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.