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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is here! I can’t believe that it is the end of November. I can’t believe how dark it gets so early.
And yet, I am thankful that the fall weather has been mostly wonderful. The last time I wrote, we were without power for multiple days following a freakish end-of-October snow storm that pummeled New England and left hundreds of thousands without power.
Well, the power came back for us after 3 and a half days. My parents were without power for even longer. I feel fortunate that the weather wasn’t colder or it really would have been miserable. In fact, most of November has been unseasonably warm. We’ve had multiple weekends in a row with temps in the 60s. It has been lovely.
The leaves finally had a chance to play catch-up and turn and fall from the trees. We are almost done with our raking—hopefully with the long holiday weekend upon us we’ll get a chance to finish up the yard work. I still want to do one last fertilization of our new lawn.
In the meantime, I am gearing up to make some Thanksgiving dishes for multiple feasts tomorrow. I love cooking and baking for the holidays. I find it all very creative and inspiring, especially since I haven’t done as much cooking this fall as I usually do. I have been poring over recipe books and scouring websites online for ideas. And here is what I think I will be preparing.
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges courtesy of Real Simple
I still have a bunch of carrots in the garden, but with the temps beginning to get colder, especially at night, I’m ready to harvest the lot. So I think I will make Honeyed Carrots and Oranges courtesy of Real Simple. It looks like a delightfully yummy and easy dish! I am thankful that I am still able to cook using ingredients straight from the garden!
I am also going to make some sort of casserole dish—probably a variation on the “traditional” green bean casserole that uses those fun crunchy onions. I think I’ll add some thinly sliced shallots.
I’m also making a few desserts. I have gone back and forth on what to make, but ultimately I think I will make my very favorite—Swedish Apple Pie. You can find my recipe with photos on how to make the best Swedish Apple Pie here. Instead of honeycrisp apples, I will be using a combo of Granny Smith and Cortland.
I am so looking forward to hanging out in the kitchen tonight to do some baking!
I am very thankful to be able to take some time off to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to see family and friends in town over the next several days. With the holiday season kicking off, it’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of doing and the stresses that seam to infiltrate our day-to-day. This year I’m going to take it slow and easy and relish each day. It is really such a short season after all. It’s meant to be enjoyed.
Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Tags: autumn, baking, carrots, gratitude
Posted in Cooking Adventures, The Daily Balance, The Growing Season | No Comments »
tomato basil mozzarella salad
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
No shortage of tomatoes going on around here. We are eating them all the time. I love all the different types of tomatoes we are growing, including several varieties of heirlooms. One of my very favorite dishes is a simple tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad.
It is so easy to make. Slice up whatever tomatoes you have on hand. I have been using combinations of yellow pear, orange grape, mortgage lifter heirloom, and japanese black trifele heirloom. Gently toss with some good-quality organic extra virgin olive oil, a dash of sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and freshly chopped basil.
Potted basil plants on our front stoop.
Add some pearl-sized fresh mozzarella balls and gently combine.
And you are done. A great end-of-summer side dish. Also fantastic on top of a garden salad or as a bread topper.
Tags: basil, gratitude, heirloom, summer, tomatoes
Posted in Cooking Adventures, The Growing Season | No Comments »
grilled portobello mushrooms
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
What a great weekend it has been! The weather absolutely cooperated, and it was just beautiful out. Sunny and breezy. We went for a 25-mile bike ride into Massachusetts to explore the lovely town of Groton yesterday. We hung out with family celebrating Father’s Day today. And we grilled! So thrilled to have the grill clean and working and ready to go on hot days like today.
It took hours to clean the inside and grates a few weeks back, but it was well worth it!
One of my favorite things to grill is portobello mushrooms. They are healthy and relatively inexpensive, and they make for such a hearty and delicious salad topper. I start by buying organic portobellos and marinating them. My favorite way to marinate them is to lay them gill side up in a pyrex baking dish. Then I combine roughly 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil with 1/2 cup balsamic and rice vinegar and add some herbs I have on hand (oregano, basil, parsley) and pour over the mushrooms.
Then I squirt a little mustard on each mushroom and a dash of soy sauce. Sprinkle with some dried rosemary, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. Cover and put in the fridge for a few hours to let all the flavors soak in.
To cook, preheat your grill on high and then use tongs to place mushrooms on the grill, gills up. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes and then flip and grill for another 8–10 minutes. You can baste the mushrooms with any leftover marinade.
Once they are done, place them on top of your favorite spring/summer salad!
Greens, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, broccoli, red pepper, red onion, broccoli slaw, and grilled portobellos
Did you grill anything amazing this weekend? I am always looking for ideas.
Tags: gratitude, organic, portobello mushrooms, salad, spring
Posted in Cooking Adventures, The Daily Balance | 1 Comment »
how to make socca pizza
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Socca pizza! Divine. Ridiculously delicious. Hearty. Filling. Healthy. Gluten-free. From chickpeas! Have you heard about socca pizza? If you haven’t you are in for an amazing treat. I am IN LOVE with socca pizza.
The gist is this: it’s like making your normal homemade pizza but instead of using a pre-made crust or made from wheat-based flour crust, instead you use chickpea flour… aka garbanzo bean flour. And there is no yeast involved either!
To be honest, I had never even thought of cooking/baking using chickpea/garbanzo bean flour until a few weeks back when my friend Katie mentioned chickpea flour on her amazing blog Bistro Katie. She is a vegan at-home cook, and she is always coming up with delectable veggie recipes! Katie had mentioned socca pizza on twitter, and I began to do my research. Turns out the Italians and French have been cooking with chickpea flour (besan) for ages and have mastered the socca pizza. Well, of course they have! Now I am just wishing I had come across a socca pizza in my travels to Italy over the past few years.
I love homemade pizza. Love. Love. Love. I usually make my pizzas using pita bread, but I am always open to trying something new. So I read a bunch of different recipes online for how to make a good socca crust, and I settled on A Mingling of Tastes for my inspiration. Awesome blog, too! So here is my adapted socca pizza recipe from A Mingling of Tastes (which I have now made twice… so there are photos from both pizza nights here!)
How to make a socca pizza:
In a mixing bowl combine:
• Roughly 2 1/2 cups of chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour — makes 2 oven-proof skillet pizza crusts or 1 cookie sheet pizza crust
• Dash of salt
• Dash of freshly ground red pepper
• Dash of garlic powder
• Dashes of your herbs of choice… any mixture of rosemary, thyme, parsley, basil, oregano
• Generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
Whisk the flour and whatnot all together. Then slowly add 2 1/2 cups of water to the flour mixture, whisking to combine. Keep mixing and whisking to break up any flour clumps.
Then let the chickpea flour/water/herb mixture “rest” for at least 30 minutes. This works out perfectly because while it is resting, you can pre-heat your oven to 450°F and begin chopping veggies for your pizza!
When your oven is close to getting pre-heated, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to either two oven-proof skillets or to one rimmed cookie sheet and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to heat up.
Take out your pans before the oil starts to smoke. Then you can either add the oil to your socca crust mixture that has been resting, or pour the mixture equally into the skillets (if you are using two) and gently work in the oil (similar to making corn bread). Then pop your pans back in the oven and bake the crust for 15–20 minutes.
Take the crust out when the time is done or once the edges are browning and the center is cracking and firm.
Oven-proof skillet version
Version 2: socca crust cookie-sheet style
Once your socca pizza crust is ready, it is time for toppings! Any of your favorite pizza toppings will do. You can use sauce, pesto… you name it! And whatever veggies and/or meats you love.
We like to use organic pizza sauce (pre-made and easy!)
Now add your veggies!
For the skillets we used broccoli, roasted red and yellow peppers, minced garlic, tomato, yellow onion, zucchini, summer squash, turkey pepperoni
Our second go-round with the cookie sheet socca pizza, we went all-veggie and used spinach, red onion, yellow onion, broccoli, red pepper, tomatoes, and green olives.
Top the pizza with your favorite cheese if you like, and bake at 450°F for another 10–15 minutes or so until the cheese is melted.
Using a pizza cutter or spatula, gently cut the pizza into slices, taking care not to harm your pan.
I think I prefer making socca pizza using a cookie sheet because then you only have to deal with one pan. But whether or not you go the cookie sheet route or two oven-proof skillets, you should have enough pizza to serve 4. And the best part about cooking for just 2? Leftover socca pizza!!!
Tags: organic, socca pizza, vegetables
Posted in Cooking Adventures | 6 Comments »
tuscan white bean with kale soup
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
As you may know, we make a gigantic batch of soup pretty much every week so that we have delicious and nutritious homemade meals ready to go for work lunches every day. This week we made a hearty Tuscan White Bean with Kale Soup.
Where did the recipe come from? I am not entirely certain. It started with my Mom I think. And from there we have sort of experimented and altered it here and there. But the basics are always the same.
The core to any good soup starts out with a base of sautéed carrots, celery, white onions, and garlic. We make huge batches of soup (10–16 big servings) so I usually begin with a dozen organic carrots peeled and chopped, at least 10 organic ribs of celery chopped, 2–3 large organic white onions chopped, and 8 or so cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped.
These all get sautéed with extra virgin olive oil in a large stock pot for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Then I add 3 large jars (cans work, too) of diced/chopped tomatoes and 64 oz. or so of small white beans (dried or canned). If they are dried, you will want to cook them ahead of time so soften them up.
Once the tomatoes and juices and beans are added, cover your whole base with enough water to give everything breathing room and bring to a boil covered. Then simmer on low for at least 20 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, take a gigantic head of kale and chop it into bite-size pieces. I always use the kale stems, too—they give the soup a decent heft and fiber blast.
Chop off the very ends of the kale to add to your compost, and then chop up the kale stalks like you would a broccoli stalk. You can add the kale stalks right away to the simmering soup mixture to give them time to soften up a bit.
After roughly 20 minutes have passed, add the kale leaves along with your favorite pasta of choice or a red quinoa. Turn the soup back up to high, cover, and bring to a boil again.
This time we added half a bag of rotini spinach and tomato pasta that we had on hand. I broke the pasta into smaller pieces before I added it to the soup. I add the kale into the soup in handfuls, stirring it in a handful at a time.
Once you add the pasta and kale, you will need to add more water so that the pasta has room to cook and expand. I add 2 cups at a time and keep on stirring. You can make your soup more or less thick, depending on your individual taste. We like a thick, hearty soup, so I start with adding maybe 6 cups of water and stir away. I want there to be decent motion with the soup, but I want to be able to pull up a hearty scoop of veggies, beans, and pasta, too.
After you add the kale and pasta and water, then you can mess around with adding herbs. I always add a generous amount of thyme. I don’t measure it, but I would guess at least a teaspoon or two. I also add generous shakes of basil, oregano, rosemary, freshly grated black pepper and freshly grated red pepper.
Once the soup comes to a boil again, turn it back down to medium low for 12–14 minutes to give the pasta a chance to cook.
Keep an eye on your soup—if it looks too thick and you think that beans or pasta are going to get stuck on the bottom of the pot, add more water.
If you get busy and forget about the soup, that is okay, too. You can turn it down to low and let it simmer. The longer it goes, the more all the flavors have a chance to meld and blend and get to know each other.
Once the Tuscan White Bean Soup with Kale has had a chance to simmer for a while, I turn it off and take off the cover and let the soup cool. Then I ladle it out into individual pyrex serving bowls with covers for the week.
Easy to grab-and-go from the fridge for daily lunches!
P.S. If you feel compelled, you can substitute veggie broth for water. I tend to just use water because I don’t notice a huge difference. Plus, most veggie broths have a lot of added salt. Using canned or jarred tomatoes tends to add enough extra salt anyway. It is ultimately your choice though. Feel free to experiment and mess around! That is the beauty of making homemade soup!
Tags: beans, carrots, celery, garlic, kale, onions, soup, tomatoes
Posted in Cooking Adventures | No Comments »