I tried another Immer recipe later in the day. This one was for a cauliflower and potato soup with truffle oil and it added up pretty well. This was to be a first course with a mushroom salad to follow but somehow I never got to the salad.

Thanks to Jiffer for the white truffle oil. When you drizzle it on you do want to go sparingly so the gift should last a while.

I used some walnut oil in place of the butter. This was a relatively low fat alternative to cream soups. We enjoyed this and it was easy.

I would also like to thank Maureen and Peggy and Kevin for the Chardonnay that went with this soup.

Just Doesn't Add Up

Jan shared some fine balsamic vinegar with me and so I decided to try a recipe in Andrea Immer's book that had always intrigued me. Strawberries in balsamic vinegar served on toasted flat bread with some mozzarella cheese.

Immer's recipes are generally simple and exact. This one was relatively simple until you tried to get the proportions to add up. I had to adjust the propotions to make it sort of work. 4 pitas instead of 6. Less cheese per quarter. Less vinegar on the final product. Up the cooking time.


We enjoyed the flavors. We think more pepper and basil next time. We also wondered if our vinegar was too fine and maybe a little more bite would be fun. I would try a hotter oven or maybe the broiler.

Dinner Alone

There might have been four of us for dinner tonight but it ended up just being me. That is okay as the kitchen table is still covered with items that are in limbo after my deep clean of the kitchen and pantry today. If anyone needs a bread maker, coffee maker, or random serving platters please let me know.


In the spirit of a deep cleaning, tonight's dinner was based on using up what was left in the refrigerator. This meant I hit up the ratatouille recipe from Culinate I was suppose to make a while back.

I decided to serve it on some whole wheat bread along side a salad with Italian dressing and olives.

This was a stove top version of ratatouille. In the past I had made oven roasted versions. This was easy and allowed the eggplant to get cooked enough I could eat it. The recipe was a good ratio of vegetables.

I used a can of Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes of the chopped variety. I drained off most of the liquid and then added in about half of it as the vegetables cooked. I used 2 tbsp of olive oil to start and added one more with the peppers.

This was easy as I could chop the veggies as the previous round cooked. I think the polenta would cook up in about the same time if I wanted to try that next time. The bread sure made it easy. You could serve this to anyone to whom you could serve a vegetable stew and call it dinner.

I enjoyed my meal with a glass of spanish red wine. I think it was pretty good.

Uncle Joe's Potatoes

When in Columbus a couple weeks back I shared some cooking stories with Matt's uncle Joe. He told me about a potato recipe he liked.


The recipe can be found online at All Recipes. I followed Joe's suggestions of using Yukon gold potatoes and simplifying the spices by using Herbes de Provence.

I was craving french fries yesterday so I thought I would give it a try. I think the potatoes were right as they held together nicely like little red ones but had that starchy flavor of a good old Idaho potato. I did not peel the potatoes and cooked it up in a non stick roasting pan. I added a green salad on the side and called it dinner.

This was a success and it was easy. I could serve it to anyone as side dish but probably should not be the main course. I have not really checked out the All Recipes site yet but I will have to after this success.

Thursday Night - Dinner to Share

We have started making it an open invitation to some of our friends for dinner on Thursday night. I have the time to cook and they have the money to buy wine.

This week I went with Black Bean Tostadas with Cherry Tomato Salsa which is one of our favorites from Berley's Fresh Food Fast. I pared this with Mexican Lime Cumin Slaw. I found the slaw recipe on Culinate.com where I believe it is credited to Moosewood.


Jan and I really enjoyed this meal. Matt ended up with a bite that was too spicy and ruined the meal for him. I would definitely make this meal again and serve it to anyone. I will watch that spice level next time. It is a great mix of flavors, textures, and temperatures that satisfy like a much richer meal.

Jan and I had this meal pared with a Spanish red wine. I am going to have to remember to make a note or photo on the wines in the future. Matt opted for beer.

Here are the modifications I made mostly due to limited provisions.

Salsa:
used half a regular onion
served cilantro on the side (out of courtsey for our guest)
used only 1 lime
added one avocado

Tostadas:
used whole wheat tortillas to make the tostadas
did not use sour cream

I think the avocado in the salsa helps take the place of the fat that would have been found in the sour cream.

Slaw:
I made about a double recipe based on the cabbage I had
I used the zest of the lime that went in the salsa
I made a mixture of half lemon juice and half orange juice to replace the lime juice
I added some green pepper and a chopped chipotle in adobo sauce in place of fresh hot pepper

The pictures on this post and the last were just done with the camera flash and little staging.

Pasta with Greens, Tofu, and Pine Nuts

Two pan dinner with lots of greens. Just made this one up from what we had.

2 - 10 oz bags of spinach
1 - 5 oz box of arugula
1 - onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tbsp olive oil, divided
8 oz of whole wheat penne pasta
14 oz of firm tofu
4 tbsp pine nuts
salt
pepper

Bring water to boil in pasta pot and add salt. Blanch one bag of spinach at a time and then drain under cool running water. Repeat for arugula. Squeeze excess water out of arugula and spinach and chop. Reserve water for pasta.

Toast pine nuts over medium heat.

Saute onion in 3 tbsp of the oil over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the tofu and the chopped greens. Add half a cup of water from pasta pot. Add salt and pepper and cook till heated through. Add more water as needed.

Cook the pasta. Drain pasta and add to greens. Drizzle with remaining 1 tbsp of oil and sprinkle with pine nuts.

The first couple of bites I remembered why I am better at following other peoples recipes. Once I relaxed I found this quite satisfying with some course salt on it. I would feed this to me and Matt again to satisfy our greens cravings but probably would not serve it to any one else. Prep 4, Taste 2.5.

Cooking Dinner for Lunch

Matt was at a seminar this evening and I ate popcorn and raisins for dinner. I just wanted to watch tv and munch on food like a normal couch potato. Raisins and popcorn while watching a DVD from the library was about as close as I could get. While I show the very evident signs of eating too much I do not fall for the normal pitfalls of potato chips, ice cream, and soda.

I am currently cooking up the Millet Pilaf for our lunches tomorrow. The plan was to have this with a leafy green salad but we ended up with grapes instead.

At first the fact that the majority of the recipes I picked out on the Culinate website to try were in cookbooks I already had from Berley, Bishop, and Moosewood bothered me. Now I am trying to look at it as if they are tested for me free of charge.

By the way this one is from Bishop and I cooked from my book rather than my itouch. Very easy and quite edible. Nothing fancy and not really greater than its parts but satisfies kind of like mac and cheese would if I liked it. I would give this a 2.5 for taste and a 5 for preparation.

Culinate Success

My official first try of a recipe from Culinate.com was Asparagus and Orzo Salad.

I had huge success with it. If I were going to go back to my old rating system I would say 5 on taste and 5 on prep. I could serve this to anyone, it takes only the time it takes to boil pasta, it is a one pot meal, cleanup is easy, and I usually have all the ingredients.

I followed the recipe but substituted whole wheat orzo. For reference I used 6 green onions which was half of the bunch that I had. I used a one pound bunch of asparagus trimmed. I blanched the asparagus in the boiling, salted water and then removed and chilled under cold running tap water. I then cooked the pasta in the asparagus flavored water. Going in to this recipe I thought the pasta to vegetable ratio would be off and would require more veggies but that was not the case.

I recommend checking out the source on this which includes a much more appetizing picture.

Matt and I both loved this. When picking leftovers for his lunch, Matt doesn't usually choose to have what he had the night before. This time he had no doubt he wanted "the little fishes" which is what he calls orzo. That thought might not be any more appetizing than my pictures.

I was so obsessed with eating it I forgot about the pictures. I quickly snapped a couple half way through and they look horrible.

Red Odds and Ends

My grocery day and laundry day got switched this week so I had to come up with dinner from what was left in the refrigerator. I used the menu that I had developed from the Culinate website as a starting point but without any of the actual ingredients including olive oil I had to get creative.



I made a slaw of red cabbage, radishes, and raisins with a dressing of coconut milk, rice wine, lemon juice, and some spices. The coconut milk being leftover from last week.

I went back to one of our old standard recipes for rice and beans. I cooked up some red rice and when it was done stirred in a little bit of coconut milk. I cooked up two chopped onions, 1 chopped red pepper, 2 whole jalapenos chopped, and 3 minced cloves of garlic in two tablespoons of peanut oil. I then added some cumin and smoked paprika. Then in went a half a can of tomatoes (left over) and 2 cans of S&W black beans with the liquid. I cooked this down and served over the rice.

I say this made 2 dinner portions and 3 lunch portions. I really enjoyed the beans and the rice.

I also think it is impossible to get the color right on both of these dishes in the same picture. The cabbage is just not that attractive in this format.

Some Leftovers

I didn't get everything cooked up and eaten last week. Last night I roasted up the sweet potatoes as a snack. I was not much impressed with sticky mushy things. I probably would have preferred a regular old baked sweet potato. See last week's post for the recipe location.



I made a version of the winter salad for our lunches today. In this version I was missing some of the greens and I added a pear and some radishes. I thought this was pretty tasty. To make it a make-ahead take-along friendly salad, I mixed the walnut shallot dressing with the pear, radish, mushroom, and fennel. I boxed up the greens separately and tossed just before eating.

I also got some books from the library on photographing food. This picture and the one of the lentil soup from last week are part of my new learning adventure. It looks like warm light is good for cooked foods but that natural or cool light may work for some salads. Next I need to find the manual for the camera.

Menu Ideas Developed while reviewing culinate.com

Orzo and Asparagus Salad

Fresh Spring Rolls
with
Slow Cooked Broccoli with Soy Sauce

Pasta with Arugula Pesto

Red Beans and Rice
with
Sweet and Sour IPA Slaw

Ratatouille with Polenta

Millet, Corn, and Red Pepper Pilaf
over mixed greens

Menu Plan for Week Starting March 1st - Adding Cooking Notes as I go

I had some success with the Eating Well magazine last week so I dug out a few older issues from Winter 2003, Winter 2004, and April 2007 to build this week's menu. If you don't have these magazines some of the recipes are on the website and contain some pictures.

Dinners:
SUNDAY
Vegetarian Hot Pot ( Win 2004)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/vegetarian_hot_pot.html
This was one of the early standards that we made when we first started eating our herbivore diet. We thought it was pretty good then but find it really falls a bit flat now. I double the soy sauce and the sesame oil. I also minced two of the ginger slices in the garlic press and added to the soup.

MONDAY
Whole Wheat Pizza with Broccoli, Red Onion, and Olives (Win 2003)
with
Bib Lettuce Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

Made one thin pizza on a cookie sheet. Didn't use any cheese. Added some capers. Not bad for a whole wheat crust. Stayed together and came out of pan well. Finished off some leftover salad stuffs from last week.

TUESDAY
Spicy Mandarin and Mushroom Soup with Rice (Win 2003)
with
Roasted Savoy Cabbage with Black Bean Garlic Sauce (April 2007)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/roasted_cabbage.html

This was a very easy meal and pretty impressive. I did all the prep and then we ate the salad hot out of the oven for the first course. The soup cooked up while we ate the salad. The soup was a success although served over the rice it was not all that soupy. We were both totally sold on the Cabbage and each ate 2 servings. We ate the left over soup on Wednesday and I felt it held up really well. Will definitely make again and would serve to anyone. I used soy sauce instead of fish sauce and doubled the soy sauce.

WEDNESDAY
Left Overs

THURSDAY
Chickpea and Pasta Soup (Win 2003)
with
Spinach with Chickpeas (April 2007)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/spinach_with_chickpeas.html

These dishes both worked but it was way too many chickpeas for one meal. The soup turned out to be the color of chickpeas and not the color of tomatoes as in the magazine picture. I tried wholewheat pasta which did not work so well in this mild flavored soup. I made the chickpeas myself which makes for a bit more work. I also made some wholewheat bread to go with everything. The spinach held up well as leftovers.


YET TO ASSIGN
Soy Glazed Sweet Potatoes (Win 2004)
with
Winter Salad with Walnut Dressing (Win 2004)

Warm Red Cabbage Salad (April 2007)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/warm_cabbage_salad.html


Lunches (for days without leftovers):

Wheat Berry Salad with Red Fruit, served over greens (April 2007)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/wheat_berry_salad.html
Made this salad up on Monday and sent some with Matt for lunch today to go on top of some mixed baby greens. The first time I made this I didn't have raspberry vinegar and made some mixture of pomegranate nectar and vinegar. This time I used the raspberry vinegar but I think I might prefer the pomegranate. Matt ended up sick after eating this. It was probably the lettuce that the salad was served on but we are not going to be testing that theory any further.

Cumin Scented Wheat Berry and Lentil Soup (April 2007)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/wheat_berry_lentil_soup.html
I made this soup up while Matt was getting ready for work as he had finished off the soup that I was going to send for lunch. If the wheat berries are already cooked this really does come together easily. It is a satisfying soup with a strong flavor of garlic. I am thinking of adding a bit more lemon juice as I worked through the leftovers.