Food In Many Forms

I couldn't keep up with the weekly posts, but this week seemed like a good week to get back into it. I had winter squash accumulated from multiple weeks - butternut squash, acorn squash, delicata squash, and 2 different types of pumpkin - and I just got a new Blendtec blender, so it seemed good timing to do a squash soup. I halved the pumpkin, delicata and acorn squash and roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees, taking them out one-by-one as they softened up.  All my blanching and freezing these past few months paid off when I had celery and onions, but not carrots. Luckily, I had carrots from August all sliced up in my freezer. I sauteed them in a stockpot with olive oil, until they just started to caramelize.  In the blender, I put 2 cups of chicken broth, the squash, and 1-2 cups of mirepoix. The squash was still hot from the oven, and after 90 seconds of blending it was ready to eat! It was surprisingly sweet, so I may have to add a little cayenne pepper or something to g...

This week's share: - Eggplant - Yellow squash - Hot peppers - Potatoes - Heirloom tomatoes - Baby tomatoes - Cantaloupe - Beets - Cucumbers - Garlic Until today, I had only managed to cut up the cantaloupe from the share this week. I could smell it ripening on the counter. So I needed an easy way to use up a few different vegetables today and came up with a pasta primavera. Every vegetable, apart from the additional small peppers, came from the farm share. Epicurious adds lemon zest, pine nuts, and crushed red pepper, which might some good ideas for next time. Farfalle Primavera INGREDIENTS 1 purple pepper, thinly sliced 2-3 small red & orange peppers 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced 1/2 large yellow squash, thinly sliced 1 cup baby tomatoes, halved 2 small carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 cup fresh basil 4-5 cloves garlic, crushed 8 oz farfalle pasta 1/4 cup grated Parmesan 2 Tbsp Olive oil Salt & pepper DIRECTIONS 1. Cook the pasta per package instructions, drain, and set as...

This week's CSA included: - Beets (red) - Multi-colored carrots - Cucumbers (3!) - Eggplant - Kale - Fresh onions  - Summer squash - Zucchini - Watermelon I am all kale-d out by now, so I was pleased to find a happy recipient for it. I already used kale for smoothies, omelets and kale chips. When I made baked chicken wings, I roasted my beets at the same time. Two of the cucumbers ended up in a Chinese cucumber salad, and the third ended up in a cocktail. The eggplant made some delicious caponata, and that used some of the fresh onions as well. The zucchini & yellow squash will find their way into a stir fry hopefully before next week.  Recipes: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-cucumber-salad/ https://cookieandkate.com/cucumber-mint-gimlet-recipe/ https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/classic-caponata-232539

We have been stocking up in case we have to quarantine for weeks. Last Friday, I told my boyfriend I would stop by Haymarket and the grocery store after work to pick up a few more things. When I came home, I found that I had brought soft corn tortillas, he bought hard taco shells. I bought a crispy french baguette, he bought a loaf of everything bread. I bought 5 lbs of carrots, he bought baby carrots. I tucked the 5 lbs of carrots away in the back of the fridge, hoping they would stay good for a while. And a week later, there is not a can of soup to be found on the shelves, so I am making my own carrot ginger soup in case we end up sick in bed pretty soon. Ingredients 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 2 cup chopped yellow onions 8 garlic cloves, smashed 4 heaping cups chopped carrots 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger 4 tablespoons white wine 4 cups vegetable broth Sea salt and fresh black pepper 1 teaspoon maple syrup, or to taste (optional) coconut milk for garni...

The coronavirus is becoming more and more real every day. People are starting to practice "social distancing", and we have accepted that we probably shouldn't go out in crowds anymore. So instead of going to our friend's party tomorrow and watching Boston's St. Patrick's day parade. We will be sharing brunch with an intimate group tomorrow morning. I volunteered to make quiche, because it is the easiest way to consume eggs with a crowd, and I can at least make sure there are vegetables involved. I originally wanted to do a red onion & gruyere combo, which I still think would be good. But I had a block of Manchego already in the house, so I added red peppers to go with the more Spanish vibe. I normally don't shy away from whole eggs, but I had egg whites already, so I figured I would stretch my small egg supply. INGREDIENTS 1/2 red onion 1/2 red bell pepper 1/2 cup shaved Manchego cheese 3 cloves garlic 3/4 cup unflavored soy milk 2 eggs, ...

I had a mental shift recently. The whole adulting thing is hitting me pretty hard, and although nutrition will always be a concern to me, cost has become a much larger factor in my decision-making a the grocery store. That means shopping at cheaper stores, using coupons, and eating in a whole lot more.  It also means I'm less likely to choose recipes with fancy ingredients I don't have, and more likely to just use what I've got in the pantry. This may be why I have been blogging a lot less - because my meals are so run of the mill and don't always seem worth sharing. But I have an ever-growing pile of recipes that I have carefully annotated.When that pile gets too large, I find myself wanting preserve all that work so I can continue to make my cooking better. Ironically, my grocery bill is 1/3 to 1/2 of what it used to be since I started being more budget conscious, but my restaurant spending is right in line with the typical millenial. According to on...

My mom always makes the best stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas - just celery, onion, butter and Pepperidge Farm stuffing . She would always make twice as much and leave half of it uncooked in the refrigerator. Everyday I would have a small bowl as a snack or as part of the meal, and at the end of the week, the flavors have all marinated together and the stuffing is absolutely delicious . I had a bunch of leftover oatmeal bread that was going to go bad, so I bought some celery today and made homemade stuffing.  All the recipes I found said to use poultry seasoning , a mixture of thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg, but it just didn't smell the same as my mom's. Some recipes said to use parsley , and some suggested garlic or garlic powder, but any recipe with sausage or apples or cranberries is just overly extravagant. It's definitely going to take a couple tries to get this right. Celery and Onion Stuffing Ingredients 1/2 loaf sl...