Dinner - March 14, 2010

We must have been getting ready for picnic season. A meal of potato salad and coleslaw. Also known as new potatoes with sauteed shallots and herbs served with a crunchy cabbage salad.

Dinner - February 25, 2010

Balsamic Roasted Seitan with Cipolloni Onions and Crunchy Cabbage Salad and Mashed Potatoes with Parsnips
from Berley's Fresh Food Fast.

We had this before and thought it was great. This time I wondered what I had thought was so great.

The onions were very large and ended up a bit strong. The last time they were the size of pearl onions. The cabbage was still good but I was out of walnuts so it wasn't great. The parsnips were particularly strong and I didn't use the full amount noted in the recipe.

I am wondering if I used to like the "meat substitute" way of cooking better.

Dinner - September 27, 2009

Can you name this vegetable?

This was a vegetable that I got at the Farmers' Fair in Newport. This was a great little festival where they paired local growers with local chefs and sold tastes of some great dishes for rather low prices. The next day they did a traditional farmers' market.

I don't remember what this vegetable was called. I was told you could put it in salad or cook it. I went in between and used it like I use bok choy in the Eating Well salad Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms. The recipe can be found here.


To go with this dish it looks like I tried my hand at making Szechuan Green (and yellow) Beans. I recall we liked this dish but I haven't found my notes on how I did it. I think this was a mixture of recipes I found on the internet.


This is the last picture from my old camera.

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.

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.

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.

Dinner - June 29, 2009

This meal could be called leftovers. We had a warm dish of red beans and rice along with a cold dish of cabbage salad.
This totally faked version of red beans and rice is not worth reporting. The beans were really not up to par.

The cabbage salad was quite edible if not stellar. It was also totally made up of what was left on hand. I think the nice touch on the cabbage salad was the addition of a granny smith apple. I put everything except the cabbage through the food processor. Below is the list of ingredients provided as a stepping off place for building a better salad next time.

Cabbage Salad
1 napa cabbage
1 bunch carrots
1 cuke
1 granny smith apple
1 bell pepper
1 jalapeño
1/2 cup red onion
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
Salt

The veggies were all local.