co-op cookbook

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CHOOSE YOUR OWN CO-OPCOOKING ADVENTURE

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CO-OP COOKBOOK

Table of ContentsIntroduction.............................................................................................................................1

PROTEINThai Curry with Tofu..........................................................................................................5Black Pepper Tempeh.........................................................................................................7Kale, Tofu, Squash Lasagna.................................................................................................9Veggie Bean Chili...........................................................................................................11Seasonal Frittata..............................................................................................................13Vietnamese Chicken Curry................................................................................................15Shepherd’s Pie...............................................................................................................17Fish Tacos.......................................................................................................................19

Plates.............................................................................................................................21

STARCHFocaccia.........................................................................................................................25Challah..........................................................................................................................27Spinach Cumin Brown Rice..............................................................................................29Coconut Brown Rice........................................................................................................30Quinoa...........................................................................................................................31Potatoes..........................................................................................................................33Soy Garlic Soba.............................................................................................................35Green Onion Cornbread..................................................................................................37Waffles..........................................................................................................................39

The Jar..........................................................................................................................41

VEGGIEMinestrone......................................................................................................................45Peanut Stew....................................................................................................................47Ratatouille......................................................................................................................49White Beans and Chard..................................................................................................51Roasted Vegetables..........................................................................................................53Miso Brown Sugar Squash................................................................................................55Roasted Brussel Sprouts.....................................................................................................57Elote..............................................................................................................................59

Gardens.........................................................................................................................61

SALADBerry Salad.....................................................................................................................65Spring Mix with Honey Mustard Dressing............................................................................67Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing........................................................................................69Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing..........................................................................71Arugala Salad with Yogurt Dressing...................................................................................73Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing........................................................................................75Slaw.............................................................................................................................77Warm Grain Salad..........................................................................................................79

Special Dinner + Brunch...................................................................................................81

DESSERT Berry Crumble.................................................................................................................85Chai Donut.....................................................................................................................87Earl Gray Fudge Semifreddo.............................................................................................89Carrot Halwa..................................................................................................................91Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.....................................................................................93Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding......................................................................................95Chocolate Beet Cake.......................................................................................................97Que Es Eso....................................................................................................................99

6 days of Co-op Dinner.................................................................................................101

SNACKPancake Almond Granola Clusters...................................................................................105Cinnamon Cardamom Granola.......................................................................................107Strawberry Salsa...........................................................................................................109Horchata...............................................................................................................111Thai Iced Tea......................................................................................................................112Nectarine Chutney.........................................................................................................113Tomato Salsa................................................................................................................115Vietnamese Carrots........................................................................................................117Spanish Rice and Beans.................................................................................................119Yogurt..........................................................................................................................121Beer Mustard................................................................................................................123Cilantro Hummus...........................................................................................................125

Conversation.................................................................................................................127Guide to Grains............................................................................................................137Index...........................................................................................................................139

About...........................................................................................................................145

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In the middle of summer after college graduation, I landed an interview for an editorial internship in the lifestyle department at a major inde-pendent publishing house. I’d finally start my career in food publishing, I thought! After an anxious week of waiting for a response, I finally got “the email.” It wasn’t the email I wanted though. The other candi-date was chosen over me because she was a yoga instructor and blogged about her crafty ideas, and these tangible creds were what ultimately tipped the balance in her favor.

My answer to my swiss cheese resume was to do a DIY project that would build my skills and experienc-es related to book publishing. The solution to my pre-dicament of unemployment was to write a cookbook. My friend Anna, also unemployed and eager to start her photojournalism career, entertained my wacky idea and agreed to help me with all things visual. Lettuce make a cookbook, we resolved. I would write and cook. She would photograph and illustrate. One month and two weeks later, we produced a first draft of our cookbook.

Our book is based on co-op food and our years living in student cooperative housing during our college experience at UC Berkeley. The Berkeley Student Cooperative is a democratically run non-profit student housing cooperative thataims to provide UC Berkeley and Bay Area students with affordable housing and a strong social community. The BSC is composed of 17 houses and

INTRODUCTION

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3 apartments of varying sizes. Members reduce their own cost of living by sharing resources, buying in

bulk, and sharing chores like cleaning, gardening, cooking, and recycling. By not paying others outside

of the house to fix, clean, and cook, members are able to reduce costs while increasing self-sufficiency.

To keeping things running smoothly, members rely on each other. Everyone does their part in living coop-

eratively with 5 hours of workshifts every week.

Food is central to the co-op community. Houses purchase food collectively and board is included in the rent. Members have 24/7

access to a stainless steel commercial kitchen that is fully stocked with fresh, organic pro-duce and brimming pantries of non-perish-ables. As part of their 5 workshift hours, a

rotating crew of 2-5 members prepare nightly homemade dinners for their house. These col-lective meals are an important part of house

culture and a daily social event.

The framework of this cookbook is a “choose your own adventure” style exploration of the

5 main components of co-op dinner cooking: at least one protein dish, one starch dish, one veggie dish, one salad, and one dessert. Start

by picking a recipe in the protein section. Cook the recipe and choose one of the three

recommendations at the end of the recipe. These recommendations will lead you to your next recipe. By the end of the cookbook, you should have a complete, well-balanced, and

delicious dinner menu. Happy adventuring & bon appetit!

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PROTEIN

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Thai Curry with Tofu

In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat and saute onions and carrots for 5 minutes. Add ja-lapenos, garlic, and ginger and cook for 5 min-utes. Add spices and cook for another 2 min-utes. Add potatoes, cauliflower, mushrooms, tomatoes, tofu, coconut milk, and veggie broth. Bring to a boil, reduce, and simmer for 20 min-utes or until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender. Squeeze in the lime juice. Chop the ci-lantro and basil and stir in the herbs.

Makes 8 servings.

Coming home to a homemade dinner is a real treat. Fortunately for co-opers, this treat is in-dulged on an almost nightly basis. Every Sunday through Friday night, a carefully and thought-fully made meal is freshly prepared for the whole house to enjoy. Life is good in the co-ops.

1. Brown RiceYou like tried and true pairings. And you’re exhausted from your 20 unit course load. Go to page 29.

2. Soy Garlic SobaYou read Bittman waxing poetic about soba in the papers and you’re feeling inspired. Can soba really be “a beautiful, exotic and delicious centerpiece?” Go to page 35 and taste for yourself.

3. Green Onion CornbreadBecause tonight’s theme is yel-low. Page 37.

2 tablespoons olive oil1 onion, medium diced4 carrots, cut into ¼” pieces2 jalapeno peppers, halved and finely sliced2 cloves garlic, finely minced1 knob ginger, 2” piece, finely minced½ teaspoon cumin1 teaspoon chili powder2 teaspoons sugar1 teaspoon curry powder2 teaspoons ground coriander4 yukon gold potatoes1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces2 cups mushrooms, thinly sliced1 cup diced tomatoes8 ounces firm tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes1 cup coconut milk4 cups veggie broth2 limes½ bunch cilantro1 bunch asian basil

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In a wok, heat sesame oil on medium heat and saute onions and bell pepper for 10 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and continue saute-ing for another 5 minutes. Add the chili flakes, honey, soy sauce, and black pepper. Dissolve the cornstarch in the rice wine vinegar and add the solution to the wok. Toss in the tempeh.Stir and cook for 5 minutes to heat the tempeh through.

Makes 4 servings.

Black Pepper Tempeh

1. QuinoaFollow with something a little more colorful than this tempeh dish. Page 31.

2. Brown RiceThis tempeh is on the salty side so if you’re looking for a good counterpart, go to page 29.

3. Viet Chicken CurryThe deli meat usually gets de-voured before lunch even rolls around. Some people really like their meat, so go to page 15.

This recipe is all about the sauce. The key to making this sweet, salty, and very slick tempeh coat-ing is to amply fleck the sauce with freshly ground black peppercorns.

8 ounces tempeh or firm tofu1 small onion, medium diced1 large bell pepper, medium diced4 tablespoons sesame oil6 cloves garlic, finely minced1 2” knob ginger, finely minced1 teaspoon chili flakes¼ cup honey or agave syrup3 tablespoons soy sauce2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar1 tablespoon cornstarch2 teaspoons black pepper, coarsely ground

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Preheat oven to 375F.

Make the squash sauce. Peel, clean, and cut the squashes into large cubes. Put the diced squash into a pot of water and bring the water to a boil. Cook squash until tender, about 20-30 minutes. Drain and mash the squash with rice milk, nut-meg, and miso paste to make a creamy sauce.

Make the ricotta like fillin’. Blend the tofu in a food processor with basil and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna

1. FocacciaPesto and Espresso come from Italy; that country knows what it’s doing. Go to page 25.

2. ChallahWho said dinners had to be themed? Page 27.

3. QuinoaWanna make make dinner re-ally vegan friendly? Page 31.

My first catering gig was for the Berkeley Student Food Collective’s Annual Harvest Gala, where I made this dish as the main course. The big challenge of feeding a large number of people is figuring out how to satisfy a melange of diets. I have learned that this filling, yet light-tasting lasa-gna, will please both vegans and omnivores alike.

12 lasagna noodles, or enough to make 3 layers of pasta2 bunches kale4 cloves garlic, finely minced5 cups mashed butternut squash, about 2 squashes2 cups rice milk1 teaspoon nutmeg2 teaspoons miso paste24 ounces firm tofu½ bunch basil5 tablespoons olive oil2 teaspoons salt

Make the kale layer. Tear the leaves off the kale stems and slice into ½” strips. In a large sauce-pan, saute 2 finely minced garlic cloves on low heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Toss in 1 bunch of chopped kale. When the kale starts wilting, cover the pan and let the kale steam, about 5 minutes. Add a little bit of water if the kale gets dry. Cook the second batch of kale with the remaining garlic and oil.

Cook lasagna noodles in a large pot of salted boiling water. Drizzle olive oil in the pot to help prevent the noodles from sticking to one anoth-er. Drain the cooked pasta and separate the noodles on a piece of parchment paper.

Smear a layer of the squash sauce on the bot-tom of a 9” x 13” baking dish. Add one layer of noodles. Spread a layer of tofu, then squash, then kale. Add another layer of noodles and repeat the layering sequence. Add the third layer of noodles and top with a fourth spread of squash sauce. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Makes 9 servings.

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Veggie Bean Chili2 small onions, medium diced3 small bell peppers, medium diced¼ cup olive oil4 cloves garlic, finely minced4 jalapeno peppers, halved and thinly sliced4 bay leaves2 teaspoons cumin1 teaspoon coriander2 teaspoons chili powder1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons salt2 teaspoons brown sugar3 ears of corn, kernels sliced off1 ½ cups diced tomatoes¾ cup pinto beans¾ cup kidney beans¾ cup black beans1 12 ounce bottle pale beer3-4 cups veggie broth or reserved bean juice

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Soak the beans in 7 cups of water for at least 6 hours. Drain and add to a pot with 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce, and simmer. Cook for 1 hour or until tender.

In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat and saute the onions and bell peppers for 5 min-utes. Add the garlic and jalapenos and saute for 5 more minutes. Stir in the bay leaves, spices, and salt. Add the corn, diced tomatoes,

1. FocacciaIt’s always a crowd pleaser, es-pecially hot and fresh out of the oven. Page 25.

2. CornbreadChocolate and orange. Rosewa-ter and pistachios. Strawberries and cream. Chili and cornbread. Page 37.

3. WafflesKitschy sometimes works for me. Kitschy might sometimes work for you. Ladle the chili on top of the waffles. Page 39.

cooked beans, beer, and veggie broth. Give it a big stir, bring it up to a boil, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.

Garnishes:grated cheddar cheesesmall diced onionschopped cilantro

Makes 8 servings.

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Preheat the oven to 400F.

Medium dice the onion and bell peppers. Thinly slice the mushrooms.

Whisk the eggs and milk together. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large cast iron pan, heat the oil on medium heat. Saute the onions and bell peppers for 10 minutes. Add the basil and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Pour in the eggs and stir to mix the veggies with the egg. Cook undisturbed for 4 minutes. Place the cast iron pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the eggs aren’t run-ny anymore.

Makes 6 servings.

Seasonal FrittataSeasonal SuggestionsSpring: beans, asparagus, leeks, and basilSummer: corn, bell peppers, spinach, and parsleyFall: hard squash, collards, kale, thyme, and sage Winter: root veggies, broccoli, arugula, and rosemary

12 eggs¼ cup milk3 tablespoons olive oil1 large onion2 bell peppers3 cups mushrooms3 cups spinach1 tablespoon dried basil1 tablespoon dried oreganos + p

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1. FocacciaLooking to impress a certain someone by satisfying his or her’s belly? Page 25.

2. WafflesBreakfast for dinner? Page 39.

3. PotatoesA classic eggs and potatoes combination. Page 33.

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Combine 2 tablespoons of the curry powder and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat the meat evenly. Set aside for 30 minutes.

In a medium pot, heat the oil on medium-low heat. Add the shallot, garlic, and remaining 1 tablespoon of curry powder and stir for about 10 seconds. Raise the heat to medium, add the chicken and cook until the edges of the pieces are golden brown. Add the whole pepper, lem-ongrass, ginger, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low for about 10 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces. Add the onions and potatoes.and cook for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not too soft. Add fish sauce and coconut milk. Garnish with basil and cilantro.

Makes 8 servings.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

1. PotatoesUnfailingly humble and heroic. Page 33 will bring you the tots; always serve hot.

2. Brown RiceRice, no matter where and how I eat it, will always remind me of the home-cooked meals of my childhood. Rice was either leftovers in the fridge, staying warm in the rice cooker, on the table, or all three at once. Page 29.

3. Soy Garlic SobaInterested in making a dish with a similar flavor profile? If yes, then go to page 35.

Try buying whole chickens and butchering them at home. There’s less waste if you use the odd bits and ends, plus it’s cheaper than having someone else do it. Knowing how to butcher is both a resume builder and life skill. Note: Be sure to toast up some bread for the curry!

3 tablespoons curry powder½ teaspoon salt2 pounds skinless chicken thighs cut into small pieces (or any chx cut)2 tablespoons vegetable oil2 tablespoons shallot, finely diced2 teaspoons garlic, finely minced½ teaspoon whole pepper2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces and gently smash with the flat side of a knife1 2” knob peeled ginger, finely minced2 ½ cups fresh chicken stock or low- sodium chicken broth2 tablespoons fish sauce½ cups unsweetened coconut milk1 onion, cut into 1/3” wedges2 medium potatoes (about 1 pound), large diced5 bay leaves½ cup asian basil leaves, chiffonaded8 sprigs cilantro, cut into 2” pieces

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Make the mashed sweet potato top layer. Peel the sweet potatoes and add to a large pot of water. Bring the water up to a boil and cook the potatoes until tender. Drain and mash the pota-toes with cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Prep the veggies. Medium dice the onion. Cut the carrots into ¼” pieces. Thaw the peas.

Make the ground beef bottom layer. In a large saucepan, heat the oil on medium heat. Add the ground beef and break it into smaller chunks. Cook until lightly browned and almost cooked

Shepherd’s Pie

1. ChallahRound out your meat and pota-toes supper with some bread. Page 27.

2. EloteVery hearty, super messy, and entirely comforting could be your dinner theme. Page 59.

3. QuinoaThis pie is on the heavy side, so if you want some more balance to your meal, the quinoa dish on page 31 is a good bet.

Call me old fashioned, but what about the meat and potatoes? As much as I adore veggies, I’m also a meat and potatoes gal and this is one dish where I can have them all in one spoonful. Mix it up a bit and throw some chaos into your veggie-phile kitchen!

6 sweet potatoes½ cup heavy cream1 tablespoon olive oil1 ½ pounds ground beef1 large onion, medium diced6 carrots1 ½ cup frozen peas1 tablespoon cornstarch1 teaspoon fennel powder1 teaspoon dried oregano1 teaspoon allspice2 cups cheddar cheese, grateds + p through; season with salt and pepper. Scoop

the beef out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Use the fat left in the pan to saute the onions and carrots; season with fennel, oregano, all-spice, salt and pepper. Add the peas, beef, and cornstarch. Mix and cook for a few minutes.

Pour the beef mixture into a 9” x 13” baking dish. Spread the mashed sweet potatoes on top of the beef. Scatter the grated cheese on the potatoes. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Makes 12 servings.

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Fish TacosDo-it-yourself taco dinners are always a crowd pleaser. They are usually stress-free meals to pre-pare and always fun to eat. Note: The fixins aren’t the only things you can get creative with; try using a savory waffle as the shell (Page 40).

6 fillets tilapia6 limes2 cups vegetable oil1 tablespoon chili powders + p

Taco Additions:cabbagelimecilantroonionfruitavocadotomato

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Season the tilapia with salt and pepper. In a large glass container, whisk together chili pow-der, lime juice, and oil. Add the fillets to the oil and and let the tilapia marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

1. EloteIf it’s summer and you’re in the grilling mood, go to page 58.

2. WafflesNo overly cautious person can cook. Cooking requires a pen-chant for risk taking, an irrever-ent attitude, and a disposition for the quirky. Page 39.

3. QuinoaWant something just as flavor-ful, healthy, and light as these fish tacos? Page 31.

Grill on medium-high heat or bake at 375F.

Makes 6 servings.

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STARCH

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In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, start proofing the dough by dissolving the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes. When you come back, there should be foam at the top of the yeast mixture. If there isn’t, then the yeast didn’t proof properly, so start the process over again.

Connect a dough hook to the mixer. Turn the mixer on low speed and drizzle in the olive oil and add the chopped rosemary. Dissolve the salt in 3 tablespoons of water and add this to the dough. Increase the speed to medium and slowly add in 3 cups of flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Continue adding the rest of the flour, a little bit at a time, only if needed.

Focaccia

1. MinestroneBecause soup and bread just make sense. Page 45.

2. RatatouillePotlucks are always fun. Page 49.

3. Roasted Brussel SproutsIf you’re looking for a crispy texture to complement the soft bread, go to page 57.

Freshly baked bread is one of my favorite smells and it’s probably no coincidence that focaccia is one of my favorite foods. Focaccia is an incredibly versatile bread that sops up flavorful soups and stews wonderfully, in addition to evoking the unique and effervescent pine fragrance of rosemary.

4 teaspoons instant dry yeast4 tablespoons honey1 cup warm water, about 110F.1/3 cup olive oil¼ cup fresh rosemary, chopped2 tablespoons salt3-4 cups all-purpose flour, more if needed1 tablespoon cornmeal1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

The dough is done kneading when it starts to pull off the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. The dough should be soft and stretchy, smooth like underarm flab.

Pull out the dough and form it into a round. Place the dough into an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

After an hour, transfer the dough to a well floured surface. Roll out the dough into an even ¾” or 1” thickness. Transfer the rolled dough onto a cornmeal dusted sheet tray or a parch-ment paper lined sheet tray. Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for another 20 minutes. Uncover the dough and brush the top with olive oil. Dimple the dough with your fingers, and sprinkle the top with ko-sher salt. There’s no such thing as too much rosemary in focaccia, so go ahead and more chopped herb if desired. Double up on sheet trays to prevent the bottom of the foccacia from burning. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take the tray out, rotate the tray, and bake for an-other 15 minutes or until the dough is cooked and the top is a light golden brown.

Makes 1 loaf.

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In the mixing bowl of an electric stand mixer, start proofing the yeast by dissolving the yeast and honey in the warm water. Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes. When you come back, there should be foam at the top of the yeast mixture. If there isn’t, then the yeast did not proof properly, so start the process over again. It’s cool; it’s worth it.

Connect a dough hook to the mixer. Turn the mixer on low speed and crack in the eggs one at a time. Dissolve the salt in 2 tablespoons of water and drizzle in the salt and oil. Increase the speed to medium and slowly add in 6 cups of flour, occasionally scraping down the sides. Continue adding the rest of the flour, a little bit

ChallahThe word “companion” comes from the suffix con, meaning “with”, and the Latin root pane, meaning “bread”. Share a meal with your companions and break some challah together.

3 tablespoons instant dry yeast¾ cup honey½ cup warm water, about 110F.7 cups all-purpose flour, more if needed5 eggs1 tablespoons salt½ cup olive oil1 egg, lightly beatencoarse kosher salt + poppy seeds

1. MinestroneIt’s a universal fact, everyone loves soup and bread. Page 45.

2. RatatouilleFrance and Italy share a moun-tain; I’m sure they can share a plate too. Page 49.

3. White BeansFeeling bad about consuming all that carb? Add some more protein to your meal. Page 51.

at a time, only if needed. The dough is done kneading when it starts to pull off the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. The dough should be soft and supple, smooth like a baby’s butt.

Pull out the dough and form it into a round. Place the dough into an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

After an hour, transfer the dough to a well floured surface. Divide the dough into 9 equal pieces. Roll each piece into long strips about 1” in diameter. Tightly braid three strips together. Pinch in the ends and tuck each end underneath the dough. Make two more braids with the re-maining 6 pieces of dough. Transfer the three challah braids onto a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle the tops with poppy seeds and/or salt. Double up on the sheet trays to prevent the bottom of the challah from burning. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take the tray out, rotate the tray, and bake for another 15 minutes or until the dough is cooked and the top is a light golden brown.

Break the bread.

Makes 3 loaves.

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Thaw the spinach.

In a medium pot, heat the oil on medium-low and lightly toast the cumin seeds for 3 minutes. Toss in the brown rice and lightly toast the brown rice for 3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and spinach and give it a few stirs to mix the rice and spinach together. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover with a lid. Cook for 40 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Makes 4 cups.

Spinach Cumin Brown Rice

1. Peanut StewHelp out the stew and give it a humble foundation to bask on.

2. Miso SquashUse a few simple ingredients and let all of them sing.

3. Roasted Brussel SproutsIf you’re running out of space on the stovetop, cook some veg-etables in the oven.

I didn’t grow up with brown rice, but I’m a full believer in the nutritional benefits of whole grains and in healthy eating. Brown rice has a slightly chewy texture and a subtle nutty taste. I now cook with brown rice whenever I can.

3 tablespoons olive oil1 tablespoon cumin seeds2 cups brown rice4 ¼ cups vegetable broth1 cup frozen spinach

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Coconut Brown Rice

2 cups brown rice1 cups coconut milk3 ¼ cup water½ cup shredded coconut½ teaspoon turmeric

Add all of the ingredients in a medium pot and give it a few stirs. Crank up the heat, bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover with a lid. Cook for 40 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Makes 4 cups.

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Savory QuinoaLearning comes from all angles in a co-op kitchen. I was introduced to quinoa in the co-ops and have since then learned that is a healthy and complete protein and most importantly, that it is the tabula rasa of grains. WIth quinoa, the flavoring and seasoning options are endless.

Dice the onions and bell peppers. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and slice into ¼” pieces. Slice the mushrooms. Chop the cilantro.

In a medium pot, bring quinoa, vegetable broth, turmeric, paprika, and salt to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover with a lid. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked and tender. When done, turn off the heat and set the pot aside.

While the quinoa is cooking, cook the veggies. In a wok, heat the olive oil on medium-high

2 cups quinoa4 cups vegetable broth½ teaspoon turmeric½ teaspoon paprika½ teaspoon salt3 tablespoons olive oil.1 large onion2 bell peppers2 yellow crookneck squashes3 cups mushrooms½ bunch cilantros + p

heat. Saute the onions and bell peppers for 10 minutes, add the squash and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Lightly season with salt and pepper after adding each set of vegeta-bles. Add the cooked quinoa to the wok and toss everything together to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Makes 4 servings.

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In a medium pot, bring quinoa, soy milk, cran-berries, cinnamon, cardamom, brown sugar, and orange zest to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes and occasionally stir the quinoa. Add

Oatmeal Quinoa

2 cups quinoa5 cups soy milk½ cup dried cranberries1 teaspoon cinnamon1 teaspoon cardamom¼ cup brown sugar1 orange, zested1 ½ cups blackberries, fresh or frozen

1. Peanut StewMake an easy one pot dish. Page 47.

2. EloteThe price of corn is going to rise really soon, eat now while they’re cheap. Page 59.

3. Roasted VegetablesIf you want to keep things nice and simple. Page 53.

the blackberries and continue to simmer for an-other 5 minutes or until the quinoa is tender and cooked.

Makes 4 servings.

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Cut the potatoes into ½” wedges.

On a sheet tray, toss the potatoes with a few glugs of olive oil. Coat the potatoes evenly with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Take the tray out, carefully flip the po-tatoes, rotate the tray, and bake for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are crispy and ten-der.

Makes 4 servings.

PotatoesThe humble and modest potato doesn’t have to prove itself to me. Roasted taters are more than fine by me, no fanciness necessary. The edges of these tots make contact with hot, hot oil to get nice and crispy while leaving the innards soft and dreamy.

3 pounds potatoesolive oils + p

Seasoning Suggestions:steak seasoningpaprikagarlic powderrosemarydried herbs

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1. RatatouilleHoping to have good leftovers for lunch the next few days? Make a large batch of ratatouil-le. Page 39.

2. White BeansHealthy doesn’t always equate to boring; watch the color on the chard bleed onto the beans and potatoes. Page 51.

3. Roasted VegetablesYou want something depend-able; go back to the basics. Page 53.

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Prep the scrambled eggs. In a small bowl, whisk eggs and season with salt and pepper.

Medium dice the onions and carrots. Chop the bok choy into ½” pieces. Chop the cilantro and green onions. Finely mince the garlic. Thaw the frozen peas.

In a wok, heat 3 tablespoons of sesame oil on medium-high heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook for 10 minutes until soft, then add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the peas and bok choy and cook until the greens are wilted. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce,

Soy Garlic SobaIt’s just like fried rice,all earthly buckwheat noodlessubtle, twirled, entangled

8 eggs12 ounces soba noodles5 tablespoons sesame oil2 yellow onions4 carrots8 cloves garlic4 bok choys1 cup frozen peas3 tablespoons soy sauce3 tablespoons hoisin sauce2 tablespoons fish sauce, optional½ bunch cilantro4 stalks green onions + p

1. Miso SquashMiso is a good sweet and earthy pairing for the nutty soba. Page 55.

2. EloteIf you want to eat with your hands and want to watch other people eat with their hands, then go to page 59.

3. Roasted VegetablesCause there’s no such thing as too many vegetables. Page 53.

and fish sauce.

While the veggies are cooking, cook the soba noodles and scramble the eggs.

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and a glug of sesame oil to the boiling water. Soba only takes a few minutes to cook, so watch carefully. Drain the soba when they are al dente. Rinse with cold water.

In a small saucepan, scramble the eggs with 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. Set the cooked eggs aside.

Add the soba noodles and scrambled eggs to the wok and gently toss all of the ingredients to-gether to heat the soba noodles through. Soba noodles are fragile, so be careful to not over-cook or overwork.

Want more protein? Add tofu.

Makes 8 servings.

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In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and honey.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, and baking powder.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Add the chopped green onions and gently stir to incorporate.

Spray a 9” x 13” baking dish with non-stick spray. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 15 minutes. Take the baking dish out, rotate, and bake for another 15 min-

Green Onion CornbreadWhen the house is low on produce or when students are in the eye of a finals week stress tor-nado, my go-to, low maintainence meal is chili and cornbread. It’s a tasty and comforting combo with a low-risk of causing food poisoning.

2 eggs1 ¼ cups milk1/3 cup vegetable oil¼ cup honey2 cups all-purpose flour1 cup cornmeal¾ cup brown sugar1 tablespoon salt1 tablespoon pepper2 tablespoons baking powder1 cup green onions, chopped

Honey Chili:½ cup honey1 tablespoon chili powder

1. Roasted VegetablesYour ovens just got fixed; you might as well get the most of them before they break down again. Page 53.

2. Roasted Brussel Sprouts“Green” onion cornbread is a sorry excuse for eating your daily greens. Page 57.

3. Soy Garlic CobaThis soba dish is kinda a double whammy, a starch and veggie dish in one. Page 35.

utes or until a toothpick comes out clean when it is pierced in the center of the bread.

Makes 10 servings.

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WafflesHaving a dinner theme is a great way to frame your meal and to give foundation to brainstorm potential dish ideas. My favorite theme? Breakfast for dinner. Sweetness tends to reign supreme, but I have no complaints there.

1. EloteJalapeno, cheddar, and corn go very well together. Page 59.

Basic Waffle:4 cups all-purpose flour4 tablespoons sugar2 tablespoons baking powder2 teaspoons baking soda1 tablespoon salt6 eggs3 cups buttermilk1 tablespoon vanilla extract2/3 cup olive oil

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking salt, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and oil. Whisk the wet in-gredients into the dry ingredients. Careful not to overwork the batter.

Heat up a waffle iron and spray it with non-stick spray or give it a quick smear with a cold stick ‘o butter. Ladle an appropriate amount of batter into the iron and cook until the waffle is done according to the waffle machine.

Makes 2 quarts of batter.

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2. Roasted VegetablesIt’s the middle of autumn, make something hearty and rustic. Page 53.

3. Miso Brown Sugar SquashDinner doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to be good. Page 55.

Savory Waffle:3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup cornmeal4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon salt6 eggs

3 cups buttermilk2/3 cup olive oil

2 cups grated cheddar cheese3 jalapeno peppers

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and oil. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the cheese and jalapenos to the batter. Careful not to overwork the batter.

Heat up a waffle iron and spray it with non-stick spray or give it a quick smear with a cold stick ‘o butter. Ladle an appro-priate amount of batter into the iron and cook until the waffle is done according to the waffle machine.

Makes 2 quarts of batter.

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VEGGIE

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Prep the beans. Soak the white beans in 3 cups of water for at least 8 hours.

Drain the white beans and put the beans in a large pot with 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and put a lid on the pot. Cook for 1 hour or until the beans are tender.

Minestrone Soupalways serve when hot,incongrous veggie shapesall fit in one pot

1 cup white beans2 cups pasta1/3 cup olive oil1 onion3 carrots2 leeks 1 head fennel6 cloves garlic12 sprigs thyme4 bay leaves3 zucchini2 cups asparagus6 roma tomatoes3 cups vegetable broth1 ½ cups frozen peas1 tablespoon salt

1. Berry SaladYou might have a soup because the weather is gloomy. Perhaps brigthen it up with some summer fruit. Page 65.

2. Honey MustardPair a classic soup with a clas-sic salad. page 67.

3. Mom’s SaladDoes soup make you think of comfort food and your childhood. Well so does this salad. For me, at least. Page 69

Drain the white beans and reserve 2 cups of bean juice.

Prep the veggies. Medium dice the onion and carrots. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and chop into ½” pieces. Finely mince the garlic. Trim the root off the fennel, cut it in half length-

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wise, and thinly slice. Quarter the zucchini and chop into ½” pieces. Chop the asparagus into 1” pieces. Thaw the frozen peas. Stem the thyme.

In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium-low heat. Sweat the onions, leeks, carrots, and fen-nel for 15 minutes. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the garlic, thyme, and bay leaves and saute for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and as-paragus and cook for 5 minutes. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the the tomatoes and 1

teaspoon of salt. Pour the reserved bean liquid, vegetable broth, and peas into the pot and stir. Bring the soup to a boil, cover with a lid, and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta. When the pasta is done cooking at the al dente stage, add the pasta to the soup along with the cooked white beans. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

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In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat and saute onions, carrots, leeks, and salt. Add jala-penos, ginger, and spices and cook for 5 min-utes. Add sweet potatoes, peanut butter, and veggie broth. Bring to a boil, reduce, and sim-mer on very, very low heat for 5 minutes. Add cabbage, cover with a lid, and continue sim-mering for 30 minutes or until ready to serve.

Makes 8 servings.

Peanut StewThis peanut stew was inspired by a former co-cook’s travels in Senegal. In addition to food, he also brought back the Senegalese eating tradition of sharing one large plate between two to four people. The communal aspect of sharing a plate is both fun and thrifty. Consider the peanut stew, a warm medley with an unremarkable appearance. This stew holds captive in the minds of its eaters not because of its aesthetics but because of its curiously soothing delivery: the underlying aroma of ginger and cumin, the velvety texture, the ribbons of cabbage.

3 tablespoons olive oil1 onion, medium diced1 leek, cut into ¼” slices6 carrots, cut into ¼” pieces4 sweet potatoes, medium diced2 jalapeno peppers1 2’ knob ginger2 teaspoons chili powder½ cabbage head, shredded or ½ pound brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered2/3 cup creamy peanut butter5 cups vegetable broth2 teaspoons salt1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon1 ½ teaspoons cumin

1. Mom’s DressingPeanut butter matches well with southeast Asian flavors. Page 69.

2. Kale SaladBrighten up the muddled pea-nutty stew with something lemony. Page 75.

3. Warm Grain SaladYou have a big test tomorrow. Don’t deprive yourself; eat a din-ner that is nutritionally robust and boldly flavorful. Page 79.

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1 eggplant3 tablespoons olive oil2 onions6 cloves garlic2 bell peppers3 summer squash

RatatouilleWith time, all of the colorful veggies in the stew meld together and become more harmonious. Make a large batch and look forward to tasty leftovers. For the next couple of days, gently reheat the leftover ratatouille and you’ve got yourself a solid lunch.

Medium dice the onions, bell peppers, egg-plant, and tomatoes. Cut the squash and cut into ¼” rounds. Finely mince the garlic. Chif-fonade the basil.

10 roma tomatoes¼ cup oregano, chopped6 sprigs thyme1 bunch basils + p

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1. Berry SaladBerries are fantastic all year round, fresh or frozen. Page 65.

2. Blue Cheese SaladYou just woke up from a nap; just in time for dinner. Awaken your sense with some pungent cheese. Page 71.

3. Arugala with YogurtDo you think French cuisine should be on UNESCO’s World Heritage list? Page 73.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil on medium heat. Saute the onions and bell peppers for 7-8 minutes. Add the eggplant and garlic and cook for another 7-8 minutes. Add the squash and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, orega-no, and thyme; season with salt and pepper.

Reduce the heat to very low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the basil and stir and sim-mer for another 5-10 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

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Soak the white beans in 3 cups of water for at least 8 hours.

Drain the white beans and put the beans in a large pot with 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and put a lid on the pot. Cook for 1 hour or until tender.

White Beans and Chard1 cup white beans6 yukon gold potatoes3 tablespoons olive oil1 bunch chard1 tablespoon thyme, chopped1 tablespoon oregano, choppeds + p

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1. SlawMatch this soft and subtle dish with a crisp and tart salad. Page 77.

2. Berry SaladA little sweetness could add a nice dimension to this dish. Page 65.

3. Arugala with YogurtAre you out of spring mix? Try arugula. Page 73.

Prep the veggies and herbs. Peel and large dice the potatoes. Rip the leaves off the stems of the chard and tear into small pieces.

Parboil the potatoes. Add the tots to a medium pot of salted water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.

In a large saucepan, heat oil on medium-high heat. Fry the potatoes for 5 minutes, flip them, and cook for another few minutes. Add the beans and season with thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. Add the chard. Gently toss the mix-ture to cook the chard.

Makes 8 servings.

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Chop the rosemary. Peel and cut the carrots in half lengthwise. Cut the stem off the head of broccoli and cut into bite-sized pieces. Large dice the sweet potatoes. Toss all of the vegetables into a large bowl with a few glugs of olive oil, enough to coat the vegetables, and add the chopped rosemary. Transfer the veggies onto a sheet tray. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the veg-gies are slightly crisped at the edges and tender.

Makes 6 servings.

Roasted VegetablesRoasting is my absolute favorite way of cooking veggies. The simplicity of the technique gets my attention and the intensified natural sweetness and depth of fla-vor keeps me coming back for more. I can’t say a bad word about the carameliz-ing and crisping that hap-pens in the oven either.

6 carrots1 head broccoli4 sweet potatoesolive oils + p9 sprigs rosemary

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Slow Roasted Tomatoes8 roma tomatoes½ cup ricotta1 lemon1 ½ tablespoons honey1 tablespoon thyme1 tablespoon oreganoolive oils + p


Stem the thyme and oregano and chop the herbs.

Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise. In a medium bowl, whisk the honey in a glug or two of olive oil. Toss the tomatoes in the honey-oil mixture. Use enough olive to just coat the tomatoes. Transfer the tomatoes to a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Sprinkle the thyme and oregano over the to-matoes. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Take the tray out and scoop a little ricotta over each tomato. Roast the toma-toes for another 10 minutes. Zest the lemon over the tomatoes and serve.

1. Honey Mustard SaladYou want to appease the vegans with more protein. Page 67.

2. Warm Grain SaladCause salads don’t deserve to be an afterthought. Page 79.

3. Blue Cheese SaladYou haven’t gone out to eat a nice dinner in a while. Treat yourself to something refined. Page 71.

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Miso Brown Sugar Squash

Fall leaves adorn squash skin,hearty cheers to season’s harvest piles of sweet squash flesh

2 acorn squash3 tablespoons miso paste½ cup warm water½ cup brown sugars + p½ bunch cilantro

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Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, and cut it into ½” slices.

In a medium bowl, make a slushy with the miso paste and warm water. Toss the squash with the miso slushy.

1. Mom’s DressingMiso marries well with mirin. Page 69.

2. Kale SaladThis savory salad stands up well to the savory squash. Page 75.

3. Warm Grain SaladThe squash is quick to make; you have some time to spend on a complicated salad. Page 79.

Transfer the squash to a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Sprinkle brown sugar over the squash. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes or until the squash is tender. Chop the cilantro. Sprinkle the cilantro over the squash when ready to serve.

Makes 6 servings.

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Grate the Parmesan cheese.

Trim the stems of the brussels sprouts and cut them in half lengthwise. Toss them in a medi-um bowl with a glug of olive oil and paprika. Toss and evenly coat the brussels sprouts with

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1 pound brussels sprouts½ pound Parmesan cheeseolive oil2 teaspoons paprikas + p

1. Honey Mustard SaladBoth the sweetness of honey and the spiciness of mustard cut the richness of Parmesan very well. Page 67.

2. Arugala with YogurtYou just a got a fatty dairy deliv-ery. Go wild. Page 73.

3. Skip to DessertForget the greens. Who cares about having a balanced meal? Indulge. Pick any dessert.

solid half-moon greenstucked underneath warm blanketsof golden crisp cheese

oil. Transfer the veggies to a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese over each brussels sprout. Roast for 15-20 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

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Preheat oven to 375.

Place the ears of corn on a sheet tray with the husks intact. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until the corn kernels are soft and tender. Re-move the corn from the oven and let them cool for 5-10 minutes. Peel the husks and coat the corn with any or all of the toppings.

Makes 8 servings.

EloteSpecial Dinner is a themed social event that happens once a semester where an extravagant amount of food is prepared and served potluck style for the house to enjoy. It’s not uncommon for there to be two dozen dishes and a smorgasbord of obscure and hard-to-find ingredients. The whole drunken ordeal is a celebration of good food and friends. At my most memorable Special D, housemates Sean and Dylan, set up a grill on the porch and cranked out elote as an appetizer while the rest of the house was busy decorating the dining room and cooking up a storm.

8 ears of corn½ cup cojito cheese1/3 cup chili powder½ cup crema½ cup butter, melted2 limes

1. SlawHave a picnic-style dinner on the roof or on the porch. Page 77.

2. Kale SaladFocus on sauces tonight. So many condiments can go on corn and so many flavors can go on kale. Page 75.

3. White BeansYou have salad every night. Change it up today and make two veggie dishes. Page 51.

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THE GARDEN

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THE GARDEN

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SALAD

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Preheat oven to 325F. Make the candied wal-nuts. Evenly distribute the walnuts on a sheet tray and toast for 15 minutes.

In a small sauce pot, add and stir together the rest of the ingredients on medium heat. Dissolve the sugar and cook for 10 minutes. Take the sugar off the heat and toss the walnuts in the sugar mixture. Spread the walnuts on a parch-ment paper lined sheet tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Take the tray out and let the walnuts cool. Store in an airtight container

Berry Salad

Salad:12 cups spring mix3 cups fresh berries, sliced¾ cup gorgonzola cheese2 cups candied walnuts

Candied Walnuts:2 cups walnut halves, shelled1/3 cup white sugar1/3 cup brown sugar1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon cinnamon1 teaspoon nutmeg1 teaspoon clove1 teaspoon cardamom1/3 cup soymilk

Berry Dressing:3 tablespoons honey1 tablespoon mustard1/3 cup berry vinegar½ cup walnut oils + p

Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk to-gether honey and mustard. Add and whisk in the berry vinegar. Slowly drizzle and vigorously whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the spring mix, berries, crumbled gorgonzo-la, and candied walnuts in a large bowl. Driz-zle the salad with half of the dressing. Lightly toss to evenly coat the lettuce with the dressing. Add more dressing to taste.

Makes 8 servings.

1. SemifreddoTry this dessert out. Totally worth the effort. Page 89.

2. Chocolate Chip CookieUnusual flavor pairings are fun. Page 93.

3. Rice PuddingIf you made quinoa for your starch, give this dessert a shot. Page 95.

You know summer has arrived when you see start to see strawberries at your favorite stands at the farmers’ market. You can look forward to leaving your shopping trips laden with strawberries and blackberries for the next couple of weeks.

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Soak the beans in 4 cups of water for at least 8 hours.

Drain the beans and put them in a medium pot with 8 cups of cold water. Bring the water to a boil, reduce, and simmer for 45 minutes or until the beans are cooked through.

Slice the tomatoes in ¼” wedges. Thinly slice the avocados. Quarter the hard boiled eggs.

Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk to-

Spring Mix with Honey MustardThis nutritionally packed and multi-ingredient salad would make for a great light meal for several people to prepare together. One person can tackle the beans, another can whisk-up the dressing, a third can prep the greens and avocados, and a fourth can make the eggs and croutons.

Salad:12 cups spring mix1 cup alfalfa sprouts2/3 cup chickpeas2/3 cup kidney beans4 tomatoes3 ripe avocados9 hardboiled eggs4 cups croutons

Dressing:3 tablespoons honey3 tablespoons mustard1/3 cup apple cider vinegar2/3 cup olive oil2 teaspoons black pepper2 teaspoons salt

1.SemifreddoIt’s a really hot day. So hot you spent 5 minutes in the walk-in “looking for the darn carrots”. Page 89.

2. Beet CakeYour house probably thinks they’ve eaten veggies in every way possible. Challenge ‘em. Page 97.

3. Chocolate Chip CookiesSpring is in the air and allergies are attacking. Clear peoples’ sinuses with something spicy. Page 93.

gether honey and mustard. Add and whisk in apple cider vinegar. Slowly drizzle and vigor-ously whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the salad by making it look like a pie chart.

Makes 8 servings.

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Peel and cut the cucumbers into ¼” quarters. Cut tomatoes into 1/3” wedges. Quarter the hard boiled eggs.

Make the dressing. Whisk all of the ingredients, except the thinly sliced red onions, together. Add sliced red onions to dressing 15 minutes before tossing on to the salad.

Toss the spring mix, veggies, eggs, and half of the dressing together in a large serving bowl. Add more dressing to taste.

Makes 8 servings.

Spring Mix with Mom’s DressingYup, you guessed it. This is my mother’s famous salad dressing. The red onions are macerated in rice wine vinegar and get dunked in a lemony and peppery dressing.

Vietnamese Vinaigrette:8 tablespoons rice vinegar8 tablespoons lime juice8 tablespoons olive oil4 tablespoons sugar2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper2 teaspoons garlic, minced2 teaspoons soy sauce2 small red onions, thinly sliced

1.Carrot HalwaIce cream is in the house and it’s a big deal. Eat it with this dessert.

2. Chai Donut“Jess: Okay fine, tonight Indian food, but tomorrow Saturday Night Fever and Thai food.” Gilmore Girls

3. Rice PuddingIt’s a cold day and it will be a long night of studying. Nurse a bowl of puddin’ with that Bour-dieu.

Salad:12 cups spring mix2 cucumbers6 tomatoes9 hard boiled eggs

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Prep the walnuts. Evenly distribute the walnuts on a sheet tray. Toast the walnuts for 15 min-utes. Set the walnuts aside.

Raise the oven to 425F.

Remove the stem of the cauliflower and cut the head into 1” wedges. Transfer the cauliflower wedges to the sheet tray used for the walnuts. Pour a glug of olive oil over the cauliflower and toss the cauliflower around to get them evenly coated with oil. Season the cauliflower with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes

Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese DressingThe Berkeley Student Cooperative has a large collective buying power and is able to support small-scale farmers and increase demand for organic produce. Food, such as this salad, packs a punch when cooks give the same care and attention to preparing their meals as farmers do to growing and harvesting their crops.

Salad:12 cups spinach4 beets2 cups walnut halves, shelled1 large head cauliflower½ cup blue cheese

Blue Cheese Dressing:1 shallot2 tablespoons honey2 tablespoons mustard1 lemon, juiced1/3 cup champagne vinegar¾ cup blue cheese½ cup olive oil1 tablespoon thyme, chopped1 tablespoon parsley, chopped1 tablespoon tarragon, choppeds + p

1. Que Es EsoToo much gluten lately? Page 99.

2. Beet CakeDo something different with the never ending amount of beets you get delivered to the house. Page 97.

3. Berry CrumbleStarted your dinner workshift late? Save some time with this easy peasy dessert. Page 85.

or until they are cooked and slightly crisp at the edges. Set the cauliflower aside.

Prep the beets by trimming the roots and stems. Put the beets into a medium pot and add enough water to submerge the beets by 2”. Bring the water to a boil and cook the beets for 20 min-utes or until fork tender.

Drain the beets and let them cool. Using a tow-el, peel off the skin of the beets. Cut the beets into ½” wedges.

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While the beets are boiling, make the dress-ing. Finely dice the shallot and put it in a small bowl with the champagne vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Let the shallots macerate for 15 minutes.

In another small bowl, mash the blue cheese with the back of a spoon until it resembles a thick paste. Add the shallot and vinegar mix-ture. Whisk the blue cheese with the vinegar to incorporate. Slowly drizzle and vigorously whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsifica-tion.

Add the herbs to the dressing.

Toss the walnuts and beets in the dressing. Transfer the walnuts and beets to a large bowl of spinach. Chop the cauliflower and add to the salad. Pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss to incorporate. Add more dressing according to taste. Crack some more black pepper over the salad.

Makes 8 servings.

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Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk to-gether honey and lemon juice. Add and whisk in yogurt. Add cumin, salt, and black pepper. Gently stir in the dill.

Skin the cucumbers and quarter them length-sise; cut them into ¼” pieces. In a large bowl, toss the cucumbers with the arugula and alfalfa sprouts.

Pour half of the dressing over the salad and lightly toss. Add more dressing according to taste. Sprinkle candied pecans and feta on top.

Makes 8 servings.

Arugala Salad with Yogurt DressingIn the midst of a powerhouse flavor battle between peppery arugula and tangy yogurt, sweet relief comes in the form of candied walnuts and crisp and cool cucumbers.

Salad:12 cups arugula1 cup alfalfa sprouts3 cucumbers2 cups candied pecans, follow candied nut recipe on page 652/3 cup feta, optional

Yogurt Dressing:2 tablespoons honey3 lemons, juiced½ cup yogurt1 tablespoon cumin1 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon freshly cracked pepper¼ cup dill, chopped

1. Chai DonutThis is the only fried thing in the book. Page 87.

2. Que Es EsoRunning out of time, but are hankering for something sweet? Make this. Page 99.

3. Berry CrumbleIt’s always dependable and it has the unwavering ability to make you look good. Page 85.

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Make the dressing. Mince and mash the garlic into a paste with a pinch of salt. Transfer the garlic into a small bowl. Add the tahini and mustard. Whisk well. Slowly drizzle and whisk in lemon juice, soy sauce, and water. The con-sistency should be runny and creamy.

Preheat oven to 325F. Toast the pinenuts. Spread the pinenuts on a sheet tray and toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Set the pinenuts aside.

Raise the oven to 425F. Prep the carrots. Peel

Kale with Lemon-Tahini DressingI feel like a kid when I cook. There are so many bright and colorful fruits and veggies to trans-form, relish, and play with. I’m fond of using my hands, the best cooking utensils, and I’m not afraid of getting messy. Kale is a wonderful superfood with many hot and cold applications. The kale in this salad is adorned with roasted carrots, radish slivers, and a sprinkle of pinenuts and is rounded out with a nutty and tart dressing.

4 bunches kale, stems removed, sliced into ½” strips5 carrotsolive oils + p1 cup pinenuts¾ cup capersvegetable oil for frying12 breakfast radishes6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

Lemon-Tahini Dressing:½ cup tahini¼ cup lemon juice3 tablespoons dijon mustard3 cloves garlic3 tablespoon soy sauce½ cup water

1. Rice PuddingCo-op mush is usually savory. Change things up with some sweet co-op slop. Page 95.

2. Beet CakeThis dessert ain’t a piece of cake to make, but it’s an inter-esting one. page 97.

3. Berry CrumbleDon’t crumble to the stress of cooking a dinner for 50+ peo-ple. Page 85.

and cut the carrots into 1/3” pieces. Transfer the carrots onto the sheet tray used for the pine-nutes. Pour a glug of olive oil over the carrots and toss the carrots around to get them evenly coated with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through and slightly crisp at the edges. Set the carrots aside.

In a small saucepot, add vegetable oil to a depth of 1” and heat the oil on medium-high heat until it reaches 325F. Carefully add half of the capers to the hot, hot oil and fry until the salty little buggers become crispy. A good indicator of when the capers are done frying is when the bubbles around the capers start to

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subside. The fried capers should resemble a blos-somed flower and should definitely be crunchy not soggy. Fry the second batch. Set the capers aside.

Thinly slice the radishes.

Put the kale in a large bowl. Pour ½ of the dress-ing over the kale. Using your hands, massage the kale with the dressing.

Add a shower of roasted carrots, toasted pinenuts, fried capers, and radishes to the kale. Toss the in-gredients around to get an even coat of dressing. Add more dressing to taste.

Makes 8 servings.

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Peel off the outer layer of the brussels sprouts and trim off their stems. Shred the brussels sprouts and cabbage. Peel the carrots. Grate the carrots. Thinly slice the red onion. Slice the apples into ¼” wedges.

Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk to-gether honey and mustard. Add and whisk in apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice. Slowly drizzle and vigorously whisk in the olive oil.

Toss the veggies, onion, apples, and chopped dill with ½ the dressing. Add more dressing ac-cording to taste. Let the salad rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

SlawHave a picnic every now and then and bring this slaw along. A crunchy and colorful salad like this holds up well as an accompaniment to any al fresco dining party.

1. Kale SaladIf you’re watching your diet, then

so is the rest of the house.

2. Chocolate Chip CookieChocolate makes everyone happy and tonight’s council is gonna be a long one.

3. SemifreddoThis dessert is on point.

Slaw:2 pounds brussels sprouts4 carrots½ head purple cabbage2 green apples1 red onion1/3 cup dill, chopped

Vinaigrette:¼ cup pickle relish¼ cup apple cider vinegar¼ cup red wine vinegar2 lemons, juiced3 tablespoons honey3 tablespoons mustard2/3 cup olive oil2 teaspoons salt2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper

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Preheat the oven to 325F. Prep the almonds. Evenly distribute the almonds on a sheet tray and toast them for 15 minutes. Let them cool and chop ‘em up.

Cook the farro. In a medium pot, bring the farro and 3 cups of veggie broth up to boil. Reduce, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes or until the farro is cooked.

Cook the lentils. In another medium pot, bring the lentils and 2 cups of veggie broth up to a boil. Reduce, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.

While the farro and lentils are cooking, start caramelizing the onions. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil on low. Add onions and saute for 20 minutes. Occasionally stir the onions. Add a few tablespoons of water if needed. Add the balsamic vinegar and worchester sauce and

Warm Grain SaladI hold the theory that individual wellness inspires community wellness. Making thoughtful and healthy food choices facilitates people’s ability to reach their physical and mental potential. Those choices can also be as colorful as this salad too!

Warm Grains:1 ½ cups farro1 cup green lentils5 cups veggie broth1 ½ cups almonds4 ripe avocados6 ears of corn

1. Carrot HalwaAll of the parts to the hobart machine are clean. Take advan-tage of this rare event and grate away. Page 91.

2. Chai DonutSeemingly complex, but actually easy. Page 87.

3. Que Es EsoYour gluten free friend is com-ing over for dinner. Page 99.

Dressing:3 cloves garlic½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, not packed in oil¾ cup olive oil¼ cup almonds2 lemons

continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the on-ions are nicely caramelized. Set onions aside.

Slice the kernels off the corn cobs and into a very large bowl. Dice the avocados and add them to the bowl of corn.

Make the sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. In a small pot, heat the oil, garlic cloves, and sun-dried tomatoes on low for 15 minutes. Dump everything into a robo coupe or food processor and puree away. Juice the 2 lemons into the processor. Throw in the almonds.

Toss the farro, lentils, almonds, avocados, and caramelized onions in the large bowl the corn are sitting in. Scoop small dollops of the sun dried tomato vinaigrette over the farro salad.

Makes 12 servings.

Caramelized Onions:2 tablespoons olive oil2 small onions1 tablespoon worchester sauce1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

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Special Brunch

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Special Dinner

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DESSERT

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The prospect of cooking for several dozen housemates for the first time was terrifying. My nascent cooking style in the early days could have been aptly described as bemusing and verdant. I would spend the first hour chopping onions and was a faucet spouting off a never-ending stream of questions. The one thing that saved me from getting kicked out of the kitchen was this berry crumble. In my opinion, it’s a classic co-op dessert that always impresses.


Prep the fruity innards. Completely thaw the blackberries in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, brown sugar, salt, zest, car-damom, and ginger.

Dump the dry ingredients over the blueberries and stir to combine. Pour the blueberry mixture into a 9” x 13” baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

While the berries are baking, make the crum-ble topping.

In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredi-ents but the butter. Drizzle the butter over the

Berry Crumble

For the crumble topping:1 cup rolled oats1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour¾ cup brown sugar1 tablespoon cardamom1 tablespoon ground ginger1 teaspoon salt¾ cup butter, melted

For the fruity, gooey innards:9 cups (24-30 ounces) frozen blackber- ries1 teaspoon cardamom1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced1 cup powdered sugar½ cup brown sugar1 teaspoon salt3 lemons, zested1/3 cup all-purpose flour1 tablespoon cornstarch

dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Take the blackberries out of the oven after they have been baking for 30 minutes. Carefully and evenly sprinkle the crumble topping over the hot blackberries. Place the baking dish back in the oven and bake for another 50 min-utes.

Let the crumble cool and rest for two hours.

Makes 12 servings.

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Ground the chai tea leaves in a coffee or spice grinder.

Prep the donut batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ¾ cup sugar, 4 tablespoons ground chai tea, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the egg and egg white until frothy. Whisk in the buttermilk and melted butter.

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix to form a dough. Gather the dough and transfer it onto a well floured cutting board. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough to an even ½” thickness. Using a floured pastry scraper, cut the dough into 1” x 1” squares. Transfer the dough squares to a parchment paper lined sheet tray; create some space in between the dough squares. Put the donut holes in the fridge

Chai Donut HolesUsing one’s hands and playing with raw ingredients in order to craft something greater than the sum of its parts is deeply satisfying. I can take more flagrant liberties when I build and create than when I buy. These cakey donuts have a delicate crumb and are easy to make from scratch. Note: Be careful of the skin-rupturing oil sputters. Don’t fry in the buff.

4 cups all-purpose flour¾ cup sugar4 tablespoons chai tea leaves, (or 1 tbs ground ginger + 2 tbs cardamom + 1 tbs cinnamon)1 tablespoon baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon kosher salt1 egg 1 egg white

1 cup buttermilk1 tablespoon vanilla extract4 tablespoons butter, meltedvegetable oil for frying

Chai-Sugar:2 cups sugar6 tablespoons chai teaves, (or 2 tbs ground ginger, 2 tbs cardamom, 2 tbs cinnamon)

to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Make the chai-sugar. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and 6 tablespoons of ground chai tea.

Pour canola oil into a cast iron pan to a depth of 2”. On medium-high heat, bring the oil tem-perature to 325F. Fry the dough squares in small batches, flipping the dough once or twice in the oil, about 3 minutes of frying time. When the donuts are done frying, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the bowl of chai-sugar. Try to drain the donuts over the hot oil when taking them out of the frying pan. Toss the donuts in the chai-sugar.

Makes about 40 donuts holes.

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Steep the earl grey in heavy cream. In a small pot, bring the cream and earl grey tea leaves to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, careful not to scald the cream. Pour the cream in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let the tea leaves steep for 20 minutes. Strain the cream and press the tea leaves into the sieve to extract all of the liquid. Let it cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Make the whipped cream component.In a medium bowl, using an electric hand mix-er, whip 1 ½ cups earl grey-infused cream on medium speed to form soft peaks. Put the bowl in the fridge to keep cold.

Make the egg custard component.In another medium bowl, beat together egg yolks and ½ cup sugar. Set the bowl over a pot with simmering water and continue to vigor-ously beat the egg yolks until the thermometer reaches 160F, about 4-6 minutes. The yolks should be thick, creamy, pale yellow, and dou-bled in volume. Put the bowl in an ice water bath to cool down the yolks.

Make the chocolate ganache component. In a medium bowl, melt the chocolate chips

Earl Grey Fudge SemifreddoCreamy and decadent, this half-frozen dessert is the closest thing you’ll get to ice cream and without the hassle of using a machine. The whimsical layers of fudge highlight the light earl grey custard texture as it slips around your tongue and melts in the heat of your mouth.

2 cups heavy whipping cream5 tablespoons earl grey tea leaves6 egg yolks4 egg whites¾ cup sugar, divided into ½ cup and ¼ cup¾ cup chocolate chips1/3 cup heavy cream

over a sauce pot with simmering water. Once melted, whisk in 1/3 cup heavy cream and re-move the bowl and set it to the side.

Make the beaten egg whites component.In a clean medium bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium speed for 1 minute. Increase the speed to high and slowly pour in ¼ cup sugar. Continue to beat the egg whites until they become stiff peaks, about 3-5 minutes.

Make the put-it-all-together component. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap. Gently fold in the early grey-infused whipped cream into the egg yolks. Then gently fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Streaks are okay.

Pour and spread 1/3 of the chocolate ganache into the bottom of the loaf pan. Pour and spread 1/3 of the semifreddo mixture into the pan. Drizzle 1/3 of the melted chocolate over the mixture. Take a fork and rake the surface of the semifreddo a few times to evenly marble the chocolate. Pour another 1/3 of the semifred-do mixture into the pan. Drizzle the last of the chocolate ganache and marble again. Pour in the last of the semifreddo mixture. Cover the top with plastic wrap

Freeze the semifreddo for at least 6 hours. To serve, invert the semifreddo and peel off the plastic wrap and slice. Or skip the formalities and spoon the semifreddo right out of the pan and into your lover’s mouth.

Makes 6 servings.

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Bring carrots and coconut milk to a boil. Re-duce heat to medium-high and cook for about 20 minutes. Add sugar and cardamom and simmer on low until most of the liquid has ab-sorbed and evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Makes about 3 cups.

Carrot HalwaOne of my favorite aspects about the Berkeley Student Cooperative is that it only purchases or-ganic fruits and vegetables. Co-opers have constant access to the season’s best produce and in a year’s time will have eaten an innumerable range of produce varietals. Carrots are one of the few veggies that can be found in the fridge all year round. To prevent carrot boredom, new uses for the ubiquitous root veggie are perpetually emerging from the kitchen. People get really creative with veggies, and this halwa is no exception. Note: Great drooped over vanilla ice cream.

3 cups carrots, peeled and grated2 cups coconut milk½ cup brown sugar1 tablespoon cardamom

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero GlazeThis habanero glaze was inspired by a fellow cook who was concocting all sorts of experimen-tal spirits and nosh using ghost peppers. Some of those things included a ghost pepper infused vodka and a ghost pepper buttercream. The communal aspect of cooperative living inspires the sharing of new ideas.

Cookie Dough;1 ½ cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon cinnamon1 ½ cups brown sugar½ cup butter, softened¼ cup vegetable oil2 eggs2 teaspoons vanilla extract2 cups rolled oats1 cup chocolate chips

Habanero Glaze;2 cups powdered sugar1 cup milk3 habanero peppers, thinly sliced

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In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon.

In an electric stand mixer, on medium speed, cream together butter, sugar, and oil. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add vanilla extract. Slowly dump in the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides and continue beating for a few for seconds. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips, careful not to overwork the batter.

Drop large spoonful amounts of batter onto a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Make sure to leave some space in between each cookie. Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.

While the cookies are baking, make the glaze.In a very small pot, combine milk and peppers, seeds included. Simmer the milk on low for 10 minutes; be careful not to scald the milk. Strain the milk and press the peppers against the sieve to extract all of the liquid.

Let the milk cool and cover the container with plastic wrap. Pull away the film floating on top. Whisk 4 tablespoons of milk into a small bowl of powdered sugar. Drizzle the glaze over the cookies.

Makes about 18 cookies.

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In a small pot, bring the figs, sugar, salt, and water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover with the lid slightly ajar for about 30 minutes. Make sure liquid level doesn’t go below the fig level.

Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached FigsEating is not just about the food. My favorite aspect of dinner isn’t what’s on the plate but rather socializing with housemates over our plates. The social element of co-op dinners really promotes a healthy and vibrant community.

Poached Figs:24 ripe figs1 cups sugar½ teaspoon salt4 cups water

Puddin’;3 ½ cups soy milk3 ½ cups coconut milk, divided into 1 ½ cups + 1 cup + 1 cup2 cups brown rice1 large orange, zestedlarge pinch of salt1 tablespoon cardamom½ cup brown sugar2 cups coconut milk, extra

In a medium pot over medium heat, stir to-gether soy milk, 1 ½ cups coconut milk, rice, orange zest, salt, cardamom, and sugar. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat to very low, and cover.

Cook until rice has absorbed the liquid and is steaming and creamy, about 30 minutes. Add 1 cup coconut milk and stir to incorpo-rate. Cook covered for another 10 minutes or until rice is cooked. Take the pot off the heat and serve with the poached figs and the extra cup of coconut milk.

Makes 8 servings.

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In a small saucepan, bring cream and chopped basil to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, careful not to scald the cream. Pour the cream in a small bowl. Cover with plas-tic wrap and let the basil steep for 20 minutes. Strain the cream, and press the basil leaves into the sieve to extract all of the liquid. Let the cream cool down, then refrigerate.

Chocolate Beet Cake with Basil GanacheHow keen are your taste buds? The fun part about this cake is having people guess where the peculiar veggie taste comes from. The beets and avocados give this dessert a healthy veil and make the cake super moist.

Cake Batter:4 small beets½ cup butter, softened1 ½ cups brown sugar2 eggs2 ripe avocados, mashed1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 ½ teaspoons baking soda1 teaspoon baking powder½ cup cocoa powder1 cup buttermilk2 cups all-purpose flour

Ganache:1 cup chocolate chips1 cup heavy whipping cream½ cup basil, roughly chopped and bruised

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Prep the beets by trimming off their roots. Place them in a small pot filled with water. Boil them for 30 minutes or until the beets are tender. A fork should be able to easily pierce through the center. Drain and let the beets cool down. Us-ing a towel, peel off the skin of the beets. Grate the beets.

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9” x 13” baking dish.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and vanilla extract.

Using an electric stand mixer, cream the soft-ened butter and sugar until it becomes fluffy. At high speed, add the eggs one at a time. Mash the avocados and add them to the mixing bowl.

Slowly pour in 1/3 of flour mixture. Slowly pour in 1/3 of buttermilk mixture. Repeat two more times. Scrape down the sides and beat for a few more seconds to thoroughly mix the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Rotate the cake halfway through baking.

While the cake is cooling, make basil ganache. Put the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Reheat the basil-infused cream in a small saucepot. Pour ¾ cup cream over the chocolate and whisk to melt the chocolate.

Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Pour the ganache over the cake.

Makes 12 servings.

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In a medium pot, heat the oil on medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt, soy milk, and vanilla. When everything is incorpo-rated, add the peanut butter and rolled oats. Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients together. Take the pot off the heat. Drop large spoon-ful amounts of batter onto a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Put the cookies in the fridge to chill and firm up for at least 30 minutes.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Que Es EsoQue es eso translates to “what is it?”. The namesake of the recipe comes from not knowing what to call these shape shifting gluten-free cookies. Even though I have made this chocolatey, peanut buttery goodness dozens of times, I have never come up with a suitable name to give it, so que es eso always seems to stick.

½ olive oil1 ½ cups brown sugar5 tablespoons cocoa powder1 teaspoon salt½ cup soy milk or almond milk1 cup crunchy peanut butter1 tablespoon vanilla extract3 cups rolled oats

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SUNDAY

WaffleFried TofuFried chickenCole SlawGumbo

MONDAY

Teriyaki TofuStir-fried Broccoli + MushroomCouscous with Almonds + RaisonsRice + Squash Casserole

TUESDAY

Eggplant StewMashed Beets + PotatoesRoasted Sweet PotatoesVegan Pot PieBaked Falafel

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WEDNESDAYColeslawCaptain Crunch ChickenHot dog Mac n CheeseBarbeque TofuBeet SaladPB&J Crumble

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

NaanKugelPotato PattiesRoasted Bell Peppers + TomatoesSpinach with Goat CheeseRoasted Zucchini + Onions

Green Bean SaladEverything in a pot QuinoaPlum + Rhubarb CrumbleCornbread with BananasSpinach Salad

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SNACK

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Pancake Almond Granola ClustersThe secret to these clusters is the pancake syrup. The one of a kind maple flavor enriches every granola nook and cranny and goes down the gullet with a sweet touch. Using oat flour and compressing the oats before they go into the oven helps the granola become hefty chunks. These clusters and their endless cavity of baked oats are ideal for anytime and anywhere snackage.

6 cups rolled oats1 ½ cups oat flour2 cups almonds, chopped½ cup olive oil1 cup brown sugar½ cup pancake syrup¼ cup agave syrup1/8 cup vanilla extract1 tablespoon salt

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Preheat oven to 325F. Very lightly oil a half sheet tray

In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, oat flour, and almonds.

In a small pot, over low heat, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until well combined.

Pour the warm sugar and oil mixture over the dry oats. Using your hands, combine the ingredients to create an evenly coated and sticky mixture.

Pour the oats onto the sheet tray and press the oats into one even layer. Bake for 1 hour, rotating the tray every 15 minutes. After 1 hour, take the tray out and cut the granola into small 4” squares using a pastry blade. Do this quickly. Put the granola back into the oven for another 10 minutes. Take the granola out and let it cool completely before storing it in a con-tainer.

Makes about 7 cups.

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In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats and brown sugar.

Make the lava hot sugar mixture. In a small pot, over low heat, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until well mixed.

Pour the hot sugar and oil mixture over the dry oats. Using your hands, mix the two together to create a mixture that is evenly coated and sticky.

Pour the wet oats onto a lightly oiled quar-ter sheet tray. Bake for 45 minutes -1 hour, flipping the oats around every 15 minutes to get an even toastiness.

Makes 6 cups.

Cinnamon Cardamom GranolaHomemade granola is a life saver. Granola is a great study food, snack food, pre-dinner tide-you-over food, and you’re-too-lazy-to-prepare-anything-decent food. Note: Try mixing granola with frozen blueberries, chocolate chips, and yogurt!

6 cups rolled oats½ cup brown sugar½ cup olive oil½ cup agave syrup¼ cup brown rice syrup1/8 cup vanilla extract1 tablespoon salt1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon1 ½ tablespoons cardamom

Some Fun Additions:shredded coconutsesame seedsflax mealflax seedscitrus zestnutsdried fruitchocolate chips (immediately add to the granola after it is completely done cooking in the oven, combine the melting chocolate with the granola by stirring the warm mixture together)

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Core and dice the strawberries. Halve or quar-ter the tomatoes. Thinly chop the green onions. Finely dice the jalapeno.

In a medium bowl, combine the diced straw-berries, diced tomatoes, and chopped green onions.

Strawberry Salsa

I’m totally into well executed fruit and meat pairings. There’s something romantic about naturally sweet and ultra fresh fruit coupling with perfectly seared and super moist meat.

2 pints strawberries¾ pint cherry tomatoes4 green onions1 jalapeno pepper1 lime, juiced2 teaspoons cinnamon1 tablespoon honey4 tablespoons mint, choppeds + p

In a small bowl, whisk together the jalapenos, lime juice, cinnamon, honey, and mint.

Pour the wet ingredients over the strawberries and gentyl toss to combine. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Makes about 3 cups.

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Grind the rice in a spice grinder. Put the ground rice, water, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla in a large container and let it soak in the fridge for at least 8 hours. When ready to serve, strain the rice and top off the horchata with milk to taste

Makes 8 servings.

Horchata

The kitchen is the heart of the house. At any hour of the day, you can al-ways find someone in the kitchen in the midst of a saute or a leftover reheat. New dishes are constantly being created and old dishes are continually be-ing refined. Horchata is a never ending exercise in finding the perfect bal-ance between cinnamon, sugar, and milk. Make a large batch and imbibe with others.

16 cups water8 cups white rice8 tablespoons cinnamon4 cups sugar4 tablespoons vanilla extractmilk

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In a large pot, bring water, spices, and honey to a boil. Throw in tea leaves and continue to boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the tea leaves steep for 20 minutes. Strain and cool. If you are using Thai tea leaves, then omit the spices. In a measuring cup, stir together evaporated milk and co-conut milk. To serve, pour tea over ice and top off with milk mixture.

Makes 8 servings.

Thai Iced TeaIced cubes on hot days,thai tea will quench your yearning for sweet heat relief

16 cups water1 cup black tea leaves (or Thai tea leaves)4 star anise2 cinnamon sticks4 cardamom pods½ cup honey2 cups evaporated milk2 cups coconut milk

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Cut the nectarines into 1/3” segments. Finely dice the jalapenos. Thinly chop the greens onions.

In a medium pot, stir together all of the ingre-dients and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat down to a low simmer and cook for about 45 minutes. Occasionally stir the nectarines.

Makes 3 cups.

Nectarine ChutneyLast summer nectars,a chutney to bridge from sweet warmthto first autumn spice

8 ripe nectarines2 jalapeno peppers1 cup apple cider vinegar8 green onions3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced4 tablespoons brown sugar½ cup water

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Halve or quarter the cherry tomatoes. Small dice the red onion. Stem and roughly chop the cilantro. De-seed and finely dice the jalapenos.

Gently toss all of the ingredients together. Season to taste with the lime juice, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Makes about 6 cups.

Tomato SalsaChunky and loaded with bright flavors, this sauce is perfect scrambled in eggs for breakfast, over a steamy bowl of rice and beans for lunch, scooped up on tortilla chips for snack, and nestled in tacos for dinner. Sleep, heat, and repeat.

3 pints cherry tomatoes1 small red onion1 bunch cilantro2 jalapeno pepper1 tablespoon ground cumin1 tablespoon honey2 limes, juiceds + p

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Julienne the carrots and throw them into a bowl with the rest of the ingredi-ents. Stir the ingredients to dissolve the sugar. There should be enough liquid to submerge the carrots. Let the carrots marinate in the brine overnight. Store the carrots with the vinegar brine in jar in the fridge.

Makes about 4 cups.

Vietnamese Pickled CarrotsThe wonders of pickling extend beyond the cucumber. Pickling brines are a fascinating medium that preserves and infuses fruits and veggies with a high voltage sour and salty kick. Pickled foods are great for cutting through rich foods and piquing interest. Pickled carrots are splendid in banh mi sandwich-es and marvelous as a fixin on eggs-in-a-basket.

6 carrots2 teaspoons salt2/3 cup sugar1 cup rice wine vinegar1 cup water

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Soak the black beans in 3 cups of water for at least 8 hours.

Drain the black beans and put the beans in a medium pot with 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce, simmer, and cover with a lid. Cook for at least 1 hour.

Drain the black beans and reserve 2 cups of bean juice.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Sweat the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and jalapenos for about 10 minutes. Stir in cumin, coriander, chili powder, and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Mix in the brown rice, cook for another 5 minutes while continuously stir-ring. Pour in the cooked black beans, the can of undrained diced tomatoes, veggies broth, and 2 cups of reserved bean juice. Give it one big mix. Bring to a boil, reduce, simmer, and cover with a lid. Cook for 40 minutes or until rice is tender. Squeeze in the lime juice. Throw in the chopped cilantro and mix.

Makes 5 cups.

Spanish Rice and BeansHaving a store of rice and beans in the fridge is key to surviving busy days, laziness, and/or a shortage of pantry staples and produce. It’s tasty, filling, and packed with carbs and protein.

1 cup black beans4 bay leaves¼ cup of olive oil2 yellow onions, medium diced2 bell peppers, cored and medium diced2 garlic cloves, finely minced2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced1 teaspoon cumin1 teaspoon coriander1 teaspoon chili powder2 teaspoons salt2 cups brown rice1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, about 1 ¾ cups2 cups veggie broth1 lime½ bunch cilantro, chopped

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Basic Recipe:Boil water in the 2 gallon stainless steel pot and sterilize the thermometer and whisk in the boiling water.

Pour the boiling water from the stainless steel pot into the alu-minum pot.

Pour the milk into the stainless steel pot. Use the aluminum pot as a double boiler to heat the milk.Heat the milk to 180F.

Cool the milk in an ice bath until is reaches 125F.Remove the milk from the ice, whisk in 2/3 cup milk powder and add ½ cup starter yogurt.

Cover with aluminum pot with a large sheet of foil. Put the lid over the foil and on the pot.

YogurtYogurt can have a lot of varying characteristics such as tartness, thickness, creaminess, and smoothness. Making homemade yogurt and other kitchen staples are a lot more cost effective and a lot less wasteful. Note: How your homemade yogurt tastes depends on how the starter cul-ture tastes. For a thicker yogurt consistency, hold off on the stirring the yogurt until after you scoop off the solids that collect at the top during incubation and leave a little liquid behind. Or incubate for a few more hours for a thicker consistency. Texture is a result of the process and the milk fat content. Whole milk will yield a thicker yogurt than non-fat milk.

1 gallon milk½ cup yogurt starter2/3 cup milk powder

Equipment:2 gallon stainless street pot with a lid≥ 2 gallon aluminum pot with a diam-eter no more than 3” larger than the diameter of the stainless steel potcandy/frying thermometerwhisktongs2 blankets that insulate well

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Tightly wrap the blankets around the pot.

In the morning, stir the yogurt, pour it into small-er containers, and refrigerate.

Tangerine Yogurt:4 tangerines (zest of one tangerine per quart of yogurt)

After the yogurt is done incubating overnight, add in the zest of four tangerines and stir.

Honey Chamomile Yogurt:6 tablespoons chamomile tea3 tea bags½ cup honey

Pack 2 tablespoons of chamomile into each tea bag and make sure to tie the tea bags securely.

After you whisk in the milk powder and yogurt starter, throw in the tea bags and honey.

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Dump everything into a sealable jar and stir.

Tightly seal the mustard containing vessel.

Let the seeds sit for 2 days at room tempera-ture.

Transfer the mixture to a robo coupe or food processor. Process for 15-20 minutes and oc-casionally scrape down the sides.

Put the mustard into a sealable jar and stick it in the fridge.

Makes 2 cups.

Beer MustardIn the co-ops, we favor the DIY attitude and make foods from scratch whenever we can. It keeps the processed foods and their chemicals out of the pantry. Mustard is easy peasy to make. This recipe makes a huge batch and gives your sandwiches a dynamic sweet, spicy, and earthy twist. Note: Other unusual DIY homemade treats you can venture into making next could be bacon, beer, and jams.

1 cup yellow mustard seeds2/3 cup apple cider vinegar1 12 ounce bottle of chocolate stout (or any stout or pale ale beer)3 tablespoons honey (or more)1 tablespoon salt1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper½ teaspoon cardamom½ teaspoon cloves

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Cilantro HummusHummus is a fantastic quick to grab, filling, and versatile snack. Awesome with veggies and filled in sandwiches, hummus is full of protein and wholesome flavor.

2 cups chickpeas1 ½ cups tahini2 lemons, juiced4 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with salt1 tablespoon cumin2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon baking soda1 bunch cilantro, stemmedsaltolive oilpaprika

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In a large container, soak beans in 6 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda for at least 8 hours in the fridge.

Drain the beans. Pour the beans in a large pot with 12 cups of cold water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Bring to a boil, reduce, simmer, and cover. Cook for at least 1 hour or until

beans are soft and tender. Drain the beans and reserve some cooking liquid. Let the beans cool for 5 minutes.

Put the beans into a food processor or robo coupe and pulse. Pour in the rest of the ingre-dients. Season with salt to taste. Continue to pulse until you reach your desired consisten-cy. Add 1 tablespoon of bean juice at a time if the hummus is too thick.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a dust of paprika.

Makes 3 cups.

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The Unscripted, Unabridged, and Unapologetic Conversa-tion between four seasoned co-opers who consider the kitchen their second home and enjoy the taste of canned beer a little too much. Please meet Max, Meggie, and Adam.

Max has an alcohol collection too large for the cardboard box they are stored in and owns the Modernist Cuisine, a 6 volume series written by Nathan Myhrvold on the “art and science of cooking”.

Meggie likes making popcorn and has the tendency to dribble off on some multi-dimensioned and acutely perceptive observation while bantering about a broken toaster and other such non-sense. Adam dreams of whiskey in his sleep and owns an enviable collection of plaid shirts and cardi-gans. Cameo appearances by Shirin and Shane.

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The four of us have been members of the Berkeley Student Cooperative for a combined 8 years and have lived in a total of 5 different houses. All of us started our first semester in the co-ops either in the spring or fall of 2010. We have all cooked co-op dinners as our workshift and have all been guilty, at least once or twice, of feeding our housemates something we would not eat ourselves. The dining room air is thick with a post-dinner haze resulting from gluttonous third and fourth helpings and reluctant sweeping and mopping. We decide to transition into the night by shooting the shit over a leftover peanut butter & jelly crumble and numer-ous lukewarm cans of Coors Light. Here is a win-dow into the star-spangled world of co-op food. 08.07.12 | 08:30pm | Castro’s Dining Room1

Max and Ben cooked dinner tonight.2 The theme was “white trash”. The meal consisted of a beet salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, Vegenaise cole-slaw, corn saute, hot dog mac and cheese, vegan barbecue tofu mac and cheese, Cap’n Crunch fried chicken, and a peanut butter & jelly crumble. Din-ner is served at 7:00pm 6 days a week (Sunday through Friday) and they are always made by two members of the house. Cooks place the dinner they make on a long table in the dining room and peo-ple serves themselves by standing in a moving line on both sides of the table. Every semester, each pair of cooks gets a $30 budget to spend however they want. Max and Ben chose to spend their mon-ey on beer, hot dogs, and Cap ‘n Crunch cereal.

Max: I was definitely the nerdy kid in high school.Meggie: I was in the belly dancing club.Max: I started the fencing club and was president of the chess club.Adam: I did a few clubs. I had two crowds. I did all these extracurricular activities and then I’d go with the bad kids and ditch, and do graffiti, and get in fights and shit.

Meggie: It was a good dinner Max.Heather: Yeah, thanks for the dinner.Adam: And thanks for this second round of beer.Max: Thanks guys. I was hoping there would be some mac and cheese left.

Meggie: Any left?Max: No, all gone.Meggie: Too classic to be leftovers.Meggie: What inspired this dinner of yours?Max: I’ve been wanting to do a fratty dinner for awhile.Heather: What does that mean?Max: Exactly. It would just be beer battering every-thing. Or something to that effect. Hot dogs and stuff. And then we decided to take it a step further and do white trash. I dated a girl who was kinda trashy. She’s from Stockton and she introduced me to Cap’n Crunch fried chicken and we had to make that.Adam: Ooohh shit.Max: And we tried to make the meal well rounded, so hot dogs, mac and cheese.

Shirin: I really liked the mac and cheese, Max.3Max: It was good, yeah? It kind of worked.Shirin [pointing at the pb & j crumble]: I didn’t like this.Meggie: Oh, I loved this. I love gimmicky food like this.Heather: Gimmicky like popcorn. That’s right up your alley. You make popcorn all the time, at least once a day, and at any time of the day for that matter.Shirin: I think it was very authentic white trash. I guess the problem is is that I don’t like white trash food. I’m too brown to handle it. No, I’m jk-ing. I re-ally liked the mac and cheese. I liked both versions of the mac.Max: Right, so one had tofu and one had hot dogs. The tofu and barbecue sauce was like caramelized barbecue.Meggie: So what did you do? Take barbecue sauce and put sugar in it and heat it up?Max: Nahh, I just cooked it a long time. I reduced it a lot so it became a thick paste. Like , like a bar-becue, grilled, pasty tofu thing.Heather: Did you put the tofu in with the sauce when you reduced it?Max: It was onions, garlic, paprika, and then tofu, fried that up, then got the barbecue sauce on it so it was like fried all ready and then had sauce around it.Adam: Fresh.Meggie: All good things.

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Meggie: Yeah that corn was that classic, like lunch, like hot lunch at school corn.Heather: Oh man, that was forever ago, where you had to fork open the plastic wrap.Adam: Did you ever have the plastic milk packets where you had to pop it with a straw?Max: Like Capri Suns.Adam: I used to throw them at kids. We were bad, yeah.Max: You were like a really shitty kid, weren’t you?Adam: I was part of the rugrat gang.Max: Oohkay.Adam: 24-7Meggie: I’m not surprised.Adam: And then fake it in the front, going to class, doing that shit. Just making it happen. And then getting away with stuff.Meggie: Getting away with shit.Max: I never get away with shit. Today, I parked over there for 2 ½ hours and didn’t get a ticket. That’s actually a big deal.Adam: Yeah, they’re always on point.

Max: I wanted to buy a beer, then I thought I should get Ben. I got Ben and we were just going to buy beer. Ideally, we would have made everything with beer in it. We wouldn’t have made salad, but peo-ple would have been angry.Heather: You wouldn’t have made “soup”.Max: It was supposed to be gravy.Heather: Haha, I know.Shane: Are you guys recording your conversation?4

Max: Yeah, you’re in it.Shane: Ohh, cool, what’s the topic?Meggie: Food.Max: We’re talking about tonight’s dinner.Heather: What’d you think about the food tonight?Shane: I enjoyed the hot dog pasta. It was like mac and cheese but with meat. The fried chicken things were sweet like honey. l enjoyed that. I have the unfortunate habit of not being able to control eat-ing appetizers as I go through the dinner line, so by the time I exit the dinner line I already had two servings of coleslaw.All: Hahaha.Shane: I couldn’t eat anymore, which hurt the meal

over all. The peanut butter & jelly crumble thing, though. I really enjoyed that.Max: So all the white trash things you liked. Every-thing else was normal co-op food.Shane: Exactly. Fuck the beets.Meggie: Kyra, Kyra was so happy. She was in the line and she said all excitedly, “Why didn’t they say there were beets here?!”Max: Because we started them at 7:10pm (dinner is supposed to be served at 7:00pm). I just made a salad by cutting them up them really fast and dump-ing them on some lettuce.Heather: Kyra was really appalled when she heard about the white trash dinner theme tonight. She was really unhappy. She was like, “Mmmm, didn’t we have that a couple of days ago?”Meggie: Ohh, it was the politics of it?Heather: No, it was just that she wanted vegetables and not the fried food things.Max: We went through like 5-6 sticks of butter and 4 cups of Veganaise.Meggie: 4 cups of Veganaise?!Max: We played some beer pong before, too.Adam: Were you wearing sunglasses the whole time you were cooking?Max: Yeah, well no, just part of it.Meggie: So you were setting the mood. Yeah the whole chicken and waffles thing is really popular,

I feel like.Max: I didn’t want to make waffles.Heather: 50 waffles is a lot.Max: It’s a lot, it’s a lot.Heather: Sometimes you feel ambitious and want to do a whole lotta stuff, and other times you want to keep it simple.Meggie: I’ll never forget the night when a certain someone got off of work and didn’t feel like cooking anymore and so she just

made one large dish of everything. She was like, “I’m putting everything in it and I’m putting it in the biggest thing we have.”Adam: Was that you?Heather: Yeah.Meggie: It was awesome.Heather: But the thing though, is that it was planned the night before. I said, “Let’s just make one single dish with every single vegetable and every kind of produce we have. Everything in one pot.” And I told my co-cook that this is what I wanted to do.

“Ideally, we would have made every-thing with beer in it.”

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I mean, I planned to do this. He was dubious the entire time. He thought I was joking. Even during cooking he was still unsure whether this was going down or not. I was like, “Why not?”Adam: So it was a stir fry with all types of shit in it.Heather: It was in one or two pots, but it was only one single dish.Adam: This summer right?Heather: No, this spring. It was quinoa with every-thing you could think of.Meggie: Don’t get me wrong here. Don’t get me wrong. Mark my words. I walked in and I was like, “Noooo. Yes? YES!” And then I put a huge pile on my plate. It was an insult to the courses of a meal. It was degenerate cooking, and I was so into it.Adam: What was the meal made of exactly?Heather: I don’t remember, I don’t know. Basically the goal for me was to use every single kind of pro-duce we had. That was the goal. Put it in one pot. Put it in one dish.Max: What did you guys season that with?

Heather: Everything; sriracha, chili sauce...Adam: Nutritional yeast.Max: How do you decide what works when you have all that?Heather: It was the epitome of co-op slop. And it was the easiest recipe: Everything.Max: But when you have to use celery with apples...Adam: That’s a dish right there.Max: ... with grapefruit peel, then what do you do?Heather: Then you’ve probably never had it before and that’s why you can’t wrap your head around it. I mean you’ve had attempts at co-op slop, but they were all trying to do something else. This was no imposter.

Adam: Have you heard of this place called ‘wich-craft?Heather: Yeah, I’ve been there before.Adam: I went there today. It’s a cool joint. Sand-wich and salad joint.Heather: Yeah, it’s Tom Colicchio’s place.Meggie: Was it like Ike’s?Heather: No.Adam: It was nicer sandwiches.Heather: Ike’s has huge, big, tasty sandwiches but this place is a tad bit more refined. Not massive sandwiches.Meggie: Answer this question. Answer this, yes or no. Did they have aioli?Adam: Yes.Meggie: It’s like the “aioli effect”. When there’s aioli somewhere, it says a certain thing about the place.Max: We don’t use mustard. We use aaiooli...Heather: But all aioli is, is that it has garlic. It sounds fancier. Some people don’t know what it is.Meggie: It’s good.Heather: People love fancy. Like you Max, you like fancy.Meggie: But you can do white trash too. It’s an admirable trait.Max: Haha, very, very well rounded.Meggie: I went to this hot dog stand in the financial district this one time. Really funny place. The people there just don’t give a shit about you. I‘m pretty sure I asked for a veggie dog, and I’m pretty sure they give me a real dog. I think they give everyone who orders veggie dog a real hot dog, just to spite them.Heather: Did they even smirk?

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Meggie: No, they have done it so many times prob-ably.Max: It just takes one asshole on the line.Meggie: Today, you eat meat! I ate it. Whatever.Heather: The customer is not always right.Meggie: The thing that I was thinking about was the condiment thing. They had a curry ketchup. Crazy.Heather: So currywurst, the German snack food. It’s this sausage that’s slathered in this curry ketchup; it’s a typical street food there.Meggie: That’s where they got it then.Max: There’s this one place that was trying to be the most american res-taurant. What is american food like? Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried food, but all of them use ketchup. So they just came up with this restaurant that had 30 kinds of ketchup. There’s an old school anchovy ketchup, a normal to-mato based one, a plum based one.Heather: Where was this?Max: I don’t know. I heard about it a while ago.Meggie: That would be so much fun.Heather: You take a kid there...Meggie: Or take me there.Heather: Nico kept joking about our use of ketchup while he was here. Anytime we had a dinner with-out a lot of vegetables or a lot of green on it, he

would joke and tell us to put ketchup on it because we think it’s natural to put it on everything. It’s like Americans think ketchup is an actual tomato. “Don’t worry, use ketchup! There’s your vegetable for the day!” he’d say. He kept being a snob and saying that we slather everything with barbecue sauce and he was not into it. According to him we use ketchup and barbecue sauce way too much.5

Meggie: Sometimes I forget that these things exist. Maybe it’s the nature of being in a co-op. But sometimes I’d be like, “Oh yeah, I could put barbecue sauce on it and then it would taste good because that is a familiar taste to me.”Heather: It’s kind of incredible how many ingredients we have and that we could really just whip up any-thing. But people tend to have their go-to quick fixes…Max: Saves time.Heather: …when they pack their lunch or whatever. So Jenny today,

she just had this one huge, long jar and had these three carrots in it that were poking out almost and then she proceeded to put in every leftover we had so it created this strata of leftovers.Max: You know, like one of those souvenirs with different colored sands in a jar. Yeah, it was one of those.Heather: Yeah, but with three carrots that pierced through all levels; there was hummus, couscous, and everything else. And these things completely engulfed the carrots.Meggie: So the carrots were holding down the structure of these strata? There’s a name for that. There’s a dessert like that, that’s layered...Heather: A parfait? A trifle?Meggie: A parfait, yeah, yeah. Something like that.Heather: At first I thought she was going to pickle the carrots.

“I walked in and I was like, “Noooo.

Yes? YES!” And then I put a huge

pile on my plate. It was an insult to the courses of a meal. It was degenerate cooking, and I was

so into it.”

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“Are you going to pickle that, Jenny?” - Heather“No, no I’m not going to be here for din-ner.” - Jenny

Heather: Then I turned away for a moment and looked back and saw that she had five other things in it.Meggie: That’s cool. That’s so great that we live in a place like this.Heather: Leftovers in a jar, otherwise known as din-ner.

Max: I feel like raw food is just not okay. It’s like a salad. It’s what a salad is. If you eat raw food as your meal, it’s not satisfying.Heather: It’s not at all.Meggie: I’ve tried. I’ve tried. At first, when I first joined the co-ops I was really into that because we had so much. Did you go through that phase, too?Heather: I think I did. I tried out being vegan for a month. It was my first semester at Cloyne and I was cooking a vegan night and I had noticed we were eating a lot of tofu and vegetarian food. I simply said, “Why not? I’ll try it out and see how long I can do this.” I did it for a couple of weeks and told myself I could stick it out for a whole month. And it really wasn’t that hard because you don’t have that much meat in a co-op. That’s it. You have a lot of tofu. You have a lot of vegetables.Max: I hate tofu.Meggie: You hate tofu?!Max: I hate tofu.Meggie: As a vegetarian who doesn’t really give a shit about food politics…Max: I like soft tofu.Meggie: You do?Max: I do.Meggie: I think soft tofu soaks up fla-vors nicely. There’s something about it.Heather: Soft tofu has a very decadent texture to it. Silky. Custardy.Meggie: Custardy.Heather: But we’ve never gotten it, ever. And why, I’m not sure. Perhaps because it’s more difficult to make and therefore more expensive?Meggie: It doesn’t last that long. It’s not that carby. And then that addresses my whole concern. I went off to this weird teen institute when I was younger

and my mom was like, “Meggie, they’re just gonna feed you potatoes and pasta because they want to brainwash you!”Max and Heather: Hahaha.Meggie: They gave me carbs all day and you’re like so blehhh. Oh, I’m always wary of that. The co-ops, are they just secretly giving me potatoes to brainwash me? I don’t even know.Heather: And that has just stuck with you.Meggie: It’s kinda true. It’s just true out of utility. You don’t buy the soft tofu because we need something hearty to feed lots of people. It’s just a weird social control thing that enters in when you’re feeding lots of people at once. That’s why it’s so important we have some many cooks.Max: It’s just that what I make for my house is so different than what I would make for myself. When I cook for myself, I cook weird things. I also like unusual pairings.Heather: That’s kind of the opposite for me. One of the things I absolutely, absolutely love about cook-ing for the co-ops is that I can experiment and I take full advantage of that because…Meggie: People eat everything.Heather: …people eat everything and I love experi-menting.Max: I just feel bad.Heather: But I don’t feel bad. l like challenging people. I like putting it out there and challenging people.

Max: Yeah, okay.Heather: You know, hey, try out this cinnamon and cauliflower. Like, why not?Meggie: Like when you put coffee in everything.Heather: Yes!Max: When I experiment, the food ends up really bad.Heather: There’s definitely a risk to it, for sure. For example, if

you’re trying a technique you’ve never done be-fore, there’s a greater chance of messing up. Mess-ing with spices and flavors can be more forgiving. Sometimes the new technique won’t even work at all. The dish won’t cook or it will burn.Max: That’s what we were talking about earlier. I love food pairings.Meggie: So the experimentation happens at the

“The co-ops, are they just secretly

giving me po-tatoes to brain-

wash me? I don’t even know.”

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planning stage? Or while you’re actually cooking?Max: A lot of it is impromptu. I’m not going to do weird things.Meggie: Ha, just broil this butter.Heather: Broiled butter, haha. But let’s be real, it’s probably been done before.Meggie: I love broiling things. And I love butter. Let’s broil butter!All: Haha.Meggie: Texture, right?Max: I mean I’ve never made anything that I’ve made today before, except the salad. But I don’t really consider that experimenting.Heather: There are a couple of things that I really try to do when I cook. 1) Experiment with flavors. 2) Try not to cook anything I’ve made before. But I’ve definitely broken this one because there are some things that I really like to make. I happen to really like making focaccia; I’ve made it at least once every semester I’ve cooked.Max: For the most part, I try to cook things I’ve never made before.Heather: I think it helps. I learn a lot. In a way I’m learning but at the risk of what the house is eating. I get in what’s needed though. You get your protein. You get your starch.Max: Right now, I like to make things that you usu-ally buy. Like today, we made our own grape jelly. It wasn’t that good.Meggie: It tasted like jam. That’s remarkable that I could actually recognize the taste of it. It was home-made. I feel like flavors tend to dissipate when you do that. It was good, I liked it.Max: It was like a pb & j. Breadcrumbs and butter and peanut butter and jam. That’s it.Heather: What was in the “soup”?Max: We put 2 sticks of butter and a bunch of flour and tried to make a roux.Meggie: Anything cathartic happen?

(Adam has left the table and is nuking his cup of soup in the microwave.)(Max knows how much butter went into that “soup” and is trying to prevent him from eating his own doom.)

Max [shouting across the room]: Let it cool and so-lidify and scrape the butter off the top of it!Adam [shrugs his shoulders]: All the flavor is in the fat.Heather: He wants the butter.Heather: I really like experimenting when I cook dinners. I try to cook things I’ve never made before.Max: Making the same dinner sucks.Adam: At Kingman, I cooked with a lot of other people, head cooks and assistant cooks. It’s great to cook with others. You get different ideas.6

Heather: I’ve learned a lot from all of the people I’ve cooked with over the last couple of years. I’ve cooked with someone who liked to cook re-ally, really simple dishes. Roast this vegetable, roast that vegetable. An-other person I cooked with at Cloyne also bussed tables at Chez Panisse and would come home super in-spired by the family meals she ate there. She was w ambitious and so was I. So what ended up happening with us was that when we cooked dinner together she was often in her own world and in her own corner working on her thing. I would do the same and just focus on my own dish. It wasn’t as collaborative with her as

with the others cooks I’ve worked with. It was a lot more collaborative with Eliya. Eliya and I would come up with the meal together and do the dishes together. She would do a part of it and I would do a part of it.7Shane [rolls eyes and scoffs]: And oatmeal every week.Heather: Haha.Shane: Oatmeal mush every week!Adam: Like grits or just oatmeal?Heather: It was this thing called “que es eso” which means “what is it?” Eliya was gluten free, which was a huge challenge for me because I didn’t want to cook anything she couldn’t eat. The “que es eso” was this no bake cookie. It had lots of oats in it, so no flour or anything like that. She made that once and she really liked it, so I said, “Yeah let’s do that every single week.” And every single week we made that. Sometimes we had an extra dessert in

“It’s just that what I make for my house is so different than what I would

make for myself. When I cook for myself, I cook weird things. I

also like unusual pairings.”

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addition to that, but we also had that “que es eso”. We made sure we had that; it was a complete meal if we had that.Adam: That was another one of the challenges I encountered. It was adapting recipes to people’s allergies. I made a lot of gluten-free dishes.Shane: I thought the “que es eso” was no cool. Be-cause when you’re cooking for groups it’s so much work that there’s a tendency to just not care. To say, “I don’t care. Screw it, I don’t care about my customers” is rude because they’re your customers.Max: The business major speaks againShane: On the other hand, don’t screw with your people like that and provide a novelty week in and week out. I can say in the last week, I applaud you for your consistency and I thought the consistency itself provided a lot of the humor, but week in and week out, I thought, “Why?!”Heather: Some people liked it, some people didn’t like it. But it was really for Eliya who was gluten-free. We also sometimes had a real dessert. The “que es eso” was something we always whipped up in the last 10 minutes.Adam: What is a gluten allergy?Max: I think it’s a virus and your body goes fucking crazy and you go into anaphylactic shock a lot of the times.Adam: I thought it was a gas.Max: That’s an intolerance like lactose intolerance

but this is a legitimate allergy your immune system can’t take.Meggie: Celiac disease is when your intestines can’t process it. They didn’t even know about it until…[looking at Shane shove four books under the sling protecting his fractured arm]..that arm is really broken. My dad has celiac disease and he can’t process it.Max: I couldn’t live like that.Adam: There was someone in the house at Kingman who had a whole list of things she couldn’t eat. She would throw olives in her oatmeal. She would do shit like that to get her protein in her meals.Meggie: Fuck that.Adam: She would make sandwiches in seaweed wrap.Meggie: I’m sorry, but that is a lifestyle change! That fucks with your dopamine levels when you don’t get the same happiness out of food that you usually do.Heather: That’s true.Meggie: That’s fucking scary ass shit.Max: There’s that story of that one chef who got tongue cancer and who couldn’t taste anything.Heather: Oh, that’s Achatz. He has one of the most renowned restaurants for molecular gastronomy.Adam: No tongue?Max: He talks fine, yeah.Meggie: Who went deaf? The musician?

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Max: Beethoven.

Meggie: Yeah, he still composed. There’s still hope.Max: But yeah, it’s kinda interesting. With Beethoven, nothing really changed though. He knew what everything sounded like. He was just making the same sounds basically.Meggie: You think food making is different?Max: Well, Grant Achatz started doing weird stuff. He does molecular grastronomy, so it’s all about novelty and pairing food in different ways and you focus on texture and doing things very precisely and the best that could be done. And obviously fla-vor is really important but it’s a very different way of approaching food.Meggie: Do you mean it’s not as bad as it sounds?Max: He’s still okay. No, well, it’s pretty terrible I think. You can’t taste things. If you make something new maybe you can really appreciate the texture or something but you can’t taste it.Meggie: So it’s all about the differ-ent, new combinations.Max: I’m sure he approaches food differently now.Heather: If you lost your sense of smell, how much would that affect eating?Max: Huge.Heather: Do you just look at a plate of food and just pick the most nutritionally valuable food be-cause taste doesn’t really matter? If you can’t enjoy a hot dog, then why ever eat it again?Meggie: Well smell isn’t all taste either because I can’t really smell that well.Max: It’s like 80%. You taste things but smell adds all the complexity to it. Smell prepares you for the taste. Smell kind of frames everything that you taste.Meggie: I disagree. Sometimes I like to eat foods as fast as I can. In fact, I usually eat foods as fast as I can; that is how I eat food and I don’t smell it. I smell things just to make sure they’re not rotten.Max: Even when it’s in your mouth though. Any-thing that’s volatile, you’re not tasting it, you’re smelling it technically. You’re not really tasting as much as you’re smelling, kind of.Meggie: So even when it’s in my mouth? When I’m just shoving things in my mouth, I’m smelling it too?Max: Yeah.Adam: Haha. Deep stuff.

Max: I mean if you ate and plugged your nose, you probably wouldn’t like it as much. You could still eat it but...Meggie: I mean, I know I can’t smell very well. I have a deviated septum. [looking at Adam] You have one too right?Max: Too much cocaineMeggie: It just got pushed over… clogged one. Anyways.Heather: I try to eat slower.Max [referring to the empty beer cans on the table]: Want another one?Meggie: No, I shouldn’t, thanks. You try to eat slow-er? You actively try to eat slower.Heather: I know I eat faster than I would like. I scarf down food too often. I would like to just sit down for a moment in the day and enjoy the meal very slow-

ly, taste each morsel. But also have a nice time in the day to sit down, relax, and enjoy good conversation.Adam: I do that. I do that with my breakfast. I’m a slow a breakfast eater. Just sit down, drink coffee.Heather: I’ve done that a lot more

this summer.Meggie: It sounds like you want to pay more atten-tion to the newspaper and the people around your food.Heather: Yeah, that’s a lot of it. I need to stop stab-bing my fork in two different things at once.Adam: Okay.Heather: I think that’s how it was for a lot of people at Cloyne because at Cloyne you serve dinner on the tables and people would jump on each other to grab any food they could get.8Adam: Pure savagery at its best.Meggie: The first time you cooked a dinner at Cloyne, were you flattered? Were you scared to death?Heather: I was really, really nervous the first few times I cooked. I didn’t know what to cook and didn’t know how to portion things properly. I had to ask Michael, my co-head cook, how many onions to chop up. 9 And when we served dinner, I would immediately leave the dining room and run away. I couldn’t handle watching people eat my food. I touched everything that was going into people’s mouths. Nope, I couldn’t handle it. Now, I feel a lot more comfortable. I have an idea of what I want to

“I need to stop stabbing my fork in two different things at once.”

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cook and know how to portion things. Cause now, I really want to know what people think of the food that I cook. I wish there were a way for people to be more vocal about what they think. Having some-thing like VOC’s for cooks or something like that, that could be good.10

Max: I know I really like rich foods and a lot of peo-ple don’t. Actually, I don’t know if I want people’s feedback.Meggie: We used to do that at Hoyt during temp-week for cooking workshifts.Heather: Davis does that too.Meggie: The kitchen managers would take feed-back on every meal and would make decisions on who the cooks were going to be based on the feed-back. So if people really didn’t like it, they would voice their opinion.Heather: Have a little competition.Max: People just have different styles of cooking. I could make really light vegan food but I’d rather not cause I couldn’t cook it as well. And when I’m co-op cooking, I like cooking for myself too.Meggie: When I cooked at Hoyt, I remember I was so giddy about making food. It was just a chemistry with my cook kind of thing. We just tried to make really strange meals. Every meal had a theme. Our most famous meal was called “topsy turvy”. It was very complicated. It was so hard to explain that we stopped explaining it to people and we’d just say, “Just come to the meal.” We would put all of the forms of different things with different dishes. It’s like genre versus instruments. We took the pasta, the lasagna, and put them into cupcake tins. We served a salad like meat, like slabs of cabbage.11

Adam and Heather: Okay.Meggie: It was so bad. It was so bad. But we did shit like that all the time. Wicked stupid things.Heather: Haha, I love doing that. But it does de-pend on who you’re cooking with and how down they are. I like coming up with more experimental things but it totally depends because some people are “Yeah!” and some people are expecting a more balanced dinner.Meggie: Yeah, that’s the thing. Stop with the fuck-ing fanciness! My final opinion on it after living through this for 2 ½ years is: Do not fuck with my dinner. Just give me good dinner. I like the experi-mental stuff but if I had me as a cook two years

ago, I would say, “Get out of the kitchen! What are you doing? What are you doing right now?”Heather: Did you ever get any feedback?Meggie: It was a house of girls. I don’t really know. I don’t really know what was going on.Adam: It was just Hoyt.Meggie: It was Hoyt.Meggie: If people didn’t like your food, they would just straight up not get in line and make a bagel and put like cheese and ice cream on top of it and leave. They would eat it in their room. They would not even give a shit if you saw them.

Meggie: One time I put salt instead of sugar in a bread pudding…All: Oooohh, haha.Meggie: …everyone was all crowded around me. When you take something out of the oven, every-one gets so excited. Everybody has their spoon, they’re eating it, and everybody who tries it makes this face…

I’m thinking, “Oh my god, what?”They’re like, “It’s suuuuper salty.”And I’m like, “Fuck....” Meggie: …and I start freaking out and by the time I look up to see what’s happening next they were all crowded around the ice cream. They didn’t give a shit and I was like, “What?”

1 Castro: A 56-person co-op on the south side of campus2 Ben: Max’s co-cook at Castro, summer 20123 Shirin: Opinionated eater and Castro resident, fall 2010 and summer 20124 Shane: Impatient eater and Castro resident, spring 2010 - fall 20125 Nico: French foreign exchange student and Castro resident, spring - summer 20126 Kingman: A 50-person co-op on the north side of campus7 Eliya: Heather’s co-cook at Castro, fall 20118 Cloyne: A 149-person co-op on the north side of campus9 Michael: Heather’s co-head cook at Cloyne, fall 201010 VOC = Vote of Confidence. Online polling system used to give house members the ability to dish out anonymous feedback to house level managers.11 Hoyt: A 60-person all women’s co-op on the north side of campus

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Index

6 Days of Co-op Dinner, 101

agave Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105alfalfa sprouts Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67allspice, 17almonds Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Warm Grain Salad, 79apples, 77apple cider vinegar Beer Mustard, 123 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Slaw, 77 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67arugula, 73Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73asparagus, 45avocado Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Warm Grain Salad, 79

baking powder Basic Waffle, 39 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Savory Waffle, 40baking soda Basic Waffle, 39 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Cilantro Hummus, 125 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with

Habanero Glaze, 93 Savory Waffle, 40balsamic vinegar, 79Basic Waffle, 39basil Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Ratatouille, 49 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15bay leaves Minestrone Soup, 45 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Veggie Bean Chili Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15beans Minestrone Soup, 45 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 White Beans and Chard, 51beef, 17beer Beer Mustard, 123 Veggie Bean Chili, 11Beer Mustard, 123beets Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71bell pepper Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Ratatouille, 49 Savory Quinoa, 31 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Veggie Bean Chili, 11Berkeley Student Cooperative Carrot Halwa, 91 Conversation, 127 Book Introduction, 1 Personal Introduction, 145 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71Berkeley Student Food Collective, 9Berry Crumble, 85Berry Salad, 65berry vinegar, 65beverages Horchata, 111

Thai Iced Tea, 112Black Pepper Tempeh, 7blackberries Berry Crumble, 85 Berry Salad, 65 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32blue cheese, 71bok choy, 35bread Challah, 27 Focaccia, 25broccoli, 53broth, chicken, 15broth, veggie Minestrone Soup, 45 Peanut Stew, 47 Savory Quinoa, 31 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spinach Cumin Brown Rice, 29 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 Warm Grain Salad, 79brown rice. See ricebrown rice syrup, 107brussels sprouts Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 57 Slaw, 77butter Berry Crumble, 85 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Elote, 59 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93buttermilk Basic Waffle, 39 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Savory Waffle, 40

cabbage Peanut Stew, 47 Slaw, 77capers, 75cardamom, ground Beer Mustard, 123

a

b

c

140

Berry Crumble, 85 Berry Salad, 65 Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs Carrot Halwa, 91 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32cardamom, pods, 112Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95carrots Carrot Halwa, 91 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Minestrone Soup, 45 Peanut Stew, 47 Pickled Vietnamese Carrots, 117 Roasted Vegetables, 53 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 Slaw, 77 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5Carrot Halwa, 91cauliflower Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5Chai Donut Holes, 87Challah, 27champagne vinegar, 71chard, 51cheddar cheese Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Savory Waffle, 40 Shepherd’s Pie, 17cheese Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Berry Salad, 65 Elote, 59 Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 57 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Savory Waffle, 40 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71chicken, 15chickpeas Cilantro Hummus, 125 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67chili flakes, 7chili powder Elote, 59 Fish Tacos, 19 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Peanut Stew, 47 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Veggie Bean Chili, 11chocolate Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93

Chocolate Beet Cake with Basil Ganache, 97cilantro Cilantro Hummus, 125 Miso Brown Sugar Squash, 55 Savory Quinoa, 31 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tomato Salsa, 115 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15Cilantro Hummus, 125cinnamon, ground Berry Salad, 65 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Horchata, 111 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32 Peanut Stew, 47 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Veggie Bean Chili, 11Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107cinnamon, sticks, 112cloves Beer Mustard, 123 Berry Salad, 65cocoa powder Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Que Es Eso, 99coconut milk Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Carrot Halwa, 91 Coconut Brown Rice, 30 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Thai Iced Tea, 112 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15coconut, shredded, 30Coconut Brown Rice, 30cojito cheese, 59condiments Beer Mustard, 123 Cilantro Hummus, 125 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Tomato Salsa, 115 Vietnamese Pickled Carrots, 117Conversation, The, 127coriander Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Veggie Bean Chili, 11corn Elote, 59 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 Warm Grain Salad, 79cornmeal Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Savory Waffle, 40

cornstarch Berry Crumble, 85 Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Shepherd’s Pie, 17cranberries, 32crema, 59croutons, 67cucumber Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69cumin, ground Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Cilantro Hummus, 125 Peanut Stew, 47 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Tomato Salsa, 115 Veggie Bean Chili, 11cumin seed, 29curry Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15

dill Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Slaw, 77dressings

Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89eggplant, 49eggs Basic Waffle, 39 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Challah, 27 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Savory Waffle, 40 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69Elote, 59evaporated milk, 112

farro, 79fennel, 45

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fennel powder, 17feta, 73figs, 95fish, 19Fish Tacos, 19fish sauce Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15flour, all-purpose Basic Waffle, 39 Berry Crumble, 85 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Challah, 27 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Focaccia, 25 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Savory Waffle, 40flour, oat, 105flour, whole wheat pastry flour, 85Focaccia, 25fruit Berry Crumble, 85 Berry Salad, 65 Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Tangerine Yogurt, 121

Garden, The, 61garlic Cilantro Hummus, 125 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Minestrone Soup, 45 Ratatouille, 49 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15 Warm Grain Salad, 79ginger, fresh Berry Crumble, 85 Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Peanut Stew, 47 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15ginger, ground, 85gorgonzola cheese, 65

Grains Guidegreen onions Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Strawberry Salsa, 109Green Onion Cornbread, 37

habaneros, 93heavy cream Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89 Shepherd’s Pie, 17herbs. See herb nameshoisin sauce, 35honey Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Beer Mustard, 123 Berry Salad, 65 Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Challah, 27 Focaccia, 25 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Slaw, 77 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Thai Iced Tea, 112 Tomato Salsa, 115Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121Horchata, 111

ice cream yes, please

jalapenos Nectarine Chutney, 113 Peanut Stew, 47 Savory Waffle, 40 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tomato Salsa, 115 Veggie Bean Chili, 11Jar, The, 41

kale Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75kosher salt Challah, 27 Focaccia, 25

leeks Minestrone Soup, 45 Peanut Stew, 47lemon Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Berry Crumble, 85 Cilantro Hummus, 125 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Slaw, 77 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Warm Grain Salad, 79lemongrass, 15lentils, 79lime Elote, 59 Fish Tacos, 19 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tomato Salsa, 115

maple syrup, 105milk, dairy. See soy milk or rice milk Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Tangerine Yogurt, 121milk powder Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121 Tangerine Yogurt, 121Minestrone Soup, 45mint, 109Miso Brown Sugar Squash, 55miso paste Miso Brown Sugar Squash, 55 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9

g

h

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mushrooms Savory Quinoa, 31 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5mustard Berry Salad, 65 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Slaw, 77 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67mustard seeds, 123

nectarines, 113noodles, 9nutmeg Berry Salad, 65 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9nuts Berry Salad, 65 Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Warm Grain Salad, 79

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93Oatmeal Quinoa, 32oats Berry Crumble, 85 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Que Es Eso, 99oils. See oil namesolive oil Basic Waffle, 39 Challah, 27 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Focaccia, 25 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Minestrone Soup, 45 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Peanut Stew, 47 Que Es Eso, 99 Ratatouille, 49 Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 57 Roasted Potatoes, 33 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Roasted Vegetables, 53

Savory Quinoa, 31 Savory Waffle, 40 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 Slaw, 77 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spinach Cumin Brown Rice, 29 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15 Warm Grain Salad, 79 White Beans and Chard, 51onion Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Minestrone Soup, 45 Peanut Stew, 47 Ratatouille, 49 Savory Quinoa, 31 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 Soy Garlic Soba, 35 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Veggie Bean Chili, 11 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15 Warm Grain Salad, 79onion, red Slaw, 77 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Tomato Salsa, 115orange Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32oregano Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Seasonal Frittata, 11 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 White Beans and Chard, 51

pancake syrup, 105Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105paprika Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 57 Savory Quinoa, 31Parmesan cheese, 57pasta Minestrone Soup, 45 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9parsley, 71peanuts, 47

peanut butter Peanut Stew, 47 Que Es Eso, 99Peanut Stew, 47peas Minestrone Soup, 45 Shepherd’s Pie, 17 Soy Garlic Soba, 35pecans, 73peppercorns Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15pickle relish, 77pickling, 117pinenuts, 75Plates, The, 21poppy seeds, 27potatoes Roasted Potatoes, 33 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15 White Beans and Chard, 51potatoes, sweet Peanut Stew, 47 Roasted Vegetables, 53 Shepherd’s Pie, 17

Que Es Eso, 99quinoa Oatmeal Quinoa, 32 Savory Quinoa, 31

radish, 75Ratatouille, 49red wine vinegar, 77rice, brown Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Coconut Brown Rice, 30 Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Spinach Cumin Brown Rice, 29rice, white, 111rice milk, 9rice wine vinegar Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Pickled Vietnamese Carrots, 117 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69ricotta, 54Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 57Roasted Potatoes, 33Roasted Tomatoes, 54

n

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Roasted Vegetables, 53rosemary Focaccia, 25 Roasted Vegetables, 53

Savory Quinoa, 31Savory Waffle, 40Seasonal Frittata, 11sesame oil Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Soy Garlic Soba, 35shallots Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15Shepherd’s Pie, 17Slaw, 77soba, 35soup, 45Soy Garlic Soba, 35soy milk Berry Salad, 65 Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32 Que Es Eso, 99soy sauce Black Pepper Tempeh, 7 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Soy Garlic Soba, 35Spanish Rice and Beans, 119Special Dinner and Special Brunchspices. See spice namesspinach Seasonal Frittata, 11 Spinach Cumin Brown Rice, 29 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71Spinach Cumin Brown Rice, 29Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing, 71

spring mix Berry Salad, 65 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69Spring Mix with Honey Mustard Dressing, 67Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69squash, winter Miso Brown Sugar Squash, 55 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9squash, summer Minestrone Soup, 45 Ratatouille, 49 Savory Quinoa, 31star anise, 112stock, chicken, 15

strawberries Berry Salad, 65 Strawberry Salsa, 109Strawberry Salsa, 109sugar, brown Berry Crumble, 85 Berry Salad, 65 Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Carrot Halwa, 91 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Miso Brown Sugar Squash, 55 Nectarine Chutney, 113 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Oatmeal Quinoa, 32 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Que Es Eso, 99 Veggie Bean Chili, 11sugar, powdered Berry Crumble, 85 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93sugar, white Basic Waffle, 39 Berry Salad, 65 Cardamom Orange Rice Pudding with Poached Figs, 95 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89 Horchata, 111 Pickled Vietnamese Carrots, 117 Savory Waffle, 40 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5sweet potatoes. See potato

tahini Cilantro Hummus, 125 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Que Es Eso, 99tangerines, 121Tangerine Yogurt, 121tarragon, 71tea Chai Donut Holes, 87 Earl Grey Fudge Semifreddo, 89 Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121 Thai Iced Tea, 112tempeh, 7Thai Curry with Tofu, 5Thai Iced Tea, 112thyme

Minestrone Soup, 45 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese Dressing, 71 White Beans and Chard, 51tofu Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9 Tofu, Kale, and Squash Lasagna, 9tomatoes, fresh Minestrone Soup, 45 Ratatouille, 49 Roasted Tomatoes, 54 Spring Mix Honey Mustard Dressing, 67 Spring Mix with Mom’s Dressing, 69 Strawberry Salsa, 109 Tomato Salsa, 115tomatoes, canned Spanish Rice and Beans, 119 Thai Curry with Tofu, 5 Veggie Bean Chili, 11tomatoes, sun-dried, 79Tomato Salsa, 115turmeric Coconut Brown Rice, 30 Savory Quinoa, 31

vanilla extract Basic Waffle, 39 Chai Donut Holes, 87 Chocolate Beet Cake Basil Ganache, 97 Cinnamon Cardamom Granola, 107 Horchata, 111 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93 Pancake Almond Granola Clusters, 105 Que Es Eso, 99vegetable oil Fish Tacos, 19 Green Onion Cornbread, 37 Kale with Lemon-Tahini Dressing, 75 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Habanero Glaze, 93Veggie Bean Chili, 11Vietnamese Chicken Curry, 15vinegar. See vinegar names

walnuts Berry Salad, 65 Spinach Salad Blue Cheese, 71walnut oil Berry Salad, 65

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Warm Grain Salad, 79White Beans and Chard, 51white rice. See ricewhite wine vinegarworchester sauce, 79

yeast, instant Challah, 27 Focaccia, 25 yogurt Arugula Salad with Yogurt Dressing, 73 Honey Chamomile Yogurt, 121 Tangerine Yogurt, 121Yogurt, 121

zucchini, 45

y

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Confessions from a co-op cook.

Confession #1 I was a dinner cook for all 5 semesters that I lived in the co-ops. In fact, every workshift I ever did dealt with food in some way. In addition to cooking dinner, I either made granola as a snack workshift, picked up produce twice a week, or grew grub as the garden manager. Luckily for me, my weekly five hours of contribution to the house never felt like a chore, and creating order and good grub from sometimes chaotic situations was a rewarding challenge.

Confession #2 I rarely use recipes. I prefer to use recipes as references or sources of inspira-tion. I usually cull the ingredient ratios and basic steps and techniques from a recipe. I sug-gest using the recipes in this cookbook as guidelines and recommendations. Consider them as a foundation from which you can flavor to your own personal tastes. I’d rather guestimate amounts than fumble through unorganized bins looking for ¼” teaspoons and ¾” cups. Measuring out each and every ingredient can be tedious and cleaning all of those spoons and cups is even more cumbersome. Plus, cooking intuitively allows for more creativity.Take oatmeal, for example. A basic oatmeal recipe consists of oats and milk, but no two oatmeals ever taste the same. I like my oatmeal with soy milk and lots of fruit while my mother makes hers with lots of honey and cinnamon.

Confession #3 I learned to cook in the co-ops. In less than one week of living in my first co-op, I went from having no real kitchen primer to cooking for 150 housemates. The more dinners I cooked, the more my approach ripened.

Confession #4 I believe everyone can cook well. Cooking is a simple matter of pleasing the senses and learning about one’s likes and dislikes. Honing techniques, similarly, is about learning from mistakes. My motto is to cook everyday and stay curious.

Confession #5: I cook for the smile. Cooking as a craft and creative outlet is great, but the best part about cooking is the moment when a smile appears on my friend’s face after taking a bite of my food. I love cooking because it’s a real and tangible way for me to contribute to and build community.

Peas and carrots,Heather Do

Wanna really know About Me? Let’s share a meal and talk.

University of California, Berkeley, 2012B.A. Urban Studies and AnthropologyCloyne Court Hotel, 2010-11Andres Castro Arms, 2011-12

146

I came to the co-ops in fall 2009 drawn by the opportunity to paint on the walls and found the alternative culture I’d been missing all freshman year. Not a single workshift of mine revolved around cooking food. I scrubbed many a pot for my five hours of workshift. My favorite workshift was delivering food to the houses, first non-perishables and then bread. You can tell a lot about the character of a house from what kind of food they order. Some of the best food I will ever eat in my life will have been made in a co-op.

Even though we’ve both left the co-ops we’ll still continue some food traditions. I will continue to eat scrambles out of saucepans on rooftops at sunset and put sriracha on just about anything.

Anna VignetHasn’t graduated yetbut probably will at some point.

Hoyt, Fall 2009Stebbins, Spring 2010 - Summer 2011Kingman, Fall 2011 - Spring 2012

co-op cookbook

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