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