warm quinoa and barley salad

this can be a great side dish or main dish.  i used it as a main dish recently, mostly because when it came down to it - i didn't have any more time to make something else for dinner (well, i baked some chicken for hubby).  this is a wonderfully refreshing, delicious and simple dish.  and it's quite easy to customize too - no dried cranberries?  no problem!  toss in some raisins if you want.  no walnuts?  toast up some almonds!  but the roasted beets . . . i think they're pretty imperative to the dish.

golden beets, pre-roasting.  i love how they look.  round. bulbous.  what a strange word.  b-u-l-b-o-u-s.  bulbous.  

roast beets in 400 degree oven.  while they're roasting, cook the quinoa and barley.  measurements?  umm . . . sorry, i did this dish mainly visually.  but i'll try.  about 1/2 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup barley.  cooked it in a rice-cooker with 1 cup water.   it'll take about 40 min, perfect timing since the beets take about 45 min.

beets roasted and peeled.  naked beets.  on an odd side note - hubby and i went to a comedy show last friday night with friends L and C.  long story short, the comedian (hilarious, btw, absolutely loved her!), Jackie Kashian, described her husband as her "naked friend."  hehe.  naked beets.  naked friend.  okay, the only connection is the word naked.  moving on . . .

dice the cooked roasted beets - i used just two.  fluff the quinoa and barley like you would couscous, with a fork.  add about the rice vinegar and honey.  toss.  add salt and black pepper.  add the dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, chopped arugula.  mix and you're ready to eat!

Warm Quinoa and Barley Salad

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup barley

1 cup water

2 medium golden beets

3 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp honey (warmed to help mixing)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped arugula

roast beets in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.  while it's roasting, cook quinoa and barley in the water, about 40 minutes in rice cooker.

cool and peel beets under cold water.  dice beets.

fluff quinoa and barley with a fork.

add beets.

add vinegar and honey, mix.

add salt and pepper and mix.

add walnuts, dried cranberries, chopped arugula and mix.

get a bowl and eat!

i did it!

i manged to do all those things according to my timeline yesterday! woohoo!

and what did it get me?

to tired. very fast.

to not having any energy to do GMAT questions.

but the quinoa (and barley, b/c i ran out of quinoa) salad/dish thing came out very good. recipe and pictures to come later. for now, i'll just try to carve out some time during my lunch break to cram in some GMAT questions.

hello sentence corrections (sarcastic smile and half-wave)

my goal for monday

is to get home by 5:30pm and in order . . .

prep golden beets

toss quinoa in the rice cooker

defrost chicken

preheat oven

change into my running clothes

find my ipod shuffle

put beets in oven

turn on rice cooker

run out the door by 6:00pm!

(yes, i'm leaving the oven on while i'm not at home, hubby should be home in mere minutes).

run for 45 minutes

shower

finish making dinner and try to have on table by 7:30!

we'll see how it goes . . .

perfect cornbread for chili

chili is not exactly summer food, i know. but green chili could be. and cornbread certainly could be. the green chili post will come another day. for now, it's just the cornbread - which is quite a star in it's own right.

i started experimenting with putting different things in plain cornbread a few years ago. the first wonderful thing i hit on was a lemon blueberry cornbread (which reminds me, i should make that soon). but as far as a savory-type cornbread goes, i haven't had much luck until recently. and here it is - my roasted red pepper and poblano pepper and corn cornbread. that's sort of long. let's just call it cornbread to go with chili.

1 roasted red pepper, peeled and de-seeded

1/2 roasted poblano pepper, peeled and de-seeded

1 ear of grilled corn

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp low-fat plain yogurt

just shy 1 cup milk (the yogurt and milk should add up to one cup)

1/4 cup canola oil

2 eggs

pre-heat oven to 400

i start off by tossing the roasted red pepper and poblano pepper for a little whir in my food processor. kinda liquid-y, but it'll be okay. get the corn off the cob. set aside peppers and corn. combine flours, cornmeal, sugar, baking pwoder and salt in a large bowl. stir to combine. add yogurt, milk, oil and eggs. stir, by hand, until just combined. then add the peppers and corn. stir a few times.

grease or spray a 9x9 pan.

pour in mixture

bake for about 45 min or until the middle doesn't stick to a toothpick (or a chopstick from chinese take-out b/c we have no toothpicks here).

let it rest before cutting in and eating it! otherwise, you'll be like hubby and burn your tongue!

hubby's request for vineman

hubby's race at ironman coeur d'alene did not go as planned. it was cold and dreadful. it was the end of june and it was as low as 50 that day, and overcast and raining. and well, the run just wasn't as fast as he wanted it to be. but in my view, he was still plenty fast. it was exciting for me; it was the first time i got to sit in the stands because there was hardly anyone out there!

anway, for past few weeks after ironman, hubby's been focusing on vineman 70.3. that's a half ironman.

this will be our 5th time at vineman. it's hot up there. he loves it. i love spf 55 suntan lotion.

for the few days before we leave for a race, i try to cook every night and make hubby what he wants to eat. and before this race, he wanted pasta. homemade pasta. homemade pasta with roasted red pepper sauce.

i got this recipe from the pioneer woman. and i changed it a bit. partly because i didn’t have all the ingredients on hand and partly because i think both hubby and i might die from a heart attack if we used that much heavy cream. and since i was making this as a special dish for him before a very important race, it was probably good to keep away from the heavy cream. hubby loves homemade pasta. and he even bought a pasta attachment for the standmixer for me so i can make more homemade pasta.

so here it is, first recipe in a while . . . pasta with roasted red pepper sauce!

first off, there are only two of us, so a large portion we need not.

so just two roasted red peppers or two charred red peppers, whatever. i did this in the oven. you can do this on the grill. it’s really fine either way. toast some slivered almonds or pine nuts while you're at it.

i like it charred to this degree. it's just so much easier to peel.

after they're roasted, stick them into a plastic bag for a few minutes and let them steam away. it helps with the peeling process. while you're waiting, go ahead and start your pasta water.

i won't post a picture of what the peppers look like after they're peeled. they look slimy and naked and not at all appetizing. or maybe that's just because i didn't take a good picture. hmm.

after you've peeled and deseeded the peppers, toss them into the food processor with the toasted almonds. add 1/2 tbsp of butter. whir it up. add some salt and pepper. whir it again. should look something like this.

now, at this point, pioneer woman added the sauce to some sauteed onions and garlic. on this particular day, i forgot. but i think you should do it. it would taste good. then the pioneer woman added lots of heavy cream. you could do that too. i was scared of adding anything else to my thighs and laid off the heavy cream. still delicious to me.

don't forget to cook your pasta, the water should be boiling by now. i made it with large, wide, flat homemade wheat pasta noodles. per hubby's request. the sauce would probabaly hold better with another shape. but this is what hubby wanted and he was the one with the upcoming race.

so when your pasta's done and your sauce is done, just toss it together and it's time to eat!

pasta with roasted red pepper sauce:

2 red bell peppers

2 tbsp slivered almonds or pine nuts

1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 medium onion

3 or 4 cloves garlic

olive oil

salt and pepper

a little parsley for topping the dish

pasta - any kind you like!

roast the red peppers until charred on the outside. toast nuts at same time. i do both in the oven, but on separate sheet pans! you could choose grill for the peppers and stove-top for the nuts.

fine dice the onion and garlic. saute in olive oil.

after the peppers are roasted, put them into a plastic bag and seal bag. this will make it easier to peel.

start pasta water.

peel peppers, deseed peppers and put into food processor with nuts and butter.

whir.

add salt and pepper.

whir again.

cook pasta. i made homemade pasta before starting on the sauce, so my pasta only took a few minutes to cook up.

add red pepper sauce to the pan with your sauteed onion and garlic. mix.

toss with cooked pasta.

top with parsley if you have it. we didn't. otherwise the green would have been nice on the top. i feel like such a delinquent when i'm missing basic stuff like parsley. ack. oh well. it's yummy anyway.

another degree?!?!

yup, that's right. one masters degree is just not enough. hubby's going for an MBA and if he goes back to school and gets one, that means he'll have two masters degrees and i'll only have one.

that's just not right.

i need an MBA, too.

okay, so that's not the real reason why i'm going for an MBA, but the competitive thing sure helps studying for GMAT!

and consequently, as all my free time is now spent on data sufficiency questions (and if you know what those are, i can hear your groaning). so not much time to blog. i've still been cooking and baking and taking pictures . . . but just not doing anything with them. but if i only study for the GMAT in my spare time, it'll drive me crazy, so i'm gonna try to start this up again.

maybe if i spend a little less time reading blogs, i can have more time blogging, lol.

so close, soooooo clooooooose!

bringing in my thesis to the print shop today for binding.  one small, informal paper due on monday (max time that will be spent - 1hr).  work on putting references in APA style for group paper due on monday (max time that will be spent - 30 min).  and that's it!  nothing else!  i'm soooooo clooooose to being completely done!

and then i get to spend some quality time with my standmixer.  

in the past few weeks, we also moved into a new apartment.  another rental, yes, but a much nicer one.  

new kitchen with lots and lots of cabinet space so i can store everything away, except the standmixer.  it was actually too tall.  and there's lots and lots of countertop space too, so i guess it's not a tragedy if not EVERYTHING can be put away.  and there's lots and lots of sun.  so hopefully the picture lighting will be better and the pictures better (but maybe not . . .).

this weekend will be filled with the rest of the unpacking process, making lots of yummy food, and back to taking pictures.  

oh, i can't wait!