Despite the fact that I’ve been trying to stop buying books lately, I picked up two new cookbooks shortly after we moved into our house. I figured they were worth trying to find the space for, and I was right. At first glance, Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi
and Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
Continue reading Pesto and Egg Potato Salad
The end of February is a time when I start getting really tired of root vegetables. I’m longing for heirloom tomatoes and berries and fresh leafy greens. But this delicious bowl of spicy braised potatoes and squash brightens up gloomy February a little bit and makes me less resentful toward the tubers. As I try to eat more seasonally and more locally, I’m learning just how much more creative you have to be when it’s winter in New England. I generally roast root vegetables, but I started getting a bit bored with roasted potatoes, so I thought I’d try my hand at braising. And I am glad I did. This was fast and easy, and it could be a very versatile dinner: Different seasonings could make this a totally different meal. But these flavorings were spot on for cold, wet, windy winter.
Continue reading Moroccan-spiced Braised Root Vegetables
This is the dinner that almost wasn’t. I started out with an entirely different meal in mind, one that involved mushrooms and squash and greens. But I baked the squash too long and it became dried out and tasteless, and when I sauteed the mushrooms with the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes the whole mixture very quickly became burnt, bitter, and inedible. Exasperating! I almost resigned myself to eating plain spaghetti with butter when I realize I could probably still salvage the kale and at least get some vegetable matter into my dinner.
And you know what? This turned out surprisingly awesome. The sun-dried tomatoes added a sharp sweetness to the slightly bitter kale, and I finished the whole thing off with a small amount of white balsamic vinegar, which added just the right edge. I love it when a salvaged dinner becomes something delicious in its own right.
Continue reading Spaghetti with Kale and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
