Category: vegetables

Stuffed Squash is Stuffed Goodness

Stuffed Squash

The day after I made this, I brought leftovers to work for lunch. One of my co-workers took one look at it and said “Eating Well magazine?” She had, apparently, made the same thing earlier in the week. But of course, how could anyone not be tempted by acorn squash stuffed with beans and sausage? I am certainly glad I was tempted because this was amazing. It was one of those great dinners, too, that looks incredibly impressive but doesn’t really take much effort.

I’m sorry Miss Crystal wasn’t here to enjoy this. I thought of her and her risotto-stuffed pumpkin the whole time I was eating it. As she would say, stuffed squash is a quintessentially Laura kind of dinner. And yeah, anything with beans and sausage is a pretty Laura kind of dinner, too.

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Grilled Swordfish with Balsamic Brown Butter Sauce and Zucchini Risotto

Swordfish and Risotto

None of my pictures of last night’s dinner turned out well, because the light in our kitchen is truly crappy, but trust me, it was excellent. This was one of those multiple-pan feats of timing in which everything came together and ended up being one of my best efforts yet. Which was made even better considering I was nervous about my risotto and the sauce was untried and my grill pan experiences have been hit or miss in the past. Yeah, there was some kitchen magic going on last night. Thank god, too, because Miss Crystal had a shitty, shitty day and I like to think that setting a plate of spectacular food in front of her played some small part in making it better. Isn’t that why we feed people, after all?

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Chili Cornmeal Crusted Mahi Mahi and Fried Okra

Fish and Okra

It was a happy day in my life the first time I tasted fried okra. It was back in the college days, when Crystal was still living at the Market Street house, and she fried up the biggest batch of fried okra I’d ever seen. Well, it was the only batch of fried okra I’d ever seen, but I instantly wanted to see more. She sent me home that night with a quart-sized zip lock bag full of the stuff, which I stuck in the refrigerator and ate cold all week. You might think that sounds terrible, but it was an awesome snack when I was studying and writing papers and drinking beer. I’ve wanted more ever since, so I have no idea why it took nearly seven years before Crystal and I thought of frying up another batch.

When I saw fresh okra at the market last weekend, my excitement knew no bounds. I instantly snatched up handfuls and brought it home to the lady. Of course, she had only ever made fried okra with the frozen stuff before, so this was an experiment for both of us. A tasty experiment.

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Aish bel lahm and broccoli bil banadura

Aish and broccoli

The Middle Eastern Cookbook has been sitting on my shelf virtually untouched for many, many months. Everytime I’m tempted to experiment from its pages, I’m put off by the ingredients I don’t have and, frankly, the less than appetizing pictures. I mean, the photograph of Kofta on page 71 is enough to put a person off food for a couple of days. But last weekend, tempted once again by an unfamiliar cuisine, I cracked the book’s spine and immediately my eyes fell on a recipe for Aish bel lahm. The picture looked like something I’d had before. Something I’d had and loved.

When I was in college my friend Sarah’s father, an Armenian man who’d moved to the States from Lebanon many years before, would occasionally bring her some frozen flatbreads, topped with either delicious meatstuffs or a tangy herb paste. I could never get the name right, but I loved them, and when we both moved away from Santa Cruz and I couldn’t remember what the damn things were called, I wondered if I’d ever get to try them again. When I saw the picture of Aish bel lahm, it was like running into an old friend. An old friend I was going to eat for dinner! Mwah hah hah! Ok, sorry.

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It Must Suck to be a Vegetarian.

South African Peanut Stew

I concede the point that it’s wise and healthy to consort with meaty foods less frequently, but sometimes I concoct a recipe from the pages of a vegetarian cookbook or Vegetarian Times that just makes me feel bad for vegetarians. It’s not even that this tasted so terrible. But look at it! Monochromatic mush. And the original recipe from Vegetarian Times included no seasonings. Not even salt and pepper. In fact, while I set out to follow this recipe exactly, I had to give up halfway through because the recipe just seemed illogical, like someone in their test kitchen had been a little high the day it was written. Mr. X and I were both baffled when we read that butternut squash was supposed to cook thoroughly, in very little liquid, in 15 minutes. And we were a little worried when we read that we were meant to make a peanut sauce out of peanut butter and water. Just peanut butter and water. That, my friends, is not a sauce.

I will reiterate that this tasted fine. A little one-dimensional, perhaps, but fine. Not nearly as peanuty as I wanted, but fine. Definitely should have been in the January issue, rather than the May/June issue, what with all the root vegetables, but it was fine. My first thought when we started eating was, “How can I re-create this to be even better?” I suspect that if it’s re-tooled just a little, it could be a winter dinnertime staple. As long as I don’t mind that it will probably always be monochromatic mush.

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Waiter, there’s something in my eye…

Stuffed Peppers

Those are tears, because this dinner is not only my entry in this month’s WTSIM event, but our sad good bye dinner to our dear, loved, and lovely housemate, Alex, who is graduating from law school today and setting out for Texas and lawyering. We decided to pull out all the stops with much prosecco and mojitos, and a great big celebratory dinner. I decided on stuffed peppers because I’d been thinking of them for weeks, and they were sufficiently elegant and could easily be made sans meat for our non-meateating Alex.

They were quite a hit, and I must say one of the best things to have graced our kitchen table in recent months. Sure, I spent two hours in the kitchen, but they were relatively leisurely hours and all the my pains were quickly forgotten as we moved into our second bottle of prosecco, and our third toast to all of the ginormous changes coming up in all of our lives.

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Polenta with Pan Roasted Asparagus and Truffled Eggs

Eggs and Asparagus

You know you’ve found some good food writing when the first thing you read causes you to rush home and re-make their meal in your own kitchen. I’m not sure how I missed A Chicken in Every Granny Cart before, but on initial reading I love it. I like the pictures of the city mixed in with food stuffs, and the silly titles, and the general observations of things. And I looooved the idea for asparagus, polenta, and truffled fried eggs. Yum.

Of course, I didn’t have truffle salt, but only truffle oil. And I never made polenta before in my life. In fact, I’ve never had polenta before, at all. I’ve never even seen it. So whether mine turned out right is still a complete mystery to me. It was edible. I thought it was good. Was it proper polenta? I have no clue. Oh, and also? I’m crap at frying eggs. But truffle oil has the ability to make everything wonderful. Everything.

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Brax’s Tacs, or: Crystal cooks!

Tacos and beansEvery now and then, Crystal gets the impulse to cook, and I take full advantage. She usually pulls out a family recipe, and impresses me with the most Americanized Mexican food I’ve ever had. Canned gravy in the enchiladas. A casserole loaded with ground beef and cornmeal. And these totally delicious tacos, which are called Brax’s Tacs in the Combs family, after her grandfather, Braxton.

The tacos my father made growing up were messy and complicated time suckers that I have yet to have the inspiration to try on my own. I don’t remember the last time he made them, but I do remember that even when I was in school, he would usually refuse to get involved with all that hot oil. The Combs family tacos, on the other, while certainly time consuming, don’t frighten me with deep frying, and I suspect that long after Crystal’s gone away to Spain and then started up her spa in Napa, no matter where I live, I’ll be making tacos like these.

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An ESADE Acceptance Celebratory Feast

So how dumb am I? Last night I put together a Mediterranean-style feast in celebration of my housemate’s acceptance to business school in Spain. I made crostini with tapenade and artichokes and aioli and marinated olives and delicious cheese and little chocolate tarts and plated everything and it was lovely and then I forgot to take pictures. We were just so excited! My excitement is mixed with extreme sadness at her imminent departure, but I’m still excited for her.

I suppose it’s really just as well, because this was about the most semi-homemade dinner I’ve ever made. But I was proud of myself for putting the whole idea together in the grocery store in about 10 minutes, and Crystal was overjoyed, although at that point I suspect she would have been overjoyed no matter what. So, I’m not going to write up anything long and fancy, but I do some quick words to share.

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Beets, glorious Beets

Beets and wine

I love beets. I have strong, passionate feelings about beets. This is belied by the fact that I hardly ever cook them. It’s not that I’m afraid of the pink-dyed hands, or the pink-dyed sink, or pink-dyed anything, really. It’s not that they’re time consuming–I cook lots of time consuming things. It’s not that they’re unavailable–I always see beets at the market. I don’t really know why I never cook beets. I just don’t. Until this week. And I was reminded of my love once again, as I ate up my lovely pink-dyed salad today.

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