Recipe Roundtable

Artichoke Mushroom Lasagna

2007-08-14T21:53:00.001-06:00

My brother passed this recipe along to me after my mom gave it rave reviews. I was definitely curious about the vegetarian lasagna that my mom loved so much. The recipe comes from a vegetarian slow cooker book, 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes. According to Amazon and my brother, it’s a great book.

But actually, I didn’t end up using the crock pot for this one. The recipe calls for a lot of prep work and pre-cooking, and I ran out of time that morning, so I ended up baking it in the oven like I would for a traditional lasagna.

And, because I used a small glass casserole dish, I didn’t have room to stack it up like the recipe calls for. So I made two lasagnas and put one in the freezer to cook another time. I also used less cheese than the recipe calls for. And believe it or not, I didn’t add any spices whatsoever. And it didn’t need any. No salt, no pepper, no nothing. Just tasty as is.

Artichoke Mushroom Lasagna
2 Tbs butter
1 finely chopped onion
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 ½ cups quartered artichoke hearts, drained
¾ cup dry white wine or vegetable stock
12 oven-ready lasagna noodles
2 ½ cups ricotta cheese
2 cups spinach
2 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan

Melt butter over medium-high heat in skillet. Add onion, cook until softened. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until they begin to wilt. Stir in artichokes and wine and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes. Set aside.

Stacking: Layer 4 noodles on bottom. Spread with half of the ricotta, half of mushroom mixture, half of spinach, and one-third each of the mozzarella and Parmesan. Repeat. Arrange final layer of noodles over the top. Pour any liquid from the mushroom mixture over the top of the noodles to keep them from drying out. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

If you’re cooking in the slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. If you’re cooking in the oven, try about 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

I used a mixture of baby portabella and regular, white mushrooms. I also used red-stem spinach instead of baby spinach like the recipe called for. And, of course, I didn’t find pre-cooked lasagna noodles, so I had to pre-boil them. And, as I said earlier, I only stacked the first layer and then the top noodles because I ran out of room in the pan. Two layers would have been much better, but we just ate twice as much to make up for it.

Believe it or not, I didn’t even tweak the recipe, other than what I already mentioned. I didn’t add anything, subtract anything, or give in to the urge to throw some seasoning and spices in. I’m glad I didn’t. It was perfect as is. I honestly wouldn’t change anything the next time I cooked it.

The recipe did seem like a lot of prep work, especially for a crock pot recipe, but I think it was worth it. I’ll try to remember and update with how the frozen version goes once I cook it. I think this is the sort of recipe that will probably be a great frozen dinner. Prep work, pre-cooking, and stacking on the weekend, then enjoy during the week.

If you need to impress your vegetarian friends or family, I think this recipe just might be the one. Yes, everybody has tried the vegetarian lasagnas, but this one is different. And good.

Bacon Broccoli Salad

2007-08-12T16:03:00.000-06:00

Broccoli is one of my all-time least favorite vegetables. I hate it. I can’t stand the smell of it, the look of it, even the thought of it. Pouring canned cheese over the top of it sounds equally disgusting. But I’m working on giving veggies a second chance lately, so I decided it was broccoli’s time to step up.

I came across a recipe for Bacon Broccoli Salad in the Food To Live By book I’ve mentioned before. It sounded good for some reason, and the other recipes from that book have been delicious. The thing I didn’t realize is that the recipe called for raw broccoli. I think this was actually in my favor.

I loved it. I have been trying the raw veggies as I chop and prepare them, and I did so with this one too. It was good. Kind of a neutral, earthy flavor. Not anything like the icky nastiness I remember from childhood. And of course, no cooking means no smell.

I did have to look at the TV while I was eating it though because I’m still not quite strong enough to get over the visual aversion to certain veggies. The salad was probably my favorite thing I’ve cooked so far though. I even had it again this morning for breakfast. It only lasts about 24 hours, so says the recipe, but I’m guessing you’ll do like I did and eat it all within that time frame anyway.

Let it sit for two hours in the fridge after you make it, but before you eat it.

Bacon Broccoli Salad
Broccoli florets
Bacon, cooked and crumbled up
Sunflower seeds
Raisins
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbs cider vinegar

Whisk mayo (or half mayo and half sour cream), honey, and vinegar in small bowl. Pour over broccoli. Mix in other ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

Absolutely fabulous!

Curried Chicken Salad

2007-08-05T13:33:00.000-06:00

For years, and I mean years, I’ve made a honey mustard chicken salad. It’s been my thing, you know. It’s one of the only recipes I’ve ever actually “created” out of thin air and stuck to over time. I’ve taken it to parties, potlucks, and family gatherings. I’ve passed it around to friends and coworkers and relatives I’d never met before. It even won a contest once.

So now you can probably see how much it takes to get me to try a chicken salad that isn’t mine. Perhaps I’ve just become bored with it. Sure, I’ve switched it up a little here and there, but the basic recipe stays the same. Lately, however, I’ve found myself quite fond of curries. So when I saw this recipe in Food To Live By, I decided to go for it.

Curried Chicken Salad
Chicken breasts, cooked
Celery stalks, chopped (2 to 4)
Roasted pecans (1/2 cup to 1 cup)
Red seedless grapes (about 1 cup), cut in half
Fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup mayo
Salt and pepper to taste

Either use pre-cooked chicken (leftovers or whatever) or boil it in water and/or broth. Once the chicken is done, let it cool down. If you don’t know how to roast nuts, the easiest way is to pour some on a cookie sheet, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for about 8-10 minutes. If you smell them, go get them out now. They can burn quickly.

Chop everything up and throw it in a bowl. Mix the mayo and spices in a small bowl and add to the bowl. Stir, cover, refrigerate for an hour, enjoy!

Honestly, the chicken salad is good. I think mine is different, so it’s hard to compare, but this is definitely worthy of a repeat. Very easy to make too.

A note on the chips:
A friend of ours who works at Whole Foods gave us a bag of these chips (365 Organic brand, Classic Potato Chips with Sea Salt) to try this weekend. They’re all natural, with no additives, preservatives, or gluten. They’re also quite delicioso. I’m not a big chip girl myself, but I ate them. If you like chips, definitely try them.

A note on Whole Foods:
If you’re not familiar with shopping at Whole Foods or you’ve never had the opportunity to figure this little trick out, here’s something I’ve noticed lately. If you talk to the people who work there, you can often get free stuff. Now I don’t go out looking for free stuff, but if it happens to land in my shopping buggy, who am I to question it?

I don’t really know the secret or the “rules,” but I do know I’ve gotten replacement products for free when they were out of something I was looking for and I asked them about it, and I’ve gotten free stuff for looking pensive over trying something new. If you’re the type of person who gets a little rush when someone gives you something for free just to be nice, try it out next time you’re in the mood to be friendly and chatty. Let me know if it works for you too.

One side note about the free stuff: This doesn’t work for items that are already being sampled. It also doesn’t work for items that are easily opened and sampled, such as soups or breads. I tried this with a bread the other week and she sliced me off some. Yes, it was yummy. Yes, I bought a loaf.

Chicken Paprikash

2007-08-05T08:06:00.000-06:00

A while back I bought Hungarian paprika. Hungarian goulash is one of my favorite dishes, and I don’t think it really matters whether you use regular paprika or the Hungarian variety, but I like to feel like its authentic when I eat it.

So last week I bought a new book titled Food To Live By from the Earthbound Farm. As I was browsing through cookbooks trying to find something to cook for next week, I came across "Chicken Paprikash." It sounded yummy, but called for chicken breasts and chicken thighs, which I rarely use.

The ingredients list is long, and I glanced to make sure I had everything. I did, except for the chicken. At the grocery store, I decided thighs would be fine without the breasts since I’m using breasts for something else later in the week. So I bought an 8-pack of thighs.

Little did I know, I was supposed to purchase boneless, skinless thighs, but I didn’t. At first I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal just to cook them in the bones and skins, but then I realized this was a very saucy dish and gnawing on little chicken thighs covered in sauce wasn’t going to be that easy.

So I started deboning and removing skin. A very nasty process. I have to say, I’m not one to be easily grossed out by raw meat during the cooking process. I happily stick my hand up that turkey cavity every Thanksgiving, and sometimes on Christmas. I’ve also deboned whole chickens before, but only after it was cooked. The thigh thing was disgusting. It almost ruined dinner for me, but the peanut gallery said it was very tasty.

I say all of that, not to gross you out, but to stress the importance of reading the instructions. Buy boneless!

Chicken Paprikash
8 to 10 oz. boneless chicken thighs, cut into ½ inch strips
1 ½ lbs. boneless chicken breast halves, cut into ½ inch strips
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs sweet Hungarian paprika
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbs garlic, minced
2 Tbs tomato paste
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp hot Hungarian paprika (optional)

Season chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika. Heat butter and oil in skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until cooked through (about 5 minutes or so). Use a slotted spoon and transfer the chicken to a bowl.

Add onion to skillet and cook about 5 minutes. Add garlic and tomato paste, stirring constantly for 1 minute.

Add chicken broth, increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and add chicken back in. Cover skillet and simmer about 5 to 10 minutes.

Whisk flour into sour cream in small bowl. Add mixture to skillet and stir to blend. Cook over low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Do not let sauce boil or sour cream will separate.

Add hot paprika, if using. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice or potatoes.

This dish was tasty, even after the chicken thigh grossness during preparation. But I still felt like it was missing something. Perhaps it needed vegetables in the dish. It was just chicken, chicken, chicken and then rice. If you like dishes like that, definitely try it. If not, try throwing in some veggies and let me know what happens.

Italian Veggie Casserole

2007-07-28T12:32:00.001-06:00

This is the second time I’ve made this recipe, taken from VegWeb. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe pretty closely and I think it was better than this time. This time I added carrots, used less cheese, and used whole wheat pasta. I didn’t use the breadcrumbs either time, and I also used real cheese instead of the soy stuff.

Overall, it’s an easy week-night meal that tastes good re-heated. It makes quite a bit and is very filling for a veggie dish. It also has nice flavors using fresh veggies and fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones. Here’s my altered version

Italian Veggie Casserole
1 medium zucchini, sliced into coins
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced thinly
3-6 tomatoes, quartered
2 cloves minced garlic
basil
parsley
1 package fusilli pasta
Cheddar or mozzarella cheese (grated)
salt and pepper to taste (if desired)

Boil water and add pasta. Cook until done.

Saute herbs, zucchini, onion, carrots, and garlic in olive oil in a large saute pan. Cook until zucchini is slightly browned and onions are translucent if you like softer veggies; cook less time if you want them slightly crisp.

Drain pasta in a colander, and place in a 9" x 13" baking dish. Pour veggies and diced tomatoes on top. Mix well.

Preheat oven to broil or to 350 degrees. Sprinkle cheese over pasta/veggie mixture. Broil 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted, or bake about 10 minutes until the same thing happens.

Beef & Green Bean Stir Fry

2007-07-26T20:09:00.001-06:00

So after 4 nights of eating leftovers (and that’s not even counting freezing the soup) from the farmer’s market spree, I still have veggies in the fridge. What fun would it be to take all that produce to work to share with others when I can make a stir fry! (I’m really catching on quick to these recipes that use up lots of veggies in one meal.)

The green beans (my favorite vegetable besides potatoes) looked perfect and I couldn’t resist buying a bagful for $2. The green beans from Whole Foods are organic, but the times I’ve bought them, they’re not “snappy” and they’re too skinny. These were nice, plump, crispy things that made a lovely, loud snapping sound when I tore their little ends off.

So I couldn’t resist a good green bean stir fry. I had bought a top round steak this past weekend and frozen it, so I thawed it out and got to chopping and slicing. I pretty much followed the recipe from Whole Foods exactly, except for a few veggie additions and a little snafu with the cornstarch, which I’ll explain later.

Beef & Green Bean Stir Fry
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
1/4 cup white wine
1 tablespoon mild honey
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lean steak, cut into cubes or thin slices
2 cups fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 carrot, sliced very small
1 can of bamboo shoots
a few slivers of almonds
green onions
2 tablespoons expeller pressed peanut or sesame oil, divided
1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch
1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
cooked Jasmine rice or Japanese Soba noodles

Whisk together the tamari, wine, honey and garlic in large bowl. Add steak and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Blanch green beans in large pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water; drain well.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in heavy large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Drain meat well, reserving marinade. Add cornstarch to reserved marinade and stir until smooth; set aside.

Now here’s the part where I messed up. See, somehow a few weeks ago I was perusing the bulk foods section and remembered that several recipes I had been looking at called for cornstarch as a thickening agent. But actually, I didn’t really remember that. Instead I “remembered” cornmeal, and bought a whole bunch of it. Realizing my mistake before I actually added it to the stir fry, I opted for some unbleached white flour stirred into a little cold water. It worked fine in the recipe, but I ended up adding a lot more tamari at the end to thin it out a little.

Back to the recipe …

Add steak to wok or skillet and stir-fry until almost cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Add the other veggies and almonds. Stir-fry until crisp-tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Return beef to the skillet. Cook until the meat is done, another minute or two. Stir the reserved marinade and add to the skillet. Stir until sauce thickens and coats meat and vegetables, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Serve over rice or noodles.

Once again, yummy. If, like me, you’re not super crazy about crunchy green beans and carrots, cook it just a little longer than is called for. There was a lot of crunch going on, but it was very tasty. And, I even think the pictures came out nice this time.

Chicken Pot Pie

2007-07-26T19:36:00.001-06:00

After a trip to the farmer’s market Sunday morning, I suddenly found myself with more produce than I knew what to do with. I thought I should go ahead and cook most of it since I was getting my CSA box on Tuesday and Sundays are meant for cooking anyway.

Let’s just say I spent more than 6 hours washing, peeling, chopping, mixing, rolling, and cooking. I made a huge pot of green chile meets beef veggie soup and then I felt ambitious enough to try a chicken pot pie. I was trying to think of dishes that I could throw a ton of veggies into.

The picture taking thing is a little much for me some days when I get home from work, start cooking, and then have to delay my eating pleasure to take pictures (that come out fuzzy half the time anyway). So this weekend, I was motivated and full of energy. I took lots of pictures. I took photos of the produce raw and chopped and filling the pots. I took pictures of soup and green chile roasting in the pan. Then, I took pictures of the chicken pot pie before I even cut into it, and after it was dished up on the plate. And then, I ate.

But then, I went to take the photo card out of the camera, and no card. What can I say. I was tired. I did manage to get photos of the partially eaten pie. I even managed to make it look like it hadn’t been cut into, but alas, it loses its charm when I tell you that.

So here’s the pie recipe (slightly edited to fit what I actually did) taken from a chicken pot pie recipe and my new standby pie crust recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1 medium onion, diced
carrots, peeled and diced
celery
English peas
yellow squash
potato
asparagus
mushrooms, quartered
1 1/2 cups veggie stock
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups cut chicken
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon dried thyme
sea salt, to taste
ground pepper, to taste
Pie Crust recipe, doubled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop all the veggies and set aside. Make the pie crust up through the part where you put it in the fridge.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet. Add the onion, carrots, potato and celery and cook over medium heat until softened but not browned, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Add remaining butter to skillet and cook the rest of the veggies about 10 minutes.
Combine with vegetable mixture in skillet. Over medium high heat, stir the flour into skillet and cook for 1 minute. Add the stock slowly, while stirring, and bring to simmer. Stir until nicely thickened. Add the chicken pieces, cream and thyme and season with salt and pepper.

Take the pie crust out of the fridge and divide into 2 halves. Roll out one half and put in the bottom of a pie pan. With a slotted spoon, fill pie crust with filling. Pour in any remaining liquid until crust is almost filled to the top.

Roll out second pie crust and lay on top. Sealing edges with a fork and cut slits into the top of the pie. Bake for 30–40 minutes until pie crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.

It was yummy. I'm still getting used to eating English peas and asparagus, so I didn't put that many in. But they were fresh, local, and organic from the farmer's market, and they tasted delicious. The pie crust was also one of my best.

Here's a close-up of the inside of the pie.

Eggplant Something With Cheese

2007-07-16T20:05:00.000-06:00

What happens when eggplant parmesan meets veggie lasagna? The noodles and the breadcrumbs run away together and leave Eggplant Something With Cheese. (No, I really couldn’t think of a better name.)

As many of my cooking ventures go, I honestly start out making the original recipe, which was Baked Eggplant Parmesan in this case, and then it somehow morphs into something else. (I think recipes should really be called “Suggestions for Dinner” but it’s not quite as catchy.) Here’s what happened this time:

Eggplant Something With Cheese
5 baby white eggplants (coins)
1 large yellow zucchini (coins)
1 ear of corn, sliced off
1 red bell pepper (slices)
about 10 crimini mushrooms (halves)
1 jar of marinara sauce
olive oil
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1 cup of parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut veggies into slices, coins, and halves. Spread all the veggies except the corn out on cookie sheet(s) and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Put in oven for about 35 minutes.

When the veggies come out of the oven, pour about half of marinara sauce on bottom of casserole dish and layer eggplants across bottom. Sprinkle corn across eggplants. Drop spoonfuls of about half of the ricotta cheese. Then place half of the mozzarella slices on top and half of the parmesan. Layer the rest of the eggplant and then fit the rest of the veggies in. (My casserole pan was bulging by this time, so you might want to use fewer veggies.) Now repeat with the sauce and cheeses. Bake about 45 minutes.

This took a long time to cook, but was yummy. I think it had too much cheese, though. Next time, I would probably half what I used here. I also sprinkled a little garlic across the top before I put the last layer of cheese on, but the marinara sauce was already spiced, so it didn’t really need it. I think I just had spice-itis and needed to throw something else in there at the last second.

I have a feeling this is one of those recipes that can easily use up a bunch of veggies that are hanging around wondering when someone will rescue them from the crisper, much like my new fave Caramelized Veggies. So feel free to leave out, throw in, or substitute at random. (If there had been any more room left in the pan, I know I would have thrown something else in.)

Spicy Peanut Stew

2007-07-14T21:46:00.001-06:00

Spicy Peanut Stew

walnut oil

1 medium onion

1 celery stalk

ginger

garlic

1 medium sweet potato

4 or 5 tomatoes

green chile

1 red bell pepper

1 lb butternut or acorn squash

chicken breasts

1/2 cup or so creamy peanut butter

Use a very large pan for this. First, heat the oil and cook onions, celery, garlic, and ginger about 5 minutes. Add diced chicken and cook until it's almost done. Add chopped sweet potato and tomatoes and cook about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cups of water, season with salt and pepper, and simmer partially covered about 10 minutes. Add squash and bell pepper and cook about 15 more minutes until vegetables are tender. Whisk peanut butter with 1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water in small bowl. Add to stew, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes or until stew is nice and thick. Pour over rice and eat.

I tweaked this recipe slightly from the May/June 2007 issue of Vegetarian Times. My brother sent me a goodie box this week full of old vegetarian magazines. I'm not a vegetarian, and he knows that, but some of the recipes look delicious. I figure if vegetarian recipes can take meat recipes and replace the meat, I can do the reverse with veg recipes.

For this one, I omitted cauliflower, because I'm still not that brave, and substituted chicken. The rest is pretty much the same, except I left out a spicy cucumber sauce for the top. I thought the recipe was great, but it had a strong peanut-buttery flavor. If you're used to this type of cuisine and like it, you'll be fine. If the milder (some would say blander) side of eating is not your thing, use more green chile.

As you can see, I poured the whole thing over basmati rice, but brown rice was suggested in the original recipe.

Pork Chops and Apricots With Caramelized Veggies

2007-07-09T21:09:00.000-06:00

Five-Spice Pork Chops

1 1/2 lb. bone-in center cut pork chops

1 Tbs. five-spice powder

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. sea salt

peanut or walnut oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the spices together in pie plate and roll chops to cover both sides. Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat, then brown chops on each side (about 2 minutes per side).

Put in roasting pan and pour apricots (recipe below) over the top. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until done. (The apricots kept them from drying out, so I erred on the longer side for safety.)

Here's a close-up of the apricot sauce I made.

Apricot Sauce
10 apricots, chopped
2-3 Tbs. brandy
1 Tbs. molasses
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. salt

I mixed everything together in a bowl and poured it on top of each pork chop. You can see from the first picture that the sauce runs everywhere, but most of it stayed on top of the chops. The measurements are approximate. I really had no idea what I was doing with the apricot sauce, so I just threw in stuff that looked good.

The overall flavor was very apricoty but not sweet at all. The spices from the pork chops paired nicely with the fruity flavor. Very tasty, but a much different flavor from the original recipe of Five-Spice Pork Tenderloin With Hoisin Sauce that I made a couple of weeks ago. The apricot sauce was all mine, so if you try it and have suggestions for improvements please let me know.

For a side dish, I made my new favorite veggie dish Caramelized Root Vegetables. I usually make it exactly as the recipe calls for, except I have yet to actually use the suggested vegetables. This time I used asparagus, Yukon gold potatoes, and what I thought were snow peas and found out at the cash register were actually English peas.

I hate English peas, but it was a little too late at that point. They were grown locally in Espanola, and I'm trying to be adventurous and try fresh vegetables that I've always thought I hated, so I decided to just go with it. I was in complete disbelief once I tried it. These were not English peas! This was some delicious vegetable that looked like peas, but it couldn't be!

The original recipe comes from the Whole Foods website, but here's the version I cooked tonight.

Caramelized Veggies
2 medium potatoes
asparagus with ends chopped off
English peas in shells
1 Tbs. olive oil
dried thyme
juice from 1 lemon
pepper and salt to taste

Steam veggies for about 6 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix oil and lemon juice together, then toss veggies into mixture. Sprinkly thyme, salt, and pepper over top of veggies, and toss again. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and spread veggies out. Bake approximately 35 minutes.

This recipe also worked well when I tried it with carrots, asparagus, yellow squash, and zucchini. The vegetables come out tender but still firm. The lemon juice is not really noticeable to me, but somehow the veggies end up tasting almost sweet. Very high marks for this recipe.

I also cooked a little couscous, just because I like my starches.

Here's the finished product.

Polenta

2007-07-07T20:58:00.000-06:00

I'm a transplanted Southern girl, and I love my grits. But, I've never actually tried polenta before. I hear it's the same thing, but it honestly has never appealed to me. At least, not until I saw Amanda and Tyler's Smooth and Dreamy Baked Polenta.

It looked delicious, and I guess it stuck in my mind because when I stopped for lettuce at the Co-op Thursday night, I also bought some pre-cooked polenta and pre-made roasted red bell pepper sauce. (I've been very lazy this week.)

So tonight, we needed something light for dinner, and I decided to try out the polenta.

Polenta With Roasted Red Bell Pepper Pesto

pre-cooked garlic basil polenta

pre-made roasted red bell pepper pesto

grated parmesian cheese

walnut oil

Slice off a few pieces round pieces of polenta. Brown in pan with walnut oil. Turn once after a couple of minutes. Add parmesian cheese to top of each polenta slice. Simmer pesto in separate pan, then pour pesto over each slice.

I have to admit, I didn't realize I was buying pesto. I don't care for pine nuts, but the sauce was good. This was an easy dish that could be modified in a ton of different ways and eaten for breakfast as well as dinner. I definitely think I'll try polenta again, but maybe next time I'll skip the pesto.

Farmer's Market Soup

2007-07-06T19:45:00.000-06:00

Yes. I cheated and reheated this from some I froze a couple of weeks ago. A great Friday night plan when I'm tired of working and don't want to cook.

This is one of my favorite dishes to make. I usually save it for winter, but I had a ton of vegetables that needed to be cooked ASAP, so out comes Beef Vegetable Soup.

This soup always tastes different, regardless of how close I try to make it to the previous version. Long ago, I gave up and just went with the flow, throwing in whatever piqued my curiousity at the time. This time I used a crock pot, but most often I just boil it on the stovetop for a few hours.

Here's (as close as I can remember) the general recipe for this version, which I have to say was one of the tastiest batches I've made.

Beef Vegetable Soup

beef stew meat (or chicken or even no meat)

leftover brewed coffee (cold)

vegetable stock (for gluten-free use water or GF broth)

Yukon gold potatoes

carrots

onions

celery

mushrooms (baby portabella and white)

tomatoes

fresh corn from the cobb

green beans (raw, but snapped)

garlic (minced)

allspice

freshly ground pepper

seasalt

dried cumin

fresh parsley

dried oregano

dried rosemary

So here's what happened. I start chopping up all these vegetables, just piling them up in a paper plate to throw in on top of the meat. Then I pull the meat out of the fridge, toss it in the crockpot and pour a little of the morning's coffee on top of it. I started tossing in vegetables and realized it wasn't all going to fit.

I chopped way too many, so I'm not even going to bother telling you how much of what to use. Perhaps you're a little better acquainted with your crockpot and its girth than I was, so try to eyeball it or use your wise judgment.

I poured the vegetables almost all the way to the top and realized I needed at least a little water in there. I know the veggies cook down and create more water (and more space), but still I added a little. I crammed as many vegetables in there as I could, saving the mushrooms (thankfully still unchopped) and about half of the potatoes (which I stored in the fridge in water overnight). I put the crockpot on low and went to bed, hoping for the best.

The next morning, it looked good and smelled good, so I decided to finish it off on the stove. I poured everything into a huge stockpot, added a good amount of vegetable broth, the mushrooms, potatoes, and some spices (which I didn't have room for the night before) and cooked it about another hour or so. This is a very exact science, you know.

By now, it's time for work and I'm exhausted. So I let it cool while I got ready for work, and threw it all in the fridge. Yes. I cooked it again for dinner. Perhaps this is the secret -- just cook it until it shrivels up into a big vegetable ball of tastiness.

I have to admit, though, this was the best-tasting meat I've ever had in my soup. It practically disintegrated in my mouth, with this yummy flavor that I cannot possibly begin to describe. I don't know if it was the meat itself ("all natural" beef from Whole Foods) or the cooking method or both. But it was yummy.

If you're like me and you're quite happy cooking from approximations instead of exact measurements, give this a try. It freezes well and worked great as a summer soup (as long as you eat it once the A/C has cooled the place down).

Lazy Leftovers

2007-07-05T19:27:00.000-06:00

I didn't feel like cooking tonight, so I decided to take some tortillas I bought on a whim and throw in last night's Paprika Shrimp.

Just to keep myself from feeling totally guilty, I stopped and bought some butter leaf lettuce at the Co-op on the way home so I could make a salad.

The salad was easy: torn lettuce, mushrooms, red bell pepper, green onions, and a little feta cheese. Perfecto!

So the Paprika Shrimp Tacos were easy. I just dumped the leftovers onto a tortilla, nuked for 1 minute, sprinkled the orange and avocado salsa on top and attempted to wrap. It was too fat, as usual. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to make a burrito that wraps without tearing or spilling out. Until then ... soft tacos.

Here's the final meal. Sorry about the fuzziness. If you don't check the pictures before you actually eat the food, you don't exactly get a do-over.

Blueberry Peach Tart

2007-07-04T19:18:00.000-06:00

The picture doesn't really do this thing justice. It's delicious! This is the second time I've attempted this tart. The first time I used strawberries and this time I did a combo of peaches (3) and blueberries (1 1/2 little containers).

It's a "tart" and not a pie, so it ends up not looking pretty, but it tastes very good. The original recipe can be found here, but I've modified it some, so I'll post my variation.

Rustic Tart

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (non-bleached)

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 tsp. salt

6 Tbs. cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup ice cold water, more if needed

fruit, sliced or diced

1 Tbs butter for the glaze

1 Tbs. preserves (can match or be different from fruit)

1 Tbs. sugar (I used Turbinado)

Whisk flours and salt together in bowl. Gently incorporate butter with hands (or pastry blender), leaving some pea-sized pieces of butter. Drizzle cold water over top a little at a time and work until dough forms a ball. Put in fridge for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Roll dough out about 1/8 thickness in general shape of pie pan, but a little larger. Put fruit into the center, leaving about an inch or two from the edge of the pie pan. Fold edges of pie dough over the fruit.

Make the glaze by melting the butter, sugar, and preserves in a saucepan until butter is just melted. Brush onto top of pie and pour the rest into the center over the fruit. Put in oven for 15 minutes. Then, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake another 20-25 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before devouring.

Paprika Shrimp

2007-07-04T18:51:00.001-06:00

This recipe came from Fine Cooking's bookazine titled Fresh. It was good, but not superb. Probably 3 1/2 to 4 stars out of 5. I didn't really tweak this recipe, but I did use Basmati rice with a little curry and turmeric added for flavor.

Here's the actual recipe as listed in the bookazine. (The direction part has been modified slightly for ease of reading and typing.)

Paprika Shrimp With Orange & Avocado Salsa

Serve on a bed of saffron rice.

2 medium navel oranges

5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 ripe Haas avocado, cut into medium dice

1/3 cup thinly sliced scallions

1 Tbs. fresh lime juice

2 tsp. sweet paprika (Hungarian preferred)

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. Tabasco

1 1/2 lb. large shrimp

Position oven rack 4 inches from the broiler element and turn the broiler on high. (This is important because the shrimp started splattering and the oil was hitting the broiler fire.)

Segment the oranges over a bowl. Add 2 Tbs. of the olive oil, 3/4 tsp. salt, avocado, scallions, and lime juice to oranges. Toss gently and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Peel and devein shrimp. In a bowl, combine the remaining 3 Tbs. oil, 1 tsp. salt, paprika, cumin, and Tabasco. Stir well then toss in shrimp and coat. Place shrimp on foil-lined cookie sheet or baking pan. Broil shrimp about 4 minutes or until done. Serve over rice with salsa on top.