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 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 - 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 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 - June 30, 2009

It is July 14th as I write this post, but I can still taste this meal. I really enjoyed this meal and would be proud to serve it to any guests who will eat olives.

For a first course we had microgreens on top of tomato slices. I dressed the microgreens in a simple olive oil and balsamic dressing. I used the fancy balsamic vinegar that Jan shared with me. This vinegar is so good that Jan and I are known for drinking it.

For the meal we had a whole wheat pasta dish with a side of yellow wax beans. The pasta recipe is from Immer's Everyday Dining with Wine and is called Linguine with Walnuts, Olives, and Arugula. We were out of linguine and had to go with penne. I would recommend sticking with the linguine and I would also recommend using a whole wheat or partial whole wheat pasta. I left out the cheese and I can't imagine it being any better with it.

This pasta dish reminded me why I cook from recipes from cookbook writers that I like. The food is greater than its parts.

The beans were prepared in boiling water as outlined in Bishop's Vegetables Every Day.

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.