Palak Dal - aka Spinach and Lentils

I made a Spinach and Lentil dish (aka Palak Dal) on Monday night this week. I found the recipe from a Google search when I knew we were both in the mood for Indian food and I had some chard to eat up. It turned out lovely! I followed the recipe fairly closely, my only substitutions were that I used red lentils, chard instead of spinach, and low-fat sour cream that I had on hand instead of the heavy cream.

Picture to come... :)

The Week in Review

Monday we had Lasagna!

Tuesday we had leftover Pizza and some lasagna.

Wednesday I made Chiliquiles - post coming soon!

Thursday we had Chinese take-out. I tried something new (steamed veggies and tofu) and liked it. It didn't taste like everything else on the menu. At first when I dished out the veggies and tofu, I was a little worried. As much as I want to be healthy, it just seemed too bland, but then I found the sauce that was supposed to go on top. It was from the "Lighter Side" menu, so I'm guessing they don't put the sauce on because people want to control how much salt/sugar/oil they are adding with the sauce - and control I did.

What to cook tonight...? I feel something soupy coming on.

Lasagna!

So, I've mentioned the Lasagna I make before. Last night it was on the menu - freshly made, no leftovers. I started making the recipe from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin when I first got the cookbook. I liked that the noodles didn't need to be boiled/pre-cooked, because, you know, I'm lazy!

Tonight's version had Trader Joe's soy chorizo in the sauce:
32oz can of crushed tomatoes (Cento Brand)
1/2 cup of red wine - I didn't measure it, but poured in the last of a bottle, so it was probably closer to 3/4 cup - I love my food with alcohol!
1-1/2 cup water
package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cloves of garlic chopped
I also chopped up all of the ripened tomatoes that I had (from clearing out all the green tomatoes in the garden).

to prepare the ricotta mixture, mix together:
2 cups ricotta (I used whole milk this time, but usually I use skim/low fat)
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
When my mom made lasagna growing up, she used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I liked it but I've since converted to the more traditional. I've also discovered that I really like the results when I use Trader Joe's lasagna noodles. I didn't have them for this one, and I can tell the difference. This particular recipe uses about 16 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese and I put Ebon to work shredding a block that we got at the market - all the shredded mozzarella cheese was sold out - womp womp.

Now the layering begins:
Pour enough sauce in a 9"x13" casserole dish to cover the bottom, add first layer of noodles. Spread on ricotta mixture on the noodles, then add more sauce to cover the layer. Add cheese.
Noodles
ricotta
sauce
mozzarella cheese
Noodles
ricotta
sauce
mozzarella cheese
Noodle
Sauce


Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put into a pre-heated 350degF oven for about 50-60 minutes, then cook uncovered for about 10-15 minutes more. Here's where I put the last layer of cheese on it because I've found if I add it before putting the foil on, the cheese just gets stuck to the foil - no fun! So bake until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
This is what happens when you don't let it sit after taking it out of the oven (a lot of oozing of sauce going on at the left):

So be patient and let it sit for another 10 minutes or so. You'll thank me later.

What's your favorite lasagna recipe? Are you a cottage cheese or ricotta cheese devotee?

Home made pizza - sorta

Last night I made pizza using our pizza stone for the first time.
I used a crust we purchased and here's Ebon's handy work for the first pizza:

Our go-to toppings are green peppers and onions, so that was one of the pizzas. The second was a margherita of sorts - I used defrosted basil cubes (from the garden) and tomatoes.

It was about 1/4 of a large yellow onion and about 1/4 to 1/2 of a green pepper. In this case it was frozen from the CSA earlier this season. Ebon wasn't a fan of how it tasted, but I couldn't tell the difference.

Here are the leftovers!

The stone definitely helped - it was pre-heated about 30 minutes before using it. The margherita pizza was a bit soggy in the middle because the basil cubes had a lot of water in them, the tomatoes exuded some water, and I added a drizzling of olive oil, which I'm sure didn't help. However, it was still quite tasty!
They baked at 450degF for about 10-20 min - I just watched to make sure the cheese was bubbly and getting brown.

Leftover soup - with a pic

Ok, the weekend seems much easier to take pictures, so here is what I had for dinner last night, the Lentil and Chard soup with Barley we had earlier this week:

It was still good heated up on the stove!

True Belgian Waffle attempt

After our visit to the Food Truck Throwdown, Ebon found a recipe for one kind of the waffles we had: Gaufres de Liege. This time I followed the recipe to the letter.

I would say they turned out decently. They were crunchy on the outside and mostly soft inside and the turbinado sugar helped with some of the crunch. For the effort, though, I probably won't be making them again. My tried and true waffle recipe - which is really a pancake batter - from miss Betty Crocker works well enough and whips up in less than 5 minutes, and I have it memorized by now!
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
combine in a bowl
1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg 
beat the egg into the wet ingredients and combine with the dry ingredients

What's your favorite breakfast food? Do you have a tried and true pancake or waffle recipe?

Chickin Nuggets and leftovers

Last night we had a simple, quick meal of rice, "Chickin" nuggets and warmed up leftover Thai food.
Although I am trying to avoid as much processed/frozen food as possible, we both really like the Morningstar Farms Chik'n Nuggets and especially the Buffalo Wing flavor:

I've attempted making non-meatloaf and seitan Chickin Fried Steak, but they don't compare to the nuggets. Maybe I'll try to make them out of seitan some day...

What is your favorite non-meat?

Pesto Risotto with Peas

I've been wanting to make risotto for a while, and I finally got the chance last night.  I had no idea what risotto was until about 6 or 7 years ago when my roommate made it for her parents.I thought it looked fairly interesting and mostly easy to make.It wasn't until I happened upon the Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition or at least I think that's the right edition, that another roommate had, that I tried making it myself. Although it takes some time/babysitting in terms of stirring, I like that for the most part, it is a one-dish kind of meal, at least I make it so that it's a complete meal.
Heat up 3-4 cups of water (or stock) in a saucepan. In my case, I used our handy water kettle, very similar to this Cordless Electric Kettle. Using the kettle is an energy-saving tip I learned from Alton Brown on Good Eats. I miss that show!
In a large skillet:
~2 tablespoons olive oil
~1 tablespoon butter
1 large yellow onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic diced
After the onions are soft toast the rice for a little bit.
1 cup arborio rice
Then add the wine
~3/4 cup white wine
As the liquid is absorbed, add water in 1/2cup to 1 cup increments, stirring frequently.
I had some basil cubes I had frozen previously (from my garden), that I added about halfway through to make it a "pesto" flavor.
On the last ladle of water, or just before the rice is done - al dente - I added the peas.
1 cup frozen green peas

It turned out great (pictures would be nice, huh? I get hungry and pictures are the last thing on my mind...)! We had some fresh Italian bread with it.

What are some foods that you discovered late in life?

Busy post-work

The last couple of days have been kinda busy after work, so we've ordered in. Thai on Tuesday and pizza (can you tell Ebon likes pizza!) last night.
On Tuesday morning, I walked to the polling place to find the line out the door and down the block, so I opted to not be late to work and vote afterwards. As I was walking to polling place after work, I spotted another polling place with a line down the block and around the corner for quite a ways and I was worried that I would meet the same fate. Fortunately, the line I had to stand in didn't go around the corner. I did have to wait in line for about an hour before attending to my democratic duty. Because of that and I had to meet up with the end of rugby practice to attend to my rugby treasurer duties, Ebon ordered Thai food. I tried to go with something a little different and asked if one of their chicken dishes could be made vegetarian by using tofu instead - they agreed and I had Cashew Tofu. I'd say it was decent, it probably would have been better if it was hot, but rugby practice delayed my return to home. Ebon got Sweet and Sour Tofu and the staple Crispy Tofu Basil which is always yummy.
Last night I went to my first book signing (at least that I can remember) for my favorite blog, Young House Love and go buy their book: Young House Love, the Book! . I went with a friend from work and as we drove the Nor'easter that was predicted started dumping and blowing snow everywhere, so that made for an interesting drive into Boston from Chelmsford. The signing was at West Elm near Fenway Park. After waiting in line for about three hours we spent a very short amount of time chatting with John and Sherry, they signed my friend's book and my bookplate, and then we took the obligatory picture.

The employees snaked the line around the whole store, which I thought was ingenious for them because it forced people to look at all the stuff they had in stock. Forced window-shopping was definitely way better than the alternative of standing outside in the blowing snow. It was fun- as fun as waiting in line for the second day in a row can be- they gave us cookies and hot chocolate, we made line friends with some of the people standing close to us, and I got a couple ideas for "re-doing" our bedroom. We need a new duvet cover and I have been thinking about getting or making new drapes/curtains for a while since the ones I have are probably 9 years old and getting a little drab.  This morning while I was getting ready for work, I looked at our room I thought that it might work better if I re-arrange the room a bit. My design wheels are turning!
Soooo, after getting home at about 9:30pm, Ebon had ordered some pizza which I think he got for free from Papa John's. After that I was beat, so I went to bed after a little TV and internet browsing (I heart the Daily Show!).

Have you ever been to a book signing? What was it like? Do you ever get sick of pizza? Ebon doesn't!

Lentil and Chard Soup with Barley

Last night I whipped up some Lentil and Chard soup using this recipe as inspiration. As usual, I deviated from the recipe a bit. To avoid making more pots and pans dirty, I nixed caramelizing the onions and declined to toast the cumin seeds. Instead, I opted to throw everything into a big dutch oven after I cooked the onions and garlic. I had lots of chard from the garden, so that was the only vegetable that went into the soup.

Erika's version :)

~2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 medium onions chopped (I had one yellow and one red from the last CSA share)

3 cloves of garlic diced (from my garden)

Once those were soft I added

1 cup brown lentils (rinsed and picked through)

1/2 cup pearled barley

6 cups of water

3 tablespoons of vegetable stock powder (from the Korean market) I need to work on translating the label!

chard stalks chopped (about 2 bunches worth of chard, from my garden)

I let this simmer until the lentils and barley were soft ~20 minutes, then I added the chopped chard leaves

1/2 jalapeno diced

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

ground black pepper

I also added about 1 more cup of water when I added the chard leaves. Bring this up to a simmer and cook for a few minutes longer.

I sprinkled Parmesan cheese in the bowl and served this with garlic toast and some homemade cheese crackers. I pulled the cracker dough out of the freezer, which I made a while ago, so I'm not sure of the recipe for the crackers.

I thought the spices added that extra layer of flavor and I really enjoyed it. Even though he won't admit it, I think Ebon enjoyed the meal too. He doesn't like the idea of eating something that is leafy and green, like chard. However, everything I've made with it, he's eaten without too many complaints.

On the agenda coming up - Plant Garlic for next spring!!!

Coffee Cake

It takes me quite a while to finish my post when I have to upload photos - not so great ones at that...Anyway, this post is from a few weeks ago!

When I want to procrastinate or am bored, I'll often bake. Such was the case on this rainy Sunday morning. I have a ton of work to do and the house is a huge mess, so I'll make a coffee cake instead. Sounds like a perfect idea to me! I made THIS coffee cake with a few variations - of course.
I added about 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the struesel and instead of putting all the streusel on top of the cake, I layered the batter and the streusel so there would be the yummy surprise inside! I also used an angel food/bundt pan, only because there is still lasagna in my large baking dish :)
Here are some pics of the results:

As far as taste goes, I would say that it is OK. I think I was expecting a little more of a pumpkin flavor, but that may also point to the pumpkin I used. The oatmeal made it hearty and moist, but maybe a little bit too chewy.

We had pizza from Domino's for dinner - exciting!

Not very exciting weekend - food-wise

This is from last weekend, I'm a little behind - it took me some time to transcribe the recipe.

Friday night we ordered pizza from Pizza Days.
After a gorgeous day working in the garden and another hike to the Middlesex Fells, Saturday we had leftover pizza. I did make pumpkin bars, though. When I was in grade school, we would bring treats to share with our class on our birthdays and I would request these all the time:
Recipe pending
1-1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
16oz pureed pumpkin (2 cups)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Mix ingredients together and pour into a greased and floured jelly roll pan (I used a 9x13 pan) and bake at 350degF for 25-30 min or until a tester in the middle comes out clean (I think it took about 40-50 min in the smaller pan).

Frosting
One 8oz package of reduced fat cream cheese/neufchatel cheese - room temperature
4 tablespoons butter or half a stick of butter - I used unsalted - room temperature
2 cups powdered sifted sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk
cream the cheese and butter together, then add in the sugar and vanilla, blend until smooth.
This frosting is a bit on the runny side, so the milk might not be necessary.

Sunday I had pizza again at a rugby "social" in Newport, RI before it started raining and blowing and Ebon ate leftover Chinese.

Way too much pizza for my own good, but I did get a lot done in the garden and was able to salvage some green tomatoes and some basil is still going at one garden. I also transplanted one rhubarb plant and there were some stalks left. I'll try using all of them, but I'm not sure how it will all turn out.

I also made some hot chocolate and Ebon made a special treat - "hard rice." Also known as 누룽지 or "noo-roong-ji".

I found a good tutorial at this blog, but we don't soak it. Basically it's pan-toasted cooked rice. It's kind of like Korean popcorn only with a "ricey" taste!

 What are your favorite fall treats?

Dumplings

It was Halloween, so last night we had dumplings for dinner. When I was younger, for some reason I remember asking my mom to make "crep milk" for Halloween dinner - it's either Norwegian or German, I can't remember for sure. It is warm milk with butter and sugar and cinnamon with flour dumplings - nothing like what we had for dinner. So with a slight nod to my usual request for dumplings on Halloween I pan-fried up some store-bought soy/vegetable filled dumplings that we got at the Reliable Market (Korean). I think the brand we got is Assi, but the key is to find the ones without MSG.
I served up the dumplings with white rice (Ebon was much happier), laver/seaweed, and steamed carrots. We also usually dip them in some soy sauce mixed with a little vinegar for some saltiness.
We only had 7 trick-or-treaters, so we have plenty of candy that needs to be hidden from me so I don't eat it all.
Do you have a favorite meal for Halloween?

Spaghetti with "Meat" Sauce

On our walk to the local cupcake store - that ended up being closed - Ebon and I talked about what to have for dinner and ended up at spaghetti. We also had a package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo, so we opted to go the "red 'meat' sauce" route.

For the most part, I use canned tomatoes for my pasta and pizza sauces. My favorite is the Cento brand crushed/pureed tomatoes because there isn't any added salt or preservatives. For our meal last night, I defrosted two containers of frozen sauces that I had previously made and added the soy chorizo. Super easy!

For my sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
28 oz can of pureed tomatoes
dried basil
salt
pepper
sometimes I throw in some crushed red pepper for a kick

The sauce over angel hair pasta was very hearty, and I liked how it stuck to the noodles. We also had toasted garlic bread and roasted asparagus to round out the meal. Overall, I was happy with the way everything turned out, and I didn't burn the garlic bread which I'll take as a victory any day!

Roasted Veggies

Last night we weathered Hurricane...scratch that - SUPERstorm Sandy without too much problem. I had to drive around emergency vehicles tending to a tree on a power line on my drive home from work - yes I went to work! We lost power for about 5 seconds, but then it came right back on. but our street flooded. A couple years ago there was a huge flash flood and our street flooded then, so I knew where it would be safe to park last night. I had no water in the car this morning!
As for dinner, I had wanted to make a veggie bake for a while - since we got beets and sweet potatoes in our last CSA share of the season.
I roasted the following cut in medium (about 2-bite size) chunks and sprayed with olive oil for about 20-30 min at 425degF:
carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets,
Then I added a second tray for the last 10 minutes or so with:
asparagus, red pepper, and red onion

I served this with brown rice and Ebon was none too pleased. We're out of brown rice now, so he won't have to worry about me adding in brown rice until we go to the store to get more.

Now, how to use up all the chard I pulled from the garden.... Any ideas?

Potato Gratin et al

We love cheese around here! So in our discussions for dinner on Wednesday night, Ebon suggested a Potato Gratin. When I said that wasn't really a complete meal, and could I add some chard or other veggie? He wasn't too enthusiastic about that, so I nixed that idea. The last gratin I made had kale and potatoes and cheese in it - I thought it was very tasty, but I think Ebon just wanted to pick around the kale. I poked around in the fridge and freezer a little more and figured out how to make the gratin- sans veggies- part  of a complete meal

Potato and Cheese Gratin:
3 medium/large potatoes sliced thinly, cross-wise
~2-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese - I'm not sure of the amount, because I just took chunks and started grating it right into the dish.
1 cup milk
thyme (dried from the CSA share)
~1/2 teaspoon salt
ground pepper
~2 tablespoons flour

I sprayed a deep casserole dish with my trusty Misto Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer, Brushed Aluminum  layered the potatoes and cheese - it's about 3 layers of potatoes. Then I whisked the milk flour and spices together and poured it over the cheese and potatoes. I covered the dish and baked it in a 400degF oven for about 45 minutes. At which point, I removed the cover to bake an additional 15 min or so.

From the freezer, I ended up boiling up the last of the green and yellow beans that were picked for us by our CSA partners when they went to Red Fire Farm for some fall Pick Your Own. From the fridge, I found some leftover Trader Joe's Italian soysage that I fried up for our complete meal.
All in all, a good meal to end the day and Ebon gets the credit for coming up with most of the dinner idea.

Last night we had Chinese take-out from the Dragon Garden. Ebon got his usual Kung Pao Broccoli with Tofu as well as General Gau's Tofu, but I tried something new - Sesame Tofu - I wasn't too impressed and won't be ordering that again. It was just too sweet and tasted a lot like the General Gau's Tofu.
Do you have a favorite Chinese takeout place near you? How about Thai?

Split decision dinner

So last night, Ebon polished off the remainder of the leftover lasagna and I ate a meal that Ebon normally wouldn't eat - brown rice, kale and raisins, and tofu in balsamic vinegar.

Our new-fangled rice cooker takes quite a bit longer to cook than our old rice cooker, so I started that then I wanted to clean the house, but I put it off again in favor of Internet surfing and other putzing around.
When the rice was almost ready I started the kale:
~2T olive oil
3 garlic cloves chopped/diced
cook garlic until almost soft add
1/2 bunch of kale chopped from the CSA
small handful of raisins (~1/4 cup)
splash of balsamic vinegar
cover and cook until kale is cooked down/soft

I put the finished kale on a plate then in the same pan I browned the tofu.

Tofu - 1/2 of a 1 pound package pressed and cut in "logs" about .75"x.75"x3"
Browned the tofu on at least 2 sides, pour a bit more balsamic vinegar in for flavor.

I love this dish, but Ebon - not so much. So I'll only make it when its just me eating, which worked out last night.  What else do you like to do with kale?

It's Fall - Tomato soup and Grilled Cheese

There's something about fall that makes me want to eat soup all the time! So tonight we decided on Tomato soup with grilled cheese.
When I first opened my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook, the recipe for tomato soup called for a can of condensed tomato soup - not exactly what I was looking for. I'm not entirely sure of the edition I have, but I think it's from the 1970s when suggestions about using prepared foods (like canned soup or cake mixes) started creeping into cookbooks. So I took to the internet to find a couple recipes that I worked from. This one from Food Network most resembles what I turned out.
Tomato Soup:
~2 tablespoons olive oil
One small onion chopped
Two garlic cloves chopped
other 1/2 of the celeriac root chopped
1-1/2 carrots, actually it was one big one and one small one :) chopped
5 tomatoes - I probably could have used more of these.
~3-4 cups water
dried basil crushed
salt
pepper
I cooked everything until soft then I blended it smooth and added about 1/2-1 cup of milk to add to the creaminess.

After bringing home almost five pounds of cheese, some grilled cheese was also in order to go along with the tomato soup. They just go along so well together, its hard to not have grilled cheese when you have tomato soup.  Ebon picked up a fresh baguette from the store, so we went less traditional with an open-faced broiled "grilled" cheese.  Growing up, my mom called this a Melted cheese, and it was usually made with Swiss cheese and she threw some spices (paprika and pepper, maybe salt too) on for good measure.
Open-faced grilled cheese:
2x ~5 inches of the baguette cut in half length-wise, so about 10 inches total for 2 halves for two people
sliced cheese - I used regular cheddar cheese that we got when we went apple picking and hot habenero cheddar that we got on Sunday.
put that under the broiler for a few minutes - I always burn things, so I try to keep a watch on it, but I had good success last night.
Except for wishing for a few more tomatoes in the soup, everything tasted great! The Habenero melted cheese was just a bit spicy, but went perfectly with the soup!

Long weekend

Thursday - Thai food leftovers - exciting!
Friday - On our way up to Stowe, VT, we stopped to get dinner. Driving along I-89 in NH, it it difficult to tell what kind of food is at the exits. In most other states, there are signs telling you which restaurants are at the exit before you get off, but this is not the case along I-89. There is only a sign that there's food, so you have to take the exit to find out what kind of food is there and if you like it, great. We kept getting on and off the interstate because as vegetarians, our options are somewhat limited when it comes to fast-food on the go. In previous travels, I had been to the Lebanon/Hanover exit and I thought I remembered some food there. We got off one way, but there wasn't anything, so we turned around and went into the town. There in the "historic distict" of Lebanon, NH we had dinner at Three Tomatoes. It was pretty decent, we had the Margarita pizza along with an arugula and beet salad. Though as a wood-fired pizza place, I'd put the pizza below Posto and Flatbread Pizza at Sacco's.
Saturday - attended a wedding at the Stoweflake Resort. The food was excellent. Other Saturday activities included a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory and the Cabot Cheese annex where there were many samples to be had!
Sunday - Before departing Stowe, we had breakfast at the Dutch Pancake Cafe. The food was great, but we waited sooooo long to get it. Our waitress must have been in another world, because she wasn't doing her job attending to us - that's for sure!  Once we finally got our food, that kept us full until we got home.  At that point, Ebon had the Burger King he was craving all weekend and I had the leftover pizza from Friday night. We also stopped at the Cabot Cheese annex once more to buy cheese to bring home with us. We ended up leaving with about five pounds of cheese! Plenty to last for quite a while. Grilled cheese and tomato soup will be on the menu sometime this week!

Chili for a Chilly night

It has been getting colder lately. That usually means my propensity to make soup goes way up. I don't really like eating soup when it's hot out. I made vegetarian chili last night. I started making veggie chili from a recipe from one of my first cookbooks  "Express Lane Cookbook: Fast, Healthful Meals with Minimal Cleanup" by Sarah Fritschner after graduating college. Instead of meat for heartiness, the author used cracked wheat to give the chili that texture that meat-eaters crave in a chili. I've had several people tell me they didn't even realize it was vegetarian until I told them.
Since my early "bachelorette" days, I've used that recipe as a base and made many variations  - Beer chili, black bean chili, white bean chili, chili using the Trader Joe's soy chorizo instead of the bulgur, chili with summer squash. They've all turned out great! The original recipe called to use cans of tomatoes, beans and green chilies which is easy and fast, but I've moved on to using as many fresh ingredients as possible. I was glad to use up more CSA veggies (onion, all the peppers, tomatoes, carrots, celeriac). Also the garlic I used came from my garden. That is one of the easiest "vegetables" to grow. I'm definitely planting more for the next season - which I need to get on soon!

Tonight's variation Black bean CSA Chili:
1 cup boiled water
1 cup bulgur aka cracked wheat (put in the boiled water, cover and set aside for later)

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic diced
cook onions and garlic in oil until soft then add

2 carrots chopped
1/2 med/large celeriac bulb (usually the recipe calls for 2-3 ribs of celery)
cook until veggies have softened then add the spices and cook for about a minute more.

~1 teaspoon oregano
~1 tablespoon cumin
~1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I use an Indian hot chili pepper powder that is AWESOME)

Add the rest of the ingredients including the steamed bulgur that had been previously set aside, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer for 15-20 min or so or until everything is thoroughly cooked.
1-1/2 red peppers cored and chopped
1 red chili (or jalapeno)
~4-5 tomatoes chopped (I also used a bunch of cherry tomatoes from my garden that I had previously frozen)
2 cups plus beans - I used black beans this time
4-6 cups water

salt & pepper to taste


I also made some cornbread with the chili. I just use the recipe on the "Aunt Jemima" cornmeal box:
1-1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 sugar
pinch salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
mix, pour into greased pan (I used a ~5" x 9" pan), bake at 400degF for about 20-25 min or when a toothpick comes out clean and the top is golden-ish.

Lovely meal for a lovely evening! What's your favorite chili recipe?

Udon Noodle Stir Fry

I started out with this recipe for Noodles and Vegetable with Sesame Dipping Sauce as my plan for Monday's dinner. I ended up veering pretty hard off the recipe, so I'll just call it inspiration. The recipe appealed to me because I had some bok choy and carrots from the CSA share that I needed to use up and I had just purchased some new noodles from H Mart that I wanted to try out.


Main Ingredients:
carrots
one hakurei turnip
Bok Choy and baby bok choy
1/2 red pepper
tofu

Dipping sauce:
soy sauce
sesame oil
splash white vinegar
honey
2 large-ish cloves of garlic

Japanese-style buckwheat Udon noodles

sesame seeds for "garnish"

The recipe calls to steam everything, but I ended up stir-frying pretty much everything and throwing in the "dipping sauce" at the end as a regular sauce to coat the tofu and veggies.

I liked how it turned out, but Ebon wasn't a fan of the noodles - he really likes his white rice. I'll be eating the rest of the package all by my lonesome.

I really need to remember to take pictures...

Food Truck Dinner

Ebon gets regular email updates from Kicka** Cupcakes, so he found out about the Boston Food Truck Throwdown on Saturday:

So after a little hike in the woods at the Middlesex Fells with the pooch and some friends, we decided to check it out.  Wow, there were SOO many people there! Lines for the different trucks snaked around the park and sometimes crossed each other. Ebon works near Dewey Square where there are food trucks there on a regular basis for lunch, so he's had fare from most of the Boston trucks already. The big draw seemed to be what was new - all the trucks from New York and we weren't immune to their novelty. We decided to divide and conquer. I stood in line for about 45 minutes to get empanadas by Nuchas. and Ebon headed over to get something sweet - waffles from Wafles & Dinges. After guessing the size in terms of the price and seeing other people eat them, I thought that two or three empanadas would be sufficient for dinner. I got us the Portobello, two Spicy Cheese, and Shitake Curry empanadas and a sweet empanada filled with apples cranberry, pear, and nutella. I met up with Ebon still in line for the waffles, and we scarfed down the empanadas before he ordered five (yes five) waffles.
The empanadas were all quite tasty, we both liked the curry empanada the best - it was flavorful and hearty and the curry sauce kept dripping down my fingers. The sweet empanada was also really tasty
The waffles were also quite good, they have two different kinds of waffles, a "crusty" type and a "soft" type. I think he got two "crusty"- one with maple syrup and one with chocolate; and three "soft"- one with strawberries, one with bananas, and one with speculoos spread and whipped cream. That was my first introduction to speculoos spread and I'm hooked! It is a gingerbread-based cookie paste, and that is what it tastes like too. Supposedly Trader Joes had this back in April, so I'm going to have to go check and see if they have any. I also found a recipe for it that I'll have to try out. After all the waffles had been consumed, I pulled out the sweet empanada, and I really enjoyed it. I thought the dough was a bit chewy, but the filling was an excellent mix of tart and sweet.  If you can't tell, I like that combo. It had gotten pretty cold once the sun went down, so we retreated to the warmth of the subway and headed back home, with a quick stop at Flat Top Johnny's to play darts and pool.
How is the food truck scene near you? Any delectable food not seen in a restaurant?

Lazy days

We intended to order up some Thai food on Thursday, but our internet and cable was out so we couldn't look up the menu online.After going to see "Looper"  (complete with popcorn, soda and beer), we re-heated the leftover pizza and ate that up after we got back home. The movie was quite good, I'd recommend going to see it.

Poster from this site.

When Friday night comes, I don't really feel like cooking too much. Our internet was back, so we finally ordered the Thai food we were craving from Tom Yum Koong in Medford. They were pretty busy so it took a while before our food was delivered to us, and it was not super warm once we got it.
Another exiting Friday night in our house!  Also it was supposed to freeze/frost overnight (which it did) and I was too lazy to go to my garden plot to cover the last remaining plants.  I walked by this morning and the basil is done for :(

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

I made this recipe for Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese last night . I thought I had made it before, but I can't seem to remember (one of the main reasons why I'm writing this blog). I had a butternut squash from last week's CSA share to use up, so I thought it was perfect.

I did change it slightly and substitute a few items a bit.

Since we are vegetarians, I omitted the bacon. Instead of frying the onions, I threw them into the milk with the butternut squash. I'm a bit lazy and one more pan to wash was not my idea of a good time last night. Also with regard to the onion, the recipe calls for 2, but I used 1/2 a medium onion that was left over from our MNF pizza.

Instead of the Gruyere cheese, I used fontina (also left from the pizza) and cheddar - and probably a little more than it called for too ~9 or 10 oz - we like it cheesy! 

The recipe calls for 12oz of pasta, but I just cooked all of my one pound package.
I added some black pepper once the milk/squash mix was thickened.

Overall it was pretty good, I think it needed a little kick. I always enjoy Tabasco on my mac and cheese, and it definitely gave it that kick. Maybe I'll add some cayenne pepper next time.

Anyone have any good bok choy recipes? The CSA delivery keeps piling them on!

Taco Tuesday

We call them burritos, but they aren't anything like what you'd get in Chipotle or Anna's Taqueria. I think they are closer to tacos, but either way they are tasty and a quick meal for a weeknight.
Ebon has a preference for the canned refried beans. I don't know why, and I've tried several times making my own refried beans only to be greeted by a grunt, that they are "OK."

15oz can of refried beans (vegetarian)
2 green chilies diced
warmed up on the stove

For the rest of the toppings, I tried to whittle down some of the items in our fridge from the most recent CSA delivery:
tomatoes
lettuce
cilantro
tomatillos
cheddar cheese (not from the CSA, but Cabot cheddar is sorta local and super yummy)

Put it all together on a "burrito" flour tortilla and you have our taco burritos!

Apples Apples Everywhere

We went apple picking over the weekend and scored a half-bushel of many different kinds of apples from Shelburne Farm in Stow, MA. Our favorite is the Mutsu apple, which is slightly tart and slightly sweet with yellow skin and firm and crisp white flesh. Other apples we picked included Cortland, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Baldwin, Macoun, Jonagold, McIntosh, and Red Delicious.

Saturday was a busy day, not only did we go apple picking in the afternoon, but a friend and I ran a half marathon in the morning. The aptly named Applefest Half Marathon took place in Hollis, NH. We were fed apple crisp after the race and the age group winners received pies! We ended up leaving before all the pies were distributed, but it may have turned out that we both won pies for being third in our divisions, my friend for her normal age group and me for my age group in the Filly division. Yes, there are perks to being heavier than most, though the Filly limit for this race was only 140lbs, which is pretty low in my opinion.

Because of the events of Saturday, making apple pies (yes, plural - one for us and one for my friend who deserved a pie from the race) was in order on my day off.
Apple Pie a la Betty Crocker - the ratios differ depending on the size of your pie, but for an 8" pie
Apples - 5 cups peeled, cored, and rough diced
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Flour - 3 tablespoons
Cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon
Nutmeg - 1/4 teaspoon
dash of Salt
the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon butter, but I always forget this and never miss it in terms of taste.

Crust - Never Fail Pie Crust recipe that I got from my aunt and godmother
1.25 cups of vegetable shortening
3 cups pastry flour
5 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
This crust recipe usually makes enough for 3 crusts (using my 10" pie pan).
The trick I learned from my mom for rolling out the pie crust is to use two pieces of waxed paper. Roll until the crust is about 1/8" thick, pull one piece of waxed paper off then use the other piece to position over the pan then pull off the other piece of waxed paper.
Fill the crust with apples, then pour the sugar mixture over the apples and add the cover crust (that's a technical term). Bake at 425degF for 40-50 min, or until the crust is golden. I usually need to guard the edges so they don't get burned. I have yet to purchase one of those nifty pie crust protectors, but aluminum foil seems to do the trick just fine.

I also made apple butter for the first time with this recipe, except I used 1/2 the sugar it calls for. I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince Ebon to use it, but I tried it and it's quite tasty!

Monday Night Football and Pizza

I had the day off for the Columbus day holiday, so I ended up pursuing quite a bit of time in the kitchen. After leftovers on Sunday, we decided on pizza for Monday dinner. I enjoy making pizza, but the crust takes just enough time that I don't usually make it after work during the week.
I can't seem to find the right pizza crust recipe this one is OK, but maybe is a bit oily and it doesn't get enough air.

1 cup warm water (~100degF)
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1/2 cup oil
3 cups+ AP flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
Combine yeast and water until yeast dissolves, add in the oil and slowly add in the flour and salt until combined. The dough should form a ball that's not too sticky. Leave it out at room temperature for at least 4 hours for the gluten to develop.

Pizza sauce
3 cloves garlic
~2 Tablespoons olive oil
saute garlic until just before browning
Add 28 oz can of pureed tomatoes and 1/2 can of tomato paste
Add herbs ~1 teaspoon oregano and a small handful of dried basil crushed

Pizza toppings
Pizza 1
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 onion

Pizza 2
some onion
heirloom tomatoes sliced thinly
Trader Joes Soy Italian "sausage"

Spray a cookie sheet with oil, sprinkle with corn meal and press/spread 1/2 the dough on the cookie sheet. Spread enough sauce on the pizza to cover the crust, add toppings and add mozzarella cheese.
I only bought an 8oz bag of mozzarella cheese, so the first pizza got all mozzarella  but I ran out on the second, so the soysage pizza also got some Parmesan and shredded fontina cheese that I had on hand.
Bake at 450degF for about 15-20 min or until the cheese starts to get bubbly and brown.

They turned out pretty good, but I need to revise the crust recipe a bit and make sure I get enough cheese. The fontina cheese was an excellent substitute.

Leftovers on Sunday night

For the most part, I like to cook at home as much as possible, but every now and then, I'm just too tired and there isn't rooom in the fridge. That's when we eat leftovers. That was the case on Sunday.

We had leftover lasagna that I made on Thursday for Ebon's birthday. The recipe is from one of my first vegetarian cookbooks, Quick Vegetarian Pleasures: More than 175 Fast, Delicious, and Healthy Meatless Recipes. I'll divulge more on the lasagna the next time I make it and expound upon the greatness that is the cookbook in another post.

First Post

I wanted to start this as a log of what we eat for dinner. I have a bad memory, so this will also serve to collect the recipes I use (or mis-use), remind me of what I did differently, and hopefully I can share some pictures too.