Jicamagic

Jicama is such a wonderful root! Peeling it is so much fun! It's worth eating it just for that, but it's also quite tasty, especially in this delectable salad.



This recipe is really good, and it's the best I've ever tried (admittedly, I only tried two). For this recipe I am willing to forgo my winter-summer foods rule, and have salad in winter. It's so easy to make and can make a great left-over lunch.
I altered the recipe a little bit: regular mustard instead of dijon, 1/2 can of beans instead of 1, more corn kernels, green onion instead of regular onion, jalapenos instead of green chilies, and no lemon peel. Those adjustments were mostly made due to inavailability of ingredients, convenience, or sheer laziness, but the result was still VERY good.
I can't recommend this salad enough. Try it!!

Squashy Spaghetti

Squash season is here, but with the temperatures still pretty high, stews are not the best option. Spaghetti squash is an excellent solution!



This is the best way we know to eat spaghetti squash. You will need:

1 spaghetti squash
1 onion
2 medium sized tomatoes (or 1.5 cups)
fresh basil
a bunch of black olives (12 or so)
1/2 lb or so Panela (or less than 1/2 lb Feta) cheese


Cook squash according to your preferred method (I like to half it, seed and place the half in a pan with 1/3 c water, cover with a plastic bag and microwave for 7 minutes. Repeat for the other half).
In the meantime, chop onion and saute in a bit of olive oil. When golden brown add tomatoes and cook until they're slightly warm. Don't overcook.
Scape the spaghetti out of the squash, add onion-tomato mix, chopped basil, coarsely chopped olives and cheese, and mix it all together. Don't forget salt!

It's very delicious and light (you might want to have some nice dessert later, like a pumpkin roll).

Mushroom Polenta

This is a case where the food doesn't look very pretty, but it's tasty, quick and easy to make, so thought it would be good to share with all of you busy people.


The polenta is made as previously instructed. The mushrooms go like that:
Slice them, saute them in some olive oil, add salt and parsley flakes, maybe some freshly crushed black pepper, and keep sauteing until they're cooked (takes about 5-10 minutes). Toward the end you can add some heavy cream for extra richness (highly recommended, even if I didn't here).
Pour the mushrooms on top the polenta and sprinkle with shaved Parmesan or Romano.

Cupcake Ant

In celebration of Rebecca's passing her comps, Dani and I made a little cupcake ant for her.



Dani made the cupcakes. They turned out really moist and tasty. She said she followed this recipe exactly. We assembled it together in the Fewell lab, and it went much better than I had anticipated.
Congrats, candidate Rebecca!