Breakfast - September 25, 2009

I enjoyed this bread for breakfast, but I made it the day before and ate quite a bit that day too. The recipe is called Whole-Wheat Flatbread with Grapes and comes from the www.culinate.com website and can be found here.

I found an error on the recipe which I mentioned in the comments of the site. It looks like they straightened it out pretty quickly.

Mostly the recipe came together well. The sugar on the grapes on top became liquid and ran off the end of the bread and provided a little too much caramelizing on the bottom of the pan.

I plan to make this again when we have company.

Update: Found some notes on making this. I reduced the recipe so that I was at just 3 total cups of flour so I could make the dough in the food processor. When I put it in the baking sheet I went to about an inch from the edge.

Dinner - September 24, 2009

I was making Berley's quinoa salad and just liked this image. Cooling green beans on a towel instead of running them under water does leave them in a nice condition and I now use this technique in many recipes.

Information on the recipe can be found on old posts here and here.

Dinner - September 22, 2009

Yellow oyster mushrooms (before) are pictured above. Yellow oyster mushroom (after) with some flat green beans are pictured below. This is again based on the Eating Well recipe that can be found here.


Myra Kornfeld's The Healthy Hedonist has become one of my favorite cookbooks. I don't think I go a week without hitting it. The dish below is Glazed Tofu (with brocolli added) which is part of her Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry. The stir-fry is a great dish and works with a lot of vegetable substitutions. I have posted on this one before where I served it with some noodles. You can find the old post here. On this day I just made the Glazed Tofu step and added broccoli.

Lunch - September 22, 2009

This looks to be a quick lunch of greens and a nice dressing. I just need to remember the dressing.

Dinner - September 21, 2009

For a starter we had a "Tomato & Bread Salad with Basil" that I made up. When I was packing Matt's lunch I cut off the end piece of the whole wheat bread that was starting to dry up. I cubed it and left it on a plate to finish drying during the day. For the salad I mashed 1 small clove of garlic with some salt. I chopped two large tomatoes (one red and one yellow) and mixed with the garlic. I chopped a handful of basil and mixed it in. I added a teaspoon or so of balsamic vinegar and tossed in the bread cubes. I tossed and served the two of us. This was good but I add some course salt when I served it that ended up being just a bit too much.


For the entree we had a curry from Berley's Flexitarian Table called "Lentil and Rhubarb Curry with Potatoes and Peas". I did not have the ginger or the shallots. I used all onion, oil in place of the ghee, and added a bit of prepared curry powder along with a bit of ground ginger. I doubled the red pepper flakes and upped the garlic cloves by one. I also used regular lentils in place of the french lentils and did no soaking ahead of time.

We both liked this. It did not work out as perfectly as the last time I made it but I thought it was still pretty good. I think trying to compare it to our carry out curries doesn't work since they rely so heavily on cream and fat to taste good. This is a nice healthy basic curry to make when ever you have some rhubarb around. I would say this could feed 4 if served with some bread.

The Last Day My Camera Worked

The last day my camera worked was 10/29/2009.

I was just flipping through my blog and saw some recipes that I had forgotten about and thought this whole picture and posting thing might be worth it. I downloaded 176 pictures from my camera to get posting and confirmed what I had been suspecting, the camera is not recording any image data.

It is saving files with additional data. The flash and all the other controls are working. The shutter is opening. The screen shows no picture data but it is powered and shows all of the menu data. Somewhere inside the camera the picture data is lost.

I will start my new camera research. Advice is welcomed.

I do have a month of images for posts so I will get to work on those.

New Addition to the Kitchen

I finally added a butcher block table to my kitchen. I have been looking at options since the spring. You can find an old post here.

The top and legs from Ikea cost $138 with tax. The mineral oil to treat it cost $5 from Ace hardware in Clifton.

I may still move the legs but I am very happy with it. While it makes my kitchen smaller it makes my work space and outlook so much better.

Lunch - September 20, 2009

After a rainy morning at the farmers' market, I relaxed with some fresh bread, a Norther Spy apple, and a steaming cup of coffee.

Dinner - Sepember 18, 2009

That is real shrimp you see in the picture. For the last year we had been following the rule that we would eat a herbivore diet at home and then twice a week when eating at a restaurant or as a guest, we would eat meat and dairy. With the new frugality with which we are living the restaurant dining has gone away, so we are going to add the occasional meat or cheese item back into our diets at home.

This was a home made tomato sauce from local tomatoes served with the shrimp and 50% whole wheat pasta. We enjoyed this with a nice Barola that Matt got me several years ago.

I am not going to rate this recipe or tag it. It was indulgent and fun and tasted pretty good.

Lunch - September 11, 2009

I was home alone and whipped this up for myself for lunch. I will call it Not Really Re-fried Beans and Fresh Salsa. I don't remember exactly what I did but my current guess follows.

For the beans I sauteed an onion in some olive oil. I then added a drained can of pinto beans while reserving the liquid. I added some cumin and mashed the beans with a potato masher while they cooked. I then worked in the reserved liquid until it was the consistency I wanted.

For the salsa I mashed a clove of garlic and mixed it with some salt. I chopped up some cherry tomatoes, a very small red onion, and a dark red bell pepper and tossed them with the garlic. I believe I added a dash of Adobo sauce from some chipotle peppers I had in the fridge.

Very satisfying and easy.

Dinner - September 8, 2009

I tried the Three Sisters' Stew with Okra and Leeks from Berley's Fresh Food Fast again. This time I backed off on the jalapeno to about a half of a large one. I also made my own pinto beans.

The result was a stew where the spice just added to the flavor of the dish. I could have gone for a little more spice. Since the pepper is the first thing in the pot it is hard to gauge.

Matt rounded out the meal for us this time with some corn chips.

I made the recipe from gathering the ingredients to ready to serve in under an hour. It is a nice one pot meal where you can chop the veggies as you go.

Dinner - September 7, 2009

This would not be a typical summer meal but I had some older green beans to use up. I stated with Bishop's Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes, Olives, Capers and Basil recipe from Vegetables Every Day. From there I used a 28 oz can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, 20 olives, 1 tbsp capers, 6 cloves garlic, added 1 lb of eggplant, and added 1 can of white navy beans. I also had to substitute parsley for the basil.

For the 1 lb of green beans I used 12 oz of green beans and 4 oz of yellow wax beans. The eggplant were 4 small white globes with a purple blush. I only peeled the eggplant where there were blemishes and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.

I cooked this up in my dutch oven.

Yum. I really liked this and plan to make it a regular for us. Matt said it is comfort food. Prep is easy.

Dinner - September 5, 2009

This is a version of a recipe from Eating Well modified for the produce I had on hand. The recipe is called Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms and can be found on the Eating Well website.

I used regular cabbage for the napa cabbage. I used broccoli which I cooked in advance for the bok choy, and I used regular tofu in place of the silken. I let the tofu drain for a while and then dry it in a dish towel before marinating. I use peanut oil in place of the canola oil.

You can find my previous post here.

Lunch - Septpember 4, 2009

This is Gazpacho Salad from The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. This is the vegetarian cookbook that my mom had when I was growing up. I guess I nabbed her copy when I was in college. I recently purged my cookbooks but I held on to this one from 1972.

I added chickpeas to the salad to make it a meal. The recipe says to use firm tomatoes which would help limit all the extra liquid I had, but when you have ripe tomatoes you just can't pass them up. It is the nice dressing that makes this more than just chopped vegetables

I like chopping and I don't like turning on the stove so this is a good recipe for me. I have made a less soupy version of this for sharing at picnics.

Dinner - September 3, 2009

Again, I revisited a favorite. This recipe is Three Sisters Stew with Okra and Leeks from Berley's Fresh Food Fast. Have I mentioned how much I love cookbooks organized by season?

I used purple okra and tomatillos. I had no cilantro for garnish and of course I skipped the sour cream for garnish. I also used olive oil in place of the butter. Besides this full oil try, I have made this recipe with half the oil and with none of the oil and have enjoyed all.

My notes say start to finish in under an hour and that you can chop the vegetables as you go.

I think that you can consider this a complete meal because of the beans. If I were going to serve this to a guests I would probably add some cornbread or some other starch on the side. I will stick with the taste rating of 4 that I gave it before but this is really good and I hope everyone tries it.

You can find a previous post here.

Dinner - August 30, 2009

One more go on a favorite. This is from the recipe Chilled Tomato Soup, with Shallots, Cucumbers, and Corn from Berleys' Fresh Food Fast. I took this over to Kevin's to share for dinner.

I say taste your cucumber and if it is strong, reduce it. I think the corn can be upped a bit. I used red onion in place of the shallot because that is all I found at the market. The shallot adds a little complexity.

I made a double recipe and that served the three of us along side some grilled food with one serving left for lunch. The recipe says it serves 4 but that would be just a small cup.

Previous posts:
cold-soup-for-hot-weather
dinner-without-photos

Snack - Septpember 27, 2009

I have been trying to post my meals in order no matter how far behind I am. Today I am scrapping that procedure to bring you the pawpaw. I have been waiting to try one for years and just had to post now.


As I understand it the pawpaw does not have any shelf life. I bought 6 today thinking that half were ready to eat today and the other half will be ready tomorrow.


I had read that the simpliest way to enjoy them is cut them in half and eat the fruit like a custard. I would say that is a great way to eat them and it is custard like. The flavor was something like a tropical jellybean mixed with butterscotch or vanilla pudding. I enjoyed.

Dinner - August 29, 2009

Some summer classics again.
Gazpacho. My previous post with the basil croutons can be found here. The recipe can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-Gazpacho-with-Basil-Croutons-12647. This one lacks the croutons and the shrimp. I have been out of red wine vinegar all summer so I have been using sherry vinegar.

"Green Beans and Potatoes with Pesto". The recipe is from Jack Bishop's The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook. I used half yellow wax beans. You can find a previous post here.

The tomatoes and green beans are from my dad's garden. The rest of the ingredients (except for the olive oil and vinegar) are from the Hyde Park Farmers' Market.

Dinner - August 26, 2009

When the camera battery is low the auto-focus does not appear to work.

The first picture is a Tomato Curry. The recipe is from a cookbook that I already returned to the library. It was tasty but not what I expected. I had cooked up some yellow split peas over which I was going to serve the curry. I ended up just mixing them into the curry and calling it soup. It was a nice taste with the fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes of strange colors but anything is good with that much coconut milk.


The second recipe was the topping from Jack Bishop's recipe "Crisp Tortillas with Pattypan Squash, Eggplant, and Tomato." The recipe can be found in A year in the Vegetarian Kitchen. I did not use the tortillas or the queso fresco. I believe I doubled the rest of the recipe. This was again not what I was expecting but pretty good. The lime and chipotle chile gave the dish some variety from a regular ratatouille.

I enjoyed both dishes but I would say they have a little work to become regulars. I am giving these a taste rating of "have potential" and I really mean they have a lot of potential. Cooking up lentils, soup, and veggies separately was a lot of work so as a whole I would say this was a weekend meal but the individual dishes all have weeknight potential.

Dinner - August 13, 2009

Lazy and rather lame dinner of whole wheat pasta in fresh tomato sauce with some strange and all together too firm mushrooms. This dish can also be called "Nothing Left in the Kitchen to Eat."

Dinner - August 12, 2009

We had a first course of fresh tomatoes and basil with chickpeas in a room temperature salad. After enjoying the salad I started cooking dinner.

Later for the second course we had a version of Eating Well's Five-Vegetable Curry. You can find my original post here. This time I had no sweet potato so I used carrots as a substitute. Still a great dish and a good way to eat eggplant.

I am still giving this a taste rating of a 4 but it is good enough to serve to meat eaters. The dish is just more of an everyday dish. Maybe next time I will think of a way to fancy it up a bit.

Dinner - August 5, 2009

Here is one of my favorites again. This is from Berley's The Flexitarian Table. The recipe is called "Quinoa Salad with Green Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes." You can see it with a post of the full meal here.

I finally spotted some red quinoa at Bigg's this week. I will have to try this again.

I am giving it a week night rating for preparation but please see the caveats in previous post noted above.

Dinner - August 4, 2009

This is gazpacho with basil croutons. This was made from a recipe you can find on epicurious.com called Shrimp Gazpacho with Basil Croutons. I left out the shrimp and I used an excellent mild sour dough bread for the croutons.

You do not need to chop all the veggies up like the recipe says. The half that go in the food processor can just be chunked. This saves a lot of time but if you are going to make the croutons this might be hard to pull off after work and get everything to cool. I make it for weeknights but I have my system down.

Matt first made this gazpacho over 10 years ago and it is the standard for us.

Dinner - August 2, 2009

This is a tomato soup with mushrooms from a mushroom cookbook I got from the library. The soup calls for a little bit of beet in the soup. I am going to guess this is for color. The soup was fine.
The salad was simply dressed greens with new potatoes and sauteed oyster mushrooms. The salad was fine.

I will say that these dishes have potential. I am imagining that a french bistro that is just around the corner from here could do some very nice versions of these dishes. It think this combination could also make for a nice meal.

Dinner - August 1, 2009

This does not look good. The squash on the left is a yellow zucchini. While the flavor was good it was too large and seedy for this preparation.

The dish on the right was a sad version of olives, walnuts, and arugula on spaghetti squash. I really need to give up on the spaghetti squash as pasta substitute.

We both ate this meal because it was healthy. It did taste better than it looked but I would avoid making both dishes in this way in the future.

Dinner - July 31, 2009

Again, I have no idea what this is. It looks to have broccoli, tofu, and mushrooms. Was there a peanut sauce?

UPDATE: I found an entry in my calorie tracker for that day. I called the recipe "Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Tofu in Peanut Sauce" but I credited no source so maybe I did make it up.

This makes 4 servings. One serving had 377 calories.

Here is a general list of ingredients:
4 tsp peanut oil
4 cups broccoli
1 cup cooked shiitakes
1 block tofu
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp mirin
2 garlic cloves
3 tsp grated ginger
serve over 3 cups of cooked brown rice

Dinner - July 27, 2009

I can't remember this meal. It appears to be zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, and kidney beans tossed with some pasta. I am guessing that I just improvised.

Matt does not recall it either. I am hungry right now so I think it sounds pretty good. I guess this is why I have to keep track at the time.

UPDATE: I found an entry in my calorie tracker for that day. I called the recipe "Zucchini and Pasta with Tomato and Pinto Beans" but I credited no source so maybe I did make it up.

This makes 4 servings. One serving had 408 calories.

Here is a general list of ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
7 cups zucchini
8 oz of pasta
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 can pinto beans

Lunch - July 21, 2009

A potluck of leftovers for lunch also known as sauteed zucchini tossed in a tomato sauce served with quinoa-grits polenta cakes. It was more than healthy and since it was leftovers it was easy. You can check out the original polenta cake post here.

Dinner - July 20, 2009

I had some lion's mane mushrooms to try. The grower said to use any recipe that you make with crab and substitute the mushrooms. I didn't have one but I found an old Eating Well recipe that we used to make with canned clams. I figured they are both seafood and both start with "c."

The base recipe was "Linguine with Clam Sauce" from The Eating Well Rush Hour Cookbook. I upped to 2 tbsp the olive oil, used 4 oz of mushroom in place of the clams, left out the clam juice, and used about 5 oz of thin whole wheat spaghetti. This modified version served 2 at 570 calories each.


The base recipe was "Sicilian-Style Broccoli" from The Eating Well Rush Hour Cookbook. I upped to 1 tbsp the olive oil, used 10 oz of green beans cut into 2 inch pieces, and tossed in a tbsp of the herbs from the clam sauce. I boiled the green beans for 5 minutes in the pasta water and then cooled on a dish towel. When time to eat I sauteed the capers and garlic and then through the beans in for about 3 minutes. This made 2 servings at 110 calories each.

The mushroom had a great texture and the dish was a reasonable success but the mushrooms did not quite work out like seafood. I can't remember what we thought of the green beans.

Lunch - July 20, 2009

An easy lunch of a formerly frozen Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza from some Kroger store combined with a nice salad.

Add a fresh salad to any frozen entree and you have a relatively healthy meal that may keep you from ordering pizza. I try not to feel guilty about these meals.

Dinner - July 19, 2009

Mushrooms have been one of my favorite things this summer. There is a grower from Kentucky that sells some very interesting mushrooms at the Hyde Park Farmers' Market. (Not on September 6th however). Starting on the top left and going clockwise we have: Lions' Mane, Chicken of the Woods, Chanterelles, and Cauliflower Fungus.

I cooked the Chicken of the Woods mushrooms up and tossed with some green beans following my previously noted standard recipe from Eating Well.

I sauteed the Cauliflower Fungus and Chantrelles and served over quinoa polenta cakes. The Cauliflower Fungus was great this way but the chantrelles were not shown off well.

The polenta cakes are a keeper and are from a recipe called "Quinoa-Grits Polenta" from Myra Kornfeld's The Healthy Hedonist.

I spent a great deal of time looking through mushroom cookbooks from the library but since my mushrooms were not over sized and I didn't want to serve them with a side of meat I didn't find much useful information.

I saved the Lion's Mane for another day.

While I completely enjoyed eating this meal I am going to still have to rate it as "this has potential." Quinoa and grits cook much faster than regular polenta so this is still an easy weeknight production.

Lunch - July 18, 2009

This was a lunch of leftovers. The recipe information can be found at earlier posts.

Quinoa Salad wtih Green Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes
Sugar Snap Peas with Bacon
Asian Slaw with Tofu and Shiitake Mushrooms
Green & Yellow Beans with Wild Mushrooms

I think we ate everything cold. It all made for a pretty nice lunch.

Dinner - July 17, 2009

Looks like we have a dish of zucchini and chickpeas cooked up with some leftover rice from Indian carryout. This dish is paired with a dish of green beans, yellow wax beans, and mushrooms.

I believe we found this quite satisfying. I don't have a recipe for the squash. The beans and mushrooms are based on the recipe "Green & Yellow Beans with Wild Mushrooms" from the Eating Well website. I use a much higher mushroom to bean ratio. I often do a pound of mushrooms, pre-trimmed weight, for a pound of beans.

This is Matt's favorite green bean dish. When the mushrooms and beans are really good, you can't beat it.

Dinner - July 16, 2009

In the background we have "Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms" form the Eating Well website. You can find the recipe and a pretty picture here.

In the foreground we have Sugar Snap Peas with Bacon from Bishop's Vegetables Every Day. We had some leftover bacon from our yearly BLT festival.

The slaw was hearty and satisfying. The sugar snap peas were fine but not anything I would ever bother to make again. The slaw could be a meal on its own.

I am going from memory here but I think the slaw was pretty easy. I also think that I used locally grown bok choy that was baby size. I did not use silken tofu but used regular firm tofu. I also used regular soy sauce.