Category: vegetarian

Eggplant Parm? Oh hell yeah!

Eggplant Parm

Thank god things finally cooled off a little in this hellhole we call Boston. I wasn’t about to turn the oven on this week, and I had an eggplant in the fridge, patiently waiting to be put to good use. And I was deadset on making eggplant parmesan. “Why,” you might ask, “in the heated hot humidity of August, does a girl want to make eggplant parm?” Well I have no good answer to that question, but it got in my head and I couldn’t shake it out. And finally, today, with nary a trace of damp stickiness in the air, today was my day. Or the eggplant’s day, rather.

I gotta tell you, people, this was glorious. I never made eggplant parmesan before and I rocked its pants off. I wish I wasn’t the only person around these parts who eats eggplant, but hey, more for me. The tomato sauce was light and just the right amount of tang and sweet, the eggplant didn’t mush up at all, the seasonings were just right and the copious gloopy beautiful mounds of melted cheese…oh, that is bliss, my friends. Heavenly cheesy bliss.

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Another mushroom pizza

Mushroom Pizza

I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I’m not sure why I’m suddenly eating so many mushrooms. And putting them on pizzas, over and over again. Whatever the reason, I suspect it’s not going to stop anytime soon, and this one was a winner, so why complain?

And just look at that pizza crust! Glorious…crispy, golden, chewy but still light and doughy. It was pretty spectacular, which was all the more surprising considering how much I had to struggle with it to stretch it out and convince it not to stick to every surface in the kitchen. The dough? Peter Reinhart’s recipe, which I made a big fat batch of a few weeks ago. This had been in the freezer for at least a week, and I let it thaw in the refrigerator for two days, and then out at room temperature for 45 minutes. At higher than room temperature, because the temperature in the room was hellish and probably over 80 degrees. Why did I decide that this, one of the hottest days so far this summer, was a good one to heat the oven to 550F? I have no idea.

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Summery Zucchini and Chickpea Salad

Zucchini and Ceci Beans

I finally made it to the farmer’s market yesterday here in JP. I can’t believe it’s already been going on for a month and it took me until yesterday to head over there. What kind of an organic-favoring, local-food-loving person am I? A forgetful one, that’s what kind. Well, when I woke up yesterday morning I had this feeling in my belly that I’d been overdosing on meat and dairy and all I wanted was fresh, colorful vegetables. Then I remembered that the farmer’s market runs on Tuesdays and I rushed over right away to see what I could find.

What I found was a whole lot of awesomeness: oceans of corn, piles of new and unusual squash varieties, lettuces, tomatoes, and of course, the uniquitous July treat: zucchini. Sadly, I only had five bucks on me, so I had to make do with a beautious zucchini, a shiny red tomato, and a cucumber. I would have piled my little string hippy mart bag with so much more if I wasn’t completely broke.

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Tahini Vegetable Ravioletti Salad

Tahini Vegetable Pasta Salad

Thus far this is definitely proving to be the summer of the salad. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much pasta salad in my life, but I’m not complaining. I am a pasta addict, and if I can eat it cold, on a hot summer afternoon when all I want to do is lay down in a bucket of ice, so much the better. And adding a ton of vegetables makes me feel slightly virtuous.

The part that’s proving to be a bit of a challenge is coming up with unique ways to dress all these pasta salads. The mayonnaise option is over played, and I can’t be satisfied just drizzling some cold vegetables with oil and vinegar or Italian salad dressing. Where’s the creativity in that? And like most other things I attempt in the kitchen, I just can’t bring myself to make the same thing twice, so I’m constantly experimenting with dressings and vegetable combinations. So far there has been a lot of household happiness as a result of my various experiments, so I guess I haven’t gone wrong yet.

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What to eat with meat? Potato Salad and Cornbread!

Picnic Salads

It took me weeks to decide what to serve alongside all that meat at our cookout party on Saturday. I pored over all my cooking magazines and did numerous epicurious searches. There are so many picnic options I was having a hard time committing–I knew I wanted to make some kind of pasta salad, but I wanted it to be different. And potato salad is one of my favorites, but it’s usually so predictable and boring. What to do, what to do? My option paralysis was setting in and I almost threw in the towel and told everyone else to bring something, but at the last minute, inspiration struck.

Inspiriation was inside an old issue of Bon Appetit, where I glimpsed a recipe for Potato Caesar Salad. I had been thinking about making caesar salad anyway, but this sounded almost like divine intervention. I love potato salad, I love caesar salad, and I felt pretty sure this was not a picnic table standard. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, because I wanted to try a very traditional caesar dressing (and yes, I know raw eggs are generally bad news bears at a picnic, but we were very conscientious about keeping it refrigerated.) And it was a knockout–even people who said they usually hate potato salad luurved it. And I love it when that happens.

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Tortellini Salad with Creamy Herb Dressing

Tortellini Salad

It has been so wickedly, unbearably hot here these past two days that I can’t do any of the things I want to do in the kitchen, like make pizza or bake a cherry pie or get anywhere near the stove. It is such oppressive, mind-melting heat that it feels like August, not June. Our apartment is on the third floor and has an amazing ability to retain heat like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I’m not sure why we’ve never bothered to put in an air conditioner, but if this past week is any indication of what the rest of the summer will be like, it might be about that time.

So what does a person eat when it’s so hot it requires all your energy just to open your mouth? Salads. Cold, refreshing salads. This is when Lisa’s salad round up comes in very, very handy. I perused, I pondered, I tried to stay upright in front of my computer when all I really wanted to do was lay down in a tub of ice. And then I chanced upon the best hot night dinner ever: pasta salad.

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Caramelized Onion Tortilla Espagnola

Tortilla?

In keeping with our little household Spanish theme, the other night I decided to make Tortilla. The Spanish version of Tortilla (Tortilla Espagnola) is not in any way the same as the Mexican version of tortillas. In fact, Tortilla Espagnola is pretty much just a frittata with potatoes. But it is delicious. It’s a staple in any tapas spot, served either warm or room temperature, and it is awesome.

As I searched through recipes for Tortilla Espagnola, I realized one thing: They are all boring. The only ingredients listed were potatoes, eggs, and salt. Blech. Dull dull dull. Frittatas, the Italian version of the same thing, are often way more interesting, including all kinds of stuff like peppers and spinach and meat and cheese. I’m sure you can find Tortilla that includes some of this yummy stuff, but none of those recipes were available to me. The major differences I could see between a Frittata and a Tortilla were the cooking method and the fact that Tortilla always includes potatoes. Otherwise, they are pretty much the same dish, so I decided to try my hand at some kind of bastard child of the two. A Tortatta, if you will. Heh. I’m a dork.

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Day o’ Salads: Corn and Black Bean Salad with Cumin Lime Vinaigrette

Corn and Black Bean Salad

I try to eat salad everyday. It’s usually just some mixed greens and carrots with whatever salad dressing I have in the refrigerator, but occasionally I’m capable of getting creative. And my creativity was encouraged by Lisa over at La Mia Cucina, who’s throwing a Salad ‘Stravaganza. She asked for my salads, and I am only too happy to oblige. And yesterday, I obliged with not just one salad, but two. Two salads in one day? Am I crazy? Well, yes, but that shouldn’t have been your first indication of that.

I’ve been pondering this Corn and Black Bean Salad for a few days. Now, corn and black bean salads aren’t really that unique. I see them everywhere, so I wracked my brain trying to think of some way to make this one different. Most of the recipes I’ve seen call for cilantro, and because my dear, dear wifey/housemate Crystal loathes the stuff, that was obviously not going to work. I thought and thought and thought, but it wasn’t until I started throwing vegetables into a bowl that an idea finally occurred to me. Isn’t that just the way it always works?

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Buerre Noisette (with some pasta and stuff)

Buerre Noisette

Last night I again found myself in the position of trying to throw together dinner without going to the market. I wanted to try something new, but had to do it using only the ingredients already living in my refrigerator. I wanted to experiment with a new sauce, but having discovered earlier that all of the various dairy products and stocks had gone bad, my options were limited. Not only that but my pasta, chicken and prosciuotto tortellini, was pretty dang flavorful, so I wanted a sauce that wouldn’t overwhelm it. What to do, what to do?

The Joy of Cooking to the rescue! After perusing pages upon pages of sauce recipes and basics, I finally discovered one with only two ingredients. Two ingredients I actually had. A buerre noisette. I only say it the French way because I’m pretentious like that. Otherwise known as a brown butter sauce, it’s pretty much exactly that. You cook butter very slowly over low heat until it’s just about to burn, then add a tiny, teeny bit of an acid (lemon juice or white wine vinegar) and you have about the simplest sauce there is.

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Refrigerator Vegetable Pasta: A quiet welcome back

Vegetables

I thought that after a week away from my kitchen, I’d want to create something elaborate. But that week away was full of family, noise, parties, music, and food food food. Both of my brothers are great cooks, and Saturday’s party for Patrick’s graduation involved piles of souvlaki, homemade tzatziki, pita, chips, salsa, cookies, crab dip, cheesecake, more cookies, more salsa…beer…more beer…I can’t go on. I got back to Boston and the thought of going shopping, planning meals, and eating more food just seemed daunting.

But a lady’s still gotta eat. So I kept it simple. I rooted around in the crisper for leftover vegetables and, with very little thought, and even less time, put together dinner. Nothing special, but full of enough vegetables to help me detox after a week in San Diego. I could probably could have done something a little more interesting, but that would have taken effort and energy, which I am still lacking.

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