the summer vegetable hit parade

This is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever displayed in my blog:

 

I feel like I have finally regained my cooking mojo, and, even more impressively, my healthy cooking mojo. I have several sources to thank, one of which is at last buying my own groceries and living in a wonderfully healthful place where the farmer’s market is cheap, walking everywhere is easy, and the people around me all dig health too. Believe me, many North Carolina posts to come. Life is good here!

Let’s wind down some pictures from back when I lived in the somewhat exhausting DC suburbs. I was finding joy in soaking up my last days with the family (and CAT!) for a good long while. I was making delicious food for them.  As an added bonus, when I feel like cooking delicious and healthy food, I also feel like photographing it. I feel like my cooking creativity has finally reappeared!

So back to this layered fusion-type business:

(That upside down flip flop in the background of the picture is obviously a deeply meaningful postmodern symbol. I’ll let you come up with your own interpretation).

On to the dish. Beginning with the eggplant.

To make eggplant any good without involving extraordinary quantities of fat, you must salt it. Just slice it, spread the slices out on a cutting board, liberally salt both sides, and let ‘em sit there for awhile.

You’ll note some condensation.

  

Once that’s happened, brush the slices with a clean kitchen towel, then wipe them with olive oil. It obviously tastes better with quite a lot of olive oil; and don’t skimp too much even if you’re fat preoccupied because they’ll just be dry and grody.

Under the broiler with them, til they look like this:

  

Meanwhile, make yourself some chickpea flour batter. Any respectable socca recipe (I used Mark Bittman’s from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian but the Internet is riddled with additional ones) will do. I seasoned this less aggressively than I do when I’m serving it straight up, so the flavors wouldn’t compete too much with the other ingredients in the stack o’ goodness.

 

To get tortilla-like shapes for layering with my veggies, I cooked the batter in a skillet, like you would pancakes. The chickpea flapjacks came out surprisingly adorable. I now understand much better how one could make injera at home.

Then I threw together an exceedingly quick sauce with basically just olive oil, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. And so the layering could begin.

 

Simultaneously fancy looking, healthy, and dead easy, this is a technique that I will be incorporating into many other recipes. Chickpea flapjacks+veggie layers= boss. I think tahini sauce may be in the future, too…

 

Certain people named my boyfriend left an ENORMOUS bag of kale in my refrigerator when certain people left town. ENORMOUS. Like a SLEEPING BAG FULL OF KALE.

Fortunately, I have two words for you: kale pie.

Leftover phyllo dough? Don’t mind if I do.

 

Filling can include any of your desired combinations of:
- Kale (duh). At various points I reappropriated leftover kale chips and leftover steam kale into my kale pies, and both worked brilliantly
- Eggs (or egg yolks made into a custard with milk)
- Cheese (parmesan, goat, or feta would be nice; but I used cheddar one time and that was tasty too)
- Fresh herbs of your choice, with parsley being a very nice choice
- Lemon zest or juice
- WALNUTS! Give it a nice extra shazam

I first used phyllo dough because it is reminiscent of classic spanikopita for this recipe, and had also been languishing in my fridge for quite some time. However, in a later version I made a homemade whole wheat and olive oil pie crust and it was mighty delicious too.

I photographed this pie immediately after it came from the oven, so it was steaming quite powerfully. But you get the idea.

   

More summer goodness to come, from the state with Carolina blue skies!

i heart summer vegetables

Title is self-explanatory, though ever so slightly ripped off from another blog!

Let’s do a bit of case study here, shall we? We begin with pristine farmer’s market lima beans. 

 

I do as many photoshoots as possible on the deck to capture its lovely natural light. This always amuses my cat, who starts nuzzling the camera.

 

Being in a soup mood, as I am often inclined to be, I decided I wanted something cold, creamy, and herb-y.

This is not a recipe (though get excited, as there are two recipes- real ones!- below, but an approximation. I feel like it’s worth it to share an approximation, if it produces something wonderful with lima beans, as so many people are oddly scared of lima beans. I promise, they are good this way!)

Basically:
- Cook ‘the beans til they’re tender. In whatever. I used chicken broth cause I had some languishing in the fridge.
- Let them cool a bit and puree them with their liquid.
- Add creaminess, if desired. Pureed beans, especially starchy ones like lima beans, already do a pretty good job of making a creamy soup, but since I had some buttermilk in the fridge I opted to add that too, which made it even creamier and contributed a welcome tang, which leads me to…
- Add flava! I added copious amounts of the wonderful fresh basil growing on my deck, lotsa salt and pepper, and lemon juice

It. was. greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat! 

I enjoyed the soup over a course of a couple of meals but I wanted to highlight a delicious lunch I had, joined by my sister. The soup was a highlight, of course, as was an enormous bowl of guacamole, with homemade tortilla chips dunked in it. My sister, demonstrating the balance in her life, included in her lunch a plate covered of two totally crack-like substances she brought home: both chips. One bag of apple chips. One bag of kettle cooked sun-dried tomato parmesan potato chips. Gahhhh.

Anyway, we both focused on the guacamole. Love us some avocado.

 

And now, I have not one but TWO recipes highlighting delicious summer vegetables! It is a joy to share them, as well as somewhat of a relief that I have not completely forgotten how to be healthy. I had been inclined to believe, for awhile, that my health related to food was on an upswing, at least to the extent that my emotions connected to my eating habits. Then, blessedly summer returned and I threw myself with gusto into preparing the wonderful produce of the season. Groove=back.

We begin with…

Greek Style Green Beans

1/3 cup olive oil
1 small/medium onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic
1 T tomato paste
1 lb fresh green beans
1 large heirloom tomato (or 2 normal sized tomatoes), chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 cup water

Wash green beans, and with a knife or scissors, trim off the tips at both ends and any coarse strings that many remain.

In a large dish like a Dutch oven, over medium heat, cook onion in olive oil until translucent. Stir occasionally. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for an additional minute, stirring often, until they are evenly distributed through the onion. Add green beans and cook for an additional minute, stirring often, until they are evenly coated with the oil.

Then add remaining ingredients. Increase to high, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the green beans are tender, about 30-40 minutes for thick green beans like the ones shown above. If you want the sauce to be thinner, remove the lid of the pot for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.

Notes:
-The olive oil is present in large quantities. It is what gives the dish the majority of its flavor, and is authentic to the Greek origin of the recipe. If you make it with less olive oil, it will be less good. And olive oil is good for you. And you’re eating green beans, for heaven’s sake, so just add the whole 1/3 cup of olive oil, okay?
- I used the broad green beans available at many a farmer’s market this time of year. I was filled with delight when I saw them because they looked exactly like the green beans I ate with such gusto in Greece. You are, of course, welcome to use regular green beans. They will just cook for slightly less time. I also used a heaping pound of the green beans. In other words, the proportions aren’t set in stone.
- The allspice is present in small quantities because it has a distinctive, strong flavor. I love it in here, but any other herb, fresh or dried, would be great, too. If you are adding fresh herbs, of course add more than 1/4 tsp.
- Add water based on how saucy you want your final beans to be. This is a great dish for soaking up with bread or rice, but if you’d rather have a more basic side dish without a lot of sauce, you can add a lot less water.

This dish tastes like GREECE! Also, summer.

  

Since certain people’s boyfriends were leaving town, this certain person’s boyfriend left behind an ENORMOUS, almost COMICAL amount of kale in his beloved girlfriend’s kitchen. She rose to the occasion (oh, she rose. Just wait. This post is I Heart Summer Vegetables Part 1, friends), but there was just a TON, man!

Meanwhile, another ingredient I squealed with delight to see at the farmer’s market was fresh fennel.

I got out my scary dangerous trusty mandoline and made some thin slices of the good stuff, knowing they were destined for greatness.

A salad seemed a wise choice, and also a delicious one, combining the wonderful crunchy, licorice-y splendor of fresh fennel with the earthy bitterness of kale. I feel slightly silly writing a recipe for salad, and yet this was wonderful and I wanted it recorded so, if no other reason, I’d have it for the next time I myself wanted to make it.

Crunchy Kale, Fennel and Apple Salad

5 cups shredded kale
1 large green apple, very thinly sliced
1 bulb fennel, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup walnuts
2 T olive oil
the juice of 1 large lemon
1/2 T honey
2 T apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Combine kale, apple, fennel, and walnuts in a large salad bowl. Whisk together oil, lemon juice, honey, and apple cider vinegar with salt and pepper to taste. Toss the salad gently so as not to totally pulverize the apple slices!

Bonus: unlike some kale salads, this was just as good the next day or two. It might’ve been good after that, but we just ate it so quickly…

balancing lunch

Being on a student schedule, I usually get to eat lunch at home. Suuuuuuuuuch a luxury! I’ve had too many jobs where lunch was a ten-minutes-at-my-desk-or-a-meeting affair. Having a (relatively) slow and relaxing lunch is a really nice way to work some self-care into my day. AND, as such, I want it to be balanced and leave me satisfied. Here are some recent lunches!

Lunch #1: The McGriddle (hahahaha not. But hear me out).

 

So my little sister is the master of microwave-cooking eggs in a mug. She taught me how to do it (relatively) well. So I take an egg, THOROUGHLY whisk it in a mug (key) and microwave it with some waxed paper on top for a minute, stirring halfway through.

Then I put it on a salad with greens, chopped apple or pear, and goat cheese. And THEN, put a little MAPLE SYRUP on top. Thus, egg+cheese+maple syrup=McGriddle!

Hahaha I know it’s BS. But this is a really good salad.

  

On balance I’m going to give it a B-. Delicious and healthy, but I probably snacked a good amount later since it was pretty low-cal and I just generally feel fuller when I have grainy carbs with lunch.

Next lunch: Count those food groups!

 

The savory portion of the meal was kind of a mini-version of the grain bowls I’ve been lovin’ on lately. Quinoa, black beans, kale, mushrooms. Topped with avocado for healthy fat/general bliss.

On the sweet end, chopped apples with Greek yogurt and cinnamon. A silly revelation that you all will think is super vapid: for years I put yogurt in a bowl and fruit on top. But if you put the yogurt on top of the fruit… it doesn’t stick as much to the bottom of the bowl! Another deep thought from my blog. You are so welcome.

   

Enjoyed with flowers! Nice and filling, this one. No complaints.

Third lunch: Veggie extravaganza!

I love how simultaneously nutritious and overflowing this plate is.

Let’s do a lap, shall we?

Going clockwise from the orange section, we begin with oven-baked sweet potato fries. Next, the last of some leftover brussels sprouts cooked my favorite way, which have been popping up all over the Internet (jk that’s my bff’s blog! check it out!). For the protein and healthy fat element on this plate of carbs, we have some Trader Joe’s refried black beans topped with some beautiful sliced fresh avocado (tip: Costco has the best avocados. I think they are absolute rubbish at Safeway, Giant and Trader Joe’s). Finally, something rather special: kale chips made with TAHINI. Dude. Try it. Kale and sesame are a match made in heaven. Just make sure to bake your chips on a low temperature and keep an eye on them, because they get crispy faster… then promptly transition to burnt.

It seems unfair to grade this one on balance, cause cmon- it’s a beautiful thing to have your entire day’s veggie needs in a meal. That being said… B+ rather than an A because I was hungry for a snack not too long after I ate it :) Don’t care, still delicious, still awesome for me.

 

kale kale kale kale kale!

I have been craving kale in an intense way lately, which makes me found like far more virtuous an eater than I actually am.

The perfect kale salad contains:

-kale (duh)
-avocado
-lemon juice
-crushed red pepper flakes
-honey
-sunflower seeds

In the quantities of your choosing.

 

It keeps okayyy… not great.

But can be revitalized for a delicious (so delicious I ate it two days in a row) work lunch, with the additions of fava bean puree (or hummus or something normal) and crushed rosemary Triscuits (!).

Oh my word, Triscuit croutons are IT. Perfect crunch and the herbs rounded everything out beautifully.

   

Mostly I’ve been cooking kale, though, because we don’t have avocado and I have yet to create a truly satisfying kale salad without avocado.

Also, this is the easiest thing ever:

Put kale in a cooking thing.

Pour on a little bit of mushroom soy sauce (we got it at the Asian grocery store and it is absurdly delicious and makes absolutely everything you add it to also delicious).

Put a lid on the cooking thing.

Microwave one minute.

SO EASY! And it makes for a chewy texture which I at least really enjoy. And my loved ones hopefully enjoy. They are just going to have to, because I will not stop making this, because it is SO EASY.

Also whenever I have acorn or any reasonably thin skinned squash I just cut it in slivers, toss it with olive oil and whatever spices I feel like (good combos: cumin and paprika, or brown sugar and chili powder), and roast it til its tender.

In this particular meal, a nicely refueling post-gym combo with some lazy tofu. I think I just cubed it and tossed it around a hot pan with some barbecue sauce?

  

Lazy is the name of the game these days.

Life is wiping me out. Creativity is a little low.

The main variation has just been the cooking thing in which I cook the kale.

 

I always cook parsnips the same way too- peel, cut into fry shapes, cooking spray and seasonings of choice (nutmeg and Parmesan, a tip from my aunt, were GREAT!), and bake til tender.

With chicken my mom made. I’ve been lacking the patience to deal with raw meat lately. This was delicious, though: chicken breasts with balsamic vinegar and garlic.

Barley is great because it’s a whole grain and it cooks as fast as white rice, basically. I know quinoa does too but to me eating quinoa is like eating air. Barley' is chewy.

If you cook it in chicken broth it is super awesome.

Back to kale, it is also great because it adds virtue to any meal.

Like leftover pizza. And leftover squash soup (God, some people go on low carb diets, their lives must be so awful).

 

Anything new and exciting I should be doing with kale? That takes… like, ten minutes max?

christmases

Wakeup! Christmas Morning! Woohoo!

Oh… it’s 7:30. Oh… my entire family is asleep. Oh… we’re going to church before we do anything and that’s at 10.

Do some yoga! (I think I did yoga on Thanksgiving too? My practice is basically confined to major holidays when I wake up before anyone else)

Make some gluten free shortbread for our Celiac-disease afflicted friend who wasn’t actually at church but I was happy to give the recipe a trial run before its debut at our party next week!

Went to church!

Went home!

Presents with nuclear family!

Hop in car!

Arrive at Kathy and Tom’s. Park self next to unbelievably amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing fireplace.

  

Was delighted to see my wonderful family members, and think of those who weren’t there (that Keep Austin Weird mug, which I immediately nabbed, was a gift from my cousin Rachel, who with her hubby Richard and her parents and sister are still in Austin, with Richard and Rachel’s BABY! Who I want to meet, STAT!)

And it was nice to catch up with everyone in a delightfully low-key and relaxed and fun brunch, the spirit of which I think is nicely evoked in my cousin Steven’s bacon frosting.

Obviously, food was present in mammoth quantities, laid out in a beautiful spread.

 

I probably would’ve eaten a bagel…

Except instead there were biscuits! Done in the Cook’s Illustrated manner.

Kathy is a GREAT cook! I spent the first part of the morning interrogating her about where she got all her recipes cause they were so good :D

She’s also my most devoted blog fan. She said “So I was reading your blog the other day and went ‘Colcannon? What’s that?!’” And I interrupted and went “Ooh it’s so good you should make it!” and she said “I did! And the other recipe you posted that day!” SO FLATTERING.

Onto what else Kathy made- breakfast casseroles! One with jack cheese and queso fresco sprinkled atop, and one with sausage (and it was bliss to be reunited with meat) and DANG that sausage one was exceptional.

It had eggs and bread in it, and the interior was soooooooo perfect; tender, custardy, ethereally light and not at all dry or overcooked. A testament to eggs! (And sausage!)

How many awesome streusel-topped applesauce muffins did I eat? I am sort of not prepared to talk about it. And really don’t actually know… since I was mostly just slamming back streusel. (Slamming back streusel might be the title of my hair metal band’s first album…)

Our contribution: my mom’s Linzer hearts and my/my boyfriend’s gingerbread (after an adorably disastrous gingerbread house, he still had a tonnnnn of gingerbread dough yet, so I made adorable little men. Thanks, adorable man, for enabling me to do so!)

 

Thoroughly overwhelmed (in a good way) by the riches laid before me, I began with a leisurely mimosa and a cup of tea. And coffee. And tea. And water. And tea (I try to consume a lot of fluids at these things to minimize stuffing my face too much. In the case of the muffins, I happily conceded defeat).

I love mimosas so much. (And now giggle and think about the My Drunk Kitchen version)

My first of several plates. Half a muffin (ha!); taste of both casseroles as well as some cheese grits made by my aunt Nan; grapes (many more were consumed), a delicious layer of smoked salmon, tomato, and capers; biscuit; a smoked oyster. I. Love. Christmas.

 

(Nice legs, sis!)

Highlights of conversation at Christmas was learning how to say something unprintable in Farsi from one cousin, having another cousin urge me to visit her in Amsterdam and travel throughout Europe because “It’s still fondue season!”, and having yet another cousin urge me to practice forklift driving in a parking lot.

My family is awesome.

Gag gifts of note (nerf guns are basically mandatory at our family events and you generally have projectiles whizzing by at some point in the proceedings!)

 

BUT WAIT!

Though I’d definitely eaten enough for an entire day (or three…), it was in fact only 4:30 or so when we left the cornucopia of deliciousness and fun that was the Mom’s Family Brunch.

Now (children of divorce, who else is familiar with this syndrome?) the Dad’s Family Dinner!

Let’s start by admiring how frickin’ adorable me and my little sister were back in the day:

The evening began, like many on both sides of my family, with artichoke dip.

I snort every time my dad refers to it as “his” famous artichoke dip… since he definitely got the recipe from his ex mother in law.

Think I’ve written about it before, but it’s just jarred artichoke hearts, cheddar cheese, garlic and mayo. So simple, so delicious!

Bodie (looking like a little sissy in his bow; but he was totally proud) begged incessantly throughout the Christmas activities and seemed particularly interested in this dip.

And Jasmine was all ‘Oh please, I’m not waking up for that.”

    

We did a formaler (ish) sit down dinner.

My contributions:

1. Totally boss kale salad

Combine:

Shredded kale (I got mine at the farmer’s market the previous day. It was purpley!)
Craisins
Pecans (1 cup pecans, 1 tsp. oil, 1 tsp. dried thyme, dash of hot sauce, salt; roast til golden)
Dressing- a haphazard mixture of lemon juice, honey, mustard, olive oil, and cinnamon

SO SO SO DELICIOUS! The honey was key.

Also, pumpkin risotto. Made in my usual barley risotto style (see my recipage!) but with mushrooms added with onion at the beginning, roasted cubed pumpkin stirred in at the end, and a bit of thyme.

My dad, like any holiday he hosts (literally; he has done this for Thanksgiving) made lamb.

I. Love. Lamb.

(Note: the fact that the meat is browned, rather than still “baa”-ing, means that my dad horrifically overcooked the meat by his standards)

In a tribute to my (recently) late grandmother, my aunt Jeanie made scalloped potatoes. And, as my dad and I rather candidly pointed out later, while making us miss her and think of her, they were definitely BETTER than my grandmother’s. Still awesomely rich, but Jeanie did a great job of evenly slicing the potatoes so they were all perfectly cooked (rather than an occasional alarmingly al dente bite).

The plate. Went back for more salad and potatoes!

  

Also a tribute to my grandmother: English trifle!

Do people without roots in the British Empire eat traditional English trifle anymore? I’m talking sponge cake sprinkled in sherry, raspberry jam, peaches (canned; you know it!), custard made from Bird’s custard powder, whipped cream, slivered almonds.

    

So good! Multiply this by about five, *rolls eyes*

Then pressies and a minor miracle: the women on my dad’s side of the family, all with open eyes and a reasonably attractive expression!

My aunt Michele, me, my sis Malindi, my aunt Jeanie, and my stepmother Sally.

Merry Christmas friends! Hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as I did!