All Things Food
Also known as “I love beets, one of many in a series!”
Most people either love beets or hate them. When I met my husband he was definitely in the I-hate-beets camp, but now that I’ve made a convert of him, he was sad that there wasn’t enough for seconds when I made this. I’m still hoping that one day – when we can actually see each other once again – I can tempt my friend, Robin, into trying beets one more time, to see if there is some preparation that she might like!
Read MoreAs may be clear from many of my posts, I am not vegan, yet I have numerous friends who are vegetarian or vegan. So when I made this dish and it was more phenomenal than I had even anticipated, I knew I had to share, and highlight that it’s vegan!
We had already made the brisket ahead of time – as we always do – for Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner, and I was poking around to decide what vegetable I would serve with it. I had three enormous carrots and a huge leek from our Woven Roots Farm CSA share; I also had three containers of dried fruit that were merely remnants from other recipes: 6 prunes, 3 dates, and a few tablespoons of dried cherries.
Read MoreNow that my stepdaughter, Rachel, lives closer to us, we have had the good fortune that she spent almost all of her vacation time with us this summer! She was even here for her birthday this past week, and in the season of the best, ripest, local fruits and vegetables, she wanted plenty of them for her birthday dinner. We served lots of grilled zucchini and eggplant, and sliced fresh tomatoes from the garden, and a Tarte Robert for dessert. And for the main course of grilled duck breasts, I did a bit of kitchen improv and made a sauce with fresh peaches! I think this this would be really good with white wine, but I had none open so I used some cognac. If you try it with white wine, or serve it with something different, such as chicken, I’d love to know how it turns out!
Read MoreI’m not talking about corn tortillas, but rather tacos that feature fresh, sweet, in-season corn, along with a protein or other vegetables!
I first got this idea when I saw a Washington Post article on easy taco fillings, one of which was for corn and chorizo with soft corn tortillas. Of course I didn’t really follow the recipe. First of all, Hank and I prefer flour tortillas, and I also didn’t have any scallions. But what was really key to this delicious dinner was the spicy and the sweet together, with slices of avocado, a bit of sour cream, and a spritz of fresh lime.
Read MoreWe got a beautiful head of napa cabbage from our CSA farm share, along with some sugar snap peas, so my thoughts turned to something Asian. Napa cabbage plays a starring role in most moo shu recipes, and we had some boneless chicken thighs in the freezer, so I started to think about that. Combining a few different recipes, as I often do, with some additional ideas of my own, the plans were coming together. Except for the moo shu pancakes.
In normal times, we would have made it an event for the day to drive to Albany, visit a few stores, eat at an interesting restaurant, and stop at the huge Asian supermarket on Central Avenue to find moo shu pancakes and any number of other hard-to-find Asian ingredients. But nothing these days is normal, and it seemed like a bit too much to drive that far for only one item that we really needed.
Read MoreI think sometimes I get a bit compulsive about not wasting food. These days, I get it, from the perspective of minimizing shopping trips and using what’s in the house. But even previously I would save little bits of this and that, and I think it became a point of pride for me when I thought of something I could make with these leftovers. How often Hank has said, “There’s nothing in the house for dinner.” And then I’ve built a dish around one item!
I also have been freezing bits and pieces of things: fennel tops for brining pork chops; citrus peels for zest; cubes or crumbs from the heel of a loaf of bread for croutons or bread crumbs. About ten days ago I made pumpkin cappellacci, and I had some pasta dough scraps left. I really could have thrown them out, but instead I worked the scraps together and put them through the pasta rollers and carefully wrapped the sheets for the freezer. Today I made them into cannelloni!
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