Wow- I've made vegetarian tacos before, but these were by far the best. The toasted corn gave these a unique flavor- some awesome caramelization... mmmm.
Plus, topped with feta and freshly made salsa verde with CSA tomatillos: to die for.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Indian-esque Feast
Grilled tandoori-style chicken with raita, oven-roasted Indian-spiced okra, and some faux naan (i.e. I made it with leftover pizza dough), cooked in the cast iron pan.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Angel Food Cake with Fresh Blueberry Sauce
This chocolate-speckled angel food cake from Ina caught my eye, but I figured I would try the basic recipe first before mixing it up. The cake came out sweet, light, and fluffy, without that weird chemical flavor the store-bought ones have.
You definitely have to be delicate when mixing up the batter so you don't crush the fluffed up egg whites. Also, I was forced to buy special cake flour for the recipe, which was a little bit of a pain, but not the end of the world.
Labels:
angel food cake,
blueberries,
blueberry sauce,
cake,
recipes
Faux Cheesesteaks
In honor of the return of The Jersey Shore, I cooked up some peppas and onions, a la the Sitch.
Ok, not really. I cooked peppers and onions because I got a giant bag of banana peppers from the CSA, which I thought would be the spicy ones, but turned out to be sweet.
We turned them into faux cheesesteaks- toasted hoagie rolls with a little mayo, sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms, and thinly sliced roast beef and provolone. Throw it all together and toss it under the broiler for a couple minutes to warm up and melt the cheese. Ta da: faux cheesesteak.
Ok, not really. I cooked peppers and onions because I got a giant bag of banana peppers from the CSA, which I thought would be the spicy ones, but turned out to be sweet.
Labels:
cheesesteak,
mushrooms,
onions,
peppers,
provolone,
roast beef
Jazz in the Sculpture Garden Spread
Summery Cantaloupe Sangria
- lots of chopped up summer fruit (I used cantaloupe and a little peach)
- lots of mint and basil
- white wine
- orange liqueur
- sliced ginger
Let it soak together for a couple hours, pour over ice and enjoy!
Later in the evening, after we'd run out of wine, but the fruit was still in the pitcher, we poured some sparkling wine over it and that worked well, too.
Labels:
basil,
cantaloupe,
ginger,
mint,
recipes,
sangria,
white wine
Sesame and Halvah Sundaes with Caramel Sauce
Martha loves sesame... not quite as much as she loves ginger, but definitely a lot. She was coming to DC, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to try out this recipe from Food and Wine for sesame ice cream sundaes with caramel sauce, sesame candies and halvah (a spongey, but pretty tasty sesame candy concoction.)
This recipe bordered on sesame overload, but could be slightly modified and greatly improved.
The ice cream by itself = delicious.
The ice cream with a caramel sauce = great (although the caramel in the recipe is less of a sauce and more of a candy- I added cream to the cooked sugar to give it a saucy consistency).
The ice cream and caramel with the sesame candy and halvah toppings = unique and tasty.
The tahini cream = weird and slightly off-putting.
If I made it again, I would skip the tahini cream in favor of more caramel. Also, I would use a different recipe for the caramel sauce- the one in the magazine was a little wonky, as I said.
The ice cream by itself = delicious.
The ice cream with a caramel sauce = great (although the caramel in the recipe is less of a sauce and more of a candy- I added cream to the cooked sugar to give it a saucy consistency).
The ice cream and caramel with the sesame candy and halvah toppings = unique and tasty.
The tahini cream = weird and slightly off-putting.
If I made it again, I would skip the tahini cream in favor of more caramel. Also, I would use a different recipe for the caramel sauce- the one in the magazine was a little wonky, as I said.
Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Toasted Breadcrumbs and Pancetta
The recipe I ultimately used was an amalgamation of a bunch of different recipes... inspired by this blog post about using toasted breadcrumbs on pasta, as well as a head of cauliflower from the CSA. Basically, this is what I did:
- roasted the cauliflower in some olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper until it was browned
- crisped up the pancetta in a pan, then removed it and threw some minced garlic, a little olive oil, red pepper flakes, and anchovy paste in the pan
- toasted the breadcrumbs in a pan with olive oil
- cooked the pasta
- tossed everything together along with a bunch of chopped parsley, parmesan and a little bit of the pasta water
Just watch the added salt!
Labels:
anchovies,
bread crumbs,
cauliflower,
pancetta,
parmesan,
parsley,
pasta,
recipes,
red pepper flakes
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Grilled Pizza
Last year, I was making some great pizzas, but in the process I was testing the oven's ability to handle extreme temperatures, bumping it up to 500 or 550 degrees, smoking myself out of the house and cracking baking stones left and right.
This year I decided to try a new method in the hopes that it would be easier on my cooking equipment and my nostrils... grilled pizza! I used this dough recipe from the Other Martha, and grilled it inside on my cast iron grill pan. it was really easy and really tasty. I rolled it super thin and it crisped up quite nicely. Still some smoke, but no cracked cookware!
Topped it with sauteed sweet cherry tomatoes, garlic scapes, mushrooms (all from the CSA), as well as some Italian sausage, mozzarella and basil.
This year I decided to try a new method in the hopes that it would be easier on my cooking equipment and my nostrils... grilled pizza! I used this dough recipe from the Other Martha, and grilled it inside on my cast iron grill pan. it was really easy and really tasty. I rolled it super thin and it crisped up quite nicely. Still some smoke, but no cracked cookware!
Topped it with sauteed sweet cherry tomatoes, garlic scapes, mushrooms (all from the CSA), as well as some Italian sausage, mozzarella and basil.
Labels:
basil,
cherry tomatos,
garlic scapes,
grilled,
italian sausage,
mushrooms,
pizza
Smoky Chipotle Corn Chowder
I know corn chowder seems like a weird thing to make when it's 95 degrees out and 300% humidity, but man, this chowdah hit the spot.
The only changes I made to the recipe were to skip peeling the potatoes, used Cheddar instead of Monterrey Jack, pureed only half the chowah to keep some of the chunks, and skipped the ham.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Caramelized Fennel and Pancetta Salad with Arugula
Labels:
arugula,
brown sugar,
fennel,
pancetta,
recipes,
red wine vinegar,
vinaigrette
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Fava Bean and Arugula Crostini
In addition to the spaghetti and meatballs I served last night, I also made crostini with fresh fava beans and arugula (along with a nice Chianti and a census taker's liver). While the fava bean spread was tasty, I'm not sure I can say that fresh favas are worth the effort... they are very labor intensive, as they need to be peeled not once, but twice. Twice! First, they come out of their long green pods, then they have to be boiled and peeled yet again to remove the waxy coating surrounding each bean. Oy.
In any case, as I said, the crostini was (were?) good. Very fresh tasting, and well-complimented by the mint garnish. Mmm. Epicurious tells me that frozen edamame could replace the favas in this recipe, so if you can't get your hands on fresh favas, are too lazy to peel any favas you might find, or just can't stomach the icky Silence of the Lambs association with favas, just go for the edamame.
Labels:
arugula,
crostini,
fava beans,
mint,
recipes
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Two nights ago I had prepared the mise en place for a favorite of mine, Simply Recipe's spaghetti and meatballs (this recipe takes a lot of chopping!), and last night I assigned Chuck to get the cooking started since I was getting my haircut right after work. Dinner was originally just going to be me, Tim and Chuck, with lots of leftovers for lunch, but somewhere along the way while I was relaxing hairdresser's chair, some freak thunderstorms hit DC, a softball game was cancelled, and the number of dinner guests snowballed and doubled, then those guests quickly got drunk and hungry. Good thing this recipe is hearty and makes about a thousand servings!!
I love the combination of ground beef and Italian sausage in the meatballs, the plethora of fresh basil and parsley and finely diced carrots and mushrooms in the sauce. Twelve thumbs up for this recipe. Make it next time you need to serve the masses at your own impromptu dinner party!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Apricot Chicken and Roasted Garlic Green Beans
So, it's been a while since I've done any serious cooking, but I picked some good recipes to break that streak this week. We got a pound of super cute mini-apricots from the CSA this week and I wanted to use them in a savory recipe... Simply Recipes to the rescue! This apricot chicken recipe was really nice- sweet, a little spicy, a thick rich sauce...mmmm.
Also, this green bean recipe is a keeper, for sure. I saw it on Daisy Cooks, but had trouble finding the recipe online. I improvised... roasted some garlic, threw it in my salad dressing whizzer-thing with a little bit of chicken broth, added salt and pepper, threw it over slightly sauteed green beans from the CSA, threw the cover back on for a few minutes and then served! Awesome and so easy.
Labels:
apricots,
chicken,
green beans,
recipes,
rice,
roasted garlic
Potato Salad and Burgers
A couple weeks ago, Chuck had a craving for potato salad, and I burgers. An excellent match.
We turned to the most reliable of the Food Network chefs for recipes... Alton Brown's Burger of the Gods, which Tim made to rave reviews in the past, and Ina Garten's New Potato Salad. Delicious. Both were hits...
Potato salad can be tricky- it can go very, very wrong. Ina's recipe was very, very right, though. It had some tang from the buttermilk, good crunch from the celery and onion, a little class from the whole grain mustard and fresh dill.
Labels:
burger,
buttermilk,
celery,
dill,
potato,
potato salad,
recipes,
salad
Spicy Peanut/Sesame Noodles
For some reason, sesame/peanut butter noodles are one of my favorite things. Spicy, creamy, garlicy and gingery. Plus you can throw in a ton of veggies, whatever you have around. In this case, I threw in grated carrots, snow peas, scallions, and some steamed bok choy. The noodles are good warm right out of the pot, or cold the next day.
Labels:
noodles,
peanut butter,
recipes,
sesame
Salad with Chicken Paillard, Red Currant Vinaigrette and Goat Cheese
Labels:
chicken,
goat cheese,
recipes,
red currants,
salad
Kale and Chickpea Soup
Blueberry Almond Tart
Alejandra from Always Order Dessert frequently raves about almond paste and its many uses, so when I saw it at the grocery store, I grabbed a couple cans just to have on hand.
When the CSA provided me with a ton of gorgeous plump blueberries, I thought they might go well with the almond paste. I did a quick Google search and found this blueberry-almond tart recipe which used those two main ingredients, plus other pantry staples.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Surf and Turf CSA Dinner
Surf and Turf dinner...Roasted Tenderloin of Beef, Shrimp Gratin, oven roasted potatoes, Snap peas with chives from the garden and a field greens salad with parmesan, shallots and stone ground mustard vinaigrette 
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