Simplicity Made Slightly More Complicated

Right. Dinner.

Seared tofu, glazed with teriyaki sauce, paired with purple potatoes and other stir-fried veggies over short-grain brown rice.

Surprisingly work-intensive, but isn't it gorgeous?


Totally worth the effort. Just have your timing down, and trust that your ingredients will serve you well. Press and sear your tofu (This was pressed for a REALLY long time by our standards [6 hours], then seared for 5 minutes a side). While doing the searing, cook potatoes til tender, then brown if desired. Blanch carrots for 5-6 minutes, fresh green beans for 2 and 1/2 minutes, frozen peas for 30 seconds. Then dump them all in a pan of heated, well-seasoned olive oil. Toss and season. With a light hand, pour some teriyaki sauce over your resting tofu (it'll be done searing by this point), toss to coat, and add to the pan at the last moment.

This dish was completely improvised, and the bare flavors of the ingredients really make the whole thing. You could taste the sweetness of the vegetables. They were actually sweet. The way you hear they should be. The carrots had a slight tooth to them; the peas were carmelized.

Holy cow.

Wonder Squash

UNDISPUTED FACT: Spaghetti squash is freaking amazing. I don’t know how it knows to do what it does, but more power to it, I say. It’s just so pretty and delicious and mind-boggling. And it goes really good with garlic, which is always a plus.

I am seriously in awe of it. Nature does a much better job than humans at making up things to eat. Nature came up with spaghetti squash. We came up with strawberry licorice. Which is also yummy, but I’m sure you see my point.

Thirty-Minute Cheese

So.

Here we have a new food blog.

And for the subject of my first post in my new blog, I would like to address the love of my life: Cheese.

But Mia, you say, what about your darling husband?

I do not, to my knowledge, talk about my husband in my sleep. Or wonder what variety of my husband would go with everything else I consume. Therefore, I must deduce that while I might possibly love my husband more than cheese, he does not occupy nearly as much room in my consciousness. Ergo, etc.

Cheese.
How I adore thee.
In every form, soft to hard, mild to pungent, fresh to age-ed.

*le sigh*

I have taken to making my own, at least as far as mozzarella is concerned. While it is recommended to use the freshest, most local brand of milk available for this process, I have found that I get good results from cheaper local store-brand milk, as well. One gallon of milk makes one pound of cheese, and I usually make a batch every week or two.

It takes thirty minutes.

It's thirty minutes of constant work; measuring, timing, checking, tweaking. Adjusting the process to your equipment; your experience guiding your decisions. It is totally worth it.

At the end of the process, if you're lucky, you end up with these otherworldly orbs, which taste of complete, pure, simple cheesey goodness:

I did this yesterday afternoon. My (beloved) husband brought home a jug of milk, and thirty minutes later there was cheese. It never ceases to amaze me; it's like an act of magic. Better living through chemistry.

Pluswise, you can dress it up in olive oil, basil, and pepper flakes, and pair it with homemade pickled carrot sticks for an afternoon snack! Bonus!

(I need a better camera)