Sunday, July 30, 2006

Tzatziki Salad

Peel and seed 3 largish or medium cucumbers if theyre the kind that need that sort of treatment. Otherwise, use your discretion. Chunk them up. Toss them with lemon, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and some peppermill. Oh, how I love the peppermill... I chilled mine for a while in the fridge, scooped out a bowl-full, and topped with a few spoons of Fage 2% Yogurt and a shake of hot paprika (untraditional for tzatziki I know.) Very cool and refreshing. Add some chickpeas for protien and fiber if you want.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Succotash Soup

This post is special for LutC who expressed a desire (indirectly) for healthy things. Please, comment all you want, and I'd link you if I could figure out how the darn thing worked.

Succotash Soup

I sliced the kernels off 3 ears of beautiful white corn. I cut an onion into halfmoons and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil, added carrots, zuchhinis, and lima beans. Added water, salt, pepper, and some garlic cloves. Let it stew for a bit. Added the kernels. Cooked for a small while, didnt let the corn get too un-crunchy. Dished up with a bit of low fat greek yogurt and a dash of hot paprika on top. Yummy. I ate the whole pot.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Sorry About the Lack of Pix

But I've been eating my food before I get a chance to photograph it, really....
I made a fake cream of cauliflower soup the other night- really just an onion and a few garlic cloves and a head of cauliflower boiled in a mixture of milk, water, and a soup cube for a while. Sounds very spare but it was actually great- very soothing. Lovely with parmesan and ground pepper on the top.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Meatless Moussaka

This one is in the oven, we'll see how it comes out

Slice up a robust eggplant into thin slices, toss with a pinch of salt and a very small dribble of oil. Roast in a large aluminum baking dish (no need to seperate out on trays) at 400 while you make the sauce, tossing occasionally.

Fry up an onion and a red pepper. Add whatever wine you have around, a can of crushed tomatoes and a little can of tomato sauce, cinnamon, allspice, oregano, parsley, and garlic, salt, pepper. I also rehydrated a few dried mushrooms and added them and their soaking liquid. Let it cook for a little bit, then add a package of soy crumbles.

Take the eggplant slices out of the oven and transfer to a plate. Oil the bottom of the pan you used for the eggplants- I used a 9x13 aluminum disposable- and toss some pinches of breadcrumbs on it. Place a layer of eggplants on the bottom, spoon half the sauce on top, then the rest of the eggplants, then the rest of the sauce. Top with more breadcrumbs. Lower the oven to 350, Pop back in untill the eggplant slices are fully cooked and the sauce is thick.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Sometimes Everyday Food is Nice, too.

So I'm settling in to more of a routine in my new apartment lately- get up, go to work, work, leave work, stop at the 175th farmers market for vegetables for dinner, start cooking something, go to the gym for a bit while it cooks, come home, tidy up a bit, water the plants, and eat dinner. Optional activites include- hanging up curtain rods, organizing the kitchen, and planning where all the clutter is going to be contained once I get everything out of the moving boxes. Understandably, food has to be rather simple. A few nights ago I stewed some lentils and served them with watercress and pine nuts. Last night I made a black bean chili and turmeric rice. The color contrast made it really special, I thought- purple and yellow.

Black Bean Chili
Chop a large onion, a handful of celery ribs, 2 large garlic cloves, 2 carrots and a red pepper. Let fry a bit in some olive oil. Add 2 chopped tomatoes when reasonably soft. Add 2 cans of rinsed black beans and a few cans of water. Pepper, cumin, chili powder- and I threw in some sprigs of fresh oregano from my windowbox. I went out to the gym and let this simmer.

Turmeric Rice
When I got back from the gym I tossed 1 drinking glass of brown rice into a pot with 2 drinking glasses of water and let it boil with a dribble of oil, a pinch of salt, and some shakings of turmeric. Bring to a boil, cover, and let steam untill all the water is absorbed.

Too busy to sit there and check leaf lettuce, I chopped up a head of iceberg and served with vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Maybe a few pine nuts.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Suprise Tomato Watercress Salad


Last night, Hippoboy and I decided to take a break from our strenuous 4th-of-July vacation of putting together large pieces of furniture and moving heavy boxes upstairs by making dinner for the first time in my new apartment. While I boiled some whole-wheat penne, HB graciously stepped out to the bodega for some tomatoes and basil for a quick tomato-basil-caper sauce. He returned however, with not basil, but a lovely bunch of very basily-looking watercress. On discovering this, I scrapped the idea of basil sauce, made a lovely sauce just with capers, tomatoes, and spices and had the penne and sauce.

Later that evening, after a very patriotic fireworks viewing over the bridge, I concocted a salad to fuel our continued moving efforts- I chopped 2 largish tomatoes, pinched handfulls of watercress off of their stems, chopped up a hard boiled egg, and added salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. It was so delicious that I made two more variations on this salad tonight- and I havent even begun to make a dent in the large bunch of watercress.

Variation One- Omit egg, add pine nuts.

Variation Two (pictured above)- omit salt, egg; add feta, pine nuts.

Delicious!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

The Last Shabbos

...in my current apartment, that is.

I'm moving. It's chaotic. It's messy. My kitchen is more than messy. Somehow I managed to cobble together a fantastic Shabbos. My beloved grandparents were in town and joined a merry crowd of hippoboy, myself, and my friend batya for dinner. Batya stayed over and joined us for lunch. All things considered, it went swimmingly

Shabbos Dinner

Whatever Is in the Fridge Chicken
Defrost chicken parts- back quarters and/or breasts. Slather with a bit of dijon, Pour on some balsamic and capers. Sprinkle on some pepper. I tossed in a bit of my tomato-basil salad for good measure and poured about 1/2 a cup of moscato d'asti over it all and baked it at 350 till the juice ran clear.

Roasted Red Potatoes
quarter a mixture of red and yukon potatoes. Toss with olive oil, salt, garlic powder, pepper, and paprika. Roast with whatever you've got going in the oven as long as the potatoes can stand it. They take a very long time....

Roasted Asparagus (Deborah Madison's Recipe)
Snap the bottoms off the spears. Arrange in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few sprinkles of water. Cover with foil for 10 mins at 425, then uncover untill done.

Tomato Basil Salad
Seed and chunk a bunch of tomatoes. Wash a bunch of basil. Tear up latter and scatter over former. Toss with oil, balsamic, capers, salt, pepper. Let sit.

Picked up some good bread from Fairway for both meals.

Shabbat Lunch
Hippoboy brought me back a smoked salmon, so I made a rather untraditional Nicoise.

Nicoise
Flake the salmon over salad greens. Add 2 sliced hardboiled eggs, the leftover asparagus and tomatoes from last night, and some capers. Balsamic, mustard, honey, olive oil dressing.

Steamed Artichokes

A Cholent that hurt my stomach a bit- marrowbones, onions, and potatoes. Who knew...

Now, the Moving continues....