Super Simple Spiral Spaghetti

But it's not really spaghetti.

Or even pasta.

It's zucchini "noodles" made possible by 

a Spiralizer.

You can spiralize just about anything.

So far I have done

sweet potatoes,

 butternut squash,

and now zucchini.

This is a win!

It's just a couple of tablespoons of

jarred sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil,

olive tampenade,

garlic 

and zucchini noodles.

Put them all in a skillet and saute till the 

zucchini is tender but firm.

So good!

Chipotle Rice Bowls

Chipotle Rice Bowls 

Lime rice: 1 cup basmati rice to 2 cups water, simmer 20 minutes till water is absorbed then add zest of 1 lime and juice of ½ lime

Black beans

Roasted corn

Sliced black olives

Chop to approx. size of corn and beans:

Orange pepper

Grape tomatoes

Red onion

Avocado

Romaine lettuce, 1 large or 2 small

Juice of ½ lime

Toss together and the dress with:

1.5 oz. Ranch dressing mixed with 1 crushed clove garlic, cumin, smoked paprika

Put rice in bottom of bowl and then top with veges.

Would also be good wrapped in a flour tortilla as a vege burrito.

Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade Pasta

How's this for a dinner on the fly?

This part was not on the fly.

Most decidedly not!

I found myself with an overabundance of cherry tomatoes.

I decided to dry them in the oven and worry 

about what to do with them later.

This picture is a bit deceiving because

after I set them out so nicely on the pan, 

I decided 

to squeeze the seeds out. 

All that wet was gonna take forever to dry out!

So, squeeze I did and then I tossed them with 

olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano.

I lined the pan with parchment paper and began roasting

away at 250 degrees for a couple of hours. 

But then I had to make dinner, so they finished 

up at 375 for about 15 minutes. 

They were beautiful.

Now for the pasta!

I cooked off 

1/2 pound of spaghetti 

to al dente and then tossed with about

 1/2 a 6 ounce jar of olive tapenade, 

1/2 of the dried (chopped) tomatoes,

1/2 a shake of red pepper flakes and

1/2 cup of shredded parmesan. 

Actually the name should be the 

half-a, half-a, half-a, half-a, half-a

pasta.

Kale with Roasted Beets and Bacon

Everything about this sounds and looks good.

Except the kale was not stellar.

I don't know if I just don't cook it enough or

if I am doomed to not like the 

texture of kale.

I also felt it could have used a little kick.

Maybe some garlic or pepper flakes?

I'm going to give it a try again with spinach.

Cause beets and bacon, 

Oh Yeah!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/kale-with-roasted-beets-and-bacon-recipe.html

Pickled Beets

And pink pee.

I won't post a picture of the pee.

Beets seems to be a great divider.
People love them or hate them.

I love them.

Pickling them is super easy.
First roast them, whole or, if they are huge,
cut into halves or quarters.
Place them on a big piece of foil, drizzle with
olive oil along with a quartered red onion
scrunch up the packet and roast at
350 degrees for about an hour.
You want them to get tender.
Then let them cool a bit and peel and slice.

While the beets  are roasting
combine
1 cup apple cider vinegar,
1 cup water and
1 cup sugar
in a sauce pan.
Bring the mixture up to a boil
and then let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Allow the liquid to cool before pouring over sliced beets.

I like them to sit for a bout a week before I start digging in.
And peeing pink.

Tomato and Corn Custard Pie

File this under the heading:

Something really good that I will never make again.

I found the recipe in Food Network Magazine.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tomato-and-corn-custard-pie.html

With the abundance of tomatoes this time of year

anything that even remotely 

uses a tomato is worth a look.

But whereas this was a very tasty dish, 

it took 2 plus hours to create

and too many prep utensils.

Yep, 

not doin' it again. 

But, yum!

Lentil Curry

From Martha Stewart.

I rarely try a Martha recipe anymore. 

A couple of reasons:

I get a lot of ideas from Google searches

and her website is sooo slow that I don't usually click on

something from it, 

and she's not in my family room everyday

anymore like the Food Network peeps.

I do enjoy catching her every once in a while on PBS

on Saturday afternoons, but how often does that happen?

I like watching her cook. 

I like to think about the minions running

around making it possible for

her to cook. 

I had a dream about Martha once, 

I don't remember any of the details other

than the most important one, 

she liked me!

But I digress, the curry, 

excellent!

I prepared it just as written except

for one glaring error, 

it calls for curry powder!!!

WHAT!!??

My friend Indra taught me that there is no one

curry powder. 

Every Indian cook worth their salt has their own blend

of spices used in curry dishes. 

I took that information to heart and have 

never purchased the offending

impostor since.

Here's the blend I used this time:

2 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. dry yellow mustard

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. cayenne

1/4 tsp. cardamom

It would be best if you had all those in seed form,

toasted them and ground them, 

but unfortunately I did not. 

And besides, 

ain't nobody got time for that.

http://www.marthastewart.com/337671/lentil-curry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIKI7ArSvlY

Butternut Squash & Parsley Penne

From Rachel Ray.

 Costco has these way cool 

pre-cut butternut cubes.

I love them!

I love butternut squash and I love not having to get my 

hands all orange and filmy from whatever

is in those things that

leaves my hands all orange and filmy. 

So I am always on the lookout for 

recipes that incorporate them. 

This one was a winner

and aslo, plague approved!

I'll link her recipe but here are the 

areas I digressed from the recipe as written. 

I used corn pasta 

(wheat is baaad, very bad),

half a red onion

(because that's what I had),

and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

(because I'm a heat weenie.)

OK, next time I'll take it down to

 1/4 teaspoon. 

I'm a BIG weenie.

Oh, Costco also has copious amounts of 

corn pasta. 

Guess we are not the only ones who think wheat is 

baaaad.

(It's also GMO free, but let's not go there. Yet.)

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=5599

Southwestern Chopped Salad

I've been waiting to write about this until

I could remember to take a picture. 

I finally did!

This is a great salad for the summer.

It's pretty hearty and so goes well

with a simple 

chicken breast or piece of salmon.

In fact you could probably add in some

chopped chicken and call it a meal.

It's black beans,

bell pepper,

corn, 

cherry tomatoes, 

green onions

and a head of romaine.

The dressing is lots of cilantro, 

so if you don't like cilantro

maybe some store-bought 

southwest-type dressing would work. 

Here's the link for the dressing.
She suggests trying avocado instead
of the greek yogurt.
That sounds really great and I may try it next time.

http://www.thegardengrazer.com/2013/04/creamy-cilantro-lime-dressing.html

Soups!

So, when

God 

and the

devil

are messing with your mind

what's the best medicine?

SOUP!

Making it, that is.

 As my previous post will prove, 

my head has been in pretty deeps waters lately.

Today I decided it was time to get the funk out!

I love to make soup. 

It's one of my favorites. 

Today I pulled my three favorites, 

tomato, 

sweet potato, 

and asparagus. 

I decided to change things up a bit by roasting all the vegetables.

So delicious!

I also threw a bit of white wine in all of them.

The sweet potato was the only one that called for it, 

but hey, what could it hurt?

Turns out, nothing!

I also put some red pepper flakes and fresh

thyme in the tomato soup. 

Pretty, huh?

Here are the links:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/asparagus-soup-with-herbed-goat-cheese-recipe/index.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sweet-Potato-Soup-with-Buttered-Pecans-1332

4

http://www.marthastewart.com/343299/creamy-tomato-soup

And then I took a long walk and started

thinking all over again.

Hence the previous post.

:)

Quinoa and Roasted Sweet Potato Stuffed Portabellas

That's a lot of name!

But I think it needs it. 

I'm still on my vegetarian 

three days a week kick.

I found some beautiful portabellas

the other day and spent a few days soliciting

suggestions and just pondering.

And this is what I cam up with:

It's a sweet potato that I diced pretty small
and then roasted with a red onion
and a few cloves of garlic.

I toasted some slivered almonds,
cooked up some quinoa,
and then tossed everything together
with a bit of grated parm.

I baked the cleaned portabellas
for 10 minutes at 450 degrees
then stuffed them and
topped them with some
panko crumbs tossed with
 olive oil,
baked another 5 minutes
and wound up with dinner!

I have quite a bit of the stuffing left.
I wondered out load at dinner what I
might do with it.
Mike suggested I stuff some
chicken breasts with it.

Me thinks someone is missing
something.....

Meatless Tuesday

I know 

Meatless Monday

has a certain ring to it, 

but, 

life happens.

I hadn't really thought ahead for dinners this

week and doing the whole

vegetarian days

kind of requires some forethought.

But here you have a meal on the fly and

it was actually (actually)

pretty good!

 I started out making a basic red sauce.

As long as I have a 28 ounce can of tomatoes 

around, I'm pretty much good to go. 

I sautéed a red onion in some olive oil, 

added a couple of cloves of garlic, 

chopped up a red pepper

I had roasted and then threw in some

sliced black olives.

All good but I really wanted to bump up the nutrition 

and I thought, a lot of my creamy soups have

you blend the ingredients, be they 

vegetables or, say, beans.

So, I blended up some northern beans 

and added them to the sauce.

It's hard to see but it made the sauce kind of creamy.

And, I figure our meal some protein and fiber.

 Nice!

I like it when that happens.

Vegetarian Day One

Day one is under our belts,

so to speak.

A couple of friends have said they would
be interested in 

what I make for our vegetarian meals.

Seems we all know a little less red meat 

in our diets is a good thing.

Lunch was tomato soup and grilled cheese.

That's swiss and brie, FYI.

Dinner was 

Aggie's Three Bean Pumpkin Chili.

I wrote about it before.

Here's the link:

http://makingitmerry.blogspot.com/2011/12/aggies-3-bean-pumpkin-chili.html

The link to the recipe is there too.
One thing to note;
I apparently didn't have the Chipotle chili powder
the first time I made it.
I did this time.
That's some hot stuff!
I will cut that in half in the future.

Tonight it's lentils!

Stuffed Green Peppers

This was another case of cooking by committee.

My friend, Carol, had gifted me a

 bunch of green peppers.

I posed the question on Facebook,

what to do with them?

Stuff them was the unanimous response

but I really didn't want to go the traditional

ground beef/rice route.

Someone suggested a vegetarian twist with black beans.

Hm, Aggie (of Aggie's Kitchen fame)

has a black bean burrito recipe that

I thought I could use as a jumping off point.

http://aggieskitchen.com/2009/01/20/skillet-grilled-burritos/

Here's what I did;

I  roasted

an onion

a few cloves of garlic 

 a diced butternut squash

a diced sweet potato

and some zucchini.

Combined that with 

a can of rinsed and drained black beans,

some leftover quinoa

and some shredded cheddar cheese.

I covered them with foil to bake.

I wanted the steam from cooking to soften the 

peppers a bit. 

I took the foil off the last 10 minutes or so.

Some red pepper flakes would have been good in there

but I wanted to send some home with Carol

and she's not quite into the heat

to the extent I am. 

They say your sense of taste 

dulls a bit as you get older.

As does your sense of smell.

And hearing.

And sight.

Excuse me, I need to go cry in my beer.

Or margarita.

Cooking Soothes The Soul

Or at least mine it does.

It's been a rough month or so for me.

I've been "cooking" but not 

"creating."

Today I created and I feel a bit better for it.

It's a gloomy day here, and for once it's not

just my mood.

So gloomy screams soup to me.

Mom and Big bequeathed a butternut squash 

to me a couple of weeks back.

I scoured around my vegetable bin and came

up with:

said squash,

a sweet potato,

a couple of carrots,

a red onion

and 4 garlic cloves.

And did this to them. 

I left the garlic cloves in their paper, 

it's supposed to protect them while roasting 

but still have them get all mellow and buttery.

It did, and they did.

I drizzled olive oil over the whole mess, 

threw on some salt and pepper, 

and then roasted them at 425 degrees for 

30 minutes.

My house smelled amazing!

Once they were all roasted up put them in batches

 in my handy-dandy Vitamixer with some

chicken stock and made this:

It tasted as good as my house smelled.

Here's a little idea I had, know how you 

deglaze pans when browning meat?

Well, I deglazed the roasting sheet with

 some of that chicken stock. 

I didn't want to lose one bit of the stuff that

smelled that good!

I may toast up some chopped pecans in butter

to put on top......

or I may just grab a spoon and start eating right out of the pot!

More Tomatoes

And here we have 

Pearl Couscous With Olives

And Roasted Tomatoes.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/07/24/pearly-whites/

I, like Ms. Smitten, am a sucker for

Israeli couscous.

And I have a plethora of tomatoes.

I think what intrigued me the most about this recipe 

was the dressing you make using some 

of the roasted tomatoes. 

It's primarily a combination of 

tomatoes, roasted garlic and olive oil. 

The possibilities for that alone are interesting.

I did veer from the recipe as written in that my box of

couscous only had 1 1/3 cups of couscous

(as opposed to the 2 1/4 cups the recipe called for)

and I left out the mint.

I did add some finely chopped red onions

and a hit of cayenne pepper.

From the looks of it I had plenty of couscous.

And while I did get some mint past 

Mike a couple of days ago, 

I felt it was best not to push my luck.

PS, it's a keeper.

Corn and Tomato Salad With...

Wait for it.....

LEMON Dressing.

That's right, mom, I said

LEMON!

FYI, I dislike all things lemon.

It stared as a child when Mom and Big would

terrorize me every Saturday morning

by vacuuming incessantly

and dusting the house to within an 

inch of its life with 

Lemon Pledge.

I don't

dust, 

vacuum, 

or do lemon.

But I may be easing my stance in my old age.

I won't get so carried away as to start

dusting or vacuuming, 

but lemons,

maybe.

a little bit.

maybe.

This recipe came from Relish.com

I subscribe to their on-line newsletter.

http://www.relish.com/recipes/corn-and-tomato-salad-with-lemon-dressing/

As mentioned before, I have an 

abundance of tomatoes.

The salad would have been even prettier had I 

used all red tomatoes but I have 

many yellow ones.

It's still pretty.

The only variation  I made

was reducing the mint by half.

I really wanted to get that hint of flavor in there

but did not want to off-put Honey.

He thinks mint only belongs in toothpaste.

Wonder what childhood story is lurking there...

It's Tomato Season

And as a public service I will

post every dish I think of to 

make use of the 

fruits of my labor.

AKA, 

Four tomato plants.

When will I learn?
Plus, three of the four are
cherry/grape tomato size.
I'ma gonna have a bazillion tomatoes!!

So, here I present to you todays
contribution:

A gallette, if you will.
It's a pastry crust layered with
goat cheese
thyme
onion bacon jam
tomatoes
and parmesan.
I brushed the crust with an egg wash and
baked it at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

I'd call it a good start.

Portobella Mushroom With Polenta and Roasted Red Pepper Aioli

I found this on Pintrest but I changed enough

of it that I'll just give you the low down here.

First, I ditched the bun.

I marinated the portobellas in some

balsamic, olive oil and garlic

and then grilled them.

The polenta is basic with the addition

of some chopped up roasted red peppers.

But the star of the show:

The Roasted Red Pepper Aioli.

Otherwise known as mayo with garlic, 

roasted red peppers and some cayenne pepper.

Blended all together.

This would be good on a shoe.

 I have said that about the avocado chimichuri I make.

I think I would also say it about this:

That is the giardiniera, black and green olives

run through a food processor.

Oh, and a couple of red pepper flakes.

Shoe-worthy.

I seem to be collecting condiments.

They should come in handy for the 

slider bar I have in mind for Lory's housewarming.

The mind spins!

Quinoa with Black Bean and Hominy

Or, 

Quinoa with Black Beans and Corn. 

It was supposed to hominy.

I didn't have any. 

Hominy is corn kernels on steroids. 

Well, not really, but messed with corn nonetheless.

So why, I reasoned, couldn't I just

substitute corn?

The answer?

No reason why not!

And while I was at it, I didn't have any cilantro

so why not throw in some peas for a little green?

Why not!

It was actually pretty good. 

I served it as a cold salad but I think

it would be equally good served warm. 

The only thing (else) I would tweak

is the lime juice or apple cider vinegar.

Something was a little "tangy"

in there. 

I love quinoa and am always looking 

for ways to serve it so, 

this one's a keeper.