butternut squash chili + the twins' artistic endeavors

As much as we'd like autumn to go on forever (or at least until next spring), we've been forced to admit that it's almost winter here. The one advantage of this is that it's the perfect weather for chili.
Lola remembered seeing a recipe for butternut squash chili somewhere, so we took that basic idea and made our own (probably much simpler and faster) recipe:
Butternut Squash Chili: serves 6
*1 butternut squash, roasted in the oven and then cut into cubes
*1 can (14 oz) red kidney beans
*1 can (14 0z) black beans
*1 can (14 oz) corn kernels
*veggie broth or water
*3 tablespoons each cumin and cayenne
* a pinch of cinnamon
Combine everything except squash in a pot, including the bean liquid from the bottom of the cans. heat up, then taste and add more spices if necessary. Add water or veggie broth until it becomes as soupy/liquidy as you want it. Add squash, heat up for a few more minutes and stir everything together. Put into bowls and top with grated cheese if desired. (and at Chez Twin, cheese is always desired)
it turned out delicious! we also added some Mexican hot sauce at the end.
and now, onto the artistic endeavors. we are twins of many talents:
this is how Lola studies for her science tests:

and this is my assignment for drawing class: (turn your head or your computer around)
now turn it back

italian vegetable and bread stew

I literally just finished eating this a minute ago, then rushed over to the computer to blog about it. first of all, because its been 5 days since our last post (sorry!), but also, because i am excited about this. it was that good.
italian vegetable and bread stewserves 2
*10 Brussels sprouts
*2 tablespoons olive oil
*salt and pepper
*1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juices
*1 (or most of one, depending on how much you want) 14 ounce can of chickpeas
*2 teaspoons italian seasoning
*2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
*1 slice stale wheat bread
*grated Parmesan cheese
1. preheat oven to 450 degrees F. toss brussels sprouts in about 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a pinch of salt and two pinches of pepper. pour into a glass baking dish and roast in the oven until the outsides are browned, 40-50 minutes.
2. heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. add garlic and cook about 3 minutes, until light brown.
3. add can of tomatoes, bread, torn into bite sized pieces, and italian seasoning to skillet. cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. add chickpeas and stir.
4. remove brussels sprouts from oven. let cool for about 2 minutes. if desired, you can slice them in half.
5. put 5 brussels sprouts in each of 2 bowls. top with tomato mixture and stir to incorporate sprouts. sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
edit: a variation!omit the bread and serve everything else over cooked pasta.

The chorizo post

We are usually not big fans of fake meats, but we've been trying some really good ones from TJ's lately that might change our minds on that. The latest is soyrizo. We got a link of it a few days ago and have been using it in as many meals as possible since then. The first way we tried was with some chipotle salsa, also from TJ's. Lola had it inside a whole wheat pita (as Lou Seal watched jealously) and I had it on top of some home-made tortilla chips with a little cheese melted on top.


For my second soyrizo meal, I made soyrizo and potatoes. This dish is so simple, yet so delicious. It only has 2 ingredients (3 if you count the generous amount of oil used for frying) but those 2 ingredients go together perfectly to create the most comforting, flavorful breakfast/ brunch ever.

Super Taste Restaurant

On a cold day, there are few things better than a giant bowl of warm noodle soup. Especially when those noodles come from a tiny, crowded restaurant in Chinatown. And when they are only $3.45. Rita and I both got the hand pulled noodles with vegetables and a fried egg. A few minutes later, we were presented with ridiculously ginormous bowls of deliciousness. You can also get many other toppings, such as beef, or fish balls (my favorite at most places...but it was slightly more expensive and was being cheap that day so i didn't try it at Super Taste), with the most expensive bowl coming to $6. And, like any good restaurant, they have big bottles of sriracha at every table. They also had dried mustard greens to add to your soup. At the restaurant, we each ate half our noodles, plus the fried egg and the vegetables (leafy greens) that came in the soup. At home, we added spinach, shiitakes, and more sriracha (this is what's pictured above).
Super Taste Restaurant
26N Eldridge St., New York, NY 10002
nr. Canal St

thai rice with vegan meatballs

rita is the ambitious one in our dorm kitchen. she does big shopping trips to trader joe's and actually tries to make recipes. with more than 3 ingredients. me, i stop at gristede's on the way home from class, wander around the aisles in a daze for 30 minutes, and wind up with a dinner of toast, baked beans, and artichoke hearts (which was delicious by the way). so this meal is a bit of a mix between our 2 current styles-her "fancy" ingredients, and my "lets just cook a few random things we have and throw them together" craziness.
thai rice with meatless meatballs
*trader joe's meatless meatballs i had seen these on other people's blogs and wanted to try them. they are super good! i would use 6 per person in this, or any other, dish
*brown rice
*trader joe's thai green curry sauce, or other spicy curry sauce
*peas i buy tons of frozen peas because they're the cheapest of the frozen veggies
*mango (or other type) chutney
cook your rice, add peas and meatballs (defrosted, of course...i just threw mine in to the rice pot frozen once there was about 10 minutes left for the rice to cook. but i also had way too much water in that pot because apparently i thought i was cooking pasta--lesson of this post: ironically, an entire day of classes about the brain causes my brain to cease functioning. anyhoo, it would be better to simply defrost your meatballs and peas first and throw 'em in at the end),stir in a big glob of sauce, and top with mango chutney.
serve in tupperware, if you're classy like me. also, wow. super unappetizing photo. but it tasted good!

oat-stravaganza!

happy halloween everyone! eat lots of candy... ...and even more oats!
(oatmeal is unphotogenic, so you get a photo of the magical land that is economy candy instead.)
so we now have mass quantities of oatmeal, and we've been experimenting with different recipes. our new favorites:
-nutella and strawberry: oats cooked in milk + handful frozen strawberries + spoonful nutella
-pumpkin and peanut butter: oats cooked in milk + big scoop of pumpkin + big spoonful of cinnamon, topped with spoonful of pb and 1/2 a square of dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
-banana pumpkin: oats cooked in milk + 1 banana, sliced and added to milk at the same time as the oats + spoonful cinnamon + small handful cashew pieces
p.s. i just saw a guy dressed as a bottle of sriracha on my way home. he's my hero/future husband.

thai curry with bamboo shoots and tofu

yesterday on the way home I realized we didn't have any ingredients for dinner, so I stopped at Sunshine. Sunshine is a Japanese grocery store, but that description does not do it justice. It is a magical land of canned congee, unidentifiable (to me) veggies, a million different kinds of noodles, and most importantly, pocky. But unfortunately, I cannot live on pocky alone and I wasn't sure how to cook the strange veggies, so I came home with rather normal ingredients. I did get some bamboo shoots, which I had previously only had canned and pre-cooked, but that was about as exotic as my ingredients got. Here's what we made with my purchases:
Thai Curry with Bamboo Shoots and Tofu pictured above, serves 2, as usual no measurements are exact
ingredients:
-about 8 oz winter bamboo shoots, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup snow peas
-fried tofu (I bought it pre-fried), cut into bite size chunks
-1 cup shitake mushrooms, cut into strips
-about 1/2 cup thai green curry (we used TJ's)
-rice for serving
- about 1 tablespoon butter/ butter substitute for frying (we used earth balance)
Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet. Add bamboo shoots and saute for about 5 minutes. add the shitakes and snow peas and continue sauteing until the bamboo shoots are browned on the edges. add the tofu and the sauce, simmer for about 2 minutes, then serve over rice.
This turned out very good. The best part was the bamboo shoots, which were crispy and almost caramelized from the butter.
Today, I used the last little bit of bamboo shoots to make a delicious curry.

This was just bamboo shoots, chick peas, rice, and peas, sauteed in earth balance and loads of curry powder and cumin, topped with some delicious mango chutney that our mom sent us for our birthday.
and lastly,one of the awesome plates our mom sent us (with the remains of a curry on it):


thanks mom!
ps. there's a giveaway for probars here