The Queer Hipster Kitchen

It's summer.  It's hot outside.  That means it is the perfect time for home made ice cream. I want to begin by saying that we were very fortunate.  We didn't have to buy our own ice cream maker.  The very first Christmas that we were an "us," Kara's dad bought us a Kitchen Aid standing mixer.  He must have coordinated with my mom, because that very same Christmas she bought us a bunch of attachments, including the ice cream bowl. That was many years ago (not actually that many, really) and I've used that ice cream bowl more this month than I have since we got it.  The reason?  Cooking classes. We really enjoy going to cooking classes together and two of our favorites have included ice cream (or gelato) for dessert.  I wish I could take credit for the recipes that I'm going to share, but they are both thanks to the cooking classes. So let's start with equipment.  You will, unfortunately, need an ice cream maker of some sort for these r...

Confession: I love cooking, but I don't always want to cook when I get home at the end of the day.  I don't get people who claim they do.  Believe me when I say that I too come home tired, annoyed, and/or aggravated, and I am as tempted as the next person (if not more) to cry "screw it!" and hop on GrubHub. I was having just such a day today - not that anything bad or annoying occurred, but it was hot, and it's summer, and I just wasn't feeling it.  Karen and I had gone out to do a few errands, and as we drove home, it seemed like every restaurant was taunting us. I could smell Mexican food, and something else delicious, as we made our way homeward through increasingly annoying traffic.  But I knew that there was a fridge of CSA vegetables awaiting us, and something had to be done with them before the next batch arrives on Saturday. So, grumbling, I made my way to said fridge, staring for a bit.  We've started to have lots of "scraps" of ve...

This one is pretty easy to whip up with stuff you have on hand - at least, for us.  Adjust spice to your taste and put it on whatever's in the fridge. Modified from The Cooking Guy . For the rice: 3-4 cups chopped vegetables, whatever's handy 2 cups cooked rice 2 eggs (or stray egg whites) For the sauce: 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 T fresh ginger (or ginger powder) 1 T sesame oil (or any neutral oil + sesame seeds) 2 T rice vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup veggie broth 1/2 to 1 T sriracha or other hot sauce (per your taste!) 1 T sugar 1 T corn starch Instructions: Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. After making sauce, heat a large pan with about 2 T oil or a generous spray of cooking spray. Stir-fry vegetables as appropriate to what you have: harder veggies (carrots, zucchini) take 2-3 minutes.  Greens and softer veggies (cabbage, peppers, etc.) take less than 2 minutes. Remove veggies and put in a bowl.  Toss with s...

... But they are my mama's beets. Cinnamon Pickled Beets have been a family recipe for years.  I talked a little about my mom's beets in a previous post , but they have converted many folks who swear they do not eat beets.  People have been contacting her to ask if there are beets available yet.  (There are not.)  However, if you've got beets, you can have some cinnamon pickled ones from the comfort of your own kitchen! Oddly, I am the holdout.  I love beets, but I'm the only one who's not obsessed with my mom's.  (Don't get me wrong - they're delicious - but I prefer my beets roasted.) Go figure. Ingredients: 4 pounds beets 2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar 1 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups sugar 1 tablespoon mustard seed 1 teaspoon whole allspice (NOT GROUND) 1 teaspoon whole cloves 3 cinnamon sticks, broken The Process: Wash and drain beets.  Leave 2 inches of stems and tap roots. Cover with boiling water and cook until t...

Our adventures in Utah with my parents reminded me that for folks who have been omnivores for their entire lives, the idea of leaving meat out of things can make one feel like meals are missing something.  Cooking for vegetarians, the thinking sometimes goes, is weird and complicated.  What do you make if your meal isn't meat, starch, and veg?  Surely all those strange vegetarian alternatives are expensive?  What kind of casserole doesn't include ground hamburger?  (This last is definitely a mystery to my mom.) So my goal with this post is to convince you that eating vegetarian is a) not weird; b) not expensive; c) not complicated; d) delicious.  The meals for the week are designed as usual - with a range of complexity (but tending toward quick and simple).  There will be a photo of at least one meal each day, so you can see how pretty our food is.  (It's the all-natural beauty of veggies and spices.  Food staging is not a talent to which m...

While most weeks, I focus on the magical trip to the farmers' market to get our CSA share, I thought perhaps I should talk a bit about what happens after the farmers' market - namely, our trip to the co-op to pick up the non-vegetable items and the few things we need to finish out recipes.  This post will be long, heavy on photos, and high on praise! First things first: what the heck is a co-op?  A co-op, or a food cooperative, is a member-owned grocery store.  You pay a certain amount to become a member of the co-op, in exchange for which you usually receive a discount from the advertised prices for things.  (However, anyone can shop at a co-op: you don't have to be a member.)  Our co-op includes a working membership option, where adults in the household can contribute 6 hours of work a year for an additional bit off your bill each week.  The kinds of work vary from actually working at the co-op - say, helping people in the bulk section or packaging up p...

Have you ever been trying to use up some kitchen scraps and made something so fabulous that you write down everything you did, so you can do it again?  That was my day today. We were rolling egg rolls for our gathering with friends tonight.  The trouble was that we had sort of a lot of egg roll wrappers left - we made a beautiful dozen crispy baked rolls, as per the recipe I shared last week , but then were left scrambling to figure out what to do with the rest of the wrappers.  Once they're open, you really only have a day or two to use them. So I went digging in the fridge: what else can be made into an egg roll?  I found barbecue sauce, some more of our endless CSA cabbage, and an open can of jackfruit. Things weren't looking promising. However, I know that many people like jackfruit for its pulled-pork-like texture.  In fact, I have a can at present because I put some into our lentil sloppy joes for exactly that magical texture.  So, if jackfruit...