Case of the Mondays

Yesterday I had a case of the Mondays, mainly due to the fact that I had beautiful weather and a long weekend. Searching various food blogs I came across the perfect way to cure my Monday blues: FRIED FOOD. A great way to avoid the guilt of eating fried foods is to eat fried veggies rather than meat. "It’s fried but atleast it’s a vegetable”

Parmesan-encrusted Zucchini and Summer Squash Medallions

My rendition of the above recipe did not come out as fancy as the Besotted Gourmet's but still did the trick. My long work day deterred me from going to the grocery store to pick up parm and flour (how does one run out of flour?). To componsate, I made sure I kept the little guys in the pan extra long to get that sought after crust and didn't hold back on the seasoning of sea salt right at the end. I made a side of sweet and red mashed taters and washed it down with a delicious Rogue Dead Guy Ale that magically appeared in my fridge- just in time to cure my Monday Blues.

Sweet and Red Mashed Taters
4 medium sized red potatoes- cut in to quarters w/ skin on
1 Large sweet potato- peeled and but into quarters
Butter- amount depends on the chef
1/4 cup veggie stock or milk
Chopped fresh parsley & chives
Salt & Pepper
- I think you know the drill: boil the potatoes then mash together with remaining ingredients.

Lite Summer Dinner at McBride

When the nights stay warm and muggy I can't help but hum that Billy Idol song "Hot in the City"

Who wants to bomb themselves on hearty meats and carbs when you have sweat dripping down your brow- not me! Our menu last night was lite and delicious:

Rice & Bean Stuffed Zucchini accompanied by a Summer Salad

Stuffed Zucchini

This is a play off a recipe found at Vegetarian Times. We opted for grilling instead of oven baking to fit the summer mood.
Filling:

Cook 1/2 cup of rice; seasoned with bay leaf, cayenne, cumin, salt and pepper
Saute red and green peppers, onions, jalapeno, and garlic

Once veggies are tender add diced tomato, 1/2 can of beans and fresh herbs of your choice

Combine with the rice

Zucchini:
Cut zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place on the grill cut side up

After 10-15 minutes check to see if zucchini is fork tender

Empty excess moisture from the cavity and add rice and bean mixture

Sprinkle w/ Monteray Jack cheese and cook with the grill closed for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted

We cut the finished zucchini into two inch pieces to make it more casual finger food and served them with the left over rice mixture and a delicious Summer Salad that had mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and red onions lightly dressed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Super Yummz Mo!

Also had some Tanq and Teas to wash it all down

Farewell BBQ's and Wiiiiiiiiine

Oh man, I've been on quite the hiatus. And tired.

I've been on a 1 and a half week vacation from life, and boy was it good. I really don't want to return to civilization.

Where have I been you ask? Entertaining my visiting parents, of course!

And entertaining my parents, really just meant eating out 80% of meals, bringing them to all the tasty restaurants in this Bay Area (...that I can't afford). In the beginning, it sounded like a great idea, but by the final night, I had heartburn (which apparently feels like your boob is asking to be ripped off of your body) from eating foreign food substances so much, and really just wanted to return to my kitchen and cook a yummy meal with my mom for billy & my dad.

It was stupendous.

The highlights were a super satisfying corn soup, and perfectly grilled portabella mushrooms (which fared considerably better than some ny strip steaks we attempted to cook, but really just chared), which we ate with grilled/burnt squash and onions and a simple salad of cucumbers and tomatoes with balsamic deliciousness.

Mama Ferrier's (chicken) Corn Chowder

1 1/2 c diced red onion
1 1/2 c diced yellow onion
1 1/2 c diced potato
1/2 c diced carrot
1 c diced celery
4-5 corns on the cob, boiled, with kernels cut of
6 c chicken broth
heavy cream
flour
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 t fresh basil
pinches of dried oregano, basil
a couple of shakes of chili powder
Optional: meat picked from half of a rotisserie chicken

In your soup pot, start with some olive oil, the carrots, the onions, and the celery. Cook until translucent, add flour and cook until the flour smell is away. This soup is thickened more by this rue, than the cream, so use a hefty amount of oil and flour to get a nice rue. Add the chicken stock to the pot now and do a little scrappin' to get all the good flavors on the bottom of the pan. Bring soup to a boil and add the potato, corn (and chicken if you wish). Now is the time to add the basil, oregano, and chili powder. Let the soup simmer for a little while, and test the potatoes for doneness. When the potatoes are to your liking shut of the heat and allow to soup to cool down to a temperature that allows you to add some cream. Add as much, or as little, as you like!

Grilled Portabella Mushrooms

4 Large Bella Shroomies
1 t mustard
olive oil
salt & pepper
1 t fresh chives
1 t fresh basil
oregano flakes
juice from 2 juicy lemons
1 Container for shaking

add dressing contents to container and shake up. Place mushroomies in a big bowl and pour the dressing all over them. You might have to add more oil than you think to coat evenly. Be sure to add enough salt to encourage a little water to release before you grill. Do this about a half hour before you are grilling. When you place the musrooms on the grill save the extra dressing in your bowl and drizzles over top the finished mushrooms.

A Note on Wine Country

While the retals were here, I had the awesome chance to go to Napa and Sonoma- only an hour from Oakland! This hole concept of driving around, and drinking, and then driving around more is really strange to me, but f-ing awesome none the less. The whole myth that you aren't drinking enough to get drunk it just that- a big myth. I got saucy both days I went up there. It was grand.

I went to about 6 wineries- all were yummy. Even the cheap wine companies we see in the store tend to have reserve wines on site that are super. The most memorable wineries were:

Peju
Ravenswood (due more to a heavy handed server than the wine)
Sebastiani




If you have $100+ to blow on wine, I recommend any of the Peju's Napa Style Cab's

Summer Veggies

Assuming that summer actually arrives, this Summer Produce Guide on Food & Wine's website has great potential for inspiration.

2 Lovely Sauces

Let it be said that:

casserole < style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">
Mac & Cheese for the summer days

1 lb dried pasta

Bechamel Sauce*
2 c whole milk
3 T butter, 2 T olive oil (I know, I know)
4 T flour

1 lb shredded cheddar
3 handfulls parm cheese
1 c peas
1 c corn kernels off the cobb

1 sliced heirloom tomato

Begin by boiling pasta to an extreme al-dente. Drain, rinse with cold water. Make bechamel sauce by melting butter with olive oil over low heat. Add flour and cook until the flour smell is gone. Add Milk. continue to simmer, never boil, until the milk starts to thicken. Add Parm cheese. Stir and remove from heat. Mix Shredded Cheddar (minues a little for the crispy top) with the pasta, corn, and peas. Put in baking dish. Pour white sauce over pasta. Place sliced tomatos along the top of the pasta, and then sprinkle extra cheese on top. Bake at 350-400 for 40 minutes, and then pop it under the broiler for an extra 5 to crisp the top.

Orange Basil Dressing

Juice from 1 orange, zest from half
6 basil leaves
1 small rosemary sprig
1 t mustard
1/2 medium avacado
salt and pepper
1 clove garlic
small amount of onion- red or green
olive oil

Blend all ingredients, if you want a more acidic dressing add some red wine vinegar. If you have some lemon, I bet that would be yummy. This comes out such a beautiful green!! I recommend enjoying this over a simple salad of mix greens, tomato and onion!

* A wonderful utility sauce that can be used to start a pasta sauce, or be the sauce itself if you add some chopped green onions and extra parm cheese!

Gratin: Not Your Mama's Casserole (but kinda the same)

Casserole= Americana grossness favored by 60's housewives. Includes pantry staples such as egg noodles, canned tuna, canned green beans/peas/corn, Campbell's soup. Convenient way to feed your hungry brood of children when you are tired after a long day of drinking white wine and smoking Marlboros while waiting for your husband to come home from the office

Gratin= Fancy favorite of the yuppie crowd and natural food recipes, often found in the food & wine section of the NYT. Includes pantry and refrigerator drawer staples such as summer squash, potatoes, leeks, fresh herbs, cream, eggs, gruyere and arborio rice. Convenient way to feed your long-term live-in boyfriend or semi-employed friends after a long day of drinking white wine and smoking camel lights while waiting to hear back from those 20 jobs you found posted on idealist.org and applied to after you woke up at 10 am.

As the Thai people so famously say: "same-same, but different."

Gratins come in many shapes, sizes and levels of healthyness, but I think the majority of us crows agree that the Queen of all gratin recipes is this little gem that we dug up last summer:

This Summer Squash Gratin recipe from the NYT "recipes for health" section.

I have made this a least a half dozen times, and I know Mz Holly has as well. What is so great about this particular recipe is that is completely adaptable to whatever you have in your kitchen at any given time- zucchini can be substituted for sweet potatoes or butternut squash, Gruyere can be replaced by cheddar or chevre, leeks or shallots could be added, basil, parsley or organo can take over instead of thyme. Be creative!

Using rice in the gratin keeps it light yet filling (brown rice works just as well as aborio and makes it a little heartier), and personally, I like that this gratin isn't too cream-heavy, as many are.

The most important thing that this, and most, gratin recipes never mention is a classic ode to the casserole; always opt for a crusty top! A thick layer of breadcrumbs ups the yummy factor big time. After all, your Mama was right about a lot of things.

Roasted Acorn Squash with herbs and Feta

This is a take on one of my absolute favorite recipes from my absolute favorite cook book, Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons, who, as it happens, is also a great fan of Jamaica Plain. In fact, JP gets several shout-outs in the book.

But anyway, this is a much toned down version of Didi's "Ziti with Acorn Squash and Roasted Garlic"- which if you have the time and the means on a cold winter night I highly suggest to try out. But for those nights when you are feeling like more of a 30 minute commitment to the stove rather than an hour and 30 minutes, this version is for you. I made it tonight and couldn't get the man to stop eating it- and I myself am already looking forward to lunchtime leftovers.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb- 3/4 lb pasta of your choice- although I suggest something big and not spagetti, like ziti, macaroni, farfalle, ect.

1 acorn squash, cleaned, peeled and chopped

8 cloves of garlic

1 onion, preferably vidalia or red, sliced thin

aprox. 1 tablespoons of sage

aprox. 1 tablespoon of thyme

olive oil

salt and pepper

5 oz feta

1/4 cup Romano cheese

1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Clean out and peel the acorn squash and chop into small cubes- maybe a 1/2 inch to an inch in width. Combine in a roasting pan with onion, herbs and salt and pepper. Coat generously with olive oil and toss together. Let roast in the oven, tossing ever 10 minutes, for 30-35 minutes total or until squash starts to fall apart when moved.

3. At the same time put all 8 garlic cloves (with peels still on!) in a little tinfoil pouch covered in a bit of olive oil. Roast alongside squash.

3. Cook your pasta while all this is happening.

4. After squash is done, take the garlic cloves and squeeze the roasted garlic into a little bowl and discard peels. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the roasted garlic and mix it all together to form a paste.

5. In a big bowl toss together pasta, squash mixture, garlic paste, feta and the romano (leave a little for garnish!)

6. Eat while hot.

I forgot to take a picture, and honestly, it's not the most colorful of meals- but what it lacks in appearance it makes up for in taste bigtime!

Also, shout out to fellow crow Herself and her Mama who introduced me to Vegetarian Planet.

First Fail CAW

Tonight I tried making two things, and neither were as delicious as I'd hoped for! It happens now and again, and again, and again, so I like to take the time to reflect when and where I went wrong.

Tonight was my first time cooking with a Kabocha.

I had it all planned out. A thirty Minute BART ride home allowed me ample time to devise a stupendous plan of attack. I would roast this new squash with green zucchini and yellow summer squash alongside delicious red onion (one of my favorite veggies to roast) that had been covered in a perfectly sweetened honey & fresh ginger combo.

Needless to say it was a complete failure. I forgot about the " perfectly sweetened honey and ginger combo" until it came out of the oven looking dismal, and tasting even more bland. The tedious process of breaking down the squash (which was particularly hard) clouded my mind. I overcooked it all, and resorted to adding the honey after the fact to make it somewhat okay. The onions and zucchini were yummy, but the Kabocha was just weird. The texture was something I have never experienced, and shutter to think about.







Billy claims it is palatable, but I beg to differ. I spit it out. I kept thinking that if I tried it again, it would get better. That never happened






The second dish was a simple pasta salad. Although not as big of an ego-blow, still a disappointment. I chose to use tortellini as opposed to a more traditional "pasta salad" type noodle, which was my main mistake. The texture of the 'loni didn't work with the other ingredients that I added. Alone the "extras" would make an excellent salad. I will share with you that much.

Quick Chicken Salad

1 can Trader Joes Chicken (similar to Canned tuna...but chicken...)
1 T grainy mustard
1 T mayo
Oil and Vinegar to your liking
Salt & P
2 radishes cubed into chicken salad sized chunks
1 apple cubed
4 chopped scallions in their whole or about 3-4T chopped onion
4 T Fresh chopped parsley
Lemon juice
Corn from 2 Cobbs

2 pieces toasted Dark bread
a fork


Mix all ingredients together. Toast bread. Consume with fork and hands. If you feel like getting extra racey, put the chicken salad on untoasts pieces of bread with a slice of Munster or Swiss on top. Put in the oven to melt the cheese and east as an open faced sandy.


Cook and learn, I suppose. I think that shall be my motto.