super-fly stir-fry

If you are what you eat, then we would be stir-fry. Stir-fry is by far our favorite go-to dinner when we want to make something quick and delicious. And it's crazy easy!

First off, don't be afraid to plunder your salad bar. Show up with a tupperware and help yourself to what's available. Here's how we make our 'classic stir-fry', which is a Thursday-night staple:

Start with the onions. They don't have to be cut super small, but they should be put in the pan first (as for pans, we prefer cast-iron. They soak up the flavors so that each meal you make is more and more delicious). Onions caramelize on a medium low heat in a little bit of olive oil. You will keep the heat at this temperature or a little bit higher for the entire process.

Once the onions are underway, toss in the broccoli and peppers. Broccoli should be fairly small. Peppers are any size you want.

When making a stir fry, it's important to keep the ingredients moving. A wooden spoon is a common kitchen implement and good for accomplishing the stirring part of the stir-fry.

At any time you can season the stir fry with your choice of spices. We like soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, oregano, cumin, and rosemary (not all at once!). You can find the combination you like, but they're all tasty additions.

Mushrooms come soon after. Stir this all around for a bit, with frequent taste tests for tenderness (taste tests are EXTREMELY important, especially when improvising).

After the mushrooms, toss in the baby corn and cherry tomatoes. It's good to either slice the tomatoes in half, or pierce them with a fork.

Sometimes we put in spinach, which you usually put in last. Spinach cooks down a LOT, so get a bunch of it.

It's a seasonal thing, but apples are also a sweet addition. Chop them into small pieces and add them near the end.

To give your stir-fry some protein, crack an egg or two over the vegetables near the end of the stir fry, and scramble it up.

So, to recap, the ingredients and order of stir-fry are:

Onions

Broccoli

Peppers

Mushrooms

Baby Corn/Cherry Tomatoes

Apples

Spinach

Egg

As for what to serve your stir fry on, we've had a few different experiments. In this picture, we made ramen noodles (yes, from one of the instant packets that litter college doormrooms) separately, and then mixed them into the pan once the stir fry was over. That worked okay, but the noodles were so fragile that they broke apart. The preferable starch is couscous, which is a snap to make and cheap to boot! Couscous is delicious with stir fry, especially with lots of soy sauce. The other option is spaghetti, making a sort of pasta prima vera.

There you have it! Now as Bob Marley once said- stir it up

using your meal plan to its fullest

You might have noticed that we often get a lot of our ingredients from Kline, our dining hall. As financially-challenged college students, we advocate the dining hall as an absolutely invaluable resource. Now we by no means wish to undermine the college's food service, but rather to slowly move towards independent living by learning simple recipes that we can cook on occasion. Cooking for us has become a lovely pastime, and our meal swipes get used either way!

1. The Basics. The dining hall can be extremely useful when you are baking and find that you are lacking such basic necessities as milk or butter. Milk is always provided for cereal and coffee, and butter can usually be found (at least at Bard) by the bagels. If you are VERY nice to the dining hall workers they may spare you an egg or two, but otherwise Bard's Green Onion Grocer (or any equivalent) works just fine.

2. VEGETABLES. VEGETABLES. VEGETABLES. The salad bar is your new best friend. The next time you go to grab some salad at lunch bring along a compostable paper cup or two and drink in the possibilities. (or, if you have some, tupperware is the superior option)

Especially successful vegetables that are usually offered at salad bars include:

-cherry tomatoes

-onions

-mushrooms

-broccoli

-peppers

-spinach leaves

-baby corn (if you're lucky)

All of these can be easily stir-fried or sauteed and paired with pasta in a primavera-style dish. More uncommon vegetables like eggplant can also be easily bought at the Green Onion or any supermarket.

3. Spices. I'm not sure other schools have the same wealth of condiments and spices that Bard does, but next time you're in the dining hall keep an eye out for such offerings. In Kline, a selection of spices as well as oil, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce can be found at the corner of the salad bar nearest to the entrance. At the other end of the salad bar, honey mustard is also available, which can be pretty versatile (we like it on fries and sandwiches). Now remember, dear reader, not to be greedy- only take what is needed for the meal in mind. This blog does not advocate theft, but thrift and innovation.

4. Cheese. Bard has a pretty standard sandwich-making station, consisting of an assortment of lunch meats and cheeses. Unless they run out of one cheese, Kline typically has American, Cheddar, Provolone, and Pepper Jack (I THINK. And sometimes Swiss?). And if Bard kids are lucky, Kline will also put out feta by the salad bar. An example one way to be creative with cheese can be seen in the previous post.

5. Cooked Foodstuffs. In addition to raw materials, a lot of times the meals the dining hall offers daily can have enormous potential. Kline offers plain pasta and red sauce every day- both of which can be used to make more elaborate dishes. Also, left over cold chicken cutlets (sometimes placed on the other side of the salad bar) can be a tasty alternative to lunch meat for sandwiches or simply a hearty addition

to your salad.

Vegetables probably gotten on each of our three dinner swipes, in preparation for a stir fry.

when eggplant met tomato

The story begins with a large heirloom tomato, who sat many a lonely night in the Honey House kitchen feeling conscious about its size, and wary of its expiration date. Then, one night it met a couple young chefs, who to the tomato's surprise praised it for its voluptuous curves. The young chef's took the tomato and introduced it to a cute, bottom-heavy eggplant from Steinway-- and the rest is history.

With the help of the young chefs, this magical partnership was made complete with the addition of some sliced bread, provolone cheese, basil, and balsamic vinegar (the bread, cheese, and balsamic courtesy of the dining hall).

Specifically, small towers of eggplant, tomato, cheese, and basil were put in the oven until the vegetables seemed sufficiently cooked and the cheese was good and melted. The towers were then placed on top of slices of bread, which had been toasted, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

To make the meal a little heartier, we heated up some butternut squash soup that we had, and picked some fresh vegetables from Bard's community garden. As pictured, the soup was served with oyster crackers that were also taken from Kline. In addition, we got innovative and made cornbread out of a mix we had for corn muffins, an idea that turned out extremely well.

Needless to say this dinner was as easily devoured as it was made, and the young chefs lived happily ever after.

Valentine's Day

Ok, so owing to the regrettable lapse in posting, some recapping will have to be done. Valentine's Day was a night notable not for culinary skill, but for tastes so sweet that we happily forgot our lack of doting sweethearts. Determined not to wallow in the usual Valentine's Day backlash that comes with not having a valentine, we decided to have a Sex in the City -esque night complete with cosmopolitans (non-alcoholic of course ;]), a milieu of chocolate-dipped snacks, girlish giggling, and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" bumpin' from the computer. It turned out to be the perfect end to the weekend.

To make our fondue, we simply melted chocolate chips in a double-boiler setup, adding a little vegetable oil to help prevent the chocolate from burning. While this was happening, others prepared apples, bananas, and oranges into slices in preparation for dipping (the apples and bananas were acquired courtesy of the dining hall). We then dipped the fruit as well as some pretzels into the chocolate and set them onto some wax paper. Finding we had an awkward amount of chocolate left, we mixed some dried cranberries and walnuts into the pot and scooped out the onto some wax paper as well. We NEVER let chocolate go to waste. The chocolate treats harden after being in the refrigerator for about 15 mins, and then you can serve them with your girly drink of choice!

Ours was...

Non-alcoholic cosmopolitans

ingredients:

-cranberry juice

-lime juice

-club soda

-sugar

-a lime or lemon

-cocktail glasses (or whatever you have...note Mason jar...)

First, put a little cranberry juice on a plate or in a bowl, and some sugar in a separate plate or bowl. Dip the edges of the glasses in the cranberry juice and then in the sugar so that the rims of the glasses are rimmed with sugar. Put equal parts cranberry juice and club soda into the glasses, followed by about 1/4 part lime juice. Garnish the glasses with lime or lemon wedges and enjoy!

Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha approve- and so do we.

Winter Hiatus

Dear Readers,

We would like to apologize for the blog's apparent hibernation over the winter. As First-Years adjusting to our ever-growing college workload, blogging had to be put on the back burner of our mental stove (cooking metaphors!).We assure you, though, where our blog was lacking our stomachs were full (I'm on a roll!). We never stopped cooking, though we admit that spring's rejuvenating qualities has us scurrying about the kitchen with newfound zeal. Some new friends have since joined the mix as well, so cooking has become an even more celebrated tradition. Stay tuned for many more posts to come! (We can guarantee in the near future at least all of the drafts that have gone unposted all winter- or your money back)

Love,

Your Kitchen Crusaders