Category: produce

Elizabeth Orsini’s (Grilled Teriyaki) Tofu Broccoli Salad and cookbook review: From Garden to Grill

jenniferguerrero1 June 25, 2018

#CiderMillPress #ElizabethOrsini #FromGardentoGrill

Summer grilling season has arrived! I’ve been playing in a great produce-centered grilling book, From Garden to Grill: Over 250 Vegetable-based Recipes for Every Grill Master. My review of the book is below, but first I wanted to share a terrific grilled teriyaki tofu and broccoli dinner with you. This recipe is vegan, but the book itself is vegetarian with a lot of suggestions of how to make recipes vegan, paleo, gluten-free, or how to add meat. It’s delicious and super filling, so no side dishes are required. Perfect dinner on the patio. You just need a few string lights overhead and icy Pellegrino, lemon cucumber water, or lovely white wine to go with it.

If you’re new to tofu, a nice dish is all about the drain. Cut it into chunks as the recipe instructs, wrap it in a lot of paper towel, set a plate on it, and set a big can on that and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. Or, I sometimes cheat, and just stick it in my panini press for the same amount of time. Saves, paper, too. Niiice. In this recipe, I threaded the tofu on soaked skewers, so I’d have less to turn on the grill.

Jen’s Garlic and Basil Fondue

jenniferguerrero1 December 15, 2017

It’s cold outside! I’ve lived in Texas for 10 years now, but I grew up in Wisconsin, and chilly air is like Pavlov’s bell to this Cheesehead. I start craving melted cheese.

My favorite fondue method is a little unorthodox. Rather than heating wine and tossing corn starch coated cheese into the pool, I love to start by making a roux and building a lovely béchamel. The resulting texture is velvety. I like to use a combination of both milk and wine, like you would in a wine cream sauce. It’s a bit less boozy which is nice for family fondue night. This uber-garlicky fondue is just as nice for roasted veggies as it is for bread. Really. I know that that’s not generally true, but you need to trust me here.

It is of utmost importance that you cut the broccoli into bite-size pieces. Your guests will be armed with nothing but a fondue fork, and will not be singing your praises if you make them feel like a moose, trying to navigate a ginormous piece of broccoli into their mouth. Seriously. No one feels attractive with an overstuffed broccoli mouth. My husband, the physics major – I’ll call him Nerd Boy for my purposes here – would have you scale down the size of all objects to be dipped for a different reason. It increases the surface area that cheese can adhere to, resulting in a higher cheese to bread ratio.

Hope you love it! I’ll talk about my favorite cheese books and my favorite fondue pot after the recipe…. Read More

Veggiewise Floats

jenniferguerrero1 October 6, 2017

We read Stephen King’s It for bookclub, and I was inspired by Pennywise the Clown to make a nice little produce sculpture to take with. Veggiewise the Clown. I cracked up when my friends were really hesitant to sample my little crudite display. He is a little bit more off-putting than our treats of Halloweens past…..