veggie black bean tacos and salad

we played some music down at a farmer’s market last weekend and traded our loot straight for veggies, and locally made pasta and rosemary cheese curds.....oh heavens!  sooooo fun to come home from that and decide what to make for dinner :)

i’ve been trying to eat less gluten and dairy lately....(not doing very well on either count!) so i got corn tortillas instead of flour, and fancy cheese instead of the Big Block Standby.  i’d been craving peppers but hadn’t wanted to get them at the grocery store because the red ones are almost $4 apiece and i knew i could get them straight from the farm for much less, i just had to wait a bit.  (contrary to popular practice it really is good to have to wait for some things before you have them!  ;)  and our local grocery store chain now has organic cilantro AND green onions!  very good news :)

i wasn’t feeling up to making a pasta dish worthy of our Spinach, Basil and Garlic Fettucini yet, so i opted for soft tacos.  first thing to do was put on half a fresh yellow onion and two small red peppers ($1 each! :) to saute for a bit (with a touch of organic pasture butter).  

i then opened a can of black beans and put them on low heat in a small sauce pan.  as they heated up i added a bit of salt, ground flax seed, and nutritional yeast to give them a more interesting flavor (“interesting” is all i go for sometimes!  it usually works! ;)

when the onions and pepper started getting soft and a bit browned i added a clove of minced garlic, and used the time to put some salad mix in a bowl and chop up some preparatory cilantro and green onion.  our standby salad these days is mix/lettuce + cherry tomatoes from the garden, sunflower seeds, ground flax and cilantro/green onion.  um, YUM.  

when toppings were ready i put the corn tortillas in a pan with some grated smoked gouda on low heat ‘til the cheese started to melt.  i put the tortillas on a plate with a dose of black beans, peppers and onions, cilantro and flax, and a drizzling of  Mama's Miracle Dressing, along with a small mountain of salad and we had a delicious dinner!  will got to guess what the flavors were...one of my favorite parts of this game ;)

veggie black bean tacos and salad

approximate price: $5 

mama's miracle dressing

when i was growing up i was not the biggest salad fan.  not that i disliked vegetables in general, but salad dressings were never very good and salad, for the most part, felt pretty darn boring.  i always ate it dry, most often as finger food.  (i was as fine with that as a kid could be ;)

and THEN....my mom made a dressing from three ingredients, and three ingredients only.  

olive oil

soy sauce (or tamari)

garlic

that was it.  about a half/half liquid ratio, and as much garlic as you can or can’t stand.  (it stays separated so it needs to be mixed with a spoon and scooped out to get some of everything.  we keep a stocked tupperware container on hand.)  and suddenly i was eating as much salad as was humanly possible.  oh my god.  sometimes we crave brownies.  sometimes we crave soy sauce and garlic.  i have no trouble attempting to satiate the latter.  

i made the dressing for Will recently and we both have turned into raging salad monsters.  plus i have realized that the dressing is good to put on all sorts of other things, like, well, pretty much any other savory thing i may be eating at the time.

fried/scrambled eggs?  YES.

pasta of any kind?        YES.

stir fry of any kind?       YES.

grain dish of any kind? YES.

try it!  grow list, grow!  :)

red pepper and chard pesto-less pasta with grilled eggplant

so pasta is just one of those things that you don’t realize is so much better it’s a small locally made batch....i mean, i love pasta already.  it’s one of my favorite things, but local pasta?  it’s above and beyond in ways that i couldn’t imagine before i had it.

we got spinach, basil & garlic fettucini from the farmers’ market and i couldn’t wait to come up with something delicious for dinner!  our poor garden finally surrendered to the cold nighttime temperatures, and after the first morning of waking up to sad, dark droop i harvested what i could from the tomatoes (hoping that with some tricks suggested by friends will ripen indoors :) and chard, which was already looking a little sad from absolute obliteration by caterpillar.  unfortunately the basil turned brown overnight so i didn’t have any for pesto, but i still had my eye on the chard for, well, pesto-less pesto :)

we also had some local red peppers and yellow onions, which i put on to saute with a li’l butter, and an eggplant (also loot from the farmers’ market), which i sliced lengthwise into pieces about a 1/2 inch thick.  i also put them in a lightly buttered frying pan on low, flipping them within five minutes or so to get some oil on the other side as well.  (it tends to soak up quickly.)

i prepped my chard, washing and removing the thickest part of the stems, and cutting it just once or twice to make it a bit easier to fit in the pot of boiling water.  i left them cooking for a bit longer than i would to serve them as greens, in order to make them more agreeable to a blender.  i removed the greens from the water with tongs, letting them carry some of the liquid with them, and put them in the blender, adding a quarter or so cup of olive oil, three cloves of chopped garlic and a half teaspoon-ish of salt, blending until smooth.  

the pasta instructions were to cook for six minutes, so they were saved until the end.  i used the chard water to cook them (why not?) and prepped a handful of cilantro.  (one might argue that cilantro doesn’t necessarily go with basil, but it wasn’t fresh basil....and i really like cilantro!)  

i drained the noodles in a colander and put them back in the pot with the lovely green sauce from the blender.  i served it onto the plate, with a big scoop of red peppers and onions, topped with cilantro and accompanied by tender slices of eggplant drizzled with Mama’s Miracle Dressing and sprinkled with flaxseed.  

red pepper and chard pesto-less pasta with grilled eggplant 

it was one of those dinners we didn’t say much over, other than how good it was!  (and how much it looked like christmas :)

approximate price: (i won’t lie, the pasta was pricey!) $12

beet rice with baked eggplant and grilled zucchini

i boil beets to cook them, though i know it’s nutritionally better to do it some other way.  it’s just that everything else is so slooooooowwwwwwwww!  (if i ever claimed to be a patient person, i take it back!)  i chop them up into bite sized cubes and boil them for ten or fifteen minutes, leaving a pot of gorgeous magenta colored water.  i really need to get more creative with this in the future!

i saved the water to do something with, even if it was just to throw it out onto the tree in the backyard (i do live in a desert!) and decided that cooking rice in it would be brilliant (brilliant pink if nothing else ;)  

we had locally grown eggplants, which i sliced into half-inch or so rounds and put on a baking pan drizzled with olive oil.  oven was preset to 300, and the eggplant was covered (loosely) with aluminum foil.  i didn’t set a timer.  (it usually works out ok for me, but you might not agree!  be safe :)  this was the first thing to start cooking, as i wanted to try and give it at least 45 or so minutes.

the rice was short grain brown, which i like very much.  it seems soft somehow...the ultimate comfort food!  it’s also a little bit sweet, and i believe it’s more nutritious than white.  one cup rice to two cups (pink) water was brought to a boil and then turned down to simmer.  i kept a good eye on it, in case the beet water was thicker and didn’t absorb as well.  it did just fine :)

who knows when eggplant is done....as long as it’s softer than when it went in it’s probably ok!  a fork shouldn’t meet much resistance, but other than that, it’ll be fine :)

i put a little butter and ground flax in with the rice, and put the eggplant rounds on top.  yum!

sides were grilled zucchini and green salad.

beet rice with baked eggplant and grilled zucchini 

approximate price: $4

alfredo and spinach pasta

half of the jar of alfredo sauce went to last week's tofu and collard pizza, and half went to this week's pasta dinner that couldn’t possibly go wrong.  (trust me, not once you’ve had just a little bit of practice ;)

healthy things i’ve been craving lately:

kale chips

green salads with tamari and oil dressing

pickles (i am NOT pregnant!)

pasta

(as opposed to the UNhealthy things i’ve been craving lately, like chocolate and espresso and expensive port.....)

so: pasta dinner with green salad and pickles to snack on while i cooked.  perfect.  (i even managed to creatively get the kale chips in there too, which i’ll tell you about in a bit ;)

i put about six cups of water on to boil (ok, i asked will to put about six cups of water on to boil ;) and really didn’t have a lot to do until the noodles were done.  

the salad didn’t take long at all to throw together, the standbys these days being leaf lettuce, whatever peppers we have on hand, sunflower seeds, cilantro or green onions (or both!) and a sprinkling of ground flaxseed with a fair drizzling of olive oil and tamari (soy sauce).  it’s best with some fresh garlic too, but if anyone could over-garlic a meal it’s yours truly!  ;)

when the noodles passed my consistency test, i drained and rinsed them and put them back in the pan with the alfredo sauce.  (i could have used another pan to preheat it but i figured i’d save a dish :)  

i chopped up some spinach into smallish pieces (1/2 inch or so) to allow them to mix better with the sauce rather than dominating mouthfuls, and let it heat in the mixture for ten or so minutes to soften up a little, but not lose its beautiful color!

that went into a bowl while clever me took a handful of exquisitely crunchy kale chips and crushed them on top for seasoning.  (when made right they definitely crush! :)

alfredo and spinach pasta

approximate price: $3

leftover turkey soup

oh my GOODNESS did we have thanksgiving leftovers!  bless the wallaces’ hearts, it took five days just to get it all under control.  i am most certainly grateful for such abundance (as things are still making their way into smaller containers and into the freezer! :)

there were two turkeys that had been carved down and i volunteered to keep one of them to try my hand at making soup stock.  i didn’t want to let it go to waste if i could help it, though getting a large turkey carcass to fit in a pot with two inches of water covering it was trying indeed!  

*i’m not a strict vegetarian.  i don’t eat a lot of meat either, and like to know where it came from and how it lived before i put it into my body.  i run into some moral trouble when it comes to things like processing a turkey carcass.  if i’m going to eat it i feel i should darn well be able to deal with it in its less than romantic state (not to mention be able to face its life--and death--before it was presented to me as food).  and this endeavor was definitely less than romantic.  

that said, i brought the pot to a boil and then turned it down to simmer, leaving it for several hours.  if the water level got too low i added a bit more in and stirred it occasionally.  it went into the fridge overnight and the next day i heated it enough to liquify it again, then had to dig through and pull out all of the bones and less than desirable bits.

i gotta say, this kinda tripped out a bit.  i mean, nature doesn’t skimp out.  there were a million and a half parts to that bird and every bone, tendon and muscle served a very specific purpose.  what an absolute work of art, what a perfect being of beauty, and what a thing of awe that we can be nourished by it.  i have never felt so much respect for an animal that was my food before, and i think that has become difficult with such a separation between us and the process.  meat lines the grocery store coolers and we don’t have to think any more about it than that.  

i feel that a close connection to our food is important regardless of what we eat or don’t eat.  i have the most amazing chickens in the world running around my backyard and i am blessed with incredibly beautiful and nutritious eggs every morning.  i get to go out in my bare feet (with my babies clucking behind me every step) and pull cherry tomatoes from an accidental plant that now needs a fourth cage to hold it up, clip okra from a tiny forest, and break chard and collard leaves from their plants with a crisp and unparalleled satisfaction.  it’s an awe inspiring thing, and i love and respect it as such.

so.  back to my miracle soup.  i heated it up a third night, finally ready to “finish” it, and added several cups of water to mellow out the richness.  really, it didn’t feel like it was lacking much of anything.  it smelled divine and was thick and beautiful.  i cooked up some spiral noodles to throw in and minced 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  there was the last of a sad looking head of fennel in the bottom drawer so i added that for a bit of green.  

that was really all.  there's enough for half a dozen meals and then some.  i’m glad i took the time and energy to make something wonderful out of something that would’ve been easy to deem disgusting and throw away.

leftover turkey soup

approximate price: if you’ve already got a turkey, then free!+a half bag of pasta

*it is never my intention to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat, and i'm not advocating for any kind of diet, other than creativity and using what you have.  this adventure happened to involve some emotion, so i have shared that as part of my process.

alfredo tofu and collard pizza

i make a lot of pizza....at least once a week.  i haven’t learned to make the crust from scratch yet (that’s like a real recipe!  yikes!) but it’s the most fun way for me to throw odds and ends together to make something that’s pretty darn hard to mess up.

i had suggested pizza, because we had an open package with one crust left that i knew wouldn’t last long, but even i was verbally skeptical that we had anything to put on it.  shame on me!  i know better......

i had gotten a jar of alfredo sauce at the store recently, and then remembered i had also gotten some tofu...what else, what else, i thought.....sunflower seeds....chard and collards from the garden.....carrots, no.....cabbage, no.....leftover okra and baked eggplant.....garlic.....green onions.....cheese.....

well that was more than enough to convince me!  confidence regained ;)  i sauteed a yellow onion with most of a package of tofu (saving just enough to be able to do a little something with it if i need to this week) and a little butter and bragg’s.  while that was cooking i went out and said hi to the chickens while i collected a few leaves of collards (making sure to thoroughly de-aphid them :).

i chopped up the baked slice of eggplant (not much but why not?) and added it into the mix with the leftover okra pepper stir fry from last night, making sure to remember a few cloves of minced garlic.  all that went on the alfredo dressed pizza crust and into the oven.

it was really good!  it had almost a sweet aroma to it, maybe from the butter and tofu combo?  i sprinkled a little ground flaxseed and cracked salt on top, and ready....set......eat!  :)

approximate price: $5

cucumber pomegranate salad

our friends are growing pomegranates, and while they were chicken sitting for us left one for us in the refrigerator.  i haven’t had one since i was a kid, and will had never seen one.  at least i was able to identify it and have some idea about what to do with it (not much, mind you :)

have i mentioned how much i love salads??  the possibilities are so limitless it’s crazy.  you really don’t need much to make a side dish, and sometimes the fewer things that are in it the more interesting it can be.  and now that lettuce is in season in texas (i’m sorry northerners!) we both have been craving it like crazy.

i chopped cucumber and banana peppers, and dug out most of a pomegranate (i saved some seeds to munch on later (i hear that chickens find them tasty, too ;)  i added some roasted sunflower seeds and green onion, along with oil, vinegar and cracked salt.

cucumber pomegranate salad

approximate price: $3

nutmeg squash with pomegranate date quinoa, veggie stir fry and fruit salad

well, it’s tour time again!  usually that means that i don’t do much cooking and rely on archived recipes to cover the time, but my good friend and tour mate daisy o’connor has some awesome friends in san francisco that we got to stay with for the first leg of our trip.  and it JUST so happens that they enjoy having traveling house guests cook dinner for them.....oh boy oh boy!  shit in a pot goes on the road!  :)

i was a little intimidated in a new city and a new kitchen (and daisy made sure my reputation preceded me!) but she and i were a team and so i took a deep breath and plunged in!  (why is it anyway that we shy away from our talents for fear that we might mess up this one time even though we’ve proven time and time again that we’re good at what we do??  life lessons everywhere ;)

our compiled pool of ingredients came to:

plain quinoa and red quinoa

an assortment of veggies (mostly green)

2 spaghetti squashes

an assortment of fruit (persimmons among them!)

my first inclination was towards “stuffing” the squash with the quinoa and veggies, but we didn’t start it soon enough to cook it in halves, so we cut it up into smaller chunks to cook it faster, and put them faced down (skin up) on a coconut-oiled* glass baking pan.

we mixed the quinoas together and cooked them in a rice cooker.  (i do it at home in a pan/pot: 2 cups water per 1 cup quinoa.)  we added a few spoonfuls of coconut oil (one of the luxuries of the evening!), a handful of fresh pomegranate seeds, a handful of dried date pieces and a healthy sprinkling of sea salt.

the broccoli, zucchini, kale, green beans, etc got chopped and went into a frying pan (with some coconut oil....) and were super no-fuss.  all we added was a bit of salt and balsamic vinegar.

with squash i’m learning that the rule for how long to cook it is either A) at least an hour, or two.... or B) ‘til your hosts are really hungry.  it was in at 450 for about 45 minutes when B happened.  we scraped it out of the skins into a bowl adding, yes, two or so spoonfuls of coconut oil, a sprinkling of salt, a drizzling of honey and the surprise grand winner: nutmeg.  we only used a small amount, maybe a teaspoon, with a shrug and a “why not?”  that’s the best :)

daisy made a simple fruit salad with apples and persimmons and pomegranate and we presented our gracious hosts with quite the spread!  a little discombobulated with a few confused moments but everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal :)  we put everything out on the table on its own for people to serve themselves, and i was told the next day that during a phone call one of our buddies was still talking about our squash!  (i definitely call that a success ;)

nutmeg spaghetti squash with pomegranate date quinoa and veggie stir fry

approximate price: pooled resources are harder to calculate, but this was probably around $15 worth of food for 5 people, only using what we already had!  :) 

*coconut oil is pricey, but supposedly is very good for you!  it’s the GOOD kind of fat, and very stable so it has a high heat tolerance and is slow to oxidize (i.e. become rancid).  it has a subtle flavor which can be very tasty in place of other oils (or butter....as this IS shit in a pot! ;)

Kale Chips

kale chip heaven!  :)

i was really determined to get this kale chip thing down after will’s mom made us a batch for a road trip and they lasted about 20 miles!

i had some disappointing runs, though it’s hard to mess up salty greens!  too much oil can keep them from getting crispy, but hey, nobody’s loss :)

i have learned firsthand why kale chips work best, and i believe it’s because of the waviness of the leaves.  other greens can lay too flat on the pan and either burn or get quite stuck.  collards are the very thin and elegant variety, while chard and even beet greens can hold their own.  but kale is best.

i have found that 300 degrees for 20 minutes works out just fine.  finally, consistency!  :)

about three full grown leaves will fit on my pizza pan.  i wash and remove the thick part of the stem (usually at least 3/4 of the length), then chop them into bite-sized pieces.  i put a small amount of oil in a bowl (i use olive oil, a tablespoon or so) and dip one or two fingers in to rub onto the backs of the leaves.  this is far from precise!  just get a little bit on there (there shouldn’t be enough to be drippy at all) and lay them oil side up on the pan.  it’s ok if they overlap a little.

i sprinkle some cracked salt across the pan and pop it into the 300 degree oven, setting the timer for 20 minutes.

if you’re feeling really patient (but ready for an amazing payoff!) you can finely mince some garlic in with the oil, as well as finely grated cheese.  both are delicious!  or try other seasonings and flavor combinations.  as i’m typing this i’m suddenly thinking that some tamari mixed with the oil would be delightful.....

kale chips

approximate price: a bunch of kale, even organic, costs around $2.  you can make a lot of chips out of that!

tuna pizzarella

stuff to use:

leftover tuna salad

mini pizza crusts

sooooooooo like a tuna melt right?

i spread it on the single serve pizza crust and covered it with some fresh mozzarella that also needed to be used, along with a few sliced cherry tomatoes (which probably should have gone under the cheese, but no biggie :)

into the oven for the time the package said and voila!  

tuna pizzarella

this would be a little weirder i think if it was a normal sized pizza crust, but the single serve actually made a lot of sense!  :) 

approximate price: $3

egg and beet hash browns

woah, surprise winner!

will doesn’t like beets so unfortunately we had a bunch from the farm share go bad while i was out of town (i hate admitting to things like that!), so i was determined not to let that happen this week.  my mom’s been telling me that beets are one of the best things you can eat and i do like them, but i’m never excited to cook with them for some reason.  they take a while i suppose, and they kind of have to stay by themselves or else everything they touch turns a bright unappetizing pink.

it was actually on my to-do list to eat the last beet in the fridge (i’m a strange and happy creature :) and my thought to save on cooking time was to grate it into a pan (and decide what to do with it later).  well grating takes forever....so much for the time saving idea, but the task was getting done nonetheless. 

i put in a little butter and bragg’s (liquid amino acids for anyone who doesn’t know this vegan staple!) and after ten or so minutes of intermittent stirring (low heat) i added a couple cloves of minced garlic.  they started to look a little dry so i covered them and also added about a quarter cup of water.

i cracked two eggs into the pan (too lazy to dirty a dish to mix them first....) and mixed them in evenly before flattening everything into an even layer.  i wasn’t sure if the egg-to-beet ratio was high enough it to stick together, but when i came back ten or so minutes later it definitely had.  i separated it down the middle in order to flip both halves and was pleased to find a delicious golden shade to the undersides.

i grated a little sharp cheddar on top and sprinkled cracked salt and green onions from the pot outside (i’m lucky that the chickens don’t like them, now that the back porch is apparently the cool place to hang out!) 

egg and beet hash browns

approximate price: $2

baked butternut squash stuffed with cheese and wild rice

well, i’ve never made stuffed squash before, but i really didn’t think it could be very hard.  that’s my story and i’m sticking to it :)

i admit, i don’t really know how long squash takes to bake in the oven.  i figured too long would be better than not long enough so i gave it around two hours.  butternuts can be tricky to cut because they are so solid, so just be careful!  i cut it in half once lengthwise, so as to have two nice big circles to fill.  i rubbed the fleshy sides with olive oil and put them facedown on a baking pan.  (i used an aluminum one, though i’m sure glass or otherwise would be fine too.)

we had some leftover broth from will’s mom’s delicious bacon collard greens, which we used to supplement cooking water for wild rice (1:2 rice/water ratio).  

i sauteed up a medium yellow onion with a little butter, and when the rice was tender i added in the onion, along with a few cloves of minced garlic, another couple tablespoons of butter* and a sprinkling of cracked salt.

for the sake of having some veggies, i boiled some baby carrots for about 10 minutes (depends on how soft you want them).  after draining them i added enough olive oil to flavor and a clove of minced garlic.

two hours was plenty long enough to make the squash soft and delicious (and our house smell like heaven! :)  i flipped over the halves, filling up the holes with rice and covering them neatly with cheese.  (i used slices of muenster, but i’m certain any kind will do!  it’s hard to go wrong with cheese :)

baked butternut squash stuffed with cheese and wild rice 

approximate price: $6

butternut squash and spicy quinoa tostadas

i wasn’t sure where dinner was going when i began, so i baked the butternut squash the same way i did for stuffing them (halved lengthwise, rubbed with olive oil, facedown on a baking sheet).

there was nothing too special about the quinoa (1:2 grain/water), tho we have more spicy peppers than we could possibly know what to do with, so i got a little bold and added five small minced jalapenos (no seeds!), along with the standard butter, garlic and salt (what oh what would life be like without them??).

i also added a medium sauteed yellow onion (also the standard in my kitchen! ;)

i still wasn’t sure what i was doing by the time the squash came out of the oven, but realized we’d payed $6 for buttermilk tortillas at the store earlier--mistake or not, they sure as heck weren’t gonna last very long so i figured i better get them in there somehow!  :)

i put four on a baking sheet (we have a round one we use for pizzas) and shredded cheese on top, putting them in the still hot oven ‘til the cheese got melty.  i then added layers of quinoa and squash spooned out of the skin, another layer of cheese, and a sprinkling of green onions.  i put them back in the oven long just enough to melt the cheese (we were hungry!). 

we’re waiting on our own fresh corn to get big enough to feast on, but in the meantime we got organic ears from the store.  i’ve always heard people swear on either boiling or steaming for ten minutes.  works for me.

butternut squash and spicy quinoa tostadas

approximate price: $7

hiatus

i just wanted to acknowledge that i've been "gone" for a while here.  it was a really crazy month for me, including being on tour and watching the body of one of my best friends prepare itself to let go of life, and being close by when it finally did.  it's good to realize when, and what, things need to be put on hold and am grateful for such beautiful and powerful reminders as this one of what matters most, and of what comes first. 

i'm still super excited about all this cooking business, however, and am chomping at the bits to keep going forward with it!  i'm back home in my kitchen now, and am excited to tell you all about my stuffed squash from the other night.....next week!  for now it's hash browns ;)

and please, for me (and for you and for them!), make sure the people that you love in your life go to sleep every night knowing it.

blue potato hash browns with grilled zucchini

we’ve been getting blue potatoes from our farm share and they’re just fun to cook with.  i don’t know that many things to do with potatoes, but hashbrowns have been a fairly recent discovery :)

there’s probably an easier way to do it but i just grate the potatoes on a cheese grater (i don’t mind working a little bit! ;)  i use my medium pan instead of the big one ‘cause it would take a heck of a lot of potatoes to fill the bottom of that one!  i put a little butter in the pan on low heat, ‘cause potatoes tend to burn and get stuck to the pan, usually in the middle.

i don’t have a great estimate on how long they take to cook....but after ten or so minutes they should be stuck together enough on the bottom that you can flip them like a pancake.  it might be a little messy but just flatten them down again and distract yourself for long enough to let them cook some more (not one of my strong suits in the kitchen! :)  i put in a little bragg’s for flavoring, and hopefully a browning effect, but no other seasonings.  (i bet garlic would have been delicious...next time! :)

while that was happening i grilled some zucchini in the big pan.  depending on the size i usually quarter them lengthwise, unless they’re ginormous and then i’ll cut them in half and third the bigger end.  doesn’t really matter :)  low heat with a little butter, and again, leave them alone long enough to actually grill a little!  that’s the best part: a little charred on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside.

a little ketchup and fresh cilantro on the hashbrowns, a banana and a few strawberries and we were good to go!  i had a good friend in town for a night so i was making us a late breakfast.  he didn’t know about my blog so i got to give him a proper introduction!  :) 

blue potato hashbrowns and grilled zucchini

approximate price: $5 

(cheeseless!) eggplant pesto pizza

so will has been doing pretty darn good in the kitchen since i've been gone!  i've asked him to be a guest writer for the month, so hopefully for the next few weeks you'll be getting an archive from me and a recent creation from him :)  i'm so proud ;)

for now:

i was going to stop by the store after work to get cheese for pizza, but a seriously apocalyptic looking storm was coming in so we skipped it.  cheese free pizza: i’ve faced bigger challenges.

we got a few different kinds of eggplant in our farm share this week.  one that looked like what i’m used to, a couple that were long and slender in a lavender shade, and one sort of in the middle.  i chose that one, slicing it into circles about 1/3 inch thick.  (for anything other than pizza i make them a bit heftier but wanted these to be easily bitable.)  i put them on medium low in the large pan with a bit o’ butter.

now that i’m thinking about it i remember hearing that it’s good to have your pan already heated up when eggplant goes in, or else it will just soak up all of the oil.  (but maybe that’s ok!)

i got the idea to make pesto for the sauce, and braved the torrential rain for a few chard leaves (AND to check on the babies, whom i had closed up in their roost in preparation of the storm...mama was terrified, but i think they were more annoyed at being cooped up before twilight! :)  

while the chard was getting a few long minutes in boiling water i chopped up a good handful of basil, a big clove of garlic, and grated two small yellow zucchinis into the blender.  i thought it would thicken the sauce up (regardless of knowing that anything in the blender has to have a certain amount of liquid or it won’t work!  stubborn :)

i also began heating up (though hardly necessary, since it was going into the oven) the small amount of okra tomato bean leftovers.  i didn’t want the beans, but it was a package deal.

i added the chard, along with a bit of the water to the blender, and gave it a go, adding olive oil and liquid ‘til it would blend (also stirring it with a spoon between whirls).

between all this the eggplant received all sorts of tender flips, a splash of bragg’s, and about 1/3-1/2 cup of water to make sure it softened up properly (enough to have a small layer in the pan).

oven was preheated and onto the pizza went pesto, okra tomato bean stuff, and eggplant rounds, placed strategically to minimize needing to cut through them.  i cracked some salt over the top and sprinkled ground flaxseed, which really made it look beautiful!  very rustic ;)

(cheeseless!) eggplant pesto pizza

i confessed to will later that i kind of wish he had walked in on me earlier, as those beans i didn’t want on my pizza got eaten off one by one as soon as they were spread on it.  it was a silly moment :)

approximate price: $7  

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

needed to use: a bowl of too-watery-to-actually-dip-chips-into homemade tomatillo salsa

well....it was slim pickin’s this night (as you can perhaps guess from the text above!).  our farm delivery was coming in the morning so i hadn’t bulked our produce back up.  no matter, i am not swayed.  i had the idea to cook some sort of grain in the salsa, so i went with quinoa (as opposed to a wild rice mix).  quinoa is a 1:2 ratio of grain to water, so i measured 2 cups of the salsa and still had a bit left, so i downsized the container and put it back in the fridge.  (downsizing is just fun, no matter what it’s pertaining to ;)

i wasn’t sure if the quinoa would cook properly in a liquid thicker than water, but i was prepared to add some extra H2O if necessary.  i brought it to a boil and then brought it down to low heat with the lid on to retain as much liquid as possible.

we had two carrots, an onion, some baby spinach, and half a block of tofu.  (we also had celery and jalapeno peppers, but i opted out of those.)  i sliced the carrots and put them in with the cooking quinoa (saved me an extra pan) and started an onion sauteing in a medium frying pan with a little butter.  i crumbled (aka smooshed and tore) the tofu in with the onion and added some bragg’s, both for a little color and flavor.  

i almost burned the quinoa, as it’s very quiet about turning sticky and black at the bottom of the pan while the top looks deliciously light and fluffy.  two good things to do in that moment of discovery: turn of the pan and douse it with a little water.  not enough to drown it, but just enough for the hot dry grains to have a drink.

i sat down and read for a few minutes while everything cooled a bit, then abruptly announced that i had an idea and walked back to the kitchen, ignoring will’s inquiry as to what it was.  (i like to keep him guessing a little....it’s part of the fun :)  

i took the remainder of the salsa back out of the fridge and put it in the blender, along with a few good handfuls of spinach (that appeared to get the unintentionally boot from this meal and still lay quiet and hopeful on the counter) and a minced clove of garlic.

perfect.  bright green things are really fun.  i put down a layer of the spicy quinoa and carrots, followed by the tofu and onions and a generous drizzling of green garlic salsa stuff.

salsa-cooked quinoa with tofu and garlic spinach sauce

despite the fact that will was not sure what he was eating at first he gave it a verbal “thumbs up” and nod of approval.  

approximate price: $5

Garden Pasta Salad

i love pasta salad because it can’t possibly even begin to be limited by a recipe, other than maybe what to use for a dressing (and even then.....)  yup, right up my alley :)

we were still in somewhat of a food coma from spending the fourth of july afternoon with will’s folks (we eat like the gods there, and we eat a lot) so finally by the time dusk was setting in and the chicks were putting themselves up for the night we were ready for something, as long as it was light, “like a salad.”  done.

i have been fighting like mad to reclaim our collard and kale crops from caterpillars (as i push out of my mind both my childhood favorite book “the very hungry caterpillar” and the fact every single one of them will “grow up to be a beautiful butterfly someday,” as long as they feast on every single tender cell of my collards, that is!)  a few weeks of diligence on my part has brought some lovely foliage from these toughies and we had yet to eat a single leaf of their gifts, so i happily plucked a few each of collards and kale and went inside to execute the next crucial step of our sustenance, so joyfully named by yours truly :)

i think any kind of small pasta is ok for this kind of thing.  i opted for the spiral-y kind and put enough water on for half of the pound box (6 cups or so?), as i was not ready to be responsible for a whole pound of cooked pasta again just yet!  the last pound lasted the two of us (in various outfits--both us and the pasta ;) for three dinners, plus my lunches for two days in between; the gift that keeps on giving.  

while the water was boiling and pasta was hitting the jacuzzi, i rounded up all of the veggies i had at my delicious disposal to make an assessment.  baby spinach, red onion, banana pepper, celery, and cilantro (it’s green; it counts), plus the collards and kale from the garden.  sure.  i’ll take ‘em.  normally i would always cook kale and chard (it breaks them down a bit, and makes them more palatable and digestible) but these leaves were rather young so i just chopped them up and started the salad engine (it runs on biodiesel for sure ;)

the rest of the veggies got chopped up and tossed in the bowl.  use your creativity and inspiration (or just best judgement :) on how big or small to cut things.  not to play favorites, but some veggies are just prettier than others, and sometimes i make those ones a little more, uh, visible.  raw onions and garlic, and cilantro if you feel that way about it, ought to be minced pretty finely so certain mouthfuls don’t get dominated by it.

in went the noodles, and then came decisions for dressing.  the only organic mayo i had been able to find at the neighborhood grocery store was roasted garlic, which i figured couldn’t hurt anything (least of all the evening’s pasta salad!) so i dropped in a large spoonful, along with a bit of juice leftover from our last olive indulgence, and a few good drizzles of bragg’s and olive oil, as well as a dusting of cracked salt, and mixed it all together.  mayo will hide in clumps in you aren’t careful, especially in the hide-and-seek folds of durum wheat spirals, so mix well.

garden pasta salad

approximate price: $5

Peach Mint Cobbler

stuff to use:

peaches

mint

we had a few peaches that were ripening (or not?) a bit funny so  i opted for cooking them rather than not.  we also had some fresh mint from our farm share and i knew just what to do :)

cobblers (or crisps?) or whatever else you could call them are super duper easy.  i did actually purchase some granola for this, which is totally not my style, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

i cooked ours in a glass baking pan, and chose a small round one due to our small amount of the star ingredients.  after preheating the oven to 300 degrees (it sounded good at the time....hot enough to brown the top a bit, but allow it to sustain enough time for the peaches to soften up? :) i sliced up the peaches fairly thin, no more than 1/2 inch thick (just ‘cause i’m impatient when it comes to baking, especially when it smells delicious! :)

then i melted some butter down, perhaps a stick or so, on the lowest heat i could manage, as butter burns quite easily, and poured it over a bowl of granola.  i really confess, there’s not a lot of measuring going on here.  the fruit to granola ratio is not terribly important, and if you didn’t melt enough butter the first time you can always add some more.  no stress :)

i put the peaches in the pan first, laying them out evenly.  you can drizzle some honey or maple syrup over them if you wish, or sprinkle some sugar, but i usually find it to be sweet enough (just right, in fact ;) without it.

i finely chopped the mint, mixed it in with the buttery granola, and spread it out over the peaches.

i let it cook for about half an hour (again, the impatience!).  you can check to see if things are getting soft, or dried out, or burnt.  (you can always put tinfoil over things to protect the surface layer.)

peach mint cobbler

we put it in bowls with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream on top.....it’s best warm and fresh, but i so look forward to it for breakfast the next day!  (it rarely lasts more than one of those :)

approximate price: $5