Potato Pancakes with Condiments, My Way

2012 is almost over, and there are so many things from this year I have yet to post. Meaning you will probably not see everything I have concocted. I have failed many a time, but still succeeded a fair number of times.
2012 for me has been a year of beginning my blog. While I started as mainly a fashion blog, I have developed a passion for food.  I would say I am now a food blogger.
Thank you all for following and caring about what an odd sixteen year old does!!!

So, latkes. Actually sweet potato-zucchini pancakes with strained yogurt sauce and spiced apple-pear compote (which is really a dessert). Yum, yum, yum.

Potato pancakes with the yogurt sauce,
apple-pear compote on the side, and a slice of slightly-
burned garlic bread (garlic + basil + olive oil on bread, toasted)

Potato Pancakes

makes about 32 small pancakes, about 4 servings (main dish) or really unique little cocktail snacks if served with the yogurt dipping sauce (see below)

Ingredients

2-3 medium sweet potatoes, shredded

1-2 zuchinni, shredded

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp arrowroot powder

2 spring onions, minced

other spices of your choice (think crushed garlic, oregano, parsley, anything at all)

3 tsp olive oil

1.Combine everything bu the arrowroot powder.

2. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the mixture.

3. Add the arrowroot powder. 

4. Create small patties, about 1 inch in diameter and fairly thin.

5. On a lightly greased skillet or pancake griddle, cook patties until crisp.

potato pancakes with the yogurt sauce on top

Zingy (yes, I did say that) Yogurt Sauce

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Plain, fat free yogurt (my mom makes yogurt at home really easily by boiling milk and mixing some old yogurt into it and letting it set. No machine needed.)

1 scallion, chopped in rings

Some cilantro, minced

1. Strain the yogurt to make it as thick as sour cream. The yogurt we make with skim milk is super watery, so straining is necessary. You need quite a lot of yogurt to end up with one cup of thick yogurt if it is watery. Just drink the water you get from the yogurt if you are using thin, homemade yogurt. It is delicious. Store bought yogurt does not need to be strained.

2. Mix the scallion and cilantro in. Serve with the warm potato pancakes.

Apple-Pear Spiced Sauce 

(ok with the potato pancakes, like apple sauce, but better as a dessert by itself or on vanilla ice cream)

Serves 4

1 small apple, diced, peeled if you feel like exerting the effort doing so

1 small pear, diced

ground cinnamon (to taste)

ground cloves (1-2)

a pinch of nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1/2-1 tsp balsamic vinegar (trust me)

1/2-1 tsp brown sugar (to taste)

1. Cook apple with about 1/4 cup water and all the spices, sugar, and balsamic until soft.

2. Add the diced pear and cook more until everything is cooked down.

3. Cook out some of the water. 

4. Enjoy!

An Outfit and Thoughts about Style

I may have worn this outfit in October, but it is still worth posting. Time just keeps getting away from me.

This outfit was inspired by Elizabeth of Delightfully Tacky. I love how she remixes her items of clothing here, and I thought I would try the same. 

This outfit made some of my peers a bit surprised, but as I say, I wear what I want to wear. The other day someone saw a different outfit of mine and said that she liked my purple pea coat but hated the rest of my outfit. Fashion blogging has made me realize that this is a compliment, that if someone has feelings about my outfit, I should be flattered. I wear what I want to wear. I have my own sense of style, and I should stick to that. Yes, I take inspiration from other fashion bloggers. Yes, I have made too many fashion mistakes (example, bright blue tights and cutoffs in 8th grade; I have no idea what I was thinking.) But I am still proud that I, the ultimate introvert, at last have the courage to wear my orange pants with a forest green top or my purple rain boots with a plaid shirt on a lace dress, hold my head high, and show the world that I have style, however strange.

Deconstructed Pear and Cranberry Pie

Winter Break, at last!!!!! And the world did not end. Today is a pretty great day.
I finally decided to post dessert today, because honestly that is always the best part, right?
This is the lazy cute and unique alternative to pie. I used this recipe, adjusted to use 3/4 cup of flour, to make the cute little pie crust twist, sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar. They were not very good alone, but delicious crumbled on top of the compote. The compote was simply divine. A bit sour, but perfect with vanilla ice cream. Fat free ice cream, might I add. Not the healthiest, but hey, it is the holidays. We can all resolve to exercise next year : )

Pie Crust Cookies

Makes 10

Follow the recipe here but simply adjust all of the ingredients so that you use 3/4 cup flour. Seems complicated, but it is pretty simple. Just remember, these pie crust cookies are meant to be crumbled on top of a filling. The compote would be just as good without them, but these are just a little unique. Not the tastiest, but definitely unique.

Compote
Serves 6
3 cups fresh cranberries
2 red pears, diced
1/2 cup water
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2-3 cloves, ground
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (trust me on this one)
2-3 tbsp brown sugar, packed (put more if you have a sweet tooth)
1 tbsp gresh orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla

1. Add the cranberries, pear chunks, all of the ground spices, and water to a fairly large pot (you need room to stir). Cook covered for 5-10 minutes, until pears are soft but not falling apart and cranberries have burst, releasing a lot of sticky pectin.
2. Stir in the vanilla, orange juice, orange zest, and balsamic. Cook without a lid for 2 minutes to let some of the water out, if there is any excess liquid left.
3. Enjoy!

So much easier than a pie. And in my opinion, so much better.

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

5 ingredient deliciousness. Unless you count salt and pepper. Then 6 ingredients. That is all I need to say. It has a wow factor, so no one needs to know that it was easy to make. Just saying, this needs to be soaked overnight for best flavor. And plus, if you do things in advance, the actual holiday can involve just sticking things in the oven. 

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

Serves 2-6, depending on how many sides you have

Ingredients

20-24 stalks asparagus, with the stringy peels removed

2 tbsp balsamic

1/2 a red onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Soak the asparagus in all the other ingredients overnight.

2. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until tender, about 10 minutes.

See, that easy. Seriously that easy. And delicious.

Sweet Potatoes with Spicy-Sweet Marinade

These have to be made the night before. I tried to make these last week without marinading them over night. They tasted like nothing. If you want to make this, plan ahead.

I love love love love love (did I mention love) sweet potatoes. I will eat them just boiled, without any seasoning. But this recipe is definitely better than a simple boiled sweet potato. Though that is still excellent, in my opinion.

Sweet Potatoes with Spicy-Sweet Marinade

Serves 2-6, depending on how many other side dishes you will have

Ingredients

For the Marinade

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh orange juice

1 tbsp fresh grapefruit juice

1/4 tsp orange zest

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

3 cloves, ground

And 4 small sweet potatoes, diced

1. Boil the sweet potatoes until just cooked, for about 7 minutes. Drain them and pat them dry.

2. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and toss the sweet potatoes with the marinade.

3. SOAK OVERNIGHT. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Saute the marinaded sweet potatoes until browned. Enjoy!

Seriously, this is one of the best sweet potato recipes ever. My sister, who does not really like sweet potatoes, loved. It is so holiday-esque, with a twist, of course. No holiday recipe is exciting unless you mess with the traditional version just a bit. Or completely trash the traditional aspect and make something amazing. In this case, I kept the traditional spices, but I added some acidity and heat and totally nixed the marshmallows. I mean marshmallows? Really? Sounds disgusting in my opinion. Too sweet. But to each her own.

The marinade. Looks disgusting, but it is so so so good. Trust me.

YUM!!!

Carrot Soup

This is probably one of my favorite recipes. It was spicy and sweet, with a little acidity from a green apple, and fresh from the cilantro, which is definitely one of my favorite herbs. It tastes so clean and zingy. Perfect.

Ingredients

Serves 6 as appetizers

7-8 medium carrots and 2 green apples (I used 9 and 1 respectively, but the green apple flavor did not come out enough. Use 9 and 1 if you want a very slight green apple flavor; use 8 and 2 if you want the acidity.)

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp lemon juice

3-4 scallions, chopped

3/4-1 tbsp fresh ginger

Fresh cilantro, about 1/2 a cup of leaves, not packed

Salt to taste

1. Peel the carrots and apples. Dice and boil the carrots and apples until cooked well. 

2. After letting the carrots/apples cool, blend all the ingredients together, adding 2-3 cups of water to thin it out. I used my immersion blender, which is an awesome gadget. So perfect for soups and smoothies.

3. Heat and serve. Garnish with some scallion rings and cilantro if you want it to be pretty.

Yes, this recipe is literally that easy. And trust me, it is delicious. So cleansing and fresh and simple. Simple was the most important, especially because I had to make so much food!!! We had this with some crusty bread, because I crusty bread and soup are just meant to go together.

This recipe is perfect as a holiday dinner appetizer because it is so light and healthful and unique in terms of flavors compared to more traditional holiday dishes. It features produce that is in season like apples, but it highlights them in a new way.

Orange Anise Bread

Finally I am getting around to posting my Thanksgiving recipes. So sorry!!!

Anyway, so my breakfast recipe was this Orange Anise Fruit Bread. I added 1 cup of fresh pumpkin puree and got rid of half of the oil. I also replaced got rid of the golden raisins and replaced the figs with cut up dates. I love the sticky-sweetness of dried dates. Finally, I made these in muffin form instead of bunt form. Honestly, I will not try bread again. Apparently, orange zest kills yeast, and the yeast I used was already very old, so the bread did not rise at all. But nevertheless, the bread was delicious. Just a bit teeth-destroying. 

Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

Congrats Black Asphodel. I will email you shortly. Please respond within a week.

Also, I am so sorry I have not been posting. Junior year is truly killer. I will try my best to get all those Thanksgiving recipes and outfit pictures from two weeks ago up.