Last week I wrote about a new little thing I’m trying – making a week-long resolution relating to health and trying to stick with it all week. The trick is that you have to make the resolution specific enough that it’s not mentally daunting, e.g. “No chocolate from the candy box at work” instead of “No dessert at all.” Doing something for a week is challenging enough to feel like an accomplishment when you’ve finished, but not so challenging that you give up after three days. If, at the end of the week, you’re glad that you were able to keep your resolution for the week, try to keep that one going for another week and add a new one as well.

So far, I’ve completed two weeks of these little resolutions, and I’m feeling pretty good about it so I’m going to try and keep it up, at least for a little while. This week, I’m going to try and do 10 minutes of strength training and stretching every day. Strength training is something I do sporadically, at best, but I know that doing it regularly will both help me feel better about how I look, and help my balance and coordination in ballet. If you’re interested in joining me, I’d love to hear your own resolutions in the comments – and if you commented last week, let me know if you were successful!

To keep track of my resolutions so far…

1. Week one: No chocolate from the chocolate box at work – Success for week one and week two! This is huge.
2. Week two: Walk to or from Park St. to work at least once each day – Success! I even went in the rain.
3. Week three: Do ten minutes of strength training/stretching every day

And now for the food. Trevor and I took a trip to Wholefoods this weekend and, silly me, I went without a list. This resulted in a lot of impulse purchases, like camembert, Haitian mangoes, blackberries, satsuma oranges, and clementines. None of it local, all of it too tempting to pass up. I was originally tempted to use all the fruit in a mango-cream tart, but since this week is such a big eating week, and since I had just made a batch of chocolate cookies, I managed to talk myself into a healthier option – mango, satsuma, and black rice salad.

When I realized that I had bookmarked this salad from multiple sources, I knew it was about time that I tried it. Strangely, this salad seems both like summer food and winter food – summer food because it’s light and fruity and healthy, and winter food because it’s bright and citrusy and nutty. I doctored the original up a little bit, adding sour cherries and increasing the amount of orange. Feel free to play with the ratios to get it the way you like – an extra handful of peanuts, all scallions instead of the red onion, etc. It’s an easy and forgiving recipe!

Mango, Satsuma and Black Rice Salad

Adapted from Bon Appetit. Serves 4-5 as a side.

• 1 1/2 c. black rice, rinsed and drained
• 2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 satsuma tangerines or 1 c. canned mandarin oranges, drained, plus 1/4 c. of the drained juice
• 3 TBS fresh squeezed lime juice (from 1 large lime)
• 2 TBS canola oil
• 1 mango, peeled, sliced, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 c. red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. roasted salted peanuts
• 4 scallions, white and dark green parts removed, sliced
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/4 c. dried cherries

1. In a medium saucepan, combine rice, water, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 15 minutes longer.
2. If using fresh tangerines, peel tangerines, remove as much of the white pith as possible, and separate into segments. Using a small knife, carefully slice along the skinny length of each tangerine segment, then use your fingers to remove the skin/membrane of the tangerine. Save the membranes with the little pieces of fruit attached (some staying attached is inevitable). Squeeze the membranes over a bowl and collect the juice – you should have about 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup. If you have less, squeeze one or two of your tangerine segments into the bowl to make up the difference. If you’re using canned mandarin oranges, you can skip this step, just be sure to save 1/4 c. of the juice.
3. Whisk together the tangerine juice, lime juice, and oil. Pour over the black rice and let cool.
4. Stir the tangerine segments, mango, cilantro, red onions, peanuts, scallions, jalapenos, and dried cherries into the salad. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or lime juice if desired. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

The post Monday Morning Resolutions & A Mango, Satsuma and Black Rice Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This post is a result of the confluence of several forces.  Number one, Baked Explorations was going to be September’s cookbook of the month, until it was this weekend and I realized that I was going to be spending all my time taking my mom to tea at the Taj/ buying most of the stock at the Ann Taylor outlet/ eating homemade duck confit/ snuggled up in bed… not having a baking extravaganza like I had planned.  I’m not complaining, though, it was a great weekend.  Number two, as every food blogger and their mother has mentioned several times since the first chilly day in September, it’s fall, and fall makes us all want to eat lots of apples and stews and pumpkin-flavored things and caramel.  Number three, Trevor and I have gone to the movies every Friday for the past 3 weeks, and each time I got popcorn for dinner.  So it’s been on my mind.

The summer movie season was kind of disappointing.  I mean, Avengers was awesome, and OK, so was Prometheus, but other than that?  Not much doing.  The fall movie season though is looking pretty exciting.  The Hobbit on December 14th.  Les Mis (with Hugh Jackman!) on Christmas Day.  Cloud Atlas on October 26th.  Anna Karenina on November 16th.  Life of Pi on November 23rd. I could go on, but suffice it to say, I might be eating a lot more popcorn before Christmas.  And this particular popcorn – mixed with homemade caramel sauce, salty peanuts, and a drizzle of melted chocolate – will definitely be sneaking into the theater in my purse more than once.  The guys at Baked have gotten it right again with this recipe.  Maybe it’s hard to go wrong with caramel and chocolate and popcorn, but this recipe is addictive, and also super easy to make.  It’s a great addition to any baker’s repertoire!

I have to tell you two more things about this popcorn.  One, it would make a great holiday gift as part of a food package, especially tied up in cute little plastic bags.  I haven’t found a single reliable source for food safety information on caramel corn, but internet consensus says homemade caramel corn should last about two weeks in an airtight container.  If it’s in your house, I promise you it won’t last that long before you devour it, but I think you could get away with making it a few days before giving/serving it (and hiding it from your sight!).  If in doubt, wrap it up and freeze it until you’re ready to give it away.  Two, while straight-up air-popped popcorn is a great healthy snack, this recipe is a fat/sugar/calorie bomb.  Be careful with it.  Treat each cup of popcorn like you would a chocolate chip cookie – they have basically the same ingredients.  Now with that warning – go try it!

Caramel Corn with Peanuts and Chocolate

Adapted slightly from Baked Explorations.  Makes 10 cups.

• 10 cups popped popcorn (about 1 regular sized bag)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. light corn syrup
• 1 TBS molasses
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. roasted, salted peanuts
• 6 oz. dark chocolate, melted (1/2 regular sized bag)

1. Preheat oven to 250°F.  Line a large roasting pan with parchment paper, and set aside.  Place popped popcorn in a large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter.  Once melted, stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and molasses.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to bubble.  Then, stir constantly until it reaches 240°F, also known as “soft-ball stage.”  To see how to test for this stage without a thermometer, see this article (basically, when a drop of syrup on a cold plate or in cold water forms a sticky “soft” ball – not immediately hard and not still fluid.)  Immediately remove from heat, and stir in salt, baking soda, and vanilla.  Careful – the baking soda will make it foam up slightly, so keep stirring and don’t let it spill over the edges.
3. Pour caramel over popcorn and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle with peanuts, then spread in lined baking sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes, remove and stir, then bake for another 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
4. Drizzle cooled caramel corn with melted chocolate.  Once the chocolate has hardened, break the caramel corn up into pieces and enjoy!

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So here I am in Maine.  On vacation.  My first ever real-person vacation, to be exact.  It’s been really nice, with just the right amount of activity, and just the right amount of rest… and there’s still four whole days left.  Tomorrow my 3 best girlfriends from Duke begin to arrive, and things will be a little busier, but in a good way.  I’m envisioning margaritas, long tanning sessions, catching up on love lives and gossip, and some wholesome Maine activities for good measure.  So far though, other than Trevor’s too-short visit, things have been quiet, rejuvenating.  Just me and the fam.

I’ve gotten up to a little bit of everything while here.  I learned to wakeboard, which is a major accomplishment, given my track record with sports where you’re dragged behind a boat.  I also ran 8 miles down the most beautiful stretch of road I’ve seen in ages, another major accomplishment – the last time I ran anything more than 5 was in October.  It feels really good to know that I’m capable of running that far.  It helped that I took my camera along to take pictures of the butterflies and wild turkeys.  I also giggled through 21 Jump Street with Trevor.  I ate bowlfuls of the sweetest, creamiest mangoes I’ve ever tasted that our Indian friends brought during their visit.  I had piping hot popovers slathered with salty butter and strawberry jam at Jordan Pond House, after a gorgeous 7 mile hike in Acadia.  (You know, it just feels great to have moved that far before noon!)  I picked blueberries even though they’re not quite ready, because I couldn’t wait until next time.  I sat on the sandy beach of a deserted island and read my book and ate a turkey sandwich, then watched a curious seal check out our boat.

I’ve also devoted a fair amount of time to checking out some cookbooks that have been gathering dust on my bookshelf, updating my recipe lists and plans, and of course, cooking.  I’ve made Bailey’s ice cream sandwiches that were a total pain in the ass, but worked out in the end, a bubbly stone-fruit crisp, arugula salads with hearty chunks of avocado, Mexican stuffed sweet potato skins, and a handful of other recipes I’ve been wanting to try.  Tonight, after a long day on the water, dinner was a simple bowl of cold, sesame noodles with crisp veggies and honey-roasted peanuts.  They were super yummy, and just the kind of simple, cooling, flavorful dinner that’s perfect for a hot, summery day.  I served them with this warm cucumber and coconut dish, which was also quite good.  Enjoy this for now, and I should be back soon with more shots of Maine, and maybe even some ice cream sandwiches.

Cold Sesame Noodles

A hodge-podge of these three recipes (one, two, three).  Serves 4-6 as a main.

• 1 lb. soba noodles
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 3 TBS minced garlic
• 3 TBS minced ginger
• 4 TBS sesame oil
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 3 TBS rice vinegar
• 3 TBS sugar
• 3 TBS peanut butter
• 1 1/2 TBS sriracha sauce or other hot sauce (taste as you go!)
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 5-8 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 5 scallions, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
• 1/4 c. sesame seeds
• honey-roasted peanuts, for garnish (about 2-3 TBS per serving)

1. Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  Drain, rinse in cold water, drain again, and set aside.
2. In a small frying pan, heat vegetable oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and ginger and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant and garlic is just beginning to brown.  Remove from heat and add to a medium bowl.  Add sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, peanut butter, and sriracha to bowl with garlic and ginger and whisk vigorously to combine.  Sauce should be smooth.  Taste for flavor and heat and adjust ingredients to your taste as necessary.
3. Pour sauce over cooked noodles and stir to combine.  Stir in cucumber, carrot, scallion, cilantro, and sesame seeds.  Serve chilled.  Garnish with peanuts.

The post A Summer Dinner: Cold Sesame Noodles with Veggies appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Aha!  I got you.  You thought that after I posted the first two installments in this so-called series 3 months apart I would either get my act together and post with some continuity or give up like a respectable human being and stop with the chicken thing.  But you were wrong.  Because it’s been another 3 months, and I’m back with more lovingly-roasted-by-someone-else-chickens.  Get excited.

I’ve known for a while that the 3rd installment in my rotisserie chicken series was going to be a pizza.  Chicken on pizza is stellar.  It’s actually been on my menu for the past 5 weeks in a row… it’s just that I ran out of pizza dough, and making pizza dough without a stand mixer?  Huge pain in the ass.  I did it once last spring and made enough for 5 pizzas, but I ate those 5 pizzas and the 45 minute kneading process required to make more dough should definitely be categorized as an aerobic workout.  Maybe anaerobic.  And who likes exercise anyways.

The other problem is the chicken itself – if I don’t get at it right away, while it’s still warm, it’s a goner.  Cold rotisserie chicken that’s been in the fridge for two days and has congealed in the bag?  Not my favorite thing to pick apart.  And if I do manage to tackle the chicken as soon as I get back from the grocery store then there’s the problem of trying to make stock at night and getting really exhausted before it has time to cool properly.  Whine whine bitch moan.

But I’ve been really wanting this pizza.  And the prospect of having pizza dough in the freezer again is highly appealing.  So I buckled down.  I’d like to say that the stars just aligned and I woke up this morning totally jazzed to knead dough and boil chicken carcasses and then have the energy to photograph my lunch before snarfing it.  But no, I actually just had to make myself do it.  But it was totally worth it.  Especially because as I was taking my pictures it started to snow.  And not only is it the first snow of the season, I’ve actually never seen it snow like this in Durham.  We had one really heavy, really brief, really nasty storm last January and no one could figure out how to drive for 2 and a half weeks, but this is like… beautiful, perfect snow.  The kind of snow I actually like.  All the freshmen from Texas/Florida/Southern California are probably freaking out like they do every year.  Anyway, I just sat by the window and ate my pizza and watched the snow and didn’t think about anything other than how lovely it was, and it was really nice.

Back to pizza.  This was just like I wanted it to be – pizza is one of those sum of its parts things.  In a good way.  If you use quality ingredients that you like, and you have some idea of how to combine them, your pizza will be good.  Like this.  Besides the dough-making process it was also really quick to throw together.  If you already had dough in the fridge/freezer this could be ready to eat in 20 minutes.  And now I no longer have to be tempted by the frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas in Kroger, cuz I can do it myself. :-)

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Want More Chicken?

• Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #1 – Asian Pesto Chicken Salad
• Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #2 – Fettucine, Mushrooms, and Chicken in a Mustard Cream Sauce

Thai Chicken Pizza

Serves 2-3.

• 1/5 basic pizza dough recipe, below
• 2 TBS minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 c. peanut butter
• 1/2 c. water
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 3 TBS hoisin sauce
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 c. shredded cooked chicken from rotisserie chicken
• 3/4 c. mozzarella cheese
• 3 scallions, sliced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1/2 c. sprouts
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Roll pizza dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Sprinkle baking pan with a teaspoon or two of cornmeal to prevent the bottom from burning and place dough on pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix together ginger, soy sauce, water, peanut butter, hoisin sauce, and red pepper flakes until smooth.  Spread 2/3 of the mixture evenly over the pizza dough.  Add the remaining 1/3 of the peanut sauce to the chicken and stir to coat.  Sprinkle cheese over the sauce/dough, and then place chicken pieces on top.  Bake for 15 minutes.
3. When pizza is cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 or 2 minutes.  Then sprinkle the top with the scallions, shredded carrot, sprouts, and chopped cilantro.  Slice and serve.

Basic Pizza Dough

This is my mom’s calzone dough recipe.  It’s very simple and actually takes significantly less time than 45 minutes to knead, so I’m glad I have it now.  It also gets a great rise, and extra can be frozen after it has risen and been punched down.  This recipe makes enough for 5 individual sized pizzas or calzones.

• 2 c. skim milk
• 1/4 c. very warm water
• 1 TBS active dry yeast
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 5 1/2 – 6 c. flour

1. Proof yeast – sprinkle yeast over 1/4 c. warm water and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
2. Heat milk in the microwave for 2 minutes, until quite warm but not bubbling.
3. In a large bowl, mix together 4 c. of flour, salt, and olive oil.  Add milk and yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.  Add remaining flour half a cup at a time until the dough comes together and is not too sticky.
4. Dump dough on lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed.
5. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour.  Once risen, punch down and break into five equal portions.  Freeze portions in individual ziploc bags or use within 1-2 days.

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