been a long time comin'

Hello Friends!  It's been a while, eh?

By way of a very short explanation for my sporadic posts, a few of which had absolutely nothing to do with food, and my months-long absence from any kind of posts, I will just say that life has changed a good bit this year, and sometime in the late winter, early spring, I decided that I didn't have anything interesting to say about food anymore.  I was repeating recipes and/or not cooking due to an awkward schedule and I just couldn't think of anything worth saying about stuff I'd made dozens of times before.

Sorry about that, but let's get back to it, shall we?

A couple of weeks ago, I lost my job.  It's cool, don't worry - I feel much better, actually.  It was incredibly more stressful than it needed to be and although I felt good about the things I was able to accomplish in my relatively short time there, my professional development was being strangled.  So, aside from that "money thing," I've decided to consider my newly acquired LotsaTime a blessing.

Back to that whole "money thing" for a minute, though.

If you look back over older posts in this blog, you'll see a few times when our financial situation changed and we had to readjust our budget/financial paradigm.  I'm a naturally frugal person anyway and gain great satisfaction from seeing the little "You saved $___.__ today!" that prints out at the bottom of my SuperFresh receipt after I painstakingly examined the 3 different brands of Navy Beans to find the one that would save a bit of money.  Maybe not the best example, but when I can pay $3.59 for 28 oz of organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes or $0.88 for 28 oz of "regular" diced tomatoes, I find that a bit of a victory.

So what has inspired me to start writing again?  Well, in a sense, I found a new thesis statement (do you remember having to learn those in elementary school English class??): How to Still Eat Well (taste-wise, as well as nutritionally) with Diminishing Funds.

When I lost my job, I had already put together a menu for the following week, since it included Thanksgiving, which I had the privilege of hosting again this year (click here for last year).  It made my insides shrivel up when it came time to run our purchases down the conveyor belt of each store and watch the cashier tally up our debt, knowing it would be higher than usual and at possibly the worst time.  Nevertheless, we had a delightful Thanksgiving and it took us many days (nearly a week, actually) to clear enough leftovers from the fridge for me to start cooking things that created more leftovers.

When it came time to shop for this week's food, I did something I haven't done in years.  Literally.  As in, since before I started this blog and began charting out weekly menus (which I continued all through my absence, even though I didn't share them with anyone but Mister).  I went to the grocery stores and just bought staples and a few fresh veggies I knew would play well together.  Then what?  Then I took all the knowledge I've been storing away over the last three years of Cookbook Studying and just made it up!  I know, right?

One night, I made a thick, hearty minestrone using some canned tomatoes, fresh zucchini and carrots, and orzo lovingly donated to us by my dear FIL (which is a whole other story for another time, but let's just say Mister comes from good stock).

Oh?  You want a recipe?  Well... it's the least I can do after leaving you high and dry for so many months.

Hearty Winter Minestrone (I know it's not winter yet, but it should be!)
yields about 4 quarts (I'll let your bowls decide how many servings that is)

1 Tbsp olive oil
6-7 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed (depending on clove size and personal preference)
4 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
2 large carrots, sliced into pieces of uniform size
2 small zucchini, diced*
1/2 tsp McCormick Mediterranean Sea Salt Blend
1 quart vegetable broth (or measure 4 cups water and add 2 bouillon cubes when it starts to boil)
28 oz crushed tomatoes
15 oz petite diced tomatoes
15 oz can of white beans (cannellini would be good, but I used Great Northern)
scant tsp sea salt
1/4-1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried basil
1 cup dried orzo
* The easiest way I've found to do this is to "top and tail" the zucchini, then slice each one 4x lengthwise, then cut those slices 3x lengthwise and then just cut across in half-inch slices.

This is definitely the kind of meal where you can be chopping ingredients as you go along, so you should, because it'll shave off a little time.  Don't get me wrong - this is absolutely a delightfully slow-cooked soup, but there's no need to be standing around watching the pot for 5 minutes until it's time to add the next thing, right?

Heat the oil in a 4- to 6-qt pot on medium-low.  When the oil starts to shimmer a little, add the celery and garlic.  Stir well to combine and thoroughly coat with the oil, then cover and reduce the heat to low.  While they're cooking, cut up your carrots.  When they're all cut up, add them to the pot.  If you have super-fast, ninja-like knife skills, feel free to dice the zucchini and add that at the same time you add the carrot - the idea is to give the celery about 5-7 minutes of quality time in the sauna, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns.  Whenever you add the zucchini, sprinkle the Mediterranean Sea Salt blend over the whole mess, stir, and cover again.  Let that melange mix and mingle for another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the diced tomatoes, then sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and basil, then pour in the quart of broth and stir everything together.  Turn the heat up as high as it will go and wait for your soup to boil.  It'll probably do this faster if you cover the pot again, but don't wander off and check your facebook - you want to be ready the very moment the broth starts to boil, so hang out in the kitchen and glance between the latest issue of Vogue and the pot on your stove.

When the soup has reached a healthy boil, slowly pour in the cup of uncooked orzo while stirring the pot. Continue stirring while the broth boils for another minute or two, then lower the heat to medium/medium-low.  The soup should be at a vibrant simmer, but not boiling.  Be sure to stir frequently now that you've add the orzo - the first time or two that you stir, you'll likely find yourself pushing stubborn bits of pasta off the bottom of your pot, but once you've gotten to the 8 or 9-minute mark, you can relax the stirring and just let your soup simmer another 10 minutes or so.

Taste for seasoning; if necessary, add more salt and/or pepper, and serve immediately.

pretty pink butterflies

I hate wasting things, which usually results in some really fun culinary exploration.  For example, when I made a salad last week that required only one tiny cup of shredded red cabbage, I tried to get a small head.  Unfortunately, there was only one head of red cabbage in all of Whole Foods, so it didn't matter much whether it was big or little.  As I was doing the menu planning for this week, I was very aware of the almost untouched head of cabbage in my crisper and engaged myself in a search for a recipe to use it up.

That, my friends, is the only reason I strayed from making a menu completely from The Complete Vegan Cookbook, because believe me, there is certainly enough material in there to make a week of meals. 

So tonight, I made Farfalle with White Beans and Cabbage from Vegan on the Cheap, so I could use up the red cabbage before it went all gross.  Sure, the recipe called for green cabbage, but variety is the spice of life, right?  Speaking of spices, this dish would benefit from some more.  I gave the sauteing cabbage what I thought was a generous sprinkling of Mediterranean Sea Salt, but I think I could have doubled that amount before a person could actually taste the salt part of the blend.

I have another recipe somewhere for red cabbage and kidney beans that didn't quite make it to my "Yes, I'll make this again" list, and I found myself thinking of that recipe after I added the cannellini beans to the sauteing cabbage and immediately realized two things:

1. the reason you saute red cabbage with red kidney beans is because they're both red.
2. the reason you saute green cabbage with cannellini (white kidney) beans is so that they don't turn a lovely shade of puce.

I felt like I should have expected that, but what I didn't expect was that the red would bleed out of the cabbage and color the farfalle (Italian for "butterflies") a pale shade of fuschia, too.  Fortunately, I was prepared for the slightly sweeter taste of the red cabbage, though now in retrospect, I think my seasoning would have been sufficient for green cabbage, as it is a little more of a flavor sponge than its stronger red sibling.

Today was the coolest it's supposed to be all week, with temperatures pushing toward the 100-degree mark toward mid-week.  I don't want to sound like a weenie (especially since it's been in the 90s for a while where my sister lives, but she's into that whole African sun/desert thing), but it is a little surprising that we're getting so hot so early - it's not even officially summer yet!  Makes me wonder what we're in for this summer... Thank heavens I have at least a dozen cookbooks brimming with salads I haven't made yet!

there's lettuce in my pasta

Like I mentioned in my menu, I've always skipped over recipes calling for escarole, primarily because I can never find it at Whole Foods.  To my great delight, I came home with some yesterday, so tonight I made Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole from Vegan Italiano.

Isn't it lovely?  So... green!  I have a confession to make: I've never had escarole until tonight.  In addition to having an extraordinary amount of trouble locating it in center city, it was most certainly never a part of meals growing up outside the city.  Mister was very surprised when I shared my escarole epiphany with him since he grew up in a hippie family with a Greek dad and part-Sicilian mom; dark leafy greens and various other things that never crossed my lips until adulthood were a regular part of the days there was money for food in his childhood.

My take?  It's kind of weird, isn't it?  I think I imagined escarole to be a dark leafy green, kind of like Tuscan kale but with the texture of spinach or chard - a silky green that would linger briefly on my tongue before following the penne down my throat.  I couldn't have been too much more wrong - it was more like I had added lettuce to my pasta.  It was a little crunchy, a little bitter, and plenty chewy - more like the look of lettuce with the toughness of kale.  I should have realized I was wrong when I was chopping it.  It was actually tough to chop!  Ordinarily, my fancy new knives slice through greens like butter, but not this time - I actually had to put some elbow grease in.

The combination of escarole, tomatoes, garlic, and cannellini beans was classically Italian and completely delightful.  I served dinner with a generous bowlful of mixed Mediterranean olives in a vinegary brine, accompanied by a glass of Apothic Red for my sipping pleasure.  It could only have been a more perfectly rustic and Country Italian meal if we were eating outside as the sun set behind a far-off horizon with a basket full of crusty, warm bread to sop up the sauce.

And just when you thought I couldn't paint a more delightful picture of [food-provoked] happiness, you must have forgotten (or not known) that I baked last night after my post!

I called them macaroons, but Hannah calls them Coconut Drop Cookies.  They just magically appeared in my inbox one day, courtesy of the VegNews e-newsletter I get monthly.  Okay, the cookies themselves did not magically appear, but the simpler-than-pie recipe sure did and it took very little time to pull all of the ingredients together and make my kitchen smell amazing.

The best thing about these cookies (besides everything) is that the recipe makes 10.  That is a totally manageable number of cookies.  I really don't like cookie recipes that yield a tremendous number of cookies (unless it's the holiday season - any holiday season - and I'm baking for a crowd) because they make too big a mess and then I have too many cookies anyway.  Ten cookies?  Well, we'll get through almost half the first night and they'll be gone by tomorrow night.

They have the most amazing flavor.  Like I said, they are super simple to make, so please do yourself a favor and click that link.  Make these cookies and enjoy them with a tall glass of nondairy milk.  I rarely drink soymilk because it does have kind of a weird aftertaste when you're drinking it solo (I use unsweetened original - no flavor and no added sugars), but these cookies are so rich and flavorful, I dare you to try to eat them alone.  Actually, I don't - why mess it up?  Just enjoy with a cup of coffee or your favorite nondairy beverage - there are two delightfully contradictory flavors that come together in a way that enhances each: the tropical sweetness of toasted coconut and the spark of salt from an unusually large measure added to the recipe.

Dear Lord...I think it's time for dessert.

kind of like toys, but better

What a great day! It was bright and sunny all day, right up until I got cocky enough to leave my umbrella in the car...at which time it commenced to pour. But in all seriousness, I did have a good day. Due to a truncated work schedule, I spent a little bit of time (and money) at the 2nd largest mall in America. I'm not a big mall person, but I will admit they have their purpose in the wilds of Suburbia: containing a solution to just about any need a person could have under one (skylighted) roof.

I would like to preface my shopping conquest with this short justification: inasmuch as a person can actually "need" the following things, I did - I don't make frivolous purchases. In fact, I had already spent way more time than was probably necessary mulling over two of these three things. So let me show you my booty!

I have a not-so-secret crush on Martha Stewart.
I also hate her because she's always right.
I can't remember what I was trying to crush/grind/obliterate, but Mister was appalled to learn we did not own a mortar & pestle. We do now!
I am so in love with this apron. I have never had an apron before, because as I mentioned a few posts ago, I could barely boil water (and had little desire to) 5 years ago. I think this is a great first apron.

I absolutely love that Macy's has an entire section of their housewares department devoted to Martha. I just stand in the middle and look all around me at that familiar robin's egg blue and know how much green paper I could lose if I don't move soon. Nevertheless, I always take a moment to savor the Domestic Goddess Heaven I snuck into. (I got the mortar & pestle and apron at Kitchen Kapers, though.)

Angst absolutely loves to lick the Macy's bags.

Moving on... tonight was Peppered Pasta night. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I started gathering my bounty of rainbow-colored veggies, so I grabbed a little Gala apple while I was in the crisper and added it to the pile in need of scrubbing. I wish I had gotten a picture of the peppers all sliced up before I started cooking them - they were beautiful and so vibrant! I'm about to give you the recipe, but let me just say that I used one of each color pepper available (green, red, orange, and yellow) and I couldn't be happier with the way it looked. It's purely aesthetic, though - once you cook all the peppers together, they pretty much taste the same.

I did get a shot of the tomatoes because they were so red I couldn't get over myself.
the peppers sizzling away, just before adding the tomatoes
(I think the blurriness is from the steam)

Dinner! So tasty.

Peppered Pasta
about 8 servings
Ingredients:
12 oz pasta (I used a mixture of cavatelli and mostaccioli)
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
4 multi-colored bell peppers, seeded, cored, and thinly sliced
3 plum tomatoes, seeded, cored, and thinly sliced
28 oz can of Italian Stewed tomatoes
19 oz can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
splash of white wine vinegar

Cook pasta in large pot of water, according to package directions.
Core and seed peppers and tomatoes, then cut into narrow strips.
Heat olive oil on medium-high. Saute garlic and peppers, covered, 7-12 minutes, until very tender and wilted, stirring occasionally.
Uncover and add tomato slices. Saute 2-3 more minutes, uncovered, until tomatoes start to break down. Remove from heat.
Drain pasta and return to pot. Stir in pepper mixture and cover.
Combine stewed tomatoes (with juices), rinsed cannellini beans, garlic powder, salt, and vinegar in a blender/food processor and pulse 8-10 times until mostly smooth, but a little chunky.
Add to pasta and toss to coat.

two days, two dinners

Last night was a bit of a busy one - dinner came out slightly better than expected, but between cleaning up and then doing some housecleaning in order to take full advantage of trash night, I ran out of time to share my cooking adventures. So tonight you get a double dose of delightful dinners!

Last night I made Farro pasta with Sunshine Sauce. I enhanced our fun little meal with Isa's Tomato Rosemary Scones (from Vegan Brunch). They were soooooo good. Mister had three with dinner! They were super simple to make, too, as scones go. I have to admit - mine ended up being more in the likeness of drop biscuits because I don't have enough counter space to knead dough, so I just stirred it up really well (but not too much) in the bowl, and then put 12 scoops of the dough on baking sheets and tried to form them into something more interesting than blobs of orange dough.
The farro pasta was one of the gifts from my father-in-law and that (seemingly) long ago visit to DiBruno Bros. I've seen recipes for farro (the whole grain) but I've stayed away from it, primarily due to my impatience for slow-cooking grains. I believe I read that farro is the longest cooking grain and there were even recommendations of soaking it overnight. However, the package of farro-flour pasta said it only needed to cook for 6-8 minutes. I cooked it for 8 minutes and it was most definitely "al dente" if ever a pasta was! Anyway, I had been trying to think of a fun way to use this pasta since we got it and the package recommended a light sauce to let the farro's flavor shine through. I may have failed at the "light" part due to the overpowering amount of garlic I included (I amended the recipe below), but at least I was able to appreciate the texture of the pasta, if not the actual taste. The focal point of this recipe is the sauce, but I will give you the whole of our dinner (sorry for the crappy picture - we were too hungry to take pictures before dinner, so I just got a shot of the leftovers).

Farro Pasta with Sunshine Sauce
about 6 servings

Ingredients:
8 oz Farro pasta (spaghetti)
16 oz roasted yellow peppers
30 oz cannellini beans (two 15 oz cans), rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp garlic powder (originally 1 tsp, but that was really too much)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable broth

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
large head of broccoli, cut into florets

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Heat oil on medium heat in a large saute pan, add garlic and saute 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add broccoli and cook 3-5 minutes, until broccoli is a vibrant green and still crisp, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, combine cannellini beans, roasted yellow peppers, salt, and garlic powder in a food processor/blender; pour in vegetable broth in a steady stream while the food processor is running. Drain pasta and return to pot, stir in cooked broccoli. When sauce is completely combined and smooth, pour over pasta and broccoli and stir well to coat.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter (dinner) two
Tonight I made Black Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Coconut Cashew Rice from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy. This is a family favorite (well, Mister and me anyway, not so much Angst) and while it was cooking I had a few compliments on the delightful scent wafting into our living room. Okay, I'm really making our home sound better than it is - the only separation between our kitchen and living room is that the tile floor stops and the carpeting starts. We have had conversations from one end of the apartment to the other without raising our voices.

Anyway, enough about my itty bitty home - it has four walls (with no more holes) and the a/c works. I can't remember when I got the aforementioned cookbook, but this recipe was one of the first ones I tried and has endured to become a regular in whatever rotation we may have. I don't really have any stories - it's one of those recipes I've made so many times I'm only about one or two more times away from not needing the book. However, I will say this, and it is actually related to my mini-vent about our tight quarters.

When you don't have much space, you can't have big things. You also don't really want to accumulate more things, because you (we) barely have room for what you (we) already have. That being said, one of the very first things I am going to do when we DO have more room is get a huge saute pan. The one I have now is great, but it's not very big, so there isn't much room for the food to spread out. I have come to the conclusion that until I have a huge (hopefully All-Clad) stainless steel or copper saute pan, I will never have tofu with a black bottom. There just isn't enough space to allow the syrup to form...what ends up happening is more like brown-braised tofu. It tastes great, but I really feel like we're missing something by not having the black bottom...nevertheless, here is our tasty tofu dinner:

Coconut Cashew Rice (so good)
"black bottom" tofu with pineapple chunks, red bell pepper, and carrots
such a pretty dinner!