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?