Weekly roundup

We have been doing a lot of cooking. One of the many pleasurable things about the arrival of fall is that it is a lot more comfortable -- cozy, even -- to stand in front of the stove. And because the start of school and fall activities and birthdays mean, inevitably, that we need to spend a significant amount of money, the economy of home cooking doesn't hurt.

Thursday dinner:
Matt and I collaborated on a quick pasta meal. I made basil-parsley-walnut pesto and boiled the pasta, while Matt sauteed a whole bunch of eggplant, summer squash, and bell peppers. Then we tossed it all together and called it dinner. If we were feeling less tired, we would have made a salad, too.

Friday dinner:
A standby of Seitan and Greens with coconut green curry sauce. We did not have enough of any one grain, so I made a quick pilaf of millet and rice with scallion. Each dish was good on its own, but they didn't go together that well.

Friday night snack:
Lavender shortbread, cut into heart shapes. I made these to save for teatime at the birthday party (see below), but Matt and I enjoyed a few with our Friday night tea. I make my shortbread vegan, and I know there are many who would say that it isn't real shortbread without real butter or consider my occasional use of non-hydrogenated vegetable oil spread disgraceful, but I like it and I don't feel nauseous after.

On Saturday, we had a sleepover party for D. Six 12 year old girls, 2 younger siblings, and us. It went off pretty well. I was very pleased with my craft project -- I made a giant fabric dahlia and attached it to a ponytail holder for K -- but only a few of the girls finished theirs. I had convinced D to rent "Better Off Dead" for one of her movie showings. I remember watching this movie repeatedly with Anouck when we were young, but these girls are too young get the Howard Cosell references, which may be my favorite part of this weird, funny 80's teen movie.

Afternoon snack:
Watermelon from the farm and pretzels from a huge container that D won in a contest.

Dinner:
Burrito bar consisting of warm tortillas, rice cooked with a bit of oil and cinnamon, Rancho Gordo Santa Maria Pinquito beans, sauteed veggies with a bit of jalepeno, monterey jack cheese, and mango salsa. It was quite good, and well-received by the party-goers.

Dessert:
Chocolate mousse cake with cashew crust (from Millenium Cookbook recipe for Chocolate Almond Midnight, but without the almonds and raspberry sauce and some other minor variations). Scattered with fresh raspberries and served with raspberry sorbet. Vegan.

After-movie teatime:
Peppermint tea, organic (and local, from PA) apples, lavender shortbread.

Sunday breakfast:
All store-bought: bagels, regular and tofu cream cheese, orange juice. More farm watermelon.

Sunday dinner:
Matt made stew with leftover Pinquito beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and the leftover vegetables we bought for the burrito saute. Seasoned with 2 habeneros and served over rice. I thought it was delicious, but he was not thrilled.

Mad Men snack:
I made a quick vanilla cake (vegan, Peter Berley) even though I knew I shouldn't. We ate way too much.

Monday lunch:
Whole wheat elbows with greens and lemon zest, lots of pepper, and shaved pecorino. Quick and easy. K loved this. It had been a while since I made this type of preparation for her. There is never any picking at the greens in this dish, no matter what kind or how much, and we have an absolutely clean plate at the end.

Monday dinner:
Courtesy of mom.

What's left:

• A very small watermelon, meant to be made into watermelon-feta salad. Did I mention how I tried to make this salad and went to the cheese shop and bought Bulgarian feta because one of the recipes I looked at specifically called for this. I usually buy French. The Bulgarian feta is much stinkier and affected my enjoyment of this salad. And I still have 1/2 pound left. Argh.
• Some arugula, meant to be made into pesto and eaten with mashed potatoes.
• Potatoes.
• A number of hot peppers, including those poblanos, which were meant to be made into chiles rellenos.
• Varied and sundry fresh herbs.
• Quite a few beets. Please, Matt, no more of that pasta sauce. It wasn't bad, but I don't want to eat it again for ... a pretty long time.
  
• A tiny amount of salad mix. No salad was prepared this week, but small amounts of lettuce were consumed nonetheless.

This Week from the Farm

On Tuesday, we picked up our share. Our half consisted of:

1 green bell pepper
2 red bell peppers
1 eggplant
1/4 pound salad mix
1/4 pound arugula
1/2 large bunch basil
1/2 large bunch rainbow chard
1/2 bunch of radishes
1/2 bunch scallions
potatoes and beets, not sure how much because Matt got those
1/2 large bunch gorgeous celery with perfect leaves
1 watermelon
1 head garlic (it was our turn this week)
PYO: 15 stems assorted flowers, 5 jalapenos, 5 cayenne, 5 habaneros, small bunch parsley, a bit of thyme, mint, and sage

After picking up, we usually head straight over to my parents' house to drop off their half of the share. This week, my mom fed us. She served Matt some pasta with beet sauce, like a ragout, that she had made with golden beets, from a recipe in an Ayurvedic cookbook. The color wasn't that great (I think adding a carrot would have helped retain the golden hue), but it was savory and good.

Wednesday Lunch:
Matt was inspired to get up early and make a similar dish the next morning using some of our red beets. We'd been collecting them weekly but not using them often.

Wednesday Dinner:
Matt cooked Veggie Sausage with Caramelized Onions and Peppers, Celery and Chard, and a whole minced habanero. He served it over brown rice. It was very spicy and very delicious. Habaneros are my favorite hot pepper. I love the rich, spicy, smoky flavor they impart. Matt didn't use any other spices or seasonings in his dish, but the habanero gave it complexity. Awesome.

A New Zeal

The work-filled summer was followed by a relaxing couple of weeks in the country, and then by frenetic preparations for the start of the new school year.

Among the culinary highlights of late summer was my first attempt at chiles rellenos, which was quite acceptable. I've got about 6 more poblanos in the fridge that are waiting to be smothered in cheese.

In the country we did a lot of cooking, but kept it simple. I loved Jhumpa Lahiri's piece in The New York Times about packing for and cooking in a summer rental. It was so timely. At the time that I read it, I had a constantly churning list working itself out in my head, even though we hadn't even settled on our summer vacation plans. I suppose I knew that in the end, my house rental scheme would prevail over the camping trip that Matt was talking about but not actually planning. Her essay on the subject spawned a Bitten blog post and drew a long list of commenters that spend as much time thinking about things like this as I do!

Our week in the country was split between 2 places. One was the home of a close family friend, and had a large, beautiful, well-equipped kitchen. We didn't need to bring any equipment, but we packed up some of our CSA produce. The second was a rental with a perfectly good kitchen setup, but no oven. For this, we packed a number of things, including a cast-iron skillet, a 3.5 quart pot, 2 knives, and a microplane grater. We also brought staples like olive oil, sea salt, pepper, grains, pasta, dried porcini, good parmesan, and a fair amount of produce, which we supplemented with trips to the local farm stands.

Among the memorable things we made:
A gorgeous Tomato Salad with Crispy Shallots from a Fanny Singer recipe that appeared in an old Food+Wine (September 2003). My friend Lauren turned me onto this. I took this recipe home, and made it at least 3 times since. Lauren also made a phenomenal escarole salad based on the one served at Frankie's Spuntino. The dressing was simply oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. She added thinly sliced red onion, shaved pecorino, and a handful of walnuts. I love it when unbelievably simple preparations like this make your jaw drop in appreciation. It was incredible. We made another family favorite, Orechiette with Pistachio Pesto, also from a Frankie's recipe.

When we got to the house that week, there was a blueberry tart sitting on the table; Lauren had baked it from her mother's recipe. I wrote that one down and brought it home. We also had fun trying out new recipes based on what needed to be eaten quickly. I made a vegan banana bread from memory and enjoyed the first warm slice on the way to the Innisfree gardens. Another day, Matt and I collaborated on a peach crisp. I had never made a crisp before, but it made a great breakfast, so on our return home, I experimented with several recipes and whatever I had on hand. In the end I decided that I like to cook mine uncovered and for less time, about 20-25 minutes, and I could do without nuts in the topping.

At the other house, we made the Tomato Salad again (twice). A huge batch of porcini risotto, which didn't come out great, partly because I didn't have the right-sized pan and also did not salt it enough. The leftovers were salted and fried up for breakfast as little croquettes. Pasta with browned seitan and shallot bits, basil pesto, and more beautiful Hudson Valley tomatoes. Spicy mango salsa, eaten with chips! We ate out a few times, too. Our favorite spot was the burrito truck that sets up at the Montgomery Place farm stand. Excellent and affordable. And the little bakery in Tivoli made an extraordinary multigrain roll. Unfortunately, we weren't in the area for the weekend farmer's markets, which is usually a vacation highlight for us.

It was great to be able to cook in the relaxed, easygoing way that a week off allows. I returned home energized. The weather had turned cool, so right away I started baking. I made several more peach crisps, using a different recipe each time. The worst was when I experimented with a longer cooking time. I ended up with a hard, granola-like crust. I innocently brought it to a meeting to share, and I thought it was awful, but it was politely received. I made Patricia Wells' Spicy Polenta-Cheese Crackers one night. They were good, just the right amount of spicy. From her book, Vegetable Harvest, I also made some outrageously good roasted potatoes with lemon. You slice rounds of lemon and roast them with the potatoes. It is one of those easy recipes that seems kind of obvious, but it is perfect. I could eat that every day. I've had that book for a while, and now I am ready to really use it.

We have September birthdays at our house, so in the last 2 weeks, I have made a couple of batches of brownies (Peter Berley), some plain vanilla cake (Peter Berley), and some Taza Guajillo Chile Chocolate Mexicano Cupcakes with ganache frosting (Emilie at The Conscious Kitchen). All vegan, all amazingly good.