Roasting Vegetables

I almost feel guilty posting about this because it is so easy--like explaining how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But this was what we had for dinner last night, and it was good.

We had invited our neighbors, who are from Vietnam, to come over for dinner. They were very sweet when we asked about food allergies, vegetarianism, or dislikes, saying they liked everything, but I was nervous. We have made lots of international friends in our time here in Ontario (we are some of the only Americans where Bob works) and I have learned that "We eat everything" means different things to different people.

I decided the best course of action was roasted vegetables tossed with pasta and chicken. I love roasting vegetables. It fills the whole apartment with a wonderful smell and it's so easy a monkey could do it. The most time-consuming part is all the chopping.

Seasonal is best, of course, but I am not afraid to admit I'm getting a little tired of parsnips and potatoes. I am craving green! So I did my part to prop the Californian economy and bought green beans, broccoli, red pepper, carrots (these were local, actually), and a big luscious red onion.

Clean and chop everything into pieces roughly the same size, except for the red onion, which is the secret to this whole deal, in my opinion. Slice it into the finest long slivers you can. They practically melt in the oven. Heaven! Toss all the vegetables with the onion, a lot of minced garlic, a few glugs olive oil, and generous salt and pepper. Lemon would be good too. I find the easiest way to do this is to use your hands. Just tumble it all around in a big bowl, the idea being that everything should be covered in the oil. Let it all rest a while on the counter or in the fridge.

When you're ready to cook then, spread the veggies on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Use two pans if one seems too full--it's best if the veggies roast in a single layer. Pop into 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. If you are using two sheets, you'll have to switch them around a couple time to be sure they cook evenly. They will start to brown. Grab them out before they go too far. They can burn fast or dry out at this point.

This is hands-down the best broccoli you will ever taste. It seems smoked or something.

Boil your pasta, drain (reserving a little liquid in case you need it), and add veggies, chopped chicken, a little cheese if you like. Toss it all together and serve with big bowls.

Incidentally, I did cheat by buying a precooked chicken from the deli. Inexplicably, the cooked chicken is cheaper than a raw one, and I didn't have the time to cook one myself anyway. I'm not even going to think about all the additives it probably contains. As we speak I am boiling the carcass with lots of celery leaves, whole black peppercorns, onions, garlic, carrot, and thyme. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Butternut Squash Day Two

I felt a little cheated after not getting to eat very much of my brilliant ravioli filling from yesterday, but I didn't fret because I knew I could turn it into something equally brilliant today.

Home Food Waste Not Want Not Soup

Take 1 1/2 cups filling left over from a ravioli disaster or mix together:

Flesh of one butternut squash
1 clove garlic minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Set aide.

In a big pan, melt 2 tbsp butter or olive oil. I like butter for fruity soups. Add one finely chopped onion and cook until soft. I do not like undercooked onion, so I let it go a long time, but it probably makes no difference.

Add another minced clove of garlic and one granny smith apple chopped fine. Saute this all together until the apple gets soft and fragrant. Add the ravioli filling and splash in a little water or broth. Let this heat up and combine. It will be very thick.

Transfer to the processor and puree until smooth. Transfer back into the pan, add salt and pepper and about one cup more broth. At this point I thought it was still too thick, so I added about 3/4 cup milk (give or take) and maybe 1/2 cup yogurt. I challenge you to give me a recipe that is not improved by yogurt. It doesn't exist. You could also use coconut milk as with the pumpkin soup from a couple weeks ago. Oh, and don't forget a splash of sherry.

Add one can of well-rinsed black beans, which go phenomenally well with sweet things like squash and sweet potatoes, in my humble opinion. Bring to a boil and simmer. If it's too thin, boil off some liquid; too thick, add more.

You will know it's done when you are pacing around the kitchen with drool on your chin because it smells so good.

If you are not completely undone by ravenous hunger, make some cornbread. If you are still riding the coattails of birthday laziness like me, open a bag of tortilla chips and serve.

The filling is the most important part anyway, right?

Today's Home Food is a cautionary tale.

Perhaps there is some broader life lesson in what I'm about to say, but it's also pretty useful as a literal piece of advice: Don't try to make ravioli if you don't have a pasta machine.

Here's the deal: Yesterday was my birthday and I thought it would be fun if Bob and I cooked something from scratch together for dinner. I've made fresh fettuccine before but have always wanted to try something with filling. I had an idea for butternut squash ravioli with lots of herbs and cheese--it sounded so good. I found any old pasta dough recipe online (mistake #1). I won't reveal the identity of this so-called food blogger because the result was, as Bob described it, a good raw material for the creation of leather goods.

Now, if we had a pasta machine and all the time in the world to crank away, the results probably would have been fine. But as all I have is a rolling pin and a husband willing (within reason) to earn his keep, rolling these suckers out was a long, arduous process--for him. I stood idly by advising him and sniffing my beautiful birthday flowers. Pasta dough (or at least this pasta dough) is really tough and the more you roll it the more it just sort of migrates back to itself. You can get it only so thin without the machine.

When we finally did get a semi-thin sheet, I realized I had nothing to cut the pieces out with except a heart-shaped cookie cutter. So it was all becoming more ridiculous by the minute.

What I have for you today is a really good recipe for ravioli filling. As I was mixing it up I tasted it and said, "God, I could eat this all by itself." I would have been well-advised to heed that instinct.


Home Food Butternut Squash Ravioli Filling

Serve in one big bowl with two spoons.

Cut a butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush with olive oil and roast in the oven cut side down about 45 minutes at 400. Check for tenderness with a knife blade. When it's done, remove and let cool.

Melt some butter in a pan. Maybe 1-2 tablespoons. Scoop squash into the pan and saute in the butter. This will help reduce away the moisture if it is too soupy. Add 1 clove garlic finely chopped, 2 teaspoons or more of fresh thyme, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese. Stir until combined and remove from heat. Allow it to cool.

If you dare, roll out some pasta dough and add filling. We tossed the finished product in a little more melted butter and herbs, more cheese and some toasted walnuts.

I think I will make soup with the leftover filling. There's quite a lot of it as two hours of hard labor yielded only nine raviolis. Good thing it was burrito night at Jane Bond.

Brown rice saves the day (again!)

Today was one of those days when the clock just kept spinning and it got to be dinner time and I thought: You mean, we're going to be hungry again? For pete's sake.

Plus it was warm out and hot in the apartment--not that I'm complaining, mind you--and I didn't want to turn on the oven. Heidi Swanson has some great fast and satisfying meal ideas, including one for a citrus-infused wheat berry salad that can be eaten warm or cold.

Unfortunately I did not have any pine nuts on hand, and since they cost about as much as our rent, I knew I wouldn't be picking them up anytime soon. Walnuts are the working gal's pine nuts and work just as well. On that note, I realized I'd also be trading down from my beloved wheat berries to brown rice, as it is one of the only things I never run out of. And I was really hungry, so I was hoping for something with a little more protein. Here is what I came up with.

Home Food Brown Rice Salad

2 cups cooked brown rice (God love you if you have some lying around--I had to cook mine)
1 cup cooked black beans (canned are fine but fresh-cooked dried have the most wonderful texture and also cost pennies)
1 cup toasted walnuts
3 cups spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:
Zest and juice of one orange (grapefruit might also be interesting)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp finely diced onion
generous salt and pepper

Other things that might be good: dried cranberries, some other kind of green like arugula or chard or dandelion greens . . .

Mix the dry ingredients; whisk the dressing; toss it all together. Yum!

Breakfast for Dinner

Last night with no meat in the house and a car stuck in the snow, I decided instead of crafting clever death threats and sending them to our no-good landlord from hell (who has not once this winter plowed the parking lot), I would cultivate inner peace in the form of breakfast for dinner.

Scrambled eggs with cheese and broccoli. I don't need to tell you how to do this.

But this was the real centerpiece of the meal: Oatcakes with yogurt and apples.

I love pancakes. I recently had some at a Tennessee Cracker Barrel over the holidays, when we drove all over the southeast and I was feeling a little like I had violated so many of my own food rules that nothing mattered anymore and I might as well jump right off the cliff. And they tasted so wonderful--like clouds made of butter.

About ten minutes later, though, I honestly felt high from carb overload. Between all that white flour and the high fructose corn syrup-based "maple syrup" on the table, I felt like I might just let Bob drive through the North Carolina Piedmont while I ran alongside the car.

We got back on the road, and about an hour later, I fell into a deep coma in the passenger seat. Bob poked me with my knitting needle a couple times, but I did not stir. When I finally woke up I couldn't remember my name and didn't recognize him. He drove around until he found a grocery store, brought some broccoli to the car, and after a few bites I came to. Then the weeping started.

Turns out there is such a thing as too many carbs.

But last night's pancakes were something different. I started with this recipe for Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes, but I didn't have any buttermilk. So instead I used plain yogurt thinned with a little milk. I also wanted some fruit in there, so I diced up half a granny smith apple with the skin left on very fine. Pear would have worked too and maybe better because it would have mushed down a bit more.

Bob saw the batter with the oats soaking in the yogurt and said, "What is that?"

"It's a real recipe--I promise," I said.

"Have I ever doubted you?" he asked. And isn't he glad he hasn't!

They weren't the most beautiful things--they probably could have used a little more liquid due to the addition of the apples--but holy cow. Please take the rest of the afternoon off work and go make them. I can't believe I didn't think of this last night, but they would be good with a little yogurt spread on top or just syrup, or just plain. I am so sad that I already ate all the leftovers.

Pumpkin Soup and Brown Rice

And now for another food I bought on sale: coconut milk. I've had a couple cans in the pantry forever. Last week I added a splash to some cupcake frosting in lieu of regular milk. But that left me with about a cup and a half and not a clue what to do with it.

I don't have all the right spices to make curry, so that was out. A search on Epicurious for recipes containing coconut milk yielded Silky Coconut Pumpkin Soup, a recipe from a new book I've been wanting to take a look at: Hot Sour Salty Sweet, about Asian cooking.

But I didn't really have all the ingredients for that either. Undeterred, I decided I would make something like it and just taste as I go to get the flavor right. Beware: there aren't really any exact measurements here.

Home Food Pumpkin Soup

Dice an onion and caramelize it in olive oil. This takes about 15 minutes. Start at medium heat and turn it down. Keep stirring the whole time so the onions don't burn. Deglaze the pan with a little sherry or broth or water and keep cooking until golden brown.

Stir in a large can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), however much coconut milk you have left over after making frosting (about a cup and a half) and chicken broth until you get a thick soup consistency. You can always add more or boil some off. Add about a teaspoon of coriander, lots of black pepper, sea salt to taste, a couple tablespoons of maple syrup, and some balsamic vinegar. The idea is to balance the sweet and sour, so just keep adding and tasting. Bring to a boil, simmer ten minutes or something, and then hold on warm while you cook the brown rice. Or, if you are known for planning ahead, perhaps you cooked the brown rice at the same time as everything else. If so, you are not really the sort of person I'd like to spend a lot of time with.

Other possibilities for this: plain yogurt (there you are again, my love!), cloves, curry powder or peppers or something spicy, fresh pumpkin instead of canned, in which case you could keep the chunks large, fry them first, and then serve the whole thing over rice rather than side by side. Or thin it out a lot more and add some pasta. It doesn't get any easier or beta-carotene-ific than this!

Figs 65 % off

Coconut milk. Flax meal. And now figs. I have a problem: If the grocery store gods mark something down enough, I will buy it. Even if I have no idea what the hell to do with it.

Of course, there are plenty of desserts a person can make with a pound of dried Italian figs. But I wondered whether I could come up with something a little more interesting. I found two recipes. Fig Spread with Black Pepper and Toasted Sesame Seeds, from Super Natural Cooking (a book about wholesome eating, not telekinetic carrots, just to be clear) and a fig jam to accompany a pork roast from Epicurious.

Neither of these was quite right. I wanted something that would make a spicy, savory appetizer, not too runny, definitely not too sweet. There's a restaurant in Providence, RI called La Laiterie (if you ever have the chance, GO) that served a cheese plate with a fig jam that was very aromatic and herby. It cost about ten thousand dollars for a teaspoon. I wanted it to be like that. But cheaper.

So here's what I did. I would like to tinker with this a bit more, but it's close.

Cover a pound of dried figs with boiling water and let sit for an hour. They will plump up and be easy to slice.

Remove from the water and cut them into 1/4 inch pieces--but reserve the sticky sweet water. Put them into a bowl and add about a tablespoon of honey, or none--honestly they probably don't need it. Figs are really, really, really sweet. Especially the dried ones. Anyone who tells you to add sugar to them is highly dubious, in my opinion. Grind about 1/2 tsp of black pepper and crush a teaspoon of dried thyme in your palm and sprinkle in. Stir it all together. Leave it alone for about ten minutes so the flavors meld, then dump it into a saucepan and add a little of the water. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Cook it down, continuing to add water and allowing it to boil off until you get a nice thick jam consistency. Taste it--if it's still too sweet, add a little cider vinegar.

I didn't have sesame seeds lying around, so I added chopped pistachios. I think any kind of salty nut would do, but the sesame seeds would have been better--they won't get soggy like the larger pieces of the nuts seemed to. Serve it on lavash.

We took some to our friends' Superbowl party. It stuck out like a . . . nerdy writer girl at the Playboy mansion, next to all those foods we lust after: chicken wings, fried mozzarella, pizza, the best potato chips I have ever had. But people ate it--I saw them!

It was good, in its humble way. And I think it might also make a great sandwich spread and go well with yogurt.