Not Pretty, But Pretty Darn Good

I need to save up for a better camera.  I made a delicious pasta dish tonight, and this photo makes it look rather less than appetizing.  I took nine shots of it, and this was the best I could come up with.  Granted, the primary ingredients were cauliflower and whole wheat pasta, so you might assert that, photo or no, it is unappetizing.  But trust me, it's damn good.  Check out this blog, Pink Bites, for the recipe.

The only difference from that recipe to this, was that I used four times as many onions (2, instead of the suggested 1/2), twice as much liquid or more (pasta water and white wine), and cilantro (instead of parsley).  However, Ms. Pink Bites' photos are ten times better than mine.  

Speaking of whole wheat pasta, Adam made an astute comment this evening while we scarfed our dinners.  Whole wheat pasta is like whole wheat bread.  You grow up (if you're an average American) preferring white bread.  When you take a bite of wheat bread, it's dense and unpleasant.  But then you grow to love it, and find white bread is actually pretty pathetic.  We're hoping that whole wheat pasta will become like wheat bread: an acquired taste.

afaic, 8-) FMH2urs

OMG.  I'm not one to heavily emote; even less extensively do I emoticon, or otherwise venture into the acronymous language to which cell-phone texting has given birth.  But OMG.  I think I've found the supreme chocolate-lovers dessert.  You also have to love coconut.  

. . . And curry, but stay with me.

Purchase and then have ready these ingredients:

-1 14 oz. can coconut milk (lite is fine, and I'd recommend it, since regular weighs in around 40 grams of fat per can)

-3 Tbsp. sugar

-Scant 1/4 tsp. salt

-2 Tbsp. arrowroot powder

-1 teaspoon curry powder (optional, but try it.  Come on.)

-2 Tbsp. good cocoa

-3 1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped or chocolate chips

-1 tsp. vanilla

-1/4 c. sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted in a hot, dry skillet (unless you're soulless, 1/4 cup ain't going to do it here, so make sure you have extra on hand)

1.  Shake the coconut milk can vigorously before opening.  Then heat one cup of it in a saucepan over low heat with the sugar and the salt, until it just barely starts to simmer.

2.  In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining coconut milk, arrowroot and curry powders, and cocoa.  It'll look like thick chocolate pudding.

3.  When coconut milk/sugar mixture has started simmering, take 1/4 c. of it and whisk it gradually into the arrowroot mixture.  Turn the heat down to its lowest setting.  Then gradually mix the arrowroot mixture into the coconut milk in the pot, whisking vigorously and continuously.  Keep whisking until it returns to a simmer and thickens a bit, ~1 minute.

4.  Remove from heat, and continue to whisk for another minute.  Now whisk in the vanilla and chocolate; stir till smooth.  Portion the pudding into ramekins (or mugs, or small bowls, or glasses) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.  Plastic wrap=no pudding skin.  When ready to eat, garnish with toasted coconut.  Devour.  (Adapted from The Oregonian, who in turn adapted it from 101cookbooks.com, which happens to be on my blogroll.  Go figure.)

P.S. If you use dark chocolate in this, then it would be vegan!

Cry if I want to

Planning a wedding has turned out to be an extraordinary undertaking.  To be honest, I'm not sure I'd do it again, if I had understood the number of details - and dollars - it is necessary to juggle in one's mind.  (Let me qualify that.  I would and will marry Adam with no doubts.  It's the kind of wedding I chose that I might re-think.)  Here are a few examples of the things I've had to think about this weekend.  The caterer provides glasses for non-alcoholic beverages like water and lemonade, but not wine or beer glasses.  They will however provide linen for the bar table, so all I need to rent at the rental place are pint and wine glasses but no linens.  Also, will we want the preacher miked?  A lapel mike or a standing mike?  A lapel mike will be less unwieldy, but a standing mike will be great for later if people want to make drunken or tearful speeches.  There were invitations envelopes to purchase (fifty unforeseen bucks right there) and RSVP cards (another six).  And the great question of my Saturday morning, how many tables will there be???  I called the owner of the wedding site and the caterer who were not home and sort of evasive (respectively) before I realized that as the bride I decide the number of tables.  Or the wedding planner decides, though we had thought on a sunny mellow day last summer, "Who the hell needs a wedding planner?  How hard can it be?"  Indeed.

And then there's the honeymoon, a backpacking trip from Santa Fe to Taos, which thankfully Adam has taken charge of.  I like the contrast:  We'll be going from a day of apricot-glazed salmon, chardonnay, flowers and a dignified view of the river to seven days of gorp, freeze-dried meals, 12 miles a day, and no showers.  Though I admit I look forward a little bit to being princess for a day, I'll be abolishing any self-perception of royalty pretty darn quick after the wedding by inserting myself into the Pecos Wilderness with only a pack on my back and a map-reading man at my side.  Ah well.  Inflated egos are unbecoming.

So.  With all that in mind, why don't you think about whipping up a chowder for one of your meals this coming week.  It'll be nice comfort food to assuage whatever anxiety is sticking voltage between your shoulder blades.  In my case the wedding worth a small house.  Well, maybe a small shack.  But still, shacks are not cheap ya know.

The chowder I comforted myself with tonight was of the shrimp, potatoes, and corn variety.  It was good - very good - but as you can probably detect by all the butter and cream globules floating on the top, it was not low fat.  If you are not fitting into a wedding dress any time soon, please email me for the recipe.  If you are interested in keeping your calories low, I'd highly recommend another wonderful chowder recipe, Corn and Quinoa Chowder.  I'm sure I'll post on that one at some point, as it's one of my all-time favorites.  But anyway, Here's to the Happy Couple.  Couple of chowders, that is.

Great Food Website

If you're like me then sometimes you trawl food blogs and websites for dinner ideas.  Check out this genius food site; they list their recipes in the perfect possible medium: photographs.  Warning: do not look at this site hungry.  You might just eat your laptop.

Thanks to Claire for the tip.

Simple. Wonderful.

I feel like I've been trumpeting the glories of roasted vegetables pretty constantly lately, though I can't remember if I've been doing it on my blog, or just verbally to friends, co-workers, whoever is willing to listen.  So let me just praise the roasted vegetable one last time, because a roasted veg will turn a bland, basic meal into a nutritious feast.  See above photo.  Carrots and rice, basically.  How would you feel if you walked in the front door one evening, asked your beloved, "What's for dinner?" and got the response, "Carrots and rice"?  You might lobby to go out for sushi.

But if you hear "Roasted carrots," you'll probably have a seat at the table and tuck the napkin right into your collar.  If you don't recall, the secret to roasting is no secret at all.  Set the oven to 400, chop your veggies into comparably sized pieces, toss to coat thinly with olive oil, and season however you choose.  Remembering a dish from many years ago, I tried thyme and cinnamon on my carrots.  I found some leftover homemade pesto languishing in the freezer too, which went great mixed with wild rice (and felt significantly healthier than pasta).

I made a wonderful veggie roast the other night too, with fennel, a veggie I'd never used before.  The dish was absolutely delicious and was gone before photos could be captured.  So try these veggies in your first vegetable roast: fennel (green stalks discarded, and white bulb chopped), butternut squash, red potatoes, carrots, and garlic.  Do as I did.  Celebrate the winter cornucopia... before bidding it good riddance for the season.

Lasagna Part Deux

I'm learning the art of winning friends by cooking for them.  This weekend I made a batch of lasagna for my friend Lynne as a belated housewarming/Superbowl gift.  This morning in my email box I found such tickling statements as "Truly that was the BEST lasagna I've ever eaten" and "everyone raved about it."  And at the end was a plea for the recipe.  Well!  If one person thinks it was that good, then maybe others will too.  I've spent some time honing my vegetarian version of this dish, so if you're looking for a change of pace from the old ground beef game, then give this a shot.

The way to make veggie lasagna is start about four or five individual cooking projects (make this recipe, by the way, on your day off-- it ain't no 30-minute meal).  At the end each of these projects will come together, each its own layer.  Work on each project as simultaneously as you can.  As you develop your technique you'll be dancing like a prima ballerina from one burner to the next, to the cutting board, to the cuisinart, and back again.  It's really fun.

*Sauce.  Dice one onion and garlic to taste and saute in olive oil.  After a few minutes, add one large can of tomato sauce (cheap stuff=fine) and one can of diced tomatoes.  Season to taste with pepper, oregano, thyme.  Do not add salt!  Those canned tomatoes are very salty already. (Although Lynne, you might need a 1/4 cup of salt or so here...)  The key ingredients of yumminess: a splash of red wine, and a pinch of sugar.  Let simmer.

*Pesto.  This element is optional, but well worth the effort.  Wash and pluck the leaves from a large container of basil (my store sells them in large tubs).  Place leaves in the waiting Cuisinart and add two cloves of garlic (don't need to chop 'em), a large splash or two olive oil, about 1/4 c. pine nuts, two big pinches grated parmesan, salt and pepper.  Blend till a thick paste (add a little water if it balls up).

*Veggies.  Thaw two 10 oz. boxes frozen spinach.  This is one of the few cases where frozen is better than fresh.  Trust me; I've tried it with fresh leaves and they come out like bloated dental floss nestled between the noodles.  Rather unappetizing.  When totally de-thawed, squeeze spinach as dry as you can through paper towels.  [If you really want to waste not want not, reserve the squeezed water for future pasta or rice water, or soup stock.  There's some major nutrients in that green juice.]

Also, chop whatever fresh veggies you want.  A couple zucchinis, halved lengthwise and sliced.  Sliced mushrooms, squash, artichoke hearts, grated carrot.  Chop what you love.

*Cheese.  Mix one large (not huge) container of ricotta cheese with two eggs, a couple pinches of parmesan, salt, and pepper.  If you have made pesto, stir it in too.

Grate a whole wedge of fontina cheese.  It's more expensive than mozzarella but infinitely tastier, and not at all rubbery like our childhood pizza friend, Mozz.  The fontina's too good to waste between the layers, so save it all for the top.

*Assembly.  Spoon enough sauce on the bottom of the baking dish (at least 9x13) to create a thin layer.  Lay out enough no-boil lasagna noodles side by side to cover the whole surface, but don't let the noodles overlap.  Spread half the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles.  Sprinkle half the spinach.  Do another layer of noodles.  Spread another layer of sauce.  Sprinkle your veggies.  Are you getting the idea here?  Continue the layering till the ingredients are gone or the dish is full, with the idea that dry and wet ingredients should alternate.  Make sure the last layer of noodles is covered with sauce so they don't dry out, and then sprinkle all of the fontina cheese over the top.  Bake, covered, at 375 for 45 minutes.  Uncover and bake 15 minutes or so more, until cheese is browning at the edges.

Phew.  That's a large recipe, sorry.  I'll be as succinct as I can when describing the ideal side dishes

Salad.  Garlic bread.  Red wine.

Heart-y Fare

My, how time flies.  It's about as hackneyed a statement as I can think of, but it's really describing my life right now.  It's the tail end of a three day weekend, and I'm finding myself making rigorous lists of the things I need to do to relax today, since I spent the first couple days of the weekend running around accomplishing things (another house-showing, meeting with the mortgage banker, clean the house, help a friend move, wedding errands...).  But wait: should the words rigorous and relaxation be used in the same sentence?  Probably not, but today I want to go for a hike, take a peek at the Superbowl, and do homework for an online class I'm taking.  So though my much-adored ArmchairFoodie provides respite and therapy from my workaday obligations, I'm only going to give some pretty cursory descriptions of two meals we ate this week.

This is just a repeat on a running theme: pasta with sauteed veggies.  This is a great meal because it's always different, and if the precept that one learns from one's mistakes is true, then it's always better than the last.  This time we set chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes and artichokes to a saute.  Boil pasta, and while you're taking the pot of pasta to the sink to drain it-- don't forget this part!-- pour about 1/4 or 1/2 cup of the water into your saute.  This helps break down the veggies and turn them into a sauce. 

Yum.  Good toppings: chopped parsley, toasted pine nuts, parmesan.
A couple days later I took out some leftover green chile enchilada sauce from the freezer.  See former post on that here.  This time though, I whipped up some calabacitas ("little squash," if I'm translating that correctly) to stuff the enchiladas with.  Chopped zucchini, corn, and onions, sauteed with salt, pepper, and oregano.  When they're just tender, roll scoops the stuff in tortillas, line up in a baking dish, top with cheese and bake covered for a while.  After a while is up, take off the tin foil and bake for a smaller while so the cheese gets brown and bubbly.  
This was truly awesome.  While eating it and loving it, I was pondering my favorite foods: enchiladas and lasagna.  They are really just different realizations of one basic concept: an Americanized "ethnic" dish using the appropriate herbs and spices of their respective native lands, but really just centering around the combination of bread and cheese.  Granted, the more veggies, the better; but I'll admit where the real attraction lies.  Noodles layered with ricotta, parmesan, and fontina.  Tortillas smothered in jack and cheddar.  Pizza dough dressed in mozzarella and fontina.  Ah well, at least I'm not a sedentary person.  My fierce attachment to the bread and cheese duo might not be so wise in that case.  And speaking of which, gotta run.  Happy Feb!