what's for dinner?

Our daughter's boyfriend is coming for dinner.  Flying in to town and we have never met him.  He lives in Colorado where she goes to college and is stopping in for a two day visit.  What's on the menu?   Lamb, lava burgers and my secret recipe veggie orzo.   I marinated the lamb this morning in yogurt, olive oil, fresh mint, garlic, shallots, salt and lemon juice.  For those who don't like lamb - and the vegan says - who doesn't like lamb?! (Him perhaps?) I have lava burgers - our specialty - and no those aren't for the vegan either!  Lava burgers are hamburgers stuffed with Boursin cheese.  A favorite of kids all around the neighborhood.   I've been making a great orzo pasta, saute tons of any type of veggies - tonight will be onion, zucchini, red pepper and broccoli in olive oil and mix into cooked orzo. I separate the vegan's portion first (and vegan's need big portions!)  For the non-vegans I add a few tablespoons of Boursin cheese.    The kids will eat almost any vegetable prepared in this fashion.    I haven't made it yet, so I don't have a photo, but here is last week's lava burger meal extravaganza for the college girls first night home.

Mashed Potatoes - 3 ways

 On Sunday I made 3 versions of mashed potatoes.  First, the vegan version - potatoes, vegetable stock, oyster mushrooms and kale.  They turned out well - the vegetable stock I think is a better option than soy milk because it doesn't impart much flavor to the potatoes.  Yukon gold potatoes are creamy enough on their own.  

Next is the kids version - Broccoli Cheddar Mashed Potatoes.

These potatoes had butter and milk, broccoli and cheddar cheese.  They were requested by the picky 6 year old neighbor who loves them.  I haven't had any complaints.

Last the Colcannon Potatoes.  These are the inspiration for the whole mashed potato event.  These have butter, milk and sauteed kale.  They were my least favorite as the flavor was sharp.  True Colcannon potatoes are served with a tablespoon of butter on top.  More butter would have helped a lot but I couldn't quite bring my self to use enough.  My favorite were the broccoli cheddar, they will be on the menu again, as will the vegan version.

Veggie Version

The veggie version of Shepard's Pie that I made for book club was a hit.  I used eggplant and oyster mushrooms in place of the lamb.  I also put a layer of kale under the mashed potatoes.  Everyone love it.  For the vegan version we used soy milk and vegan butter substitute.  Reviews were good but I would have preferred vegetable stock to the soy milk to bring out the potato flavor.   

We awoke on Saturday to a total collapse of the sink.  No cooking here for a while!

Shepard's Pie!   After spending last week trying again to perfect Thai food, with moderate success.  This week I spotted a pound of frozen ground lamb and whipped up a Shepard's Pie.  It's so much nicer to work with flavors I'm comfortable with and to not need a cook book.  Of course none of the kids liked it, not even the adventurous pre-teen.  I sauteed onions, carrots, celery, zucchini and oyster mushrooms and the lamb.  I used red wine, tomato sauce and some Penzey's Krakow nights seasoning, which was a gift from a neighbor.  It is a nice blend of salt, pepper, mustard and other things that worked well.  I used some flour to thicken it and topped it with mashed potatoes.   Helen & I loved it - I think it will make the menu for book club on Friday with a veggie version.  I may even make a little vegan one with rice milk or something in the potatoes, if I'm feeling nice.

Collecting a group of recipes which can be made in versions for humans and vegans is both easy and challenging for me.  This one is pretty simple, just don't add the lamb to part of it.  However, then the mashed potatoes get in the way.  I hate soy, so probably will add vegetable broth & rice milk.  I hope it turns out ok.  Other good human/vegan menus are chicken & eggplant Parmesan, paella and veggie pasta with chicken or shrimp.  Also tacos of course!

He's A Vegan!

It's my first post with the new name.  In February, my husband decided to be a vegan.  In April, I went on a college visit with our oldest and my 10 year old said, "Mom, you can't leave us with him - we're humans and he's a vegan!  The challenges of having a vegan in the house have been huge.  Emotionally, logistically and financially, we have struggled with the transition of one of us from human to vegan.  We are starting to get over the hump, and I hope to share some tips on feeding both humans and vegans at the same table.

I know there are many blogs devoted to how vegans are treated badly by friends and family, how no one understands their motivation and respects their decision to avoid animal products.  I don't intend to be a vegan basher.  I respect the decision and understand his motivation.  Diagnosed in mid-life with a pulmonary condition which leads to chronic pneumonia, my husband is trying to take control of his health.  He's a researcher who has done sufficient reading to believe that this is the right course for him.  However, that doesn't make it easy for any of us.   

Wheat Berries?

 

There were Wheat Berries in the bag this week.  Wheat Berries are the whole grain of the wheat.  Kay has ground them into flour in the past, but has had requests for wheat berries recently (not from me!) so she included them in the bag.  Rather than let them sit around, I searched for a recipe and found one on Food Network from Ina Garten.  Ina always has delicious, simple recipes, so I gave it a go.  I put 1 cup of wheat berries in 3 cups of boiling salted water and then let it simmer for 45 minutes. There was a lot of discussion in the reviews if this was enough time. The wheat berries were chewy, but my vegetarian friend said the consistency was right.  If you were substituting wheat berries for meat in your meal, you would probably want it to be chewy, but you could cook them longer if you like a mushier consistency. 

After cooking the wheat berries and setting them aside in a large bowl.  I sauteed a chopped red onion, half a zucchini, a clove of garlic and a chopped carrot in 2 tbsp of olive oil.  I sauteed the onion for about 5 minutes, like Ina suggested, and added the other veggies for the last 3 minutes.  After I turned off the heat I added 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  I combined the sauteed veggies, the warm wheatberries and a chopped scallion and 1/4 of a chopped cucumber plus salt and pepper.  It's important to let the salad sit for 30 minutes to allow the dressing to be absorbed by the wheatberries.  Ina's recipe included red pepper and did not include cucumber, but that is what I had and it turned out well.   It turned out well,  my husband and my vegetarian friend both loved it.

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WEEK 1

In the individual bag this week is lettuce, radishes, onions and garlic scape.  We actually traded popcorn for lettuce, as we have tons of popcorn.  At the market I also bought zucchini, summer squash, fresh spring onions and snap peas.  I've been making a salad to take to work every day for a while now so this weeks bag will fill the bill.  I bought a chicken from Tea Hills Farm and some pork chops from New Creation farm.  I'm planning to marinate and grill the pork chops tomorrow night and serve them with potato-zucchini pancakes.   

I made the potato-zucchini pancakes last week for the first time.  I grated yukon gold potatoes, zucchini, some onion and garlic.  Then added salt, pepper and an egg.  I squeezed out most of the liquid and fried them in olive oil.  They turned out well enough, that I'm looking forward to making them again this week.

Duck Confit

So the  Plum Creek farmer is also a great salesman!  I came home with a bag of duck legs this morning and now have to figure out what to do with them.  My plan is to make a confit and use the meat for salad for lunch all week.  I combined the Epicurious duck confit recipe with an Emerill recipe.  I crushed  4 cloves of garlic and a pinch of salt together to make a paste, added 1/4 of salt and some fresh thyme and am now marinating the trimmed duck legs and the reserved fat in a ziplock bag.  (Mostly from Epicurious).  Tomorrow I will cook the legs slowly in 4 cups of olive oil & the reserved fat (because I don't have 4 cups of duck fat on hand!)  Emerill solved that problem for me, with the olive oil solution.  We'll see how it turns out.  It actually sounds pretty easy and the 4 duck legs were $9 which is the same as a take out chicken ceasar salad - so if that, some goat cheese, cranberries and $4 worth of Oasis Farms lettuce makes lunch for a week, I'll be way ahead and very well fed!

Rogan Josh

I must confess that not only have I not written anything interesting lately, I haven't cooked much interesting lately either, except for several pretty good batches of lentil soup.  Until last weekend when I made a fantastic pot of Rogan Josh.  I've made more Indian food than usual this winter, but all of it out of a jar of curry sauce from the grocery store.  Miles Farmers Market has amazing curry sauces at reasonable prices and all you have to do is add the meat.  However, this weekend I was out of jarred sauce and had some lamb in the freezer so I set out to make my own.  I read a few recipes and then used my own cooking technique.  Child number 2 had soccer and a play so I would be out of the house all day, so followed most of the instructions and then just tossed it all in a copper pot in the over at 225 for 6 hours.   I sauteed onions, garlic, 2 tbsp of fresh ginger in a pan.  Then I browned 1.25 pounds of lamb and added a tbsp of curry, 1/4 tsp of cayenne and 1 tsp of turmeric, a small can of tomatoes and 1 cup of yogurt.  I added a cubed eggplant (which I had salted) which was absolutely not in any of the recipes for Rogan Josh, but I think eggplant only adds to any lamb dish and I had less lamb than I needed for the number of people I planned to serve.  I tossed it all in the oven and went to the soccer game.   When I returned I made some basmanti rice and I chopped some cucumber and garlic and mixed it in plain yogurt to make a raita.  The lamb was tender and the sauce was flavorful but didn't have a harsh curry edge like the jarred sauce.  It also wasn't really much more difficult than opening a jar.  This is going into the regular family rotation, for sure.

Already uninspired?

So with high hopes to have back to school meals organized, but just off 14 days of visiting relatives and a big New Year's Eve party.  I have no great ideas for dinners for the first week back to school.  We are off to a tea for the afternoon and will return around 4 or 5.  I wish there was something delicious bubbling on the stove, but alas, I slept in and there is not.   I will salvage the situation by dipping into the frozen tomato sauce in the basement and making spaghetti and meatballs.  I wish I had been more together, but it will work and I think that this is just what its there for.

New Year's Resolutions

I'm trying to find a way to manage my household menus, recipes and ideas.  Since I really do seem to cook seasonally, I'm hoping to use this blog to keep track of what works for my family. I'm going to work to record the weeks meals as best I can, at least for a while.  Last night we had Burgundy Beef Sandwiches (a fantastic and simple recipe from Millgate Farms) with sauteed shallots and peppers, left over scalloped potatoes and Maew's veggies with oyster sauce.  The night before it was steak sandwiches, the same veggies and a fantastic Asian shrimp noodle soup.  

The scalloped potatoes came from Christmas dinner and worked out perfectly.  I layered sliced Yukon Gold potatoes with sauteed onions and garlic then dotted with butter, cream and salt & pepper.  A sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and baked them about an hour at 350 covered in foil.  I added some more cheese at the end.

The Milgate farms beef is easy and delicious.  Cook a rump roast in a slow cooker for 8 to 10 hours with 2 cups of onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, thyme, wine, Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper.  Then serve it on little rolls.  Great stuff!

I'm on quite an Asian noodle soup kick.  I made a great duck soup for dinner with the relatives the other night.  The recipe goes like this - make a great stock, add some onions or leeks, garlic, some kind of greens - bok choy, kale, cabbage, Asian greens - anything leafy, protein - duck or shrimp or Trader Joe's pork & cilantro mini dumplings, Asian noodles if you don't use the dumplings.  Season the soup with lime, fish sauce and some soy sauce.  Add chilies if you like it hot.  Mushrooms and seaweed are great as well. 

Ramen

So the sweet husband made the complicated Ramen broth from the Momofuku cookbook & then it was up to me to make the soup.  Luckily he had followed Momofuku's instructions and made the pulled pork already.  I took his fancy broth, added the bok choy from the bag, scallions, the pork, a touch of lime juice and fresh cilantro and made the family some soup.   We still had two gallon bags of ramen broth and a vat of soup after dinner was over (and no uncooked bok choy!)  Everyone over eight liked it, no one under eight tried it. 

Woon Sen

My 9 year old is a huge fan of her Thai aunt's noodle dish, Woon Sen.  For some reason, I have had a terrible time making it correctly.  The ingredients are not familiar enough to me to be able to wing it, but still after several lessons & email exchanges you would think I could figure it out.  Perhaps the language barrier was holding me back!  

Sophie spent a week with her aunt at the beach and came home determined to help me make it correctly.  We worked together & finally made it up to her discerning standards.   We boiled the ground pork in a little bit of water.  Soaked the "dried fungus" in water. Wow, does that fungus expand in water!  We mixed chopped onions, chopped (now undried) fungus, chopped cilantro, sugar and "vegetable seasoning" (MSG, i think), lime juice and fish sauce in a bowl, added the pork and then had to figure out if the noodles were to be boiled in the pork water or new water, we went with a combination of both & boiled the glass noodles.  Then we added them to the mixture in the bowl, adjusted the lime & fish sauce and Sophie declared it perfect.  The mixture, however, was not authentic because Sophie prefers it without thai chilies.  I added some to mine. 

Thai Red Curry

I was planning to make a Thai Green Curry, but I didn't have any green curry paste, so a red curry would have to do.  I cubed and salted the eggplant and simmered it in the red curry, coconut milk, lime and fish sauce.   The addition of the lime and fish sauce really cut the harsh taste that comes with the commercial curry paste.   I added green beans and shrimp after the eggplant was soft and served it over basmanti rice.  I didn't miss the green curry after all.

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Asian week

I found some beautiful eggplant at the market today.  We have Ramen on the menu, which has noodles and pork shoulder and we will serve that with last weeks bok choy which is still in the fridge.  The same 9 year old has requested her Thai aunt's noodle dish which has cilantro, ground pork, pickled garlic, lime juice and fish sauce.  Neither of these are going to put a dent in these veggies.  Her friend requested bi bim bop, which was a favorite in early spring.  For the fourth dish, I think we will use the eggplant to make a thai green curry noodle dish with green beans and summer squash.   Steak salad for lunch and maybe some chicken salad as well.  That will put a dent in that bag.

Ramen

Our 9 year old requested Ramen this week.   She says her mom makes great food but her dad makes really complicated stuff.  Ramen certainly falls into that category!  He makes the stock in a long process which involves simmering konbu (kelp) in water, removing the konbu adding mushrooms, removing the mushrooms, adding a chicken, removing the chicken, adding roasted pork bones, removing the bones and adding a pound of bacon, removing the bacon and simmering some veggies in there.   Crazy stuff, you would never find me making something that complicated.  But wow is it wonderful when he is done.

Blueberry pancakes

This week we had (among other things) blueberries and whole wheat flour in the bag.  The New Basics cookbook had a great blueberry pancake recipe with cinnamon,nutmeg, vanilla, lemon zest and brown sugar.   The pancakes were amazing with real maple syrup.  The 3 year old loved them.

Hey Mikey, he likes it.

Last nights dinner was a hit all around.  We roasted the New Creation Farms babyback ribs for 2 1/2 hours in the oven at 225 degrees, then sauced them with 1/2 bbq sauce, 1/2 teriyaki and finished them on the grill.   Yum, the kids loved them & it was much easier than my former boiling method. 

Sides were green beans and pasta.  I frenched (sliced lengthwise) the beans like my mom does.  It takes some time, but seems to be worth it.  I boil them, then do a quick saute with some kosher salt & butter.   My 6 year old eats platefuls with her fingers.

The best part was the pasta.  My friends picky 7 year old asked for 3rds.  A tomato, garlic & fresh parsley sauteed in some olive oil and tossed with fresh Ohio City Pasta and some asiago cheese.  Too bad there wasn't more.

peas, peas, peas

There were three kinds of peas in this weeks bag.  Shelling peas, snap peas and snow peas.  I had time to prep all of them on Saturday, so they are going quickly.  The shelling peas went into a paella and into chicken salad, the snap peas we grilled with a bit of olive oil & kosher salt & served with roasted potatoes (from the bag!) and yogurt marinated lamb.  The snap peas hopefully will go into Michael Ruhlman's braised peas and radish dish that he had on his blog last week.  It looked amazing.

Kohlrabi

This week in the bag there were two kohlrabi.  I've never eaten kohlrabi, to my knowledge and I don't really know what to do with it.  Last years kohlrabi made excellent compost material after it spent many days in our fridge. This time I was determined to discover just what kohlrabi actually is.  Some Internet research later, I learned that kohlrabi is a member of the same family as cabbage and broccoli.  Wikipedia describes it as follows: "The name comes from the German Kohl ("cabbage") plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) ("turnip"), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. The same roots are also found in the German word "Kohlrübe", which refers to the rutabaga. . . .its origin in nature is the same as that of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and brussel sprouts: They are all bred from, and are the same species as, the wild cabbage plant (Brassica oleracea)."

The leaves can be cooked like any other greens, but I'm saving that for next year, and decided to tackle only the bulb.  To cook kohlrabi, the bulb is peeled and usually chopped or sliced.    I sliced it in strips and put it into a mix of summer squash, carrots and onions that I grilled in a grill basket with olive oil, salt and thyme.  They were mild and went well with the other veggies.  No one would have known it was kohlrabi if I hadn't told them.