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 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.

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 - 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 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 - 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.

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.

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 7, 2009

This was a meal we shared with my sister and our friend Chuck. It is from Peter Berley's The Flexitarian Table. It is Summer Menu 5: Tofu with Lemon, Soy, White Wine, and Butter Sauce; Striped Bass with Lemon, White Wine, and Butter Sauce; Quinoa Salad with Green Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes.

The tofu and quinoa were excellent. The fish was limited by the quality of the fish. We have made this fish with good fish in the past and it was excellent too.

We don't make this tofu a regular dish because of the butter but pull it out for company. The quinoa is a summer regular here. The quinoa is also a good dish for sharing at picnics.

The pumpkin seeds are listed as optional on the quinoa but I think they should not be skipped. I have never found red quinoa and have always used regular. I used half yellow wax beans. I also used to two 12 oz blocks of tofu instead of the pound that is called for and was glad to have the extra tofu. I believe I slightly upped the sauce.

The meal as a whole needs to be saved for weekends. The quinoa can be a meal or lunch itself and I would say you could pull that off for a weeknight. The thing that makes it hard for a weeknight meal is the cooling time on the quinoa and the coordination of the separate cooking for the ingredients. I have a bit of practice now and would not hesitate to make it for a weeknight.

For taste I will give it a 5 as we have gone back to this one for guests and even had our caterer for our wedding do a version of the tofu.

Dinner - July 5, 2009

These ingredients became "Green Beans and Potatoes with Pesto". The recipe is from Jack Bishop's The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook. I used half yellow wax beans.

The recipe is a standard for me. I take this dish often when I have to take a dish to share. It is vegan and vegetable based and good for making ahead while still with in the comfort zone of many. It is a relatively healthy potato salad if they can just get past the green.

For taste I would give this a 4.5. While I think it is good enough to serve to meat eaters it is just a side dish in the end. For prep I will give it a 3 since you do have to boil some water and dirty a blender or food processor.

Dinner - July 2, 2009

This was the world's best mushrooms and green beans. These were two kinds of oyster mushrooms, some yellow and some white. We have been having something similar every week since.

This chard dish with double stems became way to much like beets for Matt to stand. I ate quite a bit but it really wasn't anything very inspired.

Dinner - July 1, 2009

Way behind. Need to post these old dishes.

Curry with local veggies. I need to find this recipe so I can make it again today.

Found it. You can find the recipe for Five-Vegetable Curry from Eating Well at http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/five_vegetable_curry.html

Another Ugly Dinner

This looked a bit like worms and chewed food on the plate but tasted pretty good. The picture is from my messy kitchen just before serving.

The green beans are from my parents garden but were getting a bit older so I picked a recipe with a longer cooking time. I used Bishop's Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes, Olives, Capers, and Basil from Vegetables Every Day (page 174).

For the green beans I followed the recipe except for I cooked the garlic in two tablespoons of red wine instead of the oil. When the liquid in the pan looked a little low I added a tablespoon of the brine from the olives.

The green beans were tasty but we knew they would be. This is a standard recipe for us. Sometimes I will double the sauce part of it and serve it with pasta with the beans on the side.

The warm broccoli salad was a creation based on what we had around.
In a large bowl I mixed:
1 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 green olives chopped
1 tablespoon of black olive brine
I boiled for about 5 minutes:
1 head of broccoli chopped in bite size pieces
In a colander I placed:
6 baby bok choy stems sliced
I poured the broccoli and water over the bok choy and let cool for a few minutes.
I mixed the vegetables into the dressing.
I then mixed in:
2 Tbsp of basil chopped
2 Tbsp of flat leaf parsley chopped

I liked this odd salad with the bitter and crunchy bok choy set against the soft broccoli. The mild tang of the vinegar went well with the Sauvignon Blanc we had with dinner. I think Matt just found it weird but I would say it has potential.

All of the herbs were from my parents garden - THANKS

I finally wanted some Okra and I couldn't find it

I made the Three Sisters Stew with Okra and Leeks from Berley's Fresh Food Fast without the okra (page 105). I have never gone looking for okra so I didn't know it was hard to find. Berley notes in the intro to the recipe that you should make the recipe even if you can't find okra and I agree.


While this was cooking I made up some Spicy Summer Bean and Chickpea Salad with Harissa Vinaigrette from the same cookbook (page 125). I was planning for this to be for lunch the next day but it was so good we decided to have some with dinner. We were glad to have it also to have some variety of texture to the meal.

On the stew I left out the butter and the olive oil in the cooking and the sour cream in the garnish. This means we ate a soup of nothing but vegetables, water, and salt. It was excellent. I am going to guess it is the leeks that create the decent broth but the ripeness of the vegetables that carry it the rest of the way. If you can get the vegetables, I suggest making it tonight. In a month you may have missed your opportunity. The chopping on this is not to bad since most of the items remain large. I chopped as I cooked to save time.

On the beans I used 2 Tbsp of lemon juice instead of the 3 since I left out the olive oil. I also only used 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Maybe I will try a little more next time. We found that the chickpeas could use a little salt. Trimming the beans is the biggest time on this recipe.

The First Supper

The first day out was made much easier by the bounty of my parents' garden. We enjoyed some fresh green beans and zucchini. This one we cooked together.

For the zucchini I cut the squash in half length wise and then cut them into 1/4" slabs. I browned these in a single layer in a non-stick fry pan. This took three rounds and I just stacked them up on a plate until the end when I tossed them all back in the pan to bring them to temperature.

For the green beans we used Jack Bishop's recipe for Braised Green Beans with Soy and Sesame from Vegetables Every Day (page 173). I didn't have any stock so I just used water and added a stalk of celery while it cooked which I discarded when we served it. Instead of the sesame oil I used tahini. I left out the peanut oil and instead sauted with 2 T of water in a non-stick fry pan. At the end we removed the green beans and added a drained and rinsed can of white beans to the pan sauce as we cooked it down.

The zucchini was sweet and delicious. The green beans were great. The white beans were a bit mushy but made the meal more of a meal. The green beans were a new try and I think will become part of the repertoire. Matt did the prep on the beans and somehow this still took us an hour to make.