I talked Diana into making us some pancakes this morning. I’m not a big fan of syrup, but I’m not opposed to pancake toppings in general. While she made the pancakes, I sliced a few plums. Once the pancakes were done, we sauteed them with a little bit of butter and honey until they were essentially liquified, then poured that hot mix over the pancakes. Yum!
Wednesdays are new veggie days for us, so last night I decided to use up as much of last week’s veggie shipment as possible (being out of town Fri-Sun didn’t put much of a dent in them). I started by simultaneously boiling a handful beets and steaming a couple of heads of cauliflower over the same pot (with a sprinkle of turmeric and cumin for flavor). In a big wok next to that, I cooked some summer squash, carrots, and wild onions. Once the beets were done, I chopped those and added them to the pot. Once everything was mostly done, I added an entire head of bok choy (cut up first). Finally, I added the cauliflower back to it, stirred, and devoured.
It was a pretty colorful mix—the beets have a habit of staining everything reddish purple.
Kourambiedes are my all time favorite cookie. It’s basically the Greek version of a sugar cookie, made with ground almonds (or almond flour) and sometimes dusted with powdered sugar. They’re close enough to regular sugar cookies that I usually just go for those when I’ve got a craving.
I set out for an afternoon snack specifically thinking I was going to avoid the sugar cookies (instead opting for more of the Hazelnut Nut-Thins). Entering Draegar’s, though, there was a nice lady handing out cookie samples. I didn’t really pay attention to what she was saying (something about “I baked these myself—cookies with almond and pistachios”). I snagged one on the way by and bit into it about half way down the cracker aisle… Kourambiede!
I grabbed the crackers I came for and did a U-turn. When I got back to the lady, she asked, “How was it?” I told her that it tasted just like a kourambiede. She started glowing and said that’s exactly what it was. She asked if I was from Lebanon, but didn’t seem too miffed when I said my grandfather was Greek. She said that no one knew what the hell a kourambiede was, so she just called them “Mediterranean Almond Cookies.”
And that’s how, even though I set out with the best intentions for healthy food, I ended up munching on cookies at 3 in the afternoon.
We had another bag full of peppers from the farm this week (and no one had even touched the bag from last week). Diana was taking a belly-dancing class, so I decided it was a perfect night for “Man Food.”
I took all the peppers, a spoonful of minced garlic, a few scallions (also farm-fresh), and a handful of grape tomatoes leftover from the weekend, and a bit of salt and tossed it all into the magic bullet. A few seconds and some shaking later, I had some home-made salsa verde.
I cooked some red beans & rice while I was working on the salsa (and by working I mean sipping a beer for 20 minutes and then pressing the blend button), then sauteed a pound or two of chipotle sausages in the salsa. I ate it in a bowl, with the salsified sausages over the red beans & rice. It was basically just like gumbo, only not quite as soupy and lacking the okra.
I’m excited to go pick up a new haul of veggies later today, but we were finishing up the last of last week’s batch yesterday. I’d been itching to try a cilantro pesto since feasting on some I picked up from the farmer’s market a few weeks back, and the inclusion of a huge bunch of the stuff definitely boded well for my taste buds. I had all the ingredients lying around already, so the cost was effectively nothing and it only took about 10 minutes to make.
Basically, I just put some penne on to boil. While that was going, I roughly chopped the cilantro (just so it’d fit in the blender better), tossed in a spoonful of minced garlic, half a cup of olive oil, and about 1/4 of a cup of almond slivers. Instant pesto! Belatedly, I remembed that I’d gotten some good parmesan from the farmer’s market over the weekend. I blended that separately, which didn’t work so well. The parmesan ended up in pebble-sized chunks, which didn’t look pretty but tasted just fine.
To go along with the pasta, we stir-fried a bag of spinach, some diced mushrooms, and a handfull of scallions. With flavors like that, who needs meat? I wonder why we didn’t think to cook that over the weekend while two vegetarian friends were in town…
Picked up some whole trout last night from Costco (only $4/lb… can’t beat that) and some miso salad dressing to marinate them with.
Before tossing the fish on the grill (on cedar planks!), I started some somewhat-chopped fingerling potatoes that I’d drizzled with olive oil and coated with rosemary. After about a half-hour head start on the potatoes, I added some mushrooms and tossed on the fish. Diana’s mom uses Miso Paste, which ends up with a much stronger flavor. The salad dressing performed decently, but next time I think I’ll make the trip to the asian supermarket to get miso paste.
As soon as the fish were off, I tossed on a foil packet full of sliced plumbs and honey. By the time we were done devouring the fish (I love it when it just slides off all the bones perfectly) and the potatoes, the plums were pretty much liquified into syrup… which we proceded to use as a topping for some vanilla ice cream.
It was a pretty solid end to the weekend.
This weeks bag from the farm had a few turnips and a nice haul of new potatoes. My roommate was cooking lamb chops on the grill tonight, so I sliced up the turnips and potatoes and tossed them on alongside the meat. There were also some banana peppers, so I diced a few of those and dropped in a fair bit of last week’s leftover parsley. The results were pretty good.
You really can’t go wrong with grilled potatoes, but the turnips were tasty, too.
After a meatlicious weekend, Diana insisted we cook up some veggies tonight. We’ve got a couple of days before our next shipment from the CSA comes in, so we’re working through our bag o’ veggies. She stir-fried us up some spinach, carrots, and purple cauliflower with some garlic and basil. Who needs meet?
I’ve been on a waiting list for a little while, but last week I finally made it into a local CSA. $20 a week for a bag full of fresh, local veggies is a pretty sweet deal in my book. I picked some up yesterday and it had a bunch of kale in it. I’ve never had kale before, so I de-stemmed it and sauteed it with some olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. Pretty tasty stuff—I was actually surprised that it was a little spicy.
Over the weekend a huge jar of capers made its way into my refrigerator. I made those raviolis I got from the farmer’s market a couple of nights ago, and I decided to toss a couple of fork-fulls of capers on with the bolognese sauce. Rockin’!
