Impressing for Less with Late Summer's Veggies

Peppers, eggplant, cantaloupes, apples, potatoes, figs, shallots, certain tomatoes, grapes, okra, green beans, and a whole host of other goodies are seasonally harvested as the end of summer. And now that fall is approaching some of my favorites are also available, like pumpkin, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, artichokes, brussels sprouts, parsnips and pears. In an attempt to keep cooking with produce that is seasonal, for our first dinner guests in our California apartment, I scoured my cookbooks to come up with a recipe that might include some vegetables from the above lists.

I tend to always go to the same cookbooks, so first I decided to go through all of my books and use post it notes to flag off recipes that I want to try (it helps to cut down on future searching time). And once I had done that I settled on a recipe from Impress for Less. My mom got us Impress for Less and it is one of the perfect cookbooks for us. We're big foodies, and this book basically gives you recipes from famous/expensive restaurants in several different cities around the country so that you can make really good and creative food for less than you would have spent going out to eat.

Now I admit, because I was really excited to have people over (two students in my PhD program who were coming over to study for our first quiz) I went a little bit over board. But they claimed to be foodies as well, and I promised them a good meal, so I rationalized that it would be ok to cook so much.

My main dish was the macaroni and cheese I wrote an entry about a little while ago. And while that's definitely enough food for four people, as I said earlier, I wanted to make some seasonal veggie dishes just to pretend to be healthy. So I made up one dish and picked another from the Impress for Less book.

Roasted Tomatoes:
-2 Shallots
-5-6 crimini mushrooms
-1 package of grape or cherry tomatoes
-fresh rosemary
-olive oil

1. Take tomatoes (I like smaller ones like a cherry or grape sized) and put them in a baking dish (like a pie dish) that has sides. Cover with a little bit of olive oil and bake at 350 degrees until they become soft and/or start to pop.
2. On the stove top, cook sliced scallions in olive oil for a few minutes. Then as they start to cook add some crimini mushrooms that you've also sliced up. Once the mushrooms start to look like they're a little cooked add fresh rosemary.
3. When the scallions and mushrooms are just about completely cooked take the tomatoes out of the oven and dump the contents of your frying pan in the pie dish. Give everything a good stir and drop the temperature of the oven to 200 degrees. Let the food cook for another 5 minutes and if everything looks cooked, then it's time to serve otherwise let it cook and keep checking until it's done.

With this next recipe, I changed it around because when I went to the super market I forgot to pick up some ingredients and then purposely left out others. You can click the link to get the real recipe, but mine is listed here.

From Impress for Less - Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, blue cheese, and Green Apples:
-olive oil
-1 cup peel and diced Gala Apples (you can use any but I liked these because they were sweet with only a little bit of tartness)
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1 tablespoon cinnamon
-1/2 cup of sweet dry wine (like Riesling)
-5 slices of smoked bacon
-3 cups of Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
-1 1/2 tablespoons of a good quality smoked BBQ sauce** see note at bottom
-1/4-1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese

1. Fry bacon until it's semi cooked in a frying pan. You don't want them to be crispy because you will be baking it again later. Save the fat in cup or bowl. Cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces and put them in a baking dish. Preheat the oven for 350 degrees- but don't put the dish in there now.
2. When you've dumped the fat in a bowl, without cleaning out the pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When it starts to get hot add the apples. Give them a stir and after one minute add 4 tablespoons of butter. When the butter begins to brown add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. When the sugar begins to caramelize (that's when it bubbles up like it's boiling), add the wine.
3. Cook the apple mixture for 5-8 minutes. Let some of the liquid evaporate, but not all of it. When it's done, spoon out the apple with a slotted spoon into the baking dish with the bacon and continue to let the contents of the frying pan cook. Keep your slotted spoon handy and keep stirring it so the liquid doesn't burn. After a minute or two dump that into the baking dish.
4. Take a paper towel and clean up pan (it doesn't have to be perfectly clean, but make sure you get the bottom of the pan where the dribble went). Then dump the bacon fat you saved back into the pan and heat it up.
5. When the fat is hot again, add the brussels sprouts face down. When they begin to cook a little bit add the rest of the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the butter completely melts flip the brussels sprouts over (I found it easiest to use tongs, and don't worry if some of the leaves come off).
6. When they've cooked for another 3 minutes dump the entire contents of the pan into the baking dish, add the smokey BBQ sauce, and stir everything around. Then put it in the oven (do not put a top on) and bake for 10-15 minutes until the brussels sprouts become tender.
7. Serve in the baking dish with the crumbled blue cheese on top.

At first I was skeptical of all the cinnamon and how liquidy this dish seemed to be before putting it in the oven. But after it came out and we were eating it with the macaroni and cheese, it was the perfect side dish to it. Smokey, sweet, with a bit of a kick from the cheese. Sometimes I impress even myself!

**A note about the BBQ sauce. So I think this is the second time I've mentioned using a good quality BBQ sauce and I know it will not be my last. When I keep talking about that, I'm not talking about going to the super market and buying one step up from Heinz, I mean a specialty sauce. My personal favorite is the Smoked Maple Chipotle finishing sauce from Bittersweet Herb Farms. I discovered them at an Artisan Craft fair in Tarrytown, NY and Nick and I are addicted to it. The craft fair is expensive, and we like to go to see the art (both wearable and not), but we save our money for the gourmet food and buy 3 at a time to get a discount. Three lasts us just about a year and I put it in half the stuff I cook, steak, hamburgers, and obviously vegetable dishes...I think at heart I might be from the South...

Smoked Gouda and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

My favorite way to cook is to take the basics of a recipe and change them around to make my own. Growing up, my parents generally cooked the same things all the time so I learned how to make those things just by watching them, but if I wanted to expand and learn to make all sorts of other yummy meals I had to figure them out myself. I think that tweaking things to make it your own is the easiest way to develop your own set of recipes and yourself as a cook because you've got the basics laid out in front of you, you just need to take it and run with it. I'm now at the point where I just reference my standard cookbooks for temperatures and times of how long to put things in the oven and use my specialty cook ones for ideas.

One cook that I love is Ina Garten (from the Barefoot Contessa Food Network TV show). I'll admit, for some she can be hard to take, but I love french food and I love how she presents everything. So she's one of the shows I like to watch a lot (along with Sandra Lee, Giada De Laurentiis, and Paula Dean). This is a recipe for a more adult version of Mac and Cheese that I have surprisingly found that all the picky eater kids in my family absolutely love. Must be the bacon...

You will need:

* 1 pound cavatappi
* 1 quart milk
* 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, divided for sauce, and 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) for breadcrumbs
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 8 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (2 cups)
* 8 ounces Smoked Gouda cheese, grated (2 cups) (in all honesty, this cheese is the star of this dish. You need at least 8 ounces, but if you put in more, this will only taste better. I recommend going for the biggest block you can find in your store and going from there. I think Trader Joe's has the best for the cheapest price and Whole Foods is over priced, so if you can't go to TJ's then just get it from your regular super market.
* 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/2 pound bacon (this also tastes just as good without the bacon if you don't eat meat)
* 1 1/2 cups fresh potato bread crumbs (4 slices)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Make bacon in a frying pan, and only cook it about half way. When it's done, after letting the bacon cool a little while, chop/rip it up in to little bite sized pieces.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. In a large pot, melt 6 tablespoons of butter and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. Still whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Add the Gruyere, Smoked Gouda, and nutmeg while sauce is on the lowest heat setting. This is the most labor intensive part of the dish and takes the longest because that is a lot of grating. I get my husband to help me with this part because otherwise it would take me almost 2 hours from start to table.

While you're making the sauce, make the pasta according to the box.

Put the macaroni and bacon in to your very large casserole dish. Then add the sauce and stir well.

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. You can make the fresh bread crumbs by just putting them into a food processor. It's really important you use fresh bread crumbs because dried ones with or without seasoning ruin the taste and texture. The fresh bread crumbs become really sweet and crispy and dried ones don't absorb the flavors as much. If you don't want to do it, then just skip the step. Don't use the other stuff!!

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Enjoy!

Fashionable Spring Gnocchi

When I was in high school I spent the last 6 months before college thinking about how wonderful college would be. I used Binghamton as the idea of a mecca, like when I got there I'd be free from the pettyness of high school, free of the stress of living at home, and free to be who I really wanted to be. Free to be introspective, change, and grow up.

I have to admit that Nick and I have been living the last few weeks thinking like that, and I'm sure the feeling will only intensify the closer we get to our move. We keep thinking about living in a bigger apartment with more amenities, not being stressed out by certain aspects of our jobs, having better weather, being away from family drama, living a Greener lifestyle, and being in a more liberal enviornment (that's not to say New York isn't liberal, but certain things are more available in California).

This Friday I plan on booking a moving van, which means we will officially have a moving date. The frenzy of packing and reality of what it means to be 3,000 miles away from everything we know will truly set in. It does sound like we're putting too many expectations of Palo Alto being a perfect haven from life here, but there truly are many things that are going to change. And we're about to embark on a major adventure, so it's exciting nonetheless.

Part of what I've been doing to get excited has been revolving around our kitchen. Even though I can't go out and spend money on Spring Fashion and light and airy homeware, I have to eat. So I've been using my reusable shopping bags and getting seasonable vegetables to make delicious and light dinners.

After doing a google search on what exactly those seasonal vegetables are (apricots, beets, kiwis, radishes, and stawberries just to name a few), I came up with a recipe that sounded so yummy I had to invite people over to try it out. We now have two seperate evenings which we plan to have 4 or 5 people over, and the 1950s housewife in me is jumping for joy at the idea of planning meals for so many people.

Last Friday we had my friend Danielle over for dinner so I could experiment the following gnocchi recipe on her. Now I know gnocchi is not normally thought of as a spring food (most people think the potato sits like a rock in their stomach), but for someone who enjoys a heavier meal (like I do), this is the perfect balance between filling and light for the warmer weather.

Ingredients:

-2 pounds of regular potato gnocchi
-2 whole shallots
-1 bunch of thin asparagus
-3/4 cup of peas (I used frozen)
-crimini mushroms
-oyster mushrooms
-2 cloves of garlic
-nutmeg
-good quality parmesean cheese
-4 tablespoons butter
-4 tablesppons olive oil
-3 pieces of bacon

*Start off by cooking the bacon. Don't cook it like you would cook your breakfast bacon. Cook it about half way, then remove it from the pan.
*Slice up other veggies while the bacon is cooking. First start with the shallots and garlic. Chop/mince the garlic and slice up the shallots in small pieces. Then melt the butter and olive oil together. When the butter is completely melted, add the garlic and shallots.
*Around here is when you want to turn on the pot you're going to cook your gnocchi in to get the water boiling.
*To cut asparagus, bend a piece until it breaks. Where it breaks, cut the rest and throw the bottom pieces away. Then slice the rest on an angle into bite sized pieces. Add those next.
*Cut up the mushrooms into small pieces (smaller than you could for a normal pasta dish, but not diced). Add those next and add in the peas too.
*By now the water for the gnocchi should have boiled and the gnocchi should be in there too. Right around the time the gnocchi is done cooking you should cut up the bacon into small pieces and add to the pan with the rest of your veggies. Add the nutmeg as well. I usually add spices by covering the whole pan, giving a stir, then covering the whole pan again. I'm not sure how much that is, but if you're a real measurement Nazi, I'd say start off with a teaspoon and go from there.
*Fresh gnocchi cooks very fast (less than 5 minutes). So once you're done adding the nutmeg you will only have a short while to sit back before you need to drain the gnocchi. When you do, add it straight to your frying pan (tip: make sure you use the biggest frying pan you have because this is A LOT of food).
*Once the gnocchi is mixed, start grating your cheese on top. I pick out cheese by smelling it. That sounds gross, but it's the same as buying produce. How do you know if something is fresh and will taste good if you don't smell it first? Anyways, half the time I pick out cheese and have no idea what the name of it is. I just know that it's in a certain family and it will taste good. Use your own tastebuds on this one, but I picked out something in the parmesean family from Whole Foods. And add as much or as little cheese as you want. I usually add a little bit at first and then put the cheese out on the table in case other people like a lot of cheese on their pasta (tip: I don't know if you've noticed but I don't like to cook with salt. I'm really sensitive to it, so I never use it. Rarely does anyone notice. Usually when using certain spices or ingredients (like parmesean cheese), the cheese is salty enough that no one misses it. That being said, I always put salt and pepper out on the table just in case.)

I served this for three people with a very simple salad (mixed greens, tofu, an apple, trail mix, and olive oil and vinegar) and a loaf of french bread. This Saturday I plan to make the same thing but with a steak, and a side dish of sauteed red, orange, yellow peppers, and onions. I'm also planning on making another vegetable side dish, but I can't decide just what yet. I'll let the market inspire me. Dessert will be mini pavlovas with berries and whipped cream.

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While we're on the topic of food, I stumbled across this cookbook today online and I thought it looked really good. For the fashionista mom (if you're stil looking for another Mother's Day gift), it would be perfect. I'm adding it to my Amazon.com wishlist, if I ever get it I'll let you know if it turns out to be a good buy.


$29.50 at Amazon.com

The last pages have a food questionnaire that you can fill out with your guests. I figured I'd fill mine out now just for fun:

My favorite restaurant: Spring Street Natural in NYC
My favorite person to cook for: My husband of course
The ingredient that is most indispensible to me: Rosemary or Nutmeg
My favorite "sinful" indulgence: Coldstone Creamery Ice cream
The most sensual meal would include: a dessert that can be shared
My favorite cuisine: Italian
The most unforgettable meal I have ever experienced: dinner at the Deer Hill Inn in Vermont
My ideal dinner guest list includes: several of my best friends and their significant others (but I can't fit 20 people at my dinner table)
The strongest memory of my mother's cooking: Baking brownies together and getting to lick the bowl afterwards
My idea of a food extravaganza: Italy or France, especially on market day
The most fashionable dish I can prepare: Maybe this gnocchi? I also make amazing desserts
The most edible person: A gingerbread bear
My dream dinner date or location: In Greece on the Meditteranean Ocean with my husband (or the actor Matthew Goode)
An ideal dinner party should: have the right music mix and lighting
The most appropriate time for dinner to begin: 7pm if it's just us two, 8pm if you're entertaining
My dream pattern or brand of flatware and table setting: Simple flatware with white plates. Plain white plates makes your food pop and look that much more delicious. White flowers with bright accented table linens only add to that.