pounds by summer
• get in running shape for spring 5k season
• cook or eat vegan once a week 
• create an ebay sales account so i can sell all the shizz in my mother's home

And now they are public so I have to keep them.

Moving on to the food part of the program...

Have you ever had beef wellington?

Traditionally, beef wellington is a beef filet coated with a meat pâté or duxelles (a mushroom pâté), wrapped in puff pastry, and baked. My first and only experience with Beef Wellington was an adaptation  at Top of Waikiki restaurant in Honolulu, HI. It's no longer on the menu, as this was like 2 years ago, but it was a play on beef wellington as a burger: an angus steak patty smothered with cheese wrapped in puff pastry. It was served with a tomato chutney and a grilled romaine salad. It was one of the best thing's I ever ate. (Until I went to NYC later that year.) Anyway, for some reason I was thinking about that delectable meal and Beef Wellington and how it could be adapted to healthier cooking. Here's what I came up with: Deconstructed Salmon Wellington. I layered wild alaskan salmon, duxelles, and puff pastry to simulate the textural qualities of wellington while playing up the flavors for the salmon. Wild salmon is more lean than farmed salmon, as well as more environmentally responsible, depending on the source. Ask Leah Johannesson for details. By using less puff pastry, I made the dish healthier without compromising classical taste. What's great about this dish is that it looks super fancy pants, but it's very, very easy.

First we need to talk about Duxelles:

I had not heard of duxelles until I attempted this dish. It makes me feel like a super fancy french chef to say duxelles. Say it. Don't you feel fancy? It's just finely chopped mushrooms sauteed with some other stuff until it's like a paste. Don't be intimidated!

Deconstructed Salmon Welly

For 6

Ingredients

• Duxelles
• 1 lb mushrooms, food processed until very fine
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp evoo
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• S & P 
• 1/4 c. red wine
• Salmon
• 6 wild alaskan salmon fillets
• 1 large lemon, cut into 1/2" slices
• Juice of another large lemon
• 1 tbsp dried dill or 2 tbsp fresh dill
• S & P
• 3 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, cut into triangles to complement size of your salmon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 F
• Place salmon fillets in a glass baking dish
• Coat surface  of fillets with dijon
• Pour over juice of 1 lemon
• Season with S & P
• Arrange lemon slices, and dill on top of salmon fillets

• Add a splash of water to bottom of dish so salmon steams and doesn't dry out or burn
• Bake uncovered for 20 minutes
• At the same time, pop your puff pastry in the same oven for 15-20 minutes or until puffy and golden

i love you, TJ's!

• Meanwhile, dump processed mushrooms into a clean towel and wring out as much excess water as possible

• In a medium saute pan over medium high heat, melt butter and EVOO
• Add mushrooms, shallot, S & P and thyme
• Saute about 5 minutes, or until softened
• Add wine to mushroom mixture and let cook another 2-3 minutes

• Remove from heat to cool
• When salmon and pastry are finished, plate as follows
• Salmon fillet

• A smothering of duxelles

• A puff pastry triangle

• Serve!

 PS, you can also do this recipe with chicken breast braised in red wine and thyme, as seen below!

Also, I highly recommend that you find a handsome and capable man to prepare a side dish of glazed carrots for you.

He should slice them, saute them in butter, and finish them with brown sugar, lemon zest, and freshly grated nutmeg.

The glazed carrots offer a sweet and crunchy complement to the rich and salty salmon welly. That lemon zest in there ties it all together.

Bookmark this one for when you want to impress someone with your super fancy french chef skillz!

Noodles and Company

Dear Blogosphere,

Please excuse Lauren's absence for the past two weeks. She has been incredibly busy seeing her best friends all over the place. I owe you a recipe. Have some noodles.

Step one:
Make a big ass mess in the kitchen.

Step two:
Let the kitchen get back at you for said mess by dumping ginger all over your chicken marinade. Punk'd!

But seriously...

Garlic Peanut Noodles
Makes a crap ton
Makes ten 7 WW point 1 cup servings


Ingredients

• For pasta
• Half package of whole wheat pasta, cooked, drained, shocked in ice water, drained again
• 3 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 1 cup snap peas
• 1/4 c. diced green onion
• 1/4 c. lightly salted peanuts
• For chicken
• 2 large chicken breasts, diced into 1" pieces
• 2 tsp dried ginger
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• cooking spray
• For sauce
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp crushed garlic
• 1/4 c. fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (or rice vinegar with a bit of sugar.... same thing)
• 1/4 c. sweet chili sauce 
• 1/4 c. creamy natural peanut butter

Directions

• Sauce
• In a microwave safe dish, combine all ingredients for sauce and nuke for about 30 seconds, or until peanut butter loosens up
• Stir well until well mixed
• You could also use a blender for this, but why make an even bigger mess at this point?

• Chicken
• Toss the chicken in the soy sauce and powdered ginger
• Stir fry in a lightly sprayed pan until brown and crispy
• Set aside and let cool

• All together now!
• In a giant bowl, dump cooled chicken, all veggies, cold noodles, and sauce
• Toss carefully as to not continue making a bigger mess
• Serve with a sprinkle of peanuts, a wedge of lime, and a dusting of sesame seeds!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've been really into snow peas and snap peas recently. I think its because they are starchy and that tastes super carby, but they're veggies. I used to hate them but I can't get enough now!

This recipe reminds me of the noodles that you can get in the pre-made salad section at trader joe's, but more garlic-y. You can always reduce the amount of garlic, but where would the fun be in that?

Also, did you notice how I snuck in the whole wheat pasta there? Tricky, huh? And really, the vegetable to noodle ratio is pretty large here, so there's not too much to feel bad about. I'm sure someone more clever than myself could find a way to make a lower calorie version of the sauce, but I wanted the real deal here. Peanut buttterrrrrr......

Today was cold (and by cold I mean 63 hahaha... Sorry Colorado peeps), which means I am going to start thinking about soups... It was so cold I had to wear flats instead of sandals when I took the dog for a walk. hahah. Enough with my Spoiled Californian Problems.... Soup. Think about soup...