What I'm Eating

Artichokes

2008-04-20T19:10:00.002-04:00

We had artichokes with garlic aioli and balsamic vinaigrette tonight, and I have to write down the recipes before I forget what we did, even though they were pretty simple.

Artichokes

Boil for 45 minutes with lemon slices and garlic cloves

Garlic Aioli

Cut top off whole bulb of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with foil. Roast garlic at 400 degrees for 30-45 min.

Squeeze out soft cloves, mash, and combine 1:2 with mayo.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T dijon
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c olive oil
pinch of salt and bit of fresh ground pepper

Mix all but the oil. Whisking briskly, slowly pour in thin stream of olive oil.

cucumber salad

2007-08-15T18:59:00.000-04:00

I made it with cherry tomatoes, too.

Assembly Line Burritos

2007-02-03T10:54:00.000-05:00

We made a bunch of breakfast burritos to freeze this morning. They're cheaper than buying frozen burritos adn you can customize them any way you want. All you need is some tortillas, a can of beans, a dozen scrambled eggs, shredded cheese, some sauteed onions and bell peppers (the most labor intensive part - feel free to omit) and some saran wrap. The rest should be pretty obvious.

This afternoon we're going to do another batch with brown rice, whole wheat tortillas, frozen peas, shredded cabbage and carrots, tofu, and an awesome peanut sauce we got from our friend Amy.

1.5 c. peanut butter
1.5 c. warm water
1/4 c. rice vinegar
1/4 c. tamari sauce
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar (or sweetener of your choice)
1 large clove garlic pressed

Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth

Toscanini's: breakfast at the big table

2007-01-14T13:22:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned before how much I love their ice cream and pretty much everyone knows how delicious it is, but they also serve a little-known weekend brunch that is mind blowing, especially when you consider the taste-to-cost ratio. Last weekend Bill got a fried egg sandwich, and I had brioche french toast with orange rum bananas and creme fraiche. He digs the egg sandwich so much that it was a repeat from his last visit. I branched out a bit, but still stayed in the breakfast as dessert category - last time it was cornmeal pancakes with blueberry syrup, peach compote, and lemon cream (not pictured).

Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup

2007-01-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

We were gifted some blackberries yesterday (4 cartons for $1 at Haymarket, can you believe it?), so this morning Bill made blackberry syrup to go on our pancakes. Heavenly.

Soup and sandwich

2006-11-25T12:23:00.000-05:00

An easy, comforting fall meal: butternut squash soup with sauteed green onions, with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.

Apple Chard Quiche

2006-11-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

This was heaven. We were both surprised how much we enjoyed the nutmeg and the hint of sweetness from the apples in this unusual quiche. I first saw the recipe at this site, which reproduced it from Vegetarian Times.

I used soy milk and light cheese and left out the butter, since that was what was on hand. It would probably be even better with cream and full-fat cheese.

1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1 large Vidalia onion, thinly sliced.
1 cup shredded ruby Swiss chard
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup chopped apple
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup shredded Jarlsberg cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

Heat oven to 375 F.

Heat oil and butter in large skillet over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and saute onions until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
Add Swiss chard, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium and cook ,stirring often, until mushrooms and chard are suft, about 7 minutes.
Combine apples, flour and nutmeg in mixing bowl, and toss to coat apples. In separate bowl, combine eggs, milk and cheese and beat until blended. Fold in apple mixture.
Spoon chard mixture into pie crust. Pour egg, cheese & apple mixture over top.
Bake 35 - 45 miutes, or until custard is set and top is slightly browned. Cool slightly before serving.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

Marinated tuna steaks form Trader Joe's, red chard sauteed in olive oil with mushrooms and garlic, whipped sweet potatoes and bananas with pecan crumble, and homemade cranberry sauce.
Bill saw the sweet potato and cranberry sauce recipes on the food network during one of our recent flights and was inspired to make them. Both were easy. I've reproduce the recipes here, because I'm not sure how long those links will be good.

Cranberry Sauce

This is a very tart sauce, which we loved, but you might want to add more sugar if the extreme tartness is too much for you.

2 (8-ounce) packages cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 orange, zest cut into strips and juiced
1/2 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick Put all the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat and simmer until the cranberries burst and the sauce thickens, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve at room temperature or cool and refrigerate.

Sweet potatoes

Next time I would halve the amount of pecans, and probably forgo the honey and sugar altogether. It was delicious, but so sweet it was more of a dessert, and the pecan crumble was so bountiful it was almost like pecan pie on top of a bed of sweet potatoes.

5 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
4 bananas, unpeeled
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
Kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups pecans, choppedPreheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, put them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Toss the bananas into the pan and continue roasting for 10 to 15 minutes, until both the bananas and potatoes are very soft. Remove the pan from the oven but don't turn the oven off.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Peel the bananas and add them to the bowl along with 1 stick of the butter, and the honey. Season with salt and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything's well combined and the mixture is fluffy. Spoon into an oven-proof serving bowl and smooth the top.

In a separate mixing bowl, use your fingers to rub together the remaining stick of butter, the brown sugar, flour, and pecans until the mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the sweet potatoes and return to the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the crumbs are golden. Serve hot.

Spilt peas: baby and grownup versions.

2006-11-01T10:17:00.001-05:00

Isn't that an appetizing picture? It tastes better than it looks, trust me.

We just brought a cup of split peas and four cups of water to a boil, then reduced the heat, cover, and simmer for an hour. For Xander, we pulled some out, ran it through the baby food mill and added a bit of breastmilk to runny it up some. For us, we added a tablespoon of veggie bullion and chopped onion (which we normally do before boiling, but didn't want it in Xan's food). While that continued to simmer, we chopped veggie kielbasa and pan fried with lots of red pepper. Finally, we mixed it all together and finished it with pepper and a little salt.

Best Boyfriend Ever

2006-10-23T09:43:00.000-04:00

Breakfast Saturday morning: avocado cheddar omelette with salsa verde, homemade carrot muffin, grapes, and fresh squeezed o.j.

Shanghai Gate

2006-10-22T16:22:00.000-04:00

We tried this place in one of the best ways possible: a friend familiar with the food and the restaurant took us and ordered for us. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. So incredibly good.

Ginger Scallion Tilapia - supremely tender and flavorful whole fish
Seaweed Fish - strips of fish breaded in a seaweed batter and fried, with a thin, dark sauce. I'd never had anything like this before and was quite taken with it.
Four Treasure Tofu - this was black tofu (actuall dark brown) and had a chewy texture and breadlike flavor that was new to me. Served cold with some kind of black mushrooms and peanuts. Excellent.
String Beans in Garlic Sauce - with intense little beans (soy?) and salty mushrooms. Simple and perfectly done.
Fish Tofu Soup - nothing unexpected. Good but a little plain.
Sweet Corn Pancake - whole corn kernels, held together sparingly with dough, fried, and sprinkled with a little sugar. Deliciously greasy, without being drippy, not overly sweet. It reminded me of something you would get from a stand at the fair, only much improved.

Shanghai Gate, 204 Harvard Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Sweet Potato Pancakes

2006-10-01T14:50:00.000-04:00

A wonderful fall breakfast or brunch. We used this recipe.

Breakfast Nachos

2006-08-27T12:06:00.000-04:00

Bill made another stellar breakfast: fried eggs, monterey jack cheese, salsa, spicy refried beans, and avocado, with chips.

Chocolate Cupcakes

2006-08-01T11:10:00.000-04:00

I made a simple chocolate cupcake recipe with cheater from-the-jar chocolate frosting for Gina's birthday. We were low on cocoa powder - I only had about 1/2 cup - so they'll be lightly chocolatey. I'm taking them to her office in about an hour, so we'll taste them then.

The frosting says it can be stored unopened in a cupboard less than 90 degrees. Hahaha, I wish it was less than that here this week.

Carberry's

2006-07-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

Carberry's is one of our favorite places to spend a few hours. We'll stick Xan in the wrap and head to the promise of air conditioning and pastries. There is a dizzying selection: croissants with marzipan and powdered sugar, danishes with a pear half in the center, little cakes and cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, and several delicious Icelandic pastries, the best of which is the hekla, with the flaky layers of a croissant and the shape, spices, and icing of a cinnamon roll. Their sandwiches, hot and cold, and their mini pizzas are wonderful as well. Pictured are pain au chocolate, which has much more chocolate than most, and an intensely good blondie.

Bean and Egg Tacos

2006-07-30T09:03:00.000-04:00

Fresh tortillas and delicious salsa are really what make this perfect weekend breakfast meal spectacular. It's very simple: tortillas, refried beans, scrambled eggs, and salsa verde, piled on top of each other and eaten right away without waiting to make the next taco.

I used to think I hated corn tortillas, but it turns out I just hate the dry grainy nastiness of store-bought corn tortillas. The homemade version is heavenly and not as dificult to make as you might think. The only ingredients you need are an instant corn dough mix, like Goya Masarica, and water. You'll also need a neat little toy called a tortilla press. We have one from Huela, my Mexican grandmother. Bill prefers making corn tortillas to flour because he likes using the press more than rolling out the tortillas.

To make the tortillas, combine the mix and water acording to the package. We found the dough to be too gooey, maybe because of the humidity, so we added more mix. Mix it until it forms a ball, then let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Line the press with plastic wrap. Roll the dough into 1-2 inch balls and place balls one at a time in the press and squeeze. It sounds labor intensive, but it's really not that hard. Don't wait for all the tortillas to be cooked to eat. They're best super fresh, so have everyone hang out together in the kitchen and eat as you go.

For the salsa, we also like Goya. Their green salsa is tangy with just a little kick (or, depending on your tolerance a lot of kick, but we're not wusses). The eggs and beans are straightforward - I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Xantini

2006-07-26T16:57:00.000-04:00

Bill made up a new cocktail, and it's almost the exact color of Xan's hair. Tasty, too. Unfortunately, no picture. Maybe I'll get one the next time we have these.

2 oz dark rum
1 oz vermouth
2-3 splashes bitters

Shake with ice and serve in cold martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Zucchini Torte

2006-05-03T15:22:00.000-04:00

Bill's sister Terri gave us a great Mexican cookbook a few years back for Christmas. Everything we've tried from it has turned out delicious. This was the first time we tried zucchini torte, which you see here leftover and remade as a sandwich filling a la the tortilla espanola sandwiches we had in Spain. It was great like this, right out of the oven, or reheated. We doubled the cayenne to add a little extra heat. The modified recipe is as follows.

1 lb zucchini, sliced
1/4 c veggie oil
1 small onion, sliced
3 jalapenos, seeded and sliced
3 eggs
1/2 c flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 c jack or cheddar cheese
1 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp butter
salt

Cook the zucchini in the oil until soft and starting to brown. Set aside. Saute onions and jalapenos until soft and golden. Beat eggs and add remaining ingredients except butter. Mix well, then stir in zucchini, onions, and jalapenos. Grease a 9 inch pan with the butter (we used a glass pie dish), pour in the mixture and bake at 350F for 30 min until risen, firm to the touch, and golden.

Next time we're going to have it with refried beans and a tomato salad.

Masala Dosa

2006-05-03T15:16:00.000-04:00

Punjabi Dhaba in Inman Square makes a mean masala dosa and their other food is pretty damn good, too.

Tuna fish sandwich

2006-04-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

Bill made me lunch today and spruced up a plain tuna fish sandwich with dijon mustard, worchestershire sauce, and a couple of garlic-stuffed olives.

White Beans with Pickled Red Onions

2006-04-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

As the Moosewood Cookbook says, these beans are "delightful by themselves, and downright smashing when topped with a mound of pickled red onions." Both are very easy to make and the onions are great with the beans, on sandwiches, on pizza, or however else you can think to use them.

White Beans
3-4 c cooked white beans
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c parsley, minced
2 tsp dill

Mix all ingredients and chill

Pickled Red Onions
1 c cider vinegar
1 c water
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp whole peppercorns
4 red onions, sliced paper thin

Combine all ingredients except onions.
Pour a quart of boiling water over the onions to wilt them, then drain and put onions in marinade.
Let sit for at least several hours. Will keep in fridge for ages.

Boca "chicken" wings and bbq sauce

2006-04-09T18:53:00.000-04:00

My mouth is totally burning up right now. (That's a good thing in my book.) I got these fake chicken wings on a whim the last time I went shopping. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of food that is pretending to be meat, but Boca has earned a bit of brand loyalty from me - their burgers and bratwurst are actually yummy, rather than tasting like dust, or too much like meat, which grosses me out. So the chicken wings are flavorful and a little crunchy without being dry or greasy, but best and most surprisingly of all, they are actually spicy. The box says hot and spicy, which on most products just means barely approaching mild and forget about medium, but here is true. To add to the heat, Bill whipped up this great bbq sauce:

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco

Hell Night

2006-04-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

Last night we went to East Coast Grill with another couple to enjoy Hell Night, where most of the menu is spicy food. Of course I forgot my camera, but even without pics I had to mention it, because Hell Night is not to be missed. They do it a few times a year and you have to get reservations in advance - it fills up fast.

Fortunately, our friends are food sharers, so we got to sample lots of stuff. What I remember:

Calamari - tender fried rings of goodness. Much less chewy than almost any calamari I've had ever, and with a nice medium-hot spicyness.
Ceviche - shrimp and fish (snapper? I forgot) with mango and avacado. Delicious and tangy, but only a tiny, tiny bit spicy.
Bluefin - melt in your mouth amazing. Some of the best fish I have ever had. Medium spice.
Sweet mashed potatoes - probably my favorite side dish. Creamy, sweet, with a lovely slow-building heat. Medium-hot.
Greens - tons of tasty vinegar
Fried sweet potatoes and plantains - no one does these better than East Coast. Crunchy, chewy carmalized outside/melty, tender smoothness inside. Not spicy.
Jalapeno cornbread - a little drier than I like my cornbread, but still way more than edible with a bit of butter. Medium spicy.
Salmon - delicious and hotter than the bluefin, but not as mind-blowingly tender. Still amazing, as is almost everything. Came with a hot chutney that was also great.
Ginger coleslaw - super crazy gingery. Unusual, refreshing, terrific.
Rocky Road Ice Cream with habanero - I'm not a huge rocky road fan, so this wasn't my favorite. I do like spicy ice cream, though, so I ate my share. If you're looking for ice cream with heat, I'd recommend going to Toscanini's and getting their super fabulous Aztec Chocolate (with cinnamon, pecans, and spiciness) or almost-as-good Spicy Cinnimon Pecan (similar, but in a vanilla base. You know how I feel about vanilla-based ice cream, so the fact that I'm even recommending it should speak volumes as to it's yumminess). Unfortunately, they only have them a few weeks a year, but Toscanini's is a place you should be checking regularly anyway.

Pizza

2006-04-03T11:02:00.000-04:00

I haven't been thrilled with any of the local pizzas. Some are edible, some not, 3 Aces comes closest to being good, but there's nothing near great. So you have to do what you can at home. We used a ready-made crust, which wasn't fabulous, but didn't suck. What made this better than delivery was the fresh mozzerella, decent green olives, and especially tons of fresh garlic. (I was burping it up all night, but it was worth it.) We didn't have any "pizza sauce" and instead used Muir Glen Organic Spicy Tomato Pasta Sauce, much better, in my opinion. Add some fresh tomato slices and pop in the oven and you're done.

Swiss Green Beans and Maple-Mustard Salmon

2006-03-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

I think I'm in love with Mollie Katzen. She writes the best cookbooks - both the Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest contain tons and tons if inventive, delicious, vegetarian recipes. The following recipe is just slighty adapted based on what was in my kitchen.

1.5 lbs green beans, trimmed and steamed for 3 minutes
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp dried dill
o.5 tsp salt
black pepper to tast
2 tsp dijon mustard
0.5 c fresh parsley, minced
0.33 ob swiss cheese, cut in matchsticks
0.5 c ripe olives (we used oil-cured, but kalamata would be good too. whatever you do, don't used the tasteless canned ones)
1 red bell pepper, sliced
juice of one lemon
1 tbs red wine vinegar
0.5 c chopped almonds

Toss it all together and let it sit 2-3 hours. If you combine all but the lemon juice and vinegar in order to let it marinade longer, say overnight, it tastes even better and you can add that right before serving. This keeps the acid in the lemon and the vinegar from turning the beans from bright green to army green.

To go with this, Bill whipped up a quick sauce for salmon burgers: equal parts maple syrup and mustard (the quality of the mustard matters - we used our fave, Maille), with chopped garlic and green onions, all sauteed for a bit. It's even better on salmon steaks, but burgers is what we had on hand. Our friend Gina introduced us to this sauce, and we've used it a bunch of times since. It's somethign we would never have thought of, yet is very easy and made entirely of ingredients we always have on hand.

Kiwi Tart

2006-03-27T14:07:00.000-05:00

Boston Organics has been sending us more kiwis than we know what to do with. I used up six in this easy recipe (it says three, but I cut the kiwi in thick slices and overlapped a bunch). One modification: I used the 1/3 less fat cream cheese rather than the regular stuff.

Banana Coconut Muffins

2006-03-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

Epicurious is such a great resource. We had overripe bananas last night, so I looked for a banana muffin recipe and found this one, which turned out incredibly tasty, much better than the picture.

2005-10-09T14:00:00.000-04:00

Huevos Rancheros

2005-08-22T09:42:00.000-04:00

Eating 75g protein a day is proving to be challenging - that's like the equivalent of 10 eggs! Huevo Rancheros is a tasty, tasty godsend with the double dose in the form of beans and eggs. Whip up a few tortillas (running low on mix though, yikes), pop open a can of beans, fry a couple eggs and top with salsa. Today we mixed it up a bit with hot green salsa.

1/3 of protein intake down, 2 more protein-packed meals to go. Whee.

Grasshopper

2005-03-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

The sign outside says, "The animals thank you," but it's really my tummy doing the thanking. Grasshopper is an amazing vegan Asian restaurant and one of the few places where there are more than 50 things on the menu that I could eat. I had the eggplant tofu surprise, which was eggplant, tofu (obviously), asparagus, and several kinds of meat substitutes in a black bean sauce. Every component was perfectly done and I kept eating way past the point I should have stopped, promising myself that the next bite would be the last, but then spying just one more that looked too good to pass up. The nice thing is that even though I ate a ton, and each bite was a little miracle, I didn't feel overstuffed and greasy and nauseus at the end, as often happens with heavier food.

The buckwheat noodles with assorted veggies and tofu in a ginger sauce on my friend's plate was equally enticing, although my favorite element was definitely my melt-in-your-mouth eggplant. Bill is going to be happy when he sees the leftovers.

Also try the fresh limeade. Heaven.

New treat

2005-03-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

This beautiful, unusual-looking thing is called an oyster mushroom. It was delivered yesterday and I have yet to decide what to do with it, but think it's awfully pretty.

Chard and Cheddar Omelette

2005-03-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about my Boston Organics subscription is that is gets me to try foods I normally wouldn't. Tonight I had chard for the first time, and was surprised to descover how tangy and flavorful it was, as well as easy to prepare. I will definately be making the following recipe again.

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces red Swiss chard, stemmed, chopped (about 3 cups packed)
5 large eggs
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in 8-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Stir in chard, cover and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. Wipe skillet clean. Whisk eggs, 1/4 cup cheese, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of egg mixture and cook until eggs are just set in center, tilting pan and lifting edge of omelet with spatula to let uncooked portion flow underneath, about 2 minutes. Scatter half of chard mixture over half of omelet. Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over chard. Fold omelet over cheese; slide out onto plate. Repeat with remaining butter, egg mixture, chard and cheese.

Green Street Grill

2005-02-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

Green Street Grill is conviently only about a block or two away here there is no taste trade off for the convenience. We went there for the first time for out birthday dinner and had a wonderful meal.

His beet, walnut, and bleu cheese salad was an unusual (for us) combination of flavors and in any other meal would have been a stand out, but my baked goat cheese with soft, chewy, warm bread and carmelized onions was even better.

We both opted for fish with beans, rice and plantains for dinner: swordfish in spicy BBQ sauce for him, and Mahi Mahi with mango and avocado for me. Both pieces of fish were tender, moist, and delicious, but the tasty ranking was reversed from the appetizer course. Even though my avocado and mango were terrific, they couldn't stand up to the spiciness of his BBQ sauce. It didn't have the yucky sweet smoky flavor that I anticipated, which kept me from ordering it.

Miracle of Science

2005-02-27T12:46:00.000-05:00

The veggie skewers at Miracle of Science are great: a variety veggies nicely charred, with a warm tortilla to wrap them in and a generous dollop of creamy bleu cheese. The side of potatoes is simple and satifying, too, although next time I think I'll skip them because to skewer was enough for me.

Bill had the veggie burger and though the fixings and bun were yummy, will probably not get it again because the burger itself was standard issue hockey puck that you can get frozen from the grocery store.

2005-02-23T18:07:00.000-05:00

Guess whose? One of us eats our yummy organic grapefruit much more neatly and completely than the other.

Boston Organics

2005-02-23T18:01:00.000-05:00

Our first week with Boston Organics was great. All the produce was tasty and we managed to not have any leftovers. In fact, we upped our frequency to weekly since we went through it so fast. Today I got our second delivery: 3 apples, 1 avocado, 4 bananas, 2 broccoli heads, 1 head of chard, 1 grapefruit, 3 lemons, 1 head of green leaf lettuce, 1 mango, 2 oranges, and 2 pears, all organic and delivered right to my door for $25

Morrrocan garbanzos with olives and tomatoes

2005-01-30T20:40:00.000-05:00

This was a fava bean recipe that we modified from our North African cookbook and changed to garbanzos. It would probably also be great with a bit of spiciness thrown in.

1 cup wild rice (uncooked)
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 medium tomatoes
8-10 parsley sprig, minced
1 tsp turmeric
0.5 tsp black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
2 cups green olives, pitted and chopped
rind of one lemon, grated
2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

Add rice to broth and bring to boil. Simmer for 45 minutes. While the rice is cooking, mince the garlic and parsley, juice and grate the lemon, drain the beans, and pit the olives, if applicable.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat and sauté garlic, tomatoes, parsley, turmeric, and pepper for a minute or two. Turn down the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 8-10 minutes. Add the olives and lemon rind and continue cooking for another 8-10 minutes. Finally add the beans and heat through. Serve over the rice.

Almond Butter and Honeycrisp Apple Slices

2005-01-14T14:10:00.000-05:00

Nut butter and fruit is such a wonderful combination and this one is at the top of my list. For a slightly tart apple like honeycrisp, I prefer the mellower, sweeter almond butter over peanut butter.* Honeycrisp is an apple that we discovered this year, and have rarely bought anything else since. Each one is crisp, sweet, juicy, and tart. Not one has let me down; even when bruised they still manage to be crunchy.

*All the nut butters I eat have nothing added other than occasionally salt, so my peanut butter is not sweet.

California Pizza Kitchen

2005-01-14T13:05:00.000-05:00

It's not haute cuisine, but it's pretty tasty for chain food, especially if you find yourself hungry and stuck in a mall. The shrimp lettuce wraps (also available in chicken) are my favorite because they are light and crisp instead of fried, but are still very filling. They come do-it-yourself style with iceberg lettuce leaves on the side to fill with the shrimp, mushroom, and green onion goodness, and top with a (non-spicy) chili-ginger sauce. I tend to avoid the crispy rice noodles; by the time they are in a wrap they lose their crispiness and therefore their appeal to me.

The lemonade, on the other hand, was much too sweet and strong to be palatable. It would probably be very refreshing mixed in equal parts with club soda.

Raspberry Lemonade

2005-01-14T13:03:00.000-05:00

Shrimp Lettuce Wraps

Cheddar Cheese

2005-01-12T22:55:00.000-05:00

Grafton Village Cheese Company's five star, five year old cheddar - it's on the crumbly side and definitely pricier than your average cheddar, but, damn, is it good.

Pho

2005-01-11T19:16:00.000-05:00

A hot bowl of pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup, on a cold night is extremely satisfying. Pho Pasteur in Harvard Square makes a simple and tasty veggie one, and for $6 and change. They have several meated phos and plenty of non-pho options, as well as three other locations, but veggie at Harvard is good enough for me.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream

2005-01-10T17:07:00.000-05:00

I have been known to be a slightly picky ice cream eater. My cardinal rule is "no vanilla-based ice cream,"* but there are a couple of other guidelines I follow:

1.Chocolate-based is the best. However, coffee, mint, and very occasionally fruit-based are acceptable for appropriate variety.
2. Fudge and caramel ribbons are delicious. Marshmallow ribbon is foul.
3. No chocolate chips, flakes, or chunks. I like my chocolate to melt in my mouth and ice cream is just too cold for it.
4. The ban on nuts has been relaxed to allow chocolate covered nuts or tolerate nuts if they are accompanied by other fillings. Absolutely no walnuts.
5. No brownies.

I also like lots of fillings, which can be hard to come by in a chocolate ice cream with no brownies, chocolate chips or nuts. Fortunately, there is a local ice cream chain, Toscaninis, that has an amazing variety of mind-blowingly delicous ice cream, and there is usually at least three flavors at any time that I love. Store brands however, ususally leave me unsatisfied. There have been fleeting glimpses of greatness, in limited edition flavors, notably Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Cherry Garcia (chocolate frozen yogurt with cherries and white chocolate chunks - so good I bent rule number 3) and Haagen Dazs' chocolate caramel (chocolate with a generous caramel ribbon).

Now there is one more: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough - chocolate peanut butter flavored ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough gobs, and fudge chips (softer than chocolate chips and therefore acceptable). It's a limited batch though, so if you want to try it, you'd better hurry. Plus, maybe if you and enough other people buy it, it won't go back to the flavor graveyard. Please don't let it die.

*I will occasionally taste a very high quality, very vanilla, vanilla ice cream, but in general vanilla is just an excuse for a lack of flavor.

Shrimp with Tomato Almond Sauce, Refried Beans, and tortillas

2005-01-10T13:21:00.000-05:00

Both of these recipes are variations on ideas I got from a great Mexican cookbook that Terri gave Bill for Christmas a few years back. The sauce turned out to be about twice as much as we needed, so we froze half for a quick and easy dinner next week.

Tomato Almond Sauce

1 ancho or other dried chile
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 c. vegetable stock
1/2 c. almond butter
1/3 c. creme fraiche
1/2 lime
1 lb. cooked peeled prawns
cilantro for garnish

Bring a pan of water to a boil. Remove from heat and soak dried chile in it for 30 minutes. Drain and chop, removing seeds if you want a less spicy sauce.

Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add tomatoes, chile, and cumin. Cook for 10 minutes. Add stock and transfer to food processor. Process until smooth. Return to pan over low heat and add almond butter, followed by the creme fraiche. Once thoroughly mixed, add juice of 1/2 lime. Increase heat until sauce simmers, then add shimp until warmed through.

Refried Beans

1 onion, finely chopped
1 can of refried beans
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander

Gently cook the onions over low heat until soft and carmelized, about 30-45 min. Add beans and spices. It's pretty simple, but it makes the beans taste a million times better.

Tortillas

This doesn't really require a recipe. You just add water to flour tortilla mix, roll out the tortillas, and cook them. But they so far surpass store-bought tortillas that I had to mention them seperately to emphasize how important it is that you give them a shot. They are really not difficult; the only obstacle can be finding the mix. Quaker makes it, and sells it at Wal-mart (!) I think. There is also a Great Value brand, which I couldn't find reference to online.

Four recipes from Chocolate and Zucchini

2005-01-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

Chocolate and Zucchini is an excellent food blog: well written, well organized, with beautiful photography, and most importantly, with delicious recipes. Following are links to some that I have tried and loved.

Velvety Lentil Chestnut Soup

The soup turned out so well Bill declared it the best lentil soup he's ever had, and one of the best soups, period. Chestnuts were new to me and I was delighted to discover their slight sweetness. They lent an incredible richness to the soup.

Notes/modifications:
-Since creme fraiche is not readily available here, I made my own. Mix 3 parts heavy cream with one part plain yogurt (you could also use sour cream or buttermilk). Let stand in a warm place overnight, until it thickens. Refrigerate. We choose to add the dollop upon serving.
-Frozen chestnuts were not available to me, either. Whole Foods had whole, peeled chestnuts in a can, which I used instead.
-Black strap molasses was my optional teaspoon of sweetness

Fig and Mozzarella Warm Sandwich

Quick and easy to prepare, this is nonetheless a combination that would never have occurred to me on my own. The buffalo mozzarella that I tried was much softer and richer than regular mozzarella. Now it's a favorite.

Notes/modifications:
-Dry figs, softened by soaking in water, were substituted for fresh figs
-Cibo Naturals makes wonderful pesto. The leftovers were happily dipped into the rest of the week.

Banana Pear Pecan Crumble

Another simple and easy (seems to be a theme with C&Z), yet delicious recipe. I doubled the topping as she suggests and now only have to slice a bit of fruit to make it again.

Soft-boiled Egg, Red Pesto Bread Fingers

It's hard to believe something so tasty and fun can be ready in less than ten minutes.

-Again, Cibo Naturals makes some wonderful red pestos. Both the sun-dried tomato and the roasted red pepper are terrific.
-I don't have an egg cup, so I used a shot glass and Bill used the large end of a two-sided jigger.

Fruit Salad

2005-01-10T13:19:00.000-05:00

Reposted from blahdiblog:

Bill and I decided to have fruit salad this morning, so we headed out to buy fruit. Of course it had snowed all night and was still coming down. Our usual stroll was covered in several inches of frozen powder and slush. Suprisingly I wasn't cold and actually kind of enjoyed the walk. It's amazing how much less you hate snow when you don't have a car and do have a landlord to shovel it for you.

We picked up our fruit and stopped at the local bakery to get bread for dinner as well. It reminded me of being in Paris where we would assemble a meal from several different specialty shops instead of getting everything at one big grocery store. Hopefully we will go back someday.

Here is the delicious recipe. Mom made it for us when she was visiting, just trowing together whatever we happened to have on hand. It was so good that we've made it several times since.

2 bananas, sliced
1 honeycrisp apple, diced
1/3 bunch grapes, halved
3/4 c. plain yogurt or kefir
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 c. pecans, chopped

That's it. Just toss it all together in a bowl and you've got instant yumminess. The creamy, sweet, crunchy combo from the yogurt, syrup, and pecans is marvelous.