In the meantime, I’ll be periodically posting mp3 mix tapes.  This one is basically for stoners, and it’s best enjoyed outside on randomized order.  A soul one is coming soon and you can probably expect more after that (depending on how long the redesign takes).

Tracklist and a mediafire link are after the jump.

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE HERE (7zip is a free and user-friendly unzipping software, if you don’t already have something)

Song......................Artist..........................Album
You and I.................Washed Out......................Adult Swim Singles
Take Shelter..............Active Child....................Curtis Lane 
Strangers In The Wind.....Cut Copy........................In Ghost Colours
Sometimes.................Beach Fossils...................S/T LP  
Round And Round...........Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti...Before Today 
Just Wait Til Next Year...John Maus.......................Songs  
Friend of the Night.......Teen Inc........................Fountains 7"
Fly Like an Eagle.........Steve Miller Band...............Fly Like an Eagle
Feel It All Around........Washed Out......................Life of Leisure 
Do Your Best..............John Maus.......................Love Is Real 
Darlin'...................Dead Meadow.....................Three Kings  
Cortez the Killer.........Neil Young......................Zuma 
Chinatown.................Wild Nothing....................Gemini  
Can't Hear My Eyes........Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti...Before Today
Air Supply................Sweet Trip......................You Will Never Know Why

If you like this, allow me to also plug Rachel and my DJ night (every 2nd Thursday of the month at Enid’s) as well as DJ Overgold’s (wayyyyy to many to mention, but he’s highly google-able).  See you all again when we land,

Guten Morgan

[optional: 1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped for some heat]

Sweat onions in pan with olive oil.  Add turkey to pot and brown on both sides-about 4-5 minutes on both sides.  Add kale, jalapeno and saute for about a minute. Add beans, tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, touch of salt.  Mix together pot and let simmer away for about 30 minutes until chili is thick but not to thick.  I like to cook it covered for about the first 10 minutes and then leave it uncovered for the remainder of the cooking time.

1/2 onion $0.60

Grand Total for Two: $9.01

Happy Cooking!

You will need:
1 avocado, chopped into large chunks
2 cans chickpeas
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper
1 cup brown rice
whole wheat tortillas
olive oil, salt to taste

Cook rice. You can follow the directions on the package, but a simple way to remember the water/rice proportion is 2 parts water per every 1 part rice. Bring water to a boil, add rice, reduce heat. Cover and cook for approximately 40 minutes.

While rice is cooking, drain and rinse chickpeas. Chop up avocado, onion. Mix all three in bowl. Now for the fun part. I didn’t feel like roasting the pepper, but I wanted to have an element of roasted veggies in this burrito. Since it’s not warm out (and I don’t have an outdoor grill anyway) I decided to cook the pepper over the flame on my stove top. Using tongs, rest the pepper over the flame until outside turns black. Rotate the pepper until all sides are nice and burnt. Remove from heat, chop. The pepper will be almost al dente-nice and roasted on the outside, warm and crunchy on the inside.

Mix all the veggies together in a bowl with a drop of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Add rice, veggies to tortilla. You can roll it up into a burrito, or eat it like a taco. Or do both (which is what I did).

So, let’s add it all up:
2 cans organic chickpeas $2.18
2 avocados $1.99
1 organic green pepper $$0.99
1/2 small red onion $0.45
1 cup organic short grain brown rice (about) $0.67 *serving size per bag is an approximation
2 large whole wheat tortillas $0.28

Grand Total: $8.55

Wow! Look at that! I bought two avocados and still had money to spare! I decided to splurge on some broccoli ($2.33) to roast on the side, but this dish is so hearty and filling that you don’t even need a side dish to feel full. What I really like about these burritos is that they are extremely hearty, but not heavy.

Happy Cooking, everyone!

I don’t know about you, but I loved root beer floats as a child.  I have very vivid memories of drinking them on humid summer afternoons while visiting my grandma in Chicago.  The website for this Root stuff has a bunch of different recipes, but I wanted to make a classic root beer float, which is just root beer and vanilla ice cream.

I used the Root liquor as a syrup base (as if I were making a soda) and combined it with seltzer water. Then I gently mixed the two together (if you stir it too much your glass will over flow), and added ice cream. The result: root beer float for adults.  As far as the flavor goes, the Root has a strong sassafras flavor, but also has a slight bitterness due to the alcohol content (the sweetness of the ice cream really cancels out any bitterness, so don’t let that scare you away).  I recommend making one of these if you want to feel like a kid again.  I will definitely be ordering more of this stuff come summer time…..

Anyway, to the recipe.

For the Cabbage:
-Cut in half, remove center root, slice length-wise
-Place on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt
-Roast in oven at 425 for about 40 min, or until brown and crispy
-Remove from oven, let cool, place on cutting board and roughly chop.

You can toast the pumpkin seeds as well-I threw a little seasoning on them and toasted in the oven for about 10 minutes. Combine with chopped cabbage.

For the scallops:
-Rinse and pat dry scallops, add salt and pepper
-Place 2 pats of butter, drizzle of olive oil into pan. Let butter melt and pan heat up
-Place scallops in pan, approx. 1 1/2 minutes per side until brown

Remove scallops from pan, place on top of cabbage, serve.

So:

Bag of Pumpkin Seeds $2.99
1 head of cabbage (organic, local) $2.83
Scallops (about 4/person, depending on size) $4.00
Grand Total: $9.82

Happy Cooking!

by jaime

Happy New Year everyone! I know it’s freezing over here on the East Coast, but I just got back from a very warm coast, and I wanted to share a recipe with you all that I ate over the holidays. I have been on what you could call a “ceviche hiatus” for the past two years. The last time I ate ceviche I was on a boat where the fish had been caught hours before-nice right? Wrong. The “captain” of the boat was the one who made the ceviche and served it to us with blood all over his shirt and grease all over his hands. It also tasted fishy (not a sign of fresh fish), so I was pretty much done eating ceviche after that boat ride.

Fast forward to this holiday season, back in Mexico, being served ceviche. Like the last time I ate ceviche, I didn’t want to be rude and not eat it (and this time I wasn’t being served by greasy fingers), so I gave it another go. This time the ceviche was made with shrimp and scallops. It was really tasty and very easy to make.

Recipe is as follows:

1 large onion, fine chopped
6-7 roma (plum) tomatoes, finely chopped
about a half a bunch of cilantro, fine chopped
1/2 lb shrimp
1/2 lb scallops
salt, pepper to taste
lots and lots of fresh lime juice

Mix all ingredient in bowl, place in fridge for 1-2 hours until seafood is cooked. The chef I spoke to said he boiled the shrimp and scallops for under a minute, just to guarantee everything was cooked, which I am very thankful for after my last ceviche experience.

I realize this may not be what you are looking to cook this time of year, but if you are in the mood for something light, this is the perfect dish. Or, just file it away until the summer! Happy Cooking!

So, for the recipe.  Very easy.

1.  Peel and grate potatoes.  Russet potatoes are the best kind to use because they are super starchy.

2.  Squeeze all of the excess water out of grated potatoes. You can do this by placing potatoes on a dishtowel and rolling out the excess water.  I often squeeze the water out as I go along by ringing out the potatoes in my hands before I put them in a large bowl (make sure you wash your hands!!!).

3.  Finely chop up about a quarter of an onion.  Add to bowl with shredded potato.

4. Add one egg, salt, pepper to potato and onion.  Mix.

5.  Heat up oil in pan (use canola or vegetable).

6.  Make palm size pancakes in hand, place in pan.  Press down with spatula.  Cook about 4 minutes per side, or until brown and crispy.

7.  Remove from oil, place on plate lined with paper towel to let cool.

Serve with sour cream, applesauce, or even greek yogurt.

Grand Total:

2 lbs potatoes (this is a lot for two people!) $2.60

¼ onion $0.40

1 egg: $0.30

Total-$3.30

Wow~that was cheap!  You still have plenty of money left over for apple sauce and sour cream!

Happy Chanukah, everyone!  Don’t forget to check back next week for some holiday drink specials…

This pumpkin soup recipe is adapted from my friend Lindsey’s recipe.  She taught me how to make this soup in high school, and I always crave it around this time of year.  Making pumpkin soup is a really easy way to get into the holiday spirit, and it also happens to be a very simple recipe.

You will need:

1 quart whole milk. Use good milk-I prefer Ronnybrook

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, pressed

4 whole cloves (this is what the recipe calls for, but I used more. It just gives the soup more flavor)

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs parsley, finely chopped

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 tbs lemon juice

3 chicken bouillon cubes (I suppose you could use vegetable if you are vegetarian, although I don’t know why you would be one…)

1 nutmeg, grated

butter

salt, pepper to taste

Scald the milk with onion, garlic, cloves, bay leaf, parsley, nutmeg, bouillon cubes. Don’t let the milk boil, it will burn. Add pumpkin, salt, pepper, cook for approximately 15 minutes.** Pour through a wire strainer and add lemon. Serve with minced parsley and a thin slice of butter on each bowl.

**The recipe calls for using a double boiler, but you don’t have to go through the trouble as long as you cook the soup on low heat and stir occasionally to prevent from burning.

This makes quite a bit of soup, and in the words of Lindsey, “this recipe ends up being really cheap” if you have a stocked spice cabinet (a can of pumpkin is 99 cents). If you do buy everything for the first time, it’s worth it because you will have enough ingredients for endless quarts of soup.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ever since I started writing this column, I have had lots of people share their favorite recipes with me. This week I am happy to present a guest recipe from my friend S. S is quite the cook (a bamboo steamer is one of her favorite kitchen tools and she makes a mean cookie), but when she told me what her “go-to” meal is after a long day, I thought it was quite brilliant. It reminded me of something Mark Bittman would write about (the ultimate minimalist), and all of his readers would nod in approval of his genius, yet simple, creation. If you haven’t read his column, I suggest you take a look-see. It’s pretty much him throwing together three different items that turn into a scrumptious dish. Of course, I love his column because I think good food comes from simple ingredients. Also, Bittman is a major heath nut, and this dish is definitely something I can see him cooking. Thanks, S, for this “super healthy, super easy” dish!

Soba Noodles with Kale and Chickpeas

Ingredients: *Kale (any type: green, red, etc.) *Soba Noodles *Can of Chickpeas *Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

Utensils: *One pasta pot, medium *One pair of tongs *One bowl (you will also use this bowl to eat the completed meal) *A strainer *A plastic storage container (to store leftover chickpeas in fridge)

Cooking instructions:   1) Cook about 2/3 a package of Soba Noodles (buckwheat noodles usually found in asian section of grocery store) as per directions, usually 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and set aside (usually easy to keep in strainer at this point). Be careful not to overcook, as the noodles will become mushy.

2) While noodles are cooking, wash 8 large kale leaves (usually a full bunch from the grocery store) under water. Then tear leaves from the stem spine. Once clean leaves are removed from spine, rip into medium-sized pieces. Throw stems away.

3) When you take pasta out of the pot, add a little water to the pot (JUST enough to cover the bottom), and add kale pieces along with some salt and pepper. Cook on high heat until they reduce down and become tender (about 3 minutes). Set leaves aside in a bowl (usually the bowl you will eat the dish in.)

4) While kale is cooking, drain 2/3 can of chickpeas (pre-cooked, no salt added). Leave the other 1/3 chickpeas and the water it comes with in a container in the fridge for later usage (best to use your own storage instead of storage can in the fridge as the metal might oxidize and become hazardous).

5) In the bottom of your single pot, drizzle olive oil and put in your 2/3 can drained chickpeas. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Saute on high heat for 1-2 minutes to warm / toast the chickpeas. Then, add kale and mix together the chickpeas and kale. Let cook for 30 to 60 seconds. Add pasta at the end and mix together in the pot to incorporate everything. Then pour into your bowl and enjoy!