Crisp Polenta Cakes with Braised Cabbage and Beans

Well, I'm at it again. After several weeks of apathy for cooking, which I'm sure may only get worse, I attempted this recipe last night: Crisp Polenta Cakes with Braised Cabbage and Beans. Mine definitely did not turn out like the picture!
The flavors were wonderful. The cabbage was a bit like sauerkraut, but not so pungent. The sauce, with the beer and mustard, was a good mix and complemented the cabbage perfectly, and who doesn't like fried cornmeal with cheese!
The thing I had the hardest time with was the process of frying the polenta. It was probably my pan or maybe I wasn't using "leftover" polenta, but I did not have the lovely little patties that are pictured in the blog post. After a little while and a couple failed attempts, I had better luck, but it was mostly clumps of polenta that were mostly fried, but some that weren't.
My variations:
I was thinking of some other recipe and I used 3 green onions instead - whoops.
I didn't have any apple cider vinegar, so I used red wine vinegar instead. I used honey instead of sugar. I made the polenta (recipe from my favorite cookbook below) a couple hours before, put it in a pan and cooled it in the refrigerator. I used a brown ale that a friend and I brewed - delicious, if only I could drink what was left in the bottle! I skipped the caraway seeds since I didn't have any - I didn't miss them. I threw the beans (I used garbanzos since that was what I had on hand) into the sauce while it was reducing.

Polenta:
2 cups water
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups cornmeal
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Bring the water, milk, nutmeg and salt in a heavy saucepan to a slow boil. Turn the heat down (simmer). Slowly add the cornmeal, whisk constantly. Cook until the consistency is like mashed potatoes and it begins to pull away from the side of the pan, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the butter and cheese and mix in. Spread in dish or on a greased board to cool - size will depend on how thick you want the polenta. A 9x13 baking dish will give you about a 1/2" thick cake.

I was pleasantly surprised at the results (flavor-wise), and Ebon even went back for seconds. However I probably won't make this recipe again due to the amount of work required. Maybe I'll find a way to use pieces of it in different recipes.

Baked Mashed Potato and Vegetable Omelet

I made this for dinner tonight!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Baked-Mashed-Potato-and-Vegetable-Omelet-10257

When I got home I was super tired and didn't feel like cooking, but I also wasn't in the mood for leftovers in the fridge (Chinese food).
I make fritattas fairly frequently, but I wasn't in the mood for full-on fried potatoes. After some searching on my favorite recipe site, Epicurious.com, I found a few options and  the Baked Mashed Potato and Vegetable Omelet won out.

The veggies I used were onions, garlic, about 1/4 of a red pepper, half of a zuchinni, and 4-5 white mushrooms chopped up. I made the mashed potatoes with the last of our bulk potatoes from Red Fire Farm, butter and Greek yogurt that was way to sour to eat on its own (it wasn't spoiled, but a new brand I had never tried - it was a fail). I also added a little cheddar cheese - Ebon's favorite. I used rosemary instead of parsley because it was what was on hand and our rosemary plant needed a trim.

The flavors turned out great, but the texture was all wrong. It was just a little too mushy. Maybe if I used a bigger pan and allowed the omelet to get a little crispier, it would have been better. I won't make it again.

Cannellini and Kale Ragoût

I made this tonight:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cannellini-and-Kale-Ragout-109247

Ebon was pleasantly surprised that he didn't hate it- his words, but he still ate pizza for his "real" dinner.

I thought it was pretty good. I'm trying to get more leafy greens and protein in my diet, and this hit the spot - I shredded a bit of Parmesan cheese on top for a little added saltiness/cheesiness.

Chilaquiles

Again, my favorite cookbook, Quick Vegetarian Pleasures to the rescue for our Sunday night meal.


Chilaquiles, as far as I understand from the cookbook and what I've had in restaurants they are kind of like a Mexican Lasagna or casserole. Also, typically they are made using up on-hand ingredients before they go bad. That's what I did when I made them on Sunday.
I'm in the process of trying to clear out stuff that has been in our freezer for quite some time - the pumpkin from the Pumpkin Mac and Cheese was from the fall and just needed to get used. In the chilaquiles, I used up some hot peppers, beans, corn tortillas, 1/2 package of Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo and some fresh tomatoes that I got on reduced sale that were destined for the freezer or needed to be used immediately.

Olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, diced
the recipe calls for a large can of diced tomatoes, but I used the reduced-sale Roma tomatoes, probably about 2 lbs worth or so
2 cups of cooked beans, I used black beans and white kidney beans, the recipe calls for a 15oz can of kidney beans
1/2 green pepper, finely chopped
1-2 hot peppers, again the recipe calls for canned diced green chilies
1/2 package of Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo (not in the original recipe)
12 corn tortillas
~2 cups or 8oz of shredded cheese, the recipe calls for Monterrey jack, but I used cheddar
1 cup of sour cream

In a hot large skillet over medium heat, add ~2 tablespoons of oil and fry the onions and garlic until soft, ~5-10 min. Then add the tomatoes, peppers and chorizo. Simmer until thickened.

In a 9" x 13" pan spread about 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of the pan, top with 1/2 the tortillas, 1/2 the sour cream, 1/2 of the cheese, and the second 1/3 of sauce. Top that with the remaining tortillas, sour cream, sauce and finish with the rest of the cheese.
Bake at 350degF for 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

I'm not sure if it was the chorizo or the hot peppers, but it came out slightly spicy, but very good.

In Absenstia

I've been away a while, but I've still been cooking. I don't mind writing, but things would be so much better with pictures, and the pictures just take too much time to remember to take them, take them, upload them to the computer then upload them to Google Picasa. I'm sure there's a better easier way - probably if I had a smart phone, but I'm not planning to get a smart phone. I'll just opt out of pictures at the moment unless I think I made something exceptionally pretty, which is not usually the case.

A couple weeks ago I started, in earnest, trying to come up with a menu of 4-5 items for the week. Here was the proposal for the week of February 18th:
Baked Potato Soup
Bok Choy with mushrooms and noodles
Zucchini Enchaladas
Pasta with Broccoli

It took more than a week to get through all of those, including leftovers and take-out/pizza, etc. However, I enjoyed not having to think too hard and also shopping ahead of time to prepare.

This week, I opted for:
Chilaquiles w/veggies and chorizo
Falafel
Tofu with veggies stir fry
Japchae
Seitan steaks with Mashed potatoes, gravy and veggies (peas/corn)

So far, we've had the chilaquiles and the Japchae. When I grocery shopped for this week, I hadn't gotten everything because I was worried some things might go bad (veggies for stir fry, etc), so I'll be off to the store tonight to get the remaining ingredients. I think we'll have the falafel tonight :)

Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

Last night, I didn't feel like cooking much, and the items I planned last week, I hadn't fully shopped for. So we were lacking a few ingredients.  So I did what I often do - use what's on hand.

~2 cups of uncooked pasta, I had about 1 cup of shells and 1 cup of spiral pasta, like this. Both worked well to hold onto the heavy sauce.

enough water to cook the pasta.

After the pasta has cooked to al dente, drain the water.

Add ~2 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup of milk
12 oz of Velveeta cheese in 1/2" cubes
~2 oz cheddar cheese in 1/4" cubes
cook on low or medium low heat while the cheese melts
Add in 2 cups of pureed pumpkin
pepper to taste
~1/2 teaspoon marjoram
~1/2 teaspoon thyme

This came together pretty fast, and ended up tasting pretty good. The pumpkin and Velveeta together turned out to be very creamy.

Stuffed Peppers

I went to the grocery store today in search of fresh fruits and veggies. I walked away with 4 peppers that were on the "quick sale" rack. While driving home, I realized I could make a stuffed pepper for dinner.

two servings of rice ~3-4cups cooked?
1 cup black beans
1 cup corn (I used frozen)
1/2 of 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
~2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt (I probably could have put more in)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder (propbably could have used fresh)
2 green onions
Combine together all ingredients until mixed.
Cut the tops off 4 peppers, I used yellow in this case.
I chopped up the good parts from the "top" and added them into the rice mixture.
I put a large pinch of shredded cheddar cheese at the bottom of the pepper, then added a spoonful of rice mixture, a little more cheese and then filled up the pepper with the rice mix. Repeat for all 4 peppers.
Place all 4 peppers on a cookie sheet and bake at 375deg F for 30-40 min or until the peppers are soft.
sprinkle a little more cheese on top and put under the broiler on low and broil until the cheese is melted.