Month: March 2008

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

Last week was by far the craziest, busiest week I’ve experienced in grad school. But though I couldn’t find time to share my culinary endeavors here, I was, in fact, endeavoring (er?). And one of those endeavors involved some roasted butternut squash. I saw a recipe for this butternut squash salad on Orangette months ago, and while she may not have been able to hold out for winter to make it, I somehow managed to hold out until winter was almost over (at least, I hope winter is almost over). And honestly, I think this salad is more springy than wintery anyway. Sure, there’s roasted squash in there, but the lemony tahini dressing and the cilantro give this hearty salad a bright, summery taste. Perfect for bridging these last few months of cold, grey Boston.

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The way a carne asada is meant to be

Alright, it might not look that appealing to you, but when I saw this picture I was instantly filled with longing for home, and for carne asada burritos the way they’re meant to be eaten. Leave out that stinkin’ rice. Lettuce? Bah, that’s for rabbits. A truly delicious carne asada burrito has nothing but meat, guac, and salsa. And I am so, so homesick for delicious, San Diego-style Mexican food.

Curried Lentil Stew is Not Photogenic

A cup of red lentils

Why is vegetarian food often so unattractive and difficult to photograph? All the vegetables and grains look so beautiful before they’re cooked, but inevitably the outcome is monochromatic mush, and no matter how good it tastes, it refuses to look lovely on film or even to look that appealing in my bowl. Which is a shame. Because this Curried Lentil Stew, which I found at Everybody Likes Sandwiches, is freaking delicious, but I have a feeling that meat-eating manly men like Mr. X would take one look at it and flee. Kale? Mushy lentils? Rice? Noooooo!!!

Well whatever, then, more for me. A lot more for me: This recipe could feed 10 people. It would be a great thing to make before a week when you know you’re going to be really busy, so you could just subsist on this huge bowl of healthy lentils rather than resorting to take out or something horrifically full of sodium and preservatives. In fact, I suspect that I will in future do just that, and I wish I could send a big bowl of it to Miss Crystal in Spain before her next round of finals.

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Semolina Wheat Bread

Semolina Wheat Bread on my new cutting board

Baking bread is one of those things that is really hard to find time to do when you’re in grad school. I am very rarely home for more than two hours at a time, and even the famed No-Knead bread requires some pretty tricky timing maneuvers. So, since I’m on spring break this week and have all kinds of time, instead of buying a fresh loaf of bread for my morning toast-and-peanut-butter breakfasts, I decided to bake myself up a loaf of something tasty. Well, something hopefully tasty. My skills with all things dough-related tend to vary widely, but yesterday I was up for a gamble. And thankfully, despite the fact that the dough was a pain in the arse and the bottom of the loaf stuck to the pan and tore clean off despite having oiled said pan, this bread is something of a triumph.

I first got the idea of using semolina flour bread from Panera, actually. When I was in San Diego at Christmas, I went to Panera for the first time so my mom and I could buy bread for dinner. I was immediately intrigued by their semolina loaf, so we bought it, and were not disappointed. The texture was perfectly grainy and the flavor was just a little different, and a lot delicious. Ever since then, semolina bread has been in the back of my mind, but the aforementioned grad school responsibilities kept me from semolina experimentation. But isn’t that what spring break is for?

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Andouille and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce

Andouille sausage-y pasta

I have to give a big thumbs up to Bon Appetit for this one: It is fast and easy and absolutely delicious. And I managed to throw it together last night after a few beers, when normal food preparation can sometimes be a challenge for me. True, it didn’t end up quite as saucy as the picture promised, but that is quite likely entirely my own fault for not adding as much mustard as the recipe suggested. Being a relative newcomer to the love of mustard, after all. Regardless of whether you choose to preface your cooking with a night of Guitar Hero at the local pub, it is very worthy of Monday night dinner. And Tuesday night dinner. And even Friday and Saturday night dinner. It is gooood.

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Chicken Florentine, where have you been all my life?

Chicken Florentine

I’ve updated this recipe to make it more streamlined and even more delicious. Check out the updated recipe, and let me know what you think! I’ve also added new photos to this older post.

Who would have thought that the simple combination of spinach, chicken, and cream could create such a glorious dinner? Well, the Italians, obviously, because they are good at that kind of thing. I’m just baffled that it took me so long to realize it. I mean, I love spinach, I love chicken, and I am a sucker for anything in a cream sauce. How has this dish never graced my kitchen? And when can I have it again? It is truly a perfect combination of flavors and textures and all those other things that make food, you know, good. Er. Yes.

I saw the recipe in Giada’s Family Dinners about two weeks ago and it stuck in my head, floating around, taunting me. “You love spinach. You want to cook me!” But I’m a grad student, see, and I don’t have time to be at the beck and call of whatever recipes decide to tempt me. I had to eat frozen veggie burgers (don’t worry, I heat them up first) and macaroni and cheese and pre-made gnocchi from Trader Joe’s while this recipe enticed me and beckoned to my nonexistent free time. Well, finally last night I had some free time. And I only wish I’d made the time earlier, because this is one of my new favorites.

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Dorie’s Midnight Crackles

Midnight Crackles

My cataloging class is on Friday, and the professor assigns each student a date to bring a snack for the class. This Friday was my snack day, and you can bet your sweet tuchas that I wasn’t about to go to Shaw’s and buy a box of Keeblers. When I have an opportunity to bake for people, I jump on it. And after a week of relatively disastrous cooking experiences, I turned to Dorie Greenspan for guidance. I knew she wouldn’t steer me wrong, and she didn’t. Even though I took some (minor) detours from her recipe, these cookies were still pretty amazing, and my classmates devoured them. And they were pretty darned astonished that I made them myself, too. Baking apparently impresses people. I’ll have to keep that in mind.

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