I’m thinking of hiring my sister as my personal chef seeing as she’s already becoming my personal assistant. (I’m gonna pay her $25 to organize the explosion of TG stuff that’s taken over my room, my bro’s room and the basement.)

She and her boyfriend made recipes from PostPunkKitchen.com for dinner.

Jerk Tofu

prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 16 minutes | makes 6

Ingredients
1 lb Extra Firm tofu, pressed for at least an hour*

For the marinade:
1/2 large white onion, roughly choppped
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
juice of 2 limes
zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (or one if you don’t want it too spicy)

Directions
Puree all ingredients for the marinade.

Slice the pressed tofu into long triangles like this:
Slice into eigths width-wise
Slice each eigth in half into a long triangle

Marinade tofu in a bowl for an hour covered adjusting slices once.

Prepare the skillet with a thin coat of olive oil and turn heat to medium high. When pan is hot, lay tofu in a sigle layer. Cook for 8 minutes on each side.

Serve!

*To press tofu, wrap in paper towels or a clean dish towel and press under the weight of a heavy object, such as a skillet with a heavy book in it. Turn over after 1/2 hour. This will get the water out and allow the tofu to soak up more of the marinade.

Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables

prep time: 20 minutes | cooking time: 45 minutes | makes 6 – 8 servings

Ingredients
1 lb parsnips (about 2 average sized)
2 large carrots
1 butternut squash
1 lb sweet potatoes (about 3 medium size)
2 heaping tablespoons grated ginger
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil
pinch cinnamon
pinch allspice
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wash and peel all veggies (get the seeds out of the squash), cut into 3/4 inch slices. Line baking sheets with tinfoil and lightly grease them.

In a large bowl combine all ingredients, and make sure all veggies are coated. Doing this with your hands works best.

Line veggies on the baking sheet in a single layer. If there is any extra liquid pour it over the veggies.

Put one sheet of veggie on the middle rach and one on the upper rack of oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and flip veggies. Return to oven, but put the one that was on the lower rack on the upper rack now, and vice versa. Bake 20 or so more minutes, until veggies are tender inside.