The Last Month: Things Happened and Mistakes Were Made

There' s a few things I wanted to mention:

If you shop at ShopRite you can get coupons from their web site: http://www.shoprite.com/. (Thanks Rebecky!)

When you make the squash and potato torte, bake first, then freeze. After assembling the tortes a few months ago, I froze one, and we baked and ate the other one that same night. I baked the frozen one a few weeks ago. It went straight from the freezer to the oven. Then straight from the oven to the garbage can. After baking, the torte was a hot, wet (and gray) mess. What a waste of food, time, and energy.

The CSA? Done. I told "Bob" that he didn't have to go to all the distributions at the end of the season. So he didn't. We wasted about three weeks' worth of money, but it was better than him beating someone about the head and body with a yellow squash out of sheer frustration with the wilty moldy lettuce and rotting onions. There was a survey, but I begged him not to complete it. No need to have such animosity on record somewhere.

What else?

We went to an art nouveau jewelry exhibit earlier this month at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Too beautiful and very intimidating craftsmanship.

R.I.P. Precious (2001 - 2008). Our beautiful Leopard Gecko died this past week after a prolonged illness.

I have to update the "'Tis the season..." section of this blog. I expect it'll be mostly an exercise in using the delete button.

There was a "home economics" article in The New York Times this week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/garden/20math.html

The people featured in the article are the usual cast of entitled rich people that N.Y. Times journalists tend to pal around with (and think of as "regular" folks) . Read the comments section for better tips and a much broader demographic.

Both Ina Garten and Giada de Laurentiis came out with new cookbooks. I hope I get them for Christmas (hear that Santa "Bob"?).

We'll be making some dishes to bring to mom's for Thanksgiving: Martha's Mashed Potatoes (yes, that Martha) and cranberry dipping sauce (c/o Alton Brown). Stay tuned.

Menu a la Week: 10/11/08 - 10/17/08

Today's dinner will be...nothing. We went to a surprise birthday party today (happy 4oth Glenn!) and ate our fill of burgers, fries, and cake.

Since we've been cooking like crazy and the freezer's full, it's time to empty out the backlog of dinners and make some room. The from-scratch cooking this week will be very limited. I noticed that the first six vegetables I listed from this week's CSA shipment (potatoes, celery, tomato, oregano, parsnips, and onions) suggested their very own soup! "Bob" will be making it on Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick the last of the Roma tomatoes. There's a bunch of them and they're all green. With the frost coming and the sun not shining as long as it had, there's really no hope that they'll ever turn red, so I'll be using them in a recipe calling for green tomatoes. I'm leaning towards making a green tomato pie (the recipe I plan to use is from Everyday Citizen which is publishing a bunch of "end of the harvest" recipes). There are also recipes here: http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoes/Green_Tomato_Recipes.htm

Menu 10/11/08 to 10/17/08
Saturday October 11, 2008
Birthday party food

Sunday October 12, 2008
Soup and salad

Monday October 13, 2008
Squash and potato torte

Tuesday October 14, 2008
Potato and parsnip soup and salad

Wednesday October 15, 2008
Stuffed peppers

Thursday October 16, 2008
Bob's summer squash?

Friday October 17, 2008
Pesto with pasta and salad

Menu a la Week: 7/19/08 - 7/24/08

Yeah, yeah, I was supposed to have this ready on the new, menu-posting night, Thursday. But, it looks like I'm still on the old schedule. Just like vegetables, you can't force some things (namely me) to be ready before their time.

I'm looking up recipes for Swiss chard, and I've discovered something. Way too many vegetable recipes either call for sauteeing in olive oil and adding crushed red pepper flakes OR roasting/blanching/baking/sautee-ing and topping with parmesean cheese. Not that I have anything against cheese, but finding (or creating) truly novel and delicious recipes for veggies is quite a task. That's why, this week, some of our favorite new recipes will be featured again. Nothing like the tried and true.

This week we'll try and use up some of the chicken we've stowed in the freezer (either grilled or roasted) as well as that can of tomatoes we opened up for the summer squash and red pepper recipe from last week. For lunch today we'll have the broccoli and cauliflower. Lunch tomorrow will have to be the squash torte (not that there's anything wrong with that). We also have to use up the rest of the potatoes (they're making eyes at me) and all that beautiful dill from the CSA (it was an amazingly beautiful bunch). Perhaps a small dill potato salad is in order!

Menu 7/19/08 - 7/24/08
Saturday July 19, 2008
Sugar snap peas with ginger and previously grilled chicken

Sunday July 20, 2008
Italian turkey sausage dinner with pasta or potatoes and a red-leaf lettuce salad with broccoli and yellow squash

Monday July 21, 2008
Swiss chard, either with tomatoes or candied ginger (thanks Mariquita Farm) and chicken

Tuesday July 22, 2008
Chicken panini and dill potato salad

Wednesday July 23, 2008
Italian turkey sausage dinner and pasta with salad

Thursday July 24, 2008
Bob's summer squash recipe (or some other squash recipe) and whatever's left over from the week

Squash Nosh

For lunch today, "Bob" and I both had the summer squash leftovers from last night with brown rice. It was really, really good ... really. "Bob" made it perfectly, the red pepper strips were still crisp and the squash was tender, but not mushy. Just perfect.

Speaking of no-squish squash, I just finished preparing the herbed summer squash and potato torte. It's in the oven as I write.

....and now it's done. It's good. I could've baked it longer to brown it more, but the small slice I had was good. Next time I'll use less squash since I sliced up too much. The food processor was a smart move for slicing the potatoes and the squash. I left the potatoes au naturel (I didn't bother to peel them).

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

Last night we had Wendy's burgers and fries and soda. It was one of those Mondays.

Tonight I came home late, so instead of making the spinach with red onion, I made palaak paneer again. The spinach didn't look like it'd last another day. The vegetables that I'd set on the first shelf of the fridge all seemed to take a turn for the worse. Bob had to eat through most of the radishes because they were going soft and I noticed that we really have to get through the yellow squash tomorrow, or else. I'm not sure if they're suffering because the area on that top shelf is too open or if it's becase they were too close to a bowl full of apples (perhaps they emit some kind of vapor, like bananas do).

I packed up the palaak paneer and set it aside for dinner tomorrow night. We may have to make the summer squash recipe and serve that tomorrow as well. Plus, I hope to have time to make the squash and potato torte tomorrow (there should be enough for 2 of them). We may even have to freeze both tortes and save them for some future dinner. We'll see.

Menu a la Week 7/12/08 - 7/17/08

In an effort to get through the CSA vegetables faster—since the amount we're receiving is, errr, growing—I've decided to create the week's menu on Thursday night so that we begin to use the "new" vegetables as soon as possible (Friday). Consequently, this week's menu (waaaayyy below) ends on Thursday. Next week's menu will begin on Friday. The sooner we start cooking the new vegetables, the less the chance there is that they'll wilt and/or rot.

Today, I took care of all the basil I had culled from the pot. I cut some on Thursday because the potted basil was getting a bit tall and bushy and I don't want the plant to turn "woody." I also had some leaves preserved in Kosher salt in the freezer from a couple of weeks ago (I discussed the source of my inspiration, Kalyn's Kitchen, in an earlier post here, but I also found a more comprehensive basil preservation discussion at http://www.apinchof.com/preservebasil1106.htm).

The total amount was perfect for my usual pesto recipe. I didn't have to add any salt because of the salt-preserved basil (let that be a lesson to you: Don't use this method for preserving basil unless you need the basil in a recipe that also calls for salt).

Basil Pesto
Serves 8+

1 1/2 cups of packed basil
1/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese
3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions
1. In a food processor, process basil and garlic until coarsely pureed.
2. Add grated Parmesean cheese and puree further.
3. Add olive oil to top of food processor (if it has a hole in the top) so that it streams into the bowl. Process so that it becomes a thick mixture.
4. Process in salt and pepper to taste.
5. Use on pasta or freeze.

I used these directions to freeze it in an ice cube tray for future use. Important tip learned: After filling the cubes with pesto, cover the ice cube tray with plastic wrap (pressing down on the tops of the pesto-filled cubes) so that no oxidation occurs (preserving the green color of the basil). After they froze for about 5 hours, I popped them out of the tray (actually, "Bob" did), wrapped them in plastic wrap, then put them all in a large freezer bag.

After making the pesto, I made the kohlrabi slaw, using the recipe for Kohlrabi with Apple Salad and Creamy Mustard Dressing. We had the "slaw" for lunch and it was light and delicious, although the 1/2 cup of heavy cream makes me wish I had used plain yogurt or some other low-fat alternative. I thought there weren't many recipes for kohlrabi, but after I committed to the slaw recipe, I found this page on Chow.com.

For dinner, aside from 2 bottles of wine, we had grilled chicken and sugar snap peas (from last week's CSA delivery).

Sugar Snap Peas with Ginger
Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 lb sugar snap peas, cleaned and "stings" removed
1/2 cup water
Soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
1. Heat oil in a large pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking
2. Saute shallots, ginger, and garlic for 1 minute.
3. Add peas and stir for about 2 minutes.
4. Add water and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 2 minutes. The peas will still be crisp.
5. Season with soy sauce and pepper.

Menu 7/12/08 - 7/17/08
Saturday July 12, 2008
Grilled chicken, sugar snap peas with ginger, and kale with cannelloni bean leftovers

Sunday July 13, 2008
Turkey meatloaf (?), herbed peas and carrots, and salad with radishes

Monday July 14, 2008
Summer squash and grilled chicken

Tuesday July 15, 2008
Squash and potato torte and spinach with red onions

Wednesday July 16, 2008
Grilled chicken, broccoli and cauliflower with lemon dill herb butter sauce, and salad and radishes

Thursday July 17, 2008
Squash and potato torte and salad with radishes