Tip From The Hearth: Make Stromboli

Looking to mix up your pizza night? Make stromboli instead of pizza for a change. Sounds kinda fancy and difficult, right? Well, I seek to make my kitchen a no-intimidation zone, so no! Only an extra step or two and longer baking time required. Stromboli is essentially just a pizza in jellyroll form.

Simply:
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Prepare your pizza dough.
3) Using your hands and/or a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a rectangular cookie sheet until it looks like it would be ready to turn into a regular pizza.
4) Add your favorite toppings (think red sauce, cheese, broccoli, mushrooms, garlic, onions, meat for the omnivores if you're making a couple of these at a time, etc.). Use a little more sparingly than you would with pizza to avoid the a mess of stromboli filling on your baking sheet.
5) Roll up as you would a jelly roll (or a loaf of cinnamon bread) and pinch the ends together. Use a little water if the dough is difficult to stick together.Place seam down on your baking sheet.
6) Lightly brush the top of the stromboli with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a little bit of cheese.
7) Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until thoroughly browned.

Frothy Maple Frappe

Like many things in life, figuring out the recipe for a frappe took a couple tries. I wanted to make a blended iced coffee drink like you can get at a coffee shop, but without $5.00 leaving your wallet. The basic ingredients are in most kitchens, so you can make this treat any time! You'll need milk, coffee, ice cubes, and a sweetener. You can even put in additional flavors to suit your taste.

I opted to use maple syrup in my frappe this morning. It's sugaring season in New England and  Merck Forest and Farmland Center, one of my favorite places to visit, is tapping their maples trees and producing fresh, organic maple syrup. Maple syrup makes the perfect addition to a frappe, since it serves as both sweetener (no sugar necessary!) and flavoring.

Ingredients
- 1/3 cup whole milk (Use reduced fat milk for a lighter drink, or half and half or heavy cream for a richer one.)
- 3/4 cup coffee, cooled
- 7-8 ice cubes
- 1/8 cup maple syrup

How to Cook It
1) Place all ingredients in your blender.
2) Blend until fully combined. It's that simple!

Orange Julius

A old friend from high school recently asked if I had an Orange Julius recipe. No such luck. So, in hopes of finding one I scoured the web. It seemed like the majority trying to imitate the chain's "secret" recipe used frozen orange juice concentrate, instant vanilla pudding mix, non-dairy coffee creamer... that's not the kind of ingredient list I like to see when I'm preparing a treat. You can actually light non-dairy coffee creamer on fire. In case you didn't hear that folks, I said on fire. Sure most ingredients are carbon-based and will burn, but this stuff is a different kind of beast. You'll see what I mean if you click the link above.

Anyway, back to the recipe. This isn't a healthy treat, but the ingredients are fresh and basic. Greg tells me that it tastes like the real deal, and I agree. Enjoy in moderation!

Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 5-10 ice cubes

How To Cook It
1) Pour all ingredients into a blender.
2) Blend and serve. This recipe makes three small drinks or a couple on the larger side.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Skip the takeout, and make yourself some fresh vegetable fried rice. Many thanks to my Uncle, Charlie Lum, for the tutorial. If you don't have the veggies in the recipe below on hand, you can sub in others. Can you cook rice? Can you scramble an egg? Can you fry/sauté things in a pan? Yes, yes, and yes? Then, you can make this dish!

Ingredients
- 7 cups cooked brown rice
- 16 ounces mixed vegetables (I used a defrosted bag of frozen mixed green beans, carrots, corn, and peas.)
- 1/2 cup slices scallions/green onions
- 1 cup snow peas, chopped in half
- 6 eggs, yolks and whites whisked together
- Sesame oil (canola oil would also work well)
- Reduced sodium soy sauce

How To Cook It
1) Scramble the eggs. Use your spoon or spatula to break them up into small pieces.
2) Heat some sesame oil (about 1 TBSP) in a large pan or wok. Add the scallions and sauté for a minute or two.
3) Scallions cook quickly, so set them (and their oil) aside in a separate bowl.
4) Add more sesame oil to the pan, allow it to heat, then add the snow peas. They'll take the longest to cook. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, then add the remaining mixed vegetables.
5) Cook the snow peas and mixed vegetables for 4-6 minutes and return the scallions to the pan.
6) Once you're satisfied with the consistency of your veggies, stir in the rice. Cook until the rice heats through, stirring constantly to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
7) Stir in the scrambled eggs.
8) Add soy sauce to taste. I like to put in enough so that the color of the rice is just a little browner, but not enough to make the pan a salt fest!
9) Feast.