winning!

God bless Charlie Sheen.  That man is completely out of his mind, as well as touch with reality.  Unfortunately, I don't think there will ever come a time he will be old and wise enough to look back over some recent interviews and be embarrassed.  I think he truly believes he is winning (and since he's not dead yet, I guess he is).

Fortunately, everyone can win sometimes!  I would not classify my overall life as "winning" and I spend more time than I should dwelling on ways I've disappointed myself, but I've had a few great days lately (though some could definitely be better described as "bi-winning," thank you, Charlie).  Oh, and by the way - Happy May!

Last night, I issued myself another Basket Challenge, since I didn't go food shopping until today.  Well, let me back up - we almost went out to dinner last night, but then we remembered it was Saturday and we don't like crowds of annoying people falling all over the place while we try to walk to a restaurant.  Mister framed it like this: "Why don't we go out tomorrow night, when it's nicer out?"  It was actually cooler today, so.... anyway, I ran up to Superfresh to grab a couple of ingredients and then made a new recipe that I think requires at least one more making before I share the recipe, but I'll show you pictures:

So pretty and colorful while sauteing

Pretty and tasty, though it does need "something more"

So then, with PIFA over, taking with it all of my reasons to screw around and not be productive on my one day off, I did make my way to about a half a dozen shops today to accomplish various errands.  When I set out to start shopping, I wanted to head over to Williams-Sonoma before it closed - I "needed" a flat whisk.  I've been resisting getting one because I already have 5 whisks in various sizes, but I have made one of the items on our new menu before, using one of those 5 whisks, and let me tell you - it doesn't work.  I really needed a flat whisk to make this recipe work.  Here begins a small comedy of errors.

I walked out the door and headed west because as long as I was going that way anyway, I wanted to stop into Salon Sugar and make an appointment to cover up my grays before the upcoming wedding season.  That accomplished, I headed up to Spruce Street to catch a bus to Center City West because I wanted to save a little time.  As the bus was approaching, I pulled out my April Trailpass...and realized it was May.  I put it away and started my trek up to the train station where I waited in the longest line I've ever seen there (people overflowing from the serpentine pen!) and got my new Trailpass so I don't miss the train waiting in line tomorrow... anyway, since the station is only a few blocks from my desired destination, I just strolled down Broad Street, amazed at how clean it was after yesterday's huge PIFA street fair.

It's not every day you see a ferris wheel in the middle of Broad Street in Philadelphia, so I think a person could logically say the PIFA went out in style...

Anyway, after procuring my whisk, I headed across the street to MAC...I mean...I was up there anyway.... whereupon a nice young man with almost as much mascara and slightly less eyeliner than me proceeded to paint my lips with the "perfect" berry shade.  A few moments later and lighter of purse, I headed down to Whole Foods to continue the spending spree for this menu:

1. Penne with Spinach and Chickpeas in Garlic Sauce from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  I have had this book for years and neither Mister nor I have a clue where it came from.  We know it came home from one of his tours with him, but we don't know how it got in his bags.  Anyway, I have several favorite recipes in here that have been neglected while I played with my shiny new books.  I decided to blow the dust off the cover and flip through for some old-timey goodness.

2. Spicy Ragout of Vegetables and Tofu, also from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  Whereas I have made #1 on many, many occasions, I have never attempted this recipe, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.

3. Sloppy Joes from The Urban Vegan.  I am so looking forward to the new book coming out I kind of can't stand it.  So, while I wait, I'm revisiting some favorites from book #1 and living in the world-traveling, cosmopolitan faerietale world Dynise has constructed for me.

4. Granada Paella, also from The Urban Vegan.  This is my favorite Paella recipe and one of my favorites from the book.  I love the way it tastes and once everything it chopped and in the pot, I can just putter around my kitchen, say, sorting through and throwing out a week's worth of neglected mail.  Not that I would let something like that pile up.  Just a hypothetical situation...

5. Orecchiette con Broccoli, also from The Urban Vegan.  This is the recipe I "needed" the flat whisk for, provoking my travels all around Center City today (in the course of which I found a little hidden/secret kitchen toy store on Walnut St called Kitchenette.  Next time I have a ton of money and nothing to spend it on - yeah, right - I will go there for a shopping spree).

6. Punjabi Peppers and Tofu from La Dolce Vegan.  Just because it's been way too long since the last time I made this. 

Before I tell you about dinner, I want to introduce you to my new kitchen assistant:

Great company while chopping, dicing, sorting, and sauteing.

Tonight, instead of going out, I offered Mister a choice of cuisines (mainly because I couldn't make up my mind between 4 and 6), and asked him if he'd prefer Indian or Spanish.  Apparently, my husband is able to make the distinction between Mexican and Spanish, and therefore recognize how infrequently we eat latino food that isn't inspired by the southern-most tip of the continent, so he chose Granada Paella.

I'm so lucky to have such a pretty measuring dish to measure my one cup of diced red pepper! I don't usually measure the red pepper - I normally just get one pepper, dice it and call it a day.  However, my pepper choices this afternoon included tiny, misshapen, mutant peppers at Whole Foods or the hugest red peppers I've ever seen at Superfresh.  I figured two of the huge ones would equal the three normal-sized ones I had intended to purchase, so in order to make sure I had enough peppers for the other meals, I actually measured this time.  How could I help it when I have such gorgeous kitchen tools?

Doesn't that look delicious?  Believe me - it is.  Now that Mister and I have figured out the hidden location of vegan chorizo sausage, I will make it 100% true to recipe next time, but this time I still diced some Italian-style Tofurky, which is still awesome.

I may not have as much money as Charlie Sheen, or as much fame or nice things or notoriety, and I certainly don't have two "goddesses," but every bite of dinner tonight told me that I most certainly am "winning."

SIN & my BIG FAT Greek Easter

Do they still have the Seven Deadly Sins?  If so, I fear I'm going straight to Hell - do not pass go and do not collect $200.  How else can it go when my entire celebration of Jesus's act of reconciliation involved gluttony?  Well, okay, maybe not the whole celebration, but the part that occurred outside of the church.

After church, we dined with my in-laws (17 of us total) at Estia on Broad and Locust.  It was an extravagant affair to say the least.  Honestly, I would be lying (another sin, surely) if I didn't admit that my favorite part of lunch was seeing all of our family again - it doesn't happen frequently enough.  I'm pretty sure (unfortunately) that the last time I saw my parents-in-law was Christmas - and if that's not a sin, I don't know what is.  Mister and I had a little gift for our nephews, as well, and there is something priceless about watching children take turns pulling off the wrapping paper so they can share every part of the gift - they're good at being brothers.  So my true delight was in the people; my beautiful SIL, a cousin who brought his new lady friend, my little angel baby.  Of course, another priceless moment was when my father-in-law parked himself across from me, attentive waiter behind him, and asked if I would like some "voov," while making a drinking motion with his hand.  In my momentary ignorance, I thought he had learned a new Greek word for "drink," possibly "wine," but once the waiter nodded, noted, and walked away with my FIL, I realized he had just enlisted my assistance in drinking a bottle of Veuve Clicquot!  It helped wash down the huge amount of food that covered every square inch of the table (and some of the round ones) - fried zucchini, various spreads (baba ghanoush, muhammara, hummus, tzatziki) with bread, pita, and crudites, as well as amazing marinated peasant salads of red and orange tomatoes, red and green peppers, and cucumbers.  I barely had space for my entree and resolved, next time my entree will merely be a salad.  There were also three decadent, huge Greek desserts and Greek coffee.  I love Greek stuff - I'm so lucky to be married into this family!

After 15 hugs and kisses, we excused ourselves to run (in heels) to the train station.  We hopped on the train just as it was about to leave us, and 45 minutes later found ourselves in my dad's car.  Once we arrived at the house, I could finally relieve my purse of the jar full of rice, spices, and cashews that I'd carried to church and lunch.  Mom and a cousin were industriously chopping tomatoes for bruschetta while the littlest cousin hunted for plastic candy-filled eggs in my parents' verdant backyard.  While Mom and I started cooking, my dad showed everyone photos and video of me as an infant and toddler, then took the whole merry party down to the basement to play with his bordering-on-obsession trainset.  It takes up the entire basement.  He cut holes in the walls to let the trains go through "tunnels."  I told Dad he has to take this stuff down before he gets decrepit because I don't want to deal with it.  We all figured, though, that the littlest cousin, presently 2 years old, should at least be a teenager before this becomes an issue, so we'll just hire him and some friends for pizza.

Once the Black Bottom Pineapple Tofu on Coconut Cashew Rice (from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy) was done cooking, Mom and I set up the table and called everyone away from the fun to eat dinner.  My plate was delightfully colorful!

Taking up the majority of the plate was the tofu dish, accompanied (counter-clockwise) by a delightful strawberry-walnut salad my mom made, as well as an apple-sweet potato roast.  What a lovely springtime meal, don't you think?

So tonight is the first night of the new menu.  What menu?  Glad you asked:

1. Chili and Polenta Casserole also from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy, and hopefully, it comes together as quickly as they say it does, because this is going to be a busy week, methinks.

2. Pasta Marinara with Kale and Beans - although this will be accompanied by a new recipe for you (yay!), don't get too excited - it's going to be a cheater recipe (with a rockstar name).

3. Spring Vegetable Curry from The Accidental Vegan - why not?  It's spring and Mister Loves Asparagus.

4. Cajun Red Beans and Rice, also from The Accidental Vegan, because it's my fav-fav-favorite rice-n-beans recipe. 

5. Yakisoba, also from The Accidental Vegan, which was dinner tonight.

It's a little bit bland, but there is a subtle aftertaste of ginger and not quite enough garlic.  Of course, I wanted to use my new toy - a ginger grater, so I grated the garlic and I don't think I got as much out of each clove as I do when I press it.  It did a fantastic job on the ginger, though, so well done, Essene!  Best $5 I ever spent (especially after flirting with the $20 Microplane Special People Grater/Zester at Williams-Sonoma when I picked up the gifts for the nephews).  That $15 will go toward the Buy-Natalie-a-4qt-Saute-Pan fund.  Attempting to "toss" a pound of noodles with the veggies and sauce tonight in my 3-qt pan was quite an adventure and pushed me over the Suck-It-Up-and-Spend-the-$$$ edge.  After the rent gets paid :)

Eau de Allium

If I ever got famous enough to have my own perfume, there is a very big part of me that would want to call it Eau de Allium, especially if the source of my fame was my culinary [mis]adventures.  In case you missed it, Allium is the "scientific" Latin name for garlic, and that is the scent I am most likely to ooze through my pores for the next few days (at the very least).  Once again, I offer my apologies and condolences to my colleagues and new hires...but not my regrets, nor my repentance: I'll do it again.

Apparently, in 2007 there was some huge stink (tee hee) about the prevalence of garlic in Italian cooking.  I totally missed that, and I'm glad, because I love love love garlic.  Mister's exact words upon his first bite of dinner tonight were, "That's a lot of garlic you have there, lady!"  Meh.  I guess, if you consider a whole head a lot...

I'll come back to that, though.  Last night, we finally had the Mediterranean Rice Salad from One-Dish Vegetarian Meals.  The vinaigrette I poured over the rice salad before refrigerating for 30 minutes to let the flavors meld and set contained only a conservative 2 cloves, but since it was raw, you could taste it even more intensely than the 10 cloves in tonight's dinner.

It was very simple, easy to put together and it tasted phenomenal.  This is absolutely the kind of recipe you just want to tack to your refrigerator so you can just pull it out at any random and necessary moment.  There were not many ingredients, which allowed the ones that were there to shine and play off of one another.  I used twice as many roasted peppers as I was "supposed" to, but it worked out perfectly.  Mister's only request was that the next time I make it, I make it earlier in the week so he doesn't have to resist the temptation of oil-cured black olives he isn't allowed to eat, and then he acted out a short vignette of the olives beckoning to him whenever he opened the refrigerator and his attempts to resist.

The vinaigrette was primarily olive oil and balsamic vinegar with some garlic, salt, basil, and lemon juice.  It was also supposed to have oregano, but I was not trying to choke on my salad.  It saturated the rice perfectly - not too much, just the right amount, with a delicious sheen of oil on top of each little grain.  I grated a half cup of fennel into the mix as well, but it really didn't stand out - it must have been one of those behind-the-scenes players that made the whole thing amazing.  It smelled fun!

Anyway, tonight we had Orecchiette con Broccoli from The Urban Vegan.  I didn't make this too long ago, but there was one substantial difference: this time I used fresh broccoli.  It wasn't perfect, but it was a vast improvement.  I also got to use a new-ish toy, my butterfly whisk by Kuhn Rikon to mix the white miso into the garlic-olive oil "sauce.

I don't think it worked nearly as well as this ubiquitous "flat whisk" Dynise apparently has, and uses for this recipe.  At the moment, my home is too small for one more whisk - I have four already.  Besides, I'm trying to save (find) room for the 4-quart All-Clad saute pan on sale for nearly 50% off.

Natalie, would you like to purchase this 5-star rated piece of cookware you already know you need and want for $110 off its original price?


Yes, yes, I would.  *doe eyes at Mister*


Anyway, with the fresh broccoli and allowing the garlic to saute for a long time, the result was actually a much more flavorful dish that met with both mine and Mister's approval.  It's fortunate we've hit a little cold front this week, because I would really feel bad if I was sweating out all this garlic...er...Eau de Allium near my colleagues.

baba ganoush: the new superhero

Eggplant is Public Enemy No. 2 in my home (Mushrooms have taken the No. 1 spot), at least as far as Mister is concerned.  I suppose if you really want to think about it, Meat is really number one on our Least Wanted list, but if you look further down that list, you'll see things like "eggplant" and "sweet potatoes" and "squishy wheat" scribbled hastily in Mister's nearly illegible handwriting.

So it might appear that I was setting up an old-fashioned Western showdown, complete with spurs and sagebrush (and maybe a few tumbleweeds for good measure) when I selected our dinner tonight: Chickpeas in Eggplant-Tahini Sauce from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. 

If we want to skip directly to the fairy tale ending, it was Mister waiting impatiently to eat and then having seconds while stating with enthusiasm how good dinner was.

If you'd like to know how I did it, keep reading - I'm full of devious schemes to deceive my husband and make him eat everything he hates.

Not really, actually.

My "trick" was simple: Baba Ganoush.  This hummus look-alike even had Angst begging for a taste when I set down our bowls and garnered an emphatic thumbs-up from Mister.  I whisked about 4 oz of this roasted and pureed eggplant dip into the tomato-tahini sauce, along with two huge and unnecessary cloves of garlic and possibly a tad too much salt.  I would like to apologize in advance to my new hires and any colleagues who visit me in my sequestered station tomorrow - I fear I will smell like garlic into the first part of next week.  Sexy.

In addition to the chickpeas and kind of in place of the eggplant cubes, I thought julienned carrots would make a nice addition and round out the meal's nutrition profile.  Okay, I also wanted to play more with my newest kitchen gadget.  I do think they made the meal more attractive, though, than a saute pan full of chickpeas simmering in a chunky, gooky sauce.

To go alongside (and on top of) dinner, I made this simple salad of marinated tomatoes and cucumbers.  It was much better tasting than I thought it would be (since I don't normally care for raw tomatoes) and it was so pretty, with flecks of chopped fresh parsley sprinkled throughout.

glamour shot

boldly going where I haven't gone before

The last two nights, I've made a couple of recipes I had looked at previously but didn't feel courageous/ambitious enough to cook.  My recent feelings of creativity somehow manifested themselves into bravery and allowed me to step out of my "regular" recipes in a couple of books I've had for a while and see the recipes with new and anxious eyes.

Last night, I made Penne with Asparagus and Spring Herbs from the Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  You can see that it is fairly attractive, despite the "cream" sauce.  I'm not sure that came across the right way: so that I don't alienate my cream sauce-loving readers, it's not that I don't like cream sauce, but it tends to mute the colors of the dish and has the potential to make it look slimy.  See Exhibit A (above)...

It was tasty, though it had that impression of "needs a little something."  Turns out that something was salt, which we added at table.  Mister also sprinkled his with a very generous helping of Parmesan and shared a tidbit with Angst.  I'm not very good [yet] about tasting and adjusting simmering sauces, but I'm downright negligent about doing so for blender sauces.  Since the recipe advised adding salt and pepper "to taste," I just skipped it and figured we could add it later, which we did.

Here are my happy steamed carrots and asparagus before I drowned them in the herb and poached garlic "cream" sauce (it was made by pureeing silken tofu with the vegetable broth in which I poached the garlic).  You'll notice (my mother and I hope) how perfectly uniform my julienned carrots are.  I did NOT buy one of those very handy bags of "shredded" carrot that come that way - I used my birthday toy for the first time and it was awesome!

Tonight, there were no fancy kitchen gadgets (unless you consider tongs fancy).  I made Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu from Veganomicon accompanied by Garlicky Kale (but no Tahini Sauce) from VwaV. 

How adorable are the tofus?? I actually almost skipped this one because I didn't feel like dealing with the breading, but I'm so glad I did it - both dishes were so good!  The kale was dressed in just the perfect amount of olive oil and sauteed garlic - it needed absolutely no augmentation.  Mister was completely enthralled with the tofu, which I invariably count as a victory.  When he came to the table, his remark was "Oh, that looks fun!"  As it turns out, my husband loves breaded things - who knew that's all I needed to do?  Granted, the crispy outer layer was exceptional as well as pretty, and the way it perfectly surrounded the little puffy cloud of tofu was pretty darn cool.  There is a part of me that is a glutton for punishment and would love to try this with silken tofu, for the complete smoothness and creaminess of the tofu within the crispy outer coating.  Something tells me the silken tofu wouldn't hold up through the dredging process quite as well, but it might be worth a try.  Stay tuned for more adventures!

I heart curries...and a few other things

Tonight I made the Chickpea & Spinach Curry from Vegan With A Vengeance. It's so good. We've had it before and the minute the ginger and garlic hit the olive oil and that satisfying sizzle reaches Mister's ears at the same time their aroma wafts to his nose, he's a happy hubby.
This tasty curry served as inspiration for my Savory Spinach dish. Follow the link if you want to see adorable pictures of Angst eating his spinach.

While I was cooking, I remembered a few other "favorite" things. I'll label these as Kitchen Toys I Can't (okay, can, but don't want to) Live Without

1. My Saute Pan. It's too small, generally, and it never lets the tofu spread out enough to get the full effect of Black-Bottom tofu, but I love it anyway. It's not as cumbersome as my big pot that is usually reserved for soup and pasta, but it gives the same surface area, and the straight sides contain food better than the sloped sides of my same-sized skillet.

2. My Martha Stewart Mixing Bowls. I just got them not too long ago, but honestly, I knew I needed them and now that I have them, I can't figure out how I got by before. I seem to recall struggling with a heavy glass bowl to sloppily fill my muffin cups or cake pans while hoping I didn't drop it. Besides making cupcake dividing more easy, they provide a more adequately sized Collector of Chopped Veggies, and when I line one with a plastic bag from a vegetable I'm using, they make great "waste bins" for pepper cores and tomato seeds and carrot tops, etc.

3. My Food Processor. Does this really require an explanation? Okay....sauces, spreads, "ricotta," dough, batter, soups - shall I continue?

4. My CoffeeMaker. Another appliance I feel defies explanation, but here it goes: there are few smells that make me happier than freshly brewed coffee (those smells are usually related to freshly baked bread or goodies). Also, I am a zombie in the morning. Ask my mother - it's a miracle I can make it to the kitchen without hurting myself (I do usually smash into the hallway walls on my way, though). So, there is something absolutely magical about surviving the short walk to the kitchen to find that my happy little coffeemaker has taken the initiative to have my coffee brewed and waiting for me. Again - I do not know how I lived before a programmable coffeemaker.

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.