Classy Caprese

I love italian food. It would have to be tied with Indian as my favorite cuisine. One of the many reasons I love italian is because it's kind to vegetarians. Yes, Italians do love their meat, but there are plenty of pastas and salads without. 

The other night I got to go over to a friend's for her goodbye dinner. She had a room and board situation and her landlady is an Italian who loves to cook. My friend got to eat amazing Italian food for the year she was here. After tasting it first hand the other night, I am jealous. The menu featured pasta with fresh pesto, and gnocchi with borgonzola cheese sauce. I was in heaven.

The appetizers were caprese salad and prosciutto wrapped asparagus. Obviously I slid the prosciutto over to my friends plate and dived in to the caprese. One of my favorites. 

I love tomatoes, and cheese is the one reason I will never be 100% vegan for the rest of my life. So this salad is like heaven to me. And so easy to make. It's literally three ingridients.

Tomatoes.

Bocconcini

Basil

Done. Instant deliciousness.

What really impressed me with this appetizer was it's presentation. The taste was something I knew and loved, but the way it was presented was something else. So on my weekly grocery trip this week I picked up some bocconcini and basil to accompany the tomatoes in my basket. 

What I love is that it looks so impressive but is really so easy. Perfect appetizer for a dinner party like I attended. But also perfect for a Wednesday afternoon lunch for just yourself. Because you deserve to eat pretty things even if you're all on your own and there is no one to impress but yourself. Why not work just as hard to impress yourself as you work to impress others? 

I personally spare no effort on my meals because I feel that I am worth it. It makes me sad to think that not everyone puts the care into a meal just for themself. 

But then again not everyone is a foodie with a food blog, who has to take a picture of something before they eat it. 

So if you want to make yourself feel special, all you do is slice the tomato across leaving some room at the bottom. Then stuff cheese in between those slices, top with some shredded basil, and a bit of olive oil. Balsamic is also a welcome addition in my books.  

Tacos!

I could go on about how I really suck at this blogging thing because I can't stick with anything, and make excuses about being too busy and moving twice and living in a dungeon with no light,  but why bother? I doubt anyone actually reads this except for me. So I will post this for me so I don't forget how make these tacos, because they are delicious.



This vegetarian taco recipe was taught to me by a friend of mine from mexico, who is not vegetarian but would eat these growing up.
Though i've never really been compelled to eat meat, after eating these tacos I don't see why anyone else would be!

Carrot Tacos
(Thanks Karina!)

You will need: (for the tacos)
corn toritllas
3-4 carrots, shredded
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup of cheese, shredded
lots of butter
salt



Heat some butter in a pot and soften the onion until translucent. In the meantime, grate the carrots. When the onions are translucent, add the carrots and some more butter, and salt. Saute until soft, around 5 mins or so. Next add the cheese and let melt. Heat the tortillas in the microwave until soft and pliable. (30 secs-1 min)
Get a medium saucepan and heat a few tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Take the carrot mixture, and put about 2 tbsp inside a corn tortilla. Roll tightly and repeat.
You can cook about 5 tacos at a time with a medium/large pan. Get a pair of tongs and flip them over while cooking to evenly brown the tacos.

For the spicy guacamole:

4 small avocados, pitted and halved

4 tomatillos

1 jalapeno pepper

1 garlic clove

3-4 tbsp cilantro

salt to taste

lemon juice

Peel and rinse the tomatillos. Put them in a pot with the jalapeno pepper and just cover with water. Boil until the tomatillos are slightly brown on the bottom, about 5-10 mins or so.

Throw rest of the ingredients together and blend in a blender or with an imersion blender. (That's what I used.) Add salt and lemon juice to taste.

Top the tacos with shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and spicy guacamole. It makes for easier eating if you open up the tacos a bit to let the toppings fall in. Make sure you have lots of napkins.

Vegetarian Poutine

Oh, poutine! Such a disturbing and delicious dish. Although the idea of cheese curds atop a mountain of fries smothered in gravy is enough to give you a heart attack (literally) it is oh so delicious. It used to be one of my favorite things to get every year or so until I became a vegetarian. Then I had to say farewell to the poutine, as it is impossible to find a vegetarian version that is close to the original. The only vegetarian poutine I've ever found was made with roasted yams, feta, and sesame gray. Still a really good dish, and probably a lot healthier- but sometimes you just want something that tastes damn good and that's it. Turn off that little voice in your head that's babbling on and on about fat, calories and sodium and just enjoy the deliciousness. Which is what you should do when you dig in to poutine.

This was also my first time making gravy, and it turned out pretty decent for a first try. Although I think I added too much flour, as it was pretty thick and I prefer my gray runny. Oh well. At least the taste was there.



Miso gravy:

2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 white onion, diced
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp of flour
1/2 cup of water
2-3 tbsp miso paste
2-3 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp herbs of your choice (i used a blend)
salt, pepper

Head the oil over medium heat and add the onion and garlic until soft. Next add the flour until it forms a rue. Slowly add the water while stirring constantly, then add the rest of the ingridients until dissolved. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you need to thicken it, add more flour.

Roasted potatoes

1 small russest potato
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp seasonings (i used mrs.dash and black pepper)

Preheat oven to 400. Wash, peel and chop the potato then coat in olive oil and seasoning. Roast for 15-20 mins.


Then to make the poutine just dice some mozzarella cheese over the potatoes, then top with miso gravy. Dig in to the cheesy salty deliciousness and try not to think to much about what you are eating.