Dinner was so unexpectedly good I wanted to share, but now that I’m typing I realize a significant issue with this: no sane person would go through the individual processes that I think are what makes this dish rock–the mix of pre-marinated leftovers, i.e. green beans and walnuts in basil dressing, crowder peas in whatever I made those in, tossed with red quinoa and topped with broiled tofu, and left over parsley/scallions. A little white wine vinegar and tomatillo salsa (for him) and cilantro chutney (for me) pulled it all together. Awesomeness without the dishes in 30 minutes or less. In makes me wonder: has anyone ever written a cookbook where you use yesterday’s dinner in tonight’s masterpiece?
Summertime, and the cooking is easy
Though I can get a little, um, over-anxious about food when entertaining, my mental energy level last night required a strategy shift for the sake of sanity, so this time I went with a “let the food do the work” theme. I didn’t even run to the grocery. If I didn’t have it, it wasn’t going in. With 60 minutes to work, what might our fridge produce? First course was corn soup (blend some corn kernels with a bit of milk and add salt and pepper and fresh chives on top–thank you, garden supply!), the last three carrots in the drawer cut into sticks with the left over basil dressing “artfully” drizzled over top (skip complex preparation and hide beneath… Continue reading »
Let Us Eat Cake
We raised a glass and feted Rebecca, the birthday girl, here in Charm City this past weekend. I am slightly ashamed to say that the birthday girl basically baked her own celebratory cake, but after a quick comparison of culinary track records and kitchen disasters of recent memory, it was pretty obvious that the only way it was going to be awesome was if one of us (ahem) stayed out of the way, so we rolled with it. I did minimal damage by annoying the pastry chef with my camera and adding a few festive sprinkles to the finished product. Now here is RW with the inside scoop on the baking process and how it ended up so tasty. . …. Continue reading »
Crunchy: Hippie Granola
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I have had this beauty stashed in the kitchen pantry since Christmas. (Thanks, mom-in-law!!) Not being a household of regular pancake eaters, no occasion for maple syrup ever seemed “special” enough or large enough in required quantity to warrant cracking the seal on 32 ounces of sugary liquid gold. And then it was as if the bar for opening our little keg just kept getting higher and higher with each passing month. This morning, however, I went looking for a granola recipe big on interesting nuts and grains and low on sugars and dried fruit (gummy bear-chewy is not my palate’s preferred texture). It took a little Googling before I found one that suited… Continue reading »
Lock Your Doors (August Bounty Edition)
There was no plan for today’s market shopping and cooking adventure, and so I played a little fast and loose with the recipes as well. Most notably, even though it still seems way too early for squash, a pretty little curry squash turned into an impulse buy. I intended to make a black bean and squash dish and a nice chilled squash soup, but in the end there was a lot less squash than I though I was going to have, so I kind of just blended it together in a bastardization of this winter standby. Cilantro chutney and yogurt perk it up for summer. Also got some ginger and raspberry vinegar going so that shrub drinks can be manufactured… Continue reading »
Old World Charm
While waiting for the bus back from the Waverly Farmers’ Market in Baltimore this morning, I watched in awe as a terribly frail older gentleman called out to a “young lady” (who herself must have been in her 70s) and offered her his seat on the bench. No other seated customer moved an inch, so he slowly hobbled over to the side of the road and carefully lowered himself, hand over hand down his walker, onto the curb just a few yards away. Thankfully, he soon got a place back on the bench and well out of the path of oncoming traffic, and I headed home tangentially enriched by his example of generosity as well as by my two sacks… Continue reading »
