Hummus Sandwiches

Andy is the best.  I can't say it enough.  I don't know what I would do without him.

We've made it tradition that we open presents with eachother on Christmas eve.  Our first year together, I explained to him my family's tradition of opening up one present on Christmas eve and we agreed to do so.  After we both opened one present, we looked at eachother and both thought the same thing - "you wanna open another?"  And so we ended up opening all of our presents!  So we've just agreed to open up all of our presents to eachother on Christmas eve and save our family stuff for Christmas Day.

So "Andy Claus" was very generous to me this year!  He got me a 35mm lens for my camera, which I've been ogling FOREVER.  I can't wait to take some bad ass pictures with it!  I also got a camera bag to lug my little baby around!  Way awesome.

On top of that, he got me various dishes from Sur La Table, which definitely will be making appearances on the blog soon enough!  He's just the greatest!

And of course "Peggy Claus" did some good work too!  He's practically got a finished gym in the basement - I added some to it by getting him some more free weights, a curl bar, and a dumb bell rack.  And I think I did a real good job on getting him a digital camera (A Nikon Coolpix S8000).  He really wanted a camera that shot HD video and this does, and it does it very well, so I'm glad he's happy with it!

Anyway, I thought I'd give you guys a quick recipe today and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!  It's not a Christmas-related recipe, but it's a quick lunch/dinner fix for the upcoming week!  Enjoy your holiday weekend guys!

Ingredients:

Hummus:

15 oz. can chickpeas, drained
1/3 cup tahini paste
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
juice from 2 lemons
juice from 1 lime
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
2 teaspoon salt
1 roasted red pepper from a jar


Sandwich:

Cucumber slices
Bean sprouts
Cheddar cheese
Turkey slices (optional)
Wheat bread 
Butter (optional)

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients for hummus and mix until smooth.  It should be somewhat thick, but still moist.

To assemble sandwiches, butter one side of each bread slice. 

Heat a nonstick pan under medium heat and add one slice of bread, butter side down.  Top with slice of cheddar cheese and cook until cheese is melted and bottom side of bread is browned.  Remove bread and place on plate.  Add remaining slice of bread, butter side down and cook until it is browned, as well.  You can skip this step if you want to, but I want a nice "grilled cheese" effect on my bread.

Top bread slice that has cheese on it with a good amount of the hummus and top with desired sandwich toppings.  I used bean sprouts and cucumber slices.  I added a few slices of turkey onto Andy's (as he wasn't too thrilled about just eating a hummus sandwich).  Place other bread slice on top, cut sandwich in half, and dig on in!

At first, Andy was a little hesitant, stating that he's never really liked hummus.  But I think this went over well, I mean... he ate the whole thing, so it couldn't have been that bad!  Personally, I loved the sandwich and could probably eat it for lunch several days in a row! 

 Again, guys, I hope you have a great holiday and spend it being with the ones you love!  Enjoy!

Mushroom & Yellow Squash Enchiladas

Happy Monday!  And if you're in any snow-ridden areas, like we are, hope you're not snowed in (unless you want to be!)!    Thankfully, I'll be at home all day, and all day tomorrow, safe and warm... making duck confit - definitely excited about that.

How was everyone's weekend?  Ours was pretty relaxed, just went out to dinner on Friday (at a local joint, the Bard's Town, which was just so-so - slow service ruined it for me, but Andy didn't seem to be phased by that!).  Saturday we went out for some celebratory drinks with our friend's Ike and Becca (who just got engaged so congrats to them!).  And Sunday was just spent grocery shopping, baking cookies, and watching football (Go Eagles!). 

And last week, I experimented with a few vegetarian dishes for dinner, which mostly went over well with Andy.  (Trust me, he wasn't excited at first, but after putting the plates in front of him, he gladly dug in!).  By far, these enchiladas were the fave, so I thought I'd share them with you all!



Ingredients:
Adapted from Closet Cooking's recipe

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced thinly
8 oz. portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. yellow squash, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 thai chiles, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 cup salsa verde
5-6 small corn tortillas
1/2 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet under medium high heat.

Add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes or so.  Then add the mushrooms and cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until they've softened, as well.

Add the yellow squash and cook until just tendder, about 4-5 minutes.  Then stir in the garlic, peppers, cumin, and oregano.  Cook for about a minute.

Remove from heat and mix in 1/2 cup of the salsa verde.

Spread 1/4 cup of the salsa verde over the bottom of a ceramic baking dish.

Carefully fill the corn tortillas with filling (I didn't do a good job of this, my tortillas kept breaking, but the cheese does a good job of covering up those imperfections!), and roll them up and place them in the baking dish with the seam on the bottom.

Pour the remaining 1/4 cup of salsa verde over the tortillas and sprinkle on the cheese.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese and edges of the tortillas have started to brown.

Plate the enchiladas and dig in!

This dish packed some heat and definitely gave me the comfort that a good old meat enchilada would have!  It was like I didn't even miss the meat!  And Andy was fully impressed with the dish too!  My little carnivore ate a vegetarian dish!  Woohoo!  Enjoy guys!

Vegetarian Nachos

Vegetarian? I'm not usually one to eat things without meat. Not that I don't dislike plain vegetables, it's just I can never find anything filling and appealing enough to eat without meat. I know vegetarians everywhere are cringing at that statement, but maybe you guys could give me some insight eh?

These were actually supposed to be faux tacos, too, but once again, I had to improvise. Jicama was supposed to be sliced really really thin so it would act as a taco shell for my filling, but I ran into 2 problems. #1... I didn't have a mandolin (which I'm really thinking about investing in sometime soon) and #2... my knife skills aren't amazing and I couldn't slice really really thin. So nachos were born.

Ingredients:
Adapted from the Top Chef Quickfire Cookbook "Richard B.'s Vegetarian Tacos"

1 large jicama, peeled and cut into thin slices or wedges
2 avocados, halved and pitted
1/2 large papaya, peeled, seeded, and diced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
juice from 8 key limes
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
10 corn tortillas, quarted
vegetable oil for frying
sour cream
shredded cheddar cheese

Because I couldn't use my jicama as taco shells, I used them as faux nacho chips instead. Along with a mixture of corn tortilla chips (which I'll give the details on making here in a minute) to give it some added texture. And let me just say... I love jicama. Not many people know about jicama (key example, the grocery store clerk who completely had the "what the hell is this?" look on his face. It's kind of ugly on the outside, but on the inside is a sweet apple-y flavored vegetable after you peel the exterior. Anyway, I digress...

In a medium bowl, lightly mash up the avocados, papaya, and tomato. Mix in the lime juice, coriander, cinnamon, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix in as much of the 1/2 cup of cilantro as you'd like, but save some for topping if you wish.

To make your tortilla chips, add enough vegetable oil to a large heavy pan to bring it up about 1/2 and inch. Heat the oil under medium high heat and fry about 10 chips at a time, or more if you wanted to and had a big enough pan. Cook each for about 30-45 seconds per side. Place in a bowl lined with paper towels and salt each batch as they come out of the oil. It will allow the salt to "stick" on the chip, if you will.

To plate, get a large plate and mix in the jicama with the chips. Pile on the avocado mixture, top with shredded cheese, and then sour cream, if desired. Maybe strict vegans can't do those last 2 toppings, but pile it on however you wish!

I really loved the flavor profile of this dish. The avocado mixture with the chips tasted differently than with the jicama chips. It was kind of crazy how well the jicama paired with the mixture. When the chips were in the dip, you could really taste the lime, but when the jicama was thrown in there, the lime sort of "blended" in and you could really get a sense of all the flavors in the dish. This really impressed me and would be a great appetizer dip for any occasion! Enjoy!