Rice Cake Soup

I kind of think this is the Asian version of chicken soup with dumplings. Since we're vegetarian, there's no chicken :)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
one stalk celery thinly sliced
1/2 cup of cubed daikon radish
4-6 cups of water
~2 tablespoons gochugaru (optional for a spicy soup)
1/2 (1kg?) package of rice cakes
1-2 cups of beansprouts
2-3 green onions chopped
one or two sheets of dried Seaweed/laver/Gim torn into small pieces
1 egg beaten

1. Pour the rice cakes into a bowl and cover it with water to soak for 15-30 min
2. In a medium or large pot (depending on how much you want to make), fry the onions and garlic in the oil until soft over a medium low heat.
3. Add the celery and daikon and saute until the start to soften.
4. Add the water and the optional gochugaru- if want it spicy.
5. Drain and rinse the rice cakes then add them to the soup pot. Increase the temperature to medium or medium high, bring to a boil then reduce the temp to simmer the soup until the rice cakes have softened, about 10 minutes?.
6. One at a time add the beansprouts, seaweed and drizzle the egg into the soup at the end.

Ebon thinks adding carrots makes it too sweet.

Baked Eggplant Pamesan

I had an eggplant from the share I needed to use up and I was craving some eggplant parmesan. So I found Martha Stewart's Baked Eggplant Parmesan recipe.
I followed the recipe using a homemade chunky marinara that I had previously made. It had eggplant in it too, so it was a very eggplanty meal.
I thought it turned out pretty good. It did take a while to make, prepare and bake eggplant, then bake everything to melt the cheese. I definitely wouldn't do the whole thing on a weeknight, but I would make it again.

Spiced Pear Muffins

I made these "Fall Breakfast Spiced Pear Muffins" I followed the recipe except for using all white whole wheat flour, one less tablespoon of butter and I added a little lemon juice to the pears so they wouldn't get too brown.

They came together well, I thought the consistency of the batter was a bit dry before adding the pears. Though, now come to think of it, I forgot to add the milk. After coming out of the oven they were a little dry overall too, but they were not too crumbly. The flavor was pretty good and they were just the right amount of sweet, but the cinnamon and nutmeg overpower the pears.

I might make these again, as long as I remember the milk, or maybe I'll substitute some sour cream or yogurt...

Braised Fennel and White Beans (with Potato)

I searched for fennel recipes to use veggies from my CSA and came across this one for Braised Fennel and White Beans.
I followed the recipe except  I added some potatoes (in order for Ebon to eat any of it), braising greens, and I forgot to add the butter and red wine vinegar at the end. I used a vegetable stock that I made. It took a bit longer than I thought (because of the potatoes) but turned out pretty tatsy. I think the butter and vinegar would have added to the flavor.

Pear Crisp

A coworker gave me a bag of pears, so I wanted to figure out how to use them. I searched for different recipes and landed on two. This Pear Crisp recipe and a pear muffin recipe.

I followed the recipe for the pear crisp except for using a smaller dish which was a bit of a mistake because the crisp part didn't stay too crispy. I thought it turned out pretty good. The crumble on top is a little sweet, so I might tone that down the next time. The first bit tasted a bit like apple crisp, but after letting it linger in my mouth a little longer, I could taste the pears. I had my crisp with vanilla ice cream, that was quite yummy!