New website

Dear Leafy Readers,

I have a new website: www.nobleplate.com

Check it out!

~Emily

Demo Nostra!

Come to "Demo Nostra" at the Minneapolis Farmers Market this Sunday (5/30/10) where I will be preparing these recipes as well as one salad from http://90saladsin90days.blogspot.com

I remember coming home from soccer practice on night with dirty knees and elbows. I was starving.

“What’s for dinner mom?” I said.

“We are having ‘pasta nostra’” she replied proudly. My mother had learned a new word, the implications of which changed our lives forever. Pasta nostra means ‘our pasta’, and it was one of the first things my mother dared to cook for us that did not require a recipe or a microwave setting. The ability to be flexible in the kitchen requires letting go of old ideas, taking risks, and trusting one’s senses. I generally find that frequent tasting along the way is essential.

On Sunday’s Farmers market demo (at the Minneapolis Farmers market) I will be making duck egg omelette's, the shell of the recipe is written here, but I probably will deviate during the demonstration depending on what the earth provided and the farmers delivered for the week.

Here is the tentative menu:

Mushrooms stuffed with asparagus and amaranth (featured above)

½ cup dried amaranth

1 Tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp salt

1 bunch fresh asparagus

2 cloves garlic minced

½ tsp mirin (Japanese cooking wine)

1 lemon (for zest)

1 small bunch lemon thyme (about 5 sprigs)

1 sprig of mint

1 bunch chives, (about 1 Tbsp chopped)

¼ tsp pepper

about 13 large mushrooms for stuffing, brush and remove stems

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ yellow onion

sprinkle of salt

2 cloves thinly sliced garlic

Thyme (optional)

Cook the amaranth: in a small saucepan, add 1 ½ cups cold water to ½ cup dried grain, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 15 min.

In a large frying pan, add 1 Tbsp olive oil, the salt, and the asparagus (minus the tips) diced into very small rounds. Add the minced garlic and the mirin and saute, covered, for about 3 min. Add the amaranth and cook, uncovered. Add the herbs, all minced. Cook until some of the moisture has evaporated (about 5 min) and remove from the heat. Stuff mushrooms with the mixture.

In a separate pan, add oil salt onion, garlic asparagus tips, thyme, and stuffed mushrooms. Cover with a lid and cook on med-low flame for about 10 min.

Top with asparagus tips and garnish with lemon zest.

Side note: these can be enjoyed without cooking the mushrooms, or alternatively the mushrooms can be oven baked at 350 for 15-20 min.

Duck egg omelette's with asparagus and herbs

1 Tbsp olive oil, or a really good non-stick pan and a tiny bit of oil

2 or 3 duck eggs, whipped (duck eggs have a large yolk, and lots of protein. This makes them energetic risers)

salt and pepper to taste

filling

1 tsp oil or clarified butter

asparagus

onion

tomatoes

morels (if they are still around)

fresh herbs

locally farmed bacon

cheese

Cook the bacon in the oven or in the frying pan and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan and saute asparagus and morels in a little diced onion and salt. Remove from heat and add tomatoes and herbs. (you will need about 1/3 cup cooked veggies, per omelet). In a fresh pan, heat oil with a dash of salt and pout in egg mixture. When the edges are cooked, add hot veggies and bacon to one half. Reduce heat to med-low and cook. Flip carefully and serve garnished with herbs or salsa.

Day 28: The empty cup overflowing

"What about the skis?" Christina said, looking at me. "You have not used them since you moved to Minnesota, in 2003. Can we please move them out of the storage area?" My gut reaction to this, was to look wounded. My skis? Not my skis!!! I NEED them. Then I realized that I had promised her that this would be the last year I would keep them if I found no occasion to use them during the winter. It has, after all, been seven years.

"What is that look about? Your skis will be outdated by the time you go to use them again, and you never go! If you do decide to go, you can rent for the day. Why are you wanting to hold onto them?" When I was little, my family and I used to drive from Connecticut to Vermont on the weekends during the winter to go skiing. My friends and I would ski all day, chasing each other down the mountain, flirting with strange boys on the chairlift, coming home for hot chocolate. I remember how a blissful state of exhaustion would always hit the moment I peeled my tight ski socks off, as though the socks were the sole bit of non-jellied structure left to my legs. Sometimes my brothers and I would build forts in the snow at night, sometimes we would go back to the ski mountain for some sledding.

Why can't I let go of the skis? I think I imagine those times to still be out there somewhere, happening without me. It is as though I believe that at any minute, I might be called in to that scene, but only provided I still have my skis. I have to wonder if what I am experiencing is similar to the psychosis of a hoarder.

"What is it? Tell me what is happening with you right now? This doesn't have to be so hard." Christina said.

"I think I just don't want to have to feel sad about the fact that skiing is no longer a part of my life now that I live in Minnesota." There, I said it. It seemed to fit. In one conversation the skis had transformed from a childhood security blanket to an inanimate piece of cloth, ragged and old and ready to be given to Goodwill.

All throughout the day, furniture was moving in and out of the house. The cats rushed to claim every shelf or table that was set down for a moment to rest; then they would dive off of the structure when it would begin moving again. By the end of the day, we had a living room in our office, a large dining room table, and a library in the bedroom. At long last, we sat leisurely around the dining room table, which was a beautiful gift from Catherine and Everett, enjoying the last of the 28 dinners.

Yellow split pea soup with edamame and zucchini
In a large saucepan, heat
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 diced yellow onion
1 tsp salt
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup diced mushrooms
1 cup diced celery
2 tsp muchi curry powder
add 1 cup dried rinsed yellow split peas and
4 cups water
bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 40 min. Adjust seasonings, adding black pepper, cayenne pepper, and salt. Blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth. Add 2 cups frozen shelled edamame. Saute 1 zucchini, diced, it a little olive oil, salt, and garlic and add to the soup.

French baguette
1 cup water (lukewarm)
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
mix together and allow to sit for 10 min.

Mix 2 cups bread flour and 2 tsp salt together.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour, and knead for 10 min (the dough should be a little sticky, but not too sticky). Toss the dough in a little olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to sit for 2 hours. Punch dough down and kneed for a few min again. Then cover and allow it to sit another 2 hours. Roll the dough out into a flat sheet and then roll into a long thin baguette. Place on a cookie sheet with cornmeal on top, to prevent sticking. Bake at 375 for about 30 min, spraying occasionally with water to crisp up the crust.

Root vegetable puffs
In a large pot, heat
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large diced yellow onion
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic
add 2 large diced russet potatoes, peeled
1 large rutabaga, peeled and diced
1 turnip, peeled and diced
Add about 1 cup water and cover with a lid. Cook for about 20 min. Add 4 Tbsp unsalted butter and return the lid. Cook another 15 min or until tender. Mash the vegetables together, add 1 Tbsp tarragon and a pinch of sage. season with salt and pepper as needed.

In a separate bowl, mix together 1 large egg, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup half and half. Grease the cups of a muffin tin with olive oil, and heat in a 400 degree oven. Take the tin out and spoon a dollop of the egg/flour dough into each cup. Top with a dollop of the root vegetable mixture. Bake at 400 for 15 min.

Watercress salad with mango honey mustard dressing
Chop 1 bunch of watercress. Add some diced sweet peppers and shaved fennel. Dress with mango dressing:
1 ripe mango, blended in a mini food processor with 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil, 1 Tbsp brown rice vinegar, 1/2 Tbsp white rice vinegar, 2 tsp Grey Poupon Dijon, 1 tsp dark honey, 1 Tbsp water, 1/4 tsp salt.

Christina's vote: "A perfect grand finale"

Day 27: Birth of Frankenstein

Mary scarcely looked out of the window anymore. It was the summer of 1816, which would go down in history as the "year without a summer". Weeks had passed since their arrival at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, and still the air carried a lonely chill and a gray haze covered the world outside. She no longer changed out of her morning dress, which was black and flowed from the empire waist. Instead, she spent the days sitting by the fire, her hair loosely tied leaning in to Percy whom she knew that she would one day marry.

He spoke of things she always felt but never reached her world in any socially acceptable way. He presented her with vegetarianism, and the naturalist movement, and he told stories of his wild nudist friends. The things he spoke of were unthinkable, and yet his courage and his wit were both captivating and convincing. With him she felt valuable. He saw something precious in her, and she wanted desperately to embody his vision. Together they would change the world.

As she leaned into Percy, the cloth on her dress brought the cool fabric to the skin on her wrist and provided relief from the heat of the fire, which showered her entire right side with gold.

"I've just the plan for us to pass these dreary hours." Lord Byron addressed the group as though he were on a stage. "We'll have a contest. Everybody must contribute. Mr. Polidori, you are educated in medicine, surely you must have written something during your years of schooling. Mr. Shelley, and the soon to be Mrs. Shelley, you are both brilliant writers, and Claire you too must contribute something to the challenge."

Lord Byron paced around the room as he spoke, and gestured wildly with his hands as though he were plagued with hysterical inspiration. "A frightful tale to fit the frightful mood of this dark, wet, sunless summer." They all agreed, and as the evening went on, Mary felt herself get pulled out of the conversation and into the crackling fire. Words from their earlier discussion about galvanism and the supernatural haunted her. Could it be possible to return a body back to life?

She often would lay awake at night to wish that she had the power to awaken the dead. She would bring back her mother. She would channel the thunder and the lightning, harness the power of the universe, and watch as her mother breathe life again. She imagined herself seeing her mother, and then not being able to get over the invisible barrier of fear that would be built into her ghoulish exterior.

She saw the story, and all the pieces of it. They fell like ashes, one by one, into her lap. She would make the creature gentle, but hideous. She would make the scientist well meaning, but human. A typical portrait of a Christian soldier trying to impose God's will on the natural world. She could see the creature lying on the table, she could taste the dampness of the lab, she could see the pale scientist, weary from his work.

Percy shook her arm, "Darling, it is time for dinner." She heard her sweet poet say. "mmm, yes I will join you." She said.

Barbecued tofu
Heat oven to 375. Drain 1 block of extra firm tofu by wrapping it in a paper towel and placing a plate on top (to press the water out). Slice the tofu into squares and lay flat on an oiled cookie sheet. Bake for 15 min.

Barbecue sauce
heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and add 1 diced vidalia onion, 1/2 tsp salt, and 2 cloves minced garlic. Add 1/4 tsp chili powder and 1/4 tsp chipoltle chili powder. Cook until the onions are brown and sweet, then add 6 oz tomato paste and 8 oz water. Whisk in 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 sprinkle cayenne, 1 tsp black pepper. Adjust to taste.

Mix 1 Tbsp BBQ sauce with 2 beaten egg whites. In a separate bowl, add 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Coat the tofu in the egg mixture and then bread with the flour and put in a frying pan with hot oil (mix grapeseed and olive oil). Brown on all sides, remove and drain on a paper towel. Place the tofu back on the tray, and top with BBQ sauce. Broil on high for 7 min on each side.

Quinoa and amaranth side
Cook amaranth by boiling 1 cup of grain in 3 cups of water, reduce heat and simmer for 25 min. Heat 1 tsp black truffle olive oil and 1/2 Tbsp olive oil with 1/4 tsp salt in a saucepan and add 1 diced yellow onion. Add 1 1/2 cups diced mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cooked, mix in 1 large scoop of the amaranth and about 2 cups cooked quinoa (leftovers). Heat through and serve with a little butter on top.

Toasted lemon ume kale
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and add 4 small cloves minced garlic and 1 bunch rinsed kale. Cook covered, stirring often. When the kale is cooked, add fresh lemon zest and 1 tsp ume plum vinegar.

Christina's vote: "This dinner made me want to do some boot scootin' at the burning man"

Day 26: Ending at the beginning

We all leaned back in our chairs, comfortably watching as someone else stood in the hot seat presenting her data to the lab group. Most of the group are post-docs, and I imagine their comfort to be both a product of practice and circumstance. They are not trying to impress anyone, there is no higher degree to qualify for, they have nothing left to prove. They have come together to do what they do best, critically analyze methods and data.

I sat desperately trying to figure out how to move myself from outsider to insider, and thinking about how to best get through the early stages of my doctoral program with minimal discomfort and embarrassment. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the only way to become an insider is to speak up wherever possible, which requires that I be willing to be uncomfortable and embarrassed.

As the presenter spoke, I tried to follow along with the methods she used. A man from India asked her a question. As she answered him my ears experienced a bizarre shock. The presenter had been speaking in a Minnesota accent, but when she answered the man I noticed that she suddenly was carrying a thick and authentic sounding Indian accent. I was amazed. The second she turned to address someone else, the accent was gone. I looked around the room, but no one else seemed to notice. Had I imagined it?

When the meeting was finished, I caught up with the presenter in the hallway. "Hey, I noticed that you picked up that guys accent when you answered his question, are you a musician?"

"Oh no, that is my real accent. I grew up in India, I have just lived here for the last 8 years."

We talked as we walked out of the building, and then stood outside for awhile still talking. We both went to boarding school. She moved around a lot when she was young. She is an only child, and her parents recently moved back to India from the states. She wishes she had picked a field that would allow her to move around more.

"I am going to tell you something that I wish someone would have said to me when I was getting my PhD, and don't take this the wrong way, I am not suggesting that you should quit or anything."

I tried to smile genuinely.

"Make sure that you think about what you want to do with your degree before going through with the program. It is a lot of work, and it is terrible to come out on the other side of it and still not know what you want. After the PhD, it is a lifetime of grant writing and publishing papers that you have to look forward to.. that is, if you want to do research. If you want to teach, you can do that now. Only one percent of the US population holds a PhD, and only 6 percent contains a masters degree. I'm not saying that you should back out, I am just saying think about it. I wish someone would have said this to me."

We said goodbye and exchanged niceties, but my mind was reeling. The sun was incredibly bright, and the whole world seemed yellow. Her words hung like a mirage in the air. They followed me down the road, their meaning was constantly shifting form. What are my goals, what do I hope to accomplish, will I need the tools that I am about to sharpen, would it hurt me to have them? Am I sure that I want to be in research, or teaching in a University setting.

I thought of the lab meetings, and how present everyone is. No debatable comment goes unchallenged, no idea is neglected of feedback, it makes me feel alive just to be there. Then I thought about how there are no wrong turns, what else are we here to do in this life if not to explore our own minds and bodies, to find out what challenges us, to see how much ground we can cover? The storm of uncertainty passed, and I was able to see my horizon again. Once the clouds were clear, dinner emerged.

Mushroom, broccoli and onion frittata

In a frying pan, heat

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 yellow onion, diced

add 2 cups mushrooms, chopped

2 small heads broccoli, broken into small pieces

1 Tbsp unsalted butter

cook uncovered until the broccoli is bright green and the mushrooms are cooked. Remove from the heat. Grease a 8 inch square baking dish with butter and olive oil (you don't need to use much, but the combination works well to keep the butter from burning but give it a brown color). Beat 8 eggs with 1 Tbsp cream. Add 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp paprika, and 1 tsp pepper. Pour the egg mixture into the glass pan and add the vegetables. Sprinkle with a little cheese (optional). Bake at 375 for 30 min.

Brussel sprouts

In a frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp unsalted butter. Add 1/4 tsp salt. Add 2 1/2 cups brussel sprouts, halved and soaked for 10 min. Add 3 cloves minced garlic and 1/4 red onion, sliced. Cook covered on medium until the brussel sprouts are bright green and soft. Serve with 1 tsp of vinegar sprinkled on top, or Sunny Spain seasoning.

Walnut and sun dried tomato couscous

Boil 2 cups water with 1 Tbsp roasted walnut oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Add 1 1/2 cups dry couscous and remove from the heat. Let sit for 7 min., then fluff with a fork. Add 1 tbsp basil and 1 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes.

Christina's vote: "Light as a spring breeze"

Day 25: "What's in a name?" towers

"What vitamins should you make sure to have an adequate supply of in order to lower your risk of heart disease?" I asked the two students, then looked at the answers on the study guide that the professor had handed out. They had come in for my TA office hours and I was quizzing them for their next test. The options were vitamin A, vitamin E, or the B vitamins (B6, B12, and folate). The correct answer was supposed to be the B vitamins, but recent studies have shown that the believed mechanism by which B vitamins act to prevent heart disease (reduction in homocysteine), may not actually reduce your risk for heart disease.

Vitamin E would be a logical answer because Vitamin E prevents fatty acid oxidation, which is one of the proposed mechanisms for the initiation of plaque formation in the arteries. However, recent studies which provided high doses of vitamin E and vitamin A supplements found no reduction in heart attack risk.

"This ees ridiculous" The Hungarian professor exclaimed during my advances in nutrition class, when our guest lecturer was explaining how large scale clinical trials to test the benefits of nutrients using a pharmacological mindset. "Vy are ve treating nutrients like they are pharmaceuticals. Nutrition does not vork that vay. You cannot give people Vitamin E after they are older, or maybe have some plaque vormation already and expect it to act like a drug. It has to be eaten during the lifetime vrom food."

Her passion spoke for us all. There is a major problem with the way nutrition research is done. We want to see which nutrients specifically are having an effect on disease prevention, so we test them one by one in large clinical trials. When tested this way, sometimes the individual vitamin results in the opposite of the intended effect. In these cases, the study has to be stopped early, as was the case during a study of the effects of vitamin A on lung cancer risk in smokers. The vitamin A that was used in the study was in much higher doses than the vitamin A that one would encounter from food, which reflects the cultural world view of the researchers. We want to see an effect, so we will choose to "hit it with a hammer", because vitamins are benevolent and more is always better.

If the study turns out a positive result, the news is rushed to your cereal box and bottles of juice, but this is often misleading also. The vitamins in your food are different than the vitamins in the bottles, mainly because food is a complex matrix. Take the example of spinach. Spinach is considerably high in iron, however the iron that you get from spinach is not absorbed very well due to other compounds in the leaves which bind to the iron and make it not absorbable.

I looked up from the study guide, at the two 18 year olds concentrating hard in the chairs in front of me. They had underlined their textbooks, memorized segments of the lectures, they had taken notes, word for word. I leaned forward in my chair. "By the time you graduate this information will have been disproved." I said. "I wish we would teach you more about how to ask questions, and where to go for answers to those questions, but we don't. We expect you to memorize facts that will soon be obsolete. It is too bad, really." They both stared at me like I had an alien growing out of my shoulder, and so I continued. "What is the effect of omega 3 fatty acids on inflammation?"

Everett's "What's in a name" tower
2 cups chick peas, soaked and cooked (or canned)
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
Heat until the garlic infuses into the chickpeas (about 5 min)

In a separate pan, heat
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black truffle olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cups diced dutch yellow baby potatoes
3 cups green cabbage diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp cumin
cook on med-high until potatoes are soft, covering and reducing heat after about 10 min. Add 3 large carrots, diced, turn off the heat and return the cover. Allow to steam while you make the rest of the food.

Asparagus
In a frying pan, heat 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and 1/2 thinly sliced onion. Add 1 bunch asparagus and saute. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauce (for asparagus and cabbage dish)
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ume plum vinegar
2 Tbsp tarragon
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Heat ingredients and whisk together.

Cheese bread
I used the dough from yesterday (I made some extra and put it in the fridge overnight to slow the rising). Roll out the bread dough and sprinkle with cheese and herbs (basil). Roll it up tight and bake at 375 for about 40 min (spray occasionally with water so that it gets crusty).

Catherine's vote "A festival of delicious nutrition for tired bodies"

Day 24: Dinner at the table

I was standing in the elevator holding a bag of groceries, my laptop slung over one shoulder. The paper bag was cutting into my hand, and the laptop was pulling at the skin on my neck, so I was glad to feel the upward motion did not stop at the first floor like it usually does between the hours of 4 and 6. A moment later, I felt the elevator shake and the doors slide open.

Floor 3? Nobody ever goes up from floor 3 in our building. I looked from the lit number, to the elevator entrance and saw that it was our neighbor Jerald.

Jerald and Melissa moved here from New York, which is the first thing that I liked about them. Melissa is an actress and a voice coach. Beautiful sounds often emerge from their apartment, and the air fills with the potent emotion of the opera singer. I try to return the gift with the smells of garlic simmering and bread baking. I imagine that together we are contributing to some invisible canvas of culture. Jerald is a PhD who has written books about recovering from divorce. He has a program called "smooth divorce recovery" (www.smoothdivorcerecovery.com).

He is a friendly and genuine fellow, with a trimmed beard and a kind smile. It is always a joy to run into him.

"Hello, what are you doing on the third floor?" I asked.

I can be so nosey sometimes.

He chuckled, "Does it look like I am just wandering around? I started a divorce recovery support group in the building. I am trying to get resource known among the recently single community. We have a pretty big group some weeks."

I wondered if some of the recently single in his divorce recovery group ever couple up.

"What are you up to these days?" He asked.

To many people, this question is more of a formality than an invitation to present a monologue. They reply with a polite sentence or two, something that they think the listener might find interesting and then leave it at that. Perhaps they use the opportunity to talk about someone else in their lives, but not me.

I prefer to take my listeners hostage. Sometimes I hear myself speaking, and wonder how Christina can stand to listen to me over and over again.

"..and I have another blog going..." I say, after having told Jerald about my research, my masters project, my teaching assistantship, my job for the farmers market, and my taxes. "Oh really?" he said "What's the address?"

I heard somewhere recently that one of the top CEOs of some corporation said that his number one tip for success was 'be less interesting, and more interested'. In Jerald, I witnessed direct evidence of the power of this statement. His interest in me has caused me to feel a strange alliance with him. Curious.

Suddenly there was a thundering blast, followed my the faint sound of laughter. I looked over Jeralds shoulder and saw a woman carrying a large piece of wood. Opposite her were two men shuffling backwards. It was Christina, Gerry, and Everett, and they were cheerfully clamoring down the hallway with our new dining room table. Every once in awhile Gerry would shuffle sideways causing a horrible crashing sound.

Jerald chuckled politely when he did this. I used the opportunity to say a little something more about myself. "My inlaws are moving in to the building, they are bringing me a dining room table! I am so excited I can hardly stand it."

Thus begins the new, civilized chapter of dinner at home: 'dinner at the dinner table'.

Pizza pocket dough

1 cup water (lukewarm)

2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast

2 tsp brown sugar

Pour yeast into the water. Explain how yeast are single celled organisms who breath in oxygen and burp out carbon dioxide, just like humans. If you have a child, have them “feed” the dissolved yeast some brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix together:

2 tsp salt

2 ½ cups flour (unbleached white or a mixture of unbleached white and whole wheat)

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Add the liquid to the flour and bring together with a spatula. The dough should be sticky. Turn it out onto a floured surface and sprinkle with

½ cup unbleached white flour

Split the dough into sections and give a little to everyone to help with the kneading. After about 10 min of hard labor, coat the dough with olive oil and cover. Allow it to rise 1 hour.

Filling

2 cups part skim ricotta

1 egg

1 cup mozzarella

1 bunch fresh basil, chopped

Mix together the above ingredients. In a frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and add ½ diced yellow onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic (in that order). Add a pinch of salt, which will help the onions to brown. Now add vegetables (Swiss chard, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, zucchini, whatever suits your fancy!) and cook until just tender. I cooked swiss chard and mushrooms for this filling (pictured on the side). Remove from heat and add to the cheese mixture.

Assemble the pizza pockets by rolling out small sections of dough, filling one half with the cheese mixture, folding the dough over and sealing it shut with your fingers. Coat the bottom of the hot pockets with cornmeal to prevent from sticking to the pan. Brush with

Egg wash:

1 egg

2 tsp water

Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 min. Serve with tomato sauce (Serves 4-6)

Tomato sauce

Heat 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt in a sauce pan. Add 1 diced yellow onion and 2 cloves garlic. Add 1 large can diced tomatoes, or tomato sauce. Add fresh chopped basil and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Christina's vote: "Heartwarming"