Martha, Martha, Martha!

Do you feel like Jan just developed a lithp?

Have you ever noticed the subtle (or maybe not so subtle) kind of rivalry that exists between neighboring states?  Our schools are better, their cities have more crime, and have you ever seen those people drive??  I suppose it could be some instinctual and subconscious home pride that causes us to look down on our neighbors.  It could be that we are so accustomed to the way we drive that someone who drives differently is seen as a bad driver.  It could be that in our deepest heart, we know there's nothing more special about the place we call home (especially if living there wasn't an active choice) and have to specifically focus on why we're so lucky to live here instead of there.

That said, there are two things I know:

1. "Northern" magazines don't harp on living north of the Mason-Dixon line.  Don't get me wrong - I love my southern kin and indeed, the South itself, but something you cannot miss if you read Southern Living (and I do) is the insertion of that identifying adjective whenever remotely possible.
2. People from New Jersey cannot drive.  There.  I said it.  Like a good little Philadelphian pedestrian.  Deny it all you want, point back to my opening paragraph, but none of that changes the fact that every time I nearly get hit by a car while crossing in a crosswalk with the right of way, it is a car with a front-facing NJ license plate that tries to be my undoing.

I wasn't actually exposed to the "rivalry" between Pennsylvania and New Jersey until I reached college and met a bunch of people who were inordinately proud of coming from New Jersey.  When people are that "yeah, I'm from Jersey, it's the best thing ever, what're you gonna do about it?" it's easy to see why the people who are on their home turf (I went to school in Pennsy) feel the need to defend how awesome our state is and how lucky they are we let them cross the bridge (after all, you need to pay $3 just to escape from that state.... but not a penny to enter it).

Imagine my surprise that one of my domestic goddesses, someone who guided almost every step of my wedding preparation, and someone I love to hate (because I really love) and taught me a great deal about color combinations as well as complementary flavors, hails from New Jersey.  Martha dear, say it ain't so!

Years ago, when I was still figuring out how to turn on my stove and hadn't quite perfected the art of dicing a zucchini, I came across a recipe destined to become a favorite.  The first time I made Martha's Mediterranean Pasta was also the first time it ever occurred to me to eat artichoke hearts a) on purpose and b) on pasta.  I remember being pleasantly shocked by the way the cherry tomatoes and basil brought out a sweetness I had never noticed before, while the briny kalamata olives were the contrasting color (literally and metaphorically).

So, thank you, Martha, for inspiring tonight's dinner.  I can forgive you for being born in New Jersey.  After all, you did not choose where to be born any more than Mister had a choice in where his family lived throughout his formative adolescence (and yes, I knew that before I married him and consoled myself by telling myself he'd lived in Pennsylvania longer than he'd lived in New Jersey, therefore, he was not from New Jersey).

Pasta with Artichokes and Zucchini

4 servings

2 Tbsp olive oil

2-4 Tbsp vegetable broth

4-5 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tsp salt

black pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp dried organic basil

12 oz penne rigati (or similar length and shape of pasta)

14 oz artichoke hearts, chopped

1 medium zucchini, quartered and sliced thinly

4 large Roma tomatoes, diced

Cook pasta according to package directions.  If you start heating the water to a boil while you are preparing the sauce, you should be adding the pasta right before you add the tomatoes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium-low and saute the garlic for about a minute.  Add the chopped artichoke hearts and stir well to coat with oil and garlic.  Cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally so the garlic doesn't burn.

Add the zucchini and tomatoes; stir to combine.  Sprinkle on salt, pepper, and basil, then add 2 Tbsp vegetable broth and stir well.  Turn up the heat slightly and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If necessary, add more broth.

Drain pasta and then add to the vegetable mixture and mix well.  Cook for about 1 minute, then turn off heat and continue to toss pasta with vegetables until everything is well-combined.

Enjoy!  

PS. Rienzi pasta was on sale and it is really worth it even when it's not - the difference in al dente between store brand and Rienzi (or Barilla, for that matter) is notable.

adventures in pumpkinland

It's October.  The minute the month most associated with a deep burnt orange color ticked into being, before the last bell of a clock striking midnight faded into the darkness, food bloggers everywhere were already writing sonnets to show their love and devotion to pumpkins.

That is not what this post is about.  We literally went to Pumpkinland today.

We were greeted by these guys.  I have no idea if they serve any practical purpose or if they're just for decor, but a whole row of them "welcoming" you to Pumpkinland is both charming and unnerving all at once.

These "Jack Be Littles" on the other hand, are adorable.  I wanted to adopt them and take them home.

White Pumpkins!  Martha said they existed, but until today, I'd never seen one.  I stand corrected and now I want to turn them into candle holders.

We've been meaning to go to Linvilla Orchards for at least a month, but every time I had a day off, it was raining.  Today, though, there was (for the first time in a month) a 0% chance of rain.  I got up relatively early, met my dad for lunch at National Mechanics (they say they have the best veggie burger in the city - they may be right!) and a short walk around Old City/Independence Mall area, and after a quick stop into Superfresh on the way home, I grabbed Mister and we headed out of the city and to Linvilla.

Linvilla Orchards is split up into a few different parts - it has acres of farm land where you can "pick your own" whatever (apples, pumpkins, berries, etc) depending on the season.  They have hayrides and special events throughout the year, but they really seem to put the most effort into Halloween.  We stuck to Pumpkinland and the Farm Market, but they also have various attractions you could expect at a county fair or something, including a petting zoo....not so fun.

Goose Gourds!  Can you see why?

There was a display of expertly carved pumpkins, too.  Here are some of our favorites:

Pumpkin Pi - get it?  Dorks.

too much Sam Adams Octoberfest?

In addition to bins and bins of pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes, including squashes for eatin', too, they construct a display with a theme.  This year's theme was faerietales.

Monster mansion w/graveyard.  What's amazing?
The sky really was that blue - it's not part of the scene.

not a faerietale character, but have you ever
seen a scarecrow that huge???

After all the outdoor fun, we were quite finished with squinting and uselessly shielding our eyes with our hands while making that completely unattractive scrunchy face people make when they squint in the sun.  We headed into the large glass house and were immediately greeted by a bin of "Wee Bee Littles" and Goose Gourds dressed up as...geese.  Someone has way too much free time (and is probably also a Martha fan).

Continuing our tour of Weird Stuff I've Never Seen Before, we turned around from the Floral-Clad Goose Gourd Army to see Snake Gourds.  I don't even know what you do with those.  Are they for looking at or for eating?

Finally, after getting some fun foods to renew our energy, we went into the Farm Market.  We bought a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff that is also fun.  Here is a small sample:

They have about 100 different hot sauces, possibly more.  Most of them are relatively mild, according to Mister, being made with jalapeno, habanero, or cayenne peppers.  Nevertheless, whenever we go, we get a new hot sauce for him to try to burn his own face off (all it takes for me is a stingy pinch of cayenne).  While contemplating the Wall O' Hot Sauce, he wondered aloud if there were any hot sauces made with Ghost Peppers.  I told him I thought that was probably illegal, so no, but then I plucked this guy from the shelf.

911 Hot Sauce is not made with Ghost Peppers, but it is made with Scotch Bonnets.  Neither Mister nor myself have ever seen a hot sauce made with Scotch Bonnets, so into the basket it went.

That this came home with us is one part October, two parts marketing.  Don't you want Old-Fashioned Ginger Snaps in a old-tymey lookin' bag?  We did.

Treats in hand, we headed back to the city and I started dinner.  I found that I was not actually interested in making anything on my menu tonight (mainly because I'd been running around all day, even if it was fun stuff), so I improvised a little.  We still had a ton of Mediterranean Stew leftover from last week, as well as two Tofurkey Italian sausages that needed eating, so I boiled some brown basmati rice, diced the sausages and sauteed them briefly before adding the stew to the pot, and then magically, dinner was ready!

Looks almost as hearty as the Harira I had been gearing up to make.  Also, I realized something when I opened the lid on the leftovers and for a brief, horrific moment thought the asparagus pieces were green beans.  My life would be so happy if a) we lived somewhere with plentiful, local (= cheap) asparagus (you know, like Scandinavia), and b) I substitute asparagus for every time a recipe wants green beans.

I don't really have anything against green beans, but asparagus is so much better.

Until next time, may you have apple butter wishes and pumpkin spice dreams!

reviving the classics

There are certain things we hold in higher esteem purely because we consider them to be "classic."  What does that mean, though?  How does, say, a recipe come to hold that special place in our hearts?  Is it a tradition behind the recipe?  Is it the author of the recipe?  Is it the publisher of the cookbook?  Also, what makes a cocktail a classic?  Philadelphia has seen a huge trend in "Old-School" bartending in recent years - everyone wants the "classic" cocktails.  Maybe it lends a certain sophistication?  But how did we decide which combinations of spirits were worthy of that title?  Is there something special about a gimlet or a martini or a manhattan that makes them stand out against a vanilla vodka & ginger ale?

The past two dinners have fit a classic-with-a-twist mold:

Everything about that picture makes me smile a big, Mediterranean smile - grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, and a bowlful of basil... you know it has to be good.  Last night, I made Mediterranean Pasta with Artichokes, Olives, and Tomatoes, from the April/May 2007 Body+Soul magazine, which should give you a hint as to why I consider this a classic.

Well, you know, besides the hint of how incredibly mouth-watering that looks.  This recipe comes to us courtesy of my dear Martha Stewart (I cannot believe she is nearly 70 years old - she looks terrific).  Martha is kind of like Betty Crocker, Donna Reed, and a little Dale Carnegie all rolled into one very successful woman.  She has built an empire around the many things she is good at and has earned the respect of many, so I consider things I learn from her to be classic.  Of course, the twist here is that it's hard for someone to be the inventor of "classic" things (it seems) when the person is still living. 

Tonight's dinner came to us originally from a classic red-and-white-checkered-tablecloth-covered Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, and by cookbook, I mean a three-ring binder with dividers for the different kinds of pilafs and puddings and pasta salads.  I really don't know how you expect to get much more Old School than that.  Anyway, I updated the culturally insensitive recipe for Spicy Black Beans and Rice and made Spicy Black Bean Burritos.  After sauteing my black beans and "mexican-style" tomatoes (AKA diced tomatoes with zesty jalapenos) for about 10 minutes, I added in the rice upon which I was supposed to serve this culinary treasure, along with a healthy dose of unspecified salt.  After allowing as much of the liquid to boil off as I could without testing the non-stick nature of my pan, I plopped the mixture onto a couple of whole wheat tortillas and handed Mister the hot sauce.

It's an easy "classic" and tastes so good that I had to force myself to stop after two so Mister and I can enjoy snacks with our movie tonight.  I did customize one last classic - the margarita.  I thought it would be Mexican fun to have a margarita with dinner, so I mixed together a bit of Skinnygirl Margarita with a Berry Lemonade Honest Kids juice drink - classic and classy.

It's pretty, though - pale pink with a bit of mist around the glass and a clear, small straw to help me be moderate...

Speaking of pink (the color of every Easter dress I wore for the first 15 years of my life), have a beautiful and blessed holiday tomorrow!

in the mouths of babes

My brother(-in-law) is getting married in 7 weeks.

That's actually a little mind-blowing because no one ever thought he would get married, but he is, in fact, getting married.  Not only is he getting married, but he will instantly become a step-father to 4 children, in addition to already being the father of his beautiful daughter, my little angel baby.

When my SIL-to-be posted something on Facebook about how awesome their cake is going to be, I had this Lightbulb Moment when I thought, "oh dear, I hope they'll remember we don't eat animals..." regarding reception food.  Honestly, I don't have much of a problem with salad and side dishes, but Mister gets supercranky when he doesn't get to eat "real food" (more in a minute) so since social occasions can be a stretch anyway, I really don't want him to be hungry, too.

Upon further reflection, I remembered that one of the children is a vegetarian and took comfort, since surely, that means they will remember to consider a real vegetarian entree.  Then I started to reflect on the strength of a 14-year-old to make such a decision and wondered how she came to that point in her life and started thinking of my 8-year-old nephew, who has also decided not to eat animals.  This is truly perplexing to the rest of the family, especially my parents-in-law, who cannot understand why he doesn't want to eat chicken fingers.  Fortunately, his mother is supportive of his decision, and of course, his aunt and uncle love that he is a broccoli addict, but I couldn't stop thinking there...no, my mind is a restless creature.

When so many children are making such a substantial decision, to eschew the eating of animals, I can't help but wonder what they are seeing or what they understand that eludes the general population.  I hear about children, mainly between the ages of 5 and 10, choosing a meat-free diet more and more frequently and I want to know why.  What information are these children exposed to that is helping them make this decision?  In their innocence, are they able to better understand the nature of "meat" better than adults?

It has been said, and I have observed, that children have a natural sense of evil - by that I mean some children have an uncanny sense of a person who might harm them or a situation that is dangerous.  I have seen children [who were not abused] shy away from the embrace of someone who was later found to be a pedophile.  I have seen unerring compassion from children towards animals and other children, even adults.  You hear amazing stories of children starting charities to give other children pets, or farm animals for sustenance, or raising money for cancer research.  You are acquainted with the stereotype of stray animals following children who then plead with their parents to bring the new fuzzball into their home.  When they aren't whining, children can be extraordinary creatures.

This is how my mind works.  I think way too much.

The only segue to dinner I can think of is this: SusanV, the author of tonight's dinner recipe, has a daughter she refers to on her blog only by her first initial, E.  According to Susan, E loves pasta.  Funny - my husband also loves pasta!  Smells like a segue to me....

Having been quite productive today, between food shopping, teaching, and cleaning up the kitchen, I actually had very little energy left to make dinner.  A shame, really, as I had intended to make a strange (in a good way) and time-consuming recipe that Isa just posted yesterday on thePPK.com.  Nevertheless, I knew Sicilian Market Pasta from the Fat Free Kitchen blog would be much better accompanied by my Montepulciano than the bizarro wheatberry dish, so I started a pot of water to boil.

I deviated slightly from the recipe mainly because it seems like she's just making things more difficult for herself by sauteing each individual component separately and also because I prefer my cherry tomatoes to be at least lightly sauteed.  As the name of the blog might suggest, Susan is at least a little bit focused on cutting fat and calories in her recipes.  She includes the Weight Watchers exchange for all of her recipes.

I have nothing [big] against Weight Watchers, but what follows will probably reveal that WW is not the weight loss company I work for... Mister and I were unanimous in our reaction to this dish: too many years of dieting appear to have robbed Susan of her tastebuds.  This recipe had so very much potential....with some tweaking, this could be a recipe to reckon with, although I think Martha has already perfected it.  There was way too much pasta for the "sauce."  It's possible she meant to use 1 lb of fresh pasta, but 1 lbs of dry pasta was WAY too much.  There was also more basil than anything else, which is fine, except that it doesn't melt into a sauce.

Also, chickpeas and spaghetti just don't mix.  It is profoundly difficult to eat them together.  It was an attractive, but very bland dish.  Since we didn't eat much, there is a whole dinner's worth of leftovers, so I may try to craft a real sauce and serve the leftovers with that one day when time is tight and/or I don't feel like cooking, but really, Susan...this was the Guaranteed Not To Suck dish...now I'm more than just a little concerned about the other two recipes I have on my menu.

Because I don't want to leave you on a bad note, I will share the most amazing link.  I don't even know how I found this - it was one of those amazing finds that comes as the result of multiple "click-throughs" from one website to another.  Some woman discovered some Weight Watchers recipes cards from the 1970s and was so repulsed (and with good reason!) she devoted a blog to sharing them with others.  I laughed so hard I couldn't breath - although I don't want to rob you of your breath, I do hope you laugh as hard as I did, because everyone needs a little ridiculousness in their lives.

Click here.  You won't be sorry.

ooohhh....the colors....

The last few days have found me quite impressed with a few accidentally gorgeous color combinations.  Because I dress primarily in black, a lot of people mistakenly believe I have something against color, but that couldn't be further from the truth.  I just don't want to wear it.  I love the way some colors work together effortlessly, one completing the other, like pale blue and yellow, jade green into hunter green, fuschia fading to a sparkling pink, even an overcast silver melding with snow white.

I also love colors that seem to be in complete juxtaposition, yet bring out the better qualities in one another by enhancing the other's "other-ness."  Marigold yellow and pewter grey, robin's egg blue with chocolate brown, and the understated standby, Black and White.  Although I enjoy the harmony created by like colors, or even multiple shades of one color, I revel in the competition between two colors that just should not be together, yet provide the proverbial yin to the other's yang.

This still life was far more fetching before I ate two of the tangelos, but can you see it?  Aside from knowing it's a bowl of citrus, there is no good reason (outside of some daring 1980s fashion) to combine lime green (lime green) and tangerine.  When I placed my citrus in the bowl, though, I was fascinated (and I think I'm about to bust into a Cure medley).  Last night, while I was prepping our dinner, I was similarly struck by the orange carrot and green pepper confetti in my saute pan before I added the sauce.

Tonight, we had Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives from The Complete Vegan Cookbook.  I love this dish every time I make it, which is why it found its way into our bowls again tonight.

You can't see it too well, but since I used deep purple kalamata olives with dark green lacinto kale, I got to play with another favored color combination.  Fortunately, the flavors and textures of these two foods show that their beauty goes far deeper than the surface.  By the way, I divide the blame for this love of color (in decorating and still life) between Martha Stewart and my Mother-in-law, who kind of worked together, inadvertently, on this.

Soon I will drift to sleep with visions of sugarplums and anticipation for the coming snowfall.  Nothing brings out the starkness of urban monotone like a blanket of pure white snow and it takes longer than you might imagine to dirty it.

special wednesday hummus

Tonight I learned two things:

First, it is much easier to devote your brain power to "what am I having for dinner?" when you don't have to bother with pesky side-thoughts like safely operating a motor vehicle.

Second, regardless of the privilege of devoting my whole brain to filling my stomach, I still didn't know too much about what I would eat by the time I arrived home.  I can't say I wasn't closer, but I still didn't have a definite plan beyond this: It would involve the sweet potato that has slowly been trying to sprout legs and run away.

I purchased the sweet potato at least a week ago and it has been sitting on my counter next to the recipe for which I originally bought it.  Sometime between buying the sweet potato and tonight, I lost my zeal for the recipe, kindly shared with me by a colleague.  She and I were swapping oatmeal strategies today while she was surreptitiously eating instant oatmeal from a coffee cup at her desk, and it might have sparked a renewed interest in the other recipe.



I have no pretty pictures, but Martha does. 


Tonight's dinner was Sweet Potato Hummus with pita wedges.  I was going to slice some celery sticks as well, but I was quite full by the time my pita got me through about a cup of this stuff.

It is a charming shade of pumpkin orange and covers a pleasant range of tastes from the exciting bite of raw garlic to the steam-enhanced sweetness of the yam.  It is a very simple recipe and I had everything I needed on hand.  I doubled the amount of garlic, as I commonly have to do with dear Martha's recipes and I added a total of 6 Tbsp of water to get everything full incorporated and to the right consistency.

It makes a ton, so I have about two cups in GladWare in the fridge, and I put some into a small to-go container for Spunky - she loves hummus and has admitted to eating an entired tub by herself in a night.  At least this one is a little lower fat.

curry, cookies, and cataclysm, oh my!

So.... 12-18 inches of snow ended up being 28.5 inches of snow when it finally stopped, sometime this afternoon. When I woke up today, the city was covered with snow up to your knees and it was still snowing and hard! Big, fluffy flakes danced chaotically outside the window, eventually descending to take their place with their peers along the streets and sidewalks of Philadelphia. To give you an idea of the accumulation plus drifts from the intense wind sweeping the snow hither and yon throughout the day, my car is black and my husband could not find it without using the key-fob to make it make noise.

I heated up some leftover "Spicy" Peanut Soup for lunch and tried to find it sufficient fuel to be productive on my snow day. I did call my students, just to be sure common sense had not eluded any of them and they weren't planning to hitch up the sled-dogs and come to their lessons. One mother answered the phone with, "You know you didn't have to call, right?" Then I began the process of eliminating the new pile of months-old magazines that built up, while doing two loads of laundry that desperately needed doing.

Ordinarily, my streets would never see a plow, but apparently the city made an exception considering the apocalyptic conditions outside. I'll tell you - they don't mess around when it comes to snow removal. I had the privilege of watching Dueling Backhoes dividing and conquering my neighborhood streets, all the while wondering how likely they were to inadvertently damage my car or make the digging out process even more difficult. Fortunately for me, Mister couldn't bear the thought of me breaking my poor twisted back trying to unearth my car, so he went out after dinner and did his best. I'm not sure how I feel about him coming back and saying "well, that's as dug out as it's going to get," but I'm glad I didn't have to do it.


So, dinner was Chickpea Apple Curry from my dear Martha Stewart. I always mess up the cayenne and render it almost impossible for me to eat so I thought this time I would substitute harissa for the cayenne. Unfortunately, I forgot that I thought that until after the whole melange was already simmering away, with its stingy pinch of cayenne. It came out alright though. Actually, since I didn't have any cumin, I substituted a teaspoon of curry powder and it really made a difference in the savory character of the curry - I may have to always make it this way! Mister was good-natured about the soygurt I mixed in. He compensated by adding hot sauce.
Since I was so very grateful to my dear hubby for finding and unearthing my car and since it was such fantastic baking weather, I decided to make Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
I have been obsessed with making these cookies since they did a few preview recipes on The Post Punk Kitchen blog. I love snickerdoodles. I love chocolate. What could be better than chocolate snickerdoodles?

Mister and I would probably disagree on the answer to that. I think he's pretty happy about the cayenne pepper that makes up the Mexican part of the title. I, on the other hand, could definitely do without it. The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon and I said to myself, "oh HELL no." I cut the amount in half, and when I had gingerly sprinkled half of that 1/4 teaspoon into the batter, I couldn't make myself put the rest in. As I sit here typing, munching on my cookies, I am really glad I had the foresight and self-knowledge to cut the cayenne by 75% - I wouldn't have been able to eat them. With 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne in the entire batter, which made almost 2 dozen generously-sized cookies, my face is actually starting to color and I can feel the heat in my cheeks.

Aside from my mouth being all on fire, though, they're really good cookies!

Praise Seitan!

Yes, I said it. Praise Seitan. I remember the first time I had seitan - it was in a Caribbean-style restaurant in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia called Azure. It's gone now, and that's a shame...I miss Azure - amazing grilled seitan, fantastic wine list, and a never-fail dessert menu. Mister and I went there for our first vegetarian Valentine's Day and went back whenever we could after that. It was, and remains the only restaurant in Philadelphia I would move my car to go to.

Don't get me wrong - Horizons is a very close second. In fact, it has two "edges." First, it is 100% vegan food - Azure was an omni-restaurant. Also, Horizons is only two and a half blocks from my home. There is no weather I can't walk through to get there.

All of this was actually necessary to show you exactly how happy I was about dinner tonight. I made the Jerk Seitan with Coconut Rice from Vegan With a Vengeance. I think Isa has officially replaced dear Martha in my affections. I think I've mentioned before that I really was not even remotely adventurous in my food choices in my younger years. I've generally attributed my willingness to try new things in adulthood to my vegetarian diet, but upon further reflection, I think it is my husband's influence. His sisters, my best friends, who arranged our whole courtship it seemed, swore that my husband could eat worms and they would look delicious. It's true - there is something in the way he eats that makes you want to eat what he's eating. I think even if he and I had never become vegetarians, he would have opened my eyes to a whole new world of flavors and foods. Maybe I would have even eaten whatever meat they usually marinate in jerk spices...

Last time I made this, I didn't have the patience to let the seitan marinate in the seasonings, so I just sauteed it in oil and made a sauce with the marinade ingredients. I can't remember ever being more wrong about something. Tonight, I found the patience to marinate the seitan almost as long as I was supposed to and I can't even describe the difference it made! The seitan was so tender, juicy, and flavorful. Also, serving it on top of the Coconut Rice made a great flavor combination - the subtle sweetness of the coconut milk contradicting and calming the very intense flavor of the marinade-turned-sauce coating the peppers and carrots and seitan. It also smelled great!
On another note, today was a sleepy day - it was rainy and miserable and Saturday. I got up when Mister went to work but couldn't get moving for hours. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do, but tomorrow is another day and since it will be nicer out, I will feel more inclined to be productive since a lot of my errands involve outside-time. I did get the menu done, though:

1. Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from VwaV. Yes, it was on last week's menu - I didn't get to it because I do not have broccoli. I still don't know how I missed that. Grocery shopping is on my To Do list tomorrow.

2. Garlicky Spaghetti with Beans and Greens from the August Cooking Light. I dare you to click that link and NOT want to eat the picture.

3. Stir-Fried "Beef" with Broccoli and Bell Peppers from the July Cooking Light. The recipe calls for real dead cow, but I want to try those beef stirfry strips by LightLife again - even in a stirfry this time!

4. Chickpea, Tomato & Spelt Soup from Body+Soul, an imprint of Martha Stewart's little universe. This looks like such an innards-warming soup...I squirreled the recipe away a while ago and I've just been sitting on it. This last week of October seems a good time for its debut. Body+Soul is a magazine I keep going back and forth on - on the one hand, I love Martha and I want to subscribe to a Martha magazine, but MS Living would break my heart with almost daily reminders that my home is too miserably small to entertain loved ones. On the other hand, though there are a lot of uplifting and helpful (think stress-relief) articles, there's also a decent amount of fruitiness going on. Also, I think this Dr. Weil character is a fraud. If he's not a fraud, he is way too fruity for my tastes. I just hate when celebrities "adopt" a pet doctor - I think it's Oprah's fault..."Dr." Phil ruined it for everyone.

5. Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. I don't know what made me think of it, but I remember nostalgically looking back on the first time I made this, over the warmer months, and thinking how awesome this would be as a late October meal. It's been a while, too, since I've sunk my teeth into my beloved polenta. Speaking of favorites - I get to have my pillow-soft polenta with it's crisp outer layer, drenched and warmed in a blender sauce made by my food processor.

In the midst of grocery shopping and donating and organizing and cooking tomorrow, I also plan to get some baking in, so stay tuned!

(you can just see the anticipation in his eyes, can't you?)

I want an IKEA kitchen

I've been spending way too much time in the 2010 IKEA catalog, but seriously - every kitchen looks so efficient, organized, and downright clean. My kitchen is actually pretty well organized for how little space I have, and I have been quite creative in adding storage space and effectively using the decently large cupboards. However, my space is far from efficient. There are times I have to move Mister's bike in order to open a door to an extra cabinet and extract the electric mixer, immersion blender, or 8x8 baking pan. My spices have long since spread out from the 3-tiered wall-affixed spice rack, as well as the pan into which I corralled the extras, and are now about to push each other off of the edge of the counter they have taken over. I have all but given up on trying to better organize my kitchen (and my home) because I recognize that there comes a point where no amount of organization, nifty gadgets, or extra shelving will conquer the unnecessary amount of stuff we have crammed into our home.

I can't wait until that fabulous day that we move. Oh, the purging that will occur along with the packing...it will be glorious!

Anyway, I probably should have checked the 10 day forecast on weather.com prior to planning this week's menu, though it probably wouldn't have done much good since I'm convinced they're just guessing. It appears (from the gorgeous 80-degree day we enjoyed today) that we have shaken the first cool-down of September and the first part of this week will be summer-like and wholly inappropriate weather for soup dinners. Fortunately (for me), another cold front is supposed to amble in mid-week, making the second half much more amenable to warming-from-within meals. While I wouldn't mind having soup for dinner just about every night of the cooler months, I think Mister would appreciate not having the three soup dinners I planned for this week three nights in a row, so we'll see how I can work that out.

I wanted to enjoy the day a bit because it really was beautiful out (and because sometimes I think if I stay in our tiny, dark apartment too long I'll scream or lose my crackers or something) and when I went to Whole Foods yesterday I saw that the bookstore across the street was having a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale. Also, I needed to try to find black beluga lentils. Having searched the dried and canned bean areas of 4 separate stores, I have come to the conclusion that only restaurants and Nava Atlas are able to purchase these tiny little legumes. The Spice Corner in the Italian Market alleges to carry them, but all I found where they were purported to be were French green lentils (which I also needed). Perhaps I will check back in later in the week. On to the bookstore!

Not surprisingly, my three books are cookbooks - here's the haul:
1. The Accidental Vegan by Devra Gartenstein - My eyes were drawn to this book because of reasons I mentioned previously about accidentally consuming an almost completely vegan diet. I will not say I am Vegan because I still eat yogurt and honey and occasionally cheese, and even if I forsake those things I will still say only that I follow a vegan diet. The reason is this: Presently, at least, I find the entire vegan lifestyle to be too extreme. I have already "deprived myself" of a lot of things in the best interest of human beings: I strive to purchase fair trade goods, I do not purchase clothing from stores or labels that have been confirmed users of sweatshop labor, I sponsor a little girl named Ruth in Zambia, blah blah blah. My reasons for becoming a vegetarian do not now and never did have anything to do with the animals. I think it's terrible how they are treated but I care much more for the impact of the meat industry on the environment and its greed-induced starvation of the hungry in our nation and others. It is my compassion for milk-cows and disgust with the unsanitary guidelines for milk-harvesting that have caused me to (generally) forsake dairy. On the rare occasion we purchase eggs, they are organic and free-range.

That was way longer than I intended it to be. The point I was getting to is this: my diet has been growing slowly more vegan than ovo-lacto vegetarian, so I thought I would give this book a look. As it turns out, not only is it thought-provoking, but it also has some really fun and inventive recipes (which is why I love vegan cookbooks) and an entire section of savory-sounding seitan recipes - in fact, they were the clincher.

2. The Vegetarian Cook's Bible by Pat Crocker - I loved this book because the first 130 pages are a comprehensive discussion of the various health benefits of vegetables and fruits, as well as some grains. The author shares how your diet affects each of your body's main systems (Cardiovascular, Endocrine, Digestive, Immune, Musculoskeletal, Nervous, and Respiratory) and then goes through whole foods from apples to zucchini, including grains, herbs, and spices along the way, sharing each food's health benefits (actions), uses, how to buy/store, culinary uses, and then points to several recipes in the book that use that particular food. It appears to also have some great recipes along with some killer food photos, but that is really an added bonus - I bought it for the first 130 pages.

3. The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau - Honestly, this one won my heart because I'm a sucker for entertaining and for entertaining page layouts. The subtitle, if you will, is "200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion." I figure it might help catapult me to my destiny as a less pastel, more animal/human-friendly Martha Stewart. The structure of the book is slightly confusing for my categorizing mind - there is no Soup chapter or Dessert section - it is arranged by menu, and therefore goes from the appetizer to the dessert of a specifically-themed menu meant for, well, entertaining. As I've mentioned before, I really do appreciate it when cookbook authors take the guesswork out of meal construction and just tell me what to serve with the main course. Each page is a pleasure to behold; in addition to the recipe, the author provides nutritional information, serving suggestions and variations, informational tidbits, and Compassionate Cooks' tips (how to get ham flavor without the pig) and Food Lore (like fennel and pomegranate seeds as ancient viagra). That was just randomly flipped to, by the way, and not the reason I bought the book.

I always make the same mistake, though: I buy new cookbooks the day after planning and shopping for the week's menu. Oh well, it will give me at least a week to carefully dwell on each one before making selections for next week's menu. I'm really excited about those first 130 pages of book #2, though, because of my fascination with nutrition and holistic health, so I plan to use it in bringing a bit more depth of thought to future posts.

In case you were wondering, we had Pasta Jambalaya tonight. It was very good and came together faster than my other two Jambalaya recipes, probably owing to the use of pasta in place of rice. I probably should have let the celery saute a little longer - it was a little too crunchy - it seemed out of place. It was tasty and fun but definitely higher in fat than my other recipes (due to the delightful Tofurky Kielbasa) and not quite as stick-to-your-ribs hearty. In the end, it was nothing to spend a lot of time babbling about (especially after how long this post is already), but I'll probably make it again. It's pretty, too!

I like my men like I like my rapini...bitter and green

Sorry. It couldn't be helped.

I took some of my cupcakes to work to share with my trainees (and a couple other lucky folks). One of my trainees said the chocolate banana cupcakes tasted healthy. I don't know how I feel about that, but both the chocolate banana cupcakes and the ginger-coconut-carrot cupcakes were very well received by my boss. Well received = wolfed down.

When I came home from work, Mister had been home for hours. He's been pretending not to be sick for days, but today it hit him at work and he came home, right after his boss sent him to some fruity Eastern-medicine-man who gave him some herbal pills. I'm all for alternative healing, and the last time he sent Mister to this guy for acupuncture it worked wonders, but Mister's description of his visit makes me wonder how the guy even knew what to "prescribe." Reading the ingredients of the pills, though, it looks like some kind of herbal detox with a lot of the herbs that probably taste too bad to put into my detox tea.

My idea of the perfect cure for anything that ails you? SOUP! So dinner was Hearty Peasant Soup and it was hearty alright! It was basically a tomato-based soup with plenty of beans and rapini (broccoli rabe). It came together quite easily and quickly, compared with some of my [beloved] Moosewood soups that take 2 or more hours to prepare. Mister laughed at my appraisal of our dinner, but here it is: it tasted very natural...smoky and green, which is a bizarre combination. I would almost say woody, but I don't know if I want to apply that word to soup. The rapini was quite bitter...I think I prefer it steamed in a soy sauce marinade, rather than simmered in a tomato-y soup...I think the soy sauce brings out the bitterness in a much more complementary way than the acidity of the tomatoes, combined with the pleasantly astringent flavor of the 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. I will make it again, but I think I will try to substitute kale for the rapini and make some hot, crusty, rustic garlic bread to serve alongside.

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.

Feast Day

Today was just full of tasty experiences! I feel like today was all about eating, but maybe I'm just more attuned to what I'm eating now, like I have to remember so I can give my oral report in class :)

I started my day with a nice bowl of perfectly ripe blueberries with Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt (plain). Last night, when I made the 'dillas, I had some stuffing left over and I thought it would make a great morning omelet for me and Mister to share. Unfortunately, after a month of 10-hour days getting me to work early, I'm having trouble sleeping in, so I just had berries - maybe we'll have the omelet tomorrow with some more of those juicy green grapes and multi-grain toast. I'll let you know tomorrow!

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post my plans for lunch today, but I'm pleased to report that I followed through and it was just as wonderful as I thought it would be (if not a little messier than I had hoped). I peeled the top leaf off my head of red cabbage and laid it as a bowl on my plate. I then proceeded to fill it with leftover chutney bulghur and sprinkled it with leftover chickpeas and just a few olives. I was going to chop them, but I was too lazy - I don't get many days off. Anyway, I attempted to roll it up, a la a burrito, and it was not havin' it. So then I figured I'd just "coax" it to fold in half like I do with pizza sometimes. No...that just caused a terrific amount of the bulghur and chickpeas to smush out the other side. I reloaded my little cabbage leaf and very carefully ate it like bruschetta. Still messy, but the best solution. I tried again with a second leaf and somehow managed to throw the bulghur between the table and the wall. I decided the best thing to do was sit at my table with my cabbage on a plate and my bulghur, chickpeas, and olives in their containers. I tore the cabbage leaves into fold-in-half-and-it'll-be-bite-sized pieces and then loaded each one up like bruschetta and pushed it into my mouth before anything could escape. So, it was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but it really did taste good.

A few hours after lunch, Mister and I took a walk down to the Italian Market. I visited the Spice Trader and got vanilla and peppermint extracts, brown sugar, and Swedish fish (for Mister). Then we went to Anthony's coffee house and got gelato, coffee, a roasted vegetable panini (for Mister) and a hunk of banana bread (for me). I had mint chocolate chip gelato and it was heavenly - the coffee was a perfect complement, too! Mister's panini arrived with a cute little bowl of pasta salad, which he gave to me - he also gave me the slices of roasted eggplant with which someone had "corrupted" his panini. I wished I had brought the camera, but again, it just didn't occur to me. After we enjoyed our treat, we walked home and then I went to the market to grab a few extra things I needed for dinner.

Dinner was wonderful - I made the Seitan and Polenta with Fresh Greens. It was so tasty! It smelled so good and was SO easy. I have to say, this Vegan Express book is working its way up my favorites list - everything I have made from there has been fast and easy. I have a couple of other books that promise fast meals, but this one really delivers! In addition to our main course, as I've mentioned, I'm trying to get better at side dishes. I was poking around online and came across one of the easiest things in the world and it sounded so refreshing, I had to give it a try.

Tomato and Strawberry Gazpacho - thank you Martha Stewart! You can follow the link to give credit where credit is due, but let me tell you the super easy recipe:
1 pound of ripe tomatoes
1 pound of strawberries
1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
1 blender or food processor

Voila! That's it. It took me about 3 minutes to put that together, including coring the tomatoes and stemming the strawberries. It was a gorgeous shade of rose pink (think deep, musty rose, not candy pink rose) and had a fantastically thick texture. I didn't get a picture because my camera battery died, and for that same reason I won't be posting any pictures tonight. However, there is some gazpacho leftover that I will probably dump (so gracefully) into a pretty glass and photograph tomorrow when the battery is all better, and then I will upload that picture as well as all the pretty things I ate for dinner and lunch.

I'm off again tomorrow and allegedly my air-conditioning will be fixed sometime in the morning/early afternoon. The reason for my extract and brown sugar shopping is a recipe I'm dying to make but I'm not trying to bake in this heat with no air conditioning. Also, I believe we're having pizza for dinner tomorrow, so the air better work!

I'm just giddy from what a great day today was. Pictures soon!