making up for past transgressions

a while back, while perusing tumblr, i came across a recipe; basically pasta with pepper but if you want it to sound fancy, call it Cacio e Pepe.

it sounded different, cheesy and easy so we decided to make it one night..  However, being rule-breakers, we basically did everything that the original recipe said not to do - we didnt buy superfresh black pepper - we just used the little 4 pepper grinder that was up in the cabinet.  we didnt use two kinds of cheese - we used whatever it was that we had in the fridge...  and that month or two ago?  it was ok but WAY too hot (um, thats why the recipe didnt call for 4-color pepper, i suppose?).  and not good enough to be worth it.  i dont think i even finished mine.  and dude, i like to eat, so thats saying something.

i never criticized though - didnt post it as a recipe-gone-wrong - because really, i hate those people on recipezaar who are like "this recipe SUCKS - i made 435 substitutions of the ingredients and it didnt cook right and tasted NOTHING like cheesecake!"

however, even though it may have been our fault the first time, you can understand why i was a bit skeptical to try again...  but we agreed to follow the recipe as written this time and - ooh boy - its amazing how different something comes out when you actually FOLLOW the recipe...   made the right way with the right ingredients - this one is a winner.

someone should remind the recipezaar folks of that...

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Cacio e Pepe
courtesy of We Are Never Full - barely any modifications by me

3/4 pound of spaghetti
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tablespoons freshly ground pepper 
a bit of the pasta cooking liquid (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup of freshly ground pecorino romano
1/2 cup freshly ground parmigiano reggiano

Prepare spagetti according to directions on package.  Reserve some of the liquid (about 1/4 cup)
When pasta only has a few minutes left, begin preparing the sauce.
In a separate pan, on low-medium heat, add your butter, oil and 3/4 tbps pepper.
Allow the butter to melt, swirling the pan around to help it move a bit.

When spaghetti is done, add the reserved cooking liquid to your melted butter/pepper/olive oil sauce and swirl the pot again.

Turn heat down to low. Add your spaghetti and toss once.
Add your cheeses and the rest of the pepper (3/4 tbsp) and toss the spaghetti again in the pan to combine all ingredients.

Top with a sprinkle more of pepper and cheese, if desired.
Serve with warm baguette and wine, of course

so nice we made it twice

Green tomatoes are not something that i'd traditionally buy on my own, given the fact that it seems as though the only way to use them is in fried green tomatoes.  (seriously, google green tomato recipe - i'll wait - they'repretty much ALL variations on fried green tomatoes...)

so why in the world am i talking about them?

because i live with a boy.  and he likes different things from me. 
see, our CSA has a swap-box.  meaning, if i dont want my pac choi (no offense to pac choi), i can bag it up and walk it over to the swap box.  If there is nothing in the box, i simply leave my pac choi.  If there is something else in there, i can grab it in exchange for my pac choi. 

so, last week when the boy went to csa to do the pickup, (which included 1 lb of green tomatoes per person) he noticed a lb of green tomatoes in the swap box.  so he bagged up our pac choi (there's a reason it was my example) and took the tomatoes.  He then proceeded to have a conversation with a fellow CSAer and found out that they didnt want their green tomatoes either.  so he bagged up our mixed greens (not babies - more like chard & kale.  i like neither of those) and took a what was now our 3rd lb of green tomatoes.  and he calls me, all excited about said tomatoes. 

and all i can think is, what in the hell are we going to do with 3lbs of green tomatoes?
and i thought that all week - every time i saw them in the fridge.

and then this week?  the share included ANOTHER lb of green tomatoes.  thats 4lbs of green tomatoes in our fridge, just in case you are keeping track.

thank god for carrie from our CSA mailing list...   she sent out a recipe of sorts for green tomatoes with eggs.  and i wanted breakfast-for-dinner anyway, so this appeared to fit the bill AND used some of those tomatoes!  (not to mention the csa eggs that have been stockpiling in the fridge)

Frankly, my hopes were not super-high - it just sounded like a tomato scramble which is solid, but not earth shattering, you know?  But i was tired.  and wanted quick and easy.  and breakfast-y.

The boy thought to add a baguette to the mix (confession:  we add baguettes to just about every mix...  also, wine.) and it made ALL of the difference.  The eggs are pretty good on their own but a forkful of eggs piled high on a tiny bit of baguette?  TO DIE FOR.

interestingly enough, this is not a breakfast meal.  the green tomatoes have some sort of bite to them that really takes the eggs from breakfast staple and transforms them into satisfying dinner.

a dinner so satisfying that we made it two nights in a row.

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Green Tomatoes & Eggs
courtesy of the Merchants' Gate CSA Mailing list, adapted by me


serves 2

1 tbsp butter
1/3 of a sweet onion (i suspect any kind of onion would work), diced
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
3 medium/large green tomatoes, cut into small pieces
salt & pepper
5 eggs
splash of milk


Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-low until melted.

Throw in the onions & garlic and stir around with a wooden spoon to coat.
Allow to fry for a minute or two.

Throw in green tomatoes, some salt & some pepper (based on your typical tastes). stir around to integrate with the onions & garlic and allow to cook for ~ 6 - 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, in a seperate bowl, scramble your 5 eggs and pour in that splash of milk

Once the onions, garlic and tomatoes have started to get a little crispy at the edges and even brown up a little, pour the eggs over them and allow it to sit for 30 seconds before stirring.

continue to cook eggs in a scrambled egg style (i've tried to go with a slow scramble while making this meal - it seems to work best with the ingredients) to the consistency you like best and then turn off the heat.

Spoon egg mixture onto plates & serve with fresh baguette.

my version of a mashup

it occured to me the other day that part of the reason i've been so bad about using my CSA stuff this year is partially due to the fact that i am rarely the one going to the site and picking the share up anymore, as the meat-eater has largely taken on that role as of late... that means that i'm not there hearing other people's ideas or being inspired by the sights and smells... instead, i come home and find a fridge full of plastic bags - which doesnt hold the same inspiration that cases of fresh produce do...

therefore, in an effort to be better, i've started keeping a little post-it with the share contents on my desktop at work... hoping that it will inspire me... and it finally worked...

last night, before i left work i called the meat-eater to ask what we'd be doing for dinner... we knew there was guacamole in the cards but what else? leftovers? bah. salad? bah. i finally suggested stuffed zucchini and while the meat-eater was less than enthused, he agreed...

so i scoured the internet for some options... many included beef which just wasnt happening. others included boring, which just wasnt happening either... so i did what i like to do best - found a couple recipes that sounded good and mash them all up into one... and cross my fingers...

the night was almost derailed by the distinct lack of onions in the house but thankfully the M-E was willing to run out and procure one and thus, dinner was saved! i guess thats why i'm marrying him - cause he always saves the day!

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Stuffed Zucchini
courtesy of me

1/3 of a baguette

1 tbsp butter
3/4 c couscous
1 1/8 c vegetable broth (or water + bouillon)

2 medium/large zucchini, halved
2 small zucchini, cut into pieces
1/2 of a medium sized red onion
3 small carrots, cut into dice-sided pieces
4 c loosely packed spinach
1 egg, lightly beaten
4-6 oz medium cheddar, half shredded and half diced


Preheat oven to 325°

Prepare baguettes to be used in stuffing:

• Slice baguette into rounds, no bigger than 1" thick.
• Arrange on cookie sheet and place in the oven ~ 15 minutes, or until dried/crisp (but not browned).
• Set aside & raise oven temp to 400°

Prepare couscous (using the Mark Bittman method):

• heat 1 tbsp butter over med heat.
• when butter is melted, add couscous, stir, and 'toast' for ~ 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
• Add broth and bring to a boil.
• Once broth is boiling, remove from heat and cover and let sit for ~6 minutes or more.
• Fluff with fork & set aside.

Prepare Zucchini shells:

• Slice large zucchini in half, brush cut side with olive oil & place, cut side down, on cookie sheet (line with aluminum or parchment for easier cleanup)
• Place in oven ~15 minutes or until zucchini is soft
• When zucchini is done, remove from oven and scoop out the insides - including juices - (just leave little 'shells') and set aside.
• Reduce oven temp to 350°

Prepare stuffing:

• Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over med heat.
• Add onions & carrots, stirring and cooking until onions are transparent ~ 5 mins
• Add cut up zucchini & keep cooking.
• Add the zucchini that was scooped out of the shells
• Tear the crispy baguette into stuffing sized pieces and add 1 c to the pan.
• Add spinach, in batches, and wilt.
• Add ~ 1/3 to 1/2 c of cooked couscous
• Remove from heat.
• Add diced cheese + 1/2 of the shredded cheese and stir until the shredded cheese has melted.
• Allow to cool a bit and then add the egg, stirring to ensure that egg does not 'cook' in the pan.

Divide stuffing between the 4 zucchini shells. Arrange shells on cookie sheet, stuffing side up. Top with remaining shredded cheese. If there is any leftover stuffing, you can cook it right on the cookie sheet, next to the zucchinis, and serve over the remaining couscous.

Place back in the oven for ~20 minutes, or until cheese is melty and stuffing is firm. Serve warm.

Mexi-night done right

so for like, 9 months, i've been going ON and ON to the m.e. (meat-eater) about what a fabulous cook i am. about all of these things i can make and how awesome they are. about how the kitchen and i - we're like THIS...

and for 9 months, he's mostly been cooking for me... there have been a few exceptions, but most of them not particularly exciting - i mean a salad is a salad - knife skills and cooking skills, while related, arent exactly the same...

anyway, on monday we were up in the poconos (10 pts if you know why) and on our way back, stopped at this awesome little farm stand... you know, because the produce from CSA isnt going bad fast enough as it is - and picked up some stuff, among it, corn. and i swore, up and down, left and right that i'd make my kickass corn & guac when we got home...

and then it was late. and i was tired. and no produce was prepared or put away and no dinner was made or even eaten...

thankfully corn can stand a night or two sitting on the counter... so last night, before i even got undressed from work, i went straight to the kitchen to begin the mexican flavor fiesta...
there would be corn & guac and there would be quesadillas...

since i've already told you about the corn and guac and how amazing it is, let me tell you about the super easy, super quick, baked quesadillias... (did i ever mention the time i was reading a menu and asked a friend what 'qway - C - delias' were? true story...) we'd gotten some jalepeno cheddar from the CSA a while back and really just werent sure what to do with it... i kept saying we should put it in something mexican cause we didnt think we'd like it plain, but the chance just kept passing us by... however, last night we FINALLY got our opportunity...

Note: so after months of not knowing what to do with that cheddar - turns out that it ROCKS all on its own. so much so that if its available at today's pickup, there's a good chance we're claiming it...

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Baked Black Bean Quesadillias
courtesy of me

2 large flour tortillias
1/3 of a can of black beans - rinsed
3 oz of jalepeno cheddar, either shredded or cut into small slivers/pieces

Preheat oven @ 350°
cover cookie sheet with aluminum foil
spray aluminum foil with non-stick spray

place one tortillia on greased foil
spread beans out to within about 1/2 inch of the outside edge
cover with cheese
place second tortillia on top of cheese and lightly press down

place in the oven for ~ 12 minutes or until cheese is melty
remove from the oven and, with the back of a clean plate, gently press on the top tortillia for ~ 20-30 seconds

let sit for another minute or two and then cut into segments

serve with salsa & sour cream (optional) and your favorite mexican beer.

Food Porn

I cant find the recipe that goes with this picture, but I do remember that it was a honey-vanilla panna cotta that I made using a vanilla bean, farm fresh milk (a CSA bonus one week last year) and some local honey. Wildflower honey, I think...

The fact that there is no recipe to go with it is irrelevant - I found something online and adapted poorly - I used too much honey... But isnt that about the prettiest food picture you've ever seen???

epic FAIL*

After seeing them just yesterday, I tried to make these Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes at 11pm last night. I was that excited to make them that it seemed reasonable to cook at 11pm.

Tried being the operative word...

I'm not sure exactly what went wrong - i'm thinking it had something to do with expired oil? (who knew vegetable oil expired??? how come no one ever told me this before???)

They look pretty - i wish they tasted that way...

(*edit: ok, they seem to be better - but still not great - the second day... yes, even though i hated them, i brought them to work anyway... I think unexpired oil, cut down by just a little, would be a big improvement... also, the addition of ice cream would help...)

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Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes
courtesy of David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris, via Smitten Kitchen, minor changes by me

7 ounces (200 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (125 ml) plain, 2% greek yogurt
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F , line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners

Melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of the oil, via microwave - first microwaving for 35 seconds, stiring, and then 1x or 2x more for 15 seconds each, stirring inbetween.

In another bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cup oil with yougurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla and almond extracts.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the yogurt mixture. Stir lightly a couple times, then add the melted chocolate and stir until just smooth.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until they feel barely set in the middle and a tester or toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving

even the best vegetarians dream of bacon

if you say you dont, i'll call you a liar...

it smells good. it looks good (except for when there's too much undercooked fat on it - ick!) and the fake stuff doesnt even begin to come close - which is surprising, given that bacos are meat-free...

anyway, given my bad experience with fake-bacon (save for the bacos), i dont have a lot of faith in bacon-flavored stuff... so when the meat-eater (his blog name forever now...) ordered two kinds of bacon salt off of woot not too long ago, i had my doubts...

However, last night I decided to be good and eat some salad for dinner - using some lettuce & cheese from last week's CSA pickup (score! on the not-wasting-food front) - and wanted to add a little healthy protein. So i decided to experiment and make the tofu crispies that i'd seen on nutritionista... however, much like that bacon salt, my expectations were not high...

at the last minute, i thought i'd throw some of the bacon salt on some of the tofu... (because as a result of my laziness, i didnt realize that the tofu should have olive oil & seasoning with it and that just sounded BLAH. oh, and was really fun to clean off of the cookie sheet, as you may expect) what the hell? i expected that i'd be throwing away most of the tofu anyway - so might as well use the bacon salt so that i could tell the meat-eater that i was right and it was gross...

imagine my surprise when not only was bacon salted tofu good, but when the meat-eater and i ended up snacking on, like, half of it, before the salad was even made...

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Simple Salad with Bacon-Tofu Crispies
courtesy of me w/ Bacon-Tofu Crispies inspiried by nutritionista


Salad:

1/2 head romaine or similar lettuce, washed and torn
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1/3 red pepper, diced
2 oz horseradish cheddar, cut into small squares
1/2 c bacon tofu crispies (below)
2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all together and serve


Bacon-Tofu Crispies

1 block firm tofu, pressed to remove excess water and cut into pieces the size of dice
olive oil (i forgot that part...)
bacon salt

Preheat oven to 400°
lightly grease cookie sheet with olive oil
spread tofu cubes all over sheet
sprinkle liberally with bacon salt

bake 40 mins at 400, turning once or twice if desired

he said, she said

you know whats really fun? being a pseudo-vegetarian and dating someone who isnt..

of course, i'm one of those weird 'vegetarians' who thinks that boy vegetarians are a bit... well, not for me. i dont know why - i dont subscribe to traditional gender roles, i dont think, but somehow i truly think that there's a whole 'me man, me eat meat' thing that should be going on with a guy... therefore, as antiquated as my otherwise evolved brain may be, while its not always the easiest way to eat, it is pretty much been the standard in my life... and i'm fairly sure the current meat-eater is sticking around for, well, forever, so its going to stay the standard.

there should be some sort of guide as to how to exist in this kind of relationship without it being a case of one person eats meat and a side and the other just eats a big portion of side... (oh, sure, steal my idea...) because really, as the potential sides-only eater? not so appealing to me... so i'm always looking for another way - a way to take a meal and turn one into something that satisfies the meat eater without leaving the vegetarian with something bland...

so, changing topics, CSA started again this week... summer shares began a week earlier than expected due to the abundance of crops ready for harvesting, but, as is usual, the first week was still fairly greens-heavy while being overall light... bok choi, cooking greens, baby turnips, radishes, spring garlic and scallions. all cool, but save for the garlic and scallions (which, due to a mixup were all but gone by the time i arrived for pickup) not things i use all that much... however, i am bound and determined to not let so much go to waste this season (winter was kindof a bust for me) and wanted to get started on my reformed, non-wasting ways right away...

a number of people posted recipes for the greens and all had a similar take. the meat-eater and i discussed those recipies and modified and came up with our own idea of how to cook the greens into something we'd both like and even went so far as to figure out how to make one meat-eater-friendly while maintaing the fact that the vegetarian version was not lacking. I hope you'll find one or both versions to work for you.

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Garlic Greens & Pasta
recipe courtesy of me & the meat-eater

3/4 lb pasta, any kind
1/2 lb mixed cooking greens, leaves torn into small pieces and stems seperated and chopped into 1-inch segments
4 spring garlics - bulbs and 2 inches of stems - diced
1 scallion - bulb and 2 inches of stem - diced
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 c vegetable broth
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
salt & pepper
3 oz asiago cheese, cubed

veg:
2 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped

meat eater:
1 pre-grilled chicken breast, cut up into pieces


Prepare pasta according to directions

meanwhile, heat olive oil in frying pan over med heat

add garlic & scallions and cook ~ 5 minutes, until soft

add greens stems and a splash of the broth and cook until stems have softened a bit

add the remainder of the broth and all of the greens

cover and allow to cook ~ 5 minutes

remove cover, stir greens and check for doneness. If you would like them wiltier, cook longer.

drain excess liquid & add tomatoes

stir ~ 1 minute to heat & combine

add drained pasta to the mixture and stir to combine (& reheat the pasta if it had finished too quickly)

***
seperate into 4 serving bowls

add 1/4 of the asiago to each bowl

add 1/2 of the hazelnuts to the vegetarian bowls (above amount assumes 2)

add 1/2 of the cut up chicken breast to each of the meat-eater bowls (above amount assumes 2)

Happy Birthday to me!

Generally speaking, when its your birthday, someone else brings the cupcakes... however, when you are the one with the food blog (however defunct it may be) it just makes more sense that you'd do it yourself...

The boy had gotten guiness cupcakes on his birthday because I decided that if i was going to bring cupcakes to a boy-birthday, that they had to be 'manly' cupcakes...

but for my birthday? no need to be manly. or overly-flavor complex as we'd be paring them with limey-corona goodness... but I stuck with the 'match the cupcakes to the personality' thing and went with the side of me that thinks that birkenstocks are appropriate footwear almost anywhere you go...

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Hippy Dippy Tie-Dye Cupcakes
cake courtesy of Magnolia Bakery with modifications by me, rainbow effect courtesy of the internet

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

food coloring gel

1 container cream cheese frosting
sprinkles


Preheat oven to 350°

Line cupcake tray with cupcake liners

Cream butter and sugar (with electric mixer) until light and fluffy

add eggs to the sugar/butter mixture one egg at a time, beating after each

in a seperate bowl, combine flour and baking powder and whisk to ensure that its all combined

in another bowl, combine milk & vanilla

in small batches, add flour mixture and milk mixture (alternate) and continue to beat the entire time

divide into 6 small batches.

add food coloring to each of the small batches to achieve desired colors

spoon a small amount of each color into each cupcake

repeat with each color until cupcakes are about 3/4 full

bake for ~ 20 minutes, checking after 18 for done-ness

transfer to cooling rack & allow to cool

frost with cream cheese frosting & sprinkle liberally with sprinkles

the simple life

once upon a time i found making pasta to be significant. because it meant boiling actual water (no pasta-prontas here!) and - omg - heating up sauce... i thought myself a gourmet when i'd add a little ricotta & shredded mozzarella because, i mean, thats like almost baked ziti.

then one day i decided that anything that didnt involve either some level of difficulty, creativity, or odd ingredient found only at fairway was just too basic for me...

that snobbery did not served me well. it caused me to miss out on so many things just because they werent 'different' enough... (sure, it also served me very well in that i ended up eating things i may never have eaten otherwise, but we're focusing on simple here today, ok?????)

today isnt really so much about what i made as it is about that notion of dropping the snobbery at the door. not always going for new-different-wow. instead, sometimes just sticking with the tried-and-true...

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Rice Krispie Treats, microwave style
courtesy of Kellogg's, i think...

4 tbsp butter

4 c mini marshmallows

6 c rice krispies



Heat butter in microwave safe bowl for ~ 45 seconds or until melted

stir in mini-marshmallows, coating all with the melted butter

microwave entire mess for 45 seconds, stir and put back in microwave for another 45 seconds

Line a 9x13 pan with waxed paper

When microwave dings, mix rice krispies in with buttery marshmallowy goodness until well combined (*note - could also add a variety of other things now - chocolate chips, peanut butter, whatever... or could make this with a different kind of cereal... go crazy...)

scoop into wax-papered pan

cover with another sheet of waxed paper and press down

Allow to cool (could be in the fridge to speed it up) and then cut into 24 squares


try not to eat them all at once...